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Comment Re: On the other hand... (Score 1) 700

He is talking about Prolific, a different Mfr. and different IC, who had similar issues. Their solution was to issue BSOD's on start-up instead of bricking the device so reverting drivers would work in that case. No so with the FTDI, which is being reprogrammed as you said. This prevents even reverting drivers from working.

Comment Re:Hmm... (Score 1) 474

HONEST Illegal wars, mass surveillance and destruction of the world economy? Come on. Have another hit, and actually think about what you are saying while holding it. Both are unacceptable.

Don't worry, your brand of incompetent boobs will be back in power someday (not like there's any real difference anyway), so until then, relax your sphincter and give it a rest.

Comment Re:Hmm... (Score 2) 474

I didn't say that. Frankly I am very dismayed at many of Obama's failings, including carrying over or not stopping many of the regular things they do to rape the constitution in the name of security. However, I think any GOP candidates would have continued things exactly the same, only without the promises to change. I think we'd do well to push them all over a cliff and start over.

But all that doesn't absolve criminal gang A from having started most of this bullshit, and having gone above and beyond the call toward making it "acceptable" (possible) for later administrations to continue the activities.

Comment Poor comparison... (Score 5, Interesting) 59

A "Carrington-level" event nowadays would most likely be much less disruptive, as back then all the early radio and spark gap stuff was well under 50 MHz, which is where almost all of the natural noise winds up in the spectrum. Ever notice, for example you can hear your shaver motor on an AM radio but not an FM one. This is not due to AM vs. FM, (well, it is a little) but mostly due to the fact that AM is about 1 MHz and FM is about 100 MHz, well above the "static line" around 50 MHz.

It would take a much stronger signal than back then to cause the same level of disruption. Not saying that can't happen, but modern radio communications are quite a bit more robust than they were back over 100 years ago.

Comment Re: 999 (Score 1) 600

Normal people don't speak hex. User number A00 would be too confusing in most cases.

Remember stuff like this needs to be cop-proof. I used to design software for their dispatchers to use, and they aren't super intuitive with computers for the most part, like most of the other cops unless it's specifically part of their job. A lot of things had to be dumbed down so they could use and understand it easily.

No insult is meant here, it's just they are very busy with their jobs and having to be familiar with many different tools and systems; radio, weapon(s), forensic stuff, etc. so the amount of time they have to invest in training and learning about new tools has to be balanced among many competitive things they need to be current on. Plus, in an emergency situation, they want tools they don't have to expend a lot of extra thought on how to use.

Hence, anything designed for them to use has to be reasonably fail-safe, intuitive to use, bulletproof and easy to understand to be successful. My software was used for over 10 years by several local departments, so I'd consider that a success.

Comment Re:Great one more fail (Score 1) 600

All good points - yet another point of failure, as others have pointed out.

Plus, there is the more tinfoil hatty aspect of this too - How nice and easy to use a directed EMP to disable any such weapons (presumably of the bad guy only). Nice to be able to mass disarm a whole crowd of them if "necessary"...

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