* Posts by Jason Bloomberg

2903 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2008

Law's changed, now cough up: Uncle Sam serves Microsoft fresh warrant for Irish emails

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: Cloud providers can now point to a clear obligation

Keep your data away from US companies, period.

Agreed but it's not always easy to do. Virgin Media is owned by Liberty Global so would that make them an American company or not when it comes to American jurisdiction? Even before that VM were using Google to handle their email.

And we in the UK can only guess what the government is going to give away to the US in their desperate need to secure a trade deal post-brexit.

2001: A Space Odyssey has haunted pop culture with anxiety about rogue AIs for half a century

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

They don't make them like they used to

The problem I find with older films these days is the jolt of finding someone now famous unexpectedly on screen. For "2001" that's Leonard Rossiter and with "The Last Temptation of Christ" as this year's 'film for Easter' it was David Bowie.

Wanna work for El Reg? Developers needed for headline-writing AI bots

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

I came here to read about Jeff Bezos arrest, Trump's decision to close down Amazon and shutter the Washington Post, and all I got was this bullshit :(

Happy as Larry: Why Oracle won the Google Java Android case

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Facepalm

I am surprised that anyone ever used Java. It is open source and completely free, even for enterprises.... except when it is OEM embedded, then, sometimes, you need to buy a license depending on the definition of OEM.

Ah yes; the fun of figuring out what the licensing situation was in using Java on a Raspberry Pi for a commercial application.

Best option, last time I looked, was to use something else.

Uber self-driving car death riddle: Was LIDAR blind spot to blame?

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: What's with the victim blaming AC?

Why release the video? What purpose does it serve other than to push public opinion against self driving cars?

The police fairly quickly said Uber did not seem to be to blame, suggesting that no human driver could have done any better. We were all left with the impression that 'some idiot' had jumped out in front of the car and kablam!

It's a fear we all have as drivers, something we know can happen, have seen happen, and, for a few, have experienced.

I think the video may have been released because it was felt it would only confirm a 'these things happen, there could have been no better outcome' perspective.

And it might have been to help shift blame from Uber, their set-up and technology, on to the driver.

"Homeless Junkie Killed Jumping In Front of Robot Car Carrying Trans Armed Robber" appears to have been a genuine newspaper story trying to lead people that way.

I don't think they realised that not everyone had been drinking the Kool Aid.

How a QR code can fool iOS 11's Camera app into opening evil.com rather than nice.co.uk

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: QR codes were never cool

The problem is not with QR codes themselves but scanning software which automatically takes people to malicious sites or performs some adverse action when scanned. It is effectively an 'auto-run' issue.

And compounded, as in the example here, when where the QR link actually goes is hidden.

How do you make those darn code monkeys do what you want? Just give 'em a little nudge

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Trollface

Missed opportunity

I was a little surprised there was no mention of Linus Torvalds and the way he applies Nudge Theory in his interactions.

Corking story: Idiotic smart wine bottle idea falls over, passes out

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Pint

To be fair...

While most think it's a joke, scoffs at it for not being for them or ridiculously expensive, it seems reasonable to think it wasn't aimed at them. The financial backing suggests others also thought there was enough of that niche market to make it a success.

It wasn't but it isn't the first time a product has failed to gain traction. Tech geeks usually have a huge collection of tat they bought then never use.

How we laughed at selling barrels of beer in individual cans, chuckled at the ridiculous notion of Miniatures. Real Men (TM) drink it by the imperial gallon.

Uber's disturbing fatal self-driving car crash, a new common sense challenge for AI, and Facebook's evil algorithms

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
FAIL

Not dressed in black

One only has to watch the video to see that. The victim was wearing a black or dark jacket but blue jeans, white shoes, and she and the bike were pretty much fully illuminated before being hit, when the Uber appeared to take no braking or avoiding action.

That "LiDAR failed" is just guessing when we don't know where the actual failure lies. LiDAR may have been fine, screaming "Stop!" at the time.

As for what he, the driver, was doing. That "he" is a "she". Uber named her as Rafaela Vasquez but, to be blunt, the tits gave it away for me.

If journalists can't get it right when the evidence is staring them in the face, available for repeated replay, then perhaps we need to excuse self driving cars when they are equally useless. Or maybe we need better journalists as well as better autonomous vehicles.

Zucker for history: What I learnt about Facebook 600 years ago

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Fake news, lies and bollocks

I doubt that has changed much over time. What has perhaps changed is more people seem to believe falsehood as truth and vice-versa. Though maybe it is just that people are more able and likely to come together to collectively believe such things, are more visible when doing so.

In the Good Old Days we read our papers and muttered, watched TV and shouted it at, bimbled down to Trafalgar Square, waved our placards, then went home. Most times no one else noticed.

These days we are more likely to see and hear what others think, can more easily engage with those collectives, become part of them.

UK Court of Appeal settles reseller's question: Is software a good?

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: So....

Rather than argue about the software itself, they've chosen to argue about the medium on which it is supplied.

They argued about what the law says, what that means, and how this case fits with what that is.

We sent a vulture to find the relaunched Atari box – and all he got was this lousy baseball cap

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

"It doesn't sound like Atari has the slightest idea what it's doing"

A fine candidate for understatement of the year.

Unfortunately they're not the only company promising a retro-computing experience which deserves such negative accolades.

I'm getting tempted to start a whole slew of nostalgic home computer revivals on Kickstarter so I can retire to the Bahamas and avoid the impact of brexit.

Fog off! No more misty eyes for self-driving cars, declare MIT boffins

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: What about the Winter sun

I was driving home one summer's day with the sun behind me when I was completely blinded by the sun reflecting off the back windscreen of the car in front. I couldn't see anything and, as approaching a roundabout with a car in front, all I could do is a near emergency stop. From the blaring horns I doubt the cars behind had any clue why I had 'slammed my brakes on' or why I was now 'parked' yards from a roundabout while my retinas recovered.

As to the Uber fatality - While the police say there appears to be no fault on the part of Uber I cannot agree and think that call is premature. I believe an attentive driver would have seen the victim and at least have braked hard before the collision. The Uber doesn't seem to have done anything and supposedly has eyes which can see in the dark better than any human.

As to the attentiveness of the 'driver' in an autonomous Uber - While they should be ready to act instantly; I think we all have to accept that it's not realistic to expect that at all times. They certainly should not be used as defacto scapegoats. The demonisation and character assassination from the Daily Mail and elsewhere I find quite disgusting.

Telegram still won't hand over crypto keys it says it does not store

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: @AC via Vorlands Right Hand

The evidence suggests that it was probably the Russian state

What evidence? We have all seen what we have been shown, have heard what we have been told, but I don't see any actual "evidence" so far.

Heck, I haven't even seen any proof Skripal was attacked, is in hospital with his daughter.

I am not saying it is all lies, entirely fabricated, but, if it were, it would be hard to tell the difference.

Uber breaks self-driving car record: First robo-ride to kill a pedestrian

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Sticky rubber bodywork

It seems to me we have metal vehicle bodywork to protect those inside from harm, mostly from impact with other metal clad vehicles. With autonomous vehicles it seems those outside the vehicle are more in need of protection.

So bodywork which is soft and squidgy but doesn't bounce impactees across the road may be where we need to invest next.

Anyone fancy testing the 'unlimited' drive writes claim on Nimbus Data's 100TB whopper SSD?

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

"unlimited write endurance"

Does that include filling the drive up, repeatedly rewriting just a single block in an attempt to wear that out?

Brexit in spaaaace! At T-1 year and counting: UK politicos ponder impact

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Coat

Re: "Project Fear"

there comes a point where some people want to "stick it to the man"

I absolutely agree, and there was plenty of legitimacy in calls to change how things are, but blaming the EU for all the woes inflicted by our own governments and the society we all allowed to envelop us was like burning down the hospitals because the council charges too much for waste collection.

Brexiteers have not fixed anything, are even making things worse, and could have irretrievable ruined Britain.

Mine's the one with the chlorinated chicken sandwich and a bill from the hospital in the pocket ->

UK.gov urged to ensure punters can 'still roam like at home' after Brexit

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Oink, oink, flap, flap.

A myriad detailed topics to be negotiated, and so far all we've done so far is establish that we could always have had blue passports anyway.

Not entirely true - The EU has agreed to divvy-up tariff-free quotas post-brexit exactly how we wanted.

It's America, commonwealth countries, others, mostly those we intend to seek 'deep and meaningful free trade agreements with', who are opposing and protesting that agreement.

You have to laugh or you'd cry.

Air gapping PCs won't stop data sharing thanks to sneaky speakers

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Theory and in practice?

Hz needs an El Reg alternative to avoid all this confusion.

I propose the "Ouch".

Rant launches Eric Raymond's next project: Open-source the UPS

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Flame

I took an ancient discarded APC 300W UPS ... soldered in some heavy wire to connect a deep cycle marine battery

When heatsinks and other hardware have been designed only to support the limited backup time the recommended battery gives, extending the backup time with a higher capacity battery may cause problems with that hardware, overheating, fire, or other failures.

The same too for charging circuits. If designed only to bring a smaller battery back to full charge they may overheat or fail when charging for a much longer time which a larger capacity battery will require.

Make sure you know what you are doing and have done a risk assessment in case you need to talk to an insurance assessor later.

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

SLAs for SLA

One of the advantages of Sealed Lead Acid batteries I suspect may be their robustness should the electronics be blown out by an adverse condition on the mains side; it takes a lot more to destruct an SLA in a devastating way than a LiPo.

There are good reasons most UPS are designed with KISS in mind.

I don't have a problem with people wanting an open source UPS but I do worry they have simply embarked on a 'build a better mousetrap' journey.

Citizen Lab says Sandvine network gear aids government spyware

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Guns do not kill people

Guns don't kill people. People with guns kill people. People with bread knives kill people. People with baseball bats kill people. People with Typhoon fighter jets kill people.

At the end of the day any use, any good or harm done, comes from people choosing to use the tool in the way they do.

How much blame and responsibility toolmakers have is something which is going to be debated forever and there is no single or simple answer.

Europe is living in the past (by nearly six minutes) thanks to Serbia and Kosovo

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Mains powered clock

Using mains frequency is much more accurate long term than even a good crystal oscillator.

It also allows the frequency to be slowed down during the working day then sped up overnight so the state can have people working for longer than they are being paid for.

NHS Digital to probe live-stream spillage of confidential patient info – after El Reg tipoff

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Actually (effectively) incredibly secure then...

Unless somebody involved shared the link in a public forum, then it's actually extremely secure. At least effectively so.

Agreed and I suspect any information leaked is not that useful though it should not have happened.

But El Reg knew the link, so how many more were provided with it?

Your mouse can't reach that Excel cell? Buy a 'desk extender' said help desk bluffer

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Have you solved a problem with a lie?

A lie by omission - or massaging the meaning of a word. "I did not have sex with...." being a famous example.

I presume that's the case of a certain Clinton and his interactions with a certain Lewinsky.

The beauty of that was Starr accused Clinton of lying about not having had "sexual relations". Starr was forced to define precisely what "sexual relations" were and, when Starr fucked that up, Clinton could quite rightly say, 'by that definition, I did not have "sexual relations". Lewinsky did, but not me'.

With Clinton having not had "sexual relations" by his opponent's own definition of that, he could hardly have lied when he said he hadn't had "sexual relations". It was Clinton's alleged lying which were grounds for impeachment. No lie, no impeachment. Starr blew his own case.

For all we know, aliens could be as careless with space junk as us

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Alien

We can also keep a look out for those screeching "Yeeha!" as they crash rockets and satellites into their own moons and passing rocks just to watch the dust settle, or recklessly launching things out of their own galaxy with no idea of where they'll end up.

Does Parliament or Google decide when your criminal past is forgotten?

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Going back in time to modify history

No one is being asked to change history.

Respecting convictions having been spent means the CRB won't reveal what convictions have been deemed spent. They don't seek to deny those convictions, they just won't reveal them. I don't see that it's unreasonable to ask Google and others to do exactly the same.

In fact, doing otherwise would seem to be putting Google above the law which applies to the CRB and everyone else.

Hackers create 'ghost' traffic jam to confound smart traffic systems

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: All I want is the ability to make the lights go green when I'm approaching the intersection.

Which is exactly what this system is hoping to deliver as best as it can. The trouble is that everyone wants their light to be green so it has to juggle those desires. And I think most would agree that it's a good idea to grant emergency vehicles priority.

And then we have to deal with those pretending to be emergency vehicles, or pretending to be emergency vehicles which don't even exist.

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Spoof traffic entering the Intelligent Traffic Signal System

Have they ever considered designing a system that doesn't rely on any user generated data.

It's not really user generated data; it's data generated by the vehicle system, and there's no reasonable presumption such a system would wilfully lie if working as intended.

All data comes from somewhere and any somewhere can be hacked or replaced to provide false data. The problem is that it's hard to tell if it is correct or false data, being user generated or through a fault or error.

It's a simple trick, effectively standing in the lift lobby shouting "hold the doors!" but never boarding, radioing air traffic control that you are coming in for an emergency landing when you don't have a plane, calling in false reports to an emergency service, causing yourself to be prioritised to the detriment of others.

'A sledgehammer to crack a nut': Charities slam UK voter ID trials

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
FAIL

I'd argue that if you don't pay any bills you're either here illegally, squatting or not mature enough to cast a vote.

Or, like me, have a name which only exists on the electoral roll.

That's perfectly legal in the UK, for anyone, providing it's not done for criminal or fraudulent purposes.

Given that name doesn't exist anywhere other than on the electoral roll I am intrigued how I am expected to present any proof of identity at a polling station when I go to vote. I guess it would involve a sworn affidavit along the lines of "I am who I am; my own special creation".

British clockwork radio boffin Trevor Baylis terminally winds down

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

It's a wind-up

I always thought the radio was clever but not overly original. Why he invented it often seemed to get lost in the applause for his technical achievement.

I was more impressed by the 'universal glasses' he developed. I believe they initially had liquid filled or squishy lenses so their optical characteristics could be altered by adjusting pressure around the edge.Those have evolved into something which have a two-piece plastic lens which can rotate to adjust strength.

I wouldn't necessarily call him a great inventor; more a great developer. But he's another well meaning person with his heart and mind in the right place who will be missed.

Facebook regrets asking whether it's OK to let adult men ask underage girls for smut pix

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Coat

My understanding is that the questionnaire was presented in terms of; if YOU could set the rules, what would they be?

That doesn't demand any consideration of what real world laws are, should be, or what the rest of society may think.

To me it isn't much different to asking if people think euthanasia should be legal in places where it currently isn't, asking whether drivers should be allowed to drive at 100 MPH when the current limit it 70, should be allowed gun ownership when presently banned.

We only have societal norms by collectively agreeing what those norms should be and set laws against those. Once set we expect everyone to abide by them. But that doesn't preclude anyone from disagreeing with them.

The one with the Voltaire first edition in the pocket ->

123 Reg suffers deja vu: Websites restored from August 2017 backups amid storage meltdown

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: It is safer to presume

As much as I agree; you want to be posting that to mumsnet and places where readers don't understand that, not here where most people do.

Swiss see Telly Tax as a Big Plus, vote against scrapping it

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Good Value

The licence fee is about £3 a week which I find is pretty good value even if I do watch only a few hours of what I consider good BBC entertainment per week.

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: This comment section should be good.

I expect it will simply be a re-run of all the arguments we have already heard before.

On one side those who think the BBC overall does a reasonable job for what it costs and, on the other side, those who believe the future is streaming and they should only have to pay for what they want to pay for.

And there will be some Freetards saying people are stupid if they are paying anything at all.

Brit semiconductor tech ended up in Chinese naval railgun – report

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Childcatcher

How convenient that when we are being told "we must stop China getting her hands on western tech and semiconductor companies" there is an article which purports to provide compelling evidence why we must.

If there weren't so many people who believed such piss-poor propaganda I guess they wouldn't even bother with it.

Copper feel, fibre it ain't: Ads regulator could face court for playing hard and fast with definitions

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

But it's not just semantic irrelevance. It has relevance for quality of service, variance of quality of service, and the extent of future potential.

When genuine fibre could go up to many Gbps; selling 'fake fibre' which never can but leaving the buyer with the false impression it could, is giving an unfair advantage to the 'fake fibre' pushers.

I have been expecting this issue to blow up ever since the ASA allowed non-fibre to be called fibre. It isn't.

Britain ignores booze guidelines – heads for the pub

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Pint

I gave up the drink

I wasn't intending to. It was just that, as life and circumstances changed, I drifted out of going for a beer then found I hadn't consumed any alcohol for a number of years. Which surprised me as, not so long ago, I could have been a contender if drinking were an Olympic sport.

I am now on the other side of the fence, thinking I really should get some decent ale inside myself once in a while, that I'm probably doing more harm than good by not drinking.

I have become that statistical anomaly who needs encouragement to drink rather than discouragement!

It's begun: 'First' IPv6 denial-of-service attack puts IT bods on notice

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

What does "in parallel" mean?

I assumed it meant side-by-side; one stack for handling IPv4 and another for IPv6, incoming packets handed off to the appropriate stack as they arrive. Dealt with by one team proficient in IPv4 another trying to be in IPv6.

Paul Allen's six-engined monster plane prepares for space deliveries

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Coat

Re: 500,000lb

500,000 packets of sugar means nothing to me.

Thinking of it as carrying 25,000 Tesco carrier bags with ten 1kg packs of sugar in each may help.

The one with the long receipt hanging out the pocket ->

RIP... almost: Brit high street gadget shack Maplin Electronics

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Well at least

Same thing for me every time. It's like they think you are planning a shoplift rather than browsing or working out if it's worth paying for. It doesn't help when having asked if they can help they don't have a clue when asked about something.

Full shift to electric vans would melt Royal Mail's London hub, MPs told

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Fag packet calculation time...

more and more people are charging at home using energy they have produced themselves.

That may be true but it's still only a small minority. I'm not against solar power but I live in an old house which doesn't have the roof timbers to support solar panels without a lot of expense, and if fitted would face the wrong way.

I don't have a driveway or garage so can't get a cable to a vehicle. I'm not even guaranteed a parking space outside my house. Many people live in flats, apartments, tower blocks, often with no close parking, so have it even worse than I do.

And when the inevitable happens, one forgets to charge or thought there was more charge than there is, it's not simply a case of getting a lift to the nearest petrol station, filling the can, and being on your way ten minutes later.

As far as I can see it's just not practical for the majority of people in the UK even if they love the idea.

Sheer luck helped prevent mid-air drone glider prang in Blighty

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

I imagine the "WTF?" moment could compromise the landing of a less experienced pilot or one who had not been previously aware of the drone.

I guess it's not quite so extreme as the emergency stop one may automatically do in a car when something jumps out unexpectedly, but it's going to cause some reaction and be distracting at least.

NRA gives FCC boss Ajit Pai a gun as reward for killing net neutrality. Yeah, an actual gun

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Missing the point..

The Second Amendment isn't sacrosanct, and self-evidently the Constitution can be amended. It does indeed rest upon the Will Of The People supporting change but, if they do, then those resisting will be a minority and the majority mostly won't care how they get their way, or how the Enemies Of The People resisting change are dealt with. If putting people up against the wall is what it takes, then that is what it takes.

In fact it can even be argued that the Second Amendment itself exists to facilitate the removal of the tyranny of unrestricted gun ownership :-)

Think of it as democratically mandated revolution. As I said; it won't be pretty, but can be done.

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Re: Missing the point..

You're never going to be able to eliminate guns in the US. There are just too many in circulation.

You can never eliminate them entirely anywhere. Even in places with strict gun controls there will be those who have them hidden in drawers and a criminal element which will get their hands on them.

But you can go a long way to eliminating most of them. It only requires the will and, for America, the willingness to use force to ensure compliance. It won't be pretty but could be done if the Will Of The People (TM) were behind it.

Make unauthorised gun ownership illegal. Have a gun surrender programme for a while then shoot dead anyone who is found with an unauthorised gun. Treat it like brutally disarming an enemy in conflict. The message will soon get out, and those resisting will soon not be part of the problem.

Voice assistants are always listening. So why won't they call police if they hear a crime?

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Joke

It gets harder every day

So, when I am breaking into a property to beat the living crap out of someone, I have to remember to cut the fibre as well as the telephone lines. Thanks for the heads-up.

Does my boom look big in this? New universe measurements bewilder boffins

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
Alien

Breath in, breath out

Maybe the problem isn't so much with the maths, calculations or determination, but with calling it a "constant".

Perhaps it's as simple as the bigger it gets the less there's holding it back.

There; I said it. You know where to send the Nobel Prize to.

Batteries are so heavy, said user. If I take it out, will this thing work?

Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

Electrons

Ever had to explain that, "no, electricity doesn't leak out of the wall socket when there's nothing plugged in", while also trying to explain why a charged battery pack loses charge over time?