* Posts by Cortland Richmond

139 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jun 2007

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FCC takes baby step towards net neutrality

Cortland Richmond

Public comment required by US law

The Administrative Procedures Act requires each Rulemaking be open to public comment. This does not mean comments will be listened to; comment is required even if Congress has put what it wants the FCC to do into a Bill made Law -- or made veiled and not so veiled threats to abolish the FCC, the BPL (PLC to you chaps) proceedings being an example of the latter process. But public comment there was, is and will be. Amen.

FWIW, Physics is no obstacle to US lawmakers.

IT chiefs in cloaks and sashes gets Queen's mark of approval

Cortland Richmond
Alert

Oh goody!

And do the Worshipful Company enjoy the right to carry swords in the City of London? Brings new... intensity to Net Neutrality! Nine dead after committee meeting, etc. Equal THAT,BOFH!

New York Times bans 'tweet'

Cortland Richmond
Thumb Up

Gort MY vote!

But I also think Morse Code is good enough...

US lawmakers publish internet privacy Bill

Cortland Richmond

Government does it!

One may find addresses and names of FCC licensees on that agency's site. Shall that likewise require an opt-out? Because when one has radio interference, it is quite good to be be to contact the source and resolve it.

Power management and carbon footprints

Cortland Richmond

Reduced CO2 footprint IT dep't

Why did I just flash on Bob Cratchit on a stool, doing his ledgers by the light of one (small) candle?

Muso turfed off train for 'suspicious' set list

Cortland Richmond
Black Helicopters

Slithy Toves?

Some years ago, an online acquaintance posted that he'd a candidate text for bumper stickers:

"I'll worry about terrorists when I can stop worrying about motorists."

US Army considered attack on Wikileaks

Cortland Richmond
Black Helicopters

In the USA

Whistle-blowers -- people who expose unlawful, unethical or in some cases harmful actions by employers or organizations -- are to some extend protected by law. It is natural that classified or sensitive information should be held dear by those organizations who generate or use it, and if they want it to remain secret, they can and should act -- as the laws allow -- to keep it so. Other countries may not be so limited in what they can do.

"Isn't it true you've been saying Comrade Chernenko acts like he's dead?"

"He acts like it!"

"Yes -- but that's a State Secret!"

The whole Internet is a source of uncorroborated and fabricated information, some of which may indeed contain secrets *someone* wants kept out of view. Wikileaks is not immune. So can comic books. Where do we stop chasing the will o' the whisp?

Police issue lock-up-your-chihuahuas killer owl warning

Cortland Richmond
Paris Hilton

Maybe they can

rake its reflection out of a pond?

Paris, in case everyone's forgotten the Wiltshire Moonrakers.

'Severe' OpenSSL vuln busts public key crypto

Cortland Richmond
Big Brother

WWSD (What Would Stalin Do?)

Spy! Much easier.

Online Kiwis maybe feeling Oz censor trickledown

Cortland Richmond

Ova mordanta?

"Eggs-terminate, eggs-terminate..."

Throw the switch, mate, it's them bl**dy eggs again...

Sci-fi and fantasy authors wade into Amazon spat

Cortland Richmond
Gates Horns

Readers of the lost work

What is causing THIS person not to go near e-books is e-book readers. They're not a substitute for books, and some brands want me to buy my own books twice just to see them on a screen. I spend considerably more than $9.99 for new hardcovers, of course, but that is made up for by spending a LOT less on used books. And who is selling $1US used books for e-readers? No one unsued!

Amazon deletes a 6th of its catalogue in book price barney

Cortland Richmond

Makes me even more grateful

for old book stores.

I do buy hardcovers of new books, SF,mostly. But I REALLY like to browse used book stores.

Amazon? That's just a river with piranhas in it.

Man sets mice on musophobic ex-missus

Cortland Richmond

Crickets!

That'll Test her mettle!

The Borings get another whack at Street View

Cortland Richmond
Thumb Down

When you're in a hole

stop, uh, 'boring."

French mock British G-spot probe

Cortland Richmond
Thumb Up

Hang on there!

"make do with fish and chips, lager and second-rate sex "

But wasn't it a British couple who got ASBO'd because they were too loud?

Maybe it's the vinegar.

Australia leaves the internet

Cortland Richmond
Pint

The [once] Great Australian Adjective?

What a [link deleted] shame!

UK government rebuffs cries for free postcode database

Cortland Richmond
Black Helicopters

Web subversion?

A Blog where people can anonymously list their own postcodes might be enough over time to render the for-fee model unusable.

Subversion by Web?

ACLU challenges US laptop border searches

Cortland Richmond
Big Brother

TheTen Billion Names of Pi

Travelers who must deal with sensitive information are already advised to carry only sanitized laptops when passing international borders, downloading replacement files from secure sites and via VPN's after arrival. Meanwhile... large files containing the digits of Pi AFTER some random millions might offer snoops all the entertainment they care to enjoy.

ASA bans tyrannical German boss ad

Cortland Richmond
Big Brother

But wasn't Big Brother...

BRITISH?

Yes, yes, there's some in every nation. But an advert aimed at British viewers might just work better if it portrayed someone they know or know of currently.

Is it art or is it pr0n? Australia decides it's ALL filth

Cortland Richmond
Big Brother

Purdah Rising

And to think that not all THAT long ago, a glimpse of a fair ankle was considered arousing.

Burka's for all, Hinson!

Ghost of Gates' tablet haunts Microsoft's future

Cortland Richmond

Remember the GriD Convertible?

It ran a pen enabled Windows 3. Pretty neat gadget -- and I've a prototype somewhere that I bought as scrap when the assets were sold off by a successor firm.

English language falls to the Slashdot effect

Cortland Richmond
Troll

Rsverse Redacted

If I put text back... is it greenacted?

Secret code protecting cellphone calls set loose

Cortland Richmond
Pirate

Easy as Pi

Massive rainbow table? Hello? Thousand million digits of Pi sites are out there. How massive does it have to BE?

It's worse, really. When a high fidelity audio system can pick up the GSM buzz, why not a broad band direct data receiver? Who needs hopping?

Not me, said Peter Rabbit!

Ofcom proposes squeezing £4m out of airlines

Cortland Richmond
Black Helicopters

Heathrow NORDO From 1 JAN?

That'd raise a row! Maybe comms could take place over WiFi.

If the carrier and modulation are kept within the 8.33 KHz channel allotted there's no need for another radio. Comms-quality AM uses about 6 KHz, so airports should just start paying for only the spectrum they use, thus cutting OFCOM's revenue by 2/3 preemptively.

Black helicopter -- because there's no icon for smashed up airplanes

Can anyone explain the chunnel fiasco?

Cortland Richmond
Troll

"Coach" Motel

To paraphrase the US pest control co's advert:

Coaches check in

But they don't check out.

Traffic reports for the wrong country? There's an iPhone app for that

Cortland Richmond
FAIL

There'll always be an England ...

but once you're French, you're stuck.

Norwegians plan to harpoon Twitter

Cortland Richmond
Black Helicopters

Do all -- or fall

The problem is that every country wants its laws obeyed by on-line entities located and operating in different countries subject to ITS laws. Given the diversity of governments, I can see an on-line firm choosing to end service when privacy, provision of information, surveillance and conduct rules collide.

Apple voids warranties over cigarette smoke, users say

Cortland Richmond
Gates Horns

They need "Goo be Gone!"

Having had to deal with gummy, stinky coatings of tobacco smoke on used radio equipment, I'm for the workers. Having as a consumer had to deal with uncooperative warranty departments, not to mention incompetent repairs, I'd ask if there WAS 0.1% of the product mass of "a carcinogen pursuant to the Occupational Carcinogens Control Act" ?

.................................................................................

[California] LABOR CODE SECTION 6383.

(a) For the purposes of this chapter, a hazardous substance is present in any mixture or product if it is present in any of the following concentrations:

[SNIPPED]

(3) One-tenth of 1 percent of the mixture or product if the hazardous substance in the mixture or product is designated as a carcinogen pursuant to the Occupational Carcinogens Control Act of 1976 (Ch. 2 (commencing with Section 24200), Div. 20, H.& S.C.) or the federal Hazard Communication Standard (29 C.F.R. Sec. 1910.1200).

..................................................................................

Mancunians finally get to open bank accounts, go to Europe

Cortland Richmond

It's called "Catching up the Soviet Union"

Vas dokumenty...

Apple seeks OS-jacking advert patent

Cortland Richmond
Gates Horns

Click here to skip ad?

The Web is already infested.

WIl be interesting to watch Apple sales. Next upgrade pushed and your device is crippled? On purpose?

Good luck!

(Breaking out dial telephone)

(EMP? What EMP?)

Intel Israel rolls out the barbed wire

Cortland Richmond

Intel has had Saturday work permits for years

It appears, however, that some Orthodox groups have decided protest and even riots are how to hang onto political power -- or gain more. The English-language Jerusalem Post often covers this. Search there for "haredi" or "haredim".

A 13 November article about Intel's troubles, "Barkat voices his support for Intel" by Judy Siegel and Abe Selig, says,

excerpt

While government permits are required for companies to employ Jews on Shabbat, the original Fab 8 facility had such permission from the outset. When it closed for renovations two years ago, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor permit was no longer necessary, but negotiations to renew it are considered by management as a formality that will not be rejected.

URL http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1258027297907&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Large Hadron Collider scuttled by birdy baguette-bomber

Cortland Richmond
Black Helicopters

Where'd THAT come from?

Plans to move an aircraft carrier to the vicinity of the LHC are on hold while a canal from Lake Geneva is widened and deepened. How to get the aircraft carrier INTO Lake Geneva is being studied by the European Navigable Waterways Ministry in Brussels..

In other news, an unexplained plague of badgers has been put down to a mysterious prevalence of baguette crumbs ...

Whitehall plans 'White Noise' phone network collapse

Cortland Richmond
Black Helicopters

Switching OFF is easy

But, OMG, we can't figure out how to turn the bl**dy gear back ON!

Aaaarghhhhhh!

BBC website now unbroked

Cortland Richmond
Go

Not to worry...

REUTERS was still up!

FCC ferrets around for spare spectrum

Cortland Richmond
Go

Do what they did to Public Safety radio

Decree NARROW bandwidth.

o o__ === o o__ == == ==____ == ==__ == == ==__o === o__ o o o__o

Swedish military bras burst, melt during 'rigorous exercise'

Cortland Richmond
Paris Hilton

Friction, maybe?

The melting comment is unfortunately on target; in Vietnam, US Army aviators found out (the hard way) that they might survive a fiery crash unscathed, protected by Nomex and a helmet, only to have nylon undergarments melt, and char the areas beneath. Ow.

However, what kind of exercise gets a brassiere hot enough to melt?

Paris, because she might have an answer

US deputies taze traffic dodging rogue emu

Cortland Richmond
Linux

Bird to be charged with

Unlawful flight to evade capture.

Umm...

'Buy puke-rays and we'll donate to police widows & orphans'

Cortland Richmond
Pint

Too late!

Rave and Disco-hardened fans fail to succumb, budget officials ill.

Power grid takedown: A new how-to

Cortland Richmond
Alien

NIx Tree Trimming Kill Grid

That simple financial trick has already been proven to work.

A phone in every car gains hard-won GSMA support

Cortland Richmond

Sorry Officer, can't say why it doesnt work

A good two or three coats of aluminium paint (or even foil) over the antenna, followed by a flat black to make the work inconspicuous; that should do it.

Ofcom website takes second day off

Cortland Richmond
Big Brother

Hey, they're about COMMUNICATIONS

Anyway, if they won't listen to complaints, why have a place to look for answer?

Baby swing vid man cut loose

Cortland Richmond

Whatever happened to

"You'll never take me alive, said he?"

Good Housekeeping readers play hunt the G-spot

Cortland Richmond
IT Angle

The IT connection!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/28/bluetooth_device/#top

Ofcom fails to sweep away power-line networking

Cortland Richmond

Is it just possible

that OFCOM have been gotten to?

Is it just possible that, much as the constable whose son has a garage band hears nothing amiss, neither can officials with an interest in snake raising admit seeing one when it fangs them in the nose?

Is it?

Sony takes on the Kindle

Cortland Richmond

Who rules?

The CONTENT will all be on Google.

.

.

And Saint Peter in his doorway

Writes with one eye turned down floorway.

For the wisdom of the ages he can tell:

You may die and go to Heaven

And your Pulitzers be seven

But the editors will still all work for Hell!

.

(Copyright Cortland Richmond)

Internet Archive stares down Google book mine

Cortland Richmond

Door number THREE

"... If it's approved, Google has an enormous amount of control over the future of digital books. And if it's rejected, the company still has an enormous amount of control."

Not necessarily; if it's rejected, the case goes to trial and Google can LOSE.

Microsoft goes Darwinian with evolutionary tree patent

Cortland Richmond

A device for converting current into heat

Patent the resistor? Maybe. A former employer's patent guidance (NB: NOT Apple(tm)) to employees was that we should patent as much fundamental stuff as we could -- to deny it to others. The wheel? Maybe not*. The click-wheel? Certainly! http://www.macnn.com/blogs/2009/08/11/apple-wins-patents-for-click-wheel-iphone-itunes-backup-while-filing-for-the-app-store-logo-trademark.html

*Maybe so: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn965-wheel-patented-in-australia.html

In 1997 the journal of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society published a patent extract showing the Japanese firm Murata had patented the pi-network, fundamental to many kinds of filters and matching circuits, and a century old when the patent was issued. And one can't use a Firewire(TM) plug for anything BUT 1394; Apple (TM) owns the patent for that.

Ofcom taps sailors for new fees

Cortland Richmond

Valletta calling

Ship and boat owners might just register their vessels (and get their call signs) in that beautiful Mediterranean regulatory shelter, Malta. (Oddly enough, the now-missing Russian freighter Arctic Sea is registered in Valletta.)

NSA plans massive, 65MW, $2bn data center in Utah

Cortland Richmond

Nor any drop todrink

Water cooled?

CompuServe signs off

Cortland Richmond

I'm 72146,373, do any there remember me?

72146,373 hasn't been seen on Compu$erve for a long time, and it appears I can't use it there ever again; now I must pay to use it.

[quote]

Oh for ASCII!

And faster screens of yore;

We DL scads

Of horrid ads

And still don't read much more.

[/quote]

or as Delphi used to say:

R FT NS <ENTER>

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