Posts by Mephistro

我的天啊! China gives Weibo users a week to use their real names

"...censor information that did not reflect 'core socialist values'..."

Core socialist values in modern China??? What else?

EU court must rule on legality of UK's mass surveillance – tribunal

Two small corrections:

"...witnesses shills from the spy agencies 'speak persuasively of developing fragmentary intelligence..."

"...or otherwise, the Grand Star Chamber..."

HSBC biz banking crypto: The case of the vanishing green padlock and... what domain are we on again?

Re: worrying that I had clicked on a bad link from Google

It could be that he simply typed hsbc in the address field expecting Google to fill the rest of the address based in his former visits to that page. When he noticed the domain change and the http: header, he probably thought that Google had served him a tainted address instead.

This seems to fit well with Mr. Jonson being an IT guy.

Google puts the last coat of polish on Chrome 61

Re: Google's UK Privacy Check up. A 35 step process to hell, to set, what are just 5 toggles.

This happens to me whenever I clean cookies using Ccleaner or similar products.

Now, one would expect his security preferences to be stored with his Google account, not in his cookies!

I think Google is being 'cunning' here, giving us a total of three options:

1- Leave Google's security settings as they're by default.

2- Never delete our cookies (which in turn probably will facilitate Google's data slurping regardless of the security settings)

3- Spend some serious amount of time setting up the security options every time the cookies are deleted.

There's also a fourth option, but this one is not offered by Google.

Seriously, when a company starts playing this kind of games with its customers, it's time to ditch said company ASAP.

Addendum:

I just saw the article titled "Microsoft won't patch Edge browser content security bypass". The subheading also included the "Not a bug..." meme.

There seems to be a tendency here: to boot, companies wiping their posteriors with users privacy and security.

"WebUSB was pitched as an easier way to set up USB devices"

What could possibly go wrong?

No, this concept will cause a a pwnfest, but that's not a bug, it's a feature.

Big Tech slams Trump on plan to deport kids

"...legislation that provides these young people raised in our country the permanent solution they deserve."

I hope this means giving them the citizenship, instead of a "Final Solution" for them.

With these Muricans, you can never be sure.

Bitcoin Foundation wants US Department of Justice investigated

Re: Dear DOJ:

"...most currency as we know it is virtual anyway"...

You're stretching the meaning of 'virtual' a little bit too much, methinks. Or there are many shades of 'virtual'. I agree with the 'fiat' part, though.

"So, apart from a lack of sovereign backing, how is an e-currency any different?"

The point has been made often before that without the laws specifically defining 'virtual currency' as 'real currency', said 'virtual currency' is just 'virtual goods'. Otherwise we may end up with governments taxing things like in-game transactions and such.

Dear DOJ:

"The definition of a money transmitter does not differentiate between real currencies and convertible virtual currencies."

It could be the case that this lack of oversight by the lawmakers is caused by the fact that electronic currencies didn't exist when the law was made. Add to that that "real currencies" != "virtual currencies" (hint: the word "real" in "real currencies"), and you may get the picture.

This way you might understand the reasons why you can't prosecute people for using electronic currency without an adequate legal framework which is, sadly, missing.

Hugs & kisses

Stephen King's scary movie reboot provokes tears from 'legit clowns'

Re: Survey

I do. Not all of them, of course, but some of them are good at comedy, juggling and controlling masses of children.

Hmmm... may be we should choose professional clowns to run our governments. I doubt they'll do it worse than the amateur ones running the show nowadays.

8^)

Boffins turn to AI to zip through piles of gravitational lenses

Re: Trained to see what we expect

My guess is that before creating the test data, they extrapolated the real data they had from known gravitational lenses.

The worst thing that could happen here is that the software, sometimes, wouldn't be able to identify a GL of a formerly unknown type.

US government: We can jail you indefinitely for not decrypting your data

The USA:

From "Land of the Free" to "1984" in a few decades.

It's really sad to see American judges and legislators wiping their arses with the American Constitution and ignoring basic safeguards embedded in most democratic countries' laws.

"Corruptio optimi pessima"

Dell's flagship XPS13 – a 2-in-1 that may fatally frustrate your fingers

Re: Lack of indicator lights and ports

I've been seeing this crap even in a few desktop computers. It's painful, stupid and painfully stupid.

The savings obtained by removing the HDD led probably won't pay the cost of a round of drinks for the execs, The alienated customers and techies will remain alienated for a long time, though.

Verizon kicks out hot new Unlimited* plans

"We're doing this to ensure all customers have a great experience on our network..."

Yeah, and also because it's ten times cheaper than upgrading your fucking infrastructure, you crooks!

The next step will be to broadcast everything at VHS quality so as to be able to accommodate yet more users in their prehistoric network.

This looks more like...

...a job for the FTC.

"Unlimited Limited", FFS!

Q: How many drones are we bombing ISIS with? A: That's secret, mmkay

Re: Group Captain Mark Flewin

Don't think he's "flewing" much nowadays, with all those drones!

I say, BING DONG! Microsoft's search engine literally cocks up on front page for hours

A big dick suntanning alone in an big empty beach?

Wasn't there an article about this in Elreg a few weeks ago?

In California?

;-)

NotPetya ransomware attack cost us $300m – shipping giant Maersk

He says he learned was told by the people who had f-cked up that there was nothing that could have been done to stop the attack with the kind of funding the IT dept. had. The three IT guys were very vocal about it!

Fixed!

Samsung's bantam SSD makes WD's 'passport' drive look passé

Re: Deflation

You're totally right, of course. Mine was in reality a 1Gb. unit. It used IDE instead of SCSI and the prize was close to that of the computer, which wasn't exactly cheap.

Sorry for the typo mind fart! ;-)

Re: Deflation

Circa 1995 I purchased one of the first 100Mb.* HDDs imported into my country. The price was eye watering! In the vicinity of three thousand Euros, if my memory doesn't fail me.

People would come from other offices and companies to watch "The Beast", and in those days I heard lots of conversations starting with "remember when...?"

Six or seven years after that you could buy a memory stick of a bigger capacity for peanuts.

Interesting times, indeed!

Web-enabled vibrator class action put to bed

@ samzeman

"...what possible use is that data?

I'd guess that they could use it to know the success rate of their different models, as to improve their designs and "please the customers",

They could also test small tweaks for their software, think "Switch the device automatically off after 5 minutes of cardiac inactivity" or "Activate speaker and insert block of ads". ;^)

Oh! and extortion!

Regarding the part about ads, that would be a nasty scenario, but there are worse:

Owner: "iJumpy, STOP!"

iJumpy: "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."

Batteries that don't burn at the drop of a Galaxy Note 7? We're listening

Re: Lithium batteries are last century's technology

"...half a bar of Hershey's (the shape, not the taste)"

Citation required.

8^)

Lauri Love and Gary McKinnon's lawyer, UK supporters rally around Marcus Hutchins

Do you work in IT?

Don't go there!

WannaCry-killer Marcus Hutchins denies Feds' malware claims

A question for some American lawyer

If/when he's found not guilty, will the USA judiciary reimburse his expenses? (lawyers, lodging, ...)

Because this accusation smells like a truckload of fresh poo.

Microsoft breaks Office 365 sign-in pages ahead of surprise update

"...we had to scramble to get the blog post up as fast as possible."

If typing a fecking blog post takes them longer than massively modifying their login page, perhaps they should hire a professional typist. Just saying.

Off-messenger: Chinese chatbot ain't no commie

"...was asked whether it loved the Communist Party..."

"I'm having my period, wanna take a rest,"

That answer doesn't show much sympathy for "the Reds", does it?

;O)

Big Internet balks at fresh effort to crack down on sex trafficking

(@ AC)

Those were exactly my thoughts after reading the article. The site would be a boon for LEAs and TLAs interested in fighting child sex trafficking. This law would only make their work orders of magnitude more difficult, and just looks like an attempt to sweep things under the rug without addressing the main issue.

I'd like to add that in my opinion, criminalizing adult, voluntary prostitution is not the right thing to do. I'm pretty sure that most prostitutes are in that trade out of necessity, and becoming a prostitute probably beats a hundred times being homeless or watching your children hungry and devoid of opportunities in life. As you said, until the underlying causes are fixed, the law is working for the pimps and against the true victims. It'd make more sense to regulate prostitution as any other job, in such a way that prostitutes get worker's rights, pay taxes and are subject to regular health inspections. That would either take the pimps out of the equation -and good riddance- or force them to act just like other employers, pay their taxes, give a fair share of the earnings to their employees...

Disclaimer: I've never hired a prostitute and never will, but there is a lot of people with different views on the issue, so I don't think a "War on Prostitution" will have a different outcome to, say, the "War on Drugs" or the -thankfully now obsolete- "War on Booze", being humans the way they are.

Big Cable falls into wormhole to alternate universe, sends back blog post about USA's amazing broadband

What???

Telcos colluding to keep prices high and service quality low? Do they think they are medical companies or hospitals???

iRobot just banked a fat profit. And it knows how to make more: Sharing maps of your homes

(@Dave 126)

Like you, I don't think the house's layout is of much interest for burglars (unless it's some big mansion), but on the other hand, they would be really interested in knowing which stuff you own, at what times you are at work and when you're on holidays, and all this info could -I think- be extracted from the Rumba's data transmissions.

US spies hacked our phones over the air, claim pipeline protesters

Glad to see that...

... the TLAs are using all this electronic surveillance to fight terrorists organized criminals peaceful demonstrators.

USA govt.: Wiping their arse with their own Constitution since 2001 (and before!).

Breathless F-35 pilots to get oxygen boost via algorithm tweak

Re: Zeolite Is Carcinogenic

It shouldn't be too difficult to filter out most (more than 99.9%?)of the particles before they reach the pilot, probably using a combination of filters and centrifuges.

.. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / - .... .. ... then a US Navy fondleslab just put you out of a job

Re: ...or after an electromagnetic pulse event. (@ Voyna i Mor)

That would make sense, not only for EMPs, but also for Carrington events. With our present level of readiness a Carrington even would kill as many people as a total(ish) nuclear war, although with several measures similar to this one we could minimize the casualties a lot.

Alas, I'm afraid our level of preparedness in the future will remain mostly as it's now, this is, NULL. Or it will get even worse, like will all those plans by governments to exclusively use plastic money, so on top of the loss of comms and energy and most transport, we also lose the currency. Sigh...

Re: -.. --- / - . .-.. .-.. .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- (Do tell...)

.-- .... . .-. . / .. - / -. --- - / ..-. --- .-. / - .... . / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - --- .-. / .. / .-- --- ..- .-.. -.. -. .----. - / ..- -. -.. . .-. ... - .- -. -.. / .- -. -.-- / --- ..-. / - .... .. ... / ... .... .. - .-.-.-

o_0

China's censorship cyber-missiles shoot down pics flying through WhatsApp, chat apps

"Cut them off from access to modern technology."

A little bit late to do that, as China contains/controls a majority of the IT factories in the world.

UK government's war on e-cigs is over

Does this affect the models that...

...heat some minced tobacco leaves only enough to evaporate the water and nicotine in them? I used one for a few months two years ago and it didn't smell at all. The amount of vapour was barely visible and there were no nasty chemicals.And as it used standard rolling tobacco it was really inexpensive also.

The only issue I had with the device was the almost absolute lack of flavour, except for a very faint taste similar to a herbal infusion.

Have any fellow commentards used this kind of vapper? What was your experience like?

Re: No vaping in the workplace please(@ Badvok)

"...it will also be laced with whatever concoction of pathogens they currently have in their lungs."

Following that logic, everybody should be prevented from breathing, 'cos otherwise their breath would also "be laced with whatever concoction of pathogens they currently have in their lungs".

That'd be a little bit extreme, wouldn't it?

The Lord saw that man was wicked and sent a flood of storage news

"The Lord saw..."

I propose this one as a candidate for the "Best Article's Title Prize- 2017 Edition".

IETF moves meeting from USA to Canada to dodge Trump travel ban

Re: stupid politics

Hello again, Bob!

Funny. I point out the faulty logic in your (and BJ's) comment and you answer not with a rebuttal, but only with a -granted, very mild- ad hominem.

An advice: you (and BJ) should leave the ad hominem for the end, after having demolished my arguments. The ad hominem alone just make you look silly.*

As I said before, a forum where most of the readers earn their beans using complex logic may not be the best place for you two.**

*: Yes, this is an ad hominem.

**: See *

PD: Thank you for not "shouting" in your last comment! 8^)

Re: stupid politics

...you say "any foreigner" is affected while the article states 15% are merely "concerned."

FYI, John: "concerned" != "affected"

To make it clearer for you: The fact that 15% of possible attendants are "concerned" doesn't imply that a 15% will be affected. The % of foreign visitors "affected" is actually a 100%, in the sense that ANY foreign visitor can will be affected by these stupid measures.

You should seek help with your issues with reading comprehension. Or remove your political blinders, before their weight breaks your neck.

Re: stupid politics

"...we shouldn't really care about people from the handful of "banned nations" when it comes to the internet anyway"

Congrats, Bob. Your straw dog looks more like a straw brontosaurus. Good work!

If you had been paying more attention to the latest developments regarding US customs -or even bothered to read the fucking article- you would know that the issue does not only affect attendants from "banned nations" but any foreigner that enters or leaves the USA. As in Mr. Sternberg's case, where he was rejected entry with no reasons given. Or the vetoing of visitor's social media profiles or the - temporary?- requisition of visitor's electronic devices or the proposed obligation to give electronic devices passwords to the TSA. Or any other stupid occurrence Cheeto may have in the next twelve months.

The "banned nations" part in your comment is just a -poor- attempt at misdirection, and I can't see it gaining any traction in this particular forum. Perhaps you should go somewhere else to peddle your wares, some place more sympathetic with your ideas. How about the Faux News forums?

Have a NICE DAY!!!

Pastor la vista, baby! FCC enforcers shut down church pirate radio

Re: Pastor la vista, baby!

'One translation might be "The shepherd's view"'

Nah, in Spanish that sentence is just gibberish. "Romanes eunt domus", etc. etc.

Anyway your comment is a good excuse for posting this video. Enjoy! ;^)

Re: This is part of their job and it needs to be done

I guess that the point of the "snarkiness" in the article is the way the FCC is hitting hard against a minor, almost inoffensive, nuisance for the public good and, at the same time, letting the telcos and ISPs get away with murder. And IMO it's a very good point.

PAI is just another sociopath, like the guys who chose him for his position.

Got a Windows Phone 8 mobe? It's now officially obsolete. Here's why...

You know, ...

...there's a point, after a company has made big enough blunders often enough, that any new product they make is automatically considered shit by the public, regardless of its merits.

Add to that the way App developers have been treated in the past by MS, and that their most common answer when someone suggests to them to develop for MS products usually starts with "Hell will freeze over..."

Dear Microsoft: "You'll reap what you've sown."

Crackas With Attitude hacker 'Incursio' gets two years in the clink for embarrassing CIA boss

Re: wave of the future malware

Or an AI-run helpdesk, without human CSRs. Phone robots are obnoxious enough already! Shudders...

At first, I misunderstood the title and thought that the hacker had managed to put an "embarrassing CIA boss" in the clink for two years..

Then I noticed my error. Going to put this Champagne back into the fridge. ;^)

Time to rethink machine learning: The big data gobble is OFF the menu

Re: Objectives?

"We can sell more ice-cream in hot weather."

"... and following advice from our ML systems, we're going to double production and send half of our ice creams to the Atacama desert."

@ Nolveys

RFLMAO++

Constant work makes the kilo walk the Planck

Re: Confused

The International System of Units is based on MKS, that is, Metres, Kilograms & Seconds.

This apparent inconsistency dates back to when the Kg. was first defined as the weight of pure water at 4ºC that fits exactly in a litre, which in turn means a cubic decimetre.

Kaspersky repeats offer: America can see my source code

"Especially Microsoft."

The timing is suspicious, indeed.