Posts by JeffyPoooh

Re: Door is securely locked. Jiggle handle to open.

Me, "Clear MS FAIL. They'll probably patch it next month."

Same or very similar to this...

El Reg: "The MS16-098 patch, issued in August, fixes privilege escalation bugs in kernel-level drivers..."

The people of Czechian will be known as Czechians ?

I'm sure that nobody will get Czechians confused with Chechens.

LOL.

Re: Apple - not as smart as they think they are

Dave "As an Android user, it doesn't affect me..."

I recall when Google Nexus starting omitting the SD Card slot. So many had assumed that sort of idiocy was only an Apple affectation.

A safer assumption is that phones are some sort of battle ground. And the users' interests don't figure in the OEM's calculations.

Re: Pedant alert

"In the Beginning there was Nothing, which exploded."

Re: slow off the mark

For North America, it's trivially easy. Put the server farms in Canada.

Canada's grid is already 65% hydro, not to mention 18% nuclear. Plus a slowly increasing share from wind and solar.

With some consideration of precise location within Canada, it'd be very easy for any data center to be 100% 'carbon free', either renewable hydro or nuke.

Done.

Re: ASIC vs FPGA vs CPU

Development Environment.

Menu.

Save As...

...Software

...Hardware

We ran into this years ago. Different rules for hardware projects and software projects. I told them that it's a spectrum, and they blinked in mindless stupor.

Re: The urge to execute arbitrary code is growing stronger...

More like a toddler that finds something on the floor and inevitably eats it.

That's what modern computers are like.

We're so close to the point where malware source code could be spray painted on the sidewalk, and any passing smartphone would see it, and - of course - immediately compile it and execute it.

It's actually already ridiculous. E.g. Malware in images or other media files.

Re: OK time for some logic-based thinking...

The USA has about as many guns as people.

Therefore, when somebody blows their last mental fuse on any given Monday, then they typically only need to walk to their closet to fetch their existing guns and ammo. There's no "background check" to prevent them from opening their closet.

People go nutz every day. But in the USA, they probably ALREADY have guns.

Background Checks are to Guns what a Drunk Driving Sobriety Test would be to **Purchasing** a Car.

Which would be as stupid and useless as it sounds. ...Just like 'background checks' for gun purchases.

What's actually amazing here is that I'm apparently the first and only person on Earth to figure this out. I've never seen this duh-obvious point made by anyone except me.

"...$160bn worth of time and gas that Americans lose stuck in traffic every year..."

LaF hand-waved about some ill-defined magic... "The idea is if all cars are self driving and chatting to each other, then traffic jams will reduce."

The immediate effect of self-driving cars failing to park and turn off their engine, is that they head back out on the road, taking up space and consuming fuel. As opposed to being harmlessly parked in the basement.

Advantage, the basement can be used for purposes other than parking cars. Perhaps there might be slightly fewer cars, except rush hour would concentrate the demand.

Disadvantage, these cars are driving around empty to pick-up their next fare. So there are cars moving that are empty. More traffic (not less) and more fuel (not less).

It's basically the same as Manhattan. A sea of yellow cabs, very few with passengers. Road clogged up solid with cars headed somewhere to pick-up their next fare. Taxi cabs (and their self-driving equivalent) are LESS efficient than private cars in terms of road use and fuel.

The initial first order effect is an INCREASE in traffic and an INCREASE in fuel consumption. It's amazing that hardly anybody can think straight on this point.

Secondary magic relying on ill-defined optimizations comes later. Maybe.

Re: Autonomous Cars

"...autopilot systems are still too buggy..."

I'm not sure that quite captures the gulf between today's pathetic attempts and what the actual solution will look like so many years from now.

What you've written is like stating that fusion power is still just a bit immature. Or flying cars aren't quite ready for prime time. Or peace in the Middle East isn't expected in the coming months.

Re: Security by melting?

joeW "I think their self destruct mechanism is known as 'the ground'."

Perhaps they'd be non-functional after impact, but impact with "the ground" isn't going to protect the presumably-secret design in the slightest.

Re: This is - at best - a temporary solution.

AC "3) Some small explosive devices with acid which trigger when the case is opened."

No need to open the case.

We'll use the concepts of keyhole surgery, and we'll do this attack through the headphone socket.

Oh... ...never mind.

Re: @Paul Shirley Wow

Then make it a three month duration, non-transferable, etc. license.

Time enough to notify and adjust the now-'Dehydrated' software for a painless transition, and too short to give those pond scum time to do anything else nasty.

They could even match up a donation to a supposed license fee. Zero net.

Optimum solutions are often only imperceptibly more complex than sub-optimal ones.

Re: Radar is well proven, why has it been ignored by Tesla ?

"Audi....1 metre at 80MPH?"

Clarkson coined the term 'The Full Audi' for this.

Other makers need to include a reverse firing radar to detect tailgaters. Then automatically vary their own cruise control speed up and down by several kmh, timed to be out-of-phase with the tailgating Audi. Basic Control Theory concludes that applying such out-of-phase feedback into a high gain system creates an oscillator.

The Audi driver will have to turn it off and go away.

Re: Can't remember the last time I printed something

I'll stop printing documents for review when my boss springs for a second monitor.

It's entirely up to him when he'd like to stop spending $20/month on toner, and splash out on the $25 video card needed to connect the second monitor already on hand. It's been in the works for several years.

Decision Making 101.

"...how quiet all the other car makers are..."

All the other (small diesel engine) car makers make cars with urea fluid tanks for the SCR system, or something similarly explicit, obvious, and complex

VW omitted this technology. They "didn't need it."

That doesn't mean that other makers' control systems don't modulate the urea dosing to account for conditions, but they don't cheat they way VW did.

Look up the wonderful CCC tech video searching:

C3TV - The exhaust emissions scandal („Dieselgate“)

...if you'd like to see how brazen the cheat code actually was. The code reportedly actually contained the official test Time-Distance Limits chart to compare with.

Jaw dropping video. Well worth watching if you have an hour.

Here's the punchline if you're short of time.

https://youtu.be/xZSU1FPDiao?t=58m

edit: Actually this might be another issue... VWs with AdBlue, still cheating?