Posts by PhilDin

Microsoft throws lifeline to .NET orphans in the brave new Core world

Re: "Orphans?"

"love it and hug it and call it George", a great analogy!

LibreOffice patches malicious code-execution bug, Apache OpenOffice – wait for it, wait for it – doesn't

Re: Someone please explain...

It certainly makes sense to build on an existing language, an ideal scenario would be that you can plug into any script interpreter on the host system but the universe of the script should begin and end with the loaded document. No accessing the filesystem or remote resources, no requesting permissions or granting signed scripts access; the filesystem and network should just not exist for document scripts.

If the script runs in a virtualised environment then this sandboxing wouldn't have to depend on the interpreter, it would depend on the host operating system's ability to constrain a process which should be quite well established.

Poland may consider Huawei ban amid 'spy' arrests – reports

Re: Huawei distanced itself by sacking the employee ... [etc.]

Here's a potential right action: announce that the employee is suspended with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation, the results of which will be passed on to law enforcement and that furthermore, they will fully cooperate with any lawful investigation.

American bloke hauls US govt into court after border cops 'cuffed him, demanded he unlock his phone at airport'

Re: Just say "Yes Sir"

I've no reason to disbelieve you, I just can't think what I'm supposed to do with that information. You haven't had a problem, this guy has, therefore it seems, some people, sometimes experience a problem. That problem should be highlighted, discussed, put into context, investigated etc. which is what's happening here. I would hope that having been called on this, the response of the TSA is not simply that "sometimes, some people don't experience a problem".

UK taxman told to chill out 'cos loan charge is whacking tax dodgers and whoopsies alike

It can't be done, you can get the basics into a single sentence, for example (roughly based on Irish figures), 0% on the first €18,000, 20% on the next €20,000 and 40% on the remainder. Easy!

Except what if I get a loan from my own company, does that count as income (Revenue: yes it does, let's write that down somewhere). What if I get a car from my company (Revenue: yes it does, better write that down somewhere). What if I get €5,000 in one year and €50,000 the following year, can I average that out (no, better write that down so). Do travel expenses count as income? (Revenue: maybe, it depends, better write that down somewhere).

You get the picture, you end up with a very simple rule for calculating your tax liability (tax is easy) with loads of rules regarding what does and does not qualify as income (law is hard).

EE, Virgin Media hit with £13.3m fine: Squeezing users for fees for early contract termination not OK

Re: It wasn't a cease order, but a downgrade - with a new contract!

@Gene Cash, could you explain that one a bit more? From what you've said, it sounds like there's an option to have a third party legally represent you with your interactions with Virgin Media, have I understood correctly? I'm not contradicting you, I've just never heard of this so if it exists, I'd be interested in learning more about it.

Russia: We did not hack the US Democrats. But if we did, we're immune from prosecution... lmao

Re: They are Russian

More to the point, as far as I know, the Polish cavalry who charged those tanks were carrying anti tank weapons that could do a lot of damage to the Panzer II tanks being used by the Germans. This wasn't a 19th century army fighting a 20th century army, they caused a lot of damage and delayed the Germans which was the plan.

30 spies dead after Iran cracked CIA comms network with, er, Google search – new claim

Re: Kim Philby

Fair enough, no downvote but Obama funding ISIS sounds like a bold claim, anything reputable you can reference on that?

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 ?

Nothing was buried. Apple and the Irish government both disagreed with the position of the commission but since Apple were told to pay, they paid. The money is in escrow so that if Apple successfully appeal, they can get it back. It hasn't been trousered by some bureaucrat in return for dropping the issue.

Russian 'troll factory' firebombed – but still fit to fiddle with our minds

Re: Reichstag fire

Wouldn't a false flag operation be directed against something that people are sorry to see burned down. It's hard to imagine the Russian population getting behind a troll factory (Je Suis Trolleur:)

Oracle Database 18: Now in downloadable Linux flavour

Upvote for being the only person on the Internet that knows the difference between cue and queue

Apache OpenOffice: We're OK with not being super cool... PS: Watch out for that Mac bug

Re: LO vs. AOO

In summary, LO split off from OpenOffice a few years ago mostly over concerns around the development process. OpenOffice then became Apache OO but has it moved very slowly since then while LO has had many incremental improvements in terms of usability, stability and performance. RedHat, Suse, Google and a few others are actively contributing to LO and not to AOO. This is exacerbated by the different licenses which mean that if the LO team like the look of something in AOO, they can use it while the reverse in not necessarily possible.

The net effect is that LO is basically AOO with a few years of polish and attention to detail applied to it and less obviously to the end user, with a much more active dev team so that security issues are much less likely to languish.

Brit broke anti-terror law by refusing to cough up passwords to cops

Scrutiny might be warranted and prudent but assuming that Jihadi John is a British citizen, he should have the same rights as any other British citizen. Defending someone's rights means telling the organs of the state to obey the law and this is good for everyone, including the organs of the state.

If Jihadi John accidentally stabs himself multiple times whilst shaving then I won't feel bad for him but I don't want members of the security services thinking they are entitled to break the law to punish him. If CAGE keeps them honest that's a good thing.

Just to be a bit pious, here's a favourite quote of mine:

"And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned around on you--where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast--man's laws, not God's--and if you cut them down...d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.”

Thomas More

Solaris, Java have vulns that let users run riot

Quite a few people in their right mind use Oracle Java SE. OpenJDK is basically the open source distribution of Oracle Java SE. I'm guessing most of the vulnerabilities relate to browser integration so unless OpenJDK excludes that, it will have the same vulnerabilities as Oracle Java.

Trumped? Nope. Ireland to retain corporate tax advantage over the US

Re: Seems to me ...

That certainly wouldn't work in Ireland, the Revenue guys would be all over it. Anything that looks vaguely like a car is considered to be a benefit in kind (BIK) and subject to BIK tax (along with petrol and any other costs). Try sleeping in your office and they'll decide that you've been getting free accommodation, again subject to BIK tax. The only potential tax dodge is if you like having the latest and greatest tech toys then you can have your company buy them while you use them but that's not really a dodge if you're using that tech to carry out your trade (a bit like a carpenter getting the latest woodworking tools)

IoT worm can hack Philips Hue lightbulbs, spread across cities

It's not like this is anything new, Dave Farley expressed the concerns most eloquently back in 2003:

https://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df200306/df20030604.jpg

Tech titans demand free speech law to head off President Trump

Re: vexatious litigant, eh?

Yes the criticism of Trump is unfounded because HILARY! EVERYONE LOOK AT HILARY!!!!

Chinese 'Superphone' manufacturer declares war on Apple

Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

There's an interesting paralell, I always found the Mao themed restaurants in Dublin (I think originally from London) to be in bad taste likening it to the Chinese having a Hitler or Stalin themed restaurant. Well it turns out they know/care as much about our culture as we do about theirs.

Get off Facebook if you value your privacy, EU commish tells court

Re: Meh

That's what you think. Even if you signed up as Joe Mc Soap who lives in 1 Main Street,Townville, all it takes is for one person to use the facebook app on their phone and now facebook knows whatever the phone knows about you, that is, your name, phone number, probably one or more email addresses and with some cross referencing, your circle of friends and your geographic location (with a high degree of certainty). The probably know your date of birth since at least one person will send you a happy birthday message or put you into a birthday reminder. They will have multiple photos of you even if you don't allow tagging because people will attempt to tag you anyway. They'll have a good idea of your socio-economic status based on that of your friends. You can probably take comfort in the fact that they would know all of this even if you didn't have a facebook account since they create shadow accounts for such identities so you probably haven't done anything to compromise your privacy, your facebook using friends have inadvertently done this for you.

Wake up! BlackBerry QUIETLY updates BB10

Just my own 2c as a Q10 owner. After the upgrade, it started chewing through the battery like crazy. It was fully charged around midnight and woke me up at 04:00 to till me it was going to sleep as the battery was out (thanks BB). A reboot appears to have sorted that out and apart from the ring volume needing to be turned back up, no other problems to report, everythings a little bit nicer and faster and the battery life seems to be better (36 hours in and 40% remaining).

Eat FATTY FOODS to stay THIN. They might even help your heart

Re: This is what is being taught

@Bassey, do you have any recommendations for reading up on this stuff? It's kind of hard for a lay person to know where to start when you can't trust the advice from health authorities.

We have a winner! Fresh Linux Mint 17.1 – hands down the best

Re: mousepads...

@phi dude, FWIW I was a happy Opensuser for years but Mint with KDE is just a bit nicer so it gets my vote. I can't comment on the gestures thing though, I don't use them.

DEATH fails to end mobile contract: Widow forced to take HUBBY's ASHES into shop

Re: "We apologise to Mrs Raybould for any distress caused"

Damn straight. So many people don't get this. If you're not admitting that you caused a problem then you aren't apologising.

Similar to the poster above, I was stuck in Manchester airport because of Aer Lingus and I had a rant about the "any inconvenience" thing. When the announcer came on, she said "the inconvenience", I think she must have been in hearing range of my rant:)

Hollywood star Robin Williams dies of 'suspected suicide' at 63

Re: Depression kills.

@fruitoftheloon, glad it worked out, there should be many days in the future between you and your son that you won't trade for the world.

Headmaster calls cops, tries to dash pupil's uni dreams - over a BLOG

Re: Truth or consequences

I can't bring myself to agree with any of that!

ISPs scramble to explain mouse-sniffing tool

Seriously, what's the problem

Ok, you can dispute how useful this information is but why would it possibly be news? Website owners like to know how their sites are being used. Of course they'd also like to know what you ate for breakfast as well but they don't have access to that, all they know is how their own sites are being used. This is (should be) standard practice in GUI development, web or otherwise.

Mint 15 freshens Ubuntu's bad bits

Re: What about...

I've been using Mint 14 with KDE since it came out and I've been very happy with it. I'd used OpenSuse for years and tried Kubuntu on and off (it never felt polished when I tried it although that may have been at a low point in the project). I expect to stay with Mint with KDE for the foreseeable future as it's rock solid and nicely polished.

Harassed Oracle employee wins case, cops huge legal bill

Re: You takes your chances..........

But the purpose of civil litigation is not to blot anybody's anything, it's to put right a wrong that has happened to you specifically. So if the defendant offers to put things right for you then it's job done and continuing with the case is wasting everyone's time. I think we can all agree that the best civil lawsuit is the one that never happens. One way that judges can reduce the amount of litigation is to ask whether a reasonable offer to settle has been made. If it was, then the court's time has been tied up with an issue that has already been solved.

Egyptian navy captures divers trying to cut undersea internet cables

Re: The mystery of the mysterious operatives

I'm also curious about this but also, how do you repair one once it's been cut or more generally, how do you join two pieces of fibre optic cable?

British Ruby conference cancelled after diversity row

Re: What a prat!

Could you provide a bit more information about this? It sounds interesting and I'd like to read up on it (I've always had a morbid curiosity about how the soviet economy worked:)

Man, 19, cuffed after burning Remembrance poppy pic is Facebooked

Re: Over the top

An excellent analysis from someone who's clearly watched two or maybe even three episodes of Blackadder goes forth. In reality the officers during WW1 were not the idiots they were portrayed to be, particularly General Haig.

As regards your remarks on true heroism, you seem to be advocating the scenario where the military can decide what wars they will and won't engage in rather than that decision being made by their democratically elected paymasters; sounds great, I can't see anything wrong with that plan.

Overall you seem to have absolutely nothing positive to say, just lashing out randomly at rank and file soldiers, their officers, the government and Sainsburys. Maybe you should think about what you DO believe in.

Finally, I'm not British and I don't wear a poppy but I would never consider describing the dead from WW1 as "Darwin award hopefuls"; that historically wrong and ethically repugnant.

Irish cop child abuse image plan attracts data protection ire

Some crimes are so heinous...

that even people who haven't comitted them need to be locked up!

IBM kills off Irish server works

FFS stop bashing the free market

Holy crap, the level of discourse on this topic seems to have really plummeted. IBM are leaving because it's cheaper for them to do so. That's the reason the came here (Ireland) in the first place but economic and legal conditions change, it's not as though China has been standing still for the last 10 years so it's not strange that these things happen.

As regards the lefty socialist thinking here, Ireland is fscked because the government put €50bn into the failed banks. Nobody except the banks asked them to do this. The free market way would have been to sell of the assets of the failed banks to the highest bidder with the (meagre) proceeds going to the creditors. The only role for government here is to ensure that things proceed in an orderly fashion with none of the insiders stealing on their way out.

With respect to currency manipulation, that's an expensive game that China is playing. They seem to be prepared to think longer term than western democracies and put down a lot of their hard earned money in order to keep the RMB low. It's worth noting that this doesn't come free and it's also a game that anyone can play. If Ireland wanted to, it could play it too if it were prepared to leave the Euro.

SCADA worm a 'nation state search-and-destroy weapon'

Yes it is

The title really give the wrong impression. As a confirmed athiest I drop in on CSM occasionally, I've always found it to be very good quality journalism.

Undiplomatic tweet from French diplomats

Roma eunt domus...

or is it Roma ite domun:)

ACPO defuses impending photo row with police forces

Constantly reminded of Brazil

The film that is, not the country, this clip really captures the mood for the whole film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWTkjF5C1dM

Note that everyone involved is a bit busy, a bit unsympathetic but never actually evil (with the possible exception of the security guard in the Information Retrieval HQ), some of the officials are tremendously nice people in fact. This film should be required watching for anyone involved in public administration (actually, it should be required watching for anyone wishing to cast a vote).

Eagles singer wins case against US politico

What an a$$hat

I always associated Don Henley with assholery since he sued some other guy called Don Henley who had a website for distributing quotes from the bible among other things (this all happened some time around 1998 some I'm a bit fuzzy on the detail). The bible loving DH made it clear that he was unrelated to the Eagles DH on the home page of his site but the Eagles DH persisted with his lawsuit. I don't recall the outcome of the case but ever since then, I've always subconsiously associated Don Henley with this bit of bullying.

'Be careful' warning accompanies latest Linux kernel

Definitely misleading

So the warning that "accompanies" the latest kernel is not actually about the latest kernel, it's about the development version. Is this a misunderstanding or a deliberate troll?

Ireland to block EU-Israel data hoover

Crap!

Dermot Ahern was on my sh!t list for introducing the blasphemy bill, this doesn't get him off the hook but I have to take my hat off to him.

Venus home to lost cities left by long-dead aliens, says ESA

Not "only a theory"

The idea that Venus once contained life is not a theory, it's a hypothesis. I know it sounds like nitpicking but this sloppy language usage is what allows the creationists to say that evolution is "only a theory". To be clear, to qualify for the moniker of theory, scientists would have to have suggested experiments to test the hypothesis, some of those experiments would have been carried out, there might be a mix of supporting, inconclusive and contrary outcomes of these experiments. If something is in the "difficult to test" phase then it's not yet qualified to be called a theory.