Posts by Pascal Monett

We can't avoid it any longer. Here's a story about the NFT mania... aka someone bought a JPEG for $69m in Ether

Well, good for him

He just took everything he'd ever worked on and made a giant JPG out of it.

Which he sold for almost $70 million, the bastard.

I wonder how long it'll take him to spend all that money ?

Facebook’s new world domination ploy is a two-megabyte Instagram app tested in India and Brazil

I don't think that that is the point. I think the point is that the app can run on (very) low-end hardware.

The cancer is spreading.

Microsoft's GitHub under fire after disappearing proof-of-concept exploit for critical Microsoft Exchange vuln

"Jang's PoC code pertains to a recently disclosed vulnerability that's being actively exploited"

I do not see that as a valid excuse. The PoC is not functional. Since the vuln is already being exploited, miscreants don't need that code to guide them, they already have their own.

Memo to scientists. Looking for intelligent life? Have you tried checking for worlds with a lot of industrial pollution?

Wait a minute

Oumuamua came from an alien system, there's nothing to say it was made by aliens.

Now it is F5’s turn to reveal critical security bugs – and the Feds were quick to sound the alarm on these BIG-IP flaws

Re: Holy cluster of &@£$

But, but, that costs money.

And vendor one promised he could handle everything.

Å nei! Norway's Stortinget struck by Microsoft Exchange malware

This might be an opportunity for Notes/Domino 12 to make a comeback

I know some will howl with dispair, but don't forget that Domino 12 allows you to use a browser to access Notes databases. No more thick client with the funky shortcuts.

Domino is much easier to manage than Exchange, and can accept way more clients. Clustering Domino mail servers is robust and responsive, and Domino is not easily hacked.

There are some arguments in its favor now.

First Australia, maybe Europe, now America mulls effort to potentially make Google, Facebook pay for news

I would not bet on that.

Embedded tech specialist Advantech warns component shortage will slow growth

"to reflect the supply problems and to discourage hoarding and overbooking"

And maybe, just maybe, to skim an additional 5% since demand is up. It's the law of capitalism, come on.

Can we get a top hat with monocle icon ?

Right, I know the way out.

Alibaba Cloud quietly tests desktops-as-a-service

"Alibaba has again matched its cloudy rivals"

Well, yes, and no.

Microsoft's Windows Virtual Desktop is free, tied to your existing 365 license (that's what it's website says). Of course, Microsoft then goes and contradicts itself on its pricing page, but hey, nobody ever said Borkzilla's right hand knew what its left hand was doing.

This Alibaba Cloud offering is obviously a good idea. People have had to scramble in the past year to get their hands on anything with a screen, so local CPU power and RAM is likely not in the high range. Offering a remote PC which your wheezing lump of plastic and toxic metals can just look at while the remote does the job is not a bad idea.

I'd like a realistic pricing on Borkzilla's offering though, for comparison.

It's wild the lengths Facebook engineers will go to find new ways to show you inane ads about tat: This time, AR...

Re: More agency?

Indeed. I deal with enough agencies in my daily life, I definitely don't need The Zuck to shove yet more in my face.

As battle for future of .UK's Nominet draws closer, non-exec director hits a nerve with for-profit proposal

Nope, not enough

"freezing management's wages and domain renewal prices, increasing the amount of money paid to good causes, and creating new ways to communicate with members "

Not enough. Management wages should not be frozen, they should be brought back to level they were before the unjustified augmentations. Do not increase the amount of money paid to good causes, set it to the amount it was before you slashed it so unjustly.

And you need no "new" ways to communicate with members, you only need to reactivate the forum you already had before you decided that you didn't like the comments.

I sincerely hope you crash and burn.

Atos handed £1.5bn to run IT for UK government-founded pension trust Nest

"this procurement presents an exciting opportunity for Nest"

Um, I think it presents a much more exciting opportunity for Atos, which will be milking NEST for two decades and maybe more if things don't go IBM.

Of course, the £1.5bn will have been spent in 10 years instead of 18, because of all the stuff that will be added, but hey, it's a UK Gov IT project, so nobody will be surprised.

OVH data centre destroyed by fire in Strasbourg – all services unavailable

I love the remark in the tweet that says "if you used OVH backup, you're backups are in another DC".

SGB3 ?

Then again, if their computer system is down, how are you going to work ?

Burning anything is generally worse for the environment.

Of course, a chimney fire is less worse than a roomful of plastics and toxic chemicals going up in smoke.

License to thrill: Ahead of v13.0, the FreeBSD team talks about Linux and the completed toolchain project that changes everything

"we don't have one big dictator"

Whether it's a single person, a Board, a Council or however else you want to call it, some entity has to be calling the shots.

You want to take a dig at Torvalds ? He can take it.

But, functionally, your method is no different. A decision is made from On High, and it is enforced in the community.

I'm glad you found a method that suits you, but don't go feeling all smug about it. Nominet used to be managed by its community, now look where it's at.

Microsoft settles £200,000+ claims against tech support scammers who ran global ripoff from cottage in Surrey

I'd wager you have to be a lawyer to have even heard that word, let alone know when to use it.

Surprise: Automated driving biz finds automated driving safer than letting you get behind the wheel

Something's wrong here

"In the eight per cent of simulations as a responding driver that Waymo's code couldn't improve on, each was the result of a rear-end collision – which human drivers also have a hard time avoiding. "

It is well-neigh impossible for a person waiting at a red light to avoid being rear-ended, but I'd argue that it should be entirely possible for an automated vehicle to avoid rear-ending a stopped car. I fail to see how Waymo finds this inevitable.

Also, I'd like to ask if they simulated the weather conditions at the time of the accident (of course not), or the state of the road signage (wear and tear - obviously not), or the position of the sun (nope). These are things a human driver has to cope with, and an automated vehicle will have to learn to cope with as well.

In short, their simulation simulated what would happen in an ideal world with ideal driving conditions.

So 10 out of 10 when everything's perfect. Great news.

Now try it again in the real world.

A Code War has replaced The Cold War. And right now we’re losing it

high qubit quantum computing and artifical general intelligence

If we wait on those to solve our connectivity problems, we might as well unplug everything.

I don't know what the final solution is, but a good start is to stop using other people's code with blind trust. Oh sure, take a module from GitHub, by all means, but don't link to it. Bring it in on your dev server, check the code, test it to see if it works. If it is suitable, then port that to your production environment.

If there's an update on GitHub, start over.

Yes, it is tedious and time-consuming. The alternative is SolarWinds123.

Your choice.

Customer comment and contributions no more as Microsoft pulls the plug on Office 365 UserVoice forum

Historically, Borkzilla has only ever backtracked when the backlash was massive.

The rest of the time, it's "how many users complaining ? 0.00001% ? Leave it be".

Ridiculous

El Reg is not Borkzilla.

The day El Reg forums are shut down is the day El Reg is dead, and God prevent that from ever happening.

Vodafone chief gushes over OpenRAN, says commercial deployments to start this year

"you can do most of your operations remotely"

I hope that they have baked security in from the start and bolted it on as usual, because if you can do stuff remotely, so can a hacker.

Microsoft quantum lab retracts published paper: Readings that cast doubt on crucial discovery went AWOL

Not very reassuring

The future of quantum computing apparently relies on the discovery of a theoretical particle that is its own antiparticle. That seems to be quite the barrier to entry.

On the other hand, "they were unable to replicate their study’s results " means that the study was clearly not conducted in a scientific manner. When you're a scientist, you're supposed to check, double check and, in a case like this, triple check your data and your results. When you can reliably replicate your results, then you can publish.

So this was not a proper scientific study. It was, however, a perfectly valid Microsoft study : throw something on the wall, see if sticks, publish.

Way to go.

Just when you thought it was safe to enjoy a beer: Beware the downloaded patch applied in haste

Indeed.

Since Office 2010 I have seen many companies imposing restrictions on the Reply All button in Outlook (as a freelance consultant I see many different companies).

I have also heard of some people getting called to the CEOs office - and it wasn't for a promotion. I'll bet those ones didn't repeat the blunder any time soon.

SolarWinds just keeps getting worse: New strain of backdoor malware found in probe

"Investors should be wary of social media endorsements of investment opportunities"

Investors with a brain already are.

Then again, they don't look to Twitter to get tips.

Your turn

"nefarious actors wondering if their real-world identities will be discovered thanks to the leaked data"

Good. See how it feels for once.

Delayed, overbudget and broken. Of course Microsoft's finest would be found in NASA's Orion

Windows for Spaceships ?

As far as I can see, the notion of Windows in space is stillborn. DOA.

Windows is an OS that cannot function properly without a regular connection to the mothership (pun intended). On top of that, if ever have to reinstall a PC on the other side of the Moon, Windows Activation is going to be a right nightmare.

Don't go telling me that you can install a Windows Activation Server or other such nonsense. It is not a solution, it is nothing but a Band-Aid.

Linux is the only OS that deserves going to space. It's modularity and frugality are legendary, and it does not phone home.

Remember that day in 2020 when you were asked to get the business working from home – by tomorrow?

Hats off

I have to say, I take my hat off to all you admins who worked your asses off and did miracles to ensure that your company would continue to function in an environment nobody had ever envisioned before.

It is also a testament to the general resiliance of the Internet that this flurry of activity went by practically without a hiccup.

Hardware improvements probably did a lot as well. If this pandemic had hit in the '90s, it would have been a world of hurt in IT departments I think.

EFF urges Google to ground its FLoC: 'Pro-privacy' third-party cookie replacement not actually great for privacy

"Google [..] believes it can monitor FLoC"

Of course it does. Google is going to believe anything that allows it to keep flinging targetted ads.

Except that the problem is, it is the targetting that violates privacy. Doesn't matter how it's done, as Mike 137 says quite rightly.

Get rid of targetted ads.

Facebook uses one billion Instagram photos to build massive object-recognition AI that partly trained itself

But of course

"areas including medical imaging where it’s difficult to amass large labelled datasets from private clinical data "

Yes, great idea, let's hand over private clinical data to El Zuck.

What could possibly go wrong ?

Dutch government: Did we say 10 'high data protection risks' in Google Workspace block adoption? Make that 8

Well duh

Why is there any surprise about this report ? It's Google, idiots, of course it's not in line with GDPR.

And a government wanting to use a document management system managed by a US company ? Are they out of their minds ?

You're a European government, set up your own servers and handle your own documents.

You can use LibreOffice, it's good enough for government work.

Biden administration labels China top tech threat, promises proportionate responses to cyberattacks

Re: China is becoming a dictatorship

China has been a dictatorship since at the very least WWII.

In any case, it has never been a democracy.

I haven't bought new pants for years, why do I have to keep buying new PCs?

Re: The pace of change

That pace is slowing down, and its type is evolving.

Back in the days of the first IBM PC, it took less than a year to get a more powerful processor. Intel was running full tilt on new CPU designs, and the frequency was always climbing. Every year the new model was visibly much more powerful than the last.

Then we hit the 4Ghz barrier, and there was no more easy way to wring more power out of a CPU core. So, Intel went lateral and started thowing more cores into the die. On top of that, hard disks got their own channel, instead of IDE sharing with another.

Then we got PCI express and SATA connections, making disc access a breeze.

And here we are now, with machines that are multitasking every part of their functions and control being delegated to in the most efficient way we can think of. The consequence ? This year's model is barely faster than last year's.

I used to upgrade my PC's components every year. I haven't touch my main PC in six years now. It still works fine for what I do.

That said, now I am oogling the latest CPUs and graphics cards, and sketching out my dream configuration. Hey, it's been six years, right ? ;)

The sooner AI stops trying to mimic human intelligence, the better – as there isn't any

"Experience matters"

Yeah, right up until a beancounter looks at his data and says "he costs that much !", and then your experience follows you out the door.

Never forget : the cake is a lie.

Royal Navy and Air Force get low-code bridge in UK military recruitment saga

So now it's low code

They obviously haven't the faintest idea what it is, but it's trending, so we'll ask for that.

Um, guys, low-code means you don't need a coder to write it up. You can do it yourselves. THAT'S WHAT IT'S FOR.

Tendering for a low-code "specialist" is like hiring someone to eat your food for you. You can eat it yourself.

Boeing successfully flies unmanned autonomous military 'wingman' aircraft that may become pilot's buddy

Slowly but surely

The shape of the battlefield of the future is changing. What will we end up with ? One human pilot and three drones for wingmen ? Will the squadron be counting human assets and dozens more drone assets ?

And what of communication security ? All of this has to be encrypted, otherwise the enemy could hack into the drone's comm channel and give it orders. I'm sure they have given that thought.

So the real question is : when will they remove the human element entirely ?

Japanese billionaire invites y'all to apply for an all-expenses-paid Moon trip in a SpaceX Starship – like the one that blew up today

I wouldn't mind taking a stroll on the regolith, but we're talking an entire different kettle of frozen fish and the amount of possible issues are likely an order of magnitude greater than by just flying over it.

I think that, for a first try, a successful flyby and safe return will already be a major achievement.

If Google and Apple won't help us, we'll sort it out the Linux way: 21 companies form Mobile Native Foundation

That is the power of Open Source

If you don't see what you like, then you can make it happen yourself.

Of course, at this level that's going to mean a lot of meetings and discussions, but in the end, Apple and Google just might find their influence diminished somewhat.

Obviously, if that is a risk, both of them will flock to the MNF and ensure that they have their say as well.

Google has arranged special insurance for its cloud – if you share some data with Allianz and Munich Re

Excessive access ?

If you're on Google's cloud, it already has all the access it wants.

As far as I understood, this reporting tool has nothing to do with the data. It will report on security settings. Given the unending string of hacks due to shoddy security, this just might be a good idea.

9 years after SpaceX strode into Texas village, Elon Musk floats name change for Boca Chica: 'Starbase'

Boomtown sounds fine to me

On the other hand, I have a bit of a problem understanding what the state has to do with the naming of an industrial location. For the state, what is important is the address and the size. Musk can rename it every day if he wants, I don't see that that has any impact on the state.

The wrong guy: Backup outfit Spanning deleted my personal data, claims Cohesity field CTO

"Our customers are our top priority"

Of course they are.

Until you decide that they aren't any more.

Anyway, this whole thing just demonstrates once again that you should actually read the EULA for products that deal with backing up your data. Nothing is more important than that.

That said, Spanning is definitely guilty of false advertising. I checked out their website and it is clearly stated : "With no limit on storage capacity or number of backups ". To put that on your website and then bury limits in the EULA is really bad form. Spanning is clearly spinning a lie to bring in victims customers, no doubt betting on the fact that most people don't have all that much to backup.

Sneaky and dishonest.

IBM settles £36m Direct Line insurance platform project lawsuit, after claiming Teradata tried to usurp its spot

IBM "had no one suitably qualified available."

Obviously.

IBM has spent a decade getting rid of them.

Linux Mint emits fix for memory-gobbling Cinnamon – and future version may insist on some updates

Re: May I be the first to say

Apparently, you might be the only one to say.

SAP tells investors it plans to make €5bn RISE up into its clouds with lift and shift push

"A customer [..] will roughly pay twice the amount of existing maintenance"

Ain't it nice when you can print your own money ?

Reasons to be appy: Huawei flashes figures for its App Gallery platform

"radioactive to larger software houses"

Yeah, except that Huawei has a 1+ billion population to rely on.

I'm guessing you can build some pretty big software houses on that basis.

China may not yet have a Borkzilla, but it will. And that day, you can be sure that China's Borkzilla is going to dwarf every other multinational corporation there is.

Gootkit malware crew using SEO to get pwned websites in front of unwitting marks

NoScript FTW

If ever, one day, netizens start blocking JS en masse, there will be many tears shed by all those stupid web sites that can't display a proper HTML page.

Come on, I can dream, can't I ?

Mine's the one with the no-JS, no-cookies web site in the pocket.

Perl.com theft blamed on social engineering attack: Registrar 'convinced' to alter DNS records by miscreants

A social engineering attack

"All sides understood that Perl.com belonged to Tom and it was a simple matter of work to resolve it "

If all sides understood, then how come somebody got conned into changing the records ?

I know nothing about how DNS records are managed, but if someone can get a hold of something that doesn't belong to them with a simple phone call or email, then security needs to be tightened up somewhere. My website is insignificant, but if someone managed to take it away from me, I'd be pretty pissed.

Users wail over neverending queue: Nope, not the supermarket. GitHub Actions is having a workflow wobble

"taking a number of carefully crafted workflows down with it"

Well, you rely on someone else's server to work, you get someone else's reliability.

Par for the course. Instead of complaining, get your own server.

Google seeks to placate AI researchers complaining of Big Brother-like working conditions

"The Chocolate Factory’s legal team"

That is not a legal team. That is Goebble's PR team hard at work.

There is no legal reason to replace the 'concerns' with the word 'considerations'. Legally, that has no justification.

Propaganda-wise, though, it is a very good decision.

Except that, irony, the propaganda department is working against some of the best engineers in the field, who have chosen their words with utmost care.

Team Goebbel doesn't stand a chance.

After spending $45bn on 5G licences, Verizon tells customers to turn off 5G to save battery life

"turn off 5G to save battery life"

LOL.

Just LOL.

Mine's the one with the feature phone that can last a week on one charge.