Posts by Dillon Pyron

Wales, O'Reilly censorship charter porked by blogosphere

Anonymous trolls

Anonymous trolls are the bane of Usenet and seem to have now become a problem in the "blogosphere". If sites just banned them, the tone would settle down considerably. I belong to several large mailing lists (over 1500 members) that have had no troubles with trolls because of a requirement that a live email address be provided AND monitored for pings. I also belong to a few Usenet NG that are robomoderated. Once a user is vetted, the robot takes over. The moderators (of which I am one) have a limited role.

At the first sign of abuse, cut the jerk off.

And I agree, don't feed the troll.

AMD's Q1 revenue goes missing

Stock

I remember when my stock was worth $44 a share. Sigh, I saw nothing but good times ahead. Now I'm praying for Barcelona.

dillon in Tejas, who used to be an AMDer

DRM-free music: EMI calls the tune and Apple takes the credit

So is DRM dead?

Here's what we have. For roughly 30% more, you get tracks at much higher quality with no DRM. Good. Or, you can buy the same tracks at lower quality for the original price with no DRM. Or you can subscribe (rent) those tracks for an incalcuable price with DRM. Or you can still buy lower quality tracks at the original price with DRM.

Some of those models are going to work. Others will drag on with some sembalance of life. Others will die a painful death. But one thing is certain. In the short run EMI and Apple have a revenue stream. You can bet that EMI isn't getting all of that 30%.

Will DRM free cuts be pirated? It depends on the ethos of the buyer. CDs are ripped and shared, in my personal opinion, partly as a way to "put it to the man". I don't buy CDs because there are one or possibly two good tracks and 8 or 10 crap tracks. So I'll buy the cuts off of iTunes, as I've done for the last three years. At a cost of $2.15 (with tax), I'm saving anywhere from $11 to $13. Will I pay $2.80 for those two EMI tracks? You bet. Will I share. Hell no, spend your own money for those two tracks. Or blow $15 for a CD you'll throw away in an hour.

Will there still be pirates? Look at the Horn of Africa. Of course there will still be people willing to take chances, but as the grow up, get out of school, get a job and have more to lose (the RIAA will always get the ISPs to rollover and play dead) they'll start buying. And a new generation will grow up rejecting the album concept altogether.

iTunes started a process that will take another 5 or 6 years to come to fruition. The record companies just need to see that DRM is a dead concept, and the CD is just as dead.

dillon in Tejas, who is trying to decide between spending $100 to replace the battery on his 20GB iPod and buying a new one.

Chemical weapons are not WMDs

Psychology and the chemical weapon

Mr. Page has far more experience and expertise in both chemical and "conventional" weapons than I. However, he only hinted at the psychological effects. Imagine spending 12 hours in an NBC suit in the Kuwaiti desert. I have a friend who did exactly that. It's a great way to wear down an enemy. And the fear factor in populated areas is outstanding, as he pointed out. Over the years, movies have shown soldiers ten feet away from an explosion getting away unscathed. A 105 mm howitzer leaves a big hole and an even bigger kill radius. But dying a slow, strangling death is far scarier. Even though, as he points out, it just isn't likely.

dillon in Tejas, who killed radar as a hobby

Boffins working on RFID super-shield

Microwave vs hammer

Dennis, a brilliant technological solution. For passports, I suggest the recently posited Hammer Time method. A one pound (half kilo) hammer on a board laying on top of the passport won't leave a mark on the outside. It does make a mess of those thongs, however.

dillon, in slightly warmer Tejas (at least it's not snowing)

US Navy builds Stingray-esque base in Indian Ocean

Diego Garcia as a "desired post"

For years, posts such as Adak, Thule, Johnson Island and Diego Garcia have been considered by Air Force personnel to be among the lowest places to go. As my father once said after finding out one of his airmen had been transferred to DG, "son, who's punch bowl did you piss in?"

Oh yeah, B52s and B1Bs have been flying missions out of their for years.

Acer up, Dell down in laptop sales

Laptop buyers

We're not gamers, so desktops are out for us. We have a household of laptops and probably won't go back without great cause. Forget media center.

Virgin Media chucks rocks in 'unlimited' debate

And the US

I get a 6 Mb connection (cable) from Time Warner with no limits. It's one 840 up, but I can live with that. Of course, I pay $45 a month for the "privilege".

Smut-swapping sailors leak secret missile specs

I gotta agree

Windows for Warships has me bothered enough, but Windows for Porn Surfing Sailors is a whole new kettle of fish. Or in the case of the Japanese, it appears to be nigiri.

dillon in Tejas, who prefers his ahi raw.

Aussie bike bandits may be packing rocket launchers

SWAT vans?

I don't know if Australia has SWAT, although I suspect it does. Are SWAT vans armored? I suspect not. How would that go over on the 11 o'clock news? "20 highly trained officers killed in single attack". Or shooting one into the lobby of a major government building? (they were used against building, remember) LAWs are still a potent weapon. Of course, they can still detread an M1 or Chieftan.

dillon in Tejas, who used to work on the Javelin, a real tank killer

Spreadsheet security? What spreadsheet security!

Security is ...

Confidentiality, Availability, Non Repudiation, Integrity. As a security professional, this is the mantra I (and most of the industry) preach.

What I like (on cursory examination) is the possibility of assigning rules to spreadsheets that haven't even been created. That's a boon to those who have to manage the security of these files. What I suspect doesn't work, although the article talks about it in a roundabout fashion, is the transfer of cellular security. But access control to the actual spreadsheet is a good first step.

However, the stumbling block is that someone, perhaps the creator, must apply internal security. So the security manager has to personally touch every new file anyways, since I don't trust the creator to adequately set up permissions and ACLs.

dillon, CISSP, in Tejas

Autonomy drops ACID test for copyrighted media

So they filter based on what?

So they look for noise. So if I play the music for my podcast and record it on my mike (stereo mike), they won't pick it up since the noise has changed. If they filter based on things like tempo, then MC Hammer is the most egregious violator, stealing not just the licks or the melody, but the actual recording. For the entire song. (Can't Touch This vs Super Freak).

ACID will, in the end, turn out to be a failure that becomes and industry standard. I'm surprised Microsoft hasn't submitted it.

dillon in Tejas

Trash-talking Texas sues RadioShack

Why have SSNs? Easy

You need to provide your social security number when you apply for credit. Why? I don't know. Everybody seems to have decided that it's a universal identifier. Which is why I watch mine like a hawk. A few years back we got a Best Buy card when we bought our TV. ($100 off to buy it with their card). When the guy was finished calling in the information, he dropped the application in a shredder. THAT's what Radio Shed should have done. The credit application probably had name & address, SSN, date of birth, home phone number, employer and, quite possibly, mother's maiden name. All the makings of an ID theft.

As a security consultant, I've done quite a bit of dumpster diving. You'd be shocked at what some businesses put in their trash. I once found a copy of a marketing plan marked "confidential" that was dated three days earlier.

Slammed by the WTO, slammed at home

Reporting winnings

Two things. First of all, interstate betting on horseraces requires that the participants provide tax information and their winnings are reported to the IRS.

Second, why not give Antigua exactly what they want. They can only take bets on horseraces conducted in the US. That's even treatment.

Sapphire Radeon X1950 GT-based graphics card

Vista?

How does it do with Vista?

Enthusiastic power users still a danger?

Everybody's different

It seems that every "power user" I know has a different set of tricks, and that if you put more than three of them together in a room, somebody is going to say "I didn't know that". My wife constantly amazes me with her skills in Excel, but I surprise her with my Powerpoint. And so it goes.

Most "power users" are too intent on showing off their knowledge of the sublime to actually get the message across succinctly. In some fora, having that extra pizzazz helps, but often the recipient is either stunned by the artful presentation of indecipherable data or confused by the obfuscating techniques of data that is clear. Even a powerful, artistic Powerpoint presentation, done with esoteric tricks, can confuse the audience with a presentation where the media overwhelms the message.

The "power users" are frequently too embarassed to admit that they either don't know what they are doing or have FUBARed something, with no tenable backup. It's the guy who sees some neat trick and wants to do it, but won't ask the "power user" for fear of looking dumb. So guess where he goes.

Will there ever be a real 'Lie Detector'?

Beat them

On three occasions, I've "gamed" a polygraph. I was trained to practice biofeedback using one. Take a minor tranq like lorezapam, wiggle your toes, sniffle. All techniques that will cause problems.

I know of people who have actually "flat lined" a polygraph.

dillon

Retailer sues registrars in $12m domain tasting suit

ICANN

ICANN needs to end this practice. They just think Registerfly gave them a black eye. Domain tasting is going to get them a bloodynose if they're not careful.

Amazon: is this the best deal ever?

Just the opposite

Usually it's the other way around. Buy a $1400 TV for only $14.00.

I can just see some hubby shouting out "dear, we only need to spend another 99,975 to save 2 p".

Conspiracy theorists: Feds, web hosts conspire against us

Vast global conspiracies

I love these "vast global conspiracies". Over a hundred people see a FDR and another hundred, unrelated people, hear the CVR. And I suspect that different groups of people handled each of the 4 sets of recorders. Since many of the people are career (ie, not political) FAA employees and contractors, somebody would have blabbed.

Since sys admins come in all political stripes (I once worked with a far right winger and a "Bush stole 2000" freak on contract, and I'm a NRA Lifer and Libertarian), taking down a website as part of a political conspiracy would have someone talking.

There are enough real conspiracies out there (DoJ comes to immediate mind). We don't have to make up any new ones.

But I do know that, through circuitous intermediaries, China owns a majority interest in IT&T and figured that $100M was a cheap price to pay for advanced technology. Hopefully Alex will pick up on that one in the next day or two. Remember you heard it on the Reg, first.

ICANN sued by irate RegisterFly customer, as class action rumble begins

How do you know?

How do you know how dodgy a registrar is? Price isn't a telltale. I haven't heard any complaints against GoDaddy, although I have heard a few bitch about NSI.

New York online gambling racket goes postal

Declared winnings

How many online gamblers declare their winnings? That's what this is really about, taxes. If Uncle Sugar can come up with a way to get these off-shore gambling houses to pony up names and numbers, I'll bet that online gambling suddenly gets the go ahead.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a Democrat Congress and a Democrat President push through a bill licensing US online gambling houses, since they can force these to issue 1099s. Still block off-shore transactions unless they pony up for a license and agree to the same terms.

That's the real attraction of online gambling. Free money. Then there's the crack like addictiveness.

Cigars were all the rage for a few years. Then it was whisky (glad that one's gone). Now it's Texas Hold 'Em. I give that craze another two years before something else takes it's place.

Falling debris was no space plane, says NASA

Flight 800

There was a theory for quite a while that a meteor hit flight 800 off the coast of NY. Sounded kind of plausible, and more exciting than a mundane human screw up. But not as exciting as a stray Navy SAM.

Elton John free to menace Tobago

I'm gay

Just listening to his music makes me gay.

Ref the more traditional definition.

Gambling Commission consults on data protection for punters

Taxes and foreigners

a) how do winnings from online betting get taxed? That's an issue that has come up in the US, since the off-shore gambling establishments have no requirement to provide 1099-Gs for winnings. Is the UK system any better? If I can win big (cheating or not) and not have any reporting, seems like that's the route I'm going to take.

b) what if I'm a citizen of, say, Canada? Would I be required to provide the information? Obviously, if I say I'm an American, nobody is going to take my bet (unless they plan to never, ever take a holiday to the US or even change planes here).

c) how do winnings for foreigners get reported? Seems that hypothetical Canadian has a tax free money maker, assuming he can actually win.

Somebody in the UK should ask these questions.

Norwegian nutter skis 300ft down Tube escalator

All their fault

It's all the Underground's fault. They shouldn't make something so tempting. If they had built ten 30 foot escalators this never would have happened. It's call an "attractive nusiance" in the States and is actionable in court, although it is kind of hard to win, it's expensive to defend.

Japanese net suicide pact murderer to hang

Death penalty?

Japan has the death penalty? I wonder just how "swift and certain" it will be. In Tejas it takes us an average of nine years, but a recent execution took place after almost 25 years.

It certainly sounds like the court took the heinousness of the crime into consideration. At least one of the murders sounds like a kidnap/murder, which should carry the death penalty every where.

dillon in Tejas, where we put 'em to sleep Tuesdays at 6pm.

Boffins pave the way for DNA photography

SEM

I have SEM photos showing details of 65 nm process ICs. I've also seen SEM photos of silicon dioxide molecules. I'd love to see them in color.

easyJet.com files elderly passengers under 'livestock'

Soutwest

Southwest Airlines says they don't permit any animals onboard. However, on many occasions I've heard more than on few moo's and even one baa while boarding.

Oracle sues SAP for website espionage

Where did they get the credentials

Now let me get this straight, the download requests were apparentlly coming from customers who were about to jump ship to SAP. And Oracle has no idea where SAP got the credentials from? Sounds like they're trying to play nice-nice in hopes of winning the accounts back. Don't want to burn any bridges by pointing accussing fingers. Either that or Oracle is building a case against these "turncoats".

This wouldn't be the first time a vendor took advantage of a turnover customer's intimate knowledge of the competition. A bit blatant, but certainly no something that any other company hasn't at least pondered aloud in the board room and on the sales floor.

Utah backs calls to boot porn from Port 80

Yup

The above says it all. Anyone outside the US (the vast majority?) can just keep plugging on port 80. And those inside can always claim "we're not pornographic" since there's no definition that would fit the bill. Can't show exposed breasts? I've got a couple of breast cancer sites for you. Can't show testicles? Same concept. Heck, there was a post on YouTube (noted on el Reg) of a doctor showing how to perform breast and testicle self exams. Should that be blocked?

Can't do it, won't work, waste of time and money. Not that it won't pass.

Plastic surgeon sucks out belly dancer's buttock

Surgery

Well I'd say that was some half assed surgery.

I wonder if she's a candidate for an implant like some American actress is reputed to have?

Martian pole capped by planet swamping ice sheet

"Imperial" vs metric

So a British (supposedly metric) site says it's 36 feet. Meanwhile, an American (supposedly "Imperial", or whatever it's called these days) site says it's 10 meters. Such a strange world, this Internet thingy.

Ubiquio 701 ultra-mobile PC

Nice, but ...

It sounds nice, but, like most UMPCs, seems like a solution looking for a problem. My wife used a tablet PC at her oncologist's office, but that was a specialized application. And $1225 with a keyboard is a little much for a 1GHz, 512 MB, 40 GB machine. And no optical drive. You can get a small laptop with much more horsepower here and still have the money left over for an external keyboard, mouse, monitor and software. Maybe the ubergeek will go for it. Or the business man who thinks he needs the latest in technology to get the edge. (The bizgeek) But I don't see an advantage for me.

Amazon 1-Click to rule 'em all? Not if Kiwi has his way

IP holder

As an IP holder, I can tell you that the USPTO can make life easy or hard. If you're a big corporation with lots of resources, it's easy. If you're an individual, it can be a royal PITA. Amazon probably used the "if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit" approach. Which is what it appears happened in this case.

EC chucks RFID regs back to industry

... oh please don't

"Oh Brer Fox, please don't throw me in the briar patch"

Viacom's YouTube lawsuit could test limits of DMCA

Viacom doesn't care about the money

A billion dollars isn't the issue. Viacom could never prove that amount of damage. What they want to do is to force YouTube out of business. They want to force YouTube to do the impossible. It's not like the P2P music sharing where 99% of the music was ripped off from commercial sources. Viacom claims there were 160,000 violations. Out of how many videos posted?

Viacom wants to control their content. Which they are fully and unquestionably entitled to do. What they also want to do is to set up an unreasonable and unusable system to view this content. They will either a) charge a fee for it, in which case they'll have a system with few attendees (because it will be proprietary) or b) give it away, which defeats their claim of loss; or c) they could have commercials, which would drive people away even faster than a fee based system.

As an example of an unwieldy system, try watching Heroes on nbc.com. I tried, but one of the segments wouldn't load. So I skipped it.

For some reason, Apple gets away with their DRM. But as everybody comes out with their own DRM solutions, people will rebel. I'm not loading 40 bazillion players on my computer.

So the media makes their money, but do the true creators of the product make much? If any?

This lawsuit may be the beginning of the end for DRM.

Intel on sale for $20

Implosion???

Much like the Intel project itself, the implosion was much less than what most people expected it to be.

Viacom sues Google for $1bn

Damages?

Showing damages should be interesting. I doubt very seriously that Google would choose a bench trial, so showing actual damages will just confuse the jury. Assuming, of course, that they don't settle. But knowing what an asshole Sumner Redstone is (I own Viacom stock), Viacom won't settle for less than a full admission of fault, which just isn't going to happen.

Dodgy food science: eating press releases is bad for you

Chocolate good for the soul

We eat the good stuff. Not some candy assed Mars bar. 65% is our lower limit, typically more like 75%. We have some 98% that we eat in small but delightful quantities.

But most of your commercial candy bars are a waste as far as chocolate content is concerned.

FBI agents 'abused Patriot Act powers'

Freedom vs "security"

Once we give up a freedom, we will never get it back. And when our freedoms are gone, those who wish to forcibly change our way of life will have won.

I have nothing to hide, but if a cop asks to look in my car, I will say no.

Driving on the right side of the code

DFT

It's called Design For Test. DFT has been around in the semiconductor world for close to 20 years now. Before a single line of BIOS is executed, a microprocessor will execute it's own BIST. Software is a long way away from being as sophisticated as the hardware it runs on.

EC agrees to cut carbon, fumbles renewables deal

Generators vs. distributors

Tejas already has a separation of producers and distribution (for the most part). TXU may own both the lines and the generators, but you can still buy your juice from somebody else and get it pumped into your house. Has this led to a reduction in rates? Not really. Has this led to a greener production path? Not really. What it has done is to give raise to a new beauracracy, one that turns out to have some serious ethics problems and a toothless enforcement arm.

Maybe the EU can look at our example and figure out something different. Not that they will. They'll invent something just as bad.

Of course, the "new" TXU (assuming the buyout goes through) is taking a greener stance, and promising a rate break, but that's all political posturing. In the long run, they still need to generate more electricity than they are now, but haven't presented any solutions. Wind alone won't cut it, solar is still a pipe dream, wave action "seems like a good idea". That leaves us with coal, natural gas or nuclear. I do believe I hear the blueprints being rolled out for the long abandoned expansion of the South Texas Nuclear Project. At least that's green for about 30 years, then it becomes Nevada's problem.

The "for the most part" part. Those of us served by municipal energy providers don't have a choice. Austin has a "Green Choice" option whereby a select number of customers get to pay a higher "fuel recovery" cost right now, with the promise that it will stay there for the next ten years. Austin is part of a wind farm project in West Texas, but that only generates a fraction of the total output, and I think that the Green Choice customers are actually using more juice than it generates.

Unhelpful Microsoft help denies helpless millions help

You don't understand

MSDN is a gift to you. You should be honored to have access of any kind.

Besides which, why are you writing your own GUI code? Isn't Microsoft's good enough for you?

NASA ejects nappy-wearing astronaut

Conduct Unbecoming

She's looking at a court martial for Conduct Unbecoming of an Officer. She'll probably get away with a general discharge. Meanwhile, her ex-flame is probably looking at the same charge.

Additionally, was she ever his commanding officer?

Turkey blocks YouTube

South Central would be a better place today

Had it not been for that video, the cops of LA would still be greatly respected in South Central and the area would still be the prosperous part of LA it once was. What a disruptive criminal.

Now back to my crack pipe.

Media blasts Cambridge undergrads' drinking habits

American students can hold their own

Hell, American freshmen can drink so well they frequently die of severe alcohol intoxication before they puke. Now THAT's holding your liquor.

Man sues MS after FBI uncovers smut surfing habits

BATFE

It's the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and has been that way for almost 6 years.

Serbian vampire hunters prevent Milosevic come-back

Long stake

That's one long stake, assuming the Western tradition of a 6 ft (2m now?) burial. And one hard stake, to penetrate what is probably a metal coffin. As far as his heart is concerned, sure it's still there, assuming that the autopsy didn't keep it.

Star Trek XI logged for Xmas 2008 launch

Firefly

Nathan Fillion as Kirk sounds like the best choice. He's familiar to the SF crowd and has that devil may care look.