Posts by Phil O'Sophical

Eerie satnav boffinry claims it can predict THE FUTURE

Re: This could be useful-

> get it onto BMW's

Just getting it connected to the indicators on a BMW would be a help.

Hands up who wants 3D finger-controlled fridges? That's the spirit

Re: I'm patenting the clenched fist

> aggressively patenting all sorts of gestures

This sort of stupidity is what gets people all heated up over patents.

Patenting a clever technology that allows gestures in general to be recogised is one thing, but allowing companies to patent each possible gesture as an individual item is just plain daft. We could do with sending a few choice gestures in the direction of the USPO.

<----

Angry Birds fire back: Vulture cousins menace UK city's mobiles

Missed opportunity

Could have been used as a field trial for RFC1149.

Oracle slaps critical patch on insecure Java

serendipitous

I was in the middle of reading this article when I got a popup from the Java updater telling me that update 21 was available.

Facebook struggling to find 'immersive' Home on Apple's iPhone

Re: Apple openness

> maybe things are slowly shifting away from pure Jobsian possessiveness.

Nah, people just like to boast that they have "contacts" at Apple.

SWARMS of ZOMBIES unleashed on innocent bloggers

Re: "innocent blogger"

You forgot the Microsoft Zombie cheatsheet, and the naked zombie celebrities...

Netflix plotting move to HTML5 video - but only if DRM works

Re: @Tom 7

> make it hard enough that 90% of people don't know how to do it, or are put off doing it by the need to install and configure a bunch of extra software.

But that is precisely why it's pointless. Most people who want to record it just want to be able to watch it again later, or on a mobile device, they aren't pirates. They've paid for their download and they aren't going to cost Netflix anything if they keep a copy.

Meanwhile the real pirates, the ones who intend to duplicate it onto DVDs and tapes to sell for a couple of $$ on a market stall, will always find a way around the DRM. Even if 99% of people find it too hard, the pirates are in the 1% who will put the effort and money into doing it. DRM that isn't 100% unbreakable is of zero use, and no DRM is 100% unbreakable.

It would be more useful to watermark it and tie that watermark to the subscriber. That way they would be able to find (and ban/prosecute) anyone who was distributing copies.

Dell crams modular hybrid server and storage switch into 1U pizza box

Exactly. They got their name because they were flat, square, and the lid tilted open like a pizza box. The 3/80 was the first one, IIRC, not the SPARCstation.

Dubai splurges on 700hp, 217mph Lamborghini police cruiser

Re: Fast Police Cars

> Maggie Thatcher's claim that there is no such things as society would be loudly mocked by the Dutch,

Only if they misunderstood the context, as you seem to have done.

That soundbite was in the middle of a debate (on the health service, IIRC) when someone said that "society" would have to pay, and Maggie pointed out that when it comes to paying bills there's no such thing as "society" since ultimately it is the individual taxpayers who have to cough up, i.e. there isn't some bottomless pot of money owned by something called "society" that can pay all our bills for us. It was more of a comment on collective responsibilty. The leftie press jumped on the soundbite & delighted in using it out of context.

Re: Well...

French autoroute police have a fleet of 70 Megane RS, which top out at 255km/h (160 mph). They use them to catch the drug runners coming from Africa via Spain, as well as the boy racers like the one done for 215km/h (135mph) just outside Lyon last week,

Facebook Home gets SMACKDOWN from irate users

Re: I wonder...

XKCD knows about star-rated reviews...

http://xkcd.com/937/

How to introduce modern architectures and best practice to the data centre

Comfort zones...

> how best to introduce major changes to data centre operations.

And we have;

The analyst, who suggests analysing things first

The sysadmin, who recommends convincing the CIO that the admins have the answer.

The Microsoft consultant who recommends the Microsoft cloud.

I'll bet if you'd asked an Oracle rep he'd have suggested buying a database, and a Cap Gemini staffer would have recommended outsourcing it all.

Me? It's Friday, I suggest discussing it down the pub over a pint. Cheers

IT salaries: Why you are a clapped-out Ferrari

extrapolating the curve

Looks like I'll hit retirement at exactly the right moment.

Cheers

Half of US smartphone owners have no idea which mobe to buy next

There was a time when people upgraded because they saw something to upgrade to. Now it seems there is an assumption that upgrade is good, and not knowing what to upgrade to is somehow a failing. I assume this survey was driven by the suppliers of potential upgrade targets?

The gloves are on: Nokia emits super-sensitive £99 Windows Phone

Nice £100 phone

All it needs now is for someone to port Android to it.

EU competition chief stays in touch with Google via TEXT MESSAGES

promotes its own services in its search results to the detriment of its rivals.

In the early days of airline reservations systems, American Airlines (AA) launched a system called SABRE. It was available to their competitors as well, but there were complaints that for any given request, AA always displayed its own flight offerings at the top of the list. The courts upheld the complaint, and required AA to choose a fairer system.

They changed to display the flight numbers in strict alphabetical order...

aaaooogle, anyone?

Hard luck lads, todger size DOES matter: Official

Re: Also

> 1" would be big enough to get the job done.

I suspect that views may differ depending on which end of the job you find yourself...

NASA-backed fusion engine could cut Mars trip down to 30 days

Re: And all it requires is just a wee bit of fusion

Fusion is entirely practical, there are several large glazed craters in deserts to prove it.

Re: steering concerns

Gyroscopes.

You'd perhaps also have to hook the motor(s) up to the solaris panel/cabin assembly via something flexible (bungees?!) to even out the impulses for comfort and structural safety.

Maggie Thatcher: The Iron Lady who saved us from drab Post Office mobes

Re: Sadly, the under 40s

> *If* you were lucky, you could get a phone in less than 2 months. And as for a *second* phone

Ah yes, party lines. My Dad waiting to call in his sales figures while the neighbour's teenage daughter was on the phone to her boyfriend every evening!

Funny, the article notes "This was the same Post Office that, in the 1970s, snubbed one of the world's first mobile telephones, which was designed by the British Chelmer Institute." but that wasn't the first such screwup. A hundred years before that the GPO even turned down the idea of being involved in telephones at all. They couldn't see a need, when there was such a good Telegram service...

Re: @AndrueC - Between The Unions and Thatcher

> look outside and see only German, French, Italian and Jap cars.

Hmm. The "Jap" cars were probably made in England, the French ones in Romania or N. Africa, even some of the German ones aren't made in Germany any more.

I'm reminded of a story from a year or so back when the Labourites in Crewe & Nantwich laid into their Tory MP for being a toff in a flash car. He replied that he was delighted to have the chance to drive an excellent car that was made in his own constituency (Bentley are a nice little earner based in Crewe)

Get lost, drivers: Google Maps is not for you – US judge

Re: I always use my phone for Google's GPS when I'm in California @(Andy Prough)

> And that's just the junction-by-junction stuff, the overall layout is a nightmare in itself. While driving to

> Pacifica this weekend I naturally had to go 101 south, 380 west, 280 north then 1 south,

And just to add to the fun, directions like North or South refer to the immediate small section of road you're about to enter, not to the road in general. Central Expressway goes generally in a north-south direction, but for a short bit in the middle it is s-shaped and runs east-west, so when you want to get onto it to head generally northerly, you may need to know if you want Central East or West.

Planning ahead with a map is the only reliable option.

Virgin on London Underground Wi-Fi: O2's company, Three's a crowd

Re: Powerline anyone?

I'd think that the chances of any two-way data making it across the sliding, sparking, contact of shoe against rail were pretty slim.

On the other hand, why does leaky feeder need to be laid along the tunnel roof, when there's loads of space alongside the rails under the train? Or beside it, at window level, where all that strange pink cable runs?

Windows XP support ends a year from … now!

Re: Dude just use Mint

> I feel your pain towards Windows 8. Really I do! But, really its about time to let go and try Linux

This is the attitude that really pisses me off about Linux fanbois, the arrogant assumption that if we would only deign to try it we would all be singing Hosannas and be converted to the Church of Linus for ever after.

Most of us are only too familiar with Linux. I run Solaris, two kinds of Linux, Windows XP and Windows 7 on various computers.They are all great for the environment where I installed and use them. I have no desire whatsoever to put Linux on my laptop, not because it isn't good, but because a Linux laptop is less useful for my particular needs than a Windows one. My home desktop can be booted into Solaris/Debian/WinXP as I wish. I am not looking forward to replacing it because Win8 looks crap, and I still have a need for a home Windows system.

So, enough of the Linux bigotry, OK?

Pyongyang to unleash NUKULAR horsemen of the Norkocalypse?

Re: It IS rocket science...

I would think that the bigger risk is that the NORKs will launch a missile, perhaps targeting some offlying island, and it will go haywire & drop onto Pyongyang, whereupon some overzealous generalissimo or politico will declare it a US first strike and hit the Big Red Button for everything aimed at S.Korea. All hell then breaks loose on the peninsula, and the price of the Galaxy S4 goes though the rof.

Ahoy! Google asks US gov't to help sink patent 'privateers'

Re: Is there another side?

I don't agree that all it allows is for the holder to sue.

Consider a situation where you develop & patent something. I see your design, am mightily impressed, and (from my perhaps different background) see a way to make it even better. I patent my improvement.

Now, I can't actually do anything with my improvement, since I need your patented basic design to make use of it. (This, incidentally, is where the "implement it or lose it" option falls down). You can choose to ignore me, and continue to sell your Mark 1, but since my improvement is public your customers are likely to come along and say "why don't you add Phil's extra bit, I'd pay more for that". A third party might even look at the whole and figure out a way to effectively implement our combined design in a way that doesn't infringe either patent, and we both lose.

Ideally, we should sit down and discuss cross-licensing, and if we get that right we can both make a decent commercial success of the new, improved, Mark 2.

That's how it should work.

Re: Is there another side?

> The only benefit a patent provides is a basis to sue if you feel your patent has been infringed upon.

That shows a (wilful?) misunderstanding of what patents are for.

Without patents, all you can do with your super whizzbang design is to keep it secret, since if your competitors figure it out they can make the same gadget but without any of your R&D costs, so they are cheaper & you get screwed. Keeping it secret is not only difficult, but in a fast-moving technical field it can slow down everyone's progress.

What a patent does is to allow you to publish the design so that others can say "gee, that's clever, and I can see a way to make it even better", while the patent grants you the right to exclusive use of the design for a time, so your competitors can't just re-use your idea without your permission. It protects your idea as the inventor, and still allows other people to learn from, and improve upon, it. Supposeedly a win-win situation.

The problem we see today is not with the idea, but with the implementation. Patent offices are granting unnecessarily broad patents without understanding the technology, and big companies are abusing their size to crush competition that can't afford to defend itself even when it has a justified claim.

The solution is to fix the system, not to discard it.

There needs to be a way to correctly identify truly original ideas, and to ensure that only the minimal 'ingenious' bit is protected. There should be penalties for companies who bring, and lose, frivolous suits, and possible legal aid for small companies to defend patents. The PAEs mentioned in the article should be banned, or at least made financially unworkable for all but genuine claims.

Google cofounder Brin sighted in Tesla batmobile

Where's the rooftop camera?

Hubble boffins: Incredibly old supernova could explain EVERYTHING

Re: superbovae ?

African or European?

Freeview telly test suggests 4G interference may not be a big deal

Re: I wish...

"And of course, you aren't supposed to watch iPlayer without a TV licence...."

Only if you watch it live. catch-up is OK.

Re: Who pays next time

It'll happen all over again. The problem isn't the TV signal format, but the susceptibility of cheap amplifiers to overload. It might have been better for the tests to include some other frequencies as well, to get a slightly future-proofed set of information.

BSkyB punters drown in MASSIVE MYSTERY Yahoo! mail! migration!

Re: migration notification

Yes, I had many such e-mails, explaining what the move was (Goggle to Yahoo), what the restrictions would be (no IMAP) etc. Since I have never even logged in to my Sky email account (my Sky TV account is associated with a different email address) I ignored them, but to say this move was "without warning" is simply not true.

Rackspace sues 'the most notorious patent troll in America'

Re: A Very Good Thing Indeed.

> So this situation in is not really unique to the tech industry

True. Government uses it too.

"We have this photo of your car breaking the speed limit. Pay up. You may choose to contest this, but if you don't pay up within two weeks your fine will be doubled, and if you contest and lose you'll have to pay costs as well".

'Pong' ported to 29-storey skyscraper 'screen'

The idea goes back further

Blinkenlights 'cheats' in a way, by installing controllable floodlights in each office. Would be more fun to hook into a building environmental controls to use the existing lights. SCADA hack, anyone? :)

Years ago (1980s?) there was a Calvin & Hobbes strip cartoon where Calvin was playing noughts and crosses (tic tac toe) on the windows of an apartment block facing his bedroom, by phoning neighbours in the middle of the night to bring their lights on.

Building the actual real internet simply doesn't pay

Re: couturiers

Really, other people have faster and cheaper dressmakers than we do? Who knew?

Re: Pioneers go bust

> Because the time for the pioneers to die has already happened and the Internet has been around for donkey's years?

The first public railway opened in 1830, and the railway bubble peaked in 1846. 16 years

The WWW consortium was founded in 1994. 16 years on was 2010. Not so far out...

Mars to go offline for a month as vast nuclear furnace gets in the way

Security issues

Have they allowed for a man-in-the-middle attack by some Solarian version of Alice or Bob ? We might never get control of Curiosty back.

Bank card-slurp nasty 'infects tills, ATMs', corrupt staff fingered

Re: I wouldn't mind so much

And who do you think those "big faceless corporations" get their money from, idiot? It's just like shoplifting, you aren't stealing from Tesco, you're stealing from all the people who have to pay the extra costs that Tesco add to their prices to cover "shrinkage".

Card skimmers targeting more than ATMs, says EU

Re: because everyone loves anecdotal evidence.

I've had that happen, although a quick call to the bank fixed it. It seems to depend on what you buy, typical holiday spending like food or petrol doesn't usually trigger it, but buying a TV or a washing machine will certainly ring alarm bells.

How to address skimming?

ATMs are designed to be tough, hard to smash and easy to clean. Perhaps they also need to design them so that it's hard to fit a false front? Any ideas?

It won't be that hard to shape them so that a cover can't be fitted over them without it being obvious, or just have an optical sensor that switches off the machine & triggers a visual alarm if covered?

Add a hologram to the front surface?

Change the card slot so that it reads the chip, and only when the card is fully inserted (2cm or so), so that a fake front can't see enough card to skim the stripe?

Re: Funny Stuff

> Read the news stories about how banks have treated fraud victims with C&P cards.

Better, ask the real victims. I was defrauded of ~ 1500 euros on a chip & PIN card, which had been cloned or skimmed and was used for online purchases. I was reimbursed by my bank in under a month, with no problems whatsoever.

Monkey poo probe reveals secrets of middle-management brains

Re: If only someone would invent a "search engine"

Yes, but then she wouldn't have been paid to spend hours sitting in the park, when the rest of us are stuck in oiffices. Nice work if you can get it, she's obviously not a middle-manager.

Boss of Irish-based R&D hub: Man, this place is the back of beyond

Re: If he thinks Cork is the back of beyond

> Letterkenny

But it's the back of a very scenic beyond :) and not far from Harvey's Point in Donegal town for a nice .

Animal Liberation drone surveillance plan draws fire

Re: Good on 'em

> Animals are moved on journeys that often exceed 1000km or more in crowded cattle trucks to a coastal port.

isn't that called "Qantas Economy Class" ?

Re: This Drone

In other news, sales of high-powered green laser pointers are soaring in Australian cattle territories. Cattlemen claim that they're a necessary tool to deter clouds of hard-to-see blowflies, by burning out their optical sensors...

Judge: Facebook must see Timelines Inc in court over trademark

'don't even fucking bother.'

Ah, do I see a potential epitaph waiting in the Facebook wings?

Merde! Dummkopf! Google Translate used as spam cloak

>We certainly hope this technique is not discovered by malware distributors," the Barracuda researchers explained in a blog post.

"Don't tell him, Pike"

How the iPad ruined the lives of IT architects

Another Microsoft advertorial?

>: the answer like it seems to be for everyone but the richest organisations will almost certainly be the cloud.

Just like when then only solution you have is a hammer, so every problem looks like a nail?

The correct solution is a business continuity plan, with properly performed risk analysis, to determine what your company needs, what the biggest risks to that are, and how likely those risks are to come to pass.

Based on that you can work out how much it costs to provide the protection you need, which of course will not be the same for each user and each department. I suggest that instead of simply waving your hands in the air and claiming that "our cloud" will solve everything for everyone, you take a look at how the professionals do it. Start with the UK-focused Business Continuity Institute (http://www.thebci.org/) or perhaps the more US-centric Disaster Recovery Institute (https://www.drii.org/) and their various publications and conferences.

Call centers under attack in targeted cyber-blackmail scheme

Re: it's been going on for at least the last 5 years or so ---

Shitting from a great height upon cold-callers (whether DDoS or just nuisance) would be a far better use of judges' time than dealing with phone manufacturers suing each other over the shape of their corners.

Production-ready ZFS offers cosmic-scale storage for Linux

Re: Gordon Gordon AC Destroyed All Braincells Gordon BTRFS? You must be joking...

> maybe over an hour (!) to import a pool

More nonsensical FUD. Have you ever got closer to ZFS than posting abut it on the Register? You've clearly never used it, so why should anyone take your rants seriously?

I've yet to see a zpool import take more than a second or two, unless the underlying devices have some serious problems, and even there ZFS will correct and import the valid pool in less time than a traditional FS will complete an fsck and present a maybe-correct volume.