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User: coofercat

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  1. !headphones on A Look At the Firepick Delta Circuit Board Assembler (Video) · · Score: 1

    I don't have my 'phones handy, so had to watch with the sound off. The video doesn't show the machine actually working, which makes it a pretty boring watch. Hell, even the guy in the checked shirt looks bored talking about it.

    I know us geeks aren't great at PR, but if you've got a machine that does something and you're at a trade show, then make sure your machine runs 24x7 - even if it's not your machine and it's just an incidental part of what you do, it's still better than leaving it idle.

  2. Re:Chrome? on Which Is Better, Adblock Or Adblock Plus? · · Score: 1

    Wasn't there some bug where Chrome left your microphone on and used Google's text-to-speech to listen in on everything you said? (http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/01/speech-recognition-hack-turns-google-chrome-into-advanced-bugging-device/)

    I'm sure Firefox has some "duh!" bugs too, but I have to say, this Chrome was was pretty awful.

  3. Re:Thankfully those will be patched right in a jif on Old Apache Code At Root of Android FakeID Mess · · Score: 1

    > wish there was another choice. the whole mobile data thing really unnerves me with how bad the scene really is.

    http://jolla.com/ ?

  4. Re:Dismantle DHS on The Department of Homeland Security Needs Its Own Edward Snowden · · Score: 1

    ...and be sure to spread that malware that uses Tor for command and control. Even your elderly neighbour could be a terrorist! Add to the fact that she gives sweets to the kids that come around asking if they can get their ball back from her garden, and you've got a paedo-terrorist. They're the worst kind of all.

  5. Re:Actually, on The Secret Government Rulebook For Labeling You a Terrorist · · Score: 2

    You're confused who the 'leaders' are. It certainly isn't the politicians, and it was never the people.

  6. Re:Advanced? on Finding Life In Space By Looking For Extraterrestrial Pollution · · Score: 1

    ...and a few other places besides. The toilets at my work are probably the first place these people should be looking.

  7. Re:We should add our own encryption??? on Dropbox Head Responds To Snowden Claims About Privacy · · Score: 4, Informative

    You realise dropbox is free, right? Why should they do something expensive like offer encryption on a service that is (a) free, and (b) for sharing files. Sharing's hard if your stuff is encrypted, and sharing is the source of most of Dropbox's value.

    If you want encryption, then fine, do it yourself. You obviously know that your stuff won't be indexable or shareable so won't be calling for support or slagging Dropbox off online when you find indexing and sharing not working.

    There's room to suggest Dropbox should offer a pay-for encrypted service. The thing is, no matter how well they do it, it'll always be vulnerable to government interference, and it'll never be fully trusted anyway. BYO means no government interference and trust *for the relatively small number of people who care* without raising the costs too much for the multitudes who don't.

  8. Re:Black box data streaming on Russia Prepares For Internet War Over Malaysian Jet · · Score: 1

    There's a difference between doing something as a service that you're paid for by others and something you do for yourself. Having taxi drivers, or lorry drivers or whatever recorded is different than having private car drivers recorded.

    I'm not saying your point is wrong, but it's more complex than you make out. You do make a good point about the data only being accessible in an accident situation, as opposed to in some non-event that the government decides is important enough call an "emergency requiring that we listen in".

  9. Body armour? on Fossils of Cambrian Predator Preserved With Brain Impressions · · Score: 1

    If you're one of the first predators, why would you need body armour? (and no, I didn't RTFA)

  10. "amplif[y]" sanctioned messages on YouTube" on Hacking Online Polls and Other Ways British Spies Seek To Control the Internet · · Score: 1

    This is why the volume of ads is higher than the programmes they're in. Damn you GCHQ, I don't want your new soft drink, I want my freedom from tyranny!

  11. Re:foolproof on German NSA Committee May Turn To Typewriters To Stop Leaks · · Score: 1

    In other news, they're also dusting off all their old bottles invisible ink, newspapers with holes cut so you can see through while 'reading' and that box of old fake moustaches and noses from the basement. From now on, be on the lookout for anyone reading a paper from the 1960s sporting a massive nose neighbour. Extra points if they're writing into a notebook with a pen that appears to have run out of ink.

  12. Re:Still a problem .... on Want To Ensure Your Personal Android Data Is Truly Wiped? Turn On Encryption · · Score: 1

    The better solution is to use a Windows Phone. You can be sure no one will want to buy that on ebay ;-)

  13. Re:What difference now does it make? :) Sunk costs on The Pentagon's $399 Billion Plane To Nowhere · · Score: 1

    I have no idea what I'm talking about here, but how many "modern air wars" have there been in (say) the last 50 years? The Falklands war is one - how many more have there been? How many do we expect in the next (say) 50?

    It seems to me that conflict is getting smaller. That is, it's less about taking over entire continents and more about killing a few people at the train station to get in the media and get some fear going. AFAIK, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan used some air support, but there was no "air war" as such (maybe some people trying to shoot down planes, but that's entirely different from dog-fighting).

    That said, if another state of reasonable size was to decide it wanted another state's land, then things scale up quite quickly. However, how much of that really causes "air wars"? The issues in Ukraine suggest that the implications of state-based action is more financial than it would be military.

    When the Eurofighter project was in full swing, I wondered the same thing - I mean, how many times do we think we're going to need such a thing? That said, it came up with (what looks to me at least) as a pretty cool aircraft with some cool tech inside it. Shame it's all classified :-(

  14. Re:What if... on UK Computing Student Jailed After Failing To Hand Over Crypto Keys · · Score: 1

    I always fancied "fuck you copper, this is a fit-up - I ain't going canary!". Speaking of which, my work computer's just told me my password is about to expire... ;-)

  15. Re:Dubai has bigger problems on Dubai's Climate-Controlled Dome City Is a Dystopia Waiting To Happen · · Score: 2

    The real problem is the people in Dubai don't like the Flintstones. Thankfully the people in Abu Dhabi do.

  16. Re:Maybe something sensible? on Single European Copyright Title On the Horizon · · Score: 2

    We can expect millions of euros spent on months and months of wrangling to try to keep the most corporate-sponsored parts of the plan to be kept in whilst wording them in such a way that they don't look so corporately sponsored. All the features that the ordinary people of Europe might want will be watered down in wording that looks like it's all good but actually gives no power to those clauses.

    If you want shitty legislation, you've really got to pay for it. If you want good legislation, look elsewhere :-(

  17. That's nothing! on The Billionaire Mathematician · · Score: 2

    I'm a mathematics genius too. I counted all my money, and I've managed to amass 23 billion pounds, just in my wallet (and that's after I bought lunch). That doesn't include all the money in my penny jar at home and the stuff that's down the back of the sofa. If we add all that, I'm pretty sure I'm the second richest person in the world.

  18. Solution on How Japan Lost Track of 640kg of Plutonium · · Score: 1

    Whenever I lose something, I go back to wherever I last saw it and retrace my steps. Have they tried that?

  19. Re: Whoops on Following EU Ruling, BBC Article Excluded From Google Searches · · Score: 1

    ...like the BBC? All you need to do is search there instead of Google: http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/?q... Or even frikkin' Bing: http://www.bing.com/search?q=S...

    And there is the ridiculousness of this law. It's not about "being forgotten" it's about breaking Google's market dominance. Either way, it's complete bullshit and should never have been made into a law.

  20. Re:"cannot" on Encryption Keys For Kim Dotcom's Data Can't Be Given To FBI, Court Rules · · Score: 1

    They SAY they could do that, but they can't tell the truth.

  21. Re:History! on Microsoft Backs Open Source For the Internet of Things · · Score: 2

    So when we get to step 2, do I get an extra bedroom and a garage/workshop?

  22. Re:One non-disturbing theory on Ninety-Nine Percent of the Ocean's Plastic Is Missing · · Score: 1

    One place I worked had some branded water bottles made up for some event or other. Some of them didn't get used and got put in a cupboard for a year or two. When we found them, just about all of them had sort of "over inflated" a bit (and were past their use-by date). Given they were in the office, it seems unlikely they got heated to such an extent that the contents would have expanded that much purely due to temperature. I'm not qualified, but I'd imagine they'd begun to degrade, releasing a bit of gas into the water and reducing the structural integrity of the bottle allowing the "over inflated" look.Needless to say, no one was keen to try drinking any of the water ;-)

  23. Re:Short black with one on How To Make Espresso In Space · · Score: 1

    Creamer is made using the other 'cows' in the field that aren't busy making the (real) milk ;-)

  24. Re:Age of the earth on Why the Moon's New Birthday Means the Earth Is Older Than We Thought · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Day 0 - Our sun is puked into existence, with a shit-tonne of rubble floating around it.
    100 million years later, a big rock hits earth - thus earth must have been there, so we know earth was made on or before 100 million years after the sun. Previous measurements of our atmosphere from rocks suggests this to be true.

    French people look at all the observations, and saw that the calibrations were a bit off, and then worked out that collision took place 60 million years earlier than previously thought. Therefore, the earth must have formed 60 million years earlier than first thought, and been solid and "finished" enough to be able to produce the moon from the impact. That suggests the earth was formed in 40 million years, not 100 million years - that makes quite a difference to our understanding of how planets are formed. From the French perspective, this means the FSM didn't have as many RTT days in his contract as was previously thought, and possibly worked many of the days we now consider public holidays too.

  25. No problem - Deny access to the SD Card on New Permission System Could Make Android Much Less Secure · · Score: 1

    I just found out last night that my Galaxy Note 8 can't write to it's SD card any more (after a KitKat update). This also is some brain-dead move by Google to make my tablet "more secure".

    What it's actually done is pissed me off so much that I'm now going to spend the time rooting the thing. I can understand limiting apps to certain areas of the system, but giving them 100% unfettered access to the internal storage, and deny just about anything from the SD card isn't it.

    I'd like to be able to see the list of permissions an app needs (in groups, if you like), and then deselect any I don't think it should have - if an app I don't like the look of wants to use my SD card, then I should be able to turn it off. I know this is possible with a rooted system, so it seems that's the only way to go for me (particularly as I quite like being able to use my SD card that Samsung took the time to bundle with my tablet).

    If my phone asks me to upgrade to kitkat, I'm gonna say no. I'm sure that doesn't make me more secure. I'm sure rooting my tablet isn't really Google's idea of "more secure" either. Assuming I'm right about that, then they should find a way to let me override their brain-dead missteps.