* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Microsoft boasted it had rebuilt Skype 'from the ground up'. Instead, it should have buried it

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Market research

"Has MS heard of it?"

yes, but I think they don't know how to poll very well. After all, it's the SAME! COMPANY! THAT! OWNS! MSNBC!!!

Yeah, let's consider THAT when we think of how good their marketing research is, these days...

*light bulb*

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

(with respect to 'doing this' to Office)

"Haven't they've already done it?"

Probably. I wouldn't know for sure since I stopped using MS Office. But it's the same thing they've done to windows. Why shouldn't they be consistent?

The moment Skype became a UWP "[cr]app" was the beginning of it's demise. OK the moment Micro-shaft bought it, but still...

After all, Micro-shaft *FEELS* (not 'thinks', because that would be based on logic) that computers are CONSUMPTION DEVICES for SOCIAL MEDIA (to be monetized). Hence, Win-10-nic.

Obviously their "vision" is through the narrow minds of CERTAIN MILLENIALS, particularly the "4 inch" crowd that seem to do EVERYTHING from a 4 inch display. And it's nearly always SOCIAL MEDIA.

As such they forgot "the installed base" i.e. people with PCs that get work done. And they released a bunch of CRapps that COMPLETELY GET IT WRONG when it comes to what customers want. Because they stopped caring about what CUSTOMERS want.

Oh, and they apologize for the MAJOR CHANGES. yeah, seen THIS before, too. broken vinyl record.

And an obligatory reference to Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" again.

Tape lives! The tape archive bit bucket is becoming bottomless

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I used to work for a tape drive company(s)

all of this actually sounds pretty cool. I used to work for a tape drive company (Cipher Data) in IT, and later assisted with IT-related things for a few of the companies that bought their tech, over and over [getting databases converted and loaded, things like that]. First Cipher, then Archive, then Conner, then Overland Data, mostly with the 9" reel and 1/2" cartridge stuff. It's amazing how much data you can cram onto tape these days, compared to the old tech. QIC tape kinda died but reel and cartridge were still kicking through the 90's.

[As I recall a 9" reel was something close to 500mb depending on the format and old minicomputers typically had a front-loader drive where you'd put the reel in like a videocassette]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Good. Now all we need in Windows NTBackup ported to Windows 7

"The best option for most, is to subscribe for a license to Archronis. Uses VSS, and can provide cloud options if you want, but the local backup is the go."

I have a better one:

a) run windows [if you must] in a VM hosted on Linux or BSD

b) use 'tar' on the host to do your backups (when the VMs are shut down)

Also when you shut down the VM you can probably export it [compressed] into a form that backs up the drive image in a way that lets you quickly restore it. I do this with virtualbox all of the time, do a snapshot of the VM via 'export', saved as a single file. Re-importing that back gets you all of your VM settings too.

Alternately, shut down the windows machine, remove the hard drive, put a USB:SATA adaptor on it, plug it into a Linux box, use FuseFS's NTFS to read files [or do an image backup via 'dd']. Or you can use a bootable "disk recovery" DVD that has some version of Linux on it with tools to do "all of that".

and if you had a tape drive, an image backup might be the best option, like what 'norton ghost' used to do for ya (or may still, is it still around?)

anyway, with Linux or BSD, or especially with a VM, your backup options are a LOT better.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Good. Now all we need in Windows NTBackup ported to Windows 7

it would be nicer if the Cygwin tar program could be used directly

bad side is how windows does its drivers. I doubt any attempt to embed Linux shells within Win-10-nic will fix *THAT*.

/me wonders if using xzip with tar + tape will give you better compression than 2.5:1 on most things... [I've never actually tried that, just created 'txz' tarballs which are compressed VERY well!]

FREE wildcard HTTPS certs from Let's Encrypt for every Reg reader*

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: An admirable effort.

"Very sucky that none of this seems to work easily on IIS. After all, 49% of websites now run it."

49%? seriously? when apache and linux are both FREE and SUPERIOR to anything IIS has (especially with that C-pound and '.Not' garbage).

the free option that _I_ know of is simple: create your own CA cert, and reference it's web site address in the certs you create based on your own personal CA [all done with openssl]. Anyone hits your site, they get a prompt for the CA, which they can choose to load or not [usually comes with a boatload of warnings the first time, but so what]. After that, YOUR root cert is loaded and you're good to go.

or you can pay the "tollbooth", whatever

Someone's phishing US nuke power stations. So far, no kaboom

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Unnamed officials believe...

that the other 'Unnamed officials' are SO full of it...

Windows Insiders with SD cards turn into OneDrive outsiders

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Uninstall OneDrive

I think if it costs me $10/month I can afford a new 4G SD card every month to copy important stuff to, and throw it in a drawer somewhere. Or for a few months' cost, maybe an external USB drive...

I also burn backups to DVD once in a while. tax time is a good time for this. I keep them in a fireproof safe with other important schtuff. Old school, yeah.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Silly Question

"when all your laptop gives you is 16GB or 32GB, most of which is taken up by Windows."

last I checked, Raspbian fit in 4G

Just sayin'

/me can do a tarball backup to a google drive on Linux. works for me! Use TXZ!!! (it rhymed!)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: This has been going on with Win10 for a couple years, Win8 too if I recall

"isn't the point of not using NTFS so the SD card is portable to other systems whether a camera, or something"

pretty much, yeah. Or a Linux computer, for that matter.

/me wonders if there will EVER be a 'user file system' (as in non-kernel), such as 'Fuse', but on winders, where people can pretty much do "whatever they want" just like in Linux and FreeBSD.

next, the ability to format exFAT or FAT or FAT32 will be removed...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Sky blue, water wet, MS fucking over customers...

heh. I love the reference. "And old Satan Clause, he's out there"

[The Last Boy Scout]

While USA is distracted by its President's antics, China is busy breaking another fusion record

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Who still uses farenheight for things like this ?

"The Register has to sadly support our old American neighbours. Still living in the 19th Century."

yeah, aren't those measurements based on the body parts of a British Monarch?

reminds me of the measurements of the space shuttle's boosters were based on the size of a train car, which is based on the standard scale railway, which was based on the ruts caused by horse-drawn carts [they kept all of the same sizes when they made the standard rails], which were based on the Roman chariots [no need to break wheels because of well worn ruts in a road, if they're all the same width], which were based on the width of a horse's ass.

So the design for the boosters on a space shuttle were based, in part, on the width of a horse's ass.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Who still uses farenheight for things like this ?

I still think in BTU's, lb-F, and Farenheit for thermal stuff. And absolute is deg Rankine. They work. It's what I learned back in the 80's. Or I suppose I could do KCal, Neutons, and Celcius. And Kelvin. It's just a conversion, really.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: let me guess...

"It's still 20 years away."

yeah, it's the focus on Tokomak and lack of actual incentive for SUCCESS that's dragging the 'research' on indefinitely.

I'm not a 'cold fusion' activist or anything. I just think that for hot fusion, TOKOMAK isn't a very good design [unless you're doing research].

What you need is a method of confinement that doesn't involve large expensive superconducting magnets. You also need a method of excitation that doesn't involve a boatload of lasers. And you need a method of generating electrical power out of the fusion reaction. NONE of these are practical in a TOKOMAK design.

A design that MIGHT work has been explored by the U.S. Navy from what I understand. The first practical nuclear reactors were created by the U.S. Navy for submarines and ships. It goes without saying that classified programs building fusion reactors for submarines and ships is a likely path to commercial fusion reactors making electrons for your lights and appliances.

Here's a 2014 media article about a potential candidate: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/low-cost-fusion-project-steps-out-shadows-looks-money-n130661

It talks about 3 basic designs, the TOKOMAK (magnetic confinement), the 'pellet' reactor (inertial confinement), and this new 'wiffle ball' design aka 'Polywell' (which as I understand tries to use the characteristics of the plasma rather than fighting against it).

I'm not an insider, so maybe some of the details are outside of my knowledge base. I just remember reading about the Navy wanting fusion reactors, and a new type of design [probalby this one] was the most interesting and practical. Seems to me they're giving up a bit early, though, or they found something better...

But yeah, a new TOKOMAK record, that's like saying "look at the cool new vacuum tube we designed". Sure, a LOT of people might be interested, but not so much a breakthrough any more.

/me points out that to use fusion energy, you must capture it, and most of it is gamma radiation. If you can't put your reactor inside of a tank of water in order to boil that water and make steam, it won't be practical. And it has to produce at least 5 times as much energy as you put into it in order to make useful power, due to the ~20% thermal efficiency of a typical steam plant. Water is the most likely PRACTICAL absorber of gamma and neutron radiation energies. A few feet of water should absorb >90% of the gamma and neutron energy from fusion, easily. And so you see what the construction is going to have to look like, and how impractical the 'under vacuum' super-conducting magnet TOKOMAK would be in trying to get ANY kind of useful power out of it.

Feelin' safe and snug on Linux while the Windows world burns? Stop that

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I Feel Safe Today

"Because my OS doesn't use systemd."

mine either (FreeBSD). But I do have a Debian 8 box that I use for some things, and that has systemd on it. Fortunately, it's firewalled. When I have some spare time, I think I'll switch it to Devuan.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: "The problems in Linux come with commercial software"

"Linux relies too much on the "local compilation" model and availability of source code."

*groan*

no. commercial packages can easily be distributed either with local copies of all shared libs, or by staticallly linking everything [avoiding the problem], or by compiling separately for different distros if shared libs MUST be used for some reason.

I think Oracle mastered this kind of thing a long time ago, as one example.

/me runs into the 'Linux Binary Compatibility' thing on occasion, being on FreeBSD. Usually one of the 'CentOS' compatibility ports gets it done.

It's time for a long, hard mass debate over sex robots, experts conclude

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Women will love sex robots ...

"So long as they can vacuum, clean the toilets, pick up after the kids, make the bed, clean the cat's litter box, and cook a decent meal. "

MEN will love them MORE if they can do that, especially in a Victorian maid outfit!

*drool* *drool* *drool*

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Of course there is the risk they will make your sex-bot TOO realistic...

"Before long it starts complaining that you only want to hook up" etc.

this is starting to read like a 2D vs 3DPD discussion... [same logic applies for robosexuality I'd think]

I'd program my sex bot to look/act like 'Virgo' from 'Fairy Tail'. Then she'd help clean the house, too, in that nice sexy Victorian maid outfit. And call me 'master'.

http://fairytail.wikia.com/wiki/Virgo

that'd tweek the moral SJW's!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

I still don't understand why pseudo images are illegal.

"I still don't understand why pseudo images are illegal."

It's because the moral SJWs want to POLICE YOUR THOUGHTS, from their 'high horse' position, and look like they're "doing something".

The idea of child porn being illegal is because actual CHILDREN are victimized. Preaching to the choir (most likely), a doll or a CGI image or human-created art work is NOT an actual child; therefore it should NEVER be illegal to own/create/etc..

However, the "moral high horse" SJW crowd apparently believe that people with psychological problems should simply be DEAD or somehow "policed" into "not feeling that way" any more. Because, "squicky" to most people, and easy target, to elevate themselves at someone else's expense, further their political cause, make it look like they're DOING SOMETHING, manipulate people, etc..

Therefore such 'pseudo images' are ILLEGAL, because, as we all know,

<sarcasm>"THAT will fix it."</sarcasm>

And I often have to wonder, among the moral SJW's, whether or not "the lady doth complain too much".

I've seen the web site for that company. It _really_ tests your 'squick level'. Some of those hyper-realistic dolls, and the positions they're photographed in, are downright squicky/creepy to the point of requiring brain bleach. If it's the company I'm thinking of, it was started by a guy who's got "that problem" and he believes his dolls will help pedophiles NOT victimize children by giving them a release of some kind. And there's logic to that.

So if the Canadian guy (the one that's mentioned in the article, who's currently under investigation) wants one of those dolls, he should be able to have one. The Moral SJW's need to SHUT THE FEEL UP and look the other way. But if he victimizes ACTUAL CHILDREN, he should go to the iron bar hotel (naturally). So yeah what choice does this guy have? I doubt going to a shrink will "cure him". It might, but I doubt it. I don't think there's a chemical or surgical procedure out there that can fix THAT kind of 'crazy'.

('for the children' icon because it's ironic)

Tesla, GitHub, tech bro VCs... Silicon Valley sexism row explodes as more women go public

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

"I have never come across this sort of behaviour in the workplace however if I did I'd pull the f*ckers up and make it clear it's not acceptable but then that's just me."

ack. I'd probably just let the boss know (or his boss, if it's him)

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Let him without sin cast the first stone

"generally misogynist tone of vast swathes of the Internet"

when the definition of 'misogynist' is "anyone who is a conservative or doesn't lock step with the liberal left" I can see why you might say that.

I'd like to see the 'misandronists' called out just as frequently, particularly with respect to child custody issues and parental rights...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Harry, you're a beast!

"I suspect that more women are finally finding the courage to come forward publicly after seeing the first few do so."

Although we'd like to think this, for the sake of those subjected to unwanted harassment like that, I suspect 'not so much'. If this were the 1960's, maybe it would be like that. Sexual harassment was tolerated back then, particularly the more subtle variety, accidentally going past a lady when she can't move out of the way properly, various forms of ogling, etc. etc.. [basically rude bad-male behavior]. And 'fear for one's job' was a real concern. Coming forward could get you fired, depending on who your boss was.

Still, there are those people, even in the 21st century, who think they can get away this this kind of crap. I cite our former mayor, and former U.S. Congressman, Bob Filner. I call him "Feelner". I also didn't vote for him (I'd rather die than vote for a Demo-rat anyway).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Filner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Filner#Conviction

yes, he really DOES have a snake-face. His criminal conviction is the important detail, which is why I included a separate link for it (you can skip the glowing somewhat biased review of his 'accomplishments' and skip to who he REALLY is). He was known to grab women in a kind of headlock and do things to them, for starters, "the Filner Headlock" as it was called. I heard about a lot of this on local radio when it was all current news, so you'd have to look for it to see the gory details.

The point is, of course, that powerful people in powerful positions STILL try to get away with this kind of crap. But women are pretty savvy to the rules now, and rightfully do something about it. Though there may be some truth to the idea of 'seeing others come forward' it isn't quite like it used to be where there was actual fear of losing your job for doing so [although threats and intimidation from sexual harassers may still cause a bit of that].

There's also the case of FALSE accusations of sexual harassment, by gold-diggers and others who might delude themselves into believing something happened when it did not [this has happened before, with high profile celebrities, no names mentioned]. That being said, a legit claim should most definitely be dealt with.

It sort of ruins the way men and women relate to one another, though, NOT to have a bit of "that" in the office. But yeah, you just can't do anything fun any more between the sexes. Even complimenting a woman on her looks, "nice dress" "new hair style? looks nice" etc. could be misconstrued as "harassment" particularly by some who carry a chip on their shoulders. Yeah, sucks.

PCs will get pricier and you're gonna like it, say Gartner market shamans

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Simple solutions

"The little old lady next door was asking me what computer to get - I'll pass your comment on to her."

I think you can still get reconditioned Lenovo machines with 7 pro on them...!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I call bollocks ...

"PCs are a mature market. Everyone who needs one has one. And younger generations don't need at all."

no, not true.

The problems with the modern PC market can be summed up in a few things. I've said all this before. I know I'm right.

1. No perceived "better than what I have" in the new machines. (upgrade existing one instead)

2. Windows "Ape" and Win-10-nic are DETREMENTS to the user experience for a majority of users. They would rather stick with what they have than be FORCED into DOWNgrading their experience like that.

3. Too much focus on fondle-slabs, not enough focus on the existing user base.

4. Marketeers look at SALES FIGURES to extrapolate the user base. That's like looking at a derivative to extrapolate an integral. You ignore the value of 'K' and you're just plain wrong.

there are more things, like the effects of 'Moore's Law' 20 years ago vs 10 years ago vs now, the lack of software that truly takes advantage of multi-core, lazy programming practices that assume "oh you have a faster machine so we can afford to be lazy now and write inefficient code because it's easier" (particularly in Windows, i.e. UWP and "the Metro"), and a general lack of TRUE innovation that would make people want a new box just to "get it".

Remember how cool Windows 3.0 was to a lot of people? You saw the solitaire application running its demo in the computer store, and got it for your computer because it ran on top of DOS (which you already had). And '95 was cool, too, so people wanted it.

Name more than one or two people who actually *WANT* Win-10-nic or "Ape". Exactly. Now, name people who wish they could still get a new comptuter with 7 (or even XP) on it!!! You got it!

Create a user called '0day', get bonus root privs – thanks, Systemd!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: the problem with clueless amateurs...

implies Poettering is a clueless amateur, I take it. no argument from me!

I particularly dislike the use of 'exceptions' rather than checking return values. It's seems to be worse coming from the Python crowd...

It would be nice to run these clueless amateurs through a 'programming boot camp' where you ONLY get to code in 'C', and you MUST check buffer sizes and return values for things like "the file wasn't opened" and "attempting to overflow the buffer".

(and of course, check that the username is a VALID user name, and don't assume root privs when it's *NOT*)

yeah, I'd have a clue-bat, a clue-by-four, and a cat-5-o-nine-tails ready at all times

Happy 4th of July: Norks tests another missile

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Sabre ratling, we'll be fine.....

the LAST thing we need to do is REWARD "Fatass" (aka 'Cartman') for his bad behavior.

I'd rather taunt him into doing something stupid, so that his OWN PEOPLE take him out.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

"Fat Boy Kim may even just fire artillery at Seoul as well to make it a total party."

that's pretty much a guarantee, in the minds of most of the people I've heard discussing potential scenarios.

Kim Jong "Fatass" "Cartman" Un is basically INSANE. He rattles his saber, and expects people to pay him to shut the hell up and go away for a while. Unfortunately this used to work for his predecessor, but his predecessor knew when to shut the hell up. I'd expect him to act like Cartman and say things like "Respect My Authoritah!".

We're talking about a tin-horn dictator of an oppressive regime that stuffs his face and gets FAT while his people STARVE (and then hates being called 'Fatass'). His biggest concern is his own EGO. He wants to show how large his penis is to the rest of the world, in the shape of nuclear bombs and missiles capable of hitting his neighbors.

Now, here's what I think: they don't have any stockpile. Whenever they get one built [read: whip the minions harder to make them go faster until something's completed] they launch it. Or blow it up. Or do a 'nuclear test' with it. (but they DO have mobile artillery already pointed at strategic locations in S. Korea).

I suspect they have NO stockpile of WMDs, though. After all, this is ALL about Fatass. When he "feels powerful", he's happy. When the world calls him "Fatass" and proves how powerless he REALLY is, he gets all bent out of shape and launches something (or does a nuclear test) to show how 'powerful' he is.

Now, with a little amateur psychology, someone THIS unstable is VERY likely to launch everything he has in one "stand alone" strike against EVERYBODY at the same time, knowing full well that a) he'll never win, b) everybody WILL attack back, and c) the only outcome is a bunch of craters, a lot of 'glassed' cities, and enough fallout over N. Korea and surrounding areas to cause problems for the next several years.

OK - armchair world leaders, how do we deal with this?

I think that the G20 summit may be well timed. I think China and Russia will get on board with whatever the USA [and S. Korea and Japan] end up doing. And China may even help. But yeah, it won't be pretty, because the N. Korean people are SO indoctrinated, they'll fight down to the last man, woman, and child.

And we've seen what the solution to one of THOSE situations was before, a little over 70 years ago. I don't think we want to go there. (but MOAB and conventional cruise missiles might prove to be a nice substitute)

/me wonders what the effect of a MOAB dropped on Fatty's head would be...

(icon because of the topic)

Bonkers call to boycott Raspberry Pi Foundation over 'gay agenda'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: If only....

the 'choice' probably happens as a result of circumstances that may seem unavoidable. and so whether 'choice' is involved or not becomes debatable. I suggest that 'chocie' is always present in everything we do, though the choices are limited by circumstance. However I'm not going to judge someone for choosing to be homosexual (if choice is involved). In my case, I suggest that choice is ALWAYS involved, though choosing differently MAY be close to impossible, given the circumstances.

Sort of like if only a single choice is available, do you still make the choice? The sound of one hand clapping is in the background, along with a tree that falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: @Wolftone - the whole bible?

"No, the new testament is all about repenting your sins and believing in Jesus. Or else you go to hell regardless of anything else. Jesus or hell."

I'm in total agreement with what you say. The christian bible is SUPPOSED to be saying "everybody sins" and "redemption through Jesus". What a lot of christians do INSTEAD is nothing less than bashing one group of people over their particular 'sin'. By doing that, of course, they're being ARROGANT and HATEFUL (more sin, just different). But this is not new. Some post-civil-war churches in the American southeast, and some others as well, said 'blacks were marked as the sons of Cain' which is obviously nonsense, but they used this to act prejudicially, an obvious excuse for bigotry. 'gay bashing' for religious reasons is probably the same _kind_ of thing, motivated by bigotry and a kind of arrogance, one of the "7 deadly sins" I might add...

I've always believed that THE LIE is the worst of the sins, pales by comparison to engaging in homosexuality (or adultery, or any of the others that get regular bashing). So if there's a bottom level in hell, it's filled with LIARS. next to the bottom, ARROGANCE.

(and we all know that 'the lie' is so universally practiced, good luck finding ANYONE who hasn't done it, including me heh heh heh)

Christians being tolerant, but not compromising in their beliefs, would treat gay people as fellow 'sinful' human beings, no worse than anyone else, and would NOT point fingers nor say god hates them. They could still believe in the bible without being asshats. Well, in an ideal world, anyway.

So, is THAT what you meant? (I hope so)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Some of my friends are hetro...

Statiistically, 1 out of ever 60 people you ever knew is gay, about 1.8%

Think back to high school. Go to a reunion. Perhaps you'll see someone you knew who's obviously gay [I have]. Does that kind of thing matter to me? Not really. I just say 'hello, I remember you, you were in XXX class with me'. And later I might think "yeah, THAT explains a lot..."

Lessee, I worked for a gay guy once [didn't ask, he didn't tell, but it was obvious, and women loved him]. Had a gay guy living next door (in a duplex) for a while, and he was easy to get along with. He had a calendar with a nearly naked body builder on it in his kitchen. I've also known a few people online in IRC and on USENET, one of whom had a full sex change and used to post links to various trans-sex resources, particularly the medical ones [I find this sort of thing interesting as in "how DO they do a sex change operation anyway?"]. But if they say nothing online we'd just never know. Which is fine, really. Sometimes you don't WANT to know, but sometimes you might. It's especially funny if there's a gay woman in an IRC channel and you see a bunch of guys hitting on her. Heh.

So yeah, 1.8%, about 1 in 60 people that you know, are probably gay

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Protest Too Much?

"It appears that many homophobes are trying to hide their desires"

thanks AC for ABusing another 'phobe' term. it reveals your SJW-ness.

you can't have civil discussion when you're throwing emotion-bombs like "phobe" terms. That's why the SJW's do that. It prevents people from THINKING, because they're too busy *FEELING*.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: "...Gaining this 'acceptance' is step one in the path to homosexuality.."

"Acceptance is not required to be homosexual or transgender, it just makes life a little more comfortable for those that are."

how about 'tolerance' instead, and some civility to go with it? Religious people don't need to "accept" homosexuality as "normal". But they'd be better representatives of their god if they were to tolerate it, and treat people with a bit of respect.

(and the extremists and SJW's on *BOTH* sides need to just SHUT THE *FEEL* UP and stop stirring up emotions and creating chaos)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alien

Re: The Bible (@Steve K)

"IIRC the bible says that Cain married someone from another tribe - now where did they come from"

SHE came from outer space!

bombastic bob Silver badge

"Which of course completely ignores the fact that if children were so easily persuadable there wouldnt; be any homosexual or trans folk as the amount of heterosexual/cisgender-normative material and role models out there "

I'm going to take a non-SJW and 'non-extremist' position on this issue, and offer some science to back it up.

First, you're not a victim of your urges. You have a brain in your head. You make choices, and I assume they're good choices most of the time [like everyone else].

That being said, genetics and developmental issues can be shown to affect sexual preferences. I cite an experiment I've mentioned before in which the brains of homosexual male sheep were examined, and the examination showed that they looked a lot like 'female brains' in certain areas, particularly with respect to processing testosterone and aromatase. (physiological evidence of potential developmental causes for homosexuality in sheep).

At the same time, there's also an "addiction" gene that is thought to be responsible for certain kinds of addictive behavior. We all know that this genetics is often fought against by AA members, etc.. they make choices, too, and in their cases they choose to go AGAINST their genetic predispositions, and for good reason.

So, somewhere between "extreme on one side, you have a choice" and "extreme on the other side, I have _NO_ choice", is a reasonable amount of medical and behavioral science that says "it's not such an extreme thing", since developmental issues DO exist, and genetic ones PROBABLY exist, and somewhere in the middle is reality, where some make choices that others cannot make, and vice versa, because we have brains and are NOT the victims of genetic/developmental predisposition, regardless of circumstance.

So I suggest, in this case, that you may make choices based on circumstances beyond your control, ones that you perceive as "cannot be avoided", whereas others with different circumstances may not. This does not mean you can't choose something else. it may simply be too difficult, or just undesirable.

Whichever choice you make, though, it's not my business. It's your business. And that's ultimately where it should stay.

[and people should perhaps mind their own business more often when it comes to sexuality and preferences, and not intentionally get in others' faces with whatever extreme position they take]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: My parents forced me to have piano lessons

They forced you to be A PIANIST? [wash your mouth out with soap after saying that]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"They want to tell your children it is 'ok to be gay' even if you as a parent work diligently and carefully to put your child on a hetrosexual path."

So... you're saying you want to tell my children that it's NOT okay to be gay?

I don't think it was intended to be THAT extremist.

best path: we all mind our own business, and this whole hysteria fades away. No more SJW's or identity politics, or extremists trying to foist their viewpoint on everyone else.

THAT would help.

(in the mean time, we can lampoon the extremists on BOTH sides of the argument, rather than believing them or defending them)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: "pushing LGBTQI"

Let's add an 'R' for 'Robot'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Rainbow

rainbows and unicorns and cute animated characters. you find them in a lot of kid's cartoons

I remember the attack on Teletubbies. More of the same. It takes "a wacko". They probably hate Mr. Rogers and Grover the Muppet, too.

*groan*

*facepalm*

Cloud sales shift as enormo Microsoft reorg continues – sources

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Beware of the Blob...

Reminds me of the ending theme for the movie "The Blob" back from the late 50's (I think)

Burt Bacharach classic jazz-rock!

"*pop* - Beware of the Blob, it creeps, and leaps, ..."

once Micro-shaft re-organizes it's entire, uh, organization so that it's a single monolithic absorbing entity, that is.

Kaspersky repeats offer: America can see my source code

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: An Education for the TLA's

"Don't ban Kaspersky by law, just don't choose them for sensitive contracts. Even the tweeter in chief should be happy at that sort of deal."

for military and national security use, there's a general tendency of "NIH" syndrome, too, if for no other reason than to NOT tie keeping your most important secrets to a company that is outside of your country.

/me thinks of Avro and their supersonic aircraft back in the 60's. Only reason it didn't "fly" in the USA was that Avro is Canadian...

(and yet, the USA bought Harriers for the USMC in the 80's/90's so there ya go - a lesson learned perhaps?)

then again a better fix for the U.S. Military: stop running Windows

China pollutes ocean with bloody big rocket

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

How do you say "Oh, CRAP" in Mandarin?

don't ya just HATE it when your rocket does *that* ???

And it also shows how hard it REALLY IS for all of the other space companies and agencies who are managing to get things into orbit anyway.

Fresh cotton underpants fix series of mysterious mainframe crashes

bombastic bob Silver badge
Flame

Re: Humidity control

smoking in the office building PERIOD should be a terminal offense. (thankfully that hasn't been in any office I work in since the very early 90's)

But at the very least, if it were NOT outright banned throughout the building, by keeping that crap out of the data center, it would give me a reason to move my workstation in there. Just wear hearing protection, no need for a phone, right next to the machine if I had to do something with it, etc. and nobody would bother me.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

gynecologist on his lunch hour

and with all of this, I'd almost expect someone to pop up from under a desk and make the claim "It's ok, I'm a gynecologist. I'm on my lunch hour."

(as in 'where's the Monty Python angle')

Photobucket says photo-f**k-it, starts off-site image shakedown

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

no more bandwidth theft. just host it yourself!

seems to me that the problem is solved by doing a 'save image' to a file, then host that file yourself.

This assumes no copyright issues, of course. but then again who really seems to care about copyright of commonly used images online any more...

but yeah, bandwidth theft is kinda bad. Wanting $400/year? Not much better.

US Senators want Kaspersky shut out of military contracts

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Unless you are asking a question in French, I think you mean Cue."

or 'queue', which is what I was thinking

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

" Russian gov embargoing Symantec, McAffee and a couple of smaller players feeding of the Washington DC extravaganza."

They should embargo Micro-shaft and Google, instead. it would be more relevant.

Shock: NASA denies secret child sex slave cannibal colony on Mars

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: School boy mistake

"where did this Robert David Steele guy get his education"

more like re-education.

think drug-induced hysteria during exit interview from CIA [plausible deniability].

heh heh heh

black helicopters? Oh, NOZE!

Ubuntu 'weaponised' to cure NHS of its addiction to Microsoft Windows

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Swings and roundabouts

"What you save in Windows licences, you'll have to pay in retraining staff."

how would SHIFTING TO WIN-10-NIC be ANY different in this regard?

if you're going to have to re-train, go LINUX!

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: It's also about automation...

"for many years, the NHS has relied on Office macros to function"

like legal firms do the same thing from what I understand.

MS Office Macros are HIGHLY overrated [and a dangerous vector for malware]

I have to wonder how many of these could be re-done with simple shell scripts + python/Perl utilities

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Modified distro

"enterprise distributions require a subscription for support and updates."

many IT departments prefer this. And the overall cost is lower than a Micro-shaft solution. win-win.

the alternative would be a support contract with some consultants, or hiring your own expert. But at least you have that choice, to contract with Red Hat [let's say], or with a local Linux admin consulting group, or hire your own expert. Whichever you pick, it's highly likely to be a cost savings over Micro-shaft. [I posted the Ernie Ball link already, no need to re-post]