Posts by Mark 85

Air gapping PCs won't stop data sharing thanks to sneaky speakers

Re: Relevance

Nah... not nonsense". Someone got a paper published. Someone got a degree. Someone got some funding. It's all good. Now we just need to define "good".

Russia stares admiringly at itself, flexes internet muscles

Re: The policy is not exactly isolationist

Then I look at Theresa May, and I too think "there will be no reprisals".

May as "victim" or "perpetrator"?

Are you Falcon sure, Elon? Musk vows Big Rocket will go up 2019

He did leave that statement rather open-ended, didn't he?

Re: Musk really does see himself as the Saviour of Mankind

To make it self sufficent just in air and food you need plants. Huge numbers of plants. Insanely huge numbers of plants.

The question is then, will plants from Earth grow there even if there's water and nutrients? Sunlight and warm temperatures are needed. Does Mars get enough "sun" for plants to grow? The warm part is something else to reckon with. A greenhouse can do the warmth.... maybe... I'm not 100% sure though.

Since 100% safer = zero accidents, WTF is 200% safer?

Depends on the driver probably and what statistics you're looking at. Some of us have never had an accident or maybe one minor fender bender in a parking lot. Others have them in abundance. Note that's just an observation in a typical parking lot. And then there's those who's cars appear to have been in a demolition derby on a regular basis..

Capita screw-ups are the pits! Brit ex-miner pensioners billed for thousands in extra tax

Re: Outsourcing .....

The main purpose is that the next government has to clean it up.

No they don't. They toss blame about and make statements to the effect that they will clean it up. But... never happens or they leave things in a worse state than when they took over.

Re: Outsourcing .....

Seriously, I can't see why the public don't really seem to care about this.

They do care but they've learned that getting angry and yelling doesn't do any good. Complaints get filed away. The hierarchy maintains that they "know better than the common people" and ignore the complaints unless some major media picks up the details and then they respond with the usual weasel words.

Slingshot malware uses cunning plan to find a route to sysadmins

The US government may be wary of Kaspersky because of its Russian domicile and the possibility that they collaborate with the government they live under or, more likely that they have been penetrated by that government.

The same could be said then for any company collaborating with they country they live under. For the US to assume Kaspersky is co-operating says more about what the US spymasters are doing than what Kaspersky is doing or has done.

Re: Sort of points out that winning against a multi-faceted adversary will never win

The military quote of "if you're not mobile, you're a sitting duck" applies. The biggest problem after securing the gates to the kingdom (the HDD and data) is to figure what's coming next.

Rant launches Eric Raymond's next project: Open-source the UPS

Car batteries? Why not have an option for a truck (semi type) battery since they're bigger and have more capacity? So the electronics could once acquired, could be used with the user's choice of batteries including some the monster (and usually ungodly priced) UPS batteries sold for commercial use. The later I think, use a gel electrolyte as opposed to the "normal" acid. The unit itself shouldn't care what kind of battery it is as long as it knows the input voltage/current from the battery and what it's monitoring.

Good news: Apple designs a notebook keyboard that doesn't suck

Re: Prior art

Spectrum keyboard for one and I'm sure that wasn't the first to incorporate a membrane

I've seen lots of these (or similar?) kb's for PC's. Since this is a first for Apple, well... they figure they invented it cause Apple is special.

Pharma bro Martin Shkreli to miss 2024 Paris Olympics

Did the price come back down on the drug? I would like to think so... but given the nature of this ass it probably hasn't.

The Ataribox lives, as a prototype, supposedly

You mentioned Kodak.... they're slowly morphing into a patent troll for the patents they hung on to.so possibly not just an ordinary troll but a legitimate one. I know of one former engineer who's still in touch and he thinks that there's going to be an attempt to come back. What products is anyone's guess.

Europe is living in the past (by nearly six minutes) thanks to Serbia and Kosovo

Re: For those who wonder...

DC is used? I'm surprised. Seems the very early power grids (in the States at least) were DC but AC was just more efficient with less line loss.

Re: Mains powered clock

This is a real and rare anomaly. Perhaps radio would be better still, but you're adding cost at that point...

Here in the States, the standard for a long time has WWV Time Signal. The catch is the circuitry in the target device (say an alarm clock) adds cost. But it you need "exact time" it's worth the cost.

Your mouse can't reach that Excel cell? Buy a 'desk extender' said help desk bluffer

Re: Wendell should have offered

I tried to use a mouse once, it squeaked "Bad touch!" the moment I fingered it's ball. Dang did he ever get cheesed off...

Obviously you're not a girl mouse. If you were, it would have purred and yelled for "more! "....

A ghoulish tale of pigs, devs and docs revived from the dead

Re: Lesson

Back in the real world there is time for testing or time for fixing the bugs discovered during testing or neither.

Usually what happens is "neither". Seems manglement only see the "go live day" as the goal. They'll hammer with "improvements" and "features" to the point that the "testing" schedule gets tossed out the window as no time is left. In an ideal world, if the testing start date slips, so should the "go live date".

Re: Love it!

Working in the trenches in IT is like living in real time two movies at once: "Groundhog Day" and "Ghost Busters".

Will the defendant please rise? Utah State Bar hunts for sender of topless email

Re: "to the breast of their knowledge"

"A cup of tea for them!"

sorry, but they can't have tea. But maybe Postum...

[I don't know what I'd do without coffee, tea, jolt, ...]

The Mormans I know of will drink tea or coffee as long as it's decaf.

No problem with "Beaver Mountain" Now there might be with Beaver Valley.... Oh.. ok... got my coat. I can take a hint.

Surprise: Norks not actually behind Olympic Destroyer malware outbreak – Kaspersky

I'm trying to figure out just exactly what Russia/Putin's angle actually is?

Chaos, confusion, and then when everything is stirred up... take back the bits that broke off from the USSR. Or not. Who knows? Why did they apparently (according to most sources) meddle or attempt to meddle in the last election? There may be a plan from them for something that will benefit them.

Then again, it could have been China or some other country that's been stirring things up and continuing to do so. Troubling times, indeed.

I'm anti-Google, please elect me: Senate hopeful rides tech backlash

Anti-Tech?

Anti-tech has become a label. It just about being anti-Google? Anti-Facebook? Anti-data slurping? Or is it something deeper like the culture of computers in businesses? The tone of many articles not just here at El Reg but in the regular press, seem to pushing this. So at some point, the people will get fed up and rise against tech.? Or at least the manipulating, slurping part anyway. Can scary times for IT workerbees be far behind?

Does Parliament or Google decide when your criminal past is forgotten?

Question....

Being in the US, I understand the rules are different. Here in the States, an employer could and would call the local plod to run a check on a potential employer. It might take a few days but the plod would let the employer know what the arrest records indicated. Some departments only reported what they had, and others checked some larger database.

So the question: Isn't there or wasn't there a similar process in the UK before Google? If there was, have the employers/investors or whatever either forgot about the plod checks and become just lazy?

Half the world warned 'Chinese space station will fall on you'

Re: Overextended is not "extra success"

Stop assuming they didn't want to lose control of it....

Or maybe they just wanted us to think they lost control of it.....

Hit the US?

It wouldn't dare lest some people here would think it was an act of war and others would try to force the Chinese to pay import tax on it. And there's the lawyers who might just get suddenly interested if someone does get hit by a bit of debris.

FBI chief asks tech industry to build crypto-busting not-a-backdoor

Re: He's right, but no one here will accept it

Ok... sounds good except who do you trust? A government agency somewhere would be logical but if you've paid attention, the government's systems are woefully open and unprotected and they have been breached by the "bad guys". I'd suggest that he clean up his own agency (and the other agencies) first before flogging the people.

So far the government has shown that they shouldn't be entrusted with any data much less the keys to the citizens' data.

Audit finds Department of Homeland Security's security is insecure

Just amazing but then their response wasn't:: and intends to address the concerns raised by the end of September, 2018.

In our world, address means to identify and fix. In government, it means have meetings, write a report with action items, hold more meetings to discuss the action items, ad nauseum ad infinitum. So in a few more years, they'll look again and start over.

Suspected drug dealer who refused to poo for 46 DAYS released... on bail

Re: Why not X-ray?

Because: (pick one or more or roll your own):

a) No one thought of it.

b) A bit of a power struggle between the prisoner and the plod.

c) The plod had a betting pool running for how long the guy could hold it in.

Google assisting the Pentagon in developing AI for its drones

Re: Google and the military

You forgot the sarcasm icon... "do no evil" has been buried a long time ago by Google.

US Army warns of the potential dangers of swarming toy drones on US soldiers

Re: Swarms indeed.

B-52's didn't drop Agent Orange. It was sprayed using modified C-130's.

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

Re: Dan Johnson of KY

Have you ever noticed that those who scream the loudest about such things as "porn", "gambling", "drinking", assorted other "vices" are usually guilty of engaging in those vices?

April Fool: FCC finally bothers with Puerto Rico as chairman visits

I don't think anyone other than Pai will believe that... unless next week he walks on water.

La, la, la, I can't hear you! Apple to challenge Bose's noise-proof cans

Re: Fact or opinion

You can read it as a factual statement that Sony and Sennheiser both boast of superior audio quality, although [citation needed], and that wouldn't be the ordinary idiomatic meaning.

I suspect that when it comes to "sound quality" statements that it's all subjective based on the listeners perspective and the state of their hearing. For example, I have some hearing loss due to jet engines and race cars and my wife does not have any loss. We hear things "differently" so what works for her, doesn't work for me.

Good luck saying 'Sorry I'm late, I had to update my car's firmware'

Re: A new cause for concern

The more interesting question is, who is thinking about it? You can mitigate: for example, IoT company's insurers to hold keys and revocation certificates in escrow, but who will make that a code of practice?

Sorry... If I buy your company, I'm buying and controlling everything including keys, certificates, etc. Once you have the check/cash, you're out of the picture. That's the way it works...

Re: OTA Updates for Cars

Lots of "I imagine" going on in this thread. Perhaps, given this is a tech publication, we could try sticking to some "facts"?

Err... yes. What do you expect? El Reg is for computer geeks not car geeks so speculation and thoughts are along those lines. We, in this field, tend to look a lot at "I imagine" and "what if" because it's part of what we do. There is more to a car than the control computer and there's where those nebulous statements come in. Personally, I've tossed my share of wrenches and had the greasy hands to show for it but with these rolling computers we have today they go to the shop.

'Repeatable sanitization' is a feature of PCs now

Re: or at the very least...

'Faecal' recognition - definitely unhygienic, but think of the medical diagnosis lab savings...

Hmm... save labs costs but charge the same price for a test. Poop can definitely smell like profit!!!

Facebook regrets asking whether it's OK to let adult men ask underage girls for smut pix

I guess what some say is true then.

The world really is run by idiots.. rich idiots but idiots none the less.

News lobsters demand to be let back into the Facebook boiling pot

Re: Will the real 'Facebook addicts' please stand up...

If FB goes under, I imagine there will be a massive bidding war for all the servers and accumulated data. The Big Brands will be fighting tooth and nail for it. Bright side.. no more FB. Dark side... the data has been sold and will be used.

As one pundit noted: "Any publisher that is dependent on Facebook, or that trusts Facebook, is out of their goddamn mind."

I think that can be said about the users also.

Boffins discover chemistry that could have produced building blocks of life in space

Since it requires other hydrocarbons to make pyrene, it doesn’t quite explain how the first hydrocarbons were created.

Since we have an insufficient understanding/knowledge of this, for now the concept of "magic" works for me.

Emirates dinged for slipshod online data privacy practices

Leaks????

I think "leaks" is the wrong word... I think "sell" is better. After all are we humans the product and not the customer?

Sysadmin left finger on power button for an hour to avert SAP outage

Re: Typed 'Reboot' where ... ?

More reasonable would be to sack the executive who failed to put in place systems ensuring a simple human error couldn't cause such a serious problem.

In a perfect world, yes that would be the right thing to do. In the real world, the execs protect each other and everyone else is cannon fodder and/or scapegoats.

It's ALIIIIIVE: Boffins detect slow-moving zombie star

Re: My vote is for

Isn't that what science is supposed to do? Either validate the assumption or toss it into the wastebin due to research.

Ex-Google recruiter: I was fired for opposing hiring caps on white, Asian male nerds

Re: Won't somebody think of the....

How on Earth are these examples of discrimination -- as opposed to people doing dumb things because they are not good at their jobs?

HR types and SJW's only count faces and body parts/types. It doesn't matter how qualified they are only that they meet some minimum standard and allow a checkbox to be checked off.

Reverse discrimination is now political correctness.

The original name "reverse discrimination"...it's been a thing here in the US since mid to late 70's. White males have always been the ones hit by it until recently. Been there, done that, got discriminated against.

As for this case, I hope to hell he's got copies of the memo's, emails, etc. Otherwise he'll get blow away in court.

Hey girl, move a little closer. 'Cause you're too gun shy. Hush, hush, bye says Pai

Re: Pai has ethics?

Yeah.. they're in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard.”

BOFH: Honourable misconduct

Re: I can't help but feel...

Yeah but these Fokkers were Messerschmitts

Only after they hit the ground in an uncontrolled fashion.*

*I heard an old radio from the War, the smooth British presenter intones solemnly: "And there after crashing into the ground was a Messerchmit." Followed by loud laughter from the crew.

Another day, another meeting, another £191bn down the pan

Some of us find Dilbert isn't a comic (ha-ha type) but seems to be an instruction manual for management.

US Navy gives Lockheed Martin $150m big frickin' laser cannon contract

$150 million? That should just about cover some paperwork and salaries for middle and project manglement, weekly and monthly reports, upper manglement bonuses, etc. Tooling and actually building the units will require a second, much more expensive contract.

I used to work in the defense industry decades ago and I've seen how this stuff works. Since that time, it's only got worse as "more paperwork, more management supposedly equals better efficiency and lower costs. Ok.. yeah...sure.

Britain ignores booze guidelines – heads for the pub

Re: Look away Nanny

Raise a toast to the Nanny. If it had worked and some folks stopped drinking, it would have just left that much more for the rest of us.