Posts by bozoid

It says a lot about our society that politicians try to keep kids from seeing sex, but are totally onboard with them seeing multiple murders every 30 minutes on film or TV.

I love my Pebble Time Steel. The battery lasts for over a week and I can read it in daylight. (The color display isn't great, but it's pretty damned good.) I keep my phone on mute, trusting the Pebble to tell me about incoming calls/e-mails/texts, and can answer or dismiss them right from my wrist (including voice responses to texts). It's got a stopwatch, it counts my steps, it's reasonably attractive (with a 3rd-party band), and it's not too big to wear. What's not to like?

Would it have killed those Fitbit bozos to continue making Pebbles? Are they afraid that keeping the Pebble hardware alive would cannibalize sales of their own overpriced battery-sucking tech?

Haz sad.

Tracking is the issue here

I don't mind being served ads in exchange for real content -- that's the standard "magazine" model -- but that's not the issue here. Many sites that complain "you're using an ad blocker" don't really care about ads, because they make a lot more money selling your tracking information.

If you're a Firefox user (for example), try whitelisting Wired.com in AdBlock Plus. They'll still refuse to show their content until you ALSO turn off NoScript and Ghostery. Sorry, Wired -- your content isn't worth my privacy.

Here's hoping that Classic Shell will hide this "promotional" crap, as it hides so much of the other BS in Windows. For me, Classic Shell and Classic Explorer have been the only things that make Win7 and Win10 usable.

I'm willing to turn off my adblocker and be served all the ads on good sites (e.g., Wired), because I value those sites. Unfortunately, most of those sites aren't satisfied with ad revenue, because they get a significant amount of revenue from trackers. I DON'T want to be tracked by their stinking affiliates.

So I can whitelist Wired (or many others) in AdBlock Plus, but I still can't view their sites -- they see Ghostery, they be hatin'.

An old Tom Digby song comes to mind...

So we got an expert genius and he rewrote all the programs

But we always got results that looked like these:

"OH YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY EYES FOR READING LITTLE TEENY PRINT

LIKE YOU NEED LITTLE TEENY LICENSE PLATES FOR BEES."

Surely a Moon landing would be an easier test? Half the gravity, no pesky atmosphere, and a cruise phase that lasts three days instead of eight months.

As long as the bandwidth required isn't too onerous, and the ads don't flash or animate, I don't mind when sites request that I turn off ad-blocking -- I'm getting content for free, so the least I can do is download ads and ignore them.

But nowadays sites like Wired and Forbes hide their content if you're blocking *trackers*. That's a whole 'nother animal. I'll read your ads, but I'm damned if I'm going to let you and your affiliates track me all over the Web.

Of course, this gadget will *also* disrupt communication with model aircraft which have no autopilots -- competition sailplanes, pattern ships, model warbirds, and all kinds of (sometimes large and heavy) aircraft whose only guidance system is a pilot on the ground with a 2.4GHz transmitter.

Who will be liable when the idiots try to "disrupt" one of those?

I was on the fence about the whole ICANN/IANA transition -- everything seemed to be working, so why change it?

But now that Ted Cruz and his xenophobic knuckle-dragging mouth-breathing buddies have come out against the transition, I'm for it.

That was fast

The Mini Glowring (the only one I can order from over here in the Land of the Free(TM)) is sold out already.

I haz a sad.

"Total Inability to Support Usual Performance" is now my favorite acronym.

"Then there is the fact that it would go against the very underpinnings of the internet: the network was built and run and is owned by private companies connecting together. The amount of government-owned internet infrastructure is minimal, not just in the US but globally."

Um, that's a fact, but it's not a problem. The US electrical grid is (successfully) regulated as a public utility, even though essentially *all* of it is owned by private companies. Likewise, "common carrier" rules kept the railroad barons from running the entire country in the late 19th century.

Great. "Content providers" can pay for fast lanes. How much do you think Comcast will charge NBC Universal (which it owns) for a fast lane?

You had me going for a couple of paragraphs, and then I realized it's already April on your side of the pond.

Nice try!

Five bucks says the final link leads to a message that says "BESURETODRINKYOUROVALTINE".