Posts by Pascal Monett

FBI may pillory Hillary with email spillery grillery

Re: Do you really want another baldface, thieving liar in the office of the President?

Do you honestly think you can avoid that outcome before the next millennium ?

HAM IN SPAAAAAACE! ISS astronaut contacted by Gloucestershire bloke in garden shed

Meager terrestrial comestibles ?

Come on. I would be thrilled for an opportunity to spend some time aboard the ISS, but I do believe that after five weeks of pre-chewed food packets sipped from a straw, every astronaut must be dying for the taste of a good steak.

Hey, FBI. Wanna track someone by cellphone? Get a proper warrant, says US appeals court

Re: Want an alibi?

In truth, you have to admit that undertaking criminal activity with a record-keeping gps-enabled gizmo in your pocket sounds pretty stupid.

STOP! You – away from the keyboard. There's no free speech in our China

Situation critical ?

Apparently, almost half of the population of Chine is online, mostly via smartphones.

That came as a surprise to me. I thought there was a lot less. Apparently, there are more Chinese citizens living in the cities than I thought.

Does this mean that the means to oppress are being stretched to their limits, or that the Chinese version of NSA technology laughs in the face of a challenge ?

I would have honestly thought that suppressing the opinions of over half a billion people would be a bit too costly for any state to bear. Of course, if the government gave such a project maximum priority and a "whatever it takes" budget (and why wouldn't they ?), then I guess anything is possible.

And so it begins... Cleaning up HMRC's £10.7bn Aspire mess

Oh how cynical.

Yet how plausible.

Surely it's only a coincidence ?

I, for one, welcome the rise of the Infrastructure Endgame Machines

"the US of NSA"

On top of an enlightening article, there is this gem.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

Windows 10 wipes your child safety settings if you upgrade from 7 or 8

Re: "how to make child accounts work"

Agreed, although it seems obvious that to make such an account type work, any responsible adult would neutralize the "phone home" part and cut the online OS-level chatter to a level that can be justified to child services - and if that means zero that's no wind out of my sail, if you get my drift.

Of course, anyone who might actually make a proposal like that in a business meeting these days would probably recieve a slap with a baseball bat made of money, just to set him back on the Golden Path.

"If there are ways to make improvements, we will do so"

Gosh, how about starting by not breaking something that is already in place that people are (apparently) happy with ?

Only in the software business will you see a company completely uproot existing functionality and replace it with something totally different without giving either heads-up or time to adapt to its customers.

How much would it have cost to keep existing functionality and trumpet a "new, enhanced user mode specifically made for protecting children" ? How is it possible for Microsoft's PR department to NOT have thought of doing that ?

It seems Microsoft is intent on providing us with the Universal HandBook Of How To Annoy Your Customers. Keep at, Nadella, you're doing great.

Vision? Execution? Sadly, omission and confusion rule Gartner's virty quadrant

"what it takes to get on Gartner's Magic Quadrant"

I believe a certain amount of zeros on a cheque will do it.

Clueless do-gooders make Africa's conflict mineral mines even more dangerous

I propose . .

that the brilliant individual who's idea is so genius that he was showered with praise and recognition be offered a tour of Congo's mining areas to witness first hand what a great idea it was.

If he doesn't come back alive, it must mean that he became enamoured of the place and decided to stay, right ?

UK.gov issues internal 'ditch Oracle NOW' edict to end pricey addiction

"get rid of Oracle"

Sure, but replace it with what ?

I cannot imagine the sheer volume of data stored and managed in a government-level group of Oracle databases, even taking into account the fact that there is no oversight or global planning of any kind (good one there, way to ensure economies are impossible).

You don't just get rid of Oracle. You need to find a suitable substitute, redesign the applications, create a parallel environment, migrate the data onto said parallel platform, design a test suite to validate the transfer and test the new environment and validate it.

When all that is done, you can start migrating the users. You'll be doing that bit by bit, so as not to have everything blow up in your face with the inevitable unexpected complications that will arise.

Just planning this kind of thing will be a major project which will require external expertise.

Hmm, do I smell the presence of yet another pork barrel for yet another vast, government-wide IT failure ahem, project ?

Remember Impero, the school software biz that went ape over a vuln? Someone's got revenge

"he's a legit security researcher"

Albeit with a bit of a procedures issue, if I understood correctly.

A "legit security researcher" does not just publish his findings on a blog these days. Step one is to contact the company and open a discussion on the subject, at least asking the company to validate the findings.

Publish-and-be-damned is for when the company has repeatedly ignored the warnings, refused to acknowledge anything and denied all issues - that is when you go public and let the company fry, not before.

John McAfee cuffed by Tennessee cops, faces drug-driving, gun rap

Re: Isn't it past time

It is high time indeed.

Unfortunately, as long as the majority remain interested in stories about the lives of pseudo-celebrities, this kind of non-event will remain a breadwinner for so-called "journals".

Heck, it even catches El Reg, so what hope is there ?

Lights out for Ada Initiative – women's group closing shop

So, a hotbed of ideologists mixed with Wiki and Scientology

Good grief, no wonder Crystal left in a huff !

Epson: Cheap printers, expensive ink? Let's turn that upside down

Yes, laser is the solution

Used ink printers for years - Epson included. The result was invariable :

Buy printer

Use up included ink without trouble

Buy new ink cartridges (brand name only, no Chinese knock-offs ever)

Start needing to clean heads regularly

Start getting degraded print quality

Move on to head cleaning before each print while cursing profoundly

Chuck the whole thing out and buy another printer

Of course, some people would say that I didn't print enough. Sure, about a page a day on average and I agree that is not much, but why does it work find with the purchase-included cartridges then go to Hell with store-bought brand name ones ?

I solved the issue with a laser printer. Doesn't do color, but it bloody works. End of.

Wait, what? TrueCrypt 'decrypted' by FBI to nail doc-stealing sysadmin

Re: a blend of languages

Great idea !

My next password will be puTain DE Effing Sheiss de Mierda067.

36 powerful characters of entropy and immune to dictionary attacks.

I like it !

If you read anything today about ICANN taking over the internet, make sure it's this

And so the farce continues

The US government keeps talking to these clowns and treating them like they are responsible businesspeople when in fact they are conniving scum with the morals of slave traders.

If they behaved like that in court, they would be strung up for contempt in two seconds.

Why, oh why do these people keep getting away with such shenanigans ? Do they have some dirt on the President or something ?

Because it's high time someone sent in the riot squad. A good beating would likely help in bringing things to order.

Sales veep, staff log-off from cluster-cache upstart PernixData

In other words, the bubble has burst and the balloon is deflating.

Apparently, rapidly.

Google's Moto-v-Microsoft appeal denied

Re: Microsoft are simply just better at being evil

Microsoft is better at old-school evil.

Google is new-school evil, and its tentacles go way deeper than Microsoft could ever have dreamed.

W3C's bright idea turned your battery into a SNITCH for websites

Another Javascript thingy that wants to run without my knowledge ?

NoScript to the rescue then - again.

The guy who wrote that little tool really should be given a Nobel or something for Outstanding World Citizen.

Will flash save the data centre? Don't spread your wings yet, Vultan

Re: [..] will likely reach $/TB price parity with ...

It will, undoubtedly.

The question is when ?

And if the world's production capacity is but 12% of the world's needs, the answer is : not soon.

Hacktivists congratulate Daily Show's Jon Stewart via Donald Trump's website

Re: if his handlers sit on him long enough

Handlers ?

HANDLERS ??

NO ONE CAN HANDLE DONALD TRUMP !!

Most people can barely stand him.

That would be one point in favor of Trump then : nobody blows harder than him.

Sysadmin jailed for a decade after slurping US military docs

Re: DMCA ?

The military hardly needs to bring in copyright charges when they have the major charge of treason.

Nothing in the article says that Synology's encryption was insecure. It just states that the disk was encrypted.

Now, given the situation (post-Snowden the brass probably went ballistic), I'm pretty sure that disk was hustled to whatever NSA center they had available and decrypted in record time - National Security and all that - but that doesn't mean that the NSA didn't have to work at it a bit.

If you installed Windows 10 and like privacy, you checked the defaults, right? Oh dear

Re: A new and very long era of Windows abuse will begin

Don't think so.

The big problem that Microsoft has now is that its every misstep will be crucified in the media. Microsoft is not the powerhouse it used to be. Billions in the bank no longer guarantee user compliance.

Windows 95 was a turd, Windows XP was better, and XP SP3 was just about acceptable. In those days, the Internet reared its ugly head and when Vista rolled around, despite all the programmed hype that was Microsoft SOP, it was decried, pilloried and ridiculed and did not take off.

That is something that Microsoft had never before experienced ; rejection. Every single OS edition, every attempt, every tool had, previously, been kept or retired at the whim of Redmond HQ. For the first time in history, a Microsoft OS had been crucified BY THE USERS and Microsoft had been forced to accept its defeat.

I am convinced that historians will peg that as the point at which Microsoft has begun its march into irrelevance.

Meanwhile, Window 1 0 is attempting to save Redmond's bacon by adopting the Internet to an extent that is unheard-of in Redmond-land. Microsoft's marketing department is probably feeling a permanent high with all the potential (read, skewering user's wallets potential), but the Internet is here now, and Microsoft does not control it. Users will decide whether or not Win 1 0 is worth it, and Microsoft can bleat all it wants about Win 1 0 "features", if users don't accept them, 1 0 will fail.

And that will be a much more devastating failure in Microsoft's OS history, because its entire future is hinging on this moment.

I don't know which way this will go, but I'm not sure even Microsoft's legendary PR department will be able to save its bacon this time.

Re: I'm hoping some kind soul...

Well I'm hoping that sheeple people won't throw themselves upon the spear that is Windows 1 0 and will have enough sense to retain their intellectual faculties - and privacy - intact.

Yeah. And I also hope I'll win the lottery some day.

Obsolescence of food is complete: Soylent now comes in bottles

"soy protein, carbohydrates, and other nutrient-rich ingredients"

Nutrient-rich ingredients my ass. That slop doesn't fill a working man's stomach.

Give me a steak with potatoes any day. And if you don't know how to cook that, you deserve all the slop you get.

Cooking. It's what elevated us from the caveman. Let's not forget that important point of evolution, shall we ?

Global spy system ECHELON confirmed at last – by leaked Snowden files

Re: I'll accept limited snooping if it means I can sleep safe and bomb free

One of your own said it better than I ever will be able to :

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"

But hey, personal comfort is more important than freedom, eh ?

Don't worry, you're getting exactly what you deserve.

Chilling indeed

This is not about Soviet Russia, nor Nazi Germany.

This happened in a country priding itself in being a beacon of civilization, a bastion of good education. In the end, totalitarianism starts with well-intentioned people who are given too much leeway to decide what can be done about something.

It is frightening to think that the courage that these three people demonstrated would never had been known if the true nature of State Security went its logical course : a bullet in the head in some dark, bricked basement. All in the name of National Security, of course.

The watchers need to be watched a lot better.

Re: Meh.

Yes, there are people who give up their personal life to corporations, however there is an enormous difference : they do it by their own choice.

They use their freedom to conduct their lives as they see fit. Misguidedly, perhaps, but it is their freedom to do so.

Comparing that silliness, which is and always has been public knowledge, with the Stasi-like efforts of paranoid "security" organisations that slurp everything without consent and are one step away from blindfolding and shooting behind the shed anyone who has the courage to speak up is utterly ridiculous.

Nokia sells HERE maps to Audi, Daimler and BMW for €2.8 billion

Swarm intelligence ?

As much as I would really like being notified of traffic jams along my route, I cannot help but remember that there is only one thing that swarms - stinging insects.

I wonder how this will bite us down the road. We already know that OnStar uploads user driving habits whether the user agrees or not - how much more will this system slurp ?

It is supposed to be "open and independant", how does that translate into respecting privacy ?

Is it even possible to respect one's privacy when basically broadcasting one's position continuously ?

Mt Gox's Mark Karpeles arrested in Japan

In other words, he is hardly innocent

Nice read, that link. I always thought Karpeles was incompetent, now I know he is also prone to criminal behavior. Mixing one's personal money with customer money is a total no-no in any business.

Hell, even the Mafia doesn't do that.

Linus Torvalds warns he's in no mood to be polite as Linux 4.2 drags

He "might not react politely"

Isn't that his normal condition ?

New twist in telco giants' fight to destroy the FCC's net neutrality

Take their infrastructure ?

You mean dig up all the cables ?

Not going to happen. At most they'll scrap the routing equipment and burn the documentation - making it a nightmare for anyone trying to guess which patch goes where.

Digging up the cables means getting work permits to disrupt traffic and so on, paying workers the time taken to do it, and then what ? Selling the cable for scrap ?

Nah, it'll cost less to just abandon everything.

Windows 10: Buy cheap, buy twice, right? Buy FREE ... buy FOREVER

Re: Bloat? What bloat?

That happened AFTER they got a stranglehold on the market.

Bitdefender feeling a bit tender: Hackers enter anti-distemper vendor

"a single application was concerned – a component of the public cloud"

Great news. I hope this will focus companies on the fact that the Cloud is simply not to be trusted for anything that is critical to the business.

The Cloud is like gambling : play with what you can afford to lose.

Windows 10 marks the end of 'pay once, use forever' software

Re: another crap article saying arbitrary things and baseless assumptions

We'll see how baseless they are in 12 months.

I'm betting that Microsoft is not only going to go full-on pay-to-play with Windows 10 functionality, but it is also going to screw up the updating in a major way in less than 6 months. Facebook has demonstrated that people are willing to give in to micropayments for a stupid game, I'm convinced that Microsoft is going to take this idea to the next level.

Place your bets, people.

Meanwhile, I'll be using Win 7/64 until I retire. Then it'll be Steam OS and some flavor of Linux.

Don't want Windows 10 FILTH on the company network? Step this way

Don't think so

In a properly-run business, it is no business of a user to upgrade his PC.

Despite all the BYOD malarky, users are not the owners of their work PC and thus do not have the authority to install whatever they want, much less update them.

Of course, we're talking about companies that have the means to a professional IT department along with the procedures, applications and red tape that goes with it. In those environments, this whole article is a no-go because the network is locked down properly and Group Policies make tinkering all but impossible. SMBs are generally "every man for himself" anyways, but in that case you don't have an IT guy with the knowledge to keep users from buggering up their systems (and barely the time to correct the issues that do arise - if the technical competence is there).

Google to French data cops: Dot-com RTBF? Baiser ma DERRIERE

"[..] it is not the law globally"

What cheek.

So basically Google now thinks that it can do whatever it wants anywhere as long as it is not against "global law".

Care to explain that to the Chinese government ?

Oh, of course not. Try pulling that off in Beijing and you can say goodbye to your Chinese customers for a good, long while. So you only do it where you're confident that your customers will not be subject to such sanctions, smirking all the way.

Assholes.

Flash deserves to live, says Cisco security man

Whatever

Flash has had its day.

I'm happy to know that somebody thinks Adobe is doing a good job. Must be nice for the Adobe team.

The rest of us see that since 2010 there is constantly a truckload of instances where Flash is an active threat to security. If Flash was an employee, he'd be fired already, even if he helps old ladies cross the street.

Flash is on the way out, HTML5 it will be. For the good of everyone. So get with the program, Cisco.

Alien dwarf 'star' flashes her dazzling brown rear at stunned space boffins

Hang on,

We can actually spot auroras on spatial masses light-years away now ?

<speechless>

Will the PC glory days ever return, WD asks as its finances slip

Re: They probably now have their Linux and will move to *BSD

No they don't. The people who care about their data are the ones burning it on optical disks. The clueless are the ones putting it on an external spinning rust drive and find out the hard way that after a while, their drive (and data) is dead.

Linux ? Please.

And cloud services to store their data ? Are_ you _ mad, or just _ totally _ off _ your _ rocker ?

Chinese hackers behind OPM megabreach also pwned United Airlines

Wait a minute

"The Chinese government and the personnel in its institutions never engage in any form of cyberattack. We firmly oppose and combat any forms of cyberattacks"

How can you combat something as technical as cyberattacks if you never engage in it ?

Microsoft Edge web browser: A well-presented mea culpa

I'm sorry, are you expecting people to be intelligent and actually remember something from 15 years ago when they aren't capable of remembering all the lies from the previous political candidate's tenure not six months ago ?

Not gonna happen, m'lord.

UK.gov wants to stop teenagers looking at tits online. No, really

Re: am not supposed to be able to view things that appear in biology textbooks

Well there's your problem my good man ! Why are these reprehensible appendices appearing in biology textbooks ?

Think of the children ! Let us remove any and all references to them. For the good of the children, of course.

It worked so well for the Prohibition, right ?

This is TRUE science: Harvard boffins fire up sizzling BACON LASER

Impossible !

That would be The End Of The World As We Know It (TM).

Exploding 'laptop batt' IN SPAAACE! Speeding lithium spaffed by nova

So, how much lithium then ?

A billionth of the mass of our Sun is what ? Instead of "2,000 billion billion billion kilograms", we end up with 2,000 billion billion kilograms, or 2 billion billion tons, or 4.7619e+17 KiloJubs.

Any way you look at it, it's one heck of a lot of batteries.

Top German data cop slaps down Facebook's real name policy

Interesting

And, in hindsight, obvious.

Of course this is a copyright issue, should have thought of that. Everything finely tailored to maximize the company's revenue stream.

I hate Facebook with a passion, but you gotta admit, for a privacy-invading application, it is one fine package. And the cherry on the top is that it is the users who voluntarily part with their own privacy.

Superbly done.

A third of workers admit they'd leak sensitive biz data for peanuts

Some people really are idiots

Selling company data for 100 quid ? When you risk prison and a lifetime black mark on your CV that will prevent you from ever getting work anywhere again ?

Please people, be reasonable. You agree to risk your employable future for money, fine, that is your right. But risk for something worthwhile.

Something like €20 million. That should be enough to see you through the lengthy legal process and have something to retire with afterwords.

Because you won't work again anyway, right ?