Posts by AndrewDu 137 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Feb 2014
" all the compute technology required is packed into this chassis"
Well, not quite all, because as the article explains in some detail, the systems are nowhere near real-world ready.
The argument really is whether they ever will be; after all, the problems illustrated are all on American roads, which are basically wide and straight with right-angle junctions, plenty of signage, and reasonably law-abiding drivers. How would it go in Naples, I wonder?
Nirvana is further away than you think imho.
Yes, you're right AC.
Anticipate, anticipate, anticipate.
Watch the road as far ahead as you can see - any sign of brake lights is a warning signal.
When driving on motorways I plan ages ahead if I can: "I'll overtake that truck before the fast guy in the BMW catches up with me, then I'll move into that space there, just in time to move out again before the slow guy who's gradually catching up blocks me in behind the next truck..." and so on and on. Result smooth steady progress, no panics unless really necessary, nobody else held up too much.
This is what human drivers can do, which AI is really going to struggle with imho.
Truly autonomous vehicles are much further in the future than people think.
I visited France, Italy, and Spain many times before we joined the EU (or rather before we joined the Common Market, which etc etc etc); I never needed a visa, and I don't expect I will in future - this assertion is just another iteration of "Project Fear" and can be ignored like the rest of it.
And so what if BJ becomes PM? We can always vote him out. Remind me again who voted for Tusk or Juncker, and how we get rid of them?
Well I hope they're going to improve the reliability a bit.
I built a mini-server to use as a Domain Controller for the home network; for fun I built it with no moving parts at all, so of course it had an SSD.
After replacing the damn thing three times in the first year (and we all know what fun it is when a Domain Controller croaks, don't we?) I changed it for a Samsung 2.5" laptop drive, which has been running without a beat dropped for about three years now.
Of course I realise Enterprise SSD's are better than this, but have you seen the prices?
"SCADA started off with archaic protocols such as FDDI, Token Ring but “good luck building a network with anything other than TCP/IP now,” Lakhani added."
Uh, last time I looked, Token Ring was a transport protocol, it can handle TCP/IP traffic just as it can handle any other.
True, it's expensive and outdated, but goofs like this make me wonder whether anything the guy says can be trusted.
Windows 8.1 has similar issues.
I support loads of HP Elitepads running 8.1, and they can get into a state where they are fully charged but will not respond at all to the on/off button. I have about five that are useless because of this - I know there's nothing really wrong with them but they will not wake up whatever you do, so they're effectively bricked.
It doesn't help that they mysteriously turn themselves back on when you shut them down, so you can put them away in a cupboard thinking they're powered off when actually they are not, the battery runs down, sleep-of-death kicks in, and after that you can leave them on charge for weeks (I've tried - weeks) and they will never start up again.
It would help (and not just with this problem) if the power button was actually that - a hard switch that kills all power to the system, instead of just some weird kind of soft switch that invokes a software routine which may work if you're lucky and you hold your mouth right, but may just as well go into an endless loop of some kind.
But I suppose that's like wishing for a real live physical connection between your right foot and the throttle control of your car - ain't gonna happen because electronics is "better" and what could possibly go wrong?
The joys!
PS Apple fanboyz, don't even start. Thanks.
Really? EVERY time it's checked? Even if it's the state snoopers doing the checking?
If you'll believe that you'll believe anything.
For instance, you probably think all this stuff is being done for your own good.
Lenin's phrase about "useful idiots" comes to mind yet again.
Well if you agreed, bully for you - I wouldn't, but each to his own. At least you had the choice.
Maybe you missed where it said that the patients in this case were not consulted, and had no meaningful way to opt out?
That's the issue, not the question of what they might or might not have done if given the option.
Wasn't there a game with a snake that rushed about the screen and you had to work the arrow keys to stop it eating its own tail? Or something like that? Was that Windows 3.11 or OS/2? I seem to remember hacking that game to make it faster and the snakes grow longer...
Anyway, Windows 3.11 for Workgroups was the first "network" I ever worked on...for the HR department no less. They felt terribly modern because they could all share one printer!
But don't get me started on OS/2 config.sys files...nightmare on elm street...
Adam 52 is correct.
If you use ixquick (the EU's favoured search engine) you get just the Bruce Schneier link plus this very article from El Reg if you include the quotes in the search string.
Without them you get pages and pages and pages...ixq doesn't seem to give a hit count by default and I don't use it much so I can't be arsed looking for the setting.
The kids have grown up with this stuff and have totally swallowed the government line about "if you've got nothing to hide...". Their view is why would anyone want to steal MY stuff when there are all these rich bastards around?
Works fine until your grandfather sends £300 to some scammer somewhere because you got mugged in Madrid, or some other place you've never been to. (Nearly happened in my family; did happen to a friend).
My god-daughter wrote her PIN on the actual credit card itself - but it was OK (she said) because it was written with the digits in the reverse order. Then she was shocked - shocked, I say - when her big brother emptied her bank account. Once bitten...
@Mr Chriz: yes, my first thought exactly. Does this work by discovering the producer's details and then comparing with some database somewhere? I don't believe the flock density is actually marked on the packaging - or if it is, the bad guys won't be long in removing it - so this is really only going to be effective until the factory farmers realise what's happening.
Someone will no doubt tell me I am wrong and too cynical...
They're ahead of you.
The proposed ID database for the whole country (defeated in parliament, but it'll be back, as many times as it takes) ALREADY contains a feature to ensure that the records of "those and such as those" would not be accessible to all and sundry - unlike your record, or mine.
So your suggested threat would be empty, and they would know it.
Of course they do.
EVERYBODY gets NHS services for free. Citizens, non-citizens, migrants, refugees, legal or illegal - all welcome. If you can get to the UK you'll get free treatment, no limits, no questions asked.
The policy may be to charge those who are not entitled, but it's never enforced.
Hospital servers?
God help us all; I have never in all my life worked in a place so badly organised and incompetently managed, from an IT perspective, as the NHS. There is no chance whatever of any sensible precautions or responses.
Perhaps the scammers know this, and that is why they've picked on this target particularly: a much higher chance of success for them.
I've got an idea how they could improve their hit rate on successful customer visits.
They could stop leaving useless answerphone messages for me which say "We're coming to install your line at 1pm on Wednesday" WITHOUT saying which of my several open orders at different sites this refers to.
And they could even call the phone number I give them as the site contact, instead of always calling me even when I'm hundreds of miles from the site or even on holiday. Which then leads to the situation described above.
They are simply not fit for purpose. All by themselves they probably cost the country a measurable percentage off the GDP every year by their sheer bloody incompetence and the fact that NOBODY else can install a line for you. "Former" monopoly? What's this "former" bit, eh?
/rant
So it's only for this specific case, no precedent, oh, sorry, apart from those twelve others that you've discovered are also pending. (You have no idea how many there are that you don't know about, of course.)
And it's only in cases of really really serious scary crime like terrorism, oh, sorry, except for those other twelve cases which are, um, not to do with terrorism.
And they wonder why nobody trusts them?
The State is not your friend!
"Good evening, Mr. Plod, what can I do for you?"
"It's about this child pornography you've been downloading, sir"
"Nonsense, I would never do such a thing!"
"This is your router, sir, this one here? Yes? I thought so. Don't try to bamboozle me with technicalities, please sir. Just step this way, if you don't mind. Anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence against you. Oh, and your name and picture will be all over The Sun tomorrow morning. Smile please, for the photographer, while I put these handcuffs on you."
Just. Say. No.
"I wonder why they don't fly around it."
They do. They always have.
This is another desperate bollocks-claim by the warmists.
And the figures are cooked too - tiny differences added up over huge numbers to make a headline.
Not worth dignifying it by taking it seriously, in fact.
"Openreach is now poised to take the UK from a superfast to an ultrafast nation"
Feh.
I'd like to see him log on to his email from my house any evening after 6pm.
The connection is so slow that the speed-checkers won't even load. When they do, and you get 1Mb/s shown, that's a good day.
"OpenReach, holding back the UK since 2006"
Seems to me that the people should train the eagles to take down the government's snooping drones.
Also, El Reg, your picture shows an American Bald Eagle - never seen in Scotland.
Ours are either Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) which are pretty big, or Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla), which are mahusive.
"That's why recommended anti-spying practise with mobiles isn't to just turn them off but remove the battery."
And that's exactly why you can't remove the battery from an iPhone.
As for the dodgy webcam, putting the damn thing in the cupboard should deal with it. Or even just chuck a cloth over it, parrot-cage style.
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