Posts by Wade Burchette

Re: "the 30 minutes a year the database won't work will be planned downtime"

Nor will idiot directors ask "What kind of company is Oracle?"

Remember when Oracle made their employee sign a binding arbitration clause, and then lost in their own kangaroo court, so Oracle then sues their kangaroo court to have the decision reversed. Even if Oracle gave away any of its services free for 1 year and then promised to always be cheaper than competition, I still wouldn't do business with them. There are few companies that delight in punching puppies and kicking kittens, and Oracle is one of them. There are things more important than costs.

Except Office 3.1 didn't have that accursed ribbon to deal with, just the logical easy-to-understand, easy-to-use "File Edit ..." menu structure.

My dad had Sprint once. He called support to get a copy of his bill and instead of "can you confirm your mailing address" he was asked "why?" He didn't have Sprint much longer.

For the record, I have AT&T and I am not happy with them. However, I am not unhappy enough to switch because I am grandfathered into an excellent rate plan.

The ONLY time when an autoplay video is acceptable is when I click on a clear unambiguous link to a video.

Re: Host File

No. The telemetry ignores the HOSTS file. Your only option is to block it at the router level. Not too hard with DD-WRT. There are tutorials on how to do this with Asus routers too.

"a $1,000 iPhone is your 'future'"

At that price, Apple will only attract the hipster doofuses who have more money than sense. These are the kind of people say to Apple "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!" For the rest of us, the majority of us who have a life outside a status symbols, they will look elsewhere.

Re: It amazes me ......

Sounds like my experience install Microsoft Exchange 2013 on a test server. It was a virtual machine inside of Server 2012 R2 Essentials.

On a clean install of Server Standard I follow the instructions from Microsoft to the letter to install Exchange. It installed, but I could not get into the web interface. I always got the "something went wrong" message. And the Exchange powershell console didn't work either. Over the next week I spent a lot of time trying to repair the failed install with no success. I then tried to uninstall and re-install, which didn't work. So I clean installed Server Standard 2012 R2 again. Follow the instructions to the letter yet again. This time it worked. But 10 days later I could never get into the web interface. I didn't change anything. All I did was Outlook for the calendar and Firefox to get into the web interface to see how fast the calendar updated between Outlook, the browser, and my phone. I actually had Windows Update turned off. The Exchange powershell worked and the calendar part worked. I just couldn't log in to the web console.

I have a Windows 8 virtual machine that I use only to restore backup files. It is turned off and updates disabled until I need to restore a backup. I have to do this because I have cataloged over 30 updates that break the Server Essentials client restore program. That is right, Windows Updates break a Microsoft program. I stop recording which ones did this when I created this blank virtual machine. (Surprisingly, I never found any updates that broke the backup for the original Windows Home Server. This was the second best OS Microsoft ever made.)

Re: What are lawmakers doing?

It has been said that the US has the best government money can buy. 9 of the 10 richest communities in America are in the Washington DC metro area. Elections are not cheap, and those that give the most money do not do it because they like the politician or believe his message; they do it because they want special favors in return. All politician's jobs are to get elected or re-elected. The needs of the You and I are a distant third. The wants of the ones that help him get elected are at the top of the list.

Re: Astrology

IDC and Gartner's have a successful prediction rate of somewhere around 0%. Companies like IDC show that you can almost always be wrong and people will still pay for your future prediction. Why can't I get paid to do that? Wake me up when these people are actually right.

Well, I predict that PC sales will increase. I base my prediction on a few things: (1) IDC and Gartner's already said PC sales would fall, and they have a poor track record of successful predictions. So if every instinct they have is wrong, the opposite must be true. (2) Tablets have already reached market saturation and most people are only going to replace, not splurge. (3) Unfortunately, Windows 7 machines will wear out soon and require replacing with horrible horrible Windows 10 machines. The vast majority of people do not know Linux even exists and do not want to pay a Mac premium.

Re: Wasting the courts time

The hypocrisy of it is what disgusts me. Oracle makes you waive your right to sue them but not their right to sue you. Rules for me and rules for thee.

I was giving a contract by an advertisers. In it was a binding arbitration clause. They had several ways of me signing the contract. One way was to print the first page and email the scan to them. So I printed the entire thing, crossed out the binding arbitration paragraph, and emailed the whole contract back to them. The advertiser sent me a thank you note a few days later. This shows that the advertiser did not read their own contract. Probably because almost everyone is too lazy to bother reading the contract so they assumed I was too.

One of the reasons why I have not installed Windows 10 is because I read the terms and conditions and I do not agree with all of them.

Re: A hackers delight

I was thinking of it in a different direction.

"But officer, I wasn't speeding and I did not run that stop sign!" "Well, let me just check the telemetry data that was sent to the cloud ... Yes, I see. According to this data, you did not drive slower than 4 MPH in the last 10 minutes and your maximum speed during that time was 66 MPH, but this is a 55 zone. And stop signs require a full stop, not a 4 MPH rolling stop."

Not that I am defending speeding or running stop lights/signs. But can you honestly say you do not speed? Would you like that information stored safely in the cloud available to the police even if they have a warrant? Everybody makes mistakes, would you like your mistakes preserved so that they can be later used against you?

"But officer, I didn't rob that bank. In fact, I wasn't anywhere near the bank while it was being robbed!" "Well, according to your vehicle's telemetry, your car was parked in the bank's parking lot at the exact same time as it was being robbed. Now how do you explain how your vehicle was at the bank while it was being robbed while not having a verifiable alibi?"

Re: I could go postal!

If I had my way, I would require all devices with a battery must allow the owner to change that battery in a short amount of time. And I would also make it illegal to use glue to seal anything except the screen so that the owner can fix the product or replace equipment. And I would require all laptops to use an industry standard universal charger and phones and tablets to use the USB-C connector to charge. And I would require every device that can play music to have a headphone jack.

Re: How-to

(1) If you are using Windows 8 or 10, install Classic Shell.

(2) After install, click the start button for the now proper and logical start menu, right-click 'This PC' or 'Computer' in Win7, then left-click Manage.

(3) Find System Tools, then expand Task Scheduler, then Task Scheduler library, then Microsoft, then Windows.

(4) Find the 'Application Experience' task list and 'Customer Experience Improvement' one and disable all tasks therein.

Re: Average use case

I love competition. Do you really think Intel would release these if not for the AMD Ryzen Threadripper? I can't wait for actual benchmarks from independent testers on both the i9 and Threadripper. These are obviously niche products, but it puts pressure on the prices for mainstream products, which means our wallets win.

We need to remember how good of a design Ryzen is. Rumors are the yields of the Ryzen are great. But the beauty of the design is that AMD can link cores together in a mesh. So when Intel needs a 16 core CPU, they have to make a large one. And the larger the die, the lower the yields. When AMD needs to make a 16 core CPU, they just make two 8 core ones and mesh them together. I can buy a 16 core Threadripper for $999, or a 10 core i9 for $999. The choice is easy. But the best thing is I actually have a choice. Intel must copy AMD's mesh design. But even if Intel started today, it would still take over a year to get to market.

The next thing I hope is that the Vega video card is a winner. We need to put pressure on NVidia's prices now. I love competition: lower prices and better products. What is not to like?

Re: The true nature of big corp

"Even the police can't just do whatever they want to you in your house, private individuals or corporations certainly can't and should be heavily dissuaded from doing so, the only way they understand."

And the only way to do that is to directly punish the decision makers, not the corporation. You punish a large corporation with a fine, it is just a write down for their business and at most a temporary stock drop. You punish Dr. Evil with a large fine and his minions who carried out his orders with a fine, then these actions will stop. You must directly punish the individuals responsible for the decision, not the faceless soulless corporation.

Standard operating procedure. Big company buys smaller company, gets rid of everyone who made smaller company, bigger company with no experience of smaller company's service attempts to improve it, wonders why smaller company users are unhappy with the service. This happens every time.

Re: Sales of these are going to crash at some point

What is to prevent Amazon (or Google) from updating the terms-of-service and bury in it legalese language that lets them listen all the time? And like many TOS updates, either you agree or you cannot use your paid for product anymore. What is to prevent Amazon from making the microphone mute button become a button that only stops listening to commands but listens for everything else?

Re: Flat-Earth Activists

I know two people who are flat-earthers. One is a right-wing nutjob and the other is a left-wing nutjob. Stupid is not confined to Trumpsters or Hippies. I think I will ask them just to see how they explain it. I bet I will get a different answer from each.

(Turn around, bright eyes.)

My iPod stays in my car, connected to my head unit's USB adapter. It really is quite convenient for that purpose. All my CD's are ripped using Apple Lossless and then I use my older version of iTunes to convert that to the highest quality lossy AAC format to fit on my iPod. I have to drive a lot, so it is a blessing when I can avoid the banal music of the local radio stations. (I hate pop music, it all sounds the same even if it is on a rock station, "alternative" rock station, or country station. Now the only difference between pop and country is a fiddle and a southern accent.)

But I've been seeing the writing on the wall for a little bit and started looking for alternatives. I know about Fiio. I also found out Pioneer has a program where you can transfer your music and playlists from iTunes to a program they have. And then that program can be used to put your music and playlist on a SD card or USB drive for Pioneer units. iTunes version 10 and earlier are great at organizing music; version 11 and later is garbage at everything. I found my alternative. I don't have to redo my playlists, I don't need to re-rip my music. And since I like Pioneer head units, I stopped looking.

Re: Chump change...

A politician's jobs are to get elected or re-elected. Our needs are a distant third. And elections are not cheap. This is true no matter what country you are in.

The last presidential election, Hillary Clinton spent $1.2 billion (thousand million) and Donald Trump $600 million. Do you think the corporate overlords give money because they like these politicians? Quite frankly, I can't think of two more unlikable people than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Corporations may in public life talk about how much they hate Donald, but in private life they will do what they can to influence him. And every other elected official as well. This is a game, we are the losers of this game.

Re: Missed that trendy earner...

Intel is a behemoth, it won't go down quickly. But there are clear cracks in the foundation. Intel is clearly in panic mode over Ryzen/Epyc. So much so that they have to play mind games. The advantage Intel has there is better marketing marketing and managements tend to be Intel fanboys. But what Ryzen/Epyc is doing is fantastic. AMD is reportedly having very high yields on 8 core Ryzen parts and thanks to Infinity Fabric, AMD can 'glue' (Intel's words) 4 of them together cheaply. For AMD to get a 16 core Epyc/Threadripper, they just need to select two of the many good 8 core parts. For Intel to get a 16 core Xeon, they need to pray to God they get one of the batch since they don't 'glue' together cores. What is more, the Intel's have few advantages in performance now.

The problem is right now, Intel cannot compete on price. AMD can make a ton of profit and still undercut Intel. From the leaks of i9 that I have seen, the more cores there are, the slower the chip. Would you be willing to pay $5000 more for faster AVX-512? Only if you use it everyday. Intel is in panic mode because of the FUD they have been spreading. You can only live off your name for so long. They know AMD has a winner again, and this time the OEM's are fanboys.

Re: Please explain to me ...

"If you're asking what the benefit is *to you*, you're asking the wrong question."

Ergo, the abomination that is Windows 10.

Re: A few things need to be right

This is Apple. Their original TV series will only be available on an Apple device. Roku and Fire TV are much better designed than Apple TV in both UI and remotes. Fire TV is gaining marketshare because you can sideload Kodi on it, and then these people use Kodi to watch pirated movies for free. The Apple TV is good at one thing only: mirroring the screen of the iPad/iPhone.

Anything Apple does won't be free. So just because a person has an Apple TV does not mean they will subscribe to Apple's video service. The only chance of success is to put the service on Roku and Amazon, which I seriously doubt Apple will do.

Re: Big Surprise

They call themselves Floridians; we call them Flor-idiots.

Re: Alarms

It is those accursed GM vehicles whose alarms goes off, even if you use the key that came with it! I hate my dad's Chevy truck, partly because every other month I hear "can you pick me up at the Chevy dealership? My truck has a recall." And it drives like it has an anchor behind it. And then you must always use the key fob to unlock the door or else the alarm goes off.

I don't like using the key for one big reason: The best way to make sure you can unlock your door from the outside is to lock your door from the outside. With my key, I can physically see the doors lock. And it always works (except with that accursed GM vehicle) even when the battery is dead, both the key fob and car battery.

Re: Touch screen

Hold your hand up to your screen. How long before it gets tired? Not very long. This is why touchscreen laptops are about as smart as volunteering to be kicked in both shins immediately after volunteering to be kicked in the groin hard.

Re: We're already being asked for email addresses at the till

"There's one retailer for garden machinery in my area that needs name, address, DOB and phone number for cash sales."

If any business did that for any transaction, I would politely make it clear to the employee that I will not give that information and would leave without buying anything. I might even go so far as to find the manager and tell him they lost a sale because of asking too many questions. I would not put anything back, make the employees do it. "Why are we putting this back on the shelf?" "Because a customer refused to provide their personal information."

Re: I wonder...

I always thought you would need a combination of sensors: ultraviolet lasers for the front of the vehicle, infrared for the rear, cameras, radar, and a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system. For the V2V communication, I always thought the car could send out a very-high frequency short-range signal that sent out some basic data only, such as the speed it is going and whether the brakes are on.

"As per normal with Oracle, they only play by the rules when it suits them."

I am reminded of the story earlier this year where Oracle made an employee sign a binding arbitration clause and their arbitrator ruled against them in a pay dispute and then Oracle sued the employee. Their corporate motto appears to be "heads I win, tails you lose".

There are few companies more evil than Oracle. If they are for something, then you know right away that you will be screwed somehow, some way.

Re: Won't someone think of the children?!

"I think they could have easily provided the "firewall" functionality at a lower level, e.g. just above the NIC/wifi driver level. Then it would work for all."

Ah, but then someone would be able to add firewall rules to block Microsoft tracking.

An effective family friendly system will require rules to be modified. You could bludgeon it in and wrap the rules tight in the kernel, like Microsoft does with IE and Edge. But that would require a restart for every update. And updates would need to be daily, or at least weekly. People don't like weekly restarts anymore, not since Windows 2000 showed that a stable OS is possible, unlike Windows ME, 98, 95.

That leaves the option open for a registry or file based family firewall rules. But someone will quickly find out how to add rules and will add rules to stop sending data to Microsoft. Microsoft would never allow that. After all, they have the "cloud first, mobile first" philosophy, which is just really hipster doofus slang for "paying customers last".

Re: It's not that he called himself an engineer

Exactly right. Traffic cameras have absolutely nothing to do with safety and everything to do with revenue generation. This is why most of them (in the US, at least) are run by for-profit corporations who issue tickets and give a cut to the government. These business have been caught shortening the yellow light to increase revenue and the fact that more wrecks occurred at those intersections was not their concern. Some states changed these tickets from misdemeanors to civil fines to avoid pesky things like courts and due process.