Posts by There is more hope for a fool than someone who speaks without thinking
29 posts • joined Thursday 22nd September 2011 20:35 GMT
Re: So we're going to run out of IPv4 addresses...
> and what are we going to use this new bounty of addresses for, addressing lightbulbs?
Hardwiring the IPv6 address into each and every device would be a mistake. Implementing light sockets that are wired to power and network and understand the equivalent of DHCP would make more sense. Some sort of dynamic MAC protocol (just collision detection and random re-assignment?) would also avoid the need for globally unique MACs. Only the central router in your house/office/factory etc need be specifically configured and the IPv6 addresses allocated to each device need not be advertised to the internet at large, so no danger of running out. Only those addresses for larger appliances that you want the electricity supplier to be able to turn down in exchange for lower electricity tariffs, need be advertised or assigned static addresses.
Either the above or (scenario 2): those people that you see in TV documentaries about 3rd world poverty scouring rubbish dumps for re-cyclable / re-sellable items? Well, in the future they will be scavenging for re-usable MAC and/or IPv6 addresses. :-)
Can any tablet+keyboard combo be used with portrait screen?
I see there are now several Win8 tablets that come with detachable keyboards. Do any of them allow the screen to be propped-up in portrait format but still permit the use of the keyboard and behave like a laptop?
I assume not as none of them claim this as a feature but worth asking just in case.
SSL Certs - the new single point of failure
There must be a name for the law that says "whenever you think you've eliminated all single points of failure, another one arises"?
Re: Why under?
> Yes, but if the bus has some battery capacity, there's no need for the wires at the junction, so the rat's nest goes away
But then you run into issues re-attaching the pantograph while the bus is moving. Current trams and trolley busses connect up while stationary.
Re: Driving licences?
@Rufus
I'm glad you mentioned voice recognition. As it stands this proposal is really, really poor. Section 3.4 article 4 explicitly says "These technology neutral specifications..." but Article 3 Para 1 (i.e. the main guts of the proposal) - is specific to websites.
What if I, as the solution designer, decide that the best way to cater for blind users is to provide a telephone interactive voice system (with 100% functionality) and the best solution for other users is a website (with the same 100% functionality). Under this proposed legislation I can't do that -- apparently I *must* also make the website accessible to blind people.
A far too narrow a definition of "technology neutral" in my opinion.
The Data Protection Act recommended changes are huge
A couple of the recommended changes to the Data Protection Act are significant, affecting every company not just newspapers or journalists.
From the summary report:
Para 50: "It should be made clear that the right to compensation for distress conferred by section 13 of the Data Protection Act 1998 is not restricted to cases of pecuniary loss, but should include compensation for pure distress." This means you could claim 'distress' and therefore monetary compensation from any organisation that breaks the terms of the act e.g. an insurance company that spams you with emails/letters spelling your name wrongly, something that I find highly distressing. ;-)
Para 55: "The prosecution powers of the Information Commissioner should be extended to include any offence which also constitutes a breach of the data protection principles." So the Information Commissioner can prosecute *any* offence from any piece of UK legislation - if a data protection principle was also breached? Wow! And (para 56) they only have to *consult* with the Crown Prosecution Service, not get their approval or support.
This introduces a whole new prosecuting authority... which means that it is one recommendation that is highly unlikely to make it into law.
Re: Seems odd...
Why would they use the Logica brand when the parent group's CGI brand is all over every Hollywood blockbuster?
Posted in Nasa guides Mars Rover with Kinect
> Also - I'm guessing the screenshot is not what a successful landing should look like. Success means slow and boring and precise.
That and the fact that you'd need to land exactly in front of the camera on a tripod that was left by the previous mission.
Re: @Deains - Street sited?
> Go to Hell, BT.
I'm sorry, but they can't do that - it would mean going underground.
Sorry for being thick, but...
From -400m to approx -250m years ago the increase in the number of genera lags the supernova rate: I understand this.
From -250m to roughly -100m years ago the decrease in the number of genera is in advance of the supernova decline: I think I understand this - it could be some sort of mutation rate 'regression to the norm' as the pressure of change from supernovae effects/consequences decreases.
But I don't understand the final spike from -100m years ago until now. Here the number of genera is increasing in step with, but ahead of the supernovae rate. What mechanism is being proposed to explain this?
Re: I've said it before and I'll say it again ...
I don't think it requires us to go quite as far as rewriting the whole Internet. RFC3514 specifies and reserves an IPv4 'security bit' that hasn't actually been adopted yet. We could re-purpose this bit and use it to identify pornographic content which could then be easily filtered.
Of course, pornographers would probably all move to IPv6 instead. And there would also be the problem that this bit would only be used in the UK (since the legislation is only for the UK) so we would need to translate the bit back again to its RFC3514 purpose whenever packets left the UK. Fortunately Cisco manufacture 'border firewalls' that could do this.
So any explanation offered...
For how the star turned itself inside out and then exploded? Or is the inner material moving faster than the outer ( and so overtaken it)?
Posted in Ten... stars of the Geneva Motor Show
Mazda i-ELOOP...
... enough battery to get you and the pregnant girlfriend from anywhere to Gretna Green?
'White list' of permissions?
Perhaps the EU should issue a candidate list of opt-in permissions that apps should support and make anything and everything else illegal? I'm sure the advertisers and app providers will howl with protest but a least it would bring them to the negotiating table. At the very least some agendas would be laid bare.
Metro - it's all so big...
... I feel like I've been trapped inside the large print section of the library.
Re: Re: 650 feet is shallow waters?
Pfft - youth of today. Converting feet to metres to get back to miles! At least you got it right - you should apply for a job with NASA.
"One China"
One of the reasons why the case has not gone against Apple automatically might be that China still regards Taiwan as a renegade province that is part of "one China". Consequently the Chinese government doesn't want to be seen to treat contracts signed in Taiwan any differenty to contracts signed on the mainland and so must appear to be scrupulously fair.
/Penguin in lieu of a giant panda icon
Re: anyone?
People coming into the country and people going out of the country. What could be simpler?
Posted in Scientists weave battery into clothing
I find the best way to make the creeps keep their hands off you while riding the bus or the metro is to look creepy and touch-up the other passengers.
Posted in Paris Metro brings a bit of style to NFC
Headline
> Philippe Starck designs last Navigo card
Who is Philippe Starck?
Why won't there be any further designs?
A right to be forgotten
The directive also needs to include 'a right to be heard' namely a right to insist that all data be taken into account and to be shown to be taken into account.
In particular I'm thinking of credit reference agencise where you have a right to add a note to your record but this is then routinely ignored by the agency's customers who only look at the 'bad' flag.
Or maybe...
> A NetApp spokesperson said: "The response rates were really low. We realised that perhaps people who enter competitions have very little tolerance for entry forms and also a lot of people thought it was too good to be true."
Or maybe the reason is that it is simply not possible to reduce storage requirements by 50% using Netapp gear?
Posted in RIM stands, staggers, falls again
It was very kind of RIM to hold a two day silence in honour of Steve Jobs
@MMcA
> It's not the masts which are the problem. The lack of masts is the problem.
Radiation risk from mobiles is nothing to do with the lack of masts because there is no problem. Full stop.
Microwave radiation has a million times too little power to break atomic bonds (the only way radiation can cause cancer). The most it can do is cause a little warming and the human circulatory system is very good at removing heat from all parts of the body.
It's also not new
Well the pill bit might be new but I remember the newspapers reporting an injectable drug that completely, but temporarily, reversed the effects of drunkeness more than 25 years ago. (Sufficiently pre-Internet that there's no chance of finding a link for you.)
When the injection wore off you went back to being drunk again! It was touted as being some sort of emergency cure: if you got pissed and left the baby behind somewhere then the police could sober you up sharpish and save the baby, or some such nonsense - you know what the press are like.
Anyway, no use for it then and so probably no use for it now.
/ Beer icon, obviously
Even a blind squirrel will find buried nuts occasionally
Hey look - Bob Cringely called it seven months ago (and he got the replacement right as well!)
http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-fired-from-hewlett-packard/
NB: Not a criticism of El Reg, more my amazement that anyone could get it right so far in advance.
