* Posts by Mage

9265 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007

2001: A Space Odyssey has haunted pop culture with anxiety about rogue AIs for half a century

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Alien

Star Trek was a revolutionary interpretation of space that rejected the sci-fi conventions

Only if you'd never actually read SF books, which it mined deeply.

Nor was 2001 ground breaking Cinema SF. It was visually stunning and had some degree of realism. About 1/2 of it is regarded as quite boring by most people.

Kubrick's & Clarke's changes were for the better for the film, which I enjoyed. I'm an avid SF reader and found the book and sequels a bit Meh.

Silent Runnings, Dark Star, Forbidden Planet may be lesser films visually & musically, but really better stories and more entertaining. The argument with the AI bomb in Dark Star IMO more compelling than HAL.

Nor was the story, space station, spaceship, Aliens, HAL or the electronic tablets anything new at all in written SF (25 to 35 years old). AC Clarke himself had much earlier realistic space station in novels and short stories.

Linux 4.16 arrives, keeps melting Meltdown, preps to axe eight CPUs

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Re: And so fairwell blackfin, cris, frv, m32r, metag, mn10300, score, and tile.

Blackfin needed Linux. But really ADI needed to either buy a CPU company or abandon Blackfin core long ago for a standard ARM core. I think it's sort of ARM like?

Never heard of the others.

Autonomous vehicle claims are just a load of hot air… and here's why

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I even so much as glimpse a CorelDraw logo

Proof you are as ancient as me, dabbsy

Europe dumps 300,000 UK-owned .EU domains into the Brexit bin

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Coffee/keyboard

Re: despite the fact there's less than a year

Actually everything needs finalised by October 2018, about 6 months, less holidays.

Yet none of the difficult issues have any UK proposals other than fantasy. The EU is waiting for workable proposals from the UK. Brexit is a UK decision.

Scotland, N.I., London, City of London, NHS, Universities, fruit pickers, Ireland etc are not very happy about the total lack of research (apparently) and decisions what to do before calling referendum or invoking Article 50. It seems the UK cabinet can't agree what Brexit is or how to achieve totally conflicting aims.

This domain thing is a minor issue, easily solved compared to the other unresolved issues.

User fired IT support company for a 'typo' that was actually a real word

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Re: Validation Vs verification

Linus MacLinux: The smart distro for Macs.

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Re: EMACS or VI?

Nano

Because on random box with random custom Linux, it's probably there and you don't need to learn it.

I'm sure I've forgotten how to vi, I think it was on Cromix.

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Re: surviving a snowy night

It was most likely October, probably feast of Succot (Tabernacles) based on Elisabeth's pregnancy and when her husband would have been serving in the Temple. John the Baptist's parents. Though passover matches the schedule too, however John's Gospel and other aspects suggest Succot. Late December was a Roman invention over 300 years later.

Where does it say there was no door?

Also shepherds do not watch sheep in the field in December either. Though it's not that cold at the end of December in Bethlehem.

Also snow is very rare there. The snow is an invention for Christmas cards.

Cambridge Analytica 'privatised colonising operation', not a 'legitimate business', says whistleblower

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Coffee/keyboard

Re: validity of the Brexit vote

It was only "advisory" not "mandatory", so less rigorous standards are allowed!

There are 10 types of people in the world, but there is only one Melvyn

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Thumb Up

re: if Bragg kept his mouth shut

He's brilliant.

Compared to Stephen Fry, who seems to get work purely due to having ACTED the part of smart Jeeves and having a certain kind of voice.

Wonderful Stob!

Apple turns hat around, sits backwards on chair, pitches iPad to schools

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Re: Studies show...

More properly trained teachers, parents that read to small children, books in home, smaller class sizes. Laptops & tablets make education worse. About the only SW fit for purpose for education is wordprocessing & spreadsheet, though webbrowser is handy if the kids know how to research rather than copy/paste wikipedia. There are a few niche applications that are useful, like CAD, schematic capture, programming IDE, Planetarium style SW etc, for specialist subjects. All more available in decent free versions on desktop Linux & Windows, not iOS, Android or Win Mobile.

Mage Silver badge

models will also use the Apple SIM

An idea that should never have been permitted. It's designed to give more info and control to Apple. I have a watch that works as BT AND phone etc and has SIM (not smallest size) and microSD, doesn't need a mothership smartphone. The space argument is a lie.

Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, off you go: Snout of UK space forcibly removed from EU satellite trough

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Re: Now England will pay a price for such self-serving petty politics

Sadly N.I., Ireland, Scotland & Wales will too.

London, N.I. & Scotland voted remain.

Ireland wasn't asked. No consideration given to GFA. Now Tories propped up by DUP (28% of NI 1st preference vote in Assembly and only party campaigned actively for Exit in N.I., as well as ads in UK mainland.) So UK government is partisan in N.I. and ignoring will of majority in Scotland and N.I.

Mage Silver badge

Re: Petty Politics

Now I understand the hate article about Galileo in one of the UK papers.

Brexit is also about xenophobia and even many Westminster "Remainers" are anti-European, only seeing the commercial aspects of EU.

Meet the open sorcerers who have vowed to make Facebook history

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Facepalm

half of the world's email comes from Google, Yahoo!, Apple and Microsoft

Frightening if true.

So part of "The Cloud" monoculture examined in the fantasy apocalypse story "No Silver Lining" by Ray McCarthy.

How a QR code can fool iOS 11's Camera app into opening evil.com rather than nice.co.uk

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Re: presented with the deciphered information … given a list of options

Depends on the app. Many stupidly automatically open a website, if detected.

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QR code scanner app I use (on Android)

Get a different one that previews, like ZXing Barcode Scanner.

Mage Silver badge
Devil

Random codes

I don't like URL shortners for this reason.

I use a separate barcode scanner app (Android) with no adverts and it previews everything. There are usually two or three options what to do with the code (displayed) as well as fact it simply creates a tab for Firefox, and only if an option selected.

UK watchdog finally gets search warrant for Cambridge Analytica's totally not empty offices

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require those on the receiving end be given seven days of notice

BONKERS.

Obviously designed to protect "friends" of the Government?

It should be secret with NO notice.

Then normal appeals etc should apply if there was any charges.

Does it apply to suspected Child Pron, or Terrorism, or other suspected illegal computer contents?

Zucker for history: What I learnt about Facebook 600 years ago

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Re: Shakespeares view on history

... was very coloured by what Elisabeth I and Walsingham might think. Some playwrights were not so careful.

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Walsingham (Elizabethan spymaster)

The original boss of the original Police State. Read all the mail and cracked all the codes. mary lost her head of over that and some people also died mysteriously. Shakespeare was careful about Tudor related history and King stuff. A bit before Churchill decided to tap all the telegraph cables just before WWI. Churchill created forerunner of WWII Bletchley & later GCHQ.

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The Clacks

I was amazed how few people I know knew that PTerry got the idea of the Clacks from real life and merged it with early UNIX stuff. But I did write a history of communications in the mid 1980s.

That long-awaited Mark Zuckerberg response: Everything's fine! Mostly fixed! Facebook's great! All good in the hoodie!

Mage Silver badge

We don't want third parties using

except when they pay us enough and we are sure they won't get caught.

Mage Silver badge

Zuckerberg says Facebook will also "restrict developers' data access.

A) Why are they GATHERING the info, it's far beyond what people type into profile (I advise people only already famous to use real name. Don't feed the monster. They warehouse every view, click and like, and that's just the 3rd party sites.

B) Developers etc restricted depending on what they pay.

C) Where is Facebook's observance of the law?

D) Who decides what Facebook collects and what they use it for.

If you MUST put an F logo on YOUR site, only put a link to Facebook, not their script which could slurp user info of non-members even if not clicked.

Screw luxury fridges, you can now run webOS on your Raspberry Pi

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Re: "...all-gesture UI (no buttons)... ...take it beyond TVs..."

Available many places for £ to £9, which isn't bad,

Maplin did have it, but too expensive :)

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Re: Doesn't give an obvious reason

Or install it on <whatever> with ethernet + HDMI and disconnect networking from evil Android TV. It's got a rubbish & inconsistent GUI apart from the data slurp.

Mage Silver badge

Web OS TV

It would be welcome on my TVs! Android TV has rubbish GUI, abysmal for managing Broadcast channels (esp satellite tuners) and is designed to slurp user data, inc information from HDMI connected peripherals. It prioritizes the sort of content on an Android tablet.

So I don't connect TV to internet. I use laptop.

Mozilla's opt-out Firefox DNS privacy test sparks, er, privacy outcry

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Mozilla … want to understand how these protocols affect network performance

Reasonable question.

Putting it in browser or researching it with a browser is not.

I'd expect my OS to provide an api for the browser.

More proof that Mozilla have lost the plot: Building a secure browser that uses the desktop / system GUI settings and the OS communication stack. Having it that it can't run extra code/scripts from Internet except for sandboxed web page functionality.

BOOM! Cambridge Analytica explodes following extraordinary TV expose

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Re: Too Late

Certainly if it was me, I'd SECRETLY get a warrant. for CA *AND* Facebook (Irish cooperation etc)

Claim it involves terrorism & spying (UK Plod does that sometimes even when it isn't).

Arrest everyone likely to have passwords at 3am.

Go in with huge team of experts and military and special branch.

In UK law you go to jail, do not pass go, if you do not give access / passwords.

Copy/decrypt everything.

Seize all the computing devices after changing the cloud passwords.

It's been ineptly managed.

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ensuring that their purloined data had been deleted.

Ah ... destruction of evidence!

Here is how Google handles Right To Be Forgotten requests

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Re: Google writes their own laws

Also can we trust what Google says about what they do? It may be outright fairy tales or simply slanted.

Facebook suspends account of Cambridge Analytica whistleblower

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Re: Shoot the Messenger

BBC has their own strange agenda.

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Both groups understand the privacy controls

I doubt it except for a minority.

Also Facebook sees everything and that's what's important. The privacy controls are a sop.

Most people, old or young, have no concept of exactly how greedy and toxic big corporations, esp ones depending on selling adverts, are.

Mage Silver badge

Re: using Facebook for the VERY THING it was designed for.

No, it's designed to harvest personal data, sell advertising space and manipulate people. It is absolutely not any kind of database for users, only the owners.

It should be closed down as it's toxic and can't be fixed.

Mage Silver badge
Flame

Plans to take action

Except against their own toxic scripts on 3rd party websites with the [F] logo (sane admins just put a logo and link).

Except against their own abuse of users with "You may know" and "You may be interested"

Their own data harvesting

Their own disregard of EU laws.

Windows 10 to force you to use Edge, even if it isn't default browser

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Re: So ?

Cows are dangerous.

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Re: Apple a pass

One is a gadget, a phone, a tablet.

The other is now primarily used for content creation and legacy applications.

There are alternatives to iPhone/iPad, it has less than 15% of it's market. MS Windows is the dominant OS for laptops & desktop computers, especially in business. Many people feel they have no alternative due to Sage, Payroll, CRM, Adobe high end packages etc.

Not comparable.

I already found that "Current" Firefox builds can be Win10 default browser, but even an updated Firefox 52ESR can't be set as default.

Also Edge isn't even a "proper" desktop application. Even if the most secure today, it may be incompatible or insecure tomorrow. It also breaks easily if Windows Firewall or Store settings are changed.

Brexit in spaaaace! At T-1 year and counting: UK politicos ponder impact

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Re: "Project Fear"

Interesting that Russia supports UK leaving EU and I think no commonwealth or former commonwealth country supports the idea.

I couldn't give a Greek clock about your IoT fertility tracker

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Re: Antikythera Mechanism

Education, practice at similar problems etc gives a massive boost to IQ score. The inventor of it said it doesn't measure intelligence, but just compares people of a similar age and background. The USA in particular ignored that as the IQ tests inherent biases made most ethnic minorities and people with darker skin score worse.

Brit retailer Currys PC World says sorry for Know How scam

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Re: The One Retailer you want to hear go out of business

Curiously they started by selling bicycles and moved into radio sets due to demand on recharging the 2V lead acid LT cells.

It's been downhill since WWII?

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Re: Sharp Practice

Carphone Warehouse and €99 Sony Xperia on pre-pay/ Pay as you go.

"So how much is it SIM free? I have SIMs I swap."

"Much more than the €150, that's with a SIM locked to an operator."

"But it says €99!"

"There is a small 'from'"

"So how do I get it at the Cheapest price?"

"It's €109 if you switch Mobile Operator."

"Can't I just have the new operator as well?"

"No, we have to move your existing number"

"The advert should state it's €190 or whatever and discounts for locked network and transferring number. It's dishonestly misleading and wasted my time."

"It's perfectly honest it has 'from €99', we don't have space for all those details on an advert."

(In their own spacious shop)

Yes, the BIG advert beside the dummy phone had in small print "New SIMs require an initial €10 top-up."

Maybe it really doesn't break the law, but are they going to build customer relations and trust? I wondered why it was so much cheaper than online. I'll buy it online. It STILL has an SD Card slot and a 3.5mm earphone socket.

I felt like I was in a dead parrot sketch.

Mage Silver badge

Re: Sharp Practice

Also it's illegal to offer charge for an extension of 1st year warrrenty for a 2nd year as Apple found out in Italy. Yet Argos, PCWorld/Currys and others still doing it despite SOGA 2 year, MINIMUM.

Mage Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Sharp Practice

Be wonderful if you COULD buy "blank laptops". Save time that would. They all seem to have W10, unless you pay a lot extra for an OS that's sort of reasonable, like Mac OS.

Pity Apple doesn't sell Mac OS for non-Apple branded HW.

Kepler krunch koming: Super space 'scope's fuel tank almost empty

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Re: Next time, include a refueling port.

3. It's probably similar cost to launch a new better telescope than refuel an old one so far away.

4. It's got broken reaction wheels. More failures are possible.

I hope the James Webb will be a success.

YouTube plan to use Wikipedia against crackpots hits snag

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Big Brother

Re: Partnership requirement to read?

Maybe Google should fund Snopes.

Anyone can organise a team to feed nonsense on to Wikipedia. It can be hard to correct errors in non-controversial articles if there is long term / senior "editor" that feels it's their pet page.

Mage Silver badge

Re: proactively at least once every six months, for any balance over $5.

Most eBook publishers will payout much lower balances than that, either via IBAN (Amazon) or PayPal (Smashwords).

If even Borg Amazon can do it, no excuse for Google.

Fermi famously asked: 'Where is everybody?' Probably dead, says renewed Drake equation

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Alien

Re: Who said they are using EM in the first place?

No, the range that Earth's EM can be received at above the noise is likely about 20 to 100 times less than 250ly depending on size of massive dish array pointed at us.

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Re: Not useful

But we can't pick up regular broadcasts and a beamed transmission is likely to be in the noise at about 10 ly distance only, i.e. a mere handful of likely stars.

Also WHY would anyone beam a transmission? The range of regular broadcasting would hardly reach the Oort Cloud, even if someone parked there with massive dishes.

It's basic thermodynamics, the issue of signal to noise and the inverse square law. We can pick up radio noise emitted by stars on big dishes as that is massive!

Mage Silver badge

Why we don't receive Alien transmissions.

Basic Thermodynamics resulting in Shannon-Nyquist law.

Radio, other than star emissions, can't possibly be practical for a more than a few light years distance, tens at most if beamed.

Our emissions at the peak (lower now) hardly likely to be detectable much beyond Kuiper Belt and unlikely as far as the Oort cloud.

~

There is no Fermi paradox, only a lack of understanding of practical RF engineering. The only likely method of detecting a civilisation is using the power of a star as "transmitter", the spectrum seen as a planet with an atmosphere transits in the same plane as our observations. The James Web 'scope should improve our ability to do this.

Fun fact of the day: Voice recognition tech is naturally sexist

Mage Silver badge

Re: Telephonists

Also allegedly a reason for female radio operators in WWII, though it might have been anxious staff procurement wanting to avoid having female appointments blocked.

However I don't think it's a frequency response issue, but the idea that fainter female voice with more background noise is easier to understand. So I suspect that the software is poor rather than anything inherent about female voices, which can be clearer (certain parts of Brooklyn, Dublin, Yorkshire and West Country may be exceptions).

I expect they have poor choice of samples, despite claims that it's some other problem.

The only difference I see from 25 years ago is that it seems to skip the personalised user training and give about the same performance, poor. The phone menus with voice recognition are ghastly compared to numbered menus, which are ghastly. None of it is to make a better customer experience but to save money.

Same with evil automated checkouts, which encourage some people to cheat. No doubt the thefts are less than cost of a checkout operator. I don't expect transparent & honest figures for how accurate Amazon's invisible checkout is. Next step is to ban customers from aisles and have Argos style terminal (identical to online website / phone app) and you queue to wait for shopping basket to appear. Pay by paypal, IBAN, plastic or RFID phone.

Mage Silver badge

Re: wait till they land somewhere

I'm not sure that landing was suggested. There was a shocked hush for a few minutes and it didn't get as loud again.

Obviously he'd not have the crew attempt to open a hatch while at altitude.