* Posts by Rich 3

26 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

SourceForge staggers to feet after lengthy STORAGE FAIL outage

Rich 3

Re: Malware

- mailing lists

- forums

Google Groups

download of packages/binaries

Github

Maven/GEM/Aptitude/Google Play/Macports/etc/etc

Web hosting

Everyone and their dog. But you don't really need it, unless you are promoting a big project to make money, in which case you can probably find $100 a year for a paid hosting account. Really.

Why Android houses should give Google the 'fork you'

Rich 3

Most handset manufacturers don't have a clue about UI design (or have lost it - Nokia did a really good and intuitive UI on the very first GSM phones way back when). Having them inflict their ill thought out cruft on users gives the platform a bad name.

Also, a key selling point of Android is its integration with the Google ecosystem. Having all my contacts and appointments synced into Google by default is the killer app for me. I don't want to have integration with some ill-thought-out Samsung platform that then all gets lost when I buy an HTC phone.

Samsung SH100 14Mp Wi-Fi compact camera

Rich 3

Why not just make a camera run Android?

It can't be hard, and then one would be able to have aftermarket software and goodies, twitter and the like.

The first DSLR to run Android would force me to open my wallet, I suspect.

T-Mobile JavaScript comment stripper breaks websites

Rich 3

Most mobile telcos have multiple APNs

So you can have an 'optimising' APN if you want these sort of shenanigans, or a vanilla APN normally. They also squash image files and the like.

Most 3G smartphone and tether users are well advised to take the latter option. This sort of thing has been happening for at least 10 years, BTW.

Apple vanishes MySQL from Mac OS X Lion Server

Rich 3

Whyever would you want one?

You can get a server in the cloud for a fraction of the cost of buying and maintaining a physical box.

If you do have a vital need for a server on a short leash bandwidth and latency wise, you can get an Intel box for a few hundred bucks and put Ubuntu on it. (Mine has 4G, mirrored 1T disks, an admittedly trailing edge AMD64 dualcore, but cost in the $500 range - the case, motherboard and processor came for free).

I guess the only people who use these are design shops where there are only Apple skills, and they want something impressive to show people. (I've never seen an Apple server, but assume it's something like a titanium cube suspended in a tank of Fluorinert, glowing with Cherenkov radiation from the plutonium backup battery).

Sydney newspaper hacks Wi-Fi networks!

Rich 3
FAIL

One would imagine..

That they would just be looking for unsecured network (for the less technical, you can see these in the network browser without trying to connect) rather than trying a selection of passwords.

AFAIK it is impossible to actually configure a WSP or even WEP router with an empty password. You instead configure it as an open network if you want anyone to have access, as in a cafe or free hotspot.

Top level domain explosion could wreak MAYHEM on NET

Rich 3

Down to the browser & OS, surely?

The browser and OS makers need to distinguish between a local host and a TLD and put in appropriate checks.

Trusting an endpoint just because it doesn't have a domain is a bit risky anyway. If someone connects to a random access point, it can easily have a DNS that resolves mailhost or whatever.

I'd also think that spending over $100k on a TLD would create a paper trail back to any perps - it's a bit like trying to buy a house undetectably.

New anti-corruption offences come into force today

Rich 3
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Special exception

So does BaE Systems have a special exception?

MS advises drastic measures to fight hellish Trojan

Rich 3
Pint

Just reinstall

I'd advise exposing your machine to chlorine trifluoride for at least 5 hours. Only way to ensure true sterility.

Google field tests (yet another) Facebook rival

Rich 3

What's the point of a social network for a "small number of people"

Surely the whole point is that you need a critical mass? Why would I want to post something that goes to four or five acquaitances, when I can get 75% of my friends on FB?

I reckon that Google are doomed to fail in this unless they leverage all their search/gmail user base into social network users. And they can't do that without getting nailed for privacy invasion.

Ten... festival survival gadgets

Rich 3
Happy

Walky-talkies won't work

With only 20 or so bands, the PMR frequencies get full at any big festival.

There is a trick to it though. Get a foreign PMR/CB (US or Aussie for Brits) that uses different frequencies. This is of course illegal. As are many things you might do at festivals.

US Supremes dump violent video game ban

Rich 3
Stop

A safety note

I'd just like to point out that should a police officer or other party be well ablaze with the aid of a gasoline type accelerant, urination will have negligible effect in extinguishing the flames and may indeed spread the fire, hazarding the urinator and any bystanders.

This type of information should be made clear with a prominent warning, I feel.

Four National Broadband Network myths

Rich 3

So is this monopoly assurance?

If Telstra kept or sold their copper network, they or a purchaser could sell cheap connectivity to all the customers who don't care about getting FTTH speeds. That'd threaten the viability of fibre, so this is a play to ensure that doesn't happen and users get a choice of fibre or nothing?

Google bypasses admin controls with latest Chrome IE

Rich 3

A better way

Would be for corporate IT admins to concentrate on delivering central services through a web interface and leave users and departments to sort out their own desktops.

Bitcoin collapses on malicious trade

Rich 3
WTF?

Can someone explain "rollback"

I thought the whole concept of the bitcoin was that a transfer was irrevocable and there were no superusers?

How does the exchange get to rollback transactions?

Want an untracked Android? Here’s how

Rich 3

It's possible to do location based info without tracking

You can upload location databases for a region and then locate the data offline.

Stolen smart-meter SIM leads to outrageous 3G bill

Rich 3

Have you tried doing this?

Finding somebody to talk to at Telstra who understood what a restricted APN was, and how they might set one up, probably taxed the patience of the staff at the electricity meter company to far, and they just threw standard retail SIMs into the meters.

Five amazing computers for under £100

Rich 3

How about $0

Round here you get computers being put out with the recycling. Swap a few parts maybe, and you've got a working machine for zilch.

Boffins pull plug on SETI alien-seeking antenna array

Rich 3

SETI wouldn't have worked

Any aliens developing radio communication will rapidly run into spectrum scarcity, just as we have. They'll then (as we have) start using modulations and protocols that compress the signals into something resembling white noise.

So SETI would only detect aliens in the morse code / AM broadcasting phase of development. We've gone through this in a little over 100 years (I'd expect the last old-school transmitters to be gone by maybe 2050), so there's a pretty narrow margin between a civilisation discovering radio communication and it disappearing back into (ostensibly) white noise.

Open source .NET mimic lands on Android

Rich 3
FAIL

Why doesn't Stallmann fix the bugs in gcc

Instead of telling me what language I'm allowed to code in. Really. 'kin hippies.

AT&T ends illicit handset tethering

Rich 3

Run a VPN and tether over that

Of course, you'd have to pay for the VPN portal, mostly.

Here in NZ, we get absurdly low (500M) data caps but no restrictions on tethering.

Chicken Little report: Sat-nav dependency spells DISASTER!

Rich 3

That would have been Transit

The forerunner to GPS was Transit. It used far less satellites and took a fix off a single satellite at a time. It was setup in the early 60's to enable accurate navigation of Polaris submarines (I believe they used the Transit fix to correct drift in their inertial navigation platform). With a Transit set, you typically got a fix every few hours as described. When GPS was in it's early stages, you got continuous fixing, but only for part of the day - which was fine for some applications like surveying, as you could schedule ops for GPS uptime.

Blighty's expensive Watchkeeper spy-drone in further delays

Rich 3

Good reasons not to buy US

NZ has a small fleet of surplus, obsolete Skyhawks. They could have been sold years ago to one of many nations or collectors who want obsolete miljets, but the US holds a power of veto and has refused all sales.

Hence they are having to be scrapped at non-insubstantial cost. If we'd bought French planes, none if this would have happened.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4149581/Skyhawk-giveaway-after-failed-sale

Intel sends 'Poulson' Itaniums to the shrink

Rich 3

Why the name

After John Poulson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Poulson), a corrupt English 1970s property developer?

Race to pinpoint VoIP callers in emergencies

Rich 3
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It'll be twitter next

Surely people can tell the difference between a real phone and a for-entertainment-only internet thingy.

Next think you know people will be twittering: @999 lost legz in crusha help help

and expecting the ambulance to turn up.

Whizz for Atoms: inside Intel's next netbook generation

Rich 3
Thumb Up

Down With Skool

Just to show I recognised the reference...