* Posts by Vic

5860 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2007

Irish roll out obligatory drone register

Vic

One would hope the net weight was negative, at least at sea/land level. Or else it's not the most useful of items...

That's a balloon. Most people don't really want to fly them.

For an airship - which is what we're talking about - you want the weight to be positive - just not *very* positive. That way, the thing comes down gently if you lose power for any reason, but you have minimal weight to overcome with power to gain height.

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Identifying terrorists: Let's find a value for needle in haystack

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Re: Forgetting my annoyance at this disgraceful debacle ...

However the general public blamed the Lib Dems for the things the Tories did get through

No we didn't.

We blamed the Lib Dems for sacrificing what they claimed to be a "personal pledge" when the offer of a coalition power-share came along.

Nick Clegg then compounded the situation by apoogising - not for breaking his pledge[1], but for making it in the first place.

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[1] This was a personal pledge, remember, Something he claimed he believed in. So don't talk about how manifesto pledges can be ignored if the party fails to achieve a majority - this is something he said he personally believed in, as did his colleagues.

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Re: Bit of a no-brainer really

Dear Mrs May, I am not a serious criminal so kindly fec off!

Doesn't matter. Although all the accompanying blurb always talks about "serious crime", note that the draft bill tself is rather less prescriptive: Section 46(7)(b) says:

It is necessary and proportionate to obtain communications data for a purpose

falling within this subsection if it is necessary and proportionate to obtain the data ... for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime or of preventing disorder

You can drive a coach and horses through that. Any crime is sufficient - and they only need to be trying to prevent it; said crime may not have been committed (or even planned).

Then, once the data has been purloined, there is no requirement for them to destroy the dataset, nor to hold it purely for the purposes for which they said they wanted it. Oh look - they get everything they ask for.

I am dumbfounded that MPs en masse have not told May to sod off. This bill is possibly the worst one a Home Secretary has triued to push through in recent years. It must be defeated.

IPB delenda est!

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TalkTalk boss: 'Customers think we're doing right thing after attack'

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Re: Customers think TalkTalk is doing the right thing

Plusnet are actually pretty good

Plusnet are variable. When I was with them, they wre *appalling*.

They seem to go in cycles...

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Most developers have never seen a successful project

Vic
Joke

Re: Nuclear Power Stations

the software equivalent would be trying to build a word processor that is also a web browser and an AV solution.

Emacs?

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Re: What is this article on about?

And note that Agile preaches that documentation is the least important aspect of any project

It most certainly does not.

You can find the Agile Manifesto here. Note that the only thing stated to be more important than comprehensive documentation is working software. That doesn't make it the "least important aspect"; it is merely secondary to getting the code working. Nothing else is mentioned as being more important.

the High Priests of Agile in an Agile project will use their church to brand anyone suggesting that more documentation is needed as a heathen and a philistine to be cast into the desert to contemplate their sins.

And there's your real problem - people taking on that role with no understanding whatsoever of what Agile actually is. If you've been on a project that makes such claims - it wasn't an Agile project. IME, the vast majority of self-proclaimed Agile organisations are no such thing...

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Multinationals hiding more than half a trillion from G20 tax collectors

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Re: And yet..

we should all pay as little tax as we are legally allowed to pay.

Do you not?

I don't know anyone who pays more that the Tax man demands...

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Cops gain access to phone location data

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Re: This is a good thing for smart criminals

They can also check your browsing history during this time. but there won't be any... hence reason to believe you did not have your phone with you.

How long is it going to take to knock up a script on your laptop that browses ElReg for a couple of hours whilst you're doing the deed?

My old phone ran Perl. It wouldn't be tricky to have the phone create some browsing history as an alternative.

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UN privacy head slams 'worse than scary' UK surveillance bill

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There's a turn-up for the books

Someone from the UN says something sensible?

I'm glad I was sitting down when I read it...

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Re: HumInt and SigInt both require wisdom

Most of us will be able to admit to looking at a pile of data, isolating relevant facts, and then drawing the wrong conclusion.

It's called Confirmation Bias. We're all susceptible to it, to some extent.

Once you go looking for something specific, you will tend to find it - even if it isn't there...

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Re: "Reading is fundamental" too....

I contracted once for a high rate, and signed willingly and greedily

At the start of my last contract, I was offered the "standard" contract for the company. They were really quite shocked when I refused to sign it.

I pointed out that they were requiring copyrights that I did not own. Not only could I not provide what they demanded, neither could any other software contractor working there.

It appears I was the first contractor actually to read the contract thoroughly. And there were a lot of contractors working there...

Vic.

So. Farewell then Betamax. We always liked you better than VHS anyway

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Re: Was it actually better than VHS or not?

there was a technical difference in the PAL 625 lines system for colour stability.(something to do with phase and alternate lines?)

NTSC simply modulates the two colour components onto the carrier 90o out of phase; any phase errors in the demodulation means you have errors on the chroma.

PAL inverts the phase every alternate line - so as long as your phase errors are consistent between adjacent lines, the error is trivially corrected.

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Re: Can we finally settle this?

sadly for Sony, they didn't learn and tried with Minidisk and memory sticks that no other used

I was once given the task of finding a use for MemoryStick (the TM version, not what we currently call "memory sticks"). My management were quite clear that this was MemoryStick's last gasp.

I failed...

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ProtonMail 'mitigates' DDoS attacks, says security not breached

Vic

Withstanding a determined attack of this nature, and being able to declare that nothing was stolen

But ... but ... but ...

DDoS is how stuff gets stolen. Dido Harding herself told me so.

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Tim Cook: UK crypto backdoors would lead to 'dire consequences'

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"We have also never allowed access to our servers." - he should have added "knowingly"

The more interesting bit, IMO, was the "and we never will" at the end; although I have no doubt Apple will do absolutely everything in their power to prevent the spooks getting into their servers, the deck is stacked against them. The Patriot Act really doesn't let them follow through on this promise...

Vic.

Untamed pledge() aims to improve OpenBSD security

Vic

if you have an 'all' option then I think it's likely that many programmers will simply use 'all' rather than going to the trouble of figuring out what calls are needed, effectively bypassing the mechanism

What, like users demanding CAP_SYS_ADMIN on command interpreters? Nah, that would never happen...

Vic.

[ Tired of refusing that particular request... ]

Facebook conjures up a trap for the unwary: scanning your camera for your friends

Vic

Re: This Zucks.

If you know Joe, Steve, Helen, and those three all know Kevin, it isn't a bad guess that you might know Kevin

This is a problem. LinkedIn keeps asking me if I know Darl McBride...

I really want them to add a button "Yes, but he's a twat". For reasons entirely unrelated to the above, I assure you...

Vic.

Cryptowall 4.0: Update makes world's worst ransomware worse still

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Re: Hunt the bastards down and publicly execute them

wanting humans dissected for public entertainment is beyond sociopathic and into psychopathic land.

Oh.

OK, as you were, then.

::shuffles off::

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less chance of getting caught

Strange, that.

We keep getting new laws foisted upon us that are supposed to help the Authorities keep us safe from this sort of thing. We keep hearing that the Authorities are keepiung us safe.

So why are these criminals not already behind bars?

VIc.

TPP: 'Scary' US-Pacific trade deal published – you're going to freak out when you read it

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Re: Source code

No government shall require .. source code owned by an individual or government, as a condition of import, sale, use or distribution.

That still prevents government redistribution of GPL code. And that is unnecessary.

It doesn't mean they can't make it a condition of buying it themselves.

It absolutely does mean that. It might not have meant ot mean that, but it does anyway.

It doesn't ban open source. it prevents governments from banning non-open-source.

That is not the case, even if it were the original intention.

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Re: No Party Shall Require?

the meaning is close enough for general discussion.

When it comes to legal disputes, that sort of thinking is always problematic.

When there is a *trivial* phrasing that removes all doubt, and another that involves any amount of ambiguity, why would someone specifically trained in contract law choose the more ambiguous?

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Vic

"No Party shall require"

translates to

"No Party will be forced by law to require"

No it doesn't.

It translates to "all parties are legally prohibited from requiring".

I have a problem with this.

Vic.

Vic

Re: No Party Shall Require?

I read that as meaning the state cannot make it a requirement (and so block its use?) not that individuals can't.

Generally speaking, if the lawyers have used a particular word, they have a reason for it. They could have said "state". They said "party"...

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Re: Source code

I'm disappointed by people's inability to read legal documents properly.

Errr - yes.

The term basically means that you as a (powerful, e.g. state) customer cannot demand to see the source code for an executable as a precondition of importing/purchasing the product.

That might - or might not - have been the intention. But intentions don't matter; what matters is the wording of the treaty. And that goes quite some way beyond what you've written above.

It says nothing about open source whatsoever

It says "No Party shall require the transfer of, or access to, source code of software owned by a person of another Party, as a condition for the import, distribution, sale, or use of such software."

GPL software is invariably "owned by a person of another Party", and so - by this wording - "No Party shall require the transfer of, or access to, source code" "as a condition for ... distribution". That means that it becomes unlawful to distribute under GPL, sinnce the licence cannot be satisfied whilst adhering to this treaty.

One can only hope that this is an accidental by-product of some clumsy wording which will be sorted out in short order.

Vic.

Vic

Re: Source code

It seems to mean that if you do want to have access to the source code then you need to go with FOSS software.

Well, the text of this agreement means GPL code cannot be distributed :-

No Party shall require the transfer of, or access to, source code of software owned by a person of another Party, as a condition for the import, distribution, sale, or use of such software.

The GPL requires transfer of source code as a condition of distribution. So unless you own *all* the code in your product, you can't distribute under GPL. And if you do own all the code, anyone to whom you transfer your code may not redistribute it.

So much for this just being a benign tidy-up of the law...

Vic.

UK government looks to harness the potential of open data through APIs

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"preventing the integrity of the data" Sounds like something our government might be capable of

I came here to post the same thing.

It's almost as if someone accidentally told the truth...

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Brussels flings out Safe Harbour guidelines, demands 'safer' new framework ASAP

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Re: Seems the bias here is wrong.

Contractual obligations will not override the US governments demand to get this data

Indeed.

It really irks me that we keep hearing about "binding corporate rules" beaing the way out of the problem, when the one thing that they are not is binding...

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TalkTalk claims 157,000 customers were victims of security breach

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Re: Jump on the sinking ship now!

Small Claims cases where costs tend not to be awarded

I've been awarded costs in a Small Claims Court.

It's capped at £50 a day. And the bugger never paid anyway.

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Linus Torvalds targeted by honeytraps, claims Eric S. Raymond

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Re: Hang on a mo, Eric

'I can scarce believe that anyone would think that feminism is a suitable excuse to spout this kind of fascist shit'

Years ago, I was listening to Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Jenny Murray was doing an article on testicular cancer - claiming it was a feminist issue because women felt "left out".

That was the last time I listened to Woman's Hour.

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Yay, more 'STEM' grads! You're using your maths degree to do ... what?

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Re: "Before Current Era arithmetic is useless"

Do please show me someone who knows his total-to-pay (beyond a rather vague range) before being told at the supermarket checkout

*waves*

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CPS fined £200k over theft of laptops holding 'sensitive interviews'

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Re: All the way to the last coment and .......

Does your government have a child abuser problem?

Not any more, it would seem...

Vic.

UK's super-cyber-snoop shopping list: Internet data, bulk spying, covert equipment tapping

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Re: On the back of a fag packet

it's entirely likely that # of criminals caught would be >0.

But probably <2...

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Re: Film plot

Are you saying that Ms May is an enormous "C"?

I am. But I'm struggling to work out what the TLA named "UNT" is actually for...

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Re: Please explain this.

Or has she not actually read the draft bill?

Or is she lying through her teeth?

I just can't decide...

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It helps program the masses for more learned helplessness

I am buying you beer...

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Re: Time to teach the children some fact of life

Don't become a cleaner or a bricklayer, those jobs have no respect, you will just be a slave the rest of your lives

Metropolis was on TV last night[1]. For a film initially described as "naive", it is really rather prescient...

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[1] OK, this morning...

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Re: Publish the browsing lists of May?

Suddenly someone breaking in and taking nothing is something to be very afraid of

Some years ago, my mate bought some land close to Boscombe Down. There's a barn on it.

In the first week he owned it, someone broke in - not an insignificant undertaking. Nothing of value went missing...

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Re: Security Theatre and/or Snooping

However if you only put in laws etc to help detect the very best, then you miss out on opportunities to catch the low hanging fruit

It's very easy to catsh the low-hanging fruit: just lock up everyone. That has the additional benefit of catching clever and hard-to-find criminals too.

There's a little collateral damage to the idea, but what does that matter in the War On Terror?

Vic.

[Yes, of course I'm being sarcastic]

Vic

Re: Security Theatre and/or Snooping

It's a fact that a lot of criminals are stupid.

It fucking isn't.

I've met quite a few people over the years who you would probably classify as "criminal". Sure, there are a few dimwits - they get taken out of circulation quite quickly. But the majority - by some margin - are intelligent people who have taken against Authority because they have been ill-treated. Heavy-handedness by TPTB turns innocent people into criminals.

But the important bit is this: those that take umbrage and do something about it are invariably the bright ones. The stupid ones do something stupid and get arrested.

So to claim that "a lot of criminals are stupid" is beyond ignorant. A lot of people that get caught are stupid - that's true. But the ones you need to worry about are the ones that don't get caught. And if they're stupid - why can't we catch them?

TL;DR: underestimating your enemy is a sure-fire way of getting beaten.

Vic.

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Re: Cautiously optimistic

So if you don't like the heat in the kitchen get out!

First post. Signed up just to post that.

Does this not smack of vested interests? It would be interesting to see if this poster's IP address maps to Westminster or Cheltenham...

Vic.

Google: We made India a consumer society and our work here is done

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Coat

Re: Galling?

Go see Tim, he'll explain.

Too late!

Vic.

Sennheiser announces €50,000 headphones (we checked, no typos)

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Re: Bloody audiophiles

Why should marble be any better than chipboard or any other non-conducting material anyway?

It stabilises all the microphonic bits of the amplifier...

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PC sales will rise again, predicts Intel, but tablets are toast

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Re: "Will plastic surgery will be necessary once this 3D facial info is hacked / leaked?"

this covers most of the thoughts I find interesting at the moment.

The first thought that came to me is this: if the technology is sensitive enough to discriminate between identical twins, what happens when I grow a beard?

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Volkswagen: 800,000 of our cars may have cheated in CO2 tests

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Re: Bullet. Teeth. Pressure

Maybe Veedub should just take a deep breath and just let it all out and admit everything they have kept people in the dark about.

The problem is - they probably don't know.

Look at it this way: how many times have you written a piece of code, and your boss has completely failed to understand what it does[1]? How many times has he completely misrepresented its operation to his management[2]?

I suspect a lot of this went on at VW. Someone (hopefully) knew, but the guys at the top were undoubtedly just fed lots of reports about how well the engineering team were getting on well. We could argue - probably should argue - that the top brass whould have queried why they were getting numbers that their competition couldn't match - but it's a very long time since I've seen Senior Management think like that. They're concentrating on numbers on spreadsheets, with no real thought as to what those numbers truly represent.

My earnest hope is that this shambles will force Top Manglement to take responsibility for the actions of their companies - it is, after all, what they are paying themselves to do. And while we're at it, let's have World Peace, free trips to the ISS, and time travel :-(

Vic.

[1] Despite your spending many hours with him, explaining it in excruciating detail...

[2] It's amazing how bonuses and other kudos get handed out for "good" results, rather than honesty.

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Re: Numbers...

"The absolute maximum efficiency of an automotive engine (otto or diesel) is around 35%(*)"

Used to be, companies like MAN would beg to differ.

Still is.

The maximum theoretical efficiency for any heat engine is given by 1-(TC/TH).

TC is going to be fixed at somewhere around 300K (atmospheric temperature).

This gives TH of some 460K to achieve 35% efficiency. That's hot...

You can argue with my TC=300K figure if you like, but even reducing that to 230K gives TH of 350K to achieve that 35%; *possibly* achievable in the Arctic, but unusual on most roads.

And note that this is peak theoretical efficiency; I've made no allowance whatsoever for actual losses due to moving parts, Real engines will not achieve these figures.

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Now VW air-pollution cheatware 'found in Audis and Porsches'

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Re: An internal investigation suggests between 10-20 people involved

That would mean terrorist organizations would be far better off training and injecting engineers in key positions

They'd have been more effective taking out cheap mortgages a few years ago. That pretty much brought the world to its knees...

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At Microsoft 'unlimited cloud storage' really means one terabyte

Vic

Re: Unlimited should be a legal term

it's meaningless, thrown around with abandon and only serves to confuse the public.

The word "unlimited" doesn't confuse the public. It's the limited nature of the product that does that...

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Dev to Mozilla: Please dump ancient Windows install processes

Vic

Yes, because Linux packages don't run executable scripts (which in turn may run executables), don't they?

Rarely. But you can always check to see what they're going to do *before* you do the installation.

Face it - a setup needs to alter the system, sometimes in deep ways (i.e. installing a driver)

That's why you have a single utility to do it, and have the package simply supply the data in a readable format to that utility.

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Windows 10 is an antique (and you might be too) says Google man

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Re: Duarte, the Android UI guy (laugh)

MS absolutely Did Not Listen to it's customers when it came time to creating W10

Absolutely they did.

Not quite so much attention was paid to their users, though...

Vic.

Star Trek to go boldly back onto telly, then beam down in streams

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Happy

Re: WOW

Never have I seen el Reg get an article so wrong.

You must be new here...

Vic.