Posts by Dillon Pyron

German Flickr censorship causes web outcry

Yup

America has a big fetish about protecting us from our sexuality. In fact, they have a big fetish about protecting us from anything "naughty". Last night's episode of The Closer (America's most watched cable show, more than the Sopranos) featured several instances of "shit" and "bullshit". Real life words that we all use in certain situations. The "fuck" barrier will be a little harder to break, but I think that "standard" cable will do it soon. At which point the FCC will be crying for blood.

Tit's? Travis County here in Austin runs a nude beach. Maybe you've heard of it, Hippy Hollow.

AT&T sued by poor man's Formula 1

Who watches which

NASCAR drivers typically admit to getting up at 6 in the morning to watch some F1 racing. I haven't heard of any F1 drivers admitting to watch a NASCAR race.

My seats to the USGP this weekend were $105. The three days cost me $130 a pop. That compares favorably with NASCAR races.

Indy Car as a competitor with F1? How many Indy Car (IRL) drivers have gone on to F1? Bourdais will probably go to F1 next year (taking Coulthard's seat at Red Bull?)

See my view of last year's start. www.pyron.org/USGP_2006.html This year's race coming soon, including pictures of the end of Ralf's career in F1. Great race, especially back in the field.

Shake those pinkies with the USB Dance Mat game

Think Geek

But Think Geek doesn't have it!!!!!

They do have a USB fondue kit.

MS polishes UK dialect dictionaries

More than one dictionary at the same time?

Will I be able to use both the American and the British dictionary at the same time? I get docs from the UK and really don't want to be bugged about tyre, metre, centre and colour. I can read them, I don't know why Word shouldn't be able to.

Apple's Safari lacks bold vision

I wouldn't know

I wouldn't know. I don't have time to install it at home (I really don't have a personal life at this time). At work, we tried. Installed it. Came up fine and showed internal sites (XP SP2). Set the proxy and went outside. Safari disappeared. Tried it again, same result. Tried it a third time. Insanity is when you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

US harvests anti-terror research

TD?

I have tardive dyskenisia due to a medication I take. It causes facial tics and twitches. I guess I'll be picked up on a regular basis.

Orange rapped for 'unlimited' broadband

ASA?

At least ya'll have some sort of advertising standards. We have to sue, which is like wanking with a pair of pliers, only not as pleasurable.

George Bush's watch clocked on eBay

Extraordinary rendition?

eBay will cough up his identity, some CIA wet work guys will come for a visit at 2 am and faster than you can say "I am not a terrorist" he'll find himself in Egypt.

He'll confess to having a fraudulent auction, be transfered to Gitmo as a "high value" suspect, be classified an "enemy combatant" and get 5 years, which can be served in Australia. But the trial won't happen until 2012.

This is a best case. Worst case, eBay says it's a fraud and revokes his ID. Oh the horror!!!!

Leopard gets dose of Solaris ZFS

Left hand-right had

Imagine, a vendor suffering from the left hand - right hand syndrome. How unique.

Intel and Google go Bono over power supplies

Power hungry processors

Crack open an Itanium. There's a reason those only come in 4U configurations. That heatsink is HUGE! Of course, my quad dual core Opterons are no better, just a little smaller.

I have a 900MHz VIA chip running under my home desk doing my firewall. I have another running Snort. Quiet. No fans.

Embedded problems: exploiting NULL pointer dereferences

PowerPC

PowerPC 5, yes. PowerPC 6, no. PowerQuik, no. This vuln has been out for several months. Or at least IBM and Freescale have known about it.

UK security industry pleads for closer goverment ties

Moving to the UK

I'm moving my security consulting business to the UK. I wouldn't mind a few quid in my pocket while I charge 80 pounds an hour to tell people they are so screwed it's going to take 300 hours (at 80 an hour) to fix them.

A subsidy of a half million should do. For this year.

Of course, the threat of moving should get some money from the US. I wonder if the Texas Enterprise Fund would give me some.

Every business in the "developed" world is trying to pry money out of their government "to stay competitve". Meanwhile, the developing world is either plowing money into their enterprises or just not doing it.

China runs out of surnames

And in the USA

I was actually surprised at how many Pyrons there are. But when I went to "that website" (I can't remember), it told me there were exactly 0 Dillon Pyrons. So not only am I unique, I'm nonexistent.

AOL phisher nets six years' imprisonment

China may have the right idea

China may have the right idea. They have the death penalty for almost everything. I've heard that jaywalking gets you 50 years and failure to help old ladies across the street is worth 25.

Of course, as long as the spamers/phisers aren't harming other Chinese, it may not be a crime. After all, they're bringing money into the economy.

Dillon in Texas. At least we try to keep up.

YouTube - uTube showdown stays alive in federal court

Web 2.0?

If YouTube is Web 2.0, then we need 2.1 to come out soon.

Universal Tube makes more in one day than YouTube has ever made.

Windows recovery loophole lets hackers in

Stolen = physical access

Yeah, I can get physical access by stealing your machine. But I've stepped away from that by installing a NAS with all my critical information on it. It quietly sits under my desk, out of the way.

All my tax stuff is on a USB key that's locked up in my safe.

Apple's Safari 3: a crashing experience for non-US users

Proxies?

Try using it with a proxy. Here in the US one of the guys loaded up Safari, add the proxy and then tried to get out. BOOM!

I'm waiting three months for the official official release. Of the official beta.

Video download site ordered to spy on users

Getting out of the US?

On Slashdot yesterday, there was a comment from Torrentspy that they were considering getting out of the US. Serves us right!

Okay, mask the IPs. Make mine 127.0.0.1.

Citrix eats dead NAC vendor assets

Tango Uniform?

I didn't even know that Caymas had gone bye-bye. Shows how much of an impact they made on me in the last year.

Euro patent workers have no faith in their masters

Overworked?

It took two years for them to acknowledge the receipt of my application. The USPO did it in only 7 months!

US gov rejects Google's Microsoft complaint

Conflict of interest?

Wouldn't that be considered a conflict of interest? I mean that's, at the very least, an amicable pre-existing relationship.

Iran releases detained telecoms workers

Disputed

I love the term "disputed" when used with international borders. After a couple of years, it's usually replaced by the term "territorial dispute". Followed a few years later by the term "international incident". And shortly after that by "territorial war". And then "partitioning". And "unrecognized". Cyrprus. See the Turkish Gran Prix for the result of that little "settlement".

Thailand sacks randy sniffer dogs

Fixed?

In the US, the many of the dogs used by ICE are shelter rescues. They're socialized for a year before they're trained. They're also spayed/neutered.

In many countries, spaying and neutering is considered an atrocious act of mutilation. But most Western countries don't have the stray problem we have. But most of Asia has a worse problem.

Privacy International accuses Google of smear campaign

Do no what?

Their privacy policy is certainly circumspect. I use Google as little as possible. I use goodsearch because it donates to my favorite charity, but it's powered by Yahoo, so I still have some privacy issues. Where do they rank?

Google takes pride in not turning over data to the US government, but how have they done with other governments?

eBay jewellery store fined $400,000 for shill bidding

The only one

Good thing they're the only one doing that.

</sarcasm>

Crypto boffins urge Belgium to withdraw early ePassports

re: Here we go again

Physical contact? Both Visa and MasterCard have "touch & go" cards that have been shown capable of being read at a distance. And the Exxon Speedpass is outrageously easy to read.

But that's only money, not my entire life.

Experts testify in Congress on behalf of internet gambling industry

Taxes?

How do other countries collect taxes from the winners? I suppose everyone just fesses up and says "yup, I won a bundle, here's your taxes"

Yahoo! patch squashes messenger bug

re: Model?

How many times has MS been prompted to publish a patch after a "zero day" exploit? A patch that they've been sitting on?

Downing St ambivalent on open standards

Responses from Downing St?

Ed, ya'll are still going to pay for driving on your streets. I think that answers your question.

World's tigers on 'catastrophic' road to extinction

Too many time

The passenger pigeon, the Tasmanian tiger, etc. I've seen neither. Will our grandchildren only see tigers in zoos? And their grandchildren never?

A life on the ocean wave(length)

Cruise lines

Most of the cruise lines already have this service. Last year I used it from Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas. I only did text messaging, but they supported any GSM phone. I think the roaming rates were $5 a minute. It's called Cellular at Sea.

Humane Society gets firmer with Amazon's cocks

Is this the same HSUS

Is this the same HSUS that's aligned with PETA in ending the ownership of animals? I get them confused with another organization at times and can't remember which is which.

The slow death of AV technology

Ben Franklin

Those who sacrifice freedom for temporary security deserve neither.

Whether it applies to terrorism or software.

Paris Hilton dragged back into court

Getting sentenced?

Three years ago, I was on a jury that sentenced a man who was DUI to 30 days for a first offense. Driving with a suspended license, first offense, is punishable by a fine and suspension of the license for an additional year.

If she had been convicted of a first offense DUI (not clear on that, I steer clear of the tabloids and "celebrity" press), she would have gotten more.

Maybe she can get the governor to pardon her.

UK mulls admitting wiretap evidence in court

Point-to-point digital?

How long before criminals and terrorists start using point-to-point digital voice? Encrypted? Or did I just get put on the no fly list. I'll find out Thursday morning.

Connery says nay to Indiana Jones reprise

His best?

Although he will always be remembered as Bond (was the first the best?), I think his best role was in "Robin and Marian". At any rate, he has earned some time to fish.

I agree with you Brent, and will go one further. The new directors, for the most part, don't match up to Spielberg and Lucas at their best. As well as many other directors of the past.

And a fourth Indiana Jones movie is just another proof that Hollywood has lost its creativity.

eBayers fail to bite amazing penis-shaped crisp

Three inches?

It's three inches and he thinks that will bestow something good to the owner? Now if it had been twelve inches maybe he would have gotten some action. If it's so lucky, why didn't he keep it?

How Saudi slush kept UK aero biz afloat

The PM?

Market Place yesterday reported that the PM quashed the report for "reasons of national security". Is this accurate or just the Yanks bolloxing up a report again?

Low level attacks

The doctrine of low level attacks was first proved in Viet Nam. Of course, the US used F105s and retarded bombs. The Tornado variant was designed from the begining as a low level ordinance delivery system. The US tried to use F16s, F15s, F14s and FA18s. All except the FA18 were originally designed as air superiority fighters. And the FA18 was supposed to be a mid/high altitude system as well as a fighter and an electronics suppression (HARM) system and a toy delivery system. Ooops, drop the last, I think. And the US has no plans for a low altitude system. I don't see how the F35 is going to kill tanks from 5000 feet when the A10 does it from 100.

Of course, the Russians don't have an effective low altitude bomber, either.

With the expense of building and delivering airframes, everybody is going for the multipurpose approach. Which means it will do everything "adequately", but nothing "superbly".

PSP patent gets gadget geeks guessing

Who needs the Patent Office?

Everything worth patenting has already been patented.

Project over-runs make US IT workers scared for their jobs

Scope creep

Subject says it all. Numbers one through three.

Dell to counter carbon with Euro tree-planting plan

Green China?

Oh sure, they'll dump their Chinese suppliers.

Atari's Portfolio: the world's first palmtop

TI Organizer

I'll have to look and see when my TI Organizer was built. Calendar and address book. But no word processor.

Google pleads with politicos for more foreign labour

No students?

Google complains about not enough qualified Americans. Meanwhile it imports foreign workers at lower wages and many other companies outsource their work to cheap countries. How is that supposed to motivate American students to get degrees in CS or engineering? My nephew changed his major from computer engineering to power engineering because he knows that's one field that can't go overseas.

I heard on NPR that Tata (the largest Indian IT company) is setting up a call center in Mexico, where the labor is cheaper. What comes around ...

South Africa mulls reining in roaming

Meanwhile, in the US ...

... I can buy a prepaid with cash at my local Stop-n-Rob. I can get a prepaid European SIM mailed to a PO Box using a prepaid debit card (which I used cash to buy). Texas had a measure in the legislature that would have required ID, SSN and a thumb print, but it died in committee.

Low-energy server hosting goes underground

2754 sq m

I think you did your math wrong. A square meter is 10.89 square feet. So 30,000 sq ft is actually 2754 sq m.

</pedant>

Amnesty's spy in the sky for Darfur

Forget Sudan

Tell China to quit supporting Sudan. As long as they are enabling the regime, there's no chance for any kind of settlement.

Bank of Scotland blames human error in data screw-up

Clerk gone?

Some poor minimum wage clerk has been fired, while the VP in charge of security gets a raise for increasing security awareness.

Google beats chip and server makers to the future

Suitors and the IP train

I seriously doubt that AMD was ever a viable contender. They are reportedly very cash strapped. Intel seems dedicated to developing their own software in-house and probably figured that they are ahead of PeakStream. The same goes for IBM. HP has never struck me as the acquiring type of company and I don't know what to say about Sun.

As far as IP is concerned, who knows how much of the catalog PeakStream would show to a potential buyer. There's a lot of IP out there that's never been patented. My wife can tell you about that. I agree with Brett, Google bought PeakStream for the raw talent. Now they may be thinking ahead to when they really need multi-threaded support.

And Ashlee, I suspect it will be more like $8 a gallon. And Honda just figured out how not to make a hybrid.

Dillon, who wants a WRX but can't see paying for premium, so I'll settle for my 96 Civic and 33/28.

Planning a drunken stag night? Avoid Slovakia

Out of the cake?

Umm, traditionally, isn't is supposed to be the women at the party who are naked?