Posts by Yet Another Anonymous coward

Re: A fine piece of German engineering

Yes, enigma doesn't rely on obscurity.

Capturing a machine helped verify the mathematical approach to cracking it but didn't make it any less secure.

Given enough sample data and probable plaintext sections the sole weakness, that a letter can't be encrypted to itself, allows you to crack it without exploring the full key space

But the real failure, like all security systems, is that it was mainly used by idiots

Re: A fine piece of German engineering

I think the main problem was the manufacturer being forced to put in a backdoor by GCHQ

Re: Concorde

There is a podcast with an SR71 pilot where he describes orbiting over Cuba and being asked to change altitude by ATC.

He pointed out that he was at 60,000ft (IIRC) and asked WTF they thought might be in his way?

He then saw a concorde go by and thought of all the passengers sitting in their shirt sleeves sipping champagne while he was in a space suit sipping warm water through a straw.

Used to fly UK->LA regularly in the 90s

Always booked Air New Zealand for their ancient 747s

No fancy entertainment but they had comfy well spaced seats in peasant class - and served a nice cup of tea with jam scones. God Bless the Empire

But you don't fly BA for the modern, clean, well-equipped aircraft.

You fly it for the nostalgic, 1970s we're a nationalised industry with a union, customer service

Re: Hubble revisited

Hubble's mirror and a big chunk of the bus sized main body will survive rentry and you really wouldn't want it to land on you.

There was a plan to use the Shuttle to either boost it to a parking orbit or add a motor to allow a controlled rentry - but the shuttle got canned before that could happen.

Current plan is to point out that it is in an orbit which barely touches florida and so can't land on anybody imortant

Re: hd ready

Probably Bittorrent

Re: Maybe there are similar satellites to the JWST already in orbit.

No

Re: 2021 a space impossibility

The telescope is named after a NASA administrator, so far it's proving a great monument to him.

It's not clear that launching it was ever the intention

Re: RE: but none looking at the mirror

Perkin-Elmer tested the mirror, NASA accepted the suppliers reports without any of their own tests.

Famously they did a huge amount of verification of PE's testing procedue but no verification of the test

>ensuring proper procedures and the safety of the equipment.

Well 1 out of 2 ain't bad.

On Hubble they had 50 quality engineers onsite checking PE's procedures - but none looking at the mirror

Pseudocode is useful if you are looking for somebody to do algorithms rather than just grind out code in language X.

I also try and avoid standard "rebalance a tree" type standard algorithms, I'm not interested in how long ago you revised from SICP - I try and find things in the work we are doing.

But not asking any write code questions at all? You would be amazed at the number of people with a CS degree that can't program fizz-buzz

Re: Its in California where..........

>those "known to cause cancer" signs haven't actually changed anything here in California.

Yes they have, they made things less safe.

I see the sign on the door, assuming it means you have white board cleaner or printer toner - and I realize I'm looking at a row of open anodizing baths.

It's like labelling everything in the store as poisonous and wondering why the kid drank the weed killer

Re: Oy, less dissing of Mountain Lions, they're lovely...

So evil vicious little buggers when they feel like it then?

Re: Satanism

Added to which, if your God is half goat you don't want to go around sacrificing animals in case he takes it personally

Re: Its in California where..........

They have had to change the sign from "abandon hope all yee that enter here" to "hell contains substances known to cause cancer"

Re: Follow the money

How primitive, counterfeiting rice.

Civilised countries make $Bn from counterfeiting inter-bank interest rates

Re: Obviously found a security hole in Twitter

Or it's Trump doing it. I hear he has some debts to pay and the NSA on speed-dial

Re: A sad day

Trump's statement shows that the ban is purely a political attack on China.

Trump banned, well put a 300% tariff on, Canada's competitor to the Boeing 737 - that sounds like bullying

Has Chris Grayling been put in charge yet?

>Just assume no deal

A proper no-deal 'à la Farage' ? With no filthy foreign goods or people allowed in and a similar response from Europe? I think I could code that for 115M quid in 6 months.

Perhaps the project could called "computer says no..." ?

Re: The positives

Do we even know the rules for visiting the eu next year?

I know exactly what I had to say when visiting the USA for a business trip under visa waiver. Is there a visa waiver scheme for the eu, is there a visa for all these lorry drivers or do they need to stop walf way across and hand the keys to an eu driver?

Re: Detracts from journo standards

>Or more likely *Bolton* authorized it

Yes, but Trump coloured in the circles in the 'o's

Re: Fake News

"Milk Marketing Board"

Why do you think milk needs marketing?

You buy it, you drink it, we've been doing it for 10,000 years.

What does the MMB really do all day?

Wake up sheeple(*)

* - you can also get milk from sheep! That's proof, that is.......

Just a simple off by 1000 error