Posts by DropBear

Re: Apology or not, results are the same

"I don't understand the downvotes you got."

Oh, how about asserting that MS patches are any sort of viable replacement for actually managing a machine, for starters?

Re: So

Yup, you shouldn't use those either. Oh, hold on, were you talking about Hindu ones like "1 2 3"...? Why not...?

Re: Those were the days

"The main point is that with open source software you have myriad choices of GUI, and you are free to experiment or make your own."

Don't conflate freedom of choice with an actual solution. What most people need is a working solution to their problem, not the freedom to go look for it, even if it's potentially out there. Having a mechanic fixing your car or the freedom to go search for one is not the same thing you see. That said, freedom to leave the mechanic you got to find a different one you like more is of course always desirable and a good thing. But if it's a choice of either/or, "freedom" never stands a chance, and quite understandably so. People need their problem fixed, full stop. Everything else is extra.

Re: Privacy?

Do tell, are you also trawling Facebook on a daily basis for GPS-tagged photos that - God forbid - may have included "your house" in the background too...? Why not cordon off the entire street at the far end - it's much harder to take photos that way. Maybe some wrought iron gating and barbed wire, with a few trenches and landmines for good measure...? I reckon that ought to do it.

Re: @Wade Burchette, re: Intelligence vs Wisdom.

If that really were intelligence, trivia game show guests would be geniuses... and they definitely aren't.

Re: Hudson Hawk

You mean as opposed to the groundbreaking movie "Unbreakable"...?

Re: It's a bit disappointing

"In my mind, if I do not get confirmation of something from a known authority, you can leave and come do your audit at a later date when I have been notified."

That sounds very nice... on paper. Even those who consciously make some effort to keep to such principles can be vulnerable to an attacker pushing the right buttons with appropriate mastery, playing off fears for one's own job security in case of a hard refusal, the other person's prospects for the same in case you don't play along, etc. It's all about how convincing the attacker manages to get, how much insider information they seem to know, and how well they sell the pickle they're allegedly in if you refuse to help.

That's not to say heartless BOFHs don't exist, but most people would need to either consider their protected target to be of incredible importance or halfway expect some sort of attack in order to find the resolve to stay completely inflexible faced with a really skilled attacker. At any rate, a properly skilled one would know when to back out inconspicuously if they've hit an unexpected hard spot and would just find an easier point of access - that thing about chains, links, weaknesses etc.

"No, because it's the sensible thing to do."

Demonstrably not so. The system purposefully disregards an action of the user without even offering feedback that it did so. Nothing ever should be designed to do that. Whatever happened to "assume and do nothing on behalf of the user, require he does absolutely everything explicitly instead" mantra...?

Re: Over reaction?

Laws are not a compass fixed on some far-off immutable point. They are nothing but a heavy blunt object ready to destroy anyone those wielding them don't like. Those weary of them do well to look not at what their letter says but who is currently enforcing them, and in that context this move makes perfect sense.

Re: Solution

"Cheap memory is a false economy."

...and expensive memory is money spent on unneeded heatsinks and flashing LEDs or on a brand name that sells the same OEM hardware with a flashy name on it. I'm _not_ saying there is no such thing as better, more reliable memory - I'm saying good luck figuring out when your money pays for an actual difference in quality...

Re: Just that feature ?

Every software in existence is perpetually half-baked to some degree. Your point...?

My favourite is still the theory of light bulbs as dark suckers...

Re: velocity and space

Okay so if they launch randomly they might have fiddle a bit until the orbits meet; fair enough. But is there any sane reason not to launch at favorable moment only? I would assume they come along fairly often, at least every few days or so...

Re: S4 to S7 upgrade well worth it

Glad it worked out for you. As for me, I still can't find anything any of the S3-S7 can do that I would want and my S2 can't do.

Re: Useless.

"But I guess I'm old fashioned enough that I don't want to go around and replace everything in 10 years."

Absolutely true. I wouldn't bother replacing a functional appliance after 10 years either just because it's "end of life". And yet, it's a certainty there will be no manufacturer in the world who will accept to support this year's model of whatever even for a decade - they just won't do it. And if anyone thinks they can just "legislate" them into it, hahaha, think again - they will do exactly just enough to comply with the letter of the law, and will find the minimum effort way to do it that will prove completely insufficient and useless in practice. Keep selling parts for older machines (if at all) is one thing, but absolutely nobody will keep poring over code rewriting it for ten years on absolutely everything they do. By the way - when, not if, the maker goes bust eventually will the employees be legally forced to keep coming to "work" for free for ten more years to support the model that just came out...? No...? Well then...

What the solution is then, I can't tell you. But I can and do tell you that writing a decade-long support requirement into law will do precisely diddly squat.

Re: Took a call ...

The keyword being "users". As in NOT drooling retards.