* Posts by Ole Juul

2726 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Apr 2007

British politicians sign off on surveillance law, now it's over to the Queen

Ole Juul

Re: VPN

"Would using an offshore VPN effectively blindfold this surveillance?"

Of course, but you may as well just run your own. Either way you'll be bypassing the point of surveillance.

Firefox hits version 50

Ole Juul

Re: This being an IT site

@bombastic bob I'm with you in not wanting to be a slave to my new shiny, but things have changed. The new package system works like Linux apt-get now. It literally only takes a few minutes to do an update now, although building ports from source is still an option.

Ole Juul

This being an IT site

Firefox web browser has hit version 50.0 on Windows, MacOS, Linux and Android.

Perhaps it is worth noting that we have version 50.0 on FreeBSD as well.

Adobe fined a whole million dollars for 2013 mega-breach

Ole Juul

it's hopeless

Adobe's share price has climbed nicely since the 2013 breach

That's really depressing.

Navy STEALS? US sailors dispute piracy claim

Ole Juul

Re: I must be missing something

The Navy bought 38 licenses but denies that a license was required to install it on others. One might wonder why a license was required for those particular machines and not for others, or why there was a license in the first place. Nevertheless the argument is a common one in the, so called, world of piracy, though I wouldn't have thought the Navy was of that persuasion.

UK Home Secretary signs off on Lauri Love's extradition to US

Ole Juul

Re: He doesn't help himself..

"Do you use that rule for property / personal theft?

That is not even remotely related. We're talking about the FBI - the prime security service of the United States of America and that nation's federal law enforcement agency. They have a duty to maintain a high level of security. It is preposterous that a singe individual can, or could, access their "secure" information on-line.

Ole Juul

I'm not sure where that line is. Certainly ransomware and other clearly malicious activity is on the wrong side from my perspective. Having a go at an FBI site is just petty vandalism in my books. For one thing, they should expect that from young and immature "hackers", and for another they should not be at the level where a lone person like Love can penetrate their system to the extent that he supposedly did.

Ole Juul

I feel that the US takes these things way too seriously.

Google and Facebook pledge to stop their ads reaching fake news websites

Ole Juul

no cure

may have unwittingly been given vote-swaying weight by some readers.

So the real problem is witless readers.

'Pavement power' - The bad idea that never seems to die

Ole Juul

quantity

It's a common omission. We see it in health, be it diet or adverse radiation. Many people seem to see the world in terms of some or none, ignoring the fact that very little is of no consequence.

Fake election news meltdown vortex sucks in Google

Ole Juul

is there any hope?

Social scientists and psychologists have long concluded that if people hear the same information from multiple sources – typically between three and five – they become convinced of its truth.

And that's the problem right there. Religious nuts and conspiracy theorists have fertile ground in an uneducated and religious fundamentalist society. Until that changes we're going to keep seeing this kind of crap.

I have no love for Google or Facebook, but they can rank and publish all they want and I still won't make up my mind based on the number of times I read something or how high up it is in my search results.

China gets mad at Donald Trump, threatens to ruin Apple

Ole Juul

Re: Trade War

The US recognised this problem at the begging of the 1980s and tried unsuccessfully to turn it around. Things have only gotten more precarious since then. Will Trump be able to stimulate American manufacturing to the levels of 40 years ago? I doubt it. So the only way forward it to be very, very careful. I personally think that the best case scenario is that he learns that lesson. Hopefully before it is too late.

GitLab to dump cloud for its own bare metal Ceph boxen

Ole Juul

Re: So, the Cloud is starting to leak

"the simple reality is that the Cloud can benefit if one knows exactly why one is intending to use it."

Marketing has trouble understanding that what they're selling isn't the best solution for everything. Hopefully these prominent examples will filter into management culture and help get some sanity into the cloud craze.

European Commission dangles €374m for low-power exascale research

Ole Juul

I'm looking forward to

A new generation of micro boards. Perhaps a Raspberry Crumb.

Zuckerberg says just one per cent of news on Facebook is fake

Ole Juul

skewness

Could it be that Facebook users are self selecting for gullibility?

Facebook agrees to dial back 'racial affinity' ads

Ole Juul

insincerity

not sure why that word keeps popping up in my mind whenever I hear about Facebook agreeing to do something

UK privacy watchdog sends poison pen letter to Zuckerberg et al

Ole Juul

I'm behind Denham on this one !

Anybody who is going to get in Facebook's face is OK in my books.

Russia to block LinkedIn over data domiciling issues

Ole Juul

Re: "wrong office"

"Did you mean it was an order by the Napoleon sitting in the Kremlin?"

It's just a law. Everybody else is just following it like they do with all laws in whatever country they operate. This is not unlike a parking infraction in that arguing that you didn't get a letter with your personalised warning delivered to your preferred address is not going to get you off. Note too that pretty much everybody in the world with an interest in internet regulations is aware of this Russian legal requirement. Most countries (Including Canada, where I live) have had similar laws for quite a while now.

Ole Juul

Re: "wrong office"

"No, any legal request must be addressed to the proper office to obtain also a proper receipt it has been received."

This is not a request.

Ole Juul

Re: "wrong office"

Tossers is probably a bit mild. Facebook and Google had this stuff sorted a year ago. It's not like it comes as a surprise to anybody who is even mildly cognisant of reality. In any case we would all be better off without LinkedIn. I, for one, am tired of getting people's stupid invitations.

Make phishing great again: Hackers prod US think tanks, NGOs amid Trump win shockwaves

Ole Juul

Making El Reg great again

I couldn't help but notice that The Register story titles all contain "make great again". Has my favourite online IT news site been hacked?

Panicked WH Smith kills website to stop sales of how-to terrorism manuals

Ole Juul

wrong turn

"If we continue down this route in 10 years time you will need to have a license or video proof that you have a garden in order to buy some fertiliser."

Another 10 years after that and garden books will be censored. Growing your own food can easily be turned into a charge of interfering with commercial or government interests. And so on it goes. (sigh) Better to just not go down that road at all. Efforts to control information never lead to information going away, and only leads to freedom going away.

Was IoT DDoS attack just a dry run for election day hijinks?

Ole Juul

Re: Glad for no online voting

Online voting is indeed a bad idea. Even as it is though, major well targeted DDoS on Tuesday could be pretty disruptive to the election.

Turn off remote admin, SOHOpeless D-Link owners

Ole Juul

The only workaround is to disable remote administration.

So do that.

Is that you, HAL? AI can now see secrets through lipreading – kinda

Ole Juul
Coat

security?

Londoners saw this coming and developed cockney, which is effective to this day.

Icelandic Pirate Party maroons itself from coalition talks

Ole Juul

looking to make a change

They are indeed doing that. Parliament is not the only venue.

Canada confiscates snoops' data nets after illegal trawling dragged up too much metadata

Ole Juul

more trouble

Now they'll be getting flack from other gang members. A Reuters article shilling for the gang says this: CSIS could now also have trouble working with its allies in the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, which also includes Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, said a leading security expert.

FBI drops bombshell, and investigation: Clinton still in the clear

Ole Juul

Re: Hatch Act, politically motivated violation of.

Comey is just trying to navigate the political pressures. He doesn't really have the level of control that many outsiders think he has.

Teen in the dock on terror apologist charge for naming Wi-Fi network 'Daesh 21'

Ole Juul

Re: Weird

One of mine says "VIRUS ALERT!". I was hoping that it would scare people away or get a giggle. However, I would not expect to be charged with false advertising or causing public panic. Presumably the young French chap had the same idea. I am certainly not spreading or promoting any virus.

No spin zone: Samsung recalls 3M EXPLODING washing machines

Ole Juul

penny wise and pound foolish

No Classical education here.

That depends on your idea of classical. Hold the plastic and return to traditional materials like metal where strength is required. In fact Samsung could probably have saved 2 of the $2.3bn if they hadn't been so cheap.

Software licencing gets easier in the cloud? Not if your name is Microsoft

Ole Juul

One of the reasons

that I don't use MS-Windows is that I'm not a lawyer.

British firm to build world's first offshore automated ship

Ole Juul

container stowage logistics

"I can't help wondering if automation of the cargo logistics and load/unload would be a better target for robotics and systems."

I'm no expert either, but follow the shipping news because it just seems so important to our modern commercial world. Here is an article on Marine Insight you will like: How to Plan Cargo Containers Stowage on Container Ship

Edit: Actually another article about container ship design is fascinating. Here's a quote:

This complicity of container ship design is therefore solved by means of special computer programs specially designed to generate container loading plans for a particular loading case, which keeps in mind, the series of ports a vessel needs to call, and also the strength and stability aspects of the ship.

Ole Juul

Re: There's another issue

Crew is cheap. The fuel cost for a container ship is about $5 million dollars for a single ocean crossing at the usual 27 knots. Even in slow steaming mode (18 knots) it is $2.5 million. The few weeks salary for crew for that trip is indeed peanuts.

Also, Maersk's triple E class is 400 metres long and carries over 18 thousand 20 foot containers. Nobody is going to trust that kind of value to a computer. As an aside, the computer program for cargo management is specific to the ship and is quite complicated, as well as indispensable.

Is password security at just $1/month too expensive for most?

Ole Juul

reasoning

With major breaches regularly turning up a prevalence of laughably predictable passwords, you'd think that the likes of password locker LastPass should find it easy to sell its wares for US$1 a month.

It's exactly the people with the laughable passwords who won't care.

Accessories to crime: Facial recog defeated by wacky paper glasses

Ole Juul

criminal tricks

For impersonation, the identity must be recognized as someone the system already knows.

So if someone isn't in the system yet, you could give them an interesting history for when they do show up.

NullCrew's Canadian telco hacker thrown in the clink for four years

Ole Juul

double standard

hitting websites run by the US Department of Homeland Security

I suspect that's what got authorities to bother with this. Unfortunately causing trouble for the rest of us doesn't usually matter.

Windows 10 market share stalls after free upgrade offer ends

Ole Juul

Re: I'm not surprised...

"I'm still waiting for printer manufacturers to develop printer drivers for Linux!"

We don't use a printer driver any more. We run FreeBSD here and getting a postscript printer solved that problem.

Ghost of DEC Alpha is why Windows is rubbish at file compression

Ole Juul

Re: Obvious bull

And that effort, writes Microsoftie Raymond Chen, is why Windows file compression remains feeble.

Perhaps he should have added "for given values of why".

Cloudflare ordered by judge to help unmask two website owners

Ole Juul

Re: Who Is....

"I would assume that Elsevier drew a blank here as well if they are now going after Cloudflare."

They may not have even tried. So much of this is both incompetent and disrespectful. In fact one could be tempted to refer to it as acting out.

Ole Juul

Elsevier is a pirate.

And anti academic. The sooner we get rid of this scum the better.

America has one month to stop the FBI getting its global license to hack

Ole Juul

Re: US LAW

"the US insists on being able to extradite people to its courts, but refuses to allow extraditions of US citizens when they need to face the music."

That is indeed the status quo. If this was bilateral we would be seeing FBI agents extradited to Romania and US citizens would lose faith in their insular world.

Boffin's anti-worm bot could silence epic Mirai DDoS attack army

Ole Juul

Re: go for it

"surely you have an IDS/IPS in place to detect MIRAI and its variants (MEMES is a recent discovery) and drop their connections in the crapper... why let that stuff even get in the front door when you can stop it at the perimeter??"

You've making an assumption about the kind of server. I drop responses for repeat queries and that works quite well, but dropping connections from seemingly random and continually changing IPs would result in blocking legitimate queries. Also, thanks for keeping my account going. :)

Ole Juul

go for it

And break every computer crime law along the way

Not sure I care about that at the moment. Currently getting 40K queries per minute on one server and that's getting a bit tiresome.

SpaceX to explosion conspiracy theorists: There's no grassy knoll at Cape Canaveral

Ole Juul

charred knoll

I suspect that anything on that knoll is long gone.

Iceland's Pirate Party wins 10 seats, will need unlikely coalition to rule

Ole Juul

disconnect

right to privacy, a right to anonymity and call for government data to be open

Doesn't seem to be consistent with politics as we know it. But the sooner I'm wrong the better.

'Hacker' accused of idiotic plan to defraud bank out of $1.5 million

Ole Juul

Cybercriminals?

"Cybercriminals scour the internet for information they can use to steal with impunity," said US Attorney Robert Capers.

Surely you can think of a few others who do that. Or did you intend to imply that anybody who does that is a cybercriminal?

DMCA updated – toaster penetration testing gets green light in America

Ole Juul

couldn't agree more

EFF would prefer to see the entire DMCA rulemaking process burn to the ground

Birmingham sperm bank pulls plug after just a handful of recruits

Ole Juul

"a business way of thinking"

"Once you know you've got income in the pipeline, you can use that to offset costs."

He took a course.

The new FCC privacy rules are here, and nobody is happy

Ole Juul

economically beneficial uses?

Doug Brake, . . . "it would create a rigid regulatory regime that would limit the use of virtually all data that can be put to economically beneficial uses."

Whoa boy. You might want to hold back a little on the sense of entitlement there.

Web devs want to make the Internet of S**t worse. Much worse

Ole Juul

If this takes off

There will be security conscious people looking for a Commodore 64 on Ebay.