Posts by Angus Ireland

WTF? Value of Finnish open-source-as-a-service startup Aiven jumps $1.2bn in 7 months

Re: Exactly who are their customers?

You could check their website, where they list some fairly well known names - Gov.UK, Atlassian, Comcast, OVO Energy, Toyota...

Help your fellow IT pals spruce up their virtual meetings: Design a winning background, win Register-branded gear

Aunty's Archive

Plenty of inspiration from the BBC Archive - particularly the Empty Sets collection.

Mine's the one with the TARDIS in the background...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/empty_sets_collection/zfvy382

Why can't passport biometrics see through my cunning disguise?

Re: It’s not what it seems...

Have you followed the citation provided? I don't want to call the claim either way, but I think there's definitely a logical leap being made from the source material.

The citation's linked report does state that Border Agents are expected to monitor the gates - but it also says they sometimes are run (in breach of their operating conditions) with no one monitoring. That implies to me that the meatsack is doing optional* secondary verification.

Two weeks after Microsoft warned of Windows RDP worms, a million internet-facing boxes still vulnerable

straight answer to a KB

It's right there in the link in the Reg's article: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/msrc/2019/05/14/prevent-a-worm-by-updating-remote-desktop-services-cve-2019-0708/

> Out-of-support systems include Windows 2003 and Windows XP. If you are on an out-of-support version, the best way to address this vulnerability is to upgrade to the latest version of Windows. Even so, we are making fixes available for these out-of-support versions of Windows in KB4500705.

That marketing email database that exposed 809 million contact records? Maybe make that two-BILLION-plus?

According to the email I just got from HIBP...

> Dates of birth, Email addresses, Employers, Genders, Geographic locations, IP addresses, Job titles, Names, Phone numbers, Physical addresses

WTF of the highest proportions. Who are these people? This seems to me like a violation of all seven principles of the GDPR.

Sysadmin unplugged wrong server, ran away, hoped nobody noticed

C13/C14 is never at right angles, eh?

but in the "developed world" data centers use C13-C14 and C19-C20 connectors regardless of the locale and voltage. And those are never mounted at right angles.

It might not be common in "developed world data centres", but it's certainly done.

http://cpc.farnell.com/schurter/r47850100/rewireable-iec-socket-90deg/dp/CN02277

http://cpc.farnell.com/schurter/4736-0000/c14-iec-plug-e-r-a-rewireable/dp/CN20025

Similar sockets and plugs can be found for C19/C20 if desired...

EE looks at its call charges, hikes a bunch, walks off giggling

Looks like I got out just in time, then. I was already paying over the odds for the service I was receiving, especially in the international department, so left just last month.

Good to see the sale to BT hasn't stopped them charging a termination fee for cancelling a contract whose minimum term finished some 4 years ago, and whose Terms and Conditions explicitly state there is no Cancellation Charge for leaving...

LogMeIn adds emergency break-in feature to LastPass

Re: Emergency access to the whole damn vault?

I thought the vault key was derived from your password - That's how LastPass can claim they don't have access and can't reset passwords?

If this is the case, how does a vault get decrypted for Emergency Access? Is the key stored somewhere? Or is the vault duplicated encrypted with a different key?

Windows 10 marks the end of 'pay once, use forever' software

Re: Linux

@N13L5 If you're looking for a Rainmeter replacement for Linux, give Conky a look.

Wikipedia to go all HTTPS, all the time

Re: Everybody's doing it ...

Ian Duncan Smith is flagging up my plaintext logins?!

Config file wipe blunder caused deadly Airbus A400M crash – claim

Re: The investigation should center on...

BBC report says that they didn't "just turn off" - the pilots put them into "flight idle mode" and then, without the config, were unable to take them out of it.

"Airbus has already confirmed that its pilots had tried switching the malfunctioning engines into "flight idle" mode - their lowest power setting - in an attempt to tackle the problem.

Without the parameter files, the engines would have been left stuck in this mode.

This is because the planes were deliberately designed to prevent out-of-control engines powering back up, to avoid them causing other problems."

Vladimir PUTIN officially HARDER than CHUCK NORRIS

I'll just leave this here...

Seems someone has been quick off the ball...

http://vladfacts.com/

Yes, hundreds upon hundreds of websites CAN all be wrong

Wikis to the rescue?

My lyrics source of choice is LyricWiki (lyrics.wikia.com)

Crowd-source your lyrics, get the community to verify and maintain them, and back it all up with Gracenote-sanctioned versions (though sometimes Gracenote gets it wrong too - for example in Moby's "Lift Me Up", they list one line of the chorus us "[Unverified]". So very helpful.).

They even have the correct lyrics for The Endless Enigma ;)

Wireless Power breakthrough: Iron Man can lose the chest reactor

Wireless pacemakers?

"I hate it, I never get any phone signal here."

"Me neither. Hey, why has my heart stopped beating?"

BBC labels child 'recovering alcoholic' in tech slip-up

Re: Re: Not surprised the software won't communicate

An Operation Manual is quite different from a Software Spec, no?

Google guru blasts Android virus doomsayers as 'charlatans'

"never had a virus"

Neither have I. And I use Windoze.

Had to assist plenty of lusers who have had viruses though. In my experience, it's usually an issue involving PEBKAC...

Android voice assistant shootout

@PXG

Iris' answer was "What is your purpose in asking?"

GNOME emits 'head up the arse' desktop update

Oh dear.

The screenshot titled "Viewer for Certificate and Key files" under "But Wait, There's More…" is showing DigiNotar... Surely a better choice could have been made?

Painters wrap Forth Bridge job after 121 years

In that case...

...Bracknellexile hit the nail on the head with "...like building Edinburgh's tram system" - the tracks in Princes Street requiring repair work only a short time after being put down!

Much of the human race made up of thieves, says BSA

RE enigmatix

Simple, they never would buy the pirated goods. It's pirated or nothing for them (or Free alternative, of course).

Opera extends Speed Dial with Swordfish beta

Re: How long

There's been a SpeedDial extension for Fox for some time, and it's been able to show the weather in a dial for a while.

Besides, who needs extensions when you could just pop some JavaScript in the dial's address?

Waterstone's whips out its pendulous dugs

Font face

Just how much have they charged for a lowercase 'w' in the Ubuntu Titling font? I'd have done it for a fiver.

Fasthosts in day-long email FAIL

Registered email

"Even if you have a Hotmail you need their support PIN, which if you need a reminder needs to be sent to your registered email. So you are back where you started!"

Well then that's your own fault. Don't have your registered FH account email provided by FH.

Month of Facebook flaws gets underway

@AC

"I'll call them or text them or email them. [...] I don't need to put my activites on a website I don't control for other morons to read."

So who controls your email? How about your mobile phone? Sure, it's not a website but I'm sure it'd be just as easy for someone to find a way into your emails or your SMS messages. Maybe a bit of phone-tapping here and there wouldn't go amiss too.

"The only social networking site that's worth anything is LinkedIn, and that has a genuine purpose as far as I'm concerned, it's not all about pointless "look wot I did 2day" crap."

Much as I may agree with this statement, unfortunatly it seems we're in the minority on this one. The punters clearly love being able to tell everyone about the virtualfarm they run.

Apple joins expanded HTML 5 leadership team

Now there's something you don't see everyday....

How can "Microsoft", "interoperability" and "standards" be used in the same sentence - except when negating each other, of course?

How to set up your HDTV like a pro

BBC Test Card

For those with freeview (which has no HD services but never mind):

1) Goto channel 105 and wait for the screen to load. Press yellow

2) Tune out and back in to 105. Now press Green ("Secret" appears in the top right before the Status Page appears)

3) Now press green again for Test Card W :-)

Cops taser naked doorbell-ringing giant

6ft 7in you say?

Maybe he was actually out with his camera?

Judge slaps ban on RealDVD software

MPAA

Here we go again with the Motion Pictures Ass. of America...

Scareware package mimics Windows Blue Screen of Death

IE?

Does this only work on IE then?

Facebook wins Zimbabwe election on T&Cs

Vote? What Vote?

No one told me there was going to be a vote on Ts and Cs. Presumably it's in the Ts and Cs that they don't have to tell me when they're having a vote on Ts and Cs.

Windows 7 beta washes up on Pirate Bay

@Richard Porter

I think they've got a few OS's they would rather forget about :P

Verity Stob's Big Fat Geek Yuletide Quiz of the Year Part 2

Excellent!

Wonderful piece of Stobbery :D

Mac fans see MS porn everywhere

Then the libraries named "home_two" and "home_s12" are full of it....

So basically what we're saying is: this person has sat and gone through every single library to see what's there? Don't they have something better to be doing with their life?

Actually, scrap that - they bought an iPhone in the first place... the only thing they enjoy more is worshiping Jobs.

Chromefirexplorer girds loins against rich and closed

Hahahaha

"But Opera couldn't make the intercontinental flight from Norway. And Apple couldn't make the eight-minute drive from Cupertino."

Love it!

SkypeOut goes mobile, Skype goes beta

@ Chris Merriman

I think it means that they've added Drag 'n' Drop file transfer and tray alerts to skype 4

Which by the way hasn't just gone beta, it's been beta for some time

Although I could be wrong...

Vodafone launches in-store power pods

But...

...I've seen these boxes all over the place, not just in Vody shops.

Fire-breathing black cabs: Shock eyewitness photo

Too much time

Someone must have too much spare time on their hands!

Certainly had me chuckling for a good five minutes at least.

Street View operatives object to being snapped

Drum Brae South?

That's as maybe but anyone who lives in Portobello in the North-East of the city knows that a Google car actually lives down Bath Street. I've seen it parked overnight there. So hah!

iPhone 2.0 unlock tool released, tested

DFU mode?

Pressing+Holding power and home and then releasing power ain't DFU mode - that's just recovery mode.

In recovery mode, you can turn the device off and then boot into normal mode.

In DFU, rebooting simply returns you to DFU mode. You can't put your iPhone into DFU without some help from another application (iTunes, pwnagetool, ziphone etc)

Mine's the one with '"Legit" iPod Touch User' on the back

El Reg nails Street View spycars to Google Maps

How about...

How about you give us all free Reg T-Shirts and vulture masks so that when we appear on the maps you'll know where we live.

Wait that's a bad idea...

Mine's the one with the stolen spycar keys in the pocket

MS takes Windows 3.11 out of embed to put to bed

Long gone?

I'm still at school and I remember it! The first coherent OS I remember using actually.

Anyone know where I can grab a copy to run on my VM?

Firefox 3 downloads hit 7m despite server FAIL

"Sorry off-topic, but when does the BBC news website *ever* go down?"

Frequently. At least since they redesigned it.

And I've got FF3 - and had all the betas/rcs/etc - simply because if 7million people are downloading it in the first 24hours, my website should work in it.

Same with IE8 - although with its new "Standards Compliance" nothing works in it :D

MySpace hides in bathroom ahead of make-over

Hahaha

Just went onto the MySpace homepage. No mention of this new look MySpace at all.

There was, however, a picture of the lady herself. Yes that's right! Paris was on the homepage! Now what was she doing there? ;-)

PayPal ambushes users with mystery Skype charges

My account is tits up - again

Paypal have suspended my account - again - due to suspected fraudulent activity on a credit card linked to my account. That's all very well... Until you realise there are no credit cards linked to my account. I'm supposed to phone them to fix it. As if I'd give them money by doing that...

Then a day or two ago I got 3 (duplicate) emails informing me of a change to PayPal ToS.

Thankfully my account only had about a penny into it.

Stupid paypaltards.

100,000 sign for BT Fon wi-fi love-in

Security?

So if I go around looking for FON Hotspots and (eventually) manage to find one, I can download all the illegal movies/music/games/porn/etc I want and it'll be the FON Router's owner who the police come looking for?

I like this already :)

Metadata ruins Google's anonymous eBay Australia protest

M$ Word

Mark Dowling will probably be correct.

And anyway, does anyone know if Google Docs can print to PDF?

Apple store detains teens for installing iPhone game

@ all those complaining about the time a reinstall takes

Nexox Enigma is right - at least where the iPhone is concerned.

Here is the iPhone recovery/reinstall process:

1. Press and hold the Home and Power buttons. Keep holding, even when the phone turns off. Let go when the iTunes logo appears on the display.

2. Plug into iTunes and click Restore (Shift/Option click restore to select a custom firmware first).

3. Have a QUICK cup of tea

4. Return to find your iPhone, good as new and ready to go (well... After activation etc)

Not hours to do THAT. So unless they plan to reinstall the core FreeBSD as well...

BOFH: Testing the obscenity filters

hahahahahaha....

Having read this half an hour ago I had to come back and read it again... the tears are still rolling down my face!

Wish i had one of these but i can't <SLAM>

Too dim to set up your phone? Pay someone else to do it

T-Mobile...

sends the settings to you every time your SIM is put in a new phone.

That's a quid saved for all their customers :)

Vista on your iPhone - almost 'perfection'

The finishing touch

To finish the look off, jailbroken users can also download and install the 'Vista' app from the installer.

And what does this vista app do I hear you cry?

well, it adds the typical BSOD to your iPhone/iPod Touch. Now that IS perfection!