Posts by NoneSuch

Exclusive: Windows for Workgroups terror the Tartan Bandit confesses all to The Register

What's the Statute of Limitations on hacking a police computing device?

Given the new Espionage law under consideration, I wouldn't put it past them to go after him.

All nodes lead to Rome: Epyc leak spills deets on second-gen Zen 32-core AMD server chippery

Drooling here. Can't wait...

UK's planned Espionage Act will crack down on Snowden-style Brit whistleblowers, suspected backdoored gear (cough, Huawei)

"After the United States, we are probably the largest contributor to the international system of defence and intelligence that keeps the world safe,"

Fixed it for you.

"After the United States, we are probably the largest contributor to the international system of defence and intelligence that keeps politicians safe,"

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

"The report, we note, doesn't assign blame to anyone in particular."

I can blame a few people on this one. There is zero need for automatic driving, because crap like this will happen all the time with it. From the p0rn film being filmed in the front seat of a moving Tesla to people just being idiots in general, sleeping on their way into work or making a Jackass style video.

If you're incapable of driving your own vehicle, you shouldn't have a license, period. Should come with an "I'm too dim to drive my own vehicle" bumper sticker.

No Tesla auto-drive system will ever be idiot proof.

The plane, it's 'splained, falls mainly without the brain: We chat to boffins who've found a way to disrupt landings using off-the-shelf radio kit

"Cryptography will prevent spoofing but won't stop record-and-replay attacks,"

It does if you change the flipping codes with reasonable frequency.

Get in line, USA: Sweden reopens Assange rape allegations probe

Given the Choice...

...between US Justice and rape charges, St. Julian will probably want to go to Sweden as well.

Sherlock icon, cuz it's elementary...

P-p-p-pick up a Pengwin: Windows Subsystem for Linux boffins talk version 2

Enterprises are fine...

It's the closed nature of Windows that limits us. Adding their own version of Linux to run on Windows is the first nail in the coffin for Open Source. Anyone who wants free software development to continue needs to just install Linux and stay the hell away from this Redmond abomination.

Open Source on Windows is like writing "Free Candy Inside" on a creepy van. It does not end well.

Air Force intel bod Daniel Hale charged with 'leaking top secret drone documents' to journo

Re: Just a minute

A hammer.

Who pwns the watchmen? Maybe Russians selling the source code for three US antivirus vendors

Air-gapping is a term thrown around by PC magazine columnists. It's not easy to set up, maintain or police. As long as you have users on that network, it will drive your security bods mad with their continuous attempts at idiocy.

Veteran vulture Andrew Orlowski is offski after 19 years at The Register

All the best in your future endeavours Mr. O.

US minister invokes Maggie Thatcher, says she would have halted Huawei 5G rollout

"Why would anyone grant such power to a regime that has already grossly violated cyberspace?"

So wait, I'm confused, they're banning Cisco?

Brit broadband download speeds are still below the global average, hoots Ofcom

On The Up Side

After Brexit, the European average speed will skyrocket.

Alphabet's top legal eagle and CFO scored $47m apiece in 2018

Just Imagine

How much would they have trousered if everything went well?

Having a bad day? Be thankful you don't work at a Russian ISP: Kremlin signs off Pootynet restrictions

All Hail Tsar Putin

That is all... I'll get my coat.

'I do not wish to surrender' Julian Assange tells court over US extradition bid

Yes and the Swedish warrant should take precedence. However, you have a weak PM combined with strong US pressure, so that may be over-ruled. Don't be surprised if Assange (TM) flies west and not east.

He is in no way a journalist. At best, he's a intermediate source. Journalists take responsibility for what they publish, after appropriate fact checking, review and consideration. Assange put peoples lives at risk when he blanket released information including names of active undercover agents in hostile countries. Whatever good he did in the past (when he released the video of the Reuters journalists being killed by a US helicopter gunship) has been over-written by multiple idiotic and self-serving narcissistic actions since.

Apple, Samsung feel the pain as smartphone market slumps to lowest shipments in 5 YEARS

Not Buying Another Samsung

Until they stop Crapware sideloads I neither want nor need.

Self-taught Belgian bloke cracks crypto conundrum that was supposed to be uncrackable until 2034

Re: Well done (see icon)

Days?

"He believed that a single computer would have to be running for 35 years continuously, where the hardware would have to be upgraded every year to the next fastest chip available."

The NSA have multiple clusters of Cray computers and the best mathematicians in the world. Assuming they didn't have backdoor access, it would take them minutes of computer time.

Boeing boss denies reports 737 Max safety systems weren't active

Here's a Thought...

Have pilots actually fly the aircraft.

By all means, have technology aid and prompt them, but any changes in flight attitude should be controlled by a human being, not a code segment.

Neil Armstrong did all right with much less technology (which was freaking out at the time of the moon landing with 1201 and 1202 program alarms).

Powershell, the Gandcrab infection and the long-forgotten server

Hi, We're From GCHQ...

...and we're here to help.

Mind if I plug this tiny insignificant little USB key into any one of your work PC's? Cheers.

Apple hits back at devs of axed kiddie screen-time apps

Re: Who to side with....

Anyone who develops on the Apple platform is essentially cutting their own throats, IMHO.

Lightbits? More like Latebits amirite? Israeli outfit finally swings by the all-flash array party

Looks Good, But...

Can it boot Crysis?

Now here's a Galaxy far, far away: Samsung stalls Fold rollout after fold-able screens break in hands of reviewers

Who Wants It In The First Place?

Two thousand dollars for a phone? Pass.

Why Qualcomm won – and why Tim Cook had to eat humble Apple pie

Easy solution

If only iPhone users held them the right way, any performance issues would disappear.

Google Cloud woos the open source crew with cash-rich kisses for coder's compute time

If Open Source code is used for a free service then that's fair play. If it is being used for profit then some money should go to the authors.

I'm all for free software, but corporations expect money for people using their IP. Only fair to pay when you use other peoples IP to make a buck.

I know what EU did last summer: Official use of Microsoft wares to be probed over slurp fears

Get Current Time For All Domain Workstations

Not being able to turn off the data slurp on Enterprise level software should be judged as illegal by the EU. That has the makings of massive law suits when confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements are in play. At best, it's Microsoft trying to catch Google. At worse, it's kibble for the NSA.

And while we're at it, lets get rid of the XBox, Zune, et al crapware that is shoved down our throats with no way to avoid it on Win 10 Enterprise.

What do WLinux and Benedict Cumberbatch have in common? They're both fond of Pengwin

Anyone who loves Linux should NEVER use this abomination.

If you're worried that quantum computers will crack your crypto, don't be – at least, not for a decade or so. Here's why

The article assumes todays crypto is secure.

Most of the algorithms were generated by former-NSA folks or those with ties to the US gov.

Romford Station, smile! You're in London cops' final facial recog 'trial'

On an unrelated note...

...sales of the Guy Fawkes full face mask soar.

Want a bit of privacy? Got a USB stick? Welcome to TAILS 3.12

Re: An ARM version might be more useful...

"The TAILS gang warned that a USB stick loaded with 3.12 might fail to boot a second time"

A "Burner" USB stick. Use it once and chuck it.

Core blimey... When is an AMD CPU core not a CPU core? It's now up to a jury of 12 to decide

Is it a jury of twelve?

Or only six jurors sharing the same table?

Google faces another GDPR probe – this time in the land of meatballs and flat-pack furniture

Go Get Em GDPR...

Sick em boy. Sick em....!

A few reasons why cops didn't immediately shoot down London Gatwick airport drone menace

Re: How about a high power laser burst ?

Lord.

Just imagine if Churchill stopped the Spitfires from flicking the wings of V1 Buzz Bombs, because it might scratch the fighters paint.

American bloke hauls US govt into court after border cops 'cuffed him, demanded he unlock his phone at airport'

Factory Reset Your Phone

When I travel to the US, I factory reset my phone prior to landing. That is recommended after a software upgrade anyway and I usually do updates when on an airplane as I have lots of time and can't use the phone regardless. That's the reason I give, if asked.

They can search it to their hearts content. It is unlocked, has no data and is without a password; search / image away. You are cooperating and it's the equivalent of carrying an empty carry-on bag. They can search all they like, there is nothing to find. They don't like it, but there is nothing they can do. I'm always polite, even in the face of idiocy.

When reset, there are no contacts, no emails and no software installed save Android itself. You are legally obligated to give US Border Guards passwords to any software, apps, email or encryption installed on your phone. You are in no way obligated to download and install apps to your phone or tablet, or sign onto a mail/web/social media account that is not active on your phone or tablet. How can you sign in, it isn't installed? I have few social accounts regardless and the few important telephone contact numbers I need are memorized.

When out of the airport, I sign into my Samsung account, and my phone repopulates with all apps and data in minutes on decent Wifi.

Who's watching you from an unmarked van while you shop in London? Cops with facial recog tech

Re: Funding cuts lead to this

@Mike Richards

"The future is somewhere between OCP and Facebook."

I'd buy that for a dollar...

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

Easy Instructions

1. Under Settings->Privacy->Activity history: ensure the setting "Let Windows sync my activities from this PC to the cloud" is not checked

2. Under Settings->Privacy->Diagnostics & feedback: ensure Diagnostic data is set to Basic

3. Open CMD window (as Admin) and type: Format C: /fs:FAT32

4. Download any decent Linux distro.

Virgin Galactic test flight reaches space for the first time, lugging NASA cargo in place of tourists

Walking Baggage

Airlines use that term for passengers.

$250K + travel expenses for slight weightlessness then back on the ground ten minutes later... Will think about it

Vomit Comets are cheaper ($5K a pop, or rent the entire plane for $165K) and give you a lot more less gravity.

https://www.gozerog.com/

http://www.airzerog.com/en/

Register Lecture: Right to strike when your boss sells AI to the military?

The Eternal Cycle Continues...

Drones kill people, without trial or in some cases without any evidence of wrong doing. Their family members get angry and seek revenge. Farmer waiting at the side of the road waiting for his cousin to pick him up, drone pilot see a suspected ISIS member planting a road side bomb. *blam* Wedding party in progress, drone pilot sees suspected terrorist gathering. *blam*

Terror levels rise when those folks get tired of the murder and start shooting back. More drones are fielded to combat the rise in hostilities, etc. etc.

In the meantime, corporations get mega-wealthy supplying flying instruments of death, while normal people pay the price.

The Americans kill more people annually than all terrorist organizations combined, and by a wide margin. Arrogance tempered with ignorance and funded with greed.

Qualcomm axes staff, winds down data center processor efforts ... while China takes the blueprints and runs

CPU Back Doors For National Snooping...

Jesus wept.

Let's hope Anonymous gets into these Chinese chips before the US / UK / Oz governments have the same moronic idea.

Remember Misco? Staff win protective award at employment tribunal

At least the lawyers made out all right. Happy Christmas to them.

Wow, what a lovely early Christmas present for Australians: A crypto-busting super-snoop law passes just in time

Just watch...

The first radical organizations to have their backdoors activated for monitoring will be the newspapers and online media.

...and I'm not f***ing joking.

Intel eggheads put bits in a spin to try to revive Moore's law

"operates via spin–orbit transduction", which is "the coupling of an electron's angular momentum with its linear momentum".

Not that old chestnut. :P

Tesla autopilot saves driver after he fell asleep at wheel on the freeway

Plan A

Fall asleep in the back seat and when pulled over, claim your Uber driver must have jumped out.

I'm amazed the Highway Patrol haven't pulled over a couple in the back seat of an auto-drive Tesla yet.

Little FYI: Wi-Fi calling services on AT&T, T-Mobile US, Verizon are insecure, say boffins

Been that way for years

I used to work for an electronics company and listening in on a cell call is trivial.

Seeing as Bitcoin is going so, so well, Ohio becomes first US state to take biz taxes in BTC

What About the Credit Card Companies?

How ever with they survive without their lucrative 2.5% on top of 18% interest?

You can bet their lawyers will be filing something soon to stop this.

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

FFS

This is the reality of a post-Brexit Britain.

You voted for this (or didn't vote at all) and now it's time to pay the piper.

Scumbag who phoned in a Call of Duty 'swatting' that ended in death pleads guilty to dozens of criminal charges

Re: So the police bear no responsibility ?

Gun laws and proper use of deadly force have nothing to do with each other.

The police shot a man because he dropped his hands to his sides with no weapon visible. Police TRAIN for this over and over. Nervousness should not enter into it. Use of deadly force has a hard series of parameters that must be met BEFORE pulling the trigger. The US police are simply trigger happy with a "shoot first and ask questions" attitude with little repercussion when they screw up. To the same argument, they also choke out unarmed suspects, then fail to render CPR once unconscious, resulting in death.

The US is on a slippery slope. In the US, 'suspicion' is enough grounds to arrest someone, then hold them almost indefinitely. They can seize your money / property and you then have to prove it was not gained through criminal activity to get (only part of) it back. Federal law enforcement can lie to you without blowback, but lying to a federal official is a felony and can result in up to one year in jail. Their prosecutors hide evidence that undermine the defenses cases, they threaten the innocent with 30 year sentences unless you plead guilty to reduce that sentence and the government protects them. They are becoming a lost people.

The idiot that picked up the phone and called in a false report holds part of the blame, but responsibility for shooting an unarmed man falls squarely on the police. They are supposed to protect the citizenry.

Russia: We did not hack the US Democrats. But if we did, we're immune from prosecution... lmao

Just have the US Cyber Division retaliate and create photos of a Speedo wearing Putin holding hands with some blond hunk surfer dude on a tropical beach somewhere.

Drop them onto everyone's social media feed from Murmansk to Minsk and job done.

Anonymous Amazonian demands withdrawal of face-recog kit from sale

Re: If you don't like it then resign

"If you don't like it then resign

If you feel that strongly about it then leave. No one forces you to work for that immoral company.

And try to get used to the fact that your personal feelings about something aren't so important that they override the decision of the rest of the company however many times you repeat them."

A lot of decent people left Nazi Germany before WW2. That improved things, didn't it?

Microsoft points to a golden future where you can make Windows 10 your own

Re: What about the stuff that we really don't want...

@phuzz

"OneNote, and the Bing stuff can be uninstalled with a simple right click > uninstall."

That just removes the shortcut from your profile. Anyone else who logs in on that PC still has that program there.

Taking out the crap will remove 2+ GB of files. Why an Enterprise version of Windows needs XBox and Zune is beyond me.

If they did remove the bloatware, Windows gets closer to being an actual operating system instead of a large scale vendor browser banner.