Posts by Trigonoceps occipitalis

Beyond video to interactive, personalised content: BBC is experimenting with rebuilding its iPlayer in WebAssembly

Re: No need to thank me

"Can I correct your spelling?"

Phil you're beauts.

Re: WOT??

"Next Saturdays lottery results please."

Of course, you loose.

No need to thank me.

Apple's Find My network can be abused to leak secrets to the outside world via passing devices

Re: "Faraday-shielded sites that are occasionally visited by iPhone users"

" ... MoD sites requiring the same of the brigadier general in charge?"

The British Army has not used the rank of Brigadier General since the First World War.

You can listen right here to the whir of a robot helicopter flying on an alien world

Re: Breaking News!

Thanks.

Re: Breaking News!

Real question, can the rover pick up the drone to move to another location?

Re: Ho hum

There's a 99% that they'll come.

Facebook: Nice iOS app of ours you have there, would be a shame if you had to pay for it

Re: Oh really?

" ... a radioactive lump of shite."

... the radioactive lump of shite it is.

FTFY

Tesla Autopilot is a lot dumber than CEO Musk claims, says Cali DMV after speaking to the software's boss

Re: Fully Automatic my arse!

To get a five star safety rating form the EU a car must be fitted with certain safety systems. Highest rating requires that they cannot be deactivated, at least not beyond a switch off/switch on by the driver. The "lane keeping" auto driving part seems to be a particular problem and the more sensible parts of the motoring press await the first accident caused by a vehicle avoiding crossing a lane/carriageway white line and mowing down a cyclist.

(Apparently the "lane keeping" is switched off when an indicator has been activated. BMW/Audi drivers take note.)

Telcos crammed 8.5m fake comments against net neutrality into FCC's inbox

Re: Or, ya know, just issue people a government digital ID?

During WW II the UK issued a national ID card and it was an offence not to produce it when requested by a person in "authority", police, military etc. In 1954(?) someone refused to produce and his conviction at the magistrate's court (summary justice) was appealed to the House of Lords (now The Supreme Court) who basically said that the needs of a war were not applicable in peace.

I wonder if a Covid Vac Cert that morphs into a form of national ID, de jure or de facto, will have the same problem?

The Starship has landed. Latest SpaceX test comes back to Earth without igniting fireballs

When flying try to stay in the air. In particular, avoid the bottom of the air.

39 Post Office convictions quashed after Fujitsu evidence about Horizon IT platform called into question

Re: And still...

Oh, they did care - just about their bonuses, not about the Sub Post Masters (or indeed honesty, fairness etc).

Telecoms Diversification Task Force urges UK government to give smaller hardware vendors a bigger slice of the 5G pie

Re: Security costs

I'm sure the small company route to success is to hire The Queen of Carnage?

UK's National Cyber Security Centre recommends password generation idea suggested by El Reg commenter

Re: using your pet's name as a password could make you an easy target

That'll make the bad guys flounder.

Watch your Language

Z. Beeblebrox

Good news: An end is in sight for the COVID-19 pandemic. Bad news: Nitrogen dioxide pollution is on the up as life returns to normal

Re: Sliver linings in the clouds?

" ... offset by lower fuel consumption ... "

Reduced cost only until the chancellor wants to recoup the taxes lost.

US govt indicted me because I make privacy tools, says crypto-chat app CEO accused of helping drug smugglers

Re: Know your customer

@Adelio

Only if they are part of a well regulated militia, you know, like the Proud Boys.

Boffins revisit the Antikythera Mechanism and assert it’s no longer Greek to them

Re: LEGO

Oops - wrong URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLPVCJjTNgk

LEGO

You could make a Lego mechanism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpLcnAIpVRA

Starlink's latent China crisis could spark a whole new world of warcraft

I rather hope that the CIA can tell the difference.

Memo to scientists. Looking for intelligent life? Have you tried checking for worlds with a lot of industrial pollution?

Re: @Trigonoceps occipitalis

1914 without MAD - result WW1

1990 with MAD - result Conflict confined to the Balkans

At best, satisfaction when we all die that we will be revenged ...

Mutually Assured Destruction, kept the peace in Europe since 1945.

Fitting acronym: MAD

Belgian cops crack down on encrypted phone network Sky ECC in 200 overnight raids as firm denies criminal ties

Re: 17 tonnes?

You are Alice B. Toklas and I claim my £5.

Google's ex-boss tells the US it's time to take the gloves off on autonomous weapons

Re: Question....

Self defence or the defence of others.

Facebook and Australia do a deal: The Social Network™ will restore news down under and even start paying for it

It's a bit like Scotland playing France, you rather hope both loose.

NASA sends nuclear tank 293 million miles to Mars, misses landing spot by just five metres. Now watch its video

Re: Mars probe success rate

So 99% then.

(RIP Pterry.)

Footfallcam kerfuffle: Firm apologises, promises to fix product after viral Twitter thread, infoseccer backlash

Re: Vwoosh

You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

TFTFY

Better buckle up: Volkswagen puts Microsoft in driver's seat to deliver 'automated' platform

Re: VW. Not.

They can screw up two ways, one good for you, the other not so much.

If they get your location wrong it could be that your spouse does not realise you are playing away or the FBI spot you as a drug dealer. Your choice.

Criminal charges against Autonomy's Lynch will never be dropped, even if extradition bid fails, says lawyer

Morvillo

Isn't that Voldemort's middle name?

Forget about an AI stealing your job, even pigs can be trained to use computers

Re: There'll be Pigs flying drones next

Pigeons got there first. During WW2 they were trained to steer glide bombs by pecking at a picture of the target. If the target was off centre on the screen the pigeon pecks off centre. Simple logic, even in 1940, to correct the aim.

British owners of .eu domains given an extra three months to find a European address

EU level bureaucrats

The commission is a care home for mediocre bureaucrats and civil servants.

cf: The House of Lords in the UK. (But don't tar all of the members with the same brush.)

Habitable-zone exoplanet potentially spotted just around the corner in Alpha Centauri using latest telescope technique

Re: So just around the corner

Don't forget artistic impressions of scantily clad and busty maiden inhabitants.

India on track for crewed space mission, says first test flight to launch in late 2021

Re: Chicken Korma?

The chemicals that give Vindaloo its distinctive heat, taste and smell are not necessarily those that have "special effects".

This scumbag stole and traded victims' nude pics and vids after guessing their passwords, security answers

Re: Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 years

There's a plaice for him in gaol.

No ports, no borders, no hope: Xiaomi's cool but impractical all-screen concept phone

Android Auto

"There is a wireless version of Android Auto, but availability is patchy, and limited to a handful of newer cars."

There is an application that runs on a Raspberry PI. I've connected but otherwise not had much success myself but I think that is more to do with having a cheap mobile.

Big data: Study suggests even a moderate gambling habit is linked to increased mortality and other bad stuff

Re: Alzheimer causes old age!

"So yes, poverty and death are correlated with gambling ... "

Alcohol also causes death. Each unit shortens your life by two minutes. I've done the maths*, apparently I died in 1542.

* For our plurally challenged cousins - math

UK Test and Trace chief Dido Harding tries to convince MPs that £14m for canned mobile app was money well spent

Re: Dido, Queen of Carnage.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante puts the shade of Dido in the second circle of Hell, where she is condemned to be blasted for eternity in a fierce whirlwind.

Seven levels to go, she's working on it.

Missing GOV.UK web link potentially cost taxpayers £50m as civil servants are forced to shuffle paper forms

Re: I'm still mystified

The solution is a competent government ...

FTFY

European Commission redacts AstraZeneca vaccine contract – but forgets to wipe the bookmarks tab

Re: And the EU still can't understand why the UK left.

Like or loath Brexit, The UK can now trade with the world without the dead hand of the EU on the tiller. In my view the correct use of any surplice UK vaccines is donation to the third world free of any conditions save that it is not to be sold to citizens or other countries. That is the way to curtail Covid.

Hey, AT&T, you ripped off our smartwatch-phone group call tech – and we want our $1bn, say entrepreneur pair

Re: What am I missing?

I remember PBX Hunting on Strowager exchanges. I suppose "on a mobile" merits a patent?

Mind you AT&T seem to have right royally ripped off others' IP, patentable or not.

Europe considers making it law that your boss can’t bug you outside of office hours

Re: * Does not apply to non-EU countries

Isn't this a little tedious by now?

Drone smashes through helicopter's windscreen and injures passenger

Re: Relatively wrong headline?

The human visual system is highly optimised to spot objects that are moving against the background. If two objects are on a collision course the view of one from the other will be stationary against the background (draw it out on paper). Unless there is a significant acceleration by the object it is difficult to spot - hence the post traffic collision comment "sorry mate, I didn't see you."

Showering malware-laced laptops on UK schools is the wrong way to teach them about cybersecurity

"There must be consequences."

I estimate that we are at stage four of the classic project cycle:

4. Hunt for the guilty,

5. Punishment of the innocent, and

6. Reward for the uninvolved.

We'd rather go down in Down Under, says Google: Search biz threatens to quit Australia if forced to pay for news

Re: Farewell then

I thought 75% of the Internet is cat videos?

US comms regulator slaps down petition to block Ligado's nationwide L-band 5G network by 3 to 2

Buy Spectrum

They're not making it anymore.

(After Mark Twain.)

Top engineer who stole trade secrets from Google's self-driving division pardoned on Trump's last day as president

All countries reserve a final grant of clemency and exoneration. In the UK it is the Queen (as advised by the Home Secretary). In the USA it is the president. All grants have a political aspect although we hope that it is mostly in the interest of justice.

In other places who is in power has more of an impact.

SpaceX powers through bad case of wind to nail Falcon 9's eighth droneship landing

8th Time

Yawn, I don't bother firing up YouTube now.

Great, Isn't it?

Former NCSC chief says US sanctions made Britain strip Huawei from mobe networks

Re: Goner

As we know, all cash points run a fully up to date copy of Windows 10.

The bean counters will ensure that Huawei kit stays in use until it fails.

Windows Product Activation – or just how many numbers we could get a user to tell us down the telephone

Marketing

There was a theory that MS would rather someone used a pirated copy of Windows and/or Office rather that giving Linux and/or OpenOffice market share. That mean driving a fine line between making activation difficult but not too difficult to hack.

7

At one time entering a multiple of 7 was enough to activate Office (?).

I don't know, its all Greek to me. (Possibly)

Edit: "μνημονικός" apparently.