Posts by Pascal Monett

Lose a satellite? Us? China silent on fate of Gaofen civilian/spy sat

"If it is indeed a failure, it's the first for a Long March lifter since December 2013"

Correction : it's the first we know of.

Obama says USA has world's biggest and best cyber arsenal

The US has the best digital weaponry, so everyone else should stop

Yeah, that sounds like a very good argument.

For a bully.

Unfortunately, digital is not nuclear, and even the poorest countries could conceivably fund a digital hacking department.

This announcement is no reason to stop.

Pokémon-loving VXer targets Linux with 'Umbreon' rootkit

"Umbreon is manually installed onto an affected device or server by the attacker."

Having just started getting acquainted with Mint, I was very interested in this report.

I stopped reading at that sentence.

Physical access, etc etc, we all know the drill.

ACCC mulls regulating roaming charges

"In other words: hands off our networks."

Never forget : No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

HSBC: How will we verify business banking customers? Selfies!

What did he say ?

"well-proven facial recognition technology which has been around for decades"

So, he's saying that people have been taking selfies with their phones for decades already ?

The only thing that has been well-proven with every single "biometric" technology is that they are not reliable and can generally be easily faked or worked around.

What has also been widely discussed is the fact that if your biometrics are compromised, there is no backup solution. Not to mention that fingers are easy to detach from hands.

This whole biometrics malarky is a disaster waiting to happen. Passwords may not be the best solution, but changing them is easy as pie.

Sophos Windows users face black screens after false positive snafu

Re: I don't think RedHat, Mint or Linux are AV Software are they?

Well, given that 99.999% of all virii target Windows, in a sense, they are.

Red-faced VESK scratches '100% uptime' claim after 2-day outage

Well it's not really a problem anyway, since they were going to abandon the 100% claim because merger. And the "small number".

So everyone can forget about it, right ?

Sysadmins: Poor capacity planning is not our fault

"get senior management to take the issues seriously"

That only happens when senior manglement is capable of looking beyond its own nose.

If you're stuck with the incompetent, IT-is-wizardry and just-make-it-happen types, it's not ammunition you need, it's a frakkin cluebat because with those types, there is no such thing as proof that they haven't done their job - it's always your fault.

And the cherry on the fail cake is that they have no compunction of looking at you at saying that you should have told them. After a number of emails and meetings which did exactly that.

At that point, it's ammo I need all right. The 9mm kind.

Brexit must not break the cloud, Japan tells UK and EU

What is that ?

"Japan also wants uniform intellectual property rights across the EU and UK and for Japanese businesses based in the UK to be able to employ Europeans. And vice-versa."

And would you like fries with that ?

No really, do you honestly think that the UK Brexit crowd is going to pay attention to your wishes for more than a second ? They don't know where the wind is blowing right now.

Besides, from everything I've read up to now, Brexit specifically DOES NOT want EU workers to move freely in or out. Not that they have the means to stop it, apparently.

Thanks for the heads-up. I now have a new site to follow ;)

HDMI hooks up with USB-C in cables that reverse, one way

Can we just use an Ethernet cable already ?

There is a high-speed standard that works wonderfully well and has done so for years. It can handle up to Gbps speeds, which should be largely enough for TV resolutions for quite a while longer. It is already ubiquitous and cheap.

So can we do away with all this stupid connector issues and just plonk in Ethernet already ?

Oh, right, it doesn't do DRM. Damn.

Microsoft thought of the children and decided to ban some browsers

Edge is at 3.91 %

But I thought Windows 1 0 had finally reached 25% market share ?

Shouldn't that mean Edge should be at 25% market share as well ? Or am I supposed to believe that 90% of Windows 1 0 users are tripping over themselves to install Chrome/Firefox/whatever and NOT use the vaunted Microsoft solution ?

Pixellation popped: AI can ID you, even after PhotoShop phuzzing

In short

Instead of pixellating, just replace face by a swath of any uniform color.

No way anyone will recognize anything then.

Appliance-maker Liebherr chillin' with Microsoft, prototyping another Internet fridge

Re: 3. People think Cortana/Siri is cool

I've said this before, but I can't help repeating myself :

Not long ago, wife and I were at a friends' house for dinner. Good time all around, but one point really woke me up on this Cortana/Siri business.

At one point in the conversation, my friend said the word "Sarah", because we were talking about someone called Sarah. At that point, his phone next to him (because he is part of those people who can't live without their phone within arm's reach) piped up, asking if Sarah needed to be called.

We all had a good laugh about that, but it started me thinking. What if you're in a heated argument with your jealous (with reason) other, and you start swearing to high Heaven that you're not in relation with "Sarah" anymore, then your phone pipes up "Do you wish to call Sarah ?" ?

Go ahead and explain that it's not the same one. See how well that works.

I think this whole connected malarky is going to bite more than one arse before people chill about how "cool" those pseudo AI-bots are.

Re: All right then

Effin' A on that. And I'd really like to know how the fridge is going to know when I'm in the shop. I'm betting there's an app for that, app that will be hacked six ways to hell before Sunday.

Trust fridge makers to keep my life private ? No way.

Beautiful, efficient, data-sucking Smart Cities: Why do you give us the creeps?

Smartphones, Smart TVs, now Smart Cities

Every time the word "smart" has been associated to something, in the end it's all about sending as much personal info about you to whoever owns the design of the object. Smartphone apps often try to control everything about the phone to send to the app developer, smart TVs send your viewing data back to the TV maker, and now smart cities want to know where you are all the time.

I don't care what "better" ads you have in store for me. Stop spying on my life !

Dwarf planet Ceres has a watery secret: An 11 mile wide ice volcano

Incredible amounts of water out there

So Europa is an icy ball, now Ceres has a cryovolcano. There are astounding amounts of water out there.

Makes for good chances of finding habitable planets when we finally take to the stars, I think.

When Irish eyes are filing: Ireland to appeal Europe's $15bn Apple tax claw-back

"Ireland did not give favorable tax treatment to Apple"

So Ireland gave normal treatment to Apple.

Which means every single other company in Ireland should now pay .005% tax.

I think the fallout on this is not going to be pretty. Looking forward to the report on the next parliament session.

ABBA-solutely crapulous! Swedish router-maker won't patch gaping hole

Well that's fine for the providers, then, but what of the models that can apparently end up in a home ?

The article states specifically that some vulnerable models can end up there.

Latest Intel, AMD chips will only run Windows 10 ... and Linux, BSD, OS X

@ Jonathan 27

What makes you think that I haven't already bought a SkyLake CPU ?

Because I have. With 32GB RAM and 5TB of hard disk space.

I've had it for a year now. I'm very happy with it, and looking forward to seeing what Mint will make of it.

Don't forget the DRM

Let it not be forgotten that Intel has lovingly baked DRM into said 7th gen chips - for the ease of use and reliability that all users crave, right ?

Not compatible with Win 7 ? Not a problem here - I'm in the process of transitioning to Linux anyway.

And without DRM if at all possible.

Brave idea: Ex Mozilla man punts Bitcoin adblocking browser

@RIBrsiq : VISA doesn't mean credit card details

I don't know if you are aware, but there is this thing about security going on. Mainly, it means that, nowadays, banks can give you a one-time transaction code, so when you buy something online, you're not actually giving out your credit card details.

I know this is very difficult to comprehend for a US citizen, but elsewhere in the world, there actually are banks that are devoting resources to ensure proper transaction security.

Call me when the US has caught up with current technology.

Why Bitcoin ?

Just give me an option to chuck a few dollars to sites I like. I don't mind using my VISA, and I certainly prefer they know that I have given them the dough.

That way, when I log in, they can say "oh, here's our sponsor coming to see us, get rid of those ads on his page".

If I pay money I generally see no benefit in being anonymous to those who get it.

Adobe ices ColdFusion server admin password, file hack hole

Confusing version numbers - as usual

Well, Coldfusion has apparently gone from Version 11 to Version 2016.

That is an immense help when trying to determine version history. When will vendors decide upon a version numbering scheme and bloody stick to it ?

Is that a Marketing idea ? Shoot them, please.

Lindsay Lohan's Grand Theft Auto V cartoon case kicked out of court

"a woman holding a mobile who, it was argued, looked remarkably like Lohan"

Sorry, I see no resemblance between that mobile and Lohan. It looks like a mobile to me.

Behold this golden era of storage startups. It's coming to an end

"We're moving from revolutionary storage technology advances to incremental improvements"

And that means the technology is maturing. That's supposed to be a Good Thing (TM). It means that standards are easier to put in place, which in turn allows for more ubiquitous usage of said tech.

Let's put it this way : when gravity modulators can be had for a dime a dozen, it will be sad for all those rockets we won't need anymore, but we'll be regretting them in space.

Paint your wagon (with electric circuits) but leave my crotch alone

Heat does have a way with electronics, doesn't it ?

It's a bit ironic. Progress has transformed our PCs from towering, heat-belching monsters to cool, near-silent and immensely more powerful tools, only to give us handheld scorchers that sometimes even catch fire.

I really do hope that we'll get room-temperature superconductors some day. It will be a blessing in more ways than one.

Ditch tape and fly into the public cloud with us, beams bullish Actifio

Re: Daft idea

Can only agree. Trusting one's backups to a startup would be the worst possible business continuity choice one can make.

Then again, it's probably only slightly worse than the backup choices most companies seem to make these days. It might even actually work - until they fold, that is. Or until something screws up and they lose data.

After all, all clouds have lost data up to today. Some only a bit, some have lost everything. Do you really want to roll those dice ?

How much does your kid hate exams? This lad hacked his government to skip them

All that work just to postpone an exam

And a passing smirk about security to justify the act.

Here's another idea : study more, so the exam won't be an issue and you can have fun on your New Year.

Wasn't smart enough to think of that, eh ?

Surge pricing? How about surge fines: Pennsylvania orders Uber to cough up $11.4m

Re: "This fine is ridiculous"

So you think that a company that refuses to comply to the law, obstructs investigation and just goes ahead and does whatever it wants is justified if it makes you feel better ?

Do you, by any chance, work at Exxon ?

Want a Windows 10 update? Don't go to Microsoft ... please

So let's see

Since Windows 1 0, Microsoft has added to the malware attack vector list with QR codes in BSODs, stuffed up their own update system, stuffed thousands upon thousands of users' PCs with flaky updates, and now this.

Congratulations, SatNad, you're really pulling all the stops out to keep the hackers happy !

Win 1 0 : nowhere on my PCs ever.

FBI Director wants 'adult conversation' about backdooring encryption

@Adam 52

"multiple keys, one held by each of the branches of government"

My dear sir, do you realize just how daft such a proposition is from a security point of view ? Do you really think that one key per branch of government is not going to leak from at least one of them, by stupidity, oversight, forgetfulness or any combination thereof, in less time than a hacker needs to code a Hello World hack ?

Nest developers become Oompa-Loompas in Google shake-up

"creating a unified Internet of Things platform"

Here's to hoping that Google will bake security into the platform by design and not by afterthought.

How that will be possible while keeping their ad data flowing, I have no idea.

IBM swings axe through staff, humming contently about cloud and AI

The American Dream

Looks like it's a dream, all right. Go to the US, work your ass off for a dozen years or more, and get chopped like so much dead wood.

Thank goodness there are all those unions to keep employers in check . . oh wait, silly me, unions have been emasculated under Regan. Nothing is defending the worker any more. It's just capitalism all the way down.

Is IBM becoming the next HP ?

Lawyers! win! millions! in! bonkers! Yahoo! email! snooping! case!

Seems like Erin Brockovitch inspired a few careers.

Blink and you missed it: Asteroid came within 90,000 km, only one sky-watcher saw it

Or the change imposed by a close fly-by of Earth could send it careening too close to the Sun and get it ejected from the solar system entirely.

Don't know, not an astronomer, but theoretically it should be possible.

The much more likely outcome is that it will just smack into our home planet someday. Maybe over the ocean, so as not to harm anyone, but within sight of some camera or satellite, so we can get high-resolution footing out of the explosion. That might focus some minds on the issue before it is too late.

More banks plundered through SWIFT attacks

So SWIFT is not the issue

And we're supposed to believe that all banks have low-security, 3rd-party routers with default passwords connected directly to the Internet that are responsible for all this.

Well grab the popcorn because if some brilliant hackers have finally found a way to milk the millions in serial attacks, then saying "it ain't us" won't do for long.

Security is a journey, and part of that journey is going to be SWIFT upping its game to not accept transfers from insufficiently-secured banks. Have encrypted keys that are regularly changed and so on and so forth. Do something.

Because right now money leak this is starting to look like the Las Vegas Lottery counter - always climbing.

Making us pay tax will DESTROY EUROPE, roars Apple's Tim Cook

So, paying tax will destroy Europe

What it will destroy is your mile-high revenue generated by the difference between slave wages and the obscene prices you sell your stuff at.

Right now, the little people - you know, those serfs you expect to walk upon - could do with a little less bad news and a bit more local funding for stuff that actually needs to get done. You whine about destroying Europe, but you never hear "no" from your banker, now do you ?

What is destroying the economy of this world is the unjust pooling of money in the hands of the few who already have way more than enough, and their subsequent influence on law and political policy that ensures the status quo is not changed.

Pay your taxes - they fund roads, hospitals and schools and I doubt very much that that will destroy Europe.

Height of stupidity: Heathrow airliner buzzed by drone at 7,000ft

Interesting to know, but I'm pretty sure that a collision at 200 knots will be only slightly less horrific than one at 300 knots.

Missing Milky Way mass blown away by bingeing supermassive black hole

"a million-degree gaseous fog permeating our galaxy"

If that is the case, isn't that "fog" also made of baryonic matter ?

If not, it would mean that dark matter is undetectable but can act on electromagnetic emissions.

Between quantum stuff and this, science is seriously starting to err into dark magic territory.

Side note : a million degrees ? Yikes.

71,000 Minecraft World Map accounts leaked online after 'hack'

DHCQ recommends "stop punishing users with regular password resets"

Coming from them, I immediately think that the sentence should continue with "so that we have more time to crack them".

So we're debating password creation methods ?

Well I have a root string, a website-dependant string and I tack on the year I created the account.

So, if we say that my root is "golf" (duh, it isn't), then my password for El Reg could be golfEL2016 if I had created my account this year.

I have a password manager as well, I use it for sites which I prefer having extended security on. Sites like these, with only forum activity, are not sites which I feel need to have a 32-bit salted cipher.

Intel's makeshift Kaby Lake Cores hope to lure punters from tired PCs

"Intel gave the entertainment giants what they wanted"

And I will not buy that chip on that basis. I am certain they will muck it up, it will be hijacked by hackers, used as a malware insertion point, prevent me from viewing my legitimate content locally, and so on and so forth.

DRM is not only evil, it is inherently stupid because it never considers all the use cases and defaults to "NO" if there is a doubt - meaning people can be cheated from their own content.

My house is my castle. What I do in it is nobody's business but mine, and I will not condone surveillance imposed by anyone, especially not Hollywood & Co.

This DRM malarky never ceases to annoy me to no end. I buy my films, and I have to put up with imposed trailers (that are laughable five years later) and those bloody FBI warnings I shouldn't even see since I BOUGHT THE DAMN DISK.

So I buy my content, thank you very much, and then I rip the hell out of it, put it on my NAS and watch it the way I want to see it.

They can stuff their DRM where the sun don't shine.

Li-Fi with my little eye … a vulnerability

Is this really an issue ?

"how many sysadmins have found rogue Wi-Fi access points in the businesses they work for?"

Not comparable issues in my mind. Bringing in a Wi-Fi thingy and hooking it in to the network is easy enough - they're cheap, rather easy to set up and also easy to keep inconspicuous. If the network admin is not whitelisting connected equipment, then anything goes anyway.

Climbing up to the ceiling to replace a light is not inconspicuous, and the hardware is less easy to get (won't stop a determined attacker, though). Obviously, once in place it'll be a devil to notice, but it still falls under whitelist control (if that is in place).

With a minimum of attention, network access shouldn't be possible, which would reduce the attack to DoS-levels - still a nuisance, but not really a security issue.

Facebook replaces human editors with McChicken romping, Fox News faking AI bots

I avoid it like the plague, but in all honesty it is rather useful in keeping all that stupidity in its own little pen.

There was a time when it would be my mailbox getting spammed with chain letters, so-called inspiring nonsense, bullshit warnings, stupid permutations on urban myths and all that moronic shite, and I would have to wade through it all and delete, delete, delete. Now it's all on Facebook, which I can just never go to.

So thanks for that, I guess.

VMware goes back to its future with multi-cloud abstractions

Cross-Cloud Architecture

Yeah, because I believe without reserve that AWS is going to play nice with Azure.

I do think it needs to happen.

I don't believe that VMware is going to make it happen.

But hey, kudos for trying.

Big data busts crypto: 'Sweet32' captures collisions in old ciphers

By my calculator that gives 1,123,835.93.

Still not comprehensible.

Chinese CA hands guy base certificates for GitHub, Florida uni

"the company would 'do better'"

Of course they will.

They can't do any worse.

Apple is making life terrible in its factories – labor rights warriors

Re: "stop desperate workes from getting in"

And that is what needs to change before Apple (or anyone else) can stop cutting prices even more.

China is on its way to wealth similar to ours. They are fast-tracking everything we did before : pollution, work conditions, the works. Check out a film about our Industrial Revolution if you wish to learn more - in those days workers who got their hands crushed, mangled or cut off by unsafe machinery were just fired, no compensation.

We did those things. Now Chinese workers are experiencing the same. They will rise against it as well. Then it will be India's turn, then whatever else comes next.

Ultimately, as in everything international, it is up to the local population to decide if they accept a given set of conditions or not. We can tell them about what we think they should do, but only they can decide to actually go about doing it.

I'm all for Chinese workers to tell Apple & Co to stuff it and lock prices, but I know that then, Apple & Co will just take their business elsewhere (yay Capitalism!), so the workers will end up out of a job instead of having kept the little they had.

What I really wish to know is how exactly is Apple going about getting its cost cuts. Is it calling them up and saying "How much further can you diminish costs next quarter ?", or is it - more likely I guess - "Cut costs by 5% next quarter or we move to India" ?

It's the latter I would find disgusting - but not surprising.

Well, in his defense, he is using the Spawn of Satan icon.

It might be sarcasm.