Posts by I could be a dog really

Landlord quirks leave thousands of flats stuck in the broadband slow lane

Re: BT are the problem here

I don't blame the freeholder for that. With a previous work hat on, I managed a campus network on a science park. One time I went up, and the university (who also had a presence) had had a new service installed by BT - to say I was "unimpressed" would be an understatement. Had I been there when the work was done, I'd have given the people responsible a bit of a grilling.

They'd had to drill through a concrete slab floor above the services room - and right above the comms cabinets. Everything was covered in a thick layer of concrete dust - and presumably the insides of the UPS was as well (since that was fan cooled). And for good measure, the top covers of two cabinets were stoved in from not being designed to support some gorilla standing on it.

In the small block of flats I have a rental in, they've ignored the services closet, and just strung multiple fibres, using multiple CSPs, around the front of the building.

As to ultra-reliable - another power cut over the weekend, internet down without a UPS for the router but POTS just keeps working.

And how did your internet connection fare during the power cut ? I assume it went off ?

It's really not hard to power the ONT and router from a small UPS - actually, you could ditch most of the electronics, just have a box with a battery and float charger - most stuff runs off 12V these days. Then both your phone service AND internet stay up. The internet is far more important in our household than the "phone line" - we use mobiles more.

Judge hints Vizio TV buyers may have rights to source code licensed under GPL

Too late !

Firstly, they'd have to completely replace ALL components that are under (L)GPL so that there is no GPL code left. That's a major job - basically starting from scratch with a different toolset.

And that would not absolve them of the requirement to provide source for the systems they've already shipped - meaning that anyone could continue to use that and adapt it as they want.

Sorry, but your glitchy connection might have cost you that job

I certainly remember those.

With a previous work hat on, I was responsible for comms at a remote site - 6 voice lines, a fax line, a kilostream line, and ISDN-2 for backup. We went through a phase where I was reporting faults every week - they'd fix one, then another would appear, then ... Eventually they replaced the aluminium cable and the problems stopped.

The reason they were used was because for while the price of copper rocketed - so they used aluminium for a while. Did the job, and as long as the joints stay gas-tight then it's fine. But if moisture gets in, the aluminium corrodes to white powder which doesn't make for a good cable.

Atlassian ran a tabletop DR simulation that revealed it lived in dependency hell

As the others, just don't. Don't inflict pain on yourself and the charity. Don't subscribe to a broken by design* email system.

Either go to someone small enough to care and actually talk to you if/when you have problems, or if you have some admin skills - run your own mailserver (though that isn't without it's own risks.) I run my own, and TBH I'd need a vary good reason to go back to useing someone else's.

* AFAIK, every major provider runs a broken by design system - in what universe is it acceptable to state "Yes, I've accepted that message for delivery" and then decide (based on vague "because spam" rules) to toss it in the bit bucket instead, leaving neither the sender nor recipient any wiser about it's non-delivery. Either accept and deliver it, or don't accept it - it's really, really not hard to do.

Makers slam Qualcomm for tightening the clamps on Arduino

OK, so summary of alternatives ?

Given that the consensus seems to be "ditch Arduino", could ElReg do a piece summarising the current state of things so people like me who have only dabbled a little can see what our options are now ?

Re: " Qualcomm quietly rewrote the terms of service "

And Q could do nothing about it

Except sue whoever does it, claim copyright infringement, and drag it out for a few years. Yes, if done right, Q would have no basis for a claim, but that would not stop an evil corporation with deep pockets doing it just to cripple whoever annoys them. The big question would be whether it got tossed out of court before the defendant was bankrupt.

Linux admin hated downtime so much he schlepped a live UPS during office move

Re: Mea culpa !

No "very long extension lead" ? Leave the server in place, take the power to it.

In the distant past, I've had an extension lead down the corridor to a portable genny outside - kept the servers going so the remote sites could still work during a power cut. Worked fine, until I heard the fans running down in the UPS, and a clack as it went back onto battery, then another clack and the fans run up, rinse and repeat. Went to investigate - the landlord (we were in a converted cow shed, farmer did better from us than from farming) was also plugged into the genny using an angle grinder !

Re: Smart, But Also Bloody Stupid

Perhaps it was a sly method to get a good monitor for other uses ?

UK tribunal says reselling Microsoft licenses is A-OK

The difference back then was that they were "just another option" competing with several others. Now, thanks to some astute actions, and some (confirmed by courts) illegal actions, they've steadily killed off competition* and so they can now turn the screws and extract profits from their victims.

* While there are some alternatives, e.g. LibreOffice, in practical terms the whole M3653 ecosystem is so interconnected with complex and proprietary gaffer tape that there is no alternative for anything but small chunks of it. That's why they bundled Teams in - to make it the easy (and zero cost) option so as to kill off much of the markets for the competition, until (again, only after the damage was done) they were forced to unbundle it.

Re: Common sense prevails?

You don't have to pay it, you have always (as far as I can remember) been able to buy and/or build a computer without Windows

Sort of.

The anti-competitive licensing arrangements that Microsoft were eventually (i.e. when it was already too late as the damage was done) forced to drop went like this :

The PC builder/vendor/whoever could choose - they could either buy the number of licences they needed to supply customer demand, or they could buy a licence for every machine they sold. The key thing was, the "for everything" cost was much. much lower than buying the actual licences the customers wanted. OK, you could buy a machine without DOS/Windows, but the supplier still had to pay MS for a licence for it - so the discount was typically "small". Any volume supplier went with the volume licensing because otherwise it would cost them a lot more and they'd lose competitiveness.

The end result was that if you wanted a machine with a different OS - such as OS/2, DR DOS, ... - then you were paying MS for a DOS/Windows licence and paying extra for the alternative. That made alternatives more expensive, and given how many people don't (didn't) really care, the end result was that the alternatives struggled to sell in volume, and withered away. This was exactly what MS intended when they went down this route - offer stuff cheap to kill competition, as part of a long term plan. And it's how they've behaved in other ways/market sectors. And it's why they fought so hard to have an "Internet Explorer" WWW because they knew that having an open standards based WWW would remove a big chunk of their uservictim lock-in.

Big Tech's control freak era is breaking itself apart

Re: Experts have always known and were ignored, as usual

You are seeing 2+2 and making the answer 5 there.

The original premise was "infosec person says $X must be disabled because ..."

Then someone says it's not infosec's place to say $X must be disabled - it's for them to bring it to manglement that $X is a risk, for $reasons, and here are $options. In that case, $X was incompatible with some certification the business held - but that doesn't automatically mean $X is incompatible with that certification, it could simply be that they need to revisit their specific certification to see if it can be updated if $X is in fact important to the business.

Going from memory, things like ISO9001 don't mandate you do something a specific way - but that you have a system which is acceptable AND you actually follow that system. If your system doesn't allow for $X then you can't use $X, but it may be that you can update your system to allow for use of $X.

The race to shore up Europe’s power grids against cyberattacks and sabotage

Re: There is a simple fix - which will not be implemented

It does not matter what your network is, air gapping DOES NOT WORK. It gives a false sense of security, and makes things a little harder for adversaries, but it does not guarantee security.

Re: There is a simple fix - which will not be implemented

airgap Airgap AIRGAP AIRGAP

There is one simple response to that - Stuxnet. Airgaps are no protection to a determined and skilled adversary - simply because, for the systems to operate, there needs to be some form of interaction with "the rest of the world", even if that's only temporary.

Typical scenario. There you are, with a nicely airgapped SCADA system, and all smug that it's secure because ... AIRGAPPED. Then you need some maintenance - it could be plant maintenance, software updates, system changes to suit changed plant, or a number of other reasons. So the engineer comes along, connects his laptop to the system - and is careful to disconnect from the internet first to keep the airgap. But the engineer's laptop is compromised, and the malware on it immediately then downloads something to the SCADA system - where it sits, quietly, waiting for something, and then "boom" it does something to the plant. In hte case of Stuxnet, it deliberately messed with centrifuge speeds (while the variable speed drives reported normal speeds back to the SCADA) to physically destroy them.

‘ERP down for emergency maintenance’ was code for ‘You deleted what?’

Re: Nah

Meanwhile, back in the real world of small/medium business ...

"Various users" use direct SQL access for ad-hoc queries. Been there, done that.

If it's a "proper" database, then as already suggested, you properly apply permissions and/or create views to prevent such accidental deletions. In our case, the system used C-ISAM files and we used Informix to access the files behind the system's back. When we built the Informix databases, we'd create the tables in Informix, then delete the files and replace them with symbolic links to the real C-ISAM files. That worked well enough for us, especially after I found out how to automatically extract table descriptions and script creation of the whole lot in one go. It also meant that if any one did drop a table (no-one ever did, only 4 of us in IT used it - end users came to use for reports) it would only drop the symlink and do no harm.

Network operator ponders building a new submarine cable – on land

Seems to me they'd be better looking at building a redundant mesh - so the system stays up as various routes get damaged. And set up an efficient repair process.

Re: Political instability nixes it

Not to mention that aluminium has it's own scrap value - less than copper, but definitely not zero.

ISPs more likely to throttle netizens who connect through carrier-grade NAT: Cloudflare

Re: IPV6 over my dead salary

How many expensive network engineers would want to adopt IP when they only know [IPX|Decnet|AppleTalk|Sneakernet].

As already said, if someone only knows IPv4 and not IPV6 then they aren't a network engineer by today's standards.

But the main thing is that for the bulk of users - which would be the masses of home users - there is very little (if anything) needed to use IPv6. For example, most of the significant ISPs in the UK (Plusnet being a notable exception even though they ran trials many years ago and are owned by BT who do) do IPv6 as dual-stack with IPv4 by default - and the users just never notice. It's there by default, most OSs these days prefer IPv6 over IPv4, so that's why IPv6 adoption is now high.

Granted, it's a different situation for large business users - but they tend not to be sitting being a consumer grade CGNAT for their connection.

Robotic lawnmower uses AI to dodge cats, toys

Re: What happens outside of a controlled environment ?

I wish I had more than one upvote for that - I was wondering if anyone would mention the requirement to pick up the "land mines" (I'm going to borrow that description).

And for us, there's also :

• Sticks (ranging from tiny mulchable twigs through to mower-stopping sticks) that fall off the English Elm next door

• Leaves (ranging from solitary to "lumps") that can go through the mower but might well be seen as an obstruction to be avoided.

• Get the strimmer out to go round the edges where the mower disk can't reach.

• Move the grand kids' stuff like the slide

• Lift the washing line out so you can just mow across where it's socket is

• Move the stuff that should be there, but needs moving to allow mowing - like some ornaments and a picnic table

As for the animals, we have four :

• One cat would hiss and spit at it, but ultimately move

• The other cat would be laid back enough to just ignore it

• One dog would come running back to daddy quivering

• The other dog would be barking at it to "come and play properly"

Beatings, killings, and lasting fear: The human toll of MoD's Afghan data breach

Re: How ..

the UK to pay an annual danegeld to the Afgan Govt to ensure the safety of everyone on the spreadsheet

Does anyone honestly believe for one second that the Taliban would have kept their side of the bargain ?

Twist in Tesco vs. VMware case as Computacenter files claim against Broadcom, Dell

Re: Is Broadcom even suffering?

But plenty of companies would rather pay lawyers and fight to stick with someone who doesn't like or respect them

That's one interpretation, another is that to switch to a different tech stack is non-trivial and takes time and resources - how many times have we seen articles about such migration projects going wrong, and in retail, the Walmart-ASDA divorce comes to mind as a prime example. So I suspect in many cases it more a case of "we can't migrate fast enough, we need the existing supplier to support the systems until we're done".

In Tesco's case, it looks like they contracted based on assurances about future support availability - but Broadcom have decided they don't want to honour the contract. I think it's a safe bet to assume they have a plan that involves not using VMware long term.

Signal president Meredith Whittaker says they had no choice but to use AWS, and that's a problem

Re: Internet damage mitigation

Or as Wes Borg put it in his Internet Helpdesk sketch, "the internet" is the big blue "e" or the big green "N"

The perfect AWS storm has blown over, but the climate is only getting worse

Fortunately, resilience can be improved from the bottom up rather than waiting for top-down to happen. As responsible individuals, within departments, at board level, or as industry groups, what-ifs can be wargamed. You know what a power outage means, and what level of power pack, UPS, or backup generator is worth having. If AWS was to go away for weeks instead of hours, what would it look like? What would redundancy look like? Can you afford an experiment or two? Can you afford not to?

If you've never had this sort of conversation about any or all of your core technologies and services, then you're part of the problem.

I appreciate the sentiment, but let's look at what those conversations look like in reality :

Techie: We really should have a UPS, it'll cost £X, and as a minimum allow us to shut down servers cleanly and avoid data loss.

Beancounter: We've not had a power cut for $time, waste of money, no you can't have it.

Then when the power does go off, it's "WTF hadn't you planned for that ?"

I've had a very similar conversation at one employer. We literally did go years without power cuts (underground cable plant, urban environment), so the UPS was allowed to fester and eventually die. Conversely, at another before that, we had many short power cuts (overhead line plant, rural environment) so no problem justifying a working UPS.

Frustrated consultant 'went full Hulk' and started smashing hardware

Re: You surely know how to pick them!

Funnily enough, many years ago I was out with some friends. One in particular had a reputation for being a bit accident prone - across a variety of endeavours.

I casually asked on of his friends "aren't you a bit worried about being near him ?". "No, if anything's going to happen, it'll be him it happens to - so we're safe" was the jist of the reply.

Apple faces £1.5B payout after losing UK App Store case

Re: So how are the Apple customers going to get the money ?

But what you are missing here is that's it's not about "agreed to pay the price", but "has no choice but to pay the price".

In your contracting example, the agency you work for can choose between you and others - and realistically if there are multiple people available, at some scale you will be competing on price. So, for example if one contractor offers to do the work for (say) £200/day, but another wants £1k/day - who's going to get the gig (assuming both are reasonably equivalent in capability etc.) ?

Then let's look at the agencies. If one wants a 100% markup, but another will accept a 50% markup - again assuming similar qualities, who's going to get the gig ?

Same with the company the agency contracts to, and same again with the supplier.

The key thing is that at all stages there is a market - except in some very niche areas where skills are very scarce.

But in the Apple walled garden, there is no market - Apple dictates how much commission the app developers will pay and the devs have no alternatives they can go to who might offer better "value" (for some developers idea of the balance between services provided and cost.) Because Apple prevent any competition, they can get away with what most consider to be excessive fees - and also dictate what devs must do (e.g. also forcing devs to use Apple for any in-app purchases which means more commission and separating the dev from knowledge of their users.) And if dev costs are artificially inflated, then that gets passed onto customers who end up paying more than they would if there were a functioning market.

Those last few words are the key thing. It's not about the absolute cost - it's about whether there was a functioning market, and if not (as has been declared the case here), whether people paid more as a result (also ruled to be the case here.)

Royal Navy sharpens claws on Wildcat choppers with anti-drone Martlet missiles

Re: Q. Who makes Martlet missiles?

Because the factory is too Shorts ?

OK, I'll get my coat.

AWS outage turned smart homes into dumb boxes – and sysadmins into therapists

Re: Imagine there is a complete outage of a region

I took it as meaning "I didn't notice anything as I don't use anything that was affected".

Guess what, "I" didn't know until I read about it. But then, I don't have any of this IoT crap - except for a few bits I lost the power of veto over (there's an Echo Dot in the other room) and don't generally use.

Re: Imagine there is a complete outage of a region

No, the answer is to design systems such that they still work when the mothership buggers off.

But that needs more effort. And it needs the developers to actually consider the possibility - which I suspect mostly they don't.

Tribunal wonders if Microsoft has found a legal hero after pivot to copyright gambit

Re: Art for art's sake, Money for God's sake

It sounds like they are only claiming creative works on things like the icons, documentation, etc. So essentially saying, if we lose on the licensing issue, you'll still not be able to use the software - with an implicit "unless you remove all the creative works".

UK calls up Armed Forces veterans for digital ID soft launch

Re: How to fix mistakes?

how are helpless citizens expected to rectify problems

That's simple, if their digital ID fails, then they cease to exist - so there is no problem to be fixed. Rather sucks to be that non-existant person, but as far as the authorities are concerned, no problem. I only wish the icon was true.

Re: Nasty tactic

It's not as problematic as it sounds. For example, I could go and apply for planning permission for some houses on the field next door - I might even get it. But I can't actually build anything without the land owner's consent - just to set foot on the land would technically be trespass.

What would need to happen would be for me to reach an agreement with the landowner - typically some form of "you provide the land, I build the houses, we split the profits" if I don't have the cash to outright buy it (at a mutually agreed price.)

But it's an interesting situation to consider. I could buy some (say) farmland, at something in between farm land and development land price - but there's no guarantee that I'll get planning permission. The land owner doesn't really care - he still gets his money even if I get lumbered with a bit of land I can't build on. On the other hand, I could apply for (outline) planning permission - and then if I get it buy the land. But then the owner knows I can build on it, so it's instantly vastly more valuable than it was a farm land. Or, as often happens, the land owner could apply for outline planning permission, and if they get it the land is instantly worth more and so can be sold for more money.

Company that made power systems for servers didn’t know why its own machines ran out of juice

Re: How could they not figure out the timing?

Yes, it was a sort of Frankenconnection. It's quite a few years since I last had to deal with them, but the serial lines were just that - RS232 serial and used if you used the "smart" cable and software. The other lines were "sort of" like the RS232 signalling lines, but worked differently - such that if you plugged in a standard serial cable, the UPS would just power off as the default state of one line was the "power off NOW" signal to the UPS*. A proper connection for the basic signalling lines involved a couple of transistors and resistors IIRC.

* I reckon there are 2 types of IT people - those that have found this out the hard way, and those that have never worked with UPS hardware.

Re: How could they not figure out the timing?

It's not clear whether they did have logs. As I read the article, it's not clear if :

• The servers shut down (as in, triggered by the UPS, did a clean shutdown) in which case that would mean the UPS properly configured and they probably have logs

• The servers just powered off without a shutdown, meaning the UPS not set up well and probably no logs

My own favourite was a client at a previous employer who had their server room in the corner of an otherwise almost unused floor of their new building. One day we got a call from their manager, screaming about the rubbish UPS we'd sold them, how it was a pile of s**t, and really laying into the helldesk guy unlucky enough to take the call. So we logged into the server that had the UPS software on it, to find it had gone onto bypass due to overload. "Had anyone plugged anything in in the server room ?" they were asked ...

After a short pause long enough for someone to run upstairs and check, the UPS returned to normal, and the manager had to admit that someone had been working upstairs (in the unused floor space) and was a bit cold. So they plugged a fan heater into the nearest socket they could find - in the server room, and VERY clearly labelled (I did it) "UPS Maintained - IT Equipment Only". No apology for their rant though ...

Schleswig-Holstein waves auf Wiedersehen to Microsoft stack

I'm not sure why nobody ever did a dead easy mass-market-friendly Linux thin client that just turned a low-end PC into an X terminal, but it I've never seen such a thing.

Does Linux Terminal Server Project fit the bill ? Only been going for ... ooh ... decades ! OK, it's not a turnkey "boot up an X server" system, but that's the ideal application for it.

Chinese gang used ArcGIS as a backdoor for a year – and no one noticed

Re: Proprietary software and its consequences.

If you read the article properly, being proprietary is really irrelevant - exactly the same technique would have worked against a FOSS system implementing the same facility.

Researchers intercept unencrypted satellite traffic from space blabbermouths

Re: Staggering? Ha!

This one wouldn't.

I was amazed to get this far down the comments before someone else said it - I am not in the least surprised either. I would imagine a lot of this is "legacy" "it works, c.b.a. looking at it again" stuff - unloved, unfunded for management or updates.

And that's when you consider people who actually have a clue. Once you consider how many people, including business managers, don't have a clue - then it becomes even less of a surprise.

... that exposed the proxy cache, complete with login names ...

That's into BOFH territory. I'd have at least replaced user names with "*"s for a short time to spare the guilty.

Ofcom refuses to bite over Openreach's fiber freebies

Re: BT is still at it!

Absolutely. I too have been on the sidelines for a long time - some of it as an end user, some of it managing services for clients. Remember when ISDN-2 had a £400 install fee, and they did a £200 limited time offer. Rumour had it that they had a very big order, but the rules prevented them offering a discount to one customer - so they made it a national offer.

To be fair, the regulator does have a bit of a tricky line to walk. Too restrictive and they are accused of helping to keep prices too high for end users. Too lax and they are accused of allowing the incumbent to damage competitors. I think these two area overlap somewhat in the middle - so they can be accused of both at the same time.

Looking back to when ADSL arrived round our way. For a long time it looked like we would not get anywhere near BTs target for expressions of interest - for a while I kept checking the numbers on their website and putting posters up at work encouraging people to sign up. For a long time, price was a disincentive - ADSL cost a lot more than using dial-up. I recall getting a flyer through the post from an outfit who could offer a 2Mbps symmetric service over 2 copper pairs - and IIRC the price wasn't bad. Then BT slashed ADSL prices - good for most end users/consumers, but pulled the rug from under said alternative outfit as their offering was now sufficiently more expensive than ADSL that I suspect they would fail to reach a critical take up. I never heard any more from them.

Was the regulator right to allow the massive price cuts ? Hard to say how things would have panned out if they hadn't - it killed off a few potential other offerings (e.g. 2Mbps symmetric without charging two arms and two legs), but it massively increased uptake of ADSL and benefitted lots of consumers.

Re: Discounted for first 2 years

I think few have a problem with the price going up roughly in line with inflation - if the supplier's costs have gone up, it's not unreasonable for the price to go up as well to suit.

It's the "inflation + X" type of stuff they used to do, and these days "discounted for X then it rockets" type of deal that pis"really irritates people".

Re: My FTTP experience

On xDSL there are very good technical reasons for asymmetric connections - there's limited bandwidth and there's a tradeoff between how much you give to upstream vs. downstream. As most users want more downstream, that's what the standard offerings give. With ADSL2, there's an annex-M option (some of our clients at a previous employer used it) which changes the tradeoff to give more upstream at the expense of downstream.

Once you get to fibre, there isn't that same technical restriction. I suspect that there may be some tradeoff* at the upper limits of service speeds, but otherwise it's purely marketing. Whether there are any hardware implications (specifically manufacturers cashing in on ISP marketers' wishes to knock some fraction of a penny off the cost of a port) I don't know. But the fibre itself shouldn't have any problem carrying symmetric traffic.

* I stand to be corrected, but I believe the system OpenRetch are using is time division multiplex (TDM.) That means each subscriber gets to send/receive traffic for only part of the time - so ignoring overheads etc for simplicity, 32 users sharing a fibre back to the cabinet/exchange would get 1/64th of the time each, and needing a 64G port at the head end to support 32x1G connections. There may be frequency division multiplexing (FDM) between send and receive - that would change it to each user having 1/32nd of a 32G connection. If someone has a link to a good reference on this ...

Re: hmmm

That's my understanding as well.

If you are in a stop-sell exchange area, then they won't supply a new copper based phone line, but if you cannot yet get fibre they will supply SOGEA - basically FTTC without a copper backhaul to the exchange. We have it at church - IP for the internet, but no dial tone (and as we don't need a phone, we haven't taken the digital voice option.) I think sooner or later they'll be getting in touch to switch - I've noticed fibre going in around the area.

Bose kills SoundTouch: Smart speakers go dumb in Feb

Re: You'd be amazed...

The two don't have to be exclusive.

I too am in the "buy the disk and rip it" camp - but I also use some streaming to find new stuff, try out other stuff, ...

Microsoft 'illegally' tracked students via 365 Education, says data watchdog

Re: Redmond argued schools, education authorities are responsible for GDPR

If Microsoft makes it impossible then maybe they shouldn't be using Microsoft products.

There are multiple problems, but the fundamental one is that MS lies about their systems. For decades, they've claimed you can use their 365 ecosystem and "all you need to do is set your data storage to be in the EU". Those who understand this have always understood that this claim was a steaming pile of manure - only now are the cracks starting to appear, like this ruling, the recent admission to the French, and the like.

But don't expect the authorities to actually do anything - by playing the long game, MS now have government sized customersvictims over a barrel. By repeatedly choosing convenience over safety, "the world" has allowed itself to be led down a path that now sees us stuck - to "not use MS" would now be excruciatingly painful and expensive for too many customersvictims and so they continue to choose convenience over long term safety.

If only the EU (and UK but fat chance there) just passed a law that said MS and all the rest of the big techies need to just stop bloody spying on everyone

You mean, like GDPR that (in essence) says you need permission to use someone's information - except for limited exceptions like where you need to in the course of executing a contract and so on.

And which is widely ignored, and MS will outright lie to you about being able to comply with it while using their systems.

This ruling is one more nail in the coffin, but I fear we need a lot more nails before this one dies.

Techies tossed appliance that had no power cord, but turned out to power their company

Re: Cast not blame unnecessarily

You mean, like 1 in 7 of the male population ?

The EPO button should be very clearly labelled, and have a cover such that it needs positive action to press vs. the door release that can be open and easy to hit.

Clearview AI sees red as UK tribunal sides with regulator over $10M GDPR fine

If they don't appeal, the case sets a precedent.

Plus, the fine can sit there on the file, just waiting for the company to do something putting it within reach. For example, if they start selling services to agencies over this side of the pond - and then suddenly there's a business entity that can be held to account.

No. That would put us on a very steep and slippery road.

Starlink is burning up one or two satellites a day in Earth’s atmosphere

The deliberately lose multiple satellites/day when they reach end of life. As the article says, they use massive numbers of them. If you have a fleet of 30k, with a lifetime of (say) 5 years), then you will be replacing 30k/5 = 6k/year, or getting on for 20/day. It's clear that a modest increase in bird life would have a significant impact on economics.

There are many reasons for a bird to have a limited life - fuel capacity and technology development would be two of them. Power should come from solar panels, but then they probably need batteries to even up supply and demand variations - so add battery life to the mix as well.

Re: "there's already a possibility we're damaging the upper atmosphere"

Yes, it does seem mad - but then I imagine it would cost a lot more to bring them back and recycle the materials than it does to just dig new stuff out of the ground.

Submarine cable security is all at sea, and UK govt 'too timid' to act, says report

Re: Cables in the sky?

Nice idea, but in practice would involve significant latency (variable), and frequent dropped or repeated packets as the sky cable reconfigures. At low altitude, the satellites would be whizzing every which way, meaning a mech that's constantly reconfiguring - hence latency that's constantly varying depending on the path taken, and lost or duplicate packets (or just delayed) each time the mesh reconverges. The only way to avoid that is using geostationary birds - but then you get the 2 seconds or so latency that used to be so much fun with transatlantic phone calls.

Brits warned as illegal robo-callers with offshored call centers fined half a million

Re: Caller Id

It WAS doable in the past, they just CBA to do it.

All it would have required would be contractual clauses along the lines of "we'll accept calls from you, you have to assure yourself that any CLI is genuine - and if it turns out otherwise, you compensate us and/or you find yourself blocked". That shifts the onus - other telecoms companies either clean up their act or find their customers get a recording along the lines of "Sorry, but your call to the UK number is blocked because your telecoms company is a bunch of sheisters" (or more polite words top that effect.)

20 years ago, that would have worked as the companies involved would have been big enough for it to matter.

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Now it's a lost cause. Every man and his dog can operate some sort of IP based phone setup. While it might possibly work if all the big businesses applied similar rules, I suspect there's just too many players now for it to work. With a previous work hat on, we were a reseller for one of the early IP telephony providers in the UK. If one of our customers wanted custom CLI, then the process was that they had to show us documentation to show they legitimately "owned" the number, and we'd approve that with the provider (via their portal.) Of course, our own telephony was as a "customer" of our reseller account - so we could have done pretty well anything unless they has some other checks in place (don't know, we never tried anything naughty.)