Posts by Mage 9273 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Nov 2007
Finally the USA realises the people outside the borders are not aliens, but foreigners, humans, with their own Governments and laws, even when the USA doesn't like them.
It's not like the USA is at war with Austria, Sweden, Ireland or Switzerland, all I think neutral countries in different ways.
Theresa May & Amber Rudd can make their own arrangements with CIA and FBI in a couple of years time.
Careful what you wish for on Linux. Windows Skype got so bad and such a resource hog I went to QQ. Sadly on Linux that only has a Chinese version I can't get working.
So what is cross platform, doesn't need a browser (or a server that might be spying on you), can do text, files, voice, video in any combination?
I don't want it based on desktop sharing etc like Teamview.
Going backwards
Skype used to be good (though a supernode was bad for unwary with fast good connection bu low cap), then eBay bought it. First bad thing.
Second bad Thing
It's gone downhill since MS bought it.
First desktop 1980s had 5M Byte full height drives. They didn't have intel CPUs very often (8085)., 6502, 6809, Z80 etc.
I have a 10M MFM drive on an 8088 in the attic.
By 1991 the 20M was common and you had to use evil disk compression to get the 40M you needed for Windows.
The Actual IBM PC had one or two 180K SS or 360K SD SD 5.25" Floppies. Though Apple II had only 100K floppies. Some non-IBM computers had much higher capacity floppies (8" or 5.25") and hard drives. The XT was first IBM PC with an official hard drive (and was 10Mbyte).
"Wasn't there a kids toy robot thingy which "reacted" to audio codes in the (cunningly linked) TV cartoon ?"
It's called a smartphone.
They can embed signals within the passband of digital audio on TV that are too high frequency for most adults to hear.
Some Apps have the code to call the "mothership" so they know what you are watching. MUCH easier than voice recognition. Possibly Facebook App, it uses the microphone?
WiFi Barbie is a little scarier on the level of "Teddy always knows best" or whatever the Harry Harrison story was.
Phones (and some car radios) USED to have local voice recognition. Now it seems (on Android, Amazon Echo, Windows Phone and iOS) to be so called "cloud based". I have data mode on Mobile always disabled (to save money and for privacy) and wifi off by default (to save battery)
Picking up radio is limited to a few light years range due to cosmic noise and inverse square law unless someone has massive dishes pointing straight at us. Even then the range isn't great. It's doubtful our own ordinary transmissions can even be received at the nearest star.
============
three basic questions:
1 How abundant and diverse is intelligent life in the universe?
2 How does intelligent life communicate?
3 How can we detect intelligent life?
============
1) We can't answer the first question at all.
2) No communications method we know is practical for interstellar distances, so forget this question, it's irrelevant. We aren't going to "eavesdrop". The inverse square law and Shannon's law mean that's probably impossible.
3) The only current practical method for Interstellar distances is spectroscopy. You are using the power of a star as the remote transmitter and detecting the adsorption in the atmosphere of a planet transiting between us and the star. Not all planets will transit between us and stars.
Unless we discover a whole new branch of physics we are limited to spectroscopy. We need to have no preconceived ideas and examine each spectrograph. Oxygen and carbon Dioxide has a signature. If there are additional chemicals that seem to be in unnatural proportions, we might conclude we have found possible evidence.
How do we communicate if we thing we have found life? Radio or Laser won't work, too far even if they were "looking" in our direction. We can send a probe that takes hundreds or thousands of years to get there.
We can't know if we discover unknown stuff in the future that allows "ansibles", stargates, warp drive, artificial wormholes or "jump" drive. Those are all SF today. Contrary to popular belief, Quantum Entanglement can't be used for instant communications but only to verify a light speed message hasn't been tampered with.
So Spectroscopy.
Also computer "Neural Networks" may be totally unrelated to how real brains work. AI learning is unrelated to how biological creatures work.
We still don't really know what intelligence is.
Most AI (all?) is merely simulation of real world activities in a very narrow domain. Let me know when your Go playing computer can learn poker or playing an instrument just by natural learning, no sneaking round the back and adding more libraries.
Rubbish.
One of the great values of Linux is an x86 32bit version for embedded x86 and older hardware. Why should I replace perfectly working HW at huge expense for crappy modern stuff that has no parallel or serial or PS/2 ports etc. Or no PCMCIA/Cardbus slot.
This is about 10 to 20 years too soon.
Third party issues?
"This includes things like Google Chrome, Docker"
Not interest in those ANYWAY, especially on the 32 bit legacy HW and applications.
Till Article 50 ...
You can't put the clock back to 1973 by leaving EU. It's not 1947 either.
In the long term, if Brexit comes to pass (seems hard to avoid it now), the UK's International parasites will move out, the Import and re-export to Ireland and other traditional UK markets with no added value will end. The illusion of UK being 5th or 6th largest economy will be exposed (it's a little like Ireland being the largest banana exporter in the world, which they were or are despite growing none). Scotland will leave UK and N.I. will riot as it goes to 20%+ unemployment and bankruptcy due to a tighter border than ever existed after 1922, no CTA or shared currency as there was 1922 - 1979.
The papers and Politicians are still full of unrealistic optimism that can only be realised by cancelling "Brexit"
Dublin & Frankfurt.
Or even Galway or Cork and Frankfurt. New cable at Mayo and T connection to Cork, on transatlantic fibres.
What with all the other Internationals that will exit UK to EU (Vodafone, HSBC and many others already muttering about moving), Sterling may become unimportant. It's hard to see how UK can avoid invoking Article 50 before the end of the year. I wish it wasn't, but wishful thinking won't avoid it. That's how the mess was created.
Facebook, Apple etc can only use "renewable" source electricity by taking it from existing users, there is basically no ability to add much more. Even what does exist in Ireland can vanish for weeks at a time.
Most Irish Electricity has to be made by imported fossil fuels or imported.
The real reason for Ireland is likelihood of weak implementation of EU regulations, followed by Irish corporation tax, followed by the new transatlantic cables (Mayo and T junction off Cork).
Forget the password?
Maybe after 98 days of not using it most people would forget.
I have two main passwords to remember, the rest are in a manager or written down. I'd likely forget them a lot quicker than 3 months if I wasn't using both every day.
So would that make the RNLI 5th? (which despite Royal in name) is also Ireland's much loved rescue service.
Isn't there a mountain rescue outfit and one for spelunking?
So DixonCarphoneWarehouse wants to be 7th or 8th?
Doesn't the Army or Territorial Army or something respond in emergencies?
What about gas leaks, fallen power cables, collapsing dykes etc?
Many of Apple's patents and registered designs are invalid due to prior art, or obviousness. The USPTO isn't very good.
But I know designs much more like iPhone that dated from 1986, even with rounded corners.
The iPod was copying Creative and iRiver with a case and silly control inspired by Dieter Rams' stuff for Braun. It succeeded due to iTunes. The iPhone succeed partly due to bought in Fingerworks GUI (Nokia had stupidly scrapped S80 / Crystal in favour of S60 and MS was still obsessed with putting win 95 GUI on 320x 240 screens), but real reason for iPhone success was the data deals with operators, till then the cost of using data on a Smart phone was horrendous..
This doesn't have much chance.
Will hardly be affected and that was what many people thought they were voting about. UK controls their OWN immigration apart from from free movement of EU Citizens. Irish people won't be affected and most other EU people won't much be affected if UK wants to trade. The issue wasn't EU people anyway.
The only WORSE regulator is Comreg.
Totally in thrall to big corporates like Mobile, BT and Sky.
Only interested in raising money for Treasury.
Useless at managing spectrum and protecting it.
Stealth campaign to kill FM Radio (why? Because DAB benefits big national operators, the spectrum is no use for anything else)
Stealth campaign to kill DTT / Terrestrial TV because mobile licences are "worth" more.
What mandate have they for ANY of their policies and failure to ban interference producing devices.
Are they going to PROPERLY test CE mark devices now?
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