Posts by WhatWasThat?

@ Oliver Magee

Indeed.

<sarcasm>

The problem is, that it is very hard for DoJ to "crack" down on the bettors themselves - no one will sympathize with the Gummit when they are on the evening news carting Dear Old Grandma who went online for some Texas Hold'em after her Sunday Bridge Club. So, *obviously* the targets are the websites that run these EVIL TEMPTERS of good 'ol Granny. After all, doesn't the US control the Internet thingy anyway?

</sarcasm>

Hypocritical? Of course! After all, our country *was* founded by Christians too interested in self-repression they got kicked out of Europe. Then it was overrun by those glorious, "d*mnable" Free Thinkers that hoped to make it something great. Too bad the repressors have been pulling the strings lately. (Yes, this comment was outside the <sarcasm/> tags...)

What goes out of that tower next door...

The problem is that once you have a set of points of transmission and reception, you find that covereage may *not* be quite so well laid out as they advertisements (and the networks) claim. And they can't rightly let that happen, now, can they?

@DrXym

I'm sorry, Penalty kick awarded for use of annoyingly (and increasinly) irrelevant cult term: "non-NPOV".

Re: Precedent

I am not so sure that this would set a precedent for passing off responsibility for use of unsecured WIFI to the abuser and not the owner... (WARNING: I am not a QC/Lawyer and this is not legal advice) <IMHO>

In this case, the "computer resource" was secured by password, and was owned by a company - hence, under more protections than an individual. This would only be analogous if the WIFI access point in question was

a) owned by a company (non-individual legal entity)

b) "secured" by a user/password (no matter how lame or guessable)

Because of this, a case dealing with a personal, unsecured WIFI access point that was "abused" for, say, copyright infringement, would not be able to use this case as a precedent. </IMHO>

However, when dealing with any country with "innocent unless (until?) proven guilty" I am sure they will put up a "unsecured = accomplice" precedent soon enough...

Definitions, please

I would be more worried about the people that named these poor pachyderms...

1. Tang Mo - A slang term... Don't see it? How about "Mo Tang"? ...and I don't mean the orange drink (possibly only obvious to Mary Kens).

2. Thong Dee - Sounds like the latest female Chav rapper. Or would that be "Heavy" Thong Dee?

3. Porntip - 'nuff said.

4. Pak Boon - Almost thought it was the one island in the sea of depravity, but no. Obviously a cleaver anagram of "Bak _oon" (one letter left out for society's sake!).

Basically, since we have complete suceeded in opressing all of humanity with our Puritanical morals, obviously it is time for the animal kingdom to toe the line, eh?

Climate change model

In case anyone was wondering what the IT angle might be...

There are several (sic) climate change models around, but what does it take to create one? Is it just a mathematical approximation of environmental conditions of the globe, or attempts to have a subjective "quality" of weather?

In the case of any digital representation of an analog system (ie. computer model of the earth), you will need to determine the "resolution" of the digital representation. In the case of the earth, it has 510,072,000 km² surface area (wiki). If we wanted to take our resolution as "nodes" of triangles (sorry - graphics oriented here), we end up with 144270148.279 areas of triangles 3535.5339 m² in size. This was based off of the arbitrary decision of having equilatoral triangles 50m per side as a "node".

IMHO, each node would be a separate software "class", with properties for environmental conditions, and each side having an interface of methods for environmental effects of surrounding nodes (one for each "side") affecting the environment of the node. There would then be an interface for "energy pumping", which would be from the sun. While this could get complex very quickly, but focusing on the node itself and creating a generalized class that correctly conforms to meteorological data and effects, it should be fairly straightforward to create this software class "node".

Notice, I said "straightforward", I did not say "simple". I would expect that it could take several talented people a few months to design and develop such a piece of software, and then spend a like amount of time creating the surrounding framework that would erect and create the nodes for individual representations of the sections of the globe (initial values, etc). This framework would then throw in the energy constantly being applied to the system (sunlight) and let it run for a set simulated amount of time.

Again, this is a huge oversimplification, but should give everyone an idea of what is involved in simulating this. And, for those you playing at home thinking this is easy, you may have noticed that even this is only two dimensional.... :)

Hold a moment, MfM...

I cannot help but notice that the name has different spelling (capitalization).

Now, that could be part of the "code" from the obfuscator, but does El Reg's comment posting user schema differentiate between users with the same "name", but different blends of upper and lower case in the user name?

IF so... how many MfM do we have in this darned thing?!

Don't be too proud...

... of this technological terror you have constructed. The ability to down Plausibly Deniable Instamagical Targets for your secret AINTI-satellite Defense System(tm) is insignificant to the Power of the Farce.

@Comments on CNN website

Interesting to note - "not all comments may show for this article" when you submit them to the CNN website...

A lot of the "its OK" posts on that article use "only bad people have anything to hide." I CANNOT BELIEVE this is still a "valid" reasoning, even for sheeple.

If you have nothing to hide, why do you close your curtains at night? Why keep your vehicle registration in your glovebox instead of taped inside your windshield? Why not have your full name on your mailbox with full names of all residents at your house/apt/condo? Why not let the government install a program to keep your computer "safe"... and monitor where you are and what you do all the time while they "protect you" - you can never be a suspect if they know everything about you and what you do, right? Right?

"You have nothing to worry about if you let us manipulate, uh... monitor, er... protect, YEAH, PROTECT you" - Govt.

Remember that every person who has fought to "protect our freedoms" and "secure our way of life"... the subject of all those yellow "support our troops" ribbons, dying for corporate America's interests... are "potential suspects" every time the FBI runs a fingerprint scan... as they are added upon enlistment BY LAW...

Govt is still "for the People", just not "by the People"... It is "Government by Paid-for Proxy, for the People, by Corporations"

Will the economy will fall and put us all under the "mercy" of the Govt before people who care about living a life without a government or corporate handout have a chance to rally any real opposition to this?

Yeah, I'm the one with the small horde of silver bullion (gold bullion is illegal in the US for private citizens to own and subject to confiscation, didn't you know?), food and "etc" in my "hunting cabin" next to a 1/2 acre garden. If you are not already prepared, it may be too late for you. Nutcase? Sure, call me what you like to sleep better at night on your govt issued cot in a converted sports arena...

Good grief... should this get a "Get my coat" icon? "Flamebait"? Nope - Skull & Crossbones, baby - the last flag of True Freedom left in some places of the world...

Ask Sony...

It seems plain as day that if you own a PS3, you will be a part of Sony Home (to get the updates, etc). Sony's software has a catalog (locally stored, of course... sure...) of all titles (games and movies) played on your box. It does this to mark if updates are needed and can then be downloaded after hours (while asleep).

Simply ask Sony for the numbers. But then, they really don't need to chime in with HD doing so poorly, do they...?

Skyping down the Garden Path

Fancy that after VoIP communications clients are found to have Dastardly Diseases embedded into them, and Holyier than Swiss Cheese (movies, anyone?), it's suddenly the Next Best Thing for wannaB terrori$ts to use.

Funny, that.

Solve the problem against lipreading

... By bringing back those SARS protective masks!

Free yourself from the VIRUS(tm) of Government Control!

Extraterrestrial Excrement Excites Epitomes

Fancy that AIl alien bandwidth IS already Brought by septicNET, and That is the Reasoning For the Seasoning. Tiny Tertiary Tidbits to T*rd Tinpots Tickle Teensy Terrors? Two True!