* Posts by Graham Dawson

2675 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Mar 2007

The only way is Ethics: UK Lords fret about AI 'moral panic'

Graham Dawson Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Steve

Oh no, he has a different political view to me, he must be a fucking moron.

Google's not-Linux OS documentation cracks box open at last

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Call me a cynic....

Not for much longer, I'd wager. Now that oracle has set the precedent that replicating an api is copyright infringement, Google can sue amazon for their play services stand-in.

My Tibetan digital detox lasted one morning, how about yours?

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Fifty shades of tea

I prefer George orwell's view on the matter.

http://www.booksatoz.com/witsend/tea/orwell.htm

Happy as Larry: Why Oracle won the Google Java Android case

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Strictly speaking, you don't need a license for the actual protocol, which is just words sent down a wire. You could write yuppie own applications that use the activesync protocol with one another. The license is to use the protocol with Microsoft services.

Of course, by writing applications that are compliant with the protocol, you are writing applications that may use Microsoft's services, with the implication that they will eventually be used in that way, and so ms will more than lively requires a license from you.

Anyway, the difference between a protocol and an api is scope. A protocol is language agnostic. An api is the interface for a particular language.

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Creating APIs isn't easy

An api is a phone book: A list of places to which an application can connect in order to communicate.

Phone books require a great deal of effort to compile and maintain.

They are not subject to copyright protection. Neither should be an api.

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Andrew, in your haste to celebrate thus outcome, you are overlooking the key fact: they copied the api. Not code. Not software. A list of function names.

APIs are now subject to copyright. The means by which software interacts with other siftware is now subject to copyright. The ability to develop an api-compatible implementation of a piece if software, in order to compete in an open market, is now subject to copyright licensing.

If i wanted to make an os to compete with windows, that was compatible with windows api calls so that windows exrcutables could run on it, i would now require a license from microsoft.

If i want to build a phone os that can run android aps, i now have to license the list of function names.

I would require a license from my competitor in order to compete with them.

I really don't think you have grasped what is at stake here.

World celebrates, cyber-snoops cry as TLS 1.3 internet crypto approved

Graham Dawson Silver badge
Coat

Re: Great article! Security = effort, simple..

If that thing is a pair of shoes...

Whois? More like WHOWAS: Domain database on verge of collapse over EU privacy

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: An open registry of who owns domains is important - SWAT?

French police are notoriously heavy-handed and heavily armed to boot.

Android Oreo mic drop fury: Google ups tempo for Pixel mobe audio fix

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Re: Not Good

At least they acknowledged the problem. Could have just told people they were talking to it wrong.

UK.gov urged to ensure punters can 'still roam like at home' after Brexit

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Three already has their at-home roaming package to a whole bunch of destinations outside the eu. It's one of their USPs, one i found particularly handy when visiting the us. I doubt they'll change out post brexit.

Can't certainly say that for the others, but i suspect they love having customers more than anything else.

Let's Encrypt updates certificate automation, adds splats

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Which bit is dangerous? The wildcard?

London Mayor calls for social networks and sharing economy to stop harming society

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: "our contribution to the overall health of the public conversation".

Former neo-Nazi has swastika tattoo removed after befriending black police officer.

What do you know, turns out it works after all.

Europe plans special tax for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Why?

@anothercynic the eea only implements a very small subset of regulations from the eu, most of which aren't even generated by the eu anyway, but rather at the international level, such as at the unece, iso or wto. They have none of the requirements for harmonisation of national policies or regulation of internal markets unrelated to their relationship to the eu. The price is that they have less-than-unfettered access to the single market. However they have nearly none of the tariff and non-tariff barriers that a third country faces when trading with the eu and still have freedom of trade policy with the rest of the world.

Had saner minds prevailed, the first words from May's mouth after her appointment as pm would have been "we are switching to the efta and remaining in the eea until we can work out a complete solution". Unfortunately we are governed by idiots who think, as you say, that they can have their cake and sell it to the highest bidder too.

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Why?

The customs union is a red herring. All that does is tie us to a common set of tariffs and trading agreements with the rest of the world. It says nothing about trade between its members, as turkey found to its cosy when it joined a customs union with the eu. Trade between turkey and the eu faces significant barriers, both in terms of tariffs and quotas, and in terms of non-tariff barriers such as detailed border inspections and shirty customs officials.

The bit that leads to "frictionless trade", as I think the buzzword us now, is the single market. As an EEA member, Norway is a member of the single market, but not a member of the customs union. The result is that Norway enjoys nearly no barriers to trade with the rest of the EEA, but can set its own trade relationship with the rest of the world, rather than being tired to the common customs code of the customs union.

Bright idea: Make H when the Sun shines, and H when it doesn't

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Molten salt ?

No. They hit a small problem of the salt solidifying in the pipework overnight. The salt also crystallises on the exchanger and acts as an insulator. They're a non-starter, sadly.

The Gemini pocket PC is shipping and we've got one. This is what it's like

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Re: How

A fancy watch is next on my list once the gemini had arrived. It's a combo that will serve very well, I think.

BOFH: We want you to know you have our full support

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Choices, choices...

And best of all, BOFH the doll. *tug* "it's in the airtight tape safe, right behind the currently open door with very easy hinges and no interior lock."

Ain't he adorable?

Graham Dawson Silver badge

It's called the pound key because of what you do do it in frustration after hours of endless twisting menus, all alike.

It's been 50 years since those damn dirty apes took the planet by storm

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Only a Moran or a Monkey could have written that....

It's 50 years to the day since the film first screened. What's odd about that timing?

UK PM Theresa May orders review of online abuse laws in suffrage centenary speech

Graham Dawson Silver badge

There's also a difference between a serious threat and an edgelord using anything that will get a reaction.

How's this for a stocking filler next year? El Reg catches up with Gemini

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Re: Thanks

T'is the season of miracles.

Graham Dawson Silver badge

More like an N900, one of which I still own for nostalgia's sake. Pretty sure I still have the N810 lurking around here as well...

Pest control: Eggheads work to help RoboBees dodge that fly-swatter

Graham Dawson Silver badge

I'm sure those are a myth.

Huawei Mate 10 Pro: The unfashionable estate car wants to go to town

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Huawei makes excellent phones!

Mate smoke, don't breathe this!

AI hype surge numbers, robo-radiologists, Apple voxels, and lots more

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Huuman Err

GONK

Pokémon GO caused hundreds of deaths, increased crashes

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Don't mix virtual reality with the real world

Airsoft and paintball have got a few decades on your hypothetical horror story.

BOFH: The trouble with, er, windows installs

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: I can see a new Facilities trend...

xtra-pivoting?

OnePlus 5T is like the little sister you always feared was the favourite

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Fingerprint sensor on the rear

Touching a hands free one is still legal.

Chainmail tires re-invent the wheel to get future NASA rovers rolling

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: So how do you heat it?

Or they could alloy the an appropriate ratio of nickel and titanium to ensure its attains superelasticity at the desired temperature range - something they have obviously done, as evidenced by the behavior of the wheel in the video.

UK's surveillance regime challenged in landmark European court hearing

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Yes, they do.

Fines for crossing roads while TXTing enacted in Honolulu

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Need in UK

No it isn't. Bicycles are legally road vehicles and should be used as such. That means obeying traffic rules and signs.

Phone crypto shut FBI out of 7,000 devices, complains chief g-man

Graham Dawson Silver badge

@Lee D Re: Weak Logic

We aren't.

The ECHR isn't part of the EU. EU member states are independent signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights - by virtue of their membership of the Council of Europe - which establishes the Court amongst other things.

Other notable signatories include Turkey and Russia, for what it's worth.

But regardless, we aren't leaving the ECHR.

Google slides text message 2FA a little closer to the door

Graham Dawson Silver badge

The article is wrong. Google sends a coda via text which you enter as part of the log-in process.

The insecurity stems from the fact that it's possible - however remotely - to intercept the content of that text.

Google faces $10k-a-day fines if it defies court order to hand over folks' private overseas email

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: How nice of them

It's getting difficult to tell google and microsoft apart these days.

Is that a bulge in your pocket or... do you have an iPhone 8+? Apple's batteries look swell

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Obviously they're receiving it wrong.

Foiled again! Brit military minds splash cash on killing satellites with... food wrapping?

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Re: What about...

It's not the cost, it's the weight. Every m/s you gain at launch is so many kilos extra of payload you can loft to orbit for a given weight of fuel.

Patch alert! Easy-to-exploit flaw in Linux kernel rated 'high risk'

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Yeah but

I misread that as ASMR.

Though, if I'm honest, I wouldn't be surprised if systemd had a "module" that whispered gently in your ear to send you to sleep at night.

Facebook U-turn: React, other libraries freed from unloved patent license

Graham Dawson Silver badge

First time anyone has had reason to say that in years.

Google sued by Gab over Play Store booting

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Then they should remove twitter. It has the exact same issue of loudmouth trolls and hategroups (like isis) that was used to justify removing gab. If one is against the rules, both are. If one isn't, neither are.

That's the core of gabs case. Google are using their monopoly control of the app market on android to pick winners and losers between otherwise legitimate competitors.

'Don't Google Google, Googling Google is wrong', says Google

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@Spanners Re: Additional comma

Is called an Oxford comma because it is required in Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers at the University Press, Oxford, aka The Oxford Style Manual.

Graham Dawson Silver badge

What about spam spam spam chips and spam?

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Perfectly acceptable in a list.

Atlassian kills God, rebrands as a mountain, a structurally unsound 'A' or a high five

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Perhaps they're two joss sticks leaning against each other

Your upvotes are at 11 as of this post. I want to upvote more, but...

Give staff privacy at work, Euro human rights court tells bosses

Graham Dawson Silver badge

The echr is not an eu institution! This ruling applies to any member of the convention, not just the eu, and we will remain part of that convention when we leave the eu.

UK.gov unveils six areas to pilot full-fat fibre, and London ain't on the list

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Two Britains?

Yes. Very special.

Brazilians waxed: Uni's Tor relay node booted after harvesting .onions

Graham Dawson Silver badge

Re: Self-important little pricks

There's a huge gap between a TOR node knowing what .onion has been requested and lacking anonymity. The node doesn't know who requested it, just that it was requested by a previous node.

There wouldn't be much use in a router if it couldn't route traffic.