Posts by Pascal Monett

Veteran vulture Andrew Orlowski is offski after 19 years at The Register

What ?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!

I wish you all the best, Andrew, but this is terrible.

You'll be missed.

Blame Canada! Zuckerberg subpoenaed to face Cambridge Anal. probe from Canucks

I second that

Make it an Interpol warrant, the slime won't be able to dodge that.

Autonomy's one-time US sales chief can't remember if he took part in grand jury hearing

It was certainly important, but after a decade it got thoroughly boring.

Age verification biz claims no-payment model for 40% of Brits ahead of July pr0n ban

Not to mention that this is a company that states it will start making money later, with something that I very much doubt anyone is interested in.

I mean, who is going to give a damn about 1Accounts' "pay service" when they're already paying for their porn ? is 1Account going to have an agreement with every single porn site out there ?

Somehow, I doubt that.

Put a stop to these damn robocalls! Dozens of US state attorneys general fire rocket up FCC's ass

Lots of ideas about controlling ID spoofing

It makes for an interesting read, to be sure, but let's get real : what is it you want ? Peace and quiet, only disturbed by a call from someone you know.

In France, we have the Red List. It is a list maintained by a government-controlled entity and imposes that any number on that list may not be called by commercial entities without prior approval from the person.

So cold-callers avoid numbers on that list like the plague because, if they do make the mistake and call me all I have to do is call my operator and lodge a complaint and they will be found and fined - I don't know how and I don't need to care.

About fifteen years ago I got mighty angry at one point about all the marketing calls at dinner or during the evening film, so fed up was I that I signed up to that service. Since I explained to my operator how much of a nuisance the marketers were, my operator signed me up for nothing.

Ever since that day, I have been asking myself why I hadn't signed up earlier. Even if you pay the one-time fee of €50, it is worth it for the peace and quiet you experience for the rest of your life. For the last fifteen years, I got one call. The lady started her speech and I just said, "Excuse me, you are aware that I'm on the Red List ?" (except it was in French, of course). After a half-second of silence she immediately started offering excuses and saying how sorry she was, then hung up in a hurry. I had never felt so good.

Does that not sound like a good solution ? I don't care if the ID was spoofed, it's not my problem. If they call, I just complain, then it will be their problem.

You're right, Pai is a party of corruption, swamp and deceit all by himself.

Late with your financial paperwork? Here's a handy excuse: Malware smacked your bean-counter cloud offline

"Assuming CCH has good backup in place"

I'm assuming that, given the number of times we hear of companies being hit by ransomware and paying up, those backups aren't as common as you'd like to think.

I'm also assuming that, once they've been subject to that kind of extortion, a proper backup system must start looking like a golden investment.

But maybe I'm assuming too much there.

Airbnb host thrown in the clink after guest finds hidden camera inside Wi-Fi router

Re: No shit!

Apparently, they do. And, more than likely, they're going to have to repeat it.

And there will still be morons that won't listen.

Re: Big disconnect

I have used AirBnB, I have never been disappointed. I've met with some interesting people like that. We don't stay friends or anything, this is not a meeting service, but I'm always ready for an interesting conversation.

Of course, you need to choose carefully and be wary when on-site for any bad surprises, but I have never had any bad surprises so far.

Re: Some people would argue....

Have a bit of a schizophrenic day, sabroni ?

Blockchain is a lot like teen sex: Everybody talks about it, no one has a clue how to do it

the "Trough of Disillusionment"

My guess is that it will stay there. Blockchain is useless in a corporate environment that has servers, SQL databases and competent people to administer and program the stuff that is needed. As for Blockchain in the cloud, don't get me started. Blockchain's only useful application has been cryptocurrency and, if nobody has found any other use for it by now, there is really little chance for any stunningly useful new application to appear tomorrow.

And the criminals, scammers and other incompetent buffoons in charge of so-called Exchanges that regularly seem to lose people's virtual coins couldn't care less. They'll make off with the dough just fine, thank you very much.

'Software delivered to Boeing' now blamed for 737 Max warning fiasco

Yup, it's failure all the way down.

Literally.

I desperately hope that manglement was not involved in writing the specifications - they probably couldn't write specifications for finding their own arse with both hands. No, I much prefer an actual engineer for writing the specs.

However, it is manglement's purview to approve the specifications, so pretending they had no clue as to what is going on doesn't cut the mustard for me.

If Boeing's management of their flagship product doesn't have a clue what's going on with the software, they should be sacked and replaced by people who actually do their jobs. Trump may be President, but that does not give managers in charge of products that are responsible for people's safety to just excuse themselves from knowing what the hell is going on.

Rocket Lab picks up the pace while SpaceX sends a Dragon to the Space Station

Kudos for mentioning Iron Sky

Great film, and great performances from everyone involved. If you like Sci-Fi from the good old days, you'll love this.

That said, I have trouble imagining that NASA is going to have trouble with asking for the budget. Okay, not really, I can imagine full well what is going to happen, but if it doesn't get the budget to do the things that will allow for putting people on the moon again, then it is Trump that is going to be blamed, no ?

Not that that will bother Trump in any way ; he'll just spout some nonsense and ignore the problem as usual.

On a final note : they're still using the same spacesuits from the 60s ? I would have thought the suits would be replaced more regularly. Seems that NASA really is operating on a shoestring budget. That does not bode well for anyone going into space. The spacesuit is the last thing that stands between your body and the utter void of space. I'd prefer mine developed on a solid budget and well tested, thank you.

The Year Of Linux On The Desktop – at last! Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 brings the Linux kernel into Windows

Re: properly installed and setup

Where exactly do you come from ? There is no such thing as a "properly installed and setup" Windows system because, as soon as you start using, it fucks itself up. It writes things in the abomination that is the Registry and forgets them there. It attempts - badly - to tune itself to "respond to your needs". And it downloads updates that bork everything.

The only Windows system that works perfectly is one that is shut down.

Linux, on the other hand, is universally recognized as a rock-stable system. The fact that Linux does not fiddle with its own settings may have something to do with that.

HPE court witness subjected to own LinkedIn page

Re: Random executions

As much as I like the idea, one must not forget that this whole mess only concerns HPE, who is crying over the milk it itself spilled.

So random executions may be a tad excessive for a private issue like that.

Brexit, on the hand, has been mismanaged from the start. A few random executions in the lot of politicians that are responsible for that mess would be good.

Taylor drift: Finally, a use for AI emerges? Cyber-smut star films fsck-flick in Tesla with Autopilot, warns: 'I wouldn't recommend it'

"I wouldn't recommend it"

Yet, you still posted the video.

Seconded.

That was entirely disgusting.

Personality quiz for all you IT bods: Are you a chameleon or an outlaw? A diplomat or a high flier? Vote right here

Interesting

As of this posting, the Outlaw category is highest with 267 votes, a full 70 votes above the second-best which is Chameleon.

So El Reg is full of Outlaws and Chameleons.

I think that's quite fitting.

Europol takes down Wall Street market: No, the other cesspool of dark international financial skullduggery

Re: Just call it something nondescript and easily confused

But that wouldn't be cool.

If you have a "dark net" delivery service that is lawful and visible, as you say, then call it DHL and you're done. If you want it to deliver stuff outside of the law, then it has to be, itself, outside of the law. And that's just a recipe for disaster.

The only reason there is this culture of dark net is because the Internet is not the real world and fudging one's existence, location and identity is very much easier on the Internet than it is in meatspace. However, when real goods need to be moved, you don't have the ability to fudge the destination or the amount unless you're smuggling - which is a crime in itself.

And, as good as the dark net denizens think they are in hiding from the law, in real life their experience is probably a lot less valid, not to mention subject to the whim of fate and random police stops.

Top Autonomy exec Sushovan Hussain: Bond villain or Mob boss? Both, say prosecutors

Hang on

Sanjay Kumar got 144 months for losing a paltry $400M when Charles McCall got only 120 months for burning over $8 billion ?? That's hardly fair.

In any case, this Hussain guy seems to be a real scumbag. And a rather efficient one at that.

Looks like he's got a job waiting for him at Uber when he gets out.

UK taxman falls foul of GDPR, agrees to wipe 5 million voice recordings used to make biometric IDs

It's not that bad

Apparently it's a lot more reliable than facial recognition (not difficult, I know). The Guardian posted an article answering just that question last September.

It can be fooled, as can everything, but The Guardian appears rather positive about it.

NASA fingers the cause of two bungled satellite launches, $700m in losses, years of science crashing and burning...

Re: Those responsible

It would seem that the situation is a bit more complicated. Formerly-known-as-SPI is now part of a Norwegian conglomerate.

So who's to say that the rot was purely local ? I'm sorry, but multinationals are not high on my list of trusted things these days.

UK is 'not a surveillance state' insists minister defending police face recog tech

I'd like the minister to explain his definition of a surveillance state.

Just for the laughs.

ConnectWise fails to connect: Customers down and out in the EU

Ah, routine maintenance

It is astounding how many times something goes wrong only when you tinker with it.

Microsoft slaps the Edge name on SQL, unveils the HoloLens 2 Development Edition

Re: Linux only for now

I think that what bothers me the most is that Microsoft has clearly transitioned from a Windows-is-the-only-true-path culture to an anything-that-will-bring-in-the-money culture.

Of course, that fact that Microsoft has had to use Linux for its Azure platform, instead of an army of Windows servers, was certainly a painful cluebat to the face. Apparently there was some brain damage after all.

IBM Watson ?

Oh, you mean that thing that is failing to bring the expected benefits ?

Brilliant example.

Re: SQL technology is obsolete

Yeah, it's old, so it's obsolete.

Just like the wheel. We've been using that for thousands of years now. It's obviously obsolete.

By the way, out of curiosity, what do you have to replace it with ?

Because, if you don't have anything, then maybe you should check the dictionary for the definition of obsolete. I don't think you have the right one.

A real head-scratcher: Tech support called in because emails 'aren't showing timestamps'

Another solution

Save the trees, get the hell out of there.

You are very right, but still, it should not be terribly difficult to understand that, if you take a piece of paper, write stuff on it, put it in a box, then take the same piece of paper, erase everything and write something else, you no longer have the first version.

I'm guessing she just needed someone to point out the equivalence of what she was doing.

In defense of the solicitors

It would probably be a lot more damaging to have a partner send out an email by himself only to discover after the fact that he had made a mistake or included a detail he shouldn't have.

There is one advantage to dictating a response : you have another pair of eyeballs reviewing your text and thus a better chance of spotting goofs and correcting them before sending.

For solicitors, I'm guessing that that is important.

House! Microsoft wins at buzzword bingo with AI, ML and Blockchain in cloudy Azure wrapping

The Azure Blockchain Workbench

I'm curious to see if the public at large is going to be able to do anything interesting and/or useful with this, instead of just creating more opportunities for criminals to steal money from the clueless.

Water big surprise: H₂O found in samples of 'dry' asteroid brought to Earth over millions of miles by plucky probe

"It’s a strange move"

No, it really isn't. Science is all about experimentation and confirmation. Stony asteroids were considered to be devoid of water, but not proven to be.

Science likes proof when it can get it, and this was the perfect opportunity to verify the hypothesis.

Now we know that stony asteroids can have water. Science is advancing.

A day in the life of London seen through spam and weak Wi-Fi

Tsk, tsk, Dabsy

It's your regular work routine and you still waste your time trying to connect to train wi-fi ? You should stop that and protect your blood pressure ; you're not getting any younger either, you know.

As for not knowing how they get your email, if you stopped signing up to all the stupid wi-fi maybe it would help.

'I do not wish to surrender' Julian Assange tells court over US extradition bid

Well since you can't be arsed to post a link supporting your views, I did the search and I found that :

Frida Ghitis, journalist on CNN, definitely states he is not a journalist

Peter Greste on stuff, another actual journalist, says he's not and why

Gabriel Schoenfeld, a columnist for The Bulwark, says the question is irrelevant and why

David French, journalist of National Review, calls him a leader of a non-state hostile intelligence service

On Wikipedia, his page states that he has been a member of the Australian Journalist Union

Kathy Kiely and Laurel Leff, two professors of journalism at The Conversation, explain why calling Assange a journalist is a bad mistake

Of course, I also found quite a lot of articles supporting the thesis that Assange is a journalist.

What I did not find is any report of a judge stating he is not.

So, citation please.

Hey, those warrantless smartphone searches at the US border? Unconstitutional, yeah? Civil-rights warriors ask court to settle this

Re: they need "reasonable suspicion"

They have reasonable suspicion. That's what they'll say anyway.

Apple, Samsung feel the pain as smartphone market slumps to lowest shipments in 5 YEARS

Just one question

What's the level of market saturation ? How many people are there in the world who do not have a phone and have the means to pay for and use a flagship model ?

Does anyone really think that such people exist ?

I don't. I think that just about everyone who can have a phone has one. The market is saturated, so shipments are dropping.

Nothing to see here, except marketing people in panic. Well, you're supposed to analyze the market, not react to it. A drop in shipments is inevitable, as we are now transitioning to a replacement market - which is something marketing should know.

Julian Assange jailed for 50 weeks over Ecuador embassy bail-jumping

Re: "resulting in literally *nothing* happening"

I must disagree with you there. What happened after Snowden was Schrems, who killed the existing data transfer agreement and forced the world to agree that the NSA are a bunch of above-the-law, cannot-be-trusted people. For you and I, not much has changed right now, but the GDPR came out of that mess, and that has kicked the hornet's nest for sure.

Apple iPhone sales down by double digits, Mac sales knifed by Intel CPU 'constraints'

Not to mention

Eventually the market will get to a point where what you sell is a commodity, and you will have to settle for commodity prices.

Apple has always set its flagship phone at eye-watering prices, but that is less and less justified by the incremental improvements in what you get for the price. I cannot see that this trend continues long term. People are going to come to their senses and stop forking over thousands of dollars for a bloody mobile phone. $200 is more than enough for a phone and it should last five years at the very least.

Woke up on Wednesday, expecting a SpaceX launch? Surprise! It got postponed

Hey, good news

At least this time the delay is not due to a SpaceX problem.

Extortionist hacks IT provider used by the stars of tech and big biz, leaks customer info after ransom goes unpaid

"once [..] learned of the vulnerability [..], it backed out, fixed up the hole, and refused to pay"

Oh, poor little hacker got cheated. Look at the tears in my eye. No, take a good look. There's got to be something, no ?

I guess not, then.

Re: Weird measure of success

Yeah, and hey look, they let 500+GB of data slip under their noses. Way to go to monitor your network.

Microsoft promises to boil down its lengthy and confusing privacy controls… in 1,500-word announcement

Feedback ? I'll give you feedback !

My home server is now running on Mint. I have discussed with my sister and she has agreed to let me put Mint on her laptop as well. My wife's laptop is heading for Mint. As soon as I find the right video drivers, my nephews' game laptop is going to Mint as well.

Obviously my work laptop will have to stay Win7 for the time being, but I am looking into making the transition there as well. My home game rig will, unfortunately, have to stay Win7 for the foreseeable future, because gaming, and my daughter's laptop will have to as well because the video editing program that she uses for her projects does not have Linux version. But all those rigs that are not Mint will stay Win7 until the hardware dies.

How's that for feedback, SatNad ?

Huawei, Huawei. Huawei, Huawei. Feeling hot, hot, hot: US threatens to cut UK from intel sharing over Chinese tech giant

Re: Blame Lafayette

Yeah, well, you know what they say about hindsight . . .

Besides, at the time, it seemed like a good idea - and maybe it was after all.

They should definitely review

Go right on ahead and review. Cut yourselves off, I dare you. I am sick and tired of all the sharing that you have going on anyway. Let's stop sharing, let's stop handing over every snippet of even the most insignificant stuff simply because Uncle Sam wants it.

The US wants to bully the world into obeying it ? I'm French : I'll do the contrary just out of spite.

Everything's just fine at Google's mothership: $1.7bn EU fine, slower growth take their toll

That is called swimming in money

$36.34bn in three months is $12.11bn per month and that makes out to $403.77mn per day, or the piddling sum of $280,401 per minute.

I think Alphabet will survive this setback.

Out-of-office email ping-pong fills server after server over festive break

Well hey, they are professionals at it.

The difference between October and May? About 16GB, says Microsoft: Windows 10 1903 will need 32GB of space

Minimum RAM requirements remain 1GB for 32-bit Windows 10 and 2GB for the 64-bit version

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAA HAAA HAAAA !!

The only version of Windows that ever ran on 1GB of RAM was XP - and even then it was a lot better with 4GB.

My personal minimum RAM requirement for Windows has been 16GB for the past ten years, and now I have 32GB. Once I have completed transitioning my family entirely to Mint, things will be a lot easier on the support side.

And in current affairs... Apple recalls three-prong AC adapters after some shocking behavior

have I missed something?

A chance to complain ?

This is the Internet ; complaining is the national sport.