Posts by bombastic bob

Re: there is an upside

I rarely see anything useful in Stack Overflow unless it involves:

* Python

* Javascript

* CSS

And even then, it's because I'm too lazy to actually read "all that documentation" first.

Re: Apple and GPL

I'm not convinced that a GPLv3 license was the right way to go with GCC.

Perhaps a GCC project (that gets all of the 'ownership' from FSF) could revert to GPLv2 and add the necessary license exceptions to manage any other license compatibility issues.

That would probably fix it.

Least likely, that it would allow for proprietary closed-source versions. But, if it could allow linking with and/or running with closed source components, that should be the choice of the end-user. My $.10 worth.

(not that I would LIKE it... having a closed-source component for developing on a particular platform... I most likely would NOT)

then again there's also llvm

Re: It might be a race to see what fails first

ack. People who program microcontrollers and write kernel stuff often still use assembler.

Re: Not another UI redesign please!

I'd prefer a RETRO-redesign - like "before Australis" UI.

(I wish *I* could get paid to do *THAT* - because if I were, it'd be done RIGHT!)

"simpler" UI is not necessarily the best unless there's an "Advanced" setting to get the full monty.

I'll probably still use it, though.

Dear Mozilla: try putting the lipstick on the OTHER end, not the end that goes "oink"

the laws of the open sea used to include salvage rights for derelict ships, no matter what flag they once flew. In space, it can be the same...

THEN, if salvage bots cruised around looking for "dangerous" objects, and either collected them (for salvage) or simply de-orbited them (for safety), it'd eventually clean a lot of it up.

Insurance companies and underwriters would definitely be interested in this.

Re: Kinda the opposite of Cancel Culture, no?

Cancel Culture is when the people in charge of social networks force people out

not entirely but you're at least 'warm'.

It's more like the clique groups in high school [the ones run by "the jocks" or "the queen B" specifically], or an "exclusive" country club that doesn't want to let the "riff raff" in...

very ironic, and even HYPOCRITICAL, in a world that is supposed to be "more inclusive".

Re: They only have themselves to blame

also another elephant in the room:

Nearly all eggs in ONE basket (China)

I just wanted to point that out.

If your 2nd source is basically the same as your first source, and you cannot purchase capacity because demand is too high for both of your sources, then you didn't do your material planning correctly.

Just in Time deliveries only work when you can get the capacity from the suppliers along with the necessary on-time deliveries. It's putting a LOT of risk on the ability of your suppliers to follow through on their end of the bargain. And, apparently, they're not willing to hire temporary people and work extra shifts to manage the varying capacity. There was apparently no room in their plans that included the ability to ramp things up. The end result, what we see now.

I used to work in 'Material Controls' a while back, so I know how it all works. "Line Stops" due to missing components are BAD. VERY VERY BAD. It doesn't help when the supply chain is disrupted on a global scale like this.

Re: If Google can get away with paying women less than men for the same job...

Considering they have over 100k employees

that's where the arguments for/against it being systemic come in. With that many employees, you would think the law of averages would compensate for, let's say, a lack of women in the sales force who aren't on "the sales ladder" track [or whatever they called it] but throughout the REST of the company it's "ok" [let's say].

Having ONLY MEN on the "sales force" track is compelling enough, at least for that part of the business, but if they made up for it (or explained it well enough, like 'too few applicants' etc.), then Google might have a defense against "this one case" with the promise to "handle it internally" and avoid the class action penalties, i.e. "The rest of the business is 'ok'" or "move along nothing to see here." That's the best outcome for Google I'd think.

However, past performance suggests that they DO have systemic promotion-related (and other) discrimination problems, as indicated by some of the other claims mentioned in the article, as well as past lawsuits, etc..

Private companies that are "common carriers" must abide by strict guidelines, some of which involve discrimination against individuals, organizations, and (yes) politicians.

If your phone company could disconnect your phone line because you LIED over the phone, according to their definition of "lie", it would be illegal for them to do so as they are a "common carrier". Similar for other public utilities.

There are also CAMPAIGN FINANCE laws, which would attribute a "de-platforming" or "censorship" or "flagging as incorrect" as CONTRIBUTIONS IN KIND, as if these actions in and of themselves constituted a form of ELECTIONEERING or "indirect campaign ads".

What Florida is doing is, essentially, based on these well tested precedents. And I agree with them.

Re: Forking Hell

GPLv2 always enables forks (at least for the original code).

As long as you keep it open source, you can distribute modified source+binaries all you want.

'Audacity' is such a cool name, though.

Possible new names:

* Bedazzled

* Cacophony (ok that's being used but I mentioned it anyway for laughs)

* Personal DAW

* SoundWorkStation (or SoundWS or similar)

probably would have to google for other similarly named things [I already rejected several 'cause they were being used, but that's how it is with trademarks and stuff]

Re: Hurry up guys

commercial interests will lay claim to everything they touch.

REASONABLE claims are not bad, as long as they aren't "in perpetuity" "because we claimed it".

Back in the day, a homestead in the USA required that the property be developed somehow, either by using it for agriculture or mining or "whatever" but you couldn't just claim it and then prevent others from doing so.

Similarly, on the moon or Mars. There would have to be an international committee of some kind to oversee it. I suppose it would be like doing things on Antarctica. So as long as everyone had equal opportunity, regardless of nation or any OTHER classification, AND the requirement that you must "improve it" within a set of guidelines, you could claim a reasonable and exclusive amount of moonland for yourself (or Mars-land for that matter).

Typical examples would be mining claims, i would expect. And there could be administrative fees based on surface area or location, to fund the program. I think a lot of prospectors would want to get in early on this and it woudl greatly advance space exploration IF it is run properly.

That last part might be hard. Look at the internet nowadays and can we all claim it is being RUN PROPERLY? And yet, the current system in its current form is a LOT better that what COULD have happened...

So yeah, lessons learned here, applied to space - Moon, Mars, asteroids, whatever.

Re: Shame

It needs to become a museum.

Maybe they could do a full exhibit of the history of the USSR space program, considering Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin and other "firsts" they had during the cold war.

If it becomes a tourist destination, so much the better!

(I would like to visit Bletchly Park some day)

The unused Apollo rockets and surviving Space Shuttles have all become museums, as I recall. Why these Soviet shuttles (and mockup) have not become museum pieces already ctually surprises me.

Re: Entitled douchebag, much?

"not being entirely honest when they decry cancel culture"

yes, the _IRONY_ of it all! IRC can have such "drama"...

Re: "secure document exchange format"

I tend to agree.

When I view a PDF on Linux or BSD it's with Atril, the default PDF viewer for Mate [I always disable in-browser reading whenever possible].

There's also a version of Evince that runs on windows. I installed it years ago when the (bundled) Adobe in Win 7 kept asking me for an e-mail address [so it went into the bit bucket]. I mean, WHY does a PDF READER need MY E-MAIL ADDRESS??

Now I checked the list o' tested PDF readers and saw NEITHER Evince nor Atril listed. Maybe they don't do the "enhanced certified" thing? I'd just as soon leave it that way, yeah.

What I do when I need to sign a PDF: print relevant pages, sign, scan, FAX or attach to e-mail (as PDF, yeah). Or just print multiple copies, sign & date one for myself and one for the other party, and use snail-mail or sneaker-net. There's NO school like the OLD school!

Re: Two meetings a day? That's still crazy.

didn't you know, they're just implementing AGILE...

Re: Cloudy future

it already has the strong-armed "Microsoft Logon" in the cloud, a failed idea since "Passport" when ".Not" first hit the scene during the "dot bomb" bubble of the early 2000's...

We can expect a "new, shiny" version of same. Except, cloud. And slower. And a MUCH higher bandwidth requirement. And more tracking to go with it. And you MUST be online to use it. And so on.

It's a bit like what they originally wanted [but could not manage to convince customers so they walked it back] for the XBox One, remember?

Re: Devops, Web3.0, Agile, CI/CD

well I suspect that open source OS and package mirrors are providing their services in support of open source (in general) and not exclusively one particular distro (etc) and if their repos have the source or binaries needed to support something similar, it's really just all part of the gig. My guess is that at some point it will all balance out.

Or we could host it on github (or similar service) instead, one that provides storage and bandwidth for free to publicly visible projects.

Re: My idea

what if the idea was suing someone for having the same idea you did but you had it first?

Re: "use the money to bribe Microsoft to hire him away from Redhat"

see icon...

'services' in windows NT (and later) were supposed to be like daemons in POSIX OS's...

* run in userland as background processes

* 'system' type of user context (root, other user)

* auto-start on boot or on demand

* managed by system utilities

without arguing against systemd [which I would] I question the validity of your comparison between windows and Linux and 'windows services' [which I've written] and the assertion that in any way the windows way is superior...

Re: Apple's to lose

only a "feeling" that it was profitable.

I couldn't find the 'vomit' icon, so I'll use this one instead...

Re: So every time you fall to ransomware

As I understand it, if you pay $10k or more there might be a 1099 form for that, which you'd send to the IRS and a copy to the person/entity you filed it for. But when you deposit the check in the bank (for over $10k) the bank reports it. That's my understanding, at any rate. I would expect it would accompany every OTHER disclosure, like payroll and tax forms.

But if "they" suspect something, they'll just audit you. Or, if you make enough money. Etc.

A ransomware payment would be a HUGE line item in the books. Reporting it would be the LEAST of your problems.

you DO have a point, when you are specifically looking for LGBTQ(etc.) related things. However if this is a work-based internet filter, maybe you can use your phone instead?

Some work-based filtering systems make it VERY hard to update Linux systems, essentially blocking all of the repo mirrors. I'd prefer NO blocking at ALL, but you know how some IT admins can be... and yet a "porn blocker" [if it even works] might be all they need.

I also just did a search on "lgbtq friendly business San Diego" and the top 5 results were business listing sites, NOT porn. And that's worth pointing out also.

Re: Keeping things secure

Is Windows really that problematic...or is does it simply present the largest target footprint

Both, when compared to a computer running Linux, BSD, or even Mac OS.

The problem with Windows is NOT the user's ability to run whatever he wants. The problem is the inherent lack of peer review on the OS itself, certain vulnerabilities that are basically designed into the system itself (through the API), and a security model that encourages you to run with "admin" privileges all of the time using an "in the cloud" identity.

[and I used to be such a windows fan, too, decades ago, as it was SO much better than DOS]

Re: Locked down Windows

well said

Re: Nothing there...

actually I was hoping they'd do "confirmation" and additional science that the others have not yet done (for whatever reason), then the data is shared around the world so scientists can mull over it for years to come.

Re: Not a fan

Who needs a password locker? There are *OTHER* ways for storing passwords:

* Fa[e]ceBook, Tw*tter, G[a,oo]gle, Micros~1 Login

* Sheet[s] of paper

* Same PW, EVERYWHERE! "Correct-Horse+Battery*Stapl3"

* Keep it short and easily remembered