Posts by Pascal Monett

Ukraine asks ICANN to delete all Russian domains

"your authoritarian government is committing human rights abuses"

Hmm. Namecheap urgently needs to put that statement in effect on China because Uighurs.

What's happening to Ukraine is not good in any way, but reacting now kinda demonstrates a certain level of bias that doesn't really look good when you take a step back and think about it.

But hey, let's go and punish Russia every way we can (while studiously ignoring that every statement can likely be applied to China as well). What's the worst that could happen ?

BitConnect boss accused of $2.4bn crypto-Ponzi fraud has disappeared

Ah, the ol' hire a hitman thing

Better know how to do it right.

Apparently, hiring on Craigslist is not the best of ideas.

President Biden calls for ban on social media ads aimed at kids

15% minimum tax rate ? Great idea.

It will also ensure he doesn't get re-elected.

Which is something he might not mind.

Volcano 'shredded' submarine cable, vastly complicating repair job

90 kilometers of cable impacted

And no new cable before 6 months.

That is quite the repair job.

Apple seeks patent for 'innovation' resembling the ZX Spectrum, C64 and rPi 400

Re: 99% of modern industrial control kit

No, they won't. But the first lawsuit over that laughable but pitiful excuse for a patent will be quite entertaining.

Russia is the advanced persistent threat that just triggered. Ready?

"if the data is safe from physical compromise then it's doubly so from virtual"

I completely disagree with that sentence.

I think it is way harder these days to secure from virtual intrusion than from physical.

IT advice fuelled by beer is the best IT advice of all, right?

Re: He is very bright

Not really, no.

It's one thing to have an opinion on stuff you've been told, it's another thing entirely to go off on a revenge campaign about what you think you heard.

He should have confirmed his suspicions first by asking pointed questions. On top of the fact that he visibly offered the drink just to get something he could thrash after the fact. That behaviour is despicable.

In any case, if it had been me, that would have been the last time I ever had a drink with that guy.

IBM cannot kill this age-discrimination lawsuit linked to CEO

This has been going on long enough

I do hope that somebody is not going to agree to settle out of court and get IBM nailed to the wall for once.

Intel blasts Bitcoin mining, unveils own mining kit

Yeah, but no

ALL funny-money mining schemes are the problem. Giving them a chip that consumes less power is not the solution, the miners will just look at their power budget and buy that many more chips.

The hypocrisy of that interview is staggering.

UK starts to ponder how Huawei ban would work

Re: We need both the US and China, but more the US.

Oh really ?

Try buying something not made in the US. Not too difficult, I imagine.

Now try buying something not made in China. Outside of food, you're going to have a hell of a ride.

I think you need to rethink that statement.

Why do you keep tip-toeing around the bush ?

Just admit it : it's a sanction against China. Then go on living your lives.

If you're so afraid of equipment from companies beholden to their government, then you only have one choice : make your network equipment a government institution and only use your home-grown equipment.

Because Cisco is just as beholden to Washington DC as Huawei is to Beijing.

Remeber what National Security Letters are for.

Microsoft gives tablets some love in latest Windows 11 build

Yeah ! 35 new emojis !

I'm sure everbody was waiting for that.

Oh, sure, you would've preferred something useful but remember : it's a Microsoft product.

Fujitsu confirms end date for mainframe and Unix systems

Support for five more years ?

It's a mainframe, not a laptop. You support a mainframe for 25 years, not five.

If Fujitsu thinks that it's going to sell a mainframe that only has five years of support left, I think Fujitsu is in for a bad surprise.

They may as well stop making them now - as long as they still offer support until 2035, they just might still sell one or two.

Your app deleted all my files. And my wallpaper too!

Re: Even Worse

And it's with that pain that she learned not to trash her files.

Pain is a good thing. It's the only thing some users understand.

I so agree with you. Especially when it comes to laptops, which are often delivered with a single partition for OS and data. So, when the inevitable Windows crash happens and you have to reinstall Windows, it wipes the disk and your data with it.

Once upon a time I insisted on having two HDDs, one for the OS, one for the data (and swap file). Nowadays, with SSDs and their size, a single disk is enough, but I still insist on a data partition and I install all my programs and put all my files there.

That way, when Borkzilla borks again, at least I can reinstall Windows without losing any actually important stuff.

Icon because Borkzilla still hasn't understood this.

Ukraine's IT sector looks to business continuity plans as Russia invades

Well it's kind of difficult to tell everone to relocate to another country, right ?

Although that's what might end up happening anyway.

EU proposes law forcing manufacturers to share data

"the EU was still negotiating with US officials on a solution"

Sorry, what is there to negociate ?

The US does not get EU citizen's data. Simple.

I can agree to an exception when an EU citizen is physically going to the US, but that is it.

And if the White House don't like it, it can stuff it where the sun don't shine.

Mobile-based ID wallets for government are coming

"mobile-based identity wallets"

Oh yeah, absolutely. We really need an identity verifying app on the most insecure, unupdated platform that has ever existed.

Bonus round : having to prove that you are the owner of the phone once you've "proven" your identity.

Different standards will create opposition to those initiatives ?

I'm already there, mate.

Intel energizes decades-old real-time Linux kernel project

So, two people in their spare time

If OpenSSL is only maintained by two people, then how many other crucial Open Source projects are there out there that are only maintained by a handful of people ?

Sometimes it feels like the Internet only works because of a dozen people . . .

Yes, Mark Zuckerberg is still pushing metaverse. Next step, language translation

"a model designed for developing smart chat bots that operate in the metaverse"

Oh good, Zuck is going to fill his Meta-fied Second Life with a bunch of virtual people. Then he will declare the Metaverse a success and spend his time chatting with bots.

And the rest of the world will watch him burn all his money on that particular pie in the sky.

I'm glad you believe that a computer program can teach itself. I can't wait to see how that turns Tay.

US winds up national security team dedicated to Chinese espionage

"China [..] does not permit the operation of a free press"

I think there is a certain US political party who would love to be able to do the same thing and ensure that only its point of view was published.

Google kills download-shrinking Lite Mode browser tech

"mobile data services offer many gigabytes of monthly downloads"

Be that as it may, Lite Mode has many advantages and there is no real reason to remove it.

It's like saying "the price of gas has fallen so low, we've stopped making economical cars". No, you don't stop saving data just because in India they have great mobile data plans. I have a budget of 4.5GB/month - normally more than enough. Recently, there was a storm that cut my fiber connection for three days. Working from home, I used up a total of 6.8GB during that time, with a nice 70% increase in my phone bill for that month.

Keep saving the data, you never know when you might need that.

Besides, less clutter on the backend will do good for everyone.

Brave does a good job of saving my data - it blocks ads.

That alone has allowed me much more surfing bang for my bucks.

Americans far more willing to hand over personal data

"73% of users worldwide use their Google or Facebook accounts to log into other apps"

Well that's a big, fat single point of entry if ever I saw one.

Of course, I've been working in IT for more than a quarter of a century. I have no problem managing (checks list) around 200 passwords. I never use the same password twice, nor the same login.

But I know what I'm doing. People who view the Internet as their own personal shopping space, and their computing device as an enabler, those people simply cannot imagine everything that goes on behind and likely wouldn't understand if you explained it to them. It's a shopping cart, what's the problem ? That is their point of view, and I'm not going to blame them.

Maybe, just maybe, all this data sharing and consumer pressure just might end up in creating a world where everyone, not just IT professionals, have the means to really manage where their data is going and who can use it.

Maybe.

Samsung shipped '100 million' phones with flawed encryption

Why leave implementation to the vendors ?

It would seem that a proper encryption scheme should also have a default implementation function/procedure.

Encryption is difficult. Even if you (like me) have no idea how difficult it actually is, there's largely enough history to demonstrate that fact.

So don't leave it up to the vendors. If you create an encryption scheme, give a default, secure, functional scheme that vendors can rely on.

That way, if they go their own route and screw up, it's entirely their own fault, whereas here you kinda built the scaffold for them to hang themselves.

US imposes sanctions as Russia invades Ukraine

It would be. The issue is : there is no position of ACTUAL power.

Well, except for Putin.

IRS doesn't completely scrap facial recognition, just makes it optional

But he said "a proper facial recognition system".

His point is valid in that specific, restricted area.

As in, a facial recognition system that does not just a picture, but LIDAR technology or somesuch to create a 3D map of the face on top of visual cues.

That should prove more difficult to cheat, whatever makeup you have.

Of course, if you go putting Silly Putty on your face and makeup on top of that, then all bets are off.

I guess facial regocnition is just doomed from the start.

China's APT10 cyber-spies 'targeted Taiwanese financial firms'

Interesting point

The USA could not simulatenously handle Putin and Xi.

Even though aircraft carriers and Green Berets are not going to be in the same places.

Once upon a time the USA handled the Atlantic and the Pacific fronts simultaneously.

What a fall from grace.

Lenovo's data center business finally makes a profit

"$1.9bn of revenue [..] produced $17m of surplus"

Wow, that's a lot of work for not much return.

As a freelance, if I had almost $2 billion in revenue, I could shut my company down even after income tax (which would be at least $380 million) and there would be plenty enough left for my family for generations (well, until the 3rd one at least).

Cisco warns firewall customers of four-day window for urgent updates

Re: Ouch...

Agreed.

It's very nice of Cisco to warn and serve the required updates, but I agree that companies are going to be a bit wary of just rushing into this, and it takes time to validate a test server update.

Besides, it would really be unfortunate for a bank to be offline for two weeks while they recover from a borked update, wouldn't it ?

Unless you're TalkTalk, of course, in which case nobody cares.

Schneider Electric says supply chain held it back

"We could have done better if we would have had supply at the level of our demand."

So, what are you going to do about it ?

Might be time to think about having a bit of stock again.

FreeDOS puts out first new version in six years

"It installs to a FAT32 partition"

Um, idle question : what HDD still has little enough space to be completely formatted in FAT32 ?

I don't think there are any. So, if using an HDD, you're partitioning it into the ridiculously small FAT32-sized partition, then partitioning the rest in NTFS (or whatever floats your boat).

Dutch govt issues data protection report card for Microsoft

Re: Granular access

I think you're asking the wrong question. The actual question is : why use Microsoft products when you do not want any possibility of data exiting the EU ?

Borkzilla is a US company. It is understandable that its products are tied with its US servers.

If it is so important to keep data inside your own borders, use LibreOffice and make yourself a local cloud-based fileshare with encryption.

It's not as sexy, for sure, and you're probably going to need to replace Outlook with something else, but it responds to the demands.

Obviously, manglement is not going to have its pretty charts and PowerPoint presentations any more. Boo hoo.

Scottish universities launch £42m ERP tender

"Universities across Scotland are clubbing together"

This is interesting. Given the atrocious history of ERP projects I have been reading recently, I am really curious : what makes them think that grouping universities is going to make it work better ?

Or maybe it will, since there will be less manglement of the project and it will be managed by a group that wants the whole thing to actually work instead of being managed by one guy who just wants a star on his CV, or a group of psychotics who view this as an empire building exercise (by excluding all other empires, of course).

So, I'm curious.

EncroChat defendants' lawyers make bid to halt trial

I just love the idea

A criminal complaining that the police used malware to catch him.

Heh, heh.

Airtag clones can sidestep Apple anti-stalker tech

"we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products."

Even though we have created a product that specifically allows for stalking without any serious safeguards.

Shame on you for taking advantage of it.

Come on Apple, you goofed. Own up to it, retire the product and think of a better version.

Construction starts on another Asia-Europe undersea cable

Okay, I have a question

With all these multi-terabyte per second connections coming in from all over the world, what is the impact on the backend in Europe ?

100 TB here, 100TB there, pretty soon you've got petabytes of capacity at your doorstep.

Does the EU have a global backend measured in petabytes ?

Top chipmakers ignore India's semiconductor factory subsidies

One question : how do you track a VPN connection ?

I mean, legally, of course. I live in France. Let's say I use a VPN to connect to Switzerland, then another one to connect to India, then I do my business.

The EU has no right to check my Switzerland VPN, nor does India. India can well find out that there is a Swiss IP behind my India VPN connection, but the trail stops there unless India makes an official enquiry.

I mean, we're not in GoldenEye territory here where the Indian government is going to have the image of the world map and a red line going from India to Switzerland to France, are we ? They still have to do something in Switzerland to find out that there is another connection from France, right ? And that something is illegal if India doesn't show a warrant, right ?

US to attack cyber criminals first, ask questions later – if it protects victims

Re: "to track money through the blockchain"

I have never heard of an assumption that there is a single, global blockchain.

Every instance of funny money has its own blockchain, I think that's pretty obvious.

However, even if I do not know how blockchain works, I do know that a blockchain is a public ledger, emphasis on the word "public".

So, as far as I'm concerned, all the police need to do is hire competent IT experts in blockchain and they'll be able to trace the money and shut down illegal operations. Or at least point the finger at them.

Now, as far as attacking anything abroad, I do believe that that puts the US in the same boat as the malware criminals themselves. Of course, it is expedient, but it is also not justified when you call yourself a democracy.

On the other hand, the US is no longer a democracy so, win all around ?

Should we expect to keep communication private in the digital age?

Reg readers aren't going to run up the white flag on their privacy

Damn right we won't.

Icon because . . resistance.

Internet connection now required for Windows 11 Pro Insider setup

No way that will make it to the general public

Not without a lawsuit, that is.

Tying the installation of an OS to having a proprietary online account is veering straight into monopolistic behavior . . . again.

As usual Borkzilla is confusing itself with a black hole. The difference is, there's nothing a judge can do against a black hole.

Food for thought on the return to the office

Re: What's your reason?

You are misconstruing things : they are specifically planning for the budget to not match the inflation rate.

London university on hunt for £17m SAP ERP replacement

Oh, brilliant

Another massive ERP failure in the making.

Gotta go stock up on popcorn.

File suffixes: Who needs them? Well, this guy did

Unfortunately, being stupid is not a disqualifying criteria for using a computer.

And if you think that just changing the file extension from xlsx to csv changes the file format, then you're too stupid to use a computer.

More unfortunately, there are many, many people who haven't got a clue what a file extension means, but they're still employed and using a computer.

That's the employer's fault : he doesn't know what a file extension means either.

Yes, hiding file extensions really was a brilliant marketing idea.

Eh, Ballmer ?

It allows miscreants to send you Word.doc.exe and you see Word.doc and you execute it.

A big, fat FAIL in my book.

I prefer the opportunity for fuckups - they're my fault.

Dumb UI choice made by Marketing overriding Engineering, something that never should have been allowed but, Ballmer.

'Nuff said.

Alarm raised after Microsoft wins data-encoding patent

A contradiction in terms

"the Open Invention Network (OIN, a for-profit industry-controlled consortium) "

The term Open used in the name of a for-profit company should be banned, pure and simple.

Intel reveals GPU roadmap with hybrid integrated discrete graphics

Bold vision

It is clearly a bold stance.

Unfortunately, it's not because you are going to be able to stack chips on top of one another that, all of a sudden, you're going to become a graphics king.

Now, don't get me wrong, there are very capable people working at Intel, that I will not dispute. But there are also very capable people working at Nvidia, and Nvidia has twenty years of experience in high-end graphics. Intel ? Not so much.

So I'm glad that you've set the bar to high expectations. Unfortunately, I have never counted on Intel to power my gaming sessions, and I have no reason to think that that is going to change any time soon.

I am willing to be pleasantly surprised, though.

Taiwan cracks down on China spying on tech firms

That really is a nice idea and I subscribe to it wholeheartedly, but look around. If we did that to China, in the short term we'd have next to nothing left to buy.

And I don't see much in term of European or American industry gearing up to replace Chinese sweatshops, especially in the luxury market.

It just won't happen.

It should, but it won't.