* Posts by HieronymusBloggs

408 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Oct 2015

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Outage-hit Lloyds Bank in talks to outsource data centres to IBM

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Amazing that this still happens

"to do things well, from both the financial and customer service points of view"

I suspect one of those things is not a consideration.

Forget aircraft – now cretins are laser-blinding ferry boat crewmen

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Motive?

"Or just Septics?"

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that wasn't rhyming slang.

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Bah!

"There are reasons why corporal punishment has been abandoned in much of the world, and why we decry flogging in Saudi Arabia and other countries"

There's a difference between flogging someone for having a beer and doing it to someone who tried to blind the pilot of an aircraft or ferry.

HieronymusBloggs

Re: 15 days jail time ?

"most criminal have some sort of heavy metal poisoning"

The Romans did pretty well despite drinking water from lead pipes and containers. I suspect there are still houses in the UK with lead water pipes, which were common until fairly recently, yet relatively few people indulge in this moronic activity. (Note that I'm not playing down the seriousness of contaminated water supplies; I'm just sceptical about it being a significant factor here).

Drones will be able to carry 120GB footage of you in the shower if Seagate has its way

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Where are the Drone Jammers then?

"Please tell me you don't believe in the voyeur/pedophile/pervert and a drone crap."

Given the propensity of the listed types to take advantage of available technology, I take it you forgot the joke icon.

Programmer finds way to liberate ransomware'd Google Smart TVs

HieronymusBloggs

Re: ...unable to write clear instructions...

"programmers and engineers design consumer technology which is perfectly simple for programmers and engineers to operate"

As an engineer (and a semi-competent programmer) myself, I'm not sure I'd agree. I find the controls provided for operating many modern appliances totally mystifying.

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Get off my lawn!

"powered OFF means NO CURRENT APPLIED"

Not so long ago the politicians here in UK were getting concerned about the standby power consumption of appliances, that it was destroying the environment, and legislation was clearly necessary. The obvious cheap solution for a manufacturer is to change the label on the 'Standby' switch to 'Off', thus sidestepping legal limits on standby power. (I considered using the joke icon here, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true in some cases).

Yorkshire council hit with prolonged web outage

HieronymusBloggs

Re: On Ilkley Moor...

"Does Lynx support the strike tag?"

Yes. It displays it as [DEL: 'at :DEL]

HieronymusBloggs

Re: On Ilkley Moor...

"Pray tell, in what universe is "Baht 'at IT?" the same as "Baht IT?""

In the universe where HTML strike tags work. I'm guessing your web browser doesn't show the "'at" as being struck out.

Meet the Internet of big, lethal Things

HieronymusBloggs

Re: DUB Package?

"What the hell is that?"

It's a surface mount IC package, also referred to as 8-pin SOP.

Ancient water found in Canada is two billion years old – giving hope to Mars colony dreamers

HieronymusBloggs

Re: "New! Amazing! Wrongco Proxy Crock!" at CanadaFreePress

"ALL water on Earth is a fission byproduct"

No, the oxygen in it is a fusion byproduct, just like all other elements apart from hydrogen.

If you bought a dildo in Denver, the government must legally be told

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Remarkable

"tried selling anything 'digital' in Europe lately?"

Have an upvote. Whoever pushed the idea of abolishing the minimum VAT threshold for cross-border VAT is either an imbecile or was unduly influenced by those with a vested interest in killing off competition from upcoming small businesses. I wonder which is more likely?

Kentucky pried chicken: Fried grease chain's loyalty club hacked

HieronymusBloggs

Just goes to show

Just goes to show the importance of keeping up with colonel security updates.

Jeremy Hunt: Telcos must block teens from sexting each other

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Think for a minute

I think the derision is aimed at the technical ignorance shown, not at the thought that there could be a serious issue. Claiming there is a technical solution which doesn't exist in any practically usable form, and then basing kneejerk legislation on such claims, is not a sensible thing to do.

Meet the Loughborough 'emo' boffins who predicted Trump's victory

HieronymusBloggs

'emo' boffins

Mine's the black labcoat.

Who's in Peter's file? Moneybags Thiel hits up Silicon Valley brains to join his Trump think tank

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Wiat...

"You elected Trump"

s/You/The Electoral College

Hackers electrocute selves in quest to turn secure doors inside out

HieronymusBloggs

Re: They're still alive after electrocution?

"Try Cambridge, Collins, Mirriam-Webster and you'll get a different definition."

All those (Chambers too) define it as killing by electricity.

Maybe the researchers submitted their report by ouija board.

HieronymusBloggs

Re: They're still alive after electrocution?

"The iee regs disagreed with the oed last time I looked."

Which IEE (now IET) regulation mentions electrocution?

Smart meter benefits even crappier than originally thought

HieronymusBloggs

"I'm imagining a field full of cows plumbed into a central gas vessel..."

Could be hazardous:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25922514

HieronymusBloggs

Re: The smug git feeling

"today it generated close on 8Kw from my PV Array"

Apart from the fact that the number of kW is meaningless without knowing how long it was for, where did you get the free PV array?

Shhh! Shazam is always listening – even when it's been switched 'off'

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Pause for thought

"Sure the mic is on but the data is just going to /dev/nul."

No doubt it's stored in at least one buffer (which could be considered a form of recording) before it gets there.

Leaks password, check. Leaks Wi-Fi password, check. Can be spoofed, check. Ding! We have an Internet of S**t winner

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Which is exactly why I build mine out of Raspberries and Bananas

"Runs some flavour of Linux, check."

So plain text passwords coming from other operating systems can't be snooped? Valuable security tip, thanks.

WebAssembly: Finally something everyone agrees on – websites running C/C++ code

HieronymusBloggs

Re: ... applications as web pages instead of applications as applications ...

"And the commentards still turning off JavaScript in your browsers: what actually are you using the web *for*?"

Reading this, for a start.

This is not a drill: Hackers pop stock Nexus 6P in five minutes

HieronymusBloggs

"hire some adults"

Advice for others or personal resolution?

Chap turns busted laptop into phone keyboard, in Himalayan book-rescue mission

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Voice Recognition Anyone?

"Surely this is so much easier to use the voice recognition for just entering text."

As he's writing book chapters, maybe he wanted the text to actually be correct.

Dirty COW explained: Get a moooo-ve on and patch Linux root hole

HieronymusBloggs

Re: How did it all go wrong?

"Who do you sue when something on Linux goes wrong"

Given what is clearly stated in the NO WARRANTY section of the GPL, you (or whoever authorised the use of the software) have to take responsibility yourself. Strange concept in this day and age, I know.

Don't panic, but a 'computer error' cut the brakes on a San Francisco bus this week

HieronymusBloggs

The handbrake needs a computer's cooperation before it will work? What prevents a parked bus from rolling away when the battery goes flat?

Zilog reveals very, very distant heir to the Z80 empire

HieronymusBloggs

Re: How exciting

"two phase power correction. Wow {yawn} that's just so {snark} novel."

Power factor correction is not so much novel as a requirement in order to qualify for a CE mark for a large range of electronic and electrical equipment. Got any large PSUs?

Linus Torvalds admits 'buggy crap' made it into Linux 4.8

HieronymusBloggs

I'm slightly bemused by the comments describing Linus' posts on LKML as "public". Sure, anyone can read them if they go out of their way to subscribe or read the archives, but what proportion of the general public makes the effort? I suspect that many of the critical comments come from those who would never have noticed if it wasn't for stories like this (and therefore have little idea of the historical context leading to the remarks).

HieronymusBloggs

The reporting style of these stories, while amusing, seems aimed at pushing the buttons of those sensitive flowers who are easily upset by Linus' grumpy remarks.

Upstart bags $2.5m to help put the brakes on self-driving car hackers

HieronymusBloggs

"... connected autonomous ..."

"Sounds like a contradiction in terms to me..."

Not necessarily. We humans are (usually) autonomous, but connected to each other by our ability to communicate.

User couldn't open documents or turn on PC, still asked for reference as IT expert

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Your error is assuming a wireless connection would be appropriate.

"Only twats work in EMC test labs, for example."

Banged your head on the underside of your bridge? It's Friday. Calm down and have a beer.

HieronymusBloggs

Re: My error was assuming other commentors would know

"your error was not getting a wireless connection set up for a mobile device"

Your error is assuming a wireless connection would be appropriate. If it was in an EMC test lab, for example, that would not be the case.

Linus Torvalds won't apply 'sh*t-for-brains stupid patch'

HieronymusBloggs
Joke

Re: He's right. Again.

"He's got to make an effort to make Linux drivers more modular"

It might be time to upgrade to at least a 1.2 kernel...

Having offended everyone else in the world, Linus Torvalds calls own lawyers a 'nasty festering disease'

HieronymusBloggs

Re: It's True!

"Linux kernel politics are so vicious..."

Are they vicious though? A list of grumpy comments taken completely out of context is a lazy way of making it seem so, but it doesn't convince me.

New booze guidelines: We'd rather you didn't enjoy yourselves

HieronymusBloggs

Re: because you can't enjoy yourself without a drink?

"Nice example of Reductio ad absurdum there ."

"Not really. Why?"

I'm guessing it's because the comment that prompted that reply appeared to conflate the enjoyment of an occasional drink with full blown alcoholism.

HieronymusBloggs

No such thing as zero alcohol

Since we all produce endogenous blood alcohol (albeit in very small amounts in healthy people) it's impossible to avoid alcohol entirely. Where do you draw the line on risk?

An anniversary to remember: The world's only air-to-air nuke was fired on 19 July, 1957

HieronymusBloggs

"Don't forget the EMP. I would doubt very much that the bombers of the day would have had hardened systems to cope with it."

Do valves/tubes need to be hardened to resist EMP? No doubt a strong enough EMP would damage them, but I'm pretty sure they're more resistant than those new-fangled transistor thingies.

Behold the ROBOT RECTUM... medics' relief

HieronymusBloggs

Arse Technica

Isn't there a web site dedicated to this?

Gone

HieronymusBloggs

Efficient?

“The competition is designed to encourage efficient software development"

"You can use Java, VB, Swift, C'Dent, Node, PHP or Python."

C/C++ too efficient for you?

Apple, AT&T, Verizon named in $7bn VoIP patent claim

HieronymusBloggs

Re: "You think that's air you're breathing ?"

Nice prior art you've got there.

It'd be a shame if something happened to it...

This is what a root debug backdoor in a Linux kernel looks like

HieronymusBloggs
Joke

Re: Vulnerable?

"Learn first."

That's so last century.

Hacker flogs '42.5m freshly stolen logins' for seventy-five cents

HieronymusBloggs

"Returned to the rightful owners"

From the Hold web site:

"Today, large amounts of stolen credentials may not grab headlines, but they never lose their potency, especially when they are recovered by the good guys and returned to the rightful owners. "

What do they mean? Is this a joke?

Linux greybeards release beta of systemd-free Debian fork

HieronymusBloggs

"It's popular because it works better than anything else."

For you, perhaps. It doesn't necessarily follow that it works better for everyone else. Linux server installations still outnumber desktops and laptops by a long shot. How popular is it with server admins? I suspect not so popular.

Google Loon balloon crash lands in Chile

HieronymusBloggs

Re: tie thier tails together

"The correct method is to rub each cat's fur vigorously with an ebonite rod and stick it directly to the balloon envelope with the generated static electricity."

And given the law of feline physics which states that a cat will always land on its feet, all they would have to do is make sure all of their feet were pointing towards the centre of the balloon to ensure it would never crash to the ground.

A perfect marriage: YOU and Ubuntu 16.04

HieronymusBloggs

Not quite

"what has quickly become the only option in Linux init systems - systemd"

To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the death of sysvinit and openRC are greatly exaggerated (so far).

BOFH: Thermo-electric funeral

HieronymusBloggs

If only...

...the Boss had the right file system, his data might have survived:

https://www.dragonflybsd.org/hammer/

Britain is sending a huge nuclear waste shipment to America. Why?

HieronymusBloggs

Re: "the only nation who has actually used atomic bombs in anger"

"Because you think that, when President Truman ordered the bombs to be dropped, he did so while shouting on the phone and cussing the Japs ?"

To do something "in anger" is a common British figure of speech meaning to do something for serious effect, ie. not messing around. It originated with the military:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fire_in_anger

Security bods disclose lock bypass bug in iOS

HieronymusBloggs

Re: Apparently it is fixed

"Apple are saying that the problem has been fixed"

You cannot be Sirious.

Streaming now outsells downloads – Recording Industry Ass. of America

HieronymusBloggs

Re: WTF is "Synch"??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronization_rights

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