Posts by Pascal Monett

Tat bazaar eBay takes a rest for 'scheduled maintenance', goes offline

Wow

The NSA is really covering all bases.

Workers at world's largest – and most remote – telescope go on strike

Probably the same day they grow a brain.

In other words, don't hold your breath.

Re: not go too far or "the place will get automated"

I don't think you realize just how difficult it is to automate machinery in a place exposed to wind and dust.

Especially machinery as complex as a telescope. I'd wager that half the work of the technicians on-site is just dusting off and oiling the machinery to keep it running. The other half probably consists of getting the grime out of a jammed piece to get it back online. You're not going to do that with a Roomba.

To compare, our automobile industry is pretty much as fully automated as possible, and you still need a few hundred workers per factory to haul the pieces around and generally oversee the robots and catch the mistakes.

And that in an environment which is as dust-free as is possible without reverting to surgery room procedures.

Ask any automobile production-line worker what he'd think of working in the middle of a desert and he'll die laughing - and not because of the temperatures.

Assange washes hands in election row

I stand corrected

Especially given the publication of this article.

Seems that there is more than meets the eye in this case. Much more.

Breanna Manning ??

Is that Private Bradley Manning's sister ? Mother ? Cousin ?

Why is she in jail ? Are you sure it has something to do with what her bother/son/cousin did ?

Somehow I think you are confused about some details of the Manning issue.

Kim Kardashian's bosom pal in bling snatch Instagram unpleasantness

High-flyer ? Hardly.

Do not confuse genuine VIPs with turds that happen to be temporarily hovering above ground.

Snowden journo's partner wins partial injunction on seized data

Re: Irony strangely uncommented upon

It would have been ironic if it happened in the US, but it did not.

It happened in the UK - and they have no Miranda rights.

So maybe that's why this point was not raised.

Gambling addict IT boss gets 7 years' porridge for £19m swindle

If he was in charge of procurement, then it would have logically gone totally unnoticed.

He might even have made himself a good reputation for running around a lot and controlling everything personally.

@ theblackhand

So what you're saying is that he took advantage of a situational absence of oversight to indulge in his addiction, and got caught when the normal controls fell back into place.

Well that sounds like a much more reasonable explanation.

UK mulls ban on tiny mobiles to block prison smugglers

Yup. And every one of them got a downvote.

I wonder why ? It still is a valid question.

Yeah, but it would seem that there are these pesky things called Rights where prisoners are concerned, and it would seem that governments are more concerned with the rights of people who have been locked up than the rights of people who haven't yet.

Hey ! Maybe that's the solution ! Let's all get ourselves locked up, then they won't spy on us anymore !

Hmm. Something tells me that won't be a good as it seems.

New use for old iPhones: Watch your house get robbed in REAL-TIME

Or the Internet connection is down locally, and the perp just shoves his crowbar into the damn thing.

"We're going to have a picture of you" - fat lot of good that'll do most of the time I guess, what the picture being either mostly black or terrifically overexposed.

But it's good that news of this app gets out - that way the crooks will wear face-hiding headgear, and will smash all that old kit that's lying around to only nick the new stuff.

Oh noes! New 'CRISIS DISASTER' at Fukushima! Oh wait, it's nothing. Again

Re: "that's called Democracy"

No, the system we have today is not democracy, but a parody of democracy.

Decmocracy is where every citizen is called to vote on issues, and every citizen is AWARE of the issue and of its consequences, thus vote IN CONSCIENCE and are willing to be subject to the result of the vote because they are sure that all other voters have done the same.

Instead, we have a system whereby almost nobody has the slightest clue of what is at stake because they are either too stupid to understand or they just toe the party line whatever happens. That, in turn, means that the result of the vote itself has no legitimacy in the eyes of people who voted for something else, because everyone is convinced that all the others didn't give a damn.

And don't get me started on those who the spin the issue until nobody knows what we're voting for anymore...

Bank man: System's down, let's have coffee. Oh SNAP, where's all the CASH?

How can this be continuing ?

"The stolen cash is then passed around between mules until it ends up in the accounts of the cyber criminals."

And how is the money passed around between mules ? With orders given by . . . email. You know, that thing the NSA is supposed to be watching like a hawk, so much so that Groklaw shut down because of it.

So, does this mean that money mules are now out and wire fraud is in ? Nah, the money mules are still very much at work because the NSA doesn't give a damn about financial fraud. The real threat are the people who know something about how crooked our governments really are.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the sole goal of government to ensure that the life of the people it is responsible for is as well-managed as possible ? Is not the government responsible for the people's safety, which is why we have an army and a police in the first place ? As well as government employees who clean the streets and take care of communal grounds (well, before outsourcing that, that is) ?

I have a message for our governments : I care a lot more about the safety of my bank account than I do about the risk of being killed by a terrorist. Please review your priorities accordingly, else I and a few hundred thousand others might one day review them for you . . . with right bloody prejudice.

Fame-hating planets don't need to hang around STARS – boffins

You're missing a brace of zeros, I think. Two hundred billion is the figure quoted in the article.

That said, it is only a guess. Given that we are still not sure of the percentage of star systems that have planets vs those that don't, I wouldn't put too much stock in that figure.

'Symbolic' Grauniad drive-smash was not just a storage fail

There certainly is matter for inspiration here.

Zuckerberg: I want the WHOLE WORLD in my hands

So The Zuck has a grand plan for humanity

And it all starts with letting the telcos do the heavy lifting, then letting the phone companies find a way to make free phones, and letting everybody else work to push costs down so he can make more billions selling ads.

Yup, sounds like exactly the kind of plan he would think of.

Marissa Mayer in Vogue fashion shoot

Well you don't honestly think that fashionistas at Vogue are going to be able to understand anything about her skills, much less comment objectively on them, now do you ?

Assange's WikiLeaks Party running-mate departs in blaze of glory

Funny that

Someone trying to build an alternative power center, outside of an approved and open process ?

Gosh, I wonder why I see Assange fit absolutely perfectly in that role.

Wow, the future is HERE: Charge your phone (wirelessly) in your CAR

Re: "Not sure how that earned be a downvote."

Simples, you were criticizing something that had the honor of recieving an Iphone.

That's almost as bad as criticizing the Iphone itself.

Brazilians tear strip off NSA in wake of Snowden, mull anti-US-spook law

This is actually brilliant, or not

Seeing all the hoopla brought on by Snowden and his revelations just might reshape the entire Internet landscape.

I see a future where every country jealously guards its national communications, not letting any packet exit its borders without good reason (ie the IP address says so).

You could even imagine, when signing up for Internet access, a question along the lines of "Do you need/intend to access international web sites ? Yes No", and if you check No, you only get access to your country's web servers (and any web server hosted in your country).

Multinationals would then be forced to host servers in each country. More to the point, individual government spook agencies would have to use diplomatic channels if they wanted to access data on a server outside their country.

Man, what a mess this is going to become.

Sorry, why would the data be mirrored anywhere ?

US companies are selling goods all over the world, are you saying that their servers are also mirrored to other countries for that purpose ? I don't think so.

Japan's unwanted IT workers dumped in 'forcing-out rooms'

Shock and outrage are for the US

In Japan, they typically shrug and laugh.

Now and then, a Ninja could knife you in the back, though.

Mighty multi-scope snaps stunning STARBIRTH image

Greenland - was

You know, before all that global warming.

Palestinian Facebook flaw-finder getting $10,000 payday in online appeal

I've got news for you too

This case can be righteously denounced on its technical aspects alone.

Continuously bringing racism in to the picture is not the adult thing to do. It only fuels the fire.

Yes, a lot of people do not like each other. As an adult, however, one simply looks at facts to discuss a matter.

Besides, the Zuck may be a Jew, but he is not involved in this issue. And I doubt very much that the chief of security took time to get him on the phone and ask about the case.

Now, if the chief of security was also Jewish, this entire argument might have a leg to stand on, but it would still be immature and petty.

Re: "very expensive to look this bad"

I agree with your comment, and with your sentiment as well.

However, I have to ask : just exactly how does Facebook look worse now ? I mean, on its bottom line, of course.

Yes Facebook has been shamed, but is that going to change anything in its monthly revenue ? Yes, people are up in arms, but are those people who contribute to Facebook's bottom line in a meaningful manner ?

Facebook has looked very bad before (bitch!), but that has not prevented it from becoming a billion dollar industrial behemoth.

So, regretfully, I must admit that the Zuck probably doesn't give a flying monkey's about this issue.

And that's too bad.

Firefox takes top marks in browser stability tests

Re: "doesn't spy on you for the NSA or GCHQ"

I think you may be confused there.

The NSA doesn't give a flying monkey's what browser you use. It's recording your traffic, and that happens despite any precaution you may take.

Guardian lets UK spooks trash 'Snowden files' PCs to make them feel better

OK, let's sum things up

A whistleblower escapes to another country after revealing publicly damning evidence that world society is under a total surveillance scheme without any regard for individual privacy, contrary to the very legal foundations of said country.

After the initial shock period, spook centers around the world work in concert to lock down the leak, find the whistleblower and silence him.

In order to do so, authorities have demonstrated that they are now willing to :

1) force ambassadorial entities to stop and prove that the whistleblower is not on board

2) harass and intimidate people related to the whistleblower, or that are in professional relations with him, using clearly abusive pretexts

3) abuse state powers and proceed to destroy private equipment without any justification

What is next ? Night visits to anyone who has contacted the whistleblower, with complementary beatings ? Some "unfortunate" accidents ? Waterboarding people who have read about this whole affair on the Web ?

I have the very unfunny feeling that, for the first time in recent history, Goodwin's Law should be invoked.

Because it is starting to look like the Gestapo have not disappeared at all. They have become Gestapo Incorporated, and they are watching you from your local Beating Center.

You will behave, Citizen.

Windows NT: Remember Microsoft's almost perfect 20-year-old?

Re: "everyone bets on Linux today"

You need to get out more.

Linux is taking a bigger piece of the server room, unquestionably, but in offices it is still Windows and only Windows.

I have been a consultant for nigh on twenty years now, and I have still to spot a Linux desktop in the hands of an end-user of any kind. For some engineers, yes, for graphics designers, of course, for some specialist applications, sometimes. But in regular, day-to-day office use ? Windows, obviously.

And that will continue until Outlook runs on Linux boxen. Natively. Which is not going to happen any time soon, apparently.

Okay Bill, we know it's you.

And as for the "scalable database", the inventor of that abomination should take Sysiph's place on the rock. But, in its defence, I will admit that a single point of failure has never been more completely integrated than the Registry has.

Re: "there was no spam"

On the PC, no, but on the fax machine . . .

Re: "they got rid of that login method later on"

Really ? When ? In Win8 ?

Because I'm using W7 right now and I have to use the famous trio every single time my workstation goes into screensaver lock.

Green German gov battles to keep fossil powerplants running

Re: nuclear is not an option

All the better for France, which is making money selling "nuclear" electricity to Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Italy, Spain and probably Switzerland as well.

I find the current green arguments in Germany quite hypocritical. If they really don't want anything to do with nuclear, then they should not purchase electricity from a country they know produces it via the process they denounce.

Instead, they just pass off as airhead NIMBYs.

Personally, I am pro-ecology. I do not like seeing useless damage to nature and I would prefer that humans in general treat their only home with a bit more respect.

However, I do not expect our society to exist on anything but nuclear energy in the future. We require much to much power to rely only on solar and wind. Fusion will be the savior, when it comes. In the meantime, instead of grumbling about how nuclear is a danger to future generations, let's find a solution. Thorium reactors, for example.

Snowden journalist's partner gave Brit spooks passwords to seized files

I'm sure it was legally and procedurally sound, but it was not justified.

Depriving a person of his liberty for nine hours just to ask what flavor tea they had is, in my view, a blatant abuse of power. The fact that terrorism was used as an excuse for this is an intolerable abuse of the system.

I think it is high time a major shuffle happened at the top. We need to pink slip every high-level official who was in on this, without benefits of any kind.

The whole thing is a disgrace for justice and democracy.

Screw you, Brits, says Google: We are ABOVE UK privacy law

I seem to remember...

Multiple declarations from some Google understaffer, a certain E. Schmit, or Schmidt, saying that Google always complies with local law.

Of course, this was concerning China and Google's presence in that fledgling digital nation, and it was also about surveillance laws and handing over information concerning traitors who disagreed with the Glorious People's government position.

Most likely that this E. Schmidt or whatever was just an intern and not actually representative of Google management, then.

Sorry, what was that you said ? He is executive chairman of the company and act as an adviser to co-founders Page and Brin ?

Oh, well in that case it's because we're talking about a country where Google's presence is massively monopolistic, permeating into more and more layers of society, and it doesn't have to pretend to care anymore.

Yeah, that must be it.

Vodafone 'settled SECRET £57m Irish tax wrangle' back in 2009

"fully compliant with existing tax laws"

Yeah, and the NSA says it is fully compliant with the law too.

Doesn't mean it's right.

Google proposes eye-tracking ad-tracking

The Total Surveillance Society

It is coming, and you will not be able to opt out.

I'm not saying that Google is planning it, but the NSA has brilliantly demonstrated that it will happily hijack any existing infrastructure to acquire the data it craves, whether that is illegal or not.

The fact that Google is thinking of doing this means that the NSA is thinking of ways to mine it.

And that is where we hit the Total Surveillance Society.

And the sheeple will go on munching...

Re: "But I don't think anyone [..] cares what *you* do or why you do it."

Aww, now you've gone and hurt some poor NSA employees' feelings, you nasty man, you.

Court throws out Icahn's demand to stall Dell shareholder vote

using "the corporate machinery to rig the election,"

He forgot to add : "better than I could".

That would at least have been honest.

Oh wait, we're talking about Icahn. Silly me.

Facebook's flush Sheryl Sandberg savaged over unpaid intern advert

It is nice to see that public companies can actually be shamed into putting their money where their mouth is.

+1 to the Internet for a positive result.

AREA 51 - THE TRUTH by the CIA: Official dossier blows lid off US secrets

Mandatory xkcd reference

http://xkcd.com/1235/

Attention, addicts: LEGO meth lab pays homage to Breaking Bad

Not all that impressive

It seems to me that the Bricking Bad version is better.

Boffins claim Voyager has already left the Solar System

Quiet ! Science is progressing.

Concerning the heliosphere, we know nothing, for the time being we only have educated guesses.

Now we are learning about it while going through it - it is going to take some time and there will be heated debate before a consensus is reached. So let us just note that new theories about the heliosphere are forming, which is a good thing, and monitor scientific progress for the next five years without worrying too much about it.

In the next decade, scientists will have worked it out. In the meantime, it's just too soon to comment.

KABOOOM! Space-faring dwarf's galactic pile-up snapped by X-ray boffins

So the Farenheit scale is basically based on a physics constant on one end, and on the point-in-time physiological state of a single human specimen at an unspecified stage of its evolution on the other ?

Why thank you, that remark has just nailed the entire Farenheit scale to the Pointless folder as far as I'm concerned.

'Database failure ate my data' – Salesforce customer

Re: "running in multiple AWS zones and everything just moved when the one zone went down"

Interesting. Can Salesforce do that ?

Twee...THUD: Boffins build 'The Classifier' to seek out, kill millions of Twitter fakes

Re: "It's unmatched as a source of near real-time reliable information"

If that is really what you think about Twitter, then what the fuck are you doing here ?

Google: Cloud users have 'no legitimate expectation of privacy'

"The entire climate of surveillance and government access will force most of these transactions out of the hands of those mucking it up today."

One can only hope.

Re: "Google used to stand for "white hat" tactics all the way"

Yeah, they used to hide their true nature very well, but since then Eric Schmidt has done his darndest to educate people concerning the true nature of the Chocolate Factory, so that chicken has flown the coop a while ago now.

You call a flash drive a backup ?

Man are you in for a brutal wake-up if you need it five years from now !

Zombie PCs are for crimelord chumps: Fear clusters, says infosec ace

Big Iron Improves Badware shocker

Next in the news : crooks using rocket launchers gain entry quicker than with crowbars.

Yes, except that rocket launchers make a heck of lot more noise than the lowly crowbar, and when you're in the illegal entry business, it pays to be discreet.

I always thought that was one of the prime qualities of a botnet : you're not conducting the attack itself from a traceable IP, you're just giving instructions to a mass of addresses that are conducting the attack on your behalf.

With attacks conducted from a commercial cloud service, it will be easy as pie to trace the attack back to you. I don't think that's all that smart from a crims' point of view. And even if you create your own cluster, you still own the IPs used - so not any better.

I honestly don't see how this is actually going to change things, but hey, I'm not very knowledgeable in such matters.