Posts by Jim Mitchell

Zealous Zoom's zesty zymotic zone zinger: Zestful zealots zip zillions

Re: Video Won't Be My New Voice

That you know of.

All-electric plane makes first flight – while lugging 2 tons of batteries aloft

Re: The video

Yes, lets bring catapult launches to the commercial air travel! I've seen Top Gun, it looks like massive fun to me...

'Beyond stupid': Linus Torvalds trashes 5.8 Linux kernel patch over opt-in Intel CPU bug mitigation

Re: git broke English

Is "huck" equivalent to "push" in Gitish? (not an expert git speaker, myself)

Made-up murder claims, threats to kill Twitter, rants about NSA spying – anything but mention 100,000 US virus deaths, right, Mr President?

Re: You supported a system...

The Legislative branch is on top in my naive reading of the Constitution. They can impeach members of the executive branch and the judiciary, while the reverse is more difficult.

Twitter ticks off Trump with new 'Get the facts' alert on pair of fact-challenged tweets

Re: Free speech?

I want a President who can actually pass a high school government course.

Mulled Chrome API shines light on long-neglected privacy gap: Sites can snoop on your find-in-page searches

If you are filling in a password field in a webpage, of a website you don't trust, just what are you doing?

US cable subscribers are still being 'ripped off' by creeping price increases – and this lot has had enough

Re: "bundles" are subsidizing unpopular channels

As I understand it, cable channels come in two flavors, those the cable company pays to carry, and those the channel pays the cable company to carry. Those unpopular channels might actually be subsidizing the popular ones!

Also, if you value your time, a DVR is a great investment. If you fast forward thru an ad that actually looked interesting (rare, but possible), you can rewind and watch it at your leisure.

Re: Competition

My residence is very fortunate to have two providers available. I switch every couple of years to get the best deal. While I've managed to keep the list price pretty flat for fifteen years, I'm still getting screwed on "fees", "taxes", and "surcharges". I'm expecting to see a "corporate income tax" line item on my bill one day.

If you are not as lucky and only have one coax/copper/fiber provider available, you are at their mercy.

AT&T tracked its own sales bods using GPS, secretly charged them $135 a month to do so, lawsuit claims

As I understand it, there are 3 groups that get % in a class action suit, the lawyers, "the rest", and a handful of other people as representatives. Gunther, possibly, could get a significant settlement, even it is a class action. The rest might get a coupon for a a free session with an AT&T in-home sales agent...

Beer gut-ted: As many as '70 million pints' spoiled during coronavirus pandemic must be destroyed in Britain

Re: Unpasteurised milk

Without sick cows, we wouldn't have a smallpox vaccine! Be careful what you wish for.

Here in the US, in the era after urbanization, but before food safely laws, "milk" was a very questionable substance. PBS's American Experience had an episode on this subject:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/poison-squad/

People who wish for a "relaxed" regulatory environment (aka "conservatives" and "libertarians") might want to watch and see what unregulated capitalism can produce.

Re: Unpasteurised milk

Yes, "raw" milk is fine, until you're sick. Pasteurization has saved millions of lives, do you want yours to be one of them?

Oracle to take IT out of the equation for HR, ship prebuilt metrics, KPIs to analyse carbon-based lifeforms

Re: In Larry we trust?

I'm sure Oracle would love to automate the selling as well. Software can't sue you for retroactively changing the commission structure!

US small biz loan system bans software robots. The lesson? Make sure IT knows about any automation projects

Re: Greed

The PPP was setup such that banks were the gatekeepers. Businesses could not apply directly, but had to go thru a bank.

Chinese carmaker behind Volvo and Lotus ships first two satellites for planned IoT ‘OmniCloud’

Re: Volvo and a theme park ?

The goal of the Chinese Communist Party is the perpetuation of the Chinese Communist Party as the controlling entity of China. The party leaders decided that being "capitalist" was a better way of retaining power over the long term, so they did that. Happy people with cash in pocket are less likely to engage in counter-revolutionary activities, you know.

Soichi to join three-spaceship club, SpaceX is going to the Moon (no, really), and rocket boffins step up COVID-19 fight

The Lunar Lander definitely started its journey on Earth, like the command module it was flying with. It just didn't have crew in it.

After 20-year battle, Channel island Sark finally earns the right to exist on the internet with its own top-level domain

Re: Glad they didn't overthink the process....

If that is the correct description, I wish the article had said that. I don't understand the intricacies of the Channel Islands, but I can understand Canada (and most of Australia).

That LVI CPU hole wasn't the only Intel fix: Dozens of flaws patched to stop chips turning into potatoes

Re: Mitigations, mitigations

If it is your computer and not running software from people you don't trust, then it sounds like these classes of flaws should not worry you. Multi-tenant in the cloud on the same processor is a problem, as you have little control over what else is running. Code from websites you don't trust running your browser might as be an issue.

Aww, a cute mini-moon is orbiting Earth right now. But like all good things, it too will abandon us at some point

Re: Wouldn't it be great

Would have been OK, but they muffed the parking.

Don't worry, IT contractors. New UK chancellor says HMRC will be gentle pushing IR35 rules

Re: Perhaps this is a little graphic...

That ain't no hug, the cat has its teeth in the dog's neck. The modern domestic feline is optimized for smaller prey, so the dog is probably safe.

Researchers trick Tesla into massively breaking the speed limit by sticking a 2-inch piece of electrical tape on a sign

Re: Sigh.

"not expecting"? If you are not anticipating slower, or even stopped, traffic ahead of you, you are not a good driver.

You know the President is able to shut down all US comms, yeah? An FCC commish wants to stop him from doing that

Re: Did Trump turn off your editor's internet?

Lincoln also killed lots of, nominally, US citizens without much due process. Still got a big memorial with a nice statue.

SAP co-CEO: I'm leavin' on a jet plane... Davos knows that I'll be back again...Oh babe, I hate to go (back to work)

We can't build a bridge to Europe until Denmark agrees to sell us Greenland. I hear Trump is working on that, though.

The Curse of macOS Catalina strikes again as AccountEdge stays 32-bit

Re: Confusing.

One other OSes, you can have both 64 and 32 bit applications. Apple has decided to express their "courage" and be different.

GSMA report: Sorry, handset makers, 5G is not going to save the smartphone market

Re: "It just so happens that there's something better."

Doesn't the majority of the population live in urban areas these days? Your mountain scenario is the minority.

Cool 'joke', bro, you could have killed someone: Epilepsy Foundation sics cops on sick flashing-light Twitter trolls

Re: mailing a rabid bat or rattlesnake

What. a single scorpion? That doesn't make much sense, most scorpions are relatively harmless, and a single one won't last long among lots of feet.

EU wouldn't! Uncle Sam brandishes 'up to 100%' tariffs over France's Digital Services Tax

Re: Wrong argument

For physical goods, transfer pricing is fairly simple. Intellectual property is harder. Just how much should Starbucks UK pay Daddy Starbucks to license the "Starbucks" name and logo, etc.?

Oracle finally responds to wage discrimination claims… by suing US Department of Labor

Re: So relieved to learn we have good people ready to fight for "our constitutional structure"

Oracle, for better or worse, has a point about the "constitutional structure" of the Federal government as it exists now. Congress is supposed to enact laws and the executive branch carry them out. With Congress passing a law that delegates the details to the executive branch to create (ie "regulations"), some see this as un-Constitutional. It is an interesting point, and if correct, we're living in suddenly a different world. Every regulation in the past 85 years gets tossed. Congress would have to figure out all the details, and agree on them, itself. Since the current elected body can barely agree what day it is, this might be a problem for future functional legislation that requires subject matter knowledge, skill, and attention to the details.

You live where you live ... and ex-SAP boss Bill McDermott lives in a house like this

"is resplendent with unapologetic Gone-with-the-Wind chintz" Chintz is a kind of fabric, so I'm very confused. Did somebody actually make a Gone In the Wind themed chintz fabric, and it is used in this house?

Absolutely smashing: Musk shows off Tesla's 'bulletproof' low-poly pickup, hilarity ensues

Re: 3 out of 10 for trying

I think the term is "greenhouse" to refer to the windows on the vehicle.

Totally Sardonic Bank: Well, it must be, to have a TITSUP* the same week as THAT report

If you're living so close to the financial edge, you probably shouldn't be buying concert tickets?

The US Army recruits WALL-E Chris H as its next-generation bomb disposal robot

I dunno, when I combine "heavy" + "Chris", I get Chris Christie, not "CRS-H".

Physicists are rather giddy after creating a rare type of laser using laughing gas

Re: Pedantic time

GHz == Giggle Hertz, apparently.

Can't you hear me knocking? But I installed a smart knocker

Just how secure do you think the previous hotel room door lock methods were? The key cards? Not very. The metal keys? Not very.

Boffins show the 2017 Nork nuke can move, move, move any mountain (by a meter)

Re: Not a big problem, IMO - until

Size is irrelevant as long as it fits on a boat you can park off a major US city and have go BOOM.

Gavin Patterson's gravy train keeps on rolling as former BT boss tossed two more sinecures

Please explain your reasoning behind your statement that "'Sinecure' is defamatory".

Apple's credit card caper probed over sexism claims – after women screwed over on limits

It appears to be more "how the unemployed spouses of the wealthy are treated" than "the way the wealthy are treated". Credit cards are issued to individuals, not couples. If you want a higher limit, get a job, you moochers.....

Or do the American capitalist thing and convert your marriage into a corporation, and get corporate credit cards.

Blood, snot and fear: Why the travelling lone tech reporter should always knock twice

Re: Wait, Wut?

Yes, the usual complaint is that airplane air is to dry, not to wet. Also, you get condensation when the air cools, not gets warmer.

Tech and mobile companies want to monetise your data ... but are scared of GDPR

Re: Quite...

What, she really wanted the TIG welder?

Heads up from Internet of S*!# land: Best Buy's Insignia 'smart' home gear will become very dumb this Wednesday

Re: Contact your credit card company.

The article doesn't say when this IoT stuff was initially sold. Your credit card coverage isn't going to cover anything purchased more than one or two years ago.

Honestly, if you expect your "cloud" hardware to have the service it relies on available for perpetuity, you need to be wacked with a clue-by-four a bit and wake up. That said, would people buy this junk if the box said explicitly said the service was only guaranteed to be up for N years, where N is small? Small appliances are expected to last for a decade or more.

GitLab mulls ban on hiring Chinese and Russian support staff because 'security'

Re: Is this legal?

The headline is misleading. This isn't discrimination based on race (ie being "Russian" or "Chinese"), it is based on country of residence, Russia or China.

Boffins blow hot and cold over li-ion battery that can cut leccy car recharging to '10 mins'

Not quite a petrol pipe, but lots of houses due have a natural gas connection, and I get something similar to diesel ("fuel oil #2") delivered 3 or 4 times a year, so there is precedence for a petrol pipe.

Dammit Insight! You just had two big jobs to do on Mars and you're failing at one of those

Re: Drilled two centimetres of ground over the past week

Said the guy who apparently just doesn't have a big enough hammer.

Cringe as you read Horrible Histories: UK Banking Sector, sigh as MPs finger cloudy Big 3 as future risk

Re: Not got much hope

I'm curious about how many "SIM Swap" attacks actually occur. It doesn't sound like something that be done in volume, but only against targeted individuals.

This fall, Ubuntu 19.10 stars as Eoan Ermine in... Dawn of the Stoats

Re: 32bit

"too lazy"? If you want to do the required work for free I'm sure somebody would listen.

Sure is quiet from Adobe. No security fixes this month? Great job. Oh no, wait, what's that stampede sound...

Re: Adobe

Alas, the bricks themselves may not require patching, but the mortar between the bricks may require repointing at regular intervals.

When the satellite network has literally gone glacial, it's vital you snow your enemy

Re: Ah, those laser links....

"What's the cafe serving for lunch today?"

"Microwaved squab."

Hate Verilog? Detest VHDL? You're not the only one. Xilinx rolls out easier-to-use free FPGA programming tools after developer outcry

Yes, this would seem to trade off requiring less skilled people to design FPGA content, but getting less good results. Of course, "less good" sure beats "none" on the results front.

In general, C/C++ is a sequential idiom, hardware chips can be highly parallel.

US govt watchdog barks at FAA over 737 Max inspectors' lack of qualifications

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/magazine/boeing-737-max-crashes.html?searchResultPosition=1

An interesting take on the whole thing, with information that I did not previously know.

UK taxman wins tribunal case against BBC presenters

Re: TL;DR they were badly advised by their own accountants ?

That sounds more like the accountant passing off responsibility to the insurance company.

Woman sues Lyft, says driver gang-raped her at gunpoint – and calls for app safety measures we can't believe aren't already in place

Re: prove innocence

How can Lyft fire anybody? According to them, they have no employees!