* Posts by diodesign

3493 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Sep 2011

We've found a ‘vaccine’ for fake news. Wait! No, we really are Cambridge researchers

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Blimfield

"Also, no reporters of this 'news' (including El Reg) carry any links to the original research"

We normally link to research - I've added the URLs to the article.

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UK.gov still drowning in legacy tech because no one's boarding Blighty's £700m data centre Ark

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Legacy stuff isn't the problem.

"Why are you trying to demonize "legacy"?"

Because (as the article says) you're left with technology that few people understand. This is on top of the fact that you're missing out on recent/modern updates. It's called technical debt for a reason.

Blame management, blame the developers and architects, blame whoever. Blaming doesn't fix the problem. Fixing the problem fixes the problem.

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Windows 10 networking bug derails Microsoft's own IPv6 rollout

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

"Is this a typo or misprint?"

Neither. Keane said:

"As we needed to support Android devices on our guest network, and Android doesn’t support DHCPv6, not having this feature was a problem."

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Google harvests school kids' web histories for ads, claims its Mississippi nemesis

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: ratfox

"Sorry, I'm going to be a stickler"

Look, Hood is on record claiming Google may be selling students' info. We've quoted him as such. The lawsuit accuses Google of breach of contract. We've said as such.

The lawsuit accuses Google of misusing students' data for "any" advertising purposes. Hood, outside the lawsuit, says this includes marketing/selling data to third parties. So there is a gap there, but the article makes that distinction - Hood says this, Hood says that, the lawsuit wants Google to open up.

Essentially, Google is being accused of potentially breaching a contract in which it promised to respect kids' privacy. That's the gist of the story however you look at the above. Google, FWIW, declined to comment.

Please, try not to nitpick us to death and accuse us of fake news. It's tedious.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: ratfox

> I can't find any other website claiming that Hood is accusing Google of selling data to third parties

This is literally what Hood said on the record, and is quoted in the story saying: "Through this lawsuit, we want to know the extent of Google's data mining and marketing of student information to third parties."

If you read through the lawsuit (eg, G 52-53), you'll see the AG accusing Google of potentially breaking promises not to share students' info to third parties, such as Google's advertising partners, without disclosing it to parents.

You guys are trollin' me. Stop it.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: veti

"or by El Reg, who really should know better 'cuz this is exactly how fake news spreads."

What are you on about?

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Destroy All Monsters et al

Huh. What did we get wrong? We summed up the claim, we linked to the filing, a comment poster made an assumption, read the PDF, changed their mind, and... we're the bad guys?

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Is Qualcomm price gouging phone makers? Not everyone thinks so

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: I read elsewhere

"Qualcomm is only offering to license their CDMA patents based on a percentage of the cost of the entire phone"

That is something Qualcomm does (Register passim) and has got it into trouble around the world for its, er, unorthodox approach. It typically asks for a percentage of the phone cost in royalties.

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Boffins link ALIEN STRUCTURE ON VENUS to Solar System's biggest ever grav wave

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: Will nobody think of the tax payers?

"It is a pity the Reg could not make it that clear in the first place. They seem to have lost all their science-qualified writers who could examine critically a press release or abstract rather than just copying the words."

Are you kidding me??? We used the correct term in the correct context, and we're the ones who screwed up?

So you're saying we have to caveat everything we write in case someone doesn't understand. You want articles that read like: "The board has 4GB of RAM – that's readable-writeable memory not read-only ROM - and an ARMv8 CPU - that's CPU not GPU..."

Get outta here.

PS: The article was written by someone with an astrophysics degree and edited by someone with an engineering degree.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Re: Click baity headline is click bait

"Aren't ALL structures on Venus 'alien' structures?"

Yes. That's the gag.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Click baity headline is click bait

I remember when ironic headlines lampooning the bonkers Brit tabloid culture weren't called clickbait, they were just Register headlines. This is back before the kids ruined everything with their Upworthies and BuzzFeeds.

Oh well, if you want boring, ZDNet's that way ----->

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Microsoft sued by staff traumatized by child sex abuse vids stashed on OneDrive accounts

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: private v public

It makes no difference - Microsoft staff have access to your private and public OneDrive data.

Their servers, their rules.

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Fake History Alert: Sorry BBC, but Apple really did invent the iPhone

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Can we please stop using "fake news"

We're using it ironically.

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FBI let alleged pedo walk free rather than explain how they snared him

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: What am I missing here?

"that the FBI embedded malware in content returned to the originator of a TOR query"

Yeah, if you click through to previous stories, this is most likely the case. It also says it in the article.

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Splunk: Why we dumped Perforce for Atlassian's Bitbucket of Gits

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: A Brief Response from the Referenced Author

Full disclosure: p4jbw is a perforce.com employee.

Thing is, Splunk was not using Perforce Helix, they were using pre-Helix Perforce, but you're talking about Helix, so.... ?

Also, you say your software is not "strictly centralized" but your own publicity reads: "You are probably quite familiar with Perforce’s centralized architecture." So... ?

And you say your software is not "strictly proprietary" but parts of it are closed source. So... ?

Normally the words "factually inaccurate" are the sole factual inaccuracies. Thanks for showing our readers the kind of tedious nitpicking-to-death journalists go through on a daily basis with vendors.

Thanks for calling.

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Microsoft's cmd.exe deposed by PowerShell in Windows 10 preview

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: jongalloway

You can put the pitchfork down - it's super clear in the article what's happened. And from Microsoft's own people, quoted high up in the piece:

"In an effort to bring the best command line experiences to the forefront for all power users, PowerShell is now the de facto command shell from File Explorer.

"It replaces Command Prompt (aka 'cmd.exe') in the WIN + X menu, in File Explorer's File menu, and in the context menu that appears when you shift-right-click the whitespace in File Explorer."

Don't forget, Microsoft is a huge company. It's a classic case of someone announcing one change and then another part of the business yelling "WTF? NO!"

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Busted Oracle finance cloud leaves Rutgers Uni unable to foot bills

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: hedgerow-league

Not quite ivy-league.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: so, which version of Oracle financial product is that?

It would be nice but we get the feeling it's a customized package of ERP products being phased in gradually - the best we can determine at the moment is that it's a suite of tools running on Oracle Cloud Financials and Oracle Cloud Fusion.

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Hackers could turn your smart meter into a bomb and blow your family to smithereens – new claim

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Tom Paine

Well, dang. We've updated the article with a little more info and background - basically, given the whole thing a healthy dose of skepticism.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: FFS

It was spotted during the edit - but our search'n'replace game was weak. It's been fixed, lessons learned.

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‘Artificial Intelligence’ was 2016's fake news

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Please rearrange these words

It's been fixed, thanks. Our production desk has been light in the run up to Christmas and New Year's Eve due to illness, people taking time off and paternity leave. We're gradually getting back up to speed.

Having said that, I disagree that our editing has dropped like a stone: we're doing our best against operations like the NYT and WSJ that have armies of editors and still screw up. You're welcome to email corrections@theregister.co.uk if you spot anything wrong. The volume of mail to that address is reassuringly light. When it gets a flood of messages, we know we've screwed up.

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Meet the Internet of big, lethal Things

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: RXD Vs TXD

No, the arrow is correct - look up the chip. The TXD pin on a CAN bus transceiver is an input. Don't take any data/commands from the internet, basically. By cutting off the pin or not connecting it, you don't allow malicious packets into the CAN system.

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Building IoT: Forget the vision, just show us how to build it

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: All aboard the IoT train

Wrong - we'll still give crap IoT a kicking (and there's a lot to kick). Just because we're running a conference about IoT doesn't mean we're gonna kiss its ass. C'mon, we're El Reg.

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Kingpin in $1m global bank malware ring gets five years in chokey

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: David Roberts

The cops described him as a "key player" which fits the definition of a kingpin: "a person or thing that is essential to the success of an organization or operation."

Kingpin doesn't mean the boss - it means, well, a key player. A vital villain. A crucial crook.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Kingpin

Yeah, sure, but it fit nicely in the space for the headline and we got to use 'villain' in the intro. That word needs more love.

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Ham-fisted: Chap's radio app killed remotely after posting bad review

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: It's not one staffer or one guy.

Yeah, we're writing a follow-up right now.

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Jimbo Welshes on pledge to stop fundraising

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Big John

From the linked article:

> "It's the Khmer Rouge in diapers," observes one regular Register reader, which seems as good a description as any to us.

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Stupid law of the week: South Carolina wants anti-porno chips in PCs that cost $20 to disable

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Anonymous

Oh it's real. From your legislature's .gov website:

"A BILL TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 5 TO CHAPTER 15, TITLE 16 SO AS TO ENACT THE "HUMAN TRAFFICKING PREVENTION ACT", TO REQUIRE A BUSINESS, MANUFACTURER, WHOLESALER, OR INDIVIDUAL THAT MANUFACTURES, DISTRIBUTES, OR SELLS A PRODUCT THAT MAKES CONTENT ACCESSIBLE ON THE INTERNET TO INSTALL AND OPERATE A DIGITAL BLOCKING CAPABILITY THAT RENDERS OBSCENITY INACCESSIBLE AND TO SET MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BLOCKING CAPABILITY"

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Ancient water found in Canada is two billion years old – giving hope to Mars colony dreamers

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Close

Thanks - but can you email corrections@theregister.com next time, please? That way we can fix it quickly rather than much later when we get round to reading the comments.

Cheers.

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Security! experts! slam! Yahoo! management! for! using! old! crypto!

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Please stop using ! ! ! in titles every time there's a Yahoo! story

Oh ok, since you asked so nice, we'll just drop them. We've been doing them for years as a running joke, but because you, one person, demanded it, we'll stop the gag right now.

Just! kidding!

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Reschedule the holiday party, Patch Tuesday is here and it's a big one

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Cagelog has the following

It fixes the DHCP issue, according to Microsoft. See our story here.

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Snowden: Donald Trump could get pal Putin to kick me out of Russia

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: BillG

Bill, stop being tedious.

Snowden was asked if Trump could get him imprisoned. One very obvious way that would happen is if Snowden is deported from Russia and obtained by the US where he, right now, faces treason charges. Snowden said it was possible he could be locked up as a result of pressure from Trump but he wasn't worried about it. The article doesn't say it is likely to happen. That much is clear.

Don't accuse us of fake news.

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US-CERT's top tip: Hack your crap Netgear router before miscreants arrive

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Authentication failed

You probably don't have a vulnerable device.

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Kentucky pried chicken: Fried grease chain's loyalty club hacked

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Grumble, grumble, Reg not as cutting as it used to be

"hambeasts, salad-dodgers, lard-munchers"

So you'd like us to write like a cliched parody of the Sunday Sport? OK, thanks, noted. Thanks for the feedback. GET IT – FEEDBACK?? RIGHT, FANS????

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Sights of the Realm: Mobile app DB hooks up with IBM Watson for image, text, face recog

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Cheers to the subs

Oops, we just changed it 'cos we thought no one would get it. Sorry.

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'I found a bug that let anyone read anyone's Yahoo! Mail and all I got was this $10k check'

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Check the cheque

Here in the US it's check.

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Busted Windows 8, 10 update blamed for breaking Brits' DHCP

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: andy265

We'd love to hear more - if you want, drop us a line to news@theregister.co.uk with details of other ISPs.

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For God's sake, stop trying to make Microsoft Bob a thing. It's over

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Destroy All Monsters

Ah yeah, fuck, meant 1995, forgot to do the -20. Fixed. Don't forget to email corrections@theregister.co.uk if you spot an error.

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Don't have a Dirty COW, man: Android gets full kernel hijack patch

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Also, unicorns

F'king hell, we can't win. We point out updates may eventually make their way to devices and get yelled at for being too soft. We point out that millions of devices go unpatched due to crappy manufacturers + network, and we get yelled at for being too cynical and biased.

Obviously, you know the score. Everyone knows the score. I've tweaked the sentence. Now you can deal with the fandroids. I'm done here.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: I assumed this would have been fixed long ago

It was an optional/supplemental fix in Nov. It's now, in December, in the core patch set.

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Why your gigabit broadband lags like hell – blame Intel's chipset

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: VM to gig BB in the UK

If you're on a SuperHub 2, you'll be OK. If you get any package that has a Superhub 3, you'll be needing a patch which isn't expected for a short while. By gigabit broadband modem, we mean gigabit-capable; you could get a Homeworks 300Mbps package and get a Superhub 3 box and suffer from extra lag.

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Trump's FCC will soak net neutrality in gas and toss in a lit match

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Dems vs. Dems

Just to prove there's no conspiracy here, and that you were reading way too much into "political reasons", I've added a link to the senate Democrats arguing over it so everyone's definitely on the same page.

As for the headline, I wrote it and I don't feel particularly either way about NN - I just recognize when an incoming administration is gearing up to make changes.

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Jersey sore: Anchor rips into island's undersea cables, sinks net access

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: "on the UK island of Jersey"

Honestly, we kinda just wanted to see what reaction we'd get.

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Wow. What a shock. The FBI will get its bonus hacking powers after all

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: To go after...........

Yeah, to (in the words of the DoJ) "liberate" infected machines. See the linked articles + pages.

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'Mirai bots' cyber-blitz 1m German broadband routers – and your ISP could be next

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: ThatGuy2088

Guys, for God's sake, read the god damn article before smugly shooting off about TR-069/64. It's explained in the piece. It's not solely about TR-069 but it's part of the problem because it exposes a vulnerable TR-064 service.

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diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Soulhand

Nah, the article's all good - you're just assuming ISPs and router firmware makers aren't nuts. The exploit works by connecting to a TR-064 server behind port 7547, which is opened by TR-069.

"What is not very well known is that the server on port 7457 is also a TR-064 server. This is another protocol related to TR-069. It is also known as 'LAN-Side CPE Configuration'"

[Source]

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Small ISPs 'probably' won't receive data retention order following IP Bill

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: FlippingGerman

Every single one. It records the website visited (like theregister.co.uk or youtube.com, not the full URL) and when and from which subscriber.

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Rumble in the off-the-shelf server jungle: HPE comes out swinging

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Are you serious??

I guess Chris really just liked HPE's gear.

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Gone in 70 seconds: Holding Enter key can smash through defense

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: Not the whole story:

Thanks for all the feedback - we've updated the article with more info and links to technical details of the bug and Red Hat's take on it for context.

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Which job is AI going to eat next? Step forward, CCTV operators

diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

Re: allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

>Um, how is facial recognition "spotting suspicious behavior"?

Easily. Detect when certain people - or unidentified people - are seen hanging around a restricted area, for example.

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