Posts by joe K 1

How the NSA hacks PCs, phones, routers, hard disks 'at speed of light': Spy tech catalog leaks

The big picture

Its funny how people are petrified about rogue NSA elements, for whatever reason hacking the average Joe's machine to install illicit material that he can be subsequently prosecuted in a bon fide court system for. Without acknowledging that Microsoft could do the same. Or Google. Or your building management agency. Or your work IT guy. Or your wife. Or your best friend. Or your frustrated teenage son.

This discussion thread is fascinating, but its irritating to read weakly founded paranoid scenarios about how the govt can get you if they chose to. Seriously, if they want you out of the way, all it takes is a sliced brake fluid line. And if it's about blackmail, it's an over simplistic scenario to assume that only the govt would consider doing it. Very few people have genuine need to be concerned about governments hacking their electronic communications. And they can find other ways to go about their business. For the rest of us, its your responsibility to make educated judgment calls - while remembering that you're more likely to be killed by a drunk driver than falsely accused by the NSA. I estimated that last fact, but I'm happy enough believing it.

Ready for ANOTHER patent war? Apple 'invents' wireless charging

Re: Nikola Tesla?

Einstein - stimulated emission - the laser - modern communications. Just one example of how easy it is time under-estimate impact.

The cyber-weapons paradox: 'They're not that dangerous'

Some children are scared of clown's too!

Seriously, are you 14 or something? This paradox has already been proved right in the most important testing ground of all - nature! The reason we're all still here is that the deadliest natural viruses, despite their potency, have to be so ultra-specialised to reach their full destructive potential that a few mutations is all it takes to survive them, and natural selection makes sure these mutations happen. Contrast the ebola virus with the common cold.

Boeing backs biofuel boffinry

Never base your opinions on a single book ...

@spud2go, whether Bryce opinions are correct or not at this point in time is not a problem for me, it is the fact that so many people are happy to draw conclusions from the biased (almost always, and not always deliberately) writings of one author. If it is peer reviewed hard science, backed theoretically (and if possible experimentally), then possibly, but when it is an attempt by a lay person to predict the possible evolution of a technology over 5 decades - be very wary!

The mortarboard icon, because one good thing a PhD taught me is how easy it is to make a convincing argument when you need to, and how easy it is to find sources that seem to back it up!

UK cops seek boffins to build handheld DNA sniffer kit

Seems reasonable to me ...

To those suggesting that this is done in the lab, have you considered that as a CSI forensic expert you might want to be sure you have collected some viable DNA before departing the scene? Collect samples, wait an hour, if none are viable double check the scene to make sure there is no other possible source that has been overlooked. Surely that's better than waiting days for the lab to get back to you, by which point the scene will probably have been compromised. Also, even if the labs can do it for a fiver, how much does it cost to log, package, and securely transport a piece of biological evidence? An example of your type of logic would be having no field breathalysers and transporting all suspicious drivers to a police station, sounds like a big fail to me.

THE TRUTH on the Californian NASA POISON ALIENS

Embargoes are routine

The embargo will have been instituted by Science, not NASA. The top journals (Science, Nature etc.) insist on no public disclosure of content submitted for publication up until they gave done so themselves. As the discovery is crucial to NASA's aims, it made sense for them to do a press conference, but could not do so until Science ok'd it.

LG kicks off work on quantum dot TV

confinement is relative ...

Poorlumpypony, the confinement is at the nanoscale, i.e. the excitons are sort of 'trapped' in a box a few tens of nm wide , long and high . That forces them to occupy only a discrete set of energy levels, and hence emit narrow band light. Most other device structures only confine particles in two dimensions, sort of like being stuck inside a very large football stadium, you can roam around it but simply not jump out.

Gamers demand CoD: Black Ops money back

Its best to check your numbers before a long rant ...

heyrick, 5.6k/5.6M=0.001% ? Really?

An HTC named Desire. OK, two HTCs...

There's something consistent about inconsistency

I'm from the optical telecoms field, so no expert on the specifics here, but surely at some point it does not matter what hardware configuration is present on the target device - as long as some minimum specs are met software should be able to adapt and run. I see why this was a problem with phones in the past, and possibly now, given their moderatecomputing power, but surely phones will eventually go the way PCs went - with millions of possible device configurations all running the same software successfully. And that is what consumers want - few people want to have the same handset 3 years running, or have to wait 18 months to get a newer version from their favourite manufacturer.

Google adds automatic captions to YouTube

Transcription for content identification

This will make it easier for content providers to track illegal uploads of their content. If it works, it will open up a whole host of opportunities for a lot of people.

Feds bust cable modem modder kit maker

Ditto AC 15:37

Well said, but even without casting the net as far as gun sellers, modems are useless without computing hardware and software, so what about prosecuting the providers of the PCs and OSs that were used by these miscreants to perpetrate such an abominable fraud that could bring the entire global financial system crashing in an instant. I mean, they were stealing bandwidth. With the world's reserves of it running perilously low, we'll have to start importing it from planet Frequentius Abondantium at extortionate prices....

Robotic personal photographer unveiled

The most often stolen camera in the world?

Me thinks so....

Spotify: iPhone sideloads for £120 a year, unlimited

Not everyone keeps music more than three months

I think they are onto a winner. A few people have commented about not being able to keep the music permanently but it all depends on the individual - While I guess people over 35 collect music to listen to for the rest of their lives, you'll find that the average person under 35 will pretty much just listen to contemporary music. I for example almost exclusively only listen to RnB and hiphop, and having heard a song a few times completely lose interest in it, and would never build a collection. £10 a month seems quite good, it similar to what people pay for mobile internet, or for MTV, and if they could come to an agreement with the carriers then that would actually be a model that worked. It would not appeal to everyone, but it probably would to the younger generation with constantly changing tastes in music, who at the moment are the freeloaders.

Hero: HTC names third Android smartphone

15 degree what ?

What the hell is a 15 degree curve?

Opera to take web back to the old days

Anticipation people, Anticipation!

Why are there so many people whining about innovation on the basis that BT has bundled the vast majority of subscribers in the UK with piss poor connections? Japan already has close to 50% FTTH penetration, average download speeds around 100Mbps, and tested symmetric 1Gbps dsl. Innovation has to be forward thinking, but you'll always have some pessimistic Anglo-speaking IT techs ( Charles, Gary , etc... ) stuck in the past.