Posts by rcxb

HPE to move HQ from Silicon Valley to Texas, says Lone Star State is 'attractive' for recruitment, retaining staff

Re: Texans are gonna love this

Trump had a modest lead in white voters. A rather weak correlation with party and race, there.

Arecibo Observatory brings forward 'controlled demolition' plans by collapsing all by itself

Re: Moichandising!

Much better to turn it into a massive skate/bike park. A half-dome instead of a half-pipe, you see.

Large companies, and governments, tend to self-insure. It's cheaper, in the end, if you can absorb the occasional spikes of big payouts.

It's been an Honor serving with you but you're our 'competitors' now, Huawei tells its sawn-off mobile limb

Cynical

It's not a sale so much as a spin-off to a subsidiary that they want to pretend is not a subsidiary. Which I'm sure will get bought right back up for a very reasonable price should the sanctions be lifted.

Boeing 737 Max will return to flight after software updates, says EU's aviation regulator

Re: "Airbus forced Boeing's hand"

What are you even suggesting? That Boeing should have developed MCAS years earlier...? Boeing certainly has developed OTHER airframes in that time which are more efficient than the aging 737.

Boeing's lack of willingness to properly re-engineer the plane as it would be too costly

Actually it was American Airlines back in 2011 that required Boeing supply 100 re-engined 737s that didn't yet exist, which largely forced Boeing's to develop it. AA required the same model largely due to FAA pilot certification requirements.

“Not only have [Airbus] sold jets to American, but they have forced Boeing’s hand into pushing for a re-engined 737,” said Saj Ahmad, an analyst at FBE Aerospace in London.

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/business/global/american-places-record-order-with-2-jet-makers.html

Considering the colonisation of Mars? Werner Herzog would like a word

went on to detail the numerous problems faced by those seeking to live on [Mars] or even attempt

Perhaps we can round-up some volunteers from Australian prisons and give them the option of transportation to Mars.

Might even be seen as a slight improvement over their homeland, as there are no deadly native animals out there, and the Kiwis aren't invited.

I work therefore I ache: Logitech aims to ease WFH pains with Ergo M575 trackball mouse

BAH!

With one little twitch of my thumb, I can send the cursor all the way across multiple monitors with a thumb trackball. You'd need to really contort your finger to try that with a poorly designed trackball, and I would have to slide a mouse straight out the window. Now try doing that for hours on end...

With your thumb, it's the same simple motion as cleaning a pair of glasses. Ever seen somebody use their index fingers for jobs like that?

Redis becomes the most popular database on AWS as complex cloud application deployments surge

Redis isn't a database, it's an in-memory key/value store.

A key/value store most certainly is a database, just not a relational or SQL one. Venerable old BerkleyDB comes to mind.

And Redis isn't in-memory only. It has the option of persistence (writing to disk) if desired.

Tablets and Chromebooks are hot, towers and desktops are not: El Reg combs through Q3 PC numbers

Re: Who NEEDS a desktop?

You could do the same with a $100 mini-PC.

GitHub restores DMCA-hit youtube-dl code repo after source patched to counter RIAA's takedown demand

Re: youtube-dl is still dubious

youtube's own terms of service are forbidding the download operation.

You can't send a DMCA takedown notice for violating terms of service. Violating ToS is not criminal.

Re: Invalid, surely?

does not a DMCA request refer to actual alleged "pirated" copyrighted material (music, etc), rather than the means to obtain same?

No, it can be either.

The content take-down notices are part of the "Safe Harbor" provision of the DMCA. That was written to prevent service providers from being liable for illegal content uploaded by their customers, provided they take it down immediate upon receipt of a takedown notice.

In youtube-dl's case, it's the "Anti-circumvention" provision. That was written primarily to make illegal the sale of satellite and cable TV descramblers (e.g. softcams).

The RIAA used strained logic to claim Youtube's minor obfuscation to hide the video location counts as copy protection and that reverse engineering it is therefore illegal.

The URLs in the unit tests are only *proof* that it's intended to be used for illegal purposes. Note that an individual downloading any of those videos in question is not illegal. Redistribution after the fact would be.

You can always count on Microsoft to do the right thing, eventually, when the public perception and possibly survival of their products is at risk. A bit like the Chinese legal system, really.

Re: Youtube

YouTube are certainly not worried about users getting copies of their videos. That was entirely on the RIAA side (US sound recording industry lawyer lobby).

That said, YouTube takes copyright infringement in their uploaded videos seriously, relative to Facebook which actively protects users posting content without the rights to do so.

And YouTube does try to break 3rd party interoperability at every opportunity, whether that's youtube-dl or NewPipe. Not because of piracy, of course, but because people not using their app or web-site takes away all that juicy user analytics data Google uses to earn almost all of their profit.

Python swallows Java to become second-most popular programming language... according to this index

Re: Sin tax

As soon as your programming students want to run an external system command, read something from a file on the local system, etc., they're pretty well stuck. Given that Python is going to be at least as easy to learn as javascript, it seems a terrible idea to limit your students to such a sandbox. There are really no reasons to start with javascript, unless you know all your students will be doing web dev.

c) If you're not using javascript sandboxed inside the web browser, then you've just taken away the one and only reason proffered that it would be a good language to start with.

Re: Sin tax

Far better to start teaching something that can easily interact with the system, not something sandboxed.

Not on your Zoom, not on Teams, not Google Meet, not BlueJeans. WebEx, Skype and Houseparty make us itch. No, not FaceTime, not even Twitch

Re: Mobile phones are crap

Even low quality cellular calls will have lower latency than most all internet connections. In live conversations, latency is serious. CD quality audio isn't a plus if the two participants keep talking over each other.

If you want to use your internet connection, just sign-up with a SIP service and use normal phone numbers. If the other end is on a high speed network, you'll get all that sound quality you want. If it's a cell phone user, well, at least you can still communicate.

WebRTC is the answer

Jitsi was mentioned, but glossed over. It has no interoperability problems and no programs to install on desktops (on mobile it works if you request the desktop site, or else install the app). Other WebRTC based options work similarly. You just need a modern web browser, click the link and you're off and going. It replaces all the WebEx helpdesk type apps as well, as you can share a window, and have a password prearranged for security.

The only issue with WebRTC in general is that there's a transition from small meeting where peer-to-peer works great, to very large rooms that need a central server to do heavy video processing to deal with slow connections of some attendees.

HP: That print-free-for-life deal we promised you? Well, now it's pay-per-month to continue using your printer ink

Re: I envision the (class action) lawsuits being filed by the hundreds if not thousands

All you need is a few thousand customers, and you've got a class action worth the lawyer's time.

The customers likely won't get anything out of it, but the lawyer will arrange for a hefty payout from HP for himself.

Ericsson warns investors: This Biden fellow coming into the White House may look to resolve China trade dispute...

Re: @alain williams - It is more than a trade war

explain us why the US has the highest inprisonment rate on the planet

Because China is #1 in executions.

California backs Proposition 22: Great news for Uber, Lyft as their drivers can work as indie contractors

What baffles me to no end is that things we take for granted in Europe (and that even in conservative parties don't challenge, like healthcare, unions, certain protections for employees) are considered "left" and "communist" in the US...

Once the public gets used to having something for free, it becomes popular and difficult to take away from them. While there isn't universal health care, no US politician will ever dream of eliminating Medicare (government funded health care for retired seniors and the disabled).

Most glaring flaw with the CCPA was the 30 day grace period. If a company is non-compliant, and they get caught, they still have 30 days to come into compliance and face zero consequences. Proposition 24 eliminates that, as well as the other issues mentioned here.

Unfortunate turn of events for gig workers, but it is a competitive marketplace. They'll have to pay enough, or workers will take other jobs. I've heard it's a bit of a pump and dump scheme, offer high pay at the start to build a workforce, then drop the rates once people have perhaps cut other economic ties and become dependant on that single source of income, which has become too little to support them.

Microsoft makes cloudy Linux licensing less labyrinthine

Re: Black Friday Sale

Let's face it, M$ is an also ran in this space.

What? Azure is #2 in the cloud space. They are far behind AWS but ahead of Google and Alibaba:

https://p2zk82o7hr3yb6ge7gzxx4ki-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/pasted-image-0-7.png

The only catch is that Microsoft wants you on their cloud platform exclusively, and not to have your Linux systems on Amazon or Google. And there's really no down-side for them. It's certainly a bad look if for example a company's Linux systems on Google are cheaper and generally more reliable than their Windows systems on Azure. Now an Azure outage is just a "cloud" outage with nobody looking elsewhere.

Microsoft is going to do everything they can to remove any reasons a company has to not use Azure for everything (once the Windows systems are there, because they got a sweetheart deal to lower the licensing), and give themselves market share and customer lock-in. Accounting departments sure don't want to deal with two sets of providers wherever one will do.

Trump administration proposes H-1B visas go to highest-paid workers first

This is just his second round of campaign promises. He's had 4 years and didn't implement these changes he campaigned on. Now he's bringing it up right before another election...

'This was bigger than GNOME and bigger than just this case.' GNOME Foundation exec director talks patent trolls and much, much more

Re: I'm just rebuilding my desktop ...

What's the problem with XFce? I customize the layout so it looks like Win95 and put it in front of some of the least computer literate users anywhere, and they manage to pick up on it with a bare minimum of training. You can continue to run any GNOME applications you're accustomed to.

Re: The main problem with making a mobile OS...

I'd love to keep using my Motorola Photon Q phone, released 8 years ago. Main reason I can't is that Android 4.x is the equivalent of Windows XP, so modern secure connections fail with most software, and most applications updated in the past several years won't run on it, either.

If I could install a plain Linux with X11 on it, and just compile open source apps, I'd use it until the hardware failed. Lots of people did just that with their Nokia N900s. I don't even need "real" voice support, just cellular data. Linphone (VoIP) will do nicely.

Only secondarily, I'd also like it to have more 4G band coverage today, but I'd still be happy to live with it for many more years.

Congrats, Meg Whitman, another multi-billion-dollar write-off for the CV: Her web vid upstart Quibi implodes

Re: “Quick Bites, Big Stories”

You're of course referring to Stan Lee, right?

Has Apple abandoned CUPS, the Linux's world's widely used open-source printing system? Seems so

Re: will drop PPD file support soon

HP pulled their support (PCL5 driver) for older Laserjets in Win10 recently

The whole point of getting a printer that supports a common/standard language like PS, PDF or PCL is that you don't have to give a damn what the manufacturer does. Any old PCL driver, such as those included in Windows base system, or 3rd party drivers (e.g. ghostscript) should work with the printer.

Re: will drop PPD file support soon

The alternative is getting binary blob drivers from printer manufactures

Not at all. The manufacturers are perfectly happy to give you a proprietary printer filter, along with a PPD that points to it.

PPD is just a very complex, poorly documented, configuration file format for printers.

Verizon: Just 25% of global businesses comply fully with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard

1) It's possible to fingerprint a network service besides just reading the version string to better identify if there are any outstanding vulnerabilities.

2) Most exploits do not need to damage the services or systems.

3) The whole point of a security scan is for the good guys to identify problems before the bad guys do. If that means causing a DoS incident to a customer to prove they are running running vulnerable software, that's a much cheaper

4) Customers can schedule security scans, so off-hours, maintenance windows are easily selected.

5) The cost of widespread credit card fraud is quite significant, too. A company could make a whole business model out of being more secure, and giving their customers lower fees or better rewards due to the decreased fraud from vulnerable companies.

The PCI industry has only itself to blame. The bureaucratic rules are vague enough to drive a truck through, and they accept worthless trash as a security scan to certify compliance.

Want to know how to pass a Trustwave scan? Suppress web server version strings. That's it. If you let it grab the version, it'll list EVERY vulnerability against that version of the software as if you're vulnerable, never-mind whether you're running a version that's patched the vulns, the vulnerable features are all disabled, and it's duly harded. But disable the version reporting, and you can have loads of unpatched vulnerabilities and rootkits everywhere. There is no ATTEMPT to check. That would cut into their profits, which then cuts into the kickbacks...

Russian hacker, described as 'brilliant' by judge, gets seven years in a US clink for raiding LinkedIn, Dropbox

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury#Jury_sentencing

His lawyer argued that “the weight of the guilt and the pain of being separated from these people who love and need him is far more punitive than any term of imprisonment that this court or any other can issue to Mr Nikulin,”

Judge & jury: "Challenge accepted..."

All those ‘teleworking is the new normal’ predictions? Not so much, say bosses

Bosses may want people back where they can see them work, (as if results dont speak for themselves)

Some employees will produce less with WFH, and simply do better in the office, free of distractions/temptations. Some are interested in WfH specifically so they can multitask (e.g. child care) and will be less productive than in-office workers.

Employers might advertise a job as WfH, but when the results are sub-par, employees faced with coming into the office or suddenly losing their job (at an inopportune time) will overwhelmingly cave to the demands. Without unionization, employers have a heavy advantage over the preferences of their employees.

How long until employers decide WfH is a perk worth 25% lower salary?

How long until employers decide with all the WfH staff, they can just go further afield and employ cheaper Romanians (still an EU country), or Indians, or similar?

Microsoft will release a web browser for Linux next month. Repeat, Microsoft will release a browser for Linux – and it uses Google's technology

Re: Edge..no!

1) Vivaldi don't have an FTP site.

2) Windows doesn't include FTP or Telnet by default anymore.

3) FTP.exe is so old it doesn't include passive mode; only works behind NAT/firewall if you have a FTP proxy properly configured.

4) If you mean an FTP site hosted on your internal network, Samba is a much better choice for that sort of thing.

Now, if you could download your browser of choice from an HTTP site with nothing but telnet.exe, I'd be impressed.

Dell cuts jobs again... which in Dell-speak is 'addressing cost structure to make sure we’re competitive'

Re: Computerless Cloud

cloud providers don't need DELL computers

Regular businesses with on-prem systems don't NEED Dell/HP/etc systems, either. They happen to frequently buy them because Del/HP/etc have tailored their products to that market over many years.

Those same computer makers could start releasing new lines of cheap, bare-bones, feature-reduced systems more in-line with what cloud providers want. They're not interested because there's less profit in that market. Kodak had the same problem when digital cameras became practical, and they also handled the change poorly.

Computerless Cloud

cloud is a major challenge to many aspects of Dell’s business

Right, because cloud providers don't need computers...

The shift to cloud services is certainly affecting Dell, but so to would any other business shift. Dell can either adjust and compete, or lose.

Video encoders using Huawei chips have backdoors and bad bugs – and Chinese giant says it's not to blame

Re: Corporate Sponsored Industrial Sabotage

when talking about negatives from the "Middle Kingdom" the reference is made to the whole country. When talking about bad stuff in the "Land of The Free" then it is specific towards a certain agency or agencies.

Isn't the reason obvious? China is a totalitarian dictatorship with extensive state control of supposedly private industry. Western countries are completely different, with substantial separation between private businesses and the government. Companies have legal protections, the ability to challenge legal orders, and the ability to refuse to comply with unlawful orders without being summarily executed.

Re: Corporate Sponsored Industrial Sabotage

We're blaming the Chinese for our stupidity in creating this environment.

While this situation was predictable, that doesn't absolve China of its responsibility.

What did they do – twist his Arm? Ex-Qualcomm senior veep joins SiFive as CEO, RISC-V PC for devs teased

Re: Comparison

most of the GPU vendors refuse to release open source versions of their full feature drivers.

No one expects GPU vendors to release their driver's source code to the world, only to provide adequate documentation for them to be re-implemented. AMD does this, so there are good open source drivers for their GPUs. Intel goes even further, but unfortunately doesn't sell discrete graphics cards.

Nvidia is the worst offender, but they have done the work to develop functional Linux drivers. While it's closed source, chances an architecture vendor could sign an NDA and get access to their code-base to port it, although the community wouldn't be particularly happy with that approach.

So, stick with AMD GPUs and you're good.

Re: Comparison

there's no RISC-V support for modern ATI or NVDIA GPU's. And it's not coming anytime soon either.

What are you even talking about? The CPU has nothing to do with video card interoperability. In the old days when there were competing workstation architectures you could put the same ATI PCI card in an x86 system, an Alpha system, a SPARC system, etc, and it would work just fine on all.

Microsoft submits Linux kernel patches for a 'complete virtualization stack' with Linux and Hyper-V

I'd be more concerned about reliability and licensing.

Your whole business stops when your internet goes down?

Your whole business stops when one service provider's network goes down?

Your whole business becomes unprofitable when your service provider decides the monthly charge is going up next month, and you can pay-up or lose everything?

Most non-hosted software has the benefit of being a one-time charge that is always available, and can continue running for decades at no extra charge.

Forget Terminators, says US military, the next-gen AI battles will hinge upon net infrastructure, not killer robots

Re: Why wage war ?

unfunded liabilities (over $154 trillion and currently rising at over $15 million per minute!!),

Assets owed by the government to the people aren't exactly dangerous... they can change the rules on you when they need to, and the GDP is large enough they can increase taxes a small bit to pay for it. For those liabilities in particular, the US is in better shape than most countries, with high levels of immigration birth rates than Western Europe, the tax base will continue expanding as those liabilities gradually come due, making it easier to pay. For a dire picture, look at Japan.

Server buyers ask Lenovo for made-in-Mexico models instead of Chinese kit

Can you imagine what people would be saying or doing if a country killed twenty of our troops in a border skirmish?

A border skirmish? Hmm. Something along the lines of:

"Wow, I guess Atlantis is real after all. I, for one, welcome our new fish-man overlords."

Paragon 'optimistic' that its NTFS driver will be accepted into the Linux Kernel

Re: Whatever for?

That has worked for years already with UDF and recently ExFAT

Have you actually seen the contortions it takes to create a UDF formatted drive which can be read and written by Windows, Mac and Linux? It's bad.

ExFAT falls under Microsoft patents for several more years and so wasn't available in Linux until recently. ExFAT also still remains inferior to NTFS and most other modern file systems.

NOTE: FWIW, I'm not one of your down-voters.

Re: Whatever for?

for booting an ISO why not just use FAT?

FAT32 has a 4GB file size limitation. DVD ISO images are very often larger than that. NTFS is a much better file system.

Re: Whatever for?

What difference do you think the format of the install media would make?

It's very useful to have cross-platform file-system compatibility. When Windows, Mac, and Linux systems can all universally boot/read/write USB thumb drives formatted with NTFS, life will be that much easier for everyone.

There are already higher performance file systems than NTFS in the kernel.

That doesn't help when you want to access NTFS formatted partitions. The only question here is FUSE versus Paragon.

Re: Whatever for?

The FUSE ntfs-3g driver has worked for years certainly, but only for basic tasks. It doesn't include any file-system check/repair utilities, and it can't be used for boot-time use. It would be nice if we could put a Fedora ISO on an NTFS formatted USB thumb drive and boot-up and install from that, directly. There's also the question of performance of userland versus kernel-space.

When classes are online, how do you get out of school? Florida teen cuffed, charged after crashing cyber-lessons

Re: Anyone else think this is odd?

School police are by and large parking enforcement. A security guard can write a ticket, but there's not much they can do to force you to pay the fine. When they pay the salaries of proper police officers, then suddenly not having your parking permit in your window is has the same force of law as someone who's driving wrecklessly.