* Posts by David Thomas

5 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Dec 2013

What the @#$%&!? Microsoft bans nudity, swearing in Skype, emails, Office 365 docs

David Thomas

As an academic who works on information and media I sometimes have to discuss texts containing words which Microsoft will doubtless ban. Shakespeare, for example is full of such words. I could quote them but don't want my account suspended by El Reg. I think a better headline would have been 'Microsoft bans Shakespeare'. Reminds me of Lord Macaulay in 1830 'We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality'. Just substitute American for British and his lordship had it in a nutshell.

Stop resetting your passwords, says UK govt's spy network

David Thomas

Stop blaming the users

The real issue is that the IT industry should devise some other means of security than forcing us to invent and remember increasingly ridiculous passwords which we have to change, apparently at the whim of power-crazed sysadmins. So why not devise an approach based on biometrics or dna or quantum mechanics. The present system is yet another example of the IT industry's distressing tendency to blame the users for its own failings.

David Thomas

Stop blaming the users

GCHQ and the IT industry have a long history of blaming users for lapses in security. The industry needs to develop real security. Biometrics are a start but DNA or some quantum approach would be better.

David Thomas

Blame the user as usual

Instead of continuing to blame the users, the industry should spend time and money developing proper security systems. Biometric are good but some dna or quantum approach would be better

How the UK's national memory lives in a ROBOT in Kew

David Thomas

Thanks for the article and comments. Just a couple of responses to comments. TNA has offsite back up somewhere in England. I'm not sure printing to paper is helpful - TNA has almost as many pages of digital data as it does physical so a huge storage problem. Also many IT formats such as websites are hard to print in a meaningful way. As for metal storage, TNA has some 1940s audio recordings on metal tape. Can we read them? No we can't.

And pubs - try the Express just across Kew Bridge.

David Thomas