* Posts by Steve 13

218 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Oct 2009

Page:

ZoneAlarm slammed for scarewarey marketing

Steve 13
FAIL

alternative

So what's the best free alternative (I got the warning a couple of days ago, and I had to do a double take as well).

Podgy Googlers get shrunken plates

Steve 13
WTF?

before the staff

any manager knows it before the staff themselves? that's what google are claiming!

Police legal advice gives spam RIPA protection

Steve 13
FAIL

you have to read on

"(7)For the purposes of this section [b]the times while a communication is being transmitted by means of a telecommunication system shall be taken to include any time when[ the system[/b] by means of which the communication is being, or has been, transmitted is [b]used for storing it in a manner that enables the intended recipient to collect it or otherwise to have access to it.[/b]"

this is several paragraphs further on from the bit the QC referred to.

This seems to suggest to me (and I'm NAL) that if the email is stored on a server, then RIPA still counts.

Maybe the QC was a bit too lazy to read the whole act?

US raygun jumbo jet fails to beam down test missile

Steve 13

IANALT (I Am Not a Laser Technician)

But I think it heats the body, until the highly volatile fuel goes pop.

Hence the need to hit it in the boost phase when it still has lots of highly volatile fuel.

Steve 13
WTF?

physics fail

I don't believe that the laser is in the visible spectrum or that chrome plating reflects wavelengths significantly out of said visible spectrum.

'Copyright troll' seeks $150,000 from republican candidate

Steve 13
FAIL

Patent troll?

Surely it's a copyright troll, they have nothing to do with patents at all (so far as this article reports).

Russia's Cold War raygun air fleet back in operation - reports

Steve 13
WTF?

blind satellites

Whilst it's undoubtedly true that flying your laser above most of the atmosphere will reduce the power requirements involved in hitting a satellite. The act of powering it from within a plane and the necessary tracking apparatus surely means that it would be more effective to construct a more powerful laser on the ground.

As a bit of analysis, satellite blinding doesn't strike me as a highly likely use.

ViewSonic outs Windows/Android 10in tablet

Steve 13
FAIL

missing the point

Am I missing the point of these devices.

I mean, I like shiny new gadgets as much as the next man. If the next man is in the IT industry and likes shiny gadgets quite a lot.

But £549. For a 10.1" netbook without a keyboard or decent storage. Why would I buy that?

Don't get me wrong. I'd like to buy it. I just can't actually see what I'd then do with it.

The 10.1" netbook I take with me when travelling, I can use it for emails, surfing, even at a pinch updating a word document or spreadsheet. Okay, it doesn't have a touch screen, which might have been nice now and again, but it does have a mouse, and a keyboard on which I can type at 50 wpm.

In comparison, for £200 more, I can have a tablet with basically the same specs (few extra bells and whistles along the lines of GPS), that's thinner and lighter (but not by much), that has no keyboard and can't be just chucked in a bag as the screen will get damaged.

So that's either £200 to add GPS, or £200 to remove an extremely useful part of a netbook, or some combination of both.

Meh.

I suppose I could carry around a bluetooth keyboard, but wouldn't it be easier if it were integrated? Maybe in the form of a netbook, which if you must have the tablet form factor could have a swivel and reverse touch screen, giving you the option of both forms...

VW to eliminate worst road hazard: drivers

Steve 13
FAIL

API

It just requires a standard communications API defining and a common communication medium.

How the process and produce the communication contents would be down to each manunfacturer.

The idea that this would be difficult to do seems ludicrous when you're posting on the internet. We managed a worldwide network of disparate machines and different standards, yet you've managed to post, I've managed to read it and now I'm posting in reply. I doubt that we're using the same machine to do that, or even something made by the same manufacturer. In fact we may well be using a completely different communication technology, 3G, wifi, ethernet, etc...

Identifying your own laser would be trivially simple if you encode a small amount of information in it. Ie, tag it using pulse or frequency modulation.

Nor was there any suggestion that every car would have to use this technology. It's a primary requirement that the cars would work in an environment with other vehicles that aren't using this technology.

Steve 13
WTF?

no worse

So if it's a tree, or a pedestrian or an old vehicle the situation is no worse than today.

Currently if any of those things are around a blind corner, you run into them. Assuming you can't stop in time or go around them.

With a smart car, you still run into them.

Of course the smart car might have radar and laser sensors, and hit the brakes a lot faster than you would have done. So maybe you run into them at a lower speed.

Overall though, you've gained the ability to not run into a smart enabled car around that blind corner, and maybe reduce the severity of running into other objects. You're definitely no worse off than before though.

Drunken employee pops cap in server

Steve 13
WTF?

I haven't

In fact I've never even heard of someone being beaten to death with a beer bottle.

One thing that is sure though, a drunken person in control of a beer bottle and intending harm, is a hell of a lot less dangerous than the equivalent with a .45

PA school district avoids charges over webcam spy scandal

Steve 13
FAIL

money?

This was the federal government deciding not to pursue a criminal investigation, it's got very little to do with compensation.

The civil suit will still be going ahead and I can't see how the school could possibly win.

What the decision here means though is that no one is going to jail for spying on minors in their bedrooms.

Steve 13
WTF?

They prosecute sexting teens, but not peeping admins

How do they justify criminalising and prosecuting a number of teens for 'sexting', but not prosecuting adults remotely spying on minors... Bizarre.

EU boffins aim to reinvent the hard disk

Steve 13
FAIL

real measurements

It's not a real measurement unless you quote number of CD's or copies of Encyclopaedia Britannica that could be stored on 3 * 3.5" platters at that density.

Boffins snare swollen 'excited giant' in forcefield prison

Steve 13
FAIL

Either 0 or 1 - or any value between

Maybe I'm fractionally incorrect on this, but isn't it either zero or one, full stop, period, no values between. That's the nature of quanti, either one state or the other, there is no middle ground.

Q-Waves Wireless USB AV Kit

Steve 13
Thumb Down

FAIL

This is a bit of kit for meeting rooms, not living rooms.

As a previous commentard already said, mentioning games in the same article where you point out that the graphics hardware of your PC will be bypassed in favour of a USB device is stupid.

As for watching DVD's (or blueray), great, no cable, but also not in HD and in stereo. No thanks.

IT contractors aghast as FSA evicts self-cert mortgages

Steve 13
Thumb Up

this is just common sense

I really don't see how this proposal is a blow to IT contractors at all.

If you're new to the game then you don't have 3 years of accounts and you don't actually know if you'll be working for the next 3 years.

I wouldn't lend you several hundred grand, why should the banks (the fact that they would a few years ago is a problem that is being addressed).

If you've been contracting for a while, and proven that you can do it then you'll be able to get a mortgage. Simple.

It's worth pointing out that since a contractors income is relatively high, it would make far more sense IMO to save for that 3 years and go in with a large deposit.

I speak from the POV of a two year contractor, so I could well find that I can't have a mortgage for a year, but that's okay, I paid my first one off after my first 15 months as a contractor so it's all gravy now.

Airport rethinks strip-scanner for kids

Steve 13
Thumb Down

Security Checked

To the highest level? All the security staff are checked to DV are they? I suspect not.

Page: