* Posts by Chemist

2677 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Mar 2010

Car insurers recoil in horror from paying auto autos' speeding fines

Chemist

Surely the manufacturer is at fault if its 'perfect' creation fails to spot a speed sign.

Official: Perl the most hated programming language, say devs

Chemist

Re: Forth

"For some reason I really liked FORTH."

My reason was that you could fit the whole system into ~6KBytes (6809) including (simple) disk i/o. With that you could control a whole heap of hardware without needing assembly all the time (and an in-line assembler if you did need it)

Microsoft exec says ARM-powered Windows laptops have multi-day battery life

Chemist

Re: Does it run...

"all of the laptops I've noticed in the last six or eight months have been running one variation or another of Linux. Maybe it's just me..."

I've just purchased one in the UK with Kubuntu already installed

Elon Musk says Harry Potter and Bob the Builder will get SpaceX flying to Mars

Chemist

Re: "The Moon is harder because it has no atmosphere"

"bit easier thanks to them not needing to cope with such a steep pressure differential?"

As it's comparing ~1000 millibar Earth to ~6 millibar Mars vs ~1000 millibar Earth to 0 millibar vacuum not a great deal no.

Microsoft faces Dutch crunch over Windows 10 private data slurp

Chemist

Re: Too Late....

"can access your PC remotely without your knowledge."

Someone called yesterday from "MS security" and tried to access my computer ( with my knowledge but not my cooperation I might add)

So I did the usual :

"Oh, it's switched off"

"It takes a long time to boot" {fill & switch on kettle}

"Are you still there ?"

"Yes it does take a time", {make drink}

"Silly me it's off at the switch"

"No, nearly there now"

"OK which key do you want me to press?"

""The Windows key - which one is that ?"

" No, can't see that - where is it on the keyboard ?"

"Wait a minute I can't find my glasses "

"3rd in from bottom left ?"

"No still can't see it - the only key there has a penguin on it "{ which it does- came already installed as well}

"No, it's not a real penguin - what would I be doing with a live, or indeed stuffed penguin on my keyboard - the cat's bad enough" { quite a lot of swearing, and suggestions what I could do with it}..............

If I've got time I'll go off to answer the door for a while as well...

Western Dig's MAMR is so phat, it'll store 100TB on a hard drive by 2032

Chemist
Joke

Re: Why not SSD Drives?

"Client PC's, such as home and office computers will very likely be using flash (and it's successors) excursively "

Did you mean reclusively !

Microsoft silently fixes security holes in Windows 10 – dumps Win 7, 8 out in the cold

Chemist

Re: Perhaps money will talk louder:

"Any OS expected to be used by the average man in the street should not have maintenance that includes the phrase "download the source, patch it and compile". I understand it's how some things work in the Linux world "

Well I use Linux ALL the time and the only thing I've needed to actively compile since~1998 are my own programs.

Biochem boffins win the Nobel Prize for cryo-electron microscopy

Chemist

Re: "a specimen of amorphous ice,"

"Yes, the water freezes so fast that it doesn't have time to form crystals. It's a bit like glass, a supercooled liquid."

Water around proteins ( or indeed any non-polar/semi-polar material) is in a strange state anyway.

Linux 4.14 'getting very core new functionality' says Linus Torvalds

Chemist

Re: @Geoffrey W

" I started writing programs back in the 8-bit days"

Me too. ( SC/MP, 6502, 6809, 68000) . Tried Linux back in ~~1995 and have been using it ever since.

Try a USB/DVD as suggested or install into Virtualbox if you have a capable enough machine. Another cheap route is to buy a Rasp. Pi - once configured (using a monitor/TV, keyboard and mouse for convenience ) you can run it just from a laptop/desktop with a USB cable to provide power and an ethernet cable to provide connectivity to run a shell, virtual desktop or whatever.

Chemist

Re: Windows vs Linux ... really?

"And where do we get from this announcement? Lame complaints that Mint GUIs do not appear to provide equivalent functionality to Windows firewall management. Really?"

It's noteworthy that many Linux articles have ACs ( or people joining the Register the same day) asking somewhat naive questions designed, it seems, to highlight the (apparent) deficiencies of Linux v. Windows. Usually they slink away when challenged !

Too many ACs by far BTW. I can understand it when they might be compromised by their answer/knowledge etc. but mostly just hiding to make untrue or snarky remarks.

AMD Ryzen beats Intel Core i7 as a heater (that's also a server)

Chemist

Re: Didn't understand.

AFAIK it's a radiator in your house heated by CPUs' waste heat. The CPUs get hot by running a workload (using your electricity) sent to them via the internet. (What they do on a hot day is anyone's guess)

Auto-makers told their autopilots need better safeguards

Chemist

Re: It is easier to automate the damn highway

"Hell, how many billions were spent drilling a hole for HS2?"

Do you really mean HS2 ? AFAIK no real work has been done at all yet.

Linus Torvalds' lifestyle tips for hackers: Be like me, work in a bathrobe, no showers before noon

Chemist

Re: One word springs to mind

"Does it involve standing out in the rain or something?"

Fresh from a walk I can tell you it just involves being British !

What's your flava? Ooo, tell me what's your flava... of Ubuntu

Chemist

Re: Does KDE work now?

"Ooh, dedicated."

No, I've got 8 Pis running lxde, and quite a number of various VMs. But OpenSUSE has generally been my very reliable distro of choice ( and indeed SUSE before that when we had to pay )

Chemist

Re: Does KDE work now?

"So far in the last decade or so, every KDE installation I've seen over various hardware devices and various software versions, from SuSE to Kubuntu had severe display problems."

Well all I can say is I've been using SUSE and then OpenSUSE since ~~1995 - it's on all my regular laptops/desktops and I've never had these sort of problems. What can I say ? Have you researched it or reported it ? . Anyone with experience of KDE care to comment ?

I have just bought ( for general use ) a new cheap laptop which came with Kubuntu (17.04) pre-loaded and I've not had any problems with that either ( other than this dreadful trend to flat UI with kindergarten icons)

Indian call centre scammers are targeting BT customers

Chemist

"I got a call from my ISP (Plusnet - BT owned) the other day,"

Well I know what you mean, but I was called by them a year or so ago and offered a much reduced charge for what I was getting (unlimited download, fixed IP, domain name and web-space) . I'm very cautious about this kind of call but as they didn't want any details I went ahead and it was all genuine. Just wish genuine companies would think about how they appear to people they are (cold) calling.

Living in space basically shoves a warp drive into your blood stream

Chemist
Joke

"and an emergency 'scooter' "

Well the Italian module might well make do with a 'scooter', the USA would want a 'Harley' and me, I'd want my old Velocette Thruxton.

Chemist

Re: Immune system into overdrive?

"Immune system into overdrive? "

The immune system is very much a double-edged sword

Chemist

"Well, is the problem the lack of gravity accelleration or is it due to the radiation?"

There must be a number of possibilities including stress. A start might be a comparison with blood chemistry of groups in other extreme & stressful environments - off the top of my head :-

Scientists resident for long periods in the Antarctic

Submariners esp. nuclear subs.

Round-the world yacht racing crews.

Tour de France cyclists ( now their blood chemistries might tell a tale )

Chemist

Re: Prevention is better than cure.

"Space is hard. Fictional space doubly so..."

I think in the Foundation trilogy by Asimov the Foundation's fleet made a precise jump through hyperspace in a tightly coordinated maneuver to re-appear right behind the enemy fleet.

Dangle a DVR online and it'll be cracked in two minutes

Chemist

Re: DVR?

@Cynic

Thanks but I wasn't looking for advice for my experiments - I'm happy that I can do it . I may have expressed myself badly.

To put some code to it :

Remote pi : ssh -fN -R 7000:localhost:22 -p xxxxx user@home_ip_add

(where xxxxx is the port forward by the local router)

Local : ssh user@localhost -p 7000

will give a login prompt on Remote pi

I was looking for comments or experiences on untrusted devices doing this through a firewall

Chemist

Re: DVR?

"which record locally but as far as I can tell are not visible (at least to Shields Up) to the Internet. They have LAN connections "

I'm a little concerned that a untrusted device with internet access could set-up a reverse tunnel from a remote machine.

I've been playing around with this as I'd like to routinely access a remote Pi of mine in Switzerland from home but have no control of the (remote) network it's attached to to allow crossing the firewall.

It all seems perfectly feasible and I can easily access my home network using ssh from Switzerland and then (remotely) connect back from home to login to the Swiss remote.

Can anyone comment on this type of mechanism in relation to giving internet access to untrusted devices?

'Driverless' lorry platoons will soon be on a motorway near you

Chemist

Re: Do as they do in France

"Keep all the Van and Lorries on the inside lane, no overtaking, 60 mph max."

Where did you get that bit of nonsense ?

Having done ~50,000 miles in France I can tell you that it's not true.

FYI: Web ad fraud looks really bad. Like, really, really bad. Bigly bad

Chemist

Re: Why am I not surprised?

"Not if we don't see the ads so we never buy the product"

If I see the ads I really (really ^10 * ) am unlikely to buy the product . (YMMV)

* I will go out of my way NOT buy

70% of Windows 10 users are totally happy with our big telemetry slurp, beams Microsoft

Chemist

Re: No need to change the default settings! Erase all of WIN 10

@ EVMonster

Thank you for joining the Register today . (You really, (no really ) would not believe how many Linux bashers are like you) Glad you are a IT professional?. I've been using Linux since ~1995, quite a lot of the time professionally with a major pharma ( but there again I'm NOT an IT professional) just a user.

(Oh,please !!)

Why do you have a Mint desktop ?

Chemist

Re: Video Editing

"Those are the tools you will find in pro environment. Other tools mey be OK for your personal or indy projects, but do not expect them to be used where money matters."

I didn't realise that the topic discussed in this sub-thread was money. I thought it was video software for Linux.

So, professional video software then - well let's guess what Pixar and Dreamworks use for their operating system.

<hint :One thing that all of the larger studios have in common is they use Linux as their operating system. >

Chemist

Re: Video Editing

"As far as I'm aware the only NLE for Linux is Cinelerra,"

That's interesting as to quote the Kdenlive manual : "Kdenlive is an acronym for KDE Non-Linear Video Editor "

https://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual

Chemist

Re: No need to change the default settings! Erase all of WIN 10

"I'm in England and I bought from pcspecialist.co.uk and installed Ubuntu."

I'm typing this on one of their i7 laptops - installed OpenSUSE 13.2 about 3 years ago with no issues.

Just ordered a simpler machine from nimbusoft - https://nimbusoft.com/ which comes with a choice of installed Linux - we'll see what they are like.

Chemist

Re: No need to change the default settings! Erase all of WIN 10

"but sadly Linux lacks on Video editing."

kdenlive

Chemist

Re: No need to change the default settings! Erase all of WIN 10

"I'd love to but as a semi-pro photographer I need Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom with the now unsupported Nik filters."

Darktable - www.darktable.org for Linux & Mac

I've used it for years for my Canon 550D & 6D, my cousin, a retired industrial photographer, is very impressed and so is his son ( a very well-known sports photographer)

RawTherapee also gets good reviews although I've not used it personally.

Can the last person watching desktop video please turn out the light?

Chemist

"There's a leap of logic here which equates "seen" with "effective". For those of us for whom "seen" leads PDQ to "pisses off", "seen" should probably be equated to "counter-productive"."

Just said the same thing to an AA phone-botherer. What on earth makes them think that annoying a (potential) customer is a good way to sell anything.

Britons ambivalent about driverless car tech, survey finds

Chemist

"Do any commentards have self-parking?"

Yes ( for years ) and I NEVER use it - what's the point ? If I drive another car I still have to know how to park it. Where I normally park on our drive it can't cope anyway.

Cruise control on the other hand - fabulous for (French and other empty ) motorways. Means I can exercise/move both legs easily. Adaptive CC takes a little getting use to.

'Real' people want govts to spy on them, argues UK Home Secretary

Chemist

Re: She acts as if the encryption comprises other features

"The VPN I use does disable at least one convenience feature: automatic logon at certain websites"

I use ssh (fish://) all the time (it's just another icon in my filemanager) to pass files to/from my traveling laptop. to my fileserver I don't even think about it. Nothing confidential but it's just the way it works if I want secure access (as opposed to secure transmission ) . Are terrorists all so stupid they can only use provided apps?

While USA is distracted by its President's antics, China is busy breaking another fusion record

Chemist

Re: let me guess...

"Fusion reactors produce fast electrons, which can be used in a classic breeder design (in fact they are too fast - you have to slow them down a bit somehow)"

I think you intended to type neutrons

Chemist

Re: Crazy ideas?

"The Greeks knew the world was around 2,000 years ago AND could prove it with math and physics."

And, as I've pointed out before, anyone seeing ships disappear slowly over the horizon and reappear or who has climbed a mountain and seen that mountains on adjacent islands do the same could draw the same conclusions.

Constant work makes the kilo walk the Planck

Chemist

Re: Isn't there a risk ...

"I know that the speed of light can very by medium,"

It is the velocity of light in a hard vacuum that is the constant.

Elon Musk reveals Mars colony rocket capable of bringing pizza joints to the red planet

Chemist

Re: Plenty of oxygen on the Moon

"and give it some plants. "

I point out that plants need many things, oxygen being one. Although they generate oxygen in sunlight during the dark they actively require oxygen. All plant culture will have to be indoors for many reasons.

Chemist

Re: What about Oxygen?

I'm not saying the chemistry is wrong it's not. I'm questioning the overall efficiency when the supply of energy is going to be limited. Given it will have to be solar or nuclear to run this lot I question how much kit they'll need. The Sabatier reaction, to produce the methane itself is exothermic once initiated but extracting or concentrating the necessary oxygen and then liquifying it will require a lot of energy.

For example to produce 1kg of hydrogen gas by electrolysis will require ~~ 60kW.hrs in the process producing 8kg of oxygen. To liquify the oxygen (for storage and engine use) needs ~~ 5kW.hrs for the 8kg.

I note some of the NASA papers don't actually mention the energy requirements

Chemist

Re: What about Oxygen?

"the production of fuel from simulant Martian atmosphere has already been tested"

I've no problem with the possibility of obtaining fuel ( from CO2) from the atmosphere it's the extraction of oxygen from a very dilute mix of other gases that I suggest will be a very energy intensive process. Probably better to produce hydrogen & oxygen from any available water even though that will also be very energy consuming esp. to produce/store liquid oxygen

Chemist

Re: What about Oxygen?

"- Sufficient, even in the atmosphere, to get things going on Mars,"

There are only trace amounts in the atmosphere. ( it's about 0.1% of an atmosphere that is already very low pressure (~0.6% cf. earth )) It would need to be generated from water or some other source.

Raspberry Pi sours thanks to mining malware

Chemist

Re: Bah!

"What you are suggesting is to give up altogether and just resort to reactive security. Both approaches are needed."

No I'm not I'm suggesting that at the present time ( and for how much longer ) we still need to be very careful about security.

"Well, in future I'm going to ask any one I give a lift to whether they can drive or not. 'Can't drive - you're out of luck, can't come in my car'."

That's just nonsense. It's totally irrelevant most of the time if other occupants can drive or not but I'm guessing that you'll need one for quite a while.

"We can design machines where this is just not allowed and a whole large category of attacks goes away."

Well until we do and they become the norm it doesn't matter in the slightest.

Chemist

Re: Bah!

"Now we are close to having self-driving cars. What you are saying is that passengers in such a car should not only know how to drive that car,"

Of course they'll need to able to drive - I guess it will be years before self-driving cars become trully autonomous

"We can program computers to do anything - why not stop security attacks "

You must be having a laugh now. The one thing we know is that bugs exist - where have you seen a software system that is perfect. (see the point about cars above"

"Hacks are very, very sophisticated"

Some are, some are trivial or even accidental . Many of the big 'hacks' have been by people with little skill but a lot of persistence.

Chemist

Re: Bah!

"Passengers on the train don't need to train as a train driver in order to catch the train."

You miss the point. Any group of people using a particular technology need some in-depth knowledge to use it safely. I did, by the way, include driving a car which is a near ubiquitous 'skill' which in most places requires examination.

I don't expect the average user to be a security expert just to have an awareness of the basics od on-line safety. You certainly can't expect the technology to cope with all the diversity of attacks from the sophisticated to the banal.

On the other hand if you want to do something more unusual, but still reasonable, like give yourself access to your home network from outside then you do need to understand what you're doing or take advice.

Chemist

Re: Bah!

"While I encourage people to understand all levels of computing, it should not be necessary - and if it is, we have not done our jobs properly."

The point is that it is necessary however much you'd like it not to be. I don't think I'd be too happy with an unskilled bus/car/train driver.

And that's before we take into account simple scamming/phishing by computer/phone or mail. We can't design/legislate for a risk-free world - people have to have an awareness of risk whatever activity is undertaken.

Chemist

Re: Bah!

"Computers are now widely used because we don't demand that end users need education to run systems correctly. "

Computers are now widely abused because we don't demand that end users need education to run systems correctly.

But seriously, at the present time no computer can be considered 'safe' without the user having some knowledge of the risk - no different to the rest of life really.

Chemist

Re: Bah!

"Now playing around with Pi is great for hobbyists and nice a cheap. You can load Linux on it. But keep it off the net and don't use it for serious work where you need security."

Are you really suggesting that using a Pi properly is in any way riskier than anything else *?. Good practice is what is necessary (combined with updated software). No computer is likely to be 'safe' when used incorrectly. I use ssh to access my systems from outside ( and only ssh) through an unusual port with an unusual username and certificates to reach both a pi and x86 on my home network. I'm conscious that two points are worst than one so I'm planning to have the Pi as the only access point.

Connecting your system to the internet requires some knowledge - education is necessary to discourage naive users from doing so.

* commonly available hardware.

Chemist

Re: Captain Bodge-tastic speaking

"and within a few minutes there were failed login attempts showing up in the log"

I have a pi & my x86 fileserver both with ssh port forwarded. However I don't use the standard ports and both use rsa keys and indeed very unusual usernames..

My x86 server has had 1 login attempt in 10+ years. So although it is really sec. by ob. it cuts down the attempts by a huge factor as port 22 gets a few a day.

Swedish school pumps up volume to ease toilet trauma

Chemist

I started work at a very classy research centre.

In one loo the graffiti read :

"Ici laisse tomber en ruine tous les beaux arts de la cuisine"

( or something similar - it was nearly 45 years ago)

Meteor swarm spawns new and dangerous branch

Chemist

Re: I welcome our new meteor overlords

""... if they can flash cook a pizza for me!""

Get lots of smart cookies on this site

Going to Mars may give you cancer, warns doc

Chemist

Re: I suspect that ...

"We must ensure this does not happen."

Joking aside it seems very unlikely.