Posts by Chairo 716 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Nov 2012
@ h4rm0ny
Yes, I'm old enough to call them programmers rather than developers
So for you this is a developer and this is a programmer, right?
It's a bus, which implies data transfer must be acknowledged.
Actually the CAN bus it is pretty much a network, similar to ethernet with a different physical layer. It can carry various different protocols and every controller can listen and send frames as he desires. There is a collision detection. No need for a busmaster or a token. Some protocols have a handshake (tester communication, for example), some don't. For the usual information exchange between controllers the information is just sent and received periodically over standard frames. If you are lucky there is a rolling counter to tell you, if the sender is still alive, but most frames don't even have this basic measure. Generally it is designed as a "trusted bus". Meaning the control units trust that each controller in the system has it's own self-monitoring and the information send over the CAN is sane and validated by default.
Not exactly what you should or would connect to the internet, right?
You can have an ODB port for both without connecting them.
Interesting. How do you do that, given, that you have only one physical connector?
You build in a second connector underneath the first one for the 2nd bus? Not sure if this is possible from a legal point of view.
In any case, the best solution to have something not hacked remotely is not to connect it to the internet. No need for constantly updating everything if it just works and it is not connected to the ugly sewerage system that people call the internet.
"But the two networks have to talk to each other"
Why?
Legal requirement. As soon as some controller can be reprogrammed in the field, it must answer to some standard OBD protocol items. As most sensors contain microcontrollers, nowadays, there must be a gateway to the OBD connector if the sensor can be reprogrammed. One of the reasons is that it allows to check easily, if someone messed around with the calibration dataset. One of the OBD services requests a checksum over the dataset area, which is calculated on the fly. You can find all this stuff in ISO15031, btw.
I also prefer Xubuntu, but it should be noted, that they don't offer the same long term support than for the regular LTS Ubuntu distros.
Of course you can also install Ubuntu and then change the window manager to whatever you prefer. Unfortunately you then still have to deinstall some Unity stuff by hand. In particular those Unity scrollbar slider things. Oh, and the next OS upgrade brings back all Unity glory and makes it default again.
Actually, my biggest gripe with Huawei is that it is bloody awful when it comes to OS support.
That, and exactly that is the deal killer with Huawei for me. Nice hardware for sure, but lousy to non existent support. Interestingly they seem to have a much better support inside China, but if you are outside China, Huawei effectively doesn't give support in any meaningful way.
@ Stuart Longland
Yes, but the lack of security updates coming later this year will be a problem going forward if they're to continue using a traditional personal computer.
Vista will be supported until next year April. Plenty of time to think about a replacement strategy. My current favourite would be to switch to some Linux flavour with a more traditional user interface. That would have the added advantage that I can pre-configure everything at home and just swap the hard drive when I visit them next time. No headache regarding drivers, performance and application availability. and also no need to re-train them to a radically different user interface. All they use at the moment is SeaMonkey for browsing and email, OpenOffice and Acrobat reader to open bills and other stuff coming per mail and Skype to have a video chat with the Children and Grandchildren from time to time.
one reason would be that it is the only supported version for which no Windows 10 nagware is force-installed. No need for playing whack a mole all the time. Much easier to maintain for the elderly parents living far far away.
Just because you seemed to wonder...
@ a_yank_lurker
Yes, too many US patents are trivial, obvious and invalid. However in this particular case the patent itself seems to be valid. In this case the troll's claims are out of focus, as the patent does not really fit to the claim, so the case should be rejected, but this is up to the court to decide.
As for loser pays - imagine you file a patent for a breakthrough idea. A big company picks it up and says "hey, this a great idea - let's use it and if the sucker wants some money for his idea, tough job - he will never risk to pay the 5 lawyers we are going to put on the case, right?"
The patent system has two goals: One is to make sure inventors get a fair share, but perhaps even more importantly inventions should be encouraged and spread by publishing them. If any megacorp can rip off any privately owned patent, people would probably stop filing them, right?
Oh, how naughty!
The problem with patent trolls is, that in the long term they damage the patent system and make it more difficult for inventors to be compensated for their inventions. Certainly the American patent system also has it's problems, but here we have a valid patent that was bought by a troll-like entity that starts shooting around at cat & dog in the hope to monetize. I suppose they aim for out of court settlements, as their claim doesn't sound like it would hold up in court. Anyway - even this example shows that the system is not completely broken. The inventors could sell their patent and got paid. The problem in this case seems rather to be the American court system. A rather big problem, of course.
It would sure explain some of the posts. On the other hand, since EADON's "retirement" there has been a steep decline in rabid comments.
Oh, and it would be really nice if the spooks would read the comment section of El Reg. Perhaps it might spark some common sense. But I'm not holding my breath.
if this technology cannot be applied to create some low resolution "eyes" for blind people. Perhaps by mechanically transfering a picture on a sensitive skin area.
It's 2015 and blind people still have to stumble around with a white stick in their hands like a hundred years ago...
No, it's to do with high-powered lasers now being cheaply available online. Combine that with stupidity and poor education, and you get idiots who'll end up in court, crying "But I didn't think..."
I would say it has even more to do with green lasers nowadays being sold as toys on the street in many holiday locations and brain dead parents buying said lasers for their even more stupid offspring.
The toy version usually has some kind of filter that turns the beam into a heart shape or something, but the filter can be easily removed to create a single point high power green laser pointer.
I'd recommend some high powered active point back system that precisely, instantly and permanently blinds whoever points such a converted toy on an aircraft.
Was a imminently useful gadget. A feature phone for sure, but at the time it already supported navigation, could sync my appointments and was completely reliable.
My current Huawei phone on the other hand... Introduced in 2013, one single functioning update the same year and afterwards given up and abandoned by it's maker. No support whatsoever. The new Nokia? I don't think so.
of legacy installers.
I fear it's just a matter of time until the possibility of installing software without Microsoft's appstore is taken away in Windows 10. Or is there any official commitment from Microsoft to keep it?
Maybe I'm paranoid, but unfortunately the paranoid are far too often right, lately.
Those efforts by groups such as Pangu Team focus on areas of iOS that are less-valuable to attackers. The group tells El Reg it avoids targeting Apple's Safari since that could be valuable to attackers.
Ah, that's why Jailbreakme.com was not updated any more to the latest IOS versions. I wondered if Safari suddenly got so much more secure. Makes sense - why should the community supply the black hats with browser exploits for free, anyway?
I agree, there always seems to be someone without manners or hesitations that tries to game the system and thinks it's cool. On the other hand companies usually can very easily identify these cases and just terminate the contract without harming the rest of their customers. The big majority will probably behave well, anyway.
So yes, I think it's bait and switch. Microsoft needs to squeeze out money from their customers and they always made it clear that the cloud is central to this strategy. I expect more of the same in the coming years. They will administer the pain slowly, step by step, so people don't notice it so much.
it *works* just like XP. I understand that's a feature for many. Not for me!
In my experience many customers see their IT as something to do their job with and wouldn't give a rat's ass about what you think is fancy or cool.
As a customer once told me: Thank you for your understanding!
At least there is the opportunity to give the result a new name now.
As this comes out of the unification of Android and Chrome OS, perhaps "unity"... no? Then we could call it "integrated OS" or "iOS"... again not good?
Then may I suggest "Franken-OS"? Yes, Franken-OS it is!
we all have to wear stealth clothing. It comes in black only and is specially shaped to avoid reflecting radio waves.
Might be in high demand for motorbike riders, as well. Imagine the frustration of the cops waving their radar gun and not getting any speed information.
Why do I get this strange, unsure feeling, whenever I hear the word "Broadcom"? Probably because I never knew if my wireless connection will still work after the next update, or not. At least on Linux.
I spent so much time to get things back to working conditions, thanks to them.
Nowadays I just avoid any product with that label. Incidentally I didn't have any driver problems ever since.
Productivity demands that we junk everything comfortable, everything safe, everything stable, set our faces to the wind, and explore the unknown.
OK, you boldly go where no-one else went before. Good luck and good riddance.
I prefer to do the job with well established, boring tools that work and that I know will not cause any disaster. If someone invents a new tool or process that does the job better I evaluate it, and if I am satisfied I will use it. Otherwise he can put it where the sun doesn't shine.
Please disrupt someone else's work and put someone else's customers in jeopardy. OK?
I wouldn't bring this anywhere near a plane. Planes now often have 5V USB charger connectors for the cattle'scustomer's entertainment devices. I dare not to think of what happens, if you plug this device in during the flight. Hopefully nothing, but let's not try it out, OK?
They might (IMO rightly) arrest you just for carrying one along at checkin.
I had a job interview at HP. When asked, what would be important for me regarding the job, I answered "a good working atmosphere". They left the room to discuss internally and I heard manic laughter from the next room.
They didn't offer me the job. I was not disappointed.
I can imagine HP has trouble integrating other companies. I really can.
those are extensions and will still be available
Thanks for pointing this out! Have an upvote. Perhaps that should have been mentioned in the article itself.
I still think they should make it possible to opt-in to plugins for the few people that need them. As it is, Firefox is the only popular browser left with plugin support and there are some legitimate uses.
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