* Posts by John Smith 19

16326 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Parity: The bug that put $169m of Ethereum on ice? Yeah, it was on the todo list for months

John Smith 19 Gold badge

Yet Another startup "discovers" formal development process can be quit useful.

Good thing it's not working on anything important or a lot of peoples cash could be seriously f**ked up.

IBM federal Systems developed the process to do this in the 1970's.

1)Do code audits which a)Record bugs but don't fix them on the fly and b)Find bugs, don't blame developers

2)Identify if there are bug "patterns" of error prone (or just wrong) code

3) Use those patterns to scan the whole code base for other examples and fix those before going back into retest

No "deep learning." No neural networks. Just small teams eyeballing the code and writing pattern recognition scripts fed from a code repository where all code changes were tracked by developer and date/time on a line by line basis. SoA in the mid 70's but today....

Of course that was for a code base in MB, when a 1 MHz 32bit processor with 1MB of RAM was screaming performance at a Rolls Royce cost.

You'd think in 2017 people could do a bit better, wouldn't you?

Yet with single processors several 1000x faster and memory several 1000x bigger, with potentially massive MIPS (GIPS?) available on demand, apparently not. :-( .

Big Cable's pillow talk with FCC to forbid US states from writing own net neutrality rules

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"For enough money, many people are prepared to look stupid."

Or, as Upton Sinclair put it. "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

He was the guy whose book was the basis for the film "Oil."

And then there was his book on the US meat trade during the early 1900's

Not something you want to be reading while tucking in to a Big Mac..

Then there were four: Another draft US law on 'foreign' (aka domestic) mass spying emerges

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Gimp

Let's be clear. Senators and Con-gresspeople are ignoring the written Constitution.

Which I think I'm right in saying is the highest authority on what is "legal" in the US.

Which suggests it's time to consider wheather the Houses of Congress are still representative of the people or wheather or not wholesale change of the system itself is needed.

When lawmakers disrespect the Constitution isn't that where the Founding Fathers were expecting the people to take to the streets and exercise their rights under the 2nd Amendment?

Because it really does look like "the State" feels it needs these powers to protect itself from its citizens. IOW the people are the enemy.

Which was pretty much the attitude of the Communist Party of the USSR.

Dick move: Navy flyboy flings firmament phallus for flabbergasted folk

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

Ah, if only it was called the F18 Grumbler.....

Just saying.

I thought the Growler was a Vietnam era EW aircraft, the A7 or A8 IIRC.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

Calling Big Daddy & Hitgirl perhaps?

I'd never really thought about sky writing stuff but now you mention it.....

Massive US military social media spying archive left wide open in AWS S3 buckets

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"result of trying to hire the cheapest sysadmin money can buy."

I think they succeeded.

MPs slam HMRC's 'deeply worrying' lack of post-Brexit customs system

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

Welcome to Kent, formerly the "Garden of England"

Now the "Truck Park of Britain."

Please switch off your engines ASAP and make your way to one of the designated Customs Offices/Short stay motels.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
IT Angle

"But surely..selling point of ApplicationMaster.. was self-documenting if used correctly?"

Which of course begs the question was it used correctly?

I don't know what ApplicationMaster is capable of as I was not on the project, as I had not been conceived at the time it was built.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Nope, I'm still working, and plan to return to the UK when I do l retire, "

How interesting. Were you abroad when you voted?

I found it very telling that the Scottish Independence Referendum let almost anyone living in Scotland vote.

Because those people would mostly likely have to live with the consequences of their decision.

But you don't live in the UK. For you "Britain" is actually more a place inside your head, whose climate you don't experience and whose taxes (it appears) you don't pay.

I've often wondered how many UK elections have been decided by absentee "subjects" whose actual knowledge of the country is decades out of date.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"(showing my age there)."

Only if you saw them in the original B&W.

Which I rather think you did.

"Further I object most strongly the the oft mooted Brexiters are all senile racists line."

That was more an impression of all those Daily Heil editorials and the Leave leadership I think.

There really was something quite funny about people who didn't want furriners wanting to bar Europeans but happy to have a whole load more of a whole lot more darker skinned folk from the former colonies. Utterly non-sensical to the point of delusion.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Brexit will take years of hard work to undo the damage "

of Brexit

FTFY.

"Personally I think it will be worth it. We'll see."

And if not you're retired on a good pension already, so who cares, eh?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Sorry I am honestly confused."

Then perhaps you shouldn't have voted in the first place?

"f we dont try to move away from a bad system then we are guaranteed the bad system."

Only if you bi**ed about it endlessly while doing nothing constructive about changing it while you are a part of that system. Brexiteers whine about "remoaners," having bi**hed on for 42 years to get another vote.

British people seem to have some hazy, comfortable, idyllic view of the British Countryside which was bul***hit in the 19th century and is a total fantasy in the 21st.

That "patchwork of small fields" got ripped out ASAP during WWII as the UK struggled to live on what supplies it could buy abroad and ship back home without them being sunk by U boats.

What people don't realize is just how capital intensive modern farming is. That's why quite a lot of it is now owned by Insurance and investment companies. A decade ago the average hardware on an arable farm was £1million. That's more than a good few light engineering companies have as assets. BTW It's also a very tax effective way to operate. Write offs and support everywhere. It's no wonder a typcial large farm will have a "Farm Manager" and a full time Tractor Driver, because frankly Farmer Palmer ain't got time to actually farm.

I wonder if the UKG is ready to go on handing that money out to the Country Land and Business Association Limited as they are now called (who are BTW currently looking for a Taxation Adviser )

Membership has it's privileges.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

make NI de-facto part of a united Ireland...go down like three-week old cold sick

with certain (armed) members of the NI population.

Who Teresa May is not-in-coalition with.

She and Arlene Foster are just good friends and friends do each other favors from time to time.

The Conservative govt gives NI an extra £Bn and they agree to turn out for crucial votes to stop the Conservatives calling another election and BoJo/Rees-Mogg/Other right wing nutter to take over.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Thumb Up

Re: Loan/rent Kent to the EU

Genius.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"apart from..Nigel.. Farage.. obviously planned to quit no matter which way the vote went."

Well there you go then.

Planning sorted. *

*Actually I think they believed the Brexit fairy would wave her magic wand and it would all magically sort itself out.

Well how would you explain doing f**k all planning, other than positing the existence of a magical supernatural being with vast powers to sort out such a colossal s**tstorm ?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"what happens..native UK farming industry if..reduce import tariffs to 0?" "a really good question."

You bet it is.

A substantial part of the Europe still has the idea of "part time farmers," where they have smallish holdings and day jobs. People who run a few chickens, and/or cows, maybe some rabbits.

But the UK had to "industrialize" it's farming during WWII.

As a result it's got a relatively small number of very large (by European standards) farm holdings in a small number of hands.

And a lot of them are on a nice fat subsidy check from the EU, along with assorted MP's and TV presenters.

A lot of them are also in what was the "Country Landowners Association" and (surprise surprise) are part of the Tory rump.

Fat cats don't like having their cream supply cut off, so don't be too surprised if your little free market fantasy "suddenly" develops a few hitches.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"they're going to need a 24/7 bodyguard service once the full understanding"

If only.

In the words of this political operator "The British people are infinitely gullible."

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"It's when our economy gets washed down the B-Day."

I think HMG is seeking to have that renamed "foot bath."

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Is that what we're calling it now? Buggered Day?"

It may not be what it's called.

But it's certainly looking like that will be the outcome.

If I downed a load of anti-depressants I might just about think that yes there is enough time to design, develop, test, re-work and roll out a new system (and all the interfaces to all the other systems it has to interface to) in the time allowed. It will also be flexible enough to allow on the fly updating of the system (by authorized personnel only of course) by updating various database entries in the configuration system, and one of the configurations pre configured into the system will be a close(ish) match to what is finally needed from day one.

However with that many pills inside of me I'd a) Be close to needing my stomach pumped and b) Actually think Brexit was a good idea to start with IOW I'd be tripping off my tits.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Not all of us 70 year olds voted leave. Still, stereotyping is easier than "

Let's say the demographics of the leave voters were toward the upper end of the age range and the lower end of the education range.

However there were exceptions to both rules.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Holmes

"A failed customs system could lead to huge disruption for businesses,"

Indeed. Who could have foreseen that (see icon) ?

What are the two things we know about all government specific IT systems?

1) The rules they have to implement are under constant change. From Ministers, lobbyists, the EU, the WTO etc etc.

2) Outsourced IT seem to go for the most rigid system they can with the most amount of rules hard coded in the logic.

We all know why they do this. It means more change requests which normally (because they pretty much wrote the contract, not the UKG) means more money,

Admittedly this one will be tougher because it's a)Got a hard deadline and b)The rules being moved to are (literally) unknown. Nope. Not a clue. Somewhere between current (but not exactly) rule set and up to (and including) full WTO tariffs.

In fact I'm not sure if the current rules implemented within CHIEFS (in ICL 4GL dating from the 70's) are fully documented.

But that doesn't matter because the UK is "Taking Back Control (C Linton Kwesi Crosby 2017) and because deep down..

<gollum>

We wants it

We needs it.

We must have hard brexit

</gollum>

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"I presume David Davis and his fellows will vanish post-Brexit, "

Which is actually pretty bad news as he seemed the only IT literate Conservative with an interest in protecting UK citizens privacy.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"I'm sure there'll be some left out of the £350 million per-week we'll be taking back control of"

Oh no, that was supposed to be the increase in NHS funding.

Although latest thinking seems to be that will be lost in Brexit costing.

So no my little Brexit voters, your NHS won't be getting that money after all.

Perhaps in a few decades, once all the other Brexit bills have been settled.

Maybe.

US govt to use software to finger immigrants as potential crims? That's really dumb – boffins

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Facepalm

"Now is that "Buttle," or"Tuttle" who gets the black hood and the white noise?"

Oh, it's "Abdul" you say?

I am so sorry for having spoiled your evening, and your ceiling, Madame.

We'll just be on our way. Good night.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

For readers of William Gibson it's obvious what ICE is looking for

Black ICE

As in lethal force Intruder Countermeasures Electronics.

This will not end well.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

"could be used to arbitrarily flag groups of immigrants under a veneer of objectivity"

You make it sound like that's a flaw in the requirements.

It's a feature.

But let me try and lighten the mood as it's Friday.

"Heil Hydra."

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"Translation: Are you or have you ever been a member of the $Faith faith?"

FTFY

You forgot to allow for future growth options.

Kaspersky: Clumsy NSA leak snoop's PC was packed with malware

John Smith 19 Gold badge

So to recap.

NSA Supports BYOD

NSA lets devs run Kaspersky

Devs will pirate MS Office

And in process open themselves up to being penetrated by Chinese hackers, which is stopped by Kaspersky AV.

Hard to decide which element of this situation is more disturbing.

Does kind of explain how the Equation tools got onto the open market though, doesn't it?

Tesla launches electric truck it guarantees won't break for a million miles

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

Is it just me...

Or does that front end look like an upside down T?

No doubt all about streamlining for wind resistance.

Why Boston Dynamics' backflipping borg shouldn't scare you

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Terminator

Re: Boston Dynamics Scottish Department

The ultimate fusing of robot and AI technology.

A Glaswegian Terminator.

Be very afraid.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Wow. 30 years from Shadow Robitics and people are still struggling with it.

Shadow Robotics idea was quite simple.

Robots live in the human world.

Not humans live in a world made convenient for robots.

Hence a literal human skeleton (made of plywood IIRC, because it matched human levels of strength and mass better than steel) with equivalents to every muscle in the human hand (and there are lot more than the 17 joints up to the shoulder of a normal arm).

They also use a very clever, every light pneumatic muscle to keep the weight down and the response adequate (but they had trouble finding/building a noiseless 3Kw 4-8 bar air compressor, which is what a full unit needed).

AFAIK some of their work is still the SoA.

For goodness sake, stop the plod using facial recog, London mayor told

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Gimp

Senior plod love new laws, except if they regulate behavior of the plod.

Then they are "Invasive" and "Not able to keep up with modern police methods" blah blah.

It seems this "Biometrics Commisoner" will be another "tutter" who is basically toothless. A true "sleeping policeman"

Crewless dinghy signs to UK Ship Register for Middle East mission

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Joke

Vince Dobbin, "lots of..negotiation" with..Maritime & Coastguard Agency and the Ship Register,

Where they close to saying "Nayyyyy" at several points by any chance?

Sorry, couldn't pass up the chance.

DJI bug bounty NDA is 'not signable', say irate infosec researchers

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"NDAs tied to bug bounty programs seems like a wonderful way of suppressing research "

Exactly my point.

Please note. I'm not saying that DJI's is doing that, but not being transparent about it does make it look that way, doesn't it?

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Big Brother

I suspect if you sign the NDA you can't talk about even if you're looking for bugs.

IOW All information about wheather a researcher is even looking for ways in disappears into an information black hole.

Which means they can claim "We have no security issues. You can ask any of the researchers in this area."

Reporter asks researcher (who's signed NDA). "I know nothing of any bugs. I can neither confirm nor deny that I am investigating any vulnerabilities. I cannot comment on their security. Goodbye."

It may be like those "National Security Letters" the FBI have been issuing to ISP's. They can't tell a customer they're being spied on. They can't tell them if the customer asks them and they can't even answer if the customer asks "Have you received an NSL on my account?"

If I'm right would that sound somewhat Orwellian to you?

Of course releasing a copy of the full NDA would settle matters more or less instantly.

After all if DJI has nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear. Right?

Internet of So Much Stuff: Don't wanna be a security id-IoT

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

How about "No PHB gives a s**t about security and everything about time to market"

That's what I think is a big driver.*

Let's be real f**king honest here. Historically it has taken actual deaths for industries to start seriously caring about safety, and it looks like IoT security will be another such issue. These are the sort of borderline psychopaths for whom "Carter Burke" in "Aliens" is a (flawed) role mode whose success is to be emulated.

*Who then hire code monkeys too ignorant, or scared of them, or harassed, to find secure implementations of functions even when they exist and are too exhausted/lazy/stupid to implement from scratch when it does not.

US govt's 'foreign' spy program that can snoop on Americans at home. Sure, let's reauth that...

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Gimp

FAscinating this seems to be the one area of cooperation between both sides of the Houses

Clearly they understand who the real enemy is.

The American people.

That is the implication of this sort of Draconian legislation, is it not?

Now Oracle stiffs its own sales reps to pocket their overtime, allegedly

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"blue collar and lawyers, of course."

And accountants

And Doctors in private practice.

Remember CompuServe forums? They're still around! Also they're about to die

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

Nostalgia

The universe's way of telling you too many of your brain cells have died for you to remeber how bad it was.

Something to keep in mind.

Crap London broadband gets the sewer treatment

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Didn't one of Vermin's predecessor companies do something similar already?

Fun fact.

One of the issues with setting up a UK cable TV network was that once the cable was laid it's recovery process was so expensive it's "asset" value was basically zero.

So once it's down, it's basically not an asset, it's a sunk capital cost.

Privacy Pass protocol promises private perusing

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Obvious weaknesses.....

How good is the PNRG?

In fact is a real PNRG being used or is it just "Multiply" by 1?

I think this is the first (or at least first that's got some traction) privacy preserving technology for this task.

The root cause problem is that web sites cost money and the question is how do you fund them? People talk about advertising, but it's not just the ads, it's the data collection and endless tracking of who you are and where you are and what you have and are doing.

Silverlight extinguished while Angular wins fans among developers

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

And I thought it was just me.

Not at all.

All major players have spun up something that they have claimed will be "The next big thing, honest" and it's gone nowhere.

I think MS is the one that was most willing to do so simply to destroy a competitor and preserve it's not-a-monopoly-other-OS's-are-available market.

Some will rise, some will rise as the preferred way to access the environment that drove their creation (EG Android today, SAP or Oracle yesterday) and some will curl up in a ball in the corner and die. Maybe the implementation of their ideas was rubbish, maybe the ideas were just not that big an advance over what you can get already, maybe they were but the learning curve was just too big to go there for the benefits (the old HP calculator story. RPN is great if you were prepared to swallow the learning curve, and many weren't).

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

No idea what some of those things are

And judging by the very transient nature of some of these "Next big things, honest" I doubt I will have the time to become aware of them before they start to decline.

Munich council: To hell with Linux, we're going full Windows in 2020

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Big Brother

" I guess that's the same business plan of your local drug dealer"

Pretty much.

Also get them used to the "THere is no OS but Windows. There is no email but Outlook. There are no office apps but Offce365 (or however many days it runs before their DC goes TITSUP)"

Openreach fibre plan for 10m premises coming 'before Christmas'

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

Meet the new monopoly.

Same as the old monopoly.

"I can take to our shareholder – which is BT"

Says it all really.

As long as that situation prevails no other ISP really matters at all.

All else is rhetorical bu***hit.

Audio spy Alexa now has a little pal called Dox

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Gimp

"Dox" may not be the image they want to convey....

But damm is that an accurate description of what they are doing.

"Always on microphone" is supposedly handled by their internal processor.

But who believes that?

Linux 4.14 arrives and Linus says it should have fewer 0-days

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Unhappy

"The release..limits to 128PiB of virtual address space and 4PiB of physical address space"

Hard to believe the original Unix was implemented on machines with 64KB of physical memory.

Almost impossible to imagine today.

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Coat

"Presumably not the Motorola Droid 4 which was released in February 2012 "

Correct.

This is not the 'Droid you are looking for.

It's a Monday morning.

Teensy weensy space shuttle flies and lands

John Smith 19 Gold badge
Thumb Up

Actually not much like the Shuttle at all

The Shuttle was a fairly conventional body-and-wings design like a normal aircraft.

People go with lifting bodies because they want to minimize the wing are, and hence the area you need to cover with a heat shield.

Otherwise LB's tend to have much worse handling characteristics than body-and-wings (which is an impressive feat, given the Shuttle handled like a brick).

DC is actually the most cutting edge tech seen for ISS resupply. It's a crew rated (given it has to berth to the Station) all composite (carbon fibre) human sized lifting body. Nothing has all those things together in one package.