* Posts by Eddy Ito

4662 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

Connected car in the second-hand lot? Don't buy it if you're not hack-savvy

Eddy Ito

Re: Now ask me why ...

Putting the environmental friendly bit aside, the newer cars are much safer than the older models. Just look at the IIHS 50 anniversary crash between a 2009 Malibu and a 1959 Bel Air or Stuntbusters 2002 Caddy vs 1962 Caddy. While the '62 Caddy had the benefit of a more square on hit the driver still isn't walking away. Even later models from the early '90s don't have anywhere near the safety features of new cars which is very clearly demonstrated by the video of a Mexican spec 2015 Tsuru (essentially a cosmetically updated 1992 Nissan Sentra) and a U.S. spec 2016 Nissan Versa.

Folks may like the old cars because they won't see much damage from a random ding in the parking lot but they are nowhere near as safe in a high speed crash.

Google bellows bug news after Microsoft sails past fix deadline

Eddy Ito

Re: With a monthly patch cycle

MS did release a patch for the March bug but, shockingly, they didn't get it right. The November follow up was more an "oh by the way, you didn't fix the problem properly". While I do think it's more on MS for issuing a patch and brushing it off the follow up did come just before the raft of winter holidays that would have left MS short as many folks tend to either leave for the week or lollygag in the office prior to sacrificing a Turkey at the altar of an NFL triple header and then a month later do the same thing in a christmas coma that flows through the new year haze. All of which means that one would expect the December and January patch dates to be lighter than normal or filled out with longer running updates.

Of course with the schedule being set to a fixed day of the month it means that there will be either 13 or 14 weeks for three such successive days which would total 91 or 98 days which puts it beyond Google's self imposed 90 day deadline if it can't get done in the triple patch time frame. Meh, it's two companies trying to throw shade on each other and I feel I'm best off if I avoid them both as much as I can.

BlackBerry sued by hundreds of staffers 'fooled' into quitting

Eddy Ito

Re: @Yank Lurker Legality

Many places in the US start at 2 weeks plus 5-10 holidays. Typically it seems they add a week every five years up to a max of about 5-6 weeks but that means you've been there twenty or more years and if you've not reached VP level with the golden parachute they're often looking to get rid of you for someone with fresh ideas younger cheaper so they cap your vacation and shift you to the worst assignment available hoping you'll finally quit "retire".

You know IoT security is bad when libertarians call for strict regulation

Eddy Ito

Re: Your role in a movie is coming soon

@edge_e

Nice quiz. No wonder I generally dislike all candidates.

Oh, I'm thinking a six inch spike would be ill advised as it would likely pop the airbag.

Eddy Ito

Re: Your role in a movie is coming soon

@Voyna i Mor In this instance I would expect a true libertarian answer would be to ditch the regulation that makes it illegal to hack the offending IoT device and take it off line.

Haven't deleted your Yahoo account yet? Reminder: Hackers forged login cookies

Eddy Ito

it'll get stolen in the next hack (isn't there one due round about now?)

Don't worry, they'll tell us about last weeks hack in a few months or years, if they're still around.

King's College London bods recruit members for penis ring study

Eddy Ito
Trollface

Re: ffs

Hey if you're over 45 and still that flexible, more power to ya!

Infosec pros aren't too bothered by Trump – it's his cabinet sidekicks you need to worry about

Eddy Ito
Mushroom

Re: What an asshole

@AC: If this is sarcasm, well played.

If not, it's thugs like you who may force me to remove the Johnson 2016 sticker from my car for my own safety but know that your anger and rage is to me as ambrosia.

I may not get the luxury of being Meryl Streep who talks about how courageous she is standing up to Trump in a room full of her elitist clones surrounded by armed guards for fear of being harshly tweeted at by the Donald. No, I get the real world which in some places right after the election we effectively had our very own pogroms targeting folks who weren't perceived as voting your way. We get them still every time anyone but the Hillary team is invited to speak at places like Berkeley. The irony is lost on no one that 1984 is back to being a best seller especially for those of us who live in the wrong section of the country where they are censored by the "safe spaces". Do I have the newspeak definition right? Censorship is safety, I'd hate to get it wrong and commit a thoughtcrime.

Apple joins one wireless power group, the other one responds with so-happy forced grin

Eddy Ito
Devil

Re: Mis-named Wireless

I heard the new iPhone wireless charging can be done on the stove top if you have induction burners, I believe it's true. Perhaps someone can do an Youtoob video demonstrating how it works on an Apple watch.

Totally not-crazy billionaire Elon Musk: All of us – yes, even you – must become cyborgs

Eddy Ito
Devil

I can't wait!

Now it makes sense, we've been seduced by the simplicity of zombies but oh no it's going to be Mirai controlled cyborgs. Go my IoB cymbies, infect and multiply! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

No really, what could go wrong?

Crack in black: Matte iPhones losing paint at alarming rate, gripe fans

Eddy Ito

Re: I'm not a major fan of Apple stuff (more Android/Linux for me) , but ...

@Dave 126 I believe Apple are currently using 7068 aluminum which offers some strength advantages over both 7075 and 6063. Like 7075 it doesn't take anodizing quite as well as 6063 or 6061, which are about the top of the class in that respect, but both 7000 series are better than the 2000s like 2024 which is only fair. I will say a hard anodize on 7068 will get some additional abrasion resistance over the others but that may actually hinder the ability of the dye to take although I've not seen any research on that.

Kids these days will never understand the value of money

Eddy Ito

Re: The problem with this is spending discipline

I'm not convinced the studies are going to be valid much longer. Sure, if you're used to banknotes there may be a disconnect but if you've been brought up on debit/credit cards then it likely means you learn differently. There is nothing stopping a youngster, with parental permission of course, from getting a debit or check card as many banks are now offering such accounts to children as young as 13 and it functions largely same as the adult version.

The fact that tangible bills aren't being passed about won't matter since the bills themselves have no inherent value other than that bestowed upon them by fiat. The only difficulty is going to know the exact "value" of the card since they can't simply open their wallet and count what is left. This is naturally where phones or other devices will come in being able to display the remaining balance. No, I think it's going to be more a matter of familiarity than anything else.

Consider that I don't carry cash and haven't for quite some time and I'm quite aware of how any purchase will impact me but of course, I was taught to throw nickels like manhole covers. The only reason I keep a few dollars in my pocket is for when I have to pay a toll on the roadway if I've got the wrong transponder since nearly none will take credit cards. In fact, I believe they are the very same bills that I put into the wallet when it was new quite some years ago and they are likely to be the ones which go into the next wallet as well.

I'll finish by saying I find the heading a bit misleading. The value of money is ambiguous since money can be the cash in your pocket or how much you have banked. The cash in your pocket is real tangible bills but that in the bank is merely a representation of value. To that end kids may never know cash nor its value but they will absolutely know the value of money in the bank.

Grumpy Trump trumped, now he's got the hump: Muslim ban beaten back by appeals court

Eddy Ito

Re: "SEE YOU IN COURT, THE SECURITY OF OUR NATION IS AT STAKE!"

Dynasties. They're a thing.

Sorry Trevor, perhaps you missed half the purpose of this past election. Clinton/Bush, it doesn't matter, we're done.

Get orf the air over moi land Irish farmer roars at drones

Eddy Ito

Just break out the sonic screwdriver. Problem solved.

Hyperloop sueball noose-man launches tube-travel rival

Eddy Ito

Re: Hyper ~ excessively + Loop ~ convolution = Vacuum Tube extortion

I think it's going to be a tough thing for these guys to have on their CV / resume in a few years as it could lead to some interesting interview questions.

All of Blighty's attack submarines are out of action – report

Eddy Ito
Facepalm

undergoing repairs after ramming a civilian tanker

Now I'm no expert and I get they are attack subs but still I think, perhaps, they're doing it wrong.

Want to come to the US? Be prepared to hand over your passwords if you're on Trump's hit list

Eddy Ito

Re: What happens

You can visit the USA, just keep to New York, Washington state, Oregon, and California.

Just be certain you join the ranks of the chanting mobs and don't forget to smash some windows and ATM machines so you'll fit in. Don't think for a minute that it's just about Trump, these places are well known for violence. It's not new and like the other nutters they aren't representative of we folk in general regardless of what party one may have voted for.

I even took the Johnson 2016 sticker off my car because I had nutters blaming me for Hillary's defeat and that's the last thing you want bing in California since anti-Hillary=pro-Trump here. It's almost as if they think my vote counts in California. No doubt some here think I'm a nutter voting for Johnson but I'll take a mellow pot smoker over the two pugnacious imperialists any day.

Eddy Ito
Devil

This is why every country should invite Trump for a visit. Just make sure he hands over his Twitter password.

NASA's Curiosity puts cat among the climate pigeons: Lack of CO2 sinks water theory

Eddy Ito

Good thought but from the link, "The other minerals, such as magnetite and clay minerals, also provide evidence that subsequent conditions never became so acidic that carbonates would have dissolved away, as they can in acidic groundwater."

Trump's immigration clampdown has Silicon Valley techies fearing for their house prices

Eddy Ito

Re: "sell his house and make a profit"

I think you'll find that it is limited to only some "cities". Detroit, Indy, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and a whole bunch more don't have this problem. Granted it will take quite some time, if it happens at all, before San Jose and it's cousins look more like Detroit but don't think it can't happen. I'll wager Detroit never saw it coming until it was too late.

Eddy Ito

Re: "sell his house and make a profit"

I don't know about London but part of it is that politicians want expensive housing because they feel slighted by Prop 13 which limits how much they can raise property taxes. Essentially the property taxes are indexed to the sale price of the house and all the folks who bought years ago have much lower tax bills than the folks buying now. It's especially true in areas that are already well developed like San Fran since undeveloped areas get dinged with special taxes known as Mello-Roos which is why you find people paying a premium for older shacks which they can tear down and replace with a much grander house. All of this serves to limit the expansion of the housing market beyond the current geographic limits.

It's also one of the reasons I laugh when I see websites with comparisons of taxes and see California ranking as having a low "effective" property tax. It's because it averages people who bought thirty years ago and their neighbor who bought last year. One pays a very small tax because it is limited to 2% increases where the other pays a much higher tax because the sale price is an order of magnitude higher as a result of the bubble boom.

New measurement alerts! Badgers, great white sharks and the Lindisfarne Gospel

Eddy Ito

Oh, for a moment there I thought 64 people had lost the skin from back of their lower legs. Of course that would create confusion in the standardized units as we'd need to know how many calf skins made up a calf skin.

Waymo robo autos way mo' primo at avoiding-o wreck-os (yeah, yeah, we ran out of rhymes)

Eddy Ito

So will crims be able to swipe a car "deployed without human oversight" by simply walking in front of it, forcing it to stop, and then break in and manually override the system? Sure, the gps, cams, and whatnot will warn Google, et al. but the truck with a Faraday cage on the back they slap it in might hinder the process.

Imagine a ChromeOS-style Windows 10 ... oh wait, there it is and it's called Windows Cloud

Eddy Ito

And you know the ISP guys are just licking their chops thinking about the data usage fees and insane bandwidth upgrades. What? Did you think unlimited plans will exist in the internet super tollway?

Yep, that will be $200 per month for Win Cloud and the virtual hardware update to run your $75 per month game and I've gone ahead and ordered you the $150 per month Souparr-MBps service and the 2 TB data option at another $150 per month. Just be sure to call ahead if you get close to the data limit because there is a $1 per kB overage penalty so you want to be sure to buy the $50 for 500 GB bump up packs. Just sign right here. Lower cost option? But this is the lowest cost option.

Parliamentary Trump-off? Pro-Donald petition passes 100k signatures

Eddy Ito

Re: Which begs the question...

@JimC That was my main problem with the Presidential debates. It was "We need a stronger X and I will make it better and this [thief, corrupt buffoon] will destroy the country" with very little detail about the actual issue.

Don't worry, America: Elon Musk says he'll have a word with Trump

Eddy Ito

Re: Musk 'n' Trump

@Andrew Moore Since she knew it was a temp position anyway I imagine she didn't really care and was in a position to do as she wished. From her perspective it makes little difference if he fires her today or whenever his nominee, be that Sessions or not, is approved.

Seems more like kids stuff; DT: "Do this!" SY: "F you!" DT: "You're fired!" SY: "Meh"

Trump's cartoon comedy approach to running a country: 'One in, two out' rule for regulations

Eddy Ito
Meh

Big deal. It just means new regs will have the word "and" used a lot more.

Yup, tomorrow some bright spark will say "I found a regulation that requires filing form X to do action A and another regulation that requires filing form Y. I'll clean it up by writing one regulation that says to do action A one needs to file forms X, Y, and Z with a single filing fee of $2,000 instead of individual filing fees of $500."

Yeah, the only thing this might do is consolidate some of the hoops that need jumping through in a single place. It may certainly be an improvement but don't think for a second that fewer regulations means fewer hoops.

'Maker' couple asphyxiated, probably by laser cutter fumes

Eddy Ito

Re: This happened in Berkeley?

It's required in all of California to have CO detectors. Unfortunately it's very common for people to knock up a sort of back yard rental unit that is kept off the books and almost never compliant. Typically it's often made by partitioning and existing structure like a garage or as a small addition done without a permit. They are frequently available only if you know somebody who knows somebody.

Kylie withdraws from Kylie trademark fight, leaving Kylie to profit from… existing?

Eddy Ito

My guess is that it's only a matter of time before there is a dispute about the ownership of the kylie.com domain.

Silicon Valley VCs: We're gonna make California great again – on its own

Eddy Ito

@kain preacher Perhaps because you're a hypocrite who lives in NorCal?

Apple eats itself as iPhone fatigue spreads

Eddy Ito
Joke

Re: "...Even though Apple included an adapter in the box..."

Don't understand simple Game Theory.

No you don't understand! This isn't a game! It's a way of LIFE!

Did that sound convincing?

Devonians try to drive Dartmoor whisky plan onto rocks

Eddy Ito
Pint

Re: Whisky vs Whiskey

@wolfetone Actually it may come down to the heritage of the makers in the US. A quick check revealed that our bottles have both spellings, for instance Maker's Mark uses bourbon whisky and Knob Creek has bourbon whiskey. Not that it matters to us, a rose by any other name and all that.

Eddy Ito

Re: Whisky vs Whiskey

As a USian it's spelled whiskey as in bourbon whiskey.

Counter-terror cops arrest pair for sending poo-smeared toilet paper to public figures

Eddy Ito
Coat

Such a crappy job

Never use your own poo lest they track you down using DNA finger printing?

The one with nitrile gloves in the pocket.

Doomsday Clock moves to 150 seconds before midnight. Thanks, Trump

Eddy Ito
Meh

The problem with a 70 year old DOOMsday clock is that most people look at it and eventually it begins to look a lot like a bearded hippie in white frock holding a sign that reads "The end is nigh" on the corner of 46th and 7th.

Eddy Ito

Re: Don't forget the midterm elections

The senate? I don't know jake, There are only 8 red shirts in play and 22 blue shirts. The only realistic chance is for the blue shirts to grab Arizona and Nevada while defending all the others even the marginal states like Montana. Let's be honest and say that states like Tennessee and California aren't up for grabs. Consider that of the senate seats up in 2018 there is only Nevada that voted blue shirt in the presidential election and has a red shirt senator but there are nine states that have a blue shirt senator and voted red in the presidential race. That said, taking two only gets a tie with Pence as the tie breaker.

What it comes down to is how do the folks in those reversible states feel Trump does over the next two years. If their economic fortunes improve they'll likely give Trump the credit for coming through on his promises. If there is another recession, blue team cleans house but given most of the tossup states in play are already wearing blue it likely won't be enough.

I'm deadly serious about megatunnels, vows Elon Musk

Eddy Ito

Yeah but the savings from fleeing LA would likely, in a single year, pay to move, feed, and house his entire labor force in North Platte. Heck the savings in CA taxes alone would get them all a new Tesla and put solar panels on the roofs of their much larger North Platte houses. In an ironic twist it would also do more the improve the traffic in LA than any tunnel would.

Eddy Ito
Paris Hilton

Are we to believe that traffic was so much better way back in the day when he stuck his company in the middle of the LA clusterfsck? Maybe he should have considered North Platte, Nebraska.

President Trump tweets from insecure Android, security boffins roll eyes

Eddy Ito
Devil

Re: Sean Spicer too

Ok, comments say they tried to log in to his twitter with it so who has tried using this on other accounts? FB? whitehouse.gov?

Chinese bloke cycles 500km to get home... in the wrong direction

Eddy Ito

Huh?

Originally from Qiqihar, Heilongjiang province in China's extreme northwest,

You mean northeast since if it was northwest then going west would largely be the right direction. Of course if he started in Rizhao and wound up in Anhui province then he went south, not west. He'd be in Henan or maybe Shanxi if he went west.

Trump lieutenants 'use private email' for govt work... but who'd make a big deal out of that?

Eddy Ito
Facepalm

There is already evidence of doing wrong.

Officials are subject to the “Disclosure Requirement For Official Business Conducted Using Electronic Messaging Accounts," 44 U.S.C. 2209. If White House staffers have already used the RNC email system for White House work, they must copy or forward those communications into the government system within 20 days.

Clear so far?

Sounds clear to me. What you are really saying is they don't have to do a damn thing for nearly another two weeks.

I'm guessing you're one of those who will swoop across three lanes of traffic just so you won't be second in line at the traffic light.

Forget Tony Stark's Iron Man – exosuits of the future will be spandex

Eddy Ito

"a lightweight, conformal under-suit that is transparent to the user (like a diver's wetsuit)."

I don't think the Major is a diver unless he was thinking of a dive skin. A wetsuit like long johns and step in jacket that's 6 or 7 mm thick is anything but transparent to the user.

I'LL BE BATT: Arnie Schwarzenegger snubs gas guzzlers for electric

Eddy Ito

Re: "safety measures needed for pump won't be needed."

Most people recharging on the motorway are going to be high mileage business drivers

And there lies the problem. Electric charging infrastructure is essentially needed only by those few people who put serious miles on a car each day. How many customers are there going to be that can't make it from sunrise to sunset on a single charge? Folks don't hit petrol filling stations daily. For most it's more a weekly thing given a car with a range of a few hundred miles.

Sure there's the long drive scenario but that's not a daily occurrence for most so charging stations are a niche thing not mainstream. The average Joe doesn't need to recharge several times a day and typically they can do it from the comfort of their own home. Heck even small low range cars like the Mitsu MiEV or Honda Fit EV which only have ranges of 60-80 miles are enough for a typical days commute. It could be effectively doubled if it one can recharge at work.

The problem with recharging is for folks who don't have a dedicated place to park at home and have to park on the street or an apartment complex which doesn't have charging facilities. That's where the infrastructure needs to be and fast charging stations on the motorway are small niche in the overall market. Unfortunately given the competition for on street parking in most places it would mean a charger every dozen feet or so lining the street and that's not going to be aesthetically pleasing which will make it a non-starter in many neighborhoods. I can certainly see it working at markets or sit down restaurants which have a substantial dwell time but it's going to be a tough sell if folks can't plug in each night like they do with their phones.

Google: I know we promised not to mix our data silos buuuut...

Eddy Ito

Re: Relevance

Yes they want to deliver a personalized internet echo chamber for each of us so we're as out of touch with the world as the cast of La La Land and the folks who live in Silly Con Valley. What could go wrong?

ZuckerChan cash dump seals first biz gobble: A research paper slurper

Eddy Ito

Hmm, that logo is not entirely dissimilar to the one used by Česká zbrojovka

Chevy Bolt electric car came alive, reversed into my workbench, says stunned bloke

Eddy Ito

Re: Odd belief

My experience is what freezes the brakes is when it's parked for a few days and the weather is perfect for collecting maple sap which means it's going to reach about 40 F during the day and drop to freezing at night and it's highly likely it will cycle around the dew point. A weekend parked and the brake is stuck solid early Monday morning. Note that it's not always the cable since I had a perfectly free cable and spun the cylinder self adjuster all the way in and still had trouble getting the drum off because the shoes had collected just enough water from road spray to freeze directly to the drum. Undoubtedly it occurred as I was pulling into the drive since heavy breaking or a good travel distance would have cleared the water.

Eddy Ito

Re: Fault between chair and steering wheel

Which of course brings up the next question, since I'm reasonably sure the parking brake is electric like everything else, why doesn't it simply deploy automatically when put in park?

Eddy Ito

Ok Lee D, clearly you've never been to SoCal so I'll give you the real reason most people here don't use their parking brake. It's because it doesn't work. It used to work if they bought it new but after leaving it on for 30,000 miles the pads or shoes are simply worn completely to rivets and perhaps beyond. We folks in the southland like our ginormous anti-social speaker systems and keep them turned up so loud we don't have to listen to the horns of the people we've nearly driven off the road with our bad driving habits. Needless to say, that grinding noise coming from the rear wheels is completely lost in the THUMP of our beats that we can only feel in our chests because our ears no longer function - hence the heavy bass bias which often rattles the windows, not that we hear that either. That brings up why we don't signal even if swooping across five lanes of traffic, you see we needed to run all the extra power cables to the amp in the trunk so we rerouted the power for the directional flasher and two brake lights back there. I know it's hard to understand but any money not spent on the sound system goes into the overwide Dubs and stretched 185/35 tires, not on maintenance. That's why if it looks like we spent more money on the wheels than the car it's because we did. FYI, the skinny tires are stretched so the sidewall is slanted inward because if it went straight up it would rub the fender since the wheels are so wide we had to pick the wrong offset that's going to wear out the wheel bearings before the tires go bald. But it's cool, we'll be chillin' to our beats.

No, really, a lot of them evidently think like that.

Eddy Ito

My money is on operator error. Likely backed into the bench and had his wife cover for him while he was out the next day in order to place the blame elsewhere when the insurance company asks wtf happened.

I will say that even though I drive a stick and use the hand brake religiously to prevent the cable from freezing in my car I do forget about half the time with my wife's car, an automatic, simply because the parking brake is a pedal and not a lever between the seats.

Trump inauguration DDoS protest is 'illegal', warn securobods

Eddy Ito

Re: Land of the Free

So you won't mind having the police there during your DoS to ensure order and prevent violence. You're conflating riot with protest. DoS is a riot. If your protest blocks streets and access to buildings, it isn't a protest. The protest marches that close off streets or other access are handled properly with permits and advance warning so people who wish to avoid it can. How does that compare to your DoS? Where are you going to go to get your permit?