I agree with you when trying to replace something like SWF with a format built on free software. But for live action, good luck turning a sequence of bitmaps received through a camera lens into an efficient vector approximation in reasonable time.
Many PCs running the i686 version of Linux actually have x86-64 CPUs. Reinstalling from x86-64 installation media, as I did in December 2016, allows running x86-64 applications. Even a 7-year-old Atom N450-based netbook supports x86-64.
What substantial numbers of PCs with i686-only CPUs have been manufactured in the past seven years?
You do know that phone on your desk can be used for phone calls right?
You do know that traditional landline and cellular carriers charge far more per minute for international calls than, say, Skype or Discord or Hangouts?
Web-based versions of Skype and Hangouts support only webcam, not screen sharing, which makes it difficult for one member of the team to walk others on a team step-by-step through, say, setting up a PATH environment variable on Windows.
Patents last 20 years after filing.* Most x86 programs nowadays rely on "i686" instructions introduced with the Pentium Pro (1995) and Pentium II (1997), whose patents have presumably expired just recently, and the Pentium III (1999), whose patents still subsist. Furthermore, many application developers have stopped building for i686 protected mode in favor of the newer x86-64 long mode.
* A few U.S. patents filed before mid-1995 and granted after mid-2000 still subsist because they're grandfathered into the pre-1995 rules.
Then I guess we can now consider the x86 and x86-64 instruction sets subject to what Richard Stallman has referred to as the Java Trap. A free program with proprietary dependencies is trapped, and Intel is asserting that the x86 and x86-64 instruction sets are proprietary.
The excuse is the failure of "anyone other than the original programmer" to have donated money to "the original programmer" earmarked toward improving support for oddball pixel densities.
My clients in recent contract programming jobs have preferred it. Its advantage over IRC is that Skype has chat logging without needing to lease a VPS to run your own server to install a logging plug-in.
The old wipe-and-Linux won't work if Windows 10 S devices come with Restricted Boot, which means UEFI Secure Boot that a device's owner cannot reconfigure. Microsoft licensed Windows RT only to OEMs who promised to configure all Windows RT devices with Restricted Boot.
Even without Restricted Boot, wipe-and-Linux will fail if manufacturers of components of said devices fail to cooperate with driver developers. You'll likely end up with unaccelerated graphics, no audio, no network, and no suspend.
What does ransomware want to access? Local files in the user storage space. I.e. exactly the files that the user needs to be able to manipulate in his every day business.
The user's everyday business needs to access files that the user chose through the operating system's file chooser form. Ransomware, by contrast, needs to access the user's entire home directory. This is why modern sandboxed environments, such as OLPC Bitfrost, the Mac App Store Sandbox, and UWP, lock applications out of any file or directory that the user hasn't chosen through a file chooser form requested by that application.
What ransomware needs to do, and I agree with you on that ground, is to run software from an "odd" place, like the download directory, the temp directory or the user directory, i.e. from places where there should be no executable file in a normal work environment. That can be dealt with via software policies and execution prevention of software from places other than whitelisted directories where executables are stored.
Then watch ransomware install itself to Visual Studio's temporary directory, where executables are supposed to be stored during the normal course of operation. This is why Microsoft won't be able to bring Visual Studio to Windows 10 S.
Having an operating system that just works with applications that they pre-approved, and nothing else is a terrible idea. They tried this with Windows RT, look where they are now?
Microsoft tried this successfully with Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Apple tried this successfully with iPod classic 5, iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2, and iPad. Sony tried this successfully with PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. Nintendo tried this successfully with NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and (so far) Nintendo Switch. Nintendo also tried it with Wii U, but that platform was less successful for reasons other than the lockdown.
So how did these other locked down platforms succeed where Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT failed?
many brand new 'free' LifeLine cell phones are old model Blu or ZTE phones still running 2.3.
I'm curious as to how the manufacturers can still honor their warranty on these devices now that Google no longer provides security updates for Android versions prior to 4.4 "KitKat" to device manufacturers. (Source) They're in the same unsupported no man's land as Windows XP and Windows Vista.
IRC has had plugins for servers to allow for buffering of messages for at least a decade.
Which public IRC network that runs such a plug-in should I recommend to others in this situation? Or would you instead recommend that each discussion group lease an EC2 instance or other VPS on which to run its own IRC server with such a plug-in?
They're not cheaper than free. U.S. landline providers do not meter incoming calls. By contrast, U.S. cellular providers meter incoming voice calls and text messages. T-Mobile USA's pay-as-you-go plan, for example, charges 0.10 USD per outgoing or incoming voice minute or text message. At that price, receiving a code to log in to multiple services every day can become expensive for a user. Even on a cell phone, voice can prove cheaper than text because the equivalent of more than one text message can fit into one voice minute.
I mean, what nefarious reason do *you* think they have for wanting SMS-capable numbers?
Presumably because a user whose primary number is SMS-capable is more likely to have substantial disposable income than a user whose number is not, and users with substantial disposable income are more valuable to a service's sponsors. Or common ownership between users of cellular 2FA and the major cellular carriers.
Slashdot Mirror
I imagine that most VPNs don't also forward the SMS that Google Voice's enrollment process sends to verify your existing number (source).
Yeah, but what if you replaced everything with stick figures?
We could even call it Cyanide & Happiness: The Movie.
Vectors vs. bitmaps, which compresses better?
I agree with you when trying to replace something like SWF with a format built on free software. But for live action, good luck turning a sequence of bitmaps received through a camera lens into an efficient vector approximation in reasonable time.
Many PCs running the i686 version of Linux actually have x86-64 CPUs. Reinstalling from x86-64 installation media, as I did in December 2016, allows running x86-64 applications. Even a 7-year-old Atom N450-based netbook supports x86-64.
What substantial numbers of PCs with i686-only CPUs have been manufactured in the past seven years?
You do know that phone on your desk can be used for phone calls right?
You do know that traditional landline and cellular carriers charge far more per minute for international calls than, say, Skype or Discord or Hangouts?
Web-based versions of Skype and Hangouts support only webcam, not screen sharing, which makes it difficult for one member of the team to walk others on a team step-by-step through, say, setting up a PATH environment variable on Windows.
i686 and x86-64 are not "a 40-year-old architecture".
Patents last 20 years after filing.* Most x86 programs nowadays rely on "i686" instructions introduced with the Pentium Pro (1995) and Pentium II (1997), whose patents have presumably expired just recently, and the Pentium III (1999), whose patents still subsist. Furthermore, many application developers have stopped building for i686 protected mode in favor of the newer x86-64 long mode.
* A few U.S. patents filed before mid-1995 and granted after mid-2000 still subsist because they're grandfathered into the pre-1995 rules.
Then I guess we can now consider the x86 and x86-64 instruction sets subject to what Richard Stallman has referred to as the Java Trap. A free program with proprietary dependencies is trapped, and Intel is asserting that the x86 and x86-64 instruction sets are proprietary.
This seems like a quite sensible proposal: If X doesn't know the DPI, then fix X.
With the implication being that if the chipset makers obstruct X from knowing the DPI, fix the chipset makers. Good luck with that.
To which projects still not using SVG icons have you donated money earmarked toward redrawing icons in SVG since, like, 2005?
The excuse is the failure of "anyone other than the original programmer" to have donated money to "the original programmer" earmarked toward improving support for oddball pixel densities.
What is the point of running skype though?
My clients in recent contract programming jobs have preferred it. Its advantage over IRC is that Skype has chat logging without needing to lease a VPS to run your own server to install a logging plug-in.
Does Chromium, the build of Chrome with all non-free parts stripped out, also log keys?
The old wipe-and-Linux won't work if Windows 10 S devices come with Restricted Boot, which means UEFI Secure Boot that a device's owner cannot reconfigure. Microsoft licensed Windows RT only to OEMs who promised to configure all Windows RT devices with Restricted Boot.
Even without Restricted Boot, wipe-and-Linux will fail if manufacturers of components of said devices fail to cooperate with driver developers. You'll likely end up with unaccelerated graphics, no audio, no network, and no suspend.
What does ransomware want to access? Local files in the user storage space. I.e. exactly the files that the user needs to be able to manipulate in his every day business.
The user's everyday business needs to access files that the user chose through the operating system's file chooser form. Ransomware, by contrast, needs to access the user's entire home directory. This is why modern sandboxed environments, such as OLPC Bitfrost, the Mac App Store Sandbox, and UWP, lock applications out of any file or directory that the user hasn't chosen through a file chooser form requested by that application.
What ransomware needs to do, and I agree with you on that ground, is to run software from an "odd" place, like the download directory, the temp directory or the user directory, i.e. from places where there should be no executable file in a normal work environment. That can be dealt with via software policies and execution prevention of software from places other than whitelisted directories where executables are stored.
Then watch ransomware install itself to Visual Studio's temporary directory, where executables are supposed to be stored during the normal course of operation. This is why Microsoft won't be able to bring Visual Studio to Windows 10 S.
Having an operating system that just works with applications that they pre-approved, and nothing else is a terrible idea. They tried this with Windows RT, look where they are now?
Microsoft tried this successfully with Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Apple tried this successfully with iPod classic 5, iPhone 3G, iPod touch 2, and iPad. Sony tried this successfully with PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 4. Nintendo tried this successfully with NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, and (so far) Nintendo Switch. Nintendo also tried it with Wii U, but that platform was less successful for reasons other than the lockdown.
So how did these other locked down platforms succeed where Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT failed?
When MS makes Windows 10S the Only OS that OEM's can install on their kit
"When"? Can you provide a source for announced or leaked plans to discontinue Home in favor of S?
I have the most secure operating system ever. It does nothing but play minesweeper.
Let me guess: You run Luminesweeper.
Google Voice is exclusive to the United States, and I imagine that for most people, Google Voice isn't worth the cost of immigrating.
many brand new 'free' LifeLine cell phones are old model Blu or ZTE phones still running 2.3.
I'm curious as to how the manufacturers can still honor their warranty on these devices now that Google no longer provides security updates for Android versions prior to 4.4 "KitKat" to device manufacturers. (Source) They're in the same unsupported no man's land as Windows XP and Windows Vista.
IRC has had plugins for servers to allow for buffering of messages for at least a decade.
Which public IRC network that runs such a plug-in should I recommend to others in this situation? Or would you instead recommend that each discussion group lease an EC2 instance or other VPS on which to run its own IRC server with such a plug-in?
Continuing five whys analysis to find a root cause that will inform the eventual solution:
November 2013.
Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean I" was already out in July 2012. Why were phones with no upgrade path past Gingerbread still being sold over a year later?
Since newer phones with keyboards are pretty scarce, I don't know what I'll do when this one actually dies.
I don't know how to help at this point other than to concisely sum up the problem when asking others for help:
What do you plan to do once computer intruders start exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities in the copy of Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" on your phone?
Text messages are cheap and easy
They're not cheaper than free. U.S. landline providers do not meter incoming calls. By contrast, U.S. cellular providers meter incoming voice calls and text messages. T-Mobile USA's pay-as-you-go plan, for example, charges 0.10 USD per outgoing or incoming voice minute or text message. At that price, receiving a code to log in to multiple services every day can become expensive for a user. Even on a cell phone, voice can prove cheaper than text because the equivalent of more than one text message can fit into one voice minute.
I mean, what nefarious reason do *you* think they have for wanting SMS-capable numbers?
Presumably because a user whose primary number is SMS-capable is more likely to have substantial disposable income than a user whose number is not, and users with substantial disposable income are more valuable to a service's sponsors. Or common ownership between users of cellular 2FA and the major cellular carriers.