I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been updating. Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5. ...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is
undeniably comical, but I can't figure rhyme or reason for it. When it
loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available, and then
gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I
wouldn't know how; even after I'd stopped laughing.

Ed

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Hello.

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> schrieb

Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5. >...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.
This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Why not directly download the most recent version and install it?

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/2024 6:35 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been updating. Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5. ...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is
undeniably comical, but I can't figure rhyme or reason for it. When it
loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available, and then
gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I
wouldn't know how; even after I'd stopped laughing.

I use CrystalDiskInfo, which seems to work well. I once had trouble
with Samsung. I don't remember what. Either way I'd never allow
anything to auto-update. There's too much risk of bugs. And these
days there are risks of getting things you don't want. (I'm looking
at you, Copilot.)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/24 07:18 AM, Newyana2 wrote:

On 5/15/2024 6:35 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been updating. >> Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5.
...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is undeniably comical, but I can't
figure rhyme or reason for it. When it loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available,
and then gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I wouldn't know how; even after
I'd stopped laughing.

  I use CrystalDiskInfo, which seems to work well. I once had trouble
with Samsung. I don't remember what. Either way I'd never allow
anything to auto-update. There's too much risk of bugs. And these
days there are risks of getting things you don't want. (I'm looking
at you, Copilot.)

It doesn't surprise me. Over the years I've seen others do this. They need to step up in stages,
as each stage makes necessary (or they think so) changes to the data structure of their settings.
But that doesn't fly well with Newyana2's comment about just downloading the most current.

I use https://patchmypc.com/home-updater. It follows a lot of software and when run gives you a
list of apps that need updating. It might take a day or so for some apps to hit their list, but
quick enough. I use it to get the list but don't click the update apps button, but do the work
myself for the most part. Paranoid maybe? However, some small programs I do auto update. Not
sure what my criteria is but I do.
--
Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon 6.0.4 Kernel 5.15.0-107-generic
Al

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been updating. Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5. ...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is
undeniably comical, but I can't figure rhyme or reason for it. When it
loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available, and then
gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I
wouldn't know how; even after I'd stopped laughing.

Ed

When I go to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/magician/

It announces 8.1 is the current version. However, the web page is
designed for children, like I'm visiting some site about My Little Pony.
They need to keep it professional, not inanely amateurish. The
"Download Files" hyperlink goes to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/support/tools/

I don't recall ever letting Magician automatically update. When it
reports an update, I go to the update page to download the latest
version. I keep each version download to allow an escape route should
the latest version have critical or usability bugs. Well, actually
another route would be to restore from image backups, but since I use
Magician as a manual tool to alter the amount of unpartitioned space on
a drive, it could be a while before I hit a bug, and restoring from an
image backup would result in losing a lot of other valuable stuff
between when I installed the new version to when a bug was found. So,
quite often I do an uninstall, do the remnant file and registry cleanup,
and install an old version to fallback to a non-buggy version.

Since the only "magic" this tool provides is that of a partition manager
the assists in changing the amount of unpartitioned space in a drive,
and if a version is functional, there's little need to update a working
version of it. Every SSD already has a preset amount of unallocatable
space used for overprovisioning. Normally that is around 7-10% of the
drive's space, and space you can never access regardless of which
partition manager you use. It is hidden and reserved space used for overprovisioning the SSD which help to promote its longevity. Server
SSDs usually have more overprovisioning space, like 20%, and is what I
set mine on my home desktop. By increasing the unpartitioned space on a
drive, overprovisioning can use that added but unallocated space.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/overprovisioning-SSD-overprovisioning
https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/pc-performance/overprovisioning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15wN8JC2L4 (ad starts at 3:50)

If you knew what you were doing, any partition manager will let you
change the amount of unallocated space of your SSD. I don't need other features of Magician, like drive health. I already use HD Sentinel for
that. Their performance benchmarks is highly skewed. I've benchmarked
their Rapid driver: it made no difference, so I didn't see the need for stacking a driver in the I/O chain that was ineffective. I don't use whole-disk encryption, and Magician just employs Bitlocker. Although I
have the chip (actually BIOS firmware) on the mobo to support Bitlocker,
I see no reason to risk access to my drive. I don't do app design and
have code stored on my computer. Any sensitive files are secured in an encrypted container (mounted as a drive) using Truecrypt and a very long non-word password. Bitlocker is overkill.

Magician is primarily a partition manager that makes it easy for users
to change the amount of unpartitioned space on their drives. And only
if you want more than the factory default hidden reserve space already
on the SSD. To make Magician more attractive, they added glitz to it
that, to me, is superfluous. It's mostly for users that don't
understand there is reserve hidden space in the SSD for
overprovisioning, and overprovisioning can be enlarged to increased
longevity of an SSD by simply increasing the amount of unallocated space
on a drive.

The inherent overprovisioning on my 1 TB NVM2 m.2 SSD is 7% which I
raised to 27% by upping the unallocated space to 190 GB of the 954 GB
usable space on the SSD. I'd rather have a longer lived SSD than more
space. I get drives who sizes far outstrip their expected consumption
over an 8-year lifecycle for my builds. After about 4 years, my 1 TB
SSD with Windows, apps, and some data (most is stored on other drives)
consumes only 16% of the C: partition. Lots of space left mostly
because I don't dump the majority of my data files in the C: partition,
or in any partition on my NVMe SSD.

You don't need Magician to change the user-configured overprovisioning
space on your SSD, but it is a simple partition manager to achieve that
goal. You don't need the other glitz that got added to Magician. Alas,
most consumers want all the space they can get even if they never use
it, so when they see unallocated space, they'll add it to a partition to
make it larger, but at the cost of removing the more valuable
overprovisioning space that keeps their SSDs faster over time, and gives
them more time before catastrophic failure (SSDs are self-destructive).

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Wed, 15 May 2024 06:49:27 -0500, Big Al <alan@invalid.com> wrote:

It doesn't surprise me. Over the years I've seen others do this. They need to step up in stages,
as each stage makes necessary (or they think so) changes to the data structure of their settings.
But that doesn't fly well with Newyana2's comment about just downloading the most current.

I use https://patchmypc.com/home-updater. It follows a lot of software and when run gives you a
list of apps that need updating. It might take a day or so for some apps to hit their list, but
quick enough. I use it to get the list but don't click the update apps button, but do the work
myself for the most part. Paranoid maybe? However, some small programs I do auto update. Not
sure what my criteria is but I do.

I like to use SecTeer VulnDetect, the successor to Secunia PSI, to find out if anything needs updating.
It also follows a lot of software and can detect portable programs very well. It is free for personal use. It does require registration with an email address.

https://vulndetect.org/

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

VanguardLH wrote:

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been updating. >> Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5.
...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is
undeniably comical, but I can't figure rhyme or reason for it. When it
loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available, and then
gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I
wouldn't know how; even after I'd stopped laughing.

Ed

When I go to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/magician/

It announces 8.1 is the current version. However, the web page is
designed for children, like I'm visiting some site about My Little Pony.
They need to keep it professional, not inanely amateurish. The
"Download Files" hyperlink goes to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/support/tools/

I don't recall ever letting Magician automatically update. When it
reports an update, I go to the update page to download the latest
version. I keep each version download to allow an escape route should
the latest version have critical or usability bugs. Well, actually
another route would be to restore from image backups, but since I use Magician as a manual tool to alter the amount of unpartitioned space on
a drive, it could be a while before I hit a bug, and restoring from an
image backup would result in losing a lot of other valuable stuff
between when I installed the new version to when a bug was found. So,
quite often I do an uninstall, do the remnant file and registry cleanup,
and install an old version to fallback to a non-buggy version.

Since the only "magic" this tool provides is that of a partition manager
the assists in changing the amount of unpartitioned space in a drive,
and if a version is functional, there's little need to update a working version of it. Every SSD already has a preset amount of unallocatable
space used for overprovisioning. Normally that is around 7-10% of the drive's space, and space you can never access regardless of which
partition manager you use. It is hidden and reserved space used for overprovisioning the SSD which help to promote its longevity. Server
SSDs usually have more overprovisioning space, like 20%, and is what I
set mine on my home desktop. By increasing the unpartitioned space on a drive, overprovisioning can use that added but unallocated space.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/overprovisioning-SSD-overprovisioning
https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/pc-performance/overprovisioning https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15wN8JC2L4 (ad starts at 3:50)

If you knew what you were doing, any partition manager will let you
change the amount of unallocated space of your SSD. I don't need other features of Magician, like drive health. I already use HD Sentinel for
that. Their performance benchmarks is highly skewed. I've benchmarked
their Rapid driver: it made no difference, so I didn't see the need for stacking a driver in the I/O chain that was ineffective. I don't use whole-disk encryption, and Magician just employs Bitlocker. Although I
have the chip (actually BIOS firmware) on the mobo to support Bitlocker,
I see no reason to risk access to my drive. I don't do app design and
have code stored on my computer. Any sensitive files are secured in an encrypted container (mounted as a drive) using Truecrypt and a very long non-word password. Bitlocker is overkill.

Magician is primarily a partition manager that makes it easy for users
to change the amount of unpartitioned space on their drives. And only
if you want more than the factory default hidden reserve space already
on the SSD. To make Magician more attractive, they added glitz to it
that, to me, is superfluous. It's mostly for users that don't
understand there is reserve hidden space in the SSD for
overprovisioning, and overprovisioning can be enlarged to increased
longevity of an SSD by simply increasing the amount of unallocated space
on a drive.

The inherent overprovisioning on my 1 TB NVM2 m.2 SSD is 7% which I
raised to 27% by upping the unallocated space to 190 GB of the 954 GB
usable space on the SSD. I'd rather have a longer lived SSD than more
space. I get drives who sizes far outstrip their expected consumption
over an 8-year lifecycle for my builds. After about 4 years, my 1 TB
SSD with Windows, apps, and some data (most is stored on other drives) consumes only 16% of the C: partition. Lots of space left mostly
because I don't dump the majority of my data files in the C: partition,
or in any partition on my NVMe SSD.

You don't need Magician to change the user-configured overprovisioning
space on your SSD, but it is a simple partition manager to achieve that
goal. You don't need the other glitz that got added to Magician. Alas,
most consumers want all the space they can get even if they never use
it, so when they see unallocated space, they'll add it to a partition to
make it larger, but at the cost of removing the more valuable overprovisioning space that keeps their SSDs faster over time, and gives
them more time before catastrophic failure (SSDs are self-destructive).

Everybody seems to have concluded that I auto-updated. I didn't. I never auto-update on anything at all.
What I do (Firefox is a typical example) is "check for updates and let
me know".
And that's what I did with Samsung Magician. I loaded it, got the
message update available, installed it.
I loaded it again, update available, etc. etc. etc.

I was fully aware of what was happening, and I could have just stepped
in and got the latest version from their website. But I was so amused by
it all, and wondered how such a high-profile name could have such dumb programmers. I wanted to see if it might start earlier down the ladder
after it got the latest. Or maybe it would surprise me with some other roundelay of happenings.

Ed

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/2024 8:57 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been updating. >>> Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5.
...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is
undeniably comical, but I can't figure rhyme or reason for it. When it
loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available, and then
gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I
wouldn't know how; even after I'd stopped laughing.

Ed

When I go to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/magician/

It announces 8.1 is the current version.  However, the web page is
designed for children, like I'm visiting some site about My Little Pony.
They need to keep it professional, not inanely amateurish.  The
"Download Files" hyperlink goes to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/support/tools/

I don't recall ever letting Magician automatically update.  When it
reports an update, I go to the update page to download the latest
version.  I keep each version download to allow an escape route should
the latest version have critical or usability bugs.  Well, actually
another route would be to restore from image backups, but since I use
Magician as a manual tool to alter the amount of unpartitioned space on
a drive, it could be a while before I hit a bug, and restoring from an
image backup would result in losing a lot of other valuable stuff
between when I installed the new version to when a bug was found.  So,
quite often I do an uninstall, do the remnant file and registry cleanup,
and install an old version to fallback to a non-buggy version.

Since the only "magic" this tool provides is that of a partition manager
the assists in changing the amount of unpartitioned space in a drive,
and if a version is functional, there's little need to update a working
version of it.  Every SSD already has a preset amount of unallocatable
space used for overprovisioning.  Normally that is around 7-10% of the
drive's space, and space you can never access regardless of which
partition manager you use.  It is hidden and reserved space used for
overprovisioning the SSD which help to promote its longevity.  Server
SSDs usually have more overprovisioning space, like 20%, and is what I
set mine on my home desktop.  By increasing the unpartitioned space on a
drive, overprovisioning can use that added but unallocated space.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/overprovisioning-SSD-overprovisioning
https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/pc-performance/overprovisioning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15wN8JC2L4 (ad starts at 3:50)

If you knew what you were doing, any partition manager will let you
change the amount of unallocated space of your SSD.  I don't need other
features of Magician, like drive health.  I already use HD Sentinel for
that.  Their performance benchmarks is highly skewed.  I've benchmarked
their Rapid driver: it made no difference, so I didn't see the need for
stacking a driver in the I/O chain that was ineffective.  I don't use
whole-disk encryption, and Magician just employs Bitlocker.  Although I
have the chip (actually BIOS firmware) on the mobo to support Bitlocker,
I see no reason to risk access to my drive.  I don't do app design and
have code stored on my computer.  Any sensitive files are secured in an
encrypted container (mounted as a drive) using Truecrypt and a very long
non-word password.  Bitlocker is overkill.

Magician is primarily a partition manager that makes it easy for users
to change the amount of unpartitioned space on their drives.  And only
if you want more than the factory default hidden reserve space already
on the SSD.  To make Magician more attractive, they added glitz to it
that, to me, is superfluous.  It's mostly for users that don't
understand there is reserve hidden space in the SSD for
overprovisioning, and overprovisioning can be enlarged to increased
longevity of an SSD by simply increasing the amount of unallocated space
on a drive.

The inherent overprovisioning on my 1 TB NVM2 m.2 SSD is 7% which I
raised to 27% by upping the unallocated space to 190 GB of the 954 GB
usable space on the SSD.  I'd rather have a longer lived SSD than more
space.  I get drives who sizes far outstrip their expected consumption
over an 8-year lifecycle for my builds.  After about 4 years, my 1 TB
SSD with Windows, apps, and some data (most is stored on other drives)
consumes only 16% of the C: partition.  Lots of space left mostly
because I don't dump the majority of my data files in the C: partition,
or in any partition on my NVMe SSD.

You don't need Magician to change the user-configured overprovisioning
space on your SSD, but it is a simple partition manager to achieve that
goal.  You don't need the other glitz that got added to Magician.  Alas, >> most consumers want all the space they can get even if they never use
it, so when they see unallocated space, they'll add it to a partition to
make it larger, but at the cost of removing the more valuable
overprovisioning space that keeps their SSDs faster over time, and gives
them more time before catastrophic failure (SSDs are self-destructive).

Everybody seems to have concluded that I auto-updated. I didn't. I never auto-update on anything at all.
What I do (Firefox is a typical example) is "check for updates and let me know".
And that's what I did with Samsung Magician. I loaded it, got the message update available, installed it.
I loaded it again, update available, etc. etc. etc.

I was fully aware of what was happening, and I could have just stepped in and got the latest version from their website. But I was so amused by it all, and wondered how such a high-profile name could have such dumb programmers. I wanted to see if it

might start earlier down the ladder after it got the latest. Or maybe it would surprise me with some other roundelay of happenings.

Ed

Maybe that's why the program is called "Magician"
rather than "Technician" ? It was using
Update Voodoo for the job.

And yes, I have seen updaters on other programs,
which managed to oscillate between two releases.
Quite unnerving to watch.

Well, when the AI programs are fully deployed,
this will never happen again. Right ? If the AI
finds that 8.1 is the last version of software,
it will simply write release 8.2 itself.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

Everybody seems to have concluded that I auto-updated. I didn't. I
never auto-update on anything at all. What I do (Firefox is a typical example) is "check for updates and let me know". And that's what I
did with Samsung Magician. I loaded it, got the message update
available, installed it. I loaded it again, update available, etc.
etc. etc.

I was fully aware of what was happening, and I could have just
stepped in and got the latest version from their website. But I was
so amused by it all, and wondered how such a high-profile name could
have such dumb programmers. I wanted to see if it might start earlier
down the ladder after it got the latest. Or maybe it would surprise
me with some other roundelay of happenings.

Some programs want to do incremental updates. Even Firefox had a
couple. Instead of jumping directly from an old to latest version, you
had to update to an interim version, and step forward through one, or
more, updates. I've seen that with programs where a later version
couldn't use an old version's database, but there was an interim version
that did a conversion on the database.

I just ran Magician 6.2.1. Its update offered 6.3.0 despite the latest
version from their web site is 8.1. No idea why it wants to step
through interim update versions rather than jump to the latest. Since
the major feature is to change the unallocated space on the SSD drive to
alter the amount of overprovisioning space, and since the old version
works just fine, I didn't bother to update. I only really need to alter user-configured unallocated space just once, anyway. Once I built my
desktop, and did all the tweaks, including increasing overprovisioning
space, I never needed to use Magician again.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

UGF1bCB3cm90ZToNCj4gT24gNS8xNS8yMDI0IDg6NTcgQU0sIEVkIENyeWVyIHdyb3RlOg0K Pj4gVmFuZ3VhcmRMSCB3cm90ZToNCj4+PiBFZCBDcnllciA8ZWRAc29tZXdoZXJlLmluLnRo ZS51az4gd3JvdGU6DQo+Pj4NCj4+Pj4gSSBoYXZlIGFuIG9sZCBXaW4xMCBzeXN0ZW0sIHVu dXNlZCBmb3Igc29tZSB0aW1lLCB3aGljaCBJJ3ZlIGJlZW4gdXBkYXRpbmcuDQo+Pj4+IFNh bXN1bmcgTWFnaWNpYW4gbmVlZGVkIHVwZGF0aW5nLiBJdCB3ZW50IGZyb20gNy4wIHRvIDcu MS4NCj4+Pj4gV2hlbiBJIGxhdW5jaGVkIHRoYXQsIGl0IG5lZWRlZCB1cGRhdGluZy4gSXQg d2VudCBmcm9tIDcuMSB0byA3LjMuDQo+Pj4+IFdoZW4gSSBsYXVuY2hlZCB0aGF0LCBpdCBu ZWVkZWQgdXBkYXRpbmcuIEl0IHdlbnQgZnJvbSA3LjMgdG8gNy41Lg0KPj4+PiAuLi4uLi4u Li4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4NCj4+Pj4gSXQg ZXZlbnR1YWxseSByZWFjaGVkIDguMTsgbm8gbW9yZSB1cGRhdGVzIGF2YWlsYWJsZS4NCj4+ Pj4NCj4+Pj4gVGhpcyBpcyBub3ZlbCwgYnV0IEkgZG9uJ3Qga25vdyB3aGV0aGVyIHRvIGxh dWdoIG9yIGNyeS4gSXQgaXMNCj4+Pj4gdW5kZW5pYWJseSBjb21pY2FsLCBidXQgSSBjYW4n dCBmaWd1cmUgcmh5bWUgb3IgcmVhc29uIGZvciBpdC4gV2hlbiBpdA0KPj4+PiBsb2FkcyBp dCBjaGVja3MgZm9yIHVwZGF0ZXMsIGFkdmlzZXMgdGhhdCBvbmUgaXMgYXZhaWxhYmxlLCBh bmQgdGhlbg0KPj4+PiBnZXRzIGl0IHdoZW4geW91IGNsaWNrIHllcy4NCj4+Pj4gSWYgeW91 IGFza2VkIG1lIHRvIHByb2dyYW0gYW4gdXBkYXRpbmcgcm91dGluZSB0aGF0IGRvZXMgdGhl IHNhbWUsIEkNCj4+Pj4gd291bGRuJ3Qga25vdyBob3c7IGV2ZW4gYWZ0ZXIgSSdkIHN0b3Bw ZWQgbGF1Z2hpbmcuDQo+Pj4+DQo+Pj4+IEVkDQo+Pj4NCj4+PiBXaGVuIEkgZ28gdG86DQo+ Pj4NCj4+PiBodHRwczovL3NlbWljb25kdWN0b3Iuc2Ftc3VuZy5jb20vdXMvY29uc3VtZXIt c3RvcmFnZS9tYWdpY2lhbi8NCj4+Pg0KPj4+IEl0IGFubm91bmNlcyA4LjEgaXMgdGhlIGN1 cnJlbnQgdmVyc2lvbi7CoCBIb3dldmVyLCB0aGUgd2ViIHBhZ2UgaXMNCj4+PiBkZXNpZ25l ZCBmb3IgY2hpbGRyZW4sIGxpa2UgSSdtIHZpc2l0aW5nIHNvbWUgc2l0ZSBhYm91dCBNeSBM aXR0bGUgUG9ueS4NCj4+PiBUaGV5IG5lZWQgdG8ga2VlcCBpdCBwcm9mZXNzaW9uYWwsIG5v dCBpbmFuZWx5IGFtYXRldXJpc2guwqAgVGhlDQo+Pj4gIkRvd25sb2FkIEZpbGVzIiBoeXBl cmxpbmsgZ29lcyB0bzoNCj4+Pg0KPj4+IGh0dHBzOi8vc2VtaWNvbmR1Y3Rvci5zYW1zdW5n LmNvbS91cy9jb25zdW1lci1zdG9yYWdlL3N1cHBvcnQvdG9vbHMvDQo+Pj4NCj4+PiBJIGRv bid0IHJlY2FsbCBldmVyIGxldHRpbmcgTWFnaWNpYW4gYXV0b21hdGljYWxseSB1cGRhdGUu wqAgV2hlbiBpdA0KPj4+IHJlcG9ydHMgYW4gdXBkYXRlLCBJIGdvIHRvIHRoZSB1cGRhdGUg cGFnZSB0byBkb3dubG9hZCB0aGUgbGF0ZXN0DQo+Pj4gdmVyc2lvbi7CoCBJIGtlZXAgZWFj aCB2ZXJzaW9uIGRvd25sb2FkIHRvIGFsbG93IGFuIGVzY2FwZSByb3V0ZSBzaG91bGQNCj4+ PiB0aGUgbGF0ZXN0IHZlcnNpb24gaGF2ZSBjcml0aWNhbCBvciB1c2FiaWxpdHkgYnVncy7C oCBXZWxsLCBhY3R1YWxseQ0KPj4+IGFub3RoZXIgcm91dGUgd291bGQgYmUgdG8gcmVzdG9y ZSBmcm9tIGltYWdlIGJhY2t1cHMsIGJ1dCBzaW5jZSBJIHVzZQ0KPj4+IE1hZ2ljaWFuIGFz IGEgbWFudWFsIHRvb2wgdG8gYWx0ZXIgdGhlIGFtb3VudCBvZiB1bnBhcnRpdGlvbmVkIHNw YWNlIG9uDQo+Pj4gYSBkcml2ZSwgaXQgY291bGQgYmUgYSB3aGlsZSBiZWZvcmUgSSBoaXQg YSBidWcsIGFuZCByZXN0b3JpbmcgZnJvbSBhbg0KPj4+IGltYWdlIGJhY2t1cCB3b3VsZCBy ZXN1bHQgaW4gbG9zaW5nIGEgbG90IG9mIG90aGVyIHZhbHVhYmxlIHN0dWZmDQo+Pj4gYmV0 d2VlbiB3aGVuIEkgaW5zdGFsbGVkIHRoZSBuZXcgdmVyc2lvbiB0byB3aGVuIGEgYnVnIHdh cyBmb3VuZC7CoCBTbywNCj4+PiBxdWl0ZSBvZnRlbiBJIGRvIGFuIHVuaW5zdGFsbCwgZG8g dGhlIHJlbW5hbnQgZmlsZSBhbmQgcmVnaXN0cnkgY2xlYW51cCwNCj4+PiBhbmQgaW5zdGFs bCBhbiBvbGQgdmVyc2lvbiB0byBmYWxsYmFjayB0byBhIG5vbi1idWdneSB2ZXJzaW9uLg0K Pj4+DQo+Pj4gU2luY2UgdGhlIG9ubHkgIm1hZ2ljIiB0aGlzIHRvb2wgcHJvdmlkZXMgaXMg dGhhdCBvZiBhIHBhcnRpdGlvbiBtYW5hZ2VyDQo+Pj4gdGhlIGFzc2lzdHMgaW4gY2hhbmdp bmcgdGhlIGFtb3VudCBvZiB1bnBhcnRpdGlvbmVkIHNwYWNlIGluIGEgZHJpdmUsDQo+Pj4g YW5kIGlmIGEgdmVyc2lvbiBpcyBmdW5jdGlvbmFsLCB0aGVyZSdzIGxpdHRsZSBuZWVkIHRv IHVwZGF0ZSBhIHdvcmtpbmcNCj4+PiB2ZXJzaW9uIG9mIGl0LsKgIEV2ZXJ5IFNTRCBhbHJl YWR5IGhhcyBhIHByZXNldCBhbW91bnQgb2YgdW5hbGxvY2F0YWJsZQ0KPj4+IHNwYWNlIHVz ZWQgZm9yIG92ZXJwcm92aXNpb25pbmcuwqAgTm9ybWFsbHkgdGhhdCBpcyBhcm91bmQgNy0x MCUgb2YgdGhlDQo+Pj4gZHJpdmUncyBzcGFjZSwgYW5kIHNwYWNlIHlvdSBjYW4gbmV2ZXIg YWNjZXNzIHJlZ2FyZGxlc3Mgb2Ygd2hpY2gNCj4+PiBwYXJ0aXRpb24gbWFuYWdlciB5b3Ug dXNlLsKgIEl0IGlzIGhpZGRlbiBhbmQgcmVzZXJ2ZWQgc3BhY2UgdXNlZCBmb3INCj4+PiBv dmVycHJvdmlzaW9uaW5nIHRoZSBTU0Qgd2hpY2ggaGVscCB0byBwcm9tb3RlIGl0cyBsb25n ZXZpdHkuwqAgU2VydmVyDQo+Pj4gU1NEcyB1c3VhbGx5IGhhdmUgbW9yZSBvdmVycHJvdmlz aW9uaW5nIHNwYWNlLCBsaWtlIDIwJSwgYW5kIGlzIHdoYXQgSQ0KPj4+IHNldCBtaW5lIG9u IG15IGhvbWUgZGVza3RvcC7CoCBCeSBpbmNyZWFzaW5nIHRoZSB1bnBhcnRpdGlvbmVkIHNw YWNlIG9uIGENCj4+PiBkcml2ZSwgb3ZlcnByb3Zpc2lvbmluZyBjYW4gdXNlIHRoYXQgYWRk ZWQgYnV0IHVuYWxsb2NhdGVkIHNwYWNlLg0KPj4+DQo+Pj4gaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGVjaHRh cmdldC5jb20vc2VhcmNoc3RvcmFnZS9kZWZpbml0aW9uL292ZXJwcm92aXNpb25pbmctU1NE LW92ZXJwcm92aXNpb25pbmcNCj4+PiBodHRwczovL3d3dy5raW5nc3Rvbi5jb20vZW4vYmxv Zy9wYy1wZXJmb3JtYW5jZS9vdmVycHJvdmlzaW9uaW5nDQo+Pj4gaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cueW91 dHViZS5jb20vd2F0Y2g/dj1RMTV3TjhKQzJMNCAoYWQgc3RhcnRzIGF0IDM6NTApDQo+Pj4N Cj4+PiBJZiB5b3Uga25ldyB3aGF0IHlvdSB3ZXJlIGRvaW5nLCBhbnkgcGFydGl0aW9uIG1h bmFnZXIgd2lsbCBsZXQgeW91DQo+Pj4gY2hhbmdlIHRoZSBhbW91bnQgb2YgdW5hbGxvY2F0 ZWQgc3BhY2Ugb2YgeW91ciBTU0QuwqAgSSBkb24ndCBuZWVkIG90aGVyDQo+Pj4gZmVhdHVy ZXMgb2YgTWFnaWNpYW4sIGxpa2UgZHJpdmUgaGVhbHRoLsKgIEkgYWxyZWFkeSB1c2UgSEQg U2VudGluZWwgZm9yDQo+Pj4gdGhhdC7CoCBUaGVpciBwZXJmb3JtYW5jZSBiZW5jaG1hcmtz IGlzIGhpZ2hseSBza2V3ZWQuwqAgSSd2ZSBiZW5jaG1hcmtlZA0KPj4+IHRoZWlyIFJhcGlk IGRyaXZlcjogaXQgbWFkZSBubyBkaWZmZXJlbmNlLCBzbyBJIGRpZG4ndCBzZWUgdGhlIG5l ZWQgZm9yDQo+Pj4gc3RhY2tpbmcgYSBkcml2ZXIgaW4gdGhlIEkvTyBjaGFpbiB0aGF0IHdh cyBpbmVmZmVjdGl2ZS7CoCBJIGRvbid0IHVzZQ0KPj4+IHdob2xlLWRpc2sgZW5jcnlwdGlv biwgYW5kIE1hZ2ljaWFuIGp1c3QgZW1wbG95cyBCaXRsb2NrZXIuwqAgQWx0aG91Z2ggSQ0K Pj4+IGhhdmUgdGhlIGNoaXAgKGFjdHVhbGx5IEJJT1MgZmlybXdhcmUpIG9uIHRoZSBtb2Jv IHRvIHN1cHBvcnQgQml0bG9ja2VyLA0KPj4+IEkgc2VlIG5vIHJlYXNvbiB0byByaXNrIGFj Y2VzcyB0byBteSBkcml2ZS7CoCBJIGRvbid0IGRvIGFwcCBkZXNpZ24gYW5kDQo+Pj4gaGF2 ZSBjb2RlIHN0b3JlZCBvbiBteSBjb21wdXRlci7CoCBBbnkgc2Vuc2l0aXZlIGZpbGVzIGFy ZSBzZWN1cmVkIGluIGFuDQo+Pj4gZW5jcnlwdGVkIGNvbnRhaW5lciAobW91bnRlZCBhcyBh IGRyaXZlKSB1c2luZyBUcnVlY3J5cHQgYW5kIGEgdmVyeSBsb25nDQo+Pj4gbm9uLXdvcmQg cGFzc3dvcmQuwqAgQml0bG9ja2VyIGlzIG92ZXJraWxsLg0KPj4+DQo+Pj4gTWFnaWNpYW4g aXMgcHJpbWFyaWx5IGEgcGFydGl0aW9uIG1hbmFnZXIgdGhhdCBtYWtlcyBpdCBlYXN5IGZv ciB1c2Vycw0KPj4+IHRvIGNoYW5nZSB0aGUgYW1vdW50IG9mIHVucGFydGl0aW9uZWQgc3Bh Y2Ugb24gdGhlaXIgZHJpdmVzLsKgIEFuZCBvbmx5DQo+Pj4gaWYgeW91IHdhbnQgbW9yZSB0 aGFuIHRoZSBmYWN0b3J5IGRlZmF1bHQgaGlkZGVuIHJlc2VydmUgc3BhY2UgYWxyZWFkeQ0K Pj4+IG9uIHRoZSBTU0QuwqAgVG8gbWFrZSBNYWdpY2lhbiBtb3JlIGF0dHJhY3RpdmUsIHRo ZXkgYWRkZWQgZ2xpdHogdG8gaXQNCj4+PiB0aGF0LCB0byBtZSwgaXMgc3VwZXJmbHVvdXMu wqAgSXQncyBtb3N0bHkgZm9yIHVzZXJzIHRoYXQgZG9uJ3QNCj4+PiB1bmRlcnN0YW5kIHRo ZXJlIGlzIHJlc2VydmUgaGlkZGVuIHNwYWNlIGluIHRoZSBTU0QgZm9yDQo+Pj4gb3ZlcnBy b3Zpc2lvbmluZywgYW5kIG92ZXJwcm92aXNpb25pbmcgY2FuIGJlIGVubGFyZ2VkIHRvIGlu Y3JlYXNlZA0KPj4+IGxvbmdldml0eSBvZiBhbiBTU0QgYnkgc2ltcGx5IGluY3JlYXNpbmcg dGhlIGFtb3VudCBvZiB1bmFsbG9jYXRlZCBzcGFjZQ0KPj4+IG9uIGEgZHJpdmUuDQo+Pj4N Cj4+PiBUaGUgaW5oZXJlbnQgb3ZlcnByb3Zpc2lvbmluZyBvbiBteSAxIFRCIE5WTTIgbS4y IFNTRCBpcyA3JSB3aGljaCBJDQo+Pj4gcmFpc2VkIHRvIDI3JSBieSB1cHBpbmcgdGhlIHVu YWxsb2NhdGVkIHNwYWNlIHRvIDE5MCBHQiBvZiB0aGUgOTU0IEdCDQo+Pj4gdXNhYmxlIHNw YWNlIG9uIHRoZSBTU0QuwqAgSSdkIHJhdGhlciBoYXZlIGEgbG9uZ2VyIGxpdmVkIFNTRCB0 aGFuIG1vcmUNCj4+PiBzcGFjZS7CoCBJIGdldCBkcml2ZXMgd2hvIHNpemVzIGZhciBvdXRz dHJpcCB0aGVpciBleHBlY3RlZCBjb25zdW1wdGlvbg0KPj4+IG92ZXIgYW4gOC15ZWFyIGxp ZmVjeWNsZSBmb3IgbXkgYnVpbGRzLsKgIEFmdGVyIGFib3V0IDQgeWVhcnMsIG15IDEgVEIN Cj4+PiBTU0Qgd2l0aCBXaW5kb3dzLCBhcHBzLCBhbmQgc29tZSBkYXRhIChtb3N0IGlzIHN0 b3JlZCBvbiBvdGhlciBkcml2ZXMpDQo+Pj4gY29uc3VtZXMgb25seSAxNiUgb2YgdGhlIEM6 IHBhcnRpdGlvbi7CoCBMb3RzIG9mIHNwYWNlIGxlZnQgbW9zdGx5DQo+Pj4gYmVjYXVzZSBJ IGRvbid0IGR1bXAgdGhlIG1ham9yaXR5IG9mIG15IGRhdGEgZmlsZXMgaW4gdGhlIEM6IHBh cnRpdGlvbiwNCj4+PiBvciBpbiBhbnkgcGFydGl0aW9uIG9uIG15IE5WTWUgU1NELg0KPj4+ DQo+Pj4gWW91IGRvbid0IG5lZWQgTWFnaWNpYW4gdG8gY2hhbmdlIHRoZSB1c2VyLWNvbmZp Z3VyZWQgb3ZlcnByb3Zpc2lvbmluZw0KPj4+IHNwYWNlIG9uIHlvdXIgU1NELCBidXQgaXQg aXMgYSBzaW1wbGUgcGFydGl0aW9uIG1hbmFnZXIgdG8gYWNoaWV2ZSB0aGF0DQo+Pj4gZ29h bC7CoCBZb3UgZG9uJ3QgbmVlZCB0aGUgb3RoZXIgZ2xpdHogdGhhdCBnb3QgYWRkZWQgdG8g TWFnaWNpYW4uwqAgQWxhcywNCj4+PiBtb3N0IGNvbnN1bWVycyB3YW50IGFsbCB0aGUgc3Bh Y2UgdGhleSBjYW4gZ2V0IGV2ZW4gaWYgdGhleSBuZXZlciB1c2UNCj4+PiBpdCwgc28gd2hl biB0aGV5IHNlZSB1bmFsbG9jYXRlZCBzcGFjZSwgdGhleSdsbCBhZGQgaXQgdG8gYSBwYXJ0 aXRpb24gdG8NCj4+PiBtYWtlIGl0IGxhcmdlciwgYnV0IGF0IHRoZSBjb3N0IG9mIHJlbW92 aW5nIHRoZSBtb3JlIHZhbHVhYmxlDQo+Pj4gb3ZlcnByb3Zpc2lvbmluZyBzcGFjZSB0aGF0 IGtlZXBzIHRoZWlyIFNTRHMgZmFzdGVyIG92ZXIgdGltZSwgYW5kIGdpdmVzDQo+Pj4gdGhl bSBtb3JlIHRpbWUgYmVmb3JlIGNhdGFzdHJvcGhpYyBmYWlsdXJlIChTU0RzIGFyZSBzZWxm LWRlc3RydWN0aXZlKS4NCj4+DQo+PiBFdmVyeWJvZHkgc2VlbXMgdG8gaGF2ZSBjb25jbHVk ZWQgdGhhdCBJIGF1dG8tdXBkYXRlZC4gSSBkaWRuJ3QuIEkgbmV2ZXIgYXV0by11cGRhdGUg b24gYW55dGhpbmcgYXQgYWxsLg0KPj4gV2hhdCBJIGRvIChGaXJlZm94IGlzIGEgdHlwaWNh bCBleGFtcGxlKSBpcyAiY2hlY2sgZm9yIHVwZGF0ZXMgYW5kIGxldCBtZSBrbm93Ii4NCj4+ IEFuZCB0aGF0J3Mgd2hhdCBJIGRpZCB3aXRoIFNhbXN1bmcgTWFnaWNpYW4uIEkgbG9hZGVk IGl0LCBnb3QgdGhlIG1lc3NhZ2UgdXBkYXRlIGF2YWlsYWJsZSwgaW5zdGFsbGVkIGl0Lg0K Pj4gSSBsb2FkZWQgaXQgYWdhaW4sIHVwZGF0ZSBhdmFpbGFibGUsIGV0Yy4gZXRjLiBldGMu DQo+Pg0KPj4gSSB3YXMgZnVsbHkgYXdhcmUgb2Ygd2hhdCB3YXMgaGFwcGVuaW5nLCBhbmQg SSBjb3VsZCBoYXZlIGp1c3Qgc3RlcHBlZCBpbiBhbmQgZ290IHRoZSBsYXRlc3QgdmVyc2lv biBmcm9tIHRoZWlyIHdlYnNpdGUuIEJ1dCBJIHdhcyBzbyBhbXVzZWQgYnkgaXQgYWxsLCBh bmQgd29uZGVyZWQgaG93IHN1Y2ggYSBoaWdoLXByb2ZpbGUgbmFtZSBjb3VsZCBoYXZlIHN1 Y2ggZHVtYiBwcm9ncmFtbWVycy4gSSB3YW50ZWQgdG8gc2VlIGlmIGl0IG1pZ2h0IHN0YXJ0 IGVhcmxpZXIgZG93biB0aGUgbGFkZGVyIGFmdGVyIGl0IGdvdCB0aGUgbGF0ZXN0LiBPciBt YXliZSBpdCB3b3VsZCBzdXJwcmlzZSBtZSB3aXRoIHNvbWUgb3RoZXIgcm91bmRlbGF5IG9m IGhhcHBlbmluZ3MuDQo+Pg0KPj4gRWQNCj4+DQo+IA0KPiBNYXliZSB0aGF0J3Mgd2h5IHRo ZSBwcm9ncmFtIGlzIGNhbGxlZCAiTWFnaWNpYW4iDQo+IHJhdGhlciB0aGFuICJUZWNobmlj aWFuIiA/ICBJdCB3YXMgdXNpbmcNCj4gVXBkYXRlIFZvb2RvbyBmb3IgdGhlIGpvYi4NCj4g DQo+IEFuZCB5ZXMsIEkgaGF2ZSBzZWVuIHVwZGF0ZXJzIG9uIG90aGVyIHByb2dyYW1zLA0K PiB3aGljaCBtYW5hZ2VkIHRvIG9zY2lsbGF0ZSBiZXR3ZWVuIHR3byByZWxlYXNlcy4NCj4g UXVpdGUgdW5uZXJ2aW5nIHRvIHdhdGNoLg0KPiANCj4gV2VsbCwgd2hlbiB0aGUgQUkgcHJv Z3JhbXMgYXJlIGZ1bGx5IGRlcGxveWVkLA0KPiB0aGlzIHdpbGwgbmV2ZXIgaGFwcGVuIGFn YWluLiBSaWdodCA/IElmIHRoZSBBSQ0KPiBmaW5kcyB0aGF0IDguMSBpcyB0aGUgbGFzdCB2 ZXJzaW9uIG9mIHNvZnR3YXJlLA0KPiBpdCB3aWxsIHNpbXBseSB3cml0ZSByZWxlYXNlIDgu MiBpdHNlbGYuDQo+IA0KPiAgICAgUGF1bA0KDQpIZXkgUGF1bCwgZG9uJ3QgZ28gc2Nhcmlu ZyB1cyB3aXRoIEFJLiBUaGUgd29ybGQncyBnb3QgZW5vdWdoIA0KZG9vbS1tZXJjaGFudHMg ZnJpZ2h0ZW5pbmcgdXMgd2l0aCB0aGF0IGZvcmVjYXN0Lg0KWW91IGhhdmUgYW4gaW5zaWdo dCBpbnRvIHRoZXNlIGJveGVzIG9mIHRyaWNrcyB0aGF0IG1pZ2h0IHNhdmUgdXMgYWxsLiAN CllvdSBjb3VsZCBiZSBsaWtlIEpvaG4gQ29ubm9yIGluIHRoZSBUZXJtaW5hdG9yIG1vdmll cywgYW5kIGxlYWQgdXMgDQphZ2FpbnN0IHRoZSBtYWNoaW5lcy4NCg0KVGhpcyBmZWFyIG9m IEFJIGlzIGdlbmVyYXRpb25zIG9sZGVyIHRoYW4gdGhpcyByZWNlbnQgb25lLiBFdmVyIHJl YWQgDQpzY2lmaSBib29rcyBmcm9tIHRoZSAxOTUwcz8gSXNhYWMgQXNpbW92LCBSYXkgQnJh ZGJ1cnksIFBoaWxpcCBLIERpY2ssIEggDQpQIExvdmVjcmFmdD8gSSBwYXJ0aWN1bGFybHkg bG92ZSBBc2ltb3YncyAiSSBSb2JvdCIuDQoNCkVkDQoNCg==

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/2024 1:13 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Hey Paul, don't go scaring us with AI.

I'm not really sure I understand what the hell is going on with so
called AI now. From what I can tell, it is all still just running on programming and algorithms, and not really doing much of anything it has "learned." Either way, it can be a scary situation because I don't
trust the people programming and coming up with the algorithms, any more
than I would like a computer actually making important decisions on its
own about anything. But for now, I don't see AI as anything more than
what someone put into it. Hell, they are even pushing the "Simulation
Theory" where we are all living in a Matrix like created simulation. I
take comfort in the fact that as of now and with initial testing, they
believe we actually are living in a real world.


--
Stand With Israel!

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/2024 2:13 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Hey Paul, don't go scaring us with AI. The world's got enough doom-merchants frightening us with that forecast.
You have an insight into these boxes of tricks that might save us all. You could be like John Connor in the Terminator movies, and lead us against the machines.

This fear of AI is generations older than this recent one. Ever read scifi books from the 1950s? Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, H P Lovecraft? I particularly love Asimov's "I Robot".

Ed

The scariest one for me, is not the one that the robot dog
with the gun uses.

It's the AI they released yesterday, which uses voice
communication and *it tells Dad Jokes*.

Now, THAT would be unnerving for sure.

It's one thing for the robot dog to shoot people,
but PLEASE don't let it tell Dad Jokes. That would
be a form of torture. Imagine having to make up
chatter to keep an AI happy.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/24 04:12, Shinji Ikari wrote:

Hello.

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> schrieb

Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5.
...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.
This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Why not directly download the most recent version and install it?

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/

That is what I do as well

My customers never update anything. They are afraid to do
so. I complained to Samsung tech support about the issue
and they know about it. Whether or not they plan on fixing
it, I do not know. And odd, Magician is a wonderful tool too.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 15/05/2024 12:49, Big Al wrote:

On 5/15/24 07:18 AM, Newyana2 wrote:

On 5/15/2024 6:35 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been
updating.
Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5.
...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is
undeniably comical, but I can't figure rhyme or reason for it. When
it loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available, and
then gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I
wouldn't know how; even after I'd stopped laughing.

   I use CrystalDiskInfo, which seems to work well. I once had trouble
with Samsung. I don't remember what. Either way I'd never allow
anything to auto-update. There's too much risk of bugs. And these
days there are risks of getting things you don't want. (I'm looking
at you, Copilot.)

It doesn't surprise me.  Over the years I've seen others do this. They
need to step up in stages, as each stage makes necessary (or they
think so) changes to the data structure of their settings.
But that doesn't fly well with Newyana2's comment about just
downloading the most current.

I use https://patchmypc.com/home-updater.  It follows a lot of
software and when run gives you a list of apps that need updating.  It
might take a day or so for some apps to hit their list, but quick enough.    I use it to get the list but don't click the update apps button, but do the work myself for the most part.  Paranoid maybe?   However, some small programs I do auto update.   Not sure what my
criteria is but I do.

Try running this command (as administrator CMD to upgrade) to list apps
that can be upgraded:

winget upgrade

Then run this command to start upgrades:

winget upgrade --all

winget is a Microsoft app on Windows 10 and 11. It might have been in
8.1, 7, Vista and XP but I didn't use it in those OS.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/24 12:31, Paul wrote:

The scariest one for me, is not the one that the robot dog
with the gun uses.

It's the AI they released yesterday, which uses voice
communication and*it tells Dad Jokes*.

Now, THAT would be unnerving for sure.

It's one thing for the robot dog to shoot people,
but PLEASE don't let it tell Dad Jokes. That would
be a form of torture. Imagine having to make up
chatter to keep an AI happy.

Paul

I have waited a lot of years to tell Dad Jokes.
No AI can replace me! <Maniacal laughter>

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/24 11:13, Ed Cryer wrote:

Paul wrote:

On 5/15/2024 8:57 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

Ed Cryer <ed@somewhere.in.the.uk> wrote:

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been
updating.
Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5.
...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

This is novel, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry. It is
undeniably comical, but I can't figure rhyme or reason for it. When it >>>>> loads it checks for updates, advises that one is available, and then >>>>> gets it when you click yes.
If you asked me to program an updating routine that does the same, I >>>>> wouldn't know how; even after I'd stopped laughing.

Ed

When I go to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/magician/

It announces 8.1 is the current version.  However, the web page is
designed for children, like I'm visiting some site about My Little
Pony.
They need to keep it professional, not inanely amateurish.  The
"Download Files" hyperlink goes to:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/support/tools/

I don't recall ever letting Magician automatically update.  When it
reports an update, I go to the update page to download the latest
version.  I keep each version download to allow an escape route should >>>> the latest version have critical or usability bugs.  Well, actually
another route would be to restore from image backups, but since I use
Magician as a manual tool to alter the amount of unpartitioned space on >>>> a drive, it could be a while before I hit a bug, and restoring from an >>>> image backup would result in losing a lot of other valuable stuff
between when I installed the new version to when a bug was found.  So, >>>> quite often I do an uninstall, do the remnant file and registry
cleanup,
and install an old version to fallback to a non-buggy version.

Since the only "magic" this tool provides is that of a partition
manager
the assists in changing the amount of unpartitioned space in a drive,
and if a version is functional, there's little need to update a working >>>> version of it.  Every SSD already has a preset amount of unallocatable >>>> space used for overprovisioning.  Normally that is around 7-10% of the >>>> drive's space, and space you can never access regardless of which
partition manager you use.  It is hidden and reserved space used for
overprovisioning the SSD which help to promote its longevity.  Server >>>> SSDs usually have more overprovisioning space, like 20%, and is what I >>>> set mine on my home desktop.  By increasing the unpartitioned space
on a
drive, overprovisioning can use that added but unallocated space.

https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorage/definition/overprovisioning-SSD-overprovisioning
https://www.kingston.com/en/blog/pc-performance/overprovisioning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15wN8JC2L4 (ad starts at 3:50)

If you knew what you were doing, any partition manager will let you
change the amount of unallocated space of your SSD.  I don't need other >>>> features of Magician, like drive health.  I already use HD Sentinel for >>>> that.  Their performance benchmarks is highly skewed.  I've benchmarked >>>> their Rapid driver: it made no difference, so I didn't see the need for >>>> stacking a driver in the I/O chain that was ineffective.  I don't use >>>> whole-disk encryption, and Magician just employs Bitlocker.  Although I >>>> have the chip (actually BIOS firmware) on the mobo to support
Bitlocker,
I see no reason to risk access to my drive.  I don't do app design and >>>> have code stored on my computer.  Any sensitive files are secured in an >>>> encrypted container (mounted as a drive) using Truecrypt and a very
long
non-word password.  Bitlocker is overkill.

Magician is primarily a partition manager that makes it easy for users >>>> to change the amount of unpartitioned space on their drives.  And only >>>> if you want more than the factory default hidden reserve space already >>>> on the SSD.  To make Magician more attractive, they added glitz to it >>>> that, to me, is superfluous.  It's mostly for users that don't
understand there is reserve hidden space in the SSD for
overprovisioning, and overprovisioning can be enlarged to increased
longevity of an SSD by simply increasing the amount of unallocated
space
on a drive.

The inherent overprovisioning on my 1 TB NVM2 m.2 SSD is 7% which I
raised to 27% by upping the unallocated space to 190 GB of the 954 GB
usable space on the SSD.  I'd rather have a longer lived SSD than more >>>> space.  I get drives who sizes far outstrip their expected consumption >>>> over an 8-year lifecycle for my builds.  After about 4 years, my 1 TB >>>> SSD with Windows, apps, and some data (most is stored on other drives) >>>> consumes only 16% of the C: partition.  Lots of space left mostly
because I don't dump the majority of my data files in the C: partition, >>>> or in any partition on my NVMe SSD.

You don't need Magician to change the user-configured overprovisioning >>>> space on your SSD, but it is a simple partition manager to achieve that >>>> goal.  You don't need the other glitz that got added to Magician.
Alas,
most consumers want all the space they can get even if they never use
it, so when they see unallocated space, they'll add it to a
partition to
make it larger, but at the cost of removing the more valuable
overprovisioning space that keeps their SSDs faster over time, and
gives
them more time before catastrophic failure (SSDs are self-destructive). >>>

Everybody seems to have concluded that I auto-updated. I didn't. I
never auto-update on anything at all.
What I do (Firefox is a typical example) is "check for updates and
let me know".
And that's what I did with Samsung Magician. I loaded it, got the
message update available, installed it.
I loaded it again, update available, etc. etc. etc.

I was fully aware of what was happening, and I could have just
stepped in and got the latest version from their website. But I was
so amused by it all, and wondered how such a high-profile name could
have such dumb programmers. I wanted to see if it might start earlier
down the ladder after it got the latest. Or maybe it would surprise
me with some other roundelay of happenings.

Ed

Maybe that's why the program is called "Magician"
rather than "Technician" ?  It was using
Update Voodoo for the job.

And yes, I have seen updaters on other programs,
which managed to oscillate between two releases.
Quite unnerving to watch.

Well, when the AI programs are fully deployed,
this will never happen again. Right ? If the AI
finds that 8.1 is the last version of software,
it will simply write release 8.2 itself.

    Paul

Hey Paul, don't go scaring us with AI. The world's got enough
doom-merchants frightening us with that forecast.
You have an insight into these boxes of tricks that might save us all.
You could be like John Connor in the Terminator movies, and lead us
against the machines.

This fear of AI is generations older than this recent one. Ever read
scifi books from the 1950s? Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, H
P Lovecraft? I particularly love Asimov's "I Robot".

Ed

search.brave.com has an AI summerizer. It works
really well. It is the only AI I like. I D-A-T-E
AI customer and support "Chat" lines. They are
beyond useless. Just let me chat with a human.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/24 04:18, Newyana2 wrote:

I use CrystalDiskInfo

I use it on customers with non-samsung drives.
I like its look and feel. Easy for a non-techie
to understand too.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/24 05:57, Ed Cryer wrote:

Everybody seems to have concluded that I auto-updated.

I believe you. None of my customers auto-update magician

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

SmFjayB3cm90ZToNCj4gT24gMTUvMDUvMjAyNCAxMjo0OSwgQmlnIEFsIHdyb3RlOg0KPj4g T24gNS8xNS8yNCAwNzoxOCBBTSwgTmV3eWFuYTIgd3JvdGU6DQo+Pj4gT24gNS8xNS8yMDI0 IDY6MzUgQU0sIEVkIENyeWVyIHdyb3RlOg0KPj4+PiBJIGhhdmUgYW4gb2xkIFdpbjEwIHN5 c3RlbSwgdW51c2VkIGZvciBzb21lIHRpbWUsIHdoaWNoIEkndmUgYmVlbg0KPj4+PiB1cGRh dGluZy4NCj4+Pj4gU2Ftc3VuZyBNYWdpY2lhbiBuZWVkZWQgdXBkYXRpbmcuIEl0IHdlbnQg ZnJvbSA3LjAgdG8gNy4xLg0KPj4+PiBXaGVuIEkgbGF1bmNoZWQgdGhhdCwgaXQgbmVlZGVk IHVwZGF0aW5nLiBJdCB3ZW50IGZyb20gNy4xIHRvIDcuMy4NCj4+Pj4gV2hlbiBJIGxhdW5j aGVkIHRoYXQsIGl0IG5lZWRlZCB1cGRhdGluZy4gSXQgd2VudCBmcm9tIDcuMyB0byA3LjUu DQo+Pj4+IC4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4uLi4u Li4uLg0KPj4+PiBJdCBldmVudHVhbGx5IHJlYWNoZWQgOC4xOyBubyBtb3JlIHVwZGF0ZXMg YXZhaWxhYmxlLg0KPj4+Pg0KPj4+PiBUaGlzIGlzIG5vdmVsLCBidXQgSSBkb24ndCBrbm93 IHdoZXRoZXIgdG8gbGF1Z2ggb3IgY3J5LiBJdCBpcw0KPj4+PiB1bmRlbmlhYmx5IGNvbWlj YWwsIGJ1dCBJIGNhbid0IGZpZ3VyZSByaHltZSBvciByZWFzb24gZm9yIGl0LiBXaGVuDQo+ Pj4+IGl0IGxvYWRzIGl0IGNoZWNrcyBmb3IgdXBkYXRlcywgYWR2aXNlcyB0aGF0IG9uZSBp cyBhdmFpbGFibGUsIGFuZA0KPj4+PiB0aGVuIGdldHMgaXQgd2hlbiB5b3UgY2xpY2sgeWVz Lg0KPj4+PiBJZiB5b3UgYXNrZWQgbWUgdG8gcHJvZ3JhbSBhbiB1cGRhdGluZyByb3V0aW5l IHRoYXQgZG9lcyB0aGUgc2FtZSwgSQ0KPj4+PiB3b3VsZG4ndCBrbm93IGhvdzsgZXZlbiBh ZnRlciBJJ2Qgc3RvcHBlZCBsYXVnaGluZy4NCj4+Pj4NCj4+Pg0KPj4+ICDCoMKgIEkgdXNl IENyeXN0YWxEaXNrSW5mbywgd2hpY2ggc2VlbXMgdG8gd29yayB3ZWxsLiBJIG9uY2UgaGFk IHRyb3VibGUNCj4+PiB3aXRoIFNhbXN1bmcuIEkgZG9uJ3QgcmVtZW1iZXIgd2hhdC4gRWl0 aGVyIHdheSBJJ2QgbmV2ZXIgYWxsb3cNCj4+PiBhbnl0aGluZyB0byBhdXRvLXVwZGF0ZS4g VGhlcmUncyB0b28gbXVjaCByaXNrIG9mIGJ1Z3MuIEFuZCB0aGVzZQ0KPj4+IGRheXMgdGhl cmUgYXJlIHJpc2tzIG9mIGdldHRpbmcgdGhpbmdzIHlvdSBkb24ndCB3YW50LiAoSSdtIGxv b2tpbmcNCj4+PiBhdCB5b3UsIENvcGlsb3QuKQ0KPj4+DQo+PiBJdCBkb2Vzbid0IHN1cnBy aXNlIG1lLsKgIE92ZXIgdGhlIHllYXJzIEkndmUgc2VlbiBvdGhlcnMgZG8gdGhpcy4gVGhl eQ0KPj4gbmVlZCB0byBzdGVwIHVwIGluIHN0YWdlcywgYXMgZWFjaCBzdGFnZSBtYWtlcyBu ZWNlc3NhcnkgKG9yIHRoZXkNCj4+IHRoaW5rIHNvKSBjaGFuZ2VzIHRvIHRoZSBkYXRhIHN0 cnVjdHVyZSBvZiB0aGVpciBzZXR0aW5ncy4NCj4+IEJ1dCB0aGF0IGRvZXNuJ3QgZmx5IHdl bGwgd2l0aCBOZXd5YW5hMidzIGNvbW1lbnQgYWJvdXQganVzdA0KPj4gZG93bmxvYWRpbmcg dGhlIG1vc3QgY3VycmVudC4NCj4+DQo+PiBJIHVzZSBodHRwczovL3BhdGNobXlwYy5jb20v aG9tZS11cGRhdGVyLsKgIEl0IGZvbGxvd3MgYSBsb3Qgb2YNCj4+IHNvZnR3YXJlIGFuZCB3 aGVuIHJ1biBnaXZlcyB5b3UgYSBsaXN0IG9mIGFwcHMgdGhhdCBuZWVkIHVwZGF0aW5nLsKg IEl0DQo+PiBtaWdodCB0YWtlIGEgZGF5IG9yIHNvIGZvciBzb21lIGFwcHMgdG8gaGl0IHRo ZWlyIGxpc3QsIGJ1dCBxdWljaw0KPj4gZW5vdWdoLsKgwqDCoCBJIHVzZSBpdCB0byBnZXQg dGhlIGxpc3QgYnV0IGRvbid0IGNsaWNrIHRoZSB1cGRhdGUgYXBwcw0KPj4gYnV0dG9uLCBi dXQgZG8gdGhlIHdvcmsgbXlzZWxmIGZvciB0aGUgbW9zdCBwYXJ0LsKgIFBhcmFub2lkIG1h eWJlPw0KPj4gSG93ZXZlciwgc29tZSBzbWFsbCBwcm9ncmFtcyBJIGRvIGF1dG8gdXBkYXRl LsKgwqAgTm90IHN1cmUgd2hhdCBteQ0KPj4gY3JpdGVyaWEgaXMgYnV0IEkgZG8uDQo+IA0K PiBUcnkgcnVubmluZyB0aGlzIGNvbW1hbmQgKGFzIGFkbWluaXN0cmF0b3IgQ01EIHRvIHVw Z3JhZGUpIHRvIGxpc3QgYXBwcw0KPiB0aGF0IGNhbiBiZSB1cGdyYWRlZDoNCj4gDQo+IHdp bmdldCB1cGdyYWRlDQo+IA0KPiBUaGVuIHJ1biB0aGlzIGNvbW1hbmQgdG8gc3RhcnQgdXBn cmFkZXM6DQo+IA0KPiB3aW5nZXQgdXBncmFkZSAtLWFsbA0KPiANCj4gd2luZ2V0IGlzIGEg TWljcm9zb2Z0IGFwcCBvbiBXaW5kb3dzIDEwIGFuZCAxMS4gSXQgbWlnaHQgaGF2ZSBiZWVu IGluDQo+IDguMSwgNywgVmlzdGEgYW5kIFhQIGJ1dCBJIGRpZG4ndCB1c2UgaXQgaW4gdGhv c2UgT1MuDQo+IA0KPiANCj4gDQoNClRoYXQncyBuZXcgdG8gbWU7IGFuZCBpdCBsb29rcyBp bnRlcmVzdGluZy4NCkkgcmFuIGl0IGFzIGZhciBhcyAiRG8geW91IGFncmVlIHRvIGFsbCB0 aGUgc291cmNlIGFncmVlbWVudHMgdGVybXM/IFkgDQpOPyIsIHRoZW4gY2hpY2tlbmVkIG91 dC4gSSB0aG91Z2h0IEknZCBhc2sgaGVyZSBpZiBwZW9wbGUgaGF2ZSBydW4gaXQgDQpzdWNj ZXNzZnVsbHkgYmVmb3JlIHRydXN0aW5nIGl0IGZ1cnRoZXIuDQoNCkVkDQoNCg0K

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Ed Cryer laid this down on his screen :

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been updating. Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5. ...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

the same with firefox and thunderbird, when I turn on my old computers
:-)

--
/-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ T /-\
-=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- - -=-
........... [ al lavoro ] ...........

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Ammammata wrote:

Ed Cryer laid this down on his screen :

I have an old Win10 system, unused for some time, which I've been
updating.
Samsung Magician needed updating. It went from 7.0 to 7.1.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.1 to 7.3.
When I launched that, it needed updating. It went from 7.3 to 7.5.
...................................................
It eventually reached 8.1; no more updates available.

the same with firefox and thunderbird, when I turn on my old computers :-)

That doesn't happen with mine. They both point straight to the latest.
At least with Windows 10 systems.
If Firefox had done a step-by-step update, it would have gone through
about 30 gradations; it was that far out of date.

Ed

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/15/2024 8:57 PM, Jack wrote:

winget is a Microsoft app on Windows 10 and 11. It might have been in
8.1, 7, Vista and XP but I didn't use it in those OS.

It's Win10/11 only. Winget is part of a trend toward
Linux-style "package managers" that will handle installing
dependencies and downloading updates. On the upside,
it helps with the monstrously complicated lack of backward
compatibility on Linux. A given program might need precise
versions of a dozen libraries, and the developer usually doesn't
take care of that.

On the downside it's an extra layer of complication and a
technical bottleneck that makes it nearly impossible to manage
software directly.

There's also the issue that Winget or Flatpak or Chocolatey
are only going to know about installers that the developer has
listed with them. And you have to hope that those developers
shared an accurate manifest with the software manager's
managers.

The whole thing could make a lot of sense for corporate
admins who want to update the latest MS Office or Adobe CS
on 1000 computers. For the average person its usefulness is
not so clear.

Even on Linux, package managers have limited usefulness.
They only catalog the programs and versions that the specific
Linux distributor is supporting. Do you want the latest Acme Editor
v. 3.234.567? Sorry. They only know about v. 3.1. I've run into
this multiple times. On Raspberry Pi I had to update the whole
OS to get a newer Firefox. It's all commandline and the package
manager just doesn't know about later versions. On Suse Linux,
recently, I was researching firewalls and settled on opensnitch.
But Suse didn't list opensnitch. I had to get it online and install
it manually.

In a perfect world, all developers would offer the option to
check for updates and all updates would be bug-free with no
funny business. In reality it doesn't work that way. And update
changes are not just subject to bugs and ads. For instance, I've
been using PDF XChange Viewer Free for years. It's good enough
for doing my taxes and adding occasional comments to PDFs. If I
want to create a PDF I use Libre Office Writer. I can update PDFX
to a newer version and still use it for free, but any editing of PDFs
will add a watermark. And of course, as it typical these days, the
never version is crazy bloated. The old version is 25 MB installed.
The latest, compressed installer is a whopping 337 MB! So it's
probably 500-600 MB installed, which is about half the size of the
entire WinXP OS. (This isn't a problem merely in terms of resource
hogging or aesthetic reasons. Bloated software is usually poorly
designed software, made by people with limited expertise who are
using wrapper libraries to make their job easier.)

For awhile I don't think that even the PDFX watermarker version
was an option. If I'd updated it would have been a trial. That's not
an unusual course with software -- going from donationware to
crippled trialware without clearly explaining the change.

And what about Irfan View or Imgburn, which have had ads in
some versions? Which version would Winget get you?

You're giving up such choices if you use a package manager.

What about if you want an update to Acme Editor but you
love the version of Ace DoSomething that you're using and
don't want it to change? Again, you're giving an automated
system the power to make those decisions. Why would you
want to hand over control to opaque automation?

No developer's software will be updated by Winget unless they've specifically signed up with Microsoft's package management
system. So, as noted above, this is yet another thing that makes
sense for corporate admins, which is Microsoft's primary customer
base. It doesn't make much sense for the average SOHo user.

If you go to the developer's site you can check out what changes
have been made. You can also download an installer file directly.
Then if the program suddenly turned into a trial or terminal bloatware
then you can uninstall it and reinstall the old installer that you saved.
(You did save it, didn't you? :)

Finally, it's likely that most freeware will not show up in Microsoft's package management system. Why? Because it takes work. As is
usual with Microsoft, the system is complicated. Developers must
read through various rules and requirements, then create and submit
a "manifest". What's the motivation for freeware authors to do that?
I write shareware/freeware myself. I certainly wouldn't sign up for
Winget. I'm going to do all that work so that people don't have
to bother to visit my website? As the Brits like to say, not bloody likely.

Over time this same package management system will also provide
a handy way for Microsoft to exert further control over software.
It's always been an open platform for 3rd-party developers, while
Apple have controlled the means of writing and distributing software
on Macs. On cellphones they take a 30% cut. Naturally MS wants in on
that action. They're already pushing their store. Winget is set up
nicely to dovetail with the store over time, with all MS software
ending up as UWP/Metro trinket apps and MS getting a cut.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 5/16/2024 12:06 AM, T wrote:

On 5/15/24 04:18, Newyana2 wrote:

I use CrystalDiskInfo

I use it on customers with non-samsung drives.
I like its look and feel.  Easy for a non-techie
to understand too.

And open source. If I remember correctly, Samsung
was one of the first companies to break XP compatibility,
which is odd for a utility that only deals in hardware info.
I think that's why I ended up finding CDI. I generally only
buy Samsung SSDs, but I don't know of any reason to prefer
their software. And on my latest machine, actually, I
have a Samsung SSD and a WD M2.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Paul wrote:

On 5/15/2024 2:13 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:

Hey Paul, don't go scaring us with AI. The world's got enough doom-merchants frightening us with that forecast.
You have an insight into these boxes of tricks that might save us all. You could be like John Connor in the Terminator movies, and lead us against the machines.

This fear of AI is generations older than this recent one. Ever read scifi books from the 1950s? Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Philip K Dick, H P Lovecraft? I particularly love Asimov's "I Robot".

Ed

The scariest one for me, is not the one that the robot dog
with the gun uses.

It's the AI they released yesterday, which uses voice
communication and *it tells Dad Jokes*.

Now, THAT would be unnerving for sure.

It's one thing for the robot dog to shoot people,
but PLEASE don't let it tell Dad Jokes. That would
be a form of torture. Imagine having to make up
chatter to keep an AI happy.

Paul

If you see a dog with a gun, it's probably hoping you'll throw it for it
to go fetch.
If you see a man with one, however, hide. Homo sapiens is nasty; canis domesticus is nice.
If you see a robot with a gun, well it's probably on sale in the Toy
Section. Unless, of course, it's got a positronic brain founded on
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positronic_brain

Ed

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Ed Cryer brought next idea :

If Firefox had done a step-by-step update, it would have gone through about 30 gradations; it was that far out of date.

a couple of years ago I took note of those steps, starting from a
version quite old, maybe 36 or even less: FF didn't do all the single
version updates of course, but it was a loOong task to get the latest

--
/-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ /\/\ /\/\ /-\ T /-\
-=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- -=- - -=-
........... [ al lavoro ] ...........

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

RWQgQ3J5ZXIgd3JvdGU6DQo+IFBhdWwgd3JvdGU6DQo+PiBPbiA1LzE1LzIwMjQgMjoxMyBQ TSwgRWQgQ3J5ZXIgd3JvdGU6DQo+Pg0KPj4+DQo+Pj4gSGV5IFBhdWwsIGRvbid0IGdvIHNj YXJpbmcgdXMgd2l0aCBBSS4gVGhlIHdvcmxkJ3MgZ290IGVub3VnaCANCj4+PiBkb29tLW1l cmNoYW50cyBmcmlnaHRlbmluZyB1cyB3aXRoIHRoYXQgZm9yZWNhc3QuDQo+Pj4gWW91IGhh dmUgYW4gaW5zaWdodCBpbnRvIHRoZXNlIGJveGVzIG9mIHRyaWNrcyB0aGF0IG1pZ2h0IHNh dmUgdXMgDQo+Pj4gYWxsLiBZb3UgY291bGQgYmUgbGlrZSBKb2huIENvbm5vciBpbiB0aGUg VGVybWluYXRvciBtb3ZpZXMsIGFuZCBsZWFkIA0KPj4+IHVzIGFnYWluc3QgdGhlIG1hY2hp bmVzLg0KPj4+DQo+Pj4gVGhpcyBmZWFyIG9mIEFJIGlzIGdlbmVyYXRpb25zIG9sZGVyIHRo YW4gdGhpcyByZWNlbnQgb25lLiBFdmVyIHJlYWQgDQo+Pj4gc2NpZmkgYm9va3MgZnJvbSB0 aGUgMTk1MHM/IElzYWFjIEFzaW1vdiwgUmF5IEJyYWRidXJ5LCBQaGlsaXAgSyANCj4+PiBE aWNrLCBIIFAgTG92ZWNyYWZ0PyBJIHBhcnRpY3VsYXJseSBsb3ZlIEFzaW1vdidzICJJIFJv Ym90Ii4NCj4+Pg0KPj4+IEVkDQo+Pg0KPj4gVGhlIHNjYXJpZXN0IG9uZSBmb3IgbWUsIGlz IG5vdCB0aGUgb25lIHRoYXQgdGhlIHJvYm90IGRvZw0KPj4gd2l0aCB0aGUgZ3VuIHVzZXMu DQo+Pg0KPj4gSXQncyB0aGUgQUkgdGhleSByZWxlYXNlZCB5ZXN0ZXJkYXksIHdoaWNoIHVz ZXMgdm9pY2UNCj4+IGNvbW11bmljYXRpb24gYW5kICppdCB0ZWxscyBEYWQgSm9rZXMqLg0K Pj4NCj4+IE5vdywgVEhBVCB3b3VsZCBiZSB1bm5lcnZpbmcgZm9yIHN1cmUuDQo+Pg0KPj4g SXQncyBvbmUgdGhpbmcgZm9yIHRoZSByb2JvdCBkb2cgdG8gc2hvb3QgcGVvcGxlLA0KPj4g YnV0IFBMRUFTRSBkb24ndCBsZXQgaXQgdGVsbCBEYWQgSm9rZXMuIFRoYXQgd291bGQNCj4+ IGJlIGEgZm9ybSBvZiB0b3J0dXJlLiBJbWFnaW5lIGhhdmluZyB0byBtYWtlIHVwDQo+PiBj aGF0dGVyIHRvIGtlZXAgYW4gQUkgaGFwcHkuDQo+Pg0KPj4gwqDCoMKgIFBhdWwNCj4+DQo+ Pg0KPiANCj4gSWYgeW91IHNlZSBhIGRvZyB3aXRoIGEgZ3VuLCBpdCdzIHByb2JhYmx5IGhv cGluZyB5b3UnbGwgdGhyb3cgaXQgZm9yIGl0IA0KPiB0byBnbyBmZXRjaC4NCj4gSWYgeW91 IHNlZSBhIG1hbiB3aXRoIG9uZSwgaG93ZXZlciwgaGlkZS4gSG9tbyBzYXBpZW5zIGlzIG5h c3R5OyBjYW5pcyANCj4gZG9tZXN0aWN1cyBpcyBuaWNlLg0KPiBJZiB5b3Ugc2VlIGEgcm9i b3Qgd2l0aCBhIGd1biwgd2VsbCBpdCdzIHByb2JhYmx5IG9uIHNhbGUgaW4gdGhlIFRveSAN Cj4gU2VjdGlvbi4gVW5sZXNzLCBvZiBjb3Vyc2UsIGl0J3MgZ290IGEgcG9zaXRyb25pYyBi cmFpbiBmb3VuZGVkIG9uIA0KPiBBc2ltb3YncyBUaHJlZSBMYXdzIG9mIFJvYm90aWNzLg0K PiBodHRwczovL2VuLndpa2lwZWRpYS5vcmcvd2lraS9Qb3NpdHJvbmljX2JyYWluDQo+IA0K PiBFZA0KPiANCj4gDQo+IA0KDQpUaGUgd29yc3Qgb2YgQUkgc3VyZmFjZWQgeWVhcnMgYWdv LCBhbmQgaXQgcGVzdGVycyBtb2Rlcm4gc29jaWV0eSBsaWtlIGEgDQp2aXJ1cy4NCkhlcmUn cyBhbiBleGFtcGxlLCB0byBndWlkZSB5b3UgaW4uDQoNCkkgY2FsbCBhIHJlc3RhdXJhbnQg dG8gYm9vayBhIHRhYmxlIGZvciB0aHJlZS4NCkkgZ2V0IGFuIG9wdGlvbiBsaXN0LCBuYXZp Z2F0ZSB0aHJvdWdoIGFsbCB0aGF0IHRvIGEgcGlwZWQgbXV6YWMsIA0KZXZlbnR1YWxseSBn ZXR0aW5nIGEgaHVtYW4uDQpTaGUgc25hcmxzIGRvd24gdGhlIGxpbmU7IHdlYXJpbmcgYSBo ZWFkc2V0IHRoYXQgYWxsb3dzIG9ubHkgYSBzbWFsbCANCnBlcmNlbnRhZ2Ugb2YgaGVyIHdv cmRzIHRvIGNvbWUgdGhyb3VnaCwgd2hpbGUgaW4gdGhlIGJhY2tncm91bmQgc2hlJ3MgDQp0 YXBwaW5nIGNvbXB1dGVyIGtleXMuDQpJIHRlbGwgaGVyIHRvIHB1dCBoZXIgbW91dGggY2xv c2VyIHRvIHRoZSBtaWNyb3Bob25lLCB3aGljaCBzaGUgZG9lcyBmb3IgDQphIHNob3J0IHdo aWxlLCBidXQgdGhlbiBsZWFucyBiYWNrIGFnYWluLiBJIGtlZXAgaGF2aW5nIHRvIHRlbGwg aGVyIHRvIA0KcmVwZWF0Lg0KSGVyIGF0dGVudGlvbiBpcyB0byB0aGUgY29tcHV0ZXIsIHdo ZXJlIHNoZSBoYXMgdG8gaW5wdXQgbXkgcGhvbmUgDQpudW1iZXI7IG5vdCB0byBtZSwgbm90 IHRvIHRoZSBodW1hbi4NCkFuZCBzbyB3ZSBwcm9ncmVzcyB3aXRoICJzYXkgdGhhdCBhZ2Fp biIuICBVbnRpbCBldmVudHVhbGx5IHNoZSdzIGlucHV0IA0KbXkgZGV0YWlscywgYW5kIHRo ZSB0ZXh0IGFuZCBlbWFpbCBoYXZlIHNob3QgZG93biB0aGUgbGluZXMgdG8gbXkgDQpkZXZp Y2VzLiBBbmQgaW4gb25lIG9mIHRoZW0gaXMgYSBnZW5lcmFsIHNwYW0gbWVzc2FnZSB3aXRo IGFuIA0KInVuc3Vic2NyaWJlIGZyb20gZnV0dXJlIHBvc3RpbmdzIiBsaW5rLg0KDQpJdCdz IGFsbCBzbyBhbm5veWluZy4gU28gYW5ub3lpbmcgdGhhdCBpdCBtYWtlcyB5b3UgcmVncmV0 IGV2ZXIgc3RhcnRpbmcgDQp0aGUgZGFtbmVkIGNvbm5lY3Rpb247IGFuZCB3b25kZXJpbmcg aG93IHRoZSBoZWxsIHRoZSB3aG9sZSB1c2VsZXNzIA0Kc3lzdGVtIGp1c3QgZG9lc24ndCBj b2xsYXBzZSBpbW1lZGlhdGVseS4NCg0KRWQNCg0KDQo=

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)