Posts by Pascal Monett

Top Euro court advised: Cops, spies yelling 'national security' isn’t enough to force ISPs to hand over massive piles of people's private data

"the ECJ has made clear that national security concerns do not override citizens’ data privacy"

It seems that there is a digital divide looming in our near future. There will be one bastion of freedom and privacy, the EU, and there will be the rest of the world living in totalitarian surveillance states "for your protection, citizen".

I'm glad I live in France. And I'm glad there still are people in this world who retain their sense of duty when they attain important positions.

No, Pai, I'm not talking about you.

The mysterious giant blobs of gas around our galaxy's black hole are actually massive merger stars being shredded

Cosmic billiard balls

And the pocket never gives anything back. As soon as we invent folding space or whatever method by which we can get to another star in hours instead of millennia, I will gladly help fund a probe to send over there and stream whatever is happening back.

Because I don't think putting a Fhloston Paradise-style luxury starship there would be a good thing. The radiation environment over there is probably horrendous.

One company on the planet, US-based Afilias, meets the criteria to run Colombia's trendy .co registry – and the DNS world fears a stitch-up

Re: American law severely punishes companies, and executives, caught on bribing abroad

Not any more, it doesn't. American law says one thing, Trump and his goons do whatever they want and high-level execs escape scot-free.

And, given who Trump pushed into the Supreme Court, soon American law will be re-written to basically state that anything a multi-billion company does is legal by definition. That is what Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, HP and the rest of them are pushing for.

Ex-Autonomy CFO Sushovan Hussain's part in the accounting badness was 'wildly overblown'

What was that ?

Hussain's part in "inventing" misleading accounting strategies is said to be both entirely legitimate and "wildly over blown."

I'm sorry, first you're saying that Hussain was entirely justified, then you say that his involvement was "wildly overblown" ? What's the point ? If his shenanigans were legitimate then you don't need to minimize them.

Either you say he was right, or you say he didn't do much. Mixing both sends a very negative image of you just trying to cover something up.

Boeing aircraft sales slump to historic lows after 737 Max annus horribilis

That is a penalty I could live with without any problem.

"This is what happens when you scrimp on software dev, testing and docs"

Damn right. 890+ orders down to less than 60. Hey, beancounters, whaddya think of that ? Did you succeed in diminishing costs enough ?

Hey, board members ! Happy about pushing your engineers to cut corners ? Pleased that you have worked in the best interests of your shareholders ?

I am pleased as punch with this result. Orders down by a whopping 94%. Now if that doesn't provide an incentive to do things right, I don't know what will.

If there is any professionalism left, the entire board will be sacked and an actual engineer put back in control.

Here's hoping.

Totally Subcontracted Business: TSB to outsource entire IT estate to IBM for a cool $1bn after 2019 meltdown

Splendidly well done, IBM !

Swoop in to save the day, and carry off a billion-dollar contract. Who can complain about that ? Not TSB, who is obviously incapable of managing its business any more, so is showering Big Blue with moolah so it can continue fleecing its customers. Not the IBM salespeople, who can rightly revel in the insane bonuses this contract will bring them. And not the board at IBM, who can finally count on a nice chunk of revenue for a change.

No, I think the only ones who could complain are the customers, who witnessed hundreds of millions pissed away in the Mother Of All Botched Upgrades, and are now witnessing a cool billion being skimmed of their money's interest.

Ah, what sacrifices they endure to continue having access to their money . . .

AppSheet. Gesundheit! Oh, we see – it's Google pulling no-code development into a cloudy embrace

"The idea of no-code and low-code [..] is that business users can . ."

. . recreate the mess that was Excel spreadsheets and Access databases spread hither and skilter without any oversight, control or knowledge, thus continuing the entrenchment of companies in the ignorance of the tools and data they are using, meaning no backups and no proper DR scenario in case of trouble.

For God's sake, Google, is there anyone there who understands the value of keeping control over what tools are being used in a company ? Do YOU allow your employees their own databases and code without any oversight whatsoever ? Somehow, I doubt that. So why impose it on the rest of us ?

Oh, silly me, divide and conquer, of course. Carry on.

Problems at Oracle's DynDNS: Domain registration customers transferred at short notice, nameserver records changed

Verify by email - but MX records modified

Dear Lord that is sooo smart. That just has to be the result of middle management meetings pontificating about what to do without having a clue about what the consequences were.

Somewhere, there is an engineer smirking in his beard, thinking "I told them that wouldn't work, but did they listen ? No. Well they're going to get an earful now".

Squirrel away a little IT budget for likely Brexit uncertainty, CIOs warned

"poison for slow, traditional businesses"

What slow businesses are left (okay, IBM excepted) ? Is he talking about Fortune 500 behemoths ? They're all Agile (TM) now, aren't they ?

Because I don't think that your local garage manager can do much planning where Brexit is concerned. Either his suppliers will continue to supply him, or he'll have to find new ones.

NASA is Boeing to get to the bottom of that Starliner snafu... plus SpaceX preps to blow up a Falcon 9

"Boeing is going to need NASA's nod"

What ? You mean, Boeing can't self-certify this time ?

What a bummer.

Go on, eat your fibre, new build contractors. It's free! OpenReach lowers limit for free FTTP connections

Wow, what a pain

I went to the Openreach homepage to try and check out what kinds of FTTP were on offer. I was expecting something like with Orange (France), where they practically throw the information at you. All I got was a load of marketing across the face and, eventually, a request for a post code.

I tried finding the postcode of Devon, mentioned in the article, but I don't think I got anything useful because I never got beyond that request page.

So I Googled to try and find the types of contracts and their prices, and man, was that a painful experience. It is unbelievable for me that it took so long to finally get this data.

Second surprise : the prices. A year-on-year 1Gbps contract is almost twice what I pay. If, however, you sign up for the 3-year stretch, then you're getting around my price. Obviously, Openreach is pushing people to long contracts, which is understandable.

Third surprise : Openreach is only giving you Internet access. There does not appear to be a phone/Internet/TV bundle going on. So not only is Openreach more expensive unless you sign on for the duration, but you're also getting much less than I am.Oh well, at least it appears that you're getting a better deal than the Yanks.

BTW, does Openreach also limit their "unlimited" contracts ? Because I actually didn't find any mention of unlimited anywhere. That would really be the kicker.

US hands UK 'dossier' on Huawei: Really! Still using their kit? That's just... one... step... beyond

Indeed

Oh, and US officials are not at "unease", they are frothing-at-the-mouth, raving lunatics about Huawei.

But I think they do have a bit of credibility left : about the same as raving conspiracy theorists.

Whirlybird-driving infosec boss fined after ranty Blackpool Airport air traffic control antics

So you're a "wealthy businessman", are you ?

Well in a helicopter you're just a pilot. Plus you're not even a billionaire, so there. In your offices you're used to being the Top Man, we understand, but at the airport you're just a number.

Buy the airport and come back to us then, dickwad. If you have to cite the operating costs of your vehicle as a reason to treat you special, then you don't deserve the vehicle in the first place.

Do you ever hear Ferrari owners complain about maintenance costs ?

Small timer.

Guilty as charged: Apple confesses some Smart Battery Cases are having 'issues', offers replacements

Okay, I get that Apple doesn't like 3rd-party batteries

Now tell me why I should care since Apple can't be arsed to make proper batteries for its own kit ?

MI5 gros fromage: Nah, US won't go Huawei from dear old Blighty over 5G, no matter what we do

"to desperately brief against Huawei getting the green light"

They wouldn't need to be desperate if they had anything approaching actual truth.

Sod that argument already.

Microsoft wields ML to catch child predators, city drops 7-year facial-recognition experiment after no arrests...

"Cinelytic’s software will help predict a particular film’s profits"

Please, please, somebody tweak that so we don't get yet another sequel to a prequel of a sequel of a film that was actually passable, some time last millennium.

Y2K quick-fix crick? 1920s come roaring back after mystery blip at UK's vehicle licensing agency

Go ahead and get the 1% to Planet B. I'll sit back and LMAO thinking about all those high-flyers who suddenly have to clean up their shit by themselves, just like the rest of us.

DVLA's simple solution

Just modify printer output to start the year with "20" and append the last two digits. That'll buy you 80 years to go and actually do the job right.

Who am I kidding ? They'll just modify my fix to use "21". Job done.

UK data watchdog kicks £280m British Airways and Marriott GDPR fines into legal long grass

Objectively you're right, of course, there's no denying that. All enforcement organizations end up abusing their powers in some way and must be reigned in.

Unfortunately, there is also no denying that if the ICO is watering down its approach simply because the companies that it has in its sights have a bigger legal budget to play with, then 380k people are at risk of having been abused without recourse, and that is not fair either.

Why is it that we can't have an adaptive approach ? Give the ICO a percentage on its fines to enable it to enact justice, and take said bonus away when it is no longer necessary.

National Lottery Sentry MBA hacker given nine months in jail after swiping just £5

So this guy gets 9 months and a criminal record . .

. . while the guy who threatened thousands of people gets . . a slap on the wrist ?

Where's the justice in that system ?

What was Boeing through their heads? Emails show staff wouldn't put their families on a 737 Max over safety fears

"the FAA remains focused on [..] returning the Boeing 737 MAX to passenger service"

I'm not sure that that is a good idea. It seems that there are more issues than the MCAS problem. It seems that the plane should be retired and a new one made from scratch, properly this time.

Of course, that is one thing that will never happen. Boeing and the FAA prefer to put band-aids over a shoddy model because the billions put into the design would otherwise be a write-off.

Since I've heard that there are airlines that will "rename" the 737 MAX in order to hide the true nature of the flying coffin people will be in, I have no choice now but to decide that I am boycotting Boeing until they put out a new model that is safe from the paper to the plane.

Alphabet's 'love rat' legal chief David Drummond ejects after 18 years at web goliath, no golden parachute attached

"it's the right time for him to leave the company"

Yup, now that people know just how much of an asshole he can be, he obviously needs to find new victimspastures.

Hundreds of millions of Broadcom-based cable modems at risk of remote hijacking, eggheads fear

"but could for example, also be done through ads on a trusted website"

Sorry, even if I trust a website, I am trusting no ads.

I run NoScript and UBlock Origin, and I'm not about to change my mind.

There's a cling-on off the starboard bow... Small moon spotted orbiting asteroid NASA's Lucy will visit in 2027

We have seen so little of our Universe

Every time we have sent out a camera to snap pics of anything in our Solar System, we have always been surprised. Every. Single. Time.

I'm betting that Eurybates and its moon are going to reveal things nobody is expecting, and I can't wait to find out what it will be.

Love T-shirts, but can't be bothered to wash them? We've seen just the thing!

If it's once a week, rest assured you need it.

Is it a make-up mirror? Is it a tiny frisbee? No, it's the bonkers Cyrcle Phone, with its TWO headphone jacks

Re: It's this...

Not to mention "sharing is the new black". Almost made the bile come up.

At first glance, that website is something that I interpret as a massive sham and want nothing to do with.

I'm obviously not the target market.

Then again, when I read "dTOOR founder Christine Cyr", the name of the phone became quite obvious.

Flying taxis? That'll be AFTER you've launched light sabres and anti-gravity skateboards

@ Warm Braw

"there's nothing wrong with the idea of flying cars in principle"

Sorry, there's everything wrong with that idea. First, just look at how people drive in 2D. It's like they can barely handle it. You want those idiots to pilot a flying car ? Why not just shoot yourself right away, it'll hurt less.

Second, there's the problem of getting the vehicle in the air and, more importantly, making 100% sure it doesn't come down before it's supposed to. Airliners have to undergo expensive maintenance at regular intervals, and there's a whole infrastructure around that. Not to mention the certifications of aircraft maintenance technicians. They're not your corner garage mechanic.

Third, there's the issue of breakdowns. Even the best-maintained car will likely be at risk of having something important go haywire. When it happens to a plane, it is generally high enough to be able to navigate to somewhere it can land safely, or it is crashing at the end of the runway. In either case, it is very rare to have a plane crash in a populated area. Flying cars will most likely be flying over cities, where the obstacles are numerous and the population is as well. Any breakdown will most likely result in deaths, most of which will be people who had nothing to do with the flying car - they just got it on the head.

Finally, a flying car has the same fuel issues that rockets have. If you want to go far, you need to store more fuel, which increases weight, which uses more fuel to lift off, thereby diminishing your range. Rinse and repeat to your heart's delight. Pushing something forward is easy, lifting it off the ground without a crane is hard.

But the main argument against flying cars is still the one that just stares you in the face at every commute : the people. They can't spend a minute without checking their bloody phones. That takes their attention off the road. In a flying car, you'll have to be 100% at what you're doing, no exceptions. You don't, you die - and maybe some other people die too.

It's just too much of a risk, on top of being ridiculously non-carbon-friendly..

Dixons fined £500,000 by ICO for crap security that exposed 5.6 million customers' payment cards

"added extra security measures"

Um, nope. A firewall is not an "extra" security measure, it is a basic security measure - and you didn't even have that. What you did was to finally add security measures. You cannot add extra when you didn't put anything in place to start with.

It's Becoming Messy: Judge says IBM's request to shut down age-discrimination lawsuit should be rejected

281 cases settled

I think that makes it pretty much certain that there is an issue with age discrimination at IBM.

I hope the case does go to trial and that IBM loses, but now that seems unlikely.

Sometimes shining a light on a nuclear problem just makes things worse

Solved by a stroke of sheer luck

A component was supposed to be impervious to light, but wasn't. You can't guess that that is the problem - something has to reveal it. Had "Dud" done literally anything else, they would not have found the root of the issue and we would be reading about a product failure - or likely not reading about it at all.

The Nokia 3.2 is a phone your nan will love: One camera's more than enough, darling

Sorry, this doesn't change my mind

When I retire (in 15 years), I will ditch the bloody smartphone and get a plumb-stupid phone with keys my fingers can use and a battery life measured in fortnights.

We’ve had enough of your beach-blocking shenanigans, California tells stubborn Sun co-founder: Kiss our lawsuit

I doubt he apologizes at all. Ever.

It is only a clusterfuck for lawyers. It's a public path, get rid of the obstruction and bill the asshole who illegally put it up. The lawyers should be disbarred for wasting Court time.

The State should have permission to enforce it's own jurisdiction.

I am rather surprised

It would seem to me that, once the gate blocking the public path had been found, the Mayor of the town concerned should have just sent 'round a demolition crew to remove it, and sent the bill for removal to that utter dick.

I wouldn't have waited 10 years to do that.

TikTok on the clock, and the hacking won't stop: SMS spoofing vuln let baddies twiddle teens' social media videos

The single good thing about the Trump presidency

The one and only good point about Trump is that, during his presidencyinsane Twitter outbursts, people have become concerned about the sanctity of their elections to the point where even Facebook has had to concede some efforts of control and moderation - something Congress can't even manage.

Was it all worth it ? I don't know, but at least some good came out of it.

In a desperate bid to stay relevant in 2020's geopolitical upheaval, N. Korea upgrades its Apple Jeus macOS malware

"The malware uses GitHub"

And why hasn't GitHub shut that down already ?

Or is Microsoft not aware of the issue ?

Cogent cut off from ARIN Whois after scraping net engineers' contact details and sliding them to sales staff

Good on ARIN, shame it took so long

Now all those engineers need to do is change their ARIN contact details and keep Cogent from regaining access.

Because we all know that Cogent is just going to do it again once it regains access.

Google and IBM square off in Schrodinger’s catfight over quantum supremacy

So we're up to 56 now

I read not long ago that the largest amount of functional qbits was 16. Well that's been blown out of the water.

Progress in this field seems to be going strong. One day they might actually be able to do something useful with it.

Now the question is : are 56 qbits enough for everyone ?

Windows 7 and Server 2008 end of support: What will change on 14 January?

"Although it is not unreasonable for Microsoft to stop updating a decade-old iteration of Windows"

Why ? Is there something wrong with 7 ? Is its code beginning to leak ?

I can understand dropping XP since 7 is much, much better. 7 runs fine and I can do everything I need with it. It has no telemetry and can be properly locked down without too much hassle. The code is not going stale, will not fade or rust, so as long as my hardware runs fine I don't see why Microsoft should not be updating the OS.

Sure, it is a cost for Microsoft, but that is not a reason to stop updating 7.

As internet pioneers fight to preserve .org’s non-profit status, those in charge are hiding behind dollar signs

The basic problem

The basic problem is that ICANN is supposed to manage the Internet as a whole and it is not managed itself by an international group, only by corrupt American oligarchs. We all use this Internet, we all need it, and 99% of the world can do nothing about it.

The USA is no longer a place where important organizations should be located. Get ICANN out of there, bring it to Europe and have an international team take care of managing our Internet.

At this point, I'd prefer the endless discussions of Eurocrats instead of this dark room management that stinks of money and selfishness.

5G signals won't make men infertile, sighs UK ad watchdog as it bans bonkers scary poster

"discounted [ES-UK's] majority mainstream viewpoint"

Their majority mainstream viewpoint ? What numbers do they have that substantiates that declaration ?

Oh, silly me, the guy who wrote that believes it, so it must be so. If this were Trump country, it would be perfectly normal.

GSMA report: Sorry, handset makers, 5G is not going to save the smartphone market

"It just so happens that there's something better."

That remains to be demonstrated. Yes, there is a new protocol, but until it is everywhere and always available, it will not be reliable. Plus there's the fact that 5G needs a lot more access points to be useful - those points need to be created and, until they are, people will be happy with 4G.

It's time that companies realize that good enough is good enough and people won't bend over backwards to throw cash at them just because something "better" has been announced.

Seems like 5G is going to be the Betamax of the mobile phone industry.

We won't CU later: New Ofcom broadband proposals mull killing off old copper network

Re: one major problem that Ofcom is deliberately ignoring

The laws of physics prevent power from being sent through fiber optic cables. So what you're really complaining about is the fact that mobile phone coverage is not 100%. One way to improve coverage is to bring fiber to places that don't already have it, I would think.

Ministry of Justice bod jailed for stealing £1.7m with fake IT consulting contract

Good on the whistleblower

Nice to know that there are some honest workers in government functions that actually have the balls to raise issues when it is necessary.

That being said, I'm sure the vast majority of civil servants are not going to do such a thing, but this one was in the right place with the right knowledge and acted with the power of his position. In other words, rotten to the core.

I'm guessing his civil service career is at an end. Welcome to Mc Donalds, sir ! Here's the fryer.

If at first you don't succeed, pry, pry again: Feds once again demand Apple unlock encrypted iPhones in yet another terrorism case

Yeah, sure

"The Attorney General has made it plain he believes there should be a legal mechanism to allow law enforcement to access the contents of phones"

Please go ahead and do that. Then watch as the USA becomes a third-world country while everyone else enjoys proper encryption.

If you don't want to listen to reason, if you refuse to acknowledge how the world actually works, then you deserve what you get when you try to force your fantasies on Real Life (TM).

Microsoft engineer caught up in sudden spate of entirely coincidental grilling of Iranian-Americans at US borders

Great link

"we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument"

Funny, I can't begin to count how many different domains I've witnessed that kind of attitude.

No, not naive. Paranoid.

The Six Million Dollar Scam: London cops probe Travelex cyber-ransacking amid reports of £m ransomware demand, wide-open VPN server holes

Re: ICO hints that GDPR appears to be optional

At this point, it would seem that the CEO is probably praying that there will be a turnover to put a fine on.

Good. That will educate him about the importance of making sure security is part of his conception of IT.

A sprinkling of Star Wars and a dash of Jedi equals a slightly underbaked Rise Of Skywalker

Completely agreed. The Thrawn trilogy by Timothy Zahn was a masterpiece. I do regret that nothing was done to integrate that.

Maybe in 50 years we'll have a completely CGI version redressing that injustice.