Posts by Frankee Llonnygog

Devs SLAM UK.gov's JavaScript-astic, 'shoddy' security education website

RE: Whoever designed it should be shot.

Nudge Digital, a leading marketing agency in Bristol

Cyber?

It's 2014. Cyber Streetwise - my cringe-o-meter just exploded.

If you use the word "cyber" in a security context, it means the following:

- You work for UK Government

- You are clueless about security but responsible for it

- You will implement it in ways more damaging than the threats you're mitigating

- You will be ripped off by your suppliers

- You clueless bosses will see that all security checkboxes have been ticked, so you'll be promoted

Our in-house security team always use the word "cyber" and all these principles apply

Apple Mac Pro: It's a death star, not a nappy bin, OK?

Re: an equivalent spec from Dell is about £1600.

Evidence?

Silk Road reboot claims: Hacker STOLE all our Bitcoin funds

Re: As this is a virtual currency, has a theft actually occurred?

The bitcoin libertarians were crowing about how they were independent of any government and only bound their own rules. So they have two choices: unleash the libertarian pay-on-demand law enforcement agency (oh, sorry, there isn't one); or, admit that all this tax, government and law stuff might have some good points after all. Wait - I forgot the third, Ayn Rand hypocrite option: talk the libertarian talk but suck up the government dollar.

I must admit the irony hammer dropped sooner than I thought it would but no less amusing for all that

Or

Start by questioning the coppers.

Don't be afraid of our e-tool, public sector, CloudStore won't bite

Every time there's news story about CloudStore

it prompts me to give it another go. So I search for the kind of service I might procure as part of my job.

The results are either 0 or several hundred with only the most fleeting relevance to the search query and no useful tools to refine the search. Of those results, many are duplicates so, anecdotally, I would say a dedupe would reduce that eyewatering 13,000 to more like a thousand. It feels like suppliers have uncontrolled access to fill the catalogue with spam entries.

Is it a useful or usable tool? No - not even close. If this was the catalogue of a commercial e-commerce business, they would be bankrupt. As an exemplar of customer-centric, digital-by-default, it is absolute bollocks

Rotten to the core: Apple’s 10 greatest FAILS

Re: @nematoad Im grown argue with me if you like

Photoshop? How is that relevant to this topic?

Credit card of PayPal PRESIDENT cloned by UK crooks

Re: Why magnetic stripe?

You can always run a magnet over the strip if you're sure you'll never need to use it

Trials of 'Iron Man' military exoskeleton due in June

I predict this will turn out to be a load of

Combat-Operational Clothing-Kit

iTunes radio tunes in to Australia for first launch beyond USA

Re: Playlists only based on songs not albums

As I feared, on checking, it seems to treat movements of a piece as separate songs - a bit like Classic-sodding-FM

Playlists only based on songs not albums

So - how does it cope with symphonies, concertos, and so on?

China confirms Jade Rabbit lunar rover has conked out

Should have spent a bit more

Next time - Duracells

Boffin talks WATER on MARS: Granted, no 'smoking gun', but all clues flow there...

I'm launching a new brand of cigarettes called Gun

Just so I can contradict anyone who says there's no smokin' gun

BBC, ITV gang up on YouView with 'FreeView Connect'

So Freeview Connect needs to deliver a single, consistent, usable UI.

Or - a single, consistent, usable API.

'No, I CAN'T write code myself,' admits woman in charge of teaching our kids to code

Don't just graft 'coding' onto the syllabus

Make it an integral part.

I had no interest in, and didn't get, algebra and trigonometry when taught them in maths. When I realised they were useful for pushing pixels around a screen, the concepts somehow all fell into place. There's an intersection between computer science, maths and philosophy that makes coding a wonderfully powerful vector for transmitting all sorts of ideas.

To just bolt it on as vocational add-on - well, you might as well substitute the word plumbing for coding. And do we need more properly qualified plumbers - absolutely!

El Reg talks beer and binaries with a boffin named Boffin

What a very sound chap!

Award him the honorary leather elbow patches forthwith, along with a 12 volume Morocco-leather bound set of the complete works of Professor Stanley Unwin

Apple ticks off trigger-happy Bitcoiners with App Store snub

Re: Obvious, but, it is a ...

Apple have removed the app from the store - how does that stop you from using it if you've already installed it, or block you from accessing your money?

Re: they could reach in and remove apps they didn't like

@Steven Roper: Nice rant but can you point to an example of this happening of this happening in reality?

London's King of Clamps shuts down numberplate camera site

Re: There's been a resurgence

Just look out for the familiar red Mongolian Telecom yurt

There's been a resurgence

It's on the rise again since the discovery that you can use Mongolian throat singing to generate DMTF tones without hardware

STRIPPED DOWN and EXPOSED: Business kit from the good old days

Judging by the list of equipment

your office is actually the Government's 'hi-tech' COBRA war-room

Woz he talking about? Apple co-founder wants iPhones to run Android

Re: How does one get started in the paid shill industry, anyway?

Contact Samsung's marketing agency

Apple devices should run iOS, and other phones should run Android, Windows, or whatever

Having an OS monoculture which is ultimately beholden to Google will in the long run be of benefit only to Google.

Tim Cook dangles 'new product categories' carrot over $14bn Apple share buyback

Fruity fuhrer

Wow - Godwinned even before the first comment!

fWHoaR! Researcher crack eternal mystery of what women want in a man

What the test shows

Is that the kind of people willing to engage in speed-dating prefer wide faces. The tastes of more discerning people may differ

As a last resort though, it's worth remembering that faces look wider to the intoxicated

Fujitsu launches lappie for oldies

Re: Here's the specs

It might be that the older person needing a laptop with easy to read keys, etc, isn't a senile old duffer but, say, a programmer. But thanks for the patronising attitude - us oldies can never get enough of that

Eurocops want to build remote car-stopper, shared sensor network

Remote electronic stop switch for cats?

I have applied to trademark the name Purrsecutor

Apple and Android split Santa's stash, go on Xmas PC and tab high

Re: I wonder how long before ...

No, it means you're not Albanian

I wonder how long before ...

Lenovo buys Microsoft's Windows OS business?

I know, I know - it's an insane idea. But remember - they laughed at Norman Wisdom...

It's big, it's expensive and it's an audiophile's dream: The Sonos Sub

Re: The bass guitar

Uggh - I can still remember my first impression of the Linn Kanns 30 years or so ago. Very loud square wave generators

Re: Dream? Nightmare more like.

Thanks for mentioning the Maplin Millenium - you've led me to a whole new trove of audio nerd articles to read over the weekend. And, maybe my first valve DIY build... (and maybe last of course, given the perils of working with toobs)

Re: Standard

That's not exactly a high bar to meet. You could probably overdrive and underclock a Rampant Rabbit to meet that spec

Re: Sonosub

Foam will maybe cut some HF - but that won't be present in a sub-woofer in the first place. Maybe a sturdy MDF baffle shaped to give some asymmetry to the interior volume might work. On the other hand, if you're after the one-note bass typical of 'impressive' subwoofers, the standing waves may actually help!

Re: Sonosub

A cylindrical subwoofer? What about standing waves?

Re: de-oxygenated copper

No, any reasonably chunky cable will do. Mains cable is good. Much better at keeping signals in phase than wifi.

Audiophile and Sonos mentioned in the same article? Really? If I could afford to be an audiophile, I'd have me some Volti Vittoras. Admittedly they're $17,000 a pair but I can dream...

If I only had enough money for a Sonos system, I'd buy a proper amp and speakers, not some Fisher Price wifi lashup

El Reg BuzzFelch: 10 Electrical Connectors You CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT!

Re: Connect me!

phono - short for phonograph, surely?

Re: 5 pin DIN

Still widely in use for MIDI - even among the yoof

The other end of the telescope: Intel’s Galileo developer board

Re: "I can confirm...pulsing.."

Why bother to shill this for Intel? Do you honestly think it will boost their profits significantly or harm the world of Arduino in any way? The conclusion of the review seems to be a fairly even-handed one: a bit pricy but may be worth it if you need the features. If that's shilling, it's a pretty half-hearted attempt.

UK picks Open Document Format for all government files

I'm puzzled by the babble about in-browser editing

Don't be - just remember that the Government Digital Service is a little outpost of Shoreditch and that Maude merely mouths whatever tech-speak they put in front of him. Web browser = good.

Apple's Tim Cook: Fear not, worried investors, new product salvation is 'absolutely' on the way

Re: Forgot Your Own Device

All true - but it would also be useful to move your 'brain' from your trouser pocket onto your desk, if I may phrase it thusly

New product category

Phones are mature, tablets getting there soon - with the current use cases. Next step is probably the additional capability to drop the mobile device into a dock and it becomes your desktop PC

Radio boffins remember the future-ture-ture: From the Cold War to (White) SPAAAAACE

Building radio networks underground?

Or building underground radio networks - as in covert, rather than covered in earth.

Sony on the ropes after Moody's downgrade to junk

Re: Love Moodys...

I know they made some popular albums back in the 1970s but the financial witterings of these prog rock dinosaurs get way too much attention.

Altcoins will DESTROY the IT industry and spawn an infosec NIGHTMARE

Re: "The Man can't stop you"

They certainly could if they wanted to but they may just choose to keep monitoring and manipulating a compromised system

And ...

Financial services regulation will destroy the alternative coins industry. But not before some massive frauds are perpetrated

UK.gov: NO MORE tech deals bigger than £100m. Unless we feel like it

Re: Is this the first time that ...

Thanks for that. I've had similar experiences with the added complication of having to deal with 'help and support' from the Government Digital service

MPAA spots a Google Glass guy in cinema, calls HOMELAND SECURITY

He was wearing Google Glass

I say he got off lightly.

If you reckon Google will never tap into Nest's Wi-Fi thermostats, guess again

Wouldn't Google have been smarter

to have bought Nest when it had a significant installed base? Rather than discouraging the growth of the user base by raising concerns about privacy?

Haribo gummy bears implicated in 'gastric exorcism'

There goes my plan

to hold a World Gummi-Bear Eating Championship. In the final round, the contestants would eat just one - but life-size.

Google grabs slice of interwebs for EVERYONE (who speaks Japanese)

みんな

Should be 皆様, surely?