Posts by Pascal Monett

Microsoft customers locked out of Teams, Office, Xbox, Dynamics – and Azure Active Directory breakdown blamed

Good one

Re: most people use a garage rather than maintain their own cars

Most people use a garage because cars are increasingly made so most people can't maintain them.

Bad analogy.

Russia, China say anyone will be able to use their south pole Moon base for 'peaceful' science and exploration

So there will be a Moonbase after all

It will be fascinating to see what problems arise and what solutions will be found - if, of course, they can avoid the Glorious Reporting Of Successful Communist Achievements reporting style.

I'm guessing it's time to sign up. A Moon base is an endevor that not even a billionnaire can achieve alone.

Ex-asylum seeker with infosec degree loses discrimination claim against UK cyber range provider after storming out

As Sir Humphry would no doubt respond, not finding something true does not mean finding that thing false.

Re: winding up

You alreadu have zero-hour contracts which are the practical equivalent of indentured servitude, how much further would you like to "row back" ? Iron collars and shackles ?

You mean the Official Secrets Act ?

It's existence is far from obscure.

Millimetre-sized masses: Physics boffins measure smallest known gravitational field (so far)

Good point.

So, while the strong and weak electromagnetic forces are parading about, gravity is siping its drink in the corner, thinking "just you wait, I'll show you who's stronger".

Burgers, birds, and Blue Screens of Death: Remember the joys of commuting?

"a good time to pull down the shutters on this inexplicably long-running feature"

And replace all those Borkzilla windows by Linux installations that don't keel over when the wind changes direction ? Good idea.

Now all you have to do is find who is going to pay for it.

Windows is the bane of the business world. It stumbles over its own feet regularly, but because most programmers know how to deal with it, it has staying power like nothing before.

We need more Linux developers in order to ensure that future public screens will continue displaying what they're supposed to and not show another dismal failure of a mess of an OS.

OK, Google: Unshackled from Windows, Edge team is free to follow where Chromium leads

"It will probably be very difficult for embedders to track the 4-week schedule"

Hmm, might that have anything to do with Google's intent to strangle add-ons ?

I'm guessing the Chrome team have a year-long plan to change just enough stuff to make life miserable for add-on makers, and now Borkzilla is happily skipping along, grinning widely about how "reactive" it is going to be.

Um, Borkzilla, one of your problems is that you are already way more reactive than you can code. Just need to look at the history of Windows Update to confirm.

Slow down, and do more some quality control for a change.

Agreed. I've been using Firefox for ages now, with NoScript and an ad blocker.

Makes me feel safe when surfing.

Desperate Nominet chairman claims member vote to fire him would spark British government intervention

“We have been warned"

Oh really ? By who ? Citation please, Mr Hawarth, you bullshitting arsebag.

The pitchforks are coming to get you, and get you they will.

Low-risk AND rapid? Brit vaccine centre seeks ERP to meet accelerated schedule, and needs it yesterday

There's a lot of snoughts in the trough.

Exchange flaws could be much worse than thought: Six hacking groups suspected of using the zero days pre-patch

The only alternative

. . is to stop using someone else's server to retrieve production code !

You bring the code in-house, you analyze it and test it, and when it is suitable, you compile it and put it on your production server.

Anything else is just asking for trouble.

UK taxman plonks £23bn (sorry HMRC meant £23m) on the table, asks vendors: OK, so what can you do for us in terms of 'mobility services'?

"HMRC's ways of working are changing"

Are they now ?

From where I'm sitting, it looks like you're still throw money on the bonfire.

You don't need billions of pounds to refine procedures and make processes more efficient. What on Earth are you expecting for that amount of money ? Replace all laptops with 5G versions and replace all server equipment with brand new high-end servers ?

Why yes, I'll take that commendation for fixing the thing I broke

or fall into depression

I know what you mean. I once got a gig in a very large administration, only to be told a month later that all changes were frozen.

I spent 18 months trying to find stuff to say at a weekly department meeting when they knew perfectly well I was sitting there doing nothing !

Google and Microsoft's public squabble over who's the worst is giving us life right now, not gonna lie

Times change

"The accelerating crisis in news and journalism reflects the shift away from traditional advertising – ie, television, radio, and print – to digital advertising, enabled by the emergence of the internet and fueled by behavioral data-based targeting ”

The only problem Borkzilla has with that is that it is not Borkzilla that benefits from this change.

So the ad landscape has changed. Well, sucks to be the third wheel now, doesn't it ? Ballmer should have woken up to the new landscape, instead of burying Borkzilla into the same old scenario.

In any case, it's too late now. Google is holding all the cards, Chrome is eating your lunch and, as usual, the only thing your browsers are good for are for downloading something people actually use.

Pathetic.

Huge if true: If you show people articles saying that Firefox is faster than Chrome, they'll believe it

That's just like my wife. She's rather computer illiterate - although funnily enough Pinterest does not cause her any trouble - and it took years for her to understand the difference between the browser and the search engine.

I'm still not entirely convinced that she does, maybe she just got used to the answer I was expecting.

I applaud your intense effort in forgetting the previous administration, but I do have to remind you that the OHSG loved to repeat himself.

Especially when what he was blathering on had nothing to do with the question at hand.

Exactly that.

However, it must be said that you can also install those same addons from the Chrome Web Store, so you could theoretically compare both with the same configuration.

Except that we all know that Google is doing its damndest to curtail extensions and limit their functionalty, so Firefox still wins.

So what ? You can change that.

Don't be a fool, cover your tool: How IBM's mighty XT keyboard was felled by toxic atmosphere of the '80s

Smoking

Back in the days when I had friends that smoked, if I wanted to show them stuff on my PC I would wait until they'd finish their cig, then propose a demo.

I have never allowed cigarette smoke near my equipment. There's enough to clean with normal dust already.

Another Windows 10 patch that breaks printers ups ante to full-on Blue Screen of Death

Correction : MS claimed to have done that three times.

Then came the bug reports and vulns that affected every version from XP to 1 0, so those claims went right down the toilet.

The fact that different versions broke different printers is just the usual solid MS programming.

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.