* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Microsoft's development platform today: What you need to know

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"many flavors of XAML"

This is where things went HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY, WRONG.

A couple of quotes from the article:

"Developers who have followed the twists and turns of Microsoft's developer story over the years will know that there are many flavors of XAML"

"There are WPF XAML, Silverlight XAML, and UWP XAML, all different"

sort of like "you are in a twisty little maze of passages, all different" (from a version of RJR Cave that had the batteries in a vending machine within the 'all different' maze).

Did Micro-shaft *MISS* *THE* *BOAT* on this? If we wanted an XML-based UI description, then there's already a simple way of doing it: HTML FORMS. Like web pages, only internal to the application. I'm pretty sure that Webkit has a means for doing this...

There's a somewhat-nice implementation of this for Android. I made use of it once to display a web server's screens as *IF* they were an application running on a slab to control a device. [it was a nice rapid hybrid prototype solution to the problem of getting a GUI on a 'droid slab to control stuff on an Arduino over a serial cable, while displaying live video capture and controlling tests in real time]. The wrapper Android application was pretty simple. All of the work was done on a custom-written Linux web server. [it went into clinical trials that way, being a device associated with certain kinds of eye exams].

So with Java sitting pretty at the top of the TIOBE index for the last SEVERAL YEARS, why is Micro-shaft *BOTHERING* with their C-pound ".Nut" "solution" for cross-platform, with XAM-IT-UP-YOUR-BACKSIDE for GUI screens?

Simple: they want to CONTROL THE DIRECTION for software development. More like DRIVE it, like cattle across the plains, heading for the slaughterhouse. THEN, their PATENT ENCUMBERANCE will keep OTHERS from competing, in THEIR playground, by THEIR rules.

No thanks.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Visual C++ for Linux Development

"Seems like you can avoid the expense of 1) and 2) by just using Linux in the first place."

ACK, and for commercial GUI-related tools, I understand Qt is pretty good. or you can use (*cough*) Eclipse and gtk. Or just use 'pluma' (gedit's gnome3-ness is irritating for coding) which is what *I* do, and run gdb on an application that displays it's GUI within a VNC X server [so you don't lock the system up debugging a GUI from within X11 - yes, it does do that, but the workaround is sufficient]. There are also GUI wrappers for gdb (at least one really good one). Dunno about Eclipse, though. I find it slow and irritating when I need to do something.

Micro-shaft's IDE *does* make life easier, however, in many (but not ALL ways). It's just that I find porting "their stuff" to Linux to be more work than suffering with "what I just mentioned", line endings and unicode forcing being one of those things. [aka WHY can't Micro-shaft just use UTF-8 like everyone else?]

And yet... even with MSDN subscription and more than one windows 7 computer/VM to code within, I find myself writing just about EVERYTHING either on Linux or FreeBSD, using pluma or an older gedit [that was from gnome 2], command line tools, 'autotools' with configure scripts, yotta yotta. It's so much *cleaner*. Or, the Arduino IDE (for microcontroller stuff).

Microsoft ❤️ Linux? Microsoft ❤️ running its Windows' SQL Server software on Linux

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Drawbridge

"So let's find a fancy new name so we can pretend to innovate!"

Hooooooold on, thar! [vague Quick Draw McGraw reference]

Let's step back about 2 meters and see what this REALLY means...

THIS means that MICROSOFT has a 'Wine-like' CONTAINER that could be used by *ANY* windows application maker to, *ahem*,

*QUICKLY*! *PORT*! *THEIR*! *WINDOWS*! *APPLICATION*! *FOR*! *LINUX*!!!

Which implies... that a LINUX PC could (theoretically) run *ANY*! *WINDOWS*! *APPLICATION*! if Micro-shaft would *BOTHER* *TO* *RELEASE* *THIS* the way they had a nice XP subsystem for Mac OSX a decade or so ago... remember?

After Microsoft joins Linux, Google Cloud joins .NET Foundation

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alert

Google and '.NUT' - if it ends up in 'droid we're SCREWED

If ".NUT" ends up in 'droid, we're SCREWED.

And you all thought the JAVA interface for 'droid was cumbersome and irritating...

And with one stroke, Trump killed the Era of Slacktivism

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: "Better broadband could be a grassroots cause"

well, if I had enough money I'd call the phone company and say "I have money, and I want XXX now how much to set me up with that?" if they said "no" I'd be like "ok, I'm willing to PAY SOMEONE to RUN WIRES TO MY HOUSE. Now, HOW MUCH?" After a few of THOSE, I'd eventually get in touch with someone who could help me work out the details.

NOW... if that process were made SIMPLER, maybe those lines being brought in for YOU could then provide competing service to all of the neighbors. A telco SHOULD want to JUMP at that possibility.

Unfortunately, city gummints "gum up the works" by requiring things like "you must provide equal service in a POOR neighborhood for every well-to-do neighborhood you do this for". Nevermind that poor neighborhoods generally can't AFFORD "that service". but that's how gummints do things. or you pay them off to shut the hell up, and get it done before someone notices...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: One thing we can count on with Trump

"won't be appointing Carly Fiorina"

why not? the election is over now. time to get work done. Ted Cruz is being considered for a cabinet position, as one example. It might be fun, seeing Carly as FCC chair... or in charge of the patent office... or running something ELSE that she'd be really knowledgeable about.

Strap in and hang onto the safety bar, we're going for a ride! And it cost an 'E' ticket for THIS one! [ok who else is old enough to remember the 'E' ticket rides at Disneyland?]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: We do not know what Trump will do or will not do

Google might have a lot of influence, but every once in a while a "Teddy Roosevelt" will go into office and carry his BIG STICK. I can see Trump doing that...

(but Trump would rather stick a carrot on the end and make a deal - a GOOD deal)

also privacy issues make strange bedfellows. I find myself actually AGREEING with the ACLU at times. I expect Trump to be more for individuals than mega-corporations, at least if his campaign speeches reflected his true passion. I think they did.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Yes and no.

"You say it's propaganda, but you don't show how that is so"

I agree with you questioning that assessment. I agree with some of the posters above, that the article was well balanced.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: net neutrality

the original intent of 'net neutrality' was "no packet favoritism". However, that fails to make faster pipelines a reality, as they just get clogged with more CRAP, all equally prioritized.

What might work BEST is a 'hybrid system' where the netflix-like providers pay a premium to get a priority code. If only a percentage of traffic is prioritized, let's say no more than 30% when traffic is heavy, then everyone else shares the 70% of the total bandwidth [not a bad deal, really]. The extra revenue from selling the "preferred pipeline" could then go into upgrading the overall pipeline. EVERYBODY wins! But in a communistic "all traffic is the same priority, regardless" system, you get lots of CRAP that nobody pays for. And the infrastructure doesn't improve. EVER.

And like communism and socialism, when everybody is LOWERED DOWN TO THE SAME COMMON DENOMINATOR, then everybody is EQUALLY MEDIOCRE.

Instead of 'net neutrality', the "fair prioritized pipelining" technique would go a LOT farther in delivering content AND not destroying high speed traffic for non-pay-to-play-ers. It's like a private toll road intended for those willing to pay (one where the cost varies depending on how much it's being used, in particular). It ultimately lightens traffic for everyone else, too. You may hate it, but it works.

But yeah, you won't see THAT idea coming from a "slacktivist" any time soon...

/me wonders if I'll set a new personal downvote record with THIS post

Fujitsu: Rumours of our PC demise have been greatly exaggerated

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Blame Win-10-nic for bad PC sales

Fuji needs to put blame where it belongs, directly on Win-10-nic, for declining new PC sales.

Perhaps their new "partner" needs to be a commercial version of Linux, and some major software publishers WILLING to do Linux versions for the PC desktop, instead of half-baked "mobile versions" for smart phones (that are laughably crippled).

Satya Nadella hits Sydney and channels Steve O'Ballmer from eight years ago

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Missing in action?

"was there any sign of a Monkey Boy dance?"

'developers developers developers developers'

and look where THAT took us...

Married man arrives at A&E with wedding ring stuck on todger

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

all they really needed to do...

all they really needed to do, to get his member 'small enough' to slip the ring off, would be to:

a) show him hot naked pics of radical feminists like Mrs. Clinton, Patricia Ireland, Gloria Steinam, etc.

b) a (naked?) pic of his wife after 30 years and 50 lbs have been added

c) a virtual reality "divorce court" simulation in which he's taken to the cleaners by multiple women making false claims against him and deliberately keeping their own personal income LOW so that HE must pay MORE (and pay ALL of the attorney's fees on top of it).

yeah, THAT'll make your penis pucker!

Fake election news meltdown vortex sucks in Google

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: BBC

"The fact is that they have given up fact checking, given up real journalism"

ack. Blogs typically report *FEELINGS* and not *FACTS*. And everybody has FEELINGS, and they all *LIE* and are INCREDIBLY UNRELIABLE, and are IRRELEVANT as HELL on any subject.

Feelings should be jettisoned with the weekly trash pickup.

But, then we'd have no ONLINE OUTRAGE nor DRAMA to snark and lampoon.

/me points out that 'feelings' are not the same as passion nor conviction. 'feelings' are like BEER GOGGLES. Passion and conviction are MOTIVATORS.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I for me

"Everyone knows the rhyme about Nelly the Elephant."

I didn't, being 'across the pond' is probably why. you made me look it up. Wikipedia had it. "Trump trump trump" indeed. Heh.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: We will never know

"As many states stop counting votes at all once a winner is sure"

also, if you count ballots PROPERLY you'll discover JUST how many Demo-Rat ballots were 'stuffed' (i.e. people voting multiple times, dead people voting, illegal aliens voting, yotta yotta). So heavily-Demo-Rat districts don't want that kind of light shining in their dark recesses...

it's also why Demo-Rats don't want proper ID checks at the polling place, either.

So when Mrs. Clinton is reported to have a "less than one million vote" popular 'win' over Trump, it's probably due to 'ballot box stuffing' *In My Bombastic Opinion*

Firefox hits version 50

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: This being an IT site

"Perhaps it is worth noting that we have version 50.0 on FreeBSD as well."

right, but tracking 'bleeding edge' on something like FreeBSD isn't always practical, ESPECIALLY when you prefer to build from source. I'd rather not be a slave of "new, shiny" and have a stable platform to 'get work done' on.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Innovation?

"I'm sure they've heard of it, but nothing much going on here."

I agree in principle. CHANGE != INNOVATION especially when it's "change for the sake of change" or "change because millenials think it's 'cool'" or "change because Micro-shaft is doing it *THAT* way" or "change because we *FEEL* everyone needs {whatever}"

Let's not forget how long XP stayed THE SAME, and how it remained POPULAR the entire time.

Let's not forget the ~30 years of GUI being done "that way" and GROWING in scope and market from the mid/late 80's through now.

Let's not forget the *FAIL* of Windows "Ape", Win-10-nic, and the entire premise of "make your desktop look {read: be crippled} like a 'smart' phone".

And, unfortunately, FF's direction has been TOO MUCH like the above statement. FORTUNATELY you can turn the REGULAR MENU back on again, though it's not always easy to figure out the first time you go W.T.F. when you see NO MENU and a FORNICATING HAMBURGER ICON.

So this "every few weeks" release cycle is not only HIGHLY OVERRATED, it's HIGHLY UNNECESSARY.

I have a better idea: Just *FIX* *THE* *DAMN* *BUGS* (after putting the >2 year old user interface BACK, thank you, WITHOUT A DAMNED HAMBURGER ICON for non-touchy devices), and spend your ENTIRE development time cycling EVERY bit of code through ANAL RETENTIVE REVIEW, for efficiency, security, and size.

Oh, but that's not *FUN*, right? Too bad. REAL programmers know how to Q.A. their own schtuff. And they don't need rapidly increasing major version numbers, either.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: @Mage

"and one of the reasons (in comparison to Firefox) is that the interface hardly ever changes."

YES YES YES!

This is a BIG THING with ME. I *HATE* 2D flats, fat-finger-friendliness [at the expense of screen real estate on my *DESKTOP* computer], and that *HIDEOUS* *HAMBURGER* *MENU*.

Using Firefox 27-ish on my GNOME 2 DESKTOP at the moment, on a FreeBSD machine with ~2-year old 'ports' (built from source), with plugins *like* noscript [the MAIN reason for using Firefox at all]. If it needs a patch I can re-build it from source.

If it works, *WHY* *CHANGE* ??? Moving targets are HIGHLY overrated.

Microsoft leaks Visual Studio for Mac, then scrubs the news

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

If it weren't "C-pound" and ".Not" I might be interested...

A true cross-platform development environment is a good idea. I've been working on something _LIKE_ that for YEARS. But just me, and only in my spare time, when I wanna, isn't getting it done very quickly. [I need the toolkit FIRST, then the IDE that does what _I_ like, etc. - still working on toolkit using the IDE and basing it all on X11 and it's pre-alpha - you get the idea, yeah].

Instead, Micro-shaft *EXCRETES* yet another clone of their *FAILING* re-re-re-invention of software development [over which they have 100% control, and wield it at THEIR discretion], only THIS time for THE MAC. Er, doesn't Apple *ALREADY* have a developer environment for THE MAC ?

And *WHY* would *ANYONE* actually *WANT* to code C-pound and ".Not" for a MAC ???

It's like the mono project for Linux and other POSIX operating systems: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA (oh, you were *SERIOUS* ???)

Shhh! Shazam is always listening – even when it's been switched 'off'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Meh

"surely if you're really concerned about privacy, that takes precedence over your desire to find out what's playing on the radio?"

well, might be easier to:

a) look on the 'what is playing' section of the station's web page [a lot of them do this]

b) if it's internet streaming radio, you'll see the ID text displayed [probably]

c) who really cares, since RIAA only excretes CRAP these days, with rare exceptions

and anyway, Shazam probably wouldn't recognize anything _I_ listen to, from JPop to old jazz. Except, maybe, for decent 'more modern' stuff like Muse or Metallica.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Overreaction?

"But what happens when the sound you want to search happened five seconds ago?"

someone else already suggested they add an option for that "feature". You know, on, pause, off; or perhaps, on, off, "no, seriously off". whatever.

And the audio may not be tracked by *THEM* but a back door trojan horse application *COULD* perhaps 'hook' it and leverage the user's cluelessness with respect to having the microphone on whenever that application is left running...

[maybe we can blame the "TSR"-ness of phone applications, too? Must they REALLY 'stay running' all of the time?]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Pedantically...

"Switch off your mic and they can still listen in using your speakers."

I think you need a refund on your engineering degree

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: On the positive side...

"The developers are listening to what their users say."

BRILLIANT! on MULTIPLE! LEVELS!!! (thanks, I needed a dose of snark)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: How else are the US corporations and spooks supposed to harvest all your most personal info...

"No need for Big Brother to bug your house when you buy and install this shit for them!"

Someone would STILL have to code a 'back door' zero-day, or pay them (Shazam devs) under the table for it.

China gets mad at Donald Trump, threatens to ruin Apple

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Trade War - FTFY

"I think Trump plans to increase the prison population..."

well, with a select few POLITICIANS maybe!

(but I like it when career criminals go to jail for life - it keeps them from victimizing anybody else, FOREVER)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Trade War

"China's possible trade blockade will only be a temporary disruption, not a catastrophe."

Yet, news media will make it SEEM like the catastrophe that it is NOT.

If I were Apple, I'd be 2nd-sourcing EVERYTHING. Or 3rd-sourcing. NOW. There's this other country just south of the USA that has a number of manufacturing sites, and it was only about a year ago that I read on 'El Reg' that THEY might just do these things better/cheaper than China... [and THEN they'll have enough money to 'build the wall']

NHS IT bod sends test email to 850k users – and then responses are sent 'reply all'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Headmaster

OMFG, usage of the 'singular "they"' - ew

Sorry I have to play grammarian fascist on THIS one:

"had understandably turned their mobile phone off"

it's either 'had understandably turned their mobile PHONES off' (referring to multiple people), or 'had understandably turned HIS mobile phone off' (for a single person whose actual sex is unknown, use of the MALE pronoun 'his' would be correct).

post edit: or it could've been a 'typoe'

Swedish prosecutor finally treks to London to question Julian Assange

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: He faces no threat from the U.S. now

"Trump would probably give him a medal and a job in his administration."

A presidential pardon might be an interesting twist...

[I don't think he'll do it, though]

2016 in a nutshell: Boffins break monkeys' backs to turn them into tragic shuffling cyborgs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Feel sorry for the monkeys

this time, the rats got a break.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Not ethical

re: whale hunting. eating whale meat

in certain parts of Scandinavian countries [I forget where, exactly], Japan, and among certain Eskimo tribes, whaling (and whale meat) has been part of their lives for CENTURIES (if not longer). I've never eaten whale meat, but whale steak used to be generally available in Japan. I think Japan no longer does any whaling, though (not even for research). At one time it was a cheap alternative to beef.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Waste not, want not" (etc.)

how 'appropoo' - they were playing 'Soilent Green' on a cable channel, yesterday...

Encrypted email sign-ups instantly double in wake of Trump victory

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Is it...

"I wish the world would ditch email"

I just wish they'd ditch HTML IN E-MAIL. Just sayin'...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: FUD

"An authoritarian such as Trump"

'authoritarian'? REALLY? talk about mis-charactarization.

OBAKA is an 'authoritarian' - hence all of those 'executive orders'.

An 'authoritarian', with respect to management style, is the type of manager who MUST be "in charge", and has a propensity towards micromanagement and anal retentiveness. They will typically have an "I love 'me' wall" with trophies and accomplishments plastered all over it. Their motivation is usually POWER, in order to DIRECTLY CONTROL EVERYTHING.

Now, let's look at how Trump manages things: Trump hires qualified people that he can trust, and he tends to give them a LOT of leeway. THOSE people do all of the dirty work, and Trump oversees them, but doesn't MICRO-MANAGE. This type of management style, which is _THE_ most SUCCESSFUL way of managing, is referred to as "Delegation". It's what Ronald Reagan did, too.

Two UNsuccessful presidents, Carter and Obaka, are _BOTH_ 'Authoritarians'. Carter was lampooned on Saturday Night Live as being a know-it-all micromanager. Obaka SHOULD have been.

I wonder if mis-perceptions like *THIS* are behind the rapid increase in secure mail accounts... because a Trump presidency is MOST likely to be like the REAGAN presidency. ["they" said similar things about Reagan back in the 80's, too, and none of it was true, and he had Bush Sr. as his VP, who was FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE CIA].

Red squirrels! Adorable, right? Wrong – they're riddled with leprosy

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Seems obvious to me.

my scoutmaster (when I was 11) shot a squirrel when we were on a survival hike. Then he just handed it to us boy scouts to figure out how to cook the thing. It was still choking to death. My suggestion [having read the correct books] of 'starting with the anus' was the correct one, of course, but NOBODY knew how to skin and clean an animal. And squirrels are 99% guts, it seems, with only a few bits of edible meat on their entire body... and it DOES taste kinda like dried up chicken.

Mark Zuckerberg is dead – Facebook confirmed

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

"What is facebook?"

better off not knowing. nothing to see, move along.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

The reports of my death...

"The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"

wasn't this a quote from Mark Twain?

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marktwain141773.html

Zuck should have used that. Then it would have been funny.

Drubbed Grubhub bub scrubs anti-Donald-dubbed snub sub-hubbub

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Simple questions, simple answers

actually some of them are LEADING questions, and invite responses like these:

"Q1—Do you agree with the views Trump has expressed many times about immigrants and women?"

A1 - yes. (he likes to hire women in key positions, and wants LEGAL immigration)

Q1(b) "Do you agree with his racism, bigotry and misogyny?"

A1(b) - I don't believe he exhibits any racism, bigotry, nor misogyny

"Q2—Do you actually understand what will happen if the few policies he has been able to explain are actually implemented?"

A2 - yes, and I want them. tax cuts, jobs, deregulation, border enforcement, and FAIR DEALS with other countries are a GOOD thing.

"(Like protectionism against China; or attempting to reopen coal mines all over the place; or failing to honour Nato obligations.)"

I don't believe ANY of THAT will happen.

"Q3—Did you honestly believe that a spoilt ignorant tax-avoiding egotistical man-child who has made a living out of exploiting working people sees you as anything other than a sucker with a vote?"

A3 - I'm not sure who you're talking about here. Mrs. Clinton?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: such poor reading comprehension

in summary: the CEO of Grubhub officially equated the mis-interpretations of Trump as being "Trump's politics", and THEN basically stated that anyone not agreeing with "this statement" (which includes his characterization of Trump's politics, by the way) could hand in his resignation.

Well, THAT doesn't sound politically threatening, now DOES it?

So what if you try to DEFEND Trump? *YOUR* *FIRED*! [irony deliberate]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: GrubHub

"I will never ever buy anything from any company that you are involved with" etc.

yep. that's my reaction as well. until they 'repent'. A nice public apology will do.

It is not *illegal* for a company to demand things like this of their employees. However, the reaction by their employees and by their customers is likely to make *that* kind of policy *extremely* bad for them.

When Chick-Fil-A's CEO [as I recall] contributed money to a particular campaign [for a proposition that was later overturned by 'politically correct' courts], *AND* when public disclosure of campaign funds revealed it, HIS COMPANY got a LOT of flack over it. [there were also a LOT of people who DELIBERATELY went to Chick-Fil-A because of it, since it was an obvious 'free speech' thing, and company funds were never involved].

NOW... will similar things happen to THESE guys at Grubhub, who are being EVEN WORSE?

Of course not. They're on the LEFT side of politics!

/me wonders what would happen if employees of Grubhub FORMED A UNION in response to this policy?

Russia shoves antitrust probe into Microsoft after Kaspersky gripes about Windows 10

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

"If it wasn't for Flash none of this would even be a problem!"

don't forget Intarweb Exploiter itself (and 'Edge'). "Security Craters R Us".

These from the company that put ActiveX support into their browsers and thought it was "cool"

(and, HOW many people STILL use Intarweb Exploiter and 'Edge' ???)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: His concerns are valid

"unlike El Reg, politicians are not going to bite the hand that feeds them."

good one.

Some of what was discussed in the (unfortunately short) article was discussed over a year ago by insiders, particularly with respect to Defender and its tenaciousness for "being installed". Other AV vendors are basically at its mercy.

Micro-shaft has done so *MUCH* wrong with Win-10-nic, that yeah, it's about TIME something is done. But too many people just GO ALONG WITH THIS KIND OF CRAP without pushing back.

And so, Micro-shaft STAYS in business, and continues with these *kinds* of built-in policies, virtually unopposed.

[only a competing product that people are willing to adopt will destroy their house of cards. any guess as to what that might be?]

Facebook agrees to dial back 'racial affinity' ads

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: insincerity

"Facebook agreeing to do something"

Every time I hear about these *kinds* of things coming from THAT company, I laugh hard AT them and want even LESS to do with them.

Face-blank needs a cluebat.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: priceless

'Weapons of Math Destruction'. That book sounds interesting. wish I had more time to read things like that.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Big Data

it follows that SOME idiot out there will assume that members of a particular 'group' are all in lock step with one another. Same kinds of "demographic" thinking that helped to fail all of the recent election poll analysis, why everyone was "so surprised" at the results, etc.

Using race like that is flawed thinking, out of the box. Might as well say all Catholics buy certain products, or all Jews wear certain kinds of clothing, or just say white guys all wear T shirts, own guns, and want more fishing poles (so they can be targeted for ads accordingly). And of course, they *ALL* want VIAGRA (or so the spammers seem to think).

Racially-based demographics. Being STUPID since the 1960's.

Well, *ACTUALLY*, it's how people are MANIPULATED, so I guess I should say "being manipulative since the 1960's" as well...

Reg meets 'Lokihardt', quite possibly the world's best hacker

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Can I ask a stupid question?

I was under impression that the DMCA has been modified in that regard. Or, at least it SHOULD be.

Maybe that's why a guy from S. Korea is doing the research?

In any case, I say 'welcome aboard' to someone who makes his living by acting *LIKE* a bad guy, and not *being* one.

Silicon Valley's oligarchs got a punch in the head – and that's actually good thing

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Kind'a

"They tend to be rural, less-educated"

'educated' is HIGHLY OVERRATED when Ivy league schools have organized "group primal scream" demonstrations on campus because they can't deal with a President Trump. [I guess their socialist indoctrinated world view got *snapped*. poor babies...]

President Trump. That sounds pretty good to me, right now!

I've been SO! DAMNED! SICK! AND! TIRED! of "the OBAKA" and his willing accomplices *FORNICATING* the country for the last 7+ years (and the Republicans elected to STOP him 'caving in' like that), starting with *OBAKA-"CARE"* and ending with *DOUBLED* *NATIONAL* *DEBT*. That's right, OBAKA and his policies *DOUBLED* the national debt. $20 TRILLION now. It makes one Senator's infamous commentary about "the Daffuzit" of $150B back in 1990 [while the economy was GROWING into a surplus, and would have, except for the Bush I tax cave-in] _completely_ pale by comparison. Bush I was a "caver". And we ended up with THE CLINTONS because of him.

Ronald Reagan's economic recovery WORKED. And so will Trump's because it's basically THE SAME. And the UK and the rest of the world WILL BENEFIT. And Brexit will work, too. Just give it enough time to 'kick in'. You'll see.

'deplorables'. yeah, I guess I'm a "deplorable" too. Only *ELITIST* *SNOBS* would even CONSIDER such a label.

Kotkin: Why Trump won

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Blame it on the elitists?

that's right, Trump is going to turn on the pollution spigots, filling every body of water and every existing water table with CARCINOGENIC TOXIC WASTE, and THEN make sure that all non-whites and women are OPPRESSED. I guess now that it's the 21st century, we can construct OPPRESSION-BOTS that look like Daleks, cracking electrified whips, and yelling "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" We'll power them with Arduinos since they're made overseas.

</sarcasm>

(you actually BELIEVE that? Too much wacky weed, I think)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: What I don't understand is

it's the anti-politician anti-establishment sentiment of the times, actually. An outsider like Trump had that advantage from the beginning. 6 years ago people voted anti-Obama by electing Republicans to a majority in the House, then 4 years later, the Senate too. What did Republicans do with all that power? They CAVED IN to Obaka on *EVERYTHING*!

Hence, "the establishment" can't be trusted. An outsider was needed. Trump saw the need, and filled it like an Entrepreneur. And there you have it.

Silicon Valley VCs: We're gonna make California great again – on its own

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Californians out-of-touch with other Californians

"This scheme *would* cause civil war-- *within* California."

and guess WHICH half owns MORE guns...

heh - time to pick up a rifle and start-a-shootin' - YEEE-HAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: I'm going to take my ball and go home!

time to let the spoiled rich children fail at controlling the game. let them take their ball and go home. we will wave buhbye to them and do something else. not worth playing THEIR game by THEIR rules any more...