Posts by Anonymous Noel Coward

British military spends more on computers than weapons and ammo

This gives me a mental image of British soldiers just sitting around playing Counter Strike Source.

Rhode Island proposes $20 porn tax. Er, haven't we heard this before?

Could be worse...

They could be blocking all porn sites worldwide like the UK will fail to do.

Tor pedo's torpedo torpedoed: FBI spyware crossed the line but was in good faith, say judges

Or the IWF.

A game to 'vaccinate' people against fake news? Umm... Fake news

I've heard fake news vaccines cause autism.

Yorkshire cops have begun using on-the-spot fingerprint scanners

>Cops will be able to use the scanners on people on the street if they cannot provide identification, withhold their name [...]

I'm pretty sure I'm not legally obligated to do either one of those things. Hell, I stopped carrying anything in my wallet with my name on specifically because of that.

*edit*

Though iirc, one's legally required to identify themselves in the case of traffic accidents and violations.

Boffins crack smartphone location tracking – even if you've turned off the GPS

Joke's on them!

I keep my smartphone wrapped in tin foil at all times to keep it fresh.

GCHQ unit claims it has 'objectively' made the UK a less desirable target to cybercrims

...and also...

...end users, business and pretty much every other IT user on the planet.

Though not all the credit deserves to go to GCHQ; those retards at Westminster also had a hand in it.

Peers approve Brit film board as pr0n overlords despite concerns

Re: WTF

A better one would be showing them a picture of a cassette and a pencil and asking how they relate to each other.

Funnily enough, I was reading an article recently which stated that the government *knows* this won't work and is going to cause an increase in fraud, but is still going to go ahead with it anyway.

*edit*

Here: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3023913/uk-gov-admits-porn-age-checks-could-be-easily-bypassed-and-lead-to-fraud

>The government's Digital Economy Act requires that spank-viewing UK residents prove they are 18 or over

Doubtful. That stuff's illegal here.

Kernel-memory-leaking Intel processor design flaw forces Linux, Windows redesign

According to a blog post by Google, there's another two different kinds of attack which AMD are vulnerable too...

https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/reading-privileged-memory-with-side.html

https://spectreattack.com/

Oh!

And then there's Denuvo...

Encryption

I can't help wonder how this will effect people who've encrypted their entire hard drive with VeraCrypt, or at least run something out of an encrypted file 24/7.

Because surely the reading and writing, not to mention the use of an encryption driver will be pretty heavy on system calls.

Comms-slurping public bodies in UK need crash course in copy 'n' paste

>This "greatly increases the risk of error", he said – especially when so much of the data processing is done manually.

"But it increases our arrest statistics, and that's what matters."

UK.gov pushes ahead with legal right to 10Mbps

Re: Look what the Kiwis are doing.

More like the looked at the UK model and said "Don't be like that country."

TalkTalk banbans TeamTeamviewerviewer againagain

Re: Begs the question(s) ...

PlusNet recently (July I believe?) stopped their Deep Packet Inspection system which had been operating for years.

UK good for superfast broadband, crap for FTTP – Ofcom

Re: "NZ has 10% of the UK's population with 10 times the rugged terrain."

Romania have cheap FTTP iirc.

Facebook confesses: Facebook is bad for you

Reminds me why I stopped using Imgur...

...seeing other people with better futures than I do... yeah, it's pretty depressing.

FCC douses America's net neutrality in gas, tosses over a lit match

At least we don't have to worry about this in the UK...

...after all, we're protected by the European Union’s regulation on Open Internet Access.

And it's not like people here voted to leave the Europ-- oh, right...

A million UK homes still get crappy broadband speeds, groans Ofcom

Downloading a 13GB update for FFXV...

...I've still got around 30 hours to go.

Someone tell Thorpe Lane in Suffolk their internet sucks – they're still loading the page

Re: Re:slow Talk Talk

Okay, looking at it now that I'm at home, there's a (T) on the lower corner.

Re: Re:slow Talk Talk

I cant say I've ever noticed a BT logo on it before (then again, I've never really looked that closely at it), but yeah, that's what it looks like.

But someone did live in the house from it's building (which was the late 80s) to when we moved in in 1997, so unless they had something done...

*shrugs*

Re: Re:slow Talk Talk

No test socket, I'm afraid. It's just a hole in the wall with a faceplate on it. (Has been since we moved in about 20 years ago.)

And the router is actually a brand new one I bought after this problem started. I get the exact same profile on my old one.

So, pretty much what I've been getting for around six months...

https://imgur.com/a/KJ4Vc

Coventry: Once a 'Ghost Town', soon to be UK City of Culture

>Snobs who turn their noses up at anywhere outside the M25 [...]

Snobs isn't the word you're looking for.

Boffins foresee most software written by machines in 2040

Mwahaha

Operation Skynet is going all according to plan.

Ofcom just told BT to up its game on fibre investment

On the topic of BT's refusal to upgrade the crappy infrastructure - not to mention it's continuing avarice - I saw this image the other day which angered me a great deal.

https://i.imgur.com/ZGlfJd4.png

UK government bans all Russian anti-virus software from Secret-rated systems

McCarthyism.

Ofcom proposes ways to stop BT undercutting broadband rivals

This might seem a bit offtopic, but...

...if Broadband providers can charge me extortionate amounts of money for "upto" a speed, then I should be allowed to pay them "upto" whatever they're charging me. That seems fair.

Esp. since I've been paying £22.31/month for 768 kbps ~ 1023 kbps for around six months now.

I did do a speed check on all ISPs that I could think of (Zen, EE, etc.) and 2MB to 4MB seems to be the maximum I can get...

Hey girl, what's that behind your Windows task bar? Looks like a hidden crypto-miner...

Re: Block js.miners via hosts file on your router or OS

Uh, I'm pretty sure you don't need to restart your machine after updating the HOSTS file...

Digital minister: We're still talking to BT about sorting crap broadband

Broadband in the UK will never improve. There's even rumors about the "obligated 10 mbps" talks collapsing.

On another note, mine increased from 768 kbps to 1024 kbps.

Ads watchdog tells Plusnet: There's no way unlimited business broadband costs £4.50

It probably does, actually...

...not including the BT line rental scam, mind you.

UK Home Sec thinks a Minority Report-style AI will prevent people posting bad things

Re: Count me unimpressed

@John 110:

Hi, I'm here to nurse your burn...

*muzak*

Facebook's send-us-your-nudes service is coming to UK, America

Re: Why...

Doubt that would work, since you could just change one pixel and the hash would change. Meaning you could have 2,000 separate hashes for the same image.

For example, services that flag child pornography when it's uploaded use a special software (PhotoDNA) which converts the image to grayscale, then breaks it down into a grid and calculates a number per grid until they wind up with something like 1000,481,0,0,251..., meaning that modifying the image is pointless.

People would be better off getting the numerical sum of their nudes with that.

But the problem with that is, regular people aren't allowed access to that software unless they're a LEA or popular service like Facebook. (Which sucks, as I have a large anime artwork collection I'd love to sort through far more easily to remove duplicates.)

Better filters won't cure this: YouTube's kids nightmare

Try digging a hole for the body with a gun...

Re: Oh, look, parents are passing the buck again...

As a parent how would you tell your child they can't use them even though all their friends are?

Grow a spine, will you.

Guy Glitchy: Villagers torch Openreach effigy

Re: Lies, damn lies and BT excuses

@Hafmad:

I get 70 kB/s download. I'd kill for 700 kB/s...

USB stick found in West London contained Heathrow security data

At least it wasn't encrypted...

So we know it was done by the good guys. After all, only criminals, terrorists and child molesters use encryption.

UK.gov: Use police body cams to grill suspects at scene of crime

Friendly reminder

You can actually decline a police interview.

Whether the Gest-- *ahem* Police actually want to go ahead and conduct it is another matter entirely, though.

Release the KRACKen patches: The good, the bad, and the ugly on this WPA2 Wi-Fi drama

Seeing as the router is in my bedroom, and I'm the only one in the house who uses the Internet, couldn't I just cover my walls in tinfoil and be done with it?

New coding language Fetlang's syntax designed to read like 'poorly written erotica'

I tried using this

But all my fetishes kept resulting in illegal errors...

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

*sigh*

I'm guessing this end result of a failed abortion home secretary won't be facing any kind of punishment for contempt of court then?

UK's new Data Protection Bill will be 'liberal' not 'libertarian', says digi minister

>Hancock said the forthcoming data protection regime will bring the internet into “the twenty-first century [...]

I'm guessing that'll be about three centuries from now, given the UKs track record with implementing technology.

Indian call centre scammers are targeting BT customers

As a TalkTalk customer, I got these calls quite a lot.

Whilst they know the householder details, address and stuff accurately... they've never once been able to get my account number right whenever I ask them for it as a "security verification."

UK.gov to treat online abuse as seriously as IRL hate crime

https://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/docs/hate_crime_leaflet_support.pdf

"There is no legal definition of hostility so the CPS uses the everyday understanding of the word which includes ill-will, spite, contempt, prejudice, unfriendliness, antagonism, resentment and dislike."

Unfriendliness, resentment and dislike?

Oh yes, this idea is bullet proof...

Voyager antenna operator: 'I was the first human to see images from Neptune'

I pity the first human to see images from Uranus...

A sarcasm detector bot? That sounds absolutely brilliant. Definitely

Ooh, a sarcasm detector. That's a real *useful* invention...

Openreach pegs full fibre overhaul anywhere between £3bn and £6bn

Oh, neat...

Now I too can have the luxury of paying £28/month for three quarters of a Megabit down.

Universal Service Oh... forget the Obligation. BT offers to stump up £600m for 10Mbps

I'm not holding my breath.

UK.gov snaps on rubber gloves, prepares for mandatory porn checks

So anyone who has a bad credit rating is shit out of luck, then.