* Posts by corestore

419 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jul 2007

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FREEZE, GLASSHOLE! California cops bust Google Glass driver

corestore

Re: Wouldn't be so sure on that...

Eddy Ito, actually no; don't assume :-)

Where I lived in NY, not far outside the city, most cop and fire channels were simple analogue channels.

Fire did have some use of digital for 'trunk' radio back to the dispatchers, but even that was unencrypted and could be picked up with any digital scanner.

corestore

This is all going to look a bit silly...

In a few years, most of the time we'll be driving 'Toyota - powered by Google' and reading or dozing as the car takes care of the driving.

The rest of the time? Well, I'm currently experimenting with eyetap devices. With those, the ONLY way you see the road is through the 'monitors'! Definite advantages; think realtime HDR visual processing, realtime superimposition of thermal imager data at night.

Operating entirely by machine vision is nothing new either; military pilots, especially helicopter pilots, have been flying entirely by night vision goggles for many years. It's the realtime HDR with overlaid augmented reality data that's new and radical. Take a look at this prototype (watch the whole thing):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygcm0AQXX9k

corestore

Re: Wouldn't be so sure on that...

You misunderstand.

By 'scanner' they mean a radio scanner capable of receiving, for instance, police frequencies.

The goal of the law was to set up a speed bump for bad guys listening on police radio transmissions; if they couldn't bust them for anything else hey could bust them for the scanner. Bit like prosecuting for 'going equipped' when you can't catch the burglar in the act.

The NY courts decided to extend the reach of the law by interpreting 'installed' in the most liberal manner possible, beyond all common sense meaning of the word!

corestore

Re: For everyone saying 'good'..

Err why not do some bloody *research*?!

Don't assume.

People associated cellphone use with increased accidents.

They assumed it was due to drivers holding the phone in their hand and losing control, so they passed dumb laws saying you have to use a hands-free device.

Then once more research was done, it was found that it was nothing to do with holding the bloody phone; it was the mental distraction of being in a phone conversation.

Someone taking a *brief* handheld phone call is driving a LOT more safely than someone yacking for hours on a bluetooth headset, we now know this - but they still ticket the safer driver. Has the law ever been changed to reflect current research? Yeah, right...

corestore

For everyone saying 'good'..

…. or 'ban them!'…

Exactly what is the difference between a satnav display on the dashboard, a satnav display on a HUD projection, and a satnav display on a head-mounted device?

Well, the latter two focus at infinity and you don't have to take your eyes off the road to use them. And Glass, IIRC, is almost entirely voice-controlled; there's a kind of touchpad on the frame but it's not normally used.

As far as I'm concerned that's probably a win-win for Glass and similar devices.

Why be so hasty to ban and ticket before the evidence is actually in as to whether or not they are a help or a hindrance to safe driving???

What do we want? Evidence-based policy! When do we want it? After peer review!

Surprised at the Luddite reactions here.

corestore

Wouldn't be so sure on that...

In NY, it's illegal to have a radio scanner 'installed' in your car.

NY courts have ruled that simply having a portable scanner sitting on the seat next to you counts as 'installed'.

Never underestimate the potential stupidity of the law.

Call yourself a 'hacker', watch your ex-boss seize your PC without warning

corestore

And, absent the KEY, how exactly do you distinguish well-encrypted data from random noise?

Or, more briefly, whoosh!

corestore

First, I'm a hacker too: bring it on.

Second, if this guy is any kind of a hacker they can do what they like with his hard drive; all they'll get is well-encrypted random noise.

Facebook reveals 700TB of tiered RAM and flash power Graph Search

corestore

Someone should write a book about it…

"The Mythical Man-Month" might be a good title...

Mac fans: You don't need Windows to get ripped off in tech support scams

corestore

Heh

Oh you want to connect to my computer to fix my problems??

OK… fire up your TN3270 client…

Wha…?? (In a strong Indian accent)

<click>

Apple's Steve Jobs was a SEX-crazed World War II fighter pilot, says ex

corestore

If I wanted to read tittle-tattle like this...

… I would subscribe to the National Enquirer.

Really, Reg? Really?

I didn't expect you to stoop to this.

And no I'm not a Job fanboy.

Smile for the cops! Sexy Snapchat selfies' self-destruct scrubbed by search warrants

corestore

So….

Would be fairly trivial to allow each user to set up a crypto key, so Snapchat themselves could never have access to the plaintext pics…

If you're privacy-minded, the best defence against enforced disclosure is not having the data. My previous ISP in New York (bway.net) used to make a *point* of not keeping logs of which IP address was assigned to which user at any given time, so any request or demand for information was met with a shrug and a 'sorry, we don't keep that data'. AnonDSL was what they called the service.

Ex-Valve engineers raise begging bowl for 3D holographic-like goggles

corestore

Jeri is involved? It's going to be fun!

London plod plonks, er, pull request on EasyDNS

corestore

Point taken but...

Don't over-egg the pudding.

A request is a request.

A demand is a demand.

Tech specs wreck: Details of Google's Nexus 5 smartphone leaked over internet

corestore

Bzzzzzz

"One can be certain that engineers from every other phone manufacturer are already delighting in the insights offered."

I'm going to give you a caution there.

Everyone knows how litigious this business can be.

If it could ever be shown that engineers had in fact read such a contraband manual, LG & Google would OWN the manufacturer involved, and all their products, in court.

Rare gold iPhone 5s goes up against 50 caliber high precision rifle

corestore

I have an M82A1. A lot of fun.

I won't give houseroom to any iDevice - unless it's hacked, cracked, jailbroken, and unlocked.

Or shot up...

Boffins follow TOR breadcrumbs to identify users

corestore

Clarity would be good.

Do you mean a 100% chance of identifying a user with 95% probability?

Or a 95% chance of identifying a user with 100% probability?

The latter stands up in court, for instance - nailed.

The former is a statistic and doesn't.

Star Wars revival secret: This isn't the celluloid you're looking for

corestore

JJ? It's Jim Jannard on line one… he says he's going to make you an offer you can't refuse...

UK mulls ban on tiny mobiles to block prison smugglers

corestore

How in hell do you go about banning phones on grounds of *size*?

You can't legislate that!

"The National Trading Standards Board has also asked British retailers to stop selling the tiny telephones. It also points out that such small devices are "electrically unsafe meaning they could cause fires and injure consumers through electrocution."

I call undiluted BS. What, phones smaller than a certain size can't be made safe?

Cretins.

Mystery of Guardian mobos and graphics cards which 'held Snowden files'

corestore

Unlike 99% of you, I've actually been inside GCHQ and destroyed hard drives.

Trust me, those guys are clinically paranoid.

Elon Musk unveils Hyperloop – the subsonic tube of tomorrow

corestore

Re: Yeah, good luck.

Seconded.

Fact is, I'm tempted to arrange a Shanghai stopover just to give it a whirl... just back from two weeks riding Shinkansen in Japan and ready to take things to the next level.

They have a prototype maglev in Japan - the Chuo Shinkansen - which runs up to 550kph. The first section of the line completed has been used as a test track and is being opened to paying passengers as a funride this year, apparently; the full line between Tokyo and Nagoya won't open until 2027. So it's back to Japan for me later this year :-)

Mike

Euro GPS Galileo gets ready for nuclear missile use

corestore

OK… so how is that new key distributed?

Do you have marines in a cave in Afghanistan saying 'bugger, we can't navigate today; the mail hasn't been delivered'?

I can believe they use some kind of session or rotating key system, but there must be an underlying algorithm to generate and verify it...

corestore

"As many Reg readers will be well aware, the encrypted Galileo signal is its version of the encrypted military-users-only signal offered by America's GPS. "

That signal has been around for *decades* - and I've never quite understood how it's managed to remain secure for so long. Surely it isn't beyond the wit of some clever people in, say, China to reverse engineer the thing and flood the market with civilian equipment capable of receiving the encrypted signal?

Ciseco Pi-Lite: Make a Raspberry Pi trip light fantastic with 126 LEDs

corestore

What we really want...

MA

AC

MD

MQ

BUS

:-)

Yorkshire police lose 9,000 guns in rogue BOFH database blunder

corestore

Re: "there was no increase in violent crime involving firearms."

The stats I've seen suggest there WAS a not insignificant rise in crime involving firearms post the 1997 act - but it's spurious to suggest there was any connection whatsoever.

Handgun owners were extremely law-abiding individuals and compliance with the confiscation was virtually 100%

What happened was that criminals did what criminals always do; they did illegal things with illegal black-market guns. They just did it *more* - for reasons entirely unrelated to Dunblane or the 1997 act.

Americans do sometimes cite this in gun control debates but they often get it wrong; they think there was cause and effect when there was NOT. They don't appreciate that there was no history in living memory of using handguns in self-defence in the UK.

(As for the 1997 act, prime example of an appalling knee-jerk emotion-led piece of legislation; how in hell does it serve anyone to make the bloody Olympic shooting team train overseas?! Disgraceful)

Mike - ex-Brit, now American, gun owner :-)

Whoever recently showed us the secret documents: Do get in touch

corestore

Re: Somewhere in the depths of Prism

Aye. But if you're properly configured, they think you're in Ulan BaTOR...

corestore

Is this the RegisTER or the RegisTRY? And is your new address on Curzon St?

Apple at WWDC: Sleek new iOS, death of the big cats, pint-sized Mac Pro

corestore

Re: Just one more thing...

I'm saying it's inevitable Apple will have some 4K displays to launch with this thing; it would be really dumb to release this saying 'it supports multiple 4K displays - but we don't have any'. So what's the story? Where are they? Will they be the 'one more thing'?

corestore

What they SHOULD have said...

Actually, you know what I think one of the problems is?

Dishonesty.

If Apple had said 'We've made a business decision to kill the Mac Pro; we're withdrawing from that marketplace. But, we have this insanely cool new box which we're calling Mac Power; we feel many Mac Pro fans will love it' - well, that would have gone down a lot better.

corestore

I dare say many, perhaps most, pros don't use the expansion slots.

But Apple just just totally killed those of us for whom they're absolutely essential. You CAN'T grade & edit 5K raw footage in real time without the Rocket accelerator card! Likewise for things like the Kona video card - although AJA have a new TB2 external Kona box on the way - but it's still a nasty kludgey solution. And even TB2 is NOT close to being the equal of PCIe 16x lanes, so external PCIe boxes aren't the solution. They've crippled the thing, all for a snazzy form factor. Unprofessional.

This is Apple kissing goodbye to a lot of serious motion picture / post-production work. Some of the critical tools - Redcine-X and CS6 - are already available on Windows. FCPX isn't, but then Apple already screwed up FCPX so badly that it's barely relevant any more.

corestore

Re: Really, Apple?

I'm not sure Wall Street gives a damn about the new Mac Pro; that's not where the big money is. Follow the money...

corestore

If I can't put a Red Rocket card in it, it's as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

And PCIe expansion via TB? Kludgey mess of cables and crap, connected by dodgy consumer-grade connectors. No thanks.

Similar issues for other cards people rely on - Kona, high-end sound cards etc. etc.

corestore

Just one more thing...

3 x 4K displays supported?

Fine, great. Where are the 4K displays…?

corestore

Brilliant. RED introduce Rocket X, Apple introduce a server with no slots to put it in. Talk about joined-up development.

All show and no go. All talk and no trousers. That's not a server or a workstation, it's an art form. I don't need an art from.

Windows or Hackintosh here I come. #notbuyingit

Congress asks Google to explain Glass privacy policies

corestore

I think it's the same as any other tech: it's all in the hands of the user. People will configure and use it in their individual ways, many of them doubtless unexpected. You're not going to prescribe, predict, or control that.

Actually, what Google should do (and probably will) is develop the platform, then FOSS it, Android-style. They're not really in the hardware business, they're certainly not in the shades business. It'll be 'Oakley - powered by Google'.

Judge orders redacted Aaron Swartz prosecution docs to be revealed

corestore

"Although the public has expressed a strong interest in the investigation and prosecution of Mr Swartz, that fact does not bestow upon his estate the right to disclose criminal discovery materials…"

The kid is *dead*.

If I had been close to him, if I had anything to do with his estate, 'disclose and be damned' would be the order of the day.

Government admits seizing two months of AP phone records

corestore

So, use an overseas VOIP provider based somewhere with reasonable laws… Iceland was looking good IIRC...

Report: AT&T dropping Facebook phone after dismal sales

corestore

Re: Contract

The phrase you're looking for is 'unconscionable contract'.

Phone companies do NOT want to hear that phrase anywhere near a court of law.

A few years ago, I returned from a 3 day trip to Iceland, involving light internet use. T-Mobile USA sent me a bill for $7,000. They swore left and right, back to front, that this charge was perfectly correct, very reasonable, accurately reflected the real cost of providing the service, and was indeed a bargain - and of course I had to pay it.

As soon as I mentioned 'unconscionable contract' they waived the entire bill…

Climate-cooling effect 'stronger than volcanoes' is looking solid

corestore

Fart

Mount St. Helens was a fart, in the great scheme of things.

Pinatubo was much more significant in its climatological effects; that's the example you're looking for.

Mike, geologist.

Anons torn over naming 'n' shaming of 17yo's gang-rape suspects

corestore

Rape IS a hard crime to prove...

...let's face it, it's often a 'he says / she says' situation.

But, it seems to me there's plenty evidence for any number of charges in the area of production and distribution of child pornography in this case, and a significant number of people who could and should be so charged.

Convictions for THAT are the next best thing to a conviction for rape.

The ten SEXIEST computers of ALL TIME

corestore

Connection Machine:

Good to see a few mentions of it. Here's mine:

http://www.corestore.org/cm2a.htm

Interesting thing about these small ones: you turn the key in the back to the 'unlock' position, and a little motor lifts the *whole perspex cube cover* up in the air, exposing the innards... style! :-)

Mike

corestore

Re: PERQ

Seen one? I've got two: a 1 and a 2:

http://www.corestore.org/Perq1WEB.jpg

Mike

corestore

You missed the best...

I am shocked and unimpressed.

How can you have any list of 'ten sexiest computers' without the Connection Machine at the top of it?!

http://www.mission-base.com/tamiko/cm/cm2-hds.gif

(and perhaps an honourable mention for something *very* obscure; the Panda Archistrat:

http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~r_high/memorial/panda/boxes.gif )

Mike

GoPro accused of using DMCA to take down product review

corestore

Healey...

Wow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_law_of_holes

Fire 'brand manager', admit screwup, beg forgiveness.

SHIELD Act proposed to make patent trolls pay

corestore

How on earth is it going to help, making shell companies liable for costs if they lose? Limited liability, folks!

They'll still try shakedowns, they'll still (occasionally) go as far as the courtroom steps - or even into the courtroom.

Lose? Want to give up? Shaken down enough?

No problem. They'll just let the shell company go through bankruptcy and start again with another shell.

This will fix *nothing*.

Reg. has it right; only cure is rollback Lehman and everything he did. Congress giveth patents, congress can take them away.

New Zealand court hands out second peppercorn downloading penalty

corestore

"installing a BitTorrent client is proof that an individual is sharing files illegally"

When these guys say things like that it makes we want to go and start sharing my entire frickin music collection.

Anger grows over the death of Aaron Swartz

corestore

My righteous anger is reserved for the evil (sensu stricto) prosecutors who seemed determined to make an example of this guy, piling charge upon charge until the likely sentence was starting to push his life expectancy, in a case where the 'victim' *didn't feel it merited criminal prosecution at all*.

It was clearly personal; the prosecutors can therefore hardly be surprised when they face personal consequences in the fallout from this.

corestore

Re: Makes me wonder...

Damn, I just sold a Barrett M82A1... not joking, dead serious.

corestore

Karma's a bitch. Sleep well, Carmen Ortiz and Steve Heymann; sleep lightly.

30 years ago, at flip of a switch, the internet as we know it WAS BORN

corestore

"The fix was first applied as a client-side patch to PCs by sysadmins..."

PCs? With sysadmins? On ARPANET? In the early 1980s?

Mike

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