Posts by Pascal Monett

Budget hotel chain, UK political party, Monzo Bank, Patreon caught in Typeform database hack

Patreon ?

So that's SciShow users that are impacted also, as well as PBS Eons.

Congratulations on undermining confidence in some of the rare YouTube channels that educate people about science.

DXC execs to investors: It's say-on-pay time. Give us a bump, would you?

Cloud is changing the market landscape

What I gather from this article is that massive service providers (aka consulting companies) are being subject to a sea change in their very livelyhood. Big customers are less inclined to sign big contracts, and smaller customers are going to the fluffy failures of The Cloud.

This can only be temporary, though. The Cloud is far from perfect in itself, and people are starting to wake up (albeit slowly) to the fact that their data is no safer there and they need measures in place when the fluff grows a hole and their data disappears.

It will certainly take a long time before people (and companies) learn how to manage their cloud data properly, but until they do, there is room for consultants and service providers to help them get there.

It's just that the service providers need to adapt to that landscape as well.

Apparently, that adaptation is going to be painful.

When Google's robots give your business the death sentence – who you gonna call?

Personally, I find it difficult to believe that it is a good idea to put company data in a beta product, and Google is always in beta.

I subscribe to the people who think that company data needs to be placed in the control of the company, not on someone else's server.

Flipping 'ell, Dell! IT giant preps to go public again, files its homework

It does seem that Mr Dell is going to have to eat some crow.

I guess that, when you're the head of a multinational, sometimes it pays to shut up.

Sysadmin shut down server, it went ‘Clunk!’ but the app kept running

Apparently, there is at least me.

I crashed a server once, at client site

I was working on client site about 15 years ago, one of a multinational's many branches. I had access to the server room, although I didn't really need it because I'm a developer, not a sysadmin. When the summer was hot, I did sneak in from time to time, to cool off, but I digress.

I knew the product I worked with didn't much like having the client opened locally on the server. I knew it. One day, for some reason I can't even recall, my workstation was doing something time-consuming and I was in a hurry to get another thing done. Those among you with experience will recognize right there a recipe for disaster.

I decided that it was a small thing and I could do it quickly on the server. I knew where it was, so I badged myself into the server room, walked over to the dedicated Solaris server I needed and double-clicked the icon for the client. The client's loader flashed a screen, and the server went down then and there. I was left to facepalm myself while watching nervously the server come back online.

Of course, when a production server goes down in a site that employs over a thousand people, there will be people to notice. I could only go to the head of IT and report my actions. As penance, I asked my access to the server room to be revoked, which the IT manager graciously accepted.

I never did try that again, anywhere.

Surveys-as-a-service outfit Typeform spilled a backup from May

t.co ?

Could companies please refrain from using URL shorteners ? It keeps people from checking that the URL should indeed go to where it is supposed to given the supposed source.

It's hard enough to ensure that spam and malware are avoided, but if you go and obfuscate the URL well that's the end of it. I never click on those things, whenever I see one my paranoia flares up something fierce.

And that's now all three LTE protocol layers with annoying security flaws

"an agent needs to set up a malicious cell tower to tamper with transmissions"

No problem there, apparently those things are being set up all the time in Washington DC and they're only noticed when they've been taken down.

CIMON says: Say hello to your new AI pal-bot, space station 'nauts

"contribute to spacemen's well being and group morale"

I'm thinking that, after a vigorous session with a blunt object, group morale will be much higher.

CIMON will be forever silent though.

Re: Well if...

From what I've heard, it would likely be very frustrating because, apparently, there are no boners in space.

And if you're alone, they wouldn't be much use anyway.

Google weeps as its home state of California passes its own GDPR

Re: Legitimate business interests

Completely agree. I nearly jumped out of my chair when I read that phrase, and I had to force myself to finish reading the entire article (a very interesting read, BTW) before coming here to say the same thing, but in slightly more profane terms.

In any case, it is refreshing to see that, for once, political machinations can be used for good. Hats off to the people who got this law pushed through.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft scolded for tricking people into spilling their private info

"we are committed to GDPR compliance across our cloud services"

Well of course you are, to the letter of the law.

And the law doesn't say that you have to be objective and present all the arguments for/against, now does it ?

So they are committed to being compliant, but they will continue to cajole and harass you to get your consent in any legal way they can.

IEEE joins the ranks of non-backdoored strong cryptography defenders

I would think that the situation is simple

You can pass whatever laws you want about encryption in your country, other countries won't see things the same way and all you need is one competent programmer capable of creating a proper, robust encryption scheme and posting it on the Net and your laws are rendered obsolete.

I do think the most effective argument that the IEEE listed is the one saying that backdoored encryption would render companies less competitive.

We're already seeing that kind of result with the Cloud. Thanks to the NSA's shenanigans and the very public cases of judges ruling that data in another country should be made available to the US courts, we now see companies scrambling to make local centers for countries that are passing laws demanding it.

I cannot imagine that encryption will be different.

Facebook quietly kills its Aquila autonomous internet drone program

Re: "nobody I know now is still using Faecebook"

Given that there has not been a massive exodus and shutdown of FB accounts, I'll wager that the people you know that were using FB still are.

Because FB still has that half billion accounts - even if 80% of that is cats, dogs, hamsters and assimilated.

So you're doing an IoT project. Cute. Let's start with the basics: Security

IoT is going to be the poster child of "self-regulation"

One of the basic tenets of capitalism viewed by right-wing Republicans is that the market is self-regulating and thus, should not be regulated.

As far as IoT is concerned, that means that they view millions of people spending money on products that are not secure, are eminently hackable and can cause major disruption of private life as a perfectly acceptable consequence because the market will just "adjust accordingly".

IoT is the "Unsafe at Any Speed" of the IT industry.

It needs regulation, and it needs a global body to evaluate and approve stuff for selling.

If we don't do that now, untold millions of people will suffer needlessly while crap-sellers stuff their pockets in what is surely a most immoral way.

But it's legal, so Republicans don't care.

@Chris King

Bud, as far as I'm concerned, you can wrap whatever the heck you want around that large brick as long as you only target IoT guys. I suggest a submarine.

I'll even help you. With the wrapping and mostly the smacking.

It's getting more and more Azure'd: For Microsoft, sorry seems to be the hardest word

"There are, however, some catches."

"Schools keen to grab the freebie will need to offer GitHub to all technical departments, allow GitHub to use their logo on its website, receive GitHub announcements and finally place one person per department on GitHub's teacher-training programme."

In other words : it's free for you if you sell us your soul, give us your firstborn and allow us to spam you into oblivion. Oh, and we'll "monetize" all the data you give us, as per standard corporate procedure.

How typical of Microsoft. Acquire something good that works, and turn it into yet another waiting room to Satan's realm.

Thanks, I'll pass.

Uber's London licence appeal off to flying start: No, you cannot do driver eye tests via video link

Re: I'm wondering what sort of job they were doing

The only "job" Uber is doing is keeping itself as far away from an actual job as possible, whilst raking in the dough and driving competition into the dust.

The obvious end game is Uber being a monopoly and suddenly prices are going to hitch a ride on the Saturn V.

Taiwanese tech upstarts stole our RAM secrets and staff, claims Micron

"A presentation at the event used Micron DRAM technology code names"

I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to steal tech when moving to a competitor and not bother to rename everything along the way to muddy the waters. Don't talk about F32, talk about Skeletor. Don't mention F32S, mention Chakram.

Be inventive, for Pete's sake. Word processors have had Find/Replace for more than 3 decades now.

Get a grip, literally: Clumsy robots can't nab humans' jobs just yet

Re: Screw the people this will put out of work then.

I do believe there will be one point where humans will have next to nothing to do anymore, because we will have made robots capable of doing it all.

At that point, we're going to have to get to grips with what kind of economy we'll have, because nobody working means no salaries on company budgets, but it also means no money to buy goods.

While I will admit that our current money-for-work economy is screwy and biased and must be controlled, it is still something that provides for the majority in one way or the other.

What will be the rules in an economy where all manufacturing is done by robots ? Al all repairs and maintenance as well ? You cannot put a price on goods nobody has any money to buy them with. And is there any sense to put a price on stuff made by robots anyway ? Oh, of course, today's billionaires will obviously say yes to that, but today's economy is not based on robots, it's based on men with families to support.

The robot economy will be a world where you work if you want to, but you'll still need to eat, drink and be appropriately dressed for the weather. Today, money is what gives us the ability to do all that, money in exchange for our work.

But tomorrow, when robots do everything, we're going to need an entirely different set of rules. What they will be, I have no idea.

Linus Torvalds tells kernel devs to fix their regressive fixing

@Pete 2 Re: "A more professional approach"

Pete 2, I very much doubt you have any qulification to teach Torvalds what a "professional approach" is in kernel design.

I think he's been at it long enough to have a gist of the general idea.

It would seem that this time the problem did not warrant a full-blown volcanic eruption.

Pity, I always enjoy the colors (from a safe distance).

A volt out of the blue: Phone batteries reveal what you typed and read

Re: chars

Probably because of physical reality, such as position on screen and trivial difference in amount of current needed to draw one character instead of another.

For example, it is quite logical that drawing a T will light up more pixels than an I, and a W will require even more pixels, thus more power. A trifling more, granted, but measurable nontheless.

Re: "Always carry a burner phone when visiting the USA"

Visiting the USA ?

In the Trump era ?

Why on God's Green Earth would you want to do that ?

Outage? No, phones are playing silly buggers, insists Sainsbury's Bank

Fret not though, you are a valued customer.

Because zero is a value.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich quits biz after fling with coworker rumbled

Because to a manager you can say : resign or you will be fired for gross misconduct.

They don't bother giving the choice to the worker because he can't afford to resign.

Please tighten your passwords and assume the brace position, says plane-tracking site

Re: Panic

That must have been a harrowing experience indeed - especially given all the terrible things Hollywood has taught us can happen on a flight (engine fire, hydraulic system failure, etc).

I guess you cannot help but imagining all the possible horrors and wondering which one it is. Getting the call was probably the greatest relief, learning it was "just" the A/C was the cherry on top.

NASA eggheads draw up blueprints for spotting, surviving asteroid hits

Not sure about that. If your only job is to constantly try and get funding for something to be done without actually getting anything done, it doesn't sound so glorious.

Atari accuses El Reg of professional trolling and making stuff up. Welp, here's the interview tape for you to decide...

Re: with love and compassion

Nope.

I have no compassion for a marketing guy who invites a technical journal to an interview without bringing any functional items, instead bringing mock-ups, not being able to answer technical questions and then pretending to be hurt when the ensuing article is not written like a Vogue-magazine fanpiece.

Flaming idiot. And now he's Streisanded himself.

No sympathy.

National ID cards might not mean much when up against incompetence of the UK Home Office

Don't forget that a card with a picture of your face on it is biometric.

Microsoft shoves US govt IT contract where ICE throws kids: Out of sight in a chain-link cage

Re: Who stole America?

That's easy : bigoted racists.

It's time for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 to die (die, die)

So we're to expect a raft of browser updates then ?

I wonder if Microsoft is going to update Internet Explorer . . .

Donald Trump trumped as US Senate votes to reinstate ZTE ban

Nice to see that some parts of US Government are still working for the US

A bit reassuring, really, what with the Republicans still blindly pretending to support Trump and the Democrats totally incapable of any action whatsoever, it is reassuring to see that there are still some people in high places who are actually interested in pretending to work for US interests and not for their own.

Caveat : I do not know those senators and have no idea whose campaign funds they are defending.

'No, we are not rewriting Office in JavaScript' and other Microsoft tales

Hooo, sneaky.

Well done pointing that out. So Tech guy is talking about Office 365, and SpokesMouth denies that Office is being rewritten.

Brilliant strawman. Totally got me.

So, let me see

A Technical Manager says they're done rewriting Office 365 in Javascript.

A Spokesperson says they're not rewriting office 365 in Javascript.

Given that the spokesperson is spouting the bullshit he's told to, my vote goes to the rewriting of Office 365 in Javascript.

Now the question is : is that supposed to be a good thing ?

Strip Capita of defence IT contract unless things improve – Brit MPs

Not a problem

There will be a brand new company soon available to replace Capita's dismal record. It will be named Atipac, and will offer true professionals and brand new management*, but all people will have at least 20 years of experience in government contracts.

Atipac : your new guarantee of success.

* any resemblance to Capita employees is purely coincidentail

What can you do when the pup of programming becomes the black dog of burnout? Dude, leave

Managers who have people working more than 60 hours per week are not doing their job.

A manager's job is to manage resources, not exhaust them. If your employees are working overtime all the time, it is on you to realize that you need more resources - else you will find yourself with a global revolt at some point and some, or most, of your resources will walk to other pastures.

And recreating a group is always an impossible task.

Somehow, that is not part of the MBA curriculum.

Pity.

Wires, chips, and LEDs: US trade bigwigs detail Chinese kit that's going to cost a lot more

Of course not. That sentence has never appeared in any of the comics he reads.

UN's freedom of expression top dog slams European copyright plans

Brussels ?

I think you're confused. You should go back and read the article again.

It's a United Nations official that is involved, not an EU one.

Silk road adviser caught, Kaspersky sues Dutch paper, and Vietnam's tech clampdown

Re: S3

I propose this scenario :

An internal IT jockey has a project and needs to test some functionaity. He goes to his boss and gets approval for a bucket. He loads demo data on it, nothing important or critical, no customer data. Security is not important, testing functionality is, so he keeps his life simple and doesn't lock anything down.

He does his tests, bugs out and leaves the bucket for another round of testing later on.

Meanwhile, pentesters happen upon the bucket, alert the meadia, articles screaming bloody murder are written, and the IT guy quietly activates security on the bucket thinking "bloody hell, what a lot of hot air for nothing".

ICANN pays to push Whois case to European Court of Justice

Re: What are ICANN smoking?

At this point, I think whatever it is it has been integrated into the atmospheric control of the building. The vast majority of the employees are inhaling it without even knowing - or have forgotten that they are.

There is only one who is responsible for all this : the one who keeps pouring it into the A/C vats. Marby, is that you ?

Would you rather health data or finance data in the cloud?

Glad to see that there's a strong consensus here.

Unfortunate that the decision-makers are not a part of this.

Microsoft tries cutting the Ribbon in Office UI upgrade

Not all of them. In any case, not to the satisfaction of the users I have talked to.

It's a standard process for me when I install Windows to go to the Sound panel and choose the "No Sounds" theme.

OS sounds were a novelty when Windows 3.0 came out. They've been a nuisance since Windows 95.

People don't like because it pretty much destroyed their acquired keyboard shortcuts habit which allowed them to breeze through complex operations that they were used to doing.

Especially in Excel and probably Word as well.

The main issue with the Ribbon is that MS didn't bother providing it as an option and keeping the menu interface (and proper kb shortcuts) for those who were used to it. No, you had to change your ways.

For professionals who actually want to work with the products, it was quite frustrating and painful.

US senators get digging to find out the truth about FCC DDoS attack

"maintain paper trails to help track ballots and guard against tampering"

Here's a novel idea : put the name of the candidates each on a piece of paper. Have the voters go into a privacy stall to put the paper of their choice into an envelope. Then have them go to a box, controlled by a voting committee member, and under the watch of the controller, place their envelope in the box.

They will have voted, the votes can be tallied, there is a paper trail, and fucking with the system is way, way harder than a stupid half-witted computer litterally made to be hacked.

But why make it simple when you can complexify things ?

Astroboffins 'sprinkle iron filings' over remnant supernova

Not too shabby indeed

A very interesting remark that puts things in perspective in a useful manner.

Space is very often awesome and mind-boggling given the size of the objects we look at and their distance. It's something that, I think, tends to numb the mind a bit.

So yeah, a reading on a magnetic field that is 50k times less powerful than a fridge magnet, from this distance ? That's hardly shabby, that's simply incredible and a wonderful indication of Humanity's technological level.

Now, where's my flying car again ? <ducks>

Microsoft reveals which Windows bugs it might decide not to fix

What all this boils down to

This article basically points out that Microsoft's reaction to a bug is as follows :

- is it a nuisance ?

and

- do we care ?

I think that clarifies things pretty well.

Dixons Carphone 'fesses to mega-breach: Probes 'attempt to compromise' 5.9m payment cards

Re: my domain has as many addresses as I want

Same here. I've set up a special account for that kind of situation : [e-mail]

I use that in response to any question and for online subscriptions that I do not intend to follow but have to sign up to get what I'm looking for.

Needless to say : all mail going into that account is immediately trashed.

UK.gov online dating tips: Do get consent, don't make false claims or fake profiles

Re: cock shots

I simply cannot fathom what kind of Neanderthal-level moron thinks it's a good idea to send a pic of the ugliest part of his anatomy to a woman he has never met (and will doubtless never meet after that). I'm as fond of my little sergeant as anyone else is fond of theirs, but that's the last thing you want to introduce yourself with to any woman.

I can very well imagine a woman's reaction to getting such a pic : burn it with fire and ban the offending sender from ever contacting her again.

Sure, there are certainly a portion of dating site subscribers that are there only to find a one-night stand, but even then, if your only game is grunting, you won't be scoring much I would think.