Posts by bombastic bob

I'LL BE BATT: Arnie Schwarzenegger snubs gas guzzlers for electric

Re: Taxed Enough Already

"Global fossil fuel subsidies were $5.3 trillion in 2015"

THAT shouldn't happen, either. There should be NO! SUBSIDIES! AT! ALL! as far as I'm concerned. And tax rates should be FLAT. And gummint should be SMALL.

Re: Taxed Enough Already

"Someone mistakenly drank high-octane coffee this morning."

no mistake. I like my morning QUAD cappucino!

espresso-riffic!

[need a coffee icon]

Taxed Enough Already

If a technology cannot stand on its own in the private sector, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way to bankruptcy.

To *HELL* with public subsidies of UBER-EXPENSIVE CARS for "the rich", at the expense of "average joe" taxpayer.

Gasoline is liquid energy. Gasoline cars GO FARTHER, "recharge" faster, and are a proven technology that is over 100 years old. Current tech makes them _extermely_ clean, and Cali-Fornicate-You already requires bi-annual "smog checks" which take up time and partially burn up your rear brakes [if you have an older car like me that goes on the dyno].

And we already know what happens if your electric car catches on fire. The Fire Department isn't so sure of how to put it out, what effects water will have on it, and so on. It's basically a class D fire that COULD explode if you use standard firefighting techniques.

Anyway, when car makers get PAID to produce these electric vehicles so that PEOPLE WEALTHIER THAN ME can "afford" them, using TAX MONEY that *I* was FORCED to pay, I get VERY irritated...

and paying for all of those CHARGING STATIONS TOO??? yeah, right. [stoopid gummint]

Trumping free trade: Say 'King of Bankruptcy' Ross does end up in charge of US commerce

Re: Crystal ball..

"US products will become more expensive and less competitive on the international market while short-term subsidies will make them cheaper domestically. "

no, no, no. Just no.

What you don't understand is Supply Side Economics, and how effective it is. No need for gummint subsidies. JUST! CUT! THE! TAX! RATES! and people will have more money to spend. That "primes the pump". Then cut CORPORATE taxes so THAT is no longer motivation to move offshore [and may be motivation to BRING BACK production]. Then cut the REGULATIONS that make it extremely difficult to get things done. [these are all in Trump's plan]

THEN, just LET the private sector "do its thing". keep enough regs to level the playing field and prevent outright exploitation, and VOILA! Prosperity happens!

[keep in mind that labor-intensive processes, which work well when paying pennies per hour, will most likely be replaced by ROBOTS, which means that engineering for ROBOTS will become a 'new demand' and a good way to earn money, just like when computers replaced rooms full of people adding up numbers.]

so it looks like your crystal ball is broken. Either that, or it only shows you what you WANT to see...

Note: this is like a 'Batman Gambit' in that it relies on people acting according to their own nature, rather than a 'master manipulator' plan that must control everyone by manipulating or forcing a particular outcome...

Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

using Tariffs to "encourage" companies to create local jobs will most likely not work.

so go the OTHER way... CUT taxes! You know, like LOWERING the corporate tax, for starters... [yes it's on Trump's agenda]. and cut regulations. and so on.

Supply Side Economics - aka 'Reaganomics' - works every time it's tried! Even JFK would agree, as he outlined basic supply side economics in his 1962 speech at a New York economists get-together. I heard a replay of it. It was interesting to hear supply-side out of a Democrat. It made me like JFK even more. No _wonder_ they assassinated him! He must've had LBJ and the other liberals ripping out their own insides over it.

Re: Same idiocy regardless of location

"In order to have a plan you need to EDUCATE the workforce"

no argument there, however, when education focuses on "feelings" instead of FACTS, social engineering instead of the "3 R's", and so forth, those poor widdle snowflakes won't be able to hold a job, let alone perform well. Might as well start fixing the problem at its source.

yeah no more telling those young 'skulls full of mush' (as Limbaugh would say) that it's all "whitey's fault", that American history is filled with social injustice, the Pilgrims were saved by the local "native Americans" and repaid with injustice, that slavery existed until Malcom X and the Black Panthers started THEIR movements, yotta yotta yotta. And the _RACIST_ poetry of Maya Angeloo...

If we taught the kids how to read, write, do math, and STANDARD history [not 'revisionist' social engineering] there'd be plenty of well-educated potential employees ready to go to work.

Same for colleges, but SQUARED.

Linux nasty kicks weak, hacked gadgets when they're already down

use of default passwords

yet another reminder to change the default passwords on intarweb-connected things.

I haven't allowed a dictionary-based sshd attack for some time. I'd expect admin:admin pi:pi pi:raspberry and a few others to be in that list.

and, unfortunately, you can't seem to educate people fast enough before they get cracked.

Trump's FBI boss, Attorney General picks reckon your encryption's getting backdoored

Re: The irony

"Soon, the only way to have secure email in the US will be to run your own server."

like Mrs. Clinton? (I couldn't resist, heh)

Seriously, though, PGP has been around for long enough. If we don't want to get sniffed, we can just PGP every e-mail from this day forward. So post your public key "wherever", and tell everyone to encrypt all mail sent to you using that key. Simple, really.

/me already has my own mail server, muahahahah!

"Comey is really following in the heals of that weirdo J. Edgar Hoover. Probably explains why Comey is a fan of the backdoor."

and the way they keep 'skirting' around the issue

Re: Back to MD5, et. al.

keep in mind that "it was decided" back THEN that stupid regulations regarding encryption were not only bad for business, they left people at risk for various forms of theft. _AND_ they open the doors for FOREIGN COMPETITION.

you can't "make America great again" while hobbling its ability to compete. sanity should soon take over any possible hype, FUD, or over-reaction with respect to encryption, on BOTH sides of the argument.

And EVERYONE knows that a gummint-mandated skeleton key won't cut it, either. There are too many good "foreign alternatives" already, the source files for various forms of encryption are already out there, and mandating back doors would just motivate the open source community to provide 'non-US alternatives" faster than any legislation would pass in Con-Grab.

I doubt we have ANYTHING to worry about. WATCH OUT FOR, certainly. Hold their feet to the fire over it, ABSOLUTELY.

Besides, backdoors to encryption is just lazy police work. Tell them to get WARRANTS and do it the 'old school' way.

Microsoft's Linux love-in continues with SUSE support in SQL Server

Re: Distro-specific software compatibility?

"So is SQL Server only compatible with SUSE? In which, someone seems to be misunderstanding how Linux is supposed to work..."

It's probably Micro-shaft trying to pick "winners and losers". Was RHEL even considered?

(it'd be JUST LIKE MICRO-SHAFT to do something like that, yeah)

Micro-shaft - a synonym for 'angler fish'

(looks like MS has docs on RHEL running SQL Server - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/sql-server-linux-setup-red-hat )

Re: Yes!!!!

"Anything, to crush Oracle!!"

Oracle has been running on Linux for a while, now...

Penguins force-fed root: Cruel security flaw found in systemd v228

Re: WTF

"Only root would be able to issue the write without the 6000 mode bits being reset."

assuming that a different exploit did not successfully write to this file and still keep the bits...

Re: The Inevitable

"Is Linux Secure"

yes. Linux is secure. Related, systemd is NOT Linux. thankfully.

Re: @Gerhard

"And FreeBSD knows nothing of systemd."

A _DEFINITE_ plus!

Additionally, the rc system on FBSD is a bit easier to config than Debian's old sysv startup support, last I checked. though much of the 'hackery' required was simply re-naming, creating, or removing a few symlinks from one of the rc#.d directories

Re: right ..

"As a server admin, SystemD has solved more problems than it has created."

I hear the same kind of logic applied to things like Virus Outbreak (aka MS Outlook), and the use of ".Not" in programming.

My guess is that the hackery is a better choice. Then post what you did in an appropriate place, so the rest of us can benefit from it too.

Re: Surprise

_NOT_ suid per se [it's actually needed for SOME things] but apparently how it's being utilized by systemd and it's minions

Using LinkedIn will land you a shiny new job – like, er, CTO of Microsoft

his predecessor became a PATENT TROLL?

no WONDER Micro-shaft has been pursuing wrong directions!

Plump Trump dumps TPP trade pump

Re: HOLY CRAP!

"You think we don't remember certain people blaming Obama for the state of the economy before inauguration day?"

Or former President Bush II, 8 years later...

I believe Trump has the correct strategy.

a) tax cuts [for *EVERYBODY*, particularly "the rich"]

b) de-regulation

c) significantly reduce the actual SIZE of gummint

d) put people in charge who were chosen for their ability to do their jobs, not race/sex/lifestyle/whatever [including political payoffs]

e) ENFORCE! THE! LAW! - consistently, I might add. no more 'pick and choose' like Obaka

it's a recipe for putting things back on the right track. It's the same one _I_ would use. It's been tried before (1980's) and it worked well, but of course doesn't happen instantaneously. We'll hear all kinds of grief from "the lamestream media" until reality becomes SO obvious, that people will embrace the reality instead of the doom/gloom LIES from those who want it to NOT be so [if it bleeds, it leads!].

Re: The last mercantilist president

I doubt VERY seriously that Trump is truly a "mercantilist".

His plans are simple: provide 'incentives' to keep what production is already inside the USA, as well as incentives to 'bring it back' (or expand within the U.S.).

Typically this will be in the form of

a) tax cuts

b) de-regulation

Although the threat of retaliatory import tariffs still exists, it is highly likely that this is the primary means by which Trump intends to 'make America great again'. However, it might be there as a 'stick' for when the carrot stops working. Incidentally, as I recall, such 'protectionist' means have already been written into things _LIKE_ NAFTA, and the WTO agreements.

But yeah, those of calling Trump "President Snowflake" (aka members of the "need a clue-by-4" club) won't get it at all. They'll believe the stuff they hear on late night "comedy news", and on Face-blank or Tw[a,i]tter rants, instead.

It's official: Ejit – sorry – Ajit Pai is new FCC boss (he's the one who hates network neutrality)

from article: "President Snowflake"?

"President Snowflake"? I think not.

file THAT one under "you have been brainwashed by the lamestream media" and consider who the 'snowflakes' REALLY are...

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/14/university-michigan-cancels-plan-to-help-students-cope-with-trump-using-coloring-books-play-doh-and-bubbles.html

And the screaming, and the whining, and the tantrums, oh my!

(yeah you'll just say Trump does those things, I know, and I see NO evidence of Trump behaving like the 'snowflakes' so devastated by him being in the White House - nothing like a big fat lie to distract, typical lefty trick, and re-enforcing the lie by repeating it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over and I'm sure you'll say "Trump does that too" which of course is NOT the case, but those who WANT to believe it will say it and quote one another so they can FEEL better, yeah - so WHO is the snowflake then?)

Looking forward to a more REASONABLE FCC that doesn't try to REGULATE CONTENT.

Microsoft fixes remote desktop app Mac hole

*facepalm*

"Microsoft Remote Desktop Client for Mac OS X allows a malicious terminal server to read and write any file in the home directory of the connecting user,"

by crafting a special 'rdp' URL and directing the user to click it.

*FACEPALM*

Windows 10 networking bug derails Microsoft's own IPv6 rollout

Re: A short and inaccurate history of NAT routers in the home

"Anybody that can send packets to your router with a dest IP set to 192.168.1.x can connect to your LAN machines regardless of any NAT going on on the router."

On an IMPROPERLY CONFIGURED router, yes. It's not that hard to create rules to block all incoming AND outgoing connections to/from RFC1918 addresses. I would assume that router makers would be smart enough to do this. If not, I'd like a list of FAIL, please...

Or the other choice: use 'bridge mode' on whatever 'thing' plugs into the intarweb, and firewall it with your OWN 'dual home' box, running Linux or FreeBSD. You could even set it up as an IPv6 gateway, via a free IPv4/IPv6 tunnel. Yeah. I do that.

"So ipv6 isn't a mess, has been ready for prime time for a very long time, but Microsoft products and enterprise it are messes?"

good summary!

Re: Sigh

"Plus, even if not blocking everything, the standard Windows ports have been blocked in network borders for ages now."

except that it's a moving target. Windows Vista, 7, "Ape", and now Win-10-nic each seem to add NEW ports to be concerned about. And the Windows built-in firewall is pretty much a JOKE, in my opinion. It's still "Windows" between ethernet and the listening applications, after all...

Re: It is not the backward, it is the forward bit which is the issue

"What Microsoft is doing is the right thing (for once) - trying to manage it correctly via DHCP."

I'm already doing that. I have the routing advertisements going around, AND isc-dhcp running for both IPv4 _AND_ IPv6. When I ran Windows 10 on it [back in the 'insider' days, as a sanity test] it _seemed_ to work, but I didn't test it very long. Windows 7 seems to work ok, and I had IPv6 working on an XP box, even. [I needed to know what ports it listens on so I could firewall them with the FreeBSD gateway/router].

So I think I'm qualified to criticize Micro-shaft when they're trying to do exactly what _I_ did a few years ago. And it's _NOT_ "rocket surgery".

(actually the info over on he.net was helpful, as well as other documentation available online)

So,when I fire up the installer for a debian Linux box, the installer correctly discovers the IPv6 routing information and starts downloading packages via IPv6. When I connect a 'droid device to my network, it routes properly via IPv6. And of course everything else that's configured.

As for Active Directory - that's a Micro-shaft problem, not mine. If it's not inherently broken, it should work just fine as well. Maybe they should try using a Samba server running on Linux or FreeBSD ???

Re: "but Android doesn't support that"

"Linux probably already supports the protocols"

as a matter of fact, it does.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_IPv6_support_in_operating_systems

(some of the info appears to be out of date, however)

For FreeBSD, I added isc-dhcp from the ports collection, and configured 2 instances, one for IPv4, the other for IPv6. it works pretty well. (I did this several years ago, working well since)

Re: Sigh

I blame windows for slowing down the implementation of IPv6.

Mostly, it would be due to ISPs not wanting to deal with the fact that there will be NO NAT DEVICE between the windows computer and the intarwebs.

This means that the plethora of well-known listening ports will be EXPOSED TO THE INTARWEBS again. Just like a dialup connection USED to be (and in some cases, probably still is).

So guess who gets to deal with the tech support issues caused by viruses, zero-day exploits, and so forth? That's right the ISP!

As a result, they don't want to deal with it. having to set up a tunnel through a free service (like he.net) is like an "intelligence test" of sorts. For average 'plug it in and it works' users, it's a security disaster waiting to happen.

And I blame WINDOWS for that. Their machines should NEVER expose ports like that. They should listen on localhost, NOT the entire address space! And MIcro-shaft's firewall is a *JOKE* at best. In any case, with the latest SMB exploit waiting to happen, I'm sure that Micro-shaft will have PLENTY of headaches and patches when they FINALLY get around to making IPv6 support good enough for ISPs to support it, too.

Re: Not that awful

"BTW, who likes NAT? I can only think of one real advantage it has."

let me guess - the automatic firewalling of "all of those open ports" on the typical windows machine?

that's the only REAL advantage that I can think of. That and sharing the same connection with a single 'connected' device, but that part was a given...

"you have a big tech company like Microsoft and they cannot get IPv6 implemented without endless problems"

THEIR problem is the tenacity of a "it must be WINDOWS" solution. that, and general incompetence.

It's not "rocket surgery". heh.

Re: It is not the backward, it is the forward bit which is the issue

er, trying to digest what you're saying here.

strangely, IPv6 works pretty well on my LAN and via a tunnel through he.net [it's one of the free IPv6 tunnel services, yeah]. I've got DNS returning AAAA records and everything. the only trouble I've had is with an old wifi router that seems to want to be the IPv6 gateway for the LAN, even though there's already a gateway for IPv6 [so I plugged the WAN port into the LAN, assigned it to a different IPv4 and IPv6 address, problem 'solved'].

So aside from the ancient wifi router not being set up properly for what _I_ happen to do with it, everything ELSE works quite well, including Windows 7. 10 seemed to work last time I tried it. But seriously, I'm just using off-the-shelf open source things, FreeBSD, Linux, isc-dhcp, and a tunnel via he.net .

This isn't "rocket surgery" (as Ladonna Harvey, a local radio personality, puts it - heh).

Of course, I've got my FreeBSD firewall blocking anything incoming to ports that are "open" because the windows firewall can't be trusted...

SO, Micro-shaft: What's SO HARD???

Trump's 'cyber tsar' Giuliani among creds leaked in mass hacks

"For balance how many of Hillary's team or Obama's had passwords in these hacks?"

Better still (and I _AM_ pro-Trump) do like OBAKA did, and JUST! BLAME! THE! PREDECESSOR!!

He's only been in office for 2 days, after all.

Looks to ME like Giuliani needs to GET HOT and start shoring up his 'firewall defenses'...

General Electric plays down industrial control plant vulnerabilities

Re: Hmm

"saying it cannot be exploited assumes that the machine running it is sufficiently airgapped (or otherwise protected)."

I did a little (indirect) work for GE a while back, on their SCADA system in fact [adding a feature that used the analysis software from the company I was doing work for at the time], and their SCADA system ran on Windows. WINDOWS. Yeah, THERE's your security problem!

Other than that it seemed to be to be a pretty good SCADA system, so just have them tighten it up a bit more and we should be ok, right? THAT and port it to *LINUX* or *BSD*.

Welcome to the Wipe House: President Trump shreds climate change, privacy, LGBT policies on WhiteHouse.gov

Re: Narcissistic Personality Disorder at work

"so long as he receives populist applause at every event."

You forgot that the _REAL_ 'Narcisist in Chief' was OBAKA! Wait until his "legacy" gets BLOWED UP and POPPED like a cheap balloon over the coming few weeks...

I'm looking FORWARD to it! [starting with that ECONOMY KILLER, 'OBAKACARE']

Re: @dalethorn

"The ability to make racist, misogynistic, homophobic, religiophobic, hateful slurs at anybody we please at the top of our lungs? To bully without regret? To engage in delicate foreign policy in 140-character soundbites? To lie whenever it feeds our all-to-sensitive egos? (Isn't that the definition of 'snowflake'?) To return women to second-class citizenship?"

That sounds all-too-much like the leftist TWADDLE cooked up by Mrs. Clinton and George Soros. Yes, it's a complete _LIE_.

In other words, if you're willing to believe THAT, I have some swampland in Arkansas that I want to sell... wait, the Clintons beat me to it! ['Whitewater' anyone?]

Re: Likely

follow, unfollow, who cares. I won't bother with tw[a,i]tter and will read about whatever trump says in El Reg instead.

Or watch him on Fox News.

I suspect more, WAY more, HOWLER MONKEYS on tw[a,i]tter anyway. Just a handful, drawing attention to themselves, trying to appear larger than they are. As usual. And paid by George Soros.

Re: whois obamawhitehouse.org

Dumping all of Obaka's "legacy" off of the white house web pages ON THE NEXT DAY is an obvious message: We're gonna UNdo that "legacy" ASAP. Starting with the executive orders, then Obaka-care, then the failed policies of basically ALLOWING illegal immigration, and so on - say buh-bye!

And don't forget those RIDICULOUS policies regarding "climate change" (not MAN made at ALL), and all of that FAVORITISM towards "protected classes" of people - you know, anyone who's NOT a straight white male. (just like Demo-rats to divide everyone up into manipulatable groups and pander to them, anyway). I have a thought: just treat LBGT{whatever} people as PEOPLE. Why does any one group need "special resources" on the whitehouse.gov site ANYWAY?

But if you want to see all of that again, you don't need to worry. Obaka will get his archive (we need it 'out there' as an example of what FAIL is, after all). Didn't the article say it would temporarily be on obamawhitehouse.archive.gov until the new domain is registered, etc. ??

"when in fact they're mostly paid trolls"

George Soros, the alleged payer of a LOT of those trolls, lost A BILLION DOLLARS after Trump was elected, by "getting it wrong" in his hedge fund (just having Trump ELECTED caused a bump up in the stock market, and Soros bet DOWN, and LOST).

Schadenfreude indeed! To those who DESERVE it, anyway.

Re: I'd offer the world an apology for the garbage that is "American First"

"I'm making lots of money, so my world doesn't change with the changing of who runs the country."

lucky you. step aside and let everyone ELSE prosper for once! elitist...

NO need to apologize for Trump. Apologize for OBAKA and what HE did to America, and the world...

Re: I'd offer the world an apology for the garbage that is "American First"

"That inauguration speech in full:"

nice parody. it would play well on South Park

Chrome dev explains how modern browsers make secure UI just about impossible

Re: "picture-in-picture attacks"

"But now you've got the whole terminal browser that can be duplicated."

how about a fake 2D FLATSO FLUGLY interface that looks like it' running Edge, with a fake dialog box saying "Welcome to Windows 10!". It would be a way of trolling people into throwing their computers out of a window or something...

Re: HTML5 can do WHAT?!

"Seems you don't like full-screen ANYTHING"

I know that _I_ do *NOT* like 'full screen'. Except for movies. And I normally use an EXTERNAL player after downloading videos via "some plugin on Firefox" anyway, so I can download the HD version with my pathetic bandwidth and still view it without skipping.

Re: HTML5 can do WHAT?!

"TML5 can force a browser into full-screen mode?"

sounds like a need for:

a) a plugin like 'noscript' to block all of that by default;

b) user-configurable settings for the same thing (i.e. "never full-screen the browser" just like "never open popup windows")

On last day as president, Obama's CIO shrouds future .gov websites in secret code

Re: Someone forgetting how https actually works?

"I hope browsers are going to start using a different public key for each website."

good idea! or for each DAY, for that matter. that would make a nice add-on for firefox, wouldn't it?

/me ponders...

Facebook bans Russia's RT ahead of Trump's Inauguration Day (then changes its mind)

let's just stop using facebook

what it says in the title.

Microsoft posts death notices for Windows 7 sysadmin certifications

Re: Perspective.

"The guys with certs, I'm usually incredibly disappointed with"

ACK. Certs, like degrees, are proof of POTENTIAL. Demonstrable _EXPERIENCE_ is proof of CAPABILITY!

you'd be better off contributing to public projects (and getting credit for it) than getting "certs" from Micro-shaft.

Trump inauguration DDoS protest is 'illegal', warn securobods

Re: A sad day :(

"I don't think that they'll be seeing a pension."

Meh. Pensions are overrated, ESPECIALLY publically-funded ones. Just work until you die, or set up your OWN fund. Nobody owes anyone else a pension. Pay people NOT to work, and you get what you pay for.

It's a better world when everyone carries his own weight. It's not the job of a gummint (funded by the people) to bail out those who make bad decisions in life.

Where's _MY_ reward money for making GOOD decisions? *crickets*

I'll be looking forward to 4+ years of Trump at the helm. This should be a LOT better. Not ideal, just better.

Re: @ OliP

"You can't have been paying attention for the last eight years. How long did Trump himself rattle on about that birther nonsense?"

not long enough, apparently. Don't forget, it was Mrs. Clinton who first brought that issue up.

"You get another chance to vote in four years time, until then suck it up and stop behaving like a spoilt child."

tell me about it. getting rid of OBAKA (and his RUINOUS policies) has been unnecessarily difficult. Just having an OPPOSING OPINION got you called a RACIST and a {insert plethora of terms}-phobe by a bunch of howler monkeys, online and offline.

And NOW we are HERE. (I'm looking forward to a LOT of "getting better all the time" over the next few years)

AI and robots? Will someone think of the jobs, says HPE CEO Whitman

Re: People don't need jobs...

"Given your usual tone"

WOW - I've got FANS!