* Posts by Danny 2

2212 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Jul 2009

'Unmute' named one of Oxford Dictionary's words of the year

Danny 2

Re: The Auld Abnormal

I'm printing a list of accepted commands for him as an aide-mémoire. I also got him voice activated LED bulbs.

I assumed he'd use the dot to play music too, but he says he can't remember the music he likes unless he sees a list of it. I put all of his music on a phone, he lost the phone, and I put it all on the TV, he can't work the controller. So I'm also printing out a list of all the music he liked so he can ask Alexa.

Sooner or later he'll learn he can order ice cream deliveries from Amazon and I'll be redundant.

Everyone you love is gone, there is only ice cream

Danny 2

The Auld Abnormal

I bought my dad an Amazon Dot when he started forgetting how his TV remote control works. It's not a panacea, he certainly hasn't learned the word 'unmute'. "Alexis, turn the sound on... Alec, turn the sound on... Danny, turn the bloody sound on!"

Manchester United working with infosec experts to 'minimize ongoing IT disruption' caused by 'cyber attack'

Danny 2

US Air Force deploys robot security dogs to guard base

Danny 2

Re: Burning books...

The recent TV adaptation of War of The Worlds used these cyborg quadrupeds as the alien threat. [I know that aren't cyborgs in reality -yet!]

Ordnance Survey recruits AR developer to build 'geolocated quests' to help get Brit couch potatoes exercising outdoors

Danny 2

The National Library of Scotland is a superlatively rude-word amazing place. It's my local library geographically, albeit a hike and I don't get proper access with my Central Library library card from across the street without bluff and bravado.

My dad was a Leith geographer by career, for his last big birthday I got him copies of maps of Easter Road through out it's history. A good memory for me, though he doesn't remember that and doesn't know where the maps went.

You should blag your way in to the National Library when possible but i's difficult just now. From tomorrow at 6pm I can get fined £10,000 if I travel between my flat and my parents house - luckily I don't have £10,000!

Covid regulations will make it illegal to enter or leave Scotland

[ETA: At least this time I got 24 hours warning. Last weekend I was told I wasn't allowed to smack children with immediate effect. I never knew I was allowed to smack children! My parents numpty neighbours are having a drunken, boisterous Tier 4 lockdown party tonight, blasting '80s music which suggests hospital ICU next week.]

US Senate approves deepfake bill to defend against manipulated media

Danny 2

Below average observer

A young woman with long brown hair put on a long blonde wig, told me she was about to, and I wouldn't have recognised her. I'd only known her a couple of weeks but still, I assumed such a simple and announced deception wouldn't have confused me.

I had chatted for half an hour with a guy who I was then told was an actor, and he was prodded to 'do his thing', and he went into character. Again, I wouldn't have recognised him unless it had been announced.

I was walking with a friend and he said, "Wow, that was cold!"

I asked what was cold. "You just walked past your mum without saying hello."

I never noticed her. In my defence she hadn't noticed me, which explains where I get it from.

He wasn't such a great observer either, he paid too much focus on faces and not enough attention on environment. One time we were walking and a woman fell down hard on the pavement in front of us and he stepped over her and kept talking. He was aware of her as a walking obstacle just not as a person.

It also fails in reverse. I passed my worst enemy in a northern town neither of us had been to, clocked him, and thought nah, my mind is playing tricks. It was him.

I am the Dunning Kruger of observation so I don't trust my observations and verify three times.

TL/DR - You may feel superior but this is a serious problem for the bulk of society. Most of us are more easily fooled than we think we can be.

Trump fires cybersecurity boss Chris Krebs for doing his job: Securing the election and telling the truth about it

Danny 2

Trump University Cybersecurity Final Exams

Welcome to your final exam.

Your final exam is now over.

I'm afraid all of you failed.

Test and Trace chief Dido Harding prompted to self-isolate by NHS COVID-19 app

Danny 2

Fun phone call

Hello boss? You can't come in to work today, you're sick.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill ransomware claim: Crims demand cash from target in administration

Danny 2

WANkids?

Danny 2

Blockmailer?

America's largest radio telescope close to collapse as engineers race to fix fraying cables

Danny 2

Frayed knot

The Forth Road bridge suffered from fraying cables until it had to be closed to heavy traffic. The weight and amount of heavy goods vehicles hadn't been anticipated when it was built in 1964.

Likewise when the Arecibo Observatory was built in 1960 the engineers couldn't have anticipated the massive fast radio bursts it now has to cope with.

Ex-missile systems worker jailed for breaching Official Secrets Act after last-second guilty plea

Danny 2

Re: Nobody commented on the best quote?

Schedule 1, as amended by Section 47 of the SCA 2015 and Schedule 5, of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Section 7) sets out an extensive list of offences under 15 headings.

Drug trafficking

Slavery

People trafficking; (Amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2010, Schedule 9, paragraph 142)

Firearms offences

Prostitution and child sex

Armed robbery etc.

Money laundering

Fraud

Offences in relation to public revenue (amended by Taxation (International and Other Provisions) Act 2010, Schedule 7, paragraph 101(2))

Bribery (Amended by the Bribery Act 2010, Schedule 1, paragraph 14)

Counterfeiting

Blackmail;

Computer misuse

Environment (as amended by Schedule 22 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, Part 5, B)

Organised Crime

Danny 2

Re: Mrs Justice Whipple

"Justice" isn't their name, it's an honorific for rank. Her name is P̶h̶i̶l̶i̶p̶p̶l̶e̶ ̶W̶h̶i̶p̶p̶a̶ Philippa Whipple.

Wondering what to do over the holiday season? How about aiming a laser at commercial aircraft and then spending years of your life in prison?

Danny 2

Magpie scarecrow

Slightly off topic but slightly interesting. I've been feeding a squirrel nuts, mostly to annoy and entertain my cats. The squirrel runs off with a nut to eat or bury it. Then two magpies swoop down and swallow two or three nuts, they have learned to monitor the squirrel. The cats run into the double glazing trying to get to the nut eaters, but the nut eaters understand glass. I wanted to scare the magpies away but not the squirrel, and I found a way.

I have a tiny blue LED on the end of my cigarette lighter. I flash it at the magpies and they instantly flee. The squirrel is not interested, it knows I have it's best interests at heart and always runs towards me.

I posted a comment here about a year ago on a study showing spiders would furiously chase green laser dots but ignore other colours of laser dots. The study didn't explain why, it was just saying it is a fun way to spend an evening. Thanks to lockdown I will test the magpies with other colours of LEDs, and try to scare other birds with LEDs.

Radio Frequency fingerprinting of aircraft ADS-B transmitters? Boffins reckon they've cracked it

Danny 2

Not So Secret Squirrel

There were illegal rendition (kidnap&torture) flights and illegal munitions flights passing through Prestwick, and we protested them. The police were always asking us how we knew about them, and we never told them but it can't hurt now. We were told by ATCers and plane spotters.

In real time being able to spoof an ID maybe crucial, but if you are doing it regularly then your arse is parsley. People talk, they just do.

Missing Alan Turing memorabilia to be returned to Blighty from the US, 36 years after it went walkabout

Danny 2

Re: Sort of petty shit Trump would do.

As the first person to report the Trump Tweet "I WON THIS ELECTION! BY A LOT" here, I claim my right to repeat that on the 13th of November the Royal Mail is releasing Star Trek stamps. How cool is that? You can lick the backside of James Tiberius Kirk. Can 2020 be any bester?

[Disclaimer: Many of you know people who will die this year.

Kirk became the first and only student at Starfleet Academy to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, garnering a commendation for original thinking for reprogramming the computer to make the "no-win scenario" winnable. This carries a ten prison sentence today.]

Danny 2

We didn't deserve it

Turing was only posthumously pardoned in 2013, for the heinous crime of being homosexual. Before that the UK didn't deserve to host any of his legacy and memorabilia.

Super-antique-fragile-and-it's-XP-alidocious, even though the sight of it is something quite atrocious

Danny 2

Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious

The Sun remain tops for headline puns when Inverness Caledonian Thistle beat Celtic, but the Ayrshire Daily News just came up with a good one:

South Ayrshire Golf club owner loses 2020 presidential election

Biden projected to be the next US President, Microsoft joins rest of world in telling Trump: It looks like... you're fired

Danny 2
Joke

Donald, where's your troosers?

You have to be happy for the guy. He will no longer be burdened by the presidential tasks of healing racial rifts, international diplomacy, and battling a pandemic. He can finally get to play some golf, visit his hotels, and catch up on his social media.

Danny 2

Re: FCC

I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!

Official sources may not have called the race when this was Tweeted.

Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about how to participate in an election or another civic process.

Danny 2

Pugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble, & Grubb

Probably the most important volte face will be rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate.

I'll miss the unintentional comedy, such as when he said we wouldn't hear of Covid on Nov. 4th, only for his chief of staff to contract it. And I guess I have one less excuse to drink to excess. Maybe one last celebratory beer.

I wonder if he'll try to pre-emptively pardon himself.

After Cummings' Barnard Castle trip, cheeky Britons started using the word 'vision' in their passwords

Danny 2

Re: Poetry and Repetition are helpful...

TyFkYuUpYrMmAdDd

Danny 2

Re: Maga2020 hindsight

ThreeWordChant!ThreeWordChant!ThreeWordChant!

Danny 2

Maga2020 hindsight

PersonWomanManCameraTV

Now that's a Finnish-ing move: Finland offers free 90-day tryout of Helsinki tech scene with childcare thrown in

Danny 2

"Fortunately most Finns speak English but even so."

I escaped my vegan paramour to get myself a burger, but none of the staff spoke English so I pointed at a photograph of a burger on their menu. They looked at me dubiously before serving me a child's happy meal with a little plastic toy. I saw a Sami woman buying reindeer steaks from a supermarket - what, no relatives? All the old folk walk around with ski sticks even before the snow comes.

Definitely under-reported are Finnish fascists/ ultra nationalists - they are effing huge, and think they won WWII by swapping sides at the last minute. And then there's the Commies, if you are into WWII/cold war memorabilia then their flea markets are a boon.

During Covid lockdown English people can only buy booze until 10pm. Scottish folk only ever could buy booze 'til 10pm. Finnish folk can only buy booze from government stores 'til 5pm.

Plus the language and the nudity. Don't wear clothes to a sauna. It's pronounced sow-na, not saw-na.

I'm not trying to put anyone off, go for it. It's like being on a foreign planet from a different dimension in an alternative timezone.

Danny 2

Re: Finland

Booze cruises to Estonian waters.

Suspended sentence for bank IT worker who broke into his boss's webcam because he didn't get a payrise

Danny 2

Blacklist

I was blacklisted for the heinous crime of dropping off a hitch hiker at a peace camp a week after 911. The security services were a wee bit paranoid and trigger happy then. I got by for a few years doing sub-contract, off the books, work for contractors who knew me, but eventually the career-break lack of new knowledge does throttle anyone.

At one point you've got it, then you lose it, and it's gone forever. All walks of life.

I'll give you my passwords if you investigate police corruption, accused missile systems leaker told cops

Danny 2

failing to hand over his passwords to police on demand – a crime in the UK

I have had tens of thousands of passwords for hundreds of accounts on various services almost all of which I am locked out of because I can't remember them.

Ignorance of the law is no legal defence, but knowing the law and forgetting a password should be.

City of Edinburgh Council selects services-slinger CGI for £102m contract despite abandoned Unit4 ERP project

Danny 2

The City of Edinburgh Cuntcil

It's Edinburgh council, it's not like there is a Greater Edinburgh like London or Manchester. All the surrounding environs refer to Edinburgh as 'the town', not 'the city'. The City of Edinburgh Council my hairy, hubristic, hyperbolic arse.

I came into a fair bit of money recently, £100, and I thought I'd give half of that to the council from guilt of not paying taxes. Thank you El Reg for dissuading me from that folly. Unit4 is presumably a lock-up in Dalkeith.

Just cough into your phone, please... MIT lab thinks it can diagnose COVID-19 from the way you expectorate

Danny 2

Re: Every silver lining has a cloud (of aerosol)

Jake,

I was convinced of the inevitably of a serious pandemic at the start of January, but I was also subject to other factors. The Scottish winter, the ill health of my parents, the fact to see a doctor I have to wait in line for two hours outside my health clinic, then sit inside for another two hours alongside undeniably sick folk often with coughs as bad as, or worse than, mine.

Plus who do you think I have to excuse myself to? My grandpa taught me these lyrics to live and die for:

I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry,

If the moonshine don't kill me then I'll live 'til I die

Danny 2

Re: Every silver lining has a cloud (of aerosol)

I was joking. If my cough gets worse then I'll have to cut back on the cigarettes but it won't be by choice. I'm twenty years older than I expected to be, those two decades have been okay but the next two I could pass on happily.

Danny 2

Every silver lining has a cloud (of aerosol)

I'd like to test that app, I've had a terrible cough since November. I mean it's been bad since 1985 but the last year it's been constant and painful. I know, I should see a doctor especially since I read that article by the young man who died of a brain tumour. Still, I don't want to go to the doctors during the pandemic in case it's nothing, and if it is something I'd rather not know. If it's still bad in a month then I'll cut back on my smoking. Meanwhile it's a useful way to get people to stand two metres away from me in shops.

The uni's AutoID Lab earlier developed a speech-analyzing model to screen people for Alzheimer's testing, though turned their attention to COVID-19 as the pandemic took hold.
That's actually true and obvious - my dad has dementia - but more so is the 'dementia shuffle', a characteristic walk without raising their feet. I suggested buying him 'wheelies' trainers but my mum opted for a wheeled zimmer frame.

Luke Skywalker used to bullseye womp rats in his T-16 on Tatooine. But Star Wars: Squadrons misses the mark

Danny 2

Re: Edinburgh's best milkman just died

Despite the nonsense that well known softie faker Irvine Welsh wrote for laughs, Connery is remembered in Edinburgh as 'the real deal'. Which is a big bit bigger than 'big man'.

In Edinburgh, he gained a reputation as "hard man" when six gang members tried to steal from his coat. When he stopped them, he was followed. Connery launched a one-man assault which the future Bond won hands down...

A keen footballer, Connery was good enough to attract the attention of Matt Busby, who offered him a £25-a-week contract at Manchester United...

A year later, he was alongside Lana Turner - proper Tinsel Town royalty - in the film Another Time, Another Place. Her boyfriend, the mobster Johnny Stompanato, reacted badly to rumours of a romance. He stormed on set and pulled out a gun. Connery grabbed it from his hand and overpowered him, before others stepped in and kicked him off set...

And he turned down the role of Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings in 2006, declaring himself tired of acting and sick of the "idiots now making films in Hollywood".

He did some awful movies with the same inappropriate accent, but he will always be 'The Man Who Would Be King'.

Danny 2

Japan testing sandwiches that discount themselves as they age

Danny 2

A recent history of skipping

In 2002 a couple of pretty Nordic activists led me into a skip behind a supermarket to search for food. And there was lots of it. Very poor people always did this despite the social stigma, but environmental hipsters had started competing with them, albeit never taking more than they needed. Then supermarkets started taking measures to discourage it by fortifying their skips or stabbing and pouring blue dyed bleach on their food waste. Skipping became so common since 2008 that it's barely worthwhile. Some shops have started donating their "best before" food to homeless charities, which is kind of self-defeating as the homeless were the ones who knew exactly when it was being thrown out anyway, the same way slightly less poor folk know when food is put on the discounted shelves.

Also since 2008 and the collapse in council budgets there are a wheen more rats in the skips. I guess it beats eating your babies.

[For non British readers, this is quite tragi-comic. Footballer Marcus Rashford has asked the government to provide free school meals to children throughout school holidays. Conservative MPs claimed the children would swap their food for drink and drugs. This BBC article should go without saying except we have a Tory majority parliament who have obviously always paid for their drugs in cash: Stockton food bank: 'Dealers don't swap drugs for a tin of beans'. They really don't!]

Trump's official campaign website vandalized by hackers who 'had enough of the President's fake news'

Danny 2

General Strike : Rochester demurs

Rochester Labor Council: Defending American Democracy and Opposing Authoritarian Rule

Therefore, be it finally resolved that the Rochester Labor Council, AFL-CIO calls on the National AFL-CIO, all of its affiliate unions, and all other labor organizations in the United States of America to prepare for and enact a general strike of all working people, if necessary, to ensure a Constitutionally mandated peaceful transition of power as a result of the 2020 Presidential Elections.

Danny 2

Re: A sign of the times

Upvoted for optimism.

Danny 2

Re: A sign of the times

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfeffel_family

The Pfeffel family (ennobled as von Pfeffel) is a German and Bavarian family originally from Neuburg an der Donau in Bavaria. Some family members were ennobled in Bavaria in the 19th century.

[I heard they inbred with the Drumpfs]

Danny 2

Spreadeded

Hey look, a squirrel! Those Russians really have it in for Trump.

I am Joe Biden and I approve this message.

The Russians are at it again: Zebrocy backdoor malware is evolving, Uncle Sam warns close to eve of presidential election

Danny 2

Zebrocy's operators "took inspiration" from a NATO event to devise a new lure for "one of their downloaders written in [the programming language] Nim".

We know they did it because we boasted about doing it to them!

The biggest threat to US democracy lies in the Whitehouse not the Kremlin.

No need for more asteroid-blasting attempts, NASA's OSIRIS-REx has more than enough space dirt

Danny 2

Blue Moon

I am sometimes critical of the USA, but I'd like to thank you for NASA and Elvis.

Blue Moon - Elvis Presley

Ryuk this for a game of soldiers: Ransomware-flingers actively targeting hospitals in the US, cyber agencies warn

Danny 2

Re: Risky strategy?

I upvoted you because the miscreants certainly deserve it, but...

The main trouble with the death penalty is it is very hard to appeal, and we (all of our nations) have a long history of executing innocent people.

Now if the miscreant had admitted it proudly in court it and there was damning proof then that would be tempting, but there's another argument. Life imprisonment without chance of release is a harsher punishment than a death sentence.

SiFive inches closer to offering a true RISC-V PC: Latest five-core dev board includes PCIe, SSD interfaces

Danny 2

Re: It's not a PC

These developers should be a priority for Covid 19 vaccines. We need to build up nerd immunity.

Remember, remember, the 14th of November (if you're an astronaut): NASA names the date for Crew-1 mission to ISS

Danny 2

UK Star Trek stamps on the 13th

There might be just enough time to send the crew a Star Trek envelope with a Star Trek stamp. Mind you I've found mail to the US can take two days or two weeks, and that was before Trump decided to hobble mail votes.

Software engineer leaked UK missile system secrets and refused to hand cops his passwords, Old Bailey told

Danny 2

"If the nation does not care for my security then why should I care for national security?"

I used to joke that if I'm ever charged with crimes against humanity I'll plead self-defence. Still, if I ever felt threatened in a pub then I wouldn't take a hammer and a machete, I'd go to a friendlier pub.

The Human Resources folk at his previous employer should be given their jotters.

Brit accused of spying on 772 people via webcam CCTV software tells court he'd end his life if extradited to US

Danny 2

When your state does it

Apology for linking to a Guardian article. Secrets and lies: untangling the UK 'spy cops' scandal

See, these cops really ruined lives far worse than this criminal. Some of them actually raised families with their innocent victims under false pretences. They claimed they had to have sex with their victims to maintain their cover, but that is a lie. Nobody in the peace movement was expected to have sex with anyone ever, if anything it was discouraged like in any other work place.

I was targetted by PC Lynn Watson and to her credit, and her male colleagues discredit, she flirted but didn't try to seduce. I was seriously fucked over by three separate male police - well, I don't name them because I can't even be sure which were officers or infiltrators or agents.

A cautionary tale of virtual floppies and all too real credentials

Danny 2

Panopticon

I worked in SWIFT and they are pretty unhackable. In my place they had one internet connected PC, not connected to any other internal computer and with it's drives removed and it's ports literally cut out. Plus it was on CCTV, as were most places there. And they analysed your toilet material for drugs or whatnot. And body scanners at the door to check you weren't taking or bringing CDs or drives.

Every security scare about SWIFT is always about the banks that connect to it, it itself is pretty much the perfect panopticon.

Cisco penta-gone from Pentagon as Aruba rolls in a new net

Danny 2

Gen X SysInt&Test

Last millennium I helped build the Cisco Network Management Software. Sorry! Is there still NMS?

I'm also unclear whether Aruba have better backdoors and trapdoors or if the pentagon has stopped trusting the NSA.

Flash haters, rejoice! Microsoft releases tool to let you nuke Adobe's security horror before support ends

Danny 2

Flash! Bang! Wallop!

(Courtesy of England's first teen idol and rock'n'roll star, Tommy Steele, Instagram-ready in 1956.)

All lined up in a wedding group

'Ere we are for a photograph

We're all dressed up in a morning suit

All trying hard not to laugh

Since the early caveman in his fur

Took a trip to Gretna Green

There's always been a photographer

To record the 'appy scene

'Old it, flash, bang, wallop, what a picture

How the tables have turned: Bloke says he trained facial recognition algorithm to identify police officers

Danny 2

America will be the death of me

A verse from my favourite Portland anarchist.

If I die tomorrow

From a pipe bomb beneath my seat

Or from drowning in the bathtub

Or choking on a piece of meat

You can rest assured I did not mean to slip upon the grass

It was no one that I knew

Who rammed the plunger up my ass

It’s just that I was told

To speak freely

America will be the death of me