* Posts by Mike 'H'

16 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Sep 2013

250 million-plus reserved IPv4 addresses could be released – but the internet isn’t built to use them

Mike 'H'

Re: 10.*.*.*

Essentially this would have helped Comcast right about the time they happened to sign up more than 16.7 million settop boxes / cable modems. There were overlapping RFC1918 networks at different cablecos when Comcast bought them and then needed to combine and integrate everything.

This right here, individual addressibility to EVERY cable settop and EVERY modem on their network was THE push for everything on their network to go ipv6 so they actually could have enough address space for their internal equipment. This has apparently given them a decade+ leap on the rest of the ISP industry.

I just wish other network providers *Centurylink/QuantumFiber I'm looking at YOU* would even turn up NATIVE DUAL STACK..

Hell, their most recent GPON fiber router doesn't even properly run the 6rd tunnel layer they've provided for a decade+ now.

Android Phones are 10: For once, Google won fair and square

Mike 'H'

God I miss the G1

That phone design..

As horrible as people claim it was, it was a godsend for someone like me, who types into SSH from his phone on a regular basis. Seeing all the actual keyboarded phones die up and now all we have is a very derpy attempt at a Blackberry revival, saddened me.

I do admit, the _very first_ release was crap: 192MB of ram, 90 megs of which was shared with the modem, leaving just about enough ram to run 2 apps concurrently without one making the JVM kill the other for resources... 480x320 screen..

That trackball though? So helpful! Single handed operation of a lot of features because of that, and then I could move my other hand to the phone to type. I kept it open, widescreen mode, all the time - simply because it was easy to grab onto, and not drop, in that position.

If some opensource hardware group in the near future comes up with a PCB and new screen that would fit the old shell for a G1, I know it would find buyers. Guy can wish eh?

Creaky systems 'cost lives': Health secretary Matt Hancock pledges to solve NHS IT woes

Mike 'H'

fax you say?

I bet their fax machines (if not some awful fax-to-email contraption) didn't catch a cold last summer *cough*cryptovirus*cough*

London's Gatwick Airport flies back to the future as screens fail

Mike 'H'

But...VODAFONE...

Where the bloody hell was the LTE backup - 3 megabits on their Network must be child's play.

Point a directional YAGI or dish antenna towards an off-site tower to bypass on-site DAS/macros, likely afflicted with the same fibre cut, and bobs yer uncle.

Or maybe the airport should spend a bit more for a competing LTE provider for 3-megabit backup services...

Charity accused of leaving sensitive notes behind after office move

Mike 'H'

Re: Twas ever thus

The paperless lavatory has already been invented by Toto in Japan.

Perhaps their offices have sufficiently less dead tree pulp in them by now?

Bloke sues Microsoft: Give me $600m – or my copy of Windows 7 back

Mike 'H'

Re: Re:Figure out your next step...

The funny part, is that for better or worse, the Linux ecosystem has been in a continuous-upgrade cycle since I started with it, some 20 years ago.

Its just that unlike big corporate entities, its a community based effort where people can persuade other people to not change things too horribly - and if one distributor decides to, there's hundreds of alternatives, most not too terribly different from what one has used previously.

Then finally said distributors either become irrelevant or change. (Can anyone say Ubuntu+Unity ? What, Unity is dead finally? Good riddance!)

Mike 'H'

Re: Don't forget to sue them for time lost...

Don't you mean a Linux installer for his Whine? :)

OK, Google: Why does Chromecast clobber Wi-Fi connections?

Mike 'H'

Re: Roku F-u

I'm not so sure the issue is "fixable".

This would imply the Roku has _2_ radios, and not just the single radio I've been able to find so far.

The single radio it has is a dual-band (but not simultaneously both bands at the same time) 2.4 and 5GHz. You'd need an entirely separate radio to make your setting even possible in a wirelessly-connected Roku scenario.

Therefore, if you don't have the device plugged into a wired LAN, you are forcibly limited to being on the same channel that the Roku is already tuned to, to access your WLAN.

When plugged into wired Ethernet, you can rightfully expect it to honor your settings; when connected wirelessly it cannot.

If your Roku Streaming Stick for example doesn't have a Wired connection to begin with, you're SOL - or you could always leave it as an island, with no Internet connectivity, and expect it to perform admirably on your preset channel Wifi-Direct-only.

Exim-ergency! Unix mailer has RCE, DoS vulnerabilities

Mike 'H'

Re: Serious question Time

cPanel's default MTA.

How many webhosts use cPanel and also standardize on exim for non-cpanel servers, simply because of less to train employees on? A lot.

'Urgent data corruption issue' destroys filesystems in Linux 4.14

Mike 'H'

Re: Crap, I think I am using that..

ZFS-on-Linux works pretty damn well in my production systems since 2012..

RadioShack bankruptcy savior to file for, you guessed it, bankruptcy

Mike 'H'

Re: Solder Repellant

Bro... do you even Flux?

My fortnight eating Blighty's own human fart-powder

Mike 'H'

Re: Ginsters

Everyone's mum makes the best food :)

Oracle finally targets Java non-payers – six years after plucking Sun

Mike 'H'
Mushroom

If only it goes the way of the dodo...

Now if this only has the super-duper effect of ERADICATING THE SCOURGE THAT IS JAVA FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH, I'll be happy.

As will a million BOFHs and PFYs who have to f@%@## keep fixing legacy systems to work with BS security fixes in Java which never actually fix the problem, that is Java itself.

Good riddance!

Utah faints: Google Fiber to lay cable in thrilling Salt Lake City

Mike 'H'

Re: 1982. AT&T stopped serving land-liines in Utah in 1982.

No, I have not been asleep. My view of the divesture, and then re-merging, of many companies that provide the in-ground wireline-to-residences services, and the point I am attempting to make, is quite sound:

AT&T, even with merging tons of companies over the last decades, more recently Southwestern Bell/SBC, Pacbell, SNET and others, DOES NOT have local-loop wireline infrastructure to houses in Utah.

Certainly, AT&T has re-formed, about 80% of what it once was. But there are stalwart former-baby-bells that will, very likely, not re-merge with AT&T: Centurylink, Cincinatti Bell, Verizon, among few others.

AT&T have not merged their way back into Utah - the point I was making.

Instead, Centurylink (through multiple divestures and mergers) now owns the Incumbent Git spot in Utah, and AT&T will never see wireline to houses in Utah, likely ever again.

Mike 'H'
Unhappy

1982. AT&T stopped serving land-liines in Utah in 1982.

That's when AT&T was broken up, forcibly by the Justice Department in the landmark antitrust lawsuit.

Utah fell under the auspices of Mountain Bell, one of 8 "Regional Bell Operating Companys" that were left in the aftermath of the verdict.

Mountain Bell, known later in life as USWest, was purchased by Qwest in 2000 and Qwest thereafter sold to Centurylink in 2011. This company, regardles of name, funneled TENS if not HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS into lobbying for, and advertizing their own legislation that, when passed, sumarily denied Salt Lake City proper from even being able to consider or vote upon being part of this much better network.

A well known, and respectable local ISP in the Salt Lake City area, Xmission.com, has a topical blog post about Centurylink's tactics.

https://xmission.com/blog/2012/02/24/response-to-centurylink-on-property-node-placement

The owner, received a letter from Centurylink, stating they wanted to use part of his privately owned property where he lives as an ideal location "for a network remote node DSLAM to provide faster internet service to your neighborhood'. He not only rejected their offer of money, but then created a media stink about how his ISP, Xmission, could _not_ utilize the same remote terminal DSLAMs as Qwest could, to provide faster, competitive internet, to his customers.

Xmission is only one of NINE different providers to choose from, for fast and useful Internet if you subscribe to UTOPIA - if you are able. Most households have TWO : Centurylink and Comcast for anything faster than best effort 7-12 megabits.

Xmission, and most other UTOPIA ISPs provide uncapped, unmetered 100 and 1000mbit services via this network. Businesses are able to subscribe upto 10gigabits.

All a residential account has to do, is pay ~ $3000 for the fiber and installation, and you get very cheap service thereafter. Adding it to your house increases its resale value by thousands. You can even opt to amortize this amount into a larger monthly fee for a few years to pay off the construction costs. 100% fair and equitable.

Xmission _is_ and _will continue to be forever, as a service to their customers_ a Centurylink partner and PPPoE realm auth / gateway to the internet, available to all Utah customers as a third party ISP option if you sign up for Centurylink DSL... But not the nice, fast VDSL2 standar, only central-office-provisioned, slow, noisy, ADSL2 is available to resellers.

Centurylink CLAIMS that Denver is a "Gig City". All they give a hoot about is the ability to advertize such, without providing the service to any appreciable amountn of the population. They've publicially admitted that ONLY the City and County of Denver, proper, will receive the service, and, only in very specific areas. Namely all the new condo and apartment towers being built near our new multi-modal transit station.

Another independant ISP, here in Denver, Forethought.net, is ACTUALLY WIRING EXISTING BUILDINGS for Gigabit, and ofcourse gets hardly a media mention - because they don't have millions of subscriber fees to put towards their ad budget. Amazing what actually funneling fees into NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE instead of ADVERTS can accomplish!

So, before you start any more rumors about how AT&T is about to start advertizing in Utah, give Centurylink credit for being the same bloody gits that AT&T have always been. The split-up was merely a 30 year hiatus, until status-quo returned. Bloody incumbents.

Huawei CTO insists: 'We are not a threat to UK and US national security'

Mike 'H'

Plausible Deniability

You should take a look at the research by German security analysts, Phenoelit: Felix Lindner and his fellow-researcher Greg. Theyve presented at DEF-CON and other security related conferences, and have their slides and research up on their phenoelit web site.

Their take? "Huawei routers don't need backdoors, when every default service is enabled and exploitable. Its plausible deniability."

The DEF-CON talk can be found on YouTube and DEF-CON's own torrents; "Hacking [Redacted] Routers".