Posts by Steve Graham

Marketing

There are four market segments: the stupid poor, the stupid rich, the clever poor, and the clever rich.

To make large profits, you should aim your product at the stupid rich.

Well, if I see three Chinese academics with electronic devices on the Moira to Lisburn train, I'll know what they're up to.

hex

Did anyone else spot the perfectly hexagonal crater in the GIF animation?

Samantha Cristoforetti was to get an espresso machine last year. Was it lost in the Antares launch explosion?

Freeview Radio

I have a couple of DAB radios, at least one claiming DAB+ support, but I actually only listen to digital radio via a TV box attached analog-ly to my amp. (The cheapo box does have a digital-out, but I has no digital-in.)

Wrong

Photons (and electrons) aren't "both" waves and partcles. They're something in the quantum realm that we can imagine being a bit like waves and/or particles in the macroscopic world.

When people ask what is "really" happening, they actually want an explanation that they can understand in terms of billiard balls or cabbages, and there isn't one.

x11vnc

In case you've missed it, you can "export" your current X session via VNC with x11vnc (package in Debian etc.).

Of course, the more traditional model of starting up a brand new session for VNC access may be preferable in some circumstances.

"Never install x.0 of anything." Or in this case, x.x.0

My current kernel builds are 3.18.1 (3.18.6 is supposed to be the most recent "stable" version).

What is polkit for?

I don't have polkit on any of my systems. My cursory exposure to it suggested that it merely replicates functionality from more proven and battle-hardened software which I already have.

Am I wrong?

La-la-la, I Can't Hear You

"We are confident that our contactless system remains a safe, convenient way to pay."

== "We are not going to bother to fix this vulnerability."

Doomed

Technologically-aware people like us often overestimate how much the normal population understand (or care). They think that "www." is what signifies a website. They don't know what that rubbish at the start with colons and slashes is all about. The bit at the end means little.

And anyway, as any examination of webserver logs will demonstrate, lots of them use a URL by typing it into Google's search field.

"Interesting" URLs are useless already, and will soon become as irrelevant to the public as numerical IP addresses.

"LRO boffins tell us"

I'm hoping it was actually LRO press people who were so forthcoming with the non-metric units, while the scientists are doing everything properly in the SI system. I'm hoping.

While I fully appreciate the nerd value of getting something to run on the 'wrong' platform, I really can't see what use it is. I predict that we will never hear of it again.

Online test

Gibson Research: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

It says I'm OK, which is good since I've disabled all access inwards from the internet.

Resistance is useful

I use the current Debian unstable, and I had to install systemd to satisfy some dependency or other, but I then deleted the files it dropped into /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ so none of its processes ever get started. (And it still has sysv init scripts.) Everything is working fine.

I will be moving to another distro (after nearly 20 years) if/when Debian makes systemd the required init tool.

Heavy foot?

The first car I had with a fuel-consumption display was a Saab 9000 Turbo. I discovered that, if I took enormous care and managed my acceleration and deceleration, I could get the MPG reading up to 32.5.

However, if I just drove in my normal style, it dropped by a stupendous margin to 31.0.

Yes, OK, probably it was my fault.

1950s technology

The lovingly-rendered image looks a lot like the magnetic mirror designs which originated in the Soviet Union in the fifties, and were taken up by the USA, where decades of work and hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in trying to get them to work.

The last big project, the Mirror Fusion Test Facility, was cancelled when almost complete in 1986.

Plasma confinement is really, really hard. I don't see anything in this new story that suggests they have a solution.

I'm not an iPhone user because I don't care for the constraints imposed by Apple's infrastructure and business model.

However, if I did have an iPhone, I'd prefer to use it to make purchases with a fingerprint than use a card with no security at all.

I'd still worry about it being hacked though. Extracting and re-using encrypted credentials is already common currency in the iPhone jailbreaking world.

Yes, but...

Ammyy Admin is supported software. The next release will surely fix this vulnerability now that it's published.

I bought a Netgear DGN-1000 a few years ago. Disabling WPS was disabled (if you see what I mean) and the company explicitly announced that they weren't going to issue a fix. (They expected owners to buy a newer model.)

Android

Ironic that the anti-virus companies were whining recently that the sandboxing in Android made it impossible for them to do what they'd like to.

Auto brightness

Um... doesn't it have TWO "ambient light sensors"? I call them cameras.

Exodus: Hey, NSA, we've got a great new Tails vuln to sell!

NSA: Nah, sorry guys, we've already got it.

Exodus: Hey, Press, our morally upstanding company is helping users!

How hard can it be?

It would be interesting to know how the system is implemented, given that it's only pairs of mobile devices swapping data. You could even design it to be "server-free" by using SMS messages, which I believe will often arrive at their destination.

I'm an O2 customer, and at home I get marginal signal on 2G (when I leave my phone at a specific spot in the kitchen).

But that's the best coverage of all the operators. People who visit usually have no phone connection at all.

I'm certain that the other network operators are NOT EVER going to build new infrastructure around here. There's not enough population to make it economically viable -- the O2 coverage is probably just a fluke. However, if O2 were getting revenue from roaming, they just might see it being worth their while to upgrade.

So, basically, it seems to me that the argument that national roaming would discourage investment is the exact reverse of the likely outcome.

A couple of years ago, I got good money on eBay from a set of the rainbow logo stickers which I'd found among random rubbish in the loft. I think they had originally come with an early Apple laser printer whose documentation I'd taken home to study in an effort to get the bugger to work.

So, yes, the fans will buy anything.

This looks very similar in spec and appearance to the ZTE Blade Q Mini which I just bought (for a similar price). Stylish and well-made -- I'm happy with it.