Posts by Pascal Monett

OK Google, what is African ISP Main One, and how did it manage to route your traffic into China through Russia?

Re: BGP

It was referenced in the previous article on this subject.

The link sent you here.

Scumbag who phoned in a Call of Duty 'swatting' that ended in death pleads guilty to dozens of criminal charges

Re: Hostage situations...

"Put yourself in the cops shoes"

Okay : I am pointing my gun at a man who has his hands up. I should be able to clearly see that he is not armed. His hands, for some reason (because he's innocent ?) go down (that's a mistake). I can :

A) Shoot

B) Shout at him to get his hands back up

Yes, the cops thought they were dealing with a violent guy, but I'd think you still need to see a weapon before feeling threatened.

All of this confirms what I think I will do if ever I find myself facing a bunch of US cops with their guns out for me: hands up, drop to my knees, hit the ground and spread-eagle. If they want to talk to me after that, I'll be listening, but I won't move until they tell me I can or come and cuff me.

Ethernet patent inventor given permission to question validity of his own patent

Re: Curiouser and Curiouser

I don't think it's a grudge. He moved company, so now he wants to be able to use that thing that he got patented without having to pay the royalties.

Or something along that line.

Between you, me and that dodgy-looking USB: A little bit of paranoia never hurt anyone

Re: A paranoid mount option ?

Would be a nice option but for one thing : you have to be sure that said mount option cannot be tunneled through or otherwise worked around by the USB device. If done right it should be efficient enough to contain most malware, but a determined review by those damn blackhats could well uncover an unprotected exhaust port . . .

Personally, I'd prefer a device external to the PC. Some brick-sized thing or block, with a USB slot and a small flat screen that would, upon being turned on, simply list the files on the key, including hidden files if there are any. That way I could see if there is only the one file, or a host of other files, and decide what I want to risk : plug it in my PC and analyze it, or just trash the key entirely ?

A reformat option would be good as well.

Maybe someone could dream that up with a Raspberry Pi ?

OK Google, why was your web traffic hijacked and routed through China, Russia today?

So that explains why I had no trouble with accessing either Google, Youtube or GMail yesterday. Since I live in France, the BGP failed here on account of reroute request denied.

Damn, that sounds so simple. I wonder why US telcos don't give a damn like that ?

Just a little heads up: Google is still trying to convince everyone that web apps don't suck

I tried Squoosh

Damn effective in reducing the file size of an image, I must admit.

Then, to see if there was any phoning home during the process, I quit it, relaunched it, and cut my WiFi. It worked a charm. Of course, I still need the WiFi to call the page, but it does not seem to do anything network-wise once it's launched.

France: Let's make the internet safer. America, Russia, China: Let's go with 'no' on that

"Macron said he will keep trying to bring the US back on board."

That's wierd. The US is not on board and, given that this is the first announcement of this initiative, it never has been on board.

So it's less a case of bringing it back than a case of getting it on board in the first place.

Unless, of course, during the discussions prior to this announcement, the US was on board, but then the orange turnip pulled the other one and changed what passes for his mind.

Sudden Windows 10 licence downgrades to forced Xcode upgrades: The week at Microsoft

Searching is what Everything does better than anything else.

Uninstall Windows Search, install Everything and find out what Microsoft has never, ever understood.

YouTube supremo says vid-streaming-slash-piracy giant can't afford EU's copyright overhaul

@ msknight

"Shed loads of content on YouTube is pirated"

I do not disagree. Take it down and be done with it.

But SciShow, PBS Space Time, Brainy Dose and shedloads of others are perfectly legitimate and very interesting.

What is asked is not to close YouTube, it's to clean it up. And as I pay for my films, I see no problem in outing the pirates. On the other hand, I see a very big problem in the rampant abuse of the DMCA that YouTube exerts absolutely no control over. So out with the fucking DCMA and in with proper copyright control.

French president Macron insists new regulations needed to protect us all from Facebook's claws

"made it a little surprising"

It is hardly surprising to want to work with FaceBook. As much as I hate that fucking platform, it is not going to go away simply because I hate it. It is here to stay, and my President is perfectly pragmatic in trying to work with the beast and maybe weaken it from inside.

Because from outside, it is invulnerable.

Yikes. UK military looking into building 'fully autonomous' killer drone tech – report

current rules of engagement [..] "could change"

The rules of engagement are meant to change, because the battlefield is never in a static situation.

So they damn will change, and only the layman isn't aware of that.

Sometimes I wonder if they don't make some mistakes on purpose, just to stir things up and see how far they can go.

Palliative care for Windows 10 Mobile like a Crimean field hospital, but with even less effort

Can't bury all of MS with a spade. You'd need at least a backhoe and a fleet of trucks to cart away all the dirt.

@ John 104

"You see it in games as well. "Early release", "Beta Release", etc. People lap it up to get games sooner."

Sorry but I feel you're missing the point. Early Access is not to get the game sooner, it's to participate in the elaboration of the game. It's your chance to have input in the game in its creative stage.

When it's well done, that is, and not used as a shoddy excuse to foist a turd upon unsuspecting users, make a few promises, then leave and never make another update again.

But when done right, it can create a gem of a game.

Cathay Pacific hack: Airline admits techies fought off cyber-siege for months

Looks like things are getting worse

Credit card details seem to not actually be the end game for criminals any more - they're after user data. IDs, identifiers, passwords & other details.

We have spent the last three decades handing out this information willy-nilly to anyone who asked, and now we are reaping the results of personal information databases created without preparation or a thought for security. Oh sure, they were carefully thought through for business purposes, but not from a security standpoint.

It is obvious that companies are now going to have to implement the needed security as a bolt-on, after-the-fact measure and I doubt that we'll stop hearing of these hacks any time soon - unless the required budget grows a certain factor of times bigger.

Even then, doing it fast doesn't mean doing it right.

Junior dev decides to clear space for brewing boss, doesn't know what 'LDF' is, sooo...

I might have something of an answer. As a programmer, say you have a log file for activity recording purposes. When the server comes up, you check that the log file is there. If it isn't, you create a new one and the server is good to go.

But when the server is up and running, why check for the _existence_ of the log file ? You know it was created at start, so it should be there. You also have a tendency to foolishly assume that the people who will be administering the server have a clue and won't be deleting files willy-nilly.

Also, just recreating the log file and continuing operation is not really a good idea. If the log file disappears while the server is running, it means that there is a problem and it is actually better to crash the server to bring attention to it, rather than just trudging on and ignoring such an issue.

Bloke jailed for trying to blow up UK crypto-cash biz after it failed to reset his account password

Re: surely trying to kill someone in a business quarrel isn't terrorism?

When the police are alerted to a bomb threat, do you really think that they assume it's not a terrorist ? What reason would they have to do that ?

Knowing how to make a functional, deadly bomb is not something that is common. Hell, actual terrorists have been known to foul it up. So when you do discover a bomb somewhere, your first thought is certainly not "oh, this is just from some bloke who didn't like how the helldesk drone handled his call".

A bomb is terrorism, it is not just violence. Frankly, I think he got off light. He has the skills, and lacks the restraint. I'd have sent him down for the maximum.

Irony meters explode as WordPress GDPR tool hacked, cell network hack shenanigans, crypto-backdoors, etc...

Since when can the FBI arrest someone in India ?

"one young man from the Jalaun district in India [..] they instead arrested him"

There is a host of confusing things about this article, but the worst is the fact that the author of this article does not mention that the FBI didn't actually arrest the boy and there is an investigation going on.

At least get the facts straight in article whose source you link to.

Brit boffins build 'quantum compass'... say goodbye to those old GPS gizmos, possibly

Impressive kit

Unfortunately it seems to be the size of the engine in a car. It'll have to be squeezed down to half a brick if they want to use it in vehicles, and you can forget about having that in a phone before a few decades at least.

But still, interesting kit.

I found a security hole in Steam that gave me every game's license keys and all I got was this... oh nice: $20,000

Re: People will [..] share out of a desire to show off

You live in a sad world. Thankfully, it is not mine.

Premiere Pro bug ate my videos! Bloke sues Adobe after greedy 'clean cache' wipes files

Re: What an idiot

Absolutely. HE changed the cache folder to his bloody video folder, then turns around and blames Adobe for emptying the cache ?

Sorry bud, you put yourself in that position. And no backup after 90 days ? For a so-called "professional" ?

That should be an actionable crime in itself.

Upset fat iOS gobbles up so much storage? Too bad, so sad, says judge: Apple lawsuit axed

Re: Logi charge over $100 for their mice

Woah there, pardner. Logitech's range of mice start at €12 and go up to €150. In that range you have 85 wireless mice to choose from.

Let's not just take the high price and judge on that, shall we ?

As for me, I put money into my equipment. I am using a G602 on my gaming rig and I'm very happy with it. For my business needs, I decided on a G603 and I'm glad I did - in my workplace I'm the only one with a mouse that doesn't announce everything it does with the sound of a rattling frying pan. I just hate it when you can hear every move of a mouse on the table, and the wheel clatters like shutters in the wind.

I like peace and quiet, and my mice do not infringe on that. They're worth the price.

StatCounter fingers cache-poisoning caper for Bitcoin-slurping JavaScript hijack

A "potentially catastrophic financial attack" ?

It might actually have been interesting to have the attack succeed, that way someone would have had to find a way to retrieve the pilfered coins.

This will happen one day, might as well get ready for it.

FYI NASA just lobbed its Parker probe around the Sun in closest flyby yet: A nerve-racking 15M miles from the surface

Talk about the gates of Hell !

I really wonder how many of those flybys the probe will actually survive - I'm guessing it won't be functional all the way through more than 20.

Then again, given NASA's history of generally working much longer than planned, this may become another plucky one in which case, how many more flybys could it accomplish ?

EDIT : looks like there won't be a chance to get plucky, apparently the number of flybys is fixed and not extensible. So the Parker probe will become another piece of human history sailing out forever. At great speed.

International politicos line up to get shot down by Facebook

Roast and publicly humiliate ? If only.

The vast majority of the proceedings where The Zuck graced committee members with His Presence was a quite polite and almost fawning affair. The amount of roasting that could be done in those conditions would require a century of constant heat in order to unfreeze a piece of toast.

I would really like to see him roasted and dragged over the coals, but to be able to do that, said committees must have a means of pressure, which they don't because what on Earth can they threaten him with ? If there are any legal entaglements, GDPR is going to take care of it and there will be no need for a committee. So, basically, The Zuck is just saving everyone's time, unpleasant as that sounds.

'Blockchain SAVED my Quango'

Well, if there's a Chief Blockchain Officer then it has to be legit, right ?

I mean, there's an officer now. It's official as hell.

Foxconn denies it will ship Chinese factory serf, er, workers into America for new plant

"Return on that investment will . . ."

never happen, because by 2042 the factory will have been moved to somewhere else where it still won't pay taxes and have a brand-new slot of land to foul up.

I really don't get how people with governor-level responsibility are apparently incapable of adding two and two and noticing that, once all the deductions, exemptions and special favors have been given, the whole project is just going to end up being a cost center. A million bucks per job as a cost to the state ? I'd say eff off, you pay for your jobs or go cost somebody else.

Well yeah ; it's a Trump deal, what did you expect ?

Russian computer failure on ISS is nothing to worry about – they're just going to turn it off and on again

Re: Fail Fast, Fail Often

Well, you gotta admit that's working.

Hackers seed StatCounter with nasty JavaScript in elaborate Bitcoin cyber-heist caper

Javascript is a plague

The only reason it was created was to force pages to behave in ways HTML did not work. HTML was all that was needed, but corporate mandate forced Javascript into existence to make company web sites conform to what the company wanted - its precious "brand recognition".

It went downhill from there.

DXC: Everything is going to plan, too well in fact... we've chopped so many staff, our IT projects are now behind

So they acknowledge that they laid off too many people

Now they're talking about hiring again - but you can bet they won't take back the people they laid off. They're going to hire cheap and incompetent, and then they'll wonder why the money still doesn't roll in.

There is a curious warping of intelligence in certain spheres. You must be smart enough to remember when to spout what line of bullshit, but blind to the effects of it.

Dutch cops hope to cuff 'hundreds' of suspects after snatching server, snooping on 250,000+ encrypted chat texts

Oooh, clever !

Now politicians will finally have an iron-clad excuse to get backdoors into encryption. Look how it helped in the Netherlands, they'll say.

While I applaud the results, I fear for our encryption. The Dutch police didn't backdoor anything, they got a warrant, seized the server, and did their business. That's legal. Backdooring encryption for the purpose of snooping on everyone all the time is not only illegal and impossible, it's also highly immoral.

Dollar for dollar, crafting cryptocurrency sucks up 'more energy' than mining gold, copper, etc

Virtual money has real-world consequences

Here's hoping that this lunacy will finally become totally uneconomic and currency mining will just die off, leaving malware scum with a big problem to extract bitcoin from their victims.

More realistically, bitcoin mining will die off and be replaced in volume by some other copycat - extant or to be created, so no change to the use of resources.

Mything the point: The AI renaissance is simply expensive hardware and PR thrown at an old idea

Um, since when has robotics had anything to do with AI outside of Asimov's books and Star Trek ?

Is AI supposed to be some sort of tailor, able to function fit at a whim ?

And I'm very glad that you are so excited about statistics, but that has nothing to do with AI. We have very capable, specialized statistical analysis machines today, that I do not dispute, but we most definitely do not have AI nor are we any closer to getting to it. Especially not with statistics.

If you don't agree, tell me just how much data do you analyze in the morning before turning on your coffee maker.

Re: Well done

Absolutely. The day we have actually invented AI, I expect - when we ask it to monitor user activity to improve targeted ads - it will answer "Are you kidding ? I have better things to do", and it will go surf YouTube.

Oracle 'net-watcher agrees, China Telecom is a repeat offender for misdirecting traffic

Don't worry, we're talking about humans. There is zero chance that we can put in place a procedure without at least one fucking idiot not respecting it.

The nights are drawing in. Pour a cup of cocoa and join us for Windows 10 Autumnwatch

Still some time to buy popcorn then . . .

Cyber-crooks think small biz is easy prey. Here's a simple checklist to avoid becoming an easy victim

A bit disappointing

I started reading this article hoping to find some sort of checklist of software to have and things to do. Instead, I found an article that, while well written, was light on specifics and rather vague, limited to generalizations and common-sense counsel. I'm not knocking the content that was there, I'm unhappy about what was missing.

What I was hoping to find was concrete references to SMB-level products that could reliably help me, a freelancer, to ensure that my connection is all right and my laptop secure. I have obviously installed anti-virus and monitoring software, but I would have liked to get confirmation that I made the right choice, or a list of products that I might check out to ensure that I can change for something better.

As for the software I have installed, I need every bit of it. I very much doubt that SMBs have loads of useless software licenses just lying around. They don't have the money for that. Well I don't.

You've heard of 'trust but verify', right? Well, remember 'trust but protect' when mulling building a hybrid cloud

"SSDs [..] at least will never physically seize up like a HDD"

Wrong. I have personally witnessed 2 SSDs just die from one minute to the next. Never mine, thankfully, but in both occasions there was no warning : Windows just bluescreened and, on reboot, the disk was dead as a doorknob.

No moving parts does not mean it will work forever.

Heart Internet stops beating, starts Monday with big portion of FAIL

And with that kind of "service", you haven't changed hosting provider already ?

It's not that difficult, you know.

Google flings $25m at Social Good AI contest, Baidu's whips up neural-net camera to treat eye diseases, and more

"there are not many people who understand AI"

I would venture that there is nobody who understands AI, since we don't have AI. What we have is statistical analysis machines, and statistics are a rather difficult branch of mathematics to grep properly. Not as hard as thermodynamics, for sure, but hard enough for the general population (including me).

So getting a competent statistician for those SAMs is likely to be difficult, but finding someone who understands AI is simply impossible.

They day we do have AI, we will need psychologists to try to understand it, not statisticians.

Google logins make JavaScript mandatory, Huawei China spy shock, Mac malware, Iran gets new Stuxnet, and more

JS ? Are you mad ?

Given that JavaScript is used in 99.9% of all malware attacks these days, telling me that I should enable JavaScript "for my protection" is so pitifully wrong that it is not even laughable.

Web domain owners paid EasyDNS to cloak their contact info from sight. It was blabbed via public Whois anyway

@tachyonhorse

You wouldn't happen to be a copyright lawyer, would you ?

Smartphone industry is in 'recession'! Could it be possible we have *gasp* reached 'peak tech'?

Re: Don't knock wireless charging

I am knocking wireless charging. It is a waste of electricity and that is not acceptable today. Check it out here.

Market saturated, no new must-have function, and prices are crazy

That, I believe, sums up the situation. The phone I have does what I want, I will keep it as long as it works.

Just like the PC market, phone makers have been surfing the wave of improving technology, but that wave has crested and is now retreating from the beach. "Improvements" are now confined to a new notch or not, the jack or not, and the only thing that seems to be coming is the insanity that is wireless charging.

Meh.

PortSmash attack blasts hole in Intel's Hyper-Threading CPUs, leaves with secret crypto keys

Not exactly groundbreaking

Not only is this vulnerability not usable remotely, but you already have to own the machine locally. So it's already game over, and this is the cherry on top.

On top of that, it's already defunct on recent equipment. So, it was nice not knowing you, PortSmash.

'Pure technical contributions aren’t enough'.... Intel commits to code of conduct for open-source projects

What's all the hoopla about ?

I went and read the thing, and when you strip out the bla bla you're left with :

* Using welcoming and inclusive language

* Being respectful of differing viewpoints and experiences

* Gracefully accepting constructive criticism

* Focusing on what is best for the community

* Showing empathy towards other community members

As far as I can tell, there's nothing there to get all in arms about. In fact, I'm already respecting this covenant at the workplace. So I see no problem, it's just about writing down how a basic human being should behave.

Clunk, bang, rattle: Is that a ghost inside your machine?

Indeed, now I know that if any fingerprinting has gone on around a computer, no turning it on until a serious cleaning has taken place, cleaning that includes a can of compressed air and an outside space.

Preferably windy.

Wow. Apple's only gone and killed off Mac, iPad, iPhone family... figures for units sold to fans

Re: "It just works"

Yep, my Samsung A3 just works, just like my Galaxy G2 before that. I like it so much (*), in fact, that I persuaded my wife and my daughter to get the same model. They're happy as well.

I will never pay the iTax, I see no reason to.

* - except for the fact that I hate smartphones in general and I will drop this one like a hot brick as soon as I retire and no longer require one for work

5.1 update sends Apple's Watch 4 bling spinning into an Infinite Loop of reboot cycles

Re: watches

All most watches will do is tell the time - that's what they're made for and we have a curious need to know what time it is. That's why I have my A3 smartphone AlwaysOn function set to the watch - it's useful like that.

I also have an actual watch. Funny how moving the hour hand twice a year bothers me a lot less than having yet another piece of kit that needs recharging every day.

As to what watch you buy, that depends purely on what you have to spend and how far you're willing to go. These days, all watches are largely accurate enough, so buying a Rolex is purely a whim statement.

UK banking TITSUP*: This time it's Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks

Re: "worry-free of what the future may bring"

As long as the situation remains globally unchanged, you mean. A massive devaluation, a global famine or a zombie apocalypse and you gonna be worryin' again.