Posts by John Smith 19 16330 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009
Always good to know where MS's *real* priorities lie.
Paten trolling competitors $$$$$$
Looking for dumb-as-stump security holes $.
A quick read of the article suggests a lot of this would have been stopped in its tracks with a *decent* random number generator.
But that *might* have been a bit more time consuming to debug.
Just a thought.
Who could work a cassette recorder, but not a video.
Yes "Granny phone" *is* ageist, sexist and patronising. However so does the "simplefone" (which *might* not be a bad description of their capabilities) while "Phones for dummies" sounds quite hostile and patronizing. El Reg knows this, hence the teeshirts you can get with the skateboard and dentures on them.
There's a lot of CD's out there and across the Western world their numbers are set to rise. A simple to use phone (with lojack so you can recover a "confused" aged parent who has wanders off) makes quite a lot of sense.
"The ironic thing is that Microsoft reportedly put a great deal of money into developing a video encoding standard that they could own"
Not really. The first rule of monopoly is "No monopoly *calls* itself a monopoly"
The second rule is "Protect the monopoly at *all* costs"
Royalty payments to a few people they haven't managed to tie up in court (before they move in to slaughter them) is a small price to pay for a continuous revenue stream which in principle could force virtually *every* website on the net into a subscription payed access model (depending on what the charges are set at) for at *least* the life of the patent.
Puts up their costs (*very* slightly given the bulk of their cost is the land it sits on) and *only* helps their customer (and everyone else the house is ultimately sold to) save money.
Minimal loft insulation, no mandatory double glazing, poor window designs with lumps of metal between indoors and outdoors (check what links the inside and outside door handles sometime) and council installed units with virtually *no* rubber gasket.
Construction companies whine about how tough it is but I've never seen a large one which hasn't taken *every* opportunity to shaft customers and block improving standards.
Not lived in a shared house much have you?
With multiple people getting ready for work in the morning (pretty common these days) at least a pair of bathrooms makes a *big* difference in how people fast people can get ready. The desire of developers to save space by combining the toilet and bathroom proper makes things worse, unless your happy with an audience should you be caught short.
Mines the one with "Building tract homes for fun and profit" in the pocket.
"Look after the needs of the individual in your team, look after the needs of the team as a whole and ensure you know what the task's needs are (manpower requirements, procedures, ultimate aim, etc.). I was also taught to ask others for their suggestions as to how to complete a task but make the decisions about how it would be done."
When you put it that way you make it sound so easy.
I *suspect* it might have something to do with how the armed services select "management" staff. Where they are recruited *primarily* for staff management (officers) and "promotion" from the ranks is AFAIK the exception rather than the rule.
In private industry it seems to be more of excellence at a specific skill (which might be *very* limited) plus ambition (often accompanied by a *huge* ego). Not the ideal personality to implement *any* of those requirements.
"Then identify the lowest hanging fruit in terms of small systems which will provide most benefit for cost involved. Identify the foundation systems which need to be working properly first; email, networking etc. Then get the management to make choices about which parts they'd like to fund."
Excellent post.
I would point out that *Identifying* this minimal subset and ensuring it has the hooks to allow the building out of the rest of the system is *not* trivial.
Call me Arkady.
I am sending you message from somewhere in former Soviet Union to thank all those managers who made their developers switch to Windows Embedded. They told you it would be rubbish and compromised within a week of roll out but you did not believe them.
I fell to knees and thanked God when I heard of this.
Before I ran 5th biggest botnet on planet. Now I am number 1.
My team of hackers could not have done it without you.
BTW All your appliances belong to me.
"If I were an OEM that was considering an embedded operating system, anything with the name "Windows" (or Microsoft) would be on the DON'T buy list for the simple reason that I would have NO CONTROL over it. "
I *really* hate saying this but before Linux there were a number of proprietary *closed* source OS's supplied for embedded use. Wind Rivers (Lynx?), OS9 (and to a degree Symbian)spring to mind.
What they did have were AFAIK a multi layered modular architecture (not one designed to intermix a proprietary browser to prevent it being untangled due to an antitrust case) *much* more stringent module and integration testing, more open interface specs (to allow developers to drop in their own modules seamlessly in) and an upgrade cycle normally in years, not weeks. The *whole* OS is a developer tool, and priced and licensed to match. End users are just *that* ,people who *use* it.
These companies know their market, understand their users issues (typically hard response time limits and tightly controllable possibly variable process priorities, which regular Linux is *not* AFAIK optimized for) and deliver a complete environment to support them.
People did (and AFAIK do) use them still. The loss of control due to the closed nature of the core of the code is offset by the better range of tools (who wants to write an Ada compiler?), faster time to market and the ability to focus on the core specialized features of a developers application without getting bogged down in the necessary but common bits. However what these suppliers have is the the *trust* in their customers that they do *not* deliver bug ridden, insecure bloated systems which are just waiting for the next virus infection.
"Part of the reason Vista took so long to come to market was the work to simplify Windows into dependency layers which could be more easily managed, secured and updated. "
That would be due to the decades long accretion of inter-dependencies which no one had either the authority or the interest in untangling.
"but now we can also do it with full Windows (and not just a BartPE or WinCE). This story deserves more attention than it's getting right now."
I think it's getting *plenty* of attention. Mostly by people who can see far enough down the road to a FUBAR situation.
An interesting side issue would be if this is a *true* subset of the Windows core codebase, or a completely *separate* copy. If so I think we can expect the usual MS situation of a completely different set of bugs and holes, which will need their own separate set of fixes.
BTW I remember when MS wanted to be #1 in supplying the OS for PBX's. Thing is Telecomms Managers don't *expect* to reboot their PBX every day.
It hasn't failed yet, but I'm not keen on *any* bit of embedded kit running Windows.
But *all* proper embedded operating systems are designed in this way to begin with. Where they may differ is weather any of those components can be on/off loaded while its running.
More likely they look to want to repeat the old IE6 routine, hoping they can force server admins to switch because "Well *nothing* will manage this lot like our MS," probably because they "forgot" (or were not forced) to publish the interface specifications.
Embedded developers. Microsoft is *not* an embedded OS company. It's a monopoly running company which has a lot of users because people believe they simply *cannot* adapt to learning 1 or more new UI's. If your hardware doesn't *need* a Windows interface, why go out of your way to shackle yourself to them?
""Because of my position in upgrading the software, I was able to carry out this scheme without detection for nearly two-and-a-half years, from approximately August of 2006 until approximately April of 2009," Morris wrote in the court document."
Bottom line. *no* auditing of work done (after the fact) by *one* man + *no* oversight by anyone competent in the system = license to steal.
If you set up a system that only a person with the virtue of a saint *would* not figure out how to compromise or the brains of an idiot so they *could* not figure out how to do so
I call the bank management on charges of *criminal* negligence. Frankly I'm amazed he took so *little* given the amount of time and the level of access he *appears* to have had.
The googleplex needs power 24/7.
This is a popular but *unreliable* solution to their problems. It's marginally better than their sub 100Kw fuel cell in a 40 foot container project (that's about as big as a 2MW gas turbine generation package).
Google seems to have several large campuses of staff scattered around, which implies a fairly large human and food waste disposal problem. Put this lot into a an anaerobic digester and they'd get a 24/7 gas supply to either sell back to utilities or for on site generation. While it will no doubt *sounds* a bit smelly (actually it should be pretty odor-less) it would be carbon *neutral* and being industrial scale would benefit from tight Ph and temperature controls along with H2S & CO2 scrubbing.
Not very dramatic. Not much of a photo op. Just a solid reliable power supply.
Read your article.
It's interesting that the landowners and locals who actually *live* with them 24/7 don't seem to mind them. This has not been the universal experience of residents in the UK but I'm not sure what the relative wind speeds of UK and US wind turbines are. I think UK ones are also *much* more closely spaced. In contrast the ones in the picture seem to be fairly scattered at fairly low density around the landscape. UK ones AFAIK are more like the California wind farms.
I can understand how turbines *might* make more annoying sound. Wind is roughly a white noise spectrum like surf noise, but turbines will likely be a more cyclic sound. I've found surf noise to be quite soothing and restful whereas a cyclic noise tend to make the brain want to lock to its pattern, keeping you awake while it does so.
What *always* beats me is why do all of these windfarm builders *insist* on painting the towers White? I get the blade tips *might* be a hazard to low flying aircraft but they could make a bit more effort to blend in. Does a coat of Green paint add that *much* to the unit price?
"Finaly, hilariously, once your details have gone to the prosecution dept in Glasgow (probably sub-contracting ballifs in reality), you are then no longer legaly allowed to talk to the DVLA in Wales, and the DVLA dept in Glasgow has 'no access' to any records in order to process any complaints or appeal"
Sounds like some scope for FOI requests
BTW AFAIK the official baliff' in Scotland are the firm that chases Readers Digest competition entrants for not paying for any "free" unrequested books they sent. Something outlawed by the Distance Selling Regulations.
Just the sort of legitimate people you'd want handling your finances.
and the system only ever *works* if people are prepared to give misbehaving government departments a good kicking. Ideally send a copy either to your local MP, or possibly more usefully (but taking a bit more time) the head of the relevant Parliamentary committee that oversees them. As most of the trouble seems to be coming from "Executive agencies of..." the Minister is likely going to have some flunkie give the "The Minister does not concern themselves with day to day operational matters" cop out.
One just man *can* become an army.
You can guess what's in my pocket.
"When MicroCrooks took VMS operating system and hacked it up and turned it into WinNT 3.0 they weren't thinking about patents nor copyrights (they were unrightfully copying). VMS -> WinNT push each letter of VMS down one and you get WinNT."
I *really* hate saying this but this is a little harsh.
The core of the VMS development team (lead IIRC by Dave Cutler?) actually approached MS to implement a modern pre-emptive multitasking OS. You're quite right that NT bears a *huge* debt to VMS (at least one web page indicates that many of the core data structures are *identical* to those found in VMS). given what has happened to IMHO one of the *key* DEC assets under HP's ownership this might seem to be only a sensible attempt to save a lifes work from being thrown in the bin by a bunch of accountants and box shifters.
"You infringe a bunch of our patents."
"Which ones."
"If we tell you the judge can come down harder on you."
"OK. W e give in."
FFS Why won't *one* company stand their f&*(king ground and get them to specify *exactly* what patents they infringe?
This sounds *remarkably* like a FUD lawsuite.
I think you'll find that's no henchmen, he's one of Peter Jackson's relatives. Checking the end credits as far as I could see when they were not on screen, they were part of the crew. It's a pretty amazing piece of work.
Bad Taste is one of those movies you can't quite believe what you're seeing, even *while* you're watching it. Derek's behavior is quite understandable given that he's not quite himself later on. A few beers probably do help the viewing experience.
However there is a plot whose internal logic does (more or less) hang together (and better than some stalk & slash flics I've seen) .
Given how long these have been around I am *astonished* no one has hacked a "Designator detector" out of a telescope or CCTV with a suitable filter. Outside of the Sun I guess high intensity IR sources on the ground would be fairly rare (but I'm not an expert).
In daylight does ground cover reflect *that* much light at the relevant wave lengths that it would be blinded?
"The article suggested that every soldier could have a laser projection device to allow them to 'illuminate' targets. How would that work then?"
It might help if you stop thinking of it as a laser pointer (like the sort you get on key fobs for powerpoint presentations) and more like a TV or VCR remote control.
The beam is invisible and like your TV's remote is actually flashing. Last time I checked this remotes used a Pulse Position Modulation scheme with "Frame" pulses a set distance apart, usually longer than the other pulses. Other pulses varied in their position between the frame pulses to indicate various things. IR designators may use a similar system or go flashing the designators ID code directly but this would need some kind of correlation detector.
On this basis the other designators would be rejected as the missile box had not been sent their ID codes to look for. Alternatively different groups of rockets could be launched with each group set to a different code. Being really elaborate they would look for their primary designator code and if they found nothing (target already destroyed) switch to the backup search code.
The laser designator has a fairly precise passive optical system, frequency stable laser and possible network link to the artillery commander, unlike your TV remote. It's also a bit bigger and a *lot* more expensive.
"The current system uses the same languages and an operating system made by HP, earlier by DEC. Unfortunately this system can't scale sufficiently anymore and must be replaced, despite the fact it is very, very reliable. They simply maxed out what HP can provide."
It's called VMS and was designed to support the DEC Alpha based servers for about 30 years.
AFAIK it got to support 64 processors with failover. Individual processors crash (and are re-booted) but the app never fails.
BTW the core development team were hired by MS and provided most (all?) of NT.
"rather than releasing the memory you recycle the object, and don't let the GC get its mits on it."
"using managed languages for low-latency high-throughput purposes, either by minimizing or typically avoiding altogether GC through recycling/sufficient memory headroom."
You appear to be saying that having shifted to these languages they then proceed to bypass on of their supposed *key* features (supposedly) for improving maintainability and security? So what features of Java do make it useful in this context?
I know Java is fairly common so hiring staff with the skillset should be easy but I wonder if there are other (non GC) languages which would give just as good a result. It's an enquiry, not a criticism.
"The accused loses all my sympathy when I read about indecent images of children."
Exactly. You're critical facilities (along with quite a lot of the general public's) have *completely* shut down. You have no idea what was being talked about in detail, and it was being *talked* about. There is *no* evidence *anything* was done IRL.
On here its known as the "Think of the children" routine.
Freedom of speech is about the right of others to hold views *you* don't like. I happen to think that the all cars capable of exceeding the maximum speed limit of the countries they are sold in should have all *driver* safety features deleted. You can buy a car that you can break the law with but if you're incompetent or unlucky (or both) you won't be bothering the gene pool again.
You may disagree. You may disapprove. Were I to push for legislation you might argue against it.
I have done *nothing* wrong and I certainly would not go around sabotaging those features on cars I came across IRL. It's the difference between a thought, a crime and a thought-crime.
Perhaps *you* hold some views I might disagree with. Better hope *none* of those views is disapproved of by plod in your area.
Look up confocal near field microscopy.
However I'm not sure if it could do wavelength/50 (300 micrometers is in the UV but sources and detectors do exist for it) imaging. You can bet the sensor will be *lots* bigger than raw bit.
The bottom line with *all* these clever technologies is this. You either have a *shared* readout device which spreads the cost of mfg across *all* the bits it reads (like a hard drive read head) using a simple to fabricate storage structure and some precision mechanical stuff and a fair bit of electronics (like a hard drive) *most* of which is pretty straightforward (and relatively cheap) *or* you have a lot more sensors shared across a lot fewer bits like the sens amplifiers/ row of
with *no* mechanical motion but a *much* more complex fabrication and alignment sequence (with corresponding differences in unit price and size).
I recall when people were saying magnetic bubble memories would kill hard drives. Faster, higher density, no moving parts.
Didn't quite happen that way.
You mean the group that though they were meant to *cause* Serious Crime, rather than investigate it?
The core investigators for the Birmingham 6 pub bombing?
I don't know what you're talking about. British police are the best in the world...very hard job under difficult circumstances.... one bad apple...
Mine's the one with a copy of The Job in one pocket and the local Lodge newsletter in the other.
It seems *every* hypersonic project they try to get into the air is known as Falcon (or FALCON depending if they thought up a really neat acronym). EG the orbital launcher they were planning to use LOX injection into the intakes of a jet fighter to get it up to speed and altitude for an expendable 2nd stage.
Isn't the American national bird the Eagle?
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