Posts by Elf

San Francisco reveals latest #Resist effort – resisting sub-gigabit internet access

Re: Big Cable is why we DON'T have fiber to our homes

Maaaaaan-teca! ... Sorry, I grew up in Stockton (which explains my poor impulse control).

I actually built the first ISP in our area (include Lodi because of that damned LATA line right there we were trying to break). Back then 'broadband' was an ISDN BRI with both lines bound (wow, suddenly I'd very much like a drink ... it's almost 7am, good enough).

Fiber? It's $diety damned all over the place. Sprint runs right up I5 from LA to Seattle, nice juicy fast pipe. Damned shame it isn't broken down and run that last mile, or two...ten perhaps.

Mmmm... For The Record, my old Oracle DBA insists that Boddingtons is the correct breakfast beer.

User lubed PC with butter, because pressing a button didn't work

If it were but simply rue,

All the users were just like you,

IT folk generally tend to be hardwired to be helpful (even if only by accident because we playing with something). Give the front line an excuse (ballistic chocolate is a good one) and they'll move mountains for just a wee Ack of their effort.

The Other Side ™:

This brother did not have things properly in hand. There is a Zero Percent chance that I'd allow another department raid *my* budget because Their User poured *butter* in a damn machine. She would have been Frog Marched to the company parking lot ("car park" for my UK friends) with her box of personals in tow. I'd have looked at what my Bullet Stopper (Help Desk) minion showed me (butter in nice boxen) and I'd have personally stripped her company credentials, asked (told) Facilities to drop her access card, and had a meeting with her Department Head (marketing was it? So, it would have been ugly-ER on this intervention) and HR WHEREBY IT WOULD BE EXPLAINED that the user in question isn't qualified to be employed, period, no debate, and no she cannot have access to company resources of a digital nature because look at what she did to hardware: Explination to include business continuity while someone is playing with matches and a few hundred feet of RDX.

From IT I've had to restructure other departments, against their will, because of twots like this user.

1. User goes, not a debate or discussion as my deportment simply won't let her log in to anything, ever, period.

2. Who in your department interviewed this ass and hired them? We having words as well starting with "How the hell did you think this person was qualified... nay, company in any form? It's that person's fault were all getting both barreks today.

3. Department Head... and you hired This fool? You also think I'm paying for this? (Any department head would know who I am, Director Of IT if I'm corporate, and be aware of my Zero Tolerance For Blatant Stupidity policy)

4. And to Hr, you signed off on this crap, you get to fix it... next task is the Exit Interview!

Go Team! Rah-Rah! Get the hell to work fixing this.

5. Return to IT, take my team for pizza and beer to soothe their PTSD over a user putting $diety-forsaken BUTTER in a machine Of Any Sort, and their inevitable bummed-ness over a nice PC being separated from its preferred warranty status.

6. Return to IT to enshrine box to mock the user and serve as a warning to others.

That is Precisely how I'd play it. Distilled down to this simple fact:

If you microwave butter in a cup and pour that into a computer, you Are Not Qualified to work with computers (the Excel thing is just sprinkles on that cup cake).

Put down the coffee, stop slacking your app chaps or whatever – and patch Wordpress

* WordPress is a Content Management System, not a "Blogging Platform". That role changed a decade or more ago and perception is very much behind.

* It is the Big Round Button of CMS (I prefer Drupal for my stuff, but WP is good for lots of stuff too) and yes it is intended for Users to be able to publish things. It works like Word, on purpose. One would think people could deal with that (mileage may vary).

* WordPress, like all complex software, has bugs that need patched and LO! The maintainers recognized and patched vulnerabilities... ungrateful bastards.

* WordPress sites are quick and easy and Cheap to deploy. Shady designers not withstanding, a CMS is a Framewotk... and PHP/HTML just doesn't cut it in this Modern World. No, just stop. Mobile themes, social media integration, you can't do it effectively is just raw HTML and if you're not using modern tools, the site is junk, deploy is crap, and the client losses. I hear "Hard Code the site" and think "FFS, just get a Yellow Pages Ad" I'm an engineer, so could really care less, I am right however.)

* Software Needs Updates. Let us not blame the CMS for not being regularly updated. Let's take a user pool of End User devices (laptops, mobes, fondle-slabs) that aren't up to date and then blame the vendor. That's right brilliant, that is. Pummel the user for relying on tech and not taking an interest in keeping it running smoothly...Per Usual.

* This Major Revision of WordPress will update Core on it's own a few hours after a Cute update is released. It's been this way for this Major Rev Precisely because... users.

* Plugins, themes, database stuff can all be diddled with a really great tool called wp-cli that, as it implies, is a CLI tool that can be used in scripts and mashed into cron. Naturally this requires something other than $5USD "Budget" hosting. (Same problem with Drush and Drupal... crap hosting is another user problem.)

I have little love for The Web, but let's all settle down on patches *being available*, that's just silly.

+The Gimp, because my girlfriend is a designer that hosts some 30 instances of WordPress for her clients on servers I lovingly care for, with a nimble Apache, hand rolled PHP, Redis object cache, the afore mentioned wp-cli, and intrusion detection... if I like not sleeping with the dog on the couch.

SAP eyes up BT's biz ahead of £550m EE integration

B.O.B.

This may be a joke in every geek-pub amongst my friends and peers across that Atlantic thing, and I'm just without a clue...but...

That shot of that BT tower immediately brought to mind B.O.B. (plucky little robot from the movie The Black Hole http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/B.O.B. ) ... Just me, then.

Ok.

US Air Force terminates Predator drones. Now you will fear the Reaper

Re: How Cute

The beer's for you because living on the Left Coast of the US, *all* things need more cowbell.

81's 99 in 17: Still a lotta love for the TI‑99/4A – TI's forgotten classic

Re: While we're on the subject of TI...

I have asked myself this question quite reacently, actually. I tripped over an Android App that *emulated* the TI-84...On My Way to an app that I'd used before, quite superrior in all ways. I was frankly baffled. A few days later, an eerie feeling crept over me in a coffee-house (not Starbucks) by the University in Seattle ... nearly all of the students has this calculator (did you know it comes in colors and stuff?...and you can get armored cases for it like handsets, which, frankly seems both expensive and counter-productive).

I looked it up and it seems to have *declined* in cost from when I was but a College Lad, it is still a sack of crap.

To the TI/99 though; I taught myself to program on that bad-boy (Extended BASIC Cart). While certainly not one of my favorite machines of all time, I *will* always love it.

FCC lops off red tape around small US ISPs, y'know, things like having to own up about connection speeds

Tis a wee-ISP

I've built (far, far more than) my fair share of ISPs in the early 90s and so I ave a few ideas on this:

1. 250,000 subscribers is nothing. That's just a Mom & Pop. I tend to agree that pricing and reporting are a waste of time at that scale.

2. The Absolute Twots(TM) like Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, &c. are still under regulatory thumbs UNLESS they decide to dice their companies into bite-sizes to escape regulation ... which would be a Great Thing(R), and so will never happen. They remain regulated and how well is that working for us here in the States? Hmmmm?

'First ever' SHA-1 hash collision calculated. All it took were five clever brains... and 6,610 years of processor time

Re: Can anyone prove SHA256 is any better?

>> Prove is like trying to prove god doesn't exist though.

... 'But, says Man, the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'

Installing disks is basically LEGO, right? This admin failed LEGO

Re: I bet...

Nope, 8.0"

Infosec pros aren't too bothered by Trump – it's his cabinet sidekicks you need to worry about

You will NOT blame myself and folk like myself for voting for *neither* candidate in this last election.

I'm a Director Level, UNIX bad-ass MoFo and was presented with two potential candidates for a position. Neither of those candidates for the position had the character or skills, in my not-so-humble *Analysis* (SysAdmin/Systems Analyst, qurter century), neither were qualified to fill the role required. I threw the resumes in the garbage, where they belonged, and moved on.

I am sorrry your candidate lost, and you are a child with a small grasp of the larger picture: vis.: Your candidate actually won the popular vote after cajoling the DNC, and, the Electorate decided our "Leadership".

I live on The Left Toast. I run from LA to Seattle. My vote IS AND WAS meaningless as the vote from California (duh), Oregon (seriously?), and Washington (makes California look kind of Republican-ish because, damn), THE ELECTORATE around my personal stomping ground is-and-was going to be Democrat votes.

This entire process was subverted and while my countrymen jump up and down about $whateverToday: The Entire Process Was Borked and now you're just being a whiny shit.

You think I like this, mate? I like what seems to be your preferred candidate about as much (which is to say, not a bloody whit). I'm a *Moderate*, and a Geek...not a single fucking candidate represents me or mine, OR groks a damn thing going on and you want to cry like a child over your skinned knee. [The Dems openly rigged an election and while you talk about hackers and EMails, just watch the DNC convention and *watch* the Rig, look at the scam unfold ... and I trust *that*. Not so much actually.

Stow it. The narritave is old and tired. While you cry, I'm building and tossing sand-bags around INet Infrastructure.

Do The Job and Help, or STFU. Really.

Assholes.

'So sorry' Evernote rips up privacy changes

Re: Evernote?

You can have my napkins when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

I find it amusing, actually: Geeks live and die by their notes, so when Palm (Newton if you like, Vello gave me a device to test and I refused to return it but was happy to write a check) came out we herded to that. Then laptops gave us more power so those showed up at meetings. Tablets and such next. The last meeting I was at, every suit had a gadget but Every Engineer boke out a dead tree notebook, nine of us (20 suits) From a $1.99USD composition pad (grid, naturally) to a Moleskein, and we all had rather particular writing instruments{1}. So, full circle?

Open Source ... I run OwnCloud as a subdominan on my Vanity domain, and in that OwnNote with decent client apps. No ads, none of this reading my notes bullshit. Certainly it could use a wee polish, but the benefits outweigh the detractors by orders of magnitude. It's all just markup anyway... hell I *could* just use WordPress with a category or custom content type for a particular user right if I were particularly engaged to care (I'm not).

Fun Fact: There is a bar in San Francisco where staff Will Not remove napkins from a table while bussing if the customer is still in the building as enough nerds meet to splat beer on the brain and brain on napkin.

{1} Dilbert: "I have 23 pens and pencils here, how many of them do I need to do my job?" Jr. Eng Looks...: "All of them."

Can Facebook influence an election result?

If Television Can Influence An Election, Should That Be Legal?

My mother said once 'Son, there is such a thing as stupid questions, do not think otherwise. You will remember this conversation some day.' ...

Hi Mom!

United States Air Force grounds F-35As after cooling kit cracks up

Re: New Carriers

We will not sell the Harriers back. -- USA

Verizon!'s top! lawyer! ponders! walking! away! from! Yahoo! gobble!

Re: Disclosure

I logged in, looked around. I have had a Yahoo! account for as long as it's really been around. Hell, I lived three blocks from the effing Purple Monstrosity in SOMA (San Francisco). It was like 20 EMails (I don't use POP, and their WebMail was 'Meh'). None of their services ever *really* appealed to me (they were a Great Directory). Whole thing was cobwebs and crickets. Nothing worth saving, nothing to move.

That Service Provider has displayed an unacceptable level of responsibility with user data, the law, and to The Shareholders (whom I could care less about but I Totally wanted to type "Please, won't you think of The ShareHolders?").

Instituting the Nuclear Option was the Only Option. So, we make two.

Feds collar chap who allegedly sneaked home US hacking blueprints

Re: Coincidence or something serously wrong here...

Heh...Booze Allan Hamilton does Zero vetting, that's 100% for our reliable and trustworthy friends in the FBI.

Linus Torvalds admits 'buggy crap' made it into Linux 4.8

Re: There is lots of BUG_ON() all over the place

Why the hell are you people down-voting Patrick, exactly? I couldn't be because he is 100% correct and you can't be arsed to look at a Microsoft asshole the same way you look at Linus?

I have drank with Both people in Question. Linus is BY FAR more stable than Cutler, and Cutler is BY FAR more anal than Linus (to be fair, "coding standards" does not mean Good Code).

So what's the bitch, here?

* Microsoft can't have someone that actually cares? (One, they're allowed one, they HAVE to have one, otherwise Marketing and Business units would prevent *any* code from shipping.

* You can't believe that anyone is a bigger asshole (for the right reasons) than our Fearless Penguiny Leader? (Would you like me to sort that list by last name, company name, or date?)

- Bonus Round, Two Words: Steve Jobs.

My *completely* subjective and biased opinion (not that you asked for it, and if wise, you wouldn't) is that if Linus flames you for doing something that:

* Has been covered already.

* Is documented (can be googled in LKML)

* Linus has specifically said "Do not do this".

* Linus specifically tells YOU "Did you not see me tell him/her not to do that? WTF did you then do the exact same thing?"

AND THEN calls you out specifically as a dumb-ass...you are a dumb-ass.

Honestly, how many times do you have to tell someone not to do something? When does it *finally* become "OK" to tell someone they are fucking up in a way that leaves no ambiguity (just like the previous dozen times)? Ten? Twelve? A Hundred?

In MY shop the answer is "One Time" then I haul you out by your shirt collar, into HR, and I say: "Cut their final check now because I never want to see this incompetant shit again." Following instructions of the Team Lead is a basic function of one's job as a developer. That fact that Some Open Source folk have used "I contribute" to also mean "and since I'm not getting paid, I can fuck off on my code and ignore the Lead" can and should be used to eliminate that person as Open Source as with Corporate, don't want to follow the rules then you can piss-the-hell-off.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Linus has been a hell of a lot more patient with some contributors than I (and most of my peers) ever would have been, by orders of magnitude.

@PatrickStar called it corectly.

BOFH: There are no wrong answers, just wrong questions. Mmm, really wrong ones

Re: Employee Surveys

Death By 'Working Group'? My GODs man, we have *rules* in Warfare!

No surprise: Microsoft seeks Windows Update boss with 'ability to reduce chaos, stress'

Re: WANTED

"Wanted: Dead eyed sociopath, must have can do attitude and ability to walk over dead bodies."

Somebody with a LART would be of some *serious* value. The rub is that this person must LART *UP* the command chain...I know it, you know it, *everybody* freaking knows it (well, Wall St. isn't complaining and I'm giving them a pass as Good Software Development isn't really expected to be in their bailwick whereas counting money is). And this, in the history of corporations, simply does not happen:

Well Mr. Phillips, we really would like for you to do a complete audit, that is, and, ah, well...we completely realize that in your analysis of our business you may, again in the course of your, ah, investigation, find that, um, rather, you see...that in fact *management* may be The Problem. In that event, we, ah, give you complete authority to sack any of us that you find to be, ah, incompatible with the Company Mission, or, ah, incompetant.

Never happened, never will happen. But damn would it be fun. I can see folk lined up all the way to the horizon for that job.

Re: Sounds like the main thing they want is the ability to induce apathy.

No need to move to Colorado. *Recreational* Cannibis is quite legal in Washington State and Redmond City Council just (unanamously) approved stores in city limits (making them rather late to the game and irrelevant as Microsofties live in 20-Something Cool and Fun Seattle and give negative fucks about Stepford, er, Redmond). I assure you, weed (availability) is a non-issue.

Kids these days don't smoke spliffs, they Vape. (I know this because one of the little blighters gave me hell for having the audacity to smoke an actual cigarette by the ashtray, in the smoking section, which on the West Coast of America means "roughly five miles out to sea, but we can stay within U.S. Territorial Waters". And I know damn well what was in the vape he was blithely puffing on while I got a lecture on the evils of tobacco. I was so taken back, it was *hysterical*. I was compelled to play along. Anyway, spliffs are out, vape is in, make a note of it, you gerriatric neophite. (And *that* was when I slapped him, in case you were wondering.)

Business guys don't smoke pot anyway (...yes, they are indeed still coked to the gills) and That my friends, is part of the problem. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret: You do not look for Microsoft Corporate types in Redmond. Redmond is a little one horse town that doesn't even have a 24-Hour shitty diner with great pancakes and bacon like every other sane tech city, anywhere, ever. You go to *Bellevue*. Bellevue lets you build things over six stories (so there is a concrete/glass/steel Microsoft penis erect somewhere near campus) and that is where you find the Brooks Brothers and Blow.

Or so I'm told.

I can't be arsed (this phrase you guys use is so wonderful, I love it) to scroll back to quote properly but I'm with the guy that said (roughly): "This should not be a job. This is a rather critical and rediculously basic part of writing software."

Re: Microsoft attempting to hire someone competent?

And that is two orders of magnatude movement in a better direction for their update managers (not to mention giving users something they would like for a change).

You're hired, you start Monday, and I will *personally* walk you into the HR building if you show up in Redmond. (One of those three statements is actually true.)

Internet handover is go-go-go! ICANN to take IANA from US govt

Right, let's cut this into some Capitalism chunks for a second:

1. The Porn Must And Will Flow. - I use this all the time to describe how some problems are just not going to be problems from a commercial perspetive. Amazon isn't going to be turned off and you can still get a vibrator and inflatable sheep delivered in time for the stag party (what, Books? You kinky bastard! Bugger off...creep) for the forseeable future.

2. Speech is already a problem, will continue to be a problem, will escalate as a problem. This is a shell game shaped like an onion and we are all just getting *started* on this one my friends.

3. My country has been playing ENTIRELY TOO EFFING fast and loose with a good many things Digital of late.

Look, I'm a realist and I see no less than a dozen right disasters on the horizon without expending any real effort to do so. That being said, they are entirely *different*, and I think *more* manageable than the three dozen cluster-fucks I'm looking at Right Now (er, yesterday). At any rate, we are all about to find out shortly at any rate.

... Lots of us here have been doing this shit for a while (perhaps Too long). Our industry *is* change: 25/8/366, it's what we do. This is just another one. *Punches Arm* Come-on guys, this'll be fun!

Re: @Kurt Meyer Doom I tell you

... You beat me to it. Beer for you because I didn't have to say it.

Ladies in tech, have you considered not letting us know you're female?

Re: Typical attitude from the unoppressed...

This man's Guinness is on my tab, bartender.

Re: Typical attitude from the unoppressed...

*Raises Hand* I have lived on the West Coast of America most of my life an thus I am tolerant of most cultures, colors, sexual orientations, political backgrounds &c. ... and I freely admit to hating Vegans.

Verizon techie sold people's call logs at $75 a head to private dick

Re: Capitalism

Ah. Most certainly that was it. See, his Employer does it so I was actually thinking <scathing dripping sarcasm> I don't see a problem here. It's *exactly* how the Third Party Docterine is supposed to work and flawlessly it did! Bravo! So why's the chap in trouble again? He showed pluck and verve and the Entrapaneurial Capitalist Spirit, so why should we punish the lad? Let me tell you why; He has a Non Compete Agreement with his initial NDA and how *dare* he use data that his fearless and infinitely More Capitalist Entrapaneur {TelCo's in General but Verizon very much so and they do it for Patriotism} Employer has climbed through flaming broken Regulatory glass from that horrible Government to assemble for profitable reuse. How *dare he*. He should have simply worked hard and made Management like the rest. And instead he fell for the coins instead of the dollars, tis is the roblem with today's youth. Sad.</I'll stop now>

I missed the whole taxes part. Yeah, that'll piss em' off about as much.

Four US states demand restraining order to stop internet power handover to ICANN

Re: That's not how the First Amendment works..

Oh dear...let me explain;

Give me ten Born US Citizens and ten folks that just passed their Citizen's Test, three US Citizens understand the Constitution correctly vs seven immigrants. Zero members of Congress actually understand it (though the fucking House read it like what, four times?

The take-away will always devolve to 'Oh no, those rights are for Us, not Them. America is BiPolar, didn't you know?

Human rights orgs take Five Eyes nations to court

Re: In other news

The frilly stocki?gs, or more net like? Also please save in lossless JPG for quality, thank you.

Unlucky Luckey: Oculus developers invoke anti-douchebag clause, halt games for VR goggles

Re: When Trump wins

Hold the line ... Europe does not have a dog in the United States Political Race...Really? Ok.

Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

Well, it's a hell of a lot harder to haul our toys (The CORRECT term is "Chemical/Biological/Nuclear Tactical and Strategic Weapons", I'm a military brat from the Cold War, I insist. WMDs is an acronymn to scare the South and Midwest in the US into stupidity turnip in the Oval Office that can't pronounce "Nuclear". I'm an engineer, *literally* my pocket knife and calculator could be WMDs.) around in the '57 Chevy when we got no pocket money, that's for sure.

Again, electing leadership on your side of The Pond that are somewhat more willing to say "No, so, you can't go out this Friday night." and take the Political and Economic keys away would be good. The British Prime Minister at the time was checking the oil and air in the tires. For real? That sort of parenting isn't helping. The United States (have a look around, we're not) could really use some tough love, and a right kick in the ass on the world stage.

Saying we Had Potential was very kind. Thanks for that.

I intentionally misspelled "the" before teenagers, for the record. ;)

(No beer icon today, headcold.)

Re: Americans, again not realising there's a world outside them

*Sets Beer Down*

Brah, as an American I got two things to say to that:

1. For the love of all, I really wish we *would* stop leading the damned world around. We're in teh Teenage Boy stage of development as a country. Belligerent, rude, loud, horny, stupid, arrogant, just physically developed enough to be a serious problem, and Absolutely Certain that our parents know jack-and-shit and we'll show em' won't we. And if we get through shit-head phase in the next 50 years without the rest of the world (correctly) kicking our asses down, might actually make a Reasonable Adult Country some day. Stranger things have happened.

2. Could you be bothered to tell YOUR leadership that OUR leadersbip is batshit crazy and please stop encouraging them? I seem to recall the only sane country at the start of the Iraq stuff was France. FRANCE! I mean...really.

Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

This one is for you, sir.

Bah.

Bartender! All around mate, please? Thanks!

Re: That said, I must admit I'm uncomfortable talking politics in a tech forum.

Really? I find that the only people I can talk politics with and not be mentally engineering a number of horrific BOFH endings for the people I'm talking with**. Rather, even with someone who has an opposed political viewpoint (which is impossible, as I am a 'Moderate' or analog in a retardedly digital political spectrum) in a Tech forum, the conversation devolves into "It comes down to a shitload of money being thrown at {Political/Social/Monetary/Regulatory}$SYSTEM which we regard as horribly concieved/planned/engeered/implimented (because it clearly is) due to people with no clear understanding of the actual problem but with an acute awareness of Pork in The Pie.

Look at that. No name calling. No blame on any single entity. Money wasted on solving a problem with shitty engineering because Other Departments are Empire Building. Politics are nothing but a single order of magnitude increase (mandlebrot style) in the exact same crap I see from the V-and-C Suites in any organization I've done IT in in the last quarter-century.

Nah. I think Tech Forums (Tech Folks, actully) and Political discussions are just fine.

** In fact, Engineers often put their personal differences aside to engineer, say, a better LART, together, as friends, possibly at the pub. (Tech people: Rational, clued, pickled.)

Microsoft deletes Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8

No bet. Here's my wallet. Leave me a fiver and my ID so I can get a beer on the way home.

BSODs at scale: We laugh at your puny five storeys, here's our SIX storey #fail

Re: We interrupt this movie to bring you this important BSOD

WinNT 3.51, for real? I thought I'd seen them all. I thought I'd won with OS2 Warp a few years back.

A beer for you, Sir.

The amount of WinXP I see day to day is depressing. In a two kilometer walk ^*:

* Cinema (and By Far the worst offender) ...

- 10 Outside Displays (BSODs so often it's actually not funny anymore)

- 10 POS (2 Ticket, 2 Restaurant, 2Bar, 4 Junk Food)

* Pet Stuff Chain - 6 POS

* Starbux (2 stores, in two km is considered low density here) - 2 POS Ea.

* World Market - 4 POS

* Gas (petrol for our English speaking friends) station ...

- 2 POS

- 1 ATM Stand-Alone Machine (yeah, like I'm ever going to use that).

- 1 WiFi Network with WEP that has all of the above plus CCTV on it (that I can see from my apartment). ^**

* Gas Station (next block) ...

- 1 POS

- 1 ATM Stand-Alone Machine

^* This is just what I can see, mind you, and doesn't consider what we all know is in The Back Room. I'll put a fiver down, for sport, that the Pet Store is Novell.

^** My corner store of sorts, people are a riot so yes I shop there, I just use cash.

Now, the punchline to this, I live in Redmond, Wa, Microsoft Town. For a town largely directed by a company that has publicly EOLd a product and also publicly poo-poos product of same, there sure is a hell of a lot of it.

French, German ministers demand new encryption backdoor law

Well, I was going to completely fly off the handle in an apoplectic fit for even *mentioning* Key-Escrow, but then you finished up nicely. Beer for you instead.

'Second Earth' exoplanet found right under our noses – just four light years away

Re: Ok to go.

Best we bloody well get started then, innit?

IPv6 tipping point

Re: Which phones/carriers are using IPv6 by default for mobile data?

Most carriers use a system that looks like this (may wanna' sit down, ain't pretty):

(Mobile Device) IPv6 (Tower) IPv6 (Carrier Mobile Network-Internal) IPv6 (Proxy/Gateway/Bridge) IPv4 -> [The InterTubes] -> [WebSite]

Your AT&T handset almost assuredly has an IPv6 address...that looks exactly like an IPv4 address to whatismyip.com. Your APN (Access Point Name - Like a WiFi SSID, only for Cell Networks) in your phone is going to connect to AT&T over LTE and make a"physical" link and then you get fed a TCP/IP address so you can play on the Web. Like I said, just like WiFi. I use TMobile and a custom Android ROM ... I hard-code (poke a radio button) the TMobile IPv6APN.

The catch:

Because there are a metric shitload (1.352 Standard shitloads for us in the US) of mobile devices out there that need IPs (there aren't any in IPv4 space). It made Zero sense for carriers to build their mobile networks in IPv4 space And Then try and sell us every freaking device they can (I carry two mobile devices, better half carries three sometimes four)...that's quite a few devices needing addresses. BUT, most of the {Redacted -Ed} InterTubes still insist on using {Heavily Redacted -Ed} IPv4. The irritation as a networkey kinda' guy is actually three fold:

1. Endpoints (Your average GoDaddy site, say, or many corporate sites...you know...where people actually *GO* on The Web) are still IPv4 because of their hosting companies who have little incentive to change. When they do, users will.

2. Routes are sketch. All of my personal servers have IPv6 addresses, and do IPv6 hrough their edge and to The Backbone, after that it's anyone's guess. So that's great but how do I get to my servers (say) from a StarBucks (Google Bandwidth *could* and probably *should* do what the TelCos are doing) or Mom&Pop Coffee shop's shitty last mile DSL Carrier? Answer: I use the NAT foolishness in IPv4 that I get fed and go talk to the IPv4 address of my server.

3. Related to but sepatrate from the above would be *Software* (vague, very generally) has no bloody clue what an IPv6 addy looks like. From Consumer SoHo Network gear to Apps. The lower end stuff isn't ready, isn't on by default (neither is QoS/Packet Scheduling and *that* would make The InterTubes such a better place but that's another rant entirely). OSs are ready though, and that's a Good Thing.

The carriers had/have an advantage in the Mobile space from a network perspective: It's new enough that they could make the jump in technology at any point during a new Standards Rollout (4GLTE was good for this) and they could be counted on for the Lemming Effect**. Just built an IPv6 network, and a few Big Bloody Proxys™ on the Edge. When IPv6 *is* The Net, pull the Proxys.

Long-standing wired carriers can't really change because *their* customers are entrenched (High-Small to Low-Large) in IPv4. The customers are entrenched because of their carriers and the realities of Corporate IT Networks ( ... after you tell the CFO how many geek-hours it's going to take, and they stop laughing).

As you might guess, I've got some skin in this game***. I'm happy for the mobile carriers because Half their traffic is a Seriously Good Start that has been needed for a long time, and just a wee jealous that we aren't doing better on the last mile. I'm not bitter though (yes, yes I very much am).

** Once one of them jusifies the Risk, the Budget, and just effing *does* it, then the rest will jump in as well.

*** I was drinking with some Ericsson guys a few months ago. I sent them a sympathy round because the IPv6->IPv4 handoff from {$carrier}s towers was buggering something or other.

</rant>

Monitoring software dev ordered to face wiretapping suit

Re: I keep an eye on my multi-user system logs.

Yes, but we're SysAdmins ...

1. We are natural voyeurs (after reading logs for so long, tell me you're not) and users always find the best pr0n.

2. We *ahem* "Just Happen To Be In Possession Of A Wiretap Device" (I like that judge, made me smile) so we're only minor Scum as he sees it. That's the nicest thing anyone has said all year.

The developer died 14 years ago, here's a print out of his source code

Re: Portrayal of computer tech guys in films/tv.

@efros Ha! My Female Parental Unit™ is/was an MLT so I remember her ripping a Standard Rack sized GCMS apart to replace a board (circa 1980±). Now of course the same machine is the size of a breadbox. That being said, watching a Crime Thriller with any Laboratory Work in it must be like what {users} experience watching anything Computer-y with the likes of us. Something like:

"Bullshit! I call BULLSHIT! No WAY THEY didn't {process1} before {process2} and then {process3} for the {vendor} {machine}." Sound familiar to this crowd?

However, my favorite expression of her suspension of disbelief imploding is *specifically* when a DNA test is run. She doesn't throw a rod at the test taking like an hour, no. She yells at the printer that kicked results out in color, scant seconds after the LabTech clicks Print and walks five paces to the device's conveniently timed document presentation. I get a laugh at that rant, never gets old listening to a 60+ lady threaten grevious harm to a computer peripheral.

Re: Huh?

I've taken the train across the US few times now. Sure, if I have to be there in a few hours I'll fly but if I hVe a few days to kill, train it is. Silicon Valley driving is out as there is light rail, BART, CalTrain and Amtrak. Up here in the Seattle area where I live these days a great deal is to be desired reguarding rail transit. Theres a tourist monorail thing (that's worthless as an actual mode of transportation, the SLUT (South Lake Union Transit ... and yes you can get "I rode the SLUT" T-Shirts).

What I would consider Commuter Quality™ rail here sucks. It's On The Board and ground is broken. Naturally the rails will start serving the likes of Amazon and Microsoft campuses first, but hey, whatever gets the blighters off their asses to actually make useful things.

As an American, I'd like to say:

1. You may want to sit down for this...I haven't owned a car in more than a decade. (And two of that in Los Angeles yet somehow I'm the only person able to make meetings on time). Don't feel the need to get one anytime soon, either. I get around just fine, thanks.

2. If there were more/better mass transit here I'd happily use it. Boston, San Francisco, Chicago are great for rail... other than that though, mostly shite.

[Coat : Because it just dawned that it's Beer:30]

Happy Sysadmin Day!

Dunno Mates, been a satisfyingly simple day from the US Left Coast. DNS is DNSing. Nobody has backhoed a major fiber. Apache is behaving. EMail servers are without issue (which is the only part of my day making me edgy). Got two alerts in monitor but I created both of those, so, meh. Had a pint (on an AT&T ProjMan). Popped in to the cafe to get some fluids in (sans ethanol) before Friday Pints (plus ethanol) while reading "The Confusion" by Neil Stephenson. Also, I showered my baristas with love and affection because without them we couldn't actually function.

So, Huzzah to us!

** Now, could someone bloody explain to me why we do this?

You can always rely on the Ancient Ones to cock things up

Re: There will be blood...

Velcro is King for Ethernet. My personal pet peeve is finding a nice bundle of (say) 64 lines and we gotta add one more run. Like so many of us here, people suffer from my OCD. Cut them all loose, make the new run, and here's a 50 meter roll of double sided Velcro and my Griptilian, please leave extra for the next chumps.

What keeps former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani awake at night?

Re: Cyber.

I frequently whine that 'Cyber' should be limited to William Gibson, Exclusively. Except perhaps The News...but They pay a 10,000€* mandatory per-use royalty to William for same**.

* Fine ammount and completely random. Just wanted to use Euros because it's on my fondleslab's soft keyboard.

**I bet they pay it and continue to look like tools.

McCain: Come to my encryption hearing. Tim Cook: No, I'm good. McCain: I hate you, I hate you, I hate you

Re: In the same era as Snowden exposed widespread NSA abuse...

Er, so who elected them into the job if it wasn't the public?

Clearly you haven't been watching "elections" for the last 16 years or so her the U.S.. You may have noticed that the candidated we *want* here in the US get pushed aside for candidates crammed down our throats (or up our asses) and then gerrymandering and straight making up election results pretty much precludeds the question of "who elected them". If you happen to find out who "elected" them, there are a number of us who would very much like to know.

Facebook deleted my post and made me confirm pics of my kids weren't sexually explicit

Re: Sell your soul and then complain about how it is used?

There is an OpenSores (I work in it, can call it as I wish) Social Media thing called Diaspora...I ran the first release on a vanity domain for a bit. I liked it (even thought it's Ruby) and many of you, here, would too...maaaaaking it `eff-all worthless for The Unwashed.

* Mission https://diasporafoundation.org/

* Code https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora

* A Convenient Article Why It Doesn't Work http://tinyurl.com/oc64sfy (Slate)

There's some great technical stuff there. There's great words like Freedom and Decentralized right there called out. (*Sigh*, yes it's in Ruby, I said that already.) Users don't give two shits about any of that (and I point TO FaceBook as irefutable proof). What they want is to talk to GrandMa, and their ex-squeeze from University (who happens to have moved to, say, McMurdo Base some decade ago...what?) and there they are! It was said above that feet will follow feet. Changing some two Billion people's mind and getting them to jump to a new ship turns out to be a right pain in the ass.

Apropos to both Corporate Giants and Alternative Social Media, dunno about you cats but I had very high hopes for Google+ as did Every Single Technical friend and colleague. And we got there for the party, arrived early Booze and Snacks, came through the door And! *Crickets*. Some silly technical tripe hurt (what do you mean I can't *write* to the API?...that seems like something I might very much like to do) but mostly G+ suffered from one of the Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth. And this is what I heard:

"Yes, you tell me that G+ is technically superior and that there are less ads and such, I hear you. But Everyone™ (I care about) is already on FaceBook so why should I move? Google is *also* an evil corporation so I don't see any change there. There's some borked shit here, it's not quite done baking is it? I don't want to maintain two separate Social Site things, it seems messy and close to Too Much input. And how am I going to migrate my profile, do I have to type all that shit in again?" <- My own Female Parental Unit

Yes, my Mother justified staying on FaceBook with five *Perfectly Valid* points that I can't argue against. (Ok, I *can* ... but the arguments are weak.)

Personally I still like USENET and IRC. I've got my own XMPP server and that covers chat. I use Twitter because I can play it as Output Only, and it forces me to be succinct...and I damned well know that my every blather is public, it was part of The Deal. (Also I can write to the API).

I have both FB and LinkedIn accounts that are almost completely empty. FB I *scrubbed* years back (and yes, they caught my damned scraper bot and tossed my login out, it was quite brilliant really...bastards) when they did their first massive Permissions SNAFU. I "Like" nothing. It makes a *Fantastic White Pages. Equally, LI is great for finding some really great people I've worked with in the past so Yellow Pages I guess? (I will now completely Skip my LinkedIn/Micrsoft Rant, you're welcome.)

FaceBook has the momentum, and polish, that Users want. It's shiny, it's "Fun", Eeeeeeveryoooone that's Anyone is already there, and it has Endless Mindless Distraction™.

Circling back around to the point (I get there), we in OpenSource are fantastically good at building technically neat things but not all that great at the Bright Shiny that gets users all hot and bothered. Diaspora is pretty neat (even though it's Ruby) but it's Not FaceBook, and that's the first thing users are going to notice.

So, Open Source Social Media, we got one. Already. I'm surprised you haven't heard of it.

P.S. - I haven't looked at Diaspora in a while, might pop up a Pod for kicks. If I do, I'll let you nuts know. This crowd might not *use* it, but derive great entertainment from tearing it apart while bitching the whole time, and I'd derive great entertainment from that. See? Social Media.

IBM scraps loyal staffer gifts in favour of... a congratulatory social page

Damnit, I wasn't paying attention to my card! But you're right, and didn't even have to use the FREE space. Well played mate.

Bad blood: US govt bans bio-test biz Theranos' CEO for two years

Re: Bizarrely Forbes still values Theranos at $800 million

As someone who has kitted out a number of StartUps with Aeron chairs, and I'll guess that they also have a coffee house quality espresso machine so we can account for %25 of the company's assets. (If not Aerons, then Standing Desks).

Panama Papers hack: Unpatched WordPress, Drupal bugs to blame?

Re: Simpler yet - Just Encryt

Yeahhhh...about that. I do Systems and Security and deal with the Legal Community fairly frequently. Their idea of security is that damned 25 line disclaimer in their EMail Signature to the effect of "This communication is only for the intended recipient so if you get it instead, be a dear and delete it. K? Thx. Bai!".

Lawyers...encrypt data? Hell, my patent attourney communicated ON A SECURITY PATENT in the clear. My girlfriend's divorce attourney sent her and her ex's financial data (Name/SSN/Accunt Numbers/etc) in the clear.

Good thing they make laws to prevent death-by-LART.

The only industry I kno of that's worse is medical.

Boffins could tune telescopes to listen to lasers on Mars

Punny Buggers

Cheers.

Tim Cook: UK crypto backdoors would lead to 'dire consequences'

Re: Have all the haters from here moved to the Torygraph then?

And stop leaving the pantry door open.