* Posts by Toe Knee

65 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Mar 2018

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The NPU: Neural processing unit or needless pricey upsell?

Toe Knee

Re: What does "upsell" (noun) mean?

As an American, let me enlighten you:

Imagine you are at your “favorite” fast food establishment getting a half-kilo-with-cheese burger.

The friendly employee behind the counter asks “would you like to make that a meal for 75 cents more?”

That pleasant query is the dreaded “upsell”.

Recycling old copper wires could be worth billions for telcos

Toe Knee

Underground Utilities

@Doctor Syntax:

What you're describing is pretty usual (especially for new-ish builds), and we call it dual trenching. It really saves time, effort, and most of all *money* if done correctly. "If done correctly" carries a whole lot of weight in that statement, unfortunately. As to the GIS part, anything built pre 1994 (in my neck of the woods) has GIS data that's just wishful thinking. The best part is when PVC was starting to gain a foothold in utilities, but nobody gave a thought to properly locating them in the future (plastics don't radiate RF, which the locators use to actually *find* the lines). Where I work, there are entire swathes of fairly dense urban area that just require what our locators describe as "precision guesswork" as the maps are less than useless, dimensions are just seemingly random values, and are non-radiating. The newer non-resonant lines have a metal wire run down them in order to act as an antenna, but those are far less common than one would wish.

With Asmi 24.04, Ubuntu's never looked so snappy (without the Snaps)

Toe Knee

Snap free and XFCE

Snap is what pushed me over the edge and compelled me to leave Xubuntu (which I otherwise really liked outside of the Canonical ads in system tools) and migrate to MX.

If this distro manages to excise my annoyances with Ubuntu I may end up giving it a serious try.

I understand Canonical has a business to run, and don’t begrudge them trying to get users in paid services, but maybe don’t flog enterprise support services to desktop users.

Toe Knee

Re: Nice one.

As to the window resizing issue, I’ve found Alt+Right Click anywhere in the window you wish to resize bypasses the issue entirely in XFWM. Its become so ingrained in my workflow that it’s incredibly irritating when I have to use a system that doesn’t support this combo!

Qt Ubuntu 24.04 betas show that there's room to innovate

Toe Knee

Re: Snaps still don't work

I wish I would’ve known about that years ago: snap is what pushed me to MX from Xubuntu! I still don’t miss snap and it’s filesystem madness. lsblk should NOT drive me crazy.

Judge refuses to Ctrl-Z divorce order made by a misclick

Toe Knee

Re: Till death do we part for me, part for you

The _No_Lone_Zone_ has real value!

The alternative to stopping climate change is untested carbon capture tech

Toe Knee

Kudos

@Jellied Eel

I'll be the the first to admit they're out of their depth on climate modeling and chemistry, so I don't have any reason to challenge your statements. On the other hand, I do respect the consensus of those who do, and have made it their life's work: we ARE having a non-insignificant effect on planetary climate (with all the attendant problems).

That being said, I do appreciate your well thought out response, and will have to do some more (admittedly cursory) investigation. We all need more good faith, fact based discussion like what you've brought.

X-rated auction sells last vestiges of pre-Musk Twitter

Toe Knee

Re: An Epic location?

Who gets to wear the cheap, rubber Gorn suit?

Red Hat's open source rot took root when IBM walked in

Toe Knee

Re: I'm so happy that I got lucky 30 years ago ...

Had to love writing the disk sets to two separate disks, just in case one of the (old) disks died in the process and puked on read, because dd would exit happily no matter what. Good times :)

Ubuntu 23.04 welcomes three more flavors, but hamburger menus leave a bad taste

Toe Knee
FAIL

My only significant gripe with MX

My only significant gripe with MX Linux is the installer. It doesn’t support RAID or LVM. And, strangely, it’s a compiled binary. So don’t think you’ll do some minor adjustments on the fly!

Luckily, there are ways to placate the beast, and I learned more than I ever wanted about DevFS in the process.

Still not enough for me to go to another distro, though! I’ve already pulled the installer’s code from the repo to take a look at some direly needed improvements.

Elizabeth Holmes is not going to prison – for the moment

Toe Knee

@Orv

White collar criminal getting early release? Never!!!

Wait…

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/former-dixon-city-comptroller-rita-crundwell-released-from-prison/

How insecure is America's FirstNet emergency response system? Seriously, anyone know?

Toe Knee
FAIL

FirstNet Customer

As a FirstNet “customer”, I’m not shocked that it’s held together with string and duct tape. Its only selling point is prioritization and the use of exclusive, otherwise unused LTE band.

NIST says it won’t fall over under load, and even that’s questionable.

The main effort by AT&T seems to be identity verification and billing. Must be nice to have a monopoly contract.

Uptime guarantees don't apply when you turn a machine off, then on again, to 'fix' it

Toe Knee

Nothing like a carefully selected set of floppies with JUST the package sets you need. In duplicate, of course, because these are second and third hand disks with a tendency to fail at the worst possible moment.

Some things just scar you for life!

Turing Award goes to Robert Metcalfe, co-inventor of the Ethernet

Toe Knee

Re: Read all about it!!

Thanks for the recommendation! I’m always looking for the next good book in my life.

Winnie the Pooh slasher flick mysteriously cancelled in Hong Kong

Toe Knee

Re: Wierd

@Catkin

This type of thing is enough to make me (momentarily) cheerlead for YET ANOTHER extension of copyright!

AWS delivers a – rather late – major release of its homebrew Linux distribution

Toe Knee

Re: Too Much Choice Can Be A Very Bad Thing.....

“My CHOICE list is …” (emphasis on choice is mine)

I think that says it all. Choice. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Google: Turn off Wi-Fi calling, VoLTE to protect your Android from Samsung hijack bugs

Toe Knee

Re: Frikkin' Network Operators

Apple is guilty of many, many things, but their long term support of iPhones is not one of them. The official, published window for my handset is 2018-2025. Past experience with Apple suggests that they mean it.

I think it’s safe to say that NONE of the players in the Android space are willing (or even able) to make that type of commitment.

Australian government doxxed citizens who criticized illegal 'Robodebt' scheme

Toe Knee

Re: The "weather" balloon

The entire process was more complicated than one would imagine. Plus, it’s the F22’s first kill. Bizarre…

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-22-shoots-down-chinese-spy-balloon-off-carolinas-with-missile

Dear Stupid, I write with news I did not check the content of the [Name] field before sending this letter

Toe Knee

Re: Dear Rich Bastard

Extra points for the truth teller at Wells Fargo:

“You owe your soul to the company store. Why not owe your home to Wells Fargo? An equity advantage loan can help you spend what would have been your children's inheritance.“

I can get behind that kind of “mishap”…

Should open source sniff the geopolitical wind and ban itself in China and Russia?

Toe Knee

@MachDiamond

> Printing something on a T-shirt doesn't make it free speech.

The US Federal judiciary disagrees. According to them, printed versions were protected speech, while the electronic versions were munitions. I’m too lazy to find the case citations at the moment.

I specifically remember Cracking DES:

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL8667288M/Cracking_DES

Legal, technical, and common terms quite often don’t share the same definitions.

It's time to retire 'edge' from our IT vocabulary

Toe Knee

Re: switching the Boss into Dummy Mode

It’s like a crosswalk activation button or elevator “close doors” button: cosmetic addition for placebo effect.

NASA infosec again falls short of required US government standard

Toe Knee

Re: About that

That’s some pretty horrific reading. Horrific, but not entirely unexpected…

I certainly never had any idea as to the budgetary priorities of projects at different phases in their lifecycles. That any sufficiently large organization is a bureaucratic nightmare is shown once again.

OK, we know iPhones are expensive but... $11 a month for Twitter Blue on iOS?

Toe Knee

Here’s a nickel…

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/include/math-emu/double.h#L29

That is all.

Fresh version of Xfce, the oldest Linux desktop of them all, revealed in Xubuntu builds

Toe Knee

My daily driver

XFCE has been my daily driver for over a decade now (Xubuntu -> MX Linux fairly recently). It’s fast, useful, customizable to no end, and the dev team doesn’t insist upon breaking it seemingly at random.

What more could one ask?

How I made a Chrome extension for converting Reg articles to UK spelling

Toe Knee

We may well remember

That there are more Englishes* than just British and American. British English itself quite diverse, and the English of Scotland is as different as American English is from the English of England. That's before we even consider Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand, which have features that distinguish their Englishes from other, closely related varieties.

And to really mix things up, keep in mind regional dialects. In the US, a speaker with a "Louisiana" accent is almost unintelligible at first pass to somebody who speaks an "Upper Midwestern" dialect. Who ever thought a living language would be so complex?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/12/02/what-dialect-to-do-you-speak-a-map-of-american-english/

^^ WaPo article in the above link is an interesting read that is at least tangentially relevant ^^

*is "Englishes" even a word?

To make this computer work, users had to press a button. Why didn't it work? Guess

Toe Knee

Re: Manual is optional,

My God, if only I had a dime for every time I had to explain that I'd rather spend a couple of minutes reading the pertinent information over watching an insufferable, hour long video. Without fail, the videos are varying levels of terrible: horrible editing, narration, video quality, an insufferable amount of time getting to the point, inappropriate/irritating "musical" scores... they're all there in varying degrees.

Well, I'd have a lot of dimes!

Lufthansa bans Apple AirTags on checked bags

Toe Knee

Coverage via app does appear to be shrinking, but all the Amazon “smart” devices seem to be multiplying quickly enough to offset that loss (non-scientific observation). The Ring doorbells, Alexas, and whatever else Amazon sneaks the kit into, are all over the place in certain (mostly residential) environments.

On an unrelated note, I’d love to see some legitimate comparison of Tile/AirTag coverages.

Fixing an upside-down USB plug: A case of supporting the insupportable

Toe Knee

AGM-65 Maverick Tactical Air-Ground Missile

It's early, and I misread AIM-65 as AGM-65 and wondered what kind of operation you were running with children frying them... I need more coffee!

Scientists, why not simply invent a working fusion plant using $50m from Uncle Sam

Toe Knee

Re: Cold Fusion

Risks, certainly, but what we must do For Progress (TM)! When you don’t leave your estate, err… Research Complex with Residential Annex, it will clearly be due to the ground breaking science done within. And the lack of publication data is merely good OpSec. If you’re hiring, let me know: a guest house on the back 40 would be enough for me. I’m not a greedy man :)

Mozilla drags Microsoft, Google, Apple for obliterating any form of browser choice

Toe Knee

Re: Still going string today

@AC:

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry in regard to the user competent enough to know about using an IP rather than domain name, yet still insisting upon Google for search.

Just smart enough to wreak havoc, it seems

BOFH and the case of the disappearing teaspoons

Toe Knee

“discreetly numbered with red nail polish on the undersides of the handles“

How does one *discreetly* label a spoon with red nail polish?

Google shuts off IoT Core services shortly after announcing API stability commitments

Toe Knee

Re: Once again, ahead of the curve

I do believe that there are certain items that benefit from remote analytics and control (SCADA style), such as solar arrays w/battery packs. In my view, this list is exceptionally short, hence my solitary example.

Unfortunately, shoehorning this technology into *everything* seems to be all the rage, regardless of any actual value. Hell, I can’t imagine *any* outside of a marketing fever dream.

Toe Knee

Re: Another successful outcome...

If we step back and take a look at who their actual customers are, it becomes clear that they’re incredibly successful…

The advertisers are getting (what they perceive to be) a great service. The “users” (if a service or platform on the Internet is free, you are not the customer: you are the product) get shafted in the process, but that’s just one of the costs of doing business.

Toe Knee

Re: According to the article

Vendor lock-in is so much easier in the “products - not protocols” space. Won’t somebody think of the poor shareholders?

We tested all the Ubuntu remixes for resource usage so you don't have to

Toe Knee

Re: I've got Xubuntu 20.4 running on an Atom. So I guess Lubuntu could too.

MX Linux isn't "lightweight", per se, but it does have 32 bit support. It also has a really good (IMHO) implementation of vertical panels in XFCE...

https://sourceforge.net/projects/mx-linux/files/Final/Xfce/MX-21.1_386.iso/download

Smart thermostat swarms are straining the US grid

Toe Knee

Re: So a "smart" thermostat

A Steam Machine, if you will? Valve is in the tea business now, apparently :)

Toe Knee

Re: "why not rev up ready for it"

@Mike 137

I work in utilities, and underground infrastructure from the 80s is an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. I have a hunch that “deregulation” played into it by ensuring the profit motive overrode any other consideration in the building stage. Only one man’s opinion, but a reasonable one.

SCOTUS judges 'doxxed' after overturning Roe v Wade

Toe Knee

Everything here is fine

Long ago, in the dark mists of time, I would’ve enjoyed watching the cognitive dissonance at play as they etched our custom protections for themselves and nobody else using some worrisome legal “logic”…

Not so much anymore, as I can only shudder at what overblown, poorly thought out, and poorly implemented systems they’ll put in place to ensure their own safety and comfort (that we, the peons won’t benefit from).

I’m sure it’ll all be fine, above board, and respect the rights of all citizens, at the very least!

Never fear, the White House is here to tackle web trolls

Toe Knee

Re: The defence of the first ammendment is about to begin....

The American right is already trying… any time they’re held accountable for what they say, it’s “they’re taking away muh freedums!!1!one”

Sadly, it seems to be working in the intended audiences.

Start your engines: Windows 11 ready for broad deployment

Toe Knee

Re: Unusual suspicous activity...

@rmullen0

Usually the SSN is required in order to do a credit check before offering a contract to a customer in those situations, because it’s the closest thing to a National ID number we have in the US.

Yes, I know that’s not the legislative purpose of an SSN, and that it opens the door to some pretty intrusive possibilities, but not quite outright “surveillance”. Please don’t take this comment as some sort of endorsement of this state of affairs, but there *is* a legitimate business purpose for them asking for it.

FreeBSD 13.1 is out for everything from PowerPC to x86-64

Toe Knee

Re: FreeBSD is the best all round UNIX today

@keithpeter

“Regulatory Domain”(s) usually indicate transmission power and frequency regulations for WiFi devices. Every country is different.

Pro Tip: if you’re in the US, setting for Bolivia (BO) allows you to use the same spectrum, but with a noticeably higher transmission power. It’s all in the milliwatts, but sometimes every little bit you can squeeze out helps. Be sure your device can handle the extra power, though…

Only Microsoft can give open source the gift of NTFS. Only Microsoft needs to

Toe Knee

Win2k on a 486? That must have given you plenty of time to get other things done while you waited on it to do anything. At least it was a DX!

Lapsus$ extortionists dump Samsung data online, chaebol confirms security breach

Toe Knee

Re: The Leaky Cauldron

But the government has Top Men working on it…

https://youtu.be/yoy4_h7Pb3M

It’s a fine tradition in government service!

FBI says more cyber attacks come from China than everywhere else combined

Toe Knee

Re: Surprise Surprise

It’s a bit of political theater, but:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdpa/pr/us-charges-five-chinese-military-hackers-cyber-espionage-against-us-corporations-and

“U.S. Charges Five Chinese Military Hackers For Cyber Espionage Against U.S. Corporations And A Labor Organization For Commercial Advantage”

That’s from 2014, and there are plenty more since then. This isn’t new, and it has been splashed all over the media time and time again.

In regards to the FBI, broken clocks and all that…

Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes found guilty of fraud: Blood-testing machines were vapourware after all

Toe Knee

Re: 20 or 80 Years?

@AC:

As far as I know, she has a squeaky clean criminal record (or lack thereof, more precisely), so the guidelines won't be so draconian for her. The federal "point system" is pure madness!

Predictive Dirty Dozen: What will and won't happen in 2022 (unless it doesn’t/does)

Toe Knee

Re: Can we try and get HMG to join the crowdfunding lark

@ShadowSystems

I never thought I'd feel lucky to live in a Southern, deep red state, but... I literally booked an appointment for a booster two days ago at 7am, walked in at the agreed 8:30am time, and handled my booster business. One can only guess it's lack of demand here that allows for that smooth operation. Wonderful and horrifying at the same time.

Toe Knee

Re: Toyota.... paying to retain capability

"Buy here, pay here" is the monstrosity you're trying to recall. Don't make your INSANE weekly payment? Vehicle is remotely disabled!

How to destroy expensive test kit: What does that button do?

Toe Knee

"Pre-wetting was the method of using large numbers of water jets to spray the entire outer surface of the ship in preparation for encountering an area contaminated with radioactive 'fall-out'. The continual spray would not only make the surface wet, thereby preventing radioactive particles from sticking, but also wash them off."

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205187815

Feds charge two men with claiming ownership of others' songs to steal YouTube royalty payments

Toe Knee

Re: 20m, 5 years stir, 250k fine

Looks like it's $250k for *each* count. They're still in the black with a four count indictment, though.

Can't say I wouldn't be ok with that math!

Kremlin names the internet giants it will kidnap the Russian staff of if they don't play ball in future

Toe Knee

Re: On the Ocean Blue

I actually like that checklist. Consider it stolen and made "artsy" for presentation. You can be credited if you like, though!

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