Posts by bombastic bob

Exclusive: Team Trump's net neutrality guru talks to El Reg

Re: Trump appointments

"makes me wonder on who's vested interests is he trampling now?"

in general, ANYONE who's used increased gummint regulation/presence/etc. to become wealthy.

The entire idea of Trump's approach is the same as Reagan's approach was back in the 80's: make gummint SMALLER, and LESS INTRUSIVE, but keep sensible regulations that 'level the playing field'.

So, we can expect fewer restrictions except for those that would allow ISP #1 to block or throttle ISP #2's competing services.

But _I_ would _LIKE_ to see a tollway on the intarwebs, for those who are willing to pay it, in the form of TOS-like packet prioritization. You could design this in such a way that the impact on normal traffic would be minimal, but the effect on the priority traffic would be incredible. THEN, the fees charged to priority subscribers would pay for infrastructure updates, and MAYBE lower the price for everyone else.

It's already that way, sort of, for "business class" (unfiltered) vs "consumer class" (filtered, changing IP addresses, NAT instead of direct, etc. etc.). "business class" costs you SEVERAL TIMES as much, and your throughput is often capped, but you can run a name server and a web server and even have people send e-mail directly to your IP address, if you want, NOT having to go through some 3rd party server that might be scanning your mail to target you with ads [for example].

So if Netflix pays EXTRA to get 'high priority' on all of its packets, then everyone wins. That's how I see it.

To make this work, you'd have to limit the amount of traffic that can be high priority (let's say 20% of the maximum bandwidth that the pipe could possibly transfer). This way the theoretical maximum reduction in performance is only about 20% on NORMAL traffic, which is probably not going to be any different than real numbers in actual practice. The difference is that priority traffic gets to go FASTER. That's all. So, set the limits [like this] properly, and let the free market do the rest!

Windows 10 market share growth just barely has a pulse

Re: Let me guess...

"all the downgraded W7 PCs at the dizzies have all sold out and only W10's are left."

I predict a serious decline [even more than already] in the PC world, and lots of interest in refurbs and 'upgrade' parts. THAT, and people with OEM disks that can install 7 for you using your Win-10-nic Pro license... [maybe even for a *FEE*]

WHEN the computer and chip makers realize how badly FSCK'd they were by Micro-shaft with Ape and Win-10-nic, they'll embrace "something else", which at the moment is likely to be some flavor of Linux, and encourage a mass market shift towards THAT.

HMS Queen Lizzie to carry American jets and sail in support of US foreign policy

U.S. has used Harriers...

Just to bring it up, the U.S. has used Harriers as an important weapons platform for the Marine Corps, being as they can take off and land on 'gator freighters' and helo-carriers.

So yeah, lots of cooperation between US'ian and British armed forces.

[how about you guys design/build another major paradigm shift like the Harrier? then we'll buy YOUR planes!]

Congrats America, you can now safely slag off who you like online

Re: Celebrating bipartisanship?

" If we needed a 2/3 majority to pass anything we'd probably be better off"

and every bill would be even MORE loaded with 'piglet riders' or outright blatant PORK to appease the various factions and get them to vote "for" it.

If you're going to require 2/3 majority, do it for any TAX INCREASE or DEBT INCREASE. that will stop them dead in their tracks! That kind of thing has kept Cali-fornicate-you 'mostly in check' since the 70's, and it's only recently that the spending and taxing and regulating has become completely unhinged out here on the 'left coast'. Yeah, we need 'an enema' out here... starting in Sacramento.

Re: now if

"And then you have sites like Reddit, where downvoting is used as a weapon to suppress dissenting opinion"

THAT would be the ENTIRE INTARWEBS. This web site is no exception to that. Heh.

[thanks in advance for your downvotes, heh]

Inventor of McDonald's iconic Big Mac dies

Re: Not bitter

yes, the "indirect profits" of selling big mac would offset any direct payment for the menu enhancement. no bitterness indeed.

NOW, if MacD can simply go back to what they're GOOD at and stop trying to appease the vegans and greens... and keep their prices low... and VOILA! Business success restored!

Fries cooked in tallow, burgers rapid-fried on a grill with the grease sealed in, shakes with all the sugar and all the milk fat... Yum!

just take vitamins, an aspirin a day, and a shot of liquor per day, and you'll be fine, and can have all of the burgers and fries you want. Seriously! Tell the veggie-nazis to pack sand, and ENJOY your meat!

PC sales outlook improves: Now terrifying instead of catastrophic

Re: Give me something better than what I have - with a standard replaceable M2 SSD.

"A disposable, sealed up - 4 year shelf life device to save consumers an extra 2-4 mm in their bag, with the disadvantages of knowing that a coffee split will render their data gone (in the case of the macbook Pro w/touchbar) + others. i.e. UKP 500+ repairs for Surface Pro battery issues etc."

that ships with WIN-10-NIC pre-installed. Yeah, no deal.

SHIFT + F10, Linux gets you Windows 10's cleartext BitLocker key

Re: Hold up - Microsoft are covered on this one folks!

"The clever sods makes sure you never know when a bloody update will happen, making it FAR harder to do this."

then I connect a network sniffer, watching for "upgrade" net traffic, to something that powers off the box or at least alarms you to go over and pay attention to it...

these things can be defeated. Also may be possible to trigger an update by mucking with the clock

Re: @Daniel

"Linux & BSD have also had their fair share of local exploits."

NONE of which involved *FORCED* *UPDATES* as I recall... and when it happens to Linux or BSD, you get *HEADLINES* like plane crashes vs car crashes... [and Micro-shaft would be the 'car crash' equivalent - ANOTHER vulnerability? Eh, no surprises...]

Re: This, because we can't overwrite files that are in use.

"Which is the prime reason the updates have to be applied during boot up anyway."

In the POSIX world, a directory entry is simply a pointer to an INODE, which represents "the file". An 'overwrite' of a file that's in-use simply points to a different INODE. Then, subsequent 'opens' of that file use the NEW version (and not the old one). The old inode is kept around on the file system until the last reference to it closes, and then it gets deleted. [this would keep running processes from crashing, for example, if you swapped in a new shared lib before restarting them, and when they re-start, they automatically use the NEW one].

Micro-shaft, on the other hand, ENCOURAGES multiple processes to be able to directly muck with the same file, using a sharing system that MOST LIKELY creates a LOT of inefficiency inside the kernel.

Hence, file I/O on a POSIX system appears to be FASTER than on an equivalent windows system [at least, that's been MY experience].

I sometimes refer to the WORST of this as "paranoid cacheing", i.e. the apparent assumption that "something came along" and changed what was on the hard drive behind your back, and now you have to re-re-read the same block from the physical file, again, even though you just wrote it BACK to the file a few milliseconds ago... [seems to happen most often wirh the registry, most likely due to excessive 'layering' and ".Not"-ishness]

.So, *NOW*, this file-system philosophy of Micro-shaft's is *BITING* *THEM* in the backside, with respect to the hoops they have to jump through when Bitlocker is in use.

/me is now thinking of some terms involving a circle, a cluster, and 'Situation Normal'

systemd free Linux distro Devuan releases second beta

Re: Ubuntu adopted it

"Not even Mint 18 has been able to undo the suckiness this time."

yeah, coolaid drinking all around it seems.

I had to seriously research *THIS* at one time, and so I'll post it again: How to boot into a CONSOLE instead of a GUI on systemd-controlled systems.

sudo systemctl enable multi-user.target --force

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

*THAT* is important, *ESPECIALLY* for servers. The fact that I had to RESEARCH! THE! HELL! OUT! OF! IT! TO! FIND! OUT! HOW! TO! DO! IT! is a _symptom_ of a BIGGER problem with systemd.

"Never understood the hate for systemd."

a) *FORCING* people to change (apparently for the sake of change)

b) *FORCING* people to adopt a new method that's more complicated than before

c) no clear advantage over "the old method" for most people [particularly embedded]

d) done without asking first [aka 'arrogance and elitism']

systemd is also MONOLITHIC, as opposed to DISTRIBUTED, in the way it works. "all eggs in one basket" isn't good for stability. It's enough that the kernel must be "one basket", but what the kernel does is well-defined and in its own sandbox. Doing that to userland as well (all eggs in one basket) means that some mysterious overcomplicated "master control program" is in charge of the things that run on your computer.

The configuration is also significantly different. Where is "all of that" stored? SystemV-style init could be managed with a very simple text editor.

Additionally, for embedded stuff, you have additional overhead that doesn't exist in sysvinit. It's why I use an older raspian for RPi systems running Linux [*that* and the bluez bugs that haven't been repaired, as far as I can tell, so that when I *need* bluetooth serial to work, the older version is the obvious choice].

"change for the sake of change" causes *EXTRA* *WORK* to be done to ADAPT to that change, and when the change is perceived as UNNECESSARY, the resulting anger and resistance is predictable.

Re: You broke it, you bought it.

"How is something that is Apache licensed not permissive enough for a BSD core component???"

the general idea is that anything in 'base' is BSD licensed. there are contributed softwares, of course, and it may be possible to extend the licensing around those, but if you NEED it to boot the system, chances are that "no BSD license, no way".

/me has been using FreeBSD since 4.8 [and "stability" is a VERY good thing!]

Tobacco giant predicts the end of smoking. Panic ensues

Re: Vaping isn't cool

"I have no science to hand to convince you that vaping is "cleaner" and less unhealthy than smoking"

A study was done a few years ago in Utah. That's right, Utah. A place where tobacco use is about as 'unfriendly' as you can get, except for certain parts of California.

Apparently they used a closed-up room in which they burned cigarettes (artificially 'smoked' I think) and then did the equivalent with a vaping device.

The cigarette-smoke room tested positive for significant levels of various nasty chemicals, including nicotene.

The vape-"smoke" room tested NEGATIVE for "all of that", _INCLUDING_ nicotene.

So it appears that vapes aren't sources for second-hand nicotene, at least not in significant quantities.

I'm allergic to cigarette smoke, or a component of it. Not tobacco, but specifically cigarettes and other things that use "that kind of wrapping" on it. Pipes and cigars don't bug me. Seriously. And I get really *NASTY* headaches if I'm even *NEAR* many people who were smoking a cigarette recently. So no meetings for "at least an hour" with me and 'that person' in the same room, k-thx. However, NO problems with 'vape' smokers that I can tell. Best I can tell, it smells like some kind of sweet perfume or air freshener. No allergic symptoms whatsoever!

If you ask me, it's really a "personal freedom" thing. The only reason I get pissed off by discourteous smokers [who are a small percentage] is that their self-important "rights" interfere with mine, in particular my right to NOT have to be exposed to toxic substances in public places [or at work, or in a store, or in a bar, or in a restaurant, or in a casino even, yotta yotta].

So yeah, vaping is a GREAT idea for people to do something they want WITHOUT burdening the rest of the planet with their exhaust. Not *MY* business what others do when it does NOT affect me.

The ninny-nannies that seek to change people's behavior need to shut the @#$% up and go away. And the discourteous smokers should simply abandon that stupid behavior [it's not helping their cause], obey the laws, etc. and NOT get in people's faces with their exhaust. And people complaining to 'vape' users need to at least look to see if it's a lit cigarette first, before bitching [then, BITCH LOUDLY if it's a lit cancer stick, or shut the HELL up if it's a vape device]. And don't walk up to a smoker just to complain [that's stupid], especially if that person had made reasonable effort to go where nobody else was to light up.

Then we'd all "get along" right?

Another Canadian uni hit by ransomware, students told to keep Windows PCs away

Re: Mitigation

"went to a user in the goods receiveable department."

even RSA got 'hacked' in a similar way, when an attachment with a payload was apparently opened [in 'virus outbreak' aka MS Outlook] by a low-level accountant that was "on the network".

general e-mail rules to avoid this:

a) *NEVER* preview in HTML

b) *NEVER* even VIEW in HTML

c) *NEVER* allow 'inline whatever' to be previewed (or even VIEWED) in an e-mail

d) *NEVER* click on a link in an e-mail. *NEVER*. [I've received fake 'unsubscribe this' links in legit-looking bulk mail that appears as if I were maliciously subscribed against my will, most recently to 'wired', which I forwarded to their abuse department instead - had I clicked, who knows what would've happened!]

HTML mail is *EVIL* and should be avoided. Doesn't matter how many cat-pic chain mails get forwarded that way. If you must see it, save the attachments, scan them, THEN view them.

This level of security requires strict I.T. policies *AND* compliance. However, if you can actually *GET* users to comply, it will save your ass at some point.

RIP HPE's The Machine product, 2014-2016: We hardly knew ye

"Big Iron" thinking won't win

just to point out, since the invention of the PC, where distributed processing is the natural way for things to go, there's still a lot of "big iron" thinking out there, trying to drive computing in the direction of the past [i.e. big supercomputer, lots of dumb clients]. "The Cloud" is one of these trends, and it's not trending so well in my opinion (i.e. "highly overrated").

Sure, there will always be need for centralized data and storage, and even occasional centralized processing, and rent-a-CPU cloud services try to fill that need. However, no data pipe is fat enough to handle what a properly designed, locally run on a multi-core CPU, multi-threaded algorithm can do with summarized/snapshot data in lieu of some monster-server trying to run mega-queries on "all that noisy nonsense".

Hopefully HPE's good ideas will end up on THE DESKTOP COMPUTER, where they belong. Or a game console. Or some other such 'end user device'. That's because the benefits of "Big Iron" just aren't there for the larger segment of the industry.

So if _I_ were HP, I'd focus on leveraging multi-core desktops instead. It will have a bigger and more sustained payoff.

Vegans furious as Bank of England admits ‘trace’ of animal fat in £5 notes

Re: why...

"Why didn't the people who decide these things foresee the inevitable fuss?"

because they don't CARE about a bunch of fringe-wackos making noise over nothing?

because they're focused on RESULTS and PROFITABILITY instead of "political correctness"?

and similar SANE reasons...

Re: "but it's still an unnecessary waste of life"

"brains need meat to function correctly."

that's probably true, or at least ingesting cholesterol. [I have this theory about 'low cholesterol' meds and altzheimers...]. cholesterol is necessary for proper nerve/brain function.

In nature, carnivores and omnivores are the ones with the bigger brains, forward-facing eyes, etc. and with the exception of certain veggie-primates [who also eat insects, but that's easily/deliberately overlooked when pointing them out] it's the rule that if you have a big brain and forward-facing eyes, you're either an omnivore or a carnivore.

Re: Rational?

"Sea cucumbers, sea urchins, jellyfish are also edible and have no CNS."

plants don't have a central nervous system, either. But plants are *ALIVE*. Those vegans are eating "live" food! What hypocrites those vegans are! They should stick to seeds... oh wait, seeds are "plant babies". I guess they'll all have to STARVE now...

Re: Blasphemy?

"It would probably be a good idea to use a mix of suet, lard and mutton fat to create the tallow just to ensure that the greatest number of individuals are offended"

include waste-fat from liposuction in that mix, and you're "there".

if the 5 pound note used PETROLEUM instead of animal fat, would it be "less bio-degradable" ? It's like you can't please one enviro/wacko group without angering the others... [so it's 'greens' vs 'vegans' now - can't do ANYTHING with 'political correctness' in the way!]

best thing to do: tell them ALL to go pleasure themselves, and just ignore their shrill noise. And if they riot, shoot them with beef-fat soaked rubber bullets, and put them in jail for a while without access to their "special dietary requirements". Joke-em if they can't take a @#$%.

Outlook.com is still not functioning properly for some Microsoft punters

Outlook's failure to comply with RFC 2822

why does this *NOT* surprise me???

There's the RIGHT way, the WRONG way, and the MICRO-SHAFT way. Looks like 'Virus Outbreak' uses the 3rd option. no surprise here.

I still haven't seen a REALLY good explanation as to what (exactly) motivates people to use Virus Outbreak (aka MS Outlook). One person replied in another thread, saying how it integrates things like contact info with everything else. I just don't see it, because I'm not a sales/marketing/management/support droid that's on the phone all of the time. In fact, I don't even ANSWER the phone. I turn the ringer off and occasionally check the answering machine. Phones are DISRUPTIONS and my train of thought is too important to be disrupted. So why would I *EVAR* need a 'Virus Outbreak' to 'integrate' all of that? Exactly!

I expect software devs (in general) are more like ME than are like someone who actually USES something "like Virus Outbreak" and so Micro-shaft continues to have their niche that's big enough to keep them viable... with *NO* FOSS devs capable of even SEEING THE NEED for something to REPLACE it.

[those who understand the needs of Virus Outbreak are apparently unable to write a replacement for it; those who ARE capable, do not see nor understand the need.]

50 years on, the Soviet-era Soyuz rocket is still our favorite space truck

"How much sleep do you suppose von Braun lost over this?"

who knows. most likely, very little. There was a LOT of 'ends justifies the means' going on during that war, primarily on the Axis side, but not exclusively.

Aside from that, the fact that a 50 year old rocket is still in use is a really good testament to 'tried and true' designs that aren't continuous moving targets. Such things make it possible to PLAN.

Micro-shaft should take a lesson from this with respect to software development... [I just added "the I.T. angle" to it, heh]

Super Cali goes ballistic, considers taxing Netflix

taxing the intarwebs is stupid

this debate has gone around at the federal level before, and has been summarily REJECTED.

How in the HELL are they going to BILL you on this, anyway?

All you'd need to do is use a PROXY to avoid the damn tax!

What a bunch of MAROONS in Sacramento, anyway. They should stop spending money like it's "other people's money" [whoops, it IS] and buying votes with it so they can retain their power and continue the vicious cycle of tax, spend, tax, spend, tax, spend... [I voted Republican]

Half-ton handbuilt CPU heads to Centre for Computing History

Re: Brilliant! Absolutely Brilliant!

I think it deserves a few 'clones' stationed strategically around the world, to inspire next generation CPU designers. Or something like that.

Having one in the Smithsonian would be a good start.

Space crap: Flap, zap or strap? $30k from NASA for your pooper scooper

Re: I always wondered how toilets worked in the Star Trek universe.

"Did they just teleport the waste out of you?"

The way they handled it on the Lexx was a bit more practical [and you didn't need toilet paper]

Re: Simple solution

"I once had a girlfriend who only had one BM a week. It had to be cut up with a knife before it would flush"

thanks. I need brain bleach, now.

Ultra-rare WWII Lorenz cipher machine goes on display at Bletchley Park

Re: In these days of programmable circuitry, we forget ...

"that the magnificent mechanical engineering that was involved in these encryption / decryption strategies"

and yet, those 'precision machines' were generating 'secure' messages that were being cracked, almost 'in real time' [by the end of the war], by skilled crypto experts and primitive computing equipment that was essentially built from spare parts by genius hackers.

obligatory reference to Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority"

Re: "Has the serial number 1137"

"What makes you think a German with a sense of humour would ever be allowed near a Lorenz machine"

they weren't. Instead, you get humorless people who used common phrases like 'Heil Hitler' at the beginning and/or end of EVERY! STINKING! MESSAGE! which were then used as 'cribbs' to help decode the remainder of the message.

[if they'd started every message with a RANDOM JOKE, this crypt-cracking exploit might not have been possible]

maybe something like this one:

"Wenn ist das Nunstück git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!"

The Internet Society is unhappy about security – pretty much all of it

Re: Security is rubbish

"Serious efforts by major organisations have clearly shown that with current technology it will remain so."

particularly when "that technology" includes Win-10-nic [spyware], Facebook [tracking you everywhere], and SHA1 [only just now being abandoned].

no WONDER people don't see any real security on "teh intarwebs"...

Meet the Loughborough 'emo' boffins who predicted Trump's victory

focusing on how people 'feel'

this in and of itself is an indicator of an even BIGGER problem - emotion-based voting. I often say that I feel with my fingers [fingers turned upward and wiggling, with cupped hands] and think with my BRAIN, because *ANY* decision based on emotion is likely to have a similar result as BEER GOGGLES.

but 'feel' is how people are usually manipulated. it's so easy to stir up emotional unthinking responses.

And yet the Trump phenomenon was NOT emotion-based, for the most part. At least, not from where I saw it.

So the premise that seeing how people FEEL via some kind of twitter-scan-bot is going to reveal election results, they should stop at the emotion part, except perhaps for judging liberals and liberalism, because all *THEY* *DO* is "feel".

Trump's campaign and election was a mass "fed up with it" reaction to politicians in general, who have failed to correctly respond to the electorate on important issues. Brexit is similar, as in when EU fails to properly respond to the UKs needs, you get "that reaction".

Not a lot of FEEL there, except maybe "frustration".

"Plenty of twats voted for Brexit and Trump."

I couldn't vote for both Brexit _and_ Trump [but would have if I could have]

Re: They are not alone

"wishful thinking" indeed.

in the US, polls are often used to MAKE news. questions are asked in leading ways to deliberately skew the results to say what the pollster wants. It has been observed in the past that when you get close to an actual election, the accuracy improves, because the effective use of 'weapons grade' polling "that close" to an election isn't very good, AND the polling companies don't want to make themselves look like COMPLETE fools when their poll results are way way way off (not simply 'way off' or 'barely within the margin of error')

but yeah, I'd say the media and pollsters had a lot of 'wishful thinking' skewing their results towards Mrs. Clinton. No surprise.

The Dilbert author got it right. Interesting.

Three certainties in life: Death, taxes and the speed of light – wait no, maybe not that last one

Re: Creates more problems than it solves?

speed of light in a vacuum is assumed to be a constant. however, our velocity through time would have to be NOT decelerating for that to work... bremstraelung from tachions? interesting thought experiment.

*ahem*

Anyway, light speed in a vacuum is the absolute maximum speed something can go relative to something else. hence relativity.

light can, and does, attempt to go faster than it's supposed to through a medium and creates cerenkov radiation [did I spell that properly] aka "that blue glow" you see in photos of nuclear reactors operating in open pools of water. Those are various particles being forced to move slower because they hit water [and its speed of light is just a bit slower than the particle].

if our velocity through time is NOT a constant, i.e. is slowing down [or maybe speeding up] then light over time wouldn't be going "the same speed" any more. I wonder if THAT is what they're basing their theory on? yeah ok 'velocity' is time-based, so "changing velocity through time" simply means (by my definition) that the time axis isn't change at the same 'rate'. 1 second may not be 1 second a zillion years ago, in other words. If time flowed differently back then, the speed of light would ALSO be different [being based in time]. It would also mess up relativity calculations like E=mc^2 and so mass and/or energy is no longer a constant. damn them!

now I'll want to know where the mass and/or energy WENT to (or CAME from) when it changed over a zillion years' time.

SQL Server on Linux: Runs well in spite of internal quirks. Why?

Re: @Bombastic Bob

that's kinda funny, ya know?

"A big SS shop where I am and I gave it a spin on Ubuntu VM"

I would be interested in seeing how the performance compares. But to be fair, you should test the Ubu VM with a Linux host, and compare against a windows VM on a windows host. And vice versa. Then publish all 4 results. It could be VERY interesting.

Re: Exchange?

"It s**ks as an email server, but the collaboration and integration"

sucks as an e-mail server, yeah. collaboration and integration requires their proprietary APIs to make it work, and that means outlook, and that means *SERIOUS* security problems.

Typical scenario: low-level accountant is e-mailed [spear phished?] a spreadsheet containing a virus of some kind, and it's previewed in 'Virus Outbreak' (aka MS Outlook), and before being deleted, infects the accountant's computer and begins spreading via Exchange...

AFTERTHOUGHT: Maybe the reason why no FOSS applications have this is because of INHERENT INSECURITY? Or maybe the 'niche' filled by Micro-shaft's solution is just something FOSS-makers don't really consider *important* enough to write software for...

ok that last part would be a bit of a marketing fail, as in "failing to see the need" and therefore "failing to fill the void in the market". I personally do *NOT* see the need to have this level of integration. I don't use it, I don't want it, I don't need it. T-bird has a calendar that works for me. Contacts can be maintained in various ways, INCLUDING Google's solution [from what I've seen].

BUT... if someone can JUST explain to me what this "need" is, I bet I could write [read: lead a team of developers doing the actual work] a really good FOSS solution for it, that would beat the pants off of Exchange and Virus Outbreak, run on non-windows platforms, and NOT have serious security problems. It would be worth a kickstarter program, or at least a ".org" web site with a paypal 'donate' button, to get paid developers working on it full-time and put to rest this HIDEOUS "solution" that Micro-shaft excreted nearly 2 decades ago...

and the FOSS solution would be written in C or C++, and *NOT* C-pound, and wouldn't use ".Not". It might even fork T-bird or Evolution on the front-end, and fork back-end systems like Cyrus and sendmail, just to have a nice starting point. It could have perl and/or python support for easy customization, too, and maybe even [gasp] a Java-based (or python-based) UI to configure it. You know, something people would REALLY want, something consultants could wrap their skill sets around, and something that would meet unexpected needs for DECADES without the security nightmare and proprietary nature of Exchange and Outbreak.

[but as for WHY people NEED "those features", I admit, I totally do NOT 'get it']

Poison .JPG spreading ransomware through Facebook Messenger

why couldn't Face-*BLANK* just scan file types and filter?

I have to wonder, with all of the malicious uploading going on...

why couldn't Face-*BLANK* just scan the file types and filter things that don't match?

In other words, if it's not a JPEG that 'follows the rules' (no buffer overrun sploits embedded, no ZIP file or embedded HTA or anything else it's not supposed to have), then just REJECT it and say "your file needs to be reformatted" or something.

How hard would THAT be? OK sorry for being intelligent about it, we're talking Face-*BLANK* ...

not hard to do in the POSIX world - just use the 'file' command.

San Francisco's sinking luxury Millennium Tower: Tilt spotted FROM SPACE

Re: Friction Piles

"Sounds painful."

remember, this is San Francisco we're talking about.

[suddenly I'm reminded of the 'Ballad of Lemiwinks']

Re: Friction Piles

"Guess it's all steel now though."

I would have guessed reinforced concrete, actually, driven in by diesel pile drivers. it's a pretty cool design, actually, a one-cylinder diesel engine in effect, where the weight goes up when it goes 'bang', then comes back down to ignite fuel/air and keep it running. I've seen them going off nearby when I was in the Navy, when they were building an extension to one of the piers. They don't start running properly until there's enough friction to bounce the weight up sufficiently to get that nice steady bang, bang, bang...

"the developers were too cheap to sink the piles all the way down"

considering it's San Francisco, I offer these possible excuses:

a) endangered gophers/moles preventing a proper pile-drive

b) the term 'pile driver' was considered to be an epithet and summarily struck from the list o' instructions for proper building construction

c) too much dope smoked on the job

d) they wanted a NEW tourist attraction: the 'Leaning Tower of Frisco' [note S.F. area residents *HATE* it when you call it 'Frisco']

e) gummint corruption allowed improperly inspected construction

f) it was NOT built by Trump [I had to throw THAT one in there!]

Microsoft update servers left all Azure RHEL instances hackable

That would be the 'Extinguish' part, right?

Making *ALL* RHEL VM's in the Azure cloud 'crackable' by malicious actors... that would be the 'Extinguish' part of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish", right?

Microsoft’s ‘Home Hub’ probably isn’t even hardware at all

"A brownout in Redmond is mission accomplished."

like what happens when you flush ALL of the toilets at once in a large building. yeah, never done THAT with a coordinated effort (in high school) with walkie talkies [or cell phones on a conference call], right?

just avoid the bottom floor [or two] unless you're wearing waterproof clothing. Sorta re-defines the term "brownout" doesn't it?

Re: AD for the home user?

"Can windows 10 Home join a domian? Isn't that for Pro and above?"

you've already "joined a domain" with that micro-shaft 'cloud' logon [and its HORRIBLE EULA] using your REAL e-mail address, visible to anyone staring over your shoulder during the login. 'Got spam' ?

oh, that's not good enough? pay more money for 'Pro and above'.

CompSci Prof raises ballot hacking fears over strange pro-Trump voting patterns

Re: Interesting definition of a landslide victory you have there...

"the other wins because of an archaic counting system."

keep in mind, the electoral college *IS* the system for getting elected. Had it not been there, Trump would have modified his strategy and campaigned in places like San Francisco and L.A. [and quite possibly would have WON California]. Trump did NOT campaign here after the primary. he basically resigned it to Mrs. Clinton, focusing instead on states that made a difference. It's how all U.S. presidential campaigns are won, actually.

The purpose of the electoral college is, in many ways, to prevent "big city voters" from having way too much clout. As a result, presidents must campaign in places like Nebraska and Wyoming and Oklahoma, instead of focusing on Detroit, Chicago, NYC, Boston, San Francisco, and L.A.. It's a better representation of "the entire country" with the electoral college. Not 'archaic' at all. It's well-tested.

"Good luck with your complete-outsider, anti-establishment, old-white-billionaire."

Thanks. Wait a year, then see why we're "right". Results will speak for themselves.

As for the allegations that hacking the votes caused Trump to win, it's only because the usual hacking by Demo-rats [from voter manipulation, october surprises, media bias, and unauthorized voting practices when nobody's paying enough attention] did *NOT* work. It suggests that the percentage of people actually FOR Trump was probably a LOT higher than reported, even at the polls...

Re: Vote Fraud? Are you CRAAAZY?

"You need ID to buy alcohol?"

It happens, occasionally. At age ~40 I was once carded by a teenage checkout clerk. I got a nice chuckle.

Drops the mic... Hang on, hackers could be listening through my headphones?

Re: Odd

"each audio channel is actually 'general purpose' in its design with output and input amplifiers."

no good deed (totally programmable audio channels) goes unpunished [being used for exploits]

BOM cost just went up by a dollar, to add a couple of power amps between audio chip and speakers/headphones, to stop this.

USS Zumwalt gets Panama tug job after yet another breakdown

"UK electric drive warships have had their share of problems, and the same is true of just about anything cutting edge and clever, civil or military."

this has been tried before:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tullibee_%28SSN-597%29

My nuclear prototype was the S1C in Connecticut, _the_ prototype for the power plant on the U.S.S. Tullibee. So I'm kinda familiar with problems associated with this design, and how it compared to, let's say, an L.A. class sub in the 80's. But the thing was built, and might as well get used for SOMETHING. Note that it suffered a broken shaft at least once, and had to be towed. Oops.

Electric *CAN* be quieter. It also limits your propulsion speed (among other things). Apparently, in THIS case, it can't tolerate shaft seal leakage very well (that's mostly me speculating).

OK has NOBODY designing this thing ever heard of BATTLE DAMAGE??? You get a torpedo shoved up your backside (hint: acoustic homing torpedos going for the noise) and the shaft seals will more than just LEAK or seize up. If you don't simply get a catastrophic hull breach, the back end of your propulsion system is likely to be FLOODED and maybe one shaft still works, but it's better than 'dead in the water'.

A good steam turbine design (with reduction gears) will STILL WORK in flooding conditions, at least for a while, possibly long enough to abandon ship or NOT get hit AGAIN by another missile or torpedo... [or launch a counterstrike, or whatever].

Also reminds me of M-16's that didn't ship with a cleaning kit, because "they did not need it". Then in battle conditions, they misfired and had other problems. Issue cleaning kits, MOST problems solved. And so on.

Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority"

nice shout-out at the end of the article!