Posts by Mark 85

Comet 67/P CAKED in LIFE-GIVING RUBBLE, say astroboffins

Re: .

Well-played, sir.

Kim Dotcom to create Wikimedia-style open source Mega 3.0

Re: The Pirating of Mega Media .... with a Dick Tracy Intercept?

I'll give you an upvote. Yes, he has a snowball's chance in hell... but not being beholden to any interest other than his own... this will be an interesting election. It could be that rather than picking Trump, the masses will go for Sanders who seems to me, to be a pretty good choice compared to the other idiots.

Hmm.... I sound like I'm picking the lesser of evils, doesn't it?

FCC swamped by 2,000+ net neutrality complaints against ISPs

Re: This is a hot topic

Or.. the FCC does what it wants to and doesn't give a crap about some commentards. They're not elected, they're appointed. They don't have to answer to the public.

Americans care more about EU data protection laws than the French

Re: Probably because...

Exactly. And we here in the States have an interest since we'll get clobbered by our lawmakers. We just want to know if the rest of the world has it as bad.

Chinese hackers behind OPM megabreach also pwned United Airlines

Re: I can understand only part of this...

Thanks for that info. I guess we should expect the other insurance companies to get tagged also.

Oh yeah... I'm well aware they own us. Along with everyone else. I'm also suspecting that Chinese may have actually been behind the supposed Nork attacks since their Internet goes through China.

I can understand only part of this...

They* hacked United and OPM... that gives them or may give them an idea of who in the government is flying where. But Anthem is an odd choice unless they run the government's health insurance program.

*Allegedly Chinese

HP insists 'we don't have a global dress code' – while deleting one from its website

Re: Friday

I assume you're sticking to the traditional desktop?

There's a mental image there.... need beer to clear it from my brain... lots of beer.

Just a t-shirt???? That might draw a crowd depending on who's wearing it.

Giant Facebook SOLAR LASER DRONE to FEED interwebs into YOUR FACE

Re: It has benefits

You might be right but power on the ground is usually a big problem during a disaster and not many places have a reliable UPS that can run more than a day. Contacting any kind of emergency services is also an issue. I would hope that they have a plan for this....

On the other hand, if he's only feeding his Internet.org or FB, then there's a problem.

World's worst exploit kit now targeting point-of-sale systems

Cash only then?

Is it time to go back to cash only? Or maybe checks?

Small number of computer-aided rifles could be hacked in contrived scenario

Meh...

Interesting concept, but if as a civilian, you don't really need one of these sights. I seriously doubt home-defense or even sporting hunters would ever use one because of the a) the cost b) the effectiveness a longer ranges (which isn't home defense) and for the hunters, they want c) bragging rights.

As for the so-called hack, I'm wondering who paid them for this? The TrackingPoint company? The anti-gun side of politics? Or.. maybe the defense department or LEA's in a moment of worry about civilian snipers?

Overall though, Lewis is spot on about the hack and the capabilities of the sight.

Obama endorses 3D TLC flash. How else can you do exaflop computing?

Re: Seems obvious that we need some type of SETI model

One of the fun things might be to process all that data the NSA has collected... and once they cut back, process all the data they get from what the 5-eyes will collect and give to them. There has to be a serious amount of data there.... possibly even more than "aerodynamic testing".

UK.gov wants to stop teenagers looking at tits online. No, really

Re: I wish politicians would learn...

I think they've learned very well... This is obviously a smokescreen for something else. Politicos do that you know.. sorta' like those doing magic tricks. He's re-directing your attention so won't see him put the rabbit in the hat for him to pull out later. The bigger question is "what is he not wanting you to see?" and chances are, it's not tits.

or... a lawsuit/regulation for search engines to remove the word "tit" from searches. Which will make it difficult look up "titular" or"titmouse". However, once that happens, "jubs" will be outlawed on searches and the Register Comments Section will never be able to be searched.

This is TRUE science: Harvard boffins fire up sizzling BACON LASER

Not contrived, exactly but the result of another endeavor.... they wee making bacon sarnies and had to come up with some explanation for the bacon smell permeating the lab!!!!

And a tasty one at that.

China announces petascale super for FAST radiotelescope

Might it also be the world's largest cereal bowl?

Still, that is one huge antenna being built.

'Fix these Windows 10 Horrors': Readers turn their guns on Redmond

Yes, but your car works when you want it and does what you want it to. It's presumably safe and reasonably secure. You can say when service will be performed or not performed.

Bloke cuffed for blowing low-flying camera drone to bits with shotgun

I'm not sure "height" is the requirement. Most cities do regulate how high a privacy fence can be however.

Where the gray (grey) area is with multistory housing. If you're looking in a window, say across the street with binoculars, you can be arrested for being a Peeping Tom. I'm assuming from what I've read, that this is problem with the drones.. fly along slowly and photograph the inside of apartments, etc. I would think this principle could be applied even on a single floor unit.

If I put up a privacy fence, I have an expectation of privacy from the "normal" view. Drones violate that "normal" viewing.

He should go free...

I believe that with a 6-foot tall (~2m) privacy fence there is an expectation of privacy. It it's was within range of the shotgun (50 yards/50m maybe?) then yes, it's too low. Then there's the idiots who decided to go hassle the guy with the gun... They did do the right thing (for some value of right) by calling the cops instead of trying to deal with him. But this also gives the courts a chance to intervene and lay out the interpretation of the law.

If he loses, then I guess we can expect these intrusions at the will of the owner without regard for our safety or privacy.

Octogenarian accused of performing sex act with a SHRUBBERY

Close, but no cigar....

US to rethink hacker tool export rules after mass freakout in security land

Re: The pen is mightier than the sword.

I would think that just about any OS would have been affected.....

Facebook is raking in so much filthy lucre, it can't spend it fast enough

R&D Spending Up?

Well duh... data centers, balloons/drones/pie in the sky with free internet, data centers, Zuck's Idea of the Week (TM pending), (did I mention data centers for all that data being collected and stored and monetized?) cost money.

If FB ever sees the likes of Elliot or Icahn, there will be a fire sale and much bidding over the server loads of data. I suspect that even Google would get in on the bidding for the data they don't have.

Sysadmin Day 2015: Fun things to do – and prizes to win from El Reg

Should we be using our normal cattle prods or our Sysadmin Day Commemorative Cattle Prods on Friday? Enquiring minds and all that....

Your voter-trolling autodialer is illegal: The cringey moment the FCC spanks a congresscritter

Re: Shirley you are mistaken

Interesting. I thought the same way you do, but Wheeler pointed out that it does apply to them also. I knew the "Do Not Call" list didn't apply to politicos, charities, and couple of others.

Personally, getting a robocalll from a politician might just make me vote for his/her opponent. I'm cranky that way.

So.. since no robocalls applies to politicos... when will the lawsuits start?

So just WHO ARE the 15 per cent of Americans still not online?

Re: Let them be

I suspect several reasons...

Some of the ones that don't have it, other than cost, don't trust it. I can't blame them there. Scams, malware, spying. Enough to scare the hell out of anyone who's rational.

Some of the ones that don't have it, don't understand it. Schooling, maybe environment such as out in the sticks and thus never exposed to it.

It's kind of like some of us who have and use the Internet, but not Facebook. We have our reasons and sometimes, we just can't quantify them to someone else.

A third of workers admit they'd leak sensitive biz data for peanuts

Re: Some people really are idiots

I think you overestimate people otherwise what we call "petty crime" like purse snatchings, muggings,... misdemeanor kinds of crime, would be non-existent. There are those will do anything for a shilling/shekel/dollar/etc. and others will do it for revenge or just plain nastiness.

W3C's failed Do Not Track crusade tumbles to ad-blockers' Vietnam

@Rich 11

Here's a good start: http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

Let kids delete their online rants, demand campaigners

@Ole Juul -- Re: May I suggest...

What you say is more of wishful thinking. Parents let the kids run amok on the 'net. It's the new electronic babysitter like TV used to be but now it's interactive and forever.

Researchers say Anthem health hack has Beijing's fingerprints

Alternately, you could replace "China" with any of the "5-eyes"..... or any of the eastern European countries notorious for their malware and ransom efforts. Where does one draw the line?

Personel data?

I can understand espionage. I can understand info governmental types. But a health insurance company and in there for 300 days? I'm not what they hoped to gain.

Windows 10: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE to Microsoft's long apology for Windows 8

No..the point is "what happens after the 1st year?" Do we get charged for the services? I should have been clearer.

Some things are just unknowns...and others.. who knows.

1) Author says this will not be a subscription service. Is this just for the first year or forever?

2) The App Store... I've not seen anything on costs yet. It would be nice to be able to figure out the cost of ownership including apps.

3) Updates from other PC's on the Internet. Now this is truly scary. What's to stop this from being an attack surface?

Personally, I'm not seeing any compelling reason to jump to Win 10 unless it's for "hey, guess what I've got" bragging rights. Corporate issued out a statement here that "in due time, but not yet" so any corporate devices will not be upgraded and nor will IT support Wn10 on BYOD for at least 6 months. They will let us run a PC's for testing and learning.. so I guess I get to fire one up in the next month or so.

Thought YOU'd had rude service in France? Ce n'était RIEN, M'sieu Pantalons Malodorants

I can see some things would be a help..

We do a similar thing in our area. "XXX needs physical assistance" or "usually hostile, be serious and not funny" or "not computer literate" or just little notes.. "hard of hearing". Things like that. They do tend to use generic labeling just so the person helping them has some idea of what they'll be walking into. But, I can see where comments can get out of hand for descriptions.

BTW, in many places, "Jewish" is still synonymous with "drives a hard bargain" or "likes to dicker over price". Not about religion.

World-beating TWO-QUADRILLION-WATT LASER fired by boffins

Oh dear...

The "N" word and a laser beam... I can hear the screams of all the anti-nuke crowd now.

But it pretty cool if they can figure this out and get it to work.

Voyager's Golden Record now free to download

Re: Take me to your lawyer

Time then to give some serious thought to shipping all the lawyers out in Voyager's path.... just in case the music does get listened to, of course.

Indian mobe networks don’t want 700MHz – because they're too poor

I say they need it and now....

The Indians might as well kit up for when they go overseas on outsource contracts.

Three-mile-high pyramid found on alien dwarf world, baffles boffins

It's a drip...

The paint was still wet and ran while they took the picture. Oh..this isn't the Apollo project.. Nevermind.

Hacked US Census Bureau staff to take anti-phishing classes

Re: training and support portal? REALLY!?

Users are a big part of the problem.. now that all their email addys are out there it'll be even worse. But there's always those who will click on things because "they might be important".

FCC now regulates ISPs – but don't take your complaints to the watchdog just yet

Given the bodies involved here, I'm suspecting that the new and "improved" agency will be mandated by Congress to take over the FTC and FCC role in internet areas which will create even more confusion when a telco is also an ISP.

BONK! BONK! Windows 10 whack-a-mole – Microsoft still fixing bugs

Re: Risk vs reward

I quite agree... Win7 stays put on my machines. What happens at work might be a different story depending on what Sales Dweeb gets to what C-Suite type. I think permanent retirement is becoming a viable option for me.

Oh, Obama's responded to the petition to pardon Snowden. What'll it be?

So the old.. "sure here's the pardon" but afterwards "my fingers were crossed so it's not real" ploy won't work? I'm beyond disgusted by our elected officials and those who elected them. This next election looks to be no different judging from the polls. The downward spiral continues...

As for Snowden, if anyone thought for a moment he'd get a real trial, open to the public with a real jury of his peers, things might be different. Currently the jury of peers is nonsense... the rest is beyond debatable... he's doomed.

This is nightmare, I admit it. To be one who wants privacy and yet, we need to defend against the bad guys. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground here which, given the state of American politics, is pretty damn normal. The art of compromise and open debate with an open mind has long since passed.

'Untraceable' VoIP caller ID-spoofing website accepts Bitcoin

Re: Yay!

Let's all add the SWATters to the list....

Facebook pumps up ENTIRELY SELFLESS, altruistic Internet.org

Re: Another option

Added incentive... a free selfie stick.

LinkedIn users rebel after personal data siphon crimped

24 hours too long?

“since that change, we’ve heard you loud and clear -- that is too long to have to wait for a download of connection information.”

I guess those whole complained are of the instant gratification crowd, or spammers, miscreats, etc. who want the information NOW!!!!! I shudder at the number of temper tantrums thrown.

Hole in (Number) Two: MYSTERY golf-course pooper strikes again

Oh, I don't know about "no going Carl Spackler". A small, pressure-sensitive detonation of a small amount of one's explosive of choice might be very entertaining.. Especially for the follks at the local urgent care/emergency room... Drop the turd and it comes flying back at you while scorching various exposed body parts.

SOHOpeless: Security stains on Honeywell's Tuxedo home automator

Tip of the old iceberg.... again.

And there are some who believe the IoT is a good thing...

NSA: We'll move your metadata into /dev/null when you stop suing us

I shudder to think at the size of the tape for that backup run...

Bloke who tried to get journo killed by SWAT cops coughs to conspiracy charge

Re: A complete and utter failure of the 911 Caller ID technology

911 centers in the States use the telcom ID tech. If telemarketer's can spoof phone numbers, why not anyone else? Perhaps, governments will force the telcom's to take the spoofing of phone numbers seriously. But, I suppose that unless it happens to high-level official or to his/her family or lobbyist, the problem will not be addressed.

Beijing cops' iPhone swoop knocks out counterfeit mobe makers

Re: It's worth the risk

...as these crims are unlikely to get any serious punishment.

These are small fish which is why they probably went after them. Being China, who knows what the punishment will be... slap on the wrist? Time in re-education camp? Bullet? The government is just trying to make a point that they're "doing something" when I don't believe they really care. Their copyright/patent laws basically ignore the rest of the world. Hell... there's been Chinese citizens patenting things invented elsewhere and then trying to claim royalties.