Posts by JaitcH 3904 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Oct 2009
I learnt a few choice Hindi and Marathi phrases which work as well as an Fbomb.
They must have some number recognition software on their system as after a few clicks I end up in a UK call centre.
Did you know that most Indian call centres are run /owned by a California company?
I was in Toronto, Canada when the power went down 6-7 years ago for 3 days or so. Few people had made preparations such as laying in candles, canned food, et.c. Fortunately the processed water supply is gravity fed from reservoirs located in the higher land north of the city.
Countries where the public electricity supply can be 'intermittent' are far better prepared. Even residences have small gasoline-powered generators, and cans of gas/petrol to refill the tanks. High-rises all have auto-switching generators, as do hotels and even restaurants.
The cellco networks are protected with small, auto-start, propane powered generators to charge the batteries, In the northern climbs, where the are some hills/mountains up to 3000 metres high, protection ensures continuous power for days on end.
Most all of the computers in my office are laptops, chosen mainly because of their 'power-fail' protection offered by batteries. All our LANs and WiFi units are similarly protected. Our lighting is by LED which are again low voltage.
In the States cellco's operated by telco's such as A T & T have no excuse as the telephone switching centres typically employ 'battery' technicians who spend all their time providing TLC to banks and banks of batteries to ensure their long life. The real reason the batteries are there is to ensure reliable communications.
Cellco's, from what I have observed, tend to be on the cheap side, maybe a bank of rechargeable batteries to provide a few hours power bridging, certainly nothing to ensure continuous operation for several days. The FCC is in a position to modify cell licences to ensure there are minimal power fail working conditions.
Given the profits cellco's make, it is not as if they can't afford the tax-deductible outlay, it's just they don't plan properly.
Now, in Canada, office space rental advertisements often trumpet that they have 'uninterruptable' power!
I've heard of similar being used over here in VietNam, except the gun-toter is replaced by a couple of thugs carrying nasty looking chunks of wood.
Solves all manner of labour problems, as well as complaining customers and tardy payers.
Guess Bill has adopted the ways of his new country very well. I wonder if Apple has a 'get out' clause.
Christmas Day never seems the same when the weather is in the 80's, so we put the Christmas vacation over until Tet, it runs until February 12, and often stores have a bit of a New Years discount.
So we get to save a little. The iPhone knock off from China, it uses the iOS6-JB, seems to be the hot item this year and it's displays Vietnamese with the correct diacritical marks. comes in a rainbow of colours, too. Guess someone has made off with the molds to squeeze the plastic for V4S - or someone's been working an unofficial night shift.
A district court judge for Bexar County, Texas, has granted The Rutherford Institute’s request for a temporary restraining order to prevent Northside Independent School District from removing a San Antonio high school student from John Jay High School’s Science and Engineering Academy because she objected to wearing a name badge signifying participation in the school district’s new “Student Locator Project.”
Source: < www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/on_the_front_lines/victory_court_grants_rutherford_institute_request_to_stop_texas_school_from >
There is just too much being forced on to students. I am Herandez' side, technology looking for a problem.
The RDIF system can be easily defeated by simply leaving the tag behind secreted somewhere, or covering it with alumin(i)um foil. For more permanent cures, placing the RFID-equipped device in a microwave, together with a mug of cold water, and giving it 15 second bursts of 100% power. Works well on UK Passports and larger denomination US dollar bills, too.
GAP clothing are sold with several RFID chips in each garment.
ACPO would have a field day with this stuff, with Plod carrying portable readers around so they can scan people and bring up their information and criminal records eliminating the familiar expression: "What's all this then?". Besides Plod now have a handbook for guidance such as the Warwickshire Police handbook Policing Our Communities.
I travel / cross borders frequently and in my experience the US is by far the worst, followed by the UK and Canada. I don't go to Australia.
Once you have had equipment 'borrowed' by the USA, they will annotate your ICE/Customs profile and being stopped will likely increase. The UK are a little better, at least they treat you with civility but just as pushy in seeking access. I have been given the usual "Password or 4 years" routine.
I explain it's kind of hard to use a password when there is no hard drive and it's like a car without an engine.
Canada Customs simply calls an RCMP tech who quickly copies the hard drive contents.
Smart-phones are treated similarly, they plug their little device into the unit and suck the contents - in the same countries.
In China and VietNam never a problem - they hardly even check baggage.
I wonder what the GCHQ wll do if Silent Circle proves they are eunuchs?
1. Canada is a sovereign nation and not subject to the Patriot At or any other misnamed US legislation.. If the servers are physically in Canada there is not too much they can do, without creating a lot of dust and noise; If the FBI wants in, they will be accompanied by a bunch of horsemen from the RCMP. Canadians are protected by a Constitution, 1982, which has continually proved to be a pan n the butt for government and is jealously guarded by our Supreme Court.
2. In my experience, NGO's and other potential users are well versed in the use of secure software.techniques - much is supplied through the Munk Centre at the University of Toronto. There are already established ways of transporting software in to adverse countries.
3. Ziimmermann has credibility, getting roasted, several times, by agencies of the US Government. See: < http://www.contra.org/pgp/PhilZimmerman.html > and < http://www.gimonca.com/personal/archive/philzima.html >.
Software encryption is legal in many of these countries, some, such as China require registration < http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/ELong_%28LONG%29/Register_Encryption_Software_Chinese_Regulatory_Authorities_They_Request >. Here in VietNam there are only restrictions on hardware-based encryption. No computer/smartphone equipment of mine has ever been checked at the border. There are restrictions on satphones but, again, I have had no hassles takng them in - with the antennae removed.
You overlooked that sad excuse of a copywriter at the Guardian, Charles Arthur, for whom Apple can do no wrong. The sun rises, and sets, on Cupertino.
It beats me how these Apple Trolls continue their sad boosting mutterings without their publishers just how much damage they do to their publications when this hero-worship is allowed to continue.
One thing readers appreciate The Register for is that it is beholden to no one, at least perceptibly.
For a country's capital city, Ottawa has to be one of the most boring perhaps only surpassed by Pyeong Yang.
The best view, apart from the roads departing the city, is of the Parliament Buildings sitting atop a cliff and viewed from Hull, Quebec. They also skate on the canal when t freezes over.
Organiser, a really gussied up address / activity / etc program.
It has one really neat feature, apart from the fact it works without fail is the address formatting option.
In one address book (you can have as many duplicate sections as you want to create) you a have UK, Canadan, US and Chinese addresses. Whilst the data page is displayed in the same formats, the addresses are output in the format of the country.
In the case of China the address appears, to Western eyes, completely reversed with the country name coming immediately after the addressee's name.
IBM support for Organiser has always been great, too.
The network 'chat' feature is really a neat solution to situations where, in the past, an application would have to be made for a licence, the radio equipment purchased and all the accessories sourced.
Then, with your system set up you would find yourself in the frustrating situation where the range was insufficient. Even worse, is where you an see the distant point visually and yet be out of working communications range - happened to me when I was working on a system in New Delhi. Luckily we had a solution, using IFR test sets with RF Amplifiers!
Using a cellco is so practical from so many points it makes sense.
The traffic police in VietNam use the government owned cellco VNPT for it's two-way communications with dial-out landline available to every traffic cop.
Knowing Apple, they most likely fitted an RFID device on the packaging and then donated 'security equipment', or, some of the competing smuggling gangs provided 'financial relief' to Customs officials.
Routing matters, too, the border gates are very busy at certain times of day and Customs checks minimal. Similarly for passengers taking the express commuter trains - pre-boarding checks are minimal and quick.
For a few moments I thought Samsung had released yet another version of the greatest smartphone around today!
Given that this discovery involved the aged Hubble Telescope, we have to grateful that the engineers fixed the wrong formula optics and that NASA has always found enough funds to send the maintenance crew up there.
How many other investments have returned such a bang for the government buck as has Hubble? The US Government deserves a hat tip for this one.
putting upgrades into immediate effect but rather waiting a week, or month, or two.
I always wait a week and wait for the 'testers' to bitch before upgrading software. Look at Firefox, rarely does a upgrade come down the wire that sn't followed by patches to patch the patch!
TP-Link portable 3G/4G Wireless N Router, model TL-MR3020with wireless speeds up to 150Mbps.
And the US Congress has never accused TP-Link of having back-doors.
I have used TP's products for years with great success. A poorly kept secret is that you an boost WiFi transmitter output with software patches available on line!
There were pieces in several newspapers recently saying Britain was about to make drones and they would be cheaper than US and Israeli units and Britain 'would capture a decent market share.' They showed some abandoned airport where tests were being conducted.
As is so often the case Britain's effort is too little, too late.
Cheaper in China, as usual.
I usually use Google to search for Vietnamese sources, even without using diacritical marks, with great success.
The problem is < www.alibaba.com > and when you go there it is presenting the whole spectrum of countries with China usually first, which isn't much use when you are sourcing in VietNam.
There is another web site I use for VN and that is < www.PanPages.com > which indexes suppliers both with and without web sites which is very beneficial since Vietnamese don't usually use the InterNet for sourcing. Often, to source something you have to use reverse and lateral techniques.
Even the countries largest supermarket, which has weekly paper-based promo's, doesn't up date it's web site every week.
For example, I needed to locate someone with a polycarbonate heating oven. I inquired of a polycarbonate wholesaler and learned from them the name of a polycarbonate manufacturer. Contacting the sales department, and explaining my dilemma, they gave me a few names of their customers who were volume purchasers. After contacting three, I located one with an oven of sufficient capacity.
I think Wada has a good chance of success as even manual sorting/categorising is cheap over here given the salaries paid.
I have a CNC shop offering laser and water jet cutting and we have recently gone to 24/7 operation as business is so good - all without a web presence - and I am a partner in a web site authoring company! We simply cannot handle more work without a new premises.
WADA filling a needed void!
The US has only one city that justifies the term "megacity" and that's New York. Ypou have to get around 10-millon souls (living) before you get to be mega.
And that city has police chief Kelly who is a law unto himself, he doesn't bother with judges.
AND the NYPD even has liaison offices in London and Toronto, etc.
So what, who do the Israeli's think they are? The USA?
It's high time the UN enforced all it's outstanding decisions against damn Israel including the inspection of their nuclear equipment - the original radioactive material having been delivered from US stocks.
Every day, legions of laddies and a few of their women walk around, electronically tethered to Plod or their bail supervisor, using devices attached to their bodies allowing their whereabouts to be monitored.
I wear a GPS device whenever I am out of the office and I rarely lose signal other than in jungle forest areas with heavily whetted leaves.. Others use the Joy GPS personal tracker, such as Spot.
Why is it so necessary to have new 'toys' for police and the military when off-the-shelf civilian equipment would suffice?
Besides. we all know where to find the Plod - down at the local greasy spoon scoring a big, free, cup of tea.
The need for having multiple GPS system systems is obvious. Although the US GPS system is wide open, thanks to Bill Clinton, the US has and does degraded the signal accuracy when the need occurs.
The USA and Europe don't always agree with each other and having Galileo gives Europe the ability to give the Americans the finger sign when the need arises.
If this lovelorn couple had these facilities to hand, likely the FBI would be busy trying to decrypt their love letters and Petraeus would still be CIA chief.
And what of Cameron's "what you see, we see" plan? May be he will have to resort the old bLIAR trick, your password or your freedom.
I can say most of China's populated areas suffer from pollution. I often visit GuangXi Province, in the south-west of the country, and the river that flows through NanNing, the capital, is so heavily polluted it is almost possible to walk across the surface in places.
I have seen the river burning, even.
Unfortunately, Chairman Mao's proclamation that there would be an iron smelter in everyone's back yard was the beginning of the heavily polluted period.
The other problem is that the building zoning regulations are weak and poorly enforced, read bribes vary planning conditions, which means residential properties can end up surrounded by industry,
The final problem is lack of pride through ownership. In countries such as China, Russia and VietNam the people, through the State, own the land and individuals and companies lease the land from the provincial level governments. This means a leaseholder really has no incentive not to pollute the land and therefore conditions can deteriorate badly, quickly.
reminds me of an early HP screen that used a matrix of IR emitters and detectors to determine the position of an operator finger. When an operator touched the screen, a pair of IR beams, one in either axis, would be broken and the appropriate action would be triggered.
Obviously, in the development labs in California, HP has a paucity of flies and other pests that are attracted to bright screens.
We were in an area where air-con was not needed, with fans quite sufficient to cool the staff, who also left the windows open. Flies and other multi-legged objects would land on the HP screens and go walkabout, which caused the systems to malfunction.
It took some time to determine the reason for the erratic operation, let's hope Viewsonic technology has overcome this hazard.
@petur
Thank you.
When driving in extremes, not those Mickey Mouse conditions that happen occasionally in the UK, the last thing you need is automation of any kind other than non-locking disk breaks.
I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles in extreme conditions. For example, when snow falls and stocks to the road surface, if the temperature continues to drop to -30 or -40 (C or F makes little difference), it is perfectly safe to travel at 80-100 MPH as the snow, unless packed hard, will "dry off' as the humidity is so low. The bare, freshly cleaned road surface is all that is left. Northern Ontario also have an insulation layer of about six feet of white foam under the otherwise normally constructed road. The foam reduces spring temperature cycling which causes roads to crumble.
In northern Ontario it is also common to drive across lakes, in the winter, when even fully laden log trucks cross the water then, although there might be a spacing of 5 miles to allow for stopping.
If you cross a frozen lake in a car/SUV, where there are no trucks, getting off the ice and onto the embankments also requires no automation.
The safest way to drive is to stick your rear end right in to the fold of the drivers seat, tighten the seat belt as hard as possible and then use fully non-auto settings. It's also what the truck drivers do.
I wonder if they should be tinkering with them.
Automation applied to road vehicles can be dangerous in certain situations.
Having driven in weather extremes in Northern Canada (Yukon and Ontario) certain types of precipitation an fool (trick) automatic systems and create situations that are unsafe that might not have without the system.
And what of the system mouse trails? Will they leave evidence in memory that can be used to prosecute the driver as is the case with seat belt triggers in North America? The Ontario Provincial Police regularly seize these modules to determine a drivers actions prior to a seat belt trigger. I removed mine from my SUV in Ontario so the OPP's Sgt. Cam Woolley types are unable to use them,.
P.S. My last 'at fault' accident was over 26 years ago, n case some do-gooder objects.
for even entertaining take down notices that aren't baked by a court order. I know MS works overtime and is one of the biggest users.
Google should publish the URL's of the subject takedowns so that we, the public, can be the judge of the reasonableness of these request, particularly those from the UK government.
Mr Justice Collins has got to be one of the more reasonable Beaks in the UK justice system, a realist.
Better the 'perp' be allowed to humour his needs on screen than getting into shampoo bottles!
These sentences handed down excluding the use of the InterNet is unrealistic and simply begs for offenders to re-offend and risk jail.
Congratulations, Mr Justice Collins!
Cameron, and GCHQ, should realise that as hard as they work sticking their long snouts into peoples private business, others are working just as hard to keep them out.
Silent Circle is securing the smartphone so the snoopers playing field is narrowing.
Why the public is accepting of these intrusions for all this security theatre beats me. All that is necessary is for the UK government to let the Middle East sort out it's own problems and the Blighty will disappear from these so called terrorists sights.
It is quite common for Chinese students to 'hook up' with Foreigners to earn some cash on the side to buy electronic bling, school books, clothing, etc.
The usual amounts are between USD$40-70 for a few hours of close encounter. They even use Bluetooth to attract strangers who might be seated in a restaurant and who have, unwisely, left their Bluetooth wide open.
I have chatted with some of these young women and what I find surprising is that they don't find it anything like 'hooking'. t seems there is a difference between living off prostitution and occasionally dabbling in fund-raising.
And in case you guys see it as a likely opportunity on a visit, bear in mind that STD and HIV is rampant!
Gven the absolute garbage that passes for TV these days, does anyone really want access improved?
Do you want to see some ageing matron of a Tory MP getting squeezed in a box with 5,000 bugs and labelled 'reality'?
We need more quality drama from the BBC as well as David Attenborough-type shows so children can learn.
and he had a full head of hair except his sideburns and temples were bare (bald) as he tugged at the hair when was tense.
And a service manager for a scientific instrumentation company, in Toronto, who lectured service job applicants on integrity and honesty (equipment was used for forensics). I declined the paltry pay offer.
Last thing I heard he was arrested for theft of platinum wire used for servicing the instruments!
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