* Posts by Jellied Eel

5354 publicly visible posts • joined 18 Aug 2008

Ker-Splunk! Cisco closes $28 billion analytics acquisition

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Well, maybe a few ways. A few hundred ways. Still, not many.

Look on the bright side. The HP/Autonomy well is almost dry, so on to bigger and better fees! Lawyers gotta eat after all. Splunk's revenues around $3.5bn, so close to 10x revenues seems like a fair enterprise valuation, right?

Jellied Eel Silver badge

huh?

enabling new ways for customers to detect, investigate, and respond to threats that can only be identified via lateral movement in the network."

Ermm. Ok. I'm guessing 'lateral movement' isn't referring to the San Andreas fault letting rip, and dumping Cisco into the Bay. Or maybe Cisco's CEO will hope that happens when they've sobered up and realised they've paid $28bn for a load of marketing guff.

The last mile's at risk in our hostile environment. Let’s go the extra mile to fix it

Jellied Eel Silver badge

I had to reply on the failover 4G service built into my BT Business SmartHub 2 today. I have 2 ADSLs from 2 providers, and following this weekends upgrade to national infrastructure both were dead this morning

I'd say that's.. unlikely, and thus likely. So it's rare to have exchange lines going to 2 diverse exchanges. So more likely to have 2 providers in the same exchange using LLU. Then both going down if there's a power outage, or the cable to the exchange gets cut.

Now if only they had made the failover work seamlessly in Bridge mode.

That would mean having fixed and mobile links both active, which makes routing FUN!. Active/standby has been around for decades though using either POTS or mobile, and often used by retailers etc. Often came with some FUN! gotchas, like broadcasts (hello, MS) bringing up the dial/backup interface and generating rather large phone bills. That's usually the challenge in offering this type of config, ie configuring the failover modes and then dispute resolution if/when it doesn't, or doesn't fail back from 'expensive' dial-up to fixed line.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: "Stop putting cabling in easy to reach, easy to breach ducting"

Don't need a slit trench. They used a sort of hydraulic shuttle here which pushed its way through the ground. Its not perfect -- it came close to the surface at one point and mercifully missed any utilities -- but since the fiber is in a tough orange pipe, a bit like an oversized hosepipe, its really easy to spot.

Yep, mole drilling is another option. But not always a cheap option.

Just rolling it out on the ground is organized incompetence.

But on who's part? We don't know the story, ie if the neighbour refused to pay to have it done properly. Or why the neighbour would have accepted the install, if it were that bad. Problem is for broadband, there seems to be the perception that every connection should come with a free moon on a stick, rather than considering the costs. If only energy companies were treated the same way.

Reality is there's usually very slim margins on residential stuff. So on some networks I've worked on, there's an assumption that an install will be no more than 2-4 man hours of labour, and say $50 in parts. Anything above that and the service is going to lose money, so procedure should be to charge excess costs, or reject the order. Any change to installation requirements or SLAs is just going to increase the costs and make broadband more expensive, or unaffordable. Sure, it would be nice if every drop is ducted and buried, but that isn't always easy or cheap. Someone has to pay for it. It's all part of the challenge though. Some time back, there was the usual DM sadface story with somebody who's driveway had been 'ruined' because installers didn't color match grout. That's the kind of garbage field/OP people have to deal with. Me, I'd have taken a bucket of sand, some sump oil and brushed that on the drive. It's color matched now.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: "Stop putting cabling in easy to reach, easy to breach ducting"

The installation should at least have been done competently. I doubt laying the fibre on the ground surface would count as that.

It depends I guess. We don't know the specifics of the install, but residential installs can get complicated. So from previous poster..

The fibre emerges from the ground at the edge of the footpath and lies along the surface of their paved forecourt alongside a party wall for some four meters before rising in a loose loop about 30 cm into an equipment box of some sort on the house wall.

Which is to me an immediate red flag. Or in the vernacular, excess construction charges. So burial would either be a slot trench, which would obviously mess up the paved forecourt, or lifting and reinstating the block paving which takes time and is expensive. So customer might have been given the choice of paying excess construction charges to do it neatly/properly and refused. It's just one of those things. One of the most expensive 'simple' jobs I've done was to run a roughly 250m duct and entry into a building in Camden. Slight snag, only way into the building was via a historic cobbled street. So we had to liase with council, archaeologists, architects and all to ensure each cobble was lifted and replaced exactly as it was, without any damage. And then to make it even more expensive, the client was in a Grade 1 listed building. But that's one of the reasons why quotes get caveated with 'subject to survey'. Sales spod on that one igored that caveat, signed contract with client and then got fired.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: "Stop putting cabling in easy to reach, easy to breach ducting"

It's going to keep getting run over by a lawnmower until you bury it, buckwheat.

Depends on the country. In the UK, it can be common for the home/landowner to be responsible for the part of the service that's on their property. Even when that's not the case, you may still find yourself liable for repairs to the SP's side of the demarc, if your actions caused the damage. It's no different to charging contractors for backhoe fade. Again it's one of those things that should have been sorted out during the installation, although the SP may have charged for the burial.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Non-Redundant Redundancy

You can contract with two different ISPs, running two physically-separate sets of cables into opposite ends of your building, but that helps you not a whit if both of those ISPs depend upon the same upstream providers,

This is more a customer awareness issue, linked to this comment from the article-

Setting a minimum level of service for all operators, fixed and mobile, would be a huge step forward against vandalism, coordinated physical attacks, and other hazards.

So a client goes to the expense of getting 2 ISPs, diverse entry and all that jazz. The client thinks they have a 'diverse' solution, but they do not. They have 2x single services from 2 providers and absolutely zero assurance of diversity over the life of the contract. As you say, there is pretty much zero protection against circuits or traffic ending up going via a SPOF, especially with smaller providers. BT offers a service called 'assured seperacy' that guarantees a minimum distance between circuit paths. Other providers can do the same, and the main difference is their OSS can tag the circuits so if there's grooming, or regrooming they can be flagged to maintain seperacy. It's more expensive, but it works. Mostly.

But this stuff is also why infrastructure attacks may be becoming more severe. More people have .kmz files showing in pretty good detail where physical infrastructure runs. So it doesn't take a lot of effort to build up a map. Send in an RFQ for diverse connections into a large datacentre, look at the .kmz for where to cut to isolate that datacentre. It can be depressingly easy to do this, especially when manhole covers are often marked with the provider. Those maps often aren't stored securely, so could be compromised by attackers.

Setting a minimum service level won't do anything to fix the problem, other than make services more expensive. The problem is infrastructure is just too easy to identify. Legislation that increases the penalties for vandalism or deliberate attacks might help, but at the moment the punishment is pretty weak compared to the actual damage caused. It is possible to use civil courts to recover costs, but if it's a cable thief or vandal, there won't be money to recover damages.

FCC ups broadband benchmark speeds, says rural areas still underserved

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: I'll wait for it

That is absolutely no excuse. There are things known as repeaters. And technical knowledge, which it seems your ISP is sadly lacking.

Sure. Repeaters. So snag with those is they a) cost money and b) need space, heat and power. So ISP would have to get wayleaves and rent/buy land to install anything from a containerised PoP to a cabinet. Not so bad if you can spread those costs over a few thousand connections, but expensive if there's only a dozen or so properties. Then you need to connect to those customers at $100+ per meter, and you need wayleaves to run those connections. Rural stuff has legal challenges with private, unadopted or unincorporated land and roads, which makes life even more complicated. And then there's just the issue that US properties tend to be larger, and further apart. So land might be platted for anything from say, 0.2 acres to 0.5+ per dwelling. Then if you've got a decent sized plat, you probably don't want your home built bang up to the road, so long digs to get from the curb to the property.

Most of the issues with rural broadband aren't technical, they're in dealing with the paperwork and costs for the civils. The technical stuff is actually the easy bit, ie SMF (Single Mode Fibre) gives you a span of say, 40km. Then either run 144f or 288f cables and drop out a fibre per home, or more often use PON (Passive Optical Networking) to drop wavelengths. But you'll need pit boxes or similar to install PON cassettes, or splice out the fibre drops. Those often don't need power, but do need space and construction costs. Or use catenary cable, slap all that on poles and hope people don't drive into them, trees fall on them etc etc.

Is Russia using Starlink in Ukraine? Congress demands answers

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Some answers might be found here

On the question about how 'Russian' forces are ending up with Starlink terminals-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_kKQnMWXbk

30s: In the vernacular it is called "Baba Yaga". This is a use of a heavy drone that can carry 82nd mines. For its controller and signals receiver, Starlink is used.

Wasn't expecting to see them used on Ukrainian heavy drones,

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Wow

... exposes your point to such a counter-battery of equally horrible and topically UK-GB-EN statements that...

... would be the typical response from a fascist, neo-nazi sympathising troll. The Shapps video is everywhere (at least for now). Find a 'trusted' source of your choice, and watch it. The graffiti is on the one on the tank he's standing next to. Oh, but your 'trusted' sources also have a bad habit of airbrushing out that sort of stuff when it's pointed out and becomes embarassing.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Does your fascination for Nazis of all kinds also extends to...

...grammar Nazis? Here you go. Straight from you comment.

And your point is....?

the marking of possessive case of nouns (as in "the eagle's feathers", "in one month's time", "the twins'‌ coats"

I realise I don't always get that correct, but it's one of those things that should help you identify my posts. How are you getting on with that btw? Previously you were convinced I also post using anonymong accounts like you do. But then you subscribe to a lot of obvious conspiracy theories like that.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Wow

But that pic ain't a thing. From the Finnish forests to the Baltic shores to the woods of Livonia to the hills of Podolia to the steppe of Bessarabia and, eventually, in a yet unacknowledged recess of your mind, you gonna find lotta swastikas symbols. Most of times they predates the surprise of your lineage before the marvel of the first sight of a printed book.

That pic is a thing. But nazis and neo-nazis culturally appropriated and distorted the meanings of a bunch of historical symbols. Nazi and neo-nazi apologists then claim alt-history to justify wearing and displaying those symbols, even when illegal in the EU and much of the civilised world. So context can be important, although it's still hard to justify neo-Nazi groups like Azov sporting the SS panzer division's wolfsangel, or especially their version of the black sun, which was specifically designed for the SS. Or there's the comments from it's founders-

The founder of the battalion, Andriy Biletsky, said in 2010 that the Ukrainian nation's mission is to "lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen"

These are the people we're arming, training and meant to be supporting? But as I've said before, there are simple solutions. Ukraine could outlaw nazi and neo-nazi symbols, and will have to if it wants to join the EU. Of course it's nationalists won't be happy about this. Then there's Zelensky's attacks on the Pope. He said the only flag in Ukraine is the blue & yellow one, so why do so many black & red flags fly as well? Again that's something that's been 'reimagined' as Ukraine's 'battle flag', rather than the flag flown by Ukrainians while participating in the Volyhn and other massacres. Given that flags very dark history, Zelensky could easily ban the public display of those as well.

Or we can just wait for Russia to complete it's de-nazification. But before that happens, those neo-nazis are going to flee into the EU, and I very much doubt we really want them. Could be interesting to see the claims for asylum though.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Wow

It may have been switched off there due to sanctions anyway, and he apparently did refuse to turn it on when they asked. However not sure if that's down to sanctions or him publicly saying he didn't want to start a war - or possibly a bit of both?

I suspect a bit of both. Sanctions are pretty simple, ie it's a criminal offence with some pretty big penalties for companies to provide goods or services that are on the sanctions list. So stuff like Starlink terminals, smart phones and the services supporting them. Vendors have a hard time complying with the physical stuff because sanctioned nations have long found ways to avoid them. I've seen Cisco's in Tehran, even though it's illegal for Cisco to supply them there. Cisco didn't, but stuff leaks. Vendors can't really control where their kit ends up, and it's usually the job of LEAs to identify and prosecute people who've set up businesses to supply kit to sanctioned nations. But then there's also the services side. So I got asked if we could just provide our services using the customer's tin.. Which would also violate sanctions because services are sanctioned as well. I'd rather not get thrown in jail.

But kit is now 'smarter', so depend on licence or support servers, which means they can be geolocated. Which is trivial for stuff like Starlink terminals or smart phones. You've managed to import 1,000 devices. Yey!. They're paperweights because they'll be disabled as soon as they're turned on in a sanctioned country. Which is the easy bit for Starlink, Apple, Google etc. But the situation for Starlink is more complicated because although geofencing would be easy, some Starlink devices are meant to keep working while in Russia. Plus of course security risks, ie if there's a killswitch based on location, that could potentially be abused.

I very much doubt there's an easy way for Stalink to fix this completely.

Geofencing is probably the easiest way, but the problem seems mostly political and the politicians don't seem to have any solution. Or maybe just don't bother. So Russia might use Starlink. But for what? Knowing how easy it is for terminals to be located, and any usage easily intercepted and monitored. But that would still leave the issue of those services still violating the sanctions.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Wow

You really are a russian shill...

Nope, I really am not. But keep yourself wrapped up warm in your red & black comfort blanket.

But I also seem to be in good company. So some chap called 'The Pope' suggested giving peace a chance. Outrageous idea from a chap who's job description is pretty much spreading peace & goodwill. Naturally this prompted a reaction from the Clown Emperor of Ukraine and others with the usual dog-whistles that the Pope is a Russian shill, Putin puppet etc etc. Of course the Pope is also spiritual leader for a few billion Catholics, so I'm sure this will end well. But then Ukraine's also invented it's own religiion, been demolishing Russian Orthodox churches, arresting priests etc etc. Maybe they'll start attacking Catholic churches, priests and adherents as well.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Wow

Nazis and NATO mercs?

WTF is wrong with you?

It's more a question of what might be wrong with you. Or Grant Shapps and his media team. He did an ad read for Ukraine recently from Kiev. Standing in front of some wrecked tanks. None of his 'fact checkers' appeared to have noticed the Nazi graffiti spray painted on one of them. When the vid got released of course, other people did. Oops.

As for NATO mercs. This is one of the reasons France is butthurt. A bunch of French soldiers got killed in a missile strike. So France sent some more soldiers to repatriate the bodies, and Russia gave them another missile. France could have used deconfliction channels to notify Russia they were collecting their fallen, but didn't. Probably because that would have been used by Russia to confirm the presence of the French troops who were killed in the original strike.

And Macron has since been trying to find more NATO troops to die for his ego, including this recent gem-

https://english.nv.ua/nation/sejourne-repeatedly-mentioned-mine-clearing-operations-as-a-possibility-50399761.html

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné backed the idea of sending foreign troops to Ukraine during his March 8 visit to Lithuania to meet with his Baltic and Ukrainian counterparts, Politico reported.

He repeatedly mentioned mine-clearing operations as a possibility, saying it "might mean having some personnel, [but] not to fight."

Not to fight, just to die.

But this idea just demonstrates how dumb our 'leaders' really are. Thing about mines is they're deployed either side of the front line. Well, and the ones like PFM-1s that Ukraine drops on Donetsk. Somehow, I doubt Sejourne is considering sending NATO troops to Donetsk to help clear those mines. So presumably he's meaning all the mines laid on Ukraine's side of the front line. Obviously this means NATO troops would be placed in range of Russian artillery and air strikes, plus clearing Ukraine's mines would be helping Russia. De-mining Ukraine is going to be a massive task, but most of it is currently being conducted by Russia as they continue to advance and capture more Ukrainian territory.

US Congress goes bang, bang, on TikTok sale-or-ban plan

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Clone

But this is a bad law trying to do a bad thing. I don't have much hope that SCOTUS will shoot it down, but they ought to.

I think TikTok is a bit of a red herring, and the real danger is it could be used in future against any website or app.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

So, Rupert Murdoch has to take US citizenship to take over American media because of the influence of the press on American democracy but social networks can be owned, managed and monitored by hostile countries? Can you elaborate?

I think the law is still adjusting. Some industries already have foreign ownership rules, ie news, or even good'ol Britsh Aerospace with BAE becoming a US company for arms contracting. UK's also just been tightening up it's rules on foreign newspaper ownership as well. Social media just seems weirder, ie FacePalm's more of a news/chat service so perhaps demands more attention. TikTok just seems.. weird. I guess I'm old fashioned, but I don't see the threat from the service. Most of that seems to come from users making short videos doing dumb things. If the US really wants information on subscribers, it's already able to obtain that via existing legislation. If it's concerned about privacy, perhaps the US (and UK, EU) should get serious about the way 'social' media companies of all nationalities hoard data.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Conflict

You know what they say about people who get pedantic about the technical details of rape vs. sexual assault ...

They're lawyers? It's also why there are technical distinctions between the offences, along with penalties. Lawyers can also advise on defamation, ie suggesting someone is a convicted rapist when they may not be. This may not be a perfect system, ie someone who hasn't been convicted of rape then gets fined millions for denying rape, even pending appeal. But that's been a strange case, ie whether penetration occured, or not.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Are you saying that isn't the traditional US business way?

It's rarely been this blatant, un-Constitutional, or with the potential for so much blowback though. But again I think it goes back to the Democrat's mantra "it is always better to go too far than not far enough". If there's no pushback, the Dems are just going to keep testing the limits. Then the blowback will be in the form of retaliation, ie maybe China will pass similar legislation to appropriate US tech and IP. Cisco is a national security risk, so Cisco will be forced to divest any assets and operations it has in China, and hand over source code. Or it'll just be a new round in the trade wars. Or companies will just stop investing in the US given the potential risk of freeze, seize and steal their businesses.

It's much the same with the desperate attemps to steal Russia's money. Ok, some of the central bank or state assets might be fair game, but sanctions have also gone after personal assets of people only loosely connected to Russia's government. This is generally against Human Rights Acts. It's already triggered capital outflows from the US and EU, risking the dollar and euro because why would any sane nation risk placing capital or assets where it can be stolen on a political whim? Meanwhile, BRICS is expanding as the West collapses.

A fun one to look at is the way the NSTC steadily expanding. Currently there are.. issues with trade up the Red Sea and through the Suez Canal. So as an alternative, offload containers in Iran, and transport by rail into Russia, and then into the Baltics, Germany, Poland or even what's left of Ukraine.. Which will then allow rail freight into Hungary & Romania etc etc. A faster, and probably cheaper route than traditional ships into say, Rotterdam, especially if you're currently having to ship around Africa to avoid missiles in the Red Sea. So OK, it's not a perfect alternative given the West's attitude to countries like Iran, but it is one that's increasingly being used.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Paranoia can be a symptom of schizophrenia

The larger the ego, the more painful the process. Hence the tailspin.

Indeedy. Along with the lack of introspection, and tendency for projection. Physician, heal thyself.

So someone mentioned attainder, which is a legal thing, and un-Constitutional. Congress, along with most Federal employees are sworn to uphold the Constitution, not find ways to ignore or outright break it for political aims. So I made the mistake of invoking TDS for the way this has been happening, and triggered the usual wave of bile and misinformation. Insurrection? Not proven or even charged. Attempts have been made to override the constitution and de-platform Trump, and the Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that governors do not have the power or authority to disenfranchise voters in that way. Yet 'liberals' here still seem convinced that Trump is guilty of insurrection, or a multiple rapist.. None of which has been proven.

But misinformation has become a very hot topic. Democrats and other fascists in the US and EU desperately want to control the narrative. Pesky people just ain't buying what they're saying any more, and it's election season in the West. So the proposed anti-TikTok legislation is just another step in this game, but it also gives the Executive the potential power to apply it against any other service it deems controlled or influenced by a foreign power. This is un-Constitutional (ie attainder) as well as having huge ramifications for free speech. And much the same is happening in the UK with Gove's recent proposal to crack down on extremism.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Wither America?

The guy who claims Biden is liquid can't make a single coherent speech.

The evidence for that speaks for itself, even with the help of cue cards and autoprompters. Never forget the July 6th insurrection! Vroom vroom!

The guy who pushes stories of emails and laptops (with the help of Russian "informers") was storing storing stacks of crates of top-secret documents in various places (he can't read a 3 pages memo, WTF??)

Yep. In his garage with his little red corvette. In his den. In various 'think tank' and foundation offices. Or just reading it to his ghost writer as part of writing his memoirs, for which he got a $6m advance. But there are a few important differences. Trump had some authority to retain and declassify documents, having been President. Docs were also apparently stored in secured locations. Neither Clinton nor Biden had the same authority to remove or retain classified documents, yet they did, and have escaped prosecution.

Yet the polls tell us that very same guy has more than 50% vote intentions. Wow? What's going on in this country?

It's how democracy is supposed to work. Or that 50% of Americans are smarter than you, and can recognise an anti-democratic witch hunt when they see it. It also demonstrates just how dumb the DNC are. Every attack they make on Trump seems to improve his polling. If they'd just ignored him, he may have faded in to obscurity. But no, instead the DNC and the lefty media are giving Trump's campaign millions in free publicity.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

I love and hate this ban.

Kind of the same. I really don't think TikTok will be any great loss to society, but that's pretty much most 'social media' in general. Influencers may lose income and have to find real jobs, trends like tasty & nutritious Tide pods or cooking stuff in Nyquil might save some kids lives. But that's also anti-Darwinian, so there'll probably still be plenty of vids with idiots learning about physics and 'fail' videos to watch.

It's still a very dangerous proposal though that would grant the Executive the ability to steal anything that one of their donors fancies acquiring, without going through all the hassle of doing it the traditional business way.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Conflict

That was a full-on attempt to attack a country's democratic process

And the 'fiery, but mostly peaceful protests' that resulted in billions in property damage, thousands of injured LEOs, firebombing a church in Washington and forcing Trump to 'flee to the bunker' when they attacked the Whitehouse.. Was not. Plus the narrative is still falling apart with the news coming out that Trump did actually want the NG deployed in case there were violent protestors. Pelosi, having responsibility for security for her half of the Capitol of course refused, as did DC's Democretin mayor.

..and install a serial rapist instead of the elected President.

Citation needed. I thought Trump was convicted of sexual assault, not rape? And then only after NY passed a law to overrule the statute of limitations so that a very unreliable witness could bring the accusations.. Which Trump is of course appealing. There have also been accusations of sexual assaults against Biden, which haven't been investigated. And then there was Gore, who's Presidency was stolen by hanging chads. Or more recently, Clinton, who blamed Russia for her losing her shot at becoming President and lead to her useful idiots attacking Federal buildings and the Whitehouse demanding that Trump stood down.

At least one murder was thwarted on the day.

Not sure which one you're referring to, but Ashli Babbitt was arguably murdered or executed by an LEO who escaped prosecution. Other Jan 6th peaceful protestors have also suicided following the witch hunts. But that's the Democrats for you. As another socialist once said "it is always better to go too far than not far enough".

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Conflict

..and there is the racist card.

I'm glad you're recognising and accepting this. It is, after all the first step in seeking help. You throw racist terms like 'vatnik' or 'monkey' all the time, but with therapy, perhaps you can become a decent human being once again.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Conflict

Ah yes. There you got the orange monkey into the discussion.

Nope. I mentioned Trump. But don't you know describing people as 'monkey' is often rather racist? I wouldn't describe you in that way, you're my #2 fan after all.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Conflict

If corporations are people, then a ban on TikTok surely amounts to a Bill of Attainder?

And? Don't forget this is also the goverment that's been turning misdemeanors into high crimes to jail Jan 6th protestors, and manipulating other laws to go after Trump. Or the way it's desperately trying to find legal methods to steal Russian, and Russian's money and give that to a kleptocracy. This one is just stealing TikTok and giving it to an honest American who'll run it the way the government wants them to.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Clone

I suspect people are downvoting Jellied Eel on their record, but they're right this time.

Did you actually read the proposal? It's doing the rounds as an anti- TikTok proposal, but it goes far beyond that to enable a President to force the sale of pretty much anything foreign owned.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Clone

"obviously an American social media apps could do have already done the same thing"

Why innovate, when you can regulate. But have a read of the proposed legislation-

https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240311/HR%207521%20Updated.pdf

All you need is an app with >1m users, and El Presidente determines is a threat to US businesses.. I mean 'national security'. And then El Presidente can force the sale of that company, app, website etc to a US donor/lobbyist/mate. Although the legislation mentions TikTok and ByteDance by name, it can also be used to force the sale of pretty much any social mediia app to a friendly US company at a deep discount.

Third time is almost the charm for SpaceX's Starship

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Capabilities.

Not an option - the fins* and header tanks need that fairing to still be there.

They'll end up with a massive door, or a pair, and that's not an impossible task - the shuttle had such bay doors.

Yep, it'll be an interesting challenge, ie doors vs repositioning control surfaces and tanks to enable a stubby Starship. It gets us closer to doing fun stuff though. I'm assuming for space stations, the challenge is more volume than mass, so sections need to be large enough to be habitable. But being able to lift large sections makes larger space stations possible, then the potential to create staging posts maybe in geo orbits for building and servicing lunar or Mars bases.. Where I guess mass will play a bigger part for shielding.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Capabilities.

You might be getting confused with the internal volume of 1000m3, which is comparable to the ISS. You could fit out a StarShip as a research station and get something akin to the ISS in orbit in one launch.

It'll be interesting to see what options they end up with to handle mass/volume and reusability. So the bigger the volume, the bigger the hole needed and bigger challenges to protect that during re-entry. Or maybe they'll have fairings that can jetison and still protect the re-entry vehicle.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Capabilities.

Same here, that was stunning! They very kindly explained why we were able to see it too. Basically 'cos Starship is frikken big!

And me! Was just watching Scott Manley's review here-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8htMpR7mnaM

and was fascinating actually seeing the plasma effects on re-entry. Seemed like it almost got it's Starlink+ dispenser working which they'll need to complete Starlink. Depending on how much we can trust SpaceX's figures, even without re-use it's AFAIK the cheapest way to lift a 100t payload into orbit. More work needed to actually deploy something big, but it's progress.

Former US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin thinking about buying TikTok

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: In other news...

Putin has been appropriating private ex-Western or ex-offshoring oligarch owned corporations in Russia and switching them to state ownership, or to his mates. No difference really. Standard cold war behaviour by all sides.

Some of that's just the inevitable effect of the sanctions our Dear 'Leaders' imposed. Businesses invested in Russia, then EU and US said they can't trade. Or pay taxes, payroll etc. So those business slip into administration and new ownership. Russia thanks Ford, GM etc for all the new factories.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: TikTok is the test case for a forced fire sale.

We punish lots of "victimless" actions. From speeding to attempted murder.

Rarely quite on this scale, and even more rarely for BAU stuff. So go look at NYC real estate. Realtor will say it's worth $XXX! You'll say "Is it bollox" and negotiate from there. The alleged victims said during the trial that they performed their own valuation and made their own decision.

Then of course some DA elected on a promise to 'Get Trump' creates a Trumped up charge and hits him with a modest $500m fine, waaay out of proportion to any harm done. And it's much the same with TikTok. Democrats have rarely been involved in anything that creates real value. They can, however recognise value and help themselves to $500m in 'fines', or just the US market for one of the most popular apps. And if it works, it's a gift that'll keep in giving. Musk is obviously under the direction or control of Putin, therefore he'll have 6 months to divest X/Twitter.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: TikTok is the test case for a forced fire sale.

Its value is limited because of its designation solely as a members club limits its potential revenue, and hence value. If it was a private residence, it would be worth a lot more, but its not a private residence so that Diaper Don can avoid paying taxes on it.

That seems negotiable, after all it started out as a private residence for Post. Then it got donated to government, who took one look at the running costs, went hell no! and handed it back. Only challenge seems to be it being a NHL, and that seems negotiable. So run it as a club generating more than the accepted NY tax valuation, breaking it up into seperate plats, building condos on it or whatever.

And yes, I read the court rulling and so have actual lawyers. Very few who seem to understand how the Judge came up with that amount for a fine in a victimless crime. Of course for the party that supposedly represents 'justice', the amount is a large chunk of Trump's empire, and has to be put into escrow before Trump can appeal. The judge was a loyal Democrat and as the judge is retiring soon, his work there is done.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: TikTok is the test case for a forced fire sale.

Very good. Trump Towers and Mar-a-Lardo will be next when old Trumpo can't pony up the approx $500M for the NYC fraud case.

Despite being one of the largest Florida plats, Mar-a-Largo at 17 acres, with a 62,500 sq ft residence on it is apparently only worth around $18m. Which gets somewhat amusing because if it's flogged off at auction to pay the $500m fine, it might reveal a more accurate valuation and there was no fraud. Well, there was no real fraud anyway given nobody lost any money.

When will Elon call it quits with Twatter?

Who cares? But if Democrats can't engineer a default, then perhaps they can use this legislation to force divestment instead. If it ever passes, it'll be interesting to see how valuations are decided, or just any practicalities. So TikTok is banned from offfering services in the US, will have to hand over source code etc and somehow Munchkin's entity is going to be able to run a stand-alone US TikTok that will still integrate with the RoW version.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: nothing's shocking

Wouldn't surprise me if russia or the saudis had a hand in it as well. When is the world going to learn?

Err.. No. Well, other than perhaps becoming targets. TikTok is the test case for a forced fire sale. Apparently on 'national security' grounds because China can ask Chinese companies to divulge data. The US can of course ask US companies exactly the same thing under national security letters. If this theft goes through though, there'll be scope for picking other cherries. So force the sale of Telegram to a US investor. Or the big one, Twitter/X.

Attacks on UK fiber networks mount: Operators beg govt to step in

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Hall of shame

Wow, El Reg has it all. Trumpards, brexiters, anti-vax, climate change deniers, Russian trolls, Huawei fans and now... Monsanto shills.

And of course far-left anonymongs who will blindly follow along with any conspiracy that they're spoon fed. Biden for President! Vroom, vroom! And you'll probably have no idea what that last bit refers to because of your choice of media.. Meanwhile, in other news-

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68543919

In Borovsk (where?), Steve Rosenberg (who?) looks at the Russia Putin wants you to see- and Russia in reality.

aka the Russia the Bbc wants you to see, which is not the reality.. It's Russia through the eyes of a single street artist and a Bbc troll-

Vladimir Ovchinnikov tells me he never watches television.

Poor chap. He's going to miss Eurovision. Or smart chap, he won't be watching the Bbc.

But, just like with paintings, context is important.

And the context here is crucial.

The Kremlin not only controls television in Russia, it manages the entire political system, elections included.

Oh noes. Next he'll be telling us that the government controls television in the UK, and will fine anyone up to £1,000+ for not involuntarily subscribing to the carp Rosenberg and the Bbc spew out. The Bbc will run articles whining about 'foreign election interference', yet use it's billions to run hit pieces against Trump, anti-vaxers, climate change deniers, Putin etc etc. And morons like you will swallow it all.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Jellied Eel and friends

- Yugoslavia (spoiling merry Serbian-led Muslim genocide party - in spite of Russia's UN obstruction),

List boy returns! So genocide parties are fine. Ukraine killed 14,000 peaceful protestors during it's civil war from 2014 to the start of the SMO, and was poised to 'de-Russify' Donbas and Crimea before Russia intervened to protect it's ethnic population. 30,000+ arabs have been killed so far during Israel's ethic cleansing of Palestine, with pretty much only the US providing UN obstruction.

Libya (Pan Am 103 Lockerbie, Gaddafi the great democrat slaughtering his own people),

Uhuh. Threatening to de-dollarise had absolutely no influence on that decision that's resulted in the slaughter of far more Libyans than Gadaffi ever managed. Also can you point me to the relevant international law that permits invasion and regime change for allegedly destroying an aircraft? See also Iran Air Flight 655.

But Libya, Syria and Ukraine all had something in common. Peaceful protestors turn violent when mysterious figures start firing into crowds. More weapons appear and it's your classic coup in a can. In Ukraine, most of the protestors and police who were killed were shot from an elevated position, ie the mystery shooters on rooftops the Bbc and other media reported on. The official narrative is Ukraine police started firing first, and everyone was presumably naruto running at each other, which might go some way to explaining the trajectories of the wound channels.

Iraq? Well, Kuwait may have justified GW1, but not 2. Wasn't that one because of the WMD that never existed?

Afghanistan (another advanced country

That was the generic 'war on terror' and the hunt for Bin Laden. Who wasn't in Afghanistan. 20yrs and a few trillion later, the US ran away and abandoned Afghanistan to the Taliban. Which will probably be the same fate that Ukraine will suffer.

Yeah, right. Even India don't buy their crap anymore

You.. don't think that might be political pressure? But the world's seen NATO vs Russia in action now, and can draw it's own conclusions. Want HIMARS? Sure, give Lockheed Martin $20m per launcher and $400k per missile. Deliveries can be expected some time after 2027 as there's a bit of an order backlog. Or perhaps Raytheon can tempt you with a $2.5bn air defence battery? Missiles are only $7m a shot, and perfect for shooting down say, swarms of 20x drones. Only $140m+ per attack, and you'll need more than 1 battery to launch that many missiles. But $5bn+ buys peace of mind, doesn't it? Oh and if those batteries happen to be the target, replacements can be delivered starting 2030. Backlogged again.

Or why not buy plain'ol 155mm artillery? Orders for field guns and SPGs for delivery 2030 onwards. Ammunition not included as, well, backlogs again.

But all rather off-topic. It isn't Russia sabotaging our infrastructure, yet. It's our own useful idiots. If our weapons manufactures and arms industries start suffering from industrial accidents, as is happening inside Russia, well, maybe that will be Russia. But they don't seem to have started doing that.. yet.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: A missed opportunity?

The problem is Russia's (actually putin's) desire to rebuild the USSR by any means including gunfire and the deaths of 10 000's of people

Says the West. Russia is simultaneously strategically defeated in Ukraine, and an iminent danger to Poland, Germany and the Baltic States. But either way, Russia is waaay behind the bodycount we've created in bringing the 'international rules based order'. Yugoslavia (remember that country), Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc. Our death toll runs into the millions. Two wrongs don't make a right, but Russia is well on it's way to defeating NATO, the EU and Ukraine. They've demonstrated we have had the wrong focus on arms investments and production and pushed Russia into creating a war industry that seems far more able to outproduce us, at the same time as our 'leaders' policies are busily de-industrialising the West.

But Putin's a convenient scapegoat to detract attention from domestic problems created by the useless shower of shite we call 'leaders'. I very much doubt Russian saboteurs are behind infrastructure attacks, and we have our own domestic terrorists and criminals to blame for those. And if Russia did start sabotage operations, it would likely be a prelude to things getting toasty, in which case your service SLAs would no longer apply.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: What security

At the end of the driveway is a telecoms manhole cover. To access the duct, you just lift the cover. So what security are they referring to?

Sometimes there are alarms that indicate the pit/chamber has been opened. Problem is then.. what happens next? Telco NOC gets an alarm, then has to either despatch a field engineer, or call the police. There are many, many manhole covers to secure, and there would be many false alarms. Plus if this is cable theft or sabotage, it usually happens pretty quickly. I once stumbled across a gang doing this walking home. Thieves had got the covers up, cut cables, hooked them up to their van and were driving off within a couple of minutes. Luckily police were there and stopped the van towing a few lengths of cable down the road. The longest part of that job is probably coiling up the stolen cable and chucking it in the van. But damage had already been done and it took a few hours to restore the services.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Yet

There's a big difference between "going equipped" and a mouse having a nibble.

A lot of these installations aren't protected against the local wildlife.

Again, there should be. But I also guess it depends on the service ordered, ie if it's a retail-style plain'ol broadband service, or a proper business one. But this used to be my day job stuff. There should be method statements & a scope of works agreed for 'new build' and building entries. That should be signed off by the customer, or customer's agent (ie sometime me). Even on retail-style jobs, there should be discussion between OP team and customer rep to deal with basic stuff like 'Is it ok if we poke a hole in your building here?'.

And then if you think the work is incomplete, or out of spec, reject the installation and ask them to remedy it. Again this is the customer's responsibility, ie facilities or IT/Comms manager. There can also be insurance and building regs issues. So entries should have things like gas & liquid ingress seals, fire stops and anti-rodent and bug stops. I realise a lot of IT folks aren't always aware of those boring little details, but sometimes it pays to become aware, especially if you might end up getting blamed.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Yet

When BT do FTTP to buildings, as they have at our work, they never full cover the cable going into the property, which I've pointed out many a time, someone can just come along and cut.

Pretty sure they should, ie OP (Outside Plant) crews are supposed to bury cable and duct into the building. But there may be times when that's not easy due to the building design. I'd expect it to have some duct protecting the cable entry into the building though. Maybe take some pictures, send them to BT and tell them it's not accceptable. BT may not be aware and often use subcontractors to do these jobs, and those subs will be expected to follow BT's OP rules. I wouldn't accept exposed cables and would reject the installation as incomplete/unsatisfactory though.

Openreach saving pennies so they don't have to put armour shielding around the cables.

Often no real point given if someone is determined to sabotage your install, they're going to bring power tools.

Airbnb warns hosts who use indoor security cameras they may face eviction

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: And ?

It really matters not a jot what AirBnB put out while they are shovelling the money into their bank account. You can bet your (and their) bottom dollar that if it comes a a dispute, they'll just go "nothing to do with us, guv, take it up with the owner.

I'm guessing AirBnB also accepts no liability if their guests trash a rental. Or if guests are attacked by someone who's broken in. I guess in the first case, the renter can be held liable if you can prove the damage was done during their rental. The security one seems harder and riskier though. Internal security cameras can be a really good idea, so covering entry and exit points. All it would seem to need is a protocol stating the apartment does have a security system, it will be recording and recordings will be wiped as part of the checkout procedure.

Still leaves some potential for shenanigans, ie people renting AirBnB's to party or shoot pron that might show evidence of illegal stuff happening, but if housekeeping shows no damage, there's no need to watch the footage.

How do you lot feel about Pay or say OK to ads model, asks ICO

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Great Idea!

Indeed. And of course gender. Because there’s no point in serving ads for tampons to men.

Sure there is. There's a vid on YT with someone having a meltdown because supermarket didn't have male tampons. Shop assistant seemed quite puzzled by the demands for tampons marketed for men and in masculine colored packaging. Blue is for boys, pink is for girls and ISTR Tampax coming in blue boxes. But the 21st century is weird like that.

Paying 30p per click, how long do you think it is possibly to stay in business blanket-advertising tampons to 65year old men?

Just do what I do when I'm bored. Click on the ads for anything obviously pointless like that. It'll cost the advertiser, and probably eat into the number of ads allocated so the campaign will probably run out faster. Just do it from an anomyised account or the ad flingers will view it as an expression of interest.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Great Idea!

Where on the page is the *ucking ToS? Its at the f*cking bottom of the fu*king page, which, even if its displayed first, slips fuc*ing downward as more bullshit is downloaded to fill the page above it

Or the bottom of the page is blocked by the 'consent' popup. Even if your browser isn't supposed to display pop-ups. Hello Bbc. Why do you keep demanding I create an account and login? Why, despite an element telling me you use cookies, and asking me to consent does it create cookies anyway?

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Great Idea!

Please stop using the offensive reference to rape. It isn't applicable, in any way.

Nope. And sure it is. In fact there are a bunch of analogous activities that are already criminal. Rape is obviously a gross invasion of privacy and lack of consent. But maybe I just follow you around. Then I could be charged with stalking. If I follow you around online, that's cyberstalking-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberstalking

If I hang around outside your house, that could be voyeurism. If I watch or listen to you via devices in your home, that is voyeurism. If I rummage through your underwear draw, that could be several offences, but I wouldn't need to because I know the style, color and size of all the clothing you've bought online. And if you have children, I'd know everything about them as well. Children can't give consent. So sure, some personal information may be 'strictly necessary', ie I've sold you your panties. But sharing those details is totally unnecessary.

So I don't understand why data rapists think they have an exemption to the gross invasions of privacy they conduct. Especially as their data rape also leads to other crimes, like if they leak that data. But fear not, there are also expensive services that claim to protect your identity online, or help if your ID has been stolen. Some sharing of personal information might be necessary. So services like banking and insurance share information to prevent frauds. Their apps and websites do not need to know what websites I visit however, or sell that data.

So we don't really need new laws, just to apply ones that already exist. Charge Apple, FacePalm and AlphaGoo under cyberstalking legislation, throw them in jail and do the same for the big data aggregators and wholesalers. Then, execs may, just may take the hint that data rape is not OK.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Great Idea!

Not true, you get to use their service free of charge. You are paid "in kind" rather than receiving direct financial return. It's still payment.

Not always, eg Amazon's decision to slap ads into a service people were already paying for. Or services being paid for by advertisers, but that model seems to be increasingly broken. Advertisers are beginning to realise the claims around targetted advertising don't really work in reality. But the problem is still people using my services and personal data free of charge.

Best solution would be to just make cyberstalking and data rape illegal, so back to the basic principles of consent, and minimum personal information necessary. But the ad slingers and brokers absolutely hate that idea, and as another commentor put it, the current model is akin to pay and we won't rape you, or don't pay and you're consenting.

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Great Idea!

So the recent story about TC Strings and the real-time auction for ads based on my personal infomation got me thinking. An auction is usually an arrangement between a seller and a buyer. I consign something to auction, someone buys it and the auctioneers take a fee. The TC Strings show that model is kinda broken. It's my data, but the auctioneers don't pay me anything. A transaction model obviously exists, it's just the seller is cut out of the loop.

So maybe Pay or Say OK could work. It just needs ad slingers and data harvesters to pay us for using our personal data. Sure, the price per indvidual transaction might be a small fraction of a penny, but given the number of trackers and harvesting transactions, it could quickly add up to a few beer tokens. Or just a way to compensate us for the current theft of both resources and privacy.

Climate change means beer made from sewer water, says North Carolina brewery

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: In Beer, Strength...

are you sure you're not thinking of Tolly Cobbold which had a brewery in Ipswich docks

Oh yes, that's the one! Haven't been back there in a long time and I guess I'd managed to blank the name from my memory!

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: In Beer, Strength...

In water, Bacteria.

Making beer involves boiling the water, so it has historically been a good way of dealing with water contaminated by organics.

Yup, long used throughout history as a way to preserve water, or just make it safer to drink. So small beer or weak wines. Also using waste water's long been a joke around pretty much any brewery. We used to have Green King IPA on the pump clips in the urinals of my first local. Their brewery apparently had it's own aquifers, but was next door to a coal power station. Or it was just Ipswich Port Authority. Being a grain docks, it used to reek to high heaven from grains and flour that had ended up in the dock. Or this was just the first stage of Green King's brewing process.