Posts by Doctor Syntax

Regulate This! Time to subject algorithms to our laws

Re: Even if

"These crusty old law makers could look at the algorithm, they probably wouldn't understand it anyway."

Let's examine your ageism.

First of all, look at the summary from the table here http://parliamentarycandidates.org/news/the-age-of-the-new-parliament dating from 2015

18 - 29 2% 30 - 39 14% 40 - 49 32% 50 - 59 32% 60 - 69 16% > 70 4%

How does this compare with your concept of "crusty old". BTW, without looking it up, how do you think those 4% over 70 are distributed between parties?

Now let's think what we might consider as an ideal age distribution. I think most of us would like our MPs to have some practical experience of the world they're trying to administer. My least ideal candidate would be a newly graduated or even younger policy wonk who has no concept of life outside of their own party machine. Such an MP isn't going to come into Parliament without being well into that age distribution, is going to spend some extra years broadening their experience in dealing with governance at all levels from constituency matters upwards and then should remain there so that their experience adds value. Does that distribution seem particularly unreasonable.

There's also the notion implicit in the A/C's statement that somehow it's only the young who are aware of algorithms. So here, my young A/C is a little research exercise for you. Who are Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman? How old are they? Why do you think they should be unable to understand what algorithms are much less understand them? And, if you bothered to look up the answer to the question I posed earlier about >70 MP's parties, how did that fit you preconceptions?

Back to the future: Honda's new electric car can go an incredible 80 miles!

Re: 80mile range?

"These are used for recharging in under an hour when travelling."

How much under? That's like saying I'd have to spend "under" two hours or "under three hours" additional time on a long journey recharging when I'd need at most one fill of the tank of petrol taking a few minutes. In turn that implies that motorway service stations would have to have many times the number of charging points compared to the number of petrol pumps if such short-range vehicles became the norm.

Re: Why not offer different battery pack options.

"Now simply rent out extended range batteries for the times they are actually needed."

Where does the extended range battery go? At the time you need it you probably need the storage space for luggage.

Re: Fuel cell by-product

Water is also a by-product of conventional vehicles. Water evaporates, especially at the temperatures it's produced at in an ICE. What temperature does a fuel cell reach?

The A/Cs preferred horse is far more polluting. If you look at any old photos from the days of horse transport look at the state of the streets. Somehow none of the historical dramas ever get that bit of scenic detail right.

Re: Even if 40 miles out and back trips cover 95% of your journeys

"what do you do for the other 5%?"

Have real second car of course.

Re: 80mile range?

"Perhaps you need to raise your standards for your domestic electrical infrastructure?"

That takes us back to Neil Barnes's point. If this sort of car charging was to become universal then the infrastructure would need investment and that's not a decision for the individual motorist.

Re: One of the factors I'd be interested in

"Electric vehicles - when parked at home - can conversely help to smooth the demand upon the grid, by using their batteries as local storage."

You could charge the battery off-peak which eases Neil's worry about generating capacity although the overall amount of power generated still increases as he says.

But you seem to be implying that you could use the battery to store power for the home. You'd be a bit annoyed to get into your car and find it grind to a halt a few yards down the street because you'd just been using its battery to cook your breakfast.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cells

"Hydrogen as a fuel is very poor when you consider the energy it takes to make it."

The energy required to make it, i.e. separate it from the oxygen in water, is the energy that's stored in it as a fuel to be recombined with oxygen so this aspect doesn't really matter. What matters is the overall efficiency with which you can go through the entire cycle.

But the issues raised in the articles are valid. It's difficult and potentially dangerous stuff to store and distribute and the overall environmental friendliness of it depends on that of the energy source.

Re: Hydrogen fuel cells

"Plus, this new Honda has TWICE the range of either of their Formula 1 cars built with McLaren!"

Not quite true. They got one car home in Melbourne only 2 laps down.

Alert: Using a web ad blocker may identify you – to advertisers

Re: Duh

"Why wouldn't they[want to burn their business]?"

For investors, an aversion to losing their investment. For the executives an aversion to being sacked by the investors.

Re: F**k em.

"I worked at an Ad Agency for 18months and what they did with your data was shocking."

What, if anything, did they or could they do to measure negative effects of advertising campaigns?

I can't see how they could do that other than going round with clip-boards and we know how that can be subverted by the way the interview is constructed.

Re: Duh

"What about a manufacturer's website for drivers?"

You keep raising that. Let's look at it.

Where do these manufacturers make their money?

By selling the H/W that their drivers support.

What would happen if they poisoned their drivers?

They'd burn their main business. (Remember how quickly HP had to row back after the shit-storm they raised by playing silly buggers with their ink cartridges.)

Why would they want to do that?

Roll on May next year. 4% global turnover fines on the entire ad industry.

Re: Test

"As I did try to find someone through LinkedIn - quite some time ago - has it left a marker somewhere on my laptop and how do I get rid of it?"

Why would you want to? It's disinformation.

Sysadmin 'trashed old bosses' Oracle database with ticking logic bomb'

Re: Proof?

"And there'll be several eBay links on the first results page."

There are eBay links for getting a laptop to connect to a specific company's network?

'Tech troll' sues EFF to silence 'Stupid Patent of the Month' blog. Now the EFF sues back

Re: Opinions versus facts

"I am surprised the Australian judge did not take such a view."

Someone suggested a likely reason earlier on. It was probably a one-sided hearing; why should EFF turn up in court and recognise the court's jurisdiction?

Re: Personal opinion

"While I agree in your qualification, licensing the patent for someone else to use, provided it results in a real product, would be perfectly acceptable demonstration of the practicality of implementation of a patent."

Your patent troll would then argue that the infringing product proves its practicality.

My point is that there are good arguments against almost all S/W patents. Introducing an argument such as "you've got to make a product yourself" isn't one of them.

Re: EFF Lawyers are EFF'n Stupid

Unfortunately many existing software patents are of the form "implementing a <some well-known operation> using a computer".

-Tim's example of pre-existing art was on a computer.

Re: Personal opinion

"What is the point of inventing and not actually market your invention?"

There are a whole lot of skills involved in inventing and a whole lot of different skills involved in manufacturing and marketing. It's unreasonable for a small company, and even less for an individual to possess all those. It's a perfectly legitimate business to invent, design, etc. a product and licence it to others to bring to market. ARM would be an example. Patenting some bundle of vague ideas is not, however, inventing under any reasonable interpretation of the word.

Re: @hrearden360

"How is the weather in Aus?"

How would he know? He's sheltering under the bridge.

Re: EFF Lawyers are EFF'n Stupid

@ hrearden360

You signed up just to post that?

"Of course, free speech in the us ends when you say bad things about us companies. DMCA ring a bell?"

You clearly haven't looked very carefully at the EFF. For a start, try googling EFF & DMCA. You might find it educational.

Microsoft raises pistol, pulls the trigger on Windows 7, 8 updates for new Intel, AMD chips

Re: Stupid

"But for those stuck with Windows-ONLY software (that isn't WINE-friendly), they're kinda stuck, you know?"

And for stuff that only runs on older versions of Windows?

Re: Year of the Linux desktop, finally, from Microsoft

"I'm surprised Munich is going back to Windows after enduring the pain of switching to Linux."

ITYF it's their political PHB who wants that.

Re: Most of the people who use PCs think they run "Google"

"Mint with Mate or Cinnamon for a shorter learning curve."

Or KDE which can be made to look very much like a classic Windows desktop.

Looking at it from MS's PoV, they expect your to run Office 365 on their boxes, other stuff on Azure on their boxes. So what difference can a bit of "telemetry" make?

"Bitching about Microsoft and especially Windows 10 on The Register is the 21st century equivalent of Last of the Summer Wine."

Given that it's supposed to continue being churned out for ever with periodic updates Windows 10 is the 21st century equivalent of Last of the Summer Wine.

Re: Question

Good questions. After all there are better options to stick on it.

"the (much larger) group who are interested in upgrading their hardware, or who are buying a new computer"

Even Gartner have noticed that this is no longer a large group.

Re: If you are forced into Windows 10

And good look with all those surviving the next update.

"How do I get out of this chicken shit outfit?"

Why are you wearing a chicken shit outfit?

Re: Optional

"Microsoft just killed all trust in their Desktop product."

Just?

Leaked NSA point-and-pwn hack tools menace Win2k to Windows 8

"While we cannot ascertain the information that has been published, we can confirm that no EastNets customer data has been compromised in any way"

How often do we see this sort of PR statement made immediately after an indication of a breach before there's been time for an investigation and how often is it followed by a climb-down.

Re: This could be a good thing for Microsoft

"If people start actively using these exploits then Windows 7, 8 and 10 systems will be patched and protected."

I doubt 7 would be. After all, they want to push people off 7 onto 10.

Re: Let's stop pretending...

"The only way to have a two-way dialog with the server was through teletype situated in the server room."

Server or mainframe? The characteristic of a server is that it provides services. Unless all the users of those services are to be herded into the secure server room it's going to have to communicate externally. Alternatively you could secure even further by closing it down, removing the power, encasing it in concrete and burying in a hole in the ground.

Re: Damn it NSA,

"you had one job."

That's the problem. They have two and they're contradictory.

Re: Too slow...

"If there is a fix in the next month, we will KNOW that the NSA has been working with m$ on this."

Alternative possibility. Microsoft did a deal with Shadow Brokers some time ago so that fully supported stuff would get patched beforehand leaving W7 users with an incentive to migrate to 10 given that they've resisted everything else so far.

US military makes first drop of Mother-of-All-Bombs on Daesh-bags

Re: Gather Dust?

I have real problems with the "Suck all the oxygen out of the air" statement.

Whoever said it had a lisp?

Amazon touts Echo voice-recog tech to world's gizmo makers

Re: Who would win in a fight between Alexa, Siri, Bixby, Cortuna, and a dead crab?

"Who would win in a fight between Alexa, Siri, Bixby, Cortuna, and a dead crab? "

I don't know but AFAICS there's only one that would go well in a salad.

Burger King's 'OK Google' sad ad saga somehow gets worse

Re: If it's anything like our area...

"Perhaps it's related to the aging demographic trends."

You mean the survivors are growing up?

"There's no such thing as bad publicity."

The smartphone has made that obsolete. Just ask United Airlines.

Boss swore by 'For Dummies' book about an OS his org didn't run

Re: preventative

@A/C

Good start but lacks cattle-prod, roll of carpet, quicklime or defenestration.

Re: That boss again...

I inherited a code base that the boss had written. He appeared to have been a Coboller so his response to C, having discovered C macros, was to write several C macros which made things look more Cobol-like (at least that's what I think they were doing). As soon as I needed to change the code wrapped up in some of those on a case-by-case basis I rid myself of the whole lot by running the code through cpp.

Another classic was the day-of-week code which occupied a page and a half which I couldn't understand for the good reason that it was wrong; come the new year and it crapped itself. It needed urgent replacement which was about a line long: call library function to return current date as an integer mod 7.

But the worst part was the fact that the entire suite was a single program so that everyone in the user organisation got all the functionality including whatever their job didn't entitle them to see. Bits of code needed by one screen were wrapped up in the code for another. I started to disentangle it but left well before that was complete.

Callisto Group snoopers wreak havoc with leaked HackingTeam spyware

I think you answered your own question: "should be" and "is" are two different things. And no govt. is going to make that a crime any more than they'd have made microphones and miniature cameras criminal back in the day as the whole lot of them make use of such things.

Half-baked security: Hackers can hijack your smart Aga oven 'with a text message'

Re: Can you control the oven temperature?

"So we went to the pub."

Usually the best solution.

Consumers go off PCs as global shipments continue their decline

Re: Yet again...

"in my entire experience as a programmer, I have yet to see anyone developing on anything that wasn't either a PC running some flavour of Windows, or a Mac*."

Although I did end my working life slumming on Windows I've used a whole slew of Unices including SCO on my old laptop as development and operational platforms. I also had colleagues developing on VMS. And personally I started out on ICL 1900.

There's a lot more to life than Windows & Macs.

Prisoners built two PCs from parts, hid them in ceiling, connected to the state's network and did cybershenanigans

Re: 2 PC's what?

"Lovely...here in the states, a "Billion" is actually 1,000 million...or 1 to the 9th. On the other side of El Pondo, its 1 to the 12th, which to Americans, is a trillion...but, a trillion in the UK is..1 to the 18th,"

Cough. 1 to the 9th, 1 to the 12th & 1 to the 18th are all 1.

"that'll teach me to be slow."

You were lagging.

No more IP addresses for countries that shut down internet access

Re: Laws would be introduced...

And while they're at it they could rule that pi is rounded down to 3.

As you stare at the dead British Airways website, remember the hundreds of tech staff it laid off

Re: I realise it's simplistic but....

"Where's a 'B' Ark when you need one."

It's on the tarmac but BA can't take bookings for it. The website's down.