Posts by Mark 85

As many as 100,000 IBM staff axed in recent years as Big Blue battles to reinvent itself from IT's 'old fuddy duddy'

Id I were in the age group they're now hiring, I'd have to think twice before even applying. They probably won't keep these new hires around after they reach a certain point in salary. Yet, the old guys in charge will hang around forever and collect their mega-dollar bonuses. Definitely a rigged system for a company that seems to be dying slowly.

If you could forget the $125 from Equifax and just take the free credit monitoring, that would be great – FTC

The "toothless fines" and laws seem to be the norm these days in all the agencies that are supposed to be for the taxpayer. FCC comes to mind also.

New UK Home Sec invokes infosec nerd rage by calling for an end to end-to-end encryption

Re: Same old tune

Well, it is a race to the bottom between the Brits and the US. The hackers are the winners no matter who hits the bottom first. I fear that if this crap succeeds, the days of the Internet are over as basically every company, every bank, every person online will be at risk.

Watch as 10 cops with guns and military camo storm suspected Capital One hacker's house…

Re: Darwin Award Contender

True. What got me was the tone of the article until one gets down the part about the weapons and her posts. At that point the "holy sh**" moment hit.

Satellites with lasers and machine guns coming! China's new plans? Trump's Space Force? Nope, the French

Re: I wonder how they will overcome Newtons 3rd Law

I have a mental image of Snoopy on his space capable doghouse having at go at the "evil" satellites. Twin Vickers for the win.

He's coming home, he's coming... Hutchins' coming home: British Wannacry killer held in US on malware dev rap set free by judge

Re: He is damn lucky

Too often people are judged on their actions done when they were young and naïve. If the law is involved, often their potential is shut down and they never move forward. In this case, the judge was truly an impartial judge and not a political hack in that position. I wish both Hutchin's and the judge well as we need more like them.

Very refreshing to see a high profile case go well instead of being influenced by politics.

Rise of the Machines hair-raiser: The day IBM's Dot Matrix turned

Re: Let's face it, who amongst us hasn't lost a tie to the...

Most places I worked followed that practice. No ties, no dangling jewelry and long hair had to be contained. The only exceptions were upper manglement who we all hoped would one day get too close the line printer.

Have you noticed that of late, those wear ties (your observations is spot on) seem to all wear the red "power tie"?

Sleeping Tesla driver wonders why his car ploughed into 11 traffic cones on a motorway

God loves idiots or He/She wouldn't have made so many of them.

The herd needs culling. Maybe if the car detects that you, the driver, have fallen asleep then it should release the seatbelts? Or just suddenly pull over and stop?

Fantastic Mr Fox? Not when he sh*ts on your lawn, kids' trampoline and your soul

Re: RTFM

I don't about Blighty but here in the States, one can call the local Animal Control office. They trap the critters and then release them off in the woods. But yes, the traps are the best way unless you're a farmer with some large acreage, then the .22 rifle works well.

Backdoors won't weaken your encryption, wails FBI boss. And he's right. They won't – they'll fscking torpedo it

Ok... they can have their damned backdoors if...

IF they (all government employees and elected officials and offices) backdoor all their computers first. That would seem fair. Oh.. don't forget "tax returns" and head guy's computers and phones.

I'm beginning to think that this isn't "law-enforcement motivated" but political to shut down those who oppose such things as human rights, free speech, etc.

Meet the super-speedy white dwarf binary system that's going to grav-wave our world

This confuses me....

Astronomers have discovered the fastest-known eclipsing white dwarf pair yet, with the dead stars whizzing around each other every 6.91 minutes,

If they're white dwarfs, then obviously they're still "burning" and not dead yet. Or is there a definition of "dead" that I missed.

Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours

Re: "albeit with some more ground time and financial loss"

There must be more money in it than I think.

And the board looks at their bonuses and nods approvingly.

Presumably they include extra time for how long the next flight could last in their calculations, just as they do with fuel.

Presumably they would. But then there's Murphy who doesn't play by the rules.

Re: "...need to be hard rebooted after exactly 149 hours"

yeah, I wouldn't start the reboot below FL300 to be on the safe side

Since the plane needs a complete reboot/power down, I don't think I'd want to do that while flying at any altitude.

Low Barr: Don't give me that crap about security, just put the backdoors in the encryption, roars US Attorney General

Add a rider to the bill for this....

Simple and will cost the government a small fortune. If the government approved encryption is hacked, your bank account cleaned out (or other injury in the legal sense caused), the government is responsible for costs and penalties.

Wait... the government won't agree and won't pay. F*** it. Just say no to Barr's plans.

Re: Big Business vs. Individuals

I think the "or what" category applies. He knows full well what he's doing and why. What the clown doesn't realize is that if works for the Trump administration then it will also work for administration Barr doesn't agree with.

Stupid? Probably just a loyal lapdog idiot.

Braking bad? Van with £112m worth of crystal meth in back hits cop car at police station

Re: I wonder...

What would have happened if they just stopped and got out of the van, apologised, asked if everyone was ok and exchanged insurance details.

I would believe the van still would have been searched. Seems to be pretty common lately. Cops pull you over, look around while talking and ask "what's in the package" (if one is visible) followed by "mind if I have a look?" Here in the States, they will also ask if you have any firearms in the car.

Houston, we've had a legend: Boffin behind NASA Mission Control signs off for final time

Re: Damn

I'm seriously running out of heroes.

Indeed. There's damn few left and there just doesn't seem to be very many to fill that void.

Equifax to world+dog: If we give you this $700m, can you pleeeeease stop suing us about that mega-hack thing?

Settlement is BS

Most of the money will used for "credit protection services" from guess who?

I believe Widen is right. It's about time execs start taking some heat to more than their bonuses. But it that happens, they'll end up at the so-called "country club prison". Maybe Alcatraz needs to be re-opened for executive miscreants?

You'll never guess what US mad lads Throwflame have strapped to a drone (clue: it does exactly what it says on the tin)

How long before the extreme right start using these

Or the extreme left ? Or just any one of a number of nutters? This just doesn't seem like it will end well.

Operation Desert Sh!tstorm: Routine test shoots down military's top-secret internets

However, being in a meeting kept them safely out of the way.

Only if you nail the doors shut and turn off the phones in the room.

Re: don't wait 20 mins !

Government SOP where "sensitive systems" are concerned. Keep the authorized personnel on different continent, in a different time zone, without 24 hour coverage.

I'm surprised the person who had the password wasn't required to fly to the site. Seems to be the way government usually works.

Re: Recovering after loss of power - paper bootstrap.

Murphy does teach some hard lessons.

Guess who reserved their seat on the first Moon flight? My mum, that's who

because driving your country into recession because of a vanity project is never a good way to get re-elected

Sort of like a project involving a wall?

We don't mean to poo-poo this, but... The Internet of S**t has literally arrived thanks to Pampers smart diapers

Re: Oh Man, this is nuts

Nobody likes overflow errors.

Well.. crap happens.

Re: So the already exorbitant price of pampers go up...

Whatever happened to cloth diapers? Rinse out the solids in the toilet, put them in the diaper hamper until there's enough to run through the washer and dryer. Oh wait... those were early recycling items. Not good for the current hipsters who complain about all the trash in the ocean, etc. yet still use such things as plastic straws and cups instead of paper, eat takeaway instead of cooking and running the dishwasher (or doing them by hand) etc.

Just an observation but babies usually start crying and screaming with the diaper is full.

Bulgaria hack: 20-year-old infosec whizz cuffed after 'adult population's' finance deets nicked

Re: Not that good at infosec

Caught or set-up to take the blame? I find it hard to believe that a black hat would be sending samples of the data they uncovered to newspapers.

Rust in peace: Memory bugs in C and C++ code cause security issues so Microsoft is considering alternatives once again

Re: Eh?

No thought as to the capabilities of the developers they employ?

I personally believe that is the root of the problem. Take a six-months to one-year course in "programming" and suddenly you can make some good money.

I've made my share of mistakes but usually managed to catch them. This new crop that I've dealt with off and on lately seem to ignore errors and logically thinking.

The Empire Strikes Back: Trump discovers $10bn JEDI cloud deal may go to nemesis Jeff Bezos, demands probe

Re: Here is a first

No flames here. It's been common practice to multi-source a lot of military gear since day 1 of this country. Not everything is multi-sourced, but much of it is.

You ain't getting around UK data laws on a technicality, top judge tells Google

.....some people might have actively wanted to receive targeted ads.

Someone might actually want ads? I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you. Does this barrister live in an alternate universe? And did he actually say that with a straight face?

Bad news: Earth is not going to be walloped by asteroid 2006 QV89. Good news: Boffins have lost sight of it, so all hope is not yet lost

Re: Uh-oh

Jokes aside, isn't that a little worrying about our chances to detect any incoming asteroids early enough to be able to do something about them?

Seriously, why bother looking for asteroid of doom? We can't do anything about it anyway.

Re: Boffins have lost sight of it, so all hope is not yet lost

It's out there but they can't see it. Whoever sent it probably has cloaking mode turned on.

Turning it off and on again IN SPAAACE! ISS animal-tracker kit needs oldest trick in the book

Re: They managed all that in 5 grams ?

So, when are we getting temperature, pressure and humidity sensors in our smartphones

Those features will be in the human tracking devices.

Experts: No need to worry about Europe's navigation sats going dark for days. Also: What the hell is going on with those satellites?!

Re: Definitely Russian or Chinese hacking

Maybe not hacking as such. There's been several times over the years when the GPS systems were set to do this intentionally. The cryptographic signal for military use was still dead on but the rest, not so much with maybe a mile (max) skewing.

Maybe someone leaned on the switch and someday we'll see a "Who Me" article on it.

Google nuked tech support ads to kill off scammers. OK. It also blew away legit repair shops. Not OK at all

Re: Problems

Cold calls are a scammer's stock in trade. Think "this is Microsoft support and you have a virus."..... As for ads, I tell people to ignore the ads unless they know the company. If they need something like repair, Google for "repair shops near me". Then visit the shop and ask to talk to a customer as reviews aren't always real reviews on Google. Then again, would anyone take their car to a repair shop they know nothing about? Use a building contractor they've never heard of? Around here, we also get the house painters who knock on the door offering to paint our house.

SpaceX reveals chain of events that caused the unplanned disassembly of Crew Dragon capsule

Re: That's why we do the test

That should apply always. Sadly, marketing rules.

It just wasn't meant toupee: Bloke nicked at Barcelona Airport with €30k of blow under wig

Re: Caption Contest

He didn't seem to look like a pointy-haired boss.

Yes, I've been swotting up on court evidence in advance, says Autonomy founder Mike Lynch

Only in a murder trial do you have a last-minute proof that the prosecution keeps hidden until just the right time - twenty seconds before the commercial break.

Ah... the Perry Mason defense method. And naturally, the real criminal is also revealed in those last few seconds.

Oracle told to warp 9 out of court: Judge photon-torpedoes Big Red's Pentagon JEDI dream

They're only out of the running for the main contract....

There will be, if government and contractors run true to form, a whole pile of sub-contracts going out with the main contractor basically just sitting back, counting the money and barking at those sub-contractors actually doing the work. So Oracle may get some that money.

US border cops' secret racist Facebook group a total disgrace, says patrol chief. She should know, she was a member

Re: This surprises who, exactly?

I find the same type of people are in TSA. A bunch of wanabees who couldn't be a real cop but want the power trip. Let's face it, they get badges, guns, and authority over people. What could possibly go wrong?

I don't have to save my work, it's in The Cloud. But Microsoft really must fix this files issue

Re: lovely "I know better" users

FFS, everyone should run when they're in contact with people demanding the universe to adapt to them.

It's getting worse instead of better. Have paid attention to the current crop of "entitled" people? They're numbers are growing.

Re: As it is traditional to pick apart these stories

We still have user training for new software, serious upgrades, etc. There's still the 10% (usually manglement) that it never, ever gives them a clue. We always get calls that "this doesn't look like it used to".... sometimes an hour after they walk out of training.

Icon.... fire is needed for these sorts.

If that hit my desk i'd have walked a Lv1 there myself.

Where I am, that would be a long walk. Lvl1 is close to 500 miles away at the "home" office. I do local Lvl3, but once a month I'm on Lvl2 as we don't have a dedicated Lvl2 team.

Re: You were surprised?

This is normal behavior for a mangler.

I've always believed that to be in manglement, one has to go through an initiation where a hole is drilled into their skull and their brains are sucked out. Some get a spreadsheet put back in but it's usually an obsolete version.

Loose tongues and oily seamen: Lost in machine translation yet again

if a business expression cannot be converted into immediately clear English, then it is not worth the bother

CorporateSpeak is a language unto itself. A good example has been the verbiage coming of the Autonomy trial.

We have the best trade wars: US investigating French tech tax plan over fears it unfairly targets American biz

Re: That's rich

Add to that our deal leader in the States also manipulates the tax laws. Pot-Kettle...

Hayabusa2 stirs up rubble on surface of Ryugu, pokes asteroid with sampling horn

The little space probe that could... and did.

Well done boffins. Very well done. Have one of your choice -------------.>

Oh, lovely, a bipartisan election hack alert law bill for Mitch McConnell to feed into the shredder

Damn... I owe you a cold one for that. I knew I've seen that face somewhere else (other than a news story).