* Posts by Eddy Ito

4662 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

FCC to crack down on robocall spammers' beloved loophole

Eddy Ito

Why does the connection need to be plausible? Plenty of legislation and even the odd war here and there has been approved on rather tenuous grounds.

THE TRUTH: IRS 'cyber-hack' exposes 100,000 people whose identities were already stolen

Eddy Ito

Re: WAG

It is not known how the personal information used to fill out the transcript requests was gathered, or from where.

Outside of the SSN it's typically public information that's available online. Oftentimes the mark will help out by posting it on their little piece of the interweb along with a link to their mother and her brother who just so happens to also have her maiden name on his page. Huh, go figure.

The elephant in the room is, as you say, whether anyone is doing any linking to other data breaches like Home Depot or Target. Perhaps it's not about maxing out a bunch of $20k credit cards and heading to a white sandy beach but building up a sizable enough portfolio of current data that if used properly and all at once could take down an economy. Think of it as a run on credit which would be analogous to a run on the bank only backward. Would printing more money solve the problem. Where's the house economist?

Maserati Ghibli S: Who cares what Joe Walsh thinks?

Eddy Ito

Re: Looks & drives like a 1992 Ford Taurus SHO.

Well he is comparing it to a Ford Tortoise with a clutch, slightly more than half the power and driving the wheels on the other end of the car so I think it's clear Maserati's grapes aren't sweet enough.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bog-standard boxty

Eddy Ito

Re: Buttermilk

It's not like buttermilk is hard to make either assuming you've got access to heavy cream.

1. acquire a pint of heavy cream

2. shake until it turns to whipped cream

3. shake some more until you get a fairly solid glob in a thin liquid

4. The thin liquid is buttermilk and the glob is - wait for it - butter!

5. Enjoy your new found twofer!

You can speed up the process with a bit of lemon juice or you can go the cultured route and employ one of the nicer bacteria but I think it's worth at least one extra donkey for a lass who can make two of the ingredients in the recipe from one.

New relay selection fix for Tor to spoil spooks' fun (eventually)

Eddy Ito

Re: link to the new paper

Here you go http://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.05173.pdf

US plans to apply export controls to 0-days put out for comment

Eddy Ito

Re: Let me be the first:

Perhaps I'm missing something, why would they need a license? As I understand it only US companies and citizens who would need a license to "export" or "import" the information. Where it get's tricky is when you have a non-US company with a facility in the US and the parent company discovers the 0-day. Would they be able to tell the US facility (import) and would that then bind them to the ITAR rules with regard to telling anyone else (export)?

Granted it's a total cluster fsck in the first place but then ITAR itself is largely a cluster fsck.

Eddy Ito

Re: Let me be the first:

Oh I'm sure there will be a way to share information. I happened to notice in my quick scan that it will involve ITAR which allows for licenses to be had for a bit over $2k so the larger players won't have any problems but the odd independent hack is going to get tacked to the wall. Clearly however it's going to take more than a quick scan to get through it, I hope my stomach is up to it.

Milking cow shot dead by police 'while trying to escape'

Eddy Ito

Re: Roo A cow is actually quite dangerous

Who needs cow feed? Any market that sells veg will do. I'd start with carrots with the greens on or if it's got a sweet tooth a bag of pears or apples will do fine. I'd wager a few bucks on the fresh veg actually being a better lure than the standard feed they get every single day.

Eddy Ito

Re: A cow is actually quite dangerous

but a shotgun isn't going fell a cow.

Do you not have shotgun slugs? If Foster or Brenneke slugs aren't available it's easy enough to melt some wax to bind the shot together. Sure the wax route is a bit crude as it has poorer range and accuracy than a proper slug but it works in a pinch even if it does quickly foul the bore.

Google DOG WHISTLING fails to send URLs across the room

Eddy Ito

Re: Full circle?

Got that sorted? Great, now we can add other useful information to the tones. Use it to save whole swathes of data.

Say, that would be rather useful for backing up a computer system! What will you call this new cassette tape backup storage system of yours?

Oh, I'll get started on a program to digitally compress the data intended for the archived tape. It's going to be a work of art! A work of art, Carl!

Russia will fork Sailfish OS to shut out pesky Western spooks

Eddy Ito

Re: Paranoia over NSA tampering spurs de-Westernisation drive

Obligatory Clint Eastwood.

Eddy Ito

Paranoia over NSA tampering spurs de-Westernisation drive

Just because they're paranoid it doesn't mean the NSA isn't out to get them.

Man sues Uber for a BEEELLION dollars over alleged theft of concept

Eddy Ito

misappropriated trade secrets and being in breach of contract

I'm sure he has a signed copy of that contract, right? As for the trade secrets, in this particular case as soon as you make the app public what do you really have for secrets?

So why the hell do we bail banks out?

Eddy Ito

Re: Maybe another reason?

Inflation means cash loses value over time. That's why nations consider it prudent to have some small but controlled rate of inflation to encourage people to put the money into the system.

True but currently, given the bank rates are hardly keeping up with inflation, it doesn't seem people would put much of their money in banks which would then lend it out. Instead they turn to other markets such as bonds, stocks, etc. which are much less liquid. Yes I understand the liquidity returns on the other side of the transaction since if I buy $1000 worth of stocks or bonds someone else has $1000 in liquid currency but that doesn't seem to get many mortgages granted.

World of the strange: There will be NINE KINDS of Windows 10

Eddy Ito

Re: "and they're losing faith.'

Actually Jed, Autocad was never a consumer product since it was never in the consumer price range. What happened is that as PCs got cheaper the professional CAD software remained expensive and lots of smaller companies tried to break into the market with low cost alternatives. Some built up a decent user base, like Sketchup, and most folks likely find the base package to be good enough for their needs. Also, if acad users are harder to find it's because many have moved up to 3D solid or surface modeling since it doesn't require a high end unix workstation anymore. Sure there are some specialized areas where acad still has strong support, electrical schematics and P&ID come to mind, but in much of the mechanical world designers are using things like Creo, SolidWorks, NX, etc.

Mozilla flings teddy out of pram over France's 'Patriot Act'

Eddy Ito
Unhappy

How swiftly we've gone from "je suis Charlie" to "et tu, Brute?"

Trans Pacific Partnership 'fast-track' bill dumped

Eddy Ito

So, lead by example. Outsource yourself to a robot.

What makes you think I haven't? Robots of some form or another do almost a quarter of my job now and I'll be pleased as punch if I can get that doubled in the next few years.

Let's be honest there a lot of intelligent people who are simply uneducated and forced into menial jobs that can and one day will be done by machines. That's the way it has always been and as technology advances faster so too must education and training. Sadly it seems the only time training or education comes up is when layoffs have already started since it's far easier to kick back with a six pack at the end of the day instead of continuing to learn and advance. Go ahead and relax, the jobs will come back when everyone else has finished passing us.

Also, I didn't say there weren't valid concerns over the bill but whinging over jobs isn't really one of them. The jobs angle only makes good headlines and the pols know it.

Eddy Ito

If it got Boxer's knickers in a twist it couldn't have been all bad.

The worries about risking manufacturing jobs seems to be more posturing than anything since most have already been either shipped overseas and those that haven't been offshored are or will be replaced by robots. It's time workforce education started keeping pace with technological advances.

Samsung offers $90,000 if you can fix California's epic drought with tech

Eddy Ito

Re: Desal

Too late, Cargill already employs lots of people in their California solar desalination plants. They're also ahead of the IoT curve because they store the fresh water in the clouds where it can be transported and fall from the sky where it's needed.

Wait, what? Are you sure that's not how this IoT thing works? Oh, never mind then, it seems I've been misinformed.

Attack of the possibly-Nazi clone parakeet invaders

Eddy Ito
Black Helicopters

Drones

Seems like a perfect opportunity to trial some new drone technology. Forget delivering packages, deliver us from parakeets. It's going to be clones vs drones I tell you.

Of course it could go horribly wrong if they team up and make cloned cyborg drones. Oh well, that's progress just probably not for us.

Enjoying the Spring? Microsoft has 13 ways to fix that

Eddy Ito
Unhappy

Re: May's patches have been released?

So how many of the lucky 13 patches are going to be pulled back over the course of the week?

Massive police 'heavy equipment' robot drags out suspect who hid inside television

Eddy Ito

Re: I am now authorised to use lethal force

Sadly the whole shock and awe bit has become standard operating procedure for most police forces. Soon we'll see all police trained to stand in as a SWAT member at a moments notice as the teams are more regularly deployed for even the most minor investigations. It seems they will be in need of a new backronym, Typical Weapons And Tactics seems more appropriate.

Building the Internet of Things with Raspberry Pi et al, DIY-style

Eddy Ito
Coat

Re: Collective Nouns

Can you measure a spaghetti of code and if you can would you measure it in linguini?

Going up hills past blokes with coke-bottle legs: The Smart E-bike

Eddy Ito

Re: ... "'so the chain can be replaced with a carbon toothed belt." ...

Nice link. It would also be interesting to see how the differences play out when taking into account a multi-ratio system. Because the belt would use a constant sprocket diameter with internal gearing but the chain would be changing sprocket diameters and would be subject to chordal action when running on the smaller sprockets.

Traumatised Reg SPB team barely survives movie unwatchablathon

Eddy Ito
Joke

Re: Needs more Cloverfield

Are you implying the 5th Indiana Jones is going to have the title character played by Ford, Affleck and LaBeouf in various flashbacks/forwards/obliques? Well, Ok but only if they can get Travolta, Sandler and Taylor Lautner to play the bad guy parts in the various flashes.

Oh, I see, you're talking of a completely different movie. Still, I think we've got the making of a trilogy here. To give the timeline cohesiveness with all the flashbacks, forwards and obliques we should start in the middle and work outward so if we wind up able to take it out to further sequels it won't matter if we go back, forward or oblique. Unconstrained by time, place and plot we can do anything we want; this thing is going to be absolutely brilliant!

Why don't you rent your electronic wireless doorlock, asks man selling doorlocks

Eddy Ito
Facepalm

In 3 - 2 - 1

Let me guess, the "smart" door lock is cloud connected, knows when you're away and undoubtedly has a built-in backdoor (no pun really desired but how can you not) which is for maintenance purposes only, honest. What could go wrong?

NSA domestic dragnet NOT authorised by Patriot Act, rules US Appeals Court

Eddy Ito

Re: Gotta hand it to them...(they take it anyway)

I'm sorry, how does a rerun relieve the monotony? Ah, perhaps it's a typo and you meant relive the monotony.

Online pizza order saves woman and children from knife-wielding kidnapper

Eddy Ito

Re: Cops arrive - perp cuffed - kids safe and all

Clearly it's been over 30 minutes so the pizza should be free.

JavaScript CPU cache snooper tells crooks EVERYTHING you do online

Eddy Ito

Re: 80%

Interesting that they only goes back to Sandy Bridge which is the second generation. The first generation Core i processors with Nelahem or Westmere microarchitecture also have an inclusive L3 cache and would seem to be vulnerable as well. That would extend the period back to about 2008.

Boffins turns landfill WinPhones into microscopes

Eddy Ito

Past tense

The Indiegogo campaign ended months ago. The new one is for a 15X lens at kickstarter.

My guess is the crew ran out of beer money and are starting over with less ambitious goals.

PEAK PC: 'Most' Google web searches 'come from mobiles' in US

Eddy Ito
Meh

Says nothing

Here's another example, my coffee cup is 95% full but my teapot is only 68% full. That doesn't mean most of the liquid is in the coffee cup because like this netmuckshare stat it makes no mention of the overall size of either.

iPhone case uses phone's OWN SIGNAL to charge it (forever, presumably)

Eddy Ito
Joke

Re: Uhhmmmm..

Oh come on, you're not giving it a chance. I'll bet they thought of the fact that they would need to recover more power than the radio uses so they likely also have a photovoltaic panel sitting over the display to capture the wasted photons to convert to electricity as well. I'm sure it's all been well thought out.

Apple Watch fanbois suffer PAINFUL RASH after sweaty wristjob action

Eddy Ito

Re: Huh?

Actually they make money with a dizzying array of fees. Granted some fees come after the patent is granted but there are plenty that come before the decision to grant the patent.

What is Apple's idiot tax on Watch these days? 'About $265 or 80%'

Eddy Ito

Re: MSRP-BoM !=Profit

Sure, or we could to the maths. Last I saw Apple ordered 5 million of these things so if we go with the starting price of $399 that makes a 50% margin a cost of $199.50. Less parts and labor gives $115.80 each for R&D, etc. Pretty simple from here, 5 million units times $115.80 is $579 million. Working from a 30% margin that climbs to $978 million. I find the latter number a bit harder to believe than a bit more than half a billion dollars. Even if the margin on the first order is only 30% it goes up substantially on any subsequent orders since any future R&D is only going to be on slight improvements and tweaks rather than starting from scratch. Sure, even if we allow the bad Taptic Engines in the first batch and say Apple ate that cost it's still quite the margin but keep in mind we all know Apple tends to work the contracts so the vendors pay when their kit doesn't perform so the vendor will eat most of that, not Apple.

Facebook serves up shaved, pierced, tattooed 'butterfly' as CAPTCHA

Eddy Ito

Re: Its certainly not a butterfly

Are you sure? It looks to me that it could simply be a stage between hickory horny devil caterpillar and cliteronia regalis.

Eddy Ito
Coat

Pity, with that tattoo my new Apple watch app, 'Tap this', likely won't work for her.

Intel has ambitions to turn modems into virtual servers and reinvent broadband

Eddy Ito

Re: Yet more scope for malware.

“Do you want faster downloads for $1/month?”

Well that will be a dollar wasted since the malware will be busy sucking up that bandwidth launching various attacks and we can assume it will also automatically check the box for you to access that bandwidth assuming it's not an opt-out - "Do you want slower downloads to save $1/month?".

Overall, although perhaps I missed it, I didn't see a whole lot of benefit to the consumer other than the supposed faster downloads and alleged "better security, without having to learn firewall administration." I say alleged because it only moves the firewall from the physical router platform to a virtual one in the modem only it's likely the consumer won't get the default admin password or the opportunity to change it but we know all the passwords will be in some text file safely stored in the cloud somewhere. What could go wrong?

Fondleslab deaths grounded ALL of American Airlines' 737s

Eddy Ito
Facepalm

Re: every pilot should have permanent acces to two tablets

Since most of these birds have glass cockpits is there a reason why the data couldn't be uploaded directly to the planes? Perhaps something complicated like a USB stick would work.

Apple Watch HATES tattoos: Inky pink sinks rinky-dink sensor

Eddy Ito

Re: Hardly a bug, is it...

@Stuart Moore, there's nothing wrong with having a body like Buddha. Perhaps you're thinking of Budai?

MONSTROUS iPhone sales are CANNIBALIZING iPads, gabbles Apple CEO

Eddy Ito
Joke

Re: Buy "almost new", sell older

Carbon-fibre - Pah! Admit it, you're just jealous of my Steel-ego TiB23MS500XL total titanium waffle face 16 inch MiBone framing hammer aren't you?

Eddy Ito

Re: Buy "almost new", sell older

@Brandon 2, I think you're missing Kristian's point. If I understand correctly, should you need a phone and you like the iPhone then that is a valid reason for buying one. What is irrational is choosing the iPhone because you feel it will be more of an investment than choosing another phone because it will be worth more when you sell it. It's irrational in the same way as buying a $100k Mercedes instead of a $25k Ford because at some point in the future the Mercedes may be worth $80k while the Ford may only be worth $5000. Both have lost $20k in value but the Mercedes has also tied up an additional $75k that you could have used to buy something else you might like such as shares of AAPL or if it makes you happy handing out an ice cream cone to everyone in East Kilbride1. The irrational bit pertains to the faulty logic of deciding based on what it will be worth later not the decision to purchase an iPhone or Mercedes itself. If you want one it's fine but don't use the excuse that it's some sort of investment that will be worth more down the road. You might get lucky with the car because maybe for some reason it winds up being one of 300 produced like the 1953 Corvette but as Apple's sales show, that's unlikely to happen to an iPhone.

1. Which is a perfectly rational thing to do if you derive some utility out of it even if the only utility is that it makes you happy.

WHY can't Silicon Valley create breakable non-breakable encryption, cry US politicians

Eddy Ito

Re: What about current crypto?

Actually I think that horse has even foaled a few times since it left.

Eddy Ito

Re: Just clueless...

and those who believe authorities are out to get them

History teaches them otherwise. They are likely less clueless than well known cattle rancher Frank Oppenheimer and everyone else who had to report to the Loyalty Board or HUAC.

Доверяй, но проверяй. Sorry Uncle Sam, without the transparency to verify your activities there can be no trust.

'Use 1 capital' password prompts make them too predictable – study

Eddy Ito
Facepalm

Let's not forget the sites, like some banks, who implement this policy then limit you to 10 characters or less.

Top Spanish minister shows citizens are thick as tortillas de ballenas

Eddy Ito
Coat

Re: Pedanting...

"only 60 per cent believed that science has more benefits than downsides"

Has anyone actually produced a comprehensive list of both the benefits and the downsides, and therefore determined which list is longer?

TBD, it depends on whether we co-exist with dinosaurs. Now then, I've ordered some T-rex DNA from a 'mr goodbytes' on ebay. Does anyone happen to know where I could get a fresh ostrich egg?

NINETY PER CENT of Java black hats migrate to footling Flash

Eddy Ito

Re: Basic Flash player

Isn't that what video in HTML 5 is supposed to be for?

Remember SeaMicro? Red-ink-soaked AMD dumps it overboard

Eddy Ito

Re: Any Way Back?

I tend to agree. AMD are overly focused in the same way that Palm made the fatal mistake of locking their focus onto riding the back of iTunes.

Default admin password, weak Wi-Fi, open USB ports ... no wonder these electronic voting boxes are now BANNED

Eddy Ito
Facepalm

Any interesting voting trend changes since the machines were put into use? What kind of changes? Oh I don't know, near unanimous votes to triple the salary of the county IT guy every few years maybe.

LA schools want multi-million Apple refund after kids hack iPads

Eddy Ito
Coffee/keyboard

Re: once again

I'm sure the LAPD will get to the bottom of this.

Thanks elDog, that's quite the knee slapper.