Posts by Doctor Evil

Search results suddenly missing from Google? Well, BLAME CANADA!

"Essentially, the Supreme Court [of Canada] insists it can dictate which stuff the Mountain View [California, USA] internet goliath can and can't link to."

Ahem -- enforcement may prove to be a wee bit problematic. Overreach, perhaps?

Everything you need to know about the Petya, er, NotPetya nasty trashing PCs worldwide

Re: Correction?

BleepingComputer.com says to create 3 files -- perfc, perfc.dat, and perfc.dll -- out of an overabundance of caution. The files themselves can contain anything whatsoever but need to be "Read Only".

Seems they'd be holdovers from a previous Petya infection so NotPetya avoids the system on detecting them ... ?

Hotheaded Brussels civil servants issued with cool warning: Leak

Eats shoots, and leaves

A misplacd comma makes all the difference:

"Try not to go out in the heat, or do physical exercise."

Are they really advocating physical exercise as an alternative to not going out in the heat? (Because, to my poor, uncultured, literal mind, that's how this reads.)

Perhaps it should more correctly have been written:

"Try to neither go out in the heat nor do physical exercise."

No comma necessary there. But then, EU ...

Brit uni blabs students' confidential information to 298 undergrads

Necessary but not sufficient

""Could you please delete this without opening/reading.""

Alternatively, if you have already opened it, could you please forget what you've read?

Microsoft's new Surface laptop defeats teardown – with glue

Re: Nonsense

So wrong and you don't even understand why.

I'm writing this on the laptop for which I had a new LCD installed a few weeks back after many years of prior use. It's still going strong. Why should it be replaced?

Just this weekend I tore down and repaired my coffee grinder which had suddenly stopped working from one day to the next. Fresh-ground coffee was my reward later. That, and not tossing something which was still perfectly usable.

But ... Millennials! We're doomed.

Russian hackers and Britney Spears in one story. Are you OK, Reg?

Spearsphishing

From the ESET report, the affected Firefox extension is something called HTML5 Encoding 0.3.7. Hopefully it's not in your list of extensions ...

[checks own list ... aw crap!]

NASA Sun probe named for solar wind boffin Eugene Parker

Oh man, they missed out!

It totally should have been called the "Hotblack Desiato" (or perhaps even "Disaster Area") -- and be painted black!

BA's 'global IT system failure' was due to 'power surge'

Re: "And it is grossly inefficient. Right up to the point when you need it."

"Now Ryanair, though. I wouldn't fly with them if you paid me."

Oh? Why would that be?

(North American here with relatives who do fly on Ryanair, so I really am curious about your reasons.)

74 countries hit by NSA-powered WannaCrypt ransomware backdoor: Emergency fixes emitted by Microsoft for WinXP+

"Thank you, Doctor Evil. You get my firstborn. Since I'm a bit old to have children, this could be an empty promise, bwahaha."

That's OK, Grapes -- I already have Scott. He's quite wily, like his old man.

Apache OpenOffice: Not dead yet, you'll just have to wait until mid-May for mystery security fixes

Re: I prefer OpenOffice

"No. An office suite is an office suite, and the storage problem is quite orthogonal to it."

This. Could be said for most (virtually all?) desktop applications. Marketers, however, like to throw around "cloud storage" as a buzzword implying deep new functionality.

Script kiddies pwn 1000s of Windows boxes using leaked NSA hack tools

just throw it over the side?

Wondering if it would be best to simply disable the SMB protocol altogether?

HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/LanmanServer/Parameters/SMBn(DWORD) = 0

where n = 1, 2

(and make sure you reboot)

Why Firefox? Because not everybody is a web designer, silly

Re: I recently ditched Firefox.

"VI'll stick with firefox but I want to get rid of the HAMBURGER MENU and "fat finger friendly" *GARBAGE* . I like the _OLDER_ look a _LOT_ better."

<alt>Tools | Add-Ons | Extensions and search for "Classic Theme Restorer" (current 1.6.4) and add it if you don't already have it.

Hover mouse over tabs bar or add-on bar, r/c, select Customize, click on hamburger menu, delete.

Happy now?

Boaty McBoatface sinks in South Atlantic on her maiden deployment

To be perfectly pedantic about it ...

"[Captain Sir James Clark Ross RN] later mounted an unsuccessful search for HM Ships Erebus and Terror, which were both lost without trace searching for the elusive North West Passage around the top of the Americas. Terror was found some 168 years after disappearing, having sunk in an Arctic bay after being abandoned by her doomed crew. "

Nothing factually wrong with what you've written; the wreck of HMS Terror was indeed discovered in Sept 2016. However, you failed to mention that the remains of HMS Erebus were also found -- somewhat earlier, actually, in Sept 2014 -- leaving one with the impression that the latter is still missing.

The beast is back: Reborn ekranoplan heads for the Arctic

Re: Skigull WIG?

Indeed. And to characterize it as a "lake hopper" is something of a misnomer. It's a lake hopper with a purported range of 4000 km! You can get to Hawaii from San Francisco with that kind of range.

Big blues: IBM's remote-worker crackdown is company-wide, including its engineers

Re: Taking the piss....

I think you're on to something here. It could lead to absolutely revolutionary developments. I mean, without exactly this kind of management response, Pitcairn Island wouldn't have been discovered for many more years.

Update or shut up: Microsoft's choice for desktop Skypers

further adventures with Skype updates

(6) uninstall old Skype plus related software found in applications list

(7) discover downloaded "fix-it" tool is in the form of a DIAGCAB file. Archaic system doesn't know what to do with that.

(8) run Skype installer anyway. Run loopback test, seems to work.

(9) go to the pub anyway.

adventures with Skype updates

(1) read el Reg article, become alarmed at the potential loss of Skype services and connectivity with family and friends come March 1, so ...

(2) start up Skype, run Check For Updates, attempt to download Skype update. Fails inexplicably with a cryptic message.

(3) navigate to Skype download page, get Skype update downloaded manually.

(4) run Skype updater; fails with "Skype update failed: error 1603"

(5) google for "Skype update failed error 1603", find instructions to uninstall Skype completely, download Microsoft "fix-it" tool to (rather vaguely) mitigate "problems that block programs from being installed or removed"

...

and on and on we go, and where she stops, nobody knows! It's enough to drive one to drink.

Top cop: Strap Wi-Fi jammers to teen web crims as punishment

Re: Thumbs

"Boxing gloves? Could also have ahem side effects."

Sexually-frustrated teenagers?

Pharma hate figure Martin Shkreli suspended from Twitter

Coventry

Twitter needs a way to send someone to Coventry so that they see others' posts perfectly well but no one else sees theirs. Shkreli's case would be the perfect instance for this (oh, and that Trump fellow as well).

Paid Wikipedia-fiddling on wheels

Re: So

"What is the elReg unit of scumbaggery?"

The Shkreli.

Uni student cuffed for 'hacking professor's PC to change his grades'

Re: 15 yrs in prison! He's a kid for fucks sake!

"fucking up his life over such a trivial matter is insane."

Absolutely agree -- so he shouldn't have.

Protect your staff from Toronto's terrible Twitter trolls, bosses told

Re: The word trolling is morphing into trolls

"maybe you are confusing "trolling" with "trawling"?"

To quote Mister Transistor on /., "Trawling is using a net, trolling is using a baited line." So no, no confusion here.

Wealthy youngsters more likely to be freetards than anyone else – study

a warning is in order

Tail-end baby boomer here: unfamiliar with the subject of your allusion, I went to YouTube to check her out (I think I gave it a fair shake -- the top 4 hits). And now I can never unsee and unlearn that again. Thanks a lot!

Beautiful model to explain the universe to physicists

Inasmuch as G can be thought of as the driver behind the attraction between two masses, Λ can be thought of as the driver behind the expansion of the universe. I see nothing fundamentally contradictory between these two concepts. Yes, some physical effect, not yet well understood, underlies the existence of G; the same can be said for Λ.

ISS pump-up space podule refuses to engorge

Re: Performance issues.

Nah, it was just cold.

Pointless features add to browser bloat and insecurity

You're all familiar with the concept of extensibility in the context of a browser, right? So why not make all those features optional add-ons (or extensions, or plug-ins, if you will)? In many (most?) cases, it could be done.

Then those users who want the features can have them and those users who don't want them aren't encumbered. Yes, the extra overhead involved in loading and running add-ons is a bit of a burden -- but it's compensated for by the ability to customize your browsing experience.

Then browser enhancements could then be restricted to really useful / necessary developments related to speed and security -- things like sandboxing individual tabs.

I kinda wish Mozilla had stuck to this philosophy, which is what I think they started out with.

Hacked in a public space? Thanks, HTTPS

Re: HTTPS Finger prints !

Very informative! Have an upvote for posting that link,

Microsoft .NET Core update asks developers: How you doin'?

See?

"If you want to opt-out, you can do so by seeing the environment variable DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT.

Probably "setting", yes? (Although you won't see it if you don't set it first, so technically correct.)

New Firefox versions will make you activate all new add-ons – except one hacker favourite

Re: No, it won't.

Flash and Silverlight are indeed plug-ins, but AdBlock and Bamboo are extensions. They are all accessed under menu Tools | Add-Ons, so they are all classed generally as add-ons. (Rather confusingly, extensions are added to in Firefox by using the Get Add-On option but plugins are not.)

Both the article and the headline, however, use the term "add-ons" when it was really plug-ins that were meant, so readers could be forgiven for thinking that all Firefox add-ons will be similarly treated.

Facebook bungs 10-year-old kid $10k to not 'eliminate' Justin Bieber

Re: Just how bad does it have to be

@Shadow Systems:"Sheesh. I've heard of 'Script Kiddies' but this one learned on *Youtube* FFS, so you KNOW the bug had to be particularly glaring."

and

@Seajay#: "This doesn't tell you that a ten year-old is smarter than facebook. It tells you that finding a bug is easier than writing bug free code."

Yeah, well, nobody else found it before he did, so kudos to the kid.

Your mother has a smooth forehead, Klingon language lovers roar at Paramount

Suvlu'taHvIS yapbe' HoS neH

Google Translate chokes on this. Weird.

Microsoft's bigoted teen bot flirts with illegali-Tay in brief comeback

not THAT kind of malicious intent

"Tay is now offline and we’ll look to bring Tay back only when we are confident we can better anticipate malicious intent that conflicts with our principles and values."

We want only malicious intent that's better aligned with accelerating Windows 10 uptake.

Zombie SCO rises from the grave again

Re: Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow........

... except that it wasn't a shares deal.

BSF received HUGE sums by wire transfer to carry on this "litigation" essentially in perpetuo. IIRC, it was about US$31 million in total.

Not so daft.

Oz uni in right royal 'indigenous' lingo rumpus

WTF is wrong with ...

"Torres Strait Islanders"? (the phrase, not the indigenous persons)

This is PC gone absolutely bonkers. Your "invasion/colonization/occupation" is my "discovery". How about just using "contact" and leaving it at that?

Microsoft did Nazi that coming: Teen girl chatbot turns into Hitler-loving sex troll in hours

Re: Headline pun

@KingStephen -- hey! Don't mean to, er, harp on it but I thought you were back in Calgary, moping over your recent electoral wipe-out. Welcome back!

Microsoft's equality and diversity: Skimpy schoolgirls dancing for nerds at an Xbox party

Mere platitudes -- no real responsibility taken

"'At Xbox-hosted events at GDC this past week, we represented Xbox and Microsoft in a way that was not consistent or aligned to our values. It was unequivocally wrong and will not be tolerated,' Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, told The Register."

Great! So ... you're going to resign then, Phil?

No. Of course not.

"'I know we disappointed many people and I’m personally committed to holding ourselves to higher standards. We must ensure that diversity and inclusion are central to our everyday business and core values. We will do better in the future.'"

Yeah, right. I'm sure. You suck, Phil.

How Microsoft copied malware techniques to make Get Windows 10 the world's PC pest

Re: Block it ...

"Reading this article, I have the idea that (may be wrong) Firefox may use similar methods to 'auto-update' itself in spite of what the Window installation's owner wishes to allow."

Tools | Options | Advanced | Update, select option "Check for updates, but let me choose whether to install them", and you're good to go. You'll be notified when there's an update available but it won't install until you give the go-ahead.

If you want no Firefox "telemetry" at all, select option "Never check for updates (not recommended: security risk)" instead.

Californian tycoons stole my sharing economy, says Lily Cole

Re: She's half right

Maybe somebody ought to buy her a dictionary that actually has the word "Oxymoron" in it......or at least lend her one.

Isn't that just a moron who consumes oxygen?

There -- saved you a few quid.

Yelp-for-people app Peeple is back – so we rated Julia, its cofounder

Re: The real reason Peeple is back:

The first time McCullough and Cordray proposed this inanity, I concluded they were simply incredibly stupid.

Now, however, I think they're just unmitigated assholes. Full stop.

Eurovision Song Contest uncorks 1975 vote shocker: No 'Nul point'!

Could we have another rules amendment while we're at it, please?

The winning country should have to keep the performer(s) appearing for them -- permanently. This would mean that Québécoise chanteuse Céline Dion now belongs to ... Switzerland!

(No -- thank YOU, Helvetia. You're most welcome! And could we have Shania back now, please?)

Microsoft explanation for Visual Studio online outage leaves open questions

MS developers

"A SQL stored procedure that was being called was allocating too much memory in one of the critical backend SQL databases"

You guys used Visual Studio to code that, didn't you?

Japanese hack gets space probe back on track

rocket men

Apparently there are some steely-eyed missile men working for JAXA. Well done!

Donald Trump wants Bill Gates to 'close the Internet', Jeff Bezos to pay tax

Because, very clearly, Mr. Trump, you do not

"We have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening.”

Somehow, a total lack of understanding is not a disqualifier for the office of POTUS. This is a new low for the USA. Will Trump bring Sarah Palin back as his running mate -- and perhaps retrieve Dan Quayle (remember him?) from the links as his Secretary of State? That would complete the unholy triumvirate (and probably bring about the end-times).

Mozilla bins 'Tiles' ads plan in Firefox

Is it still a visit if you never leave again?

"Mozilla may, El Reg imagines, need to revisit ads sooner rather than later if the Purple Palace starts to putrify."

And that, Dr. Evil imagines, will rather quickly be the end of Firefox and the Mozilla Foundation.

So why exactly are IT investors so utterly clueless?

Re: err..

"The data dump would be stored within the EU, most likely in Germany."

Not necessarily. It might be kept locally.