Posts by Maelstorm 367 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2015
Oracle is trying to be like Apple by forcing upgrades down everyone's throat, and then taking out the backwards compatibility so people are force to pay for software upgrades too. Sorry Larry, but the world is not big enough for one Apple let alone two. And Oracle's target audience, the enterprise, are a very discerning bunch who will move to new hardware and software when they are damn ready too. They aren't like the consumers who Apple caters to. You push enterprise customers too much, they will switch platforms.
Nothing to see here folks. Just another dick measuring contest. OpenOffice being the more mature product is similar to *BSD where LibreOffice is more akin to Linux.
With that being said, I moved from OpenOffice to LibreOffice years ago because OO couldn't do something that I needed it to. Furthermore, OpenOffice is actually the open source version of Sun Microsystems Star Office (I have a version 6.0 CD running around here somewhere.) which was Sun's answer to Microsoft Office at the time.
Why not just make an open source C/C++ native compile editor that uses a commonly accepted toolkit like Qt or GTK or wxWidgets so that it PERORMS WELL on embedded systems...
Beyond you, who runs an IDE on an embedded system? Everyone that I know does the work on a workstation, compiles the code with a cross-compiler, and then loads the image into the firmware. Unless of course your definition of embedded is different than mine.
I've read some of the comments on here and I do agree with many of them. Visual Studio Code's 251MB install footprint is actually lightweight, considering that the full Visual Studio takes 6.01GB over 47,762 files and 9464 folders. Android Studio is worse. The IDE components take 1.59GB while the SDKs take up a whopping 126GB in 223,563 files and 28,057 folders. It likes to shove extensions down your throat based on the files that you are editing. I use a few based on the work that I do. One that I have found very useful is the vim extension. It has it's issues like everything else, but since I do a lot of work in a Unix environment using vi, it makes it easier to switch platforms between Unix and Windows.
VS Code: Beyond it's issues, it's a nice little editor that's lightweight, loads fast, and generally well behaved.
Because many are refusing to pay the ransom, the ransomware groups are now exfiltrating gigabytes of data from their victims. Along with encrypting your files, if you don't pay the ransom, they will expose your data on the internet for all to see. This puts victims in impossible situations where even if you can recover using backups, you are still going to get burned by not paying because your data is exposed. As we all know, depending on the nature of the data, this could be customer information, embarrassing emails, classified information (if a government contractor), etc.... All bad.
There are only so many groups clever enough to do this thing. It takes weeks of surveillance and picking and choosing your targets and vulnerabilities.
Most of the groups who are are capable of using ransomware are state sponsored threat actors. The rest are criminal enterprise. In many cases, it's actually cheaper to pay the ransom than to recreate the data. It does take weeks of surveillance to properly crack an enterprise network: Firewall upon firewalls, IDS, jump servers, etc.... Look at the Equifax breach. IMHO, that was state sponsored because there was two groups who perpetrated that...and the stolen information still hasn't seen the light of day years later. By two groups, I mean there was an entry crew who performed the initial penetration of the network, but they could only get so far. Then there was the second group, who penetrated all the way in and got the goods. They were in the network for so long that they actually tailored their tools to Equifax's network. That one was caused by an unpatched vulnerability in Apache Struts.
ICANN is based in the US and operates under the Department of Commerce. They are not under the purview of the EU. So, with that in mind, what exactly will fining them do? It's a different country so they aren't going to pay it. If ICANN wants to play hardball, any registrar who refuses to run a public WHOIS database may get their contract, and their ability to register domains, revoked. I'm surprised nobody has brought this up yet.
Unless of course I'm missing something, which I know I probably am. So, would someone please enlighten me?
Although not exactly the same, this is somewhat of a similar argument to that old 1992 case. Based on some of the comments, I think the SC justices are aware of that case and the precedent that it set. This is a very complex case with very deep legal questions. Things that only a lawyer can love. IANAL, but I remember something about a Java case between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems where Microsoft was ordered to pay something like USD $1.5 billion to Sun for extending Java along the lines of their embrace, extend, extinguish mantra. I also remember Windows XP Service Pack 1.0a which removed Microsoft's implementation of Java from Windows.
The USL vs. BSDi (which later included UC Berkeley) was an interesting case about reimplementing code. The details of the settlement was sealed until the SCO vs. IBM zombie case (which is still kicking from my understanding). The case revolved around the copying of 6 files from Unix that was incorporated into the BSDi version of Unix, and the removal of copyright notices, and lack of acknowledgements in source code and documentation. A settlement was reached and everyone was happy, until now.
I know of one clean-room implementation of software that exactly fits this case: MS-DOS vs. DR-DOS. Bill Gate's Microsoft tried EVERYTHING to kill DR-DOS, but couldn't. Kind of a moot point now though, but the people at Digital Research went through MS-DOS and wrote a complete specification of it, including the APIs and then sent that specification to a group of programmers who reimplemented it. Since it wasn't the same, Microsoft couldn't call copyright protections on it, even though it did the same thing.
And there was Chamberlain Group Inc vs Skylink Technologies Inc. relating to interoperability of garage door openers. Granted, that one is kind of a stretch.
As a software engineer, I hope that SCOTUS sides with Google. Besides, the current understanding in the industry is that the API, although it is technically code, should not and cannot be copyrightable. If it does happen to fall that way, then much software out there will suddenly become illegal.
Take LibreOffice for example. They employ filters to read/write Microsoft Office formats. If it turns out that APIs are copyrightable, that functionality will probably go away since Microsoft will not want anyone using their formats to push people to their Office 360 offering.
That is just ONE example. There's a multitude of more. The status quo is to side with Google in such a way as to say that APIs are not copyrightable, but implementations are. That is the logical and common sense decision.
I wish to point out that AT&T sued U.C. Berkeley because 6 files were co-opted from AT&T Unix into BSD to make it into a full fledged operating system. However, it was discovered that AT&T was removing the copyright notices from the BSD source files and the man pages in violation of the license. So they settled out of court and the agreement was sealed. This was back in...the early 1980's I think. Fast forward to SCO vs. IBM. That sealed agreement was unsealed and posted to the internet for all to see. As far as I can tell, there has been no final ruling on the case. The last update was in 2019, which means that the case is still ongoing...17 years later.
I'm beginning to think that these tech companies are in a dick measuring contest based on the number of dick moves they have done that has been reported in recent news. I have problems hearing and I tend to rely on subtitles and closed captioning to enjoy shows, movies, and streaming video. So, terminating Community Contributions a year before rolling out the Trusted Captioner feature is a really big dick move, and may be illegal under US law (Americans with Disabilities Act). So in response to Google's dick move, I'm going to pull a dick move of my own: Contact an advocacy group for the hearing impaired and let them put Google's feet to the fire.
Some companies just need to be put out of their misery and get it over with. Atari is one of those companies. They had a good run in the 1980s with consoles, and in the 1990s with games and such. But now they are just pathetic. Who's writing/porting games for it anyways? What games does it have?
Just saying.
Fuck you Amazon. The only way that you get my hand print is off Jeff Bezos' face when I slap him.
They want our handprints now? Next they will fucking want the DNA of our firstborn. What if they suffer a security breach? You can't change fingerprints like you can change credit card numbers. I can see if some intelligence agency get's ahold of someone's finger prints, someone with a position of power, public trust, or with a security clearance, to create leverage to force someone to betray their country.
I admit my ignorance here, but isn't 1/6th of Ireland still under the direct control of the British Crown? Also, since Ireland is (at least partially) under control of the United Kingdom, with Brexit, why does the EU Commission even care? Once Brexit happens, they will be outside EU jurisdiction anyways...unless I'm missing something.
It is quite obvious that people care about this stuff, and if I was younger, I would too. As far as I'm concerned, nVidia can take they GPUs and stick up their ass. I've been burned too many times by them with failed hardware just outside the 1 year warranty period. You won't see me standing in line for one because even at $1499, they are still a piece of shit. So nVidia, eat this *drops nuke*. So far, I have had really good luck with ATI (AMD) cards.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Apple's claim just yet. Epic did breach their contract agreements with Apple. That much is plain to see. However, Epic MIGHT have a claim against Apple for anti-competitive behavior. As to how this plays out in the courts, your guess is as good as mine. All we can do at this point is sit back, wait, and watch....one court filing at a time.
Side note: In the Constitution, there is a clause about the supremacy of federal law, and federal law supersedes any contract within the U.S.A. So if the court finds that Apple violated the Sherman Act, Apple might be forced to open their closed ecosystem. As I said, this could go either way.
Has anyone else noticed that the other 800 lbs gorilla in the room is strangely silent? While Apple and Epic conduct their kids' playground fight in a very public way, nary a peep from Google. The nice thing about Android is that you can install apps without the Google Play Store, so Epic has a way in for a competing app store. Apple, on the other hand is a completely closed ecosystem. You have no choice but to use their app store...unless you have a jailbroken iDevice where you can install whatever you want.
Epic MIGHT have a case against Apple for being anti-competitive as a result, although I am not a lawyer. To be fair to Apple though, Apple does guarantee that all apps on their store function are are safe, which is the result of that closed ecosystem. However, Epic did violate the contracts they had with Apple, which is the core of the dispute.
The judge is going to laugh them out of court. Trade tariffs and trade deals are the purview of the Executive and Legislative branches of the US Government. The courts have nothing to do with it. In fact, I can't recall an incident where a case like this was even brought to court.
EDIT: I stand corrected. Apparently there was an incident with steel imports from Turkey in July of this year. So the President issued a 25% tariff on all steel imports except from Canada and Mexico. Then when tensions with Turkey escalated, the President issued another tariff against Turkey to raise it to 50%. That was deemed illegal by the court. It's extrordinarliy rare for a Presidential order of tariffs to be overturned by a court. Even the article mentions they are not aware of any previous case.
Landmark court decision limits presidential trade restrictions
So with this new information, I think they are going to try to use this case to overturn the President's trade policy with China. I wish them luck because they are going to need it.
After being burned with Microsoft feature/quality updates, I do not install them right away. I set feature updates to wait 90 days before being applied while quality updates get the 7 days treatment. Microsoft removed the ability to do that in the settings for 2004, so you now have to go into the group policy editor to set it. It's almost like they want people to have broken computers. Even so, that gives me time to tweak the image using DISM and apply a few updates and such before I install it. I don't know if they are not testing their software or what, but it seems that lately everyone's USB devices break with each update. They can't even seem to get USB-3 right. We were promised USB-3 since 2010 (IIRC) and it still doesn't work, or works sporadically for the majority of people. With such a bad rap, Microsoft has announced Windows 10X. The problem is if the team remains the same, then 10X will be plagued by the same problems as 10. After this, I think my next system will run Linux.
Until AI gets more proficient at deducing the purpose of a particular path of execution, humans will always be involved in testing code. With that being said, even humans can have a hard time trying to figure out what a piece of code does if it's complex enough. This leads to a pet peeve of mine. Comments or the lack thereof. I can't tell you the number of times that I have looked at code, and found no comments in much of it. Then it takes time for me to trace through the logic to piece together the original programmer's mindset when the code was written. This is more akin to legacy code than it is for recent code, especially if development is active and you are on the team.
Given that this was built in 1977, the plutonium-238 in the three radioisotope thermoelectric generators is about half way through its first half-life. The half-life is 87.7 years or so. With a dwindling power supply, the probe is still operating with two computers, four instruments, and a microwave transceiver. It brings a tear to my eye: The little probe that could.
The thing is though is that Epic probably had this code in the app for months before having the servers activate it. This wasn't some spur of the moment business decision. This was planned for months. Premeditated is the term I believe.
With that being said, if Apple succeeds on getting the Unreal Engine booted from the store, that will blow up a significant share of the gaming industry. It won't be just Epic, it will be every game that uses the Unreal Engine. In fact, the judge actually cited that argument when issuing the preliminary restraining order. It's one thing to screw your self, it's something completely different when you take down not only yourself, but everyone that uses your products too.
The school isn't going to disclose how the teen was able to carry out a DDoS attack other than to say it was a software program. Really? I know how he carried it out, and so does everyone else here. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. And the computer fraud charge will probably not stick since he didn't really steal money...just disrupted some classes.
What you fail to understand is that I do understand that the First Amendment applies to the government only. What I was suggesting is changing the law so it also applies to social media platforms. Why are people so butthurt about a suggestion and an example? I mentioned political and religious speech specifically because it's those types of speech that seem to be regularly targeted for censorship by the social media platforms. It's not something that the baboon in chief said, I have personally been censored for expressing a conservative viewpoint. Instead of citizens, perhaps a better choice of words are people who live within the jurisdiction of the United States.
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