Posts by jnievele

Not too bright, are you? Your laptop, I mean... Not you

I had almost the same thing happening to me when working as helldesk... except it was not a CEO, but an SAP consultant (so probably even more expensive), the laptop wasn't black but the usual off-white Compaq used in the late 90s, and it was the lack of sound.

Since the caller was external, there was a lot of paperwork to sign before I could even go over to look at the machine, with a 3-digit figure being charged to the project team for this... only to discover that the volume wheel at the bottom of the laptop had been turned all the way down.

ProtonMail deletes 'we don't log your IP' boast from website after French climate activist reportedly arrested

Re: Just curious...

Well, he wasn't a "climate activist"... he was an "anti-capitalist" and "anti-gentrification" activist who broke into several buildings:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/protonmail-logged-ip-address-of-french-activist-after-order-by-swiss-authorities/

Apparently what El Reg calls "Climate activist" was actually a squatter charged with breaking-and-entering commercial and private buildings as a protest against gentrification and "capitalism":

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/protonmail-logged-ip-address-of-french-activist-after-order-by-swiss-authorities/

Sure, Face ID is neat, but it cannot replace a good old fashioned passcode

"Google's guidance says that its facial recognition isn't as secure as a PIN (why use it then?)" - easy: It's a convenience feature.

There's loads of people who still use phones without any screen lock at all... because they think it's cumbersome to use (well, they do have a point...). So the face recognition offers them a way to simply unlock their phone without entering a long PIN, but it will be safe enough to stop any punter who found your phone on the sidewalk outside the pub (because he doesn't know who lost it, he doesn't know where to find a picture to unlock it).

BTW, any discussion about HOW secure Apples new face recognition (or MS Hello, for that matter) is should take into account one fact: All these services require you to set up a passphrase to use in case biometrics fail. But if that passphrase (or PIN) is not very long (or is on a post-it on the back of the device), then you're screwed regardless of how safe your biometric solution is...

Apple’s facial recognition: Well, it is more secure for the, er, sleeping user

It's 2017, and The Reg still has people who write "PIN Number"? Seriously?

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: The Red Dwarf chilli chutney egg sarnie

Re: Hmmm....

Indeedy... just had a triple egg chilli chutney sandwich with bacon for lunch (without even having a hangover), and the bacon really is an IMPORTANT ingredient. Adds a lot to the total flavor.

Watch it: It's watching you as you watch it (Your Samsung TV is)

Re: "...some voice commands may be transmitted..

It's for those people who dream of living in a Star Trek universe...

Quite a few people still say "Oh, I want to live on the Enterprise, just like Captain Picard - how cool would that be!!!" - yet few people realise that the Enterprise computer system tracks every movement on board, listens to every conversation, and probably even tracks you via CCTV. And with the right level of access, the computer also will tell authorised persons all it observed... so no quick date with Counselor Troy in her quarter, Riker will just say "Who visited Troys quarter in the last 48 hours and went into the bedroom" ;-)

Re: @jnievele

Those TVs are deliberately sold with "speech recognition" as one of the selling points. So even the dumbest customer should be aware that they listen to spoken words - because that's what Speech Recognition IS.

If people are too dumb to RTFM, there's no helping them.

Uh, how surprising - my telly isn't powerful enough to recognise my voice commands and sends them to a central server, just like Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Sony...

If you don't want a TV with voice recognition, don't buy one. If you don't want a camera built in, don't buy a telly with a camera (but don't complain if it can't do Skype...)

Seriously, that's just FUD again - Siri for example does exactly the same, Google Now listens all the time for you to say "OK Google", Windows 10 and Windows Mobile pine for the magic "Hey Cortana", the PS4 has voice commands, so does the new XBox, Amazon even sells a product that does nothing BUT listening... if you don't want this, don't buy such a product, but don't go complaining that it does what you bought it for.

First rigid airship since the Hindenburg enters trials

Not the first by half!

The Zeppelin company has been building new rigid airships for years... they're called "Zeppelin NT" and are somewhat smaller, but they ARE rigid airships.

Google puts Nexus 4 back on sale, sells out pronto

Same here, 16GB ordered (from Germany) within the first 2 or 3 minutes. Play first said 1-2 weeks, order confirmation said 3-5 business days, and today I got the tracking code for the parcel which is now in the hands of DHL :-)

Microsoft Security Essentials loses AV-TEST certification

Zero-days?

Nitpick: Isn't a zero-day a threat that is so new NOBODY detects it yet?

LG first to flaunt quad-core Qualcomm smartie

4-sided, Rounded corners...

Apple will immediately go to court and have it banned!

Hobbyist builds working assault rifle using 3D printer

Re: For those w/o time in the military:

Actually, the reason why the Lower is serialised is because this part (along with some others) determines wether an AR-15 can fire full-auto or not.

Oh, and good luck finding somebody skilled enough in metalwork to build you a working (and precise) barrel. Only a handfull of companies nowadays do that, most gun companies buy barrels from those few, as barrel making is a very complicated piece of work and requires special machinery not readily available....

Google Drive IOS or Dropbox

No captcha

I didn't get a captcha when I installed it - it was probably because the account used for testing had too many bad logons or something like this, it would have asked for a Captcha even when logging in via a desktop PC.

Man says he lost $500,000 in virtual currency heist

Or...

Allinvain = All in vain...

Almost but not completely unlike cash

Cash is untraceable, but is harder to steal, especially in large amounts. You have to physically be where the cash is, and if it's a large amount you'll have to carry quite a lot of weight.

Yes and no

He's got himself to blame for his actual loss, but Bitcoin is undermining the trust into their system with comments like "He really just lost the amount he spent in Bitcoins, he just lost 1000$"

If you change Euros into Dollars, the Dollar rises like mad (Well, this IS hypothetical), and you end up with 10 times the original amount of money - but it gets stolen before you convert it back, you'd be a bit pissed off if the police said "You only lost the money you originally exchanged into Dollars, no worries", wouldn't you?

If Bitcoin is money, it ALWAYS has its current worth (hence the name "Currency"), not the worth it had when you got it in exchange for something else.

Devalued

Congrats... Bitcoin just devalued your money.

With his Statement Mr. Schneider made clear that whatever money you put into Bitcoin should be considered lost - if you can convert it back to real currency, lucky for you, but you're not supposed to expect anything from Bitcoin.

Your hard-earned cash is at the mercy of Bitcoin and whatever exchanges will be left by the time you want to get your money back. If Bitcoin just comes out and says "Hey, it was a nice test, but we'll just shut down everything now" you'll end up having lost all your money with nobody to appeal to.

Not really

It would be quite a pile of cash they'd have to carry, and they would have to physically come to your house.

No, this is more like having your wallet stolen by a pickpocket (Hell, it's even called a Wallet!) - it's just that no sane person would carry half a million around in their trousers.

Bitcoin is a micropayment system, it's not safe to have huge amounts of money in your virtual wallet.

RAF Eurofighter Typhoons 'beaten by Pakistani F-16s'

Learn the terminology!

Sorry Lewis, but you know nothing about military air tactics.

Yes, the RAF has no experienced fighter pilots. They have barely enough money to keep them on the sad training level they currently have, let alone improving their skills, and the same is true of most western airforces, USAF included (they rely on their fancy stealth jets and BVR tactics, too).

Also, the "lamentable" Tornado F3 wasn't lamentable at all - it worked pretty well in the role it was designed for. Don't blame the aircraft if the owner suddenly decides he needs something else. When you buy a Rolls-Royce you can't complain it doesn't drive like a Ferrari, can you?

The F3 was designed as an INTERCEPTOR, not a fighter. That's quite a big difference - the role of the F3 was to kill inbound Soviet heavy bombers over the North Sea and North Atlantic, dogfighting was never a major design feature.

But don't let your rant get disturbed by facts...

Google calls halt on German Street View

No they don't

According to a message at heise.de, Kay Oberbeck has announced that Streetview will NOT be stopped in Germany:

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Google-Kein-Stopp-von-Street-View-in-Deutschland-1225330.html

German 'minister for cut'n'paste' resigns over PhD plagiarism

Bismark

What do you mean, "we have to thank for the existence of Germany as a single unified nation"?

Large parts of what is now called Germany has been merely annected by Prussia, and every attempt to get our freedom back has been fought with military power, as late as the 1920s...

India to place $11bn order for AIP hi-tech submarines

Submarine tactics...

Sorry to burst your bubble, but even though AIP- and Diesel-Electric subs are much slower than warships or modern cargo ships while submerged, the same is true of pretty much EVERY submarine, including nuclear ones. Submarines have to stay quiet (unless they want to get noticed by the escorts), therefore even nuclear submarines don't run around with more than 20 knots. In reality, they'll do 10-15kts, or even slower if they want to be extra-quiet.

Submarines don't RACE surface ships - they detect them from a large distance and try to go to a position where they can ambush them.

As for the "AIP subs can be easily killed by 1st world navies" - there's plenty of periscope pictures of US carriers done even by DE-subs. On electric drive (which with AIP means... all the time), such a submarine is a lot quieter than a nuclear submarine. It's also a lot smaller, and can go closer to the coast or sneak into an enemy harbour (U47, anyone?), something you wouldn't dare with a Virginia- or Trafalgar-class ;-)

German Wi-Fi networks liable for 3rd party piracy

Yep

Yes you are, at least in Germany. If the police finds your car unlocked in a public space - you'll get a ticket

MySpace first to drop pants on Outlook

Second!

MySpace wasn't first - LinkedIn published their plugin already

Many voice encryption systems easily crackable

Uh...

Just wondering - what is a "landmine phone", and aren't they banned in the UK? ;-)

How Google became Microsoft: A decade of hits, misses and gaffes

USB storage

USB thumbdrives didn't start at 256MB. I still got my 2001-vintage Trek Thumbdrive with a huge 16MB and that wasn't the smallest they sold back then.

Mind you, it even needed a driver to work under Windows 98 or 2k, but with the 2k driver it STILL works under Vista :-)

Green Berets get wearable combat smartphones

Rest of the best?

Actually, the Green Berets ARE among the top tier troops - they just have a different mission than for example Delta Force.

Their task is, among other things, to spend a long time behind enemy lines, training resistance fighters, and stuff like that... which of course means it's not really such a good idea to give hightech kit to them - where will they get new batteries?

The Green Berets are for example language specialists, train people on using explosives, etc. etc. etc. - all things where the landwarrior gear isn't actually needed.

Holy hatchbacks! Batmobile spied in Sweden

Height adjustment

Given how low that car sits... I believe the height adjustment actually refers to the suspension. Not THAT unbelievable...

Gamers gun down Half-Life

Old stuff

A similar system (but based on microphones, and not compatible with HL2) is available already via www.aircine.de - basically you shoot at a video with anything from an Airsoft gun to a heavy machinegun, and the microphones in the corners detect which point you've hit.

Requires the blackbox from Aircine, a laptop, a beamer, and a large framed screen.