Posts by Doctor Syntax

Blundering London council emails unredacted version of notorious Gangs Matrix to 44 people. Data ends up on Snapchat

Re: Gov Workers /No Expertise required

Glorified?

Re: They knew who sent the e-mail - Were they sacked?

I'm not sure that the person who sent the e-mails is the problem here. The problem that needs to be looked at is "who released it to Snapchat?".

Both were part of the problem.

Re: They knew who sent the e-mail - Were they sacked?

"When in fact they aren't allowed to interfere directly with how a council or council officer does their job, but some still do."

As an elector I'd like to think that overseeing that council officers was what councillors were for. That way my vote might have some effect. As ever, British public life gets things arse about face.

One possible solution occurs to me. A couple of decades ago I had a gig working with material which had similar sensitivity. I and everyone else had to have clearance to S/C. Shouldn't council staff with this exposure also need clearance?

If anything the need should be greater than in my gig as the whole of the database is going to be local to the area from which council staff are likely to be recruited. Without clearance there's an unacceptable probability that a data subject might be known or even related to one of the staff.

A failure like this should then result in the entire command chain losing their clearance and having to be redeployed within the council if they were even able to retain their jobs. This would result in greater awareness of all those involved about their responsibilities and what actions would be permissible.

It's difficult to know what to do when confronted with incompetence of this nature. It's not just the initial breach that's the problem. It's also the attitude that the council decided they could deal with it as an internal matter. Either they didn't know about the GDPR provisions about reporting or simply decided they were too important for that. I'd like to think there was a mechanism for placing them under some sort of adult supervision but where would one find suitable adults? Certainly not in central government.

All's fair in love and war when tech treats you like an infant

Re: There is yet another level of hell in these thinigs even beyond this.....

Not only Boris.

Re: No standards

"Who should we invite as stakeholders? A bunch of grumpy old men?"

Anybody who can remember when stuff just worked instead of only just worked. That probably does limit it to grumpy old men people (let's not get into more trouble).

Can we also have a gurn at those who, having got all their stuff checked through successfully are astonished to discover they have to find the means to pay for it and start rooting in pockets or handbags to find the necessary. The most recent episode was one who dragged out a card wallet absolutely full of the things (so she couldn't claim unfamiliarity with the concept), shuffled through them several times, discovered the one she was wanting wasn't there, had another root in the bag and came up with a purse with more cards in it. Why do these people not realise that waiting in the queue is a good time to get all that done without it being on the critical path?

I tell a lie. It wasn't the most recent. The most recent was the customer service till where, having checked stuff through the customer wanted to deal with some sort of lottery stuff as well, none of which would scan. I was sufficiently pissed off by this to try the SS scanner. Roll up, put the basket down on one side and the carrier on the other an the machine complained. Did nobody consider the use case that the customer needs to free up their hands in order to work the bloody machine and they're going to do that before pressing the button to start? Back to the customer disservice queue. Yes I am a grumpy old man - I've put the time in to get that way.

Re: No standards

"Any chance of an international standard being introduced for these things?"

There is. It's not to work well.

Re: Why has it been made so difficult?

"just because something is technically possible, it's not always a good idea to do it."

OTOH if it is done it should be done well. My refusal is based on the fact that I'm not being paid to debug them. It used to be he case that I reckoned that the maximum number of items that could be reliably scanned was 3. I've now down-rated that to zero.

Trend Micro antivirus fails to stop measles carrier rubbing against firm's Ottawa offices

countries that are not considered "first world" countries

It's difficult to consider a country as first world when a substantial number of parents actively prevent having their children vaccinated.

Google Pay tells Euro users it has ditched UK for Ireland ahead of Brexit

Don't tell anyone but it was "Well, what did you expect us to do?"

UK health tech quango strikes Gould, reckons digital policy wonk has NHSX-factor to run org

Talking to patients might also elicit something that they didn't say or wasn't recorded last time.

And don't be too sure he won't reorganise the commissioning structure again, this time with an app.

Re: Security first please.

Even better, build it so securely from scratch so it can't be accessed via a trendy app. Once it's accessed on the patient's phone there'll be a ravening horde of other apps trying to get it on behalf of FB, Google and whoever else wants a share.

Just say no.

Hello, tech support? Yes, I've run out of desk... Yes, DESK... space

Re: *BEER* shouldn't be 'cold cold'

"You only warm the pot because historically the china pots were very thin and boiling water risked cracking them."

Real china - porcelain - didn't crack. It was European stuff that cracked until they worked out how to make something better. Much the same reason for the vile habit of putting milk in cups.

Re: *BEER* shouldn't be 'cold cold'

"seminal Brewing"

?!

Re: A modern twist

Don't confuse the symptom with the disease. I thought it was the need for classic shell that needed to be eradicated.

Re: A modern twist

"I had to Google to work out how to shut a Windows 8 PC down"

"Phil", being a mechanical engineer, would have used a hammer.

No dice, comrade! Senate floats Russia-busting election law

"Among the Russia-specific provisions are calls for the White House to produce and maintain a regular report on the net worth of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and any other individuals who would potentially have an interest in meddling with US affairs."

Does this mean we get to see Trump's tax returns? (Along with all other candidates, of course. Can't pick and choose.)

Frontline workers urged to help stop UK.gov automating data slurps for immigration checks

Identity is a slippery concept. What are the data collected? Lists of names? Try a Google search for your own name and see how many hits there are that you know aren't you. Can you work out how many distinct people that represents. How many of them might be close enough on some characteristic that some matching algorithm might merge you? From my own experience I know I've had namesakes in two careers I've followed. I've even had an agency send me a contract for one of them for a gig I didn't apply for and which was outside my area of expertise (dumb agents; should go be company names, not people names). And yet neither my given name nor surname come very high on lists of commonest names.

Citation needed.

Hands up who can tell me which pupil details transfer system has glitched. Yes, Capita's

"We are investigating one customer incident relating to a minor coding issue"

It's only a minor coding issue but enough to tell users they shouldn't use it. What would count as a major coding issue?

Two Arkansas dipsticks nicked after allegedly taking turns to shoot each other while wearing bulletproof vests

Re: bullet-resistant vest

"I thought they're generally called -proof"

I doubt neither their makers' legal department nor insurers would have accepted "proof".

Re: Testing in the real world

Like phuzz said - evolution in action.

Re: On the plus side..

"hit something more vital like a head"

Not too much to damage there if they had.

Re: Definite Darwin Award winner in the making

No way. They were only stupid, not daft. The vests were only bullet-proof, not car-proof.

Astroboffins may have cracked the mystery of where the photons from weird gamma ray bursts come from

"This idea of radiative emissions coming from a relativistic jet of matter does remind me of Cherenkov radiation, though."

Especially if you consider this: https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/03/30/0542222/physicists-predict-a-way-to-squeeze-light-from-the-vacuum-of-empty-space

Re: Meaning of words

"Things that radiate are not necessarily electromagnetic radiation."

True, but when the origins of em radiation are being considered more care ought to have been taken to avoid confusion between this and matter.

International Bullying Machine? Big Blue seeks exposure of corporate canary

Re: what a company

"I forsee a new company being formed of former RH staff very soon"

Let's hope IBM keep pottering on.

It's time to reset the 'Days without a Facebook data loss' sign after 500 million records left exposed on AWS

"The data exposed in each of these sets would not exist without Facebook, yet these data sets are no longer under Facebook’s control."

If FB makes it possible to abstract data in this way they need to accept responsibility. If they don't want the responsibility the corollary is obvious.

Autonomy's financial reports? I didn't even read KPMG's due-diligence, says ex-HP CEO Léo Apotheker

Re: Awesome reporting!

It depends on what the public seating's like, then. I hope it's not the pew-like offerings of Irish court-houses, described in the Irish RM as needing only a pulpit to pass as a dissenting chapel.

Re: Delegating

It's a matter of who's responsible for the expenditure. If it's an underling the management can scrutinise them. When it gets to top management there's not higher level authority to scrutinise it. What's the Latin for "Who micro-manages the micro-managers?"?

Re: Sticking it to his old bosses?

"Looks more and more like Leo is subtly undermining HPs case."

Intentionally or not he seems to be making sure Lynch doesn't sue him.

Re: Awesome reporting!

I hope the court has comfortable seats. It sounds like Gareth is going to be sitting there a long time.

Re: When Leo unintentionally disclosed how companies are being run

"How do they survive?"

There's only one skill you can count on someone having who successfully climbs corporate trees: climbing corporate trees. If they have any useful skills it's a bonus.

Re: Sticking it to his old bosses?

any statements made by Lynch should have been treated as "advertising fluff"

Or the starting point for an expected haggle. If the buyer didn't haggle it should be their problem.

Re: Delegating

"the people who understand the product of the taken over company. It sounds very much like zero technology input into a takeover that was based on technological potential."

It sounds as if he decided that was his role.

Re: "What needs to happen is real teeth to shareholder-led pay scrutiny"

"maximize shareholder value"

It's not so much maximising shareholder value that's the problem, it's maximising short-term value.

Re: Sticking it to his old bosses?

"KPMG didn't find anything worrysome"

If they didn't get to put in a final report we don't know what they found and neither did Apotheker nor anyone else at HP unless they were tipped off unofficially.

Fortune favours the Brave: Privacy browser chap takes gripes over adtech body's website to Irish data watchdog

"It will just take a proper fine to convince them."

Even better, several proper fines on the businesses they've given this advice to who then sue them.

Mystery of the Chinese woman who allegedly tried to sneak into Trump's Mar-a-Lago with a USB stick of malware

"There is no indication ... that she got anywhere close to the president, who was staying at the club"

She's female and didn't get close to Trump? Unbelievable!

Re: Sounds unprofessional all round

"Why produce TWO passports?"

Simple. Two are twice as good as one.

Ex-Mozilla CTO: US border cops demanded I unlock my phone, laptop at SF airport – and I'm an American citizen

"'d like to see the company willing to pay for a burner LAPTOP to be tossed in the trash for anyone who isn't a high level executive"

If they can't afford the laptop how can they afford the risk of connecting it back to the corporate network?

Autonomy was a 'pure-play software company', testifies former HP chief exec Léo Apotheker

Re: Leo's summary so far

"Will they raise the specter of a bid from Oracle rushing them?"

I get the impression that he looked on Autonomy as a sort of trophy and wanted to be sure to get it.

To be fair I doubt the QC would give you a good account of a case without the documents to hand.

In a big case like this he's probably had time to study the documents in the past few weeks and will have the most significant stuff at his finger-tips now. By the time another case or two have gone by he very likely won't.

My experience was that I would be totally dependent on the case file. It would have been some months at least between writing a report and going into the witness box. I don't know it Apotheker will have had the chance to see the documents he's now being shown; more fool him if he's had the chance and not taken it. If he hasn't had the chance to refresh his memory then it's not surprising that he can't remember a lot of stuff until he's shown it. It's also not surprising that a cross-examiner will jump on it.

Finally, after years of dunking on Magic Leap, El Reg's Kieren tries out the techno hype goggles. And the verdict...

The idea that the manufacturer will provide a set of standard lenses would be a problem. They may well come in a standard range of focal lengths which would deal with long and short sightedness but for many of us they'd have to deal with astigmatism which introduces two more variables for each eye, the axis and the cylindrical focal length.

Bit nippy, is it? Hive smart home users find themselves tweaking thermostat BY HAND

Re: Smart heating systems do have their uses.

"I didn't have any room thermoststat(s) in my heating system; have all rads with TRVs on, except for bathroom & toilet."

I still have that set-up. Unlike you the boiler has a time switch with individual settings for each 15 mins so it would be a doddle to set up a short burn every few hours to keep frost at bay.

It's a valid statement in its own right.

Go on, feast your eyes on... HMRC's backend: 4,000 IT staff, its hookup with AWS and more

"I'd like to say that none of our server images are older than seven days"

Never mind, you'll probably get them right eventually.

The curious case of a WordPress plugin, a rival site spammed with traffic, a war of words, and legal threats

Oh what a tangled web...

...again and again.

It's hard to think how you might construct a worse foundation for building systems than the JavaScript "ecosystem".