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Comment Re:p=mv, do the math... (Score 2) 74

Because a drone could never deploy a simple parachute, and/or have redundant propulsion (which can be done in software, today), and/or simply disassemble itself with a bang before falling out of the sky in small, low-mass chunks with terrible coefficient of drag and low terminal velocity.

Also: Delivery trucks are always perfectly safe.

Did I miss anything?

Comment Re:ad blocker? (Score 2) 358

It's OK when you do it, too.

I don't care if you block ads, or use CSS overlays to give your Youtube experience an OMG Kittens theme, or molest yourself with a bristle brush.

What would not be OK is if my ISP or some other third party blocked ads on my behalf, used CSS overlays to give my Youtube experience an OMG Kittens theme, or molest me with a bristle brush.

Do you see the difference?

Comment Re:ad blocker? (Score 1) 358

I use Adblock Edge on my PC, but also have a script that periodically downloads a magic list of hosts, tucks it into a format that dnsmasq likes, and runs on my Tomato-based router (there are a million variations on this).

The latter hosts-hacking always catches Youtube ads on the PS3 and Chromecast, and usually* gets rid of them on other devices on the network.

*Usually as in I see an ad so infrequently, and only on my Android phone, that I can't be bothered with doing anything more about it.

Comment Re:Government would've jumped on them (Score 1) 85

Here's my own progression:

I used *I forget what* under MS-DOS to establish a PPP (SLIP? whatever) connection, ~1992, to a *nix host. It worked as well as MS-DOS could (and still does) allow.

Later, I used Telemate under MS-DOS to talk to the local Delphi dialup, to talk to Steve Jackson Games' Illuminati Online FreeBSD boxen.

Eventually, a local ISP showed up. I used Winsock on Windows, was disappointed: Things barely worked, which is saying a lot compared to all of the "barely worked" above.

I installed OS/2 on a 486SX with 4MB of RAM. The GUI loaded enough to see it, but then I discovered that OS/2 could run without a GUI: All command-line. It was fast. The TCP/IP stack robust enough to knock random other Internet users offline with a simple ping -f, all while my own connection was still useable: The pings would get longer and longer, and more and more infrequent, and then stop...even if I was on a different port of the exact same terminal server that they had been connected to, and even if asymmetric modem speeds said it shouldn't be that way.

Eventually, I got a Pentium 100 ("arguably overclocked" to a P120), and had 16MB of RAM on that board (16x1MB 30-pin SIMMS on carefully-stacked adapters). Worked a treat: I could finally use OS/2's GUI, and it was usable despite using 4x the RAM and about twice the CPU.

I used Linux after that, starting with Slackware 2.

I put on Windows 95 OSR2 after a then-employer handed me a copy of it and told me it was my job to do email support for his Windows-based software: I still did most of my work with a telnet/ssh session to SJ Games' io.com FreeBSD hosts.

As you can see, OS/2 was a blip on my own radar in those early days. But the Winsock days were really, really bad: Worse than the MS-DOS days.

And OS/2 was as solid as Linux, or the FreeBSD (then a mature thing) hosts that I paid by the month to use.

And OS/2's solid TCP/IP was included. With Windows, it was an extra, fickle (and not cheap, IIRC) third-party add-on.

95 OSR2 did OK, but meh. Nobody cared unless they were trying to get their new Packard Bell online, and then AOL by then the easiest answer. (They didn't get the money to buy Time Warner by accident.)

Comment Re:Hindenburg? (Score 1) 140

In ~2004, I bought a used, relatively clean and option-loaded 1995 BMW 325i with sport suspension for $6500.

I've spent about $4000 on repairs and general regular maintenance (from an auto-to-manual transmission swap, to the current valve cover/intake-parts rebuild, and including tires, wheels, and oil changes) in the past 11 years.

So I'm in for about $11,500 for over a decade of the very best car I've ever driven.

It sees some downtime, but I'm ~40k ahead of the game. And $40k buys at least a few $11,500 cars for fun spares.

Comment Re:Lower taxes (Score 1) 312

You've got it all backward.

All truly competitive free-market prices are (at least said to be) set at whatever the market will bear.

And contrary to what you say, an established and monopolized source of goods and/or services doesn't have that problem: They can charge whatever they feel like charging, and people will either pay it or be without that good or service. With a strong, non-competitive monopoly, it doesn't matter what the market will bear: You can provide minimal services at maximal pricing and reap maximum profits at the cost of those who can afford your good or service that you offer at a very self-serving price.

Hence, antitrust laws.

Hence, government.

Do you live under a rock, or do you just play someone who lives under a rock on TV?

Comment Re:Translation ... (Score 1) 50

This level of security isn't hard. At all.

What I think happened: COTS router was procured, cheap (Alibaba), and some kid was asked "Hey, kid: Do you think you can make this thing route everything over Tor?"

Kid agrees, and Kickstarter/Indigogo campaign happens.

Said kid then went through some Tomato source or forum posts, found the not-so-difficult bits that make Tor happen, implemented that (and only that) as requested, and said "I'll be taking that Porsche you offered me now, and it would be nice if you stuffed it with hookers and blow before delivery."

Product then ships with every gaping and elementary security flaw that the original Chinglish firmware had, PLUS automagic Tor....because "privacy."

The proceeds and remaining startup cash were then burned by the founders during a crazy weekend in Dubai. And that's that.

Many of us here can "create" such a device without these problems before we're even finished with our first pot coffee or get through a half bowl of cigarettes. But we wouldn't bother: We'd just post the sources and binaries on Github and make mention on the appropriate forums, and switch Mythbusters on in the TV in the basement and have a nice mid-morning nap.

Comment Re:No, it doesn't (Score 1) 421

2. PETE and polypropylene (the major components of single-use plastic bottles) have excellent compatibility with ethanol.

Indeed, the bottle of cheap 100 proof vodka that I have right over there says PETE on the bottom.

And separate seals aren't used anymore, AFAICT, on water bottles. The caps fit tightly enough into the neck of the bottle that additional gasketing is not needed.

So if the problem is transporting liquid alcohol in a more-convenient vessel, the solution is likely to already be in your recycling bin.

Or, you know: Stainless steel hip flask. Dissolve the soluables with a soak in strong isopropyl alcohol for a few days, wash with soap and water, install adult beverage, and insert into hip pocket.

Either way, this is a solved problem.

Comment Re:See nothing that says this is x86 (Score 1) 128

Scroll up: I was talking-down the "and it's fast!" mentality of some OP, above.

But it's not fast, compared to any paid-for example of the very old things that I have in front of me, for the things I actually use computers for.

I mean, srsly, I don't care if it can render 1080p h.264 in perfect quality. I really don't: I've got a $23 Chromecast for that, plugged into the TV in my home theater The "difficult" tasks I have are all CPU-bound, and the CPU in question in TFS is anything but "fast." It may be low-power, and amazingly low-power at that, but it's not "fast" by any long stretch of any modern definition.

(In other news: 8088 CPUs also received low-power varients, some probably still in production. As did the 80386. None were commonly found in the field. My own Pentium-M undervolts to Low-Voltage Pentium-M specs, and then some, with perfect stability: If I decide to tweak it again (which I may not, since I've had the computer a very long time), its power consumption will also be very low for the work being accomplished.)

(and when I was undervolting my Pentium-M, it was because I was trying to minimize fan noise and radiant heat through the keyboard in the very quiet office environment I used it in at that time. I still don't care about TDP in portable computing: The first thing I do when things look like they may be lengthy is look for an available outlet, and I've (so far!) got enough extension cord in my bag to make it work.)

(Oh, and TDP is a lie these days, because CPUs tend to be both self- and dynamically-overclocking. If the chip gets hot, it'll just refuse to operate at the higher clock speeds that might meet demand, and will instead just slog along at a clock that keeps the temperature within reasonable ("TDP") spec. And in doing so, the chip vendor gets great numbers...which are based on lies.)

Comment Re:See nothing that says this is x86 (Score 0) 128

I engineer my systems and tools for me, not you.

I need ports, expandability, and the ability to plug random hardware in. I don't need light-weight, and I don't need to run all day on batteries.

I have all of that, along with what I believe to be comparable speed...instead of none of that, and $499 less in my pocket.

I've got better things to spend $499 on than a side-grade to a different form factor that doesn't fucking work for me. But thanks anyway, asshole!

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