Posts by Robigus

Cisco: Don't use 'blind spot' – and do use 'feed two birds with one scone'

The New Puritanism

I keenly await the Restoration.

Parts of UK booted offline as Virgin Media suffers massive broadband outage

Re: Zen FTW

Likewise.

Top support and a static IP. Stick that in your pipe Virgin.

Moving the oldies to it imminently.

A new version of APT is coming to Debian 12

Re: APT

Thanks for that.

It’s interesting that I know nothing about it, but have the impression it’s “crap”.

I contacted a friend of similar vintage and mentioned it. He thought it was “crap” too, at least, that was what he “remembered”.

It goes to show, I know not what, but it shows it anyway.

Re: APT

I saw a crap leaning train.

Arm, Microsoft at pains to say this CPU arch can be trusted with real server work

Few mention power consumption

Anecdotal evidence shows that ARM cpus have a much lower power consumption that Intel on the same workload (look at the comparisons with M1 vs i9).

I would have thought that this fact alone is enough to get the data centre flingers positively vibrating with excitement.

But why that VPN? How WireGuard made it into Linux

Painless

I run it in a Docker container on an RPi4 at home and in an X86 VPS - Very effective. The clients for Android/iPhone/Linux and MacOS work well too.

Colleagues inform me that it was trivial on Windows too. Unless looking for particularly arcane use cases, what's not to like?*

* Rhetorical. Don't bother.

MySQL a 'pretty poor database' says departing Oracle engineer

Nuts to them all. MongoDB is web scale.

Why not MongoDB? It's web scale : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F-DItXtZs

Google's 'Be Evil' business transformation is complete: Time for the end game

Who'd be a priest of Neptune?

"Beware of Geeks bearing grifts"?

Re: Better the devil, you know...

About 10 years ago I met with Manchester Police who wanted to see a mapping system I'd written. They told me a similar tale to that of your aquaintance. They indicated areas over a map where the policy was containment, and not to create any kind of crime-vacuum by removing a gang/family/Women's Institute* group.

* I made that up.

Analogue tones of a ZX Spectrum Load set to ride again via podcast project

That loading noise

As a young spotty Herbert, I and my fellow Herberts would yell “Bagpipes!” when the loading noise changed on the loading screen. At that point, you knew that the monochrome image was about to be coloured. It was competitive. Call it too early and you’d receive a dead arm.

Like biblical numerologists looking for decipherable patterns, I would listen to the loading noise trying to discern the “meaning”.

One pre-pubescent Herbert mimicked the loading screeches and patterns into a cassette recorder to see if he could fool the machine. I recall the sum total was intermittent rolling blue and yellow lines around the screen edge.

Happy naïve days.

1Password unsheathes Rusty key, hopes to unlock Linux Desktop world

Self host

Bitwarden, Docker container, RPI4, home hosted.

Bingerty bongerty boo.

Privacy activist Max Schrems claims Google Advertising ID on Android is unlawful, files complaint in France

Kudos to him

That is all.

If you're a WhatsApp user, you'll have to share your personal data with Facebook's empire from next month – or stop using the chat app

Being a refusnik is not difficult.

I don't have WhatsApp. I do have Signal.

Most of my family now have Signal. Those that don't can text me. Or ring.

Signal works fine on an e foundation phone. Firefox/Signal/Mail Client. That's all I need.

From the conversations I've had about privacy with friends - the general impression I get is that we like to talk about privacy and it's importance, but we are, in fact, prepared to do nothing about it. They'll keep their Facebook stuff (we can all find a reason why we "need" to). This won't change anything, but they're OK with that.

The ones who brought you Let's Encrypt, bring you: Tools for gathering anonymized app usage metrics from netizens

Re: Not a wedge, just a service :-(

Perhaps if it's incorporated as a not-for-profit outfit (in the same manner as Signal operates in the U.S.) then it will keep it out of the hands of the perverts, as they can't buy it.

Android 11 lands with plenty more privacy preferences for Pixels and special Google friends first

Sir dictates

Spokesman: "Sir, they're saying that this is a company data land grab"

Sir: "Hmmm, Miss Smith, take a note: Something something something - Privacy - something something something"

Spokeman: "Shall we pass that on to Weasel in marketing to complete?"

Sir: "Excellent"

The Honor MagicBook Pro looks nice, runs like a dream, and isn't too expensive either. What more could you want?

Re: Decimated

Fair enough. The joke icon was perhaps a too subtle indicator of not entirely pedantic intent.

I was referring to its original meaning (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decimation_(Roman_army) ). In a world of righteousness and relativism; anything can mean anything you want it too.

More importantly, other websites report that this laptop runs Linux very well.

Decimated

I read that Huawei's business has been decimated. Is that exactly 10%, or is it thereabouts?

What if everyone just said 'Nah' to tracking?

Re: PiHole

You don't even need a Pi to run it; I run it as a docker container on an old Linux PC that acts as a the household file server.

I agree with other's sentiment expressed here that the web is almost unusable without these protections.

Surveillence Capitalism can't be smothered fast enough.

Mozilla shaves down Beard to a luxuriant mustache, looks for new CEO by end of year

This became darker than I intended.

Frankly as it's an open source browser that doesn't belong to one of the unhealthily voyeuristic self-respect euthenising behemoths of a whitened-teeth "connect and share" dystopia, it gets my vote.

As I just wrote that I have visions of Richard Attenborough holding a mask over a victims face in "10 Rillington Place" saying "Just relax, relax. Connect and share, connect and share".

Multi-account containers are excellent.

I need a pint.

If you're ever lost on the Moon, Ordnance Survey now has you covered for Apollo 11 anniversary

My recollection of Haynes manuals was that any manufacturers special tool requirement could be substituted by a knitting needle and a house brick.

Microsoft buffs up its open-source halo to fine sheen with PostgreSQL GUI in Azure Data Studio

PgAdmin everywhere

Ever since it moved to a web-based interface, things have become much simpler.

Running it as a Docker container has meant it's anywhere we want it. Mac/Win/Linux and yes, Raspberry Pi.

Croydon school rolling in toilet roll after Brexit gift deemed unfit for the Queen's Anus Horribilis

Say what you like about the Germans

They look after their own.

What today links Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram – apart from being run by monopolistic personal data harvesters?

And nothing of value was lost.

Return of the audio format wars and other money-making scams

New phrase. Thank you.

same old shit + infantile spelling = disruption

I see this, you see this, my colleagues see this. Very few of us say this.

I will use your form of the phenomenon from now on.

Have a beer.

The eulogising of The Mother Of All Demos at 50 is Silicon Valley going goo-goo for gurus again

Fighting the slide towards hagiography.

"Silicon Valley is much more Gwyneth Paltrow than it is Ayn Rand"

For that, have an early beer.

Ex-Cisco chief John Chambers: Tech biz bods are 'too arrogant'

Irony

Arrogance? He calls his company "JC2" after the first JC who "died for our sins"*.

* Did/Didn't/Whatever and it's not Jeremy Corbyn. Or Clarkson for that matter.

Where can I hide this mic? I know, shove it down my urethra

Penetrating Kim Jong-il's inner circle.

"His task in the late 1990s was to infiltrate Kim Jong-il's inner circle"

What's the point of a microphone up there? Surely a it's a job for a camera.

Skype Classic headed for the chopping block on September 1

Now using Signal protocol

With more than 2 on the line, Skype has problems. But it's MS, so work think it must be used.

The new Skype, like WhatsApp, Allo and Facebook Messenger will use Signal's protocol, with Microsoft's added ... er ... magic.

So why not use Signal*? No slurping, open source, non-profit. As recommended by security nerds. Works a treat.

* I know, I know. Power, control, brand, the ability to read everything out of your phone and report to the Mothership etc

One two three... Go: Long Pig Microsoft avoids cannibalising Surface

"It's an office runtime for students"

I think I would have killed myself when I was student if I thought my life was going to orbit around Office.

Linus Torvalds decides world isn’t ready for Linux 5.0

Say what you think, not what the joy-sapping bastards tell you to.

Linus' rambling about whether to increment a version number or not are to be celebrated in this PR filtered joy-less age.

Select few to watch World Cup in 4K high dynamic range colour on BBC iPlayer

We tried it

We have a 200mb connection, TV's are on Ethernet (non of this wireless nonsense). Before the FA cup final, iPlayer asked if we'd like 4K, which we did.

iPlayer crashed, repeatedly. Mrs. Robigus and I went to pub, other Robigii stayed at home and switched back to 1080p. That was a recent Sony TV, I hope to be offered the option to try it on the Samsung (which is much snappier and agreeable than Android TV on the Sony)

Car-crash television: 'Excuse me ma'am, do you speak English?' 'Yes I do,' replies AMD's CEO

Re: F1 is shit.

Are you me?

Microsoft has designed an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip. Repeat, an Arm Linux IoT cloud chip

It's about the platform and the data.

It's all about getting data fed into Azure.

Data is king, and we will take these devices and feed our overlords with all the data porn they possibly handle.

It's purely a gateway device to your personal information.

Welcome to the New Age.

Aw, all grown up: Mozilla moves WebAssembly into sparsely furnished Studio apartment

Re: Fun naming files

and a TypeScript file to ti.ts?

Ooh look

TypeScript too.

Jolly good.

Guess who's hiking their prices again? Come on, it's as easy as 123 Reg

The Prophecy!

I knew something was afoot; I had a phone call from them last week. Having never spoken to them before, despite being a customer for over 10 years, a "customer something-or-other representative" rang me.

I prophesied to colleagues that "something's up".

I asked why they were ringing and the poor lady on the other end seemed as clueless as I did (after the scripted waffle had been read and I placed some direct questions)

Bad form.

Facebook is abusive. It's time to divorce it

Re: Facebook has its uses ...

A sort of Facebook methadone?

Stealing, scamming, bluffing: El Reg rides along with pen-testing 'red team hackers'

Great article. I'm sure that the same guilt would have enveloped many of us too.

As you're a beer man, have another.

'Toyota dealer stole my wife's saucy snaps from phone, emailed them to a swingers website'

Surely he could just pray and $DEITY would fix it?

That's how it works, right?

Virgin Media boss warns Brexit could hamstring broadband investment

Re: Pot -> Kettle

I used to love BTCC, then it all went wrong wheel drive. I have a note from my doctor to avoid that sort of thing.

Has it changed?

Pot -> Kettle

My VM bill has risen 34% in 4 years.

That was pre-Brexit.

They engaged with me on Twitter about it once, injecting weasel-feel-good words here and there until I produced maths. Then they went quiet.

Now Liberty Global have taken control of F1, I shudder to think how much vapid waffle and speculation they can wrap around it, before demanding more money for the privilege.

There are some really crap budget phones out there. Vodafone's Smart Ultra 7 isn't

New word

"Dreck".

I've learned something today.

These diabetes pumps obey unencrypted radio commands – which is, frankly, f*%king stupid

It must be enabled to be vulnerable

My son's Medtronic insulin pump had to be explicitly configured to listen to remote instructions for it to be vulnerable.

All of his cohort had remote access turned off by default when setup by the hospital because it was battery thirsty.

Also, the article doesn't mention that pumps are setup with a maximum bolus - another safety feature that prevents little people delivering shit-tons* of insulin.

That's not to say the manufacturers aren't money-first/patient-second yacht-sailing greed-monster tooth-whitened billionaires, but the headline's a bit OTT.

* This is the proper medical terms for large quantities of insulin.

Having offended everyone else in the world, Linus Torvalds calls own lawyers a 'nasty festering disease'

They way of the playground has much to commend it.

Re: outspoken Torvalds; supplying context reduces headline impact.

Re: GPL violators; I'm with Linus; why not just call out the offenders and let everyone know they're twats? No need for lawyers - the world now knows they're untrustworthy twats.

Publish your emails calling them out.

Karma restored. Cheap too; no need for endless meetings with lawyers and ideological SFC egocentrists.

Email proves UK boffins axed from EU research in Brexit aftermath

No faeces Sherlock

My EU research project comes to a close next March. We had already been in discussions about further research work with some of our team.

We'd already understood that we are Yesterday's People and involving us would be possibly destabilising, time consuming and, generally, an all round steaming headache.

This email is the first thing I've seen in writing about what's already freely talked about.

Meh. And double Meh.

We ain't in 1996 anymore, Dorothy: SQL Server 2016 proves it

Re: Well, just download

Moreover our latest EU* project uses PostgreSQL with R and JSON - one simple vagrant file attached to an email flung around the empire has all researchers able to hack and submit.

No licensing problems, no up front costs or eye-watering downstream cavity searches.

* And probably last, I'm told. Perhaps I ought to watch the news and find out why.

Lindsay Lohan ‘happy’ to turn on Kettering

It has the National Volleyball Centre too.

Three non-obvious reasons to Vote Leave on the 23rd

Re: EU is that it is in many ways more Scandiavian than European.

Good idea; we could call it the Nordic League : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_League

Cheap shot, sorry.

As a remainer (with much of my work coming from EU funded projects), I'm pragmatic enough to accept that if we're out, things will be different and we'll just get on with it. If we're in, things will be different, but differently.

Having watched the BBC debate last night, I felt somewhat short-changed by the Remain reps who seemed to engage in far more ad-hominem attacks.

Polarisation of these issue doesn't help anyone; entrenchment ensues with it's shortcuts to Godwin's Law made so much more predictable.

Whatever happens, the future isn't what it was going to be, so embrace it and crack on.

Galileo satnav fleet grows an extra pair

Re: Love the video!

Me too. I couldn't care less if they were putting a chocolate hobnob in orbit, the ignition and lift off are thrilling moments.