Posts by Pascal Monett

Year 2010 bug wreaks havoc on German payment cards

Groan

Wonderful, just what we needed. Millions of angry Germans trashing their cards and going back to paper money.

This problem is a lot more serious than you might think. Most Germans do not trust electronic cards at all. I know, I live next to the border and I can promise you that once you've driven 30 kilometers into that country you can forget about using credit cards - nobody takes them. It's paper money all the way.

There is a little supermarket not 5 kms from where I live that only started accepting credit cards last year.

Now this.

I wonder how much longer it will take to be able to use my Visa in Freiburg for something else than getting money from an ATM.

Microsoft's muscle-interface patent gets under your skin

Warwick is not a professor

And IIRC he didn't patent anything, he just had a chip slid under his skin.

The chip, it was rumored, could authorize the opening of a door or somesuch.

In other words, it was an RFID tag.

We're a long way from a patent.

Russia plans asteroid-defence space mission to Apophis

I'm still missing something

The first time I heard about using a nuke to deflect an asteroid in space I found the idea ridiculous - and I still do.

Nukes on Earth have a devastating effect because of the air - it is the tremendous force of the explosion acting against the atmosphere that creates the shockwave which blows everything away that has not been incinerated by the initial radiation.

But in space, there is no atmosphere. So there can be no shockwave, and that removes 100% of the mechanical effects of a nuke.

The only thing I can imagine that remains is the radiation. Now I understand the concept of solar wind, and I can comprehend that a nuke may shine a boatload of radiation on the side of an asteroid, but frankly I fail to see how that could change the asteroid's course in a meaningful way.

It would more likely take a dozen nukes, at specific points of the orbit, to induce any serious change of orbit. Especially since a nuke explosion goes in all directions, so even in the very best of cases, 50% of the energy still radiates away from the asteroid, and the further away the nuke is, the less energy the asteroid will get.

To me, it feels a bit like trying to move a car by blowing on it. I just can't imagine it'll work.

White paint on one side seems a lot better. Let the Sun do the work whenever that side is showing.

Lithuania hits off switch on nuclear plant

I agree on the closing

And I agree that a new reactor should have been built first. I hope that at least part of the 800 million package will go toward funding a new one.

Jimbo asks online folk to play nice, be civil

Unbelievable

Not one "bitch" comment yet. I just can't believe it.

NASA eyes asteroid, Moon and Venus

Good idea !

Let's send someone much farther than we have ever been before without being sure we can still get to the moon.

I suppose you're volunteering ?

Kate Winslet sports top celeb bod

"Real women have curves and hips"

I second that. My personal ideal model is of the Laetita Casta kind.

Walking coat hangers are not pleasant to look at, and if you ever touch one, all you feel is the bone. The only reason the fashionistas prefer them is because it takes less material to dress them up.

In other words, the whole fashion world is living in fantasy la-la land and has no actual interest in dressing women.

Which seems quite normal given the number of homosexuals that are rumored to be in that industry.

Stargazers spy super-Earth waterworld

Official request

Could we please reserve the term "Earth-like" to exoplanets that actually resemble Earth ?

A planet that is over 6 times Earth's mass, that circles its sun every day and half and has a surface temp of over 200°C is NOT Earth-like.

Being Earth-like should not be due to the simple virtue of being round and smaller than Jupiter.

I want the term Earth-like to designate planets that actually resemble Earth : something that is Earth-sized to within 25% of Earth's mass, that has an orbit of somewhere around 350 days and a surface temperature average of anywhere from 12°C to 20°C. That is Earth-like.

Nvidia boss: Intel suit to 'transform computer industry'

"lessened the need for CPUs" - bollocks

When I look at the latest Steam Hardware Survey data (http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey), I see three things that fly in the face of these words :

1) Quad-CPU adoption has increased by 13.3% over the last 18 months

2) Multi-core CPUs now account for over three-quarters of the survey base

3) Multi-GPU systems still account for less than 2% of the survey base

The way I read this situation is that GPUs have had next to no impact on multi-core CPU progression. I wonder why ? Could it be because GPU drivers have long been less efficient on SLI configurations than on single-card configs ? Could it be because a host of problems often plague SLI configurations while single-GPU boxes just game on ? Could physics end up having only an incidental effect on gaming ? Finally, could it simply be the prohibitive price of multi-GPU setups ?

As a side note, about physics : has anyone else noticed that the most visible use of the tech is to add a plethora of additional particles to explosions ? Is there anyone else that finds such stupid use of that tech as annoying as I do ?

Mr. Huang, you are already practically guaranteed one sale per PC. Just because you want to have two more sales per PC doesn't mean you deserve it. You say "great graphics have become one of the most important features for consumer PCs", and I totally agree with that. Unfortunately for all of us, great graphics is not just buying a good graphics card. Anyone that has followed the hardware benchmarking trials for a while knows very well that a PC is the sum of its parts. A good GPU is useless on a system with a slow CPU, feeble bus speeds, or little memory. Good graphics require a powerful GPU, a powerful (and nowadays multi-core) CPU, high data transfer rates across the board, lots of fast RAM and hard disks that don't get caught on their coffee break every other minute.

In other words, the Steam survey says exactly the contrary of what you claim : gamers are upgrading their CPUs in order to follow your graphics cards' needs, not to smother them.

To wrap this comment up, I would just like to add one more thing. The action the industry needs, Mr. Huang, is for you to pull out your finger and start doing serious progress in GPU technology instead of renaming last years' cards with a fancy new scheme and reselling your existing stock.

Make something new and wonderful for a change, I can guarantee you it will sell. And Intel won't be able to do anything about it.

Microsoft China accused of pilfering webcode

"Microsoft takes intellectual property seriously"

The only IP that MS respects is its own, and MS will pay any number of lawyers to ensure that you do too. MS just wants to extend that protection to everyone else's IP, whether they like it or not.

IT first to abandon Tiger Woods sponsorship

An abacus ?

They wouldn't know how to use one anyway.

Overstock's Byrne claims $5m scalp over short selling

Salute to Mr. Byrne

You may be a nuthead, but you were still right - and unfortunately we are all now paying the price.

I would like to see all those journos who bashed you incessantly - and especially Mr. Weiss - lose their jobs and be banned from ever putting pen to paper for deceitful conduct and not having any journalistic integrity.

And since it is Christmas soon, I'd also like all politicians to tell the truth and only the truth.

Oh, and could I have some fries with that ?

US judge excoriates Harvard team's P2P defense

Well that settles it

Any thought I had of studying law at Harvard is now in the trash bin.

Brown launches 'Zip it, Block it, Flag it' net code for children

So, step one is shut up then ?

I look forward to seeing how well this new policy gets implemented ! ;-)

Stanford prof pops lid on paint-on battery tech

One-dimensional

One-dimensional is a mathematical construction used for theorizing.

As Mike61 pointed out, there is nothing one-dimensional in the real world. Paper may only be a hundredth of a an inch thick, but one- and two-dimensional mathematical figures have NO thickness whatsoever - thus they can only exist in mathematical constructions.

Of course, something that is only a few nanometers thick is probably the best real-life approximation of one-dimensional we'll ever get, but by the way they pasted the nano-battery material on the paper, I doubt that the material is that thin.

Swedish lactating bloke's dream turns sour

Nature 1 - Idiots 0

Our sex clearly defines our abilities as far as child-rearing functions are concerned. Women bear children and feed them, men spread their DNA and provide for their offspring.

Period.

Any reference to drug-induced man boobs is naught without proper referencing and links to prove it, so I'm sorry Tony72, but your post is not valid, funny though it may be.

Microsoft promises 'open' Bing strategy

The Microsoft Spirit vs Microsoft PR

We all know exactly what the Microsoft Spirit is made of : Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

Nice fluffy words of intention with corresponding PR bunnies in reasonable attire will not change that.

Silverlight is nothing but Microsofts' attempt to borgify yet another area in which they started too late. Any pretense of "openness" is nothing but lip-service to the idea, paid in order to keep the gullible in line.

Intel puts cloud on single megachip

Quick comparison

The Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition has 731 million transistors and 4 cores, which boils down to 183 million transistors per core.

This baby has 1.3 billion transistors and 48 cores, which means a hairs' more than 27 million per core. That kind of count throws us back to AMD K7 territory (1999).

Just a thought.

Vetting database is mighty maths mess

Just one thing wrong

I don't remember the exact figures, but I clearly remember reading that in a majority of cases of child abuse, the child personally knows/is related to the abuser.

I find therefor extremely ironic that vetting the adults that frequently ferry friends' children to school/hobby has been struck down by public outrage. It seems to me to that that is exactly the situation that puts children in danger.

Of course, I totally agree that it is an unacceptable breach of people's lives and entirely impractical from any point of view, but it kind of radically guts the whole reason for the database in the first place. Not that I'd accept having to be vetted just to bring my neighbor's kids to school once a week.

Silly me. The reason doesn't have anything to do with catching criminals and everything to do with putting the whole population under surveillance.

I'll crawl back into my shell now.

He doesn't have evidence

He is assuming. That means he is postulating a theory.

Learn to think about what you read.

France Telecom stuck with €1bn aid bill by Euro court

Not sure this is all important

It is of public record that France Telecom has regularly contributed "voluntarily" to state coffers in the past. The setup used to be as follows :

- FT has monopoly over national comms and sets prices with great freedom

- This generates billions in revenue for FT, which does not lower prices, citing investment provisions

- State exempts FT of taxes more or less

- Whenever the State requires a windfall, it takes it from FT coffers with a smile

So really, FT has always been the fat pig propping up the French treasury. I fail to see why this fine is relevant. It was just how we were doing business at the time.

Making Muvizu: DIY animation is here

Are we sheep ?

Good question. let me graze on that for a while . . .

Microsoft opens Windows 7 to advertisers

Wonderful

So Vista SP3 - sorry, Win 7 - will introduce ad-supported OS releases, without the ad-supported drop in prices.

Got to hand that one to MS - way to improve your bottom line without giving anything to your customers.

Parking spot flies to International Space Station

The REAL measurements

"Poisk arrived at the ISS carrying about 189 jubs of equipment that includes water supply gear, crew hygiene supplies, medical equipment, personal items, and spare parts. The module weighs about 864 jubs and is about 28,3 linguine long (0,43 double-deckers) and 17,4 linguine in diameter at its widest point, according to RegNASA."

Google Chrome web protocol seeks 2x download speeds

Just one question

What are the vulnerabilities of this new protocol thingy that sits between two layers ? How can it be bent to some nefarious will ? Are evil haxxors going to get ideas and add yet another set of problems to our Internets ?

Microsoft admits Mac was Windows 7 muse

And another one hits the fan

Say what you want about MS, it is the only company that can repeatedly make soundbites that will invariably come back years later to bite it in the rear.

Boffins develop virtual reality anti-bullying game

Nonsense

Dealing with being bullied is not something that can be taught. A keyboard game is not going to help you when you have your back against a fence and the threat of a fist looking at you squarely in the eye.

There might be a beneficial group effect in the game, but bullies do not go after groups, they always go after weaker individuals (sometimes in groups, by the way).

I do not think that this game will actually have any lasting positive effect. The only good thing to do is detect the bullies and put them in treatment. Find out why they bully and correct that.

That needs a psychiatrist, not a game.

Wikipedia sued for publishing convicted murderer's name

The victim is still dead

I am quite sorry that Wolfgang Werle and Manfred Lauber are unhappy about being convicted criminals, but I believe that Walter Sedlmayr is even more unhappy about being dead.

Nothing can change being dead, so I fail to see why being a murderer should be ignored.

Newspaper story commenter to lose mask for teasing politico's son

Only because it concerns a political figure

I do not particularly appreciate the tone of the remark, but hey, if you get into an argument, you are setting yourself up for being insulted. And if you can't stand the heat . . .

No, what I really do not appreciate is that this kind of argument is happening every day all over the forums. That is sad enough, but do we hear about it ? Nope, because it does not concern political figures.

Normal people take it and get on with their lives. They don't appreciate it, but they deal with it.

Here we have a political figure that is clearly taking advantage of her status to take it out on somebody who said nasty things to her son. I don't like that.

I will be interested in hearing the result of the court case, though.

MPs prepare to beat off phantom Olympic hooker invasion

Ms Jowell needs a reminder

"that vile trade" says it all.

Of course, I can understand that a woman does not appreciate the concept of prostitution. I don't think I've ever met a woman who does (never having met a prostitute, that is).

Unfortunately, speaking in her official capacity, Ms Jowell should remind herself that her personal opinions are not to be brought up in official speech.

Prostitution, like it or not, is as old as Humanity and is not going away any time soon.

Deal with it.

Iraq launches tourism drive

Iraq for holidays ?

Not in this lifetime it won't be. Iraq will be a tourist destination when the worst a tourist can suffer will be inflated prices from local merchants.

Until then, Iraq is a place when you can be knifed, shot, kidnapped for ransom, blown to bits by various methods, and other such joyful pastimes. I like my tourism without such happenings, and without military escort either.

I also find the people going on these thrill rides to be extremely obnoxious, flaunting their wealth and ignorance in the face of an oppressed population. Doesn't strike me as decent to be a tourist in Iraq now.

Vint Cerf: 'Google doesn't know who you are'

Concerning Google cookies

I'd like to know why my language preference is reset two or three times a month. I live in France, but I like my Internet in English, so I set Google to display in English. And at least twice a month, when I call up a Google page, I have to go to my preferences and reset it because the page is displaying in French.

I don't know what Google is doing to its cookies, but I'm quite sure that it does things more often than every nine months.

Backdoor in top iPhone games stole user data, suit claims

What about Apple's "approval" procedure ?

Not that I know any specifics, but it seems to me that Apple is refusing some apps and approving others. Storm8 is obviously scum, but I wonder if Apple is not going to be tainted by this scandal since only Apple-approved apps are available on the Iphone-store-thingy.

If I've understood the situation correctly, that is.

NY insider trading scandal widens, 14 more charged

@asdf : You are probably right

I suspect that this whole thing is dealt with in a manner that will make people believe that the cleaning has been thorough, whereas it will actually be carefully done so as to not impact any of the much bigger operations that are most certainly in progress right now.

Ah, the Old Mates Club is still controlling things, just like always. And, like always, for the benefit of the few.

Windows 7 sales leave Microsoft coffers unstuffed

Won't be upgrading for a long while

Everything I need to do works under XP just fine.

Win 7 is just Vista with a makeover, and I haven't heard that that makeover included removing the DRM issues. For that reason alone, I will stay with XP as long as I can.

I'm sick of all these things that are being sold with control over what the user can or cannot do. It's MY PC dammit, it should be doing what I want it to, not what someone else lets it do.

Don't panic over the secret copyright treaty

Don't panic . . . until we know what's in it

My only fear is that, by the time we do know, it might be too late.

Could a hard drive dedupe data?

@ M. Burns

Now that is a great idea. I second it.

Linden Lab unveils Sadville: Enterprise Edition

Good grief

For the life of me I cannot imagine any justification to using such an "application" in a business environment.

Unless you're a house constructor or salesman, in which case it could be nice to have virtual models of what you sell for potential customers to check out before going on location to eyeball things in person - saves time and is carbon-friendly.

For the rest, get typing into your spreadsheet or whatever and get us out of the economic rut we're in instead of wasting time fooling around with potentially furry things !

Newfangled cookie attack steals/poisons website creds

Just one question

Is Firefox concerned by this exploit or not ?

'Internet Age' means egalitarian 'hunter-gatherer' society

Science is great

Post an article about a trivial analogy between current society and prehistoric society, ensure that you have a proper caveat inserted to ward off serious criticism, and you pass for a scientist.

State attorney nabbed in car with stripper, Viagra and sex toys

Hang on

I'm quite sure that he was not the one doing the entertaining !

Green Berets get wearable combat smartphones

@Matt Bryan

I totally subscribe to your point of view. Low-tech enemies doesn't mean stupid enemies, though. They'll be quite intelligent enough to grasp the significance and usefullness of a wifi locator, and those things don't cost all that much.

Games developers demand tax breaks

Tax breaks, interesting.

Now that is very interesting indeed.

Either the end customer is going to see an effect in said breaks (meaning lower prices), or the tax breaks are going to line the pockets of the CEO and board buddies, along with maybe some investors.

In the second case, this is just a disguised form of government pork, and the deal is already done even if the ink hasn't yet dried.

In the first case, if the tax breaks that are requested are made to lower the prices of games, well then what do you know ? Maybe what gamers have been clamoring for since the last decade has finally made its snail-paced way to the neuron that controls reason in the labyrinthine maze that is a game company CEO's brain these days.

Of course, I realize that under no condition will the game companies actually lower their own prices. Gotta get that new model Mercedes for next week's wife replacement. No, it is much better to complain about how taxes are punishing them so severely that they cannot compete. Meaning, "if you don't lower our taxes, we'll have to lay off some people in these hard times". I imagine that was said with a sly grin over a glass of fine Chianti in some hundred-pound-a-plate-of-noodles restaurant.

But even so, if this manipulation results in actual lowered game prices, then the consumer organizations should take that ball and drive it right back down the game company CEO's collective throats. See ! Lowered prices sell more games. SO LOWER YOUR FRAKKIN' PRICES ALREADY !

China accuses Google of 'malicious' censorship

"pen new laws and regulations"

Whether it is in China or in any other country that already has an extensive legal library to deal with publishing issues, I simply cannot understand why the fact that a publication is online makes so much difference that entirely new laws need to be written.

I can understand that some laws may need to be amended, and maybe some explanation added to some other laws, but entirely new laws ? That would be like making new rules for road security because of TipTronic gear-changing.

Any time I hear of a law being specifically written to control publication on the Internet, I hear of a law that is redundant, not thought through, unnecessarily restrictive, incompetently worded, much too focussed in its action and most probably misses some major point.

Laws like that get struck down as soon as reason once again prevails.

Fake servers sell better than real servers

@TeeCee

I'm sure the El Reg legal department will welcome with wry smiles (and raised glasses) any attempt at likening the expression "apples to oranges" with any well-known (or not so well-known) maker of reassuringly expensive toys.

I'm equally sure that they'll have all the living shit that is required to smother the ill-advised lawyers who would be daft enough to make such an attempt, and some to spare.

Please do not let the Jobs Touch (c) extend beyond the reach of IT. The Jobsian Reality Distortion Field (c) does not have any effect in the courtroom.

Not yet.

Sonic 'hyperlens' offers hi-res ultrasound scans, naval sonar

Brass ?

All they need is a steam engine to compress the sound and the Age of SteamPunk will have finally come to be !

Japanese algorithm 'can tell if you're about to die'

So they are trying to detect if you're going to die

And what, pray tell, is the use of such a tool ?

If I phone for help, I want it pretty damn sharp whether or not I'm going to die.

Up to now I have only had to phone for help twice - once for my mother, once for my daughter. In both cases, I was counting on the ambulance getting there as fast as humanly possible.

In both cases, the computer would have indicated that I'm not about to die. Would the ambulance have been slowed down by that ?

"Hey guys, you gotta get to this address, but take it easy, the victim's not dying, she's just in terrible pain."

"Gotcha Joe, I'll finish my coffee and be on my way."

No thanks, really. I prefer the method without death detection.

Judge rebukes copyright enforcer in ringtone case

Nice one !

Good on the judge for having strung up those money-grubbing pigs by their own copyright clauses.

Aussie Sex Party in evangelist head-to-head

Sanity exits stage left

This is where being a religious person could be an embarrassment. Witches and satanic sacrifices ? Come on. There may be a bunch of nutters who think they are seriously trying to invoke the spirit of Belial or whatever is rad at the moment in those circles, but if invoking spirits was something that worked the world would be awash with angry protoplasms doing ugly things.

If there really is blood spilled in large quantities somewhere, I would prefer someone contact the police and leave the matter to the professionals. If there has been grievous bodily harm done, the victim is entitled to justice, not some ridiculous "spiritual assault" ceremony.

Volkswagen boffins turn staircase into giant working piano keyboard

Well done, I say

Not only is the idea cool, but I observe that people in the video had a marked tendency to use the stairs instead of the escalator - even the older ones.

So it encourages people to take the stairs, which is healthy exercise.

Now I wonder what kind of racket that thing made during rush hour . . .