at least for a somewhat lax definition of valid.
...at least for a very lax definition of valid.
Vcards aren't exactly difficult to parse - at least to the point where a batch file would be unusable. But the app didn't bother.
Vic.
5860 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2007
By deliberately putting in a series resistor that is, say, 10 times greater than the average copper line, the current from each household would be near as dammit equalised.
How much power does the unit draw? How much is lost in your resistors?
Vic.
With a simple diode inline on the copper to prevent power backfeeding each house will provide a roughly equal share of power
With simple diodes inline, the node will always be powered by exactly one house. You hope that statistical variation in the output of each will lead to that averaging out over time - but in practice, it probably won't. Tolerances in the PSUs and in the cable resistance will mean that it's always the same house doing the power...
Vic.
The big local companies have merged production and newsrooms, cut reporters on the ground
I went to a photo-shoot this evening. The paper wanted to do an article on a bunch of us.
This afternoon, they rang to tell us that they didn't have a photographer available, so could we take the photo ourselves and send it to them?
Vic.
So what you do is make a call to your Aunt Mabel before ringing the bank
That's a definite improvement, but isn't absolutely secure.
It would be a comparatively simple task to intercept any DTMF tones on the (still-open) line, and pass through the dialling info to another line - i.e. act as a proxy. In the event that the target bank number is dialled, you don't pass through...
Vic.
every place I've worked (some very big multinationals) it is a simple phone call with zero checks to reset a password,
I worked for a place a while back who did a password reset[1] for my with some (albeit minimal) identity checks.
At the end of the conversation was the most phenominal line ever - "We will send you your new password by email"...
Vic.
[1] I'd been contracting there, then left for a while. When I came back, my account had been locked for inactivity.
You should also be aware that using SHTTP won't protect you from the systems administrators, who will (if they're competent) have installed a trusted certificate on your (company) system
My personal webmail server has a duff certificate for exactly this reason - if I don't get a certificate warning, I know someone is eavesdroppping. If I do get a warning, I can compare the cert thumbprint to the one I carry in my wallet...
Vic.
I get the issue with debt never being inflated away but if everything else gets cheaper then we have more left over to pay off the debt
You're assuming that wages stay the same. If that were to happen, then employers have the same outgoing, but less income - so they go bust. That leaves lots of people unemployed, so nothing with which to pay off any debts.
Alternatively, wages decrease in line with deflation - so there is no more money left over.
Vic.
I can't think of any phone/tablet/'puter/iot fridge that doesn't make you go through an EULA before using it
I'm using one right now. It's not tricky if it matters to you...
And there's no way you can have signed up to that and then be bothered about Spotify
Well, I'm not bothered about Spotify[1]. But I am bothered about trojan horses on the machines of friends and customers...
None of these EULAs is released without having gone past the corprat lawyers. If they say something ambiguous, then it's because the lawyer has decided that ambiguity is the more profitable course of action. It's not hard to be specific.
Vic.
[1] Being of somewhat conservative musical taste, I probably already have all the music I'll ever want. Preiodically, I sample new bands, but very rarely do I find anything that interests me. I am an old git.
How does OpenJDK fit into this?
OpenJDK is GPL, so all copyrighted materiel within it is available under that licence.
Under Oracle's interpretation of copyright[1], the API is copyrighted, meaning that to use that API from OpenJDK would require your code to be placed under GPL. And Android is not GPL.
Vic.
[1] Oracle's interpretation is wrong, obviously. It is properly dangerous[2] to try to copyright APIs. We'll see that from the fallout later - but in the meantime, I can imagine America's software industry ending up embroiled in litigation amongst itself. Which will be fun.
[2] I await IBM's suit for Oracle's unlicenced re-implementation of the SQL APIs with bated breath. I believe Oracle has made quite a bit of money out of that API...
So why do they keep calling it theft?
It's an attempt firstly to get the public will onside, and then to change public perception.
You'd be hard-pushed to find a member of the general public who would support theft. It just isn't something we like to see. But you'd find it much easier to find people who are much less bothered by the idea of copyright infringment. So by calling these people "thieves", the media organisations are trying to demonise the offenders in the eyes of the public. That's good for convictions...
After that, if they can get everyone calling copyright infringement "theft", there is some chance of changing the public's current view of it.
It's still incorrect, though. With a bit of luck, the public might start to notice eventually, and the resulting backlash might make these type feel slightly less entitled...
Vic.
It is acknowledged that the transfer of data, storing of the physical data locally on a hard drive and facilitation and redistribution of the stolen data to others may or may not be a “physical taking” under Oregon law.
...And thus their previous argument is shown to be utter bollocks.
The Oregon law quoted speficially mentions "physical taking". Copying data is clearly not covered. The lawyers who trotted out this nonsense should face some sort of sanction for this. But they won't.
Vic.
Can we have a picture of that?
Vic.
one cannot maintain a stable position on the ground with fewer than three nonlinear contacts.
I can - and frequently do - on a motorcycle. It's spectactularly easy once you know how[1]. The trick is to ignore all those people who claim it requires excellent balance skills...
It is, obviously, harder on a pushbike - although slow-riding is still possible. I've never tried this "track stand" procedure, so I can't comment on that.
Would you like to see a motorcyclist on heavy bike attempting the same feat in heavy traffic?
Sure. It's a trivial skill.
Vic.
[1] Slow riding - including coming to a full stop - is effected by putting the rear brake on and then feathering the clutch to keep the engine off idle whilst proceeding at the desired speed (including being stationary). It takes less than 20 minutes to learn...
I've had drivers make eye contact with me as I've approached a junction and still pull out on me when on a pushbike
The one I get quite a bit is drivers who do not believe that the bike is moving at all. So they'll overtake, leaving lots of room, and then pull in again without looking, having travelled just enough distance to have passed a stationary object where I was at the beginning of the manouvre. This leaves me hard on the brakes trying to avoid being side-swiped...
Vic.
As a motorcyclist as well as a cyclist, I'm very familiar with the words "Sorry, Mate, I Didn't See You" uttered by a driver who simply failed to *LOOK*.
There was a guy in the pub some while back with a wondrous patch on his jacket. It said simply "Save a Biker's life - open yer fucking eyes"...
Vic.
There are four way junctions in the UK
Not many without traffic lights...
Where two vehicles are facing each other across the junction and one is indicating to turn across the others path then I'm not sure who has right of way
When turning across traffic, the oncoming traffic has priority. It *used* to be the case that you had to turn behind any oncoming traffic that is also turning across, unless the road markings say otherwise - but last time I looked, that has been reduced to a recommendation only.
Vic.
If your website doesn't work properly on my computer 'cause you use / allow flash and I've blocked it (for obvious reasons) it's because *YOUR WEBSITE IS SHIT*.
A former customer of mine changed their site to be all-Flash - against my (prior) advice. The MD was really quite annoyed at me when I mentioned that Flash is a poor solution for a general-purpose site like theirs.
I'm pleased to reveal that the Flash site has been thrown away. Not that I'm going to take them back as customers, though...
Vic.
Linux is different from Windows, and there will be strangeness for first time users, especially non experts
IME, it's the other way round: non-experts pick it up very rapidly. It is those who know Windows well who find it difficult. There are many learned behaviours which just make life difficult in Linux-land...
Vic.
I have never yet met a cowboy developer who could recognise that they were A) a coyboy, and B) a problem
That's the Dunning–Kruger effect. It's very common in this line of work :-(
I get very tired of fixing crap rolled out by devs with five minutes experience, using tools with a shelf life of an egg sandwich
Tools are a small piece of the problem; you can produce good code with next to no tools, and you can produce utter shite with the best tools in the business. It's more about intent: does the coder really care about producing something of value, or does he just want to bash off the Kanban ticket and tell Management that he's "productive"?
I worked with a guy not so long ago who refused to use any sort of static code analysis tools, then complaines when his code failed review. Frequently, it wouldn't even compile... But the problem was actually much deeper - his management was equally incompetent; his manager once expressed surprise that you *could* fail code review.
And therein lies the problem: until you get management that is both competent and willing to do the job properly, you're going to get people producing crap - it's seen as "quick", so it's "productive", and the problems down the line never seem to matter. But, as I've said so often before, Management seems already to have been captured, and the only way to make it into the ranks of these decision-makers[1] is to become one of them, thus precluding the possibility of anything getting fixed...
Vic.
[1] That's assuming you wanted to do so; I've avoided management for most of my career. I became a manager in one job - I hated it, and I was crap at it.
If you can pull off IT at your scale better and cheaper than "Cloud," then local is best. Do notice the "and" in there. It has to be both.
No, it really doesn't.
If cloud doesn't fulfill your needs, it really doesn't matter how cheap it is.
As my grandfather used to say, "a cheap solution that doesn't work is neither".
Vic.
They shouldn't be allowed to say "up to 20" and deliver 2 and say "Tough!"
I disagree. For a given technology, the maximum achievable speed depends on a whole raft of variables.
Of course, they should only be allowed to charge for what they deliver - so if they're delivering 10% of the rated speed, the bill is 10% of the agreed price...
Vic.