Posts by Keith T

Fukushima scaremongers becoming increasingly desperate

The interest in Fukishima is that it could occur anywhere

The interest in Fukishima is that it is an on-going situation, where as tsunamis is over.

The interest in Fukishima is that it could occur anywhere, where as tsunamis require you to be on the coast of an ocean.

Storing 10 times the design amount of nuclear waste in the storage pool.

Inspection failures.

Cutting corners.

Inadequate training of staff.

Improperly sited and inadequately protected vital equipment.

Failure to provide redundant backup systems.

At Fukiashima a fatal industrial accident is on going, and similar fatal industrial accidents could occur at other nuclear power plants elsewhere in the world triggered by other events, unless we ensure adequate inspections, regulations, and oversight.

Site-saving workers evacuated from Japanese reactor disaster

It took 2 hours for 50% of the fuel rods at Three Mile Island to melt down

Five years after the accident, when the reactor had finally cooled down and the radiation receded enough to allow robotic entry, it turned out that 50% of the fuel rods at Three Mile Island had melted during the 2 hours they were uncovered.

I don't doubt that in 5 years we'll find that 90% of the fuel rods have melted in some of these reactors.

What we have is a worst than worst case scenario times six. And still there will be under 4 dozen fatalities over the course of 40 years of operation.

The reactors are an old design from the 1960s.

After shut down they depend on pumps to keep them cooled. New designs do not have that requirement.

These reactors do not have the aircraft proof concert domes newer reactors have.

My thinking is that all GE Mark 1 Boiling Water Nuclear Reactors world wide should be phased out of service as soon as feasible.

Mozilla confirms Firefox 4 beta 12 is FINAL test build

I think it is a lame excuse by Mozilla

I think it is a lame excuse by Mozilla.

I think if Hotmail was their only problem they'd have shipped.

This reminds me of my days in first year university ...

This reminds me of my days in first year university, when it was always one more change and it will be working, one more test ... for hour after hour.

Maybe by mid-summer they'll have something to deploy in production, hopefully.

And now Mozilla has gone from one more change, one more test, to one more beta and one more month.

(And actually Hotmail is a pretty good service these days. The spam filter works really well. But Windows Live Mail, it is missing a lot of useful features. The way things are going, though I'm more likely to abandon Firefox than Hotmail.)

If Hotmail was the only problem, why didn't Mozilla put the OS X and Linux versions into production?

If Hotmail was the only problem, why didn't Mozilla put the OS X and Linux versions into production?

Surely there aren't many Mac fanboys or Linux types using Hotmail via the web interface.

I think the Hotmail thing was just an excuse.

Did you not read the article?

Nearly half their testers use Hotmail. One hotmail problem knocked out their whole ability to communicate with their testers.

Gadget makes bombs, mines go off 'on average' 20m away

juice up the power supply and 20m becomes 60m

Juice up the power supply and 20m becomes 60m.

Likewise, a directional antenna would boost the range without needing an increase in power, but perhaps they already use a directional antenna.

A production version would need some shielding and a directional antenna.

I imagine it would be truck mounted with the antenna on a boom.

It will force mine builders to either electrically shield their devices, making them both more expensive and more detectable, or to make them mechanical with more easy to detect metal parts or more complex to manufacture plastic parts.

what is the reply button for?

To the enemy, the cost of C4 is not just the purchase price, but the time and expense of smuggling it into the conflict zone and then deploying it.

As for the transmitters needing to be handled like "delicate electronic equipment", think about the remote vehicle locking transmitter in your pocket, or your satellite TV remote control.

And one final point, the transmitter won't be highly classified since it is described in a published doctoral dissertation.

In fact some of the current mine field clearning devices work by detonation at 0m

In fact some of the current mine field clearing devices work by detonation at 0m.

You have a special purpose truck and a series of weighted trailers of varying axle width. They work by rolling over the mine.

Others use a chain flails mounted on steel axles to set off mines a few meters in front of the vehicle.

They are going to be much more expensive than a radio antenna and 20 m of boom.

20 m is over 60 feet. It is a pretty good horizontal distance, keeping in mind that for buried mines most of the explosive force is directed upwards.

You won't want to be in shirtsleeves at 20 m, but you won't need 10 cm of armour either.

Botnets claim 7-fold increase in victims

And yet in competitions OS X and Linux are often beat more quickly than Windows

And yet in competitions OS X and Linux are often cracked more quickly than Windows.

OS X and Linux depend on security by obscurity, the same thing their proponents ridicule in Windows.

Windows has been examined and tested far more thoroughly than OS X and Linux, simply because it is the most popular OS by far.

There are bugs in OS X and Linux, just they haven't been discovered, and those that have been discovered are less likely to be published widely. OS X and Linux security depends on those bugs not being well known, in other words, security by obscurity.

Law enforcment needs to apprehend the creators of this malware

Law enforcement needs to apprehend the creators and users of this malware.

There is no way for humans to author infiltration proof general purpose operating systems plus a variety of complex applications. Heck, we can't even make infiltration proof firmware for our hard drives.

We do need to keep trying to make better software, software that requires more time and expertise to crack.

But that will be pointless unless law enforcement takes action to apprehend those trying to crack our hard ware and software.

We need to put black hat hackers, and their business partners, behind bars for several years.

The usual advice. Can't. Get professional help. No we are not.

The usual precautions about always using an anti-virus, maintaining all the security updates, not visiting untrusted site, only running reputable software from reputable sites.

Since bots are being designed to not disrupt the computer they are installed upon, there will be less and less sign of bots being installed as black hat technology improves.

It is possible to remove a bot, but not for an average home user.

We are not lost. Acting individually, we can't defend against muggers and blackmailers. Individually, banks can't prevent their vaults being penetrated. We haven't figured out how to manufacture vandal proof battle tanks yet.

But as a society we can use criminal investigations and the justice system to put muggers, blackmailers and bank thieves behind bars.

And the people who design and distribute cracking tools are more like those who break into bank vaults or pick locks. There are not that many people with both the expertise and the lack of morals. It is a matter of putting a few hundred hackers behind bars. The prospect of being behind bars will act as substitute morals for the remainder of the designers.

Canada? The computer vendor says no

Toronto, self-styled center of the world

Yes, if you lived in Toronto, if you lived in "Canada's only world class city", if you were a person that mattered, you wouldn't have a problem.

Better cold Edmonton that heavily polluted Toronto.

We don't get European versions, Asian version or American versions

We don't get European versions, Asian version or American versions.

Basically Canada is too small to bother with. There are just a few big wholesalers selling off the stock that won't sell in the USA, and Canadian retailers aren't industrious enough to bypass them.

And the prices here for consumer electronics are as shamelessly jacked-up as their are in the UK.

Yes, we'll all move to California, that will solve it.

Then the US government can start building a fence along its northern border.

Canada is where they sell off last year's obsolete stuff

Canada is where they sell off last year's obsolete stuff at full price. If they sold the new stuff here, they couldn't do that.

Wrinkle-faced smartphoners demand 'BlackBerry Botox'

So it is not just us over 50s hating the available smart phones

So it is not just us over 50s hating the available smart phones.

Please give us phones we can use without putting on our reading glasses. That is, high contrast low glare keys with maximum font size for the key, and the biggest screens that will fit on the device.

So long as it will fit in a breast pocket, the device is not too big.

Your call is not important to us

Exactly ! We ought to be more customer focused, less accountant focused.

We ought to be more customer focused, less accountant focused.

We need to do more thinking and delivering in terms of the customer's interests.

Aussies demand Poms cough up first 'Australia' map

If they're prepared to offer a fair price, sell it or trade it to them.

It isn't as if the Greeks wanting Greek Elgin Marbles back.

It is as if the Greeks had the Elgin Marbles and we wanted them.

But clearly the map is worth far far more to them than to us. And they do have more money than us.

We should sell this national treasure (a British citizen created while working for Britain) to the Australians, or trade it to them.

Assange vows to drop 'insurance' files on Rupert Murdoch

Blackmailing NotW? Just last month MPs didn't call in HMIC because

Just last month MPs were complaining about NotW making similar threats to them which is why they stopped the voice mail break in scandal investigation without calling in Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.

US woman sues again over XP 'downgrade', seeks class action

Exactly the problem for retailers

David, you describe the predicament for retailers exactly.

You solved the problem yourself, but 98% of retail customers wouldn't be able to.

Tell them that at the Mac Store.

Of course there is a market.

But the way you are thinking of the issue is defining a PC as the sort of machine that runs Windows. Yes, Windows PCs (PCs with hardware that only Windows supports) do all come with Windows.

The problem with selling Windows PCs to regular retail customers without an operating system, letting them install Linux or Unix, or installing Linux or Unix for them, is that they won't succeed and they'll complain to their friends. They'll have problems they can't surmount, and they'll bad mouth you. Even if you sell it to them in working condition, sooner or later they'll need to install some security fixes, and they'll be back on your doorstep.

But if you are a regular retail customer, ignorant of the upgrade and maintenance of operating systems, sure enough shops will be happy to sell you a Mac.

The court should make her pay MS's defence costs.

It is not her that is making the cash grab. It is the law firm, which is probably owned by the spouse of an distant relation.

The court should make her pay MS's defence costs.

But judges are ex-lawyers, and many legislators are ex- or current lawyers. They aren't going to do anything to convert the legal system into a justice system, because that would hurt their colleagues fees.

such exclusion clauses are useless in most of the USA

Exclusion clauses that you can only read after purchase are useless and have no effect, other than deterring the casual complainant from seeking legal advise.

Her case is that she doesn't have a choice in OS, because MS dominates the OS market. And if that claim had merit, I believe it would override even an exclusion clause that she signed before purchase. Anti-monopoly legislation in the USA is that strong.

After all, a powerful monopoly often will force people to sign inequitable contracts. Anti-monopoly legislation exists to override those contracts.

The proof of this is that the claim won't proceed unless class action status is granted.

In US lawsuits like these that have been examined by investigative reporters, it is typical that the first claimant in the lawsuit is in some way loosely related to the law firm making the claim.

In other words, she isn't wasting her time and thousands of dollars in legal fees going after MS for her own expenses.

Rather, a legal firm is using her to start a lawsuit so that the legal firm can take 20, 30, 40% of the settlement (whatever the judge will allow), which in the event of success would be tens of millions of dollars.

The proof of this is that the claim won't proceed unless class action status is granted. She won't proceed, the law firm won't proceed, just to settle her claim against MS.

This is a lawsuit in pursuit of legal fees, a lawsuit intended to make lawyers multi-millionaires, not a lawsuit in pursuit of restoring money to people "extorted" by MS's "dominant" market position.

I Say It Is All About Lawyer's Fees. And only about lawyer's fees.

Anyone with the sense to want Windows XP over Vista, and the knowledge to manage that, has the know how to buy and run a Mac, Unix, Linux, etc, etc.

The market such operating system purchasers are in is not the mass market, it is a niche market with many competitors.

This isn't about some retail customer looking for their $100 back from MS.

This is about a stooge being used by a law firm to launch a class action suit against a firm with deep pockets.

This is all about some law firm looking to make tens of millions of dollars in legal fees. And that is all this is about.

Such law suits have as much benefit to society as patent trolling. It is about using the legal system to make legal fees, with legal fees being primary objective.

Vulture falls asleep in front of Christmas TV

Merry Christmas folks !

And have a happy, creative and prosperous 2011 !

FBI 'planted backdoor' in OpenBSD

Would Windows being insecure make it okay for OpenBSD to be insecure?

Windows isn't the issue here, but is your point that Windows being insecure would make it okay for OpenBSD to be insecure?

we could tell be reading archived code

We could tell be reading archived source code.

If anyone bothers to do this, I expect we'll have a preliminary answer by next week.

Who didn't

Did/does anyone not think there are backdoors in commercial closed source code?

I thought that had always been a given, but that it was claimed that they "many eyes" would keep such things out of open source.

These would be the same "many eyes" that read over each edition of the Oxford English Dictionary looking for errors.

same percent as read the EULA of shrink wrapped software

Just one example

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/08/19/linux_vulnerability_fix/

Linux kernel purged of five-year-old root access bug

Worse than that, the bug was known during much of that time.

How GCHQ keeps tabs on FOI requestors

Knowledge is power in both politics and the civil service

Knowledge is power in the civil service. They want to keep things secret from other bureaucrats from their own country, as well as the press, and general public.

What better way to shoot down the bright idea of a young upstart than, "You don't know the full facts."

Even if it is information that an enemy must know, like attacks we've made or casualties they've suffered, they will keep it secret.

PayPal banned WikiLeaks after US gov intervention

So will PayPal, Visa and MC be suspending the NY Times and Guardian?

So will PayPal, Visa and MC be suspending the NY Times and Guardian?

Or is the State Department only going after foreigners and those who can't financially afford to defend themselves?

Paris, because Paris can see the State Department is engaged in selective prosecutions, picking on foreigners.

What about NY Times?

The NY Times are accomplices and so should be co-defendents, and they would be if there was any merit to this.

We all eagerly await Bush's and Blair's appearance at The Hague

Don't hold you breath waiting for anything other than the suppression of the press and oppression of young men being sent off to fight pointless wars by killing innocent civilians.

We reject your "might makes right" claims.

Busby, our attitudes and our protests are against the nationalist socialist idea that "might makes right".

My ancestors fought a world war over this (for the full length of the war, not just the last 2 years.)

You shouldn't be surprised that I'd at least try using words to preserve their legacy.

Microsoft 'Xbox TV' rumours: Over the Cable Guy's dead body

MS or Apple could lever in starting in Canada

In Canada the cable guy doesn't get much of a choice on what channels he carries. That is 95% determined by a government agency called the CRTC.

So MS or Apple could start off with their TV-over-internet here.

Then, once it was proven, once it became popular, use that momentum to move into the USA.

Trust me (excepting a human right to health care) anything else worthwhile Canada gets, the USA gets within a year.

I think you have the assumption wrong

The assumption of the article is that the price you pay is much higher than the infra structure price, that you're also paying a premium because cable TV and satellite TV are monopolies or oligopolies (depending on where you live).

Internet is the protocols, not the speed or media

Fiber, cable and satellite are used to transmit internet signals, to connect devices to the internet, and to connect parts of the internet together.

because you can't do it for free now

because you can't do it for free now

Mass mind control artist condemns El Reg to obscurity

Reg ahead of the NY Times & BBC on Limbaugh's "authoritatabilityness scale".

You're looking at the glass as half-empty, when its really half-full.

Isn't it nice to know that Limbaugh considers The Reg an *authoritative* news site. He didn't try to second source your story. He didn't report it as "allegedly". He repeated your report as authoritative.

That puts The Reg ahead of the NY Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, PBS, CBC and BBC on Rush Limbaugh's "authoritatabilityness scale".

Cheers mate!

I can verify what Jake says.

I'm from Canada and I'm just 60 miles from the US border.

I can verify what Jake says. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of skinny and normal weight Americans.

Jon Stewart himself watches those guys.

It is perfectly good to watch Rush, O'Reilly and that tubby blond guy provided you also watch some non-Fox News.

Stewart* himself watches those guys.

Check out BBC News, or CBC Newsworld, or even just The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

(* And Jon Stewart also quotes The Reg as an authoritative news source, which is probably what turned Rush on to watch this place.)

Lone hacker theory in Wikileaks DDoS attack

If American "patriots" are attacking UK and Australian Patriots ..

If American "patriots" are attacking UK and Australian Patriots that means they don't want to be allies any more.

Which suits me fine. To me, they stopped being allies when they pushed our government to attack Iraq against the democratic wishes of the overwhelming majority of British people.

A country that is against British democracy is not an ally.

Firesheep developer poohpoohs mitigation tools

Would Eric Butler steal a child's bike?

Would Eric Butler steal a child's bike to teach the child to keep his bike locked up?

Would he beat up a staggering drunk to teach him binge drinking was wrong?

Would he hurl bricks through windows to "encourage house builders to use better security practices"?

Would he steal babies from a hospital maternity ward to promote better automated baby tracking systems?

Would he hand out bags of bent nails to school children to be scattered on roads to protest the auto industries failure to use puncture-proof tires?

Freely deploying Firesheep is no different.

Firefox extension detects FireSheep snoop software

Firefox should make BlackSheep a recommended add-on

1. Yes someone could update FireSheep to make it resist BlackSheep -- that would be undeniable proof they are black-hats.

FireSheep was alleged created not for publicity, not for malicious kicks, but to encourage websites to use HTTPS. Updating FireSheep to get past BlackSheep would serve no such purpose. Hence proof of black-hat mentality and criminal intent.

While increasing security necessarily involves more processing cycles, and thus greater green house gases and pre-mature obsolescence of hardware, in the case of sites like Facebook where people are supposed to be using their real names I must agree that HTTPS is long over due.

But I argue generally the distribution of malware as free-ware to encourage higher security expenditures is equivalent to (as criminal as) handing out spring nail sets or rusty nails to teenagers passing by a crowded parking lot in the middle of the night, along with the advice "There is no CCTV protecting this parking lot, so if you decide to commit vandalism you won't get caught. I am only doing this to force auto-makers to use scratch proof paint and shatter proof windows."

Malware makers with just intentions could achieve the same goal of making their point without causing serious theft and vandalism damage to innocent third parties by restricting the distribution of their malware to bona fide trustworthy security companies and the maker of the insecure software.

2. While I agree that 100% of the time FireSheep will have been installed with the computer users permission, remember that in some cases computers have more than one user, or the computer may be administered by an organization (i.e. company computer).

Because those limited cases do sometimes occur, there is a point to adding FireSheep detection to anti-virus software.

If MS is the only AV maker to realize this I'd be surprised.

Firesheep causes damage to innocent third parties

What you suggest is akin to blaming Ford or GM for not putting scratch proof paint on your "keyed" vandalized car.

It is akin to blaming your housebuilder for not using bullet proof lexan or heat proof glass for your windows after they are vandalized.

The crime is the fault of the person with the criminal intent, not the person who decided using vandal proof technology was too expensive.

There are tools that can be abused to do that already on your computer

There are tools that can be abused to do that already on your computer. All that is required is criminal intent and a little (very little) intelligence.

Boffins devise early-warning bot spotter

Works for Linux

Security by obscurity works for Linux and Apple.

Think about it ... even though it is open source, it is less well examined and understood by black-hat hackers (because it hosts fewer attractive targets), and their obscurity are the only reason they have fewer viruses.

Read again

They tested it with those exactly sorts of name generators.