Posts by Owen Carter 231 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2007
After many, many years of shipping laptops with a huge borders and wasted space around the screen(*); some genius has finally thought of extending the display right to the edges of the available space.
It's only taken them what, 20 years, to do the bloody obvious. Am I supposed to feel admiration for this?
(*) I'm only really talking about the major manufacturers here; I'm sure someone has done this before but I've never seen it in a mainstream consumer product.
"they once blocked a large international house hold name Charities e-mail server during a large campaign relating to a recent humanitarian disaster"
Oh yes.. I remember reading about that when the charity got in touch with the press to put pressure on Spamhaus.
Err; well I don't actually; which is strange because large international charities are past masters at getting around obstructions, and certainly let everybody know if, for instance, a bank blocks donations etc.. But according to you they were so scared and intimidated by naughty little Spamhaus that they meekly complied.
Can I call BS now?
So, not yet convicted but the Judge has already determined they might 're-offend'.
Humm. Due process etc..
It they are such a threat why not keep them on remand? I thought these were the international criminal cyberterrorist masterminds intent on destroying our way of life?
Cant we at least show them who's boss by hitting them with a control order and maybe forcing them to move to somewhere without broadband? Or is that only for men with beards?
So a Guardian journo publishes the key to an encrypted file.. thinking it can somehow 'expire', or that that file is super-secure and will never find it's way out of the hands of a select few. Probably done mostly for 'see what we know! na-na-naaa! willy-waving reasons, but maybe requested by someone? If you want to blame Assange then at least do it for the act of providing the leaks to journos in the first place; he is not directly responsible for publishing the password.
Also; for this to be 'devastating' the file needs to come out too; and how did that happen? it miraculously pops up on the Entertainment Industries favourite whipping boy, bittorrent! humm. lots of idiots and dark actors about.
It's quite possible that the Hillary, or rather the manipulative thugs in real power, wanted this out. It will undoubtedly be used to try and convince the grand jury that the argument the leaks were redacted is false, and that somehow Assange is culpable for this leak too. Maybe they can get that indictment they so crave.
The spooks wont really care for all the little people who will suffer; stopping this dangerous idea that free speech applies to us all, and not just the powerful, is far more important. And in the meantime they get one step closer to extraditing their nemesis; and garner a vast amount of righteous indignation from the mouthpieces of Fox etc.. These are people who think they are chessmasters; losing a few pawns is no matter.
With the move to MS I'll bet there is a lot happening in Nokia's web teams; porting from a server platform to Windows, adding lots more hardware to restore performance, unfamiliar tools, rapid closing some web properties to try and panic people onto Live! etc (ovi Calendar goes dark in a few days).
In short; cometh the hour, cometh the cracker; with strangers, deadlines, new technologies, demands for a 'test copy of the database', disheartened engineers, middle managers who want to make it big in MS and wont listen to anybody deemed negative. It's a perfect time to plan a spearphishing holiday followed by a little light downloading and extortion?
Time and Time again the defenders of our traditional Content Creation industries talk about their property. They even use the term 'intellectual property'.
I don't have any of this 'property', but I have lots of information and stuff I have created; I sometimes consider the information I have to be private, confidential, not for distribution etc. but I never think of it as my property.
And uber capatilists should be wary of going down this route because:
If information can be 'my property'; can I charge every company that holds and uses my property (my name and address for instance) rent? arrears for the years they have held it without payment? Can I go to court to demand my property back? Would a policeman need to give me receipt if he asks me whether I 'think I'm Barry Sheene'?
Be careful what you wish for...
I seem to be confused; the title says 'Cleared', and this will no doubt be the word used by many in the media.
But as I read through it; it seems more likely that the investigation has been ended because these people have pre-emptively resigned and therefore the IPCC can take a position that it has no authority to investigate further.
It is manifestly deciding not to pursue certain lines of inquiry which may lead to real evidence against them on this basis.. And is saying the any further investigation must be done by the government inquiry (how convenient; pass the buck back to the politicos).
"they filed an opposition the week before the ruling"
A single letter; and that's all they had time to prepare; I suspect they thought this was just another joke sabre rattling lawsuit from the past masters of 'how dare you copy this idea! we copied it first!'
On the other hand; this is just broke Europe; it's not like the ban is in force for the Asia; the US or anywhere that really matters as a market. Maybe they cannot be bothered and are happy to let Apple waste resources here.
For all the baying of the fanbois there are only three innovative things about the iWotsit line (starting with the original iPhone):
1) Multitouch - I think Apple were the first to actually use this deliberately; as a way of extending the UI.
2) Integration - They finally did what other handset manufacturers failed to do, they made all the parts of the phone behave as one coherent whole. No more having a different UI for each function.
3) Focus - iOS devices tend to work well for ordinary users; Steve and his cohorts ruthlessly squashed the crap bugs and usability missteps that bedevilled other offerings or rendered them as geek toys incomprehensible to mere mortals.
But that's it.. everything else was just redoing what others had done before in a way that worked. The iPad is no different.
Oh, and check out Star Trek, the Next Generation (ca. the 80's); the crew there wander around with rectangular touchscreen terminals called PADD's
"Were Samsung asleep at the back of the court?"
They were not present.. this was an ambush.
Tellingly, as well as putting the Galaxy into it's application menu, they have changed the orientation; the default for Honeycomb tablets is landscape mode. A clear difference to the default portrait mode of the iPad.
As others have noticed elsewhere they fescked with the colours too; they have darkened the surround so as to make the Samsung logo near invisible.
Elsewhere in the submission they present pictures of the back of the devices to show similarity.. however they forget to clearly emphasise that the iPad has a metal back, GalaxyII is plastic. And everywhere else in the document they use oblique angled photos of the devices in their comparisons, with the iPad angled more to make it's aspect ratio difference less obvious.
But it's all perfectly understandable; probably a typo. nothing to worry about huh?
"Samsung's copying of Apple's devices is different than Compaq's reverse-engineering of the BIOS."
But very similar to Apples copying of the mouse/GUI developed by Xerox and others huh?
And very similar to Apples copying of the logo used by Apple Music (you remember, the company with which Apple Computers signed a agreement with promising not to become involved in the music distribution industry).
Welcome to the IT industry, it is based on copying.
Go for simplicity. A big pin on the nose of a rocket plane that is aerodynamic and smooth (has nowhere for balloon debris to snag) and just fire the damn thing through the balloon and helium. At altitude the balloon will be stretched so thin that it becomes, to all intents, 'transparent' to a rocket with a sufficiently sharp point and powerful motor.
This way you only have to worry about the launch payload + trigger. Fire at a slight angle to avoid the string (or use a very thin composite pole to ensure you can guide past it) and thicker balloon material at the inflation point.
I'd like to see a similar chart based on attendance, not gross income. I bet the yoof get better represented there.
Super expensive gigs from the likes of the Rolling Stones, Metallica and Sir Paul distort this chart quite badly; especially since it probably only counts 'venues' and bar/club earnings will be absent.
And since this is supposed to be about the Music not the $$, and the audience for these superannuated rockers is dying off, I think the future for music performance is not nearly so bleak as that chart suggests.
Just had a panic since I use WP a lot; but it appears this is not a plugin.
It's a tool that some theme developers use for convenience, it's just a PHP script that lives in the same folder as the images you want to thumbnail. You don't install it separately since it is part of the theme itself.
Oh.. and I see a lot of people saying that if you have problems with it not generating thumbnails you should open the permissions in that folder to 777. Humm.
Have a look here; a forum posting where someone asks if doing that is a good idea:
http://themeforest.net/forums/thread/timthumb-installation/20219?page=1#188654
My thinking on this is that the supposed 'real' identity that the DOX'ers came up with, of a 23 year old Swede, could in fact be a 18 year old Shetlander who studies in Sweden and has been building a false persona there. (studying in Scandinavia might result in easier travel compared to the mainland)
"but it really does fall flat on its face as far as policing, forensic psychology and forensic psychiatry are concerned."
Plus, it lacks a staircase..
But.. they could have just taken him to Glasgow central police station; according to Billy Connolly it has a fine staircase that many people have spontaneously thrown themselves down.
They've got an algorithm for that.. no big deal.
And once they detect you sending a few messages discovering the boundaries of the system they will mark you for manual approval (actively moderated outgoing email) and writign differently will just mark you as a subversive.
Maybe..
Or then again it might just be a simple pattern match; or a cockup; or a false-flag story.
Who knows..
I was about to call foul over the phrase 'a 380V three-phase DC charger' on the grounds that you cant have 3-phase DC..
But then it occurred to me that means that the charger needs a 3 phase supply (common on industrial premises but very rare for domestic users (excepting those hobbyists with proper workshops etc.). Maybe not aimed at private users; but rather for business/fleet users where a single high-power charger at work could be used by multiple vehicles during the day.
A silly law; thought up by racists and peddled by closet racists is made to look silly. Bravo!
Now.. a law that simply defines it as 'not discrimination' if you refuse to talk/interact/deal with anyone who is hiding their face or masking their appearance; that's another thing.. It allows fuel stations to say 'no fuel until you remove your helmet'; corner grocers: 'no slouching around the shop with your hoodie up'; swimming pools: 'no' you can't go in the ladies changing in that burkqa since you could be a man' etc..
.. Ie' it's quite possible to put in place a law that makes it clear that covering ones face routinely is -your- social problem, not ours.. and has consequences in a world where trust is low.. But also send that message without pandering to the outright racists who support outright bans.
Yep; the alternative is incineration; and it's a good alternative too. Done properly (ie; at plasma like temperatures) it both produces minimal pollution and provides heat for residences. Done badly it's awful.. but still safer than badly done nuclear.
But the manipulations of the 'reality? never heard of it' elements in Greenpeace; clueless journalists on a mission, and greedy operators who allowed plants to pollute while creaming profits at the expense of our atmosphere have given it a reputation that is far, far worse then the somewhat negative one it deserves.
Reaching a nearly closed loop of proper recycling is a lot better for us all in the long run.
>>All it does is stifle free speech about the wealthy and powerful.
>Can you, or anybody, back that up with the actual cost of obtaining an injunction.
You mean like the way I.Thomas has had her name plastered all over this because she could not afford an Injunction; while her wealthy (very heavily sponsored as a true 'family guy role model for you kids') lover has not.
Or the guy who wants to tell people why they got sick on cruise-ships but has been gagged by courts after the companies he went against threw money at lawyers instead of product testing and victim compensation.
That kind of Example maybe?
In practice you need a very expensive lawyer+legal team in order to obtain an enforce a injunction which is contentious. Occasionally the family courts add their weight to this and the poor get protection; but that is not representative of the sort of situation under debate here.
The Iphone4 has a glass back doesn't it? Maybe it is that they want to curve? maybe even make touch-sensitive and curved?
Phone manufacturers occasionally play with 'back controls' and they all tout it as the next great thing in user interaction; then quietly drop for the next model since it actually sucks (I have a LG viewty with a 'rear scrolling control' that turned out to be a total waste of space..)
But maybe Apple have found a way to get it usable and functional.. they are certainly clever and innovative enough to have a real chance at letting the hand holding the phone do more than just thumbpress side buttons.
I initially assumed this was a marketing stunt to create an artificial shortage, and that since PSN was still down it they had calculated that they would not lose much anyway.
But, as it turns out the Xperia Play network is a separate entity and not affected by the PSN attacks (yet?) so maybe they are just lousy at security after all, or repeatedly choose suppliers who are..
So; they plan to target the spooks without letting us verify if it works; and maybe finding that it's essentially a non-event. they fire up a calculator because it is -still in the sandbox- and cannot read any OS files; maybe not even any browser data.. Maybe it's just a cheezy java calculator that only shows they could bombard us with flash spam and not really exploit anythign of note.
In that case' if I was them, I'd do exactly the same, sell to the idiotically gullible (just shout terrorist and they'll sign) security industry; and hawk this around the IT pres to generate publicity, but never reveal how lame your 'hack' is.
Now; if I was, say, perusing compromised machines in Sony's network and spotted some very promising security hole but lacked either the skill, energy or freewheelin nature(*) to exploit them.. I'd probably place them in a hacker friendly forum, where I know blackhats hang out, and sit back to enjoy the show.
(*) 7 proxies and a love of prison food.
Use a internet connected camera (these days: your mobile phone) that immediately tweets a SHA1 sum when the photo is taken, the actual image is withheld in order to hawk it round the publishers. The sha1 sum should be secure enough to prevent any subsequent tampering with the raw image.
- For non-commercial photography you don't even need a checksum, stuff that is published instantly gives some protection against being duped by removing the opportunities for the image to be manipulated.
For breaking events it would, at least, greatly increase the costs of a fake since you'd need to have a talented crew ready to process stuff very quickly in order to make the publication of the checksum agree with the general timings of the event. Or you would need preprepared fakes.
I'm not saying such a system works for any other scenario then breaking news events.. but it is probably pretty effective, especially with disasters and conflicts, simply due to the physical limitations it places on creating effective fakes.
I was amused by Elcomsofts (still a Russian company?) choice of 'famous fakes'. Especially since none of them could have been proved as being doctored as they predate the signing tech. But then you look at them and realise they are a 'Pro-Security' selection, designed to sell Elcomsoft's hackin and crackin abilities to security services, little more.
Better selection here:
http://www.cracked.com/article/118_the-15-most-shameless-fake-photos-ever-passed-off-as-real/
or
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/sarahpalin/ig/Sarah-Palin-Pictures/Hot-Sarah-Palin-Photos.htm
(If you are a big Palin fan don't view this unless you have some privacy and a cold shower available)
Buggy software caused me to miss my call.
Nokias buggy software.
Trying to criticize me by saying that I should give a flying f**k about whether it is the OS or the GUI that was at fault is the act of someone who knows they are polishing a turd; It is all part of an package labelled 'S60 Symbian', a rather lame experience.
4000 can go from R and D..
...
This just makes Nokia's fail even bigger.. with all that resource they still could not release smart phones that worked reliably.
If, 3 years ago, someone had gone through that department and thrown all the wastrels (eg. the morons who think multi-second delays are acceptable in a GUI etc..) maybe they would still have some credibility.
Not that I'm bitter; it's just that I was very firmly pressing the answer key on my 1 year old Nokia s**t phone this morning, but it was too busy re-drawing the screen from landscape to portrait to be bothered actually answering the call.. So my boss got my voicemail and I got to reflect once again on how sad this once great company has become.
All the Nokia 'old hands' who presided over this debacle should be hiding their faces in shame.. The really pathetic thing is that getting rid of the buggy inept crud that is Symbian and putting the weirdly inept but less buggy Windows Mobile in it's place will improve Nokia's credibility.
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