Posts by Pascal Monett

SEC charges VMware with hiding slowing sales from investors

"without admitting or denying the SEC's findings"

You're paying.

You've admitted.

I am sick and tired of this PR bullshit.

One month after Black Hat disclosure, HP's enterprise kit still unpatched

""Security is always a top priority for <company>"

PR bullshit alert.

That's always the line they trot out when they have demonstrated that they don't give a damn.

If it was a "top priority", you'd have fixed the problem by now, or at least, announced when a fix would be available.

Wankers.

OVH opens less flammable datacenter at site of 2021 fire

"the lack of [..] an automatic fire extinguisher system"

What ? They built a datacenter full of electrical equipment and they didn't have a fire extinguishing system in it ?

Well duh.

Want to know the future of FOSS? You can look it up in a database

"resentment towards what looks, feels and costs like extortion"

Eh, Oracle ?

It's nice to see that FOSS is gaining ground. The future is open, proprietary is dying.

Maybe that is the proper evolution of things.

Hybrid work not working? Try building an 'intraverse' to fix it, says Gartner

An "intraverse"

Really ?

We've been using Zoom and a VPN for the past two years and now you wake up to put a fancy name on it ?

Dear God, the day you guys say something actually useful is the day I'm winning the lottery.

Chemical plant taken offline by the best one of all: C₈H₁₀N₄O₂

I would have thought

That the change in procedures would be more concerned with forbidding any liquids than with who could enter.

After all, it wasn't George's coffee that caused the problem.

Boffins build microphone safety kit to detect eavesdroppers

If there's a hardware switch, where's the problem ?

It's not difficult to create a hardware notification of mic activity. If the mic is on, then it is using current. Detect the use of current, and light up the LED.

No software can go against that.

If you have a hardware switch, well that prevents the mic from getting current. No software can counter that either.

But of course, this needs to be implemented in hardware.

Data tracking poses a 'national security risk' FTC told

Idiocracy is well on its way to becoming a documentary.

Meta disbands Responsible Innovation team, spreads it out over Facebook and co

"massive losses trying to prop up Zuckerberg's vision of the metaverse"

Um, that's not a scandal, that's just El Zuck wasting his money as he wishes.

He has that right, and the other investors can just Zuck it up.

Using the datacenter as a dining room destroyed the platters that matter

Re: No explosives in the tech support room

Goes a long way to demonstrate that having diplomas does not equal having intelligence.

Also demonstrates why US goods are sold with their weight in warnings about what you shouldn't do with them.

NASA just weeks away from trying again with SLS Moon rocket launch

There is one thing I don't get

They pump liquid hydrogen into the rocket, right ?

That liquid hydrogen is stored somewhere, right ?

So why don't they use the same sealants they have on the storage tank ?

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs memorialized with online archive of emails, guff

The Steve Jobs Archive

Well that's one link I'll never go to.

Open source biz sick of FOSS community exploitation overhauls software rights

"the need and moral obligation to contribute"

Once again, a FOSS project finding itself successful finds an excuse to extract money.

Oh sure, only from corporations that make $25+ million. Nice excuse.

Youd didn't say that when you started, you're saying that now that you know your project is being used.

Looks like a bait-and-switch to me.

Microsoft warns of bugs after nation pushes back DST switchover

"enough time to build, test, and release"

What ?

Borkzilla is testing something ?

That's news.

DoJ charges pair over China-linked attempt to build semi-autonomous crypto haven on nuked Pacific atoll

"offers to connect and secure small island nations"

Secure ? With the Chinese Navy ?

It will be quite expensive to have a warship stationed next to every tiny piece of rock in the Pacific.

Judge tells Elon Musk he can't stall Twitter trial

"according to an internal memo"

As a side question, what's the point of of posting arguments on this kind of event in an internal memo these days ? Just post it, it's going to get leaked anyway.

Nadine Dorries promotes 'Brexit rewards' of proposed UK data protection law

Re: The EU is likely to take a harder line in the re-join negotiations

I should hope so.

Especially since the UK is whining about things it itself had approved and voted for before it left.

The EU is not perfect, but everything it has encated has been approved by all its members - including the UK.

So deal with it.

Because it's always easier to comfort oneself in one's mind than to confront reality.

Dead people could be designated authors of Atlassian Confluence docs and that can't be changed

"we can’t build everything at once"

Of course you can't. That is not what is being requested. What is being requested is that you have a product that works. Something you should have done before making it available.

Once upon a time, when you published your software, you had to make sure it worked because there was no Internet for you to post updates and leave people to manage themselves. If you failed to ensure your software was functional, you wouldn't sell, end of.

These days, with near-ubiquitous Internet access, you no longer care about making a fully functional product, you only care about making a product function enough - the rest will be dealt with by support team.

One guy working in a basement.

I like my FTTH, but sometimes, I long for the times when I could buy a product and it worked.

Cloudflare stops services to 'revolting' hate site

Sad, but inevitable.

Re: Only two sides?

"Life is rarely that simple"

Indeed. Unfortunately, experience says that if you try to describe ten sides or more, people lose interest and can't follow the arguments.

We need a better education system.

UK govt says contractors should challenge IR35 status via self-assessment

"high levels of non-compliance"

Hardly a surprise when HMRC cannot be arsed to explain the rules properly.

Microsoft, Activision Blizzard have days to show merger won't harm competition

"The gaming industry today is robust and dynamic"

Not sure I agree with that. The gaming industry is constituted of a handful of giant powerhouses and a sea of small shops struggling to survive and thrive.

When Microsoft acquired Mojang, it absorbed one of the small guys who had become successful, thus diminishing the amount of talent (and competition) that existed in the market. That is not a factor that improves the robustness of the market.

If Microsoft continues to acquire any and every house of any success, then the market will be down to whatever the top three are today. That won't make for a very dynamic industry.

Why bother with warrants when cops can buy location data for under $10k?

Re: (3) Phone only ever switched on in public places, never at home or at the office

I would think the reverse : phone only switched on at home or at the office.

The goverment already has that data from other sources. Where you go, on the other hand, should be your own private business, unless there's an emergency.

Terminal downgrade saves the day after a client/server heist

"the new app meant nothing"

Ah, so just like a lot of "upgrades" today, then ?

Lenovo launches face-mounted monitor

"get the feel of a larger screen"

I'm pretty sure my laptop already has a better resolution than that.

Besides, I need reading glasses now, so this gadget will be completely useless for me.

But hey, it's nice to see that all those VR headsets have been practically kneecapped by this new toy.

Ex-NSA trio who spied on Americans for UAE now banned from arms exports

So, ex-NSA spies are sanctioned

In other words, when you are an NSA employee, those actions are fine, but as soon as you leave, you're toast.

USB-C to hit 80Gbps under updated USB4 v. 2.0 spec

What is an "active" cable ?

A cable is a cable. It's a bit of wire with certain mechanical properties, mainly, the ability to transfer current.

Our technology allows us to modulate that current to transfer data, but that has nothing to do with the cable and everything to do with the bits the cable is plugged into.

So, what is the difference between an "active" and a "passive" cable, given that the cable isn't given the choice ?

Goodbye, humans: Call centers 'could save $80b' switching to AI

Okay, AI chatbots - so how would this work out ?

I had my FTTH line snagged by the local farmer's tractor - don't ask me how but apparently it had been installed a bit low on the pole across the street.

The line was intact, but it was on the ground. So I still had my connection, but the line was on the ground.

I had to explain three times to the helpdesk drone before he got the message. The line is intact, yes, but it is physically on the ground. Please come and hang it back up again.

I even got a visit from an actualy supervisor (yes, in person) who came to check on the situation.

Didn't make any difference though, they left it on the ground until some vehicle passed and wrecked it a month later. Oh, then they were there in two days to redo the whole installation.

So how could I explain this to an AI bot when actual humans took an hour to understand and then still didn't do anything until the line was actually physically cut ?

Oh no, that James Webb Space Telescope snap might actually contain malware

Again, a bloody attachment

If you don't open it, you're fine.

When will people learn ?

On top of the fact that you hardly need to click on an attachment to view that particular pic. It's all over the Internet at this point.

Braking news: Cops slammed for spamming Waze to slow drivers down

Re: Technically correct

Of course they're supposed to.

Since when has that ever meant they actually do ?

Interesting difference in attitude

UK plod advertizes its presence while US cops want to stay stealthy.

I wonder if that has anything to do with how many guns are available in either country ?

FBI: Look out, crooks stole $1.3b in cryptocurrency in just three months this year

"get professional financial advice if in doubt"

Here's some professional advice for free : don't.

Only time will tell ? Really ?

It's been well-nigh 14 years since BitCoin started burning the world and nothing good has come of it, or any of its siblings, since.

However, the number of exchanges run by crooks or idiots has been revealed to be, well, practically all of them.

This is a case where you should actually throw the baby out with the bathwater.

LabMD gets another shot at defamation claim against 'extortionate' infosec biz

No honor between thieves, then ?

It seems that Tiversa was a front for a bunch of miscreants playing "ethical" hackers, but with the intent of extracting money from another bunch of incompetents pretending to do medical analysis.

Smells like Theranos. It would seem that this is a trend.

In any case, I'll be enjoying the popcorn.

US bars Nvidia and AMD from selling AI-centric accelerators to China and Russia

"the US government last week banned AMD and NVIDIA from selling some AI kit to China"

Okay, fine, but how difficult is it actually to set up a few shell companies that end up selling kit to China ?

Not that I'm saying Nvidia would do that, but China might.

Big cloud rivals hit back over Microsoft licensing changes

"Customers should be able to move freely across platforms"

I'm sorry, when was that promised ? I don't recall ever hearing that AWS was compatible with Azure or anything else.

Yes, that is becoming a requirement now, especially since businesses are losing their brains and flocking to someone else's server to host their business-critical data, but that was never mentioned when AWS, Azure or anything else starting building the business.

Voyager 1 data corrupted by onboard computer that 'stopped working years ago'

I absolutely agree.

NASA and its engineers have done a stellar job on building and maintaining Voyager and the science we have recovered with it is priceless.

California to try tackling drought with canal-top solar panels

"enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland"

Great.

That'll be another 10 almond farms in California then.

Startup wants to build a space station that refuels satellites by 2025

Orbital refueling station

An interesting idea, but one that is probably going to have to wait a few years before being useful.

And I mean, a few years after it is in orbit.

I don't think that todays' satellites are capable of being refueled - but I don't know for sure. Once the orbital station is in place and has published its fueling procedure, maybe satellite makers can take that into account but, today, nobody has planned for that and planning is everything where a satellite is concerned.

It's a good idea, for sure, but I have the feeling the company is going to need to survive at least twenty years before actually starting to make any money.

Decisions on health data sharing should not be taken by politicians, citizen juries find

"decisions about health data sharing should not be taken by politicians"

I'm starting to think that there are a few other areas that should be off limits to politicians.

Like state policy, for starters.

Let's just say we keep them around for visiting politicians from other countries, or to send them off to visit politicans in other countries.

They know how to hold a glass of wine, and that's about it.

Germany orders Sept 1 shutdown of digital ad displays to save gas

The explanation is simple : human stupidity.

Try explaining why France has a nuclear industry that hasn't experienced any such incident.

If nuclear was that dangerous, there would be whole portions of countries that would not be inhabitable.

Go educate yourself on Tchernobyl before spouting such nonsense.

You haven't seen some of the LED panels in the villages around mine.

Not to mention the absolutely ginormous one which is visible from a kilometer away when you drive into Luxembourg city.

BOFH and the case of the disappearing teaspoons

"There's been a terrible accident"

Given that it happened near the BOFH's building, it was more a perfectly normal accident.

Deals are being 'inspected by higher levels of management,' says Salesforce

"shaved its revenue forecast for the year from $31.8 billion to $31 billion"

Oh my GOD, what a CATASTROPHE.

That's at least, hang on, 2.5% less !

How will Salesforce ever survive with only $38 billion ?

And it only lost 5% on valuation ? How nice of Wall Street to spare them thus.

Twitter whistleblower summoned to Senate Judiciary Committee

"a false narrative"

Hey look, fake news is back !

But with a suit this time, because Trump ain't there any more.

Tesla owner gets key fob chip implanted in his hand

"Suddenly everyone was an expert in everything and had an opinion about fields they had done no study in"

Yeah. It's called the Internet.

Block sued after ex-staffer siphons customer data

"Block – the digital payments giant formerly known as Square"

Digital payment giant ?

Never heard of it.

Given that its founder is also the founder of Twitter, I'm not surprised about this breach. He was too busy tweeting to actually run his company.

No pity from me. You get the big salary, you accept the responsibility of your failure.

Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Voyager to pay $1.6m bonus to key staff

What ?

"thousands of creditors struggle"

"already well-compensated employees"

I'm sorry, what's the deal here ? You have thousands of creditors ? And you declare that your employees are well paid ?

Good for you.

You still failed, which, since you were a funny money scam, is not surprising.

NASA's Space Launch System rocket is on track for August 29 liftoff

"$2 billion per launch"

Thank God it's reusable.

Oh wait . . .

ServiceNow: Customers 'struggling to understand the value of ELAs', says Gartner

"are designed to enable greater flexibility in terms"

Greater flexibility for who ?