Sign in / up

* Posts by Kiwi

4368 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Sep 2011

Page:

Traffic lights worldwide set to change after Swedish engineer saw red over getting a ticket

Kiwi
Reply Icon

Expect more emergency stop braking at traffic lights then and a 44 tonne lorry slamming into the back of you, everything has unintended consequences.

Instead of making excuses for stupid drivers, how about working to make the driving better?

In NZ the law is not to be in the intersection when the lights are red. So if they're changing and you're far enough back, we know to slow down. Don't even need RL cameras for this (in fact I think we have 1 such camera).

We seem to manage millions of "stopping before the light goes red" events every day without worrying about our truckies (who tend to be better than most average cagers) or even the average cager hitting you.

Get your nation's drivers doing a proper job and you won't have these problems. Stop making excuses for idiots!

0 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon
FAIL

Re: Would someone explain

No one can keep a gap of 120'. Murphy's Law of the Road says the moment a gap of a car length grows, it'll be immediately filled.

And yet intelligent and/or prudent drivers manage to do it all the time. Only bad drivers use what others might do as an excuse for poor driving.

In the example give, the bus and 2 cars passed through the lights. If someone had been coming on the cross street seeing the light was green and not expecting to stop, well Mr ICPurvis47 would've been in a world of hurt, or a body bag, and absolutely 100% at fault. He was so close behind the bus he couldn't see the lights let alone that they were changing, especially in an area he didn't know, and went on to try to use his bad driving as an excuse for endangering others!

3 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Coat

Re: Would someone explain

The case was dismissed, without me lying or employing a lawyer.

I once was accused of something myself but it never got to court. I was not aware of committing the offence, and when the plod came round to ask I simply told them that would be my defense. If they could show I was guilty I would happily plead guilty, but they were unwilling (or more likely unable) to show any proof.

Yep, others use the car, but also I had no proof of any offence being committed let alone whether or not I was guilty, and if I was guilty whether or not it was completely my fault (eg speeding in an area where the lower limit sign is obscured/lying in a ditch etc).

--> (BTW, is it purely coincidence that "lawyer" and "liar" are phonetically similar?)

0 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Would someone explain

"NZ manages to do it just fine :)"

How close are buildings there to the road? By "urban areas", we're probably talking streets where buildings are built up, corner-to-corner, right to the sidewalk right-of-way. I'd be interested to see how such a tight intersection box can reasonable be made into a roundabout.

We usually have road, footpath, property boundary (seldom built right to except for in shopping areas).

Some of these roads were already 4-lane so making the roundabout a single lane helps. Others are made small and low concrete so that long vehicles can simple drive/trail over top. If you wish to look at one such, see Bedford Street in Porirua, the end nearest Cannon's Creek shopping centre. Don't think Street View will show it yet (running a couple of VM's atm so my ram is pretty much maxed out). Another would be on the road from Wellington to Karori, but I can't recall the name of the intersections atm. These were achieved with a little of the footpath being sacrificed by not much.

0 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon

"We're starting to see millennials/whatever the next group are called who see something as a 'basic privilege' as beyond 'inalienable right'"

Citation needed. I see no evidence that human beings are getting any more or less 'over-privileged', just the usual inter-generational complaining.

How DARE you assume my generational identity! (gender/gender identity, sexuality, sexuality identity, race, race identity, hairstyle, hairstyle identity etc etc etc).

Perhaps, if you was to open your eyes a wee bit more and look around a wee bit more, you might see that there is a hell of stuff going on. Remember when you was a lad and your start in the workforce involved a lot of tea making and floor sweeping? Ever tried to get anyone born after 1995 to even work on starting wages, let alone doing stuff like that? Tried asking them to put their phone down during work hours and actually do the job they're paid to do? Tried to fire one for failing to do the work they're allotted, or failing to utilise correct safety gear?

Quite surprised you've seen so little of the world and how many act today. Hell, just look at the articles on El Reg about people moaning about tech companies and things like their names, or what organisations members of their boards support etc etc etc.

1 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Facepalm

Re: Show this to the Mexican police

"Something I could never ever bring myself to do..."

It's only about four lines, even for a slow reader that's barely ten seconds.

If you're read my next line you'd have realised my post was about the word "bribe" (something a slow reader could do in about 2.5 seconds :) )

1 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Flame

Re: Would someone explain

Red Light Cameras. I first thought they were something else entirely. They detect motion in an intersection during the time all lights are red; photographing the "offenders" license plates as evidence that they ran a red.

These are a specific case of why the general idea of robotic law enforcement is a bad idea. Our laws and regulations are not refined enough for a mechanical interpretation.

Spend some time with spewboob watching what happens when some selfish or inattentive fuckwit runs a red.

Unless the intersection is clear and there's some more pressing emergency (like a truck bearing down on you that clearly cannot stop), stay the fuck out of the intersection. If people in your area can't get it through their heads to stop when they should, maybe you need to press for your police to be encouraged and empowered to do more about it. A few lifetime license bans for a first offence would help, and maybe some summary executions might get the message through.

At least with RL cameras, some of those who commit one of the most dangerous traffic offences get some form of ticket.

(Yes I did loose someone to a red-light runner who got a very light sentence, why do you ask?)

0 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: Would someone explain

it's surprising (or not!) just how many drivers panic when blue lights and sirens impinge on their awareness.

Are you sure it's impinging on their awareness? Given what I see so often, I'd bet good money it's the lack :)

0 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Would someone explain

Traffic circles help but is nearly impossible to replace existing traffic lights with traffic circles in urban areas.

NZ manages to do it just fine :)

Has to be a need of course that justifies the expenditure, and council with the will to do it (usually increases their odds of getting in again next election), but we do it often enough. Even with intersections you'd swear wouldn't take a roundabout, they work.

We do have one at Paremata that is getting/has gotten an amber/red traffic light that is active for a couple of hours each day. But that's because of the northbound traffic from Wellington which basically chokes everything else off, so the "lights will stop"[1] northbound traffic for a few cars every few minutes (when the queue on the other intersections gets too big).

But mostly they work very well especially in large urban areas. They keep traffic flowing quite well (see Mythbusters).

[1] Hey, it often comes to a stop during peak time anyway!

0 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Stop

Re: Would someone explain

Absent a yellow hatched/box junction, I might be prevented from exiting the junction (e.g. by stopped traffic ahead) when the light turn red.

In NZ it's illegal to enter an intersection if your exit is blocked. We still get a lot of muppets who block intersections for cross traffic because they're too stupid to follow such a basic rule (and those sometimes caught short, eg another call stalling that should've gone through OK).

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Would someone explain

Either you entered the junction legitimately on amber or you did not. I really do not understand what all the rest of the fuss is about.

In NZ and many other places amber means "stop unless you're too close to the intersection to do so". If you enter the intersection on amber and the light turns red before you exited, then you had enough time to stop, and therefore deserve a ticket.

If this guy entered on green, the intersection was clear, and the light changed to amber then red in the time it took him to get through (and he wasn't dawdling) then it's a fair argument. If he was dawdling or the light had changed to amber well before he entered then it's another matter.

Though I think a big part of the issue was his pointing out his engineering experience in a state where such a thing is not allowed unless the state has licensed you to do so.

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: A modest proposal...

Yes, but where do the sharks come into it?

They're the ones that open the repair shops with the "payday loans" place right by said intersection.

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

I thought for a while it was part of the new driving techniques being taught - along with not bothering to indicate - but it appears to be people of all shapes and ages...

I've seen that a lot in NZ cities where MC lane splitting is common, and figured it somewhat related. Conversely, I don't see said behaviour much in places where LS isn't so common.

I don't do it myself since, as you said, it reduces my visibility of (and to) cross-traffic.

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Since I could see the road in front through gaps in the parked cars, being allowed to do a California roll would actually have been safer, as I could have gone through the road when I new there were no cars in it, instead of having to stick the nose of the car out when a car might be zooming past for all I knew.

In NZ it's "Stop where you can safely see", which may be behind the line a bit.

In NZ it's also "Proceed when it is safe to do so".

What a lot of people don't realise is that if 2 or 3 cars stop, and all can safely see, then all can safely go - the 2nd car doesn't actually have to stop a second time.

We do also have laws about how close you may park to an intersection, but said intersection may also have "safety barriers", council-planted and maintained shrubs/trees, buildings, fences, or who knows what else blocking the view.

[Disclaimer - this was back in the 90s when I did a many-months-long professional driver course, may've changed some since]

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: Blue is a bad choice because it's not usually connected to a warning.

As someone who actually drives properly and does actually use the rear view mirror even on long straight roads

You, sir, have my gratitude, and as many of these as you can provide for yourself (just not too close to before driving time :) )

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

But if you were doing that, just add a count down on it, so you know when the lights are going to change.

Then there will be drivers who pay more attention to the count down than to driving. A variation of "oh... shiny.".

My thoughts on that as well. People would be looking at the timer, not being sure that the intersection is clear/there isn't some truck coming from the side with failed brakes/failed driver that hasn't a hope of stopping in time.

I wonder if there's a correlation with accident rates and places that have an indication that the lights are about to become green? (though that'd be thrown out by the people using their phone rather than watching the roads around them nowadays anyway)

[edit - just thought of a nice new law - if a cop can walk up to your car and catch you using your phone at the lights, they can also open your door, grab your phone from your hands, and smash it on the ground there and then - at least meaning we're safe from you until you can replace it - only defense is you're in bumper-bumper traffic due to an accident and were too stupid to allow some space in front/have a barrier or something else meaning you cannot possibly pull off]

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

We too have the "no texting while driving law", universally ignored. But, if you try to stall the line during commute hours, you probably end up beaten.

Where do you live? I wanna move there! (Can I bring my baseball bat or should I just pretend I play golf?)

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: Pedant alert

"...it's been green for 5 seconds FFS and slowly progress forward leaving just enough time for one more person to get through safely".

Was talking with my brother about this recently. Why the hell do so many Kiwi drivers move like old grannies driving a badly overloaded bus going through intersections, especially when it's clear that the other traffic has stopped and they're quite safe to move off?

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Trollface

Re: Pedant alert

Maybe we bought our gear from the USA.

Does that include our politicians spines, or lack thereof? :)

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Headmaster

"The rules in The Highway Code do not give you the right of way in any circumstance, but they advise you when you should give way to others." (emph mine)

That's actually an intelligent way of doing it.

We're starting to see millennials/whatever the next group are called who see something as a 'basic privilege' as beyond 'inalienable right', so you can imagine what they're getting like with things given as a right (actually, you probably have much the same over your ways :( ). Wording something as a 'right of way" means people will assume that whatever else, they can go and 'magic' will make them safe. If not, they'll surely survive and can do whatever they imagine to the other party.

Sad thing is, people make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes involve not spotting a situation where you're supposed to stop or slow down.

I wonder if NZ courts have ever convicted someone of 'careless driving' even though they legally had the 'right of way'? Thinking of a situation where they went through an intersection where it was clear that other traffic wasn't going to stop in time (our road code used to say 'slow down and be prepared to stop even if you have the ROW' but I note there's no mention of "ROW" in there now, and other related texts have little to no reference to that phrase, most now refer to "car B must give way" where they used to say "car A has the right of way").

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Black Helicopters

Re: Not quite

Now everywhere uses cameras

No, they use inductive detector loops embedded in the pavement.

A lot of our lights in NZ use cameras (not sure if monitored) or other pole-mounted sensors (PIR perhaps?) instead of the induction loops. Some lights have both, though whether they're used in parallel, used to back each other up, or used because one set has failed and it was cheaper to put the other set in I don't know. We also have sensors for approaching emergency vehicles (cameras that pick up the flashing red or blue lights - tempted to see if other lights trigger them but must note it's illegal to have forward-facing red lights (flashing or otherwise) attached to your vehicle - is it OK if my passenger is holding their phone up and it has something flashing on the screen? :) )

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: Not quite

but every now and then I'd be at the head of the (rapidly growing) queue. I'd have to roll forward over the line and let the car behind me drive forward on to the sensor.

Experienced that way too many times myself.

More annoying, when the cager behind sat where they were and didn't roll forward, despite me doing my best to wave my arms and direct them closer.

(Also note these days, especially around our larger cities, cagers tend to stop short of the line leaving space for a couple of lane-splitting riders to move in front - quite appreciate it thanks folks!)

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Not quite

Now everywhere uses cameras though I expect somewhere in NZ the weight sensors are still in use. I remember using a payphone in Kaikoura back in the '80s. No dial just a handle to turn. You lifted the handset, turned the handle and talked to the operator.

For quite some time they've been magnetic sensors, though something else may be needed if cars use a lot less iron in them (or makers could just put some magnets on them). For some bikes, a trick was to kill your engine then hit the starter, the EMF from the starter being enough to trip the sensor. Mostly these days they're pretty good. Many of the lights work both on timer and sensor, with timings changing due to peak traffic etc. I also understand that some of the lights have sensors further up the road to detect the size of the queue, and I've heard rumours that where cameras are used to monitor traffic, there's options to over-ride a particular set of lights briefly to get more traffic through.

I got off a ticket once for going through a light (caught by a mufti cop). I'd been there for some time (>5 minutes) with no change so, as the lights clearly weren't going to change I could 1) walk my bike across the motorway (this was the Ngarunga Gorge/Newlands intersection before the bridge was built), 2) do a U-Turn and drive the wrong way up the hill (was an island or some other divider there for the first few metres) or 3, as it was after 10pm and there was no traffic and long visibility do exactly what I did, turn left (so not crossing paths), go done the hill and cross at another intersection and come back up. Overall my option was safest. Waikanae was another notorius one as often the sensors wouldn't work at all, and only options were either go through the lights or go over the Akatarawa road and come through another way (hour or more round trip through some very interesting road)

Said mufti cop wouldn't have been going anywhere if I didn't do that anyway, unless they also broke the law by going the wrong way in a (short) 1 way area.

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Thumb Up

Re: Show this to the Mexican police

Maybe you should do some research into the legality of those redlight cameras.

NOT YET! I'm outta popcorn...

I love watching governments/principalities backpedal when someone does just that, and finds out things they've been handing out tickets for are illegal.

While you're at it, keep an eye out for camera vans etc, and check up on what parking rules they have to follow. If it's like over here, they're private citizens thus have to be absolutely legally parked otherwise their tickets are invalid (of course, it's up to each individual victimdriver to know the ticket is invalid and challenge it). All sorts of fun can be had by knowing the law and challenging infringements by the criminal bulliescops, camera operators, parking wardens etc.

2 2
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Coat

Re: Show this to the Mexican police

It's bribery, and I don't know how anyone hasn't cottoned onto it before.

It's only bribery if it's not officially sanctioned. If it's official, then it's fine...

4 1
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Show this to the Mexican police

Might be worth reading the definition of the word "bribe".

Something I could never ever bring myself to do...

But mostly because I doubt I'd ever have the money and hope I'd never be in a situation serious enough :)

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Holmes

Re: Show this to the Mexican police

The alternative is to just obey the rules

But the whole point is that the rules are broken.

Not really. How many people were getting caught out like the protagonist, vs how many were completing their turn within the allotted time?

In NZ you go through the amber only if you're to close to stop safely, at least legally. If you're doing a turn like the one described, chances are pretty good you were going slow and could see well enough (athough I don't know the intersection in question and do know a few where the lights aren't well-visible to someone who is looking in the correct places in the last moments before they enter the intersection).

Unless the timer is faulty and short-changes you (vs the normal timing), you shouldn't be in the intersection when the light is red at all. If you are, you screwed up.

1 5
Kiwi
Flame

Timing over these ways..

In NZ a yellow means "stop if you can do so safely before entering the intersection, otherwise go through", red means "You've just put someone's life in danger due to your stupidity/selfishness" (ok - actually means "you should damn well be stopped by now!).

The timing is set so that a decent aware driver could see the change, calculate if they can safely stop in time or not, plus a second or two more. It varies for highway speeds (100km), main roads (60-80), in town (30-50) and road works (30 or 80).

Many of our light-controlled intersections have left/right turning lights as well, which help move a greater amount of traffic.

There's a couple of T intersections with major roads that I go through often where the light will go green for the traffic turning right off the T a second before the one for those going left - reason is there's a large traffic island and it gives a little more time for traffic on the main/straight through road to clear.

Closest I ever came to being taken out by an idiot ignoring lights was a T intersection with 2 lanes turning right. I was in the left lane and a truck was in the right lane (truck I assume was turning right off the main road a little further down). When the lights changed I couldn't see any traffic thanks to the truck so waited an extra second then went. The truck of course took longer to move, which I now know now was probably hesitating not just being big and heavy and hard to get going. As soon as I cleared the truck, oh fuck a stupid bloody pig about to blow through the intersection - lights on but no sirens, stupid dumb fuck. Had the idiot driver had their siren on, even if just for the intersection, I would've known they were somewhere very near and waited till they were past or I knew where they were. It wasn't exactly in a residential area, but even if it was I'm sure at that time of the evening the local's would've preferred a few seconds of siren to the mess such a crash would've caused.

(For those interested, our basic sequence is red->green, green-> amber. amber-> red. We have, no signal for "about to go" other than local knowledge (still watch as patterns can change through the day or sometimes change after years) and being able to see what other traffic is doing)

0 0

A History of (Computer) Violence: Wait. Before you whack it again, try caressing the mouse

Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: auto-park

That said, the context of the original discussion is closer to heads parking/unloading while the computer is idle, not any form of auto-parking when the power is cut.

Just-missed-edit-window to add : My Adaptec SCSI card's Win311 driver software had an 'automatic spin down idle drives after [user-set] minutes function, along with spin up and spin down buttons for each drive. I think I know where the card is so could find it after a few hours digging over the weekend to find out what vintage the card was (if I put it in the box with the drives mentioned earlier, it'll take all of a minute to get to it when I get there)

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Boffin

Re: auto-park

Accrording to Seagate, they had auto-park on their drives as early as 1991, see "ftp://ftp.seagate.com/techsuppt/mfm/st251.txt" (sorry, el reg doesn't seem to allow clickable FTP links). This was not the unloading by moving the heads onto ramps off the actual platter (it's not the heads themselves but the arm next to the heads in drives I've looked at, the heads themselves 'dangle in mid air' so-to-speak) The system in the Seagate text used a roughened area of the disk surface to prevent stiction between the heads/platters when parked.

The link at https://www.coursehero.com/file/17308847/LoadUnload-white-paper-FINAL/ gives a little more of the paper you mention. It also references the Seagate system (in fact that's where I got the 'roughened surface' mentioned above)

From what I can tell all IDE drives have had some form of auto-park, and I have dismantled pre-2000 drives with such features. I may even have one or two around still that can be donated to a viewing someday, but first I must get some data of them (and some old Conner SCSI drives) before I have a look at them.

The mechanism in IDE drives is very simple, a "return spring" on the head arm is always pulling the head back towards the park. In the event of a power loss the spring pulls the heads back hopefully before the drive stops spinning, otherwise the head sticks quite firmly to the platter. Once that happens you maybe have a 50/50 chance of getting it working again, less of working perfectly, bit more if you send it to a proper recovery lab.

That said, the context of the original discussion is closer to heads parking/unloading while the computer is idle, not any form of auto-parking when the power is cut.

2 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Percussive maintenance

access to a freezer, stick it in a bag, leave in freezer overnight, keep room cold, attach hard drive and grab what you can before it warms up...

Leaving it in the freezer could sometimes help.. Not often but sometimes :)

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: Back in the day...

The old square metal cased Microvitec CRT monitors had an occasional issue, I believe due to the top connection to the tube being a bit close to the metal case. Occasionally the users would complain of a wobbly picture.

I remember that! Had a couple of those screens back in the day, and for whatever reason they were the envy of several friends (especially as I got them free). Cannot recall what happened to them.

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

I'm not even sure drives at that time had auto-parking heads, TBH.

I had a friend tell me how newer drives would park themselves. He'd 'gone home' by the time 95 came out (lucky bugga) so they must have been available by then.

2 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: The tine of a forklift wielded like a scalpel

I, too, have a forklift story.

Moi Aussi..

Years back was re-certifying for forklift driving.

The certification was done at a company that provided forklifts for rent (among other things).

Whilst there I watched a new forklift mast being unloaded from a truck. First a couple of pallets of other items were removed including some nice and somewhat expensive looking screens. As the workers at the firm renown for providing training in the area were starting to remove the mast, I called a stop to our proceedings and suggested everyone watch a very good training demonstration.

The new mast was lifted, the forklift backed, then turned. And of course the mast (at however many ton) proceeded to topple. First it hit one of the companies vans taking out a mirror and headlight/indicator, then finished it's journey by landing on the pallet of screens. No idea how many were damaged but the damage to the van would've been quite pricey.

The tutor asked me what I would've done differently, and I said "simple - lashed the new mast to the mast on my forklift". Something I learned in much the same way many years back, but thankfully with neither witnesses nor damage.

I'm kinda glad I was training outside, not within earshot of the driver's boss when he no doubt got given a very polite bit of advise on future job prospects.

6 0
Kiwi
Linux

Kick boxing..

My computer beat me at chess, but I beat it at kickboxing..

I did have a case that had a front that suggested "rebooting windows" was something I did a little more literally once or twice..

Strangely I've not had such problems much since.. (then again, I did switch --> something --> minor which cut such issues considerably! :) )

0 0

Welcome to the World Of Tomorrow, where fridges suffer certificate errors. Just like everything else

Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Useless Gimmicks for idlers & show-offs ...

I refill the ice tray every time I empty it; it takes just 25 seconds (I timed it because I'm sad like that).

It works just fine, even in mid summer. The kids aren't feral, the drinks are cool, and we can store enough fresh food & milk to last a few days.

I dunno how much/little you drink.. During spring I start hoarding ice cubes, and of course the cube trays get refilled every time they're emptied. But we still wind up running low fairly early on. In summer we seem to go through more than a hundred large 'cubes' a day!

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Boffin

There is scope here for intelligent, perhaps market driven, scheduling of washing machines, dish-washers and car charging over night that could reduce costs and have positive impact for the environment.

A couple of issues there. First, we had that in NZ as well (at least 2 different rates), but with the de-regulation of the market and many of us doing that, our prices are now the same 24/7.

Second, as more and more people try to use a cheaper slot the slot will not be cheaper. Used to be it was cheaper because of low demand but not easy to spin up/down a power station.

Finally, as a species we tend to be selfish, greedy, and unthinking. As electric cars become more common people will want to be able to get home from driving and plug it in and have it start charging immediately. Doesn't matter if it's at 99.99% capacity and they don't need it for another 3 days, it must be full now or I'm suing!. Of course, showing a 'charging' icon/light will be enough to settle most people even if it talks to the grid and books itself a couple of KWh between 5:45am and 6am. Different issue if the capacity is fairly low and you want to take it out again soon.

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Boffin

If you implement a left-to-right protocol too, you know exactly what you need to eat next and/or what needs to be thrown out.

I'm surprised no one's given the oblig xkcd on this!

0 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Coat

The only pet-related thing that lives in the fridge is the lactose-reduced cat milk..

I've been told so often by "extreme experts" (usually of the female persuasion oddly) about how cats don't like milk and will only drink if if there's nothing else available.

I challenge them to go to my fridge, open it, take the milk out and put it on the bench for a few seconds (usually whilst making a cuppa), then put it back in the fridge without offering the cat any. Oh, and I point out the bowl of fresh water inside (right next to where his milk would go) and the small pool of not-so-fresh water outside.

Those who try to ignore him get a polite request clawing after a few seconds. Those who still insist he doesn't want milk.. Well, let's just say he's "self-feeding" and I don't need to worry about cat food for a while.

Seriously, this cat is nuts for milk. Dangerously so.

--> Made the mistake of using the last of the milk in my morning coffee. Will need some new clothes as a result. Mine's the one that looks like it was worn by the hulk.

0 0

Row erupts over who to blame after NordVPN says: One of our servers was hacked via remote management tool

Kiwi
Reply Icon

Given they never picked up on common out-of-band management and boot loader hardware & associated software installed on the machine by the manufacturer their audit (as well as pre-purchase/rental) policy must be completely lacking and not fit for purpose.

When it comes to large data centres, getting inside to perform your own security audit may not exactly be an easy thing, and keeping someone onsite 24/7 to make sure there's no future issues?

One would expect that data centres, given the high level of trust placed in them and the "never again" many of their customers will choose should they be found to screw up, would put in plenty of decent practices themselves and alert their customers to any potential risks (eg leaving a management tool running when it should be closed down).

I suspect a bit of fail all round, but that the data centre company aren't crying foul at the early termination of contract - either Nord weren't at fault for the breach, or Nord were a bit of a pain to deal with the the DC are glad to be shot of them.

If Nord is true to their claims of changing the way they build their servers to prevent such problems, and are true to their claims of no data logging and vpn chains etc, then even with such a breach they're not likely to expose that important data their customers use.

(I will have to contact them about that bug bounty though, I have something in mind I think should be fixed)

1 0
Kiwi

be anal about keeping emails etc...

Will come in handy when you need to prove who did/didn't know what.

That said,

We bring [iLO or iDRAC] ports up when we get requests from clients, and shut them down when they are done using this tools. NordVPN seems it did not pay more attention to security by themselves, and somehow try to put this on our shoulders."

Does still sound like the host made the mistake - if Nord weren't using the management tool then the tool shouldn't have been running, unless the attacker(s) happened to use a window when the tool was up for Nord's use.

My suspicion would lean largely towards one miscreant within the hosting company, perhaps even someone 'working from home' with less-than-ideal setups.

2 0

When customers see red, sometimes the obvious solution will only fan the flames

Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Dolt

"Oh, in Firefox I click File, then New Tab, then type "Make all the words RED" and if sends an email to my husband reminding him to get the milk on the way home"

I wonder if something this far out ever actually happened? Where someone did something nonsensical, and the next thing you know the right thing happened...right next to you?

1) You missed the critical words preeceeding your quote of "example only".

2) Yes, stuff this way out has happened. But even here at El Reg people would not believe some of what I've seen. Well, some anyway.. Some would just curl up and beg for mommy/nursey as they are reminded of the real world.

3) 'Tis an IT site. Most of us see the utterly impossible accomplished remarkably easily by ridiculously idiotic people on a daily basis. And I don't even work in IT any more! (well, aside from a few bits of design/dev work here and there)

0 0

One man went to mow a meadow, hoping Trump would spot giant grass snake under flightpath

Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: childish

See how each comment is indented? That shows who was replied to.

Well.. Actually there's 5 options for how the comments are ordered, and only 'nested thread' indents. I used to just use 'threaded' then swapping to 'newest', but gave up trying to get it how I preferred by default so now just leave it the default at first then when the posting rate drops switch to 'newest'. Unless I see a big pile of new posts since I last posted/voted at which point I might change back.

0 0

Tesla driver killed after smashing into truck had just enabled Autopilot – US crash watchdog

Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: What's the point?

Sorry I missed this at the time, but would like to respond (late as it is :) )

apropos your comment re reaction time, surely, if you are relying on someone's brake lights to tell whether they are slowing or not, then in my opinion, you are driving far too close.

What happened to the "being able to stop in 1/2 the clear distance".

I hope that you are not following me if you are relying on my brake lights.

The example I quoted is where someone is riding their brakes - tapping/pressing the pedal enough for the brake lights to come on but not actively slowing down. I've seen cars with a faulty/badly adjusted brake light switch where this same effect is visible. Another you may've seen are those with the bright "rear fog gaurd" lights that 'drown out' the brake lights in red noise. Either way, the situation is the brake lights are on a lot and give no indication to how fast the driver is slowing.

After a lot of these, especially if it is someone who thinks you're following to close (IMO in which case you are, back off some more!), you can become accustomed to seeing their brake lights come on without any clear reason (they're not slowing for corners or hazards, they're just flashing their brakes). When for some reason these people do brake much harder

You know NZ's scenery. How often have you seen someone (often a tourist but not always from o/seas) suddenly brake hard in a highway without warning because they've just spotted a pretty waterfall or cute bird or something? No turn offs, no other traffic, just this person unexpectedly braking hard. Again, it can be hard to judge their rate of deceleration especially if there's a corner approaching and your first inclination is that they're slowing for the corner, not braking to a stop.

It takes our brains a moment to assess a situation and react. If our assessment is off, which is easy to do, then what may've been a 4-second following distance at 100kph can very quickly become an "OH FUCK moment when someone does something unexpected. When the situation started I may've been able to stop in 1/10th of the distance ahead but if I mis-calculate their actions you can run out of space quickly.

I don't just rely on brake lights, but often they're one of the first indicators someone is slowing. When someone just takes their foot off the gas, following drivers don't have a way to see you're slowing until the rate of closure gets fast enough.

PS, I've been well known in NZ circles for promoting "If in doubt, stretch it out" - good following distances are something I believe the cops should be harder on. My bike can easily out-brake your car, in when bad stuff happens the last thing I want is to have to think of what the person behind is doing as well as the stuff happening in front/beside me. The biggest asset you have when driving is time - time to see, choose an action, and act - time to stop if needed, or pass, or change lanes, or pull off and take a break/calm down. If I have concerns about the nature of the road, I start giving myself extra space. This does tend to antagonise any idiot following me (and we see far to many of them on Kiwi roads), but means we'll get there without worse incident.

And yes, I often drop down a cog or two in readiness for things happening a few seconds ahead. Like the comment you replied to where I talked of the front being "loaded" (weight transfer etc taking place) due to automatic systems, I sometimes also like to do much the same to the rest of my drivetrain - engine is already at higher RPM, clutch engaged, gears engaged, all that's needed is a stomp on the gas.

0 0

Tinfoil-hat search engine DuckDuckGo gifts more options, dark theme and other toys for the 0.43%

Kiwi
Reply Icon
Coat

Re: Study philosophy!

The fail is strong with this guy.

He'd be a bit more believable if there were some patents with his name (or similar) on, or any that covered the stuff he claims. But I find the majority of his posts patently absurd...

(Yeah yeah, I'm on my way...)

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: Study philosophy!

At least five accounts now:

2 of which contain very similar-looking posts. All seem to contain the text "This post has been deleted by a moderator" (or similar). [Much thanks Mods!]

See there's 2 more created in the last fortnight, and the original which hasn't done anything for a bit...

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Alien

Re: Study philosophy!

> ...poor man's bargain basement version of the same bot...

Depressingly, this really is a person. It is the fourth account,

Yes I've seen at least some if not all of them.

Brain or bot, there's something seriously screwy with the software!

1 0
Kiwi
Reply Icon
Pint

Re: I use DDG a lot

(I believe there are cache-related side-channel tracking methods already in use... purging the cache makes these go away)

If I was to use Chrome I'd either be linking ~/.cache/chromium/Default/ to a spot in /tmp, or changing the menu entry so that instead of calling Chrome direct it calls a script to take care of that little detail.

But I don't use Chrome so... (still wondering if I should play the same with FF, but I do block a lot of sites - then again DOH is going to mean I should be looking at Ben Tasker's stuff on building that into PiHole as well... (Thanks again Mr T :) )

0 0

Spacecraft that told us 'you're screwed' finally gives up the ghost after doubling its shelf life

Kiwi
Reply Icon
FAIL

Re: Sea level rising

So what did he say then?"

You brought Al Gore into this, so why don't *you* give us a quote from him that backs your stance rather than telling the rest of us to do your research for you?

There were two potentially seperate but very closely juxtaposed quotes. I did give you time to find them yourself but clearly you're aware I'm right.

I'll slightly paraphrase. One was "We will be in a climate crisis within the next 10 years". The other was "Sea levels will rise 20ft in the near future" (20ft=6m, ie~5m), Even if the two phrases weren't intended to be linked (but the phrasing and tone of matters would indicate that's exactly what he wanted people to take away), he's still a long way out on the "near future" and "20ft rises".

Do some research before your lifestyle does more damage to the planet and the people on it.

0 1

Apple insists it's totally not doing that thing it wasn't accused of: We're not handing over Safari URLs to Tencent – just people's IP addresses

Kiwi
Reply Icon

Re: GDPR always applies

"EUs laws do not apply to the entire world"

Yes and no. When you are processing data belonging to EU-citizens (like IP), EU data protection legislation applies.

Location of said processing is irrelevant: it's about whose data you have which is significant.

Not quite true. I have managed sites that are not in EU jurisdiction and are not relevant to anything EU - no trading with EU people, no content of specific interest to EU people, nothing.

If someone from the EU visits their interactions with the site get managed just like every one elses. If they behave then their details sit in log files till rotated out. If they misbehave, then whatever info I can get is passed on to whoever can help.

The businesses aren't based in the EU, and don't trade with the EU, therefore the rules of the EU (or yanks, or ozzies, or whoever) don't apply.

0 0

Page: