Posts by Pascal Monett

Twitter announces it's going public, via Twitter

Re: even Google ?

Alert: Instance at node 684:357 is malfunctioning. Send in reclamation units for deconstruction and rehabilitation.

Tape's NOT dead. WHOMP: This 8.5TB Oracle drive proves it

Re: even office documents have their own compression

Sure. If you use the Office 2010 format.

I know quite a few big companies who have Office 2010. They are not going over all the documents they have ever created to convert them to the newest format.

So today, we still have loads of bulky ASCII files that are uncompressed. It's not because the newest version of something includes automatic compression that all companies set aside everything they do to spend weeks going over their archives and converting it all to the latest and greatest.

Flying in the US? Remember to leave your hand grenades at home

Indeed. I imagine that Israeli security officers read about TSA stuff over their morning coffee, like we read the toons - to have a chuckle and move on with the day.

Re: funny how many people forget that part

Yeah, especially at the NRA.

On second thought, it's not funny at all.

two shoulder fired rockets !!

Wow. Just wow.

Re: Hand grenades are extraordinarily stable devices

Agree totally. I am convinced that there is no chance for a hand grenade to go off unexpectedly under any circumstances that can happen in a place.

If the reverse were true, you'd have no troop transports containing soldiers with hand grenades. Given the number of men that have been transported in full battle equipment over the years, if hand grenades had a tendancy to go off after a sudden jolt, I think we'd know about it.

Re: Skin colour has nothing to do with profiling

Hmm, I'd like to think that that is true, but I'm having serious trouble not doubting it.

ATTACK of the ROBOT BANKERS brings stock market to its knees

Re: not some lump of unsentient silicon

Ah but the illusion is that is is us who are deciding, because that lump is making the decisions "we" programmed into it.

A fallacy, of course, because the lump is just processing virtual ones and zeros that happen to have an impact on our economy. The lump doesn't even know what it is doing.

I have a fantasy that, one day, we do finally invent AI. And, when we tie AI to everything that we do, it stops working. When we ask it why, it just answers "get a life".

Re: The BIGGEST is the material waste this generates

So, between a dead tree and a dead economy, you're for saving the tree ?

Way to go.

Re: hire more intra-country, counter-party traders and eliminate regulation

Hey ! We have a system that is running out of control ! What can we DO ?!!

I know, let's remove all controls !

Great idea ! What could possibly go wrong ?

iPhone 5S: Apple, you're BORING us to DEATH (And you too, Samsung)

Watches ?

There is not a snowball's proverbial that I replace my watch with anything, ever.

I like my watch. It gives me the time, precisely, every day of the year, and it looks nice enough to me.

That's all I ask of it, and it does it to perfection.

I am NOT going to start faffing about with effing buttons and whatnots on my wrist.

Now get off my lawn !

'NSA PRISM spies' shake down victims with bogus child-abuse vids claims

Not exactly what you said, but just a fortnight ago I got a panicked call from an acquaintance about how his PC was locked by the equivalent French authority for illegal filesharing. Indeed, he could no longer access the Internet from that PC.

I know the guy. He doesn't have a chance in Hell to have installed a filesharing tool, he doesn't even know what that is, nor where to get one. Yep, he's just a n00b, and good on him too.

I calmed him down immediately and told him that was most certainly a scam. I asked him for the exact warning message, and in two clicks I got him proof that it was a scam. Then we set about fixing the issue (okay, I set about fixing the issue).

My point is, there are people who will be caught by this. Honest people, who will be honestly afraid and won't have a knowledgeable friend to turn to for help.

Shame on those crooks.

Windows 8.1: Microsoft's reluctant upgrade has a split-screen personality

"it has done so through gritted teeth"

Not gritted teeth.

But I think penny arcade said it best, so just go check them out.

Fingers crossed! Half a trillion quid in public cash entrusted to ageing gov IT

Legacy is what our IT is supposed to be

All these billions spent on IT systems and someone is worried that it is getting old ? What, is there not a janitor in charge of dusting the things off ? Is there not a maintenance contract for replacing the capacitors that blow ?

It's about time that we get out of the PC upgrade treadmill mentality. Code does not age. Make a computer that lasts a thousand years, and your program will happily chug away for the same amount of time.

Our governmental systems SHOULD be legacy. The principle of gathering taxes is quite old, I would think that adding new tax lines is not something that requires a rethink of the whole system. The principle of redistributing taxes is also quite old, but I gather that governments do have a tendancy of doing that rather willy-nilly and without great planification, so I would not be at all surprised that there is not a clearly defined procedure suitable for handing an additional billion or two to some MPs personal buddy.

But that still does not mean that we should tear out all our systems and put in new ones every time the government changes (although the contractors would simply go berserk at the idea no doubt).

Storage rage: Like getting a nice steak and being told to only eat 80% of it

Re: Can we clarify this for the ignoramii like me

I think it all boils down to the fact that it is never a good idea to fill up a hard disk (that you use every day) to 100%.

Try it - but not with data that is important to you. You won't like the result. Even NTFS breaks down when reaching the disk storage limit. It's a consquence of how the disk works. The worst of it is that it doesn't happen all at once. For a while, you'll be fine at 99%. Then, one day, your disk will just be unreadable. Game over. And yes, I've seen this happen to friends of mine. More than once.

So, to keep your data safe and your disk in good working condition, you ensure that your data never goes above 90% of your available disk space.

That obviously scales to disk arrays and massive online storage warehouses, because they all still depend on the same 3.5" HDD that you have at home.

At least, I think that's what this is all about.

Object storage: The blob creeping from niche to mainstream

"the guesswork of capacity planning is eliminated"

Any time I hear someone telling me that planning is no longer necessary, I cringe.

Here, we are being told that we no longer have to worry about a single application taking up 80% of the shared storage space.

I beg to differ. If a single application takes up 80% of my allocated storage, I think I'd pretty damn well better know why and have planned for it beforehand, because if this is a surprise, then it puts in question the whole data structure that I have put in place.

Sure, I understand that all I have to do is subscribe to an additional block of shared storage. That doesn't mean that I shouldn't have planned it beforehand.

Planning is never an option.

IETF floats plan to PRISM-proof the Internet

Re: who is going to spaff up the cash

Who is spaffing it up now ? You. And me. We all are, in our monthly Internet fees.

Because, if I am not mistaken, everyone on the Internet is paying for that connection. So if I were told that I could have a "secure from all spying" connection at €5 more than my actual connection fee, I just might say yes - on the principle of the matter.

And I think there are a lot of people like me.

European Commission plans net neutrality push

Of course it isn't explained

"Just how cheaper calls and an open internet trickle down into a more innovative business sector (startups are anticipated as the engine of growth) isn't explained."

That's because startups don't have a chance of growing any more. If they do get noticed, they are either bought or, if the startup is stubborn, lawsuited out of business with predatory patent accusations.

There will be no startup on the european-wide telco business, I can guarantee that.

Top UK billionaires considerably richer than Chinese ones ... for now

Ah, duct tape. Is there anything it can't do ?

Corel re-animates zombie brand for patent case

Re: "Paying ransom money [..] encourages other firms to try it on

Other firms, like . . . Google ?

Amen to that !

NIST denies it weakened its encryption standard to please the NSA

Re: He seems to have tore the lid off a huge can of worms

More importantly, it is now obvious that he was indeed right to do so.

Re: the NSA was one of several contributors

And that is the whole issue. We have no way of knowing what tools the NSA may have, or just how that might make their contributions a weakness.

Which means that now, someone (or, more likely, several someones) will have to go over the whole thing again with a fine-toothed comb and a spirit of paranoia, in order to vet once again the work that has already been done.

And even when that is done, there is no being sure that nothing was missed, because we don't know what the NSA can do.

This is probably the worst possible fallout of the whole NSA debacle. Trust is gone, and with it, our security and peace of mind.

To make it short : ignorance really is bliss.

Parallels pledges roll-back fix after silent 'trojan' freebie install triggers punter outrage

Re: this is by and large a Windows thing

You're absolutely right, it is a Windows thing.

Meaning it only concerns about 90% of the desktop world.

Nothing to worry about then, I guess.

Apple’s iOS 64-bit iUpgrade: Don't expect a 2x performance leap

Re: written in Java so porting will be trivial

Porting is never trivial.

Cavemen innocent in MAMMOTH MURDER case: DNA evidence

I believe that the term "modern humans" refers to something more in the line of this.

As for using tools, the linked article clearly states that "Homo erectus and Homo ergaster were the first of the hominina 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago. It is believed that these species were the first to use fire and complex tools", so not three million years, just two.

But hey, what's a million years between friends ?

Microsoft's 'We want a Mac look and feel' UK director splits after seven years

"I decided that the best time to do this was at fiscal year end"

Yeah, because employees always make their career decisions in the best interest of their employers.

Excuse me if I hold my nose while going out.

Torvalds suggests poison and sabotage for ARM SoC designers

Re: Suggesting killing them is a bit OTT

Um, actually I think that publicly advocating murder is more along the lines of totally illegal. As in get-arrested-and-risk-jail illegal.

On the books anyway, and IANAL, of course, but if he got a "courtesy" visit from the local Sheriff accompanied by a night in the cooler, he could only have himself to blame.

Not that I mind a good shouty rant from this guy. He has a way of cutting through civilized behavior like a surgeon that I like reading about.

But actually suggesting that people go out and create deadly accident conditions ? Sorry, Torvalds, you've largely overstepped your (considerable) notoriety this time. Stick to calling people names and comparing them to cockroaches or something.

Declassified documents show NSA staff abused tapping, misled courts

No you can't.

Incompetence is only a valid excuse for a government organization or official.

Citizens cannot be incompetent before the law, they can only be guilty.

David Attenborough warns that humans have stopped evolving

Re: Cockroaches doing well

Not near my can of Raid they're not !

We made the iPhones, now we want OUR 'UNPAID' WAGES – student Pegatron toilers

Re: Apple are responsible for the actions of their sub-contractors

No Apple is not. Apple has chosen suppliers to create its goods, those suppliers do not become part of Apple and remain free to do whatever they see fit to perform to the clauses of the contract that has been signed.

If the suppliers and their sub-contractors employ students that they do not pay, bring in scantily-clad ladies for the nightshifts and host regular cock-fighting sessions to boost morale, Apple is not responsible for that.

Apple is, however, responsible for continuing to use said supplier under such conditions. And I'm sorry, but paying students less than regular workers is a time-honored practice in many parts of the world.

It is also somewhat less important in my view than the subject of child labor.

Shop-a-suspect web security system: 'We've helped cops nab 100 suspects'

You might be automatically agreeing to get filmed, but I don't see that you are agreeing to be considered a criminal.

Got the CLOUD FEAR? Connected Data has a black 'n' blue cone to sell you

Re: "Like using Dropbox but without the fees"

What fees ? I've got about 2GB of space and I'm not paying a cent.

NSA is 'great at some sophisticated tasks but oddly bad at the simplest'

"We will continue to build the mobile phones you’ve come to love"

No you won't.

You're going to make Windows Phones now.

Enough said.

Facebook postpones privacy putsch: report

"Just throwing the switch to new privacy settings may not be the same as getting consent"

Those words are certain to be viewed as revolutionary at Facebook.

If not heretic.

New! Yahoo! logo! shows! Marissa! Meyer's! personal! touch!

No! It! Is! Not!

Australia's anti-smut internet filter blueprint lasts LESS THAN A DAY

Yeah, they don't even make politicians like they used to.

To hell in a handbasket and so on and so forth. . .

Microsoft, Nokia and the sound of colliding garbage trucks

I'm sorry, but the PC is dead, from a market point of view.

The PC is dead because people no longer need it to do 90% of what they generally do, which is send messages, surf the web, watch Youtube and dick around on Facebook. You do these things on tablets and smartphones these days, and they are much easier to manage than a PC.

I do agree that PCs are for the heavy lifting, absolutely. CAD, programming, video editing, gaming (for some types of games), these are things are done best on a PC. And typing a letter/report is best done with a keyboard.

But PC-centric things are not home-user activity, and it is the home-user that has driven the PC market up to now. The home user is now using tablets and smartphones that are more and more powerful every year, which makes choosing a PC less and less interesting as time goes by.

What it means is that the PC is going back to what it was : an engineers tool, a specialist tool. The general public is going to forget about them in the next ten years.

The PC is finally dead. That is not FUD, it's evolution.

Re: They were in tablets years before Apple.

Indeed. And how did that get screwed up ?

Because Gates (at the time) was adamant that there was only one Windows, and wanted the tablets to run the full Windows OS. Which, of course, the hardware of the time had no chance of doing.

There were people in Microsoft at the time who thought of making a smaller, more nimble OS that could run the tablets and still be called Windows something-or-another, but His Gateness overruled, with the result that today, tablets have made a comeback and they are called Ipads.

The UI debacle of Windows 8 demonstrates that MS is incapable of learning from its own history. The not-Metro interface is not an issue on a tablet, it is on a desktop. Why impose it on a desktop ? Because MS doesn't learn from its own past.

I think Nokiasoft is going to be a failure. An 800-pound gorilla failure. And the taller they are . . .

Continuous delivery: What works (and what doesn't)

I see what you did there ;)

Have an upvote on me.

Gov IT write-off: Universal Credit system flushes £34m down toilet

"realistic plans and strong discipline"

That is not going to happen when the strongest discipline you can use against someone is move him to another office.

Windows 8.1 to freeze out small business apps

"not have to expose the app to the whole world"

Um, could someone explain to me what that sentence means ?

I mean, isn't it in the best interest of a small ISV to expose its apps to as many people as it possible can ? Isn't that exactly the reason why all these app stores are so important ? And why developers are always incensed when their app is banned for some obscure reason ?

Exposition is key. If I spend six months developing something, I sure as hell hope to be able to sell it to as many people as I can. I really don't see how not exposing my app "to the whole world" is supposed to benefit me.

But in the end, it probably doesn't matter anyway. Microsoft is quite obviously playing the pouting child in the corner. Except that this child is a notorious bully, and nobody is going to come hold its hand.

Boffinry breakthrough OF THE DECADE: Teens 'influenced' by friends

I have a new study

It concerns how American "scientists" have found new excuses to get funding while demonizing smoking and drinking.

Come on guys, snap out of it. I think we're pretty much aware now that smoking can cause lung cancer, throat cancer and some other kinds of unpleasant things. Every time I see a pack of cigs or a pouch of tobacco, it has a big ugly "THIS CAN KILL YOU" sign on it. So could you stop flogging that (very) dead horse now and find something useful to study ?

P.S. : I wonder how long it will take before they digitize Casablanca and edit out all evidence of smoking to produce a "pure" version ? Maybe they'll CGI the white cigs into red licorice or something ?

'WTF! MORONS!' Yahoo! Groups! redesign! traumatises! users!

Re: M Gale

What is that you say ?

People are actually PAYING for Yahoo!'s Shitty! New! Interface! and they're being ignored on top of it ?

Dear me. You'd think that a company making users pay for using its forums would perhaps, in some way, let them participate in any major redesign that would touch a paying customer's usage habits.

Instead of just doing something, foisting it upon them without any beta feedback and then announcing that it could not be undone.

Unless, of course, Yahoo! did a Microsoft and did do a round of beta, but just ignored the feedback anyway. In which case, reap what you sow, Marissa.

Hypersonic 'scramjet' aims for Mach 8 test flight

Re: nervous Russian fingers ?

Russian fingers are never nervous.

They may be stone drunk, cold and calculating, or ragingly nimble, but they are never nervous.

'Peeping while you're sleeping' NSA parody T-shirt ban BACKFIRES

Re: "I can legitimately forbid you to copy this message"

Citation please ?

Because I doubt that you as an individual have any rights over things you post on a public forum online, any more than you have rights over what you say in a bar or shopping mall.

But I'm not a lawyer, so please correct me.

Furious Frenchies tell Apple to bubble off: Bling iPhone isn't 'champagne'

I don't see that this should be a problem for Apple

After all, someone recently famous did, in a similar case, mumble something along the lines of "just change the name, no big deal."

Microsoft - do you really think you can take on Google with Nokia?

Facebook is not insignificant, but only Facebook has managed to monetize Facebook.

So, from a business point of view, Facebook is neither a threat nor a competitor for Microsoft.

I basically agree with practically everything you say.

I would just like to point out that Microsoft is in a much worse situation than Google, because Google doesn't really care what platform you use its products with, whereas Microsoft is currently in the process of cannibalizing its Office product to set its presence in "the cloud".

That's all fine and dandy, but even if MS does manage to cloudify Office, sooner or later it will have to open it up to other platforms, meaning it will have enormous market pressure to make its Office 365 available to Android platforms.

That day MS Windows is dead as a dodo. Not because its Windows, but because people don't use PCs all that much at home anymore. Home computing is with tablets and smartphones because they are simple to use. PCs are the tech specialists tool, the platform for heavy computing (programming, CAD, video editing etc).

I'm not saying PCs will disappear, nor am I saying Microsoft will, just that until today, people only had PCs to surf the web, go on YouTube and write their emails/tweets/sms. Now they have many more choices, most of which are a lot easier to come to grips with. So, IMHO, MS is inevitably going to lose this war against Google, whatever happens.

You must be croaking! Boffins reveal sound-gobbling frog's secret

No outer ears, eh ?

So they never get earaches then, the lucky buggers.

Nature's ingenuity is truly a marvelous thing.