Posts by Nigel 11

Happy new year, VW: Uncle Sam sues over engine cheatware

this will actually be a criminal suit for violating of a federal statute.

... against a body corporate. If its done the usual way, VW USA is a separate corporation from VW Global HQ/ VW holdings/ whatever, and could be allowed to go bankrupt provided VW Global is willing to "never" do any business in the USA in future. The US could try to come after VW globally, but that would have to be via civil lawsuits under German law or the law of other non-US countries where VW owns local businesses.

Oh, and certain current and former VW executives would be extremely ill-advised to set foot in the USA, or even outside the EU, for the next decade or so.

How large a fraction of VW's entire global operations is VW USA?

Re: It all depends on the outcome

Well, I sure hope that the EU has someone looking long and hard at Ford and GM engines, because I doubt that the authorities in the USA are looking very hard. They need to buy a few in the USA and ship them over here, since the USA requirements differ and so USA software may be different to the EU software

If it turns out that they've managed to create engines that do achieve compliance without cheating, then frankly I have no sympathy for VW (and will probably then put VAG on my personal don't buy list and let Ford off it ).

If it turns out that they've all been cheating, the EU has to insist on fully equal treatment of all the companies involved. Don't let them get away with "American cheating is less bad than European cheating"!

SpaceX makes rocket science look easy: Falcon 9 passes tests

Re: Second-hand Rockets

I'd prefer to use an aeroplane that had had at least one successful flight before I got on it than a brand new one out of the factory

Need a bit of experience on re-launches to tell how it works for rockets. On the one hand the engines will have been mission tested and won't contain any fatal manufacturing flaws the second time around. On the other hand they'll have been stressed by use and recovery which may have caused some damage that escape the re-use inspection and revalidation procedures. Some of the wear and tear will be cumulative.

Seems a shame to put this one in a museum. Isn't there more to be gained by re-launching it a good few times as soon as possible, knowing that it is exploring unknown territory and will probably blow up at some point? A static firing next so it can be more closely observed is sensible, but can't cover all the stresses of a real re-launch. So after a successful static firing, another overhaul and launch again would be the most informative step.

Re: How many times?

Weren't there some major issues with the Shuttle's fuel pumps, which meant that the cost of rebuilding the engines for the next launch approached the cost of just scrapping them after one use? Or did they manage to fix that?

Got a Nexus? Google has five critical Android security fixes for you

Re: Limits of exposure

Of course, you're not using your phone for financial transactions, are you?

Or for conducting an extramarital affair? Or for internet dating before you tell your soon-to-be-ex? Or for looking at naughty videos that your employer would not approve of? Because there are criminals called blackmailers and some of them will be tech-savvy.

Alert after Intel Skylake chips, mobo sockets 'warp under coolers'

Re: Oh, look. Another mainboard.

DDR4 is the main reason you might want to upgrade. The CPUs aren't significantly faster but DDR4 increases memory bandwidth and consequentially reduces idle cycles waiting for memory accesses.

IMO most folks upgrade PCs for the same reason they upgrade cars: a desire to boast. (My car is twelve years old and my work PC is six years old. Both are completely adequate for my needs, which in the case of the PC does not include "running" Windoze-anything and in the case of the car does not include carrying two tons of assorted extra junk around).

Re: why would you have a massive 50lb heatsink

if you drop your box you would be expecting everything to be broke

I've seen it happen three times, moving PCs between offices. Every time a corner of the case hit the floor and the case got bent out of right-angle alignment so afterwards it wobbled on the desk and it was a pain to get its covers off or back on. Every time the system still worked perfectly (including the hard disks, which I find rather more surprising than the CPU/Motherboard).

So no, I would not be expecting a metal-case system with a stock Intel cooler to be broken if it gets dropped while powered down. I'd be cautiously optimistic about it.

Of course, if you buy those nasty systems with a mostly-plastic case, the case will probably be in several smashed pieces and there's not a lot of point testing the electronics after that.

Re: A feature

Commercial computers tend to be like base model cars; yes they have a top speed of 100mph, do not try this for long distances unless you enjoy engine swapping.

Not these days. If they get too hot they'll throttle back (reduce clock speed) to avoid damaging the CPU by overheating. So more like a car that'll do 100mph sprints but will refuse to go that fast for hours on end on a hot day, however hard you press the pedal.

(Some hybrid cars are exactly like this. Can't/won't maintain top speed up a long incline, to protect the electric motor or battery.)

Sued for using HTTPS: Big brands told to cough up in crypto patent fight

Re: Personal Liability

Beyond the 1 year the litigants have to prove the infringement and pay all costs.

The key point is that the litigants should pay all reasonable costs of the defense, so that they cannot legally bully a smaller or weaker company. I'd suggest that they be required to file all legal bills with the court as they are received, with payment of an equal amount into court for use by the defense, released to the defense on presentation of its bills. Any failure to do so, any delaying tactics, would be reason for the court to place the case on hold or even to dismiss it. Also give the court powers to allow the litigants to be ordered to pay for any onerous obligations which its actions place on the defendants.

Should the litigation succeed all these moneys paid to the defense would be added to the damages awarded. Should the litigation fail the defense won't be out of pocket (so long as it hasn't employed outrageously expensive lawyers compared to the litigants). Note: this might leave the litigants out of pocket if they bankrupt the defendants. That's OK. If they're genuine businesses rather than patent trolls, the cost of bankrupting their infringing competitors will be worth it. However, trolling will be all but eliminated, as trolls realize that they need a very strong case, and that if they have one it makes sense to press it against the financially strongest opponent not the weakest.

What the world needs now is Pi, sweet $5 Raspberry Pi Zero

Re: It now costs more to plug your computer in than it does to own it.

But you've got the PSU already. It's what you charge your mobile phone with. So it's free, unless you absolutely have to run your computer and charge your phone at the same time.

Unless ... Admit it. It's an iPhone, isn't it?

Re: No network?

There must be a USB-based RJ45 adaptor somewhere?

Yes but it'll cost more than the Pi!

I was imagining fifteen of the beasties wired up to a 16-port switch chip as the cheapest parallel computing learning platform one could imagine. You probably wouldn't need any of the RJ45 sockets, pulse transformers etc if everything was close enough.

No network?

I thought (wired) Ethernet was a part of the SOC, in which case it's there (?), but if so is it accessible to someone who knows how to wield a soldering iron? I can understand that the RJ45 socket and pulse transformer are significantly expensive at this level (plus bulky).

Microsoft Windows: The Next 30 Years

Not the best example to choose. Turkey is rapidly sliding back into a religious dictatorship. Many in the population are now persecuted for daring to differ from the president's view of how to live their personal lives.

Seems a near-perfect analogy to me. Microsoft, having offered users a plurality of versions of windows and the option to migrate at their own pace, is now intent on forcing everyone into the Windows 10 orthodoxy and is persecuting (discontinuing support for) anything else. It's much the same story with the appification of Office.

Second Dell backdoor root cert found

They also need to kill Dell.

That's what you said. A bit impractical, though quite justifiable in the circumstances....

OK, I managed to parse it correctly the second time around. "They also need to kill Dell.Foundation.Agent.Plugins.eDell.dll to stop persistence."

Cyber-terror: How real is the threat? Squirrels are more of a danger

Re: Cyber attacks are demonstrated.

So are suicide squirrel attacks.

One of them managed to trigger a cascade failure that took out most of the USA east coast power grid for several hours.

If a squirrel can manage that, just imagine what a platoon of suitably indoctrinated IS recruits might accomplish by immolating themselves on our power lines.

Superfish 2.0 worsens: Dell's dodgy security certificate is an unkillable zombie

Re: seems way overblown

... before being thrown out of the airlock anyway?

Re: That is so last century

The land of the free?

Not the USA any more, for sure. Switzerland? Iceland?

Researchers say they've cracked the secret of the Sony Pictures hack

Re: Welcome back the WORM drive

Use Tape?

I haven't seen an LTO<n> cassette for some years, but if they're basically the same as the old ones, there's a physical write-protect tab on the cassette.

Second stupidest thing ever was doing away with the write-protect switch on disks and disk controllers. Remind me, just how much does a two-pin jumper cost? Stupidest, was doing away with the write-protect switch on firmware and BIOSes.

Nano-NAS market dives into the cloud

Re: Cloud isn't the culprit!

2 meg a sec upstream where I live to get anything; 10 meg a sec downstream where I live to get anything

Count yourself lucky. In my village, that's 0.4 up and 4 down on a good day (a bad day is when it's raining hard and the presumably rat-gnawed wires get submerged).

CloudFlare CEO blasts Anonymous claims of ISIS terrorist support

Better still to infect IS sites with some sort of subtle, er, meta-malware, which in turn infects the computers which visit the IS sites in ways that will be helpful to law enforcement and intelligence operations. Especially if Anonymous can do it only because they are operating outside the law. (Although I'd hope that our intelligence agencies have been given license to go "deep grey" when it comes to dealing with these barbarians).

No more turning over a USB thing, then turning it over again to plug it in: Reversible socket ready for lift off

Re: Proof that there is a god

Due to a macroscopic quantum effect even more astonishing that superconducting ceramics, USB plugs, like single electrons, are Fermionic in nature. You have to rotate them not 360 degrees but 720 degrees, to get them back into the state you started from . Failure rate 3 in four sound about right?

Hubble finds lonely 'void galaxy' floating in cosmic nothingness

Could Hubble see ...?

Could Hubble see if there's a single Sol-like star on which this galaxy has lost its gravitational grip, headed out into the void all on its own?

(I'm thinking of Iain M Banks's "Against a Dark Background" )

Lithium-air: A battery breakthrough explained

Re: yawn

just as ALL the previous "breakthroughs" have amounted to....[sod all].

Apart from every successful battery technology now in production, you mean.

First, there's a breakthrough in electrochemistry. Then there's a huge load of R&D aiming at commercializing it. Then either (a) they've tried everything they can think of, and give up, or (b) a new battery technology arrives. Like NiMH. Or the sort of NiMH that holds its charge for over a year. Or Lithium batteries. Or rechargeable lithium batteries - we're now on the Nth generation, not sure what is N.

Pharmaceuticals have an even higher failure rate.

Re: Boom AND Bust

Nothing could possibly go wrong there, could it?

I'm sure they said the same thing about letting members of the general public muck around with gallons of gasoline.

And have you every seen what happens if you short out a lead-acid battery with a spanner?

Lots more R&D needed but not a can't-be-done attitude.

Re: Oxygen makes things burn brightly

Apollo 1 had a high pressure pure oxygen atmosphere - not quite comparable...

True, but merely oxygen-enriched atmospheres are serious fire hazards. ISTR that above 29% O2, burning wood becomes difficult (impossible?) to extinguish with water.

OTOH venting O2 from battery charging to the open air would be harmless, and it can't be hard to build an O2 sensor which would let the car monitor the atmosphere around it while it is charging, and shut down the charging if some eejit has forgotten to connect the vent pipe to the car in his garage.

Gasoline isn't totally safe, either.

Dad who shot 'snooping vid drone' out of the sky is cleared of charges

There's a difference (gravity!) between upwards range and horizontal range. I don't think clay pigeons are ever 50 yards vertical. I don't shoot but watching, they seem to be aiming upwards at something like 30 degrees.

Oh. no I wouldn't because we're generally not allowed access to firearms in the u.k.

Not so very hard to get a shotgun license, though I'd much rather you didn't. Using it to down a drone might result in losing that license ... legally uncharted territory, so far.

Anyone thinking defence drone? A cheap "toy" drone towing a piece of nylon netting ought to be very capable of bringing down an intruder.

Or a fire-hose?

Re: Bullit County

All in all congratulations to the judge. For once USA law is not an ass.

A drone is a piece of equipment, not a person. The only issue at stake in its destruction is property rights. It's far less of a moral issue than shooting at a person, even at a person clearly threatening violence. The maximum penalty should be the replacement cost of the drone paid to its owner, plus administrative costs to the law. (And in my book the drone owner ought to be on the hook for those administrative costs if his complaint is not upheld).

It's right that the law considers whether discharging a shotgun (upwards) in a built-up area presented any significant threat to the population at large. I'm no expert but I think not. Shotgun pellets won't be dangerous when they fall back to earth (unlike much heavier bullets, especially ones discharged only slightly upwards from the horizontal). So, no public safety issue.

So what needs to be decided is the relative rights of a landowner over whose territory a drone is hovering, and rights of the owner of that drone. I think they've got this right. A drone hovering at low altitude over my land is invading my privacy, and there's no practical way to remove it that's nondestructive. So blasting it ought to be allowed. (Incidentally what's the upwards range of a shotgun? )

At a later date maybe there will need to be a statutory definition of hovering versus flying across, and an altitude below which a non-hovering drone is not allowed to cross private property without consent. But even after that's in place and someone blasts a "legal" drone, I'll go back to my original point. It's a piece of equipment. Maximum penalty = reasonable replacement cost. Damage to its owner's ego - tough!

US Senate approves CISA cyber-spy-law, axes privacy safeguards

Re: Goodbye Cloud

The end result maybe mass fragmentation of online services as it may become impossible to offer an online service across national boundaries. This would clearly be totally fucking ridiculous.

Why, and why?

It may become impossible to store personal data submitted in one country, on computer systems in another. Except for very small countries like Monaco, why is this a problem? At worst it would result in the creation of a quantity of one-nation cloud providers "cloud.uk" "cloud.de" etc. to replace Amazon, Microsoft etc. If this is the result, it will be a consequence of the US government's overrreach, in making it impossible for any US corporation to operate an EU subsidiary (f.ex Microsoft Ireland) under EU (Irish) law. Bullet, meet foot.

This won't mean that you can't operate a business across international boundaries. Just that if you want to store your customers personal data for longer than is necessary to satisfy their request, or if you wish to acquire more data than is strictly necessary to satisfy their request, you will need to make sure it's stored in their country, not in some jurisdiction which allows for the leaking -- or theft -- of their data without their consent and without the sanction of their own nation's laws. If you don't have the scale to justify multiple datacentres of your own, there will be national clouds for you to use.

Do any readers have enough knowledge of Switzerland to tell us how it works there? Switzerland seems to be the developed economy country that values data privacy and security most highly.

Bosch, you suck! Dyson says VW pal cheated in vacuum cleaner tests

How do you all make your vacuum cleaners break down?

I'm amazed at the number of people whose vacuum cleaners break down.

Mine was made in nineteen-eighty-something by AEG. Still going strong. It's survived being dropped down stairs on at least one occasion.

Who says it's hard to make an electric motor that will run for 3000 hours?

Temperature of Hell drops a few degrees – Microsoft emits SSH-for-Windows source code

Re: POSIX

Please note *nix != Posix. If you are running a filesystem that doesn't support Posix ACLS then that filesystem is not Posix compliant. Depending on how you define "system", it may mean that your "system" is also not compliant.

You're also inaccurate about NFS V3. Although posix ACLs are not part of the NFS V3 specification, they can be supported by additional RPCs (which have been a standard part of Red Hat flavours of Linux for many years).

http://wiki.linux-nfs.org/wiki/index.php/ACLs (which also suggests that even some NFS V2 implementations have ACLs; can't vouch for that, never used NFS V2)

As for ACLs on config settings, that's rather necessary if you're supposed to store all your config settings for unpteen different applications into one and only one entity called "The Registry". In the Linux world it would be called a folder heirarchy or a filesystem, with ACLs ... again, argue that the Windows way is better if you wish, but that's not the same as claiming that it can't be done at all under Posix.

Re: POSIX

(which is a Hell of a lot more powerful and manageable than the default UNIX -rwx/rwx/rwx approach)

Get a clue.

Posix means Posix ACLs which give fine-grained access control not unlike Windows ACLs. You can argue that Windows ACLs are better if you wish, but displaying your ignorance of Posix is not a good start.

GCHQ to pore over blueprints of Chinese built Brit nuke plants

Re: GCHQ

Basically the entire plant will be a bug.

Spying on what, precisely? The routine operation of a power plant, every last detail of which is already known to the folks who built it?

I'd be a smidgeon more concerned that it might be possible to command it from outside. However, surely it will be possible to operate the plant even if its internet connection is taken down? (Ideally, there should be an air-gap between a nuke plant's control systems and the internet at all times, not just when the risk of attack is believed to be high).

And surely they still use simple analog fail-safe systems, since any digital system is prone to glitching? If any key safety parameter goes too far beyond normal safe operating levels a relay de-energises and a cascade of such failsafe switching-off cuts power to the electromagnets from which the control rods are suspended, leading to a reactor shut-down rather than melt-down. (If this is not the case, the design needs to be amended pronto! )

Dry those eyes, ad blockers are unlikely to kill the internet

Re: Sadverts

Actually, VW and other car manufacturers' advertising is truthful. They explicitly warn you that the fuel usage figures you obtain on the road will differ from the published ones from lab tests. And I doubt whether any car manufacturer has ever specified anything about emissions in any documentation aimed at an end user.

What VW did was utterly stupid, because it was bound to be discovered, and it's trashed their once-valuable reputation. Other makes of car are now being tested in detail. We'll soon know whether they've all been cheating, or not. I expect not.

Most of the people who see car adverts aren't in the market for a car right now, but if they might ever buy a car ever in the future, then that ad isn't a waste.

Straying slightly off topic, this is why VW's defeat device was such an incredibly stupid idea. "It takes years to build a reputation, and seconds to destroy one". VW can't even start to try to rebuild its reputation until its legal woes finally drop out of the newspapers. Does VW have that long?

Which is why I actually believe its top brass. It must have been a rogue techie doing for engineering, what rogue traders have done for banking on several occasions.

And I still haven't forgiven Sony.

Re: Yeah

It's so stupid I doubt it's a human action. I suspect that Amazon is yet another organisation that can't invent artificial intelligence and has convinced itself that artificial stupidity is an adequate substitute.

Re: There is software that blocks ads???!!!

If only there were some way to reach out and tell people that a product like this exists...

Try advertizing. (The old-fashioned way, in a newspaper or magazine, where all ads are "good" ads due to the natural limitations of the medium).

Is this irony? Not sure.

Re: Surely ...

Maybe take Google's annual sales and divide by the population of the West? Ho hum ... hit quote.yahoo.com ...

Google market cap $448 Bn, price/sales ratio 6.37, so sales about $70 Bn. Population of the Western world must be about a billion. So $70 p.a.? Doesn't feel expensive. A dozen pints or four domain names or three months' broadband connection.

What do we reckon for a Bing subscription?!

Re: New TV

Freeview. Thanks for the warning about the Samsung native EPG (assuming it's not just your one model). One particular Samsung is top of the list at present, along with Panasonic and LG. Yes, was intending to try out the remotes in a shop before taking mum shopping (if she wants to go shopping at all). Userguides might tell me enough, though.

Re: Surely ...

The Ad blocking would really hurt folk like Google

Really? How do you find a product when you want to buy one? I'm pretty sure that if scattergun intrusive malware-vectoring browser-crashing web-advertizing dies out, it will benefit Google, not hurt them.

Re: Umm

I think that's semantics. If provision of information about a product is not advertising, what is it?

Case in point. My mum's ancient TV has expired. I'll be buying a new one for her and installing it next week-end. I spent last night searching for information on the sort of TVs that my mum wants, and now have a list of three likely-looking models.

Tonight I'll be downloading the userguides. (Mum is ninety-plus and is confused by digital TV, let alone anything "smart".) If the spec sheet was crap you've already lost the sale. If the userguide is crap, you will do.

No need to disable my ad-blocker. I got the impression Google had worked out what I was looking for and was returning helpfully biassed search results, but maybe I'm crediting it with too much AI and I'm just good at Googling.

You know when you spill your drink but keep on dancing anyway? That's totally Intel right now

Re: Being strong is not enough

And where are sales of tablets going?

Everyone who needs a PC has a PC. Need is mostly business desktops and people doing serious work at home.

Everyone who needs a tablet has a tablet. Fewer people than the hypesters once imagined. Mostly home users. A tablet is a data-consumption device not a data-creation device.

The biggest growth market has been the smartphone, but soon everyone who needs one will have one, and it's only Apple who can get away with charging twice as much for a phone designed to last half as long. (OK I exaggerate).

In short, we're in transition from a first-purchase and obsolescence-driven market, to a mature, replacement-driven market. Which is why the big news will be in servers and nonvolatile RAM.

Re: Being strong is not enough

Intel has extremely good process technology. Also if you need to run any legacy software on a server, then an ARM server isn't going to be the answer.

I expect Intel will be king of the server room for a lot more than two years. Also, that should the ARM architecture start making serious inroads, then it'll be Intel fabbing the best of them.

Meanwhile, Intel is one of the major players in the developing nonvolatile-RAM space.

Tough trading, maybe, but it doesn't look anything like a failing company to me.

Internet Architecture Board defends users' rights to mod Wi-Fi kit

Of course bad guys obey the law ....

The FCC is suffering from the usual legislators' blindness. There's a problem with bad people doing something they shouldn't, because it's not illegal. Make it illegal, and they'll stop. NOT!

GET A CLUE!

All you'll do is stop everyone else from being able to move the world forwards by playful experimentation and small business formation. Which hands the bad guys a perpetual monopoly on whatever illegality you created, because the technology will cease to evolve. Eventually, it's your state that will collapse under the weight of its own mal-regulation and competition from less-regulated jurisdictions.

The history of China is a superb example. They almost had a global empire and an industrial revolution. In the 15th century. Then the Emperor felt insecure, burned all the ocean-going ships and banned their construction, banned just about everything less than two centuries old.

It took the West about 400 years to catch up and then overtake the now stagnant China.

NASA preps test of broadband-from-spaaaaace project

Pedantry?

I thought we already had satellite broadband deployed and working. It's expensive but if you live in the middle of nowhere, it's probably the only option. The latency (to geosynchronous orbit and back) is a right royal pain.

So this is actually a test of of linking low-earth-orbit satellites into a grid or mesh using free-space lasers. If they can't link them up, LEO is fairly useless because your satellite broadband would keep dropping out every time a satellite went out of view. (Not sure why linking them up using microwaves, same as ground-to-satellite links, is ruled out).

Want to self-certify for Safe Harbor? Never mind EU, yes we can

Re: Cloud CRM providers

"You can't absolve someone of legal liability."

IANAL but I think you can in civil law. Specifically, if (a) the law is untested or unclear and (b) the punishment is a fine of limited size.

I've just bought a house. My lawyer insisted on indemnity insurance concerning the loft conversion, because no record of the planning permission could be found. So in the unlikely event that the council (a) notices, (b) cares, (c) proves that planning permission was actually necessary and (d) declines to provide it retrospectively, there's an insurance company on the hook. (The building consents issued by the same council were fine, but apparently a council can issue building consents and then insist that you knock a house down because it didn't have planning permission. Boggle! )

Re: Who cares?

whose law do they think they'll have a better chance of changing? The EU's or the Americans?

Old philosophy question: what happens when an irresistable force meets an immovable object? In the domain of mutually incompatible laws, we may be about to find out.

Forget the EU - how are US companies going to operate China / India / Brazil, once the implications of this little USA-EU kerfuffle get noticed?

Google .supplies .cheap web .properties with 90 top-level .domains to .world via .partners

It makes very little difference where a domain is purchased from or where its top-level domain servers are located. All DNS does, is resolve a name into an IP address and vice versa. OK, you do have to trust that if you tell Google to resolve wan.gle to 123.45.6.78, it actually does that, rather than resolve to some other address running an imitation service or "wrapping" yours. But there's no mechanism to hide any incorrect resolving, so that's unlikely. There's far more mileage in subverted Cisco (and other) switches.

Once the name is resolved to an IP address, the server with that address can be anywhere on the internet: the US, the EU, Russia, Tuvalu, Antarctica .... and the NSA will probably know how to get into it wherever it might be!

Terror in the Chernobyl dead zone: Life - of a wild kind - burgeons

Re: Hmmm

Agent Smith, I'd like to introduce you to a Lemming.

On the other hand ....

Re: Hmmm

Bacteria and viruses ... Usually such lethal forms are self-limiting

But not always. Most recently, the 1918 Flu. And we got incredibly lucky with SARS. It's infectivity was just slightly too low to grow exponentially, once we realized the danger and changed our behaviour. Just slightly more infectious, and face-masks and gloves would have made no difference.