Posts by Keith Glass

A Logic Named Joe: The 1946 sci-fi short that nailed modern tech

. . . you need to talk to Aperture Science about that. . .

The REAL prediction. . . .

. . .was in C.M. Kornbluth's "The Marching Morons".

Because we're ALREADY living it . . .

Apple engineers rebel, refuse to work on iOS amid FBI iPhone battle

Re: @gollux How unAmerican ...

Becoming ?? Been there for **decades**. The Permanent Washington Incumbent Party has ruled the roost since the 1970s, merely trading power internally between the Democrat and Republican wings. . .

Microsoft's equality and diversity: Skimpy schoolgirls dancing for nerds at an Xbox party

Well, apparently they stayed out of REAL trouble. . .

. . . by not serving sammiches. . . .

MITRE rolls out new CVE system after Reg reveal

And of course. . . .

. . . any software that tracks vulnerabilities, now has to have, at minimum, a new schema for the added 6 characters, likely as two fields. . .

Millions menaced as ransomware-smuggling ads pollute top websites

And yet many of these sites. . . .

. . . .nag me about my ad-blocker.

Tell you what: when your site serves malware-via-ad, and you take responsibility and LIABILITY for the malware you serve. . . . I'll consider white-listing you.

Unless, of course, you're Forbes or WIRED. Because you're being such utter assholes about it, Ad-block on your sites will stay until Doomsday + a week. . .

Microsoft's done a terrible job with its Windows 10 nagware

No need to stop updates. . .

. . . .just install the "GWX Control Panel". And, suddenly, Win10 nagware and downloads disappear.

Google it by name, I see it available on lots of sites. . .

Obama puts down his encrypted phone long enough to tell us: Knock it off with the encryption

"You can't take an absolutist view on this",

says Obama

Actually, yes, we can. How about:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Code IS Speech. "Bernstein v. Department of Justice" settled that.

So. . . .suck it, Obama. . .

Home Office is cruising for a lawsuit over police use of face recog tech

Re: Dame Edna specs and a Groucho moustache

Actually, as I recall, most facial-recognition sensors can be jammed with a few IR LEDs. . .

A typo stopped hackers siphoning nearly $1bn out of Bangladesh

Re: And yet nobody. . .

They still had to get access to the SWIFT network . . . most SWIFT traffic is on a private network. .. .

And yet nobody. . .

. . . is pointing out that the SWIFT system had to be at least partially compromised to make this even possible. . .

Security market to exceed $170 billion by 2020, analysts say

And yet us security worker bees. . .

. . . .are generally facing flat or declining salaries.

So. . . .who's taking all that extra coin home ???

Microsoft has crafted a switch OS on Debian Linux. Repeat, a switch OS on Debian Linux

Re: Right, here's the catch

. . . history says otherwise.

I, for one, WELCOME our new Switching Overlords. . . .

FBI says NY judge went too far in ruling the FBI went too far in forcing Apple to unlock iPhone

And it's blindingly obvious that the FBI enjoys self-abuse. . . .

Sexism isn't getting better in Silicon Valley, it's getting worse

Re: Telepathy @ disgustedoftunbridgewells

. . .unless you read her mind without her permission.

Then it's Mind-rape. . . .

(and remember you heard it here first!!)

Can we stop the straw men ??

Let's see: "Decent social welfare system to keep people out of poverty".

You mean systems where it is often better paying to remain on the dole, than to work a job ?

"Remove the racial bias of US police"

Funny, when you adjust the numbers for the actual proportions of suspect race, you find that the police racial bias is non-existent, and tends to be the opposite of what is claimed.

"Providing real education and opportunities for all"

Hmm, that would be why numerous skilled trades positions, that pay VERY well, remain empty, while Ph.D.'s in the social sciences can only find work as baristas. The opportunities are there, and the education is easy to get. It's just that the coursework is actually hard, or requires actual physical labor.

You should talk to Mike Rowe about that. . .

Microsoft seeks Comcast subpoena to nab activation pirates

50 quatloos says. . . .

. . . . it's an unsecured WiFi router with absolutely vanilla default settings, in Pig's Knuckle, Texas. . .

Rejoice, sysadmins, there's a new glamour job nobody understands

Let's go all out here:

IoT Cloud Security Architect.

That title, right there, should get you a private coffee-pod system in your. . . .cube. . .

Dead Steve Jobs is still a crook – and Apple must cough up $450m for over-pricing ebooks

Re: hubris

Except that Indie books on Amazon sell well, and at much lower price-points than books from the "Big Five" publishers. Amazon merely provided a platform for sales and delivery. Indie authors have taken advantage of it, while the Big Five have cartel-ed up.. .

Amazon douses flames, vows to restore Fire OS fondleslab encryption

Re: So Oposing Terrists is not right?

Ahem, the discussion is about Encryption, not guns or mental health, or their intersections.

Do try to keep up. . . .

Re: ROT13 (@ Mephisto)

. . . and I can recall a pen test at an un-named Federal Agency here in .us.

Quick nmap scan showed a UNIX server (Solaris 9, as I recall) running FTP.

In the FTP directory was a Kickstart file. With the root password, for what turned out to be many, many servers.

Game, set, and match in under 5 minutes.

Even MORE Top Men. . .

Re: ROT13

You would be shocked at the number of people who seem to think ROT13 is unbreakable.

I can recall a project in Grad School, Security Management class, where we were supposed to provide a simple security problem, suitable for Beginners in Security.

The start was a username, password, and website on a slip of paper, in ROT-13. Leading to a photo with a steg'ed message embedded, and the decrypt program and decrypt password in the HTML headers.

22 students in the class. 20 were stumped. 19 never got past the ROT-13. . . .

Professor had it solved in about 5 minutes, 3 of which were downloading and installing the Steganography program. One other in the class took about 8 minutes.

The rest ? Top Men, I tell you. . . . TOP Men. . . . (evil grin)

Poor recruitment processes are causing the great security talent drought

Re: HR Dept

Stepping out of the Wayback Machine in 2001, I got a ping from a pimp^h^h^h^h recruiter who was looking for 10 years of experience with Windows 2000 server. Even though I had done some work with every version of Windows Server since NT 3.51, the fact was, in 2001, NOBODY ON THE PLANET had worked with Windows Server for 10 years in 2001.

The recruiter was nonplussed. . . the dotcom I was working at, at the time, was laughing about it for at LEAST a week. . .

Re: . . .and once you're hired. . .

. . . . talk to HR and customers about that, when they require existing certs to get hired, and additional certs to get promoted.

But I CAN go to grad school to get an utterly worthless MBA or MIS degree. . . because the box has to be checked if you want advancement. . . .

Re: . . .and once you're hired. . .

It's a little better in .us and in my vertical, pay is decent, although that's also probably because of security clearance as well as certifications and experience.

But as I'm known to opine, if you're not constantly upgrading skills, in 6-12 months, you're doing the IT equivalent of flipping burgers.

Apparently, HR wants fries with that. . . .

. . .and once you're hired. . .

. . . .it doesn't get better.

Like when you're told to develop skills in Cloud Security. . . and then inquire about training, and being told funds are not available for training, nor is leave time for training. . .

ICO fined cold-call firm £350k – so directors put it into liquidation

Not sure if this is even still possible. . .

. . . .but in the late 1990s, a bunch of us zapped a spammer back by stopping by the local news-stand, and flipping though the filthiest porn they had, harvesting several mail-back subscription cards (postage pre-paid via "Business Reply Mail" here in the US. . . )

We had already obtained the physical address of the spammer's home. And also his place of work.

By the time we were finished, over 900 subscription to the tawdriest possible smut were going to his home and office. Oh, and several carefully mis-addressed to his neighbors. . . .

Lots of luck. . .

. . . chances are, any profits have gone overseas and through a maze of offshore banks.

I'm sure the goal was to evade the Taxman, but it also protects it from the fines. Although I'm QUITE sure the Accountants got paid. . . .

Yelp minimum wage row shines spotlight on … broke, fired employee

Re: the "Reality Check"

You can. . . .but HR generally requires process and paperwork. Especially in a lawsuit-happy environment like California.

Consider the timeline: She posts to Medium.com, and yet "4 hours later" she gets notice that she's fired (5:43 PM, to be exact)..

Either they're ALREADY monitoring her social media (suggesting there was already an issue) or, somehow, in under 4 hours, it got so viral so fast that management saw it, directed a firing, and HR did their entire process. . .

I would suspect it was the former, not the latter. . .

Re: Funny, when I was her age. . . .

"income inequality" is a chimera. Different people get paid differently for different skills, based on the value they presumably bring to the table.

We're starting to automate people out of jobs permanently, with the rise of industrial robots and follow-on technologies.

However, low-value jobs will only pay as much as the value delivered to the employer. Which is going to make for increasingly interesting times.

In the Chinese sense of "interesting times". . . .

Re: the "Reality Check"

. . .Ms. James notes that she lost her job within 4 hours of posting her open letter. She implies that the two events are linked.

Considering both employment law (in California, especially) and bureaucratic process, there is literally no way she could have been fired in that timeframe.

It would have HAD to have been started days, if not a week or more, in advance. Of course, California Labor Law would likely prevent the public release of any records, citing "privacy", and thus we'll never see Yelp!'s side of the story. . .

Funny, when I was her age. . . .

. . . I also had a fairly low wage, and the job was in an expensive area.

However, I had a brain. I rented a place shared with several other people, reducing housing cost to something affordable. All of whom worked in a several block area, and we carpooled to work, in a an old beater car. And we bought food for the HOUSE, not for individual, and thus were able to stock up on commodity stuff when it was on sale, reducing food cost.

And yes, we ate a LOT of Ramen.

Until this "Talia James" person, I was under the assumption that pooling resources and getting roomies was pretty much the standard for kids recently out of college. As my career progressed, I was eventually able to afford a single apartment, and then, eventually, a starter house.

Because I learned to budget and economize FIRST. . . . not sure why Ms. James (and others. . .) seem to think that these arcane arts are akin to Nuclear Brain Surgery. . . .

Serco stems its gigantic losses, shrinks 2015's to a mere £70m

Well, now I'm glad. . .

. . . I got laid off from their US Subsidiary, two years ago. . . .

Bill Gates denies iPhone crack demand would set precedent

And of course. . .

. . .the minor, unimportant fact is that Apple is a competitor of MicroSloth, (even though Windows Phones were an epic crash and burn. . . .), and as such, BillGatus of Borg isn't exactly what you would call an uninterested, impartial observer here. . .

Q: How many guns to arm nine coachloads of terrorists?

Re: 20-50 Preppers ?

Squirrels always fly away. To get Moose. . . you need a top hat, and often a cane. . .

20-50 Preppers ?

Hell, that many guns would be my block in my neighborhood alone.

Although, I do admit, we have over half the houses on the block with multiple hunters who hunt year-round and everything from squirrels to Elk and Moose. Yes. . .they hunt Moose and Squirrel. . . .

(Note: I've NEVER been to a neighborhood potluck without at LEAST three game dishes. )

Blighty cops nab Brit teen for 'hacking' CIA Brennan's AOL email

Re: Fire Everybody

Minor point: a clearance form is NOT classified, but does require one to enter a lot of personally identifiable information (PII).

Basically, you're laying out your personal history, job history, and family relations, as well as any friends you know who are foreigners, so that the investigators can determine whether you're a good risk, or a bad one.

But sending it in unencrypted format is not illegal, merely stupid. And storing it unprotected and unencrypted is even more stupid. But it's not like anybody hacked OPM and got the exact same data on 21+ million OTHER people. . .

Oops, they did. This kid merely did it retail, as opposed to wholesale, the way the Chinese did. . .

IF you want to sack people, then do it because of a demonstrated history of making stupid decisions. . .

Obama govt proposes 33% hike in cyber-security spending

Re: So, they'll increase security spending..

The only problem is. . . all that money is used primarily to push more paperwork, NOT to implement actual security. . . .

The Mad Men's monster is losing the botnet fight: Fewer humans are seeing web ads

Is anyone really surprised ?

Gassed up on the way to work. The pump has a second video screen, and serves ads. And, since I generally use the same brand of gas. . . I apparently am tracked. Because I get the same local ads, even when I'm an hour or more from home. .

I halfway expect ad screens in the stall and above the urinals in bathrooms, soon. . .

Microsoft herds biz users to Windows 10 by denying support for Win 7 and 8 on new CPUs

I should be wearing a Princess Leia gown for this, but. . .

. . . .the more you tighten your grip, the more systems slip though your fingers. . . .

- Princess Penguin Opensourca to Grand Muff-up Ballmer

(grin)

Get ready to register your drones in the US – or else

Re: What's a drone?

Exactly. I've seen R/C planes that were HUGE, compared to many of these drones. . .

'White hats don't want to work for us' moans understaffed FBI

Re: Public sector it jobs

126 pages ? More like 8-12. Been there, done that, have SF86s dating back to the 1980s. . .

Roll up, roll up: Microsoft, those Irish emails and angry Feds

RE: WBC

Seems a LOT of idiots use "WBC". Yes, I'm pointing at the inbred morons of the "Westboro Baptist Church", home of "God Hates IQs over 60. . . "

US military says it will discipline Ashley Madison users

Re: The blondes bursting in air

Two Marines, one USAF guy, and a Brit IT consultant. . .

Re: Reportedly...

Yeah, but that was on their "ManCrunch" site (grin)

Re: Adulterated logic

Bad OER/FitRep ? Adultery is considered Conduct Unbecoming an Officer, and is a court-martial offense. Usially results in a Dishonorable Discharge at minimum.

And I know for a fact that people are brought up on such charges, because I sat as one of three members of the Court for an Article 133 Field Court-Martial, over a Lieutenant having an affair. Guy got a DD, two years at Leavenworth, PLUS a nasty divorce and child-support from the girl he got pregnant.

And an Officer with a Dishonorable can kiss nearly ANY post-Military professional career goodbye. .

Ashley Madison hack: Site for people who can't be trusted can't be trusted

Re: >The leaked data could become fodder for extortion or blackmail,

Reports are, that divorce lawyers are ALREADY salivating over the possibilities. They might TRY the "fruit of the poison tree" doctrine to make the hacked evidence inadmissible, but with the data out there, other evidence could be easily found by investigation.

Non-American nerds jam immigration pleading for right to live in the US

There is. Renunciations of US Citizenship are way up. . .

New NSA leak reveals invasion of the management consultants

It seems that. . . .

. . . the Booz Allen is strong with the NSA. . . that phrasing sounds utterly typical of an Booz Allen Hamioton "deck". . .

Chinese hotel guests find data spaffed all over the internet

Re: Travel - it's like that...

I've been in places that demanded it.

I registered as Commander John Koenig, Moonbase Alpha, DOB 9/13/99. And I give [e-mail] as email, and the White House switchboard as the phone.

Haven't been asked for SSN YET. . . but I have both Elvis's and Richard Nixon's available. . .