* Posts by Mage

9265 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007

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Mage Silver badge
Pint

re: Another thing

You are in need of the opposite of dried frog pills.

Brit plods' post-TETRA radio omnishambles comes home to roost

Mage Silver badge
Pirate

Re: why?

Security. Any cheap scanner could listen to Plod's Plans

Mage Silver badge
FAIL

4G?

Latency might be too high "Don't Shoot" becomes "Shoot"

It's VOIP only, no native voice mode, which increases latency

No Peer to Peer mode.

Has Priority been implemented on EE, so ordinary users (e.g. video streaming) can be dropped as needed?

It's not ready as a system to replace Tetra.

Power your temperature sensor with this BONKERS router hack

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Down

Daft

This is High School Science day stuff to impress parents. It's not Boffin stuff or real engineering. A small solar panel like on cheap garden lights will get more waste energy, and sensible micro gadgets can run for about 5 years on 2 x Alkaline AA cells. Some NiMH with the low self discharge of primary Lithium coins or Alkaline would be better research. The Eneloop type are not good enough.

Bill Nye's bonkers LightSail spaceship unfurls solar sails at last

Mage Silver badge

Re: Next up: Crazy Eddie

" giant battery of lasers to start a craft on its way to Barnard's Star, run by a guy named Eddie."

Strangely (as I write SF), I was pondering this last week and wondering how the lasers :

a) Were powered

b) could compete with a star at any distance (beam spreading)

c) could compete with a load of suitably angled giant parabolic mirrors collecting and focusing the light on the fleeing probe.

Actually that part of the story doesn't work.

Certainly though it's more Larry Niven than Star Trek.

Au-mazing! Cornwall sold GOLD to Ireland back in the Bronze Age

Mage Silver badge

Re: Trading or raiding?

Copper

Mage Silver badge
Trollface

Neanderthal

About 8,000 years at least after Neanderthals. maybe 10,000 later.

They had MUCH better boats than a dug-out.

This is Bronze age, not pre-Neolithic.

Leprechauns are a 18th Century folk invention popularised later by Victorians and Hollywood. They don't exist in older tales.

Of course all of us are maybe a bit O' Neanderthal, supposedly only 0.12% DNA difference.

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Up

leprechauns!

Oddly sort of true..

Probably 1850BC to 550BC was Tuath Dé, later renamed Tuatha De Danann by the Monks.

Lugh of the Long Arm was a famous Tuath Dé hero who killed Balor.

He later was regarded as God of Skills, inc shoe making. (Cordwainer)

He's in Welsh Legend too.

Lugh Lamfada (=long arm) is corrupted later to leprechaun, often deplicted as fairy shoe makers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugh

Sidhe means mound.

Tuatha De Danann where later called the Sidhe (Shee in English), or Fair Folk, or Fairy Folk. In the oldest legends the Tuath Dé are Fair or Red hair, pale skin, tall and from the "North". They also like gold very much.

2000 to 550 saw export of huge amount of Copper to Europe from Cork and Tin from Cornwall to make Bronze. The start of Bronze age is actually the Copper Age. This period also is when most lowland forests in Ireland were cleared for agriculture. Perhaps Cattle was important (The Tain)

Voyager 2 'stopped' last week, and not just for maintenance

Mage Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Pointless Golden Record

Spectroscopic analysis looking for combinations of chemicals that suggest industrial activity rather than natural sources may find Extra Terrestrial Life, if we have a big enough space telescope. I'll be very surprised if a Radio Search works, even if we currently have 100,000 civilisations in the Milky Way using Radio. (assuming too they were using it x 100s or 1000s or 10,000s of years ago, the disk of the galaxy is about 100,000 light years across).

Space is like a quarantine system, for travel and communication, unless there is some sort of FTL Starships and Ansibles possible.

Mage Silver badge
Alien

Re: Pointless Golden Record

Unintentional Radio probably only has about 5 light years range. Intentional Beamed transmissions maybe 100 light years range. They are unlikely.

So other than very near stars, SETI via radio isn't going to work. Also civilisations may only use high power transmissions terrestrial less than 100 years and then only local lower power broadcast, Satellite (very little into space) and cable / fibre.

Kaspersky says air-gap industrial systems: why not baby monitors, too?

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Re: Air Gap insufficient

There are ones that do already.

As we as Smart phones and some tablets.

At least on Kindle, most phones and tablets you can turn off 3G data access and WiFi access.

So why the hell didn't quantitative easing produce HUGE inflation?

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Up

Thanks Tim

I've saved both pages for future perusal. You never know.

Gremlins in the first six months? It's the seller's problem – EU court

Mage Silver badge

Re: Nothing new

Ireland & UK is all I know.

their SOGA implementation similar.

Of course ALL the major retailers have to be threatened with court. They wave 90 day makers warranties and credit vouchers.

What French supermarkets offer might not be legal. I have no idea.

Mage Silver badge

Re: Nothing new

"You were always entitled to your money back, if the goods were faulty. Accepting a replacement or in-store credit instead was your option as the customer."

No:

Replacement, repair or money back, sellers choice. Two years most products under SOGA in probably all of EU.

Forcing buyer to take a in-store credit is illegal.

Vodafone IS talking to Virgin Media daddy Liberty Global

Mage Silver badge

Sky

That would only benefit Sky. Murdock isn't going to sell Sky.

It's hard to see what assets Liberty Global and Vodafone would exchange.

Microsoft spunks $500m to reinvent the wheel. Why?

Mage Silver badge
Facepalm

Phones

They bought a phone company Sidekick/Danger, ran it into ground, so then paid amazing money to another phone division that have been given last rites to have little more than a licence for IP and liability of closing factories and paying off unwanted phone division staff. Nokia laughing all the way to the bank!

It's about 2003 since MS made logical decisions.

But MS SQL, Power Point, Visio, Mappoint, MS Money, MS Services for Unix, Skype were all acquisitions?

Was Zune UI bought in or in house? I don't know (Source of Metro really).

Mage Silver badge
Trollface

Exchange and Outlook

But lots of people hate those.

Infosec turns 20 to face battle with BSides, RSAC Unplugged

Mage Silver badge
Unhappy

Tech Trade Shows

Having been at some and found rarely much of relevance, unless it was a prearranged meeting at with a vendor, and never had time to see other than airport/station/hotel, I'm not really missing them.

Infosec sounds ghastly.

AT&T: We'll play nice with net neutrality, just let us gobble DirecTV

Mage Silver badge

Remind Me.

Which US TV services does Rupert Murdoch's tentacles control?

Smartwatch biz Pebble says smartwatch biz Apple won't approve its new app – surprise

Mage Silver badge
Pirate

Spoilt brats

But that's the result of soft touch regulation on powerful multinationals.

If someone small blocked Apple be sued quicker than you could say Texas.

Sysadmins rebel over GUI-free install for Windows Server 2016

Mage Silver badge
Linux

Re: Ok, Ok, Ok..

Might as well install Centos, Debian, redhat etc. You can even pick GUI at install time.

But we upgraded to Server 2003, decided it was too bloated compared to NT4.0 Enterprise and switched to Debian.

Are MS determined to alienate? Why would you want Win10 experience if you did decide to have a GUI shell?

Dodgy colon bug is a total pain in the butt for Skype users today

Mage Silver badge

We are doomed

More systems are relying on SW.

Never mind hackers or cyberwarfare. Companies can't even get simple bits of SW correct!

Just an hour ago:

Selected Eurosport Deutschland on Sat box.

Hit OK to go from list to full screen.

Sat box rebooted and erased all the channels on all the satellites!*

[*the four stored ones, 28.2, 19.2, 13 and 9 E, not the ACTUAL satellites. That would require a modem, ODU, 4.8m dish etc ... I hope!]

One USB plug to rule them all? That's sensible, but no...

Mage Silver badge

Re: Bah!

That was the mini-DIN. Soldering the 8 pin version isn't fun.

This is worse. This is every mini-DIN that used a different connector (say keyboard, scanner ADF and Y/C video cable) on the SAME connector!

USB-D will also have fibre.

Mage Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Argh!

bring back 3mm power jacks. Properly made ones are fine.

Most devices there is now no way to use data and charge at same time as the ye old laptop doesn't do the 1A to 2.5A wanted by the USB gadget.

Or HOW do you put USB keyboard (USB2Go host mode) and charge?

The ORIGINAL RUBBISH USB spec was root of problem.

1) It was purely Host - Slave

2) Not reversable in any sense

3) only 100mA, later 500mA

It should have been

negotiable up to 1A

Peer to peer

Negotiable higher speed

Same plug at both ends

flipable too.

Hermaphrodite (IBM token ring plugs), so socket and plug identical.

Totally different functions on same plug is disaster.

The SCART (apart from falling out) was only reliable as Stereo + Composite as they had separate pins for each direction.

Basic Signalling (two pins) was unidirectional

RGB was unidirectional

S-Video AKA Y/C an afterthought

Data signalling was non-standard and there was I2C as well as RS232.

I've noticed that HDMI isn't perfect, sometimes it's too fussy about which end is on first and connecting cables first, but it's better than this disaster called USB C

I have now THREE incompatible types of cables for laptop Host to gadget for USB. They are now adding a 4th!

Not only that but some USB gadgets (not even counting Apple's USB Optical drive that originally only the Apple thing could power) came with a Y cable to try and get enough power. No luck on that from some USB hosts / Hubs were the power available wasn't per socket but shared!

You'd have thought on the USB 1.1 iteration they would have sorted out USB.

Gaaagh!!!!! Arrraggh!

Elon Musk's $4.9bn taxpayer windfall revealed

Mage Silver badge
Flame

I totally object to UK & Ireland Electric Car Policy

Only rich people can afford them.

Yet!

1) Subsidy buying it

2) No road tax

3) No fuel Tax

Benefits rich folk and folks like Musk.

IoT DANGERS: BYOD’s trashier cousin becoming a right tearaway

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Re: Suggestion

IP6 will be fun.

Do I trust any security mechanism for IP6

It's pretty easy to stop IP4 devices phoning home.

Smart TV?

Epoxy in the ethernet socket. Let them use it with tuner and HDMI.

Microsoft suffers worldwide Wi-Fi wardrobe malfunction

Mage Silver badge
Trollface

Skype

It's a bit obnoxious the way the WiFi pay service has been bundled into Skype rather than separate. A lot of the other changes are obnoxious too:

No way to disable adverts

No way to disable microphone

No way to disable camera (perhaps accounts for the massive CPU usage on on some netbooks).

http://www.techtir.ie/QQ_replaces_Skype

QQ isn't 100% straight forward to get or configure in English. But when setup properly it's superior to Skype, I expect if the Chinese use it to Spy that's less bad than NSA if you are not Chinese?

Couple sues estate agent who sold them her mum's snake-infested house

Mage Silver badge

Inspection

My tame Architect pointed out

1) No water supply and no prospect of one. The owner had filled a tank.

2) The top floor built recently on the old house out of cavity blocks and needed dry lined.

We bought a different house.

Mass break-in: researchers catch 22 more routers for the SOHOpeless list

Mage Silver badge
Devil

UPnP

I know people think they need it, but uPnP is a daft concept, or at least staggeringly badly designed. Up there with Autorun on USB devices, CDs etc.

Devices on a Network that could auto-install code on your PC?

I always disable it on Routers and Windows Services.msc

Secure web? That'll cost you, thanks to Mozilla's HTTPS plan

Mage Silver badge

Re: But ...

HTTPS doesn't protect against Man in the Middle attacks. A VPN will

Mage Silver badge
Unhappy

But ...

If the site has no personalised content, it's the same for everyone (say wordpress with NO comments enabled), what actually is the point of the HTTPS?

It's horrendously more expensive compared to ordinary shared IP address Linux hosting. Before you even factor the certificate costs.

NASA shock: Flying saucer predicted over Hawaii on Wednesday

Mage Silver badge

NASA giving up?

Usually crippled by a mix of bureaucracy, approved pork barrel vendors and lack of budget.

Sawfish are the VIRGIN MARYS of the SEA thanks to virgin births

Mage Silver badge

Re: Some Female Lizards in the Wild

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthenogenesis

Whiptail lizards.

Scary that komodo dragons can do it. They have an interesting predation method:

1) Bite prey, transferring infected gloop.

2) Follow prey till it dies from infection.

If you find one following you, you may need an antibiotic.

Mage Silver badge

Some Female Lizards in the Wild

But there are no males at all. I think a species in Mexico or New Mexico are entirely clones. I've never understood how that can work in the long term.

KFC takes legal axe to eight-legged mutant chicken claims

Mage Silver badge

Typical USA Corporate

Yum foods have no sense of humour.

Microsoft doubles down on productivity with Wunderlist buy

Mage Silver badge

MS Basic

On Apple, CP/M etc and copied from Dartmouth Basic.

Indeed back to roots.

American Idle: Seacrest keyboard startup Typo goes nowhere after BlackBerry bust-up

Mage Silver badge
Mushroom

Discraceful

Blackberry popularised a particular style of keypad.

They don't deserve any protection of the idea at all.

Windows 10 upgrade ADWARE forces its way on to Windows 7 and 8.1

Mage Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Guinea Pigs

South Americans and Italians eat Guinea Pigs.

Windows 10: The new mechanism to increase Soylent Green production. A few months of use and people will be queuing ...

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Despicable

Have MS become the Reality TV / Daytime TV of the Software industry.

This is disgusting marketing.

Co-op Bank's creaky IT should be flogged off, growls UK.gov

Mage Silver badge

Yet...

If you are running a Bank or other financial services you need to become world class IT experts and sell IT services to others. Absolutely not outsource it. Because today the core of banking isn't about a big safe full of banknotes and ledgers.

It's pure IT.

So unless you become an expert in IT, Programming, you are just a Franchise operation for an IT services company and not a real bank at all.

Intel gobbles up chipmaker Altera in $16.7 BILLION splurge

Mage Silver badge

Lets shoot for Itanium

Yes, Itanium needs put down.

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Intel will now look at ARM

Intel already had ARM.

This will make zero difference to Intel's ARM strategy, it's about the FPGA

Nokia declares war on data centres to win back telco customers

Mage Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: "act and think differently"

When they proposed making Sat boxes and TVs instead of welly boots people laughed

When they proposed making phones instead of Sat boxes and TVs people laughed.

They are still a quite large telecom infrastructure company, having absorbed the Siemens and Motorola sub divisions that did the same stuff.

It could be a Robin Reliant or a Volvo.

Case for drone usage now overwhelming as Enrique Iglesias concert almost stopped

Mage Silver badge

Why didn't they just give him a shoulder cam?

Nitwits.

The rare metals debate: Only trace elements of sanity found

Mage Silver badge

Re: Greek government ran out of it

Only because they told porkies about the state of their fridge.

Mage Silver badge
Happy

Re: Future mineral reserve creation

Europium:

Beleived to be rarest element in the universe and yet we are unlikely to ever run out of it!

Even if the Euro was a World currency and CRTs made a comeback. Yet really no reserves, it's a by product.

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Up

A reprise

Worstall has said this before convincingly.

Are there still people that really don't get that it could be 5,000 years before we might need to mine asteroids?

No Interstellar war by hypothetical aliens with FTL travel / Jump drive or whatever would ever be over resources. Or for human slaves.

LightSail mission stalled by .CSV log file embiggenment SNAFU

Mage Silver badge
Thumb Up

Proper Boffinry

With perhaps a touch of Heath Robinson (Rube Goldberg on other side of pond)

Amazon reveals KiddieKindle and pocket money scheme

Mage Silver badge

Re: Please be accurate with your information!

Oddly in UK & Ireland the Kindle touch is same price with or without advertising screen savers and by law in all of EU they have to offer two years warranty anyway. SOGA.

(Apple was fined in Italy for charging people for 2nd year).

About €79 in Tesco Ireland (high sales tax aka VAT compared to USA perhaps).

Mage Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Oh, yum, more tracking.

Only if you sync and/or have 3G/WiFi on. I only use mine via USB and Amazon lets me download to PC.

There is also www.gutenberg.org

My grandson is saving for a regular kindle touch for 8th Birthday