Posts by vtcodger 2030 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Sep 2017
Indeed, A few months ago I took a shot at reverse engineering 700k of "compressed" Javascript to see if there was any chance of detecting when it was finished doing its work.
My take. Reverse engineering of JS can be done. But not by me.
I threw the whole thing out and replaced it with a hundred or so lines of Python that did the same job (faster) using standard tools like curl and image magick.
Sadly, the way things are headed, No Chrome isn't likely going to be an option for much longer -- at least if you want to do anything useful. The problem is that Google/Alphabet is a business that is selling merchandise to customers. The customers? Advertisers. The merchandise? That'd be you and I.
Google is building/trying to build a perfect advertising platform. It'll be shiny, and elaborate, and it'll allow advertisers to control all aspects of layout and presentation. And it'll allow secure payments. Unfortunately, advertisers are mostly nutcases. Their perfect tool will be wildly insecure in all other respects, because the advertisers don't care about your security or mine. Why should they?
But what about Firefox et. al? They'll still exist most likely. But they'll implement (most) all the Google APIs. They'll have to if people wish to do do banking or buy stuff.
What are we users to do? Two obvious options. Regulation and/or build a parallel world wide network that focuses on user needs rather than advertiser needs. My guess, neither will be done until the situation becomes truly dire.
"Policy and corporate leadership don't understand how easy it is to fake digital evidence,"
Come to think of it, "policy and corporate leadership don't understand" seems to pretty much sum up the state of humanity in the early 21st century.
(The one thing I don't understand is why ALL malware doesn't contain abundant clues leading to Langley and/or Ft Meade. It'd be easy enough to do. And entirely credible.)
Upvoted because you're correct. Determining profits vs expenses vs tax-advantaged accounting catagories is difficult and allocating profits to countries is even harder. Moreover, there are brigades of clever folks in every large company whose livelihood depends on obsfucating where money is and whether it is profits or expenses or investments or indeed exists at all.
There would seem to be at least three possible approaches to deal with this.
Say "screw it" and let the companies do as they wish. This is basically the libertarian approach. I disagree with it. It has a certain appeal, but it's intellectually lazy. And it almost certainly won't result in much taxation.
Leave it up to the often corrupt and even more often confused legal and political systems of some 200 countries to sort out. Probably not a good idea.
Create one or more international commissions tasked to evaluate the books of large international corporations, determine profits, and allocate them to countries. The commission(s) will probably do a lousy job, but it'll likely be better than what 200 autonomous legal systems would do. And it should discourage most venue shopping. Note that countries would still be free to set their own tax rates and tax rules within the scope of whatever treaty arrangements they have agreed to (and choose to honor).
Curious why twighlight is better than full darkness.
I'm not an astronomer and the geometry is kind of tricky, but I think rocks that constitute a significant threat to the Earth are likely to be in (or at least near) the ecliptic plane and to be either approaching the Earth from behind or being overtaken by the Earth. I think that'd put them overhead at dawn(overtaken?) or dusk (overtaking?). Also if they were overhead at midnight, the Earth facing side would be more or less completely dark whereas at dawn/sunset they'd be half illuminated?
Like I said, I'm not an astronomer and may just have proved it.
Good links. Well worth reading. But seriously, astronomers are clever people and these satellites are point sources of light. Unlike light pollution which is dimmer, but probably next to impossible to mitigate. My bet would be that filtering the satellite tracks out of astronomical images will turn out in the long run to be more of a nuisance than an existential threat to ground based astronomy. It'll presumably take money -- probably quite a lot of it -- to clean the images up. And who better to pay the tab than SpaceX?
There is a downlooking IR sensor array on Landsat 8 -- acronym TIRS. It seems to have excellent spatial resolution, but only for a fairly narrow swath (185km) of surface under the satellite. High resolution IR scans of the whole planet would require enormous bandwidth. Like communications satellites downlooking IR sensing satellites probably require several satellites. And they'd probably need on-orbit data analysis to keep the amount of data downloaded within reasonable limits. And they probably wouldn't cover the polar regions well.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, the orbital elements of all significant objects in Earth Orbit were tracked and a summary was published monthly(?) by TRW. I think it likely that something along that line is still done. Here's a link to a reddit thread that seems to address the issue https://www.reddit.com/r/aerospace/comments/2n05bz/a_free_space_systems_handbook_by_northrop_grumman/
BUT, many of the damned things (satellites) can maneuver a bit. And they have slowly but steadily been getting better at the maneuver thing. So they may not always be where the last published set of orbital parameters would lead you to think they should be.
Better get in the shower
Well, OK. But you'll only get cold water unless you can remember the answers to three security questions.
(I don't recall Science Fiction predicting the future we seem to be blundering into. Demonstrates the inadequacy of the human imagination I guess)
the problem is that people just don't require hard copies much anymore.
Exacerbated in HP's case by the fact that getting a (reasonably properly formatted) hard copy from a PC or smart phone has been increasingly problemetic in recent decades. Especially in recent years when Microsoft's OTA Windows updates have had a tendency to deconfigure printer drivers. I've lost count of the number of times frustrated family members have eMailed me stuff to print for them. When you're reduced to using Linux to get your stuff printed, you should know that you're in trouble.
As someone points out upthread, it's probably the S.M.A.R.T. power on hours counter which is supposed to be used to tell you when the drive exceeds 43,800 hours of operation (5 years) and you might want to think about replacing it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-on_hours.
Note that 5 years was apparently considered to be an approximation of maximum reliable lifetime 25 years ago when S.M.A.R.T. was designed.
As I read it, it sounds like the problem is in the SSD firmware, not stuff HPE did. If so, they have to get an update from the drive manufacturer. Then HPE might want to test it to make sure that the fix doesn't bork the user/system data/code in any configuration that HPE supports. Then they have to come up with bullet-proof instructions so users can update their system.
Might take a while. Makes one long for the days of yore when firmware was, like FIRM
The possibility that there might be intelligent life on Earth is indeed intriguing. Investigations of that possibility would seem to be worthy of further funding. Ideally the research would be funded by a tax on stupidity, but there would appear to be technical problems with implementing such a tax. Perhaps as a workaround, we could tax sales of firearms and, ammunition, wrinkle removing and hair restoring potions, as well as cryptocurrency transactions and accessing facebook, twitter or any website associated with fashion, style, entertainment, or professional athletics.
BTW, notwithstanding the low gravity, mightn't flying insects on Mars require rather large wings? 0.1 psi isn't much air for a flying critter to work with. The only analysis I could find quickly is at http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=6761 It suggests that flying critters on Mars might want to look into rocketry rather than Earth style aerodynamic flight.
20 odd hours and no downvotes so far. But be assured, they're coming as soon as the Sunday AM hangovers fade and eyes can focus. FWIW, I sort of agree with you but let's be fair here. The problem isn't that the "techies" are poor at preventing security problems. It's that they don't know the job they have signed on for is pretty much impossible.
And thus did the phrase, "I'll have our bots e-message your bots" enter the language.
It won't be all that long before humans will be excluded from the process entirely and computers will spend the next 300,000,000 years chatting cheerfully and interminably with one another.
OTOH, it's not clear that anything of importance will be lost thereby.
What was wrong with the clear, simple visual styles and clues from Win 3.1 3D update to the simpler win9x ...
Upvoted. The win3.1/9 UI isn't perfect. But it's quite usable. I've seen six year olds who are none too sure of parts of that alphabet thingee master the Win 9 interface well enough well enough to run simple games. And it doesn't handicap adults or us elderly. Let's quit screwing with it and see what we can do about a phone/whatever interface that works as well. And let's not then impose an interface optimized for small touchy screens on PC users.
2.5Bn will buy you a complete Mars rover mission. e.g. Curiousity. So 2.6Bn is a bit more than pocket change. HOWEVER, It looks like you're probably right. This contract pool appears to be just for some bus tickets from Low Earth Orbit to on the ehrrr ... "ground" on the moon -- not the full missions. Perhaps someone who knows more can clarify what is being purchased, how many missions are involved, and what the full costs are likely to be
When Mike's Taco Truck proposes to buy out a major fast food franchise, it's possible that Mike is a brilliant manager who will, over time, greatly enhance the value of the restaurant chain. But it's also possible that Mike is a scam artist who will gut the fast food business, pocket all the loose cash, and be found drinking Pina Coladas in the Cayman Islands when the crazed fiscal monstrosity he creates eventually crashes.
Which scenario do you think is more likely?
The two are accused of falsely inflating the true value of Autonomy's business by fiddling revenue reporting, misleading auditors and market analysts.
Is it being suggested that lying, fudging numbers, etc,etc,etc are illegal practices? Has anyone considered the probable affect of that philosophy on the world's economy? Not to mention the future of the world's political elites.
(I've been following the Trump impeachment hearings. I am rapidly concluding that the witnesses are the only people in the room that shouldn't be locked up.)
Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss Scotland
We're sorry to report that your coat (and rocket) have been inadvertently sent out for dry cleaning. We regret the error, but you have to admit, they were pretty grungy. We expect them back in 2024 or 2025 or maybe 2026. The fee will be around $8B US. Or maybe a bit more.
In the meantime, we can lend you some burlap sacks to protect you from the weather.
Sincerely,
NASA
Your business and continued support are very important to us.
Chineseium screws are designed so that the groves in the head all rub off when the screw is halfway inserted
On the other hand, the center of the screw is somehow made of harder material that will firmly deflect the drill bit when you absolutely have no choice other than to drill the jammed screw out. Achieving all this in one simple, inexpensive metal device was apparently invented by the Chinese in the seventh century BC and has been perfected in subsequent millenia.
I doubt the Chinese use this technology in screws made for domestic consumption.
People still get shot in London all the time (24 last year)
24 shooting victims is a slow Saturday afternoon in Chicago. Total this year as of November 9 = 2394. Difficult as it may be to believe, that's fewer than last year.
see https://www.chicagotribune.com/data/ct-shooting-victims-map-charts-htmlstory.html
Given that I don't anticipate charging stations being a common feature in areas with a population density of 5 people/mi^2 (1.9 / km^2),
Indeed. If you're looking for something to do for an hour or so, try working out the logistics of a weekend ski trip from Los Angeles to the nearest reliable snow at Mammoth Mountain in a Tesla. That's 300+ miles. At night. High Speed driving (You'll lose some range to drag). Through high desert (i.e. temps once you leave the LA Basin will likely be sub-freezing. You WILL almost certainly want heat). It can probably be done. But the queue at the Mammoth Lakes chargers when the lifts close on Sunday afternoon is likely to be impressive if very many Tesla owners try this.
"But most people don't travel very far in vehicles."
That's maybe OK for a second or third car. Heck, as an ICE vehicle approaches End Of Life after 20 years or so, it's likely to be on life support and not something you want to take more than 20-40km from home as it's maybe not all that reliable. I don't see that an EV would be any worse. A vehicle with limited range is OK for local shopping, errands, and commuting to work or school. That's assuming that one has a handy facility for charging your EV.
But in North America, most of us need, or think we need, at least one vehicle with "unlimited" range.
BUT, current chargeable EVs are priced like first vehicles, not second cars. Hybrids get around many of the limitations of EVs of course. Personally, I think hybrids may well be the future. The only reason I don't own one is that in recent years, new cars have sprouted a vast assortment of baffling and often quite poorly designed controls that I have no interest in fighting with. And my low-mileage, 15 year old Nissan with an after market GPS and rear-view camera meets my needs.
I suppose the combination of an EV and an older, but reliable, low-mileage ICE might work for some.
I doubt Americans will change as long as the pricing for electric cars are still pretty expensive
Exactly. Cars are a major purchase item for all but a few Americans. In most cases, they are going to buy the least expensive vehicle that meets their perceived needs That's VERY unlikely to be an EV. At most, they might spend an extra 3% or 5% for an "environment friendly" high gas mileage hybrid, but that's about it.
The only way I can see that changes any time soon is if some outfit somewhere builds an extremely inexpensive EV that has all the EV problems (slow refueling, limited range, lack of "free" cabin heating, probably limited interior/cargo space) but is REALLY cheap and proceeds to sell tens of millions of them in Africa, Asia and Latin America. And if they can somehow get those things past US/EU/Canadian safety requirements. And if they can compete pricewise with low end ICE compact cars. Then maybe Americans will flock to them as they did in the 1960s to VW bugs and the 1970s to Japanese sedans. ... Perhaps. ... Maybe.
I think what is being suggested is probably that the data should have been encrypted using a KPMG provided public key that Skelton couldn't use to decode the data. Perhaps.
Who would be responsible for implementing such a process? Morrisons? The UK government? Skelton? KPMG? The EU? Maybe Joint and Several Liability applies here. There are some quite deep pockets amongst that lot.
"This is shallow thinking at its most obvious."
Sorry my friend, but I expect you'll eventually, probably after many years, conclude that Thomas Hobbes "The life of man in the natural state is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." was a lot clearer thinker than Ayn Rand.
I'm sympathetic to Libertarianism. Any reasonable person is. I'd prefer a universe where Hobbes was wrong. But in practice, everybody does what they want and it all works out simply doesn't work. If you want problems solved, you tackle them -- mostly one at a time -- instead of throwing up your hands and saying "It can't be helped".
Right now, malicious web scripting is a problem. A serious one. Not a simple one. And it's getting worse, not better. I expect that Google and others will eventually try to tame it. They employee some very clever people. Maybe they'll succeed. But my bet would be otherwise.
But thanks for at least taking the time to express your viewpoint -- unlike the general population of apparently inarticulate and I suspect rather dimwitted downvoters around here.
I'm not against paying for open source software. I've even been known to do so as well as contribute some spare change to Wikipedia and the Internet Archive.
Javascript On the other hand ... Is there someplace I can go to donate to a fund to eliminate the menace of website scripting -- not just Javascript, but ALL web scripting -- from humanity's future? I appreciate that it is a complex issue. There are worthy things -- interactive maps for example -- done with web scripting that would otherwise probably need to be provided by browsers. But the internet has become a rather bad neighborhood. And it's getting worse. And Javascript is clearly one of the reasons the neighborhood is going downhill.
they didn't know what that meant and it wasn't on their script
No kidding. I, and my family, have attempted on two occasions to report damaged cable distribution boxes to Comcast. (One smacked by a snowplow, one bent up by my wife's car). We have concluded that there is no way to do so, We are now (thankfully) ex Comcast customers. Our somewhat shaky DSL connection is probably technically inferior to Comcast's cable. But there are intelligent lifeforms at our phone company's offices.
One should have hoped so. 'cept it ain't.
The requirement should probably be to do what a normally cautious human driver would do -- slow down until the object and it's trajectory is positively identified. If it can't be identified, try to creep around it in a safe fashion. In no case strike it.
Will such behavior be unpopular with other drivers? Most likely. Especially when the object is a scrap of paper or a tumbleweed. OTOH, I doubt that violent arm and finger motions accompanied by verbal abuse from other drivers would bother autonomous vehicles one bit.
FWIW - In Arizona as in most (all?) of the US, you aren't supposed to mow pedestrians down even if the pedestrians shouldn't be in the road.
Relevant law: per https://activerain.com/blogsview/1497199/watch-where-you-re-walking-arizona-revised-statutes-pedestrian-right-of-way
28-794. Drivers to exercise due care
Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter every driver of a vehicle shall:
1. Exercise due care to avoid colliding with any pedestrian on any roadway.
2. Give warning by sounding the horn when necessary.
3. Exercise proper precaution on observing a child or a confused or incapacitated person on a roadway.
It doesn't surprise me that Uber's "autonomous" vehicle doesn't seem to comply with relevant traffic laws. Bunch of greedy sociopaths if you ask me. Likewise Tesla. Waymo OTOH seems to be run by adults. If you ask me, Uber, Tesla, et. al. vehicles should be required to be led by someone on foot waving a red flag or a lantern (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_flag_traffic_laws) until such time as they demonstrate reasonable concern for public safety.
I've only seen one actual IR spectrogram in my life. 60 years ago. In college. And all I know about Raman spectography is what I read in Wikipedia. But I came to much the conclusion you have. I suspect that it's probably possible to use spectrograms in quality control to check product consistency. And I expect you can use spectography to check for specific impurities -- Arsenic, Cadmium, etc and maybe some toxins. But detailed analysis of a meal? How do you know if that strong (probable) CH bond peak is from fructose in honey as opposed to ethanol in beer or the starch in mashed potatoes?
I have been diagnosed with Gout, which is extremely painful
You bet it is painful. You have my sympathy.
But the thing about gout is that once you've built up MonoSodiumUrate crystals in your joints or elsewhere -- which you likely did years ago, gout attacks can be triggered any change in blood urate concentration -- downwards as well as upwards. And they probably can be triggered by other events -- stress, surgery, etc, etc, etc. At least so we're told
Most of us gout sufferers can tolerate plant and dairy purines far better than animal purines. Again so I'm told. And it certainly seems so for me. And we probably do need some protein and therefore purines for health.
I assume you're taking Allopurinol or some other medication(s), and that MAY help bring your blood urate under control and eventually subdue the gout attacks. It doesn't work well for me, but does for many.
You might want to consider buying a blood urate meter. They aren't outrageously expensive. I think mine cost about $40 US. Test strips also aren't outrageous. About $1.00 per test if you buy the strips from Amazon. And you don't have to test every day. Once a week might well be adequate. Anyway, the hope is that in a few tens of months all the urate stashed in the body will dissolve and gout will be a thing of the past ... At least as long as I'm very careful about animal protein. So far, it's promising. Measured urate levels are well below the purported solubility level. Of course, it's not clear how accurate the meter is. And the actual as opposed to theoretical solubility level is a bit hazy. (Toe, Ankle, and Knee joints are not necessarily at exactly the same temperature as one's blood). Anyway, my gout attacks have become less frequent and less severe, so I'm sticking to veggies, faux meat, and cheese.
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