Posts by bombastic bob

"their more recent stuff has been less than ideal."

agreed. up to about a decade ago I could rely on an HP printer having CUPS support as well as being reliable for its entire life. THEN I bought an 'all in one' copy/fax/printer and it doesn't work right unless I put the paper in 'just so', and hand-clean the cartridges, and the paper feeder STILL won't work properly for making a stack of copies [that last part really is a Xerox thing so maybe THEY can fix it?]

Anyway - the all-in-one still works for my occasional printing and fax'ing and copying/scanning but I sometimes get frustrated with the overall LACK OF QUALITY in its obviously "cheapened" design.

CUPS support is my #1 concern. "Next Printer" will have to do that, or I won't get it. Epson, you have my eye at the moment...

the HP board of directors fear for their lives

strangely, it is actually ILLEGAL to use borrowed money to buy stock [for individuals, anyway - since the Great Depression it has been so in the USA]. I have to wonder how it is that a CORPORATION can get away with doing that... maybe it's just "a loophole" ?

HP might re-consider whether it wants Xerox as a major investor, rather than an owner, by offering a non-controlling interest in the company as a compromise, along with reasonable changes that Xerox is going to do ANYWAY. But if Xerox wants a HOSTILE takeover, it's because they're gonna fire the board of directors and everyone at super-senior management level.

I suspect that below senior management level, people's jobs aren't "at stake" so much. Unless HP has a top-heavy staff [like IBM has had in the past], Xerox isn't going to want to shoot their own feet, and will need people to do work and make their investment profitable. What they PROBABLY want to do is steer that ship TOWARDS profitability.

So yeah "heads will roll" but only above deck. Below deck, where the REAL work is done, I bet they HIRE PEOPLE!

(Xerox invented the modern GUI, just worthy of mention, then Apple and Microsoft stole it, and then Apple tried to sue Microsoft over it, so Xerox coming back and buying control of HP is an interesting twist)

Re: Net Neutrality is to Free Open Internet as PATRIOT Act is to Patriotism

not a bad analogy. More like "Net Neutrality is to Free/Open Internet as CO2 is to global warming" - where people all SAY that 'Net Neutrality' is something that it really is NOT [it's just another gummint takeover of a generally UNregulated thing, in the name of 'freedom' or 'fairness' or some OTHER such *LIE*] in the same way that people *FEEL* (not think) that CO2 (produced by humans) is causing global climate "whatever". (if you want proof view my posting history, no need to create a distraction thread branch here, but from MY perspective, it's a really good point to make).

And, the point is that 'net neutrality' *SOUNDS* like something we would want, i.e. no favoritism, everybody equal, etc., but isn't. In actual practice, it means that UNPROFITABILITY for the fringe cases would COST EVERYONE ELSE A WHOLE LOT MORE (in the name of 'fairness' and 'neutrality')!!! And that's just the beginning of it.

Personally I'd *love* to have a fast-lane that you could pay for. It'd be like 1st class seating on an airline, buying a "fast pass" for commuter lanes and toll roads, and having everything delivered to your house. You pay more to get BETTER SERVICE. The fruits of that extra revenue end up lowering other costs, or improving overall service, because that's how businesses operate. [if you don't *FEEL* [not think, *FEEL*] that I'm right about this, I suggest you need a clue-bat attitude adjustment].

And this straw-man "poor person" who can't get high speed internet because of NO NET NEUTRALITY has been driving a LOT of "arguments" though. But I see it this way: WHY must *I* only be able to afford LOUSY INTERNET so that the TAXES from that will "help" some "straw man poor person" [not ME] "afford" high speed [faster than what I have I bet] intarwebs *AT* *MY* *EXPENSE* ???

This is a case of GUMMINT PICKING WINNERS AND LOSERS, and *ULTIMATELY* it's what the so-called "Net Neutrality" *REALITY* ends up being - MORE! GUMMINT! TAKEOVER! AND! POLITICAL! PAYOFFS! TO! PROTECTED! AND! FAVORED! CLASSES!!! [people who vote for *them* in other words]

Besides, the FCC really shouldn't be regulating things "that way". Such regulations need to be passed by CON-GRAB (aia 'congress') except they're too busy WITCH HUNTING to bother with it...

Re: A rich man...

no, I do _ACTUAL_ science, not that doom/gloom politically-driven NON-science.

CO2 is NOT a greenhouse gas. Why? Because it is _TRANSPARENT_ for IR frequencies corresponding to black body radiation for temperatures ACTUALLY FOUND ON EARTH outside of a volcano. And if you do NOT understand what that means or implies, go ahead and believe your pseudo-science, as there's no hope for you.

Those of us who DO understand REAL science can RECOGNIZE that CO2 concentration changes don't mean SQUAT with respect to world temperatures and/or "climate". This is becaue the mechanism for a 'greenhouse gas' to affect temperature is based on its IR ABSORPTION SPECTRUM and the black body radiation frequencies that correspond to environmental temperatures!!! <-- that is REAL science by the way

Earth cools at night due to black body radiation. Temperatures correspond to a narrow range of IR frequencies. Photons with those frequencies must be 'trapped' (absorbed by the atmosphere) in order to "warm" or "blanket" the earth. This is where a greenhouse gas makes a difference in earth's temperatures. And CO2 isn't one, because it will have ALMOST NO EFFECT on the amount of IR radiation heading into outer space.

Water, "the other greenhouse gas", however, is at least 100 times as effective as CO2 - and yet the doom/gloom pseudo-scientists NEVER try to control THAT - because they can't control PEOPLE with it, and the earth is FLOODED anyway, which is MORE obvious that it's a FREAKING HOAX.

Think of it this way: cloudy day = cold day. cloudy night = warm night. Water has a HUGE effect, not only on black body radiation cooling the earth, but on incoming UV, heat, and light from Mr. Sun. Water has a VERY WIDE spectrum for IR absorption, light absorption, and so on. This is how it WORKS.

(that pretty much sums it up, yeah)

Re: A rich man...

There's nothing wrong with being WEALTHY, especially when your wealth is SELF-MADE.

Those who do work, or have really good ideas [and then successfully market those ideas], DESERVE to KEEP the rewards of their efforts.

"Donating money" to a pet cause, however, CAN be a way of doing POLITICAL SPENDING with "tax deductible" funds. It also helps to SILENCE your critics, by literally "buying them off".

If Bezos opens a factory for rocket engines and HIRES PEOPLE, that's a GOOD thing.

Spending billions on "fighting climate change", most likely will JUST line the pockets of political activists, lying "researchers", and those who would OTHERWISE be protesting on a daily basis and being a general PAIN IN THE ASS. So he's "buying their silence" I would think...

And as Rush Limbaugh put it (he's talking about this very thing on the radio right now), he could buy a "climate change" curriculum for EVERY SCHOOL with this kind of money, and buy off EVERY climate scientist, and every college research department.

If he would put this into FUSION RESEARCH instead, maybe it would actually DO something about reducing the CO2 that the "climate change" believes is *KILLING* *THE* *PLANET*. And it would give us inexpensive, virtually UNLIMITED electric power, for CENTURIES. Yes there is THAT much nuclear fuel on the planet for fusion (all of the 2H and 3H in the ocean, around 1% of all of the water has this kind of hydrogen in it).

But like nearly ALL "rich liberal" types, he's buying P.R. with his "donations" and THEN doing what he wants without their criticism...

Re: They toooock ewre joohbs!!!

alternative: your job is done in China or India or Africa or Vietnam or ...

I have a suggestion: learn to fix robots. They do break down now and then. And I bet you'll get better pay, too! better than inserting tab 'A' into slot 'B' all day...

Re: In this day and age

interesting car analogy.

Re: In this day and age

"Anyone who thinks that any computer that is connected to the Internet is safe from being infected with all sorts of nasties"

well aside from making up all kinds of horrible punishments from "the comfy chair" to thumbscrews and iron maidens, maybe it'd just be a good idea to have a NICE PUBLIC DISCUSSION about "Safe Surfing" which, from my perspective, includes the following:

a) do NOT use 'Internet Explorer' (and if possible, don't use Windows either!)

b) Use a 'noscript'-like plugin with a reasonably safe browser, preferably an open source one.

c) If you must allow scripting, etc., make sure it is SANDBOXED [many viruses and malware loads are done using script]

d) Don't "just open" or "just run" something from within a browser or an e-mail. Save to a disk file, THEN USE THE INTENDED VIEWING APPLICATION to open it via "file open". And make sure it's NOT an MS office product that you use to view it.

e) don't use MS Outlook for e-mail delivered from outside your private network [i.e. ANYTHING off the 'teh intarwebs']

f) *NEVER* download or install "the plugin" or "the application" just to VIEW CONTENT.

and so on. Use your brains, be 'street wise', assume malware is out there, and just exercise proper caution. And regularly back up your important data onto removable media.

[if everyone does this, the damage from "all that crap" would be MINIMIZED]

Installing "anti-virus" is most likely a false sense of security. REAL security starts with NOT being fooled into doing things that damage your system, particularly if you're on a Mac running OS/X, which is kinda what the article was about, right?

[and under the hood it's BSD, with large portions forked from FreeBSD 5.x]

Re: To be honest ...

up vote from ME, but you *know* the howler monkeys will ALWAYS throw poo at you if you don't tow the liberal line... (and hence all the downvotes). I wouldn't be surprised if they're all sock puppets of the same 1 or 2 individuals.

Re: To be honest ...

When I see what the Trump haters say about our president, and who it is that they are, it makes me LIKE TRUMP EVEN MORE!!

In the mean time, you KNOW Bezos would NEVER do this against a president of "the other party". That makes it PARTISAN, POLITICAL, and therefore, FRIVOLOUS. He and his RIDICULOUS lawsuit should be LAUGHED out of the court room.

"Sore loser" indeed.

Re: "something more durable – with upgrade paths"

well your tube argument is (unfortunately) not so relevant in this case. Tubes cost $$ and you'll need a LOT of them to do the same job as a small circuit board filled with ICs and so on. They haven't been regularly used in the consumer market since the 1980's, other than picture tubes (and they went away by 2000's). WAY too expensive (but guitar amplifiers, that's a different animal). In many cases the swapout of a tube means an expensive alignment procedure, or the thing wouldn't *quite* work properly after you swap the tube, RF and IF circuits, specifically [sometimes other things, too].

But the principle is good - swappable available components that end-users could easily repair with.

I've purchased repair parts for older stuff (replacement DVD for Wii, replacement CPU fan and DVD for Sony Vaio, new batteries and new chargers for other laptops, yotta yotta) and they're still perfectly good. Hoever, I had a bit of difficulty getting a new CD laser assembly for an old Game Cube a couple of years ago. In short I got sent the WRONG part, but the price was so low it wasn't worth returning. I had access to a 2nd game cube though, so "that" became "the solution".

[and those old game cube games work perfectly well]

admittedly, though, repairing XBox 360 has been a problem. I ended up buying 2 different "reconditioned" models to replace the first one, which broke its DVD drive. The first replacement started overheating after a year or so but the 2nd one is still working just fine. [at some point I'll go through the hell it takes to swap the DVD between the 2 older ones and get a working unit out of it].

so yeah - repair the old stuff, it's perfectly good when you do. And I really don't want to DOWNgrade to an XBox One...

Re: Used cars vs. new ones

one-year-old ex-rental is good, assuming the rental company did proper maintenance. You hear the horror stories about people abusing rentals, but taking that into consideration, if it got its regular oil changes and filter changes and so forth, seems to have worked well enough for me.

that being said... when I buy computer hardware I'm often getting "last year's cutting edge tech" for a similar reason.

Re: Why isn't any one offended men were required to wear a blazer and slacks or suit?

ask women which they prefer, men in suits, or men in "grubby casuals"...

It _does_ work both ways. But men usually don't get offended by it.

I once bought a funny 'porn for women' picture book for my sister, featuring men in tuxedos doing housework [as a joke of course]. the concept was BRILLIANT!

Re: Well... is called Gitlab

probably named because of the Linux-inspired source control system 'git' which (I bet) was named becauswe you want to "go and 'git' the latest source code from the repo". yeah it's a US'ian thing.

Re: Women are more sexist than men

Beer, Sir!

Re: Women are more sexist than men

At least it wasn't "wear a short skirt and tall boots to cover MOST of your legs, except for the part that naturally draws male gaze away from your face". And speak in a softer, higher pitched voice.

"Sex Sells"

(heh heh heh)

until a week ago I looked like the 'Zig Zag' guy because I mostly work at home and just couldn't find the time to do the haircut thing, but now I've got a nice buzz-cut and super-short beard to match.

Good for another year! (had to spend a day on site, too, and the hair in my eyes was bothering me, and I'd been saying "I need a haircut" for 2 months)

But yea if the job required it, I'd do "suit and tie" with bi-weekly buzz cut and clean-shaven face. You do what you have to. Sorta like when you're in the military.... (which I _was_ for 6 years - and prior to that, I had to wear a tie to work, being a store employee for a large drug store chain)

more like "women can wear what they want so that we avoid being sued"

Re: Sexual harassment

Or, you could just NOT SAY ANYTHING except that the woman who DOES wear the short skirts and heels always seems to get the promotion and best pay...

"They all need to step it up, and be at their most attractive, because that's how sales works"

Exactly!

"I am offended by your assumption that there is a universal measure of attractiveness"

Sorry, but welcome to the REAL world, in which people are regularly judged by attractive/unattractive _AND_ where "the beautiful people" are generally hired more often and with higher pay scales.

Otherwise, why ELSE would we dress nice and clean up our appearances (decent haircut, makeup for women, whatever) before a job interview? Come on, you KNOW it is TRUE...

To the sales staff, you ALSO know this is true, which is why SUCCESSFUL sales people dress as if they're going to a job interview, whenever they present the company products in front of potential customers.

It just IS, no matter how ANYONE *FEELS* about it. because, HUMAN NATURE.

Re: bah, humbug, and it's the 60s, not the 70s.

"having the girls dress like Uhura"

At least it's not a dominatrix getup with 'hooker boots', black leather motorcycle jacket, and a studded black leather hat... (or 'Zettai Ryouiki magic ratio' socks/skirt with a high school uniform)

Re: Serious overreach

yes, the 'Windows Vista' ads for Mac - "Cancel or allow" "Cancel or allow" "Cancel or allow" [from the M.I.B. guy in dark glasses standing behind 'PC']

Re: Release 100....

thanks, for that (brain bleach please)

Re: Doesn't make any sense

"Windows has been in the habit of taking action on a file -- typically executing it -- based on the name and/or extension"

This is mostly a two-sided problem. On the one side, file extensions are used to identify files of a particular type by applications that trust the content to match the extensions. *THEN* they CLUELESSLY pass the thing on to 'ShellExecuteEx()' or similar functions that actually scan the header to determine what to do with it. So an executable file renamed "harmless.zip" gets passed to 'ShellExecuteEx()' as-is with default parameters and it RUNS AS AN EXECUTABLE (rather than opening the program that is supposed to view ZIP files) and *VOILA* your computer is spamming others, logging your keystrokes, and cranking out blockchains!!!

Well, you get the idea.

Re: Annoying tho

"If there are no sites left that can work with other browsers, then the web becomes nonexistent to me entirely."

Good summary.

Re: Annoying tho

This argument ONLY works when there is TRUE competition on a LEVEL playing field.

Otherwise, the monopolist *WINS*.

Re: Annoying tho

at some point it might become the *ONLY* browser, if things keep trending the way they are. This is especially true on *ANDROID*. Keep in mind, Chrome's now the back-end for Windows web browsing.

Re: Not as disruptive as it sounds

if "Mixed Content" is the driving force behind this, it makes sense. Sort of.

If this continues such that it affects *EMBEDDED* systems [which might be serving up http content to a chrome browser running in 'kiosk' mode and NOT be using https] then it's "game over" for using chromium in such systems.

but it's just like "developers" [around which I can NOT put enough quote marks to convey my snark] to be CLUELESS to the impacts their *FEELY* decisions have... from 2D FLATTY to this latest thing.

Re: Who would not do this?

"Surely nobody leaves their Bluetooth open like that?"

I think you have to explicitly enable it to discover something via bluetooth. And don't call me Shirley.

That being said, if you have BT headphones connected, and you pause, and then resume again (oh I'm on the train I want to make a phone call now), it probably re-connects your bluetooth stuff too on power up [which would make you vulnerable for that brief period of time].