According to net rumor, Cortana does some searching and accepts voice commands and gives voice responses and does snooping for Microsoft. It used to suck up better than 100 Mbytes of RAM and a smidgen of CPU time. Since putting in Creator's update big patch the other day it is down to 66.6 Mbytes of RAM and zip for CPU time.
After go rounds with Dragon Dictate and the average robocaller, I am not impressed with voice recognition. I haven't gone thru a training session with Cortana. I don't think I'm using it at all. I think I want to blow it away to save RAM and speed up things.
So far, net searching only say you can use Regedit to add a key to the registry (AllowCortana = 0) that inhibits Cortana from doing something while searching. No directions for blowing Cortana clean off the hard drive. The only searching I ever do is with a web browser and Google, or on my harddrive with Windows Explorer.
Question: Is it worth adding the magic key to the registry? Will it recover that 66.6 Mbytes of RAM, or does it leave Cortana sucking up RAM and doing nothing?
Monday, June 5, 2017
HP Laptop battery recall. Lack of nameplate
While futzing around after the "Creative Update" big patch, I find that HP has a recall out on some laptop batteries. Hmm. I saw that photo for some years ago of a laptop bursting into flames on a conference room table. Could be bad. Could burn your house down.
So, a few clicks and the website asks for the product name of my laptop. I get choices of Pavilion G4, thru Pavilion G16. Top of my laptop just says "Pavilion" I look on the back, on the bottom, sides, top, everywhere. No data plate. PITA. Battery compartment needs tools to open. Rather than going down to the shop for tools, I download an 800KB program to figure out which battery I have. It reports that my battery is NOT on the recall list. Nice.
I wish HP wasn't so cheap and had bothered to put a real dataplate, readable by humans, on their product.
So, a few clicks and the website asks for the product name of my laptop. I get choices of Pavilion G4, thru Pavilion G16. Top of my laptop just says "Pavilion" I look on the back, on the bottom, sides, top, everywhere. No data plate. PITA. Battery compartment needs tools to open. Rather than going down to the shop for tools, I download an 800KB program to figure out which battery I have. It reports that my battery is NOT on the recall list. Nice.
I wish HP wasn't so cheap and had bothered to put a real dataplate, readable by humans, on their product.
Creator's update to Win 10: aka Big Patch 2017
So I let Windows Update do the "Creators Update". It is big and fat. Took hours to download and more hours to install after download. It fixed the power button on my HP laptop. The last big patch, last summer, broke the button. I had to keep my finger on the power button for the count of ten to make the laptop power down AND turn off the LED in the power button. Granted a LED only draws 10 milliamps out of a battery rated for an amp-hour or more, but even 10 milliamps will run the battery down if you put the laptop on the shelf for a week or so. Anyhow Win 10 Creator's update fixed the button that the last big patch broke.
And then Creators update broke HP 3D Driveguard. That's an HP program that does an emergency hard drive head park should the internal accelerometer sense the laptop is taking a fall. Sounds cool IF it is really fast enough to get the heads parked before the laptop hits the floor. Net searching offered advice to uninstall HP 3D Driveguard and then download the latest version and reinstall. Uninstall worked, but download and reinstall not so much. My first reinstall crapped out with an error message about a bad file in the download. I tried a second download from another site and it might have worked. It never bothered to report success or failure. HP 3D Driveguard does not show in Task Manager. Neither do it's aliases, of which it has two. So, either it hides from task manager or it isn't there at all.
A Creators Update puff piece on the 'Net was vague about what all this updating buys you. You get a 3D Paint program (whoopie) and a lot of stuff for gamers. I don't draw with my computers and games are for kids.
Another productive year for the Micro$oft software weenies.
And then Creators update broke HP 3D Driveguard. That's an HP program that does an emergency hard drive head park should the internal accelerometer sense the laptop is taking a fall. Sounds cool IF it is really fast enough to get the heads parked before the laptop hits the floor. Net searching offered advice to uninstall HP 3D Driveguard and then download the latest version and reinstall. Uninstall worked, but download and reinstall not so much. My first reinstall crapped out with an error message about a bad file in the download. I tried a second download from another site and it might have worked. It never bothered to report success or failure. HP 3D Driveguard does not show in Task Manager. Neither do it's aliases, of which it has two. So, either it hides from task manager or it isn't there at all.
A Creators Update puff piece on the 'Net was vague about what all this updating buys you. You get a 3D Paint program (whoopie) and a lot of stuff for gamers. I don't draw with my computers and games are for kids.
Another productive year for the Micro$oft software weenies.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Wipe Islamic Terrorists off the Internet
We ought to do it. We can do it, the backbone carriers are mostly American. We furnish a list of terrorist URL's to the backbone carriers, and presto, they go into the bit bucket for good. The terrorists will undoubtedly open new ones, but we can make those go into the bit bucket too. And their audiences, who just pop a URL into their browsers will be confused when they get the 404 error message after the site got blackholed. It will take time for the audience to discover the new URLs and by which time we can discover them too and make the new ones go away.
Everyone agrees that a lot of Islamic terrorists get started, get instructed, and get encouraged over the internet. For instance we know that Anwar Al Awlaki set up the shoe bomber, and engaged in emails with Major Hassan, the Ft Hood shooter. Awlaki got so bad that the weak kneed Obama administration summoned up a little resolve and snuffed Awlaki in a drone strike. If we can snuff them from the air, surely we can turn off their internet access.
Every other media, print newspapers, radio, TV, movies, books, music, engage in censorship. There are some things they simply will not show. Examples: death threats, calls to violence, pornography, wardrobe malfunctions, overly raunchy lyrics, and hate speech. Only the internet gets away scot free. With Islamic terrorist racking up more and more kills (149 kills just this Ramadan) we need to shut down their internet access.
We need to do this right, and prevent censorship of other perfectly legitimate internet activities. Probably a small board of respected and impartial people ought to OK each request to blackhole a URL for being an Islamic terror site. We have done a fairly good job at snuffing out spammers, no reason why we should not do the same to Islamic terrorists.
Everyone agrees that a lot of Islamic terrorists get started, get instructed, and get encouraged over the internet. For instance we know that Anwar Al Awlaki set up the shoe bomber, and engaged in emails with Major Hassan, the Ft Hood shooter. Awlaki got so bad that the weak kneed Obama administration summoned up a little resolve and snuffed Awlaki in a drone strike. If we can snuff them from the air, surely we can turn off their internet access.
Every other media, print newspapers, radio, TV, movies, books, music, engage in censorship. There are some things they simply will not show. Examples: death threats, calls to violence, pornography, wardrobe malfunctions, overly raunchy lyrics, and hate speech. Only the internet gets away scot free. With Islamic terrorist racking up more and more kills (149 kills just this Ramadan) we need to shut down their internet access.
We need to do this right, and prevent censorship of other perfectly legitimate internet activities. Probably a small board of respected and impartial people ought to OK each request to blackhole a URL for being an Islamic terror site. We have done a fairly good job at snuffing out spammers, no reason why we should not do the same to Islamic terrorists.
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Mandatory Minimum Sentences.
Used to be, back in the 60's and 70's, judges had broad discretion in sentences. Unfortunately a number of judges abused this discretion, letting criminals off with slap-on-the-wrist sentences when the community wanted the throw the book at them.
As a result, in the 70's and 80's, Congress and state legislatures passed laws requiring judges to impose mandatory minimum sentences in all cases, mitigating circumstances be damned. Judges have been whining about this ever since. But the mandatory minimum sentencing laws still mostly stand, the voters have little interest in the whines of judges.
As a result, in the 70's and 80's, Congress and state legislatures passed laws requiring judges to impose mandatory minimum sentences in all cases, mitigating circumstances be damned. Judges have been whining about this ever since. But the mandatory minimum sentencing laws still mostly stand, the voters have little interest in the whines of judges.
Friday, June 2, 2017
Do you believe in Global Warming?
Or, "Does the president believe in global warming," a question fired during one of those interminable daily press conferences. The poor press secretary who was serving as a target rightfully dodged the question.
Believe. That's a word used in religion. Do you believe in God? When the newsies start asking about belief, they become religious fanatics looking for heretics to burn at the stake. The fanatics LIKE global warming, they are using it to scare people into giving them political power.
Global warming ought to be a scientific theory, an idea supported by observations or experiments. About the only observation behind the global warmists is CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. We have good observations that the CO2 concentration has increased from 300 and something parts-per-million to 400 parts-per-million in the last 50 years or so. The earth gets heated on the sunside and cools itself by radiating infrared radiation on the night side. To hold Earth's temperature steady, the heating and the cooling have to balance. CO2 blocks infrared radiation which reduces the nighttime cooling. This is the whole of the greenie global warming religion. Of which they are demanding the president believe.
Counter observation. Plain old water vapor, steam, humidity, clouds, is as strong an infrared blocker as CO2. And there is about 1000 times as much water vapor in the air as the puny rise of CO2. The CO2 rise is like 50 parts-per million, against a water vapor concentration of 50,000 parts-per-million. Most experienced people don't think a change that small means anything in the real world. Especially as all the computer models of global warming produce crazy results when asked to predict today's temperature based upon data from some starting point in the past. Incidentally, on a planet two thirds covered with open water, there is going to be a lot of water vapor in the air, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
And, if the world warms up, then the oceans will warm and more water will vaporize and make the air even moister than it is. Which will increase the amount of cloud cover. Everyone knows that daytime clouds cool the earth. You can feel the chill when you are on a beach in a bathing suit and a cloud covers the sun. Less well known is that night time clouds warm the earth, they block infrared radiation even better than CO2 or water vapor. Clear winter nights are colder than overcast winter nights. Which effect is stronger? No one knows, or at least no one has published on this where I could see it.
Another observation. World temperature has remained steady, no rise at all for the last 19 years.
So, scientifically speaking global warming is a maybe. Might be happening, might not. This isn't a matter of belief. It's a matter of scientific observations and theory.
Believe. That's a word used in religion. Do you believe in God? When the newsies start asking about belief, they become religious fanatics looking for heretics to burn at the stake. The fanatics LIKE global warming, they are using it to scare people into giving them political power.
Global warming ought to be a scientific theory, an idea supported by observations or experiments. About the only observation behind the global warmists is CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. We have good observations that the CO2 concentration has increased from 300 and something parts-per-million to 400 parts-per-million in the last 50 years or so. The earth gets heated on the sunside and cools itself by radiating infrared radiation on the night side. To hold Earth's temperature steady, the heating and the cooling have to balance. CO2 blocks infrared radiation which reduces the nighttime cooling. This is the whole of the greenie global warming religion. Of which they are demanding the president believe.
Counter observation. Plain old water vapor, steam, humidity, clouds, is as strong an infrared blocker as CO2. And there is about 1000 times as much water vapor in the air as the puny rise of CO2. The CO2 rise is like 50 parts-per million, against a water vapor concentration of 50,000 parts-per-million. Most experienced people don't think a change that small means anything in the real world. Especially as all the computer models of global warming produce crazy results when asked to predict today's temperature based upon data from some starting point in the past. Incidentally, on a planet two thirds covered with open water, there is going to be a lot of water vapor in the air, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
And, if the world warms up, then the oceans will warm and more water will vaporize and make the air even moister than it is. Which will increase the amount of cloud cover. Everyone knows that daytime clouds cool the earth. You can feel the chill when you are on a beach in a bathing suit and a cloud covers the sun. Less well known is that night time clouds warm the earth, they block infrared radiation even better than CO2 or water vapor. Clear winter nights are colder than overcast winter nights. Which effect is stronger? No one knows, or at least no one has published on this where I could see it.
Another observation. World temperature has remained steady, no rise at all for the last 19 years.
So, scientifically speaking global warming is a maybe. Might be happening, might not. This isn't a matter of belief. It's a matter of scientific observations and theory.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Bye Bye Paris Climate Deal.
Trump called a special Rose Garden address on the Paris accord for 3 PM Eastern today. It got started 15 minutes late, not bad. Trump said the US was pulling out off the Paris agreement, something he had promised repeated on the campaign trail. He said the Paris agreement was costing us jobs and economic growth, and it wasn't doing much against global warming. And the other members, like China, weren't doing as much as the United States.
The Paris accord was supposed to be an international treaty, which needs a 66% majority in the Senate to pass. Obama, who negotiated the Paris accords, never submitted the final treaty to the Senate, because he knew it would never pass. So, it never was a real treaty, and Trump can denounce it and walk away from it on just his say-so. That's legit.
Funny thing about the Paris accord. I have no idea what the pseudo treaty obligated America to do. And who might be keeping score. The Obama administration claimed that the Clean Power Plan, which called for shutting down every coal fired power plant in the country, was just one step toward meeting the Paris accord. Of course Trump shut down the Clean Power Plan a couple of months ago, so that's kind of moot. Of course the greenies are all upset, but next greenie I hear venting about Paris, I'm gonna ask him what the Paris accord required us to do. And is it fair when the Chinese don't have to do squat until 2030. The greenie won't know, and that ought to quiet him down for a while.
In short, Trump put on a show for his voter base, doing something they approve of. It gives the MSM something new to whine about, which is good, I'm tired of listening to them whine about Russians. I don't think it does anything about global warming, especially as there has been no global warming for the last 19 years.
The Paris accord was supposed to be an international treaty, which needs a 66% majority in the Senate to pass. Obama, who negotiated the Paris accords, never submitted the final treaty to the Senate, because he knew it would never pass. So, it never was a real treaty, and Trump can denounce it and walk away from it on just his say-so. That's legit.
Funny thing about the Paris accord. I have no idea what the pseudo treaty obligated America to do. And who might be keeping score. The Obama administration claimed that the Clean Power Plan, which called for shutting down every coal fired power plant in the country, was just one step toward meeting the Paris accord. Of course Trump shut down the Clean Power Plan a couple of months ago, so that's kind of moot. Of course the greenies are all upset, but next greenie I hear venting about Paris, I'm gonna ask him what the Paris accord required us to do. And is it fair when the Chinese don't have to do squat until 2030. The greenie won't know, and that ought to quiet him down for a while.
In short, Trump put on a show for his voter base, doing something they approve of. It gives the MSM something new to whine about, which is good, I'm tired of listening to them whine about Russians. I don't think it does anything about global warming, especially as there has been no global warming for the last 19 years.
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