* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Americans should have strong privacy-protecting encryption ...that the Feds and cops can break, say senators

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: This is like the political argument that huge tax cuts pay for themselves

I think what you want to do is mention something about 501(c)(3) in the USA, which _APPEAR_ to be somewhat ABUSED, to not only SHELTER income from taxation, but to use it improperly to engage in (let's say) questionable purposes, like political activism (right George?)

So, for THESE very rich people, who might have a foundation or 10 that are 501(c) tax exempt, all of the money poured into these non-profits is just THAT, i.e. TAX EXEMPT. if you THEN use it to "buy something" you want, whether it's inflated salaries to friends and relatives, or uber-special vacations for board members, and maybe some stealth-political-activism in the form of employees that are effectively paid to BLOG all day, you end up amplifying the effectiveness of whatever money you funnel into these things. And your personal overall effective tax rate gets lower, and lower, and lower...

But of course you'd have to be SUPER wealthy for any of this to work.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: This is like the political argument that huge tax cuts pay for themselves

The Laffer Curve discusses this sort of thing

/me withholding political pontification on this subject - worth mentioning I don't agree with a lot of the details in the wikipedia article, yet it DOES describe the basics pretty well

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Really?

"the tool - whether a gas pedal or encryption"

or a knife. Or a firearm.

Internet jerk with million-plus fans starts 14-year stretch for bizarre dot-com armed robbery

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

well, it's DEFINITELY one for the "dumb crook file". But I think America makes it easier for criminals to TRY that kind of stuff [hence our jails are full].

(in some places, the local crime boss would 'take care of it')

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I feel sorry for the defence lawyer...

in seriousness, the adversarial court system for criminal trials is there to make SURE that the guilty person is the one getting punished, by giving as MUCH advantage to the accused as possible.

That's the argument, anyway, and without proper defense, the prosecution might as well be a 'Star Chamber' trial. (Or somethign that the US House of Reps does when run by the current bunch...)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I still can't help thinking about lawyer jokes at the moment...

(like using lawyers instead of rats for experiments because there's some things people wouldn't even do to a rat)

Managing the Linux kernel at AWS: 'A large team of security experts' dealing with fallout from Spectre, Meltdown flaws

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Schlaeger is doing the right thing

competitive advantage, yeah.

Some of what the article was talking about includes some "marketing-spin" kinds of info, talking about Nitro and what it does, etc. which is good since it's informative, but you have to expect every spokes-droid for AWS will put a market-spin on things whenever possible.

Still also worthy of mention: if you do not RE-DISTRIBUTE open source software to 3rd parties, you do NOT have to disclose your patches!!!

Just thought I'd mention that...

Amazon: Trump photon-torpedoed our $10bn JEDI dream because he hates CEO Jeff Bezos

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Shut him up!

yeah that'd really fix things. It would also revive USENET (maybe alt.president.trump - heh). Then people would discover the TRUE freedom of USENET (or any other existing, free-er platform) and completely ABANDON Tw[a,i]tter. Yeah, maybe that'd be a GOOD thing...?

And 'silencing speech' like THAT might also get MORE (and more SERIOUS) 'unwanted' INVESTIGATIONS on the "social media empire" . [that TOO, might be a GOOD thing!]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Trump, bent?

"May the Americans have the wisdom to vote intelligently."

attempts are ALREADY under way!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Trump, bent?

"May the Americans have the wisdom to vote intelligently."

I agree with that statement, as a set of words forming a sentence. But the details most likely differ from your interpretation.

I *think* with my brain, and *feel* with my fingers - and THINKING is how *I* define "intelligently" - and when liberals vote, they usually 'feel', not THINK - and 'feel' is how politicians all too often MANIPULATE people (via emotional hand grenades) into voting away their own freedom.

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: How To Win Friends And Influence

Actually no it won't.

a *bit* off topic here (I'll attempt to remedy this), but if you define success as "convincing the senate to remove Trump" there's no way THAT will happen. You'd need 67 senators voting 'yes' to do that. Keep in mind when Clinton was impeached, for actually COMMITTING several crimes (lying under oath being a particular one, even got him dis-barred for a year), the senate would not remove HIM from office. Seriously the HR's "impeachment" is nothing less than a 'Schiff Show' as described by more reliable news organizations.

So depending on how you define 'success', i.e. "a vote to pass articles of impeachment" (will most likely happen) vs "the senate removes Trump from office" (snowball's chance in HELL of THAT happening), and the general view that the American public has over this obvious SHAM in the House of Representatives [while not addressing REAL issues like the US/Canada/Mexico trade agreement], it's a total LOSE for Demo[n,c][R,r]ats. (that last part is the key)

Anyway, you all brought it up. but if you don't believe what I'm saying here, I suggest checking out Fox News' latest headlines in that regard... the perspective might be "enlightening".

(and now steering this to be SOMEWHAT on-topic again)

Still I wouldn't put it past Bezos to execute influence over HR members (via lobbyists) to ADD HIS CLAIMS (related to the article) as another "article of impeachment" complete with secret hearings, scripted "testimonies", one-sided viewpoints, and laughable "charges".

[I've seen better con-jobs from street hustlers doing 3 card Monty, as compared to what Demo[n,c][R,r]ats are attempting to do with 'impeachment']

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

DAMN those torpedos... (full speed ahead)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: But ...

maybe paying EXTRA to NOT have them is OK with MS?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: No one is crying for Amazon

"This is kind of awesome to watch Amazon on defense for a change"

(If this forum had attached images I'd attach one of a baby crying)

Personally I would expect the decision to have been an ECONOMIC one, and possibly one focused on entirely on RELIABIILITY. Maybe Microsoft and Azure is just BETTER?

MS already had a "Windows for Warships" kind of thing going. And it's also possible that the DOJ was concerned about SJW-types mucking with things in some kind of internal company politics... [yeah THAT doesn't ever happen, right Google?]

And while the public probably will NEVER know all of the details of the decision [some of which MAY actually be CLASSIFIED] I doubt Trump influenced the DOJ with any personal malice towards Bezos.

Still it makes for a fun read, with Bezos crying like a baby over this...

Remember the Dutch kid who stuck his finger in a dam to save the village? Here's the IT equivalent

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: DIKE

"Such a predictable comment."

And yet, STILL funny, EVERY! SINGLE! TIME! <-- best said in the same voice as 'Beetlejuice'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

you said it before I had a chance (heh). But my comment would've been something like "Didn't the Dutch boy stick his finger into something else?"

And I heard a rumor about changing the planet's name to "U-rectum" (obligatory reference to Futurama)

WebAssembly gets nod from W3C and, most likely, an embrace from cryptojackers online

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alert

Re: Flash ah aaaahhhh!

yeah how long before HTML5 is abused to jam WEB CONTENT WITH SOUND AND/OR VIDEO into some web page you are viewing (no, wait...)

Then what happens when WebAssembly makes this "even easier" for THE WEB PAGE AUTHORS (read: scammers, trackers, and advertisers) to do?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Like Java?

amazingly Java still manages to be #1 or a very close #2 on the TIOBE index. But it _does_ run cross-platform. And on Android. But of course what Android apparently does is re-compile it into something native, rather than relying on running Java's pseudo-code. And, THAT causes significant startup delays every time something "upgrades". I HATE that. (let me start my slab up really quick so I can test this... OH @#$% the @#$% @#$% just @#$% had to UPDATE, and now I have to wait for @#$% @#$%^ @#$% to finish before it'll finish starting up, @#$%!!!)

i can't imagine what would happen if you get a WebAssembly "thing" somewhere down the line, where it's forcibly 'optimized' (read: re-compiled for up to a minute or two) while your browser and/or the content on the page has to WAIT FOR IT because, "updates". Yeah, does not happen FOR NOW, because it runs that code with a virtualizer. but that's not FAST ENOUGH, and you know, it COULD become NATIVE CODE, and next step in the "evolution" puts us into the situation I JUST described, and and and (you get the idea). And we ALL know who devs LOVE to SHOVE THEIR UPGRADES into our body orficies, because ALWAYS BETTER even with FEATURE CREEP!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

those young whippersnappers... [get off my lawn]

"new generations growing up and re-inventing the wheel because they weren't around for the previous debacle."

Or, in the case of the invasive/pervasive 2D FLATTY McFLATFACE FLATSO FLUGLY interface "design", re-inventing the wheel "for the lulz" "because they CAN" (and TOTALLY b0rking it, out of arrogance NOT going back to what was OBVIOUSLY BETTER BEFORE) and THEN cramming it into EVERYONE ELSE's body orifice and calling it "modern".

Because, after all, it's "their turn now". and everyone over the age of 'whatever' is OLD and STICK IN THE MUD and WRONG and WON'T LEARN and and and... [you get the idea]

yeah having all competing choices (effectively) taken away is the MOST irritating part. Expect WebAssembly to do THAT, too.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: I will not use this

"Java plugins in browsers worked by Java having arbitrary access to the machine and then imposing its own (broken) security model. That's why Java plugins are basically dead now."

That's part of it, yeah [probably the biggest part]. However, what makes you think WebAssembly is NOT heading down the EXACT SAME PATH? I suggest that it _IS_.

"Unsafe at any speed" - kinda fits this, too.

Do you REALLY want automatically downloaded PROGRAMS being run by TRACKERS and ADVERTISERS (and scammers) running on YOUR computer? Just like the way I block scripting with NoScript, this 'WebAssembly' crap needs the SAME kind of treatment. Ideally, it can have a finer level of control applied to it, such as blocking 3rd party scripts, block 3rd party WebAssembly, or ALL WebAssembly for that matter...

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: I will not use this

hopefully NoScript shuts that *#!+ off, too.

from the article: "wasm modules operate in a sandbox that isolates them from the host runtime"

I've heard this rumor about JavaScript, too. And yet, HOW MANY TIMES has it BEEN ABUSED to SPY on us, STEAL CPU CYCLES for crypto-mining, and so on???

FACT: This is 3rd parties RUNNING CODE on YOUR COMPUTING DEVICE, quite possibly inviting RANDOM 4TH PARTIES [advertisers] TO DO THE SAME.

Yeah "no security risk" doing THAT, right?

My hacker-mind ALREADY envisions the potential abuse of THAT kind of "open-ness" on the CLIENT. And it's as bad as the first MS-DOS viruses and MAC viruses that prompted an ENTIRE INDUSTRY of anti-virus tools.

NO THANKS opening my LINUX or FreeBSD box up to the SAME KINDS OF CRAP that Windows users have to protect themselves from...

WebAssembly: *FAIL* (might as well use embedded Java objects, and WHY was that dumped again?)

If you want an example of how user concerns do not drive software development, check out this Google-backed API

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: "We received very positive [..] feedback from partners"

from the article:

"this seems like a very clear privacy risk"

that's kinda what I was thinking, too, while reading up to that point.

obviously NOT the feedback Google was referring to

How to fool infosec wonks into pinning a cyber attack on China, Russia, Iran, whomever

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: It's too simpled to be anonymous

agreed, being truly anonymous is difficult these days. we all have an IP address, and it doesn't change often even for dynamic providers... unless you're behind an ISP NAT, in which case the ISP would have to divulge which IP you're on.

the tracking techniques employed within/by browsers and web servers have been mentioned in too many 'The Register' articles to count, more recently THIS one (using DNS to stealthily track you).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

false flag is as old as warfare. Stealthily attack your enemy, blame their OTHER enemy for it.

Sun Tzu's book is full of stuff like this.

As far as general deception goes, it's like "the art of warfare is deception".

Being 12/7 (Pearl Harbor day for those who failed history, ha ha ha) I ought a leave a nice WW2 example of deception in warfare, of how prior to D day, General Patton was put in charge of a fake army complete with rubber tanks and jeeps, which were basically movie props, moved about by soldiers every day so that it would look like a real army to Nazi reconnaissance. They made it look as best as they could that they were going to invade at Pas de Calais, but it was really Normandy [which we all know from history class]. Anyway, this kind of thing is as old as warfare, too.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

any black-hat worth his hat color would assume a few things up front, and most likely know what info is being sent or left behind when malware strikes, and ALSO know what to modify in order to cover his own tracks.

Otherwise he'd be laughed at for being such a "script kiddie". It kinda reminds me of the movie 'Hackers' when one of the n00b guys tries to impress his friends by cracking into "the Gibson", but he did it from his home phone, such that the call could be traced. And of course, it was. Anyway, it (somewhat humorously) illustrates the point that if you do something nefarious, you have to leave no breadcrumbs.

Or, in consistency with the article, plant bread crumbs that lead authorities to the wrong place.

(I'm a white hat hacker with a touch of grey - I'm not opposed to doing things that might be considered 'black hat' if it's for the right reasons)

Elon Musk gets thumbs up from jury for use of 'pedo guy' in cave diver defamation lawsuit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: courts and justice in the US, it's a (medieval) joke *spilling hot coffee*

if you sp8illed McDonalds hot coffee in your lap, you could extort $million from them just like someone else did a while back...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: No winners in this one

seriously, $$$million for "being called a name" ?

Worse things have been said about me on the playground when I was in school... and that's the point - being a hypersensitive snowflake and then getting REWARDED for it [well the lawyers will be rewarded] because Musk is a "deep pocket rich guy" is *WORSE* for society than any of the alternatives.

similarly, treating people different because of how much money they make is *DISCRIMINATORY*. Think about it. Next you'll be wanting to charge MORE MONEY for a loaf of bread if you earn millions per year...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: in musk's mind

that's interesting, I wasn't sure what he might have meant

HOWEVER, there are a couple of things that have come out of this case that are important:

a) free speech

b) "deep pocket" victims of frivolous lawsuits

A defamation claim of millions of dollars is ludicrous and obvious greed. A public apology might have been more appropriate. Who knows Musk might have done something cool in the guy's favor if he'd just simply said "hey, I don't like being called a pedophile, why are you doing this?" on the twitter feed. THEN Musk might have had a chance to apologize or explain.

But NOOOooo... rich guy Musk is a "deep pocket" target for lawyers to EXPLOIT, and *THAT* is at the center of the problem.

hyper-sensitive snowflakes notwithstanding...

Den Automation raised millions to 'reinvent' the light switch. Now it's lights out for startup

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: ???

well, "cool factor" often sells gadgets.

but the gadgets have to IMPROVE things, at the very least being "same level of performance" plus whatever they add.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: There ought to be a law

I would expect UL (and other) listings to include a test for this

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Boy genius

"success is also more about luck than hard work"

No, I disagree on SO many levels. I won't downvote you, but in a free society, you MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK. Try it, you'll see.

(it's an 80's thing, yeah)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Boy genius

"success is more about hard work and perseverance than about genius."

and EXPERIENCE to augment all of that.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: What?

when I read that I knew where the design problems were.

I would just like to say one word: "inexperienced".

This is why companies hire ME to do contract work for development rather than some youngin' that's right out of college. DECADES of experience tell you that you must focus on things LIKE reliability and safety and security when it comes to IoT devices.

a) it must have a safety shutoff (especially to be UL listed in the USA), whether thermal or 'guaranteed off' or a physical switch internally, or whatever. SAFE.

b) it must be possible to operate it WITHOUT THE INTERNET

c) it must NOT be vulnerable to cracking, like so many other things have been (smart light bulbs come to mind)

you focus on these things in the initial design. You prototype it with THESE THINGS WORKING when you solicit major funding. You do NOT rush to market.

But hey, the young and inexperienced must (apparently) do it the HARD way, even in an age where 'teh intarwebs' is SO full of information where you can learn from OTHER people's mistakes...

icon, because, facepalm

Windows 10 Insiders: Begone, foul Store version of Notepad!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: "users would need to reassociate filetypes"

when I've installed Win-10-nic in a VM for testing, it usually takes 5-10 minutes every time I add a new user, as well as a similar time "configuring" during the initial setup.

I'd say "fix that, please" before ANYTHING ELSE. It's almost CRIMINAL to act SLOWER THAN AN 8088 with something that ought to be SO simple to accomplish...

But, MS "majors in the minors" "walks over dollars to pick up dimes" etc.. They need to re-think their priorities.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Drive the drivers out

let's make ALL updates optional instead, and include a dependency tree, so that if you don't update something, none of the other updates that depend upon it will be "pre-checked" in the list o things to update [except for rollups]. Like it was.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Flame

when you say "modern" do you mean all 2D FLATTY with a ribbon and hamburger icon button rather than a traditional menu? "showing its age", yeah, right. I have a zillion pejoratives that are in my head at the moment, and none of them should be uttered.

"Modern" as defined by Win-10-nic is *HIGHLY* overSTATED. It's not "modern" at all. It's MORE like Windows 1.0 !!! [would paste obligatory screenshot archive link, but I'm lazy today]

ribbon, hamburger, fat-finger-friendly icon spacing, 2D FLAT appearance - not "modern" at all.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: I've only just noticed...

install Cygwin and use vi. OK I prefer nano or ee, but yeah. same idea.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: A good u-turn

"Problem with the store is that not everyone has access to it"

More like, Problem with the store is that it is full of CRapps and full of ADWARE.

The problem started when ALL of the previously included solitaire games were a) converted to UWP/Metro "apps", and b) loaded with ADWARE snd c) moved into "The Store". This happened during the original insider program. I griped. HARD. LOUD. They failed to even listen or respond. And I was not the ONLY one to give such "feedback".

Obviously the kinds of "feedback" that caused NOTEPAD to be "no longer a 'the store app'" was NOT significant enough "back then" to address the SAME kind of problem: "store apps" generally STINK. And replacing a perfectly good NATIVE application (that runs faster and better) with an inferior UWP "The Store" CRapp is just a BAD idea...

At least there's the APPEARANCE that 'feedback' is actually working. Sometimes. Maybe.

And, WHAT did they BREAK in the OS that would require Notepad to be UPDATED anyway???

(backward compatibility - what's that?)

Since the FCC won't act, Congress finally moves on robocalls by passing half-decent TRACED Act

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: The huge, almost unanimous 417-3 vote

I'm just happy it's a truly "bi-partisan" legislative victory for the people. So many congress-critters realized it needed to be done, and they just DID it. Slow clap for CON-GRAB.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Reboot

I don't believe FCC is doing a bad job. What they are NOT doing is OVERSTEPPING THEIR BOUNDS. You cannot just regulate for the @#$% of it because you *FEEL*. There has to be actual Congressional law by which you regulate and fine people for non-compliance...

So I say THIS is a start of what should have been done in the FIRST place.

(many of you are just angry because Pai isn't using the FCC the way OBAKA would have wanted it used, like cramming so-called "net neutrality" into our body orifices, in a heavy-handed power grab kind of way)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Color me skeptical

I expect Pai will uphold the law. He will HAVE to. The question up until now is whether the FCC already had the authority or not to do what this new legislation wants done.

in my opinion, Congress needed to pass the legislation. Now the FCC has a means by which it can legally go after these idiots who continue to abuse us with their @#$% robocalls.

Wait and see indeed. I don't trust ANY gummint agency to "get things right". Or, CON-GRAB, for that matter.

Mayday in Moscow as devs will be Russian to Putin mandatory apps on phones, laptops, TVs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: What next?

I think China is already going there...

I'm looking for the article, though, about mandatory installed government services software in China. I saw a news story today about foreign companies NOT being able to encrypt data sent from within China, i.e. the government MUST be able to spy on anything they transmit [or store, for that matter] within the middle kingdom. I'm trying to google-fu for it but seem to fall short on my search results for some reason...

(don't tell me they're filtering the search engines... ?)

and I think that may chase a few companies out of China. They'd almost be doing us a favor by driving people out, in my bombastic opinion.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: And now the serious moment is at hand...

so what if a Russian citizen installs Linux or FreeBSD... and does NOT install "the mandatory thing" ?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: And the joke is...

nice one. I was wanting to come up with something like this, you got there first.

At least it's not as bad as what China appears to want. No, wait...

Newly born Firefox 71 emerges from its den – with its own VPN and some privacy tricks

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

well, VPN (in theory) is your connection to their server, which then becomes your intarwebs gateway... or proxy... or whatever.

but yeah, its like a proxy server, except proxy connections generally aren't encrypted. So you _could_ call this a "VPN Proxy" I guess.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Can you trust FFox?

chrome is open source like FF but doesn't even PRETEND to not try to track you, etc..

However, dumping the chrome cache is pretty easy. It's all in the same directory. Just wipe it out, and the entire history and cache goes byby. THAT is pretty convenient, though ti should be an item in the menu to do that while the browser is running. [maybe it is NOW, but I've never seen it in the past]

I like chrome for SOME things, like 'slack' [which I use for work-related things sometimes]. But if the only thing running in chrome are those things you don't care about script/tracking with, it's 'ok' I guess...

(is there a 'noscript'-like plugin that would work with chrome?)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Privacy?

my favorite cookie-thingy plugin [which had buttons on the toolbar] no longer supports >= 57. But it allowed 'memory only' cookies, which would (literally) ONLY be stored in memory. Set that by default and hardly any cookies would be saved. I guess these other plugins do the equivalent of that? looks like I'll have to go look at them now...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Javascript

<i<Plenty of ways to recycle tech.</i>

ack (even a pentium runs Linux well enough to give to a kid to play with)

Occasionally a recycle company will do a neighborhood pickup here in San Diego. Just leave the junk out along with the paper thing they hung on your door and they take it. I once left a large screen broken DLP TV out for pickup that way. Another time there was a drive to bring stuff to a local high school parking lot, so I did that with a bunch of old computers.

(if it's convenient, people will recycle)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Javascript

it won't hurt the landfill to have a little gold, silver, and other 'precious metals' in it. It's only worth pennies to you, and you're just putting it back where it was found (in the ground) anyway, more or less...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Javascript

the constantly maintained youtube-dl pythyon script helps me watch videos. I only watch them after downloading. I get better resolution that way, among other things.