Posts by Rolf Howarth

Re: Anything that reduces use of Java, no matter how little

Don't be melodramatic. Java is still (by far) the most widely used programming language in the world, with millions of commercial (especially enterprise) applications written in it. It's no more of a security risk than any other programming language.

What you're talking about is the Java web plugin, and yes, it makes sense to disable that and not run random Java applets on web sites you don't know. But that's just applets, nothing to do with Java as a whole.

Re: Stupid

Err, not quite. Apple Records sued Apple Computer and they reached an out of court settlement that Apple Computer could use the Apple name but only in fields NOT relating in any way to music. Then Apple brought out the iPod and ITMS, so it was all set to go to court again but then Apple (Computer) paid Apple (Records) handsomely for the Apple name. And changed their name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc. So, no dispute that the name originally came from Apple Records, but Apple paid fair and square for all rights to use the name.

Re: Why is it that...

"It simply doesn’t make sense for emergency services to have different premises, different back offices and different IT systems when their work is so closely related" ... "Since when did the fire or ambulance services need custody suites and rooms for recorded interviews to evidential standards"

You're right that it may not make much sense for the police and fire service to use exactly the same IT systems, but I'm guessing that the needs of fire and rescue in Glasgow or Newcastle aren't all that different at a fundamental level from those of fire and rescue in Bristol or Birmingham?!

I'm curious at a practical level how knowing what someone's fingerprint looks like can help you empty their bank account. I mean, every time you go touch something you leave a fingerprint, so if they wanted to someone could dust it off and photograph it and perhaps even transfer it to a rubber mould or something. But then what? They'd need physical possession of your mobile phone wouldn't they?

Assuming I was a malware author and had remote access to someone's phone half way round the world how does reading the fingerprint image by itself help me in any way? On the other hand, if I've got control of their phone then logging all the user's password and PIN key presses, and monitoring their email in box for password reset emails and redirecting those to my account, would seem a lot more fruitful.

Re: Java - not suitable for enterprise applications

On the contrary, Java is eminently suitable for enterprise applications. I have worked on not one but two real time trading systems which had entirely deterministic and predictable performance. With a bit of care in tuning your garbage collector parameters and using a pool of objects it's not too difficult to ensure that the JVM never does does a full GC run. (I was part of a large team of developers so I'm not trying to claim credit for the performance, just pointing out it's eminently achievable.)

Re: RE: Rolf Howarth @ Red Bren

"Suppose the police use RIPA powers in an investigation of a charity that is suspected of secretly using donations to fund terror groups abroad, only to find they are actually just criminals conning their donators and embezzling the money instead - do you suggest the police just ignore the second crime? That would seem patently stupid."

It depends how many rights they are infringing in the process. If they have evidence funds are being misused and they suspect it might for terrorism but is for criminal purposes instead then surely they can investigate that with their normal criminal investigation powers. But let's say they invoke extraordinary powers (say a hypothetical right to read all the private emails of anyone who's ever had any dealings with the charity) because they claim a threat to life "might" be imminent, and in the process discover that someone totally unrelated to the investigation was guilty of lying about who took some speeding points, then no, that shouldn't be admissible. In fact, even making enquiries or tipping a colleague in the local traffic division off about that unrelated offence should be sufficient to ensure an acquittal in any trial.

There has to be a VERY strong deterrent against fishing expeditions and using strong emergency anti-terror legislation for anything other than the very strict purposes for which it was intended.

Re: Meh

The Apple-Irish deal isn't about avoiding paying UK or other European taxes (which they do pay - ever heard of VAT?) but about avoiding, or rather delaying, US corporate taxes, currently the highest in the developed world and with punitive terms on companies bringing revenue into the US.

Virtually all US multinationals (not just Apple) are doing everything they can to avoid repatriating their non-US revenue until the US sorts out it tax system, which they keep talking about doing but still haven't managed to get round to. Apple just happened to have registered their non-US business in Ireland rather than somewhere like the Bahamas.

The question is whether Ireland offered Apple special terms that weren't available to other multinationals, which would constitute illegal state aid, not whether it's a bad thing that Apple pay taxes in Europe rather than the USA.

Re: Phone signals

The largest GSM cell radius is 22 miles and the plane is flying at less than 6 miles up. Obviously base stations are designed to transmit horizontally rather than up into the sky but I think a phone at that altitude would certainly make intermittent contact. Remember we're not talking about whether you can make a reliable phone call, just whether the phone communicates with a base station long enough to register, and for the base station to check with the phone's home network whether it's allowed to roam.

I thought that remote areas in developing countries often have pretty good cellphone coverage, because that's a much cheaper way to provide telephone service over a large area than having to lay lots of cable.

Re: There is only one thing a text editor needs

Sorry, DECWriter not ASR33, but same principle applies.

Re: So what?

I saw UltraHD in action a few years ago and it does look quite stunning on a huge screen when you can see the faces in the crowd at a football match or whatever, but will it work at home? Unless you're going to sit with your nose 6 inches away from the TV set you'd need a floor to ceiling screen and it still might not be big enough!

Evil?

"Anyone who views Apple as anything but another evil company needs their head examined."

Certainly, it's another company, with shareholders and the objective of making a profit, but so are ALL companies.

The companies that are evil are those patent trolls that never invent or make anything of their own but just buy up obscure patents and then make a living by blackmailing companies who can't afford to defend an expensive lawsuit, whether or not there's any merit in the claims.

Apple isn't remotely like that. First, they clearly do invent their own stuff, and manufacturer it, so are using patents in the way they're intended. They're the victm of infinitely more patent claims from people who see a big fat cash cow, and just see dollar signs lighting up in front of their eyes, than they are the aggressor.

$70000 is a lot today but think what it will be worth in 200 years time when we're landing on foreign planets in something that looks very similar and it's stuck in a museum back on Earth as being the original protoype...

Re: Sigh...

>Bank stops possibly fraudulent transaction: Bank is in the wrong

>Bank allows possibly fraudulent transaction: Bank is in the wrong.

Disagree completely. If they reject a payment, it's you the customer who is emabarrassed or inconvenienced. If they pass a fraudulent transaction, it's the bank's problem, not mine.

My bank makes thousands each year out of me and my company but I swear the next time they reject a £20 card payment at the station that means I missed my train home I will close all my accounts with them (or insist they pay me a £150 "administration fee" for the inconvenience every time they incorrectly refuse a payment).

Re: Of course APIs are copyrightable

"neither the functionality of a computer program nor the programming language and the format of data files used in a computer program in order to exploit certain of its functions constitute a form of expression. Accordingly, they do not enjoy copyright protection."

How does that contradict what I said? I didn't say programming languages, file formats or the functionality of a computer program enjoy copyright protection. Of course they don't. I said that the class and method signatures of your program do. If you're a C++ programmer, your header files are just as much part of your copyrightable source code as any files you write.

Except it's, you know, a spy plane. The implication it was flying over Iran and therefore they'd have been quite entitled to do what they want to it, including shooting it down. Plus of course there's no way of knowing if this really was put out by the Iranians or is misinformation spread by the USA, as someone else has suggested.

I'm far too busy making a real living writing real apps in Java to have time to post on any discussion forums. I have very little interest in new language features that may appear at some time in the future given that Java already provides everything I need and more, and has done so for years. Why do people feel they have the incessant urge to fiddle with things that are already ideally suited to doing the job?

I didn't mean the expected annual income. I can work that out myself from my latitude and the roof area and the angle of the roof. I meant the cost of the panels, the cost of installation, and the annual cost of maintenance (if any).