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User: rnturn

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  1. ``Proponents of the bill say it is a defense measure in case the United States or other hostile powers cut off the internet for Russia.

    Uh, huh. Whatever you say. It might help in sucking up to Vlad, though.

  2. ... or a short story about this published about 50-60 years ago? I'm drawing a blank (and all my old scifi novels are in storage) but it involved billboards in space or ads on the moon or some such idea.

  3. Still screwed up... on Sunday-Morning Outage Strikes Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp (gizmodo.com) · · Score: 1

    ... at late afternoon Central time. Only showing 3-4 items in one's news feed. I'm sure Mark's spear-heading the team that's working on it.

  4. ... if you're expecting your employees to put in regular 72-hour weeks, you're running a sweatshop. And shame on Walmart (never viewed them favorably) and Google (opinion of this bunch is dropping like a rock) for investing in this jackass's business.

  5. Of course they are. on Are Phone-Addicted Drivers More Dangerous Than Drunk Drivers? (axios.com) · · Score: 1

    I can get in an accident with someone who's texting -- or otherwise fiddling with their phone -- at any time of day. Drunks drivers are mainly a problem at night. That there are almost certainly many more texters behind the wheel than drunks makes the problem even worse.

  6. Re:Self Selected Survey Participants .... on The Most Loved and Most Disliked Programming Languages Revealed in Stack Overflow Survey (stackoverflow.com) · · Score: 1

    Exactly. Don't even waste your time squinting at these results in an effort to get anything useful from them.

  7. Apple's honest response should be on Dutch Regulators Want To Know Whether Apple is Favoring Its Own Apps (cnn.com) · · Score: 1

    ... "Are bears Catholic? Does the Pope..."

    OK... they won't respond with that but they've likely already got a slew of canned responses designed to obscure their policies. I won't hold my breath waiting for them to be truly honest.

  8. Won't this require... on Google Chrome Wants To Block Some HTTP File Downloads (zdnet.com) · · Score: 1

    ... web site to go through all their web pages and make sure that no instances of "http:" are accidentally left in pages where downloads are available?

    It might be easier for web sites to merely add a browser detector to their pages to warn the user that they're using a product from a vendor that's actively trying to make their use of the Internet into a royal pain in the behind?

  9. Isn't this about the gazillionth time... on Why Aren't People Abandoning Windows For Linux? (slashgear.com) · · Score: 1

    ...that the answer to this question is: The applications! Jeebus... it's the applications!

    I know of several people who are "stuck" on Windows because they rely on a sophisticated bit of graphics design software that is only available on Windows (and, occasionally, on MacOS). And I'm sorry, but that, for these users, The GIMP does not suffice no matter how many times some fanatic starts shouting that it does. I'm sure there are other applications that are deeply entrenched into a business that would be too disruptive to uproot and switch everyone over to Linux even if there is an alternative that matches the original feature-for-feature..

    That said... plenty of people have abandoned Windows. I know of some who, like Ernie Ball, decided that hassle of dealing with Windows (or the BSA) wasn't worth it and switched to Linux---or, in some cases, some BSD variant. In my case, it happened in the latter half of the '00s after WinXP scribbled on itself one time too many---straw, camel's back, etc. I have a kvm image of Win7 around here somewhere---in case I get nostalgic.

  10. Looks like /. still hasn't figured out how tiresome these stories have gotten over the years. (OK... I'm off to read the moderation instructions to see if one can downvote entire stories.)

  11. Let there be light!?

    We should be careful playing around with this should it become more than a mere prediction.

  12. ``Not all people who have bad internet connection are poor. It is just that they are not absurdly rich to get ISP's to get wires to their home. Some farmers who actually make a good living, may be miles away from the Internet Infrastructure, however will benefit getting information on weather, commodity prices, veterinarian results, bank account data, new on any new regulations, and communication with others.''

    I submit that those folks would be excellent candidates for satellite-based internet access. All of the activities listed would be well served by that technology. Drones? You gotta be kidding.

  13. What was the RFC for the carrier pigeon protocol? on Facebook Secretly Explored Building Bird-Size Drones To Ferry Data To People With Bad Internet Connections (businessinsider.com) · · Score: 1

    They must be trying to implement that. It's too early for April Fool's Day.

  14. ``...but turn out to be prophetic because he knows the direction the world is going.''

    What a crock. I was forced to use WhatsApp while I was working on a project a while back. We all knew it was connected to Facebook, didn't want anything connected with them on our phones, and tried to suggest an alternative (Signal was what we lobbied for at the time) but were told "Management has spoken". As soon as the contract ended, everyone I worked closely with on the project deleted it. As for Instagram: what a time sink that is. If that's where the world's going, we're all in it. Deep.

  15. Re: My Macbook keyboard problem... on Apple Still Hasn't Fixed Its MacBook Keyboard Problem (wsj.com) · · Score: 1

    When the company issues you a Mac, you use their Mac.

  16. My Macbook keyboard problem... on Apple Still Hasn't Fixed Its MacBook Keyboard Problem (wsj.com) · · Score: 1

    ...--at least when I was working at home--was easily fixed with a USB-to-PS2 adapter and an IBM Model M keyboard. (Damned Mac keyboards are too small for my hands, anyway. Nothing but red squigglies and command line error messages using those tiny things.)

  17. Oh... Are we back to t"pilot error" excuses again? on The Other Recent Deadly Boeing Crash No One Is Talking About (nymag.com) · · Score: 1

    ``...the cause could turn out not to be a design flaw or software malfunction that can be rectified, but a basic shortcoming in human perception and psychology that cannot be fixed as long as humans are entrusted with the control of airplanes.''

    On the other hand, we have two recent examples of what can happen when a flight computer is given control of the plane and it is unable to avoid doing something stupid like--as the old euphemism goes--`make inadvertent contact with the terrain'. Until we know more about how this was supposed work and exactly why it didn't, I think I'll trust the human with his hands on the controls more than the flight computer. (Thankfully, the occasions for my needing to fly are few and far between.)

  18. Re:Oracle sucks on Oracle's Surprise Unannounced Layoffs 'Clear-Cut Teams of Engineers' (ieee.org) · · Score: 2

    ``...no reason kicking people out on the spot instead of relying on attrition, early retirements or at least providing a reasonable heads-up to those affected.''

    Summer's coming. Maybe Larry needs to gas up the yacht.

  19. ... I'm always getting emails from recruiters letting me know that Oracle is hiring. Probably because I have nothing to do with database internals development and engineering. It will be interesting to see just what the final numbers are and what areas of the company got hit hardest.

  20. "Consumers" have finally hit the limit... on As 'Subscription Fatigue' Sets In, the OTT Reckoning May Be Upon Us (adweek.com) · · Score: 1

    ... of how many corporate hands they want in their bank accounts every month.

  21. Thanks for the reminder... on AT&T's 5G E Falls Short of T-Mobile and Verizon 4G Speeds: OpenSignal (venturebeat.com) · · Score: 1

    ...I haven't deleted that email from AT&T begging me to come back yet. I hope they have all sorts of trouble getting the egg off their faces. Bogus 5G advertising campaign and slower speeds to boot. Way to go, guys.

  22. Two possible solutions: on Texas Lawmakers Want To Stop Tesla From Fixing Its Own Cars (electrek.co) · · Score: 1

    One: Build the damned wall at the Oklahoma and New Mexico borders. Two: Just let 'em secede.

  23. Was his involvement in the group from the days when high school kids (or younger) could wreak havoc with Windows using a Word Basic macro? If so, then who cares?

  24. Internet via cable. TV via antenna. No bundling discount but no ad problem.

  25. Re:Zuckerberg was able to get it up again on Facebook is Down · · Score: 1

    It's back up enough to let users know they're undergoing "maintenance". Click on the link that they provide and it tells you that "we're making an improvement to the database your account is stored on" which probably means they've thought of additional personal details they'd like to record about their users but didn't have the capability to do so in the database. It also claims that not everyone's account is being "improved" at the same time and that your friends' accounts are probably just fine. Uh huh... right.