* Posts by Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

1143 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Feb 2013

Dre-stic measures: Apple Beats retreat from iTunes brand – report

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: The secret formula

We wouldn't want it to go pear-shaped, would we?

Oh, shoppin’ HELL: I’m in the supermarket of the DAMNED

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: fun

"Are all $note denominations the same physical size or something?"

AFAIK US dollars are all the same size. But there's more to it. Cassettes are usually coded (with pins or chips) to indicate the nomination they hold inside. Pretty easy to mess it up.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Online buying is sometimes not much better...

"A credit card or payment method should be requested only at the time I have decided to purchase goods or services, and only saved as necessary for processing the transaction."

Indeed. Fortunately, there is a good number of retailers, who do not save full card information. They authenticate the current transaction right away, and if it passes, they'll retain only last 4 digits from the card number for reference. Just like a long-standing practice with printed receipts - only a card issuer and last 4 digits can be seen there.

IT-savvy US congressmen to Feds: End your crypto-backdoor crusade

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Seriously, how stupid are we supposed to be?

Three famous examples:

- Passetto in Vatican, about half mile long. It provided an escape route for at least two popes. Alexander VI Borgia escaped during a French siege, and somebody else (Clement? Julius?) escaped during the Sack of Rome.

- Marie Antoinette escaped from the palace of Versailles, when the palace was overrun by the angry mob.

- Nottingham Castle has a passage which was used for breaking into the castle. To rescue king Edward III, if the memory serves right. And intruders had help from the inside.

So you are quite right about that part - secret passages are definitely a security weakness. To counter this they were cleverly hidden, rarely used, only a handful of people had the knowledge. Pure obscurity.

This model wouldn't possibly work for crypto backdoors. There has to be a wide circle of people with an official need to know, thus it's bound to leak sooner or later. Worldwide access - millions of people banging on the doors, some of them are quite bright and well equipped. Hopeless.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Seriously, how stupid are we supposed to be?

"Real castles do not have secret passages"

Quite frequently they do. In times of yore, security by obscurity had somewhat better chances, as geographical distances imposed a considerable limit on the number of adversaries, and there were no automated scanning tools available.

Your servers are underwater? Chill out – liquid's cool

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Liquid metal cooling

Now that's really cool. Or hot.

/coat.jpg/

One USB plug to rule them all? That's sensible, but no...

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

"The Thinkpads that changed the charger connector when we went from T4 series to T6 series and now again with T440's?"

16V/56W thin barrel was good from Thinkpad 360 to T43/R52, 1995-2005. Lots of generations and models in between.

20V/90W thick barrel from T60 to T430, 2006-2014. About six generations.

There were some exceptions, like 135W adapters for hungrier beasts, but as a generalisation, 8-10 years with one connector type isn't bad at all.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

"because you plugged the cable into the wrong Scart socket on the telly."

For the younger generation: decent TV set had to have 2 or 3 SCART sockets on the back. All of them were somewhat universal. Or rather having slightly varying values of universal.

From the look of it, USB-C is going down the same path.

Use your Apple gizmos only for good, says Tim Cook

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad
Coat

Re: Funny

"turned powerful technology into tools that were easy to use"

Funny indeed. Companies wriggle like hell to avoid their products being seen as tools. To the point of designing the products as non-utilitary and intrusive as possible. These days it's all about the "experience", "lifestyle", "vision", "technology" and other BS-bingo material. With "ease of use" moniker serving as a warning label.

Gosh, I'm getting ranty. Need a coat, quickly.

It's the Internet of Feet: Lenovo shows smart shoes, projector keyboard phone

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

bootnote

Yet another acronym in the making.

SoS = System on Shoe.

The yummy mummies' likeable wagon: Nissan Qashqai Tekna

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Cannibalistic X-Trail

"The new X-Trail to my eyes looks very very similar to Qashqai, so much so they will be competing against each other?"

As +2 version of Qashqai disappeared from the lineup, new X-Trail had to fill that niche. Basically it's a blend of old X-Trail and Q+2.

About 10 inches longer than normal Q, has 7 seats, and 4WD (which +2 didn't have).

Grand Theft Auto maker lobs sueball at BBC over biopic

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: The BBC's response

And if someone thinks that the hot scene would be only unlockable with a patch, they'd be gravely mistaken. Har har.

Driverless cars deal death to Detroit, says Barclays

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: "No more old guys in hats holding up the flow of traffic"

There's nothing you can do. White Van Man will always catch you.

Mobiles at school could be MAKING YOUR KID MORE DUMBER

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Back in the day ...

"But I have no fucking idea how a transistor works."

If used as logic gates, it's not that hard to understand. They'd be either almost open or almost closed. Everything inbetween is an unholy mess. But for some strange reason this mess seems to be a preferred state for the analogue folks. Go figure.

/joke.jpg/

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: more?

Or dumberer.

Are we looking at the first domain name meme? Neigh

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: It is both

And from a third viewpoint it's a .lemon

Red-faced Germans halt NSA cooperation after Euro spying revealed

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Commando Comics

Ah, that would be Weltschmerz. English phrase "weary of the world" is quite close to it.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Commando Comics

Too bad, because Germans have a very decent selection of strong words in the vocabulary, should the need arise. But we shall not utter these here.

Flash banishes the spectre of the unrecoverable data error

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

I see dead disks...

...right next to the pile of dead flash. Once so glorified, almost deitified, so full of hype, starring in countless powerpoints, having a future oh-so-bright. Yet there they are. Mere mortals like everybody else.

Oh, well. Back to work. Gotta keep the blinkenlights flashing.

Spooks BUSTED: 27,000 profiles reveal new intel ops, home addresses

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: MASTERSHAKE?

Also well trained in LOGORRHEA and BLABBERMOUTH.

Why OH WHY is economics so bleedin' awful, then?

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad
Coffee/keyboard

Re: У Лукоморья

"AIexander Pushkine [whose surname translates as "Cannon's son"]"

Ha! Never thought of that. And going by the countless anecdotes about him, "son of a gun" is an apt translation.

Charming guy and a great poet.

Who thinks Microsoft Edge sucks? Erm, Microsoft

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: downvotes.

First rule of downvotes - we don't talk about downvotes.

And this seems to be the only rule that holds water. All other theories are just delusions.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad
Coffee/keyboard

Re: WHAT DID YOU FUCKING SAY TO ME???

Seal who is trained in gorilla warfare?

Now that's a really scary beast.

One bit to rule them all? Forget it – old storage types never die

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Print Button

Sticking 'Print' into the URL still works. Which is essentially what the print button did.

www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2015/05/01/bits_on_a_disk/

Oxford chaps solve problem in 1982 Sinclair Spectrum manual

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: please can we have some of those geeks?

You can, but it's not easy. You'd have to swim against a lot of tides.

Firstly, do not rely on HR. Qualities you're looking for do not show up in their keyword lists, because these qualities are nigh impossible to define in HR terms. You'll recognize The Knack when you see it. Others probably won't.

Secondly, start the search early. In the schools. Best chaps tend to avoid the job market if possible - once they get the job they like, they'll stay there indefinitely. So it's pretty much a matter of being first to spot a young talent.

Thirdly, you should start in the schools, because the education system does not work in your favour. There's a huge lot of anti-patterns, academic navel-gazing and other cruft to be learned, that has to be unlearned later on. If it's not too late by then.

OK, the last one was a radical statement - please do not take it as an absolute, but as a problem for your specific use case. Once the younglings have got several years of treatment to the finesses of Academically Approved Ambitious Architectures, they'd probably have a hard time to get their minds back in shape for doing the embedded stuff. Unless they've had it as a side hobby all along.

E-voting and the UK election: Pick a lizard, any lizard

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: estonia - embracing the future!

Gosh. Is it September already?

/edit: Never mind, irony detector malfunctioned a bit. Upvoted./

Apple Watch RIPPED APART, its GUTS EXPOSED to hungry Vultures

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Quinting

Yes, the fun factor. It may be a bit underestimated at times - small skunkworks projects may unexpectedly bring about a major breakthrough, and a motherlode of other goodies to go with it. But sometimes it turns out to be nothing but a twattery. Apparently it has to be a delicate mix of playfulness, skill, determination, luck, and deity-knows-what-else. Pegasus really doesn't give advance warnings about his next visit.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Quinting

Ah, but it doesn't seem to be about solving a problem. It's more likely doing something for the sake of doing it, just because they can. Design awards and press buzz as a bonus.

Beowulf Gods — rip into cloud's coding entrails

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Yeah. Happy days. Still have some Inmos chips in the bottom drawer. And AMD 2900 bitslices.

Google pulls plug on YouTube for older iPads, iPhones, smart TVs

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad
Big Brother

Re: Don't tell me you were stupid enough to buy an expensive "SMART" TV

Oh dear, oh dear. This reminds me - I may have forgotten to pick up that fancy smart TV from the store. Come to think of it, I also forgot to swipe the credit card.

With my old memory failing like that, I'll never be a model citizen. [sob]

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

"In other words, that's a yay for landfill then."

Seems that some people are not 'on message' yet. It is time for a leap forward, we need a nextification of the landfills. Behold the SmartFill!

Ex-Windows designer: Ballmer was dogmatic, Sinofsky's bonkers, and WinPho needs to change

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad
IT Angle

Bugger.

So Ballmer & Sinofsky behaved pretty much like they appeared to.

That's sad. Because cynical viewpoint can't be always right, could it? There should be a bit of hope, if only a fool's hope, that behind the curtains there's more valour than meets the eye. That the emperors are more decently clad than they appear to be. That affairs of their courts are less petty than they seem to be.

But in the end it's just another night in the circus. Lots of smoke and mirrors, loud noise, pretty costumes, carefully staged performances - and after the show, somebody has to clear up all that elephant dung.

Google broke own security with April fool gag

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad
Pint

Re: re: Have an upvote yourself!

"Exactly :-). It's only an upvote here and there, what does it matter?"

Precisely. Have one more. And a pint, just for pint's sake.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: re: Have an upvote yourself!

Upvoted, because...because... Oh,well, sod it. Upvotes for everybody it is then. Hope it doesn't ruin anyone's day.

Why are enterprises being irresistibly drawn towards SSDs?

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

@1980s_coder

"Go ahead, upvote Rebecca and let her upvote you"

For what it is worth, I upvoted every long comment on this subthread, because they contained one or more reasonable points.

Which does not mean I condone personal attacks, or unconditionally agree with every claim made.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

"OK, we agree up to a point - great."

Good call. It's an interesting discussion, and there's no need to get too emotional about it, because everybody had valid points to make.

Please consider two topics that were not mentioned yet:

1) PRML encoding method, which was introduced around 1991, and has been prevalent ever since. With major updates of course.

PRML means that reading bits off the magnetic media is not a straightforward process, it's a highly sophisticated guesswork. So an uncertain amount of uncertainty is to be expected.

2) T10-PI is a system of additional checksums that is designed to combat silent corruption problems discussed here. PI-capable drives can be formatted with 520-byte sectors, 8-byte checksum is kept inside the same data frame as 512 bytes of payload, and consistency checks are performed along the whole data path.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

"Flash naysayers also tend to leave out the part where traditional magnetic disks have mechanical components that break down and flash doesn't."

/stares grimly at a pile of SSDs that were killed by a leaking supercap/

Oh. Carry on.

Who runs this world? Sony Pictures CEO jokes about getting UK culture minister fired

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Sony Entertainment...

...an anchor that is dragging the whole ship down.

Let’s pull Augmented Reality and climax with JISM

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: ARrrggh!

ARrrggh or fnAR? That is the question.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: >> well, a few graphics would help!!

Forget pictures. Playmobil is the lingua franca for Reg readership.

Android lands on Microsoft's money-machine island fortress

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

"to get off the upgrades and support treadmill" ... "Android was the answer."

Er...um...shurely shome mishtake?

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: What a lovely piece of FUD you've written Gavin

"You realise ATMs run XP Embedded which is not XP and is still in support?"

For whopping 9 months. That ought to be enough for anyone.

EU bods Oetti and Ansip: We must digitise EVERYTHING

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

digi digi digi digi digi

all i hear is digi and digi

meh, i need an abacus

NO, Joe Hockey, a 'Netflix tax' wouldn't raise 'billions'

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Erm

Saying 'zillion', with a pinky in his mouth, would have been clearly intentional. For a billion, it's not so clear, and furthermore, such a claim can serve no good purpose whichever way you look at it.

Unpatched 18-year-old Windows man-in-the-middle diddle revived

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

I tend to disable SMB on the client side, if there's no critical need for using fileshares. It has always been a bit leaky and open to abuse.

China weaponizes its Great Firewall into the GREAT FIRE CANNON, menaces entire globe

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: its all gona get worse!

"Hon Hai ring any bells?"

Minor nitpick - it's a Taiwanese group. But they have an awful lot of operations in the mainland China, so they have to have cosy relations with the Chinese regime.

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: commonly used analytics, social, or advertising scripts

Yup. Most of them are blocked by my very own Great Firewall, painstakingly construed by finding a checkbox named "Enable JavaScript" in the browser settings, and hitting it with a fury of the thousand winds. What a marvel of technological achievement.

Russian censor warns against meme 'misuse'

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: Yeah, like it worked before

Oh, yes, it was a favourite sport among intellectuals - to smuggle hidden snippets of satire past the censorship. With censorship itself being among the most prized targets.

Because the server room is certainly no place for pets

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: So much bollocks spouted in the comments

"Give me a well built virtualised platform"

Hah. Dream on.

While we're at it, can we finally have those flying cars and frikkin-sharks-with-frikkin-lasers? Plus some nice unicorns for the tenderer species in the profession.

And, if it's not too much trouble, a new box of bingo cards, because this topic has been quite taxing on the supplies. 15 instances of the word "legacy" in a short article...there should be a law against that, or at least a fair warning for the unsuspecting readers.

Videogame publishers to fans: Oi, stop resurrecting our dead titles online

Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

Re: very fair and balanced

"Our favorite rag just wouldn't be the same if it didn't show contempt for everybody and everything, especially itself."

Well met. Everyone should get bitten fairly and equally. It's kind of implied in the mission statement.

We, the commentariat, shall not tolerate any discrimination on this count.