Posts by Maty

Oddly enough, I was watching Person of Interest just before I read this article. That's fiction right? For now anyway ..

Not just web pages ...

Web pages may be getting heavier, but so are FPS games.

Thanks to a hard disk crash I've had to re-download the Guild Wars 2 image. 18GB so far, and counting. ....

Um ... why does the picture that goes with this article show a bunch of ancient Spartans and Athenians? (Spartans because that upside down V is a Lambda, for 'Lacedaemonia', and Athenians because the other shields have Athena's owl.)

As far as I know neither ancient civilization had any problems with their web servers.

Trojans? Nope, those aren't Trojans.

take care folks ...

IANAL

But it's my understanding that if you access really illegal porn - i.e. CP on a computer you are repairing, the cops might decide to charge you as well if you report it.

The point is that it's illegal to view this stuff unless you are properly authorized. And repairing a mate's computer does not count as being authorized. So if you show any great familiarity with the contents of illegal porn folders, you might be in trouble.

I strongly urge you to look up 'Strict liability' as a legal term - as a non-legal expert, my reading of the law is that why you saw the porn, or your intentions (mens rea) don't count. You viewed it, so you're guilty. From a moral standpoint, you have to report this stuff if you find it, but it might be worth thinking hard about reporting how you knew what the material was.

I was thinking more of something like:

'Hello,this is Lockheed technical support. Press 1 if your radar is malfunctioning, 2. if your plane is dropping out of the sky and 3 if you are experiencing a serious software failure during combat.'

'I'm sorry all our operatives are busy with other calls right now. Please hold for the next available operator. Your aircraft is important to us. Please hold.'

Have you heard of the new, updated F-36 with new, innovative features? Contact your congressman about it today!

Thank you for your patience ...'

Obscure agricultural god

For some of the speculation here, I'd recommend the obscure Roman agricultural god Sterculinus. He's the god of manure-spreading. (Seriously)

to summarize the FBI position

(Which the writer of this article appears to be endorsing)

Unless you give up some of your rights, criminals will get away with it.

Of course, (replacing criminals with 'enemies of the state') totalitarian states have used this argument for decades. Conversely if you do give up your rights - for any reason whatsoever - you WILL get a totalitarian state. Police and governments can't help themselves.

IT and presentations

A whiles back, I was giving a talk at a fairly prestigious London institution. The IT guy asked to look at my talk so he could throw the slides onscreen at the appropriate moment. Then he took my only copy and vanished.

Since I knew the topic intimately (which is why I was asked to give the talk) it was not hard to adlib my way through the hour, every now and then looking up at the projectionist's box and asking for 'next slide please'.

Afterwards, the IT guy came and asked rather heatedly why I had not stuck to my script. Apparently this should have been showing on the flat screen built into the lectern. However, no-one had told me this, or turned the thing on.

wait for it ...

The Republican party contains some real wingnuts who believe the Donald is 'right on' with his overblown rhetoric. There's a lot of others who are - in their words - 'mad as hell' about how the current system does not benefit ordinary Americans, and they are using Trump as a sort of rabid attack dog to scare the mainstream political establishment into actually considering their needs. (This appears to be working, for now).

These two groups are all that Trump needs to sew up the republican nomination, so why should he not speak to them? Then once he becomes the Republican candidate, wait for the pivot, and we get the moderate, toned-down Trump who talks to the average undecided voter. Problem is, I'm not sure the real Trump is either the attack dog he is now or the moderate he will become. It's going to be an interesting year.

Well, we now have a better idea of where Simon lives - anyone who has played booze roulette on the underground and ended up trying to take a cab home will know that 'Sorry guv,' but cabbies 'can't take you sarf of the rivah.'

Uber is Karma.

Conversation got hit by a troll. And you fell for it.

Be ashamed.

The internet needs to kill off Flash. It's like a family pet suffering a painful terminal illness, except that this illness is dangerous for everyone around.

Just put it out of our misery already.

Have you noticed ...

How much Dianne Feinstein looks like Dolores Umbridge of Harry Potter fame? Seems that they have more than their appearance in common.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/harrypotter/images/4/47/Odfestudiohq_25252824252529.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110726180134

then there's EULA ...

I was halfway through downloading my weekly magazine onto the iPad when up pops Apple's 'Your terms and conditions have changed. Please read this frigging 52-page document of legalese in fine print and then click 'I agree' before you can get on with your magazine and morning tea and toast. (Please note there is no 'I disagree' button.)'

Like 99.99% of the population I agreed to something I had not read. I might have agreed to sell my first born to Satan, accept unpatched versions of Adobe, or agreed to install and never delete iTunes.

The whole system is broken

erm ...no?

'in the modern world the insurance sector ... is larger than the agriculture sector by some way. We therefore appear to value insurance more than food at this level of wealth. '

The size of a business sector does not relate to the value of its products. Let's rewrite this sentence with one minor change.

'in the modern world the potato sector ... is larger than the caviar sector by some way. We therefore appear to value potatoes more than caviar at this level of wealth. '

would like to add to the chorus of lamentation at the Worstall departure. It's one of the columns that makes the Reg worth visiting

Eco-geddon v. paint

This is why I love Reg commantards. We have an announcement about a climate-change variable of considerable significance, and this results in an animated discussion about paint.

Reminds me of Ridcully trying to keep a discussion by wizards on track.

Actually they've got you already

If the authorities wanted to arrest you, you're already cooked. Hours after your arrest, the media will be informed - correctly - that you were discovered to have had child pornography on your computer and bomb-making equipment in your home. Consider this:

Child Pornography; Level 1 on the COPINE scale:

'Non-erotic and non-sexualised pictures showing children in their underwear or swimming costumes from either commercial sources or family albums.'

Bomb-making equipment - for obvious reasons I'm not going into detail here, but if you have bleach, one of several types of domestic cleaning products, and gasoline in the car in your garage you are well on the way. Add nitrogen-based fertilizer in the garden shed and you certainly can produce a handy bang.

You might as well plead guilty now.

one of the rules of the internet

(I forget which one) Men are men, women are men, children are FBI agents.

Trusting that someone on Darknet is who he claims to be is the height of naivety.

The good Dr Richardson seems confused about the distinction between a feminist and a misandrist.

pure mountain smog

Except the air around Banff for most of August has been slightly worse than the air in downtown Beijing. There are huge fires burning in northern Washington State, and the prevailing winds have been carrying the smoke north-east into the Rockies.

Thanks to some welcome rain hereabouts, the smoke has cleared a lot this week, but take a look at http://firesmoke.ca/forecasts/BSC00WC04/current/# to get the general idea.

If you think a Jeep should be about crossing the Rockies, forget it.

Take the transCanada on Highway One past Banff, and you could do it in a Trabant ...

Phones - phooey

If you have something to say to me, send an email. There's very little so urgent that it requires a voice conversation immediately.

A while back I got so peeved with spam calls that I ditched my landline (saving a good few bucks in the process) got a mobile- and turned it off.

Whenever someone interrupts a face to face conversation with 'I've got to take this call', I simply walk away. Apart from 999 calls, no phone has an automatic right to be answered.

Be grateful that W. Yorks have professionals answering their emergency calls. Compare that with the scumbag 911 operator in the States who hung up on a caller trying to save a dying man - because he didn't like her attitude.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/new-mexico-911-operator-tells-caller-to-deal-with-it-yourself-after-shooting-1.3171526

It's not about porn ...

It's about controlling how people use the internet.

'To a government, freedom means failure. It represents something the government has been unable to regulate or tax.' - G. Faldene

He can still have a role in society

As a ghastly warning. This particular little toerag is beyond saving, and the consensus here seems to be that neither jail time nor professional help will do much.

So why not give as massive a punishment as statute allows? Not to help him, but to discourage other little snotwads who are thinking of doing the same thing. Maybe someone contemplating 5 years jail time and a computer ban for life might think twice before unleashing a SWAT team for 'lulz'.

First they slurp all the data they can - legally or otherwise. Then stick it on a server so world + dog can hack it.

Next, they give a sickly grin and promise it won't happen again.

Rinse and repeat. And we - the general public - believe them. Right now the security services and general public are in an abusive relationship.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2015/jun/29/shabani-gorilla-internet-heart-throb-japanese-women-higashiyama-zoo

Some people find gorillas highly admirable.

my fave review

' Was most disappointed with the novel. The characters are ill-defined and one-dimensional. The plot had no unusual turns and was easily predictable.'

This being the review for a technical non-fiction book on the Roman army. The problem being that any fool can write a review, and many fools do.

http://www.amazon.com/Legionary-Roman-Soldiers-Unofficial-Manual/product-reviews/0500251517/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_one?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0

so ...

If I go to a notary and establish rights to the Durán brain,can I sell it?

After all, I'm taking vacant possession.

shovels and spades

'Child slaves with bucket and spade (sorry, shovel, farmers use spades.)'

You use a spade to dig and a shovel to move stuff around. (Think of the verb 'to shovel'.) If you can grasp economics, Mr Worstall, making this distinction should not be too hard.

Screensavers ...

A few years back I wanted to change the monitor of a well-respected academic for a more modern one. (He was using a CRT ffs.) After meeting with stubborn resistance, we finally got to the reason. He 'liked the screensavers installed on this monitor'.

So yeah, I believe that people still happily install .scr viruses. Not least because 'if there's something wrong with it, I'll just call IT to sort it out.'