Posts by Ashton Black

Hiss-hiss! GIGANTIC SOLAR FILAMENT snakes around Sun

Re: So..

One would imagine, two short plan(c)k lengths.

Re: Ok

Dooomed... Dooomed I tell ya!!!

POISON PI sniffs WiFi from your mail room, goes on rampage

Re: Not likely to succeed

In the unlikely event that this happened, any self respecting IT bod would be blatting the OS, as a matter of course, and sticking an OEM Windows or Linux de jour on there. This goes double if it's a Windows hate box. So unless the "sniffer" software is baked into something (UEFI/BIOS re-write or similar), the plan is probably doomed to a rather expensive gift to a stranger.

Cable guy, Games of Thrones chap team up to make Reg 'best sci-fi film never made' reject

The trouble with "older" sci-fi...

I grew up reading these, Heinlein, Niven, Asimov and the like. They all suffer from context deficiencies, that is to say, when they came out, they were superb, mind expanding tomes and we didn't care about cardboard characterizations, or dodgy political philosophies. But in recent decades, we've had much better writers take up the mantle, for example, Iain M. Banks, Neal Stephenson, Neal Asher and my personal favourite Peter F. Hamilton. Those writers are on a par, with the old guard, scientifically, but are ahead in writing style and characterization.

The Culture or the Night's Dawn universes would make much better TV, IMHO.

You are here => Earth is in 'the suburbs' of an immense heaven

Yeah...

... but remember the universe was created for the sole exclusive use of man, according to some nomadic desert dwelling gents.

On a serious note, the cosmos never fails to astound me.

A Terabyte in my HOUSE? Got more than that in my POCKET

Re: Cloud? Why?

Secure (or more accurately as secure as these things can be) Backups. No other reason I can think of. Granted, a 2nd HDD or NAS could do just as well, but I do tend to use various "cloudy" places to store not very important files.

CNN 'tech analyst' on NAKED CELEBS: WHO IS this mystery '4chan' PERSON?

Passwords.....

For a few years, I've been bugging my better half to use a Password Vault. (KeePass and LastPass for example, local, with a synced backup copy on an external drive). Then the other day she showed me the little book she uses and keeps in her handbag, I had no answer (other than if she loses the book), really, since she uses a word (she remembers) and a number/letter/symbol sequence from the book for each site. Can't argue with that.

Sometimes, us techies can be taught a thing by the non-techies.

Echopraxia scores 'diamond cutter' on the sci-fi hardness scale

Re: Why don't media include source links?

Ooooo. That Ancillary Justice looks very interesting. *yoink* :-)

Hear ye, young cyber warriors of the realm: GCHQ wants you

Well...

From what I heard █████████ is ██████████████ and then █████, so there you have it.

The Register to boldly go where no Vulture has gone before: The Weekend

Great stuff. Mo Reg, Mo IT!

Who needs hackers? 'Password1' opens a third of all biz doors

Any excuse..

To post this xkcd toon. http://xkcd.com/936/

African samba queen: Don't cut off pirates' net connections – cut off their FINGERS

Ahh I see....

I must be careful not to get fingered for digital piracy in Nigeria.

US cyber-army's cyber-warriors 'cyber-humiliated by cyber-civvies in cyber-games'

Re: How about the NSA?

The CIA would also compete but then they'd drone strike a school, no where near the competition.

Verizon to FCC: What ya looking at? Everyone throttles internet traffic

As long as...

1) No "Unlimited" plans, unless it is indeed unlimited and yes, throttling does count, not just a hard cap on data use, since that is the measure they're using to decide who is to be throttled.

2) Give some indication to users where the demarcation line is. Saying 'Top 5%' is fine, but how much is that? I assume it depends on traffic in a given time period on a given cell, but if that changes over time, How does the user know when he/she is reaching that arbitrary line?

3) Seems unfair that a user could use a given amount of bandwidth in one low contention area, but that bandwidth is throttled if he/she moves into an area of high use, solely based on previous usage, rather than a fair contention.

Pfff.... They WILL get away with it, and as has been said many times, the FCC has been castrated by years of telco (and others, to be fair) lobbying.

NASA tests crazytech flying saucer thruster, could reach Mars in days

Re: equal and opposite reaction

Indeed and every time a spaceship uses a planet's gravity well to perform a gravity assist maneuver that planet slows just a little...

Re: Crazy Eddie

They could have used a static Langston Field instead of the expanding one!

The Register editorial job ad

A candidate...

I'd like to see some articles written by amanfromMars. Those would be highly entertaining, especially if, one is erm... "chemically altered".

Israel's Iron Dome missile tech stolen by Chinese hackers

If they did everything they could...

Through a combination of device control, DMZs, air gaps, data diodes and the like, it is possible to have high, it would never be perfect, security whilst retaining access. If they didn't secure that data, then someone should get fired. Without knowing the details, of course, we don't know how "good" the hackers were.

iOS slurpware brouhaha: It's for diagnostics, honest, says Apple

@All names Taken

I find this plausible. Even if it was placed on the phones for more than "diagnostics" at the request of a given three letter agency, then you can guarantee they would have a gagging order.

No way to find out, really.

White? Male? You work in tech? Let us guess ... Twitter? We KNEW it!

Re: Please stop publishing this Frankfurt School Political Correctness nonsense already

Big ol' difference between Marxism and Socialism. Agreed that the Stalinist / Maoist flavours of Marxism were nought but totalitarian dictatorships wrapped in a red flag, but socialist democracies can and do flourish, for example the Scandinavian counties.

On your general point with reference to Tech Businesses I agree that one shouldn't look at the business, a good one would be colour / gender agnostic, but look more into STEM education in schools and how it could be improved to be more inclusive at a younger age.

PROOF the Apple iPhone 6 rumor mill hype-gasm has reached its logical conclusion

Z2

My Sony Z2 does this. Granted it's on the front, but it's a LED strip that flashed white, for e-mail, green for other notification (eg a twitter message) and red for low battery, oh also orange whilst charging.

NEW, SINISTER web tracking tech fingerprints your computer by making it draw

Ghostery for me too. Phew.

So whither Microsoft? If Nadella knows, he is keeping it well hidden

Re: on slogans...

Well you say that, but look at Apple in the early to mid 90s. Struggling to make a profit, the long term future didn't look that good for the Fruity firm. Then they expanded, his holiness, the Jobs' role and that sure turned it round. But finding the right fit for MS, I think they need someone with a coherent strategic vision rather than, what seems to be, a CEO who's main talent is corporate doublespeak.

Hi-tech Fagin couple used Apple scam cash to fly pickpockets to UK

To be fair....

To be fair to the Reg, the "USBs" quote was direct quote from the police report. Apparently it even included a grocer's apostrophe. "USB's" *shudder*

Re: Pity they didn't live on...

Indeed, they'd have to use the Tudor "Court" Rules.

"Police recovered laptops, iPads, printers and USBs during the raid"

USB What? Coffee Warmers? Desk Fans? Sticks? HDDs? Cables?

A minor quibble and a mail has been sent to the corrections address.

Oh girl, you jus' didn't: Level 3 slaps Verizon in Netflix throttle blowup

Re: Monopoly = Artificial Scarcity

Whilst I agree, in principle, the current situation is a direct consequence of the, close to, laissez-faire capitalism that runs in the US. What regulations there are, are under attack, seemingly endlessly, by those who's bottom lines depend on flying close to the legal wind. The FCC seems to be largely toothless and is under sustained pressure from some of the most lobbied politicos.

Those with the largest lobbying funds, tend to get favorable outcomes in congress and the senate.

Without changing the system, to force the representatives to represent the society at large, rather than those who pay the most, the "other guy/gal" will probably be just as susceptible to the lobbying, but after, they are elected.

Anyway, your idea, whilst very admirable, would be laughed out of Washington, as some sort of socialism!

When PR backfires: Google 'forgets' BBC TV man's banker blog post

To what end?

I cannot get my brain around the fact that this measure, as implimented by Google, is about much use to prevent "forgetting" about a person. Google isn't the ONLY game in town

How about going after the person/people who are hosting the duff (allegedly) info? No? Because thats expensive and hard. Easier to make Google do it and do a 1/2 assed job and reap some PR.

Did anyone tell the ECJ how the internet works before this ruling?

Microsoft tests HALF-INCH second screen to spur workplace play

Re: How long until

That would be about 2.3 "picco" seconds.

*Kudos on the username, love that book!

David Cameron wants mobe network roaming INSIDE the UK

Re: Nightmare

Two arguments against a unified network:

The biggest mobile firms, that have already invested billions, don't want competition using their kit and give up market share.

If we had a unified national mobile network, then we'd get the same ahem…"alleged" collusion and price gouging we see in the privatised energy, rail and water networks.

If Google remembers whom it has forgotten, has it complied with the ECJ judgment?

Pointless...

Granted that in the UK at least Google has an 89% market share, but

as long as they are putting the "flags" in place then most searchers would search again on:

a) Google.com

b) Bing

c) Yahoo

d) <other search engines go here>

So how the hell did the EU Judges expect this to work?

Snowden shoots back: 'So you DO have my emails, after all'

DD/MM/YYYY

Aren't everyone's days numbered?, I think it's called a date... or some-such. ;-)

Multiplayer Elite to debut on May 30th

Mr Trout, I very much doubt it.

Minimum system specs for the Alpha build (only a guide, may change on release)

Direct X 11

Quad Core CPU (4 x 2Ghz is a reasonable minimum)

2 GB System RAM (more is always better)

DX 10 hardware GPU with 1GB video ram

Internet connection

You may get away with the CPU but unless it's got a dedicated GPU I can't see it running on an "ancient" Laptop very well.

Tell it to me straight, vendors: Are you cheap and easy?

Not always the vendor. but sometimes is.

Well said. Coming from a Defence IT background I can assure you a lot of cost overruns come from a bad set of requirements, granted, vaguely answered, but then shoehorning in changes, post contract signing. Trouble is, vendors know this and plan for it and some even bank on it, with, as forn said, "cheap" initial bids.

Watch the MIT MER-BOT – half droid, half soft 'fish' – swim by itself

I can't believe no-one has said it...

I for one welcome our pliant piscis overlords.

Target ignored hacker alarms as crooks took 40m credit cards – claim

"The supermarket employed a team of security specialists in Bangalore tasked with monitoring its computers around the clock."

... and there is, ladies and gents, what you get for "outsourcing" something as critical as IT Security.

Barclays warns freelance techies of DOUBLE DIGIT rate cut

Re: Cognitive dissonance ?

... someone is indeed telling porkies, to improve their bonus.

US gov claims it spent TOO MUCH on wiretaps – and blames SPRINT

Alternatively

They could have come up with a contract "Spying Plan", free spying on evenings and weekends? Then shaft them if they go over their 1Gb limit?

Apple, Symantec, other tech heavies challenge anti-gay legislation

Re: As I read it.

Fair enough. But point 3?

As I read it.

This isn't just about private citizens refusing business on their private property.

This bill will allow the following:

1) A doctor to refuse aid, based on his/her religious belief, and not get sued/fired

2) A cop to refuse aid, based on his/her religious belief, and not get sued/fired

3) A private citizen to refuse to server someone even when an employee based on his/her religious belief, and not get canned (without in turn suing their previous employer!)

That was my understanding. It's basically "special pleading" for religious beliefs over the top of basic human rights.

MIT wants quasars to help put free will to rest

Re: ...cannot possibly have any “causal contact” in the last 14 billion years.

Ahh, I lounge corrected. That is a valid point. Whatever this characteristic, it would be another unknown. I know you could entangle a subatomic particle, but at the macro level of a quasar?

Re: ...cannot possibly have any “causal contact” in the last 14 billion years.

I think you've misunderstood. They're not suggesting an entanglement between two particles 14 billion light-years apart, but suggesting that any observer bias could be mitigated by using quasars as random switch controllers for the standard "Bell's Inequality" experiment which has been done many times, always finding in favour of the Quantum Mechanics theory, over a theory of locality.

You are right about the effects of entanglement, however, they do seem to be FTL, but since no usable information is passed, without a classical channel, it does not, the theory goes, breach the relativity barrier.

Anons escape human sewer after billionaire bog roll blag

DDoS

Something I've always wanted to know. What's the point of a DDoS on a website?

Now I can understand a bank/credit card DDoS, that's going to cost money and potentially business, but a site like this?

I mean, I think of it like blocking the door of a building, for a while, till the people inside call for security. Once they arrive, business as usual.

I suppose it could be used as cover for a deeper attack, gaining potential information, but other than that?

Seems like an awful risk for very little reward, as it were.

Cameron: UK public is fine with domestic spying

More people are killed...

Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain, 2012

Killed 1,754

Seriously Injured 23,039

.... and yet we don't spend literally billions trying to prevent it. Why?

HARD ONES: Three new PC games that are BLOODY DIFFICULT

Re: Kerbal Space Program

Oh gods yes indeed.

*Launches "Strut Monster Mk 38"

Google, Netflix ready next weapon in net neutrality battle: The fury of millions

I'm racking my brain to think of an private industry sector where that isn't true.

Amazon patents caches for physical goods

How is this an invention?

I don't understand. How is this an invention? It's a business process. Using software to anticipate product requirements has been around for years? Google "Just in time"

SpectraLogic asks US patent office to probe Overland patent

Re: Taking the ball home

Not in all instances. The whole point of a patent is to protect your invention so you CAN make a profit, otherwise it will always be those with the best economies of scale, who will. I agree that this has been abused, born from "dodgy" patents used to stifle genuine competition rather than to protect an invention. But that is a government/law issue to resolve.

British Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing receives Royal pardon

Too Late...

59 years too late.

Twitterers rally round #CensoredUK - to demand more porn

A sliding slope on the thin end of the metaphor

Porn, then "extremist" websites/speech... etc & so on. It WILL happen folks.