* Posts by Tom 13

7544 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Mathematician: sunspot could mean mini ice age from 2030

Tom 13

Re: This good be good news or bad news.....

let me fix that for you:

The hockey team and other enviroMentalists will have killed more than doubled the number of people than killed by socialism by the time we get to 2040, and all they'll do is move the goal posts again.

Tom 13

Re: where a lot of the uranium comes from?

Do try to keep up with the posters. He's one of the thorium advocates, so no need for uranium.

I'm agnostic on the issue myself and haven't bothered to look into enough to have an informed opinion.

Tom 13

@AC Re: This good be good news or bad news.....

Yeah, some folks aren't keeping up with the new about who the current biggest producers are and where the largest known reserves have moved. Either that or they just hate both countries.

Natural geothermal heat under Antarctic ice: 'Surprisingly high'

Tom 13

@ Flatpackhamster Re: Geothermal Power

Actually Efros is onto something even though he doesn't acknowledge having a solid handle on it. Yellowstone was one of the first parts of the US to be designated a federal nature preserve. As such, the government position on any sort of exploitation of resources in the area gets an even more jaundiced view than the econazis in these part give a Lewis Page article. It's getting to the point where they don't even want tourists in the park even though that's specifically part of its mission.

I cannae dae it, cap'n! Why I had to quit the madness of frontline IT

Tom 13

Re: That includes the firmware.

No they don't. Here's an economic truth for you that everybody denies:

Nobody knows how to make a pencil from start to finish, but the stores are filled with them.

http://www.joshharness.com/2012/10/nobody-knows-how-to-make-pencil.html

Same thing applies to electronics.

Tom 13

Re: IT is not just another cost-centre

No other part of the company is just another cost center. Each part thinks it is unique and ought to have special consideration. But the other parts of the company eventually come to understand that they have to communicate with management and understand the operations of the company. Only IT seems to persist in the belief that management needs to learn to speak its unique language.

This is our, or perhaps your problem to fix, not management's.

Tom 13

Re: Increase budget estimate by 45-80%

Won't work.

I've been sitting on the other side of the table in a non-IT context. We knew the guy asking for money. We knew he was planning to overspend his budget by 10% figuring that was allowed. So we cut his budget by an extra 10% so that when he overspent by 10% he'd still be about where we needed him to be. The people who weren't planning to overspend their budgets by 10% got what they asked for, at least in as much as we could fund them in any given year. The thing about budgets is that the guys running the numbers aren't really setting them. They are reporting them. They know how much money the company is going to generate and they know what all the Wants the company has. But Wants always exceed Income, so something has to give. The budget planning process is supposed to be about doing that rationally.* Oh, and for the record, the guy we knew would overspend was in a high visibility, high PR, medium impact on on "business" position.

The budgeting guys are as smart as you are. And they're watching your behavior on the numbers, not the way you set your budget.

So if you're getting your budget cut by 50% and can't make do, find another job. You've either got an asshole for in finance and you won't be able to change it, or a problem elsewhere in your IT management system which you probably won't be able to change that either.

*To the best of my knowledge the only time we shorted IT was once when I overlooked one of the needs we'd have for storage on a server. As I was the one submitting the request on that one, I can't really blame the budget committee for that one. If I had asked for it, I think I would have gotten it.

NIST issues 'don't be stupid' security guidelines for contractors

Tom 13

Re: Ah, I see now

The headline is pure bunk. NIST has been issuing these standards for years now. I recall a colleague who was testing some of them once. He eventually locked his computer down so tightly even he couldn't get back in.

Ex-Goldman Sachs programmer's code theft conviction overturned AGAIN

Tom 13

Re: GS in the firing line for potential GPL-type violations.

Probably not actually. So long as GS didn't distribute the code outside GS they're well within the GPL license.

Oi, idiot fanbois. DON'T buy this gun-shaped iPhone case, mmkay?

Tom 13

Re: am I in mortal danger carrying around a Super Soaker

Depends where you are. The higher the number of hoplophobes, the more danger you are in. Cops in Chicago and NYC have shot people who were pulling wallets/phones (without the gun handle case) out of their back pockets.

Tom 13

Re: If you do get one...

Racist!

Tom 13

Re: not being in the news

He didn't say "in the news" he said reported. Which include includes police reports where withholding information (in addition to your failure to report that your gun has now been stolen) is a crime. And you won't find any of those in the police reports either.

Tom 13

Re: Not good

You keep ignoring size and culture differences. Those account for all of your so called facts.

Tom 13

Re: Not good

Actually, for the most part yes. As is the case in Japan and Switzerland.

Tom 13

Re: Not good

Knives are even easier to hide than guns. You'll never see them coming.

Tom 13

Re: Not good

Yep:

http://www.amazon.com/More-Guns-Less-Crime-Understanding/dp/0226493660

Interestingly, when the author started his study he assumed your lies were true and he was finally going to produce the statistically solid proof the hoplophobes hadn't been able to. It was his own work on the subject that changed his thinking on the issue.

Tom 13

Re: Not good

Actually the NRA has bedunked all of the imaginary statistics put out by hoplophobes posing as impartial observers.

Tom 13

Re: Probably not the best idea to buy one...

Texas would probably be one of the safer places to own one. The hoplophobes there have been forced to confront their fears and the cops are trained to understand that wearing a gun isn't as sign you're an outlaw. Austin and Dallas excluded of course.

Gartner mages have spoken: 'D' is for Device, Decline and DOOM

Tom 13

It's important to remember

PC use isn't declining, only PC sales. At the moment the roomie's nephew is staying for 8 weeks. He was commenting on the really nice case I had. I said it was the last hand build I did and when I built it, I finally said to hell with budgets, I'm building what I want. So I got myself a nice case, top end power supply, maxed the RAM and got a quad processor. It started with a high end graphics card as well, but since I don't play MMO shooters, I didn't see the need to replace it with equivalent when the old one died. Then I had to look up when Vista was released to date how long ago I built the PC. Vista was just being released at the time and I built myself a dual boot XP/Vista system which was migrated to XP/Win 7. That was about 8 years ago.

I might build myself another new system after Windows 10 is released (mostly so I have a system that will last about 8 years for Windows 7), but that will depend on how much I spend when I finally replace my now 14 year old car.

DDoSers call 1988 and want its routing protocol hacked

Tom 13

Akamai recommends...users to upgrade to RIP version two.

Based on the rest of the information in the article, it sounds like most of the users who have these devices have little say in the matter. They are at the mercy of their broadband overlords.

'The server broke and so did my back on the flight to fix it'

Tom 13

Re: otherwise intelligent people suffering from severe pain

I'll second that. I've only ever had one kidney stone, but as I was attempting to get an X-ray at the SECOND facility and they were again trying to pull the "You need to schedule that at least 3 days in advance" crap, I believe I told the receptionist that if I weren't already in such pain I'd likely kill for not paying attention to my doctors orders. Or something to that effect. That attracted the attention of a manager who quickly took over for the receptionist and got me through as quickly as they could.

Tom 13

Re: wait for the signal before showing

Have you ever told it to wait for the signal?

I did once, and still sometimes inadvertently fat poke it. It's a truly amazing option. It never seems to find satellite signal, so I invariably wind up canceling, then planning again from last position.

For even more amusement, I've sometimes left the device on all the way home, and am using the "Plan from last Known Position" option in the house. As I walk to the car it finds satellite data, and starts replanning the route.

Tom 13

Re: "Do you want to save? Yes / No / Cancel"

Seems pretty clear to me and gives you a third option which is sometimes preferred.

The TomTom one is annoying because they chose the wrong default. Here in the US, if it includes a toll road, you probably want to take it as opposed to losing an hour of your life to traffic on a four hour trip.

What's worse is that it doesn't necessarily reverse routes for planning. This past weekend I was using one to get to a friend's house. For the first part of the journey it was okay. It took me up I270 to the PA Turnpike, across to Philly and north to my friend's house. For the return trip it wanted me to go south on I95 then back up I270 to get home. Because of this I spent an hour in hyperspace trying to get to the toll road.

Rampaging fox terrorises rural sports club, victim sustains ‘tweaked groin’

Tom 13

Re: that is an angle that needs checking.

Yes it is, and it's a glaringly obvious oversight. Of course it's also possible they shot it in the head when they killed it.

The again Wiki claims Britain is rabies free so maybe not as obvious a question as it is in the US.

FBI probe physical intrusions into Californian internet cables

Tom 13

Re: the smell of the TCP leaking everywhere?

Absolutely! That stuff smells worse than sulfur dioxide.

Tom 13

Re: Gut feeling?

That would be my bet as well, probably Mexicans. Kali is rife with illegals and there's good money to be made recycling copper.

After #Election2015: How can we save Big Data?

Tom 13

Downvoted to mislead pollsters.

Robo-car wars: Delphi's near crash, prang, wallop with Google DENIED!

Tom 13

Re: Yep, that's my understanding of events

You also have to wonder a bit if they're fudging a bit on "what it's supposed to do". By definition the car should be following all the rules of the road including following other vehicles at an appropriate distance, watching for turn signals, signalling, checking lanes before you switch, etc.

Now while I'd like to follow all those rules all the time, the simple fact of the matter is that given where I live and drive, I can't. Everybody else on the road here seems to define "safe following distance" as aligning your front bumper at about the midpoint of the rear quarter panel of the car next to you. Give them any more distance than that and they will cut you off with an unsignalled lane change. Speaking of which, turn signals were obviously meant to be optional equipment not mandatory. If you can't tell by the positioning of the car that he's about to change lanes, too bad sucker. One of my favorite moves is the Maryland Double. In this maneuver you turn from the second lane on a multilane highway through the right lane before executing your actual turn onto the exit ramp. All within about 50 yards of the hard separation of the exit lane. The other day I had the pleasure of watching someone execute the Quadruple Maryland. (And people wonder why our car insurance rates are so high here.)

So if they've had to adapt their programming to take care of real world problems yeah, I can see a near miss on a lane change. And in a certain sense, it still is "doing what it's supposed to do."

Google helps Brit crims polish their image – but what about the innocent

Tom 13

Re: it looks like just more game playing from Google.

Nope. What we have here is a failure to appreciate cultural differences. In the US, you don't take a chance on a lawsuit. Even if you win, it costs too damn much in lawyers fees. Which is why your court ruling is so absurd. There's no way to avoid the risk of being sued. If you don't wipe the record, the perp sues. If you do wipe the record, the source sues. Either way you damn Europeans are going to sue Google just because you don't like how successful they've been.

Tom 13

Re: For crimes that have a strong knee-kerk emotive link to them

Difficult to say. There are sever problems on both sides of those types of crimes. The two obvious US cases which illustrate both sides are:

Childcare center out near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Attorney General made a made for himself convicting the owners of a childcare company of pedophilia charges against kids under 10. When one of the kids was finally old enough to actually understand the case, he told the new AG the testimony was coached and he/she had never been sexually assaulted. On further investigation all the other "victims" confirmed the testimony was coached.

Jerry Sandusky pedophilia case. Sandusky was able to continue to abuse teenage boys for 14 years beyond the first police reports. First reported case was in 1998, police investigated but because of his standing in the community and some fast footwork, no charges were filed. The next set of allegations occurred in 2002, but this was investigated only by the Penn State University and no real action was taken. Charges were finally filed on Nov 5, 2011; 40 counts with 7 victims identified.

There's a lot of damage done in both cases. Public scrutiny seems to be required. The problem is that it needs to be scrutiny of a judicial temperament until the verdict is rendered. Only then can the parental temperament kick in.

Tom 13

Re: Rape victims not a great example

As you Brits are so fond of pointing out when the shoe is on the other foot: UK =/= EU | World.

In the US, the nominal guarantee of anonymity is under 18. If you're a 19 YO rape victim, you're legally fair game for reporting.

Gates: Renewable energy can't do the job. Gov should switch green subsidies into R&D

Tom 13

@ dagnew

Your first clue should be that the only sources you can link to that say Exxon isn't paying taxes are all Progressive agitation centers posing as news organizations.

Tom 13

Re: Subsidies

Meh. It depends. If the "tax break" is structured in such a way that it is only possible for one company (or a small handful) to get it, it's a subsidy. If it's the sort of tax break generally available to any business, it's not.

Personally I'd rather we did away with ALL business tax breaks and just gave them a lower flat rate. But we'll never get that past the busybodies who want to engineer the economy form the Congress/Parliament.

Tom 13

Re: Nukes....

The problem wasn't so much the Duck and Cover generation. It was their kids Marty! Something has to be done about their kids. You know, the ones who practically ODed on Hanoi Jane in China Syndrome.

Tom 13

Re: Why don't we change tack on this issue ?

Those are pure Progressive lies. The terrorists are the ones who are well off. Just look at OBL.

Tom 13

Re: Tell developing nations they have to control their stack emissions

There's a simple, easy way to implement the core of that idea without going as far as you did:

Impose an import tariff on all good manufactured in a country that doesn't meet your standards to buy real offsets for the pollution. Provide the manufacturer with the option of voluntarily meeting your standards and having one of your inspectors check the plant to avoid the tax.

I don't think you'd even need a treaty to effect the change, just a simple law passed wherever you happen to live. Everybody would benefit.

As the US realises it's been PWNED, when will OPM heads roll?

Tom 13

Re: then why are they grilling this woman?

Written like the ignorant power slut you are.

They're grilling her for the same reason they should have been allowed to grill $Hrillary over Benghazi: Congress has oversight responsibilities for everybody in the Executive Branch (including 0bozo).

Tom 13

Re: this is a result of an "eGovernment" undertaking begun

Nah, that was just the last time it got rebranded. It's been going on for longer than that.

Tom 13

Re: hoist by her own petard, and man, is that funny.

No, it's not.

Granted it would be if she was the only one being hoist. But she's taking a lot of other people with her, and at least a few of them are actually trying to be competent at their jobs.

Tom 13
Joke

Re: exclamation mark is part of the password.

EPIC FAIL!

You didn't include the quote marks.

Tom 13

Re: Last I heard Congress are the ones who control the purse strings

You haven't been paying attention. The 0bamaphiles in the Republican party who go by the names of McConnell and Bohner actually handed control of the purse to The Big 0 as their first act after the elections but before the new class was sworn in. All agencies were fully funded for the next two years. So in order to cut funding, they need to pass legislation that the President would have to sign off on.

But that's okay, we've accepted our fate. Yesterday SCOTUS drove a stake through the heart of the Constitution. If the plain language of a law cannot be counted on as the meaning of the law, particularly when that would be the normal legal reading of a law, the foundations of ordered liberty are dead.

Tom 13
Mushroom

included the theft of Standard Form 86, essentially a biography

You haven't been keeping up/paying attention. Admittedly they were real coy about the way they slipped it in, but it's even worse than the bad guys just getting the Standard Form 86. But how could it possibly be worse than handing over your personal biography?

Well it seems they also made off with the files the FBI puts together to VERIFY your Standard Form 86. And that's even bigger than your SF86. And it probably contains enough information to steal the identities of the people you supplied as references or asked to vouch for you.

Yeah, heads are going to roll on this one. Almost certainly too few and not necessarily the right ones, but heads will roll.

The Great Windows Server 2003 migration: How to plan your trip

Tom 13

"The Nimon speaks of many things. He speaks of the great journey of life migration from Windows Server 2003"

"How many Nimon have you seen today?"

...

"HOW MANY?!!!?"

"Three."

I have no idea why that scene from Dr. Who popped into my head when I saw the headline on this story. None whatsoever.

Apple pulls Civil War games in Confederate flag takedown

Tom 13

Re: The response to another mass shooting is to ban.....

"Never let a crisis go to waste. It is an opportunity to do something that would otherwise be impossible to accomplish."

Spoken by a modern racist. He just happens to hate white people instead of blacks.

Tom 13

Re: All the balls have left the bar

Listen up boy! You deserved that. And probably a good beating as well.

Tom 13

Re: What fault of law allowed this mental defective to have a gun?

No fault of law. There is the fault of people who think that by outlawing guns they will make the world safe. This has proven to be ineffective wherever tried, even Britain.

Had even a few of the people in that church been properly armed, the "mental defect" would not have killed so many people.

I will also note that to a great extent the "mental defect" was radicalized by none other than The Big 0 himself. Hate speech directed at others on the basis of the color of their skin is always likely to set his type off.

Tom 13

Re: A bit as if Germany had gone from 1939 to 1945

More like 1928 to 1942, except replace Jews with whites, especially southerners.

Tom 13

Re: Revisionism is far more dangerous than any flag.

Yours more than most you hateful bigot.

Tom 13

Re: Nope, as any scholar of American History will tell you.

Incorrect. Some of them will, some of them claim it stands for racism. Granted the ones who claim it stands for racism put their politics in front of their scholarship, but they are still titled as scholars. And who can blame them when Southern Loyalists are as willing to spin history as they are?

Lincoln didn't have the authority to free slaves in the US. He did have the authority to do it in the conquered territories. Freeing them required a Constitutional amendment (several actually as each was used to address a specific point. Funny how they didn't pull this omnibus crap back then) which was taken up as soon as the war was over and passed quite quickly thereafter (a mere 8 months, lightning fast for the time given it need approval from both houses of Congress plus 3/4 of the states).

As a Pennsylvanian I was quite aware that slaves were not merely bought and sold across the whole of the US from colonial times, I learned about the trade triangle (rum and goods to Africa, Slaves to the Americas especially Jamaica and Cuba, and sugar to New England) which quite obviously was as evil if not more as owning the slaves. However it was equally true that by the time of the Civil War not only had owning slaves fallen out of favor in the North, many if not most of them had amended their constitutions so that slavery within their borders was illegal. In fact, that was the whole point of the Dred Scott case. Scott lived for 4 years in a territory where it was illegal to be a slave. On that basis he sued to be permanently freed. Then a racist Chief Justice rewrote the laws of the States from the bench. It's a blow from which our court system has never really recovered. Now it's blase for justices at all levels of the courts to rewrite laws to fit their political views.

Tom 13

Re: BTW, it's good, IMO, that the flag is pulled from State capitols, etc...

So by you it is good to not honor war dead by displaying their regimental colors?

Because that's what it is/was doing in South Carolina. It wasn't flying over the capital where Democrat Fritz Hollings hoisted it as governor. It was moved from there years ago under a Republican governor and instead flies/flew at the memorial honoring SC's dead civil war soldiers.