* Posts by herman

2070 publicly visible posts • joined 31 Jul 2007

This local council paid HOW MUCH for an SD card?!

herman

Minimum order quantity

It gets interesting when you need one of something and the minimum order quantity is 10,000.

You know how that data breach happened? Three words: eBay, hard drives

herman

Re: Formatting has two options

You load a special driver into the drive controller that shifts the servo off track by 25%, then read the data left over between the tracks.

If you really want to erase a disk do this:

# hdparm --security-set-pass user /dev/sdX

# hdparm --security-erase user /dev/sdX

That will overwrite the data over the whole disk surface, on the tracks and in between the tracks.

herman

Re: 10% ?

Considering how many people on IT related web sites always suggest using dban, shred, dd and other utilities that don't work properly since they don't erase data between tracks or in bad sectors, I am surprised that that 10% were done right.

herman

Re: Investing

Yeah, like the free secure erase algorithm that is built into every disk drive controller since the end of the previous century? Activating that routine will really break everybody's IT budget.

herman

Re: Has it been six months already?

Uhmm... dban and the like don't actually work. It won't erase data in the file system journal, or in bad sectors on disk.

Time to re-file your patents and trademarks, Britain

herman

Another doom and gloom preacher. I'm old enough to remember the the time before the UK was a member of the EU. The world won't stop turning. Everything will carry on just fine.

Patriotic Brits rush into streets to celebrate… National Cream Tea Day

herman

Re: “tea before milk”.

I think the answer is Yokshire Pudding. Any argument can be solved with Yorkshire Pudding. No one can talk with a mouth full.

Holy Crap! Bloke finishes hand-built CPU project!

herman

Re: Hydraulic valves, I trust?

Hydraulic computers were used in the explosives industry for process control till the 1980s at least.

Queensland creep cops charged with snooping through police records

herman

What? Bikini model stalked by police? Show a picture - or it didn't happen.

Deploying software every day is... actually... OK – what devs tell their real-life friends

herman

Re: Redefining failures as success

Ayup, there is a huge difference between being busy and doing work. Devops is all about being busy.

herman

Re: Testing

Now try to do seismic data processing that can run for 18 months on a system that gets restarted twice a day.

Israeli researcher fans fears: here's another way to cross the airgap

herman

So now we need computers to be vacuum gapped. That is going to be rather inconvenient. Don't hold your breath.

Dell tempts hordes with MASSIVE DISCOUNTS on PCs

herman

"This is so comical, that I had to save a screen shot of it for the posterior." - TFIFY

Microsoft joins battery-saving browser bandwagon with Edge claims

herman

Re: Adblock

I'm sure Adblock helps, but Chrome still heats up my laptop much more than the others.

herman

Re: Web browser?

Funny. I actually use links/lynx quite a lot. They are rather more functional than gopher these days.

herman

Re: A world first!

Well, I actually received a cheque from a MS lawsuit once, so I am not exactly a fanboi, but I have to agree with their graphs, since they confirm my own experience. If you want a burning hot lap and a flat battery - run Chrome.

The same effect is true on Windows, Linux and Mac.

GoToMYPC attacked

herman

Re: And that is why

Brilliant

Admins in outcry as Microsoft fix borks Group Policy

herman

Re: Thanks for the heads up

Well, make your IT Manglement your canary group.

Non-US encryption is 'theoretical,' claims CIA chief in backdoor debate

herman

Well, with a misinformed CIA leader like that, as a non-USA citizen, I can sleep much better at night.

Swede who spent 28 years vacuuming in the nude to be evicted

herman

Re: Eurotrash

I think I prefer Sara. Definitely not Harry.

Chinese space station 'out of control', will do best firework impression

herman

Re: Typical problem when you don't have all the data

...and the German rocketry knowledge of Von Brown was based on the American research of Goddard, which was preceded by the solid rockets of China going back to the 13th century...

Calgary uni pays ransomware criminals $20k for its files back

herman

Re: Calgary, you say...

Theo and Ingo are prolly both rather cracked up by this.

England just not windy enough for wind farms, admits renewables boss

herman

Re: selective use of facts

Depends on whether you consider 'off shore' to be part of the UK or not.

Destroying ransomware business models is not your job, so just pay up

herman

Re: Just as well this is only for people...

No, the Somali pirates were eliminated by private security companies who simply shoot and sink any small boats that come close to the big ones - a.k.a. Shoot, Sink and Shut-up.

Smartwatches: I hate to say ‘I told you so’. But I told you so.

herman

Re: There is *something* somewhere ...

Hmm, I rather like my steam age retro mechanical self winding watch. It tends to gain 3 minutes per day, and I am always on time for my meetings and everybody else is always late - lazy buggers...

FOURTH bank hit by SWIFT hackers

herman

Totally unsurprising

I have had money disappear in transit. The experience convinced me that money could therefore also appear out of nowhere in the same way. The system of international transfers is insecure with no/little end to end checks.

So while crooks at the moment concentrate on diverting money, wait till they figure out how to create money out of thin air, because then since nobody lost anything, they will likely get away with it scotfree.

HR botches redundancy so chap scores year-long paid holiday

herman

Re: January 1st?

"32 Dec 1900" Grampaw? Is that yoooo?

Pointless features add to browser bloat and insecurity

herman

Wut? No Blink tag?

Chaps make working 6502 CPU by hand. Because why not?

herman

Trannies vs Valves

I'll only be impressed once someone builds a 6502 processor from thermionic valves.

Microsoft .NET Core update asks developers: How you doin'?

herman

Re: Cross platform

Me.

Kill Flash now? Chrome may be about to do just that

herman

BBC

Aunty BBC will stop playing also.

36 idiots running SAP under attack after flubbing 2010 patch

herman

It is not that bad - these 36 could have used Oracle.

The 'new' Microsoft? I still wouldn't touch them with a barge pole

herman

Re: I can now recite in the NATO alphabet

The phonetic alphabet started with the Royal Navy before the 1st world war already. ICAO and NATO only came half a century later.

herman

Re: Seriously!

OK, have you tried to actually use ReFS? First of all, a machine cannot boot off a ReFS partirion, it also doesn't work with databases. So what is it good for?

You can always rely on the Ancient Ones to cock things up

herman

Re: Oh so true (the water feature)

Bucket to catch a drip? Put a funnel and garden hose, then it will work at least till the pipe freezes in winter.

Woman charged with blowing AU$4.6m overdraft on 'a lot of handbags'

herman

I think the bank is out of money. They gave it to her and didn't ask for repayment. She splurged it. She can declare bankrupt and walk away.

Wi-Fi network named 'mobile detonation device' grounds plane

herman

Re: The Batman approach to labelling

Special delivery - it's a beumb:

https://www.google.ae/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi2lbnGy73MAhWH6RQKHVaSD9EQtwIIGzAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGLDvtpSC_98&usg=AFQjCNGDjMHIxkE5FJ7Xd-jIaFUOiYGMpg

herman

What a maroon. This guy delayed his own flight. Obviously he should have used the SSID Free Air Hostess Pr0n instead. Then everyone would have thought that it is the Pilot's laptop PC and nothing would have happened.

Quad-core coffee table trumped by dual-Mac garden furniture

herman

Re: Trump

It looks like you are working on a new version of brainfuck, so here it is for you:

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump! Trump? Trump! Trump! Trump. Trump? Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump? Trump. Trump?

Trump! Trump. Trump? Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump! Trump. Trump? Trump. Trump. Trump.

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump! Trump? Trump! Trump! Trump. Trump? Trump.

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump? Trump. Trump? Trump! Trump. Trump?

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump! Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump! Trump. Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!

Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump!

Trump. Trump? Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.

Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump! Trump? Trump! Trump! Trump. Trump? Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!

Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump? Trump. Trump? Trump!

Trump. Trump? Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!

Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!

Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump. Trump? Trump.

It's 2016 and now your internet-connected bathroom scales can be hacked

herman

The onle problem I see with your networked scale is that it failed to wish you a nice day, play relaxing elevator music and remind you where your towel is.

Is VMware the power it once was?

herman

Well, I used VMware 10 years ago and it was good. Then came KVM and Virtualbox and I haven't gone back.

A perfect marriage: YOU and Ubuntu 16.04

herman

Re: SO,

Simple fix - turn the screen upside down.

12,000 chopped: Intel finds its inner paranoid

herman

Re: Citation needed

The way to make something successful, is to rename something old. Therefore embedded systems^W^W IoT, will be very successful.

Idiot millennials are saving credit card PINs on their mobile phones

herman

Keepass and KeepassX

I use KeepassX and it is available on all my devices - cell phones too. I can't remember hundreds of different passwords.

Apple pulled 2,204lbs of gold out of old tech gear

herman

Steel foundries use scrap steel to get started. So there is a huge market for scrap. Cars are the most recycled product ever. Your new car today, may have some atoms from the original Model T in it for we know and likewise your new Android phone may some atoms from the original iPhone.

Canny Canadian PM schools snarky hack on quantum computing

herman

Re: Not yet End times

Well, Jimmy Carter is a nuclear scientist, but he is not prez anymore.

Windows 10 debuts Blue QR Code of Death – and why malware will love it

herman

It will be a QROD

herman

Monetize

I'm sure miscreants will find many original ways to monetize the new error screens.

This year's H-1B visa lottery jammed full in just six days

herman

If the H1Bs are so much in demand, then why are they not paid more than US workers? The congress may be able to fix it by charging 50% employer paid tax on H1B salaries.

BOFH: Sure, I could make your cheapo printer perform miracles

herman

Hmm, the PA must have been very pretty. Else I can't see why you would have done that.