Posts by bombastic bob 10944 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
the recording industry has traditionally used a small number of highly successful musicians to LITERALLY FUND A WHOLE LOT OF CRAP. This has resulted in a number of independents going around the recording industry's TOLLWAY and a few bands and artists having to CHANGE THEIR NAMES to get out of CONFISCATORY CONTRACTS.
Basically, the "Engineer formally known as XXX" should NOT have to give up ANY kind of reward for success to a bunch of incompetent or 'focused only on what HE likes' coders or "copy-pasta-master" scripters, or anyone else NOT the one who earned it.
(Apply this same kind of thinking to the jungle and it's SURVIVAL OF THE LAZIEST)
It fairly pointless mining on a "PC" anyway,
And in some places electricity is WAY too expensive (Like Cali-fornicate-you). It's basically costing the end user a SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER AMOUNT (higher electric bills) in a hidden way. Anything above "idle" on the CPU has a cost. Modern CPUs are very efficient and only 'sip' power when idle. AND, they guzzle it (by comparison) when going "all out".
donation buttons are more efficient, and less irritating, even when not everyone donates.
although it was not directly obvious to me from the article, my guess is that the user simply logged into the publisher's web site with a Google login, and the publisher used the appropriate scripty things to make that happen, excluding the IP address anonymization stuff that apparently has to be ADDED IN A SPECIAL WAY to comply with GDPR, but the code that was copypasta'd from Stack Overflow (ok that was snarky of me) did not include this one provision, nor properly warn that it did not comply with GDPR (so it's "not my fault" from the publisher's viewpoint). Or something like that. Heh.
Once they switched on IP anonymisation they were fine.
apparently the instructions/guidelines for implement6ing whatever the publisher implemented are not clear enough. Wouldn't that be Google's fault? "Oh crap I forgot to add that line of code" should NEVER happen. And just why WAS that 'anonymizer' (apparently) "OFF be default" ?
But of course I would prefer that Google STOP TRACKING PERSONAL INFORMATION ALTOGETHER.
(and do not forget flying pigs, and honest politicians, and snowballs in HELL, and other impossible things)
as often as not In My Bombastic Opinion, "autism spectrum" includes GENIUSES and COMPUTER GEEKS by its broad definition. You can add AD[H]D to that list as well, In My Bombastic Opinion.
that being said, the guy managed to stay UNDER THE RADAR until he was 32, so STILL might have fit "the profile" of this kind of criminal when he (allegedly) first started out, learned to like it, and accelerated to the point where he got caught.
and did anyone mention what version of Windows Server and Micros~1 Exchange they were using?
(kinda like a certain politicians's e-mail server maybe?)
(Unpatched Windows server and whatever version of Exchange came with it are probably at fault, or that would at least be my first guess, and I would laugh really hare if it were Win2k3)
/me puts in a plug for FreeBSD and cyrus imap
Case law grows by interpreting the legislation in relation to specific sets of circumstances.
In the US, as I understand it (and IANAL) there's no legal precedent without an appellate judge ruling on it, and possbly in several jurisdictions, before it can be used effectively in future cases.
Otherwise it is just one judge's opinion. (I would expect UK law to be similar)
Still a libel lawsuit against a "fact checking" news organization might be fun to watch. Let's see just how good their "fact checking" REALLY is... or whether they are yet another pipe organ for agenda-driven activists.
SPECTOCULARS
Not bad. I thought of 'SPEX' but it is already taken (in several different forms)
(Then again, 'already in use' hasn't stopped them from trying anyway)
This reminds me of that Futurama episode where the only names left "not copyrighted" were popplers and zitsels (or something like that) so they chose 'popplers', and then Lrrr's people found out about it...
"they" (Micros~1) wanted everything that was even REMOTELY a game to become adware or premium-ware available ONLY through "The Store", like they did with solitaire games, but "Modern": UI performed like CRAP - and so they DROPPED it because it actually LOOKS BAD UNDER UWP/TIFKAM.
Anyone else have a better explanation?
decades ago MS had a version of notepad that I think was called "multipad" which was basically an MDI notepad that was part of the windows 3 SDK as an example program. As I recall, it simply uses the built-in EDIT control with some other basic features like file save/open, clipboard, and searching.
If anything were to replace it, i suggest pluma (the editor for Mate based on gedit 2.x)
why does what you said remind me of Neville Chamberlain... ?
although there will certainly be those who do NOT see a problem with communist aggression, the reality is that THIS is MOST CERTAINLY communist aggression, from CHINA!
Then ask yourself: Who's next?
(what DO they teach in schools these days?)
Let's just call it what it IS: "Invasion" (not "unification")
[When Germany did this to France in 1940 we called it what it was.]
Using "their term" is a bit like Chamberlain's appeasement policy isn't it?
This sounds to me like offshore production needs to move back ON shore, ASAP.
2025 is only 3 years away, and is ANYBODY constructing a new space station yet? Yeah better kick the can down the road a bit in the mean time...
Looks like the ISS must follow in the footsteps of Mir and the Space Shuttle, living WAY past its (original) project expiration date.
(that is NOT necessarily a BAD thing as I see it)
I suppose you could say the same about things like Mars rovers, too.
you can still get the 'dumb' versions of various appliances (including phones), last I checked...
normally I do not look at nor consider 'ecological' or 'environmental' (or even political) things when I buy something. It's nearly always price vs features. The limited budget I have to buy things with requires it.
And usually the 'dumb' versions cost LESS. I call THAT a feature!
when you give an answer they don't like, they'll ask you again, "just to make sure,"
This reminds me a bit of those Apple vs PC ads - "Cancel or Allow"
And I recall the 'Microsoft Account' part of setup to be a LOT more heinous and strong-arming... having to jump through the right hoop to get to a screen that would actually LET you create a local user account.
(not like I do this every day, just to set up a test version in a VM)
Some marketeers are SO good at what they do, they could sell ICE MAKERS to people who live in a permanently frozen climate. That being said, they could ALSO convince people that Windows 10 (or 11) is better than other operating systems...
(Audiophile overpricing seems minor compared to that LAST thing I mentioned)
you reminded me of the opening sequence for 'Idiocracy' where the DUMBEST people were the only ones actually breeding. That being the case, wouldn't a dumber population have a HIGHER birth rate? The sucker being born every minute rate would soon become an exponentially increasing sucker:unit-of-time ratio... as the population explodes into an 'Idiocracy'.
Brawndo - it's good for plants!
pyrobot - the robot that halts and catches fire!
It could just be the capacitors...
I could have made a 486 CPU running an old x86 version of Linux work with >20 year old Linux software do a better job. I actually tested FreeBSD 4.7 through 4.11 on an old 486 (kernel+world took >24 hours to compile but GUI performance was actually acceptable). [Worth mentioning, even on that ancient hardware, I was quickly convinced that FreeBSD would make a better daily driver and server OS than anything post-XP excreted from Micros~1, beginning with ".NOT", and soon after, FreeBSD 5 became the OS for my main workstation]. And with "modern" display hardware, it would ACTUALLY WORK (and quite possibly MORE reliably). A typical touch screen with a basic USB 1.0 compatible HID interface could do the same job with that old hardware+software as it does with newer stuff, minus the ".Not" b0rkage. Seriously, COULD be done. (but finding a working SATA adapter or replacement iDE drive for it would be difficult, so it'd probably work better to use an RPi with Raspberry Pi OS on it)
i have recently done a lot of touch screen UI stuff using an RPi, and with Linux on it, the CPU load is small, unless you use Chrome for a web-based UI, in which case Chrome is a pig and hungry for a faster CPU and more RAM. But something more native generally performs nicely, even on an RPi 1.
".Not" tried to fix DLL Hell by inventing NEW ways of B0RKING THINGS UP.
Well, at the very least, that b0rked display in the article was 3D SKEUOMORPHIC looking.
What have you been drinking?
Koolaid perhaps? (But I think he meant the opposite)
Circling back to the topic, I wonder if they'll go after ASCII art as well. I have several good ways of indicating naughty bits with standard ASCII characters floating about in my head... like maybe naughty emojis or similar
*naughty-bits* <-- insert imagination here
specifically, R.O.C. and unfortunately the source of the parts is no longer visible on various distributor sites so I cannot tell where they are being made. As I recall a couple of components were being made in R.O.C. at the time they went short and the availability is unstable. One I designed around by selecting a different component with negative logic and fixed it in firmware. I recall having seen tariff info on these parts so most likely R.O.C. but now it's no longer there, for good or ill.
What R.O.C. does (in many ways) is a kind of "lock in" that involves their internal tax code, moving parts from one area to another (or import from Taiwan or elsewhere) often having a tariff or VAT applied (or it used to, may have changed). So they built a bunch of factories of various kinds of components near to where board assembly is done, no tariff except at the end, unless you buy parts "elsewhere". This also affects design choices. End result, if an entire TOWN gets shut down due to the virus or a whim or anything else, you end up with shortages. All eggs, one basket again.
Paul Atreides (Dune) would say that "He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing."
Though this may not be the case with the RPi part shortages (which may be affected because of simple re-prioritization), it is ONE of the factors in the international supply fiasco.
just pointing out the obvious: "Let's make EVERYTHING in China" - bad choice, obviously. Obviously NOW, that is. (when 'second source' is ALSO the 'first source' there IS no 'second source')
Sometimes, when the lemmings are running towards a place that everyone ELSE seems to say is REALLY GOOD, it does not necessarily mean that the proverbial cliff (that is rumored to have lemmings stampede to their deaths off of) is NOT dead ahead... even when such a thing has allegedly been debunked. "There is NO cliff" "the basket will hold" "look how much less it costs to have it made over there" etc.
And now it looks like bean counters were VERY, VERY WRONG. We taught our world-wide competition how to make our stuff, we invested OUR money into building all of our new factories there, they effectively hired slave labor to make the stuff, nobody else could compete so they stopped making stuff everywhere else, the rest of the world looked the other way from all of the various abuses and just quietly moved everything "off shore", and now, HERE! WE! ARE!!!
Is anyone ELSE *NOT* surprised? (and yet I have to assist others with working around this problem, more contracting work for me if it is solvable, but what if it is not, at least not in the short term? Re-designing the circuit board to use a different component may take longer or cost more than paying some scalper for components at 100 times the original cost)
yeah they're just pissed about not being able to monetize user data in a way that can't be seen by Japan (or any other country that passes similar laws). So they'll aledge it will "cost the end user" in some way, instead of just ADMITTING THEY DO THINGS and supporting disclosure and opt in/out requirements along with it.
In other words, if they cared about end-users they would adopt GDPR-like policies WORLD WIDE, and just say somewhere "Our data is kept in servers in these places" and correlate it with the country from where the user signed up. Should not be too hard, right?
(icon because it's moderately amusing to use it for this case)
flouting the rules can reduce access to jobs, education, and even access to high-speed internet.
Apparently in China, it is "cancel culture on steroids".
I wonder what they'd do to you for a WINNIE THE POOH costume...
I ran the list through google translate, saw some specific mention of the use of hats and clothing that had faces of Chinese communist party leaders on them, and the practice of folding or otherwise distorting the hats and clothing to produce (assume humorous) facial expressions. That actually sounds kinda funny!
my 'least favorite' one is a derivative of "People that are smarter than you are already working on it".
But the truth is that people who say such discouraging things are simply TOXIC and should be removed from any position of influence immediately.
As for brain-controlled things, back in the 90's there was this arcade-style video game in a computer store that had a couple of 'things' to put two fingers in, one for the right hand and one for the left. it was a downhill skiing game with a slalom course and you needed to "think right thoughts" for it to go right, and "think left thoughts" for it to go left. I played it for a few minutes, got the hang of it pretty fast. I haven't seen anything like it since.
