Posts by Pascal Monett

Singapore to test compulsory COVID-tracker usage as condition of entry to some venues

Re: This will enable us to open up safely in the coming weeks and months

It is not meant to prevent, it is meant to allow for quickly putting the infected people under quarantine and stop them from spreading it further.

Typical '80s IT: Good idea leads to additional duties, without extra training or pay, and a nuked payroll system

Re: you could flip in a hex editor from 1 to 0

I ran across that particular tidbit as well, and I tried it. It doesn't actually work, but there's a caveat : if someone with access to the design locked the database, then updated the design without locking it again, then flipping that bit would indeed give you access to the unlocked overwrite.

But if the database was managed properly, then there is no unlocked code to read and the manipulation is useless.

You see, when you lock a Lotus Notes database, you compile the code and get rid of the source. When you work in an unlocked database, you have the source with the compiled code.

Re: "the discovery that a backup was not all you hoped it might be"

No, the template is not a text file, it is a database. The design was locked, meaning that it was no longer readable, so it was not possible to copy it into anything.

And yes, I am still working with that customer. The IT director trusts me and there really isn't any other consultant with 25 of years experience in that particular field that they can call on.

Re: Shadowing - What could go wrong

If the customer was so sure it should have worked, the customer could have done the himself.

There are times when you should say "no" to a contract, and when a customer is clearly cutting corners and not doing things properly is one of those times because, contract clauses be damned, it will always be your fault if something goes wrong.

And something always does.

"the discovery that a backup was not all you hoped it might be"

Oh my, that brings back memories. I was working as a consultant in a major insurance company, on an on-call basis.

One day, I get called to go modify something in the mail template that defines what every mailbox is supposed to look like and what features it is supposed to have. So I pack my laptop and off I go. When I'm settled at my desk and after the meeting with the IT manager, with all the technical details I need in mind, I log into my local account and ask the system to start up the Designer on the mail template.

The Designer was a no show.

Not that the Designer had a problem, it was the template that was not accessible. It's design had been locked.

After a brief but intense moment of WTF! and deep soul-searching, I reassured myself that I would never have been stupid enough to lock the design of the most important template the customer had, so I went back to the IT manager and reported the problem. His matter-of-fact reply was simple : get the backup copy.

Like every responsible IT shop in any major company, backups were made incremental every day, full every week-end and end-of-month. So finding a good backup should be simple, right ?

Well, in a word, no. I basically spent a day with the systems team, going back every further in time to try and find a copy that hadn't been locked. When we had gone over the two months of backup that were stored locally, my new friend turned to me and said "Okay, this is all I've got here. Do you want me to go to the archives and fish out the storage tapes of the previous months ?". I could clearly see that that was not a prospect that he particularly relished, and I had already spent too much time on this issue, so I declined with thanks and left him relieved to be able to finally take care of his normal duties.

But I still had a problem : I had a template to rebuild. Or find a copy of, somewhere.

I will spare you the details, but let me just say that I finally did find a valid copy of the template on a server which, ironically, it never should have been put. I was able to make the requested changes, copy the unlocked template to production servers, and keep a local copy in my local profile - just in case someone else got the same stupid idea.

And that's how a 30-minute job was invoiced 10 hours and paid in full without any discussion.

Nobody ever told me who had locked the design.

IBM calls for US export bans on facial recognition tech including cameras and big iron

IBM already bowed out of facial recog in June (see linked article) when it said so in a letter to several senators.

What IBM is doing now is simply doubling down on the act and going for the full package : no facial recog anywhere, until proper laws have been put in place ensuring the respect of privacy and proper identification of miscreants.

I think IBM is right on one point : technology has, in this case, clearly exceeded what the law can handle and the law needs to be updated.

That said, I agree that the fact that IBM is calling for a ban is simply because IBM's facial recog was never any good, so IBM is likely trying to peg the market to give it time to catch up.

Because IBM stated that it was no longer offering general facial recog solutions, it never said it wasn't working on them.

Bad apples: US customs seize OnePlus earbuds thinking they're knock-off AirPods

So Customs is using Package Recognition AI now ?

"The interception of these counterfeit earbuds is a direct reflection of the vigilance and commitment to mission success by our CBP Officers daily. "

Nope. It's a direct reflection of how little you're paying attention to what you're actually looking at. As for mission success, it is hardly a success to block something that has nothing to do with what you're looking for. That's called a false positive, and you should correct that.

Except that, this is the Trump era, and we all know that you're just doing your bit to bother China in any way you can, even if it is wrong.

Wow, you guys have so much in common: Oracle hotly tipped to power TikTok’s operations as Microsoft deal rejected

And I don't see that changing any time soon.

As I've already said, that Microsoft adds yet another thingy on it's already bursting patchwork of a software quilt is no surprise, but Oracle is only Oracle and only does Oracle.

I am glad to see that the author of the article is in the same frame of mind.

Oracle and TikTok go together like tank tops and suede shoes. It doesn't match.

Yes, that was written in the article you responded to.

You might want to actually read it this time.

Microsoft's Surface Duo cops 1 repairability point for each of its screens: That's 2/10

Or, to put it another way : how to make sure I won't buy one.

Mine's the one with the easily replaceable battery.

Infor pays UK construction retailer Travis Perkins £4.2m settlement following cancelled upgrade of 'Sellotape and elastic bands' ERP system

"did not include functional specifications"

Sorry, but there's your problem.

No project should be started without knowing where you want to end up. I don't care if you use Agile or Waterfall, you still have to know what the required functionality is and a company that cannot state its needs deserves to fail.

This is obviously a bunch of high-level "managers" who have never been confronted with the daily grind and think that IT is a magical process that just happens.

Well no, it doesn't "just happen". It needs thought, planning and employee adoption, and you obviously got none of those.

Oracle customers caught in the cross-hairs of Larry’s 'interesting dynamic'

Oracle must be a damn good product

. . for it's customers to continue to put op with Ellison's bullshit manipulations of policy, licenses and contracts to milk every last possible cent out of them.

Customers are "picking Oracle Cloud Infrastructure" because they bloddy well don't have the choice, it was forced upon them in the last license modification and, if they choose to defy the Great Red One, they pay even more than the eye-watering costs they already incur.

I'm not CEO of a large company in any way, but I can guarantee that, if that ever happens, I will make sure that Oracle never sets foot into my server rooms.

Don't pay the ransom, mate. Don't even fix a price, say Australia's cyber security bods

I agree with every word

It's nice to see a cyber security bureau on the ball and giving out the right advice.

Such a shame about Australia's stance on backdoored encryption.

Maybe this cyber security bureau could have a word with the government ?

Mine's the one with proper encryption in the pocket.

Three middle-aged Dutch hackers slipped into Donald Trump's Twitter account days before 2016 US election

Re: And if you have any doubt

Yeah, but there's one problem with that : it will report your email as having been hacked even after you've just reset the password.

So I have no idea now if my new password has been breached.

The power of Bill compels you: A server room possessed by a Microsoft-hating, Linux-loving Demon

There's also the fact that Windows loads about 1000 drivers and services whether you need them or not, whereas Linux will only load what it needs to do the job it was configured for.

Go Huawei, Android: Chinese telco biz claims it will spread Harmony OS for smartphone to devs come December

“Others have tried and failed"

Yes, but others were going up against a market where two multi-billion dollar behemoths were already entrenched and battle-ready. In China, there are over a billion potential customers and most of them have never heard of either Apple or Google. And the Chinese government has form in swinging the ban hammer if a local company feels it's getting in trouble.

That should help things along quite a bit. A mobile phone solution could garner half a billion customers easily before trying its toes in the international arena. If it doesn't work swimmingly, it would still have its local market to fall back on, something Symbian and Windows Mobile never had.

Desperately seeking regolith: NASA seeks proposals for collecting Moon dirt

Re: Confused

Well, the article specifically states that "Delivery occurs on the Moon's surface".

So that means that NASA is asking private companies to go collect rocks, and NASA will go and get them.

That makes zero sense.

I AM ERROR: Tired of chewing up your RAM? Razer tells gamers where to stick its special gum for the RGB crowd

Ok, now I get it

From the linked article : "the energy drink market was valued at $53bn in 2018 and is expected to reach $86bn by 2026 ".

So that explains why these companies waste their time making consumables that have nothing to do with their core business. They want a share of that $86bn business.

I would have thought that what a gamer is interested in is the hottest possible hardware with the best possible cooling to get the highest framerates, then chugging a six-pack of Red Bull and going spastic on the mouse+keyboard combination. Gamers are focused, they don't need chewing gum to help.

Unexpected risks of using Apple ID: 'Sign in with Apple' will be blocked for Epic Games

How very petty

I have no idea if there is an underlying technical issue with this move, but Apple targeting Epic Games alone makes me think two things :

1) Apple is being extremely petty, on top of being unreasonable, inconsistent and a complete control freak

2) I would love to see how Apple justifies that in court

If there is a technical issue around the security of logging in with an Apple ID, then Apple should be cutting off that functionality for everything, not just for Epic Games.

It looks like Apple is on its way to becoming the Trump of the IT industry.

Ireland unfriends Facebook: Oh Zucky Boy, the pipes, the pipes are closing…from glen to US, and through the EU-side

"Facebook has been working hard"

Somehow, that sentence does not sound credible. The only thing FaceBook works hard at is hoovering every snippet of data it can about anybody who is so much as mentioned on its pages.

For the rest, FaceBook has lawyers who's only job is to pretend to care about user privacy to make things look good in the public eye.

Now that's a somewhat unexpected insider threat: Zoombombings mostly blamed on rogue participants, unique solution offered

"He now faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted"

One more idiot who finds out the hard way that you are not anonymous on the Internet.

And I'm guessing that he didn't even use a VPN.

Re: someone savvy enough

But that is 90% of the problem - your basic computer user is not savvy enough to implement any form of security. They can't even get passwords correctly, they reuse them everywhere.

I have long been convinced that using a computer is like driving a car : you should have a license.

Open access journals are vanishing from the web, Internet Archive stands ready to fill in the gaps

Indeed, when it comes to Capitalism, anything but money is irrelevant.

Server buyers ask Lenovo for made-in-Mexico models instead of Chinese kit

Wow, you're right. I couldn't believe it, so I went looking and, damn. 20 men dead and not a shot was fired. Unbelievable.

A century ago this would have meant war.

It still could, apparently.

Equinix warns it's infected with ransomware, promises it can carry on regardless

Well at least it hasn't spread all over the place

As stated in the article, Equinix may have been bitten by social engineering or hacked, but at least the crises was contained to the non-operational side of the business. That does tend to signal that Equinix, unlike many, has planned and put in place proper security procedures, and that planning, at least, has paid off.

In this case, I doubt that we will see much as far as apologies are concerned. Customer data and operations are not impacted, so Equinix does not need to go promising that "the security of our customers is our greatest concern" - they've just proven that it is (contrary to practically every company that has tried to bullshit us with that line since, well, ever).

I do hope we'll get a report on what happened. I'll be interested in learning just how a company that has things so well-planned still managed to get caught out.

Job planning, temp staffing: NHS England tosses out £30m for HR and people systems to support new ways of working

A new trough for the snouts

"we are developing a new workforce service category feeding trough and, under this procurement, are opening up the [money pit] to bids"

FTFY.

Can't wait to read about how that new project failed to deliver and cost way more than planned.

Don’t lump us in with Facebook, internet infrastructure companies warn European Union

A rock and a hard place

While I perfectly agree that my fiber connection should not fall under the same rules as this post, if you tell me that ICANN is your model for managing things, well, let me just say that I cannot agree with that on a fundamental level.

The multistakeholder approach may be a nice idea when everything is working well, but if things turn into a Gordian knot, somebody has to take an axe to it and be done with the issue. When gangrene sets in, you cut off the limb. It's the only way to be sure.

Now the question is : are we at the point of gangrene ? I don't think so, but please do not give me ICANN as the model. Gangrene has not only set in the limbs, it has taken over the entire body and should be purged with fire.

And I'm talking literally purged with fire.

China proposes ‘Global Initiative on Data Security’ forbidding stuff it and Huawei are accused of doing already

"China hopes the world will adopt"

Well let's start by seeing China adopt them.

It's a bit rich to see China proposing such rules, it is guilty of infringing every single one of them.

Power platform envy? Google wants to 'empower non-technical employees' with new Business Apps category

This is going to be interesting

At least, in the Who Me ? articles that are undoubtedly going to follow.

And I really look forward to reading about how an 'empowered' employee was able to trash a cloud-based database of critical customer data that didn't have any backup because said employee didn't think of setting one up.

Vivaldi offers users a 'break' from browsing. No, don't switch to Chrome... don't sw..

Don't you just love it ?

Another group of holier-than-thou telling you how to manage your life. A pause button in a browser, really ?

Because you think I need you to tell me to step away from the keyboard every now and then ?

Why don't you step away from your keyboard and go and think of something actually useful like, I dunno, an ad blocker that works despite Google's best attempts, or better cookie control and privacy safeguards that don't depend on the good will of the site you're visiting ?

Angry 123-Reg customers in the UK wake up to another day where hosted mail doesn't get through to users on Microsoft email accounts

"service should return to normal soon"

Yeah, soon. As in, before the end of the year. Chill, we're doing our best.

Tech ambitions said to lie at heart of Britain’s bonkers crash-and-burn Brexit plan

State Aid to get a trillion-dollar company

Given the UK Government's track record in IT, I think the best thing to do would be to simply choose a tech company by the highly scientific method of dart throwing, give it a trillion and pray that it works.

Oh, right. The UK doesn't have any more tech companies, anything worth it was sold off to foreign interests.

Oh well, I'm sure that'll work just as well as the trade negotiations.

China blocks access to website hosting code-for-kids tool Scratch and its forums

Indeed. Unfortunately, there are over a billion people who, right now, don't have the choice.

Australia starts second fight with Google, this time over whether app stores leak data, gouge devs, steal ideas and warp markets

Ouch. This is whole new can of worms.

I think this inquiry is good, but the process is going to hurt.

I especially appreciate this question : "Whether processes put in place by app marketplaces to protect consumers from harmful apps are working ".

The answer is no, the process is not working. At least, not reliably. If you have to remove something from the store because it turned out to include malware, that means that it got into your store before you noticed. So no, the process is not working.

The Honor MagicBook Pro looks nice, runs like a dream, and isn't too expensive either. What more could you want?

Re: Or you could be in a queue

If you're in a queue, you're not pounding on a laptop keyboard, you're standing in line and have nothing else to occupy you but your mobile phone, depending on how much data your contract allows you.

AI in the enterprise: Prepare to be disappointed – oversold but under appreciated, it can help... just not too much

There is no such thing as AI

It's all statistics. I did the Google on AI, nothing but statistics. It's even said in the article, it's statistics.

I have nothing against the tool itself, I'm quite sure that there are many areas in which a statistical analysis machine will indeed help large companies greatly, but it's a question of volume of data and expertise of the technician in charge. Small companies will not benefit from a statistical analysis machine because they don't have the volume of data to make analysis significant. Large companies with reams of data can benefit if they define the problem correctly and apply the proper analysis.

As usual, the bigger you are, the more benefits you get.

US ponders tech export ban on SMIC, China's biggest chipmaker

"SMIC is open to sincere and transparent communication"

Too bad the current US government isn't.

Darknet market's peacemaker sentenced to 11 years in prison

Snowden validated in a court ruling

That is indeed something to celebrate.

China launches and lands its first re-usable spacecraft

One must admit that China is not your average country, is not chatty about what it does and, contrary to the average teenager, does not feel the need to post everything it does to FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram etc.

So we are just now learning that China got its hands on the Space Shuttle design, has been working on recreating it, and has now successfully launched and recovered one of its prototypes.

Wow.

I wonder if they've solved the problems with the protective tiles ?

Apple commits to support human rights - 'We believe in the critical importance of an open society'*

"Apple has a huge influence on people’s freedom of expression globally"

No you don't.

Not when you kowtow to whatever dictatorial demand is made in a sector where you want to make more money.

Do not try to abuse the fact that actual democracies allow you to support freedom of speech without consequence with the fact that you will not enforce said freedom of speech if it cuts into your market share when you're dealing with a repressive regime.

Either you have the balls to put your money where your mouth is, or you shut the fuck up.

Microsoft: We're getting rid of Flash by the end of the year - except you can still use it

"updates that arrive in the summer of 2021"

Heh, heh. I'm on Windows 7. Borkzilla is no longer supporting that version, so I'm immune from Flash updates.

Ah, being obsolete is starting to feel good.

Larry Ellison abruptly pulls rug from under philanthropy foundation after two years to 'focus on COVID-19 fight'

Oh, so now he's focusing on something ?

The difference between Ellison and Gates is that Gates was an opportunist who became a philanthropist who is actually making a difference in this world.

Whereas Ellison is just an asshole who does the minimum for his image but is way more interested in his money.

TCL notices lockdown has made tablet market a thing again, tosses out pair of cheapish 'droid fondleslabs

"loath to fork out for iPads"

Given that Apple counts its guarantee period from the time the thing is on the shelf, and not the date of purchase, you can damn well bet customers are loath to pay the price of a kit that won't be guaranteed for as long as it says on the tin.

'We're not claiming to replace humans,' says Google, but we want to be 'close enough' that you can't tell it's a bot talking

Bollocks

"customers will prefer to use speech interfaces "

Given that we don't have the choice, I really wonder where Google is pulling that notion from.

I don't mind being given a choice between four possibilities, as long as the last one is "TALK TO AN ACTUAL HUMAN BEING" (with a brain, preferably).

I perfectly understand that there are very common issues that can be efficiently solved by pressing button 1, 2 or 3, but if your phone talky thingy is the only choice I have to contact you, then you had damn well better have some human operators for dealing with the edge cases your bunch of stupid managers forgot to plan for.

Taiwan tightens rules around local tech firms sharing tech with China

Remember when people were afraid of the balkanization of the Internet ?

It seems that we are creating the balkanization of industry, and because it's all in the name of National Security, nobody is complaining about it.

Not saying that someone should complain, just observing that nation states are pulling the curtains and closing the shutters more and more.

But since we've always been at war with Eurasia . . .

Cisco mostly silent on when and what it knew about malicious WebEx wipeout

I hate that

I hate it when a company doesn't come clean on what actually happens. It always makes me suspicious about what shenanigans are still going wrong.

This attitude of not disclosing the full truth even after it has become known is despicable and, for me, means that there are many more issues that are just waiting to surface so Switchzilla is keeping its PR to the minimum in a "trust in me" hushed voice (think the serpent in The Jungle Book).

Five Eyes nations start new club for competition regulators and paint target on digital giants

They could add a few more countries

I'm sure France and Germany would love to be part of that club.

On the other hand, I'm also convinced that the USA and the UK would constantly disagree with German suggestions - if this new club is going to be managed the way I think it is : a front for pretending to do something about the Wild West that is the global Internet.

In any case, I hope they have thought of a procedure for adding members. They're going to need one.

Unexpected victory in bagging area: Apple must pay shop workers for time they spend waiting to get frisked

Absolutely correct. And I would wish to add that, if Apple demands that employees clock out before searches, then legally those employees have every right to walk away because they are no longer under Apple control.

You can't have your cake and eat it. If you let your employees clock out, they are gone and you have no right to keep them there for anything.

Snowden was right: US court deems NSA bulk phone-call snooping illegal, possibly unconstitutional, and probably pointless anyway

Great, so NSA slurping back in Snowden's day was illegal

Wonderful to know, nice to see justice being done, etc.

Now, what about the slurping the NSA is doing today ?

Because you don't think this ruling is going to stop it, now do you ?

When low-balled projects go bad: Scottish pensions agency starts £10m procurement to buy the system Capita could not

Re: So...

It's far worse than that.

"The project failure left the SPPA "unable to progress strategic, business and workforce plans as originally intended" and it therefore required an additional revenue budget of £9.8m between 2019/20 and 2022/23, as well as capital allocations of £13.6m "

So it's 6.3 + 2.4 + 9.8 + 13.6 for a grand total of £32.1 million. And Capital paid back £0.7m.

So yeah, get project, fail to deliver, profit from not having to pay back more than a tenth of what it got and impose four times the amount in cost to the organization that was foolish enough to trust it.

One of these days, the British Isles are going to get the message. One of these days.

Any time now, just you wait and see.