lucius septimius 1/22/2021 5:40:41 AM

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vxbush 1/22/2021 5:44:02 AM

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In #1 lucius septimius said: No gruel today?

It's Friday. You get upgraded to ... whatever that is. 

Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 5:56:14 AM

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In #1 lucius septimius said: No gruel today?

No,  not until April; which is the gruelest month.

vxbush 1/22/2021 5:58:17 AM

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In #3 Occasional Reader said: No,  not until April; which is the gruelest month.

No toast for you, then. 

/

JCM 1/22/2021 6:36:07 AM

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I wanted the line from Oliver Twist, "Please Sir, I want some more."

But what actually pop into my pea brain was the line from Pink Floyd, Another Brick in the Wall, "If you don't eat yer meat, you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

JCM 1/22/2021 7:23:34 AM

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lucius septimius 1/22/2021 7:32:09 AM

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Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 7:42:25 AM

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JCM 1/22/2021 8:31:15 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 8:

Didn’t Qanon turn out to be a couple guys on an epic troll?

Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 8:38:17 AM

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In #9 JCM said: Didn’t Qanon turn out to be a couple guys on an epic troll?

No no no it’s part of the vast right wing conspiracy terrorist treason threat, to which our entire national intelligence and law-enforcement and military apparatus must be dedicated.

Because UNITY.

vxbush 1/22/2021 8:39:22 AM

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In #6 JCM said: I have to be in the office today. We hired 15 contractors to do layout work. Their PCs need to get setup.

SCCM fun? 

vxbush 1/22/2021 8:41:17 AM

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In #8 Occasional Reader said: Why are National Guard still deployed to the Capitol/downtown DC at all?  i'm fairly sure that invading Qanon berserker army, um, never materialized.  What kind of banana republic shit is this, anyway?  

Gotta agree with this comment from that page: 

Who is in command of those National Guard troops in D.C.? The govenors should take back their troops and bring them home. They obviously are not needed in D.C. They certainly are not being provided with the basic necessities.

That's the question I've been trying to figure out--who ordered them in, so who can order them out. 

vxbush 1/22/2021 8:53:04 AM

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Oho. Google has some real trouble ahead. And this sounds like a very good way to make them pay for what they are currently getting for free. 

Google has threatened to disable its search engine in Australia if it's forced to pay local publishers for news, a dramatic escalation of a months-long standoff with the government. From a report: The proposed law, intended to compensate publishers for the value their stories generate for the company, is "unworkable," Mel Silva, managing director for Australia and New Zealand, told a parliamentary hearing Friday. She specifically opposed the requirement that Google pay media companies for displaying snippets of articles in search results. The threat is Google's most potent yet as the digital giant tries to stem a flow of regulatory action worldwide. At least 94% of online searches in Australia go through the Alphabet unit, according to the local competition regulator. "We don't respond to threats," Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday. "Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia. That's done in our parliament. It's done by our government. And that's how things work here in Australia."

Kosh's Shadow 1/22/2021 9:08:43 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 13:

Publishing companies have been trying to get money from search engines, but I think it will backfire.

The number of people viewing the pages will drop precipitously if they don't find them in search engines.  They should be able to limit the length of snippets so people click on the link to get to the real page for the full article (giving the publisher the ad revenue), but if it is hard to find the page, only people who regularly read the sites will go there.

buzzsawmonkey 1/22/2021 9:26:02 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 13:

Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 14:

Google, like all the tech giants, hates copyright; hates the idea of paying content creators, of whatever type, for its use of their work. 

The tech giants want to reduce content creators to serfdom, while the giants themselves become permanent gatekeepers of material they control and can provide, or not provide, at will---and which they can alter at will.

buzzsawmonkey 1/22/2021 9:28:03 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 15:

To which I would add that, if the Democrats start packing the Supreme Court---or even if they put up a nominee for the Court in the event of a vacancy---and that nominee is someone like Larry Lessig of Harvard, or Mark Lemley, or James Boyle of Duke, copyright will be in serious jeopardy.

Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 9:28:17 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 12:

according to commenters on that same thread, the governors of Texas and Florida have already recalled or issued orders to recall their National Guard contingents from DC.

JCM 1/22/2021 9:31:44 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 11:

Mostly hardware adding 1TB PCI SSD and pulling the 4 8GB DDR RAM and putting in 4 16GB sticks the running a script to image the new drive. The making sure the user can remote in. 

Kosh's Shadow 1/22/2021 9:38:48 AM

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In #15 buzzsawmonkey said: Google, like all the tech giants, hates copyright; hates the idea of paying content creators, of whatever type, for its use of their work.  The tech giants want to reduce content creators to serfdom, while the giants themselves become permanent gatekeepers of material they control and can provide, or not provide, at will---and which they can alter at will.

That's why I say the publishers should be able to limit the information displayed - maybe only the headline - but they will be shooting themselves in the foot if they try to force Google to pay. Their content will be difficult to find unless you already know where to look, as it will be on page 4095 of the search results.

And they do get the information that the link came from google - they can put up extra ads if they want, and the ads pay them. Or use ads for where the viewer is; as opposed to only ads for those already in Australia, for example.

doppelganglander 1/22/2021 9:39:55 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 17:

It was all theater. There was never a threat. Democrats demanded more soldiers than Lincoln had guarding Washington during the Civil War. That's approximately one NG for every white supremacist in this country.

Kosh's Shadow 1/22/2021 9:44:43 AM

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In #20 doppelganglander said: That's approximately one NG for every white supremacist in this country.

According to the MSM, every Trump voter is a white supremacist, including black and Hispanic Trump voters.

vxbush 1/22/2021 9:49:29 AM

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In #18 JCM said: Mostly hardware adding 1TB PCI SSD and pulling the 4 8GB DDR RAM and putting in 4 16GB sticks the running a script to image the new drive. The making sure the user can remote in.

Yup, yup. That all sounds pretty familiar--but I would love for my boss to allow me to get that much RAM in our machines. Schweet. 

vxbush 1/22/2021 9:51:31 AM

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In #20 doppelganglander said: It was all theater. There was never a threat. Democrats demanded more soldiers than Lincoln had guarding Washington during the Civil War. That's approximately one NG for every white supremacist in this country.

Did they really have the NG guard there just because of the riot on January 6, or were they planning on having them there weeks ago? I wonder. 

PaladinPhil 1/22/2021 10:22:23 AM

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Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 10:31:06 AM

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In #24 PaladinPhil said: Today: Stonehenge was built so they would know when to plant their crops,

Here's the real story.  

Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 10:32:33 AM

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In #24 PaladinPhil said: Humans learned to build dams by watching beavers

Do some Political-Correctness-Aikido here.  Claim that "beaver" is misogynist, triggering language/hate speech.

Kosh's Shadow 1/22/2021 10:37:58 AM

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Reply to PaladinPhil in 24:

And the Pyramids are landing sites for alien spacecraft (see the documentary Stargate)//////////////////////////////////

Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 10:40:43 AM

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vxbush 1/22/2021 11:26:06 AM

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In #27 Kosh's Shadow said: And the Pyramids are landing sites for alien spacecraft (see the documentary Stargate)//////////////////////////////////

Hey--at times it seems more plausible than reality.

Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 11:29:17 AM

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COVID-19 is being wiped out before our eyes. All hail Joe Biden and the democratic party!

https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/01/21/without-trump-to-blame-virus-turns-the-corner/

buzzsawmonkey 1/22/2021 11:50:16 AM

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In #19 Kosh's Shadow said: That's why I say the publishers should be able to limit the information displayed - maybe only the headline - but they will be shooting themselves in the foot if they try to force Google to pay. Their content will be difficult to find unless you already know where to look, as it will be on page 4095 of the search results. And they do get the information that the link came from google - they can put up extra ads if they want, and the ads pay them. Or use ads for where the viewer is; as opposed to only ads for those already in Australia, for example.

Not quite sure what you're saying here.

Google makes its money from advertising, after it steals content from people who actually produce content.  But, of course, Google tracks who is viewed and how much advertising, and advertising revenue, is generated by Content X---so, of course, there should be no problem making Google share X% of that revenue it sucks up with the people who actually generated it.  

It would merely be a variation on the "collecting societies" like ASCAP and BMI.  But of course Google hates the idea of actually paying the people who generate its riches.

Kosh's Shadow 1/22/2021 12:03:05 PM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 31:

What I am saying is that google also does a service for online publishers - it makes their products visible to people who wouldn't already know about them, increasing their viewers, and ad revenue. (Internet ads pay for each view and more if clicked on)

google shouldn't be able to show the entire content, but enough so someone looking can find the original article. So there can be payment for articles google shows in their entirety or even a large excerpt, but not necessarily for the titles/headlines. 

If google were forced to pay for titles, they would make those sources hard to find. 

buzzsawmonkey 1/22/2021 12:05:25 PM

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In #32 Kosh's Shadow said: oogle also does a service for online publishers

Of course it does---because those publishers produce the content without which Google is a hole in the air.

So, yes---Google deserves to reap its advertising revenue---as long as it shares a percentage with the people who make it possible.

buzzsawmonkey 1/22/2021 12:20:28 PM

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"Empty flatulent bromides."

---Joe Biden

vxbush 1/22/2021 12:22:27 PM

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In #34 buzzsawmonkey said: "Empty flatulent bromides."

Wha???????

buzzsawmonkey 1/22/2021 12:23:18 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 35:

I was merely referencing the river of garbage banalities he's been spewing.

vxbush 1/22/2021 12:28:58 PM

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In #36 buzzsawmonkey said: I was merely referencing the river of garbage banalities he's been spewing.

Ah. Okay. I thought you were actually quoting Biden saying that. Given his cognitive decline, that seemed beyond unlikely. 

Occasional Reader 1/22/2021 12:56:59 PM

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In #37 vxbush said: Okay. I thought you were actually quoting Biden saying that.

It's semi-plausible that his handlers would leave that on his teleprompter, kind of like Hillary Cinton's infamous "sigh".... 

JCM 1/22/2021 1:58:12 PM

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9 machines down waiting to hear from a contractor that they’ve logged out.

JCM 1/22/2021 1:58:13 PM

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9 machines down waiting to hear from a contractor that they’ve logged out.

JCM 1/22/2021 2:05:15 PM

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Reply to vxbush in 22:

Nice machines, for eCAD work, designing circuit boards. i9 processors, 8GB graphics card, 1TB SSD, 4TB HDD. The eCAD software vendor recommended going to 64GB RAM.

Kosh's Shadow 1/22/2021 2:15:21 PM

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Reply to JCM in 41:

I run MATLAB in 16 GB. Only a 512GB SSD. But most of my work is on a Linux VM. I do run MATLAB locally, but not that often