Posts by jake

Re: Strange way to respect user privacy

"I see very little difference between MS collecting data on me and a hacker doing the same."

There is absolutely zero difference. Substitute any other international marketing company for Microsoft and it still holds true.

Re: Strange way to respect user privacy

"When are antivirus companies going to provide a tool for blocking and removing applications that do telemetry?"

No need. Linux and BSD exist, and last time I checked you can configure them to suit yourself.

Reading? That line is so old I first heard it on the radio.

One word:

DUH!

Re: They missed the important bit

At around 3 inches, they were bait-fish, and not food. Rather, they were what food ate.

However, if I had to hazard a guess, they probably tasted not entirely unlike chic^W^W^W^W cod.

Re: 350 million years of scientific understanding

Very early birds indeed, at 110 million years ago.

_{Not that it would have done them any good ... all they could read was chicken scratches.}

Re: "this fossil is the oldest known fossilized vertebrate brain"

Or the US Senate.

Shirley digital watches should be updated to fondleslabs?

"evolution is basically a result of sexual extensions"

Nope. It's about survival, with a dash of persistence and a pinch of endurance. An individual has to stick around long enough, and stay healthy enough, to reproduce. There are plenty of species out there which practice asexual reproduction. They evolve, too, although somewhat slower than those prone to spreading their genes out more indiscriminately.

Re: Missing in action

The biggest waste of middle-management's time (and thus corporate $$) is the use of PowerPoint.

_{At least we have proof that a million monkeys with a million typewriters will NOT reproduce Shakespeare ...}

Re: Ghost attendees

Why not. RFC-439 shows what happens when you have a chatbot talking to itself. Ostensibly it was "The Doctor" talking to "PARRY", but both were merely instances of ELIZA.

_{Of course back in 1972 we weren't stupid enough to take and act on their advice ...}

"Are they insane?"

I'm beginning to think so ... As I've been saying for years, one wonders why the world's corporate lawyers allow any of Redmond's clusterfucks in the door in the first place. Shirley they , of all people, have read the fine print in the EULA?

Re: Broken Paradigms

In the early '80s, SunTools (became SunView) had a line item in a configuration file to turn it on and off. I can't remember what it was called, nor which configuration file it was in. I'm pretty sure it was part of the kernel (!!), and I think it took a reboot to take effect, but not a recompile[0]. It would have been on the 4.2BSD-based SunOS 1.x from late '83 on.

We sure do things different these days ...

_{[0] What? You expect me to remember that kind of detail from forty years ago?}

Re: Broken Paradigms

The buzzphrase you are looking for is "focus follows pointer". Windows had it natively as an option starting with Win95, and at least through XP and NT2K, after which I no longer gave a shit (registry hack ... I believe TweakUI could make the change for all the above). It's useful for some things, hellaciously annoying for others. I use it probably once a month or so on Slackware w/KDE (pointy-clicky: System Settings -> Window Behavior -> Window Behavior -> Focus, a slider gives 6 different variations on the theme ... If you prefer more fine-grained controls, I'm sure you can find them.)

Re: Am I the Only One

I hear it in the voice of Tommy Chong.

Probably a generational thing.

MeDearOldMum doesn't find KDE overly complicated and cluttered, nor does she twiddle with options.

Maybe because I set it up for her to just get on with it, the way she uses a computer.

No non-hardware related support calls from her in about 4 years now, and counting.

She runs Slackware 14.2+KDE, updated to 15.0 in situ about a year ago.

Re: >>convince other editors<<

Some years ago, Trump WAS a Democrat. Here is the wishy-washy, senile old idiot's Party affiliation since 1987:

Republican from 1987–1999, Reform from 1999–2001, Democrat from 2001–2009, Republican from 2009–2011, Independent from 2011–2012, Republican from 2012 - present. Obviously subject to change without notice.

And trust me, he'll change his mind again if it makes sense to Trump, the only person on the planet who is important. It absolutely cracks me up that the Senior Leadership in the Republican Party keep saying that Trump is one of them. Dumb-asses, the lot of 'em.

Re: Ergo

When idiots ask me my age for no good reason, I generally tell them that I was born on February 29th, 1904 (the actual birthday of a family friend, RIP). Probably doesn't do much as a protest, but it gets me past the computer gatekeeper and hopefully manages to corrupt a marketing database occasionally.

Re: You just can't make this shit up.

I thought about going there... but I trust them to fuck up, I trust them to shamelessly rip people off, I trust them to be the laughing stock, I trust them to spend small fortunes on garbage on a regular basis, I trust them to hire and fire on the basis of the SJW trend du jour instead of on technical merit, I trust them to own as many lobbyists as possible, etc.

Re: Hooray for Avoirdupois and pounds, shillings and pence

Yeah, we've already done that one to death. But thanks for participating.

Re: And on the topic of exaggeration by men...

A ship's yard is what you set the sail from.

_{Strangely, "a shipyard is what you set sail from" means something completely different. English. Go figure.}

Re: So in conclusion

"ethanol is worse for CO2 unless you go get yourself a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line"

Nope. My ethanol production and use is a net carbon sink. First of all, a good portion of the carbon in corn comes out of the atmosphere in the first place; returning it would be net zero. Secondly, the bulk of the carbon in the plants is left behind in the fields, where it gets ploughed under (I'm building up the organic content of the top 18 inches of soil, or thereabouts). So overall, I'm actually sequestering carbon while still using internal combustion engines. The greens hate that, go figure.

Only takes about a tablespoon (15ml) of active yeast to turn a bushel of corn into about 2.75 gallons of ethanol. Less will work ... eventually. (Note that the yeast pitched to fermentables ratio can be completely different to that you would expect for beer or wine ... it's not like we're drinking the stuff. It's FUEL.)

Copper pipe is available at any hardware store. I use something a trifle more complicated. Legally. Even in California. Before you ask, the heat is provided by a GSHP.

For more, see this post from earlier today.

Re: So in conclusion

The propane power will run on corn (maize), just as soon as I get a round tuit. The propane-to-ethanol conversion on that particular genset is an easy change. I'm planning on keeping the two 1000 lb (800ish gallon) propane tanks full for emergencies (they are buried, not eyesores) ... converting back is also easy (about an hour either way, including testing). It will also run on gas/petrol if I jet it correctly and adjust the fuel pressure ... but keeping bulk propane around is far less of a headache than storing gas/petrol (or diesel) long-term.

Remember, the guy on the Toob of Yew did all his own work (with the help of his very willing to learn wife) ... and I did all my own (with my wife's help), too. The cost of labor to install these things is typically well over half the total cost. He also undoubtedly got deals because he's doing some advertising for the companies. Some of the pieces in my system were bought second-hand, never used and in box, for less than half list price. Also ask about factory returns and refurbs.

Permits can be gawd-awful expensive in some parts of the country. You're on your own in your jurisdiction ... however, a reputable solar company will be able to give you pointers to smooth things along. Again, ask around. Another place to ask is anyone local who has visible panels. I actually drove around and knocked on doors of people I didn't know. Every single one of them was willing to talk to me about their system, and usually quite enthusiastically. Obviously, YMMV ... we're pretty laid back here in Northern California.

Inspections aren't really a problem, as long as you are capable of following instructions. Most solar manufacturers/sellers have a telephone number you can call for help. Some will actually come out to your site for hands-on instruction if you get stuck. Ask around, squeaky wheel and all that.

Once done, my insurance company came out, looked it over, and promptly dropped my rates because I likely won't be making a claim for spoiled food after we have a major earthquake (I live less than 1,000 yards from the Rodgers Creek Fault, probable home of California's next big one).

Re: Actually, the "only EV" idea is wrong anyway.

I'm a small operation, and quite selfish. The ethanol is for my farm's internal use only.

My fertilizer is produced with cows, sheep, hogs, horses and chickens.

I pull the seed-drill with an ethanol converted Farmall Model M. Cultivating is minimal, using the same Model M. At the moment, harvest is done with a smallish ethanol converted combine, but this is still very much a work in progress.

Distillation heat is provided by a GSHP.

1 acre here produces 175 bushels of corn (average, I have 50 acres split between corn and soy, alternating yearly. I sell my beans to an artisan tofu maker). One bushel of corn can produce about 2.75 gallons of ethanol. Doing the maths for you, I can currently make about 12,000 gallons of ethanol per year for fuel. I leave all the trash in the field, shallow till, and plant winter cover crops (which get tilled under in in the spring[0]), all of which help to sequester more carbon. The spent corn, sometimes called DDGS ("dried distillers grains with solubles") is a high protein supplement for animal feed, thus re-starting the entire process.

[0 I'm playing with both cereal rye and rye grass, and clover on a few acres as harvestable animal feed, instead of just plowing the cover-crop under. I'm not no-till (yet?), the soil here is volcanic and alluvial river bottom ... very fertile, but not very high in organic mater. Once I get a good 18" of topsoil built up I might look into no-till again. Maybe. Seems to be a lot of religion involved in that, though.

Re: Not our friend

Relax. Microsoft (or anybody else) can't get anything into the kernel without the approval of Linus.

And of course all the rest of the FOSS stack is now, and always will be, FOSS. You'll be able to build a system to suit yourself, sans Redmond influence, roughly until the heat-death of the Universe. That's the very nature of the beast.

_{Speaking of beasties, there is also BSD ...}