Posts by bombastic bob 10666 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
"Fatty Kim the Third"
I can think up a bunch MORE nice names for Mr. Kim III, which include anything said to describe Cartman in S. Park. Oh, and 'Cartman' too. "RESPECT! MY! AUTHORITAH!" [Imagine 'Dough Boy' saying THAT on camera!]
And when China bans THOSE search terms, we'll just have to make up NEW ones.
"German anti-aircraft gunners aboard the battleship Tirpitz were reportedly unable to hit attacking Swordfish because they flew so slowly the gunners, used to fast modern aircraft, kept missing in front of them."
Like it was taken RIGHT OUT of Arthur C. Clarke's 'Superiority'.
And the converse is also true: all of this "bleeding edge" tech and no effective way to sink an enemy ship.
Besides, as I understand it, those old wooden biplanes can turn on a dime, and take a zillion hits before they actually crash. Just wear a flack jacket when you fly them...
NO school like the OLD school, eh?
"I do hope somebody in MS with a detectable pulse reads this."
doubtful. they're all over on answers.microsoft stroking one another's egos and shilling about how great Microshaft and their products are, banning anyone who dissents (or ganging up against them, like bunch of howler monkeys ). Their rose-colored glasses wouldn't allow them to be able to see anything on El Reg anyway.
And I doubt they'd care. They're Micro-shaft. They're *POWERFUL*. They can DICTATE THE TERMS, and FORCE COMPLIANCE. Why SHOULD they care?
"cmd.exe is not good, but at least it is fairly simple, and has "worked" for all versions of Windows."
it does what _I_ want. And I could type in 'cmd' and rapidly create a desktop icon for it, or run it from the start (what used to be) menu EASILY. So what do you type in for 'power-hell' now?
It's just like MICROSHAFT to JAM A CHANGE FOR THE SAKE OF CHANGE into our orifices, just because they *FEEL*.
The reason they're jamming POWER-HELL up our collective backsides is because it SUPPORTS ALL OF THAT '.NUT' CRAP. They've got ".NUT" on the brain, and it's made them ".NUTTY".
"All DBMS bypass the filesystem cache for fast non-blocking asynchronous IO."
you sure about ALL? that's a very 'broad' categorization.
" The Linux asi_write and writev glib functions either do async or scatter/gather, but not both"
'asi_write' doesn't exist in FreeBSD [I just checked], at least not the version I'm running. So using it is not truly portable for POSIX systems (a big 'minus' if it's required for performance). Anyway, if _I_ needed that kind of I/O specialization, I'd write a kernel module to do it. And if you use threads in a very clever way, async I/O isn't all that hard... [been there, done that]. But I'd rather let the OS handle all that for me, then use 'flush()' to make sure it writes. In a thread. So it doesn't block anything else. It just blocks "that transaction" waiting on the I/O to complete.
And then, maybe, you FIX the operating system so it's faster? As long as the patches are not written using a crap-code style, heh. - what was the term Linus used, 'compiler masturbation'?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/01/linus_torvalds_fires_off_angry_compilermasturbation_rant/
So yeah, I've been there with the async I/O stuff, and though 'gathered' writes do have their appeal, I'd have to wonder what kind of performance boost you really get from that, over [let's say] a memory mapped file, or multiple threads making separate but parallel I/O requests. You definitely get the kernel layer speed benefit from making a single I/O request, though, using 'writev' to get them all done at once. I just haven't measured the differences in actual practice to see how much of a boost you'd get.
in any case, translating "all that" across a layer between Micro-shaft way and POSIX way might cause a performance bottleneck on its own...
"A picokernel of some sort would be needed because Linus wouldn’t allow these kernel extension in Linux."
Or, leverage the Linux ability to do all of that write-collection FOR you via cacheing and 'lazy flush' instead of "paranoid writes" which is what Winders seems to be doing...
and then, it's FASTER!
so you do a bunch of 'teeny writes', then hit 'flush()' for your completed transactions. So simple.
"user friendly but insecure and bloaty Windows; versus slick secure Linux that has poor app support and in my experiencce requires you to learn an archane annd unintuitive commmand line language to make it work"
uh, not exactly. mac OSX has users for whom you show a command shell and they're like "WTF?" and blank stares, etc. most recently I was trying to explain how to use command tools to ssh into an embedded device that has an RPi controlling it, to a mac guy. he's got a mac. that means he has ssh. Well, he gave up and said "I'll just bring it by so YOU can do it..."
"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?
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.
"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).
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...
"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?]
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.
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
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).
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!
"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.
"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*
"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.
"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.
"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.
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* ???)
"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.
"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?]
"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']
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'
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.
"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].
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.
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?
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]
"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?
"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' ???)
"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?]
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