Posts by heyrick

Microsoft's data sovereignty: Now with extra sovereignty!

Re: 21th century colonialism

It's starting to hit their bottom line, so of course they're worried. But since Microsoft has a presence in the US and therefore they can be compelled to hand over info...is this any more than window dressing?

Azure stumbles in Western Europe, Microsoft blames 'thermal event'

Lots of computers plus AI workloads equals great steaming piles of.......

Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

Re: Scan my 2nd Amendment remedy, Trumpkin

Isn't that the one with guns? Probably not wise to pick a fight with trigger happy armed goons...

Cybercrooks getting violent more often to secure big payouts in Europe

Now tell me The Bad Guys might do a few years behind bars, then they will be released and able to lay their hands on the stashed goodies, somewhat more than they'd be able to earn legitimately. In other words, while crime pays......

From Intel to the infinite, Pat Gelsinger wants Christian AI to change the world

he wants the platform to be acceptable to all brands of Christianity

Yeah, good luck with that.

Re: Hold your horses there, Pat

Same for a lot of us Brits that were brought up with the CofE. Henry VIII and all that. But, then, you can understand why a king with more than a few screws loose might not want to have his authority usurped by some bloke a thousand miles away in another country "because the sky fairy said so". It's all a big power/money grab anyway.

Re: Bring out the comfy chair!

They aren't properly "faithful", they use the bible as a weapon, and he's saying what they want to hear. Shows how easily some people can be led...

ISPs more likely to throttle netizens who connect through carrier-grade NAT: Cloudflare

CGNAT is more widely used than you may think

My IP is 10.157.126.198.

I'm using a mobile phone on the Orange network in France.

It still doesn't support IPv6.

White House says China to lift rare earth export bans, stop probes into US tech companies

Re: "White House says..."

"the whims of an old man in clear mental decline"

The country does seem to have a thing about voting ancient people to be President. They really ought to draw a line between "old enough to have life experience" and "old enough to be nursing home fodder".

'Keep Android Open' movement fights back against Google sideloading restrictions

Oi! You! No!

If I want to manually install my own app choice outside of the walled garden of the app store(s), then it's my phone and my choice and Google can fuck right off.

[side note: if they are planning on enforcing this, can we assume that Google will accept full liability for malware that gets through?]

This security hole can crash billions of Chromium browsers, and Google hasn't patched it yet

Re: All these consequences

If only Google were more proactive about supporting the blocking of unnecessary third party scripts rather than running in the other direction because the profitable side of their business involves supplying exactly those unnecessary third party scripts...

Re: That's a bummer

At a guess, the system might report that it has 4GB of real memory and 4GB of swap and Firefox is like "cool, eight gigs!" ?

But, yeah, if it can be frugal with less memory, it ought to be equally frugal with more.

Re: my local rag causes NoScript's list of domains ... to fall off the bottom of the screen

It's even better when it gets ingested and messed up by the Google news app - you'll get several screenfuls of the exact same headline with the exact same image for a load of publications you've never heard of, like The Leicester Early Afternoon Herald or The South Side of Portsmouth Shouty One... It's all the same drivel masquerading as "local" news.

Google says reports of a Gmail breach have been greatly exaggerated

and update passwords that appear in breach notifications

There really ought to be an option where this thing will email the breached address a list of passwords associated with the address. Because my GMail address is included in this, but the last time I went digging (for an old Yahoo address, many years ago) they had the address and some nonsense password along with it. Also, knowing the password(s) may well uncover the origin of the information. Just saying "your email address turned up on three lists" doesn't really help, it's an address that I use as one of my go-to addresses when I sign up for stuff that needs an email address (and I may have forgotten a few of them [*]). It could have been Google, it could have been dozens of other services...

* - Didn't Deezer get hacked? That may be an origin as I had it free with my mobile phone back circa 2009ish.

Frustrated consultant 'went full Hulk' and started smashing hardware

Mistake #1: Assuming notes match reality.

Mistake #2: Assuming any documentation matches reality.

Mistake #3: Deleting stuff without sending a message saying "what's this?".

Mistake #4: Deleting stuff, period. Rename it, wait to see if anything breaks or anybody yells.

X says passkey reset isn't about a security issue – it's to finally kill off twitter.com

Hmmm?

When the Twitter domain stops working, I wonder how much stuff will suddenly point to nothing.

Ex-CISA head thinks AI might fix code so fast we won't need security teams

I had to look up what CISA is

And now I know, I'd confidently say that I wouldn't trust this person to competently operate a microwave oven, never mind any sort of "computer".

No, AI isn't the magical unicorn pissing rainbows and sparkles. And one needs only look at the quality of GenAI pictures, stories, discussions, and code to know that it may well fix the problem it identifies but create a dozen different problems in the process. There's no "intelligence", no "understanding", and very little "memory" (as in remembering context). That's not something I'd let anywhere near actual executable code without plenty of human oversight, and full unit testing.

MPs urge government to stop Britain's phone theft wave through tech

Re: Repairable? or Theft-Proof?

My bank site autofills, but you can't do much without giving the bank app a special (different) authorisation code. This cannot be stored and done automatically.

UK.gov vows to hack through regulation to get benefit from AI

Re: English spelling for English articles!

"Rachel from accounts" - PMSL!

New Linux kernel patch lets you cancel hibernation mid-process

I used hibernate all the time with Windows, as it takes ages to get going and when it is going it is still doing stuff in the background for a while.

Linux starts up a lot faster (Mint Cinnamon), and my usual come home routine is to press the power button then go flip the kettle on. Kettle hasn't even boiled when I heard the "burr bip" of a BBC Micro, which is my startup sound.

Windows, on the other hand, tea's made and being drunk. And if it insists upon installing updates, well, time to fly to China to harvest my own tea leaves, ferment them, grind them up, stick them in bags, then raise a cow from a baby for the milk...okay, slight exaggeration but there's a reason I ditched Windows for good...

Fake home invasion vid lands woman in real trouble

Silver lining

Well, she at least got her fifteen minutes of fame...

Firefox 144 brings fixes, features, and farewells for 32-bit Linux die-hards

"while 17 other previously supported languages now get better translation"

To be fair, any change whatsoever is likely to be an improvement in the slow and frequently nutty attempts at translation.

Ofcom refuses to bite over Openreach's fiber freebies

Re: Discounted for first 2 years

I pay a lot for internet (I'm with Orange France), but the price is the price and it's been the price for years. Why does it change? Why does it go up? Do your bytes flow faster when you pay more?

Actually, I think the more likely case is that everybody paying the "inflation increase" without noticing helps to offset the headline price they offer for only X months.

Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for pretending UK's Online Safety Act doesn't exist

Proper parenting and education would do a lot more to keep kids "safe". It doesn't need a nanny state to beat everybody else with a stick.

Re: Errr

More likely 4chan can reply by detecting UK IP addresses and responding with pictures of kittens instead of the usual content.

The more sites that simply pull the plug on the UK, the more pressure there will be to understand that a piece of shit legislation is a piece of shit legislation.

"will chill technology related investment in the uk"

Well, between this and Brexit and a chancellor that talks about growth while inflicting pain, what does the UK have going for it? The only saving grace is that Trump is in charge on the other side of the ocean and the UK as bad as that...yet.

Re: The Online Safety Act is not just law, It's state censorship.

This is no Labour government, they're Temu quality Tories using the Labour name.

And given the awfulness of the Tory days, it's actually quite astonishing how badly Labour are fucking this up, it's almost as if they're doing it on purpose...

Re: Thanks

Stomp their feet and scream.

Well, I suppose they could compel British providers to block their IP address, but that might show up the harsh level of censorship that the current government is engaging in (because that's going so well when trying to label supporters of Palestinians a bunch of terrorists, right?).

But it's the Tories that made it law and signed it into effect.

Pro-Russia hacktivist group dies of cringe after falling into researchers' trap

The problem is NOT the hackers

The problem is the stupidity of connecting critical infrastructure to the public internet.

I don't care what the "convenience" is or what the clueless manager wants, whoever signs off on such a thing should obligatorily spend some time in a cute orange romper. "I didn't know" is not an acceptable excuse.

Managers are throwing entry-level workers under the bus in race to adopt AI

Jeez. I literally never personally touched Linux before a couple of months ago when I put Mint on an old computer after seeing what a pile of bovine excreta Win10 was. It's now my daily driver and while there are issues (cough audio glitches cough) I'm starting to find my way around and am learning a bunch of really seriously arcane commands to do things there just isn't a UI for. Apart from the occasional freeze at startup (so I just try again) and the sound randomly dying (if it bothers me I'll reboot but sometimes I don't even notice), it's been pretty solid.

Where there's a will, there's a man page.

Discord says 70,000 photo IDs compromised in customer service breach

Re: This, dear reader,

But the response: We will introduce a digital ID within this Parliament to help tackle illegal migration, make accessing government services easier, and enable wider efficiencies.

Sounds very much like "screw you we're going to do it anyway".

Re: I'm shocked, appalled, taken aback

Of course, but, you know, I expected this story as a Christmas present, not pre-Halloween.

Beer, because getting pissed is the only response to this level of dumb predictability.

OpenAI IP promises ring hollow to Sora losers

Re: Where did the register get imaginary property from?

English isn't helpful here. Is it "free" as in "at no cost" or is it "free" as in "unrestricted"?

Hardware inspector fired for spotting an error he wasn't trained to find

Third rule is work in a place with some level of employer protection where firing somebody for such a frivolous reason would hit the company hard (plus unfair dismissal).

Sadly, there are far too many dickwads like that in management, because the correct response would have been "nice catch, I was wondering if you'd spot that" (while quietly thinking "dammit, why didn't I spot that").

UK and US security agencies order urgent fixes as Cisco firewall bugs exploited in wild

Hmmm...

...wasn't Chinese spying and horrible security the reason everybody was pressured into getting rid of their Heaiwai, Haeawa... oh however the hell you spell it, it was deemed bad bad bad...

...and yet, this stuff is just the same only different. Maybe we ought to blacklist Cisco too?

UK to roll out mandatory digital ID for right to work by 2029

"This is not like an ID card where you would be asked to show it as you are moving around."

While I can understand the fear of creep, I'd just like to point out my experience here in France with a UK passport and French (Brexit) residency permit that I'm required to carry at all times. In the past five years, I've been stopped by the police four times. Two of them were random checks on cars (does it have an MOT, is it insured, etc) and they only looked at my ID to confirm that I was me. The other two were during Covid and they were checking my address (because I live on a regional border) to ensure that I wasn't out unnecessarily. But I had my pieces of paper and that was that. The final two outfits that looked at my ID were the bank (to show I had the right to be here, hence a bank account) and my employer (to show I had the right to work - post Brexit permits do not allow that). Oh, and when I bought a car the guy took a photo of it for sorting out the financing. Again, proof for a bank. I have voluntarily offered it myself, like at the opthalmologist, because it's quicker than trying to spell my address, they can just read it.

I don't see anything particularly onerous about the ID card. I have the right to be here, this thing proves I have the right to be here, and once in a very blue moon somebody comes along and asks. I hand over, they look, and job done we both go on our ways...

The thing that would worry me is not the ID, it's a good idea for trying to curb the number of people who shouldn't be here. No, that it is digital and on a phone. Massive red flags.

By contrast, the French one is a physical card. Biometrics, smart chip, government database, etc etc, but it doesn't track your every movement.

Campaigners urge UK PM Starmer to dump digital ID wheeze before it's announced

ID

There's nothing wrong with a photographic ID card that can easily be used to show you're British enough to see a doctor, find a job, etc etc.

However, I would certainly think twice before having a digital ID because the government doesn't exactly have a track record of competence with anything that has a plug attached...

Re: Paying

"would you prefer to claim asylum in France or somewhere English-speaking?"

Nothing wrong with France. I live here. If you would rather go someplace English speaking, that's either Ireland or a vastly larger bit of water to cross (and you might find yourselves unwelcome the way things are going).

Windows 11 update leaves Blu-ray and TV apps stuttering

Re: Schadenfreude

I prefer the word epicaricacy, it just rolls out of the mouth better.

Trump admin says tech companies are abusing H-1B visas, slaps $100k a year to allow entry

Re: This is illegal

Slapping tariffs on everyone was also unlawful, as a job for Congress and not some trumped up "emergency".

So, really, ignoring the rest of government and the Constitution and the law, and hoping his supine Supremes will back him up is pretty much standard operating procedure.

Toys can tell us a lot about how tech will change our lives

PlayStation 2

I have one that I dabble with from time to time.

Isn't it one of the last "decent quality" games consoles where you could drop in a disc, press the on button, and start playing? No downloading gigabytes of updates, no asking some remote server for permission...

How and why Linux has thrived after three decades in Kernelland

Re: It's quite well known that Linus Torvalds himself doesn't enjoy public speaking.

Probably just as well. The C-Suite types absolutely would NOT understand the ethos underpinning the whole thing. Best let them think it's some weird hacker thing so they can muddle on with Microsoft...

Re: Licenses

I think the GPL or not GPL question really comes down to how political you want your licence to be. There are some who view the GPL as being too restrictive, in particular v3. It's worth noting that the Linux kernel has stuck with GPL v2 and is, therefore, technically incompatible with v3. But lots of hand waving is used to make that be a non-issue...

Careless engineer stored recovery codes in plaintext, got whole org pwned

Yubikey?

Linux Mint picks up the pace with LMDE 7 and Wayland-ready Cinnamon

Re: GTK3 and the Gnome team........

"It looks great but I find the functionality badly lacking and keyboard control terrible."

As somebody who is new to Mint and Cinnamon, I have noticed, particularly in file dialogues, that the filename is highlighted, but pressing keys causes other things to happen. Throughout most of the entire history of user interfaces, if some text was "highlighted" then typically typing would replace the highlighted bit with whatever was being typed. Until now, it seems.

Oh, and don't get me started on the "WTaF have they done to the scroll bars", or the fact that while that horrible click to jump behaviour can be turned off, it's apparently handled by the app and not the window manager as various apps implement the jumping, and don't bother to read the system setting to use the older scroll bar actions, so the end result is a mess where different apps work in different ways depending on what bit manages the scroll behaviour.

But, I can't complain too much. On my old notebook PC with a piddly little SSD soldered to the board, it works in a way far FAR superior to Windows 10.

Re: A bit slow?

"if it crashes, all the programs die with it"

No no no no no, that's a toy.

Hack to school: Parents told to keep their little script kiddies in line

Re: Speaking of the 80's & BBC Micros .....

I had an A3000 (mine) plugged into the school's Econet. It was fast enough to pull the passwords off the wire in real time. But, then, I already had a SYST level account as I, in the background, kept that little FileStore going when the teacher did not have a single solitary clue. He opened his first lesson by telling us in very simple terms what a database was for. The previous term we had written our own. That's when it became painfully clear the difference between CS and IT and that the shiny new curriculum only wanted IT. Icon because...

Big clouds scramble as EU Data Act brings new data transfer rules

Re: Hmm

Just because your administration seems incapable of concentrating on two things at the same time, please don't assume the rest of the world is like that. I'm quite sure that there are some in the EU who are quite concerned about what is going on in the skies above Poland. This doesn't mean that the entire rest of it grinds to a halt. That would be like your computer failing to access the harddisc because you moved the mouse at the same time...

Flu jab email mishap exposes hundreds of students' personal data

Re: 1,200 students

Hmmm, and what are the permissions for the app? Run at startup, track your location, unfettered web access? Like that's not ripe for abuse.

Have you tried it on one of those fake-VPN firewall apps to see what it tries to connect to?

What is their recourse for people without smartphones (yes, it can happen, there are a few people at work younger than me that want nothing more than a solid Nokia that does calls and texts and runs for *days* on a single charge).

What, in fact, are the legal requirements giving that shoving a notification on an app is hardly going to pass as an appropriate level of communication for actually important matters?