Posts by bombastic bob

Game over, man: Microsoft test engineer who laundered stolen Xbox credits into $10m guilty of fraud

Re: "he didn't intend to defraud Microsoft"

"Criminal intelligence" vs "Real intelligence".

Those who are criminally minded can have genius-level IQ, and even reason things out logically and "intelligently", minus that ONE detail: they think like CRIMINALS.

As a hacker, I think like a hacker. Being white-hat, I dedicate that thinking to security and good design principles. I assume that many people can "think like a criminal" (especially in law enforcement) and catch these people. But I've known a couple of people who have this kind of "criminal mindset". You can't get them to apply their intelligence to anything REASONABLE. They'll ALWAYS be looking for a way to do some kind of scam or rip-off or outright EMBEZZLEMENT in lieu of working hard and getting money the honest way...

Total Inability To Service User Pulls: GitHub wobbles with a good old Thursday TITSUP

Re: FREE SERVICE! Get your FREE SERVICE!

I've worked with private github repos for 2 different companies. It's not free. But it's not expensive, either.

Re: Now Windows based?

regardless of detail, switching to Windows broke things in the past (not surprisingly).

I wonder how much of that breakage was due to case sensitive file names...

Of course NOW we have github, which is (no doubt) FILLED with case-sensitive file names.

My guess is Linux is run by the cloud instances. That would be consistent with the original development of git itself. And Azure should be able to handle that, right?

Campaigners cry foul play as Oracle funds conservative lobby group supporting its court case against Google

"Government interference in business doesn't seem to me to be a particularly conservative position."

It's NOT. Well stated.

Microsoft's Windows OEM, Surface sales looking a bit peaky as coronavirus takes toll on China supply chain

"Its not as if its a high fatality rate bug like Ebola"

it's about 3 percent, worldwide, from the information I've seen, and influenza is about 1%. By comparison, SARS was around 10% [if the information I was reading is correct]. So, like the Hitchhiker's Guide says, "DON'T PANIC".

Symptoms (viral pneumonia) are apparently more severe than others, but seriously, stay warm, drink some alcohol, take the right medicines [including things like tamiflu which have been reported to be somewhat successful] and avoid infecting others, and everything should just go away in a week or so. "Re-infections" are like colds, apparently, why SOME colds last for days, others drag on for weeks - cyclic mutations being ONE of those reasons.

Bacterial pneumonia is the REAL killer. But a viral pneumonia like this one makes it easier for the bacterial versions to take hold and kill you. That's usually why people die of it. So if you get bad pneumonia, you see a doc and let him prescribe antibiotics as needed.

Basically, do the same thing you ALWAYS do for flu season, when the strain-of-the-year causes severe chest congestion.

Now what they're doing in China, essentially going door to door and rounding people up and apparently sticking them in "corona virus" quarantine camps [I'm being nice by describing it this way], and shutting down ENTIRE TOWNS and thereby ENTIRE INDUSTRIES from this, I'd say they're in PANIC mode. They need to STOP THAT immediately, allow the WHO to get involved, work with the USA [we've got a potential vaccine in the pipeline already], and get this thing DEALT with, rather than playing "totalitarian regime" and rounding people up like cattle [and treating them as such].

Unless... they WANT to screw the world's economy for some reason... like playing a sick/twisted kind of hardball on trade deals!

Flat Earther and wannabe astronaut killed in homemade rocket

Re: flight in a MiG 29, and actually seen the curvature from the passenger seat.

a) purchase weather balloon and associated launch gear

b) put stereoscopic HD camera on it [with enough separation to make long distances measurable]

c) use photos to measure the earth's curvature (or lack thereof)

It _WOULD_ make a good public 'crowd funded' experiment project, though. Have some university science department do it, maybe. Invite one or two flat-earthers as neutral observers.

"should be allowed to run free on arbitrary and settled topics, so that voters are exposed to public nonsense and know what it looks or sounds like before the television debates happen."

Yes. Trying to "Protect" people from info-scammers and ridiculous notions by NOT exposing them (i.e. censoring it all) is like what happens to an overly sheltered child the moment he starts living in a college dorm room... or joins the military.

Anyone who's known someone who was raised in such a family (i.e. "the proverbial preacher's kid") knows EXACTLY what happens. This one guy I knew when I was in the Navy quickly became a porn addict - no self-discipline at all, He usually spent his entire paycheck on porn and strippers within a few days after payday, then went around trying to borrow money from people until the next payday - the stereotypical "preacher's kid" yeah - and I suggest that if he'd been allowed to make his own decisions when he was younger, he would have at least been responsible about it, instead of diving in head first into grossly addictive behavior when nobody was there to say "no" for him.

(as another example, I read playboy magazines when I was 10, and do NOT have obsessive tendencies with porn)

Similarly, "teh intarwebs". The 'sheltered kid' example is a HUGE reason why censorship on 'teh intarwebs' is BAD (other than freedom, and WHO gets to censor... shudder).

You can't control other people, nor "shelter them" because YOU are smart[er] and THEY are [implied] NOT as smart [yeah, arrogant isn't it?]. But you _CAN_ influence people and convince them to control themselves (or at least look at the 'stupid things' with an eye of skepticism and some "street smarts").

In any case, let the flat-earth crowd say what they want, and even people who do dumb things with rockets without knowing physics well enough (etc.) to do what they want, as long as they're not harming others. We can all choose to laugh at them or not visit their web sites. Works for me.

Re: 2012

This has been done more than once, losing fortunes to a cultic belief in an 'end of the world' and then it never happened. In the late 80's or early 90's Rosh Hashanah was supposed to be the end of the world. People sold property and gave it to this one group to pass out pamphlets, warning everyone.

In the case of the 'Heaven's Gate' cult (a few years later), they committed suicide wearing a particular type of black running shoes, and as a result, NIke stopped selling them. [I liked those shoes. That's ok I buy Reeboks now]. I think they had some bizarre belief about the Hale-Bopp comet.

creation museums are actually fun. Often they have actual science in them. Sure there's _NO_ way I'd accept a 6,000 year old earth unless I worshipped at the alter of Bishop Usher and his dating method based on the old testament, and simultaneously believed that the book of Genesis [most likely an oral account penned to papyrus by Moses or one of his scribes] was somehow an infallible hyper-accurate record of human history via a long list of begats and begets...

That being said, 'Creation Science' has a lot of good points to make. A pure-random-evolution model doesn't make a lot of sense. A "guided evolution" model [whether the guidance is gods, aliens, cosmic consciousness of a species, or who-knows-what] seems to make more sense. Catastrophes (as a stresser) might actually trigger evolution for a species to survive. Not random, but perhaps a species-wide choice of sorts? It's worth pondering for a few minutes, at any rate. Epigenetics as a part of that method.

So I'd point out that Creationists (at the least) have a point to make, i.e. 'Intelligent design', and they're "not wrong" about a lot of the stuff they're saying. So maybe "their science" and "mainstream science" can contribute to a more accurate origin model? I think human+dino footprints in the same mud is interesting. It may simply suggest that what we see in the rocks is NOT the "entire picture".

But yeah, 6,000 year old earth, HIGHLY unlikely. Even though modern dating methods make a LOT of assumptions, there are some things that are VERY hard to "fake up" into 6,000 years. Light from distant stars is one of them. [ HOW far away is Andromeda Galaxy again? ]

(not on the same level as 'Flat Earth' believers, who have to literally DENY SCIENCE to believe the earth is flat)

If doesn't convince them, nothing will.

Are flat-earthers actually SERIOUS or is it just a bunch of snarky "skeptics" having fun?

escape system

a basic escape system where a parachute worn by him would allow him a slow descent would've been a nice "backup" system... (pop hatch, jump out, pull rip cord, swear a bit, land without injuries)

Re: NASA

"requiring hundreds of Billions of dollars"

fixed it for ya

Windows 7: Still looking after business (except when it isn't)

Re: Get enough irony in your diet?

doing corporate taxes, installed tax software "from major software house" and it acted like GWX, trying to get me to "upgrade to windows 10" !!! It just *HAD* to "warn me" that Windows 7 no longer had security updates, etc.. *TWICE* !!!

If they want *MY* business THAT! SOFTWARE! HOUSE! WILL! CONTINUE! TO! SUPPORT! RUNNING! ON! WINDOWS! 7! WITHOUT! HAVING! TO! USE! A! CLOUD-BASED! VERSION!!!

Just thought I'd point that one out. The major software house in question starts with an "In" and ends with a "tuit"... (and I've heard they code in JAVA, so WHAT the *BLANK* ???)

SpaceX Falcon 9 meets watery end, and NASA needs someone to go to Mars and whack its mole

Re: Whack its mole

Third rule: 'float test' it. If it sinks, it needed replacing. OK that's a Navy thing but still...

(strangely appropriate in this particular case)

Going to Outer Space is HARD

just thought I'd put this as a reminder...

stupid bugs. Fix one, grow two more...

Hey, remember Microsoft's IoT Linux gear? After two years, Azure Sphere is finally here

"kept up to date in a way that, frankly, an awful lot of IoT gizmos are not"

This is both good *AND* bad.

And if forced updates for Win-10-nic are ANY indicator, mostly *BAD*.

This is your last chance, HP. There's no turning back. You take blue poison pill, the story ends. You take the red Xerox pill, you stay in Wonderland

Re: No winners here except the banks

HP went downhill when the founders (Hewlett and Packard) no longer ran the place

Re: The PBS* always loses

you need 10 of them for a "top 10" list though...

Re: Bit too late?

Meg Whitman has been out of the loop for quite a while now... hasn't she? wikipedia said so anyway...

(maybe she's got influence on the board of directors still?? major stockholder?)

Re: Bit too late?

HP bought Compaq but unfortunately didn't keep up the quality.

(my personal belief: they swallowed the Win-10-nic Koolaid too much, and it KILLED their product line, along with capacitor problems and other quality issues)

HP's upper management staff is to blame. Period. OTHER makers (like Lenovo) have done well in the desktop and laptop business. HP could have done well, too. But they went the wrong direction (like so many others).

Xerox seems to be doing well enough to afford a hostile takeover. So maybe it'd be a benefit to LET THEM?

HP has Romans at the wall demanding surrender. They can try outlasting the siege, but that's unlikely to work. They can try fighyting back to the last man/woman/child but that's suicide. They can INSTEAD take a lesson from our President, and MAKE A DEAL. Then, if they play their cards right, EVERYONE will win, NOBODY will lose, and both companies continue forward in a brighter future!

It looks like HP has chosen the 'suicide path' from what I can tell... maybe I could study this a bit more, see what Fox Business News has to say about it, read up on some other info from WSJ and others that know more than I do and are trustworthy, but at least from THIS article and my experience with HP products [and how they've slow-boiled me into never buying HP again] that the Xerox thing just might be their best bet at future profitability and actually EXISTING...

/me has worked with HP minicomputers in the early 90's, exclusively used HP printers since the mid 90's, owned an HP laptop from 2008-ish, and my most recent "all in one" printer that has slow-boiled me but at LEAST is supported by CUPS...

(after hitting preview I'd fix that spelling error except that the font in the edit window is SO small I can almost NOT EVEN READ IT and picking through the text to find it isn't something I wanna do right now...)

"their more recent stuff has been less than ideal."

agreed. up to about a decade ago I could rely on an HP printer having CUPS support as well as being reliable for its entire life. THEN I bought an 'all in one' copy/fax/printer and it doesn't work right unless I put the paper in 'just so', and hand-clean the cartridges, and the paper feeder STILL won't work properly for making a stack of copies [that last part really is a Xerox thing so maybe THEY can fix it?]

Anyway - the all-in-one still works for my occasional printing and fax'ing and copying/scanning but I sometimes get frustrated with the overall LACK OF QUALITY in its obviously "cheapened" design.

CUPS support is my #1 concern. "Next Printer" will have to do that, or I won't get it. Epson, you have my eye at the moment...

the HP board of directors fear for their lives

strangely, it is actually ILLEGAL to use borrowed money to buy stock [for individuals, anyway - since the Great Depression it has been so in the USA]. I have to wonder how it is that a CORPORATION can get away with doing that... maybe it's just "a loophole" ?

HP might re-consider whether it wants Xerox as a major investor, rather than an owner, by offering a non-controlling interest in the company as a compromise, along with reasonable changes that Xerox is going to do ANYWAY. But if Xerox wants a HOSTILE takeover, it's because they're gonna fire the board of directors and everyone at super-senior management level.

I suspect that below senior management level, people's jobs aren't "at stake" so much. Unless HP has a top-heavy staff [like IBM has had in the past], Xerox isn't going to want to shoot their own feet, and will need people to do work and make their investment profitable. What they PROBABLY want to do is steer that ship TOWARDS profitability.

So yeah "heads will roll" but only above deck. Below deck, where the REAL work is done, I bet they HIRE PEOPLE!

(Xerox invented the modern GUI, just worthy of mention, then Apple and Microsoft stole it, and then Apple tried to sue Microsoft over it, so Xerox coming back and buying control of HP is an interesting twist)

FCC forced by court to ask the public (again) if they think tearing up net neutrality was a really good idea or not

Re: more than ignorance

But if Trump is somehow NOT reelected then we are well and truly fucked.

fixed it for ya. you're welcome!

Re: Net Neutrality is to Free Open Internet as PATRIOT Act is to Patriotism

not a bad analogy. More like "Net Neutrality is to Free/Open Internet as CO2 is to global warming" - where people all SAY that 'Net Neutrality' is something that it really is NOT [it's just another gummint takeover of a generally UNregulated thing, in the name of 'freedom' or 'fairness' or some OTHER such *LIE*] in the same way that people *FEEL* (not think) that CO2 (produced by humans) is causing global climate "whatever". (if you want proof view my posting history, no need to create a distraction thread branch here, but from MY perspective, it's a really good point to make).

And, the point is that 'net neutrality' *SOUNDS* like something we would want, i.e. no favoritism, everybody equal, etc., but isn't. In actual practice, it means that UNPROFITABILITY for the fringe cases would COST EVERYONE ELSE A WHOLE LOT MORE (in the name of 'fairness' and 'neutrality')!!! And that's just the beginning of it.

Personally I'd *love* to have a fast-lane that you could pay for. It'd be like 1st class seating on an airline, buying a "fast pass" for commuter lanes and toll roads, and having everything delivered to your house. You pay more to get BETTER SERVICE. The fruits of that extra revenue end up lowering other costs, or improving overall service, because that's how businesses operate. [if you don't *FEEL* [not think, *FEEL*] that I'm right about this, I suggest you need a clue-bat attitude adjustment].

And this straw-man "poor person" who can't get high speed internet because of NO NET NEUTRALITY has been driving a LOT of "arguments" though. But I see it this way: WHY must *I* only be able to afford LOUSY INTERNET so that the TAXES from that will "help" some "straw man poor person" [not ME] "afford" high speed [faster than what I have I bet] intarwebs *AT* *MY* *EXPENSE* ???

This is a case of GUMMINT PICKING WINNERS AND LOSERS, and *ULTIMATELY* it's what the so-called "Net Neutrality" *REALITY* ends up being - MORE! GUMMINT! TAKEOVER! AND! POLITICAL! PAYOFFS! TO! PROTECTED! AND! FAVORED! CLASSES!!! [people who vote for *them* in other words]

Besides, the FCC really shouldn't be regulating things "that way". Such regulations need to be passed by CON-GRAB (aia 'congress') except they're too busy WITCH HUNTING to bother with it...

Is it OPPOsites day? Chinese smartphone giant expected to develop its own silicon

Re: Mariana Plan

Personally, I don't mind the name 'Mariana' being used. However, what I _DO_ mind is the potential theft of intellectual property in the design of these el-cheapo (knockoff) smart phone CPUs (etc.).

Question: HOW much of their design is a RIP-OFF of Qualcomm? With all of the purchasing of U.S. tech companies (for example) in order to TAKE THEIR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY so that they can use it for (government-owned) companies in China, then DUMP the stuff onto the market at ridiculous prices in order to BANKRUPT the other companies around the world... THAT is the kind of behavior I would expect.

Lesson: THIS is what happens when you TEACH YOUR COMPETITOR how to MAKE YOUR STUFF. (especially when they don't respect your I.P. laws)

Jeff Bezos bungs $10bn at climate change after chump change for Oz bush fires

Re: A rich man...

yeah, well it's understanding the mechanism by which a greenhouse gas would alter temperatures on the planet that is the core of this.

Greenhouse gasses [of which there are several] trap heat that would OTHERWISE escape out into space, acting like a blanket (i.e. keep the heat on the planet). Some of them have opposite effect during the day (like water). ALL of them absorb infrared radiation, and those energies absorbed would then (effectively) 'warm the planet' through various means (convection, radiation).

An object that is above absolute zero emits radiation to cool down to (eventually) absolute zero. The sun keeps earth from doing that completely, but on the 'dark side' of the planet, it emits "black body radiation", in the form of photons. The emitted photons have energy levels that are well known. The distribution of energy is asymptotic, and theoretically includes ALL energies below the one corresponding to the temperature, but being practical, it's a small band. So yeah, at 20C, you'll see energies corresponding to something that CO2 *might* absorb (like the energy for -50C), but it will be so FEW photons you can consider it to be "effectively zero" - like a limit in calculus.

Understanding that - examine the physical properties of CO2, for REAL, and NOT just because a bunch of self-proclaimed (paid by those with a political agenda) "climate scientists" "concur" on something.

Someone already mentioned 'flat earth'. A bunch of "scientists" used to CONCUR on *THAT* falsehood, too... for MANY CENTURIES!

Here's a thought: if a compost pile produces methane, a REAL greenhouse gas, how come the warmists aren't going after THOSE? It's a fair bet that a LOT of environmentally-conscious people do composting...

Additionally, at higher CO2 levels [like cloud seeding] you should see MORE RAIN. That may have a much LARGER effect than any 'greenhouse gas' might have, and in the OPPOSITE direction! Thing is, rain ALSO depletes the CO2, putting it into the dirt, lakes, rivers, and the ocean [where it eventually precipitates out as MgCO3 and CaCO3]. It's like when there's a forest fire in California, and the smoke gets blown over the ocean, expect it to come circling back as a major rainstorm because the smoke particles form 'nuclei of condensation' for the water vapor [again, like cloud seeding].

to (as I remember) quote C.S. Lewis from one of his books: "What DO they teach in these schools?"

Re: A rich man...

no, I do _ACTUAL_ science, not that doom/gloom politically-driven NON-science.

CO2 is NOT a greenhouse gas. Why? Because it is _TRANSPARENT_ for IR frequencies corresponding to black body radiation for temperatures ACTUALLY FOUND ON EARTH outside of a volcano. And if you do NOT understand what that means or implies, go ahead and believe your pseudo-science, as there's no hope for you.

Those of us who DO understand REAL science can RECOGNIZE that CO2 concentration changes don't mean SQUAT with respect to world temperatures and/or "climate". This is becaue the mechanism for a 'greenhouse gas' to affect temperature is based on its IR ABSORPTION SPECTRUM and the black body radiation frequencies that correspond to environmental temperatures!!! <-- that is REAL science by the way

Earth cools at night due to black body radiation. Temperatures correspond to a narrow range of IR frequencies. Photons with those frequencies must be 'trapped' (absorbed by the atmosphere) in order to "warm" or "blanket" the earth. This is where a greenhouse gas makes a difference in earth's temperatures. And CO2 isn't one, because it will have ALMOST NO EFFECT on the amount of IR radiation heading into outer space.

Water, "the other greenhouse gas", however, is at least 100 times as effective as CO2 - and yet the doom/gloom pseudo-scientists NEVER try to control THAT - because they can't control PEOPLE with it, and the earth is FLOODED anyway, which is MORE obvious that it's a FREAKING HOAX.

Think of it this way: cloudy day = cold day. cloudy night = warm night. Water has a HUGE effect, not only on black body radiation cooling the earth, but on incoming UV, heat, and light from Mr. Sun. Water has a VERY WIDE spectrum for IR absorption, light absorption, and so on. This is how it WORKS.

(that pretty much sums it up, yeah)

Re: A rich man...

There's nothing wrong with being WEALTHY, especially when your wealth is SELF-MADE.

Those who do work, or have really good ideas [and then successfully market those ideas], DESERVE to KEEP the rewards of their efforts.

"Donating money" to a pet cause, however, CAN be a way of doing POLITICAL SPENDING with "tax deductible" funds. It also helps to SILENCE your critics, by literally "buying them off".

If Bezos opens a factory for rocket engines and HIRES PEOPLE, that's a GOOD thing.

Spending billions on "fighting climate change", most likely will JUST line the pockets of political activists, lying "researchers", and those who would OTHERWISE be protesting on a daily basis and being a general PAIN IN THE ASS. So he's "buying their silence" I would think...

And as Rush Limbaugh put it (he's talking about this very thing on the radio right now), he could buy a "climate change" curriculum for EVERY SCHOOL with this kind of money, and buy off EVERY climate scientist, and every college research department.

If he would put this into FUSION RESEARCH instead, maybe it would actually DO something about reducing the CO2 that the "climate change" believes is *KILLING* *THE* *PLANET*. And it would give us inexpensive, virtually UNLIMITED electric power, for CENTURIES. Yes there is THAT much nuclear fuel on the planet for fusion (all of the 2H and 3H in the ocean, around 1% of all of the water has this kind of hydrogen in it).

But like nearly ALL "rich liberal" types, he's buying P.R. with his "donations" and THEN doing what he wants without their criticism...

Google burns down more than 500 private-data-stealing, ad-defrauding Chrome extensions installed by 1.7m netizens

Re: Excellent job, Google

heh, and with the end-users actually not seeing the ads, I wonder if google was making ANY money at all via the mal-vertising, skimming a bit off the top along with the scammers.

End user: "I sure am seeing a lot of XXX e-mail in my inbox. I wonder who thinks I actually need this stuff..." [but the ads were being "clicked on"] [meanwhile the advertisees were billed for a 'click'] [and where did that money go again? did Google get any?]

Call us immediately if your child uses Kali Linux, squawks West Mids Police

Re: I told my Dad I use Kali

"I went to school with a girl called Kali."

yeah she was "all hands" right?

Crazy idea but hear us out... With robots taking people's jobs, can we rethink this whole working to survive thing?

Re: They toooock ewre joohbs!!!

A corollary or two:

a) money is the measure of the value of a thing or of work being done.

b) things that are worth MORE cost more money

c) Jobs that are WORTH MORE pay more money.

d) paying someone MORE than a job is worth is ridiculous, and that job will go away, either being subcontracted out to people who can do it cheaper, or a robot will do it.

e) a job is NOT an entitlement, a right, or anyone's responsibility other than the employer and the employee. It's a voluntary exchange of work for money.

it's really just that.

Re: They toooock ewre joohbs!!!

alternative: your job is done in China or India or Africa or Vietnam or ...

I have a suggestion: learn to fix robots. They do break down now and then. And I bet you'll get better pay, too! better than inserting tab 'A' into slot 'B' all day...

B-but it doesn't get viruses! Not so, Apple fanbois: Mac malware is growing faster than nasties going for Windows

Re: Technically...

while ;picking nits, you missed the boat...

Re: In this day and age

interesting car analogy.

Re: In this day and age

"Anyone who thinks that any computer that is connected to the Internet is safe from being infected with all sorts of nasties"

well aside from making up all kinds of horrible punishments from "the comfy chair" to thumbscrews and iron maidens, maybe it'd just be a good idea to have a NICE PUBLIC DISCUSSION about "Safe Surfing" which, from my perspective, includes the following:

a) do NOT use 'Internet Explorer' (and if possible, don't use Windows either!)

b) Use a 'noscript'-like plugin with a reasonably safe browser, preferably an open source one.

c) If you must allow scripting, etc., make sure it is SANDBOXED [many viruses and malware loads are done using script]

d) Don't "just open" or "just run" something from within a browser or an e-mail. Save to a disk file, THEN USE THE INTENDED VIEWING APPLICATION to open it via "file open". And make sure it's NOT an MS office product that you use to view it.

e) don't use MS Outlook for e-mail delivered from outside your private network [i.e. ANYTHING off the 'teh intarwebs']

f) *NEVER* download or install "the plugin" or "the application" just to VIEW CONTENT.

and so on. Use your brains, be 'street wise', assume malware is out there, and just exercise proper caution. And regularly back up your important data onto removable media.

[if everyone does this, the damage from "all that crap" would be MINIMIZED]

Installing "anti-virus" is most likely a false sense of security. REAL security starts with NOT being fooled into doing things that damage your system, particularly if you're on a Mac running OS/X, which is kinda what the article was about, right?

[and under the hood it's BSD, with large portions forked from FreeBSD 5.x]

If you're running Windows, I feel bad for you, son. Microsoft's got 99 problems, better fix each one

Re: Just how many lines of code

people STILL use FL*SH?

(I'd prefer blasting it from high orbit with a ginormous ION CANNON of epic proportions - see icon)

It's a Bing thing: Microsoft drops plans to shove unloved search engine down throats of unsuspecting enterprises

Re: Three card trick

to do this properly you need a shill who makes it SO tempting to jump in and start choosing the card FOR him that you get suckered in...

But yeah - MS changes your default search FOR you, because they *FEEL* "it is better" [pejorative use of the word 'feel'] , and the shill comes along and THANKS Micro-shaft for having done so, glowingly reviewing how much BETTER things are, now...

WHY do they even TRY these things? (do they think we are STUPID?)

what it says in the title

Jeff Bezos: I will depose King Trump

Re: To be honest ...

"The conservatives have long ago learned to fight dirty"

W.T.F. planet and universe are YOU on???

Donald Trump's primary reason for GETTING elected is becauwe Conservatives were *NOT* fighting back, at all, and us voters were SICK of that, so we elected Trump because he *WOULD* fight and we're very very happy about it! 95% approval in the Republican party, 80% or so among INDEPENDENTS.

That says a LOT, you know...

Re: To be honest ...

up vote from ME, but you *know* the howler monkeys will ALWAYS throw poo at you if you don't tow the liberal line... (and hence all the downvotes). I wouldn't be surprised if they're all sock puppets of the same 1 or 2 individuals.

Re: To be honest ...

When I see what the Trump haters say about our president, and who it is that they are, it makes me LIKE TRUMP EVEN MORE!!

In the mean time, you KNOW Bezos would NEVER do this against a president of "the other party". That makes it PARTISAN, POLITICAL, and therefore, FRIVOLOUS. He and his RIDICULOUS lawsuit should be LAUGHED out of the court room.

"Sore loser" indeed.

Windows 7 will not go gentle into that good night: Ageing OS refuses to shut down

Re: Splat goes the dinosaur

how long before my "activation key" stops working? What if I have to replace a hard drive?

Arm gets edgy: Tiny neural-network accelerator offered for future smart speakers, light-bulbs, fridges, etc

Re: Oh No...

Well consider this:

a) your IOT device responds to voice commands by SENDING THE VOICE DATA TO A SERVER that hoovers up your personal information INCLUDING what you asked for [and requires 7/24 internet in order to work[

- or -

b) your IOT device responds to voice commands using an on-board AI system that requires little (or no) internet traffic in order to function

I pick 'b'

Built to last: Time to dispose of the disposable, unrepairable brick

Re: Is it any coincidence...

actually it coincided with the laws of physics as related to "Moore's Law".

CPU speed increases were becoming more difficult due to the distance between CPU and RAM, for starters. Wire lengths and "how small can we make it" started to hit limits. The amount of time it took to cross 3Ghz (after hitting 2Ghz) is an indicator. The engineering was MUCH more sophisticated. So CPUs became "wider" instead, bigger caches, more cores, etc.. But people aren't having to replace their computers ever 2-3 years because "the new stuff" won't run on it properly, either. So I have to wonder how much of a hand MS had in all that, writing crappy replacements for earlier software that was MORE efficient, simply because CPUs and RAM were more powerful now [so they could get away with being SLOPPY[.

The "downfall" is them NOT being able to be SLOPPY any more, because nothing is perceived to be "faster" with "their latest" on it.

(and artificially killing windows 7 was more of a mistake than they could possibly realize)

Re: "something more durable – with upgrade paths"

well your tube argument is (unfortunately) not so relevant in this case. Tubes cost $$ and you'll need a LOT of them to do the same job as a small circuit board filled with ICs and so on. They haven't been regularly used in the consumer market since the 1980's, other than picture tubes (and they went away by 2000's). WAY too expensive (but guitar amplifiers, that's a different animal). In many cases the swapout of a tube means an expensive alignment procedure, or the thing wouldn't *quite* work properly after you swap the tube, RF and IF circuits, specifically [sometimes other things, too].

But the principle is good - swappable available components that end-users could easily repair with.

I've purchased repair parts for older stuff (replacement DVD for Wii, replacement CPU fan and DVD for Sony Vaio, new batteries and new chargers for other laptops, yotta yotta) and they're still perfectly good. Hoever, I had a bit of difficulty getting a new CD laser assembly for an old Game Cube a couple of years ago. In short I got sent the WRONG part, but the price was so low it wasn't worth returning. I had access to a 2nd game cube though, so "that" became "the solution".

[and those old game cube games work perfectly well]

admittedly, though, repairing XBox 360 has been a problem. I ended up buying 2 different "reconditioned" models to replace the first one, which broke its DVD drive. The first replacement started overheating after a year or so but the 2nd one is still working just fine. [at some point I'll go through the hell it takes to swap the DVD between the 2 older ones and get a working unit out of it].

so yeah - repair the old stuff, it's perfectly good when you do. And I really don't want to DOWNgrade to an XBox One...

Re: Used cars vs. new ones

one-year-old ex-rental is good, assuming the rental company did proper maintenance. You hear the horror stories about people abusing rentals, but taking that into consideration, if it got its regular oil changes and filter changes and so forth, seems to have worked well enough for me.

that being said... when I buy computer hardware I'm often getting "last year's cutting edge tech" for a similar reason.

Hey GitLab, the 1970s called and want their sexism back: Saleswomen told to wear short skirts, heels and 'step it up'

Re: Why isn't any one offended men were required to wear a blazer and slacks or suit?

"people getting whipped up into a frenzy"

Yeah, THERE's the problem.

("Feelers" doing all that "feeling" and being manipulated into a frenzy - who'd a thunk it?)

Re: Why isn't any one offended men were required to wear a blazer and slacks or suit?

ask women which they prefer, men in suits, or men in "grubby casuals"...

It _does_ work both ways. But men usually don't get offended by it.

I once bought a funny 'porn for women' picture book for my sister, featuring men in tuxedos doing housework [as a joke of course]. the concept was BRILLIANT!

Re: Well... is called Gitlab

probably named because of the Linux-inspired source control system 'git' which (I bet) was named becauswe you want to "go and 'git' the latest source code from the repo". yeah it's a US'ian thing.

Re: Women are more sexist than men

Beer, Sir!