* Posts by bombastic bob

10515 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Microsoft Desktop Bridge opens, Win32 apps can now cross into Windows Store

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: An old fart writes...

"I must admit I still don't really understand what the difference is between an 'app' anda 'program'."

app: short for 'application', what micro-shaft (and now Apple) call "a program for a phone". Or in Micro-shaft's case, an application for a desktop, too.

I like to distinguish an 'APP' from 'Application' as "an application that does some trivial thing with a phone-like interface" vs "something you can REALLY get work done with"

And of course I normally write 'app' as [CR]app because THAT is what MOST of them seem to be...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Hmm...

"I suspect that delivering software outside the store is about to get frowned on. "

or WORSE, _OUTRIGHT_ _DENIED_ or _BLOCKED_!!!

at least Android has a 'developer mode' _AND_ a "untrusted sources" selection. So if you build an APK for some custom thing, you can publish it yourself without paying THE TOLL.

If Micro-shaft does THAT (i.e. FORCE you to go through "the store" to publish an EXE) I'm going to stop subscribing to MSDN.

And I've been an MSDN subscriber since the 90's.

Microsoft's Service Fabric for Linux hits public preview

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Upside Down solution

"Any knowledgeable business owner, meaning not those who know and accept only Microsoft speak or lame solutions, would be insane to chose Microsoft for hosting Linux based Cloud Services with Linux applications under Microsoft Azure Cloud services."

it happens. at one company, we were using multiple "el cheapo" Linspire machines as "build machines" with whatever Linux (or even FreeBSD) version made sense re-installed onto it, so that we'd have a consistent official build environment.for various flavors of firmware, once for each flavor. This filled up a closet with 6 individual boxen that consumed power.

The obvious solution: virtualize them. The chosen virtualizer? VMWare [a decent choice].

The chosen host platform? Windows Server 2003. ew.

Yes, we *TRIED* to convince the software development manager that hosting Linux VMs on windows was kinda, dumb. No effect.

WORSE: the source control system 'Perforce' was being used, because it worked well WITH Linux (and FreeBSD, my favorite). It also works ON Linux. However, certain Linux kernel images had case-sensitive file names that differed by CASE, and so when it was hosted on WINDOWS, you'd get some name clashing and this was very bad. Solution? Host it in a VM running on a WINDOWS SERVER 2003 MACHINE. I facepalmed over THAT one. I could NOT convince the software manager of the error of his ways.

On a related note, the manager was a fan of ".Net", mono, C-pound, Windows Vista, and "that way" of doing things. And yet, we were almost EXCLUSIVELY a Linux shop, doing company-related firmware modifications for wireless access points running Linux and occasionally VxWorks, but sometimes doing 'windows things' too.

yes, SWALLOWED THE COOLAID, and STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. I don't think it was possible for him to see things any other way. sad.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

How do you say "BSOD" in Penguinista?

it's a screen saver on Linux

funny story, CEO of a company I used to do work for saw a Linux box with a BSOD screen saver running, saw the screen, and was concerned, until I said "it's just a screen saver", then told me about this happening at another company where someone called the IT people over while the user of that particular box had been at lunch to "fix the blue screen". He also asked that it NOT display that particular screen so nobody would freak out.

which then, of course, makes the inevitable point about BSODs and windows in general, and all of those funny pictures people have been submitting, "world's tallest BSOD" etc.

(topic-related, I suppose triggering a BSOD in Win-10-nic might be a vector into safe mode, etc. and I suppose it could be done with a 'rogue' USB device)

Google: There are three certainties in life – death, taxes and IPv6

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Try getting IPv6 from any major ISP's.

IPv6 tunnels still work. I'm using one from he.net - but of course THOSE are given away for free by an ISP that's just being nice. there are other free tunnel services as well [captain obvious says: no need to thank me, I'm not being helpful] and so it's just a matter of setting one up, which requires following somewhat detailed instructions for your OS of choice.

now there ARE some *NEW* headaches that IPv6 is likely to cause:

1. Your windows machine NOW has a publically viewable IPv6 address, even though you were accustomed to being behind a Linux-based NAT firewall. This is a lot like leaving your bedroom window unlocked with the curtains drawn...

2. ANY IPv6-capable web site can discover your publically viewable IPv6 address, including rogue ad servers, CDN networks, Facebitch, and web servers with "invisible" gif images embedded into any web page.

3. tracking you via a FIXED IP ADDRESS is now "that much easier". Each IPv6 subscriber is likely to get a netblock of addresses. there are more than enough. That net block NOW identifies YOU. Even if the IPv6 changes, if only the last 8 to 16 bits are changing, it's still "you".

[yes I know all 3 already apply to me, but I've dealt with it]

Keep in mind that every windows version since XP has had "magic internal stuff" listening on well-known ports, every time you boot up. Try "netstat -an" in a CMD window some time, you'll see what I mean. Every one of those UDP ports marked '*:*', every one of those 'LISTENING' TCP ports, they're ALL open to being CRACKED. All you need is a pile of already-cracked machines [remember 'code red' ? win-nuke?] banging away against random IPv6 addresses, and you'll get infected or DoS'd, eventually, if you're running an unfirewalled windows machine.

The solution, of course, is to have a firewall that is INTELLIGENT enough to block these ports PROPERLY by default, and I'm not talking about the Windows firewall, I'm talking about a PROPER firewall, like a router running Linux. It also needs to properly support IPv6 routing, AND to be "shut offable" if you have something OTHER than "that box" doing the routing [which _I_ happen to have].

And that's another headache for the ISPs: dealing with customers that aren't using "their box", are using some form of 'bridge mode', already have an IPv6 tunnel, and somehow PROTECTING all of those clueless windows users from getting their machines cracked because they're NOW publically visible. And if it has an easily guessed user/pass, you now have remote access capability.

maybe the biggest problem in the way of IPv6 is MICRO-SHAFT and WINDOWS ???

US Marine Corps to fly F-35s from HMS Queen Lizzie as UK won't have enough jets

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: US Marine Corps will be flying F-35Bs

"RN Captain - We've been ordered to bomb XYZ"

"USMC Commander - Sorry, the President says we're not going to do that"

same possibility with British pilots on a U.S. carrier, I suppose. but I doubt it would be a problem. Unless the Pres is Mrs. Clinton, in which case we're all fsck'd anyway.

As former U.S. military (Navy), I'd say that when you're attached to a foreign command, you obey the commanding officer, regardless, unless it goes against your basic oath of defending the U.S. Constitution. You can note your objections, but you still have to follow orders. Fortunately, politics as they are, NATO missions as they are, the HMS QE probably won't even remotely get into a situation like that. We hope. [I'd hate to lose access to RPi and The Register over stupid politics].

there WAS this one situation back in the 1980's, told to me by someone who had been attached to a Turkish sub [it was a decommissioned diesel sub, being sold to Turkey, and U.S. sailors were on board qualifying the Turk sailors to operate it properly/safely]. One time one of the Turk sailors didn't show up [went UA]. The Turk sailors found him 'out in town'. They brought him back to the sub and were going to shoot him. At least one of the U.S. sailors said "NO, NO, you can NOT do this on an American Naval Base" (or something similar) and managed to stop them. THEN, "a decision was made" to go underway that day, and all of the U.S. sailors were 'kicked off'. They came back later, and "that guy" wasn't with them. I guess that once you're in international waters, U.S. law no longer applies...

Anyway, that's not what I expect to happen on any British or U.S. carriers...

United States names its first Chief Information Security Officer

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Is Obaka going after wikileaks?

I have to wonder if the new cyber security guy's position is to somehow deal with things LIKE the upcoming wikileaks "reveal" on Mrs. Clinton? Couple THAT with the last big info-dump/reveal of DNC e-mails (showing them acting like everyone they allegedly HATE, from racial slurs and sexist comments, to deliberately messing with the primary election process to coronate Mrs. Clinton).

And the OBAKA administration is, perhaps, IN A STATE OF PANIC?

well, I can help them out: Stop using Micro-shaft servers and Outlook for e-mail, enforce the law with respect to keeping classified info off of the intarwebs and private e-mail accounts, and PUNISH those who've been negligent and possibly got people killed... [no need to name names on THAT part]

World eats its 10 millionth Raspberry Pi

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: re. fried pi

well, if you have a pi plugged into an embedded device via the connector, a fried pi would be easy enough to swap out. low cost of new Pi is actually a very good design aspect, and a reason TO use the RPi "that way". Also easy to image the SD card for a backup, or just use the old one in the new Pi. [Pi zero, with solder-in wiring, would be harder to replace in the field, or on a bench for that matter].

but having the layouts change, yeah, that causes potential difficulty, since the holes don't line up. I just hope they don't stop selling the older models...

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Pedantry ahoy

"It'll be the same as previous RPi 3 kits - a MicroSD card in a SD adapter."

right, you might want to use a PC with an SD adaptor (or an external USB one) to put the Raspbian image on the SD card. not like I don't have a zillion of these micro-to-SD adaptors laying around already...

Star Trek's Enterprise turns 50 and still no sign of a warp drive. Sigh

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

"The cool (or mind-bending) thing about special relativity is that the *very same* light beam is also measured as travelling away at the speed of light by everyone else who comes across it, regardless of what speed they are travelling relative to you."

hence, time distortion to make that calculation work [or so it would seem], when you sit and think about it, run the numbers as 'how fast is that photon REALLY going from the perspective of' it all makes sense.

now let's add the other 7 dimension into the 1st 4 to get M theory. relate that to quantum mechanics and this year's proof that shroedinger's cat really IS both alive and dead [there was an El Reg article about that in january as I recall], it's my guess that THE OBSERVER comprises the 11th dimension, separating the two 10-spaces into separate universes that differ only in their 11th dimensional position at the time they separate, when one universe gets "heads" and the other "tails" - prior to observation, it's heads/tails with a measurable energy. then you observe it, and the quantum state-flipping energy goes away, and has to go SOMEWHERE... so it splits the two 10-spaces along the 11th dimension???

or something like that.

/me head splodes

bombastic bob Silver badge

"you cannot accelerate anything in normal space-time faster than the speed of light."

very true. the solution, then, would be 'abnormal space' (i.e. warp bubble, subspace, all that sci fi stuff that has at least SOME actual science to it)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alien

Re: FTFY

"The only way we know how to "warp space" (and that only one way) is to move shitloads of matter into the place to be warped."

I was always under the impression that if you could create a sufficiently strong field [graviton field in the STNG universe] you could effectively 'cut yourself off' from the effects of relativity by (literally) creating a 'sub-space bubble' around yourself, being 'space within space'. The relativity problem is just that: relativity. when thing #1 travels with a relative velocity to thing #2 that approaches light speed, you get the relativity effects. but if thing #1 is no longer influenced by thing #2, it can move it's 'own private universe' (the subspace bubble) at whatever speed is possible, since it's not interactiving "relatively" with anything else. That's how I understand THAT particular theory, anyway.

The problem is moving the bubble, or creating it for that matter. gravity waves/particles are being detected by satellites, now, looking for gravity wave events and whatnot. So that much (the existence of gravity waves/particles) seems plausible enough. Emitting them may be nothing more than spinning heavy atoms inside a magnetic field [let's say a mercury vapor magnetron]. Emitting them in SUFFICIENT QUANTITIES, however, that's something else, and might require those anti-matter reactors we cannot build yet...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: As a side note

"an episode of ST:TNG, in which Data opens the show by playing cards with Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking."

that was a great episode. I miss STNG [nobody plays the reruns any more]

My guess is that there are several possible explanations as to WHY we don't have things like warp drive and practical fusion reactors and things like that...

a) space aliens "holding us back" for our own good [had to get that over with, heh]

b) wealthy/powerful elitists (like Soros) fearing a loss of power and control, shifting gummint policies and money accordingly to maintain power/control. After all, if we can just leave earth and go to space to get away from *THEM*, they'll lose the monopoly they have over our lives...

c) scientists paid to "do research", not "get results" (think of the Manhattan project, which was all about THE RESULTS, and how quickly atomic energy became an integral pat of our society)

d) all of the above.

hey, it's possible, ya know? I think 'c' is the most likely candidate, though. history backs me up on THAT one.

Ten-year-old Windows Media Player hack is the new black, again

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Windows media non-player

"Ubuntu to the rescue!"

OT I was a bit disappointed when I installed Mint 18 Mate (based on Ubu) the other day [to do 'droid dev for a customer project] and *ALL* of the built-in window decoration themes were FLATSO versions. SERIOUS disappoint. I had to search around to figure out how to get non-FLATSO looking min/max/close buttons. It's still possible, thankfully, just not pre-configured. I like bulbous buttons in my window title bar, not FLATSO. My desktop is NOT a feely-slab. [if I want a feely-slab I can get a 'droid one for cheap; they definitely have their use - like being a debug slave for the project - but I prefer my desktops to LOOK like desktops, not like 30" phones]

but yeah, in ubu you STILL have a choice. it's just getting a bit more difficult to choose what I want.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wait, Windows has a media player?

windows prior to Win-10-nic had one, yes. Now I think you have to BUY one, or tolerate ads, or something... or download/install VLC.

in the insider preview, I reported a bug where the metro video player couldn't get aspect ratios right with MKV files, and had sucky video performance [especially compared to VLC]. Solution, get rid of the metro media player. ha ha ha ha ha. The best part is the screen shots I used to report the bug, which I still get a snicker fit over [it's a harmless screen shot comparison for an anime that for SOME reason was quietly removed from tvtropes for no good reason, other than the possibility of SOME people's perception of it, even though it was a 'trope maker' in a couple of cases, and uproariously funny]. I smile with an evil grin. Because I know how SOME people over at politically correct micro-shaft would see that...

Related, has anyone considered whether or not the infected torrents were submitted for download DELIBERATELY in order to entrap the people that download them? You know, a handful of idiots dumb enough to use windows media player in the FIRST place get cracked by MPAA and others, and their computers held for ransom and/or identified for *STING* operations and intimidating lawsuits...

[yeah, I saw THAT possibility - a few well publicized examples, and a lot of common people shake in fear over accidentally downloading a pirate copy]

Linus Torvalds won't apply 'sh*t-for-brains stupid patch'

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: The mostly non-existent drivers of Linux

"Linux will only play nicely with about 1/10 of existing devices."

uh, no. I rarely have problems, and most of them were with things like winmodems pretending to be sound cards on very very very old hardware [a toshiba laptop, specifically].

these days, I find there are very few devices that don't support Linux. FreeBSD, on the other hand, I have a bit more trouble with. [but it's been good to me thus far]. NDISWrapper helps, though.

(never DID get the atheros wifi to work for FBSD in my old laptop, and now the motherboard needs replacing - yeah, and all but THAT chipset probably works fine - it's the device itself, a pre-N card from 2008-ish)

Still I've found that nearly everything ELSE works 'first time around' when I plug it into a Linux system. All of those cheap ethernets, and particularly wifi and bluetooth devices that use certain very COMMON chipsets, "just work". they even work on RPi.

Maybe the hardware makers need to cough up a proper driver for their stuff, instead, something you can build locally and then 'modprobe' into the kernel startup.

(yeah that's what should be done with those wifi drivers that Linus ranted over...)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: There's a lot of it about

"The people who write code are good at communicating with computers, not so good at communicating with people"

I think you're wrong. Why? because it's the RECIPIENT of the communication that's the determining factor, more often than not, as to whether the communication is effective. You can tell SOME people that "1 plus 1 is 2" and those people will simply get OFFENDED even though they AGREE with you. It doesn't matter HOW you say it, so much, as the fact you SAID it, you were CONFIDENT when you said it, you didn't "feel as if" 1 and 1 are two, nor did you ask THAT person if he "felt" as if it were two, but you simply MAKE A STATEMENT OF FACT, without sugar coating it, and the recipient [with chip not-so-firmly resting on shoulder] whines and cries and complains and calls you a bigot (that's how political correctness works, anyway).

I love it when someone is telling me some B.S. and says "are you even LISTENING to me?" and I reach deep down to a skill I learned in the military, and I summarize EVERYTHING said over the last nn minutes, and then say "and I *DISAGREE* with you for the following 'n' reasons" and then enumerate them.

I _THINK_ that people should _STOP_ being all "feely", and Linus is a good example to us all of how it SHOULD be done. There. I said it.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: He's right. Again.

"The notion that VMWare has to rebuild its drivers from source whenever I update the kernel is an abomination."

FYI - some internal structures may change size as the result of changes made in 'make menuconfig'.

As a result, the driver must be compiled using the configuration and header files for THAT kernel. That is because the structures and ABI won't match, even from simply making a change via 'make menuconfig'. Some of the network stuff was definitely like that about 10 years ago, when I was doing a lot of embedded Linux for wifi access points, and wrestling with getting the kernel config 'just right' and making sure the driver would still compile/run ok.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: He's right. Again.

"it would in in everybody's best interest if they released the source code to the firmware"

you'll have to change the way the FCC certifies WiFi to make THAT happen. BCM does a lot in FIRMWARE rather than on silicon, and so you end up with things as they are. Regulations prevent them from open-sourcing it, because that would let people modify the driver to violate FCC's requirements.

But yeah, provide the BLOB along with the driver "wrapper" to the kernel dev team, or make them sign NDAs to compile the BLOB and ship the compiled binary with the kernel. [incidentally I've worked with Broadcom's WiFi driver code in the past, so I understand what/why on this, though it's been a few years]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: He's right. Again.

"But by making a version of a device's firmware get compiled in with the device driver in the kernel you're linking firmware version to the kernel version. Not too clever."

why not? get the latest kernel to get the latest driver. either that, or insmod the driver after the pre-compiled part of the kernel boots up, during the 'init' process. [I think you can do this with systemd, and you could definitely do it with system V]

ok a little LESS convenient, I get it. but it's better than the alternative.

Tesla driver dies after Model S hits tree

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alert

Re: standard operating procedures

"they are firefighters, how would they tackle an electrical fire in any other situation"

well it's not entirely an electrical fire.

Fire classes are 'A' (wood, paper) 'B' (oil, natural gas), 'C' (electrical), and 'D' (chemical, pyrotechnics)

http://www.falckproductions.com/resources/fire-safety-and-firewatch/classes-of-fire-a-b-c-d-and-k/

apparently also a class 'K' now, for cooking fires [usually these have PKP dump extinguishers activated by heat or a pull-chain/lever of some kind]

What we have here is a case where there is a class 'C' fire _AND_ a class 'D' fire. Putting dry chemical on lithium will probably make it WORSE. Also dry chemical is conductive, and so it would make the electrical fire worse. CO2 usually works best on electrical, and probably the Lithium fire as well. Problem with class 'D' is knowing _exactly_ what chemicals will put it out, and what chemicals make it worse. You could actually put some fires out with OIL, if you think about it, because it has excellent smothering and cooling effects, so long as it's not atomized with plenty of O2 [in which case you'd get an EXPLOSION and a class B fire to go with it].

Class D fires may be self-oxygenating. in the case of a LiPo, this is probably the case when you get past a certain point. Li reacts with just about everything, from the negative electrode to the material it's sealed up with, the atmosphere, WATER, and anything else you throw at it.

When I was in the Navy I was trained in firefighting [as everyone else was] and we did regular training and drills and whatnot. I've actually put out a couple of fires (not while in the Navy) when there was an arsonist in my neighborhood, a few decade ago. I wouldn't call myself an expert, just 'knowledgeable'.

But I can totally understand why firefighters were hesitant to try and put out a battery fire like that. Sometimes, if life is not immediately threatened, if property damage can be avoided by "letting it burn" and keeping it from spreading, THAT is what you'd do, to avoid "something worse" if you do the wrong thing...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: own EV happens to have the exact same problem

"But your point about a lithium battery is a lithium battery is well taken."

right, lithium being the second most chemically reactive substance in the known universe, and the most reactive of all of the metals. This makes it a very good battery material, not so good on safety following a catastrophic failure to contain the material in an airless environment, nor prevent an unintentional extermely-low-resistance circuit from forming between the + and - terminals following such an event.

We've already seen battery troubles on the (I think it was) 777 airliners causing a fire. We all know that on occasion a malfunctioning LiPo or LiIon battery can burst into flames, destroying whatever equipment it's mounted in. We also have airline regulations preventing the shipment of batteries 'over a certain amp-hourage' in airline carryon. Such regulations require that these batteries be shipped in approved containers, fireproofed, etc..

So I guess it's kinda like a Corvaire or a Pinto in that respect...

What's next, "unsafe at any speed" for the TESLA? Or do we build fireproofing material and special 'crumple' things for the batteries?

Ralph Nader types, where are you? Chances are they're conflicted between contradictory positions on environmentalism and consumer safety...

Pokémon-loving VXer targets Linux with 'Umbreon' rootkit

bombastic bob Silver badge

"You would be surprised at the number of people using RPi's who expose them to the net and leave the default username and password...."

not really. Your typical 'maker' types are more interested in building cool electronics and making their pi do a dance or flash LEDs and basically know _nothing_ about IT/ security.

At least they're not using Win-10-nic and/or ".Not" on some overpriced intel solution...

(then again, a rumor has it that Win-10-nic has a version for RPi. now I need 'pink liquid' for the nausea that this mental image just caused)

rumor... read: "yes I saw an El Reg article about it, but I'm trying to forget it exists"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: "Umbreon is manually installed onto an affected device or server by the attacker."

here's a scenario that's likely:

a) an RPi user doesn't change the default pi:pi user:pass after installing Raspbian. keep in mind, ssh is enabled AND sudo works on ALL commands

b) the RPi is configured for IPv6, meaning it's IPv6 address is NOW! PUBLICALLY! VISIBLE! TO! ANYONE! WHO! CAN! GET! IT!! (that includes ssh, pretty sure, but I'd have to double-check sshd_config to make sure it's listening)

c) because the PW wasn't changed, a click-bait web site COULD detect an RPi accessing it, and back-crack the system nearly instantaneously, and install this thing.

SOLUTION:

a) immediately change pi:pi to something else (or disable the 'pi' login entirely)

b) disable ssh access via IPv6 unless you REALLY REALLY need it

c) configure your firewall and sshd and sudo settings properly

d) require su to root [with a cryptic password] for MOST things, i.e. stop using the 'sudoers' group and being lazy about it.

RPi works well as a headless system so you probably don't want to disable ssh, but you want to make sure it' SECURE shell, not "pseudo-secure shell with a brain-damaged insecure config'

Adobe reverses decision to kill NPAPI Flash plugin for Linux

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Anyone else get this mental image?

Flash - it's an UNDEAD horse. It's been beaten to death SO many times, it's become UNDEAD.

https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Undead_Horse_Trope

skull and crossbones, because, Pirates of the Caribbean [the first movie]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Flash is dead, give it a proper burial

"I've been flash-free for a while now, don't miss it one bit,"

I've had too many problems in the past with the linux flash plugins in FreeBSD, and so I've been relatively flash-free since gnash lost support (and wouldn't work on half the sites anyway). I don't miss it. Also didn't miss it when NoScript blocked all of the flash ads, and NOW "lack of plugin" blocks them as well. Web sites load FASTER without flash on your system.

Now if there were a way to get rid of JQuery and OTHER monolithic scripting cruft...

Hacker takes down CEO wire transfer scammers, sends their Win 10 creds to the cops

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

A positive story about hackers

It's nice to see a positive story about hackers. MOST hackers aren't law breakers [they typically do engineering work, solving complex problems with rapidly adapting and often non-traditional techniques] and so are of the 'white-hat' variety. Some are black-hats, and these guys were arrested in THIS story. But you have to appreciate the 'grey-hat' hackers as well, like the "protagonist" of this story, sending the carefully crafted documents to the bad guys to reveal their identity.

Microsoft thought of the children and decided to ban some browsers

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Nanny Microsoft strikes again

"The reason for the silence is he asked Microsoft shills to answer and there aren't any here."

then where did all those downvotes come from?

nanny microsoft. watch MSNBC (triangle-head and doughboy) for more than 5 minutes, and that's a good representation of how their internal company politics work, too.

well, MSNBC is rated *LAST* in the cable news networks last I checked, lower than CNN even. And Micro-shaft is soon to have their OPERATING SYSTEM ratings do the same thing, once the end-users wake up and smell the LINUX.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Lawsuit Time Again

"Even OS X parental controls work with Chrome and Firefox (it sets up a local HTTP proxy for all browsers)."

yes, but OSX is BSD under the hood, so it's much easier to make this happen. We're talking an abortive cluster-blank excuse for an operating system, known as 'Win-10-nic'. THAT, and MS needing an EXCUSE to LEVERAGE their CRAPWARE onto the next generation of youths.

'Hey, Elon? You broke it, you bought it' says owner of SpaceX's satellite cinder

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Insurance? Because someone can't even pump liquid oxygen? For a TEST?

"What is there to explode—I mean... to 'fast fire'?"

the propellant stored within the payload, maybe?

also worth pointing out, a launch pad test burn like this simulates what will happen during the actual launch. It hadn't even lit off the engines yet. If high levels of O2 around the payload were the cause [this is a normal pre-flight condition], then the test fire isn't the reason for the rocket-shattering kaboom. What if the payload were leaking hydrazine [or some other such volatile fuel]? THAT might have been it... hydrazine vapors contacting the O2 in sufficient concentration, spontaneously combusting. oops.

yeah no open flames while fueling

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Going nowhere

"Or the insurance only covered the launch, not the pre-launch tests."

that's the kind of fine print and careful l[aw]yering I'd expect from an insurance company...

meanwhile, has anyone figured out what caused the problems? Did it START within the payload part of the rocket? Was it POSSIBLY caused by the PAYLOAD, and NOT the launch vehicle?

Inquiring minds want to know!

Life insurance doesn't pay out for suicides. What about rocket insurance when the payload itself blows the whole thing up on the launch pad? Maybe SpaceX will be asking for a few $million to cover launch pad repairs and cost of the rocket+fuel due to a FAULTY PAYLOAD???

It's OK to fine someone for repeating a historical fact, says Russian Supreme Court

bombastic bob Silver badge

"the whole purpose of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution is to make the governments job harder."

The entire U.S. Constitution was supposed to do that, limit power etc. not GRANT it. That concept of limiting powers started with the Magna Carta, of course. Or maybe something even earlier?

I wonder if the Russian Supreme Court is ALSO being used for judicial activism? Probably. It's a standard trick of 'the left' because they can't get what they want through normal legislative means.

So maybe in THIS case, Pootie's regime is trying to do the same thing [judicial activism] but in a slightly different way?

it's not like the Russians can't read El Reg (or look up information on the intarwebs) to get the REAL truth, right?

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Or the Russians haven't updated their website yet

"He missed the bit about the USSR shipping vast quantities of raw materials to Germany in order that they could build the bombs that fell on London."

the fines for THAT would've cost him an extra few million rubels.

at least they didn't send him to a gulag...

Actually, the early collab between the Nazis and USSR could be a great lesson in history to the Russian people, about trusting foreign dictators to keep their word, dangling a carrot (Poland), manipulation, deceit, then turning against them when they least expected it, and hitting them when their army was 'improperly positioned' for defense against the Axis. Because they were LED to that position, by the Nazis, with their false promises, and we know what happened after that.

It could work, yeah. Lying about it loses this potential lesson from history. So what if it makes Stalin look like a sucker on a stick. It makes the Nazis look even WORSE.

Bloke accused of Linux kernel.org hack nabbed during traffic stop

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Proportionality

"But if a black man does it it's a different story."

"In what sense?"

it's a common urban legend that police and the justice system 'in general' acts like the KKK and disproportionally arrests and incarcerates blacks compared to other races (in particular, caucasians). It's generally promoted by Saul Alinsky types to stir up 'the masses' and cause riots and demonstrations over something that's not happening, particularly through ridiculous *RACIST* groups like 'Black Lives Matter'. Even the name of that group is an 'emotion bomb'. None of their claims have ANY basis whatsoever. It's just trying to get people to *FEEL* instead of THINK, so they'll pull the 'D' (aka 'Demo-Rat') lever at the ballot box, and to create CHAOS and CONFUSION and STRIFE, so that 'the left' can take more power.

It's completely unjustified "feeling-based" uninformed "made it all up" racist nonsense from the left.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Proportionality

"40 years in the slammer for hacking, while rape of an unconscious woman gets you three months in county jail. America, what a country!"

that's because Mrs. Clinton won't be his l[aw]yer (nor will OJ's l[aw]yer, probably). Mrs. Clinton managed to get a child rapist off (early in her career) with a simple 'inappropriate touching' kind of charge, then BRAGGED about it in an interview, laughing, etc.. Sad part: she used the "she was asking for it" defense against a 12 year old KID, putting the VICTIM on trial, etc.. Yeah, not much for 'proportionality'.

An article about that

(and of course we can look at the OJ trial for another good example)

'L[aw]yer' Up!

Lindsay Lohan's Grand Theft Auto V cartoon case kicked out of court

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: The never ending hypocracy of the progressive liberal never ceases to amaze.

"Isn't it humorous the amount of hatred for this Woman simply because she had the tenacity to file a court case."

I don't think that's it, though I agree with the premise in the topic.

It's more like "the sue-ers" (pronounced 'sewers') in our society that *FEEL* (the 'F' word that causes SO many problems) they have a right to tie up the civil court systems with their frivolous claims and trivial 'personal drama' issues. "Your dog barks too loud. I'M GONNA SUE!" "I spilled hot coffee in my lap because I was a klutz but it's YOUR fault for making it too hot."

And of course THIS one, "your animated game character looks and acts like me, and you did this without my permission aka 'paying me a confiscatory sum of money'."

'better things to do' comes to mind...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Looks like Lohan?

that picture looks like one of those ladies that hangs out on skid row... sure it's Lohan? [enough makeup to cover the meth-wrinkles, heh]

Windows 10 now rules the weekend, taking over from Windows 7

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

"But I don't believe real (intelligent) people really like Windows 10. It's only the ones that think they got something for nothing using it anyway."

I was thinking something like that as well, that a preponderance of millenials actually *LIKE* Win-10-nic [seeing nothing wrong with the adware/spyware/flatso/metro/start-thing], perceive it as "another freebie", and are just busy searching for more gummint handouts on the weekends [and thus the traffic shows it].

after all, the millenials have been CONDITIONED ALL OF THEIR LIVES to expect a free lunch, instead of doing what prior generations have done, i.e. GET A JOB so you can BUY IT.

What I like is the latest STATCOUNTER, which shows a DIP in Win-10-nic, and a BUMP in Win 7, even across a weekend!

http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-weekly-201531-201635

numbers don't lie, yeah.

Latest Intel, AMD chips will only run Windows 10 ... and Linux, BSD, OS X

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Fewer bugs, fewer problems

"less code, fewer bugs, fewer problems for everyone" {W.T.F?}

yeah, having less code in their code base means they can LAY OFF MORE STAFF, like the way they canned all of their Q.A. people prior to Win-10-nic's release, so that they could use the general public as their "beta test" for all of the forced windows updates, and "save money".

it's all about M-shaft wanting to keep their cash on hand [in non-US banks] so their stock value doesn't crater.

(they've stopped with shooting their own feet. they're up past the kneecaps already, heading for the groin)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Microsoft continues to destroy the PC

(mostly) everything posted under this title is right in line with what I've been saying for a LONG time, that

a) 'new,shiny' isn't fast/better enough to justify getting a new computer

b) Windows 8 and later suck too much, driving people to "keep what they have"

and also

c) factor in the suck economy and people watching how they spend

funny how the article pointed THIS out:

"Windows 10 must succeed at all costs. It's Windows 10 or bust."

And Micro-shaft FORGOT that NEW PC SALES are a BIG factor for THEIR REVENUE!

/me predicts "Bust"

Blackhat wannabes proffer probably bogus Linux scamsomware

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Two words

sshd_config - don't forget also:

PermitRootLogin no

(probably the more important one)

then you can allow only SPECIFIC users via 'AllowUsers' 'AllowGroups' etc.

further reduces the possibility of guessing BOTH the user name AND password, unless you disable passwords entirely.

I don't favor entirely disabling passwords. that way you can remote in from ANY machine with an ssh client on it, regardless of whether or not you put the appropriate key into the appropriate place, or are on a dynamically assigned IP address, or something similar. then you pick both a cryptic user name AND a hard-to-guess passphrase (not 'correct horse battery staple' but one like it)

anyway, better than "root:god"

edit: just saw after posting, someone else posted right before me about 'PermitRootLogin'. great minds think alike. 'race condition', he won.

Watch SpaceX's rocket dramatically detonate, destroying a $200m Facebook satellite

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: cant see much

if the payload rocket started the fire that led to the explosion, who's responsibility would THAT be?

I blame Facebitchbook.

Crashing PC sales don't stop HP Inc releasing two new ones

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: As long as

They come with Windows 10 I won't be buying them.

while test -z "" ; do echo "THUMBS UP!" ; done

I can't thumb this one up ENOUGH. I wholeheartedly, 110%, agree with you!

HP should ship them with 'linux flavor of your choice' as an option, with a discount even, and watch sales SKYROCKET!

Want a Windows 10 update? Don't go to Microsoft ... please

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: There IS an upside to this!

Once this goes live, college IT will no longer be able to justify blocking p2p traffic because "Illegal Torrentz"

you may be right, if Micro-shaft SUCCESSFULLY SUES THEM ALL using 'net neutrality' as their SUE-HAMMER.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: How is this a new feature

"This was in the first version of windows 10, and I make sure it's turned off as it kills my network connection at home and work."

So, with the same KINDS of thinking that justified *OBAKACARE* in the USA [i.e. making "healthy people" pay for the "infirm" through strong-arming the young and healthy into BUYING INCREASINGLY EXPENSIVE INSURANCE that they may not actually *WANT*, in order that those with pre-existing conditions (a definite MONEY LOSS for insurers) can be "covered"],

(pause for breath)

*NOW* Micro-Shaft wants to FORCE YOU into PROVIDING THEM BANDWIDTH for the frequent (massive) *FORCED* updates that Win-10-nic is so INFAMOUSLY known for! They are STEALING BANDWIDTH from YOU and from your ISP.

But, THIS way they can SHOVE EVEN MORE "new, shiny" FEATURES UP YOUR A$$ ONTO YOUR COMPUTER, without your consent, without you WANTING them, and so on WITHOUT having to upgrade their OWN infrastructure to deal with the BANDWIDTH.

Yeah, JUST LIKE Micro-Shaft to THINK LIKE A SOCIALIST in its company policies. Or would that be *FEEL* [the 'F' word] ???

oh yeah, I turned that "feature" (the 'get updates from the intarwebs' and 'let people on the intarwebs update from your computer' settings) *OFF* as well.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"The second thing was to set all network connnections to 'metered'."

seeing as there's no official way to do that with an ETHERNET connection (or a connection within a VM), it's still "a hack" to make it work, and not a simple one from what I've read...

and eventually M-shaft could BREAK THAT ONE as well. It would be JUST LIKE THEM to do that.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: What about the ISP's who throttle BitTorrents?

well, I bet Micro-shaft will scream "NET NEUTRALITY" the first time some net admin wants to put a stop to excessive traffic by throttling the M-shaft P2P. case in point, a college campus.

Let's say the college campus has a fat pipe, but it's all being USED UP because of M-shaft P2P traffic. It's no so much the several hundred students who were given new laptops (with Win-10-nic on them) after graduating high school, who are just trying to do their homework, but the ZILLIONS of people around the world whose computers "discover" that the several hundred students on this campus have ALREADY completed THEIR downloads, and NOW it's "serving up content" around the world!

Uplink bandwidth usage can easily impact downloads, because ACK packets won't necessarily get through, and HTTP requests or photo uploads will become SLUGGISH. So a smart admin would THROTTLE the amount of P2P traffic that goes out through the big pipe onto the intarwebs...

And THEN, along comes Micro-Shaft, wielding their "bandwidth theft" NET NEUTRALITY hammer, whining to the various gummint regulators, yotta yotta yotta.

A likely scenario, yes.

(regardless of how you look at it, Micro-shaft is STEALING BANDWIDTH to do this)

Microsoft's beta language service gets C# dev kit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

They're trying desperately to justify using C-pound, again

why oh why MUST they only provide an API in C-pound???

it's like, couldn't they do something simple, like a C language API? [it's how they USED to do things, back when Win32 API was the way to go]

unfortunately, this is a trend that many of us have seen coming: the beginning of the end of the Win32 API, where ONLY "the METRO" or Universal [CR]apps can be written for Win-10-nic, almost like for WinRT boxen. They want this. they don't want Win32 API. It hurts them to see us STILL using it for SERIOUS applications. They want everyone using C-pound so they can CONTROL us and hook us into "their way" of doing things, like an evil company selling addictive substances.

yeah, well, tinfoil hat nonetheless, and black helicopters, too.

[don't say I didn't warn you]

L0phtCrack's back! Crack hack app whacks Windows 10 trash hashes

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Microsoft says...

would the obligatory reference to 'correct horse battery staple' be of any help?

Windows 10 Anniversary on a Raspberry Pi: Another look at IoT Core

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: So you want .NET on a Pi?

"Whenever you give Mono a second chance, Harambe dies again."

mono. ugh. I (and apparently many others) screamed BLOODY MURDER when 'tomboy' [added to gnome desktop] hauled all of that cruft (100Mb or so) into Debian's release, and jumped for joy when the requirement was SUBSEQUENTLY REMOVED from the gnome desktop install...

and then a supervisor at the time decided we would use a MONO application on Linux, written by HIM in 'C-pound', and the first time we tried it, it wouldn't work because mono didn't support all of the "new, shiny" in that particular devstudio version (it was around 2007 or 2008 as I recall). I snickered a bit, played along. The application NEVER went ANYWHERE, either.

I can only imagine how *PIGGY* your average C-pound application using ".Not" would be on an RPi. You know, like seconds' worth of response time to mouse clicks...