Posts by Doctor Syntax

Crooks swipe plutonium, cesium from US govt nuke wranglers' car. And yes, it's still missing

Re: That dirty yard in the neighbourhood

"The few grams of Caesium 137 MIGHT be a tad dangerous if someone swallowed the lot."

If the caesium is in the form of a metal "dangerous" probably isn't the right word. "Spectacular" would be better.

Kremlin hacking crew went on a 'Roman Holiday' – researchers

Re: Alleged Kremlin-linked hacking waffle

"What is this neocon propaganda doing on a technology website?"

What is this waffle about neocons, whatever they might be, doing on a technology website?

Re: Numbered days?

"Something like a Virtual Private Network (1996):"

Your link goes to LinkedIn. Like any other site that requires an account to read it that isn't particularly useful.

Privacy Shield under pressure as lawyers back MEPs' call for suspension

"there were a number of misgivings from data protection watchdogs and observers"

And outright disbelief from the rest of us. Since then the CLOUD Act has simply made things worse from the US side and GDPR must surely have broken the so-called standard clauses.

'Fibre broadband' should mean glass wires poking into your router, reckons Brit survey

What were the actual questions? All of them.

This was sponsored by Cityfibre. Any competent survey company can get the results their sponsor wants by choosing the questions and reporting the answers for the last one. Without seeing what was done to prime the respondents we've no idea as to whether this was done or not.

Tech team trapped in data centre as hypoxic gas flooded in. Again

Re: New version of Cluedo

"the Beancounter who is found dead in the cellar."

Isn't the point of a demise in the cellar that the body's never found, it just disappears in a roll of carpet to a landfill north of Leeds?

Re: Hasn't halon been banned or something in the '90s?

"Aren't they the BOFH's former colleagues "lying" around?"

And is there still enough Halon about to replenish after the BOFH's accidental (every single one of them) discharges?

PC shipments just rose, thanks to Windows 10

Re: Kubuntu 18.04 - FOR THE WIN!

"Welcome to 2018, the year of Linux on the desktop."

Just like more years than I can remember before it.

You do, however, seem to lack the notion of multiple users or purposes. SWMBO & self are both using our Linux laptops at present. Then there's a smaller Linux laptop for when I need something really portable to take into libraries etc. There are also the Linux Pis, one on each TV to make them into non-slurping smart TVs. And the Linux desktop that's actually a desktop not a laptop for stuff that needs a Wacom tablet....

Re: Gartner

They don't provide "analysis" for our entertainment.

They do, even if they don't intend that.

Re: PC Shipments just rose, thanks to Trump

"Trump's tariffs will raise the prices of almost everything, especially that of things from China and of technology. Buy now to beat the rise."

That sounds like a plausible explanation when combined with the what's been said upthread; that there are a lot of ageing PCs out there that are approaching TITSUP time.

Re: I purchased a New PC this year...

Very confusing for a 76 year old.

Nobody needs that sort of crap happening at the whim of the OS vendor.

"wiped for Windows 7 (or even XP.)"

Would they have drivers for modern H/W? With Linux there can be a problem with that gets resolved pretty quickly. Not so easy when the OS vendor has washed their hands of it.

No, seriously, why are you holding your phone like that?

"My son has the latest i-thing-phone and I can never hear him."

Or maybe he mumbles.

Re: Light Traffic

"faffing about with your mobile phone whilst driving"

That was my reaction but then I realised it didn't say whether this was either as a driver or passenger.

Re: "get"

"I'm normally fairly well behaved, thank you"

Ah, but you're implying you have a shared scale of values with the person who asked. Only if you do are you able to provide an assessment meaningful to them.

Tautomerism alert

vacuous "fashion concious"

Re: Only yesterday...

"I think it is to prevent the radio waves from microwaving the brain."

Despite there being little damage that could be caused.

Re: Phone reviews

"I mean if you must, what else is the headphone socket for?"

That more or less confirms DML71's point, Apple having removed the socket.

Re: Damn

"Seriously, who do you imagine is willing to spend weeks of their time on finding out whether you get up at 6:00 or 6:30?"

Who might be interested in knowing that a house is often unoccupied over the weekend and this weekend appears to be one of them?

Re: Damn

I suspect it isn't merely ignorance that drives the scepticism, but many years of experience of other "secure" systems.

And rather fewer, but still too many, years of other experience of other slurping systems which leads to the conviction that at the innocuous end of things it will lead to marketing. But that's just the innocuous aspect.

Re: Back in the day..

"surveying used to involve a person at a fixed point throwing a laser beam at a person at the work location"

Luxury! Dumpy level and staff calibrated in decimal feet.

But in answer to your question at the end: it's mandatory.

Eldest thus took it upon himself to load up his phone with all sorts of "worthy" choonz (everything from Fleetwood Mac and Abba right on to Thomas the Tank Engine) and hijack the BT speaker as often as possible

Do it right. The complete Ring cycle. That should cover a good few school trips. Or 4'33" for shorter trips.

Re: Monkey see, monkey do

"FWIW I think they look like idiots."

But being idiots they don't know that.

That's the trouble with us, we're too reserved. A bit of pointing and laughing would do them a power of good.

Re: "get"

twat: I'm good.

Alternative:

Twat: Are you good?

Person: How can I possibly answer that?

Re: ...why are you holding your phone like that?

"good documentary"

Documentary? Yes. Good? It depends on whether you can speak Finnish as a lot of it's in that language, including the contribution of the lawyer who was recruited because she was a fluent English speaker. The problem is the subtitles which are all too often unreadable. Should have either taken more care with that or dubbed it.

Re: Slight variation

" In this hot weather with windows open - it is driving their neighbours mad."

A bucket of water - or something - would help.

Fix this faxing hell! NHS told to stop hanging onto archaic tech

Re: saboteurs

"you do not allow NHS workers to dictate how it should be reformed."

They are, however, amongst the best informed people to advise not only how it should be informed and what the most urgent areas are.

You may, however, be an MBA and not understand why this is the case.

Re: Yes and while your at it...

"What is this fascination with having to print everything?"

So that it can be kept where it's needed, such as on the patient's notes in this instance, and not on the doctor's computer at the other end of the corridor two floors down, or on the doctor's mobile when he's scrolled through a hundred other emails to find it, or on the doctor's mobile except it's a nurse who needs to see it, or....

Re: They'd still be using...

"Especially the generally fit and healthy ones who are still active, driving and looking after themselves quite nicely thank you."

And, let's add, also looking after grandchildren so their own children can hold down a job. Although I suppose if the grandparents weren't there to look after the kids the kids could be sent into the factories to clean the fud out from under the spinning frames or down the mines to open the doors for the tubs to be pushed through.

Re: User story

"There were quite a few to choose from, back in the late 90s."

I know. I used them. It was a complete pain coordinating 3 lines with a lot of faxes to send.

Re: @ wolfetone

"I understand he is ridiculously toxic and an embarrassment to the country"

And to the Labour party which is why the OP was so anxious to call him a Tory. Actually I don't think he was either, he was a Blair through and through.

Re: @ wolfetone

A costly, but life-saving treatment could be considered "worth it" for a thirty-something, but not for a sixty-something, based on tax contributions they are likely to make.

The sixty-something will point out that they've made enough tax contributions to cover it already. False logic, it's true, but if the sixty-something lives until the next election they still have a vote and hence a say in how things are done.

Re: @ wolfetone

"However, to give them to some old gaffer in a wheelchair who won't walk or use the limb is ridiculous in the least."

However, helping the old gaffer get out of the wheelchair isn't in the least ridiculous.

Re: @ wolfetone

"Fixing peoples cosmetic surgery screw-ups should come with a bill."

And preferably delivered to the "surgeon" who screwed up, not their victim.

Re: UK Intellectual Property Office - Sorry can you FAX that

"It doesn't half seem ironic though that an office that is handling patents for cutting edge technology relies on fax."

Wait! Are you saying patents something has to be cutting edge technology to get a patent? Or is it that "with a computer" makes it cutting edge?

change all the occurrences of "centre" to "center"

It sounds like a more effective solution might have been the application of CHCl3 to the appropriate jobsworth.

Re: User story

"FAX machines either need to catch up and go digital or be shoved aside."

Are you saying they should use a digital format such as TIFF?

Re: User story

"Print document first, as these should be on the PC already."

If the document starts life as a written note on ward rounds are you saying that the Dr should type it up so it can be emailed? Or wait until a secretary should type them up?

Different situations give rise to different use cases. Different use cases have different optimal solutions.

US drug cops snared crooks with pre-cracked BlackBerry mobes – and that's just the start

Re: Well maybe

"In fact I don't believe the English judiciary is significantly corrupt though there is still far too much old boy network and one particular university and one Public School feature far too often."

If you mean Eton & Oxford & doubt they contribute a high proportion of lawyers. Proximity to the Strand and the Inns of Court is more helpful than being out in the sticks on the wrong side of the Chilterns.

Re: Well maybe

"Conventional POTS telephone communication was never secure and it's monitoring by authorities to prosecute criminals was always legal "when it was carried out under warrant

There's a big difference between targeted surveillance carried out under the rule of law and surveillance, targeted or not, by anyone who fancies doing saw. The difference is "rule of law" which is an essential component of a free society under the rule of law. And is there any way in which that freedom can be maintained?

"There is no reason to believe digital or other communications should not be monitored to convict crims or for security reasons."

No there isn't provided there are legal safeguards such as requiring a warrant obtained from a competent authority who has been provided with a sound basis for granting it. For avoidance of doubt a competent authority does not include other members of the investigating body or a politician. Independence of the judiciary is an important factor in a free society (which, BTW, is a reason that some of us look askance at the political shenanigans involved in the appointment of US judiciary).

So the solution is journalists & activists everyone should wipe every device first before using.

FTFY

Two-factor auth totally locks down Office 365? You may want to check all your services...

Re: There's an easier way

"Our CEO just does not do this"

That's the way to deal with the problem.

"the intruder used the compromised account to send an email to the chief financial officer asking for funds to be shifted"

This should also have needed pre-arranged 2FA, a written instruction and a spoken instruction, either in person or by phone. For transfers above a given limit the phone instruction should require the CFO to call back for confirmation.

Yes, it requires a few minutes of CxO time but even CxO time isn't really priced at that level is it? The board should really have asked questions about that. Questions such as "How can you justify your continued employment?" and "How are you going to pay back what your carelessness lost?"

Hope for Hutchins, Navy sinks contractor, there's another Russian hacking scandal, and more

"A former electrical engineer ...Jared Sparks"

Nominative determinism strikes again.

On which subject - should Paul Pester have stuck to sales and marketing?

What can $10 stretch to these days? Lunch... or access to international airport security systems

Re: Agreed

"Unfortunately there are only so many pet rabbits one can hunt and eat in Surbiton."

You might need to move out a little and develop a taste for horse meat.

UK taxman outlines its CHIEF concerns for customs IT systems

Re: A new golden era of prosperity

"The 27 would more likely be interested in the financial services"

They certainly will. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44805565

Re: Hmm

"When less money is being taken by the tax man I expect a few minds will get focused."

True, but by then it will be too late and we'll be facing huge negotiations to get back in.

Heatwave shmeatwave: Brit IT departments cool their racks – explicit pics

Re: I've done this too

"Back in the day of the really big hard drives without all these fine tolerances"

I've seen a similar thing but back in the day of massive optical disk library which did have fine tolerances. I think the robot had to be recalibrated.

Re: Temperature ratings

"Which meant buying a new one"

Maybe the new one would have been equally sick.