Posts by rh587

Vivaldi Arms onto Raspberry Pi

Re: So long...

the most recent version keeps on opening links in full screen, which on a 4k monitor is not something I generally want.

Yes, it's a known bug which is fixed in 1.14. I went back to FF because of it.

My major beef with Firefox and derivates is no custom keyboard bindings. Whoever decided it would be a good idea to have "Close Tab" as Cmd/Ctrl-W and "Close everything" as Cmd/Ctrl-Q was an utter moron.

I also see in FF57 that the home screen has lost the "Restore Last Session" button - having just accidentally mashed Cmd-Q, you have to navigate into the History menu to do it.

Once again, UK doesn't rule out buying F-35A fighter jets

4 squadrons of manpower sounds about right - 1 on board, 1 in Training, 1 on leave and 1 on ramp up. But for the aircraft I cant see you needing more more than 3 - 1 set of the carrier, 1 in maintenance/overhaul, and 1 for Training (probably used by the ramp-up Crew as well).

I was thinking exactly this when reading. A squadron per carrier and a shared pool for OCU and work-up.

Your squadron that is rotated on leave does not need aircraft!

Brit MP Dorries: I gave my staff the, um, green light to use my login

Re: Its up to the Data Controller to govern sharing of your data

Yes a better system of sharing the MP's info between staff should be implemented

It has been. PICT uses O365. Delegating access to e-mail (for instance) is a couple of clicks away.

And when that exchange student leaves, they don't walk away know the access creds. Their individual account is closed and they are locked out.

The fact that an MP or their office manager is too ignorant or lazy to call PICT and get assistance is not an excuse.

Re: The baby white elephant in the room

or was it quietly removed - at the insistence of 'users' [MP's] who objected that it stopped them googling areas in Scunthorpe and Middlesex...

To be fair, that would be a legitimate problem if you were the MP for Scunthorpe...

Royal Bank of Scotland culls 1 in 4 branches, blames the interwebz

So if most of their customers have shifted to online banking, how many of their customers are shifting away from the bank because of their online banking?

I moved away from RBS because of their offline banking (or lack of).

Unlike every other bank in town, they were not open on a Saturday, meaning that on those occasions when I needed to see a human, I could not. Moreover, they opened at 9.30 and closed at 4.30, meaning it was not possible to slip out of work a bit early or be stood at the door at 9am to slip in quickly before going off to work.

Literally everybody else (Natwest, Santander, Barclays, Nationwide, HSBC, Halifax) open on Saturdays.

Bye RBS.

Ex-cop who 'kept private copies of data' fingers Cabinet Office minister in pr0nz at work claims

Re: The issue I have with this

So even if there was an AUP applicable to parliamentary computer assets (surprise, surprise, there is not), it cannot be applied. Catch 22.

You, me, the proles will be fired. An MP - not a chance. Because - he actually cannot be fired. He can (in theory) be prosecuted. However, as the police has noted many times around this story - this was LEGAL pornography. Straight one too. So no grounds to do that either.

Yes... and no.

Indeed you cannot fire an MP - that is a job for their constituents at the next GE.

However, a Party who considers that the MP has brought them into disrepute can of course take a plethora of action, including:

1. Removal from (Shadow) Cabinet or Ministerial Posts and relegation back to the back benches

2. Suspension from the Party/Withdrawal of the Whip

3. Expulsion from the Party and deselection at the next GE.

Moreover, if you DO have an AUP, breaches would make it possible to withdraw ICT privileges for the MP or reclaim their issued IT equipment. They are entitled to sit in Parliament, but their privileges on the IT infrastructure could be restricted consummate with the level of threat they pose to the network's integrity.

Want a new HDMI cable? No? Bad luck. You'll need one for HDMI 2.1

how many people buy the new cable before...

Well me for a start. I mean, I won't go out and replace perfectly good cables, but if I'm buying something and the price is about the same, then for the sake of a quid why get the old spec?

That's the reason I've been wiring my house with Cat 6 as I renovate. I have no intention of running 10GigE over it any time soon, but the price differential from 5e to 6 is non-existent, so why use the older spec?

SpaceX 'raises' an extra 100 million bucks to get His Muskiness to Mars

Aren't entrepreneurs supposed to make money?

Are you saying his share from PayPal isn't enough for you?

Re: "I think it's a bit over 95% now - 2 losses in 49 flights "

The trouble is that so far it has not.

What you talkin about? They haven't lost a single "flight-proven" launch yet. The in-flight failure and the pre-flight test fire were both on new cores.

Re: Andrew Silver, this is article is low effort trolling.

Also, "SpaceX rockets have an unfortunate tendency to crash and burn"? Seriously...? It's perfectly fine if someone at El Reg is skeptical about SpaceX, but please stick to the facts at least.

That comment doesn't appear in the article I'm reading, though there is this comment:

"Some SpaceX rockets have an unfortunate penchant for explosion – including the infamous Falcon 9."

Don't know when F9 became "infamous". It's reliability is ~95% which puts it on a par with Ariane 5.

It appears someone at El Reg is editing live articles without addendum, which frankly is very disappointing. They did the same with a previous SpaceX hatchet job which was changed after a couple of hours (reference to "madman Elon Musk" changed to "madtech fan Elon Musk" or something along those lines) and a bunch of comments calling out the factual inaccuracies and general hyperbole were deleted/rejected.

A bit of cynicism from the Musk KoolAid is fine, but someone at Vulture Central seems to have it in for Musk...

Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Siemens tease electric flight engine project

Re: Advantages

In the case of Diesel-electrics (as used on trains, some large mining trucks and Cat's D7E dozer), it means you can tune the engine more finely to the target RPM of the generator instead of having to cope with a range of operating speeds.

Additionally, in those cases you get the goodness of the electric motor's high torque, which tends to be better than the equivalent sized diesel.

I assume they are looking at a similar principle here (smaller, better-optimised engine than otherwise needed), and perhaps the use of batteries can buffer the power spike on take-off/climb, reducing noise pollution?

Tesla reveals a less-long-legged truck, but a bigger reservation price

Re: The value of Tesla and Musk

And in all fairness: The 100kW battery for Australia he so boldly promised for "done in 100 days or for free" completed in 55 days.

That one was a bit cheeky. It was "Done in 100 days from exchanging contracts or it's free".

He then ordered groundwork to start immediately at his own expense without a contract, in the expectation they'd sign (which they did), by which time they were almost done.

That said, it only reinforces the fact that he's a doer, not a talker. Most businesses wouldn't raise a finger without a contract. He took the calculated risk they they were definitely going to sign, and it was worth him getting on with it whilst the lawyers dicked about with the paperwork.

Re: 400 mile charge in 30 minutes isn't gonna to be easy

Tesla hasn't stated the size of the battery packs, but claims less than 2 kwh per mile. Thus a 400 mile charge is at worst 800 kwh, which means 1.6 megawatts in 30 minutes. Let's say it is really efficient and well under 2 kwh per mile at 1.4 kwh per mile, so it needs a megawatt for 30 minutes. For a single truck.

Yes, but I question how many people will actually need it.

For instance, we have a large agri-feed merchant near us. They run 25-30 artic rigs, on a 7am-4pm day. The trucks are parked overnight and at the weekends. They would not need a megacharger. Those trucks never do 500miles a day, which means a rotating trickle charge could sequentially charge the fleet over the 60hours they're parked at the weekend, followed by partial/half charges overnight during the week to top up the couple of hundred miles each truck does a day.

Certainly they'll draw a lot of power, but you're looking at more like a megawatt for the site, not a megawatt per truck.

For other depots where you do have people pushing the range, I can envisage the site having a battery bank to buffer for trucks who need a fast, full charge. Trucks popping in on a local route either get to sip from the normal supply or don't take a charge at all if they can run all day and charge overnight or whatnot.

Re: Electricity vs Petrol/Diesel prices

Classic Musk bullshit. There is no MegaCharger network for trucks being deployed. If there was it wouldn't be solar powered because trucks need to operate on cloudy days and at night and in the winter.

You may have missed the sock-off big battery Musk just installed in Australia.

Suggesting that he's literally going to plug a semi into his solar farms is a ludicrous straw-man argument.

Solar > Battery w/mains backup > Truck

Possible cut to British F-35 order considered before Parliament

Re: Still not too late

When you look into what is involved with EMALS you start thinking steam isn't all that bad after all, more so if just launching one type of aircraft. Not that I can really comment.

Well, that's the problem for the Yanks - they're running a variety of fixed wing, from heavy bombed up strike aircraft through to small C2/E2 support aircraft and the steam system reputedly isn't very adaptable. There's "Go" and "Go" with a small amount of throttling. EMALS allows tailored launch profiles for each airframe, so lighter aircraft don't need to be stressed by high-energy launches designed to support heavier aircraft.

Re: Still not too late

BAE quoted doing the job: It's cheaper to build new ships

Or, to flesh it out.

BAE told them it would be cheaper to build new ships because they were afraid of losing F35B orders in favour of Super Hornets if they did the conversion. And they can pull that shit because what are we going to do - pick up those lumps of hull and take them to some other defence contractor to finish the job?

BAE have a monopoly, which means they can basically tell lies if it suits them and we've nowhere to go.

Re: Still not too late

Agree, scrap the F35 order, take the hit on retro fitting and purchase some F18 Super Hornets.

Broadly speaking, that is precisely the reason BAE neglected to do any actual work on the "for but not with" Cats requirement, so that when the incoming Government decided they wanted to do it, there was no chance of BAE losing F35B orders in favour of a Boeing Super Hornets (which our Navy Pilots have been keeping their skillset alive on in the US, and which they apparently like very much!).

Re: Still not too late

I thought it was a structural issue for the cats? The amount of bulkhead strengthening, miles of pipework for the steam...

No steam - it was proposed to use the American's new EMALS cats, but they were considered a bit prototypical when the carriers were being specced, despite that fact that (according to Lewis Page IIRC), the Yanks even offered to underwrite any development issues with it (they were pretty committed to making it work since their next-gen carriers are designed around it).

But we didn't. And then it would have been expensive to retrofit the electrics needed (and possibly bulkheads, I don't know), but certainly not as bad as having to plumb in a large steam system.

As it turns out, it wasn't too tricky to implement and the Gerald R. Ford is now in service as the first EMALS vessel.

Mythical broadband speeds to plummet in crackdown on ISP ads

By that standard, Dial-Up can be classed as fibre internet, so long as I use a short length of fibre between the inbound modems and the outgoing ISDN backbone...

Remember the 'budget' iPhone SE? Apple plans an update – reports

Re: A cynic might suggest...

that the reason for this "upgrade" is to force obsolescence on existing users (e.g. Iphone4/5S) so they have to buy new ones, or they wont get the latest IOS which means their apps no longer work........

Um, manufacturers upgrade their hardware. The SE is a couple of years old. Why wouldn't they increment the guts of it?

And the 4/5s are obsolete (in that they haven't made them for years). The 5S is five year old tech.

Being a tight git who runs long on technology, I'm still loving mine, but I'm apparently the only person I know who can go more than 2-3 years without either losing their phone or smashing it beyond the point of repair, so quite how many 2013 5S handsets are still in circulation I don't know.

For me, the form factor is "peak mobile". It's ideal, but I've also been acutely aware that if my 5S dies today that replacing it with an SE would involve paying good money for a two year old phone. I'll be glad to have the option to get current-gen hardware that'll last me another 4-6 years.

I just hope that the SE2 retains TouchID instead of FaceID, and has a proper headphone port.

Re: £300 refurbished? You've been ripped off.

Indeed - they're only £349 new on the Apple website and - as you say - far cheaper if you shop around.

London mayor: Self-driving cars? Not without jacked-up taxes, you don't!

Re: What about the downsides?

I know you're being facetious, but I think the article is slightly harsh on Khan here. He doesn't appear to be opposing the new tech, but recognising that it's likely to lead to a loss of revenue, largely because it is better.

...

Seems perfectly reasonable.

Sure, but he seems to be presenting it a bit of an "OMG crisis" manner.

It's not rocket science. At one stage VED was based on engine size, at others CO2 emissions. Sooner or later it will just get changed again based on weight or something (i.e. if you get to the point where most cars are electric, you would either flat-rate them or separate on weight as a proxy for load/road wear).

Same for the Congestion Zone. Charges have varied for different classes of vehicle. When a shift in road usage becomes a problem, you change the tariff.

Crying "woe is us, who will build the roads?" is more than a tad melodramatic.

The Quantum of Firefox: Why is this one unlike any other Firefox?

Re: 30 per cent faster

"is your server configured to use HTTP/2?"

should be nearly all of them by now.

Well according to Netcraft there were at least half a billion sites hosted on Windows Server 2008 in March 2017.

HTTP/2 for Windows came in with IIS10 / Server 2016.

So no.

Re: 30 per cent faster

What the average Joe wont know is that his Talk Talk mibbuts are not included in that stat and in fact make up 95% of the "speed of the internet"

Perhaps surprisingly, raw bandwidth is no longer all that relevant unless you're hanging off the end of a dog slow link.

As far as normal web browsing goes, whether you've got 10/30/70Mbps is going to be entirely irrelevant to your experience compared with how the site is technically laid out and configured.

Have the devs dumped their JS includes up in the header or right at the bottom of the page? Is the loading of CSS or image elements being delayed by premature JS execution? The perception of speed relies far more on load-ordering than outright speed.

Likewise, is your server configured to use HTTP/2? If not, you're shooting yourself in the face. No amount of bandwidth is going to make up for the latency of repeated round-trips and connections compared with pipelining your requests. Especially if users are remote - the greater the latency, the more obvious round-trips become. Are you using a CDN to deliver static content, or a regionalised server to prevent European traffic having to cross the Atlantic to a US DC (or vice versa)?

Now, a fair amount of that comes down to the service provider, but the browser must also play it's part. Obviously it needs to support things like HTTP/2 out the box, and then if you're pipelining requests and getting a bunch of assets landing simultaneously (instead of sequentially), then being "built-for-multi-threading" and GPU acceleration become a necessity and bolting them onto a legacy code base runs out of steam. The speed at which JS is executed once it downloads lies with the browser, and if the site devs have done something silly like blocking a bunch of requests with a heavy bit of JS, then notionally the browser's use of pipelining and multi-threading could bypass that error. Not that poor coding practices should be encouraged, but a forgiving environment often benefits the end user.

Tesla launches electric truck it guarantees won't break for a million miles

Now the battery lasting 1M - different story. I have to see that to believe that.

Probably a significant exaggeration, but it doesn't need to last a million miles, it just needs to last longer than a diesel drivetrain. Engines, transmissions and clutches don't do a million miles, and even a refurbished tranny for a Class8 is not a cheap thing.

Re: Initial comments from a guy with a Class A.

Seats one. Where does the lovely Mrs. jake sit? Steerage? Show stopper.

There's space and an option for a second seat behind and to the right of the driver. It just isn't fitted in the press photos.

Battery tech has reached the point where they'll last 1,000,000 miles with no degradation in performance?

Your engine and tranny last 1,000,000 miles without a rebuild or replacement? Pull the other one. Remind us all what a new gearbox for a Class 8 costs.

Finally, only a 500 mile round trip on a "tankfull"? Total show stopper.

...

I have a co-driver. Her name in Mrs. jake. I'm not the only one ... I know one guy who does long-haul with his wife and two sons. Sometimes they drive all four trucks, sometimes two, sometimes one.

You'll also note the lack of sleeper-cab option. The Tesla isn't designed for people who want to do 1,000miles on a tank cross-country or Trans-America. It's designed for taking 80,000lb from a factory, port or distribution unit to an Amazon fulfilment depot.

Given that most of the US population live within 500miles of the coast, it follows that the majority of freight is travelling less than 500miles from port to destination (or from factory to port). And that doesn't count on the fact that maybe Tesla don't actually care about the US. European routes will lap this up. Trucking containers from Rotterdam to Paris? Trolling containers around Paris from a railhead? There is lots of inter- and intra-city work that this truck can do emissions free.

If the TCO works out as Musk predicts then this will be a roaring success (and it shouldn't be hard, because TCO on a diesel is a total pig - Fuel, regular oil changes, clutches, wear and tear on mechanicals).

Amazon will love these for transfers between logistics hubs, as will the USPS and the likes of UPS/FedEx for moving freight from an airport to local/regional distribution hubs.

The target market for these doesn't call for more than 500miles between stops, and users will install megachargers at their depots/warehouses so you charge whilst you (un)load.

The initial users are going to be fleet buyers who can also install the appropriate infrastructure at their end-points. Not owner-operators.

We've got a major agri-feed business down the road from us. They run their own fleet of 25+ Class8s hauling tonnes of feed to farms. At night, every one of those trucks is back in the yard. You think they need a second driver or do more than 500miles a day? Plenty of people need heavy or bulky stuff moving short distances.

The long-haul crowd saying "This is useless, I can't team-drive across America in it" are being deliberately obsequious. Most people don't need or want to do 1,000 miles on a tank.

Re: @Zog

The net efficiency of a diesel charging a battery electric vehicle, would be appalling. And I can't see any urban area letting truckers run a genset at 50 kW full tilt for 12 hours.

It would be, which is why you'd never do it. But a Diesel-Electric is entirely viable and done on large scale for mining trucks. A Diesel-Electric road truck could offer diesel range with better fuel efficiency and the superior driving characteristics of electric.

80-year-old cyclist killed in prang with Tesla Model S

Re: RE: unwanted infantilism

Ah; but beware the concept of "lies, damn lies, & statistics".

Indeed. As a cyclist I have been taken off my bike by a car who didn't check their blind spots. It informed my behaviour as a driver and I hope I am more diligent as a result.

However, some cyclists will not be helped. I have - more than once - nearly mown down a cyclist who thought it appropriate to weave along a 60mph stretch in black clothing, with no lights or reflectors (a legal requirement as important as having an MOT) on a moonless night. I suspect that someone with less than the 20/20 vision I am fortunate to be blessed with might not pick out the dim shadow moving at the edge of vision and brake too late to avoid the moron. Just last week I swung into a one-way street at 10pm to find a kid coming the wrong way down it without lights or helmet (quite what they were doing out at that time I do not know).

But inevitably it would be the driver who is at fault for hitting the criminal(1) cyclist, and the statistics will not reflect this nuance.

Most drivers are good, most cyclists are considerate. But churning out a scary-sounding, yet context-less number of cyclist accidents/fatalities tells you absolutely nothing because some of them are bordering on suicidal.

1. Yes. Criminal. Going out at night without lights or reflectors is a criminal act, just like driving without MOT or insurance.

NASA reconfirms 2019 will see first launch of Space Launch System

Re: It's Apollo 8... minus the people

And 2 to 4 years later, they’ll do it again, with people!

Or not. Hands up who actually thinks it'll ever fly crewed? Falcon Heavy by the end of this year (or maybe January), Falcon Crew next year, New Glenn is up. Then BFR (okay, that one's on "Elon Time"). The Senate Launch System is going to be obsolete before it ever lifts a human or production payload.

Brit moron tried buying a car bomb on dark web, posted it to his address. Now he's screwed

I have questions

Randhawa pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to import explosives but denied maliciously possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury. He was found guilty of the latter charge by Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday.

How was he found guilty of "possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life" if the Police had switched out the real bomb for a fake one? Or did they give him actual explosives sans detonator (high explosives are remarkably resistant to exploding in the absence of a detonator cap). I would have thought they'd have just send him some blocks of plasticine.

I buy the importing explosives charge, or even preparing an act of terrorism. But how have they got him on possession?

Give us a bloody PIN: MPs grill BBC bosses over subscriber access

Re: Who would pay for BBC access?

There are websites guiding you on how to do it. Under Scots law you do not have to let them in but if they can see or hear a live broadcast you are toast.

Under British law you do not have to let them in. "Scots Law" has feck all to do with it.

TV "Inspectors" have fewer powers than council parking wardens. To be specific, they have no powers. They are literally members of the public with no special authority whatsoever. They can knock on your door, ask to be let in, and you can tell them no.

If they can see a TV through the front windows then yes, they'll be able to gather enough evidence for a private prosecution, but they have no right of entry to your abode.

Jeff Bezos sells one million Amazon shares, makes one billion dollars

I don't know the specifics of Amazon, but it could be. In between different classes of share, different voting rights, and dilution of the other shares across many owners it's possible to sell a very large proportion of a company while still retaining control.

This. IIRC, Elon Musk owns <50% of both SpaceX and Tesla, yet retains outright control by having >50% of the voting shares. Other shareholders are just happy to be along for the ride.

Guy Glitchy: Villagers torch Openreach effigy

Re: Lies, damn lies and BT excuses

Exactly this. It isn't challenging - you dig a trench and drop the fibre in. Easy - a bunch of farmers in Cumbria managed it.

The word they're looking for is expensive.

El Reg assesses crypto of UK banks: Who gets to wear the dunce cap?

Re: Really odd article

As context to RBS (not excuse - just context). They've doubtless been uninclined to spend money since they've spent the last 6 years arsing around thinking about spinning off 600 branches.

After the government bailed them out, the EU deemed it "State Aid" and told RBS they needed to sell 600 branches.

At this point, customers at the affected branches were moved onto a parallel system (they access online banking through "rbs.co.uk/englandandwales"). Initially those branches were going to be sold to Santander UK. Then that fell through, they had a think and decided to relaunch an old brand that RBS bought up years ago (Williams and Glyn), and proceeded to fuck around with that for a couple of years until last autumn when they announced that was being kicked to the kerb because "The new bank wouldn't be viable on it's own", which is a clever way of saying "We've just voted ourselves out of the EU, which means the State Aid ruling will cease to apply if we just procrastinate a bit longer until we're out".

During this time they have repeatedly issued and cancelled new credit and debit cards as the IT department have started moving customers in and out of new systems in preparation for the split.

It's no surprise then that RBS (And Natwest, owned by RBS Group) have some dire IT infrastructure and haven't improved - they've been bouncing between various different aborted projects for the last 6 years and probably haven't had budget for core improvements because all their resource has gone on trying to farm out a new bank.

Though granted, none of that would prevent them from enabling HSTS on the F5/BigIP boxes that front their systems.

Tesla share crash amid Republican bid to kill off electric car tax break

Re: producing just 220 of them against its 1,500 target

And factory workers are treated poorly...

I wonder if there's a connection....?

I read more to do with battery assembly issues at the Gigafactory. Allegedly one robotics subcontractor on the Model3 battery line ran into issues but hid them to save face, thinking they could sort them out. It got to a point where they evidently couldn't dig themselves out of the hole and a storm of issues surfaced shortly before they were supposed to be going into production - at which point Tesla (or a new contractor) had to clean-sheet the control software for that section. Along with a couple of other issues, it means the line for Model 3 batteries is under-performing badly. I suspect they can build the cars, they are just being bottlenecked by the batteries.

Two drones, two crashes in two months: MoD still won't say why

Re: MoD relies on spin and secrecy to deflect criticism

MoD leased a fleet of H450s and these racked up 86,000 hours of lying in Afghanistan, losing 8 of them (so one per 11,000 flying hours in a war zone - that doesn't look too bad?). Meanwhile, in the hostile badlands of mid Wales, the Watchkeeper programme has lost 4 so far, and with the reported 146 hours of active duty, that's roughly one per 36 hours of duty. Does anybody spot anything odd there?

The H450s in Afghanistan didn't have to deal with dragons.

Google slides text message 2FA a little closer to the door

Re: Slight problem?

1. Enter user name on fantastic new shiny promptless gmail on stolen phone (user name available from accounts list in settings).

You're missing the point.

If they have your end-device then you're screwed anyway. 2FA offers protection against unauthorised logins using stolen credentials, either for a specific service or where you've been negligent and endangered multiple accounts by reusing a (now-stolen) password across multiple services - the sort of stuff Troy Hunt warns about on HIBP.

If the device is gone, then you would hope that the PIN protection will stop them actually using the phone or accessing the 2FA app until you can login into FindMyiPhone/Android Equivalent and kill it remotely.

Re: Text messages aren't a great way to implement two-factor authentication

I disagree, given most people are too dumb to have any 2FA at all, text message is functional and convenient and a million times better than nothing

I thought that when I first dipped my toe into 2FA. Didn't want to install an app.

Turns out there's a couple of places at work with cellular dead-spots. It became somewhat tiresome to have to step out into the corridor to get an SMS code, so I installed Authy and haven't looked back!

Yes it's better than nothing, but if you've convinced someone to bother setting up 2FA in the first place, get a HOTP/TOTP app on there instead of half-arsing it.

The Chocolate Factory's alternative is called "Google Prompt". Instead of sending users a one-time code in a text message, it asks users if they are trying to sign in. If they are, in they go. If they're not expecting the login prompt, down come the shutters.

Probably worth noting it's not their alternative. A few providers - including Symantec VIP have been using "Push Authentication Requests" in their 2FA app for years now.

I can't say if it was Symantec's idea originally, that's just the one I've had to use to get into a client's systems on occasion. I was more than a bit spooky the first time I logged in (phone on 4G, not the office wifi) and having entered user/password on the desktop, the phone buzzed, I pressed "yes" and the login screen on my desktop magically changed to the service control panel. Clever stuff.

Works quite well, provided you've got a decent data connection on your phone.

Beardy Branson chucks cash at His Muskiness' Hyperloop idea

The idea is that magnetic levitation suspends the carriages above the tracks

No it isn't. The idea is that it rides on air bearings - making use of the fact that it's very hard to maintain a total vacuum in a tube and using the small quantity of air to ride on.

Linear induction is used for propulsion out of the stations (after which it coasts through the near-vacuum), but that does not constitute mag-lev.

Crappy upload speeds a thing of the past in fresh broadband 'net spec

Re: Great

I just wish I was still in a VM area and not stuck with fucking shite ADSL :-(

It wouldn't do you any good.

We tried to get VM for an office move. Contacted them 8 weeks in advance of the move, knew there was cable into the unit.

Then nothing. Chased every couple of days, apparently one department always waiting on another.

We opened a VDSL order, suspecting that VM were not going to deliver. The day after we moved we got a call asking us to confirm whether we would like to place the order for VM. We confirmed that 6 weeks ago and you sat on your hands. They even sent us the same order confirmation they'd sent us 6 weeks previous.

Incompetent wastes of oxygen.

Twitter: Why we silenced Rose McGowan after she slammed alleged sex pest Harvey Weinstein

Re: Sense of proportion

You are indeed correct however the message (as per the link in the article) doesn't tell her which tweet she needs to delete or why and it happens immediately after she slags off Weinstein.

It doesn't take a genius to work this one out.

It happens after she posts a number of very shouty tweets variously telling people to f-off, apparently one containing a private phone number, and yes, righteous abuse directed at Weinstein.

Trying to claim the block was due to one specific tweet when she had posted a large number of tweets in a short space of time is - frankly - political point scoring unless you happen to work for Twitter and have access to the relevant logs (and I'm taking a wild guess that you don't).

None of us have the relevant information to know for sure one way or another. Anyone claiming absolutes is a liar, fraud, or a Twitter employee in disguise.

Dear America, best not share that password with your pals. Lots of love, the US Supremes

Re: Sadly, a decision which needs more clarity

In common with many of the dear readers of this website I have worked at many a company where senior managers and the like have given their logins and passwords to their PA to enable them to handle all the stuff which is encrypted to save them the effort. Since each of those companies very clearly stated that such activity was forbidden and a disciplinary offence, I presume those managers/Execs in the US offices will now go to jail?

No, because the PA is authorised. That's literally their job.

Moreover, if that is the case then it's on IT to fix it.

If a Director has to hand over their credentials for the PA to access necessary data, then the PA does not have appropriate rights on their account, which is a failing of the IT systems. If the PA is expected - as part of their normal, authorised duties - to manage correspondence, keep the diary/appointments book, etc, then this needs to extend into the digital realm as well as the dead-tree documents.

Proper logging and telemetry then allows to you audit changes and messages sent by the Director, or the PA on the Director's behalf - something which is obviously impossible if they're sharing a single account.

Re: Why the upset?

You are not a party to the Netflix T/C so you're not liable for any breaches in contract/civil law (that's your wife's problem), but you probably are guilty of crime.

In the UK, you wouldn't even need computer misuse/"hacking" laws.

Fraud Act, Section 2 will do - Fraud by False Representation.

You have obtained a service by masquerading as a customer using their credentials. You are not a customer, you have not paid for a service, you are not entitled to use that service. QED.

I don't know about Netflix, but for Amazon there is Family Sharing, which allows you to share services such as Prime Video across a limited number of named users. There should be no need to ever share passwords. If Netflix has a similar system, then sharing passwords would indeed seem to be operating outside the system they have provided for family sharing, and would represent evidence of malfeasance (an intent to defraud) in and of itself.

Re: What happens if...

If you borrow a tablet from me and watch Netflix what then? You did not need to login to Netflix. Legal or illegal? Fine for an hour? Fine for a year? Still fine when you give me money for rent of the tablet?

I would suggest that is akin to borrowing a DVD - I can't use the tablet whilst you've borrowed it.

That's very different to plugging my Netflix creds into your tablet or indeed your smart TV so that we can both use the account in the comfort of our separate homes.

It's not a perfect analogy since I could be using my TV whilst you use my tablet, but the idea of sharing devices differs slightly in that it applies to a (presumably) finite number of devices, whereas raw credentials could (in principle) be used on an infinite number of devices (until Netflix blocks the account).

Thomas the Tank Engine lobotomised by fat (remote) controller

I'm sure they've done the math, but that seems like it would be a hell expensive project to save on a small number of staff.

Eh, this mining is an expensive lark - I had a school friend who went out and did a few years as a Mining Engineer. The town his son was born in doesn't exist anymore - mine arrives, they build out, dig for 10 years and abandon it.

Every meat sack needs somewhere to sleep, eat and do their business. You have to ship food out to the arse end of nowhere and deal with waste. You have to air-condition the buildings, etc, etc.

The fewer people the better - these places are so remote that the best analogy is to an aircraft carrier/naval vessel.

Each job you can automate eliminates a bunk, a seat in the mess, reduces the requirements for waste-disposal systems, reduces the size of the food stores, eliminates a life-raft seat. Fewer crew reduces the number of galley cooks needed, which in itself churns back into reduced bunks/heads/food rations.

The savings form a positive-feedback loop that scales quite rapidly past the actual salary and training costs for the crew.

Home Sec Amber Rudd: Yeah, I don't understand encryption. So what?

Re: Techies will continue to sneer.

Sneerers gonna sneer.

Schneier's gonna Schneier?

US yanks staff from Cuban embassy over sonic death ray fears

I second the 'bullshit' call. CIA have huge technical capability. For example overhear conversations by bouncing a laser off a window and measuring the interference caused by sound waves vibrating on the window.

Yeah, this.

They may be shouting that it's the Cuban's responsibility to ensure the protection of visiting Diplomatic staff, but US Counter-Intelligence groups can and do sweep embassies and diplomatic premises for bugs and it seems highly improbable that they would allow their staff to be "attacked" for a period of months without taking some sort of diagnostic action - the Cubans/Russians/SPECTRE could have been listening in. They're also quite familiar with acoustic espionage tools and weapons, having developed a few themselves over the years!

I find it inconceivable that after the first few reports they didn't install additional counter-espionage and monitoring tools, step up their sweeps, etc.

Seems far more likely it's something bad in the aircon, CO fumes from a bad boiler, sick building syndrome or the like.

The UK isn't ditching Boeing defence kit any time soon

Re: Cseries not really competing with 737

As far as I know the Bombardier CSeries is not really competing with the 737 as the smallest 737 is much bigger than the biggest CSeries. If anything the CSeries is competing for the slot that is currently taken by older AVRO and Fokker aircraft and by contemporary Embraer models.

Some and some. The CS300 is rated for 130-160pax depending on configuration (1 or 2 classes). This compares very evenly with the 737 MAX-7 (130-172pax) or the older 737-700/800. 6000km range is -ishly comparable also.

The CS100 overlaps with the Embraer E-2s, but most Embraers are smaller (<100pax) and not really comparable.

As you say, Bombardier are a small player but unlike Embraer (who have been content to mostly play with smaller regional/domestic-service models), Bombardier have come straight in with a larger product which is no doubt why Boeing are taking more of an interest of whether they're going to get ideas of developing stretched variants or larger models running up to 230pax which would tread significantly on their toes.

'Alternative network provider' CityFibre boosts sales 36%

Does that mean each customer is paying an average of £15,000 per (something), or is there some other meaning?

That's the meaning, but consider that they're not hooking up people's houses (they have residential FTTH on their website but I don't think it's a focus area).

If you think of "customer premises" in terms of "University Halls of Residence" or "Office Block with 35 tenants", the figure looks more sensible (I don't know if they specifically do halls of residence or sub-contracting for the likes of JANET, but it's that sort of scale of business/customer - not running fibre up to people's front doors).