Posts by Vince

UK.gov to chuck up to £5B to gang of back office software vendors

Re: Citizens Are Wondering About Their Money...........

Derisking for a start. It's not like we've learned what happens if a single vendor screws up recently and how widespread a problem is...

Angry admins share the CrowdStrike outage experience

Re: Beyond me

Speak for yourself

For those of us who are boring and get on with IT and not absorbed in the latest fads and AI willy waving designing around really bad scenarios is entirely what you do.

Plan for the worst, hope for something less intense to go wrong... But expect something to absolutely go wrong.

City council audit trail is an audit fail after disastrous Oracle ERP rollout

Re: Shocking. Absolutely shocking.

Yeah because going to the 'not out of support' system has been an epic success of regulation compliance.

The flaw is that you can even configure an on/off for any sort of auditing for a financial system.

37 Signals says cloud repatriation plan has already saved it $1 million

Re: Is it comparable?

Sure, we don't know if it is comparable.

But I'm guessing from the article it's in a DC so things like a UPS are part of the deal.

As to redundancy, how do you know if they had that level of redundancy to begin with - it isn't just globally redundant by being 'in the cloud' anyhow.

You seem to think that the existing setup covered all the things you think he might need to spend money on, or have to spend money on later. I doubt it.

We're very much a small outfit by comparison but there is *no* doubt in my mind that we're better off financially and operationally by not being 'in the cloud'. It isn't even a close competition. It's the difference between 'we exist' and 'we would have run out of cash'

What happens when What3Words gets lost in translation?

Existing to make money

No my friend, the reason W3W exists is to make a company money. It didn't need to exist, they created it for profit.

The notion it exists to solve a problem is nonsense because it does not actually solve the problem, but creates yet another flawed approach.

Cisco's Duo Security suffers major authentication outage

Re: And yet...

The inability to realistically self-host your 2FA/MFA is a pain for this very reason. It adds yet another dependency to the chain of getting anything done.

Microsoft's Azure West Europe region blew away in freak summer storm

Maybe they should just buy capacity in 'the cloud' as we all know, using the cloud means capacity is never an issue, and you can have more of anything you need anytime....

Wi-Fi hotspots and Windows on Arm broken by Microsoft's latest patches

Re: Testing?

No… they got rid of the QA team years ago. And it’s very obvious.

Azure Active Directory logs are lagging, alerts may be wrong or missing

Re: If you think that AD on the cloud is a nightmare

Except you aren’t since you can test and control deployment.

You also have far more control over how quickly any rollback happens since you’re not just a number.

Ubiquiti sues Krebs on Security for defamation

The equipment isn’t as good as it once was and they ride on the coat tails of the past.

The software quality leaves a lot to be desired these days and they’ve had a few dubious hardware reliability issues.

Lots of people I know have started looking elsewhere.

Admins report Hyper-V and domain controller issues after first Patch Tuesday of 2022

If only it was that simple - some of the issues aren't really noticeable until there is reasonable demand and load and it's pretty hard to simulate real world user demand in test labs and gets harder continually as everything expects to be online and really working all the time.

Microsoft 365 invites users to 'Ask Me Anything' – as long as it doesn't require a clued-up exec to deliver clear answers

Surely the questions should have been:

1) Why is * 365 so unreliable?

2) Why is OneDrive and SharePoint so god damn bad still?

3) How do you make your Exchange so latent and break sync compared to on-prem run by others?

4) Why do you undercut your own partners on pricing for the Office part?

5) Why do you keep renaming the damn products confusing the hell out of people?

6) Why do you deliberately cripple the full no-sub office compared to the sub office given the cost?

7) Why do you still refuse to let small businesses use 365 office on RDS without the VL or Enterprise requirements?

There are doubtless more.

Go on, eat your fibre, new build contractors. It's free! OpenReach lowers limit for free FTTP connections

Re: Wow, what a pain

Well given Openreach only provides the circuit, but not the way for it to get to the internet, not the routing, peering, transit, support and so on, it isn't that amazing that the cost you have to pay is more than the Openreach cost.

In other news, when I buy bread, the cost is considerably more than the flour. Who would have thought it.

UK's North Midlands hospitals IT outage, day 2: All surgery and appointments cancelled

Re: Cisco?

In my head I'm imagining they use Meraki stuff owned by Cisco and something like the licenses expired as they did - at least last time I heard - stop working once the license expires.

Edge-lords crack down on trackers as Microsoft effortlessly kills off PBX phone system, and what's this? Windows Calculator on iOS?

Re: Fire Alarms

Quite possibly either by keeping a few analogue lines, or possibly by just having GSM based options put in - pretty damn common now.

Remember the Nominet £100m dot-uk windfall it claims doesn't exist? Well, it's already begun

Odd because if they had done it a couple weeks ago it would have cost them £0 because Nominet was offering free 1 year to registrars... hoping they'd do exactly this...

Hello Moto! UK Home Office shoves comms giant another £82m to stay on Emergency Services Network gig

Re: I think the phrase is...

I hate defending EE but from everything I've heard/been told, EE are waiting on Motorola to get the hell on with stuff...

Brit hosting provider tsoHost takes needleful of 'unauthorized code' to the servers, suffers week of outages

Re: Every cloud has a silver lining.

Hah, fat chance. People are remarkably slow to actually do anything once the fire has been put out.

Even though a few might shuffle things, the odds of it making a material difference is close to none.

Apple kills iTunes, preps pricey Mac Pro, gives iPad its own OS – plus: That $999 monitor stand

Re: So many storage questions

Or you could add more storage via the PCIe slots it has...

Apple reckons mystery new material will debug butterfly keyboard woes in latest MacBook Pros

Re: Blinkered

Funny because I've been typing for many years and I really like the design of the keyboard on the 12" MacBook (mine is thus the first generation butterfly) - I've had zero keyboard faults, and it's by far the keyboard I can type best on.

I've also got a 2018 Macbook Pro (15") which is 3rd gen butterfly I believe. It's not quite as nice - primarily because the keys are further apart on that larger device, but I still don't have any real issues.

The travel is a matter of preference, and I really don't experience the trauma that others do. Perhaps I'm more adaptable to different keyboards as a "professional keyboard nerd" that has to use lots of different computers in my day to day work... who knows.

Whilst it is clear there is a vocal minority that don't like these keyboards, Apple still sells several million laptops a quarter so it doesn't appear to be hurting sales that much.

Now if there is a keyboard to bitch about, that has to be the "magic keyboard" Apple sells - it is garbage. Why don't more people bitch about that??!

Cheapskate Brits appear to love their Poundland MVNOs as UK's big four snubbed in survey again

Precisely none of your calls or texts are "free" - you're paying £13/month.

Google Fiber experiment ends with Choc Factory paying Louisville $3.8m to clean up its mess

Rural does not mean poor internet access

I'm not sure your argument works.

I've got customers "in the sticks" (really in the sticks) with FTTP connected and fine at 330 meg. My office, in a City Centre, in a very popular area has no FTTC or FTTP at all, and we're only able to get ADSL2+ unless we pay for fibre ethernet ourselves. Being "in the sticks" is not always and is increasingly thanks to the gov funding projects not a problem - it's actually reversing the issue as FTTP is more effective to deploy in those rural areas with few properties than many FTTC cabs serving 1-2 premises. It can be the case that rural is worse, but it is also the case that it can be significantly better.

We have in most respects got a national operator - eg Openreach - but actually that's not all that helpful because as they have zero competition in many areas they are frequently lacking in service delivery and inefficiency. It's noticeable when you find there is competition that they magically do a better job...

That marketing email database that exposed 809 million contact records? Maybe make that two-BILLION-plus?

Re: Pawned - or not.

Yeah I'd agree - our company domain listing from HIBP has an awful lot of never-existed aliases and some that are blatantly never going to exist and aren't even a good effort.

It is interesting though that some are either guesses at possible aliases for staff that really do work for the company even though we've never set those aliases up and have no intention of doing so. Presumably someone once guessed at addresses, then got breached and those not-actually-true addresses got added to the growing list of nonsense.

It's a hard drive ahead: Seagate hits the density problem with HAMR, WD infects MAMR with shingles

Not really - they still provide far greater capacity to price - and many of us care about capacity, not speed of access.

Microsoft flings the Windows Calculator source at GitHub

Re: Is this a boiling frog experiment ?

At the very least, have other people developing it to reduce how much they spend on development...

Welcome to the sunlit uplands of HTTP/2, where a naughty request can send Microsoft's IIS into a spin

"and reboot"

Actually no - a reboot OR just restart IIS - let's not make it out that it needs a reboot when it does not.

Remember Misco? Staff win protective award at employment tribunal

Re: Administrators

The insolvency/admin firms charge incredibly high rates and extract all the remaining money out of the business. Most if it goes to them (£1.1m in this case), and the £600,000 left went (shared out) to anyone who could make a claim - creditors generally get a few pence in the pound (if that).

These firms have "charge out" rates of £80 for something like an administrator/office junior type per hour, and then end up in £400-£800 per hour for the "senior" people. It's a nonsense.

Expired cert... Really? #O2down meltdown shows we should fear bungles and bugs more than hackers

Also, but not mentioned in the article....

If the user was "roaming" the traffic goes back to the home network, as does the check to allow roaming, voice access, etc etc and SMS.. so as O2 was not suffering "no signal" that would help in zero way.

Accenture in doghouse after NHSmail mass outage cuts off 1m+ UK health staff

Re: £1.50 per month

Ignoring the infamous reliability issue of Office 365, there's more to NHSMail than the Kiosk license you refer to provides.

Also, just because *YOU* didn't experience an outage, doesn't mean it hasn't had a lot of them affecting a lot of people.

Microsoft points to a golden future where you can make Windows 10 your own

How about getting rid of Minecraft and the various Candy Crush Soda Saga Gibbon Badger Super Soaker 104?

In Windows 10 Update land, nobody can hear you scream

10 does help improve support revenues mind...

The only upside of Windows 10 is that it is actively helping increase the amount of work It support people get - which is ultimately more paid work.

That's it.

It's the first partner friendly move they've made, but I don't think it was intentional...

Windows Server 2019 Essentials incoming – but cheapo product's days are numbered

"Axing the Essentials line is a calculated risk for Microsoft. While its Office 365 product remains the clear market leader, small businesses may look to the likes of Google's G Suite in future. "

Huh? Server essentials has sod all to do with Office in any form, so ditching the Essentials Line won't have any difference in that respect.

Fire chief says Verizon throttled department's data in the middle of massive Cali wildfires

Re: All these people agreeing with Verizon...

Just a point of clarification - the “wire pulling” bit of BT, by which I think you mean Openreach is not s different company. It’s also BT plc.

Legally separated operationally, but not independent, not a separate company etc

'WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING ON?' Linus Torvalds explodes at Intel spinning Spectre fix as a security feature

Re: Windows 10 Home doesn't have the option of disabling the updates

"Can't you add..."

(a) No, because that's not the host name used for Windows Update

(b) No, because Windows has a hard coded list of locations including IP addresses to ensure malware can't so easily stop updates & to prevent hijacking that it uses as well as looking things up

Devon County Council techies: WE KNOW IT WASN'T YOU!

Clearly in this case the issue has nothing to do with printers, but just to remind El Reg of its own news articles, there have been issues with printers changing content...

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/06/xerox_copier_flaw_means_dodgy_numbers_and_dangerous_designs/

Windows 10 Insiders see double as new builds hit the deck – with promises to end Update Rage

I’m pretty good at predicting accurately when it’s a good time to install updates.

So accurate in fact I’ve got a 100% success rate.

The problem with the new plan is that it doesn’t matter if I went to get a cuppa, or went away for the weekend, I might well have left the system on and in a particular state for a very good reason. There’s not a predictable “good time” for me, other than “when I am ready”.

I’m sure many others feel the same, but why Microsoft cannot just accept it and let us have more control is beyond me. Maybe come up with compelling features we want to install and not useless toot we couldn’t care less about and you’ll find more active updating being done.

Google Chrome update to label HTTP-only sites insecure within WEEKS

Re: It isnt the encryption that is the problem

You can run 150 web sites off one IPv4 address with TLS. It's called SNI. It's been around for ages. Unless your devices are really old it'll just work.

That's how it is done.

That said, I don't agree with this move by Google. It's poorly considered and will mislead people again. The problem with "secure" is that it is not secure - it's just encrypted between you and the point it terminates at. The site could have a web page under HTTPS that is spewing out all your details openly - it's not in any way an indicator of secure.

The butterfly defect: MacBook keys wrecked by single grain of sand

Re: The elegant and slimmer fix

As the new macbook's don't have any illuminated logo...

I still prefer my MBP 2016 to anything anyone else makes.

Happy birthday, you lumbering MS-DOS-based mess: Windows 98 turns 20 today

Re: At least it was better than...

I was given a copy of Windows ME by Microsoft when I attended some event back in the day. It is still, to this day, in the shrink wrap, unopened and unused.

I mean why would you use it when Windows 2000 rocked up.

Every bloody gadget in the house is ringing. Thanks, EE

Not quite....

This adds the ability for my iPad (which is on o2 as it happens) to be able to make and receive calls to/from my EE number, even when my iPhone is not on, not connected, not on the same network.

So if you say had a BT Landline and called my mobile number, and I had run out of battery on my iPhone, but my iPad was still good, if it had connectivity (cellular - not needing to be EE... or wifi), my iPad would ring and I could take the call. For example on Saturday my iPhone was at home, I was 15 miles away and my iPad let me take a call from a non-facetime user.

You could previously do this but only if the iPhone was connected/nearby the iPad - so the scenario I describe didn't work.

However, a few clarifications...

EE web site suggests this works for texts - so far, it does not work independently of the iPhone - you could already, on watch and iPad send an SMS but it would relay via iCloud and send to the iPhone to send for you - likewise receiving it. This is STILL the case now - but it's implied in various places by EE that won't be the case - but neither my watch (cellular or wifi) or my iPad can relay or receive SMS if my iPhone is not on and connected - so nothing has changed in SMS terms[1]

[1] not to be confused with imessage which does work regardless but obviously is only of use if the other party is also an imessage user.

Microsoft gives users options for Office data slurpage – Basic or Full

Re: Dear Microsoft

Weirdly enough I recently did the same, between Microsoft having my data via LinkedIn and the same utter crap being received via LinkedIn and absolutely nothing useful in years, I decided it had to go.

About to install the Windows 10 April 2018 Update? You might want to wait a little bit longer

Re: Not Avast Me Hearties!

Sample size of 1. Conclusive proof then.

Look, we're doing stuff: Facebook suspends 200 super slurper apps

"Facebook failed to respond to The Register's repeated requests for clarification on how former users would be alerted to the potential misuse of data."

...well if Facebook acted as responsibly as they should then they wouldn't hold the data of former users in order to have any method years on to directly contact them...

...this privacy stuff is difficult right :-)

BT pushes ahead with plans to switch off telephone network

Re: Oh well

Or more accurately...

AAISP provide a normal PSTN Line, but then add a feature to nobble its use. They also just happen to charge a bit less for said line, and choose to forgo higher margins others make.

However, other ISPs provide said PSTN line for £10 (like AAISP) but do let you use the phone line for voice calls - it's the same wholesale service, without the nobbling.

In the case of AAISP you are paying for a line you can't use for voice but it's an ordinary line, they have no special sauce.

Car-crash television: 'Excuse me ma'am, do you speak English?' 'Yes I do,' replies AMD's CEO

Maybe he should have checked first?

You clearly don't understand (a) the nature of live TV, and (b) what the grid walk is...

It's not exactly the sort of thing that is scripted in advance...

Software gremlin robs Formula 1 world champ of season's first win

Re: Sorry, I still don't get it...

I believe, but may be wrong, that the entry to (before the pit officially starts and speed restrictions apply) and exit of, is outside the restrictions so time can be gained in that area?

Is it possibly also a shorter distance to travel?

Vodafone is UK's mobile ping king

...but the reality (for me at least) is that three works in places nobody else do and frankly, for most uses, it's always more than fast enough for what you ACTUALLY are doing.

Leading by example: UK.gov's secure server setup is patchy at best

Re: Try checking the banks first

When you say "council tax" has been on hold for like 10 years, what precisely do you mean, because mine has gone up by about 4% every single year, and this year is no exception.

UK mobe network Three's profits hit by IT upgrade costs

YMMV of course, but my experience is entirely different. In fact in our office, the vast majority of the staff use 3.