Posts by Dan 55

The Reg Coding competition – 10 times as hard as the last one!

Ah, just like real projects

What do you mean you weren't told you should have started on the 28th of June?

Is it also possible to request a language that is less noddy than Java, VB, Swift, C'Dent, Node, PHP, or Python?

Revolutionary Brit-made SABRE hybrid rocket engine to burn in 2020

Re: More Eu funding to be renegotiated

As with Schengen and GSM, the EU rocked up later and claimed the credit.

Smartphones aren't tiny PCs, but that's how we use them in the West

Barcode Scanner on Play or FDroid

Job done. It just works.

I only use it to pass URLs from the browser to the phone by the way.

No, Google you still can't have dotless, one-word domains

In other words, someone tried to write in some contract language that would have allowed a registry to go through a largely unnoticed technical process, decided by ICANN's staff, to pass something that several internet organizations, including the SSAC itself, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and the ICANN Board, have all decided poses a threat to the stability of the internet.

Why? Because then the owners of top-level domains such as "search" or "hotel" or "weather" could bypass search engines altogether and have people go direct to their websites from where they could direct them. In other words, millions of dollars worth of traffic annually.

And it could (will) screw up LANs everywhere.

Pimp your ride with new Linux for cars and an rPi under the hood

Automotive Grade Linux

Also known as OpenBSD.

Trial to store benefits claimants' personal data on blockchain slammed

Re: Why would the DWP need to use a blockchain?

So blockchains will allow food stamps 2.0 as well as utility stamps, but not Oddbins or Amazon stamps. Yet you could buy cheaper food from Amazon or markets (cash), only you won't be able to. And I suppose itemised shopping lists will plop out the computers at the DWP.

I can't see people opting into this, unless perhaps they do an advert similar to the one about smart meters for a while before telling everyone they're having them anyway. But society would have had to have gone practically cashless anyway for it to work otherwise people would be excluded.

Why would the DWP need to use a blockchain?

The only two parties involved are the DWP, who have the records, and you, who wants to see them.

Windows Phone users beg Pokémon Go creators for attention

Windows Phone users: Gotta catch 'em all...

... That didn't take long.

Tesla whacks guardrail in Montana, driver blames autopilot

Re: "People will use it cautiously at first.."

The mistake Tesla made was calling it 'autopilot' and 'autosteer' instead of 'lane assist' like everyone else because that gives people the idea it's like KITT. It's for motorways, not windy country/mountain roads.

Re: Contract cleaner to aisle 13 please. Grammer spill.

Grammer spill? Better get two cleaners in.

Kotkin on who made Trump and Brexit: Look in the mirror, it's you

Re: It ain't me

That's addressed in the article. People could have more help available than they do at an election.

"Juries for criminal trials that are chosen by lot prove that people generally take their task extremely seriously. The fear of a chamber that behaves recklessly or irresponsibly is unfounded. If we agree that 12 people can decide in good faith about the freedom or imprisonment of a fellow citizen, then we can be confident that a number of them can and will serve the interests of the community in a responsible manner."

"The most common argument against sortition is the supposed incompetence of the those who have not been elected. A body of elected representatives undoubtedly has more technical competencies than a body chosen by lot. But what is the use of a parliament full of highly educated lawyers if few of them know the price of bread?

Besides, the elected do not know everything. They need staff and researchers to fill the gaps in their expertise. In much the same way, a representative body chosen by lot would not stand alone. It could invite experts, rely on professionals to moderate debates and put questions to citizens. Legislation could arise from the interaction between it and an elected chamber."

It ain't me

Leaving the clickbait headline aside, the disconnect between people and the political classes is getting too wide to paper over any more in both the UK and US. Here's something I read about a way of making democracy more democratic, which is involving people in decision making instead of making them elect a dictator every four or five years:

Why elections are bad for democracy (Yes, it's the Gruaniad.)

In mourning for Nano, chap crafts 1k-loc text editor

Re: Nice

Unless you're planning on having multiple files/windows open at one time, a global state will do.

Maybe one day it'll be called 2-kilo and do that, but until then it does what it says on the tin and it's nicely structured.

Linus Torvalds in sweary rant about punctuation in kernel comments

Re: Like Zero Tolerance policing...

The broken Windows theory?

Re: I don't get it

Slightly easier to move the comment text around inside the comment or between comments in the first one. Whether or not that merits that outburst is something else.

Well it could be worse

There could be no comments at all apart from stupid ones like "set i to 1" where they aren't necessary.

Code review? Documentation? Yes, we've heard of them.

IoT puts assembly language back on the charts

Why Assembler?

Classic C will do the job, Shirley? Unless you get a better class of coder with assembler who's more careful about buffer overflows and so on, but I doubt it.

Farewell to Microsoft's Sun Tzu: Thanks for all the cheese, Kevin Turner

As expected, Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella was generous to Turner, complimenting his running of a 51,000-strong workforce.

I bet they're dreading the memo about finding synergies and rightsizing due in about a couple of months.

Wannabe Prime Minister Andrea Leadsom thinks all websites should be rated – just like movies

Re: How about we start with age appropriate adverts.

The referendum must not be repeated again in its current form?

Re: Trading standards need to get involved...

Nasty ingredients for the nasty party.

It's never been more obvious that those at the top have even less of a clue than we do, but they're happy to play political games while the country is rudderless.

If this goes completely to shit then there will be a strong case for a technocracy to try and get the country back on track (wherever that is now) which is not known to be particularly democratic.

You can’t sit there, my IoT desk tells me

Let's talk balls

What about balls? Has anybody tried sitting on them? Does it work for them?

( http://lifehacker.com/5830748/why-i-switched-my-office-chair-with-an-exercise-ball-and-what-it-feels-like )

Teen faces trial for telling suicidal boyfriend to kill himself via text

Re: No she didn't kill him in any way

Your honour, in this case we're going to hear that the accused should be released because she incited that the victim commit suicide while standing on the other side of the door frame, therefore she was not present in the room with the victim when it happened and was therefore not responsible.

Which is equally ridiculous.

She knew his mental state and incited him to carry on. It doesn't matter if she's there or she did it by post, by e-mail, by messenger, or by carrier pigeon.

Microsoft's cringey 'Hey bae <3' recruiter email translated by El Reg

Re: <3

Ok, now I've got that will someone tell me what bae means?

Avast woos AVG shareholders with $1.3bn buyout offer

AVG + Avast > Norton?

Think of the bloat.

UK.gov rolls out 10 years' chokey for industrial scale copyright pirates

"Torrent release groups are the target - not teenagers"

We don't know that until it gets to court.

The new 2A doesn't really offer any protection for the casual infringer. 2A) a) and b) ii) can describe casual infringing perfectly.

The IPO can say what it likes, but if it ain't part of the act it doesn't count for anything.

TP-Link abandons 'forgotten' router config domains

Re: TP-Link firmware update adds tplinkwifi.net

... and they still didn't use .lan or .local.

Post Brexit EU will spend 'stability and peace' budget funding Chinese war drones

If the Germany is going to pay up, it'd better do it soon. It's in a game of chicken with Italy.

Maybe China's on to something: Clickbait articles now need to be 'verified' by officials

Chinese censors scupper El Reg's income with this one weird trick!

Dolphin fans freak, blast browser's bumbling bundles of bloatware

Re: On the plus side...

They're not really taking notice if they decide to move to Chrome.

UK.gov wants to fine websites £250,000 if teens watch porn vids

Oh, like the Snooper's charter

The website owner has to do magic or be fined into bankruptcy. But we're not like the Chinese or Russians!

Obi Worldphone MV1: It's striking, it's solid. Aaaand... we've run out of nice things to say

Re: This is what Blackberry should be doing

How does the Alcatel fare with keeping data secure? Doesn't inspire me with much confidence.

Re: This is not the droid you're looking for.

It'll be a Nokia, released early next year the day before a worldwide economic collapse.

Re: Batteries, huh?

Wileyfox shop has them, although they took their sweet time.

Now what I need is a cover for the Storm and I'm reduced to cutting holes out a Galaxy S 4 cover.

Re: Unremovable Google Bar?

Long tap on wallpaper.

Swipe the bottom-third part the screen that just appeared up.

Home Screen Settings > Search bar OFF.

At least on Trebuchet/CM 12.1.

Unremovable Google Bar?

Long tap on the wallpaper, swipe down to settings, there should be something there to remove it I think.

Get ready for mandatory porn site age checks, Brits. You read that right

So how will they enforce mandatory age verification on porn sites inside the UK?

Technically it seems impossible, unless there's a plan for everyone to get a Gov ID card with chip and a card reader. And then how would the sites operate with connections from outside the UK?

Theft of twenty-somethings' IDs surges

Are we surprised?

Everything they do is posted to Facebook or tweeted.

"I've just bought this from this shop and it only cost me this much!"

"I've just gone to Cancun for two weeks!"

Social engineering goldmine.

Prominent Brit law firm instructed to block Brexit Article 50 trigger

Re: "No, No, No. Let me resign..."

Cameron's true plan was rather last-minute and he forgot to infom the electorate about it. Before the referendum date he was saying that he was best placed to negotiate the exit with the EU, indicating he had some and of contingency plan when he hadn't. Not the best way to keep the protest vote down (not that there is such a thing as a protest vote with a referendum}.

Re: "No, No, No. Let me resign..."

He has no more idea than Boris or Gove. Between those three, there should have been at least one exit plan. And Cameron should have had a contingency plan given that he called the referendum.

Is this the best education that public schooling can give us? Ye gods, the country's up shit creek.

Isis crisis: Facebook makes Bristol lass an unperson

Re: Perhaps FB are taking a leaf out of the Icelanic Law Books?

Not that Britain is free from that nonsense. The passport office says it must take the name from the foreign birth certificate even though the naming rule used wouldn't make much sense if the child had been born Britain. If a child can have two nationalities then two names should also be allowed given that naming rules and nationality go hand in hand.

There is a list of exceptions, but you always come across the rule that proves the exception and it seems the passport office is not fully aware of the exceptions allowed by the general register office. If I didn't have the Brexit deadline I'd have probably made more enquires but as it is I just wanted the citizenship officially recognised and passport for my kid before an arbitrary date that could be used against him in the future.

If Zuckerburg's lot can't craft a regex that searches for the profanity but not if it's part of said town's name, perhaps I should contract out my services for millions.

Lenovo scrambling to get a fix for BIOS vuln

Re: Not Again!!!

It comes from the Independent BIOS Vendors which are contracted to write the BIOS software by OEMs. The IBVs just copy and paste Intel's reference code without reviewing it, it seems... And the OEMs release the IBVs' code without review either.

As it's in Intel's reference code it might even have found its way into Macs.

A trip to the Twilight Zone with a support guy called Iron Maiden

You just got it a little mixed up, that's all. InfoPath was depreciated, Office 2016 was defecated, Windows 10 was shat out.

Re: Depressing

The Electoral Commission shouldn't have let it go through without a big huge book detailing what happens in the case of Brexit from someone. Or it should have phrased the question like this:

Vote only once:

Would you like the UK to remain a member of the EU? [ ]

Would you like a constitutional crisis with nobody having any idea what happens next, no effective government, a power vacuum, and politicians stabbing each other in the back for possibly weeks on end? [ ]

EU what?

The European Parliament approves or disproves the whole of the commission with a qualified majority vote so there's a bit of pressure to not chuck them all out just because they don't like the look of a few of them. But as it's a QMV there's probably more in the Parliament that will approve than disapprove anyway. So given that the UK is one out of 28 member states which proposes commissioners and has only 10%-ish of the MEPs which approves, like Azure, it's not a system which scales up gracefully.

Once in, the Commission proposes law sometimes with the help of the Council but not always. Parliament can a) amend it and send it back or b) can only send it back saying if they like it or not (more often used now) or c) have no say at all (Canada trade deal).

So it's democratic... barely.

However I think I did suddenly wake up in a parallel universe last Friday or perhaps they're shooting Game of Thrones in the House of Commons. We'll know for sure when dragons circle overhead.

Re: Not sure it's your brain Dabsy

A clip round the ears?

EU Investment Bank will honour pre-Brexit deals – but don't gamble on new ones happening

Re: It's not the EU Investment Bank

Done right, leaving the EU could be fantastic for the UK. However you have touching faith in the UK's PTB given what's been going on over the past week.

Google Spain raided by Agencia Tributaria in latest European crackdown

El armario está vacio

Nothing to do with them having so much trouble collecting that they're resorting to naming and shaming?

That's the second list of everyone who owes a million euros or more. The first one was published in December.