Posts by John Smith 19

"Give me 6 lines from an honest man"

"and I'll find something to hang him."

No one complains when this sort of thing is used against people we don't like.

The only problem is *whose* definition of "people we don't like" is being used?

*Awesomely* mad

And yet not *entirely* impossible.

The puzzle is.

With near zero drag and low acceleration (IE Acceleration *force* > drag force) you could take as long as you like to reach orbital velocity.

But near zero aerodynamic drag -> near zero aerodynamic *lift* -> *very* big gas bags.

At some point you rising *not* due to density differences between the bag + payload and the atmosphere but the increase in the kinetic energy of the vehicle.

Can your increase in KE outpace the loss in lift so you don't loose all the KE (and hence velocity) you gained as you sink back into the (relatively) denser air you just left at *much* higher velocity and start to cook?

B****ed if I know.

Lower latency was one of the *key* selling points of this technology.

satellites closer to Earth -> shorter slant distance -> lower round trip delays, shorter (undetectable?) pauses in conversations.

Key failures seem to have been.

1) Did not see how much the mobile phone market would grow with dramatic drops in tariffs, sizes and prices.

2) Too long to roll out so mobile phone had momentum.

3) Can work anywhere *except* in doors, so still need to carry 2 phones. WTF?

4) Serious over estimation of how many subscribers wanted/needed what is effectively *universal* roaming and prepared to pay for it.

5)Inmarsat had an *existing* service which they continued to refine, and had a solid brand already.

Note that most of these are not *technology* failures, they are marketing, management and economic failures.

Presumably if this is the baseline

The only way is up.

"I fly from Washington D.C. to the San Fransisco area at least three times a month, every month; for 3+ years now."

Surely that sends you through Reagan National, supposedly one of the fastest airports in the world for getting people through (all those Senators and Con-gress people can't be kept waiting on some security nonsense).

There is no direct DC/SF flight?

So how far away are they from the DARPA petaflop computer?

Just asking. I'm guessing they are getting closer.

Whatever happens will be interesting.

Either CERN learns more about the sort of subtle errors that can mess up this sort of experiment (no difference) or it learns something new about the physics.

Good result either way.

The only *real* threat for an organisation.

Fines, so what.

For large bodies (*especially* govt, local govt, NHS) *only* the prospect of the CIO or someone *senior* being held *personally* responsible and doing time will actually get some action.

Note this was being talked about when Tony Blair was PM.

Ah Microsoft and Intel

A folly a deux.

Just never call either one of them a monopoly

@FaultyWarrior

"Although in the context of this article, good luck using a USRP for something like wireless mics. The mics are what, $200 USD? The USRP is around $1200 USD"

That's sort of the problem.

With enough volume in a product hard wired *always* wins in terms of complexity (fewer metaphorical knobs to twiddle), simplicity (works or does not work) and cost (high volume).

It's also likely to be *vastly* more power efficient.

Now if you want *flexibility* that's a different game.

Hmm. System security is a process *not* a purchase.

Who knew?

May I be ther first say

Oh ere it's a *big* one.

On a slightly more technical note I always wondered how long one of these things could go without going back to the factory for servicing.

It seems very hard to believe this has been sitting on a shelf for nearly 50 years.

In other news....

A survey of British Turkey farmers has found that 100% of them were in favor of extending the Christmas season by 1 month.

The Chairman of the British Poultry Association said "It'll be a difficult job to grow that many more turkeys but somehow we'll manage".

£50k PA for a tube drivers job?

How many of you are above that?

Did you ever consider perhaps you were in the wrong job (at least temporarily)?

anyone remember "Paladium"?

Another of MS's "trusted computing" initiatives.

No more corporate documents being read by "unauthorized" machines.

It just needed *every* I/O device to support real time decryption of the datastream (so no back up copying of the *raw* data stream.

An end to industrial espionage (and investigative journalism) and piracy (or backup copying of your honestly bought software/movies/music).

Stupid idea then.

Stupid idea now.

And yes the idea that *any* system that relies on a secret key *remaining* secret will remain secure (IE its bi directional) for long ignores the history of *all* previous such computer security systems.

Corporate wellfare.

Where the penalty for buying a hugely over valued asset and running it into the ground is...

Another very well paid job.

I've often wondered if US executives have "agents" like professional sports people have sports agents to talk their remuneration package up and put a positive spin on their not-entirely-successful plans?

Head he gets a big bonus, tails he gets a severance package.

Meanwhile the stock holders (AKA the *owners of the company) get a chunk knocked off their dividend payments.

So

Multiple sites in a country -> 1 site in a country

Multiple countries doing ti -> 1 country (at 1 site)

Site gets destroyed.

It's never a problem.

Until it becomes a problem.

"Access to the source code"

How about ran a copy of stuxnet through a dis-assembler and did a cut and past on this?

It's already got some function you want and they're tricky to re-engineer, so why not just lift it from something that already works.

Just a thought.

what an unusual idea

Publish *all* your data.

Publish *all* your software.

That sounds like proper science.

So are most reg readers Luddites or do they actually reckon DAB in the UK is s**t?

Only I know which side I'd back in a technical discussion.

How many *more* digital transmitters have to be built now to get *partial* coverage of the UK?

I suspect this obsession has more to do with revenue generation (either by auction) or licensing than *any* nonsense about quality.

This is also the minister for the internet. Mr record-every-page-n-data-transfer-in-the-uk for "National Security" and filter file sharing packets Vaizey.

"Class A"

Friends tell me that is what I'd have to be taking to think this a good idea.

Let me suggest a possibly radical ideal.

Building secure software systems is a *process* not an event.

Anyone who starts by calling a team meeting and telling them "We're going to right *secure* software from now on" is clearly a PHB who has f***all idea of how to create lasting change.

Does anyone think changing how a software development team does its work is going to be any *easier* than how (say) the NHS does its job?

I'd suggest it's not the lack of information on how to do this that is a problem.

It's *wanting* to do it in the first place that is and the skills to make the changes necessary for it to be applied.

"They are just a very good team with great attention to detail. And that’s how you win races. "

An excellent summing up. Thumbs up

If you want to win you have to take this fairly seriously.

It's that attention to detail brought on *by* wanting to win that may be the most valuable part of the lessons learned by the people who crew the teams.

But on a more surprising note "this post deleted by moderator" for 1st post on this article.

What could be so contentious?

The thing about walled gardens.

They have *no* doors.

You can't leave them.

Something you might like to step into one of them, *however* nicely designed they are.

So what?

Everyone whose tried this has trouble getting (IIRC) transistors much above about 5Mhz,

Now it's *not* the processor that's the problem. That's smart card territory. But

"Connected to the internet"

It's the *RF* link. WiFi? GPS enablement? 3G?

Try NFC.

Electron mobility is *the* key parameter here and since you can't do much of a device shrink ( the quick and dirty way to get a bit of extra speed) your materials properties have to be *phenomenal* .

But I bet they won't be quite that good.

1Ghz *printable* transistor. I think not.

Anyone remember the MIT Meja labs "Thinks that think?"

There are good ideas this technology *might* enable. Some of them I might pay for.

I doubt they will do any better than their (numerous) predecessors.

The energy business is cost plus

There is *no* limit on what the ultimate price could be.

And with enough outside pricing factors that can be blamed for any "unfortunate" price rises.

Looks like it works because of a basic misunderstanding.

Store information.

Hold in DB.

Output information back to user.

The implication is that this happens with text controls which deal with *passive* text.

But the DB executes code *regardless* of what kind of control it originates from.

The attackers know this. The "legitimate" developers do not seem to.

Now how many times had this been done *already*?