* Posts by bombastic bob

10275 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Russia is the advanced persistent threat that just triggered. Ready?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Between that

it is worth pointing out that MOST people seem to believe that pollution and environmental damage are bad, that environmental cleanup is good, and that clean air, clean water, etc. are all very very good things.

The assumption that "the right wing" wants dirty air, dirty water, and gross pollution everywhere is as bad as assuming that all environmentalists are commies.

However it seems that those at the front of the 'green' movement, with their shrill anti-scientific claims about various aspects of their movement [that I shall not enumerate at this time], ARE generally the 'watermelon' types, at least In My Bombastic Opinion, especially when you look at the SOLUTIONS to the alleged problems that they have proposed...

Apple seeks patent for 'innovation' resembling the ZX Spectrum, C64 and rPi 400

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Output?

I loved the way the red shirts saturated the screen.

some of the red saturation may have been caused by the physics of the older TV picture tubes. Red phosphors were not as bright so you had to turn the electron gun up to 11 to get any brightness in the red range. As such, a really bright red would too easily saturate. It was a compromise of screens that were too dim to begin with and extending the life of the picture tube beyond the warranty period. Go fig, right?

(I have seen this happen with cheap TVs made in the 90's, too)

Concern over growing reach of proprietary firmware BLOBs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Well, like it or not

A lot of the problems with BLOBS have to do with wireless drivers, which are regulated in that they must not be easily modified to transmit on illegal frequencies or at illegal power levels.

Not saying it's a GOOD thing, just saying it's justified. Pointing to the REAL problem, government regulatory agencies and the laws that force manufacturers to abide by them.

Also not saying that a free-for-all in transmit power, frequencies, and RF interference in general is a good thing either...

(an imperfect world filled with imperfections)

as for things like video drivers (and I'm talking about YOU NVidia) they are difficult to fix bugs in if you keep them closed source...

President Biden calls for ban on social media ads aimed at kids

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: 15% minimum tax rate ? Great idea.

You already know what MY answer would be - Starts with a 'T'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

You forget that GUMMINT does not solve these kinds of problems. It only GETS IN THE WAY and demands a toll...

(lots of feely words, that do not mean what you think they mean, tickling people's ears and manipulating them into going along with things they would otherwise NEVER agree to, until "it happens" and then you realize what a total Charlie Foxtrot that turned into when you capitulated and went along with it. Too late.)

Ukraine seeks volunteers to defend networks as Russian troops menace Kyiv

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: '...any strange outages should be treated as "a computer attack."...'

Hey - a SICKOUT!

Brilliant idea! I wonder how many Russian sysadmins would just do this in a way of protesting the war?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Ukraine should make the stakes higher

Maybe he was thinking of Sellafield...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: Ukraine should make the stakes higher

no. if they blow up anything,it should be directly related to the Russian invasion, something of high military value, with no civilian casualties.

(false flag operations like that do not get you any friends around the world, at a time when Ukraine needs more friends and no criticism)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Sink the Russian fleet

as I see it, the smartest move (now that there are bullets and bombs involved) is to continue to supply Ukrainian resistance as best as be can, staging equipment, food, etc. in neighboring countries like Poland (where if the Putinator attacks he draws NATO into it), then keep the supplies and humanitarian aid flowing in as best as possible. So far that's what I see happening already.

But as for sanctions, they might sting Vlad and his buddies but they do not bite him (nobody wants to do the obvious, i.e. have USA supply EU oil instead of Russia). And I think diplomacy should be shelved for a while, until Vlad is ready to come back to the table. Sometimes you just have to walk away and say "No" instead of begging for another meeting.

Additional troops in NATO countries, for an obvious defense against further aggression, would be a VERY prudent move.

According to Sun Tzu, it's supplies that ultimately determine the outcome in long term campaigns. I think the world can supply Ukraine, and it would cost us a LOT less than Vlad the Putinator would be paying to supply his OWN forces.

(sorta like "lend lease" in WW2)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Not optional

I have known someone from Belarus (recent co-worker, left for different company). Apparently they had an election in 2020 that resulted in FULL BLOWN RIOTS, because the Putin puppet was "elected" while the POPULAR guy was NOT...

Vlad the Putinator's puppet leaders are NOT popular, and governing against the will of the people will ALWAYS fail... eventually, at any rate.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: No Fecesbook for Russia?

exactly.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: No help required!

I wonder if the Russian people really understand where this dinosaur is taking them.

I've known a number of Russians, and indirectly dealt with 'behind the iron curtain' kinds of things way way long ago in the past. They know. They just do not say anything, because if they do, it's likely to lead to arrests or "getting disappeared". Vlad thinks like a Soviet KBG agent, and that's how he would deal with dissent, maybe by labeling these people as traitors or even terrorists.

But, I'm sure the Russian people know what's going on. They know.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: ...to form a negative image of the Russian Federation

Ukrainian resistance tactics are proving effective.

Yes. At least for now. But even if they ultimately fail, it HAS to be done. it reminds me of something I saw in an attorney's office: a snake trying to eat a mouse, but the mouse was strangling the snake in defiance. You HAVE to resist. Always.

I honestly believe that MOST Russians do NOT want this. But, if they speak out they run the risk of being arrested or simply "get disappeared".

All indications seem to be that Russian troop morale is unusually low, and without support of the people, it will inevitably mean the end of Vlad the Putinator's political career. But he still has his finger on the button that could blow up the world. I think Russia needs to stop him ASAP. He's less of a swaggering narcisist now, more of a madman with weapons of mass destruction available at a moment's notice.

Interestingly, from a cyber security standpoint, the Anonymous Hacking Group is apparently busy defacing Russian media and other web sites...

Fancy some new features? Try general-purpose Linux alternative Liquorix

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

I'm guessing that Devuan might [not] be able to use the Debian kernel?

not sure if the kernel has an option to NOT use systemd though... (as I recall the init system main program's path and file name have to be compiled into the kernel, not sure what this implies in 2022 except that maybe this kernel will not work with Devuan)

it has been a while since I had to compile a Linux kernel. I used to do it a lot for embedded stuff. It's probably an option in 'make config' though I nearly always used 'make oldconfig' so setting it up was a REALLY long time ago... (and not done very often)

Your app deleted all my files. And my wallpaper too!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Concepts are hard to understand

So they put directories on their desktop, and organise their files there. I guess that's a win for you?

bad habits dating back to Windows 3.x days? (I also saw some '9x users doing that sort of thing a LOT, back in the day, usually $BOSS or $EXECUTIVE)

that's [a] winDOZE for you

(bad PUN-ishment was invading my brain, had to let it out...)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Did you get to use the ShockyStick(TM)?

barbeque mode is a bit much... "Digestive system evacuation" aka "call the janitor" mode should be sufficient...

US imposes sanctions as Russia invades Ukraine

bombastic bob Silver badge
Holmes

Re: Freezing Russian assets is the way to stop Putin

well if _CERTAIN POLITICIANS_ were not trying to STOP oil drilling and fracking and coal mining in the USA, the USA (as proved ~2 years ago) could EASILY supply UK and EU with all of the fossil fuels you need, in a nice stable way. Just sayin'.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Freezing Russian assets is the way to stop Putin

Cash, yes ( I doubt they would even understand how to use Bitcoin... )

Preferably in a plain unmarked envelope, under the table.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

about becoming the Belarus of China, you are not wrong...

But China would simply do their "4th shift" illegal cloning and stolen technology thing, and sell a bunch of that to Russia (as well as the usual 'for china only' market). And they've been alleged to have stolen cutting edge tech (like for 5G) from U.S. companies and universities in the past. It makes this particular threat (sanctioning all chip exports to Russia that have U.S. tech in them, for example) a speed bump, not a road block.

(NOTE - back in the noughties I worked for a company that had stuff made in China and saw a photo at a meeting of a component that was illegally cloned in China. it was obviously an illegal clone, most likely made from an X ray of the original, having fuzzy edges on the embedded copper component. The funny thing is that it was an antenna, and it was cleverly designed so that the company logo in the copper affected its impedance, and the logo, albeit a bit fuzzy, was there in the illegal clone, too. Talk about evidence of hands in the cookie jar...)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Freezing Russian assets is the way to stop Putin

with no carrot, the stick can only go so far...

Yes, let's beat the donkey that has gotten used to a regular beating, and MAKE him do what we want!!!

(I think it has reached the point of no longer working)

You could also say that If you take away all of a child's toys, the kid won't respond well to his parents saying "If you do [not] XXX we'll take your toys away". And daily spankings take their effectiveness away as well.

(I'm comparing Putin to a small child and a JACKASS in case nobody figured it out)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: An illusoary stranglehold?

So we should do nothing and just look and say, oh that's not nice, please Putin at least stop there and don't be noughty.

The problem here is that the WRONG things are likely to be done. This is typical of governments.

In My Bombastic Opinion, the carrot and stick approach, from a position of ACTUAL power, would be the most effective. Right now (with things as they are) this would be WAY less effective than it would have been 3 years ago...

Sun Tzu _did_ talk about this kind of thing in his book...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I can see this being used as an excuse to ramp up the fracking.

which would be a VERY good thing, In My Bombastic Opinion.

(the end result would have major benefits like lowering world oil+gas prices, for starters)

What is it with cloud status pages not reflecting reality?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Rule #1 of Outage Club - do not talk about Outage Club!

The comments by the AWS spokes-droid at the end of the article are SO typical of the kinds of "There ARE no problems" spin-meistering you seem to get from governments and large corporations. Everything burning down around you, with frequent explosions and sounds of collapsing buildings near by, and it's a "minor problem" that you're "working on" and "everything's ok, no worries, la la la, in my own world now."

that 'reality' thing... "My beautiful bubbles, stop bursting them!!!" (a quote from a P.A. in one of my favorite video games)

icon, because, facepalm

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Automated status page..

It does not help when the status page is hosted by the troubled network...

'Hundreds of computers' in Ukraine hit with wiper malware as conflict continues

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: "Of course you realize, this means war"

Daffy Duck had a more logical reason than Vlad the Putinator, that's for sure.

And with this, why isn't Micros~1 PANICKING about the malware being used this way???

(do they even CARE about end users?)

File suffixes: Who needs them? Well, this guy did

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

RSTS/E - I remember that. security craters everywhere. 6 char names, 3 char extensions. ancient times.

Internet connection now required for Windows 11 Pro Insider setup

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: If this moves to release

Dead duck? Sadly, no.

The froggy has not boiled, yet. (but Micros~1 keeps turning up the heat)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: @DS999 - It isn't practical to roll this out to consumer versions

Who's going to use a Windows PC without Internet ?

a) accounting packages (may need local LAN access but not internet, generally)

b) desktop publishing

c) 3D printing

d) software development (if you do not have a cloudy repo like github that is)

e) media production

and so on. None of these require internet access. Constant "check for updates" is HIGHLY overrated. And we're not just a bunch of "content consumers".

(my windows 7 machine NEVER surfs the internet. e-mail displays as plain text only)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: It's for your own good and you should want it to be too..

The problems you describe are generally solved by each developer having his own sandbox branch, then do something similar to "pull request" (i.e. what github does, others vary in the terms they might use, no doubt) to merge them back into the main branch (or make one big mass edit with a merge tool, whichever works).

Seriously you need to reconsider your source control management strategy, based on your description...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: No way that will make it to the general public

veering straight into monopolistic behavior

I was thinking more like "veering into SUBSCRIPTION ONLY" or to INCREASE TRACKING AND SPYING ON YOU (so that you are ALWAYS online when using your computer and *THEY* can see what you're doing and log it for marketing and profit).

So, for now, raise the temperature of the water the soon-to-be-boiled frogs are in another few degrees. Let's see if they start hopping out... and make adjustments as needed to keep MOST of them in!!!

(then rinse/repeat until they are OWNED with SUBSCRIPTION and INVASIVE SPYING/TRACKING, MUAHAHAHAHAHA!)

So, how long before we have a convoy of computers showing up in Redmond ??? How "draconian" could Micros~1 get if we collectively REFUSE to play their game any more? Or insist that they provide us with an OS that *WE* control (and NOT abandon the older ones)??

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: @Zippy´s Sausage Factory - The strategy

doesn't have to be sensible, all it has is to be profitable.

and/or manipulative, controlling, monetizing of your privacy

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

maybe he did not manage to get past the strong-arming for setting up the admin user... it was 2 or 3 hoops as I recall, cancel this, a complaint, and an "are you sure" or whatever. It's unnecessarily painful and not entirely obvious how to make it happen.

Or, hopefully he was not trying to run a "The Store" version of FF or TBird... (that would explain it).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: @vincent himpe

I wish ReactOS worked well enough for them to even CARE about killing it...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: @vincent himpe

Sadly, my experience with Wine has been far less than successful...

7 still works for me as well, when windows is required.

Microsoft releases first preview of .NET 7

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

"Modernization" - that word does not mean what they think it means

Every time Micros~1 makes reference to "modern", we end up with:

a) Flatter-looking UI

b) removed customizations

c) Lipstick on the boar (and not even the oinky end)

d) bloat, cruft, and broken

e) less efficient

f) "No, really, we actually fixed it this time"

g) tracking, spying, unnecessary cloudiness, adware, and fewer features.

and so on

I fear what "modernization" they are referring to THIS time...

European Union takes China to WTO over smartphone patents

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Supreme Court independence

thoroughly politicised Supreme Court appointments in the USA

you are NOT wrong.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Appears Apple don't give a shit about their phones being ripped off

"how rounded"?

Heh. You should consider a career as a l[aw]yer.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Tit for tat.

teaching your competitors how to make YOUR SECRET SAUCE is BAD for business.

That money you "saved"? it's costing you a LOT more NOW.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Tit for tat.

phones have a unique identifier that is apparently related to the model, etc. so banning them entirely on a network could be done, yeah.

Unfortunately that might mean that a number of people will need replacement phones when they SUDDENLY DISCOVER that their phones stopped working...

(I had to replace a perfectly working phone recently when AT&T stopped supporting 3G, but found an inexpensive flip phone on e-bay that had fat buttons compatible with my fat fingers, net cost cheaper than switching networks... for now. But I really did NOT want to spend money on THAT)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Tit for tat.

Agreed. Tit for Tat.

(WHY are we STILL doing business with COMMUNISTS??? Slave labor, unfair business practices on steroids, dumping to kill competitioon, price gouging when components go short... why is this NOT OBVIOUS that they are BAD for BUSINESS "over there" ???)

GNOME Project retires OpenGL rendering library Clutter

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alert

Re: Stable...

ew the W word...

(making sign of cross with fingers)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I would not call it "stuck" on GTK-2 - how about "it works so why 'fix' it?"

moving target "development" generates a LOT of 'scampering' i.e. unproductive motion...

(you want those bugs fixed? Sorry, we're porting all of our code over to the latest moving target toolkit, see you in about a year...)

Facebook exposes 'god mode' token that could siphon data

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: "will take action as appropriate"

Faece-Ban motto: "What can we get away with, today?"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: And people still use this clusterface?

it still works to do a phone call or a letter in the mail...

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: And people still use this clusterface?

there is nothing 'normal' about using Faece-Ban...

any developer with a sense of security would NEVER TOUCH IT.

(so I hope he *IS* a developer)

NOT using Faece-Ban ==> Intelligence +10

and NOT understanding why ANYONE would want to use it ==> common sense

Emergency updates: Adobe, Chrome patch security bugs under active attack

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

I've been using open source PDF viewers like Atril and Evince for a VERY long time now. Does not surprise me that Adobe's "free" reader is actually CRIPPLE-ware. "Pay up" to get something that doesn't TEASE you by making you THINK it works...

Evince has a windows version.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Great they keep updating, adding more crap with zero day exploits, rinse and repeat

"ba-a-a" Rust the ONLY way...

icon, because, facepalm

Alarm raised after Microsoft wins data-encoding patent

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Ban software patents.

SOME software patents are legit in my opinion, but they should be VERY SPECIFIC. Blanket patent of an algorithm: NO. Just No.

and rANS probably has a *LOT* of PRIOR ART, rendering their claims INVALID.

If Micros~1 does the right thing, they'll protect rANS by giving the patent to a non-profit or other group that grants royalty free licensing (thus using the patent to PREVENT PATENT TROLLS from, well, TROLLING their patent lawsuits).

Patents are supposed to be VERY specific. They need to include a precise definition of what the claims are and how they are unique. You might be able to patent a 'for' loop for a VERY specifioc thing, maybe calculating prime numbers (let's say). But the generic for loop should NOT be patentable. And the same goes for ENCODING.

And, THEN, they have to be DEFENDABLE or they are WORTHLESS.

And nothing invalidates a patent claim like PRIOR ART.

Massive cyberattack takes Ukraine military, big bank websites offline

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Parting Shot?

you are "not wrong", in that Putin may try to back out of deals like Hitler did in 1939. For this you need a bit of carrot/stick to make sure he keeps his end of the bargain. But I suspect he does NOT want war, or even conquest, as much as he wants to be left "un-threatened". Any deal made would have to include NOT invading Ukraine. I guess I was not clear on this point.

Still, with Crimea being annexed a few years ago, Putin has to be held accountable for being a bad actor. So giving him what he wants with strings attached COULD be designed to make sure he doesn't try this again.

My point was to show that Putin wanted something from US and that giving him what he wants, in exchange for something we want, is a strategy outlined by Sun Tzu in his book, and I believe it's the best way to handle it.

Russia 'stole US defense data' from IT systems

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: So it's getting easier

But, when you know you're being spied on you can use that to create DIS-information... and also to track where the information GOES.

This happened in WW2 - Battle of Midway - when they released in the clear false information that Midway's evaporator was broken, and a coded message was sent by Japan that said something like "AF is running out of fresh water" (or similar). This confirmed that 'AF' meant Midway Island, which let the Pacific command know that this would be the invasion target. It was a spectacular win for the Allied forces, though costly. It would have been even costlier had the U.S. Navy deployed carriers to the Aleutian Islands, splitting naval forces in half.