Posts by Pascal Monett

Big Cable tells US government: Now's not the time to talk about internet speeds – just give us the money

Now is not the time

You go on like that, Pai, and Make America Great Again, which apparently includes pushing it down on the list of connection speeds per country. Looking at that list, the USA is in 10th position.

Now, from that list I have to admit that 25Mbps is a good reference because only South Korea actually has it. Norway is quite close, Sweden is getting there, but the rest of the top 10 are closer to 20Mbps than anything else.

And then you have the US, which is at 18.7Mbps. And the FCC is argueing that that is good enough.

Well fine, don't put any effort there. Especially since a number of countries have Internet connection plans, such as my own country of France. Yeah, we're at position 51 in that list, at around 10Mbps. Not brilliant, to be sure, but I'm supposed to get FTTP by the end of the year, and then I'll have the option of subscribing to a 100Mbps connection - or a 200Mbps if I really want to go to town.

Other countries are working at it as well. That means that the list is going to change. To be sure, France is not going to go from 51st to 10th any time soon, but the US is going to find itself wedged around countries like Bulgaria, Thailand and Romania, ie countries that have less than 3% of USA's GDP.

America ain't gonna look all that great there, now will it ?

What's that smell? Oh, it's Newegg cracked open by card slurpers

Re: Barbarians!

I know ! What is the world coming to ?

Oz government rushes its anti-crypto legislation into parliament

Re: Politicians are not sufficiently educated to know they are being stupid

Agreed on all counts except one : they don't want to spy on terrorists - that's just the convenient excuse they use to be able to spy on everyone.

SAP claims to be first Euro biz to get seriously ethical about AI code

"We strive for transparency and integrity in all that we do"

Does that include your yearly tithe structure, aka license fees ?

I don't know about SAP, don't recall much noise on that subject, but I do know that if ever Oracle publishes something like that, I'll have to buy the popcorn by the truckload, because fur will be flying.

London tipped to lead European data market. Yes, despite Brexit!

Re: The report...

An adequacy decision ? Frankly I think UK Gov is dreaming there. With the current rise of heckles around privacy, and Europe already forcing Microsoft and others to have data centers on EU territory not under MS hold in order to block any overzealous (aka the usual) US judge from having immediate access, I highly doubt that the UK, with its privileged ties to the US (and to the NSA) will get a buddy treatment on that point.

Just like I highly doubt that the UK will get preferential treatment on any point. You're leaving and that's it. Once you're gone, you don't get to keep a set of keys.

Who ate all the PII? Not the blockchain, thankfully

Blockchain ? Oh yeah, that thing that keeps growing and growing and ...

A file that everyone has to have to be able to use the functionality, file which grows ever larger until you need a fiber conection and a multi-terabyte disk if you're a latecomer. No to mention transaction delays and, in the case of Bitcoin, insane transaction fees.

Frankly, I'd think a central database would be a much more simple affair. You have to be connected anyway, in order to upload your addition to the blockchain, so what's the difference ?

Microsoft's collaboration software Teams works on its collaboration hardware Surface Hub

Go ahead and kill Skype, Microsoft

Typical of these multinationals to take something useful and kill it because they think they have something better, or with more bells & whistles.

That will give the opportunity for some startup to create a new Skype, with the functionality we need, not the stuff Microsoft wants. Of course, if it works, the startup will become a success, will get noticed by a multinational, and get bought, the product will get changed and bloated, and the cycle will start over again.

But doing a VoIP app is not difficult, so losing Skype will only be a temporary inconvenience.

Microsoft Azure gains Availability Zones and Immutable Blobs

"can be created and read, but not updated or deleted"

So basically this is optical storage in The Cloud (TM).

I'm guessing there's a business case here, but I'll be damned if I can think of one.

If you cannot update the data, then you're archiving. Even on The Cloud (TM), archiving is not new. If you're making procedures available, then not updating is nonsense.

Nope. Can't think of any use. Oh well.

Revealed: The billionaire baron who’ll ride Elon’s thrusting erection to the Moon and back

Re: there is a big, big, difference

There is indeed. In this case, it is the difference between making a rocket and module that will reliably and safely chuck a number of human beings around the moon and back, or making a rocket that will chuck a module that has a lander that will reliably get to the moon, enter into orbit around it, get the lander on the surface, get it back to the orbiter, and get the orbiter back to Earth - and keep everybody alive all the way.

Personally, on a first try (for SpaceX), I prefer the basic round-trip option, thank you.

Microsoft: Like the Borg, we want to absorb all the world's biz computers

I have just one question

Which data center is going to house this newfangled thingamabob, and what happens when it goes down due to lightning, water, or squirrels (never forget ROTS) ?

Because if it has the redundancy of the last one that failed miserably, I don't see how this will make things any better.

Microsoft pulls plug on IPv6-only Wi-Fi network over borked VPN fears

Re: "IPv4-only hosts are unreachable without either a dual stack or an address translator"

I really would like an explanation for that. It seems to me (not a network guy) that all you had to do was tack on a specific IP to all 32-bit addresses and that would make them 64-bit by default. Hit a 32-bit router, get rid of the excess. Receive a 32-bit IP, tack the default on again.

Let's say 10.10.10.10 is that default. Imagine that my IP address is currently 214.31.49.16. So, I click a URL and TCP-IP carries out its task. The packets hit an IPv6 router and my address becomes 10.10.10.10.214.31.49.16 - yep, that's rather long to type. The packets mosey along and hit a 32-bit router, and my IP returns to 214.31.49.16. You can continue this example at your leisure.

Where's the problem with that ?

Apart from having to update all the routers, that is.

Microsoft reveals train of mistakes that killed Azure in the South Central US 'incident'

Re: Sorted.

If you have a PEBCAK problem at that level, you don't have a sysadmin problem, you have a manglement problem.

Fire him and get a competent BOFH. They do exist - for a price.

I would suggest that, the next time Microsoft decides to plonk down a data center, they do a review of weather history on the locations they are looking into ?

Maybe avoid a place that has violent thunderstorms ? Or at least factor that into the requirements ?

Do any of the cloud providers have data centers in Tornado Alley ? No ? I wonder why . . .

First 'issue-free' build of Windows 10 October 2018 Update arrives

Re: 1st Issue Free Windows?

There is no way that could not come back to bite.

Naaahh. Not gonna happen.

Equifax IT staff had to rerun hackers' database queries to work out what was nicked – audit

Impressive consequences

I'm not an admin, but it seems curious to me that something had been monitored while the cert was good, and when the cert expired nothing special happened, it just stopped monitoring that equipment. Feels like a monitoring tool should notice that it can no longer monitor something and complain.

On the other hand, I am most impressed by the level of competence of the scumbag(s) that found the flaw and exploited it. It seems to me that there is a highly qualified someone out there who would be a 1st class BOFH. Shame he chose the dark side.

Don't put the 'd' and second 'i' in IoT: How to secure devices in your biz – belt and braces

Very good list of things to think about

Now please paste it on a baseball bat and bash the management on the head with it until the message goes through.

The problem with IoT, apart from its stupendous lack of security and tendancy to phone home everything it can (whether or not it should), is not the peons, it's the management.

They want the shiny, they have the clout, and your list of worries is not their problem because when - not if - the breach happens, it'll be your fault, not theirs.

Microsoft accidentally let encrypted Windows 10 out into the world

Dear Valued Customer

It would seem you have some trouble with an enterprise-grade IT installation. Our Microsoft Opportunity Department will shortly dispatch two representatives to explain the advantages of our brand new Business Support Initiative and the low, low price at which you can get this incredible offer (only one newborn to sacrifice per month!).

When your handlers arrive, be sure to be happy to see them.

Or else.

Gartner: Governments want to be digital, but just can't scale it up

Ah, Gartner

Forever gargling important words, sage council, inspired insights and daring predictions.

Ask them to actually implement anything they talk about and I'm guessing you'll have yourself a full-blown FUBAR situation on your hands and Gartner will be leaving you to pick up the pieces.

Card-stealing code that pwned British Airways, Ticketmaster pops up on more sites via hacked JS

Re: "I guess you don't use any cloud services, hosted email, hosted web servers, [..]"

Sure, if you can write web page code you're obviously capable of writing everything else, obviously.

Come on, comparing kernel updates to javascript web apps is literally childish. Go tell Torvalds that his code is a wretched hive of scum and villainy, while you're at it.

Let's not confuse the issue, shall we ? We're talking about a humongous security hole that is without any control or oversight.

OSes have their issues, web hosting as well, but they are much more scrutinized than web apps and it is the total lack of oversight that is the problem.

World's oldest URL – fragments 73,000 years old – discovered in cave

" it looks suspiciously like a worldwide web address"

I clearly haven't had enough whisky yet. To me it looks like one piece of a large puzzle where all the other pieces are missing.

It could be antlers in a mass of tall grass, for all I know. . .

So Brave: Browser biz sics Brit watchdogs on Google's info slurpage

"Google said it intends to comply with data protection rules"

Yes. Some day. At the proper juncture. In the fullness of time. When the situation will be right.

Etc...

GDPR v2 – Gradually Diminishing Psychotic Robots: Brussels kills Terminator apocalypse

Except we still don't have spaceships.

We're doomed: Defra's having a cow over its Brexit IT preparations

I do see one advantage, from the politician's point of view. Given the general chaos of IT spending in the UK goverment, you will spend the next few decades hearing completely contradictory stories about how much Brexit actually cost, ensuring a fine revenue stream for the various rags that pretend to report on it.

El Reg excepted, of course.

Re: Why will DEFRA be needed?

"I can't see the need for any government involvement"

But, my dear fellow, the government sees the need for government involvement.

You don't expect Sir Humphry to sit back and watch his department be emptied, now do you ?

Nvidia promises to shift graphics grunt work to the cloud, for a price

"spells trouble for hardware sellers"

Let's be coherent here a moment. If you're talking about competitive gaming, you're talking about guys who lug their high-end gear to the places where the competition is taking place. These are not people who are going to accept some server farm somewhere be responsible for what they see on screen and have to react to. These guys (and gals, I think) want everything to be as fast as possible because they want to be as fast as possible. And spending milliseconds waiting for a server somewhere is not going to be acceptable in their mindset. It will be a possible point of failure, and they want to WIN.

So remove competitive gaming from the equation and what do you have left ? A promise to make Joe Nobody's anemic laptop perform like an Alienware.

I'll believe it when I see it, but I don't think hardware sellers have anything to worry about.

My mouse mat is the entire table. Optical mice these days are much better performing than before, especially if you buy the gaming ones.

Unless you have a glass table. Then yes, you'll need a mouse mat.

Activists rattle tin to take UK's pr0n block to court

Re: Is this really the right target ?

For a politician it certainly is. Lots of bluster and thunder at the pulpit, much moral high ground and easy brownie points to gather, and no worry about consequences because Porn Will Find A Way.

Besides, it beats worrying about what to say concerning Brexit or any other actual, serious issue that has no real solution.

Then, once out of the limelight, it's back to PornHub for a relaxing quickie.

Oh, and concerning equal pay, in a world where every other job type available sees women paid less, I'm happy to leave them the high ground on this one.

Dust off that old Pentium, Linux fans: It's Elive

Re: we're not making the OS any faster but taking everything modern and paring it down

We've been doing that forever. Intel would trot out a new CPU that was blazingly fast, then Microsoft would trot out a new Windows that ate all that performance and then some.

Every time a new, much more powerful video card came out, you could be sure that there was a game that would bring it to its knees gasping.

Let's face it : we've only just arrived at a time when low-end models are good enough for everyday, home office stuff. That in itself is quite something, and handily explains why people are not buying so many laptops and PCs any more - they don't feel the need, what they've got works well enough.

Even though hardware is nowhere near as expensive as it used to be, a hardware upgrade is nowhere near bringing the same impression of increased power we used to have either. It used to be a thrill to put €850 in a new video card because wow, look at how much better my games run. These days I see new €1000 cards or CPUs and think : why bother ? For the 5% increase I'll get in performance, it's just not worth it.

MPs' proposal to cash in on public-private algos given a solid 'maybe'

"MPs [..] call for this to be leveraged"

So it is official : the UK government is selling out on its own people.

This will undoubtedly set a precedent that other governments will be only too happy to follow.

Ain't civilization grand ?

It's a mug's game: Watch AI robot grab a cuppa it hasn't seen before

"It takes about 20 minutes for the robot to train on a new object"

Well, seems that the cleaning bot is a ways off yet. At that speed, it'll never manage to clean a teens' room before the teen has made a whole new mess.

A flash of inspiration sees techie get dirty to fix hospital's woes

Thanks for the God Mode tip

Most impressive.

Now someone please explain why it is 2018 and Windows still has this kind of bullshit instead of a regular Administration panel like that.

US military chucks $2bn at AI, Google touts machine-learning data search, and more

"smart enough that they can be thought of as aides or ‘colleagues’ to the military"

I can't help but imagine Clippy with a combat helmet :

I've detected an unidentified terrorist suspect at 10 o'clock, 235 meters. Do you want help shooting that ?

Feel the shame: Email-scammed staffers aren't telling bosses about it

Effort is bad enough, but THOUGHT ?!

Good Lord, man, you want to kill us ? We don't have time for thought, we have stuff to post on FaceBook and Twitter !

Tesla's chief accounting officer drives off after just a month on the job

@Ledswinger

"by 2030, NOBODY in developed world markets (and some more advanced "emerging markets") will be buying petrol or diesel cars"

That the UK government announces plans is hardly significant. They plan to have a working border system in time for Brexit, but there isn't a soul who thinks that's actually going to happen.

I concur that ICE vehicles are on the outgoing path, but 2030 is way to early to replace all the gas stations with electric chargers, not to mention have the electrical power production in place to ensure that the rolling guzzlers will all be recharged without fuss or incident.

I would think 2080 a more realistic tipover point.

And I still haven't read about how ecological all those batteries will be.

Revealed: British Airways was in talks with IBM on outsourcing security just before hack

"the board wanted to cut costs"

Yes, and outsources has such a long, proven history of being less expensive, right ?

After all, nobody ever got fired for buying IBM . . .

Top antivirus tool nuked from macOS App Store – after it phoned browser histories to China

Re: downplayed

Downplayed ? The very title uses "nuked", "phoned" and "China". That feels pretty in-the-face to me and not downplayed at all.

It also clearly states that the app was the 4th highest grossing, which makes the whole thing rather on the important side. I agree that the number of downloads is indeed missing, but if your app is in the top ten money-makers, we're not talking thousands, that's for sure.

Dear America: Want secure elections? Stick to pen and paper for ballots, experts urge

Finally !

“Further, internet voting should not be used in the future until and unless very robust guarantees of security and verifiability are developed and in place, as no known technology guarantees the secrecy, security, and verifiability of a marked ballot transmitted over the internet.”

Finally an official voice of reason. I have been watching US elections with complete disbelief ever since the Diebold fiasco. It is high time a very big broom clears out all the cobwebs in that area, and this just might be the herald of its arrival. Maybe.

Now to see how interested parties will organize the resistance.

Pluto is more alive than Mars, huff physicists who are still not over dwarf planet's demotion

"no planet clears its orbit"

Go tell that to Jupiter.

And using stuff from before the 60s to justify opposition to today's rules is just childish.

Pluto is Kuiper Belt Object. Get over it and use your time to study it.

Y'know what? VoIP can also be free from pesky regulation – US judges

"Very pleased with ruling"

I'm sure you are.

Oh, look who now has a cushy director opportunity at Charter !

AI biz borks US election spending data by using underpaid Amazon Mechanical Turks

"cut turnaround time for election filings by 90 per cent"

Seems it also cuts accuracy by 90%.

Also, don't you just love when government-level info is sent abroad without any control or authorization ?

With all the talk about encryption backdoors and NSA surveillance, you'd think they'd at least keep the data within their own borders.

PPI pushers now need consent to cold-call you

Administration is frustrating

If a certain kind of company is most likely to produce bad behavior, why does the administration not spend more attention to the people behind the application ?

A company does not just fold, there's a director with a name and an address. Should that name show up again, an alert should show up. I don't know how the system works, but reading this article I'm under the impression that there's a group of miscreants who regularly fold a company to make another one further away. It's almost certainly more complicated than that, but how is it that all those computers we have these days cannot weed out the chaff and signal when a given name is once again applying to set up the same kind of company ?

Surely there's a limit to the number of brothers, cousins and uncles that can be used as patsies ?

Voyager 1 left the planet 41 years ago – and SpaceX hopes to land on Earth this Saturday

Re: Menah Menah

For those who don't know, it's right here.

And, if you're still interested after that, please view the greatest, all-time best Muppet sketch here.

Ah, the Muppets. Good times.

P.S. : This one is a pretty good runner-up to the title of all-time greatest.

HubSpot outage KOs Red Hat Ansible site and other hapless marketers

That's gotta hurt

Going down is already a problem, but going down while live and in a major presentation event ?

Ouch.

They must have lost some customers there.

Ever wanted to strangle Microsoft? Now Outlook, Skype 'throttle' users amid storm cloud drama

Re: "It's a really cool site, found at https://www.googlel.com."

I don't think so. I tried, and the browser said "Site Not Found".

</sarcasm>

I would also appreciate a website clearly listing cloud failures, date, time, reason and duration. Searching with Google is possible, but there's too much noise for anything precise.

Actually, El Reg is not a bad place to search. Just search for TITSUP and you'll get a lot of good hits.

Re: "Not really, it's how it's implemented."

I don't care how it's implemented if it's falling over all the time.

Explaining why is all nice and good, but it doesn't change the fact that The Cloud (TM) is as reliable as it is solid.

I'm glad you have your contingency plans. More companies need to wake up to that fact.

Not so much changing their tune as enabling autotune: Facebook, Twitter bigwigs nod and smile to US senators

"[..] requiring anyone who takes out an online political advert amid the US election cycle [..]"

Given that the US is constantly in an election cycle, that means all the time then ?

Neutron star crash in a galaxy far, far... far away spews 'faster than light' radio signal jets at Earth

What's hard about all this is that a) it's hard, and b) we don't have all the answers yet.

So, like evolution, those who have the least patience and knowledge just want to clear the table and start over.

Scientists, on the other hand, know that what they do know is pretty solid, it's what they don't know that they want to find out. Clearing the accumulated scientific knowledge base is not going to help.

The point is : we must let them do their jobs. Time will reveal the answer.

No, no, you're all wrong. That's not a Kremlin agent. It's someone with 'inauthentic behavior'

I have one for you : treason.

Treason to the Constitution, treason to the law, treason to the People.

Re: Hit the 'Reset' button

Starting over is useless if we can just go and do the same thing all over again.

We need official guidelines to start over with, and legal (maybe penal) sanctions if those guidelines are not respected.

As for efficiency, stating that your statistical analysis machine prevents 85% of anything is meaningless without proof. Show me what it blocked, and what it let through, then I'll decide what the percentage actually is.

FaceBook needs to be held to account on this, and that means oversight. I know FB doesn't like it, it thinks it is a company and no company likes external review (hell, most don't even like internal review), but like it or not, you're dealing with Society and what you do (or don't do) has an impact that Society has the right to know about.

Premera Blue Cross hacker victims claim insurer trashed server to hide data-slurp clues

Re: Am I missing something?

I agree with you that something doesn't fit. Mandiant had time to find the malware on the destroyed computer, find that there were archives for exfiltration, find everything it needed to determine the scope of the problem, but did not put the computer under quarantine, did not take it away, nor even put a "Do Not Touch" sign on it ?

What kind of forensic data management is that ?

And how is it that no manager at Premera told the IT peons to leave that thing alone ?