Posts by Mark 65

Ugly, incomplete, buggy: Windows 10 faces a sprint to the finish

Re: looking for apps

Really, everything I read about Windows 10 makes me not want to lose Windows 7.

Meet Windows 7, it's the new Windows XP with security fixes out until Jan 14 2020.

Chunky Swedish ice maiden: Volvo XC60 D4 Manual EE Lux Nav

Thing is Graham, if your monitor goes wrong you pick a new one up for a couple of hundred. If these ones go wrong you're fucked on practicality and price.

Panicked teen hanged himself after receiving ransomware scam email

Re: Sad, and not good enough

GCHQ with their complete data trawling would know where it came from. Even if it came via a bot net they'd know seeing the recent data drop about how they can easily takeover and run botnets. They're missing a positive PR angle here.

Top US privacy bod: EU should STOP appeasing whiny consumers

Re: Privacy?

Having no privacy means they never fail in their duty.

Seagate's spinning rust most likely to crash, claims backup biz

Re: Seagate 3TB

The Seagate PR bods stating it was a 2013 issue that has been fixed I stills zero confidence, the damage is done. If I'd up sized my RAID array in 2013 I'd be pretty pissed off.

US military finds F-35 software is a buggy mess

Re: Australia has ordered 72

Also have the advantage(?) of having no aircraft carriers thus the need for short take-off is limited.

Possible Lizard Squad members claim hack of Oz travel insurer

Re: People still buy travel insurance?

As stated previously, a lot of credit cards provide travel insurance when said travel is booked in whole or in part using the card.

Dongle bingle makes two MEELLION cars open to exploit

Re: Outsourcing

Because the port that's there is for mechanics to use. Why go to the extra expense of having a read-only and a read-write port? Seriously, why would the current dual purpose one ever be abused....?

Just WHY is the FBI so sure North Korea hacked Sony? NSA: *BLUSH*

Re: Evidence?

Given the NSA got into NK kit using zero day exploits are they that convinced that no other machines in the entire country could not have likewise been hacked by any other person on the planet ever? If they're not sure then what's to say those machines that data came from for the emails and attacks weren't being used as proxies?

Snowden doc leak 'confirms' China stole F-35 data

Re: Colour me shocked

At least we're not alone and even we didn't balls it up quite like the Brits and their seeming inability to match planes with carriers.

That's only because you don't have real aircraft carriers. Had Australia possessed them then they'd have similarly screwed that up in their comparable haste to by this US tat.

Re: This is probably very bad..

@gollux: I'd still have a BMW or Merc engine over anything Japanese any day of the week.

'It's NOT FAIR!' yell RICH KIDS ... and that's a GOOD THING

Re: Altruism outside the group...

Interesting, but could it be explained by the somewhat rare but relative worth of the reciprocity? I mean, as a Westerner I may be unlikely statistically to offer anything in return but should I do so then it is likely to be of relatively high worth. Especially on the subcontinent - a dollar to me being nothing but a days wage to the recipient.

BMW: ADMEN have asked us for YOUR connected car DATA

Re: What?

@dan1980: The saving grace is that, due to the fallibility of mobile phone networks, the operation of this component can in no way be critical to the operation of the vehicle. Networks go down, cells can be too busy, you can be out of a coverage area etc. Thus find the SIM and remove/break it. I'd imagine there would be a healthy after market for such a service.

A better question is "can I disable your needless live monitoring of my vehicle using an implanted SIM card?"

Amazon's tax deal in Luxembourg BROKE the LAW, says EU

Re: Presumably the subsidiary will "go bust"

I'm more interested in this part

This practice is used to orchestrate where a group’s taxable profits will sit (usually in the cheapest country), and is allowed under EU law, so long as the internal group prices are in line with market prices.

What is the going rate in the market for the use of those trademarks and IP? After all, that is what generally gets paid to the tax haven subsidiary.

Uber BLOCKS COPS to stop stings

Re: What if??

CTP should cover that no?

Re: Like any industry, adapt to 21st century tech, or die

But surely you find the immediate 10% surcharge for any form of payment other than cash perfectly reasonable? I mean, they are only covering the costs of the transaction. This is one area Australia needs to sharpen up, with only the cost of the payment method being added rather than some ridiculous top-up fee.

Don't use Charlie Hebdo to justify Big Brother data-slurp – Data protection MEP

Re: Lets not let

It is much the same as the police these days wanting you to incriminate yourself as they are too lazy and too fucking stupid to work out how to do it themselves.

In what possible way could sharing the data on aircraft passengers have helped thwart the Charlie Hebdo killings?

It wouldn't, but that isn't the point of the game. The point of the game is to get more power whilst pretending to offer more/greater security. The power is then used to control the population and prevent dissent. As a politician you just hope the majority of the utterly useless media that indulge in AP re-posts rather than journalism don't question the fact that your intrusive data gathering has prevented nothing and the majority of perpetrators were all already known to you. Control the media and you get to control the majority of the public that are busy suckling on the welfare state teat who are more interested in shite like black Friday sales where they can purchase knock-down priced tat.

Tax Systems: The good, the bad and the completely toot toot ding-dong loopy

Re: moving to a 13% flat rate income tax actually raised revenue collected.

But tax rates need to be tiered so the rich pay more! Not that they just pay advisors to avoid it and structure away those pesky bills or anything. I struggle with why a tiered system is considered more equitable.

Re: Tobin/Robin Hood Tax

Yep, a more complex tax system is just what we need. Not. So much time and money that could be spent on more fruitful endeavours with a simple tax system is wasted because we have a complex one. More HMRC to be paid for to implement. More tax advisors to be paid for to avoid.

Re: @ Ivan 4

I'm still confused as to whether that show was a comedy or a civil service training video.

Re: Jaffa cakes

They'd know all about them - bunch of c*nts.

Re: Land Value Tax

OK, so my freehold house in Oxford has increased in value by (roughly) £50k in two years. How much of that is down to the land?

Most of it. The value of your home is essentially the value of the land plus the cost of replacing the property roughly speaking. This is obviously clearest for detached properties. It is the land that appreciates in a housing boom (location location location) rather than the building which varies with costs of materials, labour, and other build costs. Unless of course you've added an extension and replaced the kitchen etc.

20 years on: The satirist's satirist Peter Cook remembered

Re: "greatest British comedian of all time "

Yes who could forget Les Dawson's little dittys and those wonderful piano pieces full of majestically ballsed up notes.

Welcome to 'uber-veillance' says Australian Privacy Foundation

Simple solution

The easiest way to solve a lot of these problems is that the data created by the device is the sole property of the owner of that device (leasing issues aside) and that any sharing must be explicit and unforced by the asymmetric nature of the relationship i.e. Apple can't fuck you over if you don't say yes. The solution is simple, it is about having the balls to implement it and no politician does.

MI5 boss: We NEED to break securo-tech, get 'assistance' from data-slurp firms

The dark places from where those who wish us harm can plot and plan are increasing. We need to be able to access communications and obtain relevant data on those people when we have good reason to do so.

Perhaps we should also place cameras with microphones in every single place imaginable - homes, toilets, showers, everywhere - and thus leave no place for these dastardly types to plot?

Saudi Arabia to flog man 1,000 times for insulting religion on Facebook

Re: UK Government objections

Can't go upsetting those military contracts.

Erik Meijer: AGILE must be destroyed, once and for all

The cheapest time to fix bugs is at the requirments phase - before you've even started coding.

It's also the time you are least likely to spot them.

I'm willing to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and suggest he's implying that all code will invariably ship with bugs so shipping quicker and being more agile (for want of a better word) is preferable to the old bureaucratic bullshit methods whereby the fix came on some bizarre rolling interval after the issue. I've worked at places where releases could only occur once a fortnight. Period.

Australia ignores data retention in summer slack-off

Seriously dude?

Unless Australians get over their habitual December-to-Easter slack-off, the Attorney-General will be able to credibly claim that the lack of opposition to the data retention bill represents a kind of consent to it, and will proceed.

This c*nt is going to proceed regardless. Whether or not he has any kind of implied consent is utterly irrelevant. No need for niceties when the jackboot of justice is on the throat of privacy and freedom.

Dread Pirate Roberts suspect's defence holed below the waterline

Re: « he had successfully arranged the Employee’s capture and execution »

It's what happens shortly after mid-year appraisals get brought in.

Thunderstrike shocks OS X with firmware bootkit

Question

I've asked this before but nobody answered so I'll give it another shot. There was an earlier exploit with firewire that made use of the protocol's DMA. This exploit was blocked by the addition of a firmware password. Would such a password blocked the Thunderstrike exploit? Does it bypass any control around firmware updating or would it be foiled by such a lock? I seem to remember having to boot from the install media and use a firmware tool to apply the password (was a couple of years ago now).

Anyway, answers on a postcard would be appreciated.

Police radios will be KILLED soon – yet no one dares say 'Huawei'

Re: Why change the system?

@Ben Liddicott: I second that. The common sense route would be to have reliable voice plus secondary potentially flakey data transmission rather than make both shite. The last thing you want in an emergency like an armed incident is a PC calling for backup like something out of a Dom Jolly sketch.

Burglars' delight no more: Immobilise UK secures property list

Re: change the web address??

I think the intrusion detection part might be related to it being hosted by cloudfront etc that would notice suspicious activity patterns depending on how smart any scraping script was.

The creators of the site clearly have no smarts whatsoever.

Three expat Brits explain their move to Australia

Re: @ Brend What is Canberra like for .net developers.

Yeah, the failure to recognise overseas qualifications is a massive protectionist fail. Likewise I've met some bloody smart Indians/sub-continentals that are driving cabs when they could be adding somewhat more to GDP and the tax coffers.

As for C# in Canberra, I was under the impression that Java is more the thing there then you can immerse yourself totally into the Federal Government trough and earn a fair chunk of change contracting.

Re: Grass always greener

Brisbane to Melbourne is the equivalent roughly of UK to Spain.

Morgan Stanley fires rookie for stealing thousands of fat cats' financial files

Financial Advisor?

Given they wanted paying in Speedcoin I'm guessing that they were sacked for being too much of a risk taker even for MS.

Ex-Microsoft Bug Bounty dev forced to decrypt laptop for Paris airport official

I couldn't quite fathom her surprise...

Moussouris attributes the whole "unsettling" experience to an "Inspector Clouseau" type official exceeding her authority in checking that a computer was operational rather than anything more sinister.

Unsettling? Surely she has encountered the TSA and their drive copying practices?

Re: My thoughts entirely...

But how to retrieve the data from that private store? Username and password over https? NSA may like that. Use password protected ssh key? The most likely method but then that means your private key needs to be on that laptop albeit password protected. How secure is that these days? I'm not sure.

The weirdly-synched life of the Google Nest household

Yep, it's likely that where the inventors of these concepts live they use reverse cycle air conditioning. Efficient from the perspective of time to feel warm but inefficient from the perspective of feeling cold the instant it's switched off.

Renault Captur: Nobody who knows about cars will buy this

Re: How much?

Makes you wonder whether the car companies are taking the piss or the pound has really been made that worthless over the last few years.

One issue that should concern you that people seldom think about when buying cars is "how much will this thing cost to fix?". A lot depends on whether you will buy it new and turn it over in 3 years (capped priced servicing) or not but some of these cars, and the French are bastards for it, have absolutely bizarrely laid out engine bays that are a total and utter c*nt to service. Just have a quick word with your mechanic before looking at buying and gauge their reaction. I know a few that hate certain models despite the extra money they bring in by requiring more hours for the same job as the grief they cause just isn't worth it. When the owners complain "that's a bit steep, X around the corner only paid £Y to get his clutch replaced" they often feel like retorting "well his car wasn't designed by a sadistic bastard".

European data law: UK.gov TRASHES 'unambiguous consent' plans

Re: It doesn't really matter.

I remember back over ten years ago whenever you signed a contract with a bank/finance company you also were required to sign another form opting out of the restricted hours from this directive. Slightly longer working hours? The directive restricts you to no more than 48 hours work per week as a right. Signing away that right is the first thing you do when signing that paperwork. You can opt-out as it is neither monitored nor enforced and you will regularly find people in Ops, Legal, M&A etc working 60+ hours per week. They new what they were signing up for but the thought that you cannot effectively opt-out is laughable.

Re: Farage

Farage is an obnoxious little maggot who will say and promise anything, irrespective of whether it can be delivered, to gain a few more votes.

So, pretty much like any other politician you could choose to mention?

UK banks prepare for Apple Pay 'invasion', look to slap on bonking protection

Re: Additional steps...

The Chevon oil company is working with Apple to implement this on their gas pumps.

So much for not using your phone near the pumps.

Office MACROS PERIL! Age-old VBScript tactic is BACK in biz attack

Re: @AC

Code signing is the real work-around here as you can enforce a strict policy and allow essential use. The issue is that everywhere I have ever worked central IT has never allowed for code signing, will not set it up, and even if they did they would make you jump through unworkable hoops in order to get anything signed. Reap that which you sow.

Why has the Russian economy plunged SO SUDDENLY into the toilet?

Re: Well, yes

Tim, how do you see the attempts by Russia to move the World away from transacting everything in US Dollars faring? They already allow China and, I believe, Europe to transact in alternatives. There's simply little need, when the controller of said country is such an anti-social playground bullying arsehole, to transact in it.

New Zealand Supreme Court says Kim Dotcom search warrants were legal

Personally

I cannot wait for the fall of the American Empire. Its "our law, world law" mentality and its playground bully behaviour has become quite tiresome. I'm sure there would be few in the World that would mourn its passing. This period in World history has shown that having only one major power leads to a lack of balance whereby said power just acts like a complete tosser.

Hack flings bootkits from Macs' Thunderbolts

Re: Well duh!

Perfect for spies and security services no?

I'm wondering whether this, like the firewire vulnerability, can be blocked by the same method - I vaguely remember setting some sort of password for part of the BIOS, I think to do with updating.