Posts by Pascal Monett

Roll up, roll up: Microsoft, those Irish emails and angry Feds

This is further extended to anything and everything that can be proven to have as much as a toehold in the USA too

Indeed, and it is high time for that interpretation to get smacked down on the basis that the USA certainly wouldn't like a Chinese judge to reciprocate and order a Chinese subsidiary in the US to hand over sensitive email data. At least, I doubt the USA would agree.

I do hope that the EU is going to find the balls somewhere to stop this nonsense. The Internet is a game-changer because of its globality. Local rules cannot be imposed over the Internet.

"Microsoft maintains that the data is secured under EU data protection laws"

And for once, Microsoft is unequivocally right.

The fact that Ireland deemed fit to alert a US judge that she has no right to disregard its sovereignty will figure as a reference in US Justice dickery.

Hacker mag 2600 laughs off Getty Images inkspots copyright claim

Oh I think of them . . . being slowly lowered into the shark tank.

Heigh ho, oh no! Politically correct panto dumps Snow White’s dwarfs

The PC term for dwarf is dwarf.

Anything else and you're just being insulting.

There is no shame to be had by height or color since there's nothing anyone can do about either, and neither has anything to do with intelligence or usefulness to society.

US cop goes war-driving to find stolen gear by MAC address

patent L8NT

Not such a stretch actually, given that the USPTO is rubber-stamping everything that falls on their desk these days.

TorrentLocker scum have better email lists than legit devs, telcos

Malware using CAPTCHA

And they have a robust encryption scheme.

The mind boggles.

Ah, the good ol' days of script kiddies . . .

Google drops app prices to 15 cents for Indian users

"get access to the apps and games they love"

Typical PR speak, total absence of logic. If they don't have access to the stuff, how can they "love" it ?

Of course, saying "get them on the spending treadmill so we can milk them as well" would, admittedly, come off rather worse.

ICANN has $60m burning a hole in its pocket – and it needs your help blowing it all

Re: Easy

Let's not and screw a functioning process in order to appear to solve a totally different issue.

W3C may be slow, but ICANN it sure ain't.

I am beginning to think that there is only one way to solve the ICANN issue, and it involves a .44 and a very determined person.

Microsoft: Thanks, Google, we'll have your media codec for Edge

MPEG-LA is a group of 31 businesses, and Microsoft is part of it.

So there will be no charging of MP4 licenses - at least, not for Microsoft.

Windows 10 to grow up, turn extra enterprise-y beginning this month

"employees can buy company-owned apps"

What drunken idiot thought that scheme was viable ?

Employees do not buy company-owned applications, they are installed on their computers by IT so they can do their job.

Or are we going to witness BYOWorkplace as the follow-up to BYOD ? And pigs will have wings next year.

Everything in this piece tells me that I'm going to be hearing a lot about Win10 update-related failures in the coming months.

Dell CEO: Very few will survive the PC bloodbath

Re: boring, non-sexy business notebooks

I much prefer a boring, non-sexy business notebook that has a powerful CPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB of spinning rust, over a sexy, exciting notebook with a lame CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 180GB SSD.

But I have to program on the damn things.

Just WHO is hiring a 'Cloud Transformation Director' for £162,000? Actually YOU are

Reminds me of . . .

. . the Transport Muggins.

He will be the lightning rod to take all the blame for whoever else never agrees on anything or changes their mind every Friday after lunch.

URRGH! Evil app WATCHES YOU WATCHING PORN, snaps your grimace

@ Lost all faith

There is a big difference between a Windows platform and Android - on the Android platform the user is not admin.

In Windows, historically speaking, the user has always had all rights to the OS and hardware access because Microsoft took two decades to start understanding that that was not a good idea. So yeah, on a PC a lot of malware is there because of Microsoft, not always because of the user.

Boffins feud over Indian PM's Silicon Valley visit

Wow, now that's what I call a slapdown. And deserved as well, it appears.

TCP is a wire-centric protocol being forced to cut the cord, painfully

Given the scale of the issue, and the fact that they work on a Linux platform and would apparently like the code in the kernel, I have the feeling that they will be giving back, as soon as they are sure that they have a viable solution.

At least I hope so. Anything that can improve mobile phone performance in calls or data is a godsend.

‘Dumb pipe’ Twitter should sell up and quit, says tech banking chap

Why people like and use Twitter

For the same reason people talk endlessly about themselves and other people, with the added bonus that Twitter makes you feel like you talk to the world and the world reads your words and talks back.

It's the ultimate self-aggrandizer. Even when you know yourself that what you're posting is abysmally useless, somebody, somewhere will react, thereby justifying your post.

I think Twitter is actually a psychology test, for the members AND its management.

Gloves on as Googler deposits foul zero-day on Kaspersky lawn

Re: Dear Google....

Android phone updates are a mess. In many cases, Google patches, but the carriers don't push the update because they have to go and rebuild their messy, bloatware-filled version every time and carriers don't want to spend money on that.

ICANN descends into farce as bigwigs try to cling to power

Just DISSOLVE it already

Expunge it, erase it, eradicate it.

Ask the SWAT teams to go in there and frogmarch everybody out and take them all to jail.

Then bring in a NEW team, recreate a new ICANN on the latest board-refused proposal.

Since the board is so adamantly against it, it has to be good.

EU digi bloke: Come ON Europe, you're not TRYING ENOUGH

"mobile tech, social media, cloud and Big Data"

I am part of an IT outfit. We do code and consulting. We use mobile tech for email and rapid communication, like everybody else. But how exactly are we supposed to use "social media" ?

Tweet every morning that we're getting to work ? Post my latest code snippit on that "wall" thingy ? Tell everyone (well, 2 people) how this project sucks on Google+ ?

Social media is for socializing (well, showing off or getting attention, really), not for business.

Businesses have websites of their own. They don't need "social media", unless they're in the business of social stuff (like party planning or travel).

And as for Big Data, well you've gotta be Big to need that, and the big companies are already on that bandwagon.

Stupid remark.

Dog walkers, the San Andreas fault ... and the storage industry

Re: is moving your data once in a couple years really that big of a deal?

And from what I see, it's a big deal every time, everyone is stressed out and downtime inevitably occurs.

But they keep doing it because, after the hassle, things are generally perceptively better.

Sunk by 'patent troll': Iron Speed director asks 'anyone want to buy us?'

I've been saying for years

If you want to get rid of patent trolls, tie the damages they can claim to the amount of product sales they generate. After all, only those actually selling product are "damaged" by infringement.

Patent trolls sell nothing, they just sit on their patents and wait for a juicy target. Since they sell nothing, the damages awarded will be a multiple of . . zero.

Poof ! Instant disappearance of the issue.

SPACE WHISKY: Astro malt pongs of 'rubber and smoked fish'

"how this groundbreaking research will help advance humanity" ?

It will help because months and months of tedius transit in pitch dark to lug Unobtanium from Ganymede back to Earth will not be bearable without a proper shot of ol' mellow to take the edge off of extreme boredom.

And a local Diablo III server (ranked) would help immensely as well.

Is 'MetaPod': a) a Pokemon; b) servers running OpenStack?

The only thing I know about Pokemon is that you had to catch them all. I didn't catch any, nor did I even look around for some.

With this renaming, I think Cisco may just have given enough impetus to create a whole new crowd of MetaPodians exchanging entirely new, non-Pokemon related jokes. And maybe some network-related horror stories as well.

Time will tell.

Metapod

And they changed the name to avoid the jokes ?

Class action launched against Facebook over biometric slurpage

ZuckerBorg

Good one.

But we're still screwed.

Layabout, sun-blushed techies have pick of IT job market, says survey

Beefy benefits packages ?

Where are those ?

The offers I see most of the time ask for a single person to manage three different server environments, know the intricacies of five different database environments, plan, execute and manage backup strategies, project planning and execution, people interaction and oversight, and be able to remap the network and recable the building as well, all for the princely sum of minimum wage or thereabouts.

If you want a person to do the job of ten people, you damn well better be ready to pay him the salary of ten people, otherwise you can get stuffed.

You shouldn't be paying for mobile ads (please buy our software)

Nerver mind cookies, websites are out there that actively detect AdBlockers and shunt you to a garage page if you're using one.

If I don't really need the info, or if I can find it elsewhere, I generally do not return there - which shouldn't bother them since they're more interested in shoveling ads at me than in me seeing their website.

Stealth service – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

micro-transactions

Good bye any interest I might have had in playing this game.

Angler plonks August's Flash feeding frenzy into its boat

Adobe really is incredible

To keep on fabricating discovering so many bugs after so many years is really a shining example of professionalism and dedication - to the blackhats.

It's just a video player, Adobe. You didn't have to link it to every function imagined by Mankind.

Files on Seagate wireless disks can be poisoned, purloined – thanks to hidden login

Re: Unbelievable

Most certainly that was part of the testing phase.

Apparently, when the tests were positive, they just shoved the whole thing into production without anyone giving an effing eff about whether or not they should take out the test access.

Because obviously nobody would ever think of trying to access something wireless by using root/root as credentials, right ? It's only Samsung testers that are authorized to do that.

Fiat Chrysler recalls THOUSANDS more cars to swerve hack-my-brakes roadkill

"These measures – [..] – block remote access to certain vehicle systems"

And why, pray tell, was remote access available in the first place ?

Apparently, remote access is just bolted on to the main car's data system and the software is supposed to sort out legit commands from unwanted ones by itself.

I call that a recipe for disaster.

OFFICIAL: Zuck's BIG in-your-face Facebook Messenger SHOVE finally pays off

I think there's a name for that

It's called the Stockholm Syndrome

Mind-blowing secrets of NSA's security exploit stockpile revealed at last

Heh, heh. Lorem Ipsum.

Game, set and DEATHMATCH: Drone TERROR ORDEAL at US Open tennis tournament

Oh for Christ' sake

What on Earth was that guy at a tennis match with a drone for ? Couldn't he just have played with his phone ?

Why are people terrified of an itty-bitty flying toy ? It's not a bloody Predator, now is it ? The worst it could have carried would be a firecracker.

What the fuck is the reason for BLOCKING THE VIDEO ? On what grounds did they get that done ? It's not a private game, there are spectators. They're not going to lose money, the game's over. Why do we accept this kind of dickery ? There is absolutely no reason for it.

Spotify updates hated privacy policy ... with exact same policy

"to better explain why it's slurping people's private information"

It's ok, Daniel, no need to explain any more. I'll never be using your "service" anyway.

Hackers spent at least a year spying on Mozilla to discover Firefox security holes – and exploit them

Re: Privacy/security isn't exciting - no-one cares

One look at Facebook and you'll have to agree, he was unfortunately right.

Yes, but who wants to know ?

I don't think this is the kind of activity a script kiddie would undertake. This is more what a criminal organization would do, rationalize the process and hack the weakest link to maximize profits later.

Cognitive computing: What can and can’t we do, and should lipreading be banned?

@Arnaud the less

Ravens and dogs, and every living creature, have one thing computers will never have : the ability to act on impulse.

That was the point of my example. Ravens may not admire the view (and what proof do we have of that ?), but I am fairly sure that they can decide to fly to a given place without any proper reason to do so. I'm sure you can find a corresponding example for dogs.

When a computer is not responding to code imperatives, it does not decide to do anything but wait for the next imperative. That is why it is not AI. Intelligence is whimsical, or it is not.

"he doesn’t believe that computers will never be truly conscious"

Could we please have confirmation that there is indeed an "n" before the "ever" ?

Because there is an enormous change in meaning there, and the sentence, as it stands, does not compute with the general tone of that part of the article.

Woah there

Since then, Google has developed a self-driving car, computers can type what you speak, and phones have become really good at playing chess.

First, the Google Car isn't finished, and there is no AI in there, just a PC with a (very) complex set of instructions reacting to its sensors and instructions. If it were AI, it might want to stop and admire the view every now and then.

Second, computers can type what we speak, most of the time almost accurately, but again, that's not AI in the sense that it's not an artificial brain doing it, just another set of complex instructions. if it were AI, it might interrupt us now and then to say "REALLY ?".

As for chess, yeah, I'll leave you that one. The damn thing beats me every time.

Reg reader shares AshMad blackmail email about which he gives 'zero f***s'

I wouldn't mind helping him miss a step on his way down.

Carrion crawlers. I despise those.

A Dyson car? Don't rule it out. We're suckers for innovation, says CEO

Dyson is a difficult beast to peg

Never had any of their vacuum clears, but I've heard from both sides of the fence on them.

I know some people who like their products, and some who don't at all.

Online isn't better, so I guess I'll just have to but one to make up my own mind.

Unconfirmed PayPal 0day auth flaw lingers after XSS gets fixed

Ah, PayPal

Don't like them much, but can't fault them for leaving stray issues. As far as security is concerned, they actually are leading the pack.

The fact that the lawsuits would be humongous might be an incentive.

Boffins build magnetic field cloak 'wormhole', could help MRI scanners

Cool.

I stand corrected then, and I'm happy for it.

I always thought meta materials were more of a thought experiment. We still don't have invisibility cloaks though.

They don't, apparently. They've only theoretically demonstrated the theoretical possibility of doing something.

The word "supraconductor" is generally a tell-tale sign. Room-temperature supraconductors don't exist yet. The word "meta-material" is another sign. I don't anything meta exists either.

But when they do, it'll work. Promise !

Soyuz docks with ISS, delivers trio of fresh 'nauts

Nice pics ! A bit blurry though.

I don't suppose they have HD cameras out there yet. Obviously, the problem is not buying the kit, but making sure new kit would work flawlessly with the rest.

Oh, and there's the cost of getting it up there and putting it in place as well. And the fact that a spacewalk is a potentially dangerous thing, so keep 'em to what is needed.

Okay, so no HD. But what's with all the numbers ? Do they really need all that data all the time ? (independantly from the fact that it's NASA, so if they have it, they most certainly need it).

Pioneer slaps 80s LASERS on cars for driverless push

"irrational human fear from loss of control"

Sorry, but given how everything computer-controlled has demonstrated a marked ability to go haywire with, sometimes, dreadful consequences, the fear of loss of control is decidedly not irrational.

That said, I will welcome a car that drives itself properly and securely at all times, under any conditions, with open arms. The thought of sitting in my own private taxi, telling it where to go and then opening a book for the trip to work is one I would really, really like to see come true.

Alas, it most likely won't happen before I retire. Oh well.

Stingray stung: FBI told 'get a warrant'

So right.

It doesn't matter how many laws and checkpoints are in place if we can't reliably determine that the data collected is actually deleted when it's supposed to be.

Ashley Madison hack miscreants may have earned $6,400 from leak

So they want to be paid in funny (and traceable) money ?

Multiple people having their names on this most famous list were contacted and Bitcoin payment demanded.

So that means that, had my name been on that list and had I received such a demand (and were I stupid enough to not realize that it's way too late to hide now), I would have had to go and buy a bitcoin because I don't have any and no intention of dipping into that particular pond either.

Talk about a roundabout way of doing things.

IoT baby monitors STILL revealing live streams of sleeping kids

And that's how you make good publicity for yourself

Philips and Weaved are the names I will be recommending on this point - if ever it crops up around me.