Your use of the term "obsolete" in regard to working software displays either bias or ignorance. Despite the term "bit rot" software doesn't become obsolete. It may become less appropriate than a more modern version, but quite often the "more modern version" is actually significantly inferior to the older version. And running on MS-DOS doesn't imply that it doesn't do the job more properly than any available potential replacement. That they are willing to go to the effort of running it under virtualization (that's a guess, but a pretty sure one) is an indication that they find it more desirable than alternatives.
Switching versions of software always has the potential of corrupting your data files, or just being impossible due to incompatible data formats of lack of needed features. That was the problem that originally convinced me to switch to FOSS software. With FOSS software at least you can hire someone to maintain the features you need, and the file formats are decodeable. It often isn't worth the effort involved, but sometimes it is, and you can always run under virtualization. (After I had decided to switch of FOSS software for this reason, the licenses of FOSS software, especially the GPL, convinced me to switch to a FOSS OS...in particular Linux. But the decision to prefer FOSS software came first, and originally I had no intention of switching OSes.)
It's not far away, but people are already shifting to 64-bit time clocks. That pushes the 2038 problem so far into the future that it really *is* safe to ignore it. More work is still needed, but it's already being addressed.
You've got a point...but it's a tiny one. There exist 3-d printers that can print in mixes of media, so that, in principle, you could print everything except the windows. This would be a very bad idea, as repairs would be nearly impossible, and it would also be very expensive as multi-media printers that can handle both metals and non-metals are quite expensive even before you start considering durability.
As far as I've heard, there are groups printing the shells of houses. They don't do the plumbing, wiring, windows, doors, or non-load-bearing walls. Or the final exterior finish. And I've probably left out a few other things that they don't print.
P.S.: This is still highly worthwhile, if you want a house made of the material being printed (often concrete [but I don't think they include rebar]).
It appears that you are correct that this "isn't new", but it also appears that the only answer ever received is "trust us". And while this isn't proof that the conspiracy theories are right, it isn't exactly proof that the "conspiracy theories" are wrong.
Things that are too specialized don't adapt well to a change in what they need to deal with. Vending machines only handle certain ranges of shape, size, etc. The system mentioned should be more flexible, at, as you indicate, the cost of some efficiency.
I don't think you understand the process. Just because the story is on the front page, don't assume the process is new. I first heard about Amazon's robotized warehouses nearly a decade ago. This is just another step in fine-tuning.
None of this implies that you can't have a vending machine style fast-food joint that delivers hot food. That needs to be designed, but it doesn't appear to be a major problem. The early designs might need one employee, who would probably sit around doing nothing except when a Bellamy tube jammed. The cooking process would probably be different, but in most fast-food places microwaves wouldn't make the food noticeably worse. (FWIW, some restaurants have used microwave cooking in the kitchen, where it's not seen, without complaints. You've got to pick your dishes properly, though.)
Now if you want a hamburger, you don't want the bun heated with microwaves, so an infrared heater might be better. Then you've got to invent a way to properly combine the bun, the meat patty, and the lettuce, etc. It doesn't need to be anything general purpose.
Actually, it works both ways. Sometimes the government overrules the desires of the companies, and sometimes the other way around. Neither, however, is primarily interested in benefiting the citizens, or even the voters.
The Bank of America is a private institution. As, in fact, is the Federal Reserve. Alexander Hamilton made carefully sure that the monetary system in the US would be under (certain) private ownership.
Last time it was: "When strong crypto is outlawed in the US, US companies will import it from outside."
Of course, it was a little be different last time, it wasn't possession of strong crypto that was illegal, it was on exporting it. But that was still enough of a barrier that it got developed outside the US.
That's not sufficient excuse. If they had trademarked "Citigroup thanks you", I'd have no qualm about the propriety. As it it... The person who approved the grant of that trademark should be fired immediately and forbidden from ever again working in a job that required literacy. (Required the ability to think is too subjective.)
No, but the person who approved the grant of that trademark should be fired immediately and forbidden from ever again working in a job that required literacy. (Required the ability to think is too subjective.)
Under any definition that appears reasonable to me, being libertarian would preclude using force to implement or ensure a monopoly of any sort. No mention of government is required, but it should be understood as included as a mechanism of force.
P.S.: No, I'm not really a libertarian. I was for awhile, I was even a Libertarian for awhile. But I wasn't able to evolve a logically consistent stance that fit within the rubric, as I understand it.
Since you capitalized "Libertarianism", I assume you are referring to the political party, and thus I agree with you. He is clearly not a libertarian, no matter what he claims, and anyone who believes he is disagrees with me totally about what the word means.
Nobody who depends on the monopoly power of patents, copyrights, etc. can reasonably claim to be a libertarian. There aren't fine graded definitions in this area, so I don't know how to classify someone who believes on short term patents, copyrights, etc., but even they aren't libertarian, though one could call their views more reasonable than those that fit the definition of libertarian.
Well, if I search for "Hillary Clinton FBI probe" it returns the expected responses, and if I search for "Richard Nixon FBI" it doesn't suggest probe, but if I add probe it returns news of Watergate. So there's no evidence indicating that you are correct. I'd guess they probably don't link off of really short words, but I haven't really checked.
Odd, when I googled "5 black women" I got pictures of shoes, and when I googled "5 white women" I got a couple of pictures of shoes, but mainly pictures of white women, and one that may have been a perfume ad.
My guess is that it reflects in some inscrutable way on your previous browsing history.
I'm relying on reports of what will be required, but lack of someone maintaining separate packages is the probable cause of the requirement. And KDE is just one of the packages that is reported to be planning on eventually requiring systemd, probably for that exact reason.
Right now there's no problem in avoiding it. Right now I have a partition that works fine without it. But there are a lot of different packages that interact with various services that systemd has merged into it's collection. When systemd was just an init package then avoiding it was trivial, but as it adds in more and more system functions, avoiding it becomes increasingly problematic, and as more and more projects and libraries adapt to presuming that it will be present it will become increasingly limiting to avoid it.
And I still haven't figured out what benefit I'm supposed to get out of this mess. So far I've been able to run equivalent systems both with and without it, but if projects adapt as they've said they will, this won't be true in the future. (KDE was just a notable example, not the sole instance. And so far it seems to be only an announced future dependency, not an actual one.)
Oracle is never on the side of right. This is so true that if they do something that you thought was right, you should think again and try to decide whether they are being deceitful, or whether you were wrong to thing it was the right thing to do.
Google is sometimes a good guy. You can't use their actions as any guide to what proper behavior is. So they are less trustworthy than Oracle.
Actually, there *is* a solution to the problem as stated, though it's too much work to bother with when the better answer is to just use a different compiler. But you could build something to go through your binaries and dummy out all links to those libraries.
OTOH, when they control the OS, a better solution is to go elsewhere. If you MUST use MSWind, run an old version in a virtual environment with either no net access, or very tightly filtered. And to move rapidly away from any applications that depend on it.
P.S.: How long can FreeBSD be trusted now the MS is submitting code to them? And there are definitely problems with Linux security.
HINT: If you want real security, stay off the internet. Nothing else really works. If you don't need quite that much, perhaps a different one of the BSDs would suffice. But for most purposes Linux is safe enough, so far. (I am a bit paranoid about systemd, but nobody has shown that it's actually malicious rather than just autocratic. Example: I install a systemd based Linux in a separate partition and it renders my current partition unbootable until I go in and do a bit of hand editing of fstab, and then reinstall grub. [Once upon a time I would have just hand edited the grub files directly, but grub2 changed that!])
I'm still willing to consider the possibility that "NSA_KEY" may have been something innocent. Possibly. Nobody ever demonstrated what the key did.
What this appears to do is add a couple of hooks to something that is, as the moment, approximately harmless. I.e., it appears that currently what it saves, it only saves to a local file, and the items saved seem probably harmless...depending on what the program does. So this doesn't appear to provide remote access to the information. Of course, which this does looks like depends on external libraries, which could be changed if there's dynamic linking.
The only thing that's wrong with all attempts to avoid systemd... programs and libraries that depend on it. That KDE is planning to depend on systemd is a clear sign that this is not a minor worry.
I note the claim that this only stores stuff locally, so it MAY not be that serious. Depending. But this has no business being there at all, and it adds hooks that could be activated later.
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Your use of the term "obsolete" in regard to working software displays either bias or ignorance. Despite the term "bit rot" software doesn't become obsolete. It may become less appropriate than a more modern version, but quite often the "more modern version" is actually significantly inferior to the older version. And running on MS-DOS doesn't imply that it doesn't do the job more properly than any available potential replacement. That they are willing to go to the effort of running it under virtualization (that's a guess, but a pretty sure one) is an indication that they find it more desirable than alternatives.
Switching versions of software always has the potential of corrupting your data files, or just being impossible due to incompatible data formats of lack of needed features. That was the problem that originally convinced me to switch to FOSS software. With FOSS software at least you can hire someone to maintain the features you need, and the file formats are decodeable. It often isn't worth the effort involved, but sometimes it is, and you can always run under virtualization. (After I had decided to switch of FOSS software for this reason, the licenses of FOSS software, especially the GPL, convinced me to switch to a FOSS OS...in particular Linux. But the decision to prefer FOSS software came first, and originally I had no intention of switching OSes.)
It's not far away, but people are already shifting to 64-bit time clocks. That pushes the 2038 problem so far into the future that it really *is* safe to ignore it. More work is still needed, but it's already being addressed.
You've got a point...but it's a tiny one. There exist 3-d printers that can print in mixes of media, so that, in principle, you could print everything except the windows. This would be a very bad idea, as repairs would be nearly impossible, and it would also be very expensive as multi-media printers that can handle both metals and non-metals are quite expensive even before you start considering durability.
As far as I've heard, there are groups printing the shells of houses. They don't do the plumbing, wiring, windows, doors, or non-load-bearing walls. Or the final exterior finish. And I've probably left out a few other things that they don't print.
P.S.: This is still highly worthwhile, if you want a house made of the material being printed (often concrete [but I don't think they include rebar]).
It appears that you are correct that this "isn't new", but it also appears that the only answer ever received is "trust us". And while this isn't proof that the conspiracy theories are right, it isn't exactly proof that the "conspiracy theories" are wrong.
Things that are too specialized don't adapt well to a change in what they need to deal with. Vending machines only handle certain ranges of shape, size, etc. The system mentioned should be more flexible, at, as you indicate, the cost of some efficiency.
I don't think you understand the process. Just because the story is on the front page, don't assume the process is new. I first heard about Amazon's robotized warehouses nearly a decade ago. This is just another step in fine-tuning.
None of this implies that you can't have a vending machine style fast-food joint that delivers hot food. That needs to be designed, but it doesn't appear to be a major problem. The early designs might need one employee, who would probably sit around doing nothing except when a Bellamy tube jammed. The cooking process would probably be different, but in most fast-food places microwaves wouldn't make the food noticeably worse. (FWIW, some restaurants have used microwave cooking in the kitchen, where it's not seen, without complaints. You've got to pick your dishes properly, though.)
Now if you want a hamburger, you don't want the bun heated with microwaves, so an infrared heater might be better. Then you've got to invent a way to properly combine the bun, the meat patty, and the lettuce, etc. It doesn't need to be anything general purpose.
Actually, it works both ways. Sometimes the government overrules the desires of the companies, and sometimes the other way around. Neither, however, is primarily interested in benefiting the citizens, or even the voters.
The Bank of America is a private institution. As, in fact, is the Federal Reserve. Alexander Hamilton made carefully sure that the monetary system in the US would be under (certain) private ownership.
It would take a lot longer than a week. Years wouldn't surprise me. What *would* surprise me is if someone hasn't already done it.
Last time it was:
"When strong crypto is outlawed in the US, US companies will import it from outside."
Of course, it was a little be different last time, it wasn't possession of strong crypto that was illegal, it was on exporting it. But that was still enough of a barrier that it got developed outside the US.
I'd feel a bit sorrier for Apple is they hadn't sued over round cornered rectangles...and won against a foreign company in a US court.
That's not sufficient excuse. If they had trademarked "Citigroup thanks you", I'd have no qualm about the propriety. As it it...
The person who approved the grant of that trademark should be fired immediately and forbidden from ever again working in a job that required literacy. (Required the ability to think is too subjective.)
No, but the person who approved the grant of that trademark should be fired immediately and forbidden from ever again working in a job that required literacy. (Required the ability to think is too subjective.)
Under any definition that appears reasonable to me, being libertarian would preclude using force to implement or ensure a monopoly of any sort. No mention of government is required, but it should be understood as included as a mechanism of force.
P.S.: No, I'm not really a libertarian. I was for awhile, I was even a Libertarian for awhile. But I wasn't able to evolve a logically consistent stance that fit within the rubric, as I understand it.
Since you capitalized "Libertarianism", I assume you are referring to the political party, and thus I agree with you. He is clearly not a libertarian, no matter what he claims, and anyone who believes he is disagrees with me totally about what the word means.
Nobody who depends on the monopoly power of patents, copyrights, etc. can reasonably claim to be a libertarian. There aren't fine graded definitions in this area, so I don't know how to classify someone who believes on short term patents, copyrights, etc., but even they aren't libertarian, though one could call their views more reasonable than those that fit the definition of libertarian.
Well, if I search for "Hillary Clinton FBI probe" it returns the expected responses, and if I search for "Richard Nixon FBI" it doesn't suggest probe, but if I add probe it returns news of Watergate. So there's no evidence indicating that you are correct. I'd guess they probably don't link off of really short words, but I haven't really checked.
Odd, when I googled "5 black women" I got pictures of shoes, and when I googled "5 white women" I got a couple of pictures of shoes, but mainly pictures of white women, and one that may have been a perfume ad.
My guess is that it reflects in some inscrutable way on your previous browsing history.
I'm relying on reports of what will be required, but lack of someone maintaining separate packages is the probable cause of the requirement. And KDE is just one of the packages that is reported to be planning on eventually requiring systemd, probably for that exact reason.
Right now there's no problem in avoiding it. Right now I have a partition that works fine without it. But there are a lot of different packages that interact with various services that systemd has merged into it's collection. When systemd was just an init package then avoiding it was trivial, but as it adds in more and more system functions, avoiding it becomes increasingly problematic, and as more and more projects and libraries adapt to presuming that it will be present it will become increasingly limiting to avoid it.
And I still haven't figured out what benefit I'm supposed to get out of this mess. So far I've been able to run equivalent systems both with and without it, but if projects adapt as they've said they will, this won't be true in the future. (KDE was just a notable example, not the sole instance. And so far it seems to be only an announced future dependency, not an actual one.)
Oracle is never on the side of right. This is so true that if they do something that you thought was right, you should think again and try to decide whether they are being deceitful, or whether you were wrong to thing it was the right thing to do.
Google is sometimes a good guy. You can't use their actions as any guide to what proper behavior is. So they are less trustworthy than Oracle.
Actually, there *is* a solution to the problem as stated, though it's too much work to bother with when the better answer is to just use a different compiler. But you could build something to go through your binaries and dummy out all links to those libraries.
OTOH, when they control the OS, a better solution is to go elsewhere. If you MUST use MSWind, run an old version in a virtual environment with either no net access, or very tightly filtered. And to move rapidly away from any applications that depend on it.
P.S.: How long can FreeBSD be trusted now the MS is submitting code to them? And there are definitely problems with Linux security.
HINT: If you want real security, stay off the internet. Nothing else really works. If you don't need quite that much, perhaps a different one of the BSDs would suffice. But for most purposes Linux is safe enough, so far. (I am a bit paranoid about systemd, but nobody has shown that it's actually malicious rather than just autocratic. Example: I install a systemd based Linux in a separate partition and it renders my current partition unbootable until I go in and do a bit of hand editing of fstab, and then reinstall grub. [Once upon a time I would have just hand edited the grub files directly, but grub2 changed that!])
I'm still willing to consider the possibility that "NSA_KEY" may have been something innocent. Possibly. Nobody ever demonstrated what the key did.
What this appears to do is add a couple of hooks to something that is, as the moment, approximately harmless. I.e., it appears that currently what it saves, it only saves to a local file, and the items saved seem probably harmless...depending on what the program does. So this doesn't appear to provide remote access to the information. Of course, which this does looks like depends on external libraries, which could be changed if there's dynamic linking.
The only thing that's wrong with all attempts to avoid systemd ... programs and libraries that depend on it. That KDE is planning to depend on systemd is a clear sign that this is not a minor worry.
s/could/should/
I note the claim that this only stores stuff locally, so it MAY not be that serious. Depending. But this has no business being there at all, and it adds hooks that could be activated later.
Is Visual Studio even a compiler? To me it sounds like an IDE. Didn't the complier used to be called "Microsoft C++"?
Of course, it's possible that the compiler is the one inserting the code, but it could also be the IDE applying a binary patch.
This is just nitpickery, as I don't use either, but the story seems to need more precision.