Posts by russell 6

Shhhhh! It's a Swiss Sunday shutdown. Kill the lawnmower, punish the kids with CHEESE

Re: Sunday shutdown...

They really do have laws, rules and regulations about pretty much everything in the Confederation Helvetica.You are not permitted to have a bonfire in your garden to burn garden waste, even if you live out in the sticks. You must wait for the green man at the road crossing even if it's the middle of the night and there is no traffic.

On the other hand prostitution and brothels are legal. There are even special 3 month work permits for foreign 'ladies of the night' who want to ply their trade and yes they are taxed. Most try to find a rich sugar daddy during that time so they can stay, quite a few do too.

I lived in Lugano in the Italian speaking region of Switzerland for 10 years and can relate to Simon. But after a while you feel like Switzerland is sucking the life out of you and it is time to change. The conformity got to me in the end.

What is cheaper in Switzerland than anywhere else in Europe is electronics. TVs and camera's etc This is a link to a price comparison site of physical shops, not just online businesses (in English)

http://en.toppreise.ch/index.php

They will also ship abroad.

Holy sh*t! Amsterdam man in pop-up public toilet shock horror

Daft design

If this is about stopping people peeing in the street I don't see how it will be that successful. If you feel the need to go in the street it means your bladder is pretty much straining under the pressure. Waiting for this piss pot to fully rise out of the ground is little short of torture if you are busting for a wazz. I can imagine people peeing into it as soon as begins to open which I doubt was the designers original intention.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Bryndzové halušky

Re: Bryndza

Good point. Let me find out

Re: Bryndza

I'm in Slovakia for a few weeks. Want me to post some?

Perfect timing

I'm in Slovakia at the moment so will definitely be giving this a try :) As an aside, it really is a beautiful country, particularly in the Tatra mountain region.

MOULDY DICK: France aims to snatch EXPLODING WHALE crown from U.S.

Re: Nuff said.

Have been sailing off the Cape of Good Hope and Mellville's description of those "bannered flukes" is nigh spot on.

Use of Mouldy Dick in title. Love the play on words. Nuff said.

Tech bubble? No, no way, nope, says Silicon Valley investor

The next major bail-out will be Fracking companies in the USA. Oil prices are on their way down and the amount of debt and asset sales Fracking companies are making suggests troubled waters ahead. Fed will bail some out and there will be consolidation amoungst others. It's the price the US gov is willing to pay to put the screws on the Russian economy. It won't be cheap though.

Snapper's decisions: Whatever happened to real photography?

You don't need to spend a fortune on a camera. If you are serious about how making more of your photography then you need a camera that gives you control of Aperture and Shutter speed. There are many good deals out there on refurbished and well looked after second hand cameras. A modest budget can get you on the road. The important thing is choosing something that is right for you.

I got into photography when I was 10, borrowed lots of books from the library on the subject and went out and experimented, it is the best way to learn. As the article states, the important thing is to slow down and consider what exactly it is you want to capture, have the image in your mind's eye before you even pick the camera up. Then set the camera up to capture the scene in the way you already imagined it. That comes with time and a shed load of experimentation.

Happy hunting :)

Even a broken watch is right twice a day: Not an un-charged Apple Watch

Re: Any patent experts out there?

My sarcasm detector is a bit wonky today. Not sure if you were being serious or not.

Any patent experts out there?

Reading this article gave me an idea I would like to discuss in private. I think I have stumbled upon a genuinely interesting idea/solution regarding the possible future of wearables. El Reg, would you be happy to be a go-between/moderator of any patent people who might be interested and respond to this post?

Maybe my idea is already covered elsewhere but it is worth looking into. Part of my idea is a rollover of my experience with battlefield communication tech.

SKYPE has the HOTS for my NAKED WIFE

I have a plaster stuck over my webcam and mic. Only take it off when actually making a video call. Problem solved

Happy 2nd birthday, Windows 8 and Surface: Anatomy of a disaster

Following fashion rather than function

As the owner of a laptop which has Win 8.1 installed but no touchscreen functionality it seems the OS has a split personality. Trying to make the same OS work on a tablet and a desktop/laptop was never going to work for the simple fact that tablets are designed for the consumption of media rather than creating work, which needs a different approach.

I'm a phototographer and writer who could not imagine having to work with a tablet OS, it would drive me to distraction and at times the way 8.1 works has this effect. If you need to get work done then you need a mouse and keyboard, until they can come up with something better. Touchscreen is never going to be the nirvana for the work I and many others do.

Now that the tablet market is reaching saturation, people are going to start asking, what comes next? To my mind, tablets were always a flash in the pan for the simple fact you are restricted by how much useful work you can do with them. All they are really good for is consumption. Win 10 needs to return to it's roots of being useful to people who need to do actual work.

Antarctic ice at all time high: We have more to learn, says boffin

As the article says, there is still a lot to learn. At the same time we need to look after our home, it's the only one we have.

SLOSH! Cops dethrone suspect - by tipping over portaloo with him inside

Punishment does not fit the crime

Criminal trespass and evading arrest. What happened to him in the khazi should be reserved for car thieves and sheep botherers.

I would do the same thing to those cops, what if the guy gets some nasty infection because of that. Totally gross.

Japanese volcano eruption reportedly leaves 31 people presumed dead

Survival instinct

I saw the video footage someone took as the ash cloud was rolling towards a group of hikers. They seemed more interested in getting footage instead of moving their backsides as quickly as possible. Zero survival instinct.

A spin of roulette in the sporty Ford Fiesta Black

Re: turbos

Ahh joyous memories of my long gone Saab 9000 Aero. Now that was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Turbo heaven

Oi, London thief. We KNOW what you're doing - our PRECRIME system warned us

Statement of the obvious

Looking at the map, most of the red zones are around central London tube stations most used by tourists and targeted by pickpockets. Was it really that much effort to work out crime will happen in such obvious areas?

They should have used a normal town as an example, it would be much more representative. It is pretty much guaranteed that crime is going to happen around Oxford Circus tomorrow afternoon, it is a pickpocket's paradise

Jihadi terrorists DIDN'T encrypt their comms 'cos of Snowden leaks

They are on a serious power trip and believe nobody can stop them or if they do try it will trigger the final Judgement Day, which is what they really want to do.

I wasn't being facetious (not sure if I spelt that right) about your comment, but I know how their minds work. I also have a pretty good idea of what is going to come out of the upcoming meeting of the UN security council. We live in interesting times.

Artisan jewellery would be considered haram or forbidden for being unislamic. These guys are seriously austere.

Phones 4u slips into administration after EE cuts ties with Brit mobe retailer

Slightly off topic but a lot of the comments have mentioned buying Sim-free unlocked phones. I don't know why, but here in Switzerland electronics tend to be much cheaper than anywhere else in Europe, and it isn't only the difference made by having 8% VAT

I just got an LG G3 for £342 after converting from Swiss franc price of 520chf. Cheapest sim free in UK seems to be about £480, that is a huge difference even allowing for the difference in VAT.

This is a Swiss price comparison site, in English, for retailers in Switzerland, I guess they have no problem shipping to the UK http://en.toppreise.ch/grp2_194.html

Blockbuster book lays out the first 20 years of the Smartphone Wars

Well done.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Thank you.

City hidden beneath England's Stonehenge had HUMAN ABATTOIR. And a pub

Traffic jams

'Defleshing on a forecourt' Maybe the early version of the A303 also had serious traffic problems, instead of pulling in for a Ginster while waiting for traffic to clear they had more readily available fresh snacks.

Apple's SNEAKY plan: COPY ANDROID. Hello iPhone 6, Watch

Re: Battery problems prevail?

My HTC One S started having battery difficulties after 18 months. Even light usage would kill the battery in about 12 hours. If the battery were replaceable I would have kept it as it had everything I need in a phone. No more phones where I can't change the battery so I just got the LG G3

Jony Ive: Apple iWatch will SCREW UP Switzerland's economy

Re: Something forgotten

I like TAG too. What always gets me is the intricacy of the mechanics, I had the chance to see my watch being put together, in this digital age good mechanical engineering has the power to create emotion in a way electronics and ones and zeros never do. Well for me anyway.

Re: Something forgotten

I have a Schwarz Etienne, model New York, they aren't famous but the quality is superb.

Something forgotten

There is a beauty to seeing how a well crafted mechanical watch movement functions. A digital watch is a totally different proposition to a mechanical movement. Different markets, horses for courses. Slightly biased as I have a watch from a small Swiss producer and the model I own is one of only 300 made.

4th Century GOBLET could REVIVE CORPSE of holographic storage

Now waiting for Ikea to start selling a reproduction set of those goblets

Firefox 32 moves to kill MITM attacks

New Firefox update killed my internet

Last night updated to Firefox v32 from v31 and it killed my internet, even IE on a fully patched Win 8.1 couldn't connect. Skype still worked though....Had to do a system restore to get back the old version 31. Now looking for the solution

Reg man looks through a Glass, darkly: Google's toy ploy or killer tech specs?

Does it understand Scottish?

http://youtu.be/sAz_UvnUeuU

Pay to play: The hidden cost of software defined everything

Pay to Play question

Forgive my ignorance, I don't work in tech but I'm curious about it. Reading this article got me thinking at a tangent about which I have a question as somebody with no knowledge whatsoever, so please be nice.

The tangent I went off on is Software Defined Networking, from what I understand this is the future particulalrly for Big Data. My question is if in theory it could be applied to the internet in general and if so could it also be used for Pay to Play at ISP level with regards to certain elements of the internet?

My big reveal as macro-economics analyst: It's a load of COBBLERS

Alternative to QE?

I sometimes wonder if all the money central banks had put into quantitative easing had been distributed on a household basis instead of to the banks we might not be in a better situation today.

The banks on realizing they would not be bailed out would soon have seen that the only way for the banking sector to survive would be to cancel each others debts, which were based on financial derivatives, money that didn't really exist.

If the $1.7 trillion given to QE in the USA had instead been divided up between the people of the USA then there would have been enough to give every individual, from baby to pensioner over $5,600. Let’s be more practical and say the money would have been better distributed on a household basis. There are just under 115 million households in the USA, if the money were divided equally then each one would have received about $14,782. Can you imagine the stimulus this would have given to the real economy as people used the money to buy goods, pay off debt or to use as a deposit on a home. The real economy would have recovered from recession rapidly and on a more secure footing.

My 2p's worth

Edward Snowden's not a one-off: US.gov hunts new secret doc leaker

Re: Somebody got a universal translator handy?

Hi Cipher

We are all in this together. West and Russia. It will be Operation Lamentations all round.

Re: Somebody got a universal translator handy?

Hi Auburnman

Read this Forbes article to get the lowdown on the Chinese shadow banking sector

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/2014/05/21/chinas-shadow-banking-valued-at-80-of-gdp/

Japan is actually the USA's largest creditor and I wrote an article about it including some other research which put things into words more effectively than I can:

http://russellchapman.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/global-gdp-vs-global-debt-what-is-really-going-on/

Re: Somebody got a universal translator handy?

No. But if nothing of particular note happens to global markets in a negative way by Jan 1st 2015, I will donate £50 to your favourite charity.

Re: Somebody got a universal translator handy?

I don't think it will be as far away as two years. The collapse of the holding company of Bank Espirito Santo, a major Portugese bank is a signal of the on going weakness of the banking system in the periphery of Europe. Russia is in a much more fragile economic situation than many realize and China has huge debts which are hidden by its shadow banking system.

I happen to know several directors of major banks in Switzerland. All are saying that global stock markets are way over valued, price/earning ratios are crazy. Profit is coming from price/cost cutting rather than earnings on activity. It will only take one shock in the right place to start a chain reaction.

Re: @ Pascal Monett and russell 6. Re "What the hell does that mean?"

Kein problem, mein freund

Re: Somebody got a universal translator handy?

You could well be correct. I touched upon the weaknesses of this type of organization in something I wrote last year. Link here: http://russellchapman.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/a-question-about-the-terrorist-attack-in-nairobi-kenya/

Entopy always wins in the end, you can't beat physics. This is also why I am betting on a financial crisis in the next 3-4 months, I might be wrong on the exact timing but it will make 2007/08 look like a walk in the park.

Re: Somebody got a universal translator handy?

Two man rule: It requires two people with seperate access codes, iris scans, keys etc to open a system. One can not do this without the other "man" being present

Role based monitoring: You have a set framework within which you carry out your duties. Operating outside of these parameters will trigger a red flag. Similar to trying to do something on your PC at work which is outside of the permissions set by the Sys Admin. Try to do something and it will be noticed.

What it means is that they need a shed load of internal "watchers" to watch the "watchers"

At some point in the future things will get so big and complex within the organization, circles within circles etc, that it will no longer be able to support its own weight and entropy will do its thing that it does with all systems which are out of balance.

Quite funny actually

If true then it will create lots of paranoia inside the organization, they will then lock permissions down so tightly that nobody will be able to get any work done

Flamewars in SPAAACE: cooler fires hint at energy efficiency

GEET Engine?

This takes a lot of heat out of the engine combustion process http://rebuilding.geetinternational.com/faq/

MYSTERIOUS Siberia CRATER: ALIENS or METEOR not involved, officials insist

Boring answer

Could it be a collapsed Pingo? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingo

The area is full of them. Not sure of the underlying geology in that neck of the woods but if it is a limestone area and the permafrost has been gradually melting, it would eat away at the rock under the iceplug. Could have caused the Pingo to collapse in on itself, creating a giant borehole at the same time. Any takers?

Remaining Snowden docs will be released to avert 'unspecified US war' – ‪Cryptome‬

Re: Originone Paul Crawford @Matt Bryant

Hi Matt. It is true that Hezbollah are also very organized but they too are an Iranian proxy. There is an interesting report today from the French Foreign Minister that ISIS in Syria are selling oil to the Syrian Government, why would they do that unless there is a certain amount of collaboration between them. Considering that Assad is supported by Iran it just goes to show that there are wheels within wheels.

I find it interesting that the news of ISIS selling oil to Assad hasn't been reported in any of the British press.

Re: Something to think about

The Persians have been planning since the overthrow of the Shah. They have always had hegemonic ambitions. Iran and Russia together make quite a alliance. I'm waiting for the chaos to start effecting oil supplies, this would give a huge injection of cash to Russia, which it desperately needs and I think Iran will use ISIS to do this as a way of helping its comrade. What you say about the Shia in the south east being pretty much untouched was one of the things I noticed too. I wrote about it recently that it would be a strong indicator of who was running ISIS.

As for KSA, considering the fact that they have been working in collaboration with Israel and Jordan regarding Syria and that Egyptian President Sisi has close ties with KSA I think it is more likely this group will make an alliance along with UAE in the face of the threat. Turkey has allowed ISIS to ship huge numbers of "tractor parts" from Libya across its border into Syria. Turkey has a force inside Syria, ostensibly to protect the tomb of Suleyman Shah, very close by is an ISIS base. When Erdogan sent the force he was quoted as saying “Right now, the issue is not about ISIL”, so if he wasn't worried about them at the time then what was/is he up to?

I can potentially see a lot of Palestinians in Jordan joining the cause as they are treated very much as 3rd rate, possibly also a number of Syrian refugees, they will never be able to go back to Syria as it is today, they might feel it is a better bet than being stuck in a refugee camp in the desert.

Can anything unite Lebanon??? Some of my family have left recently, it isn't a healthy place to be. Way too divided. Last time I was there I was followed by one of their muppet security guys in a very obvious shiny black 4x4 while I was wandering around, managed to lose him fairly quickly.

I know what you mean about the Russian bank not being touched. Maybe it was so beautiful nobody wanted to damage it ;) I used to joke back in the 80's that the IRA must be sponsored by the big construction companies, they were making a fortune off of them.

Re: Something to think about

Thanks Bloakey. I agree with you. This has got Iran's prints all over it. Them Persians be clever blighters, in an evil genius sort of way.

You can be sure as hell that this has got KSA seriously worried, why else would they be trying to patch things up with Iran now. Yesterday I was speaking to a Jordanian friend, I asked him about Ma'an down in the south and he said there are areas where the police don't go, it is too dangerous, he also told me there are a lot in Zarqa and Mufrak who are ready to join ISIS. Ironic as this is where Zaatari refugee camp is also. Jordan has a big pot of poo bubbling under the surface. Methinks this Islamic State is just getting warmed up.......

Sykes-Picot is finished, that's for sure.

Re: Something to think about

Thank you Trevor. My aim is simply to shine a light into dark corners.

Something to think about

Please don't shout at me for posting this but I have a lot of direct experience in the Middle East and if Cryptome aren't playing silly buggers, it could be related to what is happening in Iraq with ISIS. http://russellchapman.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/isis-and-islamic-state/

UBER UBER ALLES: Investors value ride app at $17 BEEELLION

We are in major bubble territory.

Panda-monium as Google updates key search algorithm

Re: Just checked. Phew

It wasn't meant to be subtle