Posts by Doctor Syntax

So why the hell do we bail banks out?

Maybe another reason?

If we make the banks small-enough-to-fail we don't have to bail them out for the damage a failure could do to the overall system. But if such a bank does fail then it takes the deposits of its savers with it. From a saver's point of view any bank is too big to fail.

So if I'm a saver then I might consider keeping my cash under the mattress instead of putting it in a bank. I might also draw out my salary or pension as soon as it's paid in - look, no float. Neither response is good for the economy as a whole.

This can be handled in two ways, first a deposit guarantee scheme, which is to some extent a bail-out mechanism, or far more draconian regulation. And while the latter might sound a good idea it does seem liable to an out of control regulator trying to micro-manage everything and everyone.

Microsoft: Free Windows 10 for THIEVES and PIRATES? They can GET STUFFED

Re: Worse case scenario...

"will be herded towards a subscription model."

For a moment I read that as "a suspicion model"

Jeb Bush: Repeal Obamacare and replace it with APPLE WATCHES

"On this device in five years will be applications that will allow me to manage my healthcare"

So in 5 years an Apple watch will be able to do brain transplants?

Right Dabbsy my old son, you can cram this job right up your BLEEEARRGH

Re: Post-It note? Miserable amateur!

Upvote for "The ones with messy desks are generally the go-to guys."

Californians get first chance to be run over by a Google robot

Re: No need to worry

@ JamesPond

If the car is making all these other journeys during the day it will be clocking up more miles per day & thus depreciating faster. A hire-car company would include that factor in its sums so your hire charges might be more than you're hoping for.

Re: No need to worry

Downvoted for making unwarranted assumptions about pensioners. Why would pensioners not expect cars limited to 25mph to be overtaken?

The Internet of Things: a jumbled mess or a jumbled mess?

"The big advantage of Thread is that it is an IP protocol and so can work with the vast internet infrastructure that already exists"

Is it just me that sees this as a DISadvantage?

BUZZKILL. Honeybees are dying in DROVES - and here's a reason why

Re: The sharp increase in the fall of bee numbers

The sharp increase in the rate of decline in bee numbers...

RFTFY

Home routers co-opted into self-sustaining DDoS botnet

Re: BT with the stickers

The plastic thingies, at least the PlusNet ones, appear to be individually printed so I assume that the passwords are individually set so it wouldn't be a problem. However I reset mine anyway. But if you do that don't throw the card away; if you reset the router it goes back to the factory settings & you'll need the card again.

RAF radar station crew begs public for cash to buy gaming LAN kit

Look before you leap

"keep the skies safe 24-hours a day 365-days a year"

Next February - be afraid; be very afraid.

Forced sale of Openreach division would put BT broadband investment at risk, says CEO

@Bunbury

I think you've missed the point here. The BT Chairman is speaking for the BT Board. In the event of a spin-off it would fall to the spin-off to roll out broadband. It's no business of his (literally!) as to what that board may do unless, of course, he expects to be its chairman as well. If the latter he's making a damn poor job application.

'"would be difficult to convince the board of BT to invest" in broadband infrastructure improvements if the regulator took such action'

This is meaningless. It would be a decision for the spin-off's board, not BT's.

Microsoft's run Azure on Nano server since late 2013

Well, well

"Cloud-first, it seems, only gets you so far on-premises."

So you really need to use Azure?

Colour me surprised.

Chill, luvvies. The ‘unsustainable’ BBC Telly Tax stays – for now

"Moving to a subscription service would in theory force the BBC to produce high quality output"

I suspect it would lead to even more dumbing down.

Google cloud: rubbish at updates, world-class at rapid rollbacks

" totally greenfield, except for the fact there were a bunch of mainframes, minis, and hundreds of desktops, thousands of peripherals, and I never even got a handle on the number of laptops wandering in and out the gate."

Your idea of "totally" or "greenfield" seems somewhat different to mine.

Like a Dell factory but what comes out is a LOT more fun: We visit Aston Martin

It's possible that if you were paying that much for a car you might expect the bodywork to be hand-crafted using delicate taps of a skilled hammer.

So tablets, if you want to get anything done travelling get a ... yes, a laptop

Re: : Wrong Memory Card

"By eckers, lad, you have a good memory."

It's all done with punched cards.

Re: The last thing I want to see

"I'm also in my 40s and can read..."

I'm in my 70s & can still read if I've got the right glasses.

Re: : Wrong Memory Card

"the early lead that Yorkshire had in programmable loom technology"

Actually, we nicked it from the Frogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Marie_Jacquard

Re: Paranormal activity? Just another natural resource ripe for exploitation!

@Dave 126

Did you try replacing the user?

Re: : Wrong Memory Card

"And all they want in return is loads of money!"

There's the problem. If I remember some of his earlier offerings correctly Mr Dabbs is from Yorkshire where paying loads of money is against our religion.

Ding-dong, the cloud calling: The Ring Video Doorbell

Re: Whazzat?

'Like all PIR, it uses infra red heat and the sudden appearance of to register "movement".'

Yup. It's probably PIR. So why didn't the review just say that instead of something which is self contradictory?

Longevity

The other day my doorbell gave a single ding which indicates the back door bell push had been pushed (back door ?"NSA calling"). There was nobody at either door. I then realised the bell mechanism was making a buzzing noise. A little investigation showed that the front door bell push had finally succumbed to a mixture of spider introduced grot, moisture & old age.

A little though showed that the bell, transformer and front door wiring had probably been fitted about 50 years ago. The bell push might not have been original - there's a cut-out in the door frame which suggests a larger one was intended - but must have been installed at least 30 years ago. A few minutes searching indicates that identically sized & styled bell pushes are still available.

I wonder if a Ring bought now still be in operation in 30 years time.

Whazzat?

"The motion detectors work off heat, not movement"

A motion detector that doesn't work off movement?

So what would the economic effect of leaving the EU be?

Re: Blah blah free trade blah

That's the whole problem. The entire democratic basis of membership, at least as far as the UK is concerned, is a referendum about 40 years ago on membership of an organisation which is very different from the present set-up, especially the ever closer union bit.

Each time the organisation has changed the issue of popular approval has been ducked so a huge democratic deficit has been built up. Even worse, when the Republic of Ireland voted against the Lisbon Treaty they were told to go back & vote again until they came up with the right answer. And I think that in a lot of people's minds that is so objectionable that they'd be prepared to vote for an exit as a matter of principle even if the economic consequences meant going back to living in Iron Age round houses.

This situation could have been avoided. It would have meant getting popular approval for each stage of change across all the member countries. That would have been hard work. At each stage the negotiators would have had to come up with something which could have gained that approval. The end result might have been something rather different to what we have now. The membership might have been smaller. The role of MEPs might have been greater. But if an in/out vote were now being proposed against such a background the Europhiles would be quite laid back about it because there'd be a history of repeated approval over several decades.

The task for the EU is to get rid of that democratic deficit and retain the membership intact - give or take Greece.

Re: The UK can leave

'Also - sorry - because I cannot help the grammar correction: "more easier" should be just "easier".'

In that case let me correct yours. "everyone who's anybody".

"Britain's not in the euro (one of the very few things that Gordon Brown got right under the Terror)"

There was something else?

The next Nest? We talk to Ring, the doorbell-come-security system

Re: A general problem with IoT devices

"A $200 device attached to your front door with 2 small screws will get nicked or maybe vandalised."

I know I'm sceptical of this device but at least I'm capable of following the links & scrolling down the page to where it says:

"The Ring Doorbell attaches to its mounting plate using a proprietary screw for security."

OK, screws start off proprietary but given time the drivers do tend to end up in cheap sets at B&Q. But it then says:

"If your doorbell gets stolen, don’t worry - we’ll replace it. For free."

Re: Nice puff piece, leaves out some rather obvious questions..

"Until we have IPv6, all devices involved in house security have to go through an external server, because most home setups run NAT to offer internal devices access to the Net."

I'm not sure I follow this argument.

Scenario 1. Internal sensors, internal responders. There's no need to even get beyond the internal lan.

Scenario 2. Internal sensors, external responders, e.g. owner's phone as in this example. No need for an external server. PCs manage to go online with no external resources other then the ISPs. Why should security kit be different?

Scenario 3. Single internal sensor externally interrogated (e.g. from phone). Would need router to provide access via some specific port. Yes, as soon as you start opening the firewall you have a security risk but if that access is to a security device then you'd hope the security device is secure. Otherwise it isn't fit for purpose.

Scenario 4. Multiple internal sensors externally interrogated. Either punch multiple holes in the firewall, one for each, or, much better, a single hole to contact an internal server.

None of these scenarios require an external server. Granted 3 & 4 introduce trade-offs that some of us might not be comfortable with but not more so than an external server provided by a service company. And they're not dependant on the service provider remaining solvent.

Scenarios where external servers become essential involve one or more of marketing ("because cloud"), continued revenue stream or big data (you're not the user, you're the product). In other words they're there for the interests of the vendor and if the vendor goes out of business then the device becomes more electronic land-fill.

Theresa May: Right, THIS time we're getting the Snoopers' Charter in

Magna Carta

Does the PM have anything planned for the 8th centenary on 15 June? Is he going to use the occasion to announce the revocation of one of its key clauses, due process of law? Or is he going to ignore it as if it never existed?

Citizens denied chance to vote in local-government IT cockup

Re: No representation without taxation

'"local government" has gotten above its station'

It certainly has. If asked about failure to grit roads adequately or run public libraries it regularly pleads poverty. And yet it has money to spaff on vanity projects such as cycle races where it pays foreign organisers to run them over local roads which it blocks residents from using.

HORDES OF CLING-ONS menace UK.gov IT estate as special WinXP support ends

Re: "the ability to isolate devices from external connection"

It might not be so trivial if the PC needs to continue to need a LAN connection, even if it's only to a shared printer, whilst other PCs on the premises need an internet connection.

Keurig to drop coffee DRM after boss admits 'we were wrong'

"One hopes this will be a lesson, perhaps not of Ratner-esque proportions"

Never assume that some manglements will learn from anything less than a Ratner-esque lesson. And one that actually happens to them.

Fake Cisco box pushers cuffed by Intellectual Property Police

"An estimated $1m (£656m) in suspected counterfeit goods was seized."

How do you value counterfeit goods? At the price of the real thing? At the "back of a lorry" price they were being flogged at? The market price you'd get for them as not the real thing? Or do you just think of a nice round number call it job done?

Boffins turns landfill WinPhones into microscopes

@ LINCARD1000

Good question. But what do would you want to use a microscope for in such locations?

Education would be one possibility and at school level this approach might be useful.

If, however, you were interested in, say, medical diagnosis you'd probably want something more like regular bench microscope optics. For this you'd need to look at something which ruggedised such optics and for that the McArthur microscope would be a better approach.

Re: IT vs microscopy

"But I hope nobody from the biological sciences comes by"

Too late, I'm here.

Re: @Doctor Syntax

Nope. Just an old microscopist. And anyway Leitz were my preferred microscopes.

What a load of bollocks

"It is the equivalent of an Olympus IX-70 microscope currently selling used for above $10,000 and sold retail for $28,000 machine in 2008."

That microscope is an inverted microscope with fluorescence and phase contrast and high NA dry objectives with correction collars. It's not just a run-of-the-mill bench microscope.

The fluorescence side needs not only suitable light sources but a series of filters, preferably with very sharp cut-offs.

The phase side needs special elements inserted into both objectives and condensers with a mechanism to align the two.

The high numerical aperture lenses are highly corrected for chromatic and spherical aberration and working at such high NA makes such corrections dependant on the thickness of the individual specimen mounts; variations on these are compensated by a correction collar which is rotated to make small adjustments inside the objective. It'll approach about 1000 times useful magnification. The article mentions their toy achieving 120 times.

Re: Utter garbage...

Indeed. Just to take the illumination point alone. Microscope illumination isn't just providing a light source. It's a complete optical sub-system in its own right and its performance and correct adjustment are essential in getting the best resolution from the viewing optics.

Kiwi company posts job ad for Windows support scammers

Re: This works?

What? You mean Microsoft don't have prize draws?

Round Two in Sky vs Skype trademark scrap goes to Murdoch's men

Re: I can't believe (well I can), but all the same...

"you do have to wonder in the end who comes out the winner in the end"

The lawyers.

Good luck displacing Windows 7, Microsoft, it's still growing

Just thinking out loud

Assuming W10 proves as unpopular as 8 & variants, if you were a PC manufacturer what would you do?

You're selling a combination of hardware & OS. You make the former, which is where your money comes from, but need the latter. If your customers are resisting buying what you make because of the OS over which you've no control what are they doing instead?

To some extent they're not buying at all because what they have does what they need. But at some point stuff breaks & gets replaced so where are the customers going?

Apple? As a seller of integrated packages they control hardware & OS and you're not getting any share of that.

You're going to need to emulate Apple & have some control over what OS you put on the box. There are two - or two and a half - alternatives. One is to band together with the other PC manufacturers to twist Microsoft's arm to come up with something you can sell. Maybe a Windows 11 that looks more like the old stuff, maybe just let you sell Windows 7, possibly with a marketing makeover as Windows Classic. Or you could follow Apple with your own OS based on Linux, BSD, Reactos or the like, either on a go-it-alone basis or, again, banding together with the other PC manufacturers.

If Win10 flops how long have MS got before the manufacturers start thinking along these lines?

Dropbox sets up PO box in Ireland to handle non-US services

Re: Better serves us? How?

"Given the US' current stance with MS."

It all comes down to the details of the relationship between the US & Irish businesses. In this case it doesn't look too good: US law, service "AS IS" (caps included!) and isn't Condi Rice still on the board?

New Windows 10 will STAGGER to its feet, says Microsoft OS veep

Re: Will VM work

"Anybody got any better ideas?"

Yup. Save yourself some money, install Linux or a BSD on what you've already got & run the VM on that.

Re: Missing The Point

"Jensen Harris"

From his blog: "My name is Jensen Harris and I'm the Director of Program Management for the Microsoft Windows User Experience Team."

That speaks volumes. I don't want someone trying to design my user "experience". Just provide a working user interface and I'll provide the experience. "User experience" was a term invented by marketroids so you know nothing good will ever come of it.

Re: Arse'oles

"Just installed 10074 yesterday."

Likewise. Part of the objective was to test installing FreeBSD as a double boot with a windows partition (that works). I also wanted to see if it would run the one Windows program I occasionally use that I can't run under Wine. The installer is sitting on a file server at 192.168.0.3. There's also a printer at 192.168.0.4. The Win10 box is at 192.168.1.64 with a netmask of 255.255.0.0 and it can't see anything on 192.168.0.x. And forget the incomplete software guff: if it's being released as a preview it should do better than that.

And the interface? Rubbish! Everything is borderless which is fine if everything is full screen, less fine if you have overlapping windows. Scroll bars are very dark grey on black. Windows for Teletubbies was ugly enough, this is much worse. The overall impression is of viewing an unfurnished house. Downloading LibreOffice & Seamonkey started to give it a more lived in appearance but I doubt I'd be persuaded to move in there permanently..

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

Re: The HOW now seems more important than the WHY

I think you need to look further for the root cause. The only reason the junk was saleable was because the interest rates were low and the interest rates were kept low because politicians like Brown deliberately ignored house price inflation by leaving housing costs out of the indices used to determine interest rates*. At one level this was probably to promote a boom and help re-election. I suspect there was a further motive. Low interest rates encouraged more private borrowing and part of that borrowed money came into the exchequer in the form of VAT & stamp duty. So in addition to Brown's stealth taxes he also had stealth borrowing; borrowed money that wasn't on the government's books.

*At the same time a lot of formerly domestic production was being offshored which further reduced inflation and hence interest rates. This, of course, didn't help employment.

Re: A good question

Agreed. But, assuming that the question was asked of Blair or Brown, it deserved a straight answer. Politicians are in the habit of lying to their electorates because they can get away with it. But the head of state should be answered honestly if only because heads of government need something to make them face facts. Giving such an answer might have required some uncomfortable introspection.

A good question

And one which deserved a good answer. The growth of credit before the crash seemed unsustainable to me so why did nobody in government - such as a chancellor who seemed to consider himself in economics whizz - think the same? And decide that applying the breaks might have been a good idea?

Re: Sitting Ducks

"an emergency measure to tide us over a period of unsustainable overpopulation."

So, a continuing emergency, then.