Posts by Keith Glass

Annoyingly precocious teen who ruined Trek is now an asteroid

Re: I must be part if Will Wheaton's minority

I'm taking bets that asteroid Wheaton gets knocked out of Orbit somehow, and ends up destroying all intelligent life on Earth.

That assumes intelligent life here in the first place. . .

Feds collar chap who allegedly sneaked home US hacking blueprints

Actually, not all that surprising. . .

. . . Booz is rather notorious for two things: low-balling the help, and being obsessed with generating new business.

Hmm, staffing lots of new work with the cheapest labor you can find, that can't POSSIBLY have any blowback. . .

Oops. . .

Radar missile decoys will draw enemy missiles away from RAF jets

Re: Security by melting?

Let's hope so. Impact might bend the microwave framework, but unless you melt it AND the onboard chips, data and design can be reverse engineered (I did radar engineering ~20 years ago, and worked on an earlier, towed decoy. . .we thought about that issue back then, and incorporated a destruct mechanism. . . )

Give .gay to the gays, roars exiting ombudsman

So. . .

. . . can Furries get .yiff ?

. . . can Lena Dunham get .manatee ??

Don't use a VPN in United Arab Emirates – unless you wanna risk jail and a $545,000 fine

Re: Legitimate use of VPN fine?

Likewise, I've had offers. . . but the risks of working there far outweigh the benefits.

Plus, last time I was offered, it wasn't THAT much of a premium over .us pay, and their government had just announced that they had hired Blackwater (in their current incarnation, think it's "Xe". . . ) to raise an 800-1000 man counter-insurgency force. If they have THAT much of a problem, decided I wanted to be nowhere NEAR that cross-fire. . .

Did Donald Trump really just ask Russia to hack the US govt? Yes, he did

Re: Hold on there...

Really. I had NO idea that ~30,000 emails on yoga, Chelsea's wedding, and recipes were a matter of national security.

The flip-flopping on this is highly amusing.

And Wikileaks, and whoever is feeding them the DNC emails and such ?

Troll Level: Supreme Grand Master. . .

Buzz Aldrin's Apollo XI expenses claim revealed

Mileage? Certainly no Frequent Flier Miles.

Air miles ? I know they didn't get Frequent Flier Miles: they didn't have upgrades available until nearly 12 years after Apollo 11. . .

Besides, less than half a million miles, official round-trip distance. A free trip to Mars requires at LEAST 50 million frequent-flier miles. . . and that's in Coach. . .

It's not our fault we don't hire black people, says Facebook

Re: Hiring laws

Back when they DID have that box on the (paper) form, I used to mess with them, mark "other" and write in "human". . . .Several times I got arguments from Personnel. . .

Re: Not sure

Speaking of that, what **IS** the official count and list of "genders"? Last one I saw bandied about was 30+ "genders". And of course, the origin of the list was Tumblr. . .

Re: re:just it is easier to get a job with them if your skin is white

Jimmy2Cows noted:

A business full of idiots is a business full of idiots.

Well, that certainly explains a great deal about Fecesbook. . . (grin)

Kotkin on who made Trump and Brexit: Look in the mirror, it's you

We're still talking about class ???

. . . when, thanks to data-driven operations of all sorts, every individual can be almost completely tracked on any number of variables. Especially now, when virtual "friends" and connections seem to be almost wholly disconnected from physical situations. . .and online "tribes" don't often map well to either physical or economic situations, especially outside the metropolitan corridors. .

Facebook ‘glitch’ that deleted the Philando Castile shooting vid: It was the police – sources

Re: Guns don't kill people....

Actually, partisan acrimony in the US hasn't been at this level since circa 1859-1860.

You may recall what followed, from history.

Indeed, this could be the start of some very bad times.

Kremlin hackers and the Democratic National Committee: How deep is the rabbit-hole?

Re: I'm surprised we're not hearing about RNC and Trump hacks. . .

Come now, they know about fire.

How would they burn crosses and heretics without it ?

I'm surprised we're not hearing about RNC and Trump hacks. . .

. . . .or is that ominous, considering the public opinions Trump and Putin have stated about each other. . .

Visiting America? US border agents want your Twitter, Facebook URLs

When can us Yanks. . .

. . . .vote for DHSexit ???

Russian government hackers spent a year in our servers, admits DNC

Re: Why not just keep running the server and fill it with misinformation?

They're a political party. . . .how would that be any different from normal operations ?

Samsung: Don't install Windows 10. REALLY

Apparently both Microsoft and Samsung. . .

. . . .think that "50 Shades of Grey" is not Suburban Housewife Porn, but a Management Philosophy. . . .

HP Inc-eption: Our new 3D printers print themselves, says CEO

Re: SpaceX ??????????

Probably because SpaceX has been 3D-printing most of their "SuperDraco" engine for the Falcon-class launchers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperDraco

Seen one of those SpaceX boosters land under power ? SuperDraco engines.

So, HP's "incredible innovation" is routine production for SpaceX. . .

Next-gen Tor to use distributed RNG, 55-character addresses

Re: and now for something completely random

You're obviously new to the Interwebz. We're **ALWAYS** looking for more ways to increase entropy.

In fact, there's an entire field devoted to it. We call it "management". . . .

(evil grin)

Would we want to regenerate brains of patients who are clinically dead?

Re: how it feel to to be wrenched back from an even more definite terminal event.

I'm guessing (no, no background in neuroscience. . . ) that IF a brain is revived and brought back to functioning, that the best you'd get was what was in long-term memory: I'm thinking, as others have suggested, that neuro-electric activity is akin to RAM, whereas other processes write long-term memory to tissue.

The real question is, will the re-started electrical activity be able to READ the old memory, or might the "key" be lost ??

Inter-bank system SWIFT on security? User manual needs 'revamp’

Re: ~8 months ago, I interviewed with SWIFT. . . .

I should have been more specific. By "old-boys-club", I meant a particular in-group. One that .us IT people are, alas, all to familiar with.

Bots half all web traffic

As they say over here in .us: "Common Core Math" (grin)

US work visas for international tech talent? 'If Donald Trump is elected all bets are off'

Re: “It's very bad for business, [..] unfair for our workers. We should end it.”

Pascal Monett noted:

Let America show what its educational system can do. Stop importing intelligence from abroad, use your own.

And therein lies the problem. PARTS of the American Educational system are outstanding (our "elite" tech schools, for instance).

The problem is, their output is limited. A good chunk of the REST of the system are utter and complete crap.

Case in point: a decade ago, I went back to get a Master's Degree in MIS (OK, I was checking off a box for HR so I could get promoted to the next level).

And I found two distinctly separate types of students.

The first were older students returning for grad work. Typically 30+, typically had nearly a decade, if not more, of "operational" experience in IT. And a surprising number of deployed soldiers (this was an online program). All were professional and competent in basic skills, and whatever their current specialty was. . .

The second, were people who had just gotten their undergrad degrees, and were continuing on to get a Masters. Not only did they lack tech skills, but could not write or argue coherently, and often could not even get basic grammar and spelling right, much less argue from evidence.

I remember, in particular, one student whose argument was that she FELT that her proposition was correct, and therefore we had to accept her statement at face value, despite a plethora of evidence pointing in another, almost completely opposite, direction. . .

I also see a lack of basic skills across the board in entry-level hires at work. . . but they have GREAT self-esteem.

And then I see SOME (ok, a few) of the H1b hires. Solid talent, solid skills. Just wish we had more American candidates like them. . .

Label your cables: A cautionary tale from the server room

Re: Labels

Also Sprach Robert Helpmann: I had a similar setup at a place I worked a few years back. The problem there was more direct, though: our boss would come in and attack the switches like a howler monkey on amphetamines that had just seen its young threatened by the wiring closet. Every label now documented the way it used to be; we had no idea of the actual state of affairs as our boss updating documentation would have been too much like right. I left soon after I observed him pulling a clock down onto some fiber, breaking a handful off at the switch, and then walking away without letting anyone know things were about to go south.

I was lucky. We were pretty much as mission critical as it got, so we were configuration-controlled to an almost anal-retentive level, and our Physical Plant guy had to PERSONALLY sign off on any changes to wiring, etc. We built out that facility from scratch, and actually put in extra work to make SURE it was done right, the first time.

Then our entire crew got laid off (apparently, we were too expensive, and yet not old enough to be protected by the consent order that kept them from laying off anyone 52 or older. . .)

The PFYs who replaced us. . . were apparently like your boss. Which is why they wanted the team back, they were paying massive fines for not maintaining uptime.

Too bad, so sad. . . .

Re: Labels

Labels ? A Shop I worked for, ~8 years ago, had that beat.

Each end of the cable was labeled. Cables followed a specific color-code, maintained across the data-center. And there was a database, that not only listed each specific cable, but what rack, slot, and interface it went to, plus color and length, searchable by ANY of those parameters.

Then the guy who maintained both the cable plant AND the database got laid off (I got laid off in that round as well. . . . ). And things slowly degraded from there.

A year later, they called ALL of us, asking if we wanted our jobs back. We smiled. and quoted a figure. They balked. We continued on in our new jobs.

Two weeks later, they called back. They'd pay what we asked. Too bad, that price expired, and the new price was 10% more. They balked again.

Week after that, call three. No idea how it worked out, I let it go to voicemail. As did pretty much everyone else.

No idea how it turned out. . .

Huge embarrassment over fisting site data breach

The same sort who would use their work addy for AshleyMadison.com.

In other words, idiots.

Who now will take it up the @ss, because they like taking it up the @ss. . .

Official: Microsoft's 'Get Windows 10' nagware to vanish from PCs in July

Re: Serious question

Well. . . when I had a Vista laptop, it had no problem connecting to several-year-old printers, right out of the box.

Win10. . . .didn't recognize a year-old video card or a 2-year-old printer. . .

Re: Removed How?

. . .makes me glad I run Win7 Enterprise. No nags. (I bought my laptop when I left a company last year, as it was shutting down).

F-35s failed 'scramble test' because of buggy software

Re: We really shouldn't have decommissioned the Harrier and Ark Royal

Besides, how EVER will we beat the Tadpoles without Ark Royal ???

(if you don't get it, go to your local Amazon site and search on "Ark Royal")

Finance bods SWIFT to update after Bangladesh hack

I am VERY glad. . .

. . . .that I did not get that job at SWIFT, a year ago. Of course, interviewing there, it appeared to be H1b heaven. . .

Is Dublin becoming as unaffordable as San Francisco?

Still. . .

. . . better booze and far prettier women.

So Dublin has that much going for it. . .

More questions than answers, literally, from America's privacy rules

Re: Power grab

. . . .and, of course, all driven by Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

Specifically:

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people":

First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

Ten years in the clink, file-sharing monsters! (If UK govt gets its way)

Nice to see. . .

. . . .that poverty, corruption, infrastructure, et cetera have been solved, so HM Government is now concentration on file-sharing.

Of course, it's just as crazy here in the States: we're arguing about who can use which bathroom.

The Zombie Apocalypse, Killer Pandemic Asian Bird Flu, or the Sweet Meteor of Death can't come soon enough: the gene pool needs some SERIOUS chlorine. . .

MoD contractor hacked, 831 members of defence community exposed

Re: Yawn. . . .

You may have quite the hurdle to jump. After all, they hacked the Obamacare website too. I have some colleagues who worked that program, usually referred to as "the resume stain"..

THOSE are some epic tails of .gov-directed fail, over-riding engineers for political reasons, , ,

Yawn. . . .

. . . .try being one of us 21 million Yanks who had our entire security files hacked, and allegedly in the hands of the Chinese. I work cleared stuff (and frankly, it's a bit boring) and have to do a rather comprehensive data dump every 5 years, **but*** my wife and kids ALSO got affected. So I suspect the details of the families of the 831 ALSO got compromised.

And, Gee, Uncle Sam gave each of us a bargain-basement identity-watching service for a few years as compensation. No remediation, mind you, just notification. . . on a once-a-month basis. . .

Stop using USB sticks to move kids' data, auditor tells Education Dept

"But it didn't cost anything. . . .

. . . .we found those USB sticks, laying on the ground in the parking lot. . . ."

Why am I ***SURE*** that's already been said. . .

Re: Stop leaving spare USB ports active on machines that handle sensitive data.

Really. Although we used hot-glue sticks to fill the USB ports. And the case-opening switch would send a flag to security after being booted up again. . . .

'Bring back xHamster', North Carolina smut watchers grumble

So little-known fap site. . .

. . . .gets a ton of free publicity by jumping on board trendy political issue ??

So, let's review:

1. Bar NC users over bathroom issue, based on known-dodgy IP geolocation. . .

2. ??

3 ???

4. Profit!!!!

Re: Detail?

. . .but that's only because they've been in politics longer than that. . . .

How to not get pwned on Windows: Don't run any virtual machines, open any web pages, Office docs, hyperlinks ...

There's a GWX Control panel available. . .

. . . .to prevent the installation of the Win10 malware.

https://askleo.com/block-windows-10-with-gwx-control-panel/

Prof Hawking to mail postage-stamp space craft to Alpha Centauri using frickin' lasers

Re: Tricky!

SPACE sharks. . . .

Hey, tech industry, have you noticed Amazon in the rearview?

Seems like nothing changes. . . .

1998. I'm deploying a system to HQ NATO outside Brussels. And the HP printer we shipped in turns out to only have a North America power supply. So, talk to HP, find the local vendor, buy correct kit ?

Not that easy. Vendor wants a meeting first. A week from day we called them. Fine, didn't need the printer immediately, continued deploying the rest of the gear. Show up for meeting (at their offices, they wouldn't come to us. . .). They find that we're not registered as a HP Belgium customer, " . . . could you fill out these forms, and we'll get you approved in a few weeks. . . ."

I look at them like they're from Mars. I pull out my AmEx Corporate Card, telling them I simply wanted to purchase a printer, why couldn't we do that, right there, right then ? "We have procedures".

Fine, I had approval to spend up to a quarter million Belgian Francs on the spot. . .and they told me to wait a few weeks ?

So, I go back to the deploy site, grab a copy of the local Yellow Pages, and call up computer stores.

5 of them say they can get me the printer I want, so I ask them to fax me a bid by COB the next day.

One faxes me a bid in about 30 minutes. Radio silence from the rest. COB next day hits, I call the guy who responded, give him the credit card, and arrange delivery for the following Monday (this is a Thursday afternoon).

Monday morning, printer arrives, we unbox, install, all is good. Then a second bid comes in (this is ~Monday, 1:30PM), followed immediately by a phone call, asking what we thought of their bid. They were shocked that we went with someone else (who, BTW, was cheaper), and they were actually surprised that we thought a deadline for submission was actually a deadline, and they promised to complain to NATO Purchasing (That didn't bother us, as the program was run out of, and paid for, by an office in the Pentagon. . . ).

Even funnier, was that a day before the team flew back to the States, the "official" HP vendor we had originally talked to, called to ask when they could expect our application to become a customer. . . .

. . . .I finally got to use my limited knowledge of invective in French. . . . (grin)

That naked picture on my PC? Not mine. The IT guy put it there

Years ago, I ran the night-shift at a SOC for a US Federal Agency. . .

. . . .and we started getting indications every Friday night, 10PM or so, about some malware transmission attempts. To the same IP. And only late on Friday nights.

After 3 weeks of this (week three, we were waiting for it. . .), we captured everything going to that IP. First two pics were serious jail time material. At that point, we just let it spool to the directory and called the cops.

Cops show up 10 minutes later, look at the evidence, and ask us to burn it to DVD. The FOLLOWING week, the cops were down in the SOC with us, waiting. As soon as it started, cop speaks into the radio, they arrest the guy. . . in mid download.

But the best part was, I got invited to go up to the ground floor and see the scuzbucket walked out in cuffs. . .

Adblock wins in court again – this time against German newspaper

I've run into several of those "major media sites" . . .

. . . .that refuse me access while I'm running an ad-blocker.

I then go to a different site. The fact that most of these "major media sites" have been shown to be, at least occasionally, serving malware embedded in their ads, is why I refuse to lift my blocker. . .

BMW complies with GPL by handing over i3 car code

Re: Life in a Call Center

I've encountered one. And I've been working professionally for 40 years.

Surprisingly enough, it was inside the US Government. . .

Former FBI spy hunter: Don’t trust China on ‘no hack’ pact

Well, duh. . . .

. . . . NOBODY is not going to use their strong points. From what I've read, a young, talented cracker in China is cultivated and recruited to high-end private and government hacking teams.

Whereas Cyber Command in the US won't touch a guy (at least publicly) if they have a hacking conviction. Can't speak to Europe, but I suspect GCHQ and all the rest are at least SOMEWHAT similar. . . .

Locking your best talent out early is never a smart move. . .

Microsoft did Nazi that coming: Teen girl chatbot turns into Hitler-loving sex troll in hours

I smell 4chan here. . . . (or whatever they're called this week. . . . )

. . . this is just the sort of thing that /pol would go nuts on. . . .

Wait! Where did you get that USB? Super-stealthy trojan only drives stick

So you're saying . . ..

Trust the Computer ? The Computer is your Friend ?

Why am I having visions of smoking boots ???

Microsoft beefs up defences against Office macros menace

Not really a fix. .

. . . it does nothing for older editions of Office installed out there. After all, for basic functionality, ANY edition of Office will work for the vast majority of users. And there's really no incentive for general users to upgrade: hell, we use Office 2007 at home, and are fine with it.

Secondly, Group Policy ? REALLY ? So this is a fix aimed PURELY at Corporate users, with sufficient IT support to (1) HAVE Group Policies, and (2) have admins sufficiently clueful to correctly enable and configure the policy. And Group Policy requires a Domain and at least the Professional edition of Windows: Home versions don't support GPOs. . . So, again, Corporate love, but the heck with the rest of the users out there. . .

Lastly, was there EVER a good reason to embed macro functionality into documents ? I've been doing IT for 25+ years, and I have yet to see one . . .

HP Inc won't shake you down for ink in 3D printer era, says CTO

I'll believe it when I see it. . .

. . . especially when generic plastic is dirt-cheap on Ebay and other auction sites, and systems to extrude filament from it have been around for years.

I can even see a niche for small businesses making custom-color filament, just like inkjet cartridge and laser refill businesses filled. . .

And HP's model for the Multi-Fusion seems un-necessarily complex, with "fusing agents" and "detailing agents", as well as what appears, at least from descriptions, to be a thermo-plastic ink, instead of the usual filament.