Posts by Roland6 6506 posts • joined 23 Apr 2010
> they've already filled the phone with Huawei apps
Bit like Samsung then
>The first item on the settings menu is also a nag to get you to login to Huwawei
Don't see a problem, a similar 'nag' is present on Google Android, Samsung, iPhone...
Having a Huawei phone with both Play and Huawei app's, it is very simple to drop all the Huawei app's into a folder and take the Google app's out of their folder...
More than 90 per cent of Micro Focus' 12,000 employees are working from home during the crisis, the company revealed, and just 10 of its 101 offices remain open, mainly in Asia.
Working on the assumption that home working hasn't negatively impacted productivity, it does look like a move to make home-working the normal and shutter as many offices as it can as swiftly as it can is going to be the best way to reduce overheads and maintain margins.
Word to those hesitating, if you haven't got your home office up and running by now (and your local social support network), now is the time to do so as it does look like home working is the new normal.
>"The proposal has allowed for exceptions when maintaining a userspace API or when updating a code for a specification that mandates those terms. "
Moral of the story: Just make sure your specification mandates the use of certain words - says he taking his lead from decades old formal requirements specifications (see the Ada requirements documents) that defined precisely what Must, Shall, Should etc. mean within the context of the document. :)
It amuses me that those shouting about words that should be dropped are very noncommital about what words should be used be used instead. Yes, Dan alludes to some alternatives, but doesn't actually commit to any. Personally, I'm happy to continue using Master-Slave, Primary-Secondary etc. because these words clearly and precisely convey the style of relationship between the objects being referred to.
Actually, the opposite...
Remember the ignorant nutters (yes that includes Dan Williams, Chris Mason, Greg Kroah-Hartman and any others who support this stupidity), are trying to say that the word "Slave" only refers to the trans-Atlantic trade of circa 200 years ago. Ie. there was a trade in conscripted labour between Africa and the America's which someone decided needed a nice punchy marketing label, so had the brillant idea to call it "The Slave Trade(tm)". Whereas as we know the fact of the matter is that the word "slave" generically refers to a particular relationship state - of which the events of circa 200 years ago are just one of many examples..
>I may be wrong but my understanding is of encryption when using this device depending upon a dedicated chip.
I wonder whether any of these devices get into the hands of white hat researchers...
I suspect from what little has been published, both about what the police are letting on about EncroChat and what was published on the EncroChat website (see link elsewhere in comments to the WayBack Machine), the encryption actually used was a bulk standard off-the-shelf package and possibly one natively supported by Android. What does make sense, is the attention paid to key management so that the service could guarantee anonymity. I suspect many will now be looking at how you might implement a secure end-to-end secure messaging service that avoids the flaws in PGP, AES et al, namely:
For example, with PGP a user has only one key. If the private key of a user is exposed, a perpetrator is able to decrypt all previous messages sent. Another serious drawback is non-reputability. Every message is signed with your private key which verifies and exposes the sender's digital identity, proving authorship of the message.
>The criminal element might have done better by using throwaway phones for each transaction. By not using potentially dodgy encryption they wouldn't draw attention to themselves.
The use of throwaway phones would of mitigated the worst effects of the "malware" install. I think the 'dodgy' encryption had zero to do with it - with the amount of encrypted traffic flowing these days I doubt the traffic itself drew any attention.
>Why are the NCA doing this?
Well given we know that the NCA and GCHQ along with other agencies work together on things, I suspect having the NCA say "they did it" helps to coverup and divert awkward questions being asked of the European agencies and their investigations of European nationals given European laws.
So I expect the French got an anonymous tip off - from the NSA - that enabled them to look in the right place to find the EncroChat services located in France.
Aside: If you are interested in such matters, I recommend watching Deep Web - The Hunt for Dread Pirate Roberts.
>"Evidence suggests Encrochat is working with the NSA and other authorities..."
Given the timeline, there might be something in the Snowden 2013 disclosures - I wonder who has access to the full repository and hence whether this action now was partially to be ahead of possible publication by some journalist of their researches...
> Which raises the question of how did that get smuggled out to their own servers without anyone noticing?
Through the normal out-of-band MMS service available to operators, normal background auto Android app updates...
Reading about the phones, I suggest that fundamentally the phone was running a jailbreak Android image, however, I expect that whilst much effort was put into the secure messaging app, the phones network interface was totally normal ie. untouched.
The laugh would be if the phone used Google Play Store/services for the app updates..
Depends...
Upgraded a load of customers in Feb~Apr to 1909 in readiness for lockdown.
Currently, 2004 is in the optional list on some of the machines where it can stay until it becomes easier to physically access the machines currently distributed to people's homes and they have a (small) stock of upgraded machines that can be swapped.
However, like you, all new machines will be 2004.
Funnily enough, I support the conclusions of the research. My iPad I've done practically everything to block targeted ad's, so get the generic stuff. Because of this I've been made aware of products of use to my children and other family members.
As for the targeted ad's, well my PC gets those, so I tend to look something up, maybe even put it into my basket, but not purchase and wait a day or so for the discount ad's to appear...
Yes the playing field wasn't level...
This was one of the motivations for the UK promoting the creation of the Single Market and having a seat at the EU table that set the rules for the SM. Subsequently the UK used its position in the EU to increasingly put teeth into the "level playing field" rules by getting them encoded in law and thus directly challengable through the courts and also getting other members to abide by the rules. Whilst not perfect, it was moving in the right direction, namely looking after UK interests...
With the UK leaving the EU and SM, the "level playing field" rules will no longer apply (ie. EU business don't even need to pay lip service to them), so expect things to get worse rather than better. Eg. not being invited to tender.
>Not everybody has positions for someone who wishes just to fill 30% of it.
I think it is more of a mindset thing. Until Lockdown, few companies had positions for home-based working...
I suspect once companies fully work through home-based working - which they will need to in order to mitigate the effects of local lockdowns, they will also start to embrace different engagement models which don't revolve around people being at a desk 9-5.
It's a bit funny how thinkers like Charles Handy were writing about this back in the late 1980's, expecting things to change at a much faster rate than they actually have...
>Pretty damn near nobody who got to university before 1970 had experience coding.
But back then "computing" was a sub-branch of maths. In 1979 there were only a handful of UK universities that offered a pure Computing degree course (within a Computing department), most ran maths courses in which students could select computing modules.
So whilst I understand your point, I think the need for for some exposure to logic and mathematical analysis. But then that is in part why languages like Cobol came about, they were intended to be used by people who hadn't studied maths/computing at Uni.
>You mean like repeated emails to the postmaster address, a grace period during which only the owner can renew it even if it goes offline, and an appeal process?
This only happens when people are not just incompetent but government-department-incompetent
Actually, I suspect it isn't just government-department-incompetence but a failure in the entire governance process which effects any organisation where those responsible for the postmaster inbox are disconnected from those with a direct interest in and knowledge of specific domain registrations, so don't necessarily forward notifications on to relevant people.
>Sometimes your "stupid things with pointers" is the hack that makes magic happen.
Along with those ASM inserts to use the esoteric task switch and memory protection data blocks and instructions that compiler writers tend to ignore.
I suspect another reason why Linux will continue with C is that it will be a big job to move to another language; although this task might attract developers who aren't interested in being maintainers.
>Using Rust ought to deliver development timesavings, which would make better use of a maintainer's donated time.
From what I see, Rust will force some decisions to be made earlier in the development process and so reduce time spent in test and debug due to Rust largely "eliminating a bunch of bug classes". Otherwise, I agree it should mean maintainer's time is better spent focusing on the code logic.
>So not at all 'a report'.
You are right this isn't "a report", just like HS2 this is an attempt to do stuff before formally awarding contracts or getting Parliamentary approval. So that when the time comes for such approval the government can say words to the effect that so much has been spent that to cancel would be a waste etc.; so we must throw even more money (in HS2's case circa x100) into this project to not waste the monies spent todate...
I also found it interesting as you don't have any real indication (other than with BT and VM) as to who is providing the backhaul and trunk infrastructures, until there is a fault (JCB or fire) that takes out a local POP or trunk. I previously thought EE would be using the BT trunk infrastructure.
>How many ISPs have their own core network?
Well back in April, I found that both Three and 4GEE don't use the BT fibre trunk out of our area: fibre trunk got severed - took 3 weeks to repair, no fixed-line internet connections: residential or business; Three and 4GEE backup services continued...
>The first company to make me a good FFTP offer will probably win.
Need to keep an eye on the BT website. They are now providing FTTP in my area, but currently only via BT, no one else including EE are offering it.
I was hoping that the engineer would be unable to fix my failing FTTC line, as the published BT FTTP prices were only a couple of £pm more expensive and that would probably be waviered for the remainder of my current contract...
>Me? I'm about to cancel my ISP, as it's gone down just as I need to do a zoom conference. Phone calls tomorrows I think, or just cancelling and sending a letter to them
Why?
Got a mobile phone with +2GB data then more than enough for a couple of hours of Zoom.
I appreciate that currently things are a little difficult (ie. getting hold of SIMs and gismos is not just a quick trip to the high st.) , but if you are going to be working from home in the future and also have kids having online lessons, I suggest you need to be thinking a lot more seriously about Internet connection backup. A MiFi and a PAYG SIM with a decent ad-hoc data topup might be a good starting point.
Personally, having just had the engineer out to repair a failing FTTC connection, I'm now playing around with a spare Draytek 286xx router with the view to replace my ISP provided router with something that provides automatic load balancing and failover and so rest of family aren't waiting for dad to fix the Internet... Obviously, the current router (like its 3G predecessor) goes on the shelf, just in case its replacement fails...
Yes it costs money, but that is less hassle than having to deal with wife (who can't Zoom/receive email) and teenagers who can't do their schoolwork or chat/game with their friends...
>Maybe now they'll learn not to have...
The proof of that is whether SAP now have the toolset to enable customers to scaledown their SAP installations (ie. move from Enterprise to SME SAP) as they streamline/shrink their busines, or whether they are still better off going with the competition.
> but you should know that wristwatch-like devices are currently persona non grata in the NHS...
They were decades back, I should have referred to the fob watches that midwives and nurses wear, but decided that people would understand the concept better if I referred to a "smartwatch gismo".
> there's no return path to guarantee delivery ?
The return path isn't to guarantee delivery but to positively acknowledge delivery.
Regardless of what comm's medium is being used, manual procedures will need to exist to handle the all to frequent case of the intended recipient not responding within a given timeframe. Personally, I think the (technical) solution is to put the pager functionality into a smartwatch gismo and take advantage of the smartwatch-smartphone linkage to use the smartphone to start trying to get a data connection (using info. from the Pager message) plus reminding the user, if necesary, to move to a place with moble coverage. However, this means maintaining the pager broadcast networks...
>Also: £3m? Across how many sites?
It's a framework agreement, covering England.
Given the closing date is 6th July and the contract is expected to start on 27th July and run for two years, I expect they already have a shortlist of preferred suppliers and solution...
Which given the back of the envelope costings, would seem to indicate a solution that works out to less than £12.50 pa per device/user which would indicate a 4G addon for an existing mobile phone contract...
>The NHS is sufficiently similar to the health services in all other industrialised countries that the project could just take a look at the most commonly used service in those countries, and buy that.
They could, but that depends on whether TPTB have learnt from history...
The UK could have gone with the Tetrapol standard adopted across Europe, however, the UK wanted its own toy to satisfy some UK special/unique requirement (I forget what it was), so developed its own Tetra (Airwave) network.
The jury is still out on whether the UK is going to actually build its own GPS/Gallileo satellite system, have its own space agency, etc. but if it does, I expect those wanting the 75-blade swiss army knive will get their way.
>Despite the economic effects of the pandemic, true wireless stereo (TWS) devices like earbuds, headphones and speakers have proved robust, with Q1 global shipments up 86 per cent.
I suspect Q2 global shipments will also be up, thanks in a large part to Zoom et al. People look so much more natural wearing an earbud rather than a traditional full headset.
>Are you one of the paranoids who even wears a mask while driving because you believe a few mm of cheap cotton does a better job of filtering than an automotive grade pollen filter in your car?
The mask isn't to reduce the risk of you inhaling SARS-Cov-2, you wear it to reduce the risk of you unknowingly distributing live SARS-Cov-2. In this scenario, the car's pollen filter is of zero benefit.
>... or perhaps she thought that there was a good chnce the cops would be lobbing tear gas at the protesters?
Well given this was the US and the reputation of the US Police, I'm a little surprised she wasn't also being accused of wearing a bulletproof vest - perhaps they haven't found that receipt yet...
Yes to me it does seem odd that widely useful appliances aren't in the initial offering. I would take a closer look if they included a print server or even a basic (Ubuntu) desktop with a remote desktop client - currently looking at Pi's as a cheap home computer solution to avoid clients having to buy loads of desktops/laptops for staff to use at home in addition to the office equipment when all they need is remote access (RDS and web) to corporate systems.
>I think back in slight terror to the first broadband package I ever had, which had a 10GB/month limit.
Major difference between fixed-line broadband and 4G/5G home broadband is unlimited tends to mean upto 1TB for £20~30 pcm rather than 100GB for £35 pcm...
Until circa 5 years back we managed with Three's 15GB/month 3G mobile broadband, then the village got FTTC. This last month we consumed circa 330GB. Mind you we have 2 adults using zoom etc, 2 teeangers on Teams multiplayer Xbox games etc. plus the films, I suspect at this rate it will only be a few years before that 1TB p/month cap starts to become an issue...
>"File attachments that you send are not included with the email, but sent as links to files stored on Basecamp's servers.": So it triggers spam filters that see a link to an unfamiliar server, huh? And it probably tracks people who access my attachments, exactly when or how many times, etc. The attachments don't get autostored on my recipients system like they usually do, so they might try to access it later only to find the server's deleted it. If I want to send them a link, I'll upload my own file somewhere I control, thank you very much.
iOS/iPadOS does this today. It means normal users can attach a load of photo's to a message and not worry about whether the resulting message exceeds a widely used SMTP message size limit of 8MB.
I've implemented third-party add-ons for Outlook over the years to achieve exactly the same result, meaning for example that marketing can throw 300+MB attachments around as they negotiate with graphic designers, printers etc. on copy that will ultimately be printed for display on billboards...
It's also handy for throwing project documents around, if you haven't downloaded (ie. 'read') my draft within a week then its probably out-of-date and you need to call me to get an uptodate version...
>You can simply copy and paste those various statements at the bottom of your message instead of a signature
Why?
Outlook (for example) allows me to create a 'signature', get it formatted correctly, tick a box and job done, never have to worry (or explicitly do a copy-paste with all its associated lookups and clicks) again. Also, I can now distribute that signature as the company standard asking people to simply replace relevant details with their details - now all employees emails are signed consistently.
>What's different about a 'reply later' feature and a folder called 'reply later'
Depends on implementation.
A "Reply Later" button along side the "Reply" button does simply the process and makes it consistent across users. Also an integrated reply later button etc. potentially allows for some workflow such as attaching a note to help the memory as to why you wanted to reply later and putting some constraints on when you need to have completed the reply later action.
So nothing that isn't actually possible in say Outlook - ie. you could create an add-on with the necessary integrated functionality, just that it's there in the box and thus supported...
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