* Posts by jake

26585 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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Mark Zuckerberg, 36, decides that having people on his website deny the deaths of six million Jews is a bad thing

jake Silver badge

Re: One year consultation?

"So I'm a muck stirrer or a simpleton now?"

If you try to call me a racist because I truly believe that "All Lives Matter" trumps "Black Lives Matter", then yes. That is exactly what you are.

I have personally seen people proudly holding BLM signs in mass protests try to convince other people (on television camera, no less) that white lives do NOT matter, because black lives don't matter ... This is not a random event, it happens multiple times every time there is a largish protest. I've heard the same exact thing from sports stars, musicians, and other so-called 'heros". Again, shooting one's self in the foot is contraindicated when trying to get one's point across.

"Evaristo"

I had never even heard of this person until this thread. I still only have a vague idea who she is, and frankly not much interest in finding out more. Life's short, and there are only so many hours in a day.

jake Silver badge

Re: Repeat after me.

"Facebook, Google, Amazon and Youtube are monopolies."

Oh, bullshit. I do not use a single thing that they provide, and yet I do everything that they provide without them. This is not a monopoly, no matter how your squint at it.

"They are utilities."

I categorically reject this. The world would not even blink, much less suffer long-term, if they were all to disappear today.

"How would you like your privatised electric supplier cutting off your power because it is a "business choice"?"

PG&E is doing that very thing over parts of Northern California as I type[0]. This is ACTUALLY affecting tens of thousands of people, unlike the otage at twitter yesterday.

[0] They find it cheaper in the long haul to defer maintenance and kill the power during high-wind events than it is to properly maintain their kit and keep the power on. Their excuse is that it prevents wildfires ... Which were extremely rare back when they were actually maintaining their equipment properly. Go figure.

jake Silver badge

Re: One awful conspiracy theory down

We don't need a revolution. We have elections. Trump won't be going out with a bang, he'll be going out with a whimper, tail between his legs. as he fucks off back to Florida.

jake Silver badge

Re: So it only took this long?

And Mexico won't pay for the wall that isn't being built. Don't forget that. (Although a bunch of idiots in the private sector chose to pay into Bannon's retirement fund after being dupped into thinking that they were going to help fund the wall that they were certain Mexico was paying for ... but that's another story.)

He hasn't "locked her up", either. In fact, he has done absolutely nothing that he promised his faithful that he would do. And yet still the fucking morons will back the idiot to the hilt.

It would be hysterically funny, if it weren't so sad ... and dangerous.

jake Silver badge

Re: So it only took this long?

Trump has destroyed nothing about what makes America great. He doesn't have that power. Stop trying to give it to him.

jake Silver badge

This example is not black and white. Stop using it.

" For example you can look at a nude photograph of an eighteen year old on your device, but a nude photograph of an eight year old will land you in prison."

I have a photo of a nude 8 year old hanging on the wall here in my office. It's a picture my Wife took of her sunbathing after a swim. The shot won numerous awards in amateur photography contests back in the day, despite being nothing more than a simple snapshot. There is absolutely nothing salacious about it, it's just a picture of my daughter from around 30 years ago.

On the other hand, if I had nekkid pics of the same little girl at age 18 hanging on my walls, you'd have good reason to believe that there might be something wrong with me ...

jake Silver badge

Re: One year consultation?

Of course I get it. I just think that as a catch-phrase it is an obvious ploy to inflame the tensions between races ... which is not exactly the stated purpose of the movement. Shooting yourself in the foot right from the git-go is usually frowned upon as a strategy.

jake Silver badge

Re: One year consultation?

"are you one of these people who trot out "All lives matter"?"

I don't trot it out, I state it matter of factly. Because I'm not racist.

Only a simpleton believes that black lives aren't included in the set of all lives ... and only a muck-stirrer trying to inflame the simpletons would even attempt to suggest that I mean it in any other way.

jake Silver badge

Re: Christians and flat earth ears are equally deluded.

Sailors knew the Earth was round long before xtians existed ... and the Greeks proved it mathematically, also before that particular cult existed.

jake Silver badge

Re: Morals and values?

No. Too far over the slippery slope.

jake Silver badge

Re: Thinks...

"Facebook now has the power to decide which ideas are morally wrong."

Yours, maybe. I'll stick to my own variation on the theme, TYVM.

jake Silver badge

Re: Morals and values?

"Speaks volumes about where we are as a nation."

Zhmuck and his brown-nosing sycophants, and the extreme hate groups taking advantage of their money-grubbing advertising monstrosity, do not now, nor will they ever, represent any nation on Earth. They are a corporation, and an awful one. The best way to deal with them is to refuse to use their "services"[0] and tell all your friends and family why you are no longer using Facebook.

[0] That reminds me, I need to move the ram over to the other group of ewes ...

When you're On Call, only you can hear the silence of the clicks

jake Silver badge

Re: It's not Friday the somethingth of Marchtober

That's odd ... I didn't notice an improvement in the Usenet signal to noise ratio 16 years ago. Nor that of The Internet in general. In fact, I'd say it has been getting steadily worse Internet wide as time goes on.

So no, I completely disagree. It's still September.

jake Silver badge

It's not Friday the somethingth of Marchtober

Today is Friday, September the 9908th, 1993.

OpenStack's 10th birthday is next week, but you get the present of a new release today

jake Silver badge

So let me get this straight ...

... everybody is supposed to embrace Victoria's enhanced stack?

The hand-wringers and namby-pamby curtain twitchers are going to have a field day denouncing this one.

After Trump, Congress, Supreme Court Justice hit out at tech giants' legal immunity, now FCC boss wants to stick his oar in, too

jake Silver badge

Who cares what the Idjit "Tweety" Pai has to say at this stage of the game? He's going to be one of the first replacements come January, and pretty much everything he's fucked up will be reversed before the end of February.

Sadly, when the sniveling, brown-nosing little shit is inevitably removed from office, he'll likely be given several high paying Board seats in the industry, as a thank you from his lords & masters for services rendered. There ought to be a law ...

If you can see this headline, you're certainly not reading it on Twitter: All tweets, notifications vanish

jake Silver badge

I was wondering why ...

... the usual clutch of Realtors sipping wine on The Plaza were frenetically fondling their phones instead of knocking back Realtor's Little Helper as they usually do at that hour.

jake Silver badge

Re: UTC?

Who is "we", Kemosabe?

'Facebook simply would not exist today if not for Bletchley Park,' says social network – but don't hold that against it

jake Silver badge

Re: Facebook simply would not exist today if not for Bletchley Park

LEO was a cool machine for its time, but IBM's tabulating machines (which were, in fact, computers) existed long before even Colossus or Turing's Bombe.

I'll be nice and not mention the Polish Bomba, much less Hollerith's tabulating machines that were used in the 1890 US Census.

That's not to take anything away from the British contributions to computing, far from it, I'm just trying to open a few rather blinkered eyes to the wider world ...

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." —Isaac Newton, 1675

jake Silver badge

Re: Americans just say: "F*ck the government, we'll do it ourselves."

I think you'll discover that Welshman Donald Davies (the inventor of the term "packet switching") based his work on that of Yank Paul Baran. They are usually listed as "independant inventors", but I think the evidence shows that Davies was fully aware of the prior work of Baran.

jake Silver badge

Re: Americans just say: "F*ck the government, we'll do it ourselves."

"using technology built upon ARPANET that was built by {drum roll please......} the US government."

No, it was not built by the US government. It was built by grad students and professors at several US Universities. Yes, they had (D)ARPA money, but there was no (D)ARPA oversight.

Indonesia’s black-market phone prevention plan bricks a whole bunch of handsets

jake Silver badge

Re: The old lady who lived near me...

No professional I know would think it OK to break a client's equipment. I strongly suggest you find a new mechanic, one who has proper tools which won't round off bolts in the first place.

Remember, YOU might be the owner of the first bit of kit that he uses one of those broken-by-design tools on. If he rounds off (for example) an oxygen sensor, you'll not only have to wait for him to replace his tool, you'll also have to wait on the part for your car (and it'll be on 6 week back-order, it always is). Who is going to pay for the rental/hire car, so you can get to work? It sure as fuck won't be the guy who is too tight to pay for proper tools!

Fucking cowboys give us all a bad name ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Purchase the correct tool once.

But if you break ToolA1 before Job1 is complete, you'll have to spend the time and energy to purchase ToolA2. It gets worse if your cheap ToolA1 manages to screw-up a part (or parts) of Job1, thus necessitating their replacement. And worse yet, it'll give your nearest and dearest one more thing to bitch at you about.

Shirley you'd have been better off purchasing a properly made Tool the first place?

jake Silver badge

Re: The old lady who lived near me...

Seems to me that the nearest Bunnings is in Kerikeri, North Island. That's an awfully long drive when I need to replace a busted 17mm socket to fix my tractor when we are in the middle of harvest[0]. I think I'll stick to purchasing proper sockets that won't break in the first place.

[0] When harvesting silage/earage for a neighbor, we'll typically run the combine and three trucks simultaneously. That's 4 people getting paid, waiting on a busted socket. Do the math(s), even if purchased a trifle closer than clear across the Pacific, diagonally.

jake Silver badge

Re: "seemingly because it lacks the capacity to do so"

Or it could be that this is a government project, and like all such projects it's a complete cockup and money pit right from the git-go.

jake Silver badge

Re: The old lady who lived near me...

BUT WAIT! If you order now, we'll DOUBLE your order! That's right, TWO 197 piece chromed vanadium tool sets with fitted cases, and TWO free first-aid kits, each valued at £70!!! (Just pay separate shipping and handling. All major credit cards accepted.) Operators are standing by, so CALL NOW!

jake Silver badge

Re: The old lady who lived near me...

My rule on tools: Purchase the correct tool once.

I'd rather spend $100 on a good (if minimal) socket set, than I would $19.95 on a "197 piece chromed vanadium tool set with fitted case" ... You gets what you pays for. Unless you like shelling out perfectly good coin for the same tool again. And again. And ...

jake Silver badge

Cut the fluff:

Both Excel and Access readily break.

Open Invention Network adds Microsoft's exFAT to Linux System Definition, Satan spotted throwing snowballs

jake Silver badge

You can sleep soundly, Dr. S.

Linus still owns the kernel, and he isn't going to allow that to happen. Neither will whoever takes over should he get hit by the proverbial bus. There will be an up-to-date and modern mainstream FOSS Linux kernel available that is not under the control of any corporate entity for far longer than you or I will be around to worry about it.

UK govt advert encouraging re-skilling for cyber jobs implodes spectacularly

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Needs more "balance"

Thanks for the laugh, folks :-)

This round's on me.

jake Silver badge

Re: Needs more "balance"

To be fair, Slackware doesn't actually boot on it, rather Slackware supports the hardware as a kernel extension. So do all other distros that use a SysV or BSD-style init. It seems that systemd-based distros crash on startup due to incompatibilities with tradition. (The usual suspects have labeled this obvious show-stopper of a bug WONTFIX, probably because they are too young to understand the complexities involved in what appears on first glance to be a simple operation.)

jake Silver badge

Re: cyber

I could breeze in with a joke, but you'd probably think I was putting the wind up. Perhaps I should attempt to draft a flurry of puns instead ... Blow that, I'm blasting out of here before all y'all start squalling about one tempest in a teapot or another ...

That off my chest, one of the first Cisco AGS+ routers allowed out in the wild was known as "Breezy" because of the racket her cooling fans made ... She ran nearly non-stop for about 15 years, only to be scrapped in the Y2K overhaul. Mid '80s tech was big, bulky, heavy, slow and loud, but it got us to where we are today. I apologize profusely for my small roll in what became today's clusterfuck known loosely as TehIntraWebTubes.

jake Silver badge

"I've been on the same grade for 15 years, doesn't matter how well I perform, what national awards I've won for my work, by working in a really tiny IT department there is no promotion, and no way of getting a payrise."

Anybody who sees themselves in the above, get thee to night school and acquire an MBA!

Free advice for new sysadmins: Take as many business related courses as you can stomach. Haul your ass[0] to your nearest post-secondary school that offers night courses and talk to a career counselor. Tell 'em that you are a techie, but are interested in management. You want to take courses that can be applied to a future MBA (should you want to go that route later).

If you already hold a four year degree, and you can code fluently in one or more upper level languages, chances are you can snooze through an MBA in two years (or less, if the classes line up right). Lest you think getting an MBA is difficult, think about all the feckless idiots you know who hold one ;-)

I realize that not all of us are cut out for management ... the objective isn't necessarily to become a manager, but rather to learn their lingo. It's amazing how fast long-closed doors open once you learn to talk to Moneybags in his/her own language. On top of that, an MBA will better prepare you for when the time comes to strike out on your own and become a consultant.

[0] Or arse, depending on which side of the pond you Hail from ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Needs more "balance"

Even the BSD guys & gals gave up on it ... Not much call for BSD on a 1 bit trinary processor (forward, stop, reverse) that consumes over 200 horsepower to do 65 horsepower worth of work.

jake Silver badge

Re: A fine example of the offensiveness of anything

BMI is a completely useless measure of anything except the intellect of the person who thinks it is useful. For example, according to the BMI Arnold "da Governator" Schwarzenegger in his T-800 body is morbidly obese.

jake Silver badge

Re: You can be whatever you want

"Charlie Stross (quoted in the article) used to work in IT (for SCO no less), so he's fully aware of what an actual career in IT is like."

For "IT career" that equals "technical writer".

On the bright side, it was the real SCO. The SCO famed for losing lawsuits came later.

jake Silver badge

Re: You can be whatever you want

"had to explain to some people who Penrose is."

Lionel or Roger?

jake Silver badge

Re: Cyber gets the budget

"But ask what is Cyber?"

Thus it ever was ... See my post from 10 years ago.

jake Silver badge

Re: You missed off...

"Having worked for 3 decades in IT, I've never seen cyber used as an abbreviation of cybersex."

It was quite common in the '90s when TheGreatUnwashed were just dipping a toe into the Internet through the likes of AOL, Prodigy, Compuserve & etc.

jake Silver badge

Re: Needs more "balance"

But I don't have a beard (and never have), the 1915 Case is steam powered & has no computer controls, my old abused knees can't handle dance, and the idiocy of the British Government is not my issue, seeing as I'm a bloody Yank.

Other than that, I'd say you've nailed it.

Facebook doesn't know its onions: Seeds ad banned after machine-learning algo found vegetable pic 'overtly sexual'

jake Silver badge

Re: Support the Business!

They should re-name 'em the Hubba Hubba.

Good onions to grow, BTW. Recommended.

Note: Your soil type will affect the taste of the onion ... they might not be as sweet as the ones grown in Washington State's Walla Walla Valley, even though you are planting the same seed. In the wine business we often talk about "terroir". What most people don't realize is that it applies to virtually every other crop grown for food, not just grapes.

jake Silver badge

On the bright side ...

... AI will never be allowed to do anything dangerous, like drive cars.

jake Silver badge

"Bug fixes and maintenance of mainframe based Cobol"

There is actually seriously good money in that. I just placed a kid (under 25yo) in such a position. He's making $95K/year to start. Granted, he's been playing with COBOL since he was pre-teen ...

"at Gitlab"

Maybe not so much ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Sexually offensive...

"lies in the eye of the beholder"

Must be human nature. As they say "love is blind".

Backdoorer the Xplora: Kids' smartwatches can secretly take pics, record audio on command by encrypted texts

jake Silver badge

I believe them, don't you?

"It is important to note that the potential flaw requires physical access to the X4 watch and the private phone number," Xplora's spokesperson said. "Even if this is activated, the only place the image would go is to Xplora’s server in Germany located in a highly-secure Amazon Web Services environment which is not accessible to third parties."

I don't even know where to start ...

"The spokesperson said the company has conducted an audit since it was notified of the security report and found no evidence the security flaw was being exploited."

Well, yes. Of course. That's exactly what they would say, isn't it?

People who spy on children are the lowest of the low.

So, what exactly are you planning to do with this new PC? Windows Insiders face new questions during OOBE

jake Silver badge

What am I doing with this new PC?

Funniest thing about them bothering to ask is that I'll never even see the question ... On the rare occasion I have to purchase a box with Redmond code on it, that code never gets run. The first thing I do is format and re-partition the drive to install Slackware or BSD. It's better for everybody that way.

jake Silver badge

Re: 'Out Of Box Experience'

Silly Con Valley Native here ... We don't change lightbulbs anymore, bob, we install quality LED lights once and are done with it. What are you, stuck in the dark ages?

Has bob not noticed that Redmond is located some 700 miles (~1,225km) due North of Silicon Valley? (That's about 850 road miles (~1,365km).) Should we tell him? Would it matter?

Someone not only created a comment-spewing Reddit bot powered by OpenAI's GPT-3, it offered bizarre life advice

jake Silver badge

Something all y'all seem to have missed ...

... Seems to me you could house an awful lot of people in the bottom of grain elevators, especially in Nebraska, which escaped the direcho last June. Or perhaps there is an underground group converting busted up grain bins and elevators into housing?

No, I don't believe a word of the above. Don't tell anybody.

jake Silver badge

Re: Strictly Need to Know ..... COSMIC Intel ‽ .

Rumo(u)r has it some folks seed amfM on purpose. Why is purely a matter of speculation.

jake Silver badge

Re: Strictly Need to Know ..... COSMIC Intel for Heavenly Sinners a'Turning Hellish Saints :-)

Interesting ... amfM gets seeds from Catholic news? Who knew‽

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