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ODROID-H2+ SBC discontinued due to supply shortage

I've mentioned the ODROID-H2+ a few times. It's now dead due to a lack of components.

TSMC: Chip Shortage Will Continue in 2022, 2nm Mass Production In 2025

If you "need" something, you might have to snap it up, price be damned.

Assailant with bow and arrows kills 5 people in Norway
By JAN M. OLSEN yesterday

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A man armed with a bow fired arrows at shoppers in a small Norwegian town Wednesday, killing five people before he was arrested, authorities said.

The police chief in the community of Kongsberg, near the capital of Oslo, said there was “a confrontation” between officers and the assailant, but he did not elaborate. Two other people were wounded and hospitalized in intensive care, including an officer who was off duty and inside the shop where the attack took place, police said.

“The man who carried out the act has been arrested by the police, and there is no active search for more people. Based on the information we have, there is one person behind this,” Police Chief Oeyving Aas said.

Acting Prime Minister Erna Solberg described the attack as “gruesome” and said it was too early to speculate on a motive. The prime minister-designate, Jonas Gahr Stoere, who is expected to take office Thursday, called the assault “a cruel and brutal act” in comments to Norwegian news agency NTB.

Police were alerted to the attack around 6:15 p.m. and arrested the suspect about 30 minutes later. The community of some 26,000 inhabitants is about 66 kilometers (41 miles) southwest of Oslo.

According to police, the suspect walked around downtown Kongsberg shooting arrows. Aas declined to comment on reports that the man used a crossbow, saying only there were “several crime scenes.”

The man has not been questioned yet, Aas said.

Norway’s domestic security agency PST was informed of the assault.

Town officials invited people who were affected by the attack and their relatives to gather for support at a local hotel.

Mass killings are rare in Norway. The country’s worst peacetime slaughter was on July 22, 2011, when right-wing extremist Anders Breivik set off a bomb in the capital of Oslo, killing eight people. Then he headed to tiny Utoya Island, where he stalked the mostly teen members of the Labor Party’s youth wing and killed another 69 victims.

Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum under Norwegian law, but his term can be extended as long as he’s considered a danger to society.

When assault bows are outlawed, only outlaws will have assault bows!

https://apnews.com/article/oslo-norway-bow-arrow-attack-24095a6b0e2bd26d08a145078d242529

Another source with vidya https://www.dw.com/en/norway-bow-and-arrow-attack-leaves-5-dead/a-59497283

One more source, with an extra detail or two - the bowman lived in the town, and he is 30-something. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/13/several-killed-bow-and-arrow-attack-norway

A hint that police are looking for "other weapons" here. https://mycampusgist.com/2021/10/13/norway-bow-and-arrow-attacks-live-five-dead-and-several-injured-as-man-goes-on-gruesome-rampage-in-kongsberg/

Playing around with VMWare and virtual machines, I literally stumbled over VMWare Operating System Optimization Tool. It appears that this tool is free - that is, I wasn't required to create an account, or to sign in, or anything at all.

https://flings.vmware.com/vmware-os-optimization-tool

The VMware OS Optimization Tool helps in preparing and optimizing Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019, 2016 systems for use with VMware Horizon. For Windows 7, 8.1, and Server 2012, 2012 R2, an older version (b1130) of the OS Optimization Tool is available for download.

At a high level, the process of creating a golden image VM consists of the following steps. A step by step walkthrough of the complete process, is given in the Creating an Optimized Windows Image for a VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop guide.

The OS Optimization Tool helps with key steps in this creation process and also with applying Windows updates to optimized images:

Optimize – Analyze, select optimizations, and apply them to the Windows image.
Analyze - compares the settings of the template against the machine settings.
Common Options - quickly and easily choose and set preferences to control common functionality.
Optimize - applies the chosen selections.
Generalize - helps in running the system preparation tool (Sysprep) by generating a customizable and editable unattend answer file.
Finalize - automate and help with some of the common clean up tasks that are typically run just before using the prepared image.
Update - re-enable Windows Update functionality on an image that has previously been optimized and had this disabled.
Additionally, the OS Optimization Tool comes with a Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) plugin to allow the whole golden image build process to be automated. This includes the installation of Windows, VMware Tools, Horizon agents, and applications. See Microsoft Deployment Toolkit Plugin for more detail.

For more information on how to use the OS Optimization Tool see the VMware Operating System Optimization Tool Guide.

Doesn't matter if you set a Windows machine up for gaming, for office, for hacking, or whatever, you probably want to optimize your machine. Basically, this is the ultimate optimizer. For instance - firewalls. You're creating a machine inside of a machine, probably using NAT, behind a router, behind a modem, and you may or you may not ever connect to the internet with the machine. Why enable a firewall at all? This optimization tool disables firewall, and it does so thoroughly. It steps through group policy and the registry, ticking off one after another policy and/or HKEY.

I looked at one set of keys when I got to the end of the optimizations list, regarding "repair corrupt windows installers". There were 7 separate HKEYs to turn off for that one "feature". Seven keys governing one little item. And, the optimizer set all 7 of them when I told it to finalize.

The optimizer can be run pretty much automatically, if you've a mind to do so. Just select the 'common' optimizations, tell it to analyze, then finalize the settings. By default, you'll get all of Microsoft's silly apps, you'll nail telemetry, advertising, useless background services, Windows update, Windows animations, Aero, and so much more.

To grasp the capabilities, you need to download it into a Windows VM, fire it up, and walk through the menus. Just look at all the stuff it offers - no changes to your system will be made unless and until you order it to make changes. And, it only makes those changes you specify.

It takes awhile just to walk through the menus - there are that many of them. Given that you know what you want from your machine, and given that you've mucked around with optimizing machines in the past, you'll see that this tool goes further in depth than you've ever gone before!

The site's main page, https://flings.vmware.com/

Flings are apps and tools built by our engineers and community that are intended to be explored.

EDIT: After a test drive, I believe the VM is faster than it would be installed on bare metal. A couple of applications were slow to launch, but once launched, it's just zoom-zoom!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ikW7pVa_I
And, I think I'll watch all those commercials - again, lol!

Enjoy!

EDIT: When run against Windows 11, the "compact select Windows executables" option hangs. Workaround is to go through all the preparation, then on the finalize page, scroll down and unclick the compression option. The optimizations then proceed as normal.

China-Taiwan tensions: Xi Jinping says 'reunification' must be fulfilled

China's President Xi Jinping has said that "reunification" with Taiwan "must be fulfilled", as heightened tensions over the island continue.

Mr Xi said unification should be achieved peacefully, but warned that the Chinese people had a "glorious tradition" of opposing separatism.

In response, Taiwan said its future lay in the hands of its people. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, while China views it as a breakaway province.

Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification. Mr Xi's intervention comes after China sent a record number of military jets into Taiwan's air defence zone in recent days. Some analysts say the flights could be seen as a warning to Taiwan's president ahead of the island's national day on Sunday.

Taiwan won't be forced to bow to China, president says

Taiwan will keep bolstering its defences to ensure nobody can force the island to accept the path China has laid down that offers neither freedom nor democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday, in a strong riposte to Beijing.

[...] Tsai repeated an offer to talk to China on the basis of parity. Beijing has refused to deal with her, calling her a separatist who refuses to acknowledge Taiwan is part of "one China". Taiwan's goodwill will not change, and it will do all it can to prevent the status quo with China from being unilaterally altered, she said.

Tsai warned that Taiwan's situation is "more complex and fluid than at any other point in the past 72 years", and that China's routine military presence in Taiwan's air defence zone has seriously affected national security and aviation safety.

See also:

• Are Chinese incursions into Taiwan's air defense zone a prelude to war?
• Is Defending Taiwan Worth the Risk?
• 'Secret' U.S. Troops in Taiwan 'Will Only Hasten' War, Warns China's State Media
• China lambasts Tony Abbott for ‘despicable and insane performance in Taiwan’

US troops secretly training Taiwanese since last year: Report

US special operations forces and marines have been secretly training Taiwanese troops for more than a year, risking the ire of China, the Wall Street Journal has reported.

The Journal said on Thursday that about two dozen US service members have trained Taiwanese ground and maritime forces “for at least a year,” amid China’s rising verbal threats against the island ally of the United States.

Previously: Repeated Chinese Air Incursions Over Taiwan

FBI raids New York City police union headquarters

The FBI on Tuesday raided the Manhattan offices of a New York City police union, and several hours later two agents left the building with cardboard evidence boxes in their arms.

Armed with a warrant, the agents conducted a search in the headquarters of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, which represents 13,000 active and retired New York City Police Department sergeants and is the fifth-biggest police union in the country.

Simultaneously, FBI agents searched a home in the Long Island suburb of Port Washington, New York, an FBI spokesperson said. It belongs to the SBA's outspoken leader, Ed Mullins, sources told NBC News.

I've made mention that I have virtual machines on my computer. VirtualBox, and VMWare Workstation are work environments for some of you, but for me, it's kind of a hobby. Meaning, I'm not an expert, but I enjoy dabbling with these machines.

I've attempted to get a macOS running in the past, and always met with failure. Partly because I don't understand the virtualization well enough, partly because I have no Apple hardware, partly because of licensing issues, and most especially because I run AMD CPUs. Apple has never used an AMD CPU it seems, so macOS is not at all happy when it senses an AMD in the hardware.

This latest attempt has taught me quite a lot about the virtualization magic. Like, never put the eye of newt into the cauldron before the 1/2 pint of comodo dragon slobber, or it will blow up in your face.

So, I got Big Sur 11.0.1 booted up, was greeted with a graphical installer, and from there followed the directions in several videos on Youtube. (What's with all those people with Indian accents doing the same tutorials again and again?) After several hours, I actually booted into the desktop. Geez, LOUISE!! It lags and drags, and is pretty much unusable. Spend more time trawling the inert-net, failing to find useful information. It's very much inert when searching for information on macOS and virtual machines. If you happen to own an Apple machine, then VMWare Fusion actually supports you, with Apple's blessing. But, home brew hardware has zero support, anywhere.

Eventually, I found a .dmg of Big Sur 11.5.1, and got that loaded into my existing VM. Hours pass, and I'm finally booted into 11.5.1. It's a different world. It seems that Software Updater was the primary culprit causing all the CPU race conditions inside the VM. With 11.5.1 the Sofware Updater is better behaved, limiting itself to about 25% of CPU usage. That is, I can do stuff. (Failed to mention that the VM is provisioned with 1 processor with 8 cores, and 16 gig of memory.)

Oh yeah. Did I say "walled garden"? You don't simply browse around the web, downloading random installers to build your own flavor of macOS. Visit the Apple store, select some random thingy to install, and you are halted in your tracks. You've got to have an Apple ID to download even free stuff. OK, well, I think I have an old ID laying around. Think hard, come up with an email address that was probably associated with it, and try to log in. Huh - my account is frozen. No explanation why, it's just frozen. Try the recovery methods to get into it - whoops, nothing works. Three attempts, and I give up. Just create a new Apple ID.

So, I'm on the Apple page, signing up, and it wants a cell phone number. I don't HAVE a cell phone. Apple don't care, my new ID can't be created until I go buy a phone - or something. Oh yeah - wait a second. I have a Google Voice account! Use that phone number? HEY - IT WORKED!! Cool.

So, I'm in the Apple store, using Safari. For those who don't know, Safari has a lot of suck built into it. Not sure if there's as much suck as Internet Explorer had. Seems to be nearly the same suck that Microsoft Edge has. So, my first "purchase" will be an internet browser. Or not. Can't find Firefox, in any flavor. Chrome is there, in an official Google version - nothing that has been de-googled. I don't even recognize most other options. Oh, Maxon is there, but I can't remember it's strengths and weaknesses on Windows, don't really want to mess with it.

Back to the inert-net. Do a search for 'macOS firefox .dmg'. What do ya know, I found it! While it's downloading, I do similar searches for other browsers. I haven't become a fan of Brave browser, so I skip over that one, and grab Vivaldi.

At this point, I discover a major problem with virtual machines and disk storage and mac. I gave 250 GB of disk storage to macOS. Vivaldi is almost a gig, unpacked. Firefox is a little over 1/2 gig. At this rate, I can run out of disk space pretty quickly!! And, at this point, I notice that Software Updater is nearly finished downloading Big Sur 11.6, and put everything away, prepared to reboot several times, etc. Thankfully, I'm not seeing CPU race conditions anymore - the desktop is stable, if not snappy. It's good that I can fall back on my "real" desktop to do things.

Updater failed, for some reason. I guess I'll have to figure out how to download the .dmg and update manually. But, first . . .

Neither Firefox nor Vivaldi look especially familiar. Both conform to the Apple windowing system, maximize and minimize are done like all other macOS windows. I guess I could get used to it, but I'm not going to be here all that very long. Firefox unusable, using 305% of a CPU . . . wait it out for a bit. After boiling over, Firefox settles down to using 98% of one CPU. WTF is it doing behind the scenes? It's already told me that it's up to date, and I only have two tabs plus settings open. Probably going to dump it for being a resource hog!!

Vivaldi is much better behaved. 7 threads appear in activity monitor, totalling about 115% of a CPU. Excessive, maybe, but far less than Firefox grabbed for itself!

Off to the app store, again. Damn, I just gotta have 'Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion'!! /sarcasm The app store is filled with stupid drivel. I guess other app stores are as well.

Oh, a file manager. I stumbled across Fork Lift in the app store. Dual panel Norton Commander-like that many Windows users and virtually all *nix users will readily recognize. The free version lacks features available in the paid version, but it makes a pretty decent file manager/browser. The file system on macOS matches the file system on any other Unix-like system. You won't gain that clarity using Apple's finder app. Finder, or Spotlight, or whatever name it goes by is an abortion as file managers go.

Oh, cool find here, https://imageoptim.com/mac I pilfered an image for my Apple account. Of course, the image is tagged with "this image was stolen from www.randomsite.nut". Imageoptim is totally free, licensed under GPL2. Now someone will have to do a reverse image lookup to learn that I stole my account image. Also available for Linux and Windows. Also installed it on my Linux machine from stable repo, I may want it in the future.

I suppose I should put a disclaimer here: Doesn't matter what OS you run, downloading and installing random applications from the internet is not a really good idea. Do your due diligence before you download something. It's best to download from known, trusted sources, don't trust the myriad of Cnet-like sites that claim to have scanned for viruses.

That said, the Walled Garden is somewhat less walled than I thought it was. With little effort, I've installed multiple applications from non-official sources. I suppose that I could get used to a real macPRO. If someone offered to buy me one, or I won some stupid online lottery, I'd take it. But, almost any decent laptop or desktop with Linux installed will perform better, IMO. In fact, Youtubers have built their won Hackintosh computers that beat Apple's offerings on any benchmark one cares to use.

As mentioned, I've spent hours on this VM already. I'm not terribly impressed with macOS, nor does my VM perform very well. I'll keep it around, and when I find time, I may dive into the workings of VMWare again. With improved performance, it could be almost enjoyable. But, no way will I join the hordes of Apple Fanbois who willingly fork over real money for mediocre hardware, and mountains of near-useless apps.

Taiwan 'on alert' after record 56 Chinese warplanes enter its air defense zone

Taiwan needs to be on alert for China's "over the top" military activities which are violating regional peace, Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Tuesday, after 56 Chinese aircraft flew into Taiwan's air defense zone on Monday, the highest ever.

Taiwan has reported 148 Chinese air force planes in the southern and southwestern part of its air defense zone over a four-day period beginning on Friday, the same day China marked a key patriotic holiday, National Day.

China claims the self-governing island as its own territory, which should be taken by force if necessary. Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedoms and democracy.

Taiwan calls China's repeated nearby military activities "gray zone" warfare, designed to both wear out Taiwan's forces by making them repeatedly scramble, and also to test Taiwan's responses.

外交部 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan) ?? @MOFA_Taiwan

Oct. 1 wasn't a good day. The #PLAAF flew 38 warplanes into #Taiwan's ADIZ, making it the largest number of daily sorties on record. Threatening? Of course. It's strange the #PRC doesn't bother faking excuses anymore.

Time to warn Taiwan secessionists and their fomenters: war is real: Global Times editorial

The curtain of preparations for a comprehensive military struggle by the Chinese mainland has obviously been drawn open. The PLA's military drills in the Taiwan Straits are no longer limited to declaring China’s sovereignty over the island, but to implement various forms of assembly, mobilization, assault and logistical preparations that are required to take back the island of Taiwan. Without giving up efforts for a peaceful reunification, it has increasingly become the new mainstream public opinion on the Chinese mainland that the mainland should make earnest preparations based on the possibility of combat.

Now, we will like to warn the DPP authorities and their supporters: do not continue to play with fire. They should see that the Chinese mainland’s preparation to use force against Taiwan secessionist forces is much stronger than ever before.

PLA jets will eventually patrol over Taiwan: Global Times editorial

‘Le Grêlé’: Who is the French serial killer suspect found dead after 35 years?

Paris serial killer of 80s and 90s was ex-police officer, DNA shows

Chipman says his ATF nomination was a ‘gangster move’ by the White House
During his confirmation process for ATF director, David Chipman said very little publicly – even turning his Twitter account to private. Now that the White House has withdrawn his nomination, Chipman can’t seem to shut up, and he’s got nothing good to say about Biden’s team, who he claims left him hanging out to dry.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Chipman said he felt abandoned by the administration and on “an island” when pro-gun groups began attacking him. No one from the White House, he claimed, even bothered to call.

“Either this was impossible to win, or the strategy failed,” Chipman told the newspaper, adding, “This was a failure.” Later in the interview, Chipman described nominating someone like him – a lifelong anti-gun activist – as a “gangster move” by White House staff.

Once his nomination fizzled, Chipman found it “unusual” that no one from Biden’s team offered any options. “In the back of my mind, I always thought that there would be a Plan B, but so far there hasn’t been,” Chipman told The New York Times.

In the interview, Chipman confirmed he has returned to work at Giffords – which we revealed in a story published Monday. The story also showed how Giffords are using Chipman as a fundraising tool.

Delusional

Many pro-gun groups contributed to Chipman’s demise, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation but, ultimately, his nomination was killed by hundreds of thousands of American gun owners who contacted their senators and told them to reject Biden’s pick.

Still, Chipman remains fixated on the NSSF and its senior vice-president for government and public affairs, assistant secretary and general counsel, Larry Keane.

“Larry Keane put up a photo of me that he knew was false, trying to get me killed,” told the newspaper.

The photo purportedly showed Chipman posing on the burnt remains of the Branch Davidian compound after the bloody siege in Waco, Texas. Once NSSF and dozens of other websites discovered the agent in the photo was not Chipman, the photo was taken down. Keane told the Times Chipman’s death threat allegations were “categorically false.”

Personally, I believe the allegation that Keane, the NSSF or anyone else tried to get him killed is evidence that Chipman is in dire need of serious psychological help.

Gangster?

To be clear, nominating a paid anti-gun activist to oversee the lone federal agency tasked with regulating the firearms industry was not gangster. It was stupid and meant to send a message.

Chipman’s nomination – likely the brainchild of Susan Rice – was intended as an insult to American gun owners, and that is exactly how it was received. Of course we responded forcefully – what did the White House expect? This is our lifestyle they have chosen to attack.

The Chipman saga reminds me of when I was a young boy on my uncle’s farm and accidentally touched an electric fence. I got zapped and learned never to do that again. By nominating Chipman, the Biden-Harris administration touched the fence and got zapped hard. Unfortunately, I doubt they learned a lesson. If they continue to target gun owners, they’re destined to get zapped again and again.

https://www.saf.org/chipman-says-his-atf-nomination-was-a-gangster-move-by-the-white-house/

Well, come on Dave! We've known for years that the Godfather takes 10% of everything his gangsta son takes in. Or is it 30%? Maybe it's half. China is busy making the Biden Family rich enough to rival the Genovese or the Gambino families.

But, Chippy don't get off the hook that easily. He's spent most of his adult life whoring himself to the gun lobby. He's just lucky that Gabby Gifford is almost brain dead, and is willing to hire his ass.

Seriously, I thought we had a reformed, more just, and less alt-right and less pro-sexual assault of children SoylentNews. But perhaps I am mistaken.
*****
I could just complain to the admins, either on IRC or by private messages, but there seems to be little reason that either would have any effect. The fact is, aristarchus has been mod-banned, again, only six days after having his unexplained mod-ban expire, and again it is totally unexplained. Admins? Care to share what pernicious deed the aristarchus has done to justify a mod-ban for the next decade?

*****
I, for one, welcome our new Soylent overlords!

O Lord, please don't burn us.
Don't grill or toast your flock.
Don't put us on the barbecue
Or simmer us in stock.
Don't braise or bake or boil us,
Or stir-fry us in a wok.

Of course, it would be nice to know what precise rule one has run afoul of, since previous violations were inexplicable, and this one just as much so. Have I moderated badly? Have I excessibly downmodded the Runaway, again? (Actually, he deserves it, and I am far too lenient on him.) Or is it the Spam mods of Whit superanalists, which I do notice are not being rescinded, so that should not be the reason. So the remaining justification, suspected puppetry of sock! You know they are out there, the deep ones, UID of less than 7000, just waiting to be actualized when janrinock wakes up one fine French morning.

*****
Of course I deny any such violations. I am innocent, I am aristarchus. But for the sake of SN in general, I will admit that, yes, I down mod idiots. Often that includes Runaway1956. And others. But this is not mod abuse, it is just moderation, as every other Soylentil is entitled to, and for any admin to call in to question the moderation of any regular Soylentil smacks of tyranny and authoritarianism. I have been mod-banned not for any violation of the rules, but for the sheer left-wing bias of my moderation, which is what we would expect to find on Gab, or any other fascist site hosted by Epik (search the recent subs for details).

*****

Remember, you may exile aristarchus, but as Heraclitus himself said:

ἄξιον Ἐφεσίοις ἡβηδὸν ἀπάγξασθαι πᾶσι καὶ τοῖς ἀνήβοις τὴν πόλιν καταλιπεῖν, οἵτινες Ἑρμόδωρον ἄνδρα ἑωυτῶν ὀνήιστον ἐξέβαλον φάντες· ἡμέων μηδὲ εἷς ὀνήιστος ἔστω, εἰ δὲ μή, ἄλλη τε καὶ μετ' ἄλλων

Sorry, no time to translate, and throwing pearls before swine is not a practice of mine.

*****
I would suggest the admins regroup, and attempt stifle the more paranoid amongst you, and restore aristarchus to full membership in SoylentNews. I have been here since near the beginning, and I believe in the mission. But, I will not let the right wing take over SN as yet another bubble of insanity. I will mod down right wing nut jobs, and report them to law enforcement, and put microphones under their beds. Just who I am, a philosopher, on the side of truth, as I have always been. Reverse the mod-ban, admins, or provide the explication.

[Oh, FatPhil, before you get started, just shut the fuck up. You do not know what you are talking about. Have some more beer. I prefer Belgian Wit, at the moment. ]