* Posts by Pen-y-gors

3782 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Oct 2010

NASA to fire 1Gbps laser 'Wi-Fi' ... into spaaaaace

Pen-y-gors

Re: Another slight issue?

I wondered about that. Point the ground laser at a 'router' satellite in geostationary orbit, but then the satellite needs a separate laser rig to pass the data on to each space vehicle, which won't be in geostationary orbits and could have much larger angular velocities relative to the satellite than for the ground ones. And that kit could be quite heavy. Probably cheaper to do it directly from the ground, but still not easily expandable.

Pen-y-gors

Another slight issue?

The article says it needs to be very precisely aligned. So, even if you get over the issue of line-of-sight from a network of base stations, doesn't that mean that you'll need a separate ground-based laser + tracking/aiming hardware for each space vehicle you want to talk to?

Not a major problem at the moment, but does rather limit options for expanding the system.

Fake mobile base stations spreading malware in China

Pen-y-gors

These guys are smart

Serious-grade scum of course, but they are seriously ingenious. Makes you wonder how rich they'd be by now if they decided to use their brains for something vaguely legit.

Defence in Depth: A 'layered' strategy can repel cold attackers

Pen-y-gors

Simple solution

Very useful and well-thought out article This is a very complicated issue, and it's obviously easy to miss one tiny hole..

Simpler solution: Pay someone else to work out what to do! And make sure you can sue them if they cock up.

Or move to an underground cave on Rockall.

That 'Trump lawyers threaten teen over kitten website' yarn is Fakey Fakey McFake Fakeface

Pen-y-gors

Are lawyers allowed to lie?

The Trump Organization's chief legal officer says no such letter was ever sent. "This is completely false," Alan Garten said

Now, if a genuine C&D letter is shown to exist, then this guy has lied - not told an alternative truth - lied. Is that something that their Bar Association (or whatever it is) needs to be looking at? Can he be struck off?

Pen-y-gors

Re: It's fake news folks.

Domain tools are a bit of a clincher.

Tip for darknet drug lords: Don't wear latex gloves to the post office

Pen-y-gors

Re: stamps?

@TeeCee

True. But surely they don't need proof of identity to pay with cash? A cheque possibly (likely given his general level of smarts) Or was he trying to pay with Bitcoins?

Pen-y-gors

stamps?

You need to show a driving licence to buy a stamp in the US? Please don't give May ideas...

Nokia blasts 250 Gbps across Atlantic in optical test for Facebook

Pen-y-gors

No-one will ever need 32 Tbps per fibre...

Okay, we may need a bit more capacity to stream cat pictures and porn via an Icelandic VPN, but 32Tbps? per fibre?

Actually, I'm wrong. This actually reveals some very secret research into Teleportation. Some bright spark has got hold of and developed alien technology to allow physical objects (people) to be broken down into a very, very large datastream and transmitted to distant places where they are re-constituted (almost) perfectly. Instant international travel AND you can take your laptop. Hence the need for silly capacity.

Now THAT'S a landslide victory: Astroboffins snap avalanche on a comet in science first

Pen-y-gors

Re: Nice work

Can we have a 'my mind is thoroughly boggled' icon please?

King Battistelli's swish penthouse office the Euro Patent Office doesn't want you to see

Pen-y-gors

The real culprits

Clearly any reasonable person would agree that the evidence revealed to date of King B's behaviour means that he should have been out on his arse a while ago, and subsequent detailed audits may reveal other action that needs to follow.

However, the big question is why he isn't. There have been several attempts to remove him which have been blocked by various national politicians. Why? Who has what on who? Cui bono? Europol must be good for something.

Now UK bans carry-on lappies, phones, slabs on flights from six nations amid bomb fears

Pen-y-gors

Re: Text search challenge...

"our top priority will always be to maintain the safety of British nationals"

I know what they're trying to say, but really they're just weasel words. If safety was their highest priority they'd ban all flights in, over and out of the country then they could guarantee that no-one would be killed or injured in or by a plane. Anyone who takes a boat to a foreign shore and flies from there only has themselves to blame if it goes wrong.

If they were honest they'd say that safety is very important, and they will take all reasonable measures to maximise the safety of passengers while attempting to minimise the trouble and disruption they suffer. But they don't seem worried about disruption. And how many people will die on American roads while the ban is in place?

Outgoing HPE workers stripped of gym cards and cushy remnants

Pen-y-gors

Beware of company 'benefits'

I appreciate that the poor HPE bods aren't being made redundant (yet), but it's possibly wise not to get tooooo involved with not-work activities at a company.

Many years ago I worked for a large insurance company that decided to reduce the size of the IT department. There were some volunteers (including me) but also some compulsory departures. Bad enough to lose a well-paid job you might say, but there's more...at least one of my involuntarily departing ex-colleagues had worked for the company since leaving school. He'd married one of the women in the punch-room, and they had happy children. Who used the Company playgroup and after-school/holiday club. Most of their social life revolved around a group of friends who also worked for the company. He played sport for the company and used the company Gym and Sports Centre regularly.

Did he keep those benefits? Of course not. Not just losing a job, but effectively losing many, many aspects of everyday life. I was lucky. I think I visited the Sports Club about twice!

WWE star's swiped sex snaps survey spam snares selfie sickos

Pen-y-gors

A judge writes...

What, pray, is a WWE?

'Sorry, I've forgotten my decryption password' is contempt of court, pal – US appeal judges

Pen-y-gors

Re: Already incriminated by a witness.

If they've got the sister's sworn testimony, why do they need the files? If the sister swore that she'd seen him exposing himself in public, would they demand photos (or it didn't happen)?

Beijing deploys facial scanners to counter public toilet abuse

Pen-y-gors

Re: An American visitor to London during WW II....

I believe the same thing was said to explain why Army 24 hour ration packs only contained three sheets (of the shiny Izal type). Whether that's enough for the effects of coming under fire several times a day I don't know...

GCHQ dismisses Trump wiretap rumours as tosh

Pen-y-gors

tr1ck5t3r - Troll under the bridge?

I have no idea if GCHQ are monitoring tr1ck5t3r, but I really, really hope his/her GP is...

Pen-y-gors

Re: Obama did not order it

She has him by the short and curlies.

and we know what he grabs women by.

Who pulls hardest?

Pen-y-gors

That was then...

this is now.

I sincerely hope that GCHQ are now keeping a very close eye on "President" Drumpf and his crazy cronies. Then we might get more than 4 minutes warning of the end of the world.

Shine on, you crazy Eind minds: Boffins fire out 43Gbps infrared 'Wi-Fi'

Pen-y-gors

Radical new idea

Oh, hang on...didn't my old mobile phone about 15 years ago have an option to communicate via infra-red? OK, not at 43Gbps maybe...

And aren't there line-of-sight issues?

Face down in a Shoreditch gutter: Attack of the kickstarting hipster

Pen-y-gors

Strap-ons?

" I would be wearing 17 mutually incompatible strap-ons. "

Time for the mind-bleach...

Judge issues search warrant for anyone who Googled a victim's name

Pen-y-gors

Re: Wait! What? They have our MAC Addresses?

Just tried whoer.net, and definitely no MAC address. IP address says I'm in Rejkjavik - oops must have 'accidentaly' turned my VPN on, silly me.

But the fact that I'm using UK DNS may be a bit of a give-away. Time to switch those as well I think, as well as preferred language.

Although why I need to be completely Anonymous to comment on El Reg I'm not sure. Paranoid? Moi?

Pen-y-gors

Judge Gary Larson?

Is a judge who seems to have stolen the identity of a well-known cartoonist the best person to hear this case?

User jams up PC. Literally. No, we don't know which flavour

Pen-y-gors

Numpty?

@not that andrew

"what sort of numpty"

Fair play here. I had the same story from a friend, but the user was a senior officer at the Met! But remember how the world was back then. We're probably talking early 1980s. Most of these users had never seen a PC before, and probably got damn all training. They read the instruction that said "Put the disk into the slot on the front of the computer". Okay, there's a long thin slot about the width of the disk and another odd thing with a funny bit of plastic in front of it that's blocking the hole. Looks a bit too wide anyway. I know which slot a lot of people would quite reasonably choose.

Spammy Google Home spouts audio ads without warning – now throw yours in the trash

Pen-y-gors

Re: Chatbots could totally be a trillion-dollar industry

But adverts have to be relevant and added when it’s least likely to irritate the user

I suggest advertising at 3am on January 3rd 2798. That shouldn't be too irritating.

Fire brigade called to free man's bits from titanium ring's grip

Pen-y-gors

just slide off without doing the job.....

One has to wonder what the 'job' it's supposed to do actually is? Maybe I live too sheltered a life...

Pen-y-gors

Titanium?

Why the fec did he need titanium? Balls of steel? Wouldn't a rubber band or a bit of string have worked as well?

BT's Openreach to hire 1,500 engineers

Pen-y-gors

And in other news...

Openreach announces 1500 engineers are to be made redundant....

Algorithms no excuse for cartel behaviour, says European commish

Pen-y-gors

Artificial stupidity

How does this impact those bots that are used to tweak the prices of 2nd hand books etc on Amazon, and which somehow end up offering an in-print paperback available for £8.99 elsewhere for £723.50? I have a theory that the bots are set to make the price 20p more than the cheapest copy, but that two bots with the same rule then bid each other up to silly levels - it's just a theory though.

Barrister fined after idiot husband slings unencrypted client data onto the internet

Pen-y-gors

Online backup?

Whether or not it was a shared computer, the bit that worries me is the 'cloud' backup that included features to allow files to be publicly read.

Call me a Luddite but local backup to an encrypted USB drive or stick which is then kept in the garden shed is a) faster b) not readily accessible by GCHQ/NSA (or, in this case, Google and the public) and c) a hell of a lot safer. Problem is the punters aren't experts and are seduced by the cloudy salesmen.

Dormant Linux kernel vulnerability finally slayed

Pen-y-gors

Re: Slayed?

@julian bradfield

This is one of the things I really love about El Reg - in theory we're all a bunch of hairy smelly techie-geeks who only understand computers, but we can get long threads on the nuances of English irregular verbs and mediaeval pronunciation. Priceless!

Pen-y-gors

Re: Slayed?

@frumious bandersnatch

"But, "Buffy the Vampire Fixer"? Eew. Who'd want to watch that?

Given the alternative usage of 'fix' as in "Since my old tomcat has been fixed he's been a lot quieter" the idea of 'Buffy the Vampire Fixer' could get a lot of viewers!

Pen-y-gors

Slayed?

I'm not absolutely certain, but that sounds wrong. Shouldn't that be 'slain'? Slayed only sounds right in the context of 70s rockers.

Facebook, Google slammed for 'commercial prostitution'

Pen-y-gors

No, the British GOVERNMENT are the stalinist control freaks, not the people.

UK Home Office warns tech staff not to tweet negative Donald Trump posts

Pen-y-gors

Free speech?

I don't think the Govt can have it both ways - either staff don't mention who they work for and so should have the same rights of free speech and criticising nutters as everyone else, or they say who they work for and stick to the official line.

Or have two personal accounts of course.

Family of technician slain by factory robot sues everyone involved

Pen-y-gors

Trying to see both sides here...

Sounds like the rules are all a bit vague and the legislation is a bit dodgy, but...

1) Depending on the type of maintenance being done, could it be necessary to have some power to the unit? This is complex electronics, not a Ford Fiesta that needs an oil change.

2) The deceased was a repair technician, so presumably fully trained and aware of how the robot works. Were all approved procedures followed?

America's Marine Corp steamy selfies scandal, a Senate probe – and El Reg to the rescue

Pen-y-gors

Backup?

Did El Reg take a 'secure backup' of the Dropbox folder for 'evidential' purposes before turning them in?

'Nigerian princes' snatch billions from Western biz via fake email – Interpol

Pen-y-gors

Yahoo Boys?

Another good reason for the name might be that 95% of the "I'm at a conference in Cyprus and I've lost my wallet, send money" messages that I get come from yahoo/btinternet accounts, which are renowned for their odd security holes.

Germany to roll out €100bn gigabit internet network

Pen-y-gors

Re: If only our grandparents hadn't tried so hard...

You think you've put all the nastiness to the back of your mind, then you remember what's going on.

Oh god, I feel very depresssed...

Pen-y-gors

Gigabit will make us strong, butter will only make us fat.

Pen-y-gors

Re: Government Investment

Nah, that's the sort of thing those narsty forinners do - we don't want any of that thank you very much.

Royal Navy's newest ship formally named in Glasgow yard

Pen-y-gors

Re: 30mm gun

Given the Navy's track record of failing to have weapons for our ships, it's good that it will have a gun. But does the budget run to any bullets?

Pen-y-gors

Re: Just Like the Bridge

And hopefully won't be in port being continuously repainted.

Watt the f... Dim smart meters caught simply making up readings

Pen-y-gors

Errrmmm....

I thought the point of 'smart' meters was to do things like allow remote reading, clever monitoring etc. Why do they need to use a completely different method of measuring usage? Surely you just need to add a little module that reads the traditional meter?

Or am I being naive?

BT splurges £1.2bn on securing Champions League rights, Sky heads for an early bath

Pen-y-gors

Re: "But he added that the latest move could result in costs being transferred to consumers"

I want/need a static IP which

I had the same problem - I.m now with BT Business for broadband at home - much better help desk!

Uber loses court fight over London drivers' English language tests

Pen-y-gors

@gerdesj

You haven't noticed BBC Alba then?

One of my favourite channels actually.

I think the difference is that Welsh is an official language, meaning that certain things MUST be available in Welsh, whereas that isn't yet the status with Gaelic.

Pen-y-gors

"Well, technically English is one of the languages of the UK

Well, if we're being really technical, I believe that the only UK language officially recognised in legislation is actually Welsh! Everything else just assumes English

BONG! Lasers crack Big Ben frequency riddle BONG! No idea what to do with this info BONG!

Pen-y-gors

Sharks?

Can we fix this clever laser dopplganger stuff to a frikkin' shark? Then we can measure the vibration patterns of dolphins passing secret messages around for the CIA.

The most l33t phone of MWC: DarkMatter's Katim

Pen-y-gors

But of course...

If you nick the phone, you also nick the microSD crypto card?

Post-Brexit five-year UK work visas planned – report

Pen-y-gors

Re: If only..

You mean there might now be smuggling across the Irish border - surely not ?

Ah, but the good old days smuggling occurred before there was a single market, and we had silly subsidies for exporting butter to another EU country. What was interesting ( a few years ago now) was to see how many petrol stations there were within about 20 miles of the border on the North (roughly zero) because fuel duty was massively lower in the south.

They'll need a Trump wall sadly.