* Posts by bombastic bob

10515 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

IETF moves meeting from USA to Canada to dodge Trump travel ban

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

stupid politics

this is just a way of them making a POLITICAL STATEMENT.

IETF needs to be A-political. Apparently it's not.

Besides we shouldn't really care about people from the handful of "banned nations" when it comes to the internet anyway. After all, do we really want THEM dictating or affecting any kind of intarweb policy for the rest of the world? I don't.

('big brother' icon because of the unnecessary politics)

adding a link - not their first rodeo, either:

http://www.circleid.com/posts/20160526_ietf_descent_into_the_political_rabbit_hole/

Luxembourg passes first EU space mining law. One can possess the Spice

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Or...

"Like on some sort of barge?"

run by pirates. Arrrr!

User left unable to type passwords after 'tropical island stress therapy'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Nailed it in one

it helps if you don't clip one down to use as a temporary screwdriver, yeah. question is, do you use what you clipped off, or the part still attached?

Don't panic, but your Bitcoins may just vanish into the ether next month

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Bitcoin is bound to collapse in value prior to this date

"And that happens to currencies every day. None of them are backed by Gold any more."

When I was in the Navy, the Phillipine currency (Piso) exchange rate varied based on whether or not there was an aircraft carrier group in port. Presence of an aircraft carrior group meant fewer Pisos to the dollar, by at least 10% [at least when I noticed it, back in the mid 80's].

Currency speculators could've made a killing by simply paying attention to where the ships were headed. And probably DID.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

Re: This does make Bitcoin seem a bit shitter than it already seemed.

they need to do like Microsoft and add "forced upgrades" to the protocol

(that and some spyware, adware, ...)

Top tip for all you insider traders: Don't Google 'insider trading' from your work PC

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: The defence.

"I was reading all these sites to make sure I wasn't committing a crime."

or it's all research for your novel...

Pretty fly for an AI: Bioboffins use machine learning to decipher fruit flies' brains

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: It was a task RIPE for machine learning.

yes, but can they simulate how they manage to avoid me swatting them? Or why they go for the trash can instead of the fly paper? Maybe they can figure out how to make BETTER fly swatters and fly paper!

'Help! I'm stuck in this ATM,' writes poor bloke on a scribbled note

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

back in the 80's a friend gave me a joke program that did PC speaker audio [uncommon at the time] saying "help I'm stuck inside the computer" etc.. I was taking a C programming class at the time and it 'accidentally' ended up on one of the lab PCs. The instructor mentioned it to me (good guess, heh), trying not to laugh too hard, something about NOT putting things into 'autoexec.bat'... after it had been on there for several days.

Truck spills slimy load all over Oregon road – drivers slip in eel slick

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"I feel sorry for the poor bastard that has to clean it up."

It's ok, they probably got Mike Rowe to help

(there was a 'Dirty Jobs' episode involving hagfish. they're pretty slimy, yeah)

Electric driverless cars could make petrol and diesel motors 'socially unacceptable'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

"I'm sure that is quite good compared to what I hear Southern Rail is like these days in the UK."

I rode the 'Coaster' train in southern california for a couple of years, to avoid the hideous traffic that drives me bat-guano insane. At first they tried to make it attractive, by including bus service that didn't leave you waiting very long. After a couple of years, It was taking LONGER for bus ride + waiting for the train going home than it took to DRIVE THE TRIP MYSELF. So I stopped using the train. The discourteous public smokers and "the great unwashed" weren't enough reason to quit the train on their own. Taking MORE TIME than driving to ride the bus and wait for the train to go home - THAT was the straw that broke the camel's back.

(this was done to "make sure" the busses would arrive on time for the train. It started out with them getting you to the station 5 to 10 minutes ahead of the schedule, but occasional screwups in which they'd have to get a special bus to take everyone to their train destination motivated "the powers that be" to make you wait 25 minutes instead, so THEIR asses would be covered)

and after quitting the train, and an additional year of driving in traffic 30 minutes each way (driving me NUTS with slowpokes and asshats unnecessarily getting in my way), I'd had enough of that and stopped working there (to preserve what was left of my sanity)...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: "Electric vehicles are the obvious solution to that particular problem"

"Unless you have a garage or driveway, how is this supposed to happen."

Elitists don't have to worry about that. The neighborhoods THEY live in don't have parking problems. And if they needed to park a car on the street, a 50' extension cord would do (because their neighbors aren't lining both sides of the street with 2nd and 3rd cars).

Here in the USA it's similar. Many neighborhoods in large cities and beach areas have very little available 'on street' parking, and you might have to walk a block or two after you find a spot. If the houses are old, or were replaced with apartment buildings [that have only one parking spot per apartment], you'll see cars lining both sides of the street 7/24. Even in the nicer neighborhoods, people put RVs and 2nd/3rd cars on the street because the garage can't have both cars and the motorcycle and the jet ski and the RV all inside of it (and they all won't fit in the driveway either).

So yeah, electric car charged inside the garage - for the "elite few". For everyone else, we'll stick with good old liquid fuel.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

Re: For inner cities

"When cleaning is required the car drives itself to a cleaner"

rube goldberg setup ensues:

a) car picked up, roof pops open, shake out the trash

b) car is hosed down on the inside, blown dry with something equivalent to a jet engine

c) a robot arm comes out from the side [off camera], hangs a tree-shaped de-oderizer from where the rear view mirror would normally be

[while 'Powerhouse' plays in the background]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Bollocks...

how about this:

a) buy what you want

b) let it use the kind of fuel you want (electricity, gasoline, diesel, hydrogen, propane, whatever)

c) drive wherever you want

d) pay all of the costs with YOUR OWN MONEY

this should handle the vast majority of needs.

PC sales still slumping, but more slowly than feared

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pint

Re: 2007?

"As mentioned, the software hasn't moved on far enough to warrant better hardware in many many cases."

you guys keep making my favorite points for me. I guess I can go on vacation now.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Why would anyone buy a PC with Windows 8 or Windows 10 on it?

(deserves a topic)

Note the article mentions Chromebook's positive affect on new PC purchase stats

Adult toy retailer slapped down for 'RES-ERECTI*N' ad over Easter

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: But hang on...

"The early Christians moved the story of their leader's execution and subsequent 'new life' to Easter"

almost, but not quite.

Christmas might have been moved from October ('feast of tabernacles' time, explains the Mary/Joseph hotel thing and why they were in Bethlehem when she's about to give birth in the FIRST place) to December, to coordinate with the Yule celebration at the winter solstice.

but Easter corresponds to Passover, which is defined in the Old Testament as something to do with the friday after a new moon at the spring equinox or something [I forget the details, and I'm not Jewish]. So the christian easter always corresponds to the Jewish calendar for Passover, which is defined as being somewhere close to the Spring equinox.

But yeah, "christianizing" pagan holidays happened a lot back then. It's why Christmas has trees, and Easter has eggs and bunnies. I think Martin Luther was even criticized for having a Christmas tree, being considered "a pagan symbol" by many.

But yeah you were on the right track, with a few inaccurate details.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coffee/keyboard

Re: 2 Wrongs make a right here I think

"your default position."

*AGH* you almost made me spit my coffee. ok I already ruined the keyboard when I read the article's subtitle on the main page, but still...

heh heh heh

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

Well, Batman and Robin *did* wear tights...

Inspiring Saturday Night Live's "Ambiguously Gay Duo"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Jesus Christ!

"Is nothing sacred anymore?"

nothing. this IS the intarwebs, after all. Rule 34 and all that.

besides, Easter is more a PAGAN spring equinox celebration in most cultures, with the fertility symbols like eggs and rabbits. Back in the middle ages (or something) Passover's proximity to the spring equinox made it convenient to "christianize" the pagan Easter holiday. Sure, there'll be a lot of passover Seders on Good Friday followed by Sunday church services, but those eggs and bunnies are all of Pagan origin.

So maybe the Adult Toy business can just say they're PAGANS, and are celebrating THEIR religious holiday?

JavaScript spec gets strung out on padding

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I look forward to using this in...

"when MS finally get around to implementing it years after everyone else (as per bloody normal)."

which leaves a few of choices:

a) do the work on the server end instead [bypassing the browser compatibility nonsense] and avoid all of those massive javascript library downloads, and maybe avoid ALL script entirely!

b) deprecate micro-shaft browsers and put "this site best viewed with" again, when Edge/IE is detected

c) one page for IE/Edge, one page for everyone else. "segregate" Micro-shaft (tweeking the SJW's ha ha ha)

I prefer 'a', but 'b' makes for a nice protest

bombastic bob Silver badge
Flame

Re: broken by design?

"I think JavaScript strings are UTF-16 internally. I don't think it could be done any other way."

That may be. I have to wonder, what's wrong with just using UTF-8 for everything? C language 'mbcs' functions handle it just fine... [so the JavaScript engine can just call the C libs, right?]

And then there's this article quote:

" the absence of a native method to pad strings makes JavaScript needlessly painful."

padding strings is easy, if you know your data. I do this in 'awk' all the time. You take a 'substring' of a whitespace string [or 'whatever space'] equal to the right column minus the length of the string you want to pad. You might have to test the string first, and take the right 'n' characters of it. OR, you can smash them together (padding plus string), then take the right 'n' characters of THAT result.

Simple. probably faster than calling a library, ESPECIALLY when you consider the BANDWIDTH POLLUTION that all of those "trivial shared java libraries" eat up on the CONSUMPTION side, "for the convenience of the programmer" [read: laziness of the programmer]

The one thing I think SUCKS about Java and Javascript (and similar lingos) is the BASS ACKWARDS MANNER in which you do the right/left/substring/trim thing, typically by turning it into a String object and then calling ".method" [after searching online docs to see what method you have to use, because I don't do this kind of thing every day in Java or JavaScript, but do it a lot in OTHER lingos like C, C++, PHP, awk, or even Python, which deserves its OWN vent-post ]. Pardon my ignorance on the details if Java[Script] tries to fix this, but I've run into this with Android coding and it's irritating.

Speaking in Tech: What is a Windows 10 licence worth these days?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Windows 10 Licence Worth?

FYI macOS is based on UNIX (Mach kernel) and FreeBSD 5.x's userland, which is very similar to Linux, with Apple's GUI stuff running as 'the window manager' essentially.

So, OSX is one of the "*nix" OS's, just like Linux.

but YOU say "Linux is a joke". Yeah, right.

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

satellite intarwebs save the day!

if there are enough satellites, and a few black market devices to access them...

just sayin' they can't regulate what passes overhead or on the edge of the horizon

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: https?

someone out there just might have an HTTPS server that supports the proxy 'CONNECT' command...

(especially on the dark net)

fluffykittens - nice idea. It might actually happen.

Trump Hotels left orange faced: Hackers plunder systems for credit cards

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

So it's SynXis and not Trump Hotels that was cracked?

but yeah you had me hooked with the article's title. well done!

(Apparently other hotels affected as well)

Trump tramples US Constitution by blocking Twitter critics – lawsuit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: No-brainer

"They have rights!"

yeah like the way smokers have "rights" to stand near doorways and act like asshats with their tobacco exhaust. No matter how irritating and/or disruptive, these activists are compelled to impose their "rights" on everyone else. I think the first ammendment has to do with RESTRICTING 'free speech', not walking into some forum and deliberately DISTURBING it because "you have rights".

If a KKK member walked into a synagogue and began insulting everyone, you/'d want him arrested, right? But, but, FIRST AMMENDMENT! Well, having hecklers disturb the President's twitter feed is like someone walking on stage while he's making a speech. THEY were 'ejected', too, during the campaign, as I recall...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: No-brainer

"you can't block citizens from seeing it."

Apparently NOBODY is blocked from "seeing it". Some people are blocked from POSTING TO IT, apparently

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

"the right to seek a legal remedy"

read: "the so-called right to ABuse the court system in order to SCREW EVERYBODY ELSE by judge-shopping until some activist does 'yet another injunction'"

asshats and trolls, in actuality. It's why you're allowed to BLOCK THEM with Twitter feeds, apparently.

OR... maybe Twitter can make it a "read only" feed!!! [then NOBODY can comment]

Azure stacks, Office packs – and VR flacks: Here's Microsoft's Inspire news dump

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alert

cloudy, with a chance of 'micro' balls

their future looks like they're ringing up "all ahead flank" towards the icebergs.

Perhaps the conference should be re-named to "Expire" ?

/me searches for Titanic icon, settles on this one.

Microsoft drops Office 365 for biz. Now it's just Microsoft 365. Word

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Have you read the blurb on their blog?

you need more upvotes for that

[I often use 'FEEL' instead of the traditional 'F' word, because every time someone in a position of power 'feels', I end up getting FUCKED]

How do you say 'F-U' in government-speak? "We FEEL..."

Or, in THIS case, Micro-shaft speak. And apparently they've invented a few more synonyms, as you so eloquently pointed out: "usually by making up new words."

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Inspire...

"I often find I need to write macros to do things that Excel can do out of the box. Sliding scales on charts, for example."

Please submit these to the Libre Office developers. If they're on github, you can do it in the form of an 'issue' with a request like "please implement the functionality as shown in this macro" or something.

Someone just might do it! Or it could end up in a macro library, and others will benefit.

THIS is how you "pay for" open source. Contribute something you don't mind giving away, something that could benefit everyone. It adds up, yeah, especially bug fixes or feature enhancements.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Another cynical abuse of language.

cynical? More like "manipulative sales-speak"

The only way they "partner" with us is that we accept their crap, and they relieve us of our money. That's not a partnership, last I checked. Unless they're equating it to something sexual, of the BDSM variety...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

"No one is willing to pay for an OS now, they're certainly not willing to pay for updates on a yearly basis."

I wish it were true. But... THIS time Micro-shaft can get around the anti-trust stuff (because Linux, Libre Office, Mozilla, Chrome, Apache, gcc+tools, etc. are all FREE) to addict everyone into a subscription model for the entire pile, OS, software, intarweb, social media, *BUNDLED*. It's coming. They just have to accustom us frogs to the lukewarm water before they can crank up the heat.

One Subscription to rule them all (etc.)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: What is Microsoft 365?

"all customers must upgrade to an XBOX 365"

SHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... they don't need any *MORE* ideas [these are bad enough]

Crashed RadioShack flogs off its IPv4 stash

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

"No, NAT isn't a firewall. Not even close to being a firewall."

you are arguing semantics and terms. Keep in mind that I've done kernel programming with netfilter modules on WiFi routers for money (it was a while back, but there ya go). Now, THAT is a firewall for sure! Not like the joke that Micro-shaft excreted for windows boxen.

And your average NAT router runs netfilter/iptables (surprise!). And NAT does that one thing that firewalls are supposed to do: It stops intrusions from attempted connections on open ports, by blocking them. FIREWALL. Deal with it. I'll get my coat. Anything further on this topic, with someone who argues terminology and semantics, is a colossal waste of time.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Whatever happened to the great migration to IPv6?

"On the access side (e.g. end users) you can give them IPv6, but if you were to do only that they wouldn't see the vast majority of the Internet. "

not true, there are IPv6 to IPv4 gateway address ranges that map 1:1 from IPv6 to IPv4. One of those, the "well known" mechanism, is described here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6_transition_mechanisms#NAT64

(in this case the ISP would have to supply a NAT64 server to deal with the IPv4 connections)

There are others, but generally speaking direct IPv4 to IPv4 would be preferred, yeah. This could ALSO be done via NAT, if the ISP-assigned IPv4 address is an RFC1918 address, for example. [cheaper services do this sometimes, yeah]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Whatever happened to the great migration to IPv6?

"The firewall in Windows actually works perfectly fine"

HA HA HA (oh you were serious?)

"on top of that, it's much harder to find the few unfirewalled machines on v6 because the address space is so damn large"

ok here's where I demonstrate classic hacker thinking to show you why 'so damn large' doesn't matter:

a) set up a web server that waits for IPv6 connections, even using embedded advertising on popular web sites

b) when the IPv6 computer connects, queue up a bot-net to scan for vulnerabilites and infect this new machine (once the vuln has been found)

c) once infected, new machine is part of the botnet now, to be used for "whatever", or put ransomware on it, or just be malicious and nuke everything on drive 'C' (or whatever)

etc.

this is a very valid and likely scenario. We know there have been rogue ads on well-known ad networks before, infecting computers with 0-day vulnerabilities even. I recall MSN being affected once, within the last few years. So this scenario is REAL. And yes, it SHOULD frighten you.

Besides, Micro-shaft's problems seem to be with their own implementation of DHCPv6 which is, in my opinion, uproariously funny. I would suggest they look at the Linux and BSD implementations, and see how THEY are doing it, as well as server packages like ISC-DHCP, then fix their own stuff so it behaves according to the RFC's. Lots of really really good, and free, sample code out there.

https://www.isc.org/downloads/dhcp/

(and others at the same web site)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Holmes

"Your problem there wasn't running XP machines with a public v4 address, it was failing to put them behind a working firewall. Moving them behind NAT wasn't necessary, you just needed that firewall."

the implied point is that NAT _IS_ a firewall. And there have been KNOWN vulnerabilities with Micro-shaft's "firewall" running on the same PC it's "firewalling" (because their vulnerable code is still "listening" even if you 'firewall' it). And do you REALLY want a firewall appliance that is capable of filtering and routing multiple IP addresses? That would be FAR more expensive than a simple NAT router that does the same job at a much lower cost (especially for a business with fewer than 10 employees).

besides, the ENTIRE POINT is the total unnecessary use of IPv4 blocks. What, you'd want this just so you can have a public IP address on a workstation? It is POINTLESS! And, it's a built-in security problem. 'Wannacry' etc.

If you need a fixed IP address because you run web services, that's different. But for nearly every OTHER use of the interweb, NAT is preferable for IPv4 anyway. Large blocks of IPv4 addresses assigned to major corporations who are NOT doing cloud-based services or hosting are just an excuse for them to hang on to a limited resource until it's profitable enough to sell.

All of this should be obvious, though. Hence THAT icon.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Whatever happened to the great migration to IPv6?

well, Micro-shaft can't even get it right for their OWN web sites...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/19/windows_10_bug_undercuts_ipv6_rollout/

if everyone were running Linux or BSD (or OSX for that matter) we wouldn't be having this topic.

Unfortunately, that is NOT the case, and Micro-shaft's networking INCOMPETENCE is standing in the way.

And... do you REALLY want 'wannacry' going over IPv6 and affecting EVERY! COMPUTER! with an IPv6 address, because Micro-shaft can't properly firewall, and IPv6's are PUBLICALLY VIEWABLE, yotta yotta yotta? It's bad enough with all of the well-known listening ports [a number that grew starting with XP, then Vista, then 7, then "Ape", and now WIn-10-nic], and you know how it is with Micro-shaft and their open/listening ports. IPv6 exposes them to the _WORLD_ and unless your router can block them for you, you're probably _vulnerable_ because, Micro-shaft INCOMPETENCE in networking stuff.

Anyway I have IPv6 running on my network. I use a he.net free tunnel. I firewall all of the ports I mentioned, so that any winders boxen on the network are protected, using a FreeBSD machine, which has a really good IPv6 stack and 3 different available firewalls to choose from. You can reject incoming connections on ANY of those ports from anything that comes in over a particular adapter [in this case, the IPv6 tunnel] and voila! BLOCKED! And SMB networking (and other windowsey stuff) still works behind the firewall.

So why can't Micro-shaft get it right?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

"Using a /8 for everyone to use internally wasn't the problem, it was handing out /8 or /16 to Universities or large corporations."

wide scale IPv6 adoption would render those pretty much WORTHLESS in an auction. It's like they're hanging onto their property for the price to peak. Who wouldn't?

Name-based hosting SHOULD have rendered the use of all of those IPv4 blocks unnecessary. And we KNOW the effect it has on institutions that still expose everything on a public IPv4 ['wannacry' anybody?]

years ago a company I did work for bought a block of IPv4 addresses. Several XP boxen were set up with direct IPv4 addresses. As a poignant joke I used one of the 'net' commands on a remote computer [at my house] to pop up a dialog box on one guy's machine, thus pointing out the vulnerability. Couple THAT kind of exposure to the world with viruses and trojans and scanning that was happening in the early noughties, and it wasn't more than a WEEK before their ISP called them up complaining about "all of the DNS queries". Yes, a virus infection (on at least one of their exposed machines) was scanning to infect others on the internet. It was subsequently cleaned and everyone's computer went behind a NAT router.

So... WHAT need is there for large blocks of IPv4 addresses, other than sitting on them until they're valuable enough?

Trump backs off idea for joint US/Russian 'impenetrable Cyber Security unit'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: WTF

there is no "clown" in the white house, only the BEST president since Reagan. Americans are sick of "presidents" like Obaka bowing to the Saudi king, apologizing for being America, and basically acting ike a female bonobo monkey "saying hello" (they bare their buttocks and allow random males to have sex with them). FINALLY there's someone in the White House that understands the process of foreign policy when it comes to making agreements.

Oh, but that's not the answer you were looking for, were you? People like ME voted for Trump. Happy?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: What a f@#$ing rube

I hit "downvote" a bunch of times but it didn't work after the first one...

Google Chrome's HTTPS ban-hammer drops on WoSign, StartCom in two months

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

what's Firefox gonna do? (or even Micro-shaft)

So, what's Firefox/Mozilla gonna do now? Or even Micro-shaft? Also haven't heard anything regarding Opera or Safari. It's not like Google runs THOSE projects, but will they follow Google's example?

And I expect you could _STILL_ re-add the root certs for those CAs yourself, if you want them... (the same kind of process by which you'd add a self-signing CA or a "network appliance" CA)

Web inventor Sir Tim sizes up handcuffs for his creation – and world has 2 weeks to appeal

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

"And the small independents are even more hosed than usual."

this is what happens when you FEED THE GREED by gummint taxation/legislation. The small operators get hurt the most. Tax the blank CD's and DVD's (or whatever) because you ASSUME it will be used for pirated content, and send that money WHERE? To the political contributors from RIAA/MPAA/whatever-organization-is-in-your-country ??? and EXCLUDE the independent studios and artists?

no WONDER MPAA/RIAA is excreting CRAP-works these days. There's no REAL INCENTIVE to make things that people WANT. Just collect their gummint paycheck for existing! And excrete some garbage once in a while and pretend it's good and fill it with agenda/SJW/offensive/whatever content and nobody will buy it, and they won't care, they'll blame PIRACY and get EVEN MORE money from gummints!

Kim Jong "Fatass" UN couldn't have come up with a better 'master plan of worldwide manipulation and extortion' !!!

I should get my coat now...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

consider what Sony did wihen you inserted one of "those" audio CDs into a windows computer [in some cases, it actually made the CD/DVD drive UNUSABLE without their drivers, like on this one Toshiba laptop, which had to have Linux installed on it to solve that problem].

and now, we're supposed to "trust them"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Note it take 25 members of the WWWC to force a vote on this.

In the words of Dr Heinlein it is time to "Take back your government."

good point. There's a lot of *that* going on these days. It's a growing trend.

(where'd ya go? your coat's not in the closet...)

[astrologically, pluto is in capricorn, about half way through. It was this way during the 'AmerExit' of 1776, last time it happened, and historically, the French Revolution directly followed. It's supposed to mean that gummints and institutions get shaken up, broken down, and re-built, generally for the better, generally benefiting the individual instead of the institutions. Let's hope this is the result of the current shakeups in governments, banking, regulatory environments, etc., *AND* the W3C, that the ultimate benefits will go to THE INDIVIDUAL, and NOT the controlling elitists]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Let a thousand indie studios bloom

"No wonder we don't need Hollywood any more!"

I bet YOU have a lot of good ideas, too. And lots of other people. But Hollyweird is stuck in their elitist bubble. They can't think outside of their self-imposed "box", tainted by SJW and agenda driven plots, and no real clue as to what their customers (i.e. 'the audience') REALLY wants.

I forget which show it was, a while back, maybe The Simpsons, where they pointed out that every idea had been tried already, in some form. Of course that doesn't mean you can't use that idea again in a more creative and entertaining way.

What has NOT been tried in a long time: a normal person, with normal life issues, doing something really really cool on his own, without needing "a village" or gummint or powerful people to do it. I think the last film like that might've been "Field of Dreams". /me ducks from objects being thrown.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Let a thousand indie studios bloom

"When was the last time they made a film worth pirating?"

Yes, the hollyweird elitists are as bad as RIAA these days, aren't they?

I typically buy the few things I actually like [which are fewer and fewer these days] online or when they go "on sale" at Target or Walmart, or if it's barely watchable, when it ends up in the $5 bin. Going to the theater, not so much (as it's WAY overpriced for MOST of what they excrete these days, and I hate crowds, I doubley-hate public smokers who insist on creating clouds of exhaust where I have to walk to get into the theater, and would rather watch something on a big screen at home anyway).

My complaints against RIAA are numerous, mostly dealing with the way they "market their CRAP" at us until we "like" it. Being an amateur musician, I have even higher standards. I end up listening to the local Jazz station or streaming jpop over internet radio (hotmix japan!) most of the time, often because I can't stand the high level of actual CRAP that gets airplay, and I don't want to get pissed off and have to get up from my computer and go over to the radio and change the station because they play some excrement by 'Red Hot Chili Peppers' that sounds like the worst of Bob Dylan with a hangover. I think I'd prefer the sound of mating cats to RHCP.

Similarly with the complete LACK of decent ideas from hollyweird these days, I don't go to the movies any more (and the aforementioned reasons of price, crowds, and discourteous public smokers). The ticket prices seem to be way higher than the quality of what you see, and unless it's the latest Star Wars in Imax 3D [which TRIES to make it worth the $15 or so I have to fork over], wouldn't be worth my time to go to a theater anyway.

So are HOLLYWEIRD and RIAA about to become a bunch of COPYRIGHT TROLLS to try and SOAK US for MORE INCOME in a manner SIMILAR to the PATENT TROLLS with respect to INNOVATION? Because, after all, they CANNOT SEEM TO CREATE SOMETHING WORTH PAYING FOR! So they TROLL for income instead.

If they want movie ideas, I have a zillion of them. How about a reboot of 'Time Tunnel' from the 60's, only without the modern hollyweird SJW-ness nor 'revisionist' history. It'd be fun, semi-educational, intellectual, and open to great special effects and classic one-liners.

Here's another idea: find something that got a good start but was never finished (because multiple movies were needed and it got canned for stupid reasons after only one movie), reboot it, and actually FINISH IT. You could do this with family-oriented movies like 'Golden Compass' or 'Last Airbender'. You just have to market them right. Go 'high budget' too. It'll pay off in the long run.

Being an anime fan, I find most of the anime that comes out of Japan to have much more entertainment value than 99% of what comes out of hollyweird. [but remember what they did to Miazaki's films, until he got an academy award, as a prime example of hollyweird elitism and their attitude towards anime, and why it _NEVER_ gets wide release in theaters].

I don't watch American TV shows any more, except certain crime dramas that involve NCIS (and Jeopardy). I don't find the humor funny, I generally don't like the story lines, and I _ESPECIALLY_ don't like the SJW-ness [particularly when it's obviously an agenda by the writers to shove it in the audience's face].

I think millenials have been conditioned into being overly-snarky SJW's, and wanting their "entertainment" to re-enforce that kind of outlook. The kinds of TV shows that are on these days would suggest that. And I think too many people just hand-wave it all just so they can see the rest of the show (or 'nothing else' is on or something). I just turn it _OFF_ and find something else, something actually entertaining.

/me goes over to the DVD wall, finds something the SJW's would hate, is entertained. JOKE them if they can't take a *FEEL*

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: How is this going to help?

"If they put the content behind locks, then one video camera pointed to the screen is enough to bypass their DRM scheme. Sounds like fool's errand."

and with audio content, a patch cable from output on one device to recording input on another.

And with video equipment, one of those "HDMI splitters" and a DVR on one of the 'split' outputs.

At some point, the output has to be "played" and when it is, the potential for copying is there, no matter how hard "they" try to stop it.

All "they" are going to do is force people to use a Windows program to view the content, basically leaving Linux (and BSD) users without a way of using something like 'Netflix' or some independent streaming video service, or certain kinds of USB devices for that matter.

And I wouldn't be surprised if *THAT* is the actual motive! That's right, *MAKE* everyone use Win-10-nic and Edge!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: I don't see a problem.

"under USA laws circumventing DRM (under any circumstance) is illegal."

yeah, like THAT would stop it. every 'legal marijuana' law in various states is ALSO illegal, because at the federal level, marijuana is illegal (hence illegal nationwide). And yet, so many states have passed marijuana legalization, from medical only to recreational, that pot shops operate out in the open.

Which basically says that a law can become UNENFORCEABLE once everyone IGNORES it.