* Posts by Bucky 2

637 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

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Naked cyclists take a hard line on 'aroused' protest participant

Bucky 2

Anyone who has ever been a teenager (well, has ever been a teenaged boy) will know that--frequently--the thing does what it wants, whether or not you're actually thinking of anything sexy.

Hacker uses Starbucks INFINITE MONEY for free CHICKEN SANDWICH

Bucky 2

Re: No excuse to hack

As much as I like to picture corporations like Starbucks as faceless organizations, ultimately the reaction to the hack is going to come from an actual human being acting in an actual human way.

That human is going to react like this: He walks into his house and finds a stranger sitting in his living room. The stranger says, "look, I've taken nothing, this is how I did it, and now you can make your home safer." The human is going to to have hysterics, threaten the guy with the police and then eat a half gallon if ice cream in one sitting once the guy leaves.

Yeah, maybe the cracker did a Good Thing in the abstract, but geez....

Adult FriendFinder hack EXPOSES MEELLIONS of MEMBERS

Bucky 2

Heh heh. You said "junk email addresses." Heh heh heh.

Factory reset memory wipe FAILS in 500 MEELLION Android mobes

Bucky 2
Facepalm

It seems simple enough. If you want the new owner of your machine to see all the pictures of your own wang, just do a factory reset.

Otherwise, use "Shred" or something similar, like a normal person.

What are cellphone networks blabbing about you to the Feds? A US senator wants to know

Bucky 2
Trollface

Should be simple enough

Each government request would naturally be accompanied by a court order. Such a court order would naturally detail what information was being requested.

All the cell company would need to do is provide the court document numbers of all the requests.

Ta da! Done.

Get off the phone!! Seven out of ten US drivers put theirs and your lives at risk

Bucky 2

Which one am I?

When I'm shouting "I'm-headed-to-the-store-period-do-you-need-anything-question-mark. Send" at my phone, does that make me part of the 61%, or the 39%?

Mobiles at school could be MAKING YOUR KID MORE DUMBER

Bucky 2

Re: Back in the day ...

Everybody knows what a transistor does. I'd have to agree, though, that exactly how it does it is lost on me, too.

Huawei announces tiny 10 KB IoT kernel

Bucky 2
Trollface

"Network Congress"?

I'm familiar with the Congress Of The Cow, and the Congress Of The Tiger, but Network Congress? I'm having trouble picturing that one.

AI pioneer reckons China's where the Rise of the Machines will start

Bucky 2
Black Helicopters

Re: He's not wrong

I remember calling a plumber and finding that it was not standard practice for him to bring his own tools.

As I chat with people who still live in China, I understand that this continues to be true to the present day.

My perception is that the innovation that comes out of China is along the lines of the WWII innovation that was called "Jerry rigging." It is certainly true that the engineers in China enjoy a similar lack of availability of resources.

As for Baidu, well, it's impossible to talk about a "search" engine in China without addressing the increasingly terrifying effect of Chinese censorship. I'm sure that it is indeed very streamlined once you eliminate all concepts which are not approved ahead of time.

Californians get first chance to be run over by a Google robot

Bucky 2
Flame

I look forward to it

I live in a resort community. Many folks on the road are from out of town. They don't know where they are, don't know where they're going, and believe this is just cause for ignoring traffic laws entirely (right turns from left lanes, going half the posted speed limit in the passing lane, and so on).

I don't suppose such self-absorbed folks would ever use a driverless car simply because it's easy (cabs have already been invented, after all), but I would love to see them prosecuted to the full extent of the law with the aid of the electronic logs from robot cars.

Massive police 'heavy equipment' robot drags out suspect who hid inside television

Bucky 2
Trollface

Re: It is better to send robots

I had a "yeah but" moment, so I had to do the math.

4-5 times per year per 53 million people

vs

461 times per year per 319 million people

or 0.08 ppm vs 1.4 ppm

So the UK really shoots at people at a gigantic 5% of the US rate, rather than the totally exaggerated 1% that was implied.

ICANN wants total control of DNS while breaking its own bylaws to block .africa probe

Bucky 2
Trollface

Shocked

I'm shocked that people still think ICANN is trying to be transparent and accountable for its actions.

Avengers: Age of Ultron – blisteringly big banter, brawls and brio

Bucky 2

Re: Background

Also Iron Man 3 suffers from the "Cousin Oliver" syndrome.The cute kid that boosts ratings in the short term, meanwhile giving the die-hard fans diabetes and making them tune out in disgust.

Google sticks anti-SQL injection vaccine into MySQL MariaDB fork

Bucky 2
Alien

Some Clarification Would Be Nice

I'm betting the anti-injection stuff and the at-rest crypto stuff are related somehow (perhaps the same encryption algorithms are used in each case), but of course, one does not imply the other, and we are all puzzled by the anti-injection claim.

I wonder if the original article was longer, and the editing process managed to obfuscate the main topic somehow.

Some clarification about why this encryption method will succeed while others fail would be a good addition to the article.

Are you sure there are servers in this cold, dark basement?

Bucky 2

bitter what?

Bit him, too.

Encryption is the REAL threat – Head Europlod

Bucky 2

Re: That Dutch MEP nailed it pretty much

@xeroks:

When only bad guys and weirdos use encryption, detecting bad guys is easy: just pay attention to the encrypted communication - who sent it, who received it, and when it happened. Presumably it's easier, when required, to crack a small number of emails.

Alas, the prerequisite to detecting encrypted communication in this scenario is to intercept ALL communication, and then analyse all of it to identify the encryption.

This kind of widespread wiretapping is supposed to be legally unavailable to a government.

Boffins build Cyborg beetles, fly them by remote control

Bucky 2

Sounds familiar

I remember reading something like this some time ago. I believe it was a biography entitled, "Danny Dunn, Invisible Boy."

Storm in a K-Cup: My SHAME over the eco-monster I created, says coffee pod inventor

Bucky 2
Black Helicopters

Salvage or Recycle?

We have a Keurig machine at work. In addition to those little disposable one-shot things, it also comes with a plastic filter thing that you can load with your own coffee, make a cup, and then rinse and repeat.

Under the circumstances, the choice to litter the environment or not seems like it's in the hands of the drinker every time he puts himself in front of the coffee maker and asks himself how he's going to make his next cup.

Apple: We could expose our WHOPPING 12 INCH iPad - but it's not real

Bucky 2
Pint

They like the "display panel" excuse

It's Apple's version of "Sorry, not my table."

Forget 1,000 lashes for Facebook posts, Saudis now want to behead blogger Raif Badawi

Bucky 2
Devil

The real reason

I was initially opposed to the punishment.

But then I saw his hippie hair. I suppose I can look the other way this once.

Photoshop daddy: 'I’m not happy with body image issues it creates for a lot of women'

Bucky 2

I'm being oppressed!

Those pictures of Chris Hemsworth in that Thor movie are giving me sad feelings because I don't look like him.

Unfair! Unfair!

Bloke in Belgium tries to trademark Je Suis Charlie slogan

Bucky 2

Justice would imply

...that only the applicant would have to pay whenever he used the term "Je Suis Charlie."

Samsung, LG wash dirty laundry in two separate court cases

Bucky 2
Joke

Common in the East

I base that on the fact that this sort of thing used to happen on Speed Racer all the time.

'Giving geo-engineering to this US govt is like giving a child a loaded gun'

Bucky 2

Be Excellent to Each Other

Surveys of public opinion in recent times have shown solid majority support for the idea that human activity is a cause of climate change, but only a minority holding the opinion that climate change is caused entirely or mostly by human activity.

Such surveys always remind me of the beginning of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, where they're doing their History homework by sitting on the curb in front of Circle K and asking passers-by questions about historical figures.

Google boffins PROVE security warnings don't ... LOOK! A funny cat!

Bucky 2

Re: I've seen and bypassed this message.

Self-signed certificates should be warned something like this...

I would agree that your message is clear and correct.

However, I don't think you've worked much in support. A message like this is too long.

*ring* *ring* "Hello, I got an error message."

"What did it say"

"I don't know. Party something."

Keylogger: Somebody STOP ME! Oh hang on, I just did

Bucky 2

What was that book...?

It involved a protection racket that made business pay for fire insurance, or else they'd burn the place down.

Business owners proved even more corrupt, and burned their own places down, driving the racketeers to bankruptcy with insurance claims.

Don't know why this article made me think of racketeers, though.

Beam me up, Scotty, And VAPORIZE me in the process

Bucky 2

The best use case I can come up with is that what we're talking about is a cheap scan of the source object, using a scanning technique that destroys that object as it removes each layer to discover the next. The source object would best be made of a very cheap material, of course, and part of its creation might be manual, rather than designed and rendered.

Once the object has been scanned in this destructive way, then it can be mass-produced using the 3-dimensional model now in computer memory--perhaps using much more expensive materials than the original.

The more copies you make, the more value this scanning method might have.

Defining the process as being fundamentally limited to a single copy seems unreasonable.

SO. Which IS more important to humanity: Facebook, or Portugal?

Bucky 2
Happy

Re: Ruffled Feathers

I'm not sure I agree that Facebook is only full of sad people.

I AM sure that Portugal is absolutely marvelous, though.

Firefox 35 stamps out critical bugs

Bucky 2

Re: Firefox stability problems?

The receptionist told me it would be a long job as they had to take all the wheels off and check the brake assemblies to determine which one it was.

Since it's the brakes, it's probably not about a simple diagnosis, but more about liability.

In your case, the mechanic's probably just as happy to skip all the unnecessary steps, because you told him not to do them. Then if there's Something Else wrong, you can't sue him for not doing what you told him not to do.

Computers know you better than your friends

Bucky 2

It's true. Before Facebook, only my spouse knew I liked kitties, national parks, and dirty jokes.

I feel so violated.

I don't think you're ready for this Jelly: Google pulls support for Android WebView

Bucky 2

Browser != OS

Firefox and Chrome seem to work just fine as downloads, and update just fine independent of the Android version.

Saying that they won't patch old versions of this "Web View" monkey should be a non-issue. It should update independently, just like any other browser.

That they've bound it to the underlying operating system means they've done a silly thing, and they should undo that silly thing.

SpaceX: CATS with FRIKKIN' LASERS to blast off to space station

Bucky 2
Unhappy

I was sad not to find a picture of a kitty to post on the Facebook.

Internet Explorer 12 to shed legacy cruft in bid to BEAT Chrome

Bucky 2
Pint

I thought people wanted consistency.

I use Firefox mostly out of habit--not because I've carefully evaluated all possibilities and chosen the one that's perfect for me. I've been with it since the Netscape Navigator days.

I install it on all my devices. Because I can. And because it gives me a consistent experience no matter what I'm using.

You just can't mix and match devices with IE (not since, I think, IE5).

For me, that's the only real barrier. It's easier to be as lazy as I want to be when I've got the same browser everywhere.

Google's Gmail staggers to feet in China as access partially restored

Bucky 2
Trollface

The People's Republic has consistently denied having deliberately blocked Google's services as part of its "Great Firewall" effort.

Yeah, but they ALSO deny state-sponsored hacking.

Buses? PAH. Begone with your filthy peasant-wagons

Bucky 2

Re: The best urban transport

Alas, the problem with bicycles is similar to the problem with a religion.

In principle, it SOUNDS great. But when you actually add the people, you run into problems. Often terrible problems. It becomes easy to equate the douchebaggery of one psychopathic group of practitioners (e.g.: ISIS, Critical Mass) with the entire group.

Blu-ray region locks popped by hardware hacker

Bucky 2

Re: Region Locks @Vladimir

I see your point, but this is just how publishing rights have ever worked, be they for films, books magazines or music.

I'm not sure I take your point.

Region codes for movies are analogous to limiting where I can read a book. Like if I bought a paperback for a vacation, but it scrambled its pages if I took it to a beach outside my own country. We're not talking about import/export or reselling or anything commercial. We're just talking about my private enjoyment of something I thought I bought.

The gender imbalance in IT is real, ongoing and ridiculous

Bucky 2

This is what I'm hearing

We take it as axiomatic that women WANT to do all the things that men do, in precisely the same numbers, for any given occupation.

Therefore any situation where there is other than a 50/50 split of men and women is the result of injustice.

This is caused by men being unfair in some way that does not imply any difference of ability or will, maintaining that dominance for generation upon generation, watching other empires meanwhile rising and falling.

Technology quiz reveals that nobody including quiz drafters knows anything about IT

Bucky 2

Just a Facebook game

It's obviously not a serious study.

It's like that Facebook quiz that rates you an "Art History Major" because you can identify the Mona Lisa and the Creation of Adam.

My best guess is that the creators of the quiz were surprised by their results and published them, but as everyone here has observed, it was just a list of questions created for entertainment purposes--not a scientific inquiry.

No more lies, T-Mobile US: Download speed caps magically vanished on speed test websites

Bucky 2

I guess I'm an apologist

I have a T-Mobile app that shows me a graphical representation of how much bandwidth I've used, and where my cap is. It came with my phone. If I said I didn't know I had reached my cap, I would be revealed as a fool.

Maybe it's just that not all phones come with this app?

HACKERS can DELETE SURVEILLANCE DVRS remotely – report

Bucky 2

Old News

I saw a similar exploit performed in a documentary entitled "Ocean's Eleven."

Anonymous ‪hacks the Ku Klux Klan after Ferguson‬ threats

Bucky 2
Trollface

Re: Do any of you realize...

I'll bet it's something horrific like Jane Eyre. They deserve locking up.

Ugh! Locking up's too good for them. They should be cut up into itty bitty pieces, and BURIED ALIVE.

ESA sends back PRE-LANDING COMET CLOSE-UPS

Bucky 2
Alien

Evidence of Aliens

The second picture clearly shows the outline of a sea turtle.

This can only mean that the comet is a spacecraft returning to determine the disposition of their ancient Earth colony.

Because, what are the ODDS, MAN, the ODDS that the outline of a sea turtle would just show up BY CHANCE???

Microsoft: How to run Internet Explorer 11 on ANDROID, iOS, OS X

Bucky 2

I Miss IE5/Mac

Okay, maybe not really.

But it DID have an select+optgroup implementation that I really loved (i.e.: as a system of cascading menus).

There must be an accessibility consideration that prevented any other browsers from implementing selects in this way. But I miss it anyhow.

Silicon Valley scrooges paid staff $1.21 an hour in a 122-hour week

Bucky 2

?? History of where ??

I went to US public school. I can tell you that in my particular case, the history curriculum was ONLY US history, from 1492 to 1787. Over and over. K-12.

I learned about the French Revolution and the Civil War on my own time.

I can't tell you if my experience was common or not. But I would guess it's not unique.

Ancient Brits 'set wealthy man's FANCY CHARIOT on FIRE' – boffins

Bucky 2

Old News

I was watching a documentary called "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," and this very ritual was depicted.

Seems like old news to me.

Nicked iCloud snaps: Celebrities were 'dumb' – new EU digi boss

Bucky 2

"Victim"? "shaming"?

If there were millions of people who wanted to see your junk, and you wanted to show them your junk without seeming to appear sleazy (and boost your popularity), you might cook up a scheme that looked remarkably similar to this.

You'd wring your hands at the same time you rang the cash register.

George Clooney, WikiLeaks' lawyer wife hand out burner phones to wedding guests

Bucky 2

How romantic!

I can just see him down on one knee:

"Darling, will you marry me in a ceremony auctioned off to the highest bidder for publicity?"

"Oh, dearest! Selling my wedding to the press has been my dream since I was a child! You've made me the happiest woman in the world!"

Japan develops robot CHEERLEADERS which RIDE on BALLS

Bucky 2

It won't be long now

Once these things go wrong, I expect The Doctor will have to save us from them.

Read IBM's note to staff announcing mandatory training and 10% pay cut

Bucky 2

Education benefits?

Many large companies have education benefits.

The catch is, you often have to walk up to your boss and ask to be sent to class, or a workshop, or whatever. Sometimes you even have to write half a page justifying how the company would benefit from you having an improved skill.

This is called "initiative."

What I would guess is that there's a vast tonnage of people at IBM who are lacking in this thing. This is probably a remediation effort to make up for a presumption that having that word on a resume meant the employee had the attribute.

Those who have been keeping up-to-date feel screwed by shouldering the extra work, but I'd wager they've been being screwed by their skillless coworkers for some time now. It's now simply more obvious.

Spies would need superpowers to tap undersea cables

Bucky 2

I was watching a documentary called "Spy Kids 2," and I think the tech to do such tapping already exists.

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