Posts by Charles 9

Re: The Ponzi-model

Like what happened with Kirby and Electrolux. There's no business like REPEAT business.

Re: Unacceptable

Nope. Make it bad enough and it'll just convince them to find a way to lawyer around it.

Re: Usability

But who's to say what's the right set of defaults? One man's clutter is another man's organization. It's kind of a no-win situation.

Re: It does have way better luck with home users.

"I don't keep paying forever for games..."

You don't, but millions still pay each month for WoW...

Re: LIbreOffice Turns 10

That's like saying "There are no clouds, they're just ice crystals". Cloud is what the customer wants it to be (remember: the customer is always right, or they take their business--and money--elsewhere): in this case, turnkey always-available files. Deliver without requiring extra setup...or else.

Re: Are you worried?

I believe he refers to the "Trusting Trust" problem where one cannot be sure a compiler isn't slipping code in behind the source's back, although there are mitigations against this (such as compiling a compiler multiple times against multiple compilers--a secret code modification is more likely to get detected in such a criss-cross).

Re: How do you keep someone with REALLY bad memory from losing the book?

Already full of them--Nam vet.

Re: Call me old fashioned

What did they do when it was done by someone high enough to be sack-proof?

Re: better solution?

Someone with poor recall could end up recalling that as "donkey engine paperclip wrong". Then what?

Re: 1L0v3P@55w0rd5

Unfortunately, passwords are like capitalism: it's the worst of the lot...with the notable exception of every other option.

Re: No one has mentioned Dashlane

Keep as is FOSS, and you can never fully trust a third-party cloud. It's a service, and services inevitably have lifespans.

Re: Call me old fashioned

How do you keep someone with REALLY bad memory from losing the book?

Re: Or you could, maybe, possibly, perhaps...

"Why not simply remember your passwords?"

Now was it correcthorsebatterystaple or donkeyenginepaperclipwrong? Some of us just have bad memories and CAN'T remember a password to save our lives. Are we simply screwed?

Re: A Ubiquitous Weapon for Mass Distraction and Destruction and Disruptive Creation?

Easy way to put it. If it can't access the hardware at the metal (direct) level, it's not an operating system. One of its chief functions is to provide that access (in a controlled way) to the programs running on top of it. I've yet to see a browser that managed hard drives, partitions, filesystems, etc. or having to pass graphical primitives directly to the GPU for rendering, and so on...

Re: Unsurprising

Or a firm unwilling to pay through the roof for yet another badge of approval. Besides, how can you be sure the standard will have teeth and not get shoved aside for (or even Borged into) the Next Big Thing?

Re: Let me use whatever browser I want to use.

"As for .gov ... I visit them in person. It's much less trouble, and I usually get whatever it is I am doing done in a single visit, instead of it taking several trips and many days as it so often does on the Web."

If it's something like Social Security, though, be prepared to lose a day at work and to camp. I speak from experience (and all I wanted was a new card--had no choice because the .gov website, the ONLY other way to do it, is shot all to hell).

Re: Let me use whatever browser I want to use.

And if it's the greenest pasture because there are no substitutes (say a government website)?

Re: WTF

They don't want to be held liable when (not if) something slips thorough that gets customers (or eorse, THEM) pwned.

Re: child abuse and terrorist content

"Please send check or money order..."

And money orders DO still exist for people who don't believe in banks...

Re: "Everyone is trackable, traceable, discoverable to some degree.”

Trouble is, how can you enforce it, especially when the data mongers are masters at degrees of separation and plausible deniability?

Re: Not just the US and definitely not just the Telcos

And if it's something that requires location information to even work as intended: like a navigation app?

Re: I Want You, But I Don't Need You

Hate to think what would happen if they end up lending the jacket...

Re: Cake and eat it?

Many of those PAYG phones don't keep their time/SMS allowances unless you top them up on a regular basis. Got anything turnkey, set-it-and-forget-it solutions for Joe Stupid?

Re: RFC

Problem is, many people don't have that time. They have a too-tight deadline and a DIE directive.

Re: Connect directly to the Internet?

Whispernets were a thing before 5G.

Re: they kinda missed a trick here?

"There's no need for them to adopt a new standard if they want to keep doing that, and I'm sure many devices won't abandon single-backend policies on their products."

Thing is, with an encryption key only the back end can decrypt, there's no way to fake it. Meaning it's their rules or you live with a brick.

Re: they kinda missed a trick here?

The protocols, maybe, but they say nothing about the keys. Meaning, what's to stop all your tat from simply having public encryption keys and an always-encrypt policy meaning the only entity who can read and interpret the data they send are the big boys with the private keys? And if you block the connection, it assumes something is wrong and stops working, which is probably part of the spec, too?

So basically, it's a variant on Tivoization. Everything in the device is open, including the public key. But good luck trying to keep a lid on the data mining without ending up with a brick.

Re: This is not nearly as simplistic as it is portrayed

The problem behind the problem, of course, is that many forms of extreme poverty end up being Cold Equations: intractable problems of too many people in a space with not enough arable capacity. As you've said, the black markets are about the only viable alternative to a bloody war (which in many parts of Africa is already taking place anyway).

Re: Those kids would starve without work

It's not so much abstract as HARD. As in "growing food in the Sahara" hard. If there simply isn't enough arable land to go around and not enough technology and know-how to make the best use of what's there...

Re: One-eyed selectivity

AIUI a lot of cobalt comes from nickel mining, as the two are frequently together. Perhaps someone can provide a counterpoint...

Re: Those kids would starve without work

You'd probably have an easier time solving the African Elephant crisis. Both involve so much money the bad guys can outspend the good guys. But here, there will generally be sovereign backing combined with a distinct lack of viable resources like arable land.

Still seems to rely on line of sight since things like tinted windows block a thru look and bounding under a vehicle is bound to have physical limitations, too (low ground clearance, extra-long vehicles like 18-wheelers/lorries, or rough road surfaces).

Re: Best "can abuse" I ever saw...

Opening the container usually makes it illegal to be taken outside because outside of most establishments is the street: public property, meaning a Drunk In Public charge looms, which also hits the establishment for mismanagement of its patrons.

Re: Absolute bollocks! The proper way:

And why is that any different from say lightly tapping the can itself against the bar/table?

Re: The real rule is...

Even if it's the LAST one?