Posts by bombastic bob

Microsoft ends OEM sales of Windows 7 Pro and Windows 8.1

why aren't PC makers fighting back?

Why aren't the PC-makers fighting back? Why do they INSIST on hitching their wagons to a "fallen star"? Don't they realize that Micro-shaft has given THEM the "digitus impudicus" with respect to ANY future profits? Micro-shaft doesn't give a rat's backside to Win-10-nic's overall effect on "the industry". In fact, you MIGHT say they're doing it ON PURPOSE so they can sell more 'Surface' boxen, except it's not really working very well.

If PC makers were to collectively GET BEHIND a nice big PUSH towards Linux, it would be like 1991 all over again, except MIGRATING TOWARDS LINUX instead of Windows.

and all of those 'content consumers' can STILL "consume their content" using Linux.

Or, BSD, for that matter...

Windows 10 market share stalls after free upgrade offer ends

"druidic ritual to add the speaker again before it will work properly"

Did it involve a CHICKEN?

Sorta like what we used to do, back in the day, at a company that made smart antennas for wifi access points. we called it "the flash dance" - hold the button, do the dance while updated firmware transfers onto the device...

Re: It's still free

"This is a quite obvious attempt by MS at being cunning. They'll probably trick some ignorants/halfwits to believe they're 'fleecing Microsoft'" by posing as disabled persons."

Posing? I figure they're MENTALLY DISABLED if they go for it...

Re: Genuine curiosity...

don't forget that users don't *NEED* 'faece'book NOR tw[*]tter, NOR google, to use their computers.

But they DO need an OPERATING SYSTEM.

And *THAT* is what's so HEINOUS about Win-10-nic's spyware and adware.

" if you want a fair CPU power based charging model"

WHY _anyone_ would want a MICRO-SHAFT SERVER "operating system" is BEYOND ME.

That goes double with the availability of RHEL (if you need the support), and CentOS (if you can manage it yourself), not to mention every OTHER Linux distro out there that has a lot of support for 'Enterprise' things...

does RHEL do per-core / per-cpu / per-seat licensing like Micro-shaft? Just wondering, as to the best of my knowledge they do NOT.

Then again, I mentioned that CentOS is *free*

Re: "Windows 10's impressive rise"

"I haven't forgotten ME. Nobody mentions ME. It is being erased from all family pictures as we speak and will, in time, be erased from all web pages as well."

windows [obliterated]

sorta like the way certain pharoahs had their cartouche 'obliterated' by successors. Windows [obliterated] was the bastard stepchild of '98, supposedly a steppingstone to XP. More of a stumbling block, or a very deep pothole.

Win-10-nic should be looked at the same way, the "stumbling block" or "very deep pothole" [instead of stepping stone] to MICROSOFT! DOMINANCE! UBER! ALLES!!!

Otherwise, *WHY* kill 7's presence in the market? It was *SELLING* !!!

Re: Horseless carriages

"clue was in the title"

Oh, you were being SARCASTIC? I agreed with your sarcasm. Businesses do NOT need Win-10-nic!!!

can I change my UP vote to a DOWN vote instead?

Re: As long as Win10 continues to be a piece of spyware...

"... and which search engine do you use?"

duckduckgo, mostly [no spying]

Uber, Lyft drivers shamed for 'racial bias' by uni eggheads

Re: Dis Crimi-nation

"I hear this argument from people who have never experienced discrimination."

"Usually white guys, who are usually straight."

sorry, your ignorance is showing. there is REVERSE discrimination, too [usually in the name of 'affirmative action' or some OTHER 'policitally correct' position].

So I'd say EVERYBODY has been discriminated against, in one way or another. Taking a 'victim mentality' and claiming "white privilege" is just ignorant.

Re: Dis Crimi-nation

well, maybe if potential passengers STOP trying to look like gangstahs, i.e. "don't put the hood up for your photo", maybe they'll get rides more often...

(just sayin', there may be more to this)

Obey Google, web-masters, or it will say you can't be trusted

The tollbooth is now EXPANDED

(from topic 'The whole mechanism sucks')

"The whole eco-system that hangs off the side of the authentication side of things is based on a false premise, and that's the sole single reason for this continuing to be a pain in the neck."

And the INTERNET TOLLBOOTH, aka "certification authorities", the cottage industry that sprang up in response to the "need", is now ENRICHED by this *kind* of "decision".

Are we ANY SAFER? what about FIREWALL APPLIANCES that (literally) do a 'man in the middle' and issue their OWN root certificates?

And, HOW is Google going to 'enforce' a site being UNTRUSTED???

And then there are the SMALL TIME (and private) web sites that can issue SELF-SIGNED certificates. Will they be automatically downloaded and installed if the user SAYS to do it? Or will they AUTOMATICALLY be BLOCKED now, because, Google?

And those cottage industries.. the TOLLBOOTH industry... pay the TOLL, or YOU cannot PLAY!

WebAssembly: Finally something everyone agrees on – websites running C/C++ code

Re: Yay! ActiveX 2016!

now I'll need a special plugin to BLOCK THAT SCHTUFF won't I?

hopefully 'NoScript' will be enough. I already disable web-java for the OBVIOUS reasons, along with the flash plugin, yotta yotta.

What the *HELL* kind of WACKY WEED are those idiots smoking in those W3C 'kumbayah' campfire (aka pass the douchie on the left hand side) sessions?

NO. we do NOT need downloadable content to INCLUDE full-blown compiled-language code. Javascript is bad enough. JAVA was bad enough, too. FLASH is even worse. Just *NO*, ok?

F-35 'sovereign data gateway' will stop US reading pilots' personal data? Yeah right

Re: offline F-35 operations – but only for up to 30 days

yeah, no danger in THAT reducing battle readiness. "what if the network was DESTROYED in a battle, and you managed to fix the runways, and got some weapons and ammo and fuel ready to go, and NOW you want to get your planes in the air?" nobody thought of THAT situation, now did they?

Sorta like having a, *cough*, OPERATING SYSTEM that must "phone home" periodically for it to continue operating.

Now, I'm thinking of Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" again...

Florida man ran $1.35m hack-and-spam racket with 50m-plus addresses

Re: What is it with the expensive car collections?

"Why do they do this?"

The reason you do not understand why they do it, is because you do not have a criminal mindset. I think it ties in with GREED (among other things).

Criminally-minded people do criminal things to 'get rich quick' at everyone else's expense, without a care as to who is harmed in the process. Hard work, responsibility, etc. don't exist with these people. I've seen it before: they'll spend unlimited time thinking up scams or schemes, and won't spend 5 minutes looking for a real job. [my uncle, my friend's brother, some asshat I knew in college that had my name written in his 'book' so thanks for the interview with federal officers even though I repeatedly said "I don't want ANYTHING to do with"...]

Recently, some asshat was arrested because he used his REAL identity to rob banks and investment firms...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/28/hacker_bank_arrest/

After stealing the initial $100k - he'd apparently gotten away with it - it motivated him to go for the $1.5 million, which THEN got the FBI's attention.

"we're very much non-US and send/return addresses and mail servers never quite line up."

I (a 'merkin) occasionally get UK-related spam as well...

The Comcast employee who used Comcast's e-mail database for spamming, though... that's pretty disturbing. I wonder how common it is for security breaches to happen "that way".

130 serious Firefox holes plugged this year

How does this compare to Intarweb Exploiter?

So, how does THIS compare to Intarweb Exploiter?

And, even more interesting: how many of those bugs COULD have been exploited?

This does make me consider whether stability would be better than "add new 'features' that we don't necessarily want". I certainly do NOT like the 'hamburger' menu nor any changes to the UI that don't look like 'a traditional menu, with property dialog boxes' [i.e. not those 'web based' 2D FLATSO property screens that look like Micro-shaft's operating systems], and so forth.

In any case, I like the cross-platform nature of Firefox the most, and the plethora of plugins 2nd most. [What I don't like is when that "cross platform" tries to MICROSHAFT my BSD/Linux]

Perhaps SLOW CHANGE [not change for the sake of change], focusing on GOOD CODING PRACTICES, is what Mozilla needs to work on instead. Then they can have an extremely stable, W3C compliant, non-irritating software package that's relatively bug-free, runs on all platforms, and isn't "2D FLATSO" nor "too feely" for the rest of us that are running the classic mouse+keyboard interface.

NASA's asteroid orbit calculator spots a hot rock zipping past

Re: Five days notice

"Currently, five days notice will get us enough time to kiss our collective arses goodbye."

I prefer 'party like it's 1999' followed by standing at ground zero, watching the thing approach, and giving it a serious "digitus impudicus" with one hand, and with a bottle of tequila in the other...

Web devs want to make the Internet of S**t worse. Much worse

Re: Wrong

"If you can't use/access it from your web browser, then you will have to download a native app for that."

so: PART of the fix is some _REAL_ security on the IoT device end, to _PREVENT_ unauthorized bluetooth-level access from an unauthorized client, PARTICULARLY a web browser running javascript exploit code downloaded from an infected embedded advertisement...

(or whatever)

seeing as I'm involved directly with TWO different bluetooth applications that run on android, and the device(s) that the android device controls, it's a major concern.

I can foresee unauthorized firmware loads happening... so THAT much has to be protected against.

October proves to be the cruellest month for Twitter staff as 350 more laid off

Re: And what is it really for???

/me thinks, irresponsibly...

Tw[a,i]tter. HUH! What is is GOOD for? Absolutely nothing y'all...

Re: What's it for?

"Both Twatter and What?App could easily be replaced by an IRC client that always connects to a certain domain."

EFNet is still pretty busy these days. lots of 'lurking' in the channels I'm in, however...

then there's USENET which has NO moderators. visit alt.hacker for some fun, as well as alt.os.linux.ubuntu and a few other linux-related newsgroups.

Yeah, WHO needs Tw[i,a]tter??

Re: Sometimes you get what you wish for.

"I can't stand it when some one says, "hash tag", and then adds something they think is funny."

it's funnier when you read it as 'pound' like

#sandupyourass

or

#myheadonthewall

DMCA updated – toaster penetration testing gets green light in America

Re: couldn't agree more

"It's wishy washy so that if it goes to trial, they can get their top lawyers to drag things out for years, which most people wouldn't be able to afford."

And with "some of the more recent" wikileaks 'reveals', it seems that these guys have been in bed with 'certain politicians' for a VERY! LONG! TIME! indeed...

yeah, no WONDER it's a fsck'd-up law, interpreted by the various gummint entities via whatever 'whim' they have at the moment... [read: whoever PAYS them the most money]

Re: One small step for sanity!

cause and effect... you may have a point. Perhaps the politicians are getting nervous [having something in their closets they want to remain hidden, and NOT show up on Wikileaks]

Re: couldn't agree more

the problem with 'rulemaking' is that it's at the WHIM of some gummint official(s) who "feel" instead of think. And that's the problem with a tin-horn dictatorship, in lieu of a society ruled by law. All of those "grey areas" that enrich attorneys, empower gummint control freaks, and make our [the average Joe's] status 'uncertain' and/or 'uneasy'.

clear-cut laws WITHOUT need for this kind of 'interpretation' are more sane. What Con-Grab excreted from their collective rectums is what we have. dammit.

(DMCA should NEVER have been done in the first place - existing copyright laws were sufficient, especially when interpreted in the realm of 'fair use')

Samsung are amateurs – NASA shows how you really do a battery fire

Re: Falklands War

"if necessary they can be shorted and thrown at the enemy."

you, sir, deserve a beer!

('Up your Junta' indeed)

LiIon and LiPo - modern day 'Hindenburg'

You have to wonder if the use of Lithium in so many devices, because it's a lightweight battery material with high electrical density, is in ANY way similar to the use of hydrogen gas in airships, because hydrogen is twice as bouyant as helium...

it might be time to re-investigate aluminum-based electrodes within a battery. It's something I read about in an El Reg article some time ago...

Re: How much water?

yes, lithium reacts with water to produce hydrogen gas. oh, my!

But once you deplete the Lithium enough, and sufficiently cool everything, it would go out.

Remember, when putting out fires, you use a WATER FOG and not a stream. This has a cooling effect as well as the blocking out of oxygen, breaking 2 legs of the fire triangle. Water fog can do a LOT, even on a class D fire. Just don't spray it on live electrical equipment that's connected to the power grid...

But yeah, 'pissing' on it with a water stream is probably going to make things worse. It's probably why they dragged it outside so that the REAL firemen could do a proper job on it.

Re: Only 96 batteries

2000 batteries in a Tesla?

The number of batteries is less important than the energy density. However, a Tesla is more likely to have human occupants and be involved in an involuntary distortion of the basic structure of the unit [i.e. a car crash], and thereby expose one of the 2000 lithium ion [bombs?] batteries into a potential source for an inadvertent catastrophic disassembly event [read: explosion].

High density batteries would reach a high temperature faster for the obvious reasons of less mass and more energy applied to it.

In any case, it's a fair bet that NASA batteries have the highest possible density since they are intended to be launched into space, and rocket fuel is expensive.

'Hacker' accused of idiotic plan to defraud bank out of $1.5 million

"And this waste of skin can breathe in and out too?"

never underestimate the plans of the criminally minded... who will go FAR out of their way to try and do what this idiot [allegedly] did, but wouldn't lift a finger to get a REAL job...

[I have to wonder whether this guy was ALSO 'on the dole' in addition to the criminal activity]

Re: Clap Hans....

say it with an "80's euro-pop" sound and it works

Re: Does the word hacker even apply?

script kiddies think of themselves as 'hackers' but of course lack the REAL knowledge that they somehow gained from others to do their criminal acts...

I still have to wonder...

I still have to wonder as to whether use of REAL name/address etc. actually HELPED him get the initial $100k or so. There might've been some head-scratching over it, but apparently it wasn't scrutinized enough. Was the initial scrutiny something like "is this guy a REAL person? Well, nobody would be THAT stupid..."

Re: Well, no one ever said crooks had to be smart...

definitely an entry into the "dumb crook" file.

The new FCC privacy rules are here, and nobody is happy

Re: Partisan lines?

those would have been Republo-CRATS (i.e. 'establishment' country-club types) if they're not siding with INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM. Demo-Rats "for freedom" (quotes because they rarely ARE) might be ACLU types, though... in which case they'll PRETEND to side with individuals because it's what the ACLU wants them to do.

Question: did the Republo-Crats vote against it because it DID NOT GO FAR ENOUGH to protect individual rights?

On a related note, 'Tea Party' Republicans are ALL ABOUT individual rights. The 'establishment' Republo-Crats hate them. yeah, the R party is fracturing. let's see what a Trump win will do.

(and NOW I expect the howlers to send me downvote-shytestorm, thank you)

Re: economically beneficial uses?

"Instead, it would create a rigid regulatory regime that would limit the use of virtually all data that can be put to economically beneficial uses."

wasn't that the whole point? Because 'economically beneficial' to the ISP or its "partners" means "privacy violation" to end-users. OPT IN if you *WANT* that. Makes sense to ME.

I had to renew my MSDN today. I did it as 'guest' so I don't have to be tracked by "the store". There was a pre-checked checkbox to "receive other offers" which I _DELIBERATELY_ un-checked.

(I almost didn't renew MSDN. I had to REALLY justify in my mind why I actually NEED to continue to feed Micro-shaft $799 per year for something that's difficult to use effectively with my intarweb connection, and that THEY BROKE 2 years ago, and *REFUSED* to fix properly last year, though they DID fix their server to comply with the RFCs, so that I can hack it with 'wget' to get files bigger than 1G...).

Anyway - FCC gets "at least some of it" correct. A step in the right direction. 'Wait and see' mode for what comes next. I don't trust gummint to do ANYTHING except "gum things up" and pay off political favors in exchange for money.

Let's praise Surface, not bury it

Re: Your looking at the market wrong

"The market for selling PC kit might be slowing down, but market usage of PC's is not."

And the choir said, *AMEN*!!!

/me has been saying that for a while.

The PC market is a DERIVATIVE, not an INTEGRAL, of PC usage.

Looking at new PC sales to represent "the PC market" is like falling from a building and reaching terminal velocity, and THEN saying "Oh, we're not FALLING any more" because your velocity is not increasing.

Unfortunately, Micro-shaft derives their REVENUE from NEW SALES, which is why they panic and release things like Windows "Ape" and Win-10-nic, and virtually ABANDON 7 and earlier. It doesn't make THEM money. What they fail to realize is that THEIR OWN ACTIONS help to KILL the 'new PC' sales.

Microsoft goes back to the drawing board – literally, with 28" tablet and hockey puck knob

"The new hardware isn't really all that much better than the old hardware IMO"

and slapping Win-10-nic on it makes it WORSE than the old hardware.

Re: The silver hockey puck works on and off the screen.

"You sound a little unhinged to be honest, and a bit of a grumpy old fart."

'grumpy old fart' - sounds like a snot-nosed MILLENIAL said that.

Sorry, I don't want to remove my hand from the keyboard to use the MOUSE, half the time, let alone stretch over to the screen and put it between my EYEBALLS and the display surface, at least PARTIALLY blocking what I'm trying to look at. A Wacom pad does just fine for the 'fine resolution' (pun intended) kinds of things you might need to do. why do you need a HOCKY PUCK directly on the screen? A pen on the screen makes more sense, but THAT was available in the 1970's!!

So the 'hockey puck' input device is YET ANOTHER "patent encumberance" attempt, to lock us all into something Micro-shaft can control and dominate for 20 years... [except it's FAIL]

I said this about Win-10-nic in general, Micro-shaft leveraging the OS to attempt [at some point] to use PATENTS to weed out the competition, putting themselves into a TRUE monopoly position, but thankfully Win-10-nic's interface isn't being universally accepted, just tolerated by the FRACTION of computer users who are willing to PUT UP WITH IT.

Re: Windows 10

"Apart from a few settings screens looking slightly different, Win 10 is cosmetically the same as Win 7."

*NO*, not even close - there's the 2D FLUGLY for starters, and anything "the metro" or UWP, and of course the "start thing" and its alphabetized 'you cannot shut that off' "all [cr]apps list" where most everything you look for either starts with 'm' or 'w' meaning 'scroll to the bottom to find it, every! stinking! time!'. and so on. yeah, don't get me started, I could write a NOVEL on what's wrong with Win-10-nic and why it's WAY different than 7...

wait until it gets a really big crack in it, like a phone that bends too easily...

(head-shaped, from head-slam-on-desk frustration - it's Win-10-nic after all)

I've arrived on Mars. Argggh, my back!

Re: A never-ending study on how to mess up humans...

nuclear rockets are an _AWESOME_ idea, until the protesters and enviro-wackos show up and sue you into oblivion...

(stupid anti-technology protesters and enviro-wackos - they need a CLUE BAT)

seriously, though, the ideal propellant would be super-heated steam made from ocean water, heated with some kind of nuclear reaction. A nuclear rocket could make that happen. Great for deep space, too.

Re: A never-ending study on how to mess up humans...

many science fiction authors have written about viable artificial gravity solutions. Perhaps the more obvious one could be the 'gemini tether' someone else mentioned.

OK here's the idea: Extend two "gravity modules" 10 to 20 meters, using very strong cables [like the ones used for elevators on Earth]. Provide an inflatable tunnel between them, made of the same stuff you might find on a typical work site, going down a manhole or something. It all collapses nicely for launch, acceleration, and deceleration. For the bulk of the trip, it's extended. Careful use of thrusters cold provide the spin, and get rid of it when it's time to decelerate. And sliding weights (computer controlled) could be used for balance, something you might find in an industrial washing machine for the spin cycle [if they're not just using water for the same purpose].

you don't need a full 1G, either. 1/4G or 1/2G would be better than 0G. And you can just minimize the disorientation that fast-spin might cause, rather than trying to eliminate it entirely. [many engineering choices are compromises between multiple ideals, like rounding off at 'enough' digits instead of calculating to ridiculous precision...]

In any case I remember reading books written in the 1950's that seemed to have most of these details worked out. Most likely some bright bulb could come up with a workable solution for a reasonable cost.

but, there's more MONEY in "researching", and the scientists who do the research will get to play with lots of cool toys at (public?) expense...

Smoking hole found on Mars where Schiaparelli lander, er, 'landed'

Re: It's WAR!

"Its not dead, its just pining for the fjords"

and still nailed to its perch [which must be what b0rked the landing operation]

Re: That reminds me...

"Of playing a game called Lunar Lander"

It could become a new training system for the European Space Agency...

have they landed on the moon yet? that might be an easier goal, less expensive, with a faster turnaround if they 'crater' another lander...

ARM: Hold my beer, we'll install patches for your crappy IoT gear for you

'pushed updates' - works so well for Win-10-nic

just thought I'd mention it...

Thanks, IoT vendors: your slack attitude will get regulators moving

the 'next internet' would most likely have all of the censorship that China and Saudi Arabia want, built-in. And the tracking the NSA wants. And ads, ads, ads, ads, ads, everywhere, in our faces, click-through and worse. And it would take over a decade to "plan", with an organization bigger than the U.N. and just as worthless.

I prefer the anarchy of what we've got, thanks.

"WRITE CODE THAT WORKS OR BE SUED"

heh, we'll start with Microshaft and Win-10-nic

Re: Après nous le déluge

certain aspects of CE, i.e. lead-free, requires that a lab analyze a ground-up device for the presence of certain materials like lead and selenium. FCC regs in the USA are a bit less restrictive, but you still have emissions and interference testing that you have to have done by a lab, for $$$$ [which helps weed out 'the little guy']. Obviously SOME of these regulations are necessary, as we can't have every poorly designed device in existence interfering with wireless reception [from AM radio to wifi], but at the same time it's a stumbling block for legit engineers to overcome.

That being said, there _IS_ some self-certification involved. In the USA the FCC fines can be incredibly expensive, a million dollars a day in at least one case I remember reading about. I'm not sure how you'd collect it on a foreign company, except maybe to confiscate anything they sell at the border.

Re: National regulation won't do a damned thing.

"How can American laws get Chinese companies to comply when a lot of them are coming through grey markets that are by design nearly impossible to regulate"

Somehow the Feds are managing to enforce copyright law and FCC regs, grey market or not. I figure it could be similar. And having such regulations violated by 'grey market' items is probably MORE likely if the gummint regs are somehow prohibitive for those who MUST obey them...

/me considers something about enforcing borders, U.S. Customs, and a wall

Reports: Twitter chainsaw massacre redux on the cards

Re: What is this twitter thing?

"The sooner twitter is put out of our misery, the better"

although I, too, would love to see it die, I'm sure that the 'twits' will manage to keep it alive, somehow...

social media IS "the new heroine" for millenials