Posts by Dave 126

Smartwatches: I hate to say ‘I told you so’. But I told you so.

It would be perfectly possible - in fact, already done - if it wasn't for the map function. Citizen and Casio make Bluetooth watches for notifications, both with over a year's battery life.

The map too would be possible, if it is slaved to a phone for (A)GPS/WiFi location (the latter of more use in cities). You don't need a colour screen for maps.

Really though, you don't need a graphical map for navigation, you just need a hint to turn left at the next street or whatever. Heck, this could be done with a analogue watch face - either by re-purposing the hands, or by using a ring of otherwise hidden LEDs.

Brits don't want their homes to be 'tech-tastic'

Re: levels of smart.

It would also be a good way of making sure granny is alive and well without using spy cameras - the old system of spotting whether full milk bottles are accumulating on her doorstop doesn't work now she gets her milk from Tescos.

Re: And

You could also plant a deciduous tree in front of your South-facing windows... it allows warming sunlight through in Winter, and the leaves create shade in Summer.

Re: Control devices through an app

>Option 4. Flick the switch, which you'll find just beside the door, as you enter the room. Flick it again as you leave.

That's a not good option for dimming the lights when already seated (dinner finished, now watching film), or turning on lights after dusk has fallen, or for controlling lights (floor-standing lamps, table lamps) that aren't wired to the wall switch, or for turning off the lights as you fall asleep on the sofa, or for people with mobility problems.

Re: It is NOT paranoia if they really are tracking you and listening to your conversations...

@BinkyTheMagicPaperclip

Thanks for the tip - I have been told that good CFLs do exist, but sadly they were not the ones encountered by the "You can prise my incandescents out of my cold dead hands! [Bloody Brussels!]" brigade.

Unless I'm doing colour-sensitive work (in which case I'll do some research first) I'll be using LEDs from now on.

Re: Skewed results

>If you can build a system to garrotte next door's cat, I'd buy that.

I feel that I'd be ripping you off, since the BOM would be a looped guitar string and a portion of mackerel. However, a cat deterrent is very do-able - see link below. I'd replace the BB-gun with a water pistol containing lemon juice. As a bonus, it can be configured to upload video of the surprised feline to a server of your choice.

http://hackaday.com/2015/10/03/raspberry-pi-sentry-turret-is-the-enemy-of-all-mankind/

On the subject of RFID-controlled entry to a house, some cat flaps have been sold for decades with a tag (a simple magnet I belive, not RFID) for your cat's collar, so that precious Snuggles can come in but nectdoors flea-bitten mangy moggy can't.

>Integrated gadgetry (remotely-controllable, usually, like IP-cameras, smart-monitors, etc.) is often hopelessly insecure

That never stopped people from buying analogue baby-monitors or cordless phones in the days before DECT. I remember being a teenager and hearing phone conversations on a toy walky-talky, and there is a woman in Bristol who still uses an analogue cordless phone ( I know cos I was with radio ham friend and after hearing voices from around Europe, a twist of the dial gave us two West Country voices nattering away.

Re: And

>It would be nice when I turn off a device it is off, not on some sort of standby eating juice...

If saving juice is you concern, then having a degree of automation on lights, windows, window blinds and thermostats can actually save energy.

Take blinds - a PV powered motor could close the blinds whenever the temperature in the room rises above X, thus reducing the amount of sunlight that enters. It would be self contained, and it wouldn't communicate with anything other than a manual overide switch (aka an 'Off' switch).

Re: "automated cleaning appliances"

>But until it can move chairs...

Remote control chairs! Now you're talking... what's not to love?! :)

Re: Unsurprised

>where's the inconvenience of... ...using a small piece of metal to open your front door?

Ask anybody who has waited in all day for a package to be delivered, and they might say it would be handy to have a door lock that will open once if a parcel's tracking number is typed in by the delivery bod. (Yeah, this isn't the whole solution - you might wish to have security camera trained in your hallway, or maybe you already have a porch so parcels can be left there without granting access to the rest of your house.)

Another reason is seen on cars - when the key-fob is within range of the vehicle, a foot-switch opens the tailgate. This allows someone with their hands full of shopping to place the bags directly in the car. This is useful, as anyone who has left items on the car roof and driven away can testify.

Re: Very little to tempt

> The internet connected fridge might be useful if you could quickly check how much mayonnaise was left while you were at the shops, but the technology just isn't there yet.

Just have a webcam inside the fridge. There is even a light inside the fridge, and I have never seen any evidence that the light turns off when the door is closed! :)

Re: Control devices through an app

>I don't mind in principle controlling things from my phone, it's just too much of a bother to have to unlock the phone every time I want to turn a light on.

Options:

1. Buy a el cheapo phone or tablet to the job, or re-purpose one from your junk drawer.

2. Many phones have an option to not require unlocking if they are within range of a known Bluetooth device (yes, this is potentially a security hole).

I'd say option 1 is probably the better one. A dedicated tablet for lights, music, checking EPG for the television, sending video to the TV... indeed, according to surveys reported on by the Reg, many tablet don't leave the house. It wouldn't have to be a fast tablet with a fancy screen, either.

Heck, my daily-use 4G quad-core phone only cost £45 brand-new... in a couple of years the cost of a dedicated handset is going to be negligible.

Option 3. Buy a Raspberry Pi, some plywood and assorted knobs and dials, get your soldering iron out, and make a control console to rival a 1950s sci-fi set, Mwaahhhahahaha!

Re: It is NOT paranoia if they really are tracking you and listening to your conversations...

>I have no problem with new tech that helps me but when it is - intentionally or unintentionally - designed and built in such a way that it needs to be replaced, reloaded, updated or whatever more frequently than an "inferior" low-tech equivalent whilst not giving me additional USEFUL functionality then I have to question why "they" think I need to replace something that is doing what *I* need it to do...

The classic example of how not to manage this sort of thing was the drive to CFL light bulbs. What made it really bad was that cheap CFL bulbs are shit - and it was these that were often given away to convince people to switch from incandescent bulbs. People hated having a bulb that took tens of seconds to become bright, especially if they just wanted to illuminate a room for half a minute to fetch something. These days LEDs are very good and though pricier will pay for themselves in months for most applications. However, the adage 'once stung, twice shy' applies, and so many are still unaware that LEDs aren't irritating like CFLs are.

Re: If a multi-billion company can't produce safe mainstream code

>If a multi-billion company can't produce safe mainstream code... ...then how on earth will all these smaller companies produce the same?

The easiest way is to keep things simple. A house could be run on a very simple addressable protocol like DMX, with sensors ( switches, dials, thermostats) and actuators (lights, radiators). Not a lot of coding required, so very little attack surface. And hell, physical access would be required.

Making things wireless introduces a load of security headaches, but a wired solution would be trivial during a new-build or redecoration.

If then someone absolutely must bridge from this network to the wider world, then at least the required gateway would be fairly simple, and thus less difficult to audit.

Re: LIfecycles of tech

>The main problem I see is that the life cycle of technology is pretty short. The phone that your app runs on may well only be a couple of years old before it gets replaced.

Very true. May I propose we use MIDI or DMX? Both standards have been around for 30 years and are in regular use today. The only downside is that for simple applications, there isn't much need for chips from Intel, haha. (I'm being half tongue-in-cheek)

(On a tangential note, I saw a band play in local pub the other day, and the mixing desk was an iPad app (all iPhones and iPads have always had wireless MIDI baked in). The advantage was clear - the band could be mixed from within the audience so that they got the optimum sound. )

Re: The usual arrogance of tech companies

People will be converted eventually, but through seeing, not listening. Most people don't read tech blogs, or become first-adopters of new technology. Instead, they see something at a friend's huse and, if it works as it should, consider getting one if they can see the point of it.

Case in point: Even my dad now has a connected music system of sorts. (Spotify on his phone and laptop, a Chromecast Audio dongle on his amplifier. He'd seen his son-in-law's iPad/Sonos set-up and thought it useful).

Of course the 'analogue' way of doing multi-room audio is just to have one amp, two speakers, and the volume turned up to 11 - you can now hear the music in every room! :)

Re: Skewed results

>the person that couldn't turn their lights on and another that was locked out of his house due to his router being down.

Exactly. If you ask people if they want 'technology', they will be dubious because 'technology' never seems to just work as it should. A bog standard IR controller isn't 'technology' because it will go at least a year without needing a battery change*. When something just works as it should, it is no longer 'technology' because it is now just 'stuff'.

If the survey was re-written without using the words 'smart', 'connected' or 'technology', and instead asked questions such as "Would you like to have a magic floor that never needs cleaning?" I daresay people would say "Yes!" (or "Yes, but what's the catch?" because we all remember the Sorcerer's Apprentice).

*People see a IR-controlled ceiling light as being pretty easy to understand - their long experience of using televisions has trained them. However, my brother-in-law bought an expensive example, and it is unusable because it erroneously responds to signals from a Samsung television controller. WTF? I've seen all manner of heterogeneous home entertainment set-ups, and I've never seen a Sony VCR upset a Panasonic television, or an LG DVD player annoy a Yamaha amplifier. Yet this young IR-controlled lighting company make that product that doesn't play nice with a very common brand of TV. Idiots.

Right o', I'm off to to construct a system of strings and pulleys to control my light switches, window blinds and thermostat from my sofa. I got the idea from some nice chap called Professor Branestawm. I'll try my best to not garrote the cat.

FAA to test Brit drone-busting kit

Re: 40Kw will do it

> That system only shoots physical missiles and uses varying methods (Radio/LASER/LIDAR/RADAR/etc) for control and targeting,

You missed the point, Dadmin. What AC said is that whilst Rapier uses physical missile to shoot down enemy aircraft, Rapier's radar targeting system was powerful enough to upset the electronics in amateur radio-controlled aircraft - after all, it was designed to be powerful enough to defeat any jamming attempts. Given the targeting radar used a narrow beam, and required a separate generator (let's use that as a rough proxy for its power output) it is plausible.

I came here to say LOS... it doesn't even have to be LOS to the operator, either, if a second, relay, drone is used.

Maybe someone down-voted you because they misread your comment as condoning drone use near airports?

Autonomous drones are also an option, especially given the investment in machine vision and the like that everybody from MS, Intel, Google to Qualcomm are making.

Microsoft sells 1,500 patents to Chinese mega-phone biz Xiaomi

Re: forcing its software on people

> If this is going to be uninstallable bloatware

You can uninstall apps on Xiaomi's MIUI versions of Android. (I only know this because I spent too much time on the XDA forums last night, looking at what was available for my Huawei handset, then looked into whether installing MIUI would be worthwhile for me).

Re: agreed to buy 1,500 patents

Buy, apparently:

“Microsoft has sold Xiaomi nearly 1,500 high quality patents that read on a variety of technologies including wireless communications, video, cloud and multimedia,” a Xiaomi spokesperson clarified to TechCrunch, adding that Xiaomi has “been applying for, acquiring and licensing patents” in recent years.

- http://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/xiaomi-inks-microsoft-patent-deal-and-agrees-to-pre-install-office-apps-on-its-phones/

Shhhh! Facebook is listening

>Android: Settings > Privacy and emergency > App permissions. Find Facebook and turn off mic access

That tip is a kind thought, but I suspect that option is limited to just some flavours of Android. Using the string Android Settings "Privacy and emergency" only returns results about Samsung phones. Darned fragmentation!

AFAIK, being able to toggle permissions on an app by app basis is something that Google have toyed with in Android (remnants of the necessary framework have been spotted in the last few versions), and some vendor versions (e.g Xiaomi MIUI) incorporate such a feature.

Earth's core is younger than its crust surface

Re: Lack of critical thinking, methinks ...

Abstract

We treat, as an illustrative example of gravitational time dilation in relativity, the observation that the centre of the Earth is younger than the surface by an appreciable amount. Richard Feynman first made this insightful point and presented an estimate of the size of the effect in a talk; a transcription was later published in which the time difference is quoted as 'one or two days'. However, a back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the result is in fact a few years. In this paper we present this estimate alongside a more elaborate analysis yielding a difference of two and a half years. The aim is to provide a fairly complete solution to the relativity of the 'aging' of an object due to differences in the gravitational potential. This solution—accessible at the undergraduate level—can be used for educational purposes, as an example in the classroom. Finally, we also briefly discuss why exchanging 'years' for 'days'—which in retrospect is a quite simple, but significant, mistake—has been repeated seemingly uncritically, albeit in a few cases only. The pedagogical value of this discussion is to show students that any number or observation, no matter who brought it forward, must be critically examined.

Re: Quite a large pachyderm in the room

>"I guess this is a problem specific to when physicists try to work out geology."

Not at all. The physicists in question did not use the word 'crust', they only mention the surface. The word crust was introduced by this Reg article in error.

That is all.

Re: Lack of critical thinking, methinks ...

>"I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

The Reg made an error in its reporting, and introduced the word 'crust' when it wasn't present in the source material. Just like using Wikipedia, it's important to check the references yourself.

Welcome to the internet.

In partial defence of jake:

This Reg article has used the word 'crust' in error. The authors of the paper did not use the word 'crust', only 'surface'. Jake is correct - the crust took tens of millions of years to form in the first place, and has been recycled through tectonic activity many times since.

That said, jake should know better than to trust the Reg at face value - it's important to check the source material directly.

The purpose of the paper, as the authors intended it, was as a teaching aid for undergraduate students to challenge established views. Feynman would have approved.

Re: What is time

>In principle you can imagine a time difference for instance between your head and limbs

That's actually been shown experimentally! Seriously, physicists as NIST have observed difference in reading between two nuclear clocks, one 0.33 m higher than the other. The difference is as theory predicted, and it is equivilenet to 90 billionths of second over the course of a 79 year lifetime.

http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/aluminum-atomic-clock_092310.cfm

Boring SpaceX lobs another sat into orbit without anything blowing up ... zzzzz

Re: Poor article

>What is the point of this article? If you think that this is now routine, then don't cover it.

You miss the point. We* have admiration that SpaceX is now making rocket launches and first-stage landings *boring*. Furthermore, we are all excited by the possibilities that *boring* and cheap access to orbit and beyond will bring. It is boring (and expensive) rocket launches of the past that have given us satellite communications, advanced weather forecasting and GPS. These things we take for granted today, but once would only have been seen in the pages of magazines like Amazing Stories!

*Boring* is meant as a compliment, as in 'reliable'. Take commercial air travel - you don't want it to be exciting, you just want to get from A to B. The same is true of any tool. I don't want my phone to imaginatively reboot itself mid-call. I don't want the knife I am using to excitingly turn into a snake. I don't want the bricks in my house to decide on a whim that they have had enough of this solid lark, and will have a go at being liquid.

* I'm summing up the general consensus of Reg Commentards as seen on previous SpaceX threads.

Android might be on the way to the Raspberry Pi

Re: Remix OS?

ChromiumOS has been made to boot on Pi 2 and Pi 3s, but is a little slow and the WiFi is unreliable, apparently. I only mention it here, because unlike Android, there are builds available right now.

It's interesting to think about what the upcoming inclusion of Android apps on ChromeOS means for Remix OS... will RemixOS remain as compelling an option for many people?

Re: Another slice of pi

Hmm, tricky - it either has to work with a TV or monitor you already have, or you have to source a dedicated screen (by which time the cost will probably have defeated the object)

Maybe it can share a monitor, mouse and keyboard with your desktop PC, by means of a KVM switch? It could be used for when you don't want to use your main PC (because of noise, or power usage concerns, perhaps) or when you can't (your main PC is busy doing something).

I can't immediately think of any compelling use for a headless Android device - but if you do, this app called 'AutoStart - No root' does what it says on the tin, going by the reviews.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.autostart&hl=en

ISS 'nauts to inflate pump-up space podule

I want to know too. I want to know enough that I've perused the Bigelow website, but not so much that I've loaded up Photoshop and taken a measure tool to the cutaway illustration that I've found.

Thai bloke battles jumbo python in toilet todger thriller

Re: Is it just me, or...

Well, have an upvote for hanging around and taking the resulting sarcasm with good grace.

Welcome to the Register, Mr Renault!

Hooves in spaaace: Goat Simulator goes galactic

>Stellaris or Total War Warhammer or Doom or the upcoming Hearts of Iron 4

The above have received barely a mention on the webs this week compared to another game, from some outfit called Bizzard or something.

I'm glad the Reg at least has separated from goat from the sheep!

Citrix bakes up Raspberry Pi client boxes

If you really want to complain about mark-ups on Raspberry Pies...

... just get your self down to Maplins.

They won't sell you a Pi for £25, but will bundle it will some so-so accessories for £70 or whatever.

I don't care how much Citrix sell their solutions for - their customers will make their choice after doing the sums. But Maplins could have sold the Pi for cheaper - hopefully to young, budding tinkerers - and thus grown the market for all the sensors, LEDs, Arduinos, daughter boards and other gubbins they sell at a mark-up.

Yeah, I know we should buy this stuff online, but sometimes you want something right now! Oh well, I've known Maplins to sell an external HDD enclosure for more than they sell and external HDD.

Gillian Anderson: The next James Jane Bond?

>I prefer Jason Statham.

I really enjoyed Statham's self-paraody in Spy (2015)!

Rick Ford: You really think you're ready for the field? I once used defibrillators on myself. I put shards of glass in my fuckin' eye. I've jumped from a high-rise building using only a raincoat as a parachute and broke both legs upon landing; I still had to pretend I was in a fucking Cirque du Soleil show! I've swallowed enough microchips and shit them back out again to make a computer. This arm has been ripped off completely and re-attached with *this* fuckin' arm.

Susan Cooper: I don't know that that's possible... I mean medically...

Rick Ford: During the threat of an assassination attempt, I appeared convincingly in front of congress as Barack Obama.

Susan Cooper: In black-face? That's not appropriate.

Rick Ford: I watched the woman I love get tossed from a plane and hit by another plane mid-air. I drove a car off a freeway on top of a train while it was on fire. Not the car, *I* was on fire.

Susan Cooper: Jesus, you're intense.

Re: Tom Hidlestone?

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with Alec Guinness is still my favourite Le Carre adaptation... though I like Philip Seymour Hoffman and Gary Oldman in two recent films, the plots need a bit more space to breathe than a feature-length film can provide.

Being a comparatively recent novel, A Most Delicate Truth could make a good TV series, though perhaps not one for cosy Sunday night viewing - it needs to keep its anger.

Re: May I offer as an example...

I feel Gina Carano would make a better J Bond than Ms Andrerson. Carano, who was a mixed martial artist before her film career, has a presence and muscular power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Carano#Television_and_film_career

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haywire_(film)#Critical_response

Re: James Bond/007 Isn't a Person

>But, I draw a line at there being a "black" James Bond or a "female" James/Jane Bond.

During the cold war, a black James Bond wouldn't make too much sense- he wouldn't be that covert an operative in a Eastern European casino, for example. With the state of the world as it is today, it is easier to imagine places a fictional MI6 could use a black operative. Indeed, Bond's CIA counterpart, Felix, has been black for the last few films.

Heck, a James Bond of Chinese descent could be dead handy for some missions today! (though of course film producers today keep more than an eye on the Chinese cinema market).

Re: Tom Hidlestone?

>What is all this 'Night Manager' rubbish?

Ah, but it was such shiny, good looking rubbish! It wasn't nearly as deep, dark or subtle as a Le Carre novel, but at least it had Tom Hollander in it, reprising his role as 'The Fucker' from The Thick of It.

In support of Idris, this clip from the film Pacific Rim. Idris wears a psuedo-RAF uniform at times. The director asked Idris to use his natural voice for the film (though English, it was his role as a Baltimore gangster in the Wire that really made his name) though in this clip he's generic transatlantic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTV7eZIINs4

He's also driven a Bentley really fast. Though Aston Martin (or a Citreon 2CV) is often asscociated with 007, Fleming had him in Bentley:

http://www.bentleymotors.com/en/world-of-bentley/our-story/news/2015/idris-elba-breaks-historic-flying-mile-speed-record-.html

Re: One film

The Woody Allen James Bond:

"My doctor says I can't have lead enter my body under any circumstances!"

The same film also featured an Ursula Andreas James Bond, and David Niven as the original James Bond, bemoaning the damage to his good name from his masters appointing sex maniacs as his successors.

Re: Bond.

I've recently been watching Elementary, with a Dr Jane Watson - played by Lucy Liu... you get used to it!

>Firstly, Bond has to be English and posh.

Sean Connery was less English than Idris Elba. Even the version of Bond played by Daniel Craig was Scottish (orphaned, raised in an English boarding school)

Google to kill passwords on Android, replace 'em with 'trust scores'

Re: Lost in a foreign country....

Just as it would work for people who have an elastoplast on the thumb they use for their fingerprint scanner - they enter their passphrase instead.

There is even precedent - it is not unknown for a card issuer to telephone a card holder if the card is used in unusual circumstances, to request further authentication beyond the card and PIN themselves.

(Though of course you should not give any information in those circumstances, but instead ring off, ring a trusted party such as a friend, ring off and then ring the number on your card or bank statement. The idea of ringing a friend is to make sure than any would-be spoofer hasn't kept your line busy - this has been known to happen on UK landlines, I don't know if it applies to mobile phones )

Ego and CEO are 66 per cent the same

Re: news?

Dead tree newspapers have had television reviews and previews for decades. Ditto radio, theatre and art exhibitions.

Want a better password? Pretend you eat kale. We won't tell anyone

arse... hic! feck... hic! DRINK! hic... girls... that would be an ecumenical matter!

Re: How crackable are alien languages?

You could try passwords derived from the Clangers, but I'm not sure how you would enter them.... Whaaawoooowah

Re: Trust No One?

You could always use two password wallets, made by different teams, and combine their output:

passwordpart1passwordpart2

Of course this approach isn't as convenient as using just one password wallet.

Substitution can have a place, as long as it not a common type. e > 3, 1 > l, o > 0 etc are no good.

batteryhorse > cbuudszipstd

'batteryhorse' is easy to remember, and 'advance each letter by one' is easy to remember. cbuudszipstd is slightly less vulnerable to a dictionary attack (though I note that zip is a word, and std is a standard (std!) abbreviation). If we started at batteryhorsestaplepurpleetc, there would be less chance of the output being mainly composed of dictionary words and fragments.

>So brute-forcing it is going to take that much longer.

It really depends upon how the brute-force program is written. It isn't going to start at

aaaaaaa

aaaaaab

aaaaaac... ...zzzzzzz

but will start with commonly used words and combinations - adam, angryant... ...zebra34.

There is no reason the brute-force program isn't using common substations - l0ve, Lov£, l0v3 - if the author of the program has decided (based on analysis of leaked databases of real-world users' passwords) that such an approach will be faster.