Posts by Rich 322 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Apr 2007
It's illegal to forge any document and use it to obtain a benefit, I think.
I'm guessing this yacht was pretty high-end and usually chartered with a skipper.
Most charter firms only want a low-end qualification, if any (or just the ability to motor out of the berth without hitting anything). Demanding a Yachtmaster cuts your market down, I would think - most people I've met who have one either own a boat or are semi-pro yachties.
This reminds me of the "New System" of punishing convicts as discussed in Robert Hughes' "The Fatal Shore". Convicts were assigned "marks" for their behaviour and allowed to progress through various stages of punishment.
Of course, in modern Britain, being foreign is akin to a crime..
The EU can well afford it, and diverting money from the effin farmers sounds like an ideal way to do it.
Given the scale of use of GPS, it isn't a bright idea in my book to leave it under the control of any single state, and especially not the US.
Plus it's great that the EU has developed a way to avoid consulting those bloody brits, who are self-evidently too stupid to have a constructive opinion on anything.
In terms of 1980's tech, being the Driller Killer would be a bit impractical as cordless drills weren't widely available/perfected and one would either be constrained by the cable, or would run out of juice before you got halfway through the cranium.
However a modern sequel "Cordless 18v Driller Killer brought to you by Makita" would be a lot scarier and more realistic. Should one use HSS or masonry bits for skull penetration? Or even a spade bit?
There are around 10^18 kilos of Be in the earths crust, and 10^9 kilos in the oceans. I doubt a few kilos of satellite will make much difference.
Also, hydrazine is unstable - that's why it's used as rocket fuel. It isn't going to survive reentry in a spaceship that isn't designed to reenter the atmosphere (no heat shields).
Plutonium is more of a problem, but the RTG *is* designed to re-enter and either sink in the ocean or be recovered.
The systems ought to work even if one of the traders has inside knowledge. That's supposed to be a general principle, eh?
Lots of traders have an IT background - joining in IT is one way of getting in. Or should trading be like sales and management - having a technical brain disqualifies you.
Fact is, people have been forecasting total financial collapse for many years:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/e/paul-e-erdman/crash-of-79.htm
The card should only accept payment requests signed with a (per till) retailer cert, which is in turn signed with a bank cert (etc).
Payment credentials are in turn one-shot and only useful for one transaction on the same till.
That way, a miscreant could listen and spoof the signals all they want, but wouldn't get ever be able to fake a transaction. The main risk (as with any pinless system) as that the card will be pinched and used for multiple $10 transactions (to buy phonecards or something) until the owner realises and reports it. The banks should be expected to take this hit.
Is the protocol for this new service published?
There *is* a man-in-the middle attack.
Sam (the shopkeeper) sends a payment request to Bill. Bill has a deactivated card and a transciever, which connects by a datalink to his accomplice, Fred, who's in a busy place. Fred forwards the request to a card in Sue's bag, gets the response and sends it to Bill's device, which sends it through. Sue gets debited and Bill gets the $10 swag.
Rather relies on card range being long enough. One security measure would be to only allow transactions where the card response is in a very short timeframe.
Is Oyster vulnerable this way?
The reason aircraft fly across the frozen North on their way from Europe to North America is that it's the *shortest route* - because the earth isn't flat, they follow a great circle. Ships do the same, but are restricted by ice - that's what the Titanic was doing up amongst the icebergs.
I didn't know the throttles on a fly-by-wire aircraft weren't motorised, like the faders on a high-end mixing desk. I guess there's no real reason for them to be.
Even the most hazardous aircraft are much safer than cars, BTW.
Aren't you supposed to be dead?
I seem to recall at the end of the novel there were dark hints that you had cancer.
And I'm fairly sure that even if not documented, along with the whisky, coke and speed a grande mocha latte would have passed your lips on a regular basis.
Regards to Yvonne!
That's the barrier to orbital flight, but the immense amount of fuel you need to launch even the lightest payload. There's a reason why a Saturn V's a big bastard.
Also, there is the related problem of achieving acceptable failure rates for passenger flight with that much energy around.
If a companies management shows an interest in fitba, sell all your stock.
Robert Maxwell is but one of the many who have proved the truth of this.
Isn't the reason for a certian distrust of Bono that, in between lecturing us on the need for a social conscience, he fiddles his taxes?
http://www.slate.com/id/2152580/
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2006/08/20/100/
The groupthinkers posting "doh it was Windows..."
I read the thread on pprune, where comments from those without a professional license tend to get spiked. There was much complaining about inappropriate speculation. I just thought - you guys should try working in the computer industry, where there are no licenses and anyone who can change an IP address is a network architecture expert.
(Interestingly, although one needs a license to taxi an airliner, or indeed to serve coffee to the SLF, one does not (AFAIK, and certainly when I worked in aerospace) need a license to design the software therein. SOPs at the manufacturer are expected to substitute).
At least, not in a democracy.
However, if Microsoft were to make Windows work like XBox and *require* all executables to be signed by an approved and audited supplier, then that would enhance security a great deal (not to mention general reliability - no more apps that decide to hog 100% CPU, for instance). I'd suspect that most users would opt for this over an "open" version.
Can you imagine the anti-trust suits that would fly? That's why it doesn't happen, even for drivers.
*Might* have a service modem or VPN access.
Would definitely have keys and door combinations to walk into any unattended switchyard and pull a few breakers. Which is just as bad as anything you could do with SCADA (especially if you toured around pulling breakers in several switchyards).
This article is sooo true.
I worked in the financial systems biz when there was a big push to put Unix (Solaris mostly) on the desktop. Most of the traders flatly refused, because their Reuters Terminal/Excel/DDE functionality could not be replicated in the Unix world, however much (alleged) cleverness was deployed.
It's typical of the wrong sort of IT geek (or indeed salesman) that they ignore users when they tell you that a function is *essential* and take it away anyway because they consider they know best.
The air doesn't let me do anything I can't do on my HP7400. Or on a normal Macbook. You still need a biggish bag (and in the unlikely event I got one, it'd probably still go in my Karrimor convertible rucsac/briefcase, along with a change of undies and a novel.
Since it has a crap slidy pad, I for one would still want to carry a mouse. Plus a PSU and a plug adapter if going overseas. That's a whole lot more bulk straight away.
The Eee on the other hand would be an ideal machine for the backpacker. Fits in a small pack and not so expensive that it'd be a tragedy to lose or break it.
The solution you propose, involving the "bob" server giving "alice" his public key, is vulnerable to man in the middle attacks (as are all variants of it).
That's why SSL needs the server owner to obtain a certificate from a CA (at a cost of $$$) to protect against this. Which is basically back to the PKI problem - to use crypto email, you need to be vouched by a central authority.
Ian + Anon#3:
Could you post some identifying details, so if I ever feel tempted to sell you anything I know to steer well clear. Mistakes happen, they fixed and apologised, 95% of people are happy, the remaining 5% you don't want as customers.
Actually, maybe this was a deliberate flushing exercise to find that out?
I had an email about how I was overdue $198 this morning and put it to one side to look up what I was meant to be paying them and when. By the time I got to the office there was an amusing and apologetic email correcting the error.
I hope they didn't charge and re-credit my Visa though, because doing that can sometimes generate a currency loss of around 10% of the payment.
The VBA functionality was useful. It meant that an average joe with a bit of programming knowledge could easily write a function or "macro". I've not tried Visual Studio for Office, but I imagine that apart from having to buy it, you'll need to learn VS, learn VB.NET and fluff around integrating your code into Excel. A bit like 1992 and the C-language library.
Security seems to dominate everything nowadays, The issues VBA had with security (programs could edit files and thus perpetuate themselves / corrupt the OS) have largely been worked round. I haven't seen a VBA virus for years.
I want to do my computing on a motorbike, not a Volvo. If I fuck up it'll hurt, but I'll get around a whole lot quicker and it'll be more fun.
In NZ we have a device called a "ripple relay" in circuit with the hot water cylinder that switches it off at peak times. You can choose to buy uninterruptable power instead, but it's more expensive. Switzerland has much the same thing.
New generation meters will allow more of this. Like having your dryer start up when cheap power is available.
Whatever they've done to annoy you. There are too many people around (quite a few on here, I notice) who think violence is acceptable if they sympathise with the perpetrator.
The photographer's made a complaint, so the cops are obliged to take some action. I hope she gets busted.
He didn't say he *was* the watchkeeper, he said he was on board.
I've been allowed on the bridge of warships as a civvie contractor, so I assume Royal Marine officers would be equally welcome to come and see what's going on.
And another thing. Warships run on process. If any sort of credible threat occurs (like kamikazes attacking you) there'll be a tannoy announcement called a "pipe" for everyone to go places and do things (like shutting the watertight doors, putting on flash gear, etc). I can't hear any pipes on that tape. Which raises a suspicion that the crew weren't actually taking the speedboats very seriously.
Most cars had a good litre or so of methanol in their coolant until it was largely replaced by ethylene glycol some years ago. It's still in screenwash and in methylated spirits.
You need to consume a reasonable amount to injure yourself (don't try it!). Most methanol poisoning is from deliberate or accidental misuse as an intoxicant.
The electrolyte in a lot of conventional batteries is potassium hydroxide, which is much nastier.
I want a thermal isotope generator in my laptop.
If it's safe enough for the UK powergrid, then it's safe enough for me. Anyways, it just needs to be strong enough that any non-fatal collision while I'm carrying it doesn't rupture the thing. If the plane/car/skateboard I'm on wipes out with enough force to terminate me, then I'm not really fussed about any leakage, coz I'll be dead.
You wouldn't be allowed to bust people for "middle lane hogging or tailgating".
Too hard. Unless you managed to video them doing it, it'd be your word against theirs, possible court appearance, questions as to whether you what angle you were looking at them at, how far away, etc.
Much easier to press a button and get a photo of somebody doing 95.
True. And I wouldn't be surprised if the first version of Android uses a HAL/reference platform compatible with Windows Mobile.
That way, HTC and the like will just be able to create an alternate boot image for their devices that runs Android.
But like I say, handsets that are as complex as WM devices will be a niche market for a while yet.
I can't see Android doing well unless and until the big three get seriously involved. Nokia and Sony Ericcson are out and Motorola haven't exactly signed up to put Android on the next RAZR.
For this to get momentum, there need to be a range of *consumer* devices in the market, as opposed to niche geek products weighting in at 200g plus.
There also needs to be infrastructural support, which doesn't seem to be being addressed. Google don't seem to be engaging with the telcos to get data plans that will make this work, or offering an easy to use way of delivering trusted apps to the device.
Google's model in Gmail and Maps has been to "buy the business" by taking a bigger hit on delivery costs that any competitor is prepared to. If they want to do this in mobiles they will need to be subsidising the handsets, subsidising the bandwidth and generally hauling Android over the mountains between it and significant market share.
Until then, I'd say that any business model for an Android app would involve winning the $275k and going off to do something else.
Here in NZ only a tiny proportion of musicians (even ones with recording contracts) make enough money to live on, let alone the kind of wealth the UK and US offers. It's quite common to find the band helping out on the coatcheck and almost all musicians have day jobs.
This doesn't mean that we don't get a wide range of recorded and live music. Musicians just have to be people who want to make music, not money.
Anyone can get the specs from ETSI, build a device and get it certified. The network provides IP delivery to the Internet (at a price), so any application on any device can connect to any server.
Of course this isn't cheap and easy so the incumbents (whether at chipset or handset level) have an advantage.
Of course there are a whole heap of market shaping the telcos do (handset subsidy, plan pricing, sim locking, etc) but it still remains that I can take any (unlocked) generic GSM phone and use it on any GSM network (having acquired a supported SIM).
As mentioned, I assume that all Skymap systems have a feed from the aircraft positioning to the entertainment system. There are two other ways they could work: use a dedicated GPS, or (scodier) have the system programmed with flight number and a route map, and have the pilots occasionally update the ETA. That wouldn't show you where you were in the hold over Berkshire, though.
There are a few other touch points. If the ent system uses satcom, it's reasonable that it might share this with navigation/telemetry functions. It's also possible that the same physical wiring is used for entertainment and other functions.
Really it's just a question of ensuring that the division is maintained. Anything mission critical has to be developed and audited/tested to a high level (it doesn't run on a commercial OS, for instance). I reckon the report (the link is broken so I can't read it) is just flagging that everything needs to be checked and tested.
1. Put a stick of suitable explosive with a piece of detcord in it's pouch, then light the fuse. Risk is that the roo will cover under your truck before exploding.
2. Poison it with large amounts of Aussie beer. This is hard, because being smarter than white Australians, the roo probably wouldn't drink the stuff
3. Disguise it in a chador and let it lose in the bogan suburbs of Sydney
I'm guessing these things are dual core (the GSM low-level smarts are in another chip which isn't open source).
Because although we aren't in Steve Jobs land where a rogue app could crash the entire network, there would be problems if a bugged or malicious device was transmitting when it shouldn't. Which could certainly happen if anyone could recompile the low level GSM code and flash the phone.
I predict we'll be reading false positive stories in the non-IT press before long.
AVG baulked at one of my VS files the other week.
I'm thinking that the size of a typical virus "signature" string was set at a reasonable level some years ago, based on the number of viruses and the number of distinct files in the world We may have reached the point where this is too small and the antivirus firms would be advised to change their applications.
Can anyone explain to me why military systems need *any* internet connectivity? They never used to be connected to anything, except to other military computers through secure signals networks.
Not to mention mostly running with no OS and custom software (written in ADA and such like) that was small enough to be inspected line by line for security flaws.
Exploits are caused by the evil of Micro$oft. I know this to be true because I read it on Slashdot.
How can there be an exploit that affects Google? - they don't use M$FT software. It must be a conspiracy orchestrated personally by Bill Gates from his lair in the Space Needle.
I thought we were going to get questions like:
1. Our building power backup is
a. a windmill
b. a catalyst equipped bio-diesel generator
c. an always-on furnace fueled with orimulsion and whale blubber
2. my server power supply features
a. switching technology rated to 90% efficiency
b. a big transformer
c. a 0.1 ohm wirewound ballast resistor, aircooled by a 2kw fan blower
3. I print emails
a. as they arrive, in triplicate
b. only for reading on public transport
c. never, we have abolished printers
3. i would like for christmas
a. a wind up OLPC laptop
b. a low power EnergyStar flat screen monitor
c. a collection of power-saver disabling hacks for all common office machines
4. My choice of festival activity for 2007 was:
a. heavy metal night at the local pub
b. a hippy eco-carnival in the Welsh borders
c. Burning Man 2007 - The Green Man
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