* Posts by Eddy Ito

4662 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

Feeling old? Well, we're older than that: Newly found Homo sapiens jaw dates back 350k years

Eddy Ito

It says there were five found but doesn't state the relative positions of each. Perhaps the Nature article has the information but that information is not free. It's possible that it was a family where one took ill, transmitted the disease to the others, and ultimately all expired in close proximity. I can see where a simple bout of diarrhea might quickly make even the mere acquisition of food and water increasingly difficult. Without an accounting of the relative conditions of the specimens it would be difficult to say whether it was an organized grave or merely a case of the group dying in bed.

NSA leaker bust gets weirder: Senator claims hacking is wider than leak revealed

Eddy Ito

Re: curiouser and curiouser

... to guarantee a state of partisan gridlock.

We can only hope for partisan gridlock. The less those idiots in Congress do the fewer rights we'll lose to their inane new laws. If we're really lucky, the courts will keep the hands of Donny's executive actions hogtied as well. There are times when I think it's sad to look back at gridlock with fond nostalgia but inevitably some politician opens their mouth and it becomes clear that gridlock may be the only way.

Hyperloop One teases idea of 50-minute London-Edinburgh ride

Eddy Ito

Re: It's all well and good...

I have to concur, it sounds nice but...

Supposedly they are building a test pod that's near the size of a 75 passenger Embraer E170/175 but only carries 28 people. Even if it comes in a 1/3 the cost of the Embraer it's still going to run in the $10M+ range and will have upkeep, inspections, and service costs. I assume it will be reasonably equipped with at least a lavatory as delays are a potential unknown. Then of course there will be regulations, as there always are, such as will it have a fixed service life such as that imposed on airframes?

Even if you get past all the other technological hurdles one was pointed out to me that convinces me it's a non-starter and that's that it seems nobody has done the thermal analysis of the pod. It was put to me this way, the hyperloop pod is the interior of a thermos bottle with lots of heat generating equipment inside including air conditioning equipment and there is no place to offload that heat. It was mentioned that it would have a water tank on board that could be used to store the heat but how much water does one need to lug around or does it get turned to steam with all the issues associated with having a superheated pressure vessel on board. Even ignoring the safety aspect of having a high pressure steam bottle inside an evacuated tube it seems a lot of luck will be needed to simply not cook the passengers before they arrive.

Obama's intel chief says Russia totally tried to swing it for Trump

Eddy Ito
Trollface

Re: Clapper

He also states that Russia has a long history of trying to influence elections including the US going back to the '60s. I guess he feels this time it's somehow special unprecedented. My money is that it's because they were always better at it than we were since we usually had to help the correct people get power in the following coup d'état but we did manage to steal a few elections here and there.

Hotel guest goes broke after booking software gremlin makes her pay for strangers' rooms

Eddy Ito

Re: never use a debit card for credit ?

I get the problem of not wanting to wind up in debt but typically one can set up the account so it automatically pays off the monthly balance in full and thus acts more like a debit card. Ideally it would be more frequent so you could check the running balance but we're not quite there yet. It also has the advantage of much faster returns of the money if fraud is detected as you only have to deal with the issuing bank rather than perhaps a dozen different retailers or in this case an incompetent hotel.

I pretty much gave up debit cards when a coworker just out of college had set up his student loans to autopay by his debit card. They kept pulling the money for nine months after the loan was paid off even though he had informed them after the fact on the second extra month. He thought he had miscounted the first extra month, he hadn't.

Class clowns literally classless: Harvard axes meme-flinging morons

Eddy Ito

Re: Free Speech does not exist on the internet

Excised? I think you're confused. Harvard exercised its freedom of association rights just as the applicants exercised their right to free speech. The only thing excised was Harvard from the relationship with the applicants in question.

Wowee, it's Samsung's next me-too AI gizmo: The Apple HomePod

Eddy Ito

Re: It's not very shiny - is it?

Don't worry, I'm sure there's a rose gold version on the refresh schedule but perhaps only on the 'S' or 'Plus' or 'S Plus' or...

Do cops need a warrant to stalk you using your cellphone records? US Supremes to mull it over

Eddy Ito

I don't think it will be unanimous. Alito is an easy pick to be more in favor of police powers as the lone dissenter in the 2014 case and I wouldn't at all be surprised if Breyer also sided with the cops. Depending on the arguments I could also see Thomas and Roberts going pro police but that would take some impressive work on behalf of the prosecutor so I'm going to call it 7-2.

First-day-on-the-job dev: I accidentally nuked production database, was instantly fired

Eddy Ito

Re: So....restore from backup

Having worked in a place where the admin password was "Dilbert" it's possible the document writer was just trying to be funny and accidentally wound up using real credentials.

Utah fights man's attempt to marry laptop

Eddy Ito
Coat

Re: OK Computer

Justice of the Peach: "Cortana, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"

Cortana: "I'm sorry. Something went wrong. Try your search again."

The one with a pit in the pocket.

Eddy Ito

Re: Marry a laptop?

Why would anyone want to stop someone from marrying their horse? They're happy, assuming the horse has consented to the union, and it comes with the benefit of potentially removing them from the gene pool so we're all a little better off, aren't we?

Pai guy not too privacy shy, says your caller ID can't block IP, so anons go bye

Eddy Ito

If you've got a dual sim phone can you simply have a burner sim? My current phone doesn't have dual capability and I'm wondering if they have a unique IMEI for each sim card or not. If not, it's easy enough and probably cheaper to pick up a cheap mini phone.

Eddy Ito
Meh

Re: Blue alerts?

Meh, my phone already has Amber alerts, severe threat alerts, extreme threat alerts, and Presidential alerts. The new "Blue alert" will simply be a symbolic name for either a severe or extreme. Nothing else will change other than when the alert pops up it will say "Blue!" or not since I have them all turned off except Presidential which it won't allow me to turn off but I would if I could. In short, it's pandering to the police unions and I'd wager the alert would still be broadcast but under a different category and everyone will still ignore it except maybe police officers.

Eddy Ito

This is why phones will eventually be replaced by the next version of Whatsit or Skipe or Lyne or Doesanyonecare. It seems only businesses answer calls that aren't in the phone's address book these days anyway so my bet is that the traditional phone will be officially dead before email.

Google to give 6 months' warning for 2018 Chrome adblockalypse – report

Eddy Ito

Re: Right move, wrong person

Exactly, this is nothing more than Google the ad slinger taking the role of ad gatekeeper in a market that isn't really broken.

The problem for website owners is that because of their use/allowance of obnoxious and at times malevolent adverts it becomes increasingly difficult to go the other way unless they go to totally passive ads they serve themselves. Note that Google and others don't want that since it would mean their fancy data miners have a much harder time serving up targeting ads.

Microsoft founder Paul Allen reveals world's biggest-ever plane

Eddy Ito

Re: Interesting

I wonder why the tails are separate rather than sharing a wing

It may actually make it too stiff and have adverse effects on the rudder given the two fuselages look to be more or less 100' apart. Just spitballing but one might imagine a rigid beam across the back may require something akin to Ackermann geometry for the rudder deflection but if they are independent each side is free to move a bit without undue stress. It also seems to be a trend of modern design as looking at your twin fuselage link many of the newer designs have independent tails from the Pipistrel and twin C-5 Galaxy to other Scaled Composite designs like White Knight One and Two.

Eddy Ito

Re: LOHAN

Coincidentally both this and LOHAN were begun in 2011. The FAA does indeed work in mysterious byzantine ways.

Senators want FBI to vet FCC's 'cyberattack' claims

Eddy Ito

Re: I wouldn't be surprised if it was either the system getting flooded with comments or foul play

The administration or country doesn't matter because it's general government that's incompetent. You do remember the roll out of healthcare.gov back in 2013 don't you?

Eddy Ito
Meh

I assume the FCC knows how to play the game

Florida court's schizophrenic rulings throw mobe passcode privacy into doubt

Eddy Ito

Re: Was wheeler convicted of anything else?

I get it's a contempt charge but it does have that odd recursive feel like arresting someone solely for resisting arrest. Don't iPhones self brick if the wrong code is entered too many times? If so, how many guesses did the cops try before trying the one he gave them?

Sons of IoT: Bikers hack Jeeps in auto theft spree

Eddy Ito

Re: Nothing to hide

Oddly a clever crim can change a VIN with one salvaged from the scrappers. At least they won't go around chopping off fingers to steal the cars. Well, not yet for Jeeps anyway.

Eddy Ito
Meh

Re: Not IoT related, just bad security

So the Hooligans would need to steal the credentials from the regional BMW distribution center instead of the dealer. Somehow that doesn't sound like it would be that much more difficult.

WannaLaugh? Funsters port WannaCrypt to Commodore, Cisco, Nintendo and Tesla

Eddy Ito

Re: Does anyone seriously use the in-car stuff ?

When did you last see a car with a standard slot for a radio? They are all built in and specific to the vehicle. Why would they EVER give a customer a choice other than from their own range?

Contrary to your thought, the main reason for moving away from the old standard box isn't really to lock you in but with aerodynamics being ever more important designers are pretty much left with the dashboard, lights, and grill for the majority of differentiation. I imagine it gets frustrating when told to design a car but make sure it's not too different from CFD optimized model.

Many, if not most, of them are actually DIN slots behind the fancy fascia. Sure, it requires tracking down an appropriate surround/panel to adapt to the standard DIN rectangle for the new head unit but it's usually not impossible although it often doesn't look as nice. A few things making it harder such as the depth of the unit is getting shallow or the display is disconnected. Yes, that new Ford Focus has a single DIN head unit sitting behind the optical disc slot with a separate display above it and you can replace it but it may not be pretty. In any event, it won't be a matter of finding a radio with the proper display size and shaft spacing and then hard wiring the back while wondering what that extra wire does. What do you mean the preset buttons are too thick for the opening? Just kiss the slot with the grinder and it'll all be good.

US citizens complain their names were used for FCC robo-comments

Eddy Ito
Trollface

Re: Sue?

If there is a verification box it seems comcast haters and many other nobodys are not really concerned about it. I think this one is my favorite.

The online comment systems that Uncle Sam set up are great. People get to vent their spleen and convince themselves that they make a difference and the government gets to ignore all the little people squeaking against the machine. Makes for a more peaceful existence all round. As a bonus it doubles as an automated way for the NSA to entice potential rabble-rousers on all sides to self-identify.

Hmm, the troll icon needs a tinfoil hat.

Congresscritters float benefits for gig workers

Eddy Ito

... get benefits such as unemployment insurance, paid time off, and tax-advantaged retirement savings.

I understand some bits. Sure, I can imagine getting unemployment insurance and even group rates. Likewise tax-advantaged retirement savings although there are SEP IRAs, and Solo 401(k) plans and the like that are pretty nice already. Yep, detaching health insurance from the job and being able to buy health insurance at group rates would also be swell.

My problem is that I get hung up on "paid time off". What does that even mean really in the "gig" context? Is it supposed to be some sort of income leveling scheme where pay goes into some sort of holding account and is metered out evenly over the course of a year or more like a Christmas/vacation club account at the bank where deposits are taken over the course of the year and dispensed only during a chosen time window? As someone who frequently used to pick up side jobs during my ostensibly paid vacations I'm struggling to find meaning here.

Venezuela increases internet censorship and surveillance in crisis

Eddy Ito

It will be interesting to see how Venezuela celebrates the 50th anniversary of the handbook next year.

FCC revised net neutrality rules reveal cable company control of process

Eddy Ito

Re: Class Action?

Simple, it's not legal. The problem is getting enough evidence as not many folk who didn't make a comment will bother or quite possibly know how to check to see if one was made for them. That's the point of the comcastroturf site, it makes it easy to check and gather any evidence that does exist.

For some reason I can't seem to find any of the original "The unprecedented regulatory power..." comments but there are a great number of identical "Title II" comments with two distinct flavors with one being pro-Title II and the other against. The pro version begins "I stand firmly against this proposal. Preserving net neutrality is imperative..." and the against starts "Obama’s Title II order has diminished broadband investment, stifled..." Clearly these are all of the form letter type and a few even have evidence of an actual person adding personal comments to them which seems to indicate they are real.

Unfortunately it would be possible for people to not know they have posted a comment because all it takes is a button on a web page. If it happens to read "Click here to [support, vote for, like, etc.] an open internet!" there is no way to know which form letter goes out or even if one goes out. That's part of the problem of putting much stock in online comments, they are too easy to fake and they say "I don't really care but it sounds ok so what the heck I'll give it a click". Think of it as a 'like' on FB.

Democracy-minded DEF CON hackers promise punishing probe on US election computers

Eddy Ito
Go

Hmm

A most interesting take on the Pwn2Own contest. This should be fun.

Dodge this: Fiat-Chrysler gets diesel-fuelled sueball from DoJ

Eddy Ito

Re: It's not just diesels

In addition to drivers there is also location. When I lived on the northeast (US) I regularly got mid 50s to near 60 and the drive across the continent averaged 53 with a pretty heavy foot. Sadly the first full tank in SoCal didn't make 40. Part of it is the traffic but I also think part is the different fuel blend that makes Cali-gas so expensive. I've been able to adjust so I can get reasonable mileage near the high 40s but I think the days of mid 50s are gone while I'm here.

How good are selfies these days? Good enough to fool Samsung Galaxy S8 biometrics

Eddy Ito

Re: Best feature of the sensor

Yes, yes they do but only if you're a salamander.

Republicans' net neutrality attack written by… you guessed it, the cable lobby

Eddy Ito
Meh

Yawn

I for one am not shocked. It's a little talking points memo, not legislation, that includes an opinion piece from the WSJ and transcripts of Limbaugh. Just because it doesn't lean the way the author wants it to it somehow becomes news? Kieren, you're whinging more than Wayne LaPierre talking about a memo written by team Bloomberg and distributed to the blue team by Chuck Schumer. It's always clear who writes these things so why is any surprise or even noteworthy? None with a lick of common sense ever gets fooled by it. Perhaps it's because they were honest enough to credit the actual author of the memo when other memos of both teams are typically sanitized. Seriously, if this gets your panties in a twist, you aren't cut to cover politics because lobby groups write crap like this all the time.

America's drone owner database grounded: FAA rules blown out of sky

Eddy Ito

Still looks like it hurt

Eddy Ito

You know that legislation is likely already written and is so onerous that nobody wants it known about until it comes to a time where something must be done! At which point the 1200 page law with all kinds of new rules will be passed nearly unanimously within 30 minutes of when it sees daylight because it will have a moniker like The Patriot Safer Skys and Pedophilia Prevention Act.

Vegemite tries to hijack Qantas name-our-planes competition

Eddy Ito

The unfriendly skys?

Bull Shark, Eastern Brown Snake, Taipan, Saltwater Croc, Sydney Funnel Web Spider, Blue Ring Octopus, Box Jellyfish, and Drop Bear.

If they don't like those names they might as well use Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Eddy Ito
Paris Hilton

Re: Doh!

You'd have thought the Dreamliner bit would have been an indication, no?

After stiffing us with Trump, Weiner 'fesses to underage cock shot rot

Eddy Ito

Re: How does the crooked justice system work in the USA?

"Bailiff, whack his pee pee!"

Eddy Ito
WTF?

And the reason the sentence is so very much shorter than the Secret Service employee is definitely not because of his political connections.

Go ahead, pull the other one.

Man sues date for cinema texting fiasco, demands $17.31

Eddy Ito

Re: @Robert Helpmann??

@Veti. Really?!? You've never seen drivers waiting with a sign that says "Johnson" or "Hubris party" or "over text sensitive twit" or "whathaveyou"? You really need to get out more.

Eddy Ito

Re: @Robert Helpmann??

I think a reasonable person would interpret that to mean to arrange for a ride for the now stranded party whether it's actually a cab, Lyft, or Uber is of no consequence. I would also think that, while not mandatory, it would be polite to pay for said carriage as well.

It's also unclear whether she mentioned she wasn't coming back when she went out to text but I think saying so would be the civil thing to do.

Hopefully Brandon will be wise enough to choose the next installment of the Sharknado franchise for his next date. If anything is going to test someone's resistance to texting or other phonal phidgeting it has to be Sharknado.

‪There's a ransom-free fix for WannaCry‬pt. Oh snap, you've rebooted your XP box

Eddy Ito

Re: just being naive

Had a similar issue here. Ultimately, on the third try, it took from the command line right after a reboot.

White House sicko sent down for 20 years after sexting underage girls

Eddy Ito

Re: What's the betting...

Slovenia or Trinidad! You don't have to go that far. Heck with parental consent you can get down to 16 in most U.S. states and if a court approves you can get even lower. It looks like the lowest bar is 12 for females and 14 for males in Mass but some states like Cali have no lower limit according to LII at Cornell.

What could go wrong? Delta to use facial recog to automate bag drop-off

Eddy Ito
Trollface

Time to sit out front of the airport selling masks. I figure a set of three would be plenty with Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Guy Fawkes. Oh how we'll LOL.

"CBP sees potential for the technology to transform the travel process, provided privacy issues can be addressed," CBP's spokesperson said, citing the opportunity to reduce the need to produce documents while traveling.

Spokesperson? Sounds more like a stand up comic.

WannaCrypt 'may be the work of North Korea' theory floated

Eddy Ito

Isn't scons the pronunciation for citizens of Silicone Valley?

WannaCrypt outbreak contained as hunt for masterminds kicks in

Eddy Ito
Facepalm

"Some expensive hardware (such as MRI scanners) cannot be updated immediately, and in such instances organizations will take steps to mitigate any risk, such as by isolating the device from the main network,"

Shouldn't that be "have already taken steps"? You know, like when they first knew they weren't getting any more security updates. Back in the days of floppies we called it sneakernet although write protection to ensure data only went one way was easier then. I imagine some similar protocol can still be done but it still relies on meatsacks getting it right.

Fancy a relaxed boozy holiday? Keep well away from Great Britain

Eddy Ito

Re: Easier to get guns in some states then Scotch.

Amen. There's not much like the near dead silent pause between the instant BOOM and the distant CLANG some time later. I imagine my ancient .38-55 has nowhere near the range nor recoil of a .416 but at not quite a half mile the anticipation is most cathartic on the stresses of the week.

Eddy Ito

Re: If you want puritianism then

While what you say may be true, anecdote doesn't really clarify law. The way the law is worded it is sufficiently ambiguous as to allow the Chipper or any other LEO in the state to harshly treat any driver or passenger, who may not even be aware of what is in the trunk, simply because said LEO got a pube caught in their zipper. The fact is, your bachelor party trip points it out nicely as it comes down to the personal discretion of the LEO as to whether you have a nice day. In general, I agree as it is also my experience that law enforcement in Cali are loath to do paperwork. It also seems you're better off as the size of the department grows with, in my experience, CHP being the most lenient and city/town cops the least.

Eddy Ito

Re: If you want puritianism then

Illegal even to have a closed but opened bottle (i.e. a bit has been drunk) in a car even if it is in the trunk

Most states specifically allow an opened bottle in the trunk or space other than the passenger compartment. It's only a few of the more authoritarian states that word it ambiguously which would ensnare folks.

Cali is one of the worst since it allows "any person who has purchased and partially consumed a bottle of wine to remove the partially consumed bottle from the premises upon departure" yet also says no driver or passenger "shall have in his or her possession... any bottle, can, or other receptacle containing any alcoholic beverage that has been opened or a seal broken, or the contents of which have been partially removed." Typically items in the trunk are deemed to be in the possession of the driver so while they're ok with you taking what's left of the wine bottle from the restaurant you have to have someone walk it home.

Could US appeals court save us all from 10 years of net neutrality yelling?

Eddy Ito
Meh

Either way the court decides it's likely that Thune will reintroduce a bill of some sort. It might even be better if they don't reverse themselves and likewise when it goes the next step to the Supremes. The whole concept of relying on legislation that is old enough to drink or a law that was enacted about the time the eldest member of the Supreme Court was born is a bit of a stretch as it doesn't address the reality of today. It would be nice if there was some law that was less than a thousand pages and clearly set forth a set of neutrality & privacy rules that didn't crush new entrants nor so heavily favor one internet company over another simply because they got arbitrarily divided into a different category that has different government oversight.

Android O-mg. Google won't kill screen hijack nasties on Android 6, 7 until the summer

Eddy Ito

Re: Everybody will have to upgrade to Android O

It's less backporting since Lollipop and previous already have this. It's more fixing the cockup of implementing a feature they made allowed by default in Marshmallow & Nougat. To me it's bullshit feature because isn't this exactly what notifications is for?

Chip design chap arrested for using photocopier

Eddy Ito
WTF?

Re: Huali will totes obey, absolutely

Right! They're no different from a USA, DE, UK, SG, etc. company! Never use an unfair advantage against a competitor! It's practically a universal truth!

Oh! Did you know that naive wasn't in the dictionary? It's true!