Posts by Gene Cash

Re: Chip crisis

I've been able to buy a few from Mouser on this side of the pond. I ordered 3x of the 3B+ and they came in in 6 weeks instead of the quoted 4 months.

Re: Internal advert filters

I saw an ad on TV while I was at lunch. I thought it was really funny and wanted to look it up on YouTube to see the whole thing with sound.

I made a special effort to remember the company/subject/theme.

An hour later: No idea except "it was really funny"

I guess all those ad dollars pay off.

Re: Concepts are hard to understand

And in addition to putting stuff in shit and unexpected places, Windows file search is somehow horribly broken.

I can fire up a Cygwin window and run a "find" and find the file before Windows is even a quarter of the way through its search.

Re: Compete effectively

But the point is NO. I DO NOT want an IOT cloud serviced car or TV or clothes washer.

The problem is you *can't* buy one without. Try buying a TV that isn't "smart" in some way or another and wants an internet connection. Or buying a Ford/GM product without OnStar or whatever the fuck they call it.

So yes, it's inherently wrong.

Well, I think one of the use cases is to check the progress of your return between the time you submit it and the time the check lands in your account. OTOH, the last time I did my return, they texted me each time the status changed.

Re: "full technical writeup"

Yeah, really well written! Kudos!

I'm still using Windows 7, mainly because there's not much choice in anything better.

Re: The first OS I could say "Microphone off" to, and it would switch it off.

Yeah, this is why I use Linux... it takes a bit longer to figure out how to fix something, but then it's FIXED.

Windows breaks. You fix it. Then it breaks the identical way next week.

Re: I thoroughly welcome this not happening.

Yeah, I miss Microsoft or Nokia (or anybody else, really) being a major smartphone player.

Re: 2F off

Because Google demands more personal information, like mobile numbers, which is actually monetarily valuable to them.

Re: If you rely on ANYTHING by Google you are a fool

killedbygoogle.com is indeed 12 pages of scrolling, even with things arranged in 2 columns.

Re: red alerts

Also, red alert #4, it sounds like the first time he looked at the setup was when the maintenance window started.

So apparently he agreed to do something and set a maintenance window time without even eyeballing the situation.

There's lots of times when "it's a simple printer switchout" has turned into something like "the printer has been permanently installed in a custom built alcove" or the "printer is something from the '70s that uses neither USB, parallel, or other bus known to modern man, and has a custom interface board."

So there's been times I've have to NOPE the hell out, and agree to fix it on a "best effort" basis.

Re: Fun ways to kill one.

NO! Do not feed it to anything living! The batteries lead to a very nasty death.

Re: HD radio

Edit: ah, HD is not "high definition" but "hybrid digital". Since the readership outside of the US has no clue what this thing even is, please do explain those acronyms in a short sentence in the article, would be really nice.

Hell, I'm American and I had no clue that's what it was...

Re: Step outside

Ugh. Honda motorcycles have the horn and turn signal switched from every other Japanese bike on the market. After honking for a turn a couple dozen times, I basically stopped using turn signals. Great move, Honda.

Hm. ISTR that it was on this august forum quite recently that someone asked why anyone would want something like Starlink.

I think this answers that quite nicely.

I don't care if I have to contract with Satan or Elon Musk (any they may be the same) as long as my internet doesn't quite so resemble a wet string.

Re: How long before Google abandons this?

Are you kidding? 6 months is more like it.

Re: Quit vim

Old saw: vi has two modes: "beeping" and "destroy everything"

Re: How about this instead...

Nope... knowing my politicians, they'd compete with each other to be on the wall.

Re: I put it down just a second ago, where'd it get off to?!

I do wish there was a working generic "ping" cursor animation for Linux. (and by generic, I mean not tied to a specific window manager like KDE)

Re: Sounds expensive...

I know that's a joke, but I do hope it is expensive, and the insurance companies don't bail them out. It's the only way they'll learn to spend money on security.

I'll bet there were folk that said "don't connect this to the internet" and they were overruled by management that wanted the convenience.

Re: What is a "Drive Day"?

Well, that's not a single drive... I think that's the total operating days clocked by all the drives of that model, and the age is the average age of that model.

So if you had 5 drives of model XYZ running for a month, that'd be 150 drive-days.

That would mean they have a shit-ton (or ass-load, depending) of the one with 11.6M drive days, and indeed, it's listed as 38K drives of that model.

Re: I know BMI is controversial in some circles

Or as my granpa would put it: "have you ever seen a fat old man? no..."

Re: Rockford!

Not as bad as Chicago

And the funny thing is Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the country.

Re: Impressive!

Remember when Blackberry was Research In Motion (RIM), and El Reg called them Lawsuits In Motion for all their patent trolling?

Ah, good times.

Re: CFO to CEO

An almost textbook example of "beancounter in charge" and what it does to a company.

The only one worse is Boeing, after having McDonnell-Douglas take over.

Re: "How do you clean the dishes?"

Energy efficient dishwasher? No, I much prefer one that actually gets the dishes clean without having to run it twice.

Re: Apple is getting shafted by very guilty parties

Whataboutism at its finest.

No, Apple is taking a spanking because they're a dick. And just because everyone else is a dick and has gotten away with it is no excuse.

The malls and bookstores went out of business because they treated customers poorly. For example, Barnes & Noble used to HAMMER me to get a loyalty card, so much so that it stressed me out and I stopped being a customer. They wouldn't take "no, thank you" for an answer. I'm not crying that their 3 local stores are now gone.

And considering the price of Amazon Prime, the shipping is most assuredly not free. For a while they had the only working storefront, and a search that worked. Now that search returns only alphabet-named Chinese crap, I haven't bought something from Amazon in over 2 months. I've gone to places like bhphotovideo.com and motionpro.com to get the stuff.

Considering the nonexistent customer service I've gotten from Apple, I'm happy to see them taking a beating.