Posts by Rich 11

Trump inauguration DDoS protest is 'illegal', warn securobods

Re: 1984

We all knew they were slimy bribe taking, nest feathering, lying bastards, but I never thought to see the day when they advertised that fact!

I read that as a gentle observation regarding Trump and his new cabinet, but I could be wrong...

College fires IT admin, loses access to Google email, successfully sues IT admin for $250,000

So you're pretty certain you can get back in with 'abc123'?

Re: Well of course...

ACE has a reason for describing it as a personal account, one which I'm sure a lawyer would enjoy picking apart.

Re: Bah!

Just start using numbers, then it's easy.

I disagree.

El Reg drills into chatbot hype: The AIs that want to be your web butlers

Unreal

It helps to train your model on large datasets containing real conversations such as online forums or movie scripts.

Few of those could be described as real conversations. What they've done is chosen texts they can scrape, where someone else has already done the effort-intensive work of typing for them.

Boffins link ALIEN STRUCTURE ON VENUS to Solar System's biggest ever grav wave

Today's pedantry

at approximately 100 metres per second (223 miles per hour)

Do I really need to say?

UK's lords want more details on adult website check plans

Re: ....risks breaking international human rights law

Or do you pay Johnny Foreigner to deal with all of that and just trust that they aren't going to do anything devious with your data after it pops out the other end of the VPN tunnel?

I expect most techies would know better than to use a free or cheap, unconfirmed service for anything but casual government-unapproved surfing, in places where you would never ever consider handing over your credit card details or using anything other than a throwaway account. Whether that holds for the non-technical or for teenagers who think they're technical is another matter.

Dodgy Dutch developer built backdoors into thousands of sites

I expect it does happen more often, but we don't get to hear about it because the smarter people don't keep a shitload of incriminating evidence in their inbox...

Stanford boffins find 'correlation between caffeine consumption and longevity'

Re: confused

Since the article mentions metabolites which cause inflammation I assumed they were also suggesting that any anti-inflammatory action would come from one or more of the metabolic products of caffeine rather than its constituent elements.

You're angling for the data gig, aren't you? Now that would be a job for life!

How many participants would be needed, and how long would the duration have to be, for such a study to have sufficient statistical power to isolate all the confounders? Black tea, green tea, tea with milk, tea with sugar, decaff tea, decaff coffee, coffee with muck, coffee without muck, etc, all the levels of consumption, all the possible health outcomes in age-related conditions, complicated by all the changes in consumption and preference that many people go through over time. And, most importantly, what is the likely effect size? How many people gain an extra year (or maybe a number of years) of life, or at least of healthy life, by drinking a certain amount of tea/coffee and by how much would habits have to change for the new knowledge to be worth it? Would the money spent on the study be better spent on encouraging people to do what is already known to make a big difference, like maintaining a healthy weight?

Thanks, Obama: NSA to stream raw intelligence into FBI, DEA and pals

Re: "raw intelligence"

I think it's more likely that none of the other TLAs trust the NSA to analyse the raw data in a way which suits their purposes.

Trump's cyber-guru Giuliani runs ancient 'easily hackable website'

Re: Yeah, no surprise

the wheel is turning but the hampster is dead.

The wheel is turning but the hamster escaped out of one ear and took up residence on top of his head.

Now for a really cool micro-drum solo: Boffins chill gizmo below quantum limit

Re: Science-Fiction getting more real every day

simplified meat model for physics purposes

Is the steak also spherical?

Maps and alarm clocks best thing about mobes, say normies

It's true

My phone is indeed the most expensive alarm clock I've ever owned, but also the most flexible and most useful.

GCHQ feeds first crop of infosec startups to Cyber Accelerator

Re: Office space

Not quite. The portacabins are in the visitors car park, next to Dmitriy and Vladimr's Hot Dog Van.

Anti-smut law dubs PCs, phones 'pornographic vendor machines', demands internet filters

Re: How would such a filter even work?

Or do the legislators want to vet all the smut sites personally.

I expect some of the legislators have been building up lists for years. And regularly rechecking them.

Binary star bash-up should add new light to Northern Cross in 2022

Re: A new star in the sky

Quite so. My first thought was that this bright star in the sky heralds the coming of the Anti-Trump.

Nostradamus tells us that she will be born as the daughter of the Russian ambassador to the United States. In her infancy she will be guarded by a coterie of kittens and the Groper-in-Chief will attempt to slay her by withholding vaccines from the multitude of deplorables, whose children will die in their thousands.

Crumbs. Exceedingly good cakes, meat dressing price hike in wake of the Brexit

I think you might be a little more optimistic than I am that such a vote wouldn't once more be awash in a flood of emotive argument and outright lies, rather than be one of considered discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of the single market, the customs union and the four freedoms.

Re: Clickbait

I notice you carefully avoided all consideration of inflation, as though it and the price of cake are utterly unrelated.

Re: it's easy to resolve...

You pay something out of your wages called 'National Insurance' which are supposed to fund those...

Hypothecation doesn't happen. Unsurprisingly, I suppose, since it would leave the chancellor little room for maneouvre in most budgets.

You know how cop cars pile into each other in old comedy movies? That's how the Moon was built, say boffins

Re: Momentum Transfer!

Continue until Moon orbit corresponds to Earth rotation.

Which is estimated to happen in about fifty billion years time, IIRC.

It's only an estimate because the expanding sun will boil away the earth's oceans long before then, affecting the tidal dynamics between the earth and the moon. And when the sun does expand to consume the inner planets in about 4 billions years' time, the increase in friction will in any case cause the earth and moon to spiral into the heart of the sun and die in fiery dissolution.

Man jailed for 3 days after Texas cops confuse cat litter for meth

Re: Only TRULY GIGANTIC lawsuits will stop this...

If you don't have grey hair, just make sure your car radio is tuned to Radio 4. A few moments of John Humphries or Eddie Mair will see you clear of almost any suspected crime.

Bank robber reveals identity – by using his debit card during crime

Re: Your honor, I object

Is that supposed to be an attempt to suggest that the courts are too lenient? Don't give up the day job.

Could YOU survive a zombie apocalypse? Uni eggheads say you'd last just 100 days

Re: Of course I wouldn't survive

The download generation will be stumped. But that's alright. Like the old joke goes, 'I don't have to outrun the wolf, I just have to outrun you.'

Just as long as you set up a trip line around your campsite, almost ten feet away from your tent, you'll have plenty of warning when the horde arrives.

Re: Relevant and accessible?

But the uni's have stopped caring. So long as you're paying for the year, who cares if you pass or fail or take up the lecturer's time.

Utter rubbish. Student retention is a significant issue and is addressed seriously by universities. Failure reflects badly in the various league tables and in the KIS data, affecting recruitment. No-one is so short-sighted as to think that all that matters is one year's worth of tuition fee income.

Wherever it was you went, they didn't do much to help you improve your critical thinking skills.

Re: It's the panic that distabilises society

people will have to talk to each other

You think that's a good thing? Have you met them?

NASA plans seven-year trip to Jupiter – can we come with you, please?

No. No you didn't.

Forget aircraft – now cretins are laser-blinding ferry boat crewmen

Re: Bah!

Whilst it will be shouted down mercilessly, I seriously suggest that corporal punishment would be an excellent punishment for this type of offence.

There are reasons why corporal punishment has been abandoned in much of the world, and why we decry flogging in Saudi Arabia and other countries. Let's not take a backwards step just to satisfy one person's need to observe another person's suffering. Yours is a gut response to a wider complex problem, as your words suggest you already know.

Not all punishments are going to work as a deterrent with everyone. Removing people from society for years or decades isn't always appropriate either -- it's always expensive and often unjust (look at what the 'three strikes and you're out' policy has done in the US). The justice system in many countries needs reform, and a concentrated effort made on rehabilitation as being the most reliable and cost-effective way of protecting society. That's where all the evidence points.

Internet of Sh*t has an early 2017 winner – a 'smart' Wi-Fi hairbrush

Re: GCSE Notes on hair care....

I had always assumed the tongue was a food delicacy - now I wonder.

It was, but since you'd have to peel it to get at the meat anyway, it's good that they found a use for the skin.

Speeding jet of Siberian liquid hot Magma getting speedier, satellites find

Re: I knew it.

At least Harrison had the decency to not invade any countries for spurious reasons.

My fortnight eating Blighty's own human fart-powder

Re: Food is not only sustenance

seems a not unreasonable way to tide me over til i get to my own kitchen or pub.

You have your own pub? Jammy bastard!

Astroboffins glimpse sighting of ultra-rare circular galaxy

Re: Two theories...

1 - Easily detectable.

2 - Easily detectable.

The lack of any mention of either suggests that the galaxy is not remarkable in these respects.

The Register's Top 20 Most-Commented Stories in 2016

Re: To Brexit or Not To Brexit

I voted REMAIN because they wouldn't give us Boaty McBoatface

US cops seek Amazon Echo data for murder inquiry

Re: Alexa

"Alexa, start with 'Death and Night And Blood.'"

Twas the week before Xmas ... not a creature was stirring – except Microsoft admitting its Windows 10 upgrade pop-up went 'too far'

Low points

Capossela was asked to list his low points of the year for Redmond (it's 17 minutes, 44 seconds in).

OK, so that's the first hour of 1st January 2016 he's covered. What about the rest of the year?

US healthcare under siege: Got good insurance?

Given the title, I thought this article was going to be about Trump shining his particular brand of sunlight onto the market of profiting from human misfortune.

Virgin America mid-flight panic after moron sets phone Wi-Fi hotspot to 'Samsung Galaxy Note 7'

Wtf is an "arse charger"??

Rocco the Randy Wrestler after two years at Her Majesty's pleasure.

Chinese boffins: We're testing an 'impossible' EM Drive IN SPAAAACE

Re: Launch it!

The answer should be useful whether it works or not.

True, though perhaps only trivially so. It then becomes a matter of how much value you assign to the probability of success compared to the value of failure, and whether you're willing to invest that amount of money into a space-borne experiment.

Re: Time for a change

Fried, no. Deep fried, yes.

Re: Many Bothans died to bring us this plot device

What Alchemists did is not particularly relevant here.

Then you probably shouldn't have made the analogy.

Rollout of smart meters continues at a snail's pace

Full marks for being nice to a bloke given a thankless task.

Crapita, on the other hand...

How Rogue One's Imperial stormtroopers SAVED Star Wars and restored order

I haven't seen R1 yet but I don't recall spotting any 'PC messages' in TFA. Have you considered the possibility that your sensibilities might -- to put it politely -- be a little behind the times?

Don't pay up to decrypt – cure found for CryptXXX ransomware, again

Re: Follow the money. @emmanuel goldstein

Nice hyperbolae there

He headed off on multiple non-returning curves?

NIST requests ideas for crypto that can survive quantum computers

Too far-sighted

You read the above right: this is an example of a government agency being sensibly far-sighted.

Guaranteeing that within a year the agency will be defunded by a senator who thinks that Jesus's return is imminent.

Energy firm points to hackers after Kiev power outage

Re: Bah!

It was done by blokes trained to recognise problems and given a van to go check up on hardware every now and again. But then their wages became an obviously unnecessary expense draining profit from the deserving shareholders, so they had to go.

Lay off the vodka, tovarisch.

Oracle exec quits over co-CEO Safra Catz's promise to assist Trump

Re: "Once great company"

I've never forgiven them for their product placement in the Iron Man films, ruining my suspension of disbelief. "Uploading to the Oracle Cloud..." Yeah, right, you're getting every cent's worth on that, Tony.

Zuckerberg turns his home into Creepy Robot Buddy

Enough, enough, enough!

and has allowed him to talk less than in 2015

What would it take to shut him up completely?