Posts by John Brown (no body)

Boffins have fabricated microscopic sci-fi tractor beams for real

Re: Wasn't it Gene Roddenberry in Star Trek?

They were being used as plot devices in SF long before Star Trek, at least in print.

Shift-work: Keyboards heaped in a field push North Yorks council's fly-tipping buttons

Re: Craven District Council

From the article, it's in North Yorkshire. That should narrow it down a bit. If not, try this "dumped at the side of the B6479 between Horton In Ribblesdale and Selside.", also from the article. (B6479 is a road number, Google maps should locate it for you, especially given the two village name)

Re: ARRRG the Punnage!

If all the keyboards are removed, the next time the field is re-booted, will the crop grow in the form of an error message? Keyboard missing. Press F1 to continue.

Florida man won't be compelled to reveal iPhone passcode, yet

Thanks for the replies.

Re: Point phone at face - job done.

"The magic that is Face Unlock... The least secure way to lock your phone... But something Apple make a huge big deal about."

Exactly! Biometrics are a username, not a password. If you can't change it, it's not a password!

"I assume they want to find out if he was using the phone at the time of the crash."

If he's a minor, then if he was driving at the time, surely that's already a crime? What's a minor in the US and what is the legal driving age?

Re: @onefang

"Florida Man is a term used to describe somebody who's in trouble with the law for a stupid or unusual reason."

And there was I thinking it was a sub-species description, something similar to Java Man or Neanderthal Man, or maybe more like Piltdown Man.

Re: Files are not testimony

"Why is a password any different from a physical key?"

Because a password isn't a physical thing? Unless you wrote it down somewhere, in which the accusers can go search for it as with other physical evidence.

The best way to screw the competition? Do what they can't, in a fraction of the time

Re: Karma

"It all came to a head when I was planning a road trip across Italy (during my lunch break)"

Wow! What do you drive? A TARDIS?

Re: "Ethernet is so much better"

"OK, if it's an obscurity contest .. how many of you remember Polynet ?"

ISTR some vague memory of Banyan Vines too. No idea why I remember it it what it was. Some sort of networking kit or protocol or something related.

Re: "Ethernet is so much better"

"One of my employers had installed, at great cost, 10Base2 networking using make-before-break plug in cables, so in theory you could connect and disconnect individual machines without killing the whole network segment."

One of our customers had that. But they were in an old Victorian building with the original heating pipes. Yes, pipes, not radiators. Cast iron pipes about 4" in diameter, running along all the office walls about 3' off the ground. Just below the trunking and wall points of this expensive make before break system. Bendy metal contacts just inches above a nice heat source that went on and off during the day. And we all know what bendy metal and varying temperatures leads to, don't we boys and girls?

The 'roid in Spain drills mainly on the plain: Plucky Brit Mars robot laps up sun, sand and, er, simulated science

Re: One thing Brexit won't hurt

"The EU has rules, of course."

The dilemma I see is that the UK was often the leader in drafting new EU rules. Said new rules were then submitted to each national government to implement as they saw fit, within the bounds of credibility. The UK always seemed to be the one that implemented them in the most draconian way possibly, to the letter and beyond. Then UK.gov blamed the EU for the new draconian rules. It's almost as if there has been a decades long plan to discredit the EU on behalf of the UK ot the UK has been using the EU while it could to get more power and now the EU or it's newer members, having lived under oppressive regimes, are no longer playing ball, hence Brexit.

Super Cali goes ballistic, net neutrality hopeless? Even Ajit Pai's gloating is something quite atrocious

"Yes, but IP traffic from the ISS is carried over proprietary links from the USA (at least, on the US side of the thing) and so is akin to an internal network like the one you probably have at home. Except moving faster. As such, rules governing ISPs are not relevant."

But the internet is a network of networks, so any network that is connected is part of the thing, including your home LAN :-)

Jeez, not now, Iran... Facebook catches Mid East nation running trolly US, UK politics ads

Re: Those two examples displayed in the article text

"I have no idea of the accuracy of that example. I don't know enough about all the other USA presidents. On the other hand, it says "PRESIDENT", and though it mentions "AMERICAN HISTORY", it's not specific that it means "USA PRESIDENT". There are likely much worse and much more hated presidents of other countries, even of some other American countries."

That sounds like lawyer-logic :-)

Californian chap sets his folks' home on fire by successfully taking out spiders with blowtorch

Re: blow torch... pfft

"Amateur, flame thrower for the win..."

Is that an Elon Musk Boring Company Flamethrower?

China tells Trump to use a Huawei phone to avoid eavesdroppers

Re: Why would Huawei be safer?

Because the Chinese said so, robustly and with sincerity. That means Trump will believe them. Just like with Putin and the Saudis :-)

"It just sounds a lot like what Demo[n,c][R,r]ats say. Shouldn't be any of THAT coming from Trump's phone."

Why would you assume that anyone criticising Trump is a Democrat? Some vocal critics are senior republicans, others are just amused outsiders who don't even live in the US and are watching the soap opera. Yet others are just so jaded by politics that we criticise all of them, saving our votes for the currently least worst evil and then criticise them anyway.

Got a new Surface? Have some firmware. Old Surface? La la la la la, we can't hear you

Re: Not sure about that

"thats odd, in the early 90s we had a PC suite of top of the line 486 sx33s"

Top of the line would have been a DX, not an SX (no maths co-pro on the SX) and the 50MHz model was released in 1991, the 33MHz version being a year earlier in 1990.

Assange catgate hearing halted as Ecuador hunts around for someone who speaks Australian

Re: Universal translation?

"Try putting "pet" on the end."

Or hinny. And don't forget a why aye man? at the start or end.

Sorry friends, I'm afraid I just can't quite afford the Bitcoin to stop that vid from leaking everywhere

Re: Oh noes! I got one too. 4 days ago. With a 2 day deadline...

"p.s. I can give you advice for the future. Do not enter your passwords on unsafe sites."

That does raise an interesting point I'd not thought of before. I wonder how many people, on setting up and account somewhere and being asked for their email address then go on to use their email account password rather than create a new one?

Re: Racist?

"What does a white straight male win if he 'games' someone is is not and who has had a lifetime of being made to feel second-class?"

Way to go with the generalisations and stereotypes!

Re: I've seen a definite uptick in these

"They all use the same throwaway password I only use on websites that insist on registration but hold no other information beyond an email address, password and login name."

Yeah, I got one like that too the other week. Most interestingly, it was addressed to SVP@mydomain, an address used exclusively for dealing with SVP. I stopped using that address and dealing with SVP after I started getting spam to that address and on contacting them, they claimed they'd not been hacked. The webcam spam, as with yours and others, included the password I used there too. That pretty much proves they did get hacked and then lied to me about it. svp.co.uk are still in business, but I'd certainly never deal with them again.

We asked 100 people to name a backdoored router. You said 'EE's 4GEE HH70'. Our survey says... Top answer!

"Really quite shocking how companies like EE drag their heels over these issues until they feel sufficient public pressure to fix them."

Waddaya mean? According to EE, "We take all matters of security extremely seriously"

British Airways: If you're feeling left out of our 380,000 passenger hack, then you may be one of another 185,000 victims

Re: Experian---

"Then I thought: “Hang on. Experian. Kind of frying pan to fire here--“. Ho hum."

In a rational world, you'd sort of expect that any company recently a victim of hacking would be one of the safest to do future business with. It's a shame we don't live in that world.

Euro eggheads call it: Facebook political ads do change voters' minds – and they worked rather well for Trump in 2016

Re: @The Tick

"Who was your choice in the Presidential election?"

And where did you get the chance to vote for the Prime Minister?

Forgotten that Chinese spy chip story? We haven't – it's still wrong, Super Micro tells SEC

Re: The simplest answer is usually the right answer...

"The flip side of that is that the burden of proof is on the one making that positive claim. It's up to the ones saying there are spy chips on the boards to produce one as evidence. That would be meaningful."

Or it's an elaborate stock swindle. Is anyone buying SuperMicro stock right now?

Stealthy UK startup drops veil on next frontier of speech wizardry

Re: don't tell

"Please please please give me the non cloud version of speech to text."

Me too! I've often wondered why no one tried to do something like this sooner. My theory is there a very few programmers and too many code monkeys season with tight deadlines and no budget. Too often, good and elegant code is forgone in favour of "doing what works" and getting it out the door.

Happy 60th birthday, video games. Thank William Higinbotham for your misspent evenings

Re: Would he have bothered?

"If he knew it would one day lead to Candy crush?"

I've never actually played it, it but isn't it just a sort of bastard love child of Breakout and Tetris?

So, about that Google tax on Android makers in the EU – report pegs it at up to $40 per phone

"The random 10, 20, 40 pricing seems just that... random (and high). "

That was my first thought too. WTF has pixel density/resolution got to do with the pricing for Playstore?

FYI: Faking court orders to take down Google reviews is super illegal

Re: Or he could have just used the money to make his business not so crap

There's no indication that his business is crap or that the derogatory reviews were real and genuine. That may all be true, but based on the information given, they are just assumptions. For all we know he's a just a small honest trader being victimised by competitors or some keyboard warrior with a grudge. On the other hand, he could be a slimy shit trying to rip off customers and hire their honest and genuine complaints.

Pull request accepted: You want to buy GitHub, Microsoft? Go for it – EU

Re: Perhaps I'm too cautious but...

"That's why I've pulled down everything I've ever put on GitHub. "

Does Github take backups? How far back to the archived backups go?

Re: Perhaps I'm too cautious but...

They can already do that with open source code and probably have been since forever.

It's quite likely that most closed source code has chunks of open source mixed in, whether it breaks licence conditions or not. After all, who's going to know?

Yes, I know you can do code fingerprinting on object code, but I doubt most people would be daft enough to just steal wholesale. Different compilers, different compiler settings and re-jigging the code to work the "corporate way" would probably hide most of it.)

London flatmate (Julian Assange) sues landlord (government of Ecuador) in human rights spat

"Then there's the UK charges for skipping bail, but we could just ignore those and ask him to leave the UK."

I think that last is unlikely. The judiciary take a very, very dim view of contempt of court. Only an enormous amount of political pressure could even begin to change their minds and I very much doubt any politician(s) care enough to put that pressure on. Especially since a recalcitrant judge might just bump it up to the supreme court who, in law, would almost certainly back the judge.

Re: Complete buffoon or not...

"In that light, he is honour bound to keep himself safe from American interrogators."

To date, there is no indication that the US has ever wanted him. There's been a bit of political rhetoric, but not a single legal move has been made yet.

Re: Here we go again...

"The current state of affairs is government propaganda 101, it's an old trick to call someone a rapist/paedo/etc."

We all know what the charges are in Sweden, and even by their own standards, it's a mild[1] form of rape.

If this was govt. propaganda, I would expect there to be much stronger charges. And anyway, what most people are against is his stupidity and self-aggrandisement. We all know what wikileak is (or used to be, it's hard to tell what their agenda is these days), but it looks like their biggest problem is Assange himself and the way he treats the people who help him. Biting the Hand That Feeds IT might make an amusing strap-line for El-Reg, but it's not an instruction on how to live your life. Maybe it's time the biter was bit? After all, look at the hollow promises made to Bradly/Chelsea Manning and other?

[1]Yeah, I know, but how else to describe it?

Re: Asylum

"Those who seek Political Asylum are disproportionately likely to be troublemakers, attention-seekers, or just plain crooks:"

Evidence please!

Re: Lets Get Real

@bombastic bob: " 'Statute of Limitations' most likely applies here. "

No it doesn't.

You can't dodge criminal charges by playing hide and seek for a few years.

The clock doesn't run out, and you don't get off with "time served". Duh.

Not sure why you got downvoted here. The UK doesn't have a statute of limitations as such. If a case is started and the defendant pisses off, all proceedings and clocks are stopped until the defendant is apprehended or presents him/herself back at court. No time limits.

Remember Ronnie Biggs of the great train robbery. He was in Brazil for something like 40 years "on the run".

"Now hes having a go at the people who have kindly kept him out of an American spooks prison cell. I would not be surprised if they kicked him out the embassy."

Yes, whatever the feelings about him and his "case", shitting on the people who granted him asylum probably isn't a good move. They can un-grant it just as easily.

Silent running: Computer sounds are so '90s

"I'm glad I live in the era of silent laser printers that sound nothing like a combination of the Tardis and the squeeky gate on aunt Polly's fence."

You're welcome!

(Part of my job is to fix them when they start squeaking or making horrible grinding noises)

"Until that point no one had realised how noisy the server actually was and it seemed eerily quiet in the office for weeks afterwards."

It's only a few years ago that most PCs had constant full speed fan coolers. Nowadays, the slightest hint of fan noise from a PC and the user is complaining about the noise! How quickly people forget and adapt.

Re: Blobby blobby blobby!

"Ah, brings back memories of the cron job that played "cuckoo!" the appropriate number of times on the hour. You could see people's stress levels rising through the morning, waiting..."

Maybe it's just the bottle of red I got through reading these comments here, but that made me LOL

European Commission: We've called off the lawyers over Ireland's late collection of Apple back taxes

Re: So does that mean that Apple had indeed received preferential treatment ?

"If appeal is successful Apple will get it back, if not the money, I believe, will go to the Irish government."

Not forgetting that this wodge of cash, if ending up in Irelands treasury, affects their GDP for the relevant years and in turn ups the the payments made to the EU for those years too. So not all of it will end up in Ireland if the Apple appeal fails. The EU will want their pound of flesh too.

It's Two Spacecraft, One Mission as BepiColombo gets ready to launch

"Gravity is never zero. It can be minuscule, but never zero."

If the universe is expanding, that implies an edge which implies a centre of mass. I wonder what the effect of gravity is at the zero point?

From dank memes to Krispy Kremes: British uni eggheads claim viral lol pics make kids fat

Re: Dear El Reg, as you are a British .co.uk site

"Why do you even have a reference to Krispy Kremes in a headline?"

I did wonder that too, however they do seem to be available everywhere across the UK these days. Personally, the name alone puts me right off them. "Krispy" sounds like advertising lawyer speak for "well, it's not really crispy" and "Kreme" reminds me of the horrible fake cream you used to get in iced buns and the like. Together, Krispy Kreme sounds vomit inducing to me.

Re: It's probably not actually the memes themselves.

"Reminds me of my adolescence and coming to terms grips with man sized tissues. "

FTFY

Oz to turn pirates into vampires: You won't see their images in mirrors

Re: "official release stuff 6-8 months behind everyone else"

"And the problem is?"

...that the internet has made us into a global community so why should an english[*] speaking nation need to wait 6-8 months for english speaking programmes to be made available? It's not like they need to add subtitles or voice over dubbing. Many of us with internet access have friends and family all over the world and it's nice to conversations about common interests such as films and TV shows. Except when there's an artificially enforced delay in release in some parts of the world.

[*[ Other languages are available, your mileage may vary

Stroppy Google runs rings round Brussels with Android remedy

Re: If you build it will they come?

"IF a competitor has a better product, then compete with a better product. "

Yeah, right. So the start-up trying to compete with Google needs millions of not billions in cash to burn while they compete with a free product. The USA went through this same process over 100 years ago with the "robber barons". Google, MS and their ilk are the new robber barons. Regulation is what fixed the problem last time around.

Sure, Europe. Here's our Android suite without Search, Chrome apps. Now pay the Google tax

Re: Or the fourth option...

"The chances are that those replacements wouldn't get security patches pushed to them"

Most user of Android phone are lucky to get one update, if any, even from new.

Leaked memo: No internet until you clean your bathroom, Ecuador told Julian Assange

Re: Is Julian's cat leaving little "presents" on the carpet in the Ecuadorian embassy?

"Don't pets need passports to cross international borders these day?"

There is no international border between an embassy and the host country.

Re: @SVV Please, someone set up a GoFundMe

"I think you'll find it's spelt cat GIF"

But, but, but, how do you pronounce GIF?