Random News not worthy of own thread

[Hank001]

OmegaKight noted:

You know with a few barrels, a bit of pipe and some back yard engineering you could burn wood and turn it into tar/creosote/diesel/petrol and gases.

Welcome to my little town here. Once the creosote capital of North America. We chugged out railroad ties. (Nasty stuff creosote).

[Alan Phipps]

@ OmegaKnight: You see what I mean about trivia involving very personal subject knowledge.

I'd always assumed that free regular tidal action, and free sunlight to evaporate trapped free seawater (in the right climate obviously) would be a far more economic source for common salt than having to mine for it. Bulk transport at a shoreline facility should not be an issue either. Perhaps it is a production capacity and throughput issue - or maybe even a sea pollution one.

I guess that some sea salt variants will be priced more than others because the suppliers like to promote their bespoke source for its crystal tints and maybe other mineral contents.

[Morkonan]

@ OmegaKnight: You see what I mean about trivia involving very personal subject knowledge.

I'd always assumed that free regular tidal action, and free sunlight to evaporate trapped free seawater (in the right climate obviously) would be a far more economic source for common salt than having to mine for it. Bulk transport at a shoreline facility should not be an issue either...

But, bulk production is an issue.

Small-scale production of sea-sale is, likely, pretty common. It can be taken to local markets pretty easily.

But, you've seen pictures of salt-mines, right? It's not like the Romans didn't know one could evaporate sea water in order to get salt. It's simply that one can not produce salt in high quantity, with high quality, with high production speed when compared to just producing bucket-fulls a second, per square meter, in a salt-mine.

Salt has been around forever... there are huge salt-domes all over the place. Abandoned salt-mines aren't generally abandoned because all the salt is gone. They're abandoned because an more accessible, newer, mine is begun. (Or, someone screws up and water enters the picture...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cXnxGIDhOA

This is what happens when you don't know what's under the drill. (A clear case of "stoopid.")

[Morkonan]

Where does it end?

Tracking Firm LocationSmart Leaked Location Data for Customers of All Major U.S. Mobile Carriers Without Consent in Real Time Via Its Web Site

So, if you wanted to know the location of a specific someone's cell-phone, armed with a teeny bit of knowledge, all you had to do was ask... Without anyone being the wiser.

When does this stop? Not "hacking," for goodness sakes! That'll go on forever. But, when are users not going to be exploited for the services and products that are sold to them?

Right now, it's the "Wild West" where "law" doesn't hold sway, only "control." It's not about what a person can do with the power of the internetz, it's about how much they can be exploited by those with power and how much power can be taken from them.

It's no longer just the internet that needs an enema, it's the controls, the apps, the things "sold" with "Good for you" advertisements and fifty-eleven end-user agreements that literally violate a human being's rights, blatantly and maliciously, all for profit.

How much are we expected to endure before we break? Is there a profit-margin connected with that?

[Hank001]

Morkonan asked rhetorically:

It's no longer just the internet that needs an enema, it's the controls, the apps, the things "sold" with "Good for you" advertisements and fifty-eleven end-user agreements that literally violate a human being's rights, blatantly and maliciously, all for profit.

And all last week our emails were filled with new "privacy policy" statements brought on my the EU's new laws. If actually read they all seem to sum up to: Sure we'll try and make sure nobody gets your private data unless they shell out to us for it. (In which case we'll be more than happy to sell you out.)

Tied into the general assumption that the internet in its entire is simply a tool for cash generation and we simple suckers are going to have to resign ourselves to having a hundred hands in our pockets. (Press here if you've read and agree to our policy changes...[Suckers!] )

Edit: Before it becomes a topic...
On my smartphone it's Yanni
same transferred to desktop
is Laurel so it's dependant on your
device. If you don't know what I'm
talking about then you're probably
better off.

[mrbadger]

I've had loads of job agencies sending me job opportunities in the last two weeks, after lulls of a few years.

I'm guessing with the idea that if I reply at all they can take this as consent to keep me on thier books, even though I tried and entirely failed to remove myself from jobs websites years back that the job centre forced me to sign up to on completing my Ph.D.

Not that it matters much, each time a new recruiter mails me they get marked as spam and I hear no more.

[Hank001]

mrbadger said:

I've had loads of job agencies sending me job opportunities in the last two weeks...

Good plan. I had the same problem last year with it seemed every job site on the web. But so did half the campus, students & teachers.
If that's any hint about why it started. I spammed them too and dried up quick.

[korio]

I've had loads of job agencies sending me job opportunities in the last two weeks, after lulls of a few years.

I'm guessing with the idea that if I reply at all they can take this as consent to keep me on thier books, even though I tried and entirely failed to remove myself from jobs websites years back that the job centre forced me to sign up to on completing my Ph.D.

Not that it matters much, each time a new recruiter mails me they get marked as spam and I hear no more.

The new EU law is no joke, they cant do that, they need to put a box for you to tick that specifically says that you gives them permission to contact you again and use your data.

I am dealing with this new law and is a pain in the a**.

I have seen at least two games companies that are blocking the use of all their assets from the European region just to avoid the costs and time needed to be compliant with the new GPDR Law.

I have even received a mail from Vip's Club (the ones from starbucks and all that) asking me to grant them permission to send me promotions.

I have received so much mails that im waiting a week or so to see if i get some more and then deal with all of them together.

[Alan Phipps]

The thing about this 'opt-in law' is that I still get almost daily spam e-mails from companies that I have used once in the past - sometimes years ago. Their 'promotions and adverts' have sufficient diversity/mobility in sender's details that they defeat my spam blocker even though they do always end up in the spam folder. (Not sure why that seeming contradiction in handling happens.) Yes, I've checked, there's no 'click here to unregister for further e-mails' button in their adverts. Will this new law change anything relevant to this?

[korio]

The thing about this 'opt-in law' is that I still get almost daily spam e-mails from companies that I have used once in the past - sometimes years ago. Their 'promotions and adverts' have sufficient diversity/mobility in sender's details that they defeat my spam blocker even though they do always end up in the spam folder. (Not sure why that seeming contradiction in handling happens.) Yes, I've checked, there's no 'click here to unregister for further e-mails' button in their adverts. Will this new law change anything relevant to this?

If you dont agree to handle properly the data of people you may have and get their consent, you cant contact them again. Now this is the tricky point, they must send you a mail stating the change of the policy and they must give you a link to accept it or a place to say you dont want them to use your data anymore.



That's why all the companies are sending mails like crazy trying to get your consent to use your data.

I have even calls from telemarketing guys trying to sell me anything and when i politely say no to their offers then ask if i consent to be called again.

[red assassin]

Hey, remember the EM drive? Yeah, somebody tested one properly and turns out it was all magnets and it doesn't actually work. Shocking, I know.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05 ... -thruster/

[Morkonan]

Hey, remember the EM drive? Yeah, somebody tested one properly and turns out it was all magnets and it doesn't actually work. Shocking, I know.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/05 ... -thruster/

That's that "microwave cavity" thingie, thing, right? Microwaves go in, rainbows come out the end or something?

I bet if we bolted it to a racecar, it could go two-hundred miles an hour! PROOF IT WORKS!

[Hank001]

Morkonan wrote:

I bet if we bolted it to a racecar, it could go two-hundred miles an hour! PROOF IT WORKS!

A concept or a conceit? I'd rather harness the motive force of all those angels dancing on pinheads. Unicorns stopped resonding to my extolances decades ago and faries just don't respond well to harnesses. Don't get me started on what happened when gemlins were attempted either.

[Morkonan]

Morkonan wrote:

I bet if we bolted it to a racecar, it could go two-hundred miles an hour! PROOF IT WORKS!

A concept or a conceit? I'd rather harness the motive force of all those angels dancing on pinheads. Unicorns stopped resonding to my extolances decades ago and faries just don't respond well to harnesses. Don't get me started on what happened when gemlins were attempted either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk3xBhqcjqY

[Hank001]

@ Morkonan

After review of your last submission: The premise is predicated upon two axiomatic truisms those being:

1. Bread will always fall butter side down. (naturally following Newtonian physics since the butter adds weight, hence mass).

2. A cat will always land on it's feet.

Therefore the submission is flawed from first premise.

However IF the mass of the buttered bread equalled the mass of the feline component? This grant committee sends this back for further study.

[Morkonan]

Just an alert:

Hackers infect 500,000 consumer routers all over the world with malware

Followup:

FBI seizes domain Russia allegedly used to infect 500,000 consumer routers

A preliminary, non-exhaustive, list of routers that have vulnerabilities that could have been, but not necessarily were, effected:

Linksys E1200
Linksys E2500
Linksys WRVS4400N
Mikrotik RouterOS for Cloud Core Routers: Versions 1016, 1036, and 1072
Netgear DGN2200
Netgear R6400
Netgear R7000
Netgear R8000
Netgear WNR1000
Netgear WNR2000
QNAP TS251
QNAP TS439 Pro
Other QNAP NAS devices running QTS software
TP-Link R600VPN

The overall numbers are pretty small, considering. (500k) IP addys would have been captured as each router attempted to contact/notify the now-sinkholed server and the FBI would eventually notify ISPs, which should, in turn, notify the effected customer. (You, if your router was one of hijacked, would probably get an email or phone-call). But, it's very possible that the hacker's fallback would have enabled them to redirect some, before that happened, once they knew their operation had been compromised.

So, check your router model number, hard-reboot, restore factory settings (usually by pushing a push-pin in the back of the router with a paperclip end or something, check your manual), call your ISP and ask for a firmware push to get the newest firmware updates, then disable remote management features and all that, according to the article, then put in a new admin pass and reboot the router. Done and done, no problem.

Except... if you were really were caught up in this. Then, it's the whole "change your passwords" crapstorm. Have fun, sorry. :/

[Bishop149]

What the hell is this new monstrosity.

https://www.slashfilm.com/thundercats-roar/

Is there some rule of TV that now states: "It's animation for kids, therefore it must look like the Powerpuff Girls"

[pjknibbs]

I note that the article itself doesn't seem to think the animation style is important? Codswallop. The original Thundercats, while the premise was undeniably silly, never played it for laughs--in particular, Mumm-Ra in his pyramid was creepy as all heck (my nephew, who was around 6 years old at the time, refused to watch it because it scared him so). I still remember his transformation sequence now ("Ancient spirits of Evil! Transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!") and the associated animation and musical sting.

The wider point, I think, is this: the original Thundercats is 30 years old now. Anybody who doesn't remember the original isn't going to care about your new series, and anybody who *does* will want to burn down your offices when they see this abomination. Just call it something else or do it *properly*...

[Hank001]

Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, or even live action like Star Wars, They become touchstones to who and what we were then they first made their impressions on us. Fundamental changes to these personal touchstones can have the same effects as a slap in the face and draw some of same reactions.

For respect to the venue I'll not equate this to video games and subsequent sequels...

[Morkonan]

What the hell is this new monstrosity.

https://www.slashfilm.com/thundercats-roar/

Is there some rule of TV that now states: "It's animation for kids, therefore it must look like the Powerpuff Girls"

..

I'm probably more upset about that animator's man-bun, furry costume and waifu pillow. (The last two are just assumptions... But, I'm sure I saw a bottle of gluten-free homeopathic water on the table.)

I'm a little bit torn, but not overly so. "Thundercats" was after my time. Sure, I knew about it and thought it was interesting, but we probably spent more time trying to make drinking games out of it than anything else. ("Voltron" was another dorm favorite.)

I get the general outrage from diehard fans. Someone is offering them not only a retelling, which they'd be excited about, but a revision, which they wouldn't be excited about. Someone is telling them "this is what this was" and they're not likely to accept that it's really "this is what this is."

Children's "drama" is difficult. It looks like they've just decided to go a different route and make this into comedic entertainment, which would probably go over a lot better and snag some older fans, too. Widening the market using that tactic is probably the primary motivation, not some sort of "artistic license" sort of thing. I imagine they're actually shooting for the "older" market with late teens, early 20's and even older.