Posts by Doctor Syntax

Clients say they'll take their money and run if service hacked – poll

Re: No they won't

"Because once you are using a service, it costs time, effort and money to change."

The thing which is most difficult to change is email. You can gain independence from an ISP by using a non-ISP supplier instead of relying on the ISP's email. In the long run it's easier to have a private domain. The domain hoster of the moment can also host the email service but, as it's your own domain, you can switch to another service provider and keep the domain. Sadly it's not a solution for everyone.

"What if the ONLY provider suffers a data breach"

It depends on how important the provider is. There's no shortage of ISP, email providers etc. Banks are rather fewer but there are still choices. Facebook might be considered an only provider but in that case it can be easily done without.

Re: Gut reaction

"the breached provider now has a thorough understanding of the issue and should be able to prevent further breaches in future"

Unfortunately the list of "respectable businesses" in the article includes at least two serial breachees.

I think there are at least 3 categories here:

Those that never learn

Those that learn from their own mistakes

Those that learn from the mistakes of others

Jersey sore: Anchor rips into island's undersea cables, sinks net access

Re: "on the UK island of Jersey"

"Any pure bred celts had long since be consigned to the corners of the british isles by the time Rome left and a lot of people would have been speaking some version of Latin."

The general archaeological view seems to be that most of the Romano-British population were the descendants of the pre-Roman Iron Age population who had simply adopted elements Roman culture. The colonia, however, would have added retired legionaries although these were recruited from across the empire.

Re: "on the UK island of Jersey"

"From the English or from the Saxons, who weren't English either, AFAIK?"

Pretty well the same thing - Anglo Saxons. They weren't Britons, however.

And, of course the Normans were Vikings who'd nicked a bit of France from the French.

Tobacco giant predicts the end of smoking. Panic ensues

"The really interesting part came when I called up Friends of the Earth for a comment."

Be honest now. Did you really expect any other reaction?

UK.gov was warned of smart meter debacle by Cabinet Office in 2012

Re: Benefits

"link your washing machine to the meter so its triggered to run when the price drops."

And, whether it's triggered or not, gets enrolled into a botnet to DDOS your smart meter.

GCHQ has worked more closely with DECC "to assure the security of the UK system".

Even if we give GCHQ a free pass on this it's still a worrying statement. Why aren't they working to ensure security?

systemd free Linux distro Devuan releases second beta

"have been using Ubuntu and kubuntu, both subject to freezes where the only option is power off."

Is the M/B Intel J1900 based? If so, Google is your friend. There are problems which require some tweaking of processor idle states. It can be done through BIOS.

Ofcom to force a legal separation of Openreach

Re: FTTP vs FTTC

"Think of rural farmers (or instance). They are now /required/ by gvt remit to submit their subsistence grants online.. but many don't have BB access of any sort, or any training in how to use or protect themselves from the internet, or the time to learn."

My neighbour is a farmer. As he's slightly nearer the cabinet than I am he'll get a perfectly adequate connection from FTTC.

But then there are a few more scattered farms further out. They're not going to get as good a connection, if any. So the question is what is the most effective way of rolling out upgrades to them and to the others in the same situation? Can more be put on line with FTTP in a year by a given number of workers than by any other means? If so then fine. But if some other technology puts more on line then why would FTTP be chosen and if it is what would be the criteria for deciding who would go without so that the lucky few (relatively speaking) get their FTTP?

Roll out of any technology is achieved by actual work and not by sprinkling some fairy dust that suddenly becomes available by separating Openreach from the rest of BT.

Re: Be careful what you wish for!

And here we have the usual Pointless G.fast A/C plugging FTTP.

It's been pointed out that Ofcom requires 999 to work in the event of a power cut to the premises. POTS does this by having the pairs powered from the switch. How do we manage this with FTTP? Presumably we have a choice of an adequate UPS with each fibre termination, a power supply run into the premises alongside the fibre or a a POTS link alongside the fibre.

UPS in the premises is going to be expensive and raises maintenance issues.

An external power link is a slightly less problematical version but has its own problems. There would be far too much loss to allow distant customers to be powered from the switch so there'd need to be power supplies distributed throughout the area. Just the arrangement that the A/C calls "carpet bombing" and why, if I follow the argument, renders G.Fast pointless. So how shall we describe this FTTP arrangement? Pointless FTTP?

That leaves the FTTP and POTS duo. This also has a problem. Many existing POTS users will be satisfied with FTTC so the take-up of FTTP won't be that great. FTTP+POTS would be Even More Pointless FTTP.

The only ways in which FTTP wouldn't be pointless is would be supplying it to people who want it in addition to POTS or doing away with Ofcom's 999 requirement.

The fact is that FTTC, G.Fast and Pointless FTTP are compromises. None fits everyone's requirements, none is cheap to roll out and none is anything but a long haul to get rolled out from both a financial and logistical aspect. The network likely to be rolled out in the end is going to be a mixture of technologies which best - or at least approximately - match the requirements.

"El Reg isn't the only offender in this regard."

If it's an offence my copy of the pocket edition of the OED is also an offender.

Premise singular is a proposition from which...an inference may be drawn.( pl., Law) beginning of a deed giving the names of the parties and the nature of the grant, the property etc. (pl) any house or building...

"It's the kind of shit argument that has completely failed Britain's generating capacity."

At risk of going OT the argument that's failed Britain's generating capacity has been "Nuclear No thanks" followed up by a realisation that shoving coal up power station chimneys isn't a good idea.

Re: Err.....

"The cable companies laid brand new networks in a very short space of time. It's taken BT years attempting to catch up to their cable rivals for speed."

You do realise, don't you, that BT wasn't allowed to compete with them. So what happened? The cable companies laid cable in the areas where they thought offered the biggest ROI and nowhere else. So now we endure all these eejits coming along and complaining that BT hasn't instantly cabled up the huge majority of the country without ever explaining how the resources are going to magically appear to do this.

I suspect there's a huge correlation between those who think a separated OR will instantly cable up the country and Brexit won't mean unemployment because both sets appear to believe in magic.

"BT was handed a national asset on a plate and all they did was watch it crumble while pocketing the cash."

The usual bollocks. When the telephone operation was split off from the rest of the GPO its new chairman, MD or whatever is supposed to have described what he took over as the black telephone rationing company. That's because your supposed national asset had lacked adequate investment from the taxpayer and wasn't in line to get it in the future. By selling it the govt. had a chance to get some money back and to enable it to get private investment in the future. Without the finance it's been able to raise in the private sector BT would be a fraction of what it is now. You might still be waiting for your internet connection so you could get onto el Reg to complain.

Re: Pension

"All the costs of privatisation, but none of the benefits? Tell Sid."

Wrong advertising. Sid was gas. And would want to be in the queue for your rationed black telephone?

BT was privatised because no government of any stripe had been prepared to put sufficient investment into BT for years, had no intention of doing so for more years and saw a chance of getting money back instead.

Re: And in the course of time

"I assume...they can also step into prevent it being bought by another company."

They didn't step in to stop, say O2 being bought by Telefónica or the various other mobile networks being bought by foreign overseas companies. Back in the days of the golden share HMG could have prevented it but those days are long gone. And remember Deutsche Telekom already owns 12% of BT as a consequence of the EE deal.

Re: And in the course of time

"10 Year from Now when were living in your Marxist Utopia, I'll expect a knock at my door after you've gone through the snoopers charter to find and silence those who disagree with you. Viva le Revolution"

10'o clock in the morning and how many of these have you had already?

Re: Explanation please...

"They can roll out following other ISPs' criteria, not just BT's."

No. They would roll out - or not - according to their own criteria and their own financing. Their own financing would probably be a lot less than as part of the BT group, at least until some other company such as Deutsche Telekom* bought them out when you'd have a whole new set of problems to grouse about. And a separated Openreach would have similar requirements on ROI and prioritising one potential site against another.

*DT already own a slice of BT so would automatically own the same percentage of a split-off Openreach.

Adblock again beats publishers' Adblock-blocking attempts

Re: Um

"People who deliberately chose to block ads aren't ever going to be your customers."

Charles 9 doesn't seem able to grasp this. I wonder why.

Re: More People Need To Block Ads!

"Unless they're the ONLY source of something, like a manufacturer's website."

What he said. The other sites do a roaring trade. Those won't be 3rd party driver sites, they'll be the sites of the manufacturer's competitors who don't paywall their drivers.

Re: An idea

"Which is good enough for them because it lodges them in your brain"

When I was young I got stung by a wasp. That event lodged itself in my brain. In consequence I avoid wasps. In evolutionary terms this is what the wasps would "want". I'm not sure that applies to advertisers.

"Advertisers, here's a novel idea."

The advertising industry will do everything they can to avoid giving advertisers that choice because they can't charge as much for simple, non-intrusive ads. Remember that the advertising industry doesn't sell the advertisers' products, it sells its own services.

Re: More People Need To Block Ads!

"Ads are still so cheap to make that just one hit in say a million can justify the expense."

And the industry has no metrics on the negative effect of the the other 999,999 so they can go on selling their services to the special snowflakes who haven't cottoned on to the idea that the ads for their products will annoy their potentials customers just as much as other ads annoy them.

"What happens when everything goes behind ad walls?"

You think everything would? There'll always be some sites smart enough to thing differently and hoover up most of the traffic.

Re: An idea

"They MUST be intrusive."

Which makes them repellent.

This amazing comment came in a recent /. discussion in the paperless office. Nothing could be more indicative of the utter lack of self-awareness of workers in the ad industry: https://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=9898731&cid=53315433

"Readers ignore all the other ads."

Actually this isn't true. Readers look at ads when they want to. Every Friday my local paper publishes a motoring supplement. It's filled with advertisements from the local car dealerships. I ignore them with extremely rare exceptions - when I'm looking to change car. Because I can ignore them they don't annoy me; they just become so much bedding for my grandchildrens' rabbits. Because they haven't annoyed me I'm prepared to consider giving the advertisers my custom when I need to.

What really drives the ad industry to make intrusive ads is that there'd be much less money for themselves. The only thing the ad industry sells its own services to advertisers.

Re: Dumb Question

"No, the reason is legal. If ads are sourced through them, they'd have legal responsibility to curate them."

Thanks, Charles. That, in a nutshell is the problem. Gross irresponsibility on the part of the publishers. They're happy to take money and no responsibility for throwing potentially damaging stuff at their visitors.

Re: Why is this even a discussion?

"Those serving the ads are wasting their money paying these people, because they're wasting their time if they think they might sell me something."

And they're probably not paying LG anything like enough money to compensate for future lack of business.

UK's Universal Service voucher scheme urged to shift monopoly away from BT

Re: YES: let the customer choose

"Simple enough: let's just have price-controlled wholesale access to backhaul from the nearest fibre-enabled cab or exchange."

And if there isn't a suitably placed fibre-enabled cab or exchange?

It doesn't matter whether there's price-controlled wholesale access to something that doesn't exist. The problem is the logistics and costs of rolling out enough of those fibre-enabled cabs in widely scattered populations.

"Under a voucher scheme alternative, communities could decide in aggregate whom their preferred supplier would be, with the option of finding providers who are prepared to deliver beyond the minimum 10Mbps."

It would need care. There have been community lead schemes but I'd worry about who the providers would be. I suspect that for the most part they'd be prepared to provide to schemes which are put forward by compact communities where servicing would be relatively easy and return on subsidised investment satisfactory. A farm or two lying half a mile or more outside the village might be left out as would the areas where housing is widely scattered. It would be back to the old cherry-picking of the original cable initiative and BT would then be left picking up the eternal money-losing work again.

There's a reason why only BT was prepared to accept a USO. The rest just want to pick up the best-paying work and would go broke if they had to handle the rest.

Re: BT Thieves

"force BT to implement what they've been paid to do in the first place."

Name your time scale for BT to do all this.

Then show us your plan - schedules, personnel, training for personnel, list of equipment and meterials to be purchased, planning permissions, financing, redundancy of personnel on completion, etc - which would enable BT (or anyone else) to do it at your timescale which I assume is faster than they are doing it at present at present.

You see, a lot of people come here accusing BT of dragging their feet but never seem to explain (a) how BT could do something at this scale quicker and (b) why the cable companies who were in this game years before BT was allowed in, haven't done the job already. Is it because they haven't the slightest idea but sounding off is really easy.

Creaking Royal Navy is 'first-rate' thunders irate admiral

@ StuartMil

And there's reams more of Yes (Prime) Minister equally appropriate here.

Re: A few clarifications

"If they really need to go to war with another navy, they can tap cabinet for UOR funds (extra funds allocated for a war, rather than coming out of the RN's regular budget) and buy current model missiles off the shelf from someone and stick them on their ships pretty readily."

How long does "off the shelf" lead time compare to "really need to go to war"?

"That said, the admiral is duty bound, for better or for worse, not to embarrass his elected political masters."

I would have thought his duty is to HMQ, not to the ministers pro tem. In which case, if he actually thinks the Navy isn't being properly supported it's his duty to say so and if saying so in private isn't doing much good, embarrassing them in public might be an appropriate way to cary out that duty.

'Mirai bots' cyber-blitz 1m German broadband routers – and your ISP could be next

"The Register asked TalkTalk for comment today and was told that a response will not be immediately forthcoming because the working day in the UK was just ending."

And that, TT customers, is just how important your security is to us.

Loyalty card? Really? Why data-slurping store cards need a reboot

Re: This whole article filled with buzzwords

"Article? I thought my ad blocker stopped working."

I thought it was a sketch for a dystopian novel.

Re: "These messages could be to alert a customer that they've left their umbrella in the shop"

"As I'm not a pensioner, that leaves Saturday. As I'm busy 9am to 1pm Saturday. that leaves a 4 hour window to shop.

I find more random stuff I want on Amazon and eBay, than I ever did from local shops."

I am a pensioner and all too often I find myself going to the trading sheds, coming home empty-handed, going to Amazon or eBay to find whatever it was I wanted and reminding myself to not bother next time.

Re: Nope

"The sad fact is that they send you tokens for say '7p per Litre off fuel' if you spend £20 on cleaning materials. They know full well that I'd just bought a load of Persil.

That's targetted marketing for you eh?"

Probably. They hope you'll think it was generous of them so they must be really nice people and it's just a pity you won't be able to use them - which they already know and assume it'll cost them nothing.

Re: Just digging deeper here

"I'll bet Big Business is already frothing at the mouth with the idea of all that sweet, sweet marketing and profiling data it is going to get its hands on."

Why does it only hear what it wants to hear and not what it needs to hear? e.g. Slinging advertising at satisfaction surveys at me just pisses me off so don't try it."

100k+ petition: MPs must consider debating Snoopers' Charter again

Re: Almost total lack of media coverage

"Still, will be interesting to see the response from the Daily Mail reading crowd"

What was their line? That it's a Good Thing?

"it's the wrong word to use ... a bit like when someone writes 'bare with me' "

Whether it was the wrong word depends on what you meant to say.

Re: Rain/Reign/Rein homophones

"Reign - vt., to rule over e.g. a kingdom or empire. Hence "a reign of terror", etc."

Your example uses it as n.

Re: The sound you hear are the snorring pigs

"The Human Rights Act ... can be repealed or replaced by any UK government that chooses, with no impact whatsoever on EU membership."

AIUI this would have an impact on the Good Friday Agreement.

Passengers ride free on SF Muni subway after ransomware infects network, demands $73k

Re: Design failure

"f you want somebody to pay attention to something, tell them Mark Twain said it first.

-- Benjamin Franklin"

Shouldn't that be

-- Mark Twain?

Re: Design failure

"a minion at Dundee University"

Store those emails offline.

Re: Design failure

"What makes you think they haven't[segmentd the network]? The thing with firewalls is that you always have holes for allowed traffic."

If there are holes they aren't segmented. Porous firewalls are a trading of convenience for security. How long will it take for people to wake up to the fact that in the end you lose out in a big way on security?

A distinction without a difference

" I for one would like to see them captured and put into jail for a very long time."

Or forced to ride public transport 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Ransomware scams cost Brits £4.5m per year

"The other, and even more important piece of advice which is almost always neglected is to use a backup solution that is physically disconnected from the computer except when backing up."

And don't go around opening mail or browsing online whilst the backup device is connected.

"the guy who lost 11 years of files really did give some horrendous advise."

I doubt any advice from someone who lost 11 years of files would be anything but horrendous.

'The closing comment by an affected (home) user was... "make sure your protection is up-to-date".'

Did they point out that the most effective part of that protection lies between the ears?

Rivals' keyword marketing activity censured by High Court

" id not worry about the bath failing"

What about your ego?