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User: Platinumrat

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  1. Re:Everybody wants to rule the Internet on Eric Schmidt: UN Treaty a 'Disaster' For the Internet · · Score: 1

    The fact is, We the People of the United States of America were first to fund DNS that makes the Internet what it is today. Sorry UN, you can't take it over without paying off some of the national debt your members hold.

    Maybe the US should donate control of the DNS system to the UN to pay off some of the debt it owes to the UN as part of its treaty obligations. You brought up debt first. Although, I still don't agree with the idea of the UN being in charge of anything.

  2. There's a lot more if you look around. on China Building Gigantic Structures In the Desert · · Score: 1

    If you look to the west of the area in the article, you will see heaps of similar structures. In addition you'll also see what appear to be simulated airfields, town centres are other artifacts. All "painted" or somehow marked out on the ground. Some are faded, some white and others some irridescent blue. Check out the following coords.... ( 4028'40.59"N, 9328'47.41"E), ( 4029'25.92"N, 9328'9.02"E) and you'll see what I mean.

  3. Re:Railroad tracks? on Legal Tender? Maybe Not, Says Louisiana Law · · Score: 1

    So says you. I was working on a Railroad project in Indonesia, when there was a derailment. On investigation it turned out that some enterprising lads had stolen 5 meters of track. They cut the rails with nothing but hacksaw blades. They carried it away by hand, or at least loaded it onto a pickup by hand.

  4. Treat software as an Engineering process on Outlining a World Where Software Makers Are Liable For Flaws · · Score: 1
    In effect we are building machines, albiet virtual ones. You don't get to drive cars on the road, that haven't gone through an engineering design and approval process.

    Unfortunately, that costs both time and money. It requires that you have a formal systems engineering approach; Independent Verification & Validation; Testing and first of all; Formal Requirements that are traced to the implementation.

    You can't get away with doing it "On the cheap". I don't know many countries that allow Rail Traffic Control system to run their railways, without formal process. Most of those that don't, are 3rd World countries and only pay lip service to the principle.

  5. Developer on a HDTV? Please!!!!! on Thin Film Transforms Any Surface Into Touchscreen · · Score: 1
    And what resolution is your HDTV... 1920x1080?

    It annoys me that people think HDTV is good. In fact as far as DPI resolution goes, they're pretty much in the suckage range. My 5-6 year old Dell laptop has a 1920x1200 resolution 17" monitor.

    ... and btw: How do you sit two TVs next to each other. Really, what developer only uses one monitor nowadays?

  6. Re:That thing from the Fifth Element? on Jupiter-Sized Alien Planet Is Darkest Ever (Barely) Seen · · Score: 1

    M - u - l - t - i - p - a - s - s

  7. Re:Why is a third party manufacturer needed? on How One Man Helps Keep Game Controllers Accessible · · Score: 1

    Can you tell me why Microsoft and Sony should be building these controllers, and what specific "dynamics of capitalism" keeps them from doing so?

    I don't see North Korea building these controllers for their people.

    What Sony, Microsoft, etc al... will do is: to tie up the controller interfaces with patents, so that even this guy would get sued into oblivion for trying to do the socially responsible thing.

  8. Re:because the redisigned daleks look stupid on Daleks To Be Given 'A Rest' From Dr. Who · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yeah! When I saw the new Daleks, I thought: "They look like the Wiggles... and about as scary!".

  9. Re:Money, that's why on Users Want Matte LCDs While Glossy Screens Dominate · · Score: 1

    Funny you mention the airline industry "extras". Just heard on the news in Oz (less than 30 minutes ago), that one of the local "budget" airlines will charge a surcharge to use the check-in counters now. WTF! What they want you to do is print your own ticket at home and head to the gate, with no interaction with the staff at all.

  10. Re:Really? on US-CERT Warns of Serious Hole In ActiveX Control From Iconics · · Score: 1

    I don't think I phrased my original comment correctly. The CEO in question was in charge of a an internation engineering company that developed SCADA systems. The company also sold the sensors, control system components and engineering design. The catch phrase was the one used to market the products and systems.

  11. Re:WTF?Embedded RealTimeControlSystems, Determinis on US-CERT Warns of Serious Hole In ActiveX Control From Iconics · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry to wake you up from your little dream world. But the largest supplier of SCADA control software is all Windows based. Plus no-adays, software developers, and more especially the managers leading them, have no clue what Deterministic or Hard Real Time mean.

    I've seen supposed Control System development companies throw out the systems based on Commercial RTOSs and with a proven track record, basically because they don't support the latest and greatest Fads (like REST, XML, HTTP, SVG). The management like those that support the buzzwordy new gods (usually those GenYs). The rationalisation is generally starts out, that it's just too hard to get experienced developers for the old platforms and we don't really need hard real-time because of the advances in processing+network+disk resources available now.

    The next and current step in the decline, is that all we need is a good set of processes in place, and the new-gen of developers+managers will be able to real-time control systems. After all, it's just software and any code-monkey should be able to replace experience with the right processes to support them.

    Prepare for a lot more pain. "As some reporter said a long time ago. "Ohhhhhhhhh! The humanity".

  12. Re:Really? on US-CERT Warns of Serious Hole In ActiveX Control From Iconics · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is not a suprise to anyone who works in the SCADA industry. For example one leading firm the catch phrase used by the CEO used to be "from Factory Floor to the Boardroom". That phrase pretty much drove the thrust of all development. Nay-sayers were replaced by yes-men where necessary.

  13. Re:(Design != build) but (Code == Build) on Is Process Killing the Software Industry? · · Score: 1
    Code is not a blueprint. I can't point a customer at code and say this is what you are getting. I can, however, point at requirements documents, functional specifications, user manuals, acceptance test specifications and architectual drawings. A savy customer will be able to make sense of those.

    The code is really the nuts and bolts, concrete and other raw material that the people use to assemble the product; just like in a bridge building project. If I have already poured half the concrete and the piers are already standing, it's a little difficult to turn what was a suspension bridge into a truss style or move one of the ends

    It doesn't end there. Where I see a lot of confusion, is assuming that an executable is the end product. It's an intermediate component in a much larger system. Example: Why am I building the bridge? To join two roads togother? To join two cities? To link two countries? It's always as part of something else. It all depends on scope, but it's never because I saw a river and said..."Hey I think I'll build a bridge". The same with most complex systems. The 777 code modules fit into some part of the final system. You can point at the avionics software in isolation and then plug it into the entertainment system.

  14. Re:sad isn't it ? on Evolution Battle Brews In Texas · · Score: 0
    Texas.... Large?

    I come from a country where only two of our states are smaller than Texas

    We don't allow the religious nuts to contol the county.... Yet! It's the advantage of living in a country that mocks authority.

    Having said that, we still have our Texas. But there the God is money.

  15. Re:What parallel universe have I fallen into... on An IP Address Does Not Point To a Person, Judge Rules · · Score: 1

    2011 is pretty interesting so far.

    And this is just another sign on the end of the world in 2012...

  16. Re:Security 101 on DHS Chief: What We Learned From Stuxnet · · Score: 1
    Well, items 1), 2) & 3) amount to the same thing with SCADA equipment. Btw: how do you do item 4) if you haven't got one of the 1st three. Now having worked with / as well as developed SCADA software, I can tell you that the number of "Security" patches can be, sometimes, overwelming. So in effect, it's very easy to slip a trojan into a SCADA system.

    As to looking at source code(as an earlier poster suggested): Good luck with that. 99.99% of SCADA systems are proprietry, closed sourced and encumbered with a massive amount of patents, so it ain't going to happen.

    The other standard defence:- not running an account with Admin rights; won't work on most SCADA systems, as they are typically designed to require "Admin" rights just to run.

    Security, is the last thing that the developers of these systems worry about. That will remain until a few more cases like this pop up, and they are forced by legislation to change their ways.

  17. Re:Get over it. on A Letter On Behalf of the World's PC Fixers · · Score: 1

    But it doesn't only apply to friends and aquaintances. How many industries, do the bosses expect unpaid overtime, just because they assume that the job should take less than the time it does?

  18. Re:Stupid humans, why do we still need this crap? on Timezone Maintainer Retiring · · Score: 1

    This wouldn't work. The issue wasn't just to do with gov changing the dates that day-light-saving kicks in and out. There's this little thing about the earth's rotation not being constant. Hence leap seconds have to be added (subtracted) as necessary.

  19. Re:Keep up or shut up on Should Younger Developers Be Paid More? · · Score: 1
    I've never understood the US system of leave and benefits.

    Here in Australia, it's 4 weeks paid leave every year from the start. You work one year FTE (Full Time Equivalent) and get 4 weeks leave. If you're "lucky" (or lazy) and you stay more than 10 years, you might get 1 month "long service" for every 5 years service. So in reality, there's not a lot of benefit to staying, unless you count the acrued sick leave; which starts to add up after a while.

  20. Re:Maintaining code by others are always a nightma on Programming Mistakes To Avoid · · Score: 1

    Try the the above "business logic is embedded in the code" when you're working for a company that is trying to sell a system to another customer. The developers then complain that Project X for customerX should do things the same way as Project Y for customerY did it. When you patiently explain that that's not how customerX do things, the development team then look at you as if you're an idiot. When your customers are government agencies, then you know there is a world of pain ahead for you and the development arm of the company you work for.

  21. Re:Wording is vague. on New Bill Would Put DHS In Charge of 'Critical' Private Networks · · Score: 1

    But think of it. It will be a way of keeping those foreign companies away from supplying equipment to "critical infrastruct" projects. Oh wait, no it won't.... There'll be some exemptions somewhere if it inconveniences CEO earnings.

  22. Internet == easy to kill now on Most Americans Support an Internet Kill Switch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But it is easy to kill now. Once the core routers and DNS servers are down. Game over for most users. The critical infrastruct on how computers "know" which IP address to get and how to get there has been gradually centralised over the last couple of decades in the name of efficiency and easy of management. Yeah! sure there will be cached infromation and backup servers, but the Internet has long ago morphed from being a Web to a Tree like structure. Killing the root, kills the tree.

  23. Re:Sad truths on Most Americans Support an Internet Kill Switch · · Score: 1

    And the kill switch will keep them ignorant just when they need the information.

  24. Re:where have the high res laptop screens gone on Why Are We Losing Vertical Pixels? · · Score: 1

    My 4 year old Dell 630 laptop came with a 17" 1920x1200 monitor. The only reason I got management to but it, was to support a legacy 1600x1200 control system GUI. You can still get them, but they are a) Expensive b) Only on the High-end precision range of laptops. We're not joe-6pack users. Learn to live with it.

  25. Re:Oh no. Not again. on Star Wars Films In 3D Due In 2012 · · Score: 1

    That's all we need. Jaja's ears flapping at us in 3D. It's not like they will even true 3D. They'll be stereo, hyped up as 3D because people don't know any better. If it was 3D you could change the POV.