Posts by Doctor Syntax

Trump's gold-plated smartphone can't seem to decide which design to copy

"the profit margin on it will be too low after tariffs have been applied."

That depends on the idiot supertex mark up.

Kidney dialysis giant DaVita tells 2.4M people they were snared in ransomware data theft nightmare

Do these organisations just sit there thinking "it can't happen to us" and then when it does claim that security is important to them?

Transatlantic chip war fizzles as EU and US framework confirms 15% tariff cap

Ssh.

Basic projector repair job turns into armed encounter at secret bunker

Re: Indiana National Guard not very guardy in comparison

I remember passing a military convoy which was driving down the slow lane of the M1, slower than normal slow lane traffic. I don't think there was anything like that bringing up the rear behind the Big Stuff. The escort was all at the front to clear the way...

Re: met by a military office

They might have been thinking of RF radiation.

Re: How did you get in here?

"he said he worked for our company, but was not in the internal phone directory."

Although I worked in a different building I used to eat in the canteen of the tower block, half occupied by BT*, at the corner of Euston Rd & Hampstead Rd. There was rumoured to be an entire hidden floor floor that the lift bypassed.

* The company I worked for had BT and the other occupants of the building as clients. The price paid in the canteen depended on which client you were working for.

Re: Other way around

"This cost us tens of thousands of pounds on the lost board and its replacement"

You didn't bill them for it?

BOFH: HR plays checkers, IT plays 5D chess

"free fall experience that's only interrupted by a parked car, two stories below."

Only two?

Honey, I shrunk the image and now I'm pwned

I suppose just putting the prompt into the image's exif data would be too obvious.

LibreOffice 25.8: Faster, leaner, and finally speaks PDF 2.0

Re: Still no usable database

Inconsistency is their speciality.

Microsoft's selling technique for Office was based on new versions producing non-back-portable files, forcing everyone to upgrade when they received a file they couldn't open.

The UK Online Safety Act is about censorship, not safety

Re: Seems to let right wing propaganda thought though

On past form and present evidence Labour would have done exactly the same and are probably glad that somebody else did it for them.

Re: "When the databases of the age-verification services get hacked..."

No. Peter Kyle.

Not again! Microsoft blames config tweak for 365 outage in parts of North America

"What testing is happening before changes hit production?"

But isn't production where it's tested?

FydeOS offers ChromeOS without the Google strings attached

Re: Touch screen?

"You really need someone to be making money from businesses not individual users, or the lock in will come."

I'm not sure that that logic works out too well with Microsoft making the money. The real issue is that the back-end needs to be open so that no one vendor can own the market.

I'm not sure how this stacks up with your dislike of Linux. Yes, there seems to be agro in relation to distros - it comes from people who don't use Linux complaining about distros. As an OS it is wonderfully stable.

Re: Storage & Backup

That looks interesting. It looks like it might be Debian with Docker pre-installed. If I'd come across it a week or so ago I might have tried that rather than install Nextcloud direct on Devuan.

Re: Storage & Backup

The obvious choice for the home storage box is Nextcloud but from a quick reading of the article it looks as if it's tied to a specific service. The ideal would be to be open-ended so that the service to be connected to is specified at log in. This could suit a traveller who could present a nosey border agent with an account on a server that doesn't contain any confidential working files.

AI crawlers and fetchers are blowing up websites, with Meta and OpenAI the worst offenders

Re: any reputable AI company today should be honoring robots.txt

Your question isn't a headline but Betteridge's law applies.

Re: Cat and mouse

Random data is the answer. It wouldn't backfire in the same way and it would be a small contribution to messing up their statistics.

Re: Sue the everloving cr*p out of them !

I'm surprised one of the class action lawyers hasn't got involved, they don't usually mind taking on the deep pockets because as the bank robber said, that's where the money is. The victims might only get pocket change from the results but if it had the desired effect of putting on the brakes it would be a result.

Random words or even random groups of letters. Add noise to their statistics.

But the problem would remain, it eats up the ISP's band-width.

Same principle, less problematic - a DDoS against the offenders.

I wonder - adopt the same mass tactics. Issue a lot of bills that get under whatever the small court equivalent level is. 1. They can't charge lawyer fees if they win, they'll spend a lot on lawyers if they try too defend, they let one or two slip through and bailiffs turning up to seize stuff can be very disruptive.

Re: In my recent experience

"The source IP addresses are either from a large range like AWS"

I suggested previously - detect the addresses quickly and block them for a random period of time. If this causes AWS's inoffensive customers problems it's up to AWS to introduce and enforce T&Cs so as to protect those customers.

Advertise that crawling will be charged at so much a page and that such use of the site constitutes acceptance of the T&Cs. Then start issuing the bills.

Orange Belgium mega-breach exposes 850K customers to serious fraud

Re: customers now susceptible to targeted phishing and fraud campaigns.

A marketing SMS at any time would be an indication that it's time to add to their churn figures.

Colt changes tune, admits data theft as Warlock gang begins auction

"Trend said that it quickly racked up a healthy list of victims"

Or a list of security-wise unhealthy victims.

IETF Draft suggests making IPv6 standard on DNS resolvers - partly to destroy IPv4

Actually I meant "get right".

And plugging it all in fro automatic configuration is one thing. Logging onto the router to check if your connection has gone down is another. If your router can be addressed by name and the name set up in /etc/hosts, fine. My current router insists on being addressed by numbers, unfortunately.

Those IPv6 addresses will be a lot harder to right than 192.168.0.10 or whatever your router is.

Out-of-band update arrives to clean up Windows reset and recovery mess

Re: IF

But would that make a difference? Is there anybody left who cares about quality to step into the role?

Update schedule:

Windows: the day before Patch Tuesday

Debian/Devuan: whenever the patch lands in the repository

It's so useful to have a fixed monthly schedule, isn't it?

Chinese funding backs sale of British microLED specialist

Re: Yet another example

It's not AI so it doesn't show up on the radar.

Like burglars closing a door, Apache ActiveMQ attackers patch critical vuln after breaking in

"typically only releasing four software updates a year."

"Unsupported" distros such as Debian and its derivatives release patches as they become available. OTOH they don't provide a tick-box of "Does the software have a support contract" that meets certification requirements.

There are none so blind as those who will not see,

KPMG wrote 100-page prompt to build agentic TaxBot

"A graduate staffer had taken a screenshot of the KPMG IT environment that showed it had blocked ChatGPT and shared it on social media with a derisive message about the firm's attitude to innovation."

Would that be a graduate ex-staffer?

Vision AI models see optical illusions when none exist

Re: Another thing to think about ...

I would explain the rabbit/duck illusion this way:

Project the three dimensional objects as 2 dimensional images* and you throw away information that helps distinguish one object from another.

Reduce the image to monochrome which throws away more information.

Replace the images by a drawing which throws away a lot more whilst selectively retaining information common to both images.

* Yes, I know the human eye does this but we have two of them which provides the brain with informaton about the 3rd axis.

End well, this won't: UK commissioner suggests govt stops kids from using VPNs

Re: Parents?

I think that ship sailed long ago. We - very reasonably - decided that crime by youngsters had to be dealt with differently, e.g. Borstal, Young Offenders Centres, ec. but didn't also put liability on parents for the children's actions.

Re: Before convenient VPNs

That will get round the "can't have Linux in work because nobody knows how to use it" line.

Sadly, needs are seldom wants at any supervisory level above road-sweepers' foreman.

They can' forget what they don't yet know.

Re: Willful Attempt To Access Pron

"I do sometimes wonder if the media goad the stupid politicians into these statements or paths."

Possibly they might but it's not really necessary.

Re: 80085

I think for Tory ministers you mean the other University.

Re: house training ministers

I suspect he didn't need to be trained - there have been a few like that in the past - but what comes out of his mouth is in line with HO thinking and just maybe a vested interest. No matter, when he's gone there'll be another.

HMG needs to appoint a minister for the internet who actually knows what they're doing with power of veto over every stupid idea. Given that there's not likely to be a suitable candidate in the HoC they would need to take the HoL route and offer somebody a life peerage to take it on. When I say somebody who knows what they're doing I mean starting at the top. I'd suggest asking TB-L and if he's not interested work down in very small steps until they find somebody who will.

Re: Willful Attempt To Access Pron

"If people (kids and adults) are using a VPN, then they are ACTIVELY seeking out pron."

No. Sorry to be offensive but you're thinking like a government minister.

If people are using a VPN they're seeking a private internet connection. That's what the 'P' stands for. What they're using it for is not known - that;s the whole point of a VPN. Given that an awful lot of day-to-day commerce depends on the use of VPNs assuming otherwise is going to deliver yet another hit to the British economy.

Re: Idiots

And the capacity of the Home Office to house train their ministers.

Governments come and go, the Civil Service stays. In this case the Home Office. Destroying privacy has been their policy for decades. Do not expect a change until we get a minister with technical nous prepared to resist their house training - and house training ministers is what they do best.

If you expected anything else you haven't been paying attention for the whole of the current century.

August update leaves Windows reset and recovery dead in the water

Re: Pushing Windows 11

"This seems a rather bizarre decision by MS."

Not even a decision, I'd guess.

In Otter news, transcription app accused of illegally recording users’ voices

Re: Outright scammers

I'd like to think that the guilty party was given the task of calling each customer personally to apologise and that the rest of the organisation got to hear about it.

Grow a new Arm: UK advisory body wants investment in local AI chips

If we could market hubris the UK would become the dominant country in the world without any risk of forfeiting the position in event of a change in government.

Workday warns of CRM breach after social engineers make off with business contact details

Re: Sophisticated attack?

It was too sophisticated for Workday which is all it needed to be.

Should UK.gov save money by looking for open source alternatives to Microsoft? You decide

Re: Not

I don't see the OP as painting as bad a picture as MS, rather as saying it can be done if the effort is put in.

The Gendarmerie's real win would have been to have moved forward and used their team to roll out a similar approach over other French govt agencies. Did they do that?