Posts by trindflo

Five Eyes nations plus Japan, India call for Big Tech to bake backdoors into everything

Re: Nope.

Don't vote you up often Bob, but you are spot on.

Question: who set up this game? Corporations, Marketeers, Politicians, or Political "consultants". Or have we chosen our own perdition with our contradictory demands?

Here's US Homeland Security collaring a suspected arsonist after asking Google for the IP addresses of folks who made a specific search

I'm supposed to feel good about this?

"These data demands represent less than 1 per cent of total warrants and a small fraction of the overall legal demands for user data that we currently receive"

so if this bothers me, I should take comfort they are doing over 100x what I think they are up to?

And this is for law enforcement - much like the old phone company, Google, et. al. have no trouble listening in for their own purposes.

Facebook rejects Australia's pay-for-news plan, proposes its own idea: How about no more articles at all, sunshine?

Youtube video shell-game

It is all part of youtube making money. If the person gets you to stay on their video for a certain amount of time it might be possible to monetize it and become a millionaire ... or more likely a nickelaire. If it is any consolation, the person making the video is being "bait and switched" at least as badly as you.

Brave takes brave stand against Google's plan to turn websites into ad-blocker-thwarting Web Bundles

Re: Opportunities Galore For Competing Browsers

Fork 'em

Re: the circle completes

Don't be evil...until you metastasize.

Securus sued for 'recording attorney-client jail calls, handing them to cops' – months after settling similar lawsuit

Re: Intent

Sort of like the beadle in Oliver Twist?

Former HP CEO and Republican Meg Whitman – who split HP with mixed success – says Donald Trump can't run a business

Re: Asset stripper

Yeah that's right. Asset stripper. The money he appeared to have recently made in real estate is now looking like a lot of promissory notes all about to come due. Sort of like someone who takes out a reverse mortgage. Not exactly genius level real estate.

Care to guess at the next act? All those farmers he's been starving out in the mid-west? Want to bet whether he and his buddies are about to head west to do some more great real estate deals? Some leveraged buyouts all the while never quite getting to black ink?

Trump backs Oracle as potential TikTok buyer

writs piling up

I may share the sentiment, but won't hold my breath. Has any country punished a previous leader outside of a revolution or being defeated in a war?

Linux kernel coders propose inclusive terminology coding guidelines, note: 'Arguments about why people should not be offended do not scale'

Avoiding the terrible trivium

The answer is why change for a fad? Am I to make a daily practice of enumerating my vocabulary to remove the words that have fallen from grace? I get no joy from making someone else feel miserable and will make accommodations for others, but the constant calls to reprogram ourselves strike me as a cruel game in itself.

Nine million logs of Brits' road journeys spill onto the internet from password-less number-plate camera dashboard

Great news!

"do everything we can to ensure it will not happen again."

So they are going to rip out all the cameras then?

Baby, I swear it's déjà vu: TalkTalk customers unable to opt out of ISP's ad-jacking DNS – just like six years ago

Re: ISP -> Internet Service Provider

It's a Jedi mind trick: This is not the servicing you are looking for.

The bane of Spain comes mainly on the plane. Good luck Barcelona: You've bagged the MWC contract again

Likely impact

" it was forced to cancel, but not before reportedly begging the local authorities to declare a state of emergency, so it could claim on its insurance.

It's not clear what impact – if any – COVID-19 will have on next year's event. "

I'm guessing the insurance will cost more

Official: Office 365 Personal, Home axed next month... and replaced by Microsoft 365 cloud subscriptions

Re: Aduntgeddit

Beat me to it! Although it will be Clippy over the cloud, so more pensive while it waits for instructions from the C&C servers in Redmond.

After 16 years of hype, graphene finally delivers on its promise – with a cosmetic face mask

I just want to know ...

I just want to know if the masks are any better at preventing creepy facial recognition cams from identifying me as Carlos the Jackal

Startup Mycroft AI declares it will fight 'patent troll' tooth and nail after its Linux voice-assistant attracts lawsuit

Re: Come to the UK. We're open for business on very lucrative terms.

So will you be contributing to BOFH stories? Have a vote and a cold one.

Whoa, France. Take it easy. Wow. You're out of control. Fining Apple 55 minutes of revenue for secretly slowing down iPhones? Maniaques!

Re: Irony

I recall reading about that sort of engineering in the U.S. with the Ford Mustang auto. That was in the 1960s.

I've always thought this feature is similar

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

Check out that Windows registry key online. It slows down disk access on Windows machines over time.

Google keeps tracking you even when you specifically tell it not to: Maps, Search won't take no for an answer

Learn even more about (a CT)

I doubt in general that learning more about a conspiracy theory than one of its advocates will help you convince them to refocus on reality. I'm reminded of an anecdote from a psychiatrist. They had a patient convinced he was dead. The psychiatrist asked the patient if dead men bleed. Apparently the patient somehow understood that a cadaver does not bleed, and since he was dead and also didn't feel anything he cheerfully volunteered to prick his finger. Astonished, the patient exclaimed: huh, I guess dead people do bleed.

I went looking for an online reference, but all I could find was somebody selling a book on how to be a medium.

Brave, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla gather together to talk web privacy... and why we all shouldn't get too much of it

Re: bah

I'll pull out my crystal ball and tell you what they are up to (although said ball has developed smudges over the years that will not go away).

Marketers have a pipe dream that if they have perfect information about their target they can make them do whatever they want. It is similar to the pipe dream in the tech industry that someone is going to make a code generator that will preclude ever needing to deal with a programmer again.

People selling these ads to marketers have no incentive to tell their customers they are wasting their money.

The spooks in the US have found out they can just buy much of the data they want from the firms aggregating and hording the data.

The idiots delivering our tat have helped erect a Stasi for us, sent us the bill, and got paid by our government for their service as well.

What advertising funds

"Most of the garbage we have stuffed in our faces when we attempt to find useful information is actually funded by advertising"

FTFY.

Rockstar dev debate reopens: Hero programmers do exist, do all the work, do chat a lot – and do need love and attention from project leaders

Re: "you need to become a manager to get that noticeable rise in pay"

There is also business school 101: "You will be directing lots of people smarter than you. It's their fault they didn't keep their eyes on the money." Or so I've heard: I make my living as a bit-slinger.

Chrome suddenly using Bing after installing Office 365 Pro Plus... Yeah, that might have been us, mumbles Microsoft

Re: Why.

The GPO solution was already linked to above by Spiz (Thank you!), but here it is again:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-to-force-bing-search-in-chrome-for-office-365-proplus-users/

If you never thought you'd hear a Microsoftie tell you to stop using Internet Explorer, lap it up: 'I beg you, let it retire to great bitbucket in the sky'

Re: Needed for SharePoint

Don't forget Microsoft was instrumental in creating all of these needs. They reworked Windows specifically to make IE integral to the OS so that they could claim it was impossible to ship Windows without IE. Nice Frankenstein monster you built there - nice try blaming others that the monster still vexes you.

South American nations open fire on ICANN for 'illegal and unjust' sale of .amazon to zillionaire Jeff Bezos

Hyacinth

IT'S BOO-KAY!

could only vote you up once.

Microsoft wields ML to catch child predators, city drops 7-year facial-recognition experiment after no arrests...

Re: Cats

I was wondering how best to point out the ML is going to do what Hollywood does worst: attempt to only reproduce previous successes. Pointing out they would be following the YouTube algorithms does a much better job. Bravo. Be glad they aren't letting flies train the neural net.

UK data watchdog kicks £280m British Airways and Marriott GDPR fines into legal long grass

Re: What's the point?

In case that doesn't seem egregious enough, this is a worse example of why it is a problem: Donald_P._Scott

Beware the three-finger-salute, or 'How I Got The Keys To The Kingdom'

Any doubt why Microsoft taught people to hit Ctl-Alt-Del as soon as they sit in front of a keyboard?

I'd be interested to hear anyone who can defend this as something other than Microsoft intentionally causing grief for other operating system users.

There is a Santa! BT prises remnants of InLink from jaws of administration

Re: Has it come to this

Here in the states they have been mostly removed. The excuse given was that everyone has cell phones anyway now. When confronted with the fact that not everyone does, officials launched a campaign to provide cell phones for those that can't afford one, because of course everyone needs their electronic nanny. Free cell phones for the homeless.

FYI: FBI raiding NSA's global wiretap database to probe US peeps is probably illegal, unconstitutional, court says

Re: Willfulness?

The IRS prosecutes people differently depending on whether they can reasonably claim to have made a mistake or whether they are willfully perpetrating a fraud when they fill out their forms. The IRS has their own court system, so the prosecution can become quite draconian.

It was phrased strangely in the fine article.

Buzz kill: Crook, 73, conned investors into shoveling millions into geek-friendly caffeine-loaded chocs that didn't exist. Now he's in jail

Re: I don't get it...

And using some of the money to produce products.

When is an electrical engineer not an engineer? When Arizona's state regulators decide to play word games

Software Engineers

I like to explain it this way:

How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? A: None: it's a hardware problem.

How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb? A: as many as can possibly get their hands on it at the same time.

As a Software Engineer, I'm a programmer that will change light bulbs when necessary.

It’s been two years since net neutrality was killed in the US. Let’s celebrate by having another fight over it

Re: Net Neutrality repeal consequences?

The consequence is in fact that nothing has changed. Big cable and AWS were already shaking down customers indirectly by slowing down traffic where they were not getting a piece of the action, and net neutrality would have forced them to change.

Intel might want to reconsider the G part of SGX – because it's been plunderstruck

Now I have AC/DC playing in my head

AC/DC Thunderstruck

Mayday in Moscow as devs will be Russian to Putin mandatory apps on phones, laptops, TVs

Re: New Voice APP

I would guess the meme originated in George Orwell's 1984 where the TV did watch you.

Oracle and Google will fight in court over Java AGAIN and this time it's going to the Supremes

APIs are not vast amounts of code

"We believe the Court will reject any reasoning that permits copying verbatim vast amounts of software code, used for the same purpose and same way as the original. That is not 'transformative,' and certainly not fair use."

And they would have a point if that was what was going on. Is this the new way that lawyers present themselves in public? Just keep insisting that black is white?

Section 230 supporters turn on it, its critics rely on it. Up is down, black is white in the crazy world of US law

Re: "This will also lead to an angry mob trying to lynch you"

The US has history here: Prohibition

One man's mistake, missing backups and complete reboot: The tale of Europe's Galileo satellites going dark

Re: Doesn't inspire confidence....

I've been that person with the understanding to make things work on occasion and can attest at least JPL will put a stop to that. Engineers and programmers are not let anywhere near live systems: there are separate groups that compile programs, install them on machines, and operate said machines. As a developer we were only ever allowed to observe then make corrections on our development system eventually to be distributed to the groups that were allowed to touch live systems. And that was for ground-based systems; I'm sure the systems that flew had a lot more hoops to jump through.

Remember that security probe that ended with a sheriff cuffing the pen testers? The contract is now public so you can decide who screwed up

Re: sounds to me...

Can't speak to the specific officer on the scene, but it sounds to me like the county sheriffs have a beef with the state courts and decided to take it out on their consultants. From the article: "The Des Moines Register notes the Iowa state judiciary and the county sheriffs are in a power struggle unrelated to the test".

I'm mad at your employer, so I'm going to take it out on you.

Again, not speaking to the officer, but as an organization the Dallas, Iowa sheriffs office sounds childish and vindictive.

NSA to Congress: Our spy programs don’t work, aren’t used, or have gone wrong – now can you permanently reauthorize them?

Re: Why

After 9/11 it was easy to point at anyone that was not on-board with "get tough" measures as weak or unpatriotic. The initial authorization was called the USAPATRIOT act. The rhetoric is wearing thin, but that doesn't mean a bunch of legislators in fear for their jobs can't be cowed again. And there is no reason to believe there will be any serious consequences, so why not give it another try.

As for throwing them in jail, for the most part it comes down to "the state does not consent to be sued". As long as they can claim with a straight face they believed they were doing their job it is almost impossible.

IBM stands for I Block Money, says sales rep: Big Blue sued yet again by its own staff over 'missing' commissions

Re: IBM ....

I burn money

I blame Microsoft

A stranger's TV went on spending spree with my Amazon account – and web giant did nothing about it for months

Stalky downvoters

I've noticed you only get them when you call people on their shite. Thanks for doing that!

Huawei with you! FCC's American Pai proposes rip-and-replace of scary Chinese comms kit

You have to hand it to Pai

He can really get things done when it comes to getting the American public to pay more for less.

Mendacious mountebank.

Surprise! Copying crummy code from Stack Overflow leads to vulnerable GitHub jobs

Re: A little knowledge

And there is nothing so frightening as ignorance in action.

The mod firing squad: Stack Exchange embroiled in 'he said, she said, they said' row

Re: Madness

FFS++

Zapped from the Play store: Another developer gets no sense from Google, appeals to the public

Re: Professional Botherers

An interesting approach; have a vote. I does sound a bit like hiring a lobbyist. Maybe that's where we are now: accept Google as our overlord and send representatives to them to beg or bribe for relief.

Hong Kong ISPs beg Chinese govt not to impose Great Firewall on them

Re: Two points

Your 50 cents is in the mail.

Otto man thrown under the bus: 33 crim trade secret theft charges for ex-Uber exec Anthony Levandowski

Re: Actual time served

For prison sentences under 10 years involving non-violent crimes, you can be sent to a "club fed" prison. There are no longer tennis courts, and I can't imagine anyone wanted to go there, but it is not the horror stories you hear of maximum security pens.

https://www.businessinsider.com/white-collar-prisons-2013-12

From the article:

As Kerik explains it—and I had to keep reminding myself that he was once a prominent authority figure in the system—"there are four or five classifications for the BOP [Bureau of Prisons]. You have super-maximum security, if there's a terrorist or a super-violent criminal. You have maximum security, which is the next level down. After max, you have medium." That's where Bernie Madoff is, by the way. "Then you have low. Then you have minimum." To be eligible for a minimum security "camp," your sentence has to be less than 10 years (or has gotten to under 10 years) and you need to be considered "nonviolent."

Buying a Chromebook? Don't forget to check that best-before date

Re: That's Chromebook right out of my buying list then

I recently tried to find a replacement brush for a hedge trimmer. The hedge trimmer even has convenient screws for replacing the brushes. Good luck finding a brush in a local hardware store, but they will happily sell you a new trimmer. Computers may be the worst for it, but the trend is omnipresent. Say "moo" and enjoy your milking.

There once was a biz called Bitbucket, that told Mercurial to suck it. Now devs are dejected, their code soon ejected

Re: Only 3% use Mercurial

Minor comment:

Mg is the symbol for Magnesium.

Hg is the symbol for Mercury and is often used as shorthand for Mercurial.

Take two cornerstones of British life, booze and queues, then squirt them with face scans: AI Bar

Re: I WAS FIRST, MATE

Punctuation can be a real killer.

https://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038/