from the you-don't-own-anything-anymore dept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8JCh0owT4w
When it comes to repair, farmers have always been self reliant. But the modernization of tractors and other farm equipment over the past few decades has left most farmers in the dust thanks to diagnostic software that large manufacturers hold a monopoly over.
Farmers using Eastern European cracking software for their tractors, and MS, Apple, etc. want to stop them.
Related: Right to Repair
Related Stories
Nebraska is one of eight states in the US – including Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wyoming, Tennessee and Kansas – seeking to pass "right to repair" legislation. All eyes will be on the Cornhusker state when the bill has its public hearing on 9 March, because its unique "unicameral legislature" (it's the only state to have a single parliamentary chamber) means laws can be enacted swiftly. If this bill, officially named LB67, gets through, it may lead to a domino effect through the rest of the US, as happened with a similar battle over the right to repair cars. These Nebraska farmers are fighting for all of us.
Big agriculture and big tech – including John Deere, Apple and AT&T – are lobbying hard against the bill, and have sent representatives to the Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, to spend hours talking to senators, citing safety, security and intellectual property concerns.
John Deere has gone as far as to claim that farmers don't own the tractors they pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for, but instead receive a "license to operate the vehicle". They lock users into license agreements that forbid them from even looking at the software running the tractor or the signals it generates.
Another article on the topic at Techdirt.
Last year dozens of 'Right to Repair' bills were introduced throughout the US, but defeated. Maybe this time its time has come.
Right to Repair bills, designed to foster competition in the repair industry, require manufacturers to allow repair, and even provide manuals, diagnosic software, and parts. Manufacturers oppose these laws as it can cost them more to address devices repaired by third parties, because repairs are a source of revenue, and because repaired items are less likely to be replaced with new ones.
[O]ne of the most effective anti-repair tactics is to spread FUD about the supposed security risks of independent repairs.
Without a concerted and coordinated effort to counteract this tactic, legislators receive primarily well-heeled opposing views, and vote accordingly.
Hacking Ventilators With DIY Dongles From Poland:
As COVID-19 surges, hospitals and independent biomedical technicians have turned to a global grey-market for hardware and software to circumvent manufacturer repair locks and keep life-saving ventilators running.
The dongle is handmade, little more than a circuit board encased in plastic with two connectors. One side goes to a ventilator’s patient monitor, another goes to the breath delivery unit. A third cable connects to a computer.
This little dongle—shipped to him by a hacker in Poland—has helped William repair at least 70 broken Puritan Bennett 840 ventilators that he’s bought on eBay and from other secondhand websites. He has sold these refurbished ventilators to hospitals and governments throughout the United States, to help them handle an influx of COVID-19 patients. Motherboard agreed to speak to William anonymously because he was not authorized by his company to talk to the media, but Motherboard verified the specifics of his story with photos and other biomedical technicians.
William is essentially Frankensteining together two broken machines to make one functioning machine. Some of the most common repairs he does on the PB840, made by a company called Medtronic, is replacing broken monitors with new ones. The issue is that, like so many other electronics, medical equipment, including ventilators, increasingly has software that prevents “unauthorized” people from repairing or refurbishing broken devices, and Medtronic will not help him fix them.
[...] Delays in getting equipment running put patients at risk. In the meantime, biomedical technicians will continue to try to make-do with what they can. “If someone has a ventilator and the technology to [update the software], more power to them,” Mackeil said. “Some might say you’re violating copyright, but if you own the machine, who’s to say they couldn’t or they shouldn’t?”
I understand that there is an ongoing debate on the "right to repair". However, many manufacturers increasingly find ways to ensure that "unauthorised" people cannot repair their devices. Where do you stand on this issue? During the ongoing pandemic, do medical device manufacturers have the right to prevent repair by third parties?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:52AM (46 children)
Three women were sitting on a park bench when a man screamed at them from quite some distance away.
"Raise your hand if you want to be raped!"
None of the women raised their hands.
"All of you!? What luck!"
The man then charged in and beat and raped all the women. There were many eyewitnesses to this happening and there was even video evidence. When the matter was brought to court, a judge ruled that, being women, they were all vehemently raising their hands in their hearts, and that therefore no rape actually occurred. Thankfully, the women were all sentenced to rape prison for trying to sully the man's good name.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:03AM (44 children)
Good way to lose website visitors. Nice.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:37AM (32 children)
Someone should mod this up, so it can be Spam modded. And why oh why is not the Minty Broussard hunting down these serial rapist murders and blocking them and turning their IP over to the FBI? Or at least to Devin Nunes, so he can release a memo on this!
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @07:43AM (19 children)
I would offer our moderation system allow us to issue a spam mod to anything, instantly dropping it to -2... even if it was at -1.
One would have to have 40+ karma to do it though, and be willing to put it all on the line.
I think its gonna be a lot easier on everyone if we empower our most active users of these forums to take the trash out when the can's stinkin'. Basically, crowdsourcing the effort of keeping out place clean.
I think its asking a helluva lot of our TMB and other curators of this place to keep picking up the messes. We've already got the stinkin' POS on our screen, it could be just one keypress from oblivion, making it a helluva lot easier to get rid of than it was to post.
( I would also like to know why I go into my preferences, weight SPAM to -6, show only posts -1 and above, and still see posts moderated SPAM. If someone else thought it was SPAM, and was willing to put his karma behind him, I am quite sure he spoke for me as well. )
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:09AM (4 children)
This would be quite an interesting concept. If you invested part of your own Karma to just instantly drop these idiot posts down to the depths they came from. If you get the people in the 40+ range (or just unlock the roof so it doesn't stop at 50) and then if you want to just drop a post to -5 at once then do that so we can just purge all these AC spam posts. Should be easier the poor people that might have to do administrative tasks and weed out the idiot posts to just be able to instantly see these -5 or -6 posts and then check them to make sure it's just not some jackass that decided so try and sink some post they just didn't agree with for whatever reason.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:46AM (3 children)
If some jackass killed someone's post without damned good reason, that jackass would only do it Once. The curators of this place could easily restore the post to its former glory, and the jackass would lose all of his karma.
He may well have to wait a year or more before he would be trusted again - even if he came back under another handle.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:21PM (2 children)
All is too severe. Perhaps no more than 15 points. There can be honest disagreements.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @08:26AM (1 child)
If it is that close to flamebait or troll, it should be moderated thus... I feel this particular story comment base is full of good examples of spam.
I was a member of TheOilDrum.com, and we also had a problem with bad posts, but over there the moderators didn't think twice about flushing a turd post.
This was many years ago, I was a member of Slashdot, and I had proposed that I would promote TheOilDrum on Slashdot by putting it in my tagline; I was advised not to. They flat did not want 'em showing up at TheOilDrum.
Now, TheOilDrum itself is in archive status, as we had the world's top geologists and petroleum engineers over there, and there is a helluva lot of sciency talk about petroleum depletion issues... while other people referred to our group as "Doomer Porn".
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday February 04 2018, @06:48PM
If you need 50 points to "yank" something, and you put 15 on the line, you are putting nearly a third of the possible status. There are edge cases where there can be honest disagreement. That the particular one you are talking about isn't one of them is nearly irrelevant when you're talking about a system design change. You need to also consider the corner cases.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:42AM (5 children)
You have to be logged in to moderate. Imagine the fun to be had if any AC could just kill a point of view on a whim. Nope, we demand people with at least the guts to be accountable to make such actions.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:59AM
Of course you can be logged in yet still post anonymously using the corresponding option. Or you can post while not logged in, but moderate while logged in. You could even use proxies to have your moderation and anonymous comments come from different IPs.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:42AM (3 children)
Exactly, jan... post obliteration is serious business, and one prankster could nail the entire site. Anyone with that kind of power needs to have his dog in the fight. In my mind, that means anyone who has contributed enough to this site to have accumulated that much karma, which does not come overnight. I might as well go for 50+, if the internal Karma limit was raised to, say 60, but the most that would display is still 50. Meaning one must have "perfect" karma to have the "Power of God" to strike down posts.
And be held totally responsible with ones own karma, which may have taken a year to accumulate, at stake. I do not think its unreasonable to ask any of us to be a member of this site for at least a year, maybe 3 to 5, before being given that kind of authority, given the temptation for abuse.
I think it would make it easier on all of us, as the curators of this place aren't constantly watching each and every forum, and hundreds of us are online and reading at any given time. If we already have the offensive post on our screen, just one button press from any of us would "flush the turd" so the rest of us will never even see it.
Due to the severity of the mod, our curators need to have a log of every post so deleted, and who dunnit, so if any of us do get power-happy, they won't do it again for at least another year or so.
I would say give us "free" spam mods, but that would be way too dangerous. Just one guy could nail the whole site with a script. Best limit the damage to ten per moderator, as is presently done. If we do get a problem moderator, undoing his doings is probably not nearly as bad as trying to wade through all these spam posts.
I hardly consider offtopic or trolls to be sufficient grounds for obliteration - I think we all know what kind of posts I am referring to.
If nothing else, try it for a while, keep backups, and see what happens?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:32PM (2 children)
Those who are logged in can already mark a post down to below the normal viewing threshold such that it should not become a problem for normal discussion to take place. Nervertheless, I'll point your post out to others on the staff and hopefully create a discussion on your suggestion, but I suspect that there will be downsides to your suggestion that neither you nor I have spotted. Still, it will be good to air the matter again and see if any views have changed.
There are also a small number of our community having high levels of karma who are, from time to time, prone to acting before thinking. The current system has some built in safeguards that prevent the majority of potential abuse from becoming a reality.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:07PM (1 child)
I tried to ferret out just posts moderated "Spam" in my preferences, and nail them with a strong negative number, so I would no longer see them, but I still wanted to see the other negatively moderated posts. There is probably a way for me to do it by giving the other negatively moderated posts positive bias.
I guess what I am asking about is the possibility of having one more level of "bad" that can only be reached by Spam.
I normally cruise at -1, because I still want to see offtopic and troll posts - some are quite good. I often "rescue" them. I'm sure you have logs that show how users use their modpoints.
I really hate to negatively moderate anyone...as they are just jumping at the chance to vent their feelings about something, but I will nail a spam pretty fast. I will even positively moderate posts I do not agree with - because he brought up a good point and made me think a bit.
I have been known to post several lengthy religious diatribes here as well, as I am curious as to what other people will say about it. Offtopic as all getout. Especially this group. I can't get a rational discussion in the church, believe me. They are terrified to talk about anything but canon and the doctrine they have been told to respond with.
I feel this place would just look a lot better if any of us could kill off these spam posts, so the rest of us don't have to see them as well. Like I said before, crowdsourcing the janitorial work.
If anyone really wants to see it all, cruise at the sewer level: -2.
I see our TMB has posted some of his take on this. I appreciate you guys considering it. I thought I would run the idea up the flagpole and see if anyone saluted.
I concede to your observations - as you are running this place and see a helluva lotta stuff I am not privy to.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @03:05PM
There are 2 parts to this problem. The first is - "there is no such thing as a small software change" - particularly when it comes to moderation! This is beyond my area of expertise so I will leave it to the 'coding team' to let us know the what is actually possible (TMB at the moment!).
Secondly, we will have to think the entire problem through to see if it has consequences that are not immediately apparent. But you have explained what you want to see clearly so we have plenty to chew on and we can kick the idea around on IRC before coming up with our ideas.
We sometimes put those ideas out to the community for a bit more discussion so the entire process is unlikely to be fixed in the short term. TMB has plenty on his plate at the moment and he will have to prioritise this along with all of the other stuff he has to work on. He also has a life no matter how unlikely that sounds!
Thanks for raising the issue though. Without the feedback we probably wouldn't even be looking at the problem. It does seem that we are seeing more spam and crap postings than we did a while back but that is probably because we are attracting more readers - although most are not signing up for accounts. And also we actually support freedom of speech so we intentionally do not stamp on comments and/or submissions with a pair of heavy boots, despite what some in our community might think.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:32AM (7 children)
I don't believe current logic allows for a post's karma value to be treated as anything outside the range of -1 to +5. I'll look into it after tonight's update but it'll take a significant amount of hunting down, fixing, and debugging to make sure we don't bugger things up changing that logic.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:48PM (4 children)
Some people like to fart in public. Is that such a big thing? This place is pretty clean the way it is. Let's not ruin it just because some special snowflake takes offense every time they see "penis" and "pussy". If people can moderate posts that result in deletions, that system will definitely be abused. Besides, some of those "spam" posts are pretty funny, if even they aren't original. Like our dear friend realDonaldTrump, a fart's a fart. They still make me laugh. And I don't consider them spam at all. Advertisers, the kind that occasionally leak into the journal section, those guys are spam.
I still insist that the moderation system here and in the green site are probably the best in the business (much better here for its generosity in points given). Especially for sites that are this open with real anonymous posting. Please, don't rock the boat. Just teach people the magic of the "PgDn" key and the scroll bar.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:04PM (2 children)
All I'm currently thinking about is allowing people to assign a per-user adjustment to Spam moderated comments that'll take them below -1 and collapse them even if they're browsing at -1. Some of the recent Spam has been overly verbose and I'd rather spend a week coding and debugging than the time it takes to click the "-" button on that post. I'm weird like that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:08PM (1 child)
Don't we allow -6 to +6 to be applied to mod reasons including spam? That's the point (the custom prefs for anons, new users, mod reasons, comment length, etc.) at which it would be good to blow the -1 and +5 caps. Before customizations, keep -1 to +5 range as usual.
But we could have comments with -34 or +69 karma with that change which would necessitate a new negative infinity option for displaying all comments.
- t
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:06PM
That's the idea, yep. Only for Spam at this point though. Someone annoying us by being right when we're wrong or vice versa doesn't warrant the ability to hide their posts when you're browsing at the floor IMO. On the other hand, it'd probably be easier to just set anything with a Spam moderation it to collapsed after the normal collapsed/expanded checks have been done for that comment.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @08:43AM
Good point... maybe having it so we can nail anything moderated as spam and be done with it... and fix it so if so desired, by setting the spam mod modifier to -1 in our message preferences, it would drop a spam so low that anyone surfing at -1 would see all -1 but spam, which due to the additional -1 assigned in the preferences, drops it to -2, below the threshold.
I would still like to see some way of further moderating anything other than spam to spam, so that any of us that have the karma, and willing to back our decision up with our karma, can fix it so everyone else can set their machines to not display it.
Either that, or have another level down, the sewer level, that only spam mods can go.
Its just a time waster of crap for me... kinda like a TV ad I have absolutely no interest in. I would not want to be caught at work with SN on my screen, with what shows up here showing up there.
In other words, this is a tech site, we oughta be safe for work.
I could name you many sites that have lots and lots of porn... with pictures! But not here.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by isj on Saturday February 03 2018, @03:53PM (1 child)
Another thing that would help is to not allow AC to make the first post. That would make it harder for AC trolls to get noticed and also reduce the problem with "first" posts.
The downside is that if an AC had a valuable insight then he would have to wait until someone non-AC had made the first post, but I think that would be acceptable - if the insight is valuable it will get modded up and noticed by a larger audience.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:36PM
I think that's unnecessarily restrictive, for a very small problem. There are very few articles with a spammy first post.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @07:45AM (2 children)
The monster in my cock jumped to even greater attention as I realized I
wanted to kill her, that I was going to kill her.
Yes. Yes. Kill the bitch.
She fought as best she could as I ripped the dress from her totally. The
fabric of her panties tore easily.
Look at the fucking teen whore's cunt. She's almost shaved bare, too. A thin
little arrow of close cropped brown hair points to her clitoris. She's naked
now and I can smell her body, smell her fear.
I liked the smell.
I tried forcing her legs open, trying to force my cock inside her young
cunt, but injured and beaten as she was, she managed to scratch me with
fingernails that matched the deep red of her painted lips. I grabbed the
wrist of the arm that scratched me, twisting it as I stood up and over her.
"Dirty filty whore!" I growled as I raised my leg and stomped hard into the
middle of the humerus. I was greeted with the sound of snapping bone and the
thrill of Sarah's first real scream since the crying tires and busting
glass.
The scream was quickly stomped out of her as my foot next came down on her
already injured ribs. I felt like Alex, from Clockwork Orange, the laughing,
sociopathic demons of my soul surronding me like my own private street gang
of rapacious droogs, cheering me on to rape, pillage and murder. For the fun
of it, for the sheer thrill, for the pussy. "Viddy well ill, me sister," I
laughed as I fell on her again and spread her legs."Viddy well ill."
Her pussy was mine. I spit on it, positioned and viciously rammed my cock
inside of her as deeply as it could go with the first thrust. She grunted,
trembled and shook. I wrapped my hands around her lovely teenaged neck as I
began to pump her.
I put my face into her's, kissing those Liv Tyler lips as I strangled her,
looking into those beautiful Natalie Portman eyes as I worked my cock
savagely in and out of her, smelling the aroma of her still clean Posh Spice
hair as I relished the feel of her young flesh trembling beneath me. I
licked and kissed her face, her neck, working my way to her ears as she
began to gag and her eyes bulge. I could feel her cunt muscles convulsing in
epeliptic like fits, dancing around my cock, squeezing it just as tightly as
I squeezed her throat. Gods of Darkness, it felt wonderful. Best fuck I had
ever had.
"Wanna' know a secret, Sarah Hood?" I whispered in ear as I raped her.
"Beth's already dead. She was dead when I found her." I stuck my tongue in
her ear, probing deeply and juicily. "I had sex with her dead body. Yes. It
was good." My shaft sank into her slit. "When you die, I won't be done with
you either, baby." Her eyes bulged and drool came from the corners of her
mouth. I licked up the drool and kissed those Liv Tyler lips again. My penis
pulled out from her clenching pussy and rammed back in again. Those
beautiful brown
eyes rolled up to the top of her head and suddenly I smelled shit.
"Fucking cunt!" I had read about the shit syndrome when they die, so I
should have been prepared. I quickly recovered my wits and became
overwhelmed with the fact that I was living out two of my most vivid
fantasies in one night, fucking a dead girl and killing a girl while I
fucked her, an astoundingly beautiful girl, a girl whose dead body I was
still fucking. I wrapped my arms around Sarah and let go. Sucking, biting,
groping, molesting while I rammed and rammed into her lovely limp form.
Letting go. Knowing that, now that I had crossed this borderline, she would
not be the last.
Finally the monster in my cock spewed its demon seed into Sarah's now
useless womb and I collapsed onto the beautiful teenager's lifeless body,
trembling with the delightful sensations of the greatest orgasm I had ever
had in my life.
I held her close and kissed her our last kiss. I'd found the love that I
knew I would miss. We were out in the dark and I held my baby tight. I'd
lost my love - and her life - that night.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:47AM (1 child)
Had this been dropped to -2, neither me nor the rest of us here would have seen this after the first moderator to mark it as spam did so.
But it would have showed up on one of TMB's logs so he could verify none of us was abusing the privilege.
( Same AC as lengthy suggestion above. )
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:41AM
Scroll up a bit for my reply about that.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:29AM (8 children)
We don't record your IP and so have nothing to give to the FBI. We do store a hash of it but we cannot convert that back into an IP. When the site was first established this was discussed at some length. You own your comments, you are responsible for them, and we do not have the information identifying you (if you are an AC) to give to anyone if they should they ask for it.
However, some ACs do not follow very good security practices and as a result give themselves away. That is their own problem...
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:56AM (5 children)
What I always wondered: If you are logged in and use the "Post Anonymously" option, is it stored internally who posted it?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by beckett on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:46AM (2 children)
iirc slashcode sets anonymous_coward_uid to 1.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:52AM (1 child)
Then how does this site know not to give me moderation options for the AC posts I made while logged in?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:49AM
The guys who did the writing before we got our hands on the code get credit for that. One-way hashs of your IP address and subnet are compared to those of every comment. If either matches, you don't get to moderate it. It can make debugging moderation a pain but I'm happy with how it works for a live site.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:47AM
It is stored, at least temporarily. I did an AC post, read more articles, came back to the article in which I posted AC, read new comments, and moderated a couple. Out of curiosity, I checked to see if I could moderate my own AC comment. Unpossible. I don't know if it's done on my own machine, or on the server, but the information is stored somewhere. When the wife isn't on her machine, maybe I'll post AC from it, then see if I can moderate it from my own machine. You've got me curious enough that I might remember to try . . .
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:45AM
No, but the IPID (one-way hashed IP address) will be the same for your logged in self and the AC post. It's one click for an admin to pull up that IPID's page and see who's been using it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @04:30PM (1 child)
I hope you hash a random string into that at least.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:13PM
Random? No. Whatever salt we use, we'd need to reuse it for that address quite a lot of times most likely. So, it either has to be saved next to an actual copy of their IP address which would not be good or it has to be programmatically created in such a way as to get the same salt every time for a given IP address. Or you just use one salt for everyone like we do. None of the above are any more secure than the other, though they could waste up to five minutes of some fed's time.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:25PM (10 children)
If someone being a jackass once or twice a day on average is going to butthurt a visitor enough that they don't come back, they wouldn't have enjoyed their experience here anyway. We're not a cute and cuddly bunch.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @01:15PM
Maybe we are not so cute and cuddly, but most of us here have absolutely great bullshit detectors, and don't filter the output very much!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:23PM (8 children)
It isn't necessarily a matter of being butthurt. Some of these trolls post stuff that is so long, like several screenfulls, and then the same again and again in the same thread, that it becomes hard work for the reader to dig out the real discussion. I am a regular, not butthurt by trolls posting about Gayniggers etc, but l have given up reading threads before now because it became too tedious to sort through the trolls.
Some other forums have a permanent troll/spam thead or section to which admins or moderators can move stuff. Stopping AC first posts is a good idea, as first post titles tends to be perpetuated thoough most of the discussion, to the satisfaction of the troll if he wrote it.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:09PM (7 children)
Sounds like setting anything moderated Spam to an initial collapsed state regardless of its score would solve that. I'm really leaning towards that as a solution at the moment.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @08:57AM (6 children)
Interesting. That oughta work. Maybe set by the preferences|comments menu: spam set to -1 modifier - which would take the spam and drop it to -2 karma, below the -1 threshold?
So, if someone reads at -1, uncut and raw, with the spam modifier set to -1, they will see everything but spam.
( I tried to do that before I posted, did not work for me, I got those spams anyway )
A lot of stuff that should be moderated spam is not moderated thus and still gets through... but I can't change the moderation as its at -1 already, and its gotta be upmoderated back up to zero before anyone else can downmoderate it as spam.
Maybe let us moderate even an existing -1 post to be spam, if nothing else, to get the spam designator in place, even if it does not affect the post's karma.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 04 2018, @11:21AM (5 children)
Also a good idea. One that's been brought up by takyon several times.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @12:37PM (4 children)
Sure is better to not jump and do stuff before thinking about it a bit, eh? I have spent more time building junk that way. Gotta be busy, but hadn't thought it out well yet.
Sure is an odd hour you mess with this stuff... before bed, or first thing in the morning? ( for me, before bed... I am really bad about staying awake all night... cuz I'm not sleepy ).
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @12:41PM (2 children)
Oh, incidentally, the preferences|comments menu does not show up for me now... did you disable it?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:18PM
Shit. No, we broke it apparently. Sigh, there goes my morning of vidya.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 04 2018, @02:23PM
Fixed. The template_tool utility was shitting itself over the é in Touché.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:16PM
5-11AM generally for coding. That's when the Adderall I take for my ADHD is working best. Deployments we mostly do on weekend evenings/nights because there are less people to annoy with them around then.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @07:28AM
FTFY (fix troll for ya)
(Score: 2) by black6host on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:12AM (4 children)
Tractors as a Service (TaaS). No shit, it exists. You don't own 'em like you used to.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:33AM (1 child)
Just wait for the final step: Living as a Service (LaaS). Your body's functions get DRMed, and you'll have to pay a monthly fee in order to be allowed to use the life processes. If you fail to pay, your body gets shut down.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Informative) by BsAtHome on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:06PM
See film: In Time
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:54AM (1 child)
Leasing, many people do that these days.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fishybell on Saturday February 03 2018, @03:05PM
It's not just leasing. There are several layers involved.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by legont on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:14AM (7 children)
Back in early nineties I processed all the repair manuals for Deer tractors. The manuals were amazing. I am pretty sure anybody with basic skills could fix anything. Yes, in all major languages.
There was (or perhaps still is) a company on Long Island that tested all the tractors and wrote the manuals. Their pride was that a tractor could be in an obscure place and still should be fixable by the farmer who bought it himself..
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:35AM (3 children)
Obvious fake.
The company is "John Deere". Deer tend to be rather light and small-hooved, which makes them unsuitable as draft animals. Thus Oxen are preferred, or Horses if they are big enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @07:12AM
I think he meant deer tractor... https://i.ytimg.com/vi/04pDiVk1Z7A/maxresdefault.jpg [ytimg.com]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:35AM (1 child)
I hear Santa has made good experience with Reindeer tractors, though.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:01AM
You just don't look up when they pass over.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:16AM (2 children)
Their pride was that a tractor could be in an obscure place and still should be fixable by the farmer who bought it himself..
If you want that now, buy Indian made product.
Someone is heavily involved in Making America Crap Again
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:51AM (1 child)
Constituting America Crap Again?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 04 2018, @09:02AM
Whoosh? CACA! (Hispanic slang for feces.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:22AM (3 children)
This has got to be a major frustration for farmers. Something go amiss with their machinery - No fun at all.
On a farm. things HAVE to happen On Time... or the harvest you worked so hard for is in jeopardy of being lost. Oh how a farmer must cry to see the rain falling on a harvest being rained on, while his tractor sits in a barn with problems - knowing full good and well what he worked all year for is going to go up in mold, mildew, and rot - because he did not harvest when he was supposed to. Nature is not going to go "on hold" while you fix your tractor.
Everyone knows how frustrating it is when you gotta go to work, but your car doesn't work. Yeh, we have AAA, and taxi service. But the farmer? Who does he call? Its not like he can easily tow the thing to them. He's gonna have to call up someone hours away, and arrange for a "field call", while the clock in ticking away on God's time - which holds for nobody.
Frankly, I am surprised farmers put up with it, but I guess they have to - for the same reason we put up with Congress and Microsoft: Too big to fight.
We should be having standards of interoperability, but instead, all this "rights legislation" being passed by our Congress is only resulting in the formation of technological cliques of machinery that does not play well with others.
We would be furious if someone was teaching our kids to behave this way... forming cliques for the express purpose of excluding others from the community... but we pass law to foment us having our machinery and technical infrastructure to do this?
And we still call those people "The Honorable ... "???
One of those people shake my hand... I want to wash... soon as possible.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @03:26PM (2 children)
I am not really understanding why they don't collectively form some sort of trade group of farmers and tell the companies to fuck off so bad that it'll hurt when we only buy used equipment until this shit stops.
And then do it
of course we already know the indians in india are using our last ditch effort antibiotics so they can make more money. I say strap those guys onto the broken tractors surrounded by chickens that are hosts to MRSA SARS and the rest of it and have them play chicken with the law to see which gets fixed first. If they die before the chickens, lawyers, or lawsuits do, then that's fine because one problem will be solved via their inability to curtail their own greed.
Then we can hope that legally the same thing will happen to the tractor companies. maybe we can ship them some infected chickens prepared as a meal.
really people besides the humor in the post, I really dont understand why consumers put up with so m uch that they do. they get the shaft and keep getting it and even willingly upgrade to worse problems because shiny and new. Then when it breaks they are out of luck. why? i mean this isn't even an obscure issue, its been in the news numerous times. those farmers have already found each other in europe at least.
If apple and microsoft want to stop them from being able to fix the stuff they own, then FUCK THOSE COMPANIES. Let them settle the legal matter in ireland and fuck the farmers there if someone has to be fucked.
then when that happens, maybe ireland will do something about how they are the bitch of companies the world over because of the tax policies that just make it worse for everyone else except for the shareholders.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dwilson on Saturday February 03 2018, @04:00PM (1 child)
Many of us DO buy, and only buy, used farm equipment. So much so, that the price of more sought-after tractors from the 1980's (meaning those that have the horsepower to pull the modern, wider implements) gets pretty crazy. Here in Canada, you can pick up one model of Steiger or Versatile 4WD tractor for a few thousand, but go up a model (and the corresponding HP increase) and the price jumps to upwards of fifty to a hundred thousand. And they're still hard to find, and sell quickly.
But it's not all doom and gloom for the equipment companies. There's a new breed of farmer now, generally younger, who inherited family farms and didn't pick up enough of the fix-it-yourself along the way. A thirty year old tractor piles up on you? You either fix it yourself or call the local ag mechanic and pay him to deal with it, if he's available. A modern, under-warranty tractor piles up? You call the dealer and they send someone. Immediately. There might still be fees, but not enough for them to care. They get prompt service, call it a cost of doing business, and onwards they go. It's all they know.
There's more to it than that, of course. The family farms with tens of thousands of acres to farm? They'll buy new stuff. And whole spare units, to. When you've got that much land under the plow, it's actually pretty hard to lose money, provided it's spread out enough that local weather effects can't hit everything at once. Too much/little moisture for the whole region is about all that can do you in, at that point. There's always money to spare for equipment upgrades at that point.
I assume the corporate farms also don't bat an eye at buying new equipment every few years for the warranty, because that's 'just business'. I can't speak to that personally though; For all the talk about the family farm dying and corporate outfits consuming all, I've yet to actually see a truly corporate farm. I'm sure they exist.. somewhere.
- D
(Score: 5, Interesting) by HiThere on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:38PM
The family farms that *I* know are on the edge or even losing money. I doubt that any "family farm" makes huge profits from anything legal. no matter how much land they have. Not unless you're talking about a place where the "family farm" is really owned by someone who's a manager rather than a farmer, and has a bunch of employees with less rights than share croppers had.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday February 03 2018, @09:16AM (20 children)
One wonders if there shouldn't be a market soon for items that are actually repairable by the common user, such as tractors or cars or whatnot without having to swap out entire blackboxes or having to take the machine to a special dealer just so they can hook it up to their magical diagnostics unit and then tell you that it will be about an arm and a leg to replace that one component that is unfortunately broken and now is preventing the entire machine from working or that the component in question is no longer part of their supply so your machine is now broken forever -- but they have a totally sweet deal for you on a brand new John Deere deluxe X5.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:11AM (10 children)
You'd have to rewrite the firmware from scratch like Compaq|Phoenix did with the IBM PC's BIOS. [google.com]
(You can't just rewrite -parts- of the code; you aren't allowed to reuse ANY of the original code.)
A great many have noted that the law is a hindrance. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:24AM (9 children)
That is an option. I was thinking more about suggesting that they try actually build engines again that are not dependent on computers at all. Yes in several ways they have made things better farming wise, you can hook up tons of senors to the tractor and it can pretty much drive itself in perfect lanes and plant the seeds and lay out nutrients / manure etc. It clearly worked before all the wonders that is sensors -- somewhat less efficient but it worked. That said efficiency is king in modern large scale farming. But considering what a giant pain in the arse all these computerization has become, there is a giant backside that they don't tell you about as you purchase your new tractor from John Deere (or whatever) and that is that you are basically their bitch now for as long as that machine keeps running. If you want a senor pack you add that on not build it in so that shit can't get worked around and one little sensor breaking fucks the entire machine over.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:41AM (1 child)
An alternative would be a tractor that has all those computers and sensors, bu can be used without it. That is, have a core engine that works without it, and a driving mechanism that can operate the core engine, but can be bypassed if necessary. If the core engine fails, the farmer can repair it. If the driving mechanism fails, the farmer can fall back to using the tractor the traditional way until the driving mechanism gets repaired.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:45AM
Yes. That would be the best solution probably.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:06AM (1 child)
Yes, but HOW MUCH less efficient? Given a thousand acres of crops, did the farmer burn two extra gallons of fuel, then harvest six bushel of grain less? Did he burn 200 gallons extra fuel, and harvest 600 bushel less? Someone needs to quantify this increase in efficiency. Typical smaller farms in the northeastern US probably don't see great increases. A 150 acre crop farm can't see an efficiency increase that will pay for a new John Deere tractor in ten seasons, so whatever efficiency Deere promises is meaningless.
I have always felt, and still strongly believe, that when I put cash in a salesman's hands, whatever I have bought belongs to me. Doesn't matter how many diodes, capacitors, and transistors are in it, or how much software it takes to make it run - I own the damned thing. I can do whatever the hell I want with it, from burning it down to the ground, to having it gold plated as a monument to human stupidity. It's mine, and the person who sold it to me can't tell me what to do, or what not to do with it.
Had people understood this twenty years ago, and refused to agree to EULA's like Microsoft, demanding their money back, we wouldn't be where we are today.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:25PM
You certainly did not tell him what he could do with the money! It was his to use as he sees fit.
Just how asinine would it be to even think you could place that kind of limit on the trade?
Legislation gone amuck...
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:00PM (4 children)
That was one of my prime reasons for wanting an old diesel van instead of the new stuff. Reliability. Maintainability. Total costs of Ownership.
While looking around for something to replace my aging small rice-burner, I spoke with many buyers of new stuff, only to be told tales of remorse and the irritations they are experiencing. I had lots of chats with my mechanic, who has worked for 30+ years on my old Toyota ( and who is telling me to get something else... he does not want to see my old car in his shop anymore... he can't get parts for it! ) and he mentioned the old-school diesel.
So I did a lot of research and liked what I saw... its called an IDI engine. Indirect Diesel Injection. Very simple and reliable mechanical diesel. Early Fords, Cummins, Mercedes, and GM had these designs. All had strong points and various design flaws that revealed themselves over time. I chose what I thought was the lesser of the evils... the cavitation problem my 7.3L IDI has if I don't keep the correct corrosion inhibitors in the coolant. Just means I have to be picky about getting the right coolant in it, and it costs about double what the WalMart cheapie coolant costs. Chevron Delo Industrial ELC. Its red, not green or yellow. And its rated for 750,000 miles / 10 years or so...
I have to buy special lubricant to put into the diesel fuel, as the old ones like mine have high pressure Stanadyne fuel injection pumps which meter the fuel to each cylinder.... and the new diesel fuels are not very lubricating. Its not like these are throwaway things... people are getting a million miles on these things if they just give it a modicum of care.
Mine had 250K miles on it as purchased, and is running very steady. My mechanic detects no problems at all with the engine, although the radiator was a different story. Well, its got a new radiator now. New electric fuel pump too. External to the tank. So it can be easily replaced if it ever decides to quit.
There are enough people out there with this old engine to keep aftermarket suppliers active. If worse comes to worse and I do "lose" an engine, I can re-sleeve it and keep going. Or send the core in for remanufacture.
I am fortunate to live in an old farming area that has several diesel shops nearby. My mechanic referred me to one of them who I consulted with before purchasing this thing off of Craigslist. I had him vet the van for anything really bad, then after I bought it, I have about 8K$ worth of fixing to do. Quite understandable for a 20 year old thingie that needed new cooling system, HVAC, rear end, suspension, tires, paint, upholstery, and numerous little squeaks and leaks addressed.
I am getting older... and I want something that will last me the rest of my life, and give me something useful to pass on to my nephews.
If they don't want it, there are a lot of farmers on the diesel forums I am on that would love to have it. They know what this thing is.
These aren't made anymore.
I am not trying to impress anybody at the light. I just want to get from here to there. Safely and inexpensively.
A well-made old thing beats new POS in my book any day.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:17PM (3 children)
See, I would have gone with either a VW Bug or a new Toyota. The former is hands down the easiest car on the planet to work on (one stout guy or two average guys can pull the engine by hand), while the latter won't need any significant work for several hundred thousand miles if you take care of it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:35PM (2 children)
Both are nice cars!
I really wanted something bigger.
And compatible with California law.
I have a Toyota... been with me for 40 years. If it wasn't for California smog laws as far as modifying the engine, I would pull the 2TC head ( carburetor ) and go to fuel injection ( Megasquirt ). These new ethanol fuel mixtures are playing hell with some diaphragms in the old carburetor. I run rich as hell when those diaphragms harden and split, and you can smell me coming a mile away.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @03:50PM (1 child)
If your Toyota is 40 years old, you can put any mod you want under the hood.
"Currently, smog inspections are required for all vehicles except diesel powered vehicles 1997 year model and older or with a Gross Vehicle Weight (GVWR) of more than 14,000 lbs, electric, natural gas powered vehicles over 14,000 lbs, motorcycles, trailers, or gasoline powered vehicles 1975 and older."
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:50PM
Yeh, unfortunately for me, the toyota is a 1977, and 1974 is the cutoff date... I am three years too young.
However, the diesel I just bought is 1994, which does fit in under California law.
I would swap my 1977 for a 1974 in a heartbeat so I could keep it under the law. I don't know if I am going to stay in California, now that I am retired, and the van is quite capable of towing it to where it may be legal to drive. It is fundamentally a sturdy little car, but I would like to swap the engine out to an open-source fuel injector... like a megasquirt.
I still have a few odds and ends for a business I want to launch, and when I get the designs all debugged and running, I will have to decide how I am going to build these things.... and the middle of nowhere is looking better and better, as I know exactly what's gotta be done and I really do not need a "highly trained workforce".... I'll train 'em myself.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:22AM
...and domestic producers would likely try to get a massive tariff put on any foreign manufacturer who would compete on that level--if one was even interested.
Seems like a good time to be in the used|dumb tractor overhaul|resale business.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @11:18AM (5 children)
This is just another example of how much we need free hardware. First step is to stop giving money to the proprietary peddlers.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @12:01PM (4 children)
See, this is what we call a Money-Making Idea. Make quality equipment that farmers can work on and I guarantee they'll buy it over something with a million bells and whistles that they can't. Now you've got a choice though. You can either go out and try your ass off to get this goal funded and realized or you can give up your right to complain that you're not filthy rich.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:35PM (1 child)
Bootstraps, booootstraaaps!
Please look up the origin of that phrase, then try and understand that with megacorps around the available markets become smaller and smaller. The efficiency of scale has taken over markets and made it near impossible to compete.
This idea? It is decent, but manufacturing tractors will require MASSIVE capital. The idea is nice, but not something just anyone could even come close to doing. Keep pushing that meme tho, you are the only one standing in front of your dreams!!!!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:11PM
Every idea you talk yourself out of before you even attempt it, that's you failing America not the other way around.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @06:35PM (1 child)
I look in the Northern Tool catalog and see smaller non-computerized tractors (and a bulldozer) at good prices, mostly from China. I know, this is no good for corporate mega-farms, they & Deere are IMHO made for each other. Or search 'tractor sale', lots of options. This looks to me to be a problem for people who are fanbois of BigTractorInc.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday February 03 2018, @10:12PM
I think it's not so much actual tractors as specialized equipment that looks like a tractor to a city boy. I've yet to see an actual tractor with even a single microchip on it first hand.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 03 2018, @05:14PM
There won't be such a market, because the existing companies will make sure that there are regulations that require the lock-in. Whether it be pollution controls ("can't let the user touch those or they might turn them off"), safety regulations ("can't let the user touch those or they might turn them off"), or whatever else ("can't let the user touch those or they might turn them off"). The big players already have their politicians leased, so good luck on an upstart newcomer outbidding them.
(Score: 1) by Goghit on Sunday February 04 2018, @02:47AM
That is definitely a thing with the older John Deere garden tractors built through the 1970s - 1990s. Superficially they look like the junk lawnmowers sold in front of the big box stores, but they were built to last (and be repaired) so the market for second hand machines, parts, and impliments can be hot at times.
If I was in the market for a new machine it would not be another one from Mother Deere, unless after researching the alternatives they all proved to be into this same line of bullshit.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by fritsd on Saturday February 03 2018, @08:14PM
The "Open Source Ecology" project has developed an open source tractor: LifeTrac [opensourceecology.org]
Apparently they built prototype #4; I have no idea how far they have gotten in the last couple of years. It was an interesting project, though.
From the wiki it looks like they are still around, and working on a knitting machine now.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Sunday February 04 2018, @01:31PM
I was looking into this... turns out the Guy Mills mentioned in the video in the story has been making waves. He owns a farm in Ansley, Nebraska and has been having fits with asinine equipment failures...
Story on Guy Mills [kearneyhub.com]
Asinine? Get a load of this!
Here's a few more snippets...
This to me is a glaring example of how out of touch our Congress has become, screwing a lot of us so as to implement the wish list of a few, and why we as a public should be seriously considering limiting their authority to represent us... as they are NOT representing US!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]