Posts by James Micallef

Re: The threat to commerce is overblown

" technically it is a piece of piss to ensure personal data stays in Europe"

that depends on the exact specification. Yes it's very easy to make sure that EU citizens' data is in a data center that is physically on EU territory.... but in a world of VPNs and transnational private intranets, how do you then ensure that data center is not connected to anywhere outside the EU? How do you ensure that no-one outside the EU can query the data remotely? (because conceptually what's the difference between making a copy of the data and retrieving a result set?). What about EU based professionals who have access to the data and are on a business trip outside of the EU?

For this to work, it would need a spoof-free way of determining whether an incoming connection request is from the EU or not, and we all know how well that works for, say, iPlayer only being available in UK

Re: hmm

"what I don't get is the need to transmit photons over fibre"

(I think) because at the point the entanglement takes place, both entangled photons have to be in the same location, so for there to be any communication, one of them needs to be sent somewhere else.

Re: Hate to say it, but many of the US companies use these India-based companies

"it is just astounding that another country's government is as stupid as our own (US/DHS/DoJ/EtC.)"

The Indian government has noted the complaints, listened to reason, and backtracked. So I would say that they are considerably cleverer

Re: Even with OS X, the Maxi Pad would never have legacy compatibility

"They wouldn't want to OS X run on tablet form as they'd screw up OS X like MS did with Windows 8-10..."

And yet they happily replaced* iPhoto from OSX with the less-functional Photo from iOS in the latest (Yosemite) release, and pretty much all the new stuff in Yosemite was centred around iOS integration. I think both Apple and MS have realised that the key to the future is a converged OS running on all devices rather than separate mobile and desktop OSes, because the key to user adoption is Apps and their availability. The difference is that Microsoft rushed into it (to be fair they were playing catchup and fixing legacy issues along the way). Apple will, as usual, take their time to work out the best way to do it properly and then execute it. It will be 2 years after MS has a stable and integrated Windows 10 (and they will claim it as a first), but it will work well, first time of asking.

*Technically it's still there, but replaced in ribbon by Photo, won't run unless you get a latest version, and the latest version doesn't show up in the AppStore unless you jump through a bunch of hoops with Apple support. So 'replaced'

Re: Here's my comment...

"data must also be housed unencrypted"

Does this also imply that client-side encryption would be de facto illegal?

Bonkers!!

Re: UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime

"New Zealand is a party to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. Under the terms of the treaty, I don't see why MEGA wouldn't be an "organized criminal group", "

At a guess, I would say because 'transnational' organised crime would be a behaviour that is a recognized crime in all signatory nations - things like murder, armed robbery, people trafficking, trafficking in protected species etc.

As the article mentions, Kim has not been charged with anything in NZ, which is a pretty good indication that he has done nothing illegal under NZ law, in which case it's unlikely that MEGA would be an 'organized criminal group' under the treaty terms. Having said that I don't have the time, inclination or legal knowledge to trawl to the whole text to verify if that is true.

From what I've heard about megaupload (never used it myself), but conceptually how different is it from being able to use Google to find infringing material?

Re: They are in big trouble

"the first estimates were around $18bn to rectify the problem"

If the 'problem' is simply a software engine mapping, that figure seems a bit on the high side. Do they need to physically change anything in the engine to comply with the emissions?

Basic Income for kids

"...I thought the whole point of a universal income was that it would be universal - so those extra mouths would have their own universal income to pay to feed them..."

I'm not sure whether proposals do include a BI for kids as well, if this is the case there is a major possibility of unintended consequences for scumbags to breed like rabbits, spend even less than the BI on each kid and pocket the difference.

I agree with the idea (also mentioned by TW in some other articles) that it's better to give poor people cash than vouchers for food, clothing etc, but if the person for whom the money is intended cannot have a say in how the money is spent, that might not be ideal. Maybe it could be set up in a way that for example, for minors, half the BI is paid to their legal guardian, half paid into a trust in that person's name (maybe with some limits to avoid teenagers spending it all on booze and strippers as soon as they turn 18).

Re: Does it add up?

Last year when new Formula 1 engine rules resulted in engines that were merely deafeningly loud instead of insanely loud, I had made a back-of-the-envelope calculation to see how much extra power the engines needed to produce to equal the previous noise level. I can't remember the details but what I do remember was that the result was extremely and surprisingly low.

I believe the noise of a jet taking off is about the same order of magnitude as an F1 engine (a bit less than130 dB iirc), so bottom line, I highly doubt that any such installation would even be measured in kW rather than simply W.

Of course I stand to be corrected by anyone more knowledgeable and/or with more time on their hands to go into more detailed numbers

Re: So what would you do to improve matters?

Here's a solution, dear AC. If the law enforcement agencies cannot keep up with the quantities of data being captured, they should FUCKING STOP CAPTURING SO MUCH DATA by spying on everyone and instead focus on capturing data from people under suspicion.

But, Ah, I hear you say, then how will the law enforcement agencies know who to investigate? Well, how about some good old-fashioned police work? Coppers on the ground and on patrol instead of sitting in a data center, creating relationships and goodwill with communities instead of spying on them, building up networks of informants. Use the money to hire and train police officers instead of spending it on electronics. Build up some trust with ordinary people, instead of creating a situation where many people see the police as the enemy instead of an integral part of civil society.

If the police are worried about cybercrime, they should *encourage* ordinary citizens to use strong encryption, secure OSes, devices and networks, not undermine the security of these networks by wanting access to them.

Think back a bit to the physical world in the 50s or 60s, were the police up in arms because they couldn't intercept everyone's post just in case some criminals were communicating through it? Did they ask the public to leave their doors on a latch rather than a secure lock, just so that the police could pop in and check for any criminal activity?

If some criminals go uncaught, so be it, that is the nature of the society that we choose to live in.

Re: Satisficers rather than Maximisers

""The big problem for capitalism is that robots don't buy things"

Excellent point. So, how might the "new economy" work?"

I guess something like this: robots for small tasks are owned privately by people. Robots for more specialised tasks are owned collectively, either through a company with membership subscriptions, cooperatives (in the same way as a tenants association for a building) or government (eg NHS-bots).

Keep in mind that as robots become more plentiful (and possibly self-maintaining and self-building), then simple supply-and-demand tells us that the cost of both them and their services will drop, to the point where governments could either buy its own bots to provide services to citizens, give citizens subsidised bots, or citizens can buy bots from their dole checks.

Just like 50 years ago a computer cost millions for something really basic, maybe 50 years from now we can all get a robot butler (finally!!) for the price of a laptop

Re: if $car !="Taxi" then sleep(900)

Why the additional complication though? The major difference I can see is that the black cab drivers have a far stricter exam to get a license, to do with 'the knowledge' which nowadays does not need to be contained in a driver's head once a cab has satnav. And I see no reason why cabs and minicabs should have any difference in requirements for vehicle roadworthiness and insurance.

It would be simpler to just scrap the distinction and have one type of taxi license, whose requirements are somewhere between the current cab and minicab ones. That way, current cabs automatically qualify, threshold for minicabs will be a bit higher (thus guaranteeing a better minimum level of service) and current minicab license holder can either recertify to the new, higher level within a reasonable time (say 12-18 months), and those unwilling or unable to meet a higher standard can just go do something else.

"Amundsen used a smallish fishing boat with a tiny draft,to get through he had to use routes where the water depth was < 1m"

Huh??? colour me confused, but surely a boat with a tiny draft can use any route where water depth is >1m, not <1m. And surely a supertanker with much larger draft has to stay in deeper water and have more limited choice of route.

That phrase would however make sense if you replaced "water depth" by "ice thickness"

Re: theory vs practise

@Grikath - having lived in the Netherlands, I have no doubt that the Dutch will have no problems, they have the best water-related civil engineers on the planet, centuries of experience keeping back the seas, AND (very important) it's s rich country that has a specific 'sea barrier' tax that makes sure their sea barriers are always well-funded.

If you read my post, my concern is not rich countries, but poor ones with large population in low-lying coastal areas eg Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand, Phillippines etc have 10%+ of population living at 5m elevation or below. China 8%. Closer to home, Egypt 25% *

Rough calculation is around 200mln people displaced in SE Asia, and 20mln just for Egypt with a 5m rise. Even over the timescales mentioned (approx 2-3 centuries for a sea level rise of 5m), we're talking about well over a million people a year displaced worldwide.

With an interconnected world and with a huge proportion of our products manufactured in SE Asia, that's going to have a big knock-on effect on rich nations. And the EU is currently squabbling over how to relocate a few thousand Syrian refugees, what's going to happen with a hundred thousand Egyptians trying to cross the Med?

Luckily, there is time on our side, a couple of centuries *should* be enough for poor low-lying countries to improve standards of living and technical capabilities, stop growing population and have strong civil societies etc to counter the problem. But this is not guaranteed to happen.

*World Bank site:

http://wdi.worldbank.org/table/3.11

(Rather inconveniently the site gives %ages not population but pop figures for each country is available)

Putting on my "I wonder how she came up with that" cap for a moment:

If porn robotics advances to such a stage where a pornbot will be physically as close to a woman* as makes no difference, then men* who get used to treating pornbots as objects, will start treating other women* (who look like the pornbots) as objects too.

That's a bit fallacious, since you could make the same argument for any type of humanoid robot, no matter what it's function. There are valid concerns in that direction, many of which explored in, for example, Asimov's 'spacer' worlds. But that is all based on massive 'what ifs'. Who knows, maybe humanoid robots that are undistinguishable from humans will make us all a bit more polite to each other.

Back in the real world, where pornbots are going to be easily distinguishable from humans for (guesstimate) centuries through behaviour alone, maybe it will work the other way, and use of pornbots that are readily identifiable as objects will lead to less objectification of humans.

Either way, my money is on these things reducing the 'back alley' cheap prostitution (the vast majority, including the more exploited women which I guess is what this lady should be more concerned about), while high-class escort services wouldn't be affected.

*potentially with genders reversed/mixed, but I'm pretty sure this is the main 'use-case'

Re: Welll that's a stupid report...

@msknight - sorry for your situation, that must suck. I understand that there's nothing YOU can do if the police refuse to intervene. the point of this research is that unfortunately, it's unlikely that anyone else will intervene on your behalf.

However all it would take is for someone from the same public forum* to call out your stalker on their behaviour. Bullies are the same whether in real life or online - if someone strong stands up to them they back down pretty quick.

*I'm guessing public, as you can just blacklist private messages from specific and/or unknown senders

Re: Once

"no reason why the arm needs to remain attatched to the controller."

Indeed - and eventually, why just an arm? Do a whole body, Avatar* style

The film may have been a bit 'dances with smurfs' but even the biggest critics got to admit that teh concept of mind-controlling a whole other body is pretty cool

Re: However

"I suggets you trouble yourself to find out how the Monarchy is funded"

To be fair, if what another commenter explained above about 15% or revenue from Crown property is true, it still needs to be explained where the Crown property rights flow from? Crown estates / 'royal' property comes from the concept that the monarch, ruling by divine right, owned all the land except that which they graciously apportioned to their vassals.

In a republic, any 'Crown' property would be government property and 100% of the revenue from it would flow to the government*, and I doubt it would cost 15% of that to maintain a non-royal head of state. Of course it also needs to be factored in that having a queen is a revenue generator for Britain, as many tourists want to visit Buck Palace etc

*strictly, should be to 'the people' but we all know that for all the nice theories, in practice 'government' <> 'people'

Re: Flaw

"As soon as a planet with the potential of becoming a colony is discovered the governments of Earth will be packing spaceships full of soldiers and nukes to grab their piece of the pie"

This part at least is completely true

"leaving Earth demilitarised"

This part - I highly doubt

Re: To State The Obvious...

If anyone is paying $pittance for a VPN service ONLY to hide their tracks while torrenting, why not just pay $pittance for Netflix or similar? It's a bit more expensive but also more convenient AND some of that money goes towards artists creating teh content.

Of course there's plenty of other reasons to use a VPN...

Re: 'Once we've improved their efficiency...'

Thing is, you don't even need to improve efficiency (and therefore power-per-square-m) that much if you're getting mega cost savings. There aren't any details on the article, but high-end efficiencies are currently around 30-35% in commercially available panels and 40%+ in new experimental ones.

If you can make a chitin solar panel with 5-10% efficiency but at a tenth of the cost, you're still ahead in power-per-unit-cost, which is far more important for large-scale applications than absolute efficiency

Re: more advertising

"it seems that every piece of technology or service is being developed as a new way to show adverts lately"

Very true, however I wonder how much of that is a function of 'evil capitalist marketeers' and how much of that is simply economic/market pressure caused by people being less and less willing to pay for stuff in the age of internet.

The number of users of 'free' services of Google, FB etc seem to indicate that a vast majority* of modern consumers are happy enough with getting services/products that are fully or partially subsidised by ads

*El Reg readers and especially commentards** are absolutely atypical in this regard

** lovingly, of course :)

Re: Appropriate

" Demanding that Swiss authorities prosecute Swiss people and Swiss companies for things that are not illegal in Switzerland"

Well there actually have been repercussions in Switzerland, for example US treats banks as multinational entities and if their Swiss branches were found to have been hiding US-taxable assets from Uncle Sam, they slapped a few mega-fines (10 or 11-digit) on the bank. Banks who wish to operate globally can't very well claim that they don't know what their Swiss subsidiary is up to... and in fact while officially Swiss still have their banking secrecy, there are now various bilateral agreements that allow some data sharing with foreign tax authorities.

So this HSBC guy HAS been able to kick off some pretty major change,hats off

Re: >In fairness to the judge

I believe that a local judge has to stick to federal law. If plaintiffs believe a law is unconstitutional, plaintiff has to take the case to the supreme court who might or might not accept the case.

I'm not sure local judges have the authority to judge on the constitutionality or otherwise of a law

Re: cough

Erm... 'productive' does not necessarily mean "productive to your employer", you could use the time for your own projects. For self-employed people, that's definitely productive time won.

And if an employee who suddenly has more time on their hands out of office hours decides to use that time for work-related tasks, that's their loss/folly

Re: Microdots ?

First guess, too costly.

Re: Words on flags ...

"London 2012 logo"

BEST

LOGO

EVER

(of Lisa Simpson giving a b-j)