Posts by bombastic bob

Boeing 737 Max chief technical pilot charged with deceiving US aviation regulators over MCAS

Re: Some extra info

stupid computers cannot spell and autocorrect just proves it

Space boffins: Exoplanet survived hydrogen-death of its host star

Re: No way to get solar energy by then...

some time in the next billion years or so I think we'll just move to a different neighborhood. How long does terraforming take... ?

So far all of the speculations about "how many stars have planets" (before exoplanets were discovered, anyway) lowball reality by a significant amount. With current models, most (if not nearly all) stars have planets (including this white dwarf system). The next guesstimate, "how many can support earth life", suggests there are a LOT of potential new planets to discover and visit in the next billion years [and maybe terraform and live there] long before Sol runs out of gas.

within a couple of centuries it might be practical to use starships with fusion-based impulse engines, that can harvest liquified gasses from gas giants to spew out the tailpipe (you need mass more than velocity with an impulse engine for any kind of thrust efficiency) and accelerate to a high enough fraction of C so that the astronauts don't have to breed to keep the mission going... and a 100 year "earth time" mission becomes more reasonable, at least until FTL is invented at any rate.

Devuan debuts version 4.0 – as usual without a hint of the hated systemd

Re: recent hardware

it could simply be that Debian's tendency to opt for stable vs cutting/bleeding edge (and Devuan being based on Debian) means that installing on bleeding edge hardware could always be an issue.

To save money I usually do not get bleeding edge anyway. Devuan works well for me. I think I'll try the new one on an RPi and see how that goes.

ha ha ha ha oh were you being serious?

(laughing harder now)

Saturday start for NASA's Lucy probe on its 12-year quest to map Jupiter's Trojan asteroids

Re: Near Jupiter?

you do have a point (geometrically), though being part of the orbital system of Jupiter might (in some vague way) make them "near". Is there a better adjective for "a member of the orbital system" ??

(Greeks and Trojans for now I guess)

still kinda fun that the gravity depressions caused by Jupiter's L4 and L5 attract so many natural objects, many with (apparently) stable orbits. Well, we'll know for sure within the next decade or so.

I bet if you wanted a really cool space telescope you could do one at Earth's L4 or L5 if it has not already been done. Stable orbit and no nearby planets or moons to occlude or out-shine things, direct line of site for radio comms.

Re: Beware!

Crazy Eddie - didn't he used to sell electronics in New York City back in the 80's ?

(he was in the movie 'Splash' as well)

Luuucyyyy - I'm HOME!!! Ayayayayayay... (I used to watch those re-runs when I was a kid)

Re: Fun factoid

PUN-ishment.

Apple warns sideloading iOS apps will ruin everything

Re: Law of unintended consequences

you reminded me of a South Park episode regarding Kyle, NOT reading the EULA, and Steve Jobs (and the new Apple i-something). yeah I think that's what it was. heh.

Re: App stores are de-facto monopolies and should be treated as such

Once the monopolistic control exists, those who perceive themselves as "owning it" are VERY unlikely to relinquish their power and control, even a fraction of it. Kinda like GUMMINTS, that way.

Control freaks control (In My Bombastic Opinion) NOT because they are benevolent and/or best suited for the task, but because they FEAR, and "control" assuages their fear by giving them a false (or sometimes REAL) sense of, well, being in CONTROL. (as such they can NOT trust)

Fearing loss of power or money or ability to manipulate the market sounds like a likely motivation to want to retain monopolistic control, at ANY cost even.

And MY behavior and use of a product (or anything ELSE about my life) should NOT be dictated by "someone else's FEAR".

Electric car makers ready to jump into battery recycling amid stuttering supply chains

Re: Shoudl have from the start

leasing a battery actually sounds smarter

Re: Shoudl have from the start

14k miles per year? Seems low to me (only ~50 miles per day 5 times per week). Don't forget air conditioning for those mega hot freeways, or heating in places where it gets cold as hell. If traffic is stopped, your AC and heater do not. Yeah weather plays hell on batteries (and range)

Perhaps it's improved a bit since the Prius days but as I recall I knew a couple of people who had them and battery replacement was their biggest gripe. Battery replacement was every 2-3 years as I recall. Those were the earlier versions, so I suppose it's a bit better now. And even if manufacturers warranty them for 100k miles (apparently they do, but at 60%-70% capacity or something like that) it may not cover the fact that capacity has dropped significantly by then. It's a fair bet people will have to get them replaced MUCH more frequently than advertised.

Electric cars seem to be for people who do not commute any significant distance, do not live in rural areas, and do not need (or want) to drive for long distances EVAR. No road trips for you, you have an electric car. And that battery you're using in freezing weather (Chicago let's say) or hot weather (L.A. or San Diego areas, especially away from the coast, maybe with a mountain between you and your destination) is being stressed in ways that significantly affect its ability to operate. I have to replace a regular car battery every 3 or 4 years for that very reason (weather, age). I would expect something like a Li-Ion or LiPo battery to be about the same.

Re: Shoudl have from the start

the oil companies already do that (recycle motor oil). And if you get your oil change done at the dealership, Ford just sends the used oil to them.

You have to replace electric car batteries every couple o' years or so. At that time the old ones could be recycled. All you need to do is make it CONVENIENT. A bin outside of a store. Automatically done for you when you get new batteries. A refundable core charge. Things like that. Doing that already with Pb-acid batteries so the supply channels are already there, just modify for Li-whatever.

No need for "recycling fees" - that's just a SCAM anyway. There are better and more economically incentivized ways of getting recycling to happen (the CARROT, and not the STICK)

Re: "Less than 5 per cent of lithium-ion batteries are recycled today"

you want the process to include grinding 'em up into bits, then extracting the rare earth metals like you would from ore, or that seems to be what was suggested in the article. then size and shape of old batteries will not matter. Heh. ('she said' joke withheld)

Shatner breaks the age barrier, goes where no nonagenarian has gone before with Blue Origin rocket trip

Re: I was going to be mean and small-minded

if Walter (Koenig) or George (Takei) get a shot, they'll have to drive

Re: NCC-1701

don't forget the leitmotif music...

Zero-day hunters seek laws to prevent vendors suing them for helping out and doing their jobs

Have a beer!

(a BOFH's job is never done)

Re: Reverse Engineering is a gray area

oh, no EULA violation. gonna take away my birthday!!!

File this under "no good deed goes unpunished"

How Windows NTFS finally made it into Linux

Re: Is this for systemd?

I'd rather see Windows boot from EXT4 or ZFS

Re: Bad feeling

what is especially important is a reliable file system recovery DVD that boots into live Linux and then lets you fix things, do backups and restores (without windows interfering, as with the registry) and things of that nature. I DL'd such an image a few years ago and it had an alpha-quality NTFS driver, but something that's part of the kernel and "blessed" makes this more practical.

Re: Title to long :whaa:

I've never seen the point in Fast startup or Hibernate, first thing I disable on my personal machines.

Agreed, though I have seen some people close laptop lids, pack in briefcase, then re-open in another spot and "just keep going". I prefer doing proper shutdowns and restarts.

Android OS vendor variants transmit data with no opt-out

there's no way to opt-out of this data collection.

maybe sue them for THEFT OF BANDWIDTH???

(and then a method of opt-out, or better, opt-IN, may present itself in a subsequent update)

And then there's GDPR... any takers?

Behold the Megatron: Microsoft and Nvidia build massive language processor

Re: Bigger is generally better when it comes to neural networks.

If they're ever to make it useful, they need to make it generate a set of AI parameters that can be applied to a much more modest hunk of hardware. Maybe the mega-AI-thingy with zillions of cores and parallelism is needed to establish those AI parameters, but once established, it should be possible to bake onto a single piece of silicon on a PCIe board or inside of a USB device... or just soldered onto a motherboard.

(I suppose it would be a kind of 'codec')

Re: Cleansing datasets

I've often considered 'FEEL' to be "the F word"

So "go FEEL yourself" comes to mind...

When criminals go corporate: Ransomware-as-a-service, bulk discounts and more

Re: The internet is not the ordinary world

mail is sent from somewhere. Is there an automated utility that you could use to scan headers, find out the original sender, and generate a complaint to the 'abuse@' for the owning mail server owner and/or netblock containing that IP address??

(it's a fair bet that it was hijacked, right? Telling them may cut down on it. It's a lot of work, though. And I admit I generally do not file complaints on EVERYthing trapped by my system, but the more heinous examples become "my new special friend")

Microsoft turns Windows Subsystem for Linux into an app for Windows

Re: Corporate enviroments

Xming or similar as an X server and you can run GUI applications across the network via 'DISPLAY'.

But I'd rather use Linux as the host and remote desktop for windows, if it had to be 2 separate machines. Then I could use Mate and NOT HAVE 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE everywhere.

Re: WSL-as-app

WSL "the app" is part of the whole "Embrace Extend Extinguish" master plan.

I think we're currently on 'Extend'...

From the article: "and in the long term we'd like to move WSL users to use the store version"

a) entice us into using a CLOUDY Micros~1 LOGIN to run their CRapp from "The Store" (instead of native system and local logon)

b) strong-arm us into ONLY BEING ABLE to use the CRapp with a cloudy Micros~1 logon if we want WSL

c) EXTINGUISH TIME!!!

I see a pattern...

Judge rejects claims Cloudflare should be held responsible for customers' copyright infringement

Re: "We agree with the district court’s reasoning"

I actually AVOIDED using the gun analogy to support the O.P's. argument. Have my downvote.

Re: "We agree with the district court’s reasoning"

Attacking Cloudflare for hosting infringing sites is like attacking those who make roads for facilitating a criminal's getaway.

I had a few other analogies in mind, but this one is pretty clear and "a good match" where comparisons are concerned.

Facebook, Instagram finally end days of uptime by returning to some downtime

Re: Can't create adverts? They've started sending them out again, even when asked not to.

google "fixed" it so that half the devices/browsers I use [and those of a couple of others I know] cannot access any kind of google service without getting a 403 error (or similar) in the process. IMBO, it is TOTALLY google's fault. Happens with Chrome, too... but not Firefox (go fig), same machine and/or IP address. And an Android device does it, too. And an iPad. Weird huh?

Just as well, I do not like their policies. And i recently learned how to tell Chrome to use a different search engine.

Re: Again?

thank you!

(see it is all in fun)

Re: Again?

I should make 'Nih' my pronoun. Also 'Ecky Ecky Pakang ZOOM Boing'

As for FaeceBan, WHEN will they EVAR learn to TEST things before deploying them?

And, FB should ALSO take this opportunity to LEARN why it is that SOME of us RESIST CHANGE... (you know, reliability, well tested, system stability, "it works", things like that)

i.e. they need to STOP "FIXING" THINGS that are NOT broken!! (assuming FB is not simply broken out of the box)

It's not like they deserve having things like this happen to them or anything...

[since I do not use it I can just sit back and laugh and eat popcorn]

US nuke sub plans leaked on SD card hidden in peanut butter sandwich, claims FBI

Re: Restricted?

when I was in the Navy it was like this:

For Official Use Only (just don't go and disclose it, seriously nobody needs to know this)

Confidential (power plant info and engineering specs were usually Confidential)

Secret (may be a few of these on a sub, like current position may be Secret, depending)

Top Secret (cannot confirm nor deny - that's what they tell you to say)

and whatever else they need, "eyes only" and whatnot. You had to have a need to know, and a clearance.

'Restricted' is like 'Confidential' I guess...

Windows what? PC makers have bigger things on their minds

Re: Hardly a good time to push out a new version that interests no-one

time will teach Borkzilla

assuming that the marketeers and overlords at Micros~1 can actually LEARN something...

and if you sat a running Windows 7 machine next to a running Windows 10 machine on a store shelf, all other things being equal, GUESS WHICH ONE WOULD SELL FASTER???

(this is why you generally cannot buy the older version of windows, even when people want it)

A car engine is usually massively overpowered for the work it does. And yet that extra horsepower comes in handy whenever you want it to. [similar with PCs for people who occasionally compile programs from source, or crunch numbers]

US nuclear submarine bumps into unidentified underwater object in South China Sea

Re: You would think by now...

Magnetic anomaly arrays stuck out of the front and back

When you ARE a magnetic anomaly, its hard to detect other ones that are nearby...

[having them on aircraft with non-magnetic construction seems to make the most sense].

An object that emits no sound (and is not shadowing others) is simply difficult to "see" under water.

But if I were to guess, it was something similar to a 'Crazy Ivan' maneuver (re 'Hunt for Red October').

I _may_ have once seen a damaged submarine nose cone that looked as if it had been chopped by a propeller... or it could have been a really fat whale wut broke it. I do not believe it made the news, either. Fortunately its a bit like a car bumper to replace one. (they need to be nice and streamlined though to allow for higher speed without flow noises, so even minor damage and you need a new one).

Re: Hitting a container?

My understanding is that shipping containers sometimes 'float' semi-submerged, depending on their contents

that's interesting but I would not expect it to remain that way very long. As sea pressure increases, the container would compress; if/when ocean got inside the container, the stuff within the container would soak it up and/or compress. This would tend to make the whole thing less buoyant.

now if it were in the PROCESS of sinking, then yeah, by random chance a sub could hit it at high speed and cause serious damage, and injury to the people inside.

Subs generally do not go fast near the surface (fast enough to cause damage/injury as I perceive it would be in a collision). They DO go fast while deep sometimes, if the crew needs to get someplace. And as a sinking container gets deeper, it would actually get heavier and sink better. But there would be a time window when a collision is possible...

Re: Hitting a container?

subs haven't been double hulled for a VERY long time. Some of the earlier ones were, but the idea was quickly abandoned. Basically a sub hull is a long metal tube made of high tensile strength steel (or perhaps titanium in the case of Russian boats) with frames but no strakes, all welded together (no plates or rivets). Nothing like old WW2 sub movies anyway. A bit like 'Hunt for Red October' and 'Crimson Tide' though.

Re: Hitting a container?

Do subs hover so close to the sea buttom?

Not generally but if an operation required it they're usually capable of doing so without crashing into things.

It's a fair bet they knew exactly where they were when it happened, and what the proper depth should be, etc..

Or possibly they were just looking for something, unusually close to the sea bottom. "Found it!"

NOT having a large submerged object on an existing chart (so that they avoid it) either means it's something mobile (like another sub) or "was put there" for some reason. A shipping container that had fallen from a surface ship is unlikely to be large enough to be a navigation hazard like that.

And if it's large enough that people were actually injured when they crashed, it was a seriously HUGE object, WAY bigger than a container.

[on my first underway, the sub struck another one during sea trials and had to go back to the shipyard to have its rudder repaired. I did not even feel it (I was asleep though)].

As for fixing the sub, I bet they'll be able to fix it properly in the shipyard. The newest ones actually use modular construction (from what I've read anyway).

Nearly 140 nations – from US and UK to EU, China and India – back 15% minimum corporate tax rate

Tax applied based on REVENUE, and NOT PROFIT? As in, EVEN if the company LOSES money they have to pay the tax ANYWAY?

Watch 10,000+ people lose jobs just to pay the tax at some point... and it won't be EXECUTIVES.

Re: And who pays those corporate taxes?

how about if gummint JUST STOPS SPENDING AND RE-DISTRIBUTING SO MUCH MONEY?

Re: And who pays those corporate taxes?

and investors as well - higher corporate taxes mean lower dividends, lower stock value.

corporations do not actually pay tax. Only people pay it. And if you have a retirement fund, chances are the yield will go DOWN as corporate taxes go UP. After all, retirement mutual funds often have stocks as part of their portfolio.

bullet meet foot. How's that "soak the rich" thing working for ya???

icon because facepalm

Motivated by commerce, not conscience, Google bans ads for climate change consensus contradictors

Not just the comparison of 'greenwash' purchase being like the indulgences themselves. Let's not forget the religious nature of the so-called "consensus" regarding anthropogenic "climate change". Then, the comparison becomes even MORE 'spot on', all things considered.

Consensus != Science

(hypothesis, experimentation, verification, repeatability, review - THAT would be science)

The so-called "consensus" fails MOST of the true definition of science.

Galileo's observations eventually won the argument against the religious interpretation of the day, which in MY bombastic opinion, is very MUCH like "consensus" vs actual science.

(and cancelling those you disagree with, simply because YOU are more powerful at the moment, isn't welcome in a free society, RIGHT Galileo?)

Reason 3,995 to hold off on that Windows 11 upgrade: Iffy performance on AMD silicon

Re: Windows 11

yeah an artificial "NEED" to 'UP'grade your hardware and ARTFICIALLY create a "new computer" market. Where have we seen this before ... ?

C-C-C-Catch the wave! New WINDOWS (vista) !!!

(obligatory 'New Coke' Max Headroom reference mostly because Micros~1 is repeating their mistakes AGAIN, the same kinds of mistakes Coca Cola made with 'New Coke')

Re: Good to see

in the REAL world, security does NOT mean a performance reduction. If there IS one, and it is NOTICEABLE, you need to re-think your architecture.

Just because Micros~1's "solutions" (like Defender re-scanning your newly built executable and DLL files EVERY! TIME! YOU! BUILD! YOUR! PROGRAM! as one irritating example) most DEFINITELY get in the way of performance, does not mean it MUST be this way.

It's LAZY to sacrifice performance in the name of "security".

Windows 11 in detail: Incremental upgrade spoilt by onerous system requirements and usability mis-steps

Re: No right-click copy? No sweat if keyboard shortcuts still exist

and I thought that if you swipe something you could go to jail...

Re: Windows 11 brings more into the modern UI but it remains a hybrid.

Does anyone know if Classic Start Menu runs on this abberation ABOMINATION

Fixed. you're welcome. And, I would expect classic start menu replacements to work, at least for now, because (apparently) Win-10-nic compatibility was part of the "Windows II" spec. Until "they" break it on purpose (so you do not bypass the ads)

(so is the '11' actually 1.1 or the roman numeral 2 ? Or BOTH?)

Re: "design paradigms from those devices could successfully carry over into a new Start"

young whippersnappers continually glued to their mobile phones

Otherwise known as "4 inchers" i.e. they see EVERYTHING through a 4 inch phone screen.

* always viewing in that horribly stretched portrait mode that looks like viewing through a keyhole

* sit in public texting other people that are sitting within CONVERSATION distance

* nearly always fondling and caressing the screen - could NOT go 24 hours without the cell phone.

* permanent crick in neck

* need to have phone ON (and active conversations) while driving

* anything happens, the phone camera comes out (in portrait mode of course) and it gets uploaded to some bandwidth-wasting social media crap pile

etc. - and they APPARENTLY ignore the last 40+ years of computing history (since punch cards, and Xerox PARC) in which the keyboard+mouse input and 3D skeuomorphic overlapping window display was shown to be superior. "It must CHANGE, because OUR TURN NOW!"

yeah pretty nauseating.

Re: Windows versions

a security monitoring company here in the USA has TV ads with a spokesman (an obvious thief) named "Robbert Larson". We could call it THAT (or similar to avoid trademark theft)

Re: Flat UI fans

We all consider Vista to be a big footgun moment for MS. But... will W11 be an even bigger one?

This comparison was running in my head the entire time I was reading that article.