Posts by Mark 85

Official: America auto-scanned visitors' social media profiles. Also: It didn't work properly

See icon... it was either that or "No shit, Sherlock". A pity that common sense can't be injected or beat into someone... I've got a list that could use some.

Force employees to take DNA tests for bosses? We've got a new law to make that happen, beam House Republicans

Those three points are most reasonable. Not sell, not discriminate, and leave family out of it. WTF are the Repubs thinking? Or maybe it's "who's paying them off so that our DNA info can be sold off"? Is there some LEA that will want this for a national database?

Thank <$DEITY> that I'm retired. But I do expect that at some point this might be applied to Medicare... "Oh.. you're high risk. You need to pay X times more."

A pox on them.

User lubed PC with butter, because pressing a button didn't work

Take a few days and using C++ and/or any other language of choice and write a special database. Extra points for some assembly language tossed into the mix. You're here at El Reg so it shouldn't be hard.

Oh.. and store it in the cloud so the CIA can give you a restore if your hard drive crashes.

WikiLeaks promises to supply CIA's hacking tool code to vendors

Re: @palpy: corraboration from a legit news source --

But according to Dear Leader, those news sources are all fake news.... Now where's the "I'm being snide and cynical icon"?

I trust both parties about as far as I can toss them which is not very far. Same for the MSM. If there's a consensus on from both parties or most media, then I'll know the truth is somewhere in there... it may be well hidden, but it's there.

Thank you Assange and the Wikileaks team. Have a beer.

Let's hold the congrats and the beer until after they have done this. There's been more than few promises broken by this crew.

Vodafone gets less flexible on flexible working Ts&Cs for own staff

There you are... spot on. Many managers, especially in call centers, use staff to snitch on each other plus the so-called "productivity tools" of seeing who's logged in, how many calls, etc. Quality isn't important as long as they are in control and can manage everyone and everything down to and including restroom/bog time.

There's also the observation that many of the younger folks don't have a work ethic (I've seen a lot of that in the last years) where they come in late, take breaks etc. longer than allowed and don't carry their "share" of the load. Then again, there's a lot of older workers in that same category.

It is a problem and no cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all solution will work. Managers need to know their people and their job in depth and that goes from the top all the way down to team leaders (below actual management).

'Nigerian princes' snatch billions from Western biz via fake email – Interpol

As ever with online crime, finding the physical location of the criminals is a major issue.

Well.. there's the motion picture industry and their fleet of corporate copyright lawyers who seem to have this figured out. Maybe Interpol needs to hire them.

America's Marine Corp steamy selfies scandal, a Senate probe – and El Reg to the rescue

and whether the military justice system is equipped to hold perpetrators accountable," she said.

The good Senator is an idiot. Obviously she's never heard of the Uniform Code of Military Justice* then.

Sadly, I guess rampaging hormones take precedent over such things as honor these days.

*aka The Uniform Code of Marsupial Justice by those in the military.

BOAR-ZILLA stalks Fukushima's dead zone

Re: Small-caliber rifle? For wild boar?

Anything armor-piercing will work especially if you go for the headshot or one coming at you. Found that out hunting for them in flood plains of Memphis years ago.

They have them in Texas: https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2017/03/08/bizarre-video-hunters-discover-spider-pig-8-legs/

What went up, Musk come down again: SpaceX to blast sat into orbit with used rocket

<cough>F35<cough>

I would have thought they'd try a test launch without a payload just to prove the engineering, but if they have the confidence... go for the real thing.

Re: First ? Erm ...

Yep, but the shuttle boosters were solid fuel as opposed to liquid on the Space-X. Huge difference.

What a Flake: Congress mulls trashing privacy rules, letting ISPs go to town on your data

I see they're shoveling the bovine excrement by the truckload these days as this isn't about the consumer/customer/user as they say. I have to hand it to the ISP's...they're getting good value from the their bought and paid for legislators and regulators to help their bottom line. Government for the people... indeed. Hah!

Euro nations push for vote to axe Europe's patent office president

The Chairman is the one protecting Battistelli apparently. Drinking buddies? Someone has a skeleton in the closet? Or just the normal politics of: "I''m not going to do what you tell me to because I am the POWER!"?

Re: Never mind the axe...

I've got a grandmother who can knit and drop a stitch at the required time. I hope that will help.

FBI boss: 'Memories are not absolutely private in America'

Where in the FBI Federal Government will they find an adult to participate in this conversation?

FTFY.... I'm not seeing any adult conversation from any part of it right now.

President Trump-themed escort services may soon open in China

Re: More income that he won't pay Tax on???

Never mind, any critics will be lambasted by him on Twitter for spreading Fake News.

But but... he's using fake news to lambast critics, etc. The whole wiretap thing is apparently coming off of one source... just one... formerly run by his Chief of Stafff. What's fake anymore? What's real? I weary of this whole mess and wish for at least a bit of dignity from our elected officials instead of childhood tantrums via Twatter.

Tesla 'API crashes' after update, angry rich bods complain

So one needs an app to use the car?

Really? I'll pass thank you.

Rap for chat app chaps: Snap's shares are a joke – and a crap one at that

Re: Buy low, sell high.

Nope. Didn't go anywhere near that steaming pile.

Re: Buy low, sell high.

In Snap's case... the stock "investors" should have short sold it an hour or so after the market opened.

Wall Street isn't about value or anything at all except pure greed and making money. Kieren is spot on about who says what about the stocks. If you make some money on one.. it's a great stock. The so-called "active investors" are the carrion eaters of Wall Street that feed on everyone else.

Spies do spying, part 97: Shock horror as CIA turn phones, TVs, computers into surveillance bugs

No Surprises...

Just confirmation (more or less depending on your view of Wikileaks) of what most of us have suspected for a long time.

Damnitall anyhow!!!!! 1984 was a work of fiction and not a frikkin' instruction manual.

No tinfoil hat here... I'll just go hide out in the bunker with some excellent adult beverages and try to ignore the world for a while.

Internet declared a citizen's right for 34 million Indians

Free internet but you won't be able to use it until we get electric power to every place in the state... Meantime, the government will move it's services online. This should be interesting to watch.

Come in King Battistelli, your time at the Euro Patent Office is up

Re: He's probably got a patent on

Would 1 Ba be equivalent to 100 PHB's? Or do we different orders definitions of magnitude?

1 KJ-u would need quite a few Ba's as KJ-u uses the tried and proven death penalty for settling any and all disputes with underlings... for reference I offer Stalin and Mao to name two.

A mooving tail of cows, calves and the Internet of Things

Amazing...

Finally something useful in IoS land. Sounds reasonably secure so we won't get DDoS attacks via the bovine instead of the stuff used by human cattle like toys, light bulbs, etc.

I know some farmers/ranchers who have had many a sleepless night during calving times. I'll pass this article to a couple of them that have the knowledge and see what they think.

Redmond's on fire, your 365 is terrified: Microsoft email outage en masse

MS keeps moving towards the no-tell hotel...

Following the secretiveness of their OS and patches, I note that the article update states MS has "resolved" the issue without stating what the problem was or how it was fixed, unlike others (AWS, etc.). It must be the new openness concept... you get info on a need to know basis and only if all forms are filled out in triplicate and vetted by 14 other people to be named.

That big scary 1.4bn leak was 100s of millions of email, postal addresses

Re: … by why the drum roll … ?

So why the dramatic wait for the announcement?

Someone needed some special attention.... can you think of a better way to get your name into the news? Well... one that's not illegal or involve politics?

US Marines seek a few supposedly good men ... who leaked naked pics of a few good women

The catch here is that this is or at one time was "conduct unbecoming". Back then, if I wanted a photo of a WM I had to ask permission first, but that was in the film days before smartphones and all they can do.

I've met more than a few WM's who are just as bad-ass as any man in combat. But that was a long time ago. I've heard that the "new" group (since about 2000) are tougher, better trained, better mindset. But that's just a subjective opinion.

I am finding this kind of thing rather appalling in this day and age but given the "entitlement" mentality of the younger people, it's not surprising. Dishonorable discharge should be the minimum punishment.

It's time for our annual checkup on the circus that is the Internet Governance Forum

Ah.. another excuse for a UN approved and funded jaunt to beautiful Geneva. Amazing how one organization can spend so much money, time, and hot air with nothing accomplished. Banish the whole lot.

If the world deems Unicef, WHO, and maybe the legendary peacekeepers, worth the effort keep them but otherwise get rid of the whole mess. And if all countries are doing by having a UN presence is giving some pompous and boring bureaucrats a job, give them one in their home country.

Q: How many IBMers need to volunteer for corporate guillotine?

There's probably "control" issues as well... kind of hard to beat someone up who's working from home with fresh hot beverages, creature comforts and not in the day-to-day BS that often goes on.

Re: No sign yet...

Right...get rid of the troops in the trenches and keep the officer corps because... the company needs the leadership not the people actually doing things.

Obligatory: rowing

Ex penetrated us almost 700 times through secret backdoor, biz alleges

From what I've seen, Auditor types are basically bookkeepers, etc. who haven't a clue. Yes, indepth cross-checking of logs, accounts and employee lists/authorized user lists might have caught it. But most audits don't include such things (at least the ones I've been through).

The bigger problem is that the person at the top of the food chain with max god power compared to everyone else pulled this off. The trust chain was broken and those in the C-Suite didn't think ahead here.

UK's Virgin Media subscribers suffer fresh email blocking misery

@Lee D

Funny thing about that... most users I daresay do indeed think email (and text messages) are guaranteed and delivery is instantaneous. Oh.. and that any recipient is sitting with bated breath at their PC, smartphone, etc. waiting on that particular email/message.

COP BLOCKED: Uber app thwarted arrests of its drivers by fooling police with 'ghost cars'

You don't think this is the big one? Has a strong whiff of VW's dieselgate (using software to avoid regulatory compliance in the pursuit of profits).

Not yet. Yes this is very bad for Uber or should be. But given their seemingly Teflon coating and bottomless pit of lawyers, they'll probably weather it. Not sure what it will take for them to suddenly lose funding and be gone.

Uber is obviously doing shady things. This and the other bits that have been revealed my just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg as lately something shady and new has been coming out every day.

Icon --------> Waiting for the big one....

If we must have an IoT bog roll holder, can we at least make it secure?

Re: What's the risk of a hacked IoT bog roll holder?

So long as it doesn't have a camera or a microphone (ewww!) the worst possible outcome would be for it to falsely report the state of the roll.

The risk? How about it talks to Amazon and starts delivering cases.. not rolls or bundles, to your door. Your bank account and storage area for said packages will soon be in danger.

Re: Which way round

Oh crikey.. a bog roll pedant. What's next in pedantry?

Re: Let the market decide. If you want an internet-connected toiled holder, fine.

Yes but that's just VERBAL.....

That's true.. at least for now, but the way things are going with IoT, social media, etc... who knows what will be delivered next..

RAF pilot sacked for sending Airbus Voyager into sudden dive

Re: Grounded?

On a different tangent, whats the point in sacking him and then handing down a suspended sentence.

Sacking pretty much ensures he'll never get a job flying for an airline. His career path is now in the toilet.

Euro Patent Office puts itself on Interpol's level, demands access to staff phones and laptops

Battistelli crazy is the new batshit crazy and even seems to be outdoing certain politicians who will remain nameless. I have to wonder who's taking lessons from who here?

Re: Benoit - The new Italian Dictator

Presumably he knows where the bodies are berried

Berried? Strawberry or raspberry?

Passport and binary tree code, please: CompSci quizzes at US border just business as usual

@Valarian

And therein lies the stupidity of this. Certainly there's more than one programming language... does the customs people know this? Do they know the languages? If they're checking it, do they understand there's more than one way to do damn near do anything?

Short of compiling, running the code, and debugging it, this is a pretty pointless exercise.

Frustrated by reboot-happy Windows 10? Creators Update hopes to take away the pain

Re: After seen that dialog text, I've one more reason to avoid Windows 10

False friendliness, paternalistic tone, unneeded explanations, are never a good choice, IMHO. Yet, it shows the attitude of those behind Windows 10, and the paradigm shift in software development, and its business model.

I think it may also have something to do with the "snowflake" culture that's being spread about. "I want a friend." "I need my hand held." "Is this a safe thing?"... etc. etc.

The best error message I ever saw was on an in-house system used only by engineers. "Fucked up, didn't you? So reboot now and go do penance for your idiocy.". It never would have been sent out of house as too many people would take offence at: a) Some of the language, because "words hurt" and b) the implication of blame. Reality is sometimes a bitch, ya' know.

This ferry is said to weigh 250 cows. We say that is actually 20,600 Lindisfarne Gospels

@PNGuinn Re: @ Mark 85

Err... no. I was being politically incorrect which in this day and age is far more likely to be a greater crime than hurting national security.

Silicon Valley tech bro's solution for homeless: Getting himself in the news. Again.

One of the biggest problems with the homeless, he has repeatedly and correctly pointed out, is the failure of our society to adequately care for and look after the mentally ill.

I think I spotted the "why" part. Gopman is pleading for help so he doesn't become that which he despises. Or, he's just a con artist and collecting donations or grants... and an attention whore.

Yahoo! dysfunction! meant! security! warnings! were! ignored!

Re: [ ... ] it appears certain senior executives did not properly comprehend [ ... ]

Correct to the boob part. How much is she getting when the sale goes through? Something about millions? Dumb but not totally stupid. Still... Darwin should get a shot at her.

You're Donald Trump's sysadmin. You've got data leaks coming out the *ss. What to do

Given the nature of the leaks, what makes the WH think they're happening in the WH? If someone is privy to some juicy info worth leaking, they'll stop on the way home and pick up a burner phone, use it, then toss it.

So much of this that's happening smacks of security theater or a snow-job to scare people into silence. Which might work, right up until they've decided they've had enough.

LUNAR-CY! SpaceX announces a Moon trip-for-two it'll inevitably miss the deadline on

It's the most hostile environment I can think of, why would anybody want to go there.

Because it's there.

Online shops plundered by bank card-stealing malware after bungling backend Aptos hacked

I don't get it....

Why are these businesses going to have to take the crap for Aptos screw-up? I can see them (the businesses) notifying their customers but I'd think that Aptos needs to step up and take responsibility*. I'm guessing it's either in Aptos contract or their just being asses.

*Responsibility = dirty word in the business world as it sucks profit.