Posts by bombastic bob

Trump's new telecoms chief bins broadband subsidies for the poor

Re: The dead hand of Obama lives on...

"Free education" and "Free healthcare" (described as 'means' to allegedly 'lift everyone up') are NEVER *FREE* because *SOMEONE* has to pay the teacher's salary, the doctor's salary, the cost of maintaining the buildings and keeping the lights on, yotta yotta yotta...

And WHERE does that money come from? Right. You just TAX "the rich" (which means "the middle class", actually). Or let's just say it straight: TAX the PRODUCERS in society, and GIVE to the MOOCHERS and LOOTERS.

Wouldn't it be BETTER of people just EARN enough to PAY for things, the way it's ALWAYS been up to the point that SOCIALISM was thought up? Otherwise, WHERE is the motivation to EARN?

"I'll just get whatever for free, so now I'll sit on my ass most of the time and spend the REST of my hours standing in bread lines"

(that's a short description of COMMUNIST SOVIET RUSSIA - both sides of the iron curtain, you should've SEEN that happen, right?)

Obviously those NOT STUDYING HISTORY have FAILED to LEARN from it!

(and revisionism that denigrates "trickle down" aka SUPPLY SIDE economics, via FAKE NEWS and FAKE "FACTS" is just, plain, stupid)

Re: The dead hand of Obama lives on...

"you can't have either without a little bit of socialism, and communism."

*WRONG*

"A rising tide lifts all boats" - Ronald Reagan

In other words, you do not LIFT UP the poor by TAKING AWAY from EVERYONE ELSE and *GIVING* them something they did *NOT* *EARN*. You LIFT UP the poor by LIFTING UP EVERYONE SIMULTANEOUSLY!

All socialism and communism can do is *TAKE* *THINGS* *AWAY*, and after excising a small percentage for those "oh, so, wonderful" BUREAUCRATS in the middle, "give away" with SUCH "compassion" and "caring" to those who SHOULD! BE! EARNING! THEIR! OWN! MONEY! TO! BUY! THINGS! but for some reason are *ADDICTED* to the *PUBLIC* *TEET* from the soon-to-be-delapidated-SOW of PUBLIC PORK PROGRAMS!

There. I said it. because not ALL of us can become GREECE and EXTRACT WEALTH from every OTHER member of the EU, like they DESERVE it or something, because of BAD SOCIALIST POLICY. *SOME* of us are *STUCK* *PAYING* *FOR* *ALL* *OF* *THAT*!!!

(actually, that would be MOST, because all socialism can do is DRAG EVERYONE DOWN to benefit a VERY SMALL MINORITY OF PEOPLE who are generally ADDICTED to WELFARE and won't lift THEMSELVES up!)

Re: Prevent an informed electorate

more like ELIMINATE EXISTING SOCIALIST PROGRAMS that RE-DISTRIBUTE HARD-EARNED WEALTH from the middle class to the TAKERS in society!

There. I said it. And I'm *SICK* of having to pay *EXTRA* for my LAND-LINE because of "programs" like "lifeline". *I* never benefit from that. Why should ANYONE ELSE "deserve" it?

Tails Linux farewells 32-bit processors with imminent version 3.0

32-bit compatibility, vs "64-bit only"

I see a potential pitfall here.

While 32-bit application compatibility *might* create the need for additional files (aka the 32-bit libs) to be loaded, making EVERYTHING 64-bit is not necessarily an improvement.

64-bit code is typically LARGER in the binary than 'otherwise identical' 32-bit code.

64-bit code ALSO runs "just a tad slower" because of it. You fill up your L1 cache faster. You have to occupy more RAM. Operations involving memory structures that, for some reason, occupy MORE space now [let's say "pointers"], can also take longer. And so on.

The logic used in the past (by Micro-shaft no doubt) is that "the computers are FASTER now, so they can SUPPORT running the less efficient code without people noticing"

And as far as memory footprint goes, think about it: how many applications _REALLY_ _NEED_ more than 4GB of addressable memory space? OK Chrome and Firefox, because of all of that @#$% javascript CRAP, but I digress...

Anyway, abandoning 32-bit entirely might be a mistake. There are still SOME advantages to running 32-bit instead of 64-bit, especially for small applications that don't need >4Gb of addressable memory space.

Ubuntu Linux daddy Mark Shuttleworth: Carrots for Unity 8?

a definition of insanity

"so that it runs as both a touch and a desktop experience"

Thanks, Micro-shaft... Uh, I mean Canonical!

The obvious Windows "Ape" and Win-10-nic connections were already in the article, yeah.

I just want to point out that it is _A_ definition of insanity, to repeatedly try something that has failed before, expecting different results. THIS time. Because YOU are not "them". "No, no, we'll re-package it and do it _BETTER_ *this* time, because, we're not THEM!"

Good luck with THAT. 'Unity' (and its clones) is the only thing I've *hated* in the Linux world. You're not making it better by placing LIPSTICK on the BOAR. Again.

(I've only DESPISED what gnome 3 has become. Unity is something I truly *HATE*. Fortunately Ubu has Mate, and Mint exists)

Comcast staffers join walkout over Trump's immigration crackdown

THEY SHOULD BE *FIRED*!

If they walk out of their jobs to 'protest' like that, they should be *FIRED*. Companies don't have that kind of money to waste, and passing the cost of it on to the customer isn't acceptable.

How about a SHAREHOLDER protest - sell sell sell.

"It certainly feels as if that is where the current administration wants to go."

you should try THINKING instead of *FEELING*. THAT way, you wouldn't be so easy to manipulate into ACTUALLY BELIEVING that kind of bullcrap!

[and I thought El Reg readers were INTELLIGENT enough to see the bullcrap for what it is. oh well]

Re: The downvotes you get will answer that question.

"Nonsense. It just shows opinions, which are pretty much useless for that purpose."

and nearly all of the 'Howler Monkeys' (that sling downvotes the way actual monkeys sling poo) seem to be overwhelmingly of the "lefty anti-Trump" variety.

'fake survey results' indeed.

Trump's immigration clampdown has Silicon Valley techies fearing for their house prices

Re: Well, first, the order has been rescinded by the courts...

Rescinded? HELL NO! It's just a SINGLE SOLITARY ACTIVIST JUDGE who's too big for his britches, doing what LEFTIES have been doing for DECADES: using courts to LEGISLATE when they can't get what they want through NORMAL means.

Thing is, it will FAIL, because the LAW as passed by Congress gives the president the RIGHT to determine who gets to come into the country by setting policy.

And it affects so FEW legitimate people ANYWAY, silicon valley as a whole just doesn't have "standing" in this.

BOO HOO HOO indeed!

Fears Windows code-signing changes will screw up QA process

CODE SIGNING is just a TOLLBOOTH for the LITTLE GUY

CODE SIGNING has very very LITTLE effect on securing computer systems. But, it is a HUGE REVENUE POTENTIAL for Micro-shaft and their "partners".

Seriously, it's JUST ANOTHER TOLLBOOTH, some idiot with his palm sticking out demanding that you put MONEY into it, JUST to write something that you want to give away for FREE (aka OPEN SOURCE), or at a VERY LOW COST, or for a NICHE MARKET.

thanks a HELL of a LOT for NOTHING, Micro-shaft!

Linux and BSD have _NO_ _SUCH_ _REQUIREMENT_ and they're pretty secure. they're also OPEN SOURCE. There's NO TOLLBOOTH for THOSE operating systems. Only Micro-shaft would cook up THIS way of NICKELING AND DIMING people, passing the cost on to CUSTOMERS for "the big boys", or weeding out "the small fry" by RAISING THE ENTRANCE FEE.

Is it the beginning of the end for Visual Basic? Microsoft to focus on 'core scenarios'

Re: Next up... C# ;)

"Rekon 20 years later a similar article will be talking about Microsoft dropping C#?"

No, Micro-shaft wouldn't be THAT SMART. Instead, they promote "wrong" until people stop hating it. Win-10-nic comes to mind, as does ". Not" and _ESPECIALLY_ C-POUND!

Well, I hope Micro-shaft REPENTS of their evil ways and POUNDS C-POUND back into the hell-mouth from which it was excreted. But I doubt I'll get my way. Micro-shaft will just throw more money at it, move the target around in circles a bit, and call it "a good thing" again. Meanwhile, the '.Not' framework fills up even MORE with cruft, legacy, confusion, and bass-ackwards inefficiency.

Re: VB was the first MS language I learnt...

autocomplete just gets in my way and slows me down. I type really fast, code mostly in 'C', and use whatever language makes sense for the moment. C, C++, python, shell, Java, even BASIC...

but DEATH before C-POUND!

Re: Fickle Microsoft

"Stuff changes, get over it. Bit like DOS developers complaining when they had to learn this new Windows stuff."

THAT was 'change for the better' (I was near the bleeding edge of that bit of technological evolution). However ".Not" is CHANGE FOR THE WORSE. Like OBAKA. And "the RIBBON". And "the METRO". And Win-10-nic. And 'clippy'.

So as for ".Not", keep your "change". Don't want the FAIL.

Re: Fickle Microsoft

"This is why I stopped using the entire .NET environment long ago, and only program in real languages."

THAT is worth repeating. BIG thumbs up for that, thanks.

I never even started USING ".Not". It was like W.T.F. ??? You just re-invented EVERYTHING and forced ME and every OTHER senior developer to be "a junior developer" again! NO!, Micro-shaft. Just NO!

_MY_ applications and DLLs (when I need to write for windows) are stand-alone statically linked entities that define where the boundaries are and don't need "shared" anything, thank-you-very-much, especially a monolithic bass-ackwards inefficient collection of spaghetti-code like ".Not". Computers have a lot of RAM these days and an extra 100k or so per C-runtime copy is insignificant.

As for VB, I developed an application with a VB front-end and C-language back-end WAY back when VB was version 1.0 and it looked like a good idea. It was filled with a zillion hacks to get it to work, which had to be re-thought for VB 2.0 and re-re-thought for VB 3.0. At that point I stopped upgrading VB for that application... and eventually stopped using VB altogether!

QBasic --> Visual BASIC was a REALLY GREAT THING I thought. Adding ".Not" to VB was the WORST thing that was ever done to it, and most likely what will _KILL_ it to death.

Humble Pai: New FCC supremo promises long overdue transparency

this is good news

A tendency to de-regulate, but not necessarily UNDER-regulate, AND adding transparency to the process, is very good news.

Though the article gave too much credit to Bill Clinton. Most of that de-regulation came under his 2 predecessors, Reagan and Bush I, PARTICULARLY with respect to the so-called "fairness doctrine" (which was just a way of KILLING actual free speech by over-defining it in a VERY controlling manner).

By the way, it is that old "fairness doctrine" concept that should keep privacy and freedom advocates wary of *ANY* attempt at regulating the intarwebs by gummints. We already see the 'bamboo curtain' and attempts by Russia and islamic countries to "censor the internet". So there are precedents, yeah.

All in all I'd say the FCC is moving in the right direction. Any attempt at 'net neutrality' in the future is likely to come from CONGRESS, rather than a small number of bureaucrats in secret meeetings with unknown influences thrown in for good measure.

Protest against Trump's US travel ban leaves ‪PasswordsCon‬ in limbo

Re: North Carolina has HB2 in 2016 which overturns LGBT issues...

"It wasn't about water fountains in NC in the 1960s"

a bit off-topic I think, but I actually SAW those segregated water fountains. my family was visiting relatives in N.C. in 1967, and I didn't understand why I shouldn't drink from the "colored" fountain so, as there was no line, I started drinking out of it. And a black kid stared at me afterwards for having done it (he followed me later and when I said I was from California, he said something about wanting to go there - obviously to escape the SEGREGATION etc.). I saw no problem at all with drinking out of the same water fountain as a black kid, but my cousins and their friends were a bit shocked. It was a different kind of world, back then, at least in North Carolina.

As you pointed out, what's happening with respect to "bathroom choice" isn't like the water fountain and bathroom discrimination (and other discrimination) that falls under the umbrella of SEGREGATION (which I think we all agree was a BAD thing).

Re: What a twat

"Trump has business investments in some of those same countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE)."

Don't worry, he'll be donating the profits from those businesses to the U.S. Government. He said so when he was inaugurated.

Re: Quick to take offense?

"He's telling you but you weren't listening."

You misspelled the word 'agreeing'. you spelled it 'listening'.

(if you don't "get it" I understand, but many will laugh at you behind your back, now)

Re: Alternatively...

"It is too late to move it elsewhere."

Wouldn't it be really FUNNY if _NOBODY_ were actually affected by the anti-terrorism (temporary) bans? Then all of that outrage would pretty much be MEANINGLESS.

Doesn't have 'a dog in the hunt'. No "standing". etc.

Let's see a list of people DENIED ACCESS TO THE USA who are planning on attending that meeting. THEN voice your complaints. Who knows, maybe a waiver can be worked out?

IETF 'reviewing' US event plans in the face of Trump's travel ban

*facepalm*

I struggled to find any coherence in this article, or the comments thereafter. One which had 10 downvotes and no upvotes got an upvote from me. Other than that... W.T.F. ???

<facepalm>

Imagine a ChromeOS-style Windows 10 ... oh wait, there it is and it's called Windows Cloud

Re: Win10 IOT

that's a bit too much market spin for my brain to handle... *URP* that was a close one!

I.T. comes full circle, from timeshare to PC to... TIMESHARE!

I knew this was dumb, back in the "noughties" when Micro-shaft introduced their ".Net initiative".

The whole idea that the distributed processing horsepower of a PC on every desk (in lieu of a big-iron server in an air-conditioned room of its own) would be traded in for "light client heavy server" stuff just *irked* me, like an instinctive revulsion, or a foul stench.

Well, here it is in its FULL GLORY! 'Windows Cloud'. Whee.

Might as well use those old VT100 and HP smart terminals, too.

subsequent note: this is me taking their name literally, because you KNOW it's what they want!

Axe net neutrality? Keep the set-top box lock-in? Easy as Pai: New FCC boss backs Big Cable

Congress is supposed to make laws, not bureaucrats

I think the motive here is to put the responsibility where it belongs, and not in the hands of an FCC bureaucrat. If cable TV set top boxen need to be regulated, Congress can pass a law. Those guys ARE elected, after all... (and if the law simply instructs the FCC to implement it, then the right people will have done the right things for the right reasons, or so we hope)

Cerber tops Windows 10 ransomware charts

"Safe Surfing" probably works better than M-shaft "solutions"

Just pointing out, that M-shaft's anti-ransomware solutions (apparently) aren't very effective.

But here's what I think WOULD be: what I like to call 'safe surfing'.

a) don't surf the web or read e-mail from an ADMINISTRATOR login (this means create at least 2 logins on every machine, one with admin-level access that you RARELY use, and the other with 'guest' level access that's your main login with e-mail, etc.

b) do NOT use Intarweb Exploiter nor 'Edge'. Use a TRULY safe browser, one that's open source, and can have the NoScript plugin running for even MORE protection against rogue things.

c) do NOT view e-mail "as HTML". better still, don't view attachments "in line".

d) do NOT use Virus Outbreak (aka MS Outlook) for e-mail.

e) if possible, do ALL web surfing with a NON-WINDOWS operating system

f) *NEVER* "click on a link" in an e-mail

g) *NEVER* 'just open' or even preview documents attached to an e-mail. If you can do an 'open with' instead, this will mitigate MOST problems caused by mime type forging. Letting the OS decide what to do with the attachment, however, is likely to get you INFECTED at some point.

(the best way to handle attachments is to save to disk, use a utility to scan it and verify what it REALLY is, and then open it directly with the application that you want to view it with)

anyway, those are the 'rules' I can remember at the moment. Practice that, and get everyone on your network to do the same thing, and you SHOULD be fine, or at least BETTER OFF than "not doing that" and relying on Micro-shaft's "solutions" to "prevent" ransomware.

Parliamentary Trump-off? Pro-Donald petition passes 100k signatures

Re: And the silent majority...

"collective 'outrage' and pantie-wetting of the petitionards"

Me "not so silent" and I'm glad SOMEONE had the guts to say it!

ad hominem attacks

"You want an anti-Trump comment that is not ad hominem then that should be pretty easy."

Apparently not. You started off with 'racist' and 'misogynist'. Nice throwing of word-bombs! You might as well add 'sexist' 'homophobe' and 'bigot' to complete the copy/pasta list of accusations that are thrown at ANYONE who isn't a politically correct member of "the left". By the HOWLER MONKEYS.

Those words echo so badly that they're sounding hollow. Maybe *THAT* is why you didn't recognize them as ad hominem attacks!

Re: Asleep at the Wheel

"Not only fake news, but revisionist history now?"

ACK. Just because a lefty "saiz" it, does not make it true, even when REPEATEDLY ECHOED by the howler monkeys, at volumes so loud, no amount of capitalization and punctuation can simulate it!

And 'same' for the 'trickle down' commentary another poster did. Supply side economics works EVERY! TIME! IT! IS! TRIED!! Trump economics will be just that: Tax cuts, smaller gummint, spending only when necessary (not propping up politically-correct industries like Solyndra nor devaluing currency via 'quantitative easing'), de-regulate, and let the private sector do its "thang".

That's what Reagan did. That's what Trump will do. That's why the 80's were so successful, why the Soviet Union broke apart, and why we had sustained economic growth for 2 additional decades. Yes, it took THAT long for the left to RUIN the U.S. economy, claiming 'our days are over' in the process, so that the USA could _also_ be subservient to EU socialism.

Good thing the UK voted Brexit, too. Same idea. The "petition" that MATTERS aka "an election".

Re: nice!

"So please, do feel free to tell us all about which one is growing 'very rapidly'."

Uh, the one that appeals to HOWLER MONKEYS?

Re: nice!

"Notice how some people will grasp at any straw(man) to maintain their world view. "

The original petition was probably "astro-turf" (not 'grass roots'). Getting 1.5 million 'howler monkey' types to sign it wouldn't be all that hard (especially if it's all done electronically).. The fact that conservatives are "bothering at all" with a petition like that actually means A LOT MORE, even if the total count is lower.

It's like "percentage of the left who sign petitions" vs "percentage of the right who sign petitions".

It ALSO reminds me of the recent pre-election polls (for both Trump _and_ Brexit), which were oddly skewed in the wrong direction. OR, the ratio of downvotes that a typical conservative poster gets in El Reg article comments.

Re: Classic Trump supporters?

"This petition could well have been created by false-opposition to reinforce their own sterotypes and divert from valid arguments."

I'd say that about the ORIGINAL petition, the 1.5 million anti-Trump signatures from an astro-turf (aka "fake grass roots") well paid group of sock puppets for George Soros, and/or the left in general, as well as the arrogant/elitist HOWLER MONKEYS that sling poo and downvote as much as possible to make it SEEM as if they're significant, when they're not. [maybe they're just bored]

The thing is, conservatives tend to be busy running their OWN lives [not trying to manage EVERYBODY ELSE through INTIMIDATION and BULLYING and MEANINGLESS DEMONSTRATIONS] and as a result, don't have THEIR views being echoed on the evening news. "If it bleeds, it leads" so guess what gets the media attention? The anti-Trump viewpoint, that's what! And it's in line with their (the lamestream media's) attention, and creates controversy, and they quietly profit from it all.

it's like that bunch of B.I.itchy ladies that showed up to protest (in various places) on the day after Trump's inauguration, wearing pink cat-ear hats (read: neko mimi cosplay gear), calling them "pussy hats" in reference to a comment Trump made one time when the camera was rolling, complete with a laughable speech by Madonna and other performers, venting their vaginas over Trump's off-color comment, the kind of comment that *MOST* men have made at one point or another, but won't admit to because their lady friends and/or wives would make them sleep in the bathtub for having said such a thing at one time in their lives. Because, they don't have a sense of humor any more!

*cough* - well, now I'm out of breath.

HOWLER MONKEYS. that's who signed the original petition! The response was just a tiny fraction of the people who are OUTRAGED ENOUGH at the fake "popularity" of the anti-Trump crowd, speaking out and saying HEY, WAIT JUST A DAMN MINUTE (or its equivalent), being SO tired of the one-sidedness and HOWLER MONKEY bullying with the downvotes and the sock puppets and other well-known (lame) techniques of trying to seem BIGGER than they are.

Want to bring down that pesky drone? Try the power of sound

Re: more distant attacks could be achieved by ramping up the power output.

"using a suitably sized parabolic dish"

By using multiple speakers, you could create a somewhat coherent beam of sound. I'd expect this to be a 'military grade' version.

a bit more damping/averaging/noise-canceling on the drone side might fix it, though. "Fix it in software".

'Treat your developers like creative workers – or watch them leave'

Re: Managed Creativity

"once they've proven that they are capable of doing so."

we're back to what I see as the major weakness in [Fr]Agile: the junior guy gets to have his say-so in the design, presumably on an equal level to the most experienced and/or knowledgeable developers.

I have been in meetings where this happens, and seen the results of meetings I have ALSO deliberately NOT been part of a project, one that had meetings where that apparently happens, and it's frighteningly ugly - project I had working in 3-4 weeks as a demo takes OVER A YEAR, never completes, and then in conjunction with a round of layoffs, I'm brought in and tasked with, along with another senior developer, getting it finished up within a month. In other words, that entire year went by with moving targets and the manager going into a squee-fest with the junior guy over the endless possibilities, or so I've been told, and manager ends up going with a LOT of different ideas that should NEVER have been gone with.

Some people think that pitting one engineer against another for "competing ideas" is a GOOD thing. I think it's EXTREMELY BONEHEADED, and is only likely to result in rage-quits and self-stifling in "go ahead, do it YOUR way, see what happens" mode. Some 'not so competent' engineers are REALLY GOOD at sounding like they know what they're doing, only to find later on, that the thing just doesn't work, or never gets finished, doing it "that way". Yeah, OOPS.

And it seems to ME that [Fr]Agile _ENCOURAGES_ this.

meanwhile, in light of all of THAT, the saner approach of "every developer gets to have his own sandbox with a set of well-defined requirements" makes even MORE sense, now. The boss, naturally, would have to know his employees, monitor them occasionally, and make sure they're on track, to make THAT work...

Re: Agile makes us cogs

[Fr]Agile makes certain management types happy with themselves for implementing it, and gives "the most junior guy" plenty of say-so in implementing the "solution".

<sarcasm>What's not to love?</sarcasm>

Which of course is a recipe for FAIL unless said management type is genre-savvy enough to prevent it.

(in such a case, genre-savviness, he would've had been TOLD TO USE AGILE by a higher level management type, rather than 'swallowed the koolaid' or 'thought that one up himself')

when I worked in the M.I.S. department, decades ago...

decades ago I worked in the M.I.S. department at a major corporation. They brought me in because they had a stack of work requests that weren't getting done.

Sometimes these work requests had trivial, even strange things being requested. Someone wanted a report modified so that it was sorted a specific way [a rather bizarre request as I recall]. Turns out the accountant just needed information for all customers of type 'X' based on a field in the customer's database entry, and wanted them all together so she could type the numbers into a spreadsheet quicker instead of going through several hundred pages, blue-lining them, etc.. I offered to create a file she could import into the spreadsheet instead, with all of the values she needed already calculated. It was like "you can DO that"? [it was easier than her request in a lot of ways, and saved on the cost of the paper and toner to print 'yet another report' on].

Sometimes it just pays to just go and ask "why exactly do you need this" and work out a better solution. Fortunately, people were open to the concept, and usually happier with the results afterwards.

With net neutrality pretty much dead in the US, your privacy is next

Re: So what's next?

when ad blocker usage becomes the norm, the content providers will need to adjust their attitudes.

similarly, those services that care nothing for our privacy simply need to be avoided. alternatives DO exist. 'duck duck go' for example (in lieu of google or bing). perhaps the TRUE answer isn't to have the FCC act like fascists, but instead to let the private sector 'work it out'.

Admittedly, existing FTC privacy requirements COULD be altered to correct privacy-related abuses universally. I get regular statements from banks and credit card companies regarding the use of my private information. I always tell them "no".

"Your lies grow tiresome."

Those kinds of comments grow tiresome. And the downvotes from the left-wing howler monkeys, who sling poo instead of providing relevant counterpoints.

Oh, and upvotes for Big John.

Facebook ad biz comes under scrutiny in MPs ‘Fake News’ probe

Re: The problem with the concept of "Fake News"...

I have a better idea - just let the chaos reign, and let people get used to using their BRAINS when reading.

Father of Pac-Man dies at 91

Re: A sad day indeed ...

"Pacman still resides in my all-time top 10 go-to arcade machines even to this day."

And, it resides in bowling alleys, skating rinks, and other places where classic games can be found.

It's "timeless".

"In other PacMac news US President Donny Trumpy"

your parody was good, up until the last line about giving away money and influence. then it flopped. no up/down for that. just a 'meh'.

Facebook ‘Happy Birthday’ lawsuit rolls on

can't open pandora's box on spamming

can't open pandora's box on spamming. It starts with "happy birthday" and ends up being "happy birthday and here's your latest deals on spectacular items at low, low prices"

NO. just no. on spam of ANY kind. even an automated 'happy birthday' text message to your friend's phone that you didn't specifically ASK to be sent.

because, as we all know, some spamming entity will 'friend' a zillion people, and next thing you know, that automated spamming happy birthday message becomes a vector for getting away with spam-vertisements.

'Maker' couple asphyxiated, probably by laser cutter fumes

apartment + industrial equipment = *bad idea*

just pointing out an obvious fact. other than neighbors complaining about noise and smell, I suppose the exhausting of toxic fumes is item #0 on the list of "why you do not do this"

Corn-based diet turns French hamsters into baby eating cannibals

waiting for "save the hamsters" to intervene

I'm waiting for some "save the hamsters" society to intervene. Watching the en"sue"ing court battles would require a different kind of corn... popped in coconut oil, with plenty of butter and salt.

That's right - SAVE THE CANNIBAL HAMSTERS from themselves!

Former Mozilla dev joins chorus roasting antivirus, says 'It's poison!'

Practice "Safe Surfing"

with the obvious STD prevention parallel, there's what I like to call "Safe Surfing" on 'teh intarwebs'.

0. When doing ANYTHING "intarweb related" (this includes e-mail), ONLY log in with 'guest' level credentials. This means you will probably need to have a separate 'administrator' login for fixing things and doing updates. Big whoop, just do it.

1. Don't use Internet Explorer. EVAR. That includes 'Edge'.

2. Make sure you disable scripting by default. A plugin like 'NoScript' makes this easier.

3. If practical, delete cookies and cache on exit.

4. Unless you have some "compelling reason" not to, use a NON-WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEM for web-related things.

5. _ONLY_ view e-mail in PLAIN TEXT, and without "embedded attachments". Attachments should be opened ONLY by specifying "open with" or saving first, then opening directly with an application.

6. Do _NOT_ examine office documents with a MICROSOFT PRODUCT

7. Do _NOT_ view PDF files with Adobe's PDF reader!

8. If you _MUST_ use 'Virus Outbreak' (aka MS Outlook) for e-mail, _NEVER_ 'preview' ANY kind of document or attachment in a preview window.

9. _NEVER_ click on a link in an e-mail, _ESPECIALLY_ if you are viewing it in HTML [chances are a spam mail will direct you to a phishing site by faking the link info, but viewing as plain text reveals this with no ambiguity]

Wow, look out, hackers: Trump to order 60-day cybersecurity probe

time to keep an eye on regulators

it's time to keep an eye on regulators. watch them. scrutinize them. make sure they don't do anything crazy/stupid. And protect the privacy of the individual, above all else.

Make sure that the government OF THE PEOPLE, which Trump has said is getting the power BACK, isn't screwed over by "the kinds of things" that gummint has been trying to do 'the masses', like FOREVER.

'I AM TWEETING TRUTH TO POWER: AND YOU CAN'T STOP MY FACTS, MR PRESIDENT!'

Re: CO2

"an amusing mockery of 'snowflake' activist 'facts' "

reminds me of DHMO (and Penn and Teller passing out 'ban DHMO' leaflets at an earth day thing, with predictable comedic results)

http://dhmo.org/

Re: Alternative Facts

'where everything in Genesis is true'

yeah, dogmatic adherence to things of that nature [in the face of some pretty compelling evidence to the contrary] isn't very smart-looking, is it?

I say the same thing about climate "science" these days.

I see the alleged "fact bombs" saying things like "97% of scientists" and my first reaction is always "_WHICH_ scientists"?

Anyone on the intarwebs can claim ANYTHING, and randomly tw[a,ee]ting "facts" like that is pretty meaningless. People criticize Trump's claims of 3-5 million fraudulent voters, and I have to agree, there's no apparent basis for him to make that claim. But there's an investigation going on, and if they find 1 million, I'll still be JUST as appalled... [and just as NOT surprised].

I also have to wonder, if Trump's "fact bombs" are, in fact, a way of throwing the same crap back at "the left" that they've been slinging for YEARS.

/me stands up on the top of the porcelain throne, and yells "CRAP FIGHT!"

Google launches root certificate authority

maybe THAT is why the NEW browser cert warnings?

as I understand it, chrome (and now firefox) have extra big/loud security warnings regarding certs, now. Not sure what they look like, but it's interesting timing, right?

Let's hope you can STILL load your own root cert for self-signed stuff in perpetuity, or is there going to be another TOLL BOOTH in the future for the small-time developer and experimenter?

Windows code-signing tweaks sure to irritate software developers

Re: the approximate doubling of certificate prices.

"There's no suggestion that the OS is going to require signed application-level code"

YET...

consider what's already happened with device drivers. I'll get my coat, now.

Doomsday Clock moves to 150 seconds before midnight. Thanks, Trump

since when did 'global [warm|cool|change]ing' get added?

"Hoax of the century" is now a cause for DOOM! So says the doomsday clock. DOOM! DOOM! DOOOOOM!

They were wrong about Ronald Reagan, too. "The bombs start falling in 5 minutes."

With all of that DOOM, maybe George Soros will sell short on the stock market and lose another $billion.

Trump signs 'no privacy for non-Americans' order – what does that mean for rest of us?

Re: Trump has become more deranged

"How exactly does one 'prepare' for a third world war?"

buy some tin foil, make hats