Posts by Trygve Henriksen

Swiss space-cleaning bot grabs flying junk, hurls itself into furnace

That's for the FIRST robot.

As soon as it has been tested and hopefully, proven to work, they can fine-tune the design, mass produce them and hopefully use available capacity in other launches.

Boy burned in Nintendo sensor substitution

NEVER leave these candles unattended!

I've had candles like these flare up with 8" flames with no warning at all.

This happens mostly with the cheaper brands, but can happen to any of them.

Flame icon, because... well... 8" flames!

Biz urged to blast DNSChanger Trojans before safety net comes down

Common sense?

What's common sense got to do with it?

Setting up a properly functioning DNS server isn't easy, and in an already overworked IT-department, who's going to take on that task?

It's also common sense to use a login account that doesn't have administrative privileges, but you'd be surprised at how many users at large corporations or government agencies have full administrative access on 'their' computers. (And usually no clue as to why this is bad)

In most big organisations, IT isn't considered 'critical' enough to have it's rightful place in the hierarchy(directly under the company president) or even to have the necessary mandates to do their job.

I can pull the plug on ANY computer in my organisation if I believe it to be infected, knowing that I have the authorisation to do so, and that no two-bit 'king' of whatever deparment can overrule me.

Ten... smart TVs

Samsung NotVerySmart TVs...

I have a 40" Samsung LED 'smart TV'...

MKV & MP4 play?

No... Sure, it's listed, but no matter which settings I used in Handbrake or any other ripper/converter, I ended up with a file the TV would either tell me was 'not supported' or it would just hang the TV...

The .AVIs I managed to get to work were 50% lager, and generally crappy quality.

I've also gotten a few of the 'apps' to hang the TV, just by doing a selection, then quickly using the 'Return to previous' button, but that may not be Samsung's fault...

Record to USB storage...

What the manual doesn't say is that Flash-based storage isn't supported(not fast enough) and that you need to use a fast HDD. Also, it can only record from DIGITAL channels(I have basic cable... ) and any recordings will be DRMed and can only be played on that one set.

Skype...

Yes, it's possible... But you don't want to know that the camera costs...

(No, it can't use a normal webcam)

And the final insult?

The VESA-standard mounting points are recessed so that most mounts won't fit unless you use some badly-fitting plastic spacers, in which case the screws that comes with the VESA mount won't be long enough.

Angry Brides lob stilettos in dowry shakedown takedown

Ooops... the number wasn't 69, but 65...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2919442/?tool=pubmed

Happens in Norway, too

A recent study showed a birthrate of 69(!) female children born for every 100 male children in families with indian background.

(It's possible that was for 'first child in the family' and that the numbers for second or third child was slightly better)

Here it's not allowed to sex a foetus before week 12, unless there's a reason to fear 'gender related complications', and abortions aren't allowed after week 12.

Of course, there's nothing stopping them from taking a vacation in India where the rules and practices are slightly different...

HP sneaks out printer firebomb firmware security fix

Unless Laser Toner is flammable and distributed in the air in the correct ratio to create a fuel-air explosion, I doubt that after market toners are that dangerous.

They're a good way to produce shoddy prints, though.

Being able to set the fuser to 'charbroil', though, and get it to stop with a paper in the middle... Now THAT should get you some attention...

NASA detects 'heartbeat' of pint-sized star-sucker

You want the old HP LJ II and III, and in the case of large volume, the IIIsi and 4si...

Beeb rescues old Who episodes

lots of reasons...

Storage space...

Unions... You know that when BBC made a show the contract with the actors didn't allow them to use the recording for more than 2 years? Why should they keep the tapes after that time?

Video recordings were 'not good'... and slowly wiped themselves anyway, so why not reuse the tapes? (All copies sent abroad were sent as film, not video tapes. Not just because video faded, but because of incompatible standards. The buyer were then required to either return or destroy the film after use. Thankfully, not everyone was too dilligent in that task)

"It's not really culture, so who cares?" Yes... that was a sentiment of the times.

Swiss insist file-sharers don't hurt copyright holders

Actually, you ARE depriving the copyright holder of physical goods!

If you didn't download the song/film/game/whatever, you would have had to BUY it. That is, handing out some form of payment, which the copyright holder could have used to pay for food/clothes/singing lessons/a new car/bling...

Snowbound Alaskan survives on frozen beer

Coors light?

Sounds like a fate worse than death...

Also, winter emergency gear should stay in the vehicle all winter. Never take it out!

(I have an old Army-type kapok-filled sleepingbag, chemical hand warmers, chemlights,a couple of foil blankes, glowes and other stuff, too. all stuffed into a big bag. Kapok, not just because it was cheap, but also because it still works if it gets wet... )

Skyrim update makes dragons FLY BACKWARDS

TES?

Reminds me of all the bugfixes for TES: Arena... and every other TES title, too, when I think about it.

Of course, back in the days of Arena, we had to manually download and apply the patches, so I guess there has been some progress...

Psst, kid... Wanna learn how to hack?

It brought back the 14year old in me...

Yeah, I was that age 'back when the Speccy ruled'...

Also, a kit that you can solder yourself without special tools or reflow ovens is nice. ;-)

(Just because I can solder 0805 SMDs by hand doesn't mean that I enjoy it. Soldering through-hole on a nicely-laid-out board, though, can be a joy)

As for hacking... Well... Just read the Google groups topics on the thing. Weird stuff is happening quite often. ;-)

Pass the wine, dear. Yes, that papier-mache thing

re: the norwegian system...

The deposit is 1NOK(8.6p at todays exchange rates) for 330/500ml cans(and those farkin small cans they sel Red Bull and other poisons in), and for most 500ml glass and plastic bottles.

The 1.5L plastic bottles, some 750ml bottles for water and of course large beer bottles all have a deposit of 2.5NOK(about 21.5p)

The swedes also use a similar system, and even have similar marks on the cans and bottles, but the small(330/500ml) cans there are only worth half as much.

(Less really, as their Krone is less worth... )

It's by no means a large sum, but on the days I ride my scooter to and from work, keeping my eyes open means that it usually pays for the gas...

Black bags? I assume you mean bin liners... ;-)

Yeah, and they usually come in when the store is at its busiest, fill the receiving part of the automat so that it stops and sets of the alert, then get angry when the overworked cashiers won't leave the register(where there are long queues) to empty the machine...

There's no solution so good that someone can't make a problem out of it...

Researchers propose simple fix to thwart e-voting attack

But think of the Floridians...

What will they now have to argue over?

Crap alchemist jailed for poo-into-gold experiment

I assume that you don't watch Mythbusters...

They pretty much debunked that one a while ago.

Pumped-up radio telescope seeks new moniker

Try using 'Interferometer' instead of 'Array'. ;-)

MIT boffin: Salted disks hold SIX TIMES more data

You probably used salt with Iodine. Please try again with salt without Iodine.

(Tablesalt can be bought both with and without as it's a good way of averting certain illnesses)

OccupySF BOFH runs protest network on pedal power

What 'broke the bubble' is that the banks were lending out more money than they had.

and that they were 'selling' bad loans everywhere.

A lot of the bad loans were from the American housing market, where they had the grand idea that anyone, no matter how poor should be able to buy a house, even if they couldn't afford to pay down the mortgage.

Lending out money...

Traditionally, banks lend out the money belonging to account holders.

If you put $100 into your savings account, they would lend out part of that sum, maybe $85 or $90. This worked because most customers doesn't show up at the same time to withdraw all their money... And also, when people take out a loan, they don't get a bag of cash they ide under the bed. They buy something for the money, and the seller, of course puts the money in the bank, or pay down some debt, buy more goods for resale os something. When the money ends up in the bank again, another part of it is lent out and so on...

The bit that is lent out is alway smaller than the amount deposited. Having that reserve makes sense, right?

So, what happens when a bank issues loans for more money than they get in?

and that money is circulated, and loaned on again and again?

That is an extreme simplification of what was going on...

There was 'selling short' when trading(selling something you didn't have, in the hope that the goods would fall in price so that you could buy and deliver the goods before the deadline)

And 'Naked short selling'(the same as short, except that yuo had no intention of getting hold of the goods at all)

Personally, I think a lot of the bankers should be nailed to a wall, upside down, with a nailgun...

You can pick up the outlets in any well-stocked car accessory store, too.

And the chargers are cheap, too, unless you buy them at an Apple store.

I've used the same setup(12V battery, solar panel, chargers) when out kayaking, so it works fine in just about any scale... ;-)

Resistor and regulator?

Would that be a 7805, then?

Congratulations, you just found an even worse way to downstep the voltage than what they've been using!

(you'd end up wasting 7/12 of the energy that way.)

Normal inverters are about 80% efficient when running under load. Cell-phone chargers are usually 80 - 85% efficient, which means that the step up/step down they've been doing is in the ballpark of 60% efficient.

Using good quality 12V 'cigarette lighter' type chargers would take them to 80 - 85% efficiency in one simple step.

Sony asks for 1.6m LCD TVs to be returned

What, another Sony product catching on fire?

And here I thought they didn't use their Li-ion batteries in TVs...

Air traffic control data found on eBayed network gear

Also, add in 'Document fraud'

Second-hand E-m@iler spews old emails, passwords

He even admitted to being a bit of a luddite, in writing...

Here's a quote from the intro of the NC100 machine(which is actually a pretty nice machine for its time)

========

This product is known inside our company as my "BABY". The background to its inception stemmed from personal desire to be able to use a computer.

Yes - I am embarrassed to say that, as the Chairman of one of Europe's largest manufacturers of computers, I have never been able to use one! A while ago I called a meeting with some of my engineering staff and explained that I wanted us to make a simple to use computer. I explained that I'm not interested in knowing what's inside the machine and what the specifications of the machine is. I just want a machine that is simple to use and understand.

========

Microsoft delivers fatal blow to yet another botnet

There's worse than Gmails system...

Try to report a spam-account on their blogging service...

HideMyAss defends role in LulzSec hack arrest

The keyword here is 'store'

What constitutes 'storing'?

If your system needs to temporarily save your IP in a table to keep track of your connection onward, then it's possible that it's subject to the DRD.

If the system bills by usage (time/amount of data/whatever) it must also log that for billing purposes. suddenly DRD is applicable again.

Attention metal thieves: Buy BT, get 75 MILLION miles of copper

Yes, a signal to burglars.

The directories are delivered to all homes in the same area at the same day(or close to it).

It's therefore safe to assume that if your neighbours haven't removed theirs from the doorstep by the next day or two that they're probably not home.

Same reason why people cancel the newspaper for the duration, have the mail held at the post office, and ask the neighbour to toss some garbage in their bin, too.

Mine's the one with the set of lockpicks in the pocket...

Arduino to add ARM board this year

Can't see the benefit of the Ardunios...

When I build something(happens too rarely these days, I'm afraid) I usualy take a Propeller prototype board(about US $20) and toss on whatever peripheral components I need.

Sure, it doesn't support USB(not directly), but I get I2C, SPI, RS232, 1-wire, AD(needs a couple of resistors and a cap), VGA, PAL, NTSC, Composite(video also requires a couple of resistors), PS2...

Best of all, no worry about interrupts or dedicated pins.

Mine's the one with the propeller beanie in the pocket.

After hack nightmare, Sony bars lawsuits with new TOS

and Sony's answer to that?

Probably taking you to court for breach of contract as it was 'obvious that you had no intent of adhering to the EULA when signing up'

Malware burrows deep into computer BIOS to escape AV

My guess is that it maskerades as a WoW goldfarming bot...

Apollo 17 Moon landing: Shock revelations

Anti-grav wasn't working back then...

They only had some 'controlled inertia' systems, and they didn't work as well for the larger planes; losing engines or wings as the part in question still had full inertia while the fuselage didn't and the pilot took a slightly too sharp turn...

Worked well in the Spitfire, though.

A fully-functioning anti-grav system for larger planes wasn't put into production until the advent of the B2 Stealth bomber.

Hey Commentards! [This title is optional]

You better swap that tin hat with a hard hat...

Before I drop my tower PC on your head...

Also, everyone knows that it's eComStation you buy these days, not OS/2 Warp.

Still runs fine on just about any Pentium CPU, though.

(I recommend having more than the minimum of 64MB RAM, though)

Mine's the one with the OS/2 REXX manuals in the(very large) pocket.

Wrong icon...

I never post anonymously.

Except that I may be incognito now and then...

Please, can't we get a choice of icons for those of us who aren't lametards living in their parent's basement?

Don't buy your iPad in a McDonald's car park

A match made in woodworking heaven?

A wooden iPad for a complete blockhead...

ARM vet: The CPU's future is threatened

My first wasn't THAT big, but...

Yeah, that's the way it goes.

Remember back when the phones had keypads where you could press keys with your finger instead of a toothpick?

These days, I have to pat my pockets to find where my phone is. A few years ago, you could feel at least a little bit of weight.

Apple sells world's most expensive flash drive

Yes, but...

as long as no one messed with the little sticker, those data will last a long time...

(I use an Org II to keep track of one of my collections)

Of course, when it got full, you had to copy the files over to another, then ship the original off to either Psion or a buddy with an EPROM eraser to have it erased.

They did bring out EEPROM-based DataPaks, later though, and that again was the inspiration for the Series 3 SSDs, which in turn begat PCMCIA flash-disks and so forth...

Smartphones rain on Sony PS Vita parade

Games...

What a pity that so far there's only one 3DS game worth buying.

(Yes, that would be Zelda)

Which might explain the slow sales and their decision to drop the price so much.

Man reveals secret recipe behind undeletable cookies

Redirecting the kissmetrics traffic?

Why not just reassign the Kissmetrics.com url to 127.0.0.1 in your hosts file?

Or block their IP range in your Firewall?

3DS discount sparks retail price war

Battery life sucks, yes...

Which is why I've ordered this:

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/2000mah-battery-pack-for-nintendo-3ds-blue-82211

Maybe those enterprising Chinese could throw together a couple of good games for it, too?

(The only good game so far is Zelda, and that's a Rehash of a rehash of the original Zelda: Ocarina of time. And yes, I have that for the N64, and the rehashed version... )

Kabam! Facebook gamers fume after script deletes fake stuff

The Problem with WoW...

Is that 'high-level' stuff can be sold or transferred from one character to another.

In games like MoM(Minions of Mirth), all the 'high-level' stuff is soulbound and can't be transferred to another player.

$25 toy radio used to knock out feds

Nope...

Those are genuine Im-me that has been carefully and lovingly rebuilt with a new shock-proof casing and functions, by an all-american company(probably has an american flag in every office, and preprinted on their stationery, too) and sold with a modest 137% profit margin to the Police.

Anything can knock out DAB if you try...

How exactly do you do it with the F-91W ?

10-year old hacker finds flaw in mobile games

Doesn't count...

That version had a non-working expiry function...

Ultra stealthy spy malware not so stealthy after all

Maybe he shouldn't have shared that...

Not that openly at least...

Now every bl**dy malware author is aware of the flaw and will be taking action to remedy it.

BOFH: Axe handles - occasionally quite slippery

The ones for Subs, yes...

The accuracy needed to maneuver a sub in narrow straits or even a fjord is quite high, and the equipment for it is pretty advanced.

Just mentioning that you have it sitting in a storeroom probably broke a few regs...

(Even if you're anonymous. Someone at El Reg might be logging IPs... )

Frankly, if I was you, I'd be calling the Navy about now.

Russia: 'We'll dump the ISS into the sea after 2020'

Fault?

Who said NASA were at fault?

They may say otherwise, but that was a well-executed test of the VHAC bomb system(Very High Altitude Clustermunitions. Pronounced 'whack.'.. ), and frankly, no one though the Australians would mind that much.

As you see, no fault there...

Stuxnet clones may target critical US systems, DHS warns

No leased lines?

What a bummer...

Cost effective is usually not the best when it comes to security.

Frankly, I'd stick an old GSM modem in the systems, rather than trust a 'normal' internet connection.

As for the flashdrive...

Not only must that always be scanned by a separate computer(running a different OS and scanner package than the system that generated the content), but care should be taken to disable things such as Autorun for removeable media on 'critical' systems.

That's just commonsense, though, so probably won't be implemented in anything Government controlled...

Air-gapping works...

But only as a single layer in a multi-layered defense.

Fingerprint scans learn to spot chopped-off fingers

Does it work in Winter?

Imagine, it's 20below(Celsius. no F! clue as to what it's in Fahrenheit), you pull of your glowe, shuffle a bit, drop the glowe and pick it up again... Then you press your now very cold finger against the reader...

Guess what, one of your body's defese mechanisms against cold is to contract the blood vessels near the skin and extremeties to reduce bloodflow(and heat loss) there.

Amateur claims crack of final Zodiac Killer cipher

Transposition...

That's called a Transposition Cypher, and has been known since Roman times.

Also, not all frequency analysis require the symbols to be in the right place to yield correct answers.