Posts by Fred Flintstone

Apple races to patch the latest zero-day iPhone exploit

Re: This was patched yesterday

people I don't know can't call me on Facetime

Ah. Must enable that immediately.

:)

Microsoft: China stole secret key that unlocked US govt email from crash debug dump

Re: Alternative explanation..

That's generally what the word "maybe" seeks to highlight, yes.

:)

Alternative explanation..

Maybe the key didn't actually leak at Microsoft and it has just been told to take the hit.

Maybe what really happened was that the key was stolen from one of the many agencies it must be sharing the key with, but they can't afford the embarrassment. We're as used to Microsoft causing security problems as we are to Trump committing crimes or Musk overpromising that it would not really register much..

After all, this is the same government that told you your luggage was still safe despite their mandated backdoor*, and you can get TSA keys now even from Amazon..

* _{If this sounds familiar, you're thinking of the insane idea to demand a backdoor into encryption that somehow seems to appear every 7 years or so, but in British politics.}

Twitter says it may harvest biometric, employment data from its addicts

Re: Phrenology for the 21st Century

I *so* want to see the Pentagon access control in Monsters vs Aliens implemented..

:)

I suspect Musk will mix metaphors and will start digging the moment he reaches that bottom.

And no, those supplying the shovels won't get paid, of course.

He's just trying to see how low he can go..

.. before the platform becomes simply empty.

And private data theft - well, from what I hear from Tesla that's not exactly a new idea.

We all scream for ice cream – so why are McDonald's machines always broken?

Re: Wait, their milkshake maker works like an HP printer ?

Wasn't it Dave Barry who observed you could sometimes fix a broken device by updating the warranty expiry date with a black marker?

:)

Aerial cable tangles are still being strung up, but carriers are slowly burying the problem

The problem with burying: you need a map..

The problem with sticking the cables where you can't see them is that you can't see them.

When you (or someone else) is digging, trying to find a fault, identify capacity - when you lose the map you don't get a blackout, more a slow brownout as your maintenance gradually fails.

I came across this when securing the map data of an electricity provider whose map system provider was being rather naughty.

China's top EV battery maker announced a breakthrough, but top boffin isn't convinced

Doesn't that only work if they're actually plugged in?

Re: Did nobody spot a problem with this?

This may help :).

With the voltages required to haul that amount of power I don't think you need a cable.

Just stay out of the way of the lightening bolts..

LG's $1,000 TV-in-a-briefcase is unlikely to travel much further than the garden

Re: What next?

Water in powdered form?

Boffins reckon Mars colony could survive with fewer than two dozen people

Re: 110 humans

On the other hand, how can you tell?

Cruise self-driving taxi gets wheels stuck in wet cement

Re: "We apologize to those who were impacted"

It would be hard hitting news..

/s

Context..

Other blunders from Cruise this week include allegedly almost hitting two women accompanying two children

And this, kids, is a lesson how removing context from a sentence can really mess with your interpretation..

:)

Pack of GM Cruise robo-taxis freeze, snarl up Friday night traffic amid festival crowds

Yup. I still have maps in my car, and yes, I still know how to read them as well.

The price of freedom turned out to be an afternoon of tech panic

That's probably why nobody noticed something was amiss.

How to get a computer get stuck in a lift? Ask an 'illegal engineer'

Re: Getting stuck in a lift is no fun

I'm more for the medium rare version. I know of some people who want it so raw that a decent vet could still save it, but I do like things to be at least cooked.

Brit healthcare body rapped for WhatsApp chat sharing patient data

Re: Whatsapp gave them a heady taste of efficient clinical communication

Not really.

Replace it with someone that can be properly managed like Threema Work.

I've used it, and it, er, works. You could also use any other secure messaging app for free, but making it manageable gives you better control and it has a gateway API for integration.

Better still, because you pay for it you also have a company you can yell at if something doesn't work. I've never had cause to (as it does the job), but apparently that makes management feel more at ease.

Twitter's giant throbbing X erected 'without a permit'

The X is gone..

.. is this now an ex X?

World's most internetty firm tries life off the net, and it's sillier than it seems

Re: As my former boss used to tell me:

Percussive protection?

:)

Twitter name and blue bird logo to be 'blowtorched' off company branding

Re: X11 logo?

You're not supposed to START the week with a Post of the Week, lol.

In context, if I apply the usual designery talk what a logo represents I would observe that the most prominent line in the logo indeed follows the course of the company: steeply downwards.

Tesla to license Full Self-Driving stack to other automakers, says Musk

Re: Behind, always behind

Did geese not also invent the car horn?

"Honk, honk"

:)

Typo watch: 'Millions of emails' for US military sent to .ml addresses in error

Re: The

That was once.

Email may not be encrypted, but most transport at least is and most of it to a decent level. I'm not even sure your average email client will still allow an unencrypted connection without a lot of dire warnings.

PGP/GPG comes with its own set of issues.

Re: simple solution

Wasn't that [e-mail]?

Microsoft kicks Calibri to the curb for Aptos as default font

Re: Goodbye, good riddance

I prefer Helvetica then, because that works across all platforms.

You're too dumb to use click-to-cancel, Big Biz says with straight face

Re: So what exactly is the problem?

Getting stuck in an infinite loop is a possible problem

Them getting stuck in an infinite loop, however, would be very much a desired outcome..

From cage fight to page fight: Twitter threatens to sue Meta after Threads app launch

Re: It'll be dead in 12 months, why worry?

I can easily see Threads eclipsing Twitter within weeks if it works reasonably well

Make that days. I don't think you'll have to wait until next week Friday before they've surpassed the sad lot that stuck with Twitter, for a number of simple reasons:

- Zuck is using the existing Instagram base which brings along the required networks to draw others in;

- even since Musk got his hands on Twitter, advertisers and users have been on the lookout for alternatives that were not populated by crazy right wing loons, or were at least taken offline in a timely manner, so it fills a need the world didn't even know it had until Musk screwed it up;

- there are plenty who are looking to annoy Musk - that alone should make them sail past the user count of Twitter in days.

The problem with Mastodon is that it's distributed, where Twitter worked precisely because it was centralised. As long as Zuck fights the temptation to stick it too full of ads and features that get in the way of functionality I suspect Musk will face having to sell off more shares or admit he screwed up and start closing the shop by next week. I cannot see the latter happen, but I think you are right: the former will not happen either without some robust questions from his shareholders.

He may have to sell tickets to that cage fight, just to cope :).

Tesla ordered to cough up data for Autopilot probe or face heavy fines

Re: Raise the fines

Cant be having any of that in the Land of the Free

You accidentally typed one letter too many. It's "land of the fee", not of the free.

Twitter rate-limits itself into a weekend of chaos

Re: Hey Elon

A couple of years as a monk as portrayed in Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail would be better.

Heck, I'd even donate the plank.

:)

Now Apple takes a bite out of encryption-bypassing 'spy clause' in UK internet law

Re: So, we're back to square one again

I think it returns roughly every seven years.

Total Information Awreness, the Clipper chip - you name it.

The basic argument is that we must all install easily pickable locks in millions of houses so the police can briefly digress from their institutional problems and chase the ten or so troublemakers (compared in volume) while simultaneously enabling thousands of others to do the same, but undetected. It's almost like employment protection if it wasn't for the fact that simple statistics and frequent events suggest that there are quite a few dodgy ones hide amongst that force itself - which will then have a much easier life too.

Basically, allowing this idiocy will amplify crime to the point of having to return to cash-in-hand transactions.

Brexit and now this again tells me is that standards of education and analytical thinking in politics have declined to the point that Idiocracy is heading towards becoming a documentary, but without as yet any sight on a happy ending.

Missing Titan sub likely destroyed in implosion, no survivors

Yeah, there should have been no rescue efforts at all - seriously

No. I am OK with the effort to try and rescue people in need - even just as a more realistic exercise (and as for money, I think the company would have faced a massive bill if they had survived it). I just wish as much energy and collaboration was expended to the less fortunate.

If we start being selective about who we rescue it becomes an even more slippery slope than it is already. In certain 'enlightened' countries we already have hospital emergency service first checking out your insurance which is IMHO inhumane.

Data leak at major law firm sets Australia's government and elites scrambling

I spot a bolted horse at the horizon..

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." - John Gilmore, 1993

I know governments are occasionally a tad slow on the takeup, but 30 years is taking the mick..

Astroscale wants to be the world's friendly neighborhood space garbage collector

I was more thinking about such incidents being less, umm, "accidental". This is in essence a killer satellite, so it'll be interesting to see if they can keep the door closed to military interests. I wish them luck..

Huawei could be banned from 5G networks across the EU

Allow me to almost repeat myself..

Just to be sure, the kit that is going to replace the Huawei gear they remove is surely as thoroughly screened and the results made public as what it replaces, right?

Right?

Yeah, thought so.

Sound like a new road to ye olde Total Information Awareness/Access, and not even in a subtle way.

And government suckers in the EU fell for it. Again.

Cunningly camouflaged cable routed around WAN-sized hole in project budget

Comment Of The Week.

Might even be Of The Month :)

Lenovo Thinkpad Z13 just has this certain Macbook Air about it...

I have almost entirely switched over to using Linux and Apple Mac OS on the desktop *because* of 35 years' experience using Microsoft Windows, not despite it.

I could not have said it better myself.

One of the world's most prominent blockchain apps looks like being binned

Absolutely, you beat me to it.

Given that they failed over many years to define what exactly its benefit would be and how to deliver it I'd say the word "suitable" seems to be a bit of an overstatement.

Tesla batteries went from fully charged to fully disabled after botched patch, lawsuit claims

Re: Yet Another Needless Distraction

They make cars?

:)

Upstart encryption app walks back privacy claims, pulls from stores after probe

And so ..

.. another inglorious attempt at subversion ends. As if that would even fly these days.

Nice try, though, but the moment I see someone mention "proprietary encryption" they've lost me. Kerckhoffs' Principle and all that..

FTC sues VoIP provider over 'billions of illegal robocalls'

it is now possible to hit directors directly

I wish that were true. That would be really the most enjoyable way ever to knock in a cricket bat..

BOFH: Ah. Company-branded merch. So much better than a bonus

Oh, with webp compression 4GB is plenty :)

Google Cloud's watery Parisian outage enters third week, with no end in sight

Wait, let me get this right..

A cloud gets into a cloud data centre and it all falls apart?

:)

When it comes to Linux distros, one person's molehill is another's mountain

Re: Windows

Only the ones we know of..

Re: Easy choice

Those are the holes people fall out of and land on the ground breaking bones and lives.

I think that's the Putin distro, and yes, you want to avoid that. There's also a glowing version - same advice.

:)

Re: work around or move on

Although the FOSS environment still counts fewer forks than the average IKEA store, it is indeed occasionally hard to keep track.

However, sometimes such forks can foster progress, create resilience or bypass development roadblocks which is IMHO one of the things FOSS has going for it - there are more opportunities for evolution there than with proprietary platforms. That freedom to tinker has value, and I think we should cherish the fact that we have it.

All IMHO, of course :).