Posts by Pascal Monett

Terror, terror everywhere: Call the filter police, there's a madman (or two) in town

Filtering and removing

In other words, the Public is not able to handle the issue and must be protected from it.

Doing so is not going to help the situation, it will only keep it under wraps. That is how you get rabid conspiracy theorists.

Let them splash their hate on their websites. Educate your people properly and teach them the values of civilization and democracy. Maybe even teach them to think critically (ah, I know, anathema for a proper gubbermint official).

That is the only way people will recognize barbary when it is visible.

But yeah, that's probably the long run. Maybe even for after the next election. So it'll never happen.

How swearing at your coworker via WhatsApp could cost you $68,000

Deportation for using profanity ?

Well fuck.

Re: Ye Gads...

Plaster trolls never use profanity.

Your one-minute guide to IBM's financial future – or just imagine a skier tumbling down a slope

Of course he doesn't know. For any true, red-blooded American the entire world uses the dollar and speaks American, or English in some of those really wierd places.

Our intuitive AI outperforms (most) puny humans, claims MIT

"what they've done is going to become the standard quickly"

As soon as it can be monetized, that is.

And if Big Data is anything to go by, it will be by this time next year.

Accidental homicide: how VoLTE kills old style call accounting

Interesting article

So voice calls are (badly) handled with an outdated model for accounting purposes.

In Luxembourg (where I work), I have a company phone with a 15GB data plan. Any call to any Luxembourg number is free. I have the option of declaring a favorite country (fyi : in Luxembourg, border workers are ten times the amount of national workers). Obviously, living in France, I declared that as my favorite country. Calls made to French numbers are thus free as well. I do pay a small amount for international SMS.

Basically, the only thing I see making money for my telco is the monthly allowance (and, at €40, it's not so much compared to what I've seen elsewhere), and the international calls I have to make from time to time (other than France). Oh, and premium numbers, obviously.

Seems it is possible for a telco to make a living without scrounging every last cent from its customers after all.

Sites cling to a million flawed, fading SHA-1 certificates: Netcraft

"a band of tech companies"

The following motion has been proposed by Rick Andrews of Symantec and

endorsed by Bruce Morton of Entrust, Jody Cloutier of Microsoft, and Kirk

Hall of Trend Micro.

Symantec, Microsot and Trend Micro. I expected Microsoft to be in the list, and am not very surprised by Symantec. As for Trend Micro, well they have to get their name in the limelight somehow, I guess.

All in all, the usual suspects in favor of status quo, even if it means less security for the consumer.

Zombie iOS APIs used to slurp private data

Well done, Apple

One API the Youmi developers couldn't get past is Apple's block on reading a device's serial number, so to create a unique identifier for the data they were gathering, the SDK slurped numbers from peripherals like the battery system and used those as the index.

So, you lock down reading the phone's serial number, but you solder in batteries with a unique ID and leave that available.

Brilliant reasoning there. Way to apply the logic all the way to the end. And what a wonderful example of actually checking the stuff you say you check. This absolutely cannot be proof that you use your rules arbitrarily to shut down apps that bother you rather than checking all apps thoroughly and binning all that do not adhere to the rules.

Nope. No lax security here. Oh wait . .

I wouldn't know

I never listen to advertisers anyway.

Microsoft flicks switch for three Azure bit barns in India

"there's a few nanoseconds to be saved on the sub-continent"

Maybe, but it is also within reach of a US judge and the NSA via National Security Letter.

But hey, don't take that to mean that Indians (and everone else) won't be using the facilities. The public doesn't know the first thing about security, and companies haven't been bitten hard enough yet to care.

CIA boss uses AOL email – and I hacked it, claims stoner teen

Maybe, just maybe, some day (like next millenium) people who are responsible will be the only ones nominated to positions of responsbility.

Nah. That would ruin the buddy network.

Some like it hot ... very hot: How to use heat to your advantage in your data center

Sounds like another brilliant example of cooperation between government and private industry then.

I've watched too much Yes Minister, I think.

US senators lean on ICANN, tell it to quit squirming and open up

Nice letter, very well written, will have no impact

Contrary to the title of this article, I read the PDF expecting to find thinly-veiled threats of fire and brimstone.

Instead, I found a very civil letter outlining the beliefs of the senators and the expectation that ICANN will adhere to them.

That's all very nice, but when you write such a letter to the chair of an organisation that can be officially told to accept community governance and reply that it would be a bad idea because he thinks so, then I doubt anything in this letter will have a snowflake's chance in Hell to do any better.

I think that a right flogging in the middle of Times Square is the only thing that could concievably bring some sense to the entire ICANN board.

'Blood on the carpet' ahead for outsourcers, says analyst research

Re: they start wondering if it was all Such a Good Idea

And they will keep on wondering until the situation gets bad enough that they have to lower their bonuses.

At that point, Something Must Be Done, and that will be the point where this outsourcing malarky will finally fall through the floor.

With a bit of luck, someone might point out to them that The Cloud is on a similar track, albeit for different reasons (mainly security), and let them take their time for the light to turn on.

Boffins' twisted enlightenment embiggens fibre

A power loss of -1.5db when sending light ?

I wonder why the power loss is rated in decibel ? It's light, not electrons. How can light lose power over a few kilometers ?

Need to research now.

Standards body wants standards for IoT. Vendors don't care

They ignore IPv6 ?

That may actually be a good thing. Might be able to lock all the traffic at the router's firewall then.

In any case, I have already decided a few years back that I will not participate in IoT. Never will my fridge be connected to the Web, and I will always avoid using my phone to pilote anything in my house.

Good old hardware switches is where it's at. Makes you move that lardass.

Now get off my lawn !

Samsung told to build bots who work for less than Foxconn staffers

Well they certainly diminish the number of people able to read the bad press.

EA Games rubbishes Pastebin breach claim

I have been boycotting EA Games for a few years now

Got fed up with the absolutely crap downloader, unbelievably medieval update (mis)management, and the last straw was EA Games banning me from installing a game I PAID FOR under the pretext that the key was invalid. But when you buy on their site, there is no key.

I might log back and change my password though. I think I'll set it to EAGamesSucksBigHairyDonkeyBalls or somesuch.

Yahoo! launches! password-free! push! logins! for! mobes!

Brilliant

Great way to convince punters to hand over their phone number, thus making them 100% identifiable.

Facebook appoints self world police, promises state attack warnings

Under attack from a state-sponsored attacker

So if it's just a regular attacker Facebook will leave you to be hacked ? How nice.

Junk your IT. Now. Before it drags you under

Productivity demands that we junk everything comfortable, everything safe, everything stable, set our faces to the wind, and explore the unknown.

And while you're off exploring, how do you manage revenue ? You know, that thing that pays you at the end of the month ? Or do you think that your salary just magically appears and nobody has to process anything about it ?

No ? You're aware that a back office is managing things so you can get a paycheck every now and then ? Good. So how long are you going to agree to go without pay in order to "explore the unknown" ?

What a load of bull.

Dinosaur love hug: Dell's $64bn death pledge to EMC

Re: your in-house sysadmin will provide you with better uptime than AWS?

Why do you not think that is possible ? A properly specced and managed server can chug along for years without any problem. I've seen a few myself. I can vouch for one mail cluster that has not missed a minute in the past four years.

Re: What are you guys smoking? You want to run your business on this?

Apparently some do. The added "benefit" appears to be getting rid of local IT.

Like all fads, this one has room to grow before it fades away. In the end of all the hoopla, I think we'll find ourselves with a more robust Internet, and a more balanced view of things. There are things that can go to the Cloud, undoubtedly, and there are definitely some things that should never be put in the Cloud.

So companies will end up with some stuff locally, some stuff on the Cloud, and a clear idea of why what goes where. And Cloud suppliers will become more resiliant and reliable as well (learning from past mistakes, etc).

It's all for the better, actually. But now it's a load of PR bull in a lot of cases.

Want to self-certify for Safe Harbor? Never mind EU, yes we can

Re: the implications of this little USA-EU kerfuffle

I seriously doubt China will bend over and let itself get hoovered by Uncle Sam like the EU did.

As far as surveillance is concerned, the NSA has nothing to teach them, and if their attitude toward Google and Facebook is anything to go by, the US government will be treading lightly when it comes to negociating data exchange with them.

Besides, the US has no big stick to bring to the Chinese negociation table, unlike Europe where Uncle Sam basically expects the drinks to be a gratuity on the tab.

Scotland Yard pulls eyeballs off WikiLeaker-in-Chief Assange

Re: What has suddenly changed?

Somebody noticed the medical bills of all the officers going into depression after being subject to the continual and non-stop talking of that indeflatable windbag.

Cyberwar rules of engagement: Military, law bods mull update

Obviously not.

This is not something to sign up to. This is just a flowery exercise in international PR in order to create yet another rod to bash over the head of the unruly uncivilized barbarians when "proper" armies from "civilized" countries have overrun everything and taken all decision-making people as prisoners of war.

Of course, as usual, anything the US of NSA does will not be subject to any sanctions by this new treaty, even when in flagrant violation of its terms.

Dell buys out EMC in mega-super-duper $67 billion deal

So this is a $67 billion roll of the dice

About to turn into a $67 billion bonfire.

Since Y2K company acquisitions have gone crazy, and practically none of them have been successful (ie made big bucks for the acquirer).

I applaud the balls it took to decide to throw away that amount of money. It'll burn brightly, and might just be seen from the Moon.

EU Digital Commish: Ja, we should have done more about NSA spying

Indeed it won't

But now we can at least officially stop pretending we didn't know about it.

Politicians are like cats : they will shit on your rugs until you rub their nose in it. Only then will they officially do something about it.

Google uses humans as Matrix-style ‘data batteries’ – Open Xchange CEO

I think that country codes only serve to limit football (and maybe some other sports) streaming access, and for governments to have their national admin portals.

Because apart from that, I don't see that anyone uses it for anything else.

The Emissionary Position: screwing the motorist the European way

Buses ?

Most buses I see are either hybrid or full-on electric nowadays.

I don't think that you can gain much NOx on a hybrid bus.

Keep recalling the cars.

Oracle, SAP, IBM: They're rubbish and charge you billions for Excel, says man

So it's an SAP version of Excel with integrated NSA access ?

Re: exponential growth in one year?

I really would like articles to stop referring to small companies growing "exponentially". Of course, if you start with 10 and get 20 more the year after, your growth in percentage is immense.

But come on, you're starting from nothing. Let's not use hyperbole until it is warranted, okay ? The growth of this small company is not exponential, it is simply allowing them to transit from next to nothing to next to something. That's not so impressive, now is it ?

Even by the guy's own words : they have 50,000 customers, they want 100 million. So they have 0.0005% of their target market. There is nothing exponential in that slice of market share.

Come back with the big words when they have gone from 10% to 15% of the market. Then we can start talking "exponential".

Australian Prime Minister runs private email server

It's not illegal . . yet

One break-in, one damning email sent from that server and we'll see how fast it gets shut down by public opinion and how quickly the law will be amended to ensure that only government servers under government authority are allowed to be used by government officials.

I don't care how technically competent he may be. His job is to govern a country, not an email server. Unless he has people managing that server, which he will have to explain budgetarily, that server is a risk.

But hey, have fun while it lasts. After all, what's the worst that can happen ? It's not like all the blackhats of the world know about it now, right ?

Oh, wait . .

The do-it-all storage giant is dying: Clouds loom over on-prem IT

Now I understand

All this cloud malarky has finally come to the real point : getting rid of local IT support. This is why notions like security and confidentiality take the back seat.

The IT peons have always been the red-headed stepchildren of the company. Never enough budget to do things right, never enough personnel to bear the load, and always being given higher and higher goals to fulfill.

Now the besuited CEOs are finally going to get rid of them and everything will be just hunky-dory. Except there won't be anyone to call when their new shiny can't connect to the network. Hmm, I wonder what they'll decide then ?

Oh well, just like call centers, things will go this way until the pendulum reaches pinnacle and starts swinging back. Just like servers, really. We went from mainframes to local PC and now we're going back to mainframes, except they're called "cloud" now.

Now even EUROPE is slapping down ICANN in internet power struggle

I'd really like to know that as well.

I think it's like in a dysfunctional family. Everybody knows the weird uncle is a child rapist, but everybody keeps trying to talk to him. This will continue until the community globally decides they have had enough, and walks away on their own to do something else.

And frankly, it's not like it's difficult to set up an administration.

New mystery Windows-smashing RAT found in corporate network

That memo was lost last millennium already.

There is serious question as to whether it was ever sent.

ICANN: Just give us the keys to the internet – or the web will disintegrate

"that could lead to the end of ICANN itself"

Well that's the first time I've heard of good news on this subject.

As if an administrative body could implode the functionality of all those tens of thousands of routers.

Hey ICANN : BRING IT ON !

You can be replaced. The routers won't notice, I promise.

Exposed Volkswagen 'n' pals get 2 more YEARS to sort out emissions

More and more cars on the road every year.

China ramping up like crazy too.

When we hit 7 billion cars running every day, we might appreciate some measure of emission control. The UK was far from that when Norway discovered the joys of acid rain (ok, it wasn't from cars, but still).

Just sayin'

Understand 'Safe Harbor', Schrems v Facebook in under 300 words

My, are you a farsighted one ):D

Nice to know. Good news.

Um, just one thing : who's going to control that ?

Because right now there are a lot of people in high places with the habit of passing data by the petabyte without even blinking.

I don't think they're going to change their habit any time soon when everything that is passed along is done for "National Paranoia" and under the radar.

But one can always hope. . .

'Safe Harbor': People in Europe 'can get quite litigious about this'

Anything that makes life harder for privacy-violating scum is good in my book.

Ya hear that, Google/Facebook/Microsoft+20 million others ?

Oh, right. Everybody's doing it.

WELL THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT.

Team Microsoft: Device Police... 'Are you pumped? I'm pumped'

Re: What's the problem?

Yes, it was a hardware launch. Yes, MS was there with a Lumia, holding it carefully.

That's a bit like Elon Musk holding a big reveal conference about his latest Tesla model and all anybody can see is a poster of it.

At a hardware show, you're supposed to demonstrate the hardware, not just show a piece of it.

NASA offers free access to its patents for startup entrepreneurs

The first hit is always free

Great idea really, give them time to get hooked on something, develop their business and get revenue, then come back and claim royalties.

Okay, so it's not a bad idea per se, but more than 4% of sales ? That's more than the current interest rate for someone else doing the work. I don't know what the royalty rate generally is, so maybe they're being eminently reasonable.

What of the companies that don't survive three years and fold ? Do they still have to pay the $3,000 minimum ?

Talk revealing p0wnable surveillance cams pulled after legal threat

Congratulations, security camera makers

Thanks to the threatening actions of one, I now consider all makers to be suspect and will not be buying any security camera at all until you guys come forward with objectively-assessed proof that your equipment is secure.

Given that one of them doesn't even know what to do, I won't hold my breath.

Google and pals launch Accelerated Mobile Pages project

Destroy Javascript, OK

Given that 99.9% of all malware exists because of Javascript, I'm on board with that.

But kill HTML ? Where's the technical justification for that ? HTML doesn't make page loads longer, HTML loads in a jiffy.

No, the things that make pages load slowly is always the additional cruft from anywhere but the site you're loading. Meaning, of course, ads.

And Google is not going to kill its revenue stream.

So this is just another useless announcement for everyone but Google.

You want fast-loading pages ? Block ads. Problem solved.

EU desperately pushes just-as-dodgy safe harbour alternatives

Re: "overrule foreign legal systems"

I don't know what they're smoking, but it's gotta be good if they think that US law can be imposed outside US borders.

Microsoft, Tesla, build battery that knows how much (energy) you suck

I'm skeptical

This "software-defined" tech only works if there are multiple batteries.

I can see that working for cars. I'm sure there are lots of places to slot in a battery in a car, and the amount of space will likely define what tech can be used, so the system does need to be able to work with various battery types.

But frankly, I'm not convinced with wearables, and even less with computing in general. Extending a watches battery life ? Great. Instead of buying a battery every year, I'll buy it every other year. Big deal. And if I have to lug around anything with enough juice to power my laptop for six hours more, well it'll be another battery anyway, so what use is the software ? Smartphones have the same problem in worse : they're a lot lighter. Any additional battery worth a damn is going to weigh them down and make them awkward to use.

Oh well, we'll just have to wait 25 years and find out what they actually did with it.

Assange™ offered 'plans for escape by flying fox to Harrods'

"he has banned smartphones"

Funny, I would have thought the Ambassador would have something to say about that.

Obviously the prick has decided that anywhere he is, he commands. I wonder what mental condition he should be filed under.

Microsoft gobbles Chipzilla's Havok 3D physics unit in cloud gaming play

Congratulations

Looks like Nvidia has smooth sailing ahead. AMD/ATI is trying to extract itself from the tar pit as usual, now Havoc belongs to the one company who's touch is the reverse of Midas.

I think I'll be looking into acquiring some Nvidia stock.

Junk patent ditched in EAST TEXAS

Re: It's a perfectly legitimate business model to [..] licence it to others

Indeed it is, and when that happens, said inventor will be backed by said investor and they will be selling product, therefor will be entitled to damages.

Also, I never said that damages should be limited to sales, I said they should be linked to them. I am quite aware that trolls have vast lawyering coffers, so I will not venture to provide any rule more specific than the one I indicated : you produce nothing, you get nothing. Anything more complicated than that will likely have to be hashed out by lawyers in order to protect true innovators.