Posts by Badvok
261 posts • joined Wednesday 27th October 2010 13:01 GMT
Re: NOT only Open Networks
WPA and WPA2 do provide mutual authentication, this is one of the big advantages they have over WEP.
Probably no point commenting on this article now that my comment will appear at the bottom of the fourth page of the usual comments, but it will make me feel better to get it out of my system so:
How come this survey only counts 'Launches', rather than time actually spent in a metro app versus time spent in the desktop? Why is there no breakdown of what desktop apps are being used and for how long? I thought the whole point of the new UI was that you never actually closed an app, so doesn't this mean that a user may simply be switching back to an app rather than re-launching it?
Seems like the outcome of the survey shows exactly what they wanted it to show rather than anything meaningful.
Am I right in thinking this only affects Open networks and not those that employ any kind of security?
i.e. Hacker sees phone looking for SSID 'TheCloud' and so creates an SSID of 'TheCloud' to which the phone then connects. However, if the phone was expecting the network to use security would it actually still connect if there wasn't any?
Posted in Happy 23rd birthday, Windows 3.0
"I'm sure at 1'33" in the video when she sucks air through her teeth she's thinking "Don't bluescreen, please to God don't bluescreen now" "
Sorry, but you get a downvote for obviously never having used Windows 3.0. The chances of Windows 3.0 actually surviving a problem well enough to present a blue screen were so slim it hardly ever happened - these were the days of real system crashes, from garbage all over the screen, accompanied by pops and clicks from the system speaker (if fitted), to crazy flickering screens or just the simple system freeze.
While browsing some of the popular hash-tags on Twitter the other day my eyes were well and truly opened to what teens are quite happy to post online these days.
Re: Just wondering...
I never actually noticed that until you pointed it out, I guess that these days I'm too used to seeing poor quality pictures taken by mobile phones to expect any kind of realistic colour balance.
Re: Block by IMEI
Unfortunately IMEI blocking is just not effective. To be effective you'd have to block the IMEI on all networks in all countries in the world. For example, a phone stolen in the UK and blocked will simply be shipped to another European country and flogged. It might work better in Australia because it is more difficult to set up that international exchange, but like in Europe I doubt it would be effective in the US.
Even if you did manage to block the IMEI everywhere the simple fact is that on a lot of phones the IMEI can be changed and on those that it can't it simply requires a mainboard swap so you can still profit from some of the more valuable components of the phone, e.g. the screen.
Re: Works on ZX81
"and if it includes binary-to-audio on the fly, then that's impressive."
That is exactly what this is, it isn't playing a recording of the raw tape noise, it is an app that takes the actual binary data and generates the appropriate wave forms. It is something that is built into most emulators but this allows you to provide the data to a real ZX Spectrum.
Re: Copyright Mafiaa wildly exaggerate, as this shows
"I don't know, do e-books suffer the same levels of piracy as music & video?"
IMO piracy of SF e-books is very unlikely to be anywhere near the levels of piracy experienced by blockbuster movies or popular music. Somethings just don't need any protection. (Note: I am actually a fan of SF myself.)
Wink or Blink ?
All the pictures so far appear to show the main body of Google Glass over only one eye, so how can it tell the difference between a wink and a blink?
Re: What if
@Seanie Ryan: "the whole problem with "what if's" is that little word : - IF"
I really would not like to live in a society that never considered "what ifs". Fortunately (in most cases) our law makers do and keep us a little safer from those members of society who don't.
@The BigYin: "You are beyond ridiculous, Badvok."
Easy Tiger, just pointing out that this experiment was far from harmless, spraying corrosives around is a dangerous activity and she was very lucky no one was hurt. Yes the knee jerk reaction is idiotic, but so is the attitude that this type of thing can simply be brushed away as a 'harmless' jape.
Probably the best punishment would be for the girl to do a couple of weeks in an emergency room dealing with chemical burns.
Just wanted to add a link to some more info for those who, like Lewis, think bleach is harmless: http://firstaid.ygoy.com/2010/07/13/first-aid-for-bleach-in-eyes/
Keep this link handy when you are playing around with your 'harmless' household products.
Might the story have been just a little different if the girl, or one of her mates, had got a nice eyeful of bleach and permanently lost her eyesight? It is not really as harmless as this article makes it appear.
Even some of the vids on youtube comment about the damage this type of 'experiment' does to anything near by, simply because you are spraying a harmful corrosive substance around.
Re: If climate change forces women into prostitution...
No, no, no, we don't want them back in the kitchen, more prostitution means more competition which means lower prices.
Re: What will they do with the overseas assets?
"Or to put it another way: rich people find ways of getting richer, but the rest are left to fend for themselves."
God I hate that type of statement, isn't it truly amazing that some people really think that rich people simply stash all their money in a big safe to keep it away from all the grubby poor people?
@LarsG: "Is this really true space flight? Is this true sub-orbital?"
Err, no, this was just a test flight of the vehicle and rocket engine, the eventual aim of the project is to get to edge of space/sub-orbital flight at about 60m/100km high.
Re: IP profits lawyers and extortion style law suits
@AC 10:15: " its about entities being able to claim OWNERSHIP of works they did not create"
No it is not, I suggest you actually read the text of the act. It allows entities to ACT as if they owned the work, the original owner, even if unidentified, still retains actual ownership and if they were to come forward I'm sure there will be a mechanism put in place for compensating them when the regulations are eventually created.
Re: Fine
@Slumberingjournalist: " The work is as good as orphan."
Since there are no actual regulations nor any actual regulator in place yet, just a bit of legislation allowing the process of putting them in place to start, I think it is a bit early to make that claim. All the furore about this legislation seems a bit premature. Nobody is losing any rights to be fully rewarded for their work, this legislation simply allows works that have no identifiable owner to be used if the, yet to be created, regulator/licensing authority agrees that adequate attempts have been made to identify the owner.
The only real change is that countless existing works that have no identifiable owner can now be used, rather than wasting away in repositories where nobody will ever see them - isn't that a good thing?
Even if your work is 'accidentally on purpose' considered 'orphan' you do actually still retain the copyright to the work and can pursue the user for compensation or issue a take-down notice - may I repeat myself - you don't lose any rights with this legislation.
While everyone knows the name "Sennheiser", I generally prefer "Beyerdynamic". So if you are looking for 'proper' headphones, give them a try. I can hear every detail of Peter Gabriel's New Blood in full 24/96 FLAC through mine.
Re: Let's spend our time, money and energy elsewhere
Have an Upvote for taking the time to put together a long and reasonable post. However, there are probably better places to post your ire (I suggest you try writing to the papers). Very few commentards here have even a basic grasp of the science involved in this issue but at least they do appear to be on an equal footing with the poster of this article.
Did you notice that this site mainly focuses on IT? I bet that greater than 90% of the readers spend at least 7 hours a day with a display sat at a fixed focal distance, and I bet that there is a higher percentage of glass wearers in the readership than in the general population - so, yep I reckon you're right but what has that got to do with Google Glass?
Re: The old "if you have nothing to hide" arguement, eh?
@ecofeco: "I would be interested to see how you think this means anything other than stated."
As I said before, maybe you need to learn to read. Saying that Tor is used only by people who actively set out to hide what they are doing, and are therefore up to something that even they believe they probably shouldn't be, is in no way similar to the 'invasion of privacy' argument used by people to justify snooping on normal non-hidden communications. If you can't understand the difference then fair enough, I had thought it was fairly clear.
As an extra point of clarification, legitimate is not the same as lawful in English.
Re: In denial
Tor isn't about piracy/copyright avoidance, although it could certainly be used like that, there are faster and easier ways of doing it.
Tor is about creating a dark-net, a network where there is no control, no rules and no identity - or in other words complete and utter anarchy. It is used by those who seek to operate without their parents/guardians/family/school/work/council/state/government knowing about or being able to control what they are doing. This can be useful for political activism but it is also ideal for numerous activities that most would consider criminal and hugely damaging to society. It also attracts a number of delusional people who might be classed as paranoid schizophrenics if they ever subjected themselves to analysis.
Re: The old "if you have nothing to hide" arguement, eh?
@ecofeco: "The old "if you have nothing to hide" arguement, eh?"
Err, no, might I suggest you learn to read (and write).
"the implication is that if someone is using it they must be up to no good."
By definition this is certainly the case, I doubt anyone would bother using Tor for perfectly legitimate activities. Of course it is the definition of what is legitimate that varies by country. Even the definition of kiddie porn varies by country.
Personally I'd like to see things like Tor self-abolished, i.e. persuaded to shut themselves down rather than through legislation (which would just lead to circumvention), I don't think the possible good out-weighs the possible bad. I doubt the kiddie-fiddlers would be able to organise something like this without the well-meaning techies who turn a blind eye to the abuse.
Really hope I don't have any issues when they hit my area. My DTT setup: DAT 75 with integral powered MRD, feeding into LoftBox using F-Connectors. Any Londoners out there with similar? Let me know how it goes please.
(I very much doubt the filters mailed out will use F-Connectors since they expect most to go straight into the Freeview TV/STB.)
Re: 0.007 per cent of its users - which would amount to millions of people
Strangely my comment pointing out the same mistake was rejected - must have been my tone.
Re: 640x360?
Ah yes, sorry I read the actual Google info, rather than the Reg's fudge. It is a '25" High Definition screen', not a '25" High screen', so in usual terms the 25" should be considered the diagonal.
Re: As a Talk Talk customer myself
I'm assuming it needs an antenna of some kind? As well as possibly running a cable to connect to the broadband? Or is it wi-fi capable?
Re: 640x360?
Just wanted to add that there is actually a handy calculator over here: http://isthisretina.com/
By its calculation that display would be equivalent to a 'retina' display at 9 to 10 feet, so nearly there.
Re: 640x360?
Think you might have done your maths wrong there - you might want to double check.
And remember that this is a pixel at an apparent distance of 8 feet, so even if your 2mm was right it wouldn't look too bad.
Re: And if I already wear normal glasses?
You do know this isn't actually a pair of glasses right? It is just a display that sits in your field of view.
Of course there will be issues about using it in conjunction with other headgear, but hopefully there will be options that address this when it goes mass-market.
Re: Don't worry, the porn industry will kill it...
Viewer: Uggnnggn ....
TV: "You appear to be making an obscene gesture, please desist and your content will resume playing."
Viewer: Uh?
Don't want DRM?
If you don't want DRM, there is a simple answer: don't buy DRM'd content. How is that difficult?
Amazing the number of people who always pop out of the woodwork and talk about how the evil big corporations are ruining their lives by restricting how their customers can use the stuff they've spent loads of money producing. Those very same people also keep on buying that content and supporting the current business model so there is no incentive for the model to change. If you don't like the business don't support it, wouldn't that be a much better way of protesting than posting in some backwater IT blog's comment section.
Re: Zoom - ENHANCE ENHANCE
"Also, the drone doesn't have to be directly vertically positioned above your house to spy on you, it can angle itself diagonally by hovering above a public road so what then?"
You fall back on your reasonable expectation of privacy and sue the buggers.
Re: The welsh lobby
@Tel Starr: "And of no relevance to the remaining 85% of the population - but it's still forced fed to us on National TV and Radio."
And if they removed any programming that wasn't relevant to more than 15% of the population there wouldn't be a lot on except a few reality TV shows and maybe the odd soap.
I don't know what the law's like in the US but I think here in the UK we are already adequately covered with the trespass (you own airspace up to about 500ft above your own land) and invasion of privacy laws (reasonable expectation of privacy in a fenced/walled garden).
Re: The welsh lobby
@Jamie Jones: "As a non-Londoner, I (and I'm sure many others) are irritated and puzzled as to why we are being subjected to this."
Simple answer, more people live in the London Metropolitan Area than live in the whole of Wales, N.Ireland and Scotland combined! You may not like it but that is the hard truth. Both Welsh and Scottish programming actually get undue prominence when you consider population sizes. It is hard for some to realise that programming that appears to focus on the London area is actually relevant to upwards of 15% of the population of the entire UK.
(Note: I'm not suggesting there should be less regional programming, just trying to put things in perspective.)
Re: 'Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an always-on console'
@Barry Shitpeas, have an up-vote to counteract the, not unexpected, down-voting.
A lot of the reaction to this 'always-online' stuff makes it sound as if MS are planning on forcing people to buy the new console at gun-point.
Re: Vaporware
"Einsteinian intellectuals that we are, we would have thought it relatively simple to convert kinetic energy to electrical energy, like we do for the vast majority of electrical energy on earth."
Not much point in doing that if you are using Electrical energy to generate the Kinetic energy in the first place. Or did you actually think that they are likely to be generating MORE Kinetic energy than the Electrical energy they put in? That has been the unrealised dream of Fusion power research for a long time and we're still 50 years away from being able to achieve it.
Re: Vaporware
Have a re-read of the article. In the theoretical space vehicle the electricity is being generated by solar cells, this electricity is then used to power the fusion drive and generate impulse thrust. The theoretical concept is converting solar power into a significant amount of thrust.
So yes of course we can use the same mechanism for electricity generation - I see them popping up on roofs all the time these days.
Re: re. Maps and Routes
frank ly - member of the flat-earth society?
Re: @AC 7:54
"Apple really should change their patenting method so that its just the old ideas but 'for mobile devices for the technically ignorant" which would be a lot nearer the truth."
Did you bother to look at the patent? It doesn't take much reading to notice that that is exactly all this particular patent is.
Re: Spooky action != Information
"How do we know that it has not been decided?"
That's the Bell Inequality they are talking about - look it up. If the colours were decided before anyone looked then you'd get straight lines rather than a curve. Can't fathom the maths myself, but that's my understanding.
Prepare for Boarding!
"Just download it from The Pirate Bay. Anything that makes itself inconvenient to use (Hello Disney Bluerays that force you to watch adverts before the movie) instantly joins my don't purchase list and I just download the free ripped version from TPB...."
I think that just about sums up the real reason for always-online. If we want developers to invest money in good games then they need a revenue stream they can rely on. The console provider who makes the most effort to lock out the pirates is going to attract more of the bigger games.
Well of course the 4032 was an upgrade on the PET, but I missed that one. I learned BASIC on the PET 2001 at school and then learned Pascal on an 8032 at college, many fond memories re-ignited by this photo. Alongside this I was learning Z80 and 6502 machine code on home machines from Sinclair, Oric and Acorn (and yes I do mean machine code, I only moved from hand-coding to an actual assembler on the BBC Model B).
If it at least resolves the obvious ones it has got to be better than the current system.
Rugby Union has a similar problem, the video ref is good for verifying a close try that might have been just over the line or if a player was just in touch, but if the a tackled player manages to roll over and touch the ball down while covered by a dozen very large men it is no help at all.
