Posts by FutureShock999

US Navy grabs old-fashioned sextants amid hacker attack fears

Re: Oh dear

"It takes less than a minute, paper and pencil, with mathematics kids learn when 6 to 7 years..."

I don't know where YOU went to school, but in my country we never studied spherical trig when we were 7. 17 maybe.

The difference is in what kind of "cheater" tables you have, such as Blewitt's book or similar. Having a big book of "cheater" summarisation in a look-up table makes the whole process, as you say, rather simple mathematics - PROVIDED YOU HAVE THE BOOK. (or the newer calculators that have the tables in them!).

But to do it the LONG FORM way, without the aforementioned tables in a book, requires the use of spherical trigonometry, as they did it back in the olden days of wooden ships of the line - Nelson's day. It is tedious, and difficult to get right (lots of chances to mess up the sign of the calculations). I've seen it done a few times, and could not do it myself if I had to. At least not from memory. Even if my life depended upon it.

Scotsman cools PC with IRN-BRU, dubs it the 'Aye Mac'

Yorkshire cooling

I thought that a true Yorkshireman would want it cooled with Timothy Tailor's Landlord...

Jeep Cherokee 2.2: Capable, comfortable ... but just not very Jeep

So the author picks the "Limited" edition, and then bitches about how it isn't really a Jeep, and lacks power. And then goes on to say that the Trailhawk edition does exist - and btw cures BOTH of those problems (and more) as every Jeep enthusiast knows - but some Jeep manager said it was "specialist", so you ignored it.

WTF Simon - the answer to your criticism is right in front of you and you engineer a way to ignore it so you can write a hatchet piece?

And no, I'm not a Jeep owner - I drive an FJ Cruiser, their arch enemy - but I DO give proper off-roading respect any Jeep that says Trailhawk or Rubicon...basically any Jeep that has locking diffs.

PINs easily pinched with iPhone-attached thermal imaging kit

I've been doing this for years just in case someone is shoulder surfing or video recording logins...making "fake" keypresses before, during, and after my main PIN. The fake ones don't depress the buttons, just rest on them...probably long enough to throw off a thermal scanner.

ISIS command post obliterated after 'moron' jihadi snaps a selfie, says US Air Force

Except the history the OP posted all took place in the last few decades, not centuries ago. There are still whole nations living with the injustices caused by assassinating the democratically elected PM of Iran (and putting in place the murderous, corrupt-as-hell Shah), of dislocating the entire population of Palestine because another religious group asserted their claims based upon a 2000 year old book of fairy tales, or underwriting Iraq's war against Iran and literally killing off almost an entire generation of Iranian men, etc. The US has LOTS of blood on its hands in the region...and more importantly, plain bad decision making. We cannot lay all of the blame on the residents of the region...we cause a lot of it.

This isn't ancient history to these people - it is within their or their parents lifetimes.

Why are all the visual special effects studios going bust?

Re: there's plenty of people willing to see ads

Screw the "Admen" terminology.

The people that do this are Customer Analytics experts, who mainly have degrees in Statistics and Mathematics, and can manipulate SAS statistical models like wizards - or SPSS models if the company is smaller, or R models if the company is cooler. Basically, the guys that DO this stuff really DO know their stuff statistically, usually have degrees in it, and tons and tons of practice. These guys know how to do A/B comparisons, multivariate analysis, test groups, hold-out groups, control groups, etc. They probably know a lot more about this than you ever will...because they are NOT admen, they are mathematicians. They just happen to work for admen.

And I know, because I used to run the CRM Analytics department for a major credit card company, and my current job is head of Insights and Data for an international consultancy, and much of our client work is marketing analytics (with Risk and Fraud as the other legs of the practice).

Marketing works, period. And if you DON'T believe it, all you have to do is look at how much money is spent on elections in the US, especially on TV and radio advertising. That money isn't spent because it _might_ work...that money is spent because it absolutely works, over and over again.

BTW - I don't LIKE the fact that people are so easily persuaded by marketing. I hate it, in fact. The fact that it works so well really is a reflection of our frailties and shortage of logic as humans. But the technology and maths ARE pretty cool, and every now and then marketing does some good..like let you know of an event you would have missed, or a product that you really find useful. But it IS easily abused.

Denon delivers low-cost DTS:X AV kit. Finally Dolby Atmos gets some competition

Re: Blimey!

No, but Arcam and Rotel certainly are...if you want to buy British quality, it is still available, and built like a tank....

Private cloud is NOT dead – and for one good reason: Control of data

Most still don't get it...

Firstly, the original author makes the (typical of an HDS employee in my experience with them) mistake of ignoring APPLICATIONS. Apps are what drive cloud adoption - specifically Salesforce.com, but a slew of other ones as well. And those apps in large part do NOT work on private clouds, because the vendors cannot adequately support them. While some cloud-apps claim that they can run on private hardware, you are in large part losing much of the benefits of a cloud-based app vendor - namely, that they manage all of the upgrade and release headaches. And of having an app development and support team that is laser-focused on just supporting ONE version of the codebase, rather than mutant spawns of several legacy releases running in production on a variety of servers (which benefits customers by having hopefully a more function rich product or better pricing). So private clouds running "cloud" software is just another name for a services-enabled app running on your hardware....

Of course, being a box and data storage vendor, HDS insinuates that it is all about the data...but what really matters to most businesses is the value of the APPLICATIONS that run on the data....having petabytes is worthless if your staff have no business functionality from it.

Of course, many commenters here make the repeated mistake of thinking that clouds are the same as traditional server farms. They are not. Server farms do not have provisioning, and the management functions, that true "clouds" have. More importantly, server farms do not have the APIs and services layers that clouds have, which are the backbones of not just admin, but also entire application ecosystems if done right. Again, it is all about the applications, IMHO.

It is, alas, a cloudy subject....

Everything old is new again: Man mugged in New York, only this time for his Bitcoins

Forget going to the police station to do a deal. Have them meet you at an airport - tell them you are passing through and that is the only place you can meet them. Find a coffee shop near the TSA check-in. Remember that if something funny goes down or your life is in danger, all you need to do is shout "He has a gun!!". Back in the old days you could meet them after security, sadly that now requires you to buy a ticket. For high-value deals and/or very dangerous clients, that still might be worth the security it brings.

If they won't meet there, then something is probably wrong.

Life in prison not appealing to Silk Road boss Ross Ulbricht – appeal filed

Re: I think a life sentence was to be expected.

As someone whom has moved around the world, I have to say I agree with you. In the US, as long as you can claim that you are a CAPITALIST, in some way, and pay the right political taxation (either in real taxes or bribes, er, campaign contributions), you are above the law. For the rest, you are merely the subject of it.

As for your last point, I am sure he will have many years to think "It's a WEBSITE. I could have operated it from ANYWHERE....". A little late now to think how nice a beach house in Mexico with satellite web coverage would have been...or a yacht moored in the Caymans. He certainly had the money to be mobile, even buy another citizenship as an "investor". But like many Americans, raised to think that it is the only country that really matters or is civilised enough to live in...now he can live in it the rest of his life, just not the way he had hoped.

Obligatory Talking Heads call-out: "I got three passports, a couple of visas, you don't even know my real name..."

Latest Snowden leak: NSA can snoop internet to catch 'hackers' – no warrants needed

Re: Just how did Snowden get all this info?

Snowden was very forthcoming about how he acquired the files. He was a sys admin, who had, by dint of his job, access to the raw filesystems of many of the servers and storage networks. For the ones he did not, he managed to socially engineer the passwords of other sys admins.

He then deployed a filesystem crawler to basically just SUCK as many files as he could into portable storage devices that he placed on the network. One of the reasons for the drip feed is that not even Snowden knows what he got...it was just gigs and gigs of files, much of it containing only pieces of the puzzle that have to be crossed with other files to make sense of. He managed to get a handle on a small chunk of it, and that was in the first releases. But the rest is still being pieced together and correlated, which is time consuming and may render more surprises.

The man hit the motherlode...we still don't know all of what he has. Neither does he in many ways. And the government is TERRIFIED...because it DOES have an idea of what is in there....

VR rift OPENS UP: Total Recall Technologies hurls lawsuit at Facebook's Oculus

I think he is...out of Luckey

If any of this lawsuit is true, the actions that Luckey would seem to have taken would violate even the most boilerplate NDA that you can download for free as a template.

As for those that say the claimants waited too long, they are entirely within their rights to see how much the invention may be worth in the marketplace before taking the violator of their NDA to court to recover damages. in fact, WITHOUT the invention being near marketable, there frankly is no way to accurately assess (or even try to assess) the valuation of it, and thus have a basis for computing damages.

He is probably..out of Luckey. On the plus side, he will still be about a billion up I would guess....

Intel raises memory deflector shields in Xeon E7 processor refresh

Re: Hmm...

Intel's sales should not drop, because data being processed has grown by about an order of magnitude in that same 5-6 year span. Thank you, Hadoop....

Shields up! Shields up! ASTRONAUTS flying to MARS will arrive BRAIN DAMAGED, boffins claim

Re: Not really equivalent

Someone hasn't read their Larry Niven...no excuse, really.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(novel)

Silicon Valley gets its first 1Gbps home bro– oh, there's a big catch

Re: VPN

Ummm...why?

Let's look at it this way - AT&T has invested the money for GB fiber to the home, with a presumed ROI attached. Part of that ROI is knowing either they will make money selling targeted ads, or they will make money by having you opt out.

Let's say enough people become untrackable, and it affects the targeting of the ads they are selling. Do you really think they are going to just sit back and allow themselves to miss their ROI target? What are you smoking?

The fact is, if you play with their targeting, it will lower their advertising rates, leading to less income to pay off the investment, and they will simply have to generate that money some other way...likely by raising prices of both privacy and basic service.

Now, about this plan of yours...where is the GOOD part? (And I know I will be downvoted...but honestly, did you think this through?)

OH - you didn't think of that one, did you?

Guardian: 'Oil reserves will soon be worth NOTHING!' (A bit like their stock tips, really)

Re: TW - thanks for the brilliant ONE-dimensional analysis...

Depends upon California. Right now they are about one to two years from severely impacting agricultural output as the wells run dry. Snowpack is only 12% of what it should be this time of year, so there will be no replenishment worth speaking of. It has all the hallmarks of a disaster in the making, and it is only being delayed via tapping into deep groundwater wells which contain non-replentishable water, some of it millions of years old. When it is gone, it is GONE. And the first casualty will be almonds...much of the production of which has become held by investment firms, not family farmers. There will be an outcry.

In short, once California's ag economy is hit badly, there is no way for climate change to be swept under the rug...so once that happens, and if it is as bad as it COULD be - then yes, rules might be changed in the next 5 to 10 years.

TW - thanks for the brilliant ONE-dimensional analysis...

Sorry, but you are trying to impute straight economic discounting into what is really a political and psychological game. The world, and most importantly THE STOCK MARKET, does not work that way.

Firstly, let us say that I accept your theory on discount rates and the future values of reserves out in 2050 and further. But then that means that the incredibly valuations of the petro companies must be based upon consumption of resources in the near to medium term...and that no real effect of climate change regulation will occur before 2050 to impact that.

But in the political world, for substantial rules changes to go into effect in, let's say, 2050, the discussions and alignments around them would have to start in 2030. And the mere discussion of those would impact the pricing and future discounting at that point in a non-linear way. This totally upsets the imputed value in your straight-line discounting calculations, which is really a time value of money issue. But if in 2030 the politics begin to swing quickly towards regulation (due to natural effects that are no longer deniable), then the political situation will change rapidly, and psychologically, people will quickly begin to heavily discount what is then near-term revenues and production possibilities. In short, even though the regulations might not come into play until 2050, we can expect them to play havoc with oil pricing and Wall St. valuations in a non-linear manner well before they are in effect.

This, then, shoots your nice, linear, discount rate calculations out of the water. The market IS non-linear, and subject to as much psychological effects as beta calculations. And something as emotional as this will have a major impact on the market pricing, quite possibly in a very non-linear manner. It has happened before on Wall St., and this is an obvious case where it can happen again.

From that perspective, The Guardian is probably right...especially if the gross effects of climate change become harder and harder to deny...such as the coming, irrefutable mega-draught in California and the loss the entire state's agricultural output.

IS 'hackers' urge US-based jihadis: 'Wipe yourselves out trying to kill 0.00005 of US forces'

Lambs to ISlaughter

So, ISIS has managed to alert 100 "targets" that they will be "hunted" by unskilled jihadists that most likely have little or no combat experience.

I have to say, I think that not only are most of those 100 targets amused, many of them are spending this evening sharpening their combat knives, ensuring they have 9mm pistols in every room of the house, two shotguns under the bed, and if anything salivating at the chance to kill some jihadists without having to get on a plane.

Audi TT: It's NOT a hairdresser-mobile, the dash is too flash

Interesting that it is so well integrated, but not unique

As someone about to buy a used FJ Cruiser (which comes with an antiquated dual-DIN CD player), I have been looking at replacement head units. As it turns out, for $399 (from China) you can get a choice of several Android-powered 6 or 7" screened GPS/Entertainment units that allow you to install nearly any Android app from the Play store - even Torque, which allows you (with the appropriate Bluetooth module) to monitor all of your engine vitals and statistics in real time. They come with WiFi, USB, Bluetooth, etc..very connected and from reports fairly competent at what they do.

So while I applaud Audi's decision to integrate such a great UI into the main binnacle, it just seems that the proprietary nature of it means a limited shelf life. Perhaps the real way forward (as the technology filters down) it to have automakers begin to install dual- or triple-DIN cutouts in a binnacle over the steering wheel, so that the technology is easily upgradeable?

Fanbois: We paid $2000 for full satisfaction but now we have SPREADING STAINS

Re: Eventually...

I don't think the OP was slighting the possibility of a problem, but pointing out that statistically that small a number of complaints (versus what has been sold) makes it very hard to figure out if it is a design flaw, or mistreatment from users. And LOTS of users mistreat their screens, and they are expensive to repair. So Apple hears a LOT of stories about "I wasn't doing nuttin', it just broke".

There may be a design flaw, there may be just a lot of people that don't know how to take care of their laptops appropriately and use harsh chemicals on it. But with that small (again, percentage wise) number of complaints, it isn't OBVIOUS that there is a design flaw.

The other thing is that, if you visit Cupertino, there are thousands of Macs there. If there was a widespread manufacturing defect in such a mainstream product, they would see it for themselves, most likely. And I am guessing that they haven't...none of my friends have a problem, and my 2+ year old MBP still looks good. But then, I am guessing that all Apple employees know what to use to clean a screen, and my friends and I are pretty competent with PCs. So...anecdotally, I have to say it is mistreatment not likely a defect...but would remain open to more statistical observation saying otherwise. Which is probably exactly where Apple is right now...

IBM sued for talking up semiconductor business it couldn't give away

Re: Worthless chip manufacturing plant??

He could have...but I'm not sure he would have been as on target.

SURE it is sexist to claim that women know very little about high tech chip design and the industry that bakes them. A tour of any chip foundry would confirm that, unless you are talking about the line workers. That's not to say that a handful don't exist...but it IS a 98% male dominated niche. And it is a very specialised niche, with non-linear value propositions and unique economic models - probably the closets industry would be automotive manufacturing. Again, a field with a nearly zero exec female management number.

Women are GREAT as leaders at building consensus, understanding customer-centricity, at encouraging teamwork, and occasionally being ruthless and aggressive. But unfortunately, in the high-tech world, it is clear that much of the female leadership comes from a very non-technical background, and really does not have a firm grasp of the intricacies and non-linearities of the market. So while they might be great at ensuring eBay has a fantastic customer experience, they have not been as impressive when asked to manage technology product portfolios and strategies...again, not their background.

The IBM divestment decision REEKED of short-term, exec-compensation-stoking transactional thinking, designed to maximize exec numbers to ensure they got the most in their stock grants that year...at the expense of a long-term Unique Value Proposition in the mid-range and even upper-range systems market. Instead, IBM would focus on "Services", that easily off-shored, amorphous product that can mysteriously plug the numbers gap in future projected revenue spreadsheets. The gap where having a Power-fueld midrange server market used to fill. And that's a pretty big gap, especially as a large amount of IBM's "Services" business is driven by them being the hardware vendor of choice in the account!

So call it sexism if you must. It is however, a fairly depressingly accurate description of American tech management...

Big data = big loss for Hadoop-flinger Hortonworks

Re: Big data hype cycle over?

I do work in this field, as the Head of Big Data for a consultancy. Let me tell you about what your bank is doing (or will be doing) with that Big Data stack...

1) they are looking at your detailed purchase history, and in all probability will eventually offer (if they do not already) a targeted third-party Groupon-type buying solution, driven by a detailed understanding of your buying history, demo/psycho-graphic data, and all other related credit information available about you. You will be asked to opt-in to this service, and if you do it very well may offer you good discounts on stuff you want. If you don't want it, opt-out...no big deal.

2) They are using detailed examination of their own agent's behaviour to understand if the bank is at risk with the financial authorities for mis-selling products to customers. They are likely going to be monitoring agent's verbal conversations using machine learning, the contents of all web and email interactions using textual analysis, and even monitoring of live teller interactions. All of this will hopefully result in a better sales experience for the customer, and a reduction in bank fines from the authorities.

3) They are converting their banks fraud detection from something that is usually done after the fact, into something that is done in real-time and can better prevent fraud before it happens. This will prevent fraud against your account, benefiting both you and the bank.

These are three easy ones, and the tip of the iceberg...now, want to think about what they can REALLY do with Big Data solutions, even with "just three current account types?"

LEAKED: Samsung's iPhone 6 killer... the Samsung Galaxy S6

This will be GREAT outside of the US and UK

The best advantage of Android is that Samsung, HTC, and even Sony do versions of their Android phones that take dual-SIMs and even can keep them both active at once, so you essentially have a phone for personal use, and another line for business, without having to carry and charge two phones. I've had an HTC One with dual-SIMs, and now a Samsung S5 Duos with two SIMs, and as much as I admire Apple (typing this on my MBP Retina) I cannot go back to a single SIM, or having to carry two phones.

The pity is that the US and UK carriers will not OFFER the dual-SIM versions, so to get them you have to either order on-line from Chinese websites, or travel through Dubai's airport and pick one up on your way through. I've done both, and both worked perfectly here in the UK. If work makes you have a separate line it's very easy to get used to the convenience.

Ex-Microsoft Bug Bounty dev forced to decrypt laptop for Paris airport official

They will if they image the drive, see things they can't understand, and pass it to forensics to figure out...

So while I agree that you are likely to be right in MANY cases, there are a troubling few that will get caught using that idea.

Want to shoot FIREBALLS from your wrists, SPIDER-MAN style?

I suspect that those of us in the UK will have a bit of fun having this delivered through UK customs...

SpaceX six days from historic rocket landing attempt

Re: Its the wrong technology

Every _hypothetical_ warp drive is nothing you would ever want to use near a populated planet, ever. Even the proposed (and unfeasible until we find "exotic matter" somewhere) NASA warp bubble is known to basically destroy all living matter in front of it as it decelerates at its destination. You just cannot risk a bubble of warp energy (if it could be created) near a populated planet, not at least until you have so many of them that you can afford to lose one or two to disaster.

Inertialess motors, mass drivers, space elevators, or "clean" nuclear will have to do the heavy lifting, as it where...

Leaked screenshots show next Windows kernel to be a perfect 10

Re: Windows 7 is too blame

No, we need a real meta-data enabled object store.

LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 – dual SSD sizzler

Am I the only person that keeps reading that interface name as "Thunderbird 2"?

No, the extra cost is for packaging it all up, and putting a warranty on it. And ensuring that there is enough margin on it so that stores and distributors will stock it, despite it being a low-volume sales item.

While it is expensive, it is one of those items that if you need it, ALL of the alternatives are expensive too. Clearly, your p0rn collection does not need it....

Dead pilot named in tragic Virgin Galactic spaceship crash

I was watching the documentary "When Britain Ruled the Skies" the other night, about the giant post-WW 2 push by Britain into jet aircraft, both military and civilian. When Bristol, AVRO, De Havilland, and all the others were literally lighting the skies ablaze with new, ever faster designs. Farnborough airshow became THE huge flying show due to all the new British designs that were being rolled out every year. It was amazing...and for a brief period of about a decade, the small isle of Britain was the leading light in jet design.

But this came at a cost. The test pilots that flew for the companies became household names, adored by adults and children alike. Comic books were written for children about them, men wanted to be them, women wanted to date them. But the truth was, that at the peak of development, about 1 British jet test pilot was killed every month. Some were very famous men, such as the son of De Havilland himself. The toll was, in retrospect, staggering.

And yet nothing deterred their dreams, or the companies that pushed ever higher, ever faster designs.

What will happen here? Unfortunately, I think I know the answer even before I wrote this...

Branson on Virgin Galactic fatal crash: 'Space is hard – but worth it'

+1. The problems are well known, and if you read the aviation professional press well commented on. The simple fact is, they cannot get the oxidizer to mix evenly with the solid fuel, so it burns very, very unevenly. In a liquid fuel rocket this is accomplished by configuring the combustion chamber and inlets in ways that ensure a well-mixed fuel stream prior to ignition. But when pumping a liquid over a solid that is itself changing shape as it burns, it is much, much harder. That is the reason why hybrid engines have not been used for government-built rockets. It is clear that the switch to the new plastic fuel has not helped this, and it is now very much a long shot as to whether they every CAN get this problem solved.

My guess is that the program will need to switch to liquid fuelled rockets, which they probably cannot do and maintain their funding windows. So my guess is that this will be the end of Virgin Galactic.

Re: To eternity and beyond...

That's because you're googled research did not count ground-based accidents done during the development - like explosions during static engine testing. Whereas the Virgin-based accidents include three people killed during an engine fuel flow test at a subcontractor's venue. So hardly an accurate standard of comparison. If you research all of the R&D accidents at Boeing, Rocketdyne, Rockwell, etc., you will find a lot, lot more than 13...

Ex-Soviet engines fingered after Antares ROCKET launch BLAST

Re: When all else fails, find a scapegoat.

Administrators don't go back and re-do all the testing. All they can do is ensure that the checks and testing was done, and the paperwork supports that it was done correctly. That IS the essence of administration in a free-market economy.

Now if the sub-contractor (Orbital Sciences in this case) does that testing incorrectly, or incompletely, or incompetently, then they are at fault, and they have insurance to cover that business eventuality. Their reputation suffers, and their insurance rates will likely increase per launch. NASA has no responsibility in this instance...nor should they. Being administrators means they orchestrated the launch, ensured Wallops was ready, and ensured the area around it was clear for launch (oops). That is what an administrator does, not reverse engineer the engine, re-perform the testing, etc. By all accounts, Wallops was ready, NASA tried to ensure the area was clear, and ensured what would have been a safe and successful launch had the sub-contractor been successful.

NASA is entirely blameless, IMHO. There is a culprit, and that is whomever inspected and certified those engines most likely.

Re: No Mr Bond I expect you to die

Elon would just put on his shiny Iron Man suit and take it out with his hand-mounted repulsers...or just fly next to it and tip it into the ocean.

He does have that suit, trust me.

It's Big, it's Blue... it's simply FABLESS! IBM's chip-free future

Re: You are completely right on all counts except one

They are NOT maximizing shareholder value in anything more than a year or two.

Once the market digests this, they will find they cannot sell a POWER-based system to any of their major corporate accounts, due to lack of future support for the architecture. And having sold their x86 business to Lenovo, they have little to take up the slack. So overall, sales will plummet on hardware. And, systems integration work based on hardware sales will decline.

That will take 2-3 years to really kick in, but it IS totally predictable, and shareholder value at the 5 and 10 year marks will be greatly negatively impacted. Of course, Ginni isn't planning on being their then....

Re: It's not a metaphor

No, it's a metaphor. It would be hyperbole if the real solution was to do something painful that did not involve shooting them - say a good spanking.

But since the real solution does not involve corporal punishment or violence, but more likely shareholder lawsuits, it IS a metaphor.

Re: It was all they could have done*

You miss the point - the entire IBM mid-range product line is BASED upon these chips. It is also their main market differentiator, their USP.

Getting rid of the fab, and getting only a 10 year guarantee, doesn't just close down the fab - IT SHOOTS THEIR PRODUCT LINE IN THE HEAD!

If that fab is running at a loss, then guess what? Consider it the Cost of Goods Sold, and ameliorate it with one of your other strategies. Solution 3 works for this. Because Option 1 and 4 basically tell your customer that you cannot guarantee a future state of POWER chips beyond one or two more IT lifecycles, and so they should begin to consider other options in the marketplace. There are customers out there with thousands and thousands of blades running POWER...and you have just told them they have an infrastructure that will likely go out of support, and the smart ones will cut their losses sooner rather than later, killing IBMs mid-range sales. (remember that they just sold off their x86 server business to Lenovo, so WTF they are planning to sell without POWER escapes me. And I suspect Ginni as well...).

The point is you cannot just consider the economics of the fab. You have to look at it in light of the entire IBM value proposition to the marketplace - anything else is a broad breech of fiduciary duties. And just f-ing stupid. And right now they have just cut their mid-range architecture off at the knees in the marketplace, and sold their x86 business. As I said, line that "management" team up against the wall...

This saddens me greatly. I remember growing up across the river from the Fishkill, NY fabs, and going on a tour of them as a kid, and getting an IBM keychain with a bit of IBM chippery embedded in Lucite. I thought it was SO COOL back then.

This effectively spells the end of the POWER architecture too. Knowing that the support contract to produce new chips is only for 10 years, any business that is not already on POWER systems would have to have a huge second thought before committing to a future purchase of POWER-based systems, knowing that they are now effectively a dead end. And business on POWER-based systems have little reason to not look at alternatives very quickly, as they cycle their hardware, and thus consider other vendors.

What that leads to is the following conclusion: this is really a HUGE abrogation of leadership (and perhaps fiduciary duties!) from the current IBM management team - they have, as usual in America - optimized their business for next year's quarterly reporting, and F*CK what happens to the business in the long-run. Can you imagine a Japanese company being so short-sighted as to effectively kill off their product line in the marketplace in a single gesture? Or, more to the point, the Chinese?

No, Ginni & Co. have decided that all that matters is next year's executive bonus comp, and fattening their own pay checks, and to hell with what happens to an American business icon in 10 years. They ought to be lined up against the wall and shot**...

(** - that is a _metaphor_ , for any plod or NSA or FBI reading this)

Are you a gun owner? Let us in OR ELSE, say Blighty's top cops

Re: Excellent, we need more of this, and fewer guns

Hi, what sports do YOU do you pathetic wench?

I am sure that they are "unnecessary", and in some way detrimental to others. Even running and cycling have some impact on others - congestion on the sidewalks, slowing down of traffic, etc. NOTHING we do not not pose some imposition on someone else, unless you never leave your house.

I shoot for the camaraderie. I shoot for the thrill of competition. I shoot to get my mind into a good place and practice keeping it there. I shot a really great score in trap shooting last weekend, and it took getting my mind in a good place, finding a rhythm, and mastering my emotions and my body. When I shoot rifle, I have to practice getting my mind and body still, empty of outside distractions, and mindful. My breathing needs to be controlled. My eyes clear. It is Zen. And I can tell how well I do at that by the scores of that day.

What is it in your life that has you seek self-improvement? How do you measure it?

You are a pantywaist, really. And I won't post AC, too bad you didn't have the courage of your convictions to stand up for your own point of view publicly.

Re: Legal Guns

Silencers are called "moderators" in the UK. And yes, they are totally legal, as long as you have them noted on your FAC. They do make it easier to shoot and not disturb people, and they are used for both hunting and competition shooting.

Re: wouldn't be best advised to tell the plod to piss off

Yes it is different.

A domestic disturbance is here and now, and someone is in jeopardy. IF a similar situation exists with a gun owner, the correct response is 999, NOT an anonymous Crimestoppers line. Given a 999 call, the police already have sufficient power to enter immediately if they believe a crime is being committed and someone is in danger.

What this seeks to do is give police that same power, even when there is NO IMMEDIATE THREAT. So you say you have concerns that someone is not securing their guns properly, or is being radicalised? OK, fine, neither of these place anyone in jeopardy TODAY. The police should go see a judge, and get a warrant to enter. If they cannot convince a judge that they have sufficient reason to enter without telling you in advance, then...perhaps they don't.

That is supposedly part of the checks and balances so that the police do not become the law unto themselves. This change effectively entails that where gun owners are concerned, they now are.

ICO warns UK broadcasters over filming using drones

Re: Where's me 12-bore?

From a practical point of view, you would have to ensure that none of the shot falls outside of your own property. For anyone in the suburbs, that will be difficult. Given a sufficiently pastoral setting, this is not a problem.

However, even with a 32" barrelled trap gun with full chokes (I shoot a 32" Gold E Xtrap), you are not going to be hitting much beyond 60-80 yards - and that is both in horizontal and vertical distance. I know highly skilled clay competitors like George Digweed can hit out to 100+ yards, but frankly, that isn't you, and your likely gun and chokes. And after they operator hears the first shot, he will send that drone straight up at full throttle, if he has any sense. So you have one or two shots at most, likely at a target just at or beyond your maximum range.

The real issue is that it is likely that the drone will have a camera, and will quite possibly have you on video as firing at it, and.or destroying it. That is destruction of property, and unless you can prove the drone was a threat to you, you will likely be done for that. I don't think it will be a firearms offence per se - but with the plod trying to do it's utmost to limit ownership, being convicted of the destruction of property may very well be enough for them to pull your Section 2 Shotgun license, and certainly your Section 1 Firearms license if you have one. These are being pulled for convictions such as even getting into a physical fight in self-defence, or too many speeding tickets, or a single drink driving conviction, to put that in perspective. Wanton destruction of other's property is pretty close to that sort of thing, and at that point I believe you would be at the mercy of whatever judgement your local firearms team would happen to make. Some may laugh it off, some may put you under caution, some may revoke or suspend. You can challenge any action in court of course, at your own expense. In my mind, it isn't worth the risk, given how hard they are to get back.

Rebellion sees Chromium reverse plans to dump EXT filesystem

But you miss the entire point...ext file systems are basically not usable by anyone on a cloud-based net book with only plug-in USB FAT storage and non-ext internal drive. Basically, it is the hardware specs and use cases that pretty much make ext redundant. If you don't like that, then a Chromebook and Chrome OS are not for you. You can take the hardware and install Debian just fine, with ext. or you can simply buy a non-Chromebook laptop. But installing a set of software just to "honour the devs" seems really pretty silly. It is very much the same as not loading X-windows code on an embedded Linux controller system...

SynoLocker Trojan crime gang: We QUIT this gig

Re: put your hand in your pocket, synology

The issue is that of those that have not paid yet, nearly all of them simply reformatted their NAS and re-loaded from backups, or decided that their p0rn and pirated movie collections were not worth it, and simply reformatted without backups. As they will never be used, those remaining keys are probably very low value, to either Synology, or the previously infected victims.

Microsoft WINDOWS 10: Seven ATE Nine. Or Eight did really

Again...no Object Store? No metadata management for data objects stored under the file system? Are we still using...gasp....raw files?

What is it about current OS releases that really seem to just be ever more incremental updates on UIs, with few real changes in core functionality and usage? When do we get a proper 21st century desktop operating system that actually embodies computer science concepts that have been talked about for years to make OSes more modern, but have not been delivered?

This is particularly galling on the data storage side - with HBase, HDFS, and even MongoDB showing off alternative methods to store files, data, and objects, why is such functionality not native to the OS, and exposed directly to all apps via standard APIs? Instead...we get yet more 1960s file technology. We should be far angrier at that than whether or not there are tiles on the desktop...

Britain's housing crisis: What are we going to do about it?

But the author's analysis is really, really, simple minded.

Supply meets demand - true in most cases. But not this one.

The problem with the housing crisis is that a huge percentage of the top of the market is no longer being actually used to provide housing. It is INVESTMENT, and usually offshore, tax-free, and sometimes illegally-gained investment funded. These houses stand empty, great towering symbols for how wimpy the UK's laws are, and how we are simply being used as a giant game of Monopoly by Russian oligarchs, Arab princess, and drug lords. All because the UKs laws make it very, very easy to escape paying taxes if you can claim foreign investment or transfer of ownership.

When such a situation exists, the "supply" and "demand" of housing is totally out of balance, because it breaks the relationship between housing and actual income used to pay for it. By making it essentially a tax free game of Monopoly investment for the top of the market, it has introduced distortions that have filtered down to every single level.

IF you want to solve the UK's housing crisis, it is simple. Close the tax loopholes that have elevated the top of the market and made it a speculator's paradise. This will then correct down the market chain in a few years.

Oh, wait...you see, that CORRECTION is actually reflected in lower house prices. Which we that are struggling to BUY houses really, really need - but the top 10% of the country (being landholders) do NOT want to happen.

Which is why, in reality, the problem of housing in the UK is basically unfixable. Because to truly correct it, the landed gentry, and even the upper-middle class, will have to take a huge hit in house valuations. And NO government will let that happen...

Are we there yet, are we there yet? Ballmer 'like a small child' upon buying basketball club

I just want to see Ballmer get up in front of the crowds, in the Staples Center....in front of tens of thousands of sports fans...and take the microphone...

and scream "WINDOWS, WINDOWS, WINDOWS!!!!" as I have seen him do so many times before...