Posts by Pascal Monett

Halt don't catch fire: Amazon recalls hundreds of thousands of Ring doorbells over exploding battery fears

Re: Shows people don't read the instructions

So Amazon did test the things, saw the issue and provided a warning, yet people still installed it wrong.

I was all ready to blame Amazon for not having tested, but it would seem that it's more the idiots who don't pay attention that should be blamed.

I don't know how clear the instructions were, but if I open an electrical appliance and there is a clear warning sign about something, I read it. The warning telling me about being careful with the screws means I'll pay more attention to the instructions.

US-EU project to bring Mars samples back to Earth needs two more years, extra $4bn, watchdog warns

Re: A shed load of money. OTOH...

Um, I think that, if you miss your launch window by a month, you've definitely missed it and will have to wait another 640 days before you can launch again.

"cost about $4bn more"

Ouch. Given that NASA is continually strapped for cash, from what other project is NASA going to take those funds ?

Because this mission is under way, and everyone is saying "full steam ahead". That'll only be possible if the cash is there, and the US Government, even the upcoming one, is not necessarily going to pour billions into NASA just because they need it. US Gov has been cutting NASA funding for decades now, that trend is not going to change.

Especially now that a private company has proved capable of making a launcher. Okay, not without taxpayer dollars, not entirely on their own either, but still, the few billion given to SpaceX were a lot cheaper than having to create a new launcher entirely on NASA funding. The Apollo program on its own cost $152 billion, and to get Apollo, they had to do the Mercury series before, because there was so much to test before we could actually think of going to the Moon.

The final cost of human spaceflight to the American taxpayer seems to pegged at $486 billion.

A few billion to a private company for the same result is a bargain by any measure.

Soyuz later! SpaceX gets NASA green light to lob astronauts to the International Space Station full time

Re: that'd be like France claiming the term European for themselves

Um, just to clarify here : we French know very well that we do not rule Europe, and we have no desire to at this point in time.

We've already got our hands full ruling ourselves, thank you very much.

Re: what NASA brought to the party here

I'm sure NASA's engineers brought their experience of space requirements and dangers, which is not something Musk's engineers would necessarily have.

But yeah, the billions were obviously a great support.

Brace yourselves: Google Cloud preps server firmware upgrade to fix GPU glitches

Why can't they just say downtime ?

“Affected customers will experience elevated frequency of Host Maintenance events ”

Saying the word downtime does not make you less professional.

This culture of avoiding saying specific words, or wrapping their meaning up in other words, is not good.

There isn't a single recipient of that email that did not immediately translate Host Maintenance = downtime, so just bloody well spell it out already.

One more reason for Apple to dump Intel processors: Another SGX, kernel data-leak flaw unearthed by experts

Seems like isolation is the best solution

Look, I'm a gamer. I like powerful processors (and GPUs). I like high framerates. I like a responsive computer, ie one that does not make me wait for a second every time I click the mouse.

So it seems that I'm going to need an Internet-connected computer for my browsing, and a unsecure but non-connected computer for my playing.

That's going to wreak havoc with multiplayer, but multiplayer is not all that exists.

We'll find a solution.

Hyundai announces its own OS for Nvidia-powered smart-ish cars

“software-defined and constantly updateable vehicles”

Meaning the thing will snitch on you and report every aspect of your driving habits.

You went 1km/h over the limit ? Report sent. You didn't actually stop at the stop sign (there was nobody around) ? Report sent.

Constantly updateable means constantly connected. What could possibly go wrong with that ?

Well, that's Hyundai, Kia and Genesis off my choice list for a new car.

India launches Google antitrust probe and Google mostly shrugs it off

Something is not right

I disagree with private companies taking shares in national telecoms infrastructure.

On top of that, it's Google, the single, most connected entity there is tracking your online behavior.

Now, Google is using its vast financial power to put its claws directly into the carriers themselves. What could possibly go wrong ?

Tim Berners-Lee asks everyone to do new biz a Solid and let him have another crack at fixing the Web's privacy

So there is now a pod server for privacy

Good. I will welcome every idea that improves the privacy of my data.

Now tell me how that impacts Google's data hoovering, because I don't see that it changes anything there.

And if Google doesn't adopt it, well let's just say that it won't have much impact.

Plague, sanctions shrink Chinese smartphone sales but 5G keeps buyers in the hunt

“If the position of the US administration does not change"

It will change.

That said, Huawei is obviously able to increase focus on its local market and should probably devote some effort in that direction.

But one thing is certain : Biden & Harris are going to point the USA in a better direction, to the relief of all.

Bad software crashed Boeings. Now it appears the company lacked a singular software supremo

Boeing gamed the system because it could

It had people at the FAA to muddy the waters and smooth things over, and it used that advantage to keep the FAA from taking a good look at what was going on.

Yes, Boeing cheated, but IMO the FAA has a large share of responsibility in this matter and nobody is talking about that.

If the FAA had done its job properly, it would never have accepted to just wave the MAX through and would have rightly decided that pilots needed recertification.

The FAA does not exist to save customers money, it exists to save people's lives, and it utterly failed in this instance.

Agreed.

Once upon a time, Boeing was all about safety. Boeing was the definition of safety. Boeing didn't need a software supremo because everyone had safety in mind.

That lasted until the CEO was no longer an engineer.

Like NASA, the beancounters took over and now here we are. No moon base, and no more redundancy in Boeing planes.

Get the beancounters out of decision roles, stat !

The day I took down the data centre- I mean, the day I saved the day. Right, boss?

That's interesting

So, you have a network tool that has a setting that can basically kill the network. It's up to you to not use that setting.

That doesn't sound like a useful thing to me.

Is there any reason to have that setting ? Stress test, maybe ?

Shopping online for Xmas? AI chatbots know whether you want to be naughty or nice

Great article, once again !

And thank you so much for that link. I will be referencing that to no end every time I have the opportunity to put down some blabbering idiot who thinks that his "investments" are secure.

That said, there is a bit of fluff in that article, such as this :

"Blockchain is primarily used for recording transactions made with cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin. However, it has many other applications as well. "

Many others ? Such as ? Oh, yes, there is Ethereum, LiteCoin, and other funny-money apps. It's the same thing.

The one "application" that is indeed different is, from the article, Tron, which is "a blockchain-based decentralized platform with a goal to build a free, global digital content sharing system ". Yay, we will get to have a free second Internet, that we will have to pay the storage space and the bandwidth for. Great idea, guys. Revolutionary even.

My opinion on blockchain is not changed : anything using it is useless and a nuisance.

Hey, over here, I'm talking... Academics help computers figure out which way you're facing when you speak

RotM

Now they'll be able to triangulate our position via sound.

Great work.

America's democracy on the brink, Brexit looming, climate crashing... when better to get the first fast radio burst from our own galaxy?

Ah, to be a scientist

"We've studied magnetars in our galaxy for decades, while FRBs are an extragalactic phenomenon whose origins have been a mystery. This event shows that the two phenomena are likely connected, ”

That is why I could never be scientist. To me, this event patently demonstrates beyond any doubt that they are connected. But to a boffin, no, you can't say that until the paper is published and peer reviewed.

Let's... drawer a veil over why this laser printer would decide to stop working randomly

Ah, the good ol' let's put all the expensive electronics in the only room that can get flooded decision.

Amazing how quickly the floorplan can get changed after a good rain.

Deloitte's 'Test your Hacker IQ' site fails itself after exposing database user name, password in config file

So, made in 2015, last changed in 2017

Sounds like a management idea that management lost interest in but forgot to shutter the site.

The irony is delicious.

India, UK strike tech co-operation pact and plot deeper links once Brexit's done

Re: if they make it a priority

They have made it a priority.

Whoa, humans have been hanging out and doing science stuff in freaking space aboard the ISS for 20 years

So the ISS will be decommissioned in 2030

What are the plans to replace it ?

Or are we all just going to accept that we don't have the money to do that and leave space entirely to private entrepreneurs ?

We reached the Moon because of a pissing contest between two governments. As soon as we got there, we basically turned back and forgot about it.

We put space stations in orbit and now we can't be arsed to continue that either.

It's all very nice to have lofty opinions about ourselves, but acts count more than opinions.

We need a space station for science and experimentation in micro-gravity. If the only one we have left is going to shut down in a decade, we need to start planning its replacement now, because it'll take a decade to get something functional up there again.

Criticalstudies.org sounds pretty important, right? Wrong: USA says it’s an Iranian fake news front

The FBI missed a site

Should have seized Fox News as well.

Those 20+ Iranian sites didn't do 1% of what Fox News is doing as far as damage is concerned.

City of Edinburgh Council selects services-slinger CGI for £102m contract despite abandoned Unit4 ERP project

Re: Anyone for Bingo?

I'm missing synergizing resources, disruptive, proactive, paradigm, moving forward and the all-important blockchain.

Dang.

Apple on the hook for another $503m in decade-long VirnetX patent rip-off legal marathon

Apple will appeal - again

At this point I think it is high time that the courts decide that, if yet another appeal is to take place, the final fine of the previous appeal is automatically doubled.

Appeal again ? Double the fine again.

Frankly, it is unfortunate that there is no point where the court has said : enough, pay the fine, and Apple had to pay.

I know nothing about Virnetx, but I do know that Apple has lost multiple times. It is high time it looses permanently.

Russian jailed for eight years in the US for writing code that sifted botnet logs for web banking creds for fraudsters

"couldn’t find another job that paid as well"

I'm quite ready to believe that working in crime pays pretty well.

That's not a reason for me to start being a criminal.

There are a number of other options, he should have tried some of them.

We did NAT see that coming: How malicious JavaScript can open holes in your firewall for miscreants to slip through

"visit a website containing malicious JavaScript"

Which will be blocked by NoScript.

Honestly, what is it going to take for all browsers to block JavaScript by default and implement whitelisting of web sites that can use it ?

99% of all malicious activity starts with a piece of JavaScript. Block it, and it's over.

It's time to confine that code.

US govt ups minimum H-1B tech salaries to $208,000 a year, more than startups can hope to afford, say VCs

Re: But wasn't that the point of the H1B?

I'm guessing that what happened is 25 years of lobbying from billion-dollar conglomerates to weaken the system and get cheap labor at a minimal price.

Labor they can then pressure into slave wages and working overtime for nothing because, if you don't, you go back to your country.

Alibaba trying to take China’s Singles Day shopping frenzy global to make Bezos & Co look like sales small fry

"280 million HTTP requests per minute"

Wow. I wonder how many servers you need to manage that volume of connections.

I'm guessing Alibaba's fiber connection is somewhat better than mine, as well ;).

CERT/CC: 'Sensational' bug names spark fear, hype – so we'll give flaws our own labels... like Suggestive Bunny

"there's a simple process to remove offensive names"

And it should start by not drawing random words from a 3rd-party website.

Create your vetted list in-house, do not include those scary words you have become so afraid of, avoid including potentially offensive words, and you won't have to have a process to remove anything afterwards.

Of course, that requires a bit more work than just randomly calling on Wiktionary, but if you think about it, it would remove a lot of hassle in the long run.

Google reCAPTCHA service under the microscope: Questions raised over privacy promises, cookie use

"I'm classifying Google's Recaptcha service as an *Advertising Network* "

He's only noticed now ?

Anything Google does is for advertising.

Always has been, always will.

TikTok wins right to stay in America past current Art of the Deal deadline on November 12th

Really ? They actually earn their living on TikTok ?

If I could be arsed to go check that out, I'd be curious to know what they do to earn money on that platform.

Plus, they could obviously transfer their videos to YouTube. Plenty of people earning a living there.

But hey, they convinced a judge and that's good enough for me.

It's amazing what the Internet is up to these days.

Doxxing nixed by Hong Kong courts, again

Doxxing is evil, no question there

Unfortunately, it is apparently becoming a way to resist China's hold on what used to be a free country.

And, if it is the only way to point blame to someone abusing their power and/or authority, well it remains evil but becomes understandable.

The real issue is that China wants control, the Chinese way, and Hong Kong wants the freedom it was used to.

It can only end in tears.

The Russians are at it again: Zebrocy backdoor malware is evolving, Uncle Sam warns close to eve of presidential election

I beg to differ

The biggest threat to US democracy obviously lies in the Republican party, and all those fucking liars that spew on Fox News.

No need for more asteroid-blasting attempts, NASA's OSIRIS-REx has more than enough space dirt

NASA

Shooting for 60 grams, actually collecting 2 kilos.

What a bunch of overachievers.

Remember, remember, the 14th of November (if you're an astronaut): NASA names the date for Crew-1 mission to ISS

So, a smidgen of nail polish is enough to abort a launch

That has to be the absolute best proof that rocket science is awesome.

We, as a race, are at the point where we can build things that are so complex, so precise, that an insignificant amount of some compound is enough to require a shutdown on a launch procedure.

And the fact that we have the technology to detect that is, again, awesome.

Rocket science. It's in the title.

Did I or did I not ask you to double-check that the socket was on? Now I've driven 15 miles, what have we found?

No croissant ?

Now that is a cruel and inhuman punishment.

Indian government labels itself ‘evasive’ over privacy details of national COVID-19 contact-tracing app

At least they're testing

There may be some imperfections in the app, but if they are actually doing the follow-up of testing people who have been in contact, then India is doing way better than France, who has an app but doesn't bother with contact tracing or testing in any managed way.

No, we just get locked down because the infection rate is too high. Well guess what ? If we had bothered to do proper contact tracing and testing, maybe we wouldn't need to be locked down again.

Brave browser first to nix CNAME deception, the sneaky DNS trick used by marketers to duck privacy controls

"the page also makes four requests via a script"

And that script is blocked by NoScript.

NoScript and uBlock Origin, the two stalwart champions of security and privacy.

NSA: We've learned our lesson after foreign spies used one of our crypto backdoors – but we can't say how exactly

I see we have another Yes Minister fan.

Valve ? Why are you dragging Valve into this ?

Do you seriously think that Steam is watching you ?

Steam is the best game-selling platform there is. If you don't have a connection, you can still play your games. If you do have a connection you can play them online.

Yes, Valve checks when you log on to verify that you have the right login and password, and that's all. You tell me how Valve can do less and still maintain a business.

Steam is the only game-selling platform I know that doesn't care where you run it from. I can upgrade my PC, change my disks, change computer ; the only thing Steam wants is my login/password combination. That is a far cry from EA Games or any of the others, who basically consider that any change in hardware is proof that you are filthy thief and you have to re-download your entire collection.

With EA Games, that even happens when you update your video driver !

So please, leave Valve out of your otherwise quite plausible list of surveillance entities.

Cambodia launches blockchain-powered peer-to-peer payments, hopes it crushes cash

Except that firewalls do not grow to be GB-sized to be useful.

It has been repeatedly said that blockchain does not scale well. I'm interested in seeing how this is going to evolve, because I doubt that many people have phones that hold a multi-GB ledger in the first place.

Sure, the ledger won't be big now, but if hundreds of thousands of people are adding to it every day, it will get there. So I look forward to an article next year telling us what is happening to this scheme.

Re: In Ha Noi the city government often simply takes the land and pays compensation

That happens in every country. Each country has its own legal procedure, and maybe in Vietnam it is slightly easier or appears to be more of a one-sided decision, but there is no country that does not give itself the right to appropriate private property.

The only question is how justified does that right need to be. Given that you mention that some Vietnamese can block such a decision, that tells me that the procedure in Vietnam is not so different than in many other countries.

French services outfit Atos told to pay $855m in trade secret pinching case

Atos should have waited

Hindsight is 20/20, I know, but in this case Atos jumped the gun and will now be bitten. Somebody did not properly estimate the risks associated with the trial, or perhaps it was deemed preferable to buy the company anyway, use its assets and worry about the trial later.

Well, later is now, and now your acquisition is costing you 25% more.

I hope it was worth it but, since you are a multinational with, apparently, billions in the bank, I won't be too worried either.

A cloud server with no network, no persistent storage, and no user access – what is AWS thinking?

What's the point ?

So, if I understand correctly, I am to open a new cloud service thingy, put in it data I already have, have that data processed "securely", and then get the result back.

Great.

Now someone please explain how this is better than just processing the data where it is in the first place. It's already in the cloud, so why bother transmitting it somewhere else ?

Can we stop megacorps from using and abusing our data? That ship has sailed, ex-NSA lawyer argues in new book

Exports from China and Russia ?

Honey, the NSA has done a brilliant job of replicating the principle of government surveillance on its own, no export needed.

I'm glad that someone knowledgeable has penned a tome that is dearly needed, but stop pretending that government surveillance is a threat from abroad.

That bird is roosting on your chimney right now.

SpaceX’s Starlink finally reveals its satellite broadband pricing for rural America: At $99 a month, it’s a good deal

Re: $5 each from a few dozen households

You obviously have no idea how hard it is in some countries to earn $5.

Re: leaps and bounds better than the supposed 1Gbps connection

You don't have a Gbps fiber connection and you've never experienced it.

I have a proper FTTP Gbps connection now, and I can guarantee that there is nothing better.

That said, I had to wait a year using 4G, so maybe I'm a bit over-enthusiastic about it, but I did spend over a decade on a 12Mbps ADSL line, so I do know that there one hell of a difference.

Because you trust Ofcom speed statistics ?

Node.js 15: What's new, what's coming, and keeping pace with Deno. 'We're not going to reinvent' module ecosystem

"Open source is free to get, but I wouldn't say free to use"

True words. Companies need to stop developers from just referring to GitHub. Take that library in-house, examine it, test it and then put it in production from your own server. When there's an update, check to see if it brings you anything. If it does, then you put it in your test environment and start over.

There is not one line of code in a production environment that should not be known and vetted.

One of the world's most prominent distributed ledger projects has been pushed back by a year

Re: Scalability not in the specification?

Yeah, that caught me as well.

A Stock Exchange already handles billions of transactions per day. How is it that they didn't have enough scalability in the specs already ?