Posts by bombastic bob

Re: Gnome, wayland and systemd ...

you actually *FEEL* that? no WONDER you posted as A.C. !!!

('feel' instead of think, worst mistake EVAR, as evidenced by "that")

Re: Gnome, wayland and systemd ...

I'm hoping some _SANITY_ from IBM will put those 3 things back into their place... er, the bit bucket.

Re: Too much damned javascript ...

ack on that one. OR... if you are _NOT_ using wayland... you can do the following:

a) enable -listen_tcp or similar option

b) xhost +localhost from an X11 command shell

c) su - otheruser then export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

d) run firefox or other browser, config it to DUMP ALL HISTORY AND COOKIES ON EXIT

then if they DO track you, it's not tracking anything that isn't THEIR stuff in the FIRST place. And all of those cookies and scripting and blah blah blah goes INTO THE BIT BUCKET.

And, related, THIS from the article:

"Red Hat prefers the security model of Wayland, but the desktop will drop back to X.org if you try and use the Nvidia binary driver."

A reason to use NVidia and their binary driver... to NOT HAVE TO USE WAYLAND, so you _CAN_ use the trick I just described, which I do a LOT, actually.. that and [for example] developing RPi stuff and having pluma running on the RPi directly, as an editor for c source [example], but displaying and interacting WITH MY FreeBSD DESKTOP!!!

X.org ROCKS. Wayland SUCKS. and all that tracking can GO INTO THE BIT BUCKET using X.org and a separate login context, g'head and enable the B.S. and then DUMP IT ALL on exit!

Re: Clippy For Coders drives another nail in humanity's coffin...

more CRAP to shut off by default...

Re: MS SOP: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

and, I noticed the screenshot - looks NOTHING like my Mate desktop...

it's still 2D FLATTY McFLATFACE Win-10-nic in other words.

And from others' comments, still subject to forced updates, etc..

How long before it's "Extinguish" phase? I say, not long at all...

Re: where's the button for whingers?

it's over here... by the window!

Re: I declined to pick one ...

at least Myers-Briggs has an actual TEST you can fill out.

(oh I'm an ENTP of course!)

/me goes off mumbling about inventing something...

A true 'old fart' learned in grammar school that the use of 'he' in the English language can also mean 'she' when the sex of the subject is not known. All of this P.C. alleged sexism by NOT saying "he/she/it/thing/whatever" in place of a SINGLE F'ING PRONOUN 'he' is nauseating. GET OFF MY LAWN!

(it's bad grammar to be a P.C. sexist with pronouns)

Re: "But I still have all my hair"

I got a nice wicked widow's peak, but the rest is still thick and black [while my beard is nearly all grey]

Re: All of the above just proves what we all knew already...

"Job sites and 'agencies' just don't have a clue about us or our industry"

YOU are _SO_ RIGHT! I can't thumb you up enough!

NOW... how do we get them ALL to come "over here by the window"... [which will solve SO many problems]

(somehow these clueless asshats have INSERTED THEMSELVES into the job-finding process and DOMINATED it, overly-complicating and delaying what USED to be relatively simple, and involved an envelope and a stamp and an answering machine. NOW you have to TURN YOUR RINGER OFF because of robo-calls and cold calls regarding unrelated positions paying way too little, on site in Timbuktu, like it's the most important position you'll ever have, and NOTHING relevant)

"For a lot of recruiters, this should be the default."

For MOST of them (recruiters), who seem to want to offer you positions in Timbuktu mopping floors and wiping someone's ass instead of writing code, and filter your resume (or even try to re-write it) based on "key words and tricky phrases" and stick-up-the-ass adherence to whatever some H.R. dweeb "felt" that the position requires, by COLD CALLING YOUR PHONE while you're in the middle of something important, the default is simple:

"It's over here... by the window."

99% of them should be invited to have a look down, followed by a timely accident.

Re: Impossible to answer

I usually thought of myself as more of a pirate or privateer...

(if it weren't for needing the money, I'd stay at home doing personal projects that I find interesting)

I generally contract "at a senior level" and stick with clients for long periods of time, only because THE JOB FINDING PROCESS SUCKS ASS BECAUSE THE RULES CHANGED AND I DO NOT PLAY _THEIR_ GAME (recruiters, headhunters, H.R. departments) BY _THEIR_ RULES!!!

*ahem*

so I don't fit into ANY of those, really.

Re: Bell-curve of driving ability

'Hi, I'm Johnny Cab"

just thinking that about now...

Re: Amazon Prime Air

anywhere on earth in 4 hours?

I wonder what the shipping charge would be...

Re: SQL technology is obsolete

good point about banking. this is what computers started their main business uses in (and where a room full of people adding up numbers all day justified spending zillions on an IBM mainframe to do it better).

To properly analyze the evolution of the tech, you also have to look at the way data was traditionally stored back in the beginning, on tape and cards and things of that nature. So you had sorting machines for cards, and tapes ran sequentially. You can actually do a merge sort by writing things out sequentially, and use sorts to combine data. SQL is a YUGE improvement on the "sort and combine" technique that allows you to arbitrarily define relationships between things, plus the transaction stuff.

So SQL is NOT going away any time soon. It's just way too useful.

A while back there was this attempt at an 'object oriented database' called 'PoET'. Working with it was too difficult. That project (that used PoET) was abandoned, but taken back up later using regular SQL, which worked great and didn't require extra hoops to jump through. Sometimes that "new, shiny" is just a distraction away from getting things done.

Re: SQL technology is obsolete

"For the first time AI-parsing is proposed to replace the old n-gram parsing"

I recommend that you take a look at Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" before further comment. You're welcome.

Re: SQL technology is obsolete

I'm old enough to remember someone mentioning "sequel server" and I couldn't find any information on it anywhere because it was spelled "SQL" and some _IDIOT_ at IBM (probably a marketeer) decided to pronounce it 'sequel' which caused nothing BUT confusion...

Then of course there's the "Es Queue El" language, which is pronounced the way I stated it.

But when people pronounce 'MySQL' or "PostgreSQL" with 'sequel' in them, or the language name as 'sequel', I cringe like a cat getting its hair stroked backwards. And of course I'm obligated to CORRECT them and waste 5 minutes of otherwise-work-time doing so.

Also wondering, why anyone would bother with SQL Server (which I do _NOT_ pronounce with 'sequel' in it, since it's not a sequel to anything, and it uses 'Es Queue El' and I rebel against "the other pronunciation") when you have PostgreSQL which is totally free and extremely reliable??

So what would be next to make SQL "obsolete" ? Probably nothing. because it won't be. Just like a screwdriver isn't obsolete, nor is a hammer. Or a knife. Or a window [in a BOFH kinda way].

Re: Lets see what happens when Ford, GM and VW try to enforce that type of shit onto their customers

John Deere already does...

Re: Aluminum

and the worst of them all, GOVERNMENTIUM, whose mass increases continuously, usually in sudden increments (or would that be EXCREMENTS?), and without warning.

Re: Aluminum

the Washington Monument (giant phallus in D.C.) is topped with an aluminum pyramid. It was a 'new fangled' metal at the time, and very very expensive.

Re: Aluminum

maybe it's a latin thing

Falsifying records is likely to get someone some iron bar hotel time.

Thing is, if there are MILITARY contracts involved with falsified records like that, it's very very likely things can go horribly wrong for those that are involved. Some programs in the military are set up so that vendors are tracked so you know literally where the ore was mined, where it was smelted, where it was turned into "the part", etc.. in particular with submarines, and no doubt, NASA.

This is no joking matter. If there are not actual jail sentences handed out I will be VERY, very surprised.

Back in the 60's two submarines were lost due to faulty safety systems. A program called "SUBSAFE" was created iwhich included the documentation of certain components as I mentioned above (which mine the ore was extracted in, for example) so that there was accountability and quality control all the way up the chain. The reason was simple, LIVES being on the line. The $50 part wasn't going to sink the $5 billion sub. Or crash the $1 billion rocket. That's the idea. Unfortunately it seems THESE guys got caught cheating. These programs DO require honest people to make them work.

The tests used to determine strength of a metal are standardized tests. It may be that NASA will have to correct its own policies by having random independent labs test things from now on...

(it saddens me greatly that people can be SO "not caring" about honesty and good business practices that they'll literally steal contracts from others by LYING about what they're actually delivering... these people need to be PROSECUTED to the full extent of the law and made an example of)

no I think the idea was just bad coming out of the box. What they did to Windows 8+10 because of it, just made it EVEN WORSE.

Re: Lost me at the headline

"We all pay for that...... One way or another."

especially when l[aw]yers are involved.

Work out the 'price per bonk' in SOME cases, and the astronomical cost vs the actual benefit could be staggeringly different...

Re: Arthur C. Clark Omitted This

or a chocolate cake [I'm thinking of a particular B sci-fi movie with Hulk Hogan in it]

Re: I had always been skeptical

there's actually only one store in my area that still has a rewards card [the one I go to) and so I know they know that I buy meat, liquor, occasional canned veggies, fresh produce, and occasional 'other things' from them. But most of the stuff I get at Target or Walmart because they're about 25% lower prices [or similar].

And who knows, maybe seeing my shopping habits is telling them that, and they'll start dropping the prices so I shop there more often...

Re: that's about an hour a year saved.

in the USA it's still possible to use embossed credit cards for payment [debit cards usually have visa or mastercard numbers also, to be used as credit cards that way]. Then you just go old school, and produce a paper receipt from the thing, with one of those embossed card receipt thingies, put it in the register along with checks. yeah someone has to process it later, but when the service is down, no need to close the business, just keep on going...

[businesses that can't handle credit cards the old way as a backup should get at least one embossed-card machine and a stack of blank receipts for that purpose, just in case]

then again, having to use cash - there's a business in my area that makes money counting machines and store safes and so on. so they'll benefit if more people use cash.

Re: NFC? No fucking chance.

I've just got a dumb phone. for those other things that require a payment card, I have a debit and a credit card, and they seem to work everywhere. Got chips in 'em, too, for secure transactions. Magnetic thingy still works at a fuel pump, that doesn't have the chip reader. All in all, who needs to use a phone for that?

the new/shiny coolness wore off a long time ago. might as well just have a smart-card [the ones with the chips built in]. And the bank just sends them to you...

"The demise of Microsoft can't come soon enough.."

no, just the demise of windows phone. Micro-shaft should clean their act up and do things the way they USED to, putting customers (and developers) before self-interest, and do good business instead of EXPLOITING and CRAMMING THEIR CRAP UP OUR ASSES DOWN OUR THROATS until we stop hating it and accept what they're doing to us without question nor complaint.

Following THAT "assuming room temperature" (i.e. the death of the WinPhone), we should also pay our "last respects" (or in my case, last thumb-on-nose) to that whole "one windows, everywhere" interface, courtesy of Sinofsky and Larson-Greene, that 2D FLATTY McFLATFACE "tile thing" and UWP, formerly known as "The Metro".

For we all know that Micro-shaft DUMBED DOWN EVERYTHING _JUST_ so WinPhone wouldn't "feel inadequate" when compared to desktops. So, in right millenial fashion, EVERYTHING became "a phone" as far as the UI was concerned.

So we know how Micro-shaft COMPLETELY SCREWED THE POOCH with this PISS-POOR DECISION, right? So _WHY_ does Win-10-nic *STILL* have that 2D FLATTY McFLATFACE that was quite literally INVENTED FOR THE PHONE???

Good Riddance to WinPhone. I want to say Good Riddance to the "the Metro" aka UWP look/nausea too.

Shall I hold a "Mock Funeral" for it, as a stab at Micro-shaft's arrogance back in 2010???

yeah iPhone still alive. Android too. WinPhone, not so much,.

Re: I'd ban North Face clothing. And here's why...

"every single bearded thirtysomething city IT drone"

funny I read that as 'single-bearded' for some reason. A man with 2 beards... like a man with 3 buttocks.

Re: I'd ban North Face clothing.

polo shirts - that's all I ever wear for on-site gigs...

Re: I'd ban North Face clothing.

trying not to be seen - reminds me of a Monty Python sketch.

Re: What if you don't comply?

There's a talk radio guy who said he used to threaten his teenage daughters to ESCORT THEM TO EVERY CLASS while wearing a pink speedo, if they didn't get themselves to school on time, etc..

So i guess this method of ensuring your youngins actually get to class isn't going to work any more?

Oh yeah and moms can do the 'mom thing' to their sons all day, same idea, making sure you give them a nice PDA mom-kiss in front of every classroom whenever possible. One day of THAT torture would have every school-age boy getting to class ON time IN the seat BEFORE the bell rings, for fear of having to ENDURE that kind of embarassment...

and I don't think a lot of moms could do justice to 'Daisy Duke' shorts. However it might be a fun fight if the parental dress code included women actually wearing DRESSES... (no pants, no shorts, no bathrobes, DRESSES ). It was sorta like the lady coach in high school requiring girl athletes to wear a dress to school on occasions. The boy athletes occasionally had to wear shirt+tie, so it was "a thing" there.