Posts by bombastic bob

Google's Project Zero reveals another Microsoft flaw

Re: Capable of Learning?

"Probably because to fix Chrome does not require a full restart of a computer, unlike IE or Edge."

WELL SAID!

Git fscked by SHA-1 collision? Not so fast, says Linus Torvalds

SHA1 still "useful" then?

I suppose Linus is saying:

a) Don't panic

b) SHA1 is still useful for SOME things

c) Vogon poetry is STILL the 2nd worst in the galaxy (I was compelled to make that reference)

I'm safe, because I have my towel with me.

(I suppose on an embedded system or a microcontroller, SHA1 is easier to gonkulate than SHA256 so it would have some use THERE as well, but yeah... other implications obvious)

Engineer who blew lid on Uber's toxic sexist culture now menaced by creepy 'smear campaign'

Re: Why does Uber even exist?

"The only reason they can manage to be cheaper is because they ignore employment and tax laws"

Not so much IGNORE, but exploit the 'contractor' loop hole.

Consider that a NORMAL taxi company might have to hire drivers as EMPLOYEES [which means payroll, payroll taxes, OBAKA-CARE, insurance, yotta yotta] as opposed to having the drivers become INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS, which eliminates most of that overhead. Actually, it was a pretty good 'hack' to provide a method of 'finding a driver' like that. You'd think that customers and drivers would all 'win'.

However, gummints don't like independent contractors (it causes their tax revenues to go down, and they lose certain levels of control). Having your own corporation makes it a bit easier to be a long term contractor, rather than 1099 (in the USA), but may cost you more overall. Corp-corp contracts are less likely to be scrutinized because of it. But there are some 'unwritten rules' like "pay yourself a salary" or get audited. Yeah. it's like "payola to play".

I saw one case (that personally affected me) where a FORMER independent contractor sued his employer for NOT offering a "wage job". Well, in HIS case, letting his contract expire was kinda like being laid off. But the lawsuit was WON ANYWAY, because he "worked on site" for over a year, and was considered "an employee". So as part of the settlement, ALL of the contractors (me included) had to be 'converted' to employees rather than contractors. That was better in SOME ways, but worse in others.

Anyway, stoopid gummints don't like contractors, and so they'll be looking for a way to make you "play the game" their way by their rules. but since the Uber drivers are in their OWN cars, the gummints don't have much of a case against Uber. So no purchasing expensive taxi licenses since it's "ride sharing", no need for political contributions to limit the number of drivers and keep your company more profitable, etc..

When I went to Las Vegas recently, you had to WAIT IN LINE for a Taxi at the airport. That's unlike any OTHER place I've EVER been... [I'm used to seeing the Taxis line up]

Uncle Sam needs you... to debug, improve Dept of Defense open-source software at code.mil

military tech evolving into civilian tech

Don't forget that tech such as GPS started out as military technology. This may be an opportunity to 'civilianize' some of the 'unclassified things' that the military has been 'getting right' all these years.

Toxic Uber sued after driver allegedly tried to rape passenger in car

If here's something worse than uber, it's lawyers.

deserves its own title

also reminds me of a 'bloom county' comic in which they described a world without lawyers. Signs at the park said "ok to walk on grass", things like that.

Ad men hope blocking has stalled as sites guilt users into switching off

how about an adblocker that...

how about an adblocker that FAKES as if it's actually displaying ads, but doesn't.

a user-maintained blacklist of advertising content would help as well. "MIddle-click if you don't ever want to see ads from these people again". Or similar.

such a beast could simply render all blocked graphics as a blank (or transparent) image, but "pretend" the user sees it, as far as the advertiser is concerned.

'First ever' SHA-1 hash collision calculated. All it took were five clever brains... and 6,610 years of processor time

this is how it started with WPA

and this is how it first started with WPA, which was later shown to be crackable in an extremely short period of time using more sophisticated techniques.

I expect that now it's been done, someone will invest the effort to reduce the number of calculations down to something a bit more usable, maybe by exploiting other weaknesses that COULD be derived from this proof of concept...

How to nuke websites you don't like: Slam Google with millions of bogus DMCA takedowns

Re: Simple Solution

how about BILLING the bogus complainant instead? The cost of making a bogus request is that you are *BILLED* for it, and no additional requests will be accepted until you PAY UP!

And don't forget an EULA to "agree to those terms" before the requests are sent.

Ah, the Raspberry Pi 3. So much love. So much power ... So turn it into a Windows thin client

Re: RDP from weedy hardware can be good

worth pointing out, I think Raspbian already comes with an RDP client. I should verify that, though...

/me checks, 'xrdp' showed up as an available package in aptitude, as well as a gnome version. So yes. maybe not pre-installed, though it's not that hard to 'apt-get install' something.

/me checks again - xrdp is a server, not a client. rdesktop I meant.

you don't need WINDOWS for a thin client

I would prefer FreeBSD or Linux as a thin client. After all, if everything is client/server over a web portal, you can run Firefox or Chrome on just about ANY operating system, and both Linux and FreeBSD are BETTER, FASTER, and *FREE*!

No need for Micro-shaft's "PIG-WARE" known as Win-10-nic, THAT's for sure! The Raspbian image fits on a 4G Micro-SD card, last I tried it. And I can get FBSD (with a similar GUI setup) to fit in about the same space, if I try really hard.

So yeah, if you WANT a thin client, RPi with Raspbian or FreeBSD 11. That's the ticket!

Highway to HBLL: The missing link between DRAM and L3 found

Re: Might DRAM be squeezed out altogether?

at some point it might make sense, particularly on higher end systems, to use the 17ns HBLL in place of existing 30ns DDR RAM. Sure it will cost more. But it would (theoretically) be faster than an L4 cache, at least for edge conditions.

And with volume sales and production comes the potential for rock-bottom pricing in a few years' time.

'Hey, Homeland Security. Don't you dare demand Twitter, Facebook passwords at the border'

Re: Disturbing

"In the US immigrants are taking cover wherever they can. It's a return to the bad old days."

Name _ONE_ country where non-citizens have the SAME rights as citizens.

*crickets*

You use the term 'immigrants' loosely. You should be saying 'visitors'. *ILLEGAL* immigrants should be arrested and deported. LEGAL immigrants are on their way to becoming citizens, or have valid visas for working within the country. Doesn't every OTHER nation on the planet have SIMILAR rules that they ENFORCE? So much *WHINING* over what should otherwise be a SIMPLE issue!

Meet the chap open-sourcing US govt code – Paul, an ex-Microsoft anti-piracy engineer

Re: Go for it!

open source for ALL gummint software [that's not a security risk to open source it] would be kinda like 'freedom of information' in a way. So yeah, GOOD idea.

What's a BAD idea is the REASON why they want to build things out of manure instead of using it for what's been working for the last several thousand years (i.e. farm fertilizer). The whole "carbon emissions" thing disturbs me. We don't need more pseudo-science, open source or otherwise. A failed computer model is a failed computer model, 'garbage in, garbage out' (or in this case, manure), regardless of its open-sourceness.

"Lipstick on a boar" again.

Uber hires Obama's attorney-general to review its workplaces

Re: Re:Why? and then we ask ourselves why women in are few and far between

"HR say it's all legal"

It SCREAMS like some l[aw]yer came up with that particular 'hack' to get on the good side of the quota-nazis.

You should, of course, pick people who are most PROFITABLE for the company, instead. There is NO other criteria for business to be successful. Anything else is just a bunch of FEELERS "feeling" instead of thinking.

Hiring quotas. Worst thing EVAR excreted from the bowels of hell to justify social manipulation by gumint elitists [keeping themselves in power because they're 'such good people'], while PRETENDING to 'level the playing field' for hiring. How manipulative.

_I_ know why fewer women are Uber drivers: It's _DANGEROUS_ to let strangers ride with you in your car. And too many gummints pass laws to LIMIT! YOUR! ABILITY! TO! DEFEND! YOURSELF! *LEGALLY*!!! Net result: fewer women willing to take THAT risk. There's just not enough money in it.

EU privacy gurus peer at Windows 10, still don't like what they see

Re: No company has done more than MS to challenge laws that provide insufficient data [protection]

I don't like either form of data collection (private sector OR gummint). However, if gummint DOES slurp data, and it's done in secret, it can't legally be used against you in court. Still, it can be used against you to park agents in places to survey you and collect evidence that CAN be used against you in court. 'Grey area' for national intelligence gathering and preventing crimes and terrorism, etc. and as long as I don't know about it, I'm willing to look the other way (up to a point).

THEN AGAIN, when Micro-shaft collects data on you, ESPECIALLY without being given permission to do so, AND it's being used to MARKET YOUR BEHAVIOR as a commodity, then THAT is DISTURBING. It means they think that we are nothing but CATTLE. Moo.

Google bellows bug news after Microsoft sails past fix deadline

Re: ...the company all-but-accused Google of...

"Might it not be easier for Microsoft just to contract Google to fix the bug?"

or just contract ME to do it. I could use the work.

Re: ...the company all-but-accused Google of...

"original bug report from march 2016"

nice link. thanks for pointing that out.

from the link: "The EMF format essentially works as a proxy for GDI calls"

and as such, SHOULD be subjected to parameter validation, which is PROBABLY the best possible fix for this. DIBs can only be one of a limited set of formats. Compatibility problems are therefore minimized.

Re: ...the company all-but-accused Google of...

"do you want a rushed/broken fix in 90 days or a proper fix in 100 ?"

How about ENCOURAGING MICRO-SHAFT to "get it right" in the FIRST place, and/or PRIORITIZE fixing security problems? I think Google realizes that security problems in ANY OS has a somewhat negative impact on THEM, even indirectly so. And it is a public service to put some pressure on M$, who won't fix it until they have NO OTHER CHOICE. They're too busy re-re-re-re-inventing the wheel (i.e. Vista, Ape, Ape-point-one, Win-10-nic) instead of producing a QUALITY product without SERIOUS security flaws. They're internal culture of "change the customer to take over the world" is NOT helping. By providing an appropriate DIS-incentive for Micro-shaft's anti-customer ARROGANCE, Google is helping everyone who uses their products [because, locked-in etc.].

Thanks, Google! You've been a BIG help. Again. Seriously!

I'm pretty sure Microshaft COULD have fixed it in a short period of time if they had put enough resources on it. Even a fundamental architectural flaw could've been patched, marshalling device drivers (and other system code) as needed.

Is your child a hacker? Liverpudlian parents get warning signs checklist

Re: So retro

"Liked it totally remind me of those nutty reefer madness guides, and the Christian ones about D&D."

I think they were all written by the same organization, the 'society for indoctrinating the next generation'. After all, "independent learning materials' was ONE of the "signs" of becoming an _EVIL_ _HAX0R_ muahahahahaha!

Don’t panic over cyber-terrorism: Daesh-bags still at script kiddie level

"Now, if you agreed to conduct a cyberattack for ISIS and then screwed it up royally, THEN I would suggest that it is time to grow eyeballs in the back of your head."

Or, just ROB THEM BLIND, and not do ANYTHING at all. That would be laughable, all the way to the bank!

Re: "we are very resilient as a country"

"The problem is most of the US's is held by China"

I _WONDER_ whose fault THAT is...

"ISIS and their allies are all talk and no trousers"

Wishful thinking at best. They have MONEY, and black-hats would be willing to do whatever they want in order to get it.

Hopefully the Trump administration will treat this kind of threat more seriously.

article: "It may be that the terrorists will hire expert hackers to do the job for them, he speculated"

Ya THINK? (in my best 'Gibbs' voice from the NCIS TV show)

FAKE BREWS: America rocked by 'craft beer' scandal allegations

Re: Tesco hate

"Yet my local has York brewery beers"

There are several breweries in the San Diego area, and several micro-brews that are made by Karl Strauss ('Red Trolley' being one of my favorites). But often a micro-brew will have some of its beer brewed in a "micro-brewery" but contract out a good portion of it to a larger facility, which is what I suspect is happening with Walmart's 'craft' beer.

Probe President Trump and his crappy Samsung Twitter-o-phone, demand angry congressfolk

Re: The Deep State Strikes Back

"If you do not have anything to contribute, please refrain from polluting this forum with your vomit."

heh - yeah, howler monkeys again. It seems that they downvote ME simply because I'm ME (they probably make abuse complaints as well, to get me moderated). And they shout and sling poo at anyone who even SLIGHTLY defends Trump.

Well, _I_ voted for the guy, I'm happy he's there, and it's fun to watch the media+Demo-Rat MELTDOWN in progress.

Popcorn, git yer popcorn!

As for Trump's phone, I think the NSA needs to do a regular checkup on it. And no carrying it into meetings. Other than that, why not let him have it?

'I'm innocent!' says IT contractor on trial after Office 365 bill row spiraled out of control

Re: Devils and details.

"If on the other hand, they had paid their O365 bill but had cancelled his support contract and he turned off the service because he still happened to have admin access, that's another story."

yes. THAT is a detail that would make a HUGE difference in how we interpret this situation.

Why I had to sue the FCC – VoIP granddaddy Dan Berninger

Re: "Say I have $1m ..."

"Title II needs to be there, but it needs a very serious overhaul."

that much is apparent. let's see the "1 new means 2 thrown out" policy for regulations applied to it, and maybe it can be modernized enough to make sense... but NOT applied to the intarwebs. It's just NOT the same thing.

it's been my experience that TOS/QoS isn't being applied in any form within the internet backbone. if that has changed, it's news to me. and ~7 years ago, I was in a job where that *kind* of thing mattered [did some work related to a contract for a TV provider]. So I was close to the inside of what was happening back then. I suspect, due to the nature of things, that it's still pretty much the same, now.

in any case, I had assumed that the TOS (or something like it) would just be used to prioritize the traffic as you would expect it to be done via the routers. THEN, the assignment of TOS would be controlled by the ISPs [hence the 'pay for the fast lane' part]. So let's say sending 'normal' packets is the base price, and then other pricing plans for higher priority packets. The TOS bit would then be modified by the ISP for every upstream packet so that they comply to the service level the customer has purchased. And so on.

anything more complicated than that would probably not work as well...

less gummint regulation is nearly always a good thing

just sayin'

FCC shouldn't classify the intarwebs as 'Title II' just so they can later TAX it or regulate content (it's just a power grab). Instead, just let ISPs charge extra for prioritization (which VoIP and streaming video services kinda need). then they can use the extra $ to improve the infrastructure and grow their businesses. The FCC might regulate the percentage of total packets that CAN be 'priority', but even THAT much is likely to be TOO much. Instead, let ISPs themselves make that determination, and let the free market decide.

That way, EVERYBODY wins! (not just the regulators and controllers)

US visitors must hand over Twitter, Facebook handles by law – newbie Rep starts ball rolling

Re: Glad the translation will be supplied by me

Allahu akbar? Oh that just means "y'all have a nice day now"

I've had this really bad joke running around my head for a while.

"Aloha ak-bar, aloha akbar, it's time... to say... buh-byeeee! *BOOM*"

OK, that was bad. really bad. heh.

(is there an icon for *BAD JOKE ALERT* ???)

Re: Huh?

"create brand new, fake accounts"

yep. that's the weakness of doing these *kinds* of things. And "the bad guys" would have been doing that already.

What I think Customs and Border Patrol will be looking for, however, is your REACTION to the question. You'd have to be a convincing liar to get past them.

Talk of tech innovation is bullsh*t. Shut up and get the work done – says Linus Torvalds

No mention of 'Agile' in Linus' process

did anyone ELSE notice how 'Agile' (aka FRAgile) wasn't mentioned in Linus' development process? It sounds kinda "top down" to ME! And it's SUCCESSFUL!

That kind of success requires leadership and proper management. Maybe Micro-shaft can learn a thing or two from Linus? (but they probably won't)

Global IPv4 address drought: Seriously, we're done now. We're done

at least we're not running out of MAC addresses...

hey we might be running out of IPv4 addresses, but at least we're not running out of MAC addresses. yet.

Until then, just make the cheaper IPv4 networks use NAT and the 10/8 block for DHCPv4 assignments. And offer IPv6 for everyone. Once people get used to it, things should shift on their own that way.

(that assumes that Micro-shaft gets their collective heads out of their collective RECTUMS and fixes all of the open ports that are unnecessarily exposed by IPv6 to the world)

As Microsoft touts Windows Insider for biz, let's take a look at W10's broken 2FA logins

"Meanwhile, advances occur in our understanding of the software process."

as well as a complete 'about face' and 'forward march' over the cliff (read: [FR]Agile)

Upvote for the rest. just wanted to snark about the *kinds* of bureaucratic B.S. are likely to be stifling workflow within the Halls of Redmond.

Keep in mind that 32-bit Windows (and NT specifically) were most likely designed by the architect of VMS (you know, HAL is to IBM as VMS is to WNT) that went to work for Micro-shaft back in the 90's. And so THAT kind of experience came from a time where 'top down' design was THE way to do things, and NOT an overly-object-oriented bass-ackwards way of doing *EVERYTHING* (like ".Not" for example).

I can see the potential of excessive 'unit tests' of trivial functionality (while missing the big picture test of overall usability), the endless SCRUM meetings where "junior guy" gets equal time for whatever half-baked ideas he has (reflecting inexperience), and the other "usual suspects" that have NOTHING to do with getting high quality product shipped before a customer EVER sees it. "Analysis Paralysis" and the usual outcomes of running over the cliff at full speed while doing something that's incredibly DUMB, with smiling faces and positive attitudes and gung-ho advertising/marketing to go with it.

'Cultural Rot' in other words (only in THIS case, the culture of successful software development). Perhaps it's time for Micro-Shaft to "drain the swamp" ???

Revealed: Web servers used by disk-nuking Shamoon cyberweapon

Re: And all because

"VBScript is designed to be a secure programming environment"

/me commences hysterical laughter

it all reflects the _USUAL_ vulnerabilities in Micro-shaft software. The MS Word doc with the nasty payload, 'opened' by some low-level HR dweeb, or merely previewed in "Virus Outbreak" (aka 'MS Outlook'), sent by a spear-phisher with a fake identity, etc. taking over a windows box because the user is logged in with "admin" credentials for no good reason, because Micro-shaft sets the defaults "that way".

Bruce Schneier: The US government is coming for YOUR code, techies

Re: Well, maybe we should not put software in everything

"Or maybe we should just code everything outside the grasping jurisdiction of the US."

Or, for those inside the USA, to express OUTRAGE to politicians when necessary (in the form of direct mailing - a well crafted independent hardcopy snail-mailed letter actually has a pretty good impact, because you took the time to do it), and to put everything you do in public places so it can't be erased, EVAR.

and include some legal disclaimers like "AS-IS" and "NO LIABILITY" in the accompanying docs.

GPL already has something like that in there, last I looked.

it's not easy to govern against the will of the governed. it ultimately FAILS. And the LAST thing we need in the world of SOFTWARE is GOVERNMENTIUM. The 2nd last is a tollbooth, but Micro-shaft seems hell-bent on making THAT happen with their 'certification', but I digress...

GoDaddy CEO says US is 'tech illiterate' (so, yeah, don't shut off that cheap H-1B supply)

A 'STEM' degree is HIGHLY overrated. An experienced programmer (without a degree) is AT LEAST as likely to be the next great hire as someone coming out of a college that managed to get enough credits to graduate. That's ALSO because U.S. colleges are wholly INADEQUATE at educating people in tech. Yeah, they're too busy churning out socially indoctrinated SNOWFLAKES instead.

Meanwhile, people who left college because they couldn't STOMACH THE LIBERALISM, or had career opportunities open up immediately (think Bill Gates), and THEN went on to become highly successful engineers, and NOW have decades' worth of experience PROVING their abilities (note: college graduation is proof of POTENTIAL, but not SKILLS), are being REJECTED by _CLUELESS_ HR departments and CEOs that *FEEL* "a degree is necessary", because "ACADEMIC ARROGANCE".

I suggest there are PLENTY of qualified programmers and engineers out there, without the 'STEM' buzzword on their resumes, nor a handful of letters after their names, nor other academic pedigrees. It's just that the LYING CEOs of these Silly Valley corporations aren't looking in the right places [deliberately, to justify H-1B, most likely].

Morons.

Russia and China bombard Blighty with 188 cyberattacks in 3 months

Re: That's weird

"So why mention just these two?"

it's popular?

Re: Security snowflakes?

"A Russian official revealed that the country is the target of hundreds and sometimes thousands of cyberattacks every day,"

it's almost expected, yeah. 'Spy vs Spy'.

But when you get economic sanctions because of alleged 'hacking', it should be backed up with some REAL evidence. Just sayin'.

Munich may dump Linux for Windows

Re: Sales

"So they are running unlicensed software and get fined for it and the expense is at the fault of Microsoft?"

I think you missed the point. Ernie Ball, like many during that time, was suddenly subjected to a "license audit" and was FINED because a handful of machines still had old copies of software on them (whether they were being used or not). the idea is that a secretary with word processing software gets a new computer, re-installs the existing software onto that computer, and does a "hand me down" of that computer to another department (who may or may not even care that the word processing software is on there). This is a frequent occurrence within a reasonably sized company. THEN they "get audited" and Micro-shaft FINES them with threat of lawsuits or something to enforce it.

Now the CEO of Ernie Ball became *ANGRY* at Micro-shaft for being ASSHATS, regardless of whose fault it was that the licenses weren't all paid up. THAT prompted the shift to RH Linux, so that would NEVER happen again! He, as a customer, did NOT like his company being treated that way. THAT's what it is all about, really (and he says so). (but I thought this was obvious)

Re: Replacing Linux with Windows, based on *cost*?

"there's almost no momentum behind Thunderbird and Evolution."

Just because they're not MOVING TARGETS does NOT mean they're not USEFUL nor POPULAR.

And consider the cost of "training" on Win-10-nic and its predecessor, Windows "Ape". Micro-shaft "just changed XXX again" - need to RE-TRAIN. THAT as opposed to something that's stable, doesn't change a lot, and just gets bug fixes and tweeks.

Re: Sales

"So now there is no longer any doubt that Linux costs more"

I think their 'cost analysis' is PURE BULLSHIT. There have been OTHER cost analyses done in the private sector, like THIS one, showing that Linux costs a LOT less than a windows-based solution. Ernie Ball saved enough in one year to pay the FINES for the "surprise software audit" that angered the CEO _SO_ much, he said "no more Microsoft in my company" (or something like that).

But we're talking GUMMINTS here, and the potential for payola, and maybe Micro-shaft is slipping some deuch-bucks to the right bureaucrats to get their 'hooks' into the gummint computer systems, and forever dominate their destiny! Yeah, I can see THAT coming.

University DDoS'd by its own seafood-curious malware-infected vending machines

Re: Also

"Apparently your single sign-on for windows will be enough to make sure you get the appropriate access"

I _HOPE_ they're not excluding Linux and FreeBSD (or even mac) by requiring a 'single sign-on for windows'... or maybe I'm just reading too much into this.

Anyway, separately firewalled subnets for IoT might help. Or not.

That guy using a Surface you keep seeing around town could be a spy

"Oh no, I'm in a coffeeshop, using my government issued Surface Pro. Does this mean I am a spy?"

yeah that cleartext user/pass over the publically accessible wifi, while running Win-10-nic, really helps with THAT image...

All of Blighty's attack submarines are out of action – report

Re: Ok, what's the Trident money really been spent on?

just to point out...

A while back, the USA decided that building the Seawolf class of submarines was WAY too expensive. So, they had the subs re-designed to incorporate a number of 'more modern' design concepts, like modularity, and computer-aided design, and VR for seeing inside a digital mockup [so you don't have to build one out of wood], and things of that nature, and SIGNIFICANTLY shaved down the cost of building a new boat, so after building only a very small number of Seawolf classes, the US Navy started buying Virginia class subs, which are supposed to have very similar capabilities but at a much lower cost per boat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia-class_submarine

This might be a good way to go, to keep costs down, yet continue to meet the needs of a WORLD POWER like the UK. Or is it being done already?

Re: When are we goint to stop pretending...

UK _STILL_ _IS_ a world power. At least, that's how I see it. Things ought to look more interesting post-Brexit. No worries.

Re: Buy the German U-boats

"Diesel-electric subs are good to patrol around the coasts"

which gives them an effective mission close to home.

They could also be effective as escorts, if it's possible to refuel them from a fast oiler that's part of an operations group. But they'd have to surface periodically in order to do that, which goes against modern submarine operating philosophy.

Windows 10: What is it good for? Microsoft pitches to devs ahead of Creators Update

Re: Getting bored of Linux bores clogging up MS discussions.

"It's dull and irrelevant. Give it a rest."

dull to YOU maybe, irrelevant to YOU maybe.

To me, it's nice to see an ALTERNATIVE to the Micro-shaft market-hype about how "great" the experience is with Win-10-nic, how much "better" it is than before (and all of the apparent shills who echo it). The positive comments about Wine motivate me to try it out again [I've had bad experiences trying to get windows stuff running in Wine, so I gave up on it a few years back, but if it's FIXED, or at least BETTER, it's worth a try again].

Frankly, I'd like to see MORE LINUX PC's and more NATIVE LINUX APPLICATIONS, as a proper alternative to Micro-shaft's "chimera OS excreted from hell" known as "Win-10-nic".

And the 'Outlook' thing, too. Making THAT go away should be high on the list of things to do. I'm surprised RH hasn't already done it. Oh, well.

Re: Bug fixes ? For decade-old windows bugs ?

"Or aren't there enough developers at Microsoft to work on silly old stuff like that "

They're too busy:

a) doing [FR]Agile "development" and SCRUM meetings

b) trying to make "the Metro", UWP, and Windows phone crap actually *WORK*

c) coming up with NEW user-customization features to *REMOVE* (so EVERYone can be "the same" because it's fair or something, just another brick in the wall, one size fits all, no individuality, unity mind)

d) hacking out ways to STOP people from disabling MANDATORY updates

e) rifling through all of our OneDrive stuff, looking for PR0N

f) shilling on various blogs, forums, and comment web pages to SHOUT DOWN all of those anti-Windows voices, and make it look like a MAJORITY *loves* Win-10-nic!

g) re-re-re-inventing the wheel, even if the old one was really, really good. Because, Micro-shaft.

h) coming up with even MORE "reasons" for users to NOT use Windows 7

i) marketing, marketing, marketing!

j) changing directions as often as possible, abandoning as much as you can on each direction change, including developers who drank your coolaid and believed your HYPE

k) Embracing, Extending, and Extinguishing LINUX

that oughta do, for now...

"desktop-centric approach in Windows 10"? Seriously?

In the article, you said Micro-shaft did a "U-turn" with a "desktop-centric approach in Windows 10".

We're not talking about the SAME WINDOWS VERSION, are we?

Win-10-nic is HARDLY "desktop centric". "Desktop centric" would be everything PRIOR to Windows "Ape" (8). Win-10-nic is INFAMOUS for its "turn your desktop PC into an oversized phone" with the following "features":

a) the "Start Thing" and it's alphabetized "all CRapps" list.

b) "the Metro" in general, spattered throughout.

c) the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY, a GUI DOWNGRADE "dumbed down to the level of a phone" so that the poor phone CPU won't "feel inadequate" NOT having the horsepower for a PROPER GUI. Except that a 386 SX worked pretty well with Windows 3.0 as I recall... (so the logic behind the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY it is just plain STUPID)

d) Cortana, the hands-free "assistant" from HELL. Probably meant as an echo to Siri, which is a PHONE feature, since phone GUI keyboards are cumbersome.

(I could go on but I'm running out of really obvious things to mention)

NONE of these "features" in ANY way enhance THE DESKTOP and how people use DESKTOP computers. Instead, it's aimed at the "4 inchers" who view the world through their 4 inch screens, taking selfies everywhere, and "consuming content" instead of CREATING it.

Win-10-nic - dumbing your desktop DOWN since 2015.

Grumpy Trump trumped, now he's got the hump: Muslim ban beaten back by appeals court

Re: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!"

"it plays into his narrative perfectly"

Don't forget the supreme court challenge. that's next. Nobody thought the leftist liberal elitists would lay down and allow Trump to have his presidency, and this is just an example of what's to come, it seems. George Soros has a LOT of pocket change to disrupt everything and create the chaos into which loudmouthed liberals can "take charge" and dismantle what freedoms we have left... by ABusing the legal system.

Want to come to the US? Be prepared to hand over your passwords if you're on Trump's hit list

just don't use social media

just don't use social media. it's highly overrated anyway.

then again there are old school things like USENET and IRC, for which no passwords are needed.