Posts by JohnG

Re: NFC does make more sense

"Even under optimum light I've struggled to get Blackberrys, iPhones and Window Phones to recognise QR."

You must be holding it wrong. I have had no problems reading QR codes with my current phone (a relatively cheap LG) or its predecessor, a Nokia E51 (Symbian and not even a smartphone).

QR codes have some significant advantages over NFC:

QR codes can be generated for free and displayed on a screen or printed. They can be photocopied. No special hardware is required to produce a QR code.

It is possible to read a QR code from some distance with almost any phone or tablet (if the QR code is suitably sized)

"Having round plugs was probably the worst decision they made when coming up with MIDI..."

Although choosing a whacky baud rate of 31200 that was not supported by commonly used UARTs of the day was also open to question.

Re: Keith Vaz?

"The legal grounds for his detention are currently being disputed by Labour MP Keith Vaz, among others, who told Radio 4 he was concerned about the apparent use of "terrorism legislation for something that does not appear to relate to terrorism"."

Keith Vaz obviously has a short memory: when his party was in power and bringing in all the draconian anti-teror legislation, there were plenty of people complaining that the laws were too vague and could be abused but the leadership of the Labour government accused them of overreacting. The subsequent rampant abuse of RIPA by councils and others is no secret but while we have such legislation in place, we can expect the authorities to use them.

"...they should probably educate themselves on how to use their £400 gadget before leaving it with a child."

If nothing else, parents ought to take an interest at the point where their child tells them that their credit card details are required to proceed with some game.

Re: Huh?

"He set the camera up and opened a port in the firewall as the install software asked for it, and didn't change the default password on the camera itself"

He set the camera up, left UPNP enabled on the camera (as it was previously left enabled on his broadband router) and failed to set his own username and password, so it is still the default: admin/(blank). A free dynamic DNS service probably helped advertise the camera's online presence, assisted by Google search.

The camera manufacturers don't want their support people spending every day talking people through opening ports on an assortment of different routers, so they are likely to take the easy route.

Re: It wouldn't make any difference

"They might ask for a mobile phone number ...."

Authenticating users via a working mobile phone number may be a reasonable compromise. It doesn't necessarily give the website/social network companies concerned users' real identities but it is a good way to prevent trolls or spammers from opening multiple accounts (unless they are prepared to get a new SIM for each new user account). It might be easier for law enforcement to identify a user via a mobile number than an IP address though.

Re: spoken like a lawyer

"... the insurances companies job to look for an excuse not to pay...."

Contents policies invariably have a clauses indicating that the insurance company must be informed of any items whose individual values exceed some specified limit and of any amounts of cash or similar over some arbitrary limit. They may also be unwilling to pay out for what they see as an inside job, because of the (ex)boyfriend's involvement.

Re: "these can be disabled. Unlike the tracking in the bins."

"*turns off wifi* *walks away*"

....or, if you have a rooted Android phone, you could set a new MAC address every day.

Re: I dont know how long this service is going to last

@Marketing Hack Guess who owns about a third of Deutsche Telekom AG? The German federal government.

Re: Intelligence!

"0) You could learn about Malaria and how to avoid catching it from the internet.

1) You could use the internet to ask for medical assistance.

2) You could use the internet to help you find the nearest clinic.

3) You could use the internet to discover how to treat malaria and acquire appropriate treatments."

Roo, your comment suggests that you haven't been to any of the third world countries where, for most people, day to day survival is a bit of a challenge. Where children have any schooling, you can be sure that they and their parents are informed about how to avoid catching malaria and numerous other diseases. However, whilst the cost of a mosquito net may seem trivial to us, it may be prohibitively expensive for village folk. Anti-malarial drugs are also expensive and are often counterfeit i.e. useless and even harmful. They all know where the nearest clinic is but it may take the best part of a day to walk there and they probably won't have the money to pay for drugs or treatment.

Re: I for one welcome our new Desktop Underlords.

"The Linux Desktop now has all the classes of applications that the Windows & OS/X refusenix require for their daily desktop experience."

Yes - but this has been true for years. The snag is, users don't require "classes of applications", they require specific applications. Whilst Libre Office is great (I use it every day), it is not an exact replacement for MS Office. While you can open Office documents in LO, the more complicated stuff doesn't work properly e.g. Excel macros - and you can bet that Microsoft will make sure that compatibility with MS Office remains a moving target.

Prostitution is not a crime in England and Wales - this allows HMRC to extract income tax from the (estimated) earnings of prostitutes, something they could not do if it were illegal. Solicitation for prostitution is a crime, on the part of prostitutes and their clients. This legislation is stupid and cynical.

Re: Does every piece of kit get the same treatment?

"Is Cisco vetted for foreign government backdoors..."

Cisco kit is mostly manufactured in China these days. Even the chips used are also manufactured there, so there is ample opportunity to introduce "additional features" which are invisible to Cisco and their customers. Huawei started out making counterfeit Cisco modules, so their history is already tainted.

"I am struggling to find laptops for my clients... Full HD..."

Full HD is quite rare now. Notebook resolutions have gone backwards.

"iLOs and iDRACs should be on a management VLAN, vulnerable or not."

Yes but the snag is all the other things that get connected to management VLANs by people who should know better and who have been repeatedly warned of the risks.

Re: Ask yourself this...

"If Iran had deliberately released a virus targetted at US nuclear power plants...."

I don't dispute that a US reaction to something similar from Iran would probably be significant and possibly disproportionate but....

Stuxnet wasn't released towards any nuclear power plants. It specifically targeted centrifuges used by Iran to refine nuclear materials - centrifuges which Iran was not supposed to possess. This was achieved via a Siemens industrial control system which had never been sold in Iran. It's a bit like using pre-activated anti-virus software bought for a few bucks in a Russian street market.

Re: you'll be fine in heather country or wooly wales

"no GPS in amongst the mountains, rocks and glens, no mobile signals..."

I'd agree about the "no mobile signals" but GPS works just fine in mountains and glens.

Re: Nearly made it

About VMS Clustering - I haven't seen anything quite as flexible since. Clustering via disk or network interfaces. You could share any resource that could be given a name.

There were many other nice features, such as automatic file versioning and a very comprehensive and easy to use help system.

Pathworks had versions for both MS-DOS and MAC - to my knowledge, the first to allow DOS and MAC systems to share the same folders and printers.

Re: Come on 150GB a month

"... valid business reasons for the ISP to want you to not use all of it all of the time..."

That's fair enough but ISPs should just be honest about their traffic management policies and quotas. Like any other business, they should not make misleading or false claims when snagging customers.

Re: Range

Eddy Ito - Yes, what you said but there is also a political advantage: Having a drone brought down in someone else's territory is embarrassing but nowhere near as much of a political headache as a pilot being captured.

Re: "You'd be nuts to run your business using Office 365".

"Its still better than Google Apps though..."

Google Mail is apparently the choice of CIA operatives in Moscow, if recent reports are to be believed.

I think it is always sensible for users to think about the location and jurisdiction applying to any services or servers that they use and how those jurisdictions may treat foreigners and their data.

Re: Weird

"We are talking about income tax here, not sales tax or VAT, right?"

Corporation tax. The issue is where each transaction takes place i.e. which country and therefore, whose tax system applies.

Re: Surely that's untrue?

"Err... Are you trying to tell us that Senator Joseph McCarthy was a figment of our imagination?"

I am getting on a bit but I wasn't born when the communist witch-hunts were in full swing in the USA. By contrast, the Kim dynasty has been mistreating their own people for 60 years and show no signs of letting up. Whilst the USA and other western democracies may have many faults, it is patently absurd to suggest that life in any of them bears any resemblance to that in North Korea.

Re: So what do they do with *their* copy of the data?

I wonder if these US based DNA labs get any subsidy or other recompense from the NSA or similar branches of the US government.

Re: MacBookPro Owners

"However, as this software becomes prevalent the first thing any thief will do is nuke-and-pave the storage. Tracking gone. This leaves hardware as the only viable option (unless UEFI can somehow be used to protect an area of their drive and the software runs there - dunno)."

There is this:

http://www3.absolute.com/lojackforlaptops/technology

A number of notebook manufacturers include something in the BIOS which means that (once the device is associated with a subscription), even if the operating system is wiped, the notebook will phone home once another OS is installed and the system is connected to the Internet.

Re: Those accused of rape and similar crimes...

"... should be given anonymity unless and until they are proven guilty"

While I would normally agree with this, this case is different in that the perpetrators breached their own anonymity. One of the perpetrators took photos of the 15 year old victim being raped and being sick and subsequently distributed the photos, as part of a campaign of harassment and humiliation of the victim.

Mobile Phones must be switched off

From the CAA website:

"Portable Electronic Devices (including mobile phones)

The use of portable electronic devices for sending and receiving data and voice calls is not permitted on board aircraft after they have closed their doors.

It may be possible to use a portable electronic device that has a transmitting facility in-flight, provided the transmitting facility is de-activated. This is often referred to as ‘flight safe mode’ or ‘airplane mode’.

Some airlines allow customers to use portable electronic devices for transmitting data and calls if the aircraft is fitted with a system that supports this, but there may charge for this facility."

On flights that I have taken with Lufthansa for at least the last five years, they always announce that the law requires mobile phones to be switched off when the aircraft leaves the gate and not be switched on again until inside the terminal building at the destination.

Re: It's not a radio base...

"..it's where French government ministers stash their untaxed cash (allegedly)."

Surely, that would be banks in Switzerland or other tax havens in the Caribbean, if recent reports are any to go by.

Re: Mixed lessons from history?

"If the Norks were to start something, I am pretty sure the Chinese would fight against them..."

...or the Chinese might just fail to assist North Korea in any conflict. That the Chinese co-wrote the last UN resolution, instead of abstaining in a vote on North Korea suggests that the Chinese government is getting tired of the Norks and their behaviour.

Perhaps the big question for the Chinese would be what would follow a collapse of the Nork dynasty. They probably wouldn't be too chuffed to have a unified Korea, run from Seoul and friendly with the USA, right on their border. On the other hand, it is questionable whether the South Koreans would want reunification with the North if they have to pay for it.

Re: Guarantee from Sweden

"Almost all bail breaches in the UK...."

All you say is true - except that Assange has exhausted all legal barriers to his extradition to Sweden and has shown himself to be a flight risk. In such a situation, he would likely be detained until extradited.

With any luck, the Ecuadorians will find a way to smuggle him to Ecuador - and he will then end up in self imposed exile, unable to return to the EU, his native Australia, etc.

Re: Community?

"Some of the replies and downvotes prove my point."

No they don't. When was the last time your doctor or paramedic neighbours performed a time consuming medical procedure for a non-life threatening condition for you or anyone else who is not their patient? I would suggest never (not least because they wouldn't have the relevant medical records nor the authority to treat another doctor's patient). It seems more likely that they might give some advice like "Ask you doctor about seeing a relevant specialist" or "If you don't trust your GP, get a second opinion".

It's one thing to ask someone for advice but something else entirely to be expect them to work for hours for free. It is a different matter if someone has a genuine emergency (e.g. "I have to hand in this report tomorrow but my printer isn't working") but they are on their own if it is something like "I bought this gadget and can't be bothered to waste my time reading the two page Getting Started instructions booklet, so I thought I would waste your time instead".

Re: UK Companies are getting exactly what they desrerve

AC @Thursday 14th March 2013 11:31 GMT

That's exactly what I was going to say. The difference in my case was that I left the UK in 2001 after many months out of work. Despite the post Y2K slump (everyone had all new gear before Y2K) and telcos/networking companies making thousands of people redundant, the government started to bring in people from India to solve "the shortage of skilled people in the IT sector". I went to Germany and stayed.

I still get emails from UK recruitment agencies, offering me daily rates which are about half that which I received in the UK in the 1990s and more importantly, considerably less than I make now in Germany.