Posts by jake

It was a new user's first (and to date only) post.

Methinks YHBT.

_{No, it wasn't me. I don't play that stupid game.}

Re: Installfest

MeDearOldMum and GreatAunt have been happy Linux users for many years now. Since moving them from the world of Windows to Slackware, their support calls have fallen from several times per month for the bastard child of Redmond, to none (zero, zilch, nada, 0) for well over four years now on Slack.

Linux works perfectly well on user desktops, as long as the wetware of the installer understands the needs of the user.

Another example: I have Vet clinics here in the Bay Area that I moved from AI/X to a version of Slackware in 1999. I also had clinics who chose to stick move to Windows.

The Slackware side just keeps on trucking, with absolutely seamless updates and zero security theater. The systems never go down unless told to go down. The only calls I get from these folks is for hardware issues (PEE CEEs and attendant peripherals aren't exactly well known for their reliability, when measured in terms of many years in a high hair/fur environment). The only formal training they received was back in 1999. They have no on-site administrator, as there is no need.

The Windows side, which I no longer support, has been nothing but trouble, especially whenever Microsoft rolls a revision out the door, and when the malware du jour strolls past their defenses. These systems are down for what totals in the weeks every year, crash fairly regularly, and need constant hand-holding by an employee who does nothing but look after the system. The only reason I know what's going on with them is because the Vets call me fairly regularly, asking if I can't PLEASE come look at their computers. I decline. I don't do Windows anymore.

It's pretty funny, at rad-rounds the Slackware folks are all on one side of the room, and the Windows folks are on the other ... The Slackware people don't want to listen to the constant bitching about Windows from the other side of the room.

What is mind boggling is the Vets using Windows insist that they HAVE TO "because compatibility" ... despite how that is obviously bullshit, given some of their compadres have been happily using Linux for about 25 years now.

Re: Linux on the desktop is an oxymoron

"what does the keyboard sit on?"

Your hip, of course.

I have a wireless corded keyboard/tracball that's designed to be worn on the belt.

Yes, I can use it with both Linux and the BSDs. It was fairly easy to get used to ... easier than the switch to Dvorak, for example.

No, I don't use it. It's not conducive to the way I normally use a computer. The granddaughter tried it for a week, and then declared it "stupid".

_{Bought on a whim, which is rare for me.}

Re: ChromeOS is a fake linux

I think if you look you'll discover that the git in question was the bloke who revoked free use of Bitkeeper, forcing Linus to build a new distributed revision control system that could handle the needs of the fine folks maintaining the kernel. From scratch. In a hurry. git was self-hosting in 4 days, and went "live" handling the kernel in about two months.

It wasn't until much later that Linus claimed that he was the git in question ("I name all my projects after myself."), but the folks who were in the trenches at the time know better.

Re: Wait, why are we using a GUI on a *NIX system again?

Because there is nothing wrong with using a *nix as a desktop system.

Some would say there are many reasons to be using a *nix as a desktop system.

Properly used, a GUI allows one to compartmentalize many desktops, each of which is targeting a specific task, on a single monitor. (Yes, I can do this with a dumb terminal, but that gets unwieldy when you're switching between more than ten or so virtual terminals.)

Re: X11 was pushed to prevent Sun becoming dominant in the desktop space

"Submit patches and/or good quality bug reports."

I did. So did many others. We were ignored. I gave up over 10 years ago. So did many others.

Re: X11 was pushed to prevent Sun becoming dominant in the desktop space

"stability is worse, a few features don't work."

Lovely. Just what I want in a serious GUI for my business.

I know people have been conditioned by Microsoft to think that computers are supposed to fail on a regular basis, but I'm sure you'll pardon me if I choose not to jump on that particular exasperating bandwagon. Life's far to short to deal with computers that don't work... especially when there are computers that DO work within easy reach of all and sundry.

Re: Really?

Over the last dozen years or so, I've noticed the SUSEs quietly disappearing from my friends and neighbors desktops. Nor sure what that means in the great scheme of things, perhaps I should conduct a short poll asking why (if I can be arsed, I might). It's probably because it has drifted too far from "mainstream", whatever that means.

I like Arch. If Slackware didn't exist, I'd probably fork it into a variation sans the systemd-cancer (which works quite nicely, BTW, try it!).

Ubuntu is just a corporate rebranding of Debian, NOW WITH ADDED KITCHENSINKWARE!!!! I don't consider it and sub-distros to be serious Linux contenders.

If you honestly think the systemd-cancer has won, how do you explain MX Linux being at the top of Distrowatch's PHRs this last year, and by a wide margin?

"This could be easily solved by having a "us.mil""

How, exactly, would this stop the typo from going to us.ml? Please explain, o mighty xenophobic one.

_{Might want to have nursie wipe your chin first, so you don't dribble on the keybr0ad.}

Re: Blase

"What could possibly have gone wrong."

If it's common among travel agents specifically (WTF?), I suspect somebody made a typo in a widely shared bulk email macro ...

Who, exactly are you calling "fucking morons", and what's the joke?

Please explain it, so we can share your mirth.

Re: medical data, identity documents

"More of a pain than random military emails running about in the wild?"

It's not random military data. Its random civilian data being sent to someone with access to military mailservers.

Re: medical data, identity documents

"Unencrypted SMTP ought to have been deprecated and its use replaced years ago."

Nah. It was thought of decades ago, but it would break far too many things. Better to try to convince people that email is like a holiday postcard, anybody can read it between it being posted and arriving at its intended recipient. Instead, we should add another service for safe & secure communication.

Unfortunately, back in the mists of time the likes of CI$ and AOL (and much later Microsoft) decided that that would be too difficult for mere mortals to understand, and they refused to persue it. So the rest of us shrugged out shoulders and carried on with our stone tools (PGP/GPG et alia).

Note that in my case, at least, so far I haven't actually felt a need for encrypted email at all this year ... and only twice last year. Not sure what that means in the great scheme of things[0], and I'm just a sample of one ...

_{[0] Probably that I'm a boring, mostly retired old git.}

My daughter calls it "Autocorrupt".

I turn it off. Easier.

Re: Another solution....

"Another solution would be for the US military to change from .mil addresses to .mil.us"

That's not a solution, it just changes an unimportant variable.

Re: The

"What's needed is an RFC that mandates encryption as standard"

That would invent a new thing, call it "no-longer-email" until someone comes up with a new name.

Which I am OK with ... but leave email as we know it alone. Changing it across the board would break entirely too many things.

Re: I had/have a related problem

No, the people who allow email to be used for evil purposes, leading to the necessity of blocking them, are the tits.

Yes, there is occasional collateral damage. Fortunately, there are plenty of places for people to get another email address should they find themselves to be on the wrong side of that blocking.

Re: I had/have a related problem

I had a similar .com from a long forgotten project ... I didn't know it at the time, but the matching .net was owned by a small family business several states away. When I found out about the .net, I gave them the now unused .com for xmas. That was around 25 years ago. Their family and my family are now really good friends :-)

Re: Malicious compliance

I bounce those back to the sender and admin@ the domain in question, with a note explaining why, exactly, such a message is pointless and not enforceable legally. Not quite automatically (I do a sanity check to ensure I'm not bouncing spam to an unrelated third party), but it looks automatic to the folks in question. If the admin address bounces, I blackhole the domain (this is automatic) until someone using my systems asks me to unblock it. Probably happens about once a week or so these days, down from dozens daily about 15 years ago.

Re: I had/have a related problem

"One possibility would be to change to a separate domain for email."

And the stupid people (who are stupid, remember?) will find a different address to typo.

But it won't be yours, so that's that fixed, right?

Re: How much legit traffic is there from US military/government computers to .ml?

So you're calling for guesses based on an admitted guess?

Now THAT'S scientific. Sadly it is also all too common these days.

Re: Whatever.

There's always one.

::sigh::

Re: Whatever.

"And of course there is something that _can_ be done"

What you suggest would require the cooperation of far too many email admins world-wide, most of whom frown on such censorship (it's in the job description). As the saying goes, herding cats would be much, much easier.

So no. The concept is there, as a theory, but implementing it would be impossible without breaking email as we know it entirely.

Re: Whatever.

"because of the way IQ is calculated"

Nobody mentioned IQ, until you brought it up.

IQ is a useless measure of anything ... except possibly how gullible a person is.

Re: I had/have a related problem

"Despite having being aware of the risks for ~25 years they've done nothing more to minimise them."

There is absolutely nothing they can do except tell the people who use those addresses to make absolutely sure that the folks sending them email are using the proper address.

And again, stupid people are stupid. That's out of both yours, and the Uni's hands.

Re: How much legit traffic is there from US military/government computers to .ml?

"the vast bulk of all non-spam emails (especially personal) to .mil are going to be sent from US based email providers such as GMail and Microsoft."

Assumes facts not in evidence. I assume you are willing to present proof?

Re: Whatever.

"Given that these emails were internal"

How to tell us that you didn't bother to read the article without saying "I didn't bother to read the article".

Re: How much legit traffic is there from US military/government computers to .ml?

Perhaps go back and read the article, this time for content?

Here's a relevant paragraph: "The Pentagon said it has technical controls in place that prevent its users from sending emails to the wrong place – such as going from a .mil to a .ml – by blocking those messages before they leave Dept of Defense systems. Senders are told to check the recipient and try again; the DoD didn't mention when it added such controls."

Here's another: "As to why the issue is ongoing if the DoD has already taken some action, there's only so much it can do, the department's officials said. For one thing, someone trying to email a .mil address from a personal or external account, and typoing it as .ml, can't be stopped by the Dept of Defense due to the way today's internet works."

Re: Save the Champagne

It's the pushing, not the propagation.

Re: Save the Champagne

"I often see it towing a trailer with a Polaris Ranger or a quad bike on it."

Lifeboat?

"clearly a lot of Anti-Musks in the comments"

In this particular example, I'm not anti-Musk so much as anti daft concepts.

The Musk is not the so-called pickup, and vice-versa.

Re: Save the Champagne

"Well, it does have -- on paper at least -- a much higher payload than a presumably cheaper F150 (3500 lbs vs around 2000 lbs)."

Assuming a full capacity load (cargo plus trailer), how many times do I have to recharge the battery between Sonoma, CA and Reno, NV? I can get there and back on a tank in the gas/petrol powered pickups (with fuel to spare). Two round-trips in most of the diesels (nearly draining them). All are easily filled back up in under 10 minutes, ready for another adventure, if needed.

re: Water. I haven't the foggiest. Hopefully they've thought of that. However ... My buddy & I built electric JS550 Jetski[tm] conversions that we used in and around the Port Of Redwood City, California in the mid-eighties. Ask anyone who hung out in the afore-mentioned port, Pete's Harbor, Docktown, the Municiple harbor, and the various sloughs in the neighborhood.

Yes, salt water & high current caused all kinds of problems. We ran them for maybe two years, before giving up on the idea as more trouble than it was worth.

No, they were not quiet. Pushing water makes noise.

Re: Save the Champagne

"Can you actually mount a gooseneck/5th wheel in the bed?"

Of course. Might take several hundred pounds of added steel to make it structurally sound, though. What range were you expecting when towing?

"And can you fit towing mirrors?"

Sure. I have a drill and plenty of nuts and bolts. I'll even use stainless fasteners.

Re: Save the Champagne

"How many people are buying this as a work truck ?"

Exactly none, would be my guess.

This thing isn't a pickup truck, it's a personal "look at me" luxury vehicle, useless for much more than getting groceries and posing.

Re: Save the Champagne

It's electric. When towing, the range plummets to the point of making it unfit for purpose.

The toobs of ewe purportedly contain all kinds of examples of the failure of e-vehicles to be adequate tow vehicles.

This aspect alone makes the tesla truck a failure before it even goes into production.

Seriously, if I can't put a medium sized Kubota tractor on a flatbed and tow it from Sonoma, CA to Fort Bragg, CA, and back, on one fill-up, it is all but useless as a pickup truck.

Re: .

"Which sources do you use?"

It doesn't matter. You Tube is not a good source regardless.

Re: Open and Shut

"Are we heading for another SCO Linux type feud ?"

No.