Re: How do you become an expert in matress explosions?
I don't know. But the requisite continuing education sounds interesting.
I'm not napping, I'm studying.
2099 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Mar 2008
"he's fairly easily convinced something is a good idea and once he's convinced something is a good idea he'll ram it down everyone's throats"
This means that the technical direction at Microsoft can be controlled by a few people working behind the scenes who have Steve's ear. Rather than leading a competent technical group to a consensus on what should be done, just grab him, point him in your preferred direction and he bulldozes over everyone else.
In my opinion, this isn't a good way to run a high tech company. When you hope to be out on the bleeding edge (where Microsoft isn't more often then not), you have to get the input of numerous field specialists. And these sorts of people are put off quite easily by the monkey boy, chair throwing antics. So the question is: Will the people behind the curtain, pulling Ballmer's chain allow a consensus builder into his position? Or will they pull for another version of him, just to protect their turf?
But this isn't it.
So Snowden scoops up some juicy NSA data and routes it to the Guardian. What is critical is to complete the communications unmolested. Not to keep the contents from the NSA/GCHQ. Its their data. They already know the contents.
For this purpose, the encryption need only be good enough to conceal the transmission until the deed is done. From that point on, its the NSA's choice. Want to know what was in the message? Pick up tomorrow's copy of the paper. Sure, we could have had the editors redact the sensitive bits to prevent some real damage. But if the spooks insist on us handing over the encryption keys, fine. We'll hand them over to the world.
The best way for Snowden to have handled this is to have posted his acquisitions on well mirrored web sites around the world, encrypted, but only slightly. Too late to stop and practically impossible to determine the intended recipient. Everyone grabs a copy and passes it on to several friends.
I don't see the remains of a USB flash drive. Or the cloud backup for that matter.
Note to self: Keep some defunct PC parts handy so when the security services come knocking, I can present them with suitable looking debris worked over with a hammer.
I have this old toaster sitting around ....
Gates money vs Google money. Not the same thing.
Bill Gates is donating his own wealth to solve health problems in the third world. Good for him. But that's his personal wealth, not assets of Microsoft. If Googles' shareholders wish to do the same, great. But the company has a mission. That is: To make shareholders like me wealthy. So that I might take some of that wealth and do good works with it.
Companies and NGOs need to stick to what they do well. And let the investors allocate resources as they see fit.
Quite likely. But if they are testing a device for extending military communications, shouldn't they anticipate its occasional falling into 'enemy' hands.
Over friendly territory, a sign requesting return to the appropriate authorities when found should be sufficient. No quarantines or evacuations required. If these things are ever used during a conflict, occasionally one will fall on the wrong side of the front line. If security is such a major issue, these things would be useless.
Because we wouldn't want people tweeting about their imminent annihilation to be interfered with by efforts to defend against it.
As to the 4G signals interfering with radar returns, doesn't this open up an opportunity for jamming? Record and broadcast some wireless chit-chat to mask the returns from incoming warheads. Time the attack to coincide with some football* championship playoffs and the increase in traffic won't look suspicious.
*Whichever type you prefer, of course.
So AGW exists. Fine. Now, what is the proposed fix?
Having some economic conservatives on board formulating solutions might be a good thing. So far, the whole argument is too tied up in other political agendas to make any sense. When AGW becomes serious enough to give the same carbon sequestration credit to Monsanto's genetically engineered super trees as is granted to third world trees owned by Al Gore Inc. I'll buy into their solution. Otherwise, its just an excuse for a wealth transfer scheme. And if this is the case, then we have some more time to study the problem and come up with economically sound fixes.
"If you don't want to be a part of their 'eye spy' I would suggest you don't put stuff online."
Its getting to the point that not having a Facebook presence is akin to not having a landline in the last century. Go ahead. Try to apply for a job/loan or even write a check (cheque) without one and you'd get the stink-eye. If your behaviour doesn't comply with the societal norm, you might as well move to a cabin in Montana (Google Ted Kaczynski).
Besides, you might not put your life on line, but your banker, grocer, pharmacist does. And you can't drive in town without your license plates going into a database somewhere. So, good luck with your off the grid life.
... to hear that there is actually documentation for this Unix stuff.
But seriously, losing people at sea is pretty sad. I'm surprised that the EPIRB signal hasn't been heard from. But its possible to get one of these units fouled in rigging (which abounds on sailboats). Or manual units just don't get deployed in a bad knock down.
But I have the opportunity to sit in front of Windows on rare occasions.
Just the other day, I was trying to use Word on a Windows 8 system. The systems owner, unable to cope without a traditional desktop had installed Start8 or something similar. So far, so good. But then I found myself within the app. No menus. No toolbars, ribbons or whatever? How do I get something done with this? The owner, a long time power user pointed out that shortcut keys still work. So 'Alt P' to print. But short of having a wizard looking over my shoulder, calling out helpful hints, how would I get anything done with this app? At least I can stumble through Word on Windows 7.
Is this what they call Metro? And how is it an improvement on a Linux command line, which I can deal with but I will admit, given an uninitiated user, is a total mystery with a huge learning curve.
"The UK national grid has a capacity of 80GW and there is always surplus capacity. So I'm pretty sure they could accommodate 6GW all day long and not fail."
Or charge at night, when the grid has surplus capacity. This will be an advantage of swapped battery packs over rapid charging. With swapped packs, recharging can be deferred to off-peak times without inconveniencing drivers. Rapid charging means each station (but not the overall grid) needs a peak short time capacity far exceeding their consumption averaged over a day.
Charging stations are a good load for utilizing variable power supplies. With a suitable 'smart grid' the chargers can easily throttle their inputs to the batteries in response to sources like wind generation in a matter of seconds.
"Communications Intelligence"
Whose communications intelligence? As far as I can tell, Snowden didn't leak any details of agents' communications techniques or encryption. He exposed the extent of the NSA's spying on members of the American and foreign public. In the final analysis, if the US gov't claims are to be believed, this will put citizens' lives at risk should a terrorist organization improve its concealment techniques. No agents have specifically been put at risk.
What Snowden did is the moral equivalent of putting up a warning sign ahead of the local police radar trap. While there are laws in place prohibiting interference with police operations, the NSA are not a policing agency.
Film is still viable. Call me when digital cameras reach 200 to 300 Megapixels. With higher dynamic range as well. Yeah, I can match film with multiple exposure digital shots. As long as the subject holds still long enough.
Kodak and Polaroid just didn't have a management strategy in place to handle the contracting amateur market. Fuji and Ilford are doing OK. In fact Fuji makes a line of instant film and cameras.
Its not the USB drive. Its the (Windows) USB port drivers. The object is not to encrypt data on a USB drive allowed into the facility. Its to keep someone from bringing their own device in and copying stuff.
Someone with admin access to a box and some know how can swap out the 'secure only' drivers with Windows defaults, copy data out and put the custom DLLs back.
Its possible to build security into the hardware or firmware. But the problems and costs of custom h/w and retiring old systems have already been discussed.
Increasingly, multinational companies do business in several financial markets. They might be borrowing in Euros,or Renminbi. And so they have to pay those loans off in those currencies. There is no sense in moving their revenue through the United States, just to move it back out again. And then there's the shareholders. Not all of them live within the USA. So why should they have35% shaved off their dividends?
Everyone keeps worrying about how these companies are ever going to move these funds back within US jurisdiction. The answer is: Never. The capital can be put to better use outside of the country.