Posts by Charles 9

Holy crappuccino. There's a latte trouble brewing... Bio-boffins reckon 60%+ of coffee species may be doomed

Re: Temperature?

Nah, that was proven well before that...with truck stops. There's a long-standing nugget of wisdom that truckers make poor judges of coffee simply because they'll just take anything strong enough to get them through their day.

Re: Temperature?

What do they do with the concentrated brine so that they don't ruin nearby ecologies (terrestrial or aquatic)? Plus does it scale well (Israel IS a pretty SMALL country).

Re: Umm... nope.

But isn't coffee also rather altitude-sensitive, as in most species only tend to grow on mountains?

DDoS sueball, felonious fonts, leaky Android file manager, blundering building security, etc etc

Re: Don't touch ES File Explorer with a barge pole

Saw that, too. I think the last straw was some lockscreen spam, though.

Man drives 6,000 miles to prove Uncle Sam's cellphone coverage maps are wrong – and, boy, did he manage it

But as they say, everyone's got secrets. If they can find just one, they can turn it into "an offer you can't refuse" and avoid blackmail charges by going through channels not subject to the arm of Australian law.

But how do you verify the verifiers, eh?

Re: Impossibilities

You keep saying that phrase: "impossible to prove a negative." Yet we already have reductio ad absurdum demonstrations like Turing's Halting Problem disprove that say otherwise.

So what's to stop the carriers "influencing" the ombudsman?

Re: I really like this idea

And if the FCC just ignores everyone and goes neener-neener? It's not like Vermont is in any position to go it alone.

Fake 'U's! Phishing creeps use homebrew fonts as message ciphers to evade filters

Re: People stil falling for the fake email.

But you MUST. Otherwise, you can't have safer systems, period, because the user is behind 9 out of 10 safety failures (and those include failsafe failures--think "click fatigue"). And like Douglas Adams once said, you can't make things foolproof; a better fool will always come along: often one over your head.

Re: People stil falling for the fake email.

Probably negative reinforcement. One time they DIDN'T click something and got in big trouble.

"Oh, and the letters aren't RANDOM, they will be exactly the same for exactly the same word. Article writer might want to look up what random means."

Not necessarily. Think repeated glyphs.

Exactly, meaning you need to use upside-down text if you're corresponding with an Australian from the Northern Hemisphere where the monitors are upside-down relative to theirs.

Re: BOFH solution

Plus, what if the offender is over the BOFH's head? I don't think even the BOFH would be willing to cross an executive who can reply, "Who hired this bastard?"

Re: Defence in depth

What if they hide the URL with a legitimate-looking redirector?

Re: a few misspelled words here and there are one thing

"I'm willing to not see any email with any spelling errors."

So you're not willing to accept any e-mail from an English speaker across the ocean because you use "ou" and they use "o" (or vice versa), which trips most spell checkers? Sounds like a business killer to me.

Re: html in email...

"This forces authors to put the actual URL in plain sight, which makes all sorts of scams more obvious."

No, it'll force people to start making legitimate-looking-but-fraudulent URL shorteners.

Re: From bitter experience I must disagree

So call them by telephone and inform them the location in question has a fire hazard. If that doesn't get a prompt reply, go to the municipal council and complain of dereliction of duty. You'll either get a response or media attention as the news picks up on the story.

Detailed: How Russian government's Fancy Bear UEFI rootkit sneaks onto Windows PCs

Re: Once again this proves

I'm talking about the baseline: the drivers to support the motherboard itself, which isn't guaranteed in the OS (I've had to dump laptops whose chipset support got dropped). Add-on hardware of course has to be done separately, and there's still the issue of new standards which BIOS can't support due to architectural limitations. EFI of some form is rapidly becoming a necessity to deal with new hardware.

Re: Which idiot designed UEFI?

Everyone's for a physical switch until they're the ones who have to go to the middle of nowhere to throw that same physical switch for the machine that's buried under all sorts of crap that can't run while you're in it. IOW, everything's all fine and dandy until real life intrudes.

Re: I long for simpler days...

Why would they listen? Why would they want "mere mortals" to get into their Trade Secret Sauce?

If you really want control, make your own chips, THEN convince everyone to build for those chips.

Re: Once again this proves

You should read a little more. Architecture-independent drivers was a stated goal of EFI. Why would it be terrible to not be held hostage by the OS? Plus recall, without an advanced system like EFI, native support for large (>4TB) drives wouldn't be possible without bodges. Same for the M.2 spec being encouraged for SSD's.

The internet is going to hell and its creators want your help fixing it

Re: Saving democracy

EXACTLY! You don't hear them in the city (not even in a park), but out in the boonies...

Re: Saving democracy

Have you actually BEEN to the boonies? It's amazing how much you can see at night when the only light source is a clear full moon and how much you hear when it's just the trees and the animals. I speak from firsthand experience.

Re: Pub talk

And some would consider that a blessing. If you could only talk about stuff you actually know (instead of think you know), we might not waste so much electricity.

Peak Apple: This time it's SERIOUS, Tim

Re: Expensive tech I just don't need

Then what happens when (not if) it becomes the bare essential just to participate in society? Do you just cry out, "Stop the world! I wanna get off!"?

Re: Recession ???

Point is, there's only so many things on a people's wish list. Most are either fulfilled or constrained by physics (I mean, a full-size full-travel keyboard still able to fit in your back pocket without folding like crazy?)

Re: RE: BigSLitleP

Well, when the guerillas control the only well, what else can you do?

Re: Apple FAIL

Well, that and everyone who's got the bling has the bling. Even the fabled Atari 2600 hit market saturation eventually.

I wonder if it's that or one of the grim realities of capitalism: that there's no business like repeat business, meaning if you "do the right thing," you shoot yourself in the foot physically because everyone just sticks to their one-and-dones and don't have to come back to you. At least Apple could still draw revenue from its online markets which have increasing subscription (read: repeat) elements.

'Nobody's got to use the internet,' argues idiot congressman in row over ISP privacy rules

Re: MY tax dollars at work.

"But the Courier Service is dependent upon the Internet at various levels in order to function, so, the system breaks at that level."

Oh? How did they operate BEFORE the Internet? And why can't they just go back to it?

"Also, portions of the phone system are VOIP so that section of the phone system disappears, which likely includes the link between the Congresscritters D.C. office and his home district office[s]."

Again, what's stopping taking a step BACK if necessary? It's like with cars. You have two legs. WALK.

Re: Senior Moment

Actually, you want South Dakota. It's the geographic center of the lower 48. Aim a little further north (North Dakota) if you want to get Canada involved, too.

Computing boffins strip the fun out of satirical headlines

Re: Private-Eye hacks worried?

Not to mention history can play a role in the source of jokes. For example, only someone familiar with the heyday of Caribbean piracy in the 17th century would get the sarcastic remark, "Good luck, Blackbeard!" And what about the history of the word "Spam"? Would it make sense outside Western culture and other places where the canned pork product is commonplace?

The D in SystemD stands for Dammmit... Security holes found in much-adored Linux toolkit

Re: I use FreeBSD, and for good reason.

Welcome to the REAL world, where people expect to be able to turn the keys of a keyboard, who think the computer's power button is on the monitor, and more than likely cut your paychecks.

Re: How many people predicted...

Bad news: EVERYTHING's bound to eventually fail. If it isn't monolithic cracks, its gestfaults when process chains go awry or things fall over to mystery whitespace. All you can do is pick your poison.

Re: I use FreeBSD, and for good reason.

You mean SHOULD. Otherwise, you're discriminating against newcomers who nonetheless need to be able to Do Stuff.

Unless you're willing to just tell them, "This Is Not For You." AND tell them where to go (without shooting yourselves in the foot as they make a mess that affects YOU, too), it's your mess. CLEAN IT UP.

Americans are just fine with facial recognition technology – as long as they get shorter queues

Re: I wonder if many Americans read?

For many, they're too worried about today to worry about tomorrow. After all, you'll never reach the latter if you don't survive the former first.

Re: I think the real problem is...

In other words, "Nothing to hide, Nothing to fear," AND they figured Big Brother was already watching them, so that angle's covered, too.

Re: Something Ben Franklin Said

But the next question becomes, "What if the sacrifice of freedom is the ONLY way to attain ANY security?" Take Franklin's supposed quote into consideration, and you end up with NEITHER freedom NOR security actually being possible, especially over the long term, simply as part of the human condition.

'Moore's Revenge' is upon us and will make the world weird

Re: How long chips remain cheap remains to be seen

Explain since fewer meatbags tend to mean fewer germs and other potential contaminants that Murphy dictates WILL get out of the clean suits eventually. And you can passivate many types of machienry to make it less reactive to the environment.

Low-power chips are secret sauce behind long-life wearables

Re: The elusive mass market

Ever thought this is what it's all about: the search for that "killer feature" that makes more people start caring about fitness, creating that market that they can just snap up and corner? I admit, it sounds like a Hard Problem when even doctors can't seem to get people to care, but there's always that little nugget: if you want someone to care about something, make it fun.

Don't confuse Atrial Fibrillation (quivering of the top of the heart, which is problematic but manageable, ask someone with Sick Sinus Syndrome) with Ventricular Fibrillation (quivering of the bottom of the heart, which is a Code Blue life-threatening emergency).

Who cracked El Chapo's encrypted chats and brought down the Mexican drug kingpin? Er, his IT manager

Sometimes, working FOR organized crime involves working IN organized crime (meaning to work for them, you have to commit a crime). The lawn mower isn't committing a crime in and of itself, but then you have enforcers (assault & battery), hitmen (murder), and in this case a facilitator (aiding & abetting for starters).

Re: Collateral damage

Not necessarily. Cheating hearts and two-timers, anyone? The thing about personal relationships is that there can be more than one at a time, as happened here.

Plus, as noted, this doubling exploited an intractable weakness of security. Namely, doing it right is HARD, and you're caught in a bind, as you usually can't trust yourself, nor can you rely on anyone else.

Google Play Store spews malware onto 9 million 'Droids

Re: wait a sec

And if they fight back the fighting back with better fake detection? What next? A fake vouch that can pass the Turing Test?

Linux reaches the big five (point) oh

Re: If only...

If only context thrashing wasn't so costly in performance, or do we recall what happened in the old Windows NT with its userland video drivers?

Counting in binary. Each digit represents one of ten bits, so say the right pinky is 1 if raised, the right ring is 2, the right middle is 4. Different digits up add up to different numbers, up to 1023 (all ten digits raised, with the left pinky being 512).

Oddly enough, when a Tesla accelerates at a barrier, someone dies: Autopilot report lands

Re: Car's behaviour makes sense

"One of the easiest and cheapest ways to dramatically slow urban traffic is to remove the centreline and turn off traffic lights - but at the same time you'll find that the traffic moves more smoothly and is less likely to snarl up in peak periods."

Have they tested that in countries where the rules are rarely followed anyway, like southeast Asia?

Re: Not an "autopilot"

"Even a radio isn't necessary."

Ever considered that monotony is a key element of highway hypnosis?

Your mates vape. Your boss quit smoking. You promised to quit in 2019. But how will Big Tobacco give it up?

"(*)Menthol is the odd holdout, on the basis that children dislike menthol."

No, I think it's because too many smokers (especially blacks, IIRC) prefer their cigs with menthol (Newport is the biggest-selling menthol cig in the US, followed by Marlboro Menthol). If they wanted to keep children away form menthol, they'd ban cough drops (menthol is an anesthetic and commonly found in cough drops--including those "natural" Ricola drops).