Posts by Pascal Monett

Facebook: Hey guys, come share all your securo-blunders with us!

"We are committed to protecting people's privacy"

Funny, I always have a gag reflex whenever the notion of Privacy gets anywhere near Facebook.

Now Samsung's spying smart TVs insert ADS in YOUR OWN movies

"We are aware of a situation that has caused some Smart TV users"

... have noticed that we are monitoring them. This will stop forthwith to revert to the stealth readings we were doing before until the market accepts less covert surveillance and we can carpet-bomb them with ads for 30 minutes followed by 10 minutes of whatever crap they thought they wanted to watch.

World's mega-rich tax dodge exposed: Meet the HSBC IT bloke at the heart of damning leak

"Although there are numerous legitimate reasons to have a Swiss bank account"

Bullshit.

There is only one legitimate reason to have a Swiss bank account : you are Swiss.

If you're not, you're evading taxes. Period.

Official: Single people need to LOWER their EXPECTATIONS

Re: in evolutionary terms we've only gone from grunting to Bach or Feynman in the blink of an eye

From what I witness around me in my daily life, I'm more and more convinced that we're still very much grunting.

UK air traffic mega cockup: BOTH server channels failed - report

Re: temperamental?

One failure in 30 years of operation is hardly temperamental.

"a human being should have realized"

That, right there, is why mistakes keep happening.

Don't count on antivirus software alone to keep your data safe

"These are solid, reliable tools"

Yeah, especially when they utterly fail to stop a new version of a virus, or when they mistake a Windows system file for a virus, quarantine it and crash the system, or when they grab 99% of CPU for minutes on end and keep you from doing your job without rhyme or reason.

The only thing that is reliable with AV software is the fact that your PC now belongs to it, not to you.

Unfortunately, as imperfect and annoying as they are, we do indeed need them. Therefor the only thing we can do is find the anti-virus that will be as efficient as possible while bothering us the least.

A real treasure hunt, and the treasure is our security.

An example ?

I Googled "drive-by infection" and the first two results were this and this.

In the second article, it is clearly stated that "Just surfing to an affected website is enough to infect a computer".

I do believe that that sentence is in direct contradiction to your belief that "on its own, with no clicking or acknowledgement, a website cannot infect a PC".

And would you care to clarify how, on the one hand, you talk about Javascript in most of your post, yet you say "a website cannot infect a PC that prompts for any activeX to run" ? Where does ActiveX come into the discussion, and how exactly do you believe that ActiveX is, in any way, secure after all the holes that have been found in it ?

Microsoft explains Windows as a SERVICE – but one version remains a distant dream

"systems powering hospital emergency rooms, air traffic control towers, financial trading systems"

Dear God, Microsoft is in Air Traffic Control towers ?

God help us all.

Don't see what the hoopla is about New Features

Businesses don't need new features, they need a stable, reliable environment.

When they do need a new feature, they'll go and buy an app that does what they need.

The last thing they need is for the OS vendor to go and change their working environment under the guise of installing something they didn't ask for.

Dissidents and dealers rejoice! Droid app hides your stash in plain sight

Secret data would be encrypted

And that helps how given that UK plods can force you to give the password else send you to Guantanamo ?

SWINGBELLIES! Take heed! Drinking WINE is good for your LIVER

Sure, at least not until the hangover.

Then . . . OUCH.

Jupiter Ascending – a literally laughable train wreck of a film

Serenity is my all-time favorite movie, and Firefly is the best series ever made bar none.

Just sayin'

Hey biz – cut fraud with digital ID verification. Yes, like Verify – Maude

Because Not Invented Here and therefor no trough to dip one's friends' snout in.

Forget robo-butlers – ROBO-MAIDS! New hotel staffed by slave-droids

"access their rooms using a facial recognition system"

Interesting. I thought facial recog systems were not very accurate. If this actually works, it will prove that FRSs can indeed be useful.

On the other hand, if it doesn't, good luck explaining to a robot that you can't get into your room. I hope they have some actual Human staff for handling errors, or at least rolling up the bodies in carpets.

hive mind informs climate change believers and sceptics

Or maybe he has tried, time and again, to have a discussion with posters of a different opinion only to regularly find his points ignored, his mother insulted and his masculinity put in question.

Whatever "side" you may be on on the question of AGW-now-rechristined-Climate-Change, you have to admit that no forum discussion is possible outside of people who agree with you. The entire subject is void of any more reasoning, it's just shouting louder than the other guy.

A pitiful state for such an important question. Thankfully, it does not keep scientists from doing their job and continuing to gather data and analyze it.

Ransomware 2.0 'crypts website databases – until victims pay up

So they got in with a compromised FTP password

And then they pwned the place so bad it's not even funny any more. This seems to me to be a good step above skiddie level. This is serious criminal activity done by knowledgeable perps, and they're going to mint millions with it.

Big Corp might not get caught, but Mom & Pop operations are going to be sunk by this.

On the other hand : calling Sony ! Sony ? If you think you lost some money last time, when these guys show up on your doorstep, you're going to find out the true meaning of LOSSES.

DARPA: We KNOW WHO YOU ARE... by the WAY you MOVE your MOUSE

How a user handles the mouse could be distinctive and difficult to mimic

Probably, but I have the feeling analysis can only be reliable when the user is already logged on. Using it for the ultra-short time required to validate credentials which constrain the possibilities because set actions are required will likely not produce a valid recognition. Kinda voids the premise, in that case.

Sony hurls Online Entertainment from the mothership

"They have a proven track record in similar and related industries..."

Do they ? Funny I've never, ever heard of them then.

When I read that sentence I was thinking "they have a rap sheet a mile long...". If they've only been heard of by investors, it doesn't feel like a good thing.

Oh, and what industry is "similar and/or related to" the gaming industry ?

PEAK WINDOWS 7 may well be behind us

If they have it blocked now, it's likely that they had it blocked years ago as well.

Therefor, the figures are still valid for trend analysis purposes.

What do China, FBI and UK have in common? All three want backdoors in Western technology

Re: So what if...

Move manufacturing out of China ? And lose those beautiful, wonderful margins to ensure proper security for their customers ?

Screw the customers, that's what will happen.

Wham, bam... premium rate scam: Grindr users hit with fun-killing charges

Gotta love the excuse

"We do have safeguards but we serve billions of ads so something might slip through"

Translation :

"We can't be arsed to really ensure our users' security, so we just half-assed it and when it breaks, oopsie"

Computers do what they are told. If they are given the proper procedure to lock down incoming data, that procedure will be applied on ALL incoming data. Computers don't just skip something every now and then - not when they are properly programmed.

What Grindr is actually saying is that they cannot properly lock down ad security because they would be limiting the number of ads they can serve. Which, in turn, means that those ads are doing fishy things in great numbers, but Grindr prefers the revenue (duh).

Once again, consumers are left hanging in the wind in the eternal battle between money and security. And money wins every time.

Ugly, incomplete, buggy: Windows 10 faces a sprint to the finish

Re: all you have to do is type a couple letters and hit enter

And all a skiddie has to do is put some exe on your PC that starts with the same couple letters and you'll be launching it without even realizing.

All I have to do is launch the shortcut. Given that I have eyes and know how to use them, and given that I also know how to use Windows since 1995, it is not a problem for me. All the apps I need to launch have their shortcuts either on my desktop or in the taskbar. It's called organization, you might want to look that up.

Go on searching if that makes you feel superior, but leave me my shortcuts.

Re: If you aren't using search [..] you're doing it wrong

Well bugger me.

Here I was still thinking that computers were supposed to simplify my life and that a shortcut was a pretty handy way of doing things.

Thank you for enlightening me. I will forthwith scramble all my possessions in all my drawers and cupboards, put my DVDs in the garage and my tools in the bathroom and spend the rest of my life wasting hours finding back whatever it is I might need to something I might want to do.

NOT.

Re: looking for apps

I am willing to accept that people look for files, but looking for apps ?

Is this a case of not knowing what you have installed on your PC, or has Microsoft screwed the GUI up so badly that finding an application shortcut is now a case of Search or Die ?

Really, everything I read about Windows 10 makes me not want to lose Windows 7.

Facebook kills pic of Mohammed weeks after Zuck's Je suis Charlie!

You need to go and learn what Free Speech means. Libel has never been included in Free Speech.

Free Speech does not mean that you are free to say any inane thing you want, it means that you are free to state your opinion on subjects of importance, be it religion, state or law, without fear of retribution.

It means that you have the right to stand up in the middle of your Mayor's speech about some transformation of your town and say that you don't agree with it, and why.

It means that you have the right to choose who you wish to vote for without somebody beating you up for it. And if somebody does, you have the right to obtain justice through the Courts.

Free Speech is the foundation of a democratic society - one I suppose you are living in. So please educate yourself about the foundations of the country in which you live, because it's all the morons spouting nonsense about everything that are bringing civilization into the gutter.

Powering the Internet of Stuff – by sucking electricity from TREES

Well yeah, but to be honest power lines leak anyway, so it's not so much stealing as taking advantage of the spillage.

There's life after Oracle, but very little left in Oracle's reseller channel

Seems Ellison is forgetting a few basic rules about earning money

The first rule being : it's the small streams that make the great rivers.

Wanting to be on-site with the big accounts is all good and nice, but that does not mean that strangling everything else is a good move.

I understand, of course, that Oracle does not want to deal with small fry, but the Channel was there for that, except that now the Channel is running on fumes and will likely soon disappear.

Having your product in the big accounts is all nice and ego-building, but if you're only present there, you are at the mercy of a product change. Yes, big accounts have the Big Money that pays for fat contracts, but they also have the money to change their environment - and they will do so if they think it is cost-effective.

Oracle is, I think, painting itself into a corner. A comfy one for now, but a corner nonetheless.

A Bombe Called Christopher, or A Very Poor Imitation

Re: Entertainment or documentary?

It is not a requirement, obviously.

However, when the marketing makes a point of making you think that they did something that is meant to show a historical figure's life, the least they could do is actually respect what happened in his life.

Otherwise, they should call it differently, change the names of the characters and the name of the location. THEN they can do what they want, and slap on a "based on the life of . . " in the credits like they usually do.

If Ray was appreciated at the level it was, it is because they didn't go entertainment with it, they respected him and his life.

In this case, they obviously didn't, and I won't be seeing it because of that.

Re: "gaze on the lovely Ms Knightley"

That depends. Has she started eating again ? Or is she still a stick figure ?

I prefer my women with a bit of meat on their bones.

If you treat the plot as fiction you might as well watch True Lies.

At least there's some explosions in that one.

Game over? Sony FINALLY offers compensation to MEELLIONS of PSN hack victims

Don't worry, the lawyers will have gotten plenty.

Microsoft: We bought Skype. We make mobiles.. Oh, HANG ON!

Re: How many times can they get it wrong?

Um, Skype was being peddled to the masses long before MS got its grubby fat mitts on it.

Anything that is wrong in Skype today was already wrong five years ago, so lets not blame MS for absolutely everything, shall we ?

China 'upgrades' Great Firewall. Oh SNAP! There goes VPN access

You should move to Somalia right away. I'm sure you'll be happy with all the freedom they have over there. Last I heard, there are no laws at all.

Planning to upgrade your Lumia to Windows 10? NOT SO FAST

Well, one must admit that Microsoft is very used to displeasing people.

ATTACK of the FLYING MOUNTAIN: 2004 BL86 goes by like a BULLET

If we're cherry-picking destinations I wouldn't mind "quantitative easing" of Washington D.C.

Um, am I flagged by the NSA now ?

YOU. Your women are mine. Give them to me. I want to sell them

This is a problem of procedure

The fact that ContentID "can be a bit wonky" is not the problem.

The fact that ContentID's results are accepted by all companies involved without human verification is.

The proper procedure should be :

- claimant finds possible infringement with software tool

- claimant checks the possible and draws up a list of infractions

- YouTube receives claim and verifies its veracity and well-foundedness

- YouTube now has authority to block the video and notify poster

The actual procedure, of course, appears to have done away with both middle steps. Once again, humains have replaced their brains with blinking lights.

2015: The year of MAD TV science, but who can keep up?

Re: "we need to buy a new set every three years or they go out of business"

Well they're going to go out of business, because I'm not working to keep them in business.

I watched all this HD hoopla with disinterest because I have a very good TV set that works fine and I don't care that it may be getting old, it works.

Then the 3D craze came and I got fed up with it all.

Now they're talking 4K ? Tell you what, when I need a new TV, I'll choose something. Meantime, just leave me out of it.

SECRETS of the LOST SCROLLS unlocked by key to HEALTHY BOOBS

Um, those scrolls were instantly carbonized in the burning cloud from Hell vomited by the Vesuvius.

A rise of one or two degrees average on a global temperature that remains well below 100°C is not going to change much for them now.

FIVE Things (NOT 10: these are REAL) from the WINDOWS 10 event

I agree with everything you said

Shall we start a Curmudgeon's Club ?

Free Windows 10 could mean the END for Microsoft and the PC biz

@ Pen-y-gors

Sorry, but the quote specifically concerns the lifetime of "the device".

An OS is not a device. He's talking about hardware.

Your mention of EOL of Windows versions is clearly off the mark.

Microsoft will give away Windows 10 FREE - for ONE year

"Developers are always thinking of the next million sales"

Really ? Wow, I must really be missing out.

I'm not thinking about the next thousand, I'm thinking about the first thousand.

Give ALL the EU access to Netflix, says Vince Cable

Re: we shouldn't stand for it

We're not standing for it.

We're all slouched on the sofa in front of the telly.

Re: "either BBC programmes would be worse or the licence fee would go up"

Lets not kid ourselves, eh ?

The license fees would go up and the programmes would get worse.

Increased gov spy powers are NOT the way to stay safe against terrorism

Re: an act of God

God created Man in His image, with free will and intelligence.

So stop expecting God to clean up the mess we made ourselves. It's our business, not His.

David Cameron: I'm off to the US to get my bro Barack to ban crypto – report

Political parties have been pissing various people off for decades, or even millenia if we go back to the Greeks.

That has never made them unelectable, unfortunately.

Sony hack was good news for INSURERS and INVESTORS

Right, but that's what they call "intellectual" these days.

Which is why Firefly got cancelled. It was too smart for almost everyone.

NSA: SO SORRY we backed that borked crypto even after you spotted the backdoor

"A fair reading of our track record"

A fair reading of your rack record clearly indicates that you have no regard either for the Constitution of your own country or for any sense or moral at all. You are just the visible tip of the iceberg of paranoia and ends-justify-the-means attitude that has forgotten what made the USA a great country and has brought it to a state one step above African dictatorships.

In truth, I totally agree with you.

Stop viewing Facebook at work says Facebook at work on Facebook at Work

Re: "Away 153 days"

Yup, sounds like what my status will be on Facebook At Work.

Don't care who says so, I'll never use it. And I'd like to take advantage of the opportunity to state that my professional life is NOT like my personal life and I do not want to mix the two.

If I want to be social with people I see 50 hours per week, I don't need a fucking ad server Big Brother Zuckerstein product to help me.