* Posts by Charles 9

16605 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

FOIA documents show the Kafkaesque state of US mass surveillance

Charles 9

Re: Of course there's a comparatively easy fix

It's extremely difficult for software to truly be free. It can be usurped, for example (see systemd). Plus back doors can still be added "by the backdoor"--subtly, through a series of otherwise-genuine fixes that can then be lashed together just so. As for GPG, its kind of encryption implies necessary complexity, so again someone could insert a backdoor carefully disguised as a fix.

Charles 9

Re: Even if we could guess which company

All it takes is ONE. What if they appeared and called for a quorum?

Charles 9

Re: "Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,"

Since when can FISC overrule a direct Constitutional body (SCOTUS' authority comes from Article III)? Based on that, why can't SCOTUS strike down FISC if directly confronted?

Charles 9

Re: Isn't this the opposite of some nation-states laws: Innocent until proven guilty?

But the right to confront one's accuser properly applies to ALL cases.

Charles 9

Re: To Constitute or not to Constitute...

Oh? How does one properly confront one's accuser without a proper accounting of the evidence against you? Isn't that in the Sixth Amendment and why discovery of evidence is a key aspect of your normal trial (otherwise it gets thrown out)?

Worried about election hacking? There's a technology fix – Helios

Charles 9

Re: "Because you can"

Then how so you guard against bribes and Kansas City Shuffles?

Software dev bombshell: Programmers who use spaces earn MORE than those who use tabs

Charles 9

Inline comments? I generally don't align between lines. I usually just tab out from the end of the line once or twice to get some space and go from there. Since they're most pertinent to the specific line, I just go from there. If they're a cluster of single lines, I may attempt to tab-align, but these comments tend to be brief as well, so if they misalign due to changed tab width, it's just a mild nuisance at that point. More important comments I use whole lines and align with the code, meaning it moves along with the tabs and stays lined up.

PS. I've done assembler, and I DID tab-align, there. Thankfully, assemblers tend to have a restricted grammar that makes aligning labels, opcodes, arguments, and so on easier. And as long as you stick to a general rule of thumb of setting a generous tab width (6 at a minimum, 8's a good rule of thumb, more or less depending on your architecture), it tends to read just fine.

Charles 9

Re: What about the important things?

"So let me ask you - do you use comment blocks before functions, and if so, have you ever re-worded any just so a multi-line one lines up nicer on the far end...?"

Sometimes. Depends on how much of a discrepancy there is and if it's relatively easy to adjust that line.

Charles 9

Re: Maybe experience teaches you to not use tabs

"Guessing the value for given file is not fun."

I see it as, if it's done correctly, it shouldn't matter what the tab width was, it should still all line up neatly if the indentation was done properly and consistently. In which case, why both guessing? Just pick a number and get on with it.

Charles 9

Re: Tabs are inconsistent...

"Also, if you set, say, 3 spaces for a tab, what happens if you need to align something on something other than 3-space multiple? Yep, you end using a mixture of tabs and spaces - yet another negative aspect of using tabs. It's spaces all the way for me, baby :-)"

I simply ask, "Do I REALLY need an off-tab alignment?" If so, then perhaps the formatting style is wrong and I should adjust it to make them always tab-aligned. I mean, just what would absolutely need a non-multiple alignment?

Charles 9

Re: Tabs are inconsistent...

My style is to never mix, and to ALWAYS indent consistently. That way, even if tab width changes, it stays organized. In line comments are less of an issue to me.

When we said don't link to the article, Google, we meant DON'T LINK TO THE ARTICLE!

Charles 9

Re: I think I'm missing something

The problem becomes: what if the offending website is outside the corporation's jurisdiction and will not honor a takedown notice because of sovereign immunity?

You'll soon be buying bulgur wheat salad* from Amazon, after it swallowed Whole Foods

Charles 9

Re: Whamazon Foods

Don't you mean Whammy (I grew up when Press Your Luck was on)?

Charles 9

I'm more curious than anything to see where this goes. As others have pointed out, Whole Foods is more a boutique grocer that caters to picky eaters. Now, granted, this is a growing segment of the market, but there's a reason Walmart and Kroger remain the two chief grocery chains in the country.

Amazon's delivery model to me doesn't mesh well with the average grocery shopper. Particularly in regards to fresh stuff like produce, the average shopper tends to be choosy. They pick through the stocks to be sure they don't get rotten produce, stale bread, moldy cheese, and so on. Something like this REQUIRES a hands-on presence, and that makes things like delivery and even on-site pickup (the approach Walmart is increasingly taking) not as viable an option. For example, I still haven't tried Walmart's grocery pickup system, not just because my bill tends to fall under the minimum but also because almost always one of the things I need to get is fresh and requires the hands-on approach.

You're all too skeptical of super-duper self-driving cars, apparently

Charles 9

Re: Aircraft/public Transit

Trains are most practical for shorter distances where air travel isn't worth the short hop. Only problem is that the places where this would be most useful (say the Atlantic coast) are already heavily built up (thus William Gibson pictured the entire east coast becoming one huge megapolis called the Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis or BAMA, better known as The Sprawl). Trying to build new infrastructure in a place that's already heavily built up is going to be expensive and time-consuming (= unpopular with the taxpayers). For a prime example, consider Boston's "Big Dig" project.

Charles 9

Re: Other considerations

Yes. Are any of those categorically easier for a HUMAN to navigate versus a machine? The natural-induced stuff, I don't think so. As for the manmade stuff, make the barricades machine-enhanced (such as by using special paints that stand out in UV or IR wavelengths) and you can make the job somewhat easier for the cars.

Charles 9

Re: 35,000 per year! Sounds like a full on war...

"Drivers being fundamentally more reckless is certainly an interesting hypothesis, but it raises more questions than it answers. Are American drivers really that much more reckless than British ones? If so, why?"

At least in the vast, open US, cars have been a symbol of freedom since the post-WW2 period. They were more than a tool; they were a status symbol. That hasn't gone away all that much today, especially among the young, who still imagine themselves cruising down an open stretch of highway without a care in the world. As big a country as the US is, the allure of the open road is greater and easier to sate. The UK really doesn't have the equivalent of cruising up I-15 through the Nevada desert, driving through the 785 miles of I-10 in Texas alone, and so on. About the only vehicle that's seen as MORE liberating is something like a Harley-Davidson motorcycle: the quintessential cool bike of biker gangs (infamous for answering to no one but themselves). What's one of the goals of a teen's summer job once they're old enough to take the driving test? Their own car. Rebellious youth + symbol of freedom = a recipe for hanging loose and screwing the consequences. Is it any wonder the under-25 set has the highest insurance rates, even versus seniors?

Charles 9

Re: 35,000 per year! Sounds like a full on war...

Where do you get those figures? A combination of very DENSE and very SPARSE areas can both increase deaths (more targets with the former; less regularity and safety valves with the latter). What about people that drive more often and push themselves due to having to work two jobs per day just to pay the bills? Plus more roads can make daring drivers (especially the young with their bling cars) even more daring (think illegal street racing where outrunning the cops is considered part of the fun).

Charles 9

How do PEOPLE handle the roads, especially if they're not familiar with the area?

Charles 9

Re: Shills ignore Public Transit

Not arguing with you there. It's just that public transportation as we know it today, with fixed stops and so on, turns off many people. You're right that a ubiquitous, quickly-summoned car-for-hire, the kind that can only be ubiquitous enough with robo-drivers (otherwise, they'd be around today with human drivers), would change the perspective of needing to own a method of transportation. It's like with buying versus renting a domicile. Buying means an asset and assorted long-term benefits, but it's an anchor to an otherwise-transitory worker; renting for them is best because it makes it easier for him/her to move as work and jobs require. Just saying.

Charles 9

Re: Issues With Automated Traffic

1. You're assuming the cars will be remote-accessible.

2. Can't they do that now by hacking the traffic lights, which BTW are AUTOMATED?

3. How would this come about without some kind of government intervention?

4. And you think we're any better at it?

5. That's for the courts to decide.

6. How does it happen NOW, when a HUMAN can't see the Speed Limit sign because it's obscured or knocked down?

7. Ask the insurance companies who may soon make it mandatory or otherwise prohibitive to go without AND can cite communal safety (many over few) as a legal out.

Charles 9

Re: What worries me is that a lot of large corporations

You're just parroting the same things that happened 100 years ago? What's happen to buggy manufacturers? Leather tanners for the buggy whips? Stables? Feed manufacturers and so on? Wouldn't you think they will just move on to other industries?

Five Eyes nations stare menacingly at tech biz and its encryption

Charles 9

History says that in the long run EVERYONE loses, usually because of the aforesaid display of enough power to say, "My rule!" The Americans got enough help to force the British out of the colonies, Texas won its independence by cornering the Mexican Army. The communist uprisings in Russia, China, and Cuba, and so on. Until recently, lots of transitions of power were...ugly, to say the least, especially if lineages petered out.

Charles 9

There's only one problem. The law in the end is just ink on a page. Present enough power and you can simply ignore it.

Charles 9

Re: the genii has been out of the bottle for DECADES

Not necessarily. Diverting a river tends to leave traces. Similarly, forcing people into other communication channels will tend to make them stand out, especially if the style of communication doesn't readily lend itself to obfuscation.

Charles 9

Re: the genii has been out of the bottle for DECADES

"Gun control works. The facts are there to prove it."

You're confusing correlation with causation. Ask yourself. Are Americans shooting each other because there are more guns or are there more guns because Americans are shooting each other? What about defensive gun use? What about black market guns? Plans for building your own zip guns off the Internet. The fact there are several major gun manufacturers on American soil? What about violence in general, not just gun violence since two inches of steel from behind is as effective as a bullet?

Charles 9

Re: Sure, you can roll your own, and then...

"More insidious, though, will be the _next_ level of action, which will make it illegal to use any genuine form of encryption."

That's what I think will be next. If you make the MERE USE of encryption (outside of State-sanctioned schemes) a criminal act, then you reduce the possible outs to steganography, which can still be severely limited (as in you can only watch so many cat videos a day before it becomes suspicious, nonsense or outlandish posts will raise red flags, plus images, videos, and text can be mangled, bleached, and so on to reduce their steganographic usefulness).

Charles 9

Re: "that normally meek geeks will stand up is one that politicians must find terrifying."

"After all, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear, right?"

And if a politician ACTUALLY ADHERES to that and say, "Fine by me."?

Charles 9

Re: This is bad for business.

"How many companies do you suppose are under contract to keep their data encrypted to protect their customers?"

Simple. No one's above THE LAW. If the law compels you to break the contract and takes precedence over contract law, guess who wins.

Charles 9

Re: @GrumpyKiwi - Open source?

"Oh and the terrorists will keep enjoying good quality encryption software they already have."

Which will thus stick out like sore thumbs since the State can't read them. AND there are ways to stymie steganography to make even that risky. The thing about encryption in the past was that it wasn't a risk back then to talk in code. Now the mere use of encryption can be very risky, possible to detect in flight (and thus trace), and so on. The trouble with "hiding in plain sight" comes when plain sight severely limits your options.

Internet hygiene still stinks despite botnet and ransomware flood

Charles 9

Not crisis enough yet.

Serious action will only take place if, say, the entire Internet strains from the attack or it becomes directly attributable to significant loss of life. Until then, no one cares enough, especially of sovereign boundaries are in the way.

Who will save us from voice recog foolery from scumbags? Magnetometer!

Charles 9

Re: All for it! Best security ever!

I'm still waiting for a practical security system for people with terrible memories and a tendency to lose things.

Charles 9

Re: That's what beat "The Club".

Strawman since anything I personally post or any YouTube link I could post (serach for "freeze lock compressed air") or any Instructable I post you'll just call out as "fake". You're like those Christians looking through Galileo's telescope: unable to believe it even if happened before your very eyes.

As for the window, that's why they make Slim Jims.

Charles 9

Re: time for....

I mean if you demand something they KNOW, I respond with someone with a terrible memory, where "correcthorsebatterystaple" becomes "donkeyenginepaperclipwrong". As for something they HAVE, what about the person who's always late to everything because half the time he/she forgets the house or car keys?

And, I'm speaking from experience (not me but the people I have to help regularly).

Charles 9

Re: That's what beat "The Club".

Have you tried attacking the LOCK CYLINDER? Much smaller parts, hole traps the refrigerant, making it much faster than the hacksaw. And yes, cars ARE stolen intact, to fence, to high-demand foreign markets.

Charles 9

Re: ...how about a literal key?

Yes, the people I deal with regularly (a) couldn't remember 12345 to save their lives (it comes out 52431 or 32514 instead), (b) routinely lose their keys, too, (c) are too proud to ask for help, and (d) are family, and I dare not say no lest they consult things like their reunion plans and wills.

AWS launches celebrity-spotting-as-a-service: What a time to be alive

Charles 9

Re: Will it return...

What about the celebs OTHERS pay to be recognizable?

Charles 9

Re: NSFW would help

But that person could have a butt fetish, so he may not find it bad at all.

systemd-free Devuan Linux hits version 1.0.0

Charles 9

I own a 1521. That particular model is pretty Linux-friendly (I easily ran Mint on it).

OTOH, a 3521 might be trickier, given it was built for Windows 8+ and has Secure Boot, meaning it won't boot external media right away.

Waymo waves off original Google Firefly driverless car

Charles 9

Re: Vans? Minivans?

Minivans are like SUVs. Although normally built to carry people, they're not difficult to convert to cargo use (in this case, fold down or remove the back seats). They're also considerably less expensive than full-on vans which are probably overkill in this case, given how small the original Firefly was.

Charles 9

Re: Don't hold your breath..

Depot delivery. Pre-arranged receiving location where a receiver will be ready to open it up and unload. Robo-drivers wouldn't be used to deliver to the door (too irregular) but can handle the humdrum long hauls between depots.

Charles 9

Re: Self driving delivery vans?

Why don't they do it now with human-driven delivery vans? Corner the vehicle and hold the driver at gunpoint and you can do it now without waiting for a robot driver (who could well refuse to open its doors until it's at its destination--I'm not figuring this for to-the-door delivery but rather depot deliveries where a dedicated receiving area is expected).

Buggy devices and lazy operators make VoLTE a security nightmare

Charles 9

How much of that buggy functionality is built in the radio chips, meaning they're functionally obsolete now (Ka-CHING!)?

Australian oppn. leader wants to do something about Bitcoin, because terrorism and crypto

Charles 9

"It's 2017, we should have specific people in high level government / the cabinet with proven knowledge and preferably qualifications in Technology and only allow these people to talk about technology rather than allowing the 2 most senior politicians to sound like my Nan talking about "that infernal machine""

How would you go about forcing this into place AND keeping it in place given the political environment? You're trying to force intelligence on a body that PRIDES itself on being stupid.

Boeing preps pilotless passenger flights – once it has solved the Sully problem, of course

Charles 9

Re: Human Pilotless Plane? I don't think so, Tim.

"A human will keep trying up until the end. I would trust a human over a computer any day."

Not always. They could have a brain fart. Or panic. Do you really want a panic-prone meatbag with your life in his/her hands? Consider Air France 447 and Korean Air 801, both pretty much caused by incompetence in otherwise-highly-seasoned pilots. Plus consider all the stuff you pass through or use everyday that probably doesn't have a human at the controls. There are driverless trains now. If given that you STILL trust the human, then you're basically trusting your gut over your brain unless you can demonstrate a situation where a human WILL beat the computer, 100% (thus proving Boeing's goal impossible, a la Turing's Halting Problem proof).

Charles 9

Re: Automated pilots?

If there's no in-flight entertainment on a transoceanic flight, there's probably going to be a passenger revolt. There's a reason they haven't banned ALL liquids from flights.

Who's behind the Kodi TV streaming stick crackdown?

Charles 9

"The market for media is global, there is no room for notions of regions and exclusive distribution is just a tool to enable price fixing/discrimination which in other industries would be outright illigal."

Yes, there is, in fact. In some countries, content some would find entertaining or at least acceptable would be considered illegal if not subversive (and thus extremely troublemaking). As long as countries have laws which they will back up to the hilt, global distribution will not happen because they'd sooner see the world end first.

Charles 9

Re: Providers are largely responsible.

"No wonder people are happy to get their content from other sources. Sky, TVNZ et al, if you won't want to show a program then don't buy the rights to it, let someone who will show it have it."

Have you ever thought they bought it so that it won't be seen AT ALL? AND they're willing to outbid everyone else to keep it that way? For them, the price of keeping it bottled up is probably less than the losses they would incur if it ever got out.

PCIe speed to double by 2019 to 128GB/s

Charles 9

Re: Shoddy

Not really, as the slot design isn't long enough to make a 32-lane slot. GPUs are the traditional use case for something that needs all that bandwidth because the GPU chews through tons of data when running full out, so it's understood that the max bandwidth quoted is for a max-sized (16-lane) slot and provides a consistent metric. And while most network cards wouldn't need 16 lanes, an adapter for the emerging Ethernet standards probably would need it. Also, the trend in CPU and motherboard tech is to provide more of these lanes to accommodate more devices using them such as NVMe solid-state drives (these currently top out at 4x via the U.2 connector, but a future spec may expand this to improve performance).

When can real-world laws invade augmented reality fantasies? A trial in Milwaukee will decide

Charles 9

Re: Could you not argue rights of assembly?

Even the freedom of assembly can be restricted in the name of the greater good. That's why parades need to be organized and sanctioned. Even "impromptu" assemblies like picket lines usually are limited in where they can demonstrate. Fire codes impose occupancy limits for buildings to help prevent crushes in the event of an emergency, and so on.