* Posts by JohnG

1639 publicly visible posts • joined 27 May 2007

Those fake spying cell towers in Washington DC? Ex-intel staffers claim they're Israeli

JohnG

"... even though the target of the surveillance effort was almost certainly the president himself."

Why would anyone bother to target his phone? Any information on his phone will be stuff that he is posting to Twitter, for the world to read.

It seems more likely that the Israelis were providing information to the US administration that their own intelligence agencies could not legally collect. A bit like when Margaret Thatcher had the Canadians use Echelon to spy on some of her cabinet ministers whom she believed were disloyal. The Canadians provided intercepts that showed her suspicions were correct.

Now on Amazon Prime: The Amazing Shrinking UK Tax Burden

JohnG

Re: Not fit for purpose

One approach would be to abolish corporation tax and all forms of income tax, to be replaced by higher sales tax i.e. tax consumption, not earnings. You wouldn't allow any entity to reclaim sales tax. We already have VAT and evasion is difficult.

JohnG

Re: Still not sure why any of this is an issue

Amazon provide services in the UK but invoice from Ireland or Luxembourg (the goods and/or services have no connection with the country in which the invoice is generated), due to the favourable tax conditions there. My company provides services in France and the UK and invoices in the UK. If I tried setting up a scheme to invoice from Ireland, my company would be accused of tax evasion and treated accordingly.

JohnG

Re: Revenue and profit

"HMRC must pull their finger out on this.

And if we can't act unilaterally, maybe as part of Eur...damn."

It is single market rules that allow Amazon and others to provide services in one EU country but invoice from another e.g. Ireland or Luxembourg. That particular scam will disappear once we are out of the single market and it will be interesting to see how the likes of Amazon cope with this change.

Electric vehicles won't help UK meet emissions targets: Time to get out and walk, warn MPs

JohnG

Re: Hydrogen? Seriously?

"We already have gas powered vehicles (LPG) and vehicles carrying gas bottles on the roads (Camper vans, Caravans)."

Yes - and they aren't allowed in Eurotunnel, some ferries, some underground car parks, etc.

JohnG

Re: Hydrogen? Seriously?

"If you have a tank of hydrogen which ruptures, you don't get an explosion."

https://www.electrive.com/2019/06/11/norway-explosion-at-fuel-cell-filling-station/

JohnG

Re: Hydrogen? Seriously?

The Americans are sitting on loads of minerals, including the lithium needed for batteries. It is just that they would prefer not to pollute their country in the way that others are doing, which means that it is not currently cost effective to extract using environmentally clean methods. That may change once supplies run out in countries that don't care about such details.

In the meantime, environmental laws and economics make battery recycling both required and worthwhile. Aside from professional recycling/re-manufacturing, there is a significant market in used EV battery cells for DIY home storage systems.

JohnG

Re: Self Driving

"The self driving ability of horses should not be underestimated."

I remember reading a news item about a court case in the southern USA, in which two drunk guys in a pickup nearly collided with another drunk guy on a horse. The pickup ended up in a ditch and the drunken horse rider fell off - the horse stayed with the fallen rider. The judge explained the lack of penalty for the horse rider with something along the lines of "between the four of them, the horse was the only one with their wits about them and some common sense".

Eighty-year-old US 'web scam man' on the run after pocketing $250,000 in Dem 'donations'

JohnG

Back in 1992, this chap already had a criminal record interesting enough to warrant a story in the LA Times:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-03-15-fi-6793-story.html

Let's see what the sweet, kind, new Microsoft that everyone loves is up to. Ah yes, forcing more Office home users into annual subscriptions

JohnG

Re: TANSTAAFL!

The support and warranty issues for software are not different for those of other types of product. Manufacturers don't support products beyond a certain lifetime and will encourage customers to buy newer products when customers look for support for what are deemed obsolete products.

MS and others would like customers to give them a constant revenue stream to fix the problems which should not have been there in the first place. I have yet to meet an Office user who requested or wanted the changes made in Office 2010, over the preceding version.

JohnG

Re: Use LibreOffice instead

Every time LO fixes an incompatibility with the latest version of MS Office files, Microsoft introduces something new in the next version. Despite having subverted the definition of ISO files, Microsoft doesn't stick to it. Any file that has been created or modified in LO will be declared as corrupted by MS Office. It isn't a real problem but is enough to scare non-technical users.

The only significant compatibility issue I have had between MSO and LO is that of exotic spreadsheet macros.

Ohm my God: If you let anyone other than Apple replace your recent iPhone's battery, expect to be nagged by iOS

JohnG

I wonder what the European Commission will make of this.

Sleeping Tesla driver wonders why his car ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

JohnG

Re: Not-an-Autopilot

"I'm interested why they dont include a dead mans switch in the cars for this very topic"

They do - the car expects regular resistance applied to the steering wheel. If it thinks the driver is not responding, it tries a couple of warnings and ultimately, bring the car to a stop, with the hazard flashers on.

Hell hath no fury like a radar engineer scorned

JohnG

Re: Concrete Tornado

Ferranti made their parts for the Tornado nose cone radar but GEC were late with their parts of the same system. As a result, some early Tornados flew with a chunk of ballast, instead of a nose cone radar. Some radars of that period had names like Blue Parrot and Blue Fox, so some decided to name the Tornado radar ballast as Blue Circle (after the cement) and joked that this radar had a more consistent performance than others. However, the ballast was actually made of lead.

Dear El Reg, Will Windows 10 break my VPN? I read it on the web so it must be true

JohnG

Funnily enough, on my notebook, the Windows update in question messed up something to do with HyperV and broke name resolution. Until I figured out what the update had changed, I was only able to achieve useful Internet access via OpenVPN.

Pushed around and kicked around, always a lonely boy: Run Huawei, Google Play, turns away, from Huawei... turns away

JohnG

To date, it has been relatively easy to add Google Services and Play to Android devices that don't have them. Google has not appeared to be bothered by this - but would the new directive form the US government see a different attitude from Google.

JohnG

Huawei would probably use their own online store (which they already have). The question is what mix of app developers they can persuade to list on their online store.

JohnG

Re: Isn't this a good thing finally

Well - you get the advantage of not having the Google stuff pre-installed in every firmware build but you are still stuck with the Huawei stuff, which is even less useful possibly more risky.

Tesla driver killed after smashing into truck had just enabled Autopilot – US crash watchdog

JohnG

Re: What's the point?

I guess insurers will be best placed to make this assessment. In the UK, Direct Line gives a 5% discount for Tesla cars which have autopilot, so they clearly believe there is a benefit.

JohnG

Re: What's the point?

"If you have to keep your hands on the wheel, it isn't AutoPilot. Call me when it is safe to engage before jumping in the backseat."

Why? The term Autopilot is taken from aviation and enabling autopilot in an aircraft does not allow the pilots to go for a coffee and a piss - they still have to be at the controls and ready to take over at amny time. The public seem to have developed the idea that autopilot means an completely autonomous machine - but it is not the case.

Let's check in with our friends in England and, oh good, bloke fined after hiding face from police mug-recog cam

JohnG

I could imagine some folk might start trolling these camera trials by wearing dazzle camouflage make-up or similar. It probably wouldn't be the sort of thing that someone with a job would want to be doing but it might considered as field work for anyone on a political science course or studying human rights law.

Russian bots are just for rigging US elections? They hit home, too: Kid stripped of crown in TV contest vote-fix scandal

JohnG

The Voice Russia

Here's a "The Voice Russia" entry of questionable talent but apparently quite popular:

https://youtu.be/UTqvcs4pLjk

The curious case of Spamhaus, a port scanning scandal, and an apparent U-turn

JohnG

Whilst the Spamhaus approach may be a rather blunt instrument, any security researcher who scans address ranges that belong to someone else without prior permission may well find their subnets on someone's shitlist, simply because the effect of their scanning may make them indistinguishable from those with malicious intent. It may or may not be legal to conduct such scans or even to have the necessary tools (depending on the jurisdiction) but it is also legal for those who have been scanned to block scanning IPs from their networks.

London's Metropolitan Police arrest Julian Assange

JohnG

It was silly of Assange to wait through the tenure of a US government that was entirely disinterested in him until the current US president, who has a different attitude. If he had simply faced the issue in Sweden, it might well have never gone to court but in the unlikely event that he was convicted, it would have been for a technical breach of class of rape that carries a maximum sentence of six years. I guess he can hope that his UK bail issue, the remaining Swedish charge and arguments about human rights and the penalties he might face in the USA can delay any US extradition decision until another disinterested Democrat president is in office.

Google Pay tells Euro users it has ditched UK for Ireland ahead of Brexit

JohnG

Re: @iron

".... they can breed faster than they die off..."

Except, they don't breed faster than they die off - the birth rate is below replacement rate in Europe and this has been the case for a long time. Throughout Europe, any increase in population is through immigration.

Bored bloke takes control of British Army 'psyops' unit's Twitter

JohnG

"Normandy was invaded and settled by Vikings"

Technically, the Normans were gifted Normandy. In 911, in the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and Rollo (the Viking leader). It was basically, stop doing all these raids, become Christian and offer military assistance to me and you can have this chunk of land and my daughter.

Um, I'm not that Gary, American man tells Ryanair after being sent other Gary's flight itinerary

JohnG

Re: Cancelling Flights

I have cancelled hotel bookings made against my email address. My worry was that I had an account with the reservations website concerned, using the very same email address and I didn't want my credit card billed for someone else's bookings.

Chill, it's not WikiLeaks 2: Pile of EU diplomatic cables nicked by hackers

JohnG

Does the GDPR have any bearing on this leak, for any of EEAS, Area 1 and NYT?

Taylor's gonna spy, spy, spy, spy, spy... fans can't shake cam off, shake cam off

JohnG

Re: What constitutes a "stalker"?

How about: breaking into her home, taking a shower and then sleeping in her bed?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6473155/Taylor-Swift-stalker-gets-six-months-prison.html

However, I guess Swift, her family, friends and management company are more concerned about Eric Swarbrick. Over the course of two years, he has threatened to rape and kill Swift.

https://meaww.com/taylor-swift-death-note-stalker-eric-swarbrick-restraining-order

JohnG

AI?

They say the camera was taking photos and sending them a centre for processing...but was the image recognition by AI or by a bunch of interns?

Windows 10 can carry on slurping even when you're sure you yelled STOP!

JohnG

I thought it was common knowledge that Windows 10 and other Microsoft applications spy on users, regardless of any privacy settings. There are several services, numerous schedule tasks - and these can be changed/renewed during software updates. The most effective way to prevent all of this is to block access to the various servers that receive such telemetry. Spybot Anti-Beacon is one utility that provides an automated approach to this.

This ain't over, Viasat snarls as tribunal rules in satellite rival's favour

JohnG

Re: Not sure if i followed this article correctly...

Additionally....

"Viasat first aimed a legal kick at Inmarsat after the latter won an EU contract in early 2017, the European Aviation Network (EAN)..."

Procurements funded by the European Commission are typically open only to entities from EU member states, which would exclude Viasat.

25% of NHS trusts have zilch, zip, zero staff who are versed in security

JohnG

Re: Security costs

"For an under-funded trust, when the choice is between spending cash on security training and staff to avoid a (future) data breach, an on spending cash on staff who can stop people dying tomorrow, it's and easy choice."

The first question they should address is why a bed in an NHS hospital is apparently 4 - 5 times more expensive than for a private patient in a similar German hospital. Similarly, the costs quoted by NHS trusts for various procedures are dramatically more than in Germany. German staff are no less qualified than their British counterparts and earn similar salaries. Equipment costs are the same. Why is there such a large discrepancy?

The second question should be: why the hell don't they send more NHS patients for treatment in Germany, both to save money and to reduce waiting times/strain on resources?

Waymo presents ChauffeurNet, a neural net designed to copy human driving

JohnG

This is why (subject to driver approval) Tesla cars send large amounts of telemetry back to Tesla, about driving with and without automated driving aids, with varying road and weather conditions and with signage and road markings of different countries.

Boffins build blazing battery bonfire

JohnG

Re: Balls

"trouble is with the current economy 7 is that it works overnight when demand is low which is ok but come the evening the thing has already dumped all its heat"

One answer to that is Economy 10: the timings vary between suppliers but typical cheap periods are 5 hours overnight, 3 hours in the afternoon and 2 hours in the evening.

Why millions of Brits' mobile phones were knackered on Thursday: An expired Ericsson software certificate

JohnG

Re: More detail

"More to the point is why the fsck the s/w doesn't present a big flashing dialog stating "Certificate about to expire for ...."

Perhaps this was the responsibility of people amongst the 18,000 laid off by Ericsson in the last year.

Naked women cleaning biz smashes patriarchy by introducing naked bloke gardening service

JohnG

Re: Not gonna trim the hedges in the buff

It would probably be unwise to use a rotavator in the buff. When I was a kid, some neighbour had to have one of his balls removed, after it was hit by a stone thrown up by a rotavator. (And I think he would not have been naked)

Space policy boffin: Blighty can't just ctrl-C, ctrl-V plans for Galileo into its Brexit satellite

JohnG

Re: eLORAN

Given that the US is also looking eLoran, due to concerns about jamming/spoofing of GNSS, we could consider doing something in cooperation with them, at least to ensure some compatibility of equipment.

It's 'nyet' again, yet again, for Kaspersky: Appeal against US govt ban snubbed by Washington DC court

JohnG

In Snowden's leaks of NSA naughty stuff, I seem to remember that Kaspersky products were listed amongst those for which the NSA had a back door.

HMRC: 30 months to prep Northern Ireland backstop systems, 24 for customs

JohnG

Meanwhile, for about a year, the French have been recruiting and training significant numbers of people for immigration and customs jobs, in the expectation that they will need them come 29th March 2019.

Blighty: We spent £1bn on Galileo and all we got was this lousy T-shirt

JohnG

Re: FFS

"Israel can join the Galileo program because they pay with money from the US."

The irony being that Galileo's raison d'etre is essentially: We (the EU) cannot trust the USA and their GPS.

Fancy Bear hacker crew Putin dirty RATs in Word documents emailed to govt orgs – report

JohnG

Re: Here we go again

Although, if you open such a document in MS Office, you are going to get a message along the lines of "This file was downloaded from the Internet. Macros have been disabled". Macros won't run unless the user presses "Enable macros".

Germany pushes router security rules, OpenWRT and CCC push back

JohnG

I understand where OpenWRT are coming from but realistically, most broadband users have not even heard of OpenWRT and fewer still would contemplate flashing their router with open source firmware. Most people have whatever router their broadband provided supplied and many of them won't have even changed the WiFi key.

F***=off, Google tells its staff: Any mention of nookie now banned from internal files, URLs

JohnG

Filenames

Is the ban on banned words in filenames going to be applied retrospectively? Are they going to allow people to reference existing files with banned words in the filenames or are some interns going to have to do a rather large search and rename operation? Can we expect Google to expunge all references to Scunthorpe (again)?

Bloke fined £460 after his drone screwed up police chopper search for missing woman

JohnG

Re: Perhaps the Police ...

I think a shotgun would be the right tool for this job, rather than a rifle. Alternatively, eagles are quite effective:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr-xBtVU4lg

Microsoft menaced with GDPR mega-fines in Europe for 'large scale and covert' gathering of people's info via Office

JohnG

Re: Even if data were stored in EU, MS would be still in breach of GDPR.

"Because the data gathering is too broad, automatic, without user knowledge, and without any way to turn it off."

It is worse than that because there are some options to turn data collection off in various places in Windows 10 - but these only turn a few things off and leave all the other data collection running. It is designed to give the user the false impression that data collection has been comprehensively disabled, when it has not - it is incredibly dishonest.

Oi, Elon: You Musk sort out your Autopilot! Tesla loyalists tell of code crashes, near-misses

JohnG

Re: The obvious and fundamental problem is

"That Autopilot, is not an autopilot."

Actually, it is a fair description. Autopilot in an aircraft will take the aircraft on a specific course, at a specific height. It may have the ability to alter the heading at predetermined waypoints. But autopilot cannot handle potential collisions with other aircraft or other emergencies and will return control to the pilot if it detects a situation it cannot handle. The Tesla autopilot is similar but it does have some capability to avoid collisions with other vehicles.

Between you, me and that dodgy-looking USB: A little bit of paranoia never hurt anyone

JohnG

In my experience, senior management in many organisations want to have the security box ticked but they often don't want the expense and hassle of actually implementing very much of any security policy. They do like to have security people who can be held responsible for any security issues that arise.

UK rail lines blocked by unexpected Windows dialog box

JohnG

Can these systems, that display the state of the rail network and store stuff in Office365's cloud, also be used to alter signalling?

Premiere Pro bug ate my videos! Bloke sues Adobe after greedy 'clean cache' wipes files

JohnG

Re: Man...

"While I'm at it, any case designer who came up with the idea of putting those external drives in a case on edge instead of flat, ought to be made to have that design inserted where the sun doesn't shine."

It is a ruse to sell more hard disks: when the user knocks a drive over and subsequently gets a bunch of errors from the head crash, they will ultimately buy a new hard disk.