* Posts by Shannon Jacobs

783 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Apr 2007

Combover King Donald Trump: 'I miss Steve Jobs'

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

I agree Trump is a TROLL, but we can still look for the deeper meaning

For example, the simple fact that the Donald is still here while Steve Jobs has passed away counts as evidence against a just and caring god, which should make the devout atheists among you happy. Me? I'm an agnostic, and I don't actually care about that topic. Can't disprove the idea of god, but if there is one, I hope he has more important business than my trivialities.

As regards the troll's supposed wealth, I have to admit that he has lots of assets (but NOT including himself). However, he has also LOTS of liabilities, and I suspect if he was forced to settle up now, he would actually be broke. It's just an anachronism of the broken American legal and financial systems that his bankrupt state is not obvious. If there were a just god, then the Donald would go broke, stay broke, and die broke. It's almost conceivable that he could learn something from that experience--but I doubt it.

New Google Play terms ban non-store app updates

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Disagreement is good, if you have some basis for it

If you disagree with me enough to vote thumbs down for the post, why don't you say why? Or are you just sock puppets "working for" the google of EVIL?

No, I don't like making mistakes, but I do like learning new things. If you think you can teach me something, let's see your data or your corrections of my analyses.

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Tradeoff of security for freedom

Actually, I think the google has already gone all evil on us. EVIL is as American corporations are required to become, and corporations are NOT people, my friend in a flying pig's eye!

Having said that, I think that Android really has become more of a security threat than a convenience, and for that basis I have to say that the new rule is stupid because it does not go far enough. The google needs to provide a mechanism to identify apps that have ALREADY driven a truck through this gaping security hole. Since that probably isn't possible, then at least the google should provide a way to reinstall any apps that might have done so. At least that would be theoretically possible if the google has been bothering to keep tracks of the apps they have been feeding us through Google Play--including the poisonous apps.

Even without decrypting the legalese, I already know that the google license agreement already absolves them of any blame or liability. What else was there to learn from that passed master of EVIL, the Microsoft?

Huawei: 'We're not interested in US market'

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Mixed feelings from an American user of Huawei devices...

Mixed feelings here. I'm an American who has used at least two Huawei devices. Current one is a Huawei smartphone that is mostly superior to my previous HTC smartphone... Mostly my feelings towards Huawei are positive, but my experiences with the Huawei website are pretty negative, even worse than with HTC, which is saying quite a lot in the worse way. I sort of forgive Huawei on the grounds that HTC claimed to offer good support and to care about customer satisfaction, whereas I never expected anything much from Huawei except that the device would work pretty well and be on the less expensive side...

However, when it comes to personal information security and ethical considerations, Huawei is losing my regard and it's slipping down that rathole almost as fast as the google. I actually think that Huawei is backing away from the American market because they realized that they are not EVIL enough to compete effectively with the likes of the google, Microsoft, and Apple. (No, I'm not trolling the Apple fanbois, but I just think that Apple is anti-freedom, even while I would have to give Apple credit for a highly effective business model. In contrast, Microsoft was driven to evil by the lust for power and google probably backed into it due to the nature of American laws... Now don't get me started on Oracle.)

US Senate vote to add internet sales tax this week

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

But the owners of the politicians LIKE regressive taxes

You don't seem to understand how the American system works. Most businesspeople are fine and upstanding and just want to play the game of business fairly and by the rules. However the rules of the game are encoded into laws written by the most cheaply bribed professional politicians and they are being bribed by the few GREEDIEST businessmen. There is no such thing as enough money for these blocksuckers.

Having said that, I still don't understand their self-defeating stupidity in this case. Increasing the use of sales taxes just has the effect of increasing effective prices and thereby discourages sales, hurting the economy all around. I understand that they do favor regressive taxes that squeeze the poor people more heavily, but you've already squeezed them to the point you rich bastards can't get any more money out of them. All you do is persuade (or force) them to buy less stuff, which doesn't actually help anyone. Even your own essentially fascist companies would benefit from broadly increased demand in the economy.

Cutting CO2 too difficult? Try these 4 simple tricks instead

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

I suspected the author was the usual idiot

Saves reading time, but I hope he's young enough and retains his appetite when he has to eat his stupid words.

Hey, baby, you need a sock puppet. That name is worn out.

Rotten spam causing more infections than ever – study

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Live and let spam is STUPID

Actually, the harder we pretend the spam isn't there, the more dangerous the spam becomes when it slips through. Let me construct an obvious little example based on adaptive filtering.

Adaptive spam filtering attempts to modify your spam filters to consider various factors such as what kinds of messages you have marked as spam. Now imagine someone send you a package via Fedex, but there are delays or questions, so you wind up exchanging some email with your correspondent and with Fedex, and just about this time, a spammer throws a Fedex phishing scam at you, it slides through into your inbox, and you click on the link. Poof. You're pwned.

The less spam you saw, the more dangerous this spam became.

Hey, if you had the tools, would you donate a bit of time and thought to hurting the spammers? You don't have to, but I would and I wouldn't mind that you benefited, too. If just a few people felt like I did, and if at least one of the major Web-based email services provided the anti-spammer weapons, then I can assure you we would completely outnumber the extremely small supply of suckers that are feeding the spammers.

We are NOT going to convert the spammers into decent human beings. However, we can disrupt their economic models and encourage them to climb under less visible rocks.

I really believe that, but apparently Microsoft can't see downstream where the peasants are, Google is too advanced into evil, and Yahoo is too busy going bankrupt. You would think that at least Yahoo would be desperate to restore some value to their only significant asset rather than being the leader in providing infrastructure support to the spammers...

News Corp prez threatens to pull Fox TV off the air

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

There's a book about that: Blown to Bits

Just reading a very interesting book on the topic. Called Blown to Bits, and available as a free download, perhaps making their own point that copyright is dying the big death. The relevant part to this article is how copyright is being used to PREVENT innovation by distorting the market in favor of whoever is fastest in bribing the politicians.

Most businesspeople are fine and upstanding, etc. The problem is that the current system in America is one where the LEAST ethical businessmen bribe the CHEAPEST professional politicians to write the WORST laws. Every large American company is obliged to become more and more evil as quickly as possible just to survive.

Sun is an example of what happens to a company that tries to resist the evil, and the google and Apple are leading 'successful' examples of the need to be more evil.

Scottish SF master Iain M Banks reveals he has less than a year to live

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Re: What is it with the good guys?

Philip K Dick was good, original, and often thought-provoking, but I think he was pushing it with drugs and his results were never in the same league with Mr Banks. The other post compared Mr Banks to Douglas Adams, and I think that was quite unfair. Again, the books were in a much lower league, and Mr Adams had pretty much faded out long before he passed away. Yes, it was sad and he did die at an unusually young age, and in many ways he was an admirable person and so forth, but I just can't feel the same sense of loss.

Right now the only one that comes close for me on the grief scale would be Isaac Asimov... Then again, I should probably be discounted because I might put Rex Stout as #3, though a rather distant #3....

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Banks makes you think

And the thumbs down vote on my post has me thinking WTF.

While I was wandering around that website yesterday, eventually I was actually wondering "Where are the trolls?" These days it seems there are always some of them around. I even started thinking about what kind of trollage they might post, but I was really stumped on that one. Someone is going to complain that Iain Banks was overrated or start a campaign to sell more of his books? Like he needs more money? A complaint that the existence of such superb writers makes it pointless for other people to write anything? (Yes, I do wish I could write more, but envy is not problem and I know I am NOT and never will be a creative force like Mr Banks...)

Anyway, the more I think about this topic, the sadder it makes me feel. Really under the category of 'Nothing can be done' and I just hope he enjoys himself as much as possible while he can. He deserves it and twice on Sundays.

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

My comment to Mr Banks on that website:

Have greatly enjoyed your books and DEEPLY sorry to hear the news. The probabilistic and quantum natures of reality are no consolation. I was hoping you would get around to the cryocide crybabies or the Chinese Amazon grannies, but time is running out.

It does not seem to be a constructive response to hope the doctors' diagnosis is flawed, but unfortunately yours appears to be the only kind of diagnosis they are especially good at--the too late kind. Should I suggest the ultimate in results-based medicine? I actually want them to do a COMPLETE autopsy on me to find out what REALLY killed me. Then I want them to go back to the doctors who missed the diagnosis before it was too late... Seems like a more useful option than donating to cancer research, eh?

Again, thank you for all the pleasure you have given me. I can only hope the real world can develop along the lines of your splendid imagination.

Merde! Dummkopf! Google Translate used as spam cloak

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Give US the weapons to break the spammers business models

If the google was less EVIL or Yahoo was a bit closer to bankruptcy, then they would get sincere about stopping the spammer and increasing the value of the Internet for EVERYONE. Microsoft deserves some credit for hurting spammers upstream, but it is downstream where the spammers connect with the tiny supply of suckers, and Microsoft could do much better there.

Imagine some anti-spammer tools integrated into the email system. Tools that would go through several iterations and let you use your human intelligence to describe the spam and target the countermeasures and BREAK THE SPAMMERS' FINANCIAL MODELS. Imagine feedback on how often YOU are the first one to break a spammer's redirection link. Imagine opt-in for spam removal when the garbage is confirmed by other human spam fighters. Imagine faster work against the spammers' dropboxes and websites BEFORE the suckers can get back to the spammers.

We can do all of these things. You don't have to, but I would, and just a few more people like me would easily outnumber the extremely few suckers the spammers are so desperately searching for. I don't mind if you benefit, too. I just want to break the spammers.

How about you? Wouldn't you like better tools to make the world better? Can ANYONE point at ANYTHING good the spammers are doing?

MI5 undercover spies: People are falsely claiming to be us

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Logo doesn't matter, but the warning is good and should be widespread

The spammers are glad to abuse ANY organization's or company's credibility if they think it might help them con one more sucker. However, in the spam I see, most of the fake references are to the American FBI or various agencies of the United Nations. There are a scattering that point at news websites, and even some that point at Wikipedia, which strikes me as a target with especially high credibility. Hey, if the spam cites Wikipedia, it must be true, right?

Wrong.

I think that all such websites should immediately add a warning with appropriate links to any webpages cited by the spammers. If the potential suckers are systematically routed AWAY from the spammers, that will hurt their business models--and making money is the ONLY think the spammers are interested in.

I'm not saying we can convert such sociopaths into decent human beings. I'm saying we need to break their business models in every possible way. If they can't find suckers with money, then they will crawl under less visible rocks.

BIGGEST DDoS ATTACK IN HISTORY hammers Spamhaus

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Re: Spamhous must really be hurting those parasites

The gold coins are closer to the nut than you apparently realize. I'm not saying that you can somehow remake the spammers into decent human beings. I'm saying that if you take away their "gold coins", then most of them would crawl under less visible rocks. That is why I think there should be a larger focus on breaking the spammers' business models at the downstream end, not upstream where Spamhous and Microsoft have been firing their big cannons.

The usual numeric analysis focuses on the small return ratio of the spammers, but we should think of it differently. The key ratio is the LARGE number of people who hate spam versus the SMALL number of suckers who feed the spammers. What we need are better tools to allow the large number of spam-haters more actively cut the spammers away from their small number of suckers and victims. Given how much value it would add to their email systems (and Yahoo should be especially desperate for value these days), I really don't understand why they don't integrate such tools into their email systems.

Let me pick a really trivial example, the spammers who are using link shorteners from LinkedIn and Twitter to route their suckers. They are obviously doing this because the links last long enough to reach some suckers, so the obvious countermeasure is to negate those links more quickly. (Actually, cutting the links would be less effective than redirecting them at some webpage that would educate or scare the suckers who have clicked on them.) The email system should have a mechanism to report the problem, perhaps even with an incentive if you're the first annoyed person to report the link.

Am I the only person who would like to feel I am personally making the spammers' miserable lives even more miserable? I don't think so--but it wouldn't take too many people like me with better spam-fighting tools to really cut the spammers.

Branson, Berners-Lee, Google, £2m: LET'S SAVE THE WORLD

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Big donor model of charity

I think the main problem with the big donor model of charity is that the big donor will insist on calling too many of the shots. Natural enough, but it can go far south. For example, take Ubuntu. Please.

I write that as someone who had high hopes for Ubuntu. They have been dashed--but as a small donor, there was nothing I could do about it.

Imagine a charity model in which small donors could pool their donations in a way similar to a stock market, but with the brokerage providing project management support. Kind of like Kickstarter, IndyGoGo, and CrowdRise, but with more accountability so the small donors could know how their money would be used and even what results would count as success for the project. My version is called "reverse auction charity shares", but I should change that to "was", since even I have pretty much given up hope on it.

As for any charity funded by the google, I way whoopee. As evil as the google is becoming, they cannot buy my favor with their donations. The google needs to stop the censorship and maybe even do something to make the world better outside of PR games.

Ubuntu support periods slashed

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Hey, here's a stupid idea: Ask us what we want!

Would you donate to pay for continued support for your OS? Well, if so, Ubuntu don't care. Just like the honey badger, eh?

Here's the situation. I actually have a number of computers. One of my old projects runs on a particularly old computer that is not able to take newer versions of Ubuntu. I could barely get it to upgrade to the old version it is running now. That version has been outside of support for a while, but for all I know, there are many people in similar boats.

More to the point, it's also for all Ubuntu knows. No support, no care.

What if Ubuntu offered a project to support my old version of Ubuntu? What if a lot of people agreed and were willing to each put down a few bucks for that purpose?

I think everyone would win, but I guess that's because I'm not as rich as Shuttleworth. In the big-donor financial model Ubuntu uses, he gets to call the shots, and too bad if you don't like it. Even worse if you think he is calling such bad shots that you lose interest in Ubuntu (as I have).

I used to be an enthusiastic user of Ubuntu who could recommend it as an alternative OS to Microsoft and Apple. That was a LONG time ago. (I've still been running later versions in virtual machines on some of my newer computers, but that's just to make sure Ubuntu hasn't recovered from being turned into a newt. I do not actually use Ubuntu for anything serious these days. (In my specific situation, the worst problems actually involved the Japanese support, but again I had no meaningful way to vote with my money.))

Here is one alternative financial model. No matter how bad the software produced by Microsoft or how much Apple's software restricts your freedom, you have to agree that their financial model works. I think Linux will always be a bit player until it has at least ONE good financial model.

http://eco-epistemology.blogspot.jp/2009/11/economics-of-small-donors-reverse.html

Review: HTC One

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

You don't have a USB charger on your bike?

Magnets on the spokes and coils on the frame to generate power to keep your smartphone fully charged while you travel. That's what I want, though I haven't seen it yet.

My own experience with HTC was quite negative. The battery was one of the problems, but there were many others, and my main beef with HTC was the AWFUL pretense of support on their website. I really can't imagine how I got the impression they were going to answer questions or something. I actually dumped it before the 2-year contract ran out. My carrier was actually running a promo that picked up part of the cost of a new phone they were pushing. I wouldn't say it was my perfect smartphone, but the Huawei has been substantially more satisfactory than the HTC was.

Lenovo: Windows 8 is so good, everyone wants Windows 7

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Re: Trying to find Windows 7 laptops for consumers is hard work

That seems to be the only post here that attempts to justify Windows 8 on an actual merit. Too bad I use Firefox whenever possible, eh?

The real problem is Microsoft's monopoly eliminates the need for real competition (which also block real freedom for the users). There was also some talk about improved performance, but I already know that it won't be fast enough to offset my lost time in the adapting to the latest Microsoft beta test.

In short, I've been looking at Windows 8 for a while, and I still don't see a single reason to switch. Actually I can barely see any advantages in Windows 7. I know of about three things that they moved into the OS that were less convenient as add-ons to Windows XP, but so far they have been features that I rarely use.

I, too, bought a new Windows 7 box as Windows 8 was released. In the past, I skipped Vista and Windows ME and a couple of other dogs from Microsoft...

Don't buy a Google car: They might stop it while you're driving

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Don't be evil unless there's money to be made by being evil

This is just a symptom of the google's increasing focus on money. The problem with loving money is that there's no limit and no ultimate satisfaction. Killing services is not usually evil per se, though it might turn out that there are people who are harmed when the services they have come to depend upon are terminated. However, in the case of the google, there are lots of other new behaviors that I think are more clearly evil. The increasing censorship is the one that bothers me the most, but that goes back a long ways. The new one that I'm finding most annoying is how the google is protecting spammers. Their spammer-friendly policies are increasingly reminiscent of Yahoo's--and I think they aren't working so well...

I didn't actually blame the google for going evil. American laws are mostly written by the most easily bribed politicians working for the least ethical businessmen. The rules of the business game in America now require large companies to become more and more evil just to survive. Then I discovered that the google has become the leading lobbyist among high-tech companies.

Someone (I wish I could give him proper credit, but I saw it on the Web) suggested the google motto has mutated from "Do no evil" to "Do know evil!"

Aaron Swartz prosecutor accused of 'professional misconduct'

Shannon Jacobs
Thumb Down

Don't feed the troll

Hey troll, when will you do something with your life? ANYTHING of ANY value.

eBay: Our paid Google advertising was a total waste of money

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Re: Do know evil

What's the joke? The google really is EVIL these days, and more so all the time.

These days it seems like google's main concern is how to prevent complaints about the gmail-based spammers. If that isn't EVIL, I'd be curious what qualifies.

I'd think that google would resent the competition from the spammers, or maybe they would be concerned about the value of the brands that are being abused to death by the spammers. Where does the self-interest go south?

As someone who used to think the google was going to help make the world better, I now feel like a bigger sucker than an ebay shopper.

Dell, Canonical tag team on Ubuntu Server tune-up for PowerEdgies

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Lonely Linux Distro Desperately Seeks Lively Business Model

What sort of personal ad should Ubuntu write?

I'm only saddened by the failure of superior software against superior business models. I actually think the keys to Microsoft's success are (1) Ignoring the end users and selling to the manufacturers, (2) Evading all liability for product flaws, (3) Having a good business model. In contrast Apple succeeds by (1) Praying upon people who want to be trendy, (2) Removing real freedom and choice from their software, and (3) Having a good business model. Notice the pattern?

Ubuntu is using the big-donor business model. That depends on Shuttleworth having deep pockets and making good decisions. The increasing focus on the server side (as in the article) tells us he's getting to the bottom of his pockets. The minor part of the big-donor is that the donor make good decisions (or delegate to someone who makes good decisions), and the declining usability of non-server Ubuntu says all we need to know about that.

I think Linux desperately needs some better business models. The one I would favor involves getting the end users to target their donations to support the features they actually want. Lots of small donors could, in theory at least, make a difference.

IBM moves Power Systems manufacturing from Minnesota to Mexico

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Side effects bother me: Mayo Clinic needs patients

Just going with the trend of saving the nickel, but the side effects continue to bother me... Mayo Clinic is still regarded as one of the world's best, but good as it is, I still think it needs some local patients. IBM doesn't have the patience to help provide any patients, eh?

Disclaimer: I'm in the big blue food chain, but nothing I say represents anything they say. Or maybe I just couldn't resist the pun?

Mark Shuttleworth: Canonical leads Ubuntu, not 'your whims'

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

An excuse to apologize?

I should thank you for the space cadet tag or apologize for the other typos in my comments?

Problem: I don't feel any need for more friends and I don't want to influence people, mostly since I don't like it when people try to influence me. I've come to the conclusion that the world is changing pretty much the way it wants and pretty much at the rate it wants. I'm too old and tired to worry about it much, and I'm just content that the grand long-term average seems to be that the world gradually gets better. The residual nagging problem is that none of us get to live on the average.

Now for a substantive reply to the only substance in your comment: Small pond, big fish, who cares?

Or should I apologize again for not writing clearly enough? One of the symptoms of spending too much time in Japan?

Shannon Jacobs
Thumb Down

Re: Former fan of Ubuntu recovers from being turned into a newt

c/there financial models/their financial models/

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Former fan of Ubuntu recovers from being turned into a newt

First, my claim for street cred: Used to like Ubuntu and used it a lot. Even ran it native on a couple of machines and still running it on three machines in VMs. I have one ancient machine that runs an old version of Ubuntu native, but the same machine still has a live application running in DOS, shmg. (Please.)

One of the main reasons I liked Ubuntu was that I believed it had potential to make Linux into a mainstream OS for large numbers of users. I fantasized that Ubuntu could increase human freedom by providing a viable option to Microsoft and Apple.

Ubuntu went the wrong way and its evolution became devolution. It's challenge to become a contender become a joke. The learning curve INCREASED, the intuitiveness DECREASED, and I can no longer recommend Ubuntu to anyone. Ubuntu turned into a newt and there are no signs of recovery.

I think this is because the financial model is wrong. Whatever bad things you want to say about Microsoft and Apple, I bet I can say worse, but the bottom line is that there financial models WORK.

There are several open source financial models in use, and all of them reek like a big dog's m0e. One is for beginning programmers to take a vow of poverty while doing what they want, with the result that they lose interest or develop marketable skills. In either case, they almost always move along. The Ubuntu model is the big-donor charity, which requires two things: A donor with big enough pockets and that the donor not make too many bad decisions. Not sure about Shuttleworth's pockets, but his decisions have gotten worse and worse, and that is why Ubuntu is just a sad joke these days.

I think we OBVIOUSLY need new kinds of business models. What I want is a kind of charity stock market where I could buy virtual shares in various projects. Possible examples: (1) A new feature for an OS. (2) An improved version of an existing program. (3) Continued support for an older program. (4) Anything you imagine here. If enough small donors agree, then the project gets the money.

This financial model may remind you of Kickstarter, IndyGoGo, or Crowdrise (though it predates my ever hearing of those websites. The difference is that I think this charity brokerage should provide project management support for such things as: (1) Help prepare project description that really covers the costs and requirements of the project. (2) Describe the goals clearly, including the testing. (3) Report on the results of the project in concrete terms of meeting the goals and passing the tests. (4) Give public credit to the donors for their support. (My version of the complete system is still provisionally titled "reverse auction charity shares".)

USA is the best country in the WORLD... for sending spam

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

The email system I really want

Is it too much to ask for an email system that the spammers strongly dislike? I know there will always be a bit of crap, but still... All of the major email companies live by the motto of "Live and let spam", and the spammers love filters, too. Hey if YOUR side (from the spammers' sociopathic perspective) of the marginal cost of spam looks like zero, then what do you care of the REAL costs of another million spams? If the spammer finds one more sucker, he thinks his RoI is infinity.

What I want is an email system that has integrated anti-spammer tools of such power that the spammers will understand that it is stupid to send ANY spam to that system. If they do, the users of the system will use the anti-spammer tools to cut the spammer away from his suckers before he can get any money. The spammers' websites will get nuked, their dropbox email addresses will get shuttered, their phone numbers will receive calls from the local police, the companies they slander will know and hopefully sue the spammers, and even their pro bono juju priests will fear the rain of shite. What would that email system be worth? Can you imagine no spam? (Well, actually I can't, because some spammers are amazingly stupid, but I certainly think that the clever spammers can be motivated to crawl under less visible rocks if they can't get any money.)

The #2 feature I want is scheduled delivery for future (local) times. However, that is a distant #2. There are a variety of other features that would be nice, too, but mostly it's the SPAM I do NOT want.

Torvalds asks 'Why do PC manufacturers even bother any more?'

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

There's nothing wrong with passion, but money counts, too.

This is intended as a consolidated reply to all of the replies related to my original comment about business models. My apologies if you feel that I missed your point and should have included a response. (However, this forum is so poorly structured for conversations that it is unlikely anyone will notice.)

I'm not saying that Linus Torvalds is wrong because money doesn't matter to him. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that he is lucky enough to be in a position where he doesn't have to worry about money. Most people are obliged to care significantly about their sources of money. One of the features of 'reverse auction charity shares' as a business model is that more people could get involved--as long as they could convince other people to help with the money side. (I used to be a professional programmer, but I've sort of risen in the world and I don't even want to program now, but I would be glad to help pay for other people to program things. In particular, there are a couple of smartphone apps I'd like to support...)

The non-monetary "passion of Linus" is a good thing. Recent evidence was his impassioned rant against a certain company's certificates within the kernel. His passion is why he cares and it drives him to make Linux better. However, money still matters.

My own take is that people who want to do charitable work should be encouraged to do so, but not by requiring them to starve to death. I do think they should probably work for lower salaries, but that is partly because they are doing what they want to do. In other words, they should sacrifice the maximum possible salary for their skills in exchange for their increased freedom to do what they want to do, but the pay should not be zero.

I'm speaking as someone who has paid for shareware a number of times over the years. Not sure of the statistics, but I'm pretty sure I've been a more frequent 'donor' than most people. Most of those products disappeared, and mostly without replacements. Some of them were pretty good, but if they were viable for commercial software, then the commercial versions eclipsed the non-commercial versions. If they were not commercially viable, the good-natured programmers eventually lost interest.

In contrast, there are some shareware programmers who are just hoping to strike it rich. That's another terrible business model, more like lottery tickets.

Let me reiterate my main point: Money matters and a bad financial model can negate the best idea.

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Easy to answer

Because Linux does not have a good business model.

In contrast, Apple may stomp on human freedom and Microsoft may produce gawdawful software while dumping all of the harms on end-users who never had a chance to say no, but you have to admit that their business models work quite well.

Time for a better idea: reverse auction charity shares. (I feel like a broken record, but not nearly as broken as the Linux-related so-called business models.) Linus Torvalds has effectively proven by demonstration that just because you build a better mousetrap, it does NOT mean the world will beat a path to your door.

Oracle trowels more plaster over flawed Java browser plugin

Shannon Jacobs
Alert

What is the latest version, Kenneth?

I sure hope that for 64-bit Windows 7 the current version is 21. How could things get any worse?

Need an army of killer zombies? Yours for just $25 per 1,000 PCs

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Away from the real problem: Who PAYS for the zombies?

This article is away from the real problem. Where is the MONEY come from?

Hint: It's the SPAMMERS.

If there was an email system that the spammers hated too much to spam, would you love it?

Wasting my breath and keystrokes, but I'll repeat the OBVIOUS suggestion: At least one of the Web-based email systems should include INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH anti-spammer tools. EVERY part of the spammers' infrastructure should be targeted and ALL of the spammers' accomplices should be pushed to bankruptcy. ALL of the suckers who feed the spammers should be protected from the idiocy. Heck, let's even protect the corporate victims whose reputations are abused by the spammers.

Imagine a multi-round spam-fighting tool that would analyze the spam with increasingly refined targeting. Would you be willing to spend a few minutes and donate a bit of your intelligence to help shut down the spammers and prevent them from profiting? Of course you don't have to, but if it was easy enough for more people to do it, we can surely cut the spammers away from their extremely limited supply of suckers.

However, I think that some of the spam would get your goat and you would want to help stop it. Do you have children? Would you like to hammer on a spammer who targets children? What if you are actually a high-level executive who might be a legitimate target of spear phishing? Would you like tools to help you recognize the scam and shut it down? Maybe you work for a company that gets abused by spammers and you'd like to take a few shots at them?

Isn't Yahoo yet desperate enough to survive? What assets do they have left besides lots of email users who don't want to be bothered?

New class of industrial-scale super-phishing emails threatens biz

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Live and let spam = DEATH TO EMAIL

See how well filtering has worked? The spammers have made so much money that they can now refine their targeting in search of bigger phish. So far they had just been playing in the shallow end of the pool, but you've probably seen some of the excellent pitches at Facebook and LinkedIn users. Lord save us from the spam-lovers at Yahoo, and several recent rounds of spam have been bypassing the supposedly wonderful spam filtering from the google of increasing EVIL.

Why doesn't ANYONE offer an email system that the spammers hate and fear?

Wasting my breath and keystrokes, but I'll repeat the OBVIOUS suggestion: Some email system should have integrated INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH anti-spammer tools. EVERY part of the spammers' infrastructure should be targeted and ALL of the spammers' accomplices should be pushed to bankruptcy. ALL of the suckers who feed the spammers should be protected from the idiocy. Heck, let's even protect the corporate victims whose reputations are abused by the spammers.

Imagine a multi-round spam-fighting tool that would analyze the spam with increasingly refined targeting. Would you be willing to spend a few minutes and donate a bit of your intelligence to help shut down the spammers and prevent them from profiting? Of course you don't have to, but if it was easy enough for more people to do it, we can surely cut the spammers away from their extremely limited supply of suckers.

However, I think that some of the spam would get your goat and you would want to help stop it. Do you have children? Would you like to hammer on a spammer who targets children? What if you are actually a high-level executive who might be a legitimate target of spear phishing? Would you like tools to help you recognize the scam and shut it down? Maybe you work for a company that gets abused by spammers and you'd like to take a few shots at them?

A horse? No. I would give my kingdom for a BIG anti-spam hammer. (Okay, so I don't have a kingdom, but it's not like I'm Shakespeare.)

Japanese govt: Use operator-run app stores, not Google Play

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Follow the money--the google certainly does

Premise: I think that freedom is a good thing. The problem is when a player like google plays games with the "freedom" word to evade any responsibility for harms. It bothers me more when the victims are on the scale from innocent to naive. At this point, that's the only place you're going to find people who believe "Don't be evil" has any relevance to the google.

Disclaimer time: (1) I work in a competing food chain, but these days that's sort of like saying 'I work with computers but not for the google.' (2) I hate censorship and I think the google has becoming increasingly censorious, both actively in cutting people off from services and passively in pagerank games. (3) I REALLY hate spam and spammers and the google's motto there is just "Live and let spam." Based on my experiences working for one of the earliest commercial ISPs in this country, I suspect it has something to do with porn, since the president of that company believed it was the driving factor of his business...

Evernote joins the notably hackable club

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Who cares about Evernote?

I'm convinced that the REAL threat of this kind of breach is that many people use the same passwords on many systems. The scammers and spammers have lots of stolen and correlated personal information, and they can mix and match to play games. Not sure it is helpful to note, but my primary countermeasure against this sort of thing is that my passwords are organized in layers. You might penetrate a 'soft layer' where I reuse the same password, but if you try to use it to hack into a deeper layer, the most likely outcome is to tip me off... (Yes, of course there are more wrinkles and wrinkles within the wrinkles, but I think I'm being pursued by the paranoids.)

The root of the problem is the money, as usual. As long as the scammers continue to profit, they will continue to try to new scams and make the Internet less valuable for ALL of us. I actually think that most of their proximate cash is coming from identity theft these days, but the primary vector mechanism for getting the suckers is still email spam, which is why I think there should be more focus on the vector. I really wish there was ONE email system that had some POWERFUL anti-spammer tools built into it. I'm talking about tools that would convince the spammers that this email system was not worth the risk. Any spam sent to that system would allow US to go after ALL of the spammers' accomplices, work to shut down ALL of the spammers' infrastructure, and to cut the spammers' away from ALL of their victims.

Yahoo! and! Microsoft! have! long! way! to! go! in! account! hijack! fight!

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Yahoo just has the WILL to FAIL

You'd think that Yahoo would be desperate enough by now to do something SUBSTANTIAL to improve their email system, since that's about the only thing they have left that's worth anything. Then again, the awful email system is probably what's keeping Yahoo afloat. It's such a mess that everyone is afraid to buy them out, even though the legacy of a large number of email users is supposed to have value.

Hey, Yahoo! Why don't you make a GOOD email system by making it BAD FOR SPAMMERS? Why don't you give us the tools to give the spammers bloody hell?

As regards the topic of the google stopping account theft, I really doubt it. The google has become so censorious, untrustworthy, and generally all around EVIL that I'm pretty sure it's another fake report. My theory would be that there was ONE spammer who was hijacking accounts on a large scale. That means when they finally figured out his trick and shut him down, they suddenly show a massive decrease in the so-called problem. Actually, it might have been a rather large problem for all we know. The google can simply juggle the pagerank to pitch things any way they prefer. Disagree with the google? Get disappeared.

Linus Torvalds in NSFW Red Hat rant

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Passion is a good thing

That was just the point I was going to make, with the extension that it is good for Linux that he still feels such passion about it. You might argue that a bit of cruft in the kernel is nothing to get so bent out of shape about, but if you really are trying to make an OS that is as good as it can be, then the passion may be the best thing that Linux has going for it.

However, I think that better economic models might be even better. Concretely, I think Microsoft has AWFUL software and they would sell me nothing on their own merits. I use quite a bit of Microsoft's software simply because their economic models work so well that I have no choice. In various ways, Microsoft strips off my freedoms and forces me to use garbage, and Microsoft thinks they are offering me a 'meaningful and unconstrained) choice by letting me choose whether the biggest piece of their garbage I use is numbered 7 or 8. This is NOT freedom, and perhaps equally important, this is how evolution is slowed down.

For a better economic model for Linux, may I (again) suggest "reverse auction charity shares"? Unfortunately I lack passion about it.

Apple files 'iWatch' patent application

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

It's in the timing

So far everything I've heard about this device matches something I described more than 25 years ago, but it was basically science fiction back then. I wonder if it will have a variable-power transmitter so that the local bandwidth can remain roughly constant as the density of neighboring devices increases?

Now what about the spoke-magnet-generator bicycle and the solar-powered relay sticks? Then we get to the really implausible parts of no-centralized control but identity-based reputation attested to by neighboring devices...

Sometimes I feel like my personal synchronization is off. Way off.

Clarkson: 'I WILL find and KILL the spammers who hacked me'

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Putting criminals out of business

If the spammers weren't making money they would be much less active.

Say, why don't ANY of the major email providers integrate EFFECTIVE and POWERFUL anti-spam tools that will shut down ALL of the spammers' inferastructure, pursue ALL of the spammers' accomplices, and help and protect ALL of the spammers' victims, even including this Clarkson fool. Easiest to imagine for email, but the basic idea is just to cut the spammers away from the very small supply of suckers who feed them.

Too busy to say more just now, though the basic ideas are explained in more detail elsewhere. Google, don't you care about reducing the amount of EVIL on your Internet? Microsoft, don't you want to beat the google to the punch by doing some good downstream? Yahoo, aren't you desperate enough to avoid bankruptcy?

Obama says patent trolls 'extort money', pledges reform

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Like Dubya said

It would be a whole lot easier if the president were a dictator. My own take is that Dubya went ahead and acted like he was, or maybe he just ignored Cheney's dictatorship. In contrast, President Obama comes off looking politically weak because he keeps deferring to a neo-GOP Congress that is more concerned about maximizing their political opposition uber alles. The most disgusting part to me is when Obama agrees that they have a good idea, but his support then causes them to OPPOSE their OWN idea. This is just sick.

Then again, Obama has been something of a disappointment as a Constitutional scholar, so that saps my optimism, too. I know that he inherited a lot of the mess and that it's much harder to get the worms back into the can or the cat back into the bag, but I doubt the so-called Founding Fathers would be amused or forgiving. In the specific case of patents and copyrights, their will is clearly being abused into small pieces. Patents were supposed to ENCOURAGE new inventions and copyrights were supposed to ENCOURAGE creativity and innovation. Instead, the relevant laws have been written by the most cheaply bribed politicians to focus on maximizing profits of the businessmen who bribed them. It is NOT a coincidence that those businessmen are the LEAST ethical and greediest ones.

In conclusion, death to Mickey Mouse!

Microsoft! Bing! must! make! Yahoo! more! money! moans! Mayer!

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Yahoo has to play to their strength! SPAM!

Seriously, that's the ONLY thing that Yahoo is #1 for, their support of spammers and making it hard to report abuse. If that doesn't deserve bankruptcy, please tell me what does.

Suggestion: Rather than supporting spammers, Yahoo Mail should provide integrated anti-spammer tools to break ALL of the spammers' infrastructure, pursue ALL of the spammers' accomplices, and protect ALL of the spammers' victims (mostly from their own stupidity, but there are lots of Joe jobs, too). I'm sure I'm not the ONLY person who hates spam and who would donate a bit of time to breaking the spammers' so-called business models. You don't have to help, but it would only take a small percentage of good Samaritans to cut the spammers away from the extremely small supply of suckers.

Cat cuffing: Japanese cops collar suspect for mass murder e-threat

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

I think it's the taint of radiation...

I better add a disclaimer that I know someone who's involved in the relief efforts and I've seen a lot about both of these stories on Japanese TV (but my aural understanding of Japanese is limited).

There are three big problems with the Fukushima reactors even though only a few people were directly killed by them (and as far as I know, all of them were employed more or less directly by TEPCO). The first big problem is the cost of the cleanup, both in cash and time. The second big problem is the risk of a secondary radiation disaster, such as the collapse of the #4 reactor building causing a large release from the spent fuel pool. The third big problem is the radioactive 'taint', which inhibits the normal recovery. Kobe suffered a similarly massive disaster, but without the looming threat of radiation, and the Japanese quickly restored the city, whereas the recovery work in the entire area around Fukushima remains slow and even inhibited.

On the cat story, I think he is crazy and playing crazy games with the police. The latest wrinkle is that he may have created fake evidence to discredit the other evidence. There may have been other cats and other collars involved... Insofar as I don't trust the cat's 'testimony', this looks like it might be a good circus in the making.

You also tapped on the topic of jury duty, and I recently read about that from the Japanese perspective. However, I mostly dismiss juries from the American perspective of 12 novices trying to figure out who has the best lawyer.

Kickstarter project says open source can blast Death Star costs

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Re: Look at "reverse auction charity shares" for a different angle

Also replying to the comment about inexperienced project managers of small projects not needing help. Your experience managing successful projects is precisely why most projects NEED the help. I'm not saying that the 'charity brokerage' should try to them what to do, but they need help in knowing how to do it. You were able to do that three times in a row, and in the context of a charity brokerage, that record of success should be a strong aspect of your proposal for any future project. Look at the dead projects on SourceForge to see what happens to most of them.

Good ideas are important, but execution is MORE important, and MUCH harder. Planning isn't everything either, but it helps.

Or take it from the other perspective, which was mentioned in some of the replies. How can I tell whether or not a project is going to use my donation for a good purpose? I am NOT an expert--but the managers of a charity brokerage would be such experts.

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Look at "reverse auction charity shares" for a different angle

The fundamental problem with Kickstarter, IndyGoGo, and Crowdrise (insofar as I have been able to assess them) is that there is NO project management there. My suggestion is for a more structured approach under a kind of charity brokerage (reorganized SourceForge?) or a magazine publisher (does Byte still exist?), where they help in at least three ways (1) Project preparation in terms of resources that will be required, (2) Specifications of the amount of testing that will be done, and (3) criteria to assess the degree of success. Kickstarter is only about 1/3 of the way to being a kind of virtual stock market for charitable projects. Basically primitive and not yet interesting.

US diplomat: If EU allows 'right to be forgotten' ... it might spark TRADE WAR

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Doesn't go far enough

The "right to be forgotten" is a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough. Remember that "possession is nine points of the law", and that is why we need to possess our own personal data if privacy is to have any meaning. That wasn't a problem 50 years ago, when it was impossible to store that much data, but these days we really could know everything about any person.

In case the threat isn't obvious, let me note that it isn't just your weaknesses and mistakes that can be used against you. Even your tastes and interests can be used to manipulate and even control you. Freedom is about meaningful and unconstrained choice, NOT beer.

The default case should be for our personal data to be stored on our OWN equipment. If a company is involved, then they can sign it to prevent tampering, but when they want to access OUR personal data, they should say why, and we should have a right to say yea or nay. That request to use our personal data could probably be handled automatically in most cases by our personal privacy preferences, but when in doubt, the request should be escalated. After the data has been used, then of course it should be deleted.

I think we have three choices now. One will be a total lack of privacy for anyone, which will be an interesting world, to say the least... The second will be strong privacy protections for everyone. Unfortunately, we seem to be following a third path, where rich people and big corporations want total access to our private data while concealing their own, and that can only lead to abuse and tyranny and less freedom.

Hacker faces 105 years inside after FBI 'sexploitation' arrest

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

But the spammers already have total contempt for the FBI?

Maybe they could have a bit more deterrence effect if the FBI wasn't so totally tolerant of spammers using their supposedly fearsome name on their spam?

Student claims code flaw spotting got him expelled from college

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Just what I was thinking about anonymous

Except that anonymous might reinforce the lesson with a bit of nasty leakage of some purloined information... How about the personal information of the network administrators, for example?

I'm really having trouble imagining the school's reasoning here. It was THEIR incompetence that created the vulnerability in the first place. He reported it, but since he already knew they were incompetent at protecting the information (which probably included his own personal information), I don't really blame him for checking on the degree of their incompetence. Given that he already had proof of their incompetence, why would ANYONE believe they had actually fixed the problem WITHOUT checking again?

The entire notion that law-respecting people get penalized for a bit of innovative or deviant thinking is really stupid. I hate to break the news to the morons who are running this so-called school, but you can count on the real criminals being quite innovative AND deviant AND NOT TELLING YOU ABOUT IT. They are NOT going to inform you about any little problems they notice, but just help themselves to whatever they can get.

I'm trying to imagine SOME set of circumstances that would justify the school's actions. So far the only one I've come up with is that he came back and tried to look at some information. That might seem pretty stupid after he had told the school exactly where the vulnerability was, but even that is a debatable scenario. How can you tell the hole is really there or fixed without looking through it--and there is some information on the other side of the hole, which is the whole problem.

White House raises the signature threshold for petitions to 100,000

Shannon Jacobs

They are NOT listening

However, considering how stupid most of the petitions are, no wonder no one is listening.

Two suggested improvements:

(1) A vote against this petition option, which should bring up a list of reasons why a particular partition is stupid. I suppose if you want a bell and whistle, it should let you pick as many as you like and indicate your #1 reason.

(2) A rule that if a petition that gets more stupid votes than signatures, then that petition gets ignored, even if a LOT of stupid people sign in. (Of course I'm thinking about the Texas petition. Too bad I can't renounce the fact of my birthplace.)

Climate watch: 2012 figures confirm global warming still stalled

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

What a moron

Someone please tell the idiot who wrote this article what "climate" is.

People like this leave me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, you hope they don't have any children. With a parent like that, not existing seems like the best option. On the other hand, you hope they have children, hoping that it might make them into better people and since it clearly couldn't make them any worse. On the third hand, if such a person already has a child, I suppose you have to count it as evidence of genetic insanity. After all, they say insanity is hereditary--you get it from your children.

However, I still feel sorry for the children who are going to inherit the mess of a world created by such morons as this author.

Anger grows over the death of Aaron Swartz

Shannon Jacobs
Holmes

Be afraid, be very afraid

That's the lesson they want YOU to learn. The technology is against them, and information is going to become increasingly mobile, but they still have delusions of keeping their fingers in ALL of the dikes. Privacy is becoming an illusion, and no one can buy it any more. Perhaps the most extreme recent case was actually Mitt Romney and the 47% video, which may well have negated a billion dollars in advertising.

That's not to say it's going to be an easy ride. Don't forget that the House of Representatives (in America, lads), was just captured by the neo-GOP in spite of receiving a minority of the actual votes. The combination of aggressive gerrymandering and the higher effectiveness of the money in smaller districts resulted in the non-representative House, which is amusing insofar as the neo-GOP says they are the only true believers in the vision of the Founding Fathers. Oh wait. The FF wanted the House to be the part of the government that would be MOST responsive to the collective will of the voters.

For now, you may be on the winning side of history, but if you reveal things they don't like, you're a target. Truth is NOT the issue.

Yahoo! Mail! offers! HTTPS! amid! account! hijack! spree!

Shannon Jacobs
Flame

Yahoo should just MARRY the spammers

Yahoo is such a sick joke I really can't understand how they are staving off bankruptcy. They're main residual value is their email system, and it's the worst of the majors--unless you're a spammer, in which case Yahoo is #1 for helping the spammers.

Where to begin? I guess the way they forcibly split the headers from the email? Even if you want to fight the spammers, Yahoo makes it almost impossible to get a real look at what the spammers are doing. Naked headers are something of a sick joke these days. The spam is almost always coming from throwaway addresses and is just bait for suckers. The real payloads are routed to websites or other email systems.

It's kind of weird. The spammers are holding up giant signs (especially on Yahoo) saying "Look at me! I'm a stinking criminal!" And yet their business models continue to work--or the spam would trail off.

What I want is some effective anti-spammer tools build right into a VALUABLE low-spam email system. I want to go after ALL of the spammers' infrastructure, chase ALL of the spammers' accomplices, and even help and protect ALL of the spammers' victims. They aren't all idiots, after all. Consider the reputable companies who's valuable reputations are "harvested" by the spammers phishing for their trusting customers.

In short, Yahoo should try to turn some of that spammer hatred into Yahoo love. If not, then death to Yahoo only seems fair. Yeah, it will be a big inconvenience for a lot of people--but a BIGGER inconvenience for the spammers.