Posts by Stoneshop

Yamaha unleashes motorcycling robot

No room for passengers though.

Sidecar?

ICO 'making enquiries' into bizarre shopper data spill at M&S

Re: so now people know

I hope he's a frood who really knows where his towel is

Could be anywhere as long as Brutish Snail hasn't "delivered" it.

(thumb, as you need that too)

TalkTalk attack: 'No legal obligation to encrypt customer bank details', says chief

Re: MBA "Qualification"

What seems to be clear is that there is no module relating the the Law(s) of Holes, the first of which (for anyone who doesn't know*) is that When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

What often happens is that they would consider the effort already expended to be wasted when aborting the hole, combined with the possibility that there might be something valuable to be found further down (oil, valuable ores or gems, or simply a pirate's hidden treasure) and the digging continues unabated.

TalkTalk attack: UK digi minister recommends security badges for websites

"Welcome, Bobby Tables"

Re: Yes and No

you received a payment of $XX.XX from 2+2=[e-mail]

At least that's sufficiently less sensitive than your credit card details.

Joining the illuminati? Just how bright can a smart bulb really be?

Re: Bayonet? - Why not a bayonet cap option?

but the bayonet cap is used so that the wiring is double insulated from the physical connector, which is safer at 230V.

Here in the Rest of Europe we've managed to manufacture Edison screw sockets that don't have the screw thread connected (to what should be neutral), just a contact that touches the bulb thread once it's screwed down. At that point it's as good as impossible to touch the screw thread with your fingers. If there's no bulb present, your bayonet sockets offer the same potential for touching a live contact as an Edison thread socket.

SELV 48V DC main

There are downsides to using DC with respect to (conventional) switches: with AC the current drops to zero 100 (or 120) times per second, extinghuising any arc that may occur. If you check the current ratings for a simple toggle swich such as you may find at Maplin (if at all), its DC rating will be a fair bit lower than its AC rating. Semiconductor switches don't have that problem, though.

Re: Disabled?

There have been voice-activated light switches for at least 30 years now, even longer if you count plain sound-activated switches. PIR would in a lot of cases do the trick too. As they replace the wall switch, there's no restriction regarding the light fixture.

Re: cart before horse

If the signalling is from smart switch to semi responsive light bulb only, the transformer or other isolation device can be cheaply built into the switch to block the signals. Without it back propagation would likely play havoc with all of your other bulbs..

One could use back propagation as a feature, provided there is a way to set device addresses on the switches and the sockets, and assign function groups to them. This would allow several switches (in a corridor or a living room, for instance) to control a group of bulbs.

This is one of the features of the home control system I'm using. In my installation it's not using mains signalling (you can, using the appropriate devices and a signal adapter); there's a two-wire serial power/data bus running past all devices in a star topology. It's not doing much fancy stuff at the moment, but apart from the obvious stuff like switching off the lights in an empty room, opening skylights when the temperatures outside and inside are in a certain range and it's not raining, etcetera, it reports if all the pertinent closeable items are closed when you want to leave, and sends an SMS in case of something being amiss when you're out.

It is NOT remotely controlleable, although I can check its status when I'm ssh-ed in to my home network.

Re: cart before horse

Transformers would prevent propagation, so you don't have to worry about neighbors the next house over

Ah yes, the US of A, with its wiring overhead and transformers on a pole, waiting for a vehicle to ram into it and knock out your mains. Europe has that stuff only in rural areas, if at all, and it's very well possible that your Powerline signals will reach a few neighbours.

If MR ROBOT was realistic, he’d be in an Iron Maiden t-shirt and SMELL of WEE

Re: I love the the access controls in movies

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MadeOfExplodium

Bacon as deadly as cigarettes and asbestos

Bacon as deadly as cigarettes and asbestos

Most likely true if you consider a large enough lump of each dropped from sufficient height. The same holds for a bundle of Daily Maul.

R&D money for science – from your taxes?

Spread

Rather, it's an argument that we want to increase the speed at which the knowledge of how to do cool new things spreads.

The spread of how to do cool new things will be immediately thwarted by a barrage of patents taken out on every sodding detail of that cool new thing and the way to manufacture them. And even when a competitor finds a substantially different way to do a rather similar but still somewhat different cool new thing, there will be lawsuits over how that substantially different way resulting in a rather similar but still somewhat different cool new thing is still effectively the same as the original cool new thing and thus should be banned from sale, worldwide, with the result that there will be a spread of Lamborghinis and Maseratis amongst the lawyers involved, and not much more. And if it's not the original inventor of the cool new thing it will be the World Domination Corp that has just snapped up the Cool New Startup.

Oh, OK then: Ireland will probe Max Schrems' Facebook complaints

There's a slight difference

If your bank data goes astray, you have an entity to yell at that is subject to your local data protection laws, and there's a central banking authority who will be interested in what happened. Also, if it's not just isolated incidents, customers will start voting with their feet.

Banks don't like any of that.

Science Museum celebrates Ada Lovelace

Re: Early developments?

BTW, whether it worked or not, it looks like it's a Nokia 6310. Probably sent back in time by Nicola Tesla.

Re: Early developments?

Probably not, given that Bell and Marconi hadn't gotten around to doing their respective stuff.

Connected kettles boil over, spill Wi-Fi passwords over London

Re: What kind of numpty would actually want one of these things?

In our house the problem is who is going to fill it.

Version 2.0 will have a valve in the base, with fittings to hook it into your plumbing so it can fill itself* on demand.

* or your kitchen floor

Re: 100℃ ??

[good for all American states, defaults to 100C everywhere else!]

Nope.

a) some US states, as well as countries elsewhere, have regions that are not quite at sea level.

b) even at sea level, air pressure can and will vary. You don't want to be deprived of a decent cuppa just because a low pressure front is passing through.

Pluto flashes its unusual pits

Pancake batter

I doubt that meteorite debris would be as regular sized as these pits. To me it looks like the dimples in a pancake when you're baking them and they're halfway done.

Bug-hunt turns up vuln in LibreSSL

Re: Humble pie for the LibreSSL folks

… with an elephant gun…

Nah, the most effective way to shoot fish in a barrel is using a Gatling, as demonstrated by Mythbusters.

(black helicopter, as there's no Warthog icon)

Microsoft offers to PAY YOU to trade in your old computer for a Windows 10 device

Re: Now you know how much your privacy is worth

@Tidysweep

The price for an upgrade copy of Windows 10 is $0.00 USD. This is for a PERPETUAL license.

Where "perpetual" means "until we drop support for it, a couple of years from now". Sure, you can still use it forever after that. On a non-networked machine, with its RJ45 jack and USB sockets epoxied shut.

But I didn't contest that. There will be add-ons and improvements not covered by your current W10 license, and at some point these add-ons will turn out to be required to run most of your software. Stuff you need to license separately. Stuff you may need to pay for, or pay to unlock all capabilities. Stuff that's add-driven unless you pay. And Microsoft won't be claiming your firstborn in payment for these add-ons, just a reasonable fee. Per add-on, AND per year. You'll be suffering the death by a thousand cuts.

Re: Now you know how much your privacy is worth

Neither can Linux.

Linux is licensed so that it can not be non-free. Simple as that.

There are distros that require a support fee; Red Hat is one. Fair enough; support costs money, and if you don't care for support, then use another one. Also, don't confuse a distro with 'Linux'

Re: Now you know how much your privacy is worth

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Operating Systems, said "Windows 10 changes the rules of the game and redefines the relationship between us and our customers". In his blog, Myerson goes on to say "with Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time. We’ll deliver new features when they’re ready, not waiting for the next major release. We think of Windows as a Service".

And you expect these "new features" will be free to the user? That your base W10 install from today will keep running the latest and greatest software if you don't install these features? Features you'll have to pay for because, you know, they've cost money to develop and deploy; features you haven't paid for through your W7 or W8 license? That you can disable the telemetry hoohah without your system karking sooner or later, unless you pay for the option? The shareholders want a steady and predictable flow of money into Microsoft's coffers, so MS has to get money out of you not just once, but periodically. Maybe the consumer Windows stuff will be last to change to this model, but everything else is changing, or has changed.

You're free to suffer the redefined relationship between Microsoft and their customers victims. Mine ended twenty years ago, and good riddance.

A laptop MS considers being tradeable

can fairly easily fetch double the rebate on eBay &c.

Re: "Normal signs of use" image

"Windows key"

Unicomp, Purveyors of Damn Fine Keyboards, offers alternatives for their products.

(icon, because their keyboards can handle that)

Re: Now you know how much your privacy is worth

The OS with embedded spyware is free

Nope. As elsewhere, the first hit is free. After the first year, you'll be required to stump up a subscription fee.

Radio wave gun zaps drones out of the sky – and it's perfectly legal*

Re: Arms race coming?

With laser you need line-of-sight. And it's not that cranking up the power will get that pesky bit of foliage out of the way, unless your controller is capable of Star Wars levels of oomph.

Re: Arms race coming?

laser controlled drones.

You want to keep them away from sharks, then.

Power levels

whereas this "gun" must be transmitting at Kilowatt or even Megawatt levels

I would suggest you read up on RF signalling, antenna design and a few related matters, and then revisit this statement.

Self-driving vehicles might be autonomous but insurance pay-outs probably won't be

Ice on hilly roads will not be easy for autonomous vehicles.

FTFY

On another topic, I gather from gentlemen friends that there is indeed a device that allows the male of the species to wee whilst in a car, albeit not whilst driving.

There's this motorcycle rally in the US, called the Iron Butt Rally. You're supposed to manage four checkpoints in 11 days, with those points roughly at the four corners of the continental US, and that's just for starters. An interview with one of the participants mentioned he had fitted his Goldwing with a couple of auxiliary tanks, adding up to 45 gallons of fuel. With an (my estimate) 30MPG his range between fuel stops would be at least 1200 miles. Asked about needing to stop for reasons other than running low on fuel, he pointed to a tube running down his leg.

The Iron Bladder Rally would be an equally apt name for the event.

Apple 1 goes on sale, expected to fetch £300,000 to £500,000

Re: I would imagine at that age bitrot would be a problem, no?

Your 286 motherboard has its BIOS in, most likely, a medium density EPROM. EPROMs degrade, because the charge that defines the '1' or '0' very slowly leaks away across the isolation. The PROMs in an Apple II are low-density fusible-link, which you blow (or not) during programming. Once done, there's nothing that can flip a bit, short of an ESD zapping. I expect the Apple I to have PROMs with even less capacity, with them consequently being even more resistant to bitrot.

Microsoft now awfully pushy with Windows 10 on Win 7, 8 PCs – Reg readers hit back

It's been commented on at least a dozen times now, and none of those commenters have been using the Reply button so that these BLOODY FSCKING OBVIOUS remarks would have been grouped together.

It's been commented on at least a dozen times now, and none of those commenters have been using the Reply button so that these BLOODY FSCKING OBVIOUS remarks would have been grouped together.

Cascade

So, just three weeks ago, as the shit of W10 "upgrades" and the telemetry snooping hit the news, my GF, a long-time XP and W7 user, took an USB stick, downloaded Mint and one of the Pendrivelinux tools, and went ahead. First a netbook, as a test, then the main laptop. I had been nudging her towards Linux a few times, but she always replied that the effort of switching (not just the OS, but all the programs and the way she worked with them) would be greater than the bother she had with Windows. The bother had clearly reached a critical level with the W10 pushiness and the telemetry snooping.

Yesterday she hosted a small workshop (five attendants) for people who might want to look at Mint, try it out, and get help installing if they wanted.

restored with asterisks by El Mod because it was quite a funny rant really, if a bit too sweary for normal service

"Is there a polite way to say FOAD?"

"Fornicate Off And Decease"

Re: Mistake?

Next month there will be a report that W10 installs jumped considerably.

The month after there will be a report that Mint/Ubuntu/OpenSuSE/Centos/etc installs jumped considerably.

Re: the offending KB's

I think there's legal terms for this kind of behaviour.

I prefer the illegal terms.

A cucumber?

How about a splintery baseball bat, lovingly and thoroughly impregnated with Dave's Insanity Sauce?

Shocker: Net anarchist builds sneaky 220v USB stick that fries laptops

Re: A tool for the paranoid...

No problem. On your own laptop you have a daemon running that toggles the USB ports in a particular pattern that the ZapStik responds to by not zapping. Needs some extra USB-foo on the stick, but anyone who can build this can build the extra USB-foo. Or, even simpler, a switch somewhere that toggles power to the ports. No power, no zap. Of course, you (and they) then won't see the USB stick appear in the device manager, but there's a simple explanation for that: "It's not a storage device". Which it isn't.

They're free to verify the non-storage-devicesishness on another machine.

He does understand voltage

The reference point that any techie understands is being used, is the USB shield, which is tied to the laptop's chassis ground. The shield will also have the same potential as the USB ground pin, but there could be a filter between it and the shield.

Re: A tool for the paranoid...

I wouldn't bring this anywhere near a plane. Planes now often have 5V USB charger connectors for the cattle'scustomer's entertainment devices

Just use it while still on the ground, taxiing. If the plane stops dead, you're on the wrong kind of plane anyway.

Re: I could see a use for this device.

"terrorist"

You missplet "terrrist"

charges

How many Coulombs?

Dry those eyes, ad blockers are unlikely to kill the internet

(And don't give me the old "contextual advertising" canard, the state of the market for that still appears to be "Hey, you bought one of these things once, do you want to buy 500 similar items now?", and if Amazon can't get that right I figure no bugger's going to any time soon).

I can easily divide items I buy into three categories: one-offs and consumables, with the third being something like "occasionally". One-offs would be durable consumer goods stuff like a fridge, washing machine, JCB or guillotine, items you might expect to last at least a decade. Consumables are equally clear: stuff you buy at least once a week because you or your cat require them in nourishment, causing unhappiness when depleted. And occasionally? Clothing, for instance, or printer paper.

For one-offs it would be downright silly if advertisers sling "related" ads at you after a purchase. Consumables? You probably have your favourite brands, or you go for whatever is cheapest and not downright disgusting; in which case you may want to know who's offering what on special. The "occasional" segment will probably be the richest fishing grounds for targeted ads. The next step would be for the ad slingers to categorise their wares according to these categories. Shouldn't be that difficult, but apparently this is beyond the average marketeer's grasp.

Facebook's UK wing paid just £4k in corporation tax last year

Re: The usual scheme...

Tax any of a very long list of things that can't be moved, like keyboards and door hinges

Keyboards can be moved. Although it's often cheaper to discard the one over here* and buy a new one over there**, with the one over there often allocated to another person than the one whose keyboard was discarded.

* here being, you know, here.

* not here.

Factory settings FAIL: Data easily recovered from eBayed smartphones, disks

Re: ...its the only way to be sure

find a De-Walt with a HSS bit drill through the platters a few times.

Even better, if you have access to a CNC router, is to program it so that it eats away the disk from one side. Soon the router bit will hit the platters, which will start to spin ... If things go well, you'll be left with just platter dust.

(wear safety glasses)

Webcam spyware voyeur sentenced to community service

Explain

And to themselves

Microsoft, the VW family sedan of IT, wants to be tech's new Rolls-Royce

Re: Hmmm....

Ever paid for mainframe development or bought off-the-shelf unix workstation software?

Bespoke Windows Server software isn't cheap either. And where mainframe/mini software teams usually know what they're doing, Windows software builders always seem to be struggling with those foreign concepts such as fail-over, fail-safe, redundancy and load-sharing, basically writing single-server software that tries to yell "I can't cope, please help me" if something goes wrong, hoping that the other system will take over and then huddling in a corner, sobbing.

Same holds for a fair pile of commercial Linux software, BTW. Relying on a development beta filesystem to keep track of who's master in a multi-system environment (they call it a cluster. I know clusters, and this isn't one), and then requiring the entire lot to be rebooted when the filesystem loses track of something or other? Bwahaha. Snort. Giggle.

Re: May they get their wish

"Microsoft, the VW family sedan of IT, wants to be tech's new Rolls-Royce"

They're already like the other part or Rolls-Royce, the bit making jet engines: sucking and blowing at the same time. They even had a database engine ominously called Jet, which very appropriately caused anything odd getting in to it get utterly shredded, or have the engine itself disintegrate most spectacularly.

Apollo 15 commander's lunar timepiece goes under the hammer

Perspective

It would be easier if I could sketch it out, but I'll try.

Imagine a line running vertically through the centre of the photo. Real-world lines parallel to this line will appear to converge on the same point on the horizon as this centreline; the further out (left or right) they start from this centreline, the greater the projected angle of this parallel line to the vertical is. In this case, there are two similar-sized objects a similar distance from the centreline as well as the camera, so their (parallel) shadows will appear as having roughly the same angle to the vertical. And would converge on the same point on the horizon if those shadows were sufficiently long. In other words, this is why you see what you see, and the wide angle lens, which the Zeiss Biogon 60mm is, will exacerbate that effect.

In photos not taken with the sun/light source right in the photographer's back, the effect (still present) gets overwhelmed by the angular projection of the objects with respect to the vertical centreline.