Posts by bombastic bob

Looking for an Ubuntu Unity close cousin? Elementary, my dear...

Re: Unity lives on a Yunit

in the spirit of the open source world, it's been taken over by those who still want it. good enough.

now if Micro-shaft would only allow the forking of Windows 7...

Re: "An"? I had no idea!

"I pronounce MATE as 'ma-chay' just to annoy everyone or make them worry that they've been saying it wrong."

just don't pronounce 'SQL' as 'sequel'

Everything you need to know about the Petya, er, NotPetya nasty trashing PCs worldwide

Let's blame Obaka's "revenge"

Obaka wanted to get even with the Russians for allegedly hacking the election so that Trump won.

So we'll blame Obaka for this. Why not, the lame-stream media has been blaming Russia for colluding with Trump for MONTHS now...

trolling trolling la, la-la, la-la

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube create anti-terror group

Fox. Henhouse. No problem!

just sayin'

Microsoft: We'll beef up security in Windows 10 Creators Edition Fall Update

Re: Fail Edition?

"Somehow I read Windows 10 Creators Edition Fail Update..."

no, just Windows 10 Fail Update, like "Windows 10 F.U."

Re: Microsoft: We'll beef up security in Windows 10 Creators Edition Fall Update

it makes me think of this:

a) No, Seriously, we REALLY MEAN it this time!

b) No more zero-day Defender vulnerabilities. Honest!

c) No more secret back doors via the web. Honest!

d) We promise to keep the slurped data to ourselves [and our partners], and occasionally to law enforcement when our spies find 'questionable' photos and downloaded content

e) No more zero-day vulnerabilities in Edge. Honest!

enough for now. you get the idea.

icon: it's me face-palming at the lameness, not saying "Doh"

US Copyright Office suggests 'right to repair' laws a good idea

There are no legitimate uses of the law.

deserves its own topic. DMCA should just *DIE*

there were copyright protections prior to DMCA. we didn't need "that".

Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

"I won't step on your freedom/choice, you don't step on mine. Deal?"

<sarcasm>

You forgot, all of these *kinds* of "freedoms" are always ONE-SIDED - and the ONE side that FORCES YOU is always the winner. Enjoy your Win-10-nic! You're "free" to use it.

</sarcasm>

Tavis Ormandy to Microsoft: Have another Windows Defender vuln

Re: Slightly scary

" why is MS doing this?"

many possible explanations exist, but I think the MAIN one is:

all of the senior, experience people that made Micro-shaft into the #1 OS provider [market-wise, not quality-wise] have RETIRED, and took their stock options and everything else, and are enjoying all of that money with all of that free time.

That left the company in the hands of MILLENIALS and ZEALOTS.

So the CHILDREN are running the show now, it's THEIR turn to do things THEIR way, and they're extermely ARROGANT about jamming their crap-ware into whatever customer orifices they can find.

And they're also CLUELESS, fall too quickly for the "new, shiny" trap [like a shiny lure on a fishing line], and have completely LOST TOUCH with what CUSTOMERS want.

And it's also very likely that "the right hand" does not have a clue about what "the left hand" might be doing over at Micro-shaft. Everybody's isolated in their own little fifedom, fighting for dominance and importance and generally creating chaos for "the big picture" on Win-10-nic. Hence the cluster-BLANK we're seeing.

THAT, and 'full system x86 emulator' running as SYSTEM.

I've always preferred 'safe surfing'

I've always preferred "safe surfing", like

a) don't use windows to surf the web, if possible

b) don't log in with 'admin' privs if you surf "teh intarwebs" or read e-mail. EVAR.

c) don't use IE or Edge, if possible

d) don't enable ActiveX, automatic font downloads, or javascript (by default). In Firefox, use the 'NoScript' plugin.

e) don't allow flash (or adobe ANYTHING for that matter) plugins.

f) don't allow ANYTHING to 'take over' the browser UI. this especially includes toolbars or UI widgets of any form. This may require plugins to filter them out or block them.

g) NEVER view e-mail as HTML. *EVAR*

h) NEVER allow ANYTHING in an e-mail to "preview inline"

i) do NOT enable IPv6 on windows machines WITHOUT a comprehensive external firewall blocking ALL! OF! THOSE! OPEN! PORTS!

j) do NOT rely on "microsoft ANYTHING" for security

note I didn't include ANY anti-virus products. You don't need them, if you practice 'safe surfing'.

Microsoft recommends you ignore Microsoft-recommended update

How am I supposed to IGNORE the update...

how am I supposed to IGNORE the update, when it's being CRAMMED up my ARSE?

Heaps of Windows 10 internal builds, private source code leak online

Re: Even pro-Microsoftie Thurrott...

"how will you run the windows APPS that are the main reason people stick to Windows"

THIS is where _MARKETING_ comes into play...

Linux needs MARKETING. You get people to run it, and get used to "windows within a VM" for when they MUST have windows for something.

Simultaneously you get the 'big boy' vendors to do one of two things: either they SHIP LINUX VERSIONS (I hear Quickbooks is done in Java, so for Intuit it might be pretty simple!) or else they do a "Wine certification" so that they CERTIFY their applications will run under Wine.

Do this enough, and it will gain a life of it's own.

The problem is that NOBODY is doing that kind of marketing work.

HOWEVER, if we can manage to convince a few of the BIG BOYS (let's say Intel, AMD, Lenovo, Dell, and some of the others that will SELL HARDWARE AGAIN if a decent OS is available) that they need to invest in this kind of marketing, it MAY become practical enough that "it happens".

Yes, it takes MONEY and EFFORT to unseat a monopoly. I just described one way it can be done.

Re: With source to drivers, will it now be a walk in the park for the other OSes?

"Did you try booting into Windows with driver signing enforcement disabled"

I've done that for ME, while doing driver development (in 7, not win-10-nic - I don't do win-10-nic).

But I want to release an open source kernel driver to do something that's cool. And giving people the necessary build/install instructions to make that work is impractical, at best.

And it's obviously a *SICK* *JOKE* that NOW you basically have to give the damn binary to Micro-shaft and have THEM sign it, for Win-10-nic anyway. At least, that's what I remember reading last year.

I've mostly given up on windows development. may cancel my MSDN subscription, even. Their tools suck, their moving target for development UI stinks, and I haven't jumped on their bandwagon since they introduced ".Not". In fact I've had to go OUT OF MY WAY to make sure that DAMN THING isn't included in my project. It's bad enough I had to add a 'manifest' to an executable to keep vista and later from treating something as AN INSTALLER by accident, based on it's name. And the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY just makes me want to VOMIT. Devstudio after 2010 is FILLED with that kind of crap.

Basically I do NOT want to tie my career to the TITANIC as it goes STRAIGHT for the ICEBERG.

And I know how "easy" it is to work around their signing requirements. Except for end-users. And they'll see the "debug mode" watermark on the wallpaper, etc.. That's not the way to release open source software, ya know?

Re: Even pro-Microsoftie Thurrott...

"with a Windows 10 UWP platform+Win10 user inferface bolted on top."

except THAT is the lipstick being painted on the non-oinky end of the Win-10-nic BOAR.

You can put Linux underneath, but if it LOOKS like WIn-10-nic, SMELLS like Win-10-nic and causes me to reflex-vomit if I attempt to TASTE it (like Win-10-nic), then WHY do it?

[yeah don't get me started on everything I *HATE* about Win-10-nic, which are all contained in the UWP 2D FLATSO FLUGLY "the METRO" CRAP-UI. I have few grips about the bottom end; it's the UI that I *HATE*]

Anyway, I'll take Linux with Mate instead. Or better still, FreeBSD! A "Win-10-nic" desktop manager would *JUST* *SUCK*.

With source to drivers, will it now be a walk in the park for the other OSes?

I'd like to think so, but then again I'm not really happy about the *quality* of MS-written drivers [or else we wouldn't need so many 3rd party drivers maybe...]

What I'd like is a nice WORKAROUND or BACK DOOR to Micro-shaft's IRRITATING driver signing policy for kernel mode drivers.

Re: I'm done with Windows.

"Linux's greatest weakness is its dependency on C for everything."

Uh, *WHAT* *THE* *FEEL* is *THAT* supposed to mean?

Linux's greatest weakness is (most likely) LACK OF MARKETING. Otherwise we wouldn't even have this article.

The C language might as well have been created by THE PROGRAMMING GODS. It is SUPERIOR to most other languages in just about every way, in its simplicity AND flexibility, and applicability to both low-level "hardware" coding, and high-level "UI" coding.

If you code in languages like C-pound and think that '.Not' is GOOD in any way, then I'll just sit back and laugh at you, really really hard.

So thanks SO much for the FUD. It echos like a Micro-shaft propaganda ad for NT4 server from the 90's.

Re: Long File Path support

"Linux seems to make a hobby of breaking backwards compatibility."

boooo. shows what YOU know. just because you SAY it doesn't make it TRUE. That's especially the case for HARDWARE compatibility. You know, like running Linux on a 17 year old Toshiba laptop...

"I wonder if the crime scene is also covered in lipstick. Pigs were called in, after all."

my guess is that the pigs SAT on the lipstick. Micro-shaft isn't known for putting lipstick on the OINKY end [as a brilliant El Reg commenter once pointed out]

US Secretary of State: I will work with Russia on cyber security issues

Re: Pot, kettle, black

"Pot, kettle, black" happened BEFORE any alleged Russian hacking of the DNC (dilate and cauterize?) when Obaka *OVERTLY* tried to interfere in Israel's election process.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/12/obama-admin-sent-taxpayer-money-oust-netanyahu/

The DNC hacking was (from what I can gather) from Assange's practical admission when a (now murdered) Demo-Rat insider, a Bernie supporter, was APPALLED at the level of collusion that was being done to elect Mrs. Clinton, and so he basically "leaked" everything. Couple THAT with a poorly chosen password of a high-ranking Demo-Rat and you've got yourself a nice document dump for WIkiLeaks, just in time for the election.

Florida Man to be fined $1.25 per robocall... all 96 million of them

"Put him in a cell for 10 years with someone who can't stop making knock-knock jokes."

Or a very large, smelly person that refers to him as "Ben Dover"

Re: Do Not Call Registry?

at $500/robocall I'd have at least $30k by now (this year alone)

I WANT MY MONEY!

Re: Good luck with collecting that fine.

from the article: "When answered, they played a recorded message"

and that recorded message starts the moment my answering machine says "Hellloooo Baaaaby!" like the Big Bopper [followed by a pause, followed by a welcome to friends and family and 'for the rest of you' this number is on the national do not call list - I don't pick up the phone any more unless I hear someone I know leaving a message - no ringer either]. If the recording leaves ANY identifying information, a complaint is generated. And the answering machine message only has the back half of the thing, as it "starts talking" over the machine message EVERY! TIME!. Assuming it's not "just a hangup". I've been getting SEVERAL CALLS PER DAY lately, just like that. It's FORNICATING IRRITATING AS HELL! Can't use the phone as it was intended any more. If it weren't for DSL, I'd consider NOT EVEN HAVING ONE.

But how can you register a complaint with SPOOFED caller ID and NO identifying information in the recorded message??? I'm a RABID complainer to the FCC about these guys. I've got 'confirmed kills' on FAX spammers from a while back. I'd DROOL over a CONFIRMED kill with one of THESE BASTARDS! But they've rigged it so complainers like me can't touch them. You have to wait for the FORNICATING call center and bother to ask questions and get called back REPEATEDLY by them now that you've "established a relationship with them".

Oh, and there's no pit in hell deep enough, no jail cell damp and cold enough, no punishment HIDEOUS AND CRUEL enough, for these GOSH DARNED MOTHER-FEELING ROBO-CALLERS (word substitution for humor)! They deserve a triple-eternity sentence with DAILY TORMENT, to the point where they insanely scream "I DESERVE THIS!"

FCC: LEO ISPs A-OK

Maybe Elon will help?

perhaps SpaceX "used launcher" prices could make it affordable?

Ok not for a few years yet, but still...

Also not a fan of what the latency is going to be like. TCP could be a real problem.

Google to remove private medical data from search results

Re: Removed from search results ...

"but no comment about removing it from the profile that is built about you to help google target you with more adverts."

Ack. and don't forget every question you ever typed in for WebMD or some similar web site to see if you want to bother going to a doctor, or to inform yourself ahead of time to avoid unnecessary "whatever".

Or you could always have fun and look up a bunch of rare female diseases (if you're a male), or rare male diseases/conditions (if you're a female), and flood their metadata with useless nonsense. Then sit back and watch the funny ads, with beer and popcorn.

that's right ladies, penis enlargement ads! JUST for YOU! Men can get plenty of information about menopause and vaginal yeast infections sent to them, and maybe some sample feminine hygiene products on top of it...

Virgin Media router security flap follows weak password expose

correct horse battery staple

obligatory xkcd reference

https://www.xkcd.com/936/

PC rebooted every time user flushed the toilet

Re: I read this story about 15 years ago..

"Gary" in the original piece here did a good job at spotting the problem.

which then prompted a proper solution, consisting of a) replace pump, b) get a UPS (which acts like a power conditioner for the computer)

Latest Windows 10 Insider build pulls the trigger on crappy SMB1

Re: Edge, emojis, and SMB1 - three things I don't use

I left SMB1 enabled in Samba because of Win XP machines. For now. But the shares are nearly all read-only.

The others I never use, either.

Emojis. Bleah. The only ones I use are profane and NSFW and therefore won't have little cartoony emblems pre-designed by Micro-shaft. Example: (.Y.) <-- that's a mild one

yeah let's see Micro-shaft do THAT one. HA HA HA HA HA

Re: Someone please take out all the plebs infesting MS and shoot them.

I'd rather condemn them to an eternity of WIN-10-NIC! Serve them right, it would!

and those damnable emojis can BITE MY HAIRY NAKED ASS (a modified 'Bender' quote)

Lordy! Trump admits there are no tapes of his chats with Comey

Hook, line, and sinker!

I think the press has been TROLLED, successfully. By Trump.

Microsoft PatchGuard flaw could let hackers plant rootkits on x64 Windows 10 boxen

ticking time bomb... tick tick tick tick BOOM!

As Micro-shaft downplays their newly discovered vulnerability, getting something into the kernel in the first place is not THAT difficult, as long as you can manage a kernel driver load by tricking the user into installing the thing. Yeah, it's a bit more difficult with the newer cert requirements (that effectively punish small-time developers in a failed attempt to stop the malware, kinda like GUN CONTROL nonsense), but there *are* workarounds that could be used by carefully written installers to get around all of that. A few boots later, and voila! COMPROMISED!

So tricking the user into installing something malicious is the only real hurdle.

[it's pretty much the same deal with ANY computer system, really]

Microsoft admits to disabling third-party antivirus code if Win 10 doesn't like it

Re: '34 years of development - Windows 10 is the result'

"Not to mention the number of times it's necessary to drop to command line in Linux to carry out operations that in Windows can be done by a few mouse clicks"

how about "not to mention the number of times it's necessary to take my right hand off of the damn keyboard in Winders to go mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie to carry out operations that in Linux can be done with a single clever shell command."

I stick my tongue out and make a raspberry noise in your general direction!

Re: '34 years of development - Windows 10 is the result'

"The beancounters see huge reductions in CapEx"

yet, LibreOffice is _FREE_ - no 'CapEx' there.

Re: Linux "pushers" again

"something that delivered about 20% of the core functionality of Excel and Word would be FAR MORE than adequate"

Libre Office manages that quite nicely. And runs on winders, too.

One software vendor to rule them all...

One software vendor to rule them all...

One windows to find them

One Version (10) to BRING THEM ALL

And with FORCED UPDATES, *BIND* *THEM*

Jaguar Land Rover ropes in Gorillaz to help it lure 5,000 'electronic wizards'

Where can I find the girl in the ad?

Where can I find the anime-looking girl in the ad? She's HOT! *WOW*!

just hadta say that, heh.

'OK, everyone. Stop typing, this software is DONE,' said no one ever

Re: PROM

yeah, when FLASH became practical, it quickly replaced PROM, for those very reasons... ('never done' being one of them)

Re: Some software is "done"

"As I recall, Mozilla Thunderbird was proclaimed "done". It happened July 6, 2012."

Despite being "done", it ended up with the "new, ugly" buttons that Mozilla uses for Firefox, including that *DAMNABLE* 'hamburger' menu pile of sewage.

Unfortunately, there aren't quite enough plugins for T-bird to get rid of the hamburger [though I was able to do it with firefox). I got the button appearance to change, but the DAMN HAMBURGER is STILL THERE! Grrrr....

[yet another example of "It SHOULD have been DONE, but then some millenial 'wizards' UNNECESSARILY SCREWED WITH IT and turned into THEIR way, and expected THE REST OF US to JUST LIKE it and CONFORM/COMPLY/SUBMIT"]

hmmm... that sounds like a good example of what the 'Millenial generation' of developers seems to be like: Instead of MIcro-shaft's "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" they're wanting the REST of us to "Conform, Comply, SUBMIT!"

Re: When was the last update for...

"No behavior was changed but the code was changed to make use of the C99 declare-your-variable-in-the-for-loop construct. So apparently not yet done."

hopefully not an example of what Linus might call "compiler masturbation"

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/01/linus_torvalds_fires_off_angry_compilermasturbation_rant/

Re: Definition of Done

I think MOST software stopped being 'evolutionary' a while back, and became "we're millenials, it's OUR turn now to do it OUR way, screw you guys, we're doing it, stop being old farts and CHANGE!"

That's more de-evolutionary by my definition.

/me queues up some Devo music - "Go Monkey Go!"

Re: the costs of fossilised software

"hosting company who supports full virtual machines, not containers"

good point. containers are cheaper. "pay more money, don't get this problem". Yeah, thanks, hosting company.

Re: CentOS 6 is in production phase 3

I think I know which company did this. they greatly inconvenienced their customers (including one of mine).

If the customer wants to STAY WITH WHAT HE HAS, he should be able to.

It's BAD BUSINESS to "force" like that. Especially when it's done WITHOUT WARNING like that. It would be like changing their web server from Apache to nginx (or the other way around) and then it's like "oh, you didn't get the memo? here it is..."

or worse - from Linux to a WINDOWS server - without warning. "Case-sensitive file names? That actually MATTERS?" (among other things)

Re: See also

yes, "up"grading is OVER RATED.

especially when patches would fix things *WITHOUT* forcing everybody to get on the NEW bandwagon.

us old fuddy-duddy stick-in-the-mud "refuse to change" "refuse to learn new things" crowd have BETTER things to do than to play *THAT* game...

You can't take the pervs off Facebook, says US Supreme Court

Re: Of course they want 'm banned...

"But I also think that when they served their time you should also give them a fair chance to redeem themselves and sort it all out"

exactly. but the SJW's and "for the children" crowd want to punish these people *FOR* *LIFE*. Personally, I think it's already "gone too far" with the 'sex offender' registries and unnecessary restrictions on where they can live or work, etc.. There have been cases where a minor who takes naked pictures is now on an offender list for child pornography, or a case where an 18 yo has sex sith a 16 yo girlfriend and some SJW decides to ruin the 18yo's life [though the 2 get married later on]. And they were dating before the 18yo turned 18. So go figure.

If the law is merely an excuse to SCREW SOMEONE you don't particulaly like, or something to use as a stepping stone to greater power and influence, something's wrong with the law.

and when people are overly SJW "offended" and "outraged", I quote Shakespeare: "The lady doth protest too much". Or, a new twist on a familiar bible quote: those ninny nannies who are busy getting 'motes' out of other people's eyes should pay attention to the LOGS in their own, and last I checked, a 'mote' is a teensy piece of the SAME THING that the LOG is made from...

Re: Ex-pervs, not pervs

"were all those folks who did time for being gay "rehabilitated" when they came out?"

it depends on what you mean by 'came out'

(I don't think this has happened for a few decades, or am I wrong?)

Microsoft's new Surface laptop defeats teardown – with glue

Re: Recycling also difficult

recycling isn't all THAT difficult...

a) secretly dump it in a dumpster for some apartment building where you don't live

b) beat with hammer until it's small enough, then place inside of a bag embedded in your kitchen trash, between the rotten food, used tea bags, and greasy paper towels.

"recycled"

and without being able to even CHANGE THE BATTERY, you're gonna have to toss it when PLANNED OBSCELESCENCE limits the product lifetime to something ridiculously short...

so yeah, don't buy one.

Elon Musk reveals Mars colony rocket capable of bringing pizza joints to the red planet

Re: Plan details how to get 1m humans to Mars

oh you mean he wasn't trying to promote a race of "little green men"?

either that or just send a lot of people below average height, perhaps from the set of the latest 'Oz' film.

/me grabs coat

Re: Venus is too nasty, Mercury too hot and the moons of Jupiter or Saturn too distant.

"It will be preferable because he isnt Cohagen"

if there's a lady with 3 boobs on mars, I wanna go

Backdoor backlash: European Parliament wants better privacy

Re: Unintended consequences

"people should really read the original text before wearing the tinfoil hat"

I think there's an icon for that...

Re: Excellent

"The only impact of anti-crypto laws is to encourage bad people into using unbreakable private end to end encryption"

ok - let me substitute 'gun' for 'crypto' or 'encryption' and see if the EU keeps the same attitude...

This is an example of ONE thing the EU is getting right. Sorta like when Demo-Rats here in the USA get something right. it's rare, it's notable, and worthy of a thumbs up etc.. I sometimes have to give Diane Feinstein a slow-clap because of that. Even Obaka got one from me on rare occasions...

Keep in mind 99% of everything ELSE they're doing is NOT in your best interest. But this ONE thing, sure, they're getting it right.

/me slow claps

Debian devs dedicate new version 9 to the late Ian Murdock

Re: Iceweasel

"The Firefox/Iceweasel issue came about due to Mozilla's trademark policy conflicting with Debian's stable release policy"

I think there might have been a bit more to it, but yeah that was a part of it allright. Also some of what Debian referred to as the "non-free" aspects of Firefox (back then) were excluded from iceweasel. Over time that has apparently been rectified, and we're all happy now. Hopefully.