* Posts by bombastic bob

10515 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

All aboard the warship that'll make you Sicker

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: On a different topic - The Photo

"Are those red things the naval equivalent of training wheels??"

no, they're vortex vomit dispersal fins. you know, to prevent a wake of "last night's dinner" from making it possible to see where you've been...

either that, or they help the hull go into a 'planing mode' at high speed...

but an elegant design would have them be MULTI-FUNCTION - you know, increase top speed *AND* disperse all the puke!

Earth days are getting longer – by 1.8 milliseconds per century

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: I blame global warming and CO2

"Before somebody else does."

I was going to SPECIFICALLY blame human activity, since that isn't causing 'global climate anything'. It will give lefty/socialist politicians, activists, environmental wackos, and AlGore something to keep the donations flowing with...

Qualcomm, Microsoft plot ARM Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs, tablets, phones

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: We've had enough

" I don't want Linux to be the perfect user friendly OS"

why not? *AFRAID* ??? You don't have to use Linux, you know. It's not like what Micro-shaft is bullying everyone with these days [buy a computer, MUST have windows on it, that kinda thing].

Just don't be a snooty-snob and DENY OTHERS the 'Linux as a perfect user friendly OS' , k-thx. [ok maybe you're not actively trying to STOP Linux from becoming the perfect user friendly OS, but still...]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Very interesting but not entirely surprising.

"It can run Universal Windows Platform "[cr]"apps"

yeah, that's no surprise here. And now Micro-shaft will be screaming this factoid from every position they occupy.

And are we REALLY seeing this massive migration by developers to UWP? I sure haven't!

[of course SOME will drink the coolaid and jump on the bandwagon, like they did for ".Not" and C-pound, neither of which scores well on the TIOBE index, and UWP won't either]

UWP forces your application to become a CRapplication, with that hideous Win-10-nic look. No thanks. The number of devices EXCLUSIVELY running Win-10-nic is a limited number. You'd be alienating >60% of your market share _NOT_ targeting Windows 7 and Win32 API! So guess where new development will focus? Or *SHOULD* at any rate...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Doom

"And if you choose to do so, you'll be helping to chip away at Intel's domination of desktop CPU world and inject a little more competition and innovation into the market"

I'd rather chip away at MICRO-SHAFT'S "dominance" [aka bullying its way onto our computers] in the market, instead. Does Qualcomm know about 'Linux' ?

WinRT boxen were a *joke* running Windows 'Ape'. I suppose the Win-10-nic versions will be as bad of a joke, particularly with the Win-10-nic part.

90 per cent of the UK's NHS is STILL relying on Windows XP

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

'up'grading is overrated

seriously, the whole 'up'grade thing [which is a DOWNgrade if it's to "Ape" or Win-10-nic] is highly OVERRATED. It would (likely) require new versions of things that people are familiar with OTHER than just Windows, and that includes HARDWARE too, most likely.

It's a fair bet that a FAIR analysis of the situation might prove that a commercial flavor of Linux, if you MUST "up"grade the OS, would be a lower cost, longer term, TOTAL solution.

Like THESE guys did at Ernie Ball over a decade ago:

Rockin' On Without Microsoft (web archive)

Wannabe Cali governor gives up against beach-blocking billionaire VC

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

in a state where tech billionaires are critical to political ambitions

nothing to see, folks. move along. yeah, right...

One law for everyone, except for "the elite"

Cassini tickles Saturn's rings ahead of final death plunge

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: You know what they say to do if you're about to hit a deer

You say: "Oh, DEER!"

So far I have managed to 'swerve to avoid'. Stupid bucks jumping at you like it's a contest or something. One tried to race alongside of me after I swerved to avoid it. >60mph for a few seconds. I hadn't known they could sprint that fast. 'Prey animals' (vegetarian) just aren't that smart.

(yeah, has nothing to do with space probes like Cassini)

right before the video is lost, let's queue in some famous lines from Star Wars "the original"

"She's breaking up, she's breaking up!"

The UK's Investigatory Powers Act allows the State to tell lies in court

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

'Big Sister' Shirley is wearing a dominatrix outfit and wielding a cat-5-o-nine-tails. "You've been a naughty, naughty, NAUGHTY boy!"

seriously, though, can't you pass a law that would throw out of evidence ANYTHING not collected either with a proper search warrant, or in a venue that's totally PUBLIC? Yeah, the l[aw]yers would have an easier time for a while, getting criminals out of jail, but here in the USA we survived the 'miranda' nonsense, and jails are overflowing.

I'm less concerned about secret gummint spying than I am about CORPORATE spying [google, micro-shaft, face-blank] and using our information to manipulate us [through ads, targeting, filtering] etc.. With evidentiary rules in place, gummint spying is WAY less of a problem.

Team Trump snubs Big Internet oligarchs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Um, it's not the jobs.

nepotism? no, that would be OBAKA and the Demo-Rats. They're INfamous for it.

It's like when people think Trump is an authoritarian. That's not even CLOSE. Authoritarians are also (typically) micromanagers. Their egos require them to bit-fiddle EVERYTHING. Like OBAKA. And Carter, oh by the way.

No, Trump is a _DELEGATOR_ like Reagan. And equally misunderstood in that regard...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Intel

maybe the companies that Trump wants to hear from the most are the ones that are actively heading offshore??? Or maybe those that have been 'in trouble' for a while?

that and the shrill folk in Cali-fornicate-you have [unfortunately] become EXTREMELY hostile towards Trump, starting in "Silly Valley" and coming to a puss-filled boil in Sacramento. So "no" to Google, and Face-blank, and maybe even Intel, for that reason alone? And 'no' to Hollyweird, too.

Besides, look where things got with Obaka listening to "those guys". Gotta leave that behind, right?

Take that, creationists: Boffins witness birth of new species in the lab

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Creationists aren't listening.

"They'll just come up with some post hoc argument to try to fit the evidence. "

unfortunately you're most likely right, or else it will be carefully forgotten and buried or something.

I don't hold to a pure-non-creation type of evolution, nor a non-evolution type of creation. In fact, in my opinion, creation requires INTELLIGENCE, and not necessarily a god. And so the spaghetti monster will do, if that's what you want.

I figure that epigenetics plays a BIG part in evolution and carrying the 'evolved' genetic codes into the subsequent generations. If I'm right, epigentics may be directly affected by force of will, survival instinct, stress [like an extinction-level event], and whatnot, resulting in a type of evolution that's brought about only by catastrophe - that's kinda what we see in the rocks, right?

In a way this experiment fits that last definition. The 'catastrophe' was the introduction of 2 new food sources NOT previously seen before [and a lack of 'the usual stuff']. The virus adapted in interesting ways to that "stress factor", evolving into 2 new species.

then again, if they can evolve BACK, then it's not evolution, but cyclic mutation. THAT would prove to be an interesting experiment as well [try to force it to evolve BACK].

Bloke sold cash register code to restaurants that deliberately hid sales from taxmen

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

the various tax boards WILL check up...

you know, when you report your annual revenue filing for your business, on various tax forms to various entities, and you've also filed your state sales tax (and possibly other municipalities) returns like you're supposed to, then... SOMEONE out there is adding those numbers up and figuring out how much sales tax you're supposed to be paying based on your revenue and type of business... because THOSE! NUMBERS! ARE! IN! YOUR! RETURNS!!!

and the tax revenue bean counters just LOVE to find things. It's like they live for that schtuff...

So what part of "you're gonna get caught" did they NOT understand???

Then again, minimum wages and OBAKACARE and OSHA and "all that other schtuff" is bad enough on small businesses [like restaurants] but if you're forced to be a TAX CHEAT to stay afloat, maybe something's wrong with the economics of the situation...

Trump's FCC will soak net neutrality in gas and toss in a lit match

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Net Neutrality is overrated AND misunderstood

This whole "net neutrality" thing is *HIGHLY* overrated, and equally misunderstood.

When you hear 'net neutrality' what do you think of. Fairness? I bet a lot of people do. but net neutrality has NOTHING to do with 'fairness'.

"Net Neutrality" has to do with REGULATING CONTENT along with the manner in which it is transmitted.

It's amazing what can be inserted into the umbrella term "net neutrality", and don't think that gummints do NOT want to do it.

The only REAL freedom is ANARCHY. A more 'sane' approach is what we have had up until the whole "net neutrality" crap, basically a set of protocol standards and simple routing rules.

Once you start mandating and regulating and fiddling and demanding and suing and punishing and CONTROLLING ACTUAL CONTENT, the entire intarwebs will be RUINED.

It would become nothing more than a pipeline for invasive and privacy-violating advertising content, directly from "them" directly to "you" at maximum throughput. No, wait...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Where does it say otherwise?

"objective comment is no longer relevant in the age of perception management"

objective comment is no longer relevant when people are trained/conditioned by a failing school system, corrupt politicians, and a willing media, to *FEEL* instead of *THINK*.

Feelings should be the LEAST relevant thing. Instead, they're put in front of everything else.

And the debate over "net neutrality" is more of a battle of semantics and feelings than it is about logic and reason. Sick, sad, truth.

VCs to Trump: You know what would really make America great? Tax breaks for VCs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: If I were Trump

I'd add that he's already planning on lowering the top tax rates, which is going to have an even BIGGER effect on boosting the economy and startup businesses.

After all, if you have a potential to win BIG with a VC investment, your odds of it being "worth while" improve quite a bit when your tax rates on 'the big money' are lower...

Anyway, targeted tax breaks are how politicians empower themselves. We need *LESS* of that. And less regulation. And more freedom. *THAT* will work!

Bush Jr's biggest problem was *TARGETING* his tax cuts, i.e. *NOT* fixing the *REAL* problem. So their effect was limited. Had they been significant rate reduction for *EVERYONE* and not just "families with kids under 13" or whatever, we'd all have been better off.

It’s Brexploitation! Microsoft punishes UK for Brexit with cloud price-gouging

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

just tell Micro-shaft to PACK SAND

Here's what you do when Micro-shaft arbitrarily raises prices on you, giving "whatever" as the excuse:

tell them to PACK SAND, and then GO ELSEWHERE.

Who needs 'Azure' anyway? They're NOT the ONLY game in town!

Exclusive: Team Trump's net neutrality guru talks to El Reg

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Trump appointments

"makes me wonder on who's vested interests is he trampling now?"

in general, ANYONE who's used increased gummint regulation/presence/etc. to become wealthy.

The entire idea of Trump's approach is the same as Reagan's approach was back in the 80's: make gummint SMALLER, and LESS INTRUSIVE, but keep sensible regulations that 'level the playing field'.

So, we can expect fewer restrictions except for those that would allow ISP #1 to block or throttle ISP #2's competing services.

But _I_ would _LIKE_ to see a tollway on the intarwebs, for those who are willing to pay it, in the form of TOS-like packet prioritization. You could design this in such a way that the impact on normal traffic would be minimal, but the effect on the priority traffic would be incredible. THEN, the fees charged to priority subscribers would pay for infrastructure updates, and MAYBE lower the price for everyone else.

It's already that way, sort of, for "business class" (unfiltered) vs "consumer class" (filtered, changing IP addresses, NAT instead of direct, etc. etc.). "business class" costs you SEVERAL TIMES as much, and your throughput is often capped, but you can run a name server and a web server and even have people send e-mail directly to your IP address, if you want, NOT having to go through some 3rd party server that might be scanning your mail to target you with ads [for example].

So if Netflix pays EXTRA to get 'high priority' on all of its packets, then everyone wins. That's how I see it.

To make this work, you'd have to limit the amount of traffic that can be high priority (let's say 20% of the maximum bandwidth that the pipe could possibly transfer). This way the theoretical maximum reduction in performance is only about 20% on NORMAL traffic, which is probably not going to be any different than real numbers in actual practice. The difference is that priority traffic gets to go FASTER. That's all. So, set the limits [like this] properly, and let the free market do the rest!

Windows 10 market share growth just barely has a pulse

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Let me guess...

"all the downgraded W7 PCs at the dizzies have all sold out and only W10's are left."

I predict a serious decline [even more than already] in the PC world, and lots of interest in refurbs and 'upgrade' parts. THAT, and people with OEM disks that can install 7 for you using your Win-10-nic Pro license... [maybe even for a *FEE*]

WHEN the computer and chip makers realize how badly FSCK'd they were by Micro-shaft with Ape and Win-10-nic, they'll embrace "something else", which at the moment is likely to be some flavor of Linux, and encourage a mass market shift towards THAT.

HMS Queen Lizzie to carry American jets and sail in support of US foreign policy

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

U.S. has used Harriers...

Just to bring it up, the U.S. has used Harriers as an important weapons platform for the Marine Corps, being as they can take off and land on 'gator freighters' and helo-carriers.

So yeah, lots of cooperation between US'ian and British armed forces.

[how about you guys design/build another major paradigm shift like the Harrier? then we'll buy YOUR planes!]

Congrats America, you can now safely slag off who you like online

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Celebrating bipartisanship?

" If we needed a 2/3 majority to pass anything we'd probably be better off"

and every bill would be even MORE loaded with 'piglet riders' or outright blatant PORK to appease the various factions and get them to vote "for" it.

If you're going to require 2/3 majority, do it for any TAX INCREASE or DEBT INCREASE. that will stop them dead in their tracks! That kind of thing has kept Cali-fornicate-you 'mostly in check' since the 70's, and it's only recently that the spending and taxing and regulating has become completely unhinged out here on the 'left coast'. Yeah, we need 'an enema' out here... starting in Sacramento.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: now if

"And then you have sites like Reddit, where downvoting is used as a weapon to suppress dissenting opinion"

THAT would be the ENTIRE INTARWEBS. This web site is no exception to that. Heh.

[thanks in advance for your downvotes, heh]

Inventor of McDonald's iconic Big Mac dies

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Not bitter

yes, the "indirect profits" of selling big mac would offset any direct payment for the menu enhancement. no bitterness indeed.

NOW, if MacD can simply go back to what they're GOOD at and stop trying to appease the vegans and greens... and keep their prices low... and VOILA! Business success restored!

Fries cooked in tallow, burgers rapid-fried on a grill with the grease sealed in, shakes with all the sugar and all the milk fat... Yum!

just take vitamins, an aspirin a day, and a shot of liquor per day, and you'll be fine, and can have all of the burgers and fries you want. Seriously! Tell the veggie-nazis to pack sand, and ENJOY your meat!

PC sales outlook improves: Now terrifying instead of catastrophic

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Give me something better than what I have - with a standard replaceable M2 SSD.

"A disposable, sealed up - 4 year shelf life device to save consumers an extra 2-4 mm in their bag, with the disadvantages of knowing that a coffee split will render their data gone (in the case of the macbook Pro w/touchbar) + others. i.e. UKP 500+ repairs for Surface Pro battery issues etc."

that ships with WIN-10-NIC pre-installed. Yeah, no deal.

SHIFT + F10, Linux gets you Windows 10's cleartext BitLocker key

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Hold up - Microsoft are covered on this one folks!

"The clever sods makes sure you never know when a bloody update will happen, making it FAR harder to do this."

then I connect a network sniffer, watching for "upgrade" net traffic, to something that powers off the box or at least alarms you to go over and pay attention to it...

these things can be defeated. Also may be possible to trigger an update by mucking with the clock

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: @Daniel

"Linux & BSD have also had their fair share of local exploits."

NONE of which involved *FORCED* *UPDATES* as I recall... and when it happens to Linux or BSD, you get *HEADLINES* like plane crashes vs car crashes... [and Micro-shaft would be the 'car crash' equivalent - ANOTHER vulnerability? Eh, no surprises...]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: This, because we can't overwrite files that are in use.

"Which is the prime reason the updates have to be applied during boot up anyway."

In the POSIX world, a directory entry is simply a pointer to an INODE, which represents "the file". An 'overwrite' of a file that's in-use simply points to a different INODE. Then, subsequent 'opens' of that file use the NEW version (and not the old one). The old inode is kept around on the file system until the last reference to it closes, and then it gets deleted. [this would keep running processes from crashing, for example, if you swapped in a new shared lib before restarting them, and when they re-start, they automatically use the NEW one].

Micro-shaft, on the other hand, ENCOURAGES multiple processes to be able to directly muck with the same file, using a sharing system that MOST LIKELY creates a LOT of inefficiency inside the kernel.

Hence, file I/O on a POSIX system appears to be FASTER than on an equivalent windows system [at least, that's been MY experience].

I sometimes refer to the WORST of this as "paranoid cacheing", i.e. the apparent assumption that "something came along" and changed what was on the hard drive behind your back, and now you have to re-re-read the same block from the physical file, again, even though you just wrote it BACK to the file a few milliseconds ago... [seems to happen most often wirh the registry, most likely due to excessive 'layering' and ".Not"-ishness]

.So, *NOW*, this file-system philosophy of Micro-shaft's is *BITING* *THEM* in the backside, with respect to the hoops they have to jump through when Bitlocker is in use.

/me is now thinking of some terms involving a circle, a cluster, and 'Situation Normal'

systemd free Linux distro Devuan releases second beta

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Ubuntu adopted it

"Not even Mint 18 has been able to undo the suckiness this time."

yeah, coolaid drinking all around it seems.

I had to seriously research *THIS* at one time, and so I'll post it again: How to boot into a CONSOLE instead of a GUI on systemd-controlled systems.

sudo systemctl enable multi-user.target --force

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

*THAT* is important, *ESPECIALLY* for servers. The fact that I had to RESEARCH! THE! HELL! OUT! OF! IT! TO! FIND! OUT! HOW! TO! DO! IT! is a _symptom_ of a BIGGER problem with systemd.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Never understood the hate for systemd."

a) *FORCING* people to change (apparently for the sake of change)

b) *FORCING* people to adopt a new method that's more complicated than before

c) no clear advantage over "the old method" for most people [particularly embedded]

d) done without asking first [aka 'arrogance and elitism']

systemd is also MONOLITHIC, as opposed to DISTRIBUTED, in the way it works. "all eggs in one basket" isn't good for stability. It's enough that the kernel must be "one basket", but what the kernel does is well-defined and in its own sandbox. Doing that to userland as well (all eggs in one basket) means that some mysterious overcomplicated "master control program" is in charge of the things that run on your computer.

The configuration is also significantly different. Where is "all of that" stored? SystemV-style init could be managed with a very simple text editor.

Additionally, for embedded stuff, you have additional overhead that doesn't exist in sysvinit. It's why I use an older raspian for RPi systems running Linux [*that* and the bluez bugs that haven't been repaired, as far as I can tell, so that when I *need* bluetooth serial to work, the older version is the obvious choice].

"change for the sake of change" causes *EXTRA* *WORK* to be done to ADAPT to that change, and when the change is perceived as UNNECESSARY, the resulting anger and resistance is predictable.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: You broke it, you bought it.

"How is something that is Apache licensed not permissive enough for a BSD core component???"

the general idea is that anything in 'base' is BSD licensed. there are contributed softwares, of course, and it may be possible to extend the licensing around those, but if you NEED it to boot the system, chances are that "no BSD license, no way".

/me has been using FreeBSD since 4.8 [and "stability" is a VERY good thing!]

Tobacco giant predicts the end of smoking. Panic ensues

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Vaping isn't cool

"I have no science to hand to convince you that vaping is "cleaner" and less unhealthy than smoking"

A study was done a few years ago in Utah. That's right, Utah. A place where tobacco use is about as 'unfriendly' as you can get, except for certain parts of California.

Apparently they used a closed-up room in which they burned cigarettes (artificially 'smoked' I think) and then did the equivalent with a vaping device.

The cigarette-smoke room tested positive for significant levels of various nasty chemicals, including nicotene.

The vape-"smoke" room tested NEGATIVE for "all of that", _INCLUDING_ nicotene.

So it appears that vapes aren't sources for second-hand nicotene, at least not in significant quantities.

I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, or a component of it. Not tobacco, but specifically cigarettes and other things that use "that kind of wrapping" on it. Pipes and cigars don't bug me. Seriously. And I get really *NASTY* headaches if I'm even *NEAR* many people who were smoking a cigarette recently. So no meetings for "at least an hour" with me and 'that person' in the same room, k-thx. However, NO problems with 'vape' smokers that I can tell. Best I can tell, it smells like some kind of sweet perfume or air freshener. No allergic symptoms whatsoever!

If you ask me, it's really a "personal freedom" thing. The only reason I get pissed off by discourteous smokers [who are a small percentage] is that their self-important "rights" interfere with mine, in particular my right to NOT have to be exposed to toxic substances in public places [or at work, or in a store, or in a bar, or in a restaurant, or in a casino even, yotta yotta].

So yeah, vaping is a GREAT idea for people to do something they want WITHOUT burdening the rest of the planet with their exhaust. Not *MY* business what others do when it does NOT affect me.

The ninny-nannies that seek to change people's behavior need to shut the @#$% up and go away. And the discourteous smokers should simply abandon that stupid behavior [it's not helping their cause], obey the laws, etc. and NOT get in people's faces with their exhaust. And people complaining to 'vape' users need to at least look to see if it's a lit cigarette first, before bitching [then, BITCH LOUDLY if it's a lit cancer stick, or shut the HELL up if it's a vape device]. And don't walk up to a smoker just to complain [that's stupid], especially if that person had made reasonable effort to go where nobody else was to light up.

Then we'd all "get along" right?

Another Canadian uni hit by ransomware, students told to keep Windows PCs away

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Mitigation

"went to a user in the goods receiveable department."

even RSA got 'hacked' in a similar way, when an attachment with a payload was apparently opened [in 'virus outbreak' aka MS Outlook] by a low-level accountant that was "on the network".

general e-mail rules to avoid this:

a) *NEVER* preview in HTML

b) *NEVER* even VIEW in HTML

c) *NEVER* allow 'inline whatever' to be previewed (or even VIEWED) in an e-mail

d) *NEVER* click on a link in an e-mail. *NEVER*. [I've received fake 'unsubscribe this' links in legit-looking bulk mail that appears as if I were maliciously subscribed against my will, most recently to 'wired', which I forwarded to their abuse department instead - had I clicked, who knows what would've happened!]

HTML mail is *EVIL* and should be avoided. Doesn't matter how many cat-pic chain mails get forwarded that way. If you must see it, save the attachments, scan them, THEN view them.

This level of security requires strict I.T. policies *AND* compliance. However, if you can actually *GET* users to comply, it will save your ass at some point.

RIP HPE's The Machine product, 2014-2016: We hardly knew ye

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Big Iron" thinking won't win

just to point out, since the invention of the PC, where distributed processing is the natural way for things to go, there's still a lot of "big iron" thinking out there, trying to drive computing in the direction of the past [i.e. big supercomputer, lots of dumb clients]. "The Cloud" is one of these trends, and it's not trending so well in my opinion (i.e. "highly overrated").

Sure, there will always be need for centralized data and storage, and even occasional centralized processing, and rent-a-CPU cloud services try to fill that need. However, no data pipe is fat enough to handle what a properly designed, locally run on a multi-core CPU, multi-threaded algorithm can do with summarized/snapshot data in lieu of some monster-server trying to run mega-queries on "all that noisy nonsense".

Hopefully HPE's good ideas will end up on THE DESKTOP COMPUTER, where they belong. Or a game console. Or some other such 'end user device'. That's because the benefits of "Big Iron" just aren't there for the larger segment of the industry.

So if _I_ were HP, I'd focus on leveraging multi-core desktops instead. It will have a bigger and more sustained payoff.

Vegans furious as Bank of England admits ‘trace’ of animal fat in £5 notes

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: why...

"Why didn't the people who decide these things foresee the inevitable fuss?"

because they don't CARE about a bunch of fringe-wackos making noise over nothing?

because they're focused on RESULTS and PROFITABILITY instead of "political correctness"?

and similar SANE reasons...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: "but it's still an unnecessary waste of life"

"brains need meat to function correctly."

that's probably true, or at least ingesting cholesterol. [I have this theory about 'low cholesterol' meds and altzheimers...]. cholesterol is necessary for proper nerve/brain function.

In nature, carnivores and omnivores are the ones with the bigger brains, forward-facing eyes, etc. and with the exception of certain veggie-primates [who also eat insects, but that's easily/deliberately overlooked when pointing them out] it's the rule that if you have a big brain and forward-facing eyes, you're either an omnivore or a carnivore.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Rational?

"Sea cucumbers, sea urchins, jellyfish are also edible and have no CNS."

plants don't have a central nervous system, either. But plants are *ALIVE*. Those vegans are eating "live" food! What hypocrites those vegans are! They should stick to seeds... oh wait, seeds are "plant babies". I guess they'll all have to STARVE now...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Blasphemy?

"It would probably be a good idea to use a mix of suet, lard and mutton fat to create the tallow just to ensure that the greatest number of individuals are offended"

include waste-fat from liposuction in that mix, and you're "there".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

if the 5 pound note used PETROLEUM instead of animal fat, would it be "less bio-degradable" ? It's like you can't please one enviro/wacko group without angering the others... [so it's 'greens' vs 'vegans' now - can't do ANYTHING with 'political correctness' in the way!]

best thing to do: tell them ALL to go pleasure themselves, and just ignore their shrill noise. And if they riot, shoot them with beef-fat soaked rubber bullets, and put them in jail for a while without access to their "special dietary requirements". Joke-em if they can't take a @#$%.

Outlook.com is still not functioning properly for some Microsoft punters

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Outlook's failure to comply with RFC 2822

why does this *NOT* surprise me???

There's the RIGHT way, the WRONG way, and the MICRO-SHAFT way. Looks like 'Virus Outbreak' uses the 3rd option. no surprise here.

I still haven't seen a REALLY good explanation as to what (exactly) motivates people to use Virus Outbreak (aka MS Outlook). One person replied in another thread, saying how it integrates things like contact info with everything else. I just don't see it, because I'm not a sales/marketing/management/support droid that's on the phone all of the time. In fact, I don't even ANSWER the phone. I turn the ringer off and occasionally check the answering machine. Phones are DISRUPTIONS and my train of thought is too important to be disrupted. So why would I *EVAR* need a 'Virus Outbreak' to 'integrate' all of that? Exactly!

I expect software devs (in general) are more like ME than are like someone who actually USES something "like Virus Outbreak" and so Micro-shaft continues to have their niche that's big enough to keep them viable... with *NO* FOSS devs capable of even SEEING THE NEED for something to REPLACE it.

[those who understand the needs of Virus Outbreak are apparently unable to write a replacement for it; those who ARE capable, do not see nor understand the need.]

50 years on, the Soviet-era Soyuz rocket is still our favorite space truck

bombastic bob Silver badge
IT Angle

"How much sleep do you suppose von Braun lost over this?"

who knows. most likely, very little. There was a LOT of 'ends justifies the means' going on during that war, primarily on the Axis side, but not exclusively.

Aside from that, the fact that a 50 year old rocket is still in use is a really good testament to 'tried and true' designs that aren't continuous moving targets. Such things make it possible to PLAN.

Micro-shaft should take a lesson from this with respect to software development... [I just added "the I.T. angle" to it, heh]

Super Cali goes ballistic, considers taxing Netflix

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

taxing the intarwebs is stupid

this debate has gone around at the federal level before, and has been summarily REJECTED.

How in the HELL are they going to BILL you on this, anyway?

All you'd need to do is use a PROXY to avoid the damn tax!

What a bunch of MAROONS in Sacramento, anyway. They should stop spending money like it's "other people's money" [whoops, it IS] and buying votes with it so they can retain their power and continue the vicious cycle of tax, spend, tax, spend, tax, spend... [I voted Republican]

Half-ton handbuilt CPU heads to Centre for Computing History

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pint

Re: Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!

I think it deserves a few 'clones' stationed strategically around the world, to inspire next generation CPU designers. Or something like that.

Having one in the Smithsonian would be a good start.

Space crap: Flap, zap or strap? $30k from NASA for your pooper scooper

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I always wondered how toilets worked in the Star Trek universe.

"Did they just teleport the waste out of you?"

The way they handled it on the Lexx was a bit more practical [and you didn't need toilet paper]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Simple solution

"I once had a girlfriend who only had one BM a week. It had to be cut up with a knife before it would flush"

thanks. I need brain bleach, now.

Ultra-rare WWII Lorenz cipher machine goes on display at Bletchley Park

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: In these days of programmable circuitry, we forget ...

"that the magnificent mechanical engineering that was involved in these encryption / decryption strategies"

and yet, those 'precision machines' were generating 'secure' messages that were being cracked, almost 'in real time' [by the end of the war], by skilled crypto experts and primitive computing equipment that was essentially built from spare parts by genius hackers.

obligatory reference to Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: "Has the serial number 1137"

"What makes you think a German with a sense of humour would ever be allowed near a Lorenz machine"

they weren't. Instead, you get humorless people who used common phrases like 'Heil Hitler' at the beginning and/or end of EVERY! STINKING! MESSAGE! which were then used as 'cribbs' to help decode the remainder of the message.

[if they'd started every message with a RANDOM JOKE, this crypt-cracking exploit might not have been possible]

maybe something like this one:

"Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!"

The Internet Society is unhappy about security – pretty much all of it

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: Security is rubbish

"Serious efforts by major organisations have clearly shown that with current technology it will remain so."

particularly when "that technology" includes Win-10-nic [spyware], Facebook [tracking you everywhere], and SHA1 [only just now being abandoned].

no WONDER people don't see any real security on "teh intarwebs"...

Meet the Loughborough 'emo' boffins who predicted Trump's victory

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

focusing on how people 'feel'

this in and of itself is an indicator of an even BIGGER problem - emotion-based voting. I often say that I feel with my fingers [fingers turned upward and wiggling, with cupped hands] and think with my BRAIN, because *ANY* decision based on emotion is likely to have a similar result as BEER GOGGLES.

but 'feel' is how people are usually manipulated. it's so easy to stir up emotional unthinking responses.

And yet the Trump phenomenon was NOT emotion-based, for the most part. At least, not from where I saw it.

So the premise that seeing how people FEEL via some kind of twitter-scan-bot is going to reveal election results, they should stop at the emotion part, except perhaps for judging liberals and liberalism, because all *THEY* *DO* is "feel".

Trump's campaign and election was a mass "fed up with it" reaction to politicians in general, who have failed to correctly respond to the electorate on important issues. Brexit is similar, as in when EU fails to properly respond to the UKs needs, you get "that reaction".

Not a lot of FEEL there, except maybe "frustration".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

"Plenty of twats voted for Brexit and Trump."

I couldn't vote for both Brexit _and_ Trump [but would have if I could have]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: They are not alone

"wishful thinking" indeed.

in the US, polls are often used to MAKE news. questions are asked in leading ways to deliberately skew the results to say what the pollster wants. It has been observed in the past that when you get close to an actual election, the accuracy improves, because the effective use of 'weapons grade' polling "that close" to an election isn't very good, AND the polling companies don't want to make themselves look like COMPLETE fools when their poll results are way way way off (not simply 'way off' or 'barely within the margin of error')

but yeah, I'd say the media and pollsters had a lot of 'wishful thinking' skewing their results towards Mrs. Clinton. No surprise.

The Dilbert author got it right. Interesting.