* Posts by P. Lee

5267 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Dec 2007

Gov.UK begs Google 'n' U.S. tech pals: Forget Ireland, come to Blighty

P. Lee

Re: It's not just tax...

>The ECB is trying mightily to rise above all the national fiscal and monetary agendas within the Eurozone, but it remains to be seen whether they can actually succeed.

You mean, "impose a single government?" That is the only way a single currency would ever work but it will never happen in Europe.

I think that's a good thing. I value harmonious relationships through diversity not over-riding local objections.

The eurozone may be sinking, but it appears the UK can manufacture its own economically disastrous debt mountain.

Microsoft slurps Apple-happy, Google-tastic Sunrise calendar firm

P. Lee

Re: Crazy shit

Buying a company saves them the embarrassment of writing an android app.

MS need to get an exchange client out there before everyone moves to Google or plain imaps.

If you've got android but no exchange client, you won't be using Exchange with that phone so you might start looking elsewhere for a mail server - maybe just move the whole lot to Google.

You could enable imap on Exchange, but that would be embarrassing for MS' proprietary protocols and people still might just switch mail servers. Gotta build that "ecosystem."

Just buying the market... though a slight withering of support for other systems wouldn't be a surprise.

HIGH-RANNOSAURUS WRECKED: Druggie dinos tripped balls on psychedelics – boffins

P. Lee
Windows

Re: IT reference appreciated

>However, I would expect to be uttering Lucifer's name while using such a device,

No need for Lucifer's name, You'll find Bill's adds up to 666.

Allegedly.

NO BRAIN needed to use Samsung's next flagship mobe

P. Lee

Re: If you buy it do you own it? ...or... Will the device start overlaying Ads over the photos?

> So will the device start overlaying Ads onto my photos?

Hopefully the TV backlash will steer them away from that.

>do I really just 'rent to own'

Own? You never own it, you just pay for privilege of holding the hardware for them. :)

Give me a mobile with decent hardware, local maps (with rsync to update them), Firefox browser, VLC and a decent imap mail client. I'd be happy to run Android as an app, or indeed, two versions of android as apps. One can be google's, one can be rooted.

With the new ARM core design, I'd like a hypervisor please! Failing that, (and given that the screen and battery are the expensive bits) put two phones in one case, with two screens, one e-ink, one normal and give me a hardware button to switch screens around. With ARM's on-board ethernet, you could have a little network running on the phone. Just do something creative! How about an expansion pack to go on the back of the phone which adds more CPUs - maybe even an intel CPU which can talk to all the peripherals over an internal network. I don't know why you'd want that, but maybe it would encourage more Linux development for phones.

Hacker kicks one bit XP to 10 Windows scroll goal

P. Lee
Coat

Re: Impossible!

>Hm, maybe copy pasta'd from the ground up is more likely.

That's how you end up with spaghetti code.

Anonymous HACKED GAS STATIONS - and could cause FUEL SHORTAGES

P. Lee
Facepalm

>This was obviously the work of fundamental Christians

I don't think those who spoke the "We are Legion" line were Christians. Jesus kicks them out and they can't even control pigs.

Skin colour's irrelevant. Just hire competent folk on their merits, FFS

P. Lee

>Competence should be the only measure.

That can be hard to measure.

Would you take someone who is the best coder, but has a rubbish work-ethic? How about someone who is a great powershell wielder, but constantly picks fights with or demeans their colleagues?

Some companies thrive on a competitive culture, while others value cooperation. Do you pick the person who will strengthen the team cohesion with a drink down at the pub after work, or someone with an extra year's accounting experience? A good cultural fit can easily outweigh a slight edge in skills or knowledge in terms of importance. That creates a lot of grey areas, especially as people generally feel comfortable with other people who are like them. Native communities tend to hire from their own, immigrant communities tend to hire from their own.

Sometimes, a stick is needed to get people out of their comfort zones if "cultural fit" has taken too great a role. At other times, an incompetent team needs to have someone who can demonstrate and teach excellence.

P. Lee

Re: @Chris Miller: Here is the PC forecast

>It's a funny old world nowadays...

What's funnier is that white is a combination of colours, while black is the absence of colour.

Or so my spinning colour-wheel-on-a-rubber-band seems to indicate.

Never mind Samsung, GOOGLE will EAVESDROP as you browse on Chrome

P. Lee

Re: Hotword

Its easy to fix. Your audio system should tell you what is capturing audio inputs and which inputs are assigned to an app. Most people also have an unused mic/line-in port.

Maybe its time to invest in the production of a clear box which has a button/lever which can physically break a USB link.

I would have thought the "ok Google" part would be processed locally, otherwise you'll be severely sapping your download allowance. If I were doing this, I'd also be taking a few seconds before the keyword (i.e. saving audio in a ringbuffer) so that I can verify that "ok google" was actually spoken and picked up properly by the more primitive local processing.

Hey, network giants: Facebook swigs from an 'open' 6-PACK of tech

P. Lee
Thumb Up

FB does something worthwhile?

This looks as though it will be an interesting situation.

Gleeful Apple and Microsoft bathe in bathfuls of debt

P. Lee

>As for those putting out loans at such low interest rates -- I do think this low a rate is rather unhealthy, but I think it's a symptom of poor economic health rather than a cause.

That, and the fact that if interest rates rose, a lot of governments (including the UK) would go instantly bankrupt, because they too have been borrowing heavily, but without any cash-pile for when (not "if") interest rates rise.

Kanye West: Yo, DNS... Imma let you finish, but this gTLD is one of the best of all time

P. Lee
Boffin

Shoes?

I would have thought he's selling photocopiers, or perhaps photocopies of shoes?

US plots to KILL hackers – with bureaucracy!

P. Lee

The answer for most security issues is not hard

Its just tedious and expensive.

Educate, audit and implement the commonly known good practise.

Certainly, there are elite blackhats out there, but they are relatively rare.

ACHTUNG! Scary Linux system backdoor turns boxes into DDoS droids

P. Lee

Re: That explains the number of ssh login attempts

Also, not many places allow outbound SSH connections, so its likely a VPN will be needed for remote access. That's going to hide the SSH server anyway. Otherwise, there's fail-2-ban, port knocking and other measures which can be used to mitigate brute-force password attacks.

Perhaps the SSL/SSH confusion comes from people putting ssh on port 443 so that they can get to it by pretending to be HTTPS,

Samsung: Our TVs? Spying on you? Ha Ha! Just a joke of course

P. Lee
Facepalm

Wrong move

Just be honest about it. It's really no skin off Samsung's nose if this is a privacy problem.

Say, "Yes we send your voice to third parties. We included the feature because we think its cool tech and it works a bit like Siri, Cortana and Google's thingie, but it is off by default because we know there are privacy implications with all of these types of systems. Hopefully over time, voice recognition tech will improve to the point where we don't need to do this. Enjoy."

Personally, I'd rather use a remote than speak, even if there were no privacy issues. I think its faster, though its pretty moot for me since I record everything and watch almost nothing live.

World's mega-rich tax dodge exposed: Meet the HSBC IT bloke at the heart of damning leak

P. Lee

Re: Missing the big picture.

>Then the primary problems will remain. And they will blow up in our faces sooner rather than later.

The problem has already blown up. It isn't complicated at all and doesn't depend on jargon-strewn economic policies and tricks. The problem is that people both individually and through government have been spending more than they earn.

Keynesian flim-flam tried to hide the fact that this is a bad thing - even saying its a good thing, but the chickens always come home to roost. I missed the point when people forgot the 1970's and decided printing money was a good idea. You can go broke and stop paying for stuff, or you devalue/print money, (which means you can't import) and you keep going internally, paying in worthless money until the internal debt is paid. In the meantime you can't import which means you need to be self-sufficient for that to work.

GFC? You ain't seen nothin' yet. Massive layoffs but record stock prices? That would be because currency looks worthless. Crazy stock bubble? Any hope is better than no hope of return.

You'll see a surge in the left-wing but that is probably doomed. In the past, the West made things, which was handy when it came to nationalisation - there was something to redistribute so people didn't really starve. Now, its all imported which means we'll just all be very poor and have to do without.

I'd expect a surge by the far right too with nationalism on the rise as people look for other people to blame. Governments will look to distract their populations with foreign wars.

We've seen it before. South Seas stock anyone? How about the early twentieth century and if you look carefully out of your windows now...

-

"Neither a borrower nor a lender be;

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."

-Polonius in Hamlet

BEHOLD the magnificent lunar backside in our MOON VIDEO

P. Lee
Alien

Re: Dark Side

>I always called it the Far Side.

So its a choice between scuba gear breathing and dumb fat kids/cockroaches/cows?

Meh, 'tis funny either way!

Watch it: It's watching you as you watch it (Your Samsung TV is)

P. Lee

Re: Smart TVs

It just seems odd that its financially worthwhile to require big servers for the feature. More so, when bad PR like this comes out, not just in the tech press but via the BBC.

Could it have all have been avoided? Have an agent available for a local PC which can do some of the work. The PC can upload the data back to the TV if required.

P. Lee

Re: Smart TVs

> I think I'll end up with a dumb one and add my own PC to do all the fancy tricks.

That is the best method anyway.

Better not be W10 with Cortana though, or OSX with Siri. Linux it is.

Am I the only one who thinks you don't need massive CPU for voice recognition? A couple of ARM chips might do it?

Capita lands spot on mega £5bn NHS commissioning deal

P. Lee

Re: And they wonder why people don't bother voting

>Ukip - (sigh) maybe, but not really.

My enemy's enemy is my friend. You don't have to get them into government or agree with their policies, you just have to take enough from the top two to make them afraid.

The top two survive in a duopoly where they both act the same. Putting someone disruptively different up there with them is the best chance of shaking them up. Otherwise, nothing will change.

Microsoft: Even cheapo Lumias to get slimmed down Windows 10

P. Lee

>Does this mean one day they actually might make more money on their own mobile efforts than they extort from the work of others?

No. And they really don't need to. This is about protecting the desktop from non-windows 'slab creep. Phones are just part of the "windows everywhere" strategy that doesn't work but soothes MS' pride.

Assuming MS is going with surface 3 pro-type tablets, losing the phone market really doesn't matter. Those devices will never run the windows apps people expect windows to run. Its just a vanity project.

Microsoft explains Windows as a SERVICE – but one version remains a distant dream

P. Lee

Re: Have I missed something?

Are they rolling feature updates (i.e. future versions of windows) into CBB patches?

If not, "what version of windows are you on" is still just as relevant as it ever was.

If they are, then presumably the LTS initial+patches defines the version for LTS, but CBB is licensed forever for all upgrades/versions? I can't see that making business sense unless it becomes a subscription and its tied tightly to the hardware. I wonder how that will affect VMs...

Still a lot of questions to be answered.

Snowden leaks LEGALISED GCHQ's 'illegal' dragnet spying, rules British tribunal

P. Lee

Re: GCHQ rep Tom Cheshire

Presumably, because they are laughing at us and the situation.

P. Lee

Re: Your right to privacy

>If they are looking for a data crime they are normally not entitled to take along your pron stash as well as that is not germane to the investigation.

But if they accidentally found your pron stash, well, you wouldn't want that leaked to the press would you? I think you'd better do as we ask.

What you've got no pron stash? Hmmm, hold on a moment. <clickety-click>, well, our computer here says you do and if you take another look at your temporary internet files folder, you'll find some in there.

A problem with an intrusive government, is that it gives them too much power.

France enacts law to block terror and child sexual abuse sites

P. Lee
Facepalm

>If they incur costs from implementing the site blocks, ISPs will be able to request compensation from the government.

So, deep packet inspection and SSL decryption is mandated at all ISPs?

Nah, that would never be abused!

Cannonbridge sells us a dummy – great premise, crap ending

P. Lee

Re: Could always be worse

You don't read Terry Pratchet for the big reveal at the end, you read him for the scenery along the way, which is interesting and always entertaining. A mystery story, however, must have a good reveal at the end.

They've finally solved it: Schrödinger's cat is both ALIVE AND DEAD

P. Lee

Re: Quis custodiet ipsos felis?

>Felix non cogitaris ergo felix non est

Ah, the Matrix view of reality: only understand that there is no cat.

Calling a friend? Listen to an advert. You lucky, lucky thing

P. Lee
Thumb Up

Re: A note to any network or person contemplating this…

I'd take the service for my landline. Only telesales people call that number. Friends get the mobile number.

A certain delicious irony, getting 50% revenue of admen calling and listening to admen.

Apple preps to DUMP crappy, sluggish iPhoto FOR GOOD

P. Lee

Re: So does it *just* support iCloud? What about home NAS?

I use the globalsan iscsi (snow leopard client / suse backend) for time machine and that seems to be fine. Of course, whether you want to do that over wireless is a different matter.

I've found the SMB server with snow leopard falls over if you have something like amarok trying to access the itunes music directory. I ended up rsyncing to a linux box and serving out to linux over NFS from there. I'm sure its has improved with Yosemite though...

I find the NAS thing a bit of a non-starter, but that's because I want a proper home server, not just a file-server. My home server midi-tower case has space for eight disks, runs mysql, mythtv and so on. There are a couple of 7200 rpm disks for Mythtv, 5400 rpm disks for long term video storage, a couple of disks for backups/iscsi. How much will a NAS with eight slots cost you? Do you need a compute node running as well?

Microsoft's Nadella: Congratulations on 12 months of not being Steve Ballmer

P. Lee

> Just get Windows 10 right Satya. It's an operating system FFS, not rocket science.

No, no it isn't an OS.

It is a set of application libraries. An OS provides an interface between applications and software. An OS provides an abstraction of the hardware so that applications don't need to be programmed for each hardware instance. Windows does this, but for MS, it is mostly user-space application libraries which allow MS to drive version upgrades.

Saying Windows is an OS, is like saying the purpose of commercial TV is to show dramas, comedies and documentaries. It isn't. The purpose of TV is to make profit, which it does by selling advertising and/or subscriptions. The programmes are just the vehicle.

Exchange Server needs Powershell does it? But, doesn't MS write powershell? Powershell is a shell, not the OS, if Exchange needs it, why doesn't the company include it? The OS does things like memory allocation, CPU scheduling etc, I'd be surprised if Exchange needs a specific CPU scheduler or memory allocation mechanism. So if Exchange needs powershell, MS has bundled half the application into the OS and half into the Exchange license and charges you for both. Then it runs an alternating upgrade program between the "OS" part of the application and the licensed part of the application, upgrading half the app at a time; forcing applications to expire because the "OS" has been upgraded.

Its Friday - I shouldn't rant so much....

The subs will pull in more than the previous licensing model would. I'm not so sure it will pull in as much as the previous licensing model has done, in the past though. The reason being that software has matured, like hardware. People are quite happy with Office 2010 and probably wouldn't bother upgrading if left to their own devices. Subs get around that problem. The question then becomes, how many (companies) will jump ship from Office altogether? The answer is, "not many" in the short term. The danger for MS is that if people do jump from Office, they have almost certainly gone, not to Symphony or Corel or Groupwise, but to open-source, which is likely to spread through the organisation's infrastructure. Even if the customer is paying for open-source support, it is likely to open up a world of options and skunkworks projects that MS doesn't want. Unlike other commercial offerings, FLOSS software can be rolled out in parallel with MS, without the license cost barrier that makes companies nervous about switching commercial providers.

If I were a large organisation, I'd be throwing money at some selected FLOSS projects, asking for specific features which I feel I need. More integration between LibreOffice and Sharepoint perhaps, some simple rsync-explorer/dolphin/file manager integration; simple version control integration with automated version increments and a purge facility. It would be nice to see some larger consumer companies take on open source responsibilities rather than just wait around for things to happen.

APT devs are LOUSY coders, says Sophos

P. Lee
Coat

incompetant but easy to obtain?

apt get apt

Sony Pictures claims 'Nork mega-hack attack' cost it just $15 million

P. Lee

Re: Fact or White house fiction

>I can understand the Norks hacking the FBI headquarters, Langley or the Pentagon, now that would make sense but hacking Sony...cmon..

'Tis true I tell you. They have WMD's too!

Australia's (current) PM Tony Abbott again calls for metadata trove laws to pass, ASAP

P. Lee

Re: Critical?

What we really need is for Tony's ISP to start collecting "meta-data" free of charge. Let's just hope no-one accidentally gets hold of it.

Seeing as "no new powers" are granted, it seems ISP's are all good to go on this.

RIP Windows RT: Microsoft murders ARM Surface, Nokia tablets

P. Lee

Re: what about <8" tablets and Windows 10?

>has MS given up on the tablets

Nope, but it has noted that users don't want its OS, they want the apps which run on Windows... which won't generally run on ARM, being x86 or Win32 binaries, and, even if they could run on ARM, ARM doesn't produce good results on a single core for these non-multithreaded apps.

That means they need an fast tablet probably with a keyboard and mouse=>Surface Pro 3.

They could still do RT (ResTricted?) which just disables desktop apps for small screen devices, but the whole "low-power cpu" just messes with their licensing model and customer expectations a lot.

P. Lee

Re: hmm

>Are you saying that your crystal ball's telling you that ARM's not going to be around in 5 years and MS are right to get out?

No, merely that ARM doesn't have the oomph to do what people expect to do with Windows which means:

1) MS are effectively starting from scratch

2) Customers are disappointed with the device

That isn't a good combination.

Remember the ipad/iphone? No ported desktop apps and very few OSX users who thought they might get OSX on a phone.

There's also:

3) MS have a history of dropping non-intel platforms. Even if you like it, its unlikely to be a strategic direction you or your company can take.

Is this just a question of being too early to market? I'll be interested to see how the new A72's go and if this brings ARM up to atom-level CPU strength. More grunt, less power will certainly bring the hurt to intel in the mobile space.

I'm waiting to see when the graphics card companies wake up to see that they have control of the x16 slots in a PC and could add SATA ports, NICs and an ARM CPU to provide an inbox NAS. Your NAS could work at pretty much native SATA3 speeds within the box thanks to the X16 slot, but it could also act as an independent server for the rest of the home. Add android & wake-on-(virtual)-LAN and that power-house desktop could mostly stay silent with the intel chip asleep while you get your email and do some browsing.

Hello? AMD? Are you there? nVidia? Gigabyte? Asus? Anyone?

Who's come to fix your broadband? It may be a Fed in disguise. Without a search warrant

P. Lee

Not cool

What exactly is the requirement to get a warrant for? Why do we require the police to get warrants? As far as I can tell, its to stop the police abusing their search powers. I don't think cutting utilities first is an indicator that the police are not abusing their power, so why does it negate the need for a warrant?

Why not extend this idea and cut off people's water or electricity. They'll never need warrants ever again for anything.

This kind of thing might work once, but it endangers the lives of field service personnel. Did your internet go out just before your multi-million dollar drug ring got busted? Well, I don't fancy the chances of that technician (who's face is on your gate security footage) surviving very long, even if he had nothing to do with it.

Get a warrant. Do it properly.

US DoJ okays IEEE's patent troll ban-hammer

P. Lee

Wifi replaced the telephone line for internet?

That's one powerful pringles can! I can barely get mine to cover the house.

Microsoft takes lid off .Net Common Language Runtime sauce

P. Lee

Re: Why?

>Whatever the strategy is here, I'm at a loss to understand it.

Its about the developers.

Say you're an MS dev. You want to do cloud, but Azure isn't really going places fast. Why not do .NET (stay with MS) so you can deploy to Linux and Windows?

The upside for MS is that you stay with them, rather than jumping ship. It gets MS tech into Linux clouds. Rather like free Windows 10 for personal use, it gets MS into a game where they currently have no traction and no hope of revenue anyway. Giving it away for free, even open-source is no big deal for them.

Future revenue is a different matter. Even if fully open-sourced, MS can release the next version with a different license, different features and different "compatibility." Have you seen how fast Vista, W7 and now W8 have been devalued by MS? As a dev, you can then either stay with MS and move to Windows-only or stay with an orphan tech, much as Mono is.

Or you can jump ship and go with tech which isn't controlled by a company which controls so much of the IT environment and has an incentive and ability to pull the rug out from underneath your business plan.

Watt the CHIP!? ARM pops out THE most powerful 64-bit Cortex for mobes'n'slabs

P. Lee

Oi Samsung!

Couldn't you drop the new cores into the S6?

Windows is TAKING the TABLET market... what's left of it, anyway

P. Lee

Re: I'd consider Surface more of a super ultrabook than a tablet

It's the MBA you get when you aren't allowed to buy Apple. Sadly, its around $200 more than an MBA of similar RAM/CPU/Storage and using it with a keyboard on your lap is going to be tricky with the screen stand.

No cheap iLife either but you do get... Solitaire, Sudoku and some paint app!

The Pro 3 screen is higher-res than the MBA, but I think I'd still opt for the Mac and plug in an external screen, even just to run Windows.

'Revenge p0rn' kingpin Kevin Bollaert faces 20 years in jail

P. Lee

>The problem seems to be charging for removal of the photo. Interesting.

Extortion should be covered by existing laws. Stupidity or lack of judgement is quite another matter.

Google, Amazon 'n' pals fork out for AdBlock Plus 'unblock' – report

P. Lee

Re: Sigh

+1. We never watch anything live - always record for at least 45 minutes in Australia.

Advertising increases as you go through the program. Near the end, you're looking at 6 minutes of programming and 6 minutes of ads. Hello MythTV, nice to see you!

I don't mind text adverts on the web. Even small graphics are ok. It's the large, intrusive or moving graphics I despise. Noscript and flashblock screen out most offensive things without resorting to adblock.

Call Gordon Freeman! Apple to build $2bn 'data command center' – BLACK MESA?

P. Lee
Trollface

Re: Sq/foot?

>When you are above 1million, wouldn't it not mKe sense to use sq/meter?

No. Sq/yd would be more appropriate.

There's nothing intrinsically better about metric. We could easily all use hex if everyone was happy with it. It's a question of what everyone understands and can relate to, and in the place concerned, that would be imperial.

I still don't get metric. It seem arbitrary. If you're counting on your fingers, base 11 is the logical base to use. Why would you go to two significant places before you've used up all your fingers?

Sony hurls Online Entertainment from the mothership

P. Lee

$2bn loss?

How do you get to those figures without going bankrupt earlier?

Ah, yes, irresponsible bankers. I wonder if we've seen that before?

Why Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi 2? Upton: 'I drank the Kool-Aid'

P. Lee

Re: Excellent

>I am not surprised about the the announcement of core and memory increase to match the Windows 10 requirements which is _NOT_ a Linux requirement

Not an essential requirement but there is more than one distro which needs > 756MB RAM to install. Redhat (Fedora?) and Suse spring to mind, unless things have changed recently. I'm sure its possible to squeeze them in somehow, but why make it hard? Extra memory also improves the ability to buffer which can mean less stress on disk systems, which if memory serves are USB which put a strain on the CPU.

P. Lee

Re: Security??? @ Peter Gathercole

Not sure why you got downvoted at all, never mind twice.

I'm not sure why anyone cares, MS seem to be degrading RT to a curiosity. They could give this away for free. Its never going to a platform for Office, which is MS' cash cow. Windows users want to see a GUI. Like unaccelerated X on a Pi, its going to be disappointing, which means the main interest will be from command-line / server people. A home-based AD controller perhaps? That might be useful, if it could *do* domains. I don't see the point of a command-line phone/tablet OS.

BY JUPITER: The science behind Friday's Solar System light show

P. Lee

Re: Flash

Chromium?

Buying PCs, any boxes, servers, software? Based in UK? ACT NOW

P. Lee
Facepalm

Protecting the UK from price rises?

Not possible.

Does no-one know what "quantitative easing" means?

If you buy your kit now, you can sell it again shortly and make 10% because your money will be worth less. Talk to the Germans, they used to do the same thing with bread.

History, repetition, condemned people etc.

Crackdown on eBay sellers 'failing to display' VAT numbers

P. Lee

You don't need to charge VAT

From https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration-thresholds

VAT thresholds

Circumstance Threshold

VAT registration More than £81,000

Registration for distance selling into the UK More than £70,000

Given that an iphone cover costs very little, you'd need to be selling tens of thousands of them to break the threshold. If you're selling in from China, who is going to check your accounts anyway?

PEAK WINDOWS 7 may well be behind us

P. Lee

Re: XP share rises?

Or W7/8.x users had, umm, a significant holiday in that time period?

Perhaps users of pirated XP just kept on working.