* Posts by Gene Cash

5697 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Mar 2007

Boeing borgs robot aeronautics biz Aurora Flight Sciences

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Will not gain acceptance

Because we're idiots.

They say passenger trains don't make money, but then that's because they don't run them where people want to go.

I've been trying to use trains to avoid all the pain of flying but I literally can't get to anywhere west of Louisiana from Florida, unless I want to do an 11-day trip that visits Wash DC and Chicago, just to go from Orlando to Phoenix.

Oracle VP: 'We want the next decade to be Java first, Java always'

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: "Java [..] is the number-one programming language"

> because of the number of thingys that run it

Do these "thingys" include Android phones? That'd be ironic...

NetApp scraps first day of Insight conf talks at Mandalay Bay after terrorist guns down 58

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Heard at the NRA headquarters

> owning a gun has to become anti-social

That's kind of amusing, since the most social thing I've done is buy a gun... far more than any of my other activities.

"Doing computers" or being a "space geek" isn't very social, despite tons of fora like this one, because you never actually meet someone face-to-face and have a drink with them.

Riding motorcycles is inherently anti-social.

But buy a gun and you connect with dozens of local folk that share the same interest and have a sort of tribal us-vs-them close-knit-ness caused by the anti-gun people. And going to a gun range isn't the sort of thing you can do over Skype. And people at a gun range are very social... you'll have complete strangers wander over and go "oooh what kinda gun is that?" and "you want to try out my new red-dot I got? it's nice!"

So good luck to that.

(and the funny part is I bought a gun in case I got Alzheimer's...)

Six weeks later, drone biz DJI deploys control app 'flight mode'

Gene Cash Silver badge

Oops

So this'll be an easy way around no-fly zones & flight restrictions, then?

Cost of Africa's internet shutdowns? $1m a day – quarter of a billion total

Gene Cash Silver badge
Thumb Up

Does this amount include the Nigerian 401 scams? And can we keep Nigeria cut off? Pretty please?

Java security plagued by crappy docs, complex APIs, bad advice

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: RTFM

Bingo! Back in the bad 'ol days, you at least had K&R to help get up to speed on C.

There's no equivalent for Java. I'm sure I don't have to explain to this crowd just how much all the Java books suck.

NASA, Roscosmos: We're building a lunar space station!

Gene Cash Silver badge

This means just as much as when Bush announced we were going back to the Moon, and you can see how that turned out. China was the only one to actually go.

iOS apps can read metadata revealing users' location histories

Gene Cash Silver badge

Android too?

Android stores the camera pictures on the usually-unsecured "sdcard" area... and it has EXIF parsing too. I'd think it's just as vulnerable.

You can usually turn off geolocation storage in the camera app, but I don't know how many people do that.

Someone checked and, yup, you can still hijack Gmail, Bitcoin wallets etc via dirty SS7 tricks

Gene Cash Silver badge

Google's cellphone 2FA isn't for security, it's to get your mobile number to add to their pile of data.

I remember when they said I could have a vanity address for Google Plus... if I texted them a code.

So I texted them from one of those net-to-SMS gateways, and Google has considered that my mobile number for a number of years now. If I delete it, it comes back.

RIP Stanislav Petrov: Russian colonel who saved world from all-out nuclear war

Gene Cash Silver badge

Ha. The chunk of land that's now Russia has been invaded hundreds of times in the past thousand years, and yes, it does explain the national attitude.

This was my 8th grade history/social science teacher's master's thesis, and he'd gone to Moscow in the '70s when taking a picture of a train would get you vacation time in Siberia for a decade. He'd taken pictures of said trains, had a picture of himself drinking a Coke in Red Square, and a pic of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, decades before the Soviet actions there.

He was quite a character and a major influence on me.

Gene Cash Silver badge

I remember this happening as a kid. It did hit the Western newspapers.

I also remember the same thing happening on the American side, and being chalked up to "an 80-cent IC chip" failing.

VMworld schwag heist CCTV didn't work and casino wouldn't share it

Gene Cash Silver badge

Police report?

So what did the hotel say to the police? And if they didn't file a complaint, it's a non-story.

UK attorney general plans crackdown on 'trial by social media'

Gene Cash Silver badge

> those who accept don't get picked

Well then, I'd accept in a heartbeat! I don't want to be on a jury, dealing with stupid shit for god knows how long...

Another month, another malware outbreak in Google's Play Store

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Useless Google

I wonder just how many new apps and revisions of old apps get uploaded daily to the Google & Apple app stores.

I'm sure it's a number far larger than would be practicable to have people screen them individually.

Bespoke vending machine biz Bodega AI trips cultural landmine

Gene Cash Silver badge

Fuck mom-and-pop stores

Went into a BBQ place to get a sandwich to bring back to work for lunch.

Order sandwich. To go please.

"Oh we can't do that."

"What? But I know you do takeout? or did? did you stop?"

"Oh yeah, but THAT sandwich is not available to-go"

Why? It's just a large sandwich with pulled pork on a bun... the regular size is available to-go.

So I left, and ordered and paid at McDonald's using their kiosk w/o talking to a soul, except to say "thank you" when the girl handed me my food.

I hope Mom & Pop end up on a sidewalk pushing a cart in the middle of winter with nothing but a t-shirt and shorts to wear.

D-Link router riddled with 0-day flaws

Gene Cash Silver badge

> Because a researcher has a beef with a manufacturer.

I think it's more "Because the manufacturer is a complete and utter dick, and has been so to the researcher in the past."

In this instance, I see no problem with the reveal. You reap what you sow.

Sci-Fi titan Jerry Pournelle passes,
aged 84

Gene Cash Silver badge

I'm glad he lasted long enough to see SpaceX... I shall miss him, even though I haven't bought a book of his in probably 10 years.

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: IT angle

> Jerry started writing on a PC with Electric Pencil

Actually, no, he did not. He started on an S-100 Bus system, running CP/M, long before there WAS an IBM PC. At the same time I was running a network of S-100 boxes running mainly MP/M 8-16 (among other OSes) with 8" floppies and $5K 40 megabyte Fujitsu PD-40M hard drives, and the office pretty much devoured the Chaos Manor column each month.

London Tube tracking trial may make commuting less miserable

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: One thing I always failed to understand....

> Why people leave their phones to constantly search for wifi networks

Because it's a complete pain in the arse with the standard UI (at least on Android) to toggle GPS, cell data, or wifi, at least up to Marshmallow where they FINALLY put those in a settings dropdown.

I rooted my phone so I could write simple apps I could tap to do each.

Red panic: Best Buy yanks Kaspersky antivirus from shelves

Gene Cash Silver badge

Meh

This is the same Best Buy that doesn't have hard drives (portable or external), wired mice, ethernet cards, any flavor of internal/external computer CDROM/DVD/Blu-Ray drives, or more than 2 models of LCD monitors available. No cable modems or routers, except maybe one or two low-end Linksys. No high end video cards either... i.e. anything bigger than a GTX-670. It's a waste of time to try to find anything there.

I have one literally next door. I haven't been able to buy anything I needed from them in several years.

Hurricane Irma imperils first ever SpaceX shuttle launch: US military's secret squirrel X-37B

Gene Cash Silver badge

Nobody knows where Irma is going. It's *supposed* to just hit the Keys, but there won't be real data for a couple days still.

Then there's TS Jose that just popped up just behind, and there's no telling what that'll do either. Irma is probably stealing all the heat energy, but tons of rain can still be painful, as Texas found out.

Thousands of hornets swarm over innocent fire service drone

Gene Cash Silver badge

Whelp

I won't be sleeping tonight this week

Robocall scumbags already target Hurricane Harvey victims

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: If I was in any way religious...

Actually one of the political cartoonists here did a cartoon on just that. He showed a Texan going "angels from the lord!!" getting rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter who said "no, Coast Guard... From the government"

And he caught an amazing amount of shit for it...

http://static5.businessinsider.com/image/59a70a756eac401b008b6cce-829/screen%20shot%202017-08-30%20at%2024840%20pm.png

Chinese smartphone cable-maker chucks sueball at Apple

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: I can see the value in certification

USB 3 is ambi-dextrous without a chip, AND compatible with the older version. You just need talented engineers. Those seem to have left the (circular) building

China's cybersecurity law grants government 'unprecedented' control over foreign tech

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: especially with the massive anti-foreigner sentiment going around

> Where ? China, or the UK US ?

FTFY. "Build that wall!!"

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: So...if I understand correctly...

> I remember as a child my father would not buy us toys or gadgets if they were made in China

I remember as a child my father would not buy us toys or gadgets if they were made in Japan. That stuff was tin-plated crap (back then)

Edit: and sadly, I am very old now

Alert: AT&T customers with Arris modems at risk of remote hacking, claim infosec bods

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: This is why you configure modems for RFC1483 bridging

Had fun poking an AT&T door-to-door salesman who was just insisting I **HAD** to get their new fiber at double my current price for less mb/sec.

First, he kept quoting the 6-mos promo price, so I kept prodding until he finally grudgingly told me the standard price, at which point I told him my current deal.

Then he insisted AT&T fiber was much better, so I told him "I'd have Google fiber, if you people weren't suing them specifically to stop it" and he argued about that, so I told him "google the at&t one-touch-make-ready lawsuit" and he shut up.

Then I told him "well $CURRENT_ISP lets me use my own cable modem & router/firewall, and AT&T won't..."

Dude started foaming at the mouth so hard, his partner with him left to wait in the truck.

I have not had a salesman scream at me like that in a long time. Felt good.

Ice-cold Kaspersky shows the industry how to handle patent trolls

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: What are lawmakers doing?

> definition of a patent troll

Simple. Anyone that litigates patents... but hasn't implemented/manufactured/produced a single patented product.

Any legitimate patent holder will have actually made a product that they want to protect.

NYPD head of IT doubles down on Windows smartphone idiocy

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Hold on, if I read this right

> develop it twice

Not really, read Brook's "Mythical man-month" and see what he says about the "second-system effect"

Gene Cash Silver badge

"She's a terror if she doesn't get her way, so I usually let her get her way"

Bingo. And there's the entire situation in a nutshell.

Sad thing is, the NYPD suck at being cops just as much as they suck at being computer experts.

China claims to have turbine-powered drone carrying 200kg payload

Gene Cash Silver badge

> Being able to track them

Well then you're doing a hell of a lot better than our navy! We can't even see a 300ft tanker! Twice!

Telcos waive bills during Houston hurricane recovery

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open up 53,000 Wi‑Fi hotspots around the Houston area

None of which are working anyway, because they're flooded.

Dell's flagship XPS13 – a 2-in-1 that may fatally frustrate your fingers

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: and another thing...

> How many cameras do you know that use micro-sd.

All of the new GoPro models and most of the "action" cameras these days use micro-sd. The newer Raspberry Pis use them too.

Hate it when your apartment block is locked to Comcast etc? Small ISPs fight back

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: As a building owner...

How about you wire the damn thing properly when it's built?

Failing that, how about when someone asks the maintenance people to do cable drops, they do it in a timely and competent manner?

It sucks when you wait 4 weeks for network cable to be dropped... and then it's terminated with RJ-11!

Paris nightclub red-faced after booze-for-boobs offer exposed

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Surely men should be offered a free shot

> Some how I can't imagine Granny Weatherwax in fishnets.

Unfortunately, I can... and there is NOT enough Tequila in the house...

Lenovo thought PC salesfolk could sell servers and was wrong by about $500m

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Pay me $10 million

No kidding. I can hear it now: "how many gaming graphics cards do you want on that server? and do you want the cool tribal design RAM heatsinks?"

Raising minimum wage will raise something else: An army of robots taking away folks' jobs

Gene Cash Silver badge

Yup

I now order using the touchpanel at the local McDonald's. I don't have to deal with a person and my order is accurate, and it's faster.

It's not a "robot" but it's automated, and it's taking a cashier's job away.

Place your bets: How long will 1TFLOPS HPE box last in space without proper rad hardening

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Sol help us

No, the fridge got ruined when seawater got into it on landing.

Alibaba: We're no haven for pirates – we'll yank fake goods from our web bazaars within 24 hours

Gene Cash Silver badge

"ensure the organization filing a report is the actual rights holder"

That's a hell of a step up from YouTube then.

NASA short-lists six candidates for future missions

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Come on...

That's Elon's job... NASA's job is to faff around uselessly and waste money. They haven't had an honest-to-god direction or plan in 45 years.

Can the last person watching desktop video please turn out the light?

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Hate autoplay videos?

That does NOT always work, as assholes sites can use JS to get around that.

You must also set media.autoplay.allowscripted to false as well.

Core-blimey! Intel's Core i9 18-core monster – the numbers

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Gamers?

No, from running xosview while playing a ton of steam games, I can say games do not use more than 2 cores. For example, KSP uses one core, then a tiny bit of another for mods like MechJeb. The new Oddworld uses 2 cores pretty heavily, but nothing else does. (note: I don't play FPSes, so I have no data on things like Modern Warfare or Call of Duty. I mostly do "sandbox" games.)

The rest of my 8 threads sit there idle.

I was interested in this because I wanted to see where the bucks I spent on my machine and my graphics card were being used.

However, video editing tools avidemux2 just munch on all the cores when transcoding as ffmpeg is written to use multiple cores well.

Trump-backed RAISE Act decoded: Points-based immigration, green cards slashed

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Another flatulent outburst

> The chances of Congress acting on this proposal fall between zero and nil

And that's actually why I voted for the bloke. I figured he'd deadlock things so hard, nothing significant would get done. I'd much rather have a government too incompetent to do anything than a government doing all the wrong things.

No vulns. No hardwired passwords. Patchable. Congress dreams of IoT: Impossible Online Tech

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: Known vulnerabilities

What kind of stupid question is that? Don't fuckin' use the i.MX7 processor then! Perhaps the idiot supplier will clue up and fix the certificate handling!

I don't care if entire product lines have to be scrapped! How the hell can you ship shit with known vulnerabilities this bad and still sleep at night?

Oh man... our new Pinto product explodes if you rear-end it... let's go ahead and ship it though. We'll fix it in Pinto 2.0...

UAV maker swipes at sponsor of opaque Qinetiq drone study

Gene Cash Silver badge

Re: I'm torn...

> airports have measures in place to prevent bird strikes

No, they do not. Sometimes they have some noisemakers that don't work, and sometimes they have a bloke come out with a shotgun for an hour on the weekend. There's your "measures in place"

Apple exits music player biz by killing iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle

Gene Cash Silver badge

podcasts

I guess I'm the only one that remembers the "podcast" name came from audio chats played on iPods.

I also remember James May pronouncing it "ippp-pod" instead of "eye-pod"

> There are many far cheaper (and better) alternatives to anything Apple.

One thing Apple (as much as I hate them) does right is developing an ecosystem around a product. As the article says, not only did they come out with the player hardware (as did many others) but they also provided a really easy way to buy music to put on it, which was the part that was lacking.

Before iTunes, buying digital music was a COMPLETE pain in the ass. Afterwards, hell, I could buy music that played on my Linux box without a special DRMed-to-hell-and-gone player.

Bezos' bonkers bank of bucks beats big Bill's brilliant billionaire bundle

Gene Cash Silver badge

Gates selling off $MSFT

By this time next year, Gates will own no Microsoft shares.

He's been selling 20m shares each quarter for the past 15 years.

That's probably the biggest reason has personal valuation has dropped.

Sensor-rich traffic info shows how far Silly Valley has to drive

Gene Cash Silver badge

"Auto makers keep the CAN bus locked down"

WHAT? No, they don't! It's easily accessible through the required OBD-II port somewhere near the steering wheel, and has absolutely no security on it. A dongle to access it and repeat it over Bluetooth is $10. I have one to scrape the range-remaining on my electric motorcycle and display it on an Android map.

Breathless F-35 pilots to get oxygen boost via algorithm tweak

Gene Cash Silver badge

They're HOPING it fixes things. They truly have no idea. They're also considering the engine is introducing toxins into the bleed air. There's also the good chance 4 aircrew have already died due to this.

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/12664/usaf-and-usn-try-new-fixes-but-still-struggle-with-aircraft-oxygen-woes