Posts by Doctor Syntax

Knock, knock. Whois there? Get ready for anonymized email addresses after domain privacy shake-up

Re: A bit more protection for the black hats

"go ahead and pretend to write from Microsoft while sending from GMail, I dare you"

Even Microsoft seem to have caught up with this one. They've finally stopped coming into my Hotmail dustbin.

"What bothers me is how can the EU dictate how ICANN runs the global internet?"

Look at it from the rest of the world's point of view. How can the US dictate how the internet is run within the EU borders or, indeed within the borders of non-US countries in general?

ICANN depends more on global consent than it does on the US's contract. The RotW could, if it so wished, get together, clone ICANN's root registry and then treat the clone as definitive. Given ICANN's governance problems which have been reported here a number of times it's slightly surprising this hasn't happened already.

In reply to your question, what the EU can dictate is what businesses, including registrars, can do with respect to the privacy of individuals within its borders. It can levy fines on any entity with a presence within its borders for breaching its legislation. That affects all EU registrars. It also affects any multinationals with offices within the EU. There's nothing in the EU legislation which would effectively prevent a non-EU registrar from publishing PII information on whois; nothing, that is, except it would then be competing with other registrars who don't and it would limit any subsequent expansion into the EU itself. So, although the EU can't dictate how ICANN manages the internet globally the control it exerts within the EU means it has to be respected. ICANN has finally faced up to that.

So the suits swanned off to GDPR events leaving you at the coalface? It's really more IT's problem

"Technically, it is possible, as in restore every backup to a machine environment capable of understanding the data structures (both in database and application terms including all business logic) and then removing the offending data and then rebacking up the data."

Alternatively, take m0rt's excellent advice, posted an hour earlier. Or mine saying much the same thing with less detail posted some weeks earlier. Why does this chestnut keep coming up? The solution should be obvious.

Re: ITs job but not IT's problem

"Except in the marketing analytics teams where all the toys are going out of the pram!"

I'm firmly of the opinion that their toys should be taken away from them and only given back when if they can prove they can be trusted with them. That goes for the whole of marketing, not just analytics. Toys, of course, includes anything on which data might be stored, including phones and paper notebooks; note Mr C's comments about checking for unstructured data. And insist that any future projects be only granted funding when detailed plans have been scrutinised by a grown-up.

Re: B2B vs B2C

"Do you need to get explicit consent from each of those employees to hold their data? Do your customers' employees have the right to be forgotten with respect to your help desk system?"

It might not be authoritative legal advice but CYA: assume "yes". The same thing applies to you customers, of course. Have they thought about such things? Have you prompted them to do so?

Another day, another meeting, another £191bn down the pan

Re: The Dilbert Principle

Let me park this one here.

http://dilbert.com/strip/1997-07-21

Re: Nobody meetings....

"Like the civil service. ... meetings to rewrite the minutes for the meetings"

No, as Sir Humphrey explained, the minutes are written up in advance.

Re: Missing the point

"The really good ones even have doughnuts."

Not the really, really good ones. Once upon a time in more generous days my team occupied the area next to a meeting room which was extensively used for lunch-time meetings. We became connoisseurs of meeting menus. The high point was one provided with Cointreau crèmes brûlée which had gone untouched.

"Possibly you are under the inexplicable supposition that your attendance at a workplace meeting serves a useful purpose. Yet in practical terms, all a meeting achieves is a mass downing of tools by its participants for the duration."

In the case of some participants having them down tools for the duration is a useful purpose.

I always found that the meeting at the start of a project was the most useful one. It enables you to look round, identify the (maximum) two other people in the project with whom you'll get the actual work done, identify the several other people who'll be in the way and wonder who the rest are.

UK's Dyson to vacuum up 300 staffers for its electric car division

Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

"Even a remainer should be able to understand that"

Oh, we understand all that. We just don't believe that the pixies will be along immediately afterwards to scatter the magic dust to ensure that lots of people don't lose their jobs. It might even work out after a decade or so but by then we'll be a decade or so behind all the other economies.

Alternatively we'll have been let back in on condition we give up the £ and a few other concessions which will be seen as worthwhile. There'll be no Leave opposition to that as nobody but nobody will ever admit to have voted leave and the outcome of the referendum will be seen as a huge statistical puzzle. BoJo and the like will be insisting that this was their essential idea all along.

A third alternative is that it won't happen as either it will mean the collapse of the Good Friday agreement with a hard border in Ireland or a collapse of May's agreement with the DUP as the alternative is a hard border down the Irish Sea.

Re: Dyson ain't quite wot it used-er to be

"I also guess that Dyson himself has a lot of money stashed in tax havens, judging by his enthusiastic support of Brexit."

Dunno about his stash but his manufacturing is done overseas. Why should he worry about any problems Brexit causes British manufacturers? SEP.

Equifax peeks under couch, finds 2.4 million more folk hit by breach

Analysing data is supposed to be what they're good at. If they keep finding these errors in their initial analysis of the breach what does it tell us about their competence to carry out their basic business?

Ethics? Yeah, that's great, but do they scale?

"The common theme was using cloud plus CI/CD plus microservices to get sub-hourly deploys."

Why would you want to deploy at that rate unless you were chucking your every untested build out onto the net?

Could we have a new paradigm: Get it right before you go live?

Full shift to electric vans would melt Royal Mail's London hub, MPs told

Re: No second hand market

"How do you see that being implemented?"

Your car has its meter read periodically - yearly as part of the MoT or maybe monthly. You're charged per mile.

Re: No second hand market

"And there is also the fact that technically what your car just did might have invalidated your insurance (on the basis you are not allowed to leave a running vehicle unattended, granted electric is a grey area in this case)"

I don't know if you've noticed but the guy said a Nissan Leaf. Your Humber Sceptre would have to run its engine to warm up. An electric car doesn't.

Re: Fag packet calculation time...

"Yes, lets have more wind turbines everywhere."

The wind turbine which sits on my horizon and has had a number of outages in the past hasn't been turning for several weeks. Apparently the owners have gone bust. The various outages of the past seem to have been typical of the design so the fleet has cost more to run than it could make. So we now have what is, in effect, a derelict wind turbine, one of several. Who's going to be responsible for removing them? Or are they just going to sit there rotting until they collapse?

Re: Hmmm

"Mixing whatever the schemes are will produce unexpected and undesirable results."

That puts you ahead of just about every government that ever existed because they never believe that their legislation can have unexpected results let alone undesirable ones.

Re: Hmmm

"A would disagree that EVs are subsidised because while petrol is taxed, the environmental impact is not factored in."

Governments tax to obtain money. Some of that is even spent on building and maintaining roads, not that that's always immediately obvious. Governments could claim green credentials by exemptions for EVs but only because the fleet was small enough for the tax not taken to be counted as small change in relation to the rest of road taxation. As soon as the loss of taxation becomes significant then it has to be made up somehow, either by taxing something else or by bringing taxation on EVs into line with other vehicles.

Couldn't happen? It happened to diesel a few years ago; there are still people complaining that they were suckered into buying a diesel car because the fuel was less heavily taxed and now they're paying more.

Re: "Either we solve the problem as a country or we cancel the ban on new ICE from 2040"

"It's grown from something, so the processing is as as simple as possible IE"

That means it's competing food production for agricultural land.

Urban delivery is a niche market and one that's been partially tackled by EVs in the past: the electric milk float. It doesn't, however, mean that the EV is an effective drop-in replacement for the overall UK vehicle fleet.

Re: No second hand market

"I can't wait for my Tesla Model S to be delivered. It is due next month. No more buying petrol/diesel."

So you can afford a Tesla and many can't. The affordability is, of course, improved by subsidy from the rest of us including those who can't afford a subsidy. You'll find that the subsidies get phased out over the next few years; as the numbers of EVs increase the shortfall on taxation from VED and fuel duties will see to that.

Re: Can't they upgrade it?

"but it's doable."

As I read it it was the capacity of the sub-station itself that was the limiting factor. If so "doable" includes being able to build a higher capacity substation on the ground that's available to the substation including getting planning permission for what might be a bigger structure and upgrading the grid connection to the sub-station.

Re: Fag packet calculation time...

"(provided the sun stays out for 3-4 hours)"

ROFLMAO

Re: Fag packet calculation time...

"and the difficulties of any large infrastructure project getting of the ground (Swansea tidal lagoon)"

Add in the adverse natural environmental impact of large infrastructure projects, even those for so-called green purposes.

Re: Hmmm

"Either we solve the problem as a country or we cancel the ban on new ICE from 2040."

Imposing some demand on the future is something that's becoming an increasingly popular thing with politicians. It appears that they're Doing Something but as they won't be the ones doing it (providing they set an explicit date far enough into the future) they're effectively saying it has to be someone else who does it.

In the real world we can only solve our immediate problems. We can look at what we might need further into the future. We can look at possible solutions. Until those possible solutions have been tested and we've found out which are practical and which aren't, and in what time-frame they can be made practical then we can't redesign the future.

Stuff only becomes the norm when it's technically and economically viable. The only things that legislation can practically do are clear obstacles and avoid being an obstacle itself.

US Supremes take a look at Microsoft's Irish email slurp battle, and yeah, not a great start

"When I worked at G, (as an SRE), I had the ability to root almost any prod box."

Are you bragging or apologising for your employer's lax approach to data security?

"'m quite sure someone from Redmond could RDP/SSH into an Irish machine and do from there everything an Irish technician would do."

If the machines are so badly protected from outside access then there's a problem. I've worked on sites where security of personal data was taken seriously. It was segregated on its own LAN. It was only accessible via the production systems that actually needed it (and operated by people with security clearances) or from the computer room. That approach to data security was the essence of their business. I'd expect any large business dealing with personal information to do likewise if it wants to be trusted.

"An email address is personal information, not personal identifiable information."

Given that the address being targeted is believed by the USG to belong to a specific individual in whom they're interested in either it's a personally identified individual or they've got the wrong address.

There seems to be an unspoken assumption here that someone in Redmond or Washington has effective direct access to the whole if the entire Irish data centre as if it were remotely mounted as an I: drive.

I'd certainly expect that an email server is only accessible by the standard email protocols or by someone with the appropriate admin credentials. I'd also expect those admin credentials to be very strictly limited by need so that even the commercial management of Microsoft in Ireland wouldn't have them let alone someone in a different jurisdiction.

In other words I'd expect the only way the USG's demand could be given practical effect would be by someone physically in Ireland to carry out an act whose legality would depend on Irish law.

Re: The US is a megalomaniac nuthouse

"other people's computers you have no control over" and over which over governments do.

Re: using Windows on any internet-connected

"Don't hold your breath for any EU regulator proactive action"

The nature of regulation varies.

Fire regulations say what must be provided in terms of protection in buildings with public access and there are provisions for going into premises for inspections to ensure the provisions are in place. That's two different aspects. DPA, GDPR and all the rest have only ever dealt with the first aspect: saying what must be done. They don't have provisions for inspection by the relevant authority. The only thing that the regulators legally can do, AFAICS, is wait for complaints. Would that it were different.

"You might gain customers if you can assure them, no matter what happens, the [US] government won't be able to get access to their emails,"

And that might be in the contract with the customer.

Although statute law might override contract terms I don't see how that can happen if the statute law applies in a different jurisdiction to that in which the contract was agreed.

RIP... almost: Brit high street gadget shack Maplin Electronics

Like the airbag in my car, or Radio anything but 3, I don't necessarily make much use of them but I feel better for knowing that they're there.

Re: Well at least

"I can get 90% of what I want easier and faster from Amazon or other online outlets."

Maybe 90% is pitching it a bit high and that applies to not only stuff from Maplins but also stuff from B&Q and other suppliers.

The problem has always been working out which. If I order from Amazon I can get it next day but the downside is that the earliest I can only get it is next day. If I could get it locally I could get it today. But the times when I've trailed 10 miles each way to the other side of town so I can get it today and then returned to order online add up to an enormous waste of time.

The downside of buying by order (online or otherwise) is that you have to rely on promises of availability. I've just ordered as small item online which the vendor's website describes as "available"; everyone else claims it's no longer made and they have no stock so maybe that vendor had some old stock. They sent an email saying it would be in their warehouse in a week and that they'd then despatch it. I now suspect that in a week they'll return my money and say it was unobtainable. At least if a local shop has something in stock you're not relying on empty promises, no matter how well meant.

Full disclosh: Facebook to pay shareholders $35m over IPO non-disclosure claims

So, if Facebook is the defendant then some Facebook shareholders are being paid some of their own money and some money belonging to other shareholders who aren't defendants, presumably, mostly the latter. What would be fair in these circumstances would be to make all shareholders plaintiffs. It would then be a zero-sum game except for the money that goes to the lawyers. I wonder how long it would take for shareholders to then realise that they're paying lawyers for nothing.

Data science before algorithms, declares Bosch's new top techie

"Heinrichs joined Bosch four months ago"

He seems to be an ideal fit with the company that brought us the S/W for "Dieselgate".

Voice assistants are always listening. So why won't they call police if they hear a crime?

Re: False positives

"Google would only go and commercialise that, telling you where you can buy shovels, bags of lime and old carpet."

You sound as if you're having problems with your boss. Do you want to buy a cattle-prod?

Hubris, thy name is Oracle: So, cloud is still totally for nerds, right?

Re: Call me a cynic..

"Somebody Else's Server"

Also Somebody Else's Profit. Did anyone else notice the line in the article about DropBox's IPO; the one where they said how much they saved by building their own DCs instead of using AWS?

Intellisense was off and developer learned you can't code in Canadian

Re: I've never quite understood

"should be call it CE (Commonwealth English) ?"

No, just call it "English" and call the alternative "wrong".

Re: I cannot be the only person

"Colour on some dialogues."

And, of course, the dialogues have to be implemented by dialogs in the program that your company uses to implement its programmes.

"How else do you spell colour?"

And how else do you spell background?

Hubble Space Telescope one of 16 suffering data-scrambling sensor error

Re: Generation X

Nice one, Korev.

OpenBSD releases Meltdown patch

Re: Still concerning ...

"So yeah, MAYBE Meltdown can be patched in microcode. Unless you've heard different from Intel."

AIUI initially Intel were saying it couldn't be fixed in microcode. Do they still say that?

Batteries are so heavy, said user. If I take it out, will this thing work?

Re: Land Rover MK2

"police/Customs had one tank full of white diesel to dip and check that yes, it was legal road diesel. The vehicle actually was usually run off the other tank, the one with agricultural red diesel in it."

And I'm quite sure the police/Customs know about that one.

Re: Thats right up there with

Ah, yes, mini CDs or rectangular "business card" CDs pushed into a trayless optical drive.

SiL: My laptop won't open the mini-disk. I assumed she'd got hold of one of those critters. The "mini-disk" was an SD card. Some junk that had been installed had taken over the SD slot. Bloody Windows.

Re: At John Brown...

"designed so those UI coders had to use their own designs as half blind, half deaf, twitchy fat fingered like they were 100 years old."

On a similar note I'd like the eejits who specify those folded plastic bags on a roll for vegetable aisles be condemned to spend a week opening them whilst wearing thick woolly cloves and wearing specs that won't let them focus closer that about 60cm. I don't know if it's some feature of static but my fingers seem to make the bastards cling ever more tightly shut whilst SWMBO's cause them to open in a fraction of a second.

Re: Electrons

"Well there are many analogies between electricity and fluid flow."

The trouble comes if you've explained that it flows from the positive to the negative - and then carry on to explain a valve.

When we rolled out a load of dumb green screen terminals, they insisted on referring to them as "the computer".

Not unreasonable. When they enter stuff at the terminal they are, after all, entering it into the computer. Likewise when they get information displayed on the terminal they're actually getting it from the computer. The dumb terminal is just the part of the computer they use to access the rest of it.

Re: Hmmm :(

She can use a PC and her smart phone - but it is interesting that she will always avoid anything technical with "I don't understand technology". In a house where meal times are often discussions of technology and science.

Perhaps the delay in providing her with a PC wasn't a good idea.

IT peeps, be warned: You'll soon be a museum exhibit

Re: Very true...

"No surprise then when I got tapped for "redundancy", at the age of 50."

Timing is everything. It was '86 when I switched into IT. You could do that in your 40s back then. It took me through to 2006 when it was time to really retire.