Posts by Sir Sham Cad

Cook'd: Judge says Apple lied to court in Epic case, asks Feds to mull criminal charges

Re: Wow.

Hear Here, as the Audiologist's sign says.

Palantir suggests 'common operating system' for UK govt data

"optimize procurement, among other things."

I can assure you that anything that centralises Procurement into a one-size-fits-all Blob/Procurement IT system will do exactly the opposite of optimisation.

Currently going through end of financial year contract renewals for critical IT Infrastructure licencing and I can tell you this is why Daddy drinks.

Patch procrastination leaves 50,000 Fortinet firewalls vulnerable to zero-day

"internet-connected toothbrushes " should have been the end of that story right there.

Best thing I have with "Fortinet" written on it is a keyring bottle opener I got from an InfoSec trade show years ago.

Edited to add the bottle opener is not internet-connected.

Dude, you got a Dell, period! RIP XPS, Inspiron, Latitude, Precision

Dell Pro Max Premium sure is easier to say than XPS. Well done Marketing.

Also, thanks Dell, just as we're trying to do a multi-organisation hardware convergence by comparing catalogues.

Eight things that should not have happened last year, but did

Technically, Crowdstrike didn't have an outage, they just caused everybody who used their product to have an outage. Totally different, you see, as anyone responsible for their uptime 9's will tell you.

NHS major 'cyber incident' forces hospitals to use pen and paper

Re: Not the first

To answer your first question: Yes.

There's a lot of work across local Integrated Care Boards (the new CCGs it seems) to try to do more joined up thinking. However, each organisation (GP, Local Hospital Trust, wider Hospitals Group) are individually funded and run with different levels of Technical Maturity/Technical Debt and different clinical priorities which directs or diverts funding/attention. I can say that it's getting a lot better with, for example, NHS England, paying for Windows E5 licences so everyone can at least get MDE on the desktop and server environment and provide assistance from the NCSOC. Everything else is the wild west.

Re: while scheduled procedures are canceled

With respect, no they wouldn't. The issue is simply that, when the IT system(s) stop working, Business Continuity (going back to pen and paper in many cases) slows down the process back to those Matronic levels which means not as many patients can be seen, tested and treated in any given timeframe so the backlog, usually in Critical Care settings, increases and can get to a point where the A&E doors are closed. Cancelling non-urgent care, as bad as it is, protects the Critical Care services from getting so clogged up they need to shut.

China starts building world's largest fully steerable radio telescope

Re: the reasoning.

Biggest! More Big than theirs!

The workplace has become a surveillance state

Re: Motion detection

When I'm in the office I have the same issue but the motion sensors are hidden behind pipework and climate control units so actually have a limited field of view. This means often needing to stand up and wave like crazy (not in a calm, Jedi, 'credits will do fine' way, like 'help, someone's drowning over here' kind of way). I'm assuming this is my employer just checking that we're still alive. No need to pay the 'leccy bill if the employees are dead, I suppose.

Meeting about meetings

I thought that particular nonsense was bad before the Covid Times but now every meeting is a virtual one it's so much worse. I swear people now think everyone else is just a floating head on a video screen and don't exist outside of that context.

Another 'major cyber incident' at a UK hospital, outpatients asked to stay away

Re: paper records

Aside from anything else, there are IT systems required for tracking paper records. Yep. I know.

Almost 20 years ago I remember seeing paper records strewn all over the place as a building that was sold off to be turned into flats was just abandoned. I was just there to pull out the network kit. I hope to FSM that those records had been digitised first but I have my doubts.

Re: Whether or not ...

We know that Healthcare is being targeted by Nation States. The main issues in critical infrastructure/services is that you don't get downtime to patch the huge IT infrastructure estate (even though NHS England require resolution in 14 days or SIRO risk signoff) so can remain vulnerable for months.

Anything InfoSec: they need to get lucky once, we need to get lucky all the time.

A year after Broadcom took control of VMware, it's in the box seat

From information I've gathered from similar organisations, the Broadcom licensing change has increased costs up to 1300%, mostly around orgs with smaller VMWare footprint than my lot. The thing is that it's those smaller footprint orgs that are being gouged that are more easily able to migrate so Broadcom may be only getting a very short term boost here.

China-linked group abuses Fortinet 0-day with post-exploit VPN-credential stealer

The most useful thing with "Fortinet" written on it that I have is a keyring bottle opener I got from a trade show donkeys ago. As far as I'm aware it's not had a CVE attached to it since I got it.

Watchdog reluctantly blesses Vodafone-Three merger – with strings attached

Cool. Just as we're looking to refresh/renew our Vodafone mobile contract. This will definitely not shit that right up at all, oh no.

Cisco combines Meraki and Catalyst into single wireless brand

Re: And the Enshittification continues...

Yes, the weasel words do stand out "roughly, for included value, we are not increasing costs."

"Yes I know we're forcing you to buy two bottles of champagne and a whole iberico ham in order to allow you to buy your tin of beans and supermarket sliced bread but, I think you'll find, it works out no more expensive than if you'd have bought them all seperately"

Glad I'm sorting my Cisco EA now.

UK watchdog hints Voda-Three merger will likely pass

Re: How about approval only if...

Well, that's my hope if this deal goes through. I use 3 for my personal phone and Vodafone for the work device. I can usually get some signal on one or the other, especially on the train, but never both at the same time.

Of course what we'll actually get is them both being equally shit at the same time.

We know what Musk will probably dress up as this year: A victim

Re: It’s amazing…

Yep, as long as you have in inexhaustible supply of Lawyer Tokens, the inevitable can be delayed indefinitely.

Cloud repatriation officially a trend... for specific workloads

Re: Captain obvious

Absolutely the eternal bouncing between CapEx and OpEx. Especially when shit you've bought on CapEx eventually moves to the OpEx book when support/subscriptions run out.

We're currently spending a six figure sum to maintain a DR instance we don't (and hopefully won't) use and, naturally, that's rightly catching the eye of the beancounters.

Currently having sector-wide discussions on Cloud Adoption and, as one of the few in the group who actually have a significant (Redmond) Cloud presence, I'm waving my arms above my head screaming Noooooo!

Personalized pop-up was funny for about a second, until it felt like stalking

"Curt" The Regomiser strikes again!

Top tip: "Is it Banter?" -> Is your colleague in tears (Y/N)? -> If Y, are they tears of laughter (Y/N) -> If N then you are an utter Curt and should probably have a word with HR.

NHS drops another billion on tech in the hope of finally going digital

Re: Place your bets...

This is a Procurement Framework model rather than a Big Plan like the old, doomed, NPfIT.

No, this will fail because the NHS organisations who need the kit and software don't have the Capital funding to afford to buy it.

NHS dangles £1.5B carrot to be outfitted with everything from PCs to printers

Re: Costs

Problem is, if you're Procuring on these frameworks north of 50K you have to run a maxi-comp. Massive pain in the arse.

Public clouds are 'dirty' about VMware's on-prem push, says Broadcom CEO Hock Tan

Re: "all you guys are very important to the cause"

Fighting against a "Cloud First" strategy has been a difficult experience but nice to be proven right (again)

Japan stops measuring train crowding by ease of newspaper readership

Just use the old Japanese one

You can call it "The Evening Standard Standard" or just "The Standard Standard" for short.

Remember Nokia? Amazon's lawyers do, in patent infringement suit

across The Pond people don't have the same meaning

Over in Leftpondia they don't have the same Bankruptcy laws either, AFAIK, so the definition is not really translatable. Oh wait, I can translate "Nokia didn't invent the iPhone"

Post-CrowdStrike, Microsoft to discourage use of kernel drivers by security tools

I thought the issue was they did test the file before release and it tested OK, but they hadn't properly tested the testing software because it didn't test properly. The Friday thing is unforgivable, absolutely.

AI models face collapse if they overdose on their own output

Hang on, I think I know this one!

Doesn't it all end up with everything being pictures of crabs?

CrowdStrike shares sink as global IT outage savages systems worldwide

Re: The fault's with Microsoft

Joe Tidy is a BBC Correspondent. He Writes for the Lusers. So, yeah, he's vaugewashing the reporting which is a bit infuriating but I'm not his audience.

Microsoft extends Azure into Oracle cloud to satisfy OpenAI

Re: Finally!

Nope, only "Super Extra Clippypilot" will be unbreakable.

Nothing can go wrong here!

London hospitals left in critical condition after ransomware attack

Re: 3rd attack in a year on Synlab

" redirected to other providers at short notice. Looks like it's feasible."

They mean other local NHS Trusts (Healthcare Providers), not other IT Providers.

Logitech MeetUp 2 boasts obligatory AI and a price tag to match

I just <evil ad slinger whose name is now a verb> AI Cutlery. There exists cutlery (initially typoed as 'cultery' which seems fitting) designed by AI.

Yeah. Happy hunting Plest!

UK public voice fear over security in NHS data systems

fair and open competition

Between a Tortoise, a Hare and a Horse where the success criteria was "look like a horse"

Cloud vendor lock-in is shocking, but there's a get out of jail card

Re: Why not have cloud.gov.uk ?

Because of your Point 3 we can't do it so we'd just Tender for one of the huge players to do it for us and we're back where we started.

I wish we could, though.

Ker-Splunk! Cisco closes $28 billion analytics acquisition

Given Cisco's exemplary record with software and software integration, and Splunk being notoriously simple, I can see no way that this could possibly go wrong.

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

Microsoft Publisher books its retirement party for 2026

and users can expect the same experience as today

So it's already EoL as they're not going to update it at all.

Microsoft's Notepad goes from simple text editor to Copilot conspirator

I like the Snipping Tool idea, that would be useful and time saving for me.

Never, in all my IT career, have I ever decided to paste something into Notepad, in order to lose the shitty formatting, and thought "fuck me, what does this actually mean? If only a crap LLM could help me!"

Remember when enterprise administration was more than just a browser dashboard?

Re: Sad times!

Amen. It's been a long time (too long) since I have been to TNMOC but it was a fun game playing "I had one of those! We still use one of those!"

Your pacemaker should be running open source software

Certifications for Medical Devices

Part of the issue re: security of Medical Devices generally is that they are shipped to the Clinicians essentially as a Black Box that has a Certification for use as a Medical Device. Usually certified several years previously. Any "change" to the state of that device, for example: patching the underyling OS, deviates from the original specification meaning the device is no longer certified and can't be used.

Essentially, Medical Devices are a huge security problem because they, and the whole ecosystem is designed for a point-in-time configuration not security.

Wireless priesthood begins blessing Wi-Fi 7 hardware

Re: 40Gbps

Absolutely what I was thinking re: end user kit, especially a large mix of equipment type, capability and age, at which point the users ask why the WiFi is "still shit" and "why have we spent all that money upgrading it?"

Which I'm waiting for sometime around Q3 FY24/25

Microsoft pulls the plug on WordPad, the world's least favorite text editor

Wordpad got me out of so many jams, this is sad news.

That said I'm sure there'll be a LibrePad port somewhere and I'm there for it.

Microsoft's 11-year itch: The uncelebrated anniversary of Windows 8

I had honestly forgotten that Windows 8 existed and that I had to use it at home until Windows 10. Nobody I knew used it apart from me.

Larry Ale-ison institute invests in Oxford pub linked to Tolkien, CS Lewis

About a thousand years before the last Ice Age, when I was 18 I spent a week in Oxford doing extra tuition for my maths A-Level. Sank many a pint in that pub with my fellow desperate students. Hope it's restored sympathetically and the beer is good.

Corner cutting of nuclear proportions as duo admit to falsifying safety tests 29 times

Re: How did they find out?

I would imagine getting paid for work they didn't have to do, meaning they could do other paid work as well and make double-bubble?

More X subscription tiers could spell doom for free access as biz bleeds cash

Money for nothing

So, a "service" that is, essentially, just enabling access to content created by its subscribers wants to charge those same contributors for access to their self-generated content?

That ain't working (with apologies to Mark Knopfler)

UK tribunal agrees with Clearview AI – Brit data regulator has no jurisdiction

Re: LOL

Pretty sure that's the output of an LLM trained entirely on Twatter.

Microsoft kills classic Azure DaaS, because it isn't really Azure

Confuse and conquer

It must be so much fun being a Microsoft Channel Partner. Since the customers can't keep up with the changes it's Professional Services Pork for all.

Techie labelled 'disgusting filth merchant' by disgusting hypocrite

Were people really PAYING for low-resolution background images for their phones for "a few years"?

Yes, and I worked for a (now defunct) company specialising in early personalised 3D avatars where the VCs panicked, brought in someone to pivot the company to sell said low-res images of the custom, personalised, hi res 3D image as that's where the quick money was.

Scientists trace tiny moonquakes to Apollo 17 lander – left over from 1972

If it's good enough for Suzanne Vega it's good enough for me!

Guess what? Ask clouds to behave like old-school vendors, they will – and you lose

My philosophy on Cloud is never put anything important in a cloud provider that you cannot lift-and-shift back on-prem. I'm not a fan of Serverless instances for that reason.

Microsoft tells partners unbundling Teams is a 'compromise' with the EU

Re: "The Register was able to download from Microsoft without entering channel partner credentials"

I would suspect there's some sort of Journalistic exception unless our current Home Orifice lot have binned it off.