Posts by Pascal Monett

Coin-mining malware jumps from Arm IoT gear to Intel servers

Re: So..

IoT will have to be running anti-virus programs before they'll ask themselves the question.

Given that IoT and the notion of security are currently light-years apart, it won't happen any time soon.

No it's not Russell Brand's new cult, it's Microsoft's Office crew rolling out their Save Experience

Consistency

Microsoft is consistently searching for new ways to bedevil the user experience and break any time-saving habits long-time users ever built up.

You can count on Microsoft for that.

Despite billions in spending, your 'military grade' network will still be leaking data

Re: Convenience will always win

If you're in a large company that doesn't know how to lock down USB ports, then the IT manager needs to be sacked pronto.

If you're in a company that allows the user to be admin of his machine and install whatever he wants, idem, and twice as hard.

And if you're in a company that uses Sharepoint, well, you have my sympathy.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw: Well, lookie here! For once a space game that doesn't promise the universe

Ah, Freelancer

All the mods, the hours spent, the gorgeous nebulas, the danger. I could lose myself in that game for the entire day.

And I did, many times.

Those were the days.

As for this one, thanks for the tip. I'll wait for it to be on Steam, though.

Mozilla shaves down Beard to a luxuriant mustache, looks for new CEO by end of year

Re: Works for me

Same here. Firefox is my default browser and will remain so as long as I can run NoScript and uBlock Origin. Anything else is just icing on the cake.

That said, I've tried Brave and it really is fast. Noticeably faster than Firefox. Somehow, I still stick with Firefox though.

We're great, boasts Huawei in founder's Little Red Book – but isn't that a video game screenshot?

Well, on the other hand,

A picture of a panda might not have sent the same impression . . .

Apple blinks on iPhone repairs, touts parts program for independent tech mechanics... sort of

"it would save a lot of people's sanity and family photos,"

Family photos are saved by backing them up, not by having the sole platform they exist on be repairable by a 3rd party shop. You have to be insane if you keep the only copy of your precious pics on something that can be dropped in a toilet or down a drain, forgot in a pub or lost in a forest.

Huawei new smartphone won't be Mate-y with Google apps as trade sanctions kick in

"screw you, we'll build our own"

And so it starts. In time, China will have its own Maps and Play Store, and maybe its own phone OS, and there will be competition and, I'm guessing, it will be fierce.

Good. Consumers will win. At least this trade war debacle will have served that as a long-term bonus.

Clutching at its Perl 6, developer community ponders language name with less baggage

It definitely seems like that to me as well. But programming is indeed an area that seems to attract lots of emotion from lots of people, so I'm not surprised that it is not that easy to change.

I am, however, surprised that the splinter team kept with the same name. I don't understand how they thought it would not be confusing given that they knew from the start that they would be creating something incompatible. I would have wanted a different name from the start.

Lab grown stem cells emit brain waves like newborns – and boffins build robot worm to slither through heads

Managing a wire with magnets ?

That sounds pretty iffy to me. I don't see that we can shape magnetic fields in such a precise way, but I don't know the capabilities of an MRI machine either, so I can be utterly wrong.

In any case, I do hope they get a lot of practice on donated brains before I need that kind of intervention.

Microsoft's cloudy Windows Virtual Desktop: It fills a gap, but there are plenty of annoyances

Typical Microsoft

So, to use WVD you need AD Connect, site-to-site VPN and a DC on Azure. Oh, and Powershell.

As usual, Microsoft has an idea and throws everything and the kitchen sink at it. It's a wonder it gets anything working at all. It's difficult to add users ? Ain't that too bad for a product that is destined to be used by many people. And everything being managed from the States, that's gonna been fun to watch given GDPR.

Microsoft : Keeping Life Complicated.

Oh well, consultants and freelancers have to be able to work, so, thanks for opportunity, I guess ?

I just love your accent – please, have a new password

I've been in small companies

Obviously, if you have less than a dozen colleagues, yes, you do recognize their voice and password management is a rather informal thing. However, when you get to around fifty people, even if they are in the same building, any IT manager worth the name will have put a procedure in place and just voice recognition will not be considered enough.

If you have enough employees to necessitate two or more buildings, then trusting a voice is simply insane. I now do consulting for several 1000+ sized companies and I can vouch for the fact that resetting passwords is a tad more secure then just accepting anyone's request.

Gov flings £10m to help businesses get Brexit-ready with, um... information packs

Congratulations for transforming an article about a (wasteful) governmental business funding operation into an argument about Brexit and Parliament.

Do carry on.

Re: I think I'll apply

Agreed, but you're the cousin and you don't have the connections.

This is all just another trough exercise for the snouts in the know. There will be hand-waving, reassuring noises, some cocktail parties, and when B-Day comes, everyone will disappear like a flock of pigeons scared by a cat.

Then, you'll be on your own.

Hong Kong ISPs beg Chinese govt not to impose Great Firewall on them

"increasingly violent Chinese security forces"

It is a sad fact that this evolution was clearly foreseeable from the start. China is not a country that encourages free thinking, and Hong Kong is now part of China after being literally raised on free thinking.

China does not make concessions it does not have to. The question now is : is Hong Kong revenue more important than Hong Kong freedom of speech ?

I fear we all know the answer to that.

Maltese browser game biz flings €1m sueball at Google over Adsense kerfuffle

"Google states that it alone determines what is and is not valid"

Yup, Google is God and God is not happy that somebody used their platform to make money on someone else's back.

Which is something I can actually get behind, for once.

But really, complaining that Kiwix has a load bar that is fixed to lad at seconds, and booting them for that before mentioning that they used other people's games ? Frankly, if I was in charge of explaining why somebody got the boot, I'd go straight to the "they cheated on other people's work" part and utterly forget the loading bar.

Am I to understand that if you create a website to present your own game but create a fixed 10-second loading bar for it, then Google will boot you from Adsense ?

I think that's a bit harsh. You can argue that it is part of the game experience. A bad part, granted, but I think it's up to the players to decide if they like it, not Google.

Re: If anyone gets paid,....

Nor the ad man, who is surfing on everyone else's work.

Are US border cops secretly secreting GPS trackers on vehicles without a warrant? EFF lawyers want to know

The police situation in the USA is completely out of hand

Regular police already ignore restrictions and sometimes even basic human rights, but border cops are even more crazy.

And, since they have special powers, they simply think they are literally above the law.

On top of that, government officials have long been ignorant of information requests when it inconveniences them, but with the orange baboon and his clique of chums who brazenly ignore pointed questions, a very bad example has been given.

It's starting to look like a little revolution is needed.

Today's Resident Evil: Ransomware crooks think local, not global, prey on schools, towns, libraries, courts, cities...

"criminals are now upping the amounts demanded"

. . because they know insurers will pay up.

But you give an example where the insurer specifically did not pay up, because recovery would be more expensive.

And you cite multiple people saying that small government organizations would take the least costly route.

So, if crims are increasing their cost, it means they are getting closer to the point where recovery would be less costly.

Not very logical.

Hey, it's 2019. Quit making battery-draining webpages – say makers of webpage-displaying battery-powered kit

"It's clear Apple appears to be learning its lesson"

No, it is not. Given that Apple has the most energy-intensive mobile web site out there, until Apple has made a change to that situation, it clearly hasn't learned its lesson.

It's not because a few Apple employees are saying some things about energy conservation that Apple Corp is going to steer in that direction. Hell, they even mention Brave, a fast browser that has ad-blocking built in. Apple is not going to switch to telling people to use Brave.

Microsoft's only gone and published the exFAT spec, now supports popping it in the Linux kernel

Is Microsoft really that desperate ?

Or is MS actually starting to change ? Could it be that enough Linux-friendly people have been hired, or is it just the fact that MS sees sooo many Linux servers, phones and slabs as is starting to realize that its citadel is becoming its tomb ?

In any case, I think I noticed a pig with wing stubs today.

Researchers studying Facebook's impact on democracy decry lack of data access, warn: We'll walk...

". . a definitive timetable for when the full set of proposed data can be made available"

You've gotta hand it to The Zuck, he knows how to delay and faffle about and tire everyone out.

First he ignores convocations, then he says that nothing was wrong, then he says the issues don't concern FaceBook, then he grudgingly accepts a modicum of oversight only to turn around after a long period and, hands helplessly held apart, states that giving up the required data might affect people's privacy and that, in conscience, he can't allow that.

That is a master waffler, no doubt there.

GDPR...rrrse! Mass-mail fail as German biz asks UK resellers for consent to use their dealer data

Ah, the joys of career-ending emails

Though thankfully never having been subject to the embarrassment of sending such mails, I have received a few in my time.

It's always best when you get the complete contact list of the condescending arse who thinks he's better than everyone and does not hesitate to show it. Mind you, I never got to rib him on his mistake, he curiously very quickly left the company after that mail.

Otto man thrown under the bus: 33 crim trade secret theft charges for ex-Uber exec Anthony Levandowski

"That case would be abruptly settled in 2018 after just four days in court"

So Uber folded after just four days. So not only is Uber guilty as hell, but it has no guts either.

Oh, when it comes to cheating people out of their revenue, or cities out of their taxes, yeah, then Uber is strong. But catch it red-handed and it becomes a whimpering dog.

Harvard freshman kicked out of US over OTHER people's posts on his social media

"incompatible with the culture and mission of higher education and our national ideals.”

Um, buddy, I think you didn't get the memo : your national ideals have been redefined. Corrupt, racist assholes are in charge, and they want America to Be White And Republican Again.

The Tell-Tale Heart! Boffins build an AI that can tell your sex using just your heartbeat

The black box nature of convolutional neural networks

We're going to end up creating an honest-to-goodness AI and we won't be able to explain how.

Just you wait an see.

AMD agrees to cough up $35-a-chip payout over eight-core Bulldozer advertising fiasco

"Typically class action attorneys gets 15-20%"

Normally, in a world that is just, a lawyer should be paid for his work, not get a share of the money that is supposed to go to the people who have been wronged.

But, this is the US of A, a country which has defined the term lobbying and set the example of how not to manage corporations or professional interests, so what else can you expect ?

Huawei smartphone sales up but only thanks to China as US trade ban gives punters the jitters

Good going Google

Way to encourage Huawei to build its own store and do away with you entirely.

You do realize that Huawei does not need you, long term ? I know you're used to everyone coming to you, but you see, in China they have a peculiarity that exists nowhere else : they speak Chinese. Everyone else in the world has some knowledge of English, and you provide translation services to be sure, but China is the one country in the world that will have no trouble writing you off and going their own way.

So you might want to think again before actually giving them a push in that direction.

Eight-hour comms lags and shock discoveries: 30 years after Voyager 2 visited gas giant Neptune

We'll need to send more probes for that. I would heartily agree to send a probe in orbit around Neptune.

Imagine Siri as your IT help desk. Too scary? OK, imagine PAYG on-prem IT. Oh, too much? How about everything on Kubernetes?

Ah, the joys of bleeding-edge tech

Who is not interested in renting what you own ? Thank God VMware finally reacted to all the mails and phone calls I made clamoring to be able to pay for what I already have.

I now eagerly await the law that will tax me for the air I breathe. Only then will we truly be in the 3rd millennium.

Biz forked out $115k to tout 'Time AI' crypto at Black Hat. Now it sues organizers because hackers heckled it

And, by filling their PR with terms like "multidimensional", just reading their blurb smacks of bull.

Oh, and I'm glad that the encryption takes time into account. That's nice. And they're using a statistical analysis machine, for all the good that will do.

They missed working blockchain in, though. Too bad. That would have clinched their success to be sure.

It will never be safe to turn off your computer: Prankster harnesses the power of Windows 95 to torment fellow students

Re: what it was like when you were young

Let me see, ah, yes. The Internet was barely on its feet, computers were worth about as much as car, and a T1 was the Holy Grail.

Pranking ? That bastard hadn't even been born yet. Oh, and the United States was actually viewed as the best country in the world.

Got anything to add ?

American ISPs fined $75,000 for fuzzing airport's weather radar by stealing spectrum

An ISP fined $25K ? What's the use ?

Fine at least $250K. Otherwise, it won't even be noticed.

Security gone in 600 seconds: Make-me-admin hole found in Lenovo Windows laptop crapware. Delete it now

Re: Why aren't there a gazillion class actions being filed every day over this crapshoot?

Because the lawyers are the only ones who benefit ?

Pokemon Go becomes Pokemon No as games biz Niantic agrees to curb trespassing addicts

Re: not a lot of time to do digging

That is not an excuse. If there is not enough time to check, then that point should not be authorized to show up, period.

Next, you start Google Earth in the morning and use it to check the coordinates coming in. That should take about five seconds.

Oh, the data coming in does not mention GPS coordinates ? Your fault for sucking at defining locations.

No new point should go active before being checked. End of.

Oracle OKs Oracle investors to sue Oracle: Put NetSuite suit before a judge – board panel

Wait a minute

How is it that the Board of a company gets to decide if a class-action lawsuit against itself should proceed ?

Isn't that something for a judge to decide ?

Or has the justice system in the USA just got fed up and handed itself over to corporations because they finally decided that that is how it works anyway ?

Google bans politics, aka embarrassing stuff that gets leaked, from internal message boards

They may own the equipment and make the rules, but apparently everyone has missed one little detail : the law says that no employer can order employees to refrain from discussing any specific subject at all.

On top of that, Google has so many fingers in so many pies that just about anything is work-related.

Including discussions about censorship.

Leaked EU doc plots €100bn fund to protect European firms against international tech giants

Re: What makes the EU think they can do better than the VCs?

That's not the point. What we have here is a new trough for the snouts of those in the know.

And, as for creating yet another multinational behemoth intent on harvesting all my details to make money on ads, I'm not sure it is an advantage to have a European one.

I'm already saturated with ads, don't need yet another source.

Don't trust Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency, boffins warn: Zuck & Co know that hash is king

Not a bot. I just live in France - so maybe I get a time zone advantage on the rest of you.

Plus, I'm working part-time at the moment.

US regulators push back against White House plan to police social media censorship

Funny that, when I look at his pictures intelligence is not something I see there.

Re: nothing [..] can eclipse the constitution

Except for taking power, putting in place your croonies who do as you say and block any attempt to set things straight, and then surfing on Congress' inability to impeach you.

Apart from that, yeah, nothing.

Got a burning desire for a Hololens 2.0? Microsoft insists its math coprocessor won't be too hot for headgear

"125Mbit of SRAM"

Well one thing is sure, that thing is not running Windows in any way, shape or form.

I'm guessing some variety of Linux, it's the only thing that could work in such a space. Anyone know more ? I've tried finding out, but I didn't get anything other than gushing articles about how good it is, and lighter it is (by a few grams), and how it connects to Azure all by itself.

Oh yeah, that last bit - makes it off my buyers list.

The story so far: How's that Autonomy High Court battle with HPE looking at half-time?

Re: millions of HPE's money will have been squandered

It's okay, they've already squandered billions. A few millions more is not a financial problem.

Besides, it's HP(E). They're used to squandering money.

As browser rivals block third-party tracking, Google pitches 'Privacy Sandbox' peace plan

"privacy is paramount to us"

Oh yes, it definitely is. You want to know everything about our privacy in order to monetize it, we know.

And that's why we have NoScript and uBlock Origin.

You don't like that ? Well it's your fault in the first place.

Steam cleaned of zero-day security holes after Valve turned off by bug bounty snub outrage

"there was an exchange that resulted in him being banned"

Well it's simple then : publish the content of the exchange and show everyone what happened. Because there's a good chance that somebody started to be insulting and the other someone didn't appreciate and shot back. So publishing the exchange will settle the matter.

Then Twitter can get outraged again and we'll know if we need to bang on Valve to reverse the decision or not.

But of course, that won't happen, because it would be a breach of confidentiality or something. Too bad.

Re: Disgusting

again !

My god, it's full of tsars: A gun-toting Russian humanoid robot is on its way to the International Space Station

"the bot will be carrying out menial tasks"

Yes, like inserting malware into the guidance system, sabotaging experiments, covering the solar panels with a special fluid that gradually turns opaque in the sunlight . . . you know, menial tasks.

On a side note, anybody wonder why absolutely nothing was said about this launch before it was successful ? Nobody was talking about this a week before launch, and it would have been a great attention-grabber, don't you think ?

Maybe the Soviet Union still lies in the shadows, ensuring that only good news gets out. It the rocket had failed, we might never have heard about this.

I couldn't possibly tell you the computer's ID over the phone, I've been on A Course™

Re: He should be proud that of that guy

Obviously the training should have forced a bit on the notion of difference between internal and external calls. Everybody knows the Helpdesk, if your scammer is calling from there, all is already lost.

Overstock dot-gone: Surplus biz CEO now surplus to requirements, ejects after Russian spy fling, deep state rant

"our keiretsu of blockchain firms"

Hm hmm. Yeees, of coourse. Nurse ? Bring me 50mg of benzohydrophenylatrium, stat ! We just might be able to bring his conscience back to within the borders of the solar system.

Maybe.

End of an era for ULA as the last Delta IV Medium rocket leaves launch pad

Yeah, sure

The USA is of course going to spring billions to help create a replica of something it already has simply because the UK was stupid enough to leave a political entity that was creating it and now the UK wants its own.

I don't think that's going to happen, guys. You wanted out, you've got out.

Of everything.