Recent Posts

5826

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 is just a Service/crapware pack for Windows 7

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2012, 11:17 AM »

Who needs scammers ripping you off at that point - it will all be done officially by MS!

-Carol Haynes (March 22, 2012, 10:30 AM)

 

I can't wait for the law suits - Apple has managed to dodge the bullet so far but MS has been sued repeatedly over competition rules and I can see it starting again but this time on speed - and I can't help feeling Apple and Google will be dragged in to because of the same levels of user extortion!

-Carol Haynes (March 22, 2012, 10:30 AM)

What difference will it make? It still comes down to picking between Apple or Microsoft for most people. Almost like asking if you'd rather be infected with one disease over another. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and all the other big players have effectively blocked any and all independent innovation by threatening to file patent infringement suits against anybody doing anything with computers or software. And what they won't sue you for, the patent trolls will.

If that's not enough to scare off any potential investors (thereby guaranteeing your endeavor is stillborn) they'll pull you into court and bury you under so much legal expense you won't survive long enough to even make it to trial.

And FOSS? It's only a matter of time before the entire commercial software industry hits the GNU/Linux world with meritless patent infringement and other nuisance suits from every direction at once. Because it's fairly obvious they are hell bent on killing Tux and are simply biding their time. (Wasn't it Ballmer who argued that GPL and free software was fundamentally illegal since the terms of it's licenses went against what patent and copyright laws were set up to protect? He basically equated giving software away for free with all that was immoral, anti-business, and anti-capitalist. He even went so far as to imply it was also somehow communist or socialist in its goals. Oh horror of horrors!)

About the only thing that's prevented this from happening so far is that the players are too busy fighting each other to have the time to focus on GNU/Linux. They also view Linux as a less immediate threat because they know they'll be able to crush it whenever they finally decide they need to.

And I don't expect much relief from our judicial systems. If it comes down to a choice between doing the right and moral thing under law - or protecting domestic businesses and industries from competition by ignoring or bending the law - I'm almost 100% certain which way that decision will go.

If governments the world over are willing to tolerate the most egregious human rights violations and genocides rather than give the International Court of Justice some real teeth (because such powers might someday be used against their own abuses) I don't think that ignoring antitrust and anti-competition laws is going to cost most politicos and judges any sleep.

Because if we're already turning our heads away from real and quantifiable human suffering (in the name of expediency and protecting "national sovereignty") I don't have much hope that preserving open standards and hardware platforms is going to get much thought or attention where it matters.
 

-------------------------

BTW: Is my post above an example of the sort of "going off topic" wraith808 was talking about in this thread?

If so, all I can say is "Nuts." (With apologies to Gen. Anthony McAuliffe - U.S.Army .)

5827

Screenshot Captor / Re: Links to Reviews and Comments - Add yours!

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2012, 06:25 AM »

@Mouser - That's a very favorable review. Congratulations.

---

Too bad however that it only averages three stars because a couple of old one-star user reviews (one in 2010 and one in 2008) skew the simple average PC World uses. That's a shame because many people looking for something to download start by scanning the star ratings before they'll even read a full review.

The two negative reviewers biggest complaint was about how registration works at DC - not about the product quality. (They also misunderstood the registration process. Something I've seen in other reviews.)

Maybe some people who want to share the love could add their own (honest) reviews to the mix and get an additional star or two up there? (I see Stephen66515 already did.)

Here's how it currently stands:

Stars     Review date
-----     ------------
 5          03/22/2012  
 4          12/02/2011  
 5          12/12/2011
 4          08/20/2011
 1          04/01/2010
 1          12/24/2008

5828

Living Room / Re: NAS Recommendations?

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2012, 05:54 AM »

Also for anyone in Australia, (I'm looking at you Renegade), the HP ProLiant Microserver N40L for $221.09, (+ $16.00 to Melbourne), from DessyTek.

Much better than a dedicated NAS because you can run what you like on it.

-4wd (March 22, 2012, 04:05 AM)

The HP-N36L is a very nicely configured box for the price. The AMD CPU lets you avoid getting into the ARM weirdness you'll sometimes encounter if you're going with Linux. And you can fit the HP P410 RAID card into it if you're the type that still believes in RAID for home use.

Pretty sweet buy 4wd!

P.S. Luck with your wife.

5829

Living Room / Re: The Pirate Bay is creating Skynet

« Last post by 40hz on March 22, 2012, 05:23 AM »

I think the guys at TPB were joking. I don't think they were serious.

-Renegade (March 21, 2012, 11:02 PM)

Oh...I'd strongly suspect they were joking at least 90%.

Too bad the copyright lobby isn't falling for it.

At least not until TPB very publicly launches only one non-functional "experimental" drone. 

Then, if they mashed it up a bit to imply they bumped into some Area-51 or HAARP weirdness that screwed up their drone in order to get some of the real hardcore lunatic conspiracy people in on it...
 

5830

Living Room / Re: Encrypted DNS queries via OpenDNS dnscrypt for Windows / linux / BSD / iOS / OSX

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 09:14 PM »

@db90h - found it! Thx.

5831

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 is just a Service/crapware pack for Windows 7

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 08:57 PM »

I'd be really surprised if the "preview" they're giving out is the same thing Win 8 ends up ultimately being. If it is, Microsoft is drunker on their own KoolAid than I originally thought.

I've got it running on real hardware. And like Carol, I am not impressed one iota.

And I agree, it looks and feels more like some weird demo hack than it does a true beta.

If it's not, then I have to think Microsoft is so convinced people will flock to Metro and it's closed ecosystem (and app store) that they just don't care any more.

Besides, Microsoft's message at CeBIT seemed to be that all us IT types should feel free to piss off. Microsoft will be directing its main push to consumers, and counting on them to generate the pull that will make the rest of us get on board.

You know what? When the day finally comes that Microsoft decides to burn its partners, and announces they're pulling all our customers (along with the whole Windows/Office environment) up into their cloud, I'll actually breathe a sigh of relief. And probably say "Good riddance" too.

5832

Living Room / Re: The Pirate Bay is creating Skynet

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 08:42 PM »

Torrent? That stuff is still around?

-Tuxman (March 21, 2012, 08:38 PM)

Yeah. It's used by a lot of underfunded FOSS projects that have huge project files and not a lot of money to pay for bandwidth or hosting servers for the people who want to download things from them.

5833

Living Room / Re: The Pirate Bay is creating Skynet

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 07:53 PM »

The only thing being over international waters will do is make them less likely to fall on people in the EU, Asia, or the Americas when they're jammed or shot down.

ACTA has been signed into law in many places. That means anybody who is signatory to that bill can act independently to enforce it over international spaces. If Pirate Bay were a government, it might be different. But even if they were, they'd still need the resources to enforce their own interests. As in their own nukes, army, navy, or air force - or via a treaty with willing ally that has them.

Simple truth is might still makes right on this sorry planet. Powerful countries routinely flaunt international law without fear of being brought to book. And when it comes to getting heavy about something half the world already thinks is illegal, it's not a tough PR sell either.

In Pirate Bay's case, I'd suggest they take a look back to the 70s when a few pirate radio stations were being set up on ships just outside the territorial limit and broadcasting radio into the United States.

The first day they started broadcasting, the US Coast Guard went out, seized the ships (in international waters), took the crews into custody, and that was the end of it. Nobody lifted a finger to help the station operators. And this was back in the anti-establishment Viet Nam protest era when the US government didn't dare try one tenth the things they can get away with today.

I think the main reasons there's been so little official concern over this plan are:

1) It's ultimately unworkable and unsustainable.

2) It's expensive compared to a straight online approach.

3) It will tie up people with a 'science fair project' who'd probably be more successful doing end runs around web security and monitoring

4) Even if it does fly, it will be fairly easy to intercept and destroy. Might even make a good training exercise for fighter pilots thereby giving governments the opportunity to save some money on their own target drones.

Dunno. Sounds like a pretty dumb idea to me even if it is a cool concept.

5834

Living Room / Re: Employers asking job seekers for Facebook passwords

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 07:26 PM »

It's easy to say that until its you, and you're the one in a bad spot.

If you're able to back out of such a deal, then great... but don't look down on those who can't afford that type of stance.  Especially when you have a family to support...  Pyrrhic victory and all...  

-wraith808 (March 21, 2012, 04:52 PM)

Can't speak for anyone but myself, but I have been in such bad spots. And I acted according to my own sense of values and morality. But I also have an advantage in that my family operates as a unit. We discuss things with each other and we agree, as a group, on what our major courses of action and options are. We share the decisions, and we share the consequences - as well as the rewards that come out of them.

It might be different if you're in a family that has the traditional "breadwinner/dependents" situation where one person is looked to and expected to always decide and make things happen. But I wouldn't know. My grandparents ran their home as a community. My parents ran the house I grew up in that way. And now my family unit runs ours the same. And it works for us just like it did the previous two as well as the next generation I have direct experience with.

I also agree there's no need to criticize somebody for lying down if they believe they need to. (I cut some of Edvard's comment out of the portion I agreed with and quoted.) But it still doesn't make it right. Possibly it's necessary. (Maybe.) But it's seldom right. That's the difference between sometimes  doing what's expedient vs doing what's right.

I also can't agree that these battles can be nothing more than Pyrrhic victories at best. Caving in on something you know is not right only sets the stage for bigger problems down the road. And many times, all it takes to bring about major change is one person standing up and saying "No. I'm not going to accept that." At least if history is anything to go by.

Regarding the argument of having a family to feed, about all I can say is I hear that bandied about as the grand excuse so often that I'm immediately skeptical of about half the people who say it. Sometimes it really is true. Up to a point. But most often it's just shorthand for: I'm watching out for myself, and I don't care what anybody thinks - or who else gets hurt. So piss off. Oh! And did I tell you I also have kids?

At the end of the day, I think it probably all comes down to what you really believe and value. And how you see the world. I personally refuse to accept the notion that I'm helpless and have no options. Because in the final analysis you always have the option to say "No!"

What you have to decide is how important it is - and how much you're willing to pay for saying it.

It's not an easy call. I know that firsthand.

5835

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 reportedly set for October debut

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 04:15 PM »

Boy am I ever excited. I'm gonna go completely wild. I'll probably buy a loaf of bread, make piles of toast & jam, and stay up until 10 o'clock at night drinking tea and celebrating...



Party! Woo-hoo!!

5836

Living Room / Re: Encrypted DNS queries via OpenDNS dnscrypt for Windows / linux / BSD / iOS / OSX

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 04:05 PM »

Ok. That looks very good. Just applied. (Liked the quiz. Fun!)

5837

Living Room / Re: Employers asking job seekers for Facebook passwords

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 03:36 PM »

It's because of that attitude that our personal freedoms in this country and others are eroding faster than we can secure it.
Keep up the pretenses of a rotten economy, and people will be willing to part with every drop of integrity they once held so dear, in exchange for crumbs of safety and security.

At least, that's my opinion.

-Edvard (March 21, 2012, 03:10 PM)

Mine too. It's a hard truth, but there's no way to buy yourself out of that sort of abuse. The more you're willing to give up, the more the demands will keep escalating.

I've always maintained there's two general types of people you'll find in any negotiation. One type sees a concession as part of the give and take that occurs when there's some degree of respect between the two parties involved. The other type sees any concession as a sign of weakness - and immediately goes for the jugular vein.

And as far as economic justifications go, about all I can say (having on more than one occasion made what many would consider a "bad economic decision" based purely on principle) is at least try not to sell yourself out too cheaply. Not that it will ultimately matter. Because:

"In an ugly and unhappy world the richest man can purchase nothing but ugliness and unhappiness." - G.G. Shaw

5838

Living Room / Re: Employers asking job seekers for Facebook passwords

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 03:02 PM »

I wonder of he said anything about it on Facebook?  

-40hz (March 21, 2012, 02:53 PM)

"I was going to spam him but it didn't work"


 

-rgdot (March 21, 2012, 02:55 PM)

Yeah...well...maybe I did give him one of our throwaway e-mail accounts because of his tone. And the way the meeting was going. Figured I could always give him one of our 'real client' mailbox addresses later on if he ever became one.
 

5839

Living Room / Re: Employers asking job seekers for Facebook passwords

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 02:53 PM »

Doesn't surprise me.

I had a prospective client ask if he could friend me on Facebook. Supposedly to "better keep in touch."

I told him I didn't have a Facebook account. Or a Twitter account. Or a Google+ account. (I really don't BTW.) I told him I basically don't like social media and don't participate in any of it. I offered him my e-mail address instead.

His reaction was interesting. Without coming right out and saying it, he implied I was lying to him. "Everybody has a Facebook account," he told me. When I said "not me" he smiled and said, "Yeah right."

I didn't get the project that day. But I did add a new name to my 'bozo' list. About 3 months later, when he called me back about something else, I told him I was too busy to take on any additional projects at that point.

He hasn't called me since. I guess he got the message.

I wonder if he said anything about it on Facebook?  

5840

Living Room / Re: Flying on Bird Wings - A ****ing Magical Moment! =D

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 02:18 PM »

*SIGH*

Oh well...I guess my on-again/off-again personal airship project I started back when I was 12 goes back on the drawing board.



Except something more like this:

After that, I want to start working on my personal submarine...

5841

Official Announcements / Re: So we gave up the March Ad Experiment Idea - What about a 7day mini fundraiser?

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 01:49 PM »

I was so looking forward to the ads!  

-techidave (March 21, 2012, 05:55 AM)

+1

You don't know until you try.

-Renegade (March 21, 2012, 11:47 AM)

True. But why bother? Show me any other place that holds a fundraiser; hits it's target halfway through; allows it to continue running through the allotted period anyway (with the encouragement and blessing of the members no less!) and ends with about double the target goal in the bank?

Know of any site running ads that can claim the same?

The problem with ads is that it doesn't work out well if you're also doing direct appeals for contributions. As PBS discovered. Most people seem to be ok with fundraisers as long as they're conducted in a reasonable manner. Or with advertising since nobody with an IQ over 60 thinks you can run something like a website with no infusions of capital.

What many people do have a problem with, however,  is fundraising plus advertisements.

At least from my experience.

My real problem with accepting ads is that there's always some loss of control. It could be something as simple as you not being able to say where somebody's ad will appear on your webpage. Or what it looks like. But it can also easily become much more intrusive, depending on the advertiser's requirements.

A fundraiser, on the other hand, deals only with the members and their expectations. If they're happy (and they usually are if they're contributing at all) you're pretty much free to continue operating your site as you best know how. Because the only people who you have to satisfy are the "customers" who are actually interested in your content.

When you have advertisers as your customers (and that's how they view themselves) they're not interested in you for what you're doing. They're interested in getting themselves in front of your content customers. Eyeballs are everything. What you offer on your site (software, a good chatroom, funny pictures, porn) is completely secondary to them - except insofar as it attracts their target demographic.

"Paid for by advertising" is what destroyed broadcast television's potential for greatness.*

And it will also do the same to the web. If it hasn't already.

Just my 2¢

-------------------

*Note: take a look at some of the writing about television when it first came out. The exuberance and hopes that were expressed for the "new medium," and the words used, have a haunting similarity to much of what was being said about the world wide web when it first came out.

Even more interesting, much of the disgust and criticism being directed at today's web sounds identical to what's been directed at television for the last decade or two.

Small surprise. When the public walked away from broadcast TV, the people responsible for wrecking it found new things to ruin on cable, satellite, and the internet.

5842

Living Room / Re: Flying on Bird Wings - A ****ing Magical Moment! =D

« Last post by 40hz on March 21, 2012, 08:47 AM »

Such a wonderful dream. Literally.

(But I still like it!)

5843

Living Room / Re: US Users: Does this exist: digital document notary, signature, storage solution

« Last post by 40hz on March 20, 2012, 06:19 PM »

I think you'll need an attorney to give you some advice on that. Most of what you're talking about falls under state rather than federal law. And each state has its own legal wrinkles on things like wills and what constitutes a legal document. There are also separate rules on issues of "survivability" and "durability" of such basic documents as appointment of 'power of attorney' and also what constitutes a "properly filed" last will. And some places still require hardcopy and actual signatures for many legal documents.

The American Bar Association can steer you towards competent advice if nobody at DoCo can help you out directly.

5844

Living Room / Re: FBI Redirects Traffic from Blog to FBI - Scary... very scary...

« Last post by 40hz on March 20, 2012, 09:31 AM »

I'm going to go buy some tinfoil now, to make a nice hat, thereby reversing the TinFoilHat Meme.

-TaoPhoenix (March 20, 2012, 09:18 AM)

Hmm...I wonder.

5845

Living Room / Re: RIAA chief: ISPs to start policing copyright by July 12

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2012, 10:12 PM »

General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
===========STRIKE===========
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.
General Strike. Starve the media industries to death.


(Before it's too late.)

5846

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2012, 06:36 PM »

You know you're starting to get up there when you start sounding like your parents:

Parents: I miss the good old old days (40's). Those were  the war years (WWII) and the Big Band Era (Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Glen Miller).

Me: I miss the good old days (late 60's-early 70's). Those were the war years (Viet Nam) and the Big Band Era (Tull, Beatles, Who, Rolling Stones, Faces, Hendrix, Joplin, Joe Cocker).

 

Here's an eerie one for you entitled When I'm Sixty-four. Someone's idea of how things might have been if the Fates had fewer surprises in store for us. Like Lennon said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."



(click to enlarge)

5847

Developer's Corner / Re: Discussion of CMS suggestions for the DC software directory

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2012, 06:31 PM »

Did anything ever come of the 'DC directory' in the end?

-timns (March 19, 2012, 03:44 PM)

Its still being heavily discussed 

-Stephen66515 (March 19, 2012, 03:51 PM)

My understanding is they're going to set up a project management system to get the ball rolling on doing a wiki.

As soon as they can decide on which PM system to use.

5848

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2012, 04:46 PM »

I wonder what citizens of the world would have felt about all those past wars had they had access to video and information the way we do now.  It's easy to stir up feelings of pride and patriotism when you can't see or know what's actually happening.

-superboyac (March 19, 2012, 04:09 PM)

The pentagon has acknowledged that following Viet Nam, there has been a direct commitment on the part of the military and our government to manage what news gets out to the public - and how the story gets told.

Reporters are no longer allowed free access to combat areas. This is officially the policy for reasons of their own safety and to preserve "operational security" during a combat operation. But it's an open secret its primary function is to control access.

Reporters who were in the last three US conflicts all reported (at least initially) they were obviously being "handled" and "managed" and "steered" by military liaisons.

And many news watchdogs have expressed concerns over the process of "embedding" reporters in combat units due to the natural tendency of humans to bond in crisis situations. Something that can have impact on a reporter's objectivity when reporting on the actions of "his" military unit. (Many observers have noted a distinct tendency on the part of embedded newspeople to become advocates for the units they're with rather than the critical neutral observers they're supposed to be the longer they remain with the units. Which is perfectly understandable.)

The government has also adopted a policy of not reporting casualty figures (military or civilian) on anything resembling a regular basis. And also blocking press access to members of the families of wounded or dead military personnel. (News photography is routinely not permitted at military funerals.)

So suffice to say there isn't much in the way of completely independent news coverage of US wars any more. Largely because the United States is no longer willing to allow someone other than official sources tell the official story. A practice the major news networks now seem to be willing to  go along with.

There's good arguments for and against about doing it the way it's currently being done.

But please let's not have that discussion here. It will only start one of those no-win never-ending arguments.

5849

Living Room / Re: Which decade was the most fun for you personally?

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2012, 03:57 PM »

What about all the draft stuff we hear about in history?  How did that feel?

-superboyac (March 19, 2012, 02:52 PM)

It sucked royally. And it was scary. You could watch the war on the news and get updated casualty figures twice (6pm and 11pm) almost every night. (That was before the era of embedding news reporters and sanitizing the news stories.)  

And you could also talk to the people that made it back.

I never met anybody, including my conservative pro-American relatives who served over there, who ever had anything much good to say about that war. Or their own involvement in it. My cousin (USMC) summed it up in a letter to his folks by saying, "It's going to be ok. We don't kid ourselves over here. We aren't fighting for Uncle Sam, or Van Thieu. We're fighting for each other. At least until the big guys back home figure out what they want us to do. When they do, it gets pretty busy for us. But most days, we just do what we can to keep each other alive long enough for them to send us back home."

I kept a copy of that letter in my wallet and used to read it to people when they said that "at least the people brave enough to serve" believed in what we were doing over there. (I still have it too!)

Somewhere around 58,000 didn't make it back. And well over 300,000 came home wounded. Many never got the medical or other benefits they had been promised. That's because superpower America had effectively lost its war against an army composed of farmers and other rural types. And we were embarrassed by it. So when it was over, the country mostly wanted to forget as quickly as possible that there ever was a place called Viet Nam.

And it never seemed a noble or inspirational war either. The news footage that came back was gritty and disturbing. Nothing like the glorious and grand thing we had been brought up to see war as when we were kids. In fact, it all looked rather ugly. Especially when the footage showed uprooted villagers and wounded civilians. This sickening photo was one of the most famous taken during the war. WARNING: it's still a very upsetting image. Viewer discretion is strongly advised.) There's plenty more like it you can find by Googling assuming you have the stomach for that sort of thing.

Adding to our overall disgust was also the little problem of explaining exactly what we were doing there. None of us (including half the people in government) seemed to have any idea why we were fighting. There were the usual "fighting communism" and "protecting freedom" arguments. But they had an oddly hollow ring to them compared to WWII, where it was painfully clear to everyone why we not only had to fight, but also win that war. (It took the Pentagon Papers leak to get to the real story behind our involvement.)

I was lucky. I was young enough to get a draft card (1A status) very shortly before they finally suspended the draft. Two years later, almost to the day, President Gerald Ford announced the US was officially out of Viet Nam. My cousin's outfit was among the last Marine units to leave in late April 1975. We didn't find out that he made it out alive and unhurt until almost a week later...

Those are my main memories of Viet Nam and the draft.

-------------

Note: some years after the war, the government Viet Nam acknowledged an estimated 4 million civilian casualties (dead/wounded) and approximately 1 million military dead and 600,000 wounded for both sides between 1955 and 1975.

Note 2: The United States first became involved in Viet Nam in 1950 when it began sending military and intelligence "advisers" to the French colonial government. The US did not send obviously military personnel (still classed as advisers) to Viet Nam until 1961-62. Actual U.S. military combat units were first deployed in 1965, which marked what most consider  the official beginning of what came to be called the Viet Nam War. So although the US government liked to claim it's troops were only in Viet Nam for about 10 years, in truth they were there in some capacity for nearly 20 - and were involved in direct military combat operations for most of them.

5850

Living Room / Re: Is Google Now Evil? Ask the Engineer!

« Last post by 40hz on March 19, 2012, 02:42 PM »

The lazy - who want to use the internet like a washing machine and aren't in the least interested in how it works

-Carol Haynes (March 19, 2012, 01:44 PM)

But isn't that exactly what Apple has been all about for over three years now? And also what Microsoft and Ubuntu are frantically scrambling to copy and catch up to?

Everybody with any real power is pushing for closed ecosystems, proprietary (or industry coalition approved) standards, tighter regulation and access restrictions, and full-time monitoring of any and all activity while using these devices.

If all goes according to plan, there won't be a general purpose personal computer in the future. I'm guessing they will be gone in about ten years time. Maybe twenty years tops. PCs will be replaced by a lovely, polished and glitzy (but totally locked-down) appliance that requires a subscription to a data plan to use.

A washing machine, Carol? I think you're being much too modest. That would still require some intelligence to use. How about a couch potato's TV set? That seems to be the paradigm they're striving towards.

And once they tweak Siri and others of like ilk a bit more they'll even have the git's long suffering wife metaphor just in case the idiot wants to buy something. ("Honey? My back hurts. Can you fetch me another pint since you're already up?")

Holy Buddha? I am really starting to hate everything about the online and computer world lately.


Bloody! Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Time for a rant! (Why should Renegade have all the fun!)

Push for RANT!

Ok...let's rhumba! (dah-dah-dah-dah-dah - DA!)