Posts by allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"... the agency said it will make its CREST (CIA Records Search Tool) database available online, through the CIA website."

Hope it'll be better than iTunes.

What am I saying. Of course it will be better than iTunes. Everything is.

Hmm. Is "near perfect" actually = "good enough" for "impenetrable" encryption/communication?

I'm also a bit wary of this "probabilistic method" - can you really be sure about the size of the error margin you'll be working with?

Re: ashes and where to put them

This reminds me of a dinner conversation with friends a couple of years ago.

While we had arrived at the cheese stage, the topic of our conversation had somehow meandered towards death, funerals, cremation, what to do with the ashes... suddenly there was a pause and as if on cue everybodies eyes turned to look at the Morbier on the cheese platter...

It's not exactly an algorithm, but I find that random drunken ramblings sampled at 3 AM in a bar is a good starting point for creating strong passwords.

“Can’t meet demand” is an ambiguous term. It may mean that demand is genuinely greater than expected. Or it may indicate supply issues, such as the shortage of a particular component.

A particular component... like, maybe, a battery that is well behaved?

"John Lewis Finance tried to migrate its online platform a fortnight ago, but is still experiencing "teething issues" leaving customers fearing they had been scammed."

Migrate to where exactly? Something cloudy, perhaps?

Oh yeah?

Still too small... I've been dreaming of a DIN A0-sized electronic drawing board since I've started using CAD some 30 years ago.

On the day IoT thingies are "safe" I'll be riding to my paperless office in a fusion-powered self-driving car.

Melbourne trams

Film tip: Malcolm.

Trailer

You're all wrong... these are just the remains of the fireworks display to celebrate the 10,000th anniversary of some galactic empire, long ago, far away ...

On a less jokey note: how egocentric (humanocentric?) to think that some sort of message from the stars should be sent specifically to us, given the odds.

For all we know, it might just be a software glitch - or, as we are swapping authors, something like in "Exponentialdrift" by Andreas Eschbach.

Anyway, the real news is the Chinchilla News' report on the upcoming 2018 Holden Commodore!

As my great-grandmother used to say, "Pack schlägt sich, Pack verträgt sich."

You'd think FLAs were better than TLAs, or is it the other way round?

But seriously, the question is, was ASIO aware of being outclassed and outmatched at the time ?

The PDF makes for a very interesting read; some useful links in the references too.

I'm still holding auditions to fill the position of 'official stalker' - no luck so far, just a couple of plane spotters in their midlife-crisis "looking for something different", but none of them seemed to be up to the task.

As to my wallet: I use a chain. You will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

"So choose a thin, circular glass to pour your beer into next time."

Kölsch should be relatively safe then; the glasses traditionally used are basically slightly oversized test tubes.

AI?

Spoon-fed idiot savant at best.

"VP-level DevOps folks”

The horror... the horror...

Oh god, it's the late 1990ies all over again... a new generation of PHB MBAs must have risen to the top.

What's the resolution?

PCMCIA

People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms.

"Time to discover how cheap my soul is."

Actual sunday-best immortal soul or just everyday work soul?