Posts by bombastic bob

Ubuntu Linux 18.04 systemd security patch breaks DNS in Microsoft Azure

it solves the "problem" of not being "modern" enough

AMD refreshes desktop CPUs with 5nm Ryzen 7000s that can reach 5.7GHz with 16 cores

Re: Very impressive!

built a couple of ryzen systems recently. 5+Ghz is an AMAZING feat! Glad to see it!

Maybe in a year or so I can afford it... (want want want want)

AI detects 20,000 hidden taxable swimming pools in France, netting €10m

Re: If it steers boots on the ground to double check

to avoid tax "sticker shock", particularly for those who could LEAST afford it, one great thing that cali-forn-you ACTUALLY did, before it fell off the cliff politically, was called "Proposition 13", back in the mid 70's. Housing prices were skyrocketing (you could turn a 10% profit by buying a house and paying only interest like it was rent, and then selling it after a year). Since gummints LOVED to re-assess the houses that were already paid for, the massive increases in taxation were literally driving grandparents and retirees out of their "bought and paid for" homes. SO, the law was RIGHTFULLY changed, in that once you buy a house, the assessed value can NEVER exceed the purchase price, for tax purposes anyway. That means that when you buy it, the tax is essentially the same until you sell it.

(It was one of the few moments of sanity that came out of Sacramento, nearly 50 years ago - and many of my high school teachers were REALLY MAD about it, because they LOVED their money-pile budgets, and they had to start LIVING WITHING THEM like EVERYONE ELSE!)

Re: If it steers boots on the ground to double check

I figure this may be a business opportunity to sell drone-targeting lasers and camouflage pool covers (at a price less than the extra cost of handing out even MORE money to gummints) to people who prefer privacy over the 'surveillance state'.

(I would not mind so much if my tax money really DID buy "civilization". But thinking you're buying "civilization" is just an idealistic dream, concerning the deep levels of waste, fraud, an abuse that is actually being purchased INSTEAD)

Microsoft adds virtual core licensing to Windows Server

Re: FUD

I actually saw Micros~1's new license policy as a clever way to:

* stop lawsuits in their tracks

* actually sell MORE licenses than before

(not like I'm gong to go out and buy a windows server license to run cloudy things because of it)

California to phase out internal combustion vehicles by 2035

Re: America without V8's just isn't America

better buy a new gas or diesel powered car or truck NOW, while you can, and keep fixing up the old cars!

(I happen to like the Ford Mustang)

Then, work freelance, get paid in half gasoline, half cash.

(Reminds me a little of "Dimension W")

On a more serious note, until ALL electricity is generated NOT from fossil fuels, which is really NOT possible, especially when you DOUBLE the demand by REQUIRING electric vehicles (unless THE PLAN is to keep the poor and middle class from OWNING VEHICLES, and therefore IN THEIR PLACE in the socio-economic world, like a SMUG WOKE SNOB would do) then without an INCREASE in power production, you'll either see RATIONING or EXCESSIVELY HIGH RATES or BOTH. Quite obviosly, there is NO SUFFICIENT INFRASTRUCTURE (unless you want to pretend to be a 3rd world country) and the cost of NEW electric cars AVERAGE over $60k! (and that's just the sticker price). And just as much exhaust (potentially) goes into the atmosphere from coal, oil, and natural gas power plants as did before from gasoline, except NOW you have power distribution losses to go with it, especially when demand AT NIGHT is likely to .exceed battery and transmission line capacity while MILLIONS of commuter cars simultaneously charge.

WOW, those MANDATES REALLY *DO* something WONDERFUL!!!

[N O T ! ! !]

Cali-Fornicate-You continues to INVENT NEW LEVELS OF STUPID.

(and WHAT percentage of all of that EXTRA COST for an electric vehicle IS FUNNELED DIRECTLY TO CHINA??? As opposed to the USA drilling MORE DOMESTIC OIL???)

honorable mention: Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority". The warning against throwing out an old technology when the "new, shiny" replacement tech is not NEARLY ready for prime time.

But it is MY BOMBASTIC OPINION that WOKE SMUG SNOBS (aka 'the political donor class') are behind this, they are VERY wealthy, they often 'feel' some kind of guilt for being wealthy, and ASSUAGE that guilt by becoming radical leftists and (through politiical donations and lobbying) force THE REST OF US to do *THEIR* *PENNANCE* whlle THEY continue to fly private jets, travel on mega-yachts, and air condition their PALACES while the rest of us ration, pay confiscatory rates, and DO WITHOUT.

Yeah, THAT is FAIR, right?

Python tops programming love list – but if you want a job, learn SQL

Re: "SQL coders"

stored procedures have their use but if you cannot change SQL engines BECAUSE of them, you should re-consider your current "locked in" status. This goes QUADRUPLE for MS SQL Server.

(my preference, PostgreSQL, as clean as possible)

But yeah, stored procedures dependent on proprietary features, WORST DECISION In My Bombastic Opinion.

Sometimes the problem is really the table and relationship design, and the initial query that gets your results. And a little bit of sane client side coding to do the things that are grossly inefficient when left up to a stored procedure... been there before. had to make that argument and then PROVE it.

Microsoft finds critical hole in operating system that for once isn't Windows

Re: From 'The 10 Commandments for C Programmers'

Thou shalt check the array bounds of all strings (indeed, all arrays), for surely where thou typest ``foo'' someone someday shall type ``supercalifragilisticexpialidocious''.

Or "Raxacoricofallapatorius"

Re: Surprised that strcpy still exists in any code base

you must be using a Microsoft compiler.

(The OTHER compilers may simply 'assume' that you have a higher level of coding competency - heh heh heh)

using grep strcpy

first thing I thought of (have done this to my own code at times, especially older stuff)

should be part of some lint utility, heh (probably is, in fact)

Universal Unix tool AWK gets Unicode support

Re: GIT- Aptly named

In at least one case the terminology (especially when directly related to github) seems bass-ackwards to me.

Specifically, "pull request" - usually when you UPload things, or submit things for review. it's more of a PUSH, not a PULL. I think "change request" or "patch request" or "update request" would make more sense.

And so, the "confusing side" of git, which in THIS case, is really a "GitHub-ism".

(otherwise to me it is just another source control revisioning system that happens to be popular)

In a time before calculators, going the extra mile at work sometimes didn't add up

Re: £sd

maybe it is how you are expected to use the measurement?

In car sales, higher miles/gallon sounds like a better comparison

In figuring out fuel usage, you know that to go 'x' km you need 'y' liters.

For the first one mpg is "better"

for the 2nd one, l/100km is a bit easier to figure out fuel needs (for a given distance) in your head.

I guess it shows that in the USA it's all about the marketing (not the practical use).

US Army drone crashes hours ahead of breaking flight duration record

sky writing?

Big Tech is building the metaverse of its own dreams. You don't want to go there

Re: It is inevitable and a lot of sci fi movies predicted it well.

nor "The Matrix"

Tesla expands Powerwall-to-grid program to cover most of California

Re: $2/kwh is a lot of money

Here in Cali-Forn-You expect to pay $.50 / kwh during peak hours. Or more, depending...

I shall not get into why, but when we had more nuclear and oil and natural gas plants, it was WAY less than HALF this much. But that was 18 years ago when Ahnold was Governor. Ahnold became governor due to a recall election of "Gray out" Gray Davis, whose policies had kept power plants from being constructed (as I recall). Ahnold reversed these policies and encouraged power plant renovation (etc.) such as the Moss Landing power plant (an oil burner), and new construction also (as I recall). THEN Cali-forn-you had PLENTY of electrictiy. And it was WAY cheaper, adjusted to inflation even. (I should know, I was here)

Cali-Forn-You STILL has some of the most expensive electricity, though. Even back then. Home solar systems with battery systems (like Tesla's power wall) in some ways help distribute the cost around a bit among individuals, but aren't a 100% solution. It is often VERY hot after the sun goes down (in August), and peak hours are from 4PM to 9PM (when electricity costs the most). Batteries only store so much.

Paying individuals $2/kwh for "peak power" is not unreasonable, actually, when the costis already so high, since it is an average of power generated by many sources, and that extra small percentage for brief periods of time will likely prevent the grid from collapsing. It becomes a drop in the bucket for electrical providers, and a cash boon for those willing to put their surplus power on the grid during the peaks.

It really does NOT have to be this way. We have the technology. But I think *SOMEONE* or *SOMETHING* doesn't WANT us to live like we;re in a 1st world country... so here we are,.

NASA has MOXIE, but rivals reckon they can do better for oxygen on Mars

Re: Yawn

To keep an atmosphere, Mars needs a magnetic field but also volcanoes. Both imply a molten core+mantle which, I believe, Mars does NOT have (quick research indicates partially molten core, speculative). You could bring the components to Mars, but for long lasting terraforming, the core needs to be melted somehow.

so yeah, a bit beyond 21st century tech, where we still haven't even sent people there.

Re: Good job....

I concur with your science. Seems like a good estimate.

1 mole O2 (roughly 32g) is 22.4l at STP, or about 100 moles per day by your calculations (about 3.2kg by this ballpark calculation).

I was actually thinking that if we could "lasso" a comet (or a big chunk of one) we'd have enough water ice to do quite a bit of O2 and liquid water, as well as HC compounds of various kinds.

Worthy of mention, there is a lot of perchlorate in the soil, which also contains oxygen, as does the oxidized iron that makes the soil reddish. You would probably, need some kind of water chemistry to release it, though if you could extract the perchlorates and make them into oxygen candles, then THAT would work nicely! Washing the soil to enable plants to grow is necessary. Using them for O2 and chloride chemicals may just be a plus side to an otherwise water-intensive process.

https://marspedia.org/Perchlorate

The CHIPS Act won't end US reliance on foreign foundries

Re: not going to help the automakers

I was thinking something similar, that we need fabs for resistors, capacitors, SMT inductors, discrete semiconductors, and small scale integration. I somewhat recently ran into supply issues with a small scale integrated circuit where there was NO pin for pin substitute. I managed to find one with inverted logic and fixed it in the firmware.

Still prior to 2020 all of those parts had good inventories at distributors and reasonable lead times,. After China started their sudden and massive lockdowns, it was like a crap shoot as to which components would run out any time soon. these boards are built in USA and Mexico so it would be a GREAT advantage to have fabs in N. America at least.

Re: water

the Texas "power grid" [snip] won't hold up to the growth they are trying to impress upon their urban and industrial areas.

How about a brand new power plant to go with it? I suggest nuclear, followed by oil, natural gas, and coal.

(It is common practice for planners to REQUIRE investment in infrastructure for new construction)

Re: water

'running fabs out in chandler taught them how to recycle fab water"

Thanks for mentioning that! (I like recycling)

China, US relations further soured by CHIPS Act

I say 'wait and see'

I am inclined to think that China's "bleating" and mention of the WTO is another example of "Mr. Pot, Mr. Kettle"

How about reliable supply chains instead?

NASA wants a hundredfold upgrade for space computers

Re: They're still around?

contradictions in design specs:

* must be fast

* must tolerate cosmic radiation

* must have low power consumption

Resolving those will be interesting for the engineers.

As for SAM processors, they work well for the purposes for which they were designed. Arduino uses the ATMel AVR and MicroChip bought ATMel a while back. They have not abandoned AVR support as far as I can tell, so I am happy with that. And ATMel already had SAM series processors using Cortex-M (aka 'microcontroller') which is a somewhat reduced instruction set (double-RISC?) designed for microcontroller use.

Still does not mean they cannot use the latest ARM core. What NASA probably wants is their experience with low power consumption and good performance, on-chip peripherals [which I REALLY like] and so on.

Plus for space they'll probably need sapphire substrates. I do not know if Microchip uses these at all (quicky search was inconclusive) but they may also have another way to do high radiation tolerant CPUs thatt we do not know about.

NASA uses occult means to spot tiny moon orbiting asteroid

"occult means" - heh, nice one

Using occultation - nice headline spin though

Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wear its cape

Re: Waste

"missing from your analysis is the carbon dioxide and methane waste."

As I see it, methane is burnable, and CO2 does nothing because [insert my usual CO2 argument here - if you want details and/or arguments about that, #ClimateChangeHoax]. So neither is a problem, In My Bombastic Opinion. And we can always plant trees...

In any case, nuclear power IS an important source of electricity, and nuke waste in general IS a problem so it needs to be re-processed and dealt with somehow (not just left lying in piles or buried in concrete).

I wonder - if you use radioactive steel to build more nuke power plants, wouldn't that be an effective means of recycling? The cobalt can be chemically removed. then it gets packed in concrete, but much less mass than "all of it". Slightly radioactive steel then becomes "a new power plant".

NOTE: radiation exposed metals need re-forging after a while because of the long term effects of radiation, essentially embrittlement. SO rather than burying the whole damn plant, you recycle what you can.

Clean up orbit first, then we can think about space factories, says FCC

Re: Big problem with limited solutions

slow relative-moving sticky gunk is probably as good as any other idea.

I was considering some kind of electrostatic field, and/or maybe an electron cloud. charged particles attract opposite and and repel like charge. Leveraging high static charges may allow some kind of 'sweeping' into some kind of 'dustpan'.

Pretty easy to make an electron cloud, even with static electricity, but you need to keep your total electrical charge "neutral". But if it has ion propulsion you can do this while moving forward. Let's say an electron gun (giant tube TV type) on the nose, and positive ions out the propulsion end. It would help maintain a balanced charge that way. Those electrons in the cloud negatively charge everything in front of you. Then, a lightweight net towed behind (sticky, with a neutral charge) to collect the negatively charged particles (and conductive so it can remain neutral). Care would need to be taken to ensure engine exhaust did not interfere but it is also something that could (potentially) help for the really tiny stuff in orbit.

.

May need to have a way of un-dusting solar arrays though... I'm sure debris would be attracted to them.

DuckDuckGo says Hell, Hell, No to those Microsoft trackers after web revolt

Re: DeadDoneGone

my main concern has little to do with what happens if I click on an ad. Once I end up on an advertised web page, any information about that ad can easily be tracked outside of anything Duck Duck Go allows (as far as I can tell), or at least _I_ could (most likely) write code to make that happen.

My biggest concern is a combination of tracking my search terms over time along with what non-advertised web sites I have visited. As far as I can tell, Duck Duck Go BLOCKS those things. (and if I access web sites that might try to track me everywhere I go, including work-related stuff like slack, they get accessed from a very sand-boxed web browser, usually one that deletes all history on exit).

And really what other alternative IS there that is better behaved? I have not yet found one. But, there's no stopping anyone from doing such a thing, and if a better one comes along, I'll probably use it.

GitLab U-turns on deleting dormant projects after backlash

Re: Neat, must remember to put bugs into code so it has to be continuously revised

if the reason for "dormancy" is either 'legacy' or 'was written correctly and needs no fixing', then there needs to be a different metric other than "no commits for the last xxx days". In fact, a STABLE project that RARELY (if ever) changes COULD be the ideal library or utility to include with your product or services... until it gets wiped away because "it has not been 'maintained'".

Even going into slow storage may be completely inappropriate. I hope they consider how often it is cloned or downloaded in that calculation...

US-funded breakthrough battery tech just simply handed over to China

Re: Sounds familar

Yes, sounds VERY familiar...

https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/07/fbi_and_mi5_china_warning/

*facepalm*

GitLab plans to delete dormant projects in free accounts

Re: A year seems a bit too low... Three years maybe?

Other than increasing the time, maybe a better metric:

* Project owner (and collaborative minions with admin level) have not committed anything to anything (including issues) during the same time period - so THEY are inactive, too.

* Project has not been cloned nor downloaded in addition to that (maybe for a shorter period of time)

* Project is not listed as a dependency for anything else that is 'still active'

and maybe some provision for archiving it as a dependency within the projects that depend on it., as applicable (so they do not break).

Then, only a project that is TRULY dead would fall off of the cliff and disappear, after a sufficiently long time, without doing any damage. Or, that's the theory. My guess is that this would be way less than 25%, though, and would not have the same financial bottom line effect of giving it "the chop" as the previous announcement might.

(Sort of a compromise when nobody likes the outcome, but it is the only sensible solution)

US regulators set the stage for small, local nuclear power stations

the real facts about small vs large reactors

well having actually studied "nukular" physics and operated a "nukular" reactor (on a sub) I probably have a *bit* of insight into the whole 'operation' thing and 'waste' thing and small vs large reactors, etc. etc. etc..

Small reactors require higher fuel enrichment, have higher neutron flux, and burn less percent of the fuel load before it has to be changed out. This means that there is more uranium in the waste, and operating radiation levels surrounding the reactor vessel are higher (particularly neutrons). That pretty much summarizes it.

But I do not get why 'they' apparently say "35 times as much" which sounds like a load of UNSCIENTIFIC B.S. to me. Higher amounts, yes (this also means it needs reprocessing to get the U235 out so it can go into another reactor). But the fission products themselves would have about the same yield as far as radioactive isotopes go - it's a physics thing. "Mae West Curve".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission_product_yield (it was called the 'Mae West Curve' due to its overall shape, originating during WW2 and the Manhattan Project)

That being said, small reactors tend to have negative temperature coefficients which is why they are used on ships (other than power requirements overall). LARGE reactors tend to have posiitive temperature coefficients. This makes them less stable (though still controllable) so they keep power levels at maximum all of the time, and control it using borates in the water (they absorb neutrons). The smaller reactors, however, respond well to rapid changes in demand (so it works really well for a ship) and the negative temperature coefficient is inherently stable. They tend to maintain temperature on their own even as power changes, without a lot of 'fiddling'.

Therefore you could theoretically use a small reactor as a 'peaker plant' to handle variable demand.

To me, this sounds EXTREMELY useful. Down side, LESS efficient than a large one (to operate, maintain, fuel, and so on). A small reactor would require nearly as many people to operate as a big one, for example, but only make 1/10 of the electricity (let's say) and require all of the same administrative regulatory compliance and so on. So it would have to be made PROFITABLE.

In any case there's already FUD (the "35 times" rectally extrapolated value with no clear source as to where it came from) getting in the way.

I seriously hope these business ventures succeed and ARE profitable. But unfortunately there are too many who operate by FEAR instead of by SCIENCE when it comes to nuclear power plants. And the usual roadblocks and red tape are the direct result.

Spent Chinese rocket booster splashes down over Southeast Asia

Re: HOW DARE THE CHINESE... NASA's exploding Space Shuttles fell to earth Predictably

CCP does not care about anything except the CCP (and world domination). I think we can expect them to behave like BAD NEIGHBORS, especially if letting us know about falling debris would in ANY way cause them to look less than perfect by anyone's observation.

Either that or it was aimed at Taiwan and they missed...

Bill Gates venture backs effort to bring aircon startup to market

Re: I'm either scientifically illiterate or evil, you decide

as if we need to live in fear of views we don't agree with.

Re: I'm either scientifically illiterate or evil, you decide

eh, I do my posting for free. It's a public service!!! [gotta get the word out]

By the way - the science of CO2 should be obvious to someone who took college chemistry. Or high school chemistry. Just study what an equilbrium reaction is. if you have EVER done a phosphate titration, you'll understand this, too. If you have NOT done anything like that, well, that explains a lot...

I made this graphic I have been posting a lot online, explaining in detail what I mentioned in my original post in this thread. It has charts and explains things more. You would have no trouble finding it if you are interested. It has science in it. Have fun refuting it. ( You can see it in #ClimateChangeHoax )

Re: Smoothing of use rather than cost??

Yes - the higher cost of electricity is usually due to varying demand.

Nuclear power has to maintain relatively constant power levels due to the physics.

Steam plants burning fossil fuels can more readily adjust to demand, but it is more economical to run them at relatively high power levels all of the time, and it takes quite a bit of time to shut them down and start them back up again.

Gas turbine and Diesel "peaker" plants are designed to quickly handle varying demand but since they only run some of the time (and often at lower efficiency, as I understand) the electricity they produce is MORE EXPENSIVE.

And when the wind does not blow, or there is overcast (or night), "green" power isn't going to help much.

The only practical thing left for varying demand is hydro-electric, and there are only so many dams.

So CONSTANT DEMAND (especially using offpeak power) IS a great idea, if you can offset usage from peak times that way. In my case the utility is charging differently for different time slots, so I run dishwashers and laundry and (sometimes) A/C during off-peak whenever I can. Not always possible, but I try. It saves money. If this were AUTOMATIC somehow, it would save money and ALSO even out demand somewhat.

Makes total sense.

Lest we forget...

The theory of 'Man Made Climate Change' caused by CO2 is a MYTH, since CO2 is so *horrible* at being a greenhouse gas. GH gasses are supposed to stop black body radiation from leaving the planet+atmosphere at night (which is how the planet cools), thereby keeping the earth warmer. But CO2 only affects a TINY fraction of the IR energy. MOST of that energy is kept on the planet by WATER ("the other greenhouse gas"). Additionally CO2 is at equilibrium between rain, plants, and the temperature of large bodies of water. Hockey stick graphs that have tracked CO2 since 1958 and TRIED to claim the CO2 is causing the warming NOT ONLY fail to take into consideration that warmer water (from temp cycles and active volcanoes) RELEASES CO2, but MOST of the numbers since 1958 were apparently tracked at MAUNA LOA, an ACTIVE VOLCANO in Hawaii (and YES, volcanoes gas TREMENDOUS amounts of CO2, even from soil [for miles around them], with MOST of the world's carbon existing in the MANTLE, where LAVA comes from).

Still, energy/cost efficient air conditioning IS a good idea. If I owned the place I live in, I'd try to set up smart fans and dampers in the attic, trap heat when cold, ventilate when hot, use prevailing wind with rooftop spinners, things like that. I mean we ALL want to save MONEY, right? So WHY CAN'T "THEY" JUST SAY "LESS EXPENSIVE" INSTEAD???

Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols closes hailing frequencies

Re: UK Born in 1966

"I never really noticed that Lt. Uhura was black."

And, THAT is the way things SHOULD be. I am a little tired of the 'tick the box' stuff that way too many people are STILL making a big deal about. At one time in history (the 60's) this was important. Nowadays, 'identity' doesn't really mean anything, almost like a participation trophy for people who have nothing REAL to contribute. (And continuing to point out 'identities', in my opinion, helps perpetuate the 'isms'). So your 'never really noticed she was black' is a pretty GOOD sign that things have gone in the right direction.

That being said, since Nichelle; Nichols actually accomplished some true anti-racism "firsts" on television in the 1960's (such as the first televised interracial kiss with William Shatner, which back then might have gotten the show banned) it was still important for her acting career and her role... because it was "back then when it mattered".

Also worth noting, there was a time when Nichelle Nichols did MORE Star Trek conventions than any of the other main actors from the original series, leading up to the first movie, if I remember correctly.

Sad to see her go. (She only got to sing in one or two episodes and one of the movies, and had a pretty nice jazz voice).

Microsoft warns Windows 10 patch broke printing for some

Re: Good old XP

I have a windows 7 box that NEVAR goes on Teh Intarwebs that has printing enabled, because if I do NOT enable printing, QuickBooks stops working. Not like I need it for ACCOUNTING or anything...

But yeah if the only thing I do on that box is QB and the occasional "windows thing" (not Teh Intarwebs) what do I need UPDATES for, when it is behind my FreeBSD FIREWALL (filtering the HELL out of IPv6) ???

Re: I don't see the problem

Maybe it would be fixed by using a Linux box sharing its CUPS printers via Samba.

Rejoice! System Administrator Appreciation Day (SAAD) is nigh

Re: Upgrade your hardware

maybe a chainsaw and hockey mask to go with it?

Cruise self-driving cars stopped and clogged up San Francisco for hours

Autonomous Vehicles all simultaneously updating their OS

Windows Update strikes again

Re: The robot uprising

I was thinking more like "Johnny Cab" from 'Total Recall'

"I am not FAMILIAR with that address..."

Get over it: Microsoft is a Linux and open source company these days

Re: Get over nothing....

When you look at everything they have done to WINDOWS since Win "Ape" (8) you cannot say they have STOPPED BEING EVIL, or even PAUSED BEING EVIL.

They are *STILL* engaging in:

* Strong-arm "Microsoft Logon" instead of LOCAL Logon

* FORCE you to update

* FORCE you to accept THEIR "new shiny" way, even if you were good at the OLD way of doing things

* FORCE you (as much as they can, without users jumping through hoops) to get NEW HARDWARE to run "The Latest"

* FORCE you to accept 2D FLATTY FLATSO FLATASS McFLATFACE UI with NO user customizations

* FORCE you to hit the cloud if you use their search, even for local files

* TRACK you and ADVERTISE to you, even when using YOUR COMPUTER (not their services)

The FORCING, the TRACKING, the STRONG-ARMING. *THIS* **IS** *EVIL* !!!

Twitter sues Musk: He can't just 'change his mind, trash the company, walk away'

Re: I'm generally a fan of Elon Musk but

I think it is a negotiation tactic, similar to when Trump walked away from N. Korea's "dear leader" at one point. Later it got settled with a reasonable agreement.

/me plays Kenny Rogers song.... "Gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run..." (etc.) I do not think that the merger/acquisition jungle is much different than a poker table.

So let's see if I am right - I think THIS will happen:

* Twitter admits to the bot/spam activity that is REALLY happening

* Elon re-negotiates the price to something lower than $44B

* it all goes through and shareholders are happy

* Twitter becomes a free-er place for self expression with fewer bots, trolls, and spamming

Re: What if Twitter were holed below the waterline

and CCP grooming

Here's one way past Moore's law: Chips that mix photonics and electronics

In reference to the 2015 announcement

seems like we might know where they [possibly] stole the tech from....

(I have a hard time believing that any kind of REAL innovation can come out of a communist nation, with scientists living under a constant threat of social credit scores and censorship. Such things are NOT conducive to creativity and innovation - and the CCP is well known to have stolen LOTS of tech over the last decade or so)

The tech is probably usable, at some point. Let's hope hat the "prior art" of 2015 does not allow the CCP to leverage the rest of the world with encumbering patents for [possibly] stolen tech.

[same kind of thinking with respect to 5G also, in recent years]

San Francisco cops want real-time access to private security cameras for surveillance

Re: There's a reason for this

in my opinion, "petty crimes" would include shoplifting, camping on public sidewalks, vandalism, battery, misdemeanor robbery, and things of that nature. jaywalking and nose picking (if that is even a thing) are infractions (like a traffic ticket).

But you are right. Being cited for playing music too loud is not the same as shoplifting less than a felony amount of goods, but in S.F. and L.A. they are NOT prosecuting those things and that was my point.

Amazingly, the small crimes are often also committed by those who commit the bigger crimes, and getting someone fingerprinted for a small crime might help to solve the bigger one while ALSO sending a message to "the outlaws" (a small number of people) that plague law abiding citizens (the vast majority) that the cops are arresting so they better watch their asses...

Re: There's a reason for this

The DA was recently recalled in SF over the petty crime problem. The thing is, the answer is very simple: you arrest and incarcerate pepetrators of things like vandalism, trespassing, public defecation, petty theft, and aggressive panhandling. you incarcerate and/or force them into programs (such as one designed to get vagrants off of addictive substances and into self-sufficiency) and those who fail these programs and/or go back to their lives of crime get REALLY incarcerated... for YEARS... keeping them out of THE REST OF OUR FACES and in JAIL where they belong.

If you excuse crime, if you overlook crime, if you simply DO NOT PUNISH CRIME the opportunists come of out the woodwork and do smash+grab robberies until all of the neighborhood stores cannot stay open, and they go elsewhere, leaving people out of work and customers having to go to a department store or megastore instead.

It is this policy and attitude of WOKE DAs (often sponsored by Mr. Soros for their elections), some of whom have been recalled (S.F.) or are in the process of being recalled (LA, others) that is at the CENTER of the crime problem.

Surveilance is not needed. ACTUAL POLICE WORK and DA PROSECUTION of even the PETTY crimes, is.

Recently a store employee in NYC was ARRESTED FOR 2nd DEGREE MURDER when he had been backed into a corner by a thug significantly younger and bigger than him, and the store employee stabbed him in self defense, causing the perpetrator's death. The angry girlfriend also had stabbed the store employee's arm. The store employee was IMMEDIATELY arrested, sent to Riker's Island (the WORST of prisons), with his stabbed arm NOT treated (it got infected), and given $250,000 bail, because HE DEFENDED HIMSELF successfully, with a knife. But the WOKE MANHATTAN DA did not even go after the girlfriend who had INSTIGATED the problem by going back to get her thug ex-con boyfriend because her "food card" (aka welfare) did not have enough money on it to buy a bag of potato chips and the store employee had her put the bag back. So the store employee, OBVIOUSLY in the right, 62 years old, gets a "visit" from the thug boyfriend (in his 30's) who then goes behind the counter and backs him into a corner, will not let him escape, and keeps hitting the guy, and would PROBABLY have KILLED him. It is all on video for those who have not yet seen it, and it has been aired in the USA on Fox News and all over social media. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF *THE* BIGGEST PROBLEM - PUNISHING THE VICTIMS and NOT THE CROOKS by WOKE DAs with a PRO CRIMINAL AGENDA.

And these "wokesters" want "more surveillance". yeah, right. I agree with the ACLU on THIS SPECIFIC point, for sure. NO MORE SURVEILLANCE, especially not with (potentially coerced) live-stream private cameras, NOT without a warrant and all of the restrictions that come with GETTING one.

Choosing a non-Windows OS on Lenovo Secured-core PCs is trickier than it should be

Re: Well, he was doing it wrong.

I would be installing FreeBSD. If Secure Boot can NOT be "just turned off" it's NO SALE.

Re: So vendors are content ...

Requiring, rewarding, or coercing Lenovo into blocking/hampering/disallowing Linux...

If it is FORCED by contract, ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT

If it is COERCED by pricing, ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT

If it is REWARDED somehow, ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT.

ANY interference with competing operating systems, EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT PAID FOR, would be an UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICE and (in the USA) be subject to PROSECUTION under EXISTING ANTI-TRUST LAWS. (opinion, IANAL)

I just wanted to point this out. And YES, if Microsoft IS doing this, they SHOULD be SUED for it.

Maybe the EFF?

Tech world may face huge fines if it doesn't scrub CSAM from encrypted chats

Re: Irrelevant really though, isn't it ?

what would happen if you use end-end encryption to send encrypted files? Just keep adding layers until "they" throw their hands in the air and give up.