Posts by Pascal Monett

Windows 10 1809: Now arriving on a desktop near you (if you want it)

"there isn’t a lot in it"

Well whaddya you know, maybe this time Microsoft will manage to not break something.

Maybe.

In any case, I'm no longer on the sidelines because my wife now has a work laptop with Windows 1 0 that I am desperately trying to find the way to properly lock down. It's a "clean" system, in that it has obviously been wiped and reinstalled, so I am hoping that I can stay ahead of the rot and stop the creep.

Windows Update has been disabled, of course. I'll enable that every now and then, for the security updates, and that will be all.

Using Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations? Using Skype? Not for long!

"face the wrath of bean-counters"

It is high effing time beancounters faced the wrath of sysadmins.

UK.gov asks biz for ideas on how to 'overcome' data privacy concerns in NHS

I know, but I just love that video.

And cats too, of course.

Someone mentioned herding cats ?

Obligatory link here

Civil rights group Liberty walks out on British cops' database consultation

Apart from everything, you mean ?

Re: Despite this practice being ruled unlawful

It's not "I'm sorry Your Honour" because this does not go to court.

At worst, it's a small remark at the Club over drinks and a <sigh>, of course, you're right, but we don't have the budget to change that right now.

Screwed SAP salesman scores $660,000 jury award

Yeah, but that is so last millennium.

These days it's all about screwing.

Um, you do realise you're talking about hiring an assassin ?

Those guys get paid.

Always.

One way or the other.

Google is still chasing the self-driving engineer that jumped ship to Uber

Re: No one in the right mind would risk hiring someone who sees nothing wrong with stealing.

Yeah but : Uber.

He fits right in.

A web where the user has complete control of their data? Sounds Solid, Tim Berners-Lee

Might be a nice idea, but it'll stay theoretical

Unless there's a way to force Facebook to use this construct, I don't see any change any time soon.

Apart from the fact that we might soon have to learn to manage our private data in yet another data repository.

Oh, and great idea to make the users manage access - in a world where most of them blindly accept all app permissions, what could possibly go wrong ?

Financial Conduct Authority fines Tesco Bank £16.4m over 2016 security breach

A 30% discount just for cooperating

What the frak ? Isn't cooperation supposed to be MANDATORY ?

If you don't cooperate, multiply the potential fine by 2, I say.

UK ruling party's conference app editable by world+dog, blabs members' digits

Well yes, since at most they could only be some 7 billion delegates.

7 billion is a limited number. A big one, but still limited.

Volkswagen links arms with Microsoft for data-slurping cloud on Azure

Plugging the car into the cloud

Thanks for the heads-up.

Given that VW is probably just the first to do this, the day I buy a new car I will know that I have to find a means to locally disrupt phone stuff to prevent any proper connection between my car and whatever shite this tech is trying to connect to.

I just hope that it won't affect GPS.

Location, location, location... technologies under the microscope

Bluetooth, good idea

Especially as I have it turned off by default, like WiFi and mobile data.

So please go ahead and base all your advertising on that tech so I can walk through blissfully unawares.

Re: " they will try and promote, say HP sauce or Tabasco sauce or something you don't usually buy"

Of course they won't. Targetted ads have only ever shoyn me stuff I have already bought.

Those ad people are completely incapable of showing me stuff I might actually be interested in. The closest they come is when they show me stuff that people have bought after having bought that.

Clueless muppets, the lot of 'em.

AI-powered IT security seems cool – until you clock miscreants wielding it too

Now wait a minute

"AI is able to learn sensitive information, such as personal preferences, from a vast amount of seemingly insensitive data"

Yeah, but up to now, all that data is made available to the statistical analysis machine that is not AI. The machine does not go look for it itself.

Now, I am sure that it could be possible to surf Facebook and Twitter and glean some info about a specific target, but unless you have your malicious pseudo-AI sitting inside the company you want to attack, or you have compromised its network to extract that data, I don't see how it could capture the vast amount of data it needs to analyse.

Facebook monetizes 2FA, Singapore monetizes hacker, and ransomware creeps monetize US Democrats

"a huge disincentive [..] to set up a 2FA option"

Well FaceBook is a huge disincentive. With its history of ignoring the law and any sense of morals as long as it can get away with it (and a bit longer if possible), I am astounded at the number of people who blissfully continue to give Zuck their private life, giftwrapped.

And with all the information easily found on the Internet, with all the proof of its shady behavior, I'm sorry if I consider that people don't really have the right to complain any more. You put your life on FaceBook, you know Zuck is going to aggregate it, mine it and sell as much of it as he can.

US Senators want more AI, while Microsoftie Paul Allen wants to use it to save wildlife, etc

"Neural networks are only really good at memorising the patterns seen during the training process"

It's a computer blindly following its programming. It is not AI, and slathering it in market-speak and statistical mumbo-jumbo will not make it AI, ever.

Intel boss admits chips in short supply, lobs cash into the quagmire

What was that ?

"..Intel CPUs permitted to run Windows 7.."

Permitted ? I would have thought that a CPU will run everything it can, and if it can run Windows Advertising Version then it can run Windows Useful Version as well.

Fortnite 'fesses up: New female character's jiggly bits 'unintended' and 'embarrassing'

They call that a dance ?

It is utterly lame and ridiculous. Epic is right to present excuses, but chose the wrong subject.

Microsoft gets ready to kill Skype Classic once again: 'This time we mean it'

“We’re continuing to work on your most requested features”

Um, really ? In that case, pray tell, how many users asked for Skype to be terminated ?

You're pulling a Trump there, Microsoft.

Oh, I forgot. You meant to say that you're continuing to work on the most requested features that you like.

Carry on, then.

I'm pretty sure I remember Microsoft not listening under Ballmer either.

If you don't agree, explain Vista to me then.

Perfect timing for a two-bank TITSUP: Totally Inexcusable They've Stuffed Up Payday

Try it anyway. You might get a pleasant surprise.

And it is high time that incompetent banks started to smart with people effectiveley "voting with their feet".

If you don't leave, TSB will continue to not give a fuck.

Besides, you are aware that Customer Loyalty means nothing these days, aren't you ? Stick with a bank for twenty years and have a slight overdraw problem and your bank is going come down on you with penalties and fines just as they will for the guy who signed up three weeks ago.

So fuck it, move. And if the next one fucks with you, move again. We need to get mobile, otherwise those doddering fools sleeping on the Boards will not even hear the sirens.

Why are sat-nav walking directions always so hopeless?

That was excellent. Thank you for that link.

Now I'm going to have to look this guy up.

Cornflakes ?

You mean to say that he hasn't yet graduated to black coffee and a snarl ?

Sopra Steria exec on warpath as its UK Government profit crashes ... by millions

"our on-account farming has simply stopped"

Oh that is a bad idea indeed. You can't stop farming, you might miss bonuses. And if you don't take care, your chests will fill up and then you'll lose crops.

Gotta keep on top of your farming, that's the truth.

Sunny Cali goes ballistic, this ransomware is atrocious. Even our IT bill will be something quite ferocious

I'm convinced that they are - physically (with armed guards) and electronically (with separate networks).

The US Navy does not strike me as the kind of organization that will hook into civilian IT for potential cost savings.

Holy smokes! US watchdog sues Elon Musk after he makes hash of $420 Tesla tweet

"This unjustified action by the SEC..."

Given what I have read here, the action is hardly unjustified. You have not yet bought the SEC, Elon, so stop listening to your yes-men and face reality : you may be a billionaire with a lot of support, but you still have to behave under the rule of law.

And post-justifying your tweet by having meetings with Goldman Sachs practically proves that the SEC is right.

DEF CON hackers' dossier on US voting machine security is just as grim as feared

A malicious voter ?

"If the card reader has wireless NFC support, you can hold your NFC smartphone up to the voting machine, and potentially cast a ballot many times over."

A "malicious voter" may do that on purpose, but I'll bet that many perfectly honest voters might just present their NFC-enabled phones more than once simply because they're not sure their vote was recorded properly. No malice needed.

The whole sorry saga of electronic voting machines paints a vast canvas of clueless PHBs barking orders at harassed coders who couldn't give a shit and just churned out whatever met the specs, with a cursory test to make sure the bloody thing didn't crash on the first try.

Facing such incompetence, I think it is very unlikely that the NSA had anything to do with this - it's just the cherry on top of a mountain-size cake of incompetence and carelessness, frosted with greed.

Resident evil: Inside a UEFI rootkit used to spy on govts, made by you-know-who (hi, Russia)

Re: Call me cynical

Blindingly obvious ? Not so sure.

UEFI was a response to a problem that was identified back in 1995, which is quite a bit earlier than the Snowden revelations and surveillance world we live in now.

Sure, you could argue that the NSA has been subverting encryption since 2006, so it's in the same timeframe ballpark and it certainly wouldn't be hard to believe that they had a hand in designing vulnerabilities in UEFI.

There is, however, no conspiracy theory on that as of yet, nor has there been any revelations pointing in that direction. Stay tuned, I guess.

Oslo clever clogs craft code to scan di mavens and snare dodgy staff

Just one suggestion

Make sure the BOFH does not have any access to this system, otherwise the whole concept falls apart.

The guy reviewing and querying the security database should not have any admin access, and the network sysadmins should not have any access to the security database.

If you don't have that, you have a large collusion risk. And you can forget detecting admin-level insider stuff if the sysadmins are the ones controlling the security database.

New theory: The space alien origins of vital bio-blueprints for dinosaurs. And cats. And humans. And everything else

That's because the fireflies are eating it as soon as it shows.

Eat my shorts, watchdog tells every city mayor in the US – FCC approves $2bn 5G telco windfall

"He worked very closely with many state and local officials to understand their needs"

And then he drafted something that exactly the reverse of that.

I feel like saying something involving the chemical shed and a firing squad.

Sick of bandwidth gouging? Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft, IBM have some good news

"While there's a bit of cost to set that up, it doesn't cost much."

Exactly. Yes, laying fiber is costly, no argument there. But once the fiber is in place it costs next to nothing to have the data flow, yet telecoms are always talking about how expensive everything is to get working.

Not true guys, you're just milking the cow to the fullest. Once your initial investment is recovered, bar any unfortunate backhoe you're sailing in clear seas, money dropping like rain every second.

Besides, the benefits these companies regularly post is proof enough. Comms is a better business than casinos - you're fleecing everyone and it's legal everywhere.

'This is insane!' FCC commissioner tears into colleagues over failure to stop robocalls

The FCC won't act until Pai is out

Yes, you've had the chance . . and you are failing as dismally as the orange turnip is.

And you have form in acting like him as well. In the face of withering criticism, you just go ahead and repeat your self-congratulations like nothing happened.

I was going to end with "Muppet", but that would be cruel and unjust to muppets.

Swedish ISP spanked for sexist 'distracted boyfriend' advert for developer jobs

Yay ! Offense for everyone !

I'm torn here

On the one hand, "following a handful of complaints" sure, let's pretend basic male behavior doesn't exist. I'm soon to hit my 52nd birthday and I do not tire of watching a beauty go by. My wife is not offended by that - although I do restrain myself from doing the full head swivel, tempting though it is sometimes. After all, I am definitely no longer of the age where that can be even half acceptable - some decorum is required.

On the other hand, for frak's sake why does advertising always seem to start with "hey, we can use a girl !" and then stop there ? On top of the fact that this is indeed cliché and rather tired, the same picture was already used twice, and you go ahead and use it again ? You could'nt find another one ? You couldn't find another subject ? Are most people in marketing males ?

Ugh. We need to get to the 4th millennium.

Forget dumping games designers for AI – turns out it takes two to tango

I do not see this becoming workable

I resent the fact that the researchers seem to consider that making a game level is just placing blocks and sprites like you sprinkle powdered sugar on a cake.

Making a game level requires at least two things : having a goal in mind, and planning out how you intend to reach that goal. Statistical analysis machines fail on both of these counts.

A good game level is made knowing the game mechanics, to be able to create areas that are of a specific challenge. Well placed, such areas can be simultaneously very desireable and very difficult to hold or go through. It is that combination of hard and yet unable to resist that crafts the best levels.

No computer will be able to attain that level of craft just by looking at existing maps because no computer can understand either the word "difficulty" or the word "desire".

But hey, they got grant money, so it's all good.

US JEDI military cloud network is so high-tech, bidders will have to submit their proposals by hand, on DVD

"the rule would unfairly favor giants"

Oh, so you recognize that you're not a giant ? If you were one, I'm sure you'd be quite happy about that rule.

And, IIRC, it seems to me that Oracle has a long history of telling everyone it is the giant in the RDMS space, elbowing everyone else out of the way with gleeful abandon.

But, as usual, some billionnaire doesn't get his way, so the toys get thrown out of the pram before the brain engages. Tsk, tsk.

Google actually listens to users, hands back cookies and rethinks Chrome auto sign-in

Um, GDPR fines are not based on local revenue, they are either a set amount or based on world-wide revenue, so making an EU branch not have revenue will make no difference.

Facebook sued for exposing content moderators to Facebook

Re: Ted Cruz

Of course, comparing any person's life to a public person like Ted Cruz is a completely valid thing to do.

Do you feel the sarcasm ?

And I'm sure I can find stories of MAGA hats and bonked Trump sticker cars, since people like you are spreading them.

Re: Social media reflect life

Wrong. In real life you don't have Joe Nobody walk up to your face and start shouting at you. In real life there is nobody shagging in the street. There are no asswipes running around with paint cans covering everyone they see in paint.

On the Internet, with its pseudo-anonymity, people with little self-control take advantage of what they think is their power to express the worst of themselves precisely because they cannot do that in their real, every day life.

Except for the sociopaths. They make no difference between the Internet and the rest, they're always assholes.

Except that you can't be sure a video is about a beheading before you've seen it, so you still have to check it out before pointing the "beheading fans" to it.

I've solved the problem for me : no social media accounts.

Baddies just need one email account with clout to unleash phishing hell

Only alternative ?

Should it not be possible to configure the mailserver to count the number of outgoing emails and block with an alert when a limit is reached ?

If your org generally sends a few emails a day, you would set the limit at, say, 50. If you get a message that said limit has been reached, you have time to check the how and why and correct things before resetting the message count (larger organizations could also evaluate their mail sending habits, but I suspect they'll have more powerful tools at their disposition).

That should be rather simple to implement, no ?

Brexit campaigner AggregateIQ challenges UK's first GDPR notice

"AggregateIQ has never been and is not a part of Cambridge Analytica"

Of course not, we get it.

You're a different scum.

Because you might discover a need for it in the future.

It's a compulsion thing.

Microsoft 'kills' passwords, throws up threat manager, APIs Graph Security

"This will let analysts save thousands of hours as they automate the more mundane security tasks,"

You mean those hours that they need because managing security is done in a shitty and stupid way ?

So you're congratulating yourself on having corrected a problem you created ? Well done.

Microsoft has a digital coworker it wants in your business: Cortana

"password-free sign-in to Azure Active Directory-connected apps"

Sounds like purely business-oriented stuff then. Good, one less nuisance I have to worry about at home.

I can imagine the faces of the Fortune 500 sysadmins when they're told they have to poke this humongous hole into the carefully-managed security they put in place just so that the users can argue with a bot.

How do some of the best AI algorithms perform on real robots? Not well, it turns out

Yup, Real Life is tough

These statistical analysis machines are going to have a hard time analyzing reality.

AI does not exist, and any use of the term today is abuse.

Twitter: Don't panic, but we may have leaked your DMs to rando devs

Re: Implying...

"Meh it's Twitter. I assume the whole platform is compromised and never" use it.

FTFY