Posts by Roland6

Ransomware scum have already unleashed kill-switch-free WannaCry‬pt‪ variant

Re: Experts all giving advice how how to stay secure

"Customers running Windows 10 were not targeted by the attack today."

Interesting statement/conclusion given the attack vector was an email attachment and the vulnerability being exploited was in SMBv1 that is also present in Windows 10 and my understanding is that if you hadn't applied the March updates it was vulnerable.

Perhaps MS are assuming all Win10 systems will have been patched in March and so an attack in May would have failed against these systems and thus we can conclude Win10 wasn't a target...

Microsoft to spooks: WannaCrypt was inevitable, quit hoarding

Re: orphan zombies moaning 'uhhhp daaytz'

@Dan 55 - so I'll just let it sit there until it's finished, even if it takes a week.

I found with these systems, simply stop the explicit user initiated update check, change the update setting to autocheck and download but inform me when ready and leave the system running. For some reason this seems to get the first set of updates, after this the system will typically tell there are further updates waiting. Also as your system is so far behind, just get the 'Important' updates - some 'Recommended' updates seem to cause conflicts with 'Important' updates causing the updater to sit there, once you're up-todate on the Important updates then enable 'Recommended' and repeat.

Aside:

1. Also whilst MS have stopped the GWX, I've also found it helpful to run GWX Control Panel (run once version) to ensure all the OS update settings are set to disabled, as this will further reduce the number of updates you will get.

2. Also turn off the customer experience programme and so avoid the telemetry/'spying' updates.

Facebook in the dock: Web giant faces trial for allegedly ripping off data center blueprints

This is exactly why I love FreeBSD - use our code and ideas how ever you want.

But if you contribute to FreeBSD, you do so in the knowledge that this is what is going to happen to your contribution.

However, if you are in the business of selling your knowledge and expertise, in order to keep your family housed and fed, and subsequently to a "commercial and in confidence" meeting, a potential client produces something looking remarkably like what you showed them and claims it as "all their own work" and donates it to FreeBSD, I think you would be aggrieved, particularly if some AC off-handly dismissed your complaints because you were a "nomark business"....

Microsoft touts next Windows 10 Creators Update: It's set for a Fall

Re: Has anyone actually got the Creator's Update?

Well, a good question, given from a previous recent announcement MS have effectively withdrawn the "Spring" Creator's Update it from general release, while they sort out all the issues that many users have been having with it.

Certainly all my Win10 systems are still on build 1607 "Anniversary Update" and have been happily receiving updates for that builld.

Dyson celebrates 'shock' EU Court win over flawed energy tests

Re: Is this the same Dyson who has no time for the EU ?

B. Take it to court to get justice.

Additional information: You voted leave which has absolutely f*ck all to do with the above.

Only with Brexit, Dyson will no longer have access to the EU court...

Cloudflare goes berserk on next-gen patent troll, vows to utterly destroy it using prior-art bounties

Re: bow and arrow - good!

The architecture described in the article is an HTTP proxy.

...

So would there be any prior art for HTTP proxies around the 2002 timeframe.

The other use of an HTTP proxy is to perform a man-in-the-middle ie. intercept attack, so another source of potential prior art will be among hackers and protocol test systems.

Well this is awkward. As Microsoft was bragging about Office at Build, Office 365 went down

Re: Numpties.

You should trust them because the penalty clauses in the contract make it really bad for them if you suffer any kind of outage and so they'll make every conceivable effort to deliver.

Trouble is enforcement and getting timely recompense, ie. before your business (or their business) collapses. The current HBOS fraud case gives a good idea of the time lines: 2002~2007 fraud against small business customers committed, concerns raised, Police investigation started 2010, trial of 6 people commences 2016 with convictions Jan 2017, it only now that compensation for the victims is being discussed, yet it is likely these will also involve court proceedings so it could be a few more years before victims receive any monies... Also bear in mind in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash HBOS itself failed and only survived by Lloyds taking on all its business and liabilities...

DSL inventor's latest science project: terabit speeds over copper

Re: Don't tell BT...

Then there is the ISP's that support FTTP

I think you will find that the ISP's either require a BT FTTP line, because they are in dispute with Ofcom over who should be supplying the battery backup, specifically they want BT to provide the battery for the FTTP line they installed and for which BT doesn't get any service fee's from, or they expect the house to have the BT POTS over copper service for fixed line telephony (which effectively leaves the power/battery issue with BT but this time BT do get some revenue).

FTTP is occurring more on recent larger new build developments (ie. developments of 20+ homes built in 2016 and later). I don't know if the cable being used is pure fibre or also has copper cores; it would make sense for it to be pure fibre, but then copper cores can aid fault location and diagnosis.

IBM: Customer visit costing £75 in travel? Kill it with extreme prejudice

Re: HP and Pencils

Re: IBM PS/2 keyboards

These were hard to come by in circa 2002, however the IBM data entry grade AT keyboards were a hidden gem: £100+ keyboard being sold for sub-£10 because they only had the 1/2-inch 5-pin DIN connector; mine are still going strong and spare is still on the shelf.

Re: Travel costs

>Years ago, I lived about 30 minutes from Gatwick Airport. To save costs, employer insisted I travelled from Luton via Easyjet.

"Further, the GTS exec said bulk travel requests should not exceed one calendar month ahead and “should be absolutely minimised”. In addition, “all flights” need to be signed off by her."

Years ago, I worked within 30 minutes of Luton, the UK was their EMEA centre of exellence in a number of key areas. The company, HQ near Heathrow implemented a similar missive. We naturally, started submitting all our Easyjet/RyanAir travel requests to HQ - we soon got exempted as they realised it was a total waste of their time signing off sub £10 airfares to Europe and if we booked in advance the fares were often £1...

Agile consultant behind UK's disastrous Common Platform Programme steps down

Re: DABLing with Architecture

DABL - Looks a bit like a waterfall to me, but then given this is Agile, it is probably more akin to a series of rapids - not as impressive as a waterfall, but a lot more exhilarating to ride down.

Re: Agile fine until it hits the real world?

>The main difference is Agile will deliver what you need now, whereas Waterfall will deliver what you thought you needed two years ago

Not heard of change control?

From my experience, the primary difference between Agile and waterfall is in the contracted deliverables and the ownership of risk. With waterfall, I the supplier commit to delivering a complete system that satisfies the requirements within a defined timeframe. With Agile, I the supplier commit to delivering some functionality through a number of development iterations within a time period.

Re: constantly testing our new systems and processes with users.

>Continuous testing with users as guinea pigs is bad.

Just the new zelgeist - Windows 10 etc.

Majority of contractors distrust HMRC's IR35 calculator, survey finds

From what I can see the only reason, not to trust the answers the tool gives, is the word "BETA" on an orange background on every page.

Other than that the only reason to be sceptical is a future - after the event reassessment that uses the then current version of the tool. Hence why the best you can do is to include the results of running the tool as an appendix to your agreement, along with any clarifying remarks, and get the client to sign up to that.

Opposable thumbs make tablets more useful says Microsoft Research

Re: Loss of freedom

>The more the interface is going to rely on this new selection option, the less you can do while holding the tablet in your hand when you're standing.

From watching the video, it is obvious the main envisaged use case is when a person is using their fingers to prop up the tablet and so the thumb is free to move, so to some extent your concern is valid.

However, with a tablet such as the ipad when standing you hold the tablet with the fingers on the back and the base of the thumb on the surround, leaving the thumb free to either provide a third point of contact and stability control or to perform simple actions like pressing the single home button.

So I suggest, provided the thumb controls are kept very simple, like the mouse with 1~3 buttons and possibly a slider/scroll bar, I think they will add to the UX.

Additionally, the use of a handle (https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/3173028 ) through which a hand can be placed and thus enable the back of the hand to be used, would permit the fingers to use simple controls placed on the back of the tablet. This however, whilst probably useful to someone standing using the tablet, would make using the tablet on the lap possibly less comfortable.

>but because other OEMs were making the devices, these ideas were never implemented.

But Microsoft were making the OS and effectively controlled the UI and hence, just as they decided to fix the locations of furniture in window frames, the position of the start button etc. they could very easily have decided to provide a set of on-screen "mouse button" controls placed so that they could be thumb driven. Only as we know one of the problems has been developing touch screens that work well with both finger and stylus input.

Re: Why?

The only real use case for it is preliminary sketching, which is such a vanishingly small part of the job it's not worth using a device. They just use a bit of paper and a pencil, even though they have electronic sketching available.

There is the other real use, markup. For a field engineering project a touchscreen tablet is a really good way of capturing as-found and as-modifed complete with annotations and have the information directly uploaded, rather than have pen and paper and the associated workflows and quality issues that arise from having a third-party transcribe the handwritten technical notes (even if they have been written using an Anoto pen).

However, cost is a big factor. The problems are firstly being able to justify having an 'expensive' device to do only part of the job and secondly for that device to be sufficiently robust for usage in the field environment at a reasonable cost. This problem in my experience has bedevilled Panasonic Toughbook sales - clients want 'Toughbooks' until they see the price premium and then ask whether similar results could be achieved with cheaper mass market laptops...

I think also in the use cases we describe, the capabilities of the technology both in the device and behind the device play a major part in the utility. Thus being able to sketch on a tablet is of little value if the sketch isn't easily and quickly available (ie. with little if any user intervention) on another device eg. CAD station - available to either that user or a relevant colleague; this is a fundamental part of ubiquitous computing. Unfortunately, neither the Apple or MS cloud visions really support full functional ubiquitous computing as demonstrated back in the 1980's at Palo Alto Research Labs and given their current trajectories I don't see either of them massively improving their offering in the next 5 years...

Michael Dell? More like Michael in-Dell-nial: No public cloud, no future

Re: What doesn't Dell have? A public cloud

>Clouds do need client equipment and there will still be a market for that,

Clouds also need server equipment and there will be a market for that...

So the real question is whether Dell see's itself as being a major player in the cloud infrastructure market. Which basically says to what extent does and will Dells involvement in cloud datacentre projects such as OCP contribute to future revenues and profits.

'Crazy bad' bug in Microsoft's Windows malware scanner can be used to install malware

Re: So now we can only hope...

re: Oh?

Agree, I suspect ShelLuser doesn't actually use Win7 or 8 and so is unaware that since last year MS stopped the Get Windows 10 Free offer and removed it from Windows Update.

Certainly, since then, none of my Win7/8 systems has either flagged the presence of an OS upgrade or offered any inducement to upgrade. However, it did take a little effort and assistance from GWX Control Panel to avoid the forced free upgrade.

ISPs must ensure half of punters get advertised max speeds

Re: Annoyed... The rather pathetic progress continues...

Useful coverage map, click on link in this page:

http://www.superfastnorthamptonshire.net/Pages/working-with-gigaclear.aspx

Basically, if you are not in a blue/purple area - in which case you are either already getting BT FTTC or Gigaclear FTTP, hope you are in a Gigaclear area (pink area's on map) and so will at some stage in the future be getting 100mbps FTTP. If you are in a light blue area then you may get something in a decade or so... given the purple/blue area represents the combined effort since 2008 of BT and Virgin commercial deployments and Superfast Northamptonshire's BDUK contribution...

Re: Annoyed... The rather pathetic progress continues...

> I live in Northamptonshire.

Where in Northamptonshire?

In my part of rural Northamptonshire, we got the community together and had the Parish Council arrange a public meeting involving: Superfast Northamptonshire, BT, our MP and relevant District and County Councillors. Whilst my village got BT, Gigaclear now provide service to the surrounding villages that BT deemed not to be commercially viable. The laugh I have is that having kicked BT to deliver to my village (insufficient demand etc.), a few months back BT installed a second FTTC cabinet next to the one it installed a couple of years back...

Re: ISPs?

Are we going to get motor manufacturers to change the speedometers fitted as they may offer speeds up to 140 mph when the car can only get to 110mph, with a struggle

I always thought that was the case. Certainly, none of my cars including the various performance cars have had an engine capable of taking the speedo needle off the scale.

Zen failed by offering all options including "up to" 76Mb

Zen like many ISPs will give a 'teaser' result, something you only discover when you click "buy" and go to the next stage. Additionally, you do have to be careful as on a previous broadband article I noted that the different BT checkers returned different results, with investigation confirming that both results were correct. (A few months back, for my area, BT retail weren't offering FTTC because they had used up their allocation of terminal blocks, but going to the 'right' BT Wholesale reseller you could get FTTC.)

Re: All good ideas

"So am I, but I still don't get the "up to speed"

I suspect the main difference for A&A customers is just that they understand what's going on more than most Internet users."

Similarly for Zen customers. However, when you contract with Zen they do a line test (or a calculation if the BT checker doesn't return a result due to your line being attached to a third-party LLU) and then clearly give a speed guarantee in the agreement.

From memory, the guaranteed speed was 5~10% slower than the value the BT checker returned, so the line under normal conditions always exceeded the threshold.

Re: Money talks

>OK, not for the ISP, but for the company that provides the actual cabling

Err no. You are forgetting the LLU equipment, contention ratio's and backhaul; all of which are in the hands of the Alt-ISPs.

On one client site we moved the line over from the BE/O2 LLU to Zen/BT Wholesale and saw a 8Mbps line turn into a 10+ Mbps line (a rationalisation and upgrade of the client site cabling gave another 1Mbps down speed, a router upgrade added a further 1Mbps).

Australian Taxation Office named as party preventing IT contractors being paid

Re: The tax issue may explain how they were able to do it

>How much money can they make holding onto money for say a week or two before paying, at today's interest rates?

Well it does make you wonder how companies such as topcashback.co.uk, who claim to pass on all of the commission received, can be successful. Because whilst they do have some zero commission refund links on thier website, the only time I and I suspect many others use their site is to browse and click on the commission refund links.

Microsoft says: Lock down your software supply chain before the malware scum get in

Microsoft Store?!

After reading the rather informative Security Advisory, I can't help but think that MS marketing will seize this as another reason for locking things down further and insisting that all Windows software needs to be distributed and updated via the MS Store...

Fortran greybeards: Get your walking frames and shuffle over to NASA

Don't quite get why this is particularly a Fortran problem - it's simply a result of floating point maths.

You are to some extent right, the problem is fundamentally the floating point maths.

However, the reason why it is a Fortran problem is typically you use Fortran on problems where the maths is critical because Fortran gives you lots of control over numbers (both integer and floating-point).

The number handling capabilities of C and C++ are rudimentary in comparison, but that is because these languages (and C specifically) were not intended to be much more than high-level assembly languages. So if you want Fortran like number handling in C you need to build the relevant libraries...

Re: One small catch...

Well I was wondering what real access to the source code a challenge participant actually got. As given the small reward pot on offer, obviously NASA don't really value the code. So I'd suggest enterprising challenge participants uploading the source code to github or sourceforge...

Re: @Ian Bush

>Can anyone confirm that the common use of the variable i in loops goes back to Fortran usage?

No, Fortran simply implemented the conventions used by mathematicians, because the Fortran language was largely written by and for mathematicians...

After years of warnings, mobile network hackers exploit SS7 flaws to drain bank accounts

Re: Nothing new here!

>They didn't give it out. It was stolen from their computers via malware.

and the role of SS7 in getting the malware on to the computer?

...

Post Unity 8 Ubuntu shock? Relax, Linux has been here before

@AC Hence their decision to take the most mainstream desktop which has a life of its own, for better or worse, and leave the other desktop variations to the community.

From the way you describe it, it would seem that Canonical are going back to their roots, namely, take 'standard' Linux components (ie. OS, applications, utilities etc.) and integrate them into a solid and supported desktop distribution.

But Mint is a derivative of Ubuntu. If Ubuntu were to discontinue development of the desktop to replace it as a derivative of Mint then they'd be going round in circles.

I suggest many regard 'Unity' as Canonical's 'proprietary' desktop. By dropping it's 'proprietary' desktop development and selecting Mint [for want of a concrete example to keep the discussion focused], it becomes possible for Canonical to undertake developments that are directly helpful to this distribution and thus become part of the Mint community. Additionally, it means Mint gains some credible(?) corporate backing, a necessary precursor for many enterprises.

Re: ... an obvious candidate would be the Mint distribution with the Cinnamon desktop.

I wouldn't call that obvious. Gnome (whatever you or I may think of it) is much more mainstream than Cinnamon ... and why would Canonical use a Mint release rather than one of their own?

The questions I asked myself was the extent to which Canonical would maintain it's own (independent) desktop development capability (and distro) and the extent to which they would engage with the 'community'. I thus picked on Mint because it is a well regarded Ubuntu derivative, maintained by an active (non-Canonical) community. Cinnanon because it is the default desktop and is regarded as being good for those familiar with Windows - which given enterprises will in the main be migrating from Windows may well tick a box in it's favour.

The key point is that we are probably at a point where a further cull or rationalisation of major Linux distributions is desirable, hence Canonical may gain greater success if they embrace a 'community' distro, that uses Ubuntu, than trying to compete against the community.

However, I take your point, I'm not being 'religious' about any specific distro, just using Mint as an example.

Re: Ubuntu desktop distribution

Well much depends on whether Canonical want to compete or work with the community. I suggest a real rationalisation would be for Canonical to effectively end game it's 'proprietary' desktop, maintain the

relevant repositories and to back one of the variants as the preferred mainstream business/enterprise desktop; an obvious candidate would be the Mint distribution with the Cinnamon desktop.

Naturally, this level of standardisation would permit Canonical to develop desktop management tools that better reflect the tools available for enterprise deployments of MS Windows and thus make Canonical Linux a more attractive enterprise desktop.

Microsoft plans summer CRM war opener against Salesforce

Re: Meh.

>If I meet someone in my profession who doesn't have a LinkedIn profile... I think MAYBE this person gets on with real work as opposed to self promotion

You can generally tell those who are into self promotion, their profile is always bang up to date and often includes details of their current project. Plus there are other activity indicators that show (to me) an excessive interest in getting their LinkedIn account out to a wider audience.

Windows 10 S: Good, bad, and how this could get ugly for PC makers

Re: Oh dear

The other requirement for education is the ability to run ancient educational software written for 98~XP and full virtual CD drive support, so you don't need the physical CD in the drive...

Rejoice, for Linux 4.11 has been delivered!

Re: CPU Frequencies and Quality

>Making silicon chips is not an exact science.

The question is what is the real degree of variation and is it sufficient to warrant the additional complexity of handling variable clock speeds. I suggest unless the numbers are significant then it probably isn't worth doing. However, having implemented the necessary technology, Intel can now add further granularity (and thus price points) to it's processor families, depending on how many and by how much the various cores can be 'overclocked' from the base rating given on the box.

Intel's Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0, technology that lets a CPU figure out which of its cores is fastest and then increase its clock speed

Missed the Intel announcement on this: does this mean that we can mix-and-match Intel cpu's in multi-cpu systems, or is Intel's multi-core CPU quality so poor that a 2Ghz quad core may actually have one (or more cores) rated at 4Ghz?

Google's 'adblocker' is all about taking back control

Ineffective Regulation...

The report has already drawn the attention of the EU's Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager. "We will follow this new feature and it's effects closely," she tweeted at journalists today.

Given the speed of development and the sheer absence of speed we've witnessed from the Regulators, perhaps what is needed is something akin to (my limited understanding) the Russian system. Here, the regulator merely needs to declare company(s) to be dominate players (along with their rationale) and thus require them to report on what they are doing to protect competition and to get regulatory approval before large scale deployment.

Thus whilst Eyeo may be the dominate player in the current adblocking market, it is clear that Google's market position and access would enable it to disrupt the adblock market, the question is whether Google's intervention is in the interests of competition and also in the interests of consumers.

Re: Fox, meet henhouse (yet again)

>I read the plan was to work with a third party company to have an acceptable ads program to only allow non-intrusive ads.

I read it to mean third-parties, not using the Google ad network will be limited to only being permitted to use non-intrusive ads. Also I expect "non-intrusive" in Googles definition will include page placement. So don't expect your non-Google ad to be positioned anywhere near the top of the page.

[Aside: See the court case between Google and StreetMap over positioning of map results on search pages for further information on how Google's "acceptable ad's" policy might turn out.]

iPhone lawyers literally compare Apples with Pears in trademark war

Re: Dear Apple.

>Not something that the judge admitted was different in several ways.

And also admitted that the differences would not go unnoticed by an ordinary person.

Re: Dear Apple.

>With trademarks, companies have to defend them, as that is the law.

So we can expect Apple to take Disney to court about its use of a highly stylised apple with a bite taken out of it in Sleeping Beauty? Or should Disney be taking Apple to court for unpaid product/trademark placement royalties...

Re: Dear Apple.

>but shouldn't we be reserving our ire for the EUIPO which let them get away with this bollocks?

Definitely we should be worried (regardless of Remain/Leave)!

Going through the linked EUIPO document the logic and language being used by the EUIPO is troubling. Basically, if I trademark a stylised IC chip, using the points raised by the EUIPO I should be able to get rulings against practically any other trademark that uses a stylisted IC chip.

But going back to ire with the EUIPO, this case needs to be brought to the attention of the Brexit supporting UK media, as unlike the "straight banana" daftness, this is off the scale daftness and really needs to be exposed.

However, care is needed, as the Pear Technology in the EUIPO case is Pear Technologies (China) Ltd, and not Pear Technology Services (UK) Ltd.

>I use the silhouette of someone taking it from behind so to speak as the logo.

Based on this case, you would lose to a claim from whoever has the rights to the Rabbit Injection logo etc. on the basis that a person taking it from behind is too similar and thus confusing with a Rabbit taking it from behind as both are mammals...

Re: Not like you'd do it yourself

>If I started a website called the regista and had a silhouette of a pigeon in the title.

Well much would depend on the content, with satirical content you would most probably get the blessing of the law.

TVs are now tablet computers without a touchscreen

Re: I upgraded my "dumb" TV...

If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive media box with apps and a 4K Blu-Ray player, the Xbox One S isn't a terrible option.

Agree, with caveats.

When I upgraded from SCART to HDMI connected equipment, I decided that the new Xbox One would serve as a DVD/BluRay player and so both retire the (non-HD) Video/DVD player and keep both the box and controller count down.

It has worked quite well, just that like all jack-of-all-trades tools, things aren't quite as simple as the old dedicated box approach (the other half still hasn't worked out how to drive the thing). I live with the compromise because the Xbox does support a wide range of media app's from iPlayer through to Amazon video (and finally ITV Hub) and for those who have problems my son will willingly do the necessary in return for being allowed to play CoD.

Re: All I want is the screen

@eldakka - I've moved on from blu-tac and use removable velcro sticky pads.

Re: All I want is the screen

>So get cracking on modular frames.

We already have them:

Ports: HDMI etc.

Vesa mount.

I can attach a pizzabox computer to the Vesa mount and link it to the screen via the HDMI or other similar port.

The only modification that is necessary is a mount for the Infrared/bluetooth/wifi receiver - so these can 'see' round the screen.

Re: I upgraded my "dumb" TV...

>The "smart" should be your media centre computer which you can upgrade on a schedule that suits you.

But don't base it on an MS platform - remember Windows Media Center...

Surely by now there is a maintained Linux Media Center distribution?

Lyrebird steals your voice to make you say things you didn't – and we hate this future

Re: And some banks are starting to use

Only just starting? Nuance has been selling the technology since the early 2000's. Even then the technology was able to analysis speech patterns, tone and inflexions and so effectively could provide continuous voice authentication of natural language interactions.