Posts by frank ly

"(we swear we're not making this up)"

It's difficult for me but I believe you.

Professor Wernstrom did it better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvRQ4d76ZV0

I've jumped through the hoop once already

Virgin Media (my ISP) have already caused me (by nagging with an injected browser tab) to visit their website and log in to tick a box to indicate that I don't want 'family protection content filtering' i.e. porn block. So why do they need to do any more?

Also, on the very few occasions when I've accidentally clicked on a link to a well known torrenting site, they block access and show me a page that says I'm trying to be naughty and the courts have told them to stop me. Let the government put court orders on them and let us see exactly what has been denied to us.

I thought this was a Laundry Files story

I was mildly disappointed, at first.

The 80:20 rule?

Will it be 80% of accounts are bots? Will they be wiped when Twitter officially finds out?

Misunderstanding

"... a bird that was collecting acorns in a microwave dish, eventually amassing 300lb of the things, ..."

Was it a misguided attempt to cook them?

Conclusions

"... claiming that almost all the scans came from just two IP addresses in China. As the post notes, however: “it's important not to jump to conclusions about the attacker's location simply by looking at an IP address."

Is it fairly easy for someone outside of China to set up a VPN service inside China and then use it to transfer large amounts of data from outside China to the VPN server and then back out to their own location?

Metrics

"For a while, Apple had the lead with Siri: ..."

How was this determined? Specifications, measurements, standardised test procedures, etc ? Does anybody know what we want/need from a 'chatbot' and why?

Hence the advice not to re-use passwords.

All over the place

It's the Kerr effect. No, it's ionisation of the atmosphere. No, it's temporary heating of the atmosphere. Maybe it's all three at the same time so we can call it a Trinity Mirror because all new tech needs a cool name.

6502 assembler code

I used to write that stuff for a living, back in the mid-late 80's. Ahhhh, life was oh so simple then.

A learning experience

"... average win rate of more than 450 mbb/g (milli big blinds per game) ..."

I've looked in some forums etc to learn what this means and I've downloaded a paper on the subject from the University of Alberta Department of Computing Science. I might figure it out one day.

Maybe if I started playing poker for money.....?

We want information

"An ice hockey fan and one-time country club waiter, ..."

I can understand why this is interesting, important and relevant. Wait .... no, I can't.

The only black avatar in the series

And his name is Cole Train. Which comedian thought of this? They were going to call him Token but that joke has already been done.

Excuse me?

"The FBI has seized the servers and will ship them to Italy, ..."

Don't they understand how computers work?

a CCTV installer in Nigeria.

Is he a prince who's fallen on hard times?

At various times in the past, El Reg has published articles involving the 'love muscle' (of both sexes). Have you had any SEO contact about those?

re. Quadsys

I fully agree with your arguments and opinions but I'm confused by your use of the Quadsys situation as an example.

If people are charged with an offence and appear in court then this is a public event, in principle and in practice. Provided you report the facts, as stated in court papers and announcments or by repetition of court journalist's published articles then how can anyone use a legal procedure to prevent you from reporting it?

The segmentation model

Why does a "stay at home mom" need a five day battery life?

“It is also a trial so we have a long way to go.”

Does this mean they'll be collecting even more information in the future?

"Libratus"

I said 'poker player', not 'piano player'!

On a more serious note, watch out for Carnegie Mellon researchers showing signs of increased disposable income. Do they have ethical guidelines for pitting their research machines against humans in online poker games?

Correction

"... although there is not as yet any such thing as a bidirectional filament lamp. You can however get bidirectional LEDs."

All filament lamps are bidirectional. All LEDs are unidirectional. Some LED luminaires have reversible polarity because they contain two LEDs connected with opposite polarity. I need to get a life.

"The gadget vibrates angrily ..."

It also has a smooth cylindrical handle. I wonder if it's programmable from the smartphone and if there's a 'premium' app for that.

It's bad, the news says so

Here's a recent article that appeared in The Independent newspaper 26 Dec:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/bitcoin-is-being-monitored-by-an-increasingly-wary-us-government-a7492796.html

The first thing it does is to associate alternative currencies with white supremacists. It quickly goes on to mention terrorists and criminals:

“And it runs contrary to the very fundamentals of the transparency and accountability that we’ve tried to build for the last three decades to tackle terrorism, human trafficking, money-laundering and many other types of criminal activity.”

Here's a good one:

"This ability to financially disrupt, disable and dismantle nefarious networks, is crucial to US national security, USTreasury officials say. "

It goes on with more:

"...and refers to bitcoin as a revolutionary innovation that’s “breathtaking in its ambition” and striking for its “attempt to overthrow a sovereign authority.” "

I suspect a move against Bitcoin in the near future, after a few more articles to prepare us for an extension to the continuous war on terror.