* Posts by frank ly

6077 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Death Stars are a waste of time – here's the best way to take over the galaxy

frank ly

@Peter Gathercole Re: Ships building ships - re. Ringworld

The Culture orbital habitats didn't encircle their star, as Larry Niven's Ringworld did. They were 'small' bands that orbited a star and were slightly tilted out of the plane of orbit and themselves rotated with a one 'day' period so that the part of the band nearest the star didn't shade the other side of the band, thus simulating a day/night cycle.

Australian government urges holidaymakers to kill two-factor auth

frank ly

@Adam1

"...portal of hate ..."

I first read that as '... portal of late' , which makes sense. I'm sure your choice of word makes sense too :)

Windows 10: What's coming in 2016?

frank ly

Re: First, second and third thing to come:

I have a Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit installation from a 'recycled' product key that I bought on ebay for £26. It works and gives me updates (often and slowly) but has never offered me an upgrade to Win 10. Is this because it's recycled/resold or have I been lucky/unlucky?

Comcast 'rolls out' 'world's first' DOCSIS 3.1 modem, pumping 1Gbps over existing cable

frank ly

What would happen if ....

.... everybody in the neighbourhood signed up for this and expected 1Gb/s at peak times?

North Wales Police outsourcing deal results in massive overspend

frank ly

Re: 'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, what's all this then ?

The suppliers said, "We thought it was a joke so we didn't take the contract seriously.""

Windows for Warships? Not on our new aircraft carriers, says MoD

frank ly

@graeme leggett re. GR5 leading edge

Do you mean the wing root extension (about 3ft by 2ft)? If so, I understand that it gave additional lift and reduced turbulence slightly (the two effects probably assisting each other).

Former security officials and BlackBerry CEO pile in on encryption debate

frank ly

He said, she said

"One of the world's most powerful tech companies recently refused a lawful access request in an investigation of a known drug dealer because doing so would 'substantially tarnish the brand' of the company. ..."

This is obviously a reference to WhatsApp and the recent Brazilian court case. In the small number of reports that I've read, it's been said that WhatsApp refused but gave no further details of any reasons why. Where is John Chen getting his quotes from?

Google chap bakes Amiga emulator into Chrome

frank ly

"The emulator ships with other apps, too."

If it shipped with Frontier Elite, I'd get it. Ahhh, I remember it well.

Bungled storage upgrade led to Google cloud brownout

frank ly

Re: Eternal Beta

"... adding formal release mechanics to something which was built and shipped for years without them is unbelievably hard."

Even if you get the mechanics in place, you then have to change the 'culture' and mindset of many people. That can be impossibly hard.

EE recalls all 'Power Bar' USB batteries due to 'fire safety risk'

frank ly

You know you've been warned ....

"... after being The Register warned ..."

.... when you've been The Register warned.

Press Backspace 28 times to own unlucky Grub-by Linux boxes

frank ly

This explains why ....

.... my Mint installation offered an update to Grub2 yesterday. It was marked as an important security update but was also maked as a 'level 5' update: "Dangerous updates. Known to affect the stabilty of he systems depending on certain specs or hardware."

Because of this confusion, I blocked the update. I think I'll keep it blocked.

Cyber security buck stops with me, says Dido Harding

frank ly

Striking a balance is difficult

"... advice received from the police was not to warn our customers."

That wasn't advice, it was a request.

"She said that it had been a reasonable position for cops to take as the police's priority was to catch the criminals."

True, but it should have been her priority to protect her customers.

Windows' authentication 'flaw' exposed in detail

frank ly

A silly(?) question

"The krbtgt user is created when the system is first installed and is inactive, so it can remain untouched on a system for years – providing ready access to a hacker."

What is/was the reason for creating that user?

Japan unveils net-wielding police drones for air patrol

frank ly

Re: The video

I've no idea why, but the video started in the middle when I opened the link and I didn't notice. Thanks for telling me. (The bad drone wasn't making an effort at evasive flying.)

frank ly

The video

It showed the police drone landing with a 'bad' drone entangled in the net. It didn't show it intercepting and catching a bad drone. I wonder why not?

Typo in case-sensitive variable name cooked Google's cloud

frank ly

Why wasn't this noticed by the compiler ....

.... or whatever other form of code processing and loading?

Google cloaks Android in Red Screen of malware Dearth

frank ly
Coat

Dearth mauls malware

Just an idea.

Brit-American hacker duo throws pwns on IoT BBQs, grills open admin

frank ly

Re: IoT BBQ?

Your wheelie bin's been reading the RFID tags on the discarded packaging. I won't say anything but this is going to be really embarassing for you when more people find out how to access it.

Bitcoin inventor Satoshi 'outed' as Aussie, then raided by cops – but not over BTC

frank ly

Tulip Trading

Does anybody remember what happened the last time there was significant trading of tulips?

Google says its quantum computer is 100 million times faster than PC

frank ly

Re: sorry, not a geek but

"... whats the trade off?"

They're 100 million times more expensive to buy and run?

Battery-free IoT sensor feeds off radio waves

frank ly

How do you tell them apart?

If you have more than one of these things, or other similarly operated sensors, how do you know which one of several mass produced chips you are listening to?

Pirate Bay domain suspended thanks to controversial verification system

frank ly

@Robert Helpmann?? Re: Hold on...

I have a prepaid credit card (registered to me, not bought at a store) and it is not accepted for certain kinds of payment, such as those that need ongoing payment authority. I believe that hosting firms would require a 'regular' credit card that didn't have the possibility of runing empty and probably because they want your registered name and address in case of problems.

Alleged Silk Road architect arrested in Thailand

frank ly

Re: Pay?

It's a safe bet that organised criminals who plan violence as part of their operations don't think about things in the same way that you or I do.

Obama calls out encryption in terror strategy speech

frank ly

re. San Bernadino killings

Is there any indication that the people involved were using encryption as part of their 'activities'?

Manchester 'wins' £10m to test talking bus stops

frank ly

IoT of bikes

You will be assimilated - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBFFrsvgu1Y

Microsoft encrypts explanation of borked Windows 10 encryption

frank ly

Interpretation?

"... a customer commitment to investigate reported security issues ..."

Obviously, the customer has to investigated reported security issues themselves.

Target settles with banks for $40m after data breach

frank ly

I wonder

Will Target's executives lose their bonuses this year or will they be given bonuses for speedy resolution of the settlement process; then pay rises to reflect their recently aquired and valuable experience in this important area of corporate activity.

Brit hardware hacker turns Raspberry Pi Zeros into selfie slayers

frank ly

I'm wondering

Would it be possible to spoof a connection and deliver a mocked up error page saying "Get a life" or something like that? I have a more evil idea in mind but I'm not going to say what it is, in case it happens to one of you lot one day.

Blighty competition watchdog pokes pointy finger into cloud storage

frank ly

Re: Why do they do it?

I haven't lost any photos etc for fifteen years. I started with a 250GB drive on my LAN and a 250GB 'backup copy' in a desk drawer; (yes, it should be stored in a friend's house). Now, I have a 2TB drive on the LAN and 2 x 1T backup drives in the drawer. It's not difficult to organise and is resistant to computer madness or single instances of personal stupidity.

frank ly

Why do they do it?

The only serious use I can think of for personal/domestic cloud storage is for convenient sharing/showing of files to friends and family. Dropbox is good for that and is free for small amounts of storage, as are other providers. I can't understand why people pay monthly to use 'the cloud' to purely store personal photos and music/video collections when you consider that a new 1TB hard drive can be had for about £35 or a 2TB drive for about £55.

If a picture tells a 1000 words about latency, Google won't load it

frank ly

'Image Block' plugin for Firefox

That works too.

Australian test finds robot essay assessors on par with human teachers

frank ly

Re: Next Step

The essay generator could pass its output to the essay marker to get feedback of its own score, then adjust its own output so as to maximise its score. If done properly, this would result in a 'perfect' essay.

Hello Barbie controversy re-ignited with insecurity claims

frank ly

Re: FTFY

When I placed the cursor over that link, it showed me the URL, with '.pdf' at the end. Doesn't your browser do that?

Court: Swedish ISPs can't be forced to block Sweden's Pirate Bay

frank ly

At the moment ....

.... thepiratebay is running on a .org.ua (Ukraine) domain as it slowly sails the seven seas (metaphorically). Anybody who's seriously interested in connecting to it will avoid any ISP blocks by using a VPN plugin for their browser or have a full VPN set up.

Mr Grey, the Russian hacker who helped haul in 1.2 billion logins

frank ly

Why am I Mr Grey?

Because you're a goddam bore!

Australian cops rush to stop 2AM murder of … a spider

frank ly

Re: Eek!

A can of Mortein ...... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortein

Mobe-maker OnePlus 'fesses up to flouting USB-C spec

frank ly

10kΩ vs 56kΩ resistors

Can anyone explain how these values are related to the provision of 2 Amps from a low voltage power supply?

Lights, power, action! Smartplugs with a twist

frank ly

Zeroth world problem

There's an overpriced tech toy for that.

MPs and peers have just weeks to eyeball UK gov's super-snoop bid

frank ly

"... although there should be judicial involvement it should be an oversight of political decisions, rather than supplanting them."

Does this mean that the Bishop thinks that Investigatory Powers will be used for political purposes rather that legal purposes?

"At the end of the day, the role of the judiciary is to be kept clear and distinct from the political process."

I thought that one of the roles of the judiciary is to give protection from abuse of political powers.

Why Microsoft yanked its latest Windows 10 update download: It hijacked privacy settings

frank ly

Re: people's unique advertising ID numbers

It's a product ID number. The user is the product.

Pen tester sounds alert over 'gaping' flaws in Brit alarm platform

frank ly

Marketing 101

"Tierney claims the company says more risk-averse customers can buy more expensive and better secured devices."

It's important to differentiate the key features within your product range.

EE plans to block annoying ads on mobile network

frank ly

"Immediately my Osprey Mini started receiving premium text messages ..."

I'm convinced that those actions are technically theft, in law. So, why aren't the buggers in court?

One-armed bandit steals four hours of engineer's busy day

frank ly

Re: Epson

It's a couple of miles south from Kingston upon Memory.

Car radars gain sharper vision after ITU assigns special spectrum slice

frank ly

Re: Interesting link

Can yours penetrate fog? (Does 79GHz penetrate fog?)

Fix sweetens foul cookie that kept open Aussie tax login portals

frank ly

re. "... red and blue security teams."

Can somebody explain what these teams are and do?

Belling that cat: Oz boffins pass entanglement test

frank ly
Happy

Re: "Two-cubit operations"

I couldn't fathom that out.

Refined player: Fedora 23's workin' it like Monday morning

frank ly

re. Nautilus's ever-declining usability,

Sighs, I know what you mean. Mint's 'Caja' seems to do everything that Nautilus used to do so it might be possible to use it, somehow?

MoD-founded firm Niteworks loses login creds of UK defence folk

frank ly

Don't tell him your username Pike!

Sound waves could power the future's magnetic HDDs

frank ly

Areal storage density?

Using reasonable assumptions, how would the areal storage density compare with present 'mainstream' magnetic HDDs? I assume that the device could be made in the form of a small sheet containing nanowires and surrounded/wrapped in drive and sense devices to give a standard 3.5" or 2.5" form factor.

Apple's OS X App Store downloads knackered by expired security cert

frank ly

Calendar, Events, Alarms, Alerts, Notifications

Isn't there an app for that?