* Posts by Bob Wheeler

381 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Oct 2007

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Major US news organisations to develop ROBOT JOURNALISTS

Bob Wheeler
Terminator

Gives a new meaning to..

Flying Robo Journo Drones: with left-wing or right-wing bais?

NSA lays out its reforms post-Snowden (they can fit on back of a stamp)

Bob Wheeler
Big Brother

Re: ?

"there's even a mission statement in the NSA HQ foyer reminding analysts how important privacy is."

Is that just under the 30ft tall picture of Big Brother?

ALIENS are surely AMONG US: Average star has TWO potentially Earth-like worlds

Bob Wheeler
Mushroom

“It could be that there is some other bottleneck for the emergence of life that we haven’t worked out yet. Or intelligent civilisations evolve, but then self-destruct.”

Given that we developed nuclear weapons before any form of space travel, if other civilisations evolved along similar lines, than is it not possible they blew themselves to dust before getting off the ground?

Wanted: Brit Facebook and Twitter trolls for counter-jihad psyops

Bob Wheeler
Facepalm

Re: How very Orwellian...

Since when does (should) the British Army get involved with influencing "public opinion"?

Twin Adam Sandlers shake El Reg's movie unwatchablathon team

Bob Wheeler
Pint

Look doctor, it’s not that I’m an alcoholic, honest, I just keep watching this film called Jack & Jill…..

Google gets my data, I get search and email and that. Help help, I'm being REPRESSED!

Bob Wheeler
Coat

virtually no cost

"but I just can't let someone call billions of dollars in cold hard cash “virtually no cost”."

I have no probem if someone gave a few billions in cold hard cash, at virtually no cost to them :)

Breaking news: BBC FINALLY spots millions of mugshots on cop database

Bob Wheeler
FAIL

Re: Double whammy black eye for the police

The problem with facial recognition systems is it depends on how old the 'reference' photo is.

I recently came through passport control at Heathrow, and it took the system around a dozen scans of before it could decide if my face matched my 5 year old passport photo.

There have been past El Reg articles on who good, or not, the system the US Homeland department, and also the scrapped UK ID cards, all the same issue, with 'old' reference photos.

UK official LOSES Mark Duggan shooting discs IN THE POST

Bob Wheeler
Stop

Re: FFS...

The only problem with the ICO handing out the maximum fine to the MoJ is that it's not their money, it's tax payer money moving from one piggy bank to another.

If you really want to get prople's attention, it's the prospect of JAIL TIME, not a FINE that will make the muppets wake up (I hope)

Google Translate MEAT GRINDER turns gay into 'faggot', 'poof', 'queen'

Bob Wheeler

Re: *facepalm*

Reminds me of time on holiday in the US when I mentioned (in a crowded bar in the deep south) that I was going out for a fag.

It took some explaining!

Spartan on Windows 7? Microsoft is 'watching demand'

Bob Wheeler
Meh

Just Asking...

I seem to remember that someone from MS stated in court evidence that they [MS] could not uninstall/remove IE from the Windows OS as it is so embedded in the spaghetti like haystack of code. Or words to that effect. Will Spartan be embedded in a similar way?

Just asking ….

Netadmin wanted for 'terrible, terrible, awful job nobody wants'

Bob Wheeler
Boffin

Essential skill

I think they are looking for that one skill that (management//users assume) all techies have - the ability of become an expert in everything, instantly you hold the installation disk in your hand by the process of osmosis.

Kim Jong-Un shoot-em-up Glorious Leader! yanked

Bob Wheeler

@ DJV Re: FTFY

You may ask, half joking if you are "Paranoid or what?!", but at the end of the day, this is your work, your living at stake is the squishy hits the fan.

Backups are in essence an insurance policy. No one likes to pay the remiumsbut when it's time to make claim you get waht you pay for.

If the data is that important to you, your business then you put whatever backup policy in place no matter how paranoid it may seem.

Some years ago I've had a guy complain that he had lost three years worth of work because he kept it on his local C: rather than on the network where it would have been backed up. In today's money he would have been taking in something like £80-100K p.a. I shrugged and told him to think of a good way for him to explain to his boss how he had just spaffed some £1/4M up the wall in lost work.

Bob Wheeler

FTFY

"You'd be amazed how often users lose whole chunks of important, businees data because they don't backup,"

David Cameron: I'm off to the US to get my bro Barack to ban crypto – report

Bob Wheeler
Joke

MP's IT Training?

http://www.gocomics.com/shoe/2002/05/12

Bob Wheeler
Big Brother

Slippery slope - the point of no return? @sysconfig

"Are we going to allow a means of communications which it simply isn't possible to read? No. We must not," he said.

@sysconfig. totaly agree with your main point.

The question is, what is he's end goal here? It certainly is not a practicle responce to what ever the perceived problem is.

It seems to me that he's been reading that govenment approved maunal "1984" again.

If he get's his wish, that is exactly what we, the people will get: Big Brother.

Don't use Charlie Hebdo to justify Big Brother data-slurp – Data protection MEP

Bob Wheeler
Facepalm

Can we ...

put this quote on a post card and send it to every Politician?

"Instead of creating an ineffective dragnet on all air passengers, security authorities should have been exchanging the data they already had on these suspects,”

MI5 boss: We NEED to break securo-tech, get 'assistance' from data-slurp firms

Bob Wheeler
Pint

Re: "first person in the UK to be convicted of terrorist offences...

I vote of comfy chairs, cold beer, a good curry and last but not least, being in charge of the TV remote!

Bob Wheeler
Facepalm

Interesting..

From the article, Mr Parker mentions "Irish Repulicans".

Given that the 'troubles' lasted some 30/35 years, way before comminications where more sophisiticated than fixed land-line telephones and the post. Which did makes things very easy for the state, as they controled the telephone exchanges and the post, to intercept such comminications.

So, back when things where easy, how come the troubles lasted as long as they did, and what the F**K do these guys think they are going to catch all these bad guys now?

Boffins open 'space travel bureau': Come relax on exoplanet Kepler-16b, says NASA

Bob Wheeler
Pint

Re: What?

Naw, Star Trek was the documentary, Star Wars is something ..... unmentionable :)

World's largest ship swallows 900 MEGATINS of baked beans

Bob Wheeler
Happy

Enquiring minds wish to know...

"massive two-stroke engine"

But what's the 0-60 speed in sheep?

GCHQ: We can't track crims any more thanks to Snowden

Bob Wheeler

Re: So before Snowden...

In the same way the guy that break into your house wear's a black and white striped tee-shit and a bag with SWAG written on the side.

Bob Wheeler
Pint

Re: Or...

"do spies lie?",

I know this one, it has something to do with bear's and pope's. Yes?

Bob Wheeler
Joke

Re: Suggestion for law enforcement

But that is just so much hard work, old school thinking, get with modern digital era.....

Bob Wheeler
WTF?

Silly Question #1

> Communication suppliers – historically willing facilitators of wiretapping – are “refusing to hand over evidence on the likes of drug smugglers or fraudsters” because they do not pose a “direct threat to life”

OK, silly question, but if you have a warrent, signed by a Judge, won't that get the 'communication supplies' to hand over the info?

HOLD IT! Last minute gifts for one's nerd minions

Bob Wheeler
Joke

The window for acceptable outages starts now ....

AKA 9am on a Monday....

Norks: FBI's Sony Pictures' hacking allegations are 'groundless slander'

Bob Wheeler

JFK was shot dead by ....

Saw a documentary a few months back that looked into the JFK shooting and came up with some 'interesting' details.

The Secret Services detail where on the piss the night before except for on guy (the newbie on the team) who had wash the cars in the morning.

The 'shot' from the position that Owald was in, the distance, moving target etc., was nigh on immpossible even for ex army snipers - they demostated the set up and the sniper only hit 2 out of 10 attempts.

The consulion was that when Oswald opened fire, the secret service went into panic mode, and one of them from the car following, acidently fired as the car he jumped onto accelatrated and hit JFK.

I'm not into tin-foil hats, but it was an interesting documentarty.

UK air traffic bods deny they 'skimped' on IT investment after server mega-fail

Bob Wheeler

Bad Data Input/High System Utilisation.

It is my understanding, but it's the airspace that is being used to high 90's utilisation, not the mainframe.

Something that does not seem to have been picked up on, but they arew saying that the fault was caused by 'bad data' from a flight plan being input into the system. Given that this is for commerical aviation, all the flight plans would have been, I suspect, computer generated and feed into NATS, from the likes of BA, Air France etc., etc. this is not hand typed by the pilots. If that is correct, has one of the airlines that fly into/over UK air space made any changes to their system that generates the flight plans?

Always ready to be corrected if I've misunderstode things.

Don't panic, US Navy has only deployed a ROBOT SHARK (but where are the lasers?)

Bob Wheeler
Pint

Another QoTW?

"kangaroos of war"

Have a beer on me.

American bacon cured with AR-15 assault rifle

Bob Wheeler
Pint

Hangover Cure?

It might be useful south of the boarder, but I found all but impossilbe to drink so much to get a hangover with American beer.

Deprivation Britain: 1930s all over again? Codswallop!

Bob Wheeler

A shiny unicorn on top of the flowery lawn

Can this be a QoTW?

Bob Wheeler

Re: 1930s

I believe that they were known then as crystal radio's or cat's whisker radio's.

EU law bods: New eCall crash system WON'T TRACK YOU. Really

Bob Wheeler

Re: No Tracking .. Rubbish

GCHQ is not the issue here.

The real reason for this being rolled out is to allow the govenment's to intorduce road charging.

After some years of all new cars being fitted with GPS and SIM, it is not much effort for a daily call to the Highways agency telling them where and when your car was. You'll get charged more if you drive in rush hour, you get charged more for using a motorway etc etc.

Sony Pictures hires Mandiant, asks FBI for help after massive cyber attack

Bob Wheeler
Big Brother

However, the CIA has other ideas....

At times it's hard to tell the difference between 'make-believe' and 'real-life'

Now Uber can take EVERYONE for a ride

Bob Wheeler
Pint

Re: "“It’s really like the future is here"

It's not future I was hoping for, that much is certain.

The Nokia ENIGMA THING and its SECRET, TERRIBLE purpose

Bob Wheeler

Tin Foil Hat time

NSA/GCHQ are having hugh problems processing all the data they have been creaming off the world population.

So they came up with the idea of put a box in everyone's home that dose all the pre-processing of trawling through all your data and files locally and sending the results back to them.

Oh and BTW you cna play games on it as well.

Cries of spies as audit group finds possible 'backdoor' in Bittorrent Sync

Bob Wheeler

And the full quote from the article is...

"There is nothing even close to 'Bittorrent Inc has access to all your encrypted files'."

Exit the dragon: US govt blows $325m on China-beating 300PFLOPS monster computer

Bob Wheeler
Trollface

It seems a little OTT just to be able to play network DOOM......

When androids dream of baseball fields

Bob Wheeler
Joke

The will never be able to take on Tiddley Winks :)

European Commission decides it won't have a science advisor after Greenpeace pressure

Bob Wheeler
WTF?

Re: Juncker "has not yet decided how to institutionalise this independent scientific advice"

"how to institutionalise this independent scientific advice"

Does the word 'independent' become obsolete if it's insitutionalised?

Dodgy thruster won't stop Philae hurtling toward comet showdown

Bob Wheeler
Trollface

Perhaps they outsourced the faked film of the landing to same guys NASA used for the moon landings?

UK smart meters arrive in 2020. Hackers have ALREADY found a flaw

Bob Wheeler

Re: "allowing them to illegally slash their energy bills"

I've no idea how much a (oil/coal/nuke) power plant costs, but I would have thought £10.6BN wolud go a far old way towards it/them.

Just thinking out side the profit margin.

Kingston's aviation empire: From industry firsts to Airfix heroes

Bob Wheeler

Hunter

The HS Hunter was a wonderful looking jet aircraft, far more elegant then the moden jets.

I remember, many years ago seeing the Swiss Airforce display team flying Hunters during the mid/late 70's.

Julian Assange discovers Google's given MONEY to EFF

Bob Wheeler
Meh

"says Assange. “... They don’t like to bite the hand that feeds them.”

So what has Assange got against El Reg?

IBM: OK, Watson, you've won Jeopardy. Now, CURE CANCER

Bob Wheeler
Happy

This has merit.

Allowing for the valid comments above about the quality of research papers.

From my (limited) understanding of how Watson works, is by injesting vast amounts of raw data and then drawing inferance (joining the dots?) between items, and thereby giving pointers to new avenues of reseach.

As pointed out in the main article, the sheer volume of papers, even if only 25% where solid gold research, could one individual be able to take on board that volume of information and work on it in any meaningful way?

Overall +1 for Watson.

Samsung Gear S: Quick, LAUNCH IT – before Apple straps on iWatch

Bob Wheeler
Coat

Getting old..

/grumpy mode on

I must be getting old as it was not that long ago when a PC with that kind of spec (apart from the screen) would have seemed to be top end......

/grumpy mode off

Show Mother Russia you love her: Click HERE and AHHH NYET!

Bob Wheeler
FAIL

Oh, OK that's fine

"We have coded our answer and below you will find the link to our program. Run the application on your computer"

Yeah right, I'm going to trust someone I don't know to download something and run an un-trusted appilication. I wouldn't trust it if it came from my own mother, even after tripple checking valid photo ID, birth cert etc etc.

But thats just me.....

Experimental hypersonic SUPERMISSILE destroyed 4 SECONDS after US launched it

Bob Wheeler
Mushroom

Re: Re "which could potentially bypass missile defences"

From the article, it said that this missle would take 60 minutes to get to where it's pointed at.

The problem with this, is that it only gives the other side (whoever the 'other side; is) 60 minutes reaction time, that it spot the launch, decide if it is coming their way, decide if it is an attack, decide if they should launch their slower(!) missles.

Not a lot of time to make your mind up :(

Wall Street woes: Oh noes, tech titans aren't using bankers

Bob Wheeler
Trollface

I'll buy that for a dollar.

Assange™: Hey world, I'M STILL HERE, ignore that Snowden guy

Bob Wheeler
Joke

Give him credit.....

At least he is giving the boys in blue some notice that he's coming out.

i'ts not like he can sneak past them and get away now and make them look foolish.....

You'll find Yoda at the back of every IT conference

Bob Wheeler
Angel

Classic

"some fucking Yoda with tourettes on the back row, repeatedly calling out from the safety of his fake-velvet upholstered conference chair"

"commence an interminable monologue about OS/2"

"Yoda, naturally, remained silent. The piss just taking was he. Bastard the."

I don't understand why I don't get invited to the trade shows anymore.

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