Posts by GrapeBunch 825 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Apr 2015
(shamelessly lifting somebody's comment): "In Canada, he'd be considered a crank by some, a prophet by others. That would be his Free Speech. The difference seems to be that he backed up his arguments with Mathematics rather than bluster or bullster. Mathematics is Truth, so Free Speech is OK so long as it isn't true? Say it ain't so, Galileo."
It's "has gotten" that drives me to distraction. When an item was obtained from a retail store (rather than as a gift, or an item made by its owner), my mother used to use the adjective "boughten". "It's boughten goods." She would never, however, use "Them's boughten botten" (to mean those are Japanese robots purchased as such, not Pi robots made in a garage), because "Them" is ungrammatical.
I have Shaw Internet, but didn't notice a slowdown. I was scanning, so that was a lucky afternoon activity choice. Mrs. Bunch noticed some outage, but not enough to complain to me at the time. Shaw is expensive, but has offered good service. Then they cut facilities (no Usenet, no member pages) but claimed we weren't paying for them anyway. Yeah, right. Going forward, I don't know how this is going to pan out. With vastly fewer employees, they will be unable to offer the same levels of service. They'll be just like their competitors. Yuk, race to the bottom. The one thing Shaw still does have is "Shaw Go", which allows subscribers to connect mobile devices to internet via wi-fi all around town, including at bus stops. Last time our service went down at home, about a year ago, I walked to the nearest bus stop, sat in the shelter protected from the rain, took out a tablet and engaged in online chat with the Shaw rep. Way less noise than a phone support call. Besides, since our phone is Shaw VOIP, the service outage meant that it wasn't working anyway. For the technically-minded, our issue was that the service was marginal due to oxidation, corrosion on parts up in the pole. When Shaw TV Cable went digital, deficiencies were unmasked. Even though we don't subscribe to Cable TV. The technician, to his credit, identified the problem pretty quickly, and it was also repaired soon enough.
I hope you've all got(ten) a down home flavour from this and do not feel the need to downvote me too strenuously. If you do feel the need to downvote, please go ahead, accept my apologies in advance, and may the pasta deity bless you.
If a foreign person gets a gmail account, I assume the US considers it fair game for the NSA to slurp his email. Moi, a "a foreign intelligence target"? Bien sûr. And a US citizen who gets a foreign e-mail account and doesn't publish the address and his identity for all to see, surely they'd slurp that, just for completeness. Going back to gmail, how are you sure that "John Smith" of Davenport, Iowa is actually who he says he is? Spies, traitors, terrorists and paedophiles, like government agencies, don't necessarily fight fair. So might as well slurp that, just to be safe. In case you missed it, I've just slurped all email in the world, for the NSA. That's even if you imagine that they are telling the truth. The ball is under the nth shell.
I suppose there was a time when the phrase "fair dinkum" might have occasioned a raised eyebrow anywhere except Australia. When a gf went to study in the UK, she let go with the expression "a coon's age" (meaning "a long time", a decade or more) to collective shock and horror around the lunch table. I'm sure she would have received feedback around a USA lunch table, too.
Because of the market dominance of MS, I suppose that open developers must have spent a lot of time around the lunch table discussing to what extent they should provide a compatibility mode. In other words, they will try to render a document as the document instructs them, but in compatibility mode they would render the document the way a particular version of MS Office would render it. Seems like a no-brainer, but seeking compatibility uber alles is a slippery path.
Around a more exalted table at MS, they must spend a lot of time figuring out ways to get open software to fail to properly render an MS Office document. This also can be a slippery path, though usually a win for the market dominator. E.g. MS-DOS versus DR-DOS.
I use LibreOffice, but not often. In olden days when faced with (the possibility of) screen garbage, I would ask the originator to save the document to a format old even then (was it Word 2.1 ?). That would stand a better chance of indigestion-free consumption by whatever version of AbiWord I happened to be using. That approach is less productive when the document has been published rather than sent.
I remember one year a PC magazine with great fanfare announced its annual awards for Technical Excellence. The winner in a software category was MS-DOS, even though it was vastly inferior to a direct competitor, Digital Research DOS, aka DR-DOS or Dr. DOS. I was so miffed I wrote a letter, to which they replied something like that MS-DOS was a better seller. Excellent. Not.
When Windows was a product that worked on top of--and over--DOS, there was reportedly a saying at Microsoft to the effect: "It don't go out the door, until DR-DOS don't work no more." DR ended up at the mercy of MS's production schedules. When Windows released a new version, then DR had to scramble to bypass the DR-unfriendly code that MS had introduced, and only then could they release the next DR-DOS version. Digital Research also had a great product called Concurrent DOS. I believe DR-DOS was mainly a crippled version of Concurrent DOS, with a flag set to "off", the one that would have activated the concurrent processing. Instead, DR-DOS acted as a task-switcher. In 1985-86 I worked for a company that exploited the power of Concurrent DOS in off-the-shelf PCs to create software that is impressive even decades later. None of the brilliance came from me, but I did work for the company.
If Digital Research is allowed only one entry in the FAIL museum, I'm not sure which one it should be.
AVRO Arrow, the greatest jet aeroplane of the 20th century, was built, tested, then junked, destroyed, obliterated. That is Canada's biggest fail. Although the rumour was that Prime Minister Diefenbaker had nightmares about Canada becoming a war-monger or a nuclear power, I've long believed that it must have been USA influence--whether commercial, military, or political--applied in secret. The cancellation was a tremendous boost to the USA aero industry, without loss of a single life. They've done more to get less.
at least that's how Google translated it. I'm not making this up. Has a (mood) ring about it that "My Struggle with Failure" lacks.
My brother had an Apple Newton. I had (have?) a Kodak digital camera (DC215 http://www.digicammuseum.com/en/prototypes-rarities/item/kodak-dc215-metallics ), which as a digital camera for its time was just fine. It took 3,000 pics of up to 1 Megapixel, then I loaned it to a youngster. I also have two Betamaxen in the basement (and, just to be fair, a stereo VHS). The transport mechanisms on these machines tend to use rubber-like bands, which over the decades oxidize. If they don't disintegrate, they do get slack. So the mission, should I choose to accept it, is to get the replacement band, disassemble the damn thing (taking frequent snapshots of the process on my Kodak, oops) ... and hope that disassembly wasn't a one-way process. I doubt that a couple of minutes with a hair dryer would tighten up a slack band, but you never know .... well, if worst comes to worst, the units contain so much metal that they could stop a fairly good-sized bullet: beta-armour?
I also have a tech that succeeded but was discontinued, the butterfly keyboard. It appeared in the Thinkpad 701C and 701CS circa 1994?. Then the idea was deep-sixed by IBM because their craze was ever-thinner machines with ever-larger screens. Silly gits.
The list of failed tech could be much much longer. There's not just failed products, but also failed ideas.
(and make sure you reboot)
I did as you suggested on an old XP machine. On rebooting, it could not connect with the Internet. After a few minutes of futzing around, I fell back upon an old method that often works, though I never know why. I rebooted a second time. All normal after that. Thanks!
It strikes me that much of one's security should reside in the router. It even runs a different OS ! Don't know how one might go about that, though.
I upvoted you, AC, though many didn't. Years ago, I read an essay by the astronomer, Fred Hoyle. When asked what should a young astronomer do to keep his game sharp (rather than chat in the coffee room), Hoyle recommended calculating (using pencil and paper) some planetary orbits, using the Laws of Gravity formulated by Isaac Newton (1643-1727). OTOH, it makes sense that they would not want to be doing this all day, every day. Same goes for offshore astronomers.
Needed to compile a video for a friend. First Linux proggy took nearly half an hour and didn't want to burn the DVD. Second Linux proggy took the same amount of time, but did burn the DVD. Nero's proggy running on Win7 took less than a minute of my time because drag 'n' drop.
The same job would have taken only seconds longer on an old Win2K or XP machine (suitably isolated from the Internet) with earlier versions of the same legacy software. A good reason to keep one old computer on the shelf. You might have had to transfer the material on a CF card on a carrier in a PCMCIA slot, rather than a USB stick. And your burn device might have been connected by Firewire.
Since in 2017, few would want DVD authoring software cluttering up their work machine.
I've noticed that whenever I say anything neutral or nice in relation to an old version of Windows, I collect El Reg downvotes. So go ahead, Mike Foxtrotters, downvote me to Hell.
I used to write a column (not about tech) in a Canadian newspaper. For decades, the deadline was Wednesday for a Saturday column, which was fine, especially pre-Internet, but even afterwards because the subject was not particularly time-sensitive. But the newspaper cut costs by offshoring the typesetting of those particular newspaper pages to USA. So the deadline became earlier. And kept on getting earlier until it was 2 weeks before the original deadline. In other words, 17 days in advance. My theory at the time was that the USA company had in turn offshored this work to India. Not that Indian words such as "crore" started creeping into the column. It was a question of low wages combined with fluency in English that led me to that guess. "Indira, you're not working hard enough. Improve your productivity or I will offshore this work to Bangladesh, where they really know the value of their paycheque." Anyway, you can push the envelope in a "news" paper, but not engage in a race to the bottom. Eventually, the Canadian newspaper dropped the column, ostensibly because they were retooling the paper to a new demographic, but probably because fewer people were reading the stale material therein.
I've opened but not got too far along with, a book with the above title. It deals with exactly the topic being discussed here.
I think that a regulatory approach would be as pointless as outlawing stupidity. You have to keep redefining stupidity, and as soon as you think you're done, somebody moves the yardsticks. Even a requirement to file flowcharts, founders on the reasonable contention that the algorithm and its flowchart are trade secrets of the company.
It could just be a "throw away line" referencing tooth (and hence data) removal. MS, fb, GCHQ and so on. They're all in the extraction biz. Would you like to join in, NSA? Why yes, old fiend, nothing short of a Pymms could make the oyster go down more smoothly. Shame about your teeth.
... VISA payment processing centre. As I'm all for reciprocity, I think it's time we get access to theirs. Trump's, for instance, must be fascinating :)
Fascinating? Since Trump's trick is to buy stuff using other people's money (a bit like Royalty, and governments, for that matter), it might tell nothing at all. Yugely.
Yeah, sure, multiple machine translations, "Chinese Whispers" or "Telephone" style with a check at the end to see that the message isn't just too garbled. However, it could be that they want people to think that their native language is not English. That it is, for example, Russian. When comedian Jessica Holmes does a Russian character, it sounds just like those excerpts. Easter, of course, they want you to think they're favouring Orthodox countries which calculate Easter (holidays) on a different basis. Although I looked it up, and in 2017, both Easters fell on the same day. Maybe there's a message in that, too. They probably didn't want to wait until Christmas.
Memory is fallible. I was thinking of Episode 63 (or 67 in another count): The Empath. The Vions (who look like Ballmer in drag) slurp all human data. Kirk (representing the journalists of El Reg) saves the life of the helpless empath, Gem (representing all Windows users), with snappy debating points. But dammit Jim, the Vions don't use the words "The Creators", that must be another episode. Later, Spock almost smiles.
I'm one of the lucky ones still on Win 7 (and XP!?. One of the XPs is destined for Mint Mate). AFAICT, MS for a long time did not have a version of 10 suitable for my ThinkPad W520. Then when I wised up about the "upgrade", I was able to prevent it. Curiously, this morning Comodo flashed a message that I would have to upgrade Comodo software before the Creators Update. On the surface, this is just an oversight on Comodo's part, mimicking not being able to tell what OS you are running. Or maybe it's a telegram that a user really might be that gullible after all this time to go from a stable 7 system to the latest whiz-bang. Or, is there a Creators Update for Windows 7 in our future?
I can't help thinking that with more development effort, this sort of malware will be able to brick every gas or electric smart meter on the planet. Darwin this, Darwin that. On the frostiest night of the year, naturally. Deployed by a kid wearing short trousers, football boots, and a Motörhead T-shirt inherited from his grandpa.
Why would Russian [Nork, American, Iranian, Chinese, Israeli ...] hackers want to bring down utilities at [random location] ? Surely they're developing their arsenals through research, industrial espionage, reverse espionage (e.g. donating code that they already know how to h4XX.) and collection of zero-day exploits. They have their eye on the long game, the sharp disruption upon request at a crucial moment. The damned Eastern Grey Squirrels haven't figured that out. Or have they?
Maybe a 13-year-old itching to be jailed, but not a natjonal hacker.
Don't worry, Morogon spooks; OSS, KGB, SS, CIA, Stasi, and so on all had own toothing probs.
The Erious Johnson reference a Twitter search revealed yesterday was this quote:
"It takes nothing to join the crowd, it takes everything to stand alone."
Erious Johnson, Jr. Civil rights Oregon.
It is confusing. My best guess is that an Erious Johnson was engaged in a false flag / entrapment operation. Williams, a low-level employee, flagged this, the powers that be in his department took it all too seriously, and soon they felt they needed a scapegoat to cover their gaffe, embarrassment, asses. If only they used the Keepass application, this never might have happened. Just a guess, necessarily a wild one because the bald what-happened-in-the-story, does not make sense.
There are 100 visible stars in the galaxy. And another 100 invisible ones. If instead there were 900 invisible ones, could that solve the gravitational equation? Even a milky Oort cloud of dun objects? B(G)ee-leon, of course.
a TSA spokesperson referred The Register to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS spokesperson David Lapan did not acknowledge the new rules when asked about them. "We have no comment on potential security precautions, but will provide an update when appropriate," he said in an email. We'll update this article as soon as we have more information.
I would like to assure observers at TSA, DHS, and El Reg that I will update this comment as soon as ... oops. That wasn't ten minutes! It was never ten minutes.
If USA wants to punish eight or eighty countries, how about this: only women from those countries may travel to USA. Men are banned. And on February 29th, reverse that. Security Theatre of the Absurd.
When mankind conceptualized wood as a spear, a club, a spar, a stud, a post, a joist, a lintel, a fan, a stylus, a pencil, a shield, fuel, charcoal, spring, foundation, fertilizer, paper, a fork, a toothbrush, a toothpick, a wing strut ..., all sorts of miracles and mischief followed, over tens of thousands of years. I wonder if the concept of Internet-as-boon will survive its rapid weaponization.
We wildebeests may defeat a lion or a crocodile in individual combat, but in the end we can't eat or otherwise profit from the defeated opponent (e.g., a criminal or a government). In the end, we are all prey. So what's the point in engaging in the Internet-battle-of-survival? To use a completely different analogy.
I've long wanted antigravity entrained to antimatter. Never occurred to me that it doesn't have to be one-to-one with gravity. I wonder if the figure 0.02993 is the right side of an equation involving familiar constants, such as my first try e / (pi to the fourth) which google tells me is 0.02790583301. Not bad. Four pies because there's four dimensions and my tummy is empty. Science isn't done this way (at least not the 99.999% of Science that is work). Thank you all for indulging this fancy.
"Suppression of free speech Erich Honecker would be proud of."
I was thinking that facebook will have ample data to compare the efficiency of their 700 agents, in a city that has hosted several agencies in the past century or so. I wonder what the gold standard of efficiency even is? Probably not the Stasi, because when the State becomes a Surveillance State, there's hardly room for much else. No, I'd guess it would be one of the earlier agencies, despite the less-developed technology.
I was on the other side of this fun once. Cast your minds back to the pre-internet days of monochrome displays. I bought an application which was written in 16-colors, but I ran it on a four shades of green monitor. Up to then, and afterwards, every 16-color pay-for or free or shareware app I had encountered, rendered OK on a 4-shade of monochrome monitor. Except this one. He had managed to burn-in (no user color settings) two display colors that mapped to the same shade, meaning that much of the information was illegible, encrypted if you like. I pointed this out to the author. He didn't fix the app, but he did diss one of his customers on a discussion group. This was pre-internet, so it might have been Leisure Linc. Something like: "You think you have stupid customers. I got one who complained about the colors of my app, but it turned out he was trying to run it in monochrome. What an idiot !" Endearing, to the hilt.
Just a few years ago, if a reference was made to a laptop open to hacking, a system operator would pipe up that anybody whose machine was hacked, was simply not taking the proper precautions. Then would follow a short list of the precautions to take. Not all of these precautions would be understandable to the layman, but oh well.
Today those might still be useful precautions, but it seems that the likelihood of getting hacked, if a hacker is intent on you, is high. If a government agency can do it, anybody can do it.
Where before, the layman was "stupid" if (s)he did not take the indicated steps to secure the computer, it seems that today, may it be suggested?, the layman is ill-advised to conduct medium or important business over the internet. Is this what they mean by "paradigm shift"?
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