* Posts by Tom 13

7544 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Google gins search formula to favor its own services

Tom 13

And problems with transparency these days

tend to lead to problems with anti-trust issues later.

If Google want their services at the top of the list, fine. Put it in the sponsored links list. They can even add an extra link if they want to preserve their revenue stream. But the search rankings need to be purely the result of unbiased algorithms.

Sprint introduces $10 smartphone premium

Tom 13

I bought the Sprint Evo Android a couple months ago

precisely because they were considerably cheaper than Verizon, so this change does not sit well with me. Moreover, while they talked a good game about 4G coverage, I've never seen anything but the 3G icon lit. And yes, I bought it not for the phone, but for the data link so I could sit on the train and play with my laptop. The GPS nav app has come in handy a couple of times. And there are some other apps related to tracking the damn train that I use. But I don't really use it all that much for a phone. I have a perfectly good land line at home with unlimited calling on it. I'd be willing to pay a fair price for just a data plan, but nobody wants to sell me one.

Hackers eyed sale of celebrity iPad data

Tom 13

These dudes are going down.

You can try to nit pick the case against them apart, but a competent jury will find the information was protected even if it wasn't properly protected. The transcripts clearly outline that they were in this purely for personal gain, definitely not whitehat, and it would even be a stretch to label them grey.

Third party developers blamed for Windows security woes

Tom 13

I like Secunia's program scanner and the ease with which they

point you to the right updates for the respective programs.

That doesn't mean I don't recognize this press release for the propaganda that it is.

I wouldn't trust MS to be the central source for updating. I like the idea of MS adapting one of the Linux Tools to support centralized updates for Third Party apps. I would not object to them keeping the MS updater separate from the adapted Linux updater. As I see it the only problem with this route is MS has no idea how to monetize the solution.

Galileo euro-satnav 'driven by French military', says sacked CEO

Tom 13

This Yank thinks that even though we shouldn't willy nilly sell our

encryption codes for the military signal for just the reasons stated by Charles 9, that its a good thing you you all to have a separate system. Provides redundancy for ours if the Russians, the Chinese or Microsoft hit it with something other than missiles.

And has up voted most posts to the same effect.

Tom 13

Not the French military per se,

French military VICTORIES is the oxymoron.

WikiLeaks gets Swiss bank info

Tom 13

Mostly on target. The bit that you missed is the real culprit was the US Congress.

They REQUIRED some of those bad loans to be made in order to eliminate non-existent redlining. This is what actually initiated the creation of MBSs. The bankers knew the loans were bad and didn't want to sit on them. The only way to ditch them was to slice them up with known good loans. Except that in the process the bad loans got upgraded to fully performing loans. And eventually there were to many bad loans in the mix. But by then the entire system was overwhelmed. All because some self-righteous leftists in Congress wanted to make wealth distribution more fair.

Tom 13

Except they didn't go around flaunting their money.

They went to a nice bank known for protecting their depositors. Only now an employee of that bank is publishing their information. All of it.

I'd dare say you'd be the first one screaming for the head of the local teller if they published all your financial data in a Swedish blog without so much as an email to you before hand.

Tom 13

Minor nits

As an earlier poster noted, that applies to the US only. UK laws are probably similar, but not exactly.

Defense may have the burden to prove, but unlike the Defense, the Prosecution is required to provide any potentially mitigating evidence to the Defense. This is precisely the grounds on which the Ted Stevens bribery charges were reversed: Prosecution knew of evidence suggesting possible evidence tampering and didn't inform the Defense, so the whole case got thrown out even after the initial verdict was rendered.

Israel and US fingered for Stuxnet attack on Iran

Tom 13

There is no alternative.

Only death to the infadels.

Tom 13

@raving angry loony

It's not propaganda when the words come from the President of Iran himself in a speech to televised to his nation.

US government could challenge Google's ITA travel plans

Tom 13

Repeat after me,

There are no natural monopolies, only monopolies where governments have granted exclusive rights.

There are no natural monopolies, only monopolies where governments have granted exclusive rights.

There are no natural monopolies, only monopolies where governments have granted exclusive rights.

Things might feel different in Old Blighty, but I live in an area where the government hasn't granted those exclusive rights and have access to at least three major ISP vendors and gawd knows how many little ones.

Disgruntled TSA data analyst sentenced for sabotage attempt

Tom 13

Re: Why not InfoZen

Because until InfoZen itself gets a clean bill of health, they are as suspect as their employee, so an outside agency needs to do the audit. The government can probably sue InfoZen to recover the cost of the audit if it fails to collect from the actual perpetrator. But recovering the cost doesn't change the magnitude of the cost reported to the courts.

Keira Knightley, Jessica Biel eye Batman

Tom 13

Given everything DC has done with Catwoman,

there are no longer any obvious routes for the character. It just depends how they want to play her.

I just hope they steer clear of the Batman and Robin problem of piling too many big names into the picture and thinking that will make it good. So far they've done okay with the franchise reboot and they need to stay on track.

Yorks cops bust Bradford guinea pig farm

Tom 13

Well, let's check some AMA research

"Marijuana smoking, like tobacco smoking,

may be associated with increased risk

of lung cancer. Marijuana smoke contains

cannabinoid compounds in addition to

many of the same components as tobacco

smoke. For instance, benzopyrene, a carcinogenic

polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon,

is found in both tobacco and marijuana

smoke and has been implicated in mutations

related to lung cancer.4-7 Furthermore, experimental

studies support an association

between marijuana smoke exposure and

lung cancer, with lung cancer cell lines demonstrating

tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-

induced malignant cell proliferation8,9 and

a murine model suggesting that THC promotes

tumor growth by inhibiting antitumor

immunity by a cannibinoid-2 receptor

mediated pathway.10 Although the

preponderance of in vitro data supports a

biologically plausible association, limited research

exists that suggests anticarcinogenic

cannabinoid effects.11-13 Given these

contrasting data, we chose to systematically

evaluate the association between smoking

marijuana and lung cancer."

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/166/13/1359.pdf

The study concludes that more study is required. But given how difficult it has been to convince people that smoking is bad for their health, I expect the results will eventually be the same: smoking kills whether it is tobacco or weed, and weed actually has more carcinogens.

Lawyers fear Assange faces death penalty in US

Tom 13

Actually, part of the problem most of the world has with the Swedish rape charges

is that the girls DIDN'T object at the time, they changed their minds AFTERWARD. In fact, they only changed their minds when he became an internationally renowned figure.

Now, the kool-aid drinkers who keep posting on this site believe that's because the women are CIA stooges who are trying to get him extradited to the US. In fact the women are fellow anarchists who have a different sacred cow: all sex is the rape of women. Which is actually sufficient to explain why the case changed jurisdiction in Sweden and got reinstated after a moderately sane prosecutor dropped the previously filed charges. Trust me on this, the CIA is too incompetent to have planned this ahead of time, or paid them off after the fact.

Oracle's Sword of Damocles forces open source fork rename

Tom 13

Re: Objections are costly

Also, Oracle can assert the claim that because they purchased Sun which started the project, they own the project from the start and are only now applying for the trademark. It's clearly counter to the intentions of Sun at the time, but I expect that as a legal claim they could sustain it. And yes, that would be more legal fees.

And given that most folk consider normal legal fees to be exorbitant, its important to realize that IP legal fees are exorbitant compared to normal legal fees.

4G networks can screw up cable TV

Tom 13

This is the sort of bureaucratic twaddle that pisses people off.

Bureaucrats are allegedly paid to work these details out BEFORE making decisions to sell spectrum, not sell the spectrum and see where the crap flies.

WikiLeaks lawyer dubs US subpoena on Twitter 'harassment'

Tom 13

All information on Ebay should be public?

Including personal phone numbers, bank accounts, house addresses, and bank routing numbers?

Sure, but you first.

Tom 13

Sure, when you find that location let me know.

I have a device here that will solve all of the worlds energy problems without producing pollution of any kind at no cost. The only problem is, it requires unicorn farts to power it. If you find your location, I know I can find a pair of unicorns to power the device.

Lawsuit says Oracle pilfered source code from competitor

Tom 13

It would be nice. Problem is,

near as I can tell settling the suit is pocket change for Ellison even at the current asking price.

Assange bailed again

Tom 13

re: Why are people in the US calling for his (Assange's) execution?

Probably because his actions are going to get people in Afghanistan who are fighting against the tyranny of the Taliban to be assassinated.

Tom 13

So who are you going to believe?

The British courts that are processing the extradition request Sweden has brought against him (which although I am not even an American lawyer believe necessitate legal charges or they get thrown out on their face), or CBS disinformation?

Anonymous activists to hit the streets

Tom 13

You are aware the US goverment developed the precusrosr to the Internet

via DARPA, and the commercial organizations (including AT&T, Google and yes, even Microsoft) built it into the thing is today right? Which means they have at least as much claim to owning it as any individual citizen.

Feds subpoena Twitter for info on WikiLeaks backer

Tom 13

Confirmation that her Twitter alias

is actually owned by her? These minor details are extremely important in a US court of law.

Tom 13

Actually, all of that information is necessary to

prove the account is owned by, controlled, and used by her and her alone.

If it's only an address it's open to the "someone forged my address" counter.

Without the connection records, it's open to the "someone else used my computer" counter. Same goes for the telephone numbers. The only way to legal prove beyond a reasonable doubt that her tweets are from her is to have ALL that information.

'Methanotroph' bacteria feasted on blown BP rig's methane belch

Tom 13

Re: "whatever BP were dumping into"

What they dumped in is a pretty well understood chemical, and its most noticeable characteristic was that all of its known carcinogenic affects were lower thresholds than the known carcinogenic affects of the oil which was gushing into the ocean, despite EPA hysterics.

Tom 13

Actually, it tells us something really, really important:

the so-called experts were clueless in the warm water areas where all the AGW religionists are now proclaiming these things are well understood, so they are likely to be equally clueless in the areas where they now proclaim "the real problems" are and what mechanisms will occur IF things warm up.

Tom 13

EE Doc Smith was an amusing SF pulp writer.

While I grant his character development was non existent, he was wont to write amusing scenarios. One of my favorites occurs in one of his Skylark books. Having discovered that he and his crew were traveling faster than the speed of light, the scientist comments "Einstein was wrong. I'll have to figure that out later."

If the paper writes that the methane consuming bacteria count was X based on an accepted and proven technique, it is not the count which is wrong because there isn't enough copper to support the bacteria, it is the theory of how much copper is required to support the bacteria which is wrong.

Tom 13

@ScissorsHands: And yet you wonder why we skeptics

remark that AGW is a religion, not science. Here's a hint from Galileo: More epicycles won't save your model.

Microsoft confesses to New Year Hotmail blunders

Tom 13

Some test accounts are always kept on a live server.

They are useful for checking things when users call to report problems. What's not usually done is deleting them with a script.

Tom 13

Critics? Don't you mean

users?

Runaway hydroponic fungus attacks real-world Starship Voyager

Tom 13

Alleyne should consider at least going through

the pro forma motions of filing civil charges against the downstairs flat owner for destruction of his property.

Not that I think he'll have much left after the criminal system is done with him.

FCC dubbed 'Ministry of Truth' over net neut rules

Tom 13

The author needs to apply for fact checking rehab.

These camps existed well before the FCC engaged in its unprecedented power grab. Both the Congress and the US court system bitch-slapped them on this very issue only a scant few weeks before they issued their "rule making" decision.

As for Tom Tauke's comments, that's executive speak for "Please don't beat me no mo'e masser! I be good! Honest I will!"

Google suit halts Microsoft fed contract

Tom 13

@Lance 3

But that auto-deletion feature runs afoul of email retention rules for FIAA regs.

Where's the red tape icon?

Microsoft 'maintenance' blocks Hotmail

Tom 13

Sadly, it hasn't.

If it had, he wouldn't be posting it as a complaint trying to get it working, he would be posting it as a sendoff as he signed up for an account elsewhere.

Dubai assassins used email trojan to track Hamas victim

Tom 13

If you insist on starting your history in 1948, then while you may be

a useful idiot, you do none the less support Hamas' violent activities, if only rhetorically.

Prior 1948 Britain had the protectorate mandate for all of Palestine. Their (admittedly fucked up) solution to the mass execution of the Jews in Nazi Germany was to partition their mandate into Jordan for the Palestinians and Israel for the Jews. The Jews did not terrorize the Palestinians until after the Palestinians attacked the Jews. In point of fact, all of the land which the Jews "occupied" in Israel was purchased legally from Palestinians under the laws set forth by the British government.

Refusing a right to return until such time as a treaty ending a war has been signed IS standard diplomatic practice.

'Operation eMule' feds bust duo with 500+ eBay, PayPal accounts

Tom 13

DHS was cobbled together out of I don't know how many other

existing departments with no real authority to rationalize their structure to their purported function. They're sort of a Consolidated Amalgamated Conglomerated mega-LLC, Inc. beastie.

Courtney Love in court over 'Boudoir Queen' Twitter bitchfight

Tom 13

Hmmm.....

I'd say both tweets were opinions, and until one side or the other provides proof of their claim, both were defamatory. In Vegas, I'd put money on Love being the loser.

But then again, I don't twitter.

Cell phone search needs no warrant, say Cal Supremes

Tom 13

Spoken like a true

commie. The sorts of people who mistake National Socialists for the far right.

Tom 13

Nope, this one came from the Cali court, aka the farthest left court

in the country.

Microsoft confirms code execution bug in Windows

Tom 13

No need to break functionality.

Just need to check the values of the color indexes on the icons. If it's negative, trash it.

Even badly coded third party apps ought to be producing positive values for color indexes, which is why hackers found it for specially crafted images and icons. If the third party apps had created them, something would have broke and it would have gotten fixed.

Now, the rest of your rant about third party crapware is spot on.

Not so sure about the Cult of Jobs and *nix, particularly as Jobs has decided to work with a *nix core for his OS. You might find an overflow function, but there are also fewer exploits after you've got the overflow. And I expect that if such overflow conditions occur, the *nix crew will have a patch issued long before MS.

US woman sues again over XP 'downgrade', seeks class action

Tom 13

Mr. Windmill, please allow me to introduce you

to Donna Emma Alvarado Quixote from La Mancha Spain.

Pirate Bay mouthpiece disses Assange's legal wrangles

Tom 13

A US Dept of Justice that wasn't able

to come up with a reasonable set of charges against Osama bin Laden when an Arab country wanted to turn him over will be equally inept at coming up with charges against Assange. The only risk to him is actually in Sweden, where another anarchist is using him as a prop to further their particular anarchy cause.

Double-clicking patent takes on world

Tom 13

One other thing,

while this particular case can probably be laid entirely at the feet of the USPTO, not all of the problems are their fault. The US Congress has added several categories to patentable claims which ought not exist. Business processes are one which comes immediately to mind. There may be some bleed over from those choices in the sense that when one warps his own brain to work on business patent processes he also loses the ability to think rationally about traditionally patentable claims.

Tom 13

I don't think I'd want the USPTO being a co-defendant at the trial.

That would put the full force of government behind upholding the patent, not just the patent trolls. I prefer having someone less well funded defending the patent.

On the issue of a penalty for the USPTO, again we run into the same problem - it's government money, not USPTO money, although someone might not get a good review.

No, if you want to put responsibility back into the equation, I think you have to go the licensed Mechanical/Physical Engineer route: If the court strikes down the patent the clerk issuing the license is personally liable for damages resulting from the bad decision.

2011: The year open source (really) goes capitalist

Tom 13

The money line:

"It finally recognizes that the world no longer revolves around it, and that it must therefore embrace an unfettered web. At least for now."

Actually, this isn't MS's first foray into standards and interoperability. Although it is true that most people believe they shafted the original copyright owner of DOS, in the early days of their existence they did to a large extent depend on standards an interoperability amongst different vendors. They couldn't produce all the software people needed, so they promoted standards and interoperability in areas where they didn't compete. As they grew larger and selected areas that they wanted to control, yeah they were ruthless in destroying standards and writing the software so only they could operate (STAC, QEMM). It was only really after the advent of Windows that they really got nasty. I expect more of the same in the future.

Hacker charged over siphoning off funds meant for software devs

Tom 13

And the Nazi symbol use to just be an insignia for long life and prosperity.

before WWII it was used extensively by Kipling who was certainly no fascist sympathizer.

The meanings of words and symbols change and these days both are associated with evils regardless of their actual parentage. In fact, I dare say that even at the time the word was entering the common lexicon it had the negative connotation. I played Steve Jackson's card game of the same name (must admit crash Squishysoft's servers in that game was always satisfying and usually easy) when I was in college, which is now many more years ago than I care to acknowledge.

Google 'open' nonsense brainwashes US gov

Tom 13

Except that the hand that is up one of the three sock puppets

who approved these FCC rules is that of Google.

MS withdraws misfiring Outlook update

Tom 13
FAIL

What? Nobody at MS has a gmail account to test their application?

Not even a test account?