Posts by bombastic bob

Sudo? More like Su-doh: There's a fun bug that gives restricted sudoers root access (if your config is non-standard)

Re: I suspect that most didn't even know it was an option

I don't (thankfully)

if I need to allow -u someuser I'll put it in the sudoers[.d] definition. Occasionally I do though, for customer projects even. NO '!root' or anything similar either, I require explicit exact command matches! It makes the sudoers config file longer, but so what. It's anal retentive, but so what. Being anal retentive on security helps to prevent *this* sort of thing...

worth pointing out the 'pi' user on Raspbian has global sudo 'no password' access to EVERYTHING. Just sayin'. It's for convenience, of course, but if you do NOT change the 'pi' password, very VERY insecure.

Ye olde Blue Screen of Death is back – this time, a bad Symantec update is to blame

Re: The irony is strong in this one

Who *NEEDS* virus protection? *I* do *NOT*!

I just use Linux or FreeBSD. Works for me.

And practice "safe surfing". You know:

0. don't surf the web logged in with 'administrator' or 'root' privileges. NO excuses, there have been WAY too many security craters exploited by "admin" users in windows doing things online. So suck it up and remove "administrator" from your login, after creating a PURE (local only) login called "god" or whatever that DOES have admin privs, and ONLY USE THAT ONE FOR ADMIN'ing (no web surfing).

1. don't use a micro-shaft browser, Outlook, or anything ELSE that is likely to preview documents inline by invoking them with 'ShellExecute' or one of its API clones

2. use 'noscript' or similar script-control plugins to limit the kinds of scripts that run on YOUR computer

3. if possible, do NOT surf the web using a microsoft OS.

4. *NEVER* read or preview e-mail AS HTML. PLAIN TEXT ONLY. And do us all a favor by not SENDIN with HTML mail, either.

5. Flush often. Caches, too.

6. NEVER DIRECTLY "Open" A FILE YOU DOWNLOADED!!! (especially NOT double-clicking it!) ALWAYS invoke the application that views it and use "file open" from the menu to open the downloaded file. This probably means usin "save as" in the browser and NOT trusting where it put the thing...

and so on. "Safe Surfing".

Microsoft says .NET Framework porting project is finished: If your API's not on the list, it's not getting in

Re: No WinForms?

"What happened to RAD development?"

It *DIED*. Like Silverlight and lots of OTHER overly hyped things.

Re: It was the EU who compelled Ms to make Ms.Net an open standard....

"Dotnet Core + C# is a beautiful combo. If you rage over those, then you aren't a developer or someone with enough knowledge to comment.".

Sonny, I've been coding since before your *FATHER* was in diapers!!! Yes, I used PUNCH CARDS, and also these "mark sense" cards that you put pencil marks on like a Scantron test form. However the computer DID have integrated circuits, not vacuum tubes. It was a PDP-11/34, at my high school, running RT-11 and doing batch processing with the optical card reader. It was a brand new computer, right off of the line, back in 1977...

And as far as _I_ am concerned, programming in C-pound is like trying to push a cart with a horse (instead of the horse pulling it). If you don't understand what would happen, you never will. There's a nice saying that's very similar...

C-pound is BASS ACKWARDS, as is the entire CONCEPT of ".Not". The amount of back-end code required to support that *HIDEOUS* model of multiverse.universe.galaxy.star-system.planet.continent.nation.province.county.city.district.down-to-the-atom *HIERARCHICAL* *HELL* with its COLLECTIONS and ENUMERATORS and "My GOD, it's full of *CRAP*" everywhere you look... it's a wonder it even WORKS half the time! And THAT is being *KIND*.

If you have *EVER* coded for windows using the Win32 API, you'd know what I mean. If you have to ask what that is, then there is NO hope for you!

Re: It was the EU who compelled Ms to make Ms.Net an open standard....

"apps fighting over bugs due to differing VB runtimes."

I pretty much gave up on VB after the switch to 3...

VB 1.0 was fun, had quirks, required some clever hacks, had it working pretty well

VB 2.0 broke most of those hacks, so I had to re-hack because it, too, was quirky

VB 3.0 as I recall had 32-bit-ness and was a worth while fix, but still too many things were broken from 1.0 and 2.0 [not as bad from 2 to 3 though]

After that I gave up on VB. *THEN* some bright-bulb decided ADO-ness and object-ness VB-style, followed by ".Not which appeared to be PATTERNED AFTER THAT HORRIBLE WAY OF DOING THINGS, combined with a bad interpretation of what makes a proper Java object.

VB was intened to be a really useful prototyping tool. People used it to create ACTUAL APPLICATIONS. Then "the plugins" were being sold for it, many (read: probably nearly all) of them *TRIVIAL* things that could be pounded out in a few hours by an experienced coder (read: me) that COULD find his own ass with a map, both hands, *OR* an electric ass finder (even one without GPS!).

but yeah - that invisible unfixable RUN-TIME that you HAD to ship with any VB application, that BROKE in newer versions of Windows, was *PATHETIC*.

On Windows, because it's almost necessary to ship binaries for install, I ALWAYS STATIC LINK EVERYTHING, from RUNTIME to MFC. *ALWAYS*.

On open source OS's, I just ship as source and build from source. You can always submit source packages (with dependencies configured) to package maintainers, and they'll probably do the rest.

Re: Jettisoning .NET and all but accepting the mistake it was

"is hugely popular"

I don't think that 7.5% on the TIOBE index counts as "huge"... (it's split between C-pound and VB.NET, around the same 3.7% or so for each).

In fact, it's anything *BUT* HUGE!!!

I'd say "pathetic" after 17+ years of MS hype and trying to SHOVE IT INTO OUR ORIFICES WITHOUT PERMISSION...

But maybe what YOU call huge is not quite the same as what _I_ call huge!

(*ahem* that was a subtle reference to penis size - muahahahaha!)

troll icon because obvious

[all in fun, after all!]

Re: A generation of... failure?

Agreed.

".Not" (what _I_ call it) started out in teh early 2000's with Microsoft "Passport" (the predecessor to "Microsoft Login" for Win-10-nic, one login to rule them all etc.) which was [during the '.dot bomb' era] supposed to take over and dominate ALL OTHER methods for logging into web sites, with MS as the tollbooth keeper, naturally.

This *FAILED*

But with it was a back-end API that was oriented towards IIS servers. This was extended into the object framework for C-POUND (what I call C#) which was intended to REPLACE JAVA because Sun saie "our language, Micro-shaft, and that means OUR RULES".

Some bright-bulb then "decided" (read: *FELT*, not thought, FELT, with emotions and bias and feelings-of-the-moment and anything BUT truth+facts+reason) that this "framework" should become MS's new "developer platform" around 2003-ish, which basically *RUINED* DevStudio for a while. It was integrated into VB, and it initially became *DIFFICULT* to avoid accidentally liking it in with your C++ applications. I researched just how many steps needed to make THAT happen, and the divorce was *FINAL*.

Since then I've avoided ".Not" as if it were *THE* *PLAGUE*, because for every bass-ackwards "object oriented" WRONG way of doing things, there's an API-centrick EFFICIENT *RIGHT* way of doing things, and I prefer THE RIGHT WAY to THE MICRO-SHAFT WAY. Right?

Anyway, this ".Not" Initiative was one of Ballmer's biggest COCK-UPS *EVAR*.

Still, a slow-clap for porting the framework to the open source version. Whee...

Icon for the *BIG* *FAIL* known as ".Not" aka ".Net".

Tinfoil-hat search engine DuckDuckGo gifts more options, dark theme and other toys for the 0.43%

Re: I use DDG a lot

part of the problem might be the use of cached info in Chromium.

How to destroy chrome's cache (in Linux and FreeBSD, Winders yer on yer own)

1. exit from all instances of the chrome browser;

2. rm -rf ~/.cache/chromium/Default/*

you may have to re-enter previously remembered passwords and stuff, but so what. This *CLEANS* *IT* *ALL*

Now... do this RELIGIOUSLY after every web surfing session with chrome and you should be able to avoid quite a BIT of a tracking nonsense, especially that which relies upon cookies and cache

(I believe there are cache-related side-channel tracking methods already in use... purging the cache makes these go away)

Re: Study philosophy!

From article (regarding Google)

"while it remains the default in Chrome, Safari and Firefox."

Not in MY LINUX DISTRO it doesn't... !!!

Last I checked, it was either Mint or Devuan that defaults to Duck Duck Go as the search engine for Firefox. But that was a while ago, so maybe it has changed?

By the way it was BECAUSE of this [Linux distro defaulting to DDG] that I even HEARD of Duck Duck Go, and I've used it for nearly all of my searches ever since.

Visual Studio Code gets more touch-feely, new Windows Server builds arrive for brave admins

what, no "feature creep"?

sounds to me like they might have a hint of a clue this time around.

I'm still waiting for the 2D FLATTY-ness to go away... (or at least an option for 3D Skeuomorphic)

But a slow clap, at the very least, for apparently NOT cramming ":features" into our collective body orifices.

We, Wall, we, Wall, Raku: Perl creator blesses new name for version 6 of text-wrangling lingo

Re: That wasn't all THAT hard, now was it Larry?

well in Japanese [of which I am no expert, but I own a translation dictionary or two] there are MANY homonyms and MANY pun-related jokes... so the 'Perl 6' 'camel' 'Raku/roku' reference might be true...

Re: That wasn't all THAT hard, now was it Larry?

he needed a POLITICALLY CORRECT name that would

a) not cause SJW's to get him fired

b) not cause SJW''s to swarm the message boards and forums over it

c) not cause SJW's to boycott his new lingo

etc.

'Raku' is an interesting name. It means "comfort" in Japanese, so you can't be pissing off any SJW's with that... or CAN you ???

I'd rather call it 'Baka" - heh.

In short I think the heads of projects are trying WAY too hard to appease a bunch of noisy wannabe's that have nothing better to do than to nit-pick names and whatnot. SJW's in other words.

Re: It's about time

changing the name doesn't change *SHIT*

[I avoid profanity most of the time - this time it's NECESSARY]

2001 fiction set to be science fact? NASA boffin mulls artificial intelligence to watch over the lunar Gateway

Re: Workaround

well, the dependency on a single space suit's systems NOT to fail is always a bad idea.

Here's what I came up with: emergency space suits that are, for all practical purposes, balloons with straps that you tighten in specific places to make them somewhat manageable.

So here's what you do: your space craft or station has an explosive decompression event. You have about 30 seconds to put one of these on, +/- whatever condition you find yourself in, bleeding ears/eyes and so on. So you go to the wall where one is stowed, rip open the package [large handle, bright colored paint], step into this thing, and zip it up, then pull the O2 lever and it inflates.

Then you adjust a few straps around the legs, your torso, arms, and whatnot. VOILA, instant space suit!

I bet you could make them for under $1k and they'd be 100% reliable. Then you make them MANDATORY on ALL space flights, like O2 masks on airlines.

Re: Workaround

where's 'Waldo' I can't find it/him...

From Libra to leave-ya: eBay, Visa, Stripe, PayPal, others flee Facebook's crypto-coin

Re: Re : Downvotes

"people like Bombastic Bob will have far, far more."

downvoted 27,375 times last I checked (a minute ago). I've been around long enough to accumulate it, though I actually have more UP votes than DOWN votes. Surprise!!!

the howler monkeys love me, yeah. Always flinging poo, and making LOTS of noise to appear bigger than they really are.

/me points out that a discussion is boring when everyone agrees. so accumulating upvotes without very many downvotes means you're probably VERY boring...

Re: WTF?

yeah I think setting up a legitimate looking "shell corporation" with a bank account in the Caiman Islands is the usual way money gets laundered. Or something very similar.

those familiar with corporations know that you have to make your tax filings and other filings every year. cali-fornicate-you charges a min tax of $800/year and you have to file federal forms and send $35 to the Cali-fornicate-you secretary of state along with a declaration of corporate officer names and addresses so that they know who to contact regarding corporate legal schtuff. All that has to be set up along with the paperwork when you form the corporation. So yeah there are some checks and balances involved but it's still possible, with some creative lawyering, to scam the system.

Re: WTF?

/me reads your post, thinks "snorting gold chloride"

I think it's a YELLOW powder, by the way... and gold sulfides are BLACK, as I recall.

And there's nothing illegal about mailing gold to people. I've purchased jewelry online.

Re: WTF?

"Doesn't paypal and others already do that?"

As far as I know, YES. But to have PayPal you need some kind of bank account. I wouldn't be surprised if FAECEBOOK wants to be "the bank" which would give them BANKING access to YOUR money.

Banks always make money off of your money. In exchange they offer free services. What they have been PREVENTED from doing in the USA is monetizing your banking history and SELLING IT to 3rd parties, without your EXPLICIT permission to do so. So, credit card companies can't sell your purchasing history.

But if FAECE-BITCH got ahold of this info, they'd have WAY too much of your personal data, because it would INCLUDE your shoping history with whatever banking "services" they manage...

And if *THEY* get *THEIR* way, then when their AI algorithms get done with you, you'll be on even THICKER puppet strings than you could POSSIBLY imagine, and would CONSTANTLY be tempted to go back to them and eat whatever they feed you. Don't doubt me. It's THEIR GOAL!!!

Re: I don't know what their "partners" expected

the only thing _I_ would expect from any crypto-currency is:

a) exchange fees being collected by those who REALLY make money off of it

b) instability and continuous price changes for items that would otherwise be stable pricewise

c) no backing with anything even partially solid, like gold, or national security, or exchange rates into other currencies

d) someone somewhere benefiting at everyone ELSE's expense

We'd be better of standardizing on one or two currencies, like dollars and euros. Oh, isn't that kinda what's happening ALREADY? *WHY* must we have "change for the sake of change" with this "new, shiny" currency?

Bitcoin is totally FSCKd, in my opinion, and I won't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Nor will MOST people from what I've seen. So then WHY must we accept FAECE-BITCH-BUCKS ???

Dollars. Euros. UK Pounds. Good enough for me. I see those exchange rates advertised at the bank, and they're reasonably stable. THAT unlike your average crypto-currency...

icon, because, Faece-Bitch-Bucks are a *FAILURE*

'We go back to the Moon to stay': Apollo vets not too chuffed with NASA's new rush to the regolith

the INDIRECT benefits of the spac3e program are numerous, though maybe someone has made a comprehensive list.

Add miniaturized electronics (in general) which would include CELL PHONES, and probably microwave + satellite communications as well.

The IC was primarily developed because of Apollo. They built the computer using NAND gates as I recall, because 2 years before launch, that was what the edge of tech was. Or something like that. There are really good writeups in various places, including wikipedia.

Re: "To simply go and come back and say that we've been there again is highly unsatisfactory,"

the lunar environment is useful for a lot of things, but I suspect that most of those are "exploration elswhere' kinds of things, where the moon is basically a stop-off point to the rest of the solar system.

that's reason enough, I think, to put a permanent base there.

Unfortunately, too few people these days see the value in space explioration. they're too busy ninny-nannying and nit-picking and being SJW's...

Microsoft, GitHub staff tell Satya Nadella: It's time to ice ICE, baby. Rip up those tech contracts

Re: Everything under control

using YOUR logic, let's say I choose to NOT do business with gays, or liberals, or BLACK people.

That's right, you're suggesting POLITICS can be a LEGITIMATE reason to DENY ACCESS to services. Might as well be RACE, SEX, RELIGION, or any OTHER thing that NORMAL societies consider to be "illegal discrimination".

Re: Human rights

Yeah well if Microshaft's management of GITHUB transits into the "Social Justice Warrior" realm, instead of the "do business and make CUSTOMERS happy" realm, then:

Dear ICE: If you want me to set up a cloud-based server that does what GITHUB does, at an equivalent price, just let me know and I'll have one up and running in UNDER 6 MONTHS, with YOUR NEEDS as my PRIMARY FOCUS, and it will cost THE SAME OR LESS than whatever you're paying Github, and I'll do it FOR THE LULZ if I can't make money off of it any other way.

Because, unlike Micro-shaft, *I* put *THE CUSTOMER* *FIRST* !!!

Stalker attacks Japanese pop singer – after tracking her down using reflection in her eyes

Stalkers are CRIMINALS. They commit CRIMES.

That being said, it might be a good idea in the future to have "less high res" photos on social media...

Game over: Atari VCS architect quits project, claims he hasn’t been paid for six months

Re: Amiga

Amiga was an interesting idea, but in my opinion, the IBM PC had the business world and the clones helped it take over. Then Windows. And that was all she wrote.

Intel did what 68k had trouble doing. Even Apple went with Intel for obvious reasons, after having avoided them by going with PPC when 68k wasn't cutting it.

And I don't see a lot of call for retro-Amiga systems. But for those cases, there is always qemu, XMAME, SIMV, and the Raspberry Pi. Heh.

Re: "It is unclear whether Atari will be able to complete its beleaguered project"

It's worth pointing out that if you get stuff done by contractors, you have to manage them properly.

Re: Atari

if everyone working for you is a contractor (1099 or corporation) then you don't have "employees".

ideally it's a better model, but I have to wonder where all of the money was going, regardless.

Atari could do some really good things with this, but maybe it would work better as emulation on an RPi, which would bring the price WAY down, ya know?

And all of the games loaded via USB...

GNU means GNU's Not U: Stallman insists he's still Chief GNUisance while 18 maintainers want him out as leader

Re: He brings it on himself with utterances such as:

some of what he says makes perfect sense. I look at it in terms of whether an actual child has been victimized: If there is no actual child victim, there is no crime. Then you have to consider whether or not you want to live in a free society, or have "someone else's concept of morality" cause people to go to jail.

I think Turing might agree with Stallman on this particular point, for different reasons and details, anyway...

And I really don't want to live in a nanny-state society where THOUGHTS and ART are policed as if real victims existed.

"I think you just made a number of unmarried people very happy"

Very happy that we're *NOT* *MARRIED*, yeah!

Re: A single piece of data

"When it comes to feelings, perception is reality"

It's another reason why people need to *THINK* and not *FEEL*. FEEL makes very bad decisions, like beer goggles. FEEL is easily manipulated. And I *ESPECIALLY* don't want *MY* life regulated by someone else's *FEEL*.

icon, because, *FEEL* is so easily manipulated

if you replace the squeaky wheel it comes back and SUES YOU

you'll get more upvotes because upvoting is still somewhat anonymous.

the downvotes are probably just howler monkeys with no sense of humor

Re: empowering users?

"GNU is actually a set of restrictions that are necessary for open computing to survive."

I'd say that was true about GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1, at least in its intent. v3 morphed it into something else...

I have to wonder if RMS was a BIG part of the direction shift that brought us some of the things many of us now *HATE*, like GPLv3, Gnome 3, the 2D FLATTY [Australis especially], and other major irritations. Maybe even SYSTEMD (ok that was Poettering but still)

If so, GOOD RIDDANCE. I dislike RMS's politics anyway. What he said online that caused the "snowflake storm" is irrelevant as far as I am concerned.

Online deepfakes double in just nine months, scaring politicians – and fooling the rest of us

Re: Deepfakes are not a problem now

at some point people will no longer trust anything they hear or see.

That is NOT necessarily a BAD thing...

Here we go again: US govt tells Facebook to kill end-to-end encryption for the sake of the children

what's to stop using existing tech like ssh, private VOiP, Tor, and VPN?

(what it says in the topic)

there are so many existing protocols capable of end-end encryption that it's pathetic to even TRY and stop it.

If FB installs a back door, then "an app for that" _WILL_ happen because someone like me will write it. Then Faece-Bitch won't be able to insert themselves and monetize your conversation, so they have a vested interest in NOT having back doors.

besides, there IS ALREADY a vacuum for a decent PRIVATE end-end encrypted peer-peer application. All it needs is a protocol (like torrent trackers have) to find the peers, along with some dedicated servers to connect the ends. Then the rest is peer-peer including the encryption, no 'man in the middle'.

If done properly there won't be a record of any of it, other than the IP addresses of people identifying themselves to the service.

Re: Forget the kiddies

"If however the bullying followed me home and was essentially 24/7 then I doubt I would be here now."

this is why parents need to teach their kids HOW TO FIGHT THE BULLIES and stand up to them and kick their sorry asses into silence and/or submission.

This reminds me of that "bully video" of the kid being harassed in an Australian school. Finally he was sick of it and he picked up the harassing kid (who was much smaller than him) and head-slammed him into the ground. All of the usual whiny socialists complained. I thought it was *PERFECT* and a *SOLID* example of how you deal with bullying.

And the thing is, when you're an adult, the bullying doesn't stop... it just changes form. So when you learn to FIGHT BACK and *WIN* as a kid, it's a life lesson for SUCCESS.

Re: Forget the kiddies

"Kids get used all of the time in battle cries to embrace some sort of intrusion"

The face of a child on a poster representing the erosion of your freedom, yeah.

Recent example of this kind of manipulation attempt: Greta. I'll leave that topic alone other than a dishonorable mention, and also a mention of the historical fact that Goebbels also used images of children in his Nazi propaganda.

icon, because, sarcasm again.

Re: Baby got back door

really "for the children" is just a (yet another) method by which PEOPLE ARE MANIPULATED BY THE PUPPETEERS.

icon, because, sarcasm

Re: I wonder how Facebook is going to implement the encryption

most likely the clients will do the encryption, as well as "send home to mama" all of the things you type in so they can target you with ads and sell your data based on your 'chat'. But of course that 'send home to mama' data will be encrypted, too...

Re: So we are to believe that once they have the necessary backdoors in place

back doors are only "NECESSARY" when police are *LAZY*

Oh, yeah, that whole "individual rights" and "illegal search/seizure" thing just GETS IN *THEIR* WAY, after all...

</sarcasm>

icon, because, more sarcasm

Re: "Outside the digital world, none of us would accept the proposition that"

private IRC server with SSL might do it, located outside of the USA where subpoenas get laughed at

Re: "Outside the digital world, none of us would accept the proposition that"

well said!

More people (particularly those in gummint) need to connect the dots on that point.

/me offers a cluebat for that purpose

PostgreSQL puts the pedal to the metal with some smart indexing tweaks in version 12

"PostgreSQL is great"

Absolutely!

From what I have seen it is _the_ most standards-compliant DBMS out there, more compliant than MySQL or Maria from what I can tell (both still have issues with embedded quote marks in strings last I checked, having to escape them etc. - it would break too much code if they ever fixed it, probably)

In any case I got used to using psql to fix things for this one project. "No B.S."

It'll be nice to see if PG ever has the back-end features needed to take on Oracle in the same markets.

If you really can't let go of Windows 7, Microsoft will keep things secure for another three years

Re: Win 7

"M$ forced Windows 10 down everyone's throat."

I would've used "CRAMMED" and a different end to the digestive tract

Re: Given the cost of a Windows 10 Pro license...

agreed, but here's a better idea: just practice "safe surfing" and avoid the security problem altogether.

a) don't surf the web using a microsoft browser. If possible, don't use a microsoft OS, either.

b) don't open (aka 'double-click or in any way activate) anything downloaded from the internet. Open the program that views it and use 'file open' directly.

c) NEVER view e-mail as html. This includes WEB MAIL.

d) don't preview attachments inline - *EVER*

e) use NOSCRIPT or some other script-blocking tool on everything that isn't EXPLICITLY trusted.

and so on.

I still use XP for some things [like 3D printing]. that little box is just fine for that. It came with XP, and that's the way it is. Other former XP boxen became Linux boxen. One laptop got 7 on it. There is *NO* *NEED* *TO* *DOWNGRADE* *TO* *WIN-10-NIC* !!!

Microsoft has made an Android phone. Repeat, Microsoft has made an Android phone. A dual-screen foldable mobe not due until late 2020

Re: burning about $10bn+ of shareholder value (???)

"Bugger the customers ..."

Unfortunately it seems you are correct

This won't end well. Microsoft's AI boffins unleash a bot that can generate fake comments for news articles

Re: If you could try *not* breaking the Internet

when you consider the activist trolls, it might as well be bots anyway.

'Teh Intarwebs' will survive so long as gummints don't try to LEGISLATE it. Something about free people exercising their freedom, actually BEING free, not restricted on phrasing, linguistics, expressiveness, or use of words that make snowflakes cry, etc. Some places STILL DO exist without moderation, and USENET is one of those. And most of the time the mods aren't brown-shirt fascists. Some are, over on Fa[e]ceb[itch,ook] and Tw[a,i]tter, but that's another topic.

And who said someone ELSE didn't already have a "fake news" bot - or a room full of paid activists, same thing - gumming up the works and trolling everyone/everything on Tw[i,a]tter and Fa[e]ceb[ook,itch].

The mod firing squad: Stack Exchange embroiled in 'he said, she said, they said' row

Re: Is this just an English thing ?

well, you can still get it right, go back, and edit it all, using 'he' for singular unspecified sex of the subject, and 'him' for singular unspecified sex of the object. Use of 'they' or 'them' for the singular case is just WRONG.

Re: Is this just an English thing ?

"For job descriptions"

Why can't we all just accept the fact that a Mailman can be a woman, as could a Fireman, Policeman, Congressman, or Maintenance Man. If a lady shows up, nobody's surprised.

The way it's been in the Navy, unless it got changed for some STUPID reason, is that all officers are referred to as 'Sir' or 'Mister' within the right context. Havingt to know what sex-term to use is against good order and discipline. "Mr Fielding is officer of the deck" - well Lt Fielding happens to be a lady, let's say, but nobody's going to care about that, as they're trying to drive a ship, stay on course, and not run into things.

And that's how it SHOULD be.