I need that mortgage!
Posts by greenmantle
36 publicly visible posts • joined 15 May 2008
Tech bribes: What's the WORST one you've ever been offered?
BOFH vs PFY: There can be only one (on the exes chit)
London Olympics shop in Union Jack outrage
Thursday 30th June 2011 09:37 GMT 
Union Jack
It's only important to make the difference between Union Jack and Union Flag when hanging out in the Senior Service. It's important there as the two are threated differently and can lead to diplomatic incidents. (i.e. it can be used to announce intentions depending on where it's flown)
The rest of the world quite rightly doesn't give a monkey's.
I'll ge my coat, it's the one with the slightly wider stripes on the collar....
Asus teases with MacBook Air-esque Eee PC
Is there anything to find on bin Laden's hard drive?
Yank fires up iPhone-controlled beer cannon
Crazed reindeer stalks, attacks Scottish woman with antlers
Facebook bug sin-bins female users
BOFH: Lies and the lying liars who lie about them
Microsoft 'offered sex and drugs to distributors'
Verified by Visa bitchslapped by Cambridge researchers
Thursday 28th January 2010 10:46 GMT
keyfobs
I work for a major investment bank, and these are issued routinely to all staff so that we can access all systems remotely (when working at home, DR etc.).
And yes, the keyfob principle (6 digit code regenerated every 30 secs) is also available as an app on everybody's blackberry.
So good question, why hasn't this been implemented for consumer banking?
Survey outs Britain as nation of tech twits
My hospital HAL - Google man moots syringe that says no
BOFH: Baitin' switch
British boffin named first ever 'doctor of texting'
Twitter meltdown raises questions about site stability
LG's watchphone priced
Boston student fined thousands for Napstering
Monday 3rd August 2009 16:09 GMT 
Please El Reg
I can't read the bloody article because of the bloody adverts pasted all over the text. Please El Reg, do something about this!
And btw, before we all get carried away by browser versions (using ie6 sp2 for my sins) and spacing etc, I work as a contractor in a large company and therefore have little or no control over this system (as BOFH would approve most probably), and can't upgrade to my favorite browser.
What is the point of an advert if it covers up what I want to read?
Wheels come off O2's data network
Swedish devil girls fingered on Street View
Home and Away star in 'Lewinsky' moment
Gordon Ramsay breaches f**king broadcasting code
Tesco tills go titsup
Monday 11th May 2009 12:46 GMT 
Classic...
"According to PA, about 100 stores are affected, and the problems are being rectified by rebooting the checkouts."
Absolute IT Crowd classic: "Have you tried swtching it off and switching it on again?"
Doh!
Paris, because she knows how to turn things off and turn them on again (peolpe too apparently)
London gym floors hoodies with Chav Fighting classes
Ethernet — a networking protocol name for the ages
Zhao 'C' - Chinese police computer says no
Monday 9th March 2009 15:25 GMT 
@ RE:I suppose you have to draw the line somewhere
Hey, my surname is Macdonald. Spelt like that. I don't want some braindead idiot of a developer re-spelling it because everybody is just too lazy to write it properly once and keep the correct capitalisation.
I'm not even going to start on the French here (lived there for a while) who would insist on putting and apostrophe S at the end...
Parcelforce website cold-shoulders Linux lovers
Open source anti-Semitic as well as communist shock
Monday 26th January 2009 21:15 GMT
Wait up...
the problem isn't really email spoofing, as previously stated it's not a hard thing to do and doesn't even involve the systems/whatever of the legit owner.
What's more surprising to me is that the addresses on the mailing list got into the hands of some nitwit...
OpenMoko shouldn't be preventing their email address from being used, but preventing their mailing list being divulged to nut+dog shouldn't they?
Google UK honours Queen Liz 2.0
Deloitte loses hundreds of thousands of pension details
Monday 13th October 2008 14:57 GMT
@ Chris
Having worked in that environment there's a problem with the whole VPN idea. In theory it is the proper thing to do, and when I worked at a Deloitte rival it is what we were instructed to do.
First, most client databases (one for each client) are kept in a central repository, so accessing that repository from a client machine leaves the risk that data could be compromised between clients (especially in a world were employees tend to work per sector and audit several close competitors at once). This means that company policy is always that all work must be done on the Firm's PC, not the Clients (there are actually several other regulatory reasons for this policy).
Also, given the hours worked etc. using one of the clients PC's was never really an option because it always ended up with some littles first year trotting of home with material non public information in his/her pocket. That has to be less secure than any kind of encryption on a laptop.
However, in order to VPN back into the Firm's network from a client site, you need internet access, and this isn't so easy. Most client networks were locked down so that only machines originating within that company could use them, so no internet, and no VPN.
It's a vicious circle really.
Oh and to the rest of you: are you so female deficient that you've never seen a chick with a handbag big enough to carry(and made for carrying) a laptop?
Paris, coz she knows about unwanted disclosure...
BOFH: Remote access malarkey
Hacker unearths young Chinese gymnast scam
Does Microsoft already own the BPM space?
Mac users urged to ditch Safari
Tuesday 5th August 2008 13:03 GMT
Hang on...
"Mac users fall prey to phishing scams at about the same rate as Windows users, yet far fewer of them protect themselves with an anti-phishing toolbar. To make matters worse, the browser of choice for most Mac users, Apple’s Safari, has no phishing protection. We think it should," Consumer Reports said.
... Does that mean that anti-phishing gizmos are perfectly useless as whether people have them or not they still get had just as much?
Paris, coz she likes phishing too...
Outback hack suspect denied bail
Life a mess? The Moderatrix can help
Thursday 15th May 2008 16:09 GMT
@ Capt'n Wotsit
To pre-empt Moderatrix:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time.. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So, which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, 'It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you', and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct.......leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting 'Oh my God'..
Paris, because she looks like Teresa...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
