Posts by Boork!

AMD Ryzen CPUs fry twice in the face of heavy math load, GMP says

Re: Ouch

AMD puts the blame on the hardware that implements the MULX instruction being intensively used, leading to local overheating. There could be some firmware solution which tries to keep multiply instructions as far apart on the execution pipeline as possible, or have the compiler alternate between those floating point registers which are physically the furthest apart to spread the heat, or even have the firmware distribute multiplications to different physical registers while keeping the formal address the same.

Marc Andreessen wades into the UK's Online Safety Act furor

Re: The ReJester

Obviously, the act is to protect innocent children from online Peter Kyles! Why are you siding with Peter Kyles, you monster!

Python-powered malware snags hundreds of credit cards, 200K passwords, and 4M cookies

Re: Telegram?

That is probably not possible from the users computer without blocking Telegram entirely. Another possible route is to block silent downloading from Dropbox and other online storage sites without explicit user permission, which would at least stop the main payload of malware from being imported, at least in this case.

Re: Apparently a well-motivated dev team.

Credit card information is apparently being stolen from the browser where it is held, along with passwords, in order to autofill forms. Even if it were encrypted, it would become plaintext as soon as it was written on the page. There needs to be a more secure means of passing on credit card information than this, with no break in the encryption chain. Better still, don't store important passwords and credit card information in the browser!

The software UK techies need to protect themselves now Apple's ADP won’t

Re: Hmm

President Trump is not banning pornography and extremist ideology - that can still be published and sold! He is just removing it from schools, so that young children are not exposed to such traumatizing material before they are adults and mature enough to make their own judgments.

Re: Security Theatre at best

The way things are going, the government will reverse the burden of proof, so it will be up to the user to establish beyond doubt that their innocent photos do not conceal nefarious conspiracies, child pornography, and hate speech. This is, of course, impossible, which is why putting the burden of proof on the accuser was a principle of Common Law in the first place.

Time to make C the COBOL of this century

Re: C is the new COBOL

Using integer-only operations is a workable approach for addition and multiplication, but division is also necessary in financial calculations, the result of which cannot be guaranteed to be an integer value. Having the fractions after the decimal point disappear into the ether can lead very quickly to large errors if a division operation is carried out hundreds, or even millions of times, and especially if it is applied recursively. Fixed point arithmetic combined with an officially sanctioned rounding protocol has been the standard way of doing financial calculations. COBOL supported this, and it is a significant part of the technical debt that makes institutions reluctant to abandon COBOL.

Rarest, strangest, form of Windows saved techie from moment of security madness

Re: Simpler times

The pirated versions of Leisure Suit Larry were notorious as a vector for malware.

Point taken, but the email clearly didn't come over the Local Area Network (because nobody else was infected) and 'Decinternet' doesnt' have quite the same ring to it as 'Declan.'

Microsoft says VBScript will be ripped from Windows in future release

Re: It's an abomination, but...

Using a database as a word processor? How strange!

Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home

Re: Waste El-Reg Space

Twitter is a head wrecking blizzard of vanity, irrelevance, petulant tantrums and celebrities (but I repeat myself.) The only thing that is suspiciously on point is the advertising, which is quite worrying.

Re: Waste El-Reg Space

Alanis Morisette, is that you? Because that is not an example of irony. Which is ironic...

Re: Tonight's Headline

It was apparently an S-300, a surface to air missile which is indeed Russian built, but sold worldwide. Ukraine was certainly using them.

Re: Tonight's Headline

All 'fact checkers' and no proof reading. That's modern journalism!

Re: Tonight's Headline

Fortunately, for its journalists,'BBC' is easy to spell. Imagine how difficult life is for employees of The Grauniad, which before the advent of electronic publishing and spell-check, was famous for its misspellings.

Re: Easy choice Elon

That does not follow. If there is indeed a 'narrative,' or official version of reality, then the mere that a belief that contradicts this narrative is untrue does not exclude it from being 'against the narrative.' Added to this, there have been plenty of cases where the 'narrative' was false and the 'fringe' belief was actually true. The only way to eliminate error is through rational discussion. That requires a stance of fallibilism in regard to your own belief system. You can't just say "my belief is reality, and anyone who disagrees must be silenced because they are insane or evil!'

This is essentially the justification for free speech argued by John Stuart Mill, who warned about the dangers of groupthink and mob prejudice.

Re: Easy choice Elon

Given that some twitter employees admitted to working for only four hours a week, that is not asking much. After all, it only adds up to about a day and a half's worth of work per week!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sycQMQUV6kE

NTT claims it can stop the noise leaking from annoying people's headphones

You are referring to the silencer, of course...

I'm happy paying Twitter eight bucks a month because price isn't the same as value

Re: Oh, we know the value.

A subscription fee has the general benefit that a bot farmer would not be willing to pay $8 a month each for 100,000 spam accounts, so it would increase the general signal to noise ratio somewhat for everyone.

Chipmakers cripple products to dodge US China ban

Re: 99,7% of populace is now naturally immune

Correct me if I'm wrong, but natural immunity from Covid is more robust than the immunity from the jab, which does appear to wane after a few months and require regular boosters. The comment above referred to naturally acquired immunity.

Re: Sure

Club FUD more like. Not that it troubles Chinese manufacturers in the slightest.

Windows breaks under upgraded IceXLoader malware

"...and executing PowerShell with an encrypted demand to delay executing the malware for 35 seconds to avoid sandboxes."

That would seem to be the malware's Achilles heel as it would be easy to detect an instruction to delay execution.

Re: "The emails contain a ZIP file"

The communication could appear to be from someone you actually do know if their email or social media account has been compromised. For example, I have received bizarre emails from friends claiming to be stranded in Afghanistan and urgently in need money to be wired to them. I would phone them to say "If you are not actually in Afghanistan, then you had better change your Gmail password quickly."

All the US midterm-related lies to expect when you're electing

The Russians posted inflammatory adverts and fake news supporting (and defaming) both parties. They weren't particularly partisan, they just wanted to cause chaos and sit back and laugh at the mayhem they had bought so cheaply.

Philippines orders fraud probe after paying MacBook prices for slow Celeron laptops

Re: celeron

I took it that machines based on Celerons were so frustrating that you would wish to "sell 'er on" pretty soon!

British intelligence recycles old argument for thwarting strong encryption: Think of the children!

Re: Dear government

The legitimacy of government does not and must not exceed lawfulness, ethics or the consent of the public. We are not the property of the government to be arbitrarily disposed of as they see fit. Government is a necessary evil, and it must be limited and restrained.

Spaniard sues eBay over right to sell the Sun

Re: Oh god

A photon may well take that long to make its way from the dense center of the sun to the surface.

Texan's alleged Amazon bombing effort fizzles: Militia man wanted to take out 'about 70 per cent of the internet'

Re: Coat... needed... when the temperature drops----->>>>

I support the right to bare arms [sic], and even armed bears, but deep-fried mars bars in batter are an abomination and an abhorrence which ought to be banned with maximum prejudice via international treaty.

Re: Christian Militia Terrorist

No. Terrorism has a specific definition. It is the practice of engaging in unpredictable violence in order to create fear among the multitudes for the purposes of gaining political leverage.

Re: Christian Militia Terrorist

All war is terrible. Terrorism is the practice of murdering at random in order to create fear in the general population. It can certainly be used by a state, but it is more usually practiced by the weaker party in asymmetric warfare.

Re: Christian Militia Terrorist

The Spanish Inquisition was regarded as lawful by the Castilian state, being a division of the Catholic Church, and its role was to root out persons loyal to the previous Islamic occupiers of the territory, some of whom had been practicing a guerilla war against the new regime. In short, it does not qualify under the above definition of terrorism, any more than the FBI does.

Re: Christian Militia Terrorist

You are mistaken. The reason for the conflict in Northern Ireland is ethnic. The descendants of the native Irish tend to be Catholic, and the descendants of the colonists, loyal to Britain, tend to embrace an array of Protestant beliefs, but the dispute is over ethnicity and national allegiance, not over theology.

Re: Christian Militia Terrorist

The Official IRA, the Provisional IRA, the Continuity IRA, the INLA and other splinter groups are not Christian, but secular and Marxist. Not sure what Timothy McVeigh had to do with Christianity, as he was radicalized by reading a nasty anti-Semitic tract called the "Turner Diaries" which predicts an apocalyptic race war. It looks like you are not really trying to argue any case, but simply attribute guilt guilt through a vague cloud of association, which is highly irresponsible in these times, when calm heads and cold reasoning should prevail over sectarian demagoguery.

Re: Christian Militia Terrorist

The Crusades were a response to the Islamic takeover of the 'Holy Land.' It makes no more sense to call them a "terror group" than it does to call the Muslim forces who held the territories "terror groups."

Re: Christian Militia Terrorist

None of those are Christian terrorist groups, except in the sense that ethnicity and religion go together. They are fighting over territory, not theology. The IRA and its various schismatic offshoots are secular and Marxist.

Prince Philip, inadvertent father of the Computer Misuse Act, dies aged 99

Re: Bad greek

'Algorithm' comes from a blokes name, being a corruption of the last name of Baghdad mathematician Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi. 'Algebra' is a medieval Latin rendition of 'al jabara,' meaning to put back together again, and came from the title of a book written by the bloke above, 'al-mukhtasar fi hisab al-jabr wa al-muqabala' meaning "the compendium on calculation by restoring and balancing."

A floppy filled with software worth thousands of francs: Techie can't take it, customs won't keep it. What to do?

Re: A cigarette letter was produced with a flourish

Why, yes you may, sir! Much obliged!

Yep, you're totally unique: That one very special user and their very special problem

Re: ran out of ram

This seems appropriate also.

https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-03-22

Red Hat pulls Free Software Foundation funding over Richard Stallman's return

Maybe not FreeBSD which has acquired a woke code of conduct.

Re: Let's be very clear here ...

Your link shows that according to Virginia Giuffre's deposition, at the age of 17, she was directed by Ghislaine Maxwell to have sexual intercourse with Marvin Minsky. There is no evidence that she actually did so.

Can you link to some evidence of racism? I must have missed that thread on HN.

Someone's not Biden their time... Trump administration bars US investment in top Chinese tech giants

Re: @John Brown (no body) - Yeah but

Critical Race Theory and the Great Reset, a.k.a the Green New Deal would scare the crap out of any sane person.

Re: Executive Orders...

Plesident Erect Xoe Xiden will expeditiously annihilate the importune ad unseemly meanderings of most dishonourable running dog of Capitalism and insalubrious paper tiger, Orange Man Bad! Soon, all your bases belong to us! Grovel before your new masters!

Android without Google – and yes it has apps: The Reg talks to founder about the /e/ smartphone

Can you use banking apps on a de-Googled phone? My bank informed me that I must link my bank account with my phone, which seems decidedly Orwellian. I know that banking apps will refuse to install on a device that has been rooted.

A user's magnetic charm makes for a special call-out for our hapless hero

The Apple 5'' floppy drives had sturdy steel cases. The problem at the time was with the monitors, especially those made in Europe and the Far East, where the electromagnets were not shielded to FCC specifications. The standard use case for monitors in the early '80s was closed circuit TV, and even ones marketed for use with computers were often not built with shielding. I remember my boss at the time showing me one which a customer had returned and the readings were off the scale, even affecting transistor radios in the vicinity. You could see the bare coils at the back of the CRT.

OK brainiacs, we've got an IT cold case for you: Fatal disk errors on an Amiga 4000 with 600MB external SCSI unless the clock app is... just so

Re: The real mystery is how Paula discovered the clock work around ...

I'm not sure what Dei has to do with it, since the problem appears to be due to an Agnus tic.

Linux fans thrown a bone in one Windows 10 build while Peppa Pig may fly if another is ready in time for this year

Re: Windows awoke to discover it had metamorphosed into...

That would be a GNU userspace running on an NT kernel, or GNUNT, for short...

Staff sacked after security sees 'suspect surfer' script of shame

Re: Access Denied

There was a list of websites whose names took on unfortunate connotations when concatenated into a URL. Among them were Pen Island Stationers and Mole Station Creche.

Haunted disk-drive? This story will give you the chills...

Re: Put a heater in the safe then ?

Maybe a heater was not necessary. The floppy disks could have been stored in padded envelopes to insulate them, which would prevent condensation, and the interior humidity of the safe could have been reduced with desiccation sachets.

Microsoft programming chief to devs: Tell us where Windows hurt you

I could show you - but I would need an anatomical doll.