Posts by phuzz

Bimodal IT: Let the backlash begin

I had a green tea and lime lolly the other week, it was quite nice actually.

What's that? "Bimodal IT"? Sounds like a load of DevOps to me mate.

The developer died 14 years ago, here's a print out of his source code

£60?! I think we've got two or three old LCD's sat in our basement, never mind old CRTs. I'd expect something brand new for sixty flipping quid.

Londoner jailed after refusing to unlock his mobile phones

Re: Well?

We don't need guns to stop terrorists, we have Glaswegians for that.

West country cops ponder appearance of 40 dead pigeons on A35

Re: I love Devon

If you hear about some case where someone is in court for doing something weird, odds on it's being heard in Exeter Crown Court.

I have no idea why that is, but there used to be an endless parade of 'interesting' cases when I lived down that way.

Here's a good 'un from a few years ago

Perlan 2: The glider that will slip the surly bonds of Earth – and touch the edge of space

Re: This makes me wonder . .

Getting into orbit isn't just about getting high, erm, I mean reaching a high altitude. You also need to be travelling sideways fast enough that you fall towards the Earth at the same speed it's falling away underneath you.

Orbital speed at about 200km (below about 150km there's too much atmosphere) is about 7000m/s, so to get into orbit from Perlan 2 you'd have to raise your altitude from ~30km up to ~170km and your speed from ~180m/s to ~6500m/s.

For a 1kg satellite you're going to need something like an extra 20 mega joules of energy to get into a very low orbit. Looking at some energy densities, you might be able to get that out of a rocket weighing 5-10kg, which I guess isn't out of the realm of possibility (but I'd check with an actual rocket scientist rather than going with my back-of-the-envelope guesses).

Classic Shell, Audacity downloads infected with retro MBR nuke nasty

Re: Would this be detected on check?

A virus scanner is unlikely to pick up a brand new threat (although I assume this one is in the databases of most virus scanners by now), so that probably wouldn't have helped you.

Also, a change to the MBR is 'before' any OS is loaded, or startup programs, so monitoring here wouldn't have helped either (assuming this malware just altered the MBR and didn't install it's own startup program).

What would keep you safe from this is enabling (the much reviled in anti-Microsoft circles) SecureBoot, which checks that the bootcode is cryptographically signed. Or simply just using a GPT boot block, rather than MBR.

tl/dr: no, your current defences would probably not have helped defend against this specific malware.

Forget card skimmers, chip-card shimmers will be your next nightmare

Re: Perfect Defence = Impossible

"Explain how my cash purchases put me at the same risk as credit card use."

I'm not sure that it's the same risk, but if you use a currency that is widely counterfeited, you might buy something from a shop, and be given fake money in your change which you would not be able to spend elsewhere, thus losing money.

Of course, what's more likely to happen is the shop doesn't notice the fake pound coin when they give it to you, nor do you notice that it's fake, and neither does the shop where you spend it. Your only loss would be a tiny amount of inflation, but not one you'd notice.

US Air Force declares F-35 'combat-ready'

Re: 'Hawk' Carlisle ?

Even if the Navy had any planes, what could they fly them off?

(After a brief search, it looks like they might still own Illustrious, but I doubt she's in working order)

Fun fact of the day: Network routers are illegal in Japan

It's not unusual in the UK for a law to be widely ignored, and almost never upheld.

For example, in Bristol the police don't care about recreational weed smoking. As long as you're not dealing, or trying to blow the smoke in someone's face they'll pretty much ignore you.

See also: motorway speed limits, bikes on pavements, street drinking and lying to the electorate through the medium of slogans on buses.

It does seem to be a US idea that laws are fixed and immutable and that there should never be any leeway in interpretation.

Crocodile well-done-dee: Downed Down Under chap roasted by exploding iPhone

"I've heard it cannot happen"

Not sure who told you that, but they're talking nonsense.

Possibly Tesla are claiming that their cars are less likely to burn than other cars, certainly they won't have to try hard to beat Ferarri.

Going! going! pwned? 200! million! Yahoo! logins! leaked! allegedly!

I have a Yahoo account because my first webmail was a rocketmail.com address. Rocket Mail then got bought by yahoo and converted into Yahoo mail (just after Hotmail was bought by Microsoft for the same reason).

I just checked, it's still there, getting about one spam email per month. I could delete it, but at the rate Yahoo are going they'll be deleting every thing in a few years anyway.

Giant Musk-stick test-firing proves a rocket can rise twice

Re: Apparenty...

What bothers me is that after watching (for example) a video about a SpaceX launch, YouTube then suggests some of these "UFO sHown In nasa FOOTAGE!!!11one!" videos.

No Youtube! You should be able to tell from the amount of NASA etc videos I watch that I like science, not woo! Stop bloody suggesting these credulous idiots to me.

Smutty

All very impressive, but couldn't anybody be bothered to wash off the soot?

Windows 10: Happy with Anniversary Update?

Re: Don't care!

I like Mint, I use it a lot at work, but I can't claim with a straight face that the GUI makes any more sense than Win10.

Both OSs have a generally well thought out main interface, but both have odd inconsistencies where older UI systems are still used for some backwards compatibility related reason. With Windows you've got the registry instead of config files which may or may not be better depending on what you prefer, but with either Mint or Win10, you're still going to have to resort to fiddling with things by hand in a registry/text editor.

Australian spooks' email guide banishes MS Word macros, JavaScript

Re: Huh?

There's Group Policies you can set to prevent any user from enabling macros.

First you ban them everywhere, then you find the five people in your entire company that actually use them and work with those people to either remove macros completely or at least make sure only the approved ones get run.

Android's latest patches once again remind us: It's Nexus or bust if you want decent security

Some third party ROMS are pretty good at integrating the security patches in a timely manner. (Cyanogenmod doesn't seem to have integrated this recent load of patches yet though)

Meet the chaps who run the Black Hat NoC and let malware roam free

There's the Defcon documentary, which is available for free.

What's long, hard and full of seamen? The USS Harvey Milk

Re: Funny thing

With a 5" shell you could do some damage just by dropping it on someone, let alone firing the thing.

The return of (drone) robot wars: Beware of low-flying freezers

Re: Street Cameras on every corner?

So you didn't bat an eyelid at the idea that all US citizens are constitutionally bound to shoot each other, but you do take umbrage at the idea of every street corner having a camera?

Perhaps you should avoid any media where they might use exaggeration for comic affect, it clearly doesn't agree with you.

Cyberpunks might not be crooks but they're really very rude

King Cnut's grandfather was one King Harald Bluetooth, after whom the short range wireless protocol is named. The Bluetooth logo is made up of the runes of his initials.

There's your IT angle right there.

Death of 747 now 'reasonably possible' says Boeing

Re: The Clapham Omnibus went the same way.

The C-47/DC-3/Dakota would be a better example than the B52, because they're mainly (only?) used in civilian service these days. The last ones were produced in the 40's but there's still hundreds still in regular use.

The tenth DC3 ever made is still in regular commercial use!

Seagate: We've doubled flash capacity without density changes

Re: The blindingly obvious question

If you have to ask...

Avoiding Liverpool was the aim: All aboard the world's ONLY moving aqueduct

Re: fascinating read

Have you read all of these yet?

Russian spy aircraft are flying over Britain – and the MoD's cool with it

Or to look at it another way, if there was some big secret that they could learn from the air, we probably wouldn't let them fly over the UK.

Open Skies doesn't really give anyone any more information than they could have got via satellite, but as an exercise in international cooperation and trust I think it's a good thing.

Also, imagine the drinking contests that will be going on at Brize this week as the RAF attempt to uphold their country's honour against the vodka swigging Russians!

Exclusive transcript: WikiLeaks reveals ass call from a zoo

Re: Access is access

Damn that globalised, state-controlled, corrupt media! We don't even know if it was an African or Indian elephant!

Even El Reg are part of this global pachyderm conspiracy!

Lowland Scots plunged into panic by marauding ostrich family

Re: So shoot 'em & eat 'em.

I'd like to see you get a headshot on an ostrich running at full tilt...

Re: Ostriches versus Glaswegian males

What if one, or both, of the combatants were on fire? Would that change the results?

Gullible Essex Police are now using junk science lie detectors

Re: Methods that are more credible than a polygraph

Tyromancy - telling the future through cheese. (and no, I'm not making that one up)

Why Agile is like flossing and regular sex

"testing phase", is that the bit where you ask the customer if they've bothered testing the new system you've developed and they say "yeah, looks fine", so you go ahead and deploy it to production, only to get a phone call five minutes later saying "it's all broken". You ask why they didn't bother testing that bit and they say "I thought it would be ok".

Because I find that pretty testing...

Zero-day hole can pwn millions of LastPass users, all that's needed is a malicious site

Re: It's Risk Management

You could use Lastpass (or whatever) to store a long password, but then add a suffix from memory. Practically two factor that is (not really).

Pokemon GO-ZILLA: Safety fears after monsters appear in Fukushima danger zone

Re: Why not

Because someone might go into the zone, and bring back contamination (eg) on the soles of their shoes, which could make someone else sick.

If someone is just putting themselves at risk, fair enough, if they start putting other people at risk, that's a different matter.

Dolly the sheep clones have aged well, say scientists

Re: I'm Curious

That's actually a good question, you'd normally expect rats or mice to be the first cloned animals.

I assume there's an agriculture angle to why a sheep was picked (some funding came from the Min. of Ag.), but I suspect it just happened that the researchers who got there first happened to be using sheep.

Harrison Ford's leg, in the Star Wars film, with the Millennium Falcon door

By the sounds of it, Ford assumed that the door wasn't operational yet. The operator assumed that when Ford hit the button, he wanted the door to close.

What should have happened was when people came on set, someone should have pointed out "hey, these doors are hydraulic and fully operational, so you really don't want to be under them when they close, so be careful".

The idea is that you can't be responsible for your own safety until you've been informed of the risks to your safety.

Washed out summer? Fear ye not: DVDs for DevOps droogs

"he is going to need to hold a ruler up to his screen just to read off the line number"

Does your favourite text editor not tell you which column you're in?

Microsoft stops to smell the roses, creates the Shazam of flowers

No need for this, my mum has a smartphone (and has some idea of how to use it!), so I just text her a picture, and within hours I get a reply telling me what kind of plant it is, how to grow it, and gossip about the latest precocious thing my niece said.

Seminal adventure game The Hobbit finally ported to the Dragon 64

Re: pfft!

The school my dad taught at had BBC Micros, but obviously they didn't want to leave them in the classroom over the holidays, so dad would bring a Micro home for us to play with.

Thirty something years later, I'm still tapping away on a keyboard...

Iraqi government finally bans debunked bomb-finding dowsing rods

Re: "about as reliable as homeopathy"

Oh no, your leg's been blown off! Here, drink this tincture of asafoetida and you'll feel right as rain!

(I needed to look up a suitably cromulent homeopathic remedy, and a quick search lead me to this page, which is so full of woo I can't even)

Re: Early tests...

"secure in the knowledge that _they_ won't be around when it all blows up"

As senior members of the Iraqi government, presumably they should have been worried about things literally blowing up around them, especially if they knew that the security forces didn't have working bomb detectors.

Making money off of bribes isn't much use if you get blown up.

The very latest on the DNC email conspiracy. Which conspiracy? All of them, of course!

Re: A sad day for conspiracy theorists

Lies and foul slander!

We all know that the Milk Marketing Board are the only ones keeping us safe from the machinations of the Potato Council!

Tinder porn scam: Swipe right for NOOOOOO I paid for what?

What could possibly go wrong?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise: Brexit, weak pound. A price hike is coming

You jest, but the UK has had a large role in the development of modern computers, from Turing, through LEO and Ferranti, all the way to ARM.

Er, which has just been bought, never mind!

Mine's the one with a RPi in the pocket, that can replace our DB servers right? >>>>>

Los Desaparecidos di Disruption: The Final Days of Conservative 2.0

Reports that the recent heatwave is caused by Our Gracious Leader opening a portal to hell are exaggerated.

It's just waste-heat as a by product of the summoning grids she's running in Whitehall.

Microsoft tweaks TCP stack in Windows Server and Windows 10

Re: Quirky McQuirkface..... Hopefully not.

Microsoft have been embracing TCP/IP since NT 4.0*, so I don't think there's much danger of any extinguishing going on.

*(and thank Cthulu for that, because NetBIOS was horrid)

An anniversary to remember: The world's only air-to-air nuke was fired on 19 July, 1957

Making a physically small nuclear weapon is more difficult than a large one. There is a lower limit to the smallest amount of fissile material that can create a nuclear explosion, and that would have to be 100% pure, and the rest of the bomb would have to perform close to the theoretical limits in order to detonate.

For a country building it's first nuke, they'll be working to loser tolerances, which will result in a physically larger bomb.

This doesn't mean a bigger boom though. A less sophisticated weapon will probably have a larger yield than a smaller, more advanced one.

The smallest (publicly known) nuke is the SADM, which was the size of a large backpack, weighed about 25kg and had an explosive power equivalent to six thousand tons of TNT. In contrast, Little Boy, which was the second nuclear device ever detonated, weighed four tons, and only had twice the yield.

Re: just goes to show how little ...

"its hard to find anyone who has died from radiation, anywhere in the world."

Yes. Because they're dead.

Re: Chase plane

The NASA WB-57's were still being used to tie together various different comms networks in Afghanistan as recently as a few years ago:

https://theaviationist.com/2013/02/08/wb57-heading-to-afghanistan/

After Monday's landing, SpaceX wants to do it in triplicate

Re: I just love the idea of the two boosters coming down roughly together...

When they build these new launchpads, they should build some specially hardened camera silos round the edges, and one right in the middle pointing straight up.

Imagine the footage as each booster comes in to land!

Of course, it won't matter in a few years because Elon will have his volcano lair with a hidden landing pad ala Thunderbirds.

What will laws on self-driving cars look like? Think black boxes and 'minimum attention'

Re: autonomous systems are fine

Move to a country that spends some money on infrastructure. For example, Germany,where this legislation is being discussed.

Missile bods MBDA win Brit military laser cannon contract

Why don't Phillips have their own laser weapons division?

They could call it "Phillips Energy Weapons", or PEW for short.

Space station to get shiny new ringpiece for automatic penetration

Re: "The standard, agreed in 2010, could prove vital"

It turns out the standard has it's own website, http://www.internationaldockingstandard.com/, with a pdf to download. Handy for those of you building spaceships in your shed.

Although it might have been agreed in 2010, it's clearly based on the Apollo/Soyuz docking adaptor, as developed by NASA and the USSR in partnership back in 1975. That's right kids, even in the middle of a Cold War, and a space race, engineers don't care about your petty politics, they just wanna SPACE.