Posts by bombastic bob

Re: Same dev?

"feelings" are SO overrated. Although, you don't want _anger_ from customers/users...

And yet I'm still in "wait and see" mode. Last thing I'm going to want to deal with is a closed-source application that must be installed on non-windows (including FreeBSD) development systems, that have cryptic commands similar to Power[s[Hell, requires ".Not" or Mono to run, etc. etc. etc..

Did the article say whether this GitHub "hub" tool is actually OPEN SOURCE? I suppose I could go look at the site... ok - Build from Source instructions are at THAT link! So far so good, except you have to install 'go' 1.13 or later. and here I was thinking that REAL cli application developers use C and C++ ...

(but at least it's Open Source so kudos to the dev for doing that much and making it buildable on non-windows platforms)

Yeah no doubt it'll show up in FreeBSD's ports system soon, if it's not there already.

Re: identity and encryption

As long as you have backups of your home directory that includes the .gnupg directory you are fine as long as you dont forget your keys password.

I have to wonder about Windows users, though... Backup? what's that?

There's always an old school way of doing it:

Fred: Hey Joe, what's your publc key? Mine is {alphabet soup}

Joe: it's {alphabet soup}. Let's mark our e-mail clients to send mail to each other using public key encryption every time from now on.

(old school "just ask for it" public key exchange)

but an automatic way would be better.

What I would like to see [if not done already] is an RFC on mail exchanges having their own public key database, maybe even part of the SMTP server itself. Maybe like this:

HELO example.com

PUBK joe@testing.com

'PUBK' would tell the SMTP server to send back the public key for joe@testing.com, if in fact it is a canonical server for testing.com e-mails, joe is a valid mail user, and joe also registered a public key with the server.

Since I haven't seen how gnu public key stuff works [I definitely should look at what TBird is doing now] this may have already been implemented, or there might be an RFC for it already that I haven't downloaded AND looked at. In any case, making it automatic might require some additional infrastructure and protocol implementation by others...

Re: Little question

But I'm sure there will be lawyers to find otherwise.

and maybe a subpoena or two for data and logs that get delivered without your knowledge or consent, like with predatory and/or divorce-related lawsuits, evidentiary "fishing expeditions", etc..

If your data is purely under YOUR control, you can always "object" to discovery. not so if it's "on the cloud" - those guys will hand it over without even a 2nd thought to a) stay in business and b) stay under the radar of regulatory agencies in general.

[yeah no corporations have EVER gone after regular people with high profile high dollar lawsuits in a predatory way using "evidence" provided by ISPs and content providers in some kind of apparent fishing expedition to "make examples" of people, right???]

Re: banned from being hosted or delivered in America, or served over a CDN, or peered

well if China allowed their application to send data to/from servers hosted in the USA that were NOT forwarding it along to the Chinese Communist Party for spying and other purposes, this wouldn't be an issue. And that's pretty much my understanding of it. Same with the ZTE thing.

As for "Cool Dads" bonding with their teens. Just say NO to them. A *LOT*. "Dad can I xxx?" "NO". They'll be better off for it. As a dad, your job is to embarrass them and keep them from doing things that are stupid, which is pretty much EVERYTHING they want to do. So no need to learn the latest teen lingo. They can learn the lingo YOU used when YOU wre a teen. "Like, totally, NO!"

So who needs Tik Tok anyway... !

"But I can also see that it could be seen as a slippery slope to only allowing blessed video streaming or social media companies."

Correct. An outright ban of "a fast lane" prevents people from buying better service than the next person. I would like to be ABLE to do just that. If I pay more, I SHOULD get better service. Right?

On the other hand, the potential for abuse is ALSO there. So the fix is NOT to outright ban a service in which you pay for faster streaming [as an example] or "priority" content in general, but rather to REGULATE it such that competing services won't be "throttled" [including peer-to-peer and non-commercial traffic]. A typical regulation might allow a 2:1 boost of priority traffic as long as it's below 70% total capacity [for example], and that non-priority traffic would still be at a service level equivalent to what it was before. So it's not being "throttled", just "not boosted". And the company doing it might have to explicitly disclose everything they boost. Then consumers can choose.

"Net Neutrality" is yet another case of possible "well intentioned" ideas becoming anti-freedom, anti-capitalist, or anti-progress. So we're all stuck in the SAME PERFORMANCE GHETTO. Wheee.

No solution is perfect. THIS one is probably the worst of all available choices.

Re: C++

I still use MFC for Windows stuff. It's gotten "bloatier" though. it also take some effort to REMOVE! ALL! REFERENCES! TO! CLR! AND! OTHER! SUCH! BLOAT!

And I still use DevStudio 2010, the LAST one that was NOT all 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE, which was ALSO oriented towards Windows 7, and NOT "Ape" nor Win-10-nic.

What I'd like to see is wxWidgets support, INCLUDING dialog editors, toolbar editors, menu editors, and other such things. THAT is TRUE cross-platform, very MFC-like (not 1:1, takes some time to port an MFC application to wxWidgets, but it CAN be done) and DEFINITELY suited for serious cross-platform application development.

I've run wxWidgets/GTK applications on FreeBSD and Linux. Should run the same on windows and Mac. In fact I put a nice "sort demo" written for wx out there on github if anyone wants to have a look. it was originally an MFC application, back in the 90's. It's since been improved.

/me points out, if you're going to haul around some monolithic library of excess, might as well static-link it and use something that's truly cross-platform. Sure you'll have to build a version for each OS, but with static link you get minimal dependencies and fewer support issues caused by anything resembling DLL HELL...

In any case, it would be _WISE_ to have wizards and editing tools for wxWidgets in VS Code. THAT might make it worth using, In My Bombastic Opinion.

Re: Improving tech is bad?

"And when does the optimisation happen? When do we get to go back to make sure it's efficient? When something breaks and we have no choice."

if the bang-to-buck ratio is too low, it'll never be looked at again.

That being said, some inefficiencies can be avoided entirely by avoiding the platforms and programming lingos that tend to CREATE them. Yes, I'm talking about YOU TWO, C-Pound, JavaScript. Mostly JavaScript.

And sometimes, just doing things the old-school "shell script and POSIX utilities" way, gets things done the fastest, so you can focus on those few inefficiencies that make sense to focus on, deliver on time, stay under budget, etc.

Re: Blackmailed

The threat to take a kid away from a single father who's accused [and therefore coerced into testimony] sounds as though it's WAY above the jurisdiction of the FBI, and in light of OTHER alleged FBI abuses, currently being investigated by the D.O.J., could eventually work in Assange's (and others') favor. Convictions can be overturned as a result of evidence being declared "inadmissible" due to rights and even procedural violations by police.

That being said, I'm not really happy with the way Assange is being sought after by our F.B.I. unless the evidence they have is compelling enough to warrant it. So far I haven't heard any, and the media is making this sound like a political hit job. OK the FBI _has_ been informally accused of doing things _like_ "political hit jobs" as well (and is under investigation by the D.O.J.). All this could end up being decided by the U.K. court in Assange's favor, in light of these *kinds* of things.

I hope Assange isn't extradited. But he's definitely getting his day in court. We shall see. He needs to let his lawyers do the talking and shut up.

There's just NOT enough information to say anything else about it, in my bombastic opinion.

Re: Surprise, surprise...

effective encryption looks like random noise

yes. and in theory if you analyze it and find 'peaks' or repitition in the distribution, it might suggest a weakness in your algorithm.

For an AM or FM receiver, modulation like spread spectrum or QAM look like noise, too. But in theory it would show up as a peak on a spectrum analyzer, if the frequency band were narrow enough. Unfortunately, Earth broadcasts spread across the entire radio spectrum all the way up into the 10's of Ghz without a whole lot of gaps... and would therefore look JUST LIKE NOISE. "no peaks" probably. (or no significant ones).

Receiving a signal requires that it be above the noise threshold, or that you have such a good error correction algorithm that you can base demodulation on "presence of a tone" whether it's noise or not.

Re: Whatever for?

My main concern is dumping 17,000 more lines of code into the laps of the kernel maintainers, for something that only a handful of Linux users will even need (greatly stretching the definition of 'need').

If Paragon improved the FUSE driver instead, wouldn't THAT be better?

Or were they hoping that people would boot Linux from NTFS...

Re: The long game

"There may not be any hard evidence that Huawei equipment contains the specific features needed to spy on whoever employs it"

long game might include "UP"grades later. You know, like how Windows was "up"graded to INCLUDE SPYWARE, etc..

Re: They still don't get it do they?

From the article: In 2012 Microsoft decided to make a modern and more secure Windows system based on the Windows Runtime, or WinRT

That word 'modern' - they keep using that word. it does not mean what they think (feel?) it means...

And for as long as Windows supports running win32 apps, people will keep win32 code around,

Until Micros~1 finds a way to kill it - like they did the "classic" windows desktop!!!

(except for us anti-win-10-nic rebels who REFUSE to COMPLY and the many who switch to Linux or Mac instead)

Back in the day, HP tried to introduce new products at lower prices than existing ones, with better features etc. in order to motivate people to get new products. THEN they'd EOL the old ones. This was when Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard still ran it. (not so much any more)

What Micros~1 did is the exact opposite. They KILLED the old products by artificially "end of life"ing them, and swapped a PILE OF CRAP (Win-10-nic, TIFKAM, WinRT-ish foolishness) and told us we had to LIKE it, INSTALL it, UPGRADE to it, by FORCE (GWX) if necessary.

Re: Reductionist science, thus fatally flawed speculative tech.

well, when you consider how existing prosthetics like cochlear implants work. it would seem "the differences" from one person's brain to another might not be all that significant for this kind of tech.

My guess; a training period will be required.

Still it made me think of "Ghost in the Shell", and the kinds of 'mind hacks' that were possible. Some pre-emptive defense against THAT, or having your "cloud memories" altered [and then YOU convinced that the ones in the cloud are "the real ones"] and things of that nature, might be needed before this kind of tech goes, well, "live".

Re: We seem to have lost the point of commerce

"How many WFH people does it take to produce a Dell PC from scratch?"

It would depend on the number of "lights out" and heavily automated factories (etc.) there are in that process. It's coming, yeah.

He accessed Cisco's AWS five months after quitting Cisco.

So why is a security-oriented networking company NOT sufficiently cleaning up their login info (like changing passwords, deleting stale logins) after an employee leaves? Unless it was accessed with a deliberately installed back door...

Maybe I missed it but did they say WHY he left Cisco? Did he have a reason (in his own mind at any rate) to retaliate against them?

If I were his current employer I'd smile and carefully assign him a limited number of tasks while changing all of the access codes, without his knowledge. And not fire him. Reason for termination: incarceration. Works for me.

Re: Jump or pushed?

or the other possibility is that the CEO was attempting to resolve this problem and, in doing so, realized that the claims against TIkTok had actual MERIT, and as such, did not want his name associated with the aftermath. But of course, if you want a good recommendation for your NEXT gig, say nice things on the way out the door.

Re: Wouldn't that be ironic?

yeah, well, I expect 'Hecho en Mexico' or similar to be proudly displayed on the package someplace. There's a bit of pride in what they do, south of the border, and they'll do a good job.

And I bet there will be the opportunity for more automated assembly in Mexico, newer equipment etc. If you're going to make a capital investment in buildings, equipment, and hiring, the cost of transportation and "other things" make Mexico a sensible choice. And, let's face it - more automation means you don't have to hire quite as many new people to do the same job...

[I'll avoid a mental image of hundreds of people hand-placing components with tweezers and magnifiers, because I don't think they actually do that any more in China... or do they?]

Re: "they don't know how to send a plain-text email"

Sending plain text e-mail as a handy test for minimal IT skills

YES!!!

From the article: It is just that the modern mail client has intentionally moved towards HTML

"Modern" - like the way certain desktop environments are called "modern" ?

If my inbox gets an e-mail that says "you must enable HTML to view the content" it's automatically marked as spam. For security reasons, I _NEVER_ view e-mail as HTML unless there's some compelling reason to do so and I know exactly who sent it, etc.. And NEVER on a windows machine does HTML mail get viewed nor previewed in other-than-plain-text.

Thunderbird's EASY to configure for plain text, viewing as well as sending. I think that "modern" e-mail clients SHOULD be able to do the same thing.

/me points out that many years ago I circulated an e-mail to friends that deliberately illustrated the dangers of HTML e-mail, including script and embedded multimedia content you could not turn off - you'd hear me doing a "devil voice" saying "what is this?" "It's a message from HELL!" along with embedded flaming things and rotating pentagrams, and things like that. And of course if I could do THAT, then anybody could...

Re: "moral default"

re: MRI-based lie detector

Perhaps. Perhaps...

Re: Summer 95

In spring of '95, MS's (beta) plus pack had internet access, unlike many other networks, via MSN. It took CompuServe another YEAR to get internet access... and AOL too, as I recall.

I thought IE 1.0 was pretty cool. No excessive fluff, lightweight, did what a browser SHOULD do. And nothing more... pretty much what Netscrape and Mosaic were doing.

Re: Just in time?

at least you CAN turn it off... for now...

Shades of what they did when AUSTRALIS rolled out.

Don't they LEARN? (apparently NOT)

icon, because, facepalm

Re: Cynical

in some cases, existing anti-trust laws prevent you from owning everything from one end to the other, such that "fair competition" can exist

And I do not believe that iOS devices being locked into ONLY "the apple store" is in any way REMOTELY close to "a fair playing field" when they dominate WAY too much of it like this. [so maybe some anti-trust action is due?]

But, thus far, Apple has "gotten away with it".

After all, it's their bat, their ball, their field, and their rules. Wanna play? Oh, and fork over money for the developer kit, you'll need one of THOSE, too... For each type of OS. And if you don't like it, go home. YOU can't play!

/me NOT an i-thing developer for that reason, among others

(Android, on the other hand, doesn't require "The Store", and the dev kit is FREE last I checked)

Re: The OS also supports x86 CPUs flowing from the AMD’s joint venture in China ...

interesting. thanks.

some of these details are difficult to find in the various timelines published all over the place.

Re: What Linux add ons can you install?

if you ask me, I'd prefer a windows subsystem to run ON LINUX [like Wine only blessed and supported]

I'd pay MONEY for THAT...

(then we can have all of the Linux add-ons we want, and the desktop we want, and the look/feel of window decorations etc. that we want, NOT have to deal with "Settings", or "Start Thing", yotta yotta)

A foreign-owned company suing the US Government

Not just "A foreign-owned company suing the US Government", but suing to OPERATE FREELY WITHIN A FOREIGN COUNTRY as if they were CITIZENS. "They have no rights" is an understatement. And last I checked, the executive branch (in the USA) has complete jurisdiction on whether or not to allow foreign entities to do ANYTHING inside the USA.

I expect UK or EU would be the same way, more or less. "National Sovereignty" etc.

Re: But how long will it take to get there?

From the article: fusion seems to be one of those technologies that is always a decade away.

Snarkily I might suggest that when you pay for perpetual RESEARCH, you get what you pay for.

But I suspect it will be more like "privatized outer space" in that, once you encourage private industry to do its OWN research [instead of having DoE and/or DoD own it all at one level or another] then you'll suddenly have some "for profit" reactors being built, and then the floodgates will open.

But if you pay for RESEARCH, you may only get what you pay for.

Q: how come ONLY tokomak is being used at the moment? I understand there are a couple of other very interesting designs, some with magnetic confinement, that aren't making headlines...

A: Maybe ONLY tokomak is getting funded for RESEARCH ???

But we have a lot of cheap oil right now so the urgency and financial factors aren't quite "there". When tech finally makes it possible to produce CHEAP fusion power, expect wacky environmentalists and other protest groups to show up and do things to frustrate its development...