Posts by Mark 85

Wait! Before you fire up that HP lappy, check the battery

Re: Selling printer ink- HP's new business model

I feat that you are closer to the true than any of realize.

GIMPS crack whip on plucky processor to find largest prime number

Will there ever be an end to this? If so, will that number contain the number of digits that's a prime number?

Yeah... it's after beer o'clock and the mind wanders...

How to hack Wi-Fi for fun and imprisonment with crypto-mining inject

Reseachers.. white hat or black hat?

I'm torn on this habit of researchers posting their work (many with code). Yes, it needs to be available in case the exploit is used but publishing the exploit practically guarantees it ending up in the wild. The Nigerian Princes were so much easier to ignore.

Here come the lawyers! Intel slapped with three Meltdown bug lawsuits

My... not that this was unexpected but the lawyers seem to be approaching lightspeed these days.

I would hope that the chip engineers kept their copy of the spec and hardcopies of any emails with "directions".

UK.gov admits porn age checks could harm small ISPs and encourage risky online behaviour

Re: "blocking ... between 1 and 50 sites a year"

"blocking ... between 1 and 50 sites a year"

Erm, did someone miss the word "million" out of that? Or have the government not been looking very hard for porn sites?

Those in charge of this will obviously leave their favorite sites alone since they will need access for "research purposes".

Yes, but why would a small ISP go the extra mile if they're not compelled to by law?

Profit would be a great drive. Maybe run some "special" servers for extra money. The big ones get watched too closely so a little one might have a better chance of getting away with it.

Women reboot gender discrimination lawsuit against Google

What? No troll icon???

"Incoming!!!!!!!!" <dives into bunker>

Military alliance NATO adopts official hymn

I was going to suggest this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXspsfoPX50. It's catchy but probably sends the wrong message.

If you won't use your brain our machine will use it for you, Nissan tells drivers

So it's reading the brain and acting on "certain" signals. I take it that if the mind wanders... to say "look at that store, I should pull over and go in", the car might start reacting? Or "there's that a**hole from the pub... I could run over him."... it could start acting?

Not much out there tech wise so I wonder what the reality of this really is.

Jocks in shock as Irn-Bru set to slash sugar and girder content

Re: How to be English in Three Easy Steps

Nice first post Bertha... this is "Bootnotes" where pretty much anything goes. Deal with it as IT folks do have a sense of the "off the wall" and not being serious all the time.

US Homeland Security breach compromised personal info of 200,000+ staff

Need to add: ... screaming and waving arms.

UK drone collision study didn't show airliner window penetration

I'm reading this and other reports on this. It sure does seem to me that a) one side wants to allow drones near or in airports and b) the other set up the tests to validate the assumption that drones near airports are dangerous. There's obviously two sides with pre-conceived beliefs they want proven which seems to be the norm these days in the political world. What's really needed is some serious independent testing with no pre-conceived notions.

I'm not a drone owner but personally, I wouldn't want to see drones flying over airports.

We translated Intel's crap attempt to spin its way out of CPU security bug PR nightmare

Re: Late to the party

Nor will they be the last. I'm waiting for various government agencies to suddenly realize they have piles of insecure computers.

Mixed signals on CPU's

Is there a definitive list of the affected CPU's by type instead of generic "Intel"? I'm hearing everything from "just few years worth of CPU's" to "all the way to the beginning of time".

Kernel-memory-leaking Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

Re: How convenient

When exactly did good sensible engineering go out the window in favour of marketing ideas which seemed great in endless ego preening meetings and then were badly implemented in a hurry on the way to the next ego preening session,..

Relatively speaking....around the time that "return shareholder value" became a corporate catch-phrase and started being used in just about every corporate operation manual and press release.

Brazil says it has bagged Royal Navy flagship HMS Ocean for £84m

Re: Whats in a name

History says there was a Badger and a Snake... but no Mushroom, yet.

Time's up: Grace period for Germany's internet hate speech law ends

Re: Are you kidding me?!?

Let's remember that Fox doesn't have an FCC "news" license but an "entertainment" license. At least one of their news opinion stars was a comedian before working there. I'll leave it to the reader to discern which one.

@Stevie -- Re: Bah!

It *is* personally disturbing that the international public rhetoric sounds so much like that being tossed around in the mid-thirties. Are we collectively *that* ready for another global ding-dong that as soon as the surviving generations who remember the last one are almost all dead we are itching for another go?

Indeed, it appears that the political winds are blowing in that direction lately. Not just in the US but in most of Europe also. Is there another one coming? Possibly with purges based on religion (sounds familiar) as well as ideology. These are indeed scary times with certain leaders provoking other leaders and much hatred running amok.

Big shock: $700 Internet-of-Things door lock not a success

Re: $700 versus $25

Well.... some engineers/programmers will make a few dollars. Some assemblers will make very few dollars. Sales, execs will pocket big bucks in bonuses and shares. Shareholders will have maximum value returned. All this will make some people very rich and will help make America great again....

However, I'm with you. Reality says... why indeed buy any "electronic" lock? A lock is only as good as the door and framing around it and history has shown that even strongest castles could be taken by a determined foe. Oh, and windows are a big weakness. So we take some precautions and do what we can as total, unbreakable security is a myth. Even sitting in one's house with a loaded shotgun 24/7 isn't a guarantee. Home Depot/Lowe's are my friends...

Iranians resist internet censorship amid deadly street protests

Re: Huh?

Go back further... things have become more civilized as apposed to the early 1900's.

How would our governments react? Good question as those in power want to stay in power. If history is any clue (yes, England and the US have had their massacres of protestors/union activists, etc.) they would do the same thing.

Of course we don't spy on our users, giggles China's WeChat

Re: Its the public posts the are supposed to censor

The UK is pretty much demanding the same thing from facebook etc... censor the terrorists! who knows what it'll be next...

It's not just the UK. It might be easier to name the countries that DON'T suck up all the data, chats, etc. or demand that the companies "store it for future reference".

UK security chief: How 'bout a tax for tech firms that are 'uncooperative' on terror content?

True but HMG doesn't want to pay and the level of data they want is a lot more than just for targeted advertising.

A new business model then? Pay for targeted radicals.

On the other hand, the governments slurp everything anyway so they already have it. Maybe not slurp everything which is too much to sort through and only pay for what they want?

'Twas the night before Y2K and a grinch stole the IT department's overtime payout

So everyone is AC...? Or maybe Spartacus?

Beyond code PEBCAK lies KMACYOYO, PENCIL and PAFO

Re: Lawyer firm names

Then there's Dewey, Cheatem & Howe, of Car Talk fame.

Goes back further than that. First time I saw it was on old Marx Brothers movie.

Re: Classics

Back in the '70's, I worked for a large a/c company that published a manual of acronyms. It was something like 500 pages (might have only been 300) for use with government agencies, foreign customers and internal usage. As I recall there 5 pages dedicated to these acronyms in not just English. I wonder what it would look like today (if the company were still around) and with all the computer related acronyms.

I still have my copy, I just need to find it.. the attic maybe seems the logical place.

Weed wish you a merry Christmas: Pot-toting OAPs tell cops 30kg stash is for pressies

Some States lock you up and toss away the key. Others, would check that you have your license to distribute (retail, wholesale, or grower) and have a nice day.

Disclaimer: I live in a "have a nice day" and "carry on" state.

When neural nets do carols: 'Santa baby bore sweet Jesus Christ. Fa la la la la la, la la la la'

It does have a touch of Chuck Berry in it, doesn't it?

First Allied submarine lost in World War One, found near New Guinea

Re: Lest we forget.

Aren't there just dilapidated old bridges/factories/skyscrapers we can get our precious low-background steel from?

Short answer... no as the steel is contaminated. Apparently (I'm not sure why) even "new" steel is contaminated.

Well done. I raise a glass in a silent salute to those who died and to those who found her.

Where did all that water go? Mars was holding it wrong, say boffins

"...whereas on early Earth hydrated rocks tended to float until they dehydrate,”

So rocks float? Who knew....it really is an alien planet after all..

'Please store the internet on this floppy disk'

Re: That farmer...

However, when I was at Stanford, early one Saturday morning a Grad student drove to Berkeley on his motorcycle & came back with tapes of the over-night build of 3BSD.

Tapes? I recall our company using punch cards and transferring them between sites via motorcycle. Right up until on fateful day when the motorcycle hit a pothole and box of cards flew off.... I don't think they ever found all the cards.

I wonder if there's corellation here...

Maybe it just me, but I've observed that the louder and more abusive a user is to the tech, the less said user either really knows or the less they pay attention to what we ask them to do. Screaming about "of course I did that, I'm not an idiot" followed by appropriate slurs. When you show up at the desk, they start all over again only even more abusive and louder. Plug in the device, or press the appropriate key and suddenly silence and occasionally a red face. Been more than a few that I would love to have taken out back and introduce them to a roll carpet, a bag of quicklime and some duct/gaffer's tape.

How much will Britain's next F-35s cost? Not telling, says MoD

Re: Eurofighter

* Dogfighting: Very important to military aircraft buyers, but of little relevance in modern warfare.

Not so sure about this. Remember Vietnam and the F4 problem? No guns. Retrofit for dogfighting. There's still a buttload of countries who have fighters with guns and not the high-tech stuff using only stand-off missiles. The bigger problem is swarms of low-budget fighters verses the limited armament of a high-tech fighter. It's been a problem for defense agencies for decades.

Meet R2-DILDO: 'Star Wars' sex toys? This is where the fun begins

Re: "Get in there you big furry oaf. I don't care what you smell"

I do believe that all the commentards and the author deserve a pint or two!

Google Chrome ad-blocking to begin in February – but what is it going to block?

Re: Giving the ad industry sleepless nights?

No!!!!!!!! I'm more inclined to recommend death on an anthill, or maybe 1000 fleabites. Or both. They don't show anyone else any mercy so why should we?

UK teen dodges jail time for role in DDoSes on Natwest, Amazon and more

Re: "Rehabilitation"

And at the end of 20 days, the judge will do the ominous "Boy, have you rehabilitated yourself?" At that point, those in the courtroom spontaneously start singing the proper chorus of "Alice's Restaurant".

Icon - no more Christmas cheer for me today.

Hot chips crashed servers, but were still delicious

Ah.... cleaners (and building services) the bane of IT everywhere. Our BS department actually told the cleaners to unplug anything when they needed power for the vacuums. We eventually had to change the lock on the computer room and adjacent areas (the IT group) to keep the cleaners out. And no, BS didn't get the keypad lock combination. We had to empty our own trash and someone got delegated to vacuum the rugs once a week, but it stopped the pain.

US senators rail against effort to sneak through creepy mass spying bill

I simple don't understand why the rules should allow tacking one (or more) distinct, unrelated items onto a bill.

It's been around for a long, long time and used for attaching such things as "pork barrel projects", unpopular laws, and every popular "special interest tax rates" whereby a company's tax rate (or individual for that matter) are granted. For companies it's usually something like "a company that incorporated at 11:15 am on Feb. 20, 1975 in (city, state) is granted a tax rate of XX%. It's surprising to see the crap tucked into bills for "important stuff" by CongresCritters.

UK, US govt and pals on WannaCry culprit: It woz the Norks wot done it

Re: So,

The rule of thumb when dealing with lunatics is "if you are not going to act on it, keep your mouth shut".

I was always told that when dealing with lunatics, you have be a bigger lunatic to keep them in line. Maybe the US and UK have it right... bigger lunatics? The NORKs do have one who's in the running for Lunatic of the Year, however.

Re: What kind of "proof" would you find acceptable?

I think you nailed it. This has all the hallmarks of the "enemy of the month" type of thing.

Virgin Hyperloop pulls up the biggest chair for Branson, bags $50m, new speed record

Re: Sad

The business case? Why status for the passengers of course, much like the status of those who flew on the Concorde.

Re: New markets?

I found that strange also. They're still testing the prototypes and haven't settled on a final design yet.

So, they're now spending $50m on marketing? Huh???

Ey-up, mardy Rochdale council has dropped plans for ban on swearing. Thank f$ck!

Any news on the Nativity play? I heard they were still having trouble finding three wise men and a virgin.

That seems to be a common problem in a lot of places.... particularly the "wise men" part in government... from local to national.

Disclaimer: Here in the States. We have one wise man. Ask him, he'll tell you how wise he is.

Alleged Uber black ops lawyer would rather not have his Xmas holiday ruined by Waymo, ta

Also needs time to book a flight as everything is pretty much filled up this close to the holidays.

Hacks, bribes and bugs: Uber accused of illegal snooping on rivals

Re: Wow!

I'm almost expecting that the next newstory out of that company is that an executive once smashed a chair over someone's head, all the while dropping F-bombs

Is Ballmer now working for Uber?

'I knew the company was doomed after managers brawled in a biker bar'

Re: "and gloves were forbidden"

When I was in the lower VI I once met my Chem teacher in the pub at lunchtime,

I stayed late after school with the chem lab tech, my best friend, and we're doing some "tests" in the lab. The Chem teacher walks by at one point and asks what we were doing..

"Nitrating glycerne." we responded.

"Oh.. ok.". He suddenly stopped and slowly turned around with this pale look of fear. "What?" And then carefully took the test tube and took it outside. There was a loud "bang" when he tossed it in the field behind the school. Surprisingly, no cops showed up, no neighbors were upset. All we got was "don't ever, ever do that again".

Irony's lost on old Pope Francis: Pontiff decrees fake news a 'serious sin'

Re: Have you guys read the 10 commandments

Why would anybody in their right mind want to boil a young goat in his mother's milk?

Not a commandment, per se, but part of the Kosher rules for food. From what I can tell, they were to keep the multitudes from making themselves sick.

Re: Belief and Lies?

You mean when what they're saying is contradicted by facts and/or contains internal contradictions but they believe it anyway?

The word is "fuckwittery." Often pronounced "faith."

Sometimes it's also politics.

Ah.. the gospel word from Paul.