* Posts by MSmith

29 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Sep 2016

Brit prosecutors fling almost a million quid at anti-drone'n'phone ideas

MSmith

Stingrays

Why bother? Just use Stingray devices inside the prison. You can then send all the calls to the bit bucket. You can also monitor all the calls and record them to gain intelligence. Since prison staff generally not allowed to have cell phones inside the prison (they use land lines), only illegal prisoner-possessed phones would be affected.

Drunk canoeing no longer driving offence in Canada

MSmith

pot is of the highest importance

I find it interesting that Canada can so easily discard these laws. These are laws that the authorities would swear were absolutely necessary for public safety and defend against all attack. Of course, public safety be damned if it means getting high. You really see the priorities of the liberal government. Either these laws really were necessary and they are willing to sacrifice the public just to get high or these laws were never necessary and they just wanted to push the public around.

Google DeepMind's use of 1.6m Brits' medical records to test app was 'legally inappropriate'

MSmith

Maybe the article wasn't clear

I'm confused. So, they used 1.6 million records to train the AI. OK, real records are probably needed, Since you don't need to feed any identifying information into the system to do that you don't necessarily have a real privacy issue. Then, to test it, they feed in a bunch of other people and it determines they may have kidney issues. That's great. Now what do you do about it? Do you just let these people go on with possibly undiagnosed kidney issues, or do you notify their physicians that your AI trial program indicates their patient may have kidney issues, please check and let us know so we can get an idea of the accuracy of the program?

Good job, everyone. We're making AI just as tediously racist and sexist as ourselves

MSmith

Re: Been saying this for years

Why do you need racist judges? If you have one group that commits crimes at a much higher rate than another group, the computer should pick that up. The real difficulty is in getting the computer to ignore the differences it sees and publishes the 'correct' result, which isn't backed up by statistics. In the US, there are identifiable groups (let's call one group A) that are 3000x more likely to commit murder than other identifiable groups (lets call this one group B). However, the 'correct' answer is that group B is more dangerous to society and needs to be highly regulated. To suggest that group A is more dangerous is racist. How do you program a computer to come to those conclusions through 'learning'?

Europe supplants US as biggest source of child abuse hubs

MSmith

Canada?

What's up with the Canadians? From these figures, they host 242 sites/million people to the US's 38.

Hundreds of millions 'wasted' on UK court digitisation scheme

MSmith

Have any Government IT Projects in Britain worked?

As a US reader, I am left wondering if any Government IT project in the UK has ever worked. I am continually astonished at the vast amounts of money used to build a database, since most of these projects are to build a database. With what they need, wouldn't a simple database containing the case info (names, charges, judge, attorneys) that links to a moodle course with all the information be sufficient? Moodle is open-source, free, robust, and can store and display all the types of files (and more) needed.

Coppers 'persistently' breach data protection laws with police tech

MSmith

Maybe each case should be treated the same as if any citizen had hacked the system and accessed it. The officers involved should be charged, tried, and punished exactly the same way. Why shouldn't they? Didn't they just commit the same crime? Are police officers in the UK exempt from the laws?

FBI boss: 'Memories are not absolutely private in America'

MSmith

Re: ..."encryption, --- making life difficult for the FBI."

It is statements like this that make me want to encrypt all my cookie recipes with the strongest encryption I can find. I then will include the files as an attachments in e-mails I send everywhere and let the FBI spend their time trying to decrypt the files.

Fraud detection system with 93% failure rate gets IT companies sued

MSmith

Re: While fashionable to blame your IT provider, I think the Politicians probably knew

You need to understand the Michigan Unemployment system. It is not for people with jobs, it is welfare. When my father was laid off after 30+ continuous year of productive employment, he went to the unemployment office. After paying unemployment insurance faithfully for those 30+ years, the Michigan unemployment office denied his claim! They stated that unemployment wasn't for people like him. He would find another job. Unemployment is really just another way to give welfare to those who don't work. As you can imagine, in an economic downturn, lots of people will suddenly show up actually expecting their unemployment benefits (that they paid for). You have to do something to stop that.

Who will banish spy-cam drones from US skies? The FAA doesn't want to do it. EPIC disagrees

MSmith

Re: If some agency does not cough up necessary regulations....

Sorry, that would violate FCC regulations. You are interfering with another device on purpose. If they charge that you interred with the drone, searched your house, and found a device capable of it, you could be in significant trouble.

I think what they want the FAA to do is declare that you can't operate drones above other people's property (up to a certain altitude) without those people's permission. That is well within the FAA's scope of activities. It would also let me shoot them down, since I believe the FAA has stated that it is against the law to shoot at an aircraft even if it is on your property and snooping on you. I see a new market in short-range anti-drone weapons (potato cannons modified to shoot hooked nets?).

Northumbria Uni fined £400K after boffin's bad math gives students a near-killer caffeine high

MSmith

common sense helps

This is why physicians really shouldn't be allowed to do research. Anyone with any common sense knows the difference between 300 milligrams of powder and 30 g of powder. It should have also been apparent that something is wrong when it wouldn't all dissolve in the orange juice.

This is similar to the nurse that gave a near-lethal dose of morphine to someone I knew. Despite giving morphine for years, the nurse didn't blink twice when she calculated a dose that wouldn't fit in any of the syringes on the floor. She just went to another floor to find a large enough syringe, then injected 10x the required amount.

President Trump tweets from insecure Android, security boffins roll eyes

MSmith

Trump doesn't tweet

You do realize that that person that posts those tweets is not Donald Trump, right? It was covered early on in his campaign that he doesn't personally post those tweets. So, it makes sense that the same Android phone posting his tweets in the past is still posting them now. The NSA doesn't give secure phones to low-level twitter posters.

Feds cuff VW exec over diesel emissions scam

MSmith

Re: UK Loves VW

There is actually a more serious problem besides the 'clean diesel' and 'poor resale value'. Since those vehicles did not meet US emissions, it was illegal to import them into the US. They were approved officially, but under fraudulent circumstances. All involved are lucky the federal government hasn't come by and scrapped all these cars. US auto companies have been forbidden to sell diesel cars in the US because they didn't meet US emissions. The reason these emissions were so stringent is because 'the Germans can do it". Ford, GM, and Chrysler should all sue VW for loss of marketshare due to this fraud. Chrysler, for example, was forbidden from importing several diesel vehicles it sells in Europe because they didn't meet US emissions. That cost them marketshare and money that went to VW.

Top cop: Strap Wi-Fi jammers to teen web crims as punishment

MSmith

Re: Wired connection

Oh, that is why they wanted to strap a wifi (and cellphone?) jammer on them? I assumed the point was to punish them by making them a social pariah. None of their peers would go within 50 feet of them if it would keep them from texting, checking tweets, and Instagram.

Russian hackers got Trump elected? Yeah, let's take a close look at that, says Obama

MSmith

Yeah...about that

So far, we have one state that has confirmed that someone tried to hack their voter database. It seems to have been US Homeland Security that did it. The state of Georgia is rather upset, especially after Homeland Security tried to pressure Georgia into giving Homeland Security access to their systems.

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/confirmed-experts-voting-machines-maryland-illinois-rigged-support-democrats/

The Michigan recount has been kind of eye-opening. One sealed box of ballots that was reported to the state to contain ~3000 Hillary Clinton votes and a few dozen Donald Trump votes was found to actually contain...50 ballots. Almost none of the boxes from Wayne County Michigan had the same number of ballots as votes reported from those boxes, so they couldn't be recounted and the incorrect vote count legally stands. This county reported almost 95% Hillary Clinton votes, so all of these 'errors' were to Hillary Clinton's favor. There is your Russian hacking. Remember, Wayne County didn't turn in their votes until after the rest of the states votes had been counted. Before they answered the question "How many votes were cast for Hillary Clinton?" they asked "How many votes does she need?".

US election pollsters weren't (very) wrong – statistically speaking

MSmith

no votes for Trump counted in 3 weeks

Well, on election night, Trump led by 1.3 million votes. But California just keeps on counting votes for Hillary Clinton. By the time of the next presidential election, Hillary Clinton will have gotten 100 million more votes than Donald Trump. Last week, they reported that California still has to count the votes from 32 states.

Kotkin: Why Trump won

MSmith

Re: "Hillary would surely have succeeded on competence in any other election, no?"

Remember, Trump was the Republican nominee because he was the only Republican Hillary Clinton could hope to beat. She and the media made a concerted effort to make sure he was the nominee, just like they made sure she was the Democratic nominee. Remember during the Democratic debate when the moderator refused to let Jim Webb speak at all? Now you understand...

The Clinton's have always been good at legalese "None of those emails was MARKED classified". She never ran on competence, she ran on EXPERIENCE. This is experience in the Dilbert sense of the word. In the "You messed up the entire Middle East, you have a lot of foreign policy EXPERIENCE."

MSmith

Re: It's not "why", it's "how"

Well, Trump was ahead by 1.3 million votes. Then I went to bed. Then Philly 'found' a box of absentee ballots they 'forgot' about. Then Detroit found a lot of votes... Shockingly, all 1.5 million of these last minute found ballots was for Hillary Clinton. Add this to the hundred thousand or so non-citizen votes in Virgina, the felons allowed to vote by executive order.... Yes, Hillary got the 'popular' vote.

Silicon Valley's oligarchs got a punch in the head – and that's actually good thing

MSmith

it wasn't much of a choice

You have to realize that lots of people don't approve of the way Trump behaves, but it is better to have a course, impolite person than Hillary Clinton.

Why is Hillary Clinton so bad? Well, I don't thing anyone has ever tried to put it all together. It is really hard to get information because the press here is so intent of portraying Hillary Clinton in a fantastic light. When you read past the headlines, things get a little grittier, however. This is the impression I get of Hillary Clinton from reading the news (not just the headlines). This is not a comprehensive list, just a summary of themes I have noticed. I'm sure some of it is not correct, since there is so much disinformation floating about. This is just the general impression you get from the continual scandals. After reading it, you can see why people would be willing to have President Trump.

Incompetence

Her record on Libya, Syria, Egypt, etc makes George Bush look like a foreign policy genius.

Unfortunately, those seem to be her greatest accomplishments. Everything else she owes to Bill. She got her first law job at the University because Bill got hired there. She got a job at the Rose Law firm when Bill became attorney general. She made partner when he was elected Governor...

This is s woman who had to use her Blackberry for e-mail because she doesn't know how to use a computer. A woman who had her maid print out classified documents because she doesn't know how to do it herself. A woman who sent unencrypted login and password information through the WiFi at Russian and Chinese government facilities and then didn't change her password for 4 years, allowing those governments to freely access her e-mail and probably the DNC and other hacked targets.

Political Dirty Tricks

The multitude of things her former campaign head did for her as head of the DNC seems unbelievable. Providing DNC offices and resources to her campaign but not to Sanders, collaborating with the media to support Clinton, not Sanders, modifying the voter records in Nevada, locking Sander's delegates out, getting the debate questions in advance, etc.

Disregard for the Rule of Law and Sense of Entitlement.

Setting up a private e-mail server to avoid complying with the Freedom of Information Act is bad enough. In doing so, she paid a State Department IT employee (who certainly knew about the FOIA requirements) from a charity to do the work because it could not be authorized by the government. She paid her staff from her charity. She paid for her daughter's wedding from her charity. She had her aide paid simultaneously by the State Department, her charity handling State Department clients, and a lobbing group that lobbies the State Department and claimed there was not even an appearance of a conflict of interest.

When the head of the FBI stated (essentially) "There is a long history of not holding the rich and powerful accountable for their crimes and I will not challenge that precedent", I believe he expected outrage and people to demand justice. I believe he was appalled when Democrats cheered, instead. The amount of perjury committed in the e-mail scandal just seems to be mind-boggling and it is difficult to tell what was the truth and what was perjury.

Corruption and selling out the country

Hillary Clinton's corruption appears to have no bounds. You see report after report of someone who needed the Secretary of State's approval for something and they (1) Donate to the Clinton charity and (2) Book Bill Clinton for a speech. This included selling the US's uranium deposits to a Russian Government controlled company after a $2.5 million deposit in the Clinton Foundation and $1 million to Bill Clinton (deposited in their joint account?).

The whole Clinton Foundation seemed to exist just to direct government aid money to Foundation donors. The aid sent to India, but diverted to a Clinton Foundation donor, is a good example. They took the money, bought expired HIV medications, water them down for good measure, and charged full price for them. The $9 billion in missing Hatian relief aid is another good example of this corruption. Where is it? No one knows. Bill isn't talking and says he doesn't have to.

When she left the State Department, the Obama administration audit found $6 billion missing. Yes, $6 billion. The State Department under Clinton was so poorly run that they have no idea where the money went. Should this go under incompetence, or corruption?

Poor Health

Passing out, then lying about it, then lying about that....

Suddenly developing slurred speech, then almost passing out....

Having journalists fired for even acknowledging that her health is an issue...

Supporters who suggest that she just has 'a leaky heart valve', nothing serious...

Adblock overlord to Zuckerberg: Lay down your weapons and surrender

MSmith

Re: Lazy ad sales teams (and web editors) are the problem, not ad-blockers

You are not counting the ads that pop up and cover the entire page, or blot out the content, or hang the web-browser. There are many sites I just won't go to because there are ads covering the top and both sides of the window. Then, 15 seconds after you start reading an article, a full-page ad pops up. Then another ad starts some audio. One of the ads then crashes, and you have to close the window and start over. There are some sites that I habitually click the 'Print this Page' button because it is the ply way to get a readable copy of the content. When the content is less than 20% of the page, it isn't worth it anymore.

Ghost of DEC Alpha is why Windows is rubbish at file compression

MSmith

" But that didn't stop DEC faltering and being acquired by Compaq in 1998."

I thought DEC took Intel to court for stealing the Alpha math co-processor and using it to upgrade the 486 to the Pentium. I thought they allegedly stole the plans when Microsoft gave it to them while they consulted on how to port NT 4.0 to the Alpha. Rather than force Intel to give DEC a few fabs to pay the penalties and royalties on the millions of Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III's, etc, the judge allowed Intel to buy at least a large stake in DEC. As the new major shareholder of DEC, Intel settled the suit against itself, and then was required to sell off DEC piecemeal to avoid the antitrust implications to Intel. I heard that is what killed DEC.

Obey Google, web-masters, or it will say you can't be trusted

MSmith

Next, use Google Certificates

So after this fails, Google will start issuing their own certificate to make sure it is done right (at a modest charge). All others will be listed as untrustworthy.

Coding will win you the election, narcissistic techies boasted to Hillary

MSmith

STEM is a useless term

I will agree with them that STEM is and probably always has been a useless term. The only people I have ever heard using it are 'educators' and politicians. I have never heard a researcher or engineer use the term unless they were mocking it. It is especially useless in the US now that the government has decided to give in to the social 'scientists' who insisted that they are real scientists. This is the decision that let to an increase in college students majoring in STEM fields to increase from 7 to 24% in just a few years. All it showed was that the total number of engineering, physical sciences, biological science, and math majors combined is less than the number of psychology majors.

America has one month to stop the FBI getting its global license to hack

MSmith

Re: BillG

They will probably say the interstate commerce clause allows them to regulate it and the agency is acting under an executive order to do it. That is how they would justify it.

Divide the internet into compartments to save us from the IoT fail whale

MSmith

Re: It's not looking good

It will probably be even worse. The demand will be that everyone will need a background check and a permit to own an internet-connected device. There will be government sysadmins for every town/state to review and grant such permits on a may-issue basis. You will need their permission to connect to the internet or to change your home network configuration. You will only be able to run/access services the sysadmin allows, all others will be blocked for your own good. Website censorship will be next (think of the children!).

UK cops failed to act on Canadian intel on child abuse

MSmith

Re: Too busy...

It is always better to deal with innocent people. Guilty people might be dangerous.

Samsung: And for my next trick – exploding WASHING MACHINES

MSmith

Re: Eeek!

My top-loader died after only 15 years of service (the tub bearing wore out). When looking for a new washer, the front loaders were (1) bigger in size and wouldn't fit in my old house's laundry room, (2) two to three times as expensive, and (3) didn't seem to save any electricity or water. The new top loaders use a lot less water than the old ones (that filled the tub up every time), but still have that option for something really filthy. The big problem with front loaders in the US is mold and mildew. Top-loaders normally have the lid open when not in use to let the water evaporate. Leaving the door on the front-loader open usually isn't convenient because it blocks an exit or hallway, so they often build up mold and mildew inside. Several of my friends with front-loaders have gotten rid of theirs and gone back to top-loaders because of this.

Unlucky Luckey: Oculus developers invoke anti-douchebag clause, halt games for VR goggles

MSmith

Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

Why not 'American Liberals' stop ruining the world around you? The real problem with the last 3 elections is that Democrats have been able to choose all the candidates. The news media has completely lost all pretense of being impartial and is hell-bent on electing a Democrat. To further this aim, they are the ones who determine which Republican candidates are allowed in the debates and get press. Any Republican who seems competent gets destroyed by ridiculous accusations that the press hype to the sun until the candidate is forced to withdraw. If you don't believe me, didn't Rick Perry have to withdraw from his Presidential bid because someone said his dad once rented a place for vacation that at one time had something spray-painted on a rock that might have been a racial slur? Hillary Clinton commits a variety of criminal acts, then the FBI director refuses to press charges because he says laws are for little people and the press cheers! You wonder why Donald Trump is the Republican nominee? The press wanted him because he was the only one Hillary Clinton has a chance of beating, so don't blame all the American people, blame the liberals. You can really blame them when we default because we can't ever pay back the $13 trillion Obama has borrowed for all his giveaways (for comparison, Bush only borrowed ~$4 trillion for all his military actions). Hillary with her free college, free healthcare, etc, will continue to borrow and we won't make it through her first term until we have to default or print all those $1 trillion platinum coins Obama was considering.

MSmith

Re: threatening to put other people out of work

If the game developers want to play this game, then all the Donald Trump supporters should refuse to buy any games THEY develop. Of course, if that happened, they would claim that this infringes on their free speech because only liberals have rights. Do you really think it is appropriate to go after a company because you don't like who one of the owners voted for? Do we really want to get into this game? If you do, everyone needs to be allowed to play.