cheros - Slashdot User

Submission + - Privacy theater - new term by Ed Felten (freedom-to-tinker.com)

Submitted by cheros on Thursday May 27, 2010 @03:06AM

cheros writes: Commenting on Facebook, Ed Felten has come up with a new term to describe the current attitudes to privacy that is brilliant in its simplicity: privacy theater.

It builds on the term Bruce Schneier defined to identify pretend security measures such as most of TSA's efforts: they don't do anything to make you safer, it makes you feel better. Ditto for your privacy, "privacy theater" describes measures that appear to do something for your privacy, while they are actually aimed at stopping you complaining about it.

Brilliant — so far, the best new expression for 2010..

Submission + - Do you use outline view? (openoffice.org)

Submitted by cheros on Sunday April 11, 2010 @07:58PM

cheros writes: MS Office has it, but for OpenOffice.org its omission is a bug that is now eight years old with no resolution in sight. Do you use an outline view, and if so, for what?

Submission + - "Tactical Nuclear Penguin" launched today (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by cheros on Friday November 27, 2009 @04:44AM

cheros writes: No, it's not a new game, and it's not a new Linux distro either (although it would be quite a name), it's BEER.

What's more, it's not your average new taste either, it's incredibly strong stuff with 32% alcohol.

Please do not drink too much of this, or you'll become too risky to cremate..

Submission + - Google to upgrade Swiss Street View (swissinfo.ch)

Submitted by cheros on Thursday October 15, 2009 @08:26AM

cheros writes: Google Switzerland says it will upgrade its software to improve the blurring of faces and car registration plates on its Street View service, but doesn't want to lower its cameras (interesting — that was the same thing it was asked to do in Japan).

Submission + - Monty Python 40 years old today! (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by cheros on Monday October 05, 2009 @08:26AM

cheros writes: Ah, British humour..

It started all with work of the Goons (Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe) and there was somewhat of an explosion of comedy in the years of the Cambridge Footlights when people like Stephen Fry And Tony Slattery created pieces that shall forever stand tall in history (I leave you to ponder that one, grin) — do a YouTube search for "The letter, Stephen Fry" for a taste. For those that like the series "House", you may be surprised to discover that Hugh Laurie was actually a rather accomplished, multi-talented comedian as well, look for "A bit of Fry and Laurie", especially "Your name sir". A bit of a warning, here, some of it is NSFW (especially "the pre-coital agreement" discussion is only suitable for those that actually have a sense of humour).

And then the Monty Python gang got together (I think this is right chronologically, but I'm happy to be corrected). The first airing of Monty Python was on October 5th, 1969, which means today it's 40 years old. Almost everything they did is now in some form or another on YouTube, so go and enjoy it. Look for the dead parrot sketch, the argument clinic, the ministry of silly walks etc etc.

Long may it live!

Submission + - Swiss watchdog sets court ultimatum for Google Str (swissinfo.ch)

Submitted by cheros on Monday September 14, 2009 @04:14PM

cheros writes: Google just can't get it right (it must be hard after being given a free ride practically everywhere else): the Swiss Federal Data Protection Commissioner has given Google 30 days to fix the problems with Streetview or the matter will go to court.

Another article in the Swiss press (in German) goes a little bit more into detail, not only have quite a number of complaints been handed in, Google has also been told to lower its cameras, in more or less a repeat of what it encountered in Japan, and to remove small private streets from its images unless it can obtain local permission (IMHO a somewhat impossible to meet requirement).

Submission + - Switzerland: disable Google Streetview 1

Submitted by glow-in-the-dark on Saturday August 22, 2009 @02:42AM

glow-in-the-dark writes: The Swiss office for Data Protection has asked Google to turn off Streetview, I suspect because it doesn't meet the conditions as demanded when permission was given to go ahead.

Google answered privacy concerns with the following points (I'm translating them from German):

"Do I have to worry about being in Streetview?"
Google will publish in advance where it is going to record the images, so you can act accordingly.
Comment: WTF? So people have to hide when Google rides into town? Who exactly has the obligation here?

How is my Data Protection guaranteed when my picture has been taken?
Google has made masking the images of people and car license plates obligatory.
Comment: I think this is where trouble starts, because their permission to go ahead against concern appears to have been dependent on how well they did this. I have browsed one particular town as an experiment and was quite quickly able to unearth unmasked faces. This means that either the algorithm they use doesn't work, or that it is done manually and they're behind (in which case they should not have put up the images IMHO).

How do I get myself removed from Google Streetview?
You can tell Google where you were in the picture and they'll remove it.
Comment: same comment as above (whose obligation is this?), and, in addition, how are you going to recall where you saw a Google car (if you noticed it at all)? The images take several months to show up, and you don't need to look straight at them to be in the image.

Can I get my home removed from Google Streetview?
Although a picture of a home is generally not covered under Data Protection, Google has agreed to remove them if so asked, follow the same process as removing a person.
Comment: I think it wouldn't be half as bad if the pictures weren't taken with a high enough resolution to see inside a house.

In short, Google has not been given the easy ride it had in other countries regarding Streetview. I actually suspect there is more to come..

Submission + - What got us to the moon

Submitted by cheros on Friday July 24, 2009 @04:21AM

cheros writes: This is an interesting article, detailing a few of the challenges of the first moon flight:

Fence Wire, Flying Bedsteads and 36KB: What Got Us to the Moon
It's easy, once things become commonplace, to forget how extraordinary they once were. When Lindbergh flew to Paris, the whole world stopped to cheer. Now thousands of people jet back and forth everyday. Some 2,000 people have now reached the summit of Mt. Everest. And almost 500 people, from 39 countries, have flown in space. Which undoubtedly explains why I'm hard pressed to name even one of the astronauts who blasted off in the Space Shuttle Endeavor on Wednesday.

I just looked at the flight computer stats: 36k memory, and an MTBF of 70'000h. Translated: 1/50000 of the currently customary 2GB, and -if used during office hours- no failure for 40 years. It's clear that Microsoft had not been founded yet :-).

Submission + - Swiss interim judgement: buying Microsoft is risky

Submitted by cheros on Friday July 03, 2009 @09:36AM

cheros writes: It's presently only available in German, sorry — this is in principle a followup of
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/26/red_hat_switzerland/. I expect there will be a Redhat press release surfacing at some point.

The Swiss NZZ newspaper reports (at http://preview.tinyurl.com/ldmgmw) that an interim judgement now allows the procurement of Microsoft products & services, with the proviso that such contracts could be annulled by the final judgement.

This means that the purchase of Microsoft products is presently a risk until the final judgement. IMHO this is as effective as banning purchases until then, but without enabling Microsoft to do anything about it (AFAIK, IANAL).

This interim judgement is in principle a confirmation that there is actually a case to answer, and that the existence of viable alternatives is accepted by the court.

In related news, Redmond Microsoft staff recently dismissed are asked to bring their office chairs to a storage room on the executive floor before they leave. No explanation is provided :-)

Submission + - iPhone update nukes certain firmware versions

Submitted by cheros on Thursday June 18, 2009 @04:29AM

cheros writes: We just had a call from our phone shop as we have several iPhones in the company — apparently there's a message out from the telco for people not to upgrade just yet to iPhone v3 firmware.

It appears some newer phones have problems with the update and brick instead, leaving you with a device that is just about recognised as a USB device, but no longer as an iPhone — it's now an iBrick.

I can confirm this as a colleague had this happen. Mine's one of the early ones and it went OK-ish (needed a restart before I could enter the SIM code to allowed the whole process to complete).

Submission + - Spirit stuck in soft soil on Mars

Submitted by cheros on Tuesday May 12, 2009 @01:52AM

cheros writes: NASA reports that the Spirit Mars lander is presently stuck in soft soil. The lander's wheels are halfway sunk into the soil and they are planning simulation tests to see if they can get it out again.

I hope they can get it out of there because it's picking up enough new energy to work with, however, it only has 5 wheels left to work with — one of the wheels hasn't been working for years. Fingers crossed..

Submission + - Swiss researchers: Markets better than patents

Submitted by cheros on Sunday March 15, 2009 @11:48AM

cheros writes: OK, the conclusion isn't new, but these people have put some more science behind the conclusion. Key question: will anyone listen?

Patent system needs overhaul , say Swiss researchers.

Markets are much better than patents in stimulating intellectual curiosity and discovery, according to Swiss-led research.

An international team, led by Professor Peter Bossaerts from Lausanne's Federal Institute of Technology, carried out experiments to quantify the ways patent systems and market forces might influence someone to invent and solve intellectual problems.

Their findings were published in the latest issue of the journal Science.

The researchers claim that a market economy, where inventors buy and sell shares of the key elements of their discoveries, beats the winner-takes-all patent system, especially in terms of the number of beneficiaries, levels of collaboration and pace of development.

Submission + - The death of the progress bar? (slashdot.org)

Submitted by Too-late-too-fight-boredom on Friday September 12, 2008 @04:31PM

Too-late-too-fight-boredom writes: As I sit watching a 3G iPhone absorb the latest 237.8MB upgrade (that's before unpacking, btw) I realise that here too is really no way of telling just how far it has progressed, and it struck me that I haven't seen a *real* progress bar for quite some time other than, ironically, on the iPhone itself.

Let me define "real": a progress bar that gives me an idea of how far a computer program has progressed during a time consuming (> 30 seconds) task. What I do NOT consider a progress bar:

- one that starts again after it has completed its journey from left to right (a "feature" of most newer installers, probably aimed at users busy)
- an animation that tells me nothing at all — demonstrated by what PC based iTunes shows when it pushes the aforementioned update up the iPhone's rear end.
- one that tells me it needs another 31456 hours and some minutes and then finishes 10 mins later (Vista).

Now, I understand that it's sometimes hard to predict just how long things are going to take, but then maybe an overview bar and one per task would be more informative. It's not like that is a new idea, if I recall correctly that was something used by the Norton Commander. If not, well, look at the Linux Midnight Commander — same idea. Useful.

I've seen enough "keep 'em busy" animation to last me a lifetime, starting with the animated Windows hourglass which mainly appears to suggest that the system you paid for is presently off doing something else like smoking a joint or copying some potentially confidential information, so I really don't need any more of that, thanks.

Just bring back the progress bar, please. I would consider that, umm, well, progress..

Submission + - Apple charges for iPhone updates

Submitted by No-more-iPhones on Wednesday September 10, 2008 @01:04AM

No-more-iPhones writes: From Apple update: "iPod touch gets better with the App Store, Genius, and other new features. All for just $9.95".

What Apple doesn't mention is that there are also security updates behind this version, see the SANS page, so we are having a first here: Apple has finally gone where even Microsoft didn't dare to venture: charging for security updates.

In principle, this could be construed as someone deliberately selling you a defective product to later charge you for fixing it, and that's going to be very interesting with respect to the trading laws I know in most countries. Countdown to formal complaints starts now..

Oh, for the record: I couldn't care less about the "Genius" feature that appears to be the argument for the charge. I spend most of my time switching off all the electronic nannying I'm subjected to (including online spell checks) because they interrupt me when I can least use it. I use computers as tools, not babysitters.

I would like to thank Apple for providing me more ammunition to keep their phone of the list of approved corporate phones. I'm glad we barred it from day one.

Submission + - Queen Rania of Jordan starts project on Youtube

Submitted by cheros on Thursday April 03, 2008 @08:26AM

cheros writes: Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan has posted a video on YouTube asking for people to send in stereotypes.

Her aim is to start a dialogue (which is IMHO long overdue) to address the impression people have of the Arab world and Islam.

It's a brave start of an uphill struggle, she has decades of propaganda and biased reporting to undo..

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