Posts by msknight

How many Reg columnists does it take to turn off a lightbulb?

Shouldn't this be titled....

"How many Reg columnists does it take to turn ON a lightbulb?"

Answer - One restless, horizontal columnist.

Science says death metal fans delightful and intelligent people, great at dinner parties

Free Thinkers

Personally, I find people who listen outside the mainstream, are more likely to be independent free thinkers rather than sheep... and make good conversation at the dinner table... whereas sheep on the other hand, tend to be served up on said dinner table :-D ... statistically speaking, of course.

On the eve of Patch Tuesday, Microsoft confirms Windows 10 can automatically remove borked updates

I always did wonder why the malicious software removal tool, doesn't remove Windows.

Huawei 'to sue US' over federal kit block – report

Re: Details please [Meanwhile watching carefully ....]

Apparently, a recent article on WIRED reports that no such law exists... https://www.wired.com/story/law-expert-chinese-government-cant-force-huawei-make-backdoors/

Re: I'd appreciate some insight please

But if Kapersky's attempt to sue was thrown out on the basis that the government were protecting against foreign government intrusion... then Huawei is likely to go the same way... only possibly quicker. That's what I don't understand.

I'd appreciate some insight please

I don't understand how Huawei can sue the US government. On what basis can they do this? If they were an American company, I could see it. But not being American, I can't see how they can demand access to the US market, or recompense for being denied access.

YouTube's pedo problem is so bad, it just switched off comments on millions of vids of small kids to stem the tide of vileness

Re: Is this accurately reported El Reg?

No, nor ADV China last time I checked. But C-Milk's been showing his daughters so that's probably why it happened to him.

Re: Is this accurately reported El Reg?

I can tell you that a number of the channels that I follow, have had all comments stripped from all their videos, and the ability to post new comments also stripped.

Laowhy86's channel is one such. More than 322,000 subscribers, he has a YouTube creator contact so has direct communication with YouTube, as a creator.... and even he can't get this reversed on his channel. I've gone through a handful of his past videos and every one that I've checked so far, has had the comments removed.

All we can do now, is grab the popcorn, sit back and see how this turns out.

Re: YouTube have no control

What I want to know, is what tests Jones has been running in order to prove that particular theory. It would make one hell of a video, that's for sure!

YouTube have no control

They can't even ban ONE MAN from their platform.

That's right. Ace conspiracy theorist nut job Alex Jones is STILL broadcasting on the system despite being banned from the platform. There's even an account "Alex Jones" which is broadcasting the man himself, and YouTube are totally asleep at the wheel.

He's been all over the platform since the ban, and it's not boding well for their ability to control anything.

Don't mean to alarm you, but Boeing has built an unmanned fighter jet called 'Loyal Wingman'

Tin Man refuses to stand down and fires missiles at nuclear warheads. On screen in 2005, reality in 3...2...1...

Up up and Huawei in my beautiful buffoon: Trump sparks panic by tying tech kit ban, charges to China trade negotiations

Re: Boundaries

> I don't think Trump has any concept of "boundaries".

Just try engaging him on the topic of the wall :-)

Bored bloke takes control of British Army 'psyops' unit's Twitter

Re: Should change its name

*starts wondering if there's a 69th Brigade, but thinks twice about looking it up from a government computer*

Data breach rumours abound as UK Labour Party locks down access to member databases

Nothing new

Some years ago, each of their candidates was given a copy of the database for their leadership campaigns.

I found out after receiving numerous unwanted SMS messages and called Labour HQ to get my mobile number taken off the database to stop the SMS texts, only to be told that it wouldn't change anything as the candidates each had a copy of the membership database. And I went off on one. I reported it to the commissioner but it went nowhere.

I've long left the party and to hear something like this, doesn't surprise me. People just seem to have such a caviller attitude to privacy and people's data.

AGM X3: Swoon at this rugged interloper mobe then throw it on the floor to impress your mates

Re: I know it's a bit pre-millenial to ask

RF about average, a little quiet on normal calls, but booming when transferred to speaker mode.

Accused hacker Lauri Love loses legal bid to reclaim seized IT gear

From what was detailed in the article, I believe that the judge thinks there is plenty in the file names, etc. to believe that the hard drives contain the digital equivalent of a loaded firearm. Given that, I can understand why they don't believe him entirely innocent and don't want to let him have the hardware back.

No fax given: Blighty's health service bods told to ban snail mail, too

He doesn't get it.

I actually use fax to correspond with my GP when planning non-urgent things. It's quicker than writing a letter and I can write it, and my GP can read it, at times that suit us, independently of each other. I don't waste a GP appointment... and when I do have an appointment, we've got a good grounding on what's going on, as we've had "discussion" already, so the appointment is shorter and everyone's happy.

Fax, I believe, is better than e-mail because e-mail is just too easy and liable to lead to the GP surgery being inundated.

One click and you're out: UK makes it an offence to view terrorist propaganda even once

Re: Goodbye Youtube?

Oh well. There goes my plan of shopping on-line for a new garden axe at Homebase then.

Fun fact: GPS uses 10 bits to store the week. That means it runs out... oh heck – April 6, 2019

My satnav tells me...

...it's April 1st. Guess I'll just carry on and drive into that wall then.

Jammy dodgers: Boffin warns of auto autos congesting cities to avoid parking fees

Re: Possible answer ?

Adapt the underground for unicyclists.

Replace the trains with a conveyor belt that a unicycle slots into, and rides the track to the next station. They'll need to lift their legs, of course, or else the peddles will repeatedly whack them in the shins.

People can get exercise by riding their unicycle in a holding position while at their standing desks. Lifts between floors will be interesting.

Happy Thursday! 770 MEEELLLION email addresses and passwords found in yuge data breach

Re: Detail gone

I do use unique e-mail addresses for some, where I think the site is most likely to sell my details... I guess I'm going to have to feed them into the engine one by one, as I do use different passwords for various sites... but that's my problem for being a pain :-)

Re: Detail gone

I work for government. Being cynical is part of the job description. Yes Minister.

They are counting collections and separate data breaches as "breached sites" so I suppose that's where the problem is coming from. Telling me x number of breached sites, but actually being within larger collections.

Re: Detail gone

They appear to know which source they're from, if they're able to tell me that I was pawned on 4 breached sites ... presumably they already know which sites those are.

Detail gone

I believe they used to tell you what sites you were breached from... but now it looks like that's gone. They only point you to an FAQ, so I can't easily tell how bad the damage is. Perhaps that's what's happening... so many people say, "Meh, that's so old that i won't bother buying these password services..." so they've stopped telling people which sites they were pwned on, perhaps in the hope of panicking more people to buy their services.

Peak Apple: This time it's SERIOUS, Tim

Great... super... smashing....

A few discussions here have been around the fact that phones live in our pockets, hips, desks, and get damaged. Not only cost of phone to replace, and cost of insurance, but also inconvenience. A few people are starting to carry multiple devices now... or internet services that don't require a single device to access the music/pictures/etc. - ie. as we move to a service economy, then tying down those web services to a device, could be considered a bad move.

My 2019 resolution? Not to buy any of THIS rubbish

Fixated with automatically ordered toilet rolls

Ok Mr Dabs, you mentioned them twice in the same article.

Come clean. What happened? Did you get a good price for them down the market afterwards, and do you still squirm every time you see a toilet roll?

Nobody in China wants Apple's eye-wateringly priced iPhones, sighs CEO Tim Cook

Re: I was watching...

China's projects aren't delivering.

Latin American projects failing - https://money.cnn.com/2016/02/16/news/economy/china-latin-america-projects-fail/index.html

One Road One Belt failing - https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/09/chinas-new-silk-road-is-getting-muddy/

I hear the Africa investment isn't going too well either.

They have a debt problem - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/16/chinas-debt-is-250-of-gdp-and-could-be-fatal-says-government-expert - that isn't getting any better and the domestic property market has been rising above realistic levels and with the wage growth being significant and talk about American companies starting to migrate production back to the USA over the next ten years because of this... I don't see as rosy a picture as you.

I have to admit that I was surprised to read of a domestic debt problem in China. I believed that their population was one of savers - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-01/china-warms-up-for-2018-critical-battles-with-cooling-economy

I was watching...

Nightly Business Report this morning. They obviously reported on this, and the side note was that while this was true, it wasn't the whole story. I do know of my friends that use Apple devices, they're making them last longer and are now upgrading every three years.

At the end of that episode of NBR, they did state that China's economy was slowing but because of the trade wars, they can't deploy their usual trick of devaluing their currency.

I did also read elsewhere that Huwawe devices were being given away to staff (of some companies) for free, to spite and undermine Apple (read USA) in retaliation for the trade war.

It does look like China is going to finally hit the economic buffers and isn't going to be left to cheat its way out this time. I wonder why that's the reason why Xi wants Taiwan more badly than ever before and is willing to send in the troops this time... for the economic boost it would bring.

I do know that it's now only the hardest of my friends and colleagues who are buying everything Apple produces; the majority have discovered other things to spend their money on. ... like food !!!

More nodding dogs green-light terrible UK.gov pr0n age verification plans

Credit cards for those under 18

Problem solved - https://www.money.co.uk/prepaid-cards/teenager-prepaid-cards.htm - now the teens can go back to legitimately browsing porn illegally.

(More links were there, just selected the first one.)

Oz cops investigating screams of 'why don't you die?' find bloke in battle with spider

Not the first time...

.... this from 2015 - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/26/youre-dead-police-thought-man-trying-to-kill-spider-was-attacking-wife

“It was a spider,” the man replied sheepishly. “A really big one.”

“What about the woman screaming?”

“Yeah sorry, that was me,” he said. “I really, really hate spiders.”

It’s not the first time a spider has sparked alarm. Another arachnophobe set a service station in Michigan on fire in September after he tried to scare a spider away from his petrol tank using a lighter, with predictable results.

Pork pulled: Plug jerked out of beacon of bacon delight

I've heard of lining up for the slaughter... but this is ridiculous !

And lo! Tim Cook becometh tech Jesus. But with more awards

"Our own innate desire to separate right from wrong."

Bwaaaahahahahahahaaaaaaa.... oh hell, my sides are hurting. Please, stop this. I can't take it any more! Honestly... no more.... this is hilarious. Seriously... we're talking comedy circuit gold here.

Apple in another dust-up with its fans: iMacs, MacBooks lack filters, choke on grime – lawsuit

Re: Errr....

So, what happens to the big particles that they catch? Does the machine give a blow-out on start-up? Surely they don't expect these structures to continue indefinitely... and they must need a clear out as well?

Re: Errr....

Most PC's and laptops can be taken apart and be maintained. I have an 8 year old I7 Tosh laptop that's still rocking. A number of the laptops I've used have had panels underneath which give access to the heatsinks so that they can be brushed clear.

Regular maintenance is just part of owning a machine, like changing the oil on a car... something which the average consumer just doesn't seem to be aware of. It's as if they think that laptops, etc. are just magic boxes that sit under desks and perform their magic until the hard drive gets full and it's time to change the whole box, because the operating system is not supported any more... or some such guff. (in my neck of the woods, the PSU seems to be the most common point of early failure these days. Used to be RAM death.)

So the idiot tax is working exactly as designed... a tax on idiots ... or to be more honest, those who are uneducated in maintenance of their machines. And those who are now educated in such things, are starting to get upset because they've finally realised how Apple works. (and a few others, to be honest... some laptops do require a certain degree of disassembly for dust maintenance... those who install the screw panels are the good guys who put a bit of extra thought for the customer)

With all this focus on filth...

.. I'm sure that there's a joke about pornography in here somewhere.

Australia to build a pirate-proof fence: Brace yourselves, Google

Dentists in Queensland are quaking in their boots.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/dentists-website-on-leaked-blacklist-20090319-93cl.html

Jocelyn Ashcroft, who runs a school canteen consultancy in Queensland, also said she had no idea why her site had made it on to the list. "The only thing I can think of is that I have emailed schools telling them about my book and CD resource How To Have A Healthy And Profitable Theme Day," she said.

...

Daniel Purser, who runs a web hosting and design company out of NSW, was also shocked to learn that his site had been blacklisted. He said there was "no chance" his customers were hosting questionable content.

...

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, yesterday said the list was not genuine.

Analogue radio is the tech that just won't die

The "click to enlarge"

...didn't enlarge very much.... and I couldn't make out blu-ray players on there.

Facebook's CEO on his latest almighty Zuck-up: OK, we did try to smear critics, but I was too out-of-the-loop to know

Re: Clueless

His promises are already so thin that they're in negative mass.

Oz lad 'fell in love with' baby meerkat, nicked it from zoo, took it out for a romantic Big Mac

Re: The real question

David132 Well, someone either didn't get it, or didn't like it :-)

Re. The Goonies house... sounds like a nerd who doesn't want to share. I mean... why else buy The Goonies house! - *sigh* - those were the days.

And yes, I did watch Short Circuit to the end, from the robot fight scene, shortly after making the post :-)

Re: The real question

Do you mind @AC ... this is a technical forum. The insult should therefore be appropriate.

"Hey, Laserlips. Your Momma was a snow blower. Thrrrrrwp."

He probably took it to MaccyD's...

...to show what animals in a cage really look like.

(Wimpy fan ... Burger King at a push... but there's more nutrition in MaccyD's boxes than in their burgers as far as I'm concerned.)

Old joke... what's the difference between a post and under graduate? The undergrad asks if you'd like fires with your Big Mac... the post grad asks if you want fries with your Whopper.

OK Google, what is African ISP Main One, and how did it manage to route your traffic into China through Russia?

I posted this at the tail end on the other article...

The following is a joke... of course... to the tune of, "Blame Canada"

The irony is the last part, because as Joyce said in the article, "... the wakeup call for all of us to get serious about addressing the massive and unacceptable vulnerability..."

----

Time's have changed

The Internet's getting worse

They won't obey the IETF

...and go to V6 instead

Should we blame the government?

Or blame society?

Or blame the traffic of Internet TV?

No, blame Africa, blame Africa

Their update was a surprise.

They re-routed all our files.

Blame Africa, blame Africa

We need to form a full assault

It's Africa's fault

----

Don't blame my poor old router

It saw the wrongest route

And now it's off to China and Japan.

And Russia's on the path

My files have gone "Прощай"

And buggered off to the East instead of West

Well, blame Afria, blame Africa

Something technical went wrong

When Africa came along

Blame Africa, blame Africa

They're not even between me and L.A.

My data could have been a movie, or a best selling book.

Now it's down a black hole, come and look.

Should we blame the fibre?

Should we blame the light?

Or the technicans who buggered it up last night?

Heck no

---

Blame Africa, blame Africa

'Cause of MainOne's hullabaloo

They lost all your traffic too

Blame Africa, shame on Africa

All the smut got lost, the traffic all got crossed

All this routing mess must be undone

We must blame them and cause a fuss

Before someone thinks of blaming us

OK Google, why was your web traffic hijacked and routed through China, Russia today?

According to the BBC...

...it was MainOne in Africa - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-46194279

The following is a joke... of course... to the tune of, "Blame Canada"

----

Time's have changed

The Internet's getting worse

They won't obey the IETF

...and go to V6 instead

Should we blame the government?

Or blame society?

Or blame the traffic of Internet TV?

No, blame Africa, blame Africa

Their update was a surprise.

They re-routed all our files.

Blame Africa, blame Africa

We need to form a full assault

It's Africa's fault

----

Don't blame my poor old router

It saw the wrongest route

And now it's off to China and Japan.

And Russia's on the path

My files have gone "Прощай"

And buggered off to the East instead of West

Well, blame Afria, blame Africa

Something technical went wrong

When Africa came along

Blame Africa, blame Africa

They're not even between me and L.A.

My data could have been a movie, or a best selling book.

Now it's down a black hole, come and look.

Should we blame the fibre?

Should we blame the light?

Or the technicans who buggered it up last night?

Heck no

---

Blame Africa, blame Africa

'Cause of MainOne's hullabaloo

They lost all your traffic too

Blame Africa, shame on Africa

All the smut got lost, the traffic all got crossed

All this routing mess must be undone

We must blame them and cause a fuss

Before someone thinks of blaming us

YouTube supremo says vid-streaming-slash-piracy giant can't afford EU's copyright overhaul

Re: So what?

There is, actually a contract section which applies. Unfortunately, there are two terms of service documents for YouTube, and I'm not really sure which of the two versions are actually in force. (EDIT - they might have sorted this out, finally)

https://www.youtube.com/t/terms

https://www.youtube.com/static?gl=CA&template=terms

Part of 6.c. of the second link ... " You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service."

The trick is the, "through the functionality of the service".. so if you download the video in order to then use it in one of your videos which you then upload... you're out of 6.c. because you've gone outside the service in order to mash up the video. So none of this is very straightforward.

I recorded a video on the problem here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ABqh04n8lo - but it does appear that they might... finally... have actually synchronised the two terms of service.

ie. even though your uploaded work is copyrighted the instant you upload it... the simple act of uploading it to youtube, automatically grants every other youtube viewer the ability to use and reproduce it.

Re: @ pascal monett

The problem for YouTube is that cleaning it up, will destroy their business model.

They get more adverts from a bootleg of the latest music hits, than they do from a video of me repairing a walkman. If they clean it up... then the income goes down the pan. That's the problem.

Personally, I'm also on Vimeo, where I pay for the privilege of having a channel. THAT is the proper business model, I believe. What should happen, in my eyes, is that every channel on YouTube should be charged for its existence, and rely on its viewers paying for the higher tier content.

Like I do now... I am a patron of a few channels. What I pay is affordable to me, and I get access to extra content which the non-subscribers don't see. I also get access to non-video content like subscriber blogs, etc. - the combined number of people like me, enables a living income for the content creators.

YouTube's current model actually penalises creators who use other platforms for income at the moment. That stifles the creators and limits them to video.

The whole model is selfish, inflexible, unpoliceable and doomed to fail.

Re: So what?

Sorry Duncan, I have to disagree.

Shed loads of content on YouTube is pirated. I see it frequently. Channels go down, and new ones come up to replace them. That includes music piracy, and piracy of other people's videos. There is a lot of copyrighted content on YouTube.

YouTube actually have sod all control of their platform. Remember Alex Jones whose supposed to be banned from the platform? I'm currently tracking... fourteen channels re-broadcasting his live streams. Hang on, one channel just got banned outright. Thirteen.

YouTube actually have a very poor control of their platform, and I'm wondering how long it will be, before advertisers wake up to this, and that YouTube's comforting words about advert placement and figures, are actually worth nothing.

Also, as a creator, the false positives are sickening. I'm getting false copyright claims from their bots (and I know it's the bots because the videos are hit with strikes before they are published) and then I've got a battle to get those claims revoked. The YouTube content scanning system, from where I'm sitting, is a blunderbus that isn't even pointed at the barn door.

Personally...

... I believe they are trying to put the frighteners on. And based on past behaviour, I wouldn't put it past them to go overboard deliberately, in order to stir up the hornets nest.

To be honest, this was coming someday. If the EU gives in now, then they might as well call it game over and hand over control of government to the corporates.

ZX Spectrum reboot scandal firm's original directors rejoin

Re: Massive-

I believe, at the moment, that we might be on side B.

Windows 10 Pro goes Home as Microsoft fires up downgrade server

Re: The joke is on you!

Good call @Tony2Heads