Posts by JaitcH

Reminds me of when I (and others) cooked expenses ...

whilst working at Mohawk Data Sciences.

We service technicians had many accounts dotted all over the Metro Toronto area which gave rise to a matrix of inter-account road journeys for which we were compensated. Recording the service calls was easy, compiling expenses at the end of the week wasn't.

So we developed this chart, based upon true numbers rounded up to the nearest mile. There were always a few who rounded up a few extra miles - potentially OK for journeys from one end of the city to another.

The accountant was sharp - he could, as your example demonstrates, spot the fakes, the padded accounts! He called me in only once. My territory included God's country (Northern Ontario where bears and aurora borealis hang out). He queried my expenses. I explained that there had been a road closure and my usual motel had caught fire.

Before I left MDS, I asked him how he spotted fakes, and his explanation was similar to the example.

A firm accused of selling spyware to "oppressive regimes"

The term "oppressive regimes" encompasses so many of the leading nations of the world.

Countries such as China, the UK and the USA for starters. I seem to remember our friend ASSAD had a system in SYRIA, too.

This will make Harris Corporation of Florida happy, too, as they will get some more sales leads. Does STINGRAY ring a bell (or cell)?

One politician to another: Decades and Centuries? Doesn't concern me!

The report should have omitted the line: "This sector will be a major contributor to sea level rise in the decades and centuries to come," Rignot said. "A conservative estimate is that it could take several centuries for all of the ice to flow into the sea."

Politicians, with their 4, 5 or 6 years political horizons, will seize on this as not worthy of consideration as is outside their foreseeable budget concerns.

Anytime, anywhere, on time, and right the first time: Lockheed motto

Being a US Government contract to one of their favoured contractors, likely there were few penalties in the contract as is often the case with such work.

But now they can bid on a contract to upgrade the system, a contract likely making very, very, few companies eligible for the work.

I guess the old Lockheed motto: "Anytime, anywhere, on time, and right the first time" doesn't apply any more. Pity.

What some iSheep will do ...

to get a fix for their habit.

Perhaps Apple will provide a patch for their car systems that prevents cars from being driven into a iSheep store. New use for Beacons?

Fancy that, Luddites alive and well in London

There are so many positives for using Smartphones.

For the driver:

1. A map showing where the fare is;

2. Security - user is identifiable, reducing potential robbery/assault;

3. Assured payment - with credit card;

4. Potential for building a long-term business relationship.

5. Business accounting;

6. Fare retention - disappearing fare can get penalty charge.

For the user:

1. Direct contact with assigned driver;

2. Assured driver attendance;

3. Security - knowing your driver + cab is locatable;

4. Fare invoicing for business purposes/expense reclaim.

For society:

1. Reduced pollution;

2. Reduced 'cruising' traffic.

I'm glad Australia hadn't spread it's gospel before now.

Way back in the day when the US was licking it's wounded pride over it's defeat by VietNam, it banned the export of many goods to this country. European and Chinese companies seized the opportunity to ignore the US and one area, exploited by Germany, was telecommunications.

We have had digital switches since the earliest days, and end-to-end digital signalling, as in handset to handset. You could even hook a digital modem to a line and get fast InterNet. Some telephone instruments even had data connectors.

And they went crazy with fibre optic. Almost every highway has a fibre optic cable under it. These cables surface in towns, villages and hamlets (a few houses) where the distribution boxes are mounted on poles and the house-drops radiate from there.

When I built my house, as well as when I built my office, along comes the cable gang pulling in fibre optics! This means that, depending on the building termination unit configuration, I can select who will provide my cable TV, telephone or InterNet service. As the terminals are easily configured I have managed to change some selections ... unofficially.

Same with my wife's hotels, even though one is somewhat remote, along comes the fibre guys, no copper in sight.

In the cities, copper is eschewed with new buildings also being blessed with multi-vendor fibre optic.

Despite what Australia thinks, IMO copper is passée, and fibre offers the best return on investment, particularly given today's copper prices. The same applies in Canada, except that competing carriers insist on running separate FO drops to each residence!

Australia's communications minister Malcolm Turnbull viewpoint is somewhat skewed - possibly Australia has an interest in copper? Fibre optic has so many long-term benefits that makes anything else ill advised.

We also have low-power radio and television transmitters which are fed from FO in remote areas.

There is a better way - except only a few governments use it

Each time an international flight is readied, there is a manifest that contains much of the detail collected by Immigration types around the world. These lists could be used to pre-screen passengers - just as the US does for Freedom Fighters/Criminals/Crazies.

UK Immigration already has some border agents in Bangkok (fat, ugly, loud-mouthed and pushy) who pre-screen UK bound flights. They could easily generate lists of people they have suspicions of thereby narrowing the number of interviewees upon arrival. And reducing the workload.

Better still, use PAR or AMS then take the channel train - just as quick as Heathrow.

Every time I see a spectrum chart ...

then watch/glance at a TV program I think what a waste of resources. Scan satellite TV channels and my thoughts are redoubled - numerous channels have duplicated content.

In larger population areas terrestrial TV can easily be carried over fibre optics and in the less populated country areas Low Power Transmitters could be used to distribute the TV signals, fed through fibre optic trunks. These would re-use the same, small, band across the country.

LPTs are common in many larger countries, if their programming choices are limited, so be it - it's one of the joys of living in such places.

How many people really need hundreds of channels from which to choose? So many resources could be better utilised.

My employer manufactures robotic devices for military/government uses and these days we have to supply Software Defined Radio systems with frequency agility. The control unit is turned on and for about 5-10 minutes it surveys the spectrum, then chooses the frequencies it will use, transmits that to slave units and away it goes. No need for spectrum charts.

The military wastes so much spectrum, just scan their designated areas and see just how under utilised it is in non-combat zones. Combat Zones are a different beast, and the military doesn't even consider spectrum allocations. Anyone who has done RF technical work know that the military doesn't give a damn about civilian allocations.

Once again, the US claims the world as it's domain

The US, like a fading star, makes a lot of noise and generally disrupts life.

Who gave it permission to inflict it's self-serving laws on other countries?

At one time the US was the source of many technical components but, as in so many things, it has delegated it's manufacturing to other countries - so it can make more money. Not all countries agree with the supposition that the US and a few buddies can be the ONLY owners of nuclear weapons.

Iran is exercising it's sovereign right. Pakistan is one of the four nuclear armed states (together with India, Israel, and North Korea) who are not, shock and horror, parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Let the US force Israel into compliance and others might follow, too.

It's comforting to know that IMEI is used ...

by GCHQ and NSA to verify handsets. That's no doubt the reason why the law in the UK is stiff on changing it whilst elsewhere it's not even a consideration.

It seems that they don't verify whether or not an IMEI is correct for the type of handset it is purportedly on, though. IMEI number assignments are issued in blocks to manufacturers.

Changing the IMEI is a breeze, the only hassle is to make sure if you are roaming, make sure that the home Cellco knows the latest IMEI which simply requires a visit to a service centre - occasionally it can be done through a call.

CIA? Perhaps the ...

Russian population has never heard of the NSA?

Still, the gap between the CIA and the NSA is as thin as tissue paper.

PirateBay - Red flag to MPAA and Hero to many

The embarrassing failure of the MPAA, and it's friends including the FBI and the US Vice-President, to close it down, illustrates the futility of trying to stop something that has public support.

May it sail the seas forever!

Australians trying to out do the Americans

Australia, like several countries, are hung up on American technology. This time the Australians want to outdo the Yanks.

Not satisfied with hosting two NSA controlled spy stations, it has even built it's very own Australian-only spy base. One of it's other bases has NSA-staff only areas and that, along with another, have remote controlled NSA satellite spy facilities.

The US likes Australia, because the Chinese and Russians can't copy downloads from US spy satellites sent back to the NSA.

Seems like New Zealand are the most sane - they banned nuclear anything from their territory.

BT uses speed throttling ...

by using dodgy cables and cheap fibre optic gear.

Who Is Ripping Whom, RIAA?

"Pandora's conduct also is unfair to the recording artists and musicians whose performances are embodied in Pre-72 Recordings, but who do not get paid for Pandora's exploitation of Pre-72 Recordings."

The real thieves in this is the RIAA who claim to represent artists who, in those early days of R & R, were ripped off left, right and centre by the recording companies. They even made artists compensate them when records (round flack, black things with holes in the middle), etc., were screwed up in production by misplaced labels, deformed moulded tracks [mould too hot] which were the result of sloppy production workers.

So tell me, RIAA, who is going to get the money for Rock Around The Clock - certainly NOT Bill Haley.

No screws- more glue?

The Cupertino gang have only managed thin by eliminating screws, and serviceability, and using glue.

Not exactly Green.

Security for Costs

would nail the Troll - about USD$10,000,000 deposited IN CASH with the court.

Google might be the leader, plenty more on the way!

Visitors to this years CES were treated to, on several stands, different VR glass concepts.

Epson, Lumus, Optinvent, and Sony all were showing off their prowess in the field.

Some are Glass designs whilst others totally obscure the eyes. Evena Glasses combine the two formats but hardly make them acceptable for social occasions.

Corrective eyewear users know many things have to be considered when purchasing - things that ordinary non-users overlook. Balance - will all the elctronics concentrated on one arm cause the glasses to tilt?

Can regular opticians cut lenses at reasonable cost? See: < http://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/20140124-GOOGLE-GLASS-FRAMES-0098-660x495.jpg >.

Samsung has a patent filing for a device hung on an ear - in my experience ear mounted devices as simple as a microphone can be a real pain in use.

For Plod, cable free units using Bluetooth are a security weakness - Bluetooth jammers, even 'smart' jammers with channel skipping (for the channel you use) only cost a few Pounds/Dollars/Dong in GuangZhou.

With the rash of cell handset 'grab and run' thefts, the present Google Glass just presents another opportunity for neardowell's to enrich themselves.

A regional release usually means less costly products

Many cell handset manufacturers make geographically limited cell handsets available at substantial discounts compared to world-releases.

The release of the Samsung 3 demonstrated just how effective it was at limiting 'gray' markets and holding the initial release price high.

The cellco's in the Far East are particularly adventurous and seem to promote handset products from multiple sources.

Judges protecting judges ... and the administration

Judges always like to protect their own, unless there is an egregious error in law. And, after all, their future promotions depends on keeping the administration happy.

Given the plethora of encrypted communication Apps, along with TOR and TAILS, etc., there are plenty of alternatives which can provide more than adequate protection against the long snouts of the Peeping Toms in GCHQ and the NSA.

Should be reaching 'dusk' in Gloucestershire and Maryland as more and more people adopt privacy practices. The Freedom-Fighters/Criminals/Crazies are already well on their way to making things more difficult.

I don't understand the fuss

When the FCC dictated that all US-bound handsets had to have GPS modules - that actually cost hard cash - there were no complaints.

The big difference, I suspect, is that anti-theft software will affect their sales - something GPS didn't do.

Useful ruling for the new Apple price fixing racket

Hopefully the final determination of this price fixing scam by Apple, where all their co-conspirators have pled no contest and paid the penalty, will make Apple rethink it's partnership policies.

Well, I'm safe then ...

as I haven't paid Canadian taxes for over 22 years. And before that I filed on paper - to keep people employed as they transcribe the figures into computer terminals.

I feel comforted in the knowledge that the RCMP, repleat in red uniforms and riding trusty steads, is on the job. Guaranteed to lose the trail, like Sergeant Preston of the Yukon.

Does Apple have a short memory, or what?

I guess Apple has forgotten they were nailed for price fixing e-books.

It seems to me the only difference between the earlier price fixing and the new scheme is they are now fixing iThingy prices.

Price fixing is illegal in many countries.

Whay the need to travel to the USA when ...

the alphabet soup agencies are all around overseas.

In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, there are the FBI, the DEA, the CIA, NSA and other characters driving around in darkened SUV's with satellite antennae sprouting forth (actually they look like air intakes on the old military Austin Champ). The IRS is even here, checking on wayward Americans who might have forgotten to declare their non-US income.

Should a Mark Karpeles be reluctant to check in with the embassy, then the US can send out JSOC troops to show them the way.

And Japan, Karpeles present home from home, has even more US 'assets'.

Little wonder the US is bankrupt.

Think this bad - just wait until you get 'soft' Smartmeters along with Hotwater metering

Smartmeters come in many flavours - some have mechanical meters which are held to be the end-all of disputes whereas many others have 'soft' meters which can be reset by supply company computers!

Which would YOU choose!

Hot water metering is creeping in - most systems just measure water consumption and NOT whether the water is hot, cold or meets a minimum criteria.

Who, amongst us, can resist the temptation to ...

store old data, or old software?

Same with Plod, or GCHQ, they have empty drives and simply want to fill it up. And they, like us, keep it 'in case'.

I found an ex-wife's Social Insurance number on an old drive recently - and when applied to a pension equalisation application for the period of our marriage resulted in a few tens of thousands of dollars flowing to my benefit.

iSheep - they need their weekly adrenaline rush

Apple simply thrives on news column inches - good or bad - and iSheep need it weekly, if not more.

Of course, by announcing vapour ware, Apple hopes to cut in to sales of existing products. And the 'analysts' are hoping for their free samples.

There must be an ulterior reason ...

for the ever dictatorial Singapore to do this.

Singapore has newspaper censorship; radio & TV censorship, movie censorship; it monitors all domestic InterNet connections ruthlessly; telephone calls are monitored voice + metadata. An really oppressive system. And their are limits on chewing gum!

An Three Strikes is right down the single governments alley.

So, the question is, Why?

Apple ...

it loves the free publicity.

If they aren't making what their public wants, they should get their monster PR machine in to gear to persuade the public they want the wrong thing.

If Apple managed to persuade their iSheep to buy a bad Antennagate handset, surely they can change peoples minds over size, etc.

Apple-stealing IP? Hard to believe NOT!

This continuing abuse of the public by the US P.O. has to stop - it's more damaging than most anything.

Patents should have a limited life of 5 years and only extended if the patent owner can demonstrate a good reason.

Patent holders should be required to produce a viable patent that is used in production within two years of filing, otherwise they lose it and it becomes prior art.

This is totally adverse to the Mad May and GCHQ policy ...

which is to locate and store every bit of information.

And another reason for May to resent the EU.

Did you hear that the GCHQ has recorded the serial numbers and associated information for every storage system presently in use?

Why do they do all these things? Just because they can?

They seem to forget they are spending UK tax dollars - or forcing ISPs to increase charges.

Lawyer letters are written to say whatever you want to read into them

A while back a senior executive once asked me if I had ever had legal training. I said no, but I know how to use the English language.

His question came about because I had written a report that had split the board members who read the report - they couldn't agree precisely what the conclusions were.

Lawyers, too, are trained to write truthful lies, which can be read either way.

To my eye, this statement reeks of avoidance - somewhat clumsily - and as a result anyone dissecting it will come up with a different conclusion.

IBM should have simply said that it complies with all laws on privacy and disclosure in all the jurisdictions where it operates and they are prevented it from giving a more forthright response.

End of question.

Type approval might be interesting ...

with some officious regulators thinking any change is bad.

Great concept, though, should do well so South Paws (l/handers) can have cell handsets that fit their needs precisely.

And people complain about the ...

NSA/GCHQ? Why would anyone want to share this sort of stuff with Amazon, the outfit that steals underpaid employees wages, makes them wait - in their own time - to use the toilet or get security checked out of the building?

Amazon is evil. Period.

Until now I have found a pencil and paper, stuck on the fridge door, quite sufficient technology to make a shopping list.

Here in SaiGon we have it even better. When I drive down to the local cho (peoples market) I pull up at my favourite store and the assistants immediately recognise me and remember what my usual needs are - no technology needed. Nearby merchants, whose eyes never stop roving, call out and try to do a deal, which is immediately bettered by my favourite store!

The only drag with buying really fresh food is that the fish won't lie still, so the fishmonger whacks them across the head to keep them still until I get home.

So away with your privacy invading technology, Amazon - and start paying your workers the proper rates.

When the going gets tough ...

the losers start suing.

When will this stupidity end?

At least KOH shows she has the guts to tell either party where to go.

"As a rule, the White House objects to ..."

Who is this guy? He still visits the toilet.

As a rule the White house ... doesn't murder American citizens without a trial;

As a rule the White house ... doesn't tap everyone's telephones (except Nixon);

As a rule the White house ... doesn't seek revenge on Whistleblowers;

As a rule the White house ... doesn't lie as egregiously as this one has.

The people own the White House, the occupants are temporary tenants. Landlords set the rules of Tenancy.

There wouldn't be a problem if it was Apple, Boeing or Lockheed, et al.

Just another blatant ...

money grab from a country in financial trouble.

How can anyone miss one of those weird looking Google cars - so many people are aware of them these days - even in developing countries.