* Posts by Intractable Potsherd

4159 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

US Supreme Court supremo rakes Aereo lawman in oral arguments

Intractable Potsherd

I hope Aereo wins ...

... because I love to see someone look at the law and come up with a clever way to circumvent it (even if I don't think this *is* a circumvention of the law - as others have said, it is simply a way of renting an antenna in a convenient location and accessing it remotely, and therefore the same as putting a physical antenna on a hill on your neighbour's land for a ground-rent). However, with Supreme Court Judges like Roberts and Bader-Ginsburg - who, if not *actually* corrupt and in the pockets of big business and the Republican Party, give every appearance of so being - then I'm not holding out much hope.

Rejoice, Russians! The annexation of Crimea is complete and legitimate – Google Maps proves it

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Recognise it or not, its the reality on the ground!

Very true, Chris. I heartily recommend people go to the Sumava region of the Czech Republic (part of what was called the Sudetenland). First of all, it is lovely. Second, spend a bit of time wandering around the graveyards - almost all names are Germanic, not Slavic. If there had been a referendum at the time, there is little doubt that the area would have become German, not remained Czech (even my Czech wife admits that).

MIT boffins moot tsunami-proof floating nuke power plants

Intractable Potsherd

Re: And when the Greens get pissy...

Close, AC, but not anywhere mainland. Give them a nice island (so they can't sneak off, and we can be sure that they are not using any natural resources sneakily). There are several off the coast of Scotland - any that can survive a decade there without using any natural resources can come and tell us what they learned.

Samsung Galaxy S5 fingerprint scanner hacked in just 4 DAYS

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Lizard People? @DJO

I can't work out if you are being serious, but, just in case you are, I'll explain. Fingerprint readers don't store (the image of) the fingerprint. It creates a key - basically a password. Cancelling a fingerprint key and then re-enrolling the same one will create a different key (at least in a decent system - I don't know about the Samsung or Apple ones). However, as someone else mentioned, most people have more than one finger, and the centrally placed ones on phones make it easier to to use either hand, unlike the offset one on my Thinkpad which almost guarantees that most users will use the right hand ...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Is this worse than the iPhone 5S fingerprint scanner?

It does seem that this is a very poor implementation of fingerprint security. Even Samsung's draw-a-figure security system has a time-out (short, but, if I recall, user configurable) after five failed attempts. It is elementary to have a lockout (with an option to use another option if necessary).

On the other aspect - one-factor authorisation for financial transactions - how silly! Even if you use PayPal's two-factor (SMS) authorisation, the message is going to go to the phone that the thief has (though could be the case with the PayPal app on any phone if security is inadequate). Personally, I never use my phone for anything to do with finance, except as the second factor of authorisation.

Snowden-inspired crypto-email service Lavaboom launches

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Why I'd never use this...

Re: the privacy statement - I followed Bill's link and then used Google Translate (yes, I know ...) The result is:

Your personal Disclaimer:

Disclaimer (Disclaimer)

Liability for content

As a service provider we are responsible according to § 7 ​​paragraph 1 of TMG for own contents on these pages under the general laws. According to § § 8 to 10 TMG we are not obliged as a service provider to monitor transmitted or stored foreign information or to investigate circumstances that indicate illegal activity. Obligations to remove or block the use of information under the general laws remain unaffected . However , a relevant liability is only possible from the date of knowledge of a specific infringement . Upon notification of such violations, we will remove the content immediately.

Liability for links

Our site contains links to external websites over which we have no control. Therefore we can not accept any responsibility for their content. The respective provider or operator of the pages is always responsible for the contents of any Linked Site. The linked sites were checked at the time of linking for possible violations of law. Illegal contents were at the time of linking. A permanent control of the linked pages is unreasonable without concrete evidence of a violation . Upon notification of violations, we will remove such links immediately.

copyright

The contents and works on these pages created by the site operator are subject to German copyright law. Duplication, processing , distribution and any kind of exploitation outside the limits of copyright require the written consent of its respective author or creator. Downloads and copies of these pages are only permitted for private, non -commercial use. As far as the content is not created by the website operator, the copyrights of third parties. Any duplication or marked as such. If you still be aware of copyright infringement , we ask for a hint . Upon notification of violations, we will remove such content immediately.

Source : Disclaimer from eRecht24 , the portal to the Internet right lawyer Sören Siebert

Of course, my German isn't good enough to guarantee that this is totally accurate.

Don't let no-hire pact suit witnesses call Steve Jobs a bullyboy, plead Apple and Google

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Sad

Someone I know who used to work for a large tech firm on the West Coast of the USA has frequently referred to the odd situation created by suddenly-rich men well down the autism scale being targeted by the sort of women that prey on rich men. There is a reinforcement loop of selfishness that is horrifying to witness, apparently.

Look out, bankers! It's Lily Cole and her (Brit taxpayer-funded) WISH-PRINTING ATM

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Accessible? @ Dave Robinson

"... I have no complaints about Lily Cole, because I used to work with her cousin."

From that I infer that her cousin is a very frightening person*, and knows where you live.

* Strangely, the image of a crazy enforcer relative makes me feel a bit more comfortable about the world, because there is no way that woman could have become as successful as she is on any of her own merits ...

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I Wish ......

Just another witless* clothes-horse.

* Though, she's the one that just got £200k for a printer - maybe not so witless :(

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Oh bless

Explosive One, I'm not sure if you missed some tags, but I downvoted you just in case you are serious. There is *nothing* good about this at all.

A black box for your SUITCASE: Now your lost luggage can phone home – quite literally

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Happens to me

Only been separated from my luggage once in transit, and that was due to excellent service on the part of AirFrance (I know, not many people say that!). My flight from Manchester to Paris Charles de Gaulle* was delayed on the runway due to a technical problem on another plane (can't remember what it was). AF delayed the connection at CDG as long as they could, and there was a nice AF staff-member waiting for me (I was the only one catching the connection from Manchester) who took me through VIP gates etc to get on the flight. Unsurprisingly, my luggage didn't make it, but it was with me in Portofino before dinner. Horrible feeling, but good ending.

* This was when I first started travelling for work. I have since learned a) don't *ever* let university travel agencies book your travel, b) there are few reasons to use connecting flights within Europe, c) if possible, don't put anything in the hold.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Why? @ "ban it" AC

You need to look at Bruce Schneier's blog - his latest annual "movie-plot threat" competition has just been announced. With your imagination, you stand a good chance of winning ...

Android engineer: We didn't copy Apple or follow Samsung's orders

Intractable Potsherd

It is still an utter mystery to me how anyone can confuse an iPhone with *any* Samsung model in the last 4-5 years. Even leaving aside the huge logos on Apple stuff (a bit of a giveaway to my mind), the materials, build quality, shape, size (especially thickness) all make it clear what is, and what isn't an iPhone. Part of the reason I like Samsung phones is that they *don't* look like iPhones, which I think are ugly and difficult to hold.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Carphone Warehouse / Samsung Experience store

Just another "boutique"-style modern shop to me. No friendliness, just a means to rip money out of people's accounts without them cluttering up the place for too long. Nothing unique to Apple.

Dropbox defends fantastically badly timed Condoleezza Rice appointment

Intractable Potsherd

Re: What does she actually bring to the table? @OwnCloud AC

Thanks for that, AC - I'll be out of Dropbox and into OwnCloud just as quckly as I can transfer my data.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Dropbox drops the ball. @JLV

Well said, Vladimir. Those who think the Iron Curtain countries were an unending hell really haven't done enough reading. Personally, as a child of the middle of the Cold War, I was always more afraid of Britain's "Allies" on the other side of the Atlantic who came up with the "better [you are] dead than Red" policy, and *would* have implemented it to "save Democracy".

Gimme a high S5: Samsung Galaxy S5 puts substance over style

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Wot? No wireless charging?

Both very good points, as long as there is an option to plug in a standard usb cable to charge when you've forgotten your charging pad/cradle.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Tough choice

If the next iteration of the Note has several of the features in the S5 (water-resistance, b/w mode to save power on the needlessly garish screen, useable with wet/dirty/gloved hands), I'll probably not look any further when my contract is up in a few months' time. Overall, I think plastic-bodied phones are just the right way to go (though I would put it in a case, anyway), because the impact resistance is superior to metal phones. Admittedly, I love the feel of my Jolla (which still isn't close to becoming my main comms gadget), but do worry about how the screen would bear up if it fell on a metal corner instead of a plastic one (still haven't seen a bumper for the Jolla).

Oh, and as Ted Frater has been saying for some time - produce backs that will hold bigger batteries!

France bans managers from contacting workers outside business hours

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Up the creek without paddle... @ Don Jefe

I don't know if I entirely understood your post - I think is said "work as hard as you need to in order to meet your goals". If so, I tend to agree. In all my recent work (I used to be a nurse with an on-call rota for some of it), I have tended to do that. I know that at certain times of the academic year I will, in all conscience, need to be available after hours to support students coming up to deadlines, deal with revisions to new coursework etc, and that could be email or phone. It is certainly annoying when, as at a recent employer - a new college - the work was supposed to have been done by a consultant (mate of the manager) for a small fortune, who did the course outlines and then walked away, leaving me and a colleague to write the coursework for the students, for three courses. However, our duty was to the students - those 60+hour weeks of teaching, marking, writing the work, supporting new students and developing extra-curricular activities were for someone else's benefit - and there was something heroic about ensuring the coursework was up on the VLE to meet the students' timetables. There was nothing "life-saving" about it, but it was affirming and useful.

In another job, I needed to conduct telephone calls with a university in California, which meant a week of late nights to deal with lawyers etc - but it helped the project out of a (big) hole. Once again, not life-saving, but affirming, useful, and exciting.

In short, *I* choose when I work. I want the option to put in the extra mile (or ten) to help make something I'm involved in a success. I do not want some legislator deciding that my project is going to fail because of a stupid general rule (that would end in me doing the work unpaid because the audit would show it up if I was paid). I am the one who decides whether and when I respond to any email or text or phone. I know I'm not the only one, and find it hard to understand the mind-set that works like I described above *all the time*. I'm unlikely to send out or answer emails after 9pm, and only by arrangement ring anyone after that time, even friends. So, if this is what you mean in your post, I agree.

Jack the RIPA: Blighty cops ignore law, retain innocents' comms data

Intractable Potsherd

To be honest, I have no way of knowing whether I "associate with potential terrorists or serious criminals or individuals who are potentially involved in actions which could raise national security issues for the UK". Does the bloke in the corner shop run a terrorist cell? Does the person I speak to occasionally on the bus run an illegal Bitcoin miner? Are any of my students growing industrial quantities of pot? Are my neighbours involved in unapproved sexual activities? I don't know (and the same applies to anyone reading this about their acquaintances). Yet it is alright, in the mind of this toothless watchdog, for there is guilt by association.

Justice, they've heard of it.

Broadband Secretary of SHEEP sensationally quits Cabinet

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Shame

dogged - where do I sign up? Most* of what you say is spot on the mark, and conservatives like Ledswinger are just afraid of change.

* Leaving the EU seems to be a bad idea, but, overall, you are on the right lines.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "UKIP are the only real option in the next elections"

If I see a huge swing towards UKIP in the European elections, it will make it certain that I vote "yes" in the Scottish Independence referendum in September. At least the Scots Nationalists recognise that being a member of the EU is a very good thing.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: poacher/gamekeeper

The fraudulent woman should be facing a trial and prison time, just like Dennis MacShane.

Just what could be inside Dropbox's new 'Home For Life'?

Intractable Potsherd

Hmmmmm ...

"Not quite sure how you can store ... WD40 ... within a storage app, "

Now, if someone *could* come up with that, so that e.g. the can of WD40 would be available wherever I need it (subject to connection), I'd probably pay for it, regardless of who can spy on it!

'Monstrous' Apple kicked us off iAd, claimed we are its RIVAL – Brit music upstart

Intractable Potsherd

Just installed the Android version even though I don't usually use the phone to listen to music! I like supporting the underdog, especially against misuse of power like this.

Greg Christie to leave Apple as Jonathan Ive seizes design reins

Intractable Potsherd

Thank you for a well thought-out post, SuccessCase.

Internet is a tool of Satan that destroys belief, study claims

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Great news!

Perhaps it is *precisely* those elements that are responsible!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: You know what else was invented at the same time as the Internet?

I was thinking about blaming the widespread use of unleaded petrol (gasoline, for the Left-pondians).

In Australia, protesting against Brendan Eich will be a CRIME

Intractable Potsherd

Re: About Proposition 8

Free speech is free speech - it doesn't matter what is being said. If someone is saying something you don't like, either argue with them or ignore them. Banning them is cowardly.

Oh, and the nasty campaigning didn't work, did it? Letting people show how awful their ideas are is a good way of making people turn against them.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Is this really a freedom of speech issue?

As I posted on another Reg thread on this topic, I contributed time and money to the pro-gay marriage campaign. I could just as easily have been on the wrong side of history if things were slightly different. Should I, or higher profile supporters, have been hounded from a job in that case?

Overall, the people that (wrongly) made a fuss about Eich for daring to have an opinion that didn't match theirs (and mine) were entitled to do it - I'm a radical supporter of free speech (even shouting "Fire" in a crowded place), as I've posted previously - but Mozilla were wrong to give in instead of supporting their chosen CEO. There were other ways of managing this situation in which all could have been winners, instead of what we have, which is all coming out as losers.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Background

"... the new CEO might hire a pro-gay who only promotes gays ..."

Well, given that gays make up only a small percentage of the population (4% is the usual figure given, but it could be as high as 10%), wouldn't that require a lot of people to change tracks from what they are already doing to become the staff that Mozilla need?

Organic food: Pricey, not particularly healthy, won't save you from cancer

Intractable Potsherd

Re: elephant in the room....

For the first time in European history (at least), no-one needs to starve. People are, in general, adequately fed - there is no starvation. Under-nutrition is significantly worse for an individual than over-nutrition, and yet we have campaigns telling us to eat less, putting ridiculously low levels on "healthy weight", and making people guilty about eating well. We should be grateful, and find a way to spread this wonder to the rest of the world - instead we have miserablists like you bemoaning the fact.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Confused

"Or those who claimed that they always ate organic were lying." Well, there are other options: a) they don't actually know what "organic" means, and/or b) the food they are buying as "organic" is mislabelled (deliberately or accidentally).

(I have no dog in this fight - I don't have patience to shop routinely at small grocers, so I get most of my food from supermarkets. Organic and non-organic supermarket fruit and veg taste exactly the same to me, and so there is no reason to buy the more expensive stuff. If I happen to be somewhere where there is a farmers' market, I'll buy varieties that I don't know, just in the same way as I'll always try a beer I don't know. Some of those are nicer than supermarket produce, some aren't. I do have a problem with people worried about "chemicals" just because they are new.)

'Bank couriers' who stole money from OAP cancer sufferer jailed

Intractable Potsherd
Unhappy

Re: Fundamental Question

See my earlier comment re: property crime and punishment.

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I know its Clarksonesque

I cannot understand the mindset that suggests that property crime is capital crime (or even corporal).

Intractable Potsherd

Re: "they don’t disconnect the call [..] you are actually still speaking to the fraudster"

Also had the same problem in the 80s - for some reason a relative's phone would not reliably press the switches on the cradle properly when the handset was replaced. This would put our phone (and presumably anyone else they called) out of action - when we picked up the receiver to make the next call, it was possible to hear conversations, TV, budgie twittering. I do recall (possibly erroneously) that there was a time-out, but it was quite long. We persuaded her to get the phone fixed was only when her (huge) phone bill came in!

Google hands over $1.4m for unmarked Street View cars in Italy

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Google cars are obviously recognizable!? @ southpacificpom

"I've seen two unmarked cars with those roof mounted cameras. Question is were they Google?"

And the next question is "Does it matter?" And the one after that is "If yes, why?"

My general opinion is that since people in my country (UK) do not care (and indeed many actively support) surveillance cameras in public places, then they cannot complain about Google, dash cams, or any other cameras in public places. If other populations have different attitudes such that surveillance by all and sundry is not acceptable (and, since I have very little experience of Italy, I do not know if they have lenses pointed at them in shops, on public transport, on the streets), then they can legitimately demand control of e.g. Google.

*Edited because I misread your name - I thought the "m" was "rn"! Many apologies :-)

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Google cars are obviously recognizable!? @southpacificporn

"I've seen two unmarked cars with those roof mounted cameras. Question is were they Google?"

And the next question is "Does it matter?" And the one after that is "If yes, why?"

My general opinion is that since people in my country (UK) do not care (and indeed many actively support) surveillance cameras in public places, then they cannot complain about Google, dash cams, or any other cameras in public places. If other populations have different attitudes such that surveillance by all and sundry is not acceptable (and, since I have very little experience of Italy, I do not know if they have lenses pointed at them in shops, on public transport, on the streets), then they can legitimately demand control of e.g. Google.

Lego is the TOOL OF SATAN, thunders Polish priest

Intractable Potsherd

Re: When I were a lad ...

Not castles, but large spaceships that I would "land" in a Gerry Anderson-esque fashion (sort of belly-flopping, losing large amounts of material as it slid across the floor and into the wall*). I gave myself points if the only intact structure when it came to a halt was where the important members of the crew would sit.

*All sorts of trouble from dad for the dents and gouges in my bedroom wall!

I QUIT: Mozilla's anti-gay-marriage Brendan Eich leaps out of door

Intractable Potsherd

Re: RE: Being against gay marriage does not equate to being anti-gay

Science has actually made it possible for homosexual couples to have children. I'm not sure what the situation is in the USA, but over here in the UK it is not uncommon for homosexual couples to have children via IVF and donor gametes (and uteri if the couple are males). Alternatively, many homosexual couples choose to adopt and/or foster children, thus creating a "family" (a term for which there is no actual definition).*

* Though that does remember of a time I was scribing for a student in an exam. The question was "Define 'family'" The answer she gave, quite seriously (I had to write it down) was "a mother, a father, two children and a dog". I'm not sure how legible my writing was, since I had one hand stuffed in my mouth trying not to laugh!

Intractable Potsherd

Re: I embrace people that do not share my views @MACDONALDBANK

Since none of us ever met either person, it is impossible to say. It might be that both were actually really nice people to be with, with lots of good stories and a sense of humour.

I'm very much of the opinion that there are no evil people, just evil acts committed by people that are just the same as you and me (any act can be seen as evil from a certain perspective - just look at the comments by some people about others who keep cats ...)

Intractable Potsherd

No-one will ever read this because it is currently on p5 ...

... but I'd like to go on record as saying that I also am appalled at the treatment of Eich by Mozilla. However, I am not a "hateful bigot" - I contributed time, effort and money to supporting gay marriage in the UK. I wrote to my (anti-gay marriage) MP numerous times to try to get him to do the right thing *as I saw it*. I helped pay for advertising to support the introduction, despite gay friends expressing their disapproval of the measure. So, again, I am not a hateful bigot, Mr Blaise.

Eich *has* been hounded from a job by a concerted, vocal minority who cannot recognise that an opinion is valid even when you disagree with it, and acting in a small way to support a campaign that runs contrary to your own (and, in this case, many years ago) does not necessarily affect the ability to do a job. I am somewhat ashamed that the people I have supported have acted so intolerantly.

Middle England trembles before roaring LOHAN

Intractable Potsherd

@ "illegal" AC

Do you have any evidence for that, or are you just spouting ill-informed nonsense?

OkCupid falls out of love with 'anti-gay' Firefox, tells people to see other browsers

Intractable Potsherd

@Slawek

It seems there are a lot of broken sarcasm-meters today :-)

Tesla firms hot bottoms: TITANIUM armor now bolted to Model S e-cars

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Historical

Pumas are becoming very popular as cheap cars for road rallies and for competing in the Targa class of classic rallies. Great cars (but, as with most coupes, I can't actually get in one ...)

What price justice? 73 CENTS in book price-gouging case

Intractable Potsherd

Re: 'Used - Very Good' hardcover books, delivered, are typically *cheaper* than ebooks

True, but I can't carry three or four real books with me wherever I go, especially when flying. The anxiety of being caught without reading material has reduced dramatically since I got an e-reader and a phone that can store tens of books. I haven't had to resort to reading a sauce-bottle label or shitty newspaper since I got my Note, and my life is better for it.

Returning a laptop to PC World ruined this bloke's credit score. Today the Supreme Court ended his 15-year nightmare

Intractable Potsherd

Re: Greed.

It seems to me that the courts have punished both sides equally for dragging this on so long. The credit agency have a Supreme Court decision that makes their business model definitively illegal (and I bet they'll be really popular at the next financial gougers' picnic!). The claimant has been punished for inefficiently pursuing the claim for so long. The pain is equally shared - something the courts are quite good at doing. So many legal principles are laid out in cases in which the claimant/plaintiff actually lost - see Donoghue v Stephenson for a classic example of a case that changed the law in a way that affects the whole country, but which the plaintiff ultimately lost.

'Arrogant' Snowden putting lives at risk, says NSA's deputy spyboss

Intractable Potsherd

Re: There's an arrogance to the US too...

Well, I'm still working on getting my wife to agree to return to the Czech Republic. Their government couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery (ironic, given the central role of beer in the country), so intelligence gathering is unlikely. Their press have few scruples, and are always trying to trip up governmental bodies. Their healthcare system is universal, though still about twenty years adrift of UK standards in terms of medical paternalism. The population are still so aware of how power can be abused they don't even allow police to have unmarked cars (unless that has changed in the last few years). Arguments about politics are common, but rarely (I've never seen it happen in over ten years) get beyond "Oh, fuck off!" Oh, and really good beer all over the place at reasonable prices!

Trouble is, whilst she would not want the country she grew up in until 1989 to come back, the new one isn't my wife's "home". I doubt we will ever live there.

Intractable Potsherd

Yes, there is *every* point in covering what they say, for exactly the reasons you point out.

Intractable Potsherd

" '... If you’re not connected to one of those intelligence targets, you’re not of interest to us,' Ledgett insisted."

He may be correct, but missed out the word, "yet". Half-truth and distortion is a habit with these bastards.