Posts by Tridac

Leave it to Beaver: Unity is long gone and you're on your GNOME

You want lightweight ?. FreeBSD + Slim + Mate. Takes around an hour to install and configure everything. ZFS, jails, no systemd, no bloatware Gnome 3 etc...

Microsoft Lean's in: Slimmed-down Windows 10 OS option spotted

Re: The funny thing is that...

Win 2K was pretty good, very few bsod's and stable in a controlled environment. Used that for years after it's sell by date. It just worked, as did NT4 before it, providing you had the service packs installed. Only upgraded because some app versions would not run under it, but isn't that the only reason why we install new os versions anyway ?. A deadly embrace between the os and app vendors, with MS in control and no way for either to escape. Still, the windows monopoly becomes more and more eroded by the year, with ms desperately trying to stem the rising tide of open source...

Re: Beast mode

If you want that, you need to start with one of the server versions. server 2003 ~ Xp, 2008 ~ windows 7 etc. Much better tools for stripping out unwanted stuff, defining roles and locking down. Have been running a stripped down server 2003 machine for years here. All it has to do is run a few apps and provide stuff like a file manager and current task list and i'm happy. Finally dumped Office this week as well, in favour of Libre Office, which is almost instant loading. All serious s/ware dev is done on FreeBSD, Linux pre systemd, or Solaris, but still need a Windows for some legacy software. Apart from initial service packs and a few updates, it's not been changed for years as well. An OS should just run tasks, manage memory, io, networking, screen etc and otherwise keep out of the way. Can't believe how bloated windows has become, but Linux is going the same way. I know this solution wouldn't work at corporate level, but can work fine elsewhere. Cheap, effective and gets the job done...

Oi, drag this creaking, 217-year-old UK census into the data-driven age

Re: Anonymised linking == Deanonymisation

Link the data from the various data sets *after* anonymisation ?...

TalkTalk sees red after chucking £75m on restructuring bonfire

Couldn't happen to a nicer company...

SCO vs. IBM case over who owns Linux comes back to life. Again

Re: Just in time for Halloween ...

"Someone sell 'em systemd"

+100, definately comment of the week :-)...

Man facing $17.5m HPE fraud case has contempt sentence cut by Court of Appeal

Re: This used to be how commerce worked isn't it?

Once again, someone else was better at getting the deal done than HP, just like the Autonomy case. Not too smart these days at HP, it seems. Greedy for the business blinds oversight, then butt hurt when someone else takes all the profit. You couldn't make it up...

Open-source world resurrects Oracle-free Solaris project OmniOS

Thanks for that, never heard of the some of those. Would be good to have a Solaris like OS available for Sparc, to make use of all the cheap but good Sun hardware, espcially if it has zones and zfs. There's quite a bit of work going on with Debian Sparc, though you have put up with systemd. However, i'm getting good results with FreeBSD Sparc. Seems rock solid, though it's not fully supported and you have to build packages. Running Xvnc at the server, with a client on X86 windows / Linux for X login and gui. Still trying to build mate etc, but so many dependencies...

Sounds great, but is there a Sparc version ?...

Virgin Media to close flagship Oxford St store in August

I’ve been with VM since NTL first came to Oxford with dialup, over 16 years ago and in general, it just works. Speedtest at 50-70Mb/s consistently. Don’t use the wifi or tv though so can’t comment on that. However, when I wanted a fixed ip address for a server / work, I called VM and after negotiating a deep tree of menus, still couldn’t get a real person to talk to. Called BT and a real person answered the phone in seconds, so they got the business. That just works as well with similar speedtest results. May be different now, but it seemed like VM just weren’t serious about business internet at the time…

Canadian sniper makes kill shot at distance of 3.5 KILOMETRES

Re: Am I missing something?

Bringing it back to computing, old ww2 / 50's books on analog computers, fire control radar etc, often use balistics and time of flight equations as an example....

Silicon Graphics' IRIX and Magic Desktop return as Linux desktop

I still have an Indy Webforce in store, but not sure if it would still boot, nor if the psu caps are still ok. The monitor was given away years ago, but a TFT would work fine. Had Photoshop, Illustrator, a good flight sim, web and video apps etc, out of the box + of course, the Indy Webcam. Years ahead of it's time and beautiful artsy desktop, but too expensive for most. They really were the king of colour graphics at the time...

BA IT systems failure: Uninterruptible Power Supply was interrupted

Re: Electrical Interlocks

...Or the generator crankshaft or coupling gets sheared off with the shock load. Seen examples of that...

Re: A data or application problem most likely

2) 480 volts. BS: There's no way that any UPS i've ever seen could operate or be wired so that could happen. The only possible thing that might have happened is that grid power was restored out of phase with the UPS inverter output, which could cause a big bang. However, UPS's are specifically designed to deal with that, with state change inhibited and the UPS phase adjusted until it's in sync with the grid input. No UPS could work without that logic.

UPS systems are usually either true online, or switched. With true online, the UPS inverter always supplies the load, with the grid input powering the inverter and float charging the batteries. With switched, the grid normally supplies the load directly and the batteries are idle, on float charge. For the latter, when the grid goes down, the inverter starts up from batteries to power the load, which is switched over from grid input, to UPS inverter, within a few cycles at most. All these things have smart microprocessor control, which continually samples mains quality and has lockout delays to ensure that brief transients don't cause an unnecessary switchover, Also, delays to ensure that grid power is clean and stable before re connecting to the load.

We've now had several stories abouty this, none of which seem real and ignoring the giant elephant in the room, which is that their disaster recover failed completely. The tech to do this has been around for decades, so how could it go so badly wrong, in a company of that stature ?...

BA Article Deleted ???...

Thanks, couldn't find any links to it this morning from any of the pages. Can take my tinfoil hat off now :-)...

BA Article Deleted ???...

Am I missing something, or has the BA IT meltdown article and comments been deleted ?. If so, why ?...

UK hospital meltdown after ransomware worm uses NSA vuln to raid IT

Re: It doesn't have to be connected to t'internet

Opening an email doesn't run anything if scripting is disabled and if you click on an attachment without being sure who it's from then it's your own fault :-). For linfrastructure and large arganisations, secure setup can be handled via initial machine provisioning and automated, with application software settings locked down. The OS config should be bare bones, with all but needed services disabled by default. Perimeter firewalls should have all but needed ports blocked by default, ideally with separate hardware firewalls between each internal subnet. Wouldn't surprise me to hear that they have smb shares across the global internet with no vpn, but that's a worse case scenario.

Even Win Xp is fine in a properly configured and protected environment, but the whole system must be configured to design out the vulnerabilities. Assume that any network can be broken, given enough resources. Think systems engineering...

Re: Using Windows?

Ok, so what is the main culprit, or is that just a bollocks response as well ?...

Re: It doesn't have to be connected to t'internet

One of the simplest, things to do on machines is to disable autoruns on all drives, a primary access method for malware. Teach users to delete any emails that they don't recognise, disable script and stick to plain text emails only.

The stupidity anmd cluelessness of this amazes me. All critical infrastructure should be on private networks with no direct access to the internet. Where access is needed, it should be via a single point, with firewalls and mail and attachment scanners that actually work. Those resposible for all this must be asleep at the wheel, unbelievable...

Brit ISP TalkTalk scraps line rental charges

The guys that started Pipex must be ashamed to have ever been asociated with them. I wouldn't touch them with yours and that's being mild about it...

HP Inc's rinky-dink ink stink: Unofficial cartridges, official refills spurned by printer DRM

Re: The odd thing is

That's not the only problem. Installed a later version of Google earth at one stage, with the installer forgetting to tell me that Chrome, whatever was being installed. After uninstalling it and deleting every related file, spent half an afternoon trawling through the registry deleting all keys related Google. If I didn't ask for it, I don't want it on the system. It's the only way to keep systems uncluttered and secure...

Re: Its not just the firmware...

Upgraded to Windows 10...

"Upgraded" ?. Shirley some mistake :-)...

Re: Another Option

Not a bad plan at all, since the upfront cost of most inkjets is kept low to get the sale, then profit on the supplies. With engineer hat on though, most of them are cheap plastic rubbish these days, but something has to give if the retail is 100 ukp or less. You cannot build a quality engineered product for that sort of price.

I stopped using inkjets years ago, as they are expensive to run and tend to clog up if infrequently used. Rarely need colour, but recently inherited a Dell 1355 colour laser / all in one and the colour prints are pretty good. Judging byt the weight, plenty of metal in it as well, though the external plastic bits look a bit fragile.. Everyday printer here is an old Laserjet 5000N with network card. Low page count and 80 ukp delivered from Ebay with a nearly full cartridge. Rock solid printer if you have the space. Don't have the duplex unit, though could probably find that for < 25 ukp. Does A3 / A4 and is industrial quality, from an age when HP really did make quality kit, unlike the box shipping rubbish of today...

Electrical box fault blamed for GS2 data centre outage

Completely unacceptable that such a large data center should go down on a quarter second interrupton. Battery UPS first line, followed by generators with sump heaters that should be online in less than a minute. Of course, battery based ups for that sort of power cost serious money to buy and maintain, but there's no excuse for skimping for a major data center. A single hv feed as well. What were they thinking.

Oh yes, what exactly is "on-site diesel rotary uninterruptible power supply devices" ?. Are they running 24x7, or what ?...

FBI overpaid $999,900 to crack San Bernardino iPhone 5c password

Re: Built in Obsolescence

Yes, but ssd's have their own internal processor responsible (amongst other things) for the wear levelling algorithm, which is proprietary to the manufacturer. An SSD in a heavily loaded server is probably good for billions of write cycles before the capacity is noticably degraded. If the flash in the Apple phone is standalone, then Apple system software must be responsible for the wear leveling code, which may or may not be world class. Rather, just enough to get the job done for the life of the phone.

As for chip removal, standard run of the mill industry stuff for decades, even for ball grid array devices. The chips are designed to withstand solder reflow temperatures and are very unlikey to be damaged if the temperature and exposure time is controlled and within limits.

Of course, the other way to do it is to probe the board directly without removing the flash, though you may have to disconnect / cut tracks to other parts of the circuit in the process. Again, run of the mill stuff for the ATE business for years...

Chris

VW Dieselgate engineer sings like a canary: Entire design team was in on it – not just a few bad apples, allegedly

Re: It seem to me

Fetish ?. Far worse that that. More like a fundamentalist religion with the worshippers very sensitive about any kind of criticism or (gasp) questioning the scientific basis for it all. 1960's Club of Rome stuff all over again. You don't have to be paranoid either. Just read UN Agenda 21 to see what the real deal is all about...

Why Oracle will win its Java copyright case – and why you'll be glad when it does

Re: Uh, not sure if I follow:

As a developer, the interface to any software system is the definition of it’s functionality and getting that right can make fthe difference between a product’s success or failure. As such, it’s often the major part of the design effort and copyright should be available should the developers need it for commercial reasons. If you don’t like the license terms, fine, go away and develop your own equivalent, but without using any of the copyrighted work. As a general and ethical principle, seems sensible to me and the “fair use” argument really doesn’t stand up when what was taken was effectively the design definition for the product.

I guess we just have to disagree about this and I’m not up to date with the legalities either, hence the general principles. That fact that this spat involves two of the most aggressively profit motivated companies doesn’t make it any easier to sort out either. However, design ip is a valuable commodity these days and there should be legal protections available for those who have invested time and effort and make a living from it. None of that stops it being given away for free though…

As a developer, though in the embedded area, I look at this w/regard to the overall process of development. To build a system of code or library, you start with a definition of the required functionality. You then design an interface that satisfies the requirements, then write the underlying code. That happens on a micro level every time we design and write a new function / arguments and is thus part of the code. The interface is as much part of the design and creative effort as the code itself, often even more so and if copyright is to mean anything, then the whole work, including the interface spec, should be included.

All that is fine so long as everyone is honest, plays by the rules and doesn’t try to steal your work, or part of it. Stuff like license agreements or permissions can be created to allow others to make use of an interface to add to or improve it, or even completly rewrite the underlying code. What appears to have happened here is that one of the richest companies on the planet has just stomped all over the gentlemanly way that such issues could be resolved with it’s size nines and then tried to bluff it out in court. It suggests contempt for other's rights and arrogance in that they think are big enough to get away with it. Sorry, but they deserve to loose, as such behaviour sets a bad example in terms of industry ethics...

Nest defends web CCTV Cam amid unstoppable 24/7 surveillance fears

Sounds like an excuse to me, maybe they didn't "mean" it ?.. Can be proven one way or another just by hanging a scope on the video signal output and wave hand in front of the camera. That or use debug tools to see what's happening at process and network level. Personally, I wouldn't trust them an inch without verification. Nullius in verba and all that..

As US court bans smart meter blueprints from public, sysadmin tells of fight for security info

Re: Or worse...

Smart meters have high speed data logging capablity and can be programmed to take a reading every minute, for example, of instantaneous power and phase angle. They can tell the difference between a resistive and inductive load, when it was being used and for how long. So yes, quite a bit of data mining capability. You should look into the UK smart metering program. All the docs are online. Will allow dynamic charging rates, remote load shedding etc and much, much more...

Intel loses its ARM wrestling match, kicks out Atom mobe chips

The fact that it was based on X86 says it all really. An ancient cpu arch that can trace it's roots back to the 1970's. It would have been put out of it's misery years ago, but for the monopoly postion held in the PC and server markets. Not a nice arch for hardware designers, nor for software engineers either, when compared to cleaner and more orthoganal architectures such as arm. Intel should have started a complete redesign with sharp pencil and clean sheet of paper years ago, but gee, so much locked in profit from X86...

Google reveals own security regime policy trusts no network, anywhere, ever

Re: That's nice.

You have to remember that Google are primarily a *data* collection and sales company and after the various revelations, perhaps not too fussy how they aquire that data either. Nor where it ends up / who it is sold to. If you value your privacy, know what your are dealing with.

Sounds like a good idea though, but I wouldn't trust them an inch either...

Reprogrammble routers axed by TP-Link as FCC bans custom firmware

Re: But it's my router, I've bought it

In fact, most of the open source firmware for these routers provides more functionality and not more power, or operation outside the specified bands...

Re: But it's my router, I've bought it

Driving / using a car is not the same as modification eg: rechipping for more power :-). Poor example...

Re: But it's my router, I've bought it

I call BS. The synthesisers on those devices aren't programmable anywhere near gsm at ~800Mhz. They run at 2.4Ghz and have narrow band tx and rx filters, which you would need to physically remove, even if the synth chips were programmable to 800MHz.. It's no probalem anyway, as there are dozens of brands that are reprogrammable, as well as old faithfulls like the Linksys WRT54. We have had two of those running Tomato firmware for several years with no issue..

.

Ad-blockers are a Mafia-style 'protection racket' – UK's Minister of Fun

Re: That speech in full

No, the idea is that citizens should be encouraged to learn how to make their own choices, not have nanny state decide what's good for them...

'I bet Russian hackers weren't expecting their target to suck so epically hard as this'

Re: Unsigned....

Sigh. No, it won't have 101 iterations. It will keep counting down, past the initial 100 on it's way, until it wraps round. If it's a (signed) char, 8 bits, it will wrap forever, since the signed value, including the wrap around value, is always less than 200. Similar traps for the careless if you specify 16 or 32 bit int or long, but who in their right mind would code rubbish such as that ?...

Re: Unsigned....

Would help to have a u++, rather than u-- :-). Also, such counters are often used to index arrays, which start at 0...

Re: RIGHT!

Coming from an assembler background, where a bad choice of signed or unsigned branch can cause all kinds of subtle bugs, the rule here is never to use a signed type for what is basically an unsigned counting task.

You can fix the above easily by starting at zero and counting up to a less than the desired limit and it looks far more rational than using a signed type

unsigned int x = 0;

for (x = 0; x < limit; x++) {...

Or, use a do / while to get a similar result, which can produce better asm code, depending on the complier...

Reminder: How to get a grip on your files, data that Windows 10 phones home to Microsoft

Re: Did you see the trial balloon?

Who cares, other than paranoid commercial environments that must have the latest and greatest hardware / os and slavishly install all patches because microslop say they need them ?. Once you get a system installed and stable, there's a good argument for locking it down frozen at that spec for good... As for performance, there really has been little advancement in processor performance over what is actually needed in years and most users would be quite happy with 5 year old or even older hardware to run their os and apps.

None of the hardware here is less than that in age and we are using 7 and even Xp for some work. All updates are switched off after install of the initial service packs and all machines are running only the services that are required to actually get the job done Windows is actually pretty good stripped down to essentials and we haven't had any malware probles for as long as I can remember..

Why does anyone need windows 10, when erlier versions are quite capable of running all the usual apps and will do for the forseable future ?...

Confused as to WTF is happening with Apple, the FBI and a killer's iPhone? Let's fix that

Re: Simple solution...

...That key is a 256 Bit AES key. You can't brute force that

That's irrelevant, as the user entered key is only 4 decimal digits. There must be code in the system that relates that to the stored key. If you have access to the binary image, assuming that that is not encrypted in flash and that the aes stuff is done in software, the code could be disassembled to work out the algorithm. More difficult, but the same applies even if the encryption is done in hardware, since the pattern of accesses to that hardware could be analysed. It's not rocket science either, as code analysis is a standard technique to reverse engineer and, for example, maintain older systems for which no source or hardware docs exist.

There really is no completely secure method, given enough resources and i'd be surprised if people like the NSA haven't already done a complete analysis of all the major phone manufacturers products...

Chris

Re: It's probably just a false flag case...

The more that they can convince people that it's uncrackable, the more likely it is that everyone will assume that it is, including the bad guys.

To avoid complacency, you have to ssume that *all* security devices can be cracked, given sufficient resources :-(...

Re: It's probably just a false flag case...

It must be stored somewhere. Either in the flash, a serial eeprom, or perhaps they are using a hash of the processor internal hardware serial numer + algorithm + 4 digit code.

If the processor has a jtag port for things like initial factory firmware load or debug purposes, then that provides access to all memory and peripheral devices on the system. Not saying it's easy, but it could be done...

Brits unveil 'revolutionary' hydrogen-powered car

Re: So the fuel cell will never need charging..?

They must have thought of that. There's no reason why the supercapacitors can't be charged during normal driving, even if at a fraction of the charge rate. It smooths out the fuel cell energy profile, reducing peak demand and probably extends fuel cell life. Braking energy recovery just adds to that.

The good thing about supercaps is that they will take very high charge rate over a short time period. Any other battery tech takes much longer to charge, due to limits on charge current because of the heating generated from the internal resistance and chemical energy conversion process. Another advantage is that supercaps, being based on electrostatic principles, don't suffer from the wearout mechanisms of normal batteries.

Brave idea and one more small step towards an electric vehicle future. Estimate 15-20 years before most light vehilces are all electric...

VW floats catalytic converter as fix for fibbing diesels

Re: EU

That might be because diesel is cheaper to start with. However, iirc, in the uk, goverment tax on diesel is more than that on petrol, to remove that advantage...

Re: Anyone else notice the DEAFENING SILENCE from the other car makers?

No, just not so good technically. If you want the best engines in the world, currently, go to Germany or Japan...

Re: Why did I buy a diesel ?

@AC: 48 mpg mixed, 170BHP, 0-6 around 7.5 seconds..

But not all at the same time :-). The mpg gauge on my everyday car drops to about 5-8mpg if it's given some serious boot. Good economy isn't new, the old 60's twin cam Alfas would return 35-40mpg if driven gently. That was on twin Webers or Dellorto carbs + coil ignition btw...

To bring it back on topic, I think there was a VW Polo (diesel) advertised a few years ago which claimed 70+ mpg, better even than the self rightous and overcomplex Prius. People want economy and performance and diesel starts off at an advantage because of it's higher thermal efficiency.

It's crazy. Up until recently, engines were optimised for CO2, but now it seems we are obsessed with NO. When no one really knows what limits are safe, we get the usual over the top gold plating of everything, rather than risk assessment, cost vs benefit.. Aren't fashions, fads, agendas and ignorance a wonderful thing.?...

Re: why did I buy a diesel?

You would never want to own one of the old 60's diesel Landy's, unless you want to be shaken to bits, not to mention the complete lack of forward progress. Old petrol ones are great though and have owned two in the past. Currently on a 3.0 td Isuzu, after 7 years with one of the old 3.1 models, which had mechanical injection and 340k on it when sold. The 3.0 is common rail, ecu and sensors in every orifice. Had a serious starting problem at one point, which turned out to be the rail pressure sensor.. The local Isuzu dealer charged me an hour's labour, but could not diagnose it with their own Tech II. Completely incompetent. I bought a Chinese Tech II copy on Ebay, which found it in minutes To me, the engine is the heart and soul of a vehicle and that 3.00, despite the reputation, really is magnifiicent. 4 Cyl 3.0 litre, balancer shaft smooth and the most torquey and flexible engine i've ever driven. Well over 30 mpg on a run as well, which is good enough. For what I use it for, could probably get the same result with a small van or large estate, but no better economy and far less towing ability. It earns it's keep, so what;s not to like ?...

Re: Which cave did they dig you out from?

Well what do you expect from the US these days ?. Just look at the sort of dictatorial eco fascists running the EPA to get an idea what the agenda is. While i'm all in favour of reducing pollution, regs should be realistic to avoid increasing costs for everyone. Modern vehicles are a very good compromise between cost, efficiency, drivability and emissions, but it's still an engineering devil's bargain. Sounds to me like the US is trying to sink VW. The usual underhand protectionism tactics because VW are and have been very successful in the US for decades. I smell scapegoat, but at least it's given all the other manufacturers time to take similar hacks out of their own ecu code ^-).

A friend of mine who used to help me with engine rebuilds on my old cars, worked for a auto consultancy in the uk, before moving to China to run an engine test lab. He tells me that all manufacturers have been gaming the standards system for decades. It's seen as something of a challenge, with the industry seeing how far they can push the envelope without falling foul of the regs. They are all at it, since it's not possible to satisfy unrealistic requirements without adding cost or affecting stuff like drivability. The ecu sfotware may be designed to meet standards requirement testing, but it''s not the same as on the road conditions and driving styles, which can range from cold starts, crawling through city traffic, to open road. where you need power for overtaking. If you really could to test for all that, I doubt if any vehicles would pass muster unless the engine were strangled completely. In the EU, the regs are negotiated with the manufacturers, who have quite a bit of input to the process on the basis of how much benefit is achievable vs cost and vehicle performance. In essence, it's done on a best effort, what's possible with current or emerging technology.basis. The standards become more onerous on a rolling basis, but there are no scientific absolutes in benefit terms, just ongoing efforts to improve efficiency and reduce polution. However, all this will be irerelevant in a couple of decades, as the world will be electric by that time.

Anyway, Storm in a teacup. VW were dumb enough to admit to the "feature", but unless the EPA had access to the ecu source code and design docs, how could they prove anything ?...

UK energy minister rejects 'waste of money' smart meters claim

A bit more info: The system will be built around, (per house or consumer), a zigbee encrypted wireless network (Home Area Network or HAN), with the electricity and gas meters reporting to a communications hub. Each hub will be interrogated and managed by the equipment (via 2.4 Ghz and ~800Mhz radio networks) at the Data Communications Company, who have been awarded the contract and are a subsiduary of Capita. DCC probably formed specifically for the task.

This seems like a whole load of infrastructure and systems to put in place just to read meters, so wonder what's next, once every home has it's private network comms hub ?. I guess water meters might be next, followed by "home security" systems, with cameras and microphones in every room.

Should I be worried about this, or am I missing something here ?...