Posts by Chris Pasiuk

Defining what's inappropriate... hmmm...

Oh the wheels on the bus go round and round... just like this plan will never get off the ground. It'll be bogged up in politics till something new and great (and shiny perhaps) distracts us yanks into spending more money elsewhere.

Honestly though, it should be delegated to the same services used by public libraries that also prevent people from using those systems to access 'inappropriate' material (theoretically) the real stopper is who's library are they going to pattern off of? NYC's or Wichita's? :P

Military Channel

Well, I have to admit that I've watched the show a number of times, and mostly because I am a military buff more than a rabid carnage viewer. It used to be Discovery Wings Channel but apparently there was too little aviation content to keep it going. The thing that George is missing is that the slant of the show is to provide information on developing systems for use by the military to help better protect the soldiers and people they are sworn to protect. I did love the segment on the mine clearing tool that I think was developed over in UK. An armored tractor with spinning chains on a drum, very medevil in design, but very effect on a strategic problem that unfortunately gets left over after the fighting stops.

I know the humanitarian choice is to not go to war, but we are still primative and violent in our nature and it will happen again and again. Increasing the suvivability of an army greatly increases it's chance of victory and perhaps even reduces the length of the conflict. I'll still watch the show when nothing else better is on the 200+ channels but unlike SoF, GnA, and the rest of the paramilitary rags, I'm not going shell out extra money for it.

I'm with Richard on this.

If he managed to fly a little too far south, he would have met up with a problem. Black helicopters with miniguns and a very convincing order to land on the long strip past the 2nd ridge. And with chopper emitting ECM, there's no signal that will get out no matter what device--vehicular or personal.

If you can't climb to the top of a ridge overlooking Area 51, what makes you think a puny aircraft will be allowed any closer? Besides, no flightplan, he's nuts in the first place. Nevada is checkered with controlled airspace not only due to the obvious Area 51 thing, but other military contractors that conduct missile testing and other research. Martin has a complex out that way as well with a test range.

He's cooling his heels in a stockade someplace. Because the place isn't supposed to exist, they also can't tell anyone that he's there either.

Beauracracy or simple physics killed the Skycar?

The concept seems plausible but just how stable can you make a VTOL aircraft at our current tech level? With or without ground effects in place, I'm sure both contraptions can fly, but not in any way stable as envisioned. Problem is that piloting aircraft of that type is it's like balancing mop upside-down in the palm of your hand. Even with computer controlled compensation, you're just adding weight, complexity and major cost. Add to that if you do go more than 10ft, you have to contend with other air traffic, meaning that your auto license won't cover it. The FAA has as much to do with clipping the wings of this project as anything else. It could be for good reason, but if you manage to actually haul the thing out to the desert for testing purposes, then why not do real testing instead of tethered tests? I'd even suggest relocating the testing division to someplace in the outback of Australia where they won't care that much if you get off the ground or leave another crater or two. The claims about the crane and tethers are all about insurance issues. Funny, I don't remember the likes of Lockheed Martin or Boeing being forced to do that during their test runs of x-craft. Moller should have sold the design specs to a bigger firm or get together with an actual successful radical free-tinkerer--Burt Rutan.

Roadster Toasties

Considering that they're using the same battery type that we've been using for the last several years in our laptops and cell phones... anyone have this innate fear that your $100k green machine may turn into rolling pyrotechnic display like all the Sony, Dell, and Apple laptops? Now if you can just figure out a trigger for this HUGE bomb... "in the name of Allah, I curse you for trying to impoverish my sons and daughters of their oil moneys in your decadent sports car."

Bush from Connecticut??? Spawned yes... from... HELL NO.

I had to check the "official" whitehouse bio on this, because our monkey-boy pres. couldn't POSSIBLY be from my home state. So he was born in New Haven, but grew up in Texas, ergo TEXAN--zero upbringing in the staunch conservative hub of New England. We yankees do NOT have a backwater steers-and-queers drawl to our speach*. And much like the Dixie Chicks, I'm ashamed that he was schooled in Yale. That in and of itself doesn't speak highly of that prestigeous ivy league university.

* - my appology to most people in TX, as Dubya represents only a small percentage of the ranch-animal loving population. To the rest I say, "O la, mi amigos!" >:)

Get on and get off or get off and get on

yeah... big deal...

<sips martini> 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... <monkey flips the switch> "ah... back to my martini. Anyone back there need a refill? Sergie! More vodka!"

Now if there were anyone in mission control heavy on the sauce, then there'd be serious hell going on.

Breach of 4th and 5th amendments

Apparently this is all in attempts to circumvent the incredibly difficult process of obtaining a wiretap order. Wiretaps laws have been put into place to prevent breaches of the 4th amendment in which "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Be it voice or data, telco or broadband, the gathering of this type of information is nothing more than a wiretap that is either being compelled from the defendent or legal secured from the ISP.

"The Court in Berger v. New York identified the following requirements for an interception order to be constitutional under the Fourth Amendment: (1) there must be probable cause to believe that a particular offense has been or is being committed; (2) the conversations to be intercepted must be particularly described; (3) the surveillance must be for a specific, limited period of time;(4) if the warrant is to be renewed, continuing probable cause must be shown; (5) surveillance must terminate once the conversation sought has been seized; (6) notice must be provided unless a factual showing of exigency is made; and (7) a return must be made on the warrant so the court may supervise and restrict the use of the seized conversations." also "Unlike traditional search warrants, a federal magistrate judge is not authorized to issue a wiretap. Only a federal district or circuit court judge may issue a wiretap." (http://www.monnat.com/Publications/Wiretap.pdf)

In addition the proposed court order is also requesting Torrentspy or any other future entity to possibly incriminate themselves by storing data that is not normally stored for day-to-day business use and is in breach of privacy policy. This would in essence force them to violate the 5th amendment where no person will be "compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." For pete sake, if you can't manage to satisfy the requirements for a wiretap on your own, you shouldn't be trying to force the defendant to provide his own evidence either.

The attorneys, and the judge need to be disbarred for even pursuing such action. Just for spite I would tack on a packet sniffer onto the server's net port and do a direct dump to a printer--in BINARY. Then walk into the courtroom with 3 pallets of copy paper boxes filled with sheets of 1's and 0's and tell them, "Here is more than you required, have fun. See you in about 2 years after you figure out what's in there. Oh, and here's the bill for the toner and paper supplies for this DAY's worth of data."

Life imitating fiction?

Like Pascal mentioned above, there are plenty of unsettling trends these days that are depicted in movies and other works of art. V was a great film and from reading El Reg for years, I can see some of the same stark parallels forming today. From the ricin-terror-spoof to even the 1984-esq talking poles with cams, the UK seems to be step-in-step with the USA in condensing and reducing everyone’s freedom for the betterment of the people and our safety. (Yet another oxymoron like military intelligence brought to you only by government)

Thing to keep in mind is how closely are we getting to repeating history? How much of a difference is there between a democracy and a fascist state—anyone in particular reminding you of Adolf? Are our respective governments that are supposedly run by the people becoming too powerful and elitist for the people? How easy is it to run for office—any office? Do you need a warehouse of cash that only a corporate mogul or crime lord can obtain to be in government? What makes a corporate mogul successful—the ruthlessness or the efficiency in their decision making? Do we want them as president/PM? Would a crime lord do better or do you even see a difference between politicians and crime lords?

Just sowing a few seeds of discontent... anyone up for a revolution? >:)

RE: Refreshing Change

This isn't all that new. EA Game's major cash cow from a couple years back, Battlefield 2, is still popular today and I still play it all the time. A C4 laiden jeep is still a great tank/troop killer regardless of you being on the MEC side or the USMC side. I enjoy playing both really, even though the vocal language barrier adds a another level of difficulty in command.

Here's the important note regarding that game and the general mentality of the people. There isn't a "good guy." Good guys are all relative to a particular point of view. There are only sides. The internet has effectively reduced borders to mere physical barriers between countries. Culturally there is nothing there to stop the flow of information. We are now more than any other time in history a huge conglomerate of people and we need to start acting like it. We all have our differences, but there's nothing wrong with that. Accept that Islam is a major aspect of Middle Eastern lives just as some form of Christendom is for the rest of us. Is either one better than the other?--no. Deal with it. Will there be times that someone's opinion may belittle another?--sure. Deal with that too.

I think that a cooperative venture between both sides would be a great thing. There'll be more cultural detail between both sides and that in the end neither would look better or worse than the other. They just need to say any polite apologies to one another about cultural misconceptions and hammer out a nice contract with each group providing content for each side. Of course if we could spread this to the political side, we can have a group of game players from each side meet in Geneva to settle any disputes and duke it out on a sanctioned game network...

...well, one can dream can't they?

re: Age of consent

You have to read the fine print here. The age of consent may be 16 but the statue for abduction dictates that the other party must not be older than 4 years. If she was say 21, then there wouldn't be an issue. But 31 is 14 years older making that a class-F felony. Age of consent laws in many states have that age-difference clause attached to it to prevent old farts from having their way with a consenting 17yo tart. Besides, this isn't a statutory rape case where consent is in question, but an attempted kidnapping case.

Stupid? Hell yeah for both sides--her for shooting so low on the age, the state for the repressive laws, and the parents for setting her up in the first place--or not paying enough attention to the kid to know what he's doing online.

RE: Funnily enough...

Clock down the processor by .001 Ghz. Been reading plenty on the OC community and for some wonderful reason, Core 2's don't like even numbers. My E6420 runs at 3.199Ghz in most cases. However, from what others here have been saying, if you're running a 64bit OS, than go get it. It's explaining the random but not unrecoverable exception errors I've been running into running x64.

GPL the source.

The software shouldn't have the slightest propriatary association with it. The US being turned into one huge service based economy asside, the only thing propriatary for ES&S should the be equipment alone. Everyone should be able to look at the code going into box. No binaries, no libraries, no OS structure. For crying out load this thing shouldn't be any more advanced than a calculator with memory function and paper tape--for audit trail--that's it. To justify the billions being poured into hiring engineering staff for simple jobs, like all American products, even the most simplest concept is overengineered into a complex juggernaught of mostly nifty but useless features.

GPL the code and checksum the resulting program at the start and end of the election. End of story.

re: Bacteria can't see...

Neither can a roomba either, not in the same way as we expect. Bacterial intelligence in reference to a roomba is dead on. Bacteria basically eat and move towards more stuff to eat. They may not see anything but are aware of their environment. If it didn't know where more food-stuff is it would quickly die shortly after the 1st bite. So a roomba works the same way, it knows where it is, and where it's been, and that where it's been is clean so more dirt is only where it's not been yet. The added bit of smarts is the unstucking logic as it were. Unlike bacterium, there is usually only a single roomba so it has to know how to get unstuck. Bacterium just reproduce to get around obsticles--"junior will catch that spot next to me."

Learned? Heh, not nearly enough.

I work for a county corrections department and I'm telling you from what I know she got preferrential treatment from day one. The female population is about 1/10th the size of the male in any jail, and she was kept in solitary the whole time. This being her 2nd offense on a DUI, a mere 45 days is the absolute minimum for most. Here in Pennsylvania, it's usually 4 months manditory for a 2nd offense within 10 years. If she was able to hang out with her fellow inmates she would have an opportunity to learn something if not the very least that she's more fortunate than some and to gain a bit more humility. Lady Justice is supposed to be blind and to weigh the punishment with the crime. With her, Justice was peaking.

I've known dogs smarter than Paris Hilton... and in tribute to blue-collar comdian Ron White, "You can't fix stupid"

Nothing beats actual work-place-weaponry

This is too cheesy and not worth spending the $17 for IMHO.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/07/06/usb_missile_launcher/

If you have the ability and the cash, getting the USB Missile launcher would be the best tool to unload some stress. With the precision accuracy of a Desert Storm era Scud, you CAN hit your boss with one of these babies.

hmmm... perhaps it was unwise to post here?

I do have to agree with the author on this one, that there is a vast store of knowledge available and it's a double-edged sword in its use. Just for kicks, Google your own name and see how many hits are actually you. Thanks to the comments on El Reg, I have a few that all point back to here. Also found someone else with the same name as me out in Michigan--of course that may actually be a Christina in reality, but nonetheless, she also pops out. Considering that I have a really rare last name in the scope of things, this is by far impressive. Not only could my views here have certain reprecussions to my career and social life, but I may also inadvertantly taint someone else as well. To determine who is really who, there needs to be more detail pertaining to history and time to really lock it down. Honestly I can say that I have only passed through Michigan in my travels but who's to know if my boss or someone else doing a random search on me would know to make that distinction?

Bogus

There was some muttering a few weeks back where all of us "pirates" would tremble due to a federal law that Gonzales was pitching. It was to "relax" the evidence statues to include intent as well as commitment. I read that one and the current copyright law with one distinction noted: Copyright infringment is a CIVIL offence that you can be sued for. Theft is defined as the production and distribution of copyrighted information for profit. Every paragraph and clause in federal copyright theft law is in reference to the sale or profit from and not for personal use and distribution. Copyright theft statues are geared to stop the "discount" DVD suppliers and counterfeit software vendors. This is the first case I've heard where this is applying to an individual that was not profiting from his actions. (I could be wrong here if he was charging for site membership or something like that) Because infringement is a civil offence it has to be initiated by the company that is being infringed as a law suit--hence why the RIAA has their ghestapo legal team issuing out suits to every teen with a torrent client and not sicking the Feds after them. I'm not a lawyer so take this with for what it's worth and the laws may be different in other countries. This shouldn't have become an extredition case but a fat law suit case by every software company that has had their product cracked. It would be a far greater punishment as he would effectively be paying them off till he dies.

This may augment my search of useful reviews

There is one thing I have to say about user reviews. I look at them with more of a keen eye than published reviews. Sure the paid author may be more tech savy and the site's resources offer more of a standard baseline, but there is always a nagging feeling that their reviews may be skewwed to reduce potential advertising losses from the company they're reviewing product for or just to make sure that the editor doesn't sack him/her for trashing a product. (Reg HW not included)

Users don't get paid for posting and offer real-world results with every part of the product from purchase to use. I just picked up a Saitek x52 flight system, friggin impressive rig and a little pricey. The first place I hit before buying it anywhere is newegg to see what others think. I still ended up paying $10 more and getting it at my local Best Beast, but that was to simplify any possible issues returning the thing if I didn't like it and reducing the wait time for shipping. (instant gratification is a curse and a blessing) Depending on the product, there's usually dozens of people posting opinions on products from the common to the essoteric. Newegg's prices aren't always the best, but they do have a steal every now and then and it still beats the crap out of paying retail for a limit product selection at a BB or CompUSA. Half my current system was bought from the egg, the other half from other vendors that undercut Newegg's price greatly or offered a better package deal.

Tha-Tha-That's Right... We're All Do-Do-Do-Doomed. Wanna C-C-C-Coke?

I read this stuff and keep getting flashbacks of Max Headroom episodes. Permanently on TVs so the ads can stream at you while you're asleep, bio-implanted IDs/Credit chips, and civilization under the control of corporations with governments being nothing more than a placebo for the masses.

I'm still searching for an island that I can call my own that's not under the umbrella of some petty government. :P

split candidacy is a bad thing, a 3rd doesn't make it better.

I think it'll be a cold day in hell if Gore decides to run for office again. He knows he is doing far more good out of the political spotlight than if he would be if he was in the oval office. Besides, it's not like I'm a supporter of his as I think that most americans will remember the last attempt and not gain him any ground in the first place. As of now, we've got the one guy (and too tired to look his name up) that's being backed by Oprah and there's also good old Hilary Clinton in the Democratic race for the big chair. One of them HAS to back down unless we want another 4 more years of corporate-favored Republican politics. Gore as the 3rd contender would only make matters worse for the Demo and he knows this.

New Flash: US DoD Servers Blacklisted as Spam Hosts

In an unprecidented assault in the war on terror, the US Department of Defense authorized the use of it's computer network to pass along emails of Islamic women stripping. Emails with the subject "Peek under my Burka" were sent out to billions of suspected users world wide. Any one caught NOT opening the email will have their IP addresses logged and the Dept of Homland (in)Security notified. It's believed that this is a way of "tagging" all fundimental Islamic extremist as it is a sin to see women this way and true followers of Mohammed will just toss the email. Because of this ethically bad use of computer hardware all the DoD servers have been blacklisted. Due to this blacklisting now everyone will be tagged.

Welcome to the new world order.

Ok, so what if there is no intent for profit?

I mean, will I get busted criminally (not civilly--RIAA) for a HD full of MP3's and an active P2P connection going but not a penny transacted upon? Of course that may be another violation but the above read much like "it's ok to do it so long as you don't profit from it." And is that $1000 limit total for all products or a single product? If it's singular than that warehouse of DVD's wouldn't fall into that catagory as the cost of DVD movie is only $15 in most cases.

In any case, this is all driving me nuts... Need to find an Island where I can form my own government and retire there. The UK may have a chance as Bush's lap dog is standing down. Sealand still for sale? Ah, wait, that may be too small and I can't afford a helicopter. :P

Why bother with flying cars?

Of course I would love one, as I'm just a few K ($) from getting a pilots license if I had the money to spend. But honestly, $250,000 to meet that list of requirements? I don't think so. The developement costs to do that would require adding one if not 2 decimal places. The easy to use part would simply require a variant form of auto pilot for it to be even reasonably safe. I think that AP system needs to be in place on road vehicles before we should aim for the air. (I know of test tracks and working systems but none of them have been put into production yet.)

Ummm... Shuttle plans?? y'kiddin.

Ok, the sub drive is pretty noteworthy, but shuttle plans??? We all will admit that our shuttles are nice pieces of hardware and have served not only the US but the whole planet quite well, but they're OLD! At the very least I would figure that the Chinese would want to modernize their plans for a shuttle substancially more than we have so that still will take some engineering. With that in mind, why don't they knock on their neighbor's door to the northwest. There is a perfectly good, although untested, Russian Buran shuttle just rusting on a lot someplace. Hell, for enough commodity goods in trade, they can have not only the Russian prototype but all the technical documents and research data to boot! Go fig.

Mixed Bag

Pictures are nice, maps are better. I for one use my PDA phone's internet ability to get me to a place in a pinch... provided I have a place to park the car for a bit so the download finishes. One thing of note with google's wap based search is that it streamlines other people's content so that it will work with your phone. Anyone try to hit Wiki using a Treo 650 directly? Can't read it at all. Go through google's search 1st and it becomes readable-granted it's still wiki and only marginally accurate but still easier to find info on obscure subject matter when needed to argue back at the missus. OneSearch does make it simple but does no conversion of pages. I have both in my bookmarks just in case.

RE: RE: RE: This method of spreading isn't new...

Umm... no autorun, but infected boot sectors--yes. As unlike most stick drives, people used to boot from floppy back then. Then of course you can add to it an altered directory tree or partition table, or variety of other hardware level vector points much like root-kits now. All of the lazy windows garbage and denser than snot CPU code specs have deluted our intelligence of computers and have turned us all into helpless sheep. Ba-a-a-a-a-d M$... must st-a-a-a-ay aw-a-a-y from the Scotch and West Virginians. (j/k)

RE: What am i missing?

Ok, here's the quicky remedial course as to why DRM blows large chunks. I am a user who actually pays for copyrighted material but unlike most of the lemmings in the world, I'm a bit more tech savey. DRM prevents me from using the material I purchased for my own use in any way I wish. It limits my ability to enjoy the said purchase to only what the corporations see fit for me to use. For example, I have a media server in my house and wish to load up the latest and greatest polka CD on it so I can stream it to any PC or device in my house. Oops, I can't! On-CD DRM protection prevents me from making a useful MP3 of the file for proper electronic storage. Ok, upscale this to HD-DVDs. I spent all of my hard earned cash for this multi-terrabyte media server and can't afford the HUGE price tag for multiple HD-DVD set top boxes for all those 42" plasma sets in my house (bought before the server expenditure, mind) So I want to load up that new HD-DVD of Harry Potter to my media server and stream it to any TV or PC in the house. Oh, but I can't again because that silly DRM device--encryption key--prevents me from enjoying the movie in it's full HD goodness. Oh look, I can get that key online, SWEET! Now I just need to feed that key into the media player appy I pick up on this Russian site... There, I can now--still legally, of course--enjoy the movie that I paid for.

I know that this arcane knowledge of encryption keys can be used for evil as well as the good I mentioned above, but no matter how hard or how sophisticated a system may be to prevent copyright fraud, there will always be someone or some group that will defeat it. Company's just need to deal with it and continue doing what they have been doing to combat it--focus on the distribution channels and not the tools used in frauding them. They'll have more success in long run and potentially save themselves more money in saved R&D cost and legal fees.

That's just my opinion, but who'd listen to a Potthead Polka fan anyway? :)

Freedom of religion means exactly that

'Bout time that Wiccan's get acknowledged more. I think the real movement began back in the 70's but it's been there for much much longer than that. This should have been done long ago. I mean c'mon little faiths like Sufism Reoriented, Eckiankar and the Japanese faith Seicho-No-Ie were in the list before Wicca? Ah, well, at least I don't have to worry about stone tests and that whole stake-n-fire thing.

Linux on PS3 = possible selling point

Granted I for one am not inclined to drop $600ish (US) on a console without some other meritous feature. The fact that it's still the cheapest route to go HD for personal video is the same reasoning behind my initial PS2 purchase years and years ago for DVD--before the throw-away $30 DVD players of today. Being able to load linux extends the usablility of the box to more than something to play with and increases shelf life.

Of course, this linux option still doesn't tip the scales in purchasing one as you can buy another PC for the same price and get more bang for your buck. Blue-ray VS HDDVD is still raging so there is that risk of getting shafted for video (see Betamax) in the long run if HDDVD wins the fight. Considering that I can load linux on my NDS I wouldn't be surprised if in short order you can do the same on a Wii. <shrug>

2nd the lack of heros motion

Ok, he exceeded anything that the police would have thought would have happened. But he locked himself up in a building and proceeded to shoot 30 more people and himself. The one itching thing that bugs me is, was he using an assault rifle with a 30+ round magazine? All I've heard was that this was a hand gun, which at best has only half the number of bullets in it than victims shot. Unless he was in the highly secretive (and nonsensical) VA Tech School for Assassins, anyone would have had those few seconds needed to pounce on the guy as he reloaded. If you think you're going to eat dirt in the next few seconds, do something to either prevent it or prevent others from ending the same way.

Wifi+SlingBox = Bad

At 54Mbps for wireless-G, I don't think that the SlingBox would have enough sufficient bandwidth to do the job. This would be one of the primary reasons for using a wired connection. I'm sure to be able to broadcast over broadband there is some level of downgrading the level of detail; but in order to get the best picture on any computer in the house, you need more than wireless can offer. I've tried streaming mpeg-2 video from my PVR to my wireless laptop with abismal results--on Standard TV no less, forget about HD.