Posts by Pascal Monett

£1bn UK justice system digitisation scheme in massive delay shocker

"We will continue [..] working closely with our stakeholders to improve and ensure reform."

Um, somehow that does not incite me to think that the program is going to complete any faster.

Looks like the snouts are firmly in the trough again.

Hold up, ace. Before you strap into Firefox's latest Test Pilot, ask yourself...

Although I generally agree with your post, one thing caught my eye :

"[Mozilla] will not sell, license, sublicense, or grant any rights to your [data]... without Mozilla's explicit written permission"

They're not saying they won't sell my data without my written permission, they're saying they won't sell my data without their written permission.

That may be a misinterpretation on my part, but that's how I read it.

Are you who you say you are, sir? You are? That's all fine then

A funny thing happened to me in July

I live in a rural town and had just gotten my FTTH connection for a month when the local farmer managed to knock it down - but without breaking it.

So my connection was fine, but the line was all over the road. Obviously, I phoned Orange Support - and, after getting through the inevitable anger-inducing first few questions, I managed to indicate that I was calling for a technical problem.The robot cheerfully announced it was going to launch a test of my connection, and of course, a few minutes later, announced that all was well, thank you for calling.

Um, I thought while staring at my phone that was broadcasting the end call beep, no, all is NOT well. MY LINE IS ON THE GROUND !

So, I went to the website, and got to the Support page. There is no chat link for a helldesk drone until you jump through ten hoops, turn around three times and clap your hands saying "there's no place like Orange". Kidding, even that doesn't work. I spent over 45 minutes on that support section and all I could do was test my connection - which, of course, was fine.

After bouncing off the walls for a total of about 90 minutes, I resigned myself to phoning the support line again. To my eternal surprise, instead of going through all the motions for nothing again, this time the robot remarked that I had already called, was it the same problem, I'll direct you to a technician. YES ! Oh heavenly bliss ! Finally, a human being !

I finally got to tell the story, and, after repeating myself twice (apparently it is hard to understand that the line is down but the connection works - must've been a city boy), he finally acknowledged the issue and typed some stuff into the computer. He told me I would be contacted shortly to get an intervention date.

A month later, I called again because nobody had called me. Yes, that is 31 days later, I had to call again. Knowing the procedure this time, I did the two calls and got a technician. I asked what was going on. He had no clue. I had to explain myself all over again. Twice. Again. Cue the typing on the keyboard, and the we'll call you soon. I asked yeah, but how soon ? Because last time you didn't call. I cannot do more, sir. I have escalated the issue. Yeah right. Well I'll see.

Next week came along, nothing. The week after that, nothing. It was now 45 days since my fiber was lying on the ground. I was about to call back when the inevitable finally happened : some car went by and ripped the fiber line from the lamppost. Now my connection was well and truly down all the way.

So I set up my mobe with its 4G sharing connection, fired up my laptop and went to the website, where I had it diagnose a connection problem. The next day, I got a call from a technician asking when he could come by and check it out. He dropped by, checked the situation, and we agreed to an intervention the following week. That happened as programmed and I am now reconnected and fully functional.

Moral of the story ? Orange doesn't give a damn about your line until it's broken, whether or not you talk to a human being.

From pen-test to penitentiary: Infosec duo cuffed after physically breaking into courthouse during IT security assessment

Re: hire a more reputable firm

Agreed. I cannot fathom how supposed professional pen testers failed to be explicit about what their action included.

As usual, lack of communication creates a misunderstanding which transforms into full-blown disagreement.

One would think that experienced pen testers would have already encountered this kind of situation and amended their proposal procedures accordingly. Am I supposed to understand that these guys have never, ever had a customer argue about what was authorized in the test protocol ?

Besides, I would think it is good marketing and a show of professionalism to list to the customer all the things the test will include. On top of that, had they done that they could shove the contract in the court's face and say : hey, you signed on this.

Astroboffins baffled as black hole at center of Milky Way suddenly a lot hungrier than before

"hungrier than it's ever been"

Look, I appreciate the imagery as much as any other guy, but a black hole is no less or more hungry than its gravitational attraction. When something stumbles close enough, it is not because the black hole reached out in any special way, it's just gravity doing its thing.

I'm not sure that describing black holes as monstrous space trolls is good for the public perception of the phenomenon.

On the other hand, it does make for a more entertaining read.

Watchdog: Hush-hush UK.gov blew £97m on Brexit wonks from six of the usual suspects

You're at 10K/day and you're posting on El Reg ?

Pull the other one.

Re: It is a zero-sum game

Not for the guy getting the money. And those who short intend to get the money.

Agreed

The "movers" and "shakers" are there to offer their great insights and then clear the area well before the grunts come in to try and apply the nebulous bullshit to the actual world.

That way it is clear that, if the project does not succeed, it is purely because the grunts were incapable of sufficient insight to make things happen. It is in no case because the project was defined by hot air and horse dung.

Brit MPs: Our policies are crap and the political process is in tatters, but it's Twitter's fault, OK?

"it has worsened the public's attitude towards them"

Well duh, now when they spout nonsense it's caught and exposed to millions on the Web - they can't faff about and try to make it look like they didn't say it.

They're going to actually have to learn to <gasp> think about what they say.

DNA-in-space archive could spark 'Upload Me to the Moon' croon boom soon

"If radiation breaks up some of them"

Um, with the amount of radiation hitting the Moon's surface full blast, I'm pretty sure that, in a million years, the radiation will have broken up all of them.

Eco-activists arrested by Brit cops after threatening to close Heathrow with drones

"they were prepared to go to jail to carry out the action"

Mission accomplished !

Unfortunately, not all of them will be able to qualify for a Darwin Award. What a shame.

France says 'non merci' to Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency

"thought needs to be given to creating a public digital currency"

Yes, well, let me think about that for a minute.

Hmm, right : fuck that.

We have a national currency that is perfectly functional and I don't need anybody but my bank to transfer money to anyone I choose. I do not need to subscribe to a criminal organization's excuse for laundering money, or another criminal organization's excuse for spying on my private life. And, as far as investments are concerned, I invest in my house, thank you very much.

Fairphone 3 stripped to the modular essentials: Glue? What glue?

Re: Even on phones where they are glued down like Samsung

Sorry, I've never had a Samsung where the battery was glued in. Not on the Galaxy S2 I used to have, not on the A3 I have now.

Re: less prone to mechanical failures

There is no excuse for gluing the battery. Batteries should always be easily replaceable.

First water world exoplanet spotted – and thankfully no sign of Kevin Costner, rejoice!

Re: Super earth.

The problem with detecting planets is that, at this point in time, all we have is the transition model - and that means that detecting something that is actually Earth-sized is near impossible unless the system is very close and the planets orbit passes between us and their star.

Needless to say, we're not detecting any actually Earth-sized planets hundreds of light-years away any time soon.

Not that we have the means to get there anyway, so . . .

Mike drop, DXC-ya later! Lawrie immediately ejects as CEO from IT outsourcing giant

"Mike Salvino, a former Accenture Operations CEO"

Accenture, that company intricately tied with the formerly-known as Enron, right ?

Another shark then.

Suits DXC perfectly.

Deloitte man kept quiet at Autonomy's internal audit committees, says scrutiny chairman

Re: "by that time the CEO has pocketed hundreds of millions more in salary, bonuses, and options"

Simple solution there : withhold payment of bonuses, shares and options until promised profit has been realized.

If it isn't realized, no payment.

CEOs might pay a bit more attention then.

"never said anything at the meetings"

And yet you still paid him ? Without questioning him on his findings ?

Can I get a job like that ? Paid to participate in meetings every now and then, with nobody asking me what I'm up to ?

I'll need a beefy computer (with two screens) and a GB internet connection, of course.

Mystery database left open turns out to be at heart of a huge Groupon ticket fraud ring

It is now

The gig (economy) is up: New California law upgrades Lyft, Uber, other app serfs to staff

"[Uber] does not believe it is affected by this legislation"

Well then, why fight it in court ?

Uber and Icann, walking hand in hand, believing they can redefine the world.

Well ya can't, assholes. It's about time you get your wake-up call.

Breaking, literally: Microsoft's fix for CPU-hogging Windows bug wrecks desktop search

Re: It seems to me

Ohh buddy, desktop search in Windows has never worked.

Check out Everything Search. That is a search that works, and takes less than a millisecond to produce results.

You know, like a search should on computers that are a million times more powerful than when Windows came out.

#MeToo chatbot, built by AI academics, could lend a non-judgmental ear to sex harassment and assault victims

“Before releasing it to the public"

You're going to want to ensure that your AI is capable of handling the legion of trolls out there who will not hesitate one second to try and game it or break it.

So sanitize your inputs and, above all, do not accept attachments.

UK ISPs must block access to Nintendo Switch piracy sites, High Court rules

Let the whack-a-mole begin

ISPs will block existing addresses, and the pirates will find other ones. Repeat until somebody makes a big mistake and gets caught.

D-Link, Comba network gear leave passwords open for potentially whole world to see

"they eventually simply stopped responding entirely"

That is not an acceptable behavior. You do not simply shrug off security issues.

Surely there must be someone at D-Link who is aware that they now have an impending PR scandal coming their way ?

Well, if that's what it takes to make them wake up, then so be it.

Lights, camera, camera, camera, action: iPhone, iPad, Watch, chip biz in new iPhone, iPad, Watch, chip shocker

Re: Can't see Apple TV+ doing well at all

Indeed not. Launching a subscription service in the current environment feels like financial suicide. Apple is going to lose a lot of money on this. Not even Apple has the clout to buy anything off Disney and Disney is holding all the properties people are willing to pay for these days.

I don't know what Apple is going to offer, but I highly doubt it will find customers flocking to its service. People are already subscribed to what they want.

Required: Massive email fraud bust. Tired: Cops who did the paperwork. Expired: 281 suspected con men's freedom

That was one massive operation

Kudos to all involved in arresting those miscreants.

On the other hand, 281 criminals working together - who would've thought that many could join forces ?

Oops: Rockets lighting their tails is a good thing – but not three-plus hours before lift-off

"there are still plenty of supplies on the space station"

Good for them, but if the rocket explodes, there had better be another one that is almost ready to go because otherwise, those supplies stand a chance of greatly diminishing.

Enterprise Java spec packs bags, ready for new life under assumed name – Jakarta

Maybe the name was badly chosen, but with over 10 million developers in the world, it doesn't look like Java is going to sink any time soon.

Huawei thanks Uncle Sam for returning its seized comms kit ... two years later, ya jerks

"should be subject to legal constraints"

Um, guys, with Trump at the helm, legality is a species on the brink of extinction.

Thinking about processing a payment, Sage Group? Biz confirms mulling sale of Sage Pay

"making a push to the cloud"

But of course, go and put all your accounting details in The Cloud (TM). What's the worst that could happen ?

Well, let's see :

- your entire account can get lost

- your account can be pwned and figures and such made public

- your financial details can get hacked and transfers made without your knowledge or consent

- your provider can get hacked and your account pwned through no fault of your own

Do I really have to continue ?

Welcome to The Reg's poetry corner... hiQ once again / beats LinkedIn on web scrape case / more appeals await

Agreed

LinkedIn may be "protecting" its customers, but its ex-customers can sit on it and smile.

I closed my LinkedIn account when Microsoft took over. I'm still getting invites (or friend requests, whatever I don't care). Why ? If my account is closed, nobody should be able to invite me and you can't invite someone.

I raised the issue with LinkedIn chat people and the response was I could go to my profile and uncheck receive invites. Guys, I closed my profile, I shouldn't have to need to do that.

I'm still waiting for an answer on that point.

eBay eBabe enigma explained: Microsoft bug blamed after topless model slings e-souk's emails at stunned Brits

A disabled account

Great. So Microsoft keeps disabled accounts lying around to plunder images from them. That's really smart. What else do they occasionally pilfer, one has to wonder ?

Alright! Ma time to meet that shag quota! Alibaba chairman steps down at 55 with $38.6bn fortune

So he's stepping down

Good on him for building such a career and such a company. Working 9 to 9 ? Less good for the workers but hey, he's a billionaire, not a philanthropist.

I wonder how long it will take him to launch himself into another project. He does not seem to be the type to just up and retire to taking care of his garden.

New lows at Bose as firmware update woes infuriate soundbar bros

I checked out Bose's site

Found the soundbar, and checked the manual.

For starters, the manual begins with 9 pages (!) of legal and regulatory blabber. The Table of Contents is on page 10. I went to the Recommendations page (page 14) where I read that the soundbar must be kept at least 1 to 3 feet away from any other wireless equipment. Well sorry, but my TV receiver is right under the telly and it's wireless and it is staying there. Not that I will be buying anything that phones home anyway, and especially not a soundbar.

If you are incapable of making proper speakers without having to tweak them from a distance, you're not getting my money.

What a bunch of DoSers: Wikipedia says it was walloped by 'bad faith' actors over weekend

Re: Fundamentally flawed model

So that's why you DDOSed it ?

I was hard against Wikipedia a few years ago, because I do not agree with 'truth by consensus' either.

But I have to admit that a serious sweeping has taken place, and the articles I am interested in (space and science, essentially) are generally up to par now.

Not that I'm trusting them blindly, though, but Wikipedia has gotten better.

For real this time, get your butt off Python 2: No updates, no nothing after 1 January 2020

Re: see if it still works

If you have a complete system, then maybe. You might want to replace the CMOS battery before starting it up.

However, I regret to say that Win98 SE no longer installs on existing hardware since about a decade ago, if not more. Even XP can no longer install on "modern" hardware.

That's why I moved to Win 7.

Mainstream auto makers stuff in more self-driving tech: 8% of new Euro cars have Level 2 smarts

Level 2 smarts ?

Okay, I will admit that I can accept Level 1 as being Cruise Control. I do think that we have that down pat and reliable and working.

As far as I'm concerned, Level 2 should content itself with lane control. Stay in the same lane, slow down if there is a holdup in front, and that's it.

Controlling steering is way beyond Level 2. I'm sure we can find a number of things to be sure of before that.

Facebook pushing for facials and fighting deepfakes while US Army learning AI ethics

"the request for cash was urgent"

The request may be urgent, but the account number should already be recorded if the accounting department is worth anything. That means that there should be no transfers to account numbers that aren't already recognized. CEOs need to impress their financial department that no transfers should ever be allowed, under any circumstances, to an unrecognized account no matter who calls.

I realize that a small company is less likely to have proper procedures in place, but a small company would probably not have over 200 grand to throw away. Here, we're talking about a company that does have that kind of money lying around. It is therefor a large company and should have proper procedures in place.

In any case, I'm guessing they are seriously thinking about implementing them now.

Apple programs Siri to not bother its pretty little head with questions about feminism

On the one hand, I understand your point of view.

On the other hand, given that parents these days have abandoned parenting to electronic devices, I feel that it is useful and necessary to have something that will make a kid say 'please', because parents these days seem to have forgotten how.

Everyone's a winner as Microsoft turns on new Windows 10 19H2 toys for all Slow Ring testers

Re: Just

I'm sorry, you do realize you're using Windows 1 0, right ?

It was made to slurp from the ground up. If you don't agree with that, you're going to have to chose another OS.

There's no way around that.

You know what the NHS really needs? Influencers, right guys? #blessed

"The best advert for our NHS is our extraordinary staff"

That has to be the truth. You've got to have an extraordinary staff to put up with the dismal state of IT, the continual mismanagement and general waste of resources that is going on now, and yet continue to do their level best, whatever the circumstances.

Oops, wait, yeah, we did hand over photos for King's Cross facial-recog CCTV, cops admit

Sir Humphry ? Is that you ?

Look, we know it feels like everything's going off the rails right now, but think positive: The proton has a new radius

Re: Why?

Science is about understanding our Universe. The better we understand it, the better we can model it and the sooner we'll get warp drives.

And that, my friend, will have an effect on your everyday life.

In the mean time, I'll gladly partake in a pub quiz.

The time a Commodore CDTV disc proved its worth as something other than a coaster

Early computing ?

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it happened last week !

Auditors bemoan time it takes for privatised RAF pilot training to produce combat-ready aviators

"Auditors bemoan time it takes"

Simple solution : put the auditors in the planes and let's see how long they take to be able to fly.

Hm. Is it wise to assume 'no material disruption' from 'volatile' UK climate, Dixons Carphone?

"we stand by our full-year guidance"

In other words, what happened last year should happen this year. Or : I have no idea what might change in the market, so I'll just assume everything stays the same.

No wonder kingdoms fall and civilizations vanish with that kind of forecasting.

Is Dixons Carphone relying on Gartner, by any chance ?

Today's data whoopsie is brought to you by CircleCI: Source safe, but look out for phishers

"a third-party analytics provider"

Well that's just fine and dandy, isn't it ? A 3rd-party is responsible. But of course, it's not your fault that you couldn't be arsed to keep the job in-house. On the contrary, you went 3rd-party because that gives you plausible deniability.

It does not. You should have vetted your 3rd party better.

It's still your fault.

UK plod could lose access to 79 million criminal alerts in event of a no-deal Brexit

So there was a system, but they used another

I thought Interpol was important, but it seems that it's just the fifth wheel and has been treated that way by everyone.

Who knows ? Maybe a no-deal Brexit might just be thing to make Interpol important. I think I might like that.

Newb admits he ran Satori botnet that turned thousands of hacked devices into a 100Gbps+ DDoS-for-hire cannon

"The Satori malware preyed on a number of poorly secured IoT devices"

there, FTFY.

Big bang theory: Was mystery explosion over New York caused by a meteor? Dunno. By a military jet? Maybe...

They have sports fields in New York ?