* Posts by mhenriday

1222 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Dec 2009

Chinese military contractor hits back at hacktivist Hardcore Charlie

mhenriday
Meh

Wheels upon wheels upon wheels -

and now, on top of the spies and their false-flag operations, they're going to bring in the lawyers ! Some professions are always in demand....

Henri

MPAA boss: 'SOPA isn’t dead yet'

mhenriday
FAIL

Re: The problem has nothing to do with "greed"

Right, «Anonymous Coward», the problem is not at all greed on the part of MPAA ; the organisation has paid for the legislators fair and square (at least «fair and square» according to the MPAA's lights) and therefore gets to write precisely the legislation that serves its interest and see to it that it gets passed. Ain't capitalism grand ?!!...

Henri

APAC IT spend to grow THREE TIMES faster than rest of the world

mhenriday
Boffin

Reading comprehension ?

«Surprisingly China and India are way down in 59th and 61st respectively.» Alas, Phil, you seem to have misread the report (thanks for the link, by the way !) ; Table 1: The Networked Readiness Index 2012 on p 12 clearly shows China as number 51 (the highest placing of all the BRICS), with India as number 69 ( a discussion of these rankings is found on pp 21 and 22)....

Henri

China blames web for gun smuggling crims

mhenriday
FAIL

Those Chinese authorities are really baaad, Phil -

they don't even allow such essential freedoms as ordering firearms via the Internet and contracting for delivery via express delivery services ! Outrageous ! Why I'll bet they don't even have an amendment to their constitution which calls for a «well regulated Militia» !...

As to your statement to the effect that «[g]iven that the China Daily is a state-run newspaper, as all of the media outlets are in China», one can only wonder how, to take one example, Hu Shuli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hu_Shuli) and other employees of Caixin Media would feel about that remark. While they no doubt would welcome less state control over the media in general and their own products in particular, I suspect they would find remarks characterising these latter as «state-run» both odious and false....

Henri

China puts the boot up ISPs to close digital divide

mhenriday
Pint

Hope the Chinese central government

does indeed succeed in forcing ISPs to offer better coverage to consumers outside the major cities in the eastern part of the country. That would, I suspect, help to contribute to reducing the great geographic inequalities in economic development which exist there. Other countries with a poorly served rural population will no doubt look upon these efforts with great interest....

Henri

UK top dog for home Wi-Fi usage... almost

mhenriday
Boffin

Sweden redux

Having recently moved from an ADSL connexion here in Stockholm that gave me 15+Mb/s speeds downstream and a remarkably consistent 0.86 Mb/s upstream, I'm now getting speeds of 95-97 Mb/s downstream and 11-12 Mb/s upstream from a nominally 100/10 fibre-cable connexion. Since ten (10) network jacks are provided in my little two-room apartment, I hardly feel the need for Wifi, which at best would halve my present downstream speed. My experience in helping others set up a home Wifi is that even when connected to a 100/100 jack, they rarely get much more than 20 Mb/s in either direction....

Henri

Anonymous turns its fire on China

mhenriday
Big Brother

Well, Phil, are you now supporting Anonymous attacks on government sites,

so long as these sites happen to originate in the People's Republic ? Or do you support Anonymous attacks on *all* government sites, even those of so-called «democratic» countries, which spend their time bringing their version of «democracy» - Aristoteles would rather have called it «plutocracy» - to other countries by means of interminable wars of aggression made palatable for domestic consumption by calling them «humanitarian intervention» or «R2P» ? For some odd reason, you're being less than forthright here....

Henri

Corny conversations prove plants 'talk'

mhenriday
Thumb Up

Despite the unfortunate Lafayette Ronald Hubbard associations

this article might give rise to, this is serious science. Thanks for the headsup, Richard !...

Henri

30-year-old global temperature predictions close to spot-on

mhenriday
Headmaster

«Actually us [sic !] global warming "deniers" are more likely to point out ...»

Alas, Graham, I fear your reasoning is on the same level as your English grammar....

Henri

mhenriday
Pint

Say it ain't so, AO !

Pretty please !...

Henri

Sumo Logic slings log file ops into the clouds

mhenriday
Pint

Pity that they didn't have cool T-shirts like that nearly half a century ago,

when we used to go down to Suidobashi and together with aspiring sumo wrestlers consume huge quantities of chankonabe !....

Henri

Samsung to spank $7bn on China chip fab

mhenriday
Boffin

Given that the factory is to be built in Xi'an,

I know of a large group of men with local residence and military experience who have lacked gainful employment these last 2200 years or so and who thus might be induced to seek employment as security guards....

Henri

Hitachi GST lays 4TB Easter egg

mhenriday
Pint

Hitachi GST lays 4TB Easter egg

Did it hurt ? Does this constitute cruelty to animals ?...

In any event, kudos to the Hitachi engineers !...

Henri

NJ lab claims plasma fusion breakthrough

mhenriday
Boffin

«... or perhaps breeding some new plutonium for all your deep space RTGs

having carelessly given up production of the stuff years ago.» Not to worry, Ru ; according to the World Nuclear Association :

«Total world generation of reactor-grade plutonium in spent fuel is some 70 tonnes per year. About 1300 tonnes have been produced so far, and most of this remains in the used fuel, with some 370 tonnes extracted.»

Given that about 2 % of that plutonium takes the form of Pu-238, which is used in radioisotope thermal generators, and that the amount such an RTG requires is in the kilogramme range, this should suffice for quite a lot of deep-space craft. If we are not seeing quite so many of these latter as some of us would like, the problem problably lies elsewhere than in the supply of Pu-238....

Henri

Busted in the US? 'Drop your trousers, sir'

mhenriday
Big Brother

«Land of the free, home of the brave»

And with a (divine, no doubt) mandate - aka «no options off the table» - to bomb to oblivion any other country which may displease its government. What people in the United States are (all too) slowly coming to recognise that Empire abroad inevitably leads to Repression at home. Perhaps they will soon also realise that the preconditions envisaged by Thomas Jefferson fpr political change - «whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it [i e, an existing form of government], and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness» - have been at hand for at least a decade, if not longer....

Henri

Huawei looks to India to spur 4G revenue growth

mhenriday
Boffin

«... as western markets become increasingly hostile towards the firm [i e, Huawei]»

Unfortunately, but hardly surprisingly, Mr Muncaster here confuses «markets» with «governments» ; it is the latter rather than the former which are displaying their unremitting hostility to Huawei and other Chinese enterprises which are enjoying significant and increasing success internationally. Were, indeed, the markets themselves hostile, the governments would hardly have been moved to intervene....

Henri

Third European supply podule docks with space station

mhenriday
Pint

Kudos to the designers, manufacturers, and programmers of the Edoardo Amaldi !

While Reg bloggers would indeed do well to cease insisting on «28000 kph», still the success of the vehicle in getting its velocity in the ISS' reference frame down to zero is no mean feat. Hoping for more of the same !...

Henri

New Google tool lets you PROBE YOURSELF

mhenriday
Pint

Like Martin above,

I signed up for the service and found the aggregated information concerning my use of my Google account - mainly Gmail - between 29 February and 27 March this year of great interest. I hope that information regarding my use of other Google products will soon be made available to me ; Google, after all, already possesses it. An excellent initiative on the part of Google !...

Henri

Tree-hugging Chinese throttle rare earth production

mhenriday
FAIL

Cough, splutter ?

«Deputy IT minister, Su Bo, reportedly told an industry seminar in Xiamen that the decision was taken because China now wants to promote sustainability in its mining practices (cough, splutter).» May I ask what evidence you can adduce, Phil, to imply that Mr Su isn't at least as concerned with sustainablity in mining practices as your minister of the environment, in the event your government happens to have one and whoever he or she happens to be ? Or is evidence entirely unnecessary when writing articles for the Reg that deal with China ?...

Henri

Apple scores China store patent wins

mhenriday
FAIL

«Intellectual property» in display cases ?!!

Wow, Phil, glad to see that you are on the side of the angels here ! Not a word, of course, about such concepts as «prior art» or «obviousness», but rather a convenientlyl nebulous conception of the meaning of the term «intellectual». Looking forward to see more of your «objective» reporting on China, about which you seem to be particularly well informed....

Henri

ARM's ultra-low-power fridge-puter chips: Just what the CIA ordered

mhenriday
Big Brother

Just a moment !

The protagonist of this brief sketch presumably lives in the United States (very possibly in a «gated community») and he's never yet been sued by a door (or a gate) ? Destroy All Monsters, I fear your story is sadly lacking in verisimilitude....

Henri

Australia and Korea link in super satellite hook-up

mhenriday
Holmes

Re: Is the a key technique hosted in Australian?

No doubt when you've been a reader for a little while longer, Destroy All Monsters, you will become resigned to the unfortunate fact that proofreading is not one of El Reg's fortés....

Henri

Thai Police shutter 5,000+ sites insulting royals

mhenriday
Big Brother

Note that when Google - with the kind help of the US State Department -

chose to go viral over being forced to accept censorship regulations in China, it didn't have a word to say about doing the same thing in Thailand - or India or Turkey - to mention just a few places in which that well-publicised corporate devotion to and responsibility for free speech seems to have been conspicuous by its absence. All animals are equal, but some....

Henri

Lawyers of Mordor menace Hobbit boozer

mhenriday
WTF?

Well at least it isn't - to quote a particularly well-spoken poster on another thread -

«the fucking Chinese» who are (being accused of) ripping off somebody's so-called «IP», now it's (no doubt) hardworking pub owners from England's southern coast. One more example of how absurd all these lawyerly claims to so-called «intellectual property» are - but what I really want to know is - what's in those «Gandalf» cocktails ? Never did trust that old wizard....

Henri

HPC battle royale: Exotic models vs Frankenstein monsters

mhenriday
Pint

Thanks for this fascinating tour of what's (likely) to come

in the HPC branch of human endeavour, Dan - it's almost worth hanging around a few more years just to follow developments ! An exaflop cruncher would really be something - hope the first one will be used for other purposes than figuring out ever more sophisticated ways of killing people !...

Henri

Vendors smack Thunderbolt punters with massive pricing markup

mhenriday
FAIL

At these prices, I suspect,

USB 3.0 will do quite nicely for most of us, thank you....

Henri

Rising China costs get manufacturers moving

mhenriday
Boffin

Good discussion -

accompanied by fewer comments of the type in which profanity tends to substitute for argument than is the wont for Reg columns. As Morg points out above, manufacturing is not merely a question of the level of wages - the quality of the physical infrastructure and, not least, that of the work force plays a role that is no less, and often more, important. The Chinese, like other societies with a Confucian ethic, are good at organisation, and educational levels are relatively high, which is a plus in this connexion. It won't be easy for countries which lack this tradition or an equivalent to match the Chinese experience....

As regards so-called IP, that seems to be most often a question of which claimant has the best lawyers or the best, to use a Chinese term, guanxi (关系) - as a case in point, consider certain recent court decisions in Germany which more or less implied that Apple enjoys exclusive rights to certain Platonic solids. Those who believe that the Chinese have no talent for innovation and are merely imitators are sadly ignorant of the history of the major technical innovations (printing with movable type, the compass, gunpowder, etc) on which the modern world was built....

Henri

Flash DRAM wallop! Now Hynix fab cranks out NAND

mhenriday
Boffin

«It looks like China ...

is going to become the world's leading flash-production location. That could be a worry, given its rare earth monopoly supply practices.» As has been pointed out innumerable times, so-called rare earths are not at all rare and are found widely distributed around the world, not only in China. Their extraction, however, is extremely destructive of the environment, so it's been convenient for manufacturers in Europe, North America, and Japan to outsource mining - and thus environmental destruction - to China. If, now that the Chinese are limiting sales of these products abroad, foreign manufacturers are feeling the pinch, the alternative is obvious - open mines in their own countries....

Henri

Boffins render fibre obsolete

mhenriday
Thumb Up

Is that a neutron gun in your pocket,

or are you just glad to see me (with apologies to delectable, not to say zaftig, Ms West) ?...

(A thumbs up, not Paris, because here she's completely out of her league....)

Henri

Chinese tech firms fingered for military collaboration

mhenriday
Big Brother

I love objective, compiled-to-order «reports» !

Northrop Grumman, that well-know «designer, systems integrator and manufacturer of military aircraft, defense electronics, precision weapons, commercial and military aerostructures» has written a «report» for the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (aka the «China Is Our Enemy Commission») which - quelle surprise ! - concludes that China is testing its capabilities to take out vital US cyberspace functions. Good to see that the commission has employed an unbiased, objective, and disinterested source to produce that report - after all, Northrop Grumman in no way stands to gain if the US government suddenly finds it necessary to award lucrative contracts to fight the Chinese menace to firms like, say, Northrop Grumman Information Systems. Why am I reminded of Major General Smedly Darlington Butler and his more than eighty-year-old observation that «war is a racket» ? Were Mr Butler alive today, the only thing he would have to do is widen the definition of «war»to encompass «cyberwar»....

Henri

China's first MOON rover slated for 2013 launch

mhenriday
Pint

Kudos to the Chinese programme !

It seems to be proceding at a steady, methodical, step-by-step pace, abstaining from attempts to take giant leaps which risk costly failures and setbacks. My guess is that they have learned from their own history - both that which stretches back thousands of years, and more recent events....

稳扎稳打....

Henri

Tony Blair closes RSA 2012, denounces WikiLeaks

mhenriday
WTF?

But, Ian, why the superfluous qualifier «tech»

in «tech know-nothing» to describe our beloved Anthony Charles Lynton Blair ? Was it in order to preserve that other qualifier «self-confessed» ? The most pressing current problem with Mr Blair is that he is not «confessing» to the mulititudinous crimes against the peace and other war crimes for which he - and his bosom cronies like Willian Jefferson Clinton and George Walker Bush - are responsible (I almost wrote «bear responsibility», but of course, none of these people have ever borne - and it is unfortunately unlikely that they will ever be forced to bear - responsibility for their actions) before a tribunal at Den Haag (or elsewhere). The idea of the despicable Mr Blair referring to something other than himself as «disgraceful» would be ineffable, were it not for the fact that he has made a career of it. Note that the RSA is allowed to deduct the no doubt considerable fee paid to Mr Blair for his mouthings as a «business expense» - see there, a tax loophole that can and should immediate be closed to help bring the US federal budget into balance !...

Henri

Wang charged in inappropriate electricity socket use

mhenriday
Boffin

Both 2-pin and 3-pin sockets

seem to be used in Taiwan, as shown in the image available here (don't know which type they have in underground stations in Taipei) :

http://www.trade.gov/mas/ian/ecw/tw.html

Henri

Proview wins new Chinese IPAD ruling as Apple threatens to sue

mhenriday
FAIL

Not surprisingly, Anonymous Coward, you don't bother to present any evidence

to support your claim - otherwise, why post as an AC ? But readers who want to know what's going on in China may find the the counterexample of Motorola v Guangzhou Weierwei as reported on this page : http://www.finnegan.com/resources/articles/articlesdetail.aspx?news=ac1bec74-c483-4f26-8202-e603d78626fa ....

Luckily, knowledge of the subject matter under discussion is not required to post to Reg forums....

Henri

mhenriday
Headmaster

Chinese family names

«Apple has also apparently sent a letter to Rongshan ...» Phil, isn't it about time that even Reg authors learn that Chinese family names are placed *before* given names ? After all, it seems likely that the Reg will in the future publish quite a few articles in which Chinese persons are mentioned. Yang Rongshan's family name is Yang ; thus it probably would have been better to write «Apple has also apparently sent a letter to Yang» ; that is, if you are not on a first-name basis with him....

Henri

Google gobbles kaput search robot Cuil's patents

mhenriday
Boffin

Just further evidence

of the absurdity of granting patents on mathematical algorithms (aka software)....

Henri

Squirrelled away: seeds survive 30,000-year winter

mhenriday
Big Brother

But, Richard, surely this is false science,

like that those dastardly climatologists attempt to foist upon us innocents ! This is merely a transparent attempt to convince people that the Siberian permafrost is in the process of melting due to so-called «global warming» ! Good that that we have (at least for the present) the Heartland Institute (http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/02/20/heartland-launches-legal-action-against-climate-change-bloggers-journos/) to fund knights in shining armour to defend our (corporate) interests....

Henri

Huawei pumps $6bn sweetener into US biz trio

mhenriday
Boffin

If people in the United States fall for those

who would make political capital of representing China as the next «enemy», they are doomed, I suggest, to continued economic decline and what is worse, they risk having their political leadership initiate a thermonuclear war which can put an end to us all. It is not merely the end of post WWII that we are experiencing now, but also the end of post Opium War. East Asia is in the process of regaining the status in world trade it enjoyed before 1840 ; North America and Europe (and the rest of the world) will have to accommodate this change, which, if properly handled, can benefit us all. (Background information on East Asia can be found here : http://japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/3061.) But of course, pointing the finger (index or middle, it makes no difference) at the other in order to distract attention from one's own failings is an ancient technique - witness Matthew 7:3-5....

Henri

Anglo-French nuke pact blesses 4th-gen reactors

mhenriday
Boffin

«But the UK needs new nuclear capacity much sooner than that,

or the lights will start going out.» Couldn't they just put A O on a bicycle/treadmill - or preferably, have him read his stuff aloud in front of a turbine fan ? That should produce all the leccy any country, including the UK could reasonably need. Might even be able to export to the French....

Henri

Tiny transistor stays where it's put

mhenriday
Pint

My suspicion is that all of the chaps - I don't know about their female supervisor -

working on this project are rogue overclockers. A glimpse at them adjusting the machine in the video sufficed to confirm this suspicion - if sound had been recorded then, we no doubt would have heard one researcher saying to another - if we can lower the temp another Kelvin, I'm sure we can get this graphics card to over 9.0 GHz....

Henri

Anonymous knocks FTC site offline

mhenriday
Big Brother

Cool video, Anna, thanks for the link !

Not recommended for children, however - at least not those children who have been sheltered from mainstream television all of their lives. Alas, judging by the «hanging and a bullet» suggestions posted by certain people here, not all of us were...

Henri

Embattled Foxconn raises wage slaves' salaries

mhenriday
Thumb Up

Well, now we finally know

what Taipei zoo director Chin Shih-chien replied to Hon Hai/Foxconn honcho Guo Taiming (aka Terry Gou) when the latter asked him how to manage his «one million animals» att a Hon Hai annual bash (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399109,00.asp). Obviously Chen must have replied «給他們加薪, 台铭!» («give'm a raise, Taiming !» - I write with traditional glyphs as the conversation took place in Taiwan). In that case, kudos to Mr Chen - and to Mr Guo, as well, for heeding the advice !...

Henri

Reflection lets astronomers trick time

mhenriday
Thumb Up

Thanks for this report, Richard !

What an exciting time to be an astronomer !...

Henri

Lumpy nanoparticles improve thin film solar cells

mhenriday
FAIL

Don't you just love rhetorical questions ?

Almost as much as one appreciates the answers provided (with no supporting evidence whatsoever) to such questions by those who pose them and who then go on to take these answers as a sort of Gospel Truth....

Henri

Microsoft licensing hike sparks UK piracy, bankruptcy fears

mhenriday
Big Brother

«I think the real impact will be as suggested by others above -

a significant shove in the direction of non-microsoft products, mainly Free/Open. ...» In a perfectly rational world, JustaKOS, that would certainly be the case, but given the fact that the main qualification held by so many technical personnel is a Microsoft Certificate, there will inevitably be a great deal of internal resistance to such a change. FOSS won't have a sporting chance until IT workers receive a broader education/training in computer science - which, of course, is one of the reasons that Microsoft exerts such efforts to monopolise such education and training....

Henri

You gotta fight for your right ... to net neutrality

mhenriday
Big Brother

«Shareholder democracy»,

like our political «representative democracy», has shown itself by and large to be a façade manipulated in their own interests by people with lots of money behind the scene. No wonder the AT&T management reacted with outrage and horror to the proposal of Mike D et al that the corporation's shareholders be allowed to vote on its position on net neutrality, rather than allowing it to be determined by management - such things are simply not done in the best of all corporate worlds ! In any case, it will be interesting to follow these votes - perhaps, after all, the age of miracles is not past ?...

Henri

Apple's Chinese labourers get 1.6 per cent of iPad loot - report

mhenriday
Boffin

The choice of Foxconn to manufacture Apple products was, no doubt,

one of the reasons why The Jobs was lauded as a business genius. The brillance really comes through when one learns how Hon Hai/Foxconn's Guo Taiming (aka «Terry Gou» - another business genius and the same chap that requested advice from the head of the zoo in Taipei with regard to how handle his workers) manages to further lower the amounts paid to workers by the judicious use of «internships» (http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/2/15/foxconn-s-other-dirty-secret-the-world-s-largest-internship-program)....

But this worm may turn....

Heartland Institute documents leaked

mhenriday
Boffin

But Richard, surely global warming is a bluff,

thought up in a paroxysm of evil by those wicked boffins at East Anglia ? I know, because the Bible - and that eminent physicist, mathematician, and climate scientist, A O - told me so, right here on the Reg....

Henri

Bonkers MS security update flags Google.com as malign

mhenriday
Holmes

Like Anonymous Coward,

I have no doubt that this incident - like other «glitches» in MS code which «accidently» derailed Google products - was nothing but an unfortunate mistake. After all, we all know how much Steven Anthony - «I'm going to f***ing kill Google.» - Ballmer loves and appreciates Google, in particular Eric Schmidt (http://news.cnet.com/2100-1014_3-5846243.html)....

Henri