Posts by Pascal Monett

The police are WRONG: Watching YouTube videos is NOT illegal

Re: guilty till proved innocent

Yeah, they still bother with that "proven innocent" part for the moment.

Soon, they'll just be guilty.

Re: What about staging a similar scene in a film?

Yes, what about SAW ?

I hate the premise and despise the series, but it has been rather successful.

Your move, sucker! Microsoft tests cloud gaming system that cuts through network lag

Do they also predict the headshot ?

250ms of movement in advance, cool.

What happens to the inevitable aimbot-generated headshot ? Will it still hit, or will it finally start missing ?

Sony DENIES PlayStation Network WOBBLES despite gamer GRIPES

Re: "Maybe PS will realize money isn't the only thing."

But they know that. There's also CONTROL, and they want BOTH.

Wall Street's internet darlings require an endless supply of idiots

Re: Do I get paid for washing the dishes at home?

Yes you do. You get the payoff of clean dishes to eat in. If you don't wash them, you get the payoff of not doing the work (of course, you still have dirty dishes).

Your example would have been better if you talked about washing your neighbour's dishes.

I’ve never paid for it in my life... we are talking Wi-Fi, right?

Not his fault you chose a bad provider.

Galileo, Galileo! Galileo, Galileo! Galileo fit to go. Magnifico

I respectfully disagree

There are now two GPS providers to choose from, the US one and Galileo.

Saying Galileo GPS is thus specifying which one you're talking about, which can be useful if you need to be precise. We're going to have to find a name for the US one.

Forrester says it's time to give up on physical storage arrays

Sure, these days it's sexy to go to the cloud, we got the memo.

When enough companies have been burnt by connections failing at the worst possible moment, or providers on the fritz for days on end, or simply disappearing from one day to the next, you'll see a move backwards and enterprise storage on premise will have a resurgence.

Nothing new under the sun. We started IT with mainframes and dumb terminals, then we got PCs and distributed computing, then we returned to central servers (but not mainframes). Now, the Internet is driving us back to dumb terminals, and the cloud will supplement that with virtual storage.

Looks like we're going back to mainframe days, but these days it's called cloud.

Someday, we'll backpedal on that too. It's inevitable.

Re: The new physics

The Internet is reliable.

It's the connection to it that is not, either on your side, or on the side of your service provider (not your ISP, I mean the server providing the service you want to use).

Pedals and wheel in that Google robo-car or it's off the road – Cali DMV

Re: "the technology is viable"

Of course it is viable. We will have driverless cars in the future, I have no doubt of that.

Some people here are comparing this technology with their own experience in IT. I'll wager that none of those people have had a hand in aircraft AI development. As I work in IT, I can understand that, generally speaking, nobody wants the average programmer to get anywhere near an application that is supposed to handle controlling a vehicle that contains people, or goes near people. Given the generally poor level of exception handling and the very limited foresight of most programs, it would indeed be suicide to leave such a task to the average developer.

I am confident that the automotive industry has an enormous amount of data and experience in car behaviour, and I am convinced that Google is not learning everything from scratch. Google must have experienced automotive consultants on this project, and I am certain that Google has a comprehensive list of use cases to test with its autoAI.

Not that I think that Google is a saintly organisation that is doing all this out of the pureness of its heart. We all know now that Google is an advocate of DRM, on top of being the most common spook in our lives. No, if I think that Google is doing its best to make a truly safe, automated car, it is because it would be commercial suicide if it put a half-assed solution on the road that started running over kids.

Not even the fortune of a Brin would avoid prison for that. It would be the ruin of several very wealthy billionaires, and I don't think they would like the idea of being ruined and in jail.

I look forward to a future where Google knows where everyone goes before they get there, in order to better target the relevant ads to us - because it's "what the customer wants" (the customer, in this case, being the companies that want eyeballs on their ads, of course).

Brainboxes caught opening Bitcoin fraud emails. Seriously, guys?

Usual precaution applies

Never assume intelligence on the Internet.

It may happen now and then, but it is not the norm.

BAT-GOBBLING urban SPIDER QUEENS swell to ENORMOUS SIZE

"had bigger ovaries than relatives in the bush"

I do NOT want to know how she found that out.

True fact: 1 in 4 Brits are now TERRORISTS

Christianity has grown up ?

Really ?

With all the raving lunatics approving Dubya's wars from pulpits, it has grown up ?

With the nutjobs trying to push creationism (no, I will not honor that name with a capital C) in school, it is growing up ?

All the stupid fools regularly parading with signs that start with "God Hates <insert pet hate here>" prove that Christianity has grown up ?

No, Christianity has not grown up. Quite a lot of Christians have, thankfully, but Christianity itself is still in the Middle Ages.

@Mr Williams

Pleas do not confound media entertainment or historical documents with the horrific act of a subhuman madman.

Wartime footage was made by journalists to show what was going on. The fact that it was war and horrible (or extremely boring, depending on what part is shown) does not detract from the fact that it was reality - that is what they were there to report.

Wartime footage is what proved to the world the Auschwitz massacres and put Nazi genocide into the spotlight. Without that proof, Holocaust deniers would have easy times denying things or calling on conspiracies (not that they don't try, they're just not credible).

Media entertainment, be it films or games, is tailor-made to pull a string, nothing more. Nobody is harmed, it's all magic (pixel or silver, doesn't matter). You don't like it, you don't watch (or play), simple as that.

A beheading cannot be reduced to a simple distasteful act. Somebody lost their life because an asshole decided he had the right to make that decision on his own, for spurious reasons.

Comparing that act to games or films cheapens the victim's life, and that is a shame. Comparing that to wartime films elevates that asshole's act to the same level as wartime journalism, which is totally, undeniably unjustified.

Claim: Microsoft Alt-F4'd Chilean government open-source install bid

"like any business, it is entitled to lobby in a democracy"

The problem is not who is lobbying, the problem is the politicians who bend their positions to whoever is offering the most advantages.

In this case it is a bit difficult to side with anybody. On the one hand, a politician with a just cause is miffed because an apparently good idea got left on the floor. On the other hand, the politician lost support. Microsoft is being blamed, and it is a lot of fun to point fingers at any big corporation, but we're being told that Microsoft didn't do anything bad, it just lobbied.

Objectively, it is not Microsoft that is at fault here, it is the politicians that withdrew their support. The people who had initially announced support for the idea of sparing government money by going for Open Source, who recanted and decided that throwing money at Microsoft is a good idea.

There is alcohol in every supermarket. The temptation is there. The fact that I do not take a bottle is my choice, not the bottle's. So Microsoft lobbied ? The coat-turners didn't have to take the bait.

In the end, it's all just another round of politics. I hate saying it, but maybe there is an acceptable reason to stay with Microsoft products for them, for the time being.

In the long term, though, Open Source will be the norm. It is inevitable.

Don't even THINK about copyright violation, says Indian state

Hang on, isn't there a contradiction there ?

"no bail under the “Goondas Act”, and that the national Copyright Act only allows someone to be jailed after conviction"

So they are jailed for intent to breach the Copyright Act - which they have not yet done - and get no bail, but are still jailed before being convicted. Does India have an equivalent to the Supreme Court ? Because it sure seems somebody needs to throw a monkey wrench in there.

Carbon tetrachloride releases still too high, says NASA

Interesting post.

I was going to blame the cows, but blaming clean people is a novel approach.

Memory troubling you, Android? Surprise! Another data slurp vuln uncovered

Re "should only be granted sparingly to apps you really trust"

Agreed.

Unfortunately, these bloody "smartphones" are not asking me what I trust.

Your Bitcoins aren't money – but it is barter, so we'll tax it, ta ... says Australia's taxman

Re: great news for the exchanges that got knocked off

MtGox is not exactly a stellar example of management in any way. It is actually a perfect example of how not to do things. If I remember correctly, it was even said that its code was based on an obsolete version that had not been patched, or something.

In other words, MtGox was an amateur operation half-heartedly maintained by people who didn't know what they were doing.

A proper exchange will most likely know where its virtcoins are, and who they belong to.

Especially if the taxman starts poking his nose in there. You can bet the trace will become a LOT more precise in that case.

Cyber spies whip out 'Machete', stride towards Latin America

Re: "What kind of idiot downloads and opens a file purporting to contain porn "

The kind who still doesn't know about youporn and can't remember what Google is.

I am not astonished about this, there are whole swaths of the world population that have yet to grasp that perfect strangers do not write each other without a frame of reference. I can very well write to a blogger I have never written to before, but if I do so I will introduce myself, include the fact that I am writing in response to something on his blog, and get on with my mail. If I write to an El Reg editor, I will refer to the fact that I am registered here since quite a while ago. Never, ever will I include an attachment in a first-contact mail.

There are visibly loads of people whose mind is a blank slate when it comes to the Internet. They act as if everyone is their friend and nobody can wish them any harm. Wonderful human nature, in a way, but they really need to realize that the Internet is a vast dark alley with infinite branches and you can get mugged at every step.

That is how you must treat the Internet if you wish to be able to actually appreciate it.

Go on, inhale our G-Cloud via 'Digital Marketplace' – UK.gov

Whoa there, just a minute

"Digital marketplace is reaching a stage which allows us to consider making it the route for G-Cloud purchases,"

It may be true that the digital marketplace is ready, but I seriously doubt the government is. You need to hold your horses while you still have some left (what with all the ones that have already bolted long ago) and give more thought to the whole scheme.

And I don't care how much thought has been given, since past projects clearly demonstrate that enough thought has never been given to any government project.

So get back to the drawing board and make sure that all contingencies have been planned for. Then plan for the ones that haven't, for a change.

TELEPORTABLE storage? Atlantis Computing's PR bods jump the shark

Teleportable storage ?

Well, if it's Atlantean technology . . .

Okay, okay, no pushing !

Roll up for El Reg's 3G/4G MONOPOLY DATA PUB CRAWL

That's one hell of a project

Congratulations on taking on such a monumental task, and on keeping the necessary focus to bring it to completion.

It is controls like this that keep the networks in line, although it doesn't seem - for the moment at least - that the networks are not performing adequately.

May this initiative spawn many siblings !

Boffins propose security shim for Android

"ASM would let users restrict the app"

Ah, a dream just might come true.

One question though : will the user be able to restrict ALL apps, or just the ones Google lets him ?

Need a green traffic light all the way home? Easy with insecure street signals, say researchers

Just a check

Reading that PDF is not going to make me a terrorist, is it ?

Felony charges? Harsh! Alleged Anon hackers plead guilty to misdemeanours

" authorities point to the costs to businesses in damages "

In a country being run by businesses, it is no surprise that offending them brings the heaviest charges on your head.

Can it be true? A BIG DATA benchmark? Yes, says TPC

More fun in benchmark land

This is going to be subverted six ways to Sunday. It will be impossible to get reliable data because every vendor is going to criticize the other vendors' results with endless discussions on how a given parameter skews the results and should have been set to something else, with the other vendor replying in length about how that change would only skew in some way favourable to the first vendor, etc. etc.

Of course, maybe I'm wrong and the benchmark results will be taken as canon by everyone, but given the historical battles we have already witnessed in the business arena as well as in the graphics arena, I doubt it.

The agony and ecstasy of SteamOS: WHERE ARE MY GAMES?

Pff, silly me. A Terabit partition, obviously.

Can't wait for it !

Not before 2015, you say ? Well, okay then. I have a GB partition all ready for it on my PC.

Because of course I'll be using my PC.

How to marry malware to software downloads in an undetectable way (Hint: Please use HTTPS)

Ooohhhh! A terrible attack is available in the lab !

But then it is revealed that it needs a man-in-the-middle configuration to work. And even HTTPS can defeat it. Researchers even say only governments can easily implement it.

In other words : carry on citizens, nothing to see here.

UK government accused of hiding TRUTH about Universal Credit fiasco

"failing to adequately admonish ministers and top civil servants "

You don't say ?

I can't believe how hard my gob is smacked.

The only thing ministers and top civil servants fear is not getting their OBE before their retirement. That appears to be the only unknown, if I refer to my extensive studies of the well-known documentary : Yes Minister and the added appendix : Yes, Prime Minister.

The level of detail in these productions is simply astounding - as a matter of fact, I think I need a refresher course.

e-Borders fiasco: Brits stung for £224m after US IT giant sues UK govt

Something fascinates me

I find utterly mesmerizing that they couldn't be arsed to properly plan the cost of the initial project, but they know that continuing would have cost 97 million more than settling.

How did they know that it wouldn't have cost 397 million more ?

Because given the regular cost bloat of government contracts, ANY project is going to overrun in the tens of millions, if not hundreds.

So could someone please explain how the UK Government, who couldn't get a budget right if their life depended on it, can foresee an exact cost figure compared to a settlement ?

Stupid question, I know. They just picked a reasonable one backed by whoever is the friend of the day.

Carry on !

Microsoft: Azure isn't ready for biz-critical apps … yet

What this actually demonstrates . .

. . is that Microsoft is treating a cloud migration like it should : with care, paying attention to all the variables, weighing the pros and cons and evaluating the risks and cost of mitigation.

The cloud is like any other project and must be managed properly. Add to that the fact that Microsoft cannot fail this migration : the reputational cost would be prohibitive. So no, Microsoft is not just gleefully jumping into the cloud feet first, like the cloudy fanboi (wisps ?) would want you to. It is doing so in a reasoned, measured fashion and it is doing it like that because if it fails, it might as well shut down Azure entirely.

Failure is not an option. Proceed with caution.

Seems to me that aviation software is pretty much "business critical".

So someone else does.

I share his perspective. Especially since nothing industrial requiring true real time has ever run under Windows.

Cops baffled by riddle of CHICKEN who crossed ROAD

Why call the police ?

It's a chicken, not a buffalo. It'll move sooner rather than later (case in point, it moved before the cops got there).

I've been stopped by fowl before (geese in fact), it takes them a leisurely 30 seconds to waddle off and let you move again.

Calling the cops for that is about as useful as calling them when Facebook is down.

Think crypto hides you from spooks on Facebook? THINK AGAIN

Masking the headers to the routers is not an inefficiency - it's a full stop.

This'll end well: US govt says car-to-car jibber-jabber will SAVE lives

Re: Gaze into the crystal ball...

And hackers will reverse-engineer the thing to include messages like "your car sucks" or endless "fuck you !"s to be sent randomly and only in presence of at least two other vehicles so as to not be able to trace the origin.

Munich considers dumping Linux for ... GULP ... Windows!

It was "under Bill" that Munich switched in the first place. He didn't spend the money required, apparently.

Re: it's bloated rubbish

It is, but you're missing the point : it's bloated rubbish that people are used to.

Re: The best will leave

I'm sorry, you're talking about functionaries. They don't leave, they just complain louder while drinking more coffee.

Shhh !

Don't mention Lotus Notes !

IBM just might have to <shudder> wake up and actually notice a prospective customer. Then IBM would have to actually go and state that IBM Notes works on Linux, with Calendaring & scheduling and everything. From a browser, even. Finally, IBM might have to go make a business case for Munich.

You don't want IBM to go to all that trouble, now do you ?

IBM certainly doesn't. Better to let Munich lapse back to Windows. IBM can then continue to sleep in peace, dreaming of all the money it never made on products it couldn't be arsed to sell.

Oculus sucked by Zuck? 'I'm over it' – Minecraft supremo Notch

Word of warning, Notch

Make Minecraft work with the Oculus if you wish, but do NOT make Facebook shit appear in Minecraft !

I would accept viewing my Minecraft world in actual 3D. I will NOT accept fucking "Likes" or any other Facebook crap.

And if you allow Farmville alerts, I will <redacted> you.

Microsoft Azure goes TITSUP (Total Inability To Support Usual Performance)

I have a revolutionary idea

Instead of putting everyone's services into a Single Point of Remote Failure, it might be interesting to explore a new venue : Distributed Computing.

Imagine that ? If each service center had its own infrastructure and hardware, it would be isolated from exterior failures. In addition, each center could be able to implement its own rules independently from others, according to its own business case, and could design and implement the best configuration for its needs instead of relying on standards that may or may not correspond best to what it wants.

. . .

What, am I a few years too early ?

Of course there is redundancy. And the redundant one goes TITSUP too, to maintain service consistency.

The Return of BSOD: Does ANYONE trust Microsoft patches?

Let us not forget that Microsoft itself helped foster this mentality by withholding API documentation for the functions it considered critical to its own performance.

So some vendors had to go and guess things, or call "less efficient" API functions, and tried routing around that, all because Microsoft wanted to make their software work less well than Microsoft's own.

Then, when application lock-in installed, Microsoft was stuck with trying to make its own APIs account for all the variations that had happened, because it simply couldn't break with the past given the amount of uproar that would cause.

But it DOES concern Microsoft. A PC with Windows belongs to Microsoft, and it wants you to know that.

Because Microsoft is there to help you (you poor user, you) and, in case you have a problem with your PC, it will gladly aid you in reformatting the entire disk and installing Windows 9.

As soon as that is out.

Chromebook fans are out in strength today

Funny how some people cannot stand that their favourite product is no more exceptional than everyone else's.

Chromebook has other advantages, crow about them and be different. Spouting nonsense about something everyone does and trying to make it unique to your favourite toy is just silly.

Re: until the sheeple move to LINUX

Right. That's scheduled for about 'round when the Sun enters its red giant phase.

So don't worry, it'll only take a few more billion years.

Germany 'accidentally' snooped on John Kerry and Hillary Clinton

Aliens ?

I've gotta see that movie again.

Tonight.

Twitter displays our 'Favorites'. That is, like, PRIVATE, huff naive users

Well done !

Way to go, Twitter. Your users thought they had a private area on your site ? Nada. You showed 'em, and good.

Keep up the good work. When you have disturbed them enough, maybe - just maybe, one day twatterers will finally understand that all their activity is just to grease someone else's wheels (yours and your customers, of course).