Posts by Claptrap314

Social media giants move to defy Hong Kong's new national security law

Re: @adrian727 - Not only

"justice system controlled by one political party"--that would be the Democrats? Because we certainly don't control it. (For the utterly clueless, check the recent Supreme Court rulings.)

You may be distracted by the pandemic but FYI: US Senate panel OK's backdoors-by-the-backdoor EARN IT Act

You are a fool to make this issue partisan

I don't care if straight party line votes ensue at some point. If we are going to beat this thing for even one generation, it must be a bypartisan effort.

Janet Reno supported Clipper.

As I've posted before, the FBI has steadily pushed for this garbage under every administration. AGs have tended to follow along. The NSA has opposed them.

Sure, it's easier to condemn every Republican than to engage them. Maybe it's even more fun for you. But we have FAR more influence on Republican members of congress than you do. Convincing them might, you know, help stop the bill.

But you make it a partisan issue, plenty of Republicans will believe you. You've made my job of convincing them a LOT harder.

Yes, we're WAY past time to pull back blanket immunity. Punting it to the states is an abdication (to fifty successors). Backdooring is flat-earth level idiocy. But implying that no D administration would support or abuse such powers? Give it up already.

Linux kernel coders propose inclusive terminology coding guidelines, note: 'Arguments about why people should not be offended do not scale'

Re: Do non African slaves not matter ?

No--this is deliberate. This rhetoric is entirely about trying to make Caucasians bear guilt for something some of the ancestors of some of them did generations ago while deliberately ignoring the exact same behavior by non-Caucasians today.

If you doubt me, jump on the LKML & ask why there is no mention of current slavery in Africa. See the response you get.

Re: Thin end of the wedge?

Which means that the rework is going to be uneven, and itself will be subject to bickering.

When I followed the LKML, there was near-constant bickering over technical issues. Glad to hear those have all been fixed.

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

Because the night is dangerous relative to the day.

Seriously, it was NEVER entirely about race.

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

Wait. Do you mean your race is white while his is black--or that your belt is white while his is black.

Seriously, as soon as you went into the martial arts, my mind focuses color on the belt. I had to rethink that line in order to figure out that you might be talking about race.

The deprecation of "master" branches is particularly annoying to me, because the term "master" in regard to copy-making has NEVER referred to the slave trade. In fact, the use of master-slave terminology in any IT context is rather illiterate, because master-copy is what is intended for every case that comes to mind. If people insist on being offended by what is clearly a technical term, (the slave portion of master-slave) then fix the "slave" part.

Because we desperately need master craftsmen when it comes to our trades in IT.

These navel gazers need to be fired for wasting everyone else's time.

'It's really hard to find maintainers...' Linus Torvalds ponders the future of Linux

Re: I wonder why?

Thanks. Now, if I could just fix that typo I just spotted...

Re: I wonder why?

Not idiots, really. More like, "savants". Trust me, if you wrote some verilog for them to look at, they would be giggling about it for weeks.

While I was doing software microprocessor validation at IBM, I started saying, "You don't want to be in the same county as an FPU I designed or that they programmed." The skills are just that different.

Re: I wonder why?

You really, REALLY don't have a clue, do you?

There are actually LOTS of people out there that would LOVE to be maintainers--the problem is that almost all of them would run the kernel into the ground in no more than two releases. Often this is because of incompetence. Sometimes, it is because of a narrow focus on a particular issue to the detriment of others. Some of it is a straight up **** the end user attitude by various companies. (You know I'm talking about.) And some of it is full-on prima-donnaism. (Again, it should be pretty obvious who at least one of these currently is.)

The only way to maintain the viability of Linux is to keep this binary excrement out of the kernel. On good days, the task is Herculean. On bad ones, I'm sure it feels Sisyphean. He cannot do it alone, and so he has to trust the maintainers to some extent.

And when he finds out that some of them have been negligent? Sure, he can fire them. But that means either that he has to take on the work himself, or somehow replace them.

Oh, yeah--tell me again how much money he has to attract new talent?

So, he uses public shaming. Yeah, I know. Every study ever done says that's the wrong way to fix things. Except--the real world is a whole lot messier than some academic study.

And--he has user to protect.

Re: I wonder why?

Dude, it's just code. I had to write what may have been the first ACPI memory detection routine. While working for AMD on what might have been an AMD-specific problem when the relevant maintainer lived in Portland (Intel's HQ). On that old assembler that used to ship with the kernel. When I barely dared to call myself a proper programmer.

The point is, I have no idea if that code ever hit the trunk. That wasn't the issue. I needed to enable our customers, and that's what I did. If the code was worthy, Linus would have allowed it. If not, well, fine.

Same as yours.

Re: I wonder why?

So. I implemented your program, but I ran into a problem. My screen just says, "Go to step 2" over and over again. Now what?

Cisco SMB kit harbors cross-site scripting bug: One wrong link click... and that's your router pwned remotely

Re: Old as the hills and still being perpetrated

Wait. You already had my upvote BEFORE RIRO. Now what do I do?

Euro police forces infiltrated encrypted phone biz – and now 'criminal' EncroChat users are being rounded up

Re: Use offline encryption/decryption

The Iranians might suggest that the use of a USB stick isn't the best idea if you want to secure your system.

And a floppy?

Is alt.binaries still a thing?

If so, I would assume any criminal organization would be posting there constantly. Which ones are actual messages and not just noise is an exercise for the interested.

Roll your own crypto?

DO. NOT. TRY. TO. ROLL. YOUR. OWN. CRYPTO.

Why is it that someone has to post this to EVERY article the the subject?

Do a little (just a bit) of research on modern crypto algorithms. Every last one of them was developed by a team. And then peer reviewed by other teams.

Teams of people with PhDs in mathematics (usually algebra). Teams of people each with over a decade of experience in the field.

You really, really aren't at that level. Neither am I. Neither are 99.9999% of people in the world. Honestly, there is probably another 9 to add.

'Google cannot stop it, control it or curtail it...' Inside the murky world of fake addiction treatment center search spam

Umm, sure.

"If anyone at Google wrote code with that kind of lax error checking, they'd hear about it from a manager."

Consumer orgs ask world's competition watchdogs: Are you really going to let Google walk off with all Fitbit's data?

The value of each bit of data depends on how many other bits of data it is associated with. Adding the FitBit data to Google increases the value of ALL of Google's existing data.

So, yes. That is, after all, why Google is risking a $100 million penalty in case the deal fails.

Re: Isn't it time for Google to face the Anti-trust strongarm squad?

I've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. In the US, anti-trust is fundamentally a political matter.

In order to get the attention of the anti-trust authorities, you have to get into a position that you dominate a market. The authorities then have to determine that you are operating the monopoly "in restraint of trade"--that is, "abusing" your monopoly for some definition or the other. BUT--our constitution provides for monopolies! Specifically, inventors are guaranteed some sort of limited-time monopolies on their inventions. (This is a REALLY good thing, by the way, just subject to abuse.)

However, by the time you get to the point that an industry is important enough to the economy that a monopoly in it can be "in restraint of trade", the economic implications of actually doing anything about the situation can be even worse than what the monopolist is doing. The decision to proceed, therefore, is fundamentally a political one.

So...AT&T operated a monopoly on telephone services for generations. And while they were not popular, it was hard to see that there was any gain to be had by doing anything about it. The cost of the poles & wires was super high, and you would never have two competing networks that came close to the efficiency of a single network outside the densest urban areas, and it was far from clear that even there, gain was possible.

Then came the Internet. When AT&T started looking to expand into the Internet, their dominant position at the physical layer became a huge concern, and they were broken up. Remind me, how did that go?

Of course, IBM operated a monopoly (think Apple in the absence of Microsoft or Linux) for decades. The suit started, but the Reagan administration decided to slow-walk it until IBM was no longer a monopoly.

Or you could go back to the original trust-busting. Breaking up Standard Oil? Seems to have been a good thing. Breaking up the banks? That went okay--until the Depression, a few years later. Then they had to walk almost all of it back.

Or you could look at professional sports. Basketball, football, baseball--all run by monopoly organizations. But in the end, it's just entertainment, so--as a political decision--they are excluded from monopoly legislation.

There are no good answers.

Now, lets consider Google, Facebook, and Amazon. Each of these companies are hugely dependent upon the network effect for their success. Suppose we break Facebook into two companies, BookFace, and BaceFook. Suppose that we also split the users between them. What happens next? If 80% of someone's contacts are on BookFace, then that is where they will spend almost all of their time. If that means creating a new account, they will do that. And what about the other 20% of contacts? What if THEY want to talk to that person?

There is a real social benefit for keeping these companies together. The "obvious" solution is to highly regulate them. Except--let's talk about regulatory capture.

There. Are. No. Good. Answers.

After huffing and puffing for years, US senators unveil law to blow the encryption house down with police backdoors

Re: So once the Government gets its way....

Again, they can try, but these are federal agents executing their powers as they deem best. Can you fine an ICE agent for arresting folks in a "sanctuary city"? Or FBI agents for raiding a (state) legal pothouse?

A competent lawyer would show up in the state court, raise the question of jurisdiction, and walk out.

Re: LAEDA Omissions!

Nah. The brilliant minds needed a minute to figure out why their subconscious was laughing so hard at the entire idea--it would not have taken so long, but with ALL THAT LAUGHING, it's really hard to concentrate enough for rational thought.

Re: I don't know enough maths

The answer to the question you are about to ask me is "42". The answer to the next question you are about to ask me will take approximately 4.5 billion years to compute.

Re: So once the Government gets its way....

They can try, but the independence of the electors in giving their vote is constitutionally absolute. As is the right of congress to award those votes.

It's actually a two-level failsafe.

And, for those with overly-convenient memories, while, pre-election, it has been leftists & Democrats suggesting that the Republican call on his electors to switch in favor of a popular vote, it was the Democratic electors that chose to defect in 2016.

Hilary Clinton isn't just a boogeyman of the right.

Re: stupidity out of ignorance or avarice

In a pinch? All of it.

Finally, a wafer-thin server... Only a tiny little thin one. Oh all right. Just the one...

Re: How to blow up 1000 houses all at once...

Cool. Learned something. But, as others have noted... "supposed to". I've personally witnessed failures of that.

That's one of the scariest stories I've heard.

How to blow up 1000 houses all at once...

My UPS lasted more than a decade before the battery went out. I went to the same manufacturer for a full UPS. After two years, the "uninterruptible" side is dropping monthly. Anyone know a reputable manufacturer for home UPS?

US govt: Julian Assange tried to recruit hacker to steal hush-hush dirt and we should know – the hacker was an informant

Re: Did I miss something?

Missed the author of this post. Figured it out in the middle of the second unquoted sentence.

Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. Comcast to handle DNS-over-HTTPS for Firefox-using subscribers

We need DNS over SQL...

as I mentioned when this proposal first came out. It's the only way.

<sigh>

As always, -----> is for crying in.

Re: So how does Comcast handle NXDOMAINs?

I assume that they won't be stopping.

Once again, racial biases show up in AI image databases, this time turning Barack Obama white

"Enhance"

End of line.

Maze ransomware gang threatens to publish sensitive stolen data after US aerospace biz sensibly refuses to pay

Re: An sensible response, indeed

I don't know about spammers, but I DO know that during the kidnapping surge in the 80's, the Soviet response was...more kinetic than ours. Problem solved.

Grav wave boffins are unsure if they just spotted the smallest black hole or the biggest neutron star seen yet

What about Quarks?

No, not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(Star_Trek), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_star

Of course, a black hole of any particular mass is possible, but if faces with a theoretically reasonable, but hard to observe phenomenon verses a really, really, really rare thing, it seems odd to exclude the theoretically reasonable hypothesis.

Re: I feel an overwhelming urge to quote Holly!

Today. As the universe expands & cools, those numbers change.

Internet blackout of Myanmar States that are home to ethnic minorities enters second year

Re: Starlink ?

I lack access to the numbers to know the hard limits, but from my time in satellite communications, I suspect that these low, cheap, commercial satellites could be DOSed from the ground while over even a weak nation-state that really wanted to block them.

If that does not work, flying over anyone trying to use them with a receiver & some sort of HARM would be quite discouraging to potential users.

Re: Attempted genocide of the Rohingya

You need to look closely at the list of recipients of that award, and what they had done BEFORE receiving it.

It's been a sick joke for quite a long time.

America's Team Telecom urges FCC to do something about that 120Tbps fiber line between US, Hong Kong

Nations gonna nation.

Hypocrisy? Where? This is about sovereignty, and our ability to effectively resist the efforts of an increasingly hostile power. Hypocrisy would be if we objected to the EU doing the same with us. I see no similar concerns being raised by the EU. It is only if the EU made similar restrictions, and we criticized them that hypocrisy would be in play.

It's not our concern if the EU is happy to have their data running through pipe we control.

As I've said many times, if you don't control DNS in your country, you're not really very sovereign, when it comes to the internet. This is more of the same.

BGT poisoning reaching end of life?

So..they lay our for real capacities to have a similar effect.

Never said these guys are stupid.

Splunk to junk masters and slaves once a committee figures out replacements

Re: I need help

There has been a HUGE shift in the last five years. I've not bothered researching the nature of it. The moral preeners are as aggressive and annoying here now as many other places. We used to have a sense of humor.

Re: Proximity and stuff

OMW--do I actually have to say this? OF COURSE, the adaptations that blacks undertook in an attempt to limit the effects of the horrors of slavery took root in a way that was hugely detrimental to post slavery existence. OF COURSE, the enactment of Jim Crow laws and the reign of the Night Riders continued to inflict outrages which likelywise reinforced and broadened those patterns.

But no one alive today has been a slave in the US except by a wholy criminal action-or some weird kink. There simply is nothing to remember.

What there is is an unfortunate tendency to carry these memories from generation to generation in a way that makes it easy for race merchants to exploit. My family was very deliberate in preventing me or any of my cousins from learning what had been done to us until we were adults. THAT is my privilege--being raised that my efforts will bear fruit. I wish that privilege on you and upon your children.

Re: Proximity and stuff

There are no memories of slavery in the US (1865, people), except by recent immigrants--mostly from North Africa.

This is cultural Marxism using its tools of divide and conquer to attempt to bring down civilization.

If you're despairing at staff sharing admin passwords, look on the bright side. That's CIA-grade security

Re: 123ABCdef

No, but if you have to have someone send you to LMDDGTFY, you're obviously gormless.

Re: Why did they need an exemption?

For the same reason that the teacher doesn't usually take the exams themselves. There was probably either an understanding or else an explicit requirement for the CIA to help HS develop the requirements.

Re: 123ABCdef

Time spent on the Register forums before being exposed as not a techie--30 minutes.

Re: The entropic decrease of entropy

I agree with you supposition, but not its consequent. Our memory is also increasing, and our hashing algorithms are good enough that we don't really have to worry too much about the size of the dictionary.

Re: There's a dangerous assumption here.

We expect blue collar workers to raise safety issues. You sound like you are excusing people who should be classified "elite". Neither has my job title nor my job description ever had a hint of "security" in it. That doesn't mean that I don't consider it part of by ethical duty to pay a LOT of attention to the issue as an IC. For a group that size, even if they were purely focused on offensive, it is mind-blowing that there was NO ONE willing to sound the alarm inside loud enough to get any of these matters fixed.

Of course, this was a culture issue, and culture is the responsibility of management & senior ICs. But of all the places to expect that EVERYONE knows that security isn't something you blindly entrust other people to take care of for you, surely this is the place?

"Unfortunately, it is now clear that exempting the intelligence community from baseline federal security requirements was a mistake." Indeed. And what a tragic fact.

The girl with the dragnet tattoo: How a TV news clip, Insta snaps, a glimpse of a tat and a T-shirt sold on Etsy led FBI to alleged cop car arsonist

Re: Gloves and goggles; whoda thought it?

Yeah, they treated you Army guys like..dogs. Mine was in the ANG. Very unpleasant, but really, REALLY weak compared to being OCed.

Re: Gloves and goggles; whoda thought it?

But it's OK if there is no pandemic?

I've been under tear gas twice. It's not that bad if you don't have any panic about it. But in an uncontrolled situation, it is likely to induce panic--and people die from being trampled.

I was also pepper sprayed (by a crazy lady) that's a whole new level of pain.

Of course, we might have different ideas of "peaceful". I don't count angry chants of "oink oink bang bang" by people carrying rifles peaceful. But I'm no cop & I've not had riot control training.

Zoom will offer proper end-to-end encryption to free vid-chat accounts – not just paid-up bods – once you verify your phone number...

Re: Confidentiality for the price of anonymity

Outside China. Or a few other places, depending on your definition of "legitimate users".

Ah lovely, here's something you can do with those Raspberry Pis, NUC PCs in the bottom of the drawer: Run Ubuntu Appliances on them

Just cannot be bothered

to read very far into an article about a product from Canonical or Microsoft.

If Fairphone can support a 5-year-old handset, the other vendors could too. Right?

Updates are nice

but the underlying platform is unsecurable. I learned that when Google classified their Google-issued "smart" phones as "partially trusted."

If RIM ever gets back into retail, I'm in. Otherwise? I'll never own one of the **** things.