Posts by alain williams

GRAPHENE: £120m down, UK.gov finds it's still a long way from commercial potential

Only £120 million & a few years ???

and the muppets expect a huge return! They don't have a clue as to how real new science and innovation works. It is not like a bank/stock-market where you give them some money and they rip others off to give you a return; for a start £120 million would not be enough to get bankers interested.

We are looking at something completely new.

Some organisations will be taking paths that lead somewhere useful, others down blind alleys. The only way to tell the difference is to walk the paths.

With innovation: there is no timetable and no guarantee of anything!

Brave VMs to destroy themselves, any malware they find on HP's new laptop

When is this activated ?

It seems to me that this will depend on the user doing something. That depends on:

* the user being aware that something untowards has happened

* the user knowing that they can or should do something - and what that is

* the user caring: ''it is an IT problem''.

Oracle settles court spat with fired cloud 'sales inflation whistleblower'

Where should the buck stop ?

Surely anywhere other than the very top would be wrong. It is Larry who sets the culture and is the one who could change it.

However: it seems accepted that those working in corporations can lie and get away with it. It is not just politicians who lie, although maybe that is the reason why nothing is done about it.

Thought your data was safe outside America after the Microsoft ruling? Think again

Re: America's increasing isolation

Once US law compels multinationals to violate other nations' laws, I think it's pretty much inevitable that America will become ostracised (both digitally and in many other ways too) from the rest of the world,

I would love to agree with you. However who cares ? :

* corporations: don't give two hoots about (their customers') privacy. If using infrastructure in the USA saves them 0.5% costs they will do so. They will give lip service to privacy, just another corporate lie.

* governments: most of them want access to all your data and will strike private deals with the USA. A few push back, England is not one of those.

* individuals: most look at me puzzled or think "there goes Alain again" when I talk about privacy and turn to look at their facebook page.

* el-reg (& similar) readers: but we are in a minority.

Sigh :-(

Hard numbers: The mathematical architectures of Artificial Intelligence

We won't pay because the computer says so

Dealing with bureaucracies is hard enough as it is; indolent droids in call centres who follow a script, partly so they don't have to use their brain (so cheaper people can be hired) and partly to ensure that the company gets the advantage.

With an AI (or whatever) system that the droids do not understand a customer/... will find it even harder to challenge a bad decision or get an explanation of why they are being screwed.

Trump hits control-Z on cybersecurity order: No reason given for delay

Re: hold the heads of federal agencies accountable for managing their cyber risk

Holding the heads of organisations responsible is the right thing to do; this will ensure that enough attention is paid to cyber security. Currently if something goes wrong the blame is placed either on some minion (who did not have the budgeting power do to a proper job) or, preferably, the person who showed that their security was weak (eg Gary Mkinnon or others who have noticed and reported problems).

Avaya's bankruptcy protection is a 'good thing,' says Europe North veep

Translation

Although we have lots of money and good prospects in our new products we don't want to pay our bills to our old suppliers. So we will shaft our old suppliers by getting out of paying them by using Chapter 11 financial magic. The following was not said: and management will be able to award itself bumper bonuses next year as a result.

Windows code-signing tweaks sure to irritate software developers

and what will that hardware contain ?

but a bit of software. So: how long before someone reverse engineers it or pulls one to bits and puts it under a microscope to extract the keys ?

Google harvests school kids' web histories for ads, claims its Mississippi nemesis

Exchange of staff with Microsoft

Can anyone tell us how many staff have moved between Microsoft and Google ? Both seem to becoming increasingly sneaky on slurping up what should be private information about you and serving up targeted adverts.

What else they do with that information no one knows, they won't say - which is just as worrying.

Ex-Autonomy CFO pleads not guilty to charges he inflated the company's value

What is fraud ?

So it seems that HP bought something without looking at it with a microscope, then found that it was not quite what it thought and so sues claiming fraud.

I know plenty of people who have bought HP kit, eg printers, that HP does worse by sabotaging post sale, but that is, somehow, not fraud.

Please tell me why one is fraud and the other is not ?

PS: HP is not unique in trying to con their customers.

Terry Pratchett's self-written documentary to be broadcast in 2017

I hope that Death welcomed him with the words:

GREETINGS FRIEND.

Oi, Mint 18.1! KEEP UP! Ubuntu LTS love breeds a laggard

Re: There is nothing wrong with kernel 4.4

I sit typing this at a CentOS 6.8 machine. This is running Kernel 2.6.32. It works fine; that is what Long Term Stability means - not breaking things by updating too often.

Re: Why the negative title?

A few months ago I selected 'Always update everything', things broke big time on my Mate desktop. I poked for a few minutes, could not see anything obvious, so just reinstalled as the quickest way back to something working.

So: since then I stick with the, default, middle option 'stability and security'.

Most naive users will not notice these preference menus. This is why I think that they ought to default set the two 'select and trust' kernel & security updates.

Peace-sign selfie fools menaced by fingerprint-harvesting tech

Iris scan

So, likewise, a good, open eyed, mug shot might be enough to be able to get an iris scan ?

Former car rental biz staff gave customers' details to phone pests

Re: What about the ambulance chasers ?

It is not the directors of Enterprise RentACar that I am talking about, but those of the solicitors (== ambulance chasers) who bought the records from the three data thieves.

What about the ambulance chasers ?

Did ICO/Plod go after these criminals ? These are the very same who provide a market for the calls that we all get ''concerning the accident that you had recently''. Hit them hard with a big stick please, make the directors personally responsible for every penny of fines and do us all a big favour.

Fedora 25: You've got that Wayland feelin', oh, that Wayland feelin'

Try MATE if you can't stand GNOME 3

There is always the MATE Compiz spin for those of us who find that GNOME 3 is unusable. I'll try GNOME 3 again later today to see if it has improved, but the last time that I did it was too dumbed down and lacked things like multiple desktops - that I just cannot do without.

MacBook killer? New Lenovo offering sexed up with XPoint booster

Yet another myopic article on laptops

Chris Mellor seems to believe that the only laptops that people want are super fast with lots of memory and disk/... Maybe some people do, not everyone. For me I want something light to carry round and with good battery life. Something that will let me run a web browser, run a presentation, occasional word processing, maybe edit & compile programs - but most important ssh into a server back at the ranch.

For that I find a machine costing £150-£200 from Tesco is entirely adequate. Running Linux of course. A machine that I won't cry much if/when I lose it or drop it under a bus.

Barcodes stamped on breast implants and medical equipment

It will stop boobs ...

resulting from all sorts of errors - I suppose.

How Google.org stole the Christmas Spirit

It was ever thus ...

Eg: Microsoft 'giving' schools free or very cheap s/ware: ensures that schools teach kids to use their software.

Or: Facebook's free networking efforts, designed to bring more people to its platform.

Plenty more if you think a bit.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Twas the week before Xmas ... not a creature was stirring – except Microsoft admitting its Windows 10 upgrade pop-up went 'too far'

Re: 'We want people to be running Windows 10 from a security perspective'

Why ? For the earlier versions that are still supported I would expect security patches. He seems to be saying that they can't be bothered to fix security problems in older versions. Other operating system distributors offer 10 years and 13 years support, these are smaller companies than Microsoft - but they can manage it; why don't they ?

Landmark EU ruling: Legality of UK's Investigatory Powers Act challenged

Re: Simple solution...

Do remember that the only group who's browsing habits need a court order before they are handed over are the MP's themselves. I wonder what they have got to hide that we do not ?

Re: This is great news...

news relating to this law has been almost non-existent in the UK media.

Which speaks volumes about ''independent'' our media really is.

Ad-slinger Turn caught with its hand in Verizon's 'supercookie' jar

"Turn has agreed to be open and honest with customers"

Translation: "We will make sure that we will not be caught again"

Did webcam 'performer' offer support chap payment in kind?

Re: Only that

Did he pay them with a small donation ?

UK Home Office slurps 1,500 schoolkids' records per month

Who gets Free school meals

is one things handed over. Maybe we now understand why the Food Standards Agency was one of the bodies given oversight free access to our browser histories in the recent Snooper's Charter ... maybe.

Bill Gates joins $170bn climate change investment club

Re: Nice to see the 1%

His children will be affected just as badly as yours and mine will be. When climate change starts to hit hard the rich will be able to insulate themselves from the changes to an extent, but with the whole planet being affected it will make life more unpleasant for them as well.

I think (hope) that he is not doing this just for (his children's) selfish reasons but for the general good.

As much as I don't like Microsoft: I do praise Bill for some of what he has done with his money: eg 3rd world toilets - totally unglamorous but very much needed.

HBO slaps takedown demand on 13-year-old girl's painting because it used 'Winter is coming'

Winter is Coming

We shall all be reduced to consumers, deemed not fit to have a creative thought in our heads, no thoughts at all beyond how much money we pay to large corporates.

I have added a link to that picture on my web site.

Mirai variant turns TalkTalk routers into zombie botnet agents

Talk talk still got customers then ?

Surprising. Even the most slothful should now be prodded to move.

AMD virty encryption not quite there, claim boffins

AMD SEV safe on trusted cloud provider

To me that would be the whole point on SEV - protect yourself from a provider that has been spooked and forced to blab what you are doing to the NSA or the Pry Minister's snoop enhanced Food Standards Agency (OK: not in the current bill, but that hasn't stopped them in the past).

Information on smart meters? Yep. They're great. That works, right? – UK.gov

Re: Dear Mrs May

The only "people" to benefit will be shareholders.

How long before the snooper's charter will be amended to let the food standard's agency see how much 'leccy we are using on a minute by minute basis ? Hmmm: I suppose they could check that I am cooking the xmas turkey properly.

The UK's Investigatory Powers Act allows the State to tell lies in court

What hope the Birmingham 6 today ?

If the police/... can make up fairy stories then we have to expect that there will be more injustices like the Birmingham 6 where the cops/... want convictions so that they look good by having caught someone.

Frightening as that might be: I am more worried about how the snooping will be used by the ruling elite to squash dissent and ensure that they remain in power and that their friends' business remain profitable.

Printer security is so bad HP Inc will sell you services to fix it

Should have been secure in the first place

As I read this: HP are charging you money to fix problems in their kit because they did not get it right in the first place. HP should be paying you for the time it takes to fix their mistakes.

If your smart home gear hasn't updated recently, throw it in the trash

Re: Legal Framework

I received a recent letter saying that my car was subject to a recall; something about the air bag. My car is 6 years old.

A lot of e-toys are made and the manufacturer quickly forgets about it, except to say that the next model is better and fixes problems in the previous version - that they did not tell us about when they sold it in the first place.

If you are lucky you might get an update or two; but for 6 years or more ? If you get something to control your house lights it seems reasonable for that it continues to work for 20 years. When was your home last re-wired ?

These things should come with product liability, as do cars, where they get safety & security updates for many years.

It won't happen.

Shhhhh! If you're quiet, Linus Torvalds might release a new Linux

Re: This is a genuine question to all software devlopers...

This is not a release it is a release candidate, ie a test/trial to shake out any bugs.

The point is that Linux kernel development happens in public view; with most (closed source) software these release candidates would not be seen outside of the organisation that writes it.

No spoilers! Norway won't tell Snowden if US will snatch him on a visit

Another solution ?

Have a sympathetic nation make him a diplomat and thus give him diplomatic immunity. Ecuador (Assange's hoteliers) might do it. However: I suspect that the USA might just snatch him and point two fingers to normal diplomatic rules.

Pluto has massive underground oceans, say astro-boffins

What drains off lamp posts has to go somewhere ...

Apple admits the iPhone 6 Plus has 'Touch Disease'

Re: "after being dropped multiple times on a hard surface"

EU law on it, start looking at Guarantees and returns.

The UK Gov't can leave parts of EU law in UK legislation if it wants to. It will be interesting to see who they think their friends are by seeing what remains and what is junked.

TfL to track Tube users in stations by their MAC addresses

It will be tapped by GCHQ

Theresa May's snoopers' charter is now well on the way to being law by Xmas. It TfL is providing Wifi then it will be deemed an ISP and thus the data collected must be kept for a year. Web site addresses at first, but expect 'feature creep' in this law (or just plain - share it with us: you have a nice tube network there ...) and they will get the lot.

'Post-truth' beats 'chatbot' to Word of the Year Crown

Re: Doesn't "Post-truth" sound...

Now politics is just bare-faced lies even in the overwhelming evidence of facts.

I was discussing with my son last night: I remember politicians of 40 years ago twisting things ('spin' in contemporary to Blair parlance) but I don't remember the outright lies that we get today. I was wondering if things are really worse or if I am becoming a grouchy old git who grumbles more at things ?

This is a serious question. Any (informed) opinions ?

Russia shoves antitrust probe into Microsoft after Kaspersky gripes about Windows 10

Maybe they should be thanking MS

for having a market in the first place. If it was not for the insecure operating system they would not have found a hole in the market.

Me: never run MS Windows on my own machines, never had a virus/... *n?x has kept me safe.

A British phone you're not embarrassed to carry? You heard that right

Missing info in write up

that price might need VAT adding - their shopping basket is not entirely clear.

A URL would have been nice: https://www.wileyfox.com/

I note that you can have a spare battery (£15)

It will be interesting to see real customer reviews, battery life is something that really interests me with toys like this.

Lenovo downward dogs with Yoga BIOS update supporting Linux installs

How about testing it ?

If we take their denial of Windows only at face value then we must ask: why did they not test it with Linux first ? I assume that they spent a lot of time/money testing the hardware and also testing their MS Win 10 boot image; so why not stick in a Linux Mint/Fedora/... ISO/memory-stick and try it ?

If there are problems I would expect that the help that they would get from the distros would be good.

Doing this does not mean that they would have to support Linux or even say that it has been known to work (which might get them into trouble from Redmond). But give a few laptops to the right people who can they announce to the world that they have got their distro running on it ... how many more machines would they sell as a result ?

Can they really that stupid that they aren't already doing this ?

Judge allows Apple's faceless Irish head to settle for €45k - report

Green light to do it again

So the fine is about 1/20,000 of the original unpaid tax - that is pretty good. They ended up paying about 1/3 of the original demand - I wish I could get HMRC to be that nice to me! €45k is loose change to these guys, they will pay it when en-route to the pub to celebrate the judge's generosity.

But more importantly: unless these head honchos pay a meaningful personal price (eg 6 monthly eating porridge) they just won't care.

Good luck securing 'things' when users assume 'stuff just works'

Who bears the losses ?

Ignoring hassle: in the case of a house burglery the insurance company. These are in the position to push through a change; not (or reduced) payouts if the door locks are inadequate. The sell is reduced premiums to the householder. Properly done it will encourage the householder to do a one off investment in locks for a multi year drop in premiums.

Unfortunately: the marketing department shouts loudly about the lower premium and hides the good lock requirement on page 35 of the T&Cs; it is only pointed out after the theft.

Opportunity lost - squandered by marketing and that most people don't read T&Cs.

.

Much the same with our electronic bling: ease of use and price are seen as the draws. How to make it secure comes many pages after the instructions of how to view cuddly kittens.

Losses are less obvious unless someone grabs your banking details or similar. Many still take the view that the loss will be picked up by the bank; I have friends who proudly tell me that they use the same 3 passwords everywhere - even as I tell them that this is stupid.

Banks are refusing to cover some scams, but so far it is often seen as ''something that happened to someone else'' and that they will be OK ... anyway the next Bake Off is about to be aired.

Despite best efforts, fewer and fewer women are working in tech

Equality of Opportunity, not Attainment

As long as men & women (gays/straights/..., black/white/..., etc) have the same opportunity to follow an interest, get educated and compete for jobs on the same footing as everyone else: what else do you want ? Some jobs require temperaments, abilities that not everyone has - so they can go and chose something else.

There are those who look at Attainment and blame industries/... for an imbalance without looking to see if it what women (in this case) actually want to do.

Should we complain that in the UK only 0.5% of midwives are men ?

Britain's fight to get its F-35 aircraft carriers operational turns legal

Would we have won WW-II ?

At the rate that MOD seems to work these days Germany would have completely overrun England before MOD had had enough chits signed to allow them to fire back!

Dynamic IP addresses are your personal property, CJEU rules

Re: Not unusual

In the UK you will share your date of birth with a bit less than 3,000 people. So not much more is needed to narrow in on you.

(Exact number depends on age, ...)

Skin tattoo will tell your phone when you've had a skinful

Re: How long before your insurance company

I think that this will come in for drivers who have a previous DD conviction and who want to get insurance. I'm not someone who like Big Brother, but this is one case that I would not complain about.

Court finds GCHQ and MI5 engaged in illegal bulk data collection

''lessons learned''

How to not get caught again, even if just by fixing the law.