Posts by kphair

Chromecast video on UK, Euro TVs hertz so badly it makes us judder – but Google 'won't fix'

Re: Still....

It doesn't inspire much confidence in Android TV though when the developers can cop out with a lame excuse like it being 'hard'. Android is not even any good as a TV interface anyway.

'You have no right to see me naked!' Suddenly, everyone wakes up at the Google-EU face-off

Re: Wrong Target?

@big_D: No, for your murder trial scenario, the site hosting the report should be made to update their page with a paragraph stating at the beginning that "Defendant X was subsequently exonerated of all charges and this should be kept in mind when reading the following story". That it seems more difficult to do this than getting Google to remove it from their index is possibly more a reflection on the legislature's inability to cope with the modern age.

Removing the link to the page does not fix the incorrect information and in fact allows people with a grudge against Defendant X to distribute a direct link to the incorrect story should they wish to conduct a smear campaign.

Google removing links from their index only feeds the fallacy among the general public that Google somehow IS "The Internet" (how many times have you seen people entering a URL into the Google search page rather than the address bar), which might explain why they are quite happy to be doing this.

Crypto collision used to hijack Windows Update goes mainstream

Re: Is this news?

It WAS news, back in 2004. That's when I read about it via Dan Kaminsky's blog. Anyone using MD5 in a security setting after that point might as well have been using CRC-32.

Best Buy preps for a Hero4 welcome just in time for Christmas

Re: GoPro camera shap

And you can imagine where THEY would end up!

Google ordered to tear down search results from its global dotcom by French court

Re: Whither "les immortels"

"This judge is attempting to order the electronic equivalent of pulping every newspaper that carries the defamatory information"

Not really, it's more like ordering Google to be a policeman inside every single newsagents who, when you go towards the offending paper, steers you away by the elbow and says into your ear, "We don't want to be looking at that now sir, do we? Let's not cause a fuss..."

What's to stop anyone going to the source of the defamatory information, copying and reposting it on blogs, usenet and in the comments sections of certain websites? Maybe someone from Microsoft will actually try this to see if they can get the French courts to remove every single website from Google's index!

Bad boy builds beastly Bash bug botnet, boxen battered

Re: This is getting overblown

As I understand things, it could be more insidious than that. For example, you have a PHP script you want to run. No problem since that's run directly through a dedicated module, right? However, say the PHP script at some stage wants to zip up a batch of files to send to the user or something like that. For the system to run the archiver, it will use the default shell (probably bash) as the launcher. Unless the PHP script has sanitised the HTTP_ environment variables, bash will run the exploit before proceeding to run the external command the script wanted.

I'm prepared to be proved wrong as I haven't tested this on an unpatched system but it sounds plausible.

How the FLAC do I tell MP3s from lossless audio?

I started moving over to FLAC last year when I got a new MP3 player. With storage being much cheaper it was possible to store a decent amount of lossless audio on a single device. I actually find that the difference is especially noticeable when driving. I'm not sure whether it's a dynamic range thing or what, but I'm able to listen at a much lower volume without the car noise onscuring the music than when playing MP3s.

When listening at home it's not so obvious, but MP3 can sometimes introduce unwelcome and disturbing artifacts. Even on a far from "hi-fi" setup, I was listening to "Equinoxe" a couple of days ago and had a big WTF moment. I'm pretty sure it was a 192kbps file but it's since been deleted and replaced with FLAC.

Does anyone remember Barry Fox in Hi-Fi News & Record Review claiming that you could get better quality audio from a CD by using a green marker to draw around the edge of the disc? That was the day I never took any articles about audio seriously again. Even when it correlates with my own opinion I have to double-check! :-)

Re: Missing the obvious test

... as long as both the male and female connectors are gold-plated, otherwise you may get galvanic corrosion at the points of contact.

Re: Sony software

The best way to do it was always to hook the CD player up to the MD recorder via optical. Some of the MD hifi separates also had a PS/2 socket so you could plug a keyboard in for titling.

To this day, I'm convinced that the software Sony distributed for managing NetMD devices was partly responsible for the demise of MD. Their refusal to make the USB-MD interface open only compounded their errors.

Good grief! Have you seen BlackBerry's square smartphone?

Re: Will they make a more compact version...

It is actually pocket sized. To double-check, I folded up some cardboard to the same dimensions and it fits comfortably in a shirt pocket. It looks like some joined-up thinking has been going on in Blackberry. I wouldn't mind being given this phone as a corporate mobile.

FTC nails pin in Bitcoin mining rig maker Butterfly Labs

Re: Is it that difficult...

No, they are custom-built ASICs in a chassis; Not even GPUs have the grunt needed these days to mine bitcoins profitably*. Even when looking into their kit a year ago, it was obvious from looking at the publicly posted waiting list that the only people who were getting up-to-date gear which could actually mine whole coins were the review sites, everybody else had to wait in line.

Their business model was effectively a pyramid scheme. The money from customers was being used to develop the next generation of ASICs rather than fulfil orders. It was only a matter of time before their luck ran out.

Icon chosen because the whole bitcoin mining industry is not much different to a nuclear arms race, with the only winners being the arms suppliers - If they can get out in time!

* Mining other cryptocoins with GPUs is a different story, but Bitcoin is one of those where ASICs are so far ahead of the game that it's pointless for anything other than research, but then you might as well do it on paper! http://www.righto.com/2014/09/mining-bitcoin-with-pencil-and-paper.html

Apple iPhone 6: Looking good, slim. AW... your battery died

Re: Kies? Does anyone actually use that?

In my case, Kies is what pushed me into changing my S2 over to CyanogenMod, so Samsung actually did me a big favour there!

Sir, sir, my cloud ate my homework: Google touts grading tool to teachers

And in line with normal Google ToS...

All class work submitted to the system automatically becomes the property of Google and can be used in marketing, promotions and shared with "selected partners" without notification to the teacher or originator of said work.

No Notch niche: Minecraft man in rift with Oculus after Facebook gobble

Unless it's CastAR.

And I trust Jeri's judgement a hell of a lot more.

ZX Spectrum game devs allege Elite Systems Ltd didn't pay their royalties

Re: Bootnote

Many if not all of those developers left the Spectrum scene about 25 years ago. They probably never thought that machine would ever play a part in their lives again as they moved on to other jobs, had families, etc. When Steve Wilcox came out of the blue asking them to sign licensing agreements it probably never crossed their minds that it would result in more than a few hundred sales and they had other things to do than chase up statements for royalties that could only have been a few quid.

It's quite likely that none of them were even aware of the "bluetooth" keyboard Kickstarter until it entered the final few days and backers started making the big push to get it over the line with extra publicity.