Posts by Pascal Monett

Facebook gives its 007s license to kill M, its not particularly intelligent AI

Private company, private reasons

It is perfectly reasonable for Facebook to want to keep mum about what it learned and why it is shutting M down. I do think that Facebook did indeed learn quite a lot from the experience and will leverage that in some way in the future.

Probably for yet another privacy-invading functionality that will unfortunately work a lot better than if they hadn't had this trial run.

But Facebook is under no obligation to answer all the questions and go public on anything. For a company dedicated to dragging everyone's life out into the open, Facebook sure knows the importance of keeping its own secrets.

WD My Cloud NAS devices have hard-wired backdoor

Re: "consumer device manufacturers"

I don't care who it is, this is simply not acceptable, ever.

Computer security is hard enough. We just discovered a vulnerability in a raft of CPUs that dates back more than a decade and nobody had a clue.

So we definitely don't need people putting in barn doors that can't be closed.

If you won't use your brain our machine will use it for you, Nissan tells drivers

"an electrode-laden skullcap"

Aaannd there goes the ladies market. What with the hairdresser at $80 a pop, if you think a woman is going to leave the salon and put that thing on you've got another thing coming.

Samsung topples Intel as semiconductor top dog, but lead 'literally built on sand'

@ Steve Todd

Agreed, they do have one. It is fully booked and not ready for another design at this point. They would be daft to stop what they are currently producing there just to try piss off Intel, not to mention the contractual obligations that almost certainly prevent that.

That's why I said they need to have made another one.

"All Samsung need to do now"

Sure. All they need to do now is have spent a few dozen billions on a 10nm chip fab three years ago, and have it start churning out a brand new design in the next month.

Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen.

Nebula spotted with more super-sized bodies than a gym on Jan 2nd

LIGO/VIRGO

It really is fascinating to realize that we have people intelligent enough to not only describe mathematically what happens when black holes collide, but set up instrumentation to detect it.

That said, sooner or later this grav wave detection unit is going to detect something they didn't expect. Given that it concerns black holes, how are they going to pinpoint the location of the event since, by definition, they didn't see that a collision was going to take place ?

UK.gov admits porn age checks could harm small ISPs and encourage risky online behaviour

"reputational damage to the government"

It seems to me the government is doing a fine job on that by itself.

Congratulations for finding yet another way to remove the responsibility of education from the parents. That will not in any way come back to bite you later, oh no.

The nanny society forges boldly ahead . . .

The healing hands of customer support get an acronym: Do YOU have 'tallah-toe-big'?

Brilliant

Glad to see that you've got your mojo back :)

Happy New Year !

US Homeland Security breach compromised personal info of 200,000+ staff

Thank God for Homeland Security

I mean, it has Security right in the name, right ?

Seems like the Paranoid Department isn't paranoid enough. Of course, it's tiring to be paranoid all the time, especially when it's your 9 to 5 day job. Seems that some of these guys are just in it for the paycheck now.

Skynet it ain't: Deep learning will not evolve into true AI, says boffin

Totally agree.

We'll have AI the day we ask a question and it answers it can't be arsed to care.

What we'll do with it then is another issue.

Jocks in shock as Irn-Bru set to slash sugar and girder content

Re: Sadly, I was sober

What ? You were in Scotland and you were sober ??

What were you thinking, lad ?

Cool disk drive actuator pillar, Seagate – how about two of them?

Re: I'm Praying to the Aliens..

Don't worry. Holographic storage will be here in 5 - 10 years.

Just keep repeating that to yourself and all will be well.

@Bahboh

From the article you linked, there is a reference to the heads that indicates that read/write heads are 0.3 mm wide.

That's already damn small.

Logically speaking, you might be able to get the read/write portion of the head down to a tenth of that size, but you still have the arm that carries it - and that thing will remain a lot bigger because of the physical constraints.

And we return to Munich's migration back to Windows – it's going to cost what now?! €100m!

10 years to migrate 16000 PCs and they're going to go back to Windows ?

Looking at the linked list, I remark that it took Valencia, Spain a mere year to migrate 120000 PCs from Windows to Linux. Munich strolled into a full 10 years for their paltry number, and now we learn that their IT can't cope and they want to go back ?

German efficiency isn't looking good in this picture. If they can't cope on one platform, I don't see how it will be better on another. Changing cars is useless if you can't drive.

But I'm guessing that's not the real problem. It's influence. There's obviously a strong pro-Windows faction in Munich and they've been real busy making a nuisance of themselves since the beginning of the migration. Looks like they've worn down the resistance and are going to get their revenge. All that at the citizen's cost, of course. With all the other administrations and entities that have successfully made the switch to Linux, Munich can hardly pretend that Linux is not suitable for them.

Cohesity loses its cohesion: Now chief beancounter unglues self from upstart

"the CFO recruitment process was perhaps flawed"

Maybe they hired a person with integrity when they needed a scumbag who would cover the lies ?

Really, that much movement at the top seems to indicate that there is a major issue at hand that the founder is intent on covering up. What that issue could be, I have no idea.

But something stinks.

Kernel-memory-leaking Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

Re: Genetic Diversity?

And that would change what, exactly ?

We'd be griping about a bug in Motorola processors instead. Whoop-de-doo.

Crap indeed

Here I was, all happy with my i7 6700 that has served me well for the past two years, and now I learn that I'm basically going to have to replace the hardware if I want to stay secure and have good performance. What a nuisance.

Another round of Windows reinstall, with another fracking call to Redmond to justify that I am indeed the owner of this shit. I hate the idea already.

Ah, the day games are made for Linux first . . .

SuperFish cram scandal: Lenovo must now ask nicely before stuffing new PCs with crapware

"the consumer’s affirmative express consent"

While I'm overjoyed at the idea, I believe that, all too soon, we'll see things like : "if you want this laptop, agree to this".

Either that or your express consent will be engineered around a popup with OK/Cancel buttons only. We all know users are trained to click on OK.

China may stick to its own DRAM memory soon – researchers

They hardly had to steal the tech - we've given them everything they need to know and now they know better than we do how to make the stuff.

You are aware that Asia-Pacific is where all electronics are made these days, are you not ?

Brit banks told to publish details of major incidents that stop punters' payments

"such a metric might encourage hackers to target weaker firms"

And ? Are we supposed to just let the "weaker firms" carry on ?

Yes, it is very likely that this metric would encourage attacks on weaker firms. They should therefor step up their game and get up to scratch, not cower behind such a bullshit argument.

Yes, it will cost them money. Guess what ? Better before than after - because after it just might be too late.

Up to 'ONE BEEELLION' vid-stream gawpers toil in crypto-coin mines

"At the moment, the only real solution is to use..."

NoScript. As 100% of internet-related trouble these days is some bit of effing JavaScript, NoScript is the end of the line for them.

Adblockers ? Yeah, in addition to NoScript, why not ?

But if you use an ad blocker and do not use NoScript, you're at risk.

Archive of 1.4 billion credentials in clear text found in dark web archive

Oh not biometrics again

First of all, there is no such thing as a reliable biometric scanner. Fingerprints can be faked, especially on consumer-grade equipment. Facial recognition is still rather unreliable, can be easily fooled and requires a rather important back-end. Other more exotic methods (like iris recognition, or back-of-the-eye blood vessel mapping) are still in the lab, or eventually at the NSA, but nowhere else.

The problem with biometrics is not even its reilability, it's the fact that the legitimate owner of the biometric cannot change it when it is compromised. So anything biometric is only useable until it is compromised, which means it is next to useless in any environment that needs true security.

Let us not pretend that your Twitter account needs NSA-level security.

Re: "The only password phrase to remember is that for Keepass."

Which is . . password.

Juno's July fly-by gave NASA a close-up of the Great Red Spot

500 K at 350km below the surface

Seems curious that such activity is not happening all over the gas giant's surface. Given that Jupiter has no solid surface, it should be a continuous supervolcano in all directions. But no, apparently it is only happening at one location. I wonder how the boffins are going to be able to explain that.

No, BMW, petrol-engined cars don't 'give back to the environment'

Nice to see some backbone here

I can't say I don't like Beemers, but I will readily admit that this is pushing things too far.

First of all, I have yet to hear how heavy-metal-polluting batteries are any better for the environment than carbon-monoxide emissions. Then there's the fact that, yeah, an electric car containing a fossil-fuel-burning engine is definitely not a zero-emission car.

So good on the regulators for stomping on this nonsense.

It's hard enough to be ecological as is without needing marketing to muck things up even more.

No 2017 bonus for you, HPE tells employees

I thnk that, at that level, there is never enough bloat.

Report: Underwater net cables are prime targets for terrorists and Russia

Perfectly true

I would just like to observe that you really only need to protect the cable until the depths where water pressure will offer inherent protection. That means until the continental undersea shelf drops into unmanageable pressures - something like a hundred kilometers from the shore ?

After that, you can use satellite surveillance to ensure that any deep-sea trawler approaching too close to the cable gets intercepted by a warship - not many captains who will take that gamble and any 12.7mm canon will do - not exactly high-tech hardware these days so battleships not required.

The US is still operating a SOSUS net, maybe some strategic agreements would be in order to ensure that the one and only submarine with cable-cutting functionality would not go anywhere too close to be a nuisance. At the condition that the US respects their agreements - not a guarantee these days.

Creepy Cayla doll violates liberté publique, screams French data protection agency

@ Richard Jones 1

I agree that some IoT products may indeed be of use to people who do not have the benefit of a perfectly functional body.

I do however take exception to the idea that the handicapped do not need security and protection to obtain the convenience of such devices.

Escrow you, Apple! Ireland expects Cupertino to cough up to €13bn

What ?!?

Haven't we been repeatedly told that Ireland did not give Apple any special treatment ?

So how come all of a sudden Apple agrees to pay BILLIONS ????

I'm really sorry, but if I were at the top of a multi-national company (and therefor had no conscience) and I was told I had to pay billions of dollars or face fines in the millions, well I'd choose the millions. What happened that convinced Cupertino to pay billions ? What could possibly be worse than that ?

Is Ireland going to expel Apple ?

My mind is boggled.

French activists storm Paris Apple Store over EU tax dispute

Re: "a lot of the profitable bits of those companies"

Would you mind applying that line of thought to Microsoft ?

I'm really curious as to the result.

Germany says NEIN to purchase incentive for Tesla Model S

Re: "an electric vehicle does allowing you to recover most of the energy you expended"

Not really. As specified here, regenerative braking is not sufficient to bring a vehicle to a stop, so friction braking is still needed. That means that you lose electricity on the energy used by friction, which is substantial because "mechanical braking is still necessary for substantial speed reductions".

In short, regenerative braking is a nice-to-have side-effect, but you will not be driving around nearly indefinitely with just regenerative braking and a PV-covered car roof.

Loose-change payment network Microraiden launches on Ethereum

I'll wait for a bit

Until the inevitable raft of exploits, cheats, underhanded manipulations etc crop up and demonstrate that this new virtual currency still has everything to learn about transaction security.

I have no doubt that the coders on this project did everything they could to ensure transaction security, but unless they've working in the online banking business for the past 20 years, I think there's a good chance they haven't thought of everything.

Plus, the miscreants are really very good at finding exploits, so they'll find a few surprises on the way, no doubt there.

Don't shame idiots about their idiotically weak passwords

Yeah, but you don't need to change the lock every week.

First of all, you hardly have a burglar passing 25000 times a day to try to pick the lock, then there's the fact that picking a lock means the burglar is visible for as long as it takes, finally a secure lock is a lot harder to crack than an effin' password.

Plus, if you leave the key in on the other side, there ain't any burglar in the world who'll be able to pick a security lock.

Boss made dirt list of minions' mistakes, kept his own rampage off it

Re: the big red button

Ah, the big red button. I worked as an operator for a year in a place that had a Bull DPS 7 when I was still that young. I was suitably warned about its function by one of the three engineer programmers. These guys were the divas of the joint - a bit aloof and superior to us mere operators.

Now you see, the Big Red Button was situated pretty much next to the entry of the mainframe room, more or less at shoulder height.

One day I was on the afternoon shift when, after lunch, two of the three devs came into the mainframe room to check I don't know what. They headed back to the exit, but of them had obviously started telling a joke (those mainframe rooms were big, back then, and the operator console was at the other end from the entrance). The guy stopped, turned around and, reaching the obvious climax of his story, spread his arms wide - right onto the Big Red Button.

The only thing more impressive than the sudden, total silence of the room was the look on his face.

Linus Torvalds on security: 'Do no harm, don't break users'

"You need to not piss off users, and you need to not piss of developers.”

And you especially need to not piss me off, he added.

SurfaceBook 2 battery drains even when plugged in

Re: "fessing up to the problem and fixing it"

I don't see that this is a problem that can be fixed. This is clearly an issue that was on the table at design stage. Meetings were had, decisions were approved and now here we are. Microsoft obviously knew this was a possible issue, but likely decided it's potential was not hazardous enough to upgrade the power brick.

And now the SurfaceBook 2 needs to be throttled in order to charge the battery properly. I somehow doubt that just changing the power brick for a more powerful one will do - I'm guessing the electronics handling the charging in the SBook 2 won't be able to handle the surge. Laptops in general are the high-wire act of PC electronics - they are calibrated to respond to specific and precise conditions and nothing is supposed to get them outside of their defined comfort zones.

So I really don't see how this can be fixed.

Unless I'm wrong, of course, and you can just plug in a more powerful brick and be done with it, but in that case this whole issue is even more stupid.

Fujitsu imagines adjusting your rear view mirror for better hearing

""We have not yet decided when to commercialize the technology,"

Meaning : "The CIA is very, very interested in buying our patent outright and we're waiting on the final figure before we decide not to go public".

Okay, gratuitous trolling aside, this is clearly spy tech that is at the limit of magic. On the other hand, it's weird enough listening to half a conversation when you hear someone else speaking on a phone but can't make out the words. This is going to be an order of magnitude above that. Suddenly the driver starts speaking out loud, and nobody is answering. Not to mention the potential for quid-pro-quo when the passenger thinks the driver is talking to him.

It really sounds like neat tech, but I'm not convinced the car is the place to use it.

The Quantum of Firefox: Why is this one unlike any other Firefox?

I'll wait for NoScript to be back

No NoScript ? No update.

NoScript is the single most important protection that Firefox has against all the scum on the Internet. It is a Security Essential (TM).

Until I learn that NoScript works on this latest version, I am using the version that allows for NoScript.

How can airlines stop hackers pwning planes over the air? And don't say 'regular patches'

Re: Satcom remote monitoring

"So a full airgap isn't possible."

Sorry but I disagree. The WiFi-accessible entertainment system does not need to run over the same wires as the nav/control systems.

Physically separate the buses for the two and you have an airgap that is a chasm for hackers. There is no reason other than convenience that the two networks run over the same wires, and security says they shouldn't. So put in a separate Ethernet cable for fracks' sake.

Uncle Sam to strap body sensors to hackers in nuke lab security study

So they'll find various levels of stress

And then what ?

Some of the contestants will be cool as ice, some will be bouncing off the keyboard, and there's likely no correlation with the efficiency of their hacking skills.

As usual, it's for these useless studies that they put the money in. Over 15 hundred bucks for a wristband ? That's a hell of a piece of kit right there.

Google aims disrupto-tronic ray at intercoms. Yes, intercoms

Congratulations, Google

Great idea. What a wonderful family environment we are preparing ! I'm sure the next generation is not at all going to feel bereft of family connections when a speaker tells them to do things. I'm sure that educating your offspring via loudspeaker is not at all going to make them feel like they're in bootcamp and you're the master sergeant (who likes their master sergeant in bootcamp ?).

You have kids. Talk to them. Interact with them. Show them you care.

Otherwise they will leave you one day and never, ever think of calling you.

Now Oracle stiffs its own sales reps to pocket their overtime, allegedly

Working overtime now and then is perfectly normal and, in a normal company, it should not be an excuse to get more money. There are days like that and you're part of a team, so pull your weight and everyone will appreciate.

However, if working overtime becomes a regularly repeating occurrence, then it should definitely be paid for at least two reasons : 1) you are in effect working longer weeks regularly so you should be compensated, and 2) the company needs to understand that it might benefit from hiring another person to lessen the load on the others.

My stance on overtime is simple : if you tell me no overtime is paid, then I'm not working overtime. And don't come and blame me for projects that are late, you're management ; you're supposed to be aware of my workload and find solutions to lighten it if necessary.

Reminds me of the time I was in a certain company with the manager always coming to me with new urgent things that had to be done right away. After the fourth addition I looked directly at him and asked whether it was right away before the thing for the Director, or right away after that ? I then shoved the list in front of him and told him that I needed an order of execution. He blustered his way out of that, but I didn't see him for the rest of the day. Thankfully I was not long at that company.

It's 2017 – and your Windows PC can be forced to run malware-stuffed Excel macros

You can "remove" yourself from all things technology right where you are ; just shut down your router and phone and you're there.

Inmarsat aircraft Wi-Fi lift off set to fill coffers

Seems to go contrary to the fact that over a thousand airliners have it installed. If they went through the effort to get it up and running, somebody must be using it.

I note that Asian arlines have it installed. Seems to indicate that Asian businessmen may be the driving force behind it - or 1st-class passengers in the Northern hemisphere.

Obviously we're not going to see usage in coach. Not until WiFi comes free with the plane ticket, that is, and I won't be holding my breath for that.

Sean Parker: I helped destroy humanity with Facebook

Re: "he does not feel badly enough to [..] donate it all"

Because of course that's what you would do.

Parity's $280m Ethereum wallet freeze was no accident: It was a hack, claims angry upstart

Re: "The bankers created this huge worldwide fraud"

Really Joerg ? You're still trying to pass that bullshit ?

You do realize that this is the Internet, and anyone with a brain can easily check that you're wrong ?

'Lambda and serverless is one of the worst forms of proprietary lock-in we've ever seen in the history of humanity'

Re: I'm wondering on how efficient this all is

I think the point here is about the $million cloud customers. They're the ones paying the big bucks that make the cloud seem to be a viable platform for everyone.

Push a button and it drives itself ? Sure, once a hundred IT techs have slaved away at building all the conditions and checks and verifications that allow that button to exist. Big Corp has access to the manpower and the knowledge, small businesses do not. The Cloud can work for small businesses, but it is made for Big Corp.

That is why I have trouble with the sentence : "the open-source community has to provide alternatives". With all the faith I have in the coding abilities of Open Source volunteers, they are working from home and I doubt they have access on a personal level to the amount of hardware required to test an open source solution to AWS. And even if code could feasibly be written, the Cloud is hardware and software both, and Open Source doesn't have the hardware.

I don't see that happening. Not without major investment by Red Hat or something similar in any case.

Oracle investors told not to let Catz and co get the cream – reports

"employees get unconscious bias training"

How exactly does that work ?

Speakers in every room with subliminal audio messages ?

Interstellar space rock screams through Solar System

Re: That's a weird orbit

We only spotted it after it passed the Sun, and the article states that astronomers are only counting on a few weeks to study it - after that it will be too dark.

This thing is not a comet, it's a rock.

To me that means that there are probably many more rocks like that flying around in the most awesome game of billiards ever invented, and we don't have a clue about where or how many.

There's likely all kinds of orbits for those things - but we won't see any of them if they stay beyond Jupiter's orbit.

DJI Aeroscope won't stop drone-diddlers flying round airports

"their entire system can be defeated by either covering the drone with aluminium foil"

Um, it seems to me that if you are covering a drone in aluminum foil, you're gonna have just as much trouble piloting it then they will have detecting it.