Posts by Chronos 1247 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Oct 2007
So when does Mediatek gets its wrists slapped for GPL violations and being about as transparent as a black hole? Oh, wait, I suspect that'll be "never" since they're home grown rather than being bourgeois Americans.
I haven't forgotten Allwinner, either. So when do we get those kernel sources, lads?
Bloody cheek...
...store it, mine it, monetise it?
Damn you, now I'm going to have that tune in my head all day, along with images of the animatronic Chuckie with his face peeled off.
To keep it on topic, if you don't want it mined, don't give it out in the first place. Think before you fill in that form, "do these people really need this information? Can these people validate this information?" If the answer is no to either, simply don't fill it in or falsify. Honesty may be the best policy but sometimes you have to fight fire with fire. If you drop a dead cow down the well of your digital footprint they're going to have to stop slurping the water from it eventually.
Tie it all together, make it mandatory, farm it out. Eric Blair never in his wildest nightmares saw this one coming. It'll be under the guise of saving energy to start with, i.e. your IoT lightbulb isn't sensing any movement in that room so can safely switch off, not a huge saving assuming efficient LED, but fifty thousand of them doing the same thing adds up. Then you move on to appliances like washers and driers timing their runs for off-peak demand signalled by the meter, which people like because it's cheaper and automatic. All very sensible.
Then your 'fridge gets connected to a supermarket on-line ordering system which lets the do-gooders gradually remove all the sugar and salt from the stuff you like until everything tastes worse than the box it comes in, your telly starts recording stuff you watch most frequently (throwing the odd bit o' propaganda in for good measure when TPTB decide it would be nice, along with facial profiling to see what you react to the most) and your car uploads its geo tracks for the day to the road pricing initiative when the net goes quiet. Get them used to everything happening for them and, suddenly, they're paying no attention to what it's all actually doing. Slowly, oh so slowly, you lose control of your life.
Then you scrape the data and profile folks. Ker-fuckin'-ching, not to mention being a snooper's paradise.
Do I sense a new Dirk Pitt adventure? "GERONTIC: Pitt and Giordino discover a ghost ship filled with highly sensitive 1940s communications technology and must race a group of international whistleblowers known only as 'The Vultures' to protect its secrets."
It's a wreck, guys. A ghost ship floats about on its own without a crew. More than that, it's a deliberate wreck. The bloody navy sank it on purpose. Perlmutter would have known exactly where, when, what ordnance was used and the Captain's family tree without so much as demanding a bacon butty. It would be a very short book.
AC: It sounds more like something for the ITU to scratch their heads over but given the scale of the problem that might be as far as they get. How would *you* fix this without breaking the PSTN?
All very interesting technical points. Personally I'd give subscribers the choice between rejecting dubious calls with fine-grained controls, with the caveat that they may be barring legit traffic at their own risk, or continuing with the broken-arsed mess in case they need the old "features."
Of course, none of this disproves my original assertion that it is the broken-arsed mess that is the core of the problem and the problem will remain unless someone with a little more interoperability-fu than I comes up with a solution. If anything, it has provided proof of the issue.
ACOur CPs can't force anyone in Mumbai to send an ID signal. So if there is no caller ID what are CPs to do? They can't arbitrarily block anonymous incoming international calls as that would be interfering with your service. Okay so perhaps they will allow you to 'opt out' of anonymous calls. But then what happens if your granny is on holiday in Mumbai and needs help and she just happens to be using a phone that doesn't transmit caller ID information?
Precisely that. If I use *227# to signal my unwillingness to receive anonymous calls, it should apply to all anonymous calls, whether wilfully or technically castrated of CID. Granny will just have to get in touch with the consulate, I'm afraid.
Which leads on to the second part of the problem which is that quite a few organisations that deal with sensitive personal information like to withhold their number. GP surgeries often do for example.
Good point, which is why this needs to be discussed properly. I'm not suggesting my rant above is a fully-arsed solution but it makes a much better starting point than the mess we have right now. It may be possible, just as an example, to allow certain government and healthcare departments to bypass anonymous call barring. I'm pretty sure the police are already able to do so if needed. This must not be extended to surveys, market research or political parties, however.
I shall say it again, the legislators are barking up the wrong tree. The telcos need to enforce caller ID and anonymous call blocking properly, not the half-arsed 10 specific numbers and maybe block anonymous calls if they're in the UK, or maybe not, depending on wind direction and the position of Mars. Caller ID spoofing should be an offence too. If the caller is in darkest Mumbai, the caller ID should damned well say so. Translating the different caller ID schemas is not rocket science for an industry that can now cram video on demand down a flaky fifty year old pair of copper wires.
The problem remains that cold calling, scams and fake tech support calls are lucrative for the telcos. Until that is addressed, this will continue. Giving the subscriber a little control over who they allow to make their 'phone ring would be a good start, too. Yeah, yeah, TruCall. It's not enough to expect granny to pay for a box to stop her getting scammed and mithered every five seconds because some telco wants the termination charges.
PH1: Apparemtly the Sata port is connected to the usb controller
No, it isn't.
[ 1.561275] sw_ahci sw_ahci.0: controller can't do PMP, turning off CAP_PMP
[ 1.572528] sw_ahci sw_ahci.0: forcing PORTS_IMPL to 0x1
[ 1.585288] sw_ahci sw_ahci.0: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 1 ports 3 Gbps 0x1 impl platform mode
[ 1.600184] sw_ahci sw_ahci.0: flags: ncq sntf pm led clo only pio slum part ccc
Incidentally, the controller on the A20 *can* do port multiplication with a hack but it then needs the PM connected all the time - it won't run with just a drive connected without removal of the hack.
Video acceleration is doable, Henry. The 2D accelerated fbturbo driver is a doddle to install. You need UMP and the mali kernel module for 3D OpenGL-ES which is sod-all use on Linux at the moment but a shim layer and a GLU implementation exist to translate a subset of GL functions to GLES. Yes, it's faff, but it is available and is slowly finding its way into distros. The fact that the much more expensive Cubietruck (comparison to the cubieboard2 is wrong since the CB2 only has 100mbps Ethernet) uses the same chipset helps enormously, although the CT has 2GB of memory and a VGA connector.
There exists an XBMC image with acceleration enabled.
The original Banana Pi has gigabit Ethernet but no 802.11 on board. The Pro has both, along with an extended R-Pi "compatible" 40 pi GPIO connector. There's also an BPi-R1 router board with a four port switch and space for a 2.5" HD on board.
GbE tops out around 600mbps in tests here which, although isn't quite as fast as desktop adapters, is still a substantial improvement on 100baseTX. Downside is a dynamic MAC address on the Ethernet, so if you're doing DHCP with static leases you'll need to hardcode a MAC somewhere, either in the fex/script.bin or the OS itself.
If you don't want the snot green desktop, give Bananian a go. It doesn't make assumptions, just gives you a nice, almost pure Debian install to build upon. Repos are pure Debian armhf, no funny business. Accelerated 2D/GL-ES/video is a bit of a ballache but is doable if you follow the instructions on the sunxi-linux wiki.
Oh, and as for "against the ethos of the R-Pi" perhaps it is, but you still get dual core ARMv7 with NEON, 1GB of RAM (minus graphics and stream decode) and SATA on *less* power than the original R-Pi B. The B+ has a switching regulator setup rather than the linear setup of the original B, so it a little more frugal and beats the Banana, but it's still only single core 512MB.
Posted, unsurprisingly, from a Banana Pi :-)
I wrote a short essay on my first experiences with Windows 8 and the wonders of shutdown. There may be a few swearies in there.
The eVic has had a puff counter from day one. It's one of the most annoying features ever to be built into an e-cig. IIRC, the Darwin, Evolv's first foray into variable power, also had a puff counter.
As for nicotine being "more addictive than cocaine" and other nonsensical utterances, that may well be true when combined with additives to enhance that effect along with MAOIs and other naturally occurring substances in tobacco but, on its own, it's about as dangerous and addictive as caffeine.
As for PM and the other big tobacco players (no pun intended), most vapers are happy to be free of their clutches so, frankly, they can just sod off.
Of course, most customers won't notice the change. Heaven knows, they calmly accept the conversion of the once-open Internet with the Web as its interface into a dizzying array of nearly worthless single-function apps.
In much the same way as you have just described hypertext transfer the be-all and end-all of the Internet? Oh, the irony...
...without the tin cans and other screening elements this huge target needs to actually be able to operate. Given that the Brylcreem brigade scuppered the last attempt at updating our carriers and left the way open for the down-sizing of the tin cans, perhaps the budget for rebuilding our screening force should come from them?
Natch, it'll never happen. Aerial superiority is another of those phrases they like to throw out like it trumps everything else, never mind they had to move Singapore to make their case that we don't need to rule the waves. One wonders how the Falklands would have turned out had the Invincible and her Harriers not been available.
Good luck to HMS Queen Elizabeth and her crew. I have a feeling they're going to need it
/me raises glass to a willing foe and sea room...
VRH: "With the practical demise of KDE and Koffice there is no second implementation for ODF anyway so it fails to be an open standard."
What? There are three suites I can name off the top of my head that support ODF: OpenOffice, LibreOffice and the Android viewer. None of these solutions require a king's ransom for the general public to access, so they are both free as in freedom and free as in beer. A free standard simply provides a interoperability - there is no critical mass dictated to qualify as one.
KDE's current issue is their insistence on making every back-end, including those which most definitely don't need any more than a flat file with a few lines in it, into a bloody database and then changing the schema every time someone farts. For the vast majority of users whose OCD doesn't stretch to configuration, back-ends, process economy and wanting their e-mail client to work after a minor point upgrade, KDE is alive and kicking.
BYW, the local Milton Keynes Amateur Radio Club were also ask to leave as they did not fit into the new vision of BP.
They were displaced by the RSGB's "National Radio Centre," which is a fancy name for an advertising hut for the major manufacturers of chequebook tat. The RSGB now do exactly what MKARS did - only badly, with all the soul, intellect and appeal of a putrescent deceased rat - with the sole intention of parting as many fools from the contents of their wallets as possible, as is the RSGB's wont. MKARS showed the public that amateur radio could be interesting. The RSGB simply see it as an income stream.
These two organisations were made for each other, it seems.
...and I'm not talking 4k, either. I mean content as in value. Why shell out on yet another new device to watch the same old crap? Dad's Army looks just as good now as it did back then, in whatever format, simply because it's *quality*. Britain's Got (no) Talent, however, will just be four times as hideous in 4k.
As usual, Orlowski cuts through the bull and hype and tells it like it is. It's akin to releasing a bestseller with blank pages for you to fill in yourself.
Let's be honest, though, the TV we already have is dull, dreary, repetitive, shallow, judgmental propaganda aimed at the lowest common denominator. Can you really see savvy people paying for more of it? Christ, I might be tempted to give 'em a fiver if they make the existing stuff go away for a couple of hours a day.
Of course, they will get their payoff anyway. What's in it for Google? The same currency you pay them with now: They get valuable data on your interests. The hype just makes it easier for them.
AC: I was with you until you wrote this. As a non-smoker, I still think back in horror to the time when I could happily be forced to passively smoke someone else's fumes and cough my guts out at any place and time!
I was hoping that would provoke that reply. Sorry to have manipulated you but that nicely leads me into another rant.
There isn't a smoker on the planet who will deny that smoking is harmful. We know it is but once it has hold of you it's very difficult for the head to overrule the body's needs. Until personal vapourisers arrived - e-cigs, if you like. I bought a couple of CE4 eGo kits in January. The second day I just forgot to light up and haven't burnt a strand of tobacco since. This is after trying all the pharmaceuticals and cessation "aids."
You would almost think, given the data about the place on just how much use these NRT products are, that the entire anti-smoking rhetoric is more to be seen to be doing something than actually doing it. After all, smokers die younger and the only people who pay more tax than smokers are motorists. Less pension, more income. What's not to like?
Now look what's happening. I agree you shouldn't have to suffer because of my habits. I agree that smokers' sidestream emissions are harmful to others. I'm sure many other smokers do, too.
What I don't agree with is the removal of choice. It seems Dr. Clive Bates, one of the founders of ASH who were so rabidly anti-smoking that it used to look like a form of zealotry, agrees.
Please note: I haven't stopped using nicotine. I do not intend to stop using nicotine. These things aren't medicine because medicine cures a disease. I'm not ill. I'm enjoying my nicotine just fine thank you very much.
A broad coalition of ordinary people today released a report detailing the evils of unenlightened halfwits in ivory towers releasing reports on things of which they have no personal experience.
The report details several harmful behavioural traits these reports cause such as anger, tendency to damage inanimate objects and the overpowering urge to strangle the living shit out of yet another do-gooder incapable of minding their own fucking business.
"MYOFB's" chairperson today said "If we allow these people to continue spouting crap from atop their high horses, time will come when everything down to and including farting in public will attract either heavy taxation or be banned," followed by a loud burst of the trouser trumpet to illustrate his point.
Non-experts welcomed this report with reactions ranging from "About time, too" to "Fuck off, I'm trying to do my bloody shopping here! Sodding surveys..." As we were running away from that bloke, a small group of people standing in the rain outside the pub also gave their opinion on the dangers of unrestrained do-gooding:
"We're smokers. There used to be lots of us but the do-gooders told us we were evil and had to stand outside. Just go take a look inside the pub and you'll find there's nobody in there at all now. This is what they want - to ruin everything even remotely joyful."
Customer on the 'phone, I'm the build manager for our company which was also a VISP. Being technical, I was also second-level support for the VISP arm.
Customer: Your <expletive> Internet is down again!
Me: I'm showing no outage at present. Do you mind checking a few things for me before I call our datacentre?
Customer: I need my e-mail for my business! I'm losing <expletive> money here!
At this point we launch into a diagnostic session where I find that her modem is connected to the fax line, the modem is responding nicely to AT commands and the PPP setup is correct as far as I can tell. Customer is getting increasingly vehement that our dial-up is mams vertical, although my console says it's fine.
Customer: <long trail of expletives randomly laced with other words that make no sense>
While she's swearing at me, I'm on the other line to BT checking her fax line. BT faults comes back with a very interesting cause. Back to line 1 where she's still expounding on my ancestry, habits and probable fate.
Customer: My business is suffering because of your <expletive> incompetence! You're a <expletive> and I'm going to sue you for loss of earnings!
Me: Have you tried paying the bill for your fax line recently?
Cue tumbleweeds. Sometimes you're the statue, occasionally you're the pigeon.
S: BTW, it is possible to do this *and* innoculate your children.
Precisely. I was prioritising, not excluding.
With regard to the comment upthread, yes, my son does question me and my place in this household. It's his right as an individual to do so and disallowing that would be hypocritical in the extreme. What would also be hypocritical would be to allow him to think that power is fair, so quite often I win by default even if I'm wrong. It prepares him for the real world where this sort of thing is the norm.
No, I'm just sceptical, end of. Bullshit is everywhere.The first thing I do when faced with one of these "truths" is follow the money. If it leads to one of the usual suspects, well, what's new there?
The best thing you can do for your kids isn't vaccinate them, it's to teach them to question everything.
SG: I've tried tint2, but can't think of a use for it additional to those two.
OpenDesktop compliant notification area is one of the reasons I use it and, even then, it's in autohide mode. I use Pidgin a lot and having it iconify to the notification area saves desktop space. I could use Openbox's dock, but it's a bit ugly and doesn't play well with Twinview, which I need to allow me to have gschem and a datasheet in front of me at the same time without having to wear out Alt and Tab. It also gives you a twinview screen specific taskbar which C-D doesn't. Also indispensable is Tilda, having got very used to Yakuake on the F10 key when using KDE.
SG: Plus, for some time, I've felt that Gnome developers in particular have lost the plot. Like storing all configuration information in a single binary file. Fine until it gets broken, just like the Windows registry.
Those who will not learn from Windows are doomed to repeat its mistakes. The other problem I've found with all DEs is dependency on a particular ABI, annoying when you use a kernel and userland other than GNU/Linux as I do, which you touched upon with volume management. Solid in KDE takes this one step further into the realms of madness.
The UI should provide just enough to get work done, manage windows, interface with the underlying OS and then stay the hell out of the way. DEs are increasingly forgetting this prime directive.
I've gone even further and ditched anything that professes to be a "Desktop Environment." XFCE and Enlightenment was looked at and dismissed for carrying the same disease. My session now consists of Openbox, Tint2 and Cairo-dock. What did it for me was bloody Akonadi crapping itself every five minutes and the huge swathe of shit I had to recompile every time KDE developers so much as moved their mouses. Yeah, yeah, cclient, delete ~/.local/akonadi (or something), do you want a refund, blah blah blah, not good enough. Losing the flagship e-mail client on every point release was not good publicity. Stop this nonsense forthwith!
On that note, a huge thank you to the developers of Sylpheed and Claws for producing a decent client that works without some awful, flaky RDBMS/SQL backend.
This is, IMHO, more to do with the ability to insert snooping systems into telco kit rather than the reports going the wrong way. The least of us know how to monitor and block such things. The real issue is that the USians have absolutely no control over ZTE and Huawei and no access to their codebase so back-doors and other such technological internal rogerings will be harder to implement.
Sunshine, you're the enemy they're really concerned about, not the Chinese.
This huge smorgasbord of money making for fat cats on Olympic committees and commercial sponsors ceased to interest me, oh, let's say a day after it was "awarded" to London. It was probably sooner than that but let's give it the benefit of the doubt. It's costing the taxpayer millions and we're going to see very little from it. Worse, it angered me that some poor sod legally and innocently riding his bike got ape-mauled and slung around by the idiots who think that somehow a symbol is more important than civil liberties. We should leave symbols to the symbol minded.
Beer. Too much of that makes you sick, too.
No, not the mad conspiracy/gun bloke, Extended Support Release which, according to the roadmap, is good until V17's release, at which point V17 becomes ESR. Also available in Thunderbird flavour. YKIMS.
Nicely hidden there, Mozilla. We'll always find these things eventually, though.
...that we were promised when the coalition took power. Just goes to show you that George Carlin was absolutely right when he said that this shit we do every four or five years to shuffle things around means zip and is just an illusion to make you think you have control. That election shit? Doesn't mean a fucking thing. The real power lies with the lobbyists, corporations and civil servants; those don't change across parliamentary terms.
Try not to be an annoying, petty, pedantic little nutsack for the rest of your life, eh? Have a day off. Stalk Stalk is what people have been calling this company since 2008 and the Phorm fiasco.
SWAG: It used to mean screwed without a GUI. Now it seems they're screwed even with one.
MCSE: Must consult someone experienced.
DOn't but cheap Chinese shit, no matter how cheap.....
I see your trollface but it's still utter tosh. How is a setuid binary on a ZTE any different to, say, Carrier IQ being present and put there by the network?
Is it 'coz they is Chinese? I thought we were supposed to be above xenophobia these days...
This is why those of us who care about our prvacy root our phones: Without root, these suid shenanigans have a free hand. With root, a remount rw and a chmod/rm cures the problem without having to wait for the fix.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
