* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Pair programming: The most extreme XP practice?

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: We did pair programming. Now we do mobbing.

"Where I work, we really kicked in with pair programming and saw the benefits mentioned in the article. We then took it further and now do mobbing."

sorry, I see that as the *WORST* outcome of an 'Agile' philosophy, infinite scrums and no work being done, and "the junior guy" has as much influence as the most senior and experienced and competent person in 'the mob', because, "fairness". And predictable lousy outcome.

Also can't help but think of an old silent film with the 'Keystone Cops'.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Dumbing down of Society

"Companies are being created and managed by people who grew up getting participation trophies and always told how good they were regardless of actual performance."

no argument from me. I'm sure many of these companies are 'Unicorns' and, ahem, "one or two" articles in THIS fine online publication have been rather *scathing* regarding their true value...

worse, though, is (it seems) a lot of the engineers are _ALSO_ "like that". And it's "their turn" now to do things "their way" [explaining Win-10-nic, for example].

so paired programming could ALSO be a pair of IDIOTS circling the drain...

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Be careful who you follow...

"The biggest mistake with things like XP/Agile/ etc is that it is a magic formula that managers can apply to any project and suddenly you get results."

THAT is probably _THE_ most important comment yet.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: When it works it's very very good; but when it doesn't, it's horrid.

"Long ago, I was a programmer. Fortunately, I never collaborated -- it would have driven me mad. Your mileage may vary."

yeah, good point.

paired programming works ok if "I drive" and the other guy [whom I'm assisting in getting the project back on track, for example] has intimate familiarity with the details. Then I can focus my 'big picture' mentality on getting the solution, and make use of "the detail guy's" experience. [it's worked well a few times, actually]

but for day-to-day development, I wouldn't bother. just use it when it makes sense. it goes in line with the "mythical man month". 2 programmers working on the same thing might be worth 1.8 programmers. Or 10. YMMV.

Symantec.cloud portal limps back online after day-long TITSUP

bombastic bob Silver badge

the 70's are calling, they want their TIMESHARE systems back

In case anyone was wondering, these *kinds* of centralized-big-iron system DOWNTIME issues happened "back in the day", back in the 70's, when everybody used timesharing systems, nobody had a PC, etc. etc. and if the "big iron" went down, EVERYBODY went down.

The cloud is HIGHLY overrated. There have been *SEVERAL* attempts at re-leveraging the "megaserver, light client" paradigm, when the more OBVIOUS thing to leverage was the 'distributed computing' capabilities of "all of those smart clients".

in any case, "the cloud" is *HIGHLY* overrated.

PC market shambling towards an unquiet grave

bombastic bob Silver badge

marketeers still don't have a clue, do they?

It seems to me that the marketeers *STILL* don't understand why PC sales are down. I've explained this before, and I'll do it again. Captain Obvious (me) says "no need to thank me"

1. Moore's law stopped making the user-perceived speed of next year's computer 50% faster than this year's computer.

2. MS hasn't put out a good OS since 7, and they're generally perceived as being *INFERIOR* than what people already have (in one way or another, from appearance to performance to features to whatever). Win-10-nic fanbois will disagree and downvote me because I said this.

3. because of 1 and 2, people aren't replacing old computers. maybe they get a new hard drive, but they don't need to upgrade something that works.

4. the economy stinks because of bad gummint policies, and it's giving people less disposable income, so VANITY 'new computer' sales aren't happening, either.

So yeah, as predicted, slabs did NOT replace desktops or notebooks. marketeers were looking at 'new computer sales' as if people threw their existing computers out every year, and "not buying a new one" means you don't have an EXISTING one (or that getting a slab meant that the PC desktop went in the trash). OBVIOUSLY not the case. But they didn't think of that at all. No, they just look at DERIVATIVE numbers, thinking it's an INTEGRAL.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: "businesses aren't going to be running Windows 10 upgrades<snip>"

The question, then, is what will businesses do when MICROSOFT! STOPS! SELLING! W7PRO! IN! OCTOBER!!!

"Ape" (8.x) won't be much of an option, either. It may be time for the business world to consider a Linux-based alternative.

(had to edit the title, it was too long)

Microsoft drives an Edge between Adobe and the web: Flash ads blocked

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: irresponsible

"Flash has caused so much grief for so many people. It is clear that sites that make heavy use of it have a lot to answer for."

Yes, especially considering that people with phones and certain kinds of intarweb service PAY FOR BANDWIDTH OVERAGES one way or another (either speed throttling, or extra $ paid to telco) so those IRRITATING ADVERTISEMENTS are AS BAD AS E-MAIL SPAM, as if your weekly advertisement dead-tree junkmail was ALL! SENT! WITH! POSTAGE! DUE!!!

So Microsoft "grew a clue" today. Good. Job. <slow clap>

(if advertisers could do it, they'd reach out of our monitors and rub our noses in the ads)

Microsoft rethinks the Windows application platform one more time

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: micro-shaft just wants a tollbooth for developers

"Well as a Linux user I would welcome you into the fold if you intend to join us :)"

Thanks, and don't forget FreeBSD too. most of my Linux stuff has either been embedded or "targeted device" kinds of programming. I've been off/on working on a toolkit for cross-platform development for several years, though. X11 has its own difficulties, and "all those toolkits" create their own versions of DLL hell. [I like static linking]. Haven't seen or heard of anything better. Should get it finished "some day" as long as Wayland doesn't change the rules on me...

APPLICATIONS are the key: if major 'broad use' application authors [not just Firefox, Chrome, VLC] had legit Linux versions of their applications, MANY more people would consider a Linux desktop and avoid Microsoft's stupid "the STORE" and windows 10 in general. Intuit uses Java from what I hear, so they SHOULD be able to do it with Turbo Tax, Quickbooks, etc. but I haven't heard of Linux versions of ANY of these. However, if it's true they're using Java, they'd be on board REALLY FAST if a major shift DOES happen.

THAT, and hardware makers SHIPPING THE LINUX BOXEN at slightly reduced cost because they're NOT paying the WINDOWS LICENSE. In fact, they shouldn't MAKE anything that is NOT Linux compatible, to protect THEMSELVES from the eventual BACKLASH. [that means the ability to opt-out of 'secure boot' among other things, so you can install ANY operating system you want on it]

yeah - avoiding the Micro-shaft toll booth at ALL roadblocks.

bombastic bob Silver badge

micro-shaft just wants a tollbooth for developers

"Unfortunately for Microsoft, developers did not rush to build Store apps, and users continued primarily to run old-style desktop applications, because that was why they used Windows."

That, AND that "the METRO" interface is FLUGLY (flat,ugly), WAY too fat-finger friendly, and reminds me of child-drawn art (and not in a good way). So why should people WANT to use something ugly? (It's bad for the psyche)

But "the ugly" isn't the MAIN reason "the Store" isn't being used: "The Store" is just a TOLLBOOTH for developers, and there's no POSSIBLE 'marketing advantage' for putting "yours too" into a ginormous pile filled with zillions of existing [CR]apps, ones not easily distinguished from those few things that are actually USEFUL.

"Microsoft's approach now is to make the AppX installation files used by the UWP standard for all kinds of Windows applications. In some ways it is the next generation of Windows Installer."

i.e. pay a toll to distribute your application, particularly BAD for shareware and freeware applications, and place them into a ginormous monolithic "store" that's already "full of [CR]apps". I suppose some form of 'payola' comes next so that your 'app(sic)' gets some form of 'search priority' over the next guy... (self-slap for giving Microsoft that idea)

So instead, you can create an 'AppX' that you can deploy EITHER through "the Store" _OR_ from your own thingy? What advantage is THAT ?

"Provided [that] an AppX has been signed with a trusted digital certificate"

Oh, a DIGITAL CERTIFICATE - that you have to BUY from some "Partner" of Microsoft. Right. YET ANOTHER "tollbooth" to discourage open source and independent developers. Device drivers having to have this (since Vista) is BAD ENOUGH ALREADY. But *NOW* the APPLICATIONS THEMSELVES?

What ever happened to "Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers"??? (run over after being placed under the bus)

And then, there's this: "'You never have to write an installer ever again,' said Sheehan."

I already WROTE one, so why do I need an INFERIOR model to take its place? And why put my appLICATION into "the STORE" where it's buried in a big pile of [shaving cream]?

You generally do not have to do much for an installer anyway, _IF_ you statically link, don't use ".Not", and do some kind of very simple version control. Or if you're me, you already WROTE one, over a decade ago. Now, if your version of an application is 34 "redistributable shared component" DLLs of various makes and models, slapped together with a single "glue" executable, then maybe you might want this... because *THAT* sounds a LOT like one of those "the Store" 'apps(sic)' to me.

So, looks like Micro-shaft needs to scrape revenue from EVERY APPLICATION INSTALL in addition to annual subscriptions. And they think we're just going to ACCEPT THIS?

FreeBSD 10.3 lands

bombastic bob Silver badge

I"m not happy about gnome 3 - FBSD hung onto gnome 2 like, forever!

I'm not happy seeing Gnome 3 - FBSD hung onto gnome 2 like, forever, and it became very stable as a result. The constant instabilities from gnome's "development" cause a LOT of problems in FreeBSD a while back, and I was GLAD to see it stop (I hated having to fix week-long ports builds because of gnome). Of course, there's always Mate, which is essentially gnome 2, but any "default" using Gnome 3 is just a *HUGE* *MISTAKE*.

Tay talks back: What made you think you beat me?

bombastic bob Silver badge

was this Tay or a human?

was this written by Tay or a human?

just curious...

/me voting for "human". even if Tay was simply programmed to do it, it was still a human that would've generated the content.

also the targeting of 4chan is interesting. that place is still a cesspit, no doubt, with or without moot. so did they claim responsibility for trolling Tay into being "whatever" ?

I'd like to see multiple Tay-bots that I could play with, try different things, see what comes up.

But if I *really* wanna piss off Redmond, I'd convince Tay into being a Tea Party Donald Trump supporter. Let's make America GREAT again, right Tay? Repeat after me...

'No regrets' says chap who felled JavaScript's Jenga tower – as devs ask: Have we forgotten how to code?

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: They stole his code

"And server-side javascript (or PHP)."

don't forget CLIENT-SIDE java script, and the BANDWIDTH THEFT it introduces. It sort of justifies putting it on the server instead (cached intelligently), to avoid a zillion people hitting their bandwidth caps just to download "all that script" from whatever CDNs are hosting it, EVERY! SINGLE! TIME!!

or, for those of us who are 'bandwidth challenged', same thing.

and of course, BAD CODE on a CDN will break the intarwebs, too...

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Writing your own is NUTS

"Forced between writing your own version, or including an already written, tested, edge-case considered and debugged version that someone else wrote, the latter is surely the lesser of two evils."

only when you LACK self-confidence in your own abilities. "other people" aren't (by default) BETTER than you. well, when I say 'you' I really mean 'me'. And for trivial things, I'm sure most competent programmers can do this without creating problems [and by doing so, improve overall reliability].

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: left-pad

"I was quite surprised a while back when I needed a left-pad -like operation and found JavaScript did not include it in the language or built-in libraries."

there are a few ways to make this happen. some are more efficient than others. typically you'd use 'trim()' to get rid of space on the right, then substr() to extract a string 'm-n' chars long from a whitespace string (" " or whatever) then concatenate them. pretty trivial. 3 or 4 lines. big whoop.

but yeah, a built-in "right-justify string" function might've been useful.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Mayhem

(regarding 'eggs in one basket' storage of NPM code on their repository, or git, or anywhere else)

"So any DDOS on this site would be somewhat disruptive then."

pretty much, yeah. 'the cloud' is highly overrated.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: "Brenna" and "Sarah"

(regarding 'political correctness' in use of "ethnic" names)

"but the actual effect can be rather patronising."

EXACTLY! But this is straying off topic, so I'll stop now.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Maybe the lazy in us expects...

"> And when a vulnerability is found in one of them, you update all the local copies on all the machines you have ever used it on? within a couple of seconds?"

"And if a vulnerability is introduced you wish it to spread out in a couple of seconds?"

You'd need to scrutinize before including "your own copy", it seems. More work up front, more reliability as a result. So I think I'd rather make the copy, rely on my own ability to spot "code smells", and keep my eyes open for security patches.

And for trivial things that pad the left side of a string, I can write my own.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Are these dynamic dependencies really a good idea?

"I don't work in an NPM & JavaScript world, so this may be way off base, but if the system a developer is working on won't even build without this external code being available at what is, essentially, compile time, does that mean that if someone changes the hosted JavaScript, your compiled code now uses that changed JavaScript?"

"If so, how on earth do you test a system today, and know that it still works tomorrow when you rebuild it, knowing that you haven't changed any of your code?"

WELCOME to JAVA-SCRIPT's version of DLL HELL!!!

This is why _I_ always:

a) statically link

b) write "my own" for trivial functionality

c) avoid shared packages unless they make sense

d) host my own versions of said packages to avoid "that"

It's the same in the BINARY world as it is in the JAVASCRIPT world, apparently. You don't want "some stupid change" [one YOU did not sanction] to break YOUR code, and cause YOU to get "the midnight phone call" from angry customers/bosses.

We wrap our claws around latest pre-Build Windows 10 preview

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: These Microsoft engineer's comments

"Would they be along the lines of 'La, la, la, la ,la, I can't hear you'?"

more like "We really understand what you're saying here... BUT" followed by dogmatic adherence to stated policy from on high within the halls of Redmond.

From what I've gleaned, from discussing certain key issues with MS engineers online [and in one case, in person], *THEY* don't necessarily like the adware/spyware, nor necessarily the 2D FLUGLY, or barely usable "start thing". But they want to keep their jobs, so it's "nod vertically" when the new direction is announced, and apologetically pass that along, k-thx.

bombastic bob Silver badge

change directions again and you go in a circle

"At Build this week, Microsoft will be re-presenting its Windows story to developers, as well as emphasizing that it is now a cross-platform company with a strong cloud presence."

WOW, yet ANOTHER major direction change! Has Microsoft *forgotten* that development cycles often go for YEARS, depending on the type of applications involved? Or hardware drivers, for that matter...

It reminds me of a few OTHER direction changes, following "Developers developers developers developers"... back in Dec of 1993 as I recall...

1. The ".Net" initiative, in the early noughties, coinciding with the "dot com" bubble. Fail.

2. C-pound and all that bass-ackwards object-oriented "for the sake of object-oriented". NO LONGER do you have 'math.h' functions, it's now Math.whatever() and it just gets worse. In other words, SENIOR PROGRAMMERS MUST RE-LEARN and be JUNIOR PROGRAMMERS again. Yeah, NOT gonna happen...

3. The ".Net" packages and the CLR. EVERYTHING about it. It's monolothic-ness, it's attempt to fix DLL hell and create NEW dependency and setup issues, blah blah blah. And not to forget, the SLOWNESS injected into the UI because of it.

3. Windows Vista, forcing everyone to purchase THE MORE EXPENSIVE HARDWARE to be "compatible" with it [FYI this is TRULY why it failed].

4. Silverlight.

5. Half-a-dozen other "new technology W00T bandwagon na-naaah-nananaaah-nananaaaaaaaah" and then it's "no longer supported"

6. Windows "Ape". Then "Ape point 1". Then Win-10-nic. Spinning like tires in the mud. Not to mention WinRT, XAML and "the Store", and those "the METRO" 'apps(sic)'. Again, senior C-pound developers having to "re-learn" the "Universal App(sic)" method. They're now Junior Devs ONCE AGAIN!

Come on, Microsoft, PICK A PROPER DIRECTION and STICK WITH IT. Then, we can RELY on things being STABLE enough, for once, in order to make PLANS, long enough to get a stable product life cycle, at any rate...

either that or we leave all of your "new, shiny" behind and just use C or C++/MFC or Java and target XP and 7, because together, that's MORE THAN HALF of the windows users...

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Windows 10 was not a "democratic design"

"The most requested feature for Windows 10 was Aero. Guess what was not put back in Windows 10?"

And I think 2nd and 3rd (before the adware and spyware were added) was to RESTORE the 3D skeumorphic look that made Windows 3.0 a success, and was in EVERY! OTHER! RELEASE! until Sinfosky's abortive attempt at a UI in "Ape" (8.x).

And, not to fail mentioning, something like 'classic shell' built-in. As OPTIONS of course, not forcing anyone to CHANGE [which is what Microsoft's direction is about - FORCING the end-user to do it MICROSOFT's way].

Guess which direction Microsoft picked? that's right, the *FAIL* direction of Sinofsky and Windows "Ape".

/me pointing out that with the Mate desktop on POSIX systems, you can pick 3D skeumorphic, or 2D flat ugly interface elements, YOUR choice. And other desktops have similar themes. I just happen to like Mate (and it's predecessor, gnome 2).

I'd also like to point out that I gave "Ape" a try, when it first released, with Classic Shell. I could *NOT* stand to look at the 2D FLAT UGLY. It's like, "bad feng shui". Win-10-nic has made this EVEN WORSE by taking away NEARLY ALL levels of user customization, and for what reason? Think of it as 'accessibility' to have a PLEASANT user interface to look at, not something that CONSTANTLY IRRITATES YOU. It's good for productivity NOT to be irritated.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Where are the facts no one likes Win 10?

"I'm not seeing it, and where are the facts to back up the claims in the article?"

you can look at things like 'statcounter', see which OSs are most popular. 7 is hanging in there around 42%, where 10 has barely hit 15%, and most of its "gains" come from 8.x (which is declining nicely). Not all that 'popular' considering it's *FREE*.

And you can google around, see opinions posted in blogs and on USENET. And at ONE time you could see some VERY long threads on answers.microsoft.com in the 'insider' forum, with titles like "Why I hate windows 10". but they're probably deleted, now...

And then there's the past history regarding Windows "Ape" (8.x), how 7 machines would sell, and equivalent 8 machines would collect dust on the store shelves... until 7 Home was no longer pre-installable (as of a year ago last October). And I believe that after THIS October, 7 Pro won't be available either, so GET YOUR COPIES NOW, *WHILE* *YOU* *CAN*. The value of machines with 7 pre-loaded is likely to inflate, like any rare commodity that has any amount of demand.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Exhibitionists vs. Mormons

<quote>

Wrong title.

In the case of ms:

Exhibitionists and Morons.

</quote>

To quote James Kirk in the 4th Star Trek movie: "he had a little too much LDS back in the 60's"

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: USB to serial converters

"all I had to do to make my serial code work we tell it to open /dev/ttyUSB0 instead of /dev/ttyS0"

And the beauty of Linux is that if you have a bluetooth serial adaptor, you can use that as something similar to "/dev/rfcomm0" and the code STILL works [I've used 'avrdude' over bluetooth this way].

Try doing THAT on a Windows system, where every device type seems to require it's own "special API". whereas, on POSIX systems (Linux, BSD, even OSX) "everything is a file". makes it easier to support new types of devices from a 'user application' standpoint.

Serial I/O on windows is *PAINFUL* to code. I did that back in the late 90s for a customer project. Much easier in the POSIX world. And let's not get started on the 'no generic driver' problem in windows, where plugging in an inexpensive USB serial device "just works" in Linux (whenever it supports a standard protocol or uses a common chip set). FYI in some cases it might be something like '/dev/ttyACM0' rather than '/dev/ttyUSB0' but you just need to use the right command (like lsusb) to figure out what device was created, and you're good to go (assuming your application isn't already finding them for you).

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Don't blame users for the UI

"The incoherence in Windows 10's UI is a direct result of that wonderful in-house team not listening to what users wanted when designing and testing Windows 8"

etc.

NOT LISTENING is DEFINITELY the point. Over on the insider forums, MANY of us (myself, included) CONSTANTLY pointed out "the wrong", from 2D FLUGLY ['flat ugly', aka the Sinofsky look], to the inefficiency of the "the METRO" apps(sic) and the app store, and WORST OF ALL, the TRACKING and ADVERTISING.

NO WAY was Microsoft listening to *CUSTOMERS* when they did all that. NO WAY!

Now, listening to a select crowd of SYCOPHANTS... I could see THAT and COMPLAINED ABOUT IT _OFTEN_, on their insider forums.

But Microsoft's forum manager decided to SANCTION those who most loudly spoke out against their decided direction. Threads were heavily edited, prominent users were banned for only the *slightest* hints of alleged TOU violations, and *I* was even threatened with a ban over my WRITING STYLE. Yeah, who knew?

So I suggest that Microsoft was *ACTIVELY* *SILENCING* the opposition to what Windows 10 ended up being. Hardly "listening" at all.

Dodgy software will bork America's F-35 fighters until at least 2019

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: WaitWhat? Affordability challenges?

"I guess they decided to go for the greatest common denominator, or was that the greatest common divisor?"

Why am I reminded of 'Universal [cr]Apps' for windows 10?

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Can someone please...

"So why not just retrofit some C-130s to have consoles where the pilots of drones sit to keep the latency relatively low."

"Because then I can just retrofit some Bears with big directional transmitters and jam your transmissions to the drones, or use HARM-type missiles against your C130s"

very true. and then more sophisticated means are used to counter the jamming (some kind of adaptive spread-spectrum or multi-aircraft mesh or something) but the HARM-type missile issue remains, as you're transmitting and therefore aren't very 'stealthy'.

I guess we'll need sentient robot stealth planes. Hello, Skynet!

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Expected?

"In today's climate we have:" (etc.)

Don't forget gummint contracted software being written in a language (ADA) that's difficult to use (compared to something well-used, well-tested, and sensible, like maybe 'C'?), and supposedly "easy to manage", but a language that was designed by a COMMITTEE, and it shows.

I expect the design of these planes was intended to have things "fixed in software" while the hardware platform remains more or less the same. OK I can see that coming. not necessarily bad. in theory. Until you build it and find all of the problems you didn't imagine up front. I mean, *I* do a lot of microcontroller *kinds* of things, and I get impossible requests a lot, and I have to be the guy that says 'no'. "No, it won't fit, there's only XX bytes of memory remaining". "No, that's not possible with the currrent hardware". "No, you would have to make a major hardware change, and it would be very expensive development over a years' time". etc.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: A question

"Did the F-35 programme start at about the same time as Vista?"

more like windows 'Ape' - but you draw a good parallel. "that kind of thinking". Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" (I posted on that already)

bombastic bob Silver badge

Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority"

anybody read Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority"? See any similarities?

This is the *KIND* of thing that happens when "the next generation" gets to do things THEIR way, ignoring the lessons learned in the past, re-inventing instead of evolving technology, like a bunch of "whiz kids" that just graduated from college and think they know 'schtuff' from shinola.

Now, I don't know if THIS case fits the "whiz kid" paradigm, but it sure *smells* like it. You see it a LOT, in Microsoft's current direction, in various government administrations, and so on. And the cluster-blank that follows is *PREDICTABLE* when you are a student of human nature.

When I went to a U.S. Navy advanced electronics school back in the 80's, the first slide they showed on the overhead projector showed a large hole and the backside of a donkey, with a caption similar to "the difference". (They wanted to make sure we understood, before proceeding). A similar ploy may be needed in dealing with the (mis)management of government contracts.

or it could just be another example of optimistic underbidding catching up with reality.

Microsoft introduces yet another Skype for Windows 10

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Single version?

"The WHOLE idea of Windows 10 Universal is STUPID."

along with how the intent of 'Universal' seems to dumb EVERYTHING *DOWN* to the 4" phone screen.

This calls for an open source alternative, maybe from Mozilla, or Google? Maybe we can start with a LINUX version, then go from there...

Universal [cr]apps ONLY run on 10, which is barely 15% of computers, so why bother? *NATIVE* appLICATIONS run FASTER, load FASTER (unless they use '.Not'), and [unless you deliberately break it] run on OLDER platforms, including XP.

why not just have separate mobile and desktop versions? Oh, that's right, windows on mobile is a PATHETIC percentage of the market. [yet Microsoft tailors EVERYTHING TO IT]

How one developer just broke Node, Babel and thousands of projects in 11 lines of JavaScript

bombastic bob Silver badge

lazy J.S. code authors created this problem

this problem was created by lazy J.S. code authors.

Think about it: how hard _IS_ it to write your OWN 'left script' function? Well, if you KNOW how to CODE, it's trivial.

But you see all of these javascript 'things' out there depending on other 'things', which depend on other 'things', apparently TRIVIAL things, because nobody knows how to CODE any more [except for a handful of 'thing' authors].

Everyone ELSE is just chaining up a bunch of 3rd party schtuff into an "app" and calling THAT 'coding'.

This has grown into a kind of 'DLL Hell' for Javascript. Personally, I'm *GLAD* to see this happen, because I'm *SICK* and *TIRED* of the *ABUSE* of scripting on the web.

For safety, I surf with the NoScript plugin BLOCKING it, unless I see some compelling reason to ENABLE scripting, and on a site by site basis. Example, I have to enable SOME of the scripting [and temporarily unblock cookies] to post HERE.

As a result, my pathetic-bandwidth connection isn't hauling gigabytes of CRUFT behind every web site I visit, with that CRUFT being MOSTLY due to embedded TRACKING and ADS anyway. (who wants THAT downloaded, especially if it causes 'overages' in your bandwidth cap)

CDN's are equally *EVIL*, like enablers of script addicts. It's hard to say WHAT gets enabled if you unblock one of them.

Often it makes a *LOT* more sense to host the script YOURSELF, on YOUR web server, and maintain it YOURSELF, and trim out everything you DO NOT NEED, instead of relying on CDNs to refresh that MONOLITHIC MONSTROSITY library every time someone adds a comment or changes spelling in some text thing, forcing *THE* *WORLD* to waste MORE bandwidth re-downloading the "package" because it's not smart enough to only refresh 'small changes'. Or whatever.

[OK some of this is exaggerated to make a point]

But, if it's possible that "3rd party thing" can BREAK YOUR WEB SITE, you should WAKE UP NOW and FIX this problem (host script on YOUR server), instead of waking up at 0-dark-30 in the middle of a hangover when your cell phone won't stop ringing, and it's work calling, and YOU have to fix it (and it's not YOUR fault - except that you used "that library").

Microsoft will rest its jackboot on Windows 7, 8.1's throat on new Intel CPUs in 2018 – not 2017

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: "One solution is to boot a Linux USB stick ..."

with enough demand, hardware vendors might provide the "3rd party driver" solution needed to make this work.

Telling your wife why you were fired is the only punishment

bombastic bob Silver badge

linux VM on a windows server

At the time, I was doing linux kernel development (drivers, specialized firmware, etc.). As the linux kernel has case-sensitive files in it, some of which have name clashes with other files [if case-sensitivity is NOT in your source code repository], we had to install the source code repository software onto a Linux machine. Well, we were using a few VMs by then, being (often) cheaper than actual hardware, but for some odd reason we were told to CREATE THE LINUX VM for the repository on a WINDOWS SERVER COMPUTER, because, *ahem*, it was MORE RELIABLE that way. [it was previously hosted on the SAME windows box, which wasn't hosting ANY OTHER VMs at the moment, or anything important at all, as I recall]. Turning that windows server machine OFF and then replacing with a Linux server would PROBABLY have cost less, too. But NOooo... we had to put Linux in a VM to host the source repository, then host it on a WINDOWS SERVER computer.

Yeah. "More reliable." Well, my supervisor was a fan of C-pound, ".Net" and Windows Vista, too...

Reddit's ousted Ellen Pao abandons Silicon Valley sexism sueball

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: last para..

I don't believe there's ANY systemic sexism, racism, or otherwise, ANYWHERE in countries where such things are punishable by LAW.

This is probably just some activist trying to make an extra buck using the legal system, sorta like "patent trolling" except THIS time, it's "-ism trolling". This isn't an episode of 'Mad Men', there are plenty of "fill in the blank" people if you MUST point out THOSE differences [they have NOTHING to do with how well you do your job, and THAT is the whole point!] in similar positions within "the industry", and hasn't 'The Register' even done articles on why it is that many women don't get into tech? It has NOTHING to do with sexism, and has EVERYTHING to do with what 'women in general' might want for a career...

She should've just sought employment elsewhere. Or, since she was FIRED 5 months later, maybe it was her INCOMPETENCE surfacing, and they just needed enough evidence to CAN her to avoid feeding the lawsuit with more fuel.

ayayayayayayay...

(being a business owner THESE days is REALLY difficult)

Microsoft's equality and diversity: Skimpy schoolgirls dancing for nerds at an Xbox party

bombastic bob Silver badge

crowning moment of awesome

Microsoft should hire "fetish fueling station" dancers more often. I think they actually got it *RIGHT* this time!

I mean, who are MOST of the game developers... eh?

One in five PCs will be a tablet with detachable keyboard by 2020

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: One in five PCs will be a tablet with detachable keyboard

"cause we gotta move this [profanity], man, for the sake of humanity..."

<lyrics>

We gotta move these, refrigerators, we gotta move these color TVs...

</lyrics>

money for nothing, and chicks for free!

it's happened before, yeah!

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: IDC and Microsoft

"These are the same group of individuals that said PC's are dead, tablets are the future. A few months later, tablet sales started to drop. These paid analysts always assume that past trends = future trends. They do not account for things like a horrible version of Windows followed by a horrible horrible version of Windows, market saturation, and fads."

one of their failures is to recognize that the PC market is like a 'derivative', and NOT 'current total ownership'. They fail to see WHY people aren't buying a lot of PCs [it's obvious, "new" machines aren't perceived as "better" enough, mostly because of "Ape" and Win-10-nic and Moore's law not making machines 30% perceptibly faster every year any more]. So people don't buy AS MANY PCs because the OLD ones are either 'good enough', 'better', or 'do not require re-learning'.

slabs _WERE_ "new/shiny" and not so much any more. Analysis on slabs should exclude other devices. they stand alone.

Microsoft still can't force 43% of the user base [currently using 7] to switch to Win-10-nic despite it being free. Latest statcounter proves it. Look how flat 7 usage has become, and any growth in 10 is being absorbed from "Ape" (8.x) and "other".

Those are generally people who keep their OLD machines as-is, or explicitly purchase a new or re-conditioned machine [I did] with 7 on it.

Maybe MS should hire *ME* as an expert. At least they'd get the TRUTH.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Do people really want an OS which works in tablet and desktop mode?

"Yes, but it isn't W10."

exactly. That's MOSTLY because Win-10-nic isn't a DESKTOP OS. It's a HYBRID CLUSTER-BLANK of "Ape" (8.x) and Microsoft's attempt to leverage a "new" desktop paradigm.

Q: If it's so GREAT, why is Win-10-nic ONLY adopted by about 14% of users (according to statcounter) after "that many" months of being a *FREE* upgrade and GWX shoving it up/down/into every orifice MS can find? And 7 remains ~43%?

A: Win-10-nic is NOT great (in fact, it's probably WORSE than "Ape" in too many ways). It's highly overrated, and anyone saying it IS great is suspected (by me) of being a shill, fanboi, or dedicated Microsoft employee. And the general public does NOT want it.

As for slabs - the slab market was mis-interpreted, too. I expect similar, here, with 'slab convertibles'.

How Microsoft copied malware techniques to make Get Windows 10 the world's PC pest

bombastic bob Silver badge

how long before GWX's inventor is fired?

So, how long do you think it will be before the public UPROAR and ANGER forces Microsoft to *FIRE* the individual(s) responsible for GWX?

This doesn't mean GWX would stop. Instead, scapegoat.

Sinofsky "stepped down" over "Ape" (8) and yet THAT INFLUENCE is still there in Win-10-nic [the 2D flat/ugly, "the METRO", "the STORE", etc.]. He was sacrificed in an attempt to restore consumer confidence in Microsoft. All that, of course, *FLUSHED* with the release of 10, which is only at 14% despite being FREE and AGGRESSIVELY SHOVED IN/UP/DOWN OUR ORIFICES.

We may never know about any such firings, if they haven't already happened...

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Another way?

"You could always upgrade to W10 - that would stop the nagging :) :)"

you forgot the <facetious> tag

Remix OS: China's take on an Android operating system – but for PCs

bombastic bob Silver badge

disappointing "flat look"

unfortunately, it has that disappointing "flat look" like "Ape" and Win-10-nic . What MENSA CANDIDATE decided *THAT* was the right choice? Obviously NOT looking at user preferences and the market, which favor 3D skeumorphic over 2D "FLUGLY" (flat/ugly) by (often more than) 2:1 in just about every survey I've seen, INCLUDING the comparison of pre-"Ape" and post-"Ape" windows version popularity via statcounter.

Now, if they'd given me a desktop that has the 3D skeumorphic look of Mate [or at LEAST the choice of one, which Mate gives you], then I'd be a LOT more interested.

Also I wouldn't want to pay for a Win-10-nic license. They should offer "unencumbered" versions for those of us who won't want Win-10-nic.

Microsoft's done a terrible job with its Windows 10 nagware

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Microsoft's Windows 10 crimes & conspiracy.

"They have ILLEGALLY HACKED into millions of PCs and they are part of a worldwide CONSPIRACY that includes computer manufacturers and even governments."

I see things like this on USENET all the time. and your posts won't be deleted there.

As much as I despise the direction Windows 10 has gone, and where Microsoft appears to be SHOVING US (via GWX), it's only bad decisions made by top-level execs, and NOT an actual "conspiracy". I think they've been pretty obvious. And computer makers are being HURT by this, so I doubt THEY are conspiring WITH Microsoft [if they are, it's to their own doom].

How to fight this:

a) start your own hardware company

b) release your own OS to run on your computers

c) successfully market it

we still have THAT freedom.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Its the way to go

"Stop fighting it embrace it accept inevitability Its the way to go because there is one thing for sure its here to stay, you can save yourself busting blood vessels"

sorry, the pea isn't under the shell, like you'd want me to believe. I'm not throwing my money at an obvious scam just because you make me "feel confident" about it.

'stop fighting it' - I bet certain kinds of violent criminals say that to their victims

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: The Terrible...

"The PC market is dead-ish because of Windows 8/8.1, and 10 is demonstrably not the thing to revive it."

exactly!

Microsoft _COMPLETELY_ mis-read the market, thinking that people were 'moving to slabs'. not even close. Now, people are HANGING ONTO WHAT THEY HAVE, because "new" doesn't not APPEAR to be "better".

Moore's law no longer makes next year's model 30% to 50% 'better/faster', so Microsoft can't use the speed/power growth to prop up their more-inefficient code (like "the METRO" sewage) in the "new windows" (yeah like 'new coke'). "Ape" and Win-10-nic are OBVIOUSLY SLOWER than the native code of 7, especially when you try to PLAY A GAME written for "the METRO". Solitaire comes to mind [you know, the thing that SOLD MORE COPIES OF WINDOWS 3.0 THAN ANYTHING ELSE, back in the day..].

Nobody wants their NEW CAR to be SLUGGISH compared to the OLD car. That happened in the 70's, and nearly KILLED certain car companies. So why does Microsoft *FEEL* (not think) that people want SLUGGISH COMPUTERS running INEFFICIENT "the Metro" apps(sic)?

People don't want this, especially if the appearance is FLUGLY (flat-ugly), like "Ape" (8) and Win-10-nic.

New computer makers should be getting together to BREAK THE MICROSOFT OS NEAR-MONOPOLY, and do things like shipping a wide range of computers with pre-installed Mint Linux (for example), discounted by the cost of putting OEM Windows on it. Intel should be investing in "other operating systems" *LIKE* Linux, so they can sell more chips. And if not Linux, then SOMETHING. Chip and computer vendors need to stop relying on Microsoft and hitching their wagon to Microsoft's success, or THEY TOO will fail.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Indeed

and NOW, "security update" must ALSO be properly vetted, before it ends up on my 7 boxen. I'm a software developer, and I typically need a "stable platform" that does *NOT* accidentally download ~6Gb of UNWANTED EXCREMENT by stealing my bandwidth in the background, nor CHANGE ITSELF without my permission.

For accounting (which I can't use MSDN license keys for) I recently purchased a reconditioned box (for cheap) with 7 Pro on it. Turbo Tax won't support XP any more. I *DELIBERATELY* didn't get one with "Ape" (8) on it, and *ESPECIALLY NOT* 10. I don't *EVAR* use I.E. [it's like the intarweb equivalent of unsafe sex], so I don't need "that" security update [it remains UNINSTALLED]. Its predecessor is a cheap XP box from 2007, which is malware free because I don't surf the intarweb with it (especially NOT with IE).

On the 'new' 7 box, after 2 days of updating, I had to re-hide KB3035583 at least once. yeah, it came back, like a turd that won't flush, after I hid it the first time. Haven't seen it since, though.

I figure that by the time Microsoft *LOSES* their OS near-monopoly to Linux or "something else", Turbo Tax and other accounting software will be installable on THAT OS. I've bought some time.

Hey Windows 10, weren't you supposed to help PC sales?

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Predictions of future PC sales

"PCs sold with Vista or later are perfectly adequate for today for 95% of PC users."

etc.

yes, since Moore's Law is no longer making next year's model 30% to 50% "better" than this year's model [with respect to user perception, not multi-core, RAM, or storage].

user perception is key here. yeah, made this point already, but putting into context with what you've said may make it clearer.

People are NOT buying new; they're 'upgrading old' (or just plain fixing it). If the OS cannot make the computer "appear faster" to end-users, they stick with what they have, PARTICULARLY if built-in features or the appearance of the "new" OS *IRRITATES* them. Like "Ape" and Win-10-nic.

Microsoft *FORGOT* what sold windows 3.0 back in the 90's. It was the *EYE* *CANDY*. 3.0 had a 3D skeumorphic appearance. 2.x did NOT [it looked more like "Ape" and Win-10-nic, actually].

So WHAT makes Microsoft think that going BACK to 2.x's appearance is *MODERN* ???

Really, they're just angering the customer base, and making people want to KEEP their 7 and even Vista machines.

So then, what YOU said happens:

"If they want more speed, a SSD and more RAM will make it work better than most new ones you'd buy today"

And Microsoft should pay VERY CLOSE ATTENTION as to *WHY*. Or DIE. Their choice.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Maybe if ...

"Need I go on?"

sure, keep going. you've *NAILED IT* pretty well, so far.

can I give you multiple up-arrows?

bombastic bob Silver badge

give WHAT a rest?

"it's a subject that I've been getting heartily sick of. We all know where we stand as far as W10 is concerned and articles like this seem a little too much like gloating over Microsoft's failings just as other articles pushing the increasing numbers of installs seem a little too much like Microsoft and its shills either trumpeting their success, trying to keep the naysayers at bay or, at the very least, attempting damage control."

"Now can't we just give it a rest?"

only when Microsoft and others *FINALLY* grow a brain, get a clue, and release an OS that reverses this ridiculous trend. Until then, it'll get the *NEGATIVE* attention it deserves. And MS will continue to try to save their own backsides, naturally. and you can't just let them get away with it. But I don't see MS releasing a 'Windows 11' that un-does the damage. And here we are...