Racism cannot be squashed, same as stupidity cannot be. And the two are connected. It is one of the ways stupid people make themselves feel better about themselves. Now, realistically, when it comes to actually understanding things, something like 80% or so of the population is stupid. And while only a part of them go for racism, the others just just the same mechanism on other characteristics of themselves they think make them superior. Breeding, geographic aspects, age, gender, what they eat, etc. The list is endless, and it is always the same thing at work.
I am aware of that. Still, this will not be used for any normal spying, only for a small number of targeted attacks. It would be an utter catastrophe if the ways to attack this leak or if they have to be explained in a courtroom.
I doubt that MS is going to insist on that as identification. Because that would piss off a lot of people that virtualize Win7 because of compatibility issues with legacy software, many enterprises among them.
While I have been planning to get a Ryzen 1800X, those plans are now shelved. My FX8350 is good enough. There is no way in hell I am installing Microsofts spyware (Win10) until it has either become clear how to reliably and permanently block all "telemetry" or the EU has finally managed to enforce European privacy laws against them, which, among other things, means that _all_ data collection is subject to approval and must be "off" by default.
You need that interaction. While coding is best done as a solitary activity, other things are not. This includes requirement engineering, customer interaction, issue analysis together with the customer, etc. Interaction tools can help a lot there, but the occasional face-to-face meeting is still necessary.
Depends very much. While I am not a full-time coder (I am also architect, designer, security-expert, technology-consultant, risk-manager, etc.), I am strongly going on 50 and customers are quite happy to pay my consulting rate to have me coding for them (usually from home). Of course, if you do not keep current and do not acquire the additional skills your age and experience should bring with it, then you are indeed toast. The problem is that for older coders, it is far more obvious if they are semi- to incompetent or cannot do anything besides the actual coding and there is no (irrational, but real) "youth bonus" to cover it up either.
Python is actually pretty good as a language, but it is hugely deceptive in how much skill, insight and experience is needed in order to produce good code. It is a language that does not stand in the way of an expert and supports said expert in many ways. For non-experts (and, sadly, most coders fall into that class), it allows them to shoot themselves in the foot in various easy to implement ways.
In how far is $250 and outrageous rate for an expert? Sure, if you pay it for pseudo-experts (IBM consultants, for example) is is very expensive, but for actual experts that understand things and get the job done, it is quite fine.
And that is spot-on. The other half of the problem is those that go along with these people. The narcissist is only a problem if others fall for his fake promises.
I disagree. The information on how things actually work is out there and recognizing it does not require a lot of intelligence, it just requires the will to look and understand. Not using capabilities that would be beneficial to use is the hallmark of the idiot and most people do qualify.
Most people vote themselves bread and games until there is no bread and games to be had anymore and the huge (but entirely predictable) bill becomes due. That is another thing that characterized the idiot.
Unfortunately, as a group, "idiots" characterizes human beings best. This includes no learning from experiences, no understanding that things that look to good to be true usually are, massive over-valuation of short-term gains versus long-term losses, total incapability of any reasonable risk estimation and management, and a vast overestimation of ones capabilities with regards to understanding actual reality (known as the "Dunning-Kruger Effect").
The amount of independent thinkers (a.k.a. "non-idiots", usually observed to be around 10%) is not enough to compensate. It is really surprising that the current mix between idiots and non-idiots is somewhat viable at all.
I agree to your first point. There are a log of pseudo-smart people in software (and certainly in FOSS), that need to mess with things all the time, need to change things that work and have never heard of or understood the KISS principle. These people constantly break things in the name of "progress" and make everything more complex. I suspect all they really want is to leave their mark on things. Not good at all.
I do not agree to your second point, as Windows is plain unusable as soon as you want a good level of customization. Basically you need to do it over with each update. On Linux, I had to update my fvwm-configuration exactly once in 30 years, when they moved to fvwm2. That is it. Same look and feel, fine-tuned for my tastes, for a long, long time and that is how a professional tool should behave. Of course, things like Gnome of KDE do not offer that, but there is no need to use these atrocities.
Re-inventing the wheel is both bad engineering practice and a waste of resources. It makes things worse, not better. That is not progress, that is plain dumb. It is also a sign of immaturity and arrogance and lack of knowledge and understanding regarding the history of technology.
If you keep re-modeling your infrastructure all the time, you will never be able to rely on it and build on it. Some things are finished and need to be left alone, unless a really large improvement becomes possible. That is not the case here. The thing done here is at best "gold plating" and at worst a really bad case of the "second system effect", both signs of lack of understanding and maturity (and big egos) on the side of the people driving this.
Progress is not "doing things differently". Progress is improving things, while keeping their old qualities and merits intact. That does require actual understanding of what these old qualities and merits are. The Poetterings and Microsofts of the world do not have that and hence cannot create progress, they can only make things different without merit and overall make things worse.
Let me put it this way: if this software is such an obvious 'polished turd', why haven't *you* coded up a replacement?
And that shows the second aspect of the issue nicely: The assholes that come along with the polished turd. You are too dumb to understand, but I will repeat it anyways: There is no need to a replacement. What was there before already works nicely.
And that is exactly it. In many cases "mainstream" equals "really bad". Ubuntu in particular tries really hard to follow that principle.
Personally, my Linux runs fvwm (and has done so for now almost 30 years, without much change), no systemd or other Poettering crapware. A desktop is not a "lifestyle-enhancer", it is a tool. Once it is configured nicely, you leave it as it is.
In the EU, it has to be paper to be legally binding for a lot of things, unless it is B2B. If the EULA says otherwise, that is invalid. There are also privacy rights you cannot actually give up via a contract, on paper or otherwise. Stop applying US law to things that happen in Europe.
Slashdot Mirror
Probably a statistically accurate representation of how mainstream-media report things. i.e. it is not the AI tool that has a bias here.
The effect of training an AI on propaganda is that is is then trained on propaganda. Why is this even news? It is obvious.
Racism cannot be squashed, same as stupidity cannot be. And the two are connected. It is one of the ways stupid people make themselves feel better about themselves. Now, realistically, when it comes to actually understanding things, something like 80% or so of the population is stupid. And while only a part of them go for racism, the others just just the same mechanism on other characteristics of themselves they think make them superior. Breeding, geographic aspects, age, gender, what they eat, etc. The list is endless, and it is always the same thing at work.
I am aware of that. Still, this will not be used for any normal spying, only for a small number of targeted attacks. It would be an utter catastrophe if the ways to attack this leak or if they have to be explained in a courtroom.
Actually, I can still block updates on Win7 and look at each one before installing them. No such possibility in Win10.
I doubt that MS is going to insist on that as identification. Because that would piss off a lot of people that virtualize Win7 because of compatibility issues with legacy software, many enterprises among them.
While I have been planning to get a Ryzen 1800X, those plans are now shelved. My FX8350 is good enough. There is no way in hell I am installing Microsofts spyware (Win10) until it has either become clear how to reliably and permanently block all "telemetry" or the EU has finally managed to enforce European privacy laws against them, which, among other things, means that _all_ data collection is subject to approval and must be "off" by default.
And you do demonstrate that you are a "self-important cretin" as well. Well done!
Here is a hint: If you do not know what words mean, look them up before disgracing yourself.
You need that interaction. While coding is best done as a solitary activity, other things are not. This includes requirement engineering, customer interaction, issue analysis together with the customer, etc. Interaction tools can help a lot there, but the occasional face-to-face meeting is still necessary.
Depends very much. While I am not a full-time coder (I am also architect, designer, security-expert, technology-consultant, risk-manager, etc.), I am strongly going on 50 and customers are quite happy to pay my consulting rate to have me coding for them (usually from home). Of course, if you do not keep current and do not acquire the additional skills your age and experience should bring with it, then you are indeed toast. The problem is that for older coders, it is far more obvious if they are semi- to incompetent or cannot do anything besides the actual coding and there is no (irrational, but real) "youth bonus" to cover it up either.
Things that improve your efficiency and effectiveness dramatically, are not perks. They are good sense on the side of the employer.
Python is actually pretty good as a language, but it is hugely deceptive in how much skill, insight and experience is needed in order to produce good code. It is a language that does not stand in the way of an expert and supports said expert in many ways. For non-experts (and, sadly, most coders fall into that class), it allows them to shoot themselves in the foot in various easy to implement ways.
In how far is $250 and outrageous rate for an expert? Sure, if you pay it for pseudo-experts (IBM consultants, for example) is is very expensive, but for actual experts that understand things and get the job done, it is quite fine.
Charisma is a tool. Combined with stupid, it is hugely dangerous. If only charisma is needed to swim to the top, it becomes a problem by itself.
Probably his voters recognize themselves in him.
And that is spot-on. The other half of the problem is those that go along with these people. The narcissist is only a problem if others fall for his fake promises.
I disagree. The information on how things actually work is out there and recognizing it does not require a lot of intelligence, it just requires the will to look and understand. Not using capabilities that would be beneficial to use is the hallmark of the idiot and most people do qualify.
Most people vote themselves bread and games until there is no bread and games to be had anymore and the huge (but entirely predictable) bill becomes due. That is another thing that characterized the idiot.
Unfortunately, as a group, "idiots" characterizes human beings best. This includes no learning from experiences, no understanding that things that look to good to be true usually are, massive over-valuation of short-term gains versus long-term losses, total incapability of any reasonable risk estimation and management, and a vast overestimation of ones capabilities with regards to understanding actual reality (known as the "Dunning-Kruger Effect").
The amount of independent thinkers (a.k.a. "non-idiots", usually observed to be around 10%) is not enough to compensate. It is really surprising that the current mix between idiots and non-idiots is somewhat viable at all.
I agree to your first point. There are a log of pseudo-smart people in software (and certainly in FOSS), that need to mess with things all the time, need to change things that work and have never heard of or understood the KISS principle. These people constantly break things in the name of "progress" and make everything more complex. I suspect all they really want is to leave their mark on things. Not good at all.
I do not agree to your second point, as Windows is plain unusable as soon as you want a good level of customization. Basically you need to do it over with each update. On Linux, I had to update my fvwm-configuration exactly once in 30 years, when they moved to fvwm2. That is it. Same look and feel, fine-tuned for my tastes, for a long, long time and that is how a professional tool should behave. Of course, things like Gnome of KDE do not offer that, but there is no need to use these atrocities.
Re-inventing the wheel is both bad engineering practice and a waste of resources. It makes things worse, not better. That is not progress, that is plain dumb. It is also a sign of immaturity and arrogance and lack of knowledge and understanding regarding the history of technology.
If you keep re-modeling your infrastructure all the time, you will never be able to rely on it and build on it. Some things are finished and need to be left alone, unless a really large improvement becomes possible. That is not the case here. The thing done here is at best "gold plating" and at worst a really bad case of the "second system effect", both signs of lack of understanding and maturity (and big egos) on the side of the people driving this.
Progress is not "doing things differently". Progress is improving things, while keeping their old qualities and merits intact. That does require actual understanding of what these old qualities and merits are. The Poetterings and Microsofts of the world do not have that and hence cannot create progress, they can only make things different without merit and overall make things worse.
I have absolutely no problem with that. Maybe the issue is your window manager and not X?
Let me put it this way: if this software is such an obvious 'polished turd', why haven't *you* coded up a replacement?
And that shows the second aspect of the issue nicely: The assholes that come along with the polished turd. You are too dumb to understand, but I will repeat it anyways: There is no need to a replacement. What was there before already works nicely.
And that is exactly it. In many cases "mainstream" equals "really bad". Ubuntu in particular tries really hard to follow that principle.
Personally, my Linux runs fvwm (and has done so for now almost 30 years, without much change), no systemd or other Poettering crapware. A desktop is not a "lifestyle-enhancer", it is a tool. Once it is configured nicely, you leave it as it is.
And down here in the real world, we actually like X11 as it works pretty well.
This guy seems to be unaware of that little fact. Ubuntu is a pretty good example for it though.
In the EU, it has to be paper to be legally binding for a lot of things, unless it is B2B. If the EULA says otherwise, that is invalid. There are also privacy rights you cannot actually give up via a contract, on paper or otherwise. Stop applying US law to things that happen in Europe.