* Posts by Tom 13

7544 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Boffins mount campaign against France's official kilogramme

Tom 13

@velv: You should never expect certainty

when Planck is involved.

419ers threaten terrorism charges

Tom 13
Coat

Did Guy forward the message to the FBI?

Surely they will want to know one of their agents has gone rogue.

Palin email hacker asks judge for leniency

Tom 13

Re: Mr. Kernell's behavior was an aberration from his normal course of conduct

I find that highly doubtful. He is a politician's son, and using his mum as character witness does not sway me.

They should stick with the guidelines.

Intel forms flash gang of five

Tom 13

Re: one has to wonder why it is bothering to talk to Intel

Because Intel might integrate the support for the standard into their next chipset?

Where's the nun with a ruler icon?

Credit card 'flash attack' steals up to $500,000 a month

Tom 13

All you people who keep seeing post saying "check for x in y minutes" need to learn to read.

The whole point of this is that the small transactions are batch processed so there are no x number of transactions recorded by the processor. The weak link is the store and forward, not the number of transactions. Although your mileage will vary greatly. I once made the mistake of purchasing gas at the pump for one car before I stopped in the shop to pay the repair bill for another. Got sent straight to "talk to the customer service rep" because they flagged that as a sign for fraudulent activity. (A few minutes on the phone straightened it out and I never made that mistake again.) This implies my less than $20 purchase was immediately recorded by the card holder, even though it was a magnetic card swipe at a retail location.

Lender objects to $13m sex.com sale

Tom 13

You'll never outmanuever Google on registering domain names.

They run the searches and know what the punters are mistyping in their searches. They also know that even at $100/yr per domain is cheaper than the lawyers fees if someone else grabs it first.

Amazon customer purchases protected by US Constitution

Tom 13

No, the State of North Carolina is not trying to enforce its laws in another State,

it is trying to enforce them in its own State. Citizens of NC owe sales tax on items they buy. The catalogue decision protects the seller from being forced to collect the tax, not the citizen from having to pay the tax. Hence the Department of Revenue needs to have the list of items purchased as well as the prices paid in order to enforce the law on its own citizens. I expect the ruling will be overturned on appeal, partially because most DoR agencies are prohibited from filing criminal charges in order to ensure they collect the maximum revenue. Odd but true fact: If Al Capone had put down: Income $xx million, protection rackets on his 1040, he would never have gone to jail for tax evasion, and the 1040 couldn't be used to prosecute him in a criminal case.

Microsoft's Office ribbon hits Mac fans

Tom 13

Biggest fail in history? Really? A Bigger Fail than New Coke?

I hate the ribbon as much as the next guy, but get a grip.

EU to lift flight ban on carry-on liquids

Tom 13

Might be a victory for ease of use but I think Common Sense

is still mostly dead.

Schmidt: I 'misspoke' over Street View

Tom 13

If it wasn't clearly a joke, the moron needs to go.

Frankly, even assuming it was a joke, I still think the moron needs to go.

iOS bug unlocks iPhones sans password

Tom 13

If you think that's funny, you should see what they tell Zynga

when you aren't looking.

Firefox engine speeds past Chrome after Jager shot

Tom 13

Have to agree with the posters noting the javascript speed of the browser

is less of an issue than other factors in the environment. Only time mine is slow is when it is waiting for one of the damn Facebook.static pages to finish uploading its data to my pc. And I'm running the current standard install for FF, not the beta.

Two-year wait for Windows 8, MS blurts

Tom 13

MS can survive 3 years without an OS upgrade, but not 5 -

regardless of whether or not the OS needs a touch up or refresh at the end of 5 years.

Seagate sued for 'fraudulently hiring engineer'

Tom 13

@AC 25th October 2010 12:40 GMT

I don't know about contract laws in Blighty, but if your representation is correct, the difference from US laws would be that in Blighty you gain some rights after two years. Most permanent employment in the US is at will, mostly your employers will.

Rules will vary from State to State, hence the specific reference to Minnesota where the laws there likely is a case.

Gosling blows lid off Jobs Java nonsense

Tom 13

I believe Oracle's ownership of Java is the root of the problem here.

Ellsion and Jobs are both ego centric prats with "my way or the highway" attitudes. That's okay as long as there isn't a phalanx of lawyers backing both of them with seriously frelled US patent and trademark laws. Sun ran Java as a benign dictator. Now that Ellison owns it Jobs, recognizing his doppleganger across the table is cutting his losses and running.

The bard put it best near the end of one of his great plays: A pox on both [their] houses!

Adobe Shockwave bitten by code execution bug

Tom 13

re: There are also many examples of MS fixing security flaws in record time.

That was an hour ago, what about now?

Linux bug bestows attackers with 'superuser' powers

Tom 13

re: There are also many examples of MS fixing security flaws in record time.

Links to just one MS security flaw fixed in 6 days please. Needs to have been discovered by an outside security analyst so we know the true discovery/disclosure to vendor date.

Facebook games maker sued in privacy flap

Tom 13

Could get more interesting as they dig into it.

I play several of the games listed in the article. Not much bothered about the info sharing, I think I have a reasonably clean profile, and other than by exact birth date, nothing I want to protect there. But over the last two days I've friended some people who don't play the games, yet their names show up when I pull up the list of people who are supposed to be "neighbors" in the game. I don't think they play because when I look at their walls, there are no game entrails on the wall. Oddly enough, I think they both also have iPhones they use for FB.

Microsoft loses chief software architect Ray Ozzie

Tom 13

What mean 'um "now"?

MS has ALWAYS been just a marketing operation. It's just that they use to market so well many people THOUGHT they were a technology company.

No legal privilege for accountants, says Court of Appeal

Tom 13
Heart

Be still my beating heart!

"It was not what the law said, though, said the Court, and changing the law is the job of Parliament not judges."

Can we borrow those judges for a year or so to teach law on this side of the pond? Please? Pretty Please?

I promise we will return them after a year.

Microsoft's fear of an OpenOffice

Tom 13
Thumb Up

@Dazed and Confused: Thank-you

You saved me much typing time and painted a better picture than I would have.

Trial and error: online comments court attention

Tom 13

I personally find the exercise of the US practice of keeping a jury impartial to be a farce.

An impartial jury is one which distinguishes facts from opinions and bases its decisions of facts. This requires intelligent people, and intelligent people on the whole seem to prefer to keep themselves well informed. As the process for keeping a jury impartial tends to remove precisely those people who tend to keep themselves well informed because they "might have formed prior opinions" this seems to prevent the selection of intelligent juries that can make rational decisions about law. I'd call that the bigger subversion of justice.

The situation might be different in the UK, but given the language used by the attorney and the postings I'm seeing on this board today, I doubt it.

Tom 13

Re: Sequestered in a Hotel

Here in the US most hotels have free internet, including screens that pop up on the tv. Not sure that will help much if you don't trust the jury to follow their directions. Haven't been to any UK hotels, but I imagine they are similar.

Robot goes berserk in Balkan lab: 6 boffins given dead arms

Tom 13

Even the zeroth law has huge problems

I don't recall exactly where I saw it, but somewhere someone has used the Zeroth law to have the robots place all of humanity in permanent suspended animation because that is the only way to guarantee the outcome of the law.

Microsoft's Bing to slurp Facebook users' data and likes

Tom 13

@Try

Not a chance. That's an uber pencil-neck there. They explode in sunlight, even when reflected from the moon. No chance it'll ever come out of its cave.

Google tracks inflation with interwebs data

Tom 13

@Bristol

Not sure the spam would have a debilitating affect on the inflation rate, even though it will skew the absolute price. Even the spammers would feel the effects of real inflation and adjust their prices.

The real killer for the index is the same as the killer for the CPI: The need to establish a basket of goods that reflects the actual inflation the buyer experiences. They've already admitted they don't account enough for housing. CPI suffers by excluding certain volatile goods that do influence real inflation. Yet at the same time you don't want the volatile numbers swamping the non-volatile ones.

It's a tough job figuring that stuff out, and one I'm glad I don't have to worry about too much. I just need to make sure there's enough paycheck left at the end of the half month.

Power grid scare stories a 'bunch of hooey'

Tom 13

The grid situation is bad in the US also.

And like the other man said, the money being spent on the "shovel ready jobs" ain't going into the grid because they think we use too much energy as is so it will be good for us to have to limit ourselves.

Ruskie gang hijacks Microsoft network to push penis pills

Tom 13

@JohnG

And Western Union or similar cash services have records of where their payments went. So jail the mule as is his due and continue to chase the money.

I like the idea of going after MS too.

I'll add a third, which is that even though they are dummy corps, somebody is set up to process the payments, go after them, follow their money and their associations.

Chase all the money on all the angles until you get as much of it as possible. I mean, I hear governments all over the world are short on cash at the moment. The scammers seem to have plenty of it, so isn't it time to shake them down?

Guardian super-blogger flames Reg boffinry desk

Tom 13
Pint

Lewis Page,

Your response article is simply brilliant.

This icon's for you.

Microsoft plans biggest ever Patch Tuesday

Tom 13

Better yet,

since he said he wasn't using any of them, just uninstall them all and leave them off until he does need one, then install only that one which is needed.

Tom 13
Coat

It sure is a good thing we've moved past Windows XP

and onto The Most Secure Windows Ever! (TM)

Stuxnet 'a game changer for malware defence'

Tom 13
Joke

@The Other Steve

That's what the punch card reader is for you idiot!

Doctor Who touches down in US of A

Tom 13
Pint

Never been to Utah so I can't speak to that,

but there is a logical* reason for choosing the second lane from the right on multi-lane divided highways: You have less chance of getting creamed in an accident there. People in the second lane are usually camped for the long haul. People in the right lane are merging and exiting. And people in the third through sixth lanes are prone to making sudden and completely unexpected movements across the second lane, through the first lane, and off the exit ramp. Second laners have a chance at seeing this, first laners have none.

Yes, technically it is against state laws to "travel" in the second and other lanes, but Americans being practical people tend to ignore mere legislative law when the laws of physics override them.

*Okay, maybe not "logical" in the Platonic sense of being able to use pure thought to arrive there, but "logical" on the basis of observed experimentation and future extension.

Hefty physicist: Global warming is 'pseudoscientific fraud'

Tom 13

Ah Lewis, I KNEW we could count on you to post about this.

And turn on the comments so all the commetards could post.

Kensington revamps laptop lock

Tom 13
FAIL

It comes with a key? Then it's an automatic Epic Fail.

Manged a group of less than 150 loaner laptops, cables with keys were the worst. Users were always losing them. Combination in the way to go. But not the ones with the flippy thing on the end for when you want to reset the password. They need to be pre-coded, or use a screwdriver to reset.. Personal preference is for pre-coded in lots of 25 because then you have the master list of combinations to match the codes printed on the locks.

Oh, and one of the techs had it down to about 35 seconds, certainly never more than 60 with the hack saw blade to cut through the cables on the ones that were fubar.

Aggrieved boffins to march on Whitehall

Tom 13

If Science is Vital,

it can't be left in the hands of the government.

Android rebellion: How to tame your stupid smartphone

Tom 13

Re: What Version?

The one written by Bill Ray. Anything from another vendor should run just fine.

Tesla Motors: Our cars don't burst into flame, but our emails do

Tom 13

I read once that only an total idiot argues with people who buy ink

by the barrel on a daily basis. Given that El Reg doesn't have to pay for ink but does the same thing, that they are known for their snark, and that the PR flack allegedly came from the reporting side of the house, one would have thought she'd at least have some passing acquaintance with that pearl of wisdom.

Mozilla upsets net world order with Bing on Firefox

Tom 13

Good for Mozilla!

As OSS, they should be vendor neutral. If it helps their cash flow, more power to them. Personally these days I use Ask for personal stuff, Google while at work. Didn't much care for my first look at Bing, but may look at it again one of these days.

Facebook unveils changes to enhance privacy

Tom 13

Don't care about most of what I've entered on FaceBook,

I've modded the DoB to only show month and day, and if I had been thinking ahead wouldn't have put the real one in anyway. And I don't care about that so much except it's one of the standard security questions for finance info.

As far as I'm concerned, if the groups work correctly what is more important than the security is that I can stop annoying friends with my game posts. Cause that's mostly what I do on FB.

Boston firefighters get oxygen masks for cats and dogs

Tom 13
Thumb Up

Good for those fire departments!

The firefighters are expected to render assistance to the injured animals regardless of their equipment, better to have the right tool for the job. And for those worried about first responders getting scratched or bitten, even though I've never done it myself, I expect applying the correctly sized breathing apparatus is a damn site safer than trying to give mouth-to-mouth to Rin-Tin-Tin.

HP ramps up containerized data centers

Tom 13

I expect the demand for them will increase.

Not that they will necessarily get a lot of use. Here in the US the workings of various federal laws mean that pretty much any company over 500 employees has to have a disaster recovery plan, and as part of that disaster plan you more or less have to contract with someone to provide you with containerized data centers to rebuild your business for continuity operations. Which means at the very least the companies providing those insurance plans have to buy the containers and outfit them with gear.

Man vindicated for videotaping his own traffic stop

Tom 13

Never get a good look at the street signs, so I can't positively identify the road

he was on, but I'm guessing that would be I70 between Frederick and Baltimore. Depending on the stretch of highway the speed limit might be 65, which makes 69 nowhere near twice the speed limit. Oh, and that would be light to moderate traffic on I70. Same would go for I95 or I270 which are the other major MD highways (and tend to be more urban hence my belief the road is I70).

Pulling the wheelie was stupid. So was not showing a badge or turning on the red and blue lights. Double stupid on raiding the house for wiretapping. But as a long time resident of the People's Republic of Maryland, none of these actions surprise me. And with revenue's down O'Malley is trying to squeeze every cent out of anybody he can shake down for whatever reason.

The only one showing some sense in this whole mess is the judge. Which, this being the People's Republic of Maryland, does surprise me. Kudos to him from a transplanted gun-loving redneck.

Microsoft secretly scoops up 15 companies

Tom 13
Black Helicopters

Come on! You know if Steve ever left the safety of the MS campus for Area 51

Claudia would track him down and Artie would have him brought in to be bronzed.

Apple's Cook not jumping to HP

Tom 13

It could be a really good move for HP to hire him,

I just don't see what he'd get out of it.

Stuxnet worm can reinfect PCs even after disinfection

Tom 13
Pint

@Goat Jam

That is so wrong on logic and so right on management process.

Ugh!

This Beer's for you, because after reading that, it's definitely quitting time.

Tom 13

It would funny, but it would also be good.

Unfortunately, I expect that being only funny and scary, it won't.

I think it will only stop being used for industrial processes after it is flagged as the key culprit in a major industrial accident, e.g. Chernobyl or Bopal. At which point it will be sad and tragic instead of funny.

US sues/settles with Apple, Google, Intel...

Tom 13

Dammit! Another No Call list shot to hell.

Now I won't be able to eat dinner without Apple, Google et al calling me about jobs.

Microsoft secretly yanks TechNet product keys

Tom 13

And yet El Reg tag Zuckerman with the "Take that Bitch!" tag?

I think they have the wrong villain.

Google's Microsoft browser outlives Wave nonsense

Tom 13

Damn tech moves fast!

I'm still using Internet 1 and MS is introducing "Internet 9"! Somehow or another I missed versions 2 through 8.