Posts by bombastic bob

Re: Society devolving back to feudalism

"And the primary driving force behind this devolution is intellectual monopoly."

no, it's the willingness of people to surrender a part of their freedom to others, i.e. to "the elite", whether it's governments or corporations. Certain "evil" corporations are only just a PART of that, when driven by motives that are NOT "give the customer what he wants and make a profit". When it becomes "drive the customer to do what WE want, and make them PAY US FOR IT" - that's the problem.

Right, Microsoft?

Re: 1 atom switched junction <> 1 atom wide junction.

I'm actually curious about switching speeds here. If we can't go faster, what's the point?

Current tech limits us to under 4Ghz for the most part (yeah overclockers, but still). I always figured it would be 3Ghz, but it's gone all the way to 4Ghz. 4Ghz has a wavelength of less than 8cm and so in theory for a single clock cycle read transaction, you need a distance of 2cm or less between whatever on either end [to allow for switching and propogation etc.]. You mght get away with 4cm, but that's the speed of light we're talking about, and you can't exceed it. So yeah clocking along at 4Ghz generally means no more than 2cm between any 2 points that have to talk to each other at that speed.

Atom-sized transistors, therefore, could speed this up by compressing the size significantly. You'll still need a way to get the RAM physically closer to the L2 cache, though, so you can at least read it at the full clock rate. 2cm isn't very big, and that's only 4Ghz.

Now, HOW fast can this gel-substance switch at?

Re: Government failing the populace

"I have yet to see any rational argument supporting the reversal of Net neutrality"

1. government take-over of the internet is NOT good for freedom. They will censor, block, harass, snoop, force encryption back doors, and filter speech, given the opportunity. "for the children" etc. It's what they do. In the name of political correctness.

2. de-regulation works by getting the 'brick walls' and 'roadblocks' OUT of the way of for-profit industries to serve their customers as best as they can, while still making a profit.

3. If you want to fix problems with infrastructure in unprofitable areas, allow the ISPs to charge MORE for service. Then they'll be able to afford it. Otherwise it's a WELFARE PROGRAM.

4. Preventing someone from buying a "fast lane" (i.e.prioritization) is like forcing EVERYONE to be EQUALLY MEDIOCRE.

5. Net neutrality is not about equality of service. It's about GOVERNMENT CONTROL. The end result can ONLY be mediocrity for everyone, because NOBODY can "get better". Except for the elite. Because some are MORE equal than others, like in 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell.

The Trump admiinistration de-regulates, cuts taxes, etc. - exactly what Pai did for that ridiculous "net neutrality" nonsense that was anything _BUT_ "net neutrality" - and the economy BOOMS forward, making the ENTIRE WORLD better off. It's a work in progress, but it's got a nice running start, and you know what's happening if you keep your eyes open and don't allow 'fake news' to tell you that you're not seeing what you're seeing every day. De-regulation works, tax cutting works, getting gummint out of the way works. Freedom works. That's the point.

One factoid I heard about on the Rush Limbaugh show yesterday - that apparently, download speeds have DOUBLED since the dropping of the so-called 'net neutrality' nonsense. Imagine THAT! And yet you'll NEVER hear about it on the lame-stream news. I was pleasantly surprised.

Re: Niche item

yeah I've built a couple of prototype devices to demo a concept for one particular customer using an inexpensive fondleslab as a control device (in lieu of a front panel). A $$ 'droid slab will do what a $$$ screen does, and you can walk around the room with it...

Re: so they drink like a fish?

spiders on drugs? [I checked out that link, it had an interesting photo - "this is your web" "this is your web on various kinds of drugs" - the 'caffeine' one was appropriately 'tweeked']

Charlotte's Psychadelic Web. heh.

Re: Pedant Alert

I didn't know British singular/plural grammar rules were any different...

(as long as the 'singular they' isn't used, I'm ok with it)

Re: Far Too Little Much Too Late is a Sub Prime Action in a Failed Program

and who still uses anything by Adobe [that isn't a decade or so old] ?

Flash Player - people STILL use that?

Acrobat Reader - I bought a re-conditioned PC a couple of years ago [came with Win 7, 'while I could get one' basically] and it had Acrobat Reader pre-installed.

THE @#$%'ing THING WANTED ME TO LOG INTO IT AND REGISTER MY E-MAIL ADDRESS! Bit-bucket.

Re: Pai is still damaging society

How many times does the liberally biased concepts that were labeled as "net neutrality" (which isn't neutrality) need to be explained before it becomes OBVIOUS that removing Obaka-era regulations from a 'bounds overstepping' FCC was a *GOOD* thing?

The intarwebs survived for a couple of DECADES without such regulation, which basically threatened to prevent someone from PAYING EXTRA to get prioritized traffic. That means EVERYONE EQUALLY MEDIOCRE. That's like SOCIALISM. Except, in socialism, "the elite" will ALWAYS 'get theirs'.

If ISPs can allow providers to PRIORITIZE, and they pay EXTRA to do it, or allow CUSTOMERS to "get priority traffic" at that higher priority (by paying extra), as long as the overall average isn't screwed over in the process, then EVERYONE will WIN. It THEN becomes a matter of choice, as to "which brand" you want, effectively. Otherwise we'll all be stuck with PRICE CONTROLS, effectively, and NO choice.

But this was about ONLY "the elites" getting THEIRS, and forcing "the masses" to have "the mediocre". THIS is the evils of socialist thinking, because you're not helping by trying to EQUALIZE OUTCOMES. Those who EARN more should be able to SPEND MORE to get BETTER. This is the incentive to EARN MORE. If there's no point in earning more, why bother? Then things start to stagnate, PARTICULARLY in the overall economy, and you ultimately get VENEZUELA.

Instead, I'd like to choose between getting a Chevy or a Cadillac. If I can afford the Cadillac, I should be able to get that if I want it. Or if I can't, get the Chevy. NO point in forcing ALL Cadillac owners to ONLY be able to get the Chevy.

That is, unless you're one of those anti-1% fascists SOCIALIST types...

(if you work hard, prepare yourself, take the risks, and BECOME "one of the 1%" shouldn't you be able to KEEP THE REWARDS of the preparation, hard work, and risks?)

Pai (and the Trump administration) is *RIGHT* about _REMOVING_ so-called "net neutrality" regulations from the FCC. It was WRONG to have done it in the FIRST place.

Re: no-brainer for sysadmins

The first thing _I_ thought of was, am I going to be *FORCED* to use a browser that has Australis and a 'hamburger menu' button? Because I don't want to be _FORCED_ into using FF 57 or later due to this...

(I really _HATE_ the Metro-Centric 2D FLATSO CRAPWARE)

if feature maintenance is a problem...

if feature maintenance is a problem, then re-design the thing so that maintaining such "features" is no longer required. Works on all platforms, using a common method. Simple, right?

How does 'rsync' do ITS magic? They should JUST do that. makes sense to me.

[as I understand it, rsync compares file size and SHA hash - if they differ, it needs to be sync'd - and source control systems have well-tested methods of storing/tracking version info if you need that, too]

this makes me consider that a paid-for github repo would make for good off-site backup, too... [or NOT github if you want a non-Microsoft solution]

Re: Skype? Ha ha ha!

"believes that another application is using the web cam"

that's just the spyware. you can ignore it being there. It won't watch you doing anything that you don't want posted on 'teh intarwebs' if you don't send 5,000 bitcoin to a particular wallet...

Re: Full circle

I'm not against the idea of on-premesis cloud services [in fact I thought that' what it was SUPPOSED to be] but a "public cloud" is *HIGHLY* overrated, that's for sure.

'Cloudy' for when it makes sense. PRIVATE cloudy so that a large organization can manage it without being evil-spy'd upon on or slurped. But, NOT for your day-to-day operations. No. Distribute that and process it LOCALLY [even if it means frequent to-the-cloud backups for safe keeping].

But yeah if gummint were using the PUBLIC cloud, it'd be like "slurp wars", "Slurp vs Slurp" etc..

Can you imagine gummints telling MICROSOFT to "not SLURP us" or LOSE the contract???

Re: Pulling a freight train with a tricycle

heh, that image only works properly if it's the guy in the yellow raincoat from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In

to improve people's experience

deserves its own icon, like 'for the children'

Re: Inner Space?

"Outer Space starts at 100km up, which isn't even past the atmosphere... so where/what is Inner Space?"

Somewhere in the vicinity of 'Uranus'

Re: Time for Pai to hold out for some more stock options from Big Cable

If a gummint official EVER profits from his position like that, he deserves the jail time for insider trading and unethical conduct. There's a Congressman who was recently indicted with charges over similar kinds of profiteering. I forget his name, just remember reading about it on Fox News.

Jokes aside, I doubt Pai will be profiteering from his position at the FCC. If he ever does, he'll deserve the consequences.

Re: What if you don't allow JS at all?

"there are dozens of others."

Excluding things that exploit Intarweb Exploiter, (aka Microsoft's Internet Explorer}, can you name some please? Because the last time I checked, methods that use fonts or graphics files have been patched, long ago. At this point you would be required to actively visit an exploit site and enter information (like a phishing site), rather than having them run in background (using script or other 'executables') and harvest it somehow. Or steal your bandwidth. etc.

For the IE-specific exploits, the list may still be pretty long. It may no longer include ActiveX though. It's why I don't use IE. In fact, I don't web surf at ALL with a Windows OS. It's part of my 'Safe Surfing' rules, after all.

Safe surfing:

a) use NoScript or its equivalent, as restrictively as possible

b) NEVER use a Microsoft browser

c) Avoid web-surfing while running Windows

d) *ALWAYS* be logged in as a NON-PRIVILEGED user when web surfing

etc.

(not perfect, but generally effective)

"a long-term relationship with any new employee"

one that's easily terminated at the next layoff

One-sided deals are the worst kind. A win-win always works better, and 65 does *not* mean *retirement* ! It could mean that, but shouldn't, in my opinion, not when people live to be in their 80's.

(I'll still be working until I'm dead, and then contract out as a ghost, during my "retirement")

"They're probably addressed in a private range, but they're still exposed to the internet."

especially if some clueless intern went and enabled 'uPNP' on the router/firewall (so his torrents would work better?). Or, if your printer has IPv6 enabled... (and your ISP supports it, and your firewall cluelessly allows incoming print requests to connect to it - because in theory, [nearly] all IPv6 addresses are publicly visible and exploitable without proper firewalling to STOP it)

Re: Matanuska-Susitna ransomware infection

yeah we all can pretty much interpret/know that the ransomware 'ran under windows'. however, it's worth pointing out that if you use a utility (one like rsync) to back up files to a Linux box, FROM WITHIN the Linux box, such that it reads files from remote systems but does NOT allow those remote systems to write TO it, and does so in a manner that can restore files 'to a 'point in time' (i.e. the July 12th version of that particular file, before it got encrypted by malware) then having live systems doing daily backups isn't so much of a security risk, keeping them "on all of the time".

However, I suspect in THIS case that such backup/recovery/disaster systems were, in fact, ALSO running windows...

So yeah the basic model here would be for a Linux box to use standard utilities, maybe Samba, maybe rsync, or maybe some 3rd party backup software, such that the backup server PULLS the data [and does NOT get data PUSHED to it], and then LOCALLY files it someplace in a manner that allows for getting back "the state of things on a particular date/time". Anyway that's my $.10 on it, and a Linux server running those backups with its own security context could help to prevent network-wide malware from infecting the disaster recovery backups.

Re: I can see where this will lead

"Plenty of black/dark androids in Star Wars"

already done in "Rogue One", and THAT (reprogrammed imperial) 'droid was a total hero!

As for the "research" that suggests racist/sexist/name-your-bigotry behavior towards 'droids, I call B.S. on most of it. Without actually seeing the droids or how they interact with humans, I'd STILL say that "uncanny valley" is a BIG part of how people respond to them.

There is a somewhat natural aversion towards people who are different, a result of thousands of years of genetic predisposition that most likely caused races to form in the first place (and many millenia ago, was PROBABLY a survival mechanism favored by natural selection). Nowadays, people are generally taught to overlook this predisposition for obvious reasons. However, this predisposition ALSO results in the 'uncanny valley' effect when deailng with 'droids, particularly when the 'droid is close to human, but not quite.

I suggest that if the racial makeup of the bots is equal (3 droids, 3 different races), the racial makeup of the survey should ALSO be equally representative of the 3 droids. This is for the basic reason behind the 'uncanny valley' effect, that "being different" is behind the attitude people will have towards a droid of a given racial appearance.

If the droid is extremely human-like, enough to get past the uncanny valley effect, it shouldn't matter at all what race the robot appears to be. HOWEVER, if the droid is falling into the uncanny valley, AND appears to have a different race, genetic disposition may 'kick in' and cause humans to react MORE negatively towards bots that appear to be of a different race, especially if the racial features are 'hard' rather than 'soft'.

So a more 'African looking' black female 'droid would be more likely to trigger this with white or oriental people, as opposed to a 'droid that looked like Condoleeza Rice or Michelle Obama, not because of "being black" but "being different enough" in combination with the already-present 'uncanny valley' features.

Someone should've done a few more studies on this, 'droids in general, etc. Give it a green face with purple hair, oversized ears, and thin lips, and see how THAT goes (still human-looking, but different enough to push it into the uncanny valley).

Re: Uh, am I the only one

"rare, fleeting, impossible to predict, rarely repeat, and yet intense enough to notice when you go looking for them in the data."

Just to point out, when you pass two frequencies through a non-linear situation, perhaps magnetic or gravitational lensing, you get the 'heterodyne' effect, i.e. 'beat frequencies', the sum/difference of the originals.

It could be we're getting bursts of THOSE. [added: the difference in thermal energy between 2 stars, for example, might end up as ~500Mhz]

As much as I'd like it to be an alien civilization using radio for communications, it's so ineffective across vast distances of space that an alien race capable of coming here OR even communicating with us would be using something a lot faster, maybe even a method based on quantum entanglement.

Re: Communist leaders and their sensitivities

Every leader, most likely, has *something* for which they _SHOULD_ be made fun of. Whenever there's a leader you can NOT make fun of (whether for political correctness or political oppression reasons) there's something *seriously* *WRONG* with that picture...

Re: Protectionism vs. security

An "N.I.H." posture with respect to national defense should be considered 'prudent'.

And open source stuff could simply be 'hardened'. BSD comes to mind, in that regard. Linux too, if the GPL is simply ignored for national security reasons. But if it's kept a secret, nobody would know [or disclose it] so there ya go.

As for anti-virus and security tools, if it's closed source and NOT a U.S. based company, and/or phones home with any data, it's by definition 'insecure' and shouldn't be in use by the military or any government agency that deals with classified information.

Re: Trump 'not normal' FCC Commish reveals

compared to 'normal' politicians, I'll take "not normal" *ANY* day.

Re: Well....

how about .semprini ?