Posts by Packet

Alibaba Cloud revenue grows 62% – but it's still just a sixth the size of AWS

Re: "why buyers beyond the middle kingdom would consider its offerings"

And I do not see China as winning this 'cloud war' just for one reason: trust-worthiness.

Yes, the US govt can legally look into your data if you house it in a US datacenter - but the reasons to do so still need to have some sort of legality, which with legal counsel can be contested / appealed.

China, on the other hand, does not concern itself with such trivialities. You can be in trouble for any banality.

Why subject yourself to that sort of additional stress of disruption?

'iOS security is f**ked' says exploit broker Zerodium: Prices crash for taking a bite out of Apple's core tech

Re: "Zerodium said for the first time that it would pay more for flaws in Android"

I'm curious now - what phone/platform do you use?

I actually consider the couple of banking apps (for the banks I use) as more secure on IOS as compared to the desktop Windows platform.

To the point where I actually use them exclusively on IOS now.

Re: Security is hard, m'kay?

No denying adhering to security practices is hard.

However, some exploit broker saying a specific popular OS security has issues, especially when compared to said OS's track record - I just find hard to accept right away.

Maybe it's a sign of the paranoid times we live in, but I have to ask the question: does the exploit broker gain any monetary advantage by making such a statement?

Multi-part Android spyware lurked on Google Play Store for 4 years, posing as a bunch of legit-looking apps

Why am I not surprised?

Google's Android handling has been rubbish - security seems to be just an unpleasant after-thought.

The only real way to cure this is to vote with your wallet - as the consumer.

If you choose to keep buying Android products, you're enabling these faceless people (both Google and said criminals - no, don't make a joke about a parallel there - that's too easy...)

(Insert some old trope about the equivalent of helping Nazis here...)

But it seems to me that every Android user I've spoken to doesn't care about this - they prefer to focus their vitriol on Apple.

Which makes no sense.

Apple on 2020 so far: OK, so iPhone sales are a bit glum. Wearables, music, apps, vids to the rescue... almost

I do get concerned about the usage of "idiot tax" - but hey, you do have the right to free speech (even in the UK)

From attacked engineers to a crypto-loving preacher with a questionable CV: Yep, it's still very much 5G silly season

Oh how I love this writer's prose: "fruitcakes of a feather"

Watch out, everyone, here come the Coronavirus Cops, enjoying their little slice of power way too much

Rather funny, this sort of authoritarianism coming out of the woodwork

It is rather distressing to see this happening pretty much everywhere in the world.

I refer to all aspects - people not understanding that maintaining separation does reduce transmission of disease, and the attempts at overreach of authority, and the subsequent reduction of civil rights.

To be expected in any country, in a way, yes - since human behaviour is still the same pretty much, no matter the nationality.

The only difference being, the laws in some countries allow their populace to question and stand up to protest (without being incarcerated or worse)

I do question the end game of arrests in any country though - that seems short-sighted from a disease control perspective - actually makes it worse to take all these disparate individuals and put them together.

and on the other hand, it also speaks to that allure - an overreach of authority reducing civil rights, which is never a good thing (hard to give up the power or entitlement once you have it) and also, from a public servant perspective (like police - a social service existing for the purpose of protecting the people), the many anecdotes mentioned above just adding to that concern.

Seems no matter the nationality, there's a despotic authoritarian just champing at the bit to get out and impose their no-questions-will-be-tolerated will on society.

Call it fascist or communist, based on your preference (or abhorrence) of one or the other - they're both bad.

I have more thoughts, fear of an armed populace, the siren call of authoritarian systems, imposition of will to pervert existing systems of government, people in general being bell ends and not voluntarily reducing transmission - but nah, to what end this lament?

Disappointing... (pillocks)

French pensioner ejected from fighter jet after accidentally grabbing bang seat* handle

Serious cock-up that kept getting worse

The aviation geek part of me both applauds the pilot for landing under such conditions and while there is a visceral thrill in reading this, i do feel bad for the aircraft damage (even though it will get repaired)

The process oriented side of me is rather stunned to read of the series of cockups - civ pensioner passenger not briefed, not checked for being correctly oriented and strapped in - both resulting in an ejection seat fire (which is a giant fuck me moment at even this best of times not over hostile territory, not having been recently assholed by a SAM), and then the pilot's seat not firing either on top of that.

Thankfully, said pensioner landed ok (hopefully without breaking anything - untrained first-timer under canopy isn't really safe, and that's not even accounting for the compression forces of ejection - but hey at least he didn't break/lose a limb during the violent ejection process)

Way to go, French Air Force - you're just begging for jokes to be made (alluding to, you know, the war...)

Apple drops a bomb on long-life HTTPS certificates: Safari to snub new security certs valid for more than 13 months

I can appreciate the security aspect, but...

Things have dependencies - be they software or hardware.

And upgrading them costs time and money - sometimes rendering such a mandated cert upgrade unfeasible.

Case in point, a couple of years ago, client was running older version of Oracle Application Server that could not take the new 2048 bit certs.

Had to stick the afore-mentioned HAProxy in front to do a front-end 'new' cert and then pass traffic to the old ora servers.

Upgrade everything and make it work? In a perfect world, absolutely.

Everywhere else - find kludges and tricks.

How's this for a crossover? Scumbag scammed victims with fake gem mines – then pivoted to fake crypto-mines

Re: "The investing public should be aware that cryptocurrency schemes are" . .

As much as I'd just like to say cryptocurrency is an absolute load of rubbish (which it is), the reality is:

- people are greedy

- they want want immediate gratification without putting effort into it

- they're also ignorant of how stock markets work in a modern capitalist economy

- they're distrustful of government to the nth degree (seriously, unless you live in China, North Korea, Iran or Russia, you really don't need to be paranoid about your government to ridiculous 'the sky will fall' extremes)

the effects above are literally passed down from generation to generation and environment to environment (the social aspect of both friends and family)

Combine all this, and they will flock to any new get rich quick scheme - all it does is create a never-ending list of suckers born every minute.

Long story short, join me in shaking your head sadly, i'll pour a pint out

Microsoft ups the ante with fix-fixing patch that leaves some Windows Server 2008 machines unable to boot

Re: MS wants us to move on...

I am a bit concerned about your whitewashing the past.

The fundamental issue is a lack of control.

Crash dumps in pre Windows 10 systems could optionally be sent to Microsoft - you didn't have to.

Taking away that control is the concern.

Is Microsoft capturing every keystroke? Unlikely.

Are they analyzing your sites visited? Yes

Do they need to? Offer the option to opt out (ideally, make it opt-in)

To be fair, some of the sites visited can be turned off completely. (don't use Bing, of course, now you have the other evil, Google. Wait - doesn't Cortana use Bing?)

Privacy, or more specifically, what are they doing with this data, is a big deal that they, among other companies, have to be completely transparent about.

The Apple model and PR blitz is a good way to do it.

Jeff Bezos: I will depose King Trump

This does seem like sour grapes. Like almost everything else, biases play a part.

Plus, MSFT products are used extensively in the govt - and their cloud offering would seem to offer better integration with their products.

Now, as goes the current POTUS and views for/against him, it would help to keep in mind that the political climate in the US has become very polarized over the past so many years (even before his winning the presidency in 2016)

So much so, that people voted for him to keep the other ones out - those they considered to be against their way of life, going just by the public statements made by such political figures.

To echo the words of another president, "a house divided against itself, cannot stand."

However, in this case, it's identity politics creating the divisions by catering to fringe / populism.

Well, populism goes both ways...

Those of you who do not live in the US cannot understand - you're like obstetricians (from the outside, looking in)

Apple: Mysterious iPhone 11 location pings were because of 'ultra-wideband compliance'

Fix the headline please...

it's not ios 11 (that came out in 2017) but the iphone 11

Cisc-o-no! 'We’re being uninvited to bid' on China deals admits CEO as Middle Kingdom snub freaks out investors

Don't forget the "Made In China 2025" plan

This is no surprise re: Cisco, especially when you consider the Made In China 2025 plan of the Chinese government.

I expect this fate to fall upon other companies too - if it hasn't already yet.

Is it a threat to the rest of the world's trade / economies? Absolutely - for reasons mentioned by posters above.

Has it been historically a long time coming? Sure has - all that cheap manufacturing - the chickens have come home to roost.

And for all those bashing the US, please just stop - you remove any credibility you had (and no, you don't come off as funny either - just dumb).

If China wasn't Communist and prone to heavy handedness in its dealings with everything/everyone, this would not be a conversation / issue at all.

Revealed: Milky Way's shocking cannibalistic dark past – it gobbled a whole dwarf eons ago

The image - that's Andromeda (M31), not the Milky Way...

Or am I missing the point ...?

Oh cool, the Bluetooth 5.1 specification is out. Nice. *control-F* master-slave... 2,000 results

Re: It's not cultural cluelessness

Someone give this guy or gal the Pulitzer and the keys to the kingdom.

The first incredibly sensible thing I've read all morning, nay all year.

Python joins movement to dump 'offensive' master, slave terms

How weak are we to be affected by such terminology...

It confounds me every time - at how weak such champions of social justice are that mere words render them so overwhelmed...

Why can't we just take these words outside of their old or tainted context and use them as they were intended? It's a programming language, FFS, which is, as you know, made up of words.

I imagine at this time, everything else in python must be just 100% perfect that they can now look at window-dressing.

Chrome, Firefox pull very unstylish Stylish invasive browser plugin

Don't Firefox and Chrome check the extensions behaviour?

Serious question (not a rant):

Don't Firefox and Chrome check the behaviour of the extensions prior to publishing?

.

Google Chrome update to label HTTP-only sites insecure within WEEKS

Idiots...

What happened to critical thinking / analysis of what needs to be made secure and what doesn't?

Especially when there's a cost aspect to it.

Idiots

The cybercriminal's cash cow and the marketer's machine: Inside the mad sad bad web ad world

Re: Java off, and on

JavaScript.

Avoid the confusion by referring to the correct technology, dear fellow - even though it won't make a lick of difference when we're all dead

NHS systems fell offline for 1,300+ hours over 36 months, cyber-nasties fingered – FoI study

Re: 85% uptime?!

Wow i'm glad you already calculated the uptime (saved me the trouble of doing it myself)

That's rather appalling availability - no matter how you slice it.

Are your IoT gizmos, music boxes, smart home kit vulnerable to DNS rebinding attacks? Here's how to check

Re: No sign of intelligent life....

I got the exact same message on mine...

Apologies in advance, but I have to ask - is your service provider modem also a 'gateway' providing gateway services?

Or is it in bridge mode?

Hint: If it's got an IP you can connect to, it's most likely not in bridge mode and you're possibly doing double NAT

Who dares wins, they say, so Toshiba's SAS drive plans another hit on SATA

Re: Perfect for my home lab

Your local hydro must love you for the giant power bills that thing racks up

First A380 flown in anger to be broken up for parts

Afaik, jack screws to control the elevator/horizontal stabilizer are common in big ass aircraft (like the 747)

Learned that bit from an episode of Mayday which covered the 747 crash in Afghanistan due to one of the armoured humvees sliding back and hindering it etc

Apple: No currency mining for you in our App Store thank you

Re: From hell's heart, I stab at thee

I laud your efforts to look at things in an unbiased way.

I should have clearer in describing the ad network that annoyed me. Said network shows you a prompt that it has opted you you in by default, and only then can you go to a separate site to opt out.

So yes, at least, they give the option - but it's not a 'hey click here to support us, if you can'.

it's a 'we've enabled this shite to stress your system, but just so that we don't get blocked by browsers by default, we're offering you a way out'

Mobile cpu's (particularly older devices) are not as powerful - and such extraneous load is detrimental to their performance.

Secondly, I consider cryptocurrencies are a scam to the nth degree - a 21st century fool's gold, if you will, complete with the cost of effort of 'mining' said things - and a large number of fools who will buy into it and lose money.

Make sense...

I can see unscrupulous (or at best, misguided) developers slinging in hidden mining code in their apps by making the app free, etc.

Phone battery suffers, users complain, and blame Apple. It's just a mess waiting to happen.

Smart of Apple - will Google do the same?

Just the other day, I got,a browser pop up from these guys https://jsecoin.com asking to use iPad CPU to mine crap (as their alternate option to ads).

To that, I can only say: From hell's heart, I stab at thee

VPNFilter router malware is a lot worse than everyone thought

What I'm having trouble understanding...

How does this thing actually attack the router?

Never mind - figured it out. It uses default credentials.

So, if you changed the password on your device, you're fine.

Five actually useful real-world things that came out at Apple's WWDC

I don't believe they say they sell it to anyone.

Only because their privacy policy says so - and to be found doing so otherwise, would be such a giant legal shitstorm.

And what's worse, it would make their hardware cost unjustifiable.

Especially since they've made it one of their unique selling points.

Re: Damn it

Do it - come to the fruity side.

"one of us, one of us..."

Finally: Historic Eudora email code goes open source

Re: Still use Eudora 7

Same here!

I don't want to give it up - for as long as it keeps working.

Gmail is nice for throw-away stuff, but for other things that I want to keep, this works very well.

Only issue is the lack of unicode support, but I've learned to live with that

'Facebook takes data from my phone – but I don't have an account!'

Quite disappointing... selling soul indeed

I'm rather surprised at the blatant data gathering.

Yet, somehow, I suppose I shouldn't be, considering who makes it, and how the revenue stream is structured, etc, etc.

As much as I like to berate Android, I grudgingly understand why people pick Android devices, be it customization, compatibility, cost, etc etc. (There are some features I would like to see in Apple from a UI perspective)

Yet when things like this - I do feel far more comfortable on the iOS platform.

Sure, Apple doesn't have all the answers, and is absolutely annoying sometimes, but I prefer their attitude towards privacy, compared to Google/Facebook/others...

Flame away, folks, if you must

Re: But but but...

I believe you don't have this issue with iOS - the Apple privacy policy is rather a welcome read:

https://www.apple.com/privacy/

Hitler 'is dead' declares French prof who gazed at dictator's nashers

If only they had come out with this research a few years ago...

That bloody awful TV show 'Hunting Hitler' could've been avoided completely.

Watch it if you have a few hours to spare (and need an excuse to say 'just what drugs are these people smoking? and where can i get some?")

It's entirely based on conjecture - putting 2 and 2 together and getting 22.

Not to give anything away, but my favorite WTF bit was an old intelligence snippet mentioning someone openly wanting to get into the US selling information to the then OSS claiming Hitler was in South America - sure, no bias for bad intel there at all, buddy.

On the more retrospective side, you'll get to see how easily people can be duped by their own beliefs... far from the OS wars to something more tangible, so to speak.

Supercycle to su-'meh'-cycle: Apple iPhone warehouses heave with unsold Notches

I think the lack of peripherals doesn't help (how much i don't know)

For instance, where is that bloody AirPower mat?

Drop the price on the sodding thing while you're at it too

Take-off crash 'n' burn didn't kill the Concorde, it was just too bloody expensive to maintain

Re: Love reading about this splendid machine

Ooh fascinating - something to read on this quiet boring day.

Muchos gracias, amigo

Love reading about this splendid machine

Though I do dislike all the whinging about the noise.

I fondly recall what Kelly Johnson / Ben Rich of SR-71 fame said to a local municipality while defending their brainchild, it's "the sound of freedom".

Another book recommendation is "Champagne on the edge of space" written by a flight attendant on the Concorde (and it mentions the flight engineer hat being stuck in between the expanding spaces too)

Students: Duh, of course we're blowing our loan bucks on crypto coins

Idiots

BOFH: Honourable misconduct

Rik Mayall would have made such an amazing BoFh...

He had the sadism and wheeling dealing down pat in The New Statesman.

Why did you have to die, you magnificent b'stard

Apple: iPhone sales are down (but they've never been more lucrative)

Re: I still own an iPhone 6 plus

thought about getting the battery replaced for the low promo price while you still can?

Are you taking the peacock? United Airlines deny flight to 'emotional support' bird

I'm amazed at the audacity and sheer stupidity of some people.

It's a wild fucking animal - and a reasonably big one too.

Putting aside the obvious animal cruelty aspects - if that thing decided to attack other people in mid-air in a confined metal tube, it has the potential to do some serious harm.

Idiots... we're surrounded by idiots...

You had one job, Outlook! Security bug fix stops mail app from forwarding attachments

I also recall it being called 'Outhouse'

Which does fit the bill rather well....

Apple iPhone X: Two weeks in the life of an anxious user

Re: I hate iOS - but......

I believe you can either put the files in VLC - download directly to VLC.

Option 2: Use the Files app (and put the files there - though I don't think VLC has been updated to access that Files bit yet)

Up, up and a-weigh! Boeing flies cargo drone with 225kg payload

I love this!

https://www.aerones.com/eng/news/?text_id=18 has video of a jumper being lifted to 330 metres - from where he then deploys using a BASE rig.

Oh the possibilities, the possibilities!

Audio tweaked just 0.1% to fool speech recognition engines

I am not surprised by this.

What disturbs me is how many banks have shifted to voice print identification for their telephone systems.

And unlike say a consumer version like Siri, the telephone banking system can't be trained to recognize your voice (or maybe it is?) I use Siri as an example of something that learns your voice the more you use it.

I get the motivation though - every CTO, etc is looking for the next great cure-all for all the security shite of IT, and so they jump onto the newest flavour of the month.

Telephone banking is definitely insecure - to just rely upon a PIN of 3-5 digits, so along comes voice recognition - and it sounds very Star Trek like too.

But in the meantime, they ignore their web/app banking security... (I know of a bank that for the longest time, did not differentiate between upper-case and lower-case passwords...)

US authorities issue strongly worded warnings about crypto-investments

You mean to tell me you aren't enjoying millennials smugly telling you that it's different this time as they pontificate their self-professed economic and financial wizardry?

As Danny Glover aptly put it in the Lethal Weapon series, I'm getting too old for this shit.

Most recently, I read of someone claiming the school of Austrian economics as their guiding light in/for cryptocurrency.

Google's Project Zero reveals Apple jailbreak exploit

Doesn't seem to be that critical. In the sense that nobody is going to suddenly break into your phone remotely and make it start tearing up your pocket.

They do say iOS 11.2 fixes it all - but from what I've read, it's a pig's breakfast of an update (though that could just be internet hyperbole)

Meet the woman with a supernatural affinity for stiff lovers

To use an urban colloqualism, "bitch be cray"

O Christmas wreath, O Christmas wreath, thy potent skunk's in bunches

A High holy day?

I thought the high holy days are a Judaism thing

No, BMW, petrol-engined cars don't 'give back to the environment'

Re: I was driving behind an Audi TFSi the other day...

I just looked up what it means - and I prefer your version.

I always figured the T meant 'turbo' and the I meant 'injection' but I never really thought beyond that.