* Posts by Herby

3058 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Dec 2007

BOFH: Remote access malarkey

Herby
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Amazing what you can do with "remote access"

Back in my support/BOFH days (1981 or so), the computers I worked on had remote access modems on them (I had designed the hardware). While these were only character interfaces, the people who ran the boxen were "dumber than cheese". We would always "ask" first, as it would lock out the control terminal at the remote location. The "fun" part was that we could call up the computer and switch operator talk paths all around. All of a sudden we would monitor the voice, and interject some remark at the proper time. "Hello there" would elicit almost a scream. Always fun.

Bill Buxton to change Microsoft from within, hug Steve Ballmer

Herby

Microsoft Change?

Just another oxymoron. Just like Windows Vista.

Nothing more to say.

Chinese manned spaceshot set for 25 September

Herby

If they really want to get noticed!

Let them link up with the ISS. THAT would be something! Then it would be truly international in scope. When they do a mission like Apollo 8 (to the moon and back!) they will have done something. Of course, you need BIG rockets for that. Saturn-5's are on display in Houston (maybe not after IKE) for copying purposes.

Judge: Breath test firm must hand over source code

Herby
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All this sounds like...

...hanging chad redux. I agree that the source code should be available for inspection, that's what the vendor of the device should have done in the first place. The problem is that the devices are paid for by the very fines they produce (Radar speeding tickets sometime fall into this category). So, there is a vested interest to have as many "convictions" as possible, even when they are not founded in fact. For all we know, it prints out a sheet that says "drunk" for every 9 out of 10 tests it does. The assumption being that if the policeman has any suspicion he is probably right.

To the vendor: if it is THAT secret, you shouldn't sell it anyway. A chemical analyzer is a pretty standard device. Anyone should be able to make one, compete on cost, and show us the code!

Royal Society: Schools should show creationism 'respect'

Herby

Creationism really does exist...

...it is just in the form of the Big Bang!

As seen on somebody's signature:

A black hole is where God is dividing by zero.

Bring on the large Hadron collider and create us all again! Or maybe an tactictal nuclear strike in the proper place will do.

NASA mulls nuclear Moon reactor

Herby
Joke

Windmills? Solar??

Why not? You could erect quite a large windmill in 1/6 g space. Take quite a bit less steel. Solar would work as well, no atmosphere to bog things down.

What? No atmosphere, no wind, dark 14 days in a row. Small details!

Another idea: Scale up one of those black/white in globe things. It might even work. You just need large white panels (4) with black facings on the obverse. A nice bearing, and away it goes. With no atmosphere, it would spin quite nicely!

World goes mad as Bill and Jerry eat churros

Herby
Alert

Jerry Seinfeld??

Am I the only one who sees some irony here? Go back and take a look at ALL of the episodes of the Seinfeld show. Back in the corner of Jerry's apartment is (wait for this!) a Mac! You can pretty much tell when the episode was made by the model. Early shows had an SE or an SE/30 (you really can't tell), and they it went more upscale from there. I remember a powerbook in a base among others. To me it goes without saying that the producers (Seinfeld was one of them!) approved of this product placement and even made money from it.

Remember: He didn't switch when W95 came out, or any later version. This reinforces the notion he IS a paid shill!

Hi-tech cops lose their website

Herby

Something needed in domain registry

So these guys let their domain expire. Maybe they wanted the id10t's that link to it to understand that they have done something wrong. Sure they could re-direct it, but the lazy linkers just keep doing it. There is an alternative to having some "cyber-squatter" take over the link! The registry should have a category (you will probably need to pay for this service though) that says "domain is out of service".

When you don't pay your phone bill there is a lag of quite some time (locally it is usually at least 6 months) before the number is assigned again. It should be the same way with domain names as well. If you want to cyber-squat, you will need to wait 6 months!

Yes, I know the people who have the domain are stupid. They should have kept up their registration (the information at least!) then they might have gotten an email suggesting that something was about to expire.

History shaped Google's Trojan Horse

Herby

It is all about locking in the user...

Into something they can't do without, usually in more ways than one.

Microsoft (presently) has the dominant operating system, but they also have the dominant word processor, browser, and spreadsheet as well. All of these lock into each other. Then they come out with an improved version (take your pick which one it is) and then people start using it. The items they pass among themselves require others to do the same upgrade, just to stay "with the program" and use the data passed. And so it goes. A vicious circle of upgrades.

Google is attempting to break the cycle. Good for them! If they succeed in interjecting themselves in one of the paths, they they can move the users over to their "circle of upgrade". They need to convince people that browsing with Chrome is a "better" experience (it may well be, I haven't tried it). Then slowly the web applications will need to address the market since they will insist on it. Oh, well there goes the Active-X pages, and their lock. After this everyone will benefit as we won't be fixed in Microsoft's version of the "upgrade loop". The problem is that we will (eventually) get into Google's version.

The determination of "good"/"evil" is left to the future.

(*SIGH*)

Report: IRS networks riddled with vulns, rogue servers

Herby

Our tax dollars at work

Enough said.

Then again, they should lynch (or at least terminate them) those who put these things on the air. Double the punishment if they are windoze based.

Reg launches Chrome-o-drome

Herby

An old saying for "Show Vehicles"

"If it don't go, Chrome It".

Might apply here (different meanings for words, but the effect is the same).

Google remodels top secret money machine

Herby

If you want to test...

...try "Redirect remover" for Firefox. It is a wonderful goodie that makes "click-thru's" go away. Wonderful for seeing what the ad-server is offering up these days.

Yes, ad-block-plus is wonderful. If I see something that IS worthwhile, I will go there, but usually I search for what I want.

Better than advertising: Editorial content. A good product review does wonders for prompting me to buy things. The Peak camera (now offered as AirLink101 in the USA) is an example.

Note to self: Visit Cash ’n’ Carrion soon. Get a nice BOFH shirt.

Microsoft breaks IE8 interoperability promise

Herby

Microsoft Standards

Just another one for the oxymoron file. That's all.

"We don't have to, we're Microsoft" (said in wonderful Ernestine/Lily Tomlin voice)

AT&T freshens tourist-trapping iPhone data plans

Herby

If they charged voice at data rates...

...it would be hideously expensive. The example noted $.005/kB for "overage". That works out to between $.30 per minute if you use DS0 (8kB/sec) rates. Typically most carriers use some adaptive coding which is 1/2 the data, so it goes to $.15 per minute which is pretty expensive for minutes. Why don't they charge the same rate for "voice" minutes as "data" minutes? Anything else is biased (usually to the detriment of the data user!). Besides "data" minutes ought to be LESS since they do not need to be "real-time" in delivery (which "voice" usually attempts to be!)

Oh, by the way, that was for one way voice. Most of the time voice is "full duplex".

DARPA in Tom'n'Jerry robo-brain quest

Herby

An impossible task

Herding cats. Many have tried, none succeeded!

Last night on our Late Night talk show (The Tonight Show), the host mentioned that there was a cat with 4 ears born. Then mentioned that it doesn't make any difference, no cat obeys any commands a human gives them, and with four ears, they can ignore you at twice the rate.

On the other hand, they make great lap warmers while pecking at the keyboard.

Facebook summarily denies undeniable user-menacing security hole

Herby
Joke

And sane people...

...use FaceBook??

Why bother! It is probably much easier to stand on a street corner (or Hyde Park) and shout "LOOK AT ME".

Newegg plays chicken with New York 'Amazon Tax'

Herby
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So, when NewEgg attempts to get sued...

New York's attorney general will just hop on an airplane and head for Whitter California to serve the papers, where NewEgg will trash them, and say "Go Ahead, make my day". I wish the AG good luck attempting to enforce NewYork law in California!!

Now if he wishes to sue the affiliates, that's his choice. Let them be liable for the sales tax (all of it!)!

Suicide squirrel knocks out Swiss TV

Herby
Joke

Now repeat after me...

In your proper Homer Simpson voice:

Mmmmm. Squirrel. Tasty. Mmmmm.

We now resume your long list of comments.

San Jose decides it's 'Visual Computing Week'

Herby

Maybe but...

"General Admission is only $10. Come join the excitement!" (from the web page)

No further comment needed.....

Red Hat hack prompts critical OpenSSH update

Herby

At least they are taking security seriously!

Unlike others who make code available for PC's in the operating system arena.

Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here.

Booze and breasts combined, finally

Herby

Somebody lost an important fact

These are the "new improved" Bulgarian Airbags. I'm surprised nobody has thought of this. Of course, they aren't filled with air in this case, but it is close.

The biggest problem: Body temperature Booze. Bummer!!

Microsoft's IE 8 puts giant web hole on notice

Herby

IE vs. Firefox

Unfortunately, there are still lots of BIG HUGE software producers that INSIST on IE. I've personally been stuck with a couple KRONOS (http://www.kronos.com) and Mercury Quality Center. Both of these have BIG problems with non-IE platforms. One of these days, a big customer will wave a $zillion contract in front of them, and then take it away when they didn't read the fine print about working cross platform.

So, IE has its (dumb) uses, and we all have to suffer! (*SIGH*). Anything they do to put another band-aid over the thousands of holes in the balloon helps, but somehow it keeps us afloat. Bummer!

A third of Vista PCs downgraded to XP

Herby
Joke

Just wondering...

What is the operating system on Steve Ballmer's PC

If it isn't a Mac! Maybe his chair is running Linux, but that would be guessing.

Librarian of child abuse networking site jailed indefinitely

Herby

The arrest is good, but...

Perhaps the police might get nicer results by getting to a root cause of some of this junk. The people who spam for a living (with similar marginal legalities) are free to roam, but the other online activities that are classified as "really bad" are prosecuted (most likely due to high profile!)? If we have one broken window, the rest will follow, and since spam is allowed to exist, the broken windows will continue to happen.

Fact of life, sorry to say.

Road Pricing 2.0 is two years away

Herby

And I thought only Californians were serious about their cars

Taxes, on driving? It was an increase in the vehicle registration tax that caused our former beloved (yeah, right!) president to be removed from office when he was governor of Arkansas.

Politicians have never met a tax they didn't like (especially liberal ones!).

As for the cost of implementation, this reminds me of the Paris Metro ticket takers. I was told (so it may not be true) that the fares they collected (manually) totaled less than the salaries they were paid. It would have been cheaper to let the riders go for free. With the costs involved with implementation of this mess, the same might be said.

At least here in California, the price of gas (petrol) is going below $4.00 soon (I filled up Saturday at $4.03/gal [32 oz/3.78 liters]. It includes about $.50 in taxes.

Arctic ice refuses to melt as ordered

Herby

Excuses, excuses!!

Everyone has them.

Please predict the weather tomorrow. What is the ratio of correctness? If the "models" don't get this right, what business do they have predicting "climate change", or whatever they call it today?

Maybe they were all using floating point from original Pentiums, who knows?

JavaScript standards wrangle swings Microsoft's way

Herby

The nice thing about standards...

...is that there are so many of them!

And THAT is the problem.

French cough in to filthy restaurants

Herby

French Restaraunts

These are "wonderful devices", but don't always work as shown in the AD. One in particular I went to (it was almost 7 years ago) was supposed to be "smoke free", but alas, the French are the French, and quite a few "lit up" at various stages of the meal. If they do that IN PUBLIC, what do you expect in the back room where the food is prepared?

Of course, in the Napa Valley, Taylor's Refresher is a wonderful place to get lunch!

Judge refuses to lift order squelching students' subway card hack

Herby

There ARE alternatives.

Foreign countries, for example.

"Your honor, I can't control what others do with my work, especially if it is in a foreign country".

Of course, adding full details, like the checksum algorithm to increase the fare, and maybe kits for sale. Software to be added later with a download. Let the judge reach out over the ocean to quash THAT!

Yahoo! board! adds! Icahn! allies!

Herby

Start the short sale NOW!

The value is going down!

If Icahn IS successful at selling Yahoo to somebody other than Microsoft, it might work, but if it goes to Microsoft, I suspect that it will fade away like all things BORKd.

US judge says University can ignore Christian course credits

Herby

Praise the Lord...

For this great ruling.

No other comments necessary!

COBOL thwarts California's Governator

Herby

Not THAT difficult to "adjust" payroll

Let's see. Write a "temporary" program that just spits out checks for the minimum wage and hold the "real" payroll stopped for a while. It seems pretty simple to me:

printf ("Your weekly paycheck is: %5.2f dollars\n", 6.55 * hours);

Modifications for minimum wage at a fee.

US Air Force halts plans to establish a Cyber Command

Herby

So this is why Vista runs so slow...

...they already did it (as noted above). Maybe that is why the government doesn't anyone to use Linux. Of course, it could be incorporated in the BIOS code, but that might be more difficult for Microsoft to do!

Best Buy helps Apple put an iPhone under every tree

Herby

At times we call it by its proper name...

Worst buy.

In the beginning, Fry's had actual components so you could MAKE your hardware. Now the selection is silly little bagged components. Bummer. Still, Fry's is the best place to get things, unless you find it at Halted, but that is another story.

Windows XP crashes out of Olympics?

Herby

It gets better

The blog referred to is sponsored by........Microsoft!

Life goes on.

Three-alarm fire bakes Apple facility

Herby

Wrong name for Building

The building name is called "Valley Green 6", as Apple buildings are named for the street they are on. In this particular case, the street is called Valley Green Drive. The building houses some of the "advanced products" team as I remember.

Look at:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=valley+green+drive+cupertino,+ca&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=44.793449,60.732422&ie=UTF8&ll=37.337869,-122.03373&spn=0.011038,0.014827&z=16&layer=c&cbll=37.33233,-122.0347&panoid=UCJeO66dlelyfWNSrQ6jEA&cbp=2,359.4875408942335,,0,0.7152610562079165

Yelp 'pay to play' pitch makes shops scream for help

Herby

Need a Yelp review on Yelp itself.

Then some of those with complaints might be heard. Then again, Yelp could shift those reviews to the bottom with sponsorship. So, Yelp sponsors itself. Maybe they could make money doing it this way....

Never mind...

Windfall taxing big oil: how to make the gas crisis worse

Herby
Heart

Actually some common sense!

Taxes are just a cost of doing business, passed on to the final consumer. How much of the price at the pump is taxes? Quite a bit! Everybody has their hand out for a tax here and a tax there. Any "windfall" will be seen at the pump as well.

Game rating system needs legal backing, claims supporter

Herby
Joke

Funny coincidence (video game)

When this article was displayed, the ad was for one of those GPS goodies that tell you where to drive. Given that these devices do have problems in their operation, and can get people lost (or worse), maybe they should have a "game rating" as well. I don't know what it would be, but something like "Requires Common Sense to Operate" could be in order. Of course, not many games would have this style of "warning message" as they rarely require common sense.

Oh, the humor!!

Fake feet trip up Olympic opening coverage

Herby

At least it isn't in the USA

They might need an environmental impact report (at a cost of $$$) in order to use the CGI stuff. Oh, well.

Maybe they should just turn off the Satellites and use that stuff called "Film" as in days of old (and with 4:3 aspect ratio!).

Linux risks netbooks defeat to Microsoft

Herby

We should all contribute to a Linux AD campaign

Lots of Linux users, each front $1.00 towards a BIG media (TV) campaign. Better than those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" sillyness (even if they are true to some extent).

'Carbon neutral' Dell's wind-blowing pays off

Herby

Hot air (which IS green, but smells bad!)

Enough said.

Carbon Trust: Rooftop windmills are eco own-goal

Herby

But wind turbines MIGHT work if...

...they are powered by the hot air from politicians, or eco-freaks. There is a lot of energy in what they tell everyone else (but not themselves) to do. Oh, to harness the energy...

Hack ushers in the insatiable toll booth

Herby

With the Golden Gate Bridge tolls going up...

Fraud on this type of device could be quite interesting. They allow pedestrians right next to the cars going across the bridge, and with a small Yagi antenna, one could re-program all of the devices to say, the Mayor of San Francisco. Now THAT would be a very interesting idea.

Yes, I have one of these things. I've kept it "out of sight" (not stuck to the windscreen) since I've moved it to a new vehicle. Didn't know they were THAT insecure!

IBM solves world's 'paper or plastic' crisis

Herby
Stop

But it isn't that speedy!!

Often times you get asked the dumb question BEFORE you present any identification, payment card, or loyalty card. So, unless it can determine your preference by how you look, or some such, it isn't going to work.

Personal experience (yes even I go to the grocery store) indicates that the bagging of your groceries starts before you have everything on the conveyor belt. Sometimes it is done by a person other than the one actually doing the scanning.

So, it isn't going to save any time, in fact it might waste some!

McAfee slaps Trojan warning on MS Office Live

Herby
Joke

Windows Vista?

Shouldn't this have a security alert as well. Then they can delete it and get on with their lives.

Too much money? Bling your iPhone with the $1000 app

Herby

There are lots of idiodic applications

The "NaDa" one is classic. Then go back around 40 years (or more) and you find "IEFBR14". I leave it to others to explain this, but it WAS useful at the time!

German medical team arms man, twice

Herby
Joke

Gives new meaning to...

...arms dealers

Sorry, I had to!

Privacy watchdog hoists Google by its own petard

Herby

A Lexus???

Can't he be more imaginative? A whimpy Toyota by any other name, and overpriced as well. How about a nice big SUV, like my Ford Explorer that they found in my driveway when they passed by.

Greens: Abandon economic growth to beat CO2 offshoring

Herby
IT Angle

Somehow I got the relation wrong

To me WWF (World Wrestling Federation) is: http://www.wwe.com . The thing is that they call themselves "entertainment" (which it is!). The wildlife bozos should also be classified as entertainment when they talk about the absurd ways they are going to "solve" the "crisis".

Yes, crises get the money! Somebody needs to get it to keep up their lifestyle.