* Posts by frymaster

385 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Feb 2008

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IBM pulls up the ladder behind some supercomputer customers

frymaster

It's been a few years since we used them, but each board is ~40kg, the top boards are well above head height, and the bottom boards are at shin level. Having a server lift was NOT optional - and as a bonus, it's a really nice server lift that's come in very handy ever since

HPE flies low-energy Eagle into National Renewable Energy Lab's data centre

frymaster

Nope, this is about the network interconnections

https://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/arch/hyper.html

Nvidia: Using cheap GeForce, Titan GPUs in servers? Haha, nope!

frymaster

"OK for research"

So what if it's a datacentre-hosted research cluster?

https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/research-computing/ecdf/high-performance-computing

Home-cooked tech helps China topple US as top supercomputer user

frymaster
FAIL

Did someone win a bet for that pie chart?

....because that's the only reason I can think of for those colour choices...

Why Microsoft yanked its latest Windows 10 update download: It hijacked privacy settings

frymaster

The update saves a backup of various things (c:\users and c:\program data to name two) in c:\windows.old in case people want to back out of the update. I imagine it'll get them from there

Microsoft to Windows 10 consumers: You'll get updates LIKE IT or NOT

frymaster

Re: Sure of your interpretation?

It says you can only get system and app updates from authorised sources, and that your system may need to be updated to do so. And that "these types" of automated updates are without notice.

To me that implies that updates to your system required to ensure you get updates from authorised sources are without notice.

frymaster

Sure of your interpretation?

If I remember correctly, there was a minor outcry (teacup storm force 4) when it was discovered that windows 7 would automatically update the update system without confirmation even if you had "download but not install" set, because otherwise it couldn't actually tell you if updates were available.

Are you SURE the wording applies to all updates?

"Microsoft may need to update your system to provide you with those updates. By accepting this agreement, you agree to receive these types of automatic updates without any additional notice."

That implies it's only updates to the update system that will be automatic

http://www.informationweek.com/microsoft-updates-windows-without-user-permission-apologizes/d/d-id/1059183?

Microsoft: This Windows 10 build has 'NO significant known issues'

frymaster

Re: Jumping to an app starting with a specific letter.

This is almost certainly an extra thing for touch users and NOT the removal of search-by-typing

DANGER: Is that 'hot babe' on Skype a sextortionist?

frymaster

Re: Open mouth, insert plod

I was thinking it was an innovative scheme to thwart sextortion by providing a free and safe alternative

Adobe spies on readers: EVERY DRM page turn leaked to base over SSL

frymaster

Reminder: Kindle does this too

I read the first chapter of a book on my phone, then load up the kindle browser-based reader and it's automatically at chapter two. They are up front about this, and it's a damned useful feature - but in terms of sending data back to the mothership it's functionally identical to what adobe are doing*

* it may not do it exactly page-turn by page-turn

Adam Afriyie MP: Smart meters are NOT so smart

frymaster

Smartphone app

"why can’t we just use an approved smartphone app for ad hoc readings today?"

My supplier (British Gas) lets me do just that

Brandon Gray aka Namejuice suspended by ICANN

frymaster

The VM junk mail I get is the non-addressed kind that gets given to the postie in a pile and he gets told to deliver one to every street.

That explains why I get asked to sign up even though we've been with them since they were called cableinet...

Microsoft C# chief Hejlsberg: Our open-source Apache pick will clear the FUD

frymaster

Re: It is not a cancer

EEE:

Embrace a technology

Extend it to add value

Extinguish the competition

So... MS are embracing .net, will extend it compared to the pre-existing implementors (Microsoft), and will then extinguish the competition (er, Microsoft).

Does not compute

IoT cup claims 'instant' identification of what's in it

frymaster

@Trevor_Pott

Interesting. MDMA also supresses the thirst signal. People would take it, then dance all night, and not realise they were dangerously dehydrated. Leah Betts took MDMA and because she "knew" that you had to drink lots of water when taking it, died of water intoxication. So I can definitely see why people who don't feel thirst could use this

When will Microsoft next run out of US IPv4 addresses for Azure?

frymaster

Re: throwing a big wrench

Sorry, wrong. MPAA et al. are not claiming third party geolocation databases can tell what house an IP is associated with (and they can't even in the best case), they're claiming the ISP's own records can. In this example, it would be like saying that Microsoft itself has no idea if a given IP corresponds to a VM in the US or Brazil.

EFF blows Snapchat a raspberry in gov't surveillance report

frymaster

Re: The internet Archive was ranked?

The internet archive allows user registration. People can upload their own data (e.g. live music). It's possible law enforcement might want that data for whatever reason.

Game of Thrones written on brutal medieval word processor and OS

frymaster

Re: WYSIWYG is the problem

I was told to just write the content and worry about formatting it later, but yeah, you can be distracted.

HP: OpenStack's networking nightmare Neutron 'was everyone's fault'

frymaster

Re: What's with all the Xen is obsolete talk I hear?

"Unless I missed your point, VMWare runs fine under linux and has done for many a year"

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1006095

A native client is not available. The web interface includes "includes a subset of the functions available in the vSphere Client"

LA air traffic meltdown: System simply 'RAN OUT OF MEMORY'

frymaster

60k wan't a guess

Above 60,000 feet airspace is unrestricted. When the plane wants to descend below 60,000 it has to ask for permission to re-enter controlled airspace.

The... Windows... XPocalypse... is... NIGH

frymaster

"The use of a protocol other than TCP/IP prevents such systems from being implemented in a VM."

That ignores the fact that UDP exists.

Less pedantically, if you're using a VM in bridged mode as opposed to via NAT, the networking should operate at the Ethernet level, so should work fine.

GNU security library GnuTLS fails on cert checks: Patch now

frymaster

"The reason this was fixed is because someone could look at the source, see that it was broken and fix it"

Last I heard it was supposed to be the same person that introduced the bug that found it, so no, in this specific case, open source gained no advantage.

Reg HPC man relives 0-day rootkit GROUNDHOG DAY

frymaster

Re: In concerns me that this is the case

This is a problem with remote diagnosis.

Once an attacker has run a program with admin credentials, the system is theirs. They can alter any part of the OS. They can alter task manager so their processes don't appear on it, they can alter the filesystem libraries so their files don't appear, etc. etc.

If people had been there in person, they could boot up from an external disk and maybe see more of what's going on. But in nearly every case, they should be saying "yup, you done got hacked" and advising a complete reformat anyway. It's just too easy for something to be missed, which then acts as a source of re-infection.

KCOM-owned Eclipse FAILS to cover up the password 'password'

frymaster

Not adding up

Domain registration doesn't involve records for email or website. I suspect not only is your domain registered with them but they're also doing your DNS hosting, at a minimum. £100 a year may or may not be a reasonable price, but it's in the ballpark

Don't be a DDoS dummy: Patch your NTP servers, plead infosec bods

frymaster

Re: DNS - check, NTP - check, what's next?

It's already being used. I know someone who got a snooty email from a university, saying their IDS had caught him using an "SNMP scanner" - turned out their printers were involved in DDoS'ing him. He did a packet capture and a VERY high number of switches, routers, wifi access points etc. were attacking him, presumably because they were using the default community names

FCC boss: I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never gonna keep net neutrality down

frymaster

Re: Appealing.

One reason is that the court's line of argument looks pretty solid. The FCC has different powers depending on if something is a "common carrier" or a "telecommunications service" and the issue was they were trying to have their cake and eat it. So the court had good reason to say that the rules, as written, weren't legally enforceable.

'Best known female architect' angrily defends gigantic vagina

frymaster

I didn't even know it was done by a female architect until this article...

Yahoo! Pays! Paltry! $12.50! Bug! Bounty! For! Nasty! Email! Vuln!

frymaster

Nope - the first was previously reported (allegedly). The second two were not, and it's because of the second two that the "bounty" was issued.

The original statement does at least mention that all 3 vulns have now been fixed.

Valve shows Linux love with SteamOS for gamers

frymaster

Re: @Mikel

It's worth mentioning that every single feature that the article says is an announced "steamOS" feature is actually an announced feature of the steam CLIENT, whether running on Windows, Mac, self-installed on a pre-existing Linux box, or bundled with steamOS.

So no, I don't fear Valve games becoming steamOS only - and even if they did, the non-valve games outnumber them by a factor of 300 or so

Open ZFS wielders kick off 'truly open source' dev group

frymaster

Not ungrateful

People who want it to be GPL2-compatible want it because then it can be included in the Linux kernel.

London Underground cleaners to refuse fingerprint clock-on

frymaster

Salaried staff

HR and management are unlikely to be hourly paid.

I used to be a burger flipper at McDonalds; electronic clocking systems are a GODSEND. Given the choice between having to tell the management any time my actual hours worked deviated from my schedule (and hoping they remembered to action the changes) or being paid by the minute by an automated system, I'd choose the second.

And, in fact, it looks like they already have a (crap) clocking system. This is just a more convenient version.

Oracle wants another go at Google over Android Java copyrights

frymaster

Re: Fscking ridiculous

re:parody defence

parody is a defence against trademark claims IE your parody is allowed to be recognisable as the company it's parodying (otherwise there's no point).

It isn't a defence against copyright infringement (though for novels this is no hardship)

Trust the cloud with my PRECIOUS? You gotta be joking

frymaster

Re: Quite right, too

"Well, suitably backed up to a different location that'll be fine, otherwise you're unprotected against 50% of data risks."

...and 100% of "accidentally hitting the delete key" risks

RAID is nice; backups are vital

Microsoft Security Essentials loses AV-TEST certification

frymaster

It's not perfect

I've had MSE miss a virus on a friend's PC before - thankfully a "let this program have firewall access?" prompt came up, alerting him.

We submitted the file to one of these online sites, and only 2 of the virus scanners caught it, so I'm not claiming MSE to be amazingly shit either, but that it can miss things is undeniable

Virgin Media vid misery blamed on unnamed peering network

frymaster

Re: Can't remember the last time VoD worked properly on Virgin Mediocre

No conspiracy I'm afraid.

This issue is affecting LINX only. Speedtest decides what server to use by checking the pings. Thus, when this issue is happening, speedtest will test against servers VM doesn't go over LINX to, because the pings are lower.

Some more information:

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-100Mb-Speed/Very-poor-performance-between-7pm-and-12am/m-p/1505368/highlight/true#M4909

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Up-to-100Mb-Speed/Very-poor-performance-between-7pm-and-12am/m-p/1554170/highlight/true#M7223

(not sure if the two issues are related or not)

There is life after the death of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Start button

frymaster

Re: Microsoft understands...

"forced obsolescence through incompatibility"

rerversi from windows 1.0 still works on win7 32-bit (64-bit windows can emulate only 32-bit apps)

Disney sitcom says open source is insecure

frymaster

Re: freetards?

to be fair to orlowski, he wants to re-purpose the word to mean "those who demand things for nothing" rather than "open-source enthusiast"

PR mag: Let promoters edit clients' Wikipedia entries

frymaster

Seriously?

Are you honestly saying that the FIRST THING someone should do if they find factual errors in a wikipedia article criticizing them is to sue?

Brits trapped in confusing council website labyrinths - survey

frymaster

Re: Quite agree...

I love Edinburgh council's site

On the main page, on the "popular pages" links, it has council tax, school openings, swimming pools, bin collection, road gritting, libraries etc. etc. Never had a problem using it, which still comes as a mild surprise each time...

Microsoft sets date for Windows 8 preview - at mobile shindig

frymaster

win7 crashyness

by contrast, I can make windows 7 bluescreen really easily.

All I have to do is push the overclock past sensible levels... :P

Virgin Media broadband goes titsup for 3 hours

frymaster

VM also having LINX congestion issues unrelated

the LINX packetloss issues are/were because an undersea cable had been cut. This meant traffic that otherwise would have been using it was shoved onto LINX, causing congestion.

Windows 8 hardware rules 'derail user-friendly Linux'

frymaster

Um, have you actually read this?

I can't help feeling you haven't actually read the article.

Microsoft are explicitly saying that OEMs won't get the shiny sticker unless both the orthodox way (no bootloader signing) and the new way (add your bootloader's keys to the firmware) of installing other operating systems are supported. What they are insisting on is that machines shipping win8 do things the new way by default.

If it's the whole idea of signed bootloaders you're objecting to, the UEFI forum published that spec in April 2011, and no one complained either before or after.

In terms of lockdown, the ARM stuff is much more restrictive (apart from the fact that MS only has a couple of percent market share so isn't a monopoly in any way)

frymaster

Linux will work just fine on new stuff as well

...just that, IF YOU BUY A COMPUTER WITH WIN8 ON IT, you'll have to turn off the signed bootloader thingy.

Talking about messing with the keys is a red herring; if you want to do signed linux, you were always going to have to install your own keys, and even if the UEFI spec doesn't specify how this is to be done, it ain't Microsoft's job.

They key points is that MS have said that to get their shiny sticker on OEM PCs, they not only have to ship with a way to turn off these security features, but they have to be customisable. This will, in fact, make key-signed linux MORE likely than it would have been last week.

As to the ARM stuff, in the abstract this is annoying. But in reality, I can't see the presence or absence of the ability to load linux onto win8 phones and tablets affecting me one way or the other.

Apple to Oz court: ‘Our products are lame, really’

frymaster

depends on the license

Not sure what the relevant bits are licensed under, but it's possible you can only use the source if you release any derivative works (like a compat layer) under the same license, And if you do _THAT_, then, assuming tight integration, you'd have to release iOS under that license as well.

Red Hat engineer renews attack on Windows 8-certified secure boot

frymaster

MS isn't stupid

"MS will pressurise manufacturers NOT to allow the feature to be turned off"

That would leak in about half a second, and trigger a new round of EU _AND_ US antitrust penalties. They don't want that.

frymaster

Disagree

All this means is that CORPORATE MANUFACTURERS will include such the "disable secure boot" toggle - they'd be stupid not to. That says nothing about the rest of the market, especially the pre-assembled end of it (I suspect consumer retail motherboards to be likely to support disabling it; OEM ones, _maybe_ not)

Microsoft: No Windows 8 ARM support for x86 apps

frymaster

missing the point somewhat

for new metro-style C++ apps, it seems like compiling for ARM will be as easy as clicking a checkbox (though I'll believe that when I see it, and of course deliberately writing things that are limited to one processor is trivial)

so if you're still at the "choosing what to develop for" stage, you should be able to target both

Game denies Steam threat claims

frymaster

we have a winner...

...why do you think they don't want steamworks games? because you can't re-sell them, because once it's tied into your steam account it can't be extracted (to be fair to steam, I can't think of a way to transfer games to other accounts that isn't doomed to end in squillions of stupid-phished-users' games being used to scam people)

BBC explains 'All your Twitter pics are belong to us' gaffe

frymaster

Yes and no

In most cases, all the T&Cs do is make explicit that because you've uploaded a picture to their site, it's going to be made available on the internet to anyone with the URL. Some sites, however, opted for the cheap lawyers, and the T&Cs reflect that.

frymaster

not clear

twitter do now do their own image hosting, but the chances are the images were hosted elsewhere and merely linked via twitter

Virgin Media blames Activision for Call of Duty lag problems

frymaster

or maybe not

a) throttling isn't "on a whim", but more importantly

b) on the lowest service VM offer, while being throttled, there's MORE than enough bandwidth for gaming. whatever is going on, it's not due to lack of bandwidth

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