Posts by spam 1

Microsoft leaks Xboxlive SSL server cert

I like how the automatic certificate updater links in the Microsoft KB article are HTTP links. So now the attackers just need to watch for people clicking on these, MITM and get their own malicious certificates installed. GG, MS.

Considering application whitelist tryst? NIST will help you clear the mist

Re: Copypasta

Until upper management finds out that you have a compiler installed on your machine, and take it away. Developers surely don't need that to do their jobs, right?

Microsoft may join Mozilla and retire SHA-1 in 2016

Do you mean June 1st?

Yahoo! crypto! queen! turns! security! code! into! evil! tracker!

El Reg RSS

Hey El Reg web devs... Every time you post an article that has HTML in the title, I end up with HTML entities in my feed. So every Yahoo article ends up looking like this (spaces added to prevent HTML parsing in the comment box):

Yahoo< i>!< /i> crypto< i>!< /i> chap< i>!< /i> turns< i>!< /i> security< i>!< /i> code< i>!< /i> into< i>!< /i> evil< i>!< /i> tracker< i>!< /i>

Could you strip out the HTML or stop double-escaping it in the XML? Thanks.

Shocker: Net anarchist builds sneaky 220v USB stick that fries laptops

Watch the video past the credits

This appears to be an april fools prank with some legs

Microsoft backports data slurp to Windows 7 and 8 via patches

Turn off Telemetry (W7 Server 2008 R2)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\AIT\AITEnable

Change AITEnable from 1 to 0.

Problem solved. Don't mention.

Wikipedia: YES! we’ve SAVED the INTERNET again!

Teenaged*

*Or Thereabouts.

The MEP you named is 28 years old. May I ask what the snipe about her age was about?

Mad John McAfee: 'Can you live in a society that is more paranoid than I'm supposed to be?'

He may have been counting the coin being generated by his talk

PCI council gives up, dumbs down PCI DSS for small business

This whole internet business thing is just too easy to do wrong and too hard to do right. "Too" being in comparison with business priorities, in which security always takes a second place if lucky. Until SHTF.

Pi(e) Day of the Century is upon us! Time to celebrate 3/14/15 in style, surely?

Re: Every year, the same B*ll*x

you'd have to convince everyone about April 31st since there aren't 31 days in April; there are 31 days in May however which would make more sense

Six-starved storage bods rush to support vSphere and VVOLs

Re: Why Flash Array

This is the second version correct ? With over 1000 customers .

Why Flash Array

It looks like there is no need to buy an external AFA array for VMware use cases. Correct me if I am wrong ?

BBC clamps down on illicit iPlayer watchers

Here's a thought, why don't the BBC create their own official XBMC plugin or get_iplayer alternative? That way everyone can use it and they don't have to worry about "naughty" people turning to third party clients to make their iPlayer experience a little less shitty?

Also how have the BBC not been sued by Apple for the name iPlayer?

Re: illicit viewers?

What about us legal license payers? I use XBMC hooked up to my TV because it's better quality and larger screen size than watching it on my computer.

Apple iPhone 6: Missing sapphire glass screen FAIL explained

The sapphire seems to have been for the Applewatch...

Has Europe cut the UK adrift on data protection?

Formally speaking, the UK is still an EU member, but that's on paper only. Once the other countries act as if you were no longer a member, leaving is the only choice left.

Batten down the hatches, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS due in TWO DAYS

Ubuntu is like Windows, bloated, slow, change everything at each rebuild instead of fixing what isnt working.

Stop wasting your time with an OS that know only one upgrade path which is format and reinstall. we are in 2014 and reinstall is not an option!

Desktop : LMDE

Server: DEBIAN

enough said!

Gyration Air Mouse Elite

Beware

I had a much older gyration mouse keyboard combo and it was pretty good till the gyro bit of the mouse packed in.

I replaced it with a newer version and it is pretty crap. The mouse looks knackered after a year with silver paint on the plastic you can scratch with a finger nail, the rubberized coating on other parts is scratched and peeling away, the 'tyre' on the mouse wheel skids because grease from the bearings wicked underneath it.

The mouse is a pain in the arse. There is an IR emitter and sensor in the nose which detects when it is on a surface. The sensor is way too sensitive and not properly screened from the emitter. It will detect a finger from about 3 inches so when you straighten you index finger to not operate the underside 'air' button the sensor sees it and switches to surface mode. A bit of dirt or fluff in the emitter hole reflects enough IR onto the sensor to make it even more sensitive or keep it in surface mode.

Poor design and poor build quality, I hope this mega expensive elite version is better.

Mancunians finally get to open bank accounts, go to Europe

@GettinSadda

"Any chance of a biometric ID card being at all useful is lost if those that are using it to verify someones ID don't have the ability to verify that the biometric on the card match those of the person presenting it, and that the card matches the details registered in the database"

If you are going to confirm the data on the card matches the database what is the point having data on the card why not just used data from the database? Just demonstrates how pointless the card is serving as no more than a key for the database which could just as well be a number scribbled on a bit of paper.

The card provides no security, it just facilitates surveillance of those carrying genuine cards and makes day to day life a pain in the arse when you are required to provide it for dozens of insecure identity checks.

Spanish region teaches kids how to crack one off

LOL

To Mr Anonymous who got first crack and posted

"Juan Kerrs

Mine's the one with the Kleenex"

I love it!!! made me smile

Google unleashes internal JavaScript tools

and to follow up on A.C's post above

jquery...mootools, prototype, dojo, scriptaculous and yui to list but a few. imho javascript has too many standard libraries....

Honda designs mainstream e-bikes

@A.N Other

If your C90 did a zillion miles to the gallon what is the point in replacing it with something battery powered with less performance and less range?

It will cost more in replacement batteries than a C90 would in petrol and that's ignoring the huge tax on petrol which have to come from somewhere should use decline.

Amazon eyes wander as Royal Mail strike looms

Death wish

In a mail market shrinking due to email and paper-free and with stiff competition from private companies to deliver larger items the last thing the post office needs is to provide a shitter than normal service.

I stopped using parcel farce years ago when they took longer to deliver an important package than it would have taken me to crawl 160 miles on my hand and knees pushing the parcel with my nose. Compensation available for this abysmal service? nothing not even a refund of the postage.

Recently they delivered a sorry you were out postcard instead of a parcel, must have been really careful with the letter box so we didn't hear it never mind the doorbell they didn't ring. Trying to complain about this was a complete waste of time, their service will never improve when they ignore customers taking the trouble to tell them how it is shit.

Tories oppose charges and speed cameras

Take away a deterrent and you will see the number of road deaths rise

A deterrent to exceeding a number on a stick is not a deterrent to killing people because the two things are mostly unrelated.

If you ripped out all speedometers and threw them away deaths would fall because people would have to start deciding on what an appropriate speed is based on what really matters not numbers on sticks.

Yank slams El Reg 'zio-fruitcake' Playmobil 'crap'

Lol

Perhaps a crazy redneck yankie doodle...

Nation's moral guardians snap over 'shag bands'

Mary Creagh

Bound to find at least one useless waste of space politician eager to jump on this passing bandwagon......

Mozilla cracks on with fourth Thunderbird 3 beta

@Jeremy 2 - global inboxes

Actually I believe it's a summary view across all of your inboxes, as opposed to global inbox which just stores everything.

Philips waves farewell to point-and-press remote controls

Oh dear

I am reminded of a tale from one of the founders of id software. When they were developing Doom (or maybe Quake) using a pain mouse and WASD keyboard almost every day someone sent them their revolutionary new joystick/gamepad/trackball/glove/whatever controller that was going to take over the world. Every day they would try the new controller for no more than 5 minutes before unplugging it and throwing it at the wall.

Yes remotes with a zillion buttons are effing awful. If you going to make what you are controlling interactive and context sensitive so you can control it with a handful of gestures then you could control it with a handful of buttons.

I have done complete user interfaces with a single 4 way joystick, for use in darkrooms where you can't see anything but a dim LCD display in the bottom of a hole.

UK.gov revives net cut-off threat for illegal downloaders

What did you expect

The entertainment biz has lots of cash to slosh around, the best yachts, throw the best parties. Which side do you think the unelected, twice disgraced, pile of snot who pulled his snout out of the euro trough to be made a Lord and rule over us is going to be on?

Government rubbishes ID card hack report

Card is pointless said this for years

I have said for years now there is no security in the card. If clones or forged cards are useful they will be made.

The only place there can be security (not actually saying there will be) is in the database and verification of biometrics against the database. The card has no more real use than a key to the database and a number scribbled on a bit of paper would serve just as well.

Carrying a card provides no secure identity verification but will allow a vast number of insecure and pointless identity checks to be made making day to day life a pain in the arse for the vast majority with no real impact on the minority you do want to detect or prevent.

Toshiba unveils new external 3.5-inch drive

Probably WD

I have one of these http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145041.

It has a WD10EAVS drive in it.

Government promises low carbon future

bright, green future

What bollocks, the future will be miserable.

1.2 million green jobs? 1.2 million people employed doing what we already do but in a much more expensive way - who is going to pay them especially with 1.2 million less people doing something useful.

Some stupid bint on TV today said yes electricity prices will rise but efficiency improvements in the home will mean savings and our bills could actually be reduced - yeah right,

And the Severn Barrage? FFS buy one nuke from the French (cos we don't know how to make them anymore) it will generate more electricity than the Severn Barrage at a small fraction of the financial and environmental costs.

Plod offered SIM confiscation powers by Tories

Complete Tossers

Just confirmation (if any were needed) than in the complete tosser league the Tories are not far behind FuLab.

Enertia e-bike wheeled into shops

Ego Street Scooter

Looked at this, more sensible price, but, they can't even guarantee the battery for a year.

Battery guarantee is 8 months or 3000km which at their no doubt exaggerated range claim is about 50 charge/discharge cycles. Would you buy a vehicle where the most expensive component needs to be replaced 2 or 3 times more often than the oil in a conventional car?

Batteries are really expensive (financially and environmentally) low density energy containers which need frequent replacement. A tin can to hold chemical energy is vastly cheaper, lasts for ever and has much higher energy density. We have been developing and trying to make better batteries for decades, there are no revolutions just round the corner.

Leccy vehicles are doomed to niche markets which can put up with their limitations and benefit from irrational tax breaks.

more leccy crap

3.1kwh battery, 500 full charge/discharge cycles to be knackered, assume 3x better efficiency of leccy tech and you are left with the equivalent of about 135 gallons of petrol saved.

With the price of the thing do you think you will get a replacement battery for the cost of 135 gallons of petrol? You won't break even on battery costs never mind recover the cost of the rest of it and that is ignoring the cost of electricity and the horrendous tax on petrol which if leccy tech ever caught on you would be forced to pay somewhere else.

Counter terror cops prep for recession funding squeeze

We wouldn't notice a 100% cut

Apart from being a few billion a year better off.

What have they done so far with the billions of quid funding?

Captured a bag of fertilizer, deported some students, locked up a handful of nut cases who probably couldn't set a fart alight.

More people die on our roads in a fortnight than have died from terrorism in the last decade. If you were given a big wad of money and told to go save lives with it using it to fight terror would be at the bottom of a very long list.

Stop ID cards, says Scottish minister

Burning oil wells

The ID card scheme will be scrapped when FuLab get kicked out in the next general election. All we can ask is they stop pissing away our money on it in the mean time.

I am reminded of the Iraqis setting fire to oil wells during their retreat from Kuwait.

PC repair techs police dangerous picture law

Way to go FuLab

It's now legal to posses photos of someone eating a dead Donkey's dick but not sucking one....

MPs slam 'disgraceful' Type 45 destroyers

1.1 billion ouch

Type 45, 7200 tons, holds 200 skates, does 28 knots - 1.1 billion quid

Oasis class, 220,000 tons, holds 5,400 passengers, 1800 crew, does 20 knots - 0.7 billion quid

MPs turn to Black Blob to preserve their dignity

@TeeCee - bag of hammers

I would vote for a closet of brooms, just the handles would do. Inanimate objects would have done less damage to country and society than FuLab have in the last decade.

This http://tinyurl.com/lw6w3s is an example of what FuLab have done. Read the related article linked at the bottom too.

@jake - proportional representation - people don't vote for local representation, like most people I can't even name my local MP. Arguments about disproportionate power to minorities are bollocks, politicians are twats who want large majorities so they can ignore the opposition and those who voted for them. Requiring them to have support from at least a part of the opposition is a step in the right direction.

@jake - fuckwits?

Our voting system gives us the choice of throwing the vote away on a party which has no chance of being elected or in some cases choosing between two packs of wankers.

Hardly surprising many see no point in voting. Personally I have written "none of these wankers" across the X boxes. I think all voting forms should have a "none of the above" option so we can show we are not apathetic without appearing to show approval of the system or the politicians on offer.

We need a proportional representation voting system but politicians being selfish twats only show interest in proportional representation when they do not or are unlikely to have a majority and so have no power to introduce one.

Don't be fooled

The problem is the majority of MPs are slimeballs who refused to vote for independently recommended pay rises dishonestly portraying themselves as selfless but did give themselves a very generous 'expenses' scheme which they milked to the hilt and beyond in some cases.

Publishing and clamping down on expenses leaves you with the same dishonest slimeballs with less money in their pockets. The problem is the dishonest slimeballs. The expenses are a symptom. How typical of FuLab to try to solve a problem by attacking symptoms, their cure for the common cold would be making snot illegal.

So don't be fooled. The publishing and regulation of MP expenses is no reason to have faith in them or our mess of a political system.

TTxGP: world's first e-bike grand prix race report

How slow

I asked previously how slow they would have to go make the batteries last a lap and now we know.

A bit slower than Freddie Frith's race average on a 500 Norton in 1937.

Here is a picture of him still riding a piece of crap 12 years later....

http://www.iomtt.com/Photo-Gallery/GalleryPicPreview.aspx?image=720&ref=

and it isn't zero emission or zero carbon emission, it is displaced emission.

So what we do when ID Cards 1.0 finally dies?

"I am over 18", "I am over 65"

Most of the reasons for someone needing to identify themselves in person are government created bollocks we could do without.

I couldn't care less if under 18's are able to buy booze/fags/porn/knives. Children need to be responsible for their actions long before they reach 18. The constant erosion of personal responsibility and replacement by state responsibility is a root cause of many of our social problems. Of course NuLab (perhaps they should be called FuLab now?) love it, they love the idea that we are all dependent on them and that they are not mostly a waste of space. For them the bigger and more important the state the bigger and more important they feel controlling it.

Likewise subsidies for OAPs are a complicated and expensive waste of time. Give them enough money to live on and let them spend it like the rest of us without artificial market and price distortions.

Adventurer demands -70°C phone for next expedition

Publicity seeking ranting....

The top of Everest only gets to -35. Antarctica in the winter is the only place to see -70. There is no mobile coverage in Antarctica and the only reason anyone would want to talk to the twat is to see if they can get the phone to freeze to his ear.

DataSlide reinvents hard drive

Believe it when I can buy it

How do they maintain the extremely accurate positioning required between all 64 heads when they only move the media?

You would think on a conventional 3 platter 6 head drive you could use all 6 heads at the same time and get 6 way RAID like performance from a single drive but you can't because the variable misalignment between heads means the single actuator can only keep one of them accurately on track at a time. They have the same problem. Can they keep the head and media aligned and thermal expansion matched well enough to allow the heads to be small enough to get a useful storage capacity?

Imagine! Government to legislate against badness

Child poverty is reducing

The recession, job losses and pay freezes are no doubt reducing the average family income which according to the farcical definition used will reduce child poverty.

Politicians really do live in some kind of la-la land where taxing the rich and burning the money would be considered to be reducing child poverty.

WTF is it with child poverty anyway? When I were a lad 5 of us lived in a 2 bedroom cottage with no running water and an outside elsan toilet which my old man had to empty into a hole he dug in the garden once a week. Am I not a victim of child poverty? Shouldn't someone be prosecuted? Can I sue someone for it?

TTXGP e-bikers finish qualification run

Does anyone think this will stand still?

No it won't stand still but I consider it unlikely to get anywhere fast.

Leccy tech is not fundamentally green and equally modern IC engines are not polluting enough to justify the cost of moving the pollution elsewhere.

We have been trying to develop better batteries for decades and I predict there will not be any major technological break throughs (unlike the idiot government who's long term transport planning seems to rely on them).

I predict when dino oil really starts getting scarce we will be using power from nukes to manufacture liquid fuels. Planes are never going to fly on batteries and the vastly greater energy density of liquid chemical fuels will remain attractive for other applications.

Wirelessly-powered phones on sale within four years, says Nokia

More green garbage

At 5mW 24/7 your phone will harvest enough energy to make 1 cup of tea every 217 days.

During the life time of the phone it will harvest significantly less energy than it took to manufacture the electronics required to do the harvesting.

Complete and utter greenwash garbage.

Harvesting energy from the 'ether' only makes sense for ultra low power equipment where it can completely remove the need for a battery (and the sometimes high cost of replacing it) and even then it is marginal.