Posts by Ole Juul

Oz dad-and-son team rattle tin for homemade reusable spaceplane

Oh, you think I'm kidding...?

Well the guy with the fuel-less engine says he is "knowledgeable about any topics mainly in technology" so I'm sure he's well qualified. The fellow with the time machine also seems to have the right stuff - he wears glasses and he's German. I notice he's also got the basics of the design already worked out as shown by the drawing he has there. ;)

The crowd sourced time machine has merits because of the humour. However, I'm afraid that the other guy is actually serious.

FCC to crack down on robocall spammers' beloved loophole

Re: But some people just don't care!

Indeed, making laws is an armchair exercise in this case.

I deal with it here by having the caller push 9 to connect. Perhaps if everybody did that robots would adapt to figuring out these "captchas", but for now I get zero marketing calls.

Geofencing: The ultra-low power frontier for the Internet of Things

Re: Lawn mowers

Or manipulate them all to attack you neighbour in the night. Murder by IoT!

Robocalling Americans? That'll cost you $1.7m

Re: Theoretically - yes

Kudos to @ Voland's right hand for mentioning contemporary phone tech.

PS: For those who want to stop getting phone spam, use some kind of telemarketer stop such as a voice prompt asking to push a (random) number to connect. I haven't had any phone spam since I did that. If your phone company doesn't offer those kinds of services for free, change company.

Hackers pop submarine cable operator Pacnet, probe internal networks

Re: METADATA...

"Yup, we definitely need a <sarcasm> tag, but just on the off chance you meant it, the obligatory link to a remark made by someone in public about meta data. Note that there was no indication he didn't mean what he said, and he's in a position to know."

I didn't have time to watch the whole thing so didn't catch the quote to which you refer. However I came across a quote by former NSA director Michael Hayden who in May of 2014 said, “we kill people based on metadata.”

PS: I don't think we need a <sarcasm> tag, but then I find it easy to recognize.

Driverless cars deal death to Detroit, says Barclays

Less freedom in return for lower costs

The costs sound excellent. Not having to pay huge insurance premiums in order to have the ability to drive over people's lawns, down the sidewalk, or aim at someone in a phone booth is probably fine with most people who will likely take the savings in return for relinquishing those freedoms.

I say Zuck off, YOU say Zuck off, we ALL say Zuck off

Re: How bad do you have to get...

. . . but FB can just FuckOff.

Obviously it's already gotten too bad for you and I. The problem is all those Facebook users who don't have any concept of bad.

We caught Chinese technology spies RED-HANDED, claims US government

Re: Economic espionage imposes great costs on American businesses

I'm not American so obviously not concerned about American businesses. I would actually prefer if they just turn over their technology to the Chinese without so much resistance. Most of what I buy is from China anyway, so American businesses hanging on to things and kicking up a fuss just slows down progress.

PS: I just thought I'd try on a non-US point of view as an experiment to see how that would look. :)

Swedish government wins legal case to seize Pirate Bay domains

"The authorities seem to have got something wrong."

You can say that again.

Are we looking at the first domain name meme? Neigh

Re: Not an UZI

To me it looks like an automotive timing light. After all, timing is everything.

High-level, state-sponsored Naikon hackers exposed

over and over and over

The group relies on standard cyber-spy tactics: custom malware and spear phishing featuring emails carrying attachments designed to be of interest to the potential victim.

How is it possible for a foreigner, or even a local with good language skills, to craft an e-mail that would look like an appropriate thing to click on? Are government employees not told about this kind of threat? Surely if they're even hire-able in the first place they can tell departmental business from garbage.

Google fastens buy buttons to paid mobile search results – report

bye to buy

Am I the only one who's on-line life doesn't revolve around buying things? My Google searches are usually for information and not at all aimed at any purchase. I'm hoping that these buy buttons will help define a filter to rid me of commercial offerings when doing searches.

Messerschmitts, Sinclairs and a '50s living room: The Bubblecar Museum

Side by side

I'm not really a quad fan, but I can't help but notice the proliferation of side by's of all different configurations buzzing around here. They're certainly not intended as "economy cars" but you can put plates on them and they'll be street legal. Many do. They're not all two seaters either. There's 4 and 6 passenger versions as well. Some open, some closed. So, in a funny kind of way, we're seeing a resurgence of the bike turned car.

Microsoft: Free Windows 10 for THIEVES and PIRATES? They can GET STUFFED

Re: Still parsing the explanation.

I'm not sure what is worse: Marketing Speak, Lawyer Speak, or VP Speak as far as mudding the item under discussion...

I know Windows is a perfectly good operating system (at least for some) but my lack of fluency in all of the above languages puts it way out of my league.

The Internet of Things: a jumbled mess or a jumbled mess?

Hawkers and trolls

Sales is at least a part of all business, and IT is a part of some. I think that the attempt to make IT part of all is unintelligent at best and parasitic at worst. IoT hawkers are taking up space that could be used for more beneficial conversation. I say, don't feed the trolls.

In case somebody doesn't see where I'm coming from, I'm suggesting that the ultimate aim of IoT hawkers is to create as much toxic landfill as possible and for them to profit from that process. The general population won't get much out of this and will just be left to clean up the mess.

Home routers co-opted into self-sustaining DDoS botnet

Class action?

I don't know about Thailand and Brazil, but it seems to me that in North America it would be possible to sue the manufactures for putting the purchaser, indeed the public, at risk. All we need is someone to lead the charge with a class action suit. The problem is well reported and the manufacturers know about it. I realize that this is not a matter of life and death, but I see a lot of similarity with the recalls to which automobile manufacturers are subject.

Door keys are an option. It's just a matter of time

This will end badly

Unless they figure out how to get this internet of things working without electricity it's going to be a disaster eventually. Perhaps I'm the only one who foresees a future of increased power outages and battery shortages? Who knows what things will look like, but depending on continually increased complexity for our "things" is not sustainable. And I don't suppose anybody is working on a wind-up web server for light bulbs - I thought not. The physics of planetary survival is a looming threat.

SHOCK! Robot cars do CRASH. Because other cars have human drivers

Re: Chaotic California roads ?

I do think that California is what these cars are designed for, and particularly a nice orderly city environment with no rock slides. Around here we have lots of rocks, parts of the road sagging to create curb high disruptions, and lots of deer that like to cross the road just as you get up them. I honestly don't think that one of these cars will go the speed limit (50mph) on the highway here, especially in the single lane sections.

I also wonder how these cars are at passing. Getting behind some tourist who is scared *hitless and driving in the middle of the road at 30mph can get pretty tedious after 10 miles, and I do think that it takes a real person to figure out how to deal with that in a safe manner. I realize this is an uncommon driving environment around here, but people come from here to the city and vice versa and they're not going to change cars half way.

Mildly successful flying car crashes - in mildly successful test flight

an unexpected situation

I hate it when that happens.

El Reg knocks a fiver off 16GB USB stick

Re: A pound to a pinch of ...

And a pound to a US dollar is 1.55. That makes these about twice the regular price. (Around 6 bucks over this side.) I'd cherish the nice red Reg logo though.

Small WordPress sites leaking like sieves

Re: Get patching. ®

Well at least I know that I don't know. So it's not like I'm completely ignorant. The only problem is that I wish I knew what I need to know now that they've told me I need to know something which I don't.

Smart grid security WORSE than we thought

Just the beginning

This is talking about attacks from the "bad guys". In this day and age where the "good guys" are equally suspect we can expect to see a whole new world of surveillance from our utility companies collaborating with government organizations of dubious intent.

Get ready: 'Critical' Adobe Reader patches coming on Tuesday 12 May

Speaking of announcements, does anybody know the difference between "pre-announced plans" as the article states, and the good old fashioned "announced plans"?

Hordes spaff cash on Chip titchyputer to rival Pi (maybe)

Re: The "Pocket Chip" is the interresting part

"a portable Linux computer with a kinda decent keyboard and screen running Debian is something the world actually needs badly"

That's the part that caught my attention too. Colour me stupid for not being able to shape cheap android tablets to my needs and wants - but Keyboard + Debian + Screen and I'm in.

Canada passes controversial spook-powers law

@ GrumpyOldBloke

The old, the prejudiced and the dementia ridden are the fuel which burns for fascism and with the demographics in most Western nations

You forgot one. Harper is a creationist and has a strong following in that camp.

Re: The ruling regime is toast

"We live in interesting times."

1940?

Tesla's battery put in the shade by current and cheaper kit

Re: Back of an envelope calculations

@ Bronek Kozicki "I do not know how charge cycles are limited in lead batteries though, perhaps someone will enlighten me."

I'm no expert but have been doing a lot of reading lately. It seems that lead acid is the same as your lithium batteries. A 50% discharge will give double the life of an 80% discharge and less discharge even longer life span. Apparently a 50% discharge rate will give the best lifespan vs cost. They say that cycle life varies from 500 to over 1000, but that's for premium batteries. I found a page with a good overview. One takeaway for me was this statement:

An important fact is that ALL of the batteries commonly used in deep cycle applications are Lead-Acid.

Re: Back of an envelope calculations

"The voltage afterwards was still 12.5v which is roughly 50%."

My chart shows that 12.5v is 90% and 50% is 12.06v.

Incumbents

Existing sellers are probably going to get a boost from this. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if Tesla sells more of other companies batteries than their own with this campaign.

Boffins turns landfill WinPhones into microscopes

IT vs microscopy

Nice to see that there are at least a few people here who have a clue. But I hope nobody from the biological sciences comes by and reads some of the other comments. Truly embarrassing.

Re: Utter garbage...

It can't be because someone has found a use for WinPhones, I hope :)

That does appear to be the case.

Can we get this story moved to Bootnotes please?

Windows 10 bombshell: Microsoft to KILL OFF Patch Tuesday

Re: Wow

Are we supposed to be impressed?

Well, I'm impressed . . . . . but my view of MS wasn't very high to begin with. :)

House of Cards UI central to Mozilla's plans for Firefox on tellies

"quick global navigation"

Once you learn to read their language.

Zuck'ed up: Facebook opens up free internet in India – but bans HTTPS

Re: Worst of both worlds

"Umm, the 90's were more than 15 years ago..."

Yes, but a couple of them were long years.

Plod wants your PC? Brick it with a USB stick BEFORE they probe it

Reaction time

Further they should be prepared to dig themselves a potentially bigger hole if they refuse police requests to hand over passwords.

I agree with Andy above (who posted while I was writing this) that it would indeed be better to destroy the contents of the drive. However, in the case of Ulbricht didn't they take a photo before he had time to react?

Tesla Powerwall: Not much cheaper and also a bit wimpier than existing batteries

Re: Not adding up

Secondly lifespan. The cells I looked at all seem to be rated at about 500 cycles, to get 10 years or more use out of them you need to be quite conservative over your use and underrate the capacity (use at least 6 or 7 of them). Thirdly weight. They were over 25kg each, by the time you get 6 strapped together that's going to need some fairly hefty brackets to hold them on the wall.

I think you're right about lifespan. The high quality lead/acid batteries for this kind of thing are much more expensive - presumably for a reason. That said, I've heard people say they get many years out of these when used for trolling motors or running utilities in their motor home. In my case it's going to be a floater so I'm expecting a very long lifetime. This is of course a different use than daily discharge.

Regarding your other comments. I don't seen any need to cover batteries up since I'd be proud to show them off. A closed box is not needed. And putting them on the wall is an odd place to my way of thinking. Regular metal shelving will take that kind of weight, it's no more than storing engine blocks or transmissions.

Anyway, I'm just curious about what the real advantages of these Powerwalls are. Personal preference is certainly legit, but I'm not getting the rest of it. I note too that it is apparently not currently feasible to recycle lithium-ion batteries. Where these batteries may shine is in longevity though. We'll see.

Re: Not adding up

I'd check your math there. Five lead acid batteries giving 7kWh would work out at 116Ah @12V. A regular car battery is something like 40-50Ah

I have no doubt that I could have gotten something wrong, but the lead acid battery which I purchased is rated at 115Ah @12V. This is typical of deep cycle batteries in that price range. A car battery is just a thin plate affair designed to give high cranking amps - not the same thing at all (and definitely not recommended).

Not adding up

I get that small is beautiful, but from what they advertize it is not small and the price is very high.

I just purchased a deep cycle battery flooded/lead/acid to run my computer during power outages. It's just a little bigger than a normal car battery and it would take 5 of these at a cost of $700 to equal the 7KW Powerwall.

My battery is 7" x 13" x 9" (times 5 is 4095 cubic inches) and the Powerwall is 51.2" x 33.9" x 7.1" which is 12323 cubic inches. Where's the small in that?

Mozilla to whack HTTP sites with feature-ban stick

Surely the're something missing in this report

It just can't be that all those little sites by charities and just regular folk need to use https. I'm pretty sure that the Mozilla folks are more net savvy than that.

Facebook bug gobbles pics in posts, web publishers scream

folks who rely on Facebook to propagate their content

I think that's a great idea.

(disclaimer: I don't use Facebook)

Who thinks Microsoft Edge sucks? Erm, Microsoft

Big company

Little confidence.

Confidential information exposed over 300 times in ICANN security snafu

ICANN setting an example

Unfortunately it's not a good one.

Comments considered harmful: WordPress web hijack bug revealed

Re: Ah Comments.

I noted that admin is vulnerable too, but I'm patched on all sites. However, a 64KB comment is half a book so I'm not sure I'd be tempted to click on it anyway.

Ruskie hackers nab unclassified Obama emails

Agenda

White House and State Department sources say the Russia hackers likely had ties if not direct support from Moscow

I'm not saying they're wrong in this case, but those are probably two of the least reliable sources.

Fandroids, take your phone's antivirus and burn it – Android bod

Re: "if it makes you feel better then by all means do it."

One group got a phone, the other group were given a sugar pill.

(xkcd)

Microsoft: Profit DECIMATED because you people aren't buying PCs

Re: Yeah...

Yup, copying Apple is their plan alright.

Oh good. I hope they move out of the desktop market and concentrate really hard on watches.

Cash register maker used same password – 166816 – non-stop since 1990

Re: Please explain

Thanks. I really wasn't firing on all cylinders there. :)

Please explain

I'm not clear on what one would do with that vulnerability and the article isn't giving me a lot of ideas. In many cases I see POS used much like a cash register. If you have physical access to the drawer, you can take money out - password or not. One could perhaps fiddle the stock numbers and take stuff home. If staff with access to the cash registers can't be trusted, then there is indeed a problem, but not one that can be solved with better passwords.

Fukushima nuke plant owner told to upgrade from Windows XP

Here's hoping

that they'll upgrade to something cheaper.

Junk in your trunk is Amazon Germany's new delivery plan

R&D

I too can imagine some interesting situations. However, of course lots of things can go wrong with any method of delivery. As we all know, even Post Office and courier deliveries go wrong all the time. In fact they can cause some serious problems on occasion. In this case I give kudos to Amazon for making the effort to ferret out economically (and thus environmentally) efficient ways to deliver goods.