* Posts by JeffyPoooh

4286 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Jun 2013

Powerful forces, bodily fluids – it's all in a day's work

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Monitor

Far too many people cannot comprehend the possibility that the root cause of an issue might be physically located more than about 10cm from the visible symptom.

When Jeremy Clarkson's Ford GT wouldn't start, he and James May actually removed and disassembled the Start button. A clear example of this 'Proximity Focus'.

The hero of our IT story here didn't even think of checking the PC next? Oh, because it's a couple of feet away from the problem. Third monitor was dumb. (But can't blame him for the magnets...)

Farewell, Android Pay. We hardly tapped you

JeffyPoooh
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A modular solution...

Put your phone into a nice case. Slip your bonk-compatible debit card in-between the phone and its case. Now your phone seems to allow bonk payments, like magic. When things are updated, remove your phone form the case, replace the bank card with the new one, and reinsert the phone back into its case. Resume your apparently "phone based" bonk payments.

You're welcome.

Does Google make hardware just so nobody buys it?

JeffyPoooh
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Having experienced the Nexus promise...

Being a Google tablet, it's assured that it'll be first in line for updates to the OS forever^h^h^h^h ...about three years, just like all the others.

Super Micro China super spy chip super scandal: US Homeland Security, UK spies back Amazon, Apple denials

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Update: The Bloomberg story is changing

"...the mod is in the Ethernet jack itself."

8P8C (a.k.a. "RJ45") have 8 pins. All are signal, none are power or ground.

If the "mod" could be built into an Ethernet socket, then it could be built into an Ethernet plug almost as easily.

Or an Ethernet cable.

JeffyPoooh
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Has anyone considered...?

Maybe, just maybe, there are two versions of the board in question.

I know it's difficult to imagine, but it might just be within the reach of human technology that the spies would have spun off a Rev NC_Spy version.

The Rev NC_Non_Spy version might be more common. Thus explaining the many null results.

Decoding the Chinese Super Micro super spy-chip super-scandal: What do we know – and who is telling the truth?

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Deja vu

There's also the old 'Reprogram The Embedded ARM Chips' ploy.

Also applies to any programmable logic arrays.

It's precisely hopeless. Best to resort to an Art of War approach, with honeypot data, fake data, and so on.

So who is the downvoter? Seems a bit silly...

JeffyPoooh
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Deja vu

Wasn't there a very similar story several years ago?

The secret history of Apple's Stacks

JeffyPoooh
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Re: OCD

My home 'desktop' doesn't even have the Recycle Bin. Just pure Wallpaper.

My work computer has about a hundred applications, shortcuts and folders.

Different situation. Content consumption vice content creation.

100,000 home routers recruited to spread Brazilian hacking scam

JeffyPoooh
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Brazilian hacking scam

It's just like a normal hacking scan, except for the unique style of shave.

Why are sat-nav walking directions always so hopeless?

JeffyPoooh
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"Used to be"

"Turn left where the chocolate factory used to be. Then proceed three miles past where the oil refinery used to be. Then turn right into the parking where the fish and chips place used to be."

GPS sold in Nova Scotia need to offer the "where X used to be" option. Every single reference point must be something that isn't there anymore.

First Boeing 777 (aged 24) makes its last flight – to a museum

JeffyPoooh
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"...51,416 hours gracing the skies..." / 24 years = 25%

51,416 hours is about six years. So about 25% duty cycle of being in the Wheels Up airborne state. Lowish, a result of 'too many' short flights.

If I'm not mistaken, some of the newer long range planes on long routes (e.g. A380) are closer to 50% airborne over their life so far.

You'll never guess what you can do once you steal a laptop, reflash the BIOS, and reboot it

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Again,

'swm suggested, "...drive a large nail through the battery compartment..."

Interestingly, the high energy density lithium primary (non-rechargeable) cells used in the latest avionics have to meet a TSO that precludes fire when a nail is driven though them.

Fizz and bubble is okay, but not fire.

JeffyPoooh
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Re: "win7 takes 10 mins to come out of hibernation"

"If you have a lot of RAM..."

Isn't that the silliest thing? That the OS mindlessly stores the entire RAM to disk. 16GB of RAM, fresh from cold boot, Hibernate = 16 GB file. Stoopid stoopid stoopid.

Keep in mind that it's the OS, as in Operating System. Apparently it doesn't know which parts of the RAM are in actual use and which are not.

More accurately, Microsoft can't be arsed to perform this function more efficiently. Lazy pigs.

I expect that they'll figure it out eventually.

Apple in XS new sensation: Latest iPhone carries XS-sive price tag

JeffyPoooh
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"...notify wearers..."

"...The Series 4 will also notify wearers if their heart rate is too low or if atrial fibrillation is detected."

Attention: Your heart has stopped. Please acknowledge by saying, "Siri. Leave me alone. I'm already dead." Also. Be advised that your death will result in the revocation of all rights to all media that you may have "purchased" (sic, LOL) through iTunes.

Dear America: Want secure elections? Stick to pen and paper for ballots, experts urge

JeffyPoooh
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Re: PENCIL and paper

Chas Neuf inquired about "...erasers?"

That's why the ballot boxes are sealed-up and effectively guarded by a collection of typically honest Poll Workers.

Once you've cast your ballot, it's extremely safe.

JeffyPoooh
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PENCIL and paper

Canada generally insists on stubby little pencils (not pens).

The story is that once upon a time, somebody replaced a pen with one containing Disappearing Ink. Of course they did this in the polling stations that were most likely to vote for the candidate that they didn't want to win.

Tesla's chief accounting officer drives off after just a month on the job

JeffyPoooh
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Re: The product is strong, and the vision is excellent

Mage observed, "About 67% of fuel here is Government tax."

So, the maybe $12 recharge would ultimately cost about $36.

Still compares well to $80-ish.

YMMV.

Point being, even a tripling of the recharge cost is not really a show stopper.

No, eight characters, some capital letters and numbers is not a good password policy

JeffyPoooh
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Re: "Internal cybersecurity audits..."

AC, "Not a good idea to make assumptions."

It's called "thinking"; you may wish to try it sometime.

JeffyPoooh
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"Internal cybersecurity audits..."

The only stored passwords on any system should be salted and hashed. Never, ever, never-ever store the plain text passwords. Right?

So presumably these auditors got permission and copied out the hashed password file, and then ran the usual dictionary attack on it, hashing their dictionary in the only-possible forward direction.

So... Doesn't that imply that the password file in question contains passwords that were not salted?

Does the audit report mention that perhaps the passwords should be salted? Or would that cut-off future business...?

(Corrections welcome...)

AI image recognition systems can be tricked by copying and pasting random objects

JeffyPoooh
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Re: AI Hype

Asking AI, "What the hell were you thinking?"

The Google (Alexander Mordvintsev ) 'DeepDream' software seems to be about halfway down the correct road to make the mysterious innards (when trained) of these systems plainly visible to the designers.

What comes out of DeepDream (the weird images) are a clear hint of what the subject neural network has actually focussed on and "learned".

To be clear, I'm referring to the basic concepts to be used as a possible starting point.

We'll know that this area is mature when an AI designer is held liable for marketing a safety-critical AI system where they have no idea what's inside. In other words, there will be no excuse for what is today's SOP.

JeffyPoooh
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Death to twins in crosswalks...

El Reg, "Adding the same objects already in the image also has the same effect."

Identical twins in matching clothing in crosswalks...

It's gonna be a massacre.

Cobbler feels the shoe-leather: An IP address is still not a human

JeffyPoooh
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Judges and Courts sometimes figure things out quite well...

Kudos.

Smut slinger dreams of AI software to create hardcore flicks with your face – plus other machine-learning news

JeffyPoooh
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"That's obviously not me..."

"...If it was me, then you'd be needing a much wider aspect ratio. Just sayin'..."

Judge bars distribution of 3D gun files... er, five years after they were slapped onto the web

JeffyPoooh
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3D Printed Gun...

Functionally identical to an old-school home brew 'zip gun', but requires many additional hours * to produce and leaves slightly more evidence of its probable origin. In other words, a 3D Printed Gun is slightly worse in every conceivable way than a 'zip gun'.

(* You start your tediously-ponderous 3D Printer, I'll drive to the hardware store ** and buy some pipe and an elastic band, plus I'll stop off somewhere for leisurely lunch. 3, 2, 1, Go.)

(** Not really. In terms of non-violence, it's possible that I'm Gandhi reincarnated.)

Quit that job and earn $185k... cleaning up San Francisco's notoriously crappy sidewalks

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Smart Cities

Caff proposed, "Poop Drone Swarm"

Imagine the dribbly bits falling off the gathering mechanisms, onto the crowded sidewalks below...

JeffyPoooh
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Re: $185K vs. $71K

BSC predicted that these newly-hired cleaners "...will still be [liv]ing on the streets..."

You misspelled part of a word there. ;-)

JeffyPoooh
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Re: I miss the good old days in San Fran

Geoffrey reminisced, "New Orleans is my favourite US city."

Once upon a time, I attended a conference in New Orleans. It was primarily US Military personnel attending. At the start, a wee feisty fireplug of a shouty Gunnery Sergeant laid out the ground rules (presumably for the DoD staff attending). "You will NOT proceed north of Rampart. You will NOT proceed east of Esplanade. You will NOT proceed west of Iberville." All this was delivered with a voice that you'd use when organizing an artillery barrage, by a man that was about 5 foot 5 inches tall and could clearly kill an angry grizzly bear with his bare hands.

I was left with the impression that New Orleans had some 'bad' areas.

Everyone screams patch ASAP – but it takes most organizations a month to update their networks

JeffyPoooh
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Blatantly obvious solution...

When Microsoft (or whoever) issues a new patch, the IT staff should instantly roll it out to their selected several victims. Then, on the odd occasion when the freshly-patched systems malfunction, the IT staff can wander over, blame and ridicule the hapless users for their misuse of the systems and surfing illegal dodgy websites causing such crashes, all while quietly uninstalling the recent patches and rolling back the system. After a few days of this not happening, they can start rolling out the patches to more and more users - all within about a week at most.

This should be the de facto approach.

Don't mean to alarm you – but NASA is about to pummel the planet with huge frikkin' space laser

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Missing information

YAAC suggested, "...send out a perfect square wave..."

Hopefully they make use of a more-clever modulation technique than just square waves. And of course they'll employ repetition and signal processing techniques.

Now, excuse me... I've got to start gathering some large first-surface mirrors so that I can assemble my mediumly-huge corner reflector. Give them something to talk about...

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Missing information

"You sure?" etc.

"Hence 1ns = 15cm round-trip."

Exactly.

Historical giant and computer-pioneer Grace Hopper was famous for her...

1 foot = 1 nanosecond

...memory aid.

JeffyPoooh
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FAKE NEWS !!!! <---- ;-)!!

22 August 2018: Europeans launch the British-built Aeolus weather satellite that will "...get its data by firing a powerful laser down into the atmosphere to trace the movement of air particles." [BBC]

23 August 2018: El Reg, a British-based Tech News / Comedy website seeks to distract from their own European/British frickin' laser-wielding planet-frying death-dealing "weather" Aeolus satellite by publishing something about a future ICEsat-2 satellite: "NASA is about to pummel the planet with huge frikkin' space laser..."

It's an amusing juxtaposition of reality versus the headline. One day in the gap!!!! GEESH! :-)

Texas ISP slams music biz for trying to turn it into a 'copyright cop'

JeffyPoooh
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AC noted, "...since I don't own a radio."

Gasp...

The average (of you and I) number of radios owned then is still getting close to 100.

JeffyPoooh
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Re: Infringing files

Sgt tried, "...trademark infringement instead.. >yes<."

You spelled "no" incorrectly.

In general, the Titles of songs (or books, movies, etc.) cannot be copyrighted nor trademarked. I believe that the reason(s) for this is inherently obvious.

Microsoft takes another whack at killing off Windows Phone 8.x

JeffyPoooh
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I use my Windows phone almost every day...

My $30 Windows phone sits there, resting on the bedside table. When its screen suddenly lights up, then I know that somebody has sent me a message on FB. So I reach over and pick-up my Android phone to see what's going on...

I also use my Blackberry Playbook all the time too. When I hear a faint 'bing' from the Playbook, then I know that somebody has sent me an email. So I reach over and pick-up my Android phone...

My original Apple iPad is used exclusively to watch QI episodes on YouTube. It's perfect for the purpose.

Old iPhone -> locating other family members, using its Find iPhone facility, as and when required.

Etc.

As it turns out, no, you can't just run an unlicensed Bitcoin money exchange

JeffyPoooh
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"...unlicensed Bitcoin exchange..."

Crypto currency is 'a form of property (as the Internal Revenue Service has ruled) or commodity (in the view of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission)...'. In other words, it's not money. It's legally equivalent to a box of bolts. Arguably...

I can see this going all the way to the US Supreme Court. Which is very unfortunate for the accused party; it'd be better for him to just plead guilty and accept the several-year sentence, rather than spend the rest of his life in courts sitting on rock-hard wooden pews. At least in prison you have a mattress to relax upon.

How's that encryption coming, buddy? DNS requests routinely spied on, boffins claim

JeffyPoooh
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What are the odds that Google is using DNS to gather yet-more data?

About 8.8.8.8%...

SuperProf gets schooled after assigning weak passwords to tutors

JeffyPoooh
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"All tutors....will....have their accounts updated [to] 'star' tutor status"

Everyone is above average. Yay!

Face-PALM: US Patent and Trademark Office database down for 5 days and counting

JeffyPoooh
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Re: I think....

I came here to post that they've probably been taken off-line due to their own violation of an overly-broad patent covering "Data on a Network"...

...But I see that you've handled it already.

Cheers.

London's Gatwick Airport flies back to the future as screens fail

JeffyPoooh
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I like Frankfurt Airport's flipboard display system...

Technically called "Split-Flap Display".

Years ago, since I had time between flights, I stood there for a while and watched it noisily refreshing each minute. Hilarious.

(They'd still have cables that might be cut...)

Google responds to location-stalking outcry by… tweaking words on its BS support page

JeffyPoooh
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"Do Evil"

New motto...

EU wants one phone plug to rule them all. But we've got a better idea.

JeffyPoooh
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Yeah right... Just try using a non-licensed Lightning cable

"You can use an Apple iPhone charger to power a non-Apple phone, using a non-Apple cable, and vice versa - although any proprietary fast charging method will not work."

The "and vice versa" part is just incorrect (incomplete) enough to be misleading.

The Apple 'Lightning' charger cable contains a tiny DRM chip for the sole purpose of enforcing their "Made for iPhone" licensing fee. Knock-off cables may echo the correct code at the outset (just long enough to gather favourable reviews), but only until the next iOS update when the codes are rolled-over. Then your otherwise perfectly fine cable is rejected by the newly-updated iPhone. Into the bin it goes.

You. Must. Pay. The. "Made for iPhone" Licensing Fee.

That's why the $3 cables are useless and you need to pay about $8. Which presumably includes an Apple Lightning Licensing DRM fee of about $4 each (educated guess).

Regulators should pounce, please and thank you.

Android doesn't have this problem. With Android, any cable that works, just works. There's no DRM chip nonsense.

Down Votes not accepted. These are facts.

Self-driving cars will be safe, we're testing them in a massive AI Sim

JeffyPoooh
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"...a synthetic digital model of the real world..."

Famously, "A.I. is hard." ...especially outdoors.

A synthetic digital model of the real world is not the same as the real world.

This 'synthetic digital model ' approach may assist with making some progress on the merely-hard aspects of A.I., but it has nothing to do with the inherently unpredictable nature of, er..., nature.

The utter naiveté of the A.I. boffins is startling. Is there anyone over age 50 working on it?

Google risks mega-fine in EU over location 'stalking'

JeffyPoooh
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"Google risks mega-fine in EU..."

I believe that you may have misspelled "giga-fine".

Bitcoin backer sues AT&T for $240m over stolen cryptocurrency

JeffyPoooh
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So much for the "what you have" 2nd factor...

Turns out it's effectively virtual.

'Poof', and it's effectively transferred.

Not exactly "what you have".

May the May update be with you: OpenSSL key sniffed from radio signal

JeffyPoooh
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Lesson from the early 1980s

Back in the early 1980s, there was a game that ran on the old TRS-80 Z-80 based computers. The musical soundtrack was made available by placing an AM radio near the computer. In other words, the software not only managed the game play and 'graphics' (ASCII graphics), but simultaneously managed the EMI emissions to play a catchy tune.

Point being: It's been demonstrated that software can independently control EM emissions, even to the point of making music. In the early 1980s. Probably single thread (?).

So these days, clever coders could mask the keys, or have the emissions include very rude greetings.

Windows is coming to Chromebooks… with Google’s blessing

JeffyPoooh
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It's happening...

"ChromeBooks have gained the ability to run Android applications, and more recently Linux binaries too."

Do you think that they'll be executing Windows applications within the ChromeBook ecosystem?

Sooner or later, the various OSs will just run each others' apps. In the same way that a refrigerator can keep both meat and fruit cool. It just won't matter.

How? It'll be virtualization all the way down.

Train ImageNet for $40 in 18 mins, a robot that can play Where's Wally? etc

JeffyPoooh
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Re: When will A.I. learning be made portable?

Oh, okay. So it's 2018 and they're starting down this road? That's great...

Maybe somebody could package-up the "Recognize Fixed Objects" transfer learning module, and email a copy over to the Self-Driving Car folks. Might help with the suicidal A.I. self-crashing technology.

A.I. (the industry) is about as well managed as the 'Too Cheap To Meter' fusion power industry. I suppose they both provide employment, even if their practical outputs are decades behind where they could be...

Now, get back to work.

JeffyPoooh
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When will A.I. learning be made portable?

Portable in the PDF sense. Platform agnostic.

It appears that everybody is starting from scratch, with each new system (design). Not even a trace of pre-learned building blocks, reflective of preprogrammed instincts. There'd be a market for such packages.

Point? AI is far from mature, and I don't even see a roadmap yet. Industry need a leader, and a plan.

Snap code snatched, Pentagon bans bands, pacemakers cracked, etc

JeffyPoooh
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"No mitigations planned."

Jack noted, "After all, the FDA approved that old code."

Going forward, the FDA had better include some formal requirements related to Cyber Security of such medical devices.

Also, the FDA should provide an expedient process to allow firmware fixes, for cases where fixing a bug is clearly urgent.

The first fact that they'll have to hoist aboard is that the very existence of any such bug is proof that their existing lengthy certification process cannot prevent such bugs from escaping into the wild. So there's no justification for imposing a lengthy process.

For those playing along at home, the technology required to bridge the gap between fast and effective certification testing is automation. A software and functional certification test could be executed in an hour or two (not months).

Such automatic testing systems are worth the modest investment. ROI can be very first usage. If someone believes it "would only be used once" and thus not justified, then they're naive and must not be permitted to make decisions without adult supervision.

The last phablet? 6.4in Samsung Galaxy Note 9 leaves you $1k lighter, needs 'water cooling'

JeffyPoooh
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Re: You might want to

FB explicitly caught the elderly meme. Well done.