Bah, we'll lump an exploit in IE, Outlook, Office, even Adobe products all in with Windows vulnerabilities. It's not like we're unbiased! *chortles*
I don't know how they compiled the stats but, suffice to say, Windows has come a long ways. I'm truly impressed. I'm not going to switch back to Windows but I'm impressed with their progress. Security was not the reason I left Windows. Collecting telemetry data was not the reason that I left Windows. I left mostly because I prefer Linux. I started in the Unix realm. I poked at Linux when it came out. I poked again in the late 1990s. I kept a partition with Linux installed, pretty much all the time. I moved to Windows in 1999 or so. I stayed there but kept my partition. I went back to Linux in the mid 2000s. I then got back on the Windows bus and stayed there for a while. Over the past few years, I'd been finding myself using it less and less. Finally, I just said to hell with it and got rid of all my installs, deleted TERABYTES of Windows software, and just stopped using it. I may do the same thing shortly only this time moving to BSD land - that will probably wait until I get home.
So, I'm kind of agnostic? It's not like I hate Microsoft. I did let my MSDN subscription lapse. However, there are scads of exploits for Linux - daily. I update daily - sometimes multiple times in a day, and there's almost always something new when I 'sudo apt-get upgrade' or whatnot. (I'm in the Debian camp, for the most part. Specifically, in the Ubuntu family.) I guess, I agree that it is not a very easy comparison.
I remembered what the image looked like (I think someone had linked the image) and I've since (just now) read the article. It's actually pretty good and I'm not going to say that I'm sure that I'm qualified to give an opinion. This looks like a fairly unbiased set of research combined with a fairly decent article - I was able to recognize the image of the graph! >:-)
That's for last year. Grouping all of Windows together seems a bit unfair so they've separated them. They only include the Linux Kernel in one section - they do delve into distro specific vulnerabilities.
It's well worth a read if you get a minute. It's not bad, not bad at all. It almost looks objective.
As I mentioned in a separate reply. This may not seem important to some people but where I still the owner of my business, I'd be damned excited at the potential. Imagine, if you will, being able to page a huge data set for the purpose of deterministic modeling. I'd expect exponential speed increases from the days of spinning platters. Of course, there's much more RAM available already and I've been out of the industry for eight years... Still, it seems extremely likely to have some good results on lower-end things like clusters. They still do clustering, right?
*sighs* I do kind of miss keeping up with all of this stuff.
Actually, I don't know who it is but I'm no longer completely unique on panopticlick. I was, for quite a while, but that's changed. There were a whole two of us, I suspect the other one was also me. Either way, that's fine - or minimal. It's the site that gets that. I don't want it being spread to every other data collection service - which is why I use uMatrix.
Thanks for explaining. I can see this as having some very valuable use cases. Imagine, to go with my earlier thought - if you will, being able to pretty much page a database that's nearing a TB in size. My background is in working with heavy data sets (traffic modeling) that there are infinite data points that one could enter. Close enough to infinite that the word is close to valid. (It's similar to attempting to model chaos.) Now, in the late 1990s, we were nearing the point where we'd be working with as much as a TB of data - in the 1990s. Lots and lots and lots of disks all throughout a number of clustered servers including multiple storage arrays.
Now, we'd sometimes run models that would take a couple of weeks to complete (and this only got more complex when we began to model pedestrian traffic as well as vehicular traffic). Now, we were pulling data from spinning platters and and I imagine we were working with not much more than 16 GB per server - maybe even a quarter of that. It would have been revolutionary to be able to page an entire database like that. Then again, there have already been so many revolutions over the years.
Again, thanks for explaining. I figured I'd explain what I'd been thinking and where I would expect to see some use and asking questions is a good way for me to learn things.
Oh, your choices aren't upsetting anyone (I don't think). It's just that there's so many ways and so many variations that I'm not sure I can agree with you. Between hypervisors enabling running without actually touching the bare metal to the ability to run in kernel mode, there are countless things.
I don't know if you're a curmudgeon. I'd say you're probably jaded. Go try to install Plan9 in a VM. That'll bring back some magic. If you don't have VMWare then either pirate the hell out of it or use VirtualBox. (I think there are copies up on the torrent sites? I've not used them - I'm able to afford the stupidly expensive license. I've a stash of licenses for various versions over the years and buying a perpetual license is not possible.)
There's Minix. There's Hurd. There's even Debian/HURD. There's Android and iOS (for what they're worth). I hear good things about Windows 10, I don't actually have any experience with it but I did see it in the wild once. OS X is built off of some BSD variant I believe but different enough - I don't use it but I recommend it for those interested. There are so many flavors of Linux that it's obscene and actually confusing. My return to Linux-only was fraught with peril. Err... Or something like that.
What I really like is just having the ability to use a Live USB stick and going to a session in RAM. I never get bored. There's still so much that I don't know that I, literally, am set for the rest of my life when it comes to learning something new every single day. I'm retired and one of the things I insist on is learning new things - I want to keep my brain sharp because I'm not afraid of much but mental incapacitation scares the shit out of me. It scares me as much as maiming used to scare me. It scares me as much as being physically incapacitated while retaining full mental faculties. I'd rather eat a bullet than any of those.
So, I try to learn new stuff. All the time. Hell, I go to Stack Exchange and spend hours there reading and learning stuff. I help, when I can, though I just decided to start that recently. (Like a month ago. I'm already approaching 1000 points.)
Anyhow, I don't see what you're seeing. You can still program in BASIC. There are emulators for all that you want. There's freedom to keep that stuff going and advancing some of it as you go.
Then again, maybe I'm not your target audience or normal. I don't think any one OS is perfect and I'm kind of OS agnostic. I don't think *all* Apple users are fashionistas. Hell, I bought 62 iPads over the summer. (Long story, I've kind of, sort of, adopted my local elementary school - it's small with just 56 students and I've made friends with all the kids and the overworked IT staff of just one person.) Last time, I bought them Windows 7 laptops. I'm probably going to go with Macs and do a refresh this summer.
Well, I can say that I partially agree with what you're saying but I think that's you being your own worst enemy. The magic is still there. It's more diffused but it's there. It's hidden in far away bits of code but there for the taking. You just need to poke. A lot of us seemed to give up poking and started just being users. Maybe that's what happened to you? Buy yourself a RPi or similar. The magic is still there. It's just that the computer is akin to a toaster now. If you want to see the magic you need to take the toaster apart. If you want to learn everything, you need to do it while it's still plugged in. (Now that's taking an analogy too far but I guess it works.) Take the toaster apart and plug it in to 220. The magic is there.
Well, then I hope you do well. No forgiveness needed from me, however. I'm okay with you. I think you could work on your soft-skills but, if it's really med related (or even not) and you need to get shit off your chest of vent then my email actually works and is read. I even reply. I've got big shoulders, I can handle it. If you need someone objective to email then, by all means, there it is.
Ayn Rand was an idiot. (I don't know how many times I've felt compelled to state the obvious over the years.) I no longer waste the time declaring why she was an idiot, I figure it should be obvious. Well, obvious to anyone that I'm making an effort to communicate with. If they don't understand that and why then, frankly, I'm not sure that they're a good place to invest my time and effort. I have better things to do.
It is tough to use the nomenclature. It is hard to self-identify as a Libertarian. The connotations, wrong or right, are difficult to overcome. The way to explain it is long and complex and needs variance. Over the years, I've had this conversation, in one form or another, and there doesn't appear to be a simple of efficient way to do so.
I think it is because I've been in the party for so long that I still used the moniker. We were all, at one point, much like I. Well, not all, but the vast majority of us had very similar beliefs - where we often differed is the methods we'd use to work towards our goals. I've even known some who advocated violence and a temporary totalitarian state (benevolent dictatorship) across the globe. There are extremists and idiots in all parties and, of course, those are the ones who get the media attention, speak the loudest, and generate the stereotypes.
I'm saddened because I often feel forced to call myself a Classic Libertarian. I am not a Socialist, though I believe in similar results, because I didn't emote my way to a conclusion and, instead, reached my conclusions because of reason and logic. The distinction seems important to me but the name "Socialist Libertarian" does sound appealing. It might mean that I type out fewer replies such as this but, then again, I actually enjoy this sort of thing and the great discussions we can have here.
I'd stop using the association but, to me, that would be cowardice. I have some, albeit passion, and empathy but it could easily be interpreted as stubbornness. I've had many conversations with many smart people and have refined my beliefs over the years. (I'm not one of those people who refuses to admit they're wrong or is unwilling to learn new things - such has actually 'shocked' folks here. I'll even happily admit that there's something I don't know or am unqualified to opine on.) But, as of yet, I can't give up this fight. Fight, for lack of a better word, is really what it has become. Like-minded people, in the party, are also claiming to be working on it but, honestly, we're not the most organized.
People forget that it was the Libertarians who started the whole legalization of pot movement, we murmured about that decades ago. Of course, we usually want to legalize all drugs but that's a whole other point. The tent is large and, to a fault, welcomes almost anyone. Anyone can say, "I'm a Libertarian." They can then spout all the nonsense they want. We're not about to do some 'purity test' ala The Republican Party.
I guess, to close with two more things. Businesses have rights but they exist by grace of the individual - not the other way around. I do not want a weak government that does nothing to curtail bad business practices - I want strong consumer protections because those afford the greatest amounts of personal liberties. I want a strong, central, government and individual State governments and local governments with varied degrees of power. I want freedom of movement within the populace to choose to live in like-minded communities. I want a small but strong government that does its job and nothing more. I want the power to reside in the hands of the people. I want equal opportunities - not equal outcomes (let the chips fall where they may). I have ideas as to how to help us reach those goals but I'm open to suggestions, as well.
However, you're right... Maybe it's time to just give up the fight (it may not be something that I can win or even make a dent in) and go with "Socialist Libertarian." I think that may cause more confusion but, frankly, it may result in fewer questions in the long-run. Either way, thanks for the great conversation, so far. As always, I'm quite likely to reply if you post. I'm open to suggestions, criticism, etc... Yes, yes I am running for office. State Senate, Maine, 2016.
It's probably not impossible but it's likely damned difficult and counterproductive to design a mobile app with something as basic and featureless as Scratch. MIT did not make Scratch for coding anything useful, really. I mean, I've played with it and I suppose you could. I don't think it's practical. The code that they show them working on is in Scratch.
Nah, they're scared because they've never seen a woman with a gray neck beard, specifically a Dorito speckled beard, guzzling quarts of Mountain Dew faster than they sip coffee.
Well, I mean, you are a geek. I'm pretty sure you must have a beard, eat cheesy chips, and guzzle Mountain Dew (or Jolt). Sheesh.... I think those are standard features that you get when ever you write your first BASIC program. By the time you're at shell scripts you should have forgotten how to bathe. Pretty soon, usually when you stop running those scripts by hand and have crontab doing the work, is when you stop interacting with 'normies.'
I get email every day, pretty much, telling me about the new vulnerabilities in my operating system of choice. It's Linux. There are all sorts of serious security holes, popping up all the time. Hell, I get updates a couple of times a day, some days.
Strangely true. There are all sorts of exploits for all sorts of things but this is actually a rarity these days. We don't see a whole lot of exploits for Windows, itself, any more. If we determined kernel vs. kernel security vulnerabilities then someone posted a link not too long ago that showed Microsoft had fewer than Linux as of late but I didn't check to see how they compiled the stats.
I don't see me returning to Microsoft again, for a variety of reasons, but they're stepped up their game quite a bit - this is actually rather impressive. I'd always kept Linux on a spare partition and dual booted, well for a very long time, but I've not actually used any Windows products in quite a while now. I've even let my MSDN subscription lapse.
That this is news is what's exceptional. I am going to get a Windows phone (on the advice of a kind Slashdot user) as I'm tired of Android and don't really want to delve into the Apple ecosystem. I think I'll enjoy it. I imagine Microsoft will have a fix for this soon enough and, well, it almost surely won't impact my phone buying decision.
I must confess... I sometimes still compile my own kernel just because I like watching the text scroll by. I'll download a make from source just to see it, if I'm bored or just wanting to watch it. I don't really know what it is but it's still magical. Of course, my terminal is a gray (almost black but not quite) background with green text.
I don't recall my version of RedHat coming with books? I think it had a CD with it but it may have actually been a floppy now that I think about it. I really don't recall. Wow... It was probably a floppy, now that I think about it. It was probably several of them. And it was, indeed, exciting. Of course, sometime around that time would have been when I thought I was getting a bargain and bought a CDRW for $1000 USD (around 700 quid I think?) and spent way too many hours getting it to work. As I recall, it was junk and a year later they were just a couple hundred dollars and they're pretty much free now.
The heady days of the revolution! I had to add memory chips, not really RAM - I guess, to a TRS-80 just to have lowercase letters. That would have been quite a while before this, of course, but that's why I have my almost black (not quite) and green text. Pfft... Amber was for the wealthy! I seem to recall seeing a monitor that did both.
There's an interesting browser for Windows users called OffByOne. I've not used it in years but it wasn't too bad for text-only browsing. I think it displayed pictures as an option. Scripting simply doesn't work in it. At least it didn't years ago. Google indicates it is still around.
I use uMatrix, Ghostery, and often have Disconnect enabled but I'm not sure why. Coupled with AdBlock, yeah, they can track me but it's pretty limited. Scripts only get loaded when I say they get loaded. I don't see ads. uMatrix is like NoScript but more easily refined. It's like an early version of Outpost Personal Firewall for your web browser. Between that, a VPN, and a remote connection to my home PC, I'm even comfortable using the hotel's wireless.
Some of the best gaming sessions don't even require dice. It's a good session when the dice haven't even left the bags. I haven't had a good group in a while but I've been known to just let players make up any stats they want on their character sheet for the generation process. Make what you want, I'll adjust to suit.
Wouldn't these be fast enough to use as RAM? Sure, maybe not for VRAM on a gaming rig or something but, say, for a server chugging away managing databases?
My office had an OTB move in across the parking lot. I used to take clients there and drink my lunch there. I won a ton of money - I was (and probably still am) well ahead. However, I learned to read the booklet that they have, where you can see who's done what and what their history is for the year. My winning ratio sunk. Prior to that I always bet on the "chariot" racing (sulkies/harness) and always bet on the guy named Banks or Banks Jr or I simply bet on #3 to win/place/show. I once won so much that I had to pay taxes on it. However, as soon as some old guy showed me what that little book was for? I was sunk. I stopped going over and better after a little while - the magic was gone.
I did bet at the local fair a few years back and hit big. I did one of those fancy dancy wheel's but there were only five horses in the race and then one of them dropped out so I jumped on that - one of the odds was 22:1 so I put down like $500 and had to pay taxes on those winnings too. I don't recall the total but it was fantastic fun to win.
I don't have a point except to say that if you try to play the numbers, it doesn't seem to work - I've tried. There's the Martingale method but that's not exactly recommended as you will eventually have a losing streak that wipes you out.
That's nuts! Thanks for the link. That's... That's just straight up abuse! The strange part is, I get better efficiency on pretty much everything I own. Why bother? Just drive like a human - and I'm not the least bit gentle, I just maintain my speed and am efficient. Easy on, easy off. Well, okay, I'm not always gentle. But I usually average better than the official numbers - even with the 'new' EPA numbers. Perhaps they're also optimizing for burn temperature and that's lowering their numbers....
That's just crazy talk. I am... I am surprised - I'd have figured that shit would be outlawed. When I'm Supreme Rule of the Galaxy, somebody's either going to jail or is going to stop that shit. That's the EU market but, well, now I'd not be surprised to see them doing it in other markets as well.
It's not uncommon for me to find a magazine, fully loaded, in a backpack or something - even my laptop bag. I have way too many and they tend to get left and forgotten because I prefer to not keep a round in the chamber and not even to have a magazine in the firearm for a good portion of the time. I'm not always in a position where I can wear my firearm(s) and I'd much rather that it require effort (loading, cocking, removing safety) before it can be used. A bullet, by itself, is pretty harmless most of the time. If it's a modern center-fire then you can (don't do this) chuck it in the fire and the projectile won't really go anywhere.
Again, don't do that... You probably could get away with it but it's not a wise choice. The area around where the primer sits should allow for the gases to expand more rapidly which, while counterintuitive, means the gas will be mostly escaping out the back and not in a concentrated form. Of course, there's also no barrel for accumulated gas build-up. This is not true with the ammo that I typically carry - I'm almost always limiting myself to.22 LR. I'm comfortable with that choice. It also meshes fairly well my mentality of keeping the firearm unloaded, with no magazine inserted, and nothing in the chamber. There are times and places where this changes but that's often the case - frequently even when the firearm is on my hip.
I should also add, I don't live in a very urban area. There are a total of six houses in the township where I reside.
I guess my point is that I agree and could easily be guilty of having a spare magazine, spare rounds, or something similar in a bag and have missed it while packing. I do dislike the TSA and one of the things that I've learned is that, if you're in a group, and you're not in a huge rush, chartering a plane as pricey as one might expect. You can do it for just yourself and your mate but that's a bit pricey for most folks. I've chartered a flight from Maine to BC with six friends and put the pilots up in a hotel for a week while we fished. With all the baggage and equipment, it wasn't that much more than if we'd all flown business class and paid for the equipment to fly with us. As I recall, it was actually about 10% cheaper than first class seats would have been.
Bonus? No TSA. We hopped on a plane in the little Augusta airport by riding in a van though a gate. We went right to the plane, helped the pilots load the plane, and we were off in about an hour. No TSA, no screening, no anything. We did have to go through customs in Canada and then when we came back. The flight was much slower than it would have been in a jumbo because we needed to refuel more often (twice, as I recall) but it wasn't a bad flight or anything.
So, if you want to avoid the TSA and there's a few of you going AND it's not, you know, all the way to Africa or something then check out some of the charter prices. If you're open-ended they sometimes have other/quasi-regular flights where you're not quite in charter status but not quite a red-eye. You won't be flying drunk with a bunch of your buddies but you'll fly for a not-to-bad price. And, if you're not too drunk and you're well behaved, they might even let you sit in the co-pilots seat and fly the plane for a whole. It's legal. You just can't land it or take off with it. Well, they tell me it is legal. I've not actually checked the laws. I'm inclined to believe them.
Anyhow, there's an option if anyone's interested. It works. It's really not as pricey as you might think. If you're going off to a conference or a convention, give it a look. They've got some great pilots and they could probably use the business.
People were really, really pissed when 9/11 happened and I responded with, "Yeah, that sucks. So?" Seriously? What are we going to do about it?
You know what? It's a shitty world. I accept that I, you, my family, or my friends may die - in very violent ways. I've seen a few deaths from violent trauma, in person. It sucks. You know what? So what? I'm not cold. I'm not lacking in empathy. I just don't think it's such a big deal that means we need to restructure our lives, reduce our rights, and live in perpetual fear. Shit happens. It sucks. Pick up, move on, and don't let it get you down.
*snickers* C'mon now! You? Calling someone a fanboy like it's a negative? Sheesh... I'm inclined to think you're just trolling at this point. It did make me chuckle, so there's that.
A long time ago, in a computer shop, I bought a copy of RedHat. A few weeks later, I bought a copy of Slackware but I think it was off the 'net. I think it came with a book - but not RedHat. I think RedHat had a help file CD and maybe a booklet. Anyhow, I installed Slackware first and played with it for a while (I seem to recall we had to start xserver manually back then). Then I played with RedHat for about three days.
I haven't used it since. CentOS, yes. RedHat, no. It just didn't seem very good and that's always left a taste in my mouth, so to speak. I'm kind of surprised to see the comments here. I probably just haven't been keeping up. I figured that RedHat was still the darling of the enterprise and that everyone still loved them. They have done a great deal for the community, after all.
Slashdot Mirror
Bah, we'll lump an exploit in IE, Outlook, Office, even Adobe products all in with Windows vulnerabilities. It's not like we're unbiased! *chortles*
I don't know how they compiled the stats but, suffice to say, Windows has come a long ways. I'm truly impressed. I'm not going to switch back to Windows but I'm impressed with their progress. Security was not the reason I left Windows. Collecting telemetry data was not the reason that I left Windows. I left mostly because I prefer Linux. I started in the Unix realm. I poked at Linux when it came out. I poked again in the late 1990s. I kept a partition with Linux installed, pretty much all the time. I moved to Windows in 1999 or so. I stayed there but kept my partition. I went back to Linux in the mid 2000s. I then got back on the Windows bus and stayed there for a while. Over the past few years, I'd been finding myself using it less and less. Finally, I just said to hell with it and got rid of all my installs, deleted TERABYTES of Windows software, and just stopped using it. I may do the same thing shortly only this time moving to BSD land - that will probably wait until I get home.
So, I'm kind of agnostic? It's not like I hate Microsoft. I did let my MSDN subscription lapse. However, there are scads of exploits for Linux - daily. I update daily - sometimes multiple times in a day, and there's almost always something new when I 'sudo apt-get upgrade' or whatnot. (I'm in the Debian camp, for the most part. Specifically, in the Ubuntu family.) I guess, I agree that it is not a very easy comparison.
I remembered what the image looked like (I think someone had linked the image) and I've since (just now) read the article. It's actually pretty good and I'm not going to say that I'm sure that I'm qualified to give an opinion. This looks like a fairly unbiased set of research combined with a fairly decent article - I was able to recognize the image of the graph! >:-)
http://www.gfi.com/blog/most-v...
That's for last year. Grouping all of Windows together seems a bit unfair so they've separated them. They only include the Linux Kernel in one section - they do delve into distro specific vulnerabilities.
It's well worth a read if you get a minute. It's not bad, not bad at all. It almost looks objective.
As I mentioned in a separate reply. This may not seem important to some people but where I still the owner of my business, I'd be damned excited at the potential. Imagine, if you will, being able to page a huge data set for the purpose of deterministic modeling. I'd expect exponential speed increases from the days of spinning platters. Of course, there's much more RAM available already and I've been out of the industry for eight years... Still, it seems extremely likely to have some good results on lower-end things like clusters. They still do clustering, right?
*sighs* I do kind of miss keeping up with all of this stuff.
Actually, I don't know who it is but I'm no longer completely unique on panopticlick. I was, for quite a while, but that's changed. There were a whole two of us, I suspect the other one was also me. Either way, that's fine - or minimal. It's the site that gets that. I don't want it being spread to every other data collection service - which is why I use uMatrix.
Thanks for explaining. I can see this as having some very valuable use cases. Imagine, to go with my earlier thought - if you will, being able to pretty much page a database that's nearing a TB in size. My background is in working with heavy data sets (traffic modeling) that there are infinite data points that one could enter. Close enough to infinite that the word is close to valid. (It's similar to attempting to model chaos.) Now, in the late 1990s, we were nearing the point where we'd be working with as much as a TB of data - in the 1990s. Lots and lots and lots of disks all throughout a number of clustered servers including multiple storage arrays.
Now, we'd sometimes run models that would take a couple of weeks to complete (and this only got more complex when we began to model pedestrian traffic as well as vehicular traffic). Now, we were pulling data from spinning platters and and I imagine we were working with not much more than 16 GB per server - maybe even a quarter of that. It would have been revolutionary to be able to page an entire database like that. Then again, there have already been so many revolutions over the years.
Again, thanks for explaining. I figured I'd explain what I'd been thinking and where I would expect to see some use and asking questions is a good way for me to learn things.
Oh, your choices aren't upsetting anyone (I don't think). It's just that there's so many ways and so many variations that I'm not sure I can agree with you. Between hypervisors enabling running without actually touching the bare metal to the ability to run in kernel mode, there are countless things.
I don't know if you're a curmudgeon. I'd say you're probably jaded. Go try to install Plan9 in a VM. That'll bring back some magic. If you don't have VMWare then either pirate the hell out of it or use VirtualBox. (I think there are copies up on the torrent sites? I've not used them - I'm able to afford the stupidly expensive license. I've a stash of licenses for various versions over the years and buying a perpetual license is not possible.)
There's Minix. There's Hurd. There's even Debian/HURD. There's Android and iOS (for what they're worth). I hear good things about Windows 10, I don't actually have any experience with it but I did see it in the wild once. OS X is built off of some BSD variant I believe but different enough - I don't use it but I recommend it for those interested. There are so many flavors of Linux that it's obscene and actually confusing. My return to Linux-only was fraught with peril. Err... Or something like that.
What I really like is just having the ability to use a Live USB stick and going to a session in RAM. I never get bored. There's still so much that I don't know that I, literally, am set for the rest of my life when it comes to learning something new every single day. I'm retired and one of the things I insist on is learning new things - I want to keep my brain sharp because I'm not afraid of much but mental incapacitation scares the shit out of me. It scares me as much as maiming used to scare me. It scares me as much as being physically incapacitated while retaining full mental faculties. I'd rather eat a bullet than any of those.
So, I try to learn new stuff. All the time. Hell, I go to Stack Exchange and spend hours there reading and learning stuff. I help, when I can, though I just decided to start that recently. (Like a month ago. I'm already approaching 1000 points.)
Anyhow, I don't see what you're seeing. You can still program in BASIC. There are emulators for all that you want. There's freedom to keep that stuff going and advancing some of it as you go.
Then again, maybe I'm not your target audience or normal. I don't think any one OS is perfect and I'm kind of OS agnostic. I don't think *all* Apple users are fashionistas. Hell, I bought 62 iPads over the summer. (Long story, I've kind of, sort of, adopted my local elementary school - it's small with just 56 students and I've made friends with all the kids and the overworked IT staff of just one person.) Last time, I bought them Windows 7 laptops. I'm probably going to go with Macs and do a refresh this summer.
Well, I can say that I partially agree with what you're saying but I think that's you being your own worst enemy. The magic is still there. It's more diffused but it's there. It's hidden in far away bits of code but there for the taking. You just need to poke. A lot of us seemed to give up poking and started just being users. Maybe that's what happened to you? Buy yourself a RPi or similar. The magic is still there. It's just that the computer is akin to a toaster now. If you want to see the magic you need to take the toaster apart. If you want to learn everything, you need to do it while it's still plugged in. (Now that's taking an analogy too far but I guess it works.) Take the toaster apart and plug it in to 220. The magic is there.
Well, then I hope you do well. No forgiveness needed from me, however. I'm okay with you. I think you could work on your soft-skills but, if it's really med related (or even not) and you need to get shit off your chest of vent then my email actually works and is read. I even reply. I've got big shoulders, I can handle it. If you need someone objective to email then, by all means, there it is.
Ayn Rand was an idiot. (I don't know how many times I've felt compelled to state the obvious over the years.) I no longer waste the time declaring why she was an idiot, I figure it should be obvious. Well, obvious to anyone that I'm making an effort to communicate with. If they don't understand that and why then, frankly, I'm not sure that they're a good place to invest my time and effort. I have better things to do.
It is tough to use the nomenclature. It is hard to self-identify as a Libertarian. The connotations, wrong or right, are difficult to overcome. The way to explain it is long and complex and needs variance. Over the years, I've had this conversation, in one form or another, and there doesn't appear to be a simple of efficient way to do so.
I think it is because I've been in the party for so long that I still used the moniker. We were all, at one point, much like I. Well, not all, but the vast majority of us had very similar beliefs - where we often differed is the methods we'd use to work towards our goals. I've even known some who advocated violence and a temporary totalitarian state (benevolent dictatorship) across the globe. There are extremists and idiots in all parties and, of course, those are the ones who get the media attention, speak the loudest, and generate the stereotypes.
I'm saddened because I often feel forced to call myself a Classic Libertarian. I am not a Socialist, though I believe in similar results, because I didn't emote my way to a conclusion and, instead, reached my conclusions because of reason and logic. The distinction seems important to me but the name "Socialist Libertarian" does sound appealing. It might mean that I type out fewer replies such as this but, then again, I actually enjoy this sort of thing and the great discussions we can have here.
I'd stop using the association but, to me, that would be cowardice. I have some, albeit passion, and empathy but it could easily be interpreted as stubbornness. I've had many conversations with many smart people and have refined my beliefs over the years. (I'm not one of those people who refuses to admit they're wrong or is unwilling to learn new things - such has actually 'shocked' folks here. I'll even happily admit that there's something I don't know or am unqualified to opine on.) But, as of yet, I can't give up this fight. Fight, for lack of a better word, is really what it has become. Like-minded people, in the party, are also claiming to be working on it but, honestly, we're not the most organized.
People forget that it was the Libertarians who started the whole legalization of pot movement, we murmured about that decades ago. Of course, we usually want to legalize all drugs but that's a whole other point. The tent is large and, to a fault, welcomes almost anyone. Anyone can say, "I'm a Libertarian." They can then spout all the nonsense they want. We're not about to do some 'purity test' ala The Republican Party.
I guess, to close with two more things. Businesses have rights but they exist by grace of the individual - not the other way around. I do not want a weak government that does nothing to curtail bad business practices - I want strong consumer protections because those afford the greatest amounts of personal liberties. I want a strong, central, government and individual State governments and local governments with varied degrees of power. I want freedom of movement within the populace to choose to live in like-minded communities. I want a small but strong government that does its job and nothing more. I want the power to reside in the hands of the people. I want equal opportunities - not equal outcomes (let the chips fall where they may). I have ideas as to how to help us reach those goals but I'm open to suggestions, as well.
However, you're right... Maybe it's time to just give up the fight (it may not be something that I can win or even make a dent in) and go with "Socialist Libertarian." I think that may cause more confusion but, frankly, it may result in fewer questions in the long-run. Either way, thanks for the great conversation, so far. As always, I'm quite likely to reply if you post. I'm open to suggestions, criticism, etc... Yes, yes I am running for office. State Senate, Maine, 2016.
It's probably not impossible but it's likely damned difficult and counterproductive to design a mobile app with something as basic and featureless as Scratch. MIT did not make Scratch for coding anything useful, really. I mean, I've played with it and I suppose you could. I don't think it's practical. The code that they show them working on is in Scratch.
Nah, they're scared because they've never seen a woman with a gray neck beard, specifically a Dorito speckled beard, guzzling quarts of Mountain Dew faster than they sip coffee.
Well, I mean, you are a geek. I'm pretty sure you must have a beard, eat cheesy chips, and guzzle Mountain Dew (or Jolt). Sheesh.... I think those are standard features that you get when ever you write your first BASIC program. By the time you're at shell scripts you should have forgotten how to bathe. Pretty soon, usually when you stop running those scripts by hand and have crontab doing the work, is when you stop interacting with 'normies.'
See? I've finally got women figured out! ;-)
You're full of shit.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/...
The number was higher in 1950 than in 1940 and higher again in 1960. It has grown steadily for a hundred years.
I get email every day, pretty much, telling me about the new vulnerabilities in my operating system of choice. It's Linux. There are all sorts of serious security holes, popping up all the time. Hell, I get updates a couple of times a day, some days.
Well, there was a 64 bit Windows XP but I don't imagine that many of those are running today.
Strangely true. There are all sorts of exploits for all sorts of things but this is actually a rarity these days. We don't see a whole lot of exploits for Windows, itself, any more. If we determined kernel vs. kernel security vulnerabilities then someone posted a link not too long ago that showed Microsoft had fewer than Linux as of late but I didn't check to see how they compiled the stats.
I don't see me returning to Microsoft again, for a variety of reasons, but they're stepped up their game quite a bit - this is actually rather impressive. I'd always kept Linux on a spare partition and dual booted, well for a very long time, but I've not actually used any Windows products in quite a while now. I've even let my MSDN subscription lapse.
That this is news is what's exceptional. I am going to get a Windows phone (on the advice of a kind Slashdot user) as I'm tired of Android and don't really want to delve into the Apple ecosystem. I think I'll enjoy it. I imagine Microsoft will have a fix for this soon enough and, well, it almost surely won't impact my phone buying decision.
They've come a long ways.
You just called African satellites the N word. ;-)
I must confess... I sometimes still compile my own kernel just because I like watching the text scroll by. I'll download a make from source just to see it, if I'm bored or just wanting to watch it. I don't really know what it is but it's still magical. Of course, my terminal is a gray (almost black but not quite) background with green text.
I don't recall my version of RedHat coming with books? I think it had a CD with it but it may have actually been a floppy now that I think about it. I really don't recall. Wow... It was probably a floppy, now that I think about it. It was probably several of them. And it was, indeed, exciting. Of course, sometime around that time would have been when I thought I was getting a bargain and bought a CDRW for $1000 USD (around 700 quid I think?) and spent way too many hours getting it to work. As I recall, it was junk and a year later they were just a couple hundred dollars and they're pretty much free now.
The heady days of the revolution! I had to add memory chips, not really RAM - I guess, to a TRS-80 just to have lowercase letters. That would have been quite a while before this, of course, but that's why I have my almost black (not quite) and green text. Pfft... Amber was for the wealthy! I seem to recall seeing a monitor that did both.
There's an interesting browser for Windows users called OffByOne. I've not used it in years but it wasn't too bad for text-only browsing. I think it displayed pictures as an option. Scripting simply doesn't work in it. At least it didn't years ago. Google indicates it is still around.
I use uMatrix, Ghostery, and often have Disconnect enabled but I'm not sure why. Coupled with AdBlock, yeah, they can track me but it's pretty limited. Scripts only get loaded when I say they get loaded. I don't see ads. uMatrix is like NoScript but more easily refined. It's like an early version of Outpost Personal Firewall for your web browser. Between that, a VPN, and a remote connection to my home PC, I'm even comfortable using the hotel's wireless.
Some of the best gaming sessions don't even require dice. It's a good session when the dice haven't even left the bags. I haven't had a good group in a while but I've been known to just let players make up any stats they want on their character sheet for the generation process. Make what you want, I'll adjust to suit.
Wouldn't these be fast enough to use as RAM? Sure, maybe not for VRAM on a gaming rig or something but, say, for a server chugging away managing databases?
My office had an OTB move in across the parking lot. I used to take clients there and drink my lunch there. I won a ton of money - I was (and probably still am) well ahead. However, I learned to read the booklet that they have, where you can see who's done what and what their history is for the year. My winning ratio sunk. Prior to that I always bet on the "chariot" racing (sulkies/harness) and always bet on the guy named Banks or Banks Jr or I simply bet on #3 to win/place/show. I once won so much that I had to pay taxes on it. However, as soon as some old guy showed me what that little book was for? I was sunk. I stopped going over and better after a little while - the magic was gone.
I did bet at the local fair a few years back and hit big. I did one of those fancy dancy wheel's but there were only five horses in the race and then one of them dropped out so I jumped on that - one of the odds was 22:1 so I put down like $500 and had to pay taxes on those winnings too. I don't recall the total but it was fantastic fun to win.
I don't have a point except to say that if you try to play the numbers, it doesn't seem to work - I've tried. There's the Martingale method but that's not exactly recommended as you will eventually have a losing streak that wipes you out.
That's nuts! Thanks for the link. That's... That's just straight up abuse! The strange part is, I get better efficiency on pretty much everything I own. Why bother? Just drive like a human - and I'm not the least bit gentle, I just maintain my speed and am efficient. Easy on, easy off. Well, okay, I'm not always gentle. But I usually average better than the official numbers - even with the 'new' EPA numbers. Perhaps they're also optimizing for burn temperature and that's lowering their numbers....
That's just crazy talk. I am... I am surprised - I'd have figured that shit would be outlawed. When I'm Supreme Rule of the Galaxy, somebody's either going to jail or is going to stop that shit. That's the EU market but, well, now I'd not be surprised to see them doing it in other markets as well.
It's not uncommon for me to find a magazine, fully loaded, in a backpack or something - even my laptop bag. I have way too many and they tend to get left and forgotten because I prefer to not keep a round in the chamber and not even to have a magazine in the firearm for a good portion of the time. I'm not always in a position where I can wear my firearm(s) and I'd much rather that it require effort (loading, cocking, removing safety) before it can be used. A bullet, by itself, is pretty harmless most of the time. If it's a modern center-fire then you can (don't do this) chuck it in the fire and the projectile won't really go anywhere.
Again, don't do that... You probably could get away with it but it's not a wise choice. The area around where the primer sits should allow for the gases to expand more rapidly which, while counterintuitive, means the gas will be mostly escaping out the back and not in a concentrated form. Of course, there's also no barrel for accumulated gas build-up. This is not true with the ammo that I typically carry - I'm almost always limiting myself to .22 LR. I'm comfortable with that choice. It also meshes fairly well my mentality of keeping the firearm unloaded, with no magazine inserted, and nothing in the chamber. There are times and places where this changes but that's often the case - frequently even when the firearm is on my hip.
I should also add, I don't live in a very urban area. There are a total of six houses in the township where I reside.
I guess my point is that I agree and could easily be guilty of having a spare magazine, spare rounds, or something similar in a bag and have missed it while packing. I do dislike the TSA and one of the things that I've learned is that, if you're in a group, and you're not in a huge rush, chartering a plane as pricey as one might expect. You can do it for just yourself and your mate but that's a bit pricey for most folks. I've chartered a flight from Maine to BC with six friends and put the pilots up in a hotel for a week while we fished. With all the baggage and equipment, it wasn't that much more than if we'd all flown business class and paid for the equipment to fly with us. As I recall, it was actually about 10% cheaper than first class seats would have been.
Bonus? No TSA. We hopped on a plane in the little Augusta airport by riding in a van though a gate. We went right to the plane, helped the pilots load the plane, and we were off in about an hour. No TSA, no screening, no anything. We did have to go through customs in Canada and then when we came back. The flight was much slower than it would have been in a jumbo because we needed to refuel more often (twice, as I recall) but it wasn't a bad flight or anything.
So, if you want to avoid the TSA and there's a few of you going AND it's not, you know, all the way to Africa or something then check out some of the charter prices. If you're open-ended they sometimes have other/quasi-regular flights where you're not quite in charter status but not quite a red-eye. You won't be flying drunk with a bunch of your buddies but you'll fly for a not-to-bad price. And, if you're not too drunk and you're well behaved, they might even let you sit in the co-pilots seat and fly the plane for a whole. It's legal. You just can't land it or take off with it. Well, they tell me it is legal. I've not actually checked the laws. I'm inclined to believe them.
Anyhow, there's an option if anyone's interested. It works. It's really not as pricey as you might think. If you're going off to a conference or a convention, give it a look. They've got some great pilots and they could probably use the business.
People were really, really pissed when 9/11 happened and I responded with, "Yeah, that sucks. So?" Seriously? What are we going to do about it?
You know what? It's a shitty world. I accept that I, you, my family, or my friends may die - in very violent ways. I've seen a few deaths from violent trauma, in person. It sucks. You know what? So what? I'm not cold. I'm not lacking in empathy. I just don't think it's such a big deal that means we need to restructure our lives, reduce our rights, and live in perpetual fear. Shit happens. It sucks. Pick up, move on, and don't let it get you down.
*snickers* C'mon now! You? Calling someone a fanboy like it's a negative? Sheesh... I'm inclined to think you're just trolling at this point. It did make me chuckle, so there's that.
Ah well, everyone's got their role to play.
A long time ago, in a computer shop, I bought a copy of RedHat. A few weeks later, I bought a copy of Slackware but I think it was off the 'net. I think it came with a book - but not RedHat. I think RedHat had a help file CD and maybe a booklet. Anyhow, I installed Slackware first and played with it for a while (I seem to recall we had to start xserver manually back then). Then I played with RedHat for about three days.
I haven't used it since. CentOS, yes. RedHat, no. It just didn't seem very good and that's always left a taste in my mouth, so to speak. I'm kind of surprised to see the comments here. I probably just haven't been keeping up. I figured that RedHat was still the darling of the enterprise and that everyone still loved them. They have done a great deal for the community, after all.
Ah well, imagine that?