Posts by Pascal Monett

Not so smart after all: A techie's tale of toilet noise horror

Computer sound is on in an open space ?

As far as I'm concerned, that will last exactly one update before either it gets muted or it's keyboard-to-the-face time.

Computers have no business making noise in a business environment.

Northern UK smart meter rollout is too slow, snarls MPs' committee

Now, now, everything is fine

Have no fear, Mrs Reeves, tthis will turn out to be the second greatest clusterkluck since the update of the NHS

Just you wait and see.

Europe-style 5G standards testing? Consistent definitions? Who the fsck wants that, asks US mobe industry

If it wasn't pathetic, it'd be almost funny

And here comes the USA again, pretending that it is the sole arbiter of what is right.

I get that it wants to be first but, just like that annoying bully in college, wanting it does not make it so. Especially when nobody is depending on you to reach a decision.

The CTIA has nothing on the GSM Association, no influence, no leverage. Basically the only thing it has achieved is to very publicly describe how it is going to be screwed.

I'm counting on the GSM Association to just ignore that kid in the back row and get on with the project.

Secret mic in Nest gear wasn't supposed to be a secret, says Google, we just forgot to tell anyone

So used to it they forgot to tell

Talk about a damning indictment of our society...

HPE wants British ex-CFO to testify in UK Autonomy lawsuit before Uncle Sam sentences him

Just one question

Is an "an enraged Hewlett-Packard" going to pursue and prosecute the idiot who agreed on the deal at HP without proper discovery as well ?

Because okay, they cooked the books, but you were too incompetent to see the $8 billion hole you threw yourself into. That is a magnitude of incompetence that is striking in itself.

Down productivity tools: Microsoft Teams takes a Monday tumble

Re: Why do things have to keep changing?

So, people should actually stop trying to make better things then ?

Want to create fake web profile pics? This creepy AI tool makes them on demand. Plus predictive policing, and more

"people could be taken in by AI-generated news articles that read like a child wrote them"

That's happening on Facebook all the time. It's Facebook that is a damning indictment of the state of our civilization.

Crypto crash leads to inventory pile-up at Nvidia, sales slaughtered

"I think that the demand will return"

More like : you're praying it will.

It will. But drop the mining shit, okay ? Or at least make a special mining line and leave a line for those who are actually interested in gaming.

Remember those guys ? Gamers ? Those who put you where you are now ?

The algorithms! They're manipulating all of us! reckon human rights bods Council of Europe

The private sector ? Act with fairness ? Have you heard of Facebook ?

If the private sector was intent on acting with fairness we wouldn't need GDPR.

As far as companies are concerned, if it isn't explicitely against the law, it's fair game to try whether it's moral or not. And that is not something that is exclusively reserved to US companies either.

The self-regulating market is a pipe dream served by selfish people intent on preserving their situation - the rest can be damned.

So regulate. Make laws and enforce them. That is the only thing that will protect the people and keep things fair.

Bad news for WannaCry slayer Marcus Hutchins: Judge rules being young, hungover, and in a strange land doesn't obviate evidence

"while talking to an unnamed associate over a recorded prison telephone line"

Holy shit man, how stupid do you have to be to go and say things like that on a prison line ?

Haven't you seen any one of the innumerable Columbo, CSI ad nauseam to remember the "Anything you say can and will be used against you" line ?

Well you're going to remember that now, I'd wager. Too bad it's too late.

A once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity: NASA bids emotional farewell to its cocky, hardworking RC science car on Mars

All good things come to an end

The mission was a great success, and congratulations are in order for all of its participants.

Opportunity : Science the way it should be done.

Judge snubs FBI's bid to snaffle Autonomy docs ahead of founder Mike Lynch's UK showdown

So Lynch lied

He exaggerated the value of his company, okay that's bad, but where was HP's due diligence ? What band of incompetent interns audited Autonomy and contented themselves with rubber-stamping the whole thing ?

If I buy a house without checking it out, I don't think I can sue the previous owner if all the nice pictures I saw were just wallpaper and cleverly painted plywood. Why should a multi-billion dollar company get that privilege ?

Ever used VFEmail? No? Well, chances are you never will now: Hackers wipe servers, backups in 'catastrophic' attack

Someone please explain to me

. . how an external hacker without any contact (accomplice) in the company could totally wipe all production servers and all backup servers in one go, without ever being detected ?

Okay, forget the detection part - the IT admins could be clueless - but that does not go with the fact that they had different credentials for different servers. They were at least doing something right.

And why go and nuke everything if you're just a hacker ? That's not going to make you any money.

This smells very strongly of an inside job. Done by a state-level actor or not, this is not some group out of Sevastopol just having some fun.

NHS needs to pull its finger out and prep staff for future robotics, genomics, data-led healthcare

"investment in IT systems [..] as well as the training [..] will have to be planned carefully"

Is that a public recognition of the fact that that has most certainly not been the case up to now ?

The implicit implication that that is utterly unacceptable will be discussed at a later panel.

RIP Dr Peuto, Zilog and Sun's bright SPARC

Re: Halt and Catch Fire

On behalf of grumpy old sods, allow me to tell you young whippersnappers that we know it's that old.

And we're proud of being able to grump about it.

Uncle Sam to its friends around the world: You can buy technology the easy way, or the Huawei

"out of security concerns"

It's all well and good to cite security concerns, but if you're up to government-level declarations of punishment, it would be nice to see some proof that those concerns are valid.

And, for the moment, all we have is bluster and rhetoric, which is a bit thin to base state-level menaces on.

But hey, it's the Trump era. Who needs reason ?

Intel SGX 'safe' room easily trashed by white-hat hacking marauders: Enclave malware demo'd

"performing anti-piracy decryption of protected Hollywood movies"

Weird just how much that actually sounds like pirating them.

In any case, I rather agree with Intel on this one : know whose code you're running. Don't run code from just anywhere, just like you don't click on a link in a mail from someone you've never met before.

620 million accounts stolen from 16 hacked websites now for sale on dark web, seller boasts

"I'm just a tool used by the system."

No you are not. You made the choice to become a person inflicting misery on others, you could have very well chosen to do otherwise. You are, however, the perfect target for a number of tools, such as a golf club, a tire iron, maybe even a sledgehammer.

Ever yearn for the Windows 95 shutdown sound? TADA! There's an Electron app for that

"getting the thing to talk to the internet was challenging"

Sounds like the implementation was spot-on then.

Makes me feel like getting an XP VM to run my old Transport Tycoon and Settlers Xth Anniversary once again.

Leaky child-tracking smartwatch maker hits back at bad PR

"the accuracy of the watch was only +/- 500m"

So not only is he selling a piece of shit GPS, he's also selling one that is not secure ? And it's not a problem because you can't have 100% security ?

I'd really like to ask him if he has a lock on his door and, if so, why.

Not going up in my esteem is the least I can say.

Lovely website you got there. Would be a shame if we, er, someone were to sink it: Google warns EU link tax will magnify media monetary misery

Ah, capitalism at its best

Google is basically claiming that, if it cannot continue making almost all the money, then other people will suffer.

Here's hoping that the EU will not be impressed by that.

Treaty of Roam: No-deal Brexit mobile bill shock

Um, guys, only 1 month left

Do you really, honestly think that there's a deal just waiting to be signed ?

Under the authority of the muppets that are supposed to be in charge now ?

I really don't think there's any chance of not bailing out hard, because if there was a viable deal, you'd have heard all about it because everyone would be hollering about what he didn't like about it.

Trakt app users' personal data exposed: We were hit by a 'PHP exploit'... back in 2014

It only took them 4 years

Brilliant demonstration of being on the ball, there.

Regain my trust ? Why would I give you another half decade before you notice that you've been hacked again ?

Crypto exchange in court: It owes $190m to netizens after founder 'dies without telling anyone vault passwords'

Especially since buying a pizza is going to cost you not only the pizza, but $50 in "transaction fees".

Now there's a racket if I ever saw one.

Bunch of muppets, the lot of 'em

So everyone thought it was a good idea to have only one person know the access to $190 million and no backup of the codes ?

His leaving for India is irrelevant - he could have been hit by a bus while doing his morning jog.

The sheer incompetence, or outright criminal behavior in some (rare) cases, that is demonstrated time and again by these "exchanges" is what is keeping me away from this market.

Huawei pens open letter to UK Parliament: Spying? Nope, we've done nothing wrong

Re: Iran

Yeah, but nobody is interested in the past. There's no votes or bonuses to get there.

RIP, RDP... nearly: Security house Check Point punches holes in remote desktop tools

Remote Desktop Protocol you say ?

You mean that thing that is practically the very first thing I disable when I reinstall a PC ?

That's okay then, carry on.

Hi, Jack'd: A little PSA for anyone using this dating-hook-up app... Anyone can slurp your private, public snaps

"Online Buddies did not respond to repeated requests for an explanation"

That's because they're trying to find an alternative to "we never thought that anyone would try that".

So let me see if I get how this app works :

1) you make the mistake of installing it

2) you peruse the profiles and find someone of interest to you

3) at some point, you take a pic and send it to him

4) somehow, the online database of images records your pic, but has zero security on it

5) somehow, the manager of the company saw no problem with that issue at development time

6) somehow, the developer of the database found absolutely no way to link profiles to an image and prevent anyone else from seeing it, and couldn't be arsed enough to pull the fire alarm on this

I get that this app is being used by the alternately sexed and I believe that there may be one hell of a market for that. After all, it seems pretty obvious that those apps will have guys on them, since the Ashley Madison kerfluffle demonstrated that it was mostly guys on sites where women were supposed to be present and searching.

It does seem that this app is nothing but a cash grab to try and benefit from this market, which is disgusting because it's not like homosexuals don't have other important daily problems to worry about.

Fake fuse: Bloke admits selling counterfeit chips for use in B-1 bomber, other US military gear

Counterfeit because they were remarked to pass as new chips.

You know, like it was written in the article.

Windows Defender update: So secure, it wouldn't let Secure-Boot Windows PCs, er, boot

"Secure Boot can then be switched back on"

And why on God's green Earth would I want to do that ? If I can boot without it, it's going to stay off.

Using WhatsApp for your business comms? It's either that or reinstall Lotus Notes

Re: Notes

There is nothing that can do what Notes can do. I am still working as a Notes developer and, from the Designer point of view, I am quite happy with the product.

But I agree that the client interface really needs a facelift. Hopefully R10 will address that.

What's Farsi for 'as subtle as a nuke through a window'? Foreign diplomats in Iran hit by renewed Remexi nasty

"researchers pointed to clues such as the use of Farsi language in encryption keys"

Yeah, those Russkies sure know how to point people elsewhere.

In other news, I've always wondered what BITS was for. I guess now I know.

In other, other news, once again we have proof that anything with the word "Intelligent" in its name is NOT your friend.

Trying to log into Office 365 right now? It's a coin flip, says Microsoft: Service goes TITSUP as Azure portal wobbles

Office361 ? Already ?

And we're not even in February yet. The count is not looking good for the this year's availability.

Fine, we'll do it the Huawei, says Uncle Sam: CFO charged with fraud, faces extradition to US over Iran trade claims

I would like an explanation on one thing

"she hid from Uncle Sam and a top bank multimillion-dollar transactions between Huawei's American and Iranian subsidiaries"

Why did Huawei have to do those things from US soil if it is true that they did ? When I take a look at the list of branch offices Huawei has, I see 4 offices in Africa, 14 in the Asia-Pacific region, 25 in Europe, 8 in Latin America and 8 in the Middle-East.

Wy couldn't they do their thing from the office in Qatar ? US office ships to Qatar and Qatar does the bank stuff and ships to Iran. US CEO is in the clear, no knowledge of nothing.

This appears to be bad planning more than anything else.

Because it is a sovereign country ?

Apple: You can't sue us for slowing down your iPhones because you, er, invited us into, uh, your home... we can explain

"Apple had no duty to disclose the facts regarding software capability and battery capacity."

Actually, you might be right about that, Apple, and I'll give you that : you have no duty to disclose the true abilities of your technology.

Unfortunately for you, tech has used its abilities as a reason to buy it since the IT craze began. We bought new computers because the processors and data bus and memory were better and by how much was a quantified, verified amount. We bought new televisions because they had that many more pixels and that higher refresh rate.We are constantly on the lookout for the new figures that will prove that our new acquisition is quantifiably better than the last.

So you go on and pretend that you have no "duty" to tell your customers just exactly what it is they're getting for half their monthly salary (or more). On the other hand, stop complaining that you don't understand why your stuff isn't selling so well anymore.

You're an admin! You're an admin! You're all admins, thanks to this Microsoft Exchange zero-day and exploit

“Microsoft has a strong commitment.."

.. to getting all the revenue it can.

Security ? Protecting private information ? The user experience ?

That comes after shareholder revenue.

Way after.

Office 365 enjoys good old-fashioned Thursday wobble as email teeters over in Europe

Re: Day one of Office 365 outages in 2019?

Absolutely that !

It's important to keep track of the official availability number :)

The Iceman cometh, his smartwatch told the cops: Hitman jailed after gizmo links him to Brit gangland slayings

Re: Keep us updated with what happens

Well, nothing happening here. In France. Everything fine, thank you.

As netizens, devs scream bloody murder over Chrome ad-block block, Googlers insist: It's not set in stone (yet)

Stop adblocking to protect me ?

Bullshit. Adblocking is what protects me. That, and NoScript.

You want me to resume seeing ads ? Fine, I have a solution for you : create an ad language that does not include popus or popunders, flashing gifs, access to my hard disks or RAM, or any sort of metacommands whatsoever. Show an image, place text on it, and then FUCK OFF.

Make ads conform to that and I will need no adblocker. Until you do (aka hell freezes over), I will use a browser that allows me to block ads and control JavaScript.

And if you're not one of them, tough.

Just forget what Gartner said about AI in June 'cos CIOs are all over it now apparently

Not technically entirelly worthless ?

Seeing that, 6 months ago, they were apparently not aware that "AI has implementations have grown 270 per cent in the past four years", I would venture that said report is completely inaccurate - thus about as worthless as you can get.

The lighter side of HMRC: We want your money, but we also want to make you laugh

@codejunky

One word : Brexit.

You no longer have the right to complain about the EU - you're leaving it.

EU will have agreed a tech tax by March, says French finance minister

French politicians have a history of declaring what the Eu will decide - and being wrong

Not saying that my current Finance minister is actually wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if things were a bit more thorny than that.

French data watchdog dishes out largest GDPR fine yet: Google ordered to hand over €50m

If extortion is what it takes to obtain justice, I'm all for it.

Or do you think poor little Google has been scraping by all these years of getting paid ad money for content other people made ?

Extortion on one side, theft on the other. They deserve each other.

As far as cookies are concerned, I am sick and tired of web sites that immediately assault me with a large popup talking about how they need cookies etc etc and the popup doesn't go away until I click Consent.

There is no Refuse option available.

As far as I'm concerned, that is forced consent, aka no consent at all. I hope GDPR will take note of that annoyance as well.

Holy crappuccino. There's a latte trouble brewing... Bio-boffins reckon 60%+ of coffee species may be doomed

Re: So-called 'global warming' (this cycle) stopped at around 2010

Citation, please ?

Looming EU copyright rules – tackling Google news article scraping, installing upload filters – under fire from all sides

I think Disney rather disagrees with you.

I think it might be because copyleftists are basically saying that nobody should get paid for their work, and everyone should benefit from everyone's work for free.

That is very nice in a purely intellectual sense, but there's just one little issue : how are the artists who don't get paid manage to pay for their food ? Not to mention rent, heating, and all the rest. Not to mention the hypocrisy of removing revenue for artists when the copyleftists are quite happy being paid for their work.

I personally have no problem with copyleft on software I create in my spare time, but I find it difficult to accept that for software I write for a living because I need money to pay for my bills, and copyleft removes that money source.

I have an idea for a compromise : Google doesn't want to pay copyright fees ? Fine, but then it can't put ads on pages containing copyrighted content.

Google certainly won't like that either, but it is high time Google started to feel some sort of squeeze after all those years of stealing everyone else's content and profiting from it.

Ooh, my machine is SO much faster than yours... Oh, wait, that might be a bit of a problem...

Well that was an invisible problem

So everybody got a scare and one guy quietly learned that doing a big file copy was a no-no at the time. Everyone else began their long journey learning just how to equate reliability and Microsoft.

That was a rather soft one compared to some big scares and even some catastrophes that have already appeared. Oh well, I guess we can't always have tales of how Wall Street servers almost crashed.