Posts by Pascal Monett

Five consultancies with severe branding difficulties win spots on UK government's £580m 'transformation' services framework

"outsourcing the decision of whether to outsource"

Government administration at its finest.

Sir Humphry would be proud.

Microsoft patches PrintNightmare – even on Windows 7 – but the terror isn't over

Re: Why?

That's funny. I asked that same question a while ago and I got downvoted.

Robots still suck. It's all they can do to stand up – never mind rise up

Robots suck

Well, at least they're good for vacuuming - maybe.

In any case, it seems that Real Humans are still a good ways off.

Maybe that's a good thing.

China Aerospace Investment Holdings chairman in custody after two academics assaulted

Yeah, but with one important difference : this one was caught on camera, and the video made its way to tha Intartubes, which means he will now forever be associated with his crime.

And that is justice in itself, because now his crime is public and the authorities must act.

Thirty years ago, this whole thing would have gone unnoticed, and this bastard would have beaten up an 80+ year old lady without consequence.

That thought is disgusting.

Kaseya’s VSA SaaS restart fails, service restoration delayed by at least ten hours

"anonymous currencies that are very difficult if not impossible to trace by the authorities"

Can people stop spouting that bull ? All of the funny money thingies rely on blockchain which, if memory serves, is a public ledger.

The only reason the FBI can't do anything is not because the transactions are "anonymous" (they're not), it's because the criminals are in Russia .

Kaseya says it's seen no sign of supply chain attack, sets SaaS restoration target of Tuesday afternoon, on-prem fix to follow

I discount buffer overflow attacks because, if I'm not mistaken, these are exclusively due to lazy coding.

Any coder worth the name writes code that is not susceptible to buffer overflow. And he validates his input data before treating it.

They had zero-day vulns in their product

That in itself is understandable. Complex products like network supervisors must be difficult to code, and a zero day attack is not a buffer overflow issue.

Kaseya still doesn't get a free pass, though. They need to improve their network security and be more aware of possible venues of attack.

What this whole affair underscores is the importance of staying on the ball when your company is providing critical software that other companies require to stay in business.

Kepler spots four rogue Earth-mass exoplanets floating in space, unbound to any star

Re: Spending eternity roaming space

I have the Universe Sandbox on Steam.

When I fire up the model of our solar system and put it in rapid advance, it generally takes around ten to fifteen minutes before one of the inner planets gets ejected.

I suppose the Universe Sandbox uses the GPU.

In any case, I think it is quite frightening to imagine that there are scores of planets out there that are just roaming around, not bound to a star. And to think that Hollywood has already made a film about that.

British Airways data breach lawsuit settled: Airline coughs up potentially millions to make sueball bounce away

Re: No admission of liability

Totally agree.

If you do not admit liability, why do you fork over the money ?

You paid, you're guilty.

Laptop option on the way for ortholinear keyboard hipsters in form of MNT Reform add-on

Innovation is essential

Bringing new ideas to market is always a Good Thing (TM), but I can't bring myself to find this idea interesting for me.

I've been banging keyboards for almost 40 years. No RSI, I have a rather good word-per-minute score, and I am seriously used to the AZERTY layout and staggered keys.

It doesn't matter to me that staggered keys are an artifact of typewriter fabrication constraints. My fingers know the distances now. I'm okay with it.

It's the same reason that keeps me from trying those ergonomic, split-in-half keyboards with that entirely different layout. Or the Dvorak layout. I just can't be bothered to spend a few years getting used to an entirely new key disposition.

I'm good with what I'm used to, and if ain't broken, don't fix it.

But if the younguns find it good, go ahead, try it.

Audacity users stick the knife – and fork – in to strip audio editor of unwanted features

I propose Cheeky.

For what it's worth.

SQL Server beta for Windows Server Containers terminated 'with immediate effect'

Beta software

Let's get real : companies do not have the budget to create entire test environments just to approve the latest Borkzilla brainfart.

You put out a tool that can be useful and companies are going to find a production use for it. Then, once they've adapted their business processes, they're going to rely on it.

You can go on claiming beta status all you want, terminating with immediate effect is the ultimate dick move. You lured them in, and once they were hooked, you cut them off without warning.

Honestly people, when will you learn ? Borkzilla publishes a new tool ? Great. Come back in five years and see whether it's still there or not. Then start building stuff with it.

Boffins decide what world really needs is indestructible robot cockroaches

Oh great

You worried about ROTM ?

Now we're one step closer to Screamers.

One thing's for sure : the apocalypse is going to hurt.

The splitting image: Sufferer of hurty wrist pain? Logitech's K860 a potential answer

Backlighting is the best

A split keyboard is an interesting concept, no complaint there, but I don't see that they take into account accented characters. Changing key positions is an interesting idea, but you cannot change them regularly and still keep your typing speed up, so you won't be doing much of that.

If they have an AZERTY layout for their Moonlander, I'll be looking into that.

The cost of cyber insurance increased 32 per cent last year and shows no signs of easing

Agreed. Make the policy cost $100 million/year.

Companies will look at that and have to admit that putting a few million into actually improving security is not that bad of an idea any more.

Big Tech’s Asian lobby warns Hong Kong its anti-doxxing laws could see its members leave town

The Asia Internet Coalition

Chock full of tech titans who are absolutely not based in Asia.

Oh well, that looks just like the French National Football Team (soccer, for the rest of you) which is chock full of players who were absolutely not born on French soil.

Business as usual then, carry on !

DARPA nails cash to project 'FENCE' — a smart camera that only sends pics when pixels change

"detected by the thermal detector [..] and machine learning algorithms"

I have a problem understanding that. Does that mean that the camera has a statistical analysis machine sitting behind it, judging what has changed and what to send ?

Or is it that they're going to ML the thing thoroughly and put the resulting code in the camera's software ? That sounds more likely.

Oh, and I like the video that starts with the mention that it is comparing actual "normal" camera output with a simulation of what a "neuromorphic" camera would produce (because anything high-tech these days is either quantum or neuro-something, obviously). In other words, their fancy video is just a pie-in-the-sky, we-have-no-proof PR puff piece.

Quantum Key Distribution: Is it as secure as claimed and what can it offer the enterprise?

"magic quantum woo-woo security"

I think we're going to be getting a lot more of that before we start seeing any actual quantum encryption security.

And the biggest problem for me is the fact that it seems you can only reliably exchange keys over a dedicated fiber line, without interruptions. Well that means that quantum encryption over the Internet is off the cards, in which case quantum encryption is going to remain a niche application in locations that already likely have more security than you can imagine.

Disco classic Rasputin and pop anthem revealed as reasons Twitter suspended Indian politicians

So, Twitter was actually doing its job

But of course, why let facts get in the way of a good bit of political grandstanding ?

Oh, by the way, Rasputin on Twitter : big no no, but Rasputin on Youtube : fine ?

Taikonauts complete seven-hour spacewalk, the first for China since 2008

Indeed.

The Wright brothers were not the first to fly, they were the first to accomplish controlled flight.

Oh but we have standards.

And if they don't suit you, we have other standards.

Just ask Google or Apple.

Things that needn't be said: Don't plonk a massive Starlink dish on the hood of your car

Re: Linky

Yep. Well, the only thing surprising me was that this didn't happen in Florida.

Not for children: Audacity fans drop the f-bomb after privacy agreement changes

8 hours

This morning I read that other article. It seemed rather reasonable to me. I went and checked the website, they were talking about opt-in telemetry.

I made a post where I stated that opt-in telemetry was better than most, because if you don't opt-in, it doesn't exist.

And now this.

I said this morning that if ever Muse got out of hand, I'd be the first to light the fire for the stake.

Well, I've got my lighter now. Point me in the right direction and we're going to have a bonfire.

Re: law enforcement and data sharing provisions are absolutely standard and reasonable

It's a program for manipulating audio, for frak's sake.

What the hell does law enforcement have to do with that ?

Would you also like law enforcement provisions for tying your shoelaces ?

Black screens in Windows 11? Bork has seen it all before

I like blue

But I think it would be better if all those stores with their fancy digital screens started to think about the ecological cost of their inane advertisements and risk of borkage, and just hung a printed banner that doesn't fall over if the lights go out.

New mystery AWS product 'Infinidash' goes viral — despite being entirely fictional

Here at Signal

We don't know what the fuck we're doing, but we have our finger on the pulse of the market and we're ready to spew bullshit bingo at a moment's notice.

Exactly the kind of thing that would make me avoid a company at all costs.

IT for service providers biz Kaseya defers decision about SaaS restoration following supply chain attack

"Only a very small percentage of our customers"

Ah, the gold standard of excuses.

Fuck that. You were asleep at the wheel, or too incompetent to provide actual security to your customers.

I don't care if only one customer got infected by your fault, it is one too many.

Solarwinds123 has already happened. You have no excuse.

Re: Surely they are finished as a company?

Is TSB finished ?

They'll recover. The Public is abysmally incapable of drawing the proper conclusions and all those companies would need to change their infrastructure and software stack, and that costs money, whereas risk can be insured.

Can we have a vomit icon ?

Opera browser tries to make sweet music for the ears of Chromebook users

Re: integrated WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook Messenger.

And, on the other hand, that is definitely putting me off of using Opera

Re: how is it that Chromebooks do not have the same requirement

Because nobody has thrown a lawsuit against Apple for that yet ?

NHS England staff voice concerns about access controls on US spy-tech firm Palantir's COVID-19 data store

What a surprise

Backroom dealings without scrutiny or supervision end up in unsatisfactory data handling. Count my gast flabbered.

Face it : it's Palantir's data now, not yours.

How anyone can decide to work with this slime is beyond me, but that's what you get when Democracy is not first in mind when the deciders go about their business.

Big Blue's big email blues signal terminal decline – unless it learns to migrate itself

"IBM has one chance of salvation"

Throw away the Board and the top 20 layers of management that encrusts it, and get back to having competent people on board - even if they're more than 40 years old.

Audacity is a poster child for what can be achieved with open-source software

Calm down, people

It would appear that, although telemetry is indeed included, it is optional and disabled by default.

Now, I'm just as annoyed by any telemtry at all as everyone else, but hey, if you have to opt-in (contrary to many), then it's basically not there.

Let's not burn something to the stake if it isn't actively trying to track us, okay ? Now, if it happens that somebody finds out that this is all a lie and Audacity is tracking whether you opt in or not, then I will gladly light the fire myself. In the mean time, let's not get all riled up over not much, shall we ?

One good deed leads to a storm in an Exchange Server

We've grown with email

And we've learned lots of things through lots of errors and surprises, but I think the one bit of email functionality that has to have caused the most trouble is the out of office auto-reply.

It is rather useful, generally speaking, but it can still cause havoc even now. Thankfully, email servers have been taught to not auto-reply to auto-replies.

Graphcore's AI chips may not be as powerful as Nvidia's GPUs, but may provide good bang for your buck

I think the idea is more on the line of the "AI" should not disregard any effort in diagnosing possible sickness just because the patient belongs to a particular subset of the human race.

So, basically, "AI" should treat everyone equally and work just hard for each case it is presented with.

Which is an obvious requirement. That said, certain populations may be more at risk of certain types of disease. It might not be that easy to ensure that the AI is not going to neglect any possible signs in populations that are not as much at risk of a specific disease if the markers are present.

IT management biz Kaseya's VSA abused to infect businesses with ransomware

"promising [..] a trade-in service for My Cloud accounts"

Oh sure. Now that you have demonstrated that you cannot keep my on-premise item secure, you want me to trust you with stuff on The Cloud.

Well of course ! Where do I sign ? </sarc>

While some Apple employees aren't happy with hybrid work plans, those on the retail front line are probably delighted

2 weeks a year ?

I believe it has been proven that Apple (among many others) has survived perfectly well with 99% of its staff working from home for around an entire year.

Now you pretend that 2 weeks is the acceptable maximum ?

Are you crazy ?

Stupid question. From a company with its own concealed-weapon-carrying police force that allows itself to raid its employees' homes, of course you are.

Still, 2 weeks is not going to cut the mustard.

You need to think different (don't know where I heard that).

Microsoft tells US lawmakers cloud has changed the game on data privacy, gets 10 info demands a day from cops

"7–10 secrecy orders per day"

And yet Huawei is still the big bad problem, right ?

A real go-GETTR: Former Trump aide tries to batter Twitter by ripping off its UI

Product is not the problem

Your problem is that you're a bunch of numbnuts with a slavery-era mentality that missed the fact that we are now in the 3rd Millennium and racism is no longer kosher.

Not to worry though, with your grip on reality I'm sure you'll get around to understanding things by the 4th Millenniium.

Google has second thoughts about cutting cookies, so serves up CHIPs

It's simple

Google is desperately trying to find some way to make us believe that its use of cookies is good for us, when it is actually only good for Google's ad business.

I don't care what Google proposes. Whatever it is is only destined to keep the money flowing in and our privacy being sold out.

Ex-boss of UK's Competition and Markets Authority asks: How can it tackle Big Tech when no one knows what the CMA is?

"come down like a ton of bricks"

So, does that mean that the fine will be 1% of the company's daily revenue, or 0.001 % ?

NASA talks up Perseverance Mars rover's self-driving rock-avoiding abilities

"any chance we could get more of that on Earth"

Okay, I'm really sorry to rain on anything that NASA has going, but we need to remember two things about this 'thinking while driving' thing :

1) Perseverance is driving at 3.33 cm/second - not exactly breakneck speed

2) there are no intersections on Mars, or stop signs, or school crossings, or basically any other unexpected event in any way possible

So no, Perseverance-style 'thinking while driving' is not going to be of much use on our Blue Planet.

Not unless we institute a global speed limit of "oh God I'd be better off walking".

Boffins boast of 'slidetronics' breakthrough enabling binary switch just two atoms thick

"it could be thinner"

Can we stop with that obsession ?

I know science-fiction films want us to have holographic phones and tablets springing up from a wristband, but we've already reached the point where your phone in your back pocket will snap if you forget to take it out before you sit down.

We have reached peak thinness.

It is time we get back to something that you can actually hold onto without fear of the screen snapping.

Oh, and we need to get back to having repaceable batteries, Apple be damned.

Devilish plans for your next app update ensure they never happen – unless you start praying

They generally are.

Xiaomi my heart is still beating: Reg hack takes Chinese giant's new fitness band for a spin

"[tech] needs to be slicker, bigger, and brighter to really get you faster and fitter"

No, it does not.

Getting fit is on you, not on whatever piece of tech you splurge on.

Rocky Linux release attracts 80,000 downloads as ex-CentOS users mull choices

"What I've learned was that simply being a non-profit is not a magic pill for honesty and integrity"

Ain't that right, Nominet ?

IT manager who swindled Essex hospital trust out of £800k gets 5 years in prison

Barry Stannard

Soon to be your new friendly face at the nearest McD's.

With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work, he might even rise to flipping the burgers.

A well-deserved fate.

Radioactive hybrid terror pigs have made themselves a home in Fukushima's exclusion zone

They don't have granite in Japan ?

Openreach to UK businesses: Switch is about to hit the fan. Prepare for withdrawal of the copper-based phone network now or risk disruption

"Openreach owner BT will pay minimal tax in the coming years"

So, after having spent years dilly-dallying and not putting any money into infrastructure, BT is now handsomely rewarded with a guaranteed low-to-nothing tax bill to make it do its job.

Isn't it great to be at the top ?

Former NASA astronaut and Shuttle boss weigh in on fixing Hubble Space Telescope

Re: So you're telling me there's a chance

And I choose to hang on to that chance with all my might.

Gotta learn how to cross my toes . . .