Posts by FrogsAndChips

One whole day: That's how long Facebook's COVID-19 content moderation went without a mess

Re: Wow

When you think about it, actually a lot of Internet founding fathers and other figures are still alive. The WWW is only 30 years old after all.

Coronavirus pandemic latest: Trump declares 'two very big words' – national emergency – and unexpectedly ropes in Google to help in some form

Re: The toilet paper and ramen Apocalypse...

It was probably an observation bias, but last weekend on the streets I couldn't help notice the large packs of bog rolls in people's shopping bags.

Re: Situation normal in DC then.

"Leadership: Whatever happens, you're responsible. If it doesn't happen, you're responsible."

Donald J. Trump, November 2013

Not exactly the kind of housekeeping you want when it means the hotel's server uptime is scrubbed clean

I knew where this was going at: see article title

US prez Donald Trump declares America closed to those flying in from Schengen zone over coronavirus woes

Re: So has the fat idiot not heard of Heathrow or other UK airports?

Your passport is still scanned, that gets entered into a database of who entered the UK when and coming from where. Database which can be easily (if not already) shared with other border agencies to check if you can be granted entry.

I'm not even mentioning the fact that your whole travel booking history is probably already available to US snoops anyway, unless you are able to travel incognito.

Good luck pitching a tent on exoplanet WASP-76b, the bloody raindrops here are made out of molten iron

Re: Puzzled!

Since none of you specified the reference frame, you are both right and wrong.

Have you ever seen one of these, son? Ricoh spins off 360° camera boffins to debut neuralyzer-shaped snapper

"one has to ask: what's the point?"

Is that really a question to ask when talking about social media usage?

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

Re: fun facts

Ouisghian Zodah

Re: fun facts

And cricket was replaced by hockey as just about nobody in the Netherlands understands it.

The French version kept it as Krikkit. But since this sounds like 'krik-it', whereas in French we make 'cricket' rhyme with 'trumpet', it took me years to make the connection and I missed all the cricket related jokes (the Wikkit Gate, the pillars, the Ashes...).

Re: Douglas Adams predicted the future.

Time to build those Arks!

Re: fun facts

Arthur Dent is Arthur Accroc in french (doesn't really makes sense)

I think it does if you think of an "accroc" as a slight damage. Plus "croc" and "dent" both mean "tooth" in French, so you have another similarity.

FYI: When Virgin Media said it leaked 'limited contact info', it meant p0rno filter requests, IP addresses, IMEIs as well as names, addresses and more

Re: Join the class litigation

There's probably nothing that would prevent them from passing the costs to the clients, but the price increase would have to be so large that you can expect all clients who aren't locked in a monopoly to jump ship immediately.

Android users, if you could pause your COVID-19 panic buying for one minute to install these critical security fixes, that would be great

Re: Sad Sammy

Are you sure of that? I've also got an S6, latest update I received was in June 2018. Latest available firmware on Sam Mobile is from Sep 2018. The model is not even listed in the Security updates schedule page.

It's a corporate mobile on Vodafone UK, so I can't unlock or root it to install the latest firmware.

Like a Virgin, hacked for the very first time... UK broadband ISP spills 900,000 punters' records into wrong hands from insecure database

Re: Might be wrong

I know some companies have a separate password for phone, but I were never asked to set one up with VM, and I remember the droids asking for my 'VM password', then me hitting a dead end when I refused to communicate it. Again, that was years ago and hopefully they've given up on that practice.

Re: I've had marketing disabled since 2017, had the email

They may have a legitimate reason for keeping the address, if only to record opt-out choice, but there's no reason to keep that in an active marketing database.

And then the first thing they do when you contact them, to confirm your identity, is to ask you for your password. For security reasons, y'know. At least that's what they did 4 years ago.

Broadband providers can now flog Openreach's new IP voice network in bid to ditch UK's copper phone lines by 2025

Re: ATA

Note that in France, the ISP boxes are also locked: you can easily plug your existing phone in, but you will have to use your ISP's voice plan and the number they provide you. In general this is not an issue, since the standard is now unlimited landline calls to almost any international destination, sometimes including mobiles as well.

It's existed in France since the early 00's, starting with the Freebox and copied by all other ISPs.

Fancy that: Hacking airliner systems doesn't make them magically fall out of the sky

Re: TL;DR

Why should there be a problem?

EU court tells prudish IP office to fack off for balking at 'fack ju' trademark application

Re: King of Fuh

Only the first context would apply for this sentence.

For the 2nd context, you would use the versatile expletive "Putain" (French for "whore"), which is the equivalent of fuck/fucking and can be used to express a wide range of emotions such as surprise, anger, contempt, annoyance...

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now: Brexit tea towel says it'll just be the gigabit broadband

Re: Led Zep

https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/all/2020/02/26/brexit_tea_towel_redux/#c_3983796

It's Terpin time: Bloke who was SIM jacked twice by Bitcoin thieves gets green light to sue telco for millions

Re: The first thing you do when arresting Bruce Schneier is shave off his beard...

But then you realize you'd have to "silence" the tattoo artist, don't you?

Re: Do you outsource your security?

She said that it was disturbing but not to worry as it wasn't my problem

Did she put that in writing and does her word carry enough weight?

SpaceX Falcon 9 meets watery end, and NASA needs someone to go to Mars and whack its mole

Mars Insight

time is running short for the instrument

What time constraints do they actually have? We've seen Martian rovers extend their initial lifespans by several factors, so why would this one come to an end of life soon?

The Wristwatch of the Long Now: When your MTBF is two centuries

Re: Beware survival bias

I still have my grandfather's axe. The handle has only been replaced 3 times, and the head twice.

Flat Earther and wannabe astronaut killed in homemade rocket

IIRC, to experience it you need meteorological conditions that are about as likely to happen as an alignment of all 9 planets of the solar system.

'Don't tell anyone but I have a secret.' There, that's my security sorted

Re: "(or as we say here, 15 days)"

Not just Gallic, other Latin languages have similar expressions.

Don't use natwest.co.uk for online banking, Natwest bank tells baffled customer

If you're thinking of moving your money, you should also consider the switching incentives (we'll give you £xxx if you switch to us), that can pay much more than a better interest rate.

Please check your data: A self-driving car dataset failed to label hundreds of pedestrians, thousands of vehicles

Re: Self driving car image training

You need to identify the lights (i.e. the bulbs), not whatever supports them.

Re: Self driving car image training

Ob XKCD

Re: absence of proof or proof of absence?

The dataset needs to contain a wide range of objects if we expect it to recognize them in all circumstances. What if it only contained images of pedestrians wearing black coats, or with long hair? It may never recognize one with a green coat or a bald person. So the absence of labelling is an issue in that it can deprive you of significant diversity in the dataset.

OK, which Dombås stuffed Windows 10 to bursting at Swedish flatpack flinger?

Dombås

What's a doom-boss?

In the stores I've visited there are a few shortcuts but you need to know they exist and look for them carefully.

Re: "so why do it together?"

Some equipment requires 2 persons to assemble (or 1 person with at least 4 arms).

Good news: Neural network says 11 asteroids thought to be harmless may hit Earth. Bad news: They are not due to arrive for hundreds of years

Re: Either Fake News of spent too much time in Hollands Cannabis bars

/woosh

Ever had a script you just can't scratch? Excel on the web now has just the thing

Re: ODS Compatibility?

If they kill VBA, they remove the lock-in they have on macro-loaded Excel sheets: if people or companies have to rewrite all their VBA code, they are much more likely to look for alternatives. Once you've removed Excel from your landscape, it doesn't take much to escape MS Office altogether.

Social media notifications of the future: Ranger tagged you in a photo with Tessadora, Wrenlow, Faelina and Graylen

Re: Mixing names

Yeah I didn't mean mixing our names, but mixing our choices for the kid's name!

Mixing names

Actually worked for our son. We couldn't agree on a name, no one like the other's choice. One day we jokingly started mixing both names, after a few variations we ended up with a conventional (although rare) name that we both immediately loved!

I'm really missing the R.I.P. icon. Here's to Kirk Douglas ->

Re: Ministry of names...

There was also the case of the Renaud family who won a court case to be allowed to name their daughter Mégane.

That's what makes you hackable: Please, baby. Stop using 'onedirection' as a password

Re: Cut and paste ya bam

There are various Autotype plugins that can deal with these situations.

Re: The real problem

For Windows account, biometrics are an alternative, if you don't mind having your thumb cut or your eyes gouged.

For the safe password, some PM offer to use a key file as an alternative or extra authentication method.

As you say, the obvious benefit of using a PM is that it reduces the number of passwords to remember to at most 1 for the PM and 1 for each device where it's installed.

Re: The real problem

"a password has to be difficult to guess but easy to remember"

Sorry but this is a premise that needs to die, preferably this way: ->

If a password is easy to remember, that means you have a unique password for all accounts (which is utterly stupid), a password root with per-site variations, or a formula to derive the password from the website domain/name. In any case I can guarantee you that there will be websites that won't accept your password (too long, not enough special chars, forbidden chars...). So what do you do? You make an exception for this site, but then how do you remember all the exceptions? Next time you log in, you realize that your password doesn't work. Did you type it wrong, has it been compromised or is this one of these exceptions? If it's an exception, what change did you make? Anyway, you ask for a password reset and you're back to square 1. After enough iterations, you will realize that the only sane option is to invest some time in a decent password manager.

Now about password leaks: yes, even complex passwords can be cracked given enough time and CPU. But if your other passwords are just variations, they will fall quickly once this one has been cracked. Unique and random passwords from a PM will protect you from that.

Re: password requirements

The fact that there's no password pattern that will be accepted by every site is one of the reasons I switched to a password manager, instead of trying to rely on a formula that would be rejected 50% of the time. Now I just generate a 20-char alphanum password. Too long, missing a special char? No problem, I just change the criteria and recreate a password. If I need to change it again, the criteria have already been saved, I know the new password will be valid.

Re: Cut and paste ya bam

KeePass' AutoType feature is your friend.

EU tells UK: Cut the BS, sign here, and you can have access to Galileo sat's secure service

Re: Musky BS

adviser to Boris on press relations

Does that involve pole dancing?

Will Asimov fix my doorbell? There should be a law about this

Re: You are confusing EU with Europe

And why do you think the project of European construction started right after WW2?

Fetchez la vache!

Not call, dude: UK govt says guaranteed surcharge-free EU roaming will end after Brexit transition period. Brits left at the mercy of networks

Re: Peace

Why leave your phone at home? Just disable data roaming, you won't pay a penny as long as you don't answer calls and you can use WiFi wherever it's available.