* Posts by a_yank_lurker

4139 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2013

Gmail suffers worldwide wobbly Wednesday

a_yank_lurker

Cloudiness

The cloud is fine for some uses but for mission critical uses I would be very wary. Outages will occur to all providers with varying degrees of frequency and severity.

Oracle happy to let Apache Foundation adopt NetBeans

a_yank_lurker

Re: "I'm worried that anyone is still using java to be honest"

I can think of worse languages than Java that are rummaging around. Also, several languages compile to Java byte code and use the JVM to execute.

Did you know iOS 10, macOS Sierra has a problem with crappy VPNs? You do now

a_yank_lurker

Re: Rare praise

I wonder how much of this is the PHBs setting IT priorities that have nothing to do with real needs.

Yelp wins fight to remain morally bankrupt

a_yank_lurker

Re: A plausible sequence...

Yelp and other review sites have a problem with accuracy and verify the reviewers bona fides. It is fairly easy to post a bogus review on these sites. Reviews on Amazon suffer from this to some extent but Amazon can verify if the reviewer actually purchased the product.

Also, how many bad reviews did this guy get versus good reviews?

Microsoft's Service Fabric for Linux hits public preview

a_yank_lurker

Re: Cloud !

I have a limited use of the public cloud but will avoid Slurp like the plague because I trust them less than their competitors.

Bad news: MySQL can dish out root access to cunning miscreants

a_yank_lurker

Re: amusingly

MariaDB and Percona are drop in replacements for MySQL so it is likely that both could have this bug. So to say MariaDB and Percona users are absolutely safe from this without confirmation from either is, bluntly, idiotic.

Microsoft leads group pelting 'heavy duty' robot maker with $10.5m

a_yank_lurker

Fundamentally transform them into what?

BSOD

Airbag bug forces GM to recall 4.3m vehicles – but eh, how about those self-driving cars, huh?

a_yank_lurker

Re: Process is far too slow

The airbag issue was not specifically Honda but caused by the airbag manufacturer. These bags were supplied to many automakers so the replacement parts may be in short supply given the total number of cars and number of bags to be replaced.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Voluntary

GM is issuing the recall before it will be mandated by the regulators. Also, this puts them in a more favorable civil liability position of they realized there was a problem and issued the recall in presumably a timely manner. So suing GM after the recall for this defect is not an option if the defect causes an accident or injury. GM can now argue, you were advised to fix the problem by us you did not thus it is solely on you. This narrows the potential window of legal liability and potential damages.

One of the reasons the Ford Pinto was notorious was the fact Ford apparently knew of the problem but did nothing for several years.

Seagate sued by its own staff for leaking personal info to identity thieves

a_yank_lurker

Re: Corporate fines == useless

Hold someone the C-suite PHBs criminally responsible for their incompetence might do the trick.

Florida Man's prized jeep cremated by exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7

a_yank_lurker

@Mark 85 - It could be beloved as it was a very nice vehicle for them. The reliability issues are real but it is moving target as vehicles seem to be more reliable now than 15+ years ago.

a_yank_lurker

Re: I only know because I read the reg

I think the registered owners officially have to be notified of the recall by snail mail in the US. At least that seems to be true with cars. This is partly a holdover from pre-Internet days.

Petulant Facebook claims it can't tell the difference between child abuse and war photography

a_yank_lurker

"It is a potentially foolhardy commercial organisation that doesn't err on the side of caution and mindless censorship." The problem FB faces is some sue happy shyster trying to make a quick buck claiming the picture is child pornography when anyone with a couple of functioning brain cells would realize this is not that at all. Too many important, historical photos dealing with war, tragedy, etc. are being banned by such stupidities.

US Congress blew the whistle on tax-dodging Apple, claims Europe

a_yank_lurker

Re: If the USA...

"This has nothing to do with the US" is incorrect. US companies do all kinds of murky but legal means to avoid paying the US corporate taxes. The US income tax law is a complete disaster at 6,000+ pages of shyster so avoiding it is often the wisest plan.

Google's AI finds its voice ... and it's surprisingly human

a_yank_lurker

Very Difficult

The one problem with this is the human mouth and tongue are not positioned the exact same way for what is the "same" sound in two different words. Thus, there is a subtle sound shading. Also, as AC noted, the cadence is varies in human speech.

Hello, Star Trek? 25th Century here: It's time to move on

a_yank_lurker

Re: Hollywood is creatively bankrupt

@acid andy - I think the "short termism" comes from not respecting people as valued humans on their own merits but as objects to be milked or abused right now. If the powers to be respected people they would value a long term relationship even if it is only commercial.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Hollywood is creatively bankrupt

I agree. Instead of telling a compelling story with Sci-Fi Hollywierd just recycles old shows that are well beyond their sell by date. Star Trek was good but the basic franchise is tired in its current format.

Call to kill FBI spying powers

a_yank_lurker

Stasi Theater

So the feral court system is slowly sinking to levels where Roland Fiesler looks like an ethical and fair jurist.

EU court: Linking to pirated stuff doesn't breach copyright... except when it does

a_yank_lurker

Clueless in Brussels

It sounds like the EU Court of (In)Justice has heard of this wonderful invention the computer and the Internet but have never used either.

Investors resist Larry Ellison's $9.3bn NetSuite deal

a_yank_lurker

Two Slimes

Pot meet kettle.

Come in HTTP, your time is up: Google Chrome to shame leaky non-HTTPS sites from January

a_yank_lurker

Re: Thin end of the whatsit.

To many websites have features that require a login. How many of these sites have even considered have a certificate and a secure connection?

You're guilty but broke, judge tells Wash.io – the 'Uber of laundry'

a_yank_lurker

Re: Tech washing!

The sad part is real slavery may be an improvement for many of these workers and their families.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Business Plan

Most businesses fail within 5 years has been a mantra for ages. The causes often include a poor business plan and lack of funding.

St Jude sues short-selling MedSec over pacemaker 'hack' report

a_yank_lurker

Re: Lawsuit?

With some time at a nearby Club Fed for the participants.

Dude, you got a Dell lawyer: HPE sues high-flying ex-exec after defection to EMC

a_yank_lurker

Re: Oops

What state does Choi reside? Many limit or ban non-compete. Also, case law in many states also limits the scope of non-compete clauses. Often they are ruled unenforceable because they prevent a person from earning a living in their field.

US tech college ITT is not pining for the fjords. It is no more. It has gone and met its maker

a_yank_lurker

What about ripoff schools and majors

ITT may be a sleazy operation but what about colleges that offer even more worthless degrees with no job prospects? Shouldn't they be shut down also?

Adobe reverses decision to kill NPAPI Flash plugin for Linux

a_yank_lurker

The Grinch

We Penguinistas must have been very bad this year to get the current version of Turd aka Flash.

HSBC: How will we verify business banking customers? Selfies!

a_yank_lurker

Re: Security eh?

Mythbusters, a few years back, actually showed how easy it was to fool fingerprint scanners. I suspect the basic technique is much different now. The only issue with biometric data is it relies on a form of security by obscurity. Once you have the victim's biometric data is relatively easy to fool the systems but getting the biometric data initially may be a little more difficult. Also, once compromised the biometric data is useless for security.

Hollywood offers Daniel Craig $150m to (slash wrists) play James Bond

a_yank_lurker

Re: Other colours are available.

If one goes with a women, I suggest Michelle Gomez or Alex Kingston.

Sophos Windows users face black screens after false positive snafu

a_yank_lurker

Sophos may be right

Has Sophos finally figured out the be biggest malware supplier is Slurp? (Ducks from incoming barrage of fanbois hate)

Microsoft thought of the children and decided to ban some browsers

a_yank_lurker

Lawsuit Time Again

Is the Slurp begging for another beat down? This time let's hope the shysters get it right.

Bloke accused of Linux kernel.org hack nabbed during traffic stop

a_yank_lurker

12 months? I doubt would last 12 minutes

EMC-Pure Storage patent sueball circus sent back to square one

a_yank_lurker

Don't Tell Leisure Suit Larry

Since Sun is now owned by Oracle Leisure Suit Larry may have a patent suit that is a slam dunk. PSST don't tell him.

We want GCHQ-style spy powers to hack cybercrims, say police

a_yank_lurker

"It's all another brick in the wall. A wall we could very well wake up one morning and find totally surrounds us." - The problem is not (cyber)crime or how to deal with it but that the local Stasi are using the fear of crime to demand powers that dictators like Stalin, Mao, Hitler would love to have had. Given that powers will not be used to actually fight crime but to keep the various undesirables (according to your local elite) in place one should be very wary of these demands.

Lindsay Lohan's Grand Theft Auto V cartoon case kicked out of court

a_yank_lurker

Lindsay Who?

I thought she died, disappeared, or been abducted by clueless aliens. She has to remind us we still have to put up with her gross stupidity.

Latest Intel, AMD chips will only run Windows 10 ... and Linux, BSD, OS X

a_yank_lurker

Re: Microsoft continues to destroy the PC

The need for end users to have the power of these new chips will application driven not driven by the users. Most users can probably use hardware and software from 5 or so years ago.

Windows 10 now rules the weekend, taking over from Windows 7

a_yank_lurker

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Why does this sound like a smelly pile? If 'bloat 10 was doing as well as Slurp wants us to believe the numbers would not smell.

That Public Health study? No, it didn't say 'don't do chemo'

a_yank_lurker

Chemotherapy

Often chemotherapy is a balancing act to get the dose that kills the cancer without killing the patient. But when the choice is certain death by cancer or a reasonable shot of being cured, then taking these drugs is an intelligent choice.

FBI Director wants 'adult conversation' about backdooring encryption

a_yank_lurker

Re: Comey = Traitor or Idiot

The real issue is whether there are implementation flaws or back doors (which act like implementation flaws). Adding a known backdoor is just painting a bullseye on the code telling hackers come look for the backdoor. Whether they find the backdoor they are certain to find some flaws they can abuse.

No cryptographic systems is truly unbreakable even if takes millennia with current hardware. The fact that older systems once touted as effectively unbreakable now can be seccomb to brute force attack means there is ongoing arms race between the systems and the hackers.

a_yank_lurker

Comey = Traitor or Idiot

Anyone with rudimentary knowledge of cryptography knows all cryptographic systems have one glaring weakness - the brute force attack. Given enough time and resources all messages can be broken and read. Also, it is likely (more like a certainty) that any commonly used system has implementation errors that weaken it. Now the esteemed traitor/idiot wants in add a backdoor (implementation error) and expects no one will look for.

Want a Windows 10 update? Don't go to Microsoft ... please

a_yank_lurker

Re: Neither good nor bad in principle, I may wait a while.

@Zakhar - The key with torrents is user control. Giving one the option of a direct download vs a torrent is reasonable. Personally I have found torrents slower than a direct download for what I have used it for. Plus I am not very thrilled with basic concept behind torrents so I almost always use the direct download. Slurp is not considering that users have different comfort levels with torrenting and some will much prefer a direct download especially for OS updates.

a_yank_lurker

@kraggy - morons does as morons do, paraphrasing Forest Gump. Someone will figure out a way to piggyback malware through this. This will make protecting your 'bloat 10 kit very dubious. I do not trust any other user's kit to be clean enough for me to take a download from them. I am not a fan of torrents either.

MedSec's 'hackable pacemaker' report autopsy: Bombshell crash claim in doubt

a_yank_lurker

Not Surprised

The whole episode smells of a reverse pump and dump so a criminal short selling scheme can be used. Maybe a good old fashioned, enrich the shysters class the lawsuit should be filed with the management team being held personally responsible (difficult to do but not impossible).

Ice to see you! Windows 10 fix for freezing PCs finally flung at folks

a_yank_lurker

Re: Dodged the bullet

@joed - The Russian hackers, you know what they are doing and they more ethical than Slurp

AT&T trash talks Google over Fiber fiasco: Leave ISP stuff to the experts

a_yank_lurker

Re: AT&T hasn't even tried

It got worse during the "Allen & Two Temps" era.

Height of stupidity: Heathrow airliner buzzed by drone at 7,000ft

a_yank_lurker

Re: Am I wrong in thinking that if ..

I would rather not need to rely on the design not having some unknown/untested flaw. And the best way to avoid this kind of accident is not have a drone anywhere near an aircraft. I have been around engineering enough to know there is often a scenario that was thought of during testing that will occur in real life.

Intel's makeshift Kaby Lake Cores hope to lure punters from tired PCs

a_yank_lurker

The slowest part

For most real applications the slowest part is sitting in the chair.

Microsoft redfaced after Bing translation cockup enrages Saudis

a_yank_lurker

Re: Easy mistake to make?

Fairly accurate translation may be more accurate.

Big data busts crypto: 'Sweet32' captures collisions in old ciphers

a_yank_lurker

Volume of data

To break a code one needs enough data to give clues to the key. This has always been true. The only difference between now and the Enigma machines is the amount of data needed.

Encryption will never be perfect and will be broken with enough time and effort. It just has to be good enough so the plain text is useless one obtained.

FBI: Look out – hackers are breaking into US election board systems

a_yank_lurker

SQL Injection

Really, SQL injection was used. How lame but given it is Illinois I am not surprised so they are broke and dominated the infamous cesspit Chicago.