Posts by Earth Resident

Stop the provocations

Russia had no incentive to engage in cyber attacks against Ukraine. The United States and NATO are the ones who would benefit since it advances the western propaganda. Ever since it was revealed back 6-7 years ago that the NSA developed hacking tools that can leave evidence framing any country, every attack should be thought as a false flag attack.

How would Russia benefit? By more negative press and increased war pressure? Russia doesn't even have an incentive to invade Ukraine and since they've never expressed that intention I think the western media should begin to act more responsibly. Russia is simply looking for security guarantee from the west and that's a small ask.

We wouldn't be in this position anyway if the Ukrainian Rada would only follow the 2015 Minsk II agreement that they signed an have done little to implement. Or maybe perhaps the United States could keep to their word about not moving "one inch" with NATO. Instead, NATO has threatening troops on their border and the west is trying to push Russia into a rash over. That's not only stupid, it's dangerous. And it's causing a price spike in US natural gas prices to the home as well as record high gasoline prices.

If the United States doesn't voluntarily stop trying to provoke Russia they are going to cause a conflagration. Millions will die because Biden's numbers are down. Pathetic.

It's the first undersea cable...

with the surveillance taps pre-installed. After all, GCHQ has enough on their plates already.

I built a system with a 12-core E5 Xeon...

plus motherboard and 32BG DDR4 RAM purchased from Aliexpress for about USD300. Add CPU fan, case, PS, and SSD and it cost about USD550 all told. Add another USD39 for Zorin OS and I have a blazing system and a mouse with more than one button. What a deal!

The minute I read Bellingcat...

I became skeptical. I will not accept that a corrupt, fake cutout of an investigative organization could accomplish anything worthwhile. Perhaps this bogus story is an attempt to burnish their Bona Fides?

I've worked in Finland before

I would live there in a minute. Sure, Finns are a bit reserved, but so are Belgians. However, get one of them a bit tipsy, and you've found your best friend and quite often they will tell you so. The architecture is amazing and the nature is breathtaking. Also, no slums. Normally when I stay in hotels for business, I save money by taking my laundry to the laundromat rather than using expensive hotel services. I couldn't find a laundromat in Vaanta (where I was staying) because everyone has a clothes washer.

Driving from Helsinki to Vaasa one time I felt like I was in my home state of Maine -- pine forests and lakes galore. Another time, I flew to Vaasa and then drove to Seinäjoki for the watch then frown the national tango king and queen. I would love to visit Lapland one day.

Too cold for you? Have your business meetings in the buff in the sauna (that's sow-na for the uninitiated). Finns are very free, open, efficient, and scrupulously honest.

This is a test

This has been a test of the Pentagon's commercial aircraft speed and position spoofing system. Had this been an actual flight path, there would have been real world verification of a crash.

If you want to stop terrorists, stop sending them money and weapons

GCHQ wants all your info, but needs the threat of terrorism as an excuse. Banks and and weapons makers want countries to buy more bombs, missiles, and drones in order to protect themselves from terrorism. Global hegemons want to send their armies to as many countries as possible in order to advise them in fighting terrorism.

Is it any surprise that the US, UK, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and so forth organize and pay terrorist groups to create unrest, start civil wars, fight with well-publicized brutality making sure to attack each one of the countries in the coalition so they can in turn use the reports of attacks to manufacture consent in their own countries? In these unnecessary wars for profit, what makes money for everyone is terrorism -- and more of it.

That's not all

While they are at it, San Francisco and other American cities should ban the use of Stingray devices by their police to hijack mobile phone connections in order to tap conversation and geo-locate the owner.

The choice is obvious

If I have to choose between Office 2019 and Office 365, I will choose Libre Office. Especially if M$ switched exclusively to a subscription model.

I suspect it's related...

Yesterday, I did an update of the virus definitions for Microsoft Defender (settle down, I have two Win 10 machines in a household with a LAN and 3 M$ systems and 4 Linux systems along with various Android/IOS fondleslabs) on my Windows 10 Pro machine and got a message telling me I had to activate Windows.

I fixed it by reentering the internally stored product.key. What a pain in the ass.

Hit 'em where it hurts

For a long time, I have advocated an Internet-free Christmas gift season if net neutrality is repealed. If they want to kill the Internet, hit the retailers. In addition, people who want to gift during the holidays can shop at local brick-and-mortar establishments, helping their local economy.

It's a win-win and it sends a strong message.

Bollacks, I say!

The company has no obligation, either moral or legal, to reveal the nature of their server scheduling algorithms. We Uber drivers agree to a contract where Uber finds the gigs and we fulfill them as subcontractors. This is no different that the IT assignments I have had in the past.

If drivers are attempting to game the system, they are hurting themselves (thereby reinforcing their own complaints) and helping me because I play by the rules scrupulously. I let the server lead me because it's easy to see how it works and as an IT professional, analyzing the behavior of systems is what I do.

All the server does is ascertain the area within which you are driving and assigns riders accordingly. I noticed in the very beginning that I was regularly being directed to pick-ups in places I had quite recently passed. As a result, when I Uber, I simply establish a territory and get longer rides between two established points.

I do not gravitate towards areas where there is a surge taking place because all that means is most riders are delaying until the price comes down. If you play by the rules, and that is what I always do as a professional, the server can take care of you. It's not, repeat, not a lot of profit especially if you're not working a large city. However, when one agrees to a contract, one should fulfill its terms to the letter.

Curious

I'm sure this is not a smoking gun but 5% of 650,000 is 32,500. The number of "private" emails deleted from Secretary Clinton's email server was approximately 33,000. Coincizenza?

Probably not significant. Simply curious. Wouldn't it be interesting if all those lost emails were found just a day or so before the election? That might clear up a lot. I know I do a backup before I do a mass deletion. What better way than to send it to the email account of a trusted aide.

Cruel runes

He should remarket the ring with the inscription "Tolkien estate sucks Brandywine swamp water" transliterated into Elvish runes around the perimeter. It would still look stylish and the sentiment would suit.

Not me...

I have my D drive with all my data and an SSD as my C drive, running Anniversary Update for over a week (on this and 3 other PCs) without a problem. I am a late adopter, I never expected to leave Windows 7 because I liked it... a lot. However, I'll be damned if I spend any more on Windows, as long as I use Windows (the other 2 computers on my LAN are Fedora and Ubuntu) and I waited until the 26th of July to start upgrading. I had already upgraded two other computers for friends (after one had a hard drive failure and and other stupid enough to respond to the fake Windows alert) so I had already become familiar with Windows 10. I'm embarrassed to say I like it more than Windows 7.

I guess they can convict for concealment of "possible" evidence even if they cannot find it

This is bollocks. This is the equivalent of the run-up to the Iraq war. Bush and Blair tell the world that they know Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but Saddam Hussein is hiding them. So they invade and kill him. In the process, they discover there were no weapons of mass destruction, but the penalty was exacted anyway.

Shouldn't a defendant be convicted based upon available evidence? If the evidence was cleverly deposited on the bottom of the Channel or encrypted in one's phone it is still unavailable to the prosecution. Now, in theory, the prosecutor can just assert that the defendant is hiding phantom evidence and convict on the concealment alone. That's pretty lame.

I have always believed that which happens in the virtual world be treated as it would in the real world.

That's why Google pays her the big bucks

To get the bang they expect.

D'oh!

This just in from Captain obvious...

The 9100 capacity range is from 800GB up to 3.2GB, less than the 3.84GB maximum of the S600DC product.

should be...

The 9100 capacity range is from 800GB up to 3.2TB, less than the 3.84TB maximum of the S600DC product.

All you need do is to do a fresh install of Windows 7 to get rid of the nagging. I did that on two PCs and have not seen any Windows 10 annoyances in the subsequent two months.

The scam and stupidity are not the worst part

I agree that the seller of these bogus devices should get at least 10 years. More importantly, his assets from the fraud should be seized. In addition whoever approved the purchase should be investigated and disciplined or in some case dismissed for wasting government funds.

IMHO, the worst part in this case is not their lack of effectiveness but their fraudulent perceived effectiveness.

Think about it, if one has half a brain cell firing, one can easily determine the the major "ionic force" affecting this device is gravity. Depending upon the direction of the tilt of the handle, the wire will point in any direction an unscrupulous operator wishes -- duh.

Do I want probable cause to search a locker or a vehicle or any other place? Pull out the magic wand and whether there's the sought after article or not there, any proper procedure requiring evidence is bypassed. The fraudulent magic device provides instant probable cause.

I think there was more than just routine bribery at work here. Every purchaser should be investigated and each instance of its use scrutinized.