* Posts by Eddy Ito

4662 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

Forget choice: 50% of firms will demand you BYOD by 2017

Eddy Ito

The next step

It's only a matter of time before the Gubbermint decides to tax the work tools provided by the company as income. If you have to jet off to some miserable place for a meeting or sales presentation it will be classed as a company provided vacation and it will count toward pushing you into the hell known as 'alternative minimum tax'. Just as corporate accountants come up with new tricks so the company doesn't pay taxes, the IRS comes up with new ways of screwing everyone else because con-gress won't allow them to go after their corporate sponsors.

Thousands rally behind teen girl cuffed, expelled in harmless 'explosion'

Eddy Ito

Strictly speaking, it isn't bleach (sodium hypochlorite). Assuming it was the liquid product (the company also has a granular product with a similar name) then according to the MSDS it's a weak hydrochloric acid. When combined with aluminum foil it generates hydrogen gas, big surprise, and aluminum chloride which, being corrosive, is an irritant. Since it appears to have only popped its top then it's doubtful that any acidic compounds were sprayed about and the quantity of any resulting vapors was likely minimal.

The proper way to do this is to take the child out to the shed and explain how to perform the experiment correctly and safely. I find children learn faster and have a greater respect for things when they know what is going on and why they shouldn't play carelessly with them.

Facebook fails to wow Wall Street with slow profit growth

Eddy Ito

Alternate indicator

"Monthly active users (MAUs) hit 1.11 billion, up from 901 million in Q1 of 2012"

How long before someone does some analysis and decides that overall economic activity and hiring rates are inversely proportional to MAUs and that greater FB usage is an excellent recession indicator.

AMD reveals potent parallel processing breakthrough

Eddy Ito

No, I'm afraid that would actually make Eadon happy, perhaps to the point of climax. I mean just the thought of copy-pasting "FAIL" fifty times might do it for him. Unless he's actually Steve Balmer doing a parody of a barking mad penguinista in which case climax is a given.

Eddy Ito
Thumb Up

Interesting

So who is interested in the tie in with SeaMicro tech? Oh it's going to be in a cluster alright and even though I don't know what I'd do with it, I still want one.

Brit horologist hammers out ‘first’ ATOMIC-POWERED watch

Eddy Ito

Re: It may be the most accurate watch in the world...

And it will need to be reset twice each year to accommodate summertime/dst.

Climate change forces women into prostitution - US politicians

Eddy Ito

Re: Half a dozen of one, but only six of the other. @Eguro

"why don't they just get on with promoting equal rights everywhere"

While I agree with the sentiment we have to consider who we are talking about that will do the 'promoting'. It is the government and the only way they know how to promote anything is to send in a bunch of well armed people who are really good at disrupting society and breaking things. While I'm all for a good societal disruption every now and again, there are other ways of doing it that government just doesn't understand and that is why those other ways tend to be more effective. To illustrate my point consider two historical references: 1st December 1955, Rosa Parks and 4th May 1970, Kent State University.

Feds want to fine companies that refuse wiretap requests

Eddy Ito

Re: Big Brother is Now

It's been here for years but it's only now that they have become so brazen where they really don't give a shit if everyone knows about because it's far too late. One of the reasons they have paid so close attention to the Arab spring uprisings is to learn what countermeasures are the most effective.

Budweiser's bonkable Buddy Cup brings Facebook to the pub

Eddy Ito
Pint

Pissa'

"Hey mate, I gotta piss, mind watching my beer?" We all know one practical joker who will bonk his cup with every other in the joint and maybe even pre-bonk the stack of cups in the corner.

<-- NOT a Budweiser

Apple: You thought Google dodged taxes? Get a load of THIS

Eddy Ito

iBonds

The Apple product that sells out faster than any other iProduct in history.

Opera sues designer for leaking trade secrets to Mozilla

Eddy Ito

Re: Hate to say this... but...

"... if you worked on software at company A then any use of a computer at company B is regarded as infringement."

Codswallop! I don't know of any state that allows a company to restrict an individuals ability to earn a living and Massachusetts still hasn't really figured out a solid trade secrets law presumably it has a problem with the UTSA which has been adopted by 46 other states. MA often allows non-compete clauses in employment contracts based on trade secrets but California doesn't allow them at all and hasn't since the late 1800s while also not recognizing such contracts originating in another state except under very limited circumstances. In short, there is no reason along trade secret lines that a CA company wouldn't hire someone who worked in MA.

What work? Tablet owners prefer to slack off with their slabs

Eddy Ito

Re: toadwarrior - Duh, it's hard to do real work on a touch screen

I'd wager he size war isn't about usability in general but 'usability' watching video or playing games. I suppose having a bigger screen is more comfortable allowing one to watch/play at a more relaxed distance and I will say that having tried a friends Note [I, II, ?] it does seem easier entering Chinese characters but that could easily have been the input software she was using.

Eddy Ito
Childcatcher

Re: Extraordinary

"What are such inflexible dinosaurs doing here?"

Trying to explain to the young'uns how severely limited dumb terminals really are and that the current crop of wireless touch driven GUI units with considerable processing power are even more limited, because of the surrounding MicroGoogApple walls, than the old VT52s we used when this was all open fields. Not that the chitlins will listen mind you. After all, they've got their heads in the cloud.

Master Beats: Why doesn't audio quality matter these days?

Eddy Ito

Re: Kiss FM?

To be fair there are a few flavors of 'hit' music radio. There is 'hip' rock radio aimed at the urban population and then there is 'hick' rock radio for the rural commuters. Of course that gets mixed up with the monthly 'top 20 (or whatever lasts the better part of an hour)' with the expected weekly or bimonthly refresh. The weekly ones tend to bias more on the 'top 10' side of "dear FSM a_F'ing_gain" and the bimonthly refreshes have you to the point of suicide when you get about 8 fresh singles you haven't become totally nauseous over. Then again that's why I praise Bongo the super cat that my car reads 64 GB USB flash drives.

Peak Apple: Cupertino belatedly spends some money on R&D

Eddy Ito

*By us, anyway

and the Graun.

High-rollers’ shop pitches wallet-pounding, wall-pummelling MONSTER TV

Eddy Ito

Re: 35k

I was thinking it would be a nice boost to my individual retirement/savings account. Heck, I could max it out for a few years and still have enough left over for trip to the Bahamas.

Microsoft to unveil new Xbox console on May 21

Eddy Ito
Mushroom

Re: Always on - obviously, this isn't 1998

Perhaps you miss a little subtlety about the term "always on". There is "always on" that means in an extremely low power mode and effectively off and there is the "always on" referring to an internet connection, a.k.a. 'always online' in order to function. Here is the distinction that makes a world of difference, nobody really gives a toss about the former but the latter is a royal rectal itch for several reasons not the least of which is that the internet isn't half as reliable as the marketing droids who work for multi-billion dollar companies providing unlimited fiber speed access to them.

Case in point, my refrigerator is always on but if I had to rely on Verizon's high latency, jitter laden, stop motion internet connection to keep it running then I'd be better off with a large Styrofoam box that I put ice in every day.

Human rights groups rally humanity against killer robots

Eddy Ito
Coat

Re: too late

The weapons trade is only worth more because it's a competitive sport. I've never heard anyone saying they needed to "invest" more on pr0n or drugs because their neighbor was stockpiling oxycodone and grumble flicks.

Apple beats revenue estimates but margins are falling

Eddy Ito

Huh?

"... spend $100bn in a share buy-back operation..."

Funny, when I read it the buy-back was being expanded to $60bn from $10bn. The $100bn also included the 15% per quarter dividend increase.

White House backs US web sales tax - eBay hits panic alarm

Eddy Ito

Re: God I hate politicians...@Charles 9

With companies like Wally World it won't matter. It's almost always cheaper to order online and have it delivered to the store for pick-up than it is to buy the exact same product off the shelf. It is to the point that the local Wally World has longer lines at the pick-up counter than the cash registers.

I imagine the future will consist of little pick-up shops staffed by a very few people who simply hand out the things you ordered online. You get a text saying it's ready, stop in with your 'too clever by half' phone but the NFC won't be for payment, since that will be handled online, instead NFC will be used as an identity check when you arrive to get your stuff. It will likely have a catchy name like Queue to Bonk and we'll say things like; "Oh, I have to grab something at Cutie Bonk, do you?"

Eddy Ito

Re: There's sales tax for second hand goods?

In California, yes there is sales tax on second hand goods. Before you ask, no the original buyer doesn't get a rebate based on the subsequent sales price. No it doesn't just apply to cars like in some states, you get to pay sales tax on nearly everything and if something changes hands enough times it is easily possible for the state to get greater revenue from one item than the original seller did. Oh, let us not forget the slice for the counties and cities as well, someone has to pay for the $200,000 annual compensation for the lifeguards.

US Air Force beats off competition in NSA hacking fight

Eddy Ito
Childcatcher

13 Annual?

From the looks of it that means at the first one the current winners were, um, would 2 years old be too kind?

Java still vulnerable despite recent patches

Eddy Ito

Re: As always, the victim would need to fail the Java user IQ test

Yep, so that's what? About half. Or am I being kind?

Readers, we need you... for LOHAN ignition failsafe brainwaves

Eddy Ito

Re: Gravity detector

Ah ha! The constant force spring can be the balloon tether! We won't talk about what happens when it twists up like a pretzel because a simple fishing swivel will work... for a little while anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Eddy Ito
Pint

Re: Gravity detector

Hmmm, fair point. Igniting early while pointing in a sub-optimal direction would be problematic. >DUCK!< Perhaps some sort of gimbal or a U-joint from an RC toy for mounting, of course that might start to get large.

Pint to mull it over.

Eddy Ito

Gravity detector

Set up a constant force spring, you know a coiled strip of metal like inside a tape measure, so that it is extended when it feels some gravitational pull. Once the balloon pops and enters free fall the spring will be able to wind itself up into its coiled state and make the contacts.

In ascii imagine the following sequence with the screen rotated clockwise;

:_________@ Spring extended under gravity and contacts (colon) on top. Balloon pops >POP<

:_____@ Spring starts to coil up as it doesn't "feel" gravity in free fall.

:@ Fully coiled, contact, ignition, Bob's your mum's brother.

Eddy Ito
FAIL

Re: "Failsafe" doesn't mean what you think it means.

"a linear accelerator that generates high energy x-rays.. it fails and continues to deliver radiation?"

Huh? Then it's not fail-safe. If your high energy x-ray device is designed to be fail-safe, it doesn't continue to deliver harmful radiation when it fails. There is no context necessary. It fails in a safe manner or it doesn't and if it doesn't then it isn't fail-safe.

Likewise your ventilator may be designed to be fail-safe in which case it would have to know when it has failed and perform some appropriate action such as sounding an alarm. That is perfectly fail safe because someone would be informed that critical action was needed. Alternately it could be designed to be fail-operative, a.k.a. redundant, and would have a backup system to take over in case the primary failed.

In short your confusing redundant systems with fail-safe systems. Either a given system is allowed to fail or it isn't.

Who's a Siri boy, then? Apple hoards your voices for TWO years

Eddy Ito
Big Brother

Re: Anonymised?

Exactly. If they actually keep the voice recording, presumably to compare it with the query Siri "thought" it was to make the voice recognition better, then amassing one of the biggest voice print databases in the world should make it trivial to do pretty good matches between "anonymised" and known queries.

It certainly has me wary of the next generation's version of the McCarthy hearings.

Applicants sought for one-way trip to Martian Big Brother house

Eddy Ito
Alien

Re: Streaming video,...

"... especially if they're of an exhibitionist bent."

Wait, I thought that was a prerequisite for getting on these shows. I don't think vasectomies will be necessary as the show is undoubtedly planning on and looking forward to the birth of the first verifiable ET.

Eddy Ito

Re: Reality TV fail

But if the crazy asshole opens the airlock won't that be the end of the show? Not sayin' that would be bad but if it happens early there are going to be some upset sponsors.

Malware and domain-squatters target Boston Marathon bombing

Eddy Ito

We can only hope

That the WBC goes to China for the funeral of the Chinese grad student so China can go old school on their pathetic arses and let the three who died rest in peace.

Alibaba comes again with Android-unfriendly mobile OS

Eddy Ito
WTF?

Re: That's a real site?

"I always find it interesting how any comments on El Reg that are derogatory in any manner to the Middle Kingdom get downvoted straight away, while those the opposite get upvoted consistently"

Seriously murph? As of now the guy is looking at one whole downvote so to call your comment a little over the top is an understatement. As to how he has come this far on El Reg without hearing about alibaba or Jack Ma it's beyond me but then I've been shopping there since at least 2005.

Flexible flywheel offers cheap energy storage

Eddy Ito

Re: Dynamic Balancing already exists

So if beads will self balance, the off the top of my head it seems to make sense to use a liquid as the major component and water is fairly cheap. Since it's going to be inside an evacuated housing it reduces the danger of a catastrophic failure since some portion will change phase and the liquid will act as a buffering medium for any flying shards from the rotating container that aren't on the outer edge and first to impact. I'm fairly sure there must be reasonable flaws to the idea but nothing comes immediately to mind.

Tax man to take a bite of tech employees' free meals?

Eddy Ito

Re: Excuse me?

Actually in many cities where they are separate, the sewer bill often exceeds the cost of the water bill. I suppose if you have the resources to have a septic drain field and a well then it only incurs electrical costs and the maintenance.

Eddy Ito

Re: Excuse me?

"It seems pretty clear cut to me. His argument is essentially "If you don't pay the tax that you are supposed to, but I do, I have to pay more tax to make up for the tax you didn't pay." Do you argue that tax evasion and benefits fraud are victimless crimes? Who do you think ends up paying the bill?"

Does anyone honestly think that paying income tax on the "free" grub which, in California where Google, Apple, et al. are located, is subject1 to sales tax will actually produce a change in the tax code such that Mr. McMahon will ever see a difference? All it does is take a few more dollars out of some poor coder who has to suffer with California's insane tax code as well as Uncle Sam's.

1. In general prepared food is subject to CA sales tax but like everything in California it is far beyond overly complicated in that it varies depending on whether it is hot or cold, liquid or solid, baked or fried, how it was prepared, what the reading was from both the tea leaves and chicken bones used, etc. etc. ad infinitum.

Netbooks projected to become EXTINCT by 2015

Eddy Ito

@Ross K

"Grandma can check out Facebook or Hotmail just fine using an onscreen keyboard..."

Actually that is a problem for many older users. My mother has both an iPad and one of the Samsung Android phones and she has to carry around a stylus to use the touch screens because her fingers don't register well. One of her friends got a new Nokia with the super sensitive screen and it works just fine for her and my mother but I tried it and have the problem where I constantly wind up launching a bing search because when I move my thumb to touch a tile the base of my thumb comes close enough to trigger a 'touch' on the bottom right corner.

Perhaps phone and/or tablet makers could add a setting to make the screen more or less sensitive, preferably with a physical button combination, [home or power]+[vol-up/down] for instance, since an on screen slider would be useless to someone who may not register well on the base setting or doesn't want to take the gloves off. I suppose that this isn't a trivial thing else someone would have done it by now.

Eddy Ito

Re: I'm Surprised They Lasted This Long

"... all you can ask of your tools."

That about sums it up. Unfortunately most folks want toys not tools so netbooks were finished when they didn't play the latest whatever perfectly. Add to that nobody ever wanted to build and promote an "ecosystem" of apps designed around the limited capabilities. I do find it funny that Windows 8 has gone with the Metro Modern UI that reminds me of the original EeePC UI only instead of tabs it wipes to the side.

Facebook Home gets SMACKDOWN from irate users

Eddy Ito
WTF?

A little unclear

"Dont need widgets.. but I would love to see folders in the future, and maybe custom short cuts on the lock screen."

Ok so the new fullscreen Home widget that seems to run only FB sub-widgets is all this person wants, I get that. The whole concept of folders and short cuts on the lock screen thing strikes me as a bit off. Isn't that like saying they don't want a lock screen and just want to go straight to the original home screen? To top it off, if the new FB Home is the new lock screen aren't they just saying they want the old Android back but without a lock screen and with a Windows 95 style active desktop?

The gloves are on: Nokia emits super-sensitive £99 Windows Phone

Eddy Ito

Re: Please, tell us, Eadon...

You can have his Seven Seagulls when you pry them from his cold anthropomorphically designed digital grippers! Or was that a different Segal movie?

Google U-turns on exclusive snatch of .app AND .search addys

Eddy Ito
Coat

Re: Are there any good reasons for adding more TLDs?

But it's going to be grand, think of all the new email addresses ellipsis@dot.dot or kay@dash.dash

The one with the straight key in the pocket.

Get lost, drivers: Google Maps is not for you – US judge

Eddy Ito

@MyBackDoor

Oh you don't understand politics out here (or maybe you do, all too well). The original purpose of the law was to allow Satnav units since they would have been completely illegal without it. This is Sacramento's way of "helping" folks out. As for how they can not know, it's pretty simple to figure out if you talk to any of the politicians long enough. Just don't talk to them too long, it's been known to lower intelligence and I think California politicians should come with a warning like "Known to cause idiocy in humans". We could make it an addendum to Prop 65 and call it a Prop 65 IQ label.

I have to give you Jersey. I've been through it several times and only stopped once for gas but that was only because I had to.

Eddy Ito

Re: Actual Satnav units

Hahaha, good one. Welcome to the rat hole California. We've got laws against nearly everything including the "GPS Windshield Safety Act" which effectively bans attaching anything to the windscreen of a modern automobile. The only place you can mount a GPS is in a 5"x5" square on the bottom corner of the driver's side or a 7" x 7" square on the opposite side. It might work if you have a '50s Caddy with a near vertical windscreen but if it has a rake like more modern autos forget about it. Essentially so long as it is mounted in a more dangerous position out of the line of sight of the driver, like under the dashboard, then it's ok to mount the GPS there. Logic and reason checked out a long time ago and they are never seen.

Spooky action at a distance is faster than light

Eddy Ito

Re: Well done ... again.

Statistically speaking, I probably do know where it isn't but I'm uncertain of the magnitude of the error in that estimation since the measurement would be rather uncomfortable.

Eddy Ito
Joke

Re: Well done ... again.

Oh no! That means Schrodinger's cat is...

Microsoft: 'Facebook Home just copies Windows Phone'

Eddy Ito

<cough>Bullshit</cough>

"phones should be designed around you and the people you care about"

If that were true then all "smart" phones wouldn't be designed around the company sucking every ounce of data from the users of their phones. I suppose "put people first" has a ring of truth to it but only insofar as he means put the product first where "you and the people you care about" happen to be the product.

It's an interesting twist that in the past one often had to spend more to get a quality product and now a quality product is determined by how much he or she spends.

Ahoy! Google asks US gov't to help sink patent 'privateers'

Eddy Ito

Re: Is there another side? @MyBackDoor

"I understand the benefits of this new law"

There is no new law. The filing wasn't sent to Congress asking for a new law it was sent to the FTC and DOJ asking for an examination of a practice that is becoming more common which is the "privateering" described in the article. It is believed by the petitioners that this practice may violate existing antitrust laws in the U.S. and ideally that is what the petitioners hope the FTC and DOJ decide after the investigation. This is only about the application of existing laws, no new laws were mentioned. If anything, I personally think some laws need to be pared back, specifically, patents on methods describing the operation of electronic equipment designed to perform logical and mathematical functions on a set of data, a.k.a. software.

Facebook skins Android with Facebook Home

Eddy Ito
Alien

Even ET would be scared

This isn't what the poor little fella had in mind and I'm fairly sure we all know where this phone's home is.

Steve Jobs' 'spaceship' threatened by massive cost overruns

Eddy Ito

Honestly

2.8 million square foot doughnut? FFSMS the least you could do is include translation into proper units! I've even done it for you, it's 12.5 MicroWales and the inner courtyard is 4.74 MicroWales. Much better and when put that way $5B doesn't sound like quite so much for a d'oh-nut. Of course this doesn't count the two basement levels or the voids on the three levels above the 259 NanoWales restaurant but pobody's nerfect.

Australia to reveal tech giants' tax tricks

Eddy Ito

"... apparently lacks the competence to frame it correctly..."

While I understand and I'm sure politicians appreciate your generous use of Hanlon's Razor, I'm not convinced the politicians here in the U.S. aren't getting exactly the tax code they expected. After all, some of us have to "contribute" via taxes to keep the government solvent and some make contributions in a slightly different manner but ultimately that money is controlled by much the same people albeit somewhat more privately.