Posts by bombastic bob

Sexbots could ‘over-exert’ their human lovers, academic warns

"now someone will invent a robot-lawyer"

it's all "part of the experience" - seems to be an inevitability from the 'fleshy' variety, so why not robots too?

water is wet... sky is blue... etc.

"What I want to know is why academics are spending so much time thinkin' 'bout sex robots."

yeah answer is probably obvious. but I'll enumerate my thoughts anyway..

1. why play "the game" when (if you're a geek) you can INVENT something

2. the consequences following a sexual encounter with a 'fleshy' female are potentially life-damaging

(and that includes a lifetime of legal problems, from false accusations to paternity issues)

3. except for certain parts of the world, it seems that females are being conditioned into becoming man-hating b.i.itches, particularly in colleges.

4. who wants to raise offspring in *THIS* kind of environment? ninny-nanny neighbors, helicopter parenting, public schools that are indoctrination centers, yotta yotta yotta

Robots are looking pretty damn good!

[I always figured that the p0rn industry would be where all of the really cool development for human-like androids would be made, particularly gynoids]

So, when you're tired of pretending to be someone you are NOT in order to get women to even TALK to you, or forking over huge amounts of money and/or expensive gifts in the hope of 'getting lucky', or marrying some lady that was pretending to be 'what you wanted' so that she [later] can take you for everything you've got, or told "no means no [unless it means yes]" by every female you even ask to go to Starbucks, and maybe fired once or twice for 'harassment' because you asked a lady at work [or AT SCHOOL] out on a date, or been forced to endure "sensitivity training" simply because you looked at a woman's boobs once too many, MAYBE, just MAYBE, it's time for an *ALTERNATIVE* ???

And then 'death by snu snu' not such a bad thing, perhaps...

Re: "you're probably not going to be that bothered about human sex"

the 'rental' problem is solved as long as the bot has detachable/replaceable "parts" that can be properly cleaned/sterilized, or simply "you have to buy your own". 99% of the bot could be 'rented' and 1% purchased.

And of course, it wouldn't demand "palimony", expensive gifts. It wouldn't gripe at you for no reason, lie about you to your friends/enemies and/or take you to court, etc. etc. etc.

And if people don't accept your "Robosexuality", you can call them "Robo-phobes".

[there's a term for something a lot *like* this on certain image boards... yeah, 'moot' point]

Brussels cunning plan to save the EU: No more Cookie Popups

Re: Cookie law

"Google are also somehow changing Firefox so when Google is blocked they are unblocked and you get their cookies back and then a day or so later their malicious multipage contract terms."

uh, whuh?

if FF is changed like that, time to fork it! [then again it was time to fork FF when the hamburger menu first showed up]

Re: Love the EU again?

"all powers now reside in Brussels, in the hands of unelected bureaucrats"

upvote anyway, even if you got the Trump part wrong

'Upset' Linus Torvalds gets sweary and gets results

git needs a 'profanity' button for crappy pull requests

"is it true they checked in code that didnt compile?"

apparently [if I read the article right] it was a pull request, which is like a 'moderated commit'. Someone has to actually commit the change to the main branch based on the request. I've never actually had to do that in git but it's one of it's primary features for managing a project *like* the Linux kernel.

That being said, git needs a "profanity" button to allow for a quick response to crappy pull requests. Forget downvotes or simple rejection; a good old fashioned FLAME response will do nicely! [a 'steaming poo' icon would do well for implementing that function]

I once had someone submit a "fix" for something I wrote, complete with K&R formatting, additional global variables, and a few other irritating "features", all to address an edge case that I later implemented [trivially] on my own.

boneheaded 'pull requests' _MUST_ be a constant irritation for Linus!

Microsoft's Edge to flush Adobe Flash in Windows 10 Creator’s Update

a 'slow clap' for Microsoft

Microsoft gets the "slow clap" for doing something right. This time.

(yet I can't see an icon that's appropriate for 'slow clap' - oh well)

Re: Not possible to ban smoking in the office?

"no one, not even ME ;) , should be inflicting that dangerous substance on others"

you have the right attitude. thank you.

Would your company allow you to VAPE indoors? That seems to be a good solution in my view, as vaping doesn't cause the kinds of problems that smoke does for people around the person vaping; in fact, early studies showed it has NO effect! so there ya go, I'd be in favor of it.

Re: Not possible to ban smoking in the office?

"most seem to think that littering isn't a problem and just throw their butts either wherever they happen to be at the time or into a nearby small area"

I think it's not "most", more like a small number of highly irritating and highly visible asshats. They justify polluting other people's air, and sometimes INSIST on their "rights" to do so at others' inconvenience, so why not throw trash wherever they 'feel' as well? It goes with that kind of thinking, after all, that it's ok to grossly inconvenience others, based on their personal feelings.

yeah, the 'F' word 'Feel' again, at the root of it all...

NASA – get this – just launched 8 satellites from a rocket dropped from a plane at 40,000ft

Re: hmmmm

"vaguely familiar" - indeed. Virgin should patent-troll-sue them [maybe] ?

Re: well it makes a change...

"from faking climate data"

no, I'd havd to downvote that one, too. The data isn't fake. The predictive models are just wrong. No 'hockey stick' and California hasn't flooded [as predicted by AlGore]. Yeah he had to revise his numbers when reality caught up.

But NASA's data isn't fake. I doubt even the most aggresively political engineer could stomach the idea of faking data. The beauty of science is that, even if you're wrong about something, it's still just as interesting when you get to the right conclusion [based on experimentation, actual data, etc.]

[minor correction: AlGore believed the sea levels would rise significantly due to polar ice cap melting, which would flood california; however, the actual prediction would be that the earth would become a 'Frying Pan' by January 2016, 10 years after the Washington Post article]

US Supreme Court to hear case that may ruin Lone Star patent trolls

Re: So if this goes through, everyone has to be sued in their state of incorporation

"While I believe patent law, especially in the USA, needs reform, it certainly should NOT be abandoned."

ACK.

But it seems to me that SOME patents should never be granted, and in general they should be DIFFICULT to enforce. In other words, if the new thingy is 'different enough', and only has elements from YOUR patent that are either a) intuitively obvious, or b) trivial, or c) unnecessary to the scope of the patent, or d) done by others for similar or even unrelated reasons, then there should be NO violation.

Adding flavor or salt to water shouldn't be a violation of a patent, since this has been done since koolaid was invented. That was more than 50 years ago, by my observation.

Also if you invent something before someone else patents it, the patent should be DENIED on that basis [as long as you can prove it]. NOT filing shouldn't be a punishment. A good example (as I understand it) would be something that happened to Harley Davidson back in the early days. They were sued over a clutch design that they never patented. So someone else patented it (Indian motorcycles?), then sued them for infringement, nearly wrecking the company. At least, that's how it's portrayed on TV.

In my opinion, THAT should NEVER happen. Evidence of 'prior art' should *ALWAYS* invalidate ANY patent claim. Indian motorcycles TROLLED them.

But who knows WHAT would happen in a Texas or Deleware federal court...

patent laws federal; districts and judges to blame

"If the state patent laws were harmonised"

nice try, because I see why you'd say this. But the patent laws are federal laws, and therefore could be heard in ANY state, in a federal court, before a federal judge.

The problem is that l[aw]yers will OFTEN try to get judges and/or districts that give them a better chance to win. You know, like playing football [American or UK] on a field of your OWN choosing.

That eastern Texas district [recently portrayed on an episode of 'Bull'], and apparently Deleware, are reportedly "friendly" to patent trolls. So guess where THEIR high-paid l[aw]yers want the trials to be? No surprise.

If the *people* were consistent, both judges AND jury pool, then we wouldn't have this problem. So your original statement was correct, except for the details.

Hopefully a more CONSERVATIVE supreme court [expected when Trump starts appointing Scalia's replacement] will NOT side with patent trolls, but INSTEAD, with the EARLIER ruling (i.e. in a court that's local to the plaintiff/petitioner or the defendant/respondent). I would say that, in the spirit of criminal proceedings, that the respondent/defendant would be able to have some priority in choosing a venue, out of fairness. It should ALWAYS be harder to prosecute than to defend, after all, and any kind of "tort reform" demands favor to the accused.

[And, with all of the times Trump has been frivolously sued, you'd think he might be moderately interested in dealing with this PROPERLY - having deep pockets makes you a TARGET for the TROLLS]

Don't panic, friends, but the Chinese navy just nicked one of America's underwater drones

this is what you get with wimpy foreign policy

This is what you get when you have WIMPY foreign policy.

You know, bend over, grab ankles, apologize for being yourself, and then say "Thank you sir, may have another" after getting... well, you know.

There are SO many examples of rolling over and taking the abuse from the Obaka administration, that I'd just guess that China wants to have a look-see at our drone thingy so they can 'clone' it, before someone with REAL stones gets into the White House and demands its return [and is willing to actually FIRE THE GUNS AND MISSILES in response].

'I told him to cut it out' – Obama is convinced Putin's hackers swung the election for Trump

poor, poor baby Barry

"Mr Putin is well aware of my feelings about this"

Poor, poor baby Barry. Were your sensitive "snowflake" widdle feelings HURT ??? Awwww....

Stupid "feely" Demorats, jumping all over Trump before the election for even *hinting* he might not "accept the results". And here THEY are, in obvious hypocrisy, blaming Russia for THEIR loss.

What's Barry gonna do, start a WAR so he can "stay president" because it's too important to transition power 'right now'? Everyone knows Barry carries a WIMPY STICK, and makes idle "don't do that" 'threats' ALL the time! He's like every OTHER bully, a WIMP at heart. And Putin KNOWS it.

So as the Demo-Rats can't claim some RACIST or NAME-YOUR-PHOBE did it, they'll pick on Putin because he's there, it's Russia, and they need a scapegoat.

Nevermind the real reason: It was because Trump *WON*, and Mrs. Clinton was *REJECTED*. Had there been no electoral college, Trump would've campaigned differently, and the results would PROBABLY have been President Trump.

"Get Over It", Demo-Rats!

Re: DNC - Remove the mote from your own eye

more like "remove the *LOG* from your own eyes"

note that 'mote' can be implied as sawdust, which is the same material as the log. except, of course, the log is a WHOLE lot bigger!

Oracle finally targets Java non-payers – six years after plucking Sun

Way to go and kill Java development, asshats

What they do not understand is that Java is not "the end all" for cross-platform software development, and doing things like _THIS_ is going to cause some "pause for thought" in the planning meetings, such that development in Java may no longer make sense.

This includes ANDROID PHONES. It's currently *FREE* to develop for android phones. Anger the developers (and Google), and Java might end up becoming as *INSIGNIFICANT* as C-pound.

(latest TIOBE index was showing Java being #1 for a very long time, and C-pound sucking along in the 4% range)

There was a "chilling effect" from Micro-shaft's aggressive "compliance" programs a decade or so ago. It resulted in THIS:

Web Archive - Rockin' on Without Microsoft

And *squeezing* revenue out of everyone, *YEARS* after the fact, is likely to wind you up on the wrong side of a lawsuit.

If you bought a dildo in Denver, the government must legally be told

Re: Remarkable

"t's almost like they only want us to buy through Amazon."

*MULTIPLE* thumbs-up for seeing THAT connection!

Corruption in gummint, much?

Tech titans tentatively trot toward Trump Tower to talk turkey today

expecting good things

expecting good things to come out of this. I doubt anyone who attends that meeting would honestly complain about it [other than no longer getting any favoritism or any kind of 'corporate welfare']

should be fun, considering that just about ALL of them probably contributed heavily to Mrs. Clinton

Oh, and like the first poster mentioned, a beer for the 11-t tounge-tripping-title [there's 3 more t's for ya]. Or did he mean the 'Schmidt' part?

Uh-oh! Microsoft has another chatbot – but racism is a no-go for Zo

"EQ" is _highly_ overrated

if you consider that even HUMAN helpdesk operators have to hold back their own emotions (think: internet help desk, 3 trolls in a baggie) and try to be as UNemotional as possible to calm a frantic or angry person on the other end of the line, giving a BOT "emotional" capabilities is likely to backfire in both spectacular and comedic ways.

Instead, Micro-shaft should focus on idioms, metaphors, similes, mispronunciations, and the recognition of outright falsehoods and snark.

I mean, if foreign-based tech support already have a "boiler plate" that they must follow, replacing them with BOTS is the natural evolutionary path. And, we all know how well THAT "works"...

[besides, there's way too much "FEELING" going on out there already. You cannot FEEL an emotion _AND_ think at the same time. THINKING is more 'rational' by definition, and without emotion getting in the way, THINKING will get you to a more REASONABLE place much more quickly. That "FEELING" crap needs to be eliminated. But, coming from Micro-shaft, who "gets it wrong" more often than not these days, I can see why they went with it. They're being WRONG again. Stupid "feelies" *FEELING* that FEEL is better than THINK]

Disney sued in race row: Axed IT workers claim jobs went to H-1B hires

only one side of the story

as much as I hate the idea of a large company (Disney in this case) laying people off so they can import "cheap labor", we're only hearing one side of the story, surrounding a lawsuit.

just sayin.

If it turns out that it's a bunch of staffers that SHOULD have been fired long ago, but Disney didn't have enough dirt to justify it [and so they used the layoff as an excuse], and THEN these guys turn around and SUE [I have seen THAT happen, too, and court-ordered policy changes at the company NEGATIVELY IMPACTED ME after the lawsuit was settled] because "they can" and "deep pockets" and "l[aw]yer manipulated juries", *ahem* THEN maybe Disney is in the clear, morally and ethically?

OK longshot but still...

related: I was contracting for a company, long ago, which benefits me personally because THEN I can run all income through my corporation, rather than W2. One guy, a long-time 1099 contractor, was "not renewed" because he should have been FIRED, but it was easier to "not renew his contract". Within a year, he SUED because he'd been working on-premises, and was NEVER offered the opportunity to be a 'direct' (W2) employee (because he should've been fired). As a result, EVERY contractor [including me] had to be 'converted to W2' meaning wage/salary instead of corp-to-corp billing. [they tried to be fair about it, but it had a negative impact on everyone, nonetheless]

Trump's 140 characters on F-35 wipes $2bn off Lockheed Martin

Re: 400 billion? Try 1.5 trillion

"the weapons system that bankrupts the American Empire."

maybe that's what Trump is thinking... an overpriced "cool, shiny" weapons platform that has too many impracticalities.

WW2 was won with 'leser capable' aircraft, etc. by the Allies in the face of "superior" equipment on both sides. The Zero was faster than U.S. planes [they could only catch one by diving] until late in the war, and Germany had practical jet fighters. Yet the Allies won, in many ways through NUMBERS, not technical prowess.

Translate that into more modern terms, Reagan pulled WW2 battleships out of mothballs and 'modernized' them for a fraction of the cost of new ships. And here is a nice photo of one of them through a periscope...

U.S.S. New Jersey ca 1984

In any case, the principle here is that "it can be done for less" and Trump is apparently heading in that same direction that Reagan so successfully went back in the 80's.

A single typo may have tipped US election Trump's way

Re: Their election chances were damaged because the truth got revealed...

"then released damaging information with the aim of influencing the election"

I'm glad they did it. After all, it's apparently ALL TRUE [what was revealed] and shining the light on these idiots was something OUR MEDIA was supposed to have done. So if Russia did it...

THANK YOU!!! (and you guys deserve a beer)

Is your Windows 10, 8 PC falling off the 'net? Microsoft doesn't care

Re: Don't think Microsoft has the monopoly on dodgy DHCP clients

"Why would a client ask a server to use the IP address under DHCP? It would just ask to renew."

when you initially connect to the network, the DHCP client attempts to re-use the last good IP address, first. It's part of the protocol. After that, it requests a renewal at a point in time before the IP address expires.

/me wonders if MSshaft's bug is asking for the renewal AFTER it expires...

Re: Options

how about just booting Linux to a console every time. "it's too hard to type startx" <-- yeah, right

sudo systemctl enable multi-user.target --force

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

voila! you're welcome. to do this with good ol' sysvinit, you can modify the 'Snn' script to only a 'Knn' script for things like gdm, kdm, xdm, yotta yotta for the /etc/rc#.d directory corresponding to the run level you plan on using when you boot up (usually /etc/rc2.d). I found that to be easier to figure out, but a bit harder to actually do...

[nearly ALL of my linux computers/VMs do this, with rare exceptions]

And of course, FreeBSD is "this way" out of the box!

Re: It's all a bit farcical, isn't it?

static DNS: worst case, use 8.8.8.8 [should work everywhere the intarwebs is supported] - it's a freebie from google. [yeah they probably track it]

EU dings Sony, Panasonic over rechargeable battery cartel

Re: One quick question

I think Samsung has the market cornered on 'sploding' batteries...

Bill Gates joins $170bn climate change investment club

Gates, no doubt, is "buying something"

like so many other wealthy people who contribute to massive 'charities', Gates is BUYING SOMETHING.

What a charity lets you do is TAX DEDUCT all of your contributions to it.

Gates is no dummy. No doubt he's got an agenda of some kind, probably a capitalist one. He's using this charity to do something. Maybe it's image, "paying his dues" for the lefties so he can further some other cause. Whatever.

But he's wasting his money. Human activity is NOT changing global climate. It changes by itself without any intervention. I mean, look at THIS:

5 million years of temperature history

or THIS:

Ice Age Temperature

isn't it obvious that our current temperatures, which are admittedly NOT going up, are JUST part of natural cycles? That is, if you ignore the attempts to project temperatures 10 degrees higher by 2100 using a flawed model...

Well, Micro-shaft has taken a wrong turn with 'Ape' and win-10-nic. It doesn't surprise me that one of it's wealthiest founders is busy pouring money into the black hole known as "man made climate change".

(I wouldn't be surprised if Bill G. knows this but is using this 'charity' to funnel money into something that profits for him, maybe purchasing equipment from companies he invests in, maybe boosting M-shaft stock prices indirectly, yotta yotta and the P.R. boost for the feely-lefties who believe in this garbage)

Re: Trumpity Trump

"his attitude to climate change is the thing that scares me most."

are you KIDDING? You actually *BELIEVE* that "man made climate change" BULLCRAP? I'm *RELIEVED* that Trump is giving it the "digitus impudicus" with his EPA appointment, for starters.

I _certainly_ do _NOT_ need a bunch of "bought off" "scientists" telling ME how to THINK. Instead, I downloaded their data [from U.C. Berkeley] and ran the numbers MYSELF. 2005-ish was the peak of a ~70 year cycle, just like 1970-ish was a trough (cold), 1935-ish was a peak (about as hot as the 2000's, maybe hotter), 1900 was a trough (cold again)... and temperatures have followed that nice *NATURAL* *CYCLE*, and not that hideously ridiculous "hockey stick" AlGore model.

So, temperatures are going DOWN now. So predictable if you study the numbers.

And the data is still there, last I checked. Do your OWN study and don't let people tell you how to think by manipulating you into being AFRAID.

Or, we can allow a bunch of activists to "chicken little" us into a "henny penny" 'sky is falling' panic, which precludes THINKING, since you cannot FEAR-EMOTE and THINK at the same time [something about the amygdala controls that, as I recall].

In other words, while you're allowing yourself to be "scared the most", your thinking has been turned off.

(howler monkey downvotes expected)

DDoS script kiddies are also... actual kiddies, Europol arrests reveal

S'kiddies and their lack of basic knowledge/skills

Yeah, it does NOT surprise me in the least that S'kiddies are behind the DDoS'ing, NOR does it surprise me that they're BUYING "other people's knowledge" to do it.

A *REAL* hacker doesn't need to purchase a DDoS'ing "service". But a S'kiddie *DOES*.

S'kiddies are LAZY, uneducated, self-important "look at me now" spoiled little *BRATS*, who would be protesting the 1% or engaging in PRIMAL SCREAM demonstrations [poor widdle snowflakes] if they weren't USING! MOM! AND! DAD'S! MONEY to purchase a DDoS service from a bunch of clowns that set up a botnet using malware for that specific purpose.

They invoke techniques that they do not understand, using other people's tools, and call themselves "elite" for doing it.

A *REAL* hacker knows that the discipline and [self] education needed to attain that skill level on your own should _NOT_ be wasted in such a manner. So *REAL* hackers design complex systems, or really cool IoT devices, or work in I.T. and security, where the basic knowledge and skills gained from hard work and study pay off the most.

These black-hat wannabe S'kiddie types are just irritating. And it looks like they left a nice fat bread-crumb trail for the cops to locate them, too. Typical.

My advice: install Linux or BSD, learn to compile a custom kernel (and modify it to do cool things), and hack your own computers. Submit patches when you find vulnerabilities. Get a REAL job that pays you to do _that_ level of skillful intelligent work. It's a LOT more rewarding.

Busted Windows 8, 10 update blamed for breaking Brits' DHCP

blame windows update

blame the forced updates, and ISPs quietly causing that excessive bandwidth waste to DIE so they don't have to support it for "all of those computers" during those peak times whenever Micro-shaft "feels".

well, just a thought anyway...

Russian hackers got Trump elected? Yeah, let's take a close look at that, says Obama

Re: Russians or not

"Yes, we lost the chance to be ruled over by an ultra-corrupt, power hungry federal felon, and we're about to lose the worst president we've ever had. If that's losing, some more please!"

multiple-thumbs-up from this 'Merkin, sick and tired of lefties, socialists, and outright CRIMINALS ru[i,n]ning the gummint. And Buh-Bye OBAKA-"CARE" !!! [don't let the back door of history hit you in the arse on the way out]

Looking forward to 2017. For me, 2016 SUCKED up until the November election.

Oh, and has ANYONE come to the conclusion that _MAYBE_ independent hackers, or a group like 'Anonymous" might've been behind any alleged 'hacks', such as the revealing of who the Demo-Rats *REALLY* are by the content of their "private" e-mails?

Oh, and a special thanks to Julian Assange, you definitely helped! You, sir, deserve a BEER!

For God's sake, stop trying to make Microsoft Bob a thing. It's over

Re: VR? I'd rather have AR

"Might need a cable to a belt battery pack though."

particularly when Win-10-nic is involved. Reminds me of XP-tan, holding out her empty bowl: "More [electricity, memory, upgrades] please"

Re: Wait what?

"advertising in the middle of your session."

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh... we don't need a real-life episode like THIS:

http://aqua-teen-hunger-force.wikia.com/wiki/Www.yzzerdd.com

RIP John Glenn: First American in orbit – and later, the oldest, too

Re: I'll raise a glass

I followed the space program religiously as a kid. It was a time when anything was possible, and men like John Glenn were a big part of that. I wasn't very old when he flew Friendship 7, but I used to watch all of the Gemini launches and whatever TV footage they did, as well as Apollo, etc. until "suddenly it was gone".

It was a time when ANYTHING was possible. And nobody stood in the way, whining and protesting and moaning and drawing attention to themselves. We could see real heros, portrayed as heros, and it was good. Not many of those guys left, from that era.

And men like John Glenn helped to make that happen!

Cheers! [mine's an ale]

US think-tank wants IoT device design regulated, because security

Re: essentially regulate almost all computers

I'll take 'Internet Anarchy', please. With extra freedom and privacy on the side.

Re: Regulation on IoT

<facepalm>

gummint regulating IoT: yes they've done so WELL thus far, on regulating "teh intarwebs"

</facepalm>

It might be faster to solve this problem by providing ACTUAL open source solutions for popular platforms (ones that easily fit into small memory footprint firmware) rather than "just thinking about it" and then regulating the hell out of the IoT biz until "only the big boys can play".

revising an old adage: Those who can't, are in a think tank.

All aboard the warship that'll make you Sicker

Re: On a different topic - The Photo

"Are those red things the naval equivalent of training wheels??"

no, they're vortex vomit dispersal fins. you know, to prevent a wake of "last night's dinner" from making it possible to see where you've been...

either that, or they help the hull go into a 'planing mode' at high speed...

but an elegant design would have them be MULTI-FUNCTION - you know, increase top speed *AND* disperse all the puke!

Earth days are getting longer – by 1.8 milliseconds per century

Re: I blame global warming and CO2

"Before somebody else does."

I was going to SPECIFICALLY blame human activity, since that isn't causing 'global climate anything'. It will give lefty/socialist politicians, activists, environmental wackos, and AlGore something to keep the donations flowing with...

Qualcomm, Microsoft plot ARM Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs, tablets, phones

Re: We've had enough

" I don't want Linux to be the perfect user friendly OS"

why not? *AFRAID* ??? You don't have to use Linux, you know. It's not like what Micro-shaft is bullying everyone with these days [buy a computer, MUST have windows on it, that kinda thing].

Just don't be a snooty-snob and DENY OTHERS the 'Linux as a perfect user friendly OS' , k-thx. [ok maybe you're not actively trying to STOP Linux from becoming the perfect user friendly OS, but still...]

Re: Very interesting but not entirely surprising.

"It can run Universal Windows Platform "[cr]"apps"

yeah, that's no surprise here. And now Micro-shaft will be screaming this factoid from every position they occupy.

And are we REALLY seeing this massive migration by developers to UWP? I sure haven't!

[of course SOME will drink the coolaid and jump on the bandwagon, like they did for ".Not" and C-pound, neither of which scores well on the TIOBE index, and UWP won't either]

UWP forces your application to become a CRapplication, with that hideous Win-10-nic look. No thanks. The number of devices EXCLUSIVELY running Win-10-nic is a limited number. You'd be alienating >60% of your market share _NOT_ targeting Windows 7 and Win32 API! So guess where new development will focus? Or *SHOULD* at any rate...

Re: Doom

"And if you choose to do so, you'll be helping to chip away at Intel's domination of desktop CPU world and inject a little more competition and innovation into the market"

I'd rather chip away at MICRO-SHAFT'S "dominance" [aka bullying its way onto our computers] in the market, instead. Does Qualcomm know about 'Linux' ?

WinRT boxen were a *joke* running Windows 'Ape'. I suppose the Win-10-nic versions will be as bad of a joke, particularly with the Win-10-nic part.

90 per cent of the UK's NHS is STILL relying on Windows XP

'up'grading is overrated

seriously, the whole 'up'grade thing [which is a DOWNgrade if it's to "Ape" or Win-10-nic] is highly OVERRATED. It would (likely) require new versions of things that people are familiar with OTHER than just Windows, and that includes HARDWARE too, most likely.

It's a fair bet that a FAIR analysis of the situation might prove that a commercial flavor of Linux, if you MUST "up"grade the OS, would be a lower cost, longer term, TOTAL solution.

Like THESE guys did at Ernie Ball over a decade ago:

Rockin' On Without Microsoft (web archive)

Wannabe Cali governor gives up against beach-blocking billionaire VC

in a state where tech billionaires are critical to political ambitions

nothing to see, folks. move along. yeah, right...

One law for everyone, except for "the elite"

Cassini tickles Saturn's rings ahead of final death plunge

Re: You know what they say to do if you're about to hit a deer

You say: "Oh, DEER!"

So far I have managed to 'swerve to avoid'. Stupid bucks jumping at you like it's a contest or something. One tried to race alongside of me after I swerved to avoid it. >60mph for a few seconds. I hadn't known they could sprint that fast. 'Prey animals' (vegetarian) just aren't that smart.

(yeah, has nothing to do with space probes like Cassini)

right before the video is lost, let's queue in some famous lines from Star Wars "the original"

"She's breaking up, she's breaking up!"

The UK's Investigatory Powers Act allows the State to tell lies in court

'Big Sister' Shirley is wearing a dominatrix outfit and wielding a cat-5-o-nine-tails. "You've been a naughty, naughty, NAUGHTY boy!"

seriously, though, can't you pass a law that would throw out of evidence ANYTHING not collected either with a proper search warrant, or in a venue that's totally PUBLIC? Yeah, the l[aw]yers would have an easier time for a while, getting criminals out of jail, but here in the USA we survived the 'miranda' nonsense, and jails are overflowing.

I'm less concerned about secret gummint spying than I am about CORPORATE spying [google, micro-shaft, face-blank] and using our information to manipulate us [through ads, targeting, filtering] etc.. With evidentiary rules in place, gummint spying is WAY less of a problem.

Team Trump snubs Big Internet oligarchs

Re: Um, it's not the jobs.

nepotism? no, that would be OBAKA and the Demo-Rats. They're INfamous for it.

It's like when people think Trump is an authoritarian. That's not even CLOSE. Authoritarians are also (typically) micromanagers. Their egos require them to bit-fiddle EVERYTHING. Like OBAKA. And Carter, oh by the way.

No, Trump is a _DELEGATOR_ like Reagan. And equally misunderstood in that regard...

Re: Intel

maybe the companies that Trump wants to hear from the most are the ones that are actively heading offshore??? Or maybe those that have been 'in trouble' for a while?

that and the shrill folk in Cali-fornicate-you have [unfortunately] become EXTREMELY hostile towards Trump, starting in "Silly Valley" and coming to a puss-filled boil in Sacramento. So "no" to Google, and Face-blank, and maybe even Intel, for that reason alone? And 'no' to Hollyweird, too.

Besides, look where things got with Obaka listening to "those guys". Gotta leave that behind, right?

Take that, creationists: Boffins witness birth of new species in the lab

Re: Creationists aren't listening.

"They'll just come up with some post hoc argument to try to fit the evidence. "

unfortunately you're most likely right, or else it will be carefully forgotten and buried or something.

I don't hold to a pure-non-creation type of evolution, nor a non-evolution type of creation. In fact, in my opinion, creation requires INTELLIGENCE, and not necessarily a god. And so the spaghetti monster will do, if that's what you want.

I figure that epigenetics plays a BIG part in evolution and carrying the 'evolved' genetic codes into the subsequent generations. If I'm right, epigentics may be directly affected by force of will, survival instinct, stress [like an extinction-level event], and whatnot, resulting in a type of evolution that's brought about only by catastrophe - that's kinda what we see in the rocks, right?

In a way this experiment fits that last definition. The 'catastrophe' was the introduction of 2 new food sources NOT previously seen before [and a lack of 'the usual stuff']. The virus adapted in interesting ways to that "stress factor", evolving into 2 new species.

then again, if they can evolve BACK, then it's not evolution, but cyclic mutation. THAT would prove to be an interesting experiment as well [try to force it to evolve BACK].

Bloke sold cash register code to restaurants that deliberately hid sales from taxmen

the various tax boards WILL check up...

you know, when you report your annual revenue filing for your business, on various tax forms to various entities, and you've also filed your state sales tax (and possibly other municipalities) returns like you're supposed to, then... SOMEONE out there is adding those numbers up and figuring out how much sales tax you're supposed to be paying based on your revenue and type of business... because THOSE! NUMBERS! ARE! IN! YOUR! RETURNS!!!

and the tax revenue bean counters just LOVE to find things. It's like they live for that schtuff...

So what part of "you're gonna get caught" did they NOT understand???

Then again, minimum wages and OBAKACARE and OSHA and "all that other schtuff" is bad enough on small businesses [like restaurants] but if you're forced to be a TAX CHEAT to stay afloat, maybe something's wrong with the economics of the situation...