Posts by Pascal Monett

Canadian woman fined for not holding escalator handrail finally reaches the top after 10 years

Handrails

Every snot-nosed walking infection touches them. Do you really think I'm going to put my hands on that ?

No thank you. Not unless you provide me with a sanitary wipe and an infection detector beforehand.

Re: The Canadian Supremes have shown a remarkable level of common sense

Well what did you expect ? It's Canada.

The surprising thing is that it had to get to the Supreme Court. Seems like they're getting infected from below. Gotta stay on the ball there, Canada. It would be such a shame to let yourself stoop to that level.

China Mobile, you can kiss good Pai to America: FCC to ban 'spy risk' telco from US

@ Dabbb

I suggest that you look up what a National Security Letter is and revise your position.

A National Security Letter doesn't care about firewalls and whitelists, it doesn't have to.

Re: China Mobile / Cisco

Absolutely. I think it is high time we realize that our national security is at risk from countries who see no problem in forcing their companies to open their networks to government surveillance.

So, China - out (no Huawei), USA - out (no Cisco, Netgear, Linksys, whatever else).

Great, so, who's left ?

Seriously, who can save us from China and the NSA at the same time ? Because if you think I trust the US Government to respect my private life more than China, I have a bridge to sell you.

Microsoft debuts Bosque – a new programming language with no loops, inspired by TypeScript

Ah, the loop

It boggles my mind that some people have the intelligence to do away with reality and create a theoretical structure of such beauty that loops no longer exist. This is a programming paradigm that should be in an art museum, so that the great unwashed can marvel at its pure form and uncluttered syntax, before shuffling off to the next room having already utterly forgotten it.

Meanwhile, in the real world, I have to program a daily check on a 1,700,000-record database. How you gonna do that, Mr NoLoop ?

Open-source enterprise software slinger Red Hat bravely reveals that IT bosses love open-source enterprise software

Re: do I trust those libraries maintained by a retired guy and his cat?

No, you don't. And you don't download code in real time to a production server. You copy the library to your development environment, you review the code for any glaringly obvious catches, you test it extensively, and you put it into production when it's ready.

If a new version of the library comes along, you start the process again.

But you do not link production code to a server you do not control. That way only madness lies.

Google readies Pixel for the masses, but are the masses ready for Pixel?

I can't say that I'm trusting of Google hardware

Not anymore than I can trust Google software - which I unfortunately have to use. My wife is regularly griefed by her model though, finding Bluetooth or mobile data switched on when she swears she didn't do it. It has happened way too often for me to think she's been mistaken all those times. And no, she does not have any apps - I'd know because I'd have to download it for her.

I'll just keep Pixel on the Do Not Buy Yet list. Maybe by version 5 Google will have got its ducks in a row and made a proper phone and OS to go with it ?

Article 13 reasons why... we agree with EU, nods Britain at Council of Ministers

'making Google's vid-hosting platform liable for infringements on copyrighted material would'

. . cut YouTube's prime revenue stream and ensure that films no longer be hosted in full outside of paid-for streaming services where actual copyright holders could stand to make a living.

Sorry, i don't see the problem. Oh, I see that YouTube is going to lose a fucking fortune, that I do.

It's time YouTube stops making a fortune off other people's efforts.

Yeah, I like the idea of someone getting paid for their work and I dislike people profiting off other's people work - as well as those who cut in line. So sue me.

Brit Watchkeeper drone fell in the sea because blocked sensor made algorithms flip out

"accusations of an MoD cover-up over the troubled multimillion-pound programme"

Um, which one ? I'm having trouble keeping track.

While Google agonizes over military AI, IBM is happy to pick up the slack, even for the Chinese military

Objectively speaking

It is not IBM's fault that there is a country out there that does not care about human rights. Science should be open and public, and IBM is doing the right thing to help Science progress. The fact that China is going to use that to improve its stranglehold on its people is not something IBM can do anything about, and equating this with Google is wrong because Google was specifically working on a project for China. Google was going to get paid to increase a population's misery.

Not at all the same thing.

Either Facebook is building yet another massive bit barn in Iowa, and doesn't want you to know about it....

"neither confirm nor deny"

So it's confirmed then.

IT meltdown outfit TSB to refund all customers that fall victim to fraud in 'UK banking first'

a "UK banking first"

Well, the unimaginably failed IT migration was already a first - might as well milk it as much you can.

Client-attorney privilege? Not when you're accused of leaking Vault 7 CIA code

Re: Nightmare drama

At this point in time, with the current shambles that is the NSA, CIA, FCC and the entire US Government, I would be much more surprised to learn that they didn't stick the images to pin on him and bring him down while they tore his life apart with glee.

Everything in this article seems to describe a process tailor-made by the CIA to inflict as much humiliation and anguish as possible. A strip search before every meeting ? Really ? What can he possible have to pass out since the last search ? Be a tad logical and strip search him after the meeting to at least look like you're worried about something.

Motion detectors: say hello, wave goodbye and… flushhhhhh

"the smartphone will need to install and run a specific scanning app and media player"

Aaaand that is where I start looking for how to return the bloody thing.

Who do you think you are to force me to run executable code on my phone just to watch a video ? You already have an unknown name, the least you can do is make it easy for your customers to get the info.

The guys who have ideas like that should be invited to a grand buffet, chauffeured to the middle of the forest and left to their own devices to find out that the buffet is taking place in New York and they are in Oregon, five miles from the nearest road, eighty miles from the nearest airport. Bon appetit !

Bug-hunters punch huge holes in WPA3 standard for Wi-Fi security

Re: Again?

Then again, it took all this time to discover the weaknesses. It's the glass half full problem.

Security is a lot more difficult when you have to allow falling back to an insecure solution. It's almost like backdooring encryption, isn't it senators ?

Israeli Moon probe crashes at the last minute but SpaceX scores with Falcon Heavy launch

Well, there's one consolation for Beresheet

The time capsule made it.

Patch blues-day: Microsoft yanks code after some PCs are rendered super secure (and unbootable) following update

It's just the next step

Before, we had all those Windows Update patches to avoid that every knowledgeable person had a list of. That worked not very well, so Microsoft is on to the next round of the same, but with a different excuse.

The goal remains the same : get them all up to Slurp Edition.

My HPE-funded lawyer wrote my witness statement, reseller boss tells High Court

Did I read that right ?

Did some numbskull just admit in court to having testified falsely ?

Does that not carry a hefty penalty, or is he going to just Trump it out without consequence ?

Uncle Sam charges Julian Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion

No. Self-inflicted prison is not part of the judiciary system. It's just the amount of cowardice and ass-hattery that he has to try and avoid a 5-year sentence.

So let him do both.

The best part of it is : those 7 years don't count and he can still go down for 5.

I hope he does, the slimy git.

NPM apologizes for ham-fisted handling of recent staff layoffs

So, to summarize

Sharks smelled a good opportunity and went in for the kill, not understanding that they weren't dealing with regular, private-owned companies. They behaved as sharks do, and now they are going to learn that they were not in the right ocean.

Couldn't happen to nicer people, by the looks of it. I hope they do get competition, that'll teach them a lesson on walking the talk.

As Alexa's secret human army is revealed, we ask: Who else has been listening in on you?

What do you expect ?

Do you really believe that multi-billion dollar companies are going to cater to your whims ?

Be it Google, Amazon, Apple or any of the others, they have teams of highly-paid lawyers specifically to craft EULAs that will allow them to do whatever it is they want whether or not you consent. All you have is the prospect of an expensive court case that you are practically guaranteed to lose.

Just don't use the effing things.

London's Metropolitan Police arrest Julian Assange

You're mistaken - Assange has no guts to spill

King's College London internal memo cops to account 'compromise' as uni resets passwords

A bit hard to do from China, though.

Turn me up some: Smart speaker outfit Sonos blasted in complaint to UK privacy watchdog

Or you could just buy a normal toaster and not encourage that kind of bullshit.

Boffins baffled by planet nugget whizzing round white dwarf that should have killed it

Re: Plausible explanation

Thank you for explaining this. I am passionate about space, but I am no astronomer. I would like to know though : is there any chance that, while our Sun is puffing up and turning red, the Earth's orbit will slowly get larger as the Sun's density goes down ?

I have not found any actual answer on this yet, despite scouring excellent resources such as PBS Eons and SciShow Space on YouTube, not to mention numerous TED talks. Nobody has a definitive opinion on this, it would seem.

Would you have any information to share on that point ?

Ethiopia sits on 737 Max report but says pilots followed Boeing drills

"The crew performed all the procedures repeatedly provided by the manufacturer.."

Well it certainly seems that this time, pilot error is NOT going to be an excuse.

And I will never change my mind about one thing : one single sensor. In a world where we know that information is what lives depend on, Boeing only used ONE effing sensor.

There is no patch for stupidity.

Google UK forks out £65m tax in 2018, a boost of 40% on previous year

Silly perhaps, but satisfying.

Autonomy was a 'pure-play software company', testifies former HP chief exec Léo Apotheker

He still doesn't get that he's in Court

Apparently he still has the attitude of the high-flying CEO. He obfuscates, does not answer directly and apparently thinks he can just refer lawyers to existing documentation as an explanation. That attitude is usual when brushing off underlings or competitors, but such behavior will undoubtedly not be appreciated by the judge, I wager.

Dutch director cops roar deal after selling off lion-based schlock to China

He has no success at home ?

Having watched the trailer, I'd say 'duh'. Glad to know that he'll be off to China. With any luck, he might even learn how to make a good film.

The curious case of a WordPress plugin, a rival site spammed with traffic, a war of words, and legal threats

and three times is a conspiracy

Re: Smart. Not.

Agreed. And I personally find quite stupid to maintain that posture because it's quite easy to prove if it is in the code.

Maybe Pipdig thinks that, because they changed the code (hey, that was quick), nobody will think of keeping a copy of the code that had issues ?

In any case, I do not appreciate the idea of a theme plugin with code to "reset to default". If I want to reset to default, I can do that myself thank you very much, or I will get a plugin that says it does that on the tin. I hate hidden features that I only discover when something goes wrong.

FYI: You could make Tesla's Autopilot swerve into traffic with a few stickers on the road

@ John Robson

First of all, they should bite the bullet and stop calling it Autopilot. People have died for believing that it actually is an autopilot. It is not, it is a sophisticated cruise control.

So name it Ultra Cruise Control, or Tesla Control, or something, anything that does not say autopilot.

If you want the message to pass, you have to be coherent. This is not a coherent situation.

"a driver can easily override Autopilot at any time [..] and should always be prepared to do so"

That is something that Tesla should be saying more loudly and more often.

Good news, Man City fans: You can watch your team lose the title in on-demand 3D

Personally, I prefer sex.

Right, I'm out.

Only one Huawei? We pitted the P30 Pro against Samsung and Apple's best – and this is what we found

It doesn't really matter anyway

A phone camera is just a phone camera. Good enough for a quick pic when you've got nothing better. For anything important, I have my Canon EOS with 3 lenses that answer all my problems. One is x200, and I don't even use it all that much.

Yes, I do take snaps with my phone, in order to remind me of how something was, what it looked like or where it was, so I can find it back later. It's utilitarian. If I want a proper pic that I'll keep in my album, I use my Canon.

Citrix mysteriously quiet amid whisperings of senior layoffs: Executives, teams logged out, it is claimed

Shamed out the door ? Really ?

How is it that people still take it personally when a company decides to terminate their contract ? Haven't they gotten the memo yet ? You're working for a multinational - nobody knows you outside of your direct colleagues and your manager. And his manager, following how (un)lucky you are.

The kind of employer who is a father to his employees, who takes care of them and manages the company as a great big family - is long gone.

Companies today are cutting edge, emphasis on cutting. When they want to trim the workforce, they choose a criteria, and then they trim. It is ruthless, it is soulless, and you have nothing to be ashamed of if you are caught in the net. It is not personal, because if it was, you'd be face-to-face with an accusation of incompetence or something worse.

No, it's just that the company has decided that your years of hard work no longer count because they've shifted focus and you are no longer part of the picture.

It's unpleasant, to be sure, but it has nothing to do with you or how good you are. You were just in the wrong slot.

So do not be shamed, just tell yourself that it is the company's loss.

Take that, America! Huawei flips Trump & Co the bird after reporting double-digit % rise in sales and profit

Backdoors ?

The only backdoors anyone should fear are the ones the NSA has in place.

With Huawei, it's not backdoors we need to fear, but rather shoddy coding and bad patching practices.

Tallk about choosing your poison . . .

HP crashed Autonomy because US tech titan's top brass 'lost their nerve', says lawyer for ex-CEO Mike Lynch

Truth squad ?

To do what, convince people that Meg wasn't responsible ?

There is a multi-billion dollar deal on the table and I'm supposed to believe they handed it to the intern ?

For frak's sake I am sick and tired of CEO's finding any pathetic excuse to weasel out of being responsible for what happens while they are at the helm. She gets the pay, so she takes the blame.

Anything else is pure, unadulterated hypocrisy.

FAANGs for the memories: Breaking up big tech's biggest isn't a matter of if, but of when

"a much-needed quickening of pace"

Woah there, the last thing we need right now is a quickening of pace. Cloud is already racing in every direction, each year we get new smartphones that are entirely incompatible with last year's, new mobe makers are appearing on the market and doing their damndest to differentiate, Surface is gaining traction and changing habits and STOP, let me breathe for a minute for Pete's sake.

I have read this article and I still don't know how I feel about it. On the one hand I will applaud anything that cuts Google and especially FaceBook down to a manageable size (ie something that no longer has the luxury of lying to our faces and we not being able to do anything about it). On the other hand, what exactly says that a breakup in the shareholder's best interest ? Where was that rule explained ? Because I don't think shareholders think that at this point in time.

Things like that in this article bewilder me, so, despite the fact that I completely agree with the initial premise of breaking up the FAANGS (and where did that come from ?), I can't say that I entirely agree with everything as it is stated.

Some more citations needed, I guess.

With the right training, algorithms can predict Li-ion battery lifetime – with 95% accuracy

Great news - oh, wait

Yet again another article on batteries, but no mention of carbon nanotubes.

Oh well, we've only been promised those a decade ago. I guess I might actually start seeing them after I retire.

Humbug.

Ethiopian Airlines boss confirms suspect flight software was in use as Boeing 737 Max crashed

It clearly isn't because if it were, Boeing would have required input from multiple sensors and correlation with a gyroscope or something.

Seriously Boeing ? A lone data feed can instruct the software to push the nose down ? On the input of one single sensor you change the attitude of a passenger-carrying plane ?

There was a time when redundancy was the name of the game. Once upon a time an airplane had three computers doing the calculations and at least two had to get the same results before any action was taken.

Am I to understand that Boeing is now using only a single Playstation for its calculations, and there wasn't enough USB ports to allow data from another sensor ?

DXC Security exec: Yes, I'd have thought we'd spend more on certs and laptop kit for staff, too

"Our success is dependent on ourselves and I find that exciting"

That sentence is a model of a phrase without actual meaning. It's almost as if he checked his motivational rolodex and decided to use that one. Of course your success depends on you, it doesn't depend on the grocery store next door.

It is exactly the kind of empty words someone without empathy will spout to try and make people think that "we're all in this together", in order to foster a sense of group and togetherness.

In the meantime, the bigwigs get the bonuses and the peons get laid off. That's how together we are.

NASA's first all-woman spacewalk outside ISS cancelled – due to lack of spacesuits that fit

Theoretically it shouldn't, unless there is no way to know by how much she would grow before the mission was planned.

Remember the film Apollo 13 ? NASA has a reputation for having everything quantified and on record, therefor they know what suits they have on board and their size. If they know how to determine by how much a person will grow in space before launch, then they should have the whole thing planned, checked and validated before even thinking about announcing it.

Of course if, despite their extensive experience, it is still impossible to determine exactly how a given person's height will vary, then the planning stage will have to allow for an on-board check that the intended suit still fits. Maybe that is what happened.

There are pictures all over the internet of a big dark spot on Uranu... Oh no, wait, it's Neptune

Economies of scale start kicking in when you build 2000 of the same thing, not 2. By all means, lets build the probes, but the second one will likely cost the same as the first.

Max Schrems schreds another 'blockade' to challenging Facebook data transfers in Austria

GDPR for the win

If there is anything that will bring The Zuck to bow before the law, it appears that the GDPR is the best chance.

Go GDPR !

Techies take turns at shut-down top trumps

I think the human mind has an infinite ability to go through with an act, despite all countermeasures and protections, even if we are screaming at ourselves inside to NOT DO THAT THING (*).

And we do it anyway, and then we can only shake our heads at ourselves in disbelief that we actually did it.

* : ask the Air Force about how many ways they have tried to alert a pilot that his landing gear was not down while in the process of landing and how efficient the methods were - if I'm not mistaken, they still don't have foolproof method

Would obviously not be good enough. Colorblind does not diminish the ability to see the difference between black and white, and that is all a racist needs.

NASA 'nauts do what flagship smartphone fans can only dream of: Change the batteries

Not incredible, inevitable. There's only so much budget, and since the Russkies were beaten, there were top-of-the-line carriers to build.

What is incredible is that there are now privately-owned industries that have not only the money, but also the know-how to build rockets and get to low orbit. They are the ones that will get us to the stars, not the governments.