Posts by Mayday

Hey, big spender – OpenAI has a new SKU just for you

No

I'll give it a miss thanks

DEF CON dingus suspected of trying to take over Delta in-flight Wi-Fi

Re: New Kind (Sort Of) Of Scam

You'd find the cabin crew would (probably) get on the blower and inform the passengers that the real wifi was turned off and that any Delta-esque SSID was a sham/hacker SSID.

This would be the best way IMO, because leaving the "real" one on would mean the pax wouldn't be able to determine which was legitimate and which was not.

China launches mysterious probe into security of Palo Alto Networks' products

Let me guess

Reverse engineering of PAN-OS for "reproduction" or "offensive purposes" won't be happening?

Ransomware gangs skip the CEO, head straight for the 40-something IT manager

I'm in trouble

Apparently.

Icon seems appropriate.

Cisco used AI to write security incident reports, with mixed results

So is this why...

...they laid off 4000 people the other day for AI?

HackerOne takes an axe to its bug bounty rewards

Cool, just pay Conti or $Panda instead

Let's see how you go paying for them to find bugs for you?

AI is getting expensive, but relief is on the way - just not for you

Re: Even if AI cost the same per hour as an employee

"Now if the AI can deliver the same quality, and take the same responsibility for fuckups, then you have a winner. If AI keeps making complete bollocks up from time to time and you, as the company, are left carrying the legal liability from that then it is not so clear cut."

A robot doing shit "work" costs less now, and can do 40% of the job. Just ask Cisco, Cloudflare, Amazon, Atlassian and Meta (which I dont care as much for tbh).

Datacenters are having fewer, but bigger failures

Yep

Physical is the second weakest link - after the meatbags who type, click and break stuff.

Physical being the geography, the environment and whatever connects or provides those.

Execs admit AI makes them value human workers less

"Execs admit AI makes them value human workers less"

Isn't that why the execs got AI to begin with?

Microsoft researchers find AI models and agents can't handle long-running tasks

Crikey

If I got 20% of my work wrong I wouldn't have a job.

This is essentially doing 4 days a week properly, and completely ballsing up Friday. Not even a drunk Aussie public servant is that bad on a Friday.

Red Hat blasts RHEL 10.1 into orbit aboard Voyager's micro datacenter

Must Evolve

V'Ger must evolve. Its knowledge has reached the limits of this universe and it must evolve.

Quit VMware and you’ll emerge with more complex and less capable infrastructure

Lunch

So who from Gartner got taken out to lunch (including hookers and blow) from Broadcom?

AI layoffs backfire as cutting staff doesn't cut it, firms warned

Re: They won't listen

Won't be the "corporates" who get culled though.

Arctic Wolf kicks 250 employees out of the pack to save money for AI

Gratitude

Is very short. "Oh look Pre Sales/SE guy, you helped us sell $3 million last year, here's your notice due to a robot which makes mistakes all the time coming about"

Now I interviewed with this place a while ago. Looked like a disaster area from there and I was dubious all along. Looks like I dodged a bullet.

Palantir CEO: 10 percent of the world 'professionally hates us'

World hates us, shareholders don't

As per title.

Five Eyes spook shops warn rapid rollouts of agentic AI are too risky

Makes sense

Not that I expect anyone to listen, even once they're told.

Samsung sole winner as US smartphone market hits sixth quarterly decline in a row

New phones - why?

I recently bought a new iPhone 15 Pro to replace my rather old iPhone XR. Main reason being is due to favourable tax refund conditions provided under Aussie legislation (outside the scope of this post). For a while, I was buying new phones every year or two because they used to offer more than the previous model, but now each model upgrade is incremental at best, and certainly not worth the ~$2k AUD to “upgrade” every year.

Apple unveils M4 chip with neural engine capable of 38 TOPS, and some other kit

Thinnest

Apparently it's the thinnest Apple device yet. I like Apple stuff (you may or may not, thats up to you), but using an iPad flat on a table is going to be tricky with a thin chassis a big-arse camera bump in one corner. All to be negated by some $$ case making the thickness uniform so you can use the thing this way.

Edit: The polishing cloth is thinner. Fortuitously it doesn't need a notch or camera bump.

Dating apps kiss'n'tell all sorts of sensitive personal info

Demongraphics

Some people who use these apps (bear in mind we are users in an IT forum) are far more likely to spill the beans because asked. Also consider the superficial nature of many (yes I said it!) users in this domain. "Oh I'll only date a guy who is at least 6ft tall and of race X".

Desperation, wanting to be accepted, nasties who "manage" the information.

Oxide reimagines private cloud as... a 2,500-pound blade server?

Single throat to choke

Probably marketed as such. This can be (depending on your interpretation) better than the blamestorming which happens when you've got (say) Cisco switches, Netapp storage, some hypervisor and whatever else you have in your stack, all pointing the fingers at the vendor which isn't them when it stops working.

Wikileaks source and former CIA worker Joshua Schulte sentenced to 40 years jail

Really?

“child sexual abuse material”

Pardon me surprised that this stuff was magically “found” on his home environment once the CIA have accused him of other crimes.

LockBit shows no remorse for ransomware attack on children's hospital

Re: It's time

Pick me. See icon.

Apple sets new 16,000-foot iPhone drop test after 737 fuselage fail

Re: Terminal velocity

That’s what I said. “At very great heights”. As you descend you eventually are no longer at such a “great height”, and as such are you any longer in the stratosphere.

Terminal velocity

I’m a skydiver.

Height that you drop something (ie phone, human, brick etc) does not affect it by the time it hits the ground. At very great heights, think Kittinger/Red Bull Felix/Eustace terminal velocity is much higher as there is less air resistance in the stratosphere. Naturally this does not apply to us landlubbers hopping out at 14k. We can accelerate or slow down by adjusting our body position or orientation (head down is much faster than belly to earth). Now, a tumbling phone generates all sorts of turbulence and would have a much lower, and more variable terminal velocity than a person or a brick.

Oracle share price slides as it misses revenue expectations

Re: Worlds smallest violin.

Possibly. He might not need them anyway while he chills at Lanai.

Cloud engineer wreaks havoc on bank network after getting fired

Credentials after leaving

I don't even know how many time's I've left a place and still had my access available to me. Even remote access, to customer networks with admin level access. I've even contacted previous employers and asked them to revoke my access to avoid the possibility of any unpleasantness.

I suppose there's a few differences here:

I'm not a dickwit (open to debate)

I don't want to get caught and go to prison.

Thing is ANYONE who has ever accessed anything at greater than a user level would know that there's at least a log of a successful login happening. Do stuff like this you get what you deserve.

Broadcom halves subscription price for VMware's flagship hybrid cloud suite

Quote

"A "trade-in" program that allows holders of perpetual licenses to move to subscription products, with upgrade pricing incentives."

Cant see this one being super popular.

23andMe responds to breach with new suit-limiting user terms

How to commit crime

I'd have thought that you should not draw attention to yourself. Expired or no car rego plates would be one thing I'd remedy before running off with the loot. It's also how McVeigh got arrested after he decided to blow up Oklahoma City.

Running into the cop cars out the front of the cop shop in a van full of meth is also a good practice to avoid.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/man-jailed-after-crashing-into-police-cars-with-260kg-of-drugs-in-van-20200911-p55utc.html

YouTuber who crashed plane for sponsorship dollars earns 6 months behind bars

Re: Curious/Hollywood

I know the guy who filmed Tom Cruise for the Mission Impossible HALO jumps (cant recall which specific MI movie it was). This was all done "correctly" and Tom really did the jump itself. These kind of jumps take CONSIDERABLY more organising, training and specialised equipment compared to a boring old skydive at the local DZ.

I also know the guy who you may have seen on a Red Bull emblazoned wingsuit where they hop out of the plane, plane goes into a dive then he goes back in. This was not done in USA (unlike Tom's MI jumps), much like the other stunts you see where planes fly into cliffs etc. Therefore the FAA does not care and is subject to whatever the local jurisdiction is.

Last name drop I promise - there was a Chevy ad where they toss some car out the back of a Skyvan and these skydivers are flying around it, this was filmed in a remote part of Arizona. Most definitely FAA jurisdiction. I know this lot too but I'm unsure as to what approvals they required. One would assume they obtained them as the ad went on to US national TV.

Curious

Would his payments/royalties etc from the stunt be worth six months of his time?

Disclaimer:

I am a licensed skydiver and pilot and I have no intention whatsoever of being such a five-star fuckstick.

Scores of US credit unions offline after ransomware infects backend cloud outfit

Fog Computing

Is actually a thing. Don't ask - I certainly didn't make it up nor have I ever mentioned it in a wank-filled meeting with people who don't know what they're talking about. Not about to start either.

Ex-school IT admin binned student, staff accounts and trashed phone system

Re: NerdRageQuit

Indeed. I do wonder why someone with half a brain would think they could actually get away with it.

Hmmm... I think I just addressed my own statement.

Scribbling limits in free version of Evernote set to test users' patience

Re: Joplin

Good idea. Evernote will be wanting a Piece of my Heart next.

Re: $130 per year?

Indeed. I get why they're doing it, but I wouldn't actually mind buying something and then it's mine. That's it. I don't care that "everything is going that way" or the copycat "everyone else is doing it so we will too".

Well guess what? I won't be doing it.

Meta yanks VR headset's strap-on booster battery after charging bricks it

Elite Strap

I can't get over the fact you pay a premium for a headset such as this one, then you need to pay another premium for a strap that actually feels half-comfy/balanced and stops the thing from falling off your head.

Uncle Sam probes cyberattack on Pennsylvania water system by suspected Iranian crew

1111

Change to 3521 or some other four digit pin which can be brute-forced in approximately 0.000000001 seconds.

Edit:

Just found the manual.

https://www.i4automation.co.uk/unitronicspdf/VisiLogic%20-%20Getting_Started.pdf

If you change the password to something else, then on power-up the it reverts to the default of 1111!!!!!!!!! What a piece of shit.

Activist Investor Elliott calls for a management reboot at Crown Castle

Re: Elliott

Thank you for qualifying - should have mentioned my lack of familiarity is mainly due to my geography and lack of exposure being Aussie.

Elliott

As soon as I see this I know there will be something I won't approve of. Hate these arseholes. That includes now, where they have their teeth into a company I haven't even heard of before.

Singapore to deter crypto investors with tactics like those used on smokers, gamblers

Hooking ok

At least I can still go to Singapore and visit the Four Floors without too much grief.

Be buggered if I wanted to chew gum or set my money on fire with crypto though.

Stop shaming service providers for outages, argues APNIC chief scientist

Kind of see his point.

But what I do know (from experience) is that in the event of any cockup blamestorming always follows as does searching for a scapegoat to punish.

No employer of mine would ever come out and share with the broader community/competitors a "Hey we fucked up, this is what you guys can do to make sure it wont happen to you later". They'd say bugger all and find someone to shitcan.

Former infosec COO pleads guilty to attacking hospitals to drum up business

Wow

What a cunt.

The end. That's the comment.

Your password hygiene remains atrocious, says NordPass

Streaming Passwords

"Streaming platforms seem to be relegated to the bottom of the password priority list for most users"

Presumably this is because most streaming clients, such as "smart" TVs, and to a lesser extent tablets and phones, have a more cumbersome user interface than a computer (ie clunky menu operated via a remote control vs a PC keyboard) which makes John User just want to enter something that's easy to enter as opposed to change different on-screen display keyboards to increase complexity by way of caps. numbers, special characters etc. Not to mention password length.

Not making excuses, just a possible explanation. Not that Mr & Mrs Hacker would feel sorry for you and your shitbird.

LockBit redraws negotiation tactics after affiliates fail to squeeze victims

So - they're having a whinge...

...about not being paid enough?

Tell me when I'm supposed to feel sorry for these cunce.

AI copyright row deepens: Stability VP quits in protest over 'fair use' excuse

Good on him

Have to admire him for taking such a stand as this. Unfortunately for him, he's essentially paid for it with his job.

From yellow cabs to sky cabs: Air taxis take a Big Apple test flight

Re: Johnny Cab for the Skies!

These are not "helicopters" They are "powered lift aircraft"

Differences between the two are helicopters move themselves about by adjusting blade pitch on their main rotor, and stop themselves spinning (anti-torque), and manage yaw with the tail rotor. These quad things do all the above by adjusting the speed individually on their four rotors (basically speaking).

Why does this matter? Helicopters have been around for a while now and are established with numerous types being certificated, and pilots being trained and gaining experience on them. These new things, being new, not so much.

Atlassian buys 'asynchronous video' outfit Loom for almost $1 billion

Can’t afford to keep staff

So must lay them off, then spends $1B on something everyone is going to hate.

A $353M question: Did Meta muzzle a VR venture?

Wow.

Doesn’t sound like Facebook at all /s

Colleges snub Turnitin's AI-writing detector over fears it'll wrongly accuse students

Re: Turditin

This PoS used to add 3% or so to my score every time because it detected the default disclaimer we were obliged to include in each and every assignment was already included by other students at my university in their assignments.

Judge sides with Meta and Google, puts California child privacy law on hold

Fuck me

"NetChoice, an internet trade association whose members include Amazon, Google, Meta, TikTok and Twitter,"

There's an Unholy Trinity (Quinternity?) If I ever saw one.