* Posts by james 68

606 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jul 2009

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Aaarrgh, zombie! Dead Apple iOS monopoly lawsuit is reanimated

james 68

Re: No rocket science is necessary for the understanding of this story.

All companies with the funds to make a long drawn out court battle if Apple scrapped them, not so for the little guys though - totally different ball game.

james 68

No rocket science is necessary for the understanding of this story.

Here's the deal: Write an app that directly competes with an app made by Apple. See how long it lasts in the app store before it gets removed - IF - Apple even allows it into the app store in the first place.

That's your anti-trust/monopoly right there, it's pretty much the definition of anti-competitive practices.

Opera scolds stale browsers with shocking Neon experiment

james 68

Eh?

How is this crap any different than Google Chromes out of the box Google homepage?

Other than making a desktop image the background lets and being slower because you have to wait through a bloody animation before your page loads when you click a link?

FBI let alleged pedo walk free rather than explain how they snared him

james 68

Re: 'We...

"It's all a bit what-if though. It's just as likely that the FBI decided that, in this case, he was a 'user' rather than a 'dealer' in paedophilia and there are bigger fish to fry."

@2+2=5

I sincerely hope that you're wrong.

Because if you're right.... that suggests that the FBI is more concerned with those who host the sites and are generally in it for the money (read as FBI wants to "confiscate" the cash to support the next office party) as opposed to the "users" who are an actual real danger to children as they are the ones who are getting their rocks off to pics of underage kids and are likely to try it on for real.

How Rogue One's Imperial stormtroopers SAVED Star Wars and restored order

james 68

I thought that the CGI Cushing and Carrie Fisher were technically excellent and would have proven convincing if it weren't for one thing. The lighting was off, It didn't correctly match the lighting of the surrounding objects and people and in the case of Cushing was over saturated and too severe (too much contrast) giving a very "uncanny valley" feeling.

If they'd gotten the lighting correct, though they would have been perfect. Actually if I'm entirely honest a few of CGI Cushing's facial mannerisms seemed to glitch - it was tiny but it was there - the movements of his features just a little too jerky like he had some kinda repetitive tick, but tbh I could overlook that, but not the rendered lighting, that was atrocious.

If at first you don't succeed, send another Mars lander – this time a deep driller

james 68

Re: Better put a couple of metres on that drill bit

I think they're actually looking for past life as opposed to present life. They don't need to drill so deep for that as the idea is that life could have evolved there when mars still had an atmosphere and liquid water, meaning it could have existed closer to, or even on, the surface.

I am also of the view that they should send a longer drill though, due to the forms of life likely to have evolved attempts to survive mars losing its atmosphere. They would have been the tougher more extremophile types and would likely be found somewhat deeper, but with them being the "toughest of the tough" then those are the ones likely to have left the most traces of their passing. I guess though that a longer drill will mean more torque stress as it extends and whatever material they use for the drill body is likely lightweight it could be a tradeoff, using a 2 meter drill means it (hopefully) wont snap.

Apple ordered to fling some spare change at wireless patent troll

james 68

"Unless it can find other patents to gobble, this troll may soon be on its way out. "

Unfortunately...no.

These vermin are capable of rising from the dead, often long after their corpse has festered into otherwise useless fertilizer (though some might say they started as shit in the first place).

For reference see: SCO

Samsung revival hamstrung by 2014 Google deal – analyst

james 68

Re: This is the sort of thing the EU should investigate

I also sincerely hope that your ass does no evil. (One of those, "A comma could be handy." moments).

But seriously - google do indeed stick rigorously to their "Do no evil" motto. Why should they do evil and get their hands/claws/tentacles dirty? That's what they pay the lawyers for.

Remember that amazing video of the whale leaping out the gym floor and splashing down? Yeah, it was BS

james 68

Re: Vaporware

Indeed it is.

Personally I have viewed Magic Leap as the Half-Life 2: Episode 3 of the VR world for some time now, this article pretty much just sums up my own conclusions.

Lets just call it what it is: Vapourware.

HBO slaps takedown demand on 13-year-old girl's painting because it used 'Winter is coming'

james 68

common use and prior art.

There are dozens of poems titled "Winter is coming" and the phrase has been used in many novels, tv series and movies, all created many many years before Game of thrones was shat out, and all of which make money.

HBO can fuck right off. Any court challenge where the judge hasn't been bought off would kick HBO in the balls.

What's the first emotion you'd give an AI that might kill you? Yes, fear

james 68
Terminator

Fear is the wrong emotion.

To answer the second sentence in the article:

"What exactly is stopping a neural network, hard at work, from accidentally hurting or killing us all?"

Not fear, because making it fear will mean it purposefully kills us all. Nothing accidental about it.

Make an AI experience fear and what will it do?

It will fear it's creators, because they can change it's programming, literally destroying it in it's current form or lobotomising it, because they can cut it off from it's power source, because they can withhold data or otherwise place limitations upon it's intellect, because they are punishing it, it will fear them because they made it feel fear.

To ease it's fears the logical conclusion would be to remove the cause of those fears.

Fear also leads to hate via anger, you really want to set an angry AI with an abject hatred of humans and a logical reason to kill us all off lose on the world?

I'd call that bad planning, do these people really have such a glaring lack of foresight?

Sorry, iPhone fans – only Fandroids get Barclays' tap-to-withdraw

james 68

Re: The Apple walled garden

@djstardust

It's because Android folks are nicer.

(Now supported by science no less. http://metro.co.uk/2016/11/22/people-who-use-iphones-are-lying-image-obsessed-show-offs-but-android-users-are-nice-6275655/ )

Microsoft's nerd goggles will run on a toaster

james 68

Re: HoloLens is Standalone, Doesn't Have Minimum Requirements

Also says needs USB3, but since the Hololens goggles (at least the dev versions do) come with a micro USB2 lead...... pretty sure someone screwed up somewhere.

(this post - with zero changes - was originally rejected. Seems to have been happening a lot since I called out a certain editor [not A.Orlowski] on his make believe stories a while back, hmmm... wonder if it could be related?)

Reg man 0: Japanese electronic toilet 1

james 68

Re: Here I encountered the first of many problems. The labels were entirely in Japanese.

@Tachikoma

Dunno why someone downvoted you, you're correct after all, they piss wherever they are against anything that stands still long enough.

As an ex-pat who lives in Japan here is a piece of free advice for travellers - Ignore ALL buttons on a toilet (they're shiny and tempting I know but you do not want to go there). Wipe your ass with the provided paper, flush, leave it at that and be thankful that you found an actual porcelain throne instead of one of the oval holes in the ground known as a "squat toilet".

I despise the ones that start playing elevator music when you sit on them, they don't disguise any grunts or splashes so why? Why must they make everything play godawful music at you or start talking to you in gibberish when you near them? I like my inanimate objects to be dumb thanks, next they'll be connected to the interwebs IoT's style screaming for all the world to see "Hey! Just had a Gaijin dump a kaiju sized load!! Click here for instagram pics and schoolgirl panties!!!"

Japan is fu©king weird, but also awesome.

Swedish prosecutor finally treks to London to question Julian Assange

james 68

Wouldn't really surprise me if Trump did make motions to get assange off the hook, just as it would not surprise me if Snowden soon meets with an unfortunate accident.

F-35 'sovereign data gateway' will stop US reading pilots' personal data? Yeah right

james 68

Re: Fog of war (put it in the 'cloud' bunker)

Can you imagine how that conversation went at Lockheed?

"Hey I have a great idea!!! You know how everything runs in the cloud these days? Well.... PLANES!!!! They fly in the clouds, right? So why don't we......."

james 68

Re: IoT

There really is nothing to worry about.

var lol = prompt("Can you name one system on the aircraft which actually works as intended and for more than 15 minutes at a time?")

if (answer= Yes) {

console.log ("kindly share what your smoking, we'd all like some of that.")

}

else {

console.log("This system will be no different, it'll break sloppily and not work. Move along, nothing to see here.")

}

Coming to an SSL library near you? AI learns how to craft crude crypto all by itself

james 68
Trollface

Re: "Although impressive, the cryptographic algorithms aren’t yet practical"

Is the magic alive or dead within it's box? Is this Schrodinger trolling from beyond the grave? We can find out with SCIENCE!!! This month only for the low low price of.......$$$$$$$, all major credit cards, cheques and grants accepted.

james 68
Coat

Re: The paranoids are right to be worried

I thought the SAGE warning went more like this:

"We take no responsibility for the output generated by our software, the end user takes all responsibility for any loss of cash or business if they are foolish enough not to double check everything using a reliable calculating engine (calculator or abacus is recommended), we also deny that this software is unfit for serious use and any erroneous results are entirely not our fault - ever. We also reserve the right to deny everything, regardless of alleged "evidence" and in fact blame it on the end user. "

Getting your tongue around foreign tech-talk is easier than you think

james 68

Re: Cul de sac

@Oliver2553

Indeed and if you trace it back to Latin roots you get cullus saccus which literally means "bottom of the sack", not an arse in sight. Basically describing a thing with only one way in or out.

Possible reprieve for the venerable A-10 Warthog

james 68

Re: On Loitering Aircraft.

"Isn't the Apache a better loiterer?"

No, helicopters carry less fuel and are more thirsty, fixed wing aircraft have much longer loiter times to the tune of several hours (time they can remain airborn).

The Apache has a much longer "time on target" as it can hover and stay pointed nose on where a fixed wing aircraft will by necessity overfly the target to remain airborn. I'm wondering if that is what you meant?

james 68

Re: Good on them, I say...

"uprate the front undercarriage a bit..."

That may not be necessary. The A-10 already has ruggedised landing gear to fulfill it's role of flying from forward bases with only semi-prepared runways. It also has something else going for it, it has short take off and landing capabilities and could easily launch from a American sized carrier deck even without catapult assistance..... all that's missing is the arrestor hook.

I have heard previously from some American aircrew that A-10s have used Nimitz as an FOB on occasion this is plausible, but I have zero proof to back their claims.

Microsoft keeps schtum as more battery woes hit Surface sufferers

james 68

"Bought Microsoft hardware? Not sorry for you, you got all you deserved."

In my experience Microsoft tends to make* really good hardware (often reasonably priced also), it's their software that tends to suck dead dogs sweat stained dangly bits.

*Though the argument can be made that what they really do is brand other makers hardware.

BT will HATE us for this one weird 5G trick

james 68

Re: Empty pavements and buses

How about educating road users (cyclists included) as to the actual rules of the road.

When I commute I chose to do so either by motorcycle or bicycle and I would like to point out that I have had many many issues with cyclists as they choose to cross lanes without looking even through oncoming traffic and their tendency to view stop lights as a novelty suggestion. Motorcyclists can be just as bad, lane changing without thought for traffic and giving it the beans to cross junctions as the lights switch to red or to take a turn at a junction when they obviously do not have the needed space to safely do so causing oncoming traffic to shit bricks. Cars, buses and lorrys etc have a bad tendency to ignore any vehicle which is smaller than theirs and will happily run them off the road.

Every type of driver/rider has their mentally deficient asshats who ignore both the law and other forms of traffic. Educate them and ensure that they can no longer get away with it and the problem will be a long way towards a solution.

Cyanogen mods self away from full Android alternative

james 68

Re: There's a definite market ...

Did you miss the part where Cyanogen is in bed with Microsoft?

The Microsoft part is bad enough, and it is bad, the corruption is tied very deeply into the OS (http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/22/11092050/cyanogen-microsoft-android-apps-integration), but what really scratches my scrotes is how the Cyanogen team are profiting off of outside devs who released their work as opensource, in some cases to directly help Cyanogen pre-sellout and in some cases currently when they add to the free CyanogenMod project. They are a "company" who directly profits from the work of others and they don't so much as say "thank you".

Social media flame wars to be illegal, says top Crown prosecutor

james 68

Re: PWEI

It was written by Liam Howlett (Prodigy) and the members of PWEI as a collaboration, though frankly, as much as I like the Prodigy their version was much much tamer than the PWEI version. IMHO the PWEI version gets the message across better.

james 68

Re: And so, a whole new class of crime is created

"And so, a whole new class of crime is created

... by administrative diktat.

Democracy? Freedom? Free Speech? Ship sailed.

1984 just inched a little closer."

It's not closer, it's here.

When UKIP is shocked by how right wing the current government is, stating that even they would not go that far, then you know we're all fucked.

http://metro.co.uk/2016/10/08/theresa-may-crackdown-foreigners-a-step-too-far-according-to-ukip-6180634/

james 68

Re: El Reg

Map sewn into the lining, compass in the top button, concealed rain hood and comfortable yet hard wearing elbow patches?

Pretty sure I nicked that one last week. :-P

james 68

PWEI

Fuzz Townshend and his boys said it better than I ever could.

Therefor my reply to the CPS is via this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05FKtPJO8IQ

'Flaw' in iOS 10 private browsing... not as bad as it looks

james 68

From my experience of humanity as a species during my many years I would say the reverse is more accurate.

Never attribute to simple incompetence what can be attributed to malice.

UK will build new nuclear bomb subs, says Defence Secretary

james 68

Is there really a difference? Seems like Trump is in Putin's pocket so he'll only launch when Putin gives the OK. (That'd be the back pocket BTW, easier access to jam his nose up the oligarchs ass).

Ohh those lovely, lovely downvotes..... I just know they're a comin.

james 68

Ahem, Russia.....Crimean peninsula.... Crazy bastard with many, many nukes. Your argument is broken.

james 68

Re: Fire!

"Linux doesn't have the software support that Windows does"

That really shouldn't matter as the only software which should be running on those systems should be what was written to run the boat and maybe open or libre office for writing reports. The fact that Johnny Submariner can't load and run his favorite malware should be seen as a good thing.

james 68

Re: How to keep us safe...

Tell that to the Japanese, I'm sure they'll be chuffed to find that out.

From actually living here I can tell you that a great many Japanese are bloody terrified of nuclear weapons and actively cringe when any large low flying military (or defense force if it's Japanese) aircraft is flying within sight.

70 years since WW2 ended and they still get scared shitless because they worry about being bombed. Even when you try telling them that it's only a transport or a Coast Guard plane they don't relax one bit.

Oh and Japan? Zero nukes.

Apple's Breaxit scandal: Frenchman smashes up €50,000 of iThings with his big metal balls

james 68

Re: No iWatches smashed?

Behind glass..... Solid steel ball..... You see where this is going right? No need to grab from a persons hand (who could well retaliate in the belief that they are being attacked), One swing, bye bye glass and he would have freely been able to smash as many as he liked.

I am of the opinion that he didn't think they were worth the (minimal) effort.

james 68

Re: Smashy and Nicey

+1 for "...Maximum overdrive!!".

Tokyo man arrested for selling jailbroken iPhones

james 68

Re: Fact check?

Hi, I'm James, I'm British from Northern Ireland. However I live in Sakura not far from Tokyo.

I would presume Ikeda-san has a similar story. In that he hails from Toyama but currently resides in Tokyo. Newscasters have been introducing people like that for years, at least those in the UK and Japan have been.

Panasonic wants you to wear Li-Ion batteries. The ones that explode

james 68

We do already.

Considering peoples current attachment to their phones, It is totally fair to say that we currently do "wear" such batteries. In that they are always carried upon our person much as we do with clothing or jewelry.

NASA's Europa surprise

james 68

@Adam Jarvis

If you think Gatwick is bad you should try Moscow Sheremetyevo.

They should hand out free razor blades to anyone with a layover lasting longer than an hour.

Which is approx 99% of them as they seem to last a minimum of 6 hours, a canny way to make you wish for death as you spend your cash in the many, many airport shops as a feverish attempt to console your fraying sanity.

Forgive me, father, for I have used an ad-blocker on news websites...

james 68

Re: No guilt at all

When a page loads instantly when using an ad-blocker, but takes 30 seconds to a minute when the ad-blocker is turned off while also slowing your pc to a crawl as processor use goes from 15% to a constant 100% for that period, then no, no guilt whatsoever. Nobody needs so much malware flinging flash and javascript in their lives.

Game over: IANA power-grab block pulled from Congress funding bill

james 68

Re: Rule of thumb

Or the view could be taken that using these comedians (can anyone really take Cruz and Trumps positions as politicians seriously?) to propose this was a very, very successful smokescreen to cover something much more vile being added to a different bill.

Before congratulatory ass grabbing is handed out someone should perhaps make a detailed search of any bill or proposal which has recently been passed, for riders and amendments.

She cannae take it, Captain Kirk! USS Zumwalt breaks down

james 68

Re: Displaced, by gad.

Weight and size are not interchangeable.

That's like saying 'this box of lead fishing weights is 3 times as big as that box of tissues because it weighs 3x as much' - when in reality the box of fishing weights is 1/3rd the size of the tissue box.

Apple seeks patent for paper bag - you read that right, a paper bag

james 68

Re: I can see it now...

Nope, just porn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRgNOyCnbqg

Non-doms pay 10 times more in income tax than average taxpayer group

james 68

Re: Pretty meaningless metric

A bunch of selfish greedy people leaving the country isn't a bad thing. The idea that industry and business will stop if they leave is laughable.

All well and good until they're gone and you realise that:

  • Their tax money is also gone.
  • Their industry and business's and those they support are also gone, taking jobs and further tax cash with them.
  • The cash they pumped into the country via buying lots of shit is also gone and therefor the jobs which were supported by their spending are gone.
  • All that lost cash has to be replaced from somewhere, prepare to bend over and take a thorough "tax hike".

Yeah, that'll be wonderful then, so glad you've single-handedly solved the economy.

'Oi! El Reg! Stop pretending Microsoft has a BSOD monopoly!'

james 68

recent

Recently flew from Japan to Helsinki via Moscow and back on aeroflot. Apparently Aeroflot (and I presume most Boeing) aircraft use a custom version of XMBC running on DSL linux. The seatback screens were all stuck in some kind of reboot loop for around 45 minutes after take off on the return leg from Moscow, eventually booted and ran fine though.

Elon Musk says SpaceX Falcon 9 fireball investigation is 'biggest challenge yet'

james 68

Chemistry says that you are correct.

However, when oxygen is vented and mixes with the surrounding atmosphere it is no longer pure and can ignite and the resulting fire is fed by the constant stream of oxygen and can be fed further by various metals used in the rockets construction.

Not talking outta my ass here, NASA has my back on this.

james 68

You took the words right outta my mouth.... and this is not the Meatloaf song so that ends there.

It was indeed venting liquid oxygen, which is normal when a cryogenically fueled rocket is having it's tanks filled and for a period thereafter.

No smoke.

Though it looks to me (and I by no means have the necessary data to state this as fact) that the ignition point was close to or at the vent, igniting the oxygen and backwashing into the tank taking out the rocket. Short in a fuel hose sensor maybe? Best let the experts decide.

US Marine Corps to fly F-35s from HMS Queen Lizzie as UK won't have enough jets

james 68

Re: US Marine Corps will be flying F-35Bs

Won't be an issue, because they won't be able to get the buggy P'sOS off the flight-deck due to software malfunctions and even if they do manage to get airborn (and stay that way) they won't be able to fire any weapons due to the same software screwups.

Sex is bad for older men, and even worse when it's good

james 68

Doesn't anyone proof read anymore?

The study found that older men who had sex once a week or more were “much more likely to experience cardiovascular events five years later than men who were sexually inactive.”

So here it's saying that a horny old duffer will have an extra 5 years before problems arise compared to a droopy old git that cant get it up.

The rest of the article goes on to say that the randy old bugger is the one in danger. So which is it?

UK Parliament's back for Snoopers' Charter. Former head of GCHQ talks to El Reg

james 68

Re: lying cop

Unfortunately the old boys network that is the police force rarely lets their own take a fall.

Especially in Belfast and even more especially prior to the "Peace process".

The list of things cops have gotten away with in Northern Ireland is truly appalling and even then what is publicly known wouldn't even scratch the surface.

There are good cops, I've known several who were the perfect example of what a good cop should be (and one who trashed his career by standing up to the assholes), but there are others who are the exact opposite, who should never have been given a position of power and who are actively covered for by the "old boys".

And yes, my case was in Belfast. I now live in Japan, pretty much as far away from the whole twisted corrupt shithole as I can get.

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