* Posts by bombastic bob

10275 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Prepare yourselves for Windows 10 May-hem. Or is it June, no, July?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Such vitriol for something that costs virtually nothing...

so many things wrong... can't downvote enough

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Microsoft intends to chow down on its own dog food

well, considering how dogs WILLINGLY eat their own vomit... and their own poo...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

'no alternative' = 'who cares about quality'

On a related note...

recently I had a bit of insight into the people who are (currently) pushing the hardest for the development of the Wine project, which most definitely has the potential of providing an alternative to Win-10-nic.

However, it's WORSE than 1809, in my opinion. My experience attempting to install DevStudio 2010, even following the instructions for the various hacks, and using 3 different versions (including 4.4's bleeding edge development version) was _WORSE_ than a dismal failure. and uninstalling didn't even work [I had to delete the tree and manually remove desktop menu items under 'Wine'].

But, without going into details, the people running the show appear to be clueless as to the _kinds_ of people that could get Wine up to speed, specifically PAID developers. Apparently they have no shortage of a budget, but their selection process is (quite literally) PICKING THE WRONG PEOPLE. They need a "get it done" attitude, and NOT a "cool beans" + "academia" attitude...

This is where Micro-shaft has significant advantage over open source projects. Being a for-profit company, they focus on "get it done" and profitability, though their shortcomings of NOT paying for testers is blatantly showing its ugly head these days... [I blame their management for NOT focusing on quality, above all else]

I think the only way the Wine project could POSSIBLY compete with windows is if *I* were running it... but I need money to live on in order for THAT to happen, otherwise no time to devote to it.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

" I will stick with marking my internet connection as metered"

That doesn't seem to be possible within a VM or with a wired connection... has that changed at all?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: This is Microsoft

"something stupid like mandate the update for everyone on day 1"

They _*DEFINITELY*_ exhibit the behavior of a top-down dictatorial government, don't they?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Microsoft should think again - we don't need your outdated 'persuasive approach', it's 2019.

"Do they take their work home or vice versa?"

Not sure what you mean about the 'vice versa' unless they're living in the office...

from the article: "employees encouraged to put the code on their own personal devices. We'd have to admit to a certain amount of surprise that this wasn't the norm."

Taking their work home would, in fact, be a VERY good idea!

Those who produce the OS _ABSOLUTELY_ should be USING the thing!!! on a DAILY basis!!!

This reminds me of something that happened with me, long ago...

While the company was downsizing and re-organizing, the material control department (for which I was doing custom IT kinds of things) consolidated into the corporate materials department, and moved to a different part of the building. The building next door, slightly downhill on a terraced landscape, was where the minicomputer (with ginormous laser printer) was. Departments had been consolidated, and there was a massive pile of computer output generated every week. And it suddenly became MY duty to go get it all from the other building. Well, after bringing SEVERAL dollies' worth of boxes of paper back on a Monday, uphill even, guess what happened? I did an in-depth review of who needed what report. I canceled half of them (at least one was using up a box of paper on its own, every week), modified several more (to generate less paper), and significantly reduced the computer work load in the process. The IT manager _LOVED_ me after that, and even had one of her guys bring the reports for us, which was now only half-a-dolly's worth (and not so bad, now). I think the reason I had to do it was because it was a big PITA for the operations staff to deliver them all... and I still wonder if that was all done on purpose? [yeah just tell XXXX to do it, see how long things go before he fixes things - 2 days]

NOW - apply that same kind of logic to Win-10-nic - *MAKE* the Micro-shaft employees that are responsible for that piece-o-something to DAILY USE IT, and see just how long those irritations last...

well, I can *ONLY* hope I guess!

Facebook ad platform discriminates all on its own, say boffins

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Measuring racial ad delivery

"Not very accurate way to determine race and I am am quite sure race is more complex than black or white."

It's the fact that this is being DONE that seems offensive to me...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Maybe it's not discrimination at all.

although there IS men's makeup out there, most men don't need to cover up the lines, wrinkles, and scars, nor enhance their lips or eyes, to make women want them. [I could go on and talk about having hundred dollar bills hanging out of your pockets, being the big spender, dressing in expensive clothes, driving a BMW or a Mercedes or a Rolls or a Jaguar, and so on, but I won't. I don't need to go there. Heh]

'cosmetics' in stores _includes_ specialized face/body wash though, as I recall. I haven't worked in a store for decades, but that one had a YUGE cosmetics department... yeah it's a major moneymaker! And you always seem to find 'that sort of thing' in or near the cosmetics department.

There seems to be a small market for men's makeup for politicians and actors and rich people who want to look 'camera worthy' all of the time. Lots of presidents have used makeup for this purpose, including Reagan, Clinton, and probably Trump. I suppose you could consider it to be more like 'stage makeup' but who knows. So I guess there's a market for it. Just not a big one.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: Maybe it's not discrimination at all.

although I agree that certain products (like cosmetics) probably are affected by sex and race, the assertion here is that racial or sex stereotypes are driving the ad placement... and possibly denying certain opportunities to women or members of minority races. The example I'm thinking of is the advertisement for janitorial jobs primarily to black people. That's a *little* degrading at the least, don' you think?

I think the solution may be simple: don't declare your sex nor race online. Always answer "I do not identify myself" or "other" or "not specified". Then the discrimination will STOP.

aka if you want a color-blind society, we have to STOP focusing on 'color'. Best way to do that: don't give them the info in the FIRST place.

(recently I had the opportunity, on a google or apple related thing, to specify my 'gender' as something OTHER than male or female. I chose 'other' and wrote in 'hyper male', using 'he' as a pronoun. heh)

Prince Harry takes a stand against poverty, injustice, inequality? Er, no, Fortnite

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Thanks Harry

Over here across the pond, we have our 'royals' too. It's just that membership in THAT club has less to do with lineage and more to do with "being in the club". Names withheld to avoid political arguments in this thread.

At least there's an opportunity to work your way up, get lucky, and sort of 'join them', but who'd want to? Yeah, THEM.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Thanks Harry

"because of his extensive life experience"

A big thumb-up for the snark, which I read between the lines.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Everything old is new again.

worth pointing out, life itself IS violence. The constant competition and struggle for dominance within our own sphere, mastering our own destinies, getting hired INSTEAD of some other applicant, buying the sale items BEFORE the store is out of stock, jumping in line BEFORE it gets too long, passing people on the highway who don't *FEEL* that your time is worth them moving out of the way, and so on.

It's a rat race. And the rats are winning.

And WHAT do we want to teach our young'unz? That ASSERTING yourself is WRONG? That STANDING UP to bullying is WRONG? That FIGHTING for what is RIGHT is WRONG? That the world is nothing more than 'safe spaces' and 'participation trophies' and '1+1=3 is ok as long as you FEEL GOOD about it' ??? There are NO winners anymore because it means there ALSO has to be LOSERS?

* W R O N G *

The world is a violent place. Just look at nature and what animals do to one another. Civilized society limits that violence, but cannot eliminat it. The "daily struggle" for survival is STILL there, and the ones who are MOST aggressive, MOST competitive, and MOST assertive, are the ones who WILL SUCCEED. And NOT being able to cope in a VIOLENT world puts the next generation at a SERIOUS disadvantage...

Two Arkansas dipsticks nicked after allegedly taking turns to shoot each other while wearing bulletproof vests

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Outlaw drunken operation of a firearm... that's an interesting point.

I wouldn't consider that to be "infringement". It might improve gun safety.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: It's hard to think of anything more boneheadedly stupid...

at least he didn't toss gunpowder into a BBQ and light it (repeatedly) until, the final time, a heated coal remained and sparked the powder while dumping it into the BBQ, blowing up into the face of one of the 2 men, and severely burning the other. Yeah, this really happened, from what I've read. And considering that one of them was (quite possibly) a competent engineer at a well known software company (or perhaps both of them), it doesn't take Arkansas or Hillbillies to win a Darwin award...

(And I don't know if alcohol was involved, but it probably was)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Testing in the real world

a) make torso out of ballistic gel

b) strap vest onto it

c) ready on the right, ready on the left, ready on the firing line

d) commence shooting!

e) examine ballistic gel torso afterwards

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pint

Re: Definite Darwin Award winner in the making

this sounds like a lot of fun (as long as beer is involved)

A patchy Apache a-patchin: HTTP server gets fix for worrying root access hole

bombastic bob Silver badge
Holmes

it's generally possible to use firewall+nat rules to re-direct port 80 to 8080 [and vice versa for the return traffic] for communications that appear to be on port 80 to the outside world...

might also be useful for running in some kind of jailed or VM process, where you actually listen on localhost but re-direct incoming ports accordingly. And yeah you could run it NOT as root.

(since it's an obvious thing, probably already being done in many places)

icon, because, obvious thing is obvious

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

what if NOT running apache as root?

pretty much what _I_ was thinking. I think the default for the 'ports' version on FreeBSD runs apache as 'www' and not root. It uses the 'httpd.conf' file to specify.

it looks, though, that the main process that calls all of the worker bees still runs as 'root' by default.

I expect you could still run the main process NOT as root... not sure what you'd win/lose by doing that.

We don't know whether 737 Max MCAS update is coming or Boeing: Anti-stall safety fix delayed

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I'd fly in one today.

"a properly trained pilot at the controls"

THIS is the problem. The MAX was sold with the promise that existing 737 simulators could be used to qualify pilots for the new airframe. Given that special training is actually NECESSARY for the MCAS feature, the correct fix will probably include fixing the simulators, too...

Aggressive marketing campaign drives development into a direction it probably should NOT have gone. "Agile" perhaps?

Phew... Oi, was that you, Curiosity? Euro Mars sat inhaled mega methane blast, boffins baffled

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Whoopsie

the smelly stuff added to natural gas has more than just H2S in it but is a cocktail designed to be easily smelt, uniquely enough that people immediately think of natural gas leaks when it's smelled.

But yeah, smelly stuff added to CH4 to make it detectable by smell.

I think Methane Thiol [a 'poo stench'] is also in there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanethiol

But yeah pretty much any gaseous material containing sulphur is gonna stink.

Ex-Mozilla CTO: US border cops demanded I unlock my phone, laptop at SF airport – and I'm an American citizen

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Don't travel to the US.

I have an idea:

a) fed-ex all "real" devices to/from your destination endpoints

b) carry only what you need to have on a 'burn device'.

It's not hard (in most cases) to create a gmail (or other) mail address, then forward everything to it while you're away, and fix it back when you return.

And other than listening to music or watching movies on a plane [SD cards good for this], a smart phone isn't all that necessary.

Avoid the problem entirely by making yourself a VERY small "digital target".

Or you can have FUN with them by doing something like this:

1. use FreeBSD on your laptop

2. create a jail that TSA can log into. Make sure the passwords are pejorative towards them.

3. Make it log into a console, not a GUI, and pressing any ALT+F-key gets you a virtual console into the jail [I know how, I have done this, and it's not that difficult]. You can still SSH into the host from the jail...

4. When TSA has you power it up, he sees a classic login prompt on a text console. When he asks for user+password, give him the one that's pejorative to TSA. "What, that's my password!"

5. If they want 'root' password too, give them THAT one. A FreeBSD jail has a different security context, so root's password is not the same as the host's. Make THAT one pejorative towards them as well, or a profane term, or something similar.

Anyway, you give them what they want, just like they ask, and they shouldn't complain, but you're also protesting and pissing them off. Smile the entire time.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: @Mr Sceptical @VikiAi Don't travel to the US.

"The truth is that something caused this guy to get flagged."

this has NOT been established, by the way. Additional journalism might uncover any facts that prove 'getting flagged' but I don't think that evidence exists. Most likely won't be uncovered without a lawsuit of some kind.

I expect to see that lawsuit fairly soon.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Don't travel to the US.

A nice new laptop feature to request: easily removed BIOS ROM, not EEPROM nor flash nor CMOS, but actual ROM, located underneath where the hard drive goes, for easy MANUAL replacement. Keep a spare handy for when you get back.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Don't travel to the US.

yeah I think the Mueller probe and the current followup insanity is a good example of why "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" does NOT apply when aggressive federal agents attempt to force you into something _like_ a 'perjury trap'...

Maybe Trump will become more of an advocate of civil rights as a result? he's currently busy fixing other problems (illegal immigrant caravans and securing the southern border, etc.), but "taming" the TSA and (allegedly) aggressive airport customs inspections might be the next thing to tackle.

personally, I don't much like taking my belt off to walk through a metal detector at an airport, having to hold up my pants and waddle, and then lose them when I spread my arms to get scanned. You're welcome everyone, I am "the streak". It has gotten _SILLY_.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Don't travel to the US.

AC - you need to wean yourself off of 'fake news'.

Most likely this was a case of over-aggressive law enforcement. It happens sometimes. The fact that officers wouldn't let the guy contact his attorney says it all, I think. They had his passport, they knew he was a citizen, and (allegedly) making threats to intimidate is completely inappropriate. ACLU will have a field day with it, as they should.

<joke>Maybe he should've said "asylum"</joke>

Googlers, eggheads urge web giant's bosses to kick top conservative off its AI ethics council

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: AI

"the trouble is MANY religious people aren't rational."

fixed it for ya. I agree with that. you can say the same thing when it comes to a 'secular religion' known as 'politica correctness'. Many similarities exist in the behavior of 'the followers' to religious fanatics of one kind or another.

So maybe the statement SHOULD read: "The trouble is religious fanatics aren't rational" - and that goes with the SJWs, PC-fascists, and militant lefties, too.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pint

how about one o' these?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: I'm confused

"Get it now?"

No. I don't 'get' anti-logic and manipulation. The Heritage Foundation is NOT guilty of "no ethics and multiple human rights breaches". I think you may be guilty of promoting 'fake news'.

But, your comment is well worth reading. It provides a window into what was probably motivating those thousand or so petition-signers at Google.

(so no desire to silence, just expressing my disagreement).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Double standards

Well said. Islam gets special treatment. Why is that?

/me thumb-ups POSitality and ends with that rhetorical question...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Angel

Re: "Voicing their opinions" and other fairy stories

"Where I draw the line though is getting people sacked or beaten up, or deplatformed because they won't toe the line on the currently sanctioned group think."

ACK. These are tactics of FASCISTS. Not the other way around. Think 'brown shirts'. Who wants to live in an environment like THAT? The people making the accusations, it seems, are even guiltier of the SAME THING.

Getting closer to easter, there's this bible passage I know about. Apparently Jesus said it, something about removing the log from your own eye before removing the speck of sawdust from the other guy's eye. This is SO typical of hypocrites, to be guilty of doing something (say intolerance), then IMMEDIATELY spot "intolerance" in others they disagree with, and be all righteously indignant about it, getting on their soapbox and using every '-phobe' and '-ist' term they can recite, call for firings, picket people's houses, harass people in public, etc. - all while simultaneously being GUILTY of the SAME DAMN THING.

It's worth pointing out how a log and a spec of sawdust are made of the SAME MATERIAL.

And that ends my sermon - you're welcome!

Or, as Shakespeare might put it: The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: "Voicing their opinions" and other fairy stories

"Fascism is all about totalitarian control."

Definition of fascism: a militant form of socialism that does government takeover of nearly all industry.

It's a form of totalitarianism, yeah.

Communism in its worst form is very much like it, except that ownership has been removed and substituted with a rude form of 'collectivism', managed by an 'elite' group of 'leaders'.

In both cases, a small oligarchy benefits, while the masses suffer under the thumb of mediocrity.

Funny how fascism and communism must be FORCED upon the masses, whereas freedom has a life of its own and typically "finds a way". It's human nature to be free. It's AGAINST human nature to be SOCIALIST or COMMUNIST.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: "Voicing their opinions" and other fairy stories

"They do however put out false information, such as 'smoking isn't bad for you' and 'climate change isn't a thing'"

MAN MADE climate change isn't a thing [this would be accurate]. And I don't know where you got this information about their attitude towards smoking, but I expect it, too, has been taken out of context.

more 'fake news', yeah.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: "Voicing their opinions" and other fairy stories

" It is about time we showed a bit of intolerance towards intolerant people"

I already do that. It seems to me that the vast majority of these "silence the opposition in the name of tolerance" hypocrites are ON THE LEFT.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Snowflakes

"The job of the Heritage foundation is to ensure that the point of view of the extraordinarily wealthy is heard and obeyed"

Do you have proof? I call 'fake news' on THAT one.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Snowflakes

to whom do you direct this? I think the left NEVER allows differing opinions to be heard, by shouting them down, calling for firings and resignations, and being as disruptive as possible.

So I'll have to agree with you: NOT allowing different opinions to be heard, a favorite tactic of the left, is a VERY bad thing.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Articles of Faith

"Name one good thing the Heritage Foundation have done"

JUST EXISTING, in opposition to LIBERALISM and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. I think that is a VERY good thing!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Articles of Faith

yeah that guy won't just be FIRED, he'll be BANNED, and BURNED AT THE STAKE! After all, he *DARED* to NOT swallow the LIBERAL COOLAID!

There is business, and there is politics. Too many people in business *FEEL* (not think) that they can use it to control other people's POLITICS, too, by use of threats, firings, "suggest you resign", or what-have-you.

Didn't the President of Mozilla have a SIMILAR situation, because his name was found on a list of contributors to pass a particular state proposition?

I think a giant clue-bat, and a BIG FAT LAWSUIT, is in order, for OUTRIGHT DISCRIMINATION!!!

"trigger word" indeed...

[isn't the whole idea of freedom and tolerance to NOT create a 'look over your shoulder' and 'chilling effect' environment for people who MIGHT have different opinions on things? The 'brown shirts' of Silicon Valley are AT IT AGAIN, and some of them apparently work at GOOGLE!]

Microsoft reckons the accursed Windows 10 October 2018 Update is finally fit for business

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

There should be a 'Frustration' channel

for forced updates like this one has been

I suppose other channel names, such as 'Agony', 'Bend Over', and 'What, AGAIN?' would do as well...

As Red Hat prepares to become part of Big Blue, its financials look as solid as Linux kernel 2.4

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I google'd and found pcworld and computerworld articles [appeared to be the same article] saying that RH was taking a more active role in CentOS. So probably, yeah.

This is probably like Microsoft assimilating github - I'll play "wait and see" before making any real judgements, but so far I'm not disappointed. I still have a lot on github. Not gonna stop using it any time soon.

And so with RH and I guess CentOS too, I suspect that nothing bad will happen any time soon. If anything it puts them in a position to become an alternative to Windows for _EVERYTHING_. I could see IBM doing that. Yep.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

2.4 was used in a lot of wirless access points a decade or so ago. It was pretty tiny, fit inside a 4M flash on broadcom-based systems. I think OpenWRT started out with 2.6 as I recall, and a lot of Linksys routers used 2.6 rather than 2.4 at that time. But yeah, that was the last time I did anything with 2.4, on wifi routers, 10+ years ago.

2.4 had the advantage of being extremely stable, yeah, in operation as well as development. It wasn't "a moving target".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wise move financially? Perhaps. Culturally? Nope ....

"Let's see what happens to RedHat's innovative drive - and revenue - once the standard IBM management techniques regarding (or better: disregarding) their human ressources kicks in."

yeah, "big company" H.R. is pretty bad in my opinion. Theyll start by having clueless mooks filtering all of the resumes for the right key words and tricky phrases (or something equally moronic) which is likely to filter out the best people in favor of those who know how to milk the system...

(yeah I have a pretty low opinion of H.R. droids)

What I wonder, however, is how the 'culture of IBM' will affect some of the things that SOME call "innovation" but _I_ call "in the way". You know, like:

a) systemd

b) wayland

etc.

I have a strong suspicion that IBM may use RH as a vehicle towards providing an alternative to Win-10-nic. One can only hope...

But we hired a consultant, cries UK pensions biz as it swallows £40k fine for 2 million spam emails

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

A good start

now to see the REST of the "no excuse" spammers get fined and punished into non-existence.

OK fat chance, right? But I can have wishful thinking and hope. Until it's dashed... as usual.

Ethiopian Airlines boss confirms suspect flight software was in use as Boeing 737 Max crashed

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: The Best Analysis Of What Really Happened

it's a fair bet they'll be compelled to retrofit planes with the $80k warning light option/upgrade. If not, they should be. THAT and some updated training materials, better software. Probably won't be done with it for a little while...

Aussie engineer accuses 'serial farter' supervisor of bullying, seeks $1.8m redress

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: To jump to a philosophical issue

"if everyone farted Chanel No5"

More like 'Chanel Number 2'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: To jump to a philosophical issue

I once had chili for lunch at work, a big can of it, and sneaked a 'silent but deadly' one out an hour or two later, and a lady nearby [about 10 to 15 years older than me] smelled it and wondered what was cooking, "smells kinda good". I carefully avoided laughing...

(yes, this really happened)

normally my ass-gas clears the room. But, rarely, it will smell like what I ate.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Strike a light!

this whole thing reminds me of that 'Crepitation Contest' recording from the 40's or 50's (or at least some time before I was born) featuring Paul Boomer of Oz vs Lord Windesmear of UK [or something like that]

NASA's first all-woman spacewalk outside ISS cancelled – due to lack of spacesuits that fit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

"Does this space suit make my ass look big?"

I absolutely could _NOT_ resist!

NASA 'nauts do what flagship smartphone fans can only dream of: Change the batteries

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Replaceable batteries.

the thing about LiPo and LiIon batteries is that they tend to wear out faster than NiMH (from my experience, anyway) although their weight is significantly lower.

That, and the tendency to catch on fire if you don't treat them right.

(Being surrounded by a vacuum might make LiPo/LiIon safer, though)

Lithium, next to hydrogen, is the most reactive material, and is the most reactive metal. And lithium batteries have a charge/discharge behavior curve that you need to be very careful with. Over-discharge them and they start outgassing, which greatly reduces their performance and life expectancy.

And for some reason, I never seem to get a typical LiPo or LiIon to last NEARLY as long as an NiMH battery can last. Laptop batteries in particular seem to fail more readily when they're lithium based, but I still have old NiMH batteries for old laptops that work just fine, even 15 year old batteries (with reduction in capacity, but still holding a charge). Go fig, yeah.

(worthy of note, I was deeply involved with charge cycles on a LiPo battery for a customer project a short while back, from charging circuits to undervolt protection and why I needed to design that in)

Anyway, lithium batteries are a bit overrated in that regard. But as it's only for another, maybe 5 or 6 years, I can see (because of weight alone) why NASA would swap in lithium batteries for NiMH.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

imagine what air travel would be like if only government had been in charge of air travel...

Hey, what's Mandarin for 'WTF is going on?' Nokia phones caught spewing device IDs to China, software blunder blamed

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: no excuse....

so here's the scenario:

a) (alleged) China requirement, make phones 'phone home' in plain text

b) tracking sniffers everywhere

c) plain text makes it easier for the tracking sniffers to track you

there ya go!

icon because it smells like a gummint conspiracy