* Posts by Pascal Monett

19065 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007

Open-source devs: Wget off your bloated festive behinds and patch this user cred-blabbing bug

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Agreed, this is no bug. This is a functionality that was implemented in a time when password security was not even thought about in any serious way.

The fact that the new version no longer uses this functionality means the developers have wisened up.

The fact that said new version is brand new means nobody worried about it before 2018 - which is way too late in my opinion.

Millennium Buggery: When things that shouldn't be shut down, shut down

Pascal Monett Silver badge

As usual, all this is down to the failure of management to actually manage. There is no excuse for postponing an update at the last minute ; if management had taken the need into account, it would have planned the workload accordingly and made the time available.

Unfortunately, management today has nothing to do with such mundane things as planning and everything to do with Cover Your Ass. Since nobody has the balls to actually impose a deadline, we're all stuck with waiting until we're back to the wall and then we can only pray that nothing will go wrong - which, given Murphy's Law, has a coin toss' chance of happening.

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Coat

Re: It's what happens then authority outruns competence

Isn't that usually the case ?

Because, if authority was defined by competence, 1) our entire economy would come crashing down and 2) most IT admins would suddenly find themselves with board-level revenue, while board members would find themselves manning the Helldesk - and failing all Target Performance Indicators miserably.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

God Bless written instructions

If you follow them scrupulously and something goes wrong, you've got your iron-clad excuse right there in your hand.

And the blame gets shifted to the guy/team who wrote the instructions, and to the manager(s) who approved the instructions.

Don't you find that there's suddenly a lot less yelling in those situations ?

It's 2019, the year Blade Runner takes place: I can has flying cars?

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

"Machines can already surpass humans in specific intellectual tasks"

No, they can't. If you take vast amounts of data stored in entire rooms, and a processing unit measured in cubic meters, then yes, a machine can beat a human at Go, which is nothing to sneeze at.

But if you constrain the machine to the size of the human brain, the only thing machines are beating us at is precise mathematical computation and, until positronic brains become a reality, it's going to stay like that for a long time.

Bored IT manager automates Millennium Eve checks to ditch snoozing for boozing

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Oh to see something as good and far-reaching come from 2019.

Never going to happen.

Anything written in 2019 will be Agiled to death and completely unrecognizable by 2021.

The Great British Curry: Put down the takeaway, you're cooking tonight

Pascal Monett Silver badge

You call that a cheat ?

"If you wash the basmati four or five times in cold water (I use one of these) making sure pretty much each grain gets a rub between your fingers, then leave it to stand for half an hour before draining, it will then cook in 2-3 minutes when you need it in a hurry."

My dear sir, if I have to fondle each and every grain of rice I wish to cook, I'm pretty sure it'll take a hell of a lot longer than the 15 minutes of simmering the whole lot will normally require.

When cooked, strain and then rince with hot water to have non-sticky rice. Yes, it's as easy as that. I usually use an earthen pitcher in the microwave. When the water is boiling, the rice goes in and gets a twirl so as not to stick on the bottom. The flame goes to minimum and the microwave is set to nuke for 6 minutes. When it dings, I give the rice another twirl and set the microwave to minimum for another 6 minutes. At the next ding the rice gets another twirl in the water and I check its cooked state. Generally, for Basmati you'll need another minute or three. Then strain and rince with the microwaved water and voilà : perfectly cooked non-stick rice.

You can't fail, even if you're reasonably sloshed.

Heard the one where the boss calls in an Oracle consultant who couldn't fix the database?

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Vindicated

And what exactly is "the Vienna situation" ?

I'm just a programmer. Please enlighten me.

Microsoft's 2018, part 2: Azure data centres heat up and Windows 10? It burns! It burns!

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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Thank you for a splendid summary of MS's 2018 failures

Pieces like this are ones that I keep in my personal library for reference, and to show to people years down the line when they have entirely forgotten (or don't even know) how things were.

Keep up the good work in 2019 !

GDPR: Four letters that put fear into firms' hearts in 2018

Pascal Monett Silver badge

What's this about "Facebook's demise" ?

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware FaceBook has shut down and stopped trading. Mind you, I wouldn't shed a tear if it had, but I think the word "demise" is a tad premature.

Your two-minute infosec roundup: Drone arrests, Alexa bot hack, Windows zero-day, and more

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Flame

Re: Drone arrests

I just hope that they are the right ones, and that they catch holy hell for having been such unsufferable gobshites.

Silicon Valley CEO thrown in the cooler for three years, ordered to pay back $1.5m for bullsh*tting investors

Pascal Monett Silver badge

the 39-year-old tech wannabe had made a "tragic error"

Yeah, he thought he was more intelligent than the rest of them.

Well, now he's going to have the time to take a full course in Defrauding Investors 1 0 1, courtesy of the California Justice System.

In ten years, he will claim that he is the brainchild of Icahn, and he'll make a fortune.

It's a Christmas miracle: Logitech backs down from Harmony home hub API armageddon

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Coat

"customers using undocumented Harmony APIs"

Funny how that sounds like Logitech had no idea how such a thing could possibly happen. It's almost as if Logitech was begging us to believe that there was some rogue engineer that put an API in place and Logitech wasn't aware of it.

Because rogue engineers are totally a thing these days, right ?

Apple yanks iPhones from sale in Germany – and maybe China, too – amid Qualcomm spat

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Maybe he's being a responsible consumer ?

Slap for Slack chat app after US, Canada chaps zapped in Iranian IP address map whack

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

Did I read that right ?

Slack shut down the accounts of people who had been to a blacklisted country, but no longer were there ?

That is not how you do it. You use geolocation to forbid blacklisted countries from using your app from the forbidden country.

Otherwise, you are saying that it is the people from those countries who cannot use your app wherever they are, and that's called racism.

And, if they're in the US, you're getting sued. As you should be.

Uncle Sam fingers two Chinese men for hacking tech, aerospace, defense biz on behalf of Beijing

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Another anti-globalisation stunt from the anti-semites in the US govt

Donald ? Is that you ?

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"MSPs are firms that other companies trust to store, process, and protect commercial data"

Apparently, they're not doing their job very well. They might want to start using some intrusion detection software, I hear that that is a thing these days.

Either that or they need to pay their personnel better and train them more often.

Google settles Right To Be Forgotten case on eve of appeal hearing

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"Google settled the case out of court"

That is a shame. It means that no actual decision is going to be taken, arguments are not going to be heard and Justice has no say.

All that in the name of protecting the revenue of a corporation that has more money than it can spend.

Google obviously knew what it was doing ; it evaluated the man (a crook with a strong penchant for money) and found the right amount to shut him up before a judge could lay in with a decision that might hurt Google long term more than losing the case would.

Hey, two crooks would obviously find common ground, right ?

Ho ho ho! Washington DC sends Zuckerberg a sueball-shaped present

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Well, well, well

Seems like we are going to be able to look forward to a new era in CEO life : governments actually holding them accountable, via court if they have to. Who'd've thought ?

That being said : Hey Zuck ! I wish you a very Happy New Year paying all those fines coming your way !

Serverless is awesome (if you overlook inflated costs, dislike distributed computing, love vendor lock-in), say boffins

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

No, no, you're not with the program.

After Serverless Computing, we'll be ushered into a new era that will be called Power-Assisted Computing. In order to properly adapt this paradigm, you should build a Computer Assistant permeated with AI and 7G connections.

Oh, and a holographic screen. It has to be holographic.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: not true IF DONE RIGHT, and for the RIGHT projects

Care to expand on that a bit ? I'd really like an idea of what the "right" projects are.

A year after Logitech screwed over Harmony users, it, um, screws over Harmony users: Device API killed off

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: No more lock-in

It certainly looks like the way to go. Logitech is just one example of companies that don't actually care about providing you with a reliable service, they're all just faffing about, changing products and functionalities as soon as a new PHB takes office.

There is no long-term plan and no care of not disrupting the user experience.

It's all about getting the dough now, then screw you.

That is why I am convinced that true home automation is going to actually be open source - by the people, for the people. That will be the only thing that actually has a chance of working for more than 18 months.

Mark Zuckerberg did everything in his power to avoid Facebook becoming the next MySpace – but forgot one crucial detail…

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Coat

I'm guessing more money than there is in the world.

What's this under the Christmas tree? A gift-wrapped Mellanox, for Microsoft? Say it ain't so

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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"Starboard Value has been screaming [..] to do something to boost its financial performance

So, doesn't care a whit about what the company is actually trying to do, it just WANTS MORE MONEY NOW !!

It's so nice when shareholders invest in a company instead of betting on it.

Facebook Like, social sharing buttons on your website may land you in GDPR hot water if data goes a-wanderin'

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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"website operators should obtain the consent of site visitors before collecting data"

Music to my ears.

Seems like GDPR is going to throw one hell of a monkey wrench in the current ad paradigm.

And that's a Good Thing (TM).

IBM: Co-Op Insurance talking direct to coding subcontractor helped collapse of £55m IT revamp project

Pascal Monett Silver badge

What a sac of vipers

This whole project stinks from the other side of the screen.

The customer doesn't give the data to allow the project to go forward, then doesn't want to look like it's paying for software (wtf ??), then gets all huffy and claims that 25% sales loss is IBM's fault.

I'm not defending IBM, but if what IBM says is true, that is one shitty customer.

On the other hand, IBM, please : talking to the Agile team is what you're supposed to do.

Unless IBM manages Agile with a Waterfall approach ? Hmm, that might explain a few things.

Chip flinger Micron reels in production, expenses as revenue growth comes to crashing halt

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Facepalm

So doing better than the year before, but a lot worse than the last 6 months

Doesn't that mean that the last six months were exceptional ?

How long is the attention span of Wall Street Traders ? Ten, or twenty goldfish ?

Newsflash: Twitter still toxic place for women, particular those of color, Amnesty study finds

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

That would be a shit-eating pile of crap.

It's not because you're being insulting that you shouldn't do it properly.

American bloke hauls US govt into court after border cops 'cuffed him, demanded he unlock his phone at airport'

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"The officers also insist such searches are rare"

Of course they are - if you're white, that is.

If you're not, then they can apparently do whatever the frak they want with impunity. And they quite obviously know it.

Suunto settles scary scuba screwup for $50m: 'Faulty' dive computer hardware and software put explorers in peril

Pascal Monett Silver badge

I would look for a different provider

Is there anyone else making diving computers ? And what's wrong with the manual option as backup ?

If your pressure gauge is a lot more empty than your diving 'puter says, it might pay to start going up, just in case . . .

It's beginning to look a lot like multi-threaded CPUs, everywhere you go... Arm teases SMT Cortex-A65AE car brains

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

Automotive enhanced ?

Pray tell, does it have anything to ensure that car control commands cannot be overridden by the effing media player ?

Or by the Internet, due to the frakkin' "continuous connectivity" we're all going to bask in ?

Because if not, well, there won't be much improvement, right ?

Brazil bested by hackers, Virgin plugs hub bugs, and France surrenders… records

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

"while the apps themselves are secure"

Not when they ask for access to your location, call history, camera and everything else your phone has.

Spending watchdog points finger at Capita for 1,300 shortfall in British Army rookies

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: How?

My dear lady, it sounds like you've been Sir Humphry's secretary.

Better get cramming... Xamarin University due to close early next year

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"Xamarin University is a fantastic resource"

Well apparently not fantastic enough to refuse selling out to the Master Borgifier.

Shame on those people who decided to cash out and let a "fantastic resource" get emasculated by Microsoft.

And don't tell me they didn't have a clue. The CxOs who took the decision knew Microsoft acquisition history just like the rest of us - except they got truckloads of cash.

I hope they enjoy watching their life's work become a husk of its former self.

ZipRecruiter has been flying low: User email addresses exposed to unauthorised accounts

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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ZipRecruiter

One more name to put on my Never Deal With list.

Fed up with Oracle's Sith, AWS wades into Big Red's lawsuit over Pentagon JEDI contract

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Stop channeling Amanfrommars.

One of those is enough.

Stop us if you've heard this one: Facebook apologizes for bug leaking private photos

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

"we realized it was an opportunity to invest even more heavily in privacy"

Oh, you mean as in investing $20 instead of just $.02 ?

Great idea. Keep it up and one day, in the next millennium, you just might get there.

One year on after US repealed net neutrality, policymakers reflect soberly on the future

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"the internet is alive and well"

Well here's some news : even if the USA is royally screwing itself over, the rest of the world is getting along fine and many, many countries have full fiber FTTP projects going on.

I myself, after having left a year ago a village where I had an acceptable 12MBps connection and arriving in a village where there was nothing but a communal WiFi that worked when it wanted, I have now signed up for and will be getting a 1GBps connection as of next January 3rd. For €50/month. Oh, and there's no throttling or limit in the amount of data, like some operators actually dare to do. If I download 1GBps for thirty days straight (supposing I manage to find enough data for that), then that's my business.

So carry on, USA. You will soon be in the backwaters of the internet, and I'll be reading about how you barely manage a national average of 25MBps whilst surfing at 40 times that speed.

An AI system has just created the most realistic looking photos ever

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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Those are some impressive results in any case

It is incredible how credible those portraits are.

Blizzard should look into setting up a game character portrait creator like that. That would be awesome.

Scumbag hackers lift $1m from children's charity

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Asswipes and arseholes

I also like the "artist rendition".

Apple iPhone X screen falls short of promises, lawsuit says

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Well Apple is the company that once famously said in court that a person would have to be stupid to believe a commercial (not in exactly those words), so . . .

Virgin Galactic test flight reaches space for the first time, lugging NASA cargo in place of tourists

Pascal Monett Silver badge

It is therefor worth waiting for them to achieve that before shouting "victory".

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Talking Cargo?

Be that as it may, that bus driver needs to know a tad more than just how to slow down and park at the curb.

The fastest, most secure browser? Microsoft Edge apparently

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: "Now that U-Block Origin and Ghostery are available as addins, Edge is my primary browser"

You still have nothing to lock down JavaScript. You need to look into that.

Fraudster convicted of online banking thefts using… whatever the hell this thing is

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"...we have the tools and methods to identify you and bring you to justice"

Yup, but you don't have the tools to keep him from starting all over again.

Postmates plans rollout of autonomous delivery robots in US

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Okay, I have to ask

Has any of these trials actually resulted in a successful delivery of goods ?

Because the potential for mischief seems sky-high to me.

I wish Postmates luck. They're gonna need it.

US elections watchdog says it's OK to spend surplus campaign cash on cybersecurity gear

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"We need to ask..."

... if those Senators and soon-to-be-exposed-to-corruption newbies are capable of handling security.

Because there is nothing that I have heard so far about politicians that makes me believe that could be the case.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Whaaaaaaaaaat?

My thoughts exactly.

I do wish I could upvote that 10 times at least.

Astroboffins spy a rare exoplanet evaporating before their eyes

Pascal Monett Silver badge

I've got a different problem with that : who on Earth decided that is it a good idea to use the gram to express exoplanetary loss of mass ?

We're talking about a planet that is light-years away, losing copious amounts of mass, and you deliberately choose the smallest unit of mass we have to express it ?

Saying ten thousand tons of mass per second wasn't impressive enough ?

US bitcoin bomb threat ransom scam looks like a hoax say FBI, cops

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Indeed, because mass-emailing bomb threats ? Easy.

Mass-producing actual bombs when you're nothing but a lowlife ? Um, nope. Not gonna happen.