* Posts by Vic

5860 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2007

Adpocalypse 'will wipe out display ad growth' by 2020

Vic

It sounds to me that Javascript is going to be needed so that the site covered is able to determine whether or not to feed you ads.

Not *necessarily*.

You could use an IP-based system - which would mean you get ads while away from home.

Or you could use a cookie-based system - whic means you get ads if you ever clear your cookies.

Frankly - whatever system is put in place, it's going to upset someone.

So what's really going to happen is people are going to carry on using ad-blockers in the way they are currenly using them.

Vic.

Manchester cops to strap on 3K bodycams

Vic

Re: That's not too bad

Police surgeon's job.

Should be. I'm not always sure it works that way.

My mate's girlfirend died suddenly a few years ago. The cops that turned up were convinced he'd killed her[1].

They made an intimate inspection of her body. They weren't exactly respectful[2]. They weren't exactly sensitive to the grieving family members in the house.

Once the truth of the matterhad come to light, there was, of course, precisely zero action against the perpetrators of that inhumanity.

Vic.

[1] He hadn't, of course. She died from natural causes.

[2] You've seen the over-used snapping of the latex glove thing? They did that right in his face. Bastards.

It's all very well hacking ISIS, Barry, but what about your ISA?

Vic

“Their business looks a lot like ours. Cyber criminals look to maximise their profits and minimise risk,” HPE argues.

The businesses are very different. Cyber criminals don't sack all their best people.

Vic.

[ I was going to do the "well they would, wouldn't they?" joke, but someone else did something rather similar above...]

Sainsbury’s Bank insurance spam scam causes confusion

Vic

Re: Obvious rule

Real data isn't the issue

It is in this country. It is the processing of data contrary to the Second Principle of the Data Protection Act. That's an offence.

Vic.

Destroying ransomware business models is not your job, so just pay up

Vic

Re: Wait. Embolden?

Embolden? This guys is a fucking moron so no surprise at his statements.

It seems that "being a fucking moron" is on the job description for FBI mouthpieces at present...

He needs to embiggen his educationing.

As do we all. But in this case, his use of the word "embolden" is correct.

Vic.

Vic

Re: It is our job to uphold the law

If you suspect that the ransomware group may be funding terrorists and you pay them anyway then you are a criminal too.

...then you might be suspected of being a criminal too.

For you to become a crimnal would require a jury to find you guilty.

Vic.

Help! We're being crushed, cry billionaire cable giants

Vic

Both fully addressable through the use of Standards

No, not completely.

Although standards might describe *how* to build a decoder, that decoder doesn't exist until someone builds it. So someone has to do that engineering to implement the standard; the first manufacturer will have to commit to that development with no possibility of selling any units unless the service takes off. It's a chicken-and-egg thing which is fixable by giving that manufacturer a time-limited monopoly.

And as for the time-critical bit - yes, if every manufacturer implemented the standard correctly, then any box would do. But they simply don't; some kit is sorely deficient. And if you're trying to ioplement a phone system across routers that don't work properly, your phone system is not going to work. It's wrong, IMO, to penalise the operator of a working service for the deficiencies in equipment he neither built, sold, nor specified, but rather was forced to accept.

Vic.

Vic

Our local tv/telco/ISP lets us use a 3rd modem for the broadband only, but not if you go with VOIP or the TV box

I have two small caveats to use of a third-party box.

Firstly, when a new type of service is being rolled out, there is quite a lot of NRE to get the hardware ready. Without new hardware, there is no service. In this situation, I think it is reasonable to have a time-limited monopoly on the new hardware; the alternative is for the service to be priced to cover that NRE with the boxes thrown in "for free", and that doesn't actually help the consumer.

The above clearly does not apply when hardware to do the job is already on the market.

Secondly, isochronous transport - such as TV or VoIP - can be extremely sensitive to hardware; I've seen many phone systems that are sat behind the crappiest router known to man, and the customer bellyaches that his phone doesn't work. Swapping out the router for something of decent quality brings the system up ar expected. So whilst I wouldn't forbid third-party hardware for this sort of job, I would explain to customers that it would be their responsibility to choose something that works, with attendant charges for call-outs that end up being down to inappropriate customer-supplied hardware.

But these are minor quibbles; in general, customers should have the right to choose the kit they use.

Vic.

Inside Electric Mountain: Britain's biggest rechargeable battery

Vic

Re: green lunacy

Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES), also referred to as Cryogenic Energy Storage (CES)

OK that's not actually a compressed-air storage system as mentioned earlier. Rather interesting, though.

Efficiency without scavenged heat/cold seems to be about 60% - which is higher than I had expected, TBH.

Vic.

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Re: green lunacy

The only competitor on a similar scale is underground compressed air storage

Really?

I've not seen any figures for such a system - but I've pumped a lot of scuba cylinders in my time, and the losses due to adiabatic compression heating were *enormous*...

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Re: Viewing habits

the UK loves using water to boil kettles

Water's usually a bit of a feature in kettles...

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Vic

Re: Great article

Great Scott, how many Gigawatts ?

I notice that the article doesn't say how long it can maintain that sort of output...

we need a facility to up / down vote the article the same way as comments

We used to have exactly that. It was removed. I suspect certain authors got more downvotes than they liked...

Vic.

UK needs comp sci grads, so why isn't it hiring them?

Vic

Re: java was a bad idea

so i'm wrong to resent spending the majority of the "coding" aspect of my degree doing mickey mouse java exercises in a web browser rather than something more challenging and useful?

Yes.

If they were mickey-mouse exercises, you'll have breezed through them in no time. So you're left at a university, with huge resources on tap, and loads of time on your hands. What did you do all day?

anyone can go and get any grounding they want outside of university, we're talking specifically about CS degrees and what they teach.

And one of the most important things that a degree teaches is that if you sit back and wait to be spoon-fed, you won't get much out of your time.

Now go ahead and downvote me again, because you're not going to like this reply either.

Vic.

Vic

Re: java was a bad idea

maybe the problem was the move to java. they didn't even teach php for web stuff because they could stick to java with JEE

Java isn't the problem.

The problem is an inflexible approach: the language really doesn't often matter. You tackle the problem, and the language can be chosen quite late in the process, since the early part of development is generally the same.

but really I would have much prepared a proper grounding in C

So why didn't you go out and get one?

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Hell I'd take the physics grad who learnt to code because he needed to solve problems over them any day

I went to University with a girl who was reading Philosophy. How we laughed.

On graduation, she walked into a programming job better than the one I got...

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coding will be automated ere long.

People were saying that when I started out in computing.

Yes, I am an old git. Why do you ask?

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Vic

The employers provide hands on experience in a real work environment, and steer the academic input

You're assuming that all participating employers will steer the student in the right direction; I would suggest that a significant number of companies have significant problems with rectal-cubital discrimination...

Vic.

Vic

Re: Science?

The typical software development cycle of 1. get it working, 2. get it out there, 3. fix it - runs completely against all that defines engineering

Whilst that might be far too common these days, don't tar us all with the same brush.

When I cut my teeth, "embedded" meant that your board would be welded into a metal box and thrown in the sea for a year. If you had a bug - you might only find out about it at the end of the trial, which would mean the whole job had been pointless. We did quite a bit of design and quite a bit of testing back in those days...

I frequently marvel at what self-proclaimed professionals will stoop to. I've seen code go out the door because some PHB thinks it is better to "deliver" on time rather than deliver something that stands any chance of working. Having been the recipient of such utter shite, I am firmly of the opinion that dumping crap on a customer tends to mean you don't get invited back.

Vic.

Time to talk about stupid and preventable failures

Vic

Re: Not sure if this counts but...

instead of letting the two of us drive to the local electronics mega store to buy packages of preassembled cables like any SANE person would do, to send us after bulk cable, crimpers, cable ends, & have us make the cables ourselves

Well, for all but the smallest of jobs, I'd probably have opted for making the cables myself. It's easier to get virgin cable through conduit/walls/whatever without terminators on, and if there are any complex paths, estimating the correct length can be an exercise in futility.

The trick is to have a mate to operate one end of the cable tester, and a radio to tell him what to do. And many, many boxes of cable so that you can pull a dozen or more lengths at the same time...

Vic.

Microsoft boots fake fix-it search ads

Vic

Re: I don't know why people are so fucking stupid

A lot of idiot marketers advertise using "Search for X"

A lot of them use "Search X". That really annoys me...

Prepositions really aren't that expensive any more.

Vic.

Big Pharma wrote EU anti-vaping diktat, claims Tory ex-MEP

Vic

Re: Have to ask...

The ecig liquid (aka "juice") comes in various strengths, and that's how you choose the dose

Yes, I'd have thought that much was obvious.

What I mean is - how do I decide which strength to buy? What is "normal", "strong", etc.?

Vic.

Vic

Re: Have to ask...

I do still use 6mg in my mouth to lung device

How do you go about setting the dose?

I've not smoked in ~35 years, and never will again - but I am *toying* with the idea of getting a vaping device[1] to see if the claims of nicotine helping concentration are plausible. And I've no idea what sort of strength liquid I should be looking at...

Vic.

[1] Well, it would have to be an e-pipe really, wouldn't it? That's required boffinry fayre.

Vic

Re: Kudos to the vapers

e-cigarettes are massively safer than lit tobacco, are physically incapable of being as harmful as lit tobacco

Oh, they could be as harmful as lit tobacco.

If you had enough of them. And loaded them into a blunderbuss...

Vic.

Motion Picture Ass. of America to guard online henhouse

Vic

Re: MPAA and RIAA can kiss my analog hole!

That was a matter of TRADEMARK protections, which in the EU are more stringent and not subject to exhaustion

They were still legitimate product, bought legally and then resold.

The implication is that trademarked goods never truly become the property of the purchaser. And that's a worry.

Vic.

Vic

Re: MPAA and RIAA can kiss my analog hole!

Both the US and the EU have stated that the legal sale of a good exhausts the original sellers rights to said good

And then they changed their minds.

Levi Strauss sued Tesco for legally buying Levi jeans and then selling them in their shops. Tesco lost the case...

Vic.

Sloppy security in IoT putting 'life and limb' at risk, guru warns

Vic

Re: The Greatest Fear is Fear Itself

All of us should put our practical hats on and adopt first and secure second.

*Fuck* *Right* *Off*.

Security comes first. If we can get something useful after that, then great. But compromising security just to add some shiny is idiotic.

That's not irrational fear; it's certain knowledge of what will happen to unsecured systems, based on decades of first-hand experience.

Vic.

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Re: things never said

I really need IoT said no consumer ever

Not sure if it really counts as IoT, but the McLaren F1 had on-board diagnostics and a GSM module to warn the factory when anything was going wrong.

The first most owners knew of the problem was when the mechanic met them en route to sort it out...

Vic.

FBI director claims that videoing police is causing crime uptick

Vic

Martial law tends to cut down crime quite a bit

Martial law tends to cut down reported crime quite a bit...

Vic.

Banning computers makes students do better on exams – MIT

Vic

Re: one-fifth of a standard deviation

anything less than 3 standard deviations is undecided. Only believe anything above 5.

No, you're misinterpreting what has been said.

This isn't a statistical test yiedling 0.2 sigma; this is a variation from the norm of 0.2 sigma. Assuming the original sample was statistically significant[1], that's a measured change, not a statement of uncertainty.

Vic.

[1] The article didn't mention significance, and I didn't check any further.

Vic

Re: Not that new....

use a computer during class as a way of getting my round my terrible dyslexia

Years ago, a firend of mine was tested for dyslexia when aplying for university.

The test came out positive - he was dyslexic, so they gave him a laptop.

He's not dyslexic. He was stoned when he went for the test.

Vic.

[Who is dyslexic, and very glad not to have found out until mid-30s]

UK.gov pays four fellows £35k to do nothing for three months

Vic

It's all about opex now

'Twas ever thus.

I used to get called out to a site in Germany every 8-12 weeks or so. I had to fix a consumable item. Each visit I made cost about 3/4 of the replacement cost of the item - which would come with a 2-year warranty.

I told the customer all of this. But he already knew. He was under a complete capex embargo, so opex was the only way to keep the kit running. And so he spent vastly more than was necessary[1] just so that the beancounters could feel pleased that the right budget had paid for the job...

Vic.

[1] And I got to spend a couple of days in a dungeon in Munich every couple of months. But at least they bought me beer...

First successful Hyperloop test module hits 100mph in four seconds

Vic

Re: Concorde

So Concorde looked better, was faster, more flexible, more practical and pleasant... and we built it about 50 years ago. A more elegant solution from a more civilised age.

Have you seen this project?

It's something of a long-shot, but would be marvelous if it were to come off...

Vic.

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Re: Nonsense

Hum, get the acceleration and deacceleration wrong and the G's will kill the passengers...

0 -> 100mph in 4s is a touch over 1G. It doesn't take superhuman effort to overcome that...

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Re: Snake Oil

I believe the minimum distance at speed is typically 5 miles

Without prior agreement, minimum lateral separation is typically 3 miles under radar observation.

By prior agreement, aircraft can fly much closer together than that. Flying within 20ft[1] of another aircraft does concentrate the mind...

But if these things can accelerate to 100mph in 4 seconds, there's no reason why, in an emergency, they couldn't decelerate in the same time. This could leave capsules traveling approximately 5 seconds apart.

Vic.

[1] My CFI claims I don't fly close enough. His argument - and it is well-founded - is that the closer you fly, the less you are affected by turbulence, since all aircraft move together. But I don't have the balls for that :-)

Mud sticks: Microsoft, Windows 10 and reputational damage

Vic

Re: pdp-11 ... not sold but leased until DEC lost their market

an 11/40 with a whole 128kW of memory

I bet that kept you warm in the winter...

Vic.

At the BBC, Agile means 'making it up as we go along'

Vic

Re: At the BBC, Agile means 'making it up as we go along'

Agile will at least deliver something useful quicker and cheaper than waterfall.

Agile will[1].

The bullshit that so many claim to be Agile will not...

Vic.

[1] This isn't actually true; the Waterfall model as originally described by Benington had feedback loops within it, meaning it really doesn't differ much from Agile. But the Waterfall model is as mis-represented as the Agile model, albeit generally with less-serious consequences.

Vic

Re: Envy of the World.

the squandering will only cease when it is the off-screen talent that has salaries published

The off-screen *what*?

Vic.

Spaniard live streams 195km/h burn-up

Vic

Why not cut out the middleman and just invite a copper along for the ride?

I've done >100mph with a copper in the car.

It was one of the most tiring days of my life. And you can bet that every little slip in driving standards was noticed and discussed in the debrief...

Vic.

PLA sysadmin gets six months house arrest for yanking US Army docs

Vic

Re: I always

wondered if anyone who has to apply for clearance ticks yes on those really obvious first questions

I went to University with a girl who ended up needing a security clearance. One of the first questions was "are you now, or have you ever been, a communist?".

She answered "yes". And that was the end of that. Background checks had already found that out - and the people doing the vetting didn't actually care. She had told the truth - which was imperative - and wasn't in a position to be blackmailed because of her earlier political leanings[1]. She got her clearance.

Vic.

[1] I don't think she's a communist any more; she is substantially richer than I've ever been...

Malware scan stalled misconfigured med software, mid-procedure

Vic

Re: Medico's expertise

The surgeon is ipso facto likely to be the smartest person around and therefore probably the one who knows most about computers.

That most certainly doesn't mesh with my experience.

The surgeon is likely to be the one who believes he knows most about computers, reality notwithstanding...

Vic.

Researcher arrested after reporting pwnage hole in elections site

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Re: Breaking into computers you don't own..

The solution of course was to pass all user input through a function that would clean out any funny characters.

The solution is to use prepared statements, which completely obviate all SQL injection attacks in one fell swoop...

Vic.

The 'new' Microsoft? I still wouldn't touch them with a barge pole

Vic

Re: Agreed - I don't trust them, hate their stuuf and don't use any of it

An attempt to shut down a database brought the whole thing down in a heap.

I didn't experience that; starting and stoppping things always seemed to go just fine for me.

The bizarre thing about Netware is that certain operations[1] were not possible from the terminal - you had to use a remote machine...

Vic.

[1] Luckily for me, I cannot remember the details :-)

Wasps force two passenger jets into emergency landings

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Re: Nutters

Air France 447 was caused because Airbus have installed inadequate pitot heating on many of their products

I disagree with that.

AF447 happened because the pilots firstly did not follow procedure for suspected airspeed problems, and then compounded that error by failing to recover from a simple stall. This last was exacerbated because PNF couldn't keep his hand off the stick, even when asked directly about it...

Vic.

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Re: Inventions - "Dime a dozen, cheapers in bales of twelve..."

Using valves, high pressure air, and appropriate pressure senders, periodically blast some high pressure air out the pitot tubes.

You're going to take a sensitive pressure measurement instrument and inject high-pressure air into it?

Look at the failure modes. One moderately stubborn blockage - such as ice - means that your system would permanently destroy the pitot. A frozen pitot is trivially fixed using standard procedure, and an inoperative pitot - whilst quite a significant annoyance - isn't really a safety hazard. I have landed aircraft with the ASI gauge deliberately covered; it was part of my training.

Use LEDs to add light if required. Darker than expected means blocked.

Aside from the fact that the range of expected illumination would vary immensely, detecting a blocked pitot really isn't hard without your system. What matters is what you do about it.

Vic.

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Re: Nutters

It's interesting that pilots learn to fly on 'indicated air speed'

Not really.

IAS is determined by the effect of the air on the mechanics of the aircraft. And it is this same effect of the air on the aircraft that determines whether or not it will fly. So IAS is directly and exactly correlated with the effectiveness of the flight surfaces.

TAS really doesn't matter one bit, except for navigation. That is why you calculate TAS (and adjust navigation accordingly), but measure IAS.

Vic.

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Re: Nutters

What I find worrying is that they tried to take off with faulty airspeed sensors. As if the Air France 447 accident never happened.

The AF447 incident was caused by the pilots failing to follow their training in several significant ways; the frozen pitot issue is merely what kicked off the incident chain. If that hadn't happened, somethig else would have.

Doing this on a modern fly by wire passenger jet is in the realm of suicidal

This is not true.

If the aircraft had passed V1 when they had the warning, then not taking off would have been suicidal - in fact, it would have been criminally negligent, and had the pilots survived[1] the ensuing crash, they would have been culpable for all deaths and injuries sustained by their action. This is standard procedure - it's why you have a declared V1, and why you have PNF calling it out as PF executes the take-off roll.

Dunno which deity do they have to thank

They have standard procedure to thank. They survived this incident because they followed it. AF447 crashed because the pilots did not.

Vic.

[1] This is quite unbelievably unlikely; an aircraft aborting after V1 is most likely to smash nose-first into something that doesn't nove very well..

BT Sport takes Elemental step of software encoding

Vic

I can't remember the full details of stuff but I think UHD with HEVC wasn't really available on hardware until very recently

The hardware has been available for some years. It just takes a while to get it sold into broadcasters...

Presumably the cameras aren't encoding on the fly

The camera will be plugged into a content encoder, so encoding occurs on-site. It'll be a higher bitrate than used for transmission - meaning transcoding is required later on.

Disclosure: I've worked in this field for quite a few years...

Vic.

How to evade the NSA: OpSec guide for journalists also used by terrorists

Vic

Re: How to avoid being spied on...

If you write it, they can read it.

Not with my handwriting, they can't...

Vic.

ICO fines NHS trust £185K for publicly airing personnel files

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Would you tick the 'Yes, I'm paranoid' box on a survey form?

Why do you want to know?

Vic.

Ex-HP boss Carly Fiorina sacked one week into new job

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Re: Question for language geeks

Can you foreclose a path?

Depends. Did you take out a mortgage on it?

Vic.