Posts by bombastic bob

After 20 years of Visual Studio, Microsoft unfurls its 2017 edition

Re: It's byooootifulllllllll - not!

"We got the "bland, blander, blandest" options for appearance"

yeah I noticed the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY from the screen shot in the article. *BLEAH*

The _ONLY_ feature in DevStudio these days [aside from the MFC C++ wizard, which requires me to manually tweek it after the fact to get rid of ".Not" and shared runtime libs] is "virtual space", which I've managed to live WITHOUT over the last few years, instead doing all of my code editing with things like 'pluma' (or gedit version 2.x, which it's based on). [I won't use 3.x's gedit because too many "things" were screwed up by the gnome 3 idiots...]

In any case, aside from syntax and comment highlights, and maybe curly brace/indent counting/fixing, what REAL features does that IDE have that we really need? Ok 'virtual space'. I don't like my cursor bouncing around when I down/up scroll. I also don't like extra white space added to the ends of lines. That really SUCKS. I have to edit things once in a while [fortunately I wrote a utility to do it, one that fixes line feeds, eliminates end of line white space, yotta yotta].

Even so, you don't need their 'thing' to do coding. 99% of what I do does NOT involve an IDE. So not having one isn't a big deal. And Micro-shaft isn't 'blowing my skirt up' [think Marilyn Monroe and that one movie scene] with any of their "new, shiny" since DevStudio 2010 and Windows 7...

[and I do use DevStudio 2010 on occasion... bu only when I _HAVE_ to]

AMD does an Italian job on Intel, unveils 32-core, 64-thread 'Naples' CPU

Re: Multicore Performance Improvement for the PC ?

"Not sure as not a computer science graduate, but will the operating system be able to benefit from all those cores ?"

Probably NOT if it's a Microshaft OS. However, I know for a _FACT_ that FreeBSD would benefit, depending on what you're doing. And most likely Linux as well.

Example, use 'make -j n' where 'n' is the # of simultaneous 'jobs' you want to run. I usually pick a value that's at least 50% more than the # of cores I'm running (so that it takes advantage of idle time waiting for I/O and stuff like that). it can make builds go significantly faster, up to 'm' times faster when 'm' is the # of cores you have (yeah, duh).

I understand that there are mpeg encoding libraries now that can ALSO take advantage of multiple cores. I do not know if mpeg DEcoding can use multi-core, but it wouldn't surprise me.

And, not to forget mention of, GAMES. But they're generally OS-agnostic as far as how the game maker wants to implement things.

Worth pointing out, CLASSIC X11 [and _NOT_ Wayland] is a CLIENT/SERVER model, which theoretically runs the graphics in one core, and the application in another one. So by design, an X11 system is _ALREADY_ configured to benefit from multi-core, though the total # of cores that give you a measurable benefit seems to be small (like, 2, maybe?)

Linux also has kernel threads (BSD as well) and whenever you have multiple threads and multiple cores, possibly processing multiple simultaneous I/O requests without blocking one another, you get performance benefit from multi-core. 32 cores, as compared to 4 or even 2, might not make much of a difference, though.

Anyway, aside from algorithms specifically written to leverage multi-core (you can do it with a number of them, from DFT to qsort), most operating systems (inherently) will probably NOT have much of a performance boost between 2 or 4 cores, and 32 cores. That's my $.10 worth, anyway...

Don't worry, slowpoke Microsoft, we patched Windows bug for you, brags security biz

Awesome!

You, sir, deserve a beer!

RadioShack bankruptcy savior to file for, you guessed it, bankruptcy

Re: Aw. Nothing like the smell of hot solder --

yeah but the hot solder is less expensive from Amazon and the plethora of electronics retailers available online. If it weren't for online vendors, you'd think that they could survive off of RPi, Arduino, cheap Android phones/slabs, home stereo gear, and of course, Radio Control cars and drones. And batteries.

Disappointment...

Sir Tim Berners-Lee refuses to be King Canute, approves DRM as Web standard

Re: DRM means you don't own your content

"The same is true for a CD or a DVD."

and SHOULD be the same for an electronic-only copy. Just because it's bits on a hard drive doesn't make it any different, really.

Re: And will this DRM realise its been run in a VM and is a chocolate teapot?

"Companies like RedFox sell bluray ripping software"

Who needs software, when you can do it with HARDWARE? Anyone _not_ heard of a cable 'T' for HDMI and/or component video? Plug THAT into your TV, then use a video ripper off of the 'T'. There are legit uses for such a device (such as a DVR device for watching shows from a converter output) as well as the potential for pirating stuff.

Seriously, existing laws should be fine. It's illegal to copy the content and distribute it to others. FAIR USE FOR YOURSELF however needs to be respected, too.

Re: And will this DRM realise its been run in a VM and is a chocolate teapot?

"That is the thing about DRM, generally it serves to piss of honest consumers and does not stop anyone really wanting to pirate."

That's because they ARE after "the little guy". Think about some of the fascist DRM actions (in the form of lawsuits) have been [ab]used in the past. And now their strategy is transparent.

Seriously, though, flash had way too many serious problems to be taken seriously, and its tech is way behind the times by now. What I *fear* is the inclusion of some closed-source requirement, SUCH AS not being able to run on Linux with an open source video driver (or on an X11-based GUI system at ALL).

And no, Wayland won't fix it. It would only become PART OF THE PROBLEM.

[this goes along with "you must use this browser" and oh by the way, Windows-only, worse if it's Win-10-nic only]

Did your in-flight entertainment widget suck? It's Panasonic's fault, claims software biz

you would think...

you would think that OPEN STANDARDS would be a selling feature for their system.

If they stop trying to monopolize the hardware+software combination, they can just sell the hardware and make THAT their revenue model. Yeah, open standards ARE a good thing.

USA! USa! Udia! India! India! Apple nudges iPhone production base

Re: I'm at the wrong end of the telescope

"the ship's emission's are spread out over so many units"

'above minimum detectability' implies "the solution to pollution is dilution"

you'd be surprised just how often this is done. To meet local sewer regulations, for example, you cannot have detectable "whatever" above "some limit". So let's say a nuclear chemistry lab in a college decides that having TWO storage tanks instead of one means you can pump 'n' gallons from tank 'a', mix with fresh water from the tap, then test to make sure it's "below some limit", then DISCHARGE IT INTO THE SEWER, which is just fine and dandy, environmentally friendly, 'green' etc.. Rinse, repeat until tank 'a' is empty. This is the real world, folks! Idealism goes out the door when your college's nuclear chemistry lab needs to empty its tank.

But (aside from radioactive isotopes) it's typical for 'the bugs' to eat whatever garbage that gets thrown into the environment, within limits. So long as it stays below a level where it causes actual harm, anyway.

/me also points that ships in international waters can (and no doubt, regularly do) dump their sewage tanks right into the ocean. just sayin'.

And in some places, they used to dump it right into the HARBOR. Olongopo was one such place...

Japan's Venus probe power plight panacea: Turn it off and on again ...and again and again...

Re: "function near a lightning simulator. "

"Yes that would be the sort of environment that would be close to a nuclear weapon."

being tolerant of constant irradiation by a neutron source? well, lightning isn't neutrons, just high energy EMP. I wouldn't be surprised that hardening against both of them uses similar tech.

Re: radiation environment

I think part of the problem was the path it took to get there. It had a "missed approach", had to go around the sun or something... well that exposed it to Mr. Sun's nuclear blast furnace and thereby did potential damage to metal oxide insulators and whatnot. yeah.

America halts fast processing of H-1B skilled worker visas

why was this called 'discrimination'

I have to wonder, why was this suspension of priority H1-B approval called 'discrimination'? Except, of course, "non-U.S. Citizens" might be "discriminated" against by NOT giving them visas on a priority basis... which is a perfectly reasonable thing as far as _I_ am concerned.

It sounds to me like it is another attempt to use emotion-word-bombs to drive people to 'feel' instead of 'think', in order to manipulate the general populous into supporting whatever cause they're using those emotion-word-bombs for. It's just like when everyone DISAGREEING with OBAKA was labeled "a racist" simply for NOT paying the obligatory homage to "dear leader".

It's really about wealthy political contributors stuffing the re-election coffers with funds, and the expectation that gummint policies can KEEP WAGES DOWN. And we all knew that already.

People in India: Form your own companies and compete in the world market along with everyone else. You'll make more money that way, in the long run. Hire locally. If your people are THAT good, then YOUR companies will show for it, YOUR economy will improve, etc..

Pence v Clinton: Both used private email for work, one hacked, one accused of hypocrisy

Re: Fart Free Area

"Can I make a plea for the Register to be a Fart (as in Trump) free area to avoid the Merkins rerunning their pathetic convoluted presidential election and subsequent debacle."

(oh yeah you just had to go there didn't you)

when El Reg posts articles about Trump, his administration, his policies, etc. it's all relevant, right?

And it's JOURNALISM to print/post such things, so there ya have it.

Re: Drink the f up.

for me, Tequila!

or a good ale.

Re: A suprise?

"Republican hypocrisy? Better than everyone else attitude? Double standards?"

More like 'Politician hypocrisy." But there are those out there with blinders on who would 'feel' otherwise.

Eh, nothing surprises me about this, really. Too many glass houses there in D.C.

(which is why I'm glad Trump 'the outsider' is president, now)

As for who broke the law and who didn't, I guess you COULD open up an investigation on Pence, but I think the article already stated he complied with Indiana laws, which apparently don't prevent you from having a personal account as long as everything gets archived for "hysterical porpoises". And now we see a possible motivation for NOT going after Mrs. Clinton. Who knew?

I just want OBAKA-CARE to die, no more 'individual mandate' specifically, and the tax cuts and de-regulation. Then let the press have their feeding frenzy while our lives all improve.

[note to the howler monkeys: you may not like my posts, and that's fine, going into a downvote frenzy just because it's me (maybe), but if you want me to go away, pray to whatever god you might believe in, or the spaghetti monster if you don't, that I get PLENTY more work, so that I'm not averting boredom by posting here, ha ha ha ha ha]

Frustrated by reboot-happy Windows 10? Creators Update hopes to take away the pain

Re: That horrible dialog box text

"you aren't supposed to do stuff with your PC overnight, you are just supposed to consume content."

yeah, for those farmer-types who keep daylight hours because they LIKE it, maybe that's true. Then there are the night-owl HACKER types (like me) who do work at random times during the day and night. MY schedule is _NOT_ Micro-shaft's business, nor should they be ASSUMING and SCREWING WITH IT.

Then again, update schedules are designed to correspond to "the least convenient time" anyway, which (as others have stated) are as likely to be "at a customer site" forcing you to WAIT to fix a high priority problem.

Solution: do NOT use Win-10-nic. If possible, do NOT use a Micro-shaft OS.

Re: Stopped using

"Walt Mossberg has written this week that he believes personal computers to change to ARM soon"

He's making Micro-shaft's mistake, believing that EVERYONE is a 4" screen content consumer (i.e. a "4-incher").

You can't use 'new device' sales to determine how people use their computers, especially not NOW when 10 year old machines still seem to do a fine job, especially withOUT Win "ape" or Win-10-nic on them.

But market-droids don't know how to look at an existing user base. They ONLY look at 'new sales', and if market-droids are DESIGNING THE SYSTEMS, we can expect "more of the same" from them. What idiots, yeah.

Re: Serious question here...

"what is the architectural difference between Windows and Linux that gives Windows the need to restart after any (or most) updates?"

It is, primarily, the file system and the way Micro-shaft uses "paranoia" with respect to files [it seems their philosophy is one that assume disk contents can change behind the OS's back, or something...]

In winders, if a DLL is in use, it cannot be updated without first shutting down everything that is using it. In Linux, files are 'inodes' and directories simply point to the inode. In Windows, the file is the name, not the node (though with NTFS this shouldn't HAVE to be the case, as I understand it).

Windows doesn't allow you to delete a file and still have it "exist" until all references close it. Linux does. And so, with a Linux system, if you have a bunch of daemons running that are referencing a shared lib, they CAN continue to use "the old lib" until you restart them, which means you can take your time to update shared libs, then just restart the daemons and you're done. It's also the same with executable files.

In Winders, it's all 'paranoid'. A DLL (or EXE for that matter) is *locked* and cannot be updated until ALL references to it are closed. This forces the updaters to a) write temporary copies of the new DLL, and b) rename them on reboot.

Back in the win '9x days, this was an easier process, and of course there's an API function available that installers can use to leverage this. But it _DOES_ require that REBOOT.

And over time, the process has become more and more complicated, with replication of system DLLs and things of THAT nature.

And don't EVEN get me started on updates to "the registry". Linux does JUST FINE with config files ('systemd' nonsense notwithstanding) stored in 'well known' directory trees such as '/etc' '/usr/share' and '/usr/local'. And running daemons often have a 'reload' option to update them with the changed files, letting you edit them at your leisure, then tell the daemon to re-read it, etc..

Suffice it to say that the SIMPLE and ELEGANT architecture of Linux, being VASTLY SUPERIOR to the kludgy and paranoid architecture of Windows, means that updates [other than major kernel updates] do NOT require a reboot... JUST a re-start of the affected systems.

[but it never hurts to boot Linux after a massive upgrade - sometimes things just don't work right until you do]

We found a hidden backdoor in Chinese Internet of Things devices – researchers

Re: Everything has a backdoor these days

But, NOT my Linux/FreeBSD computers. Worthy of note.

Polls? How very 2016. Now Google Street View AI scanner can predict how people will vote

Re: Pickups predict republicans?

Pious (aka 'Prius') owners not necessarily Demo-rats (or non-Republicans) unless it has a politically charged bumper sticker on the back... (it might just be someone who drives a lot and wants to save money).

A former 'down the street' neighbor of mine had a Pious, and the back had plenty of politically charged bumper stickers.

As for ME, _my_ car is in the GARAGE all the time. 'Across the street' neighbors park in front of my house (they have too many cars or something). So much for your photo-based demographics!

But if anyone's asking, it's an 18 year old Ford Mustang convertible (with the top down nearly all the time). And I'm a 'conservative libertarian' (who votes Republican because libertarian candidates tend to be tin-foil-hat flakes that just want marijuana to be legal, and they're nearly won that battle now, so what ELSE are they going to do?)

But I'd like to have a pickup truck... and a motorcycle... and a lamborghini [ok probably won't get that].

(need a 'wrench' icon)

One IP address, multiple SSL sites? Beating the great IPv4 squeeze

Re: Thumbs up, but have to respectfully disagree with some things

"server name indication" - like for name-based hosting? works for https, too.

At least, last time I tried it. Which was recently. Using Apache. Just sayin'.

I have multiple https certs pointing to the same IPv4 (and IPv6) address, but by name (and not IPv4 address) so that the IPv6 works, too, with the same cert. Seems to do just fine. Yeah, I self-cert. Load my own root cert in the browsers and it all just works. There's a spot in the cert where you can specify where to download it from, as I recall.

proxy would work just to re-direct it to private web servers, but if you want name-based hosting on a shared IP address, it's pretty straightforward.

Amazon's AWS S3 cloud storage evaporates: Top websites, Docker stung

cloud overrated for most things

"The Cloud" has its uses, like shared docs stored on google docs, or source on github. But if you don't have some means of "failure override" (like using a private repository, or e-mail documents to people) you're totally b0rked when the cloud has another 'technicolor belch'.

I can imagine people using Office 365, google's javascript document editors, or even a cloudy-based mail service, running about like chickens with heads cut off, if their entire business model has them as 'single point of failure'.

I have to wonder who didn't hear about "distributed load" "replication" and "automatic failover" over at AWS...

Re: But....

"Deploy in the cloud by all means but still backup, replicate, ensure that you don't have a single point of failure."

always good advice.

/me uses github. that's cloudy enough.

Microsoft slaps Apple Gatekeeper-like controls on Windows 10: Install only apps from store

Re: Puts me off using them..

"Glad to see that Linux apps still easily available."

AND, you can COMPILE YOUR OWN!

Which means EVERYTHING to ME.

we knew this was coming...

We knew this was coming. We know who Micro-shaft is. We know they don't care about end-users at ALL. We're just "revenue-generating pawns" to them.

And so, Win-10-nic with its MANDATORY "updates" and 'upgrades" *MUST* soon "protect us from ourselves", and require that *EVERYTHING* go through "the Store", because THEY must have a TOLLBOOTH ready to COLLECT THE TOLL on EVERYTHING, even if it's INDIRECT. You know, like "must SIGN the application" and "must be SIGNED BY MICRO-SHAFT". Even if it's a free, open source application.

Nevermind that native Win32 applications run FASTER and BETTER. That's not important. What _IS_ important is "what is good for Micro-shaft".

Well, while they slowly commit business-suicide, the customers are "revolting" (well, how Micro-shaft sees us). Except soon enough, I expect REBELLING.

CRapp store "Ghetto" indeed.

Linux on Windows 10: Will penguin treats in Creators Update be enough to lure you?

Re: Like automobiles ? Diesel ? Petrol ?

"Is the Microsoft Services For Unix reached 15 years old or is it older?"

It had XP support. And it seemed _BETTER_ (back then) than now...

Interix / SFU / SUA has gone through some minor changes (mostly the name) since XP, and it was OUT OF DATE BACK THEN, too, when it first appeared. It was purchased technology. Initially (as I recall) you could install it on pretty much any XP system, and later it requried a 'Pro' version (windows 7), and after that, just wouldn't install at ALL (win-10-nic). And they're still using X11R5 last I looked... and really out of date gcc... and I couldn't compile a number of standard libraries with it (gtk-related stuff as I recall), and so I completely gave up on it. Even the NFS share method was flakey, trying to replicate UNIX-style UID security and whatnot. A complete and total kludge. And I said good things about it in the past, too, thinking that having UNIX tools on the command line was its saving grace. Except they don't even have 'tar' (there's a 'pax' but it's kludgy). There are other non-Linux non-BSD quirks as well, but I digress...

In any case, I found CYGWIN to be 'the saving grace' for getting a command prompt that was actually USEFUL for things like ssh and rsync, just to maintain backups on another drive across the network if for no other reason.

So yeah Micro-shaft's "lipstick on a boar" would make a LOT more sense if you haven't heard of CYGWIN before.

And once they integrate ".Not" with it, that will be the 'Extend' part of 'Embrace, Extend, Extinguish', then WATCH OUT! Look what they did with POWERSHELL, and expect POWERBASH to be *NEXT* - *urp* sorry, need more pink liquid...

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?