Posts by big_D

Germany slaps ban on kids' smartwatches for being 'secret spyware'

Re: Good news, bad reporting

Yes. I hear American podcasts all the time that praise Google Translate, but they are usually doing American - Central-American Spanish translations. English - German is worryingly inaccurate.

At least you can train it. I once had some translations to do (English safety manual into German) and tried to short-cut the process due to time constraints and bunged a few paragraphs in Google Translate. Sentences written in formal English seemed to really mess up the translations, using slang or abbreviations were better, but the document was written in formal English.

Sentences like:

"Do not open the case, high voltage inside" translated into "Das Gehäuse öffnen, Starkstrom drinnen" (Open the casing, high voltage inside).

"Do not open the case, no user serviceable parts inside" translated into "Das Gehäuse öffnen, nichts drinnen" (Open the case, nothing inside).

After laughing so hard I fell from my stool, I put the correct translations into Google Translate's corrections box and translated the document by hand.

Interestingly, "don't open the case,..." translated correctly into "Das Gehäuse nicht öffnen,..."

At least the corrections seem to have taken effect, the translation were better, last time I tried them.

I did work for a translation office for a while, which showed me that, although my translations were technically accurate and readable, they were still a long way from what a trained translator with doctorates in source and destination languages can generate.

Re: But the reason

The reason has nothing to do with teachers. That was just an example of a situation in which the use of such a device is ILLEGAL. The devices can be used to spy on the wearer and those in his or her vicinity without their knowledge, which is illegal, you are not allowed to use spy devices of any sort to spy on other people without their permission.

Even recording a telephone conversation is illegal, if you do not have the other parties permission in advance. You also have to let the person on the other end know in advance for what reasons you are making the recording (E.g. personal training purposes) and you are legally restricted to that use - you cannot, for example record a conversation for training purposes and later use it in court to show breach of contract, for example.

Re: Finally IoT Regulation???

This isn't so much a problem with IoT, as such, any type of spying device is illegal in Germany, without special licensing and can only then be used in certain circumstances by licensed persons (E.g. police or private detective agencies).

There is currently no legislation to allow helicopter parents to use such devices, therefore the order to stop selling them (although many come direct from China or other foreign sources) and to destroy the models in use.

Re: 'sustainable in the long run'

There are similar stories every couple of weeks about companies, mainly US based startups or multi-nationals, abusing their power in Germany and breaking the law and being taken to task by the German DPOs. Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein being the two most prominent.

German's take their privacy very seriously and they even have released a set of notes on how businesses should configure Windows 10 Enterprise to make it acceptable as a platform for business use (turning off different levels of diagnostics' reporting by Group Policy, for example).

Drones were also a big topic earlier this year. They cannot be flown over towns, housing or public areas. You can only fly them over model aircraft airports and open fields.

Re: Widespread potential problem?

That is the agencies response, they said that mobile phones are fine, because everybody knows that they are remote listening devices and they are licensed as such - plus the user has to actually accept the call.

The problem with the watches, according to the Bundesnetzagentur is that they listen without the wearer or those in the vicinity being aware that they are being recorded, which is illegal in Germany.

According to the BNA, you can take the device to the local recycling centre and they will destroy it for you and give you a certificate of compliance.

Re: Good news, bad reporting

What is annoying is that they seem to have just copy and pasted the German statement into Google Translate and think that the results are readable. They are not, even simple sentence construction errors weren't corrected before posting, let alone where GT uses the wrong words.

There is a good reason why translation agencies haven't died out, Google Translate & Co. are not really usable for such tasks.

OnePlus 5 x T + five short months = Some p*ssed off fanboys

Re: I'm pleased with my 5.

@Boothy what would interest me is how OnePlus is with security updates?

Have you got Oreo yet? If not, have you at least received the November Android security patches?

Big Cable's pillow talk with FCC to forbid US states from writing own net neutrality rules

Such things make me glad that I don't live in the Land of the Free (to be exploited).

Re: Ah, good old fashioned hypocrisy

Erm, you mean the states should have rights, unless it interferes with the puppet masters' profits.

Aww: Apple won't be HomePod for Christmas

Re: That's a big screw up

If they wanted it to appear when these devices gained popularity, they should have at least hit the holiday season last year!

Microsoft have been berated for being too late to the party already, with a preview in January and a product launch (Harmon Kardon) in October.

Google says broader right to be forgotten is 'serious assault' on freedom

@Adam 52

Perhaps you should actually read the Right to be Forgotten law.

The information has to be inaccurate, no longer relevant or fulfil a number of other criteria. It also doesn't apply to public figures, so your example would be newsworthy, as long as Trump couldn't prove the story was false, he couldn't get it removed.

An example of where you could get something removed would be:

You are arrested and charged with murder. You are later freed and the charges are dropped. You could get searches for your name to not return reports of your arrest for that alleged crime. Searches for the crime itself (E.g. searching on the victim's name) would still return the stories.

You are forgetting Google's credo:

“ALL THAT HAPPENS MUST BE KNOWN.”

Some of its other Orwellian maxims are “SECRETS ARE LIES,” “SHARING IS CARING” and “PRIVACY IS THEFT.”

Oh, wait, that was The Circle, but is reality really that different now?

World Vasectomy Day: 15k men line up for live vent-blocking

Re: Friday?

No black and blue after the operation and no pain after the operation (see above).

It is a very quick and easy operation, usually done on an out-patient basis, at least here in Germany. I went to my local urologist, had the operation and got a taxi back home half an hour later.

A couple of days of abstinence and that was it.

I was in out in about 30 minutes, no bed, no ward. They operated and then sent me straight back home.

The bad part was, the doctor only checked the anaesthetic only worked on one side, when he cut into the other side, I told him politely that it wasn't blocking the pain (I grunted and screamed at him)... He did a Magnus Magnusson impression and said, "I've started so I'll (have to) finish."

Microsoft, Intel cook kit to secure firmware in servers and beyond

Re: CPU?

Erm. that is fix the chipset / motherboard, not CPU...

Facebook's send-us-your-nudes service is coming to UK, America

Re: "...and women shouldn't wear ripped jeans, or walk alone after dark.

There isn't anything wrong with the naked human form. But I don't want pictures of my naked body circulating on the Internet, so I don't let anyone photograph me naked and I don't take any photos myself.

If other people want to make photos/films of themselves naked or having sex, that is their business, but it should be clear to them upfront, that those images might end up on the Internet. If they don't want those images plastered all over the 'Net for the rest of eternity, they should think twice before letting those photos/films be made...

Peephole cameras is something else, but you probably don't have them to upload to Faceplant in the first place. And, as others have said, hashing locally and uploading just the hash makes a lot more sense, although it will deprive the pervs at Faceplant of their jollies.

Google on flooding the internet with fake news: Leave us alone, we're trying really hard... *sob*

Re: 'it should do more than promise to do better'

PRIVACY IS THEFT

SECRETS ARE LIES

Maybe Dave Eggers and Daniel Suarez should collaborate on a new book... Daemon Circle

Re: Not their job

The stupidity of Google users still doesn't free Google from its legal responsibilities, especially for adverts. Every other ad-slinger (newspapers, media conglomerates etc.) has to check every ad is legal, before they can be published. Google is responsible for putting more ads in front of more eyes than any other ad-slinger, so why should they be exempt from this responsibility?

Because there are "too many" adverts? That is Google's problem to solve, BEFORE they publish the ads, not the law enforcers to turn a blind eye.

Re: @tom dial - you have it right...

If only that were the case.

That was how they started out and if you had said that 15 - 20 years ago, I would agree with you. But it is patently not the case today. They are an ad pusher first and foremost and then there are all the other products that have appeared over the last 2 decades. Now that card index is just an excuse to link everything else they do together and has turned into a by-product of gaining information for their other services.

Re: 'it should do more than promise to do better'

True, laws seem to be for other companies, everything inside Silicon Valley seems to exist in a legal exemption field.

What is scary is, I have just read "The Circle" and it is a little too close for comfort.

Will the last one out please turn off the Internet before they go.

Mine's the one with the tinfoil hoody.

Re: Lulz

Well, I haven't tweeted for a couple of years, so I guess, a couple of years?

Re: Lessons from Orlowski

The problem is, these companies seem to think, because they work on a mega scale, they have less responsibility than smaller media companies, who are bound by ethics and laws.

The problem with the adverts and posts in the election race being a case in point, here media organisations have strict rules they have to adhere to, whilst Goofle, Twatter and Faceplant claim they are so big that the laws can't possibly apply to them and the shere volume of adverts being submitted can't be checked.

Well, guess what, as old-style companies got bigger in the past and had more advertising, they still had to vet all of those additional adverts, so they had to hire additional staff to ensure the adverts were LEGAL before they were published.

The Times or Fox etc. couldn't claim they only had 1 person responsible for adverts, so they couldn't vet every advert, sorry. They had to check those adverts, because they were legally responsible for them, so the advertising group had to expand to cope with demand.

Now fast forward to today, those traditional media companies are still hampered in this way, but GTF & Co. just don't bother, they set up automated portals for submitting adverts and a quick "automated" check of the advert and wham, it goes out to thousands or millions of people.

These automated checks are so good, that GTF keep serving malware to victims of their advertising, but no, they aren't responsible for the damage THEY cause, because they couldn't be bothered to THEIR PRIMARY JOB properly. And that is even before we get to the question of whether the adverts are even legal!

In Germany, if your web server causes damage to another website or end users, you are responsible for compensating them for any damages incurred. I.e. it is your responsibility to ensure that the site is secure and not being used to attack other sites or distribute malware.

Google's answer to the Pixel 2 XL CRT-style screen burn in: Lower the brightness

Re: It's a great phone

Yeah, I fail to see how calibrating the screen to display "real" colours, as opposed to over saturated colours is a "problem".

I rejected a bunch of TVs last time around, because the displays were over saturated and I wanted more realistic colour representation...

As to burn in, I had that on my old iMac 24" LCD and a 20.5" LG LCD display, well, persistence anyway. The image of the menu bar and the dock would ghost over films or games on the iMac and on the LG display, if I played a game for long periods, the "skin" around the status bars and inventory slots was visible on the screen for several hours afterwards.

These problems have been around for decades, it is funny that they are now suddenly a problem.

KRACK whacked, media playback holes packed, other bugs go splat in Android patch pact

Re: Easy upgrade

Having used most of the premium brands of phone, I can say that only the Google Nexus / Pixel lines get patches regularly, promptly and current.

Our Samsung S6/7/8 phones are patched, at best, to August 2017...

You know what's coming next: FBI is upset it can't get into Texas church gunman's smartphone

Re: Why Do They Want That?

They also have a dead shooter and his smartphone... Did nobody think of taking the phone down to the morgue and pushing the sensor against his fingers?

Transparent algorithms? Here's why that's a bad idea, Google tells MPs

Re: TL:DR Security by obscurity is good for you. Don't bother your silliy heads about such things

I recommend reading "The Circle".

Superdome X gets pumped on Skylake to become Superdome Flex

Re: Superdome in name only

Wouldn't that be high Optane rumours?

It's 2017 and you can still pwn Android gear with Wi-Fi packets – so get patching now

Re: Dear Motorola

@Dr Mantis Toboggan, price has nothing to do with it. Even the Samsung Galaxy devices we have, which are premium devices, lag seriously behind.

None of the devices we have, have received Oreo yet and the "best" devices have a patch level from Nougat August 2017... That's 3 months of patches out of date, including no KRACK patch.

Re: Dear Motorola

@AC except not Nexus or Pixel, they only guarantee updates for 2 years and security updates for a further year. Better than most, but still not good.

That said, at least when they are still supported, they get the updates promptly.

Picture this if you will: Facebook trousers $77,794. Every. Minute.

Re: Why?

I didn't have an account, but had to create one when my last employer suddenly dumped social media in with my responsibilities... Since leaving the company, I have hardly looked at Facebook at all.

Re: Why?

Agreed, I spend a couple of hours a day on El Reg and maybe 5 minutes a month on Facebook.

I also use a different browser to view Facebook.

Your future data-centre: servers immersed in box full of oil, in a field

Been there, done that...

This technique has been used for several years by case modders. I remember seeing a report on mainstream German TV, where they filmed a team building an oil cooled PC in a clear perspex case for the championships in 2012/2013...

Donald, YOU'RE FIRED: Rogue Twitter worker quits, deletes President Trump's account

Last day...

It was the staffer's last day after this snafu, before that, he had no idea he was leaving the company forever that day.

Hardware has never been better, but it isn't a licence for code bloat

Re: Ah, when I were a lad.....

I remember seeing the source code for a game on the C64 and the Amiga, ISTR that it was Goldrunner... The programmer on the Amiga found the copy and paste option in his code editor... On the C64, the delay loop was done in about 4 bytes, on the Amiga, there were just pages and pages of NOP instructions (No OutPut) and, depending on the level, he would jump into the list at a different point!

Re: Very good points!

My point was, the optimized code doesn't have to be unreadable or unfathomable, but the programmer needs to understand how the hardeware and software stack in the background works in order to optimize, not just know how to indent and use camelCase.

Likewise, the last project I worked on at that place was a warehouse tracking system for photographing requisites. The phpDox generated documentation ran to over a thousand sides, and that for a 3 month project with just one programmer. The code was elegant AND optimized and very well documented.

The shop code on the other hand was elegant, NOT optimized and NOT documented...

Re: Ah, when I were a lad.....

I had the Apricot Xi, with a 10MB hard drive.

It had a GUI, dBase, WordStar, EasyCalc, EasyWord, C compiler, C interpreter(!!), BASIC compiler, BASIC interpreter, the source code for a VT100 terminal emulator, several databases and documents and the drive still had a couple of MB free!

Try getting a GUI to run in 640KB RAM and 10MB of disk space these days, let alone all the apps!

Re: Very good points!

The problem is, most younger programmers today don't have the first clue about optimization, at least not for optimizing the code to run better on a certain architecture.

They are taught to write elegant, readable and maintainable code... A processor doesn't care about how elegant the code is to read, it only cares about how it is executed.

A case in point, I was working for an Internet ad-slinger and online shop creator. One of their shops was causing real problems. When the PayPal newsletter went out and the client was in the newsletter, you could guarantee that the poor DB admin would spend the next two days restarting the MySQL server every couple of minutes, because it had ceased up. And that was on, for the time, large servers running over a load balancer. When the rush started, the 4 servers would collapse when they reached 250 simultaneous visitors.

A quick look at the code and the SQL, then a quick analysis of the database and indexes found the problem. The programmers had organized the code to be human readable and, for a human logical, without even bothering to look at how efficiently it went through the database... Rearranging the query to use the indexes properly and start at the highest common denominator and working down through the stack meant the query went from over 60 seconds under load to around 500 milliseconds under load! That meant that the DBA didn't have to restart the MySQL service once during the next newsletter.

Likewise, re-arranging the code to test positive instead of test negative improved the load on the 4 front-end server, so that, instead of 4 servers servicing 250 users, each of those servers could service 250 users with ease.

The resultant code wasn't really any less elegant and it wasn't any harder to follow, but it did, from a human point of view, not do things in the right order, but for a machine it made much more sense.

So, tell us again how tech giants are more important than US govt...

Re: Interesting stuff

@Dan 55 ... And that is a bad thing, because?

First iPhone X fondlers struggle to admit that Face ID sort of sucks

Re: Do you know what works better than Face ID and Touch ID?

The 3D face scanning on the Sony is new (2017), the photo-face recognition was PURE Android and came out half a decade ago as part of Google's new features (2012?) and none of the devices back then had a 3D camera, just a normal front-facing camera. It was proven to be fooled by a photograph within a couple of days of release...

Re: Do you know what works better than Face ID and Touch ID?

The Windows system is the same as apple's, just the previous version. Infrared iris scan, couldn't be filled by a photo, as you need the heat signature as well.

The Android system just used the normal front camera, which is why it could be easily fooled by photos. I used that on my old galaxy when it was first released, but it was pretty hopeless.

The Windows, and Apple, system is more secure than the old Android one, but the failure rate is very high, when the lighting isn't perfect.

Re: Do you know what works better than Face ID and Touch ID?

Oh, don't worry, the lighting will be good and they will hold YOUR HEAD within the limits of FaceID.

Re: Do you know what works better than Face ID and Touch ID?

@John Robson except that a PIN is something you know (secret), whereas TouchID and FaceID are something you are (identity that can't be changed).

Fingerprints and facial recognition are the equivalent of user names, not passwords or PINs.

Re: Do you know what works better than Face ID and Touch ID?

I had this type of face recognition on my old Lumia (I think it uses a previous generation of the same sensor, as Apple have bought the company that Microsoft used for its sensors). The results in the reviews corroborate the experience I had.

In a normal room (not wearing my glasses), the unlock was reliable. Put glasses, sunlight or florescent light into the equation and the whole thing is hit and miss. I switched to just using the PIN as it was quicker and more reliable.

One-third of mobile users receive patchy to no indoor coverage

Re: Even on Motorways

Not true, at least not in Germany.

At work I have little to no coverage with my private carrier, the corporate carrier has absolutely no signal in the building!

Between the office and home, I flip between HSUPA and Edge, at home it flips between no coverage and LTE.

Mobile rollout

I have to set up new mobile phones for employees at work... Only the office I sit in has absolutely no mobile signal with the corporate carrier (Vodafone) - with my private carrier, Congstar on D-Netz, I get Edge in the office - which makes setting up and testing the phones awkward; trying to test the corporate E-Mail works when not on the Wi-Fi network means a trip outside the office.

It also makes configuring and testing mobile LTE hotspots difficult, there I have to traipse outside with the modem and a notebook to test it!

Hells door-bells! Ring pieces paralyzed in horror during Halloween trick-or-treat rush

Re: Hmm ...

You should patent that!

Just add the word mobile in there somewhere and the Patent Office will wave it through.

You could also add a remote viewing device, consisting of an optical device set in the mass of the door.

Re: Well done, IoT wanksters...

Hmm I think we need to modify the old saying:

The "S" in IoT is for security...

We should add:

The "R" in IoT is for resilience.

Although due to the Reformation celebrations in Germany, we didn't get any visitors last night, so the kitchen at work is now full of candy!

Mine's the one full of Maoam!

Fappening celeb nudes hacking outrage: Third scumbag cops to charge

Re: Two types of stupid

My thoughts exactly. Why are they taking these images and storing them in the cloud in the first place?

Celebrities have had this problem since time immemorial, it used to be that their houses were broken into, the pictures stolen and sold on / copied. They make it much easier for scum these days by pre-distributing the images themselves...

Apple Cook's half-baked defense of the Mac Mini: This kit ain't a leftover

Re: Actions speak louder than words.

You mean like 12 Core Skylake Xeons or Ryzen Threadrippers? Not a thousand cores, but much more than on current devices.