* Posts by Kibble

52 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Mar 2007

Page:

Japan airport staff dash to replace passcodes after security cock-up

Kibble

@AC

There may be a huge number of keys in addition to keypads. Do you have insight there?

Couple can sue service that monitored their net sex

Kibble
Pint

Points to consider...

(1) Are there obvious signs to the effect that outgoing calls are recorded?

(2) Is there a way to disable the recording process: dial 9 first?

(3) Are all the phones set to record or simply just a few non-public accessible ones?

(4) What are the local laws concerning recording the calls?

(5) To what use are the recordings being put?

Curious minds wanna know.

The beer icon since I'm on holiday!

Pre-paid Chinese users still anonymous despite new law

Kibble
Meh

@ Charles Manning

I take public transportation and pay for my bus/metro rail pass with cash from my employer. I can even purchase my pass from the bus line offices without ID and in cash, but get a discount from my employer. Don't own a private vehicle. Is that a problem?

Patriot hackers disrupt al-Qaeda websites

Kibble
Meh

Really?

How do you know for sure that they didn't include malware in the package, Zippy?

Sony says virtual reality is virtually a reality

Kibble
Thumb Up

RE: 3D

The 3D aspect is a continuing development in the gaming industry, apparently. However, one question is how much development is given to support a head mounted display? Personally I would love to see Linden Labs come out with support one in its Sadville viewer program as the 3D aspect of that virtual world is certainly well done at present.

Another question would be whether a wireless HUD using Bluetooth frequencies would be fast enough to support the use of fast rendering with or without accelerometers. (Cords so get in the way.) IMO development is still needed as are newer standards for the use of headsets in both soft and hardware for a truly realistic immersive experience- pr0n not withstanding. ;-0

Standards in specific views still seem to be based on degree of rotation per mouse click rather than on smooth scrolling. This leads to somewhat jerky views in virtualities and not realistic at all even using a standard computer display. This seems to be getting better as time goes on and our puters get faster graphic processors though.

iTunes Match is iPiracy, claims loopy Oz industry troll

Kibble
WTF?

Storm in a teacup

"The music industry gets its slice of the income..."

What's the problem?

Earth receives picture postcard of Milky Way

Kibble

A barred spiral?

A bar does appear in the picture in the article. The filtering process may have a bit to do with it not being more prominent.

Engineering student cracks major riddle of the universe

Kibble
Joke

@AC 17:17

Agree whole-heartedly. For instance, what is the true date and time of the Rapture. :-)

NASA restores Pluto to league of planets

Kibble
Alien

Beat me to it

Yes, Ceres was discovered first and was originally classed as a planet according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)

New York attorney general escalates Sony attack probe

Kibble

No honor amongst thieves

Title says it all.

Mozilla refuses US request to ban Firefox add-on

Kibble
Black Helicopters

@ Neal 5

As opposed to the treatment of its own population/residents?

Five cuffed over $37m heist of Google flash chips

Kibble
FAIL

Don't forget!

This was an armed robbery in California and the kidnapping charges along with it will do'em in. They're just lucky that no one had a heart attack and died or actually shot anyone. The types of weapons will be taken into account as well in gun shy California.

I suspect all the separate charges will add up to however many years left they have until they die in prison.

Updates galore in Microsoft's biggest ever Patch Tuesday

Kibble
Happy

No problem here...

However, being on the MS's side of the pond may have something to do with that. Download and install did take a bit longer on my home XP machine than the Win 7, though. YMMV on this batch I guess.

Deep-space travel bad for astronauts' tickers, say boffins

Kibble
Headmaster

Suggest you watch the movie

Apollo 13, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/ for a more informed opinion of how many astronauts made it on to the moon. Not every astronaut reaching Luna actually set foot there: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program

Arkansas governor spanks arse cleavage

Kibble
FAIL

RE: female cleavage

The law should stand until some over zealous plod arrests a lady for showing off her cleavage. Not sure whether this will happen on the street or on a beach, but it will go to court and common sense should prevail. As Arkansas is a tad warm in the summer, my guess is that this will happen sooner than later.

ECJ gender ruling 'could throw insurance into turmoil'

Kibble
IT Angle

RE: Statistical planning

Insurance is simply big business. Run by people to make a profit. In the interest of keeping costs low and insuring (no pun intended) some privacy of their customers they are forced to generalize based on statistics they can easily define. This is not a whole lot different from budgetary planning of any other company, corporation, or country.

As an example, since this is a tech site: management at company X decides to use the internet for increased sales. Research to find what servers are available and which won't be outdated in the next Y years is needed. However, as we all know, any server can be subject to breakdowns at any time due to many factors. Statistical data is used to generalize which servers have the least breakdowns and general maintenance costs. Granted, some planning about specific replacement parts as well as possible extended warranty costs vrs 3rd party maintenance contracts go into the mix. However, planning of anything else takes a back seat to the decision for the capital costs of purchasing, placing, and running the server in the first place. As time goes on the Admin staff will make suggestions on increases to the budget based on more specific criteria such as a better internet connection, increased local storage capacity, cloud based backups, updated OS, and so forth. The bean counters will report on whether the internet sales have increased the company's sales and profits. Management determines the prices to charge for their product based on prices charged by any competitors. Of course, the sales of the product could decrease also, but that is a problem for the sales and/or R&D departments. However the original planning was due to simple statistical planning on what server to use. It's all just big business buying as cheaply as possible to make a (inflated?) profit on its product.

Now the local gov comes along to tell the company that they have to buy their IT equipment from approved sources as well as purchasing their bandwidth from a specific (local) ISP. The government isn't looking at the company's profits or costs of running the business at all. It's even ignoring the amount of tax it collects from said company. Being politically correct is the be all/end all for the bureauocrats.

Just my 0.02 euros.

Egypt switches off the internet

Kibble
Welcome

@ AC 29th January 2011 00:25

A very interesting thought. They might want'em back. However, it might be just the thing to force Egypt to upgrade to IPv6 ahead of every other country, thus causing the rest of the world to upgrade that much more quickly.

Adobe (finally) makes it easier to delete Flash cookies

Kibble
Thumb Up

BetterPrivacy addon for Firefox

Been using that for a while, and it can be configured to delete LSO's upon closing the browser or manually by the user. Just hope it's incorporated into Firefox 4.

Pickles throws down gauntlet on council data

Kibble
Grenade

Can't wait to see

all the reasons councils will throw up to prevent having to list expenditures online. I suspect that the redactions in their reports will take a while to address. (Reasons versus excuses!)

Facebook stat flood gives hope to mateless, dateless

Kibble
Coat

And how many

Facebook accounts were deleted over the past year?

Ofcom slaps down ham botherer

Kibble

Amateur Radio

There are also alternative sources of leccy such as solar cells, wind, and water power. Radio amateurs as a group are very resourceful.

Contesting during Field Day activities doesn't mean that a portable generator must be used: generally there are points given for low power usage. Sometimes for alternate power generation also.

@ Just Thinking: Avatars in can be of any form in Second Life. Human, mechanical, beasties, or even puffs of smoke. But I have to admit there are some nice female bodies there. :)

Kibble
Happy

@ Just Thinking

Just because there are alternatives to earlier communications technology does not mean that amateur radio hobbyists don't utilize newer technologies and explore these also.

There are versions of VOIP programs that are available specifically for licensed hams: IRLP and Echolink are two examples. However radio communications can stand alone when the mains go down as has been mentioned previously.

73 de KB7TIB

Latest military-research boon: Game interface to rule them all

Kibble

@AC 01:17

Don't forget the Altered Carbon series by Richard K. Morgan, although that technology is slightly different. I'm up for that!

IT council chiefs ditch Sadville after splurging £36k

Kibble
Paris Hilton

@ Dave Bell

The cost breakdown wasn't very clear. However, only one person needs to have a paid account to rent virtual land from Linden Labs, and guessing that it was the IT guy. All the rest of the accounts can be free. The U.S. cost is $72/year. YMMV. (Perhaps some of the councilors probably wanted specialty or unique avatars.) There are also the costs with perhaps hiring a graphics specialist to build the horse & knight statue as well as the virtual buildings and museum items. I'm sure the cost of having the IT staff monitor the site probably wasn't included in the final figure.

Regardless, I agree it was an expensive faux pas on the council's part. Just wondering if any of the councilors are continuing to play on the Second Life site as a hobby.

Paris as she looks better than a cartoon.

AT&T iPad 'hacker' breaks gag order to rant at cops

Kibble
Coat

Prosecution priority?

"Auernheimer criticises the authorities for treating the iPad security breach case as a higher priority for prosecution than other similar cases."

The thought that perhaps the authorities are fanbois and are hoping for discounts on their bills from AT&T and/or a break on the price of Apple products. Comments?

US school comes out fighting over webcam spy claim

Kibble
FAIL

@ philatonian

I'm amazed at the lack of arrests in this case also, but perhaps due to the number of perps involved, the sheer number of which may overwhelm the local gaols storage, is a factor. Also the fact that this may shut down the school.

I personally think that everyone with access to the remote camera system should be placed on a monitored sexual predator list and banned from having anything to do with children. Perhaps issue them the same computers they gave the students so they might be able to search for jobs.

On further thought, due to the economic situation, with a greater than10% unemployment rate, any school shutdown would be for a very short period of time if it comes to that.

Fail for the lack of concern by local law.

MPs frozen out of super-secret copyright talks

Kibble
Big Brother

We've seen this before

It also rejected claims that ACTA will mean border guards will search digital devices for pirated material.

"EU customs, frequently confronted with traffics of drugs, weapons or people, do neither have the time nor the legal basis to look for a couple of pirated songs on an iPod music player or laptop computer, and there is no intention to change this," the Commission said, claiming talks on border measures concerned controls on conterfeiting.

The U.S. border patrol simply increased the number of officers at crossings, and routinely have time and the resources to clone HDs. Who do they think they are foolin'? I can see the day when the big music companies provide backup volunteer inspectors to the border control agencies as a tax saving solution to any manning shortages.

Japanese mobile operators shout 'Avast' at piracy

Kibble
Badgers

Phorm is alive and well?

This begs the question as to what software would be used at what level for the inspections. There are other technical questions that haven't been answered here as indicated by others. I hope that this space will be updated sometime within the next 10 days with more info.

This also sounds like a bad business plan if it's even possible. (If my phone stopped working, I would quickly change my service.) However, given the cost for data downloads, assuming that music is the number 1 reason for the capability, then possible downgrading to a lower cost contract would be an option. Hit'em where it hurts. Less commercial revenue means less tax revenue; isn't Japan having budget problems due to the global recession?

US women protest for the right to bare

Kibble
FAIL

@ AC 1300 hrs

"Even here we cannot divest ourselves of the cancer that is religion, we still give senior church leaders power in the land can cow-tow to illogical religious doctrine (e.g. Sikhs not having to wear crash helmets - what?)."

A self limiting problem, eh wot?

Microsoft to launch UK ad-funded online video player

Kibble
Pint

Only in the UK?

Wonder if blokes on the other side of the pond can sneak a download of the player so as to see what the UK TV is like.

Mysterious organic blobs found in Alaskan waters

Kibble
Alien

I wanna know...

Were there no reports of meteors landing in the waters off Alaska lately?

Microsoft unveils Windows 7 free upgrades and discounts

Kibble
FAIL

How to download without a browser?

For people who are supposedly literate in the IT world the question of how to surf the internet without the IE browser is fairly rediculous. Simply download the browser of your choice to a thumb drive or SD card prior to putting in Windows 7. After the installation you can then add the downloaded browser to the new installation.

UK gov to issue child boozing guidelines

Kibble
Thumb Up

It's difficult to believe...

Coming from a long medical background that there are no studies made of alcoholics, in the broadest sense of the word. And as a father of two, that children seem to like to partake of forbidden fruits.

A very occasional sip of beer or wine might be suitable for young children, but I always wonder about the circumstances of those addicted to alcohol or simply the binge drinkers. (At what age they started down the road to physical ruin?)

Seems to me that true medical guidelines would be a good idea. The idea that people would allow any regular drinking in such young..., 5 year olds, is anathema. Then again I occasionally hear of people who give hard drugs to infants and toddlers. Advice to parents concerned with the development and health of their offspring is a very good idea. (I wish that was all parents.)

Personally I always preferred soft drinks when I was growing up, but my parents never kept alcohol in the home until I was in my late teens, and the small amounts they did have even then was kept hidden. I guess I'm probably biased by my upbringing and experiences with seeing firsthand evidence of alcohol abuse. YMMV.

Mine's the one with the MADD sticker on the back.

US Navy's robot stealth carrier plane unveiled

Kibble
Boffin

@ Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

This is a stealth aircraft, not a dog fighter. It's designed to carry out missions like any other UAV but is designed to be nearly invisible to radar. One would think that it's main mission would be to deliver ordnance to specific static targets. Although it has nearly an unlimited range, the hang time over a specific point is limited since the required fuel tankers are not stealthed. However, just getting in and out unseen with pictures of the enemy is a big plus for the war machine.

Love-triangle astronaut nappies will not be trial evidence

Kibble
Boffin

@ Mark_T

Since the nappy angle seems to be important issue to both the writers and readers here, how do you expect to refer to the case when further developments occur?

How to destroy the music business

Kibble
Paris Hilton

@ Christopher Martin

The iTunes store has a system that allows one to see which tracks of an album are most appealing to their customers. That's not to say that you or I would agree with them, but it is an indicator (or filter if you prefer). One could refer to the iTunes store, for instance, and then download from some other source if the DRM is a burden.

Just a suggestion, of course. And I know the selection is limited, but it is growing.

Paris, since she knows what she likes.

GooTube snubs McCain's call for DMCA favoritism

Kibble
Go

Flogging a dead horse

"But his campaign's general counsel, Trevor Potter, insists that the video site's DMCA takedown policy is "silencing political speech" by removing non-infringing political videos."

What is with this stupid fool? He should only use the term "protected speech". As well, he should have advised his chief client of the limitations and ramifications of the DMCA. (Perhaps there are only limited communications in the campaign machine.) It seems that ol' Trevor lacks experience in constitutional law http://www.nndb.com/people/961/000168457/ and is running the legal end of things by himself instead of using advisors in this campaign.

These sort of news stories aren't buying the Republican candidate any votes IMHO.

McCain begs for YouTube DMCA takedown immunity

Kibble
Go

@ Be Reasonable

"Other politicians are hardly likely to disagree with something that would make their campaigning life easier. So, why wouldn't an amendment to the DMCA pass on those terms? You wouldn't even need to add the amendment to a related bill. Just tack it on to something you know that everybody has to pass (as they do with most pork barrel spending). Voila, instant DMCA exemption for politicians."

Two points: (1) Given that a large number of our elected representatives don't actually read the entire text of pending bills or can't spend enuough time on them to think far enough ahead to realize the ramifications, you are most likely correct. (Politicians don't have to pass IQ tests either, just be charismatic.) HOWEVER, (2) something which may cost businesses money as Mycho suggested and may be perceived by the people as a self-serving grab for power/privlege will most likely fail. The media would lurrrrv it and twist it all around as the previous comments suggest if they noticed that questionable amendment. At least I, for one, would hope so.

Land Warrior soldier-puter to get hoverbot vid hookup

Kibble
Thumb Up

@ Alan

As the war in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on new technology has the time to be tested in a realistic field. This was also seen in the Viet Nam conflict. In between wars new technologies are developed and tested in secret and finally make it to the battlefield all at once. It takes time to implement suggestions for more effective methodologies, tactics, and equipment from lessons learned in battle. If the war goes on, the enemy will also adapt their tactics and make use of technology which creates a vicious circle or a marketing hey-day depending on your outlook.

R&D tax credits knocked out in Congressional punch-up

Kibble
Heart

Finally!

An article which mentions the glaring need for oversight. The US government has been dropping controls in many areas for years, probably due to the large donations to the campaigns of our elected representatives from the big business lobbyists. A bit of a pity that stock market participants abroad decided to invest in certain immoral US loan companies. I'm sure that more research will be done by those wanting to buy US stocks in the future though.

Phorm: Our business is fine, honest

Kibble

RE: I can't help thinking

The information on the cookie will most likely have your IP address and possibly your computer's name. Need I say more?

IE8 beta 2 locks down some XP lovers

Kibble
Gates Horns

@ Geoff

Normally I use the Firefox browser for general surfing, but there's still lots of sites that don't work with anything but the IE browser. And as far as it goes, I would not want to use a beta version of the IE browser on those sites since I'm not sure they would work with it leaving me unable to do do online banking and so forth.

Black hats attack gaping DNS hole

Kibble
Happy

Earthlink seems to be all right

Using my usual local dialup number:

Your name server, at 209.179.23.207, appears to be safe, but make sure the ports listed below aren't following an obvious pattern (:1001, :1002, :1003, or :30000, :30020, :30100...).

@ Steve Evans

I don't know how to check the ports either.

E-Gold cops to e-money laundering

Kibble
Paris Hilton

And the tax evasion angle

Uncle Sam, being a profiteer, is always interested in his cut regardless of the source.

Paris since she is always interested in making a profit.

Snoop bill opponents post Swedish spy IDs on net

Kibble
Pirate

Infrastructure

Do the Swedes have the capability to actually perform their little tricks in place: equipment and personnel? But assuming they do, what happens to this capability if the European Court of Human Rights rules it illegal? Looks like an opportunity for rogue spys to have a field day.

Soot almost as bad as CO2 for global warming

Kibble
Stop

Global warming follows global cooling

Just after the view of the planet becomes obscured with ash and large amounts of various greenhouse gases float into the stratosphere the infrared heat being absorbed from the sun and generated on earth will not be completely radiated away. The global warming will become a runaway process at some point. There is still time!

SETI@home needs You!

Kibble
Happy

@ Andrew Norton

A related project to the one you mentioned is being run from the Queen Mary University, LHC@home. Granted it uses BOINC as the framework, it is still a worthwhile program to think about for those interested in applied science applications.

An article with appropriate links at The Reg mentioned it last October, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/17/cern_distributedcomputer_to_london/

The project has few work units currently since the Large Hadron Collider in Cern isn't operational yet. The system should be fully up around June this year, and the volunteer machines may well be kept busy depending on the number of experiments being run. (The few work units occasionally available now are probably just tests of the system and to keep the volunteers happy.) You can find out more about it at http://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/

Kibble

P.S. I'm currently running SETI@home, Einstein@home, and LHC@home and have been for years under the Amateur Radio Operators team for each.

Chip overflow puts dent in 2008 forecast

Kibble
Flame

Yeah, but...

oversupply without dropping the prices. Guess that DRAM doesn't take up too much floor space in the warehouse.

US fails to reverse online gambling ban

Kibble
Stop

@ Sillyfellow

Sounds absolutely feudal, doesn't it? Hint, hint, nudge, nudge.

Kibble

Iraq fiasco creeps into NSA surveillance controversy

Kibble

Hopefully

The congressional opponents to the FISA extension aren't discussing things over the phone system or by email.

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