* Posts by allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

6157 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Oct 2015

US rapper slams Earth is Round conspiracy in Twitter marathon

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

AC, thanks for pointing this out. (I forgot the guy's name, but could not be asked to dig it up.)

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: there's wind on the moon ?

There used to be, occasionally, albeit some 45 years ago. Depended on the astronaut's rations.

Holy sh*t week forces Twitter top brass to go on ‘retreat’

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

The problem as such is not "top executives" going to a retreat (or is it going into a re-treat?).

The problem is: they will come back. Full of "ideas" and stuff...

On a related note: when will Jack Dorsey make the transition from executive to executor?

AI pioneer Marvin Minsky dies at 88

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Sad Times

And as we all know, British bigotry is, of course, superior. Grow up, kid!

China has a chip to fry with y'all: Wants its own chip smarts and fabs

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: All it takes is oodles of Renminbi

As far as I understand it they work from a long term script, and maybe buying FABs was simply scheduled for a later time. Perhaps they are re-writing the script just now. But that's just a hunch, so call me Igor.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Interesting times

"Just as the Soviet Union was bankrupted by economic sclerosis and excessive state directed spending (largely on the military), China is at risk of doing the same, except that the state spending is on state-directed "capitalism"."

I was all set to contradict your post initally, but this is a very intriguing thesis. (For the potential irony alone... but yes, you might be on to something.)

Anyone here with a solid enough footing in economics to weigh in competently?

(Please - no trolling, no timewasters.)

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

" [...] Do we want the Chinese government to have this information?"

I was rather under the impression that they already have most of it.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Warning, turbulence ahead.

If it's the heat you want, maybe you should consider systems using electron bulbs?

Now you can easily see if a site's HTTP headers are insecure, beams dev

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Actually useful AND fun!

Tiny tech takes Turkish tin-rattling title

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Blinkenlights and LED and LCD - must have...

Retailers urged to create 'CCTV-like' symbol to inform customers of mobile tracking

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: "... retailer’s smart phone app. " / free WiFi at IKEA

"Lets say you want to ise the free wifi at Ikea. ... You can't actually connect unless you install their app AND create an account. Now they have your phone info, your identity, your contacts list ... and much more. And on top of that they have the kit to track you through the store by the centimeter."

Well, that just means that it is NOT free, doesn't it?

Arista slaps Cisco with countersuit in network hardware row

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Ahhh America!!!

Sue? Who's she then?

Scandal-smashed OPM will no longer do govt's background checks – for obvious reasons

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Yet another security agency

Whats wrong with Brooks Brothers?

Re the black helicopters: those are for the suburbs and rural areas. It's windowless white vans in urban areas.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Time to create another TLA. I hereby move the FIA* (Federal Intelligence Agency) be founded and furnished with an appropiate budget forthwith.

*okay, I borrowed that from "Attack of the Killer Tomatos". Best C-movie ever. Top agent Mason Dixon drives around in a car that has "FIA - unmarked car pool" stencilled on its doors. The movie also shows what the president does all day.

MIT boffin: Big data won't compute? Try these handy quantum algorithms

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Ah, Tom Lehrer... his songs taught me a thing or several. While being enormous fun. There should be more like him. Another of his songs that somehow fit the topic here is "New Math".

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Yes, quantum computers will probably used like that once they actally work. Which may be some time yet.

Show us the code! You should be able to peek inside the gadgets you buy – FTC commish

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Open Source FTW

"The problem is, the average customer is going to understand about as much of the OpenSSL library code as they do the EULA they just click through. They won't be able to work out what it does, let alone whether it has bugs or back doors in it."

And this is where guys like the readership of these esteemed pages come into it. Amongst plenty of others.

The average consumer doesn't understand how his car works either. Yet today he is able to buy a reasonable safe one.

http://boingboing.net/2016/01/25/watch-a-modern-car-utterly-cru.html.

NASA, Dept of Defense, Commerce etc probed over use of backdoored Juniper kit

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Ferals spying on ferals

What "hack"? Crappy gear, from the get go. The IT equivalent of the Ford Pinto.

If you can't buy bootleg gear online in New York, this may be why

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Interesting. I've been wondering about that from time to time - every now and then when something makes it past the spam filters in fact. Two questions always pop up: 1) who actually buys this crap* (both figuratively and literally) and 2) how does the money reaches the scammers? No point in setting up such a "business" if you can't get your hands on some cash from it.

No surprise however on the most effective counter attack vector - money (either by giving or denying it) is the best weapon there is.

*Rethorical. Don't bother - we all know. Same as the teleshopping channels. Just keep an eye open at garage sales or on who brings what to the landfill.**

** "I know what's going on in the neighbourhood - I don't live next to the bottle bank for nothing!"

Bootnote: I still think it's an ill-chosen name for a conference. Come on, I can't be the only one who reads it as unisex enema at first every bloody time.

Boffins celebrate 30th anniversary of first deep examination of Uranus

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Orbits, rings, anyone?

Why not? They are getting better at manoeuvring probes every time, plenty of improvements since the late 1970ies. And flight durations somewhere around 10 to 15 years are quite reasonable.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: The title

Couldn't resist that one - well, this is El Reg, isn't it?

Safe Harbor 2.0: US-Europe talks on privacy go down to the wire

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Why can't I rent cloud storage space directly from the NSA?

Kentucky to build 3,400-mile state-owned broadband network – and a fight is brewing

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Boah, ey!

(Alliteration makes me dizzy. B-word overload!)

The only way is down for NetApp, HPE and IBM storage – study

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

The Dell - EMC deal isn't closed yet:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/21/two_big_risk_torpedoes_could_screw_dellemc_deal/

Troubled Toshiba ponders selling chips to save its flash bacon

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: so sad

And your point is what exactly?

Terrible infections, bad practices, unclean kit – welcome to hospital IT

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Oh dear

I was a bit absent minded and read it as unisex enema first (but then, after reading the article that didn't seem that far off either).

Doctors - you gotta learn how to treat them.

Cunning Greek lizards seek skin-matching rocks

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Tempting fate

Interesting, the idea/question whether the males (or some males) pose on contrasting backgrounds. Also: do the lizards (and their predators) see colours the same way we do?

Linux Foundation quietly scraps individual memberships

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I'd rather spoon it.

Twitter boss ‘personally’ grateful as five Twitter execs walk

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"Whatever you think Twitter and its Twits, what is not in question is that it is a gaping abyss where money goes to die." - Lysenko

By now I'm inclined to think that's actually Twitter's business plan. A dadaistic prank of global proportions.

Facebook brings European cats' snaps closer to home with £151m Irish data centre

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Pint

Re: Feline photos

Best comment today - have a pint!

How El Reg predicted Google's sweetheart tax deal ... in 2013

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

The next logical step: Apple, G00gle, Amazon, etc pp team up and buy, say Greece (or a part of it, nice islands), declare it a sovereingn state and set up their HQs there. They could call it Corparatistan.

Folk shun UK.gov's 'expensive' subsidised satellite broadband

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"What is the point of a subsidy which covers the cheap part of the installation and not the expensive part?"

Theoretically an opportunity to generate good PR along the lines of "hey, look, we are really doing something here", but looks like they have managed to screw up that as well. Bit unusual, come to think about it.

60 / 24 = 2.5 millions - why, you could almost by a broom cupboard for that in the more fashionable parts of London with that!

Google and HMRC face Parliamentary grilling over £130m tax deal

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Not that I expect very much from this, it is nice seeing HMRC audited. Pass the popcorn, please.

Squeeze the banana to log into this office Wi-Fi

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: The tactile office...

I thought that was hair gel?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: The tactile office...

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do... now stop the humming, I'm trying to concentrate in here...

How to help a user who can't find the Start button or the keyboard?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re-read the article and now suspect that something was lost in the translation.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: In case of fire - let it burn!

Film tip

Davos 2016: It's now all about technology, but what actually happened?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Banks

Also, money can be hacked too! It's called forgery or counterfeiting.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Deutsche Bank are a sorry bunch of underachievers right now.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I'm afraid so. Still, no harm done, and maybe you learned something new?

Boeing just about gives up on the 747

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Hm. I've got a hunch they will choose Boeing though.

Well, so much for the invisible hand...

Five technologies you shouldn't bother looking out for in 2016

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

There is a working monorail where I live since 1901.

That aside: spot on!

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Five technologies you shouldn't bother looking out for in 2016

"- "the one that the salesman talks them into getting"

- the one that gives the salesman the biggest bonus "

Redundant.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Most recently a couple in their 60' s who installed Linux Mint without assistance

"Many over-60s went through the hell of fighting with DOS config files and Windows 3/3.1.

Don't underestimate the technical skills of that generation."

^Exactly! Getting an XT-compatible box to accept that you had swapped one of the two 5.25" 360kB floppy drives for an 3.5" 720kB drive and put in a 20MB HDD could take some time.

Reminded me of a line from 'Titus': "Once you've driven your drunk dad to mom's parole hearing - what else is there?"

Sena's multi-action camera monster, or Cardo's PackTalk club rider juggernaut?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

The Black Spur, Victoria looks like the Black Forest plus palmtrees. I think I should go there sometime.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Thanks for the tip re sewing a conductive thread in the glove!

Oz stargazers serve up interstellar noodles

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I hope it turns out to be a noodle - I'm allergic to hazelnuts.

This is all a bit confusing, but then quasars are strange beasts.

Anyway, kudos to CSIRO for some top notch boffinry.

Four Boys' Own style World War Two heroes to fire your imagination

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Ken Adam and Chuck Yeager

Ken Adam: piloted Hurricanes for the RAF in WWII for the RAF while still being technically German - he was too young to become a British subject when he joined the RAF. After the war he became one of the most (aguably the most) influencial production designer(s) ever. I've read his biography last year - utterly, utterly fascinating. Larger than life.

Chuck Yeager: got shot down during one of his first sorties over France. Avoided capture, made contatct with la résistance, walked across the Pyrenees (carrying a fellow airman half the time), from France to Spain, got back to England, fought USAAF policy*, eventually presenting his case to Eisenhower himself, was allowed to get back into active service - and made ace in one day. After WWII he was a test pilot and for 10 years flew every new american plane and survived more than one close shave. Was smart enough to quit while he was ahead of the game and returned to being a fighter pilot. Retired as a general, still spending every possible minute at the stick instead behind a desk. If you watch "The Right Stuff": he has a cameo as "Fred", one of the regulars at Pancho Barnes bar.

*Escaped pilots were not alowed to fly missions over enemy teritory again, for fear of being shot down again and captured, possibly being forced to compromise those who helped them escape the first time. Yeager got back to Britain some time after D-Day, so he argued that if he would be shot down again it would not be over France, so not compromising anyone there.

dotCloud dotGone: Ex-Docker PaaS passes away amid bankruptcy

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Cloud doing what clouds do

Vapourized water condensating into rain - cloud gone, people wet...

And that's why I do not like to store my data on someone else's system.

Data centers dig in as monster storm strikes America's East Coast

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Checklist

Big boxes of pot nodles*, Mars bars, fizzy drinks and tea.

And some blankets to build a fort in mission control.

Sorted.

*You did stock up on fuel for the generator, didn't you?