Posts by Pascal Monett

Fake e-cards signal massive DDoS attack

This certainly demonstrates something

"demonstrating a strong ability in its authors to trick recipients into clicking through so they become infected"

Not really. This Storm worm proliferation demonstrates mostly how gullible and infatuated with themselves people still are. On the other hand, Internet access has only been widely available for quite a short time - the vast majority of users have 2MB or less of pipe (there is still 13% with only 256kbps). So Internet is still in its infancy, and many, many people will still get caught by this.

It will take a few decades more before the majority wisen up to the fact that receiving an email from a perfect stranger is NOT normal and most often NOT wanted. Meanwhile, botnets will flourish.

Mega-planet spotted orbiting fading star

Density of cork ?

and orbiting at a few miles from its parent star ? How many football fields is that exactly ?

More importantly, with a density like that, how can it possibly keep an atmosphere when it's being bombarded at such short range by the power of an intergalactic nuclear fusion plant ?

Boffins flick Quantum vacuum switch from suck to blow

The Potential for Lizard Abuse

This is where we get the first indication that the ROTM is actually our lizard overlords who, having seen the future, are determined to do what it takes to preserve their little gecko cousins - including wiping us out with speed-crazed Renaults if that's what's needed.

Thanks for the warning, Lewis. Now, where is my pickaxe ? I have to start digging that underground bunker in my back yard. Maybe I'll also raise a few geckos, just to prove that I didn't harm them.

Orange dismantles Bristol Tower of Doom

Re: Rain

Nowadays, just about anything can constitute "Incitement to Religious Hatred" - including the fact that I just mentioned it.

Yahoo! denies! China! claims!

Well, Chris

You're new around here, and that is not a question. I suggest you do a quick search for Yahoo on this site - you'll find that your suggestion was already taken into account about five years ago.

Gosh, El Reg can see five years into the future ! Now I know !

E-voting gets bitch-slapped in Calfornia

I have got to agree

I'm glad to see that other countries have sensible voting practices, Mr. Turner.

I live in France and manual ballot casting and counting are the norm. It works fine, and we have never had to recount seven times.

There are obviously some criticisms at every vote, and there is a tribunal to deal with any frauds that may come to pass (such as registering dead people to vote - yes, it's been done in France as well). All in all, it is a very reliable process, and does not cost an arm or a leg.

I wonder if there is some secret agenda in forcing these unsecure machines upon voters. It's almost as if some evil power wanted to undermine the results of an election in order to impose a candidate of its own choosing.

Pascal.

Wife of Rambus CEO outed as message board troll

built on "publicly available information"

Yeah, she just happened to have read every single relevant article the minute it came out.

No chance that she be the origin of a few tidbits, published so that she could blog about it ?

NBC muckraker gets hacked at Defcon

Well I've just watched it

And I have to say that there is a reason why professional cameramen are called "professional". For Heaven's sake, the guy recording that video could hardly keep a stable image on the podium, so imagine what it was like to "chase" someone !

Yep, shots of the floor, the ceiling and just about anything except the object of the "chase". Chase that was quite subdued by the time it got outside. I don't know about inside, since it was WAYYY to dark, but when outside, it would appear that the chase went at a leisurely stroll. She was even talking on the phone !

I was expecting hordes of angry geeks running with caffeine-filled rage. What a disappointment !

Maths might tell us how kids learn language

Vocabulary is just as important as grammar

Without vocabulary, you will not have much to say even if you know how to say it. I'd say vocabulary is more important than grammar. I was raised in the USA until age 11, when I followed my divorced mother back to France, learned French, and went through the French school system.

The irony is that I left the US school system in Junior High School and right when we had started studying grammar, and I was integrated in the French school system the year after they had finished studying French grammar.

So I know how to speak, read and write in two languages better than many, but I don't have the faintest idea why. I can tell someone if what he wrote is correct or not, but I can never justify my opinion. It's always a "gut instinct".

The one thing that helped me was my voracious reading appetite. I love reading all kinds of things, and that brought me a vocabulary much greater than the SMS-toting kids have today. It also probably showed me all the grammar stuff that I missed in school, but absorbed through the millions of words I have read.

So, in fine, I would say that vocabulary is more important than grammar.

Now, concerning this article, I am rather disappointed about the science of it. We are told that the researcher determined that his simulations demonstrated the mathematical tendency of learning better with large words. Great ! Now how were those simulations programmed ? Do we now have a precise mathematical model of brain function ? I doubt that, so what was his computer model programmed with and how is that relevant to the subject studied ?

It's easy to program a computer to give the results one wants to have. What guarantees that that has not been done here ?

Pascal.

Social networks to replace imagination and be woven into clothes

I like that one

I'll keep that in mind. Second Life : The Tamagochi world.

Fitting.

Cassini to make third Enceladus flyby

Spend money on something that saves people lives

Saving people's lives. You mean, like being able to evacuate the planet if ever a large asteroid is on a collision course ?

I'm sure that the funding of a certain Christopher Columbus probably got the same kind of reaction. Spend money on something that will save our country, like agriculture ! Stop wasting money on useless explorations projects that will bring nothing !

With that mentality, the USA would never have seen the light of day. Then again, that just might have been a good thing, who knows ?

Judge ruled against NSA surveillance in US

Spying where no terrorist is suspected

Sorry, but you're wrong there. The Bushies suspect terrorists EVERYWHERE, including the car trunk, so that argument does not hold.

Xerox job losses on the cards after all

Come now, is this supposed to be a surprise ?

I mean, really, it's not like this is the first time, now is it ? What would be much more surprising would be to learn that Xerox DID actually stay true to its word and relocated everyone.

In times of merger, restructuring or major strategic shifts, employees fear for their jobs with reason : because it has been proven time and again that even profitable companies have strictly zero compulsion to keep their employees.

Heck, the biggest ones have laid people off just to improve the year-on-year profit ratio.

Google: Kill all the patent trolls

I agree : patents not used should be discarded

And I'll take it a step further : companies should not own patents, only individuals should. Companies could hire individuals to innovate and file patents in return for a (limited) right to use the patent, but companies would not own the patents, only the right to use them.

Thereby, a company would still have the incentive of doing research, hiring the quality people to do it, and benefit from it by being able to produce the goods and profit from the idea, but they could no longer attack any patent (not having one), and no patent not in use could be used to attack one in use.

It can still work, we just have to put companies back to their rightful place : an engine that promotes economic stability and activity for all the population, and not an excuse for the few to pile on the riches.

Second Life will dwarf the web in ten years

Man, I can just imagine

the size of the bowl of white they snorted before coming on stage. Second Life is nothing but a sexual playground - and people have been screwing around with each other since the dawn of humanity (otherwise we wouldn't be here).

Now I know that computers and virtual worlds are the most important thing bar none in some people's sad lives, but for the vast majority of the world, screwing around for real will always be better than punching the snake in front of a bunch of pixels.

'Ads-funded' Microsoft Works pilot barges onto your PC this year

Office Lite ? Heaven forbid !!

Ballmer will never authorize that. If users found out that a Lite version is enough for 99% of their needs, MS would never sell another full version again.

IBM: Dinosaurs were green

Re:Redundancy...

People have forgotten how mainframes work. The vast majority of today's PC users are most probably ignorant of what mainframes even are.

A PC is motley collection of basic hardware components. Its advantage is that it is easy to make components for it, which is why the hardware industry is wallowing in innovation. PCs are used for single tasks most of the time, and the user can generally not be bothered by knowing what is actually going on in the thing.

A mainframe is a delicate, precise assemblage of components tailored specifically to suit much more demanding hardware specifications. Mainframes can warn you in advance if just about any one of their components is going to fail - so you can replace it before it dies. Mainframes generally allow you to unload and switch off the area you do maintenance in, so that you do not need to shut down the mainframe to replace a component (ever heard of hot-swappable ?). With RAID, PCs have come to learn what hot-swappable is in the disc arena (but not users). Mainframes can do that with just about anything but the backplane (a motherboard, in other words).

In other words, I'm sorry to destroy your illusions but when the 3900 PCs are turned off, the few mainframes will easily take up the position and you're going to wait a long, loooong time before getting a day off because one of the mainframes went down. If it is competently managed, you might never see it be down during your entire career.

3D handset hits streets of Japan

I wonder

How many of those slim thingys will be broken in two by being put in a rear pocket and sat upon a few minutes later ?

Sony faces case for 'Cell' patent infringement

Can't be whacked by IBM or Sony

But I'll bet they can very well be whacked by my friend Joey Scaglione. I'll contact him for you if you wish - his prices are very reasonable and the job is always well done.

;-)

Facebook security glitch exposes user in-boxes

Well, one thing's for sure

SOME people did not increase their productivity with this Facebook issue !

Intelligent Finance upgrade downs web service

Two days is a problem ?

I dare say that a two day outage on online service is most certainly NOT a problem. If you have something so urgent that 48 hours is an unacceptable delay, then visit a local branch and talk to the teller - that's what he is for.

If you are too lazy to get off your fat rear and move a thousand yards, then don't whine about two days without service. And if your retort is that the local branch is far, then my answer is that if your banking service is sooo important to you, then move closer to the local branch.

Pascal.

Linkedin spurns bug bounty hunter

"its users, many of whom are high-net worth individuals, were put at a higher risk"

Hmm, that phrase makes the whole thing stink of the "these are rich, important people, so the problem is more important" mentality.

As a member of the LinkedIn community invited by three different people, I am thus a potential victim of the bug, whatever it is. As an aside, I rather hate these social network sites that rely on the personal relations of their users to increase their importance. I would never have joined LinkedIn on my own, but because three different people I know and am sympathetic with invited me, I had to respond and sign in (otherwise, you know, they might take it the wrong way - business relations and all that).

Now there is a bug. Well that hardly surprises me, which is why I filled out the bare minimum in my profile. There is nothing there that I mind if it gets out because it is already public information.

I do not trust any site with personal information, not even my email. I think it is inevitable that sites be cracked at one point or another (and success increases the likelihood of being a target), so why feed the monster ?

ICSTIS wants your views on anonymous SMS

No to anonymous SMS

I'm already mighty miffed that, despite the fact that I turned off receiving ads, I still get promotional drivel from my operator. So I am REALLY NOT interested in getting yet more inane babble from some entity I'm not even sure I know.

UK gov offers car CO₂ rankings by class

New cars are better

Whatever the emission level of the new car you chose, it will most likely be anyway better than the 5-year-old car you have now. Constant improvements are made on engines and combustion technology, and five years is enough to see them come to market.

So, if you really are green, either find a way to not need a car, or renew your vehicle in less than seven years. Anyone who keeps a car for more than that should not tout any green credentials as far as motoring is concerned.

Of course, if you're one of the oafs that has a spotless, shiny 4x4, then this whole article and comment thread is useless to you anyway.

MIT in Matrix 'Crowd Farm' plan

I'm with Jon Tocker

And Daniel Ballado-Torres and LaeMi Qian. Such a scheme is totally unfeasible, technically speaking.

And I am quite glad that this nonsense is being brought to light. I believe it is time to give MIT an Iggy award.

California e-voting machines have more holes than Swiss cheese

unrealistic worst case scenario ?

Just exactly what is unrealistic in imagining someone "subverting" the server before installing a logging application ?

Just what is unrealistic in imagining an agent training himself in unscrewing the lid to insert some tampering device and rescrewing the lid on in record time ? He wouldn't have to be all that quick either - there is no time limit on voting, and no one will dare open the privacy screen in less than five minutes, especially not if you talk back and state you're having trouble deciding.

I find all these tests quite realistic, and I despise the current state of electronic voting machine technology. If you make a machine to count my vote, you had better prove to me that it is totally secure from tampering, and I mean totally. And that rules out using Windows to run it for starters.

By the way, I don't know about all of Europe, but in France we don't have machines to vote. It's the good ol' paper ballot in the voting urn, and it works fine. There was a trial of a few machines for the Presidential vote that brought Sarkozy to power - but it was badly timed for a first try and generally not appreciated by the public. No word on efficiency or security, although a few civil rights organizations declared that they were unsafe and unfit for duty.

I don't suppose that'll be enough to keep the machines from coming, though.

MS-DOS paternity suit settled

Not that I do this often

but I really feel that this quote is relevant (Mark 12:41-44) :

And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

And he called his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

For all did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, all her living.

Now then, what is this I hear about Bill G being a Good Man ?

Bush to Congress: streamline star-chamber spy court

Isn't it wonderful ?

To see just how a robust democracy, stalwart defender of Human Rights, stands up to defend those values in a time of hardship ?

Yes, it would be nice to see that. Unfortunately, that is nowhere to be seen at the moment.

I viewed V for Vendetta just last night, and I was shocked at how relevant the film is to the current events.

Of course, it was made in 2005, but it is based on a comic book character (hey, another Marvel creation goes to the silver screen) that predates the film by decades.

Basically put, I feel that this film accurately portrays a possible future that I would prefer did not happen. But the way Bush and his cronies are going, it seems all too possible.

IBM: technology will ease travel woes

Another thing missing

Any word on British trains being able to successfully navigate after a bit of snow, or maybe even some wet leaves, have fallen on (or near) a track ?

Is there any technology available for that ?

Right. As they say, I'll get my coat.

New tool enables loading of unsigned drivers in Vista

In short then,

Basically Atsiv is the nail in the coffin of whatever stability and security Vista could actually hope to have.

Congratulations, guys. You have officially killed a Moon launch worth of code. Now that you've driven Vista down to Windows Me level, can you do anything about killing the DRM infestation and overreaching tendency that Vista has to phone home ?

Council worker develops PC energy-saving program

People, people, we're talking about a Council !

It's news because it's a CIVIL SERVANT who has finally actually used his brain for something USEFUL !

I fail to understand why the common, hard-working grunt is not dancing in the streets with joy. It's part of the Government that has not only discovered a useful bit of tech - even one lying around in the dust for a decade now - but has even had the balls to go and implement a use for it that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Not only that, but this new functionality is going to actually SAVE MONEY ! Isn't that a revolution in itself ? Hey, Asmodeus, better do a quick temperature check down there - methinks you might have a snowball or two surviving.

Europe's floods and fires snapped from space

High-level view is beautiful

Must have been awesome to see the impact of the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs - from the Moon, that is. I can just imagine the beautiful symmetry of the halo around Ground Zero, expanding in a wonderfully linear progression under the pumes of crust and mantle rising lazily in the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, on the ground, millions of creatures were being blasted by mega-hurricane winds of searing hot air that made the pyroclastic flows of Mt Vesuvius seem like a friendly garden barbecue, or being mashed to pulp by earthquakes of a magnitude that the Richter scale cannot even begin to describe.

It's all a question of scale, of course. A supernova is quite nice when you're a few thousand light-years away, but it's Armageddon for any planet orbiting the thing.

ICANN opens registrar reform up to public comment

Reform ICANN ? Cool !

Let's start by making ICANN actually respect its charter. You know, like not allowing a tender to be pre-awarded to Verisign despite the fact that many organizations decried the move and the decision was not based on established procedure.

Public comment on registrar reform. Yeah sure. We'll comment all we want, then ICANN will just go ahead and do as it pleases - like it's been doing since the dawn of the Internet.

I trust Twomey's dedication to transparency and democracy in ICANN dealings just a slight bit more than I trust Dubya's dedication to the same concerning the US government.

If you don't have an electron microscope, don't bother measuring.

The search for alien life

@Andy Bright

I was incensed by your comment right up to the point where you said "It would be a great joke to play on the creationists". Now I agree totally with you. So, where do I sign up ?

Intel responds to EU's anti-trust statement

Microsoft got raked over the coal ?

Oh did it ? Is that actually the impression that is left from all the frothing and hot air around the DoD vs MS case ?

Well it's a sad thing if it is, because as far as raking is concerned, Microsoft probably feels it mostly got a nice little back-scratch. I'll bet a lot of companies would have liked to get the treatment MS got from such a high-profile case which dwindled to not much after the DoD emasculated itself in its decisions.

With all the posturing, FUD and outright lies that MS lawyers gave at the proceedings, one would have thought that the judge would have ordered 50 lashings for everyone and a total breakdown of the company. Instead, MS was ordered to set up an internal review department and was left to its own devices while pretending to listen to the DoD.

Raked over the coals ? I think not.

GPL whiz Moglen nails Web 2.0 O'Reilly on 'frivolous' charges

@Connor Garvey

So you weren't there and you don't even care, but you still guess that one party was "childish" and "unprofessional" ? How about checking a transcript or catching a retransmission before venturing an unfounded opinion ?

I guess "objectivity" is a dying resource.

Microsoft rigs Live Search traffic

"using real people as the automatons"

Isn't that what politicians do every few years ?

Sharks in the soup, says conservation group

Re: Gore's party

"sharks are biologically important scavengers in the marine ecosystem"

Well yes, and politicians are biologically important scavengers in the clueless ecosystem.

The relation is clear to me.

;-)

Yahoo! buys Indian ad firm

@jonathan

Indeed, standards are falling in the summer season.

tsk, tsk. What a pity.

US cons attempt copyright-based prison break

Something I'm missing here

Aren't these guys in prison ? How did they get in contact with the FBI guy, by posting a notice on the Web ?

Aren't prisoners supposed to be shut off from society during their term, or am I just thinking like last century ?

I'm all for reintegrating prisoners into society - else they'll just end up back in prison (happens a lot anyway from what I hear) - but when they are in jail their communications with outside should really be controlled better.

Moving mobile numbers should be instant

@Nick Ryan

As someone who is just over 40, I take exception to your argument. I agree that many people that are advanced in their years do have trouble grasping the complexity of computers, internet and mobile phones, but it might do you good to realize that many people "just above 40" today are responsible for your ability to make that gratuitous comment.

Don't knock your elders, grasshopper, among them is the one that changed your diapers.

UK planespotters to battle al-Qaeda

@Andy Bright

Spot on there, chum. I like your way of thinking.

I hope this security craze will pass, especially since I don't see any ACTUAL security in any of the proposals made since 9/11.

Seriously, if we want to be sure our airports are secure, all we need to do is ask El Al. That airline is Israel-based, and I don't remember hearing about a hijacked El Al plane since about a quarter of a century.

Yet Israel is right in enemy territory, and there is no shortage of towel-heads in the area.

They must be doing something right, and I bet it doesn't have much to do with parking distance.

Why don't we send a study group over to El Al and check what they're doing ? Why are we content with screening baby bottles and refusing kiddie scissors ?

If we're supposed to be scared of terrorism, then I want REAL security, not just impolite security personnel prone to giving your back end a finger check.

Second Life gets its first copyright law suit

PayPal is not a bank

A bank has the obligation to manage your money responsibly and return it to you when you ask. PayPal has not signed any such charter and can suspend your account without warning and without refunding you your money. No proper bank does that.

PayPal is fine when it works, but when it doesn't you're up shit creek without a paddle.

Microsoft Windows patent will spy for advertisers

Just stick to pre-Vista software

And buy a hardware firewall and turn off Windows Automatic Updates.

XP has no adware in applications, and Office 2000 is more than enough for almost everyone.

I will never pay for ad-supported applications, not will I fork over my hard-earned money for any OS or app that I know spies on me and phones to its masters.

It's MY computer ! MINE ! And I'll do what I feel I want to do with it, whether or not that pleases Gates & Co.

Microsoft is now officially way off course with their software department. They are using the slogan "Your potential, our passion". That should be changed to "Your privacy, our revenue".

If I want ads, I'll pick up a mag or look at the tube or take a drive. I DO NOT want ads on my PC, and CERTAINLY NOT when I'm working on it !!

Where do I want to go today ? ANYPLACE WITHOUT ADS, MORONS !

MPs call for British manned space flight

Re: Re: More spending

I'll second that !

El Reg lobs iPhone at Genius Bar

You truly are a w*nker.

Congratulations on your tremendous insight and valued opinion, Mr. Anonymous Coward. Too bad you didn't have the balls to actually put your name on your comment.

Italian police net 26 in phishing takedown

It did not fail

The park rangers did not fail in their uprising - they effectively took each and every national park HQ building over all the national forests - only nobody ever knew about it so the rangers went back home after their rations ran out.

Iraq base plans left on open servers

What about responsability ?

Don't you just love how you can read, year after year, how those who are in charge of security fail dismally at actually being secure, and that none of the errors are followed by any kind of sanction, and hardly any improvement ?

Did anyone get fired after this latest security failure was revealed ? Did any company lose a contract ? Did anyone get a public shaming and a note in his employment record ?

And does anyone thing anything is going to change by making this information public ? We all know that the government and its organizations are years behind in security matters. It appears things are not really getting any better.

Man uses tank in phone mast flattening rampage

Fired 12 rounds

Only because one of the cops present had done his military service in the Armor Brigade and knew how to open the hatch on that specific model of tank. Seems that it is not so easy.

Funny thing, though, that in Australia, land of the so-called crooks and renowned for the aggressive behavior of its males, this guy got peppered and thrown in jail, whereas in the Land of the Used-To-Be Free, the guy got swiss cheesed and thrown into a body bag.

Ironic ?

US seeks mini-Imperial Walker mule-bots

Multiple problems

First of all, the noise issue is a very big one. Who is this "dog" supposed to be for ? Special Forces ? Not if it makes a racket. Regular troops ? They march by the hundreds and make enough racket already, so just put a truck behind them to carry their stuff, it won't make much of a difference.

I can imagine a robot for bomb-disposal or landmine detection (just have it run over the target zone), but I don't think troops would like regular visits from an ammo robot that would reveal their position on a continuous basis. I have no experience myself, but I don't think that real-life combat resembles Counter-Strike or BF2142 in any way. I think real troops in a firefight prefer cover and concealment. A racket-making robot dragging ammo around every quarter hour would tear both to shreds, not to mention being a walking target of destruction itself (hey, isn't that an ammo dog ? Give me the rocket launcher and tell me where it stops !).

As for the stealth aspect of things, if it is supposed to go on a mission with Special Forces troops, then it needs to be as silent as possible and a lot more enduring than 2 hours, or even four. Special Forces missions are not the kind you do in two hours, in my opinion. Trekking over a few kilometers of jungle to infiltrate an enemy position with the goal of destroying a satellite dish or fuel tanks is not going to be facilitated by a robodog that needs feeding every two hours. And they're not going to carry it until they need it - they have enough to carry already.

Frankly put, aside from bomb detection and eventually disposal, I fail to see where a robodog is really going to be better than a more conventional transport vehicle.