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Comment Re:What ratings? (Score 1) 159

I did watch the entire season, I think Jodie Whitaker is a fantastic Doctor but wish the show had better/more consistent writers supporting her. I didn't care for the historical events episodes at all, too much Quantum Leap and not enough science fiction. BUT there were a few really great, what I consider true Doctor Who episodes like The Ghost Monmument, The Tsuranga Conundrum, Kerblam! and It Takes You Away.

Comment Re:Just as much as google (Score 1) 157

They also make money from businesses that use G Suite.
And consumers that pay for extra online storage on Google drive (I do).
And Google Fi, their wireless cell service (I use this, too, sooo much better and cheaper than verizon).
And Google Fiber, their internet service (I don't use this but would if it was offered in my area).
I also use Google domains and pay for registration through them and Virus Total which Alphabet owns and is an invaluable free service.

So yeah, they sell ads, but they are not wholly dependent on clickbait revenue the way Facebook is.

Comment Can't trust any data Facebook provides unless... (Score 1) 113

...a reputable auditor verifies the source of data and process, reviewing evidence directly from the systems involved. This is standard for anything, it's why we have CPAs to ensure companies aren't cheating investors. If it's really true, then a third-party should be able to verify the results.

But it doesn't matter because Facebook obviously isn't interested in stopping any clickbait like fake news since they depend on the revenue it provides. If they were, they would simply create a whitelist of all reputable news sources which all share the same traits regardless of bias accusations: they have qualified editors and journalists (no, random bloggers who copy/paste/scrape news from the AP wire are not editors or journalists), do fact-checking and verify sources per journalism best practices, publish retractions/corrections as needed, and mark opinion pieces clearly as such. They can come up with whatever criteria they want to make the bar high enough to filter out the clickbait crap. It's really not that hard.

On a side note, I don't know why anyone believes anything that has more likes or followers (aka whenever something "goes viral") has more value since it's highly likely it's all being manipulated by paid spambots.

Comment Re:3,000% growth is pretty good for a "failure" (Score 1) 45

But how many of those users are just spam or fake bot accounts? Seems like once Facebook buys a company they essentially become yet another spam machine of whatever nonsense generates CTR (that's at best, at worst they help distribute malicious payloads).

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2018%2F0...

"Dovetale said that, on average, 16.4 percent of the followers on Instagram’s top 20 accounts were fraudulent.

Sylo, which requires influencers to share access to their public and private post statistics, said it had rejected 77 percent of influencers who have tried to register on its platform after their accounts showed issues like abnormal spikes in engagement on posts or a large number of generic, emoji-laden comments that bots are known for."

Comment Also affects iLO 5 prior to v1.30 (Score 1) 59

Once I saw that the latest version is iLO 5, I figured it had to be vulnerable to the same exploit as iLO 4 and sure enough:

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.hpe.com%2Fhpsc%2Fd...

"A security vulnerability in HPE Integrated Lights-Out 4, 5 (iLO 4 prior to v2.60, and iLO 5 prior to v1.30) could be remotely or locally exploited by an Administrative user to allow remote or local code execution."

Comment Re:Blocking is so low (Score 2) 66

Clearly, you don't know what it's like to have someone spam/harass you online with insults and threats because you had the audacity to determine you didn't want to be in a relationship with them anymore. I witnessed it happen firsthand to a close friend of mine, They had to block their ex online, change their cell phone number and file a restraining order.

Open Source

How Should Open Source Development Be Subsidized? (techcrunch.com) 138

"Open source maintainers are exhausted and rarely paid," writes TechCrunch's editorial manager. "A new generation wants to change the economics."

An anonymous reader quotes their report: [Patreon] is increasingly being used by notable open source contributors as a way to connect with fans and sustain their work... For those who hit it big, the revenues can be outsized. Evan You, who created the popular JavaScript frontend library Vue.js, has reached $15,206 in monthly earnings ($182,472 a year) from 231 patrons... While Patreon is one direct approach for generating revenues from users, another one is to offer dual licenses, one free and one commercial... Companies care about proper licensing, and that becomes the leverage to gain revenue while still maintaining the openness and spirit of open source software...

Tidelift is designed to offer assurances "around areas like security, licensing, and maintenance of software," CEO Donald Fischer explained... In addition, Tidelift handles the mundane tasks of setting up open source for commercialization such as handling licensing issues... Open Collective wants to open source the monetization of open source itself. Open Collective is a non-profit platform that provides tools to "collectives" to receive money while also offering mechanisms to allow the members of those collectives to spend their money in a democratic and transparent way.

TechCrunch warns that "It's not just that people are free riding, it's often that they don't even realize it. Software engineers can easily forget just how much craftsmanship has gone into the open source code that powers the most basic of applications...

"If you work at a for-profit company, take the lead in finding a way to support the code that allows you to do your job so efficiently. The decentralization and volunteer spirit of the open source community needs exactly the same kind of decentralized spirit in every financial contributor. Sustainability is each of our jobs, every day."

Comment Female Engineers on the Google Memo (Score 1) 682

If you haven't read it please consider doing so, it contains solid insights:

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.ycombinator.com%2Fa...

Many of the engineers agree with certain aspects of the original memo while respectfully debunking the logical fallacies it presented.

Enjoy.

Comment Teach how to restore from backup (Score 1) 242

I think kids need to feel comfortable experimenting with computers, that means being ok with messing it up.

So if schools were to teach how to set up and roll their computer system back to a restore point (I don't care which OS), that would be a good start.

Then again, I use a Chromebook, I do system restores periodically just for fun.

Comment Re:Sounds Right (Score 1) 104

Sounds right. I recently applied for a programming job at a bank. After the interview and showing me the place, they offered me the job. I politely declined. Then I quickly closed my accounts and moved to a more modern bank. Why? That bank literally uses MSAccess tables to store ALL of the customer data. And VB5 "processes" to interact with the feds. Un-believable.

I call BS. As someone who does work in IT in the financial services industry, no programmer is interviewed, given a tour and then offered a job.

Regulations require a background check which takes several days so no offer is made until that clears.

And they certainly aren't going to show a non-employee the database in which they store customer data, that's restricted data.

Comment Nook Color Vs Nexus7 (Score 1) 415

I read a LOT. I have had a Nook Color since it came out. After a while, I saw there were ebooks cheaper on Amazon that I wanted to purchase through there and not B&N.. but I had a Nook . I also liked my phone (Galaxy Nexus) with Android, only I wanted a screen the size of my Nook Color. So, I got the Nexus 7 from Google. I can load Nook and Kindle Apps on it so I can read and buy from either B&N or Amazon, I received a $25 credit to Google Play from it, and I can also do more than I could do with my Nook Color. No regrets at all. If I had to do it over, I would buy a Nexus 7 again.

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