Posts by Phil O'Sophical

Maplin Electronics demands cash with menaces

Re: first online shopping

Display Electronics

Ah yes, the "distel" service. Brings back memories. I still have a working RGB monitor I bought from them for my Amiga...

Whatever happened to Watford Electronics?

Re: Sad excuse for the company it once was...

?I had my 4 digit customer number

And the basic A5 catalogue with a Concorde on the cover,,,

These days the physical stores just sell overpriced tat, and Amazon does a better job online.

Brexit: More cash for mobile operators or consumers? Pick one

Re: I am for leave because I am pro Europe

That would put us back in the old situation of Euro-squabbles escalating, which the EU has managed to do a fine job of preventing.

The EEC did a fine job of preventing it, the EU has done nothing but make it worse. The big rise in extremist, populist parties (left and right) has largely happened since the eurocrats started to build their United Europe, post-Maastricht.

And a few years down the line someone will probably try to unify Europe again, by the old methods.

Old or new, its clear that the majority of European people don't want a unified Europe, they want a co-operative one, so any attempts to unify Europe will fail. The problem is how to make it fail without escalating into WW3. Someone has to get that message across to the politicians, if asking nicely doesn't work then maybe a kick in the balls will.

something so awesome we all say "take my money, please!" rather than just extortion

I thought that's what iPhones were for?

"No one has any idea how this is going to play out. No one knows what trade deals will be cut and the impact of a restriction on freedom of movement. It might be hunky-dory, it might not."

Indeed so, which makes articles like this entirely pointless.

Phone operators have a target of money they want to make from their customers. They'll find a way, if one door is closed another will be nudged open.

Watch as SpaceX's latest Falcon rocket burns then crashes

Re: Engines and SSTO

It must be pretty galling to have run out of the last kilo of oxidiser only five metres above the pad. Is that really what happened?

It's called "range anxiety", something Musk is surely familiar with.

Crims set up fake companies to hoard and sell IPv4 addresses

Re: Arrogant architects

suggestions for adding a "feature flag" that lists an extended address in the header would only have slowed packet processing down for all time.

Not necessariy "for all time". The problem is the complete lack of compatibility between v4 and v6. It wouldn't have been impossible to develop a model where v.new was the desired endpoint, but there was a hacky v.intermediate which could handle old and new formats. A staged rollout could then have allowed an upgrade to intermediate, probably with a "feature flag" hack, and then a later move to v.new, without ever needing to make the massive forklift-upgrade that has made IPv6 well-nigh impossible to implement for existing, non-technical, users.

They managed it for phone numbers, going from "01 is London" to "01 is geographic", etc. It wasn't easy, multiple changes were required, but hardly anybody had to buy new phones.

I strongly suspect that for basic, cheap, home broadband, we're going to see CGNAT as the technology of choice for the next decade or so.

Microsoft releases open source bug-bomb in the rambling house of C

Re: C is not an applications programming language

you know, like 'strcpy(buffer, string)' --- should be 'strncpy(bufer, string, maxlen)'

No, it should be 'strlcpy(bufer, string, maxlen)' which prevents overflow and gurantees null-termination. The "l" form of strcat is even more useful, since you don't need to mess around with strlen calculating how much is left in the buffer. Errors there lead to so many off-by-one mistakes.

If you must use strncpy, then at least use 'strncpy(bufer, string, maxlen-1)' to make room for the null.

Password reset: 45 million creds leak from popular .com forums

I wonder if it is possible that these are a result of an insufficiently random password reset tool?

That, or maybe it hashes to the same unsalted MD5 as "password", but being alphabetically earlier show up first in the list?

Virgin Media goes TITSUP* in South London due to painful piles

Re: It's always been a problem

Afraid your statement is simply not true. It isn't worth doing.

That wasn't my experience when I worked for a company that owned the underground plant these guys usually dug through. Granted that was more local-council-level repairs, not major construction projects, but those guys never even bothered to call the hotline to ask if there was plant, they just dug & hoped for the best.

Re: "won’t be able to make a full repair until the pile is removed"

Hmm, I was expecting that link to be gruesomely medical and in very poor taste. Quite tame, really.

It's always been a problem

It is understood that the construction company was fully aware of the location of all the networks running through and around their site in advance of the build.

Past experience shows that for these companies it slows down work too much to mark out and dig carefully around services. Generally speaking, it's much easier and cheaper for them to dig away, and just pay the occasional bill they get sent for repairing any damage. To them it's just a cost-benefit analysis, they don't have to care about the inconvenience to others.

Maybe if Ofcom could fine them for the disruption caused things might change, but they'll not change just because they might get their wrists smacked really firmly.

Boffins decipher manual for 2,000-year-old Ancient Greek computer

Re: Wait for tim

"I told you that you weren't holdng it right. Now you jump in and fetch it.

In other words, a user manual.

Sounds more like online help to me...

Sneaky brown dwarf gives us a bright flash and astroboffins are confused

Just one of those early CFL stars then, probably best to replace it with an LED (Light Emitting Dwarf).

Wales gives anti-vaping Blockleiters a Big Red Panic Button

Re: Vaping is harmless

"harmless" is reasonable.

Harmless, but irritating. A bit like farting, and I'd hope you'd have the good manners not to do that right beside me either.

Forget Game of Thrones as Android ransomware infects TVs

Re: Killing TVs, a step too far

By extension, a proper supervisor should have a mechanism that can always be reached when you need it allowing you to administer anything running on it

What is commonly known as "a backdoor", you mean? Yeah, that'll work.

Let's Encrypt lets 7,600 users... see each other's email addresses

No, the error was not testing it on dummy data before using it on their actual user base.

British Airways slaps 'at risk' sticker on nearly half its app delivery dept

app delivery?

What exactly do these "application delivery techies" do?

Software snafu let EU citizens get referendum vote, says Electoral Commission

Re: damn

Even if we seem to elect complete and utter arseholes as leaders all the time

We don't elect a leader at all. We elect MPs, and the Queen invites one of them to be her prime minister. It's purely custom that says she will usually ask the leader of the largest party, there's no need for the PM to even be an elected representative.

Computerised stock management? Nah, let’s use walkie-talkies

Re: 9 1/2 shoes

I guess centimetres and the like vary from country to country??

cm? How very modern. I thought shoe sizes were measured in barleycorns?

Re: 9 1/2 shoes

As far as I can tell most people have wider feet than the average shoe is made for.

Go for a decent brand like Barker, they cost a fortune but they come in wide sizes, last for ages, and can be returned to the factory for resoling for much less than buying a new pair. Well worth it.

Science Museum maths gallery to offer the perfect pint

I saw the Da Vinci exhibit last week, the man had an amazing imagination.

If you're in that area soon it's also worth wandering a bit further up Exhibition Road to the Royal Geographical Society, they have an exhibition of large aerial photos of the UK, set on stands in the garden. We found it quite by accident, gave us an interesting half hour.

Winston Churchill glowers from Blighty's plastic fiver

the Manx Goverment released plastic pound notes around 30 years ago

Didn't they also release a 50p note (paper, or plastic?), instead of a coin, to replace the old 10 bob note? I saved one, I wonder if I still have it. Time to rummage in some old pockets...

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

The usual arrogance of tech companies

many still don’t really understand the range of smart energy products on offer and the potential they have to ease their busy lives in a practical way

In other words, if you don't want something they have invented it can only be because you don't understand how fantastic it is. If only you'd pay attention to them you would see the light, and be converted. Hallelujah!

They never learn.

Brexit? Cutting the old-school ties would do more for Brit tech world

Re: From the outside looking in

The EU started out as a way of attempting to avoid the widescale famine that happened post WW2

It would be more correct to say that the Common Market started out that way, as a level playing field to give European nations a chance to build a sound economic future based on mutual prosperity. Although it had flaws it worked pretty well, and has indeed contributed to the lack of European conflict.

The European Union, on the other hand, did not come about from any genuine need, it's purely a product of politicians' vanity. The single curerncy has seriously damaged the competitivity of many EU countries apart from Germany, and the centralized fiscal and political control inherent in the concept of an EU is raising unpleasant thoughts of past conflicts to "unite Europe". That, in turn, is feeding the left- and right-wing populist and nationalist parties in France, Greece, Austria, the UK and others.

I am genuinely worried that the refusal of EU politicians to accept the flaws in the EU is now pushing Europe closer to, not away from, internal conflict. Sooner or later there will be another "Greek crisis" and the single currency will fall apart. When (not if) that happens the EU will start to fall apart, and those countries which are still members will bear the brunt of it.

Recent surveys have shown that even europhile countries like France have >50% of the population who want a Brexit-style referendum, and upward of 40% would vote to leave. No political entity can survive that level of internal division on such a fundamental question as its existence. If the EU politicians won't recognise that, and take steps to address it, it may well be better to accept the pain of an early departure in order to avoid the disaster of being sucked into the inevitable crash & burn.

Re: The ad hominems have started early

A huge number of words without managing to actually say anything.

Yes, it does rather read like a petulant rant from somone whose grant to research his pet subject wasn't renewed again.

Re: Divide

Drink 10 pints of Beer, then 10 pints of wine*. I think you will see which wins then.

Depends. You'd get very different results with English beer and Italian wine, versus Belgian beer and English wine.

ISS pump-up space podule fully engorged

Re: How space-junk-proof is it?

Comparte what a car body panel does, compared to a bullet-proof vest.

Surely you jest. Ayone who watches TV cop shows knows that car body panels easily stop machinegun bullets, while bullet-proof vests leave their wearers lying on the ground, badly bruised, from only a rifle shot...

US nuke arsenal runs on 1970s IBM 'puter waving 8-inch floppies

Re: Some Department of Commerce weather alert systems use Fortran

I got stuck with it because I was the only guy left who remembered how to administer VMS

Fortran is a wonderfully portable language, running it on a newer system should have been pretty tribial, and faster (although a lot less fun).

Re: Cloud

More Mushroom Cloud than Elastic Cloud, I think.

Re: Addendum

+1 for mentioning "Ignition". I wanted to read it on a Kindle, so hacked the PDF with Calibre. The MOBI output (even the equations) is tolerable, if imperfect.

Re: Good. Simple is best.

Don't bet on it, I'm sure some of their target readership still has suitable systems in their garages...

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

Re: Sooo...

I'm sure there will be a stone-age mode for people like you.

What's stone-age about saving battery power for calls, and not wasting it on wifi when I'm nowhere near a wifi access point, or GPS when I know perfectly well where I am?

Surrey teen charged over Mumsnet hack attack

The kid has a talent, obviously a bigger talent than the clowns who set the site up in the first place.

That doesn''t entitle him to smash the site up, or 'swat' its owners. Bernie Madoff had talent too, should he have been "given" a job in a bank instead of being jailed?

Airbus to build plane that's even uglier than the A380

Re: The A380 isn't ugly

Rating: 10/10 - would fly on bloody huge plane again.

Just don't pick the BA versions. Economy seats that make church pews seem confortable, only 2 hours into a 10 hour flight and my backside was already numb. Crappy fixed headrests that don't give you any neck support, but get in the way of the pillow anyway. And then you arrive at immigration with 400 grumpy jetlagged people in front of you. Give me small point-to-point planes over giant hub&spoke whales any time.

Big Pharma wrote EU anti-vaping diktat, claims Tory ex-MEP

Re: Hurrah!

So we have an entirely unelected chamber that has now taken it upon itself to interfere in the lawmaking of the elected government.

Which is exactly why they are there. Unelected means they are not beholden to anyone else, and they can interefere with government only up to a point, enough to have an impact, yet they can still be overridden if they are really out of order. What's not to like?

US work visas for international tech talent? 'If Donald Trump is elected all bets are off'

Re: "We'll see how well that goes"

"I believe you're using the Internet. That's an American invention."

Not really. It relies on digital packet-switched networks, which were pioneered by British/French engineers, since the American who had the idea couldn't get anyone interested. It was only after the UK MOD prototyped it that ARPA decided it was worth using.

Re: Good for competition?

But I agree the visa system needs to be stopped immediately, entirely, permanently.

Great, so instead of importing people do do the jobs in the US, they'll just offshore the jobs to wherever the people are. That way you lose not only the job itself but all the work and subsidiary jobs associated with it.

Ooh missus, get a grip on my notifications

Re: Context

from one of the Carry-On films (obviously)

Carry on Cleo, magnificently recycling the set that had just hosted Burton & Taylor.

My problem is with predictive text, on a phone keyboard the number sequence 4663 has several posisble matches, which led me to send Mrs O'Sophical a note saying "I'll be good soon".

local aerial installer gave many giggles.

I liked the note on the side of an aerial installer's van for Sharma & sons:

"You've tried the cowboys, now try the Indians"

Walmart sues Visa for being too lax with protecting chip cards

at the CN Tower in Toronto last year when the poor waitress was having to explain to baffled Yanks how to use the card reader...

I've seen the same thing in restaurants at Heathrow, US customers trying to persude the waitress just to take the card away & bring back a chit, and looking baffled when she tries to explain that she's not allowed to do that and has to bring the reader to the table. They just don't get that it's for their own protection!

Ireland's international tech sector bumps up against language barrier

Re: Languages

Have you ever read any technical documentation which is grammatically perfect?

My wife is a technical writer, I plead the 5th.

Re: Languages

Localization work, like technical writing, tends to require people who are native speakers, though. There's a big difference between being able to attend meetings and visit/present to customers in another language, and being capable of writing perfect grammatical documentation in it.

At the BBC, Agile means 'making it up as we go along'

Re: At the BBC, Agile means 'making it up as we go along'

if the customer focus is kept, Agile will at least deliver something useful quicker and cheaper than waterfall.

You could say the same for projects delivered by an enthusiastic summer intern.

The problem is not "useful" but "supportable and maintainable"

PLA sysadmin gets six months house arrest for yanking US Army docs

Did the tribunal ask the other question:

Why was anyone, security-cleared or not, able to connect a thumb drive to a military computer connected to a classified Secret-level network.?? Perhaps the US army needs some military-grade epxoy & instructions for using it on USB ports?

Six-year-old patched Stuxnet hole still the web's biggest killer

Re: "Windows versions older than Windows 8 that have not applied the August 2010 patch."

Probably no person involved, but a forgotten PC, sitting in a dusty cupboard, that has been plodding on with its daily job since it was installed.

Brit polar vessel christened RRS Sir David Attenborough

Re: What are they calling the helicopter?

Harold?

Re: a triumph for commonsense

If you can't get the idiotic twats interested in science, you'll never get their taxes to pay for it...