Posts by William Boyle
177 posts • joined Friday 15th August 2008 13:04 GMT
Wanna' bet?
What do you want to bet that all of such firearms will have an "open" mode that allows anyone to use them, and that quickly will become the default setting? This is what happens when clueless legislators try to control peoples' actions. There are more ways around the barn than horses inside of it... :-)
Caveat Emptor!
This is why one should NEVER purchase any digital media that is DRM-encumbered. DO NOT give those jerks a penny! It just encourages them to screw you...
Ever hear of a zip gun?
A zip gun is a very effective short-range weapon, consisting of a length of tubing (copper, plastic, whatever), some duct or electrical tape, a strong rubber band, and a short nail - plus the cartridge naturally (usually .22 caliber), plus a possible bit of wood for a handle. Bingo, you have a weapon that can kill at short range. Accuracy sucks, but at a few feet, it is quite deadly!
Idiots!
The horses have left the barn. These plans are now in the public domain (100K+ downloads before shut down). Does the fracking state department (I won't give them the respect of capital letters) think they can put them back? What id10ts...
The question is
At this point, the question isn't what the Swedes will do when JA gets back to Sweden, but what will the Brits do when he steps outside of the embassy? They could extradite him directly to the USA, I would think.
I have to wonder just how long before Google and PayPal (eBay) start issuing their own credit/debit cards?
Farking idiots!
Well, if Google dumps Reader, then I will dump ALL Googly stuff I own, from Android, to gmail (including my business account), to use of Chrome, and anything else Google related (hello Firefox ... again!). I will vote with my wallet!
Including a free...
Adding Cobol to your resume automatically provides you with a credit to purchase a bow tie, pocket protector, and really thick glasses! :-)
All of this aside
I still prefer nedit - a free programmer's editor courtesy of the US Fermi National Laboratory, now in the PD on SourceForge.net. The only downside to it that I can tell is it's reliance on X-Windows for display. So, on Windows, I use Cygwin. On Linux... well, it just works, and is a standard editor for a number of distributions.
All but
I would agree with this list entirely, except that I have not yet seen the last two - Gattaca and Solaris - an omission I plan on rectifying soon. Great list!
I think he forgot something
What about taxing joggers? After all, they MUST emit more CO2 than bicyclists? "Excuse me sir (or madam), I need to see your jogging tax card." :rolleyes: And marathoners! Add another $100 to the cost of running one - I'm sure that would go down well!
Easy enough to work around
Just have the remote "employee" log into your personal system and do the work there. Then, you just upload it to your employer under your aegis. Who's to know? Alternatively, let them connect to your home system, and then they tunnel into the corporate network under your aegis. From the company's perspective, it is just you doing your work, assuming your sub-contractor doesn't put comments into your code in Chinese! :-)
So, this guy got caught by being sloppy.
Right...
When will they learn that "better" != "more accurate"?
Posted in Linus Torvalds in NSFW Red Hat rant
If I were in Linus' shoes
There would be dismembered, gore-dripping, body parts lying around... His response to this crud is as measured as it can get, IMHO. This entire kerfuffle with regard to UEFI and secure boot is just a ploy to lock people into systems that violate their freedom and expose them to even more egregious exploitation.
Re: Glad I don't work for the firm that developed the original software
I'd like to know just how big the search domain was - how many unique signatures (and how big they were) that had to be analyzed. Also, some information on the hardware they ran the solution on would be helpful.
Robert - get back into real engineering!
I have known RM since the early 1980's - I sold 3com their first 100 PC's... Later, when I was a principal engineer at a major Boston area software company, we used to meet for dinner before IEEE meetings in the area (usually at Mitre). Now, I am a senior systems engineer at a tier-one mobile phone manufacturer - Robert and I are about the same age. So, I can only say ... "Robert! It is time you get back to your roots!".
P.S. I have utmost respect for RM. He has been one of my tech heroes for 30 years now. :-)
Well, that's one way...
How to get rid of an idiot that you can't fire without paying through the nose in unemployment benefits - just get them to quit! Brilliant!
Already have one.
I already have a subscription - to LibreOffice. Cost? $0 down and $0 per month, including free updates.
The solution is simple
The solution is simple. Just encrypt the file with a strong encryption tool before uploading it to Mega. At least they are trying to protect their users, even if those efforts are sub-optimal...
So, in every Cracker Jack box
you get a secret decoder ring, absolutely free! :-)
Just the facts mam.
Just so people don't forget, that this was NOT an internet hack, but some sort of social-engineering attack, or deliberate attack, in that infected USB drives were delivered into the hands of staff members of the facilities who then attached them to their PC's and thus compromised their systems and networks. All too often, this is how such stuff gets into play. As is often the case, people not networks are the weakest link!
regarding C++ macros
Honestly, in the past I was a major violator of this principle, but it was out of necessity since I was writing that code before std c++, and templates did not exist. Now, I rarely write macros, and try to limit that to only absolutely necessary cases. Since the invention of the STL, complex C++ macros are mostly unnecessary, and undesirable. Thanks Bjarne for your great work - I am definitely going to plunk down some of my hard-earned $$ and add your book to my library! Stroustrup and Ellis has long had an honored place there - both the original edition as well as the ANSI version. -)
How not to do large-scale safety-critical systems
Just one router did this? What? No hot fail-over? This is the danger of a mono-culture in ubiquitous tech. A single point of failure will always fail... I build tools to monitor very large scale network systems, and our gear can continue operating at full load after 2 failures at any point in the system - hardware or software. The worker drones at BT aren't at fault here - they are doing their job to the best of their considerable abilities. It is management that should be taken out to the woodshed because it is they who likely said that redundant routers, load-balancers, or whatever would cost too much...
Re: Hmmm.
Well, the boneheads here in the USofA who decide such things, would like to drop him in a hole with Bradley Manning. So, I don't blame him for staying in the embassy. It may be boring, but it beats solitary in Guantanamo...
How bogus can we get?
This is the (mostly) exact form of the African Masai spear head. So, now the Masai cannot create their traditional weapons? Fark Apple! They have lost me as a customer forever! I refuse to give my hard-earned $$ to trolls...
And to think
That in 1999 I was using a headset w/ microphone with my Ericsson mobile when travelling between Boston and Chicago... I'd use the hands-free feature (with voice interface) to call my wife when I'd get to Cleveland. These people are dumbots and should be taken out to the back 40 acres, and disposed of in an unfriendly (but legal) manner!
Modesty taboos and religion
Modesty taboos are an offshoot of religious strictures, both of which have no place in a pluralistic society. Let people wear what they want (or not, as the case may be), and let them believe what they want in the religious domain - just don't let others tell me what to wear (or not) and what to believe!
As for people who cancelled their subscriptions over a few errant pixels - their loss, and probably fewer trolls for the rest of us to deal with!
All a matter of perspective
And memory. I LOVE all the QM productions, and have collected all that I have been able to. They are hokey, dated, and their production quality horrendous! That said, they are STILL tonnes of fun!
FWIW, I also collect old Vincent Price horror films, and one that turned me into a quivering bit of sniveling slime when I was 10 or 11 (House on Haunted Hill) now turns me into a quivering mass of laughter! :-)
Obviously, the solution is to burn more peat! It will generate CO2 as well as heat, and it will help reduce the spread of peat lands... :-)
Hello! AYT?
Another industry that will off-shore PDQ... Can you spell Brazil, Thailand, wherever?
Posted in Orc Assassin Rogue wins Senate seat
The Republicans in Maine are idiots! Why are they criticizing someone for a perfectly legal, non-threatening hobby? Should we criticize them for fishing 4 weeks out of the year? What about hunting? Chasing tail? All I can say is that they got what they deserved, a good solid smack-down by the voters in her district. Congratulations Colleen! :-)
It would make sense to me, given our security services' past activities installing trojans and spyware on our perceived enemies' gear. As I understand it, we installed some compromised chips in an Iraqui network printer before the first Gulf War in order to spy on, and compromise their command and control systems. Apparently, from what I read, it was a VERY successful operation...
So, let's not allow the pot to call the kettle black, shall we?
My eyes! My eyes!
No wonder my eyesight is so bad! ... Oh, never mind, they have been myopic since I was 7, well before I started drinking coffee! :-)
Boneheads!
Canonical should follow Red Hat's example. RH doesn't need to pwn us with ads. They make their money on support, and they provide it in spades! If Ubuntu continues on this course, I will have no option but to stop recommending Ubuntu to anyone interested in Linux, and will encourage my friend Kathy Malmrose of ZaReason to drop Ubuntu also, in favor of Mint or Debian.
I think Grimm's tin foil hat has fallen off...
63 - time to retire? No way!
I'm 64, and started a new (and hope long-term) position with a major tech company as senior systems engineer at the beginning of this year. I'm certainly not ready to retire! If Chambers thinks he is ready to retire, then he is, but it should be HIS decision! If he leave Cisco, then it should be because he is ready for some new challenges, and NOT because he is "too old" for the position!
And the FBI...
And the FBI is probably banging itself on the head, saying "why didn't we think of that!"... :rolleyes:
Fark Ubuntu!
Time to revert to good old Debian! Same thing, just no pwning...
Once again...
Once again, proving that religion is the root of all evil!
Apple to learn about MAD
MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction
This was the concept that kept the US and USSR from blowing each other to bits during the Cold War - if you attack me, you will be destroyed as well. I think Apple is about to face what happens when you violate those principals in the patent arena...
The bank should pay
The bank should not only be criminally liable for having such a hair-brained passcode for critical infrastructure, but they should pay the man back for ALL legal fees, for his time, and a BIG penalty for this fiasco!
Great!
This reminds me of some of the experiments in freshman physics I had with Frank Oppenheimer at the University of Colorado in 1966-67! As we would say at Dulwich College (SE London where I went in 62-63), well bowled! :-)
Posted in Microsoft releases VMware-eater
Blargh!
To Heck with both MS and VMware. At least VirtualBox is mostly open source! Personally, I have a hate-like-hate relationship with Oracle, but I have been a happy user of VirtualBox for over 5 years now. For data center (yeah, I'm a Yank) applications use KVM on Red Hat Enterprise distributions, but for personal productivity/development purposes, VBox is the best (IMHO) option out there, for Windows and Linux (client or host). Can't speak for OSX since I don't have an iDevice. I do run Windows (several versions), Linux (many distributions), x86 Solaris, QNX, DOS, and other x86 operating on VBox and have had zero problems with any of them.
Just how long before...
Just how long before some enterprising malware writer can fake a bootloader certificate? My guess is that if it hasn't been done (certainly by the NSA or other government spyware organizations already), it will be soon.
"organic" vs "traditional" growing methods
The nutritional values of food whether grown organically or otherwise, will be pretty much the same. The difference is that organically grown foods don't have pesticide and other residues in/on them (or much lower amounts) which have known deleterious affects on the consumer.
Java - write once, infect everywhere!
Or...
Or, this could be the work of government agencies that want to raise the cyber-threat level, hence increasing their influence and importance.
Posted in Nokia CEO: No shift from Windows Phone
Don't fracture your base
I am a senior Nokia engineer. Personally, I like a lot of things about my Nexus One Android phone better than my Nokia S40 phone, N8 Phone, and new Lumia 900 (Windows) phone. However, I understand perfectly why Elop has settled us on support of the Windows phone OS going forward. Attempting to support multiple operating systems on a suite of mobile devices is divisive (pun intended) to an organization. Can you imagine Apple supporting anything other than iOS, or Google anything other than Android (well - maybe). That sort of effort splits your attention without appreciable benefit, other than to appear to be a follower rather than a leader.
So, is there room for 3 major phone environments? I think so, and I think Stephen made the correct choice in wanting to be a leader rather than a follower. Did we want to be just another Android vendor? There are a gazillion Android phone manufacturers out there now. iOS is out of the question - Apple would never license it. Microsoft needs a big adopter in order to move its phone OS into the mainstream, and decided Nokia was it. This does not reduce our challenge in getting back into contender/leader status in the mobile phone market place, but I think we can do it.
FWIW, there is a lot to like about the Lumia phones, and the price is "right" (for the consumer at least). Only time will tell if we have made the right choice, but don't count us out of the race just yet!
Good stuff
I've been a QNX user and developer for 30 years - I have serial number 0008. In my opinion it is probably the most innovative, and reliable, hard real-time system suitable for embedded systems made. At FASTech Integration in Massachusetts we used it to write the control system software for the US Navy's RAMP project, cell control software that still is used to run major manufacturing plants world-wide, and it has only gotten better over the years. The current iteration, Neutrino, is the foundation for for the BB10 OS as well Cisco's mission-critical IOS router operating system. What does that mean? Basically, most of the networks in the Internet world are run with QNX.
What do I do currently? I am a senior developer and performance engineer for Nokia... :-)
And by the way, QNX is definitely used in the critical real-time control systems for a number of nuclear power plants, none of which have melted down to my knowledge... ;-)
As for what "hard real-time" means is that you can utilize RMA (Rate Monotonic Analysis) to profile the system to be mathematically certain that no critical deadline will be missed. Kind of important in things like nuclear plants and fighter avionics I think. RT Linux cannot do this. Windows cannot do this. WindRiver VRTX can maybe do it (I haven't tried, though NASA and the JPL use it in the Mars Rovers, so it probably can). In any case, there are only a few (2 or 3) hard real-time microprocessor operating systems available, and QNX is right up at the top of that heap.
