Posts by bombastic bob

FCC urged to pause its fight against America's $20bn cable-box rip-off

Re: "60 congressmen, largely Republican..."

"Says it all really..."

not the 'republican' part, just the 'congressmen' part. cong-grab needs an enema. [not soap-boxing any more on this, as the rest would be obvious - yeah I'm a Trump supporter]

Re: Small pay-TV providers

keep in mind that a cable provider typically has a 'localized monopoly'. I can only get Time Warner, and with their new merger, I'm sure that customer service will suffer somehow. TWC has recently been bragging (in ads) about improved service, raised their rates a couple of times, and switched us all over to digital cable boxen. The 'rent' is free... for now. Will be $/month at some point (for the cheap, featureless box).

Since the switchover I've noticed malfunctioning channels on more than one occasion, had them try to bill me for a tech visit post-self-install [caused by their screwed up database] because the boiler plate said "let me send a tech over" [week later] tech arrives, "I know what's going on" makes a phone call, it's fixed. THAT kind of thing (then they try to BILL ME for THEIR f-up). And some of the channels had WRONG aspect ratios that couldn't be corrected. And I can't disable channels I never want to see, like MSNBC or a spanish-language channel or whatever (so channel surfing MUST scan THROUGH them). And re-scan doesn't stop 'the weather channel' from popping up an irritating 'malfunction' message.

And let's not forget the occasional stutters, pixelization, and black screens that seem to happen now that it's "all digital". Analog didn't really have THOSE problems...

Maybe it's time to force cable companies to allow others to use THEIR WIRES (at a reasonable fee, of course), similar to the way it happened with telcos. And now it's working with POWER COMPANIES (using the local utility's lines to deliver THEIR power THEY generate, usually solar).

But yeah, utilities are like that. They're "regulated" but not necessarily in OUR favor...

(and I've never seen a 'small pay-TV provider', not even once)

New Firefox versions will make you activate all new add-ons – except one hacker favourite

HTML5 in adverts? I blocked the FLASH ones easily enough!

To think that adverts switching to HTML5 would be a GOOD thing... it's *NOT*.

they're MUCH easier to BLOCK when they use FLASH! How? DISABLE THE FLASH PLUGIN!

(we should keep advertisements in the 'flash' ghetto, for our own good)

Also 'NoScript' helps eliminate flash content. It's amazing how much FASTER a web site that does NOT load embedded video content will display, compared to the alternative...

Official: Microsoft's 'Get Windows 10' nagware to vanish from PCs in July

Re: I'll believe it when I see it...

same here (I'll believe it when I see it). you would think that GWX would have that 'drop dead date' for the offer already built-in, or COULD have. A simple update to GWX that disables the popup windows would be sufficient. How hard could THAT be? or as someone else pointed out, just add line 25 "if past the date, STOP" to their stupid BASIC program that (as Calculon would point out) has an extra 'GOTO 10' line in it.

Re: Why July

"Start thinking for yourself and you might find Windows 10 OK."

As I saw someone else say in this forum, "Dear Mr. Pot, this is Kettle, please revise your statement regarding color". Or something like that.

And I won't find Windows 10 'OK'. I gave it a fair chance a year ago during the 'insider' program. It failed to meet expectations, by a wide margin.

But I DO agree, that they ARE listening [via spyware] as you pointed out.

The 'new' Microsoft? I still wouldn't touch them with a barge pole

WOW!

nice way of putting it all in that article.

I have often said SIMILAR THINGS (and on Microsoft's own discussion board over at answers.microsoft regarding Win-10-nic, even), and generally contrasted them to 'Business 101', aka "the customer is always right, and Burger King's "Have it YOUR way" policy.

What Microsoft is doing is TAKE it OUR way, or we SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT, so we can (later on) start charging you for it as a SUBSCRIPTION because we *CAN*.

Their giveaway program for Win-10-nic is like a drug dealer giving free samples so he can later scam people with confiscatory pricing, once his 'customers' are addicted to whatever substances he's selling.

This policy dates back to the early noughties during the whole ".Net" initiative. A bit of study would reveal that PASSPORT was their new tollbooth for the information superhighway. Nobody bought into it back then, and then "dot bomb" happened. But ~15 years later that undead horse is BACK again, as the "Microsoft Logon". Who knew?

So, again, WOW to what was said in that article. I'm *VERY* happy to see that at least SOMEONE ELSE besides me thinks that way. Many thanks, kudos, 'dittos', etc.

Have Microsoft-hosted email? Love using Live Mail 2012? Bad news

Re: Give us a breakdown, MS!

well, slightly OT (but it WAS in the article), net stats (like statcounter) seem to indicate that it might be relatively accurate at 300 million. What they're NOT saying is that it's about 1/3 of their customer base using either 8, 8.1, or 10. The rest of us are on 7, Vista, XP, or maybe something else. And that's just based on "who hits the internet" and with Micro-shaft spyware running, I have to wonder how much of that 'traffic' was generated by the spyware...

So if 2/3 of the customer base REFUSE to downupgrade to Win-10-nic, even when it's FREE, they should be paying a LOT of attention to that. But they're not.

Re: Modern synchronization technologies?

"However MS would be mad to drop POP3 and IMAP from Hotmail so other clients apart from Outlook-the-client would carry on working, except for WLM which sees a @hotmail.com or @outlook.com address and automatically configures itself for a nonexistent protocol. Perhaps there's some way to trick it into configuring manually for IMAP."

I certainly hope you're right about this, because if Thunderbird stops being able to read my MSN e-mail (which I've had since MSN was in beta, and I continue to pay $5/month for the e-mail along with 'just in case' dial-in access which I've used on occasion, most recently LAST YEAR), then I'm *DUMPING* my MSN account and e-mail address and anything ELSE that has to do with outlook, hotmail, msn mail, or anything SIMILAR.

I'm not going to use their Win-10-nic mail client. I tested that one a year ago during the insider program, and it tried to screw up my IMAP folders. Fortunately it did no real damage. It's also 2D FLUGLY. And it doesn't run in Linux.

'I thought my daughter clicked on ransomware – it was the damn Windows 10 installer'

Re: Slow checking for updates...

re: not believing the 300 million...

Another possibility is that, like the "Ape" (8.x) sales figures, about 1/3 of users actually *LIKE* the 2D FLUGLY and other "features" of Ape (and now Win-10-nic).

that leaves the OTHER 2/3 of us *SCREAMING* *BLOODY* *MURDER* and vowing to NEVER {down}UPGRADE to 10, *EVAR*.

strangely, Micro-shaft ignores the 2/3, believes the 1/3 to be "everyone", and *INSISTS* the rest of us MUST! HAVE! Win-10-nic!!!

Re: 300 million infections

"Did anyone watch an episode of Equinox (Channel 4) called "The King of Chaos" which aired around 2000?"

unfortunately, no. But I *did* see 'Kingsmen' and the big-bad offers free phone service with a 'special' feature... maybe that's what's behind Win-10-nic?

OK not *that* but still...

Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends on July 29th

Re: No more nagware?

"Does that mean that after July 29 Windows 7/8 users will be left in peace?"

that seems to be the MAIN concern for a lot of us. I fear it is NOT the case.

Promise?

"Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends on July 29th"

PROMISE???

And what makes us think that GWX will *GO AWAY* simply because the 'free' downupgrade goes away?

Ex-HP boss Carly Fiorina sacked one week into new job

Re: Seriously America...

"are these candidates seriously the best you can come up with to run your country?"

sorry, I couldn't run this year.

(actually, at my last on-site job, my predecessor *DID* run for president, I kid you not! In 2008. Richard something. I forget. You can google it)

Re: Next stop for Fiorina

why not put Fiorina in charge of sacking half of the U.S. gummint... "downsizing" Trump style! With Fiorina as the axe-lady. (perfect!)

DATE: January, 2017

FROM: President Trump

TO: half of the government

SUBJECT: YOU ARE FIRED!

Carly gets to pick which half

Re: well, that the UK prez you folk chose ain't much good either!

"Another Churchill quote"

Churchill was BRILLIANT. I was irked when Obaka 'dissed' him by sending the bust back... (ok it was supposedly 'on loan' from Tony Blair but still... not a smart thing to do)

Re: Same old, same old

"They elected Ronald Reagan, they elected George Bush (Jr), they will elect Trump."

hopefully. It could've been worse: Carter, Mondull, AlGore, Kerry, ...

(better to pick the lesser of 2 evils - Cthulhu or Clinton - I pick Cthulhu)

Re: President... Trum...?

"We're all screwed. Doomed & screwed, screwed & doomed."

that's what I said in 2008 when Obaka was elected... and again in 2012

Re: On behalf of the human race

"TRUMP / PALIN 2016"

"Twice the crazy -- twice the fun!"

heh - good one

sit back and enjoy the revolution show

Microsoft sets Feb 2017 date to kill last SHA-1 zombies

"A standard HTTPS server certificate attests that the holder of a given private key is also the owner of a particular domain - nothing more. In particular it asserts nothing about the identity of the owner."

not quite accurate. the server certificate is supposed to match the IP address and/or domain of the server, and be signed by an authority [self-signing works if you allow it to when prompted by the browser] to authenticate the cert itself. As I recall, the CN needs to be the domain name for a server cert. There's a lot of discussion about this online, so it's easy to find. You can use openssl to be your own CA and issue your own server certs. Or you can use cacert.org. But their root cert isn't on Microsoft's OSs by default (or I haven't seen it, at least), so you'll have to load the root cert, and then all of their issued certs will be trusted. That's basically how it works.

so the cert doesn't determine the SSL encryption. It simply validates that the web site in question is who they say they are, and not some man in the middle trying to read your encrypted traffic.

Re: Certificates are the illusion of security

"Is there any evidence these have not had their public keys shared with the spooks. No need to break any SSL protocol or cypher if you have the key to decrypt it all."

um, I don't think you understand the following very well:

a) public/private key encryption

b) SSL protocol handshaking

c) certificate signing and how it authenticates a web site

the public keys in the certs have little to do with SSL protocol, but (as I understand) they're used for validating the signatures, sort of like the way a hashing algorithm can validate a logon and password without revealing the password.

So there's no decryption with a public key. only ENcryption. then you could match the encryption to a known result (I'm assuming) to validate it.

The SSL protocol uses different methods, among them Diffie-Hellman. Time to google if you haven't heard of it.

Or I can simply point you to it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange

so even if you had a cert's private key, you wouldn't be able to use it to decrypt SSL traffic.

Re: Certificates are the illusion of security

"Therefore, although they COULD in theory sign a fake cert of their own and have it accepted by some browsers as being valid credentials for your site and then man-in-the-middle your server so that they accept connections with THEIR generated private key instead of yours, almost any modern browser will throw a fit when they try this."

etc,

very true. I've been deep into researching cert-land over the last ~2 weeks (and some prior). A summary of what I've found: you can be your own CA, but you have to load the root (and other) certs onto the target machines somehow (let's say an application installer program, like the one I recently open sourced). Like with a self-signed cert, however, you throw warnings in web browsers.

Internet Explorer uses Windows' system cert store, and you can have an application installer (let's say) install new root certs to prevent warnings. Incidentally, this can happen without your knowledge from any application running with 'Admin' privs, calling the right functions.

Firefox and other browsers often have their OWN cert stores separate from the OS, so you'll have to get past THEIR security and warnings to load new root certs.

Intarweb filtering appliances often use the 'MITM' technique as part of their operations (did you mention those? I might've missed it), so IT people must load the appliance's root certs on everyone's workstation by policy or manually [whichever].

As for code-signing, kernel drivers require a "microsoft signature" to load from bootup, but they can dynamically load after boot using regular signed certs (so load your root and signing certs and your drivers will work post-boot, but not during boot). Enabling 'self cert' lets you test things, but apparently shuts off DRM-related things. Not like I need them...

Microsot has also added an even BIGGER "tollbooth" with regards to signing requirements in windows 10, allegedly for quality assurance, but most likely to put even BIGGER roadblocks and tolls in place for independent devs and open sourcers, and maybe lock us into all using windows 10 and playing by THEIR rules forever. That's my opinion, ok.

As for web site certs, self-signs work, but throw a warning (typically) as you pointed out. If you accept the cert by ignoring the warning, https will work just fine like it was meant to be.

openssl can create certs easily, and there are several good online resources on how to do this (including my own web page on being your own cert authority). So yeah, the info is a search engine away. code-signing resources go through Microsoft's "circle jerk" documentation hell, so it's harder to find THAT information without time and frustration.

And related, MS's own examples for code signing self-certs actually create certs that use sha1. But sha256 works fine for code signing certs as far as I can tell (creating my own, of course). But I did see some odd behavior in the kernel debug output in Win 7 checked build when using sha256, some assert about the hash length being larger than some value...

hopefully not 'too long' forcing 'did not read'

Daft draft anti-car-hack law could put innocent drivers away for life

Re: Car lobby?

"Wondering how strong the car lobby is in that state?" etc,

yeah, maybe THIS is the new 'D.R.M.'.

And once again, laws like *THIS* don't stop crime, they just unnecessarily impede the otherwise-law-abiding.

Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware storms live TV weather forecast

Re: GWX Control Panel FTW

<quote>

I'm sure it's been mentioned, but I'm not prepared to read all 156 comments to check.

</quote>

I'm reading them, and have seen GWX and the Steve Gibson one mentioned at least 4 times (each), probably more for GWX control pane. it's starting to look like SPAMMING

Re: there's no bad advertising :(

<quote>

and yeah, soon you'll have a Steve Balmer replicant claiming, internally, that you know, it's a bit naff, but HEY, WE GOT FREE, NATIONAL COVERAGE!!!!!

</quote>

it's an easter egg in the GWX panel. Just shake your PC vigorously, next time it comes up. That activates the easter egg. (maybe some might activate if you put it in a microwave oven on high for 3 minutes, or use the CD/DVD tray for a coffee cup holder)

(ok I've been reading BOFH too much)

Re: Oh, yeah...

<quote>

"This. Its pretty obvious Microsoft don't see it that way, they see the your desktop as their advertising space and its steadily getting worse."

Just because that's the way they see it doesn't make it excusable.

</quote>

yeah, I don't want my DESKTOP SCREEN looking like the TV from 'Idiocracy' with ads all around the outside, and about 1/3 of the screen devoted to actual content...

oh, wait, like a TYPICAL WEB SITE in the 21st century, except it's the "new desktop model"

/me self-slap for giving Micro-shaft yet ANOTHER way of SCREWING UP THE OS

Re: Microsoft showing off their coding skills...

<quote>

10 PRINT "Upgrade this PC to Windows 10"

20 PRINT "This PC is not compatible with Windows 10"

30 GOTO 10

</quote>

you need an extra "GOTO 10" line (yes that was a vague Futurama reference, like when Calculon asked Bender sarcastically if he had an extra "GOTO 10" line)

because, as we all know, it would be even STUPIDER if it DID have an extra 'GOTO 10' line.

US tech CEOs demand Congress programs US kids to be tech workers

Re: Given how people are taught...

well, the 'department of education' isn't helping much. Perhaps if schools taught "the 3 R's" as well as computers, and abandoned all of the revisionist history and "social indoctrination", as well as STOPPING IT with the Ritalin (which gets districts MORE MONEY as they dumb down the smart kids with drugs and force them into 'special education' instead of 'fast track'). Let's face it, too many agendas are victimizing the kids instead of educating them. And abolish the teacher's union while we're at it. Hire people who've been in the private sector instead of "professional educators". you know, having the people that understand what the REAL world actually NEEDS might dispense with the CRAP curricula.

Then kids will learn what they REALLY need.

I also wouldn't mind teaching actual ARITHMETIC without calculators for the 1st 4 years... it's how _I_ learned and I can do basic math in my head without requiring a computing device. no more blank looks when the teacher asks "what's 6 times 7". [why it's the answer to the ultimate question, that's what!]

Brainwave-controlled drone racing is here

I saw something like this back in the 90's at a CompUSA store

back in the 90's I saw something like this at a CompUSA store. You put your fingers into a couple of sensors (one for each hand), and "think left" to move left, "think right" to move right. It was actually kind of fun to play the demonstration 'downhill ski' game, until it got boring. I had no trouble at all controlling it back then, so maybe I should get one of those headsets and do some experimenting... ?

(I also didn't see a lot of people trying it - either boring or 'normals' can't make it work?)

Microsoft to hike certification exam prices

Re: And exactly what...

" I suspect it doesn't amount to much, other than a tick box in the HR department."

all it can be is "proof of potential", and I think most who know better look at these 'certifications' with the obligatory skepticism. The certifications are highly overrated, like the "Ron Bailey School of Broadcasting" doesn't make you an electrical engineer (but you CAN pass the FCC test!).

experience is proof of ability. certification and education are proof of POTENTIAL only. But like you pointed out, the HR 'screeners' will see the alphabet soup and that it matches their "list", and so robotically filter the resumes accordingly. THAT is its only possible value...

('what color is your parachute' would recommend bypassing HR anyway, so no need to follow the rules of mortals, if you can contact a hiring manager directly, because THEY are the ones who really recognize true skill and if you have it, they'll pick YOU over THEM)

Thunderbird is GO: Mozilla prepares to jettison mail client

I use thunderbird, and don't want to see it go

I use thunderbird, and don't want to see it go.

But I don't want it to turn into a "hamburger menu" version, either. If the wrong group maintains it, we could end up with another "the METRO" looking interface, like what seems to be happening to Firefox lately...

and don't call it "modern", that's actually a pejorative term, implying NOT wanting "that change" means you're a neanderthal or something... [like the way the "the METRO"-tards for windows "ape" and win-10-nic go off and do all the time]

maybe we could just host it on git. why does it need to "change" or "develop" anyway? works fine for me, and I'm using a 2 year old version even... (with gnome 2, on FreeBSD, and I'm happy with it). Just fix the bugs, and make it nice and solid.

Woz says 'Jobs started Apple for money' – then says it must pay 50% tax like he does

high tax rates keep you from BECOMING rich!

I hate it when "already rich" people want allegedly-rich people (i.e. those trying to BECOME rich) to pay confiscatorily high tax rates like that. It ensures THEY have their private "I am already rich" club, keeping the rest of us from entering.

flat tax rates are the ONLY *FAIR* tax rates. otherwise, it's just a sneaky way to continue separating 'haves' from 'have nots'. because the dirty secret is that "the rich" do not pay THAT kind of tax rate, EVER. Yes, maybe on 'wage income', but that's a FRACTION of what they REALLY earn, and THAT money is often taxed at a LOWER rate (say 'capital gains' and 'tax shelters'). And THEY know it, and TOO MANY of us do NOT know it, and they use this "tax the rich" nonsense to FOOL everybody in to thinking they CARE or something, but it's a BIG! FAT! LIE!!! They just want themSELVES to keep their "wealthy" status and keep OTHERS from joining "the club".

The web is DOOM'd: Average page now as big as id's DOS classic

pre-scaling web images to avoid bandwidth bloat

"Am I the only one to bother optimising images for web use? I come across pages with the images approx. 4000x3000 that let the browser do the work of scaling it down to 400x300."

how about Image Magick's 'convert' on the server side?

convert bloat-image.jpg -thumbnail x300 reasonable-image.jpg

should work. could even be done in a PHP or perl CGI. A more efficient algorithm would be to create the thumbnail first (using a similar command), then clicking the photo would open up the full-size image.

but that takes EFFORT. And these bandwidth-stealing "coders" are LAZY.

Re: I don't mind the weight of pages

"Perhaps time for a browser extension that detects when the knock on effects of a single page exceed 10MB and puts up a message" (etc.)

you added an extra '0'. make that 1Mb and I'm in.

Re: I don't mind the weight of pages

<quote>

"badly designed pages jump around as unsized elements load"

- The reg has been doing that on me recently, caused me to post anon once or twice as the page jumped about as I tried to focus the comment box and I didn't notice. Never used to do that...

</quote>

I offer my own suggestion: use <table> creatively, and everything lines up. Amazing! and it's low-bandwidth...

Re: Same thing happens with scripts

"I recently completed a standalone HTML 5 app for in-house use, and was a bit horrified to note that it came in at over 3000 lines of Javascript code (with no libraries). Then I noticed that a colleague had included, in a related project, a single third party library comprising more than 17,000 lines"

now you know how to separate the "real programmers" from the "script kiddies" and the "wannabes".

it's also why I don't like "someone's 3rd party library" - they rarely do what I want, the way I want it, or else need too many hacks and take FOREVER to master. By the time I've mastered "someone's 3rd party library" well enough to complete the code, I could've written the entire thing myself, made it do what I want, and done it RIGHT. And then played a bunch of video games, and then gone on vacation, and after coming back from vacation, a comparable dev effort using that 3rd party library would STILL be going on and on and on into a quagmire. Seen it before, in many contexts. And it's not "NIH", it's the practicality of getting things DONE.

Re: Not just size

"There's also the turnaround time for DNS lookup, establishing a connection, and multiple request/responses for the dozens of trackers, beacons, analytics, CDNs, and goodness knows what else that comes with every page view"

but if they hosted all of their own content, they wouldn't be able to 'distribute the pain' of all of that bandwidth, would they?

Javascript is "teh cancer" of "teh intarwebs"

(humorous mis-spellings in topic intentional, you're welcome)

Point is, I really hate having to re-re-re-re-re-re-download "the freshest copy" of some monolithic ginormous javascript library that sits "out there" on a content delivery server, one that a zillion lazy web developers [ab]use to create their "content" every! freaking! time!, *JUST* to view search results. It wastes my time having to wade through all of that.

And if you try to MANAGE THE CHAOS by using 'noscript', you're sometimes getting hit up with the "you cannot view the content, you're using an ad blocker" page. Thanks, Forbes dot com.

well, complaining without a solution is just complaining. SO...

The Solution: stick to REGULAR HTML (with only MINIMAL scripting, and ONLY when ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY) to provide the content. I do. It works.

[It's amazing what '<table>' can do for you, if you hand-code the HTML for it]

-or- (more appealing to the inexperienced coders, perhaps)

The Alternate Solution: get W3C to add to the HTML spec the most popular 'web features' that those monolithic ginormous scripting libraries do, WITHOUT scripting things to do it. Then fix the web pages to use them.

[Lazy web devs, relying on 'JQuery' and other similar libraries, are responsible for this java-scripting nightmare from hell. I'm sure of it! "https://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js" is 276k!]

'Impossible' EmDrive flying saucer thruster may herald new theory of inertia

(zealouts also said)

<quote>

1) Trains would never work as you'd die from asphyxia

2) Cars would never replace the horse and cart

3) Man would never fly

</quote>

4) iron ships can't float

5) heavy objects fall faster than light ones

6) the earth is the center of the universe

and so on, yeah.

I still like the idea that spinning "stuff" might emit gravitons, or SOME kind of particle, and especially good if it can be used for propulsion. Lots of early work involving that concept... and even more recent contributions...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfest_paradox

after all, relativistic effects gotta do SOMETHING... Bremsstrahlung at the very least

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremsstrahlung

Re: I think _I_ can explain it (and it's not that hard)

actually, m!=0 for a photon. its effective mass is a function of frequency/energy of the particle.

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/ParticleAndNuclear/photon_mass.html

zero "rest mass" would be more accurate.

the photon mass is involved in how gravity affects it, and was part of the proof of Einstein's theory of relativity back in the day, when stars were observed to have "moved" due to their relative position near the sun during an eclipse. Predicting that was part of Einstein's theory, and so when it was finally observed, it proved his relativity theory was correct. FYI.

(and if photons were truly 'massless', gravity would not affect them)

Re: Cold fusion

hmmm... my reply seems to have been lost. I'll check back and delete it. UI problems or ?

cold fusion probably happens at rates that are immeasurable, just like the radioactive decay of "stable" isotopes. It's "there" but you can't measure it because it's below the noise threshold.

So it's not entirely 'twaddle' for cold fusion, just highly impractical. The probability of hydrogen fusion is related to temperature and pressure, and PROBABLY resonant energies. Current research may or may not be focusing on the resonant energy angle, but maybe they like their 'secret sauce' and so nobody's really talking about it. In any case, I don't know if cold fusion with palladium and monotomic hydrogen (or heavy water for that matter) actually WORKS in ANY capacity, and indications are that it does NOT, but I wouldn't rule out immeasurable reactions taking place. But yeah, its impractical.

The EmDrive may ALSO be impractical for similar reasons. If it's MOMENTUM of light-speed particles that cause the thrust [regardless of how/why and Unruh radiation, or not] the energy required for propulsion goes up by a factor of 4 when you double the energy. Thrust = delta-momentum which is delta-velocity times mass. the mass flow rate of rocket exhaust multiplied by its delta-velocity (which is proportional to the square of the energy) equals the thrust. So, double the mass, double the thrust. QUADRUPLE the energy, double the thrust. Rocket engines are a compromise of needed mass and available energy. And the EmDrive could not POSSIBLY be efficient, based on accelerating things to light speed. The Xe ion drive would be a better choice in deep space.

I think _I_ can explain it (and it's not that hard)

Well, _I_ think that _I_ can explain it. And it's not that hard.

Momentum IS being conserved, because it is SPEWING PARTICLES. Either that, or it's creating a gravity effect.

If you were to shine a light in a particular direction in outer space, you'd create thrust due to the photons going at 'C' and of course their effective mass in an 'mv' momentum equation. This is well known.

The obvious answer HERE is that there are particles being emitted. Microwave energy is a form of 'gamma'. now, that cone shaped thing just might be acting like a WAVE GUIDE of sorts, and JUST MIGHT be impedence coupling the gammas to "the air".

Alternatively...

There's some thought about a spinning disk causing relativistic effects due to a couple of physics properties. First, the NET velocity of a spinning disk is zero (this is why there's 'rotational velocity' and 'rotational momentum' to explain THOSE things). HOWEVER... the individual points on the disk exhibit instantaneous velocities that *MIGHT* result in RELATIVISTIC effects - you know, like mass increasing, time dilating, that sort of thing. BUT - the NET effect is ZERO because it's a solid piece of 'stuff'.

Some experiments have been reported (though I can't find the web sites any more) that SUGGEST that a fast spinning disk may cause 'graviton emission' or 'gravity wave emission' (your choice, wave/particle, tomayto/tomahto) due to this somewhat self-contradicting "relativistic effect" of a spinning disk. A disk spinning horizontally might cause 'gravity shielding' or some other effect on items suspended above it, which REPORTEDLY WEIGH LESS by a measurable, though small, amount (according to the reports I read maybe a decade or so ago). This is, of course, 'Coast to Coast AM' material so take it for what it's worth. But so is *THIS* device.

And so I'm suggesting that *IF* in fact the magnetron is energizing air, and 'spinning' it in the resonant cavity, that the 'spin' _MIGHT_ be causing gravitons to be emitted. Or it could be bremstralung, which would ALSO create a possible gamma source for 'shining a light' momentum effect.

To prove this, fill the resonant cavity with high pressure Xenon gas. THAT might actually create a REAL graviton field. Or not. Provocative, no?

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS arrives today complete with forbidden ZFS

Re: @WolfFan - just downloaded

"Re-read GPL, it is intended to protect end-users like you or me unlike Microsoft license which gives them right to disable your copy of software whenever they feel it."

not entirely... the GPL also dictates how the software must be distributed, and restricts "incompatible" licensing with derived works. In the case of GPLv3 they go MANY steps further in preventing ANY 'closed source' component, require patent licensing, etc.. Fortunately Linux itself is still GPLv2.

Personally, I'd like to write a utility to "open source" a BLOB or library by converting it into assembly language and/or JUST DATA, to work around this limitation (i.e. it's now compilable 'source'), and THEN let end-users decide whether or not they want to run something like that. Most likely they won't care.

Keep in mind that as long as the GPL code can be modified, re-compiled, re-linked, etc. and then still work, it shouldn't be an issue with the GPL, for that was its intent. If it happens to link in a binary compiled object or library, or separate source code for a non-GPL-compatible licensed library, and that object/library has NOTHING to do with the GPL-covered code (say "ZFS"), then the GPL shouldn't apply to "that library". My guess is THIS is how Canonical sees it, despite the cries from the "force everything to be compatible with the GPL because it was shipped WITH Linux" crowd.

Re: ZFS

there are MANY reasons why a module needs to have a 'closed source' component. One of them might be FCC rules, for things like wifi drivers, where the requirements for certifying your driver would be to take steps to prevent modifying your software if the software controls things like power tables and frequencies [the things that FCC regs, well, REGULATE].

So Broadcom WiFi will *ALWAYS* have a 'BLOB' because the FCC regs demand it. It also has a "wrapper" so you can re-compile the kernel. I'm not entirely sure how the source for the binary kernel module for ZFS actually works, but I expect that the source *IS* available. The license contention has to do with the Sun/Oracle requirements, and GPLv2 can't have "additional requirements" if it's GPL-covered. So it's being shipped as a NOT GPL component that's (as I understand it to be) dynamically loaded, "bundled" with the OS and not "a separate component" as far as Stallman and others are concerned. THEY *feel* (not think) it's a "violation", but you can bundle non-open-source software with Linux if you want. PURISTS won't, but sometimes it's needed, and the INTENT of the GPL is to allow modification of GPL-covered code and "the system still works".

So if you can re-compile the kernel and the ZFS module for the new kernel, there should be NO issue with the GPL. If re-compiling the kernel PREVENTS you from using the ZFS module, there MAY be an issue, but if the module is "not part of the GPL code repository" then I'd say NO, it's NOT a problem, and I hope the courts agree with me. Otherwise, the "fascist enforcement" of 'open source forever' from the use of a trivial GPL component may COME BACK TO BITE ITSELF IN THE ASS. In other words, the unintended repercussion might be something the FSF and Stallman don't want to deal with even MORE than having ZFS survive as part of Ubuntu.

Re: Centos & Mint

"By 'stupid bits', you mean Unity?"

I know *I* would. Unity is like "phone on a desktop", _EXACTLY_ what M$ is doing WRONG these days.

"the mobile age" is HIGHLY overrated. *NOBODY* does "desktop things" on a phone, "Continuum" is a freaking JOKE, and "tablet interface" *ONLY* works on a fondleslab, which has a dwindling popularity if you read the market correctly (basically they're just oversized PHONES and are used in similar ways).

So SERIOUS computing is STILL done with keyboard+mouse on a DESKTOP computer, which needs a DESKTOP interface, like Mint has. Of course, Ubu can run MATE as well. That's what I do with Ubu - MATE desktop.

Intel preps for layoffs: Chipzilla sharpens axe for deep job cuts

WIn-10-nic and "Ape" strike again!

Once again, Win-10-nic and "Ape" are cooperatively *KILLING* new PC sales, by PREVENTING "the new machine" from looking/performing PERCEPTIVELY BETTER than 'what you already have'. This goes DOUBLE if your existing computer has Win 7 or XP on it. or even VISTA...

"Many businesses upgraded from Windows XP a couple of years ago and Windows 10 is not expected to drive larger volumes of purchases of standard desktops and notebooks until 2016"

you mean NEVER, not 'until 2016'. Only by KILLING OFF Windows 7 (this October) does Microsoft even STAND A CHANCE of *FORCING* new computer makers to ONLY offer a "the METRO" FLUGLY (flat/ugly) interface computer as the *ONLY* option.

Well, not ONLY, if manufacturers are to GROW A CLUE and start volume-shipping "alternatives" - like Mint Linux, maybe?

So as long as this year's computer is not PERCEPTIBLY BETTER than last year's computer, the only SIGNIFICANT sales that will take place are due to a) do not have a computer, or b) the old computer is broken . No more "new/shiny" as a motivation, because there _IS_ no "new/shiny". there's only "mediocre/dull".

Job ad promises 'Meaningless Repetitive Work on the .NET Stack'

I'd rather do COBOL than ".Not"

well, I'd MUCH rather do COBOL than ".Not" coding, that's for sure.

having to do BOTH - maybe they should hire a starving contractor in a 3rd world country... someone willing to actually SUFFER that much.

or they could hire ME, I'd hold my nose and get it done in a very short time, but for a unbelievably high price - my soul (and sanity) is worth a LOT these days...

[we've all had that "clean up this @#$% code" contract, haven't we?]

my worst case example of this was from my predecessor at a major computer hardware company, in the M.I.S. department. There was a COBOL to FORTRAN 'hook' needed by the ASK/MANMAN system (written in FORTRAN) to get sales tax from the VERTEX (written in COBOL) system, that had quarterly tape updates and everything [it was the 90's on a minicomputer]. The hook's source was lost. When I made some requested changes to the COBOL, an old bug re-surfaced. Seems that the FORTRAN side of the hook was having values passed by REFERENCE, and the DOOFUS programmer MODIFIED THEM before passing to the COBOL code (add 1 or something). What he SHOULD have done is made copies. His 'fix' was probably to subtract 1 again, or whatever. My fix was make copies into different variables, modify THOSE, pass THOSE to the COBOL program. And that programmer's name is permanently burnt into my 'never work with THAT guy unless I'm 1 day from absolute financial ruin' list.

Linux command line mistake 'nukes web boss'S biz'

Re: It's Friday

it also helps (thanks to the BOFH) that the values of both 'foo' and 'bar' happened to be blank

rm -rf {foo}/{bar} <--- looks like a bad sample from a joke usenet post

US anti-encryption law is so 'braindead' it will outlaw file compression

Re: If passed

there used to be a nationwide 55 mph speed limit, passed by Con-Grab in the 70's, as an "emergency measure" at the request of President Nixon as I recall.

nobody obeyed it. enforcing it was nearly impossible. CB radios became popular ways of evading the cops. And that's what happens when STUPID laws are passed. People widely disregard them.

yeah, classic libertarian argument implied.

Aside from the fact that it's a STUPID law, that it will give FOREIGN encryption providers and software and device makers AN EDGE over U.S. businesses, and what makes THEM think "the bad guys" won't ALWAYS be able to "get theirs" while potential victims [regular citizens] won't even have SSL encryption available to do BANKING TRANSACTIONS??? Widespread crime ensues. Buh-bye internet commerce. Buh-bye internet banking.

So many things would be affected.

I told Feinstein in an e-mail that she should hand over EVERY KEY TO HER HOUSE to law enforcement, and THAT ANALOGY was IDENTICAL to THIS LEGISLATION in its intent.

Line by line, how the US anti-encryption bill will kill our privacy, security

Re: ORLY?

Feinstein's contact page uses HTTPS, I cynically point out...

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

I fired off a Nasty-Gram to Feinstein

I fired off a Nasty-Gram to my senator, Feinstein. I avoided profanity. It wasn't easy.

https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

that's where ANYONE can send a Nasty-Gram. It helps if you live in Cali-fornicate-you, but ANYONE can say whatever they want.

It also helps if you give REAL contact information.

I'm sure there's a SIMILAR contact form for the other senator, the 'Establishment' RINO.

stoopid gummint.