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* Posts by jake

28824 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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Microsoft COO: Our greatest enemy is old Windows

jake Silver badge

Old is "bad"? Marketards. Useless idiots.

"Microsoft needs to break its link with the "old software" not only in the business market, but in the consumer market as well."

Business-wise, I am still perfectly happy with WordStar & Lotus123 ... Well, to be perfectly honest, I still use vi and sc to run my businesses.

We are profitable. And only update hardware when it breaks.

The box I'm typing this on is a 7 year old HP laptop, running Slackware-current. It is my day-to-day go-to machine.

My mantra? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

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HuffPo goes UK: But shills and pols writing for free isn't new

jake Silver badge
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@JesterMedia

Try me.

Exceptions: Boy/Girl flash-in-the-pan "entertainer" o't'day, including "page 3 girls", footballers and their wives, and the like.

Hint: I don't frequent "big box stores" like Home Depot (or Block & Quayle).

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jake Silver badge
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@JesterMedia

You don't get it, either, do you? It ain't about home-base, it's about expressing yourself in print.

Besides, Stan hardly focused on San Francisco ... any more than "Pat Novak for Hire" was actually about San Francisco's waterfront.

"She drifted into the room, like 98 pounds of warm smoke ... "

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jake Silver badge
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@TeeCee

I'm terribly sorry for your lack of education.

Do you know why you should understand how to vote?

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jake Silver badge

I've said it before ...

... and I'll say it again: Journalism died with Herb Caen and Stanton Delaplane.

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Triceratops horn find supports meteor extinction theory

jake Silver badge
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@Tom 13

Incorrect. Aside from various intentionally interned human remains and artifacts unearthed by archeologists, look up Girolamo Segato ... I'd mention Mother Shipton's Cave in Knaresborough, that that's an entirely different process ;-)

And have you never used plaster of paris to preserve animal tracks? Or crystallized ginger or citrus zest?

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Unix still data center darling, says survey

jake Silver badge
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Pint

Indeed, that is, and was, the plan ...

Just don't tell Apple ... It hurts his marketroid's feelings when you remind them that, sad to say, St. Steve didn't actually invent it ;-)

Next round's on me, if you're ever in the San Francisco Bay Area's North Bay. I suspect we could bore our .sig others with war stories for a few hours^Wdays ...

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jake Silver badge
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I know. I was there.

I got to Berkeley roughly at roughly the same time as ken ... The first UNIX I used was Unix TSS (4?, 5?, Lotta water under the ol' bridge ...) and I worked on BSD through Tahoe & Reno. In my mind, the current various BSDs are more UNIX-like than the commercial variations allowed to use the term "UNIX[tm]" ... except (surprise!) Apple's OSX.

Slackware is the only fairly mainstream distribution of Linux that I, personally, consider being close to UNIX-like.

And please note that while the various BSDs don't use any commercial code, ALL of the commercial UNIX[tm]s contain BSD code.

Maybe "genetic UNIX" is the wrong term ... how about "spiritual UNIX" ;-)

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jake Silver badge
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AIX the "last Genetic UNIX "??

Mister Gathercole ... I know who you are, and I'm fairly certain you know who I am. So pardon me while I pooh-pooh your premise.

The only true remaining "genetic" UNIX is BSD ... Slackware comes close, in the Linux camp.

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jake Silver badge

Whatever.

BSD on the servers, Slackware Linux on the desktops.

Makes for an all around nicer computing experience, user & admin alike :-)

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'Being cyber-stalked is as bad as being raped, or in a war'

jake Silver badge
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@Phil 42

http://www.slang-dictionary.com/definition/trick-cyclist.html

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jake Silver badge

Except ...

Unlike TheRealWorld[tm], one can always terminate one's online connection at a whim. Really. TehIntraWebTubes aren't exactly necessary for survival, nor is your access mandated by another party.

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Dinner Spinner

jake Silver badge

recipesource.com

It's there, has been for a decade and a half

It works, has done for a decade and a half.

If you need to eyeball your phone in order to purchase ingredients at your local mega-mart, I respectfully suggest you should probably stay out of your kitchen ... it is full of sharp objects, hot objects, and freezing objects ... maybe even containing salmonella and other ugly bugs!

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Ballmer begs partners to love Microsoft clouds

jake Silver badge

Taking the "P" out of "PC"?

Seriously ... MSFT (and AAPL, at ali) spent how many decades making computers "personal", and now they want to move computing back to the data center?

How daft do they think we, as a population, are?

(Don't answer that; I'm depressed enough ... )

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Is Facebook worth more than Google?

jake Silver badge
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@A handle is required

I can always agree to disagree. The techie world is what it is :-)

Beer?

Attempt to post my first reply follows ... maybe ;-)

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jake Silver badge
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@A handle is required

*MY* first crack at that kind of shit?

Gawd/ess, where would I start ... Personally, probably the BBS I ran in the late 1970s. Prior to that, I was active in the early NCP version of what we now call "The Internet". During and after that, I was active in the development of TCP/IP. Before, during & after TCP/IP I was active in development of UUCP, NNTP and (S)MTP ...

I was at the wrong place (S.F Bay Area) at the right time (student). ::shrugs::

More beer ... and I almost never use icons ...

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jake Silver badge
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@A handle is required

I tried to answer your "first crack" question, but apparently one of the mods has issues with my background. ::shrugs::

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jake Silver badge
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@A handle is required

I'm not trolling, I'm a realist. NONE of the crap on that link can't be done here at home, easier, cheaper, and with a better eye on our family's security.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sustainable

Stop sipping the goolade.

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jake Silver badge

Both are overvalued, to the extreme.

Neither actually have a sustainable product, and both have huge overhead.

Once the principles start cashing out, the market will correct itself.

Holland, tulips, etc.

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Apple patent: 'Pour' your data from iPhone to iPad

jake Silver badge
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Indeed, TiG ...

"You might as well declare that voice recognition was non-obvious in the 1960s comp sci world simply because it hadn't been done."

As we all know, Star Trek had the concept of voice recognition computers in the mid-sixties ... and a lot of "Golden Age" SciFi did, too, back in the 1940s and '50s. The concept of "talking machines" goes back a LOT further, though ... See "Rossum's Universal Robots", for a start, and then look up the concept of "golem".

On the other hand, I question your "hardware limitations" comment ... My early 1980s C64 did voice recognition in the RealWorld[tm]. The unit in the car would unlock the doors, trunk (boot) & hood (bonnet), start and stop the car, operate the headlights and turn signals, turn on and off the radio and CB, and adjust the volume of both, operate the wipers, and sweep the windshield-washer squirter to irrigate the glass and/or passers-by, all on voice command.

The fact that I stopped playing with computers in cars (other than engine management) around thirty years ago, and why, is probably more of a story than the OA ...

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jake Silver badge

I think the phrase all y'all are looking for is:

Dangerously stupid.

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ANONYMOUS: Behind the mask, inside the Hivemind

jake Silver badge
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"Always" is a very long time, thecakeis(not)alie ...

During the meanwhile, you continue to miss my point ...

And you're going way out of your way to feed the trolls?

Sit back and think about it. Please.

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jake Silver badge
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@Mr. Pott

"If you chose to call yourself Anonymous, participated in Anonymous activites, etc. you would be accepted by them as well."

Duh. Paraphrased, "We is us, you is not us, and therefore not us!!!!! You is bad!!!!" ... Typical of gang behavior world-wide.

"Even if you disagreed with them about almost everything all the time."

Horseshit. I'm effectively Anonymous, and yet my commentardary on the activities of Anon are routinely "down voted[1]" by Anon here on ElReg.

Can you see the absurdity in this simple fact?

Anon has an agenda. Their agenda is "our way or the highway, and we'll rough you up and try to make your life miserable if you don't see it our way".

And the Anon idiots don't even see why that attitude is just as bad as the worst of the rest of human governments that they claim to be decrying ...

[1] Not that I give a rat's ass about up and down votes ...

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jake Silver badge
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@Sir Runcible Spoon

I missed it because I don't do icons. With the exception of "beer", I have them all blocked as a waste of my bandwidth.

Icons are for the AOLer mindset. Beer is an offer of friendship.

Lose the "lulz", though. You're smarter than that. Life's too short ...

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jake Silver badge
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@Sir Runcible Spoon

Trolling? Moi? I would never do such a thing ...

Anus? Some think so. I'm cool with that ... Most who do should look within, though. For the most part I'm only telling it as it is as I see it[1], which kinda pisses the kids off ;-)

"Herds of a feather flock together" was mixing & matching cows, birds & sheep. If I had been a trifle less rushed this morning[2], I'd have typoed "school" instead of "flock" ... "pack" was already in use in the colophon ... Surely you've been around here long enough to have caught my "herding the cats back into the worm can thru' the newly locked stable door"?

When you have to explain it, it loses impact ...

[1] Over a third of a century in the industry tends to make one opinionated.

[2] The Vet was making her "first Thursday of the month" house call here at the ranch.

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jake Silver badge
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Whatever, Mr. Pott.

No matter how you look at it, herds of a feather flock together.

Lie down with dogs ...

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jake Silver badge
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No, Danny 5, if that is your real name ...

I do NOT take delight in the misery of others.

If/when you grow up, you'll understand why.

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Parmo v poutine: The ultimate post-pub nosh deathmatch

jake Silver badge

Question.

How much did Nike pay for the product placement? Hopefully enough to purchase a proper cook-top, if nothing else.

That said, post-pub grub doesn't get any better than a bacon sarnie ...

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Windows security begins at the desktop

jake Silver badge

Gawd/ess, what a palaver ... where do I start ...

How about with "trying to make insecure-by-design hardware and software combinations secure on the corporate desktop is a fool's errand".

Followed up with "Doing the same thing over and over again, whilst hoping for a different result each time is a clinical sign of insanity".

Yeah. That should do it ...

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Tape and dedupe: So not happening

jake Silver badge

Oh, I dunno ...

My 15 year old Memorex Telex 5600 ATL seems to do a pretty good job :-)

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VC Moulton refuses to stay stationary, gets into stationery

jake Silver badge

::heh::

For the last thirty years, every time I've heard the phrase "paperless office" used in earnest, I have bought a couple more shares in Weyerhaeuser, Plum Creek Timber, Boise Cascade and Crane&Co. ...

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Virtualised desktops: provisioning done the MS way

jake Silver badge

Or ...

I could use an IBM 5150 & Model M keyboard and a modem to dial into the host ...

Or, I could join the 21st century and educate myself enough to use the CPU, memory & storage available at this end of the link to it's best advantage, thus negating the need for the link in minute-to-minute service.

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Facebook gets awesome with Skype

jake Silver badge

Absofuckinglutely wonderful!

Zuckerberg's invented email, mailing lists and Usenet!

I wonder if the twit knows how daft he looks ...

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South Korea to throw away schoolbooks by 2015

jake Silver badge
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@mio0352

"best of all, I can't lose them."

Actually, young mio, what you have described there is a single point of failure.

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jake Silver badge

Why not.

North Korea threw away all the books in the late 1940s ...

More seriously, there is no study aid more important than the "flipability" of printed paper books. Nothing digital even comes close.

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Boffins fix dead satellite using 'dirty hack' in space

jake Silver badge

No such animal as a "dirty hack", by definition.

"Hacking" is fiddling about with people[0] and hardware[1], trying to make it do what it wasn't intended to do. Hacks that work are good hacks[2], hacks that don't work[3] need refinement.

Details on the sat-restart hack, please? The curiosity bug is strong around here.

[0] I won't get into social engineering here ... too many bugs for a couple paragraphs ;-)

[1] There is no such thing as "software" ... software is merely the current state of the hardware.

[2] My 3.5L/215ci Buick powered 1972 Datsun 510 is a "good hack".

[3] Government here in the USofA needs refinement ...

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Nissan backs off from Goodwood reverse-race car stunt

jake Silver badge

I have a couple old boat engines that run in reverse[1] ...

... Well, forward & reverse are the same, as far as they are concerned.

Only problem is that once you are going forward, you have to stop the engine, shift the camshaft, and then restart the thing spinning in the other direction ... One's a 10-ton Buda straight eight that is currently looking for a tugboat for me to restore; the other is a four ton Atlas Imperial that powers a late-1920s 45 foot cocktail cruiser ... Fun toys, if you're not afraid of getting grease under your fingernails :-)

[1] I have several boats with counter-rotating engines, which is a completely different concept.

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Google Go strikes back with C++ bake-off

jake Silver badge
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@Shakje

Well ... I learned a lot from Intercal thirty years earlier ... whitespace has it's place, if you understand why writing your own compiler, in ANY language[1], teaches you more about programming in general than any number of university hours or years in the industry.

[1] Except BASIC, of course ;-)

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jake Silver badge

This is getting tiresome.

Those of you who have been following along with us commentards for a while will know I prefer K&R C with inline assembler for serious coding. But I'm a hardware guy.

I also do COBOL, FORTRAN, Forth, Smalltalk, perl, (ba)sh, yadda, yadda ...

But the basic bottom line is that bricks are bricks. All are used to build structures. Some are small and red, and used to build small red structures (your house, perhaps). Some are slightly larger and grey, and used to build largish grey structures (your dorm, perhaps). Some are longer, and made of iron, and used to build skyscrapers. Some are irregular, and used to build massive structures like Machu Pikchu. Some are more massive, and used to build even more massive structures like Egypt's pyramids ... And some are even more massive, like Ada ;-)

ALL of them have their place. Playing one off the other is a fool's errand ...

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Music on plastic discs still popular, apparently

jake Silver badge
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@Some Beggar

Go back and re-read the thread. Do you not agree that you, personally, guarantee that people will prefer good quality analog audio to compressed (by definition) digital audio?

"Audio reproduction for listeners" and "audio playback" are technical terms ... they mean "replaying stored sounds for human[1] ears". Surely with your 25 years of experience you would know that?

I've noticed you in other threads here on ElReg. I think I've just *plinked* you[2].

[1] Or other thingie capable of interpreting vibrations in the human audio range.

[2] Some folks just don't deserve a proper *plonk* ...

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jake Silver badge
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@Mike Flugennock

My Garrard-based granite deck with Shure V-15 Type V cartridges[1], combined with Tascam tape kit, make for a fairly decent home archive system when it comes to vinyl ... Digitizing it after archiving is trivial.

The only problem is finding clean vinyl :-/

[1] I scored four dozen unused Type Vs from WierdStuffWarehouse in 1997 for US$25 :-)

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jake Silver badge
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::hmm::

"1) I haven't mentioned what music I listen to or what format I use."

Not applicable. We're talking audio reproduction for listeners.

"2) I'm probably older than you"

Not argument from authority? Are you certain?

"3) I've been working in signal processing (audio and RF) for twenty five years."

Yep. Argument from authority ...

"The comment about "guaranteeing" that people would prefer something just because you happen to prefer it was deeply silly. I'm sorry if my pointing this out has troubled you enough to resort to silly snipes about age and taste. Feel free to repeat them as many times as you like if it makes you feel better. No amount of repetition will make you look any less silly."

I offered the option for the reader to make their own decision on audio quality; nowhere do I tell anyone what to do.

"You silly dick."

Again with the ad hominem.

Has it made you feel any better about your appalling taste in audio playback yet?

No? Oh. I'm sorry.

::sighs:: Kids these days ...

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jake Silver badge
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@Some Beggar

And now argumentum ad verecundiam on top of ad hominem?

Has it made you feel any better about your appalling taste in audio playback yet?

No? Oh. I'm sorry.

::sighs:: Kids these days ...

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jake Silver badge
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Again ...

Did it make you feel better about your appalling taste in audio playback?

No? Oh. I'm sorry.

::sighs:: Kids these days ...

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jake Silver badge
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@Some Beggar

Nice ad hominem.

Did it make you feel better about your appalling taste in audio playback?

No? Oh. I'm sorry.

::sighs:: Kids these days ...

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jake Silver badge
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@Mike Flugennock

"like an old refurbish Teac or Akai."

Yup. My kit is centered on Tascam ... No refurbs needed, I bought it all new.

"Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms""

::heh:: ... Memories. I own & play a Dobro, similar to the Resonator on the cover :-)

Yes, that's the first album recorded, mixed & mastered digitally. And it sounds like it.

Not that that's a bad thing ;-)

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jake Silver badge
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@AC 13:50

Agreed. But I'm a pointless anachronism with a hint of taste.

Listen to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side" on CD[1]. Then listen to it on clean vinyl ... Both auditions over decent amplification, and quality speakers. I guarantee that you'll prefer the vinyl over the CD ... and that the tape recording of the vinyl will also sound better than the CD.

After listening to the above, you'll shudder at what your iFad sends your ears ...

[1] Pick a rock in the ebb & flow of popular music ...

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jake Silver badge

Most of the music I listen to ...

... was recorded from vinyl to half inch tape, and the working copies made from the tape.

But then I know that music sounds like music through speakers, not those abomination "ear buds" ... I dread what Marketing is going to foist on kids next ...

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Moderatrix kisses the Reg goodbye

jake Silver badge

Fare thee well, lady :-)

If you're ever in San Francisco's North Bay, drop me a line. The wife & I will buy you lunch as a small measure of compensation ;-)

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Cloud storage survey FAIL: May have to, er, back up

jake Silver badge

The thing the "cloud" perps aren't telling you ...

When I own the storage media, I control the data.

When I don't own the storage media, I don't control the data.

Ipso facto, QED ... Can we stop with the "cloud" meme, already?

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