Posts by Roland6 10727 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2010
From memory I think a company did put their Linux implementation through the X/Open (aka Open Group's) POSIX testing - a necessary requirement for inclusion in Government contracts.
If POSIX has been replaced by UNIX™ as a requirement for Government contracts then there will be distributions out there that will have been tested.
Unix was also pretty unique in that networking was included in the OS distribution for free and workstations were shipping with Ethernet (MAU) ports by 1985...
For practically everything else (*) networking was an extra and only available in proprietary flavours. The PC was open and hence had a wide variety of third-party networking solutions.
I forget when PC's started shipping with pre-installed Ethernet adaptors - my first laptop (a 386) in circa 1995 required a 3Com PCMCIA card, my 2000 laptop had an RJ45 Ethernet port and I think also desktops were shipping with motherboard RJ45 Ethernet ports.
The problem is the bus driver will be consuming regardless of whether they are driving a bus or being a couch potato, hence the use of an AI is additional energy consumption.
Interestingly, if we significantly reduce the population the economies of automation go downhill...
>Hire cars really ought not to require reading the manual before setting out.
Okay there are a few things you do need to get sorted out, like seat position, ignition switch, which lever is the indicators and which is the windscreen wipers, where the handbrake is and fuel cap release, otherwise it should be possible to simply move between cars and drive off without having to read the manual or having the garage/rental rep. taking an hour to explain how the car works.
>My current ride switches on the headlights when it's dark.
Mine does that, but is unreliable in fog and spray. The worrying thing is that I expect Tesla's with all their supposed tech also get this simple function wrong along with the operation of intermittent windscreen wipers...
@Jake - I can see why I'm missing the point, I think you are being overly sensitive, on the behave of a group who haven't complained - in my book a woke indicator.
My view is, given how feathers have been used in different cultures to mean different things, no one group can claim an exclusive right. However, I get cultural appropriation and its negative impact (eg. the swastika), so in my view this issue is whether the Apache Foundation have taken a feather of significance to native Americans and appropriated it. Hence why I was looking for firstly a similar feather and secondly a feather within a circle.
However, this is a digression, the Natives in Tech haven't complained about the Apache Foundations' use of a feather in their branding, just the use of the English word 'Apache' in their name, which as we know is a mispronunciation of a word spoken in another language.
I'll bite on this one also...
It is instructive to look at the EU's protected geographical status for food and drinks and protected designation of origin, which are also currently part of UK law, and the process products have to go through to gain protected status.
Whilst it is relatively easy to justify Wensleydale cheese, which owes its flavour to the combination of plants that grow in that area, which the cows graze on and hence has a very well defined geographic area for production.
The decision on Melton Mowbray pork pies was a little more difficult.
There are many other decisions including one on "Scottish beef"....
But basically, if you want something to be protected you need to apply..
I think Jake you are over thinking this. Been unable to find any examples of native America feathers that bear any similarity to the various feathers the Apache Foundation uses as logo's. I also note the Natives in Tech aren't complaining about the use of the feather, just the use of the word 'Apache'.
Yes to me the combination of Apache and the feather logo - particularly in its current standing up orientation, does tend to make the Native American connotation more obvious. However, this orientation of the feather has also been used to denote scribes and quill pens...
Thanks Yogan!
Managed to listen to the full show.
To everyone I suggest you watch at least the first 53 minutes of this episode:
https://twit.tv/shows/security-now/episodes/905
The problems uncovered aren't unique to LastPass, BitWarden has a number of similar weaknesses !
It would seem LastPass and the spotlight the security community have thrown on the latest breech should be a wake-up call to all providers of credential managers. As a user, you need to check your settings/advanced settings, and if you are a long-term user of LastPass (like myself) or other product, you should do this as a matter of urgency.
A password iteration count of 100,100 should be a minimum - the video recommends increasing this by at least a factor of 10. Long-term LastPass users may find this value to be 5000 (as it was in my case) or even 1...
@yogan - You've obviously upset someone for the down vote.
You are right LastPass's marketing combined with media references to 'vaults' does make it seem all the information in your 'vault' is securely encrypted by the master password, yet as you note the lack of detail in the disclosure does seem to indicate that only the passwords were encrypted, not the aide-memoire notes, payment cards, bank accounts and 'custom items'...
Whilst it would seem breaches occur, ie. we should expect account credential data to be targeted and accessed by unauthorised third parties, given the constant trickle of warnings from HaveIBeenPwned over recent years. What is perhaps a little disturbing about the silence from LastPass is the lack of information on what they are changing to improve security.
Zoom took their security issues on the nose and announced a security enhancement programme, I'm concerned that as yet LastPass - or any of the other password manager vendors/teams, have announced a similar security review, given we can be fairly sure (until this incident) the majority of cloud-based 'vaults' will have implemented a similar level of security as LastPass only as yet they have not knowingly been compromised.
The convienence of auto fill and password updates being shared between devices.
Obviously, you can export your passwords into a .csv and turn this into an Excel encrypted backup. Although I remember seeing some article marking password managers down for having a facility to bulk export their repository...
That isn't what was said.
My 20 year old washing machine has a number of wash programmes which according to the manual broadly correspond to 30/60/90 minute washes. However, as the machine has various setting (stains, extra rinse, short spin etc.) and sensors (load, water colour etc.) a wash programme can be shorter (or longer). As far as I'm concerned based on my selections my washing machine is always ready to be emptied after an hour, hence I simply organise my 'washday' time and activities around this. Similar applies to the tumble drier. This way the washing can get done whilst being slotted around a load of other jobs...
I just don't see any benefit in rushing to sort the washing out, just because the programme has finished after 50 minutes rather than 59 minutes...
>all the "smart" devices in your home should connect to a central security hub. Something that you have control over, which has its own long term support.
That's consumer friendly, it would mean people could use devices from different manufacturers and thus avoid vendor lock-in etc.
If government(s) were to require this way of working, I expect we would see the IOT/smart industry getting together and hammering out Standards, just as we've seen in computer networking...
>appliances that use same parts across multiple brands.
I'mm actually happy with my Siemens washing machine using many of the same parts as the cheaper Bosch and Neff branded machines from the same manufacturer, it means I get cheap parts combined with an easier to repair machine.
Aside: Generally the longer lasting machines are designed in a way that expects an engineer to have to replace parts, however, when the drum bearing needed replacing it was simpler and cheaper to replace the entire factory-assembled drum assembly than just replace the bearings.
>The car I was looking at,
needed an app on the phone to open car door / turn it on,
how long would that be supported
This is not quite as trivial as some would believe.
The app which would have been released when the car was launched, which we could reasonably expect to work on 'currently' shipping versions of iOS/Android. Support will be needed (over 20 years?) to both maintain that app so that it works on new releases of iOS/Android and that the updated version will continue to work on previous releases and that the iOS/Andriod stores continue to make available these older OS versions available for (new) download.
I can see many people deciding to use old phones for many of these smart devices, particularly where the device/vehicle is used by multiple people with the old handset effectively becoming a physical key..
>did nobody consider searching for parts available from a breakers.
Life was so much easier back in the 80's, you visited a couple of local scrapyards, locate vehicles with the part you required, assessed vehicle condition and part for damage and wear and if happy remove and haggle over price (hoping you had sufficient cash in your wallet).
Now I have to look up the part(s) I want, to get the part number(s), then visit 'auction' sites to find parts that have already been removed from unspecified and unseen vehicles...
Not saying it isn't useful to be able to effectively visit every scrap yard in the country and get a price before you've committed, just that it isn't quite as straight-forward as some try and make out.
>To the extent that the tech press is meant to help consumers make purchasing decisions, lack of discussion of this is a failure.
I've made a habit of adding a suitable comment to such articles.
Example 1: laptop review that doesn't assess the built-in webcam, microphone and audio - the world has been using Zoom et al for two years now...
Example 2: Mobile phones: channels supported, peripheral device support - does it support ANT+, which point release of Bluetooth, which WiFi standards and how many inbuilt antennas etc.
>The big reason that the government promotes "smart" meters
And the energy companies like them as they can remotely switch them to prepaid mode without gaining access or the explicit consent of the bill payer. Have a direct debit payment fail and you are on dangerous ground - hence why there has been a rapid increase (several hundreds of thousands) in the last few months of homes on prepaid meters...
> Which we also ignore. And yes, if they turn up on the door, at some point, I will - very politely - tell them to continue their work elsewhere
I had an engineer visit pre-lockdown, they got their tools out of the van and the skies opened, it was now too risky to play around with electricity so he packed them away and my meter 'upgrade' postponed, I'm still waiting to be offered a date when the engineer will visit again.
>The only smart option I'd want on a washing machine is a camera so I could watch the washing going round and round. I find that really relaxing.
For the full effect you will also want the audio.
I had a quiet smile at a friend's neighbour this weekend. They aren't allowed to smoke in the house, so they smoke in the garage, for a reason I didn't ask about, the washing machine and tumble drier are situated in the garage, he had a comfy chair situated directly in front of them where he could watch them and the street...
>Those old Fridges, washing machines and PCs are sometimes so inefficient,
Fun thing is once you disconnect from the grid, things get turned on their heads.
With solar panels producing more electricity than many households typically use, but with no real incentive to sell the excess back to the grid, it doesn't really matter if the washing machine is 20 years old. Likewise, with solar-thermal panels you get lashings of hot water, so having devices that can actually take a hot water feed (with solar-thermal you effectively put the water heater directly behind the machine so the machine gets 95C water almost immediately) becomes more useful.
BTW it is worth looking up the specifications of those 20 year old machines and comparing them with modern machines. When I did this for my washing machine and tumble drier I was surprised just how small the changes in real world energy consumption were. Yes the new machines had the super eco programmes but if your weekly family washing is 5+ loads do you want each wash to take circa 3 hours or under 90 minutes? similar considerations apply to the tumble drier and dishwasher.
As for the old freezer, just remember chest freezers have always been more energy efficient than upright.
>All thermostats have a frost-free mode that should mean the pipes never freeze.
Not the case.
My (dumb) radiator thermostats have a frost setting, never used as I would like my rooms to be a bit warmer.
My (dumb) room stats only have power when the central heating is on and is a simple bimetallic strip.
My (dumb) boiler does have a frost stat, only to prevent the boiler itself freezing. This is the same as the stats in 'smart' combi boilers.
The controller is intelligent only so far as to run the preprogrammed heating/water cycle.
If you don't want the pipes to freeze then you have to either run the heating or install trace heating.
Personally, I would install trace heating on all pipes that are affixed to an exterior wall - the interior surface of a north facing wall exposed to the wind can get very cold even if the cavity has been insulated.
>and checking how much fuel i have was actually useful before I got in Especially if the Wife had used the car previously,
I found in these circumstances it was sensible to always check the car the previous evening - too many early starts to catch a red-eye flight where fitting in a petrol stop at an open garage within the mileage left in the tank was non-trivial...
Also those mornings where the other half was departing first and wanted to take "your car" ie. they knew their car was practically empty of fuel...
>well, once the 'dynamic' pricing of the home grid becomes reality
I assume it will become a lot like an Ebay auction so you'll only really know what the price is at the start of the period, in your example at 3:01 a.m. Naturally, if your bid is unsuccessful, your meter will limit/shut-off your electricity until such a time as your bid is successful...
>Being able to take a few moment in the lunch break to see how much power the panels are producing, and to decide whether or not to start a pre-loaded dishwasher could be handy.
If you've got time to do this, I suggest you need to think about getting a life.
About the only things I want to know about before I walk in are:
The freezer has stopped working, or "pick dinner up on the way home as we're out/running late".
I found allowing 'Girlfriend' or 'Boyfriend' to be entertained at home does wonders for both the "disease laden pit" aka bedroom and for Boys to overcome their aversion to baths et al.
Allowing the holding of a New Year party, got the entire house tidied both beforehand and afterwards...
Icon, because you'll need a few to calm the nerves and they can serve as rewards for well-behaved teenagers.
>"publicly release all code and schematics, from client device to server systems and for all freely accessible"
Suggest 20 years rather than 25 and so aligned with patent protection. And for the disclosure to commence after 10 years to registered third-party repair agencies - so the after-market is able to pick this up, just as they do with spare (physical) parts. Given the major white goods manufacturers currently participate in this service and maintenance market, it shouldn't cause that much of a disturbance...
>Except, of course, the mish-mash complex warren of variously licenced components
With a statutory requirement to disclose, I suspect this will have a massive impact on the way stuff is developed. Wouldn't be surprised if the entire process becomes more aligned with open-source ethics.
>and not keep re-inventing the "look and feel" for each and every new model
Its only really Microsoft who have championed the mixing of core functionality with the "look and feel" - there really is no good reason for Windows 10/11 to have the same mangled code as Win95. Remember with Win3/WfWg the desktop aka Program Manager sat on top of the core windows functionality, hence why others such as HP were able to build their own version of Program Manager.
>If you have regular working hours
For many years I worked irregular hours and locations, I was able to manage with a programmable thermostat etc.
Although I did once have a close call with a frozen water supply, but the application of a trace heating strip with a frost thermostat solved that particular problem.
From the work I had to do with my daughter's uni. flat, I think too many people believe the most economical use of the heating is to only have it on when you are in the house, not that you actually need it on to keep the structure dry and prevent mould growth.
So I basically set the room state to always come on if the ambient temperature falls below 14C (*) and then give the house a couple of blasts which get the temperature in those damp places mould likes to grow well over 12C so they dry out.
(*) Interestingly, I've come across a number of insurance policies where if the house is to be left vacant with water in the central heating system and pipes then the minimum temperature needs to be set at 15C and the house to be visited at least once a week...
>The so-called "whiny lefty" as we know it today is a creation of the right wing, ... This segued into 'victimhood culture'
Agreed, the right wing have done a good job of elevating their victimhood culture (they are victims because the isn't running how they believe it should) to the point where many simply accept their highly distorted view of the world as being normal...
We should all be rushing back to "the Office" just so that the ‘the honourable member for the 18th century’ can be happy...
There are two things here.
The first is a Windows computer allowing inbound Guest/anonymous access, which seems to have not been the default since Windows 2000.
Obviously, when I set up a network shared folder, I have the choice to limit or not those who can access that folder, hence this proposal would seem to suggest that the option to enable 'everyone' to see a folder is to be withdrawn.
The second is a Windows user accessing a network resource, such as a NAS, which has been setup with open to all unauthenticated access. It would seem from the article, MS are implementing stuff that will block a windows user from accessing such a (local network) resource, without having to jump through hoops. Yet obviously, everything I access through Edge (ie. Internet resource) is effectively only available to me because Guest access is a given...
It would seem from the observations made by Steve Revill, RISC OS Open has gained alot of real-world experience on this process; I wonder whether this has been documented and thus available to a larger audience.
If not, perhaps this could be a basis of a PhD thesis...
>In my world, there were far more people doing programming and interfacing than building compilers
That is always the case, those writing compilers and other essential development tools always will be a small minority.
The IBM-PC/8086 was a bugger to write a decent C-compiler's code generator for...
From memory many early C-compilers for the IBM-PC/8086 just restricted themselves to generating small memory model code (code in single segment, data in single segment). The better one's also supported some other models such as small code, large data.
Can't comment on other CPU's, but reputedly the Motorola 680x0 and the National Semiconductor Series 32000 architecture were more high-level language and compiler friendly.
>FORTH is inherently object oriented which is one reason why many properprocedural programmers don't like it.
Object-oriented programming requires a way of thinking that is difficult for those brought up on procedural programming. One of my Uni. lecturer's point-of-view was that we should be teaching logical and declarative programming languages (such as Prolog) as people's first language which is a small step to object-oriented...
>Perhaps the US should get the rollout first from time to time instead of the rest of the world beta testing installation-hosing patches for them. Only fair, right?
Otherwise given the frequency of failure a good (US no-win-no-fee) lawyer could probably get Windows and Windows Defender updates categorized as WMD's...
>"We are not far away from being able to run such large models on a desktop computer.
The moment someone releases such model into the wild, it will be over for Microsoft"
By then expect the majority of users to be locked into a Microsoft subscription and running either a MS cloud desktop or a MS on-prem cloud desktop...
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