Posts by bombastic bob

Re: What about...

math puzzle...

well, if you want to confuse the AI, list dog breeds and one cat breed, like

"Mark has a dachsund, Jean has two border collies, Bill has a rottweiler, Ron has a German shepherd named Killer, and Velma has a tabby. How many dogs are present?"

The answer will be "zero, they all ran after the cat".

Re: Good

"I hate those stupid damn Captcha boxes"

so do _I_ . The #1 reason: they all require FORNICATING SCRIPTING to be enabled

Re: RE: Except those times they didn't, like the Falklands.

"The US has a long-stated policy of not helping Britain retain or regain it's empire"

Source, please. Not opinions. K-thx. Roosevelt making "that" a condition of entering WW2? He was looking for an *EXCUSE* to enter the war! Lend-Lease and supporting things like the Flying Tigers was all part of that. Our Congress must declare war, and so he was doing what he could without them. But yeah, the USA should've declared war against Germany the day they invaded Poland, hindsight being 20:20, and against Japan when they invaded Manchuria. Maybe then, things would've ended a lot quicker...

I'd really like to see the evidence that suggests that Roosevelt, or USA foreign policy in general, seeks to undermine the British Empire, either in the idea of rebuilding it, or in the idea of dismantling it.

Some of the attitudes ca 1776 and 1812 might have been like that though. I'll accept that one. But wasn't most of that fixed in the latter half of the 19th century? If you consider the history between England and France over the last many centuries, it hasn't been so nice either, until the mid to late 19th century, anyway. [it's one of the reasons that France helped out during the revolutionary war, and why the USA helped Napoleon by purchasing land on the American continent for such a high price].

Yeah, some of our histories, long since acted out by people who are all dead, hasn't been so nice. I don't think this kind of thinking is still in play. I'd really need to see some real evidence to believe it.

Re: But...

I was in the Navy at the time of the Falkland war. You guys handled it _SO_ well, I think it was more of a 'sit back and wait' approach. It was refreshing to see someone fight back so WILLINGLY against the kind of crap that the Argentinian Junta was trying to pull. Keep in mind, we'd just elected Ron Reagan because of the Iranian Hostage crap, and all of the domestic problems, caused by Carter and the Demo-Rats. There was a lot of 'malaise' and the fog was starting to lift. We in the USA were all VERY tired of piss-ant dictators and 'dog with no teeth' governments making LOTS of noise and pushing everyone else around.

We should applaud you guys for helping to reverse "all that".

But yeah UK needs a strong Navy, just like the USA needs a strong Navy. Otherwise, you end up with problems like PIRACY. Oh, wait, that's been happening, hasn't it?

And there are still some of the same players, piss-ant dictators (Kim 'Fatass' Un) and 'dog with no teeth' governments [Iran] making LOTS of noise and *TRYING* to push everyone else around. Again.

So ya might want to reconsider some of those budget cuts, and MAYBE cut some "austerity" stuff instead. And cut tax rates. And so on. [we're kinda working on that on this side of the pond right now]

Re: Patronising POS

"The informal 'chummy' messages and dialogues are part of Microsoft's 'grand strategy' to connect with the youths, and in turn endear them to Microsoft's products and the Microsoft brand."

Their strategy ONLY works if you expect your customer base to be BABIES.

Everything I've ever learned about management techniques tells me that this is *WRONG* on too many levels.

If you expect your customer base to be ADULTS, then the children will RISE to the occasion.

if you expect your customer base to be IDIOTS, then _ONLY_ _IDIOTS_ will want it.

Re: I hope everyone boycotts this Microsoft initiative

"And .NET would be hard for MS to drop (as in, it would piss a lot of people off)."

it's very existence kinda pisses ME off. It was an early attempt to turn senior Win32 developers into "junior .Not developers" by essentially CHANGING THE ENTIRE GAME. I won't write any application that uses it. EVAR. And C-pound stinks on ice.

Win32 API made sense. Everything "new, shiny" since the 'turn of the century' has pretty much STUNK, except a handful of stuff that ended up in the Windows 7 UI [though I think I prefer XP or 2k, given the choice].

Re: Fluent Design System

"flat with some annoying animations every time you put your mouse near it."

It's "Microsoft Bother" - didn't you know about that "new, shiny" feature?

Re: Modernise apps?

I've seen the term 'Modern' used in SUCH pejorative ways by the coolaid addicts and incorrigible Win-10-nic fanbois, it's almost like "the M word" now.

"Modernize" ==> get with the program you throwback, ex-hippy, old-fart, stick-in-the-mud, "get off my lawn" refuse-to-change'er, like there's something WRONG with YOU for NOT "loving it" with Win-10-nic.

"Thoroughly Modern Microsoft" needs to stop co-opting the English language for their own evil purposes.

/me is old enough to know what REAL hippies are/were, and not the pretenders who live 50 miles outside of Silly Valley along the left coast of the USA...

Re: Like all software

these days, "software" often means "slap together a bunch of 3rd party CRAPware into 'something' and call it 'an app'".

BadRabbit is like that, according to the article anyway.

'

'Rabbit' is already a hacker term for "any hack that includes infinite self-replication" [according to online resources]. The alleged history is from a "hack called RABBITS reported from 1969 on a Burroughs 55000 at the University of Washington Computer Center".

http://www.hacker-dictionary.com/terms/wabbit

So the author is slapping TERMS together, too. How. Creative. NOT.

icon, because, *FACEPALM*

Re: Still too heavy...

best example of why NOT to do 'web-based' things: google docs online editor. Try a spreadsheet some time... one with actual formulas in it that auto-update every time you change something [because a junior "programmer" developed it].

any amount of latency, or if you like listening to streaming content while working on things, or someone in your household is playing youtube videos, and your performance will SUCK like a Kirby. [and Kirby vacuum cleaners suck on MULTIPLE levels]

Re: Kool-Aid duly drunk

it's part of the "content consumption" model for devices and applications.

and the "advantage" of having all of that stuff on a cloud server? The built-in monitoring and tracking, of course! Just have that web-based-app "phone home" every time you use it. no problem! And with the crappy performance expectations from an online "app", nobody will notice if there's a bit of tracking in there, too.

And don't forget the ad-servers. hey, just an OCCASIONAL popup or embedded banner... for now...

and the frogs continue to "not notice" that the water temperature has gone up another 15 deg C.

Re: Disabled? Yeah, right...

"What I don't understand is why isn't there simply a Bios setting to disable it? Wouldn't that make sense?"

It makes _TOO_ _MUCH_ _SENSE_. That's why nobody's doing it, I guess...

Re: Ch-Ch-Changes

"you're an incredibly offensive, bitter and twisted man"

thanks for the pejorative. I suppose I owe you an FOAD. but I won't. oops, too late.

Re: Looks tempting

"Wayland: About time. Pushing all UI through a pipe/socket was good in its day, but the desktop needs more. X11 has had its time, and they're no longer wasting time with Mir."

About that... let me describe some of my experiences with low-level X11 coding...

several years ago I decided I wanted a proper IDE for X11. And because NOBODY supports "virtual space", something I really like, I started on my own toolkit. still working on that one. yeah, time, money, lack thereof, getting in my way.

Anyway, one thing I discovered early on is that the X11 protocol is _NOT_ what causes "perceived slowness" in X11 applications. In fact, my application was popping up SO fast that I was like "Oh... it's already running". I'd type the command into a shell, and *poof* it was already open, displaying the menu, etc.. When I added clipboard support, there was an additional 1/2 sec delay to do all of the messaging to and from the desktop, and I also added a nice splash screen with 3D animation, which gives you that "perception of doing something".

But I have _NOT_ run into _ANY_ performance problems dealing with X11's communications pipe (or TCP connection). In FACT I've seen a CLEAR ADVANTAGE here, because it's CLIENT/SERVER, so you are using at least 2 CPU cores to make it work. It's leveraging multi-core, and has ALWAYS done so!!!

The *REAL* problem with performance from X11 applications is the way the GTK's have to suck in EVERY BLOATWARE LIBRARY on the planet (cairo, bonobo, pango, yotta yotta yotta) even though maybe YOUR application only needs just a fraction of their capability. This increases load times. And *THEN* there's the "object oriented insanity" associated with things like the 'File Open' box you see in the gnome world. Do you *REALLY* have to scan *EVERY* file to determine what the icon needs to be, *BEFORE* loading up the list o' files to choose from? Windows does this, too [and it's disreputably SLOW because of it]. _MY_ file open dialog box looks like Windows '95 era but loads BLISTERINGLY FAST, even with hundreds of files. Try THAT with a BLOATWARE version. Yeah. The objects are MINDLESSLY collecting unused and worthless "information" about EVERY! STINKING! FILE! and that has NOTHING to do with X11 protocol or the network or the file system or X11's client/server model.

It's also worth pointing out that a typical X-based application *COULD* be statically linked with the X11 libraries, and it would probably run/load just a _teeny_ bit faster. it could also be [*gasp*] shipped as a BINARY that way, and not have shared-lib-dependency-hell when copying to destination systems. Just sayin'. Not sure about Wayland applications, though. I bet it's so Windows-like it might as well have been designed in REDMOND. [but it was probably Silly Valley, nearly as bad]

Re: To-do item for v18

"They absolutely, positively, cannot do that until they've used Mango Maniac or Mango Mussolini."

Jumping Jackalopes?

Re: Ch-Ch-Changes

"Why do they make these changes? Who asked for different right-click menus and toolbars?"

It's the same as the reason behind Windows "Ape" and Win-10-nic. CHANGE for the SAKE of CHANGE!

A bunch of millenial CHILDREN noticed that a whole bunch of us old farts have either retired, or moved on to other things. As a result THEY were left in positions of reasonably high authority. A handful of 'old farts' remained behind, but were easily tricked into believing whatever CRAP the millenials were preaching.

After all, to these millenials, it's THEIR turn now. We old farts are DINOSAURS, sticks in the mud, living in the past, refusing to change, refusing to adapt, refusing to believe that what THEY want to do is so superior to the way things have been done for DECADES.

It's THEIR turn now, and DAMMIT, they're gonna SHOVE IT UP OUR DOWN OUR THROATS, for our OWN GOOD, whether we WANT it or NOT, because, CHANGE is *ALWAYS* better, right? [in THEIR minds it is apparently so]

In the case of Micro-shaft, they went to "the Metro" UWP and a phone OS on the desktop. Unity isn't much better, but THANKFULLY it was ABANDONED by Canonical.

However, Canonical still needs a CLUE BAT when it comes to systemd and Wayland. And so do the project managers over at Debian [hence, Devuan].

Obviously these people have NEVER read Arthur C. Clarke's 'SUPERIORITY'.

So that handful of "old farts" who STILL retain some decisionmaking power should *NEVAR* enable those damned millenial CHILDREN who want all of that "change for the sake of change". Just because they're YOUNG does _NOT_ make them "hip with the latest beat". OK my age is _REALLY_ showing now.

The fact is, THESE CHILDREN do _NOT_ know arses from holes in the ground, CRAP from shinola, etc.. They *FEEL* they do, and their emotions drive them too much. "Old Farts" that ENABLE them are as much to blame, if not MORE. Yeah, it's HARD for some people to say "No". I had to teach that to someone a long time ago who fell for telephone hard-sales too easily. You just say NO, and hang up the damn phone. "What do you say when they start talking about how you need this?" "NO!"

Same with those 2D FLATSO 4" phone UI loving millenials (some call them "4 inchers" based on how they see the universe through a 4 inch screen). They have NO CLUE what's possible, and they're more than willing to TAKE IT AWAY and SHOVE THEIR CHANGE into whatever bodily orifice an unsuspecting end-user might have, simply because they are:

a) arrogant

b) inexperienced

c) full of themselves

d) horribly misinformed

e) short sighted

f) smug

g) living in a bubble world of ONLY others like themselves

h) totally clueless

i) unable to drop their phones for 5 minutes and have a REAL conversation

j) way too influenced by social media

k) caught in the trap of "new, shiny"

and that's all about I can think of at the moment. Add all of that up, and you get your explanation.

You're welcome.

Re: Gun, meet foot.

it just means checking out what's up with devuan. Hopefully THOSE guys "get it" and REFUSE the Wayland, too, along with systemd.

Re: Ch-Ch-Changes

I like caja. 'caja' is spanish for 'box'. easy to remember the name that way.

(no, not THAT kind of box)

And 'pluma' (the editor) retains everything I liked about the gnome 2 version of 'gedit'. [gnome 3 gedit is CRAP and irritates me]. 'pluma' is Spanish for 'pen'. also easy to remember it that way.

OK Mate is just _SUPERIOR_ to Gnome 3, that's all. Heh.

(and FreeBSD has _NO_ systemd, nor will it, EVAR)

Re: Gun, meet foot.

"What's now to differentiate between Ubuntu and Fedora"

apparently not much. Systemd, and now Wayland.

icon, because, FACEPALM

let's hope Mint and Debian have the decency to NOT go with Wayland. It takes away a specific feature that I find INCREDIBLY useful for a LOT of reasons, particularly with headless systems: It allows me to run a GUI that's hosted on one machine, and displayed on a different one. Works with X11, but _NOT_ with Wayland.

And that's a DEAL BREAKER for ME.

It also works pretty well with X11 if you have different logged-in users on the SAME box.

Let's say you want to run Firefox *NOT* as the logged-in user. Let's say you're doing this for security reasons, and have a sandbox user specifically intended for this, with its own home directory, a cache that auto-purges [along with all history, cookies, etc.] when you exit, and NO group permissions on the login that might be a security problem. You see a somewhat suspicious sight (maybe on facebitch or twatter] that you dont' want a permanent cookie or script tracking you for whatever reason.

OK so you log in with your "special" login using "su - special" (or whatever), then type in something like "export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0" into the command line [or put this in your login script, whatever] and then [after xhost +localhost from a console in the logged-in session] run firefox from the 'su -' shell, and VOILA! You're running firefox on the same X desktop as before, but logged in as someone else. It's NOT going to snoop on what you've got running elsewhere [it can't]. It's not going to start tracking other sites that happen to have the right magic javascript code, or the right invisible graphics on them, or the right 3rd party cookies. It's a completely separate process, running as a completely separate user.

And I _like_ that.

Or let's say I have a VM running that does the same thing. It's a VM on my machine, or maybe on a different machine. Whatever. I log into the VM via 'ssh' then run firefox in a similar way, displayed on MY DESKTOP, except it's running on the VM. Now I can visit those "dangerous" sites [or the ones that track the CRAP out of you], and when I'm done, the history goes BYBY! And I dont' have to close one of the 30 or so browser tabs that I leave open with the logged-in user.

But try and do THAT with WAYLAND! G'head, g'head, try it! Oh, does NOT WORK???

Well that just proves what a piece of **CRAP** that Wayland is, huh!

Yeah, ubu, be like Micro-shaft and TAKE CAPABILITY AWAY. Or worse, change it around completely like systemd does. Yeah, THAT will "fix" things.

At least you had the sensibility to abandon UNITY. And you support Mate installs, which is also good. But, when it comes to X11 vs WAYLAND, I think the choice is CLEAR for true power users. I'll keep my X11 thank you, and give it up when you PRY IT from my COLD, DEAD, FINGERS!

Re: There's got to be a lot more of this if humans want to live on other planets.

well, the article also hits on the "feng shui" aspect of having plants in your office, or a fish tank, or something of that nature. It improves your mental state.

Re: Cheaters will cheat as Crackers will crack

Ugh, they're going to leverage this new gamer API in order to *FORCE* games to *REQUIRE* win-10-nic.

Thanks, micro-shaft, for yet ANOTHER compatibility problem.

I won't be installing Win-10-nic just to play a game. The game devs should realize that and target 7 instead.

Icon for the facepalm I just did.

Re: Childish Name

why change it when not even the Romans did.

In both greek and roman mythology, it's "Uranus" for that guy, where as every other god apparently has a different name, they kept THAT one around after borrowing everything else from the greeks, and then changing the name - or at least that's what it SEEMS like...

but yeah I saw that episode of 'Futurama' also, the one with the 'Smell-o-scope'.

Re: Uranus's Moon

I thought it was called "dingleberry"

Re: So Oracle and so larry

Maybe he should just hire some decent nautical engineers to design his boat, and teach his crew how to SAIL it properly...

"I am pretty sure it will happily upgrade a server with hyper-converged directly attached storage configured and brick it in the process..."

Back in the MS-DOS days, running 'chkdsk' on your hard drive was likely to create a CRAP-PILE of cross-connected files while trying to "repair" a problem. It's how Norton Utilities started out, basically writing their OWN 'scandisk' to do the job properly, WITHOUT breaking/bricking things.

So there's already a precedent.

Re: Pay for? Or severe bugs?

"The storage team lost a political fight"

IN-FIGHTING within the hallowed halls of Redmond? Say it AIN'T SO!!!

Re: Hmmm...

"And a re-writing of the past.."

"Microsoft Past" - it's a new feature

Re: You're expecting sense?

I was a Windows and MS evangelist all through the 90's and early 2000's. Then we all saw the totally insane and schizophrenic MS phone "strategy."

Sadly (icon), your club has many other members [including me]. Micro-shaft lost my fandom when the ".Net Initiative" started, shortly after XP's release. THAT was, for those who don't remember, the *BEGINNINGS* of "all of this", in particular, "the Microsoft Logon" (only it was called 'Passport'). For tracking and marketing to you, naturally.

(fortunately, at that same time, OS/X had recently released, and I found out that it was based on UNIX, and so I decided to learn BSD and Linux well, since UNIX-like OS's were now the #2 OS and on the rise... and realized how much _better_ things were for the developer, on UNIX-like systems, in the process)

Re: It will probably be back...

lessee... FORCED update that removes a critical feature, and then PAY UP if you want it back!

Sounds JUST like a Micro-shaft marketing manipulation ploy...

Re: Inivitably!

at least, if she'd been using 'pluma' in Linux with a Mate desktop, she could've walked away from her computer for more than 10 minutes [let's say it takes her a bit of time to get around the house] and then come back an hour or two later, and the text would still be there, and she could realize she hadn't saved it yet and then do so. Maybe it was a bathroom break that distracted her, or a phone call, or any of a NUMBER of things that happens during a normal day, and I bet 'David Neil' has walked away from HIS computer once or twice without saving, too.

I'd rather not have an operating system that treats the end-users *HARSHLY*. Or arrogant windows-fans that act the same way toward's someones grandmother who (maybe) just uses a computer for recipes, e-mail, photos, and other "consumption" kinds of things.

I bet she could learn Linux in only a few minutes, and then it would be like nothing's different, except it wouldn't be Win-10-nic, and it wouldn't be doing *THAT* to her...