* Posts by Adrian 4

2288 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Jul 2009

Blighty: We spent £1bn on Galileo and all we got was this lousy T-shirt

Adrian 4

Short-sighted ? The EU ?

It's not the EU who are displaying lack of foresight here.

Behold, the world's most popular programming language – and it is...wait, er, YAML?!?

Adrian 4

Re: Modern version of an ancient question.....

A discussion is exactly as worthwhile as the participants make it.

If the outcome is irrelevant (who cares if python lives or dies, anyway ?) it makes very little difference.

If it is relevant (how much worse will we be off after the brexiteers have had their wicked way?) it's pretty unlikely that anyone able to affect the outcome is going to be involved.

Adrian 4

Re: Whitespace

@HieronymousBloggs

Exactly so : the problem with python is not that you can use whitespace, but that it has to be used in a particular way.

This means that instead of the written structure being a tool that allows you to use layout to improve readability, you're forced into a restrictive use of whitespace as syntax - all in the name of clarity.

As a coding standard, with the ability to break it where another layout would be better, indentation is fine. As syntax, what can I say ? Fortran maybe had an excuse. Python doesn't.

Adrian 4

Stackoverflow

Isn't it just as meaningless to measure popularity by the number of calls for help you have with it ?

Something might score high on that scale just because it isn't very good.

All these folks need to smarten up and start counting using some metrics that actually mean something, rather than those that are easy to count. If you have to use a proxy, at least prove that it models the real thing reasonably well.

Holy moley! The amp, kelvin and kilogram will never be the same again

Adrian 4

Re: And as usual...

Given the way almost every unit is defined by its relationship to others, I think maybe this one is appropriate.

I do hope they didn't just cut off the branch they were sitting on.

Bright spark dev irons out light interference

Adrian 4

Re: Spark plugs on old Vauxhalls

Lots of vibration-sensitive parts in even a modern radio, from bad joints to air-spaced inductors to crystals and capacitors. Give it a jar and the frequency synthesizer tuning it to that station will briefly go a little off, then be dragged back by the rest of the electronics.

Adrian 4

Re: Office 365 Slogan

If you want to parse Reg headlines, you need to learn to read from the tabloids, not Cambridge.

Not that el reg is down in their cesspit - it's a kind of journalistic joke. I think.

Adrian 4

Re: It's called a choke.

In fact, it works better the other way. Put them at the source of the problem (the striplights) and you'll solve other problems too. Maybe the occasional mispositioning of that foundry's bucket of molten iron.

Alexa, cough up those always-on Echo audio recordings, says double-murder trial judge

Adrian 4

Went to see a priest ?

Presumably the authorities have asked for a transcript of that session.

How's that going ?

Six critical systems, four months to Brexit – and no completed testing

Adrian 4

Scumbag who phoned in a Call of Duty 'swatting' that ended in death pleads guilty to dozens of criminal charges

Adrian 4

Re: Cant they tell where the call was placed?

"Caller Ids are trivial to spoof and there are plenty of services which will allow you to do that."

And the operator will be aware of that, and treat the information with less than complete trust. They may even have more information than we do about its veracity, source of information etc.

Adrian 4

Re: Fractured

What's odd about that ?

Clearly, some people have only one arm. It's caused by birth defects, accidents, medical trauma .. a variety of possibilities. We're all likely to have met someone with less than two arms.

In many statistics, such deviations from the norm are balanced against similar deviations on the other side. There are people under 6 feet in height but there are also people over that.

But there are vanishingly few people with more than two arms. Perhaps a tiny number of birth defects. No accidents. No medical issues (Zaphod Beeblebrox is fictional). So they won't balance out the numbers with less than two arms, and the average (the mean, that-is) is below two.

Statisticians know that mean averages can sometimes obscure the truth and so they have other averaging methods to choose from. The median average (middle of the distribution) will still be less than two but perhaps higher than the mean. Modal average (the most common occurrence) will be a solid two.

IANAS.

Yes, it is very common for the inappropriate method to be used to calculate such an average. Often intentionally, in order to mislead the reader - hence the phrase 'lies, damned lies and statistics'.

Adrian 4

Re: Hostage situations...

"In this case the police merely acted as a proxy - so the person who originally did the swatting is guilty of "pulling the trigger by proxy". (If such a term do exist in law)."

No, he's not. He's guilty of lots of offences, but he isn't in control of the police. He's relying on bad training to get the guy killed. Actually, he's not even doing that : if he wanted to get his friend killed, he'd have given them HIS address. We have to assume he was trying to frighten his friend by calling the cops for real, not by having some killed for real. Either way, he probably isn't actually guilty of anything more serious than wasting police time, misinformation, putting the victim in harm's way etc. The policeman pulled the trigger, and he did it in contradiction of his training.

As to whether the policeman should react like that for his own protection : in a dark alley, without a clear view of the assumed shooter, with no backup : yes, it might be a reasonable reaction.

He's been called out, with support, to an incident with no verified report of a problem and shoots a person who is outside their house and has got there without preparation, carrying nothing visible and until recently having his hands up. It's likely he drops them slowly, tiredly, unconvinced he is at risk. Not in a way that appears to be diving for a concealed weapon.

The likelihood is that the victim can, at worst, bring out a heavy handgun and fire it quickly without the opportunity to aim it. In comparison, the policeman has, if he's working to training, got a rifle with which he can make an accurate shot over a range the victim can't match, he has cover behind his cruiser, and has colleagues also able to shoot if sufficient threat exists. If the victim brings up a handgun, he's almost certainly not going to kill the policeman.

What we have here is a situation created by the actions of the telephone caller and for which they should be locked away. But the actions of the policeman are those of an untrained, poorly prepared trigger-happy fool who panics when there is a small change to the situation. This is not what police gun training is for.

And yes, a lot like the Menezes case : innocent victim, misinformation, poor police training leading to frightened officers, panic reactions and trigger-happy result . Except that in that case it was not even a situation created by a criminally stupid perpetrator. In that case, it was the police that also generated the initial situation. The only saving point is that they had prepared themselves for a bomb threat rather than a lone gunman, so the reaction of killing on movement has some limited sense behind it.

I say limited because you can't necessarily stop a suicide bomber by shooting him : there is equally good chance that killing him will permit his explosives to detonate, so the risk to the police or bystanders isn't reduced by shooting. Shootiung does not improve your chances of survival against a bomb blast. Again, poor training, bad thinking, fear, leading to panic reactions.

We definitely don't need more towers, says new Vodafone boss scraping around for €8bn savings

Adrian 4

Re: Age discrimination?

You may be misinterpreting the nature of the discrimination.

The problem here is that they're accepting customers under 30 and shoving vile, misanthropic, poisonous social media at them.

Customers over 30 get a normal service (fsvo normal).

It's age discrimination all right, but it's the under 30s that are getting the nasty end.

Between you, me and that dodgy-looking USB: A little bit of paranoia never hurt anyone

Adrian 4

They work at the controller level by impersonating an unexpected controller. They still don't inject driver-level code into the OS.

Yes, if you plug a USB stick into a port and no files are displayed but the stick secretly opens a command shell and types commands into it, it won't help. That's certainly something the OS writers should address.

Adrian 4

You could reformat them with a secure file system (I assume such things exist) that would cryptographically sign updates so that the files could not be modified without using the appropriate private keys.

This would protect you from USB sticks that modify their contents after you have written them.

Adrian 4

Re: A paranoid mount option ?

I know Windows has a poor reputation for introducing security holes in the OS, but isn't automatic device scanning on insertion a common feature of both MS and third-party virus scanners ?

If hardware 'safety checkers' became common and there was a significant effort to distribute malware-laden memory devices, we would quickly have an arms race : consider a device that detects a format operation and adds a malware file after the first n files have been written to the device and it is re-inserted.

Adrian 4

Re: Did you accept the USB?

Would make for a nice point in a talk about security : get answers to the following questions and then comment on the results :

1. Did you accept a free USB stick at the entrance ?

2. Are you going to put it in your device ?

3. Are you going to give it to another employee, or to a family member ?

4. Did you accept a free coffee ?

5. Did you accept a free brownie (cake, not human) ?

6. Did you pick up a brownie you saw on the floor and eat it ?

7. Did you accept and read the glossy literature ?

8. Did you accept the cute air freshener to hang in your car ?

9. Did you accept the promotional item modelled on a presidential seal ?

We're accustomed to dealing with most of these threat models. Mostly without errors, but occasionally we screw up.

Adrian 4

Re: paranoia

True, you don't know who made it. Same goes for shop-bought comestibles, though the threat model is less severe (less likely that there's someone intentionally putting rohypnol in grocery-store milk, but by no means impossible).

You might though, expect a responsible marketroid to buy such devices from a reputable source and perhaps even scan a sample of them before handing them out. Likewise, you wouldn't expect them to give you tea, coffee and biscuits by skipdiving at the local supermarket.

I still say 'be reasonable' - the process for trusting USB sticks is only similar to the processes we already use for other gifts and promotional articles.

If there is a warning to take away, it's that promoters should bear in mind that USB sticks are in the same category as other items with a mild threat. Source them responsibly, but don't necessarily give them up. Punters like these things.

(declaration : no, I'm not a vendor of promotional USB sticks. I do occasionally get given them and I'm happy to accept them, though I wouldn't miss them as they're usually a bit small in capacity).

Adrian 4

paranoia

Do you also reject free coffee, cakes and random ornaments ?

Yes, you might do if you're afraid someone might poison or bug you, and quite right too.

But in general, we trust people based on their reputation. The conference organiser's reputation will be that they might nag you to sell their conferences, but they probably won't try to drug, bug or infect you with malware. Because they have some integrity, and don't want to be demonised.

Why is the branded USB drive any different ? You probably shouldn't accept it from someone who comes up to you in the street. Same goes for the other things I suggested - if someone in the street offers you cookies you make a judgement based on your experience and prejudices about whether to take them.

The USB stick isn't any different. There is a possibility of accidental or intentional malware. You can choose to trust it or not according to your usual threat model. It doesn't make the marketroids stupid for offering it, nor does it make you stupid for accepting it.

Scam or stunt? It's looking like the latter... Xiaomi so sorry for £1 smartphone 'promo'

Adrian 4

Peeved

"Understandably, some British buyers were a little peeved: if it was a lottery, it should have said so. People thought it was a first-come, first-served special discount, with a decent stockpile of gear up for grabs, when really it was nothing of the sort. It was a raffle draw."

I'm not sure if you could call

'I tried to cheat your system but it didn't work because you misled me about how your system worked' grounds for complaint.

If it's first-come, first-served, creating fake accounts so you're first, second and third in line is dishonest.

Junior dev decides to clear space for brewing boss, doesn't know what 'LDF' is, sooo...

Adrian 4

Re: I was also clueless at the time

Same goes for deleting it, though.

How one programmer's efforts to stop checking in buggy code changed the DevOps world

Adrian 4

Re: Jenkins?

". The junior guy got laid off, and the senior guy and I finished it up and fixed it. Took about a month to fix it, though. "

Unsurprising. Having a junior person on hand just slows the senior down. The manager adds meetings and wants updates, further slowing things. And finally, having the project 90% finished means there's 90% left to do - dealing with all the error paths and corner cases.

Can your rival fix it as fast? turns out to be ten-million-dollar question for plucky support guy

Adrian 4

Re: When assembler is not assembler

Chickens are sufficient for Python.

Goats can be reserved for C.

Assembler needs virgins.

If Shadow Home Sec Diane Abbott can be reeled in by phishers, truly no one is safe

Adrian 4

Re: At least she uses a PC

The last two home secretaries (I can't even remember who the current one is) have hardly shone in the IT department.

Do you think they'd even admit to it, though ?

It would be nice to have both, but if forced to choose, I prefer honesty to ability.

Adrian 4

Re: Eh?

> The fact she's a Labour MP 100% behind state education, but sent her kid to a private school.

They all do this. It's a constantly recurring theme. Yes, it sounds hypocritical, but I suspect the real reason is down to the secret police, who find it much easier to protect $politician's child in a private school than a state school. Not to mention some control of bullying (yes, I know private schools are noted for it. But it's WITH the staff's knowledge and tacit support, not beyond it).

In news that will shock absolutely no one, America's cellphone networks throttle vids, strangle rival Skype

Adrian 4

Re: Spectrum grows on trees

I'm amused to see that the Thameslink rail service (Kettering to Brighton via London) has introduced free wifi on some trains. Quite a surprise really as it's generally a costs-cut-to-the-bone service.

But to my delight, they don't permit video streaming and limit total usage per user per trip.

Adrian 4

Skype ?

No loss there then.

Microsoft have pretty much killed it themselves.

UK rail lines blocked by unexpected Windows dialog box

Adrian 4
FAIL

I don't often say this, but I'm pretty sure even Microsoft couldn't make the trains run worse.

No Microsoft error messages showing at St Pancras tuesday night, but the destination boards were ordered pretty much randomly (actually, by platform - but because they're all one long list, not individual boards headed by destination, that's no help whatever) and contain entries for trains that left an hour before.

HSBC now stands for Hapless Security, Became Compromised: Thousands of customer files snatched by crims

Adrian 4

Re: Closing my account

They told me they'd close my account unless I filled in some business review form. On the last page of the form, you're supposed to agree that they can share all your details with unspecified third parties.

I refused.

Google logins make JavaScript mandatory, Huawei China spy shock, Mac malware, Iran gets new Stuxnet, and more

Adrian 4

Re: JS ? Are you mad ?

Sure, but there's form.

How many banks tell you to use their 'security software' - that runs on Windows ?

Mything the point: The AI renaissance is simply expensive hardware and PR thrown at an old idea

Adrian 4

Re: at Last

tbf, el reg has been saying this for a while.

I would love to hear a comment on the state of the game from an actual AI researcher, as opposed to a marketroid. And I do hope they're all grabbing all the funds they can while the bubble lasts.

PortSmash attack blasts hole in Intel's Hyper-Threading CPUs, leaves with secret crypto keys

Adrian 4

Re: Still no recall

Downvoted for misspelling lose as loose.

If you have inner peace, it's probably 'cos your broadband works: Zen Internet least whinged-about Brit ISP – survey

Adrian 4

Re: Another happy Zen customer here

'As opposed to the ISP provided router.'

Which almost universally run Linux.

Manchester man fined £1,440 after neighbours couldn't open windows for stench of dog toffee

Adrian 4

Lucky you.

I can't stand upright without something to lean on. Makes shovelling shit (constant change of balance and newtonian reaction from flinging it in the wheelbarrow) practically impossible. Same problem leaning down and picking things up. It takes 10 times longer than another person. And no, I'm not overweight.

The only practical method is to shuffle along the floor on your bum dragging a sack behind you. Not impossible, but I can sympathise with his reluctance to get it done.

Depression might have stopped him getting a labourer in to do it on the first warning. Maybe a £1440 fine will push him to do it. Or maybe he can't afford one now and will have to do the shuffle thing.

If there's something to blame him for it's owning three bull terriers whilst apparently being unable to exercise them properly. Now that's unreasonable. I guess the council should have taken them away.

From today, it's OK in the US to thwart DRM to repair your stuff – if you keep the tools a secret

Adrian 4

Prohibition

"This means people will end up downloading tools that are illegal. If there's going to be no legal aboveground tools market, you don't know what you are getting. People could unknowingly be adding malware to their systems."

The US has form for exacerbating problems with legislation. You'd have thought they'd have learnt from the failure of alcohol, drugs and financial legislation, but they just make the same mistake over and over.

The only way that works is to make the approved object - and the means of acquiring it - more attractive than the object you want to forbid. Making the forbidden object less attractive - by punishing possession, or the supplier - doesn't work. They just go underground and now you've got two problems. Carrots good, sticks bad.

Adrian 4

Re: I'm guessing, but ...

"DRM is a good as a concept, but when badly implemented (which seems to be most of the time) is more of a hindrance then a benefit."

No, it's an inherently stupid concept : the idea that a signal can be transmitted in a form that can be decoded by a device, yet not decoded by someone who has access to that device. When you have physical access, security is gone.

You can make it hard alright, but one way or another it will always be broken. The tools to break it are an essential part of the tool that is shipped to decode it.

It is, as you say, also more of a hindrance than a benefit. As with most attempts to fix a social problem with a technical solution, it ends up being the honest consumer that suffers : it's more convenient to own the cracked media than the official copy.

Fujitsu: Closes director's gate to Tait, 9 execs abdicate, and for German workers – a crap Weihnachtszeit

Adrian 4
Pirate

dead horse

Does every sort of organisation (companies and economies alike) dedicate itself to services before it totters into the void ?

Super Cali goes ballistic, net neutrality hopeless? Even Ajit Pai's gloating is something quite atrocious

Adrian 4

"internet access is an "interstate information service," and therefore federal rules supersede any state laws."

He's wrong there. It's not interstate, it's intercountry. So global rules supersede any federal rules.

Do spacecraft use IP ? If so, it doesn't stop at global.

The best way to screw the competition? Do what they can't, in a fraction of the time

Adrian 4

Re: "Ethernet is so much better"

OK, if it's an obscurity contest .. how many of you remember Polynet ?

If you saw a Google ad recently, know that it helped pay off one of its 'sex pest' execs $90m

Adrian 4
FAIL

It means they now have an automatic process for accepting such reports. Like complaints about their 'products', it acknowledges and then ignores them.

Belgium: Oi, Brits, explain why Belgacom hack IPs pointed at you and your GCHQ

Adrian 4

Re: Yawn

It's unsurprising that spies are spying.

The newsworthy bit is that they got caught, which is less common.

Should a robo-car run over a kid or a grandad? Healthy or ill person? Let's get millions of folks to decide for AI...

Adrian 4

Re: Important 'cause...

And likely to stay that way for a long while, judging from the fragility of current automatic driving machines (I avoid the term AI as they can't really be classed as such).

A Waymo would very likely kill the woman in a large flappy coat pushing a buggy (unrecognised shape) to protect a poster of tommy robinson ("A loathsome, obnoxious, repellent individual").

Adrian 4

Re: You are thinking about it all wrong.

Or possibly 'Death Race 2000', after reading another reply ..

Adrian 4

Re: You are thinking about it all wrong.

It wasn't a real thing. It was black humour extrapolating from the film 'Rollerball'.

Microsoft promises a fix for Windows 10 zip file woes. In November

Adrian 4

Re: In the good old days....

I think the peachiest inopportune moments are now reserved for windows update. Search has to make do with less inopportune moments so they can afford to search more directories.

Can't get pranked by your team if nobody in the world can log on

Adrian 4

I found it very useful just the other day when, trying to use a laptop that had got wet, I rotated the screen to put the start menu in the top right instead of the bottom left.

A DeepMind library to help build reinforcement learning bots, and how Google's Pixel 3 cameras handle zoom

Adrian 4

Re: Is is just me?

Computers that guess should be given a generically different name so we can determine from the start whether they deterministically computed the answer with an algorithm or approximated it through an unknowable correlation or heuristic process.

The latter could not be used for anything involving decisions affecting humans, and all machines would be required to 'show your working' when making such decisions. Wouldn't be such a bad thing for human judges to do this, too.

Approximators ? Guessbots ? Prejudicials ?

Core-blimey! Riddle of Earth's mysterious center finally 'solved' by smarty seismologists

Adrian 4

Re: So it's...

Gravy. With a yorkshire pud in the middle.

From dank memes to Krispy Kremes: British uni eggheads claim viral lol pics make kids fat

Adrian 4

memes & social networks

Is the 'general happiness' from memes sufficient to counteract the depression caused by instagram & facebook ?