* Posts by Major Variola

19 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2010

US highway agency awards Tesla Model S record safety score

Major Variola

its the drivers, stupid

Tesla drivers are going to be high-G people. They die in accidents less, except for private-plane accidents.

Read the Bell Curve.

Or, don't.

Snowden: US and Israel did create Stuxnet attack code

Major Variola

Centrifuge rotors not motors

Just a tech note: it wasn't the Iranian centrifuge motors that were damaged, it was the centrifuge rotors. By varying the motor speed ridiculously you can cause vibrations that destroy the tubes. This will cause various automatic shutdowns and reduce the cascade's ability to separate.

How Microsoft shattered Gnome's unity with Windows 95

Major Variola

TWM has a task bar

Tom's Window Manager for the XWS has an optional bar allowing you to select windows, kill tasks, etc.

That predates all this newfangled stuff

Relax, Hollywood, ARM's got your back: New chip 'thwarts' video pirates

Major Variola

Tap the LCD

The display is receiving decoded pixels. Plug in a device to substitute for the LCD. Add internet-distribution, Game over.

Also, the usual analog hole, without the popcorn or coughing.

'Liberator': Proof that you can't make a working gun in a 3D printer

Major Variola

>>Washington is the real enemy, not the terrorists. <<

Not only is this true, but its DC which makes the Wahabist/Caliphaters try to affect US foreign policy via asymmetric warfare. Read the fatwas.

In a democracy, the citizens are responsible for the actions of their leaders?

Feh, ball bearing workers were bombed in WWII by you

Major Variola

You boost self-loading is all

At $100 per you start reloading your brass.

Economics vs DIY. Classic.

And oh yeah, a black market might develop....

Major Variola

Its a start,

Might be useful for assasinations if you can't get better.

Also, the yanks kinda kicked your brit asses with clunkier muzzleloaders.

Spotify spews 'unencrypted' FREE MP3s all over creation

Major Variola

Silly Amazon, bits are copied or don't exist!

"The media file is not stored locally on the end user's system."

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudFront/latest/DeveloperGuide/WorkingWithStreamingDistributions.html

Silly Amazon, a bit that can't be read = copied is not a bit at all! Of course your content is copied as plaintext in our system. Then the buffers are played out. Perhaps you mean, "persistently by *our* software"

John McAfee talks of sex, drugs, and bad coding

Major Variola

Fear and Loathing II

I hope that a documentary equally respectful and amusing as F & L comes out of this.

Meanwhile, shoot, at 67 he's a role model even if he can't code.

Larry Ellison forks out over $200m to slurp up sexy Malibu strip

Major Variola

Drone over Malibu

All the more fun for our video-quadrocopters already flying over Barbara Streisand's estate... IR model coming soon.

PGP founder, Navy SEALs uncloak encrypted comms biz

Major Variola

PGP was popular because you could trust it because you could READ it. And compile your own. Anonymously.

(Ergo free in the dollar sense)

And yes, given PZ's homosexual secrets at the time (ie motivation) and the govt hassles, he was trustworthy and a hero.

PGP commercial got eaten by RSA.

Phil then built a secure phone protocol, program. It was good.

Now Phil works with US govt agents and promotes centralized architectures with financial tie in (anonymity?

traffic analysis?) What are we to think?

And what is the biz model? The protocol is open, someone else can make a comsec phone.

And remember, other apps may be listening...

Is there anything to find on bin Laden's hard drive?

Major Variola

Vi or Emacs?

Vi or Emacs?

Son of AV tycoon rescued following 'stupid' kidnapping

Major Variola

Ransom paid, not to kidnappers

Quite obviously, K paid a good fraction (perhaps over 100%?) to the KGB

to recover his son and toast the kidnappers.

Good for him. His products are OK, and his hanging the kidnappers, excellent.

Free Libyana: Gadaffi networkjacker speaks!

Major Variola

The NSA has the cell numbers

But probably won't leak them.

RadioShack franchises go gunning for business

Major Variola
Happy

Single shot not good enough

wtf good is a single load shotgun, when the tyrants our constitution warns us about have fully authomatic rifles?

guess we'll have to go for the arsenals first.

terror works, ask the IRA

Ex-UK spy boss says WikiLeaks sparked Egyptian revolution

Major Variola

Awesome

Awesome, Reg.

Obama needs to give his fake Nobel to Assange.

From California

Oracle gives 21 (new) reasons to uninstall Java

Major Variola

The universe is written in Java

The Universe is written in Java. Everything else is a historical contamination or worse, a microsoft infiltration.

Politics aside, Java is awesome. Oracle needs killing, but Java will persevere.

US ARMY prepares force of GIGANTIC BOMB RATS

Major Variola

DIY vs Factory made

"IEDs, the primary threat to Western troops in modern conflicts, as opposed to landmines or other regular munitions manufactured in established arms factories."

Taxpaying arms factories, no less.

But its great that the DIY / Maker culture can thrive in a place like.. well, any of the Empire's colonies..

Exposed: leaked body scans published online

Major Variola

European groping?

Anyone who's designed a system like this knows there are diagnostic modes, and modes to offload images.

All images from all scanners should be posted after a 24 wait period.

BTW, do europeans let themselves get irradiated xor groped? Just wondering. Can't imagine they do, which is a security hole :-)