bpalone

It just keeps getting more unbelievable by the moment. Entire article here: http://washingtonexaminer.com/navy-database-tracks-civilians-parking-tickets-fender-benders-raising-fears-of-domestic-spying/article/2546038 Am I missing something here? Just why would the Navy need this information? 1984 might just be a kinder version of what is going on. bpalone

The entire article can be read here: http://phys.org/news/2014-03-wpa2-wireless.html#jCp Not quite as easy breaking into a WEP system, but it appears that it isn't all that hard for a determined party to breach. Wouldn't want to point any fingers, but I think we can all think of several alphabet agencies of various governments that would fall into that category. Didn't mean to ruin everyone's weekend. bpalone

Now, I question if the article was well researched, as it sticks to my feeble mind that something has been said around here about the embedded being supported for a few more years. That being said here is another quote: Just found it interesting and thought I would point it out. Could this be what you're thinking of? --JorgeA That could very well be what I was thinking of. bpalone

Now, I question if the article was well researched, as it sticks to my feeble mind that something has been said around here about the embedded being supported for a few more years. That being said here is another quote: The entire article can be read here: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9247096/ATM_operators_eye_Linux_as_alternative_to_Windows_XP Most distros upgrade on a far more active cycle than Microsoft. However, if you have the source code and your staff has the chops, there is no reason you couldn't run a very old version of Linux on an embedded system. Although, the instance the article is talking about, involves the machine to be connected to some form of network. So, that would complicate the issue some, but not totally unsolvable. That is, of course, if there isn't some retarded government or industry regulation that would keep you from getting there, because said regulation specified some particular product that had to be used. Just found it interesting and thought I would point it out. bpalone

If they are using waste water, then that takes some of the bite out of it. But still, it doesn't generate any tangible product so on a purely capitalistic viewpoint it makes zero sense. The real big issue, is that what it is there for, is that the data can and will probably be miss used. Back to the waste water. I guess that would make a job there pretty sheety in a sheety work environment. I just couldn't resist it. bpalone

And you see , that was exactly the point . Yet another item that someone else created, that will (in this case very marginally) occupy your hard disk space. BTW, the author of that post is someone that still has *somewhere* the following hardware (and it's related software). Sinclair ZX81 <- 1981 Sinclair Spectrum <- 1983 Sinclair QL <- 1985 Toshiba T3100e <-1987 Macintosh Powerbook 140 <- 1992 Acer Extensa 355 <- 1996 and *any* amount of partially or fully broken (and even some working) PC's dating back up to 1994 or so, to which you add an incredible amount of "burned" CD's containing software, and a correspondent if not bigger amount of data stored in old hard disk drives. In other words, ponder on his words, but DO NOT take him as an example of "efficiency by throwing away things you don't need anymore" . jaclaz Ah, Yes, I agree with what you said in response my post, that the above quote starts from. We all collect large amounts of stuff, some valuable and a great deal not so. Now, on to why I started this reply. I have often looked at those of us that hang around here and wondered if maybe we are not the digital version of the car guys. Is that old 386 equal to the 1950 Studabaker? (sp?) Or the old Pentium One equals the 1957 Chevy? Or.. the old Z-80 equals the AMC Pacer? After all, we all enjoy messing around with computers or we wouldn't be here. But, we also recognize that newer is not always better. Pass me that DOS floppy will you? bpalone p.s. I fondly remember when I got my first 6 gb hard drive and loudly proclaimed that I will never fill that up.

Question of the day being: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/03/nsa-water/ jaclaz I don't live in Utah, but have done a fair amount of work in the state in different parts of it. There are some places where the Jack Rabbits pack canteens. I find it hard to believe that Utah allowed them to build it there simply because of the water demand. Using the lower number of 1.2 million gallons a day and 55 gallons per day for a person, that is enough water for approximately 21,818 people per day, used for nothing more than snooping. Probably a large part snooping on its own citizens, who are paying for it to boot. bpalone

Thank you, I will. You highlighted one issue I noticed as well, and that was the RT or Arm branch. I mentioned some time back on this thread, that we may be watching the conversion from one platform to another. Arm owns the mobile market and is making inroads in other areas. I agree that it does appear that they are taking away the 32 bit option. Now to my issues, or concerns if you will: 1.) Who REALLY needs 4, 6, 8 or more cores? I mean really need, not just want because it is cool. Some sever centers and a handful of professionals in specific fields. 2.) Who REALLY needs 6, 8, 16 gigs of ram? Again some server centers and a handful of professionals. 3.) Who REALLY needs 2, 4, 6 Terabytes of hard drive storage? As above again. Now on the storage front I will concede that with all of our creation of digital content, such as MP3s, pictures, and videos, we have a larger appetite for storage than we used to. But, a normal contract, business letter, term paper or whatever still takes pretty much the same space as it did a few years ago, unless of course you have moved to one of the NEW and IMPROVED file formats. Same thing for most spreadsheets, however some of those have become monsters in and of themselves. With the above in mind, I have to come to the conclusion that there really isn't much reason or justification for moving to 64 bit or 128 bit. I did agree that the moves from 8 bit to 16 bit and 32 bit were all improvements. But, there just isn't quite as much of a compelling reason to make the move to 64 and beyond. For an analogy, there were a lot of compelling reasons to move from VHS tapes to DVDs, but not as much to move from DVD to Blueray. Now, backing off and looking at the moves Microsoft is making, it appears to look a great deal like a livestock working corral. They keep crowding us forward into a narrower and narrower alley way, until there is no option but to follow in single file to where they want you. I relinquish the soap box back. bpalone

For no real reason other than I think most of us can relate to the little fellow in the image linked to. http://jwenet.net/notebook/1337/1023.html bpalone

Let Metro stay in the codebase. Unless Windows 9 offers a way to banish Metro totally, utterly, and completely from the user's consciousness, I'm thinking that after Win7 I will be moving on to Linux. --JorgeA More from the article: The emphasis is mine. I think it was in this thread where I made my comment about where they were headed with UEFI and it appears that this may be conformation of my fears. They want to have TOTAL CONTROL of the system and have total control over your data, nothing is yours anymore. It all belongs to the collective. Kinda reminds me of the old bumper sticker: "We are Microsoft, you will assimilate, resistance is futile." And more fine points: Again my emphasis. Almost sounds like JorgeA is going to be practicing his Penguin waddle. Almost makes me wonder what is in the water cooler in Redmond. They all probably think that everyone has a high speed internet connection, oh wait, that is what they think isn't it? I think the Xbox One was built upon that premise. Better get off my soap box. bpalone

jaclaz I did go and leave my $0.02 worth at the survey, but I fear it is FAR to late to do any good. I noticed that Ubuntu was heading down a path I didn't care for, within a year or so after I made the move to Linux as my primary OS. Right now, I feel that when I do upgrade my Linux OS, that it will be to either a straight Debian with a Mate Desktop or Linux Mint with a Mate Desktop. The good folks at Gnome lost their way, too. May have something to do with having all this horsepower available today and all the available ram that most people never even touch with what they use a computer for. They figure that it is THEIR playground and we are going to make the user use all that horsepower and storage, never mind the the performance grinds down to the point that an old 8088 starts to look really fast. I have some 98SE computers around here and every time I fire one of them up and shut it down, I ask myself, "Have we really advanced?" as the speed of it is mind boggelling. And, that is on hardware from its era. As for political agenda, I just want to get my work done without being hassled by an overweight clumsy OS or Software. bpalone

Well, it looks like all that is left is the Wake. The entire article can be read here: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/03/14/following-multiple-delays-mozilla-scraps-metro-firefox-windows-8-due-low-adoption/ Almost makes one truly question Microsoft's numbers as far licenses are concerned. Granted, I doubt many of the lovers of the PlaySkool Interface would be of the type that would bother themselves with beta testing to help their cause. We have questioned it all along, but this adds some fuel to the fire. bpalone

You mean like this?: When the WYSIWYG mode is being a pain, try toggling into BBCode mode by clicking the little button in the top left of the edit box directly above the B (Bold) button. That will expose all of the BBCode for the post which then will just be text that is then sometimes easier to manipulate. It's a little bit of a pain but can be very handy. Cheers and Regards Thanks for the tip, will leave as is above, so that if someone else has the same issue, they can see and understand what the issue was. bpalone

It looks like Microsoft isn't the only one that thinks you/we don't own OUR HARDWARE. This is quite unbelievable, but it is happening today. Where or when did we fall off this cliff into the Abyss? The entire article can be read here: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/03/google-and-microsoft-are-out-to-stop-dual-boot-windowsandroid-devices/ bpalone edit was attempt to separate the lines in ONE quote box, which we can all was not a real success. GEE, I really do like all new software.

Well, basically any new exploit being brought forth is probably a result of effort being spent looking for ways into Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8, not being specifically targeted at XP. They just get lucky, in the fact that some common code base goes back to earlier versions. Think of it as if you yourself were fixing to bring forth a product, would you want to be spending your time and money developing for a SHRINKING market? Would you really want to spend several hundred thousand dollars developing a a better buggy whip today? Last time, I checked there is a VERY LIMITED market for buggy whips. The days of people getting into a system to just have bragging rights are pretty much over. These days it is done to generate revenue, even though illegally, still to generate a revenue stream. From what I have read, and connecting the dots, most of the malware is developed and then sold to someone that wants to use the exploit. The authors are only selling software for illicit purposes, of course, but just selling software. So, if the potential targets of that software is decreasing, why would they want to spend time finding new ways into a shrinking pool of victims? bpalone

@JorgeA I came to the GUI kicking and screaming. We were finally getting enough horsepower to do some serious computing and Microsoft wanted to slow the thing down by putting this SLUG interface on it. At the time I equated it to going out and buying the Triple Crown Winner and bringing him/her home and hooking it up to the plow. But, I conceded and some of the niceties, such as being able to cut and paste between programs won me over. Then 98se came along and actually won me over to the GUI, then 2K cemented me firmly. THEN, along comes XP and shatters the concrete. One of my all time complaints about the Windows (Microsoft) GUI, was that it isolated you from the nitty gritty of the system. If MS failed to implement something quite the way wanted or needed, you were basically S.O.L. Unless, of course, you were willing to learn the API and even then some times you were unable to get done what you wanted to do. In the old DOS days, you had unfettered access to the hardware and could get things done. Now, that did open some security issues, but we were not as connected in those days as we are now. I also attribute the SLOPPY CODING we see today to the rise of the GUI and this is not just a Microsoft problem. All code today is bloated, the programmer no longer has to take into account the hardware and memory available, unless they are developing for embedded systems. In the old days, you had to write tight code and manage memory well or you were DOA. Today, the programmer has multiple gigabytes of system memory and often time several terabytes of storage available. as well as having a CPU so fast that even the worst possible code runs at an acceptable speed. So... everyone figures that there is no need to be good at optimizing code for performance. Of course, this is a two edged sword. Personally, here a few years ago I was writing a little application for myself. It was going to have to access a data set, of a fair size but not huge, many times during the execution of the program. I did not want to subject my hard drive to the abuse of many read accesses and spent a few days mulling the problem over. Then the DUH moment finally hit me. Gee, I've got two plus gigabytes of memory in there and at any given moment I am only using what, maybe at most 30-35% of it. Then I decided I could just allocate some memory, move the data to memory and access the beegeezers out of it there, plus I gained a very significant speed increase. So, you see, you can become so set in your thinking, that the obvious becomes a bit translucent. Sorry for getting off on the rant here, but most of the young folks truly don't grasp how important it is to be short and concise. I say that after this long winded rant. Back closer to the subject, the first words I uttered after seeing the news about UEFI was, they are heading down the road to a system that will only allow you to load and run THEIR OPERATING SYSTEM AND ONLY, and I repeat, ONLY SOFTWARE THEY HAVE EITHER SOLD YOU OR HAVE APPROVED. From where I sit today viewing everything unfold, it appears that I had it pretty well nailed. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming. bpalone

It's not just MS and Apple, Ubuntu's Unity is the same thing. I agree, it is a flawed idea. Then again, those of us hanging around here are far more prone to view OSes and Programs as tools that are used to accomplish a task. bpalone

Well, I can :http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/experts.html jaclaz Of course we are using the way-ahead-machine again, since the article is dated August 18, 2017, 13:33!! But good for a grin again. bpalone

Just a thought I had while replying to another thread. I think that a very large part of all of our distaste for the direction Microsoft is heading with Windows 8 and beyond, is a loss of control. So, ponder the following thoughts: 1.) The computer is OUR hardware. 2.) Any OS or Software is a GUEST on our hardware. 3.) We really don't like guests telling us what to do and will almost always show that guest the door. Am I correct in my summary? bpalone

--JorgeA What all these folks miss, is that the nefarious hackers operate just like a business. An unmarketed or unsold/unused exploit is money setting wasting away. They must generate revenue in order to continue to function, just like a legitimate business. So, they are not going to sit on a bunch of exploits waiting for the number of potential victims to decrease. They will be getting their nickels worth while the getting is still as good as it gets. Also, any R&D will be being spent on the newer versions of Windows, as that holds the most potential down the road. Now, they may test something from there against an older OS just to see if it works there too. But, their main target will be the newer versions. It's an effort versus reward type of thing. So... for all those FUD slingers saying that the hackers are just waiting and are going to have a hey day, I say HOG WASH. Now, I will concede that maybe someone has just within the last 30 days or so, has come across the KILLER NT exploit. Then, maybe they might wait, as it would possibly make the opportunity window a bit sweeter. But, I highly doubt it. I really can't believe that the so called experts are actually helping spread this FUD. But, then again, MS might be buttering one side of their toast. bpalone edit typo

Valid point on the upgrade cycle. I think Ubuntu goes 5 yrs on the LTS version for security updates. I also have problems with upgrading every time I turn around, which I guess is somewhat obvious with versions being used. Personally, I have thought that all the upgrades and security patches on any OS have been more trouble than they are worth, but I had far less issues with Linux security patches than with Windows. But, I don't run all over the internet on a click fest either. I am also always behind a router, too. So, I would guess that my exposure front is limited compared to someone that connects directly. I have not done it, but will when I do upgrade, but if you create a separate partition for your home directory, you supposedly have a much easier time upgrading as all your settings are saved in your home directory. We have all done the somewhat the same thing with Windows, by installing the OS in a partition and then putting all the data on different partition. I agree, updating every three years is far to quick, I like ten to twenty year cycle myself. bpalone

If you don't mind my asking, what FOSS OS are you using? (Which flavor?) --JorgeA THIS IS OFF TOPIC I am using (by all the young in crowds definitions) an ancient version of Ubuntu. I have everything working and tweaked to how I like it, so why do I need to update? I do however, get the message from various sites that my browser is outdated. To answer your question, Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy is my main OS with my 2K the secondary. At this time, if I were to recommend a distro for someone making the move, I think it would be Mint with a MATE desktop. Probably a little less desktop shock than Gnome 3 or Unity. As you know, if you don't like the desktop you can change to whatever you like with just few clicks and a short bit of time. But, Mint is also an easy set up, as installing some codecs, etc is a one click affair now and other distros require you to root around a bit to get things to work. Besides, I like my old hardware and Linux usually does a decent job of continuing to support it. After all, I think it was just last year that they dropped some old 386 specific code from the kernel (I might wrong, as it may of been 486). bpalone

My bet is they just use their landline phone. Or, use a blanket and a smoldering fire. bpalone

Update to this story. I apologize, but I did not gather the source data. Nevertheless, I did read on slashdot.org yesterday that the authorities say that her death was not suspicious which rules out homicide. There wasn't much else stated. bpalone

This just confirms how desperate they are. It is more FUD/Scare Tactics to TRY and force users off of what they call an outdated operating system. It is really to bad that they don't think about selling support for X dollars a year. There are a fair number of folks that would never sign up for, but I bet there would be a very large number that would. It would do two things... 1) extend the life of a fairly decent OS and 2) extend the life of compatible hardware and drivers. But, what do I know. I'm just an old f&*t that quit their treadmill with 2K and moved on to a FOSS OS for the newer stuff. bpalone