Posts by bombastic bob

Elon Musk jettisons Twitter leadership, says takeover was 'to try to help humanity'

reminds me of Wednesday Adams in the original "Adams Family" TV series. Her headless doll was named "Marie Antoinette"

Re: Geez ...

you know the O.P. thought the article was "over partisan" right? (I also think so)

But what you said sounds like you were disagreeing with that same point... by making that same point.

Re: More court cases to come?

Those kinds of contracts are called "golden parachutes" and are often done to make buying up a company and "evicting" the "Ivory Tower" more expensive.

Seriously, it is a fraction of the total cost of buying the whole company in this case. And as I recall, such contracts require approval from the Board of Directors, who (at the end of the day) want to MAKE MONEY on the purchase (if any).

Re: The taste of schadenfreude

I often call the downvotes "badges of honor". It is fun to see how many I might generate with something that might even be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer. heh.

(if you can't have fun with it, why bother?)

Re: The taste of schadenfreude

"listening" is NOT the same as "agreeing"

But to argue that point, I have occasionally done a "repeat back" of what was said [using skills learned in the U.S. Navy for short-term memorization] just to make a point. I "listened". Then I *DISAGREED*,

So yeah, "listening" and "agreeing" are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS.

"fact-checked by my experience and observations" - something like that.

Microsoft's Lennart Poettering proposes tightening up Linux boot process

Re: "Someone points out"

Maybe he just followed orders?

Whenever a (sinister) agenda exists, those at the top (read: evil overlords) tend to hire others (read: minions) that are like-minded so that they do not HAVE to be given orders. It is all part of the "plausible deniability" coverup "Plan B". Just in case.

Key words: "You know what to do"

There are 2 things that can be done to any computer to secure the bootup

1. a jumper on the motherboard that disallows writing anything but TRIVIAL CONFIG to the BIOS (etc.) unless you physically remove it (installed by default) [such trivial config excludes things like BOOT ORDER]

2. A proper OS that does not allow unprotected writes to the boot partition or OS files (like Linux or the BSDs).

Couple THAT with "no physical access to the computer" and proper settings (i.e. no net boot) and you're fine. NO NEED for "[in]secure boot"

Re: Fixable

I just got done spending HOURS trying to trace down whatever it was that was causing power button behavior to be "that way". No simple acpid, no, no, HAD to be logind as a part of systemd, and after HOURS of searching docs AND an e-mail to the board maker (a board similar to RPi that had a power switch thing on it that wasn't very well documented) I discovered (without their help) that logind was sending 'power key' events to the GUI and xfce-power-manager was handling it [so I had to alter THAT config file, and not one at system level].

In the days of 'init' this was a LOT easier to track down!!! [but the board has IT'S flavor of debian,with special drivers, and so I have to deal with that cancerous malignant tumor known as 'systemd').

Re: *I* propose ...

I think there is a numeric sort in there somewhere also, so that S01* is done first, S02* next, etc. but yeah what you said

Simple. Easy to understand. Easy to fix and maintain. "Do one thing, well"

And in particular, requires no monolithic "weak point" to work

Re: ...using TPM 2.0 hardware

Unless I buy a used machine on e-bay (or similar) I typically build it myself using "gamer" motherboards, then install FreeBSD or Linux on it.

Those gamer motherboards tend to NOT require 'secure boot' (if they did I'd never buy their brand EVAR again!) as they are intended for people like me who do NOT settle for "the defaults". And I bet I can build something as good as or better than something from a major computer maker that costs as little as HALF as much, without an OS because downloading Linux or FreeBSD and burning+booting the DVD is all I need.

Re: ...using TPM 2.0 hardware

Embrace, extend, ... (what was that last one again?)

Of COURSE Poettering is involved in this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD4TLmNyGYA (not the ad, the video content)

If someone tries ransacking your Windows network, it's a bit easier now to grok in Microsoft 365 Defender

vague

They seem a bit light on the detalls of what they "detect". I was curious about that. Virus scanners use signature files (etc.). Not much mentioned here except vague claims. I suppose they keep it close to the chest but still, what good is the "Defender 365" exactly?

Rent-calculating software biz accused of colluding with 'cartel' of landlords

Re: If most of the major property owners are using this

the rent charged is public information displayed in the vacancy advert.

This is true only for NEW rentals, but not for existing tenants who get to have their rents jacked up every year for no obvious reason. Since I live in San Diego I have some inside info on this one. Since 2016 my rent has gone up nearly every year, a total of $500 or so,. This is unfortunately due to the lack of available housing since people like living here. BUT if it was artificially driven by everyone using the same algorithm, that might explain why rents here are as high as San Francisco now... (or so that is what I've heard on the radio, etc.)

The algorithm probably knows the amount my rent is right now. That is not advertised anywhere. So if it DOES have what I pay in rent ln the database, that COULD be considered "insider information".

Let's see what the courts decide.

Linus Torvalds suggests the 80486 architecture belongs in a museum, not the Linux kernel

Re: Genuine question...

you can use it on very old hardware

older hardware really does not need bleeding edge code

(I have an old laptop with an old distro of linux on it, useful for some things anyway)

what *I* hate is things like web sites NOT working with old browsers... different problem

AWS buys 100+ diesel generators... and that's just for Irish datacenters

Re: RAIDG

RAIDG - that is a good idea for peak and unexpected demands, actually. It's the way power was often managed in the "before time".

Ideally the DG's are located somewhat close to where the highest demand fluctuation will be, to limit electrical transmission losses.

Re: Wind power

not only that but if the heat generated by the diesel generators is applied to pre-heating hot water and either steam or hot water for building heat, it can be significantly more efficient by saving additional power that would be used for building and water heat. Additionally the hot water and exhaust heat can generate chilled water for summer cooling via an absorption chiller.

Co-generation. It's a GOOD thing!

Worthy of mention, DG's can run off of natural gas as well as propane and diesel fuel and whatever else makes sense. The only difference is the fuel system i.e. the way the fuel is metered and injected. The rest of the system is identical regardless of fuel type. So if fuel types change radically it should only be a matter of a relatively quick retrofit.

Firefox points the way to eradicating one of the rudest words online: PDF

Re: Use tools for what they are good for

I have actually made it possible, within some limits, to display an HTML interface on multiple differently-sized screens (for embedded) such that no matter how large or small the screen is (physical and/or resolution), the interface remains the same relative size with a similar appearance.

Careful use of 'rem' and '%' in sizing (and being explicit about it), as well as setting the size of the default font for 'html' style section to be according to that screen size, makes it possible. Then you can put anything wherever you want it to go, and as long as the aspect ratio of the display is reasonably close, it will work and have a consistent appearance. (this is using Chrome in kiosk mode of course)

So within reason, it IS possible to set up your style sheets and web paghes to display them consistently (within reason), just not necessarily easy. But, if needs demand it, it CAN be done, and is practical to do.

And In My Bombastic Opinion the web page rendering for portrait mode on a phone should always say 'please rotate your device 90 degrees'

Re: I don't mind PDFs

those consultants seem to be having a competition as to who can get their clients to install the worst possible User Interface.

/me looks at this page, right now, is reminded of recent 2D FLATTY changes to its appearance as well as the uber-tiny edit font, and agrees.

Re: I don't mind PDFs

I use PDF to e-mail invoices. easily created. And I do NOT like in-browser PDF readers!!! I use atril on FreeBSD or Linux.(the 'system default')

Fortunately Firefox (last I checked) allows you to pick the system default PDF reader, or even force to "Save File" to avoid opening in the browser.

But I _NEVER_ use adobe, not since a version of it prompted me for MY E-MAIL ADDRESS... and hit the internet for a bunch of GARBAGE. It came pre-installed on that computer (a win 7 box). Uninstalled adobe, installed e-vince (which has a winders version), never looked back.

20 years on, physicists are still figuring out anomaly in proton experiment

Re: New physics?

a database and some charts would've been more useful and easier to read...

(I guess you could say he published an ASTRONOMICAL number of papers on his idea...)

Re: A smashing time

more like an X ray if you think about it, one that is unfortunately destructive. The thing is you kinda need a "something" that you can fire at it that is small enough to get any kind of resoloution, even if that just means a splat on the wall. But yeah, ball bearings shot through an egg. Or maybe 00 buck shot.

Re: It's a facinating field

actually it reminds me of resonance. This is the kind of thing that needs to be leveraged for fusion energy. A resonance at a particular energy could be used to make fusion happen more readily, or might prevent it. In either case it is important.

Yep. Energy resonance. Makes the most sense to me. Like an atomic tuned circuit of sorts. Now hit it with particles at THAT energy and see what it does. Might be interesting.

("resonance capture" of neutrons is a known phenomenon in nuclear physics, like with how fission works. At some neutron energies, generally during the thermalization (slowing down) of the neutrons, the neutron is captured but does not fission the nucleus of the fuel. It is considered to be a loss factor, like neutrons leaking out of the material. Making this 'slowing down' distance shorter helps to keep resonance capture from happening)

TikTok accused of covert plot to track specific US citizens' every move

This is not a surprise

I'm glad the article is documenting this, but it comes at no surprise.

[if you have a kid, tell him he can use TikTok when he pays for his OWN PHONE AND CELL SERVICE - In My Bombastic Opinion]

Windows Subsystem for Android declared ready for prime time

Re: WSA or ASW?

I've been to busy to get Win-II running in a VM. found articles on how to do it just haven't yet. But similarly, windows XP, 7, 8.1, 10 run fine in a VM.if I must use them. I *DO* have a single Windows 7 Pro box that I got at the tail end of its commercial availability though.

Re: WSA or ASW?

SImilar, Windows Subsystem for Linux.

From the perspective of Micros~1 it makes sense.

It's kind of like you are dealing with hardware that has serial comms and the docs get "upload" and "download" backwards. Seen that more than once. The people writing the docs see it from the perspective of their gear, not of the control program running on the PC, slab, or phone. So they will upload their file to your control program, rather than download it from the device.

make sure you apply it to the end that goes 'oink'

Re: Nice one but

no such animal on my farm.

animal. farm. Orwell. Heh.

On a related note, does THIS mean I can target Android as my ONLY development platform if I want to, and NOT EVEN BOTHER with Win-10-nic nor Win-II unless I write it for 7???

I still need to target Linux/BSD of course but who knows, maybe a proper 'droid subsystem for those as well,...?

[/me came up with a nice way of doing a 3D skeuomorphic button for Android using the 'droid SDK and Java - time to change the world!]

Block this: Using satellites to plaster ads over our skies could work, say boffins

my first reaction to this was "thanks for ruining the view". I happen to like looking at the sky, especially at night.

it would only work in the southern hemisphere

Mask gizmo wirelessly transmits data on wearer's health

Re: And if that doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, we don't know what will

What would probably make most of us rather more uncomfortable would be its application to underpants.

Shhh... don't give them ideas. The original is creepy/1984-iash enough. More reasons to NOT comply...

a worthy mention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP3zRBtgvJo

'Fully undetectable' Windows backdoor gets detected

would the inrusion work if you ran libre office instead?

Just curious if using Libre Office generically protects you

(I expect it would, like NOT using Outlook, etc.)

Waferscale, meet atomic scale: Uncle Sam to test Cerebras chips in nuke weapon sims

Re: "should global annihilation ever be desired"

we still need nukes so that we NEVER USE THEM. This is because there are still evil people inthe world, many of them tyrannical leaders of nations that either HAVE nukes already (Russia, China) or want to GET them (Iran) as well as those who have enough to get attention when they throw tantrums (North Korea).

As for me I live near the center of a radius of 4 (yes, 4) military bases, one Marine Corps, and 3 Navy, and often see/hear jets and helicopters as they practice in the air space above my head. If Putin lobs nukes at America, I *AM* ground zero. If there are warning sirens I will go outside, look in the direction I think they are coming from, and stick my MIDDLE FINGER in the air until they go *BOOM*.

at least I would have the satisfaction of being DEFIANT until the end!

Collapsed Arecibo telescope to be replaced by school

"Our priorities are all screwed up"

You are NOT wrong. I question the motives behind THOSE priorities, and the conclusion I come to is the same plague that has, well, *plagued* human society since it began - the quest for power over others, by tyrants, and the desire to MAINTAIN THAT POWER at all costs. And maybe to PROFIT from it along the way...

/me hearing Muse's "Compliance" and "Uprising": alternatetey running in my head at the moment...

As for replacing Arecibo, would a space-based telescope at a lagrange point be a better idea? Perhaps a very fine metal mesh could be extended 10's of meters as a parabolic reflector to form a giant dish antenna,... [earth moon lagrange, earth-sun lagrange, any of them] and distance from earth would help with "radio pollution"

Using the datacenter as a dining room destroyed the platters that matter

Re: No explosives in the tech support room

having diplomas does not equal having intelligence

Most of us understand that all too well. But you can NEVER successfully explain that to an "academic"...

Re: No explosives in the tech support room

Student: Hey professor, what you get when you mix this Toluene with this Nitric acid?

Professor: You get an 'F'.

Re: Smaller buddies

your computer has bugs in it. Still an ENTIRE ANT COLONY is pretty impressive!

Similar kind of "bug" story,. working on systems that involve coin counters, one of the newer ones kept malfunctioning. Engineering setups and whatnot are all out in the warehouse area with the tools and mechanical things so occasionally insects fly in through a loading dock. One day boss is checking out coin counter operations and it keeps failing. After opening it up, he found an insect inside that was apparently causing the problems. It probably landed on the loading hopper and fell in and could not get out.

(silly insects)

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/worlds-first-computer-bug/

Infosec still (mostly) a boys club

Re: Sometimes they're just not interested

Pre-1970's required either card punching (like a typewriter, kinda) and maybe even wiring changes (women with smaller hands may have been better suited for this).

The nature of the change was probably that "programming" became more "engineering" and less like "tech work" or "office work".

Do not forget that a woman invented COBOL, Rear Adm. Grace Hopper. (While in the Navy at the Orlando base, I saluted her once when she was still a Captain, having the need to go near her office for some reason).

Re: Schooling

how did people in days of yore come to the conclusion that males would be better suited to shop vs home economics?

SImple: traditional roles at that time were more suited to success than non-traditional ones, though in modern times men and women do not rely on one another in "traditional roles" that way because we no longer seem to NEED that 'family model'. Sadly it probably made the divorce rate higher as people (in general) no longer seem to NEED a marriage for a family to have success.

100+ years ago food preparation was STILL a huge time consumer, and 'heavy labor' (ditch digging for example) was still done the hard way with shovels. So guess what the curriculum taught young boys and girls? SURVIVAL skills!

100 years later that has changed somewhat. Even when I was in Junior High (70's) there was occasionally a "boys cooking" class available [I left that district before I could go there, and I had signed up for it before we moved]. And both shop AND home economics were electives when I was in high school. Maybe it was not like that everywhere, but you have to understand that the world of 100 years ago was really NOT that long ago in terms of human history.

And traditional male/female roles existed because it was MORE SUCCESSFUL that way.

Re: Schooling

Starting with computers doesn't have to be as intimidating as STEM makes it sound, but it needs to start earlier than it does.

Right. All grammar schools should teach the basics of computer programming (procedural thinking, "if" statements, basic input and output in console mode) as early as 3rd or 4th grade, once the kids learn long division. It should be a mandatory part of the math curriculum, assuming that it is not already there. And for those who can do it already, an "advanced" track separate from the others (self-study with individualized goals).

Maybe Python for beginners (I learned BASIC in high school but I think Python would be better) and Javascript for the more advanced 3rd/4th graders (or languages like C++ if they can 'hack' it). Learning programming should be like learning Algebra, which should also start as early as 3rd or 4th grade [once basic arithmetic has been mastered].

Starting with a "hello world" type of programming assignment, to get used to the environment, and then quickly moving to asking for console input and then reacting to it. ("enter Y or N" "You pressed Y"). And so on.

Re: Change has to start the second they're born

I admit I only scanned through your post but got the gist. This "change from birth" idea has all been tried before, over and over, starting DECADES ago, and failed miserably every time.

You cannot deny the genetic programming associated with X and Y chromosomes. Boy and girl babies generally act and prefer things as boys and girls always do. Boys given barbies will treat them like toy soldiers, etc.. It's just part of "the difference" which I am _SO_ glad is there! So giving them "opposite" toys does NOT change their nature. [insert lame man vs woman joke] "a SEXIST would say...!" (could not resist, GG is HILARIOUS)

As a general rule women seem to want certain 'different things' from their careers than men do. Not as a specific, but as a generality. As such, women (apparently) often accept things from a job that men do not, INCLUDING lower pay, although in my opinion a manager who observes that a female employee is being UNDER paid should step in and correct it, because, RETENTION. So maybe THAT is "a fix", of sorts. (OK some labor law out there might already require it, but still).

So, like always,. you cannot up-front claim "discrimination" or "anti-diversity" or "we need more women" etc. until all of the facts are clear. Not that it is not worth pointing out, just not worth an overkill overreaction.

Canonical displays controversial 'ad' in shell update prog

You normalise it here, where does it end?

Exactly! And I like your point about Stallman supporting spam-mail... when it first started.

Re: apt-get is infected as well

Devuan maybe? (It's all I use these days whenever i can avoid something infected with systemd)

Re: Why not just do it above board?

some flavors cost money but you get something for that (like support)

Most linux distros cost nothing in money. but occasionally I have fixed bugs and submitted those fixes to OSS developers. That is also a "cost" if you think about it.

In principle I agree as everything has a cost of some kind. But the truth is, a monetary cost only exists for SOME flavors of Linux.

And Canonical is BLOWING it, big time.

From the article: you get an unsolicited ad for the scheme – and some users are not happy about it.

Only SOME users? (I think most who are angry are a silent angry majority)

Soaring costs, inflation nurturing generation of 'quiet quitters' among under-30s

Re: Keeping up your CV and not good for your career

sadly that reply post got that many up-votes.

You should pick a career where you WANT to go to work every day, AND get paid well for doing it. Otherwise, 40 something upvotes for being so dissatisfied in the chosen career path, and all of those downvotes for what should be considered "good career advice". Sad.

probably nobody will see this 17 days out. had to say it anyway.

When you sign the FRONT of the checks, you learn and understand a lot about how the business world works.

And "*FEEL*" becomes IRRELEVANT. As it SHOULD be.

Microsoft leaves the Office, rebrands everything as 365

Re: The Microsoft Department of Renaming Things

I read it as a Department of Reaming Things! What's wrong with me?!

"Freudian Slip" Dylsexia. Happens to me a lot.

Re: Wake me up

I actually got scolded and even ridiculed once back in 1997 when I was doing remote work and I was e-mailed a document "in the new format". I asked very nicely if I could get documents in RTF format, got the scolding and ridicule, and ended up paying $$$ for the NEWER Office 97, which had CLIPPY in it. WORST. PURCHASE. EVAR!

Re: Orifice at work Libre at home

ACK on 1900 not a leap year. Occasionally I need to dredge up my old date to days algorithm and that one 'if' statement about leap years being divisible by 4 and either NOT divisible by 100 (1900), or divisible by 400 (2000), but that may not work with non-Gregorian calendars or the various times in which a calendar correction was made. Still ok for anything after the 18th century.

(last time I used it was re-writing some bloatware web page calendar javascript data entry thingy for picking a date, for which the old one was some canned BS-ware that used, of all things, JQUERY - when I got done with it, NATIVE JS ONLY - and the adaptation of 30 year old C code was pretty straightforward)

Re: Lipstick: meet pig

by all indications, including the overall shape of the logo,. they failed to put the lipstick on the end that goes "oink"

Re: If you simply never sign up, that problem solves itself!

part of the online identity, timesharing, and cloudy storage model is the ability for 3rd parties and gummints to see where you are and what you're up to... (where exactly in the world is that server located?)

Re: Pass me the incense and put the whale song up to 11.

must've calculated it with a Pentium-1