Posts by Wade Burchette

Re: Softbank wasn't a good match as an owner?

I disagree. Only Apple would be worse. They are the only company who is as ruthless and malicious as NVidia.

Re: Apple remains

* and except for our employees, where we make them clock-out and then force them to wait to be searched on their time.

Who knew that Hotel California was actually a prophecy about Apple stores in California? You can check out anytime you want, you just can't ever leave.

Re: Apple has also informed its developers ...

And $2,000,000,000,000 will also buy you a lot of politicians too.

Re: Weasel wording alarm

I can see it now ... Google Hotel displays message "Welcome to the Hotel Bob Smith. Enjoy your stay." The hotel, of course, puts some information into their computer so that it knows who is staying there.

Google then looks through its database for a Bob Smith. It, of course, finds many but it is a good start. If Bob Smith used a Google assistant, it will be trivial for Google to voice match this Bob Smith to all the ones in the database. Bam, more "relevant advertising" on the way!

Or ... Google Hotel displays message "Welcome to the Hotel Bob Smith. Enjoy your stay. For a better experience, download the Google app for your phone and enter this code: C R E E P Y". Bam, now Google knows bobsmith123456789@gmail.com is staying here, no need for voice match. More "relevant advertising" on the way!

Re: Switching to Android

You can block Google's slurp on an Android device with Blokada.

Re: Obviously was not tested

"There's no way a bug like this gets by even the most basic testing."

Microsoft says hold my beer.

Re: That's settled, then.

More than likely the fuse connected to this data upload system is also the same fuse for the entire head unit/GPS system.

Re: 1984

In China, they had a campaign against Four Olds: Old customs, old idea, old habits, old culture. This seems very similar to what antifa has been doing, tearing down statues and other monuments. You also have some politicians actively calling for an end of history classes.

Re: Cynical, moi?

In the United States you can freeze your credit for free. This is a service which requires you to provide a PIN code before you can take out any credit. Instead of offering Experian credit monitoring for two years -- the hackers just need to wait 2 years for the heat to die off -- is to help the employees freeze their credit. You need to do this free service with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Re: And the next step...

Not only that, because of malvertising and illegal robocallers, I would be very suspicious of any message about cleaning up your computer.

Re: What's the true cost ?

Before Alexa there were systems that for physically handicap that controlled your lights, doors, etc. They did not Amazon or Google or any cloud service to do it, either. You just needed a computer in the home and it was done through the local network. If ever I get to the point where I am unable to walk 5 feet to flip a light switch, I will only get a system where it is limited to the local network and that would also be limited to approved devices only. No foreign MAC addresses allowed! I would never ever trust a for-profit business with the keys to my house.

Re: Why do people put with this nonsense?

Satya is NOT going in the right direction. Going in the right direction would be to double your quality-control testers; instead we got less because Microsoft wanted to be "more agile". Going in the right direction would have been to bring back a logical start menu; instead we got one that was illogical and designed to push apps from Microsoft's app store. Going in the right direction would be to design a UI that is easy and intuitive; instead we have a UI that takes something that was once 3 steps and makes it 10. I have more, do I really need to go on?

Microsoft is going in the wrong direction faster than ever under the leadership of Satya Nadella.

Re: Terminate

The issue is the browser runs when the computer boots. No program or app should start automatically without your permission. And what is worse, to disable the Edge browser starting, you need to go in the group policy editor, do a registry hack, or use O&O Shut Up 10. A browser is not an essential OS function, it should not start just because Microsoft wants me to use it.

Re: Possible reason

Yep. Sounds like T-Mobile will fit right in with Sprint.

Reminds me a true story. An American college used a Seminole Indian, or native American, as their mascot for the sport teams. The elitist in the NCAA -- the organization that oversees American college athletics -- deemed the mascot to be racist. This organization asked everyone what they thought, except for the native Americans themselves. Isn't that more racist than a mascot about a Indian tribe? Turns out, this one college had the approval and blessing of the Seminole nation to use the mascot. And so the NCAA backed down.

Re: Same old tactics

Don't forget the "problem" that just happens to magically reset your preferences to Edge for almost everything, along with every other sorry MS "recommend" app.

Re: You kill our right to repair, we'll stop buying your over priced tat.

Does anyone remember the old "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials? If I had enough money, I would run an ad like that, except it would go "I'm a Mac user --- And I am 'genius' bar employee'.

Mac user -- "My Mac is broken"

'Genius' bar employee -- Proceeds to start kicking the Mac user hard in the groin until he falls down, then when he is down spits on him and then loudly taunts him ... "SHUT UP AND BUY A NEW ONE!"

Mac user -- "Thank you sir. Sorry sir. Here is my wallet."

How about the same options available on the AMD and Intel products instead of limiting the higher quality stuff to just the latter.

Considering that people with 5G sickness, Wi-Fi sickness, and the like are psychosomatic, the people just need to believe something is protecting them and they will be cured. I guaranteed you if I sold a rock from a local river and said it had special magnetic properties that negates all wireless radiation, these same people would buy it and swear to you that it really works.

Re: Taxes and fees

The whole system is designed to screw us. The cable companies are truly greedy bastards. But the ones that are even more evil are the ones above the cable companies. This would be Viacom, NBC Universal, Disney, and so on. In America, Disney owned ESPN adds $5 to your cable bill. And most heinous Disney even once sued to make sure every cable company had the $5 ESPN on their basic package. Did you know that the stations that you can free with an antenna charge a fee to put their free channel on your cable?

Everyone works to screw us. What is needed is cable bill of rights. (1) Customers can pick and choose what channels they want; channel providers or cable companies cannot force people to buy a package of channels. (2) The channel provider must charge the same fee to every cable/satellite/streaming provider and that fee must be public. (3) Stations may only have 15 minutes of commercials per hour and may not show commercials during a program; promos for other shows are considered commercials. (4) Stations that are available free with an antenna cannot charge a fee to put their station on cable.

Re: Even those guys knew

Exactly right. The standard modus operandi of Apple when something breaks is "Buy a new one."

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation had a story about this the cable issue affecting Macbooks displays. The "genius bar" told the undercover reporter that he should just buy a new computer. An independent repair shop fixed it without replacing a part and proved everything the "genius bar" said was a lie.

I prefer what Thomas Jefferson said: ""Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem", which is Latin for "I prefer dangerous freedom over peaceful slavery". Americans used to say "Give me liberty, or give me death." Now, they say "Give me neither liberty nor death".

Re: Never buy IoT kit

Belkin now owns Linksys. Linksys was already a don't buy before Belkin bought it from Cisco, that just made it a double-don't buy.

Re: I chose "I don't care"

Here is an idea for Microsoft: GIVE US A CHOICE!

One of the reasons why I hate the new Microsoft is they take away choice. Need to install security updates individually? Screw you. Don't want driver updates to install automatically because your driver is stable? Screw you. Don't want network printers to install automatically? Screw you. Don't want Pacific time to be the default time zone for American versions of Windows 10? Screw you. Don't want unsolicited apps to install on your computer? Screw you. Don't want Edge to load when the computer loads? Screw you. Don't want telemetry? Screw you.

All of those things, except the first, require you to take unclear steps to change. And yet, all of them should be default. The new Microsoft thinks they know better than us. And that is simply not true. Taking away the default double-space is Microsoft way of saying "We know better than you, deal with it." This attitude has started in Windows 8 and has only gotten worse.

Re: Totally agree

Taken first out of the CEO's wallet.

Because in American finances, lawyers and penalties are a tax write-off. If the fine comes out of the president's, owner's, or CEO's wallet, this stuff will stop real quick.

Re: MS Mining our body heat?

Almost all of Microsoft's best ideas have always been someone else's ideas first. MS-DOS was not a Microsoft invention; the GUI was not a Microsoft invention; the word processor was not a Microsoft invention; the internet search engine was not a Microsoft idea. When Microsoft invents things, we get ideas like the ribbon -- something that is now everywhere when it should be nowhere. I would say the best thing Microsoft invented was the start menu, and even then the ignoramuses couldn't leave well enough alone and thus ruined something that was as close to perfect as you can humanely get in Windows 7.

If anybody can switch to ARM laptops, it would be Apple. I am convinced that Steve Jobs' best work is to convince people that owning their product somehow makes you a better person. Therefore, Apple could sell you iDirt and the fanboys and fangirls would buy it and swear to you that it is better dirt. That was the real genius of Steve Jobs. So if Apple went to an in-house ARM, their users would swear to you that new laptop is better and you could not convince them otherwise. Don't forget that Thunderbolt is no longer Intel exclusive.

I personally think it would make more sense for Apple to have AMD design a semi-custom chip for them. Supply won't be an issue because both use TSMC. Some of the reviews of the AMD Ryzen 4000 laptop I saw had it outperform a desktop Intel, all at much lower power.

Re: CFAA?

I believe the district attorney messed up and charged the police officer with the wrong crime. He should have been charged with bribery and not under CFAA.

Re: I'd love to see a law...

I had an old LG G4 that only provided security updates for 18 months! Then and now, some people pay for the phone over a 24 month period, so many people would still be paying for a phone that was no longer supported. That turned me off LG phones forever.