Posts by Stevie

Re: How can any decent voter (4 Greyeye)

"People voted for change, not because they're racists, haters or bigots. People who have been left out, cornered, and losing job that they had for decades are marching out and voted for a change."

And I can understand that anger and bitterness, coming as I did out of the manufacturing draw-back of the late 1970s while living in Coventry. When I left there were one in three working a full week on my street. Yes, I certainly understand the emotional state of the electorate in those defunct factory towns and their need for positive change.

But exactly how does a man who has dodged the Vietnam draft (five deferments is now a qualifying event for High Office it seems), not paid a cent in income tax for at least 18 years, exported all the manufacturing of his signature clothing line to China, and stiffed every small businessman who ever contracted for work with him answer this need? He even imported his wife for gosh sakes (cheap shot, I know, but payback is a bitch).

I only ask because from my uninformed perspective Donald Trump would seem to have no common ground with the people who voted for him. His rich father and rich Friends in High Places have shielded him time and again from the results of his many failures in a way those same friends have worked to make unavailable to these voters (let any of *them* try and declare bankrupcy to escape credit card debt and see how far they get). He had a great opportunity to act according to his ideals of Greatness in America years ago when he decided to market a line of branded clothing, but chose instead to sweatshop the whole thing, which would seem to scream loud about his commitment to the idea of bringing back manufacturing jobs to America.

People I speak to say they support Trump because "he will upset those people in Washington". There seems to be a clear disconnect between that idea and the fact that they themselves will be living in the results of that "upset" for four years and however long it takes a Democrat to clean up the mess afterward.

Re: Your attitude is exactly the reason why people voted as radically, (4 Bronek Kozicki)

"Radically", I'm OK with. "Insanely" I have a problem with.

Look, I really don't care who runs the country but I care deeply that under Republican presidents my retirement saving hemorrhage money. I haven't made any sort of profit under any of the presidents from the so-called "business party". The only time I've *made* money in the last 35 years is under Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama. As I type my funds are taking an almighty dinging just because a Republican is *about* to take the reins.

Not only that, but under the last two republican presidents (King George the First and King George the Second) we had collapses of the banking systems so bad they required massive bailout.

And now we are saddled with a hollow demagogue for the next four years, a sock puppet who'll believe anything said to him for those who know how to actually run the place with whatever agendas they have. Like George the Second was for the first six years he was in office.

Predictions for this time next year:

No wall. Obviously.

No special prosecutor. Also obviously.

Gasoline prices escalating.

Negligible employment increase (not counting the military)

More American Boots On The Ground in [insert your favorite war-torn country]

Re: The strangest thing about the whole story

Thanks for the link.

Re: What's truly important here...

Bob. BOB!

Take. Your. Meds.

No-one else cars if McGovern wanted to share his Wardrobe with everyone.

Anyone interested in actually looking into the real facts of that rape case can usefully start with Snopes. That will trim 95% of "everyone knows" from the evidence trail they'll need to chase.

And I'm pretty sure that is the FBI could make a case for Obstruction of Justice they'd have already done so, if only because that's what they do for a living.

I believe the article is saying that the writer thinks the prevarication is because there is nothing there and the FBI knows it, but is hiding behind the lie that it cannot possibly figure out 650 000 emails using just a computer for heaven's sake. I mean, it's not like they can just write a simple regex cascade to sift through them for key phrases.

Re: Wrong headline?

Do you have even the slightest suggestion of proof of the things you are alleging, Mr/Ms Coward?

Because if you *do* there is a bunch of interested congressmen and senators who would *really* like to see what you have.

Because, after all the shouting, posturing and taxpayer dollars wasted on this nonsense, they have *nothing*. Just like after the Whitewater Hearings.

Re: Joke Alert? 4 Richard Plinston

"Unix which was created before WIndows, strongly formed the basis for the design of LInux."

So what? The Unix of the day was decidedly unready for the WWW prime-time it was about to be introduced to. I know this because I was there.

And many upon many of the issues we face in the WWW reality of today are facts of life because of naive design decisions made in those heady Unix-only days of ARPANET, when "Bad Guys" weren't really bad, just mischievous pranksters.

Re: Joke Alert? 4 Richard Plinston

"True, but Windows has been exploitable _by_design_"

Although ... it is interesting to note that the people who designed windows NT were mostly luminaries from previous OS projects much lauded in these hallowed halls.

"Many have been closed, or at least give warnings, but Linux made far fewer mistakes of these types."

Would it be too jejune to point out that Windows was deploying into the heady universe of a new World Wide Web a-borning*, and that Linux has had the advantage of walking behind and seeing where the biggest landmines were?

* Indeed, was a big part of wedding computers to the idea of the never finished software requiring a persistent internet connection from the get-go. I only got my first AOL account so I could download the drivers that would make third party software do what it promised on the side of the box I bought it in, a sad process that has bloomed into a Standard Business Model.

Re: 2 days of editing interface

"Had to buy a new win10 laptop, as getting the same spec with Win7 was out of my pricerange. 2 days of editing interface and systematically going through all options, plus the godsend of Spybot Anti-beacon seem to have cured a lot of the ills. Marking your internet connection as metered stopped other problems."

Might as well go Linux with all that buggering about.

Re: Try System76.com

Have done, several times. They were, in fact, the first place I went when Windows 10 was first starting to nag. Jam tomorrow every time.

Nice website graphics though.

Re: Bah! 4 Doctor Syntax (again)

"Plug USB disk drive into said laptop"

See my comments to TangoDelta72, or just read my original posting for why this "solution" isn't one.

Two desks over someone is discussing how well their Linux install is playing with their laptop. They are into the part where they list the stuff that "isn't quite there yet". Like hibernation. And coming back from it once you've persuaded the laptop to hibernate.

I'm an old hand when it comes to Alternative Software Solutions. My motto: "Sixty Eight times bitten, let someone else get it working on the hardware". Like I did with windows since 1995.

Re: Bah! 4 TangoDelta72 again

"I rip when a new disc comes along then put the drive back on the shelf."

So you missed the bit where I need to bugger about with optical media on a moving train full of people at rush hour then?

And the part where I specifically likened the USB optical drive experience to that pertaining 18 years ago?

Your requirement has been answered by going back in time. Bully for you. I need more.

But by all means continue telling me how my requirement is wrong. It's the standard mantra the IT brigade use when they cannot actually solve the problem someone has.

Re: Bah!

@ Barry Rueger: Who said anything about CDs? I said I needed an integral optical drive.

Bully for you that you don't use CDs. Why that has any bearing on *my* requirement is not immediately apparent to me.

====================================================================

@ TangoDelta72: I'm sure you will spot the gaping hole in your suggestion yourself, but I'll elucidate it for the masses.

On what shall I rip it, dear TangoDelta72, dear TangoDelta72

On what shall I rip it dear TangoDelta72

On what?

On your laptop dear Stevie, dear Stevie, Dear Stevie

On your laptop dear Stevie, dear Stevie,

Try your laptop.

(Audience) Heh heh heh

The laptop is aging dear TangoDelta72, dear TangoDelta72

The laptop is aging dear TangoDelta72

And I need a new one

====================================================================

@ Doctor Syntax: What part of " I *don't* want to be buying parts and rolling my own like it was 1993" was unclear? I enjoy living vicariously through others' experience of installing Linux on laptops. I don't enjoy the litany of all the things that won't work properly without hours of fucking about under the bonnet.

I need a computer as a tool for helping me do other things, interesting things, not as an end in itself.

====================================================================

Re: Words of Power.

Nothing to do with computers is worth more than a class two, and only then under extreme stress.

Re: The PC is not dying

PC gaming is a niche now, but is still part of the calculus in the timescales used to elaborate what is happening to the PC sales of today by the Gartner Geniuses.

The advent of the console caused people to finally understand that the game software companies were having a big joke at our expense. Every new game release would mean a trip to the PC store to see if your machine could be upgraded to run it. Not so any more.

The move of the gaming community to specialized hardware was a big ding in PC sales, and that market should have been properly identified and separated from the business and home office figures years ago.

Re: Because back then cars wore out faster than today,

No, that's not why your dad replaced his car every three years.

Your dad replaced his car every three years because that was the inflection point at which the depreciation reality crossed the maintenance needs plot and produced "good money after bad" syndrome.

The same economics are in place today. Cars don't last longer today. Indeed, they often are more expensive to make last longer because so many of the parts are tear-out-and-replace instead of repair items.

I'll pick two examples out of thin air:

Alternators cost about 700 bux to replace, but the bit that has usually failed is in the so-called rectifier pack and would cost about 10 cents to replace if the rectifier packs were not now heat/chemically welded plastic modules riveted to the alternator casing. This I have done.

The instrument cluster and dashboard lighting assemblies are now typically a two-foot wide single electronic board, massively integrated. Used to be if the speedo light went out you could, with the loss of a weekend and some class four Words of Power, fix it for under five bux. Now you are looking at a garage job and a few hundred bux in parts and labor.

About the only thing that could kill a car in The Old Days was rust. Eventually your mini could not get through the MOT because the lugs that held the subframes to the floorpan would be rotted through and there was not enough good steel left to make new ones.

These days the electronics become obsolete and that's all she wrote. My car recently stopped turning off its headlights when I removed the ignition key because a relay gave out after 13 years of sterling service. The fix? Replace the fuse box (the relay is, like that alternator rectifier pack, part of the fusebox assembly rather than bolted to it). The problem? The fusebox is no longer a stocked part because the design changed 12 years ago. No, they still have a molded-in integral relay, they just changed the shape of the fusebox.

So a bit less sneering at the Old Man if you please.

Re: A never-ending study on how to mess up humans...

Why a wheel? Why not a module tethered to a large asteroid by space-age cables?

Spin it up, reel out the module on the cables and Bob's your Capcom. No problems with shifting mass as you engineer things so the big rock is many times the mass of the system at the end of the cables.

Reel out far enough and Coriolis forces won't have everyone throwing up when the turn their heads too.