Posts by Wade Burchette

Re: Move Fast and Break Things,

It makes me think of how much better Windows was before the new CEO decided to be more "agile".

Re: Was't Acrobat reader always a free download?

The real evil here is how a bot for a company can be used to suspend someone's account without a real, living, breathing human involved. I don't care if Twitter gets 5 million takedown notices a day, a human needs to look at each one and use proper judgement, something computers are incapable of doing.

Re: FLoC = F***ing Load of Crap

FLoC = Filthy Lucre is our Choice

Re: JPEG XL

I wonder how JPEG XL compares to HEIF, which Apple uses by default on their devices and which seems to be gaining support from other companies too.

Re: Will it make any difference?

If you look at Microsoft forums where people ask for help, often you get boilerplate responses. For example: "My Windows Update no longer works, and I tried (a), (b), and (c) already. Please help!" And Microsoft's first reply would be "We are sorry you are having trouble. Could you try (a). If that doesn't work, try (b). If you are still having trouble, try (c)." Microsoft didn't even read because the first thing they told them to try was what the person already tried!

Re: Good

The scammers I have seen want payment in gift cards. I knew someone who was scammed and paid by gift cards. He was told to scratch off something on the back of the card and read it off to the scammer, who was in India. But since this was an American reading off a gift card for an American business, the douchenozzles in India had to have someone in America cashing in. Another thing that needs to happen is to make sure we can trace where a gift card was used and, if used online, where the shipped products went to.

Re: With a promise and a dollar...

The first sentence says it all: "Nvidia has no plans to dismantle Arm's licensing-based biz model." Okay, but plans change. Last spring, I planned on buying a new video card but since it is so difficult to find one, my plans changed. A plan is a not legally binding. Considering NVidia's history, I would expect this "plan" to change as soon as they can without major uproar.

I hope government regulators nix this purchase with extreme prejudice.

My interpretation is that they will only be a few large carriers, with the small guys begging for scraps. Less competition will mean higher prices.

Exactly right. People do not realize that news organization are entertainment. As such, all of them lie, or conveniently not tell you the whole truth. I pity the person who thinks only Fox News lies, but their news outlet tells the truth. Wrong, wrong, wrong. CNN lies just as much. The BBC lies just as much. Everyone of them lies just as much. If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you're misinformed.

The only time I trust the news is when they say something that goes against their narrative.

Re: I think. although maybe harsh

It is my opinion that all software should be owned, never licensed, except for security software (antivirus) which requires daily updates. If I had my way, I would ban all subscription software, unless it is a security program. And I would ban all software that requires the "cloud" to work. I am looking at Adobe there.

It is also my opinion that no software should ever be linked to an email account, no exception. If I had my way, I would ban Microsoft forcing you to provide an email account to activate all editions of Office. And I would bring the ban hammer down harder on Microsoft wanting you to provide an email to use Windows 10. The only way around it now is to avoid connecting to a wired or wireless connection until your first log in.

Re: This again?

Who needs due diligence when you can be "agile"?

The transistors aren't actually 5nm. This is now just a marketing term. The lower the number, the more advanced the generation.

Re: Wish list

Things I wish Apple would revive:

- User upgradable RAM

- User upgradable hard drives

Re: Bring it home

Of all the companies to buy ARM, the only one that would be worse would be Apple. NVidia has a reputation, and it is not a good one. Just recently they tried to blacklist the Australian tech site Hardware Unboxed because of an unfavorable review. Eventually they backed down because the backlash was public and quick. I hope the British authorities block this deal with extreme prejudice because NVidia is a bully.

(I am hoping that future AMD Radeon and Intel Xe graphic cards can humble them.)

Re: How generous

All the American mobile phone companies have yet to get 1G right, and yet they are moving on to 5G. What is the point of a smartphone if I cannot even do the phone part and many populated areas. I'm not talking about in the middle of a desert or around mountains that can block radio waves. Every cellular phone company here has dead zones where many people live.

Re: Positive side...

Since Facebook's misinformation was published in American newspaper, nobody will notice because all the news is misinformation too. The local news, the cable news, the newspapers -- all of them, without exception, are full of misinformation and outright lies.

To me, the real issue is how these people can deceive others so much and then sleep well at night. If I lied and deceived others as much as the news media, and now Facebook, does, then my conscience would tear me up every single night.

Re: Nothing wrong with ads ...

I have a few rules for web ads before I will allow them. These rules are not unreasonable because they when they were followed the internet went from novelty to necessity. If they worked once, it can work again.

My rules for advertisers: (1) Absolutely no tracking, no exception. (2) Absolutely no JavaScript, Flash, Java, or anything similar, no exception. As a bonus, this rule would also eliminate malvertising. (3) The ad may not cover all or part of the screen, nor may it be a pop-up or pop-under ad. (4) Absolutely no autoplay video or audio, except when I click on a clear link to a video or audio clip. Few things are more annoying than when are trying to read something and a video starts to play. (5) All advertisements must be clear and distinct; they may not look like the content of the page.

Re: Unsurprising lack of action

"feeBay" makes a percentage of the final sale price. I am sure Amazon does as well. The higher the price, the more profit to eBay and Amazon. What is their motivation to remove scalpers?

Re: If the goal is increased performance

Even on my Ryzen 3000, I notice how much faster pages load with and without NoScript enabled. Some websites try to fetch javascript from 20+ sources. That ain't cool. It is my opinion that no website should require javascript to read the content of a webpage. It is also my opinion that no advertisement should be allowed to use javascript either.

Re: Case looks like a bra

This is the reason why almost every iPhone case must leave the Apple logo exposed.

If I run out of anything, I write it down on a pad by the refrigerator. Then when I go to the store, I take the sheet with me. What is so complicated about that? And as an added bonus, I do not send any information to a for-profit corporation who makes loads of money by knowing as much about me as possible.

If I go out, I get up off my chair and walk around my apartment and make sure my lights are out. That is really simple. If I need to adjust the thermostat, I get off my keister and walk the short distance and adjust it. That is real simple, and the small exercise is good for me. And my mechanical light switch or non-smart thermostat will work even if the internet is down. And as an added bonus, if someone ever hacked my Google account, they wouldn't be able to unlock my door, turn on my lights, fiddle with my thermostat, or do anything else that I wouldn't like.

Re: Dictionary

My Epson Eco-tank printer requires frequent cleaning, like all Epson printers. I have to frequently use the printhead cleaning function. This year it started printing black lines on the paper. I had to take a single paper towel, roll into a long rectangle, soak in alcohol, and place in the printer and manually move the printhead under it. After an hour, I repeated the process. After it dried, no more black lines on paper. But still requires frequent printhead cleaning.

Re: Illegal

I would love to have a 1.2 TB cap because mine is 250 GB per month.

Re: Australia has crocodiles over 100k of them

Florida has crocodiles too, although less of them. One of the key differences between an alligator and a crocodile is that alligators are more tolerant of cold. In fact, alligators can even hibernate if it gets cold enough. One particular cold month in southern North Carolina, the northern extent of the alligator's year-round range, the lakes and ponds froze over. The alligators in the area were hibernating in the water with just the snout above the frozen water. It was quite interesting, seeing pictures of a snout just above iced over water. Crocodiles would die in that cold weather.

Far too many advertisement companies don't care about scams. As long as they get paid, the ad runs. This is why malvertising is such a big problem.

Re: print-free-for-life plan was "an introductory offer,"

Reminds of the Teamviewer lifetime plan that I purchased. I thought it was for as long as I lived. It turns out that "lifetime" meant to Teamviewer until they stop supporting it. They can suck rope if they think I will upgrade to a subscription plan after pulling that stunt.

Re: Were they able to locate the slime?

I am not sure if this is possible, but I wish the phone companies gave us the option to block VoIP calls which originate outside the country.

Re: Stupid System

It has been noted that rich people or businesses will often sue poorer people or business into silence or submission. The goal is, not to win, but to bankrupt the other person or business. Activists also use this system to stop a project they don't like.

Do not ever buy a Samsung appliance. Their appliances should be burned in the same bonfire that Mr. Lee Kun-hee did with the poor quality fax machines.

The RIAA needs to start representing the artists, not the copyright holders that always find a way to cheat the artists.

Re: Am I the only one...

I wish they would unfreeze and go back to Windows 7. I'm tired of going through 5 steps of what was once 1 step.

Here is an idea. Why don't we ask the customer if they need a wall socket adapter when they buy the device. If they already have plenty, they can say no. But if they need one, it can be provided separately when bought in the store or shipped.

Re: just do it right and once every 20 years

A federal legislation. That ain't going to happen. 9 out of the 10 riches counties are in the Washington D.C. metro area. The United States has the best government money can buy. When was the last politician you saw who left offer poorer than when he arrived?

You don't bite the hand that feeds you, so these greedy, selfish politicians will only generate a powerful privacy law if, and only if, it threatens their re-election hopes. There will be no large-scale public outcry over privacy that would threaten their re-election fetish, so these greedy, selfish politicians will not do anything about that. Especially since Facebook and Google just generously "donated" a large amount of money. And no future politician will win on the platform "I kept your personal information away from Google!"

Re: Nope.

These are politicians and bureaucrats. The chances of them understanding anything about anything is less than my chances of walking on water.

Re: Privacy Badger, local learning

And cookie autodelete finishes the job. You will be surprised at how many third party cookies you still get even with NoScript. And cookie autodelete makes sure first party trackers cannot track you. (As an example, go to hp.com and look at all the tracking they do.) Just whitelist every good cookie, and tell cookie autodelete to remove all non-whitelisted cookies after you close a tab.

Re: Exchange 2007 and SBS

Future versions were a nightmare too. I had a test license of Exchange 2013 from TechNet, back when Microsoft had some brains and TechNet premium was still a thing. I had a test server to play around with and learn how to use new software. This was Server 2012 R2 standard. I had the essentials role installed for the backup. I follow Microsoft's instructions to the letter. Turns out, essentials role and Exchange were incompatible. But did Microsoft bother saying any of that in their instructions? Did Exchange throw an error in the install? Nope, the closest you get is that Exchange is incompatible with Server Essentials. It installed but never worked.

So I installed a Server 2012 R2 standard virtual machine. I had nothing installed, no updates of any kind. I once again followed Microsoft instructions to the letter. Exchange 2013 installed, but still didn't work. The web interface or Exchange powershell would never ever work.

This time I bought a book, and it had steps Microsoft didn't bother to include. A format, and following the book's instructions Exchange 2013 finally started to work. But 2 months later, the web interface stopped working, although everything else did work. I didn't test the Exchange powershell at that time. About 12 months after that, everything stopped working: calendar, email, etc. I had Exchange on a VM with nothing else and I didn't do anything to the VM, ever. I didn't touch Exchange or the Windows Server on the VM. After I installed, I never remoted into the VM server for any reason. I did nothing, and Exchange just stopped working for no good reason. I came to the conclusion that the new Microsoft has software so screwed up that you have to be pay them to be certified just to fix their incompetence.

Re: Decline

There was a time when McAfee was quite good. That was about two decades ago.

Now ... McAfee slows down your machine just like a having a lead anchor towed behind your car. And worse, it couldn't find water standing waist deep in the ocean, much less malware. I actually thought Intel made their product worse; jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none. I think the only reason they make any money is because they bribe computer manufacturers to pre-load it and so clueless users pay for it because it is easier.