I manage a technical support team. Of the 11 people in my team, 2 are borderline autistic (nice guys, easily managed, but not exactly team players), 2 are extremely intelligent divas (unmanageable, but when they follow instructions every once in a while, they're really good) and the 7 others are reasonably smart folks who like to give and receive feedback, work well with the rest of the team, know how to write user-readable documentation, and propose reasonable solutions whenever possible.
They're humongous and completely inefficient. Case in point, vlc:
As a Debian package (assuming you have the other libs of course): $ apt-cache show vlc | grep Installed-Size Installed-Size: 4828 (4.7M)
As a Snap package: $ du -ch/snap/vlc/current/ | grep total 771M total
Snap packages have no dependendy problems, can be installed on any platform, are dead easy to maintain and very easy and safe to install/uninstall.
BUT! They start much slower, waste a LOT more disk space and a LOT of memory - since each Snap package is self-contained, and each package has different libraries that need to be loaded.
I use Snap packages to try out software easily, or to install a testing version of some software on a stable machine without messing up all my libraries (in the case of vlc, to use the version that plays Youtube videos correctly, since the stable Debian version is hopelessly outdated). But really, having 3 of 4 of them in an otherwise normal, lean install is as much as I'm willing to put up with.
An entire distro distributed as Snap package is plain suicidal.
is just that: a promise. At the end of the day, DDG is a free service: where the hell do you think they generate revenues from? I want to believe their concern for privacy and their offer to help are genuine. But ultimately they drink from the same well as Google and their ilk
So thanks but no thanks. I'll take care of my own privacy with Noscript, Open Referer Control, uBlock Origin, User-Agent Switcher, Ghostery, Cookie Autodelete, Greasemonkey, Tor and all the others thank you very much.
It's not stupid, it's practical. Like the historical kilobyte, equivalent to 1024 bytes: it's nonstandard, but it gives a good idea of "something close to 1000 bytes" that's easy to work with in powers of two.
No, a Hertz is a measurement of frequency - that is, the number of times something repeats itself per second. For instance, the thought "Facebook is really crap" springs to my mind at 1/86400 Hz on average.
All the city's computers swich their locale settings to ca_ES.UTF-8, annoying the shit out of everybody. Then they hold a referendum to propose disconnecting from the internet and dumping their.es top-level domain name. Then the main server flees to Belgium.
I just don't want one that's powered by software from evil companies like Google. Since internet-free, advertising-free, non-privacy-invading driverless car software will never happen, I'll pass.
The originator of an idea often gets trampled by bigger outfits who can subsidize a loss-making business targeted at the little guy.
The question is, how is it legal to subsidize a loss-making business (or business unit) for the purpose of killing off a competitor?
(Hint: it's not)
Microsoft did many startups in that way. Remember how Netscape got shredded to pieces by the free Internet Explorer?. Google just continues the tradition. Microsoft was evil then, Google is evil now. And the DOJ doesn't lift a finger...
Be it cars or computers, vendors now decide what you can and cannot do with what you buy, and change the rules after your purchase with you having a damn say about it.
Fuck Tesla. I'll go buy me a diesel from Volkswagen. They're a bunch of cheating weasels, but at least don't get to decide when I have the right to fill up.
Seems to me that a lot of these types of breaches may be intentional due to pressure from agencies who want the ability to spy on users and don't care what the repercussions are. Patch published breaches and create another one when things quiet down.
Hanlon's razor applies here: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. In the case of Microsoft, there's plenty of stupidity to go around: when it comes to security and bugginess, they couldn't code their way out of wet paperbag - and haven't been able to in 42 years.
Watch this episode of The Brittas Empire (which is itself illegally offered for free viewing on Youtube, incidentally - oh the irony) and your son will learn all there is to know about copyright.
FB and social media are only a scourge because hundreds of millions of users allow them to be. Just like certain presidents in the White House - past and present - they're not a problem, they're a symptom: they're a reflection of what society wants, and society is dumb as a brick.
[...]websites that try to circumvent Chrome's pop-up blocker by opening a new tab for a thing you clicked while navigating the original tab to some other page[...]
That's a mighty long circumlocution to say "porn sites"...
Like many companies, the one I work for monitors their employees' internet usage. One thing they track is employees hitting job listing sites during work hours. No linkedIn or HiQ or anyone else involved. How hard can it be?
In fact, it's a well-known trick in my company: if you want a quick raise, hit those sites regularly at lunch time, even if you're happy with your job and your salary. Do that for a while, and HR eventually calls you to propose you a better pay package - as if they magically knew you're not completely happy with your current conditions. I've had two pay raises that way, without lifting a finger:)
Maybe not everything needs to be dumbed down to Popular Mechanics levels. I for one enjoy reading difficult articles on Wikipedia: even if I don't understand a quarter of a half of a them, I always learn something new one way or another.
Half of these new users are Photobucket refugees looking for a new free photo sharing site to host their photos. The others have gone to Flickr, which I expect has witnessed a similar surge.
What can be viewed or listened to can be re-recorded and freed of DRM. DRM is just a massive inconvenience to legit users, but nothing that'll stop me and all the other freeloaders.
People who choose to take part will have their name permanently on the NSA's watch list for dangerous hackers - and potentially, on some terrorist watch list, or the TSA's no-fly list also.
Stay the fuck away from the NSA people. It doesn't matter if they say they have good intentions: the reality is, they don't.
having to deal with AI-driven cars with dozing drivers inside, as well as regular idiot drivers, when I commute with my bicycle. It may or may not be an improvement for cyclists...
Slashdot Mirror
I manage a technical support team. Of the 11 people in my team, 2 are borderline autistic (nice guys, easily managed, but not exactly team players), 2 are extremely intelligent divas (unmanageable, but when they follow instructions every once in a while, they're really good) and the 7 others are reasonably smart folks who like to give and receive feedback, work well with the rest of the team, know how to write user-readable documentation, and propose reasonable solutions whenever possible.
Guess which two I'm trying to get rid of?
You've lived under a rock.
They're humongous and completely inefficient. Case in point, vlc:
As a Debian package (assuming you have the other libs of course):
/snap/vlc/current/ | grep total
$ apt-cache show vlc | grep Installed-Size
Installed-Size: 4828 (4.7M)
As a Snap package:
$ du -ch
771M total
Snap packages have no dependendy problems, can be installed on any platform, are dead easy to maintain and very easy and safe to install/uninstall.
BUT! They start much slower, waste a LOT more disk space and a LOT of memory - since each Snap package is self-contained, and each package has different libraries that need to be loaded.
I use Snap packages to try out software easily, or to install a testing version of some software on a stable machine without messing up all my libraries (in the case of vlc, to use the version that plays Youtube videos correctly, since the stable Debian version is hopelessly outdated). But really, having 3 of 4 of them in an otherwise normal, lean install is as much as I'm willing to put up with.
An entire distro distributed as Snap package is plain suicidal.
is just that: a promise. At the end of the day, DDG is a free service: where the hell do you think they generate revenues from? I want to believe their concern for privacy and their offer to help are genuine. But ultimately they drink from the same well as Google and their ilk
So thanks but no thanks. I'll take care of my own privacy with Noscript, Open Referer Control, uBlock Origin, User-Agent Switcher, Ghostery, Cookie Autodelete, Greasemonkey, Tor and all the others thank you very much.
It's not stupid, it's practical. Like the historical kilobyte, equivalent to 1024 bytes: it's nonstandard, but it gives a good idea of "something close to 1000 bytes" that's easy to work with in powers of two.
No, a Hertz is a measurement of frequency - that is, the number of times something repeats itself per second. For instance, the thought "Facebook is really crap" springs to my mind at 1/86400 Hz on average.
All the city's computers swich their locale settings to ca_ES.UTF-8, annoying the shit out of everybody. Then they hold a referendum to propose disconnecting from the internet and dumping their .es top-level domain name. Then the main server flees to Belgium.
I just don't want one that's powered by software from evil companies like Google. Since internet-free, advertising-free, non-privacy-invading driverless car software will never happen, I'll pass.
The originator of an idea often gets trampled by bigger outfits who can subsidize a loss-making business targeted at the little guy.
The question is, how is it legal to subsidize a loss-making business (or business unit) for the purpose of killing off a competitor?
(Hint: it's not)
Microsoft did many startups in that way. Remember how Netscape got shredded to pieces by the free Internet Explorer?. Google just continues the tradition. Microsoft was evil then, Google is evil now. And the DOJ doesn't lift a finger...
Be it cars or computers, vendors now decide what you can and cannot do with what you buy, and change the rules after your purchase with you having a damn say about it.
Fuck Tesla. I'll go buy me a diesel from Volkswagen. They're a bunch of cheating weasels, but at least don't get to decide when I have the right to fill up.
Seems to me that a lot of these types of breaches may be intentional due to pressure from agencies who want the ability to spy on users and don't care what the repercussions are. Patch published breaches and create another one when things quiet down.
Hanlon's razor applies here: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. In the case of Microsoft, there's plenty of stupidity to go around: when it comes to security and bugginess, they couldn't code their way out of wet paperbag - and haven't been able to in 42 years.
If the Pope himself admitted some church attendance can be harmful, you'd definitely know the whole Catholic faith would be bad to the core.
Watch this episode of The Brittas Empire (which is itself illegally offered for free viewing on Youtube, incidentally - oh the irony) and your son will learn all there is to know about copyright.
FB and social media are only a scourge because hundreds of millions of users allow them to be. Just like certain presidents in the White House - past and present - they're not a problem, they're a symptom: they're a reflection of what society wants, and society is dumb as a brick.
Nurse Google will love this: yet another set of really personal data to be mined and exploited for new and innovative ways of raping your privacy.
Because you can bet your ass the exploitation of the pill tracking data will be outsourced to the private sector...
[...]websites that try to circumvent Chrome's pop-up blocker by opening a new tab for a thing you clicked while navigating the original tab to some other page[...]
That's a mighty long circumlocution to say "porn sites"...
Like many companies, the one I work for monitors their employees' internet usage. One thing they track is employees hitting job listing sites during work hours. No linkedIn or HiQ or anyone else involved. How hard can it be?
In fact, it's a well-known trick in my company: if you want a quick raise, hit those sites regularly at lunch time, even if you're happy with your job and your salary. Do that for a while, and HR eventually calls you to propose you a better pay package - as if they magically knew you're not completely happy with your current conditions. I've had two pay raises that way, without lifting a finger :)
Maybe not everything needs to be dumbed down to Popular Mechanics levels. I for one enjoy reading difficult articles on Wikipedia: even if I don't understand a quarter of a half of a them, I always learn something new one way or another.
This thing will be a giant greenhouse in an already suffocatingly hot place.
Half of these new users are Photobucket refugees looking for a new free photo sharing site to host their photos. The others have gone to Flickr, which I expect has witnessed a similar surge.
What can be viewed or listened to can be re-recorded and freed of DRM. DRM is just a massive inconvenience to legit users, but nothing that'll stop me and all the other freeloaders.
People who choose to take part will have their name permanently on the NSA's watch list for dangerous hackers - and potentially, on some terrorist watch list, or the TSA's no-fly list also.
Stay the fuck away from the NSA people. It doesn't matter if they say they have good intentions: the reality is, they don't.
Because you know... Google.
I guess they don't like it when lose their data-sucking monopoly.
having to deal with AI-driven cars with dozing drivers inside, as well as regular idiot drivers, when I commute with my bicycle. It may or may not be an improvement for cyclists...
Let the scammer's email addy active and be accused of being accessory to racketeering?
Tough shit for the ransomware victims, but they just had to do it.