Posts by Brian of Romsey

Look out, Wiki-geeks. Now Google trains AI to write Wikipedia articles

Punctuation ???

Surely it would be more helpful to the world at large if these 'AI' efforts could turn their attention to punctuation. Taking the crap that people (and this 'AI') produce and formatting it for readability. You know stuff like no spaces before commas and full stops, one space after a comma, two spaces after a full stop, Oxford commas (now that the US courts see them as pretty darned useful), and capital letters at the beginning of sentences and on proper names. Once this is done all manner of help can be offered to real people - "fix up your Facebook posting for you Sir?", "Fix up your email Ms?", "Would you like to look less dumb on Twitter?". Just sayin'.

Welcome to the future: Bluetooth jackets you can only wash 10 times. Gee, thanks, Google

And just what does "The jacket is designed to withstand up to 10 washes ..." mean? Is it "this jacket might be able to withstand 10 washes, but after that it will fail" or "this will withstand at least 10 washes, maybe more"? Typically ambiguous statements like this will be used for hiding behind later.

Geek's Map To Britain

Re: Geek's Map To Britain

Hi, Would you consider adding extra content of interest to Geeks? I'm thinking about things like The Cambridge Computing History museum, Horniman, Victorian Steam & pumping stations, stuff like that.

Adobe emits emergency patch for Flash hole malware is exploiting right this minute

Ask the BBC

Is it time our intrepid hero reporters at The Reg asked the BBC for comment on when they will be removing the need for Flash? Enquiring minds want to know.

Heads roll as Qihoo 360 moves to end WoSign, StartCom certificate row

A warning shot?

Perhaps this will prompt other CAs to review their behaviour, seeing as there actually are consequences. But don't hold your breath.

The possibility that WoSign / StartCom are the only companies running below par operations is very low. Perhaps this is Mozilla / Apple putting a warning shot across the (low end of the) industry's bows?

Hilton hotels' email so much like phishing it fooled its own techies

Verifiable?

Should entities like banks etc. have published public keys so that customers can verify emails have come from 'Marketing at XYZ Bank' or 'XYZ Bank'? The peeps in marketing need their own key so they won't poison the reputation of the proper part of the enterprise. One could hope that the process to get messages signed would be rigorous enough and bypassing would be a sacking offence so that it would be taken seriously.