* Posts by John 104

1062 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Jul 2009

‪There's a ransom-free fix for WannaCry‬pt. Oh snap, you've rebooted your XP box

John 104

Windows XP is, of course, the antithesis of a strong and stable operating system even when it doesn't have a malware infection

Seriously? For its day, nearly 20 years ago, it was a fine operating system. So good, in fact, that people stayed on it for as long as they have for one reason or another. Is it strong by today's standards? Of course not. But it got the job done for a lot of years for a lot of people. So ease off, eh? :)

40,000-plus AT&T staff threaten to strike Friday

John 104

we're offering terms in which their members – some of whom average from $115,000 to $148,000 in total compensation – will be better off financially," a spokesperson told The Register.

That sort of statement is misleading. It can include health benefits and other like items, but those don't pay the bills...

Samsung Galaxy S8+: Seriously. What were they thinking?

John 104

A coworker of mine just bought the ZTE phablet. Really nice phone. Big screen, nice interface, good resolution. $200. I fail to see the draw to an $800 phone at this point.

So your client's under-spent on IT for decades and lives in fear of an audit

John 104

What happened to the audit and 'high' IT spend mentioned in the beginning? I kept reading and hoping to find something other than advertisement. :(

Attention, Asus RT wireless router owners: Patch your gear now to squash web hijack bugs

John 104

@belkin/linksys

Anyone who uses either of those deserves to get pwned. So unreliable.

I'm rockin the many years old RT-66U. Haven't upgraded the firmware in ages because it just gets the job done. I do have a nice strong password for the admin account though. :)

The rise of AI marks an end to CPU dominated computing

John 104

Wrong Name

They got the name wrong. It should be IA. Intelligent Algorithms.

US Air Force networks F-15 and F-22 fighters – in flight!

John 104

@AC

Is it? Just a few weeks ago the House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services was hearing about a plan to retire the Eagle.

Yeah, just like they retired the A-10.

America's mystery X-37B space drone lands after two years in orbit

John 104
Pint

there is certainly the space station (not a moon, BTW).

Have one on me.

Heroic stepmum takes one for team, sticks pot pipe up wazoo

John 104

@tedleaf

Reads like a post bot on how to make $2k a week!

Bullyboy Apple just blew a $500m hole in our wallet, cries Qualcomm

John 104

@AC

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

Well, we're all screwed then. :)

John 104

Fail Apple

If the contract stipulates payment in terms of a percentage of the products resale value, apple is screwed. Don't like the terms? Re-negotiate. Otherwise get stuffed.

As for Apple telling their chip manufacturers to stop paying. Not sure how that is supposed to work. As said above, seems like they would be susceptible to a shutdown order.

CIA tracked leakers with hilariously bad Web beacon trick

John 104

@MikeMoyle

There is no such thing as bad press.

Rejoice, for Linux 4.11 has been delivered!

John 104

Touchey Feeley and I still can't use my fingerprint scanner to log in.

We're 'heartbroken' we got caught selling your email records to Uber, says Unroll.me boss

John 104

Hilarious on all sides

Serves anyone right who is dumb enough to think that free web services don't come with a cost. What? Do you think services are provided by the goodness of their hearts? The naivety of the average user is so comical its almost tragic. Almost. If you are savvy enough to know how most 'free' web services work and you use them, you have calculated the risk and good on you. For the remaining 99.9% of users, what a bunch of fucking morons. The jilted responses quoted in the article are proof positive.

Time for the general public to wake up and smell the coffee. Maybe this will be a --- "wait, what's that? its free? Sign me up!"

Never mind....

Google's cloudy image recognition is easily blinded, say boffins

John 104

Not Wrong

Technically, it got it right. The tea pot has foliage on it. The home is a human ecosystem and the airplane does fly like a bird...

Robots are killing jobs after all, apparently: One droid equals 5.6 workers

John 104

Re: jobs aren't entitlements

@bombasticbob

You've missed the point entirely. There won't be jobs in a given field replaced by automation/robots. For every robot used, jobs are lost. It's a snowball effect as well. The more automation, the less work for the workforce. If the population was in decline, this wouldn't be an issue. However, we are not, so it is.

IBM: Those 2 redundancy schemes? We need to 'improve margins' and right quick

John 104

Desperate. Look for a bankrupt IBM in the next 12-18 months.

DevOps hype? Sometimes a pizza really is just a pizza

John 104

Re: So... really... you want it plain and simple.

@K

You summed it up nicely there. All those hats can't be work by one skill set, but managers see an opportunity for reduced head count and tun to it. Then point fingers at others when it doesn't work...

Lloyds Banking Group axing hundreds of jobs again

John 104

Responsive isn’t the word that springs to mind when customers were trying to check their bank balances back in January, and were failing miserably, possibly because Lloyds had been targeted in a DDoS attack.

I'm sure this won't be the last time it happens to them either with these continued cuts.

New iPad revealed. Big price cut is main feature

John 104

So... I can still go get a Galaxy Tab for around $200 and it does all the things an iPad would do except icloduy crap. Not seeing a compelling reason for a consumer to want one?

What should password managers not do? Leak your passwords? What a great idea, LastPass

John 104

@AC

For starters, local storage is great... et, all.

You sir, are an average user. Clueless, or careless, take your pick. Your statements about all sorts of personal things living in the cloud is indicative of the general populace's lack of understanding of risk they take when do so.

It's 2017. Cloud services and corporate systems are constantly under attack. Thinking you can put anything in these systems and keep your data yours is foolish. The only way to keep things secure is to use throw away creds for some services, stay off social media, bank in person, and keep things that are important to you on local storage, preferably air gapped from any network.

Or you could just continue with your head in the sand technique. In fact, I think there's some cool articles on Wired that you can read about the next latest cool thing. Don't let the door...

The good times are over, Peter Thiel tells Silicon Valley's oligarchs

John 104

@ecofeco

Yea, glad it wasn't just me. Very poorly written and hard to figure out. Top notch!

And, of course, the obligatory name calling of Trump within the first paragraph.

Here is a hint, Reg: Stick to technology. This article barely scratches the surface of IT Angle with the mention of Silicon Valley. Beyond that?

Autonomous cars are about to do to transport what the internet did to information

John 104

Niave much?

That sweet spot means we will be able to use an app to summon a vehicle anywhere, at any time, at a price that will be very inexpensive, because all human labor has been taken out of the equation.

This is so much pie in the sky I don't even know where to start. Well, except for shaking my head and laughing uncontrollably at your complete lack of understanding on how the world of everyday people works. We don't all live in huge metro hubs. Most of us live outside of them...

John 104

Re: It'll Never Happen

Maybe high powered RADAR like at an airport. The whimpy stuff in cars? Not likely. Ever get a speeding ticket in the fog? RADAR in smaller form factors is mostly useless. A human may have difficulty seeing in the snow, but they CAN see things. And react to them.

Ad men hope blocking has stalled as sites guilt users into switching off

John 104

FTFY

@fidodogbreath

In fairness, this requires a higher tech level than the casual web surfer will have; but any tech savvy Reg reader should be able to suss it out.

Pack your bags! NASA spots SEVEN nearby Earth-sized alien worlds

John 104

So... in a thousand years when we are all dead, someone else will get to go check it all out. Great.

John 104

@sjsmoto

Because someone has debugging turned on like a knob.

EE unveils sky domination plans with drones, balloons

John 104

Patent?

yet-to-be-patented technology unveiled today.

What patent? Hanging a radio off of a balloon? Surely prior art.

John 104

@AC

I think you misunderstand. Emergency services have their own coms. The frequencies described here are just for cellular access.

A webcam is not so much a leering eye as the barrel of a gun

John 104
Headmaster

Re: When squirrels were squirrels and men were men

While the alleged torjan may be able to enable in device manager, putting tape in front of the lens doesn't remove that ability ;)

John 104

Re: When squirrels were squirrels and men were men

No really. :)

The post was written by AD to show how clever he was in being a clueless idiot managing his own kit. He should be embarrassed.

Are we technology professionals or aren't we? Using tape is surely a great mechanical way to solve the problem. But it isn't necessary with a basic understanding of how computers work. Using tape places you with 'them'. You know, users. I thought we were a cut above. Guess not…

John 104
Mushroom

Down vote me all you want, but anyone who uses tape to disable their web cam and who is on this site are a bunch of fuckwits. Especially you, Dabsie.

Software to disable your web cam? Please tell me you didn't pay for that... For fucks sake, this is a technology news site. The writers and readers should have a basic understanding of device management, regardless of your choice of operating system. Go into your fucking device manager, disable the webcam. Done. Can't figure that out? Go read Wired.

Apple nabs smartphone top spot from Samsung, but for how long?

John 104

Re: Never is a long time

@AC

What is going to make them stand head and shoulders above the next iPhone in the eyes of the normal punter?

That's easy. A headphone jack.

NASA picks three Martian wet patches for 2020 splashdown

John 104
Coat

@hatti

After that dismal performance in The Martian, we could only hope he was stuck there.

Then again, if he was stuck there, when the probe arrived, he could science the shit out of it and find answers to all of our questions.

~mines the one with the copy of Solaris in the pocket.

2009 IBM: Teleworking will save the WORLD! 2017 IBM: Get back to the office or else

John 104
IT Angle

Re: El Reg is less and less a tech site

@earl gray and AC

Just telling it like it is. I've been a reg reader for over a decade. In days past it was tech articles or articles that had something to do with tech. These days there are more and more articles that have absolutely NOTHING to do with tech. They are topical for sure and bear discussion. Just no on what is supposed to be a tech site.

The reply "Tech angle?" wasn't something that I made up, nor the IT? icon...

John 104

How reassuring that during a zombie apocalypse, tech services will keep running. El Reg finds some comfort in this.

Confused about this as El Reg is less and less a tech site and more and more political and other news with tech thrown in to satiate the old timers...

Planned Espionage Act could jail journos and whistleblowers as spies

John 104

Re: Staggering

@AC

Not familiar with how your government functions. Are you saying you don't elect your MPs?

John 104

Staggering

The amount of government overreach with this is amazing. I certainly hope you UK folk snuff this out before it get much further.

Also staggering that our recently elected POTUS has been accused of facism, nazism, etc, without actually introducing anything as damaging to the citizenry as this. But by all means, keep screaming across the pond while your MPs actually attempt it.

All of Blighty's attack submarines are out of action – report

John 104

Diesel Electric

yes, you go ahead and use that silent technology and let us know how well it works out for you...

Macs don't get viruses? Hahaha, ha... seriously though, that Word doc could be malware

John 104

Re: It's the 21st century

@mike 16

And there it is. Users are users. Mac users are no better at understanding their PC that Windows users are. I'd wager worse when considering some of the moonlighting customers I've worked with over the years. They posses an absolutely stunning lack of understanding of how their fancy shit works and how to practice safe computing. So while the OS may be 'secure' it doesn't matter when your user is an idiot and falls for easy shit.

John 104

Re: Macs don't get viruses

@AC

As someone who worked on the protection services team at Microsoft for a spell, I can assure you that they do take security very seriously. Aside from that, they have made big steps in process privilege separation over the last several years and releases of server/desktop products.They aren't Linux (or BSD) and never will be, but at least they take threads seriously and respond to their user base which is not something that Apple are well know for...

Oracle settles court spat with fired cloud 'sales inflation whistleblower'

John 104

And since it was settled out of court, that means that they are guilty as hell and gave her a payout to keep it quiet.

Grumpy Trump trumped, now he's got the hump: Muslim ban beaten back by appeals court

John 104

Overturned

It will be reinstated. As much as the 9th circuit court, and the people who hate anything Trump does want it to be different, you can't just piss on the constitution. The constitution gives POTUS the authority to do what he did. Period. The stay and the current ruling are blatant overreach by the judicial branch. their job is NOT to create or interpret policy. Don't like it? Change the constitution. That's how it works. But be careful... Changes you make today because you don't like the current president will affect future ones as well.

The sad thing is this: everything Obama did was lauded as amazing and wonderful by the left. We know this not to be true, but he could do no wrong according to the media party. Now, everything that Trump does will be racist, evil, whatever. Whether it is good or bad. Its a shame, really. It is only going to get worse for this country no matter what party is in control. Our governance is more and more like a reality TV show and less and less like it should be. For the people, by the people.

Windows 10: What is it good for? Microsoft pitches to devs ahead of Creators Update

John 104

Re: Liar liar pants on fire!

@man who fell to earth

I was in our AD group policy editor yesterday fiddling with some auditing stuff. Prior to deleting a policy, I wanted a record of what was configured, etc, so I manually went through all of the policy options. There are actually some bits in there for turning off telemetry in Edge and such. I'd suggest digging in to that and managing these from a GPO.

John 104

Re: The use case for W10 is now very small...

@CAPS LOCK

Wine? Really? So out of support for most things its pretty useless.

To do DevOps right, beam down a UFO says Dynatrace

John 104

The whole thing gives me a bad taste.

XSS marks the spot: Steam vuln dangles potential phishing line

John 104

Valve can kiss my ass. Ever try to contact them for support?

Conviction by computer is go, confirms UK Ministry of Justice

John 104
Trollface

In England and Wales one needs a rod licence to go fishing.

Huh. No wonder you Brits are so up tight. Here in the states you just head to your local pub and offer a drink and a chat. No license required.

Teach undergrads ethics to ensure future AI is safe – compsci boffins

John 104

To design robots to be trustworthy, a solid grounding in engineering is not enough – philosophy is needed

"You're a STEM student?"

"Yes, I'm studying enginee-"

"Never mind that. Sit there. Now, I want to talk to you about your feelings.."

NASA's Curiosity puts cat among the climate pigeons: Lack of CO2 sinks water theory

John 104

Re: All this means...

@Herby

No, sorry, you are wrong. Science is easy, just ask any politician. Besides, climate change is settled science, a politician said so and they never lie..