Posts by mstreet

RIP: Creators of the GIF and TRS-80

Re: And how about GINGER, GIST, GIBBERISH, GIBLET, and GIN?

None of those are acronyms whose first letter represents a word with a hard G sound.

That said, he invented it, he should get to name it.

(I'd have called it a DoodleCruncher)

The dark equation of harm versus good means blockchain’s had its day

It's simply unacceptable that the little people can have a store of wealth

What ever makes you think the little people have the slightest ownership of Bitcoin?

From what I’ve seen, all the fluctuations in value are caused by the big boys getting in and out.

Anyone making money off it, is either one of said big boys, or is just playing off the ripples caused whenever they jump in or out.

A smarter alternative to password recognition could be right in front of us: Unique, invisible, maybe even deadly

Re: I have a new earworm ...

I always use the Muppet Show theme to get rid of ear worms.

The residuals usually fade in a week or two.

Joint venture: Uber Eats to offer weed orders in Ontario

No delivery

It may not be legal to deliver weed via Uber, but it sure doesn't stop their drivers trying.

Working in recreational dispensary (a fine post IT, pre-retirement profession BTW), I've already had to explain to three of their drivers, that if I give them weed to take to a customer, it is NOT called trafficking because a car is involved.

You'd think Uber would let them know this prior to sending them out into the real world.

Scotiabank slammed for 'muppet-grade security' after internal source code and credentials spill onto open internet

What amazes me...

Is that more than 12 hours after this story was posted, not a single Canadian news outlet seems to have picked up the story.

Apparently our half-wit PM wearing black face at a party 20 years ago, is far more important...

Fire chief says Verizon throttled department's data in the middle of massive Cali wildfires

Re: Bollocks back at you.

"My mind absolutely boggles at the number of people here who apparently don't understand that the wording on a contract actually matters."

As does mine by your inability to realize the contract shouldn't have meant squat in the middle of a state emergency.

Re: What do you expect?

You actually believe that in an emergency situation like this, when they are trying to organize massive amounts of man-power and information, and set up for emergency evacuations, that whoever is in charge is going to have time to worry if they're exceeding their data?

They are an integral emergency service, not some teenager streaming crap on his phone.

This is why hard core capitalism just flat out doesn't work in a properly civilized state.

Perspective and common sense really are disappearing fast.

'Moore's Revenge' is upon us and will make the world weird

Re: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Inconceivable!

"Contains no microprocessors or Internet connection facilities - guaranteed!"

And no doubt, you'll have to pay extra for it.

Did you test that? No, I thought you tested it. Now customers have it and it doesn't work

"Because people are idiots and lie about doing things. Sometimes intentionally"

Reminds me of the time a users laptop mysteriously stopped booting. User had no clue why, apparently it just 'went dead'.

The coffee that poured out of it when I turned it upside down to check the SN, told a different story.

Half of all Windows 10 users thought: BSOD it, let's get the latest build

Re: Rolled out != working users

Re: Throw the printer in the bin...

I assume the printer was a Canon.

If so, try again with Ubuntu 18.04. I had the same beef for years, but the latest versions of Ubuntu and it's various spins, now use a 'driverless' system, and the issue is fixed for me.

America's forgotten space station and a mission tinged with urine, we salute you

"Could have been used to feed hungry people"

Reminded me of R.A. Heinlein's testimony before congress in 79, when they were looking for an excuse to do away with the space program. He gave them a list of subsidiary technologies primarily created while working on the space program. Since it had never been done before, an enormous amount of effort went into solving all the problems involved. The list of tech that owes it's existence to the early program is a real eye opener:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies

Boffins build a 2D 'quantum walk' that's not a computer, but could still blow them away

Tis sounds like a rip off...

Pretty sure this concept was first thought up by Douglas Adams... 'bistromathics'

From HGTTG:

"Bistromathics itself is simply a revolutionary new way of understanding the behavior of numbers. Just as Einstein observed that space was not an absolute but depended on the observer's movement in space, and that time was not an absolute, but depended on the observer's movement in time, so it is now realized that numbers are not absolute, but depend on the observer's movement in restaurants."

IBM bans all removable storage, for all staff, everywhere

Re: When USB sticks are illegal.....

"What, one of these?"

Aww, what a tease...I was expecting a thumb drive in the shape of a ram-horned skull with glowing red eyes.

Drone 'swarm' buzzed off FBI surveillance bods, says tech bloke

Re: Next step

"A shotgun bolted next to the camera on the drone.

A lot of the bigger ones have no issue in carrying one."

I think the evolution of drone warfare will be to go smaller rather than larger. Instead of having the drone carry weapons, it would make more sense to construct the body out of something that can be detonated, and turn them into a sort of guided hand grenade.

A swarm of several hundred, or even thousands, is going to be cheaper, more damaging, and have a far bigger psychological effect than one or two big near-aircraft size drones.

Just the noise a swarm like that would make, would be terrifying, never mind seeing a few peel off the swarm, fly close to a target and explode.

Windows 10 to force you to use Edge, even if it isn't default browser

But....it doesn't work!

Just finished an official Microsoft training course, hosted by an official MS training partner. Aside from the course being so out of date, that a solid third of it was unusable due to a UI change, the real joke was that the Edge browser wouldn't display half of the pages in the Office 365 console. The trainer told us all to use either Chrome or Firefox. I saw the same behavior when I ran an office 365 trial some 3 years ago. And it still isn't fixed, despite it being all over the MS forums for years.

This sounds just like MS recently.... We'll force you to manage our cloud platform with OUR browser, regardless of whether it works or not...

It's Pi day: Care to stuff a brand new Raspberry one in your wallet?

Re: Dates

re."Until you run into the Year 9999 problem"

Ah, the great Y10K disaster to be...after living through the Y2K over-hype, I can hardly wait to see what the media of the day will come up with.

Of wait, I'll be dead by then... maybe.....

Forget Sesame Street, scientists pretty much watched Big Bird evolve on Galápagos island

"I'd hardly say that Tories and Labour are different species"

But who knows...give it enough time....

Munich council: To hell with Linux, we're going full Windows in 2020

Re: "When it's political, technology cannot do anything."

"You can easily virtualise older Windows versions transparently under W10 if you have any really won't run under Windows 10 as native apps"

Last time I checked, you can virtualize older Windows versions on Linux too....and yes, easily.

Sean Parker: I helped destroy humanity with Facebook

"Weeded out the idiots"

That only really helps if you...you know...'get rid of' the weeded out idiots.

Google on flooding the internet with fake news: Leave us alone, we're trying really hard... *sob*

Re: Lessons from Orlowski

"felt like an attempt to get me to feel common cause with the author and sufficiently angry to suspend critical thinking"

So, you are upset the article was written in such a way, that it presented the viewpoint of the author strongly enough that you had an emotional response?

With the exception of people who write things like dictionaries and encyclopedias, isn't that pretty much the objective of every author...ever?

They are called opinions. People are allowed to have them, even if they don't agree with your world view.

Sorry, but those huge walls of terms and conditions you never read are legally binding

Re: Another question is why does anyone use Uber?

"...millions of people think their convenience is more important than the rights of others."

That's really it in a nutshell. It's also the same reason idiots get elected to lead nations, and why people continue to shop for products, they know have been created by slave labor.

The majority will always take the easy or cheap way out, and always compromise common decency and common sense for simplicity.

Maybe that makes me sound like Rorschach from the Watchmen, but thats what the world's taught me over the last 40 years.

That's why I don't believe in government or corporate conspiracy theories anymore. Ultimately, allowing this sort of thing to happen in our society, is on us as individuals, and is the result of a million little compromises rather than some great act of evil from on high.

NSA leaker bust gets weirder: Senator claims hacking is wider than leak revealed

Re: OTT

"My own first name is apparently relatively uncommon these days"

I don't think it's as rare as you think. I know quite a few Anonymous's

Break crypto to monitor jihadis in real time? Don't be ridiculous, say experts

@DavCrav. Sadly, I agree with just about every point you make. Despite your 7-1 thumbs down to up ratio, everything you said regarding the current situation seems 100% accurate. The only one I don't agree with is your solution. Creating a police state (and enforced monitoring is a firm step in that direction), might do the trick of stopping attacks, but by doing so you hand the perpetrators the exact victory they were looking for.

There is only one way to fight this kind of 'war'. It's been tried and tested for thousands of years, and looking through history books, I've yet to see a single instance of something else working.

That way is harsh, unapologetic, brutality.

I know this isn't what any right-thinking human being wants, regardless of political bent. It's the antithesis of just about everything we believe in. But the thing is, it's NOT what the radicalized believe in.

Despite our best intents, you simply cannot import a world view that was formed in the relatively luxurious west, to a region that doesn't have the same comforts and sensibilities.

How many of us loved seeing what happened during the "Arab Spring"?

How many thought, uh oh, maybe we shouldn't be removing the strong men who have been keeping all the religious nuts in line the past 50 years or so?

So, unless we are willing to emulate the Sadams and Muammars we helped boot out, we better get used to these attacks, because they have no reason to stop them.

You want it to stop? Once you've identified one of these monsters, emulate them. Make life a living hell for everyone they have ever known. Let them know that if they pull this sort of thing, we might just find their entire families and do the same to them.

Personally, I hate to think about it, and have hundreds of arguments against my own rant.

But it's been historically proven to be the only method that has ever worked against fundamentalism.

We need to stop pretending the attacks are just a passing fad that can be stopped be changing government policy. They aren't, and it won't.

If anyone has a better solution, that takes into consideration the global situation as it is, and not as you'd like it to be, then please enlighten me.

Because it sucks to think there is no other solution.

Avast blocks the entire internet – again

"An Avast update pushed out six years ago classified the whole web as malign"

Then perhaps we should be congratulating them for their prescience.

FBI boss James Comey was probing Trump's team for Russia links. You're fired, says Donald

I think you forgot the comfy chair...

Welsh Linux Mint terror nerd jailed for 8 years

Re: Being Welsh

"...just doesn't have the same ring about it as a battle cry..."

Try yelling it backwards. Lots of things sound scarier when you say them in reverse, though sometimes you need to remove then re-add the qualifiers for plurality...

For instance, what sounds more terrifying:

The Canadians are coming!

The Adanacs are coming!

Only one of those lines gets me worriedly looking at the horizon....

Trump sets sights on net neutrality

Re: Someone tell these guys.

Maybe its time we all stopped pretending democracy and capitalism can coexist.

Microsoft wants screaming Windows fans, not just users

Show of hands

How many of you out there signed up for the "insiders program" to check out Win10, decided it was crap, and then never bothered to opt out after you decided against it.

I know I did, and a quick poll of my colleagues shows 80% of them are in the same boat.

In other words, how many of those 10M insiders are actually active?

Squirrel sinks teeth into SAN cabling, drives Netadmin nuts

Re: But

Curiously, in Canada (AKA The Land of Squirrels), it's the other way around. The reds are all ground squirrels (and seem more closely related to chipmunks), while it's the greys\blacks\browns that haunt the tree tops.

Re: I'd rather deal with a squirrel than a huge nest of spiders...

Kind of like when you're rock climbing and you reach up for the next hand hold, only to discover too late that said hand-old is actually an ant nest. Not fun when you can't just drop what you are doing :)

Re: Best traps

A former room-mate of mine once bought a pack of those traps, insisting that they were more humane than the 'quick-kill' variety.

If a night of listening to a mouse vainly attempt to escape wasn't enough to change her mind, finding the next morning that the mouse had literally torn it's own arm off, as well as the presence of some important looking, formally internal organs embedded in the glue, certainly did.

US Senate votes to let broadband ISPs sell your browser histories

Re: It's all about money

You missed one option. As unpalatable as it sounds, we can stop using the internet.

FYI anyone who codes outside work: GitHub has a contract to stop bosses snatching it all

Re: Interesting, but..

"So you end up with a huge legal bill and no job."

This is my experience with the way the legal system works in Canada. I had a pretty much ironclad case against a former employer for wrongful dismissal, but had to let him off the hook. The employer constantly questioned and delayed everything, until it got to the point I could no longer afford the legal bills. Met several people since with similar stories.

From what I've seen, unless you are well off, or have good backing, the legal system simply does not work here.

Spammy Google Home spouts audio ads without warning – now throw yours in the trash

Re: A company

"I think it would rather fun to put Google Home, Siri and Alexa in a room together get them all started and leave them chatting to one-another. Come back at the end of the day and see what they've been talking about."

You won't think it's fun when they start WW3 :)

Google's Deepmind NHS deal 'inexcusable', says academic paper

Re: "said both parties have "the highest regard for patient privacy and confidentiality"

The word "Regard", by definition, refers to something that is closely watched and thought about. Doesn't say anything about what they plan to do after they're done watching.

It's one of the many words that have become so inappropriately over-used, it's basically become meaningless.

Germany to Facebook, Twitter: We are *this* close to fining you €50m unless you delete fake news within 24 hours

Re: Could be tricky

"The reality is that its a non binding motion calling on the government to condemn Islamophobia and study what actions should be taken to reduce it"

So...what the government is saying, is in fact a load of meaningless drivel designed to make them look like they are being forward thinking heroes for the masses?

If it has no legal or binding impact, then what, other than getting their smiling mugs on camera is the point? I thought they were elected to lead the country, and make real decisions based on real situations. Instead, they are wasting their time and our tax dollars, putting together a giant group hug that seems to have no purpose but to tell everyone "look at me, I'm not a racist".

If their intent is in the slightest bit inspired by noble intent, then why is it just Islamophobia, and not racism period?

Re: Could be tricky

The proposed Canadian law is pure idiocy, and one of the those laws put forward by self serving demagogues trying to buy minority votes . Since they don't define "Islamophobia", one has to look elsewhere for a definition. So, according to the Oxford dictionary, Islamophobia is:

"Dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force."

Since I know at least 2 Muslims who are hard set against Islam "as a political force", does that mean they are by definition, Islamophobes?

Should the law get passed, both my Muslim and non-Muslim friends, are toying with the idea of going down to the local police station and turning ourselves in.

MAC randomization: A massive failure that leaves iPhones, Android mobes open to tracking

Re: "nobody trying to stop privacy invasions"

"The reason we now have this fake news phenomenon is because the real news backed the losing sides and the predictions they made were lies."

Are you sure? I'd have thought it had something to do with :

A) Advertising. We spend every day be bombarded with media hype for this or that product, most of which is pure BS. I remember in the 70's when "false advertising" was a pretty serious charge to be avoided at all costs, less your company have it's logo associated with the word "Liar". These days, the most preposterous claims can be made, and nobody seems to bat an eye.

B) Politicians. It's almost impossible to trust politicians, mostly because they can use 500 words to say absolutely nothing, but make it seem like they are agreeing with you. George Orwell was trying to point this out in the 40's, drawing parallels to the nebulous language used in advertising, with the prattle politicians were using to befuddle the masses. Since then, it's gotten a lot worse, and a lot more common.

C) Public gullibility. Compare any current politicians campaign promises, with the reality once they got into power. In my experience, they aren't just making little white lies anymore, but fundamentally misrepresenting what there intentions are. Take Canada for instance. I know people who's sole reason for voting for our current prime minister, was his promised reforms of the electoral system. Now he's in power, he has not only scrapped the idea, but makes it seem like it was an idiotic idea in the first place.

D) Precedence. Two days after 9-11, one of the 24 hour US news outlets had an informative piece on the history of Afghanistan. One little snippet of information that came out of that, was that 1n 1978-1979, the (communist at the time) Afghan government had on 3 separate occasions asked Russia for support. Having lived through the fear the 1979 'invasion' caused, it was a watershed moment to learn that the Russians were actually invited into the country. It was also the last time I believed a media story without seeking confirmation from other sources.

Fake news is nothing new. The delivery systems have just become better.

A webcam is not so much a leering eye as the barrel of a gun

So many options

Don't any of you chew gum?

Congratulations IBM for 'inventing' out-of-office email. You win Stupid Patent of the Month

Re: google seems unhelpful in unearthing any real history

That's because they are still at stage one in their business cycle:

Stage 1: Collect everyone's stuff, and become the go-to information source for everyone.

Stage 2: Claim ownership of everything gathered in stage 1.

Stage 3: Since we own it, history is ours to do with as we please.

Dear Microsoft – a sysadmin's wishlist

On a positive note...

It seems M$ have finally removed whatever it was they were using to slow Windows 7 updates down to a crawl. For the better part of a year, fully patching an out of the box Win7Pro machine was taking the better part of 3 days (2 days or running the updater, before it even found anything to install).

Now they are back to their pre-Win10 benchmark of almost a full day.

On an even more promising note, the long wait for machines to patch let me do a bit of experimenting, were I discovered I can do 27 installs of Ubuntu Mate, all fully patched, in the amount of time it took to patch a single win 7 box. Numbers even our Windows addicted bean-counters (should) pay attention to.

Ex-FBI man spills on why hackers are winning the security game

Re: Oh god...

"In the same way it is expected by society that a person be able to read, write, perform basic maths and conduct themselves in a civilised manner"

That sounds like the sort of society I could get behind. Where might I find one like that?

Macs don't get viruses? Hahaha, ha... seriously though, that Word doc could be malware

Re: mac AV

"any kind of code that can make your computer misbehave with the exception of Windows and Adobe Flash"

Thumbs up for the exception bit :)

Trump's cybersecurity strategy kinda makes sense, so why delay?

Re: "two regulations are torn up for every new rule introduced"

RE: "People who should know better are saying it's a good idea. It sounds good for five seconds until you think about it."

I think in a nutshell, this is the real problem. As an analogy, I once had an argument with a friend, who insisted that a true friend will stick up for his mates, regardless of what they do, because, hey, that's what friends do...

So assume you walk into a pub with a friend. The 'friend' immediately proceeds to get hammered and ugly, and starts picking fights with everyone who glances his way. You, being far less aggressive and far more sober, try to steer him away from trouble all night, but he just won't stop being a douche, and eventually, fists start to fly.

If you stick up for him, you are now fighting on behalf of a dick who deserves everything he's getting. If you don't, you're letting a 'friend' down.

I think the polarization of pro\anti Trump camps is the same sort of situation. The pro Trump crowd in this case are like the drunk's mates who walked into the pub with him. They know he's being a dick, but because they supported him in the first place, they feel they have to continue defending him, even when his crap is likely to get them into all sorts of trouble.

Either that, or they are just a bunch of politically drunk a-holes as well....

Elon Musk joins anti-Trump legal brief

Re: Chilling

"in a National Security case"

So far there is no evidence that this is really anything to do with National Security. I would not be so quick to believe that Trump's intentions are actually aligned to his words. He is a politician, after all.

FTFY

BOFH: Password HELL. For you, mate, not for me

Can't talk...

A favorite of mine, is to gasp/yell out "Can't talk, on fire!"

Followed by a quick hang up. If they call back, just pick up and let out an ear-rupturing scream.

Motivational speaker in the slammer after HPE applies for court order

Perhaps...

It's possible he made the Mandela comparison because he had no idea who Mandela was?

Wouldn't be the first time...

http://globalnews.ca/news/1715103/bernier-embarrassed-after-saying-nelson-mandela-was-athlete/

Flight 666 lands safely in HEL on Friday the 13th

Re: Hmm...

Re: "those are all REAL phobias... not like the kinds of labels that are thrown about way too often these days"

I hope you aren't trying to belittle my Luposlipophobia. (Fear of being chased across a freshly waxed floor by a pack of hungry timber wolves).

And yes, that is a blatant "The Farside" rip off.

Oh, the things Vim could teach Silicon Valley's code slingers

Re: This is where we need a "Get off my lawn, young whippersnappers" icon

Google "Hey, you kids get the F off my lawn". There's a scene from a Canadian TV series (Corner Gas). They used the scene in a commercial for the show itself, and first time I heard it (wasn't actually watching), I couldn't believe what I was hearing, was allowed on prime time TV.

Got a chuckle next time it ran, and I saw the video to go along with the audio. Been using the picture of the kids, and what they are holding in every internet rant since.