Posts by Yet Another Anonymous coward

BBC: We'll give FREE subpar-Raspberry-Pis to a million Brit schoolkids

Re: What can you do with a 74HC00?

Building a half-adder out of 7400 gates would be an excellent start.

Problem: People think computers are magic boxes that no human can understand - and therefore grow up believing everything the computer tells them.

Solution: teach people how computers work at a basic level

Teaching people to click on icons in word to make a web page doesn't do anything to change the "magic box" picture. Even typing python into a RPi after watching pages of incomprehensible Matrix-like Kernel boot messages doesn't really teach anyone that a computer really is a very simple idea.

Arduino is a great idea, it would have been nice if this thing was an arduino clone so it could use the same sketch software and be a stepping stone to arduino projects. (perhaps it does haven't seen any details)

Re: What a bunch of ****ing moaners

> she has a tantrum when she doesn't get exactly her own way

Future linux kernel dev ?

Re: To balance the scales...

>Because IT is just about coding and apps right?

IT covers much more than simply coding:

There is arguing with layers of management about how a backup isn't a waste of money

There is arguing with suppliers about "yes actually we feel that a CPU, memory, disk and a PSU SHOULD be included with a server quote"

There is arguing with HR that you should be allowed to execute a few users every now and again - "Pour Encouragez Les Autres"

And there is the vital technical skills of turning it off and on again / hitting it / wiggling cables / shuffling paper / hitting it (again)

Re: I think..

They didn't design/build/sell/distribute the Acon BBC Micro - they did little more than endorse it.

They didn't even IIRC produce much software for BBC basic only or even particularly concentrate on the BBC micro in their programs.

Kaspersky claims to have found NSA's 'space station malware'

That's Kaspersky big selling point, they are a Russian company so are about as lilkely to bend over for the NSA as Microsoft would be to do a favor for the KGB

Should online pirates get the same sentences as offline ones?

So if I ripped off some GPL software and bundled it in millions of copies of my expensive enterprise virtual machine software - then the fine should be $0 because I haven't cost the copyright holder any money ?

Re: I'm not a big believer in prison.

The proposal is that you could get upto 10years.

Of course no ordinary movie downloader would get this - it will have to be somebody the police didn't like or somebody who refused to cooperate with them

Fortunately the Met (motto "Total Policing") would never use having the threat of a 10year prison sentence to hold over just about anybody as a way to force "cooperating with the Police"

Re: I'm not a big believer in prison.

And it is the correct place for people like VMWare, Sony, Microsoft, DLink and lots of other companies who used GPL software without obeying the license terms.

Do just the management go down or are all the shareholders also guilty of profiting from the crime?

End in sight for Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe wage-fixing lawsuit

Re: Some justice

It's the only way to get "justice" or at least an admission of guilt

If it was down to the government to uncover these cases and prosecute they would simply go away in the face of a few $1000 of campaign contribution or a word with the local politico about how many jobs would be at risk if they had to move out of his area.

Even if the government did prosecute the result would be a fine which would go into the government's pocket and be taken out again in the next tax return.

By offering lawyers $shitloads to go after these cases it is the only way they ever come to light.

Can't pay $349 for an Apple Watch? Get a Chinese knockoff for less than $50

So would the Keith Waterhouse quarter hour approximate watch (I'm showing my age here)

Re: Still not understanding the target market

>Still not understanding the target market

Everybody now has an iPhone

So merely wearing white headphones no longer marks you out as sensitive artistic special person

Having one of these on your wrist will allow you to demonstrate your uniquely individual personal creative style without having to sit in Starbucks all day with your macbook open

Knock offs?

These are Android smart watches.

They are an iWatch knock-off in the same way that a Mac is an IBM-AT knock-off

Apple aren't the first to make a smart watch that links to your phone, you have been able to buy them for years.

The voters hate Google. Heeeeyyyy... how about a 'Google Tax'?

So it perfectly reasonable and indeed the goal of the european union - that IKEA, the well known Dutch Antilles charity should pay zero tax on 40Bn euros of sales?

>, paying corporation tax in your home country is not a loophole.

It is when your "home country" is a brass plaque on a lawyers office in the Caribbean.

Perhaps I should rent a server somewhere offshore loop my remote desktop through there and stop paying tax because I am clearly "working" from Sark or Lichenstein.

ACLU files new lawsuits in hunt for police 'Stingray' mobe-trackers

Re: Interesting concept...

No it's a bit like asking "are there secret police outside the rule of law and the constitution - and should the public take an interest in this"

Bulk comms spying is not mission creep, insists UK foreign sec

Re: Another nail in the coffin

Fortunately under new labour we were able to abandon the old tribalism and choose freely between two parties run by identical public school->PPE->lawyer->think tank->MP clones with identical polices.

At least with coke and pepsi the sugar water tastes slightly different

Re: Apologists for the Security Services...

I don't think it's as simple as that - you also need an easily identifiable ethnic group that you can blame for all the internal troubles.

Re: Another nail in the coffin

>Hint: that was not under the Tories.

They were tories - it was just a sneaky undercover op.

Re: Is...

Didn't we recently admit to a state sponsored attack on the telecommunications network of a Nato country ?

Shouldn't we in the spirit of "an attack on one is an attack on all" bomb ourselves?

In public yes - there is no way the government would curtail free speech.

Online no - it falls under the vaguely worded Malicious Communication Bill and could get you arrested

HP battles back against white-box with Foxconn-built Cloudline servers

Re: wonder if there are order minimums

Depends what your business use is

If you have a single server that your business relies on then you get top of the line redundant power supplies, ECC ram, raid etc

If you are running a web server farm where nobody except the load balancer notices a failed machine out of the 1000s then why bother with 9-9s uptime?

MPs 'alarmed' by millions of mugshots on Brit cops' databases

Re: Policing by consent?

I think the tipping point has been reached.

When nice white middle class well paid people like el'reg readers have the same opinion of police as a black teenager - they have lost.

Quick office survey of "would you help an injured police officer lying by the side of the road" resulted in bad news for any cops in accident. Motorbike cops in an accident would still be helped by the bikers - apparently biker first cop 2nd applies - but the rest could expect to bleed to death.

A Brit in California moves to the Lone Star State – just swerve the TexMex grub

Re: Asking you what church you go to?

Tell them that Brits fight with swords - like gentlemen

Re: You almost had me packing my bags.

But it can be fun winding them up.

"I hear it's all socialist in Europe"

>Yes we a fire service that comes for free when you call, and police that are free, and roads and schools that are all paid for by the government

"Er yes well,.... "

>And we get health care for free paid by the taxpayer

"That's what I mean - it's like communism"

UK Supreme Court waves through indiscriminate police surveillance

Re: "justification was that he sometimes attended protests with “Smash EDO”, a violent group."

So if the Queen showed up at an event in parliament and there were some elected MPs present who were on, for example, the Army Council of a Northern Irish purely cultural organisation - she would go on a list ?

Re: It's Over for Democracy

Like the chaps who kicked out George III to produce a nation founded on freedom and equality.

Anybody know how that worked out ?

Re: It's lost it's rationality....

It's not really a question of whether some secret agency has the name of a 91 year old anti-Iraq war protester on a database.

It's whether the police are allowed to give somebody an unofficial "police record" for attending a politcal meeting, and then use that as further evidence that he is a "person known to the police" when it comes to getting a warrant later, or using knowing him to get a warrant on somebody else because they are associated with a person with a police record.

Oi. APPLE fanboi! You with the $10k and pocket on fire! Fancy a WATCH?

Re: Resale Value - not a lot

So the only logical solution is to buy a fake Rolex/Omega from a market stall in China.

You get the accuracy of any other quartz watch and not only do you get the same respect from anybody stupid enough to care about how much your watch costs, but you get to laugh at them behind their back.

And if you get mugged for it - you have the last laugh.

C'mon! Greece isn't really bust and it can pay its debts

Re: Infinite debt

A large debt with large GDP isn't an issue. Its an advantage, it gives people a safe place to put their money = government bonds.

It's like saying that a massively successful high st bank with millions of savers is in trouble because it owes so much debt to all its customers.

Re: Yes

It still seems odd that the financial markets in London and Frankfurt are so massively different that a single currency is ludicrous and yet Barnes and Barnsley face such similar economic issues that any difference in response to them would be unthinkable.

>Sure, it's convenient when you go on holiday

It's also convenient if you run a business. Our currency has dropped by 20% in the last few months so that fuel prices at the pump have actually gone up as the oil price tanked.

Try running a tight margin international business with 10 different currencies that vary by 20%

Britain isn't an industrial country, it is a real estate investment trust and an offshore banking center.

It does a bit of manufacturing where there are enough tax breaks

Re: That's a lot of words...

The Germans 'believed' the Greek numbers because they needed poor countries in the euro so the poor countries could borrow money at low interest rates to buy German cars.

The whole point of the euro was to make German exports affordable.

VMware sued, accused of ripping off Linux kernel source code

The real question is what is the penalty

Will VMWare get away with simply saying "oops sorry" and rushing out a patch that uses the scsi routines from FreeBSD or simply publish the code to that small module.

So sending a message to every other corporation that you can rip off GPL and even if you are caught, and even if the other side do sue, and even if you don't manage to simply drag on the case until the developer's legal bills bankrupt him - there is no real penalty.

Or will they be fined the $20,000 / copy that a teenager would get for downloading MP3s

Re: tisk tisk VMWare

It makes everything GPL effectively LGPL.

You take any GPL code, wrap it in a service that you use via DBUS, publish the code to your service wrapper and keep your code proprietary.

Pentagon 'network intruder', dozens more cuffed in British cops' cyber 'strike week'

Re: Let's hope police forces around the world go after these criminals.

I assume they will first be extradited to the Netherlands for the theft and then to Russia / china / Iran / etcv wherever the hacked sims ended up being used.

Virus writing?

Is a crime since when?

I wrote a backup script which (accidentally) recursively copied our log folder to a subdirectory - infinitely deeply . Who do I turn myself in to ?

Canadian bloke refuses to hand over phone password, gets cuffed

Re: Not just Canada

You have computers in NZ ?

Actually - you have government in NZ?

Re: Okay, so they ask to see my laptop.

>Okay mister border guard, what now?

I've been stopped at security like that.

"Turn on your laptop"

Boots to a command prompt.

"No - turn it on."

It is on ?

"TURN ON THE COMPUTER"

Eventually worked out what they wanted, "startx" and wiggle the cursor

The world was once safe from terrorism and VMS.

For extra bonus points it should start a command prompt in klingon

Mummy, what's the point of Evgeny Morozov's tedious columns?

Re: I do not think it means what you think it means...

>>"The fastest way to reduce wealth inequality would be to forbid people to take out mortgages"

Only because of the unique way in which wealth inequality is calculated - or reported.

Take a capital city where houses are so expensive that people take out 100year multi-generational mortgages and spend 3/4 of their take home pay on repayments.

Compare a city principality where the crown prince owns all the housing but rents it out cheaply. The entire population of millionaire f1 drivers and tax exiles spend all their money on fast cars and drink.

Which has biggest wealth inequality ?

Re: Evgeny Who?

"Worstall is a marxist-socialist type"

More a marx-fraternalist type

Paul Allen hunts down sunken Japanese WWII super-battleship

The military leadership doesn't prepare for the next war

> they prepare to fight the last one

Generally the winners fight the last war - after all they won so they must have been doing it right.

The losers generally get the opportunity to hire a new set of younger generals (typically after shooting the incumbents) who take a long look at what went wrong and come up with some new ideas.

In the case where the last war was some considerable time ago it can be quite entertaining - such as the Royal Navy's attempts in WWI to re-fight the Battle of Trafalgar against the Germans.

Re: Who trained the Japanese to torpedo bomb?

We did a beta release for Pearl Harbour which the Japanese observed Battle of Taranto.

Pity the Americans didn't take any notice - probably because it used canvas biplanes to destroy a naval fleet and the Americans didn't have any canvas biplanes so their fleet was safe.

Sophie the Stegosaurus was a teenaged fat lass claims triple-D model

Not quite birds then

>Dinosaurs are related to modern birds .... but their anatomy could have been quite different in some cases

Especially in the case of large viscous teeth and claws for example ?

US military SATELLITE suddenly BLOWS UP: 'Temperature spike' blamed

Re: 450 nautical miles up

>You have no idea how superior nautical miles are to the French equivalent.

For navigating at sea on a great circle - they are ideal (well assuming you are doing your navigation using astronomical sightings and a stop watch and don't have a calculator)

For orbital mechanics they are less obviously the ideal choice

US court rubber-stamps dragnet metadata surveillance (again)

Re: The FISA court is worthless...

But even then you would expect it to reject 20% for being on the wrong form, send back 30% for queries, lose 40% in the system and then launch an internal inquiry into what happened to the other 10%.

Remember it's only DMV grade incompetence that protects us from government