Posts by Captain DaFt

Re: Just a point of clarification...

"This passage implies that Congress has thought at least once. Removing the last word would be more accurate."

Expecting a congress critter to think at all is like expecting the statue of liberty to tango.

Re: Question

So to prove you're not a criminal, you'd be happy with 24/7 camera surveillance in your home/car/office? After all, if you've nothing to hide...

But aside from that, they want to find something to incriminate him, or at least cast the shadow of suspicion.

So no matter how innocent it is, if they can find something to cast doubt, they will.

Cardinal Richelieu - If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.

Re: Detail?

"It's a law about toilets."

It's also about wages.

Some municipalities/counties were looking into raising their local minimum wage to raise local standards of living.

This bill blocks them from setting minimum wage above what the state dictates.

What making a livable wage has to do with LGBT rights is anybody's guess.

Re: Isn't it pointless

"By the time it gets there, we'll have developed FTL travel and will be waiting for it, with flags waving and a band playing."

More likely, by the time it reaches its destination, we'll be extinct. :/

Re: A modest proposal

"Just send The Donald up and it will waterboard the asteroid out of its collision orbit."

Nah, he'll just propose building a wall between Earth and space, making the asteroid pay for it.

Re: Good old El Reg

"If MSFT had announced a cure for the common cold, El Reg hacks would think of 6 reaaons why that's BAAD"

Well, a proper dose of arsenic, ricin, or strychnine will permanently cure the common cold*.

The point is, I think it's less El Reg attacking the intent, than shaking its head at the implementation.

*Ask you doctor before using, if he agrees, get a different doctor. :)

Careful what you ask for

"Treat everyone the same or it's not democracy"

NSA:"Righto! We'll be treating everyone like felons then, happy?"

Re: suggestion

"Might I suggest you run a monthly, nay, weekly, "no vulnerabilities found in Flash this week" column instead?"

Easier to post a daily ">n< days with no new Flash vulnerabilities" notice, and then do a Special Report in the unlikely event >n< ever exceeded 30 days.

Re: Power Grab by Bureaucrats

"But the real issue for IoT is why is it needed in most cases other than as a marketing gimmick."

The only thing most devices in any house needs access to is a control unit secured in the house whose only access to the outside world is SMS access to the homeowner's phone:

Example texts:

Unit: Milk low, get more please

Unit: Central heat/air malfunction, call >repair contractor< please

etc. etc.

The only thing in the house that should notify a third party should be the home security system if an alarm is triggered, just like it does now.

Re: Well, what did you expect -

"from the Senate INTELLIGENCE Committee."

Um, exactly this?

The Good Morons™ in the Senate and House only form committees for things they're trying to control or eliminate.

Re: Ethics

"everyone who posts on this forum is already on a watchlist"

Only one!?

Re: They woke up

"I'll see your Brainfuck and raise you a Malbolge"

Ah, but how secure is a program that only works in the first place by exploiting vulnerabilities in the compiler?

That's one of those headache inducing questions.

"can relocate our neighbours' inconsiderately parked drive blockers armed only with our smartphones."

Why just relocate?

There'll probably be an app to show you where all the other hacked cars are being sent for a rousing round of demolition derby!

Re: Process ... Schmocess

"I know a few American Presidential candidates who fit that mold!"

I know two major American political parties that fit that mold. :(

Re: Putin

"Clearly I've been watching too much Eddie Izzard (if that is possible), I read "covered in bees" :)."

Yer lucky. Due to too much wandering on the Internets, I had a different image regarding those 'Bears'.

Re: Orwell would be happy

Nah, 'anomaly' just means 'something unexpected happened'.

If you wanted the Orwellian double-speak, 'Unscheduled rapid disassembly event' is the popular one these days.

Re: MIssing the Point?

"Criterion?"

A little known Japanese Anime from the fifties, wasn't it?

Re: "The star spins once every 1.2 seconds and the star it feasts on orbits it every 1.3 days."

Just the fact that they can tell that much about a stellar pair in another freakin' galaxy just leaves me dumb-founded.

Now if we just had some way off this rock that didn't take lifetimes to get anywhere near another star, let alone another galaxy.

Re: Lost

Actual mass loss occurred when the two black holes collided that generated the gravity waves that were recently detected:

A mass three times the mass of the sun was lost!

That mass was turned into energy, which caused the ripples in spacetime – gravitational waves – that LIGO detected 1.3 billion years later.

So energy/matter can escape black holes in certain extraordinary conditions.

"they create something that learns from the internet and get surprised when it learns from the internet."

Actually, They just put it on twitter. They'd have had better results if they'd turned it loose on 4Chan.

Hmmm... A thought; What if they'd turned it loose on El Reg to learn?

Would it have become an anti-Apple, anti-Microsoft Linux fangrrl?

Or run off an joined a virtual nunnery?

"That sounds like a punchline to a terrible/terrifying joke. Let the politicians decide? Have you been watching the primaries, there Brad?"

Forget the primaries, look at what the ones already elected are doing.

Apparently, these gits just got around to hearing about Harry Potter:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/house-representatives-bill-recognize-magic-national-treasure/story?id=37667443

A bill to recognize magic as a "rare and valuable art form and national treasure" was introduced into the House of Representatives Tuesday.

Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) introduced HR 642. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH), Rep. Pat Meehan (R-PA), Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY), Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA), Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) are co-sponsors. It has been referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Re: $22bn

"I hadn't realised that I've been taking bread out of the mouths of advertising executive's children. I feel bad about using AdBlock now."

Well, you should feel bad.

You're supposed to be stealing the candy from the little tykes! Sheesh, the quality of petty crooks these days...

Re: Stay with 7

"If they stayed true to form then Windows 9 would have been awesome!"

/jk It was /jk

Re: How about...

"It's_a_ship_not_a_boat_you_landlubbers!"

But "Shippy Mcshipface" just begs for an unfortunate mispronunciation.

Re: But can they Bing the jurors?

"If I understand correctly, Oracle is assuming that it should get all the money Google ever made with Android?"

Too wordy. Try this edit:

"Oracle is assuming that it should get all the money ever made."

Re: Clinical

"And just what mental illness do you need to post to the register then?"

Well for me, it's an addiction to snark. :)

(The good stuff, not that low grade, cut crap you get following politics.)

Re: The T Rex had hands...

but arms too short for it to masturbate.

Hence its cranky demeanor.

Re: Idea for next article

DevOps articles have me rooting for this guy. :/