Posts by Vic 5860 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2007
> i'm talking about switching from non-Android OS to Android.
I switched from a Motorola V980 to an HTC Desire - exactly the situation you describe.
I had no tools for the V980 - couldn't find anything useful on the Intertubes, so I had to write something to drag the data off it. But getting that data onto my Android was a snip...
Vic.
> Maybe when the day comes that some idiot with their face covered decides to attack you
I was attacked by a bloke who wasn't wearing any sort of face covering.
> You will want the CCTV to catch them
...But it won't. All the coppers could tell me was that the images were insufficient for them to do anything.
CCTV doesn't protect you. The resolution is not high enough for it to have any meaningful effect. The only deterrence it has is because some people *think* you'll be caught if you do something unlawful in view of a camera. And the serious lawbreakers know that the detection rate is laughable...
Vic.
> Textbooks
They're available on the iPad, are they?
I've just had a look for Horowitz and Hill. I can't find it...
> Providing it's no worse than using a text book then this by its self is a win
If you're reading Electronics, the iPad is definitively worse than a textbook by virtue of it entirely failing to contain any of the same material. I've not checked for any other subject - it fell at the very first hurdle.
Vic.
> One of your staff at least is an emotional mess, one or two may not really like children.
That's a fairly abnormal school - only one or two disliking children?
> Explain how you will use your knowledge of integration by parts to get the GCSE results up.
As with most "difficult" problems, the solution generally involves a pint of diesel and certain parts of the anatomy of the senior management...
Vic.
> I presume that you are asking for MS to subsidize these.
Microsoft can't subsidise the unit for the reasons you state.
But if they don't get the cost down, the device is DOA.
I don't know how they'll manage it. But maybe they have someone who does. And maybe they'll fire the bloke[1] who thought the current price point was reasonable
Vic.
[1] that's got to be Ballmer, hasn't it?
> they got rich by nailing search at the right time
I disagree slightly; IMO, they got rich by providing lots of $what_we_wanted without having to deal with too much of $what_they_wanted; they turned down the greed control. Contrast that with the likes of HotBot and AltaVista, who were all about maximising their own interests.
The *upshot* of that balance was that they ended up nailing search at the right time...
Vic.
> the legalities of dropping items from aircraft other than in times of conflict.
ANO Article 129 generally prohibits dropping anything from an aircraft without an appropriate certificate (i.e.permission), but subsection 3 explicitly exempts "the jettisoning, in case of emergency, of fuel or other articles in the aircraft".
Note, however, that subsection 1 is still operational, and that requries "Articles and animals (whether or not attached to a parachute) must not be dropped, or permitted to drop, from an aircraft in flight so as to endanger persons or property."
There's also the difficulty of ejecting a flaming battery from the pressurised part of the plane into the unpressurised atmosphere without substantially depressurising the plane (even in the event of difficulties because things have changed shape). It's not insurmountable, but I'll betcha it adds more weight than just using a battery that doesn't exhibit the problems in the first place...
Vic.
I, as another aviation professional, have understood exactly what he meant and he's right on the money.
Except that he isn't. He stated :
suggests to the reader that the battery pack might burst into flames while the plane is flying. That's not very likely
...When there is ample evidence of exactly that happening. That's why the aircraft are grounded.
Vic.
> You guys *are* aware that in this case there was a physical breaking and entering part to the crime, aren't you?
No, I'm not.
There was an allegation of same - and quite a bit of evidence to refute that allegation.
I'm always one to believe in "innocent unless proven guilty"...
> after apparently thinking he could break the law with impunity
It's entirely possible he didn't break a single law. He seems generally to have used resources in ways he was explicitly permitted to.
Vic.
> IPv4 gave us non-memorable addresses
Nonsense. I spend every day surrounded by people who readily recite IPv4 addresses from memory.
The same simply cannot be said for IPv6.
> I don't know how successful this is in practice
It isn't...
> the extra bits were supposed to be carved up so as to make it really easy to implement routing algorithms
Having a MAU of /64 pretty much obviates that.
Vic.
> how long servers last in a home environment
Mine have lasted many years so far..
> you won't be saving money.
That depends on what you're running.
> Hosting in a datacenter has numerous advantages
And several disadvantages. The "best" way to host your stuff depends on what stuff you want to host...
Vic.
> IIRC it is usually a compound of the ethernet MAC address and a user's prefix
No, that's just the link-local stuff, and is just a recommendation, not a requirement.
Externally-visible IPv6 addresses can be whatever you like within your allocation - and for servers, using the MAC address would be an extraordinarily bad thing to do[1].
Vic.
[1] It makes replacing a failed network interface rather tricky, for example...
> the only thing I think you can blame the "IPv6 lobby" for
I'm blaming them for giving us non-memorable IP addresses.
IPv4 is *nearly enough*. 32 bits is a bit less than 1 address per human - particularly when you take out the reserved portions of the address space.
So what we need is a little bigger - 34, 35 bits, something like that. That would give us an address each, and still be feasible to hold an address in your head. But we like multiples of 8, so a 40-bit or 48-bit addressing scheme would have been wonderful - 40 bits is still 256 instances of the current IPv4 Internet, and that is a lot.
128 bits is unwieldy in extremis - it's far, far bigger than we're ever going to need. We have MAUs of /64 - why would anyone need a /64 as the *minimum* allocation? We're never going to have 2^64 humans, and I can't imagine any one of them needing 2^64 addresses. I personally have a /56 and a /48, and I have a sum total of 3 machines on those 10^23 addresses...
Vic.
> SIP really REALLY doesn't like NAT.
SIP is fine with NAT. All my phones are behind at least one NAT router.
The trick is to set up the STUN service properly - that means the external IP address can be embedded in the SIP packet.
Oh - and turn off all those "helpful" SIP ALG implementations in routers. They're universally crap...
Vic.
> toyed with Fedora a few times, but it is just too bleeding edge for my tastes.
I've found it's a really good get-out-of-jail-free disty.
I carry a bootable F14 stick. It's stable enough , boots on just about anything, and there are plenty of goodies not available in the RHEL or EPEL repos.
Vic.
> It ties everything to once number which you can answer on your PC, laptop phone etc
You can do that with a SIP client. I use CSipSimple.
There are a variety of SIP providers around[1] - for most people here, I'd suggest SipGate.
Vic.
[1] I'm one of them, actually - but I'm not really looking for any single-user accounts...
> the various AK designs tend to be accurate out to only 350-400m
Doesn't really matter. The primary purpose of the AK is to go "ratatat" and get everyone heading for cover. Hitting them is really an incidental bonus...
> your Desert Eagle has an effective range of around 50m
You can fling a 2Kg lump 50m and still hit something? I'm impressed.
Vic.
> I'd really like to see Linus drop the F-bomb on the guy that made that change.
I'd really like to see Linus drop the F-bomb on the guy that made ext4. It's really not good on laptops[1] that lose power unexpectedly...
Vic.
[1] More specifically, I don't think it's appropriate to run ext4 as a root FS on any machine that's not going to be attended by an experienced sysad. ext3 would almost always clean itself up, even if it bellyached while it did it. ext4 drops you to a root shell and expects you to sort it out yourself - an annoyance for me, a show-stopper for others :-(
> Flashing lights are easier to *notice*
And that is all there is to it.
> the strobe effect utterly defeats the brain's ability to track movement
That's still better than drivers not noticing at all. It might not be perfect, but it's by far the better solution.
> Strobes are used for exactly this effect on stage
That's at a much higher frequency. It's a different effect.
> please, *please* don't use flashing lights.
I always use flashing lights when cycling, and I always advise other cyclists to do so. As a motorist, I also prefer them as they are almost impossible to miss. Given the average level of observation shown by drivers, I don't intend changing my behaviour any time soon. Flashing lights are *significantly* safer.
Vic.
> I decided to replace eight downlighters in my kitchen with eight 4W LEDs.
I did something similar.
> I went for the quality end of the LED market - not eBay rip-offs
I went for the cheapie eBay crap. I paid about £3 each.
> In the last 14 months 3 of these LED lamps have failed :-)
In the 2 years or so I've had them, none of mine have failed[1].
Vic.
[1] Not *strictly * true; the glue holding the LED board into the housing came apart on one of them. I glued it back in place and it's been fine...
I wish more cyclists on a budget would use them in place of the flashing white LED units that project next-to-no light and make it harder for a motorist to judge their speed and distance
Cyclists use flashing lights because they are more visible - our eyes are incredibly sensitive to movement[1], and a flashing light is perceived as movement, since flashing sources are incredibly new in evolutionary terms.
So although such lights make it a bit harder for motorists, they make it *much* safer for cyclists. At least we'll be seen.
Vic.
[1] Whether you're predator or prey, an awareness of moving things around you is kinda important...
> Run windows as a guest on 'nix.
That's how I'd do it, given the choice - but you don't always get that choice. Sometimes, you go into a site which already has Windows-based virtualisation in place. Running up a G/L installation on top of that means you get a *nix platform for whatever you might need without having to go through the political bullshit involved in building a new phsyical server instance different to what the company uses elsewhere.
So this is good news for everyone, even if it's a technology I'd personally rather avoid if at all possible...
Vic.
> These are not normally admissable as part of small claims procedings
Yes, they are.
A company failing to comply with PECR is unlawful, and I can (and have) invoiced for the clean-up associated with that failing. Wait a couple of weeks, and you can put that unpaid invoice through the Small Claims process.
I've done this. I have to be quite annoyed to go through that rigmarole, but so far it's been pretty effective...
Vic.
> I achieve the same thing using a wildcard alias system ;)
I really wouldn't recommend that. Wildcards mean you accept email for addresses that you've never allocated. That makes dictionary attacks painful to you and valuable to the spammer.
Far more effective IMO is to use an aliases file - allocate a fresh email address every time you give one out. If one gets abused, stub it out with a comment that it was abused. that way, the spam stops, and you've got a record of the abuse should you ever be tempted to deal with that company again.
Vic.
> Even though it, as far as I can tell, is actually useable*.
KDE 3.5 was a fantastic desktop. I still use it in places.
Then KDE 4.0 came along. And it was *terrible*.
Now everyone tells me that it's gotten a lot better since 4.0 - and I'm quite prepared to believe it has. But the pain is still too fresh, and I'm just not ready to try it again just yet...
Vic.
> And still using 14.(the last Gnome 2 edition)
I've still got a few F14 boxes, but my current favourites are F16 installations with the BlueBubble stuff ported[1] to them.
And they're good.
I briefly tried F17 with the various MATE-style stuff, but it was all a bit buggy for my taste.
Vic.
[1] Well, *almost* ported. I've still not finished the job because what I've got is so close I've just not got round to it. So I can't yet put anything on the desktop, but the rest of it looks pretty awesome...
> That being said, developing chips is rocket science
No, not really.
> It's not like software development where if you make an oopsie, you just fix it and recompile
It is - it's exactly like that.
Most chips are fully synthesised these days. You write your code in exactly the same way as if you're writing software, then hit the button to do the synthesis. Once that's built, you run it through the design rules checker and the simulation tool.
There are even tools to run multiple synthesis/simulation runs in parallel with different seeds, so that you have a bunch of possible layouts from which to pick the best.
Discolsure: I'm currently running a large GridEngine cluster to do exactly this as part of $dayjob...
> In a chip, you have to design not only the initial logic, but a means to implement patches as well.
We use tools like diff and patch. They do the job.
> It's HARD!
Maybe. But it's no harder that software development of the same level ofcomplexity.
Vic.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
