Posts by Pascal Monett

Now for a really cool micro-drum solo: Boffins chill gizmo below quantum limit

Science-Fiction getting more real every day

I can't remember how many times I read a throwaway remark to perfect food storage techniques in all the sci-fi books I have read. It seems obvious that, if you stop all molecular activity in an object (ie a steak), that object will no longer deteriorate since deteriorating costs energy which the object no longer has.

This theoretical tech would mean supracooling an object down to a handful of Kelvin, then squeezing the rest of the energy out via microwaves. Neat trick, and nice way to think out of the box. Kudos to the boffins having boffinated that one. Now we finally have a possible explanation for that sci-fi tech that seemed so cool at the time.

EU wants power to fine behavioural data bad boys and the ad men aren't happy

I don't want advertisers "driven out"

Advertisements keep most of the web toll-free, so I think they are a necessary evil.

What with which I will never put up is the ad that is a scam or an outright hacking attempt. I want my ads to be reduced to text only, or maybe include one non-moving image, and all ads should be curated for proper links, no disguised or obscure references.

Ads that have no code attached, no moving GIFs, no flashing text, no IP slurping and no telemetry are the only things I will accept to see.

I'm not holding my breath for it, but I'm glad to see that some legal framework is getting set up to deal with the worst of it.

How to secure MongoDB – because it isn't by default and thousands of DBs are being hacked

"[..] pointed to the company's list of security best practices."

See that ginormous steel door ? See the humongous locking mechanism waiting to be used ? See those thick reinforced concrete walls with blast protection around the doorway ?

If ever you decide to shut the door, you'll be very, very secure, we promise.

In the meantime, you can just leave it open like that, no problem . . .

Binary star bash-up should add new light to Northern Cross in 2022

Don't think that would be a Good Thing (TM)

I'd venture that, if you can see a supernova in the noon light, then it's likely to be a GRB pointed right at us and I can assure you, you most definitely don't want to see that.

New Windows 10 privacy controls: Just a little snooping – or the max

Now that is what I call a bait-and-switch

Isn't the irony just overflowing ? You have to go and declare yourself, handing over precious personal information in the process, in order to temporarily(*) put a stop to the information that Microsoft is already extracting greedily.

In short : you can't win.

That is what happens when companies confuse the ability to do something and the right to do it.

* : temporarily, because we all know that those choices will be reset every now and then, ala Facebook

Why the UK is unlikely to get an adequacy determination post Brexit

Divided we fall

Great idea there, let's all disregard all treaties and declarations and make up our own little rules and regulations when it comes to Human Rights.

The US has already decided to ignore Human Rights when it comes to people it doesn't like. Now the UK is apparently deciding it wants its own version too.

Congratulations, Bin Laden is positively ROLFing from the depths of Davy Jones locker. I'm seriously starting to wonder if Bin Laden wasn't a CIA operation from the beginning right up to his "death".

No freedom nor security if you give up a bit of either ? Looks like we'll all end up with neither whether we choose to or not.

That's what you were meant to think.

Fake History Alert: Sorry BBC, but Apple really did invent the iPhone

"opinion pieces don't need to be balanced"

If I admit that that point of view is justified, that can only be if the article is clearly labelled as an opinion piece, and projects that fact unambiguously.

I am no fan of Apple, but to state that something was invented by the State because everyone involved went to state-funded school is a kindergarten-level of thinking that has no place in reasoned argument.

The only good thing I take from this article is the knowledge that whatever I hear or read from someone signed Harford and/or Mazzucato is something that I should take with a heavy load of salt.

ZTE laying off 3,000

Big fun indeed. I'm going to have to remember to take stock in popcorn companies before the 20th of January - I predict there's going to be one heck of a rise in value !

Weather stops SpaceX from blowing up more satellites

Re: "Sadly it was a failure"

Nonsense. The launch was postponed, that does not and never has counted as a failure for anyone.

If you insist on counting weather-postponed launches as failures, then I very much doubt that there were only 68 launch failures for the Delta program because that would have to mean that the rest of the (756 - 68) 688 flights you indicate were all launched on the first programmed launch date without any weather interference whatsoever.

Bank robber reveals identity – by using his debit card during crime

@ Eddy Ito

That site is offensive. I find it unacceptable that a private company is allowed to splash such details of personal life for all and sundry. It should be a government-owned database with managed access and curated data. This is tabloid material made for exciting puritans.

Why don't I just mosey on down and rob the bank

I'm having a bit of trouble grasping the logic of his actions. From what I gather, he leisurely presented himself at the bank, presented himself without any mask of headgear, displayed his intentions and got some money. Did he have a gun ? Not specified. He then leisurely went back home while the bank, the FBI and a bunch of computers churned frantically. When finding the law at his door, he folded and waived his rights, resulting in a 4-year sentence.

Feels like he was tired of his apartment and wanted to try something else for a while. And 4 years instead of 20 - that might indicate the absence of any weapon. For sure the judge does not appear to think that he's overly dangerous.

He's a nut, for sure, but more in need of nice men in white coats than surly wardens in black gear.

TV anchor says live on-air 'Alexa, order me a dollhouse' – guess what happens next

Re: Why would any sane person leave a live microphone connected to a sales machine?

Sane people don't.

Then there's the rest of the population . . .

Could YOU survive a zombie apocalypse? Uni eggheads say you'd last just 100 days

Sorry, they modeled survivability of a zombie outbreak without allowing for defense ?

And they call themselves scientists ?

Come on, nobody is just going to stand around and let themselves get bitten. There's this thing called "instinct of survival". It's apparently hard-wired in every living thing. Without training, it might only serve to push you into panic mode, which is probably not a good guarantee of survival, but most people are either going to run or at least try to grab something to defend themselves.

And they had to make a second study to allow for 0.1 zombie death per person per day ? Really ?

This is nonsense. Please consult this much better study of the consequences of a zombie outbreak.

Hackers could turn your smart meter into a bomb and blow your family to smithereens – new claim

Re: "I said I'd let them if they could tell me who I was"

You are meter # AF0004684133886443GSRD and you are using electricity, therefor you must pay it.

The fact that the previous owner of the house is not the same is of absolutely no interest to the electricity company.

"Smart meters are 'dangerously insecure'"

Well gosh, who could have guessed that ? I'm certain that ab-so-lutely nobody had the slightest inkling of a notion that these newfangled government-imposed thingamabobs hadn't been entirely reviewed with the utmost stringent security measures in mind.

After all, it's a government project, not a third-party, private company, snouts-in-the-trough revenue exercise. Government is responsible. Government knows about vulnerabilities. Government has years of experience with all its IT projects.

Oh, wait . . .

(Yeah, I know it's EU-mandated. It's still the UK Government imposing it, and you can bet that Brexit won't stop that project)

The Zucker Mister Social Club: Facebook's daddy wants to be your friend, for realsies

He's got a chance

After all, like every other politician he considers us plebs to be dumb fucks.

The only difference is that he cannot pretend he never said that.

Routine jobs vanishing and it's all technology's fault? Hold it there, sport

Agree completely

Especially when retraining is not guaranteed to get you the higher-level positions in the first place. Am I supposed to believe that a plumber having successfully studied to become a surgeon is going to find a wealth of positions offered to him ?

Exaggerated example, for sure, but I doubt very much that retrained ex-low-skilled workers are going to have a chance at getting jobs that younger, fresh-from-Uni candidates are being refused for lack of experience.

Astroboffins glimpse sighting of ultra-rare circular galaxy

Space is awesome

But capturing mass from another galaxy and ending up with a near-perfect ring ? The odds must be properly astronomical.

I can't wait for the explanation on this. It cannot not be interesting.

Joe Public likes drones and regulations, finds UK.gov 'public dialogue'

"online training at registration [..] – not particularly rigorous"

Nor particularly mandatory given that there is no way to control that said user actually bothered to go see it.

Given the glasshole's propensity to do whatever he wants with his toys and other people be damned, I do think that laws are the only thing that will keep the issue at bay.

Strike that, enforcing laws are the only thing that will keep the issue at bay.

My fortnight eating Blighty's own human fart-powder

Using KrissLaure myself

Initially it was for weight loss. Now it's because I'm not hungry before 11 A.M. and my wife refuses to let me leave without a breakfast of some sort. But there's also the better feeling thing.

When I started using this food substitute, I was at a point where my weight was as much a problem as my sleep apneia. I was tired all day, and it was especially hard after lunch. Head dropping on keyboard was a real risk. Sure, I needed exercise, and I have been moving more since then, but I needed something to help me lose weight faster than that.

Before starting on this substitute, I took the flyer to my docter to have her opinion on it. She looked at the flyer for over a minute, then looked at me and asked me if I could get more flyers for some of her patients that could use it. That decided me.

KrissLaure makes a product that they market as a properly-balanced meal replacement you can take without medical supervision. There are two main categories (breakfast and dinner), and a half-dozen flavors in each category. They maintain that breakfast and supper are the meals to be replaced, leaving lunch to your entire discretion. Nothing is forbidden, you're just asked to not pig out and eat reasonable proportions.

As far as taste is concened, I'm fine with the product. What interests me even more, though, is the total disparition of head-dropping-on-keyboard. I'm now awake all day without trouble, even when I did not sleep enough the night before.

So, even when I do reach my target weight (which is in progress), I will keep taking the breakfast variety because it suits me perfectly.

YMMV, of course.

Web-exposed MongoDB installs wiped by bitcoin ransoming script scum

Possibly not actually the fault of the customers

Just checked out the MongoDB site. Everything about it says "for the basic user". It is specifically noted "Leave the Ops to Us" in one of the text boxes.

Based on this, I am not surprised that so many instances were not properly configured. The subscribing customers left the Ops to them, and the Ops failed to do their job thoroughly.

Seems like we're going to have to slog through another decade of ignoring security until it bites back before people generally get the notion that security IS NOT an afterthought.

Xmas software update knackered US Customs computer systems

@wsm

Agree with you on principle, but honestly I don't know if there is any down-time at major airports anywhere in the world, so one day is technically probably just as bad as any other.

For me, if I were one of those developers, I would have postponed the upgrade to after XMas on the basis that I would have wanted to avoid a chance of being called in during my own vacation.

Speeding jet of Siberian liquid hot Magma getting speedier, satellites find

The mind boggles

Science is truly astounding. I applaud any progress in our understanding of the Universe we live in, and this is indeed progress.

Now, since we seem to be getting insights on the activity of Earth's core, would it be possible that this tech improve our understanding of earthquakes and, therefore, their prediction ?

I hope so.

Internet of Sh*t has an early 2017 winner – a 'smart' Wi-Fi hairbrush

The wonders of technology

Magnificent. I am in awe. A hairbrush that can tell me (and Kerastase) that my hair is wet.

Once again, IoT proves that it does nothing for the consumer and everything for the company selling it.

I really have to get started on that bear pit around my house.

Bitcoin breaks US$1,000

Re: "classical inflation is simply not possible"

Instead, it has been replaced with modern inflation, which means that the price varies daily by so much that a fiat currency would be declared bankrupt in comparison.

We're just going to have to wait until this thing either boils over or is folded into international trade with proper rules and regulations. Until that time, it's just a risk.

Programmer finds way to liberate ransomware'd Google Smart TVs

Re: Get off my lawn!

Effin' A to that. The younguns have no idea what "powered off" means these days. I had to unplug my previous Media Box when not in use - powering it down had no influence on its temperature, clearly indicating that it was still functioning full tilt.

Since common sense has gone the way of the dodo, there should be a law : powered OFF means NO CURRENT APPLIED.

The Life and Times of Lester Haines

I subscribe to that view. I've always liked his articles, and I read Rockall at the time without even knowing he was behind it. Now that I do know, I'm just amazed at how life can be.

A pint for you, Lester.

How Google.org stole the Christmas Spirit

Re: sell some and buy the essentials

Agreed. If DonorsChoose can't supply basics, ask for twelve ChromeBooks and sell off two or three, then buy said supplies.

It's a shame that so many "charity" companies seem to be based on taking a fat cut of things under the guise of helping out. I remember not so long ago being told in these very pages about a web site that took donations for earthquake victims in the last tragedy to hit Indonesia. Yeah, they were taking donations all right, and also taking $10 bucks off for "processing fees". Even my bank doesn't take that much for a transaction.

Something stinks in Charity Valley.

Don't pay up to decrypt – cure found for CryptXXX ransomware, again

I hear your pain

I have also been bleating to deaf ears on backup precautions, though not on a professional basis. I have even offered to drop in and do it myself in some cases (for the hairdresser, and other acquaintances I know and who know me and what I do).

Every single time, the answer is something along the line of "yeah, I know I'll have to get around to it".

Year. After. Year.

I have dropped the inquiries. If ever they come and complain about losing their data to some disaster or another, I think the look on my face will pretty quickly quell that line of conversation.

Not paying your VAT gets you to jail.

You can file that under "strong incentive".

Re: "It is in fact less anonymous than cash"

Funny, that's not how I've been hearing it described since, oh since it's inception. In fact, in these very hallowed pages, there is a report on how boffins "managed" to thwart that.

I specifically remember begin told in innumerable posts how BitCoin was indeed anonymous, on top of being the Next Best Thing. Heck, listen to the apologists for long enough and you'll get the impression that BitCoin could impregnate a sterile woman; it is just that good.

Personally I have a hard time buying that anyone can be anonymous for long on the Internet. What really gets me, though, is all the criminal activity taking place with that currency that, apparently, no police force on Earth can trace. Yet, the NSA is supposedly recording all my calls, wherever in the world I am, and I'm willing to believe they know it's ME.

I'm not a criminal, much less a terrorist, but I am under surveillance. Millions upon millions of dollars in illicit transactions are happening all the time, damaging the lives of innocent people around the world, but the ones who benefit are more anonymous than I am.

For me, that sucks more than government control of the value of my money.

Re: "we wouldn't have to think at all"

We're not thinking much right now, so no great loss really.

Twas the week before Xmas ... not a creature was stirring – except Microsoft admitting its Windows 10 upgrade pop-up went 'too far'

What a load of bull

"We know we want people to be running Windows 10 from a security perspective, but finding the right balance where you're not stepping over the line of being too aggressive is something we tried and for a lot of the year I think we got it right, but there was one particular moment in particular where, you know, the red X in the dialog box which typically means you cancel didn't mean cancel," Capossela said.

"Within a couple of hours of that hitting the world, with the listening systems we have, we knew that we had gone too far and then, of course, it takes some time to roll out the update that changes that behavior. Those two weeks were pretty painful and clearly a lowlight for us. We learned a lot from it obviously."

Everything in that declaration describes an organization that specifically decided to push things to the hilt, and detect when the hilt was reached. Nothing in those words tell me that they were trying anything else, or had the slightest twinge of conscience about doing it. It was not a "Oh God what have we done" moment, it was a "Right, that's it, they won't take any more" moment.

Remorse ? He showed none, like a good corporate drone he just mentioned having a hard fortnight. Please wait while I dab my eyes (yeah, right). Then he went on to put ads into the OS. Effing ADS. If you ever wanted a sign that MS no longer gives a flying one, that's it.

And for me, that's it for MS as well. In the week before New Year, my server is going Mint. My other PCs will follow in due course. I intend to keep the Personal in Personal Computer.

Virgin America mid-flight panic after moron sets phone Wi-Fi hotspot to 'Samsung Galaxy Note 7'

Re: "the risks of a diversion would have exceeded the risks [..] to the scheduled destination"

That is a very interesting comment that brings up a few questions.

Taking your statement at face value, could it be that diverting means landing in an unfamiliar airport and there is added risk ? Is it really that important to have experience landing at an airport ? I've heard that Hong Kong flights are captained exclusively by pilots that have already landed there, but at the same time Hong Kong is considered to be an exception, if I'm not mistaken.

I would have trouble imagining that a seasoned pilot would have trouble landing at an airport for the first time. Methinks that if that were the case we'd be seeing way more incidents. Add to that that landing is the second most dangerous time to be in an aircraft (the first being taking off, of course), and I really can't guess as to why a diversion would be riskier than going to the initial destination.

I really would like to know, though.

Re: Use "WiFi Analyser' to get the manufacturer

I'm sure that's real easy to do at 35,000ft.

Non-existent sex robots already burning holes in men’s pockets

Re: "The Roman Catholic Church ..."

The RCC has next to no influence on that issue where people have the means to purchase sexbots.

In poor countries, however, it does have that kind of influence but they wouldn't be able to purchase the bots anyway. You could probably find some "massage parlors" offering them though, if there's one thing Catholics are good at it's openly hating something while secretly using that very thing.

Re: "good sexbots could replace human sex workers"

You know that won't happen. However good sexbots may become, there will always be a market for "natural" interaction.

That's the thing with porn and the sex industry, nothing replaces anything, anything new is just added to ever-growing list of things we do to satisfy our compulsions.

Re: Washing venues

Have you seen the smoking performance of Liv Tyler in One Night at McCool's ?

Strong non-backdoored encryption is vital – but the Feds should totally be able to crack it, say House committees

Re: "you really can't imagine a politician getting away with the latter statement"

Well I don't know about that. Seems that Trump has already got away with things that are at least similar.

Let's say we revisit this theme in a year from now, shall we ?

Re: Summed Up Quite Well - But Forgot to Mention One Point

The point is : America can want its encryption with backdoors, even though it is finally admitting that strong encryption is A Good Thing (TM), but that does not mean that everyone else will follow.

Actually, you need only one proper, non-backdoored encryption scheme to be available to totally jeopardize every backdoored one, every company connected to the Internet will be under pressure to use that one, because security.

There are largely enough people on the Internet that are intelligent enough to create a proper encryption scheme and make it available, so that is where we are going whether US Congress likes it or not.

IT ops doesn't matter. Really?

and "you will know already intuitively know all this"

Someone needs to learn how to use the Track Changes functionality properly in Word...

Either that or this weekend was one hell of a party for someone.

FYI! – Your! hacked! Yahoo! account! is! worth! $0.0003!

"Yahoo!'s value will never recover"

Yup, it's a crash & burn, and it feels richly deserved.

This billion-account breach occurred in 2012. Instead of communicating on that issue, Marissa spent the next year with other priorities, such as redesigning the logo, and not securing an email backdoor.

Well the problems are finally coming home to roost. Looks like you still can't avoid a problem by ignoring it.

LinkedIn's training arm resets 55,000 members' passwords, warns 9.5m

No evidence that the data included passwords. That, to me, means that they have no evidence of the contrary either.

How can a company have absolutely no clue as to when a password is read ? Shouldn't that be something that is monitored ? I'm not talking about hashing & salting, or encrypting or whatever else (that should be done as well), I'm just talking about monitoring when the password is accessed.

Apparently, in the business world, the word "security" is just a collection of letters that the marketing department uses. The rest of the company doesn't have the time to take it into account.

'Upset' Linus Torvalds gets sweary and gets results

Torvald's Tongue Back To Normal - XMas May Proceed

Things were a bit weird lately, what with Torvalds not appearing in the headlines for robustly tongue-lashing someone, but now things are back to normal and that eerie feeling of something missing has gone away.

Merry XMas to all !

Security! experts! slam! Yahoo! management! for! using! old! crypto!

If Verizon waits a little bit longer, they just might decide that it's not worth the risk anymore.

Re: "you can't blame the users for using the same password everywhere"

Well, not to throw the stone, but when it comes to keys and locks, somehow they understand the importance and manage.

Of course, this begs to consider whether or not users would use the same key everywhere if they could configure the locks. I'm guessing they likely would.

There is no good solution right now, but I try to explain the password/lock similitude to get the message across. Of course, I have no control over how long my words may influence their behavior.

Yahoo! says! hackers! stole! ONE! BEELLION! user! accounts!

"stolen details from more than a billion user accounts"

Phooey. Yahoo! never had a billion accounts.

Am I really supposed to believe that Yahoo! has had more users than frakkin' Facebook ?

No way.

This is just another example of the specifically Yahoo! method of counting things.

Rogue One: This is the Star Wars back story you've been looking for

Looking forward to seeing that now

Sounds like it has just the right ingredients for me to shut down my frontal lobes and just bask in entertainment.

A nice change from the Lucas prequels !

Military reservist bemoans frost-bitten baby-maker on Antarctic trek

"Hey HBO... It looks like WINTER IS COMING!"

More of this please.

Much more.

In fact, drown the bastards with it.