* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Twitter sues Musk: He can't just 'change his mind, trash the company, walk away'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: What if Twitter were holed below the waterline

and CCP grooming

Here's one way past Moore's law: Chips that mix photonics and electronics

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

In reference to the 2015 announcement

seems like we might know where they [possibly] stole the tech from....

(I have a hard time believing that any kind of REAL innovation can come out of a communist nation, with scientists living under a constant threat of social credit scores and censorship. Such things are NOT conducive to creativity and innovation - and the CCP is well known to have stolen LOTS of tech over the last decade or so)

The tech is probably usable, at some point. Let's hope hat the "prior art" of 2015 does not allow the CCP to leverage the rest of the world with encumbering patents for [possibly] stolen tech.

[same kind of thinking with respect to 5G also, in recent years]

San Francisco cops want real-time access to private security cameras for surveillance

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: There's a reason for this

in my opinion, "petty crimes" would include shoplifting, camping on public sidewalks, vandalism, battery, misdemeanor robbery, and things of that nature. jaywalking and nose picking (if that is even a thing) are infractions (like a traffic ticket).

But you are right. Being cited for playing music too loud is not the same as shoplifting less than a felony amount of goods, but in S.F. and L.A. they are NOT prosecuting those things and that was my point.

Amazingly, the small crimes are often also committed by those who commit the bigger crimes, and getting someone fingerprinted for a small crime might help to solve the bigger one while ALSO sending a message to "the outlaws" (a small number of people) that plague law abiding citizens (the vast majority) that the cops are arresting so they better watch their asses...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: There's a reason for this

The DA was recently recalled in SF over the petty crime problem. The thing is, the answer is very simple: you arrest and incarcerate pepetrators of things like vandalism, trespassing, public defecation, petty theft, and aggressive panhandling. you incarcerate and/or force them into programs (such as one designed to get vagrants off of addictive substances and into self-sufficiency) and those who fail these programs and/or go back to their lives of crime get REALLY incarcerated... for YEARS... keeping them out of THE REST OF OUR FACES and in JAIL where they belong.

If you excuse crime, if you overlook crime, if you simply DO NOT PUNISH CRIME the opportunists come of out the woodwork and do smash+grab robberies until all of the neighborhood stores cannot stay open, and they go elsewhere, leaving people out of work and customers having to go to a department store or megastore instead.

It is this policy and attitude of WOKE DAs (often sponsored by Mr. Soros for their elections), some of whom have been recalled (S.F.) or are in the process of being recalled (LA, others) that is at the CENTER of the crime problem.

Surveilance is not needed. ACTUAL POLICE WORK and DA PROSECUTION of even the PETTY crimes, is.

Recently a store employee in NYC was ARRESTED FOR 2nd DEGREE MURDER when he had been backed into a corner by a thug significantly younger and bigger than him, and the store employee stabbed him in self defense, causing the perpetrator's death. The angry girlfriend also had stabbed the store employee's arm. The store employee was IMMEDIATELY arrested, sent to Riker's Island (the WORST of prisons), with his stabbed arm NOT treated (it got infected), and given $250,000 bail, because HE DEFENDED HIMSELF successfully, with a knife. But the WOKE MANHATTAN DA did not even go after the girlfriend who had INSTIGATED the problem by going back to get her thug ex-con boyfriend because her "food card" (aka welfare) did not have enough money on it to buy a bag of potato chips and the store employee had her put the bag back. So the store employee, OBVIOUSLY in the right, 62 years old, gets a "visit" from the thug boyfriend (in his 30's) who then goes behind the counter and backs him into a corner, will not let him escape, and keeps hitting the guy, and would PROBABLY have KILLED him. It is all on video for those who have not yet seen it, and it has been aired in the USA on Fox News and all over social media. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF *THE* BIGGEST PROBLEM - PUNISHING THE VICTIMS and NOT THE CROOKS by WOKE DAs with a PRO CRIMINAL AGENDA.

And these "wokesters" want "more surveillance". yeah, right. I agree with the ACLU on THIS SPECIFIC point, for sure. NO MORE SURVEILLANCE, especially not with (potentially coerced) live-stream private cameras, NOT without a warrant and all of the restrictions that come with GETTING one.

Choosing a non-Windows OS on Lenovo Secured-core PCs is trickier than it should be

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Well, he was doing it wrong.

I would be installing FreeBSD. If Secure Boot can NOT be "just turned off" it's NO SALE.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: So vendors are content ...

Requiring, rewarding, or coercing Lenovo into blocking/hampering/disallowing Linux...

If it is FORCED by contract, ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT

If it is COERCED by pricing, ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT

If it is REWARDED somehow, ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT.

ANY interference with competing operating systems, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT PAID FOR, would be an UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICE and (in the USA) be subject to PROSECUTION under EXISTING ANTI-TRUST LAWS. (opinion, IANAL)

I just wanted to point this out. And YES, if Microsoft IS doing this, they SHOULD be SUED for it.

Maybe the EFF?

Tech world may face huge fines if it doesn't scrub CSAM from encrypted chats

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: Irrelevant really though, isn't it ?

what would happen if you use end-end encryption to send encrypted files? Just keep adding layers until "they" throw their hands in the air and give up.

Tracking cookies found in more than half of G20 government websites

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Special "delete hisstory" login is required

What _I_ do with any gummint (or business, or whatever) login that MIGHT have tracking cookies...

* special user login (let's say "allowscript" as a user name)

* fiirefox configured to allow all script and cookies, but delete all history on exit

* only access these web sites using this login

seems to work for rme

(hopefully FOILS their attempt to track me)

Gtk 5 might drop X11 support, says GNOME dev

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Agreed

see icon

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

I may have found at least SOME insight here...

Perhaps THIS explains things...

Embrace. Extend. *EXTINGUISH* (and now Linux must be JUST LIKE Windows II!!!

One OS to rule them all

One OS to find them

One OS to bring them all

and in the darkness of WAYLAND, *BIND* *THEM*

(You STILL using X11? No graphics support for you! No DRM support for YOU!)

etc.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pint

Re: Gnome devs who drank the Wayland coolaid...

the snark is STRONG with this one...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

fixing firefox to use TraditionalOk

Absolutely! Here ya go:

a) install TraditionalOk theme, usually available with packages like 'mate-themes' which are generally GTK2 based with GTK3 support

b) from the command line:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences theme 'TraditionalOk'

(this makes GTK3's default theme 'TraditionalOk')

c) open up 'about:config' in firefox, and add/edit these:

widget.content.gtk-theme.override = TraditionalOk

widget.non-native.theme.enabled = false

That should pretty much do it, and you may have to restart firefox for the scrollbars to change (YMMV on that, refresh usually does it for me)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Gnome devs who drank the Wayland coolaid...

I will not make ad hominem attacks about what they might be FEELING (not thinking), nor imply the use of illegal mind altering substances, nor suggest that their heads are NOT firmly upon their shoulders and capable of unrestricted breathing.

That being said, they have CLEARLY lost their way and need some "gentle nudging" back to the world of REALITY.

a) Adwaita-only of GTK 4 is ALREADY SO RIDICULOUS, breaking the ONE thing that GTK 3 still had going for it, the ability to have a theme like "TradictionalOk" and *NOT* *FORCE* *ALL* *OF* *OUR* *DESKTOPS* *TO* *LOOK* *LIKE* *WIN-10-NIC* *NOR* *CHROME* *BROWSER* (both of which I *HATE*). [2D FLATTY FLATSO AND UN-GRABBABLE SCROLLBARS *JUST* *PLAIN* *SUCK*, that's why and I hacked out a nice way to get TraditionalOk to work in Firefox so I can have REAL SCROLL BARS again)

b) Eliminating the ONE thing that makes Linux and other OSs like FreeBSD *SO* *POWERFUL* *AND* *USEFUL* *FOR* *EMBEDDED* *DEVELOPMENT* (and other things) is *CLUELESS* when it comes to "who the CUSTOMERS are". You NEED X11 protocol across the network, or even on the same machine via localhost, to be able to do certain VERY cool things!

FOSS is NOT a reason to go off and morph a project into something that YOU WANT OTHERS TO HAVE TO USE. You are missing the ENTIRE point if you think this is a GOOD thing. Instead, an update to X11 that addresses whatever perceived shortcomings there are would be MORE appropriate.

I cite once again Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" (for those who are unfamiliar, it should still be available online and is a short read)

California state's gun control websites expose personal data

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: The American religion of guns

Well, proper "gun control" is getting a NICE TIGHT PATTERN (on the correct target) whenever you shoot some[one,thing]. The 'police grip' is what they teach in the military (for pistols). It helps to mitigate kickback and keep your aim steady. For self-defense, of course.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Accidental?

If nothing else the criminals will know WHICH HOUSES TO AVOID BREAKING INTO.

Thunderbird 102 gets a major facelift, Matrix chat support

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

I looied on the site, no evidence of a traditional menu. I *DEMAND* the traditional menu!!!

Whatever hit the Moon in March, it left this weird double crater

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Bouncy space junk?

maybe the thing was damaged or unusually weak in the middle and broke apart on impact

Linus Torvalds says Rust is coming to the Linux kernel 'real soon now'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Seriously, are programmers that bad?

programmers are that bad. All of us

Except for ME, of course! No need to include ME in your self-deprecation.

Big Tech silent on data privacy in post-Roe America

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: This thread will probably get contentious.

Please do not feed the trolls.

Agreed. I'm staying out of "all that", too.

As for data privacy protection in general? I'm all FOR that. I oppose any tracking "in the cloud" or anywhere NOT on the user's device [and even then it needs double top secret protection]. And do NOT sell or disclose that info to ANYONE.

Tracking is BAD, M-Kay? Maybe THIS time it will be stopped?

Graphical desktop system X Window just turned 38

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Walaynd is not relevant going forward

I like the way you think on this.

We don't really use the network features of X enough yet. But we will

I came up with a 'clever' way of creating panel icon shortcuts for Firefox runnin as a specific user with a button click that leverages 'DISPLAY' to run it as a user like, say, 'twitter', which would have no privileges, and its own context (FF may delete all history on exit, or simply allow script and tracking in THAT context). Then you are just aware of the tracking etc. in THAT context if you look at stuff, follow links, etc.. But OTHER contexts could have script blockers, cookie blockers, anti-tracking, whatever. So I end up having one for 'slack' that is work related, one for 'twitter', one for 'script' (let script run, but erases all history on exit), and all of those users have no privs whatsoever. Then you cleverly set up ssh with a cert-based login [no password prompt] and invoke the firefox program with appropriate info and DISPLAY exported, and you're there with a single button click.

(I use the 'script' one to view youtube vids or use one-time web sites that need script to work. carefully of course. Stupid gummint ones are often 'scripty' too. works for those as well)

Also fun thing, different instances have different windows and the title bar says 'as slack' or whatever in it.

All of this is possible BECAUSE of X11's client/server network aware protocol.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Baby and bathwater come to mind.

"One of the central functions of X is that it works over a network connection, something that Wayland by design does not do"

This is THE deal-breaker for me.

I cannot upvote this enough

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: What I like about X

there have been some extensive graphics performance improvements in X over the last 2 decades like glx (a proprietary open GL in the case of NVidia). There is NO need to not follow the same path of simply extending the capabilities of the X server while retaining backwards compatibility.

TigerVNC also has an X server but it does 100% software rendering because it has to. Same protocol, applications run just fine.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: What I like about X

having to re-write for the sake of re-writing. THIS is a HUGE deal-breaker for Wayland!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: What I like about X

"The issue isn't that X is unstable, it is that it is obsolete"

OBSOLETEt? By WHO'S OPINION? what else is obsolete, a fork and a knife? If you are concerned about unused legacy code/features, make them optional compile or loadable extensions then.

THIS! DOES! NOT! JUSTIFY! WAYLAND! JUST! TAKING! OVER! (follow the money on who is pushing this)

*I* *HATE* *WAYLAND* the way *I* *HATE* *SYSTEMD* (and 2D FLATTY, etc.). XWayland or not, *IT* *SUCKS*

*WITHOUT* "DISPLAY" environment variable support for X SERVERS ALCOSS A NETWORK, *EMBEDDED* *DEVELOPMENT* *WITH* *LINUX* *WILL* *BE* *IMPOSSIBLE*.

And *EVERY* Linux release that runs on an embedded device had BETTER NOT DEFAULT TO WAYLAND. People like ME have INFLUENCE, and already ONE board did NOT get picked for future development BECAUSE IT SHIPPED WITH UBUNTU/WAYLAND as its "supported" OS !!!

People who do embedded understand this. X11 is a "known" and spending HOURS of company development time adapting to a MOVING TARGET (Wayland) is *NOT* *WORTH* *IT* !!!

But forking X.org WOULD be worth it... which is WHY it is STILL BEING USED.

Microsoft pulls Windows 10/11 installation websites in Russia

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I resisted for all of 20 seconds

Russians like things made in Russia. Who knows, 10 years from now when the Putin stupidity is finally over and things get back to normal... well how DO you say 'Windows' in Russian? (it could be a legit fork of something like ReactOS that actually WORKS)

(Right now it's Putin that's the problem - Russians are pretty smart and will not just put up with this)

How did you mourn Internet Explorer's passing?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: It's not dead.

yeah well at some point in the project it seemed that swiss cheese unmaintainable spaghetti code might actually kill the project (and I would have to find a different engineering gig). So the guy originally tasked with the device control side (me) ends up taking over the whole project so that it does not DIE (missing customer commitments is a good way to kill it, for sure). Had I been in on the design phase for the web interface I would have directed it AWAY from such things but "that guy" shmoozed everyone into believing he was competent and 'talked a good game' and *I* was busy making motors spin and lights blink (then writing my own 'test' web interface pages because the "real" ones were not even CLOSE to being done, and handing them off to the web guy with 'well here is what *I* did to test it' like a *HINT* but without being too blatant (i.e. presenting him as a FOOL to the boss and being insulting about it).

Something like that, anyway.

Small companies really cannot afford engineering projects to be killed by "THAT kind of web "developer".

This swiss cheese spaghetti code was written using 3 things that need to be avoided: 1) JQuery, 2) Google "materialize" (bloatware, monolithic) style sheets, and 3) obvious copy/pasta from stack overflow and various 3rd party "solutions". And, "circling back" to I.E., this sort of 'thing' first became possible around 1997, and I.E. was right at the forefront of it, with the beginnings of DOM, script, and dynamic HTML (for good or ill). But I.E. had VBScript and ActiveX, whereas the others did NOT. Fortunately, neither of those two things survived the test of time. UNfortunately the use of bloatware javascript libraries and (later on) style sheets has NOT gone away... (and has unfortunately been given a new HIGHLY OVERRATED term to describe it, 'Material Design')

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: IE died

Now we have Chrome dominating the browser market instead.

Please do not get me started with the 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE look, light blue on blinding white color schemes, and its direct influence on Firefox (Australis) and Windows (8 and later)...

[oops. too late]

(well with THAT said, I.E. looks a WHOLE LOT BETTER than it did 5 minutes ago)

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: It's not dead.

(see icon)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: It's not dead.

have you SEEN the state of modern programming? It's a shambling, mountainous pile of shite fueled by egos at every level that could not pour piss out of their boots with the instructions written on the bottom of the heels.

Don't remind me. I'm waist deep in trying to re-write the UI code for a system that was "made to work well enough" [by me] based on the shotgunned and overlapping style sheet behaviors, use of 3rd party monolithic things (like 'materialize' and 'jquery') by the original author who was given the "your services are no longer required" once he finally had enough done to make it possible to copy/pasta and adapt what he HAD done into an actual functioning interface. Fortunately it looks nice and performs well.

[I have a permanent bump on my forehead that matches an indentation in a concrete wall as a testimony to my own efforts to make customers happy and STILL meet deadlines.]

NOW it is time to re-do it all so that it can work on multiple LCD screens with different resolutions and still look the same. The original was for a particular LCD screen and I admittedly did not help when I had to insert pixel sizes into 'style' values to fix it in various places. Overlapping definitions and shotgunned settings in multiple style sheets (thanks to the original author) made this necessary. Over time I had eliminated most of the jquery code [which greatly improved system stability] and re-did a few things WITHOUT any of "that style stuff" (but with a similar appearance). NOW I get to rip it up and re-do it and am mostly done with Phase I. Necessary to make it maintainable without constant 'fiddling'.

And I think I ALSO just described why "web developers" should *NEVER* *WRITE* *CODE*, but kernel programmers SHOULD be involved in every aspect of web design - to REIGN IN THE CHAOS.

(and fortunately customer is happy with what I am doing and the results I am getting, better, faster, more stable, re-sizeable, all of the things you would want from a system that should only need 'light touch' maintenance and be easy to do future development for it)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: It's not dead.

At least I.E. *supported* FTP. "Modern" browsers, not so much (not any more). There are STILL FTP sites out there... downloaded data from one recently - using wget. [420,000 years' worth of ice core data]

I guess it's like modern cars do not have ''wind wings' which (if you have no air conditioning) are VERY effective at directing air flow to keep you cool. (then again I drive with the top down nearly all of the time)

Businesses brace for quantum computing disruption by end of decade

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Which will get here first?

well there have been proof of concept reactors for fusion for quite a while, usually of the Tokomak variety (but some using inertial confinement instead), since the 80's even.

Still waiting on a "Hello, World?" example for quantum computing

Symbiote Linux malware spotted – and infections are 'very hard to detect'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: The research doesn't mention how the initial infection occurs

the descriptions in the article makes me think it starts out as a compromised process running as root. If true it can muck with the environment during the login process. To truly hide a process you need root access, otherwise you can look at /proc to get the correct info., i.e. /proc/*/cmdline for process ID '*'

Microsoft forgot to renew the certificate for its Windows Insider subdomain

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Windows Insider software testing program

either that or they put the payment of cert renewal on a net 30 payment term and issued the renewal bill to AP a week before it was to expire...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

apparently have not heard of "LetsEncrypt"

Meta slammed with eight lawsuits claiming social media hurts kids

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: @DS999 - Obviously social media is terrible for kids

The troll warrior nicname associated with this technique: "Hand Grenade"

there are SO many controversial topics that _I_ could have wedged into this discussion, if I wanted to be disruptive... but I did NOT. (You're welcome)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: Obviously social media is terrible for kids

Parents need to exercise more of their OWN influence, like:

* If you want to use social media, especially FB or Tik Tok buy your own phone and internet. (El Reg comment boards are exempt from this requirement)

* Go OUTSIDE and PLAY. It is a NICE DAY! Here, have a ball, a bat, go to the park, PLAY. Get out of the house for more than 10 minutes and do NOT take your phone. i know where you will be. Get back by dinner time.

* no more than 1 hour a day online (other than school work), and 2 hours for video games. Any more than that, and it gets unplugged. Buy your OWN electricity if you do not like it.

* no carbs for you until you start exercising instead of sitting in front of a video screen or staring at a phone all day. And that goes DOUBLE for anything made of POTATOES.

and so on.

Not AGAINST suing a company for deceptively making its products addictive to children. But some fault lies with PARENTS, too. They need to teach MODERATION. It helps later in life, when you want to avoid DUIs or drug problems.

No more fossil fuel or nukes? In the future we will generate power with magic dust

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alien

their mind thoughts would generate enough electricity to make them independent of the national electricity grid

Well, I would say "not wrong" except in the magnitude of scale (which is obviously LAUGHABLE). Given that thoughts are a kind of 'energy' it would be interesting to see whether they can be harnessed somehow. Crystals have resonance, and if you whistle at the tone of a bell, it will start ringing (this is how radios work by the way with resonant electronic circuits receiving broadcasts).

I have often speculated the possibility that human thought and observation are directly related, and if M theory is correct, that same thought+observation energy must go someplace to create the new parallel universe whenever a (significant) quantum potential is observed. I suspect it goes to its own separate dimension, the "n + 1'th" dimension, one which separates THIS n-dimension reality from the other (theoretical) n-dimension reality(ies) based on the observations of one or more living beings that have thought energy. Or something like that.

Just a thought, at any rate. And no electricity was created by it. Damn.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Why Nuke Plants Are A FAIL

your "rules of engagement" are one-sided. Otherwise I could easily prove you wrong.

Basic point: you confuse basic economics with greed, and overlook the effect of political agendas and governments upon the entire Nuclear industry.

Truth: given the economic potential of waste recycling and nuclear plant operation, many power companies would LOVE to build more plants and recycle nuke waste. It's just that political protests, malicious lawsuits, corrupt and ignorant politicians, and government regulations PROHIBIT THEM FROM BEING PROFITABLE.

And it is not a 'safety vs unsafe' issue either. Any company that wants to be profitable has managers and directors that realize the importance of safety on employee retention, public image, AND profitability in the sense that good safety means more profits, happier employees, and better chance at success. And also, there would be no need to settle all of those wrongful death claims, injury claims, equipment and property damage claims, and other legal problems that negligence and lack of safety can cause.

"IOW" corporations are run by people who are not inherently evil. They just want to make money, for themselves, and for their investors. Who wouldn't?

But these points fall outside of your rules of engagement, so I am sure you will not consider them.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: "some of the daylight that the sun carelessly drops in our direction and is just going to waste"

eventually, ALL solar energy turns to heat. Electricity, work, waste heat, friction, you name it - all become heat energy, eventually. 1st law of thermodynamics. The energy of performing work is applied to it in order to overcome some form of friction or resistance, which creates heat. Even your computer gets hot when it computes. Potential energy even becomes heat once the potential is released. Solar power from BG algae is no different, and BG algae growing eventually turns into rotting mass after it dies, which releases heat as bacteria eat it.

Kinda like that. So making and then using electricity out of Mr. Sun's rays still creates heat, in about the same amount as if it had not been made, over time.. Energy in = Energy out, in one form or another.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

understanding "non-algebraic but looks looks it COULD be algebra" math notation can be a real bother. Often I do not have time to take 2 years' worth of classes nor 8 hours' of online frustration searches to understand what it means, but if I try and put myself into the mindset of the people that use this kind of math (like statisticians, for example) that SOMETIMES I can "get" what they are doing well enough to create a computer program that analyzes data "that way". Last time I did that was with some averaging method that was being used for ocean wave analysis when suddenly realized that their equations were actually expression values in terms of data sets and the equations that described them, then doing algebra and whatnot wiih equations instead of variables. Then it was like "OK then I guess THIS is what they're doing" and some pretty good results emerged.

Similarly for the quantum computing math, at least I hope so.

Seriously we DO need a "Hello, World?" example.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Give it time

Shh... don't let "them" know the truth about Rick

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Give it time

a simple derivation: a solar panel of one square meter can generate about 200W of electricity in good sunlight. I bet this is WAY more space-efficient than a tub of BG algae... just sayin'.

And a typical electric car might require about 10HP for cruising on the highway which would be around 7.5KW. City driving may require even more (on average, even with dynamic braking). So 2 hours' worth of battery is around 15KWH (at the least, let's say), after which you will probably need a charge. Now how many square meters of solar panels do you need JUST to charge the car? (and it has to be during the day - when you are WORKING and DRIVING - in order to be of practical use). And if EVERYONE at your company, or the store, or your apartment building, wants to charge THEIR cars TOO...

Numbers and math and reality are more fun than simply saying stuff that I already know to be true and being argued with because nobody likes hearing it, i.e "My beautiful bubbles, stop BURSTING them!"...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Quantum computing is easy to understand.

How about a proper "Hello World" application using quantum logic gates?

(or perhaps "Hello, World?" - that's a quantum computing joke I think...)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: risks, but so do most things in life

They TRIED population control in COMMUNIST China. Now they have too few women because (NPR link) their "one child policy" motivated the aborting of girl babies so that families could have sons to carry on the family name (etc.) and the army could have SOLDIERS. (I chose an NPR link because if I had chosen Fox News, it would have been a distraction for the ad-hominem attackers to exploit).

I _DO_ believe (and it is especially apparent over the last few years) that EMULATING COMMUNIST CHINA is something we should NOT _EVAR_ DO.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: re Fukushima

I think the "No Nuke" hysteria started in Cali-Forn-You in the 60's. That pretty much explains it.

and no real science since then, lots of FUD, hysteria, emotions, "feel good" protesting, and willing accomplices in government that do what they can to regulate nuclear power out of existence for their own personal gain (and that of their donors). Yeah, pretty much THAT. And I should know things about nuclear power since I spent ~4 years on a sub running the nuclear power plant (and went to school for about 2 years to learn how to do it, which included nuclear physics so we would understand how the things work and why we need certain procedures and precautions).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: re Fukushima

As AC said, the cancer rates are estimated to have increased by a factor of about 0.05 in 4000

oops I misread that. I take back my down vote. I probably need new glasses...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: To be fair ...

there was very little warning about the Fukushima tsunami that caused the disaster. Only 2 employees washed out to sea suggests they were at least trying to take cover as best as they could at the time. My best guess is that those two were doing risky things to try and prepare and minimize the disaster (whether it worked or not). I mean they were literally at "ground zero" right at the coastline with a massive wall of water hitting them directly, one that destroyed the entire town (and so on). Mother Nature can REALLY be a BITCH.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I actually just assumed that the stuff about nuclear power was hyperbole... for comedy.

But seriously it's like anything else that is potentially toxic, from the rare earth stuff that make LCD panels and efficient solar cells possible, to the lithium in high efficiency batteries (halt and catch fire?) to the industrial chemicals needed to etch circuit boards and make those silicon wafers that get turned into cell phones. Some of that stuff (like cyanides and flourides) are EXTREMELY toxic and dangerous outside of the controlled environment.in which they are used and it is my understanding that a LOT of recycling goes on (to avoid dumping toxic waste AND be more economical in the long run - win win).

My point is not to scare people. My point is that these industries have safety standards they must adhere to, just like nuclear power plants, which means that inevitable accidents are few and far between (and neither the planet nor human population has been killed by these infrequent accidents). The solution is intelligent application of basic safety and attention to important details by operators and management.

But yeah, to avoid having to live in caves in fear of predators, humans invented ways of using fire, which is ALSO dangerous. Right?

Microsoft trumpets updated HR-friendly policies (that comply with recently changed laws)

bombastic bob Silver badge
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Re: Non compete

what you said, yes. It's why the laws have changed.

Next major update of Windows 11 prepares for launch

bombastic bob Silver badge
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Re: I'm surprised that it's not appeared on more ordinary people's machines

I guess the general public aren't upgrading PCs as much

In a BAD economy, with DOUBLED fuel prices, rapidly rising food prices, and with computer hardware costs ALSO abnormally high (along with so many OTHER things) due to supply chain bottlenecks and "chip scalpers" inflating prices beyond the customers' ability to pay, is Micros~1 TRULY expecting us to wait in line JUST to get a new PC with THEIR OS on it, when MANY OLD designs just cannot run it?

Priorities on spending whatever family income is LEFT after TAXES, rent, utilities, food, fuel, and replacing broken things does not leave a whole lot of dough for replacing something that WORKS with some "New, Shiny" that Micros~1 *FEELS* is better, especially when it is NOT. They did not learn from Windows Vista hardware requirements, *FEELING* that re-packaging that nonsense as 'New Shiny Windows 11' would work THIS time for sure.

I suspect people will be contemplating new clothes and new phones (especially for their kids) and even NEW CARS, LONG before getting anything resembling an "11-compatible" PC replacement with Redmond's newest impersonation of an operating system pre-installed.

Results predictable. Micros~1 lost touch with customers a LONG time ago. This is just more of same.