Posts by Suricou Raven

Is uBeam the new Theranos?

Re: Serbia Strong!

The story is of a mechanical oscillator clamped to the building, not sound transmitted through air, and unintentionally. It's not a reliable source - it comes from a journalist prone to exaggeration who claims he heard it from Tesla himself.

I imagine that the experiment may have happened, but the scale was exaggerated in the retelling - he probably just hit the resonant frequency of the building and made it shake hard enough to scare the residents. The story from Tesla claimed he was working on an oscillating steam-driven generator, which is certainly plausible - he did design something like that.

Re: Worlds best tranducer, Worlds best microphone

The inverse square law only applies to omnidirectional sources. Their website talks about forming directed beams.

It's still a stupid idea though. At the frequencies they are talking about (60+KHz), sound decays very rapidly - bats run up to a bit over 100KHz for some species, but most call lower, exchanging precision of imagery for range. The beam-forming technology needed is doable but crazy-expensive, and the receivers would need to send a homing pulse so the transmitter could know where to point. And the losses would be highly impractical.

But inverse square law is one of the few things that doesn't kill the possibility.

Super-slow RAID rebuilds: Gone in a flash?

What about post-RAID?

It's getting harder to manage RAID these days.

That's why next-generation filesystems like ZFS and btrfs were invented.

Bots half all web traffic

Re: Um, so? And?

Been there. I made a database with a web interface - I didn't bother to bot-proof it as only I had the address and never published it. All was well until I upgraded apache. Somewhere in the process my 'Options -Indexes' on the folder above was lost, exposing the database frontend address to the bots. I got hit by two of them, which between them managed to really mess up the data. I eventually had to get the logs and write a script to identify every URL accessed and undo the operation therein.

Then I put some http basic auth on it. Enough to keep the bots out.

Solved it.

1. (optional) Exclude /bait/ using robots.txt if you only want to block the dishonest ones.

2. Create a link on your index to /bait/banme.cgi, but give it the appropriate css to be entirely hidden from view. Now only bots can see it.

3. Create a /bait/banme.cgi that adds an iptables rule to drop anything from the originating IP.

Well, that was easy.

Chip company FTDI accused of bricking counterfeits again

Re: "That's not recommended for performance-intensive drivers"

It's actually just serial logic data. It's not RS232. It does have the right timing for RS232, but not the right voltage levels. If you want that you need another chip that does the level conversion.

First successful Hyperloop test module hits 100mph in four seconds

A bit more than required.

Converting to metric and allowing for the planet nearby, you're pulling about 1.5G in that. Enough to make any passengers feel rather uncomfortable, so more acceleration than the finished product needs. I expect they are accelerating a bit harder so they can use a shorter test track, and to test the structural limits of designs.

I still don't see how the expense of this project can be commercially justified. Yes, it can get you across the country super-fast. But high-speed rail is 'fast enough' for a fraction of the cost.

Re: Snake Oil

"This can go a bit too far. In Japan, Nagoya and, to some extent, Kyoto and Osaka are becoming dormitory towns for Tokyo."

Half of the southeast UK is becoming a dormitory for London - the city provides a huge number of jobs, but very few people can actually afford to live there.

Ten years in the clink, file-sharing monsters! (If UK govt gets its way)

Re: Actually, no

I am reminded of the NET act over in the US - it was written to target commercial infringement, but defined commercial as including supplying infringing material with an expectation of receiving more infringing material in return.

Cinema boss gives up making kids turn off phones: 'That's not how they live their life'

I have another theory on this one.

The 'boomers' grew up with a television in the corner. It was a somewhat fuzzy image on a small screen with one or two internal speakers. They went to the cinema for the full immersive experience - a screen as big as they can see, detail enough to see the pores in the actor's skin, sound that'll make your body resonate.

The 'millenials' grew up with a 1080p 42-inch surround-sound home cinema system. They see the cinema as just like watching a movie at home - except you have to travel, and it costs more, and there are noisy people everywhere, and the seats are less comfortable than sprawling on the sofa. The only reason they would even consider going to the cinema is that the latest film is super-hyped and not yet viewable by any other means.

Video killed the radio star, and big screen blu-ray... I wish I could say it was to the detriment of cinema. But look at the numbers - the box office takings are higher than ever. Despite the dire claims that piracy is destroying the industry, they are still managing to rake in record net income (though this being hollywood, they always lose money on paper).

Flying Spaghetti Monster is not God, rules mortal judge

Re: Apologies in advance to all Christians......

" a man who can magically turn water into wine"

Everyone who could afford it drank wine. It was weak wine compared with the wine of today, and consumed in vast quantities. The diet coke of the ancient world.

Re: Too slow -- again

There's a long history of organisations adopting religious dressing for legal purposes, and the CoS is a prime example. One of their two main symbols is a crucifix with a thin diagonal cross behind. They say that the points each represent a tenet of the organisation or something like that, but the real reason is not difficult to see: It makes them look superficially like not only a religion, but a Christian religion. They aren't - they have barely anything to say about Jesus, and what little they do say is rather unflattering - but they do know that looking Christianish is great PR because a lot of people automatically equate Christian with good.

Another example might be Medi-Share. It's a church to which members make a monthly donation, in return for which the organisation makes a non-binding promise to cover member's medical expenses in event of illness or accident. It is most definately not a health insurance provider though, because those have to pay taxes and are subject to all sort of regulations.

Re: Excellent

Henry VIII was not behind protestantism. He simply saw a way he could exploit it to his own advantage, as it was a way to eliminate the basis for the Pope's power. Get rid of a rival.

Bundling ZFS and Linux is impossible says Richard Stallman

Simpler solution.

Just invest further in refining BTRFS. It still hasn't reached the maturity of ZFS, but it's stable enough for production use now, and storage management is a whole lot easier than ZFS - you can pull a drive from a volume with ease, unlike ZFS. It just needs a few more features, mostly relating to performance.

FBI: Er, no, we won't reveal how we unmask and torpedo Tor pedos

Yes, but the accused is a filthy pedo. Possibly the most hated of all criminals. They could charge him with sinking the Titanic and still have a decent chance a jury would convict.

I know that pattern.

Three to establish.

n messages, where n>=0

Four to tear down cleanly.

That's just TCP. They've used a very roundabout way to say their software establishes a quick TCP connection.

Snowden 'more helpful than dangerous' says ex-Colin Powell aide

Re: If the current Republican front-runner --

Cruz is also a hardcore anti-environmentalist. Climate change mitigation efforts, industrial pollution regulations, endangered species protection, the Clean Air Act - his position on all of them is that he'll get the laws repealed if he can, and if he can't then he'll block all funding for enforcing them, and specifically that he wishes to abolish the EPA entirely. He's gone on record on a several occasions stating that he believes there is no such thing as anthropogenic climate change, and that if there is then it'll be ultimately beneficial.

What to call a £200m 15,000-tonne polar vessel – how about Boaty McBoatface?

Re: This is why everyone thinks students are w*****s

It's a reference. It doesn't make sense unless you've prior exposure to a certain meme.

Intravenous hangover clinics don't work, could land you in hospital

Re: "amps up the immune system and detoxifies the liver”,

I didn't say the IV method was safe. I just said it would help with the hangover, while possibly exchanging it for a more dangerous condition.

Re: "amps up the immune system and detoxifies the liver”,

Not entirely woo. Part of the hangover experience is simple dehydration - putting saline into the blood will fix that, plus it reduces the concentration of toxins by simple dilution. It's one of the few hangover cures that will actually cure the hangover.

The vitamin stuff is woo though. Most vitamin supplements are, oral or IV - there are a some exceptions, but the vast majority of people get what they need in their food and adding more gives no benefit. It could at least be considered forgiveable woo as, unlike most woo, it does have a plausible mechanism of action.

Reprogrammble routers axed by TP-Link as FCC bans custom firmware

Re: Seems Obvious

Because the space adjacent to those channels is already claimed. In the US the bands immediately above and below the 2.4GHz unlicensed band have already been taken by cellphone service. The 5GHz band is sandwiched in between bands sold to commercial satellite operators. Spectrum is a valuable commodity, and every frequency that can be put to practical use has been allocated already. The military gets first pick, commercial services able to buy spectrum at auction get second, and whatever is left may be considered for unlicensed services.

Re: But it's my router, I've bought it

I've been wondering for a while if SDR would enable the use of a sort of 'extreme spread spectrum' approach for illicit radio - jumping around within a band spanning 2GHz or so. Illegal as hell, yes - but it would also be near-impossible to even detect, let alone trace, without the key that determines hopping sequence.

Samsung is now shipping a 15TB whopper of an SSD. Farewell, spinning rust

Re: The price is astronomical, but..

Right now though, spinnydrives offer substantially lower cost-GB, which means they can take over the role of tape as backup/archive media. They are a lot faster and more convenient to access than tape.

Ad-blockers are a Mafia-style 'protection racket' – UK's Minister of Fun

Re: @ Cynic_999

Don't be sure quick to dismiss the BBC. They have certainly dumbed down in some respects, but their documentary content is still among the best in the world - and no ancient aliens from them.

Solution to tech bros' disgust of SF homeless people launched

Re: Almost the right product

I always notice them. I have to feed their locations into the pathfinding area of my brain so it can calculate routes that avoid proximity.

Re: Ah that's sweet

He's making the point that the response of many local governments to homeless people is to nudge them to go be homeless elsewhere.

There was an incident in 2013 that drew a lot of attention in North Carolina, when city police started harassing and eventually arresting a church that tried to distribute food to the homeless - because, much like rats, they congregate where the food is. Withdraw the food and they will scatter and become someone else's problem. It only hit the news because the organisation as a church so they could start the 'wah wah persecution' thing and get a lot of sympathy in certain media circles. There may be next to know public sympathy for the homeless, but much of the US does love a good story about Christians being persecuted somehow.

There's another one brewing in Florida right now, basically a repeat of the same situation - a church in Oakland tried to distribute food, the local government decided this is in violation of zoning regulations. It's not really about religion or about zoning, it's just that influential people don't want to live in proximity to the homeless.

Policing is another approach - many US cities have laws against 'sleeping in a public place' or similar to allow the homeless to be arrested. Quickly released again, but the intent is to harass them in to leaving the area and going to a suitably derelict side of town where the sight of them will not lower property values. Some places have rather less subtle methods, like sloping or very narrow benches, benches with armrests between seats to prevent laying upon them, or buildings designed to create no sheltered alcoves. An up-market apartment building in London neglected to do this in the design stage and was caught instead using anti-homeless metal studs embedded in concrete near the doorway to make sure no-one would shelter there.

Next time you see a public bench, take a moment to look at it - there's a good chance you'll see some feature that, innocent at first glance, on further consideration seems to serve no purpose other than making it impossible for a person to lay down comfortably.

Alleged Anonymous hacker rescued off Cuba by Disney cruise ship

Not even for a DDoS attack. The charge is for 'conspiracy.' He wasn't involved in the actual attack at all: He only urged other people to attack and specified a target. He isn't a hacker, he's a cheerleader. A coordinator at best.

Back-to-the-future Nexsan resurrects its SATABeast

Impressive capacity.

Does it come with a voucher for an extra-strength rack? I have visions of solid steel rails warping like toffee on a hot day under the immense force of that thing.

UK to stop children looking at online porn. How?

Re: Corporate web filtering

A flesh tone filter is likely to be inadvertently racist.

Re: Whuh?

search: Free porn

"Please enter your credit card to continue."

search: Free porn site:.ru

Re: Here is the link to the consultation

I'm actually surprised the questions are worded in a way that makes disagreement possible. When they 'consulted' about the filtering, the questions were set in such a way that every possible option agreed with the government's desired conclusion.

EMC energizes Star Trek-style matter-phasing warp field coils, emits VxRack Neutrinos

Neutrino.

Do they pick product names with the aid of a dart board covered in sciency-words?

Is it really a good idea to name your product after something which is best-known for being near-impossible to observe?

EMC creates a Star Trek holodeck ... and uses it to simulate a data center

Re: Scale...?

You don't need to simulate it in real time, and you can replace a lot of components with simplified representations. You'll still need a silly amount of RAM.

Reminder: iPhones commit suicide if you repair them on the cheap

Car engine breaks, so the owner takes it to the nearest convenient garage. They charge him a fortune (of course) and find the problem is a break in one of the ignition wires and replace it. Two months later he takes it to the dealer for a routine service - the dealer identifies the cable as an unauthorised modification, drops the car into their car-crushing machine, and explains to the owner that they were only acting to protect him from a possible accident should the third-party cable have failed while travelling at speed. They will not cover the cost of a replacement car, and he should be thankful that they are so concerned for his safety. He may, however, keep the mangled cube.

Head transplant candidate sells souvenirs to fund operation

Let them try.

I think it's incredibly reckless to attempt this until the surgeon can perform the procedure on chimps with a reasonable level of reliability. But on the other hand, the patient has Werdnig-Hoffman disease - it's degenerative, he is already wheelchair-bound, and as the disease continues he is going to lose what little mobility he has along with his capacity to work. So if he wants to gamble his life on a kill-or-cure experimental and dangerous procedure, that's his choice. It might work, and if not then knowledge will be gained to improve the technique for the next guina pig.

NSA’s top hacking boss explains how to protect your network from his attack squads

Re: Truer words have not been spoken

That depends who the attackers are. If you're dealing with regular internet hackers, that may be true. If you're high enough profile to get noticed by nation-state hackers though, then they'll already have their ways of getting into any major cloud service - by means of warrant, threats or hacking - and you can't trust any hardware you don't have physical control over.

Hackers crack your server's authentication. The NSA just strolls over to Microsoft and waves a 'give us your data, tell no-one or you go to jail' letter. Or the FSB might do likewise, and point out that there are billions of dollars to be made in Russia and a company that doesn't cooperate with investigations may not be able to operate in the country. You get the idea.

Identify your threats, choose appropriate countermeasures. Chances are your organisation isn't going to merit the directed attentions of any state intelligence agency, so for the most part you don't have to worry about them - just the standard barrage of opportunistic script kiddies, ransomware, DDoS extortion, hactivists, spammers and all our favourite internet ne’er-do-wells. In which case, Azure or Amazon or some lesser-known cloud may well be more secure than your own team of non-specialists.

How to build a starship - and why we should start thinking about it now

Re: "it's just engineering"

We do have the high-tensile-strength material - we just don't have a way to manufacture it in bulk and in consistent quality.

Kentucky to build 3,400-mile state-owned broadband network – and a fight is brewing

Re: 'Murica

Big companies, pressure groups, politicians. America is the ultimate refinement of buzzword politics - to the point that an organisation can, by simply including the word 'family' in their name, immediately state their positions on abortion, healthcare reform, gay marriage, the role of religion in government and vice versa, non-discrimination law, regulation of obscenity and gun control.

DARPA commits to brain-computer interface development project

Re: Borg

Brainstorm also predicted something else about that tech: The first recording ever made is a test/demo tape. The second is porn.

Re: "without any pesky middle-men such as limbs"

But earlier ones were specifically defeated by stairs. The general fan theory is that there are many revisions of the dalek chassis, and some are a lot better than others. Thus why early models could be defeated by stairs or a punk with a baseball bat. When the Doctor encouters daleks further along in their history they have more advanced technology and superior shells.

Let's get GDS to build a public blockchain, UK.gov's top boffin says

Re: What problem does a blockchain solve in government?

It's really good for any system where untrusted actors need to coordinate transfers of ownership, so there might be a few niches. But not many. The real power of blockchains is decentralisation - something that the government doesn't need, at least in the technical sense. They have the budget to track all land ownership on a conventional database with a backup on dusty paper at the local council office, so why would they benefit from using a blockchain?

Nvidia GPUs give smut viewed incognito a second coming

Re: Video driver clearing memory

"Why should it?"

Security. An application could malloc() a big chunk of memory and there's a good chance of extracting cryptographic secrets or other things it should not have from memory recently free()ed from another process, or from a process that terminated.

It's a compile-time option for the linux kernel. The default is to zero, but you can disable that to slightly improve performance in very resource-tight embedded environments.

After Death Star II blew: Dissecting the tech of Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens

Re: Smart Weapons

Us furries hate Jar-Jar too.

Intel adopts 40Gb per SECOND USB-C plug for Thunderbolt 3.0

Tried Infiniband? The switches cost a fortune, but you can pick up 8Gb/s interfaces dirt cheap. Connect a cable between them and you've a point-to-point link. It does a decent bitrate, and it can do RDMA too, so if you get it configured right (which is a bit tricky) you can get some impressive performance out of it. The prices do get high if you want more than two computers on your network though.

You ain't nothing but a porn dog, prying all the time: Cyber-hound sniffs out hard drives for cops

Re: SSD?

Any criminal smart enough to do that would be smart enough not to leave their illegal images on a hidden hard drive. If I wanted to hide something like that, I'd put it in a truecrypt hidden volume. The non-hidden one would contain all my financial information and the family photos - plausible denyability as to why I would have anything encrypted at all, because I'm aware that refusing to hand over a decryption key to police would not impress a jury.

Re: Sounds Expensive

It's as good as established now that drugs dogs are used in this way - not to find drugs, but to provide 'reasonable suspicion' in order to justify a more invasive warrantless search, usually on a vehicle. The handler knows how to make the dog sit, drugs or no drugs.

Re: Woo hoo! A canine dog!

I hear the caprine variety is very good at finding drives in inaccessible places, but you have to chase it quickly or it may eat the evidence.

Death Stars are a waste of time – here's the best way to take over the galaxy

Re: recursive manufacturing

The true 'tank rush' is an all or nothing: You commit all your starting resources to tanks rather than a refinery. If you're too slow, you have no hope of victory because you can never collect resources to build anything else. But if you're fast, and don't have a run of bad luck trying to locate your opponent, you can hit him with your tanks while he doesn't even have a factory running. The only way to counter this strategy is to respond in kind - which usually means whoever is fastest at entering commands and most skilled at front-line tactics has the advantage.

Software bug sets free thousands of US prisoners too early

I've seen this on TV.

There was an old series, Bugs, which had a rather cool prison escape. The tech-genius villain made a deal with the prison operator: They give him external communication, he applies his great financial skill to run a share trading and business operation from within his cell. No-one need know the mysterious CEO is a prisoner. The scheme is a huge success, the warden gets rich, the villain gets richer... until he has enough wealth to simply buy the prison and order his own release. By the time the prisons authority figures out what happened he is long gone.

New HTTP error code 451 to signal censorship

Re: IETF were not persuaded is was a good use of a limited number of status codes

"But what the browser do?"

Automatically attempt to fetch the file from google cache, archive.org, via Tor, and using an alternate DNS server. Or, if the query is an IMS, mark the version in the cache as 'does not expire, ever, do not IMS.'