Posts by bombastic bob

Got a great IoT story to tell? You have until Friday to let us know

IoT a bit overrated

I think the IoT thing is a bit overrated - like "the cloud"

IoT still has potential, but I don't need to know on a smartphone reminder application whether my fridge has enough beer in it [I can just look myself], or if my dog is outside in the yard relieving himself while I'm gone [or doing it on the rug to spite me]. But knowing if the server closet is too hot - THAT might be important enough to IoT and notify me on the a smartphone.

Then there are those wireless home security systems you can buy. They're kinda *like* IoT, from what I've heard about them [or COULD be, anyway]. And those front door cameras with doorbell alarms. Answer your doorbell with a smartphone, see who it is, scare away potential intruders. Not a bad idea.

So yeah, SOME good IoT things going on out there. But whenever I think about it, my mind chirps rhythmically like a bunch of crickets...

Ludicrous Patent of the Week: Rectangles on a computer screen

Re: Hope they have deep pockets

"Cue the round / eliptical windows."

already done in Win-10-nic - the user pic is NOW rounded. nevermind if you WANTED the corners, you can't have them any more...

troll icon because it's an opportunity to slam Win-10-nic and Micro-shaft

Re: Rounded corners

yes, but the XP versions were 3D skeuomorphic, and so the "modern" 2D FLUGLY ones are now "up for patent grabs"! Yeah, see if a rounded corner 2D FLUGLY rectangle can pass the patent troll test!

Re: I'm happy with this

"Prior Art"

(cued up)

prior art didn't stop Apple from suing Micro-shaft over windows overlapping windows...

(they were just ticked off because MS was running their thing on cheap clone boxen, or they'd have gone after IBM over OS/2 - which interestingly enough was ALSO written by Micro-shaft! )

needless to say, they ALL ripped off Xerox!

I should patent the phrase "F-off"

I should patent the phrase "F-off" so that when the patent trollers attempt to sue EVERYONE and their next door neighbor over a frivolous claim of violation, and everyone tells them to "F-off", I get a royalty...

Firefox to doctor Pepper so it can run Chrome's PDF, Flash plugins

Re: try pale moon

"This can't be overstated! Anyone looking for a good Firefox fork, look no further!"

I'll consider it, thanks. saves me the trouble of doing it myself, like when Mate forked from gnome 2.

Re: time to fork FF and make something better?

"FF doesn't auto-update on any decent Linux distro, since it's a compile-time switch."

I'm seeing hits on the update server in the latest Mint. And I checked the settings, and it seemed to be enabled in 'about:config' as 'app.update.enable' (etc). I turned it off. Still seeing plugin update scans, though, but no more hitting "app.update.url" since I shut the other stuff off.

so yeah, it was obviously happening. and now it's not. But you're right, any DECENT Linux distro should NOT have this on, and having to use about:config to turn it OFF was irritating.

Re: time to fork FF and make something better?

RE: "there was so much cluelessness in this post that I couldn't decently let it slip."

I've been doing this stuff for so long that my brain is getting full, so if I slip on a detail or two, especially late at night, who cares. I don't. Details details details. Whoopee twiddle.

Nit-pickiness is just an irritant. what I meant and how you interpreted it apparently differ. so what if 'nodejs' is server-side, I probably was thinking of another thing, another monolithc package. whatever. And if I use the word 'merge' instead of some OTHER term, who gives a blank. So thanks for the nit-pick. NOT.

I've been doing this schtuff for so damn long anyway that nit-pickiness is just an irritant. Usually the YOJNG and INEXPERIENCED dwell on such pointlessness. For the rest of us who are *NOT* *CLUELESS*, and probably write better and more complex [kernel level] code in a fraction of the time than the nit-pickers, it's JUST an irritant. Probably need to spray it with disinfectant or something...

time to fork FF and make something better?

is it time to fork Firefox and make something batter?

I don't like the "hamburger menu", nor the tendency towards 2D FLATSO, nor the "flatso-looking touch friendly" preferences that are now web pages [and missing the "automatic updates" turn-off-ability which I don't want happening in my LINUX DISTRO, thank-you-very-much].

I'd like to ROLL BACK to something more _SANE_, like a TRADITIONAL interface. Let it NOT open PDFs in a java-based PDF viewer, thanks. In fact, let's just DISABLE JAVA entirely. And flash. And support HTML5, but let people selectively SHUT IT OFF if they want [to avoid ads ABusing it].

And how about BUILDING IN the capabilities of the 'NoScript' plugin? Either that, or ship it INSTALLED BY DEFAULT.

I just hope that disabling NPAPI won't affect NoScript [and some of the other plugins I like to use].

(it's amazing how FAST a site will load without jquery or nodejs loading EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! because some dweeb is ALWAYS making a tiny tweek to the ginormous libraries, one that forces a re-re-re-download of all of that monolithic scripting crap EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! )

[I noticed that debian seems to have merged their iceweasel fork with firefox... bummer if I'm right about that]

Criticize Donald Trump, get your site smashed offline from Russia

Re: Well, well

"So instead of MS shills, now we have Trump shills in the commentard community?"

based on the ratio of downvotes, I'd say the SHILLS are anti-Trump

Re: Why are these things not being shouted from the rooftops?

"You mention (to paraphrase) that under Hillary's rule that 'elitists and the rich would rule and get richer'. Just exactly in what way do you somehow believe that Mr. Trump doesn't utterly epitomize elitist behavior and getting rich on the sweat of others?"

well, aside from the potential leading question, it's pretty obvious: when you do business, you hire people to do work. The investors and top-level managers normally make the most money. Otherwise, why take the risks if there is no "big payoff"?

And here's the rub with socialism and liberalism: when you TAX the high income earners and risk takers at rates that cause their payoffs to be LOWER, they take FEWER RISKS. Risks include business expansion, R&D, new products, new markets, and so forth. When you put a higher cost on the *kinds* of risk-taking that would make the economy IMPROVE, you get "less improvement".

The world of finance drives the world of business, and the world of business drives the economy. Propping up the stock market [via 'Quantitative Easing'] does NOTHING for R&D nor for new products. In fact, it generally helps the HEDGE FUNDS [like George Soros is so [in]famous for] and those who play games with market fluctuations, PARTICULARLY when the 'quantitative easing' funds are going to KNOWN PLACES [which smacks of insider trading, hint hint].

Yes, the Federal Reserve AND the Obaka administration were engaging in this *kind* of behavior. I would expect MORE OF THE SAME under a 'Her Royal Heinous' Mrs. Clinton administration.

So Donald Trump is in the business of MAKING MONEY. His means to do so is REAL ESTATE. He buys and sells and rents property, and constructs buildings, and so on. He hires a LOT of people, who "do the work for him". If you call THAT "exploitation" then you're complaining about the very nature of Capitalism, and nothing I say will convince you otherwise.

Now, if Donald Trump actually engaged in ANTI-COMPETITIVE and/or criminal activities in order to get ahead, then he would most likely have been investigated by the justice department already. Unfair business practices are actually ILLEGAL.

As for me, I consider being paid properly for my work "a fair exchange". I expect that Donald Trump's employees would say the same thing. A fair day's wage for a fair day's work. If he wasn't doing THAT, i.e. paying fair wages, you KNOW we'd be hearing about it. The Labor Unions would be the first ones to point it out (it's their "thing" after all).

So what part of "the sweat off of other people's browes" is NOT fair, if you PAY people to SWEAT?

I see NOTHING wrong with that. After all, those people ended up with JOBS, because of Donald Trump, his risk-taking, his efforts, and whatever "deals" he artfully negotiated. I'd be pretty happy about THAT, if I were THEM.

Now... let's consider a TRUE SOCIALIST [and former Nazi collaborator] George Soros. Why do I not hear SCREAMS about what THIS guy is up to, including his relationship with MRS. CLINTON and the DEMO-RAT PARTY???

Re: If this asshat gets elected..

"Mr Bob, little hint"

what, you think I _CARE_ about things like that? [keep in mind, use of capitalization and punctuation for emphasis exists frequently enough in El Reg articles; you could consider that to be "borrowing a style consistent for the web site"].

besides, I view "hints" like that as a) arrogant, b) condescending, c) an attempt to reduce my effectiveness, d) all of the above. What, other people know better how _I_ should run _MY_ life? It's as bad as "political correctness", which I deliberately do NOT do (and lampoon whenever possible).

So thanks, but no thanks, for the "hints". Your opinions are noted, but not paid attention to.

[and thanks for getting personal - a subtle version of the ad hominem attack]

besides, if Trump does what he says he's going to do, then the U.S. economy will recover rapidly, beginning with new spending on things _LIKE_ R&D and expansion within USA's borders. You know, 'supply side economics', people having more of their own money, LESS money being paid to people to "pay them to stay poor" [i.e. welfare, 'on the dole', etc. - you get what you pay for when you pay people to stay poor], criminal aliens being deported, fewer problems with "underground economy", fewer problems with smuggling, actually ENFORCING the law instead of making excuses NOT to [for political reasons] and NOT "just enforcing it SELECTIVELY" [like Obaka], and so on.

Yeah, I liked Margaret Thatcher when she was Prime Minister, and also Ronald Reagan when HE was president. I expect similar things with a President Trump.

And... do you think that _MAYBE_ the RUSSIANS expect these kinds of things ALSO, with a President Trump??? That, and 'win-win' foreign policy. 'Art of the deal' and all of that.

Re: Why are these things not being shouted from the rooftops?

"Why are these things not being shouted from the rooftops? "

because the liberal lame-stream media has BROADCASTING and PRINTING instead... [to echo what you've parroted from them in your post].

(and we've gotten our fill of THAT pile of lies for too long, and it's tiring).

you also forgot to mention Mrs. Clinton's e-mails, the Clint-stone foundation "payola for political favors" slush fund, how Mrs. Clinton treats the "bimbos" that her husband had sex with, how Mrs. Clinton treats 12 year old RAPE VICTIMS using a "she was asking for it" defense in the 1970's as a young upwardly mobile attorney looking for a stepping stool to advance her career by...

Re: If this asshat gets elected..

" hope we're not all perceived as being gun-toting hillbillies with rebel flags on our pickup trucks,"

That's MISTER gun-toting hillbilly, etc.

And if "that asshat" (assuming Trump) does *NOT* get elected, enjoy your "socialist paradise", with the rich elitists getting richer, everyone else getting POORER, the "friends of Clinton" getting their political paybacks, other countries taking over our internal affairs, a mass migration of social dependents waiting to suck from the teet of public welfare (and then vote DEMO-RAT as they become insta-citizens), higher taxes on those trying to BECOME "the rich" (because "the rich" already HAVE their money, and don't earn wage income, and are currently taxed at a LOWER rate than high wage earners, because, Demo-rats and weak-willed Republo-crats), and "I feel" instead of "the law" (as in "Obaka FEELS as if he can IGNORE the law, so he DOES via executive order", and Mrs. Clinton will be WORSE than THAT, even).

Do we REALLY want a gummint that's more like a tin-horn dictatorship than a democratic-replublic?

(that's what Mrs. Clinton would be like - just think 'Obaka on steroids" and that should be close enough)

Keep in mind, that like it was in the 80's, when the U.S. economy does WELL, the ENTIRE world benefits. It's the "rising tide lifts all boats" thing. Mrs. Clinton wants to tax CARBON, meaning expensive energy, meaning economic DECLINE. Mrs. Clinton wants to stop domestic oil, meaning that SAUDI ARABIA can charge whatever they WANT for oil, and other countries will have to PAY it [when the USA is buying its own oil, the world's oil prices DROP, meaning better world-wide economy].

Anyway, Trump's portrayal in the media is nothing like who he really is. Too many "feelers" out there who refuse to THINK, with politically correct chips on their shoulder, waiting to be offended, who will go full "howler monkey" the first time Trump says what he's thinking at the moment [which is pretty close to what _I_ am thinking, most likely, given the same circumstances].

Russian govt apparently doesn't like Mrs. Clinton

"It's interesting to point out that much of the attack sourced from Russia."

I don't think Russians are pro-Trump, per-se, they're more likely to be "anti-Clinton".

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/31/russian-television-shows-what-kremlin-thinks-clinton.html

"it was enough to watch Russian state television coverage of her accepting the Democratic nomination."

"Viewers were told that Clinton sees Russia as an enemy and cannot be trusted"

etc.

So, if there's a motivation behind any state-sponsored hacking from Russia, this might be it.

Re: What an shallow fool!

"He could twist DT around his fingers by just using flattery and taking him to swanky places."

More likely, manipulate "Her Royal Heinous" Mrs. Clint-stone by donating MONEY to the Clint-stone foundation...

Trump just does what Trump wants to do. At least he's honest about that.

Re: Trump will win

"this is not an endorsement; it's a prediction."

I certainly HOPE you are RIGHT! Mega-thumbs-up for the honesty, at least.

because, the aftermath of another Clint-stone occupying the white house would be *HIDEOUS*. 4 more years of the "Obaka" garbage, *AND* *THEN* *SOME*. Remember, Her Royal Heinous, Mrs. Clint-stone, was too frightening in 2008 to win the primary against OBAKA...

" wish I had the literary dexterity to properly lambaste Trump to the degree that he deserves,"

how brave of you, A.C. - multi-downvotes from me ( but only one was counted )

Microsoft preps defence against the dark arts for enterprise customers

safe surfing seems to work pretty well...

all of these scanners/plugins/OS-sandboxers/whatever and the REAL problems aren't being addressed.

I usually recommend 'safe surfing' to people to combat viruses/trojans and it works pretty well.

a) don't go online with an account that has 'admin' privileges. just don't.

b) use a browser that allows you to DISABLE 3rd party scripting, or ALL scripting for that matter. Firefox with 'noscript' plugin is my choice.

c) NEVER view e-mail as HTML. ONLY view as plain-text, don't allow images to preview in-line, and NEVER "just click on a link" [or worse, "open" an attachment to see what it is] if it's in an e-mail, even if you trust the sender. Yes, this means NOT using a web client for e-mail.

d) do NOT use a Micro-shaft OS for web surfing unless you have no other choice.

Follow these rules, and the likelihood that you get some zero-day infection from across the intarwebs is pretty small. [this doesn't mention the more obvious things like firwealling your connection and explicitly running virus scans on attachments and downloaded files before "opening" them with a GUI file manager or whatever].

No surprise: Microsoft seeks Windows Update boss with 'ability to reduce chaos, stress'

Re: No

"Make Windows a VM. The OS would be managed by a new ultra-barebones hypervisor."

better idea: make windows linux at the core, with the GUI front-end entirely in userland, and open source so end-users can peer-review it and do pull requests

oh, that's kinda what a Linux distro is like, isn't it?

Re: Previous Manager

"What happened to the previous Manager of the Update Team - fired, retired, promoted, demoted or quit?"

you forgot 'padded cell'

all eggs in one Micro-shaft basket

"Microsoft wants everything to be dependent on everything else - thus a patch to any part causes problems for all the OTHER parts as well."

you're probably right. that would DEFINITELY explain it, yes.

The next question is: why? why put all eggs in ONE basket like that? What kind of CONTROL does Micro-shaft INSIST on having over our computers? [this deserves the W.T.F. emblem]

apt-get is what debian, ubuntu, mint, and others use. it works pretty well for me on my various installed Linux distros. And it's NOT forced.

Re: Windows Update: Clunky bag of nails, needs new hammer.

maybe the Ubuntu update system would work for Micro-shaft?

(they've been getting cozy with Canonical somewhat recently...)

Re: Why don't they just summon a daemon?

"Because that is product development."

yes, but sacrificing chickens and dancing on one leg isn't helping them very much these days...

Re: Microsoft attempting to hire someone competent?

"Its not the Window's Update Boss that will fix the problem, its removing the CEO and starting again to produce an OS that the majority of users want."

you got THAT right...

what I find interesting is they require a 4 year degree.

MANY competent software engineers (and quite possibly the MOST competent engineers) either have no degree, or it's in something else (like music). A requirement for a degree would only satisfy a bunch of CLUELESS H.R. dweebs. Yes, I have no degree, except in the school of ACTUAL APPLIED SCIENCES AND EXPERIENCE [where it REALLY matters].

A 4 year degree THESE days (in the USA anyway, where education ranks pretty low) requires suffering through 4 years of excessive tuition and liberal indoctrination. no thanks. I'd get 'F's if I were honest, or else have to "suck up and say the right key words and tricky phrases" to get the 'A' (like MOST people probably do).

THAT as opposed to 30 years of competent success...

So the person Micro-shaft REALLY wants isn't who they're advertising for. But the person they're advertising for will most l ikely "go along to get along", and that's what *certain* *people* inside Micro-shaft probably want...

[so YEAH if they wanted to FIX IT, they'd hire *ME*]

US govt pleads: What's it gonna take to get you people using IPv6?

alarm bells ringing? consider that ALL IPv6 addresses are (essentially) like a 'fixed IP', and without firewall protection, can be cracked as they're publically viewable.

at one time it was well known that giving a windows box a publically visible IP address would guarantee that it would be cracked into within a small period of time, maybe even a few minutes. It's not as bad now, as I understand it, but I wouldn't want a windows box with a publically viewable IP address anyway.

and linux/BSD boxen can be misconfigured. watch out for X11 listening port, for example, and many desktop managers enable VNC by default, and then you probably run Samba, and your printer config is on a well known port too.

yeah

Re: we are forced to have ipv6 internally so we have it 'on'

"Surely the default firewall just doesn't pass anything initiating from the outside, so the basic IPv6 router is roughly equivalent to the NAT router with no port forwarding."

deny all incoming via "whatever interface" (tun0 or gif0 or ?)

seems that is the SAFE way to configure your network router. I tend to be more specific and just block the ports I don't EVAR want accessed, like internal network sshd ports, Samba, X11, VNC, and anything "listening" on a windows box.

And don't call me 'Shirley' [had to do that, heh]

'netstat -ln' on linux, 'netstat -an' on windows, to see what's "open". then add to the list. leaving the others open can be useful, for home-based web servers, IRC or torrents, but blocking them anyway can't hurt...

[I also set up some AAAA records for my domain]

"Thanks. I'll wait for IPv7"

but I thought the protocol 7 implementation deliberately uses the Schumann resonance in order to merge the wired world with the real world... ?

(where's my p-sych-e processor!)

Re: the Register ... no IPv6

"I can’t go IP6 because my Internet Provider hasn’t heard of it. Yet."

there are many FREE IPv6 tunnels. I use he.net .

Earliest ever recording of computer-generated music is restored

or 'needs a flash player'. won't go there for obvious reasons. #1 request in comments was "download link".

So I guess my HTML5-capable browser withOUT a flash plugin can't play that ancient audio. who'd-a thunk it?

Official: Windows 10 has hit the 400 million device mark

" it was hard enough replacing my Mom's OS X iBook with a Windows 8 Dell Laptop!!"

"But, not your dear Mother, surely?"

Installing Mint Linux along with a short 'introduction to Linux' session would fix it, yeah.

if you set Mint up properly your mother is probably already using the same software that you find pre-installed on Mint, like Libre Office, TBird, Firefox... and if she's used to a Mac, the bash shell and file system structure should ALSO be familiar on Mint!

I imagine that OSX to Mint (Cinnamon) is MUCH less of a shock than OSX to Windows "Ape" or Win-10-nic.

Re: Windows 10 is great!

"this may be the case for most of the people who are not angry, sock-and-sandal-wearing neckbeards."

or ARE smug, arrogant millenials. enjoy your FAIL-OS.

Re: it's not FUD, it's *TRUTH*

re: advantage/disadvantages of W10 vs W7

I never saw Win-10-nic as being, in ANY way 'faster'. in fact, some things are DEFINITELY slower. Some of the SSD drive owners say the opposite, though, so I'd guess that the kernel now favors SSDs over spinny-drives, so YMMV. Personally, I think a properly designed kernel would have been faster for ANY drive, and not waste a pile of time with paranoid re-re-reads of the registry [among other things].

Another factoid that's interesting: check out the latest 'statcounter'

http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-weekly-201531-201639

it shows a DEFINITE DECLINE in Windows 10 usage, and a corresponding BUMP UP in Windows 7 usage. Coincidence? I don't think so... but it's early in the week, and the latest numbers will usually drop a bit by the following monday. we shall see, I bet!

it's not FUD, it's *TRUTH*

"There is a lot of FUD being spouted about Windows 10, most of it by Microsoft-hating trolls, or people who are just stuck in the past."

no FUD, Win-10-nic is what it is, out there for everyone to see, complete with the 2D FLUGLY, the 'brickings' [mostly from updates], and not to forget those forced updates that REMOVE! YOUR! CUSTOMIZATIONS!, and so on. And the adware you can ALLEGEDLY turn off, but the spyware you can't shut off no matter how much Micro-shaft claims to the contrary.

It stinks on ice, sucks out of the box, etc.

nothing good to say about it at all, except that MAYBE the 'Pro' version LETS YOU upgrade to 7.

Re: Windows 10? So What?

what about the 2D FLUGLY? what about the FORCED UPDATES? (and other irritating stuff, naturally).

there are SIGNIFICANT differences between 7 and 10 that exceed "just the start [thing]", MOST of them VERY irritating.

At least with PRO you can UPgrade it to 7 if you want, right???

US Labor Dept accuses CIA-backed Palantir of discriminating against Asian engineers

"I always find funny when someone reads epic works like LotR with the lenses of actual 'political correctness', often showing very little knowledge of the actual work."

well, "political correctness" (*SPIT*) deserves to be burned, buried, forgotten, moved to /dev/null, and left to rot. In hell. (just don't rot near me, I don't want MY place in hell to be stunk up by political correctness)

Re: I can understand a little bit of bias

yeah, and particularly if referrals are involved, maybe existing employees don't know that many people of "asian" descent. It can happen.

As for me I think Chinese girls are *HOT* so I'd perhaps have a few *more* 'Asian' friends than average, but there ya go... heh heh heh

Referrals are the best way to find quality employees, AND to land yourself a position. "What color is your parachute" mentions that early on, as I recall.

The H.R. "screening" process is *THE* biggest problem in landing a tech job. H.R. dweebs don't know TCP from UDP, except as terms on a 'screener sheet', and you KNOW that THE most junior member of H.R. is the one that's shafted with the 'resume screening' duty. If you said "implemented datagram-based protocol" on your resume as one of the things you've done, and didn't say "UDP", and "UDP" was on the screener sheet, your resume hits the '/dev/null' bin and that's it.

And front-loading a resume with buzz-terms and jargon, JUST to get past the clueless H.R. screeners, makes it TLDR and boring (so hiring managers glaze over and miss important stuff).

And don't EVEN get me started on how they treat the older, experienced people. "You're too close to retirement", then quietly forgotten and dropped in the dustbin.

And what about REVERSE DISCRIMINATION? This can go on indefinitely, propping up lawyer income and tying up courtrooms and making [virtual] ink.

As for the definition of 'Asian' in this case...

I don't know what's wrong with the term 'Oriental'. That refers to S.E. Asia and the pacific island region in the IO and West Pacific, aka "The Orient". Saying 'Asian' instead is, of course, "misleading" but supposedly is a "politically correct" (*SPIT*) term for 'Oriental'. So, we just "assume", right?

Suspected Russian DNC hackers brew Mac trojan

Re: MacKeeper security software

So here's the question (regarding the attack vector): Is MacKeeper HOOKING THE ADOBE READER [which is what I suspect is happening], or being somehow "activated" by the Adobe reader?

So there's my earlier point about using an open source PDF reader to prevent the problem. I suppose I should've clarified by including the 'MacKeeper' vector, which I was assuming to be some kind of anti-virus thing.

But if it's hijacking browsers and stuff, then you're right, it WOULD BE a form of 'sleezeware' like all of those 'browser button' plugin things from the "noughties", pretending to be anti-virus anti-malware 'security' but then secretly tracking you or something...

(or in THIS case, providing a vector for breaking into your computer)

Re: Suspected Russian DNC hackers

uh, you still need to download and VIEW the PDF. Then again, it could've been attached to a 'legit looking' spam-mail...

/me wonders if open source PDF readers like 'evince' are still vulnerable to that exploit...

I don't like the more recent PDF viewer from Adobe. It tries to "do too much" and that's probably what the vulnerability exploits. But if it's a vulnerability the PDF format ITSELF, the readers will need to be able to shut such "features" off, to prevent spammed PDFs from being viewed by accident in spam-mails (and infecting your computer).

Though I must admire the cleverness of the evil hackers behind the exploit, making sure that the payload behaves as you expect, so that the virus/trojan load happens without any suspicion.

[Macs have the ability to install 'macports' or similar open source packages, and as such 'evince' and other open source readers SHOULD be available - I would suggest that security patches start with THAT, abandoning Adobe readers, and using one of the open source readers]

Add 'fattism' and hacker stereotyping to the list of Donald Trump's list of non-PC positions

Re: Someone weighing 400 pounds

whenever _I_ exercise more, my weight goes up. but then again, I don't like being a 'skinny wimp'.

it's about the body fat %, not about the total mass measurement nor that idiotic "BMI".

After all, just look at the NFL... (they'd ALL fail the 'BMI' test)

Unimpressed with Ubuntu 16.10? Yakkety Yak... don't talk back

Re: The early releases of Ubuntu were a revelation and made Linux a practical desktop, but...

agreed - I like Ubu when you use a Mate desktop, but Unity STINKS no matter HOW you package it.

Let's just hope the default themes aren't "all 2D FLATSO" like what happened with Mint 18 [forcing me to customize it to avoid the 2D FLATSO look that I *HATE*].

So, when will the MILLENIALS that have taken over the direction of open source software (and, Micro-shaft) *FINALLY* get it that people genuinely prefer 3D skeuomorphic to 2D FLATSO at least 2:1 ? When will they GET IT that phone-like interfaces (such as Unity) really *SUCK* on desktops? When will others (like Mozilla) just *STOP* *IT* with the 'hamburger' menus and DEFAULT BACK TO A CLASSIC MENU BAR instead? [it's as bad as the 'ribbon' in Micro-shaft Office and Windows 7 'Paint' ].

All of these "changes" which are CHANGE for the WORST, makes "up"grade a "down"grade, and I don't want to have to load CRAP versions just so google docs and github won't fail to work any more [this happened to me within the last year].

Yeah, when the UPgrade is a DOWNgrade, and "other forces" are HERDING you into HAVING to adopt them, it's a SYMPTOM that open source software is becoming REALLY SICK, you know?

Forgive me, father, for I have used an ad-blocker on news websites...

I'll stop blocking ads when...

I'll stop blocking when

a) you stop using jquery and nodejs and other monolithic mega-scripting in your ads

b) you stop using script *PERIOD* in your ads

c) you stop using COOKIES to TRACK me (in your ads and elsewhere including invisible GIF)

d) you stop using ANYTHING to TRACK me.

e) you stop using FLASH or POPUPS or CLICK THROUGH or any *OTHER* video or active/moving content, particularly content that requires USER ACTION to MAKE IT GO AWAY.

At that point, ads will be simple banners. They're not irritating. I won't block them.

Big Software is the next, er, big thing

wishful thinking on their part...

if you ask me, it's just wishful thinking by the "big boys" in the yard, that the "big boys" will dominate the yard.

meanwhile, the REAL innovation happens in the "small software" realm...

'the cloud' is yet another attempt to have "big server, little client" for everything. It has its uses, and they sometimes make sense, but it's highly overrated, over-hyped, and probably over-installed.

At some point, distributed processing will balance with 'the cloud'. End-users can only tolerate so many unplanned outages, piss-poor UI performance, and "big data" in control of their secrets.

And! it! begins! Yahoo! sued! over! ultra-hack! of! 500m! accounts!

here come the sue-ers

I'm embarassed it started in my part of the world (San Diego). I wonder if they're shopping for the SAME JUDGE that Trump heavily criticized a while back?

Safe browsing checks fail as 16,000 WordPress sites hacked this year

hand-coded optimized HTML isn't that hard

hand-coded optimized HTML (without scripting, even!) isn't THAT hard.

you can even insert it into El Reg comments...

I like to use 'tables' to format my web pages. it's clean, simple, elegant, and pretty much universally supported. And it'll force scrollbars if the screen is too small to view the content properly.

and it might even force phone-viewers to go into 'landscape' mode [which is superior anyway].

(yeah learn to program HTML, use scp or rsync to transfer things, and stop relying on some 3rd party bloatware to do simple things like html markup)

Lenovo denies claims it plotted with Microsoft to block Linux installs

Re: What a whiny bunch of spoilt hypocritical Linux users

at least some of your points about the linux community shooting its own feet (particularly with respect to ALSA vs OSS and systemd vs desktop managers that won't work without it) are valid.

so how about 'no vote' instead? out of fairness.

still, win-10-nic deserves the bashing. and anything that LOOKS like it's locking out Linux deserves it, too. Lenovo did something very very naughty with 'superfish' late last year, and had to backpedal and admit their wrong to the entire world last February. I think they deserve the scrutiny on THIS issue, too.

New Gnome emerges blinking into the sunlight

Re: *nix?

"Isn't Gnome 3 still tied to systemd? Surely that makes it Linux only."

sadly, FreeBSD has gnome 3 in ports, last I looked. Most likely there's a set of cumbersome patches for the systemd-ness.

in fairness, gnome2 had its share too. haven't looked at mate, though. yet. It's in ports, too!

Re: Old dog

"What is the point? Can anybody explain it to me?"

(with reference to the migration of gnome in the same direction as Micro-shaft's 'circle the drain' 2D FLATSO touch-centric phone-GUI interfaces on desktop computers)

a) "new shiny" (as been pointed out already)

b) too many people used to XP, won't "up"grade

c) patents, copyrights, and locking users into Micro-shaft's "solution"

d) change for the sake of change

e) millenials getting to do things THEIR way (which can't be OUR way, because, millenials)

therefore, it's "Modern", with the built-in "get with the program, gramps" pejoratives.

Doesn't make it BETTER, though, like who wants an electric roller skate when you can have a MUSCLE CAR!

gnome 3 and micro-shaft seem to be in kahootz or something... (did MS start investing in the gnome stuff? I am pretty sure that one of their devs was a ".Not" and mono fan, but still...)

Re: It's still smartphone-GUI-on-a-workstation.

(from linked-to article) "Flatpak is the next generation application distribution framework for Linux."

"Until they fix that, I'll stick with Cinnamon and/or MATE,"

I agree 100%! There's _NO_ reason to follow Micro-shaft's "circle the drain" FLATSO overly-touchy-feely development direction. When I saw 'Flatpak' I was thinking <u>FLATSO</u> like "Ape" and Win-10-nic. Am I wrong?

Desktops need a REAL 3D skeuomorphic interface. Like Mate. Or Cinnamon. But we STILL have to kick the millenials [who are "in charge" now and doing it "their way"] a bit for releasing the latest Mint (18) with *ONLY* the FLATSO decorations in the default themes, meaning you have to go through the 'CUSTOMIZE' choices to pick something *SANE* and not 2D FLUGLY FLATSO.

I want 3D looking *BUTTONS* in the window title bar, DANGIT!

UK copyright troll weeps, starts 20-week stretch in the cooler for beating up Uber driver

"I hope his employees run off with his business."

actually, if it's truly one of those 'trolling' copyright "enforcers", better see it fade into pink-slips and bankruptcy