* Posts by TheVogon

3511 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jan 2013

Blocking out the Sun won't fix climate change – but it could buy us time

TheVogon

Re: Utter Tosh

"Mark Stein, news commentator and radio host, and book author"

So obviously an expert on climate change

"has discovered that the alleged '95% of scientists' often referenced in this "overwhelming scientific consensus" argument was actually a narrow survey of 75 hand-picked "scientists", many of whom are climate ACTIVISTS."

The evidence of overwhelming is also overwhelming! Actually it's "97% of Climate Scientists agree with AGW". For instance every single scientific representative to the UN from every single country on the planet agrees that a) the planet is warming and that b) the activities of humans are at least partly to blame. Also a survey of 928 peer-reviewed abstracts on the subject 'global climate change' published between 1993 and 2003 shows that not a single paper rejected the consensus position that global warming is man caused (Oreskes 2004). A follow-up study by the Skeptical Science team of over 12,000 peer-reviewed abstracts on the subjects of 'global warming' and 'global climate change' published between 1991 and 2011 found that of the papers taking a position on the cause of global warming, over 97% agreed that humans are causing it (Cook 2013). The scientific authors of the papers were also contacted and asked to rate their own papers, and again over 97% whose papers took a position on the cause said humans are causing global warming.

TheVogon

Re: Cool the Core

"So most of the CO2 from coal and oil would have dissolved in the ocean."

Correct in idea if not scale - in fact about 60% of man made CO2 emissions are absorbed by the oceans.

"Where, then, did the measured increase come from? Volcanoes, is my answer."

Nice idea, but the facts are:

"The burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use results in the emission into the atmosphere of approximately 30 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year worldwide, according to the EIA. The fossil fuels emissions numbers are about 100 times bigger than even the maximum estimated volcanic CO2 fluxes. Our understanding of volcanic discharges would have to be shown to be very mistaken before volcanic CO2 discharges could be considered anything but a bit player in contributing to the recent changes observed in the concentration of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere."

TheVogon

Re: Key Homo Sapience species trait

"Even 200 m rise will be less than fraction of a percent from the dry land. So you will only need to breath under water if you refuse to adapt and move elsewhere. "

Tell that to say Bangladesh - where there is no nearby free land to move to. And even in say the US and Europe - a 200 metres rise would sink most major cities under water - so whilst we can potentially adapt to all living in caves on a mountain, it's not exactly an economically attractive option versus not frying the planet.

TheVogon

Re: The Conversation? - slow news day (very)

"woodfortrees eh? not exactly an authoritative resource."

But it is a very authoritative source - it has the raw and easily verified data - that you can process and graph yourself anyway you like - removing the inherent bias in for instance cherry picked time ranges.

TheVogon

Re: Refreeze the poles?

"So you post from that website, that actually shows nothing unusual is happening."

It shows the ice is melting and that the melting is accelerating. Calling that "nothing unusual" might be true if you consider it in context of thousands of years of history, but it's likely going to mean several metres of sea rise by the end of the century...and a lot more over the next few hundred years...which is unusual in documented human experience - unless you count Noah!

"I thought the polar ice was like an ice cube"

Only the sea ice that floats. The ice sheets covering land do add to sea levels when they melt.

TheVogon

Re: Satellite measurements don't .....

"The temperatures observed during the entirety of the satellite age show no warming of the global mean temperature."

Not true - see the satellite records here:

http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/rss

http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/uah

TheVogon

Re: how stupid are you ... yes you

"seeing as over the last 20 yrs or so we have gone thru a maximum of the sun ..don't you think a fraction of a degree uptick would be normal "

We can accurately measure solar radiation, and we have ~ reached 1 degree C average surface temperature rise since the industrial revolution. Way more than can be explained by solar variance.

"it is the way the earth stands now impossible to over heat the planet check your Physics"

Fix your English...and explain your physics!

"and seeing as we are coming to the end of a very long interglacial we really could do with a little more heat .."

But perhaps not a lot more heat as we are currently heading for...2 degrees C rise by 2100 looks pretty conservative at the moment without drastic changes...

TheVogon

Re: The Conversation? - slow news day (very)

"regarding the actual observed effects of CO2 - the observations to date most certainly diverge grossly from models that claim to be skillful and on which this balloons / mirrors / sea spray daftness is based on."

Well no, the actual observed effects are that global average temperature is still rising over any statically significant measurement period. There has been plenty of natural variance is the short term - which is to be expected - but the long terms trends are very clear. See http://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/

TheVogon

Re: Refreeze the poles?

"The same rise that has gone on for as long as we have been measuring sea levels..?"

Well no - it's has accelerated from near zero rise at the start of the industrial revolution to a few mm a year now. See for instance http://www.skepticalscience.com/Past-150000-Years-of-Sea-Level-History-Suggests-High-Rates-of-Future-Sea-Level-Rise.html

"Remind me - what proportion of the current interglacial does the satellite record cover?"

See the 150,000 years of sea levels versus polar temperature data referenced above if the recent satellite record isn't enough for you.

TheVogon

Re: Key Homo Sapience species trait

"Key trait of Homo Sapiens as species is adaptability."

Hoping that we suddenly evolve the ability to be able to breath under water, or become able to survive regular temperatures of 50 C+ in certain parts of the world within a few decades might be somewhat pushing the limits...

TheVogon

Re: The Conversation? - slow news day (very)

"Perhaps the author might like to check out OCO-2 satellite observations"

I took a look. It's in no way clear what point you are trying to make:

"OCO-2 provides valuable data to be used by the atmospheric and carbon cycle science community to improve global models of the carbon cycle, reduce uncertainties in forecasts of total carbon dioxide abundance in the atmosphere and make more accurate predictions of global climate change in which CO2 is a key driver. By studying the location, nature and processes of natural carbon dioxide sinks, a better prediction of the rate of build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere and its impact on the climate becomes possible. It is unknown whether the CO2 sinks will continue to operate at their current efficiency or if their uptake will decrease over time which could lead to a significant increase in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide which would project a very different future for life on Earth.

Measurements by OCO-2 will allow scientists to monitor the geographic distribution of carbon dioxide sources and quantify their variability in order to map the natural and man-made processes that regulate the exchange of CO2 between the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere on both regional to continental scales.

The data provided by OCO-2 may also be of interest to policy makers and business leaders to make better decisions to ensure climate stability over the long-term.

OCO-2 will also contribute to a number of other scientific areas related to the global carbon cycle:

◾the dynamics of ocean carbon exchange

◾the seasonal dynamics of northern hemisphere terrestrial ecosystems in Eurasia and North America

◾the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and tropical ecosystems due to plant growth, respiration, and fires

◾the movement of fossil fuel plumes across North America, Europe, and Asia

◾the effect of weather fronts, storms, and hurricanes on the exchange of CO2 between different geographic and ecological regions

◾the mixing of atmospheric gases across hemispheres

In addition to carbon cycle research, OCO-2 will support other operational applications that include precise measurements of surface pressure on a global scale, water column abundance, cloud and aerosol measurement, and solar irradiation data. This data can be used for climate research and meteorological research as well as operational applications such as weather forecasting."

TheVogon

Re: Utter Tosh

"That's the problem right there in the first paragraph."

The only problem I can see is that it says "that polar ice and glaciers are all melting" whereas it should say "some polar ice sheets and glaciers are melting". Otherwise it's in line with the overwhelming scientific consensus and the overwhelming observable evidence.

TheVogon

Re: Refreeze the poles?

"You do realise that polar ice is at a maximum right now - compared to many years previous."

No - no it's not. Seasonal sea ice extent is currently increasing, but Arctic sea ice extent for October 2015 averaged 7.72 million square kilometers (2.98 million square miles), the sixth lowest October in the satellite record. This is 1.19 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average extent, but 950,000 square kilometers (367,000 square miles) above the record low monthly average for October that occurred in 2007. From 1979 through 2015, the October sea ice extent has declined an average of 6.9% per decade over the satellite record. Some of the major ice sheets themselves also continue to melt. This decline in ice is evidenced by the year on year continual rise in sea levels.

BlackBerry Priv: After two weeks on test, looks like this is a keeper

TheVogon

Apparently it plays "Nearer, my God, to Thee" as the default ring tone....

Amazon: Just to let you know, Oracle's cloud is so 2011. That's all

TheVogon

"I would never, ever choose Oracle where there was any reasonable choice."

+1.

I do wonder how they ever get into greenfield sites - more flexible sales expense accounts maybe?

Nokia publishes offer for remaining Alca-Lu shares

TheVogon

Re: Suggestions for new merged name welcome ....

Alcanokic?

Microsoft working hard to unify its code base, all the way down to the IoT

TheVogon

Re: .NET developer

"How has he been a .NET developer for longer than .NET has been around? He's out by a few years..."

.Net 1.0 beta was released in 2000.

BitLocker popper uses Windows authentication to attack itself

TheVogon

"Would this work if a stolen device had been put into hibernation, even with a boot password?"

No, when you resume from Hibernation BitLocker will prompt to enter the PIN again.

HPE comes over all Docker, throws containers at Helion tools lineup

TheVogon

Re: HPE is killing off public cloud, not private cloud

"HPE is killing off public cloud, not private cloud."

You would have to be very short-sighted these days imo to buy into a cloud solution that doesn't have hybrid options for on and off premise cloud. (I guess that's partly why Microsoft cloud revenue already overtook Amazon.)

Microsoft quietly slips out patched patch for Outlook – in camouflage

TheVogon

Re: Still running Windows 7? In 2015?

"surely you've moved to Windows 10 Fall Update for all your machines"

All my machines installed it as soon as it was released on insider Fast Ring...zero issues so far.

TheVogon

Re: Moving faster

"For the developers that would have been great - one source code base, a choice of supporting one or two application interfaces to suit, running on either desktop x86 or ARM mobile.

For users it would have been great. Your mobile would have a mobile interface when on the move. Plug in power, a HDMI, bluetooth mouse & keyboard and voila, a full desktop with desktop apps."

Just like Windows 8 - and now Windows 10 you mean? - which already have both Arm and Intel support...except it's just one API, not 2...

HPE trots out benchmark blaster flash array as PCs become distant memory

TheVogon

Re: The total list price was $3.2m, discounted to $1.25m

"now you can go back and buy your Dell storage."

Dell own Compellant and EMC - both of which make enterprise level storage.

iPad data entry errors caused plane to strike runway during takeoff

TheVogon

Re: Using toys as tools...

A quick search shows that of the airlines that in the last 2 years have adopted tablets - nearly every single one has gone for the Surface...amongst them Lufthansa, Austrian, Delta, ExpressJet, Emerates, Skywest and Alaska - and even BA chose Panasonic Toughpads running Windows.

Not surprising considering that the latest Surface is more durable with Gorilla Glass 4 and a magnesium chassis, has way better performance and longer battery life under load, is more cost effective, runs a full OS with a larger pool of developers and enterprise ready applications, has more enterprise ready deployment and management tools, and wont require retraining as it runs Windows that the vast majority will already be familiar with, and the new accessories like the type cover and pen are somewhat superior to Apple's copies...

Decoding Microsoft: Cloud, Azure and dodging the PC death spiral

TheVogon

Re: I read this as...

"but makes up for that to some extent by a huge SaaS (Software as a Service) presence with Office 365"

To some extent?! Microsoft overtook Amazon in total cloud revenue 2 quarters ago and the gap is growing.

"And Active Directory - we know you hate it, it's still not as good as NDS used to be"

In what way? NDS is terms of features was far more limited than AD is now - and it was a nightmare to work with.

It's Gartner Magic Graph of Wonder time! And Google won't be happy

TheVogon

Most notable is surely Microsoft's move in to leaders, not Google's static position. Microsoft have historically not really been up to it in big enterprise shops, but looks like that has changed.

Patent and trademark troll stung for £500k after fake renewal blitz

TheVogon

"the same legal system that hands driving disqualifications to those convicted of, er, driving while disqualified."

They also generally get handed prison sentences too.

Edge joins Explorer in bumper crop of security patches

TheVogon

Re: Reboot reboot reboot

Yep - annoying that Microsoft didn't completely remove the requirement for patching reboots in Windows 10 / Server 2016. Things have got better in recent Windows versions but reboots are still too frequent. I think that Oracle own a patent on live patching technology though which probably explains it to a degree...

TheVogon

Re: Windows 10+Edge: now you have two browsers to patch

"Said it a while ago and got a lot of downvotes, but that's what is happening."

Quite correct - not sure why you got downvotes again.

Worth noting though that IE is only there for compatibility and most people wont even launch it. Once Edge is more of an established and complete solution, IE will die. As presumably most people will be applying all security patches anyway, it's not really any extra overhead.

TheVogon

Re: It's hard to have an original comment about the drip/dribble/stream of updates from MS/Adobe

"Isn't Edge supposed to be so bleeding "edge"

Edge is IE11 minus all the legacy cruft. So there is some shared code.

"that it has left all the poor coding practices that MS practices in the dust?"

IE has had fewer bugs than say Google Chrome and Safari for years now.

Linus Torvalds targeted by honeytraps, claims Eric S. Raymond

TheVogon

"Unless Lotus Notes is particularly thick skinned"

I thought it had a six foot skin of soil years ago now. People still use Notes?!

Microsoft Windows Mobile 10: Uphill battle with 'work in progress'

TheVogon

Re: Huh?

"Even after RTM it will still be in beta"

Well, no - by definition of RTM it won't be.

"Expect it to have plenty of bugs"

Quite possibly - but WP / WM RTM releases so far have always been pretty stable - unlike say certain versions of Android...

TheVogon

Re: Register bashing MS, What a surprise.

"Nonsense."

Quite - it's never a surprise!

TheVogon

Re: Onedrive downgrade

Beta OS is Beta OS - SHOCK!

Running this build since release, I have not ever seen most of the issues mentioned. The current WM10 build is rock solid and smooth for me on a Lumia 930.

The included applications such as Outlook update independently of the core OS, so reviewing the applications shipping now may well not reflect what we see in a few weeks at RTM.

So. Farewell then Betamax. We always liked you better than VHS anyway

TheVogon

Re: Wow

This will surely be the year of Betamax on the desktop....

Cryptowall 4.0: Update makes world's worst ransomware worse still

TheVogon

Re: Straw poll...

"Use shadow copies and keep backups"

Even the early Cryptowall versions deleted all shadow copies and encrypted any backups they could get to...

TheVogon

Re: Hunt the bastards down and publicly execute them

Because you don't get ransomware on Linux. Oh wait:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/11/09/ransomware_targeting_linux_charging_bitcoin/

Anything AWS can do: Microsoft announces UK data centre region for Azure cloud

TheVogon

Re: Safe Harbor fallout

"Currently if you're using Azure you have no choice - your data is free for the taking in the US."

Not if you don't want it to be - see https://www.thales-esecurity.com/msrms/cloud

TheVogon

Re: Office 365 Delve

"there may be circumstances when the US government can demand access to data, a point which is currently being argued in the courts."

Not easily if you use Microsoft's Bring Your Own Keys data encryption - which uses Thales secure HSMs - configured to block access from outside the EU....

By the numbers: The virtualisation options for private cloud hopefuls

TheVogon

> That doesn't even make sense!

It does - VMWare switched to only supporting Powershell for remote scripting via PowerCLI

> Sure VMware has a PowerShell module for Windows if you wish to use it,

It being the only supported option if you want to use a remote command line interface

> but it has absolutely nothing to do with what's in the hypervisor OS.

Other than support for Powershell remote access to the API is built into it of course...

Drones are dropping drugs into prisons and the US govt just doesn't know what to do

TheVogon

Re: alternatively

"What if the drone pilots start flying in guns?"

Well according to the average gun owning American, this should lower the risk of anyone coming to any harm...

BlackBerry Priv: Enterprise Android in a snazzy but functional package

TheVogon

"Anyone falling for Android secuirty scareware hearsay is frankly a joke in my book."

You think you know more than someone who hacks them for a living then?

See http://wmpoweruser.com/hacker-claims-windows-phone-the-most-secure-smartphone-os/

"If I have physical access to the device, I find Android’s usually the easiest target. Then comes iPhone, then older versions of BlackBerry. If it’s over a network or I have to attack via email or message, Android’s usually the softest target."

This isn't exactly new news either:

http://wmpoweruser.com/f-secure-windows-phone-platform-is-the-safest-mobile-os-available-to-businesses/

TheVogon

"The Lumia 950 trumps it in every way"

Quite - particularly for corporate / professional use.

TheVogon

Re: Dual SIM

"It makes me wonder what sort of fields would favour something like that."

To keep your mistress / girlfriend's calls and messages separate from your wifes of course....

Encrypt voice calls, says GCHQ's CESG team ... using CESG encryption

TheVogon

"Every implementation I have seen includes a "check these passwords" phase during setup to detect a MITM (man in the middle) attack,"

Be aware that as far back as late 2006 the US NSA developed an experimental voice analysis and synthesis system to defeat this protection.

TheVogon

"The ability to block any interception and business practice monitoring is a key requirement of secure voice technology "

TFTFY.

Personally I would rather trust ZRTP

Microsoft's OneDrive price hike has wrecked its cloud strategy

TheVogon

Re: I wonder what OS Dropbox's servers run on. And AWS...

"In any case, even Microsoft has admitted that Azure does NOT run on Windows, so if Microsoft isn't doing it, why would anyone else ?"

Azure runs on Hyper-V Server - a dedicated hypervisor layer similar to VMware ESXi. Hyper-V currently has about 30% of the commercial hypervisor market, and is completely free for the fully featured version. Windows is not required, but Hyper-V can be installed as part of a Windows OS if preferred.

(As compared to Linux virtualisation where as far as am aware, you can only run a hypervisor as a bolt on to the full Linux OS)

TheVogon

Re: reality check

"detached garage that I can grab on the way out"

Is it made by Fisher Price?

TheVogon

Re: Van-load of tapes

"I have a 75MB in the cloud, 5GB is a staggering amount."

It's ~5000 photos from a decent mobile camera. Not hard to exceed at all.

Lithium-air: A battery breakthrough explained

TheVogon

Re: Oxygen makes things burn brightly

"Apollo 1 had a high pressure pure oxygen atmosphere"

As pure oxygen is toxic above 0.5 atmospheres, it seems unlikely it was both "pure" and "high pressure"....

'I posted winning race ticket in Facebook selfie ... and someone stole it!'

TheVogon

Re: Obviously intelligence is not involved in either betting or boasting.

There is no shortage of stupidity:

http://i.imgur.com/pksOtvx.jpg