* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Does Microsoft have what it takes to topple Google Docs?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: "they don't need to deal with geeks"

I figure as a company owner, I can dictate policy. Then I set up the policy: Linux/BSD workstations, open/libre office, 'google docs' when shared things are needed (but only IF needed), local source repo, github for anything that's open source, and "the Windows machine" (running 7) if anything 'windows' must be used for some reason. And no web browsing from the windows machine. EVAR.

then you purchase Linux versions of everything you need, or use open source versions, etc..

and you hire people that agree with this policy.

It was bound to happen: Amazon launches first grocery store

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

wait until the grocer unions get wind of it

wait until the grocer unions get wind of it. Over here in the USA, Target and Walmart and other "non-union" retailers offer groceries now, and it's WAY cheaper than Vons/Safeway or the others. And so I've been getting a lot from Target and Walmart lately, though the availability and selection isn't quite as good. I can still go to Vons for things NOT carried at Target, but my grocery bill is considerably smaller than it would have otherwise been, maybe 20 percent or more.

So yeah I welcome the competition. I'm tired of being presented ONLY with expensive brand-named things at the grocery stores anyway... when Walmart's _slightly_ lower quality, half-priced alternative is effectively just as good [except it requires a trip to WalMart, something I don't enjoy all that much]

Pentagon trumpets successful mock-ICBM interception test

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

let's test something against the next NORK launch

Come on, USA, let's test something against the next NORK launch. Next time Kim Jong "Cartman" Un decides everyone needs to "Respect his AUTHORITAH!" and lobs another missile into the Sea of Japan [hoping to reach Japan I'd gather], it would be *FUN* if the USA lobbed something BACK that blew it to *ATOMS* less than halfway there.

you never know which one is going to have a REAL NUKE on it, so might as well blow them ALL up!

Ransomware realities: In your normal life, strangers don't extort you. But here you are

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"leaving all your files and all your backups encrypted."

it depends upon how the files were copied. I don't think such ransomware exists (yet) anyway. If it did, try rolling back your system date... and copying across a net share from a different box running Linux.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Go

"Backup everything important, and keep all backups"

ACK. worth pointing out, a DVD can't be 'encrypted', especially when it's normally kept in a fireproof safe someplace.

Google can't spare 113 seconds of revenue to compile data on its gender pay gap

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: (.) (.)

Obviously you posted as an AC because you know that response was total bullshit and you wanted to espouse your bigotry without revealing your screen name.

I though it was prettty funny. Thanks, AC, for saying what at least a number of us were thinking already.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Bullshit

Find an intern to run "select gender,avg(pay_rate) from employees group by gender"

it may not be that easy of a query, considering how 'gender' is defined these days...

Actually I doubt google would deliberately pay women LESS. It may be MORE, though...

(and this is probably JUST a dept of labor "shakedown")

US laptops-on-planes ban may extend to flights from ALL nations

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: Where will this end?

the problem is, NEVER.

Once a gummint program gains a foothold, it will be justified into self-justification, then grow into a hideous eldritch abomination of a monster, then become a "legacy program", until people just accept it a "normal".

If they REALLY wanted tp protect against terrorists, they'd PROFILE more, and inconvenience the REST of us a HELL of a lot less. But that's not "politically correct", now, is it?

Init freedom declared as systemd-free Devuan hits stable 1.0.0 status

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: No - systemd doesn't offend me

"Maybe people who have actually used (as opposed to just flaming) a systemd-based system for some time, and got used to it?"

systemd's integration breaks a few important features, depending on the distro. on Mint it caused 'startx' to screw up the X display (I had to remove all of the settings manually), because it's now FRICKING IMPOSSIBLE to find "that one file" that has all of the settings in it.

It's no longer obvious how to do simple things LIKE boot into a console instead of a GUI.

It's no longer obvious how to troubleshoot startup problems.

Some of learn to "live with it" because we pretty much didn't have a choice. Now I have to think about downing my Debian Jessie system long enough to bring up Devuan, and re-install all of the packages. Fortunately everything in /home is most likely portable

"got used to it" with systemd is like being tolerant of a daily paddling

"got used to it" with systemd is like getting used to the bad smell coming from your neighbor's house

"got used to it" with systemd is like getting used to chronic pain

and so on

Windows 10 love to see PC market grow again. Future iPhone to be clear. Elvis to re-appear

bombastic bob Silver badge
Flame

Re: Why the Windows 10 hate?

"I don't get it. What's wrong with Windows 10?"

*crack knuckles*

1. The ADWARE

2. The SPYWARE

3. The FORCED UPDATES

4. The "the METRO" focus (including 'settings' vs traditional control panel)

5. The 2D FLATSO FLUGLY LIMITED CUSTOMIZATION appearance of *EVERYTHING*

6. the arrogance of its advocates and fanbois

7. The "Start Thing" (with embedded ads!)

8. The removal of user customizations/options that USED to be some of the BEST features of windows (ability to customize)

9. Microshaft basically using us END USERS as their beta testers via FORCED UPDATES. Got "BRICK"? It's happened a few times...

10. 'windows update's tendency to DOMINATE your bandwidth with whatever _IT_ wants, regardles of whether you want to stream a movie, listen to internet radio, download stuff, yotta yotta, on ITS schedule, when _IT_ *FEELS*, and NO control by YOU!

That's a good start.

I really *HATE* Win-10-nic!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coffee/keyboard

And the growth will come because people like Windows 10.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA, *breathe*, *breathe*, *gasp*, *breathe*, HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

Sysadmin finds insecure printer, remotely prints 'Fix Me!' notice

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

back in the 'code red' infection days

back in the 'code red' infection days, I was rather sick of the constant hits scanning for devices to infect. So I *allegedly* did something about it: I figured out how the 'code red' back door workd (basically an exposure of CMD to the world), and then *allegedly* wrote a script that would do the following:

a) write a note and place it on the desktop of the 'administrator' user, something like "idiot.txt" that contained information on how to patch, avoid, etc. the problem

b) pop up a window saying "YOU ARE INFECTED with CODE RED" (I think that was the 'net message' command if I remember right).

c) disable the web server (and thus stop the infection and its spread)

Code RED left open access to 'CMD' over the internet with 'administrator' context as I recall. It was a serious problem. I *allegedly* did notice LESS activity over time. So it was *allegedly* working.

EU ministers approve anti-hate speech video rules

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

it's not FREE SPEECH

if you can't be offensive and politically incorrect. "Hate" if you will.

I *HATE*

1. Win-10-nic

2. 2D FLATSO interfaces

3. People who robo-call my phone [ignoring the 'do not call list'

4. Whiny b.i.itchy women who divorce husbands in order to take them to the cleaners

5. Meal-ticket mommies

6. fascist political correctness 'SJW's

7. those who want to clamp down on FREEDOM

Hi! I’m Foxy! It looks like you want to run Flash. Do you need help?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Nagging us won't do a thing to the publishers"

ACK. I propose a "never install, never nag" button instead, effectively a NO FLASH, EVAR function that's enabled by default. *FLASH* 'em if they can't take a joke.

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: The problem are not 'web' developers.

what kind of software developer would *EVAR* design a 'web admin' tool that makes use of FLASH???

I can't think of enough pejoratives to describe THAT person. Put *THAT* on a resume, and it'll be circular-filed immediately.

At least it doesn't use ActiveX... or does it?

Yahoo! retires! bleeding! ImageMagick! to! kill! 0-day! vulnerability!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Exclaimation! marks! on! every! El! Reg! article! headline! has! been! annoying! for! years!

I do the SAME! THING! in my posts sometimes. It's a form of emphasis. [you just have to 'get it' that's all, and it adds to the snarky humor]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

does not appear to be abandonware... so, what the BLANK?

https://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php

https://www.imagemagick.org/script/changelog.php

most recent changes 5/19 this year.

I guess "patch" really means "update to newer release"

Netgear 'fixes' router by adding phone-home features that record your IP and MAC address

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Nope Nope Nope

yeah, I'm not too pleased with this. I've been kinda prejudiced against Netgear from my 'smart antenna' days. Their so-called "MIMO" routers (that were multi-antenna G) and some of their other claims were pure ridiculousness and, in many ways, FALSE ADVERTISING.

example, HERE: http://documentation.netgear.com/wpn824v2/enu/202-10122-01/wpn824v2-03-03.html

they made OTHER outrageous claims as well, but that one's pretty obvious. From around 10-12 years ago as I recall.

THAT being said, they have a serious credibility gap with me. I've been going wth DLink instead. Inexpensive and effective.

40,000-plus AT&T staff threaten to strike Friday

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: If I recall correctly

"Many jobs are calculated at about 35% over the actual pay as part of the "Total Compensation" for reporting purposes"

last time I ran a payroll for myself (yes, business owners typically need to do that if you won't want to be sued by the government or audited) the burden was about 17% but it includes no "benefits", just payroll taxes and bank costs for check prep. It also excludes liability insurance, workman's compensation, and a few OTHER things you don't need if you have a home office where you live and you're the only employee of the corporation. Those costs can go up pretty high very quickly, especially in Cali-FORNICATE-You.

And when gummint IMPOSES those extra costs on employers (read: OBAKA"care"), one of two things have to happen: fire/terminate the employees and do the work yourself, and/or don't give them raises (or even LOWER the pay scale). You can't get money from nowhere to pay people with.

these are the realities of economics. It's why I voted for Trump. He obviously GETS IT.

AT&T is probably at the edge of profitability now. And last time I was in an AT&T store, I got some rather poor customer service. It might be time to get rid of those guys and hire people with proper attitudes, paying commission instead of salary.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Glad to see some unions still alive

"where they pay everyone a pittance and the high-ups live like kings"

what FAKE NEWS site did THAT come from? It's just the socialist RELIGIOUS propaganda again. You've obviously NEVER signed "the front of the check".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

a wage is worth the work output. Pay people too much, and the company does poorly. A poorly run company goes out of business (or gets "gummint bailouts" if DemoRats are running the show).

If the people want MORE THAN THEY ARE WORTH, and walk out because of it, they should be "unceremoniously let go" (aka 'fired') and replaced with SCABS and SUB-CONTRACTORS.

it's like 'minimum wage'. it means your job will end if it costs more to hire you than you're worth.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

job protections for the workers.

I'll say it loud enough to hear it in the cheap seats:

A! JOB! IS! NOT! A! DAMNED! ENTITLEMENT!!!

If the company does POORLY, you might lose your job! After all, a companay with NO MONEY can't pay people SQUAT.

That's the way it is for EVERYBODY. Deal with it.

(stupid unions, fire 'em all, hire scabs)

‪There's a ransom-free fix for WannaCry‬pt. Oh snap, you've rebooted your XP box

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: "the antithesis of a strong and stable operating system"

ACK on FreeBSD stability. usually a crash in FBSD is hardware related, like bad RAM or aging video or possibly a BLOB driver that has a bug in it... [or messed up power supply, had that happen a couple of times]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Help! - Win7 Ports 445 / 135 just wont die...

fix it so ONLY the NSA can exploit you...

black helicopters! oh, NO!

Man sues date for cinema texting fiasco, demands $17.31

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: It's an investment!

"$17.31 is a small price to pay for a happy future."

it has anecdotal value. It can be used to make YOU look good on future dates.

"Wow, XXX, you're a pretty cool date. I made a mistake once and went out with this one girl, who texted the entire time during the movie and left me without a ride. I mean THAT was bad, but hey, I've gotten over it. I'm glad I met YOU." (etc.)

as long as it's 'just mentioned' in the right context, it could be an advantage. It shows you're a) willing to take a risk, b) willing to overlook things like that, c) able to bounce back from adversity. And you can use it as a compliment. And you can play a *teensy* bit of a 'sympathy card'.

That is, if I weren't "off the market". Robosexual.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: First Date...

smart guys would figure out what makes HER happy, then do that. If she's worth anything at all as a human being, she'll perceive that as 'owing something'. Either that, or just like you a whole lot better.

(yeah it's a stupid game, but better to just suck it up and assume you've got to 'win her' or something)

And a movie as a first date, I suppose it depends on the movie. All of those 'Twilight' movies seemed (to me) to be a perfect setup, where women love it, and the action scenes keep the guys from being completely bored by a "chick flick".

But I'm off the market anyway. I'm a 'Robosexual' now. I've been driven there by society's stupidity...

[back in the day if I'd known this stuff I'd have purchased a lot of Barry Manilow concert tickets, and would've been THE most popular guy in high school]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: This guy is about to become a legend

"I predict Brandon will have great difficulty getting dates in the future"

BOTH of them, no doubt, are pretty much "un-dateable" without a severe amount of pennance of some kind...

If a girl is willing to spend here entire life on the @#$% phone texting, you'll NEVER command more than 30 seconds of her attention (if that). You'll never get a sandwich, or coffee the next morning. Don't even THINK about anything else. It'll be "tap tap tap tap" all of the fornicating time, except when she's being an "all about me" drama queen. In fact, I wonder if THIS chick texts while fornicating...

As for the dude, he's lost his 'man card' for at least 5 years, if not permanently. "Being willing to put up with that" carries FAR more bonus points with the fairer sex than does being an ASSHAT and suing your date like that. yeah.

Aaaaah, the whole 'dating game' thing is such a pain any more. you can't say ANYTHING without being offensive, you can't touch the girl without being labeled "aggressive", and you need WRITTEN FRICKING PERMISSION to engage in anything sexual, with notarization and lawyer approval, or it's called "rape" (only for the guy of course) and you get to spend even MORE on l[aw]yers and maybe lose your freedom for a while...

Yeah, it's making me into a ROBOSEXUAL.

Blighty's buying another 17 F-35s, confirms the American government

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: How many changes

American design - so yes, 2000 fuck-pounds (or one fuckton)

Otherwise the U.S. Navy would have to issue new tools.

Mi casa es su casa: Ubuntu bug makes 'guests' anything but

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Poettering's Law*

I just loaded Mate on FBSD 11 along with a bunch of other stuff. no systemd here... though 'atril' gave me a ration of crap when I tried to run it from a different user, the way I always do - you know, log into a mate shell, "su - whateveruser", then "setenv DISPLAY localhost:0.0" (already ran xhost +localhost), then you can use "that user" with whatever GUI stuff you want... except Atril choked on it for some reason related to dbus. But it works fine when run as the logged in user. I blame SYSTEMD DEPENDENCIES in the application! [I suspect that workarounds are patched into the various applications that *FEEL* they need systemd]

What is dead may never die: a new version of OS/2 just arrived

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

@Anonymous South African Coward

"why do you refer to it as Win-10-nic?"

Icebergs ahead! better open the throttles and race them! Queue the music with Celine Dione, and some emotionally touching scenes, and next thing you know, it's not so "unsinkable" any more.

Microsoft released Windows 10 *KNOWING* it's a pile of crap, they did it at the objection of their customers, they jammed it down our throats and up our backsides, and did everything except show up at your house and demand you install it at gunpoint, etc. etc. to force it onto our lives [not a mis-spelling of 'into']. And it's doomed to sink. Hence, "Win-10-nic".

And it's also why I'm glad OS/2 is getting another jump start.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Flame

hardball licensing tactics making it commercially suicidal for PC-makers to offer it

and this is why Micro-shaft STILL gets away with what they do with Win-10-nic. Those infamous "hardball licensing tactics". WHY is this STILL going on?

Can OS/2 provide a VIABLE alternative to the WIn-10-nic (effective) MONOPOLY? I'd like to THINK so!!!

Without those "hardball licensing tactics" I bet it would be EASIER to purchase an inexpensive LINUX box. Screw Micro-shaft anyway. they've RUINED the PC market, but everybody is all to willing to blame SLABS and SMART PHONES instead, refusing to see the obvious...

I'm rooting for OS/2 on this one. I want to see it SUCCEED!

After stiffing us with Trump, Weiner 'fesses to underage cock shot rot

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Truth or Consequences

someone pointed out before, that it's not 'pedophilia' to lust after a 14-15 year old. 'pedophilia' generally applies to pre-pubescent kids. Lusting after a teenager is just normal male hormones doing their thang. Fortunately MOST adult men (not Anthony Wiener) have brains and know NOT to do anything with it.

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

/me points out that men are pretty much genetically hard wired to prefer women in the 16-25 range, with 'high estrogen' characteristics and healthy skin/hair. This is why the COSMETIC INDUSTRY exists, and why nobody ever tries to look OLDER [unless they're under 21 and want to go to a bar].

yeah 'wrinkle cream' that makes you look like you're 90 - that'd be a big seller!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

Re: pull the other one

" I believe the Reg missed a great opportunity to write one of those double-entandre-filled masterpieces which it's readership so pruriently loves."

El Reg comments will make up for it

/me reaches for some mustard. gotta slap some mustard on the wiener, and get them buns nice and hot!

Wiener is more like "whiner" now, anyway, wiith his "I have a disease" excuse. No, not a disease. Just an obsession. A criminal one.

Didn't Wiener request photos from the teenage girl he sent his wang-pics to? Wouldn't he be in possession of CHILD PORN as a result if she'd sent him a naked pic of herself?

And there's Wiener's (former) wife Huma - that's a double entendre if I'd ever heard one.

Next headline: Hillary Clinton divorces Bill over HIS infidelity, gets engaged to Huma. Film at 11.

And then if Huma runs for president, who would be 'first lady' ? HA HA HA HA HA!

Oh, the entire spectrum of this situation is RIFE with potential sexual humor!

Chelsea Manning leaves prison, heads straight for booze and pizza

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: @DavidW

"He's basically trapped in a prison in the UK"

I thought Assange was in Ecuador? /me researches... ok, Ecuadorian embassy in the UK. Got it.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: You can change the name

"In men, the finger between middle and pinkie is longer than the finger between middle and thumb"

that's actually considered a "hyper-masculine" trait.

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

"Finger length (specifically the lengths of the ring and index fingers), have been correlated with high and low levels of fetal androgens" "it is generally believed that having a shorter index (or 2nd digit) than the ring finger (or 4th digit), corresponds with having higher levels of prenatal androgens"

So color ME "Mr. INsensitive", as I exhibit stereotypical "hyper-masculine" aka "macho" behavior, while telling political correctness to PACK SAND, and let women know they're "good lookin" and stare at their boobs instead of their faces. Because _I_ have that "hyper male" characteristic, where my 'ring' finger is longer than my 'index' finger. It's in my genes. I was BORN that way!

America's drone owner database grounded: FAA rules blown out of sky

bombastic bob Silver badge
Flame

stupid l[aw]yers

stupid l[aw]yers mucking things up. again.

The FAA has every right to control where you can and cannot use a drone aircraft, particularly because THEY! ARE! NAVIGATIONAL! HAZARDS! when flown in certain areas, such as near airports within the flight path of the approach pattern etc. etc.. I think some student pilot wanting to practice touch & go landings doesn't need to have to DODGE DRONES on landing approach and on takeoff. It's a DiSASTER waiting to happen.

Drone owners, on the other hand, could be restricted to specific areas. And a drone registry is NOT a bad idea at all. If YOUR drone is involved in an aircraft accident, there's a liability involved. Or, similarly, if your drone comes crashing down on a person, vehicle, pet, house, whatever, then it is the responsibility of the drone owner to deal with the aftermath.

I guess Con-Grab is going to have to legislate something now. I thought the FAA's "light touch" approach was pretty sane. but NOOOOoooo... some petty fornicating LYER had to come along and do something STOOOPID, and *NOW* ConGrab will produce a WORSE, GUMMINT-FILLED, IDIOTIC, RIGHTS-INFRINGING solution to the obvious problem.

Wannacry: Everything you still need to know because there were so many unanswered Qs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Oh, the irony!

"Windows 7 machines most affected after so-called "experts" advised switching off updates to avoid Windows 10 upgrade notifications"

and the spyware as well.

At least in 7 you can pick/choose which updates to install. Knowing the proper KB means you can download it and apply the patch manually, last I checked...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

hunts down vulnerable public facing SMB ports

this is what I thought, from reading the El Reg articles and other (supporting) articles that I found online, ones linked to from El Reg and other independent articles.

Although I had also heard about possible e-mail vectors, the primary vector appeared to be port 445 facing the intarwebs, which everyone with any kind of IT experience recognizes as being *VERY* *VERY* *BAD*.

thanks for the final confirmation on that. [it was in the 'teccy' El Reg article, too, but you had to look for it]

Seeing as those first articles were posted on a friday evening way after "beer o'clock", I'm glad they were more or less right on with nearly complete information.

Julian Assange wins at hide-and-seek game against Sweden

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Sweden

"You need at the very least 'formal written consent' for sexual intercourse"

crazy world indeed. it drives me to becoming "robosexual"

White House sicko sent down for 20 years after sexting underage girls

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

"Which is worse? killing a child or leaving them to a life where they can't have relationships because some git used them."

keep in mind, 'sexting' isn't rape. It's obnoxious, inappropriate, and all of those things, certainly. I would've guessed 5 years in jail would have been more appropriate. The man's career will be ruined, his name would be on a register of sex offenders, and so on.

I think the SJW's and in particular certain feminist and/or religious groups have gone way off the deep end, and are too busy screaming and pointing fingers and being righteously indignant "for the children" again.

When I was 10 I used to read playboy magazines [like every other 10 year old]. Big whoop. I liked the jokes the best. Centerfolds bored me. Maybe that's why I'm not a real fan of porn now. I got accustomed to it to the point of "meh". I'm not permanently damaged as a result.

So let's say a 14 year old kid is getting her kicks having some old guy send naked pics and talking dirty to her. I bet half of it is 'for the lulz' and the other half is just being rebellious. Sure it should be a crime for the old guy to send/do that stuff, but 20 years in jail for that? It's not like he met the girl and then raped her... or got her to take pics of herself and then spread them around on the dark web.

Faking incontinence and other ways to scare off tech support scammers

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

"...all showing a site so extremely graphic we're going to spare you the name and URL..."

So er, it isn't Lemon Party then?

yeah it's hard to find something that's truly shocking any more. anything listed in wikipedia as a "shock site" would be one of THOSE classics, no longer shocking any more.

But if you search on rotten.com or /b on 4chan or "one of the other sites" long enough you'll probably find something that's so bad it makes average people vomit uncontrollably. THAT is the one to use! Bonus for content that's blatantly illegal in India or wherever they're calling from.

/me hears "you spin me right round baby right round..." in the background

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

"I just talk really quietly, then use a loud whistle."

an old modem might help. command it to 'answer' and the first couple of tones are ear-splitting.

/me imagines a phone scammer throwing down the headset in either case - can't remove it fast enough to avoid ear damage.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Freak 'em out !

"But what happens when they do want to be your friend?"

get full contact info, then thank them and tell them you're going to send all of that info to the cops (to avoid callbacks). Then do it (along with the time of day and a proper summary).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Quick solution

"I'm doing this way:"

"wait to make sure I detect a Sound detection algorithm"

Have the word "Hello" followed by a pause on the answering machine. I do that, and turn off the ringer. The message is short and to the point, so legit callers don't have to wait long. If I hear a human [that I want to], I pick up the phone. Otherwise, I don't need the disturbance in my day.

Phones are not fires. Phones are not floods. Phones are not incoming tornados nor meteors hurtling down on top of my head. Phones are not gushing blood spewing out of a serious life-threatening wound.

A ringing phone is NOT an emergency. I leave my phone ringer OFF.

Windows 10: Triumphs and tragedies from Microsoft Build

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

A "Windows skin" for an underlying Linux codebase

you used to be able to buy a windows subsystem for Mac...

So, you know, they COULD do that for Linux. But it would have to be seamless with the X11 window manager. And you wouldn't be *RESTRICTED* to "the Store". And people would be ENCOURAGED to write NATIVE Linux appLICATIONS. And Microshaft would LOSE CONTROL. They don't want to lose control. THAT is at least PART of the motivation behind Win-10-nic. It's about "the CONTROL" and "the SPYING" etc..

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: What Is Microsofts End Game ?

"That is what Windows 10S is designed to do: force users* to only buy from the store so that developers have to follow or lose market share."

the bigger market share right NOW is WINDOWS 7. just sayin'

Here's a thought: What if WE (the people, the devs) take Micro-shaft's own tactics and use them against Win-10-nic and "the Store" ? you know, we pressure the computer makers to ship LINUX versions at LOWER prices than Windows, and THEN offer the software people NEED to RUN on those machines natively, never mind running at ALL on Win-10-nic. It would be fun to watch Micro-shaft scramble to produce on OS that people actually WANT.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: "Focusing"

"They need to get a GUI that is simple - W2k or XP - and not something that causes eye strain by being all white"

yeah, focusing MY EYES on "that interface" causes me eye strain.

Micro-shaft forgot about USABILITY and ACCESSIBILITY when they took the customizations out. I had always created a really READABLE interface that minimized eye strain.

BLUE LIGHT (and that includes bright white backgrounds) is *VERY* *HARD* on the eyes. It can (and probably will) result in PREMATURE MACULAR DEGENERATION, due to the depletion of the orange pigment in the macula [I did some work for an Optometrist a while back, on a machine that analyzes this]. A work environment with bright white lights gives you eye strain BECAUSE of this. 'Yellowing' the screen slightly so that it's still visible cuts WAY down on the eye strain. but I don't think that's in Micro-shaft's "pre-defined color set" last I looked. Basically you want lower temperature colors, like an incandescent bulb. It's more natural, like the Sun. And high contrast based on relative 'Y' brightness, and not chroma balance, helps TREMENDOUSLY [I sometimes want to shoot Linux devs who pre-assign colors to 'ls' and 'grep' because of this... I always 'unalias' those because they're FRICKING UNREADABLE with those color choices].

Anyway, THAT way of pre-assigning our color schemes (like Win-10-nic does) reflects the "INEXPERIENCED YOUTH" aspect of the development. People who must stare at a screen all day and are over 40 will recognize the STUPIDITY of that. Arrogant millenials want "to do it OUR way now, because we CAN, because it's OUR TURN, NEW! SHINY!". And so we have THAT abomination known as "Windows 10".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Business users

"Linux as a file server, but for very simple needs, is really outdated"

clueless. Actually I use FreeBSD, but it's basically the same userland software. It handles my e-mail repo (IMAP), source repository (SVN), and file-based backups and archival storage, as well as internet firewall, internet gateway (PPPoE for a DSL connection), IPv6, DNS server (for a domain), web server, and stores it all using ZFS [the most reliable file system that I'm aware of]. And it does all of that on an older Intel Core Duo running at 1.6Ghz with only 4G of RAM, and I don't have even a REMOTE case of performance issues with it. Good luck getting THAT to work with a windows server, ha ha ha ha ha! And it has Samba running on it for windows shares [all read-only except for a couple - when I want to write to it I use rsync via Cygwin, which is a lot better/safer - in case of a 'wannacry' problem that decides to go after network shares]. And it doesn't expose ports 135-139 nor 443 (by default) to the intarwebs (unlike a windows server).

So, _THAT_ is "outdated"? Hah, I laugh in your general direction!

"Visual Studio is far better than any development solution on Linux, especially those based on vim"

vim? ha ha ha where have YOU been! I prefer using pluma/gedit to VIsual Studio anyway, since visual studio GETS! IN! MY! WAY! most of the time. The last decent MS developer studio was VS98. After that it got all "Visual BASIC" on us, and you have to mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie and move your hand off of the keyboard all the time, especially with the dialog box editor. "property" drop downs, what a freaking joke! I liked the old class wizard dialog-based interface because I had the hot keys memorized and could fill a dialog box with accurately aligned controls in minutes, without wearing my right hand out doing mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie. And that mousie-clickie process SLOWS! ME! DOWN!!

FYI in case you hadn't seen, there are also a couple of other IDEs out there, some written in Java (like Arduino, Eclipse). Eclipse is very popular with Java programmers. It's quite good, actually. It lacks some of the C++ support I'd like to see, but hey, you can't have everything.

Then of course there's Qt, a commercial toolkit. I haven't used it but I hear good things.

"Anyway, developing applications for three platforms would have unbearable costs"

No, it doesn't. wxWidgets. Qt. GTK. All 3 of those are cross-platform toolkits. code to one of them, and it's "good to go".

"especially under Linux w[h]ere very few are willingly to pay, and especially until the desktop gets a unified API" (ha ha ha not a chance) "and a single decent widget set, not that mess Gnome and KDE are."

Gnome and KDE might be 'a mess'. but 'Mate' and 'Cinnamon' are pretty good.

As for 'a single decent widget set', I like having CHOICE. And I'm working on my own... [with an IDE to wrap around it].

So yeah, much of what you said here is the same FUD as always. Since I've been using BSD as my daily OS since around 2004, and doing primarily non-windows development since 2005, I've seen Windows in decline and it's turned ugly, and mean.

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Business users

From the article "Windows is in better shape with businesses than with consumers and that looks set to continue"

My answer: in WHAT universe? But 'looks set to continue' is still accurate.

"LibreOffice is nowhere near functional parity with Microsoft Office. Not even close."

It works exceptionally well for me. What functions is it missing??? I haven't seen anything in Micro-shaft Orifice that I would WANT, particularly their "ribbon bar" and (probably, haven't seen it) new 2D FLUGLINESS. Thanks, I can run Libre on windows systems AND linux/BSD systems, and therefore I standardize on it. And "cloudiness" 365 solutions are HIGHLY overrated...

[might as well just use the 'google doc' editor, which stinks on ice, if you must have cloudy documents, as it costs you NOTHING and works on Linux, BSD, Mac, and *cough* windows]

The ONLY thing that is driving Win-10-nic adoption these days is that YOU! CANNOT! PURCHASE! A! NEW! COMPUTER! WITH! WINDOWS! 7! ON! IT! ANY! MORE!!!

(or maybe you can, and I just missed them?)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: The store is unattractive for developers ...

who needs "the store" when you have your own web site already?