Posts by Pascal Monett

Y2K, Windows NT4 Server and Notes. It's a 1990s Who, Me? special

Re: Stickers still might bite you

Sorry, that's not stickers' fault. That's management's fault for putting its finger where it shouldn't and deciding things without being in tune with reality.

Shutting down the wrong server

In those days, he was a bit lucky that everything came back online correctly.

On the other hand, having a sticker with the name of the server would have helped as well. Hindsight and all that.

Of course, in today's virtualized server centers, the sticker could name quite a lot of servers, but then you can put the name of the physical machine.

In any case, stickers with names on it. It's the only way to maximize the chances of avoiding such errors.

Disabled by default: Microsoft ups the ante in its war against VBScript on Internet Explorer

"having a web application that only works in IE doesn't make any sense"

It never did make any sense, except to Microsoft.

We are here today because Microsoft couldn't be arsed to bring itself to respect web standards, and now it's coming back to bite its ass.

About time too. No sympathy for the poor, poor managers at Microsoft who have to juggle with all the legacy leprosy that is IE while trying desperately to pull MS into the 3rd millennium. There is only one solution : burn it down. Cut the limb off. Protect the rest of the body.

We've, um, changed our password policy, says CafePress amid reports of 23m pwned accounts

Completely agree. It is a sad indicator of the state of our Internet that so-called "experts" are only wondering. We've been hearing for years that you shouldn't re-use passwords, so the conclusion seems pretty inescapable if you have the slightest amount of logic.

That said, password managers. Yes, definitely use one, but not necessarily a commercial product. After all, for accessing your Internet web sites from home, a notepad (with actual paper, not the Microsoft product) is largely sufficient and not at all hackable from the Internet. And before some of you attack me about having to access your passwords from multiple locations, not all of Internet users are such power users. Most people use the Internet from their home computer and that's it.

A notepad is enough for that. Oh, and a sense of organization.

Microsoft hikes cost of licensing its software on rival public clouds, introduces Azure 'Dedicated' Hosts

Yay, Azure is now old enough to become Oracle

Not even in its teens yet, but apparently good enough to start hiking up licensing prices and confusing them Oracle-style.

No prize for guessing why Microsoft is going down that path.

LAPD loses job applicant details, Project Zero pokes holes in iOS, AWS S3 whack-a-mole continues, and more

Well, to be fair, it appears to be disk status reports, not what you do with your files.

It is, however, just another example of a company choosing to do what it wants with your bandwidth "with the best of intentions" and "to improve customer service" because it can, without wondering if it has the right.

I think that we should start invoicing our bandwidth under default terms, as in €100/month flat rate, for unauthorized usage of our bandwidth. That would probably set things straight pretty quick.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's two-dozen government surveillance balloons over America

"Privacy advocates will be less than-thrilled"

Pretty soon privacy advocates will have to change country. The USA is becoming a fascist state and that is that.

BOFH: Oh, go on, let's flush all that legacy tech down the toilet

Unbelievable

And quite unexpected.

A great start to a Friday.

This is not the cloud you're looking for.... Oracle's JEDI mind tricks work as Trump forces $10bn IT project to drop out of warp

Agreed all the way

As to "WHY on Earth, Yavin or Nar Shaddaa, you would want anything related to a military high command anywhere near "the cloud"", the answer is that our society has been lobotomized and anything resembling reason or common sense has been sucked into the blue screens we have grafted to our hands.

I blame FaceBook.

Defense Secretary Dr Mark Esper

Okay, given Trump's hiring record, what is this piece of scum guilty of ?

UK parliament sends snippy letter to Zuck and his poodle Clegg as it seems Facebook has been lying again

You'll be amazed

Actually I am. I am amazed at the stupidity that Facebook consistently shows by imagining that it can lie continually and never get caught.

Especially that, this time, Facebook was lying to two different sets of people about the same thing, and nobody thought to present the same lies ?

I expect a 12-year old to be that dumb, not a corporation with lawyers on its payroll.

Re: Public cost duty allowance

Indeed. Image that, a fund to help the poor, poor former ministers.

Remind me which minister was at minimum wage when he got elected ?

Our hero returns home £500 richer thanks to senior dev's appalling security hygiene

Seems that he was too busy to do security.

And by putting his passwords into his source code, he also demonstrates how disorganized he was, which probably made him all the more busy.

New British Army psyops unit fires rebrandogun, smoke clears to reveal... I'm sorry, Dave...

Re: Ring of Fail?

Agreed. I'm pretty sure many squaddies would gladly knock up anything with a ring on it.

IBM ships software portfolio into containers thanks to Red Hat providing the packaging

"managed and operated by IBM"

And that is the secret, isn't it ? Microsoft did it with Sharepoint, copying SAP who did it with so-called complete management software ; selling a product but really selling you a team of a few dozen consultants to manage it.

And now IBM wants in on that lucrative market. You think you're spending millions on a top-notch "solution" for your company, but what you're actually doing is signing up for years and years of subsidizing someone else's employees.

Hey, don't knock it, it works.

Lyft pulls its e-bike fleet from San Francisco Bay Area after exploding batteries make them the hottest seat in town

Looks like the technology hasn't been properly studied

Okay, first off we have a previous startup who couldn't make brakes work. I'm sorry, but I do believe that, in this 3rd millennium of ours, bike brakes are not new and should really not be a problem. This issue smacks of corner-cutting to me.

Then we have Lyft, absorbing the first failed startup and going for the flammable battery release. Of course, Lyft is hardly the first in the flammable battery market, but this is the second issue on the same product with dangerous consequences.

That is starting to look like a trend, and I'm thinking that the beancounters are responsible for it.

Google shores up G Suite against hapless users in the enterprise: App whitelist, physical security keys, and more

Re: Improved security . .

Yup, a magnificent excuse for Google to keep tabs on everything you do on your PC/tablet.

Thanks, Google, but I'll wait for some other provider to offer such functionality. One that does not have for principle business the slurping of everything everywhere.

You want to do security ? Start by securing me from you.

Ouch. Reinstalling Windows 10 again? By 2020, a 'cloud download' may be all you need

"download a pristine copy of the OS from Microsoft's cloud servers"

Would probably not work for me. Microsoft considers that everything lives on C:, whereas I, by experience, know that that is the path to madness.

Every time I reinstall a Windows OS, once I have a functional system I create a secondary Data partition and shove all the user folders there (you know, what Microsoft has named "Libraries"). That way, when comes the inevitable moment of Yet Another Windows Crash & Burn, the only thing I lose is the OS, not my data. It also helps that I only need to backup the C: partition, which is not so heavy in my scenario. My data I backup differently.

I'm pretty sure that an MS cloud download is going to put everything back the MS way, and MS can shove that right where the Sun don't shine.

I'll handle my own recovery, thank you.

Networking giant in hot water for selling US govt buggy spy kit? Huawei again? No, it's Cisco

"there is no evidence that any customer’s security was ever breached"

If I read that correctly, the feed was open and accessible. I take it then that, if someone had been interested in hacking it, it would hardly be difficult if you have the technical know-how.

In that case, I'm guessing there would not be much as far as traces are concerned, so what "evidence" could you possibly discover and have you actually looked for it instead of just spouting a variation of "we take our customer's security very seriously" ?

Pi in the sky as ESA starts testing encrypted comms on International Space Station

No expert here either, but I think that the chances that two cosmic rays impact two sets of data/instructions in exactly the same way at exactly the same time are statistically about as close to zero as you can get.

New UK Home Sec invokes infosec nerd rage by calling for an end to end-to-end encryption

"the vital work which companies already undertake"

Well if they're already doing the work, what's the problem ?

Oh, you want the job to be easier ? And the fact that that totally tramples over innocent people's liberty is no matter to you ?

Well then fuck you.

Right, so because "true" end-to-end is impossible, we're supposed to sit back and do nothing ?

I'll be happy with encryption from my PC to its destination PC/server, thank you very much.

Omni(box)shambles? Google takes aim at worldwide web yet again

"Long ago, we chose to hide 'https://' [..] and simply show a security indicator"

Show a security indicator, but leave me my https://.

Make an extension that hides it and let the power users who care install that.

What is it with the always having to change what we've been looking at for the past twenty years ? If you don't like it, make an optional something and activate it for yourself, but leave us the fuck out of your issues.

Watch as 10 cops with guns and military camo storm suspected Capital One hacker's house…

I do believe I did not say that they have all the people who are not in their right mind.

Re: no-one in their right mind

Um, you are aware we're talking about Americans, here ?

They have lots of people not in their right mind.

Meet ELIoT – the EU project that wants to commercialize Internet-over-lightbulb

So we are going to have flickering streetlights everywhere

Are streetlights going to become Internet hotspots then ? Or will the streetlamp just relay data from its neighbors ?

Are you going to be able to pirate a streetlamp signal and send anything you wish in an untraceable manner ?

And when you've reached the last streetlamp, where does the signal go then ?

I think there is still a lot to think of concerning this technology.

Silly money: Before you chuck your chequebook away, triple-check that super-handy digital coin

Re: "there's no way to beat a lottery without either cheating it, or some complicity"

Tell that to the ones who've won.

He's coming for your floppy: Linus Torvalds is killing off support for legacy disk drive tech

Ah, the joys of floppy drives

I remember the program I used to use to turn a 1.2MB floppy into a 1.8MB floppy (the 5.25" ones). The 1.44MB could be turned into 2.8MB. It worked, but they ended up corrupting a lot more than normal (duh).

Or the programs I used to copy 3.5" games. Those programs seemed pretty sophisticated (uh, did I say that out loud ?).

Right, mine's the one with the genuine, non-USB 3.5" drive that I still have the cable for (but no port, obviously).

The April 2018 Update is so 1803, snort Windows 10 faithful as more settle down in 1903 town

Re: "Fix it Till It's Broken (Again)"

Microsoft. Redefining the expression "You're holding it wrong" since July 29, 2015.

Rambus gobbles tasty chip slinger Northwest Logic in a move away from patent litigation

Somehow ?!?

Really ? With a list of court cases that are longer than an arm and the obvious JEDEC shenanigans that demonstrate without any discussion that you are slime you come out smiling and think we're going to forget ?

A leopard doesn't change its spots. All you're really trying is to get another batch of IP stuff that you'll be able to sue for.

Bastards.

Outraged Virgin slaps IP trolls over dirty movie download data demands

"the applicants would not be 'controllers' of that data"

Really ? Well, let's see what the GDPR has to say about that :

For example, if Acme Co. sells widgets to consumers and uses Email Automation Co. to email consumers on their behalf and track their engagement activity, then with regard to such email activity data, Acme Co. is the data controller, and Email Automation Co. is the data processor.

So, in this case Virgin is the supposed data controller, and the IP trolls are supposed to be the data processors. Except that it is not Virgin that is asking them to do anything, they are demanding the data for their processing. The example is not applicable, the IP trolls would indeed be the data controllers.

The judge got it wrong, that's for sure.

Satellites with lasers and machine guns coming! China's new plans? Trump's Space Force? Nope, the French

For defense. Yeah, sure.

Defense against what, a collision ? No laser can help with that, you'd have to blow the incoming satellite apart. I don't think they're planning on adding gigawatt lasers to already hefty spy sats - Ariane would need a new class of boosters to lift all that mass. Machine guns are likely not enough either, and the recoil will really mess with the orbit and cost fuel to get back to where it's supposed to be.

So this looks more like seeing another spy sat getting into position to shoot yours, and you preempt the attack by retaliating first. That puts you in shoes of the attacker, especially if you misinterpret the maneuvering.

The whole idea is ridiculous. Much better to lose a satellite, blame it on whoever is responsible and not get blamed for the cloud of debris that will take them all out.

On the other hand, it's my government we're talking about. They couldn't get troops to Afghanistan with the proper equipment, so I don't worry much about them getting a laser-equipped satellite into space. This is just political posturing.

Dutch cheesed off at Microsoft, call for Rexit from Office Online, Mobile apps over Redmond data slurping

Re: My precious data, it's ours

That is a good point. How come Microsoft hasn't extended that to all of Europe already ? Yeah, I get that you won't have the data in the US any more, but that's the way the wind is blowing, so it'll end up that way anyway.

Microsoft could perfectly well base its telemetry gathering in Europe for European customers, and send itself sanitized reports to Redmond.

But why bother doing things right before having a gun to the head ?

German data regulator ruminates on big 5G question, shrugs: We'll find Huawei around it

"we can counter that with improved encryption"

Wait, wait. Do you mean, encryption that is not backdoored ?

But . . but . . then the terrorists will win !

For the safety of our civilization, we must listen to Trump, to the FBI director and to the Attorney General Barr ! These humanitarian samaritans have told us : we need backdoored encryption for our own safety. You cannot go against the combined will of the three greatest minds of the United Sheesh.

UK taxpayers funded Grand Theft Auto V maker to tune of £42m – while biz paid no corp tax and made billions

Re: Tax Avoidance?

If you don't call out the injustice and bring attention to it, there never will be any incentive to change.

Or are you intending to build a multi-billion dollar game franchise on public money as well ?

Re: Cultural

Yeah, but only if Downing Street agrees to fund it.

Freshly outsourced Home Office project: Overseas student visa IT slammed for delays

Sopra Steria, helping you get into debt to study

Congratulations, Steria. You make them pay to enroll, pay more over the week end and pay a God-awful amount by minute to try nd get some help in the nightmare you created.

That from a company based in a country where education is supposed to be free (as in beer). Okay, it isn't really, but if they tried to pull that shit off in France they'd be crucified.

Well done adapting your underhanded tactics to a country that apparently can't do anything about it.

Shame on you, Steria.

Brit infosec firms urge PM Boris to reform the Computer Misuse Act

Well good luck with that

I sincerely hope that that letter will have some sort of positive impact, but given the UK government's track record on backdooring encryption, I doubt it.

But here's hoping anyway.

As the world secures itself, so do crims: Encrypted malware on the rise, warns Sonicwall

IoT is a plague on security and will stay that way until Joe Schmuck gets his fancy automated house overrun by malware and nothing works any more. Only when his heater in on full in the middle of summer, his doorbell is constantly ringing, his lightbulbs are not lighting up but they are playing the Valkyries at full blast and his security cameras are posting everything on YouTube automatically, only then will he start wondering if all that was a good idea.

Then he'll ask Siri and the Internet will implode.

Migrating an Exchange Server to the Cloud? What could possibly go wrong?

Re: Why are the admin accounts disabled by Exchange?

Well, there are two types of admins : the ones who have the time and resources to do everything right in a secure manner, and the rest who have no time because they are constantly in fire-extinguisher mode because either they are incompetent or they are competent but do not have the resources to their job correctly because IT is a cost center.

In other words, if someone hadn't fucked up with permission security, the guy who fucked up with Exchange would have basically reset the company's IT network.

What a weird way to save the day.

Apple techies analyzing Siri recordings may have heard you unzipping and bonking – plus more

"This means the Windows giant is automatically tipped off [..] about the fledgling malware"

No actually, this means the malware developers are not going to test their stuff against Microsofts monotonic whatever and Microsoft will remain in the dark and their tool be useless.

Does anyone at Microsoft really think that it'll be that simple ? Those malware developers are not skript kiddies, they are intelligent people. I do not see them shrug and decide to put their code into Microsoft's database. If they were testing on an offline computer, it was for a reason : they didn't want Microsoft to find out what they were doing.

Alibaba sketches world's 'fastest' 'open-source' RISC-V processor yet: 16 cores, 64-bit, 2.5GHz, 12nm, out-of-order exec

That is only a threat if you use their seeds.

Monsanto does not have a patent on wheat.

City-obliterating asteroid screamed past Earth the other night – and boffins only clocked it just 26 hours beforehand

Re: A Miss Is As Good As A Mile

I prefer asteroids of any size to pass outside the orbit of the Moon, thank you.

Juniper Networks struggles with service providers as US-China trade war continues to suck

Re: I'm quite surprised, really --

It may be precisely the wrong time, but having spent half a century on this planet, I have the feeling that, whatever governments do, people will survive.

I lived through the petrol crises of the 70s, the bank crises of the 2000s, and we're all still here, living, breathing and consuming.

Yes, it would be nice if major governments had their shit together, but in the end, my opinion is that governments, in general, are just there to ensure that people can continue living their lives.

It is not governments that make the economy, it is people. And, try as they might, governments can only make it more difficult for people to thrive. So the best you can expect from a government is that it does not get in your way. So yeah, the US is fucked, and the UK likely will be soon. But all that is temporary (for certain values of temporary). In the end, the people making the economy go will end up all right.

Or they will be dead. Toss of the coin, really.

Sleeping Tesla driver wonders why his car ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

Re: "This accident was my fault. I fell asleep at the wheel...."

Honest ? Not quite enough. Yes, he recognizes that he fell asleep, and then blames the car for not stopping.

Sorry bud, you are at the wheel, you are responsible.

Your fancy Tesla has a bunch of stuff to help you, not replace you.

Somebody is working on a $600m data center in Lincoln, Nebraska, could rhyme with schmoogle

Re: 'High-Paying Technical Jobs'

That line caught my eye as well. I would be surprised if there were that many highly-paid people working in data centres. There's the Head Admin, obviously, and one or two of his minions probably, but the rest of the technicians are there for more menial duties (move that rack to room 214) and then there's the cleaning staff and maybe an aircon technician.

I found here a list of Data Center Technician salaries, it goes from $31k to $95k per year. So I guess there can be highly paid people there, but there are logically a lot more low-paid people, like I thought.

Summer vacations put an end to rampant desktop crimewave

"humans remain more effective than machines when it comes to securing digital assets"

Well they certainly are more effective at goofing it up.

As for where my pen is, I see what you did there and look forward to the inevitable rise of that site's popularity.

Our sales were to genuine customers, Autonomy ex-CEO Mike Lynch insists in court

Re: They don't seem to be putting up much evidence to explain why

It might be that they don't have any. It's just that HP is miffed that the golden goose turned out to be a turkey, and they want a scapegoat.

The fact that HP upper management didn't pay attention to the people they had who were saying that it was a bad deal is not pertinent to HP.

It is to everyone else, though.

AWS still a cash machine for Bezos, Intel is down a 5G modem biz, and Google is on Tulsi Gabbard's bad side

"among the most-searched people on Google"

It's okay dear. You never had a chance to be President, but now you get to blame Google for it.

Oh, and Google : you might want to think of incorporating a flag in people's profile if they start running for President of the United States. I'm guessing that their profile generally sees a lot more activity once that fact has gone public.