Re: That API is public
Beat me to it :)
Posts by mikecoppicegreen
31 posts • joined 1 May 2013
We're going underground, and this time it's not an inebriated banker crapping themselves, but Transport for London
IBM to GTS staff: Not volunteering to leave with a redundo cheque? We'll give you a helping hand
Serial killer spotted on the night train from Newcastle
The time PC Tools spared an aerospace techie the blushes
Monday 23rd December 2019 17:39 GMT
I seem to recall "editing" command.com to disable del as a command., forcing use of erase. Somehow, typing the 5 character command rather than the 3 character command would give me just enough pause to dramatically the occurrences of erroneous delete, and reduced the workload on my pctools disk dramatically
It's a billion-ton, 14-million-mile long mysterious alien formation – and Earth is heading right into it
Bose customers beg for firmware ceasefire after headphones fall victim to another crap update
Heads up from Internet of S*!# land: Best Buy's Insignia 'smart' home gear will become very dumb this Wednesday
Defense against the Darknet, or how to accessorize to defeat video surveillance
Humanity gazes into the abyss to get its first glimpse of a black hole
Belgium: Oi, Brits, explain why Belgacom hack IPs pointed at you and your GCHQ
Europe fires back at ICANN's delusional plan to overhaul Whois for GDPR by next, er, year
Set your alarms for 2.40am UTC – so you can watch Unix time hit 1,500,000,000
Friday 14th July 2017 13:00 GMT
Time, as they say, is Relative....
What follows is arguably the most famous single sequence in any Goon Show. The show is The Mysterious Punch-up-the-Conker (series 7, episode 18). About 25 minutes in the show, Bluebottle and Eccles are "in the ground floor attic" of a clock repairers. After listening to lots of timepieces ticking, chiming, cuckooing etc. for a while...
Bluebottle What time is it Eccles?
Eccles Err, just a minute. I, I've got it written down 'ere on a piece of paper. A nice man wrote the time down for me this morning.
Bluebottle Ooooh, then why do you carry it around with you Eccles?
Eccles Well, umm, if a anybody asks me the ti-ime, I ca-can show it to dem.
Bluebottle Wait a minute Eccles, my good man...
Eccles What is it fellow?
Bluebottle It's writted on this bit of paper, what is eight o'clock, is writted.
Eccles I know that my good fellow. That's right, um, when I asked the fella to write it down, it was eight o'clock.
Bluebottle Well then. Supposing when somebody asks you the time, it isn't eight o'clock?
Eccles Ah, den I don't show it to dem.
Bluebottle Ooohhh...
Eccles [Smacks lips] Yeah.
Bluebottle Well how do you know when it's eight o'clock?
Eccles I've got it written down on a piece of paper!
Bluebottle Oh, I wish I could afford a piece of paper with the time written on.
Eccles Oohhhh.
Bluebottle 'Ere Eccles?
Eccles Yah.
Bluebottle Let me hold that piece of paper to my ear would you? - 'Ere. This piece of paper ain't goin'.
Eccles What? I've been sold a forgery!
Bluebottle No wonder it stopped at eight o'clock.
Eccles Oh dear.
Bluebottle You should get one of them tings my grandad's got.
Eccles Oooohhh?
Bluebottle His firm give it to him when he retired.
Eccles Oooohhh.
Bluebottle It's one of dem tings what it is that wakes you up at eight o'clock, boils the kettil, and pours a cuppa tea.
Eccles Ohhh yeah! What's it called? Um.
Bluebottle My granma.
Eccles Ohh... Ohh, ah wait a minute. How does she know when it's eight o'clock?
Bluebottle She's got it written down on a piece of paper!
Hundreds stranded at Manchester Airport due to IT 'glitch'
El Reg straps on the Huawei Watch 2
BOFH: Thermo-electric funeral
Land Rover Defender dies: Production finally halted by EU rules
Why was the modem down? Let us count the ways. And phone lines
Friday 30th October 2015 10:00 GMT
Ah- the joys of email over dial up
<oldfartmode>
I remember in the mid - 90's travelling, and collecting compuserve email using PSTN dial up.
Those nice little sets of plugs, complete with screwdriver, leads and croc clips to connect directly to the phone line if you didn't have a compatible plug.
The worst was trying to collect email from Taiwan - I'm not sure what the delays were, but it was horrifically slow. Using a credit card directly to pay for the phone call made the dial up string enormously long.
Things improved with Nokia mobile phones with wired connection to the laptop - also late 90's.
</oldfartmode>
Weight, what? The perfect kilogram is nearly in Planck's grasp
Gemalto: NSA, GCHQ hacked us – but didn't snatch crucial SIM keys
Wednesday 25th February 2015 19:43 GMT
Another predictable line of comment....
Not bothered to go anonymous - I'm going to get downvoted to the max anyway.
I'm not a Gemalto employee, to be clear.
But, unlike the armchair conspiracy theorists on this page, I have actually visited a Gemalto site, I know several Gemalto employees, and I've had demo's of a number of security related experiments that they undertake. This is all in the period up to about a couple of years ago.
I know the lengths they go to to test the protection of the private key inside SIM cards- they employ techniques far beyond the means of the average hacker to protect the private keys. I can't believe that they would miss something as obvious as not properly airgapping their network. They were intensely aware that their business relied on their security precautions. They provided superb resources to some very bright guys to try to penetrate the SIM cards and their systems. By the way, the best drive firmware hack in the world can't get data through a true air gap.
When I say i visited a site of theirs, I mean I was allowed into a meeting room outside their secure perimeter. To get that far into their site meant a passport check and being pre- notified to their site.
Yes, they would say that the hack did not penetrate. And It's possible that NSA/GCHQ targetted an employee to get at the data, but the security precautions I saw would have made it very difficult to get the data out.
There is one (theoretical) exit path for the data - if the phone network was presented with the private key data for the SIM's they bought (so that symmetrical encryption was possible), then the transfer of that data may be a risk. And that would account for the 2G statements. if the report names networks that were not supplied by Gemalto then it's more likely that NSA/GCHQ compromised the private key data at the entry to the phone network, rather than within the SIM manufacturer.
It's always fun to believe that the NSA ex-employee is telling the truth and Gemalto is lying, though :)
World, face Palm: PDA brand to RISE FROM THE GRAVE
Thursday 1st January 2015 16:51 GMT
Re: Hmmm...
I used a Pre 3 and Touchpad tablet, and they were nice devices. I'd happily go back to webOS if the range of apps was up to spec. And I think this would be the big problem for a relaunched webOS - the iPhone and Android OS's dominate the thinking of companies that want Apps developed, with Windows a distant third place. webOS would need some fantastic positioning to break through the mindset of companies paying for App development.
UK.gov sinks another £1.6m into Internet of Stuff spec HyperCat
Tuesday 11th November 2014 09:08 GMT
Why?
There's a massive IoT standard development effort going on worldwide - called oneM2M - some parts are already published, some nearing completion. This is supported by seven standards bodies, including ETSI, etc, and there are many of the big hitters in communications & data participating in the work.
There are a number of other initiatives around IoT going on. Many of these are based on participation by a number of multinationals.
Yet UK government persists in the idea that we have something radical to add? It may be true, but with all the big commercial hitters backing other specifications, I doubt it will come to anything.
Sensation: Chinese Jade Rabbit FOUND ON MOON
Sysadmin job ad: 'If you don’t mind really bad work-life balance, this is for you'
Oracle sued over $33,000 bill for SaaS: STRIPPERS as a SERVICE
IETF floats plan to PRISM-proof the Internet
BOFH: Don't be afraid - we won't hurt your delicate, flimsy inkjet printer
Sir Maurice Wilkes centenary - 'Flash-Gordon' tech
Wednesday 26th June 2013 18:42 GMT
I thought the pun was unnecessary "Flowers, who overcame resistance from colleagues,", but an interesting article. On the subject of tubes, they disappeared much more recently than the article would indicate - CRT's are, of course, valves :), and there are probably still some of those in use in some places...
