Posts by Doctor Syntax

Whats(goes)App must come down... World in shock as Zuck decides to intertwine Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp

Re: Damn

"84% of 24 – 35 year old Britons use WhatsApp dropping to 78% for 35 – 44 year olds."

Sez who?

Re: Damn

"Everyone has Wattsapp"

I don't so not everyone has it. What's more "everyone" could replace it with something else if they chose, then no one would have it. Free will is a wonderful thing.

Re: Signal

"network effects"

Presumably these friends communicated with each other before Facebook even existed. If networks effects are so powerful how did Facebook replace those? If a sufficient subset replace FB with something they feel comfortable with and agree on then if the rest want to remain in touch they will have to add that something to their own repertoire in exactly the same way as they joined FB in the first place.

Six Flags fingerprinted my son without consent, says mom. Y'know, this biometric case has teeth, say state supremes...

Re: Companies will always push the privacy barriers because money is to be made from it.

This is why we need legislation such as GDPR and this Illinois Act. If selling on data or holding it in excess of immediate functional needs becomes toxic eventually companies will stop doing it. Some will work it out for themselves when the legislation is passed or when first challenged. Some will learn by seeing the mistakes of others. Some will learn the hard way. Six Flags should be applauded for selflessly volunteering to be held up as an example from which others can learn.

Re: So I gather

"But then they have your photo, which is private biometric data and right there on the pass is proof they saved that data."

As you say, "right there on the pass". The pass which is under the control of the customer not the vendor. The pass which the customer can destroy when it expires.

Re: So I gather

"It isn't clear what the risk of that would be, since you can't reconstruct the actual fingerprint from that data, but the type who will sue over this would not find that reassuring."

The obvious risk is that the hash can be passed or sold on. It then becomes identifying information if the recipient acquires, surreptitiously or otherwise, a fingerprint.

Re: Wrong end of telescope

"Or, businesses in Illinois will be trusted more as they subject to higher regulatory standards regarding people's biometric data."

Only if they follow the law. Making determined attempts not to are counter-productive. The fetish of acquiring as much data as possible seems to override mere self-interest.

Apple: Trust us, we've patented parts of Swift, and thus chunks of other programming languages, for your own good

Re: SUN once said the the same positive things about Java Patents and licensing structure

"Even if they are currently stowed in the basemant of a presumably well-meaning company. Once they get out of that basement, for whatever reason, they are ready to kill."

To say nothing of what can happen if the well-meaning company gets taken over. True, Apple might be too big for that to be feasible now but the future is terra incognita.

Straight outta Blighty: Readers, if you were a tech billionaire, what would you do?

Re: Let's have another go

"Well, immediately post-Brexit-vote, he'd immediately move everything offshore."

He'd moved manufacturing off-shore pre-Brexit-vote so the stuff he flogs here is already imported from outside the EU. At least to a first approximation Brexit doesn't affect his UK business at all so it's no skin off his nose if all the businesses still manufacturing in the UK for EU customers start facing tariff walls. Of course when their former employees stop buying his products it might make a difference.

Re: Dyson

"So if the UK doesn't provide the best environment to grow businesses then move the business to somewhere that does.

And at the moment, UK seems to be determined to be as hostile as possible to enterprise."

The issue with Dyson is moving the manufacturing part of his business out of the UK; then advocating a change which, as you way, makes the UK as hostile as possible to enterprise, shafting those overseas investors who set up enterprises in the UK because it was part of the EU*. Only now do we see the pretence of being a Great British Business being dropped.

* Along with those of his customers employed in the UK by those enterprises.

Re: If I were a tech billionaire...

"thous"

Plural of "thou" is "you".

Re: If I were a tech billionaire...

"which ones could kill me"

You could always move to Australia and take "all of them" as a safe first approximation.

Re: Dyson

"Dyson the company has been moving its production to Singapore for yonks and now makes nearly ALL its stuff there."

Quite so. You should take account of that when you work out just how much skin in the game Dyson the man in charge of the company has when it comes to UK manufacturing industry.

Re: Opertunity

"The last time somebody made so much money out of British politicians stupidity was when my friend George Soros got John Major to hand him a billion pounds by selling Sterling short."

You didn't buy gold from Gordon Brown at the bottom of the market? Some people just can't see opportunities when they're in front of them.

"where to put the jam in its scone"

Simple. Between the butter and the cream. Who are these people who don't put butter on a scone?

Now let's get to the trick bit. How do you pronounce it?

Is your kid looking at GCSE in computer science? It's exam-only from 2022 – Ofqual

"I am the only teacher at the school to have the license to make gunpowder and demo in the lab."

License? How times have changed.

"So students are going to be taught how to pass the exam."

Inevitable given that schools have contrived to foul the nest in the past. I suppose it's a consequence of league tables.

Just keep slurping: HMRC adds two million taxpayers' voices to biometric database

"thousands of people are reclaiming their rights by getting their Voice IDs deleted,"

Maybe.

We did Nazi see this coming... Internet will welcome Earth's newest nation with, sigh, a brand new .SS TLD

Re: terminology

Julius Caesar arriving in "Great Britain"?

I wouldn't think so either. He arrived in Britannia - a Latin name because Caesar, being Jonny Foreigner, didn't speak English. There are a couple of versions of why the island is called Great Britain.

One is that is was a coinage to include Scotland after the Act of Union.

The other is that it distinguished the original island from Little or Lesser Britain, Brittany which Caesar didn't call Brittany, either, he called it Armorica. It got its later name because it was settled by refugees from Britannia after the Anglo/Saxon[/Jutish/Frisian] settlement.

Sprint subscribers: What do your updated iPhone and Tonga have in common? Both are cut off from the world

Re: Break?

How does one "break" an undersea cable?

Police are looking for a ship with a large back hoe attachment.

Or a trawler.

Open sourcerers drop sick Fedora Remix to get Windows Subsystem for Linux pumping

"The existing Linux distros and a lot of mainstream companies approach WSL as kind of a novelty."

I'm not sure about novelty but it's a rather excessive overhead just to run Linux.

World's favourite open-source PDF interpreter needs patching (again)

Re: Alternatives

https://packages.debian.org/sid/poppler-utils

Google faces another GDPR probe – this time in the land of meatballs and flat-pack furniture

Re: The Swedes

"man on couch at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London"

According to the Grauniad he's come up with yet another wheeze to get his name in the papers.

Re: Why not also look at.

One at a time. Combine too many things and they can put the brakes on the whole case by quibbles on each issue in turn. And besides, multiple cases means multiple fines.

Nothing 'unites teams' like a good relocation, eh Vodafone?

Re: reasonable commute

"M62 commute (especially in peak rush hours)"

And even that assumes there are no road works, accidents or jumpers from Scammonden bridge.

Re: Relocation sux

"My advice to any company considering relocation, make certain you have rational reasons for the relocation, and count on losing all of your experienced staff, as they are the ones who find it easiest to get another job."

One of the rational reasons is getting rid of staff. Projected move from central London to outside the M25 a bit further round from Watford - 80% of staff said they'd move. Suddenly the price of the projected new premises went up and the move was to Leeds instead. Very few staff went. It fitted well with schooling - timed nicely for daughter's change to 6th form college - and it was back to God's own county so I was one of them.

"saving £21m over the next three years.”

Those who were there will remember the savings total announced when their rival moved from Euston to Leeds. They will also remember that the breakdown of the projected savings fell a million short of the claimed total. The accountant responsible should have realised that quoting a series of numbers with one significant figure was almost guaranteed to produce a rounding error if the total was quoted to two and that everyone would instantly notice.

They'll also remember that out of about 5 of the management team who made that decision only one of them actually made the move. I wonder if Voodoophone's management will be similarly enthusiastic.

The BMC in OpenBMC stands for 'Burglarize My Computer' – thanks to irritating security flaw

Re: "Burglarise" ?

"In American English, the verb burgle, meaning to rob, is regarded as a humorous backformation from burglar, and burglarize is the preferred term in serious contexts."

I've always assumed it was coined by a US lawyer who was on piece work rates and it allowed him to charge for four extra letters every time he used the word.

Fake broadband ISP support scammers accidentally cough up IP address to Deadpool in card phish gone wrong

Re: Who is to blaim for being taken by scammers?

"he advice from your bank is always the same."

No it is not.

Or at least the bank might always give the same advice but they expect you not to follow it, even to the extent of sending pseudo-phishing emails to tell you that.

Re: Who is to blaim for being taken by scammers?

"the victim DOES SOMETHING THEY HAVE BEEN TOLD NOT TO"

Banks, building societies, insurance companies etc. regularly send out phishing emails. Or at least emails that look like phishing emails.

- They don't come from the claimed sender's domain or if they do it's from a sub-domain that resolves to an address owned by someone else.

. The return address is noreplay@overweeningly_important_bank.co.uk so you can't reply to check.

- The emails themselves are stuffed with links that as untrustworthy as the sending domain.

Forwarding to their scam reporting address brings no response. Such emails even include those that purport to warn against phishing. The only way I can be reasonably sure they're genuine is that they're sent to an address set up specifically for that business but most people who only have a single email address can't take that precaution. My bank no longer get such emails through to me: I told them a few years ago that unless I got an explanation as to what they were going to do about the last such message I'd discontinue the address; they didn't so I did.

I've had a similar experience with phones and banks. When I had a business account I would periodically receive phone calls claiming to be from the bank and asking me to verify who I was by telling them about a recent transaction. I told them that they couldn't possibly be my bank as I'd previously made it clear to my real bank that I wouldn't accept such calls if they couldn't verify themselves first and I wouldn't even confirm whether or not they'd guessed the right bank. This was invariably followed up by a plaintive letter on the bank's headed paper asking me to contact them so they could sell me something see if their was anything they could do to help my business.

As long as banks etc. continue to do this they should be held fully responsible for any successful scam against their customers. It is, of course, their marketing departments who do this; marketing departments are apt to be the biggest threats to a business.

Re: Who is to blaim for being taken by scammers?

"If some stranger walked up to you in the street, dressed as a banker, would you give them your bank details"

Unfortunately, at least in email and phone terms, the banks do just this. It makes it difficult to put the entire blame on the victims if the banks themselves are training their customers to be scammed.

Re: Useful telephone number.

In the UK the name, address and phone number of the Information Commissioner is handy to have.

Re: Dirty Scammers

"Put them on a real technical support desk."

I think that was in implication of "in the cubes".

Re: Dirty Scammers

"makes a nice break from filling in tax return forms"

You haven't realised it was a scam being run by HMRC to delay you filling in the forms so they can issue a fine?

OK Google, er, Siri, um, Alexa, can you invalidate these digital assistant patents, please?

Re: Patent trolling should be punishable by at least 10 years in an Alaskan jail

"If they put all the share holders of companies engaging in patent trolling in jail, this non-sense would end instantly."

Be careful what you wish for. If you have any investments such as a pension plan you might find that you are, indirectly, a shareholder. Or maybe your children if you invested in some saving fund on there behalf.

Nationwide UK court IT failure farce 'not the result of a cyber attack' – Justice Ministry

Re: Why o why....

"perfectly well"

I get the impression you've not spent much time hanging about courts waiting for them to get themselves in order. Or taken along a few copies of a statement the prosecution promised to give to the defence but you knew that for whatever reason that wouldn't happen.

Re: Judicial precedent for refusing to continue ...

"effectively overruling the judiciary."

Only in one direction. Officially. Internment without trial has been tried a few times, presumably mostly by those who didn't bother to find out what went wrong last time.

Build the wall... around your DNS settings, US govt IT staff urged by Homeland Security amid domain hijackings

Re: This is a joke right?

"The agency is telling them they have 10 days and will be held accountable."

Business days don't include weekends and public holidays. Presumably they also don't include periods when the government is shut down. Start counting when business gets back to what passes as normal

You heard the latest Chinese CRISPRs? They are real: Renegade bio-boffin did genetically modify baby twins

Re: It's not the biggest worry

"have poor eyesight, hearing, short-lived"

Actually we have much better colour vision than a great many other animals. Acuity doesn't necessarily match some others but there's a trade-off between more receptors for acuity and more receptors for colour discrimination. We're actually very long-lived. That's a consequence of producing very under-developed young at birth, in itself a consequence of walking upright which restricts the size of the birth passage and having large brains which means the brain has to only part grown at birth so the cranium can just make it through. As a result post-birth development is greatly extended and there's evolutionary advantage in extending life well beyond child-bearing age so that grandparents can help raise grandchildren.

'Nun' drops goat head on pavement outside Cheltenham 'Spoons

"It was about 10:30pm Saturday night and the goat head was just on the path outside Wetherspoon; everyone was just acting like normal."

It must have had a sobering effect if everyone outside a pub at half ten on a Saturday nigh was acting normal.

Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently

Re: Go for it, Google!

"I don't block ads."

I salute your courage.

If the site hosts the ads itself then they can and should take care to keep malware out of them to avoid being sued into oblivion.

If an ad network does that they'll probably continue to get away with it because it's harder to prove a case against them.

Re: Go for it, Google!

"Opera is Chromium. If this change gets pushed, they're dead in the water too."

Opera hasn't always been Chromium. They could be something else - they could even go back to writing their own engine or fork Chromium.

Re: So predictable !

"It's been scrutinized by every man and his dog"

It's also been scrutinised by CNIL, the French data protection regulator. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/21/google_50m_cnil_gdpr/

Must try harder.

Re: Why cue the lawyers?

"if you don't like it, fork it"

And very likely to happen if they go ahead.

Re: There is a trivial solution for this

"the same underlying approach has made life on Windows so much securer in recent years hasn't it."

I couldn't possibly say as I don't use Windows but as a general approach it seems better than "We'll not let this plugin stop us from screwing your privacy and we're not giving you the choice.".

Paging Mr Schrems.

White-listing Azure cloud connections to grease your Office 365 wheels? About that...

Repeat after me - it's not a cloud it's somebody else's computer.

French data watchdog dishes out largest GDPR fine yet: Google ordered to hand over €50m

Re: Large corporations such as Google simply 'interpret the law differently'

They'll still get fined under the real one.

Re: A State Level Protection Racket?

"Or they could stop indexing French companies, or French government services."

It's EU wide legislation. As GP said, they could leave a market of 500 million people to their competitors.

French diplomat: Spies gonna spy – there aren't any magical cyberspace laws that can prevent it

Is it possible that a prohibition on spying could upset diplomatic job prospects?