Posts by bombastic bob

Hillary Clinton: My promises to America's tech industry

open access to gummint data, like her E-MAILS maybe?

If Mrs. Clinton weren't lying through her teeth (her native language, "the lie") I might think what she says has at least SOME merit. But like a broken clock, she's occasionally correct.

Now, when it comes to access to gummint data, what about her E-MAILS, particularly the ones she "lost" but were recently FOUND, and DEFINITELY related to government business.

And she obviously knows NOTHING about the internet, or technology. Her swiss-cheese security on the e-mail server is proof of THAT.

I wouldn't trust Mrs. Clinton if she did everything under watch of cameras. The practiced sleight-of-hand and illusions of honesty are just too much.

yeah g'head and downvote it. I don't care. Gumint needs to keep out of the internet anyway. All it can do is get in the way, and rob one person to pay another. Gummint doesn't "help" anyone. Claiming it CAN is just a big, fat, lie.

Microsoft releases cross-platform .NET Core 1.0 at Linux event

Re: Oh good

"Red Hat Systemd; and Microsoft .NET together - What could possible go wrong?"

wait... " Microsoft ® SystemD ©®☭™ "

and patent encumberances... oh my

"New .NET Core workloads can now be easily moved from a Windows Server environment to Red Hat Enterprise Linux"

"God knows why anyone would want to though."

perhaps they should migrate to a NON-'.Not' solution INSTEAD. might be less effort.

Embrace, Extend, Extinguish...

"Secondly, they remember the old Embrace, Extend, Extinguish approach to other technologies."

yeah I should've remembered that. thanks for the reminder, all who've mentioned it and commented on it. Not as much 'uber alles' as EMBRACE, EXTEND, EXTINGUISH

Re: why you should use Microsoft dev tools

"Because Visual Studio is a an excellent development environment? What's the open source alternative now?"

I'm actually working on one. OK it's slow going, and it's pre-alpha, but it wouldn't take a really long time to find considering it's on github and sourceforge and has my 'handle' associated with it.

(proper funding might speed up the process, otherwise it's 'when I have time')

Is Microsoft ready for LINUX ???

"To be honest, I wonder if a lot of MS software is ready for the Windows I platforms I use."

Or, the corollary: Is Microsoft ready for LINUX ???

Red Hat may 'support them' but I think they'll support *ANYTHING* (and should, within reason).

But all ".Not" will become is Micro-shaft's CONTROL over EVERYTHING, an "uber alles" move In My Bombastic Opinion.

wxWidgets, GTK, Qt, and even JAVA make for better cross platform development than ".Not". Microsoft is just flailing.

I've been working on my own cross-platform dev kit for quite some time - yeah, slow going - and I've seen others besides the ones I already mentioned, so it's not like they're the ONLY GAME IN TOWN, but they want people to *THINK* they are. My personal pref (other than my own, which is incomplete) would be wxWidgets, because the translation from an MFC/C++ windows application is pretty straightforward (ok NOT trivial, but it's somewhat 'procedural' once you get started).

'I urge everyone to fight back' – woman wins $10k from Microsoft over Windows 10 misery

'astroturfing'

thinking about the possibility of manipulated search engine results, and excessively downvoted things in the El Reg forum... yeah, it's possible, but I don't think it's very effective.

Now, the BLATANT filtering of news stories as "current" or "interesting" by facebook staff... that's probably MORE effective at keeping bad news about Win-10-nic (particularly successful small claims court cases against them) out of the view of the general population.

it makes for a nice conspiracy theory, and probably IS happening, but yeah I think it has limited effectiveness. But I've noticed the downvote 'howler monkey' "apparent campaign" responses, too.

Astroturfing: artificial campaign designed to LOOK like 'grass roots', but isn't. Usually done to boost up a very minority opinion to make it look 'majority', often to demoralize and/or discourage opposition response which would OTHERWISE succeed... Hey, didn't something like that happen a few days ago in the U.K. ??? Except it didn't work.

Re: puzzled

"so someone who didn't explicitly authorise a Win10 install has been found by a court to have suffered an injury (in a financial sense)."

not just the INSTALL, but the *BANDWIDTH* *THEFT* for the DOWNLOAD as well (and any UPLOADING your PC might have done on Microsoft's behalf, like you're an involuntary torrent node).

did you suffer media skips while streaming Netflicks or watching Hulu or Youtube or whatever? Might it have been WINDOWS 10 downloading "in the background" that did it?

YOU SUFFERED DAMAGES! [well, I think that's pretty damaging, since *MY* bandwidth REALLY SUCKS, and 'win-10-nic' update downloads KILL it]

Visiting America? US border agents want your Twitter, Facebook URLs

because, you can't "profile" a terrorist

Why act so insane?

Because they're PROBABLY under orders to inspect ANYONE and EVERYONE in unnecessarily intrusive ways, if there's any truth to ANY of this. Because, Obaka. Because, political correctness. Because, special rights for Islam, because it's NOT christianity. Because, you can't just ask someone coming in from a primarily Islamic country with a lot of ISIS activity about their religion or look them in the eyes to see if they MIGHT be terrorists, so you have to feel up granny and little 2 year old Suzie for IEDs, and leave the women in burkas and long-bearded men in turbans completely untouched, because, political correctness.

Yeah, I plan on voting for Trump, so maybe the insanity will stop, and we can star screening SPECIFIC PEOPLE instead of EVERYONE, and if that means PROFILING, so freaking what.

On behalf of SANE Americans, I apologize for their rudeness.

(or you can just LIE and say how you NEVER use faceb[ook,itch] or tw[i,a]tter because they are LAME cesspits of wasted bandwidth, INVASIVE of your privacy, and BENEATH YOU. (I could say that, it's true!)

Looking good, Gnome: Digesting the Delhi in our belly

Did they fix the *REASONS* why Mate was forked from 2?

It's always good news when open source developers actually LISTEN to what the users want and DELIVER IT (and without the condescending attitudes pointed out in the article). I've been using Mate since it existed, and Gnome 2 on my FreeBSD desktop since forever. There has been *NO* compelling reason to "up"grade to Gnome 3's way of doing things, and a ZILLION compelling reasons *NOT* to (and to use Mate instead).

My biggest concern with Gnome is in line with my biggest concerns about what Microsoft did to windows, starting with "Ape": Gnome 3 made it NOT possible to cram 20 icons on the panel, along with 6 system monitor thingies, the date and time, the menu, and some extra white pace between groups of icons arranged *MY* way, not *THEIR* way. Fat-finger spacing *RUINED* the panel. And don't even get me started on the bizarre key combo needed to edit a Gnome 3 panel icon's settings.

When Gnome 3 "bothers" to fix THOSE kinds of problems, I'll re-consider it. My mouse+keyboard system does *NOT* need "fat-finger-friendly" spacing between things, enforced because some arrogant developer "feels". I want pure user-customization, even if "they feel" it's WRONG for me to have it "that way". It's why Mate exists, after all.

I'm guessing I can cherry-pick adding Gnome applications like 'maps' onto a Mate-based system, but fresh-installing a Linux system is STILL likely to get a Mate or even Cinnamon desktop instead.

In any case, it sounds like reason enough to take another look for myself. Here's hoping...

At least in the open source world, if the devs screw it up (like hamburger menus and fat-finger-friendliness), you can fork it from a previous release yourself (like Mate).

'Leave EU means...' WHAT?! Britons ask Google after results declared

Re: So how long before ...

" the price of oil slumped today"

stocks in general slumped. it's a good time to buy. If I had $ to invest in pound-sterling I'd do it. Expect fluctuations for a week, then "about like it was". Just my 'from across the pond' opinion.

When a small fraction rage-sells, another fraction panics, and you see "that". It'll adjust back.

Re: Seriously...

"Actually, half the country has a below-MEDIAN IQ. #math"

this would only matter if the distribution of numeric IQ values is uneven. In a large enough sample, that's unlikely.

Interestingly enough, to someone at a near-genius level (or higher - average Reg reader probably), EVERYBODY ELSE (who is NOT significantly above average/median) appears "about the same as one another".

/me leaves flowers for Algernon. Poor Algernon. he was a *really* smart mouse. Too bad the 'other mice' rejected him [that's a metaphor, yeah]. If he were a dumb mouse, they'd have still rejected him, but would've felt sorry about it later. Equally 'out of touch' on both ends of the intelligence spectrum.

Three non-obvious reasons to Vote Leave on the 23rd

Re: @Bombastic Bob

" Michigan & Texas fought a war to decide that fact, one of the relatively bloodiest in human history, the American Civil War."

All very true, and it was essentially over the '10th ammendment' issue of STATE SOVEREIGNTY. Our constitution is SUPPOSED to prevent federal intrusion into states' rights. Well, it's gotten too big for it's britches, in my view. You guys in the UK are having your own election regarding the very SAME kind of thing. So on our end, we have a presidential election of "more of the same" (Clinton) vs "turn the barge around" (Trump). On your end, you're voting as to whether or not to be a member state of the EU. But it seems to me there are common themes here, that start with "too much centralized power" and "not enough sovereignty". Laws against 'vaping' for example, mentioned in the article (as I recall, I read it yesterday, long read, skimmed a few sections), were decided in the EU capitol instead of in London, and not in the fairest way, either. "Already decided" I think was the phrase used to describe it, so that the hearings were just a formality.

When I mentioned 'bailouts' with respect to the EU it was for depressed economies like in Greece. The EU has to cough up the cash for all of that, ultimately. Those countries NOT being bailed out ultimately pay for it all with higher taxes, less benefit from being an EU member. I personally don't like bailing out Michigan's auto industry with my tax dollars (nor the trillion-per-year debt rackup by the current administration).

But this is why we all have ELECTIONS. Right?

(think how nice things could be if 'federalism' gets its reigns tightened this year, and the concept of individuality wins over collectivism, even if 'individuality' means the sovereignty of individual states within a 'united' nation)

Anyway, I'm not hiding the fact I'm not British. But I think we have a common problem. "Too much central control".

Re: Fixed

"Let me be the first to say it has already been fixed and we will not leave,"

hmmm, with all of the downvotes on any post so far that favors "independent Britain" I have to wonder if the 'howlers' are actually the ones downvoting, in an 'astroturf' attempt to undermine the 'independence' campaign... ?

My ten cents' worth from across the pond is that independence is probably BETTER than being told how to run your country and enforce your laws from Brussels. And propping up the 'bailouts'.

I heard a nice quote from Thatcher (from 1992) this morning on the radio, regarding the EU membership. It sounded to me like she was 100% right.

US House to vote on whether poor people need mobile phones

gummint shouldn't pay for anything

Gummint shouldn't pay for anything, whether it's phone service or your electric bill or broadband internet. That's because it has to take money AWAY from someone ELSE to pay for "that freebie". Seems to me it just takes away the incentive to better yourself, when gummint hands out freebies and buys elections with "other taxpayers' money".

Microsoft joins battery-saving browser bandwagon with Edge claims

Re: Web browser?

"I'll stick to gopher, thanks!"

I've toyed with a simple gopher server, and it has its uses. There's support for Firefox for gopher (client). Unfortunately, the gopher server that I found doesn't support IPv6. I could fix it myself, but that would take work.

Re: He who controls the OS...

"Ask yourself how easy would it be to for Microsoft to tweak the OS so that certain programs have better or worse power consumption?"

Considering it's Win-10-nic, probably NOT hard at all.

One of the BIG problems I've seen in Win-10-nic [which hasn't been fixed, as I understand it] is how applications tend to SPIN on 100% CPU usage when waiting for one another. Micro-shaft has split up their system into multiple "apps", where "something" waits on the start menu "app", or the cortana "app", or whatever else, to return back some results. You see it during the startup. I've even measured what effect it has overall. You can see the CPU utilization peg at 100% *UNNECESSARILY* for WAY too long, and don't even get me STARTED on "the METRO" games, which are the WORST offenders.

The problem goes back to how 'yield()' and WaitForSingleObject and other API functions actually work, PLUS the effect that "100% CPU" (no idle time) has on CPU frequency throttling, etc. etc.. It is my observation that 100% CPU keeps you at the HIGHEST CPU frequency, which equals MAX POWER CONSUMPTION. If the "apps" (sic) were SMART enough to *NOT* peg out CPU usage (and *I* know of ways to code this PROPERLY, which I use in my OWN code, but they're all writing ".Not" C-pound 'Universal' piles of CRAP so they do it *WRONG*) then the scheduler would detect "not using 100% CPU" and throttle CPU frequency and save power. "All that BACKGROUND CRAP" in Win-10-nic *NATURALLY* disrupts this possibility, *AND* "CPU spinning" [CR]apps completely NUKE it.

So, Micro-shaft would've had to somehow FAKE the CPU throttler into lowering frequency ANYWAY, or else 'work around' the "100% CPU utilization" problem within Edge. And would they *SHARE* that 'work around' solution? heh, I doubt it.

Re: Cherry picking

"No doubt their billions of data points told them which notebook, and specifically what to test."

This would be 'business as usual' from Redmond. Consider all of their "independent" performance comparisons (windows vs linux etc.) from a decade ago. And license agreements saying you couldn't publish your own performance tests without "permission". "Rigged Game" is an understatement.

But the fact that all of the tests were (apparently) run under WIN-10-NIC, I'm surprised they had ANY battery life at ALL! I'd also like to see what Micro-shaft *DID* to the Win-10-nic settings to SHUT UP all of the BACKGROUND CRAP that's constantly hitting the internet - you know, 'Sports' 'News' etc. - you have to CAREFULLY TURN THAT ALL OFF to STOP THOSE [CR]APPS from frequently updating themselves. And, it is a LOT of traffic. WIRESHARK it yourself, if you don't believe me..

And, does 'Edge' do that FOR you while it's running (turn off the [CR]app background web updates), via some new undocumented API, to TWEEK ITS OWN STATS in its own favor? I have to wonder...

Re: ad blocking > all

"Edge suspends Flash content on tabs that aren't visible. Chrome doesn't do that by default."

I wonder what effects that script/flash blocking plugins like 'NoScript' would have in Firefox's power consumption... yeah, compare THAT to 'Edge'. TURN ON the crap-blockage, watch Edge be significantly WORSE than the locked-up Firefox. We'll also conclusively show how much ALL THAT WEB-CRAP costs US.

Re: Billions of data points of aggregated telemetry

don't forget "in a system built for the test, not for real-world performance"

Non-US encryption is 'theoretical,' claims CIA chief in backdoor debate

Re: What's all this then?

"Its a good thing none of the foreign countries like say Belgium understand encryption. Oh wait."

don't rule out Finland, either.

that and libertarian-minded Americans who'll do it on the "dark net" and not tell anyone they did it. HELLO "underground economy".

Making drugs illegal - that really stopped THOSE, didn't it? And how about that 'prohibition' thing back in the 1930's? How'd THAT work out?

All I can say is, "they" (politicians, D.C. insiders, "the establishment") must think WE are IDIOTS.

Smut shaming: Anonymous fights Islamic State... with porn

Re: Worth 1,000 Words

" I look forward to finding out what the "nuclear option" in this particular effort will be."

How about a picture of "The Prophet" bending over like the goatse guy? That assumes it hasn't been done already [je sui Charlie]

It also reflects the *FRUSTRATION* from the people at the COMPLETE INEFFECTIVENESS by our collective gummints that treating their religion with kid gloves has, showing them a form of RESPECT by calling them 'ISIL' instead of 'ISIS'. You don't respect your enemies, if you want to WIN. You DESTROY them.

Yeah. I think 'pr0nning' helps.

Microsoft releases open source bug-bomb in the rambling house of C

Re: C is not an applications programming language

I disagree with that subject line... C is a perfectly good application programming language. the thing is, coders need to self-enforce a few simple rules, and use methods that aren't inherently problematic.

you know, like 'strcpy(buffer, string)' --- should be 'strncpy(bufer, string, maxlen)'

Point is: learn to FREAKING CODE. Don't code like a script kiddie. Don't allow script kiddies to commit code that don't check buffer lengths. that kind of thing.

And DO! NOT! RELY! ON! THE! COMPILER! TO! PROTECT! YOU!! Protect YOURSELF.

then again, Micro-shaft designed C-pound and ".Not" for the INEXPERIENCED coder, so that senior people wouldn't be "senior" any more...

Russian government hackers spent a year in our servers, admits DNC

"I'm surprised the NORKS didn't get blamed." "add the Chinese since they supposedly got the personnel database."

Maybe *THEY* learned to *NOT* leave footprints behind? Or the other possibility... we were *MEANT* to find those footprints!

Re: Hillary's mail server

"Until a denial is issued, we may assume for convenience that" Mrs. "Clinton and the DNC hired their admins from the same applicant pool and got similar skill levels."

Considering the politics of the DNC, and the EXPECTATION that their security team are ALSO of a similar political mindset, the average intelligence of their 'pool' might just be a room temperature I.Q. number (in Farenheit, not Celsius, I'm being kind that way). General snarky comment on average intelligence of average gummint employees notwithstanding.

/me ducks for expected rotten veggies and thumb-downs from the 'howlers'

Oh, and it looks like they were running WINDOWS servers! I'd have to wonder if a properly configured (and firewalled) BSD or Linux server would've been so easily cracked... unless they have a root password of 'dadada'. And allow ssh logins to root. Without 'fail2ban' or some other means to cut down on the crack attempts. Yeah.

Microsoft buys LinkedIn for the price of 36 Instagrams

"Microsoft Acquisitions" leitmotif

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-blob-lyrics-burt-bacharach.html

"Beware of the blob, it creeps

And leaps and glides and slides

Across the floor

Right through the door

And all around the wall

A splotch, a blotch

Be careful of the blob"

(ending theme from 'The Blob', from the early 1960's)

Yes. Microsoft is now "The Blob". They were "The Borg". Now they're just "The Blob".

RIP ROP: Intel's cunning plot to kill stack-hopping exploits at CPU level

Re: Silver Bullet

"My password used to be password, but I changed it to dadada."

you TRYING to put that song into people's heads? heh heh heh

(password, secret, love, sex, money... and GOD. don't forget GOD. system admins *LOVE* to use GOD).

and there's that OTHER xkcd, something about "correct horse battery staple"

Re: Would also bork legitimate code

"Back in the days of the 8-bit processor, I remember writing code (in assembler!) that would implement a 16-bit jump by pushing the target onto the stack and doing a ret."

on SOME processors, you STILL have to do that. I'm thinking 'microcontrollers' at the moment. There's no 24-bit jump instruction on an AVR, but some AVRs have 24-bit addressing. So the fastest way to jump 24-bit is to leverage the 24-bit program counter value on the stack after a call. I am pretty sure there's a 24-bit CALL function, however [can't recall at the moment]. Just no JUMP instruction. So when my bootloader does a jump to the start of code, while running within the highest 128kb page of memory, it must do the 3-byte address stack push followed by 'RET'. With '#ifdef' around it for CPUs that have a < 128kb address space. It works.

non-executable flags on 386

as I recall, protected mode had this, but you had to NOT alias the code area with a corresponding data area. Unfortunately, windows *DID* just that. 32-bit 'flat model' was no exception (there were a couple of 32-bit global selector entries available for that). I had a utility for peeking into the internals of win 3.x and '9x that would leverage that global selector. I'd create call gates and jump to internal operating system functions inside of drivers to get certain kinds of system information. It was kinda cool, but I ALSO recognized how vulnerable the systems were, because someone "not me" could do the SAME! THING! for nefarious purposes.

Re: It'd be nice to have a system...

"Every PC is a VM? What would you run those VMs on?"

some kind of hypervisor, apparently not a bad concept. but a hypervisor has its inherent problems, too (recent vulnerabilities in "ring -2" as I recall). you're just kicking it down the road.

if you want to put out a fire, you break the 'fire triangle' (fuel, heat, oxidizer). The 'shadow stack' does that, in a way. So does code address randomization, by the way...

address space randomization might help more

perhaps code address space randomization would help more. In the 64-bit world, this is practical. Just have every instance of a program load with a different start address for 'bottom of code space'. It won't be perfect, but it could be done in SOFTWARE with existing tech. Similar things have been done for network port assignments to help prevent certain kinds of "port predicting" attack vectors.

that way the code address won't be easily known. You'd need CODE to discover what a function address actually is so that you CAN jump to it, and if you can't run code via your exploit, you can't (easily) get the address to jump to. the RET house of cards falls down.

In obesity fight, UK’s heavy-handed soda tax beats US' watered-down warning

Re: Tax Tax and more fucking tax

"Why not charge the obese for treatment, and not tax everyone including those that drink soda drinks responsibly, dont have a BMI of 50 and look after themselves."

2 words: political correctness. THAT, and it's not about actual OBESITY. [it's about the power, control, and manipulation, same as usual]. Besides, the BMI itself is flawed. you need a % body fat analysis and more to 'get it right'. BMI is just a convenience for making up stupid statistics saying >60% of people are "obese", keeping the bar low so no MUSCULAR or BARREL CHESTED person can "pass"

Re: So the tax Fruit juice too.

"Sugar directly from fruit vs HFCS/Processed cane sugar for example?"

HFCS may be a part of the problem [I avoid it myself]. Some believe you need MORE of it to get the same 'sweetness' as white processed cane sugar. So , in theory, more calories for the same 'sweet', and as it's FRUCTOSE, not sucrose, it's metabolized differently, doesn't increase insulin levels when consumed, etc. etc.. Then again, you can buy 'real sugar' versions of popular soda brands if you go to the right source, at least within the USA. I understand the stuff bottled in Mexico also uses real sugar, not HFCS. I've heard people talk about it on the radio, saying it tastes better.

Re: Bah!

"People might switch to a cheaper drink."

or just add sugar later. it's usually free, in pre-measured packets, next to the creamer

"True, however, your body has a harder time metabolizing the sugar in fruit than drinks. Fruit juice, on the other hand, is just bad all around. More calories than most sodas, and less nutritious than the fruit it came from."

Shhh... don't tell them, or the Florida orange growers will go ballistic over the impending doom

Actually in the case of fructose, it's apparently metabolized in the liver, and doesn't cause insulin levels to increase. I think some studies linked high fructose consumption to earlier onset of type II diabetes, but that's must me trying to remember so it could be wrong. or not.

that just suggests that health, weight, metabolism, food consumption, and everything else is a COMPLEX (and individual) thing that just can't be legislated.

Re: "the obesity epidemic"

"The obesity epidemic where 68.8% of the US population are considered overweight or obese."

because the standards are based on the BMI which is a total crock of [expletive deleted]. Most body builders and athletes would be qualified as "obese" under those standards.

'obesity' should be based on percent body fat and overall general health. In fact, being too skinny is usually WORSE than being too fat, up to a point anyway. I don't see anyone claiming there's a "skinny" epidemic.

more LIES, DAMN LIES and STATISTICS being used to manipulate people, I say.

Re: Aspartame

"Any food or drink with any Aspartame at all gives my wife severe migraines"

no 'substitute' [that is legal] is perfect. I wonder if that's why Sodium Cyclamates were rumored enough to cause cancer [which they don't] that they were BANNED by the U.S. FDA back in the 60's... it seemed everything had cyclamates in them, including pre-sweetened coolaid and toothpaste. And of course the expensive testing is unprofitable now, since cyclamates are SO CHEAP TO MAKE.

just pointing that potential conspiracy theory out...

Re: A tax of 24 pence and 18 pence will be levied on each liter...

"Are you sure that that is the intended goal?"

it's the STATED goal, that's for sure. we have this *kind* of problem in California all the time. The REAL goal is always the same: control, power, manipulation. The 'elite' decide what's best for US, and generally make it so that THEY aren't impacted by the legislation. How about 'boutique' shopping bags instead of the really inexpensive plastic ones, allegedly to save the environment or something? It's on the ballot this November, because legislators "felt" that their existence threatened the world. Seriously I think they just like everyone using the 'boutique' washable bags that would be spreaders and retainers of food-born germs and other health problems.

So none of this is new. It's all the same *kind* of thing, with different details and supporting gripes.

Expect the 'tea tax' next. OK I'm joking, but still. Maybe the U.K. needs a "Tea Party".

THERE's your problem

"n a country where healthcare is funded by the public and is free at the point of delivery *we* fund the purchasing of these things."

THERE's your problem. I'm a firm believer that if you remove the CONSEQUENCES for irresponsibility, it's like removing the PEST PREDATORS from an ecosystem: you get pestilence.

it's not the CAUSE that ought to be attacked, but the PROBLEM. So why not "Tax the fatass" instead?? Or if fatty-fatty two-by-four can't fit through the kitchen door, then STOP! REQUIRING! KITCHEN! DOOR! MAKERS! TO! ACCOMMODATE! FATTY!! (admittedly allegorical)

But I can see this degrading into a discussion over BMI-related weight standards, which favors the 'skinny frame' lanky person over someone of Scottish descent [me] who has a barrel chest, short legs, and ultra-wide shoulders and weighs about 25% more than the average person due to being muscular.

[the REAL weight gain problem is from the high-carbo "low fat" diet foods anyway, right Dr. Atkins?]

Re: 'Other people are doing things I don't like'

"What alternative do you suggest?"

How about "M.Y.O.B." - Mind Your Own Business[es]

On a related note, an alleged 'Obesity Epidemic' isn't a problem when Peter doesn't have to pay for Paul's irresponsibilities. That goes though ALL aspects of life, by the way, from substance abuse to risky behavior.

Is Windows 10 ignoring sysadmins' network QoS settings?

I noticed this a year ago during the 'insider' program

I noticed this same thing a year ago during the 'insider' program. I complained about it. A *LOT*. I have limited bandwidth available, and Microsoft was _STEALING_ it whenever they *FELT* like it, which might be while I'm listening to streaming radio or something. It was part of my argument *AGAINST* the "not being able to control WHEN windows updates 'happen'".

THAT obviously landed on DEAF ears. Micro-shaft does not care what customers want. Micro-shaft is doing everything in Win-10-nic for their OWN benefit, SCREW everyone else.

Even in remotest Africa, Windows 10 nagware ruins your day: Update burns satellite link cash

Re: Pretty cynical upgrade

"Vast parts of the world are unable to get a decent connection to the tubes and I doubt this is an isolated case."

Exactly, and even in the USA there are places where 'high speed' isn't so high.

I've come to the conclusion that Micro-shaft is being run by a bunch of immature elitist children. All of the experienced people retired and cashed in their stock options, leaving the "millenial generation" running the show, The exceptions (Nadella, Belfiore) aren't much better from what I can tell. They "feel" as if *EVERYONE* on the planet has "bandwidth to burn", and even tries to force us to share that bandwidth with everyone around us [I guess Micro-shaft pays for THEIR bendwidth usage..].

MSDN downloads have been broken since February last year, if it takes more than about 5 hours to download a multi-GB ISO image (their security parameters time out and the web server resets the connection). So if your connection isn't at least 3Mbits/sec [business connections at that rate cost $150/month or more in my area] you can't download large ISO images (such as, let's say, 64-bit Windows 10? Or the latest DevStudio?) without doing some *HACKING*.

Fortunately, after nearly a year of not working properly (as reported by ME), Micro-shaft fixed the 'range' header in their MSDN web server so that it's now POSSIBLE to pick up where you left off, if the URL doesn't actually time out. I came up with a hack that use wireshark [to grab their URL with the security parameters] to continue a download via 'wget' using a named output file and a different URL. It "works". Prior to that you used an ActiveX control in IE to download for more than 5 hours, and I had to do that at a business back in the late noughties (2008-ish time frame). So this was not and IS not a *NEW* problem. They simply ASSUME we're all SUPER RICH and can AFFORD *UNLIMITED* BANDWIDTH (and don't mind them STEALING it).

Hopefully they won't break my hack. It's not like I didn't PAY for the privilege of downloading.

Anyway I hope that shows their attitude about *OUR* bandwidth limitations, whatever they may be. It's like they don't give a flying "frack".

Windows 10 market share jumps two per cent

"Does the Windows 10 market share include..." (etc.

I have suggested in the past that Microsoft may, in fact, be inflating their own web statistics on weekends by running their office computers in "pound the network" mode. It's been observed by more than one person and at least one 'El Reg' article that during the week, windows 7 gets a bigger "net share" than on the weekends and holidays. That would be ONE way to explain it.

And the 'gummint' stats COULD be explained by welfare recipients pounding their servers using "free" windows 10 to find out how to get more "free" gummint benefits... (they've got plenty of time after all)

OK I admit there's nothing to back this up except my personal cynicism.

"You are so stuck in the old ways of doing things"

"Stop trying to hold MS back because you refuse to change"

"The whole world has moved on already"

"get with the times."

That's more arrogant shilling (the verb, not the currency) than I've seen in a long time, and all in a single post!

"Some people here are just crazy."

you say that like it's a BAD thing...

"If the desktop is so over why do people even care how Microsoft manages it"

loaded question. First, the desktop is *NOT* over. Looking at sales figures is not representative of the total number of people using desktop or notebook machines (it's like a derivative, not an integral, with more factors thrown in to make the maths impossible to derive). Second, many of us who PREFER non-windows computers STILL have to use them on occasion because the software we purchased was written FOR windows and won't work on anything else. Let's say accounting, certain games, multimedia production, and things like that. Pretty much everything ELSE I do, and that's a huge 'everything else', is done on Linux or FreeBSD (work-related specifically).

And I don't own a smart phone. The dumb one is fine, and I don't use it very much. And I don't need a slab. The economy has limited my discretionary budget anyway and I have other things I'd rather spend cash on. New computers aren't "new, shiny" enough these days.

And I think that sums it up for a LOT of us, and it also explains the market.

the vast majority of phones and slabs run 'Droid and iOS. Micro-shaft LOST that potential market, before they even tried to get into it. Funny, how Micro-shaft STILL wants to shove a phone OS down our throats (or into various OTHER orifices), on desktop and notebook machines.

Re: The other columns

"Analytics.gov give Microsoft 100% of the desktop market."

that seems kind of, "odd", to me. or 'rigged'. I guess Obaka and Mrs. Clinton have received sufficient payoffs in the form of campaign contributions and contributions to things like "The Clinton Foundation" in order to play favorites in the analytics?

Re: "This doesn't mean the nagware is working:"

"Desktop sales fall because there is no real need to replace anything under five years old "

that's right.

For over 10 years "Moore's Law" has stopped contributing to "next year's model" being 50% faster/better. This is the primary 'thing' driving the so-called decline of desktop and notebook computers [it's a 'sales decline' and *NOT* a 'usage decline'].

Micro-shaft has made it clear that they're not interested in improving their own product's performance [not really], to contribute to any PERCEPTION of 'better' by installing a particular version of windows.

So people stick with what they have. LOUSY economy, plus no perceived improvement in "new", means *NO* *SALE*. [I've been saying this for MONTHS].

And we all know that Micro-shaft's version of "New, shiny" was Windows "Ape" (8.0). That got them an increase in windows 7 sales, maybe.

Tech titans demand free speech law to head off President Trump

Re: Wow

faceb[itch]ook and tw[a,i]tter "Don't sound like fearless campaigners for freedom to me."

me either. not after FB's somewhat admission recently of filtering the 'trending' news according to their politics.

This whole proposed legislation sounds like anti-Trump FUD to me. If you actually LISTEN to what Trump says, he's much more of a libertarian than ANY of the other candidates.

And libertarians don't want to crush freedom of speech.

Windows 7, Server 2008 'Convenience' update is anything but – it breaks VMware networking

I'm not updating Winders until after 8/1

well, it's not surprising that their lack of proper testing and staff (read: end-users are the new Q.A. testers) had to backfire at some point.

Consolidate updates into one rollup (not a service pack): ok I guess (except it probably has KB3035583 and a few others in it)

Break people's computers with this difficult-to-rollback-part-of-it update: priceless.

well, for Micro-shaft, it's priceless. Now they can say "SEE you need to upgrade to Win-10-nic"