Posts by Neoc

Well...

The only "upgrade" I can see is that Adword customer will now be and to phone Google at a reasonable local time instead of having to wait for someone in Ireland to get to the office at a 10-or-11 hour time difference.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

First, let me state that I developed a DNA-paperwork-tracking database for the local Police force. The way DNA-profiling works (here at least) is as follows:

System generates paperwork (DNA + Fingerprint, including barcodes to help track the paperwork + samples) which is printed and handed to the person who will be doing the sample. Why? Because as far as forensics is concerned it can be shown that this DNA belongs to the person with this set of fingerprints. BTW, fingerprints are actually a more accurate identification system - twins (for example) will have the same DNA but different fingerprints. It has been suggested that even clones of a person would have different prints. But DNA is easier to get at a crime-scene these days.

Samples are taken from the suspect and the paperwork is signed, and barcode strips are attached to the samples. DNA Samples are sent away to the DNA labs, FP samples are set to the fingerprint bureau (we'll leave the Fingerprints alone now and concentrate on the DNA).

DNA bureau get the barcoded samples and process them to extract a DNA signature. Both the sample and the signature are only referred to by their barcoded number - you would need both the DNA sample data (with a unique identifier *for each sample*) and the paperwork/system data to link sample(s) to a person. (note; I was informed at the time that DNA-ing a person costs ~AU$100 per sample)

Upon requiring destruction, the system issues the relevant destruction paperwork *with unique identifier and barcode* which is sent to the labs. The labs, which store the samples/signatures base on the identifier, retrieve the sample and signature and destroy them (by sterilisation and/or burning). They then sign the compliance letter which accompanied the paperwork and send that back to HQ. (note; again I was informed that destruction of a sample costs ~AU$10 per sample).

The reason it's done this way is that the police force here can (and has to) retain the fact that you *were* DNA'd and the accompanying facts for legal reasons (like FOIs, court actions, etc). But if you are not charged, or are found innocent, the *identifying markers* (i.e., the DNA sample and signature and the fingerprints) which were taken *for that purpose* have to be destroyed. (note: any existing DNA data for instances where you *are* guilty can/will be retained).

So: £5m pounds is ~ AU$7.75m - does this mean the UK has 775,000 "innocent DNA" samples?

Big hospital.

"The site will become a new children’s hospital, and covers the suburbs of South Brisbane, West End, Highgate Hill, Dutton Park and Fairfield."

The site covers 5 suburbs? That's one big hospital.

Yeah, yeah: coat, door.

Calculations mayhem

"a rate of 2.168 bytes/per hour (17.344 bits/min)"

Er, no. 2.168 bytes/hour = 17.344 bits/hour = 0.289 bits/min ... or ~3.4 minutes/bit

"A Peal"?

Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls.

Steam!

"The world will be saved by steam!" -- Professor Steamhead, Ninja High School.

Reminds me of a quote...

I worked for the local law enforcement in their IT division for 8 years. One of the Sergeants there had a quote which covers this:

"How stupid is the average criminal? Let me put it this way: he still gets caught by the average cop."

Damn, almost caught out.

I was about to side with Apple on this one, under the proviso that forums and ISP aren't responsible for what people post on them... and then (about 0.5 of a second later) reality re-asserted itself - Apple lost that safe-haven ground when it insisted on policing the Apple App store and forcing the apps to be approved before being published. Hence, they *are* (partly) responsible for what is being sold through the App store.

celebré?

Really? If you're going to bother with the accents on foreign words, please do it properly: "célèbre"

As for South Australia: if it wasn't for the footage filmed by a by-stander, that Sydney kid wouldn't have had a leg to stand on and would most likely have been the only one suspended.

"Sphere Analysis"

"Because our reports go 'round in circles"(tm).

Clarification please..

When they stated "identified the author 80 percent of the time" did they mean:

(1) Given 100 emails it identified authors for 80 of them and they were all correct - the remaining 20 where marked as "unsure"; or

(2) Given 100 emails it identified authors for 100 of them, but upon examination only 80 of them were correct.

Option 1 is a decent piece of software detective work. Option 2 is a lousy negative match rate.

Correct me if I'm wrong...

...but isn't the App discussed in this article called a "web browser"?

I tried a few "apps" on my iPad (I purchased it mostly to read books and comics. The rest of the time I use it to surf the web or look up an address). And the number of so-called "apps" from companies that are nothing more than a short-link to their website infuriates me. Don't call it an App (and give it all the outward appearance of an App) if the only thing it does once I click on an option is send me to a web page.

Now don't get me wrong - a lot of the Apps I have looked at would be best done as HTML-5 websites... at least then I could access them even when I am using my Linux PC - the "App"-ification brings nothing to the experience.

And as far as this article goes - if I write the contents for my App in HTML-5, I will not bother putting it up as an App and only access Apple-based customers... I will put it in a subscription-based website and access anyone with a web-browser.

Where the heck...

...is Gojira when you need him?

Am I just being cynical...?

I read all the questions and stripped them of the "sci-fi" nature... and it seems to me that all three solutions can be easily applied to social networking.

Now why would FB be interested in computing solutions which help calculate relationships and degrees of separations? No wonder they were willing to pay $5000 to the person who came up with the best algorithm - that's cheap.

That 5pm release time, by the way, will be the same in each time zone.

Does this mean that fanbois in the Antipodes will be able to get their hands on them ~12 hours ahead of the yanks?

Didn't think so.

Yeah, right

This is "not for punitive reason" the same way that Japan's killing of whales is "not for commercial reasons".

No sir, I don't like it.

There's a reason the dot-notation exists, and that's to help categorise addresses. I, for example, would be against a .london TLD. *Which* London? Yes, most people in the English-speaking world would immediately think of the ENglish capital, but that just makes my point... it should be (at best ) .london.uk (possibly even .london.en.uk) and thus (for example) .gov.uk (or is it .go.uk over there?) would be the UK Government's domain while .gov.london.uk would be the London CIty Council.

And what about .paris? Are we referring to the French capital, the Hilton-family laughing-stock, or even any of the multitudes of "paris" towns scattered around the Globe (there is at least one in Australia and several in the USA).

Proliferation of TLD should help *create* sense, not remove it. By all means, create a .movie or a .book TLD and put websites promoting (or discussing) movies and books under them. But let's face it - wales is (last I checked) part of the UK and the UK has its TLD. So it wales' websites should be under the .cymru.uk domain, until such a time as they secede.

YMMV, of course.

Copper makes sense

While the optical version makes sense for communications between *self-powered* items, if Intel really wants to overthrow USB then it needs a connection system which can power whatever is being plugged into it (I am thinking of Thunderbolt version of today's USB-powered memory sticks and HDD storage).

It may mean that a computer (or other self-powered device) requires both a copper and optical port, but unless Intel can supply power via photons...

Missing sentence.

"The carrier says it will use QoS technologies to manage traffic on the LTE network now under deployment. Vodafone, meanwhile"

Yes? What is VF doing in the meantime?

Agree with RachelG

I recently built a fileserver with a RAID-5 array which presents a single 14TB (*real* TB, not the marketing ones) to the operating OS (linux) which then makes SMB and NFS shares available to the home network. Why? Because I got tired of looking for a DVD when I wanted to watch a movie and I am now ripping my DVD collection to the fileserver, without re-compressing the files.

If it wasn't for the price (the Drobo cost as much as my PC did, and can't be used for other things like MythTV) I would have gone with one of their products and saved myself a lot of headache. Probably would have gotten two and rsync'd the data across them (yes, paranoia abounds when it comes to my data).

Pardon me if memory fails...

But wasn't Detroit a hell-hole because a certain company executive wanted a ready market for the ED-209s?

Easy fix...

The App store (Mac App, iTunes App, iwhatever App store) should be along the same lines as the Linux repositories :- it comes with pre-approved "trusted" repositories, but you can add new ones to the list and their contents show up alongside the pre-approved one.

In other words, user should be able to add non-Apple App stores and see *their* result turn up in the iTunes/whatever App to be able to make (for example) price comparisons.

But this isn't going to happen - it has nothing to do with user satisfaction or code stability. It has to do with Apple wanting their 30% of *anything* running on their hardware - and the best way to do that is to ensure you can only buy through *their* store and no-one else.

Cookbook

I really wish there was a simple cookbook for those of us not steeped in this.

Yoh!

"There are more than 40,000 registered users (up by 25 per cent) on the Zimbra community, and it is hard to say how many of them have downloaded the open source edition of Zimbra"

<puts hand up> I'm one - my home mail server uses Zimbra Open Source with the web interface. Makes it easy to create one-off email addresses.

Now if only I could sync my HTC Blackstone's calendar/contacts with it, I'd be a happy boy.

Bottom line

While I might not agree with the final effect (i.e., sacking the guy instead of reprimands/fines/etc...) the cause is simple:

You use your employer's resources (any resources), you do it according to *their* rules.

Can you hear it?

That recycled catch-cry: "Won't somebody please think of the Internet?"

Because, obviously, "won't somebody please think of the children?" doesn't make sense. Unless they tie it to spurious anti-paedophilia Acts. And I'll shut up now before I give them any more ideas.

Yep, had the problem.

"If, that is, you’re one of the few people who’s found a problem that can be solved by wireless HDMI."

While admittedly this does not happen often, I sometimes want to hook my laptop to the TV to show something to many people at once. At the moment, this involves a long, partially hidden HDMI cable which restricts the position of the laptop to the side-table where the cable ends. (movies/video clips are not a problem, I have a WDTV-Live plugged both to the hi-fi stack and the home network.)

The same problem also arises if I want to show something from the PC.

And yes, the situation doesn't arise often - but often enough to be a pain in the a## when it does.