Posts by Pascal Monett

Got a botnet? Thinking of using it to mine Bitcoin? Don't bother

So coin mining is a losing game, then ?

"But even if we allow a zero cost for hardware and power (the costs of the bots and their power are borne by the victims), the difficulty level of common mining algorithms and the nonspecialized hardware that the malware infects make this a futile effort."

Okay, I can understand that a smartphone is nowhere near the level of power required to mine any whatevercoin, so that's out by definition. But here, they're apparently saying that even on PCs without electrical costs, it is not worthwhile. At that point, I have to wonder if coin mining has not become just a fools' game.

Not that I'm going to, but I have an Intel i7 4930K on a system with 16GB of DDR3 and a Radeon HD 7850 with 2GB of memory on-board. I have difficulty believing that that kind of hardware would not be able to mine something of a profit even though I am the one paying for the electricity and hardware upkeep.

So, why would a botnet herder not find any profit on my machine if he took it over ? He's not paying the electricity, I am. He didn't pay for the hardware, I did. You take those costs out and it seems logical to get some coin mining going, it should supplement the revenue stream nicely.

Instead, they're saying that its a zero-sum game. I don't get it.

EXPOSED: Massive mobile malware network used by cops globally

Not necessarily. It does, however, mean that whatever you installed it on will be almost unusable from that point on.

ARRRRR. Half world's techies are software PIRATES – survey

The report is without basis

I've checked the PDF and found it contains no facts, just percentages and associated millions. There is no notion of what software has been counted, no way of justifying the prices quoted.

This report is supposed to be about companies, which means that there should be a list of software items appended to it with the list price of each software and the number of unlicensed installations per country. I mean, they're supposed to have that data if the figures quoted are to resemble reality in any way, right ? So why not show it ?

In addition, there is no explanation of how installations are taken into account. It is supposed to be unlicensed installations. Does that mean that the software was downloaded, cracked and used, or was the disk of the legitimately-bought software used to install another copy without bothering to record it properly for some reason ? If the latter, then we're not talking full price (since the company bought licences already), are we ?

As usual, the BullShit Alliance is doing a splendid job of using lots of smoke and mirrors for nothing of actual substance. And I love the reference to Cloud Computing making everyone happy and secure. I'm sure Code Spaces can take some solace in that.

Longer flights burning more fuel can cut planes' climate impact

Absolutely agree.

Nothing ever takes steam out of conspiracy theories. Ever.

Google starts selling Glass to Brits – for £1,000 a pop

100%

Sadly, most probably not.

Given that Facebook has, reportedly, half a billion users, and that millions of said users are continuously posting whatever inane stupidity happens to cross their diminished brain cells, there is a fair chance that any of them seeing their host with a Glass is first going to think "cool! I'm going to be on YouTube!" before a one-in-a-million starts asking "but do I want to be?".

And let's not mention Twitter.

US Supremes UPHOLD troll-busting Alice v CLS Bank decision

Absolutely.

Can we have an Enforcement Team go in with cluebats to make sure they get it ?

Microsoft: NSA security fallout 'getting worse' ... 'not blowing over'

"work to clear up the rules"

But the NSA doesn't respect the rules, and we have no way of controlling that it does anyway.

So this whole statement is just a load of hot air.

Oh, wait. Nevermind.

PoW! Academics KO Bitcoin mining mammoths

Not promoting it

El Reg is informing us, as is its duty.

Shooting the messenger never was the solution.

It generates the same value as the +2 Sword of Orc-Slaying anyone can earn by doing the right quests.

It's all the others who don't have the sword but want one that gives it value.

LinkedIn ignored SIX WARNINGS about account-hijacking bug

And given the importance of white-collar crime (think Bernie Madoff), many crims do.

Okay, okay, I'm going already.

Google, Microsoft to add remote KILL switch to phones

May I respectfully disagree

If I get walloped by some street thug who wants to nick my phone, I prefer that I can alert the authorities and be damn sure that that phone gets permanently bricked without any chance of remission or revival.

What you need to know before moving to the cloud

This Cloud thing will go on for a good while

Just this morning I got a call telling me that one of my clients is going for Office 365 and retiring its existing IT department. The heavy paychecks got caught by the Microsoft sirens and are steaming ahead to the magical land of IT will cost us nothing.

Yeah, sure.

Well I guess it's the price to pay to demonstrate to all those supposedly intelligent people what IT actually means and what the Cloud can actually give. Maybe when a few hundred companies have gone out of business due to cloud mishaps the industry will take a step back and start thinking about just how much a beancounters' opinion should matter in strategic decisions.

But first there must be blood.

Snowden's HELPING public clouds says VMware hybrid head

"there is now universal acceptance"

Nope, not here there isn't.

And saying that just after what happened to Code Spaces is unfortunate timing at its best.

The Cloud is still an unsecure, unreliable thing over which even paying customers have very little control and even less guarantee.

Sorry, but no cigar.

Luxembourg patent troll suing world+dog

There is no problem that cannot be solved by the application of sufficient firepower.

Not in the US anyways.

Re: Non-Practising Entities: USE IT OR LOSE IT

Easier response : let the trolls have their patents and lawsuits, but index the damages on the amount of income the patent-holder makes from selling objects that use said patent.

In that scenario, patent trolls which make nothing and sell nothing will see that any court action will result in zero rewards, since they do not make anything. And if they don't sell much, meaning they are not in the business of actually making money from the patent, then they don't get much either.

How farsighted is Microsoft's Azure RemoteApp?

Re: effort [..] required to manage a fleet of Windows machines

Sorry, I must have missed something there. Are you saying that CIOs won't need to manage a fleet of Windows machines anymore once every app is in the cloud ?

Of course not, people still need them to access said apps, so the fleet of machines isn't going anywhere. The fleet of Windows licenses might be, though, because once all apps are in the Cloud and accessible via Web interface, why pay Microsoft ? You'll be able to install a different OS that costs less (no I will not say the name) and users will only need to know how to launch the browser. Heck, you can even auto-launch said browser when the user logs on.

I get the license management improvement, that is a given. But for the rest, sorry, the Cloud is not going to lessen the PC nightmare at all for CIOs. And when the Cloud goes titsup, which it does for numerous reasons, then if you have put everything in there, you have instantly reduced your fleet of PCs to deadweights until the situation is resolved.

That's the kind of thing that gets a CIO fired.

Code Spaces goes titsup FOREVER after attacker NUKES its Amazon-hosted data

Re: just as true for handguns

Yeah, but guns come with license backed by government law and if you don't respect that you go to jail, whereas cloud comes with marketing spiel and beancounter approval and if you don't listen to them you lose your job.

Now we know that if you do listen to them you can lose your company, or at least your data.

The conclusion is : never listen to a non-technical person on technical issues if you can help it.

I doubt that there are that many accounts of disgruntled employees destroying their company when they leave. That is a criminal act and you go to jail for it.

And once you have a criminal record, you can say good-bye to any position higher than flipping burgers.

That's a high price to pay for a bit of disgruntling. There may be many people wishing that they could, but I really don't think there are that many who actually do it.

But a brilliant example of why one should NOT trust the cloud with strategic data.

They had their entire business in the cloud, and the cloud went away - with their business.

As a cautionary tale, it is strikingly effective.

Hubble space telescope seeks new encounter for Pluto-bound spacecraft

Re: Why not?

What if the uranium tubes are vaporised in the explosion ? In that case, you're not getting tubes dropping in to the ocean, you're getting yet another radioactive cloud in the atmosphere which will cause widespread panic and give a good excuse to cut nuclear reactors back another few decades.

The principle of precaution is at work here, as it should be. If only industries and politicians took it into account our world would be better off.

Tor is '90 per cent of the net' claims City of London Police Commish – and he's dead wrong

I harbor some darknet myself

I use my personal site to store family/event pics for which I craft the URL and hand it out to friends so they can see the pics.

The folders in which said pics are stored are not indexed by Google because there is no link to them.

So I'm a terrorist, right ?

People will happily run malware if paid ONE CENT – new study

Now THAT is the pure truth.

Now all we need is an OS that can prevent someone from sending those stupid pseudo-heartwarming chain letters. Or any other sort of chain letter. Or anything, really.

Until they have something interesting to say, that is.

The silence would be deafening.

YouTube will nuke indie music videos in DAYS, says Google exec

Re: [time for ] a wireless mesh internet that no one person or group can control.

Don't worry, as soon as that mesh is in place, someone will be wanting to control it. And they will find a way.

No, the answer never is in doing away with the existing to create something new that will fail in the same way.

The answer always is in fighting the rot and making sure the rot does not take over. In this case, the indie labels should band together and create their own service. Yes, it is complicated, yes it will cost them, but they're shafted anyway so might pay for the right thing.

Student promises Java key to unlock Simplocker ransomware

Bearing in mind that the unlocker is probably supposed to be a tool that can execute from a web page, it seems logical to use the programming language that can do that, which is Java.

Microsoft C may be another possibility, but that does not mean that choosing Java is a bad choice in and of itself.

The real issue us that, whatever the language used, some criminal will come out with a web page looking like the one to unlock Simplocker, but actually uses Cryptolocker to nail the phone down permanently. The usual crop of inattentive/clueless users will get caught and mayhem will ensue.

How practical is an electric car in London?

Re: What happens when we reach "peak electric car"?

These encouragements are handed out at the moment to incite people to buy electric cars. If and when people start buying them en masse, you can be sure that the government will cut the funding and attendant favors.

At that point, you'll be back here complaining that car parking is expensive again, that you have to drive with everybody else again, that you no longer have reserved spaces, etc... and car dealers will be whining that the government is crimping their sales because no more subsidies.

The wheel turns slowly, but nothing stops the complaining.

Re: charge: at home off solar panels

Keep us updated as to how well that works for you. I'm interested in your experience.

That said, I doubt your solar panels will be doing much recharging outside of weekends. If you take that car to work, then you're back by evening, so not much influence from solar.

But still, I'm interested in how well solar panels work up north, so do keep us informed please.

Restaurant chain uses CARBON PAPER to fight credit card hack

Re: Hey banks: "How's that working out these days?"

Reply : Not bad at all, thank you. Our profits are up, and when we're in trouble we ask for money and we get it by the shipload. Oh, and you're the one paying for this kerfluffle anyway.

Microsoft in hunt for the practical qubit

"whoever successfully builds a reliable, mass-producable qubit"

Will have Microsoft and everybody else banging on their door with Vuitton bags of shares worth billions.

Come on, Microsoft will not invent this, it'll just buy out whoever does.

And if whoever does doesn't sell because they're intelligent enough to not sell out, then Microsoft will finally have to publicly bow before the new king of computing and resort to its usual FUD tactics to try and keep people buying its stuff.

DINOSAUR BLOOD: JUST RIGHT, as Goldilocks might say, if drinking it

Re: Pterodactyal flying reptiles had 11 meter wingspan

It really is very dangerous, in these days where the Internet can be used to instantly verify any claim, to state things like that.

Indeed, only one kind of pterodactyl had an 11-meter wingspan : the Quetzalcoatlus. The other kinds of pterodactyls all had wingspans that were smaller, some of them much smaller.

But of course, when one spouts bullshit at the rate you do, it is not surprising that you neither provide links to back up your "claims", nor take into account anything as mundane as "facts" when they get in your way.

A word of caution : when you take a moniker like yours, Faux Science Slayer, you would do well to not post things that can be so easily proven false.

Because at the moment, you are not worthy of the name you login with.

Tech companies are raising their game (and pants) post-Snowden

Collaborating ?

Well I'd also collaborate with a thief holding a gun to my daughter's head.

Now, far be it from me to defend Microsoft (or any of them, actually), but you do have to acknowledge that the NSA didn't just phone the majors and ask politely. They came to the door with a legal document saying basically "drop your pants now, 'cause you're shafted anyway".

That being said, some companies may have been more enthusiastic in their cooperation than others, but still, they didn't really have a choice.

Bank of England plans to shove cyber-microscope up nation's bankers

"bring together the NSA and individual firms and place them in a controlled environment"

TFTFY

</psychoparanoid MODE=OFF>

Mobe-orists, beware: Stroking while driving could land you a £4k fine

Re: For some definition of "use"

Let's make one thing clear : anything that takes your eyes off the road for any amount of time is a risk; the faster you drive, the higher the risk.

So, if by "interacting" with a phone you mean connecting a call or hanging up, then I will grudgingly admit that that should be fine, in a cradle or Bluetooth mode.

But as far as anything else is concerned, I'm sorry, your hands are supposed to be on the wheel and your eyes on the road at all times. If you can slip in texting or anything else than checking a GPS screen for your position, you're not doing it right.

Bah, soon The Google will be driving us all around anyways. We will thus be free to happily provide all of our movement details to the infinitely-tentacle data slurper in exchange for being able to HEY! I'M TXTING IN A CAR!

Apple is KILLING OFF BONKING, cries mobe research dude

"help win over more tight-fisted consumers"

I'm not tight-fisted. However I am getting more and more paranoid about how much personal information people can leech out of those marvellous gadgets that I am surrounded with.

So, given that we have all heard the reports about how PIN code VISA is broken but remains steadfastly in use (because nothing else and too expensive to replace), I am very wary of a technology that actively broadcasts my "secure" banking data to the immediate surroundings.

And don't give me tosh about how the range is vanishingly small or whatnot - we've read right here about how supposedly secure ATMs were subverted from the inside to phone home credit card details.

If they can do that on a supposedly secure ATM machine, then they can stick a customized Raspberry PI on the backside of the card machine and none will be the wiser for weeks, if not months. Meanwhile, the crims will reap the rewards.

So no to NFC anything until I have a technological guarantee that it is unsubversible.

Chrome OS leaks data to Google before switching on a VPN, says GCHQ

Obviously not since we've read his words here.

That said, I would counter that same argument by stating that the computer I use to post on Internet forums is not the one I use for work.

And I can actually agree with that kind of separation, to the point where I do believe that the military should not have ANY computer attached to the WWW.

But if you're using Chrome, you really shouldn't be surprised that it phones home to The Google To Which All Data Belongs.

Zuckerberg and other directors sued over gigantic packages

Re: company directors owe fiduciary duties to deal with the company's assets in an honest way

The Board is being "honest" : it is declaring the equity program and it is public about it. That is the definition of honesty : say what you do, do what you say. I doubt very much that the complainant will get any traction against that in Court - it is in General Assemblies that such a point should be raised.

Honesty has nothing to do with morals, though, and this case outlines it brilliantly. The Board at Facebook is giving itself three times the payback compared to other companies with similar capital, I can understand that a shareholder doesn't like that. Said shareholder would probably expect the "excess" wealth to go into his pocket and, given that he is a shareholder, I can understand that as well.

However, I contend that to compare Board revenue with other companies is, by definition, approving the way the other Boards are doing business and allocating resources. I don't agree with the way Disney does business (I certainly disagree with its stranglehold on copyright laws) and I wouldn't use that as a reference for anything.

Besides, didn't anybody tell him ? Facebook is The Zuck's baby. You don't like his decisions, then don't invest in it, bitch.

Facebook's new self-destructing pic app SELF-DESTRUCTS

Re: What idiot thought this one up ?

The guy placing the ads that come with the notifications, obviously ;)

EU privacy A-Team tells Google: Get a grip and obey OUR laws

Re: Instead you have to go full Tor

Or you can use Ixquick.

Apparently, they're Danish. They say they don't log your IP. I'm inclined to believe them until proven otherwise.

Remember Control Data? The Living Computer Museum wants YOU

Re: The human element has really gone out of modern computing

No it hasn't, it has just be locked up in committee meetings filled with people who either know nothing about the project, the constraints or the requirements, or are not the ones taking the decisions.

Not exactly progress, eh ?

Crypto-boffins propose safer buddy list protocol

Interesting development

I am relieved that the efforts to secure our privacy from the ever-increasing might of online surveillance are continuing by virtue of intelligent people devoting their time to the (complex) issue.

And anything that secures more of my privacy from the grubby mitts of Google & Big Brother Inc is a plus in my book.

Ukrainian teen created in lab passes Turing Test – famous nutty prof

Totally agree

From the extract in the article itself, the Turing Test makes no mention that the subject tested is supposed to be anything but an adult.

But hey, you gotta start somewhere. Personally, I would have failed it straightaway. 13-year-olds use way to much l33tsp35k for me to understand them. This one wrote complete sentences. That, in my book, is a dead giveaway that it can't be a human child.

DARPA gamifies open-source software testing

Re: I don't understand

I don't get it either.

I am pretty sure though, that DARPA employs people that are actually intelligent. I am convinced that they have their case covered and are ready.

I will be waiting for the report of a bug (or security hole) in the programs that are being "game-tested". That, in my mind, will prove whether or not this method has merit.

YOU - NASA. Enough with the ROBOTS, get some PEOPLE to MARS

You need to move to Somalia. You'll feel right at home there.

Tesla's top secret gigafactories: Lithium to power world's vehicles? Let's do the sums

Re: we are a Virus

I have always been particularly fond of that scene.

Yes, but unlike Molyneux, he is a billionaire.

Should you buy a question mark for your keyboard ? Definitely.

Meanwhile, given the amount of crust that exists to process, the sooner we start, the sooner we have something that we just need to retool to allow for said next big thing.

Re: Grid losses < 10%

I was going to dispute that, but it turns out you are perfectly right.

Thank you for educating me.

Re: induction track motorways

I can't help but imagine such a road at night in the rain. Headlights and raindrops and showers of sparks illuminating everything.

Beautiful.

But of course someone is going to come along and painstakingly explain that it won't happen because <technobabble>. And I'm sure the person will be right.

But I prefer my vision . . .

Re: you have to heat it quite a lot before it starts to work

Funny, that reminds me of something. Something from those WWII films in Paris. Something about vehicles.

Ah, yes. Diesel engines.

Maybe there's a parallel there ? Diesel engines used to be cranky things to get started too (like me in the morning). Now they're very efficient and will be beating gasoline engines in market penetration at some point in the future.

Might something similar happen for these solid oxide cells ?

Police at the door? Hit the PANIC button to erase your RAM

Next in News at 9

Hackers have found a way to disable multiple computers at once by activating a mysterious panic app.

Do you have ANY idea how much Amazon charges for personal nukesat delivery ?

And don't even think about overnight - we're way past arm & leg territory already.

I was really appalled at the invoice.