Posts by Ken Hagan

Re: So which Irish law requires users to disclose their real name?

"Does everyone with a middle name on their birth certificate who doesn't include it on their Facebook account flout this law?"

In the UK, there is no such thing as a real name. Long-standing practice is that you can call yourself whatever you like as long as it isn't for fraudulent purposes. It follows that anything written on your birth certificate is purely advisory (since *you* certainly didn't choose it).

Since Ireland inherited much of its law from the UK, it may well be that there is no such notion as "real name" in Irish law.

Re: IANAA (I'm not an Astronomer)

Actually, here's a better answer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chi_Sagittarii#/media/File:Sagittarius_IAU.svg

I think the ETZ in the article is a band either side of the Ecliptic, which is shown on the chart. It's a narrow band and probably no thicker than the blue line! The source of the WOW signal is the Chi Saggitarri group which is next to the word ECLIPTIC. So ... outside, but not by much.

"AKAIK most of its 'good programs' are made by external companies."

Possibly true, but those external companies wouldn't have a customer for their programs without the BBC's "telly tax".

Maybe telly doesn't matter anymore, what with infinite YouTube videos on every possible subject, but if you actually want quality programs then the only proven method for producing them on a large scale over a prolonged period is to force everyone to help pay for them.

Re: C is a glorified assembler

"all of this to be compatible with platforms long gone and forgotten"

It didn't even get this bit right. If a function is missing on your platform, your response should be to provide *exactly* the function that is missing and *only* use your implementation on that platform, so that everyone else is allowed to enjoy bug fixes as and when their platform provides them.

Re: HTTPS

If it is being done by blocking the content-provider's site then whether that site uses https or not is unimportant. The only fix will be for those whose pages/apps are littered with ads to start hosting the ads themselves, at which point (as an earlier comment noted) they might start to question the cost of the bandwidth and perhaps even their content and suitability.

Re: Android tablets apps can't be compared to Windows tablets.

Except that the ARM-based Windows tablets couldn't run those apps, because MS couldn't be bothered to include a suitable translation layer, despite having written and deployed one about a decade ago for machines with a fraction of the power of a modern ARM tablet.

Re: Nothing new?

We've had fanless, silent, x86-architecture PCs for at least a decade now if you were willing to pay a premium and accept lesser performance. The premium has slowly dropped away and the increasing focus in datacenters with flops per watt means that the performance hit is probably less, too. (*) Realistically though, you will still pay more and get less.

Against that, it is probably now true that for many domestic workloads (like, kitchen PC or lounge media centre) performance is no longer an issue and if you live in an otherwise silent house (so, probably no kids then) the difference between "honest, you'll never notice the fan" and "no fan" is quite significant. I am a little surprised that the concept isn't more mainstream.

(* Free plug from satisfied customer: http://www.tinygreenpc.com/.)

Re: speak for yourselft

"it's a job, and if you don't take it then..."

Well that depends on the society you live in.

If your society has no minimum wage and no benefits system, those without jobs have an income of zero and slowly starve to death. (How slowly depends on whether they turn to crime first.) Frequently such people have children and the wider society gets all icky about *children* starving to death.

So the wider society introduces some sort of benefit system to provide a safety net. Great! Now the cheapskate employers don't have to pay a living wage because the taxpayer will pick up the difference. Sadly, the wider society now gets whiny about why the taxpayer is being forced to subsidize *specifically the meanest* employers in the land. Businesses in particular get uppity about subsidizing the competitors simply so that those competitors can pass on lower costs to customers.

So society introduces a minimum wage. If you aren't prepared to pay that, you can't ask a member of society to work for you. That's annoying, but it is less annoying than being forced to subsidize your competitors.

Re: "same kernel" ... such a huge success

Yes, MS had to do all that, *even though* the Linux distro in question sucked so hard it showed up in LIGO data.

Re: Define collapse

OK, so that sequence of events sounds like a proper collapse. Thanks for answering.

Re: coins are cash

Yes, but they are only legal tender up to certain amounts.

For the UK: http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/policies-and-guidelines/legal-tender-guidelines

So (for example) if you collect only coppers then you'll never have more than 20p in legal tender.

Scarily prescient

That quote's from a very long time ago, you know.

"Next article should explain what this channel is actually ABOUT"

To be honest I think their time is already up. If they haven't managed it yet, it's probably because it isn't about anything.

Re: What ever happened to the android fragmentation issue?

"or a Windows 10 device with absolutely no options for handset makers to make any changes."

Ho ho! Because no OEM has /ever/ bundled crapware with a new Windows box.

The notion of an "everyday car" presumes that we have however many grand we need to buy a car (and a house with suitable parking) that won't be sufficient for our needs, so we'll have to buy a second one as well.

I doubt this car will have a sufficiently small price tag.

Re: billionth-of-a-metre accuracy

It isn't (yet?) part of SER units, but if we take a gnat's whisker to be the smallest gap through which visible light can propogate, then a nanometre is several gnat's milli-whiskers.

Re: Who doubts this has not *already* been done in the wild?

The guys robbing these houses buy the kit off someone who is smart enough to build it and also smart enough not to be the guy taking the risk of using it.

Re: Government can't force you to create things

Apple possess the signing key. I'm sure the FBI are able to knock up the hacked build of iOS by themselves, but without Apple's signing key they can't put it on the device.

One could argue that the FBI are actually playing nicely. They are *not* asking for the signing key (which various super-secret powers probably allow them, or their friends, to do) but are instead merely asking Apple to use it to sign something for them. However, if that sets some kind of legal precedent then it isn't actually playing as nicely as all that.

Re: Oh some 19 year old student took offence I bet.

"Kids really are getting more and more stupid."

Crap. You're just getting forgetful. Some of my fellows from 30 years ago were just as bad, just as loud and (ultimately) just as successful in remoulding the world in their own image.

Re: Good 4 the Goose

"Except for one critical fact: The State (caps intentional) holds sovereign power. "

True, but a couple of hundred years ago some smart cookies realised that you could get around *that* problem by splitting The State into several pieces, each of which have some power over the others, a bit like an Escher drawing. By separating The State from any one person, you avoid many of the problems commonly associated with having people like Dave (*) in charge.

(* Feel free to substitute your own twit here. My remarks aren't specifically aimed at my home country.)

Re: Ridiculous

"it is information the carrier MUST have to do the job we pay them to do"

They must have it *transiently* but they don't need to keep it. Keeping it costs more. Also, the "it" that they must read to do their job is the destination address. Reading the source address is not necessary to do their job, even on a metered connection.

The plea here is pretty obviously "we want to data mine the crap out of our customers". By doing so, the ISPs presumably *are* able to reduce the price to the "customer" (because by the old adage the customer has become a product that they can sell on to another customer). One possible way to resolve this is to allow ISPs to do this if their customer agrees, but compel ISPs to offer a "privacy protected" product where they aren't allowed to do this, and to further compel ISPs to demonstrate in their accounts that the price difference between those two products corresponds to some reasonable fraction (50% ?) of the money they get by selling on the information. In other words, you can data-mine the crap out of me as long as I get 50%. (I still won't take you up on that, but I'm sure others would.)

Re: Interesting idea

"a complete and unconditional prohibition of anonymized data set sale for marketing research purposes"

If anonymised datasets make it into the public domain then it will always be easy to find a foreign country where de-anonymising the data isn't illegal. We must assume, then, that any sufficiently interesting dataset will eventually be available to interested parties in the UK simply by firing up a web browser. (That is, it will be no easier to police than foreign porn, which no government has had any success, ever.)

To be secure, anonymous datasets need to be under NDA to specific customers, who will be legally liable if the data ever appears elsewhere, and the data itself needs to be fiddled so that it can be tracked back to whoever it was released to. Yes, that will mean introducing deliberate errors and so researchers will have to accept that, but to be honest the original data is probably chock full of errors anyway.

Re: planned obsolescence

Sadly for their plans, the law requires that devices remain fit for purpose for a number of years and when you are talking about a mobile internet device "fit for purpose" requires timely security updates.

Put another way, if their business model conflicts with consumer law, they need a new business model.

Re: As if we still needed reasons...

"There's nothing that MS offers any more that isn't fully covered in the FOSS world"

Except for almost every non-Microsoft business app ever produced.

Seriously guys and gals, Linux is probably OK for most home use unless you have a particular taste for a Win-only game or website plugin, but business has been writing crapware for Windows for several decades now and is currently sitting on a steaming mountain of the stuff that it politely calls "legacy".

WINE just doesn't cut the mustard, so it is whatever's-the-latest-Windows for most companies. If there was a free alternative, do you think they'd still be paying the licence fees? These are businesses, working for money, and able to pay for people to come in and help with the transition if that's necessary.