* Posts by frank ly

6077 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Are you an open-sorcerer or free software warrior? Let us do battle

frank ly

Re: Free beer is easy to explain

Do you mean that I don't have to pay for a bottle/glass of beer? Or, do you mean that knowledge of the ingredients and brewing method is available for me to use as I wish?

Boffins upload worm's brain into a computer, teach it tricks

frank ly

Motivation?

"...it just emerged by training a biological nerve system ..."

Was there some kind of 'punishment' applied if the pole fell over and a 'reward' if the pole was balanced for a certain time?

Winter Olympics website downed by cyber attack

frank ly

It had to be said

"You will understand that maintaining secure operations is our focus. ..."

They seem to have lost focus.

Brit regulator pats self on back over nuisance call reduction: It's just 4 billion now!

frank ly

60 calls a person

That's just over one a week on average. I'm TPS registered (landline and mobile) and very rarely get nuisance calls so some people out there must be suffering badly. Is it the TPS registration that protects me or the fact that I don't call lots of people or organisations?

Home taping revisited: A mic in each hand, pointing at speakers

frank ly

Pics, or it didn't happen!

"... while I was a mullet-coiffed, pixie-boot attired student in the early 1980s."

MPs: Lack of technical skills for Brexit could create 'damaging, unmanageable muddle'

frank ly

It was ever thus

"The report singled out "a particularly critical need for project management, technical and digital skills"."

LISA Pathfinder sniffed out gravitational signals down to micro-Hertz

frank ly

Re: "gas molecules bouncing around inside the satellite were sufficient to register as noise. "

"... testing relativity with perfect glass spherical gyroscopes ..."

Is that one called 'Balanced Axis Relativity Tester'?

Peers approve Brit film board as pr0n overlords despite concerns

frank ly

Should I laugh or cry?

"... Clement-Jones said he didn't think the privacy-by-design approach from the ICO would be "particularly onerous" for audiovisual providers and pornographers, in terms of requiring them to find an anonymised solution."

‘I crashed a rack full of servers with my butt’

frank ly

"... your tail of woe..."

I see what you did there. (I strap mine to my leg so it doesn't wag against anything important or delicate.)

You can find me in da club, database full of faces… but this ain't privacy watchers' jam

frank ly

Security by obscurity

"... it can't say anymore about those checks in case someone games it ..."

If it can be gamed, it will be gamed.

Having said that, it's probably not worth anyone's effort to game it for these particular clubs. The situation may be different if that application goes nationwide.

What a Hancock-up: MP's social network app is a privacy disaster

frank ly

From now on, can we call him 'The Lad'?

No Windows 10, no Office 2019, says Microsoft

frank ly

Re: As soon as Windows 7 support finishes

Photoshop CS6 seems to run well under WINE on Linux, if that's any use to you.

Borked bog forces flight carrying 83 plumbers to bug out back to base

frank ly

"... we did not take the risk to send a plumber [out] at 10,000 metres."

There were 84 of them. They could have all pulled together and formed a human chain.

The Zuck promises to give you more local news – and so save the world

frank ly

All these eyes and click throughs can be yours if you will fall down and worship me.

We won't need to go outside if these haptic tricksters have their way

frank ly

One little word

"... the electrodes would need to be incorporated into some kind of dry suit you can easily wear."

I think a wet suit would be more comforatble and cheaper too.

User stepped on mouse, complained pedal wasn’t making PC go faster

frank ly

Pressing the foot pedal

Hindsight is wonderful, if you can have it. Perhaps he could have made an introductory video, showing himself or a friend using a computer and pointing out the 'important bits' and how they are used.

You only realise that certain problems can even exist after you encounter them.

libcurl has had auth leak bug since 'the first commit we recorded'

frank ly

There's always something nowadays

I didn't have curl on my Debian 9 (Stretch) installation but I did have libcurl3 v.7.52.1-5. So I installed curl and it was v.7.52.1-5. I'll give it a regular prod with the update stick to see how quickly Debian deal with this.

PACK YOUR BAGS! Two Trappist-1 planets have watery oceans, most likely to be inhabitable

frank ly

"... and retain a good level of heat to avoid runaway greenhouse effects that would boil away any water."

Should that say, "... but avoid runaway ..."?

Does this mean they've modelled different possible atmospheres as well?

Maverick internet cop Chrome 64 breaks rules to thwart malvert scum

frank ly

A good thing

"Chrome is actually breaking the web standards by blocking forced redirects,"

I'd want a browser to block forced redirects.

Blockchain rebrand sends Stapleton Capital's shares soaring

frank ly

My new name:

Cyber Crypto Blockchain-Ly

Soon, I shall be rich.

HMRC dev support team cc blurtfest: Over 1,400 email addresses blabbed

frank ly

Re: Irregular verbs

It's derived from the use of the noun 'shutters' which are often placed over the windows and doors of permises that are closed, either temporarily or permanently. Hence the creation of the verb 'shutter' - to put into a closed state and make not available for use.

The Reg visits London Met Police's digital and electronics forensics labs

frank ly

furthermore ....

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/police-mugshots-storing-not-charged-unlawful-home-office-minister-government-norman-lamb-a8168256.html

'The capacitors exploded, showering the lab in flaming confetti'

frank ly

Confetti

I was once close to a high voltage paper separater capacitor that blew up. The bang and the confetti were impressive. After the bang, the resulting shock/fear reaction, enhances the surreal effect of the confetti in the air.

Don't panic... but our fragile world is drifting away from the Sun

frank ly

Logical anomaly?

“But this effect increases with the distance from the Sun. ..."

“Mercury is the perfect test object for these experiments because it is so sensitive to the gravitational effect and activity of the Sun,"

Maybe Pluto would be a better test object?

Sili-spurned Valley! No way, San Jose! Amazon snubs SF Bay Area in search for HQ2 city

frank ly

Double Plus Sad

"Sadly, the ambitious town of Stonecrest in Georgia did not make the cut, despite promising to change its name to Amazon if selected."

The Register Lecture: The Secret Spitfires

frank ly

Re: Adolph Hitler????

Can you suggest a correction for the 'mistake'?

Capita's UK military recruiting system has 'glitches' admits minister

frank ly

Capita?

I thought they were known by a different name here.

Hey Europe, your apathetic IT spending is ruining it for everyone

frank ly

Re: Of course there's also pretty listless growth

We need a shiny new thing to buy (or be bought for us). Self-driving AI controlled cars will save the economies of the world.

Hawaiian fake nukes alert caused by fat-fingered fumble of garbage GUI

frank ly

Re: Confirmation checkbox needed

According to a report in The Independent, there was a confirmation stage and the operator did press 'yes'. What it needs is a big, red, flashing illuminated sign at the other end of the room with a big, red, flashing confirmation button to be pressed. I suppose that would be too expensive.

Microsoft finally injects end-to-end chat crypto into Skype – ish...

frank ly

Why did I read the first sentence as, "Microsoft has bungled ..."?

Heathrow Airport's local council prohibits drone flights from open spaces

frank ly

Re: What about?

If you can make it walk like a duck then you might have a chance.

Fancy a fidget? Craze makes debut entry into PornHub's top searches

frank ly

Re: Fidget spinners?

I found out. Human imagination and ingenuity is indeed a wonderous thing, if a bit repetitive and squealy.

Russia claims it repelled home-grown drone swarm in Syria

frank ly

"... but appear to have few metal parts and lack even landing wheels."

They don't need landing wheels for a suicide mission. The lack of metal parts was probably an attempt to avoid radar detection.

Teach citizens IoT dangers, engineering students cybersecurity, Uncle Sam suggests

frank ly

Re: Make the producers liable

"Due to its traditional hands-off approach to industry and the fact that the internet mostly resides in private hands, there is little that the DoC or DHS can do in real, solid terms."

If an electricity supplier switched 11kV onto a domestic feeder, resulting in damage and/or injury; would the attitude be the same?

Good lord, Kodak's stock is up 120 per cent. How? New film? Oh. It launched a crypto-coin

frank ly

You need to be patient and wait to capture the moment.

Boffins use inkjets to print explosives

frank ly

Re: Not usually one for pedantry

You're probably right. I'm wondering why they use copper oxide instead of iron oxide, which is usual for bulk thermite. I assume it makes a better/easier printing 'ink' or sticks to the substrate better, or something.

Supremes asked to mull legality of Silicon Valley privacy 'slush funds'

frank ly

Good choice of picture

With more than one interpretation.

CCTV commish: Bring all surveillance systems under code of practice

frank ly

ANPR

Also used in car parks and motorway service staions.

Parliamentary 'puters made 30k tries to procure pr0nz last year

frank ly

Re: Is that not a challenge?

Why don't they use a VPN? They're quite cheap to rent.

You GNOME it: Windows and Apple devs get a compelling reason to turn to Linux

frank ly

snap/flatpak/.appimage

I've been using .appimage excecutables for a while now, which are essentially unmanaged (at the user end) self-contained applications with no dependencies on installed libraries, etc. Does anyone know if there are major technical or security differences between snap, flatpak and .appimage applications?

South Australia bins emergency alert app, contract

frank ly

Ripe for ridicule

"... have lost confidence in this app to provide the 99.9 per cent reliability as is stipulated in our contract”.

The contract will be allowed to expire in June, when it is next due for renewal, ..."

A contract for a non-compliant service will be allowed to run for another six months?

What about the AU$250,000 p.a. already paid?

Military alliance NATO adopts official hymn

frank ly

@AC re. Re: Words?

anthem

/ˈænθəm/

noun

1.

a song of loyalty or devotion, as to a nation or college: a national anthem

2.

a musical composition for a choir, usually set to words from the Bible, sung as part of a church service

3.

a religious chant sung antiphonally

4.

a popular rock or pop song

frank ly

Re: Words?

It's not technically an anthem if it doesn't have words. Can any commentareds suggest lyrics?

Jocks in shock as Irn-Bru set to slash sugar and girder content

frank ly

Lateral Thinking

Can't the 'traditionalists' just add a teaspoon of sugar to it when they open it? I suspect that 'Irn-Bru Classic' will be on sale in the summer.

Linux Mint 18.3: A breath of fresh air? Well, it's a step into the unGNOME

frank ly

Timeshift

If you want to have 'real timeshift', you boot from a Gparted Live CD/USB and save/restore entire partitions. It doesn't take long and it's a proper time machine. (I'm old fashioned.)

Fetch calls Uber's bluff: See you in court, bros!

frank ly

'Beauty' contest for courts?

"... Uber wants to pick a court that is more favorable to its case by asking the district court dismiss the claim and allow it pursue the case in a state court."

How does that even happen?

Hyperledger 3 years later: That's the sound of the devs... working on the chain ga-a-ang

frank ly

re. "Sawtooth - contributed by Intel -"

"Its consensus mechanism relies on extensions in Intel processors, though, limiting it to that architecture."

Can't this be emulated on other processors, or is there a timing issue?

Am I alone in thinking that allowing Intel to slip this into the project may not have been a good idea?

Astroboffins say our Solar System could have – wait, stop, what... the US govt found UFOs?

frank ly

Re: Aluminum . . .

Is it transparent?

Ubuntu 17.10 pulled: Linux OS knackers laptop BIOSes, Intel kernel driver fingered

frank ly

Re: Debian SID

I thought Ubuntu was based on Debian Testing and then given some grinding and polishing by Canonical. Given that Testing is only about six months into the usual two year development cycle then Sid might be a close approximation. This is why I wait for the Stable/LTS releases.

Meet R2-DILDO: 'Star Wars' sex toys? This is where the fun begins

frank ly

Try later

"... we're trying to get the firm on the blower ..."

They're already testing it.