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User: hughk

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  1. Re:Hmmm... on Laptops With Certain NVidia Chips Failing · · Score: 1

    Sam on my Latitude D830 with a 140M chip. Same thing happened so I run temperature monitoring now. Can you get the junk out by vacuuming the bottom fan? When I had the problem, I needed to open up the machine to get properly at the heatsink by the fan where the dust had built out.

  2. Re:Especially since on Laptops With Certain NVidia Chips Failing · · Score: 2, Informative

    The problems come down to the use of Child labour particularly in places such as South-east Asia being used to recover components but mostly metals from circuit boards. A lot of lead was being leached in the process directly into the water supply. A lead-acid battery returned to the right place results in very little lost material.

  3. Re:Are the enviromentralists killing our PCs? on Laptops With Certain NVidia Chips Failing · · Score: 1

    I believe that military equipment is exempt from these rules, as are avionics. This comes down to issues with the whiskers and with the joints being a bit more vibration sensitive.

  4. Re:If you're going to live in the US ... on Learn a Foreign Language As an Engineer? · · Score: 1

    We have lots of words in common and we even have an accent which incorporates parts of the English language (which is called "platt").

    Technically if there are new words involved then it becomes a dialect not an accent. Platt-Deutsch is definitely a dialect. However, Hoch-Deutsch (high-German) is the one that foreigners generally learn though.

  5. Re:I guess some places are just lax on No-Fail Identity Theft – Live and In Person · · Score: 1

    My gut feel, upon reading your description, is that no-one is that good. I would be very interested to know if any teams like the one in TFA have actually tried to break the security at the IRS.

    Go to the UK. I am not certain what the security standards are with the HMRC, but apparently it seems that people have no problems to create unencrypted DVDs of downloaded data and then trust then to standard courier services

  6. Re:I guess some places are just lax on No-Fail Identity Theft – Live and In Person · · Score: 1

    I work in banks. We all have little personal badges with pictures on (they don't get looked at too hard) but the badge is a card key.

    You need a card key for everything. Sometimes even for going to the john.

    However, we also have cleaners. They are paid like shit (in one case, my client was featured in a report on poorly paid service staff). They change their jobs frequently and they get "John Doe" anonymous cards. As the clean desk rule is often breached (in any case people are often working late), so there is plenty of info around without trying to login.

  7. Re:Not all it's cracked up to be? on A Marine's-Eye View of the Networked Battlefield · · Score: 1

    There is something called PGMM - Precision Guided Mortar Munitions which allow for laser target designation. They are being developed now (I know that some have been tested but haven't heard that they are in the field yet) but they still have to be fired roughly in the right direction as a mortar remains as a fundamentally ballistic weapon.

  8. Re:Can we be a little more inclusive? on Senate Hearing On Laptop Seizures At US Border · · Score: 2, Informative

    Um no. Any international flight transiting the US is subject to search. However I believe that the original poster was referring to where you disembark and change planes whilst staying in the international terminal or if the plane is simply refuelled. In both cases although you are 'international air side', you are still subject to various controls and have been since before 9/11. Health also used to be a concern.

  9. Re:Worst idea ever on The Beginnings of a TLD Free-For-All? · · Score: 1

    I was working on an CAAML/KYC for a major bank so am acutely aware of the headaches it can cause. We were working to a combination of the US/UK regulations (some of the toughest), although the application of the rules within the US appears somewhat unequal at the moment.

    It appears that you were picked up an AML surveillance system that checks for the types and volumes of transfer and the nature of your business. This system will automatically flag transactions and alert Compliance in your bank. Compliance will first approach your customer representative and look for an explanation. If there is none, they will seek to have the account closed.

    The question normally comes down to whether the country is working with FATF and then the regulator can normally be accepted as being reliable to a point. Someone with a SWIFT BIC isn't necessarily a bank - it may just be an investment company. A bank without a real physical office or enough employees is likely to be regarded as a shell bank and be rejected for that reason. The exception being when the bank is acctualy an investment vehicle under conreol of a regulated bank.

  10. Re:Worst idea ever on The Beginnings of a TLD Free-For-All? · · Score: 1

    The proposed .bank had some hope of being useful, although it suffers from the endemic problem of appointing someone or some organization to decide for the whole world, what constitutes a bank.

    Bank is very much a protected name in much of the world. Normally to use the name 'bank' you have to be regulated as such by the national regulator. There are different types of banks, some allowed to take deposits, some not but all share the requirement of formal regulation.

  11. Re:anti-spam kills anonymous speech on ICANN Asked To Shut Down "Worst" Chinese Registrar · · Score: 1

    There is an 'ID' card, if people bothered to enforce existing laws. To collect inbound payments for V1agra, etc., you need to be able to process credit cards. To get the necessary processing account setup, you should be required to prove the beneficial owner of a company. This is an existing law and easy to enforce. It doesn't stop someone who wants to start a 'screwthepoliticians.com' protest website.

  12. Re:Is lead truly that dangerous ? on Tin Whiskers — Fact Or Fiction? · · Score: 1

    It was made up to be a big thing a few years back (around the time the legislation was peddled). Yes, agreed that China is already an environmental disaster area, but the general feeling (also promoted now by the UN) was not to ship toxic waste to anyone who can't deal with it properly.

  13. Re:Garage Nukes on Nuclear Warhead Blueprints On Smugglers' Computers · · Score: 1

    The W80 is a two stage device. These are difficult to shrink as they are limited by physics (you add the lithium, the sparkplug, the neuton lenses, tampers and then have to encapsulate everything in heavy U238. The basic 5KT primer is big enough by itself but 5Kt isn't going to take out much more than a city block.

  14. Re:Is lead truly that dangerous ? on Tin Whiskers — Fact Or Fiction? · · Score: 4, Informative

    The issue is more for some little Chinese kid who lives by scrapping our electronics. This means the lead is concentrated and gets into water and all sorts.

  15. Re:Tin Whiskers are fact on Tin Whiskers — Fact Or Fiction? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Avionics & military electronics were excluded from the no-lead rule in the EU. Automotive not, so it could still me that your ABS fails safe (but not very safe on a wet road).

  16. Re:I don't understand the argument on EFF To Fight Border Agent Laptop Searches · · Score: 0

    Your car is pulled over, and the officer has reasonable cause to suspect that you were driving under the influence of alcohol. The officer is allowed, required, and in good common sense would, look around the inside of your car to be sure you don't have any weapons.

    When you step out of the car you lock the door, the officer doesn't normally have a right to search your car unless there really is probable cause, i.e., a gun or a spliff in plain sight. You may politely refuse the search.

    I don't know wheteher similar rules apply to standard law-enforcement officers with computers, that is a logged-out computer requires a warrant.

    The thing is that customs officers have more rights.

  17. Re:Flimsy construction on USB Flash Drive Life Varies Up To 10 Times · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And they would say

    You need how many megs to say "Hello World"?

    ...and I look at the ledger system for the bank where I'm working which uses 3270 sessions. Yes, even though the documentation refers to this as a GUI, hello 1972, your character mode VDU is still haunting us.

  18. Re:goodhe on Microsoft Goes After "Career Pirates" · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Free software was also pre-PC. Most major vendors had user groups that used to distribute software., generally on half-inch mag-tape (about 80MB). You could get some GNU stuff like emacs and gcc on the tapes from DEC's user group DECUS, (the DEC VAX C compiler cost over $10K in those days) just for the cost of copying as well as lots of other stuff like the LBL tools, etc. I think around that time, there was a fuss because the US decided to export-restrict SPICE variants and they had to be removed from the tapes.

    At least lower management knew about this stuff because the tapes used to cost 100$ or so (media plus copying costs) and they had to ok the purchases. They tended to see the benefit in that we were able to implement stuff faster on the back of these tools.

  19. Re:goodhe LOLOLOLOLOL!!!! on Microsoft Goes After "Career Pirates" · · Score: 1

    Linux hardware support has increased tremendously over the years, but I can't find much to compete with apple for audio on the linux platform.
    Not just that, there are some real-times issues with the current releases of the Linux kernel. Whilst it won't affect normal replay or even basic AV processing, it will hurt Linux as a real-time multi-channel sound-processor. It will get addressed but there is a lot of work needed to make the kernel to real-time response times.
  20. Re:Hmmm.... on UK Can Now Hold People Without Charge For 42 Days · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The original Prevention of Terrorism Act which allowed for an extension to detention without being charged was originally brought up to tackle acts of terror in the UK (both mainland and Northern Ireland).

    The principle sounded fine. What was not so well known ws that some police used to abuse this to pressurise someone under arrest. This would happen when the police would report a suspicion that firearms were involved with a possibility that they may reach terrorists. The additional time would allow for the Police to gather more evidence but it reality, it was more a way of leaning on the detainees.

    It may be better than Gitmo, but the principle is stll a slippery slope away from Habeas Corpus. It is also not thought to be particularly helpful by members of the security forces.

  21. Re:Yeah, about fake IDs on TSA Bans Flight If You Refuse To Show ID · · Score: 3, Informative

    The liquid explosive deployed on Philipine Airlines 434 was already complete when it was brought on board, it just hadn't been assembled into a bomb. Nitrates are quite sniffable by current detectors so this shouldn't work now.

    Real binary explosives exist in the commercial world, but terrorists don't seem to be able to produce them. In such cases perhaps they can be made more detectable and in any case they require detonation.

    There are discussions and fears about the production of non-nitrate based explosives. However this would require that a terrorist prepare a non-trivial reaction in a confined space over an extended period of time. I would like to think someone would notice if a toilet is occupied for the many hours necessary to complete the production or that certainly the fumes would be noticed.

  22. Re:GPL 3 on GPLv3's Implications Hitting Home For Lawyers · · Score: 1

    In this case, RMS is wrong. If RMS was truly about "Free" as in "freedom" he would have chosen BSD style license, which has even less restrictions.
    It appears that you misunderstood the history of the GPL. It was made so to ensure that people retained the ability to modify code as RMS did with the Lisp Workstation at the MIT AI Lab. Vendors have a choice, they can write their own, go to somebody like Wind River VxWorks, use BSD or choose a GPLed Linux. There is no monopoly. In some cases, users are even left with a choice of a device running GPLed code and device tat doesn't (the Linksys WRT54GL/S routers).
  23. Re:Relativistic trading... on Google to Offer Real-Time Stock Quotes · · Score: 1

    Indeed. In a way the smart agent is an avatar, just a specialised one.

  24. Re:Over-The-Counter Derivatives Trades on Schneier Asks Why We Accept Fax Signatures · · Score: 1

    I'm talking about from the brokers viewpoint. There may be a master agreement (i.e., ISDA or equivalent) but the entire contract may be exchanged with the counterparty by fax.

  25. Re:Relativistic trading... on Google to Offer Real-Time Stock Quotes · · Score: 1

    But there is still a lag between you abnd your avatar unless you can give your avatar autonomy - which is effectively what proximity services are all about. Your program sits milliseconds in roundtrip away from the market. It makes the buy/sell decisions based on what you program and what you parameterise but you cannot interact with it in real-time.