Posts by Boyd Crow

Google says it's rolling out fix for stricken Chromecasts

Certificate expirations are HIGHLY predictable

They come with an expiration date "printed on the carton". What surprises me is that it caught them by surprise. They should have known it was going to happen and been prepared.

Techie fired for inventing an acronym – and accidentally applying it to the boss

Using personal names as a generic anything is bad policy. Take the example of "Karen" which has been used as a shorthand for the "overly entitled" and caused much unnecessary grief for people with that very popular name. Use some common sense.

It's also bad policy denigrating users with problems. It's your job to take care of users who need help. Do your job. I did IT for 20 years without having to make fun of anyone.

Data loss prevention emergency tactic: keep your finger on the power button for the foreseeable future

Re: Pencil to the rescue

I would have used Gorilla Tape. Cellophane tape does not have a lot of hold strength. :)

Could have lost data through replication of deleetion

I was upgrading an SQL server after hours and accidentally performed a destructive copy operation on the root folder of the database. I did not realize it until hours later. I woke at midnight with that one File Explorer operation in my mind. I immediately drove 20 miles to the work site and shut down the server, so that the delete operation would not be copied to the replication server. In the morning, I was able to restore from the replication server but it could have been nasty. Of course, we make weekly backups but something would have been lost and it would have taken months to notice all the gaps.

Doomed Cassiopeia star was sloshed just before deadly supernova blast

Re: I'm going to repost as this is both relevant here and interesting in its own right

So close to a star that it would be the least of your worries.

Overly heady headline

I'm still trying to decipher:

"spots your grandparents' hip-joints of the future being made"

I thinks it is supposed to sound cool or rad or dope or sick or whatever but it doesn't make any sense. If you are talking about calcium, it's the same calcium in my hip bones. I don't know how grandparents or joints, for that matter, enter into it. Sometimes you guys try too hard.

Furthermore, nothing was "snapped milliseconds before supernovae blast". A MATHEMATICAL MODEL was deduced from the images which show only the AFTERMATH of the explosion.

Ohh! The PRECIOUS! Give it to uss. We WANTS it: Shiny iThings coming in 2014

Has anyone calculated the amount of free advertising given to Apple by "news coverage" of "something wonderful to come"? It seems to be the "go to" story on any slow news day. Any real tech news out there?

Plastic ingredient FOUND ON MOON of Saturn

Drinking glasses found in Gobi desert

The silica in sand is the major component in glass, therefore where there's sand there must be drinking glasses. Same logic as your inane headline. I really don't understand the media's efforts to trivialize scientific discoveries with misleading headlines.

What did the Romans ever do for us? Packet switching...

Could you explain the comment about Morse code not being efficient if used for Polish?

US Congress proposal: National Park will be FOUND ON MOON

I think they need to talk to the U.N. before they make plans for the gift shop and the t-shirts: "My country went to the Moon and all I got was this lousy t-shirt."

Windows 8.1 Start button SPOTTED in the wild

Just to generate print in the media?

So, Microsoft has leaked a photo showing a "start button" that neither looks nor acts likes a Start button and media GOES WILD!

Nobody at a desktop wants ANY animated, Crayolur-inspired tiles, animated or otherwise, distracting them from their actual work. Give me a nice, clean primarily-text-based interface and I will show you someone who is getting things done, rather than watching things do.

British bookworms deem Amazon 'evil'

Fundamental dichotomy

There are people who like books and there are people who like reading. The book-lovers are a subset of readers. Book-lovers prefer the "Gutenberg format", which has been readable for centuries and can be expected to outlast any of the current proprietary formats. If all you want to do is read eminently forgettable magazine articles and popular novels, get a little machine and carry it around. If you want a book, which speaks to you of memories, even when its covers are closed, track down a bookseller, buy bookcases and welcome to the long history of literature that preceded the Internet.

Boffins create quantum gas with temperature BELOW absolute zero

But it is COLD

Absolute zero is COLD, it's just that this quantum "trick" doesn't actually make it colder in terms of kinetic energy. Absolute temperature is a measure of both kinetic energy and entropy. Magnetically locking the atoms into a tighter lattice reduces the entropy further, even though the kinetic energy cannot be further reduced. So, if we could just get the science writers to use "absolute temperature" when talking about this story, all the confusion would be magically reduced to a lower level of comprehensive entropy.

John McAfee: Let me go to the USA - or old Blighty

Standard Operating Procedure

If someone dies next door, the police will want to question you. McAfee should be able to find a lawyer he can trust who will accompany him during the questioning. No judge is going to indulge his paranoia without proof. My guess is he will eventually be committed to a mental institution as a danger to himself and others.

iPhone senses you typing on table, bit of wood etc, turns vibes to text

Re: I'm calling bullshit on this

Gee, works in the lab. Someone will buy it. I think it might work if you glued your paper keyboard to a board and carried that with you.

I carry a small Apple Wireless Keyboard in my briefcase. It works a treat with iPhone. No messing about.

'Bundle' signals from SPACE seize control of small car in Germany

Re: Wtf?

The rover is autonomous to the extent that it is sent a set of suggestions, which can be overridden by the rover, if they conflict with hazard avoidance, power drain or other safety routines.

NASA needs new name for interplanetary network

Clearly, this should be dubbed the "OuterNet"

Microsoft spruces up crap apps in early Win8 update

I'll wait.

These apps will probably be even more improved by "Windows 9". I'll wait.

Job-hunting honeybees rely on 'meth' to find work

"Manchurian candidate"

"meth" ha-ha. Not science but, hey, any drug reference in a storm.

I bet the intelligence agencies are digging up their old "Manchurian Candidate" files to see if epigenetic DNA could be used to program human behavior.

New nuclear fuel source would power human race until 5000AD

Stanford study contests "harmlessness" of Fukishima

A Stanford study has found that, contrary to the findings of a U.N. study group, more than 1000 people can expect to die prematurely due to exposure to radiation from Fukishima. Since some of the workers at the plant did not even HAVE dosimeters, the threats to their health cannot be determined. Let's not celebrate just yet.

Bio-boffins create world's first digital STD

Now for the apps

Cool. Will this become the next Tamagotchi pet?

Study: Users prefer Google+ over Facebook

I left Facebook - couldn't be happier

The lack of advertising makes Google Plus superior in so many ways. Facebook's plans to penetrate into mobile with advertising is just silly. The screens are too small and, if you interrupt content for ads, - bye-bye. Google Plus does have a number of annoying, screen wasting "features" like "What's Hot" which are useless and cannot be turned off. However, it also doesn't have tons of apps pestering your friends and pretending to be you. Yep, I lost some "friends" but, you know, it was time.

VW STUNS WORLD+DOG WITH REAL HOVER-CAR!

Good catch

Looks like that shot was video'd from a standard Toyota or Nissan vehicle.

Cute but bogus

The primary giveaway is braking, although the same applies to forward motion. You can't brake effectively with maglev because forces fall off too rapidly when not normal to the repelled surface. Friction or reaction thrusters have to be used. Gimbaled gyroscopes could be used for rotation. There also appears to be some blurring underneath the vehicle for which there is no plausible explanation.

Google adds Do Not Track button to Chrome

Where is this lovely button?

I have the Google Chrome Browser running on Windows XP. I don't see the "Do Not Track button". I've been through all the Chrome settings. Is there an actual button or is this some kind of oblique reference to the "Keep My Opt-Outs" extension which has been around for a long time?

Google Wallet falls open after casual hack

Digital money

Many years ago I participated in a focus group concerning a form of "digital money" that a major transit system wanted to employ, not only for fares but for use in shops. It was to be a refillable "gift card type" system. It would not even have a PIN and your balance would be shown on a public display whenever you made a purchase. I'm glad to say I was able to add my disapproval and squash this idea. Who needs to be mugged for money-on-a-card usable by anyone?

For the same reason, I would be very careful about flashing my Android phone for payments at Starbucks or elsewhere until this bug is fixed along with LOTS of publicity to get that information down to the mugger level.

Russians drill into buried 20 million-year-old Antarctic lake

Tech details missing

I am mystified why no one has questioned the lack of important technical details about this effort. For instance, just how big is this bore hole? It took them twenty years (OK, a few years of waiting for international approval) and now they are talking about exploring with a submersible. I sincerely doubt the hole is that big. It could take decades to drill a bigger hole, if anyone really thinks a submersible could be operated reliably while exposed to such extremely high pressures of oxygen.

In many ways, this almost sounds like a "let's just say we did it and go home for the winter" story.

'App Economy' has created 466,000 US jobs

Another bogus buzzword

This is another bogus buzzword like "ultrabook" (lower case). Software is software. The jobs may have moved to mobile but it is still programming with nothing particular new or "magic" about it.

The whole concept of basing job estimates on want ads is very suspect. 1) the same job will be listed multiple places by hiring agencies and corporate subdivisions using different names 2) the same position may be advertised with more than one job description 3) there may be "exploratory" listings to see who or what price range is available and 4) there is a disreputable practice of holding "hiring interviews" to pick the brains of people who will not be hired. 5) they may simply be old ads that hiring agencies leave posted to give the impression of having many positions available.

Facial recognition tech proves Randi AND Mark are the same Zuck

I understand it is humor...

With all the dancing around, I can't tell if this guy is actually saying that Facebook facial-recognition mis-identified the sister or not?

Jeff Bezos patents retro jets, and airbags, for telephones

What about recharging after deployment?

Can you imagine how expensive it will be to take this back to the dealer to be repacked/recharged? If auto airbags are any indication, it will be more than the phone's true worth (not retail price).

It's official: Journos are dumb as a bag of IE users

Is THIS story a hoax?

I mean, I've already been taken in once. Seriously, am I to believe a story about a hoax might not be itself a hoax? OK, now I've got a recursive headache AND an overwhelming desire to use Internet Explorer. This is not good. Thanks a lot, Register.

Wooden spaceship descends into Moscow sandpit

"Mocknik" moment

It's a sad day when the American fake space program has fallen so far behind the Russian fake space program. If people think we had the technology to fake multiple Moon landings, why couldn't we be the ones televising a fake Mars landing? Using American know-how, we could even do it as a "reality show". Start off with a 150 "astronauts and vote on who to push out the airlock each week. I call upon Obama to authorize whatever it takes for America to fake a Mars landing by 2014.

Google eyes search result preview window

MORE distractions?

Let me get this straight. Instead of clicking on the "hit" and reading the tiny type as it was originally formatted, we're going to see a SCREENSHOT with even tinier type? Test if you like, just give me an OFF switch.

Car wrecks rise after texting bans imposed

Maybe the problem is growing very rapidly

It seems likely to me that the problem of texting while driving has actually increased during the interval since the laws were passed. States with a bigger initial perceived problem were more likely to pass laws. Inferring that the laws somehow exacerbate the problem is criminal. This is an epidemic; make no mistake about it.

Google tests 'streaming' search engine

Why make the search page busier than it is now?

It's distracting enough watching the "suggestions" constantly change. I really don't want to be forced to watch the whole page dance around while I'm typing.

I know what I am looking for when I start typing. This proposed feature should have an OFF option. Implementation of this proposed feature without an opt-out would result in a bigger outcry than the whole mismanaged "Buzz" introduction.

Google sued for 'stealing' Android name

GPhone GMobile - GSpot

Yes for GPhone. Then anywhere you could get a signal would be a GSpot.

Pardon me while I go trademark GSpot.