Posts by VanguardG

'Nobody's got to use the internet,' argues idiot congressman in row over ISP privacy rules

Re: Gilmore vs. Gonzales

Since it was "police officers" involved, LDS, I'm fairly sure "regulations" were already in place. Passengers have been so totally cowed that not a single person did anything more than film this dragging incident and make a few weak verbal protests. Nobody called out the gate agent who called in the goon squad, or the Captain who failed to maintain control of his or her aircraft.

How many abuses did it take before the government finally REGULATED how long airlines could keep passengers effectively imprisoned on an aircraft sitting on the ground? That went on for YEARS before there was finally a regulation passed that allows for "only" three hours. Which is still far too long. It works, sort of...but it takes far too long to go into effect and is totally without teeth when it does! Say Airline A violates the three hour rule. Like Continental/Expressjet/Mesaba did, with nearly six hour of delay. DoT fined them $175,000 between them. Did the *passengers* see a penny? Of course not!! They just PAID MORE for future tickets since the airlines jacked up the prices to offset the penalty! DOT got some money, Airlines went on business as usual, and the passengers got absolutely NOTHING whatsoever.

Imagine if Delta Airlines suddenly re-wrote their carriage contract to prohibit involuntary removal (except in cases where a passenger is disruptive to other passengers or crew). Do you not think every other airline would have to follow suit? Of course they would. No regulation needed, no fines that we passengers end up paying so the GOVERNMENT gets more money...more of OUR money. Just "Hey Delta did this...we have to match it, passengers can actually choose to fly with someone else if we don't!" Its the same thing with baggage fees...every airline glommed onto the idea and then they made PR points against each other by NOT charging for carryon...or charging for carryon but not checked bags..or just not charging either one but raising their ticket prices $25 to make up the difference anyway.

Re: 'you don't have to use the internet if you don't like it.'

If this is the best we can buy, we really need a bigger budget.

I went to his website, to send him an email, you have to put in your ZIP (postal) code, and if its not in his district, it will reject your email. Wow, that's security!!!

Took a few seconds to find the towns and codes he represents and plug them in with a mythical address. Not that he'll ever see the end message...since it didn't fawn all over him and show my reverance for his wisdom, I'm sure it was deleted almost instantly. A benefit of never actually being around the regular citizens - you don't ever have to hear, let alone listen to, criticism...you have a staff to ensure you only see messages that tell you how great you are.

Re: Benefit of the doubt? "Notas Badoff" might not be American?

California politicians are so far to the left they almost fall over when they walk. But they're not crazy. Look at the state they represent. They can't be normal human beings and represent a state with Hollywood in it.

Re: Senior Moment

Must be his "bunch of tubes" got clogged up. Every time any CongressCritter opens his mouth about technology, every comedian in the world writes it down, because mocking it will be comedy GOLD for months. Clearly, an aide oversimplified explaining the concept, probably because the Congress member could only spare 2 minutes to master complicated concepts.

He just needs to own up to it..."I voted the way I did because Bobby from Arizona promised to let me use his plane on my next junket to the Bahamas if I did. He has a very nice plane. Computers are just fads, they'll fade away soon and we can all get back to the radio for entertainment."

Re: Benefit of the doubt? "Notas Badoff" might not be American?

Is there reputable evidence that there's been "selective disenfranchising"? The districts are redrawn every 10 years, when there's an official census. Whichever party is in power at that time can finagle the lines this way or that way as they choose - sometimes eliminating whole districts over HERE and creating a new one over HERE, stretching and contracting them in whatever manner they opt to use...its not the privilege of just one party. Simple fact - if you can change something every 10 years, do you actually think that, in any way, provides *ANY* advantage for more than may be one election, given the way neighborhoods change drastically in just half that time? What was halfway to a slum can be "gentrified" in only a year or two and suddenly be a hot spot for idiot money, with people moving from the formerly grande area over THERE to the new hotspot, Between 10 and 20 percent of Americans move to another home in another place each year...given the population, that's somewhere between 30 and 60 million every year. After just 2 or 3 years, a district that was once a bastion for this party can become very partisan the other way. After 5 years, just halfway to the next census and next district drawing, the population can shift dramatically...and if the district includes apartment complexes, where people may be there and gone in only a year.

Thing is, if a district has, for round numbers, 20,000 people in it when its drawn up, five years later it might have 32,000 people and of those, only 5,000 were there five years ago. Any manipulation is outstripped by events so fast there's no point.

NASA agent faces heat for 'degrading' moon rock sting during which grandmother wet herself

Re: Not again...

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people (both in government service and not) do their jobs reasonably well and with a level of acceptable intelligence. But nobody writes about THAT....people doing things right? BORING!!!!

So we get these stories showing idiots on parade. But few if these stories have any followup, showing that (maybe) these two idiots got roasted by their bosses once their actions came to light. Or, alternately, were perhaps praised because their bosses are just as stupid as they are. Thing is, we don't know.

And somehow, I think the people tasked with trying to keep track of rocks are not the people who design rockets and space capsules. I envision a different educational criteria...Rocket scientist = math, science, physics...rock-finder=watching movies about bar-bouncers and sports-hooliganism.

Re: Why does the US care if people own bits of the Moon?

No one can claim the moon or any portion thereof as sovereign territory. So NASA decided to go and retrieve it piece by piece. Once they have enough, they'll assemble their own moon. Its a lot cheaper to send astronauts to the moon when you have your own version on the front lawn. Matter of fact, you could make it a punishment..."Five laps around the moon and back. That'll teach you to nap during training!"

Re: Why does the US care if people own bits of the Moon?

I think you just described the heads of half the people I work with....round and mildly reflective.

Were there any cops? I must've missed it...I just saw two NASA employees, neither of whom was legit law enforcement at all. NASA has repeatedly embarrassed itself by taping over the moon landing data (what little they didn't lose outright) and having a very significant amount of lunar rock missing. Two interns at Johnson Space Center stole a SIX HUNDRED POUND SAFE (for those of you on the other side of the Pond, that's the WEIGHT, not the cost, of the safe), which contained 101 grams of moon rock, which they tried to sell.

Let the idiots prove they can actually keep track of what they have before they spend tax money shaking down grandmothers. Right now, they look like a bunch of idiots trying to cover up their incompetence with belligerence.

Teen charged with 'cyberstalking' in bomb hoax case

Perhaps, to him, the investigators would disregard traffic from Israel - "Nobody from Israel would attack Jews...". Heck, maybe it actually worked - until they ran out of other suspects.

Hard-pressed Juicero boss defends $400 IoT juicer after squeezing $120m from investors

Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

Popped over to their website, actually - I was reading the articles, I promise. No, I failed to note that 250ml tidbit. Kind of expected single-serve, though. I would expect this is meant to attract itself to the crowd that's already replaced an actual breakfast with a smoothie, so their pricing reflects this as a meal replacement, not an accompaniment. Given the alternative many people might resort to is a fast-food McBreakfast with who-knows-what in it and coffee for five or six bucks...meh.

Maybe you could "cut" the result with commercial juices and get something more to sip on most of a morning.

Re: Easy juice? Sounds good to me.

The problem I see with this is the proprietary nature of it. You spend a considerable amount of money on this, but have to buy THEIR packaged produce...if they go belly up, or hike their prices, you have an expensive piece of counter-clutter. Plus, at $5-8 each, the packs aren't cheap, but, I'm compelled to admit, aren't as pricey as I thought they might be. I, too, have been conditioned by the printer & ink pricing model.

But the best-insulated box won't keep the stuff suitably chilled if its dropped in a sunny area on a hot summer day at 10 or 11 and not retrieved until you get home 6 or 7 hours later...you could have an entire shipment warmed up to unsafe levels.

If you could make your own packs, might be different. You can keep enjoying the thing even if the company rolls over, and you can create your own blends.

Then there's the IoT aspect, which has its own issues. I'd just as soon walk in, load the thing up, and poke the "go" button, then come back later to retrieve the glass of crushed organic matter.

Silicon Valley tech CEO admits beating software engineer wife, offered just 13 days in the clink

Re: Beating a woman is infamy

There was precedent...as I read it he was arrested previously, and charged with felony assault. She asked the charge be reduced in severity so he wouldn't be deported, so he ended up with a misdemeanor then. Maybe it was just for the kid's sake, but people in abusive relationships have a very tortured psyche. In many places around the US, the victim of domestic abuse does not press charges nor have any actual voice in the charges themselves - the police officer responding presses the charges. I expect its thought that, by giving the victim no choice, the abuser won't beat up the victim for sending him/her to jail, but I'm skeptical it works that way.

Re: @9Rune5

Back in the day, the bride came with a dowry - paid for by the father, intended to help with setting up house. Thus, in asking for the daughter's hand in marriage, one was also asking for her dowry. Since the goods or money that comprised the dowry belonged, rightly, to the parents, then marriage was a two-stage process. Getting her to day yes was only step 1, you didn't *just* ask the father. You got her agreement, then you dealt with her parents. Having the daughter an enthusiastic partner in getting this agreement would, doubtless, help considerably in ensuring success.

Asking the parents is probably only a formality now - legally if she's 18, they have no right to deny the match, but starting off with "We're getting married if you like it or not" is getting off on the wrong foot.

Re: @Symon

People who beat up those who are less capable of resisting (whether the beating by physical, emotional, or mental) are perhaps a half-rung above child molesters...both are indulgences of power over the weaker. Its reprehensible that the prosecution would have even floated this plea bargain. He probably will never even see the inside of an actual prison - where inmates who're already serving long sentences and have nothing to lose *might* beat him more senseless. He'll likely not even leave a processing facility - the equivalent of a city jail. Pathetic.

This guy should be paying with weekend, and evening, work for lots of years. Give him 4,000 hours of community service. Make him remember and regret his indulgence of strength while he's serving food to homeless people or cleaning parks...or whatever other tasks might be available. No....not jail..where the taxpayer provides his food and shelter - make him work for the community for a LONG time, for no recompense, after working at his company 8-5...6-10 and for 10 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday, he works for the community. 40 for him, for for everyone else. He'll be done in about 2 years, but he'll have spent those two years remembering...and the taxpayers don't have to keep the idiot fed and clothed, he still has to take of that for himself.

'We should have done better' – the feeble words of a CEO caught using real hospital IT in infosec product demos

Re: Why aren't they being prosecuted?

I expect the key phrase was "in this way". The hospital probably allows Tanium access to their networks for ongoing work. The problem arose when they disclosed the internal structure to third parties. If the tool is so great, though, why does Tanium not demonstrate it on THEIR OWN internal network, for potential customers? Why involve someone else?

Conviction by computer: Ministry of Justice wants defendants to plead guilty online

Re: Ive got a solution...

I once had a company that bought a round-trip ticket for me to fly to Dallas, Texas to interview. I got off the plane, met the two interviewers, conducted the interview, and went to my gate for my flight home, never stepped out of the airport.

Another paid for me to fly to Chicago (and back), paid for a rental car (even got a free upgrade), and a hotel for one night...I flew back the next morning...they even picked up food and parking expenses.

Back in the day when flying somewhere was only uncomfortable when you actually were ON the airplane. Now one stands in line to check in, another line for an ID check, another for putting everything on your person into a plastic bin to make shopping easier for the TSA agents, then another line to go through the cancer-causing device...one ends up feeling like a cross between a cow being herded and a criminal being led to the execution chamber. If you're lucky, you'll actually still be on the plane when it leaves, so you don't have to go through the TSA circus (as one of the performing animals) again just to get home.

Drunk user blow-dried laptop after dog lifted its leg over the keyboard

Not the pub, but...

Back some time ago, when keyboards were expensive, I worked for a reseller. One customer would literally hand out a beer to everyone in his building at 5 o'clock - whether they worked for him or not. There was a bit of a press among the techs to be delivering things to him at that magic hour, I never went myself, as I figured, he's not giving away the good stuff. From time to time, we would receive a box of keyboard from the customer that needed cleaning. They kept a shelf full of spares and would just unplug one and slap in another one until they'd accumulated a box-full.

The department smelled like a fraternity house the morning after a major keg-party for hours....stale beer is quite distinctive, and some of the keyboards must have gotten a considerable soaking. Careful disassembly and cleaning of the boards would usually resurrect 90% of them, but there were always a few that died of alcohol poisoning.

The boss at that time was one of those frantic sorts...he'd lambast any tech who was in-house for more than a few hours...until shown the ticket queue that showed only one active ticket, which was awaiting a parts shipment. Then he'd wander off like a puppy whose favorite chew toy was taken away, only to return a few hours later to berate people again. Finally, one tech said "Go yell at the salespeople, we can't install anything if they don't sell anything!" That didn't turn out well, but he was right. Unfortunately, he was disagreeing with the the PHB,

Nuh-uh, Google, you WILL hand over emails stored on foreign servers, says US judge

Terrorists - using old tech? Not likely

I haven't followed this case - but presumably, it has to with terrorism. Do the dingbats in law enforcement think terrorists who've made their attacks, and presumably are now deceased, are going to email their friends and leave a trail to the rest of the cell? These are the same people who think the terrorists are going to have their real cell phones on their persons during an attack, probably.

Terrorists are sitting around laughing at this. A: If they're going to email each other, it will be to email addresses in some email system well outside the reach of the nation they're targeting...if they're attacking the US, somewhere in Eastern Europe...there're lots of free-mail providers. It won't be to GMail. They might USE one, but not to communicate with other killers-in-waiting, it'd be for registering at the local pizza joint and other routine use. People aren't restricted to just having ONE phone or ONE email. While they're spending time on this, the real evidence trail is getting colder and colder.

BOFH: The Boss, the floppy and the work 'experience'

Re: Being on a placement myself...

Bit of "extra seasoning" in the tea and the temp might just create a job opening for himself/herself ready to walk right into....

Burger King's 'OK Google' sad ad saga somehow gets worse

Re: Please Sir?

I suspect the fighting chance you refer is why blackjack tables (like poker) is heavily patrolled by waitresses with alcoholic beverages, to dull the players' faculties as quickly as possible. Note the relative scarcity of such services in the roulette and dice game areas, and near absence around the slot machines - where there's little to no action the player can take to improve his or her chances of a win, therefore there's less benefit to getting them buzzed.

Re: Please Sir?

You make one bad decision, so you make a second one that's also bad, hoping they'll either cancel each other out or that two wrongs will make a right.

As someone else said, it originates from gambling. You lose $1 on a bet, you make a $2 bet next time on the theory that when you win, you get your original loss back. Its a nice theory, but rarely works.

However, the game of Blackjack (AKA 21) has a gameplay option actually called "double down" (often just "double") that's quite different, as you're doubling your wager within a single round of game play, instead of on successive rounds of play.

Yee-hacked! Fired Texan sysadmin goes rogue, trashes boot business

Re: Hmm...

A system manager/system admin should always be paranoid. I was laid off once and left to pack and leave by myself (they did have the other, surviving network admin disable my logins while I was meeting with the CIO, the first, last, and only time he ever spoke to me). I had to go by five managerial offices to even find someone at a management level to turn my keys over to, everyone else was either absent or behind closed doors. At another job, where I was also laid off, I had the full "Manager will escort you to your desk to get your things, and then out the door" treatment, *and* once as a contractor I wasn't even allowed to go to my desk after being told I was being let go - the contract recruiter went to get my things - I got most of them...just lost my cable-testing kit, which the recruiter said he "couldn't find". So, I've pretty much experienced the gamut. I'd never retaliate - beyond making rude hand gestures every time I drive past the building the company is in. Revenge might cause some stress for the few people involved in the decision to release me, but *everyone* employed there is impacted, including those I would count as work-friends.

Re: perhaps he just turned it back on?

Article says some files were removed to prevent the server from coming back online. Apparently did that with several. Be rather pointless to simply turn the thing off, after all...though with Exchange, there *is* a good chance you'd foul up the datastore(s) with a dirty shutdown.

Without a server connection, so long as one DC was up, change the password for the guy's account log into his computer, open Outlook. I'll fail to connect to the server, but if running in cached mode (the default) the OST stored locally will still have all the emails.

Points for IT Director knowing what a password is, though.

Re: Bah!

Ultimate blame for this idiot's actions belong with the idiot. No doubt about that. Still, the article says it took a considerable time to physically remove the guy from the premises, and there was time spent for the idiot to get home. The manager knew HOW to change system passwords. Obviously the guy was not happy about the change in employment status, and the IT manager should have gone right to his desk and started changing passwords to every system as fast as he could do it, instead of trying to help get the guy outside. Its Texas, I'm sure they had some good-ole-boys in the manufacturing plant that power-lift pickup trucks for a hobby; they could have called upon for help.

The manager failed to close and lock the proverbial door. Doesn't make the SA in the right because he used it, and who knows - maybe the SA had backdoor accounts to use if the normal ones were changed. Still, the manager didn't implement what should be standard process - whenever anyone at a senior IT level leaves, regardless of circumstances, you change *all* the passwords immediately. Even if the guy left because he was "of a certain age" and leaving only because of mandatory retirement guidelines, he shouldn't be out the door before someone was busy changing passwords.

I should think there were plenty of felonies here to get things ramped up high enough he would be looking at plenty of jailtime - especially if a prosecutor pushes for time to be served consectively, instead of concurrently, on at least some of the charges. Besides...the prosecutor would want as MANY counts of as MANY charges as possible, not just a few big ones. Then the defense attorney can't find a loophole that negates the ONE big charge and get his client off with only a few months on a handful of misdemeanors. Get him 7 or 8 charges that each carry 4 or 5 years, and push for consecutive sentencing, and you'll get the jailtime even if the defense gets some of the charges dismissed. And, were I a judge (luckily for criminals, I'm not) I'd see each server knockdown as a separate crime, and endorse consecutive sentencing - he had a chance to stop himself after screwing up each server, but he continued. So, he should also CONTINUE to serve time in jail after completing his time for each server. The actual judge probably will be much more forgiving...he might be sentenced to 10 years, but the judge will probably suspend 8 of them and let him get out "on good behavior" after just a few months. Then again, its Texas - he might get the firing squad.

Boss swore by 'For Dummies' book about an OS his org didn't run

Re: But the real issue is

I've been fortunate to not incur the attention of JW's thus far. In fact, I might not recognize one if I ran over him with my car.

I've generally had good bosses (yes, the exist). I wasn't much older than our young hero here when I first switched to network admin work after a few years in implementation-only VAR work. I interviewed for the job of a junior network admin, figuring I'd get some experience and still have someone to defer to. Novell Netware environment, with AS/400. I knew nothing about the AS/400. So, I get the job offer, accept, and two weeks later, show up for my first day.

Find out, the boss I interviewed with had resigned during that two week period, and his managerial duties had been transferred to the company VP, who also was the IT top boss, and, with the help of three operators, ran the AS/400 side.

The very first thing my new, new boss said was "I know the AS/400. I don't know anything about your side is the house, so you run things and if you need anything, come talk to me." And she lived up to that. As long as things worked, I was left mostly alone. Then, as all good things do, it came to an end when I was switched to report directly to the corporate overlords. They largely left me alone too, actually, since none of them had any clue about Netware. My boss's boss quit, and my boss got fired, and I spent the next six or seven months not knowing who my boss even was. I kept things running, I got paid, who needs a boss?

Sysadmin 'trashed old bosses' Oracle database with ticking logic bomb'

Re: Lots of revenge hacks recently...

Perhaps...but this was a tech firm - they should have been hyper-vigilant about password security, and been auditing any change or use of any account with enhanced privileges - they incurred much of the damage because they were clearly sloppy and failed to catch the first guy's credentials had been re-enabled (the way I read the article, Patel was the second to leave, with his subordinate having gone first, and he used the other person's credentials to log in, so he must've re-enabled them just for the purpose, and it wasnt' caught)

Re: Conversion?

I think many shops would take a dim view of someone pocketing goods for any reason, even if its legal to (temporarily) do so. Could it be called "attempted theft"? Depends on the actual ordinance or statute being applied. At the least, I would expect that someone doing so might find store management/security would be a bit...curious about that behavior.

Re: Lots of revenge hacks recently...

Nothing any employer did to me would be worth destroying my career over it, I would be harmed way more than the ex-employer. If they're outside the law, you can sue them and try to "get even" that way, through the courts. If they're just a badly-run company or something, just quit - there're other jobs. If you want to be emphatic, quit without notice...just cover yourself by creating a file with all the passwords and leave a printout somewhere visible - don't give them a chance to claim you stole the passwords. Don't be petty and make them ask, either. You want to be able to show future employers you were professional, but just got pushed to the point you couldn't stand another day, let alone two weeks...if you play childish games, you only hurt yourself.

Back to the story...the logic bomb went off, blew away some bits...but are there no backups of the data? Seems weird they'd have such a big loss unless they're extremely sloppy - or are just trying to put the screws to the guy while they have the chance.

Re: Conversion?

It seems to fit the definition, but law enforcement seems to apply "conversion" almost exclusively within the realm of "white collar" crimes, like wire fraud, and cybercrimes of various stripes. Perhaps they would be content with just trespassing, vandalism, forcible entry and attempted theft - provided you didn't actually *go into* the house through the window, but just broke it. Even if you put the hammer back where you found it, police would still try to pin attempted theft on to maybe get a felony into the mix.

Verizon's bogus bills tanked my credit score, claims sueball slinger

Mine dropped fifty points when I got a mortgage. Of course, now that I have that to be paying on, I really don't want any other forms of credit...have a couple of typical cards, cycle a hundred bucks or so through each one to keep it active...I'll get those points back, probably about the same time I pay off the mortgage.

The most broken thing about it, in my opinion, is that the very act of someone looking at your score/history to determine if you qualify for a loan *reduces* your score. I've never seen a good explanation of why, either. If you incur an actual debt, that counts against it, but if you get poor terms offered and opt to refuse the loan...you still get a down-mark on your credit score even though you're in the *exact same position* financially you were the day before. Until fairly recently, you couldn't even look at it YOURSELF more than once a year without harming it; just monitoring the score only gives you part of the story, but its better than nothing.

Re: Wow, deja vu

The collections agencies typically buy the rights to the debt from the company its actually owed to. Verizon claims a person owes $700...Acme Idiots, Inc offers to purchase the $700 debt for $300. Verizon agrees, writes off the $400 as a business loss, and they're out of it. Acme Idiots, Inc now owns that debt, and aside from saying, as part of their collections, that it was a debt owed to Verizon, its strictly business between the one who (allegedly) owes the debt and Acme...Verizon *could* repurchase the debt, but they have no reason to actually do so...its off their books and so far as they are concerned it doesn't exist anymore.

This is poor service by Verizon as now you lose the chance to continue to dispute the debt, as Acme will (rightly) claim they cannot confirm the equipment status, only the debt.

Which actually means - its a mistake to deal with these companies in good faith, because they do not return the courtesy. If you don't get a written agreement that the debt was incorrect within the first week, lawyer up immediately, the clock is ticking before they sell the debt and you lose your chance to fight it.

Startup remotely 'bricks' grumpy bloke's IoT car garage door – then hits reverse gear

Re: There's a reason some of us call this stuff IoS.

I used to...for that brief time period between buying the house and actually moving in.

I think my refrigerator might have something valuable to contribute to the discussion, but it just sits there, acting cool.

Bad PR move?

The guy certainly had a poor way of expressing his dissatisfaction - still, very unprofessional reaction by the company rep...just because you're a startup doesn't mean you can be a jerk. This is why many companies have a standard template. "Please keep in mind the terms and conditions of our forum, which exist for the comfort of all those who use this service. We're sorry you're having difficulty with < product x>, but due to the violation of our Terms of Service, we cannot provide support. Please return the product to the place of purchase for a refund." Really, how hard is that?

Re: re Why do you need the intermediate server, which is just another thing to go wrong?

On the other side of it...if one can't be bothered to get up and walk to the thermostat to change it digitally (ie, with your digits, your *fingers*) then its not a comfort thing as much as one simply wanting something to fidget with.

US border cops must get warrants to search citizens' gadgets – draft bipartisan law emerges

Re: non-citizens have an easy fix

Yep..they actually do so frequently. "Fact Finding Missions". Junkets. Most are paid for with tax dollars, to such international hot spots as the Bahamas...but never anywhere where there is actual, you know, tension or conflict going on. Southern France, maybe various locations in the Alps...On very rare occasions, a whole herd of them will run off to show the flag in some nation that one of them decided we just don't know very much about. Rather than just call the other nation's Tourism Bureau, 11 Congressmen, with spouses or equivalents, will travel there, along with 67 Aides of various sorts and 14 cultural experts. And spend a week finding...facts. And come back with a 1 page report that's plagiarized from the other nation's Tourist Bureau's website. But, while the middle-sized herd of Aides and Experts has to go through Customs like everyone else, members of Congress are just swept right through as fast as their overloaded little feet can carry them.

We need term limits on Congress. And they have to ask permission from those they represent to make these trips, and submit a public expense report for us all to see outlining what they did, saw, and spent while there....and justify every person they took on the trip, too.

Oh...and they fly commercial....Business Class at best *and* go through Customs like other citizens. NO use of military aircraft and airfields to end-run Customs.

Re: The devil always is in the implementation...

You're being much too complicated about it, you know. At 3 hours and 45 minutes, you release the person, but have them arrested by the local county sheriff before they take a step, for...I don't know...disorderly conduct or trespassing. No four hour limit applied to the Sheriff, only the ICE people. And, if you need to root around in their device...claim it was "misplaced"...and then send them a similar-looking device after ripping out one of the battery contacts (accidentally)so it can't be powered on - most people wouldn't know the serial number of their phone/tablet to figure out it isn't theirs, and having someone solder on a new battery contact would cost more than a new phone. Law enforcement is not, by the way, obligated in any realistic way to safeguard any seized belongings (even ones "temporarily" taken) in any way, they can mail you a box of random parts and you have zero recourse. You could TRY to sue, but intead of a border guard agent, you'll be facing a Justice Department lawyer, who will delay your case repeatedly with "I was not provided that information" until you go broke paying your attorney to just show up in court so the judge can grant still-another continuance to the opposition.

Re: Things will have to change a lot ...

Actually, I rather thing the FAA, TSA, FBI, and the rest of the alphabet soup pretty much make all these policies for themselves under the assumption nobody will challenge anything they decree to be "policy" for fear of being arrested as a "disruptive element".

You don't actually think ONE person has the time to read all the rule changes for hundreds of agencies, let alone approve them one by one, do you? 98% of it never even gets to the White House to be approved or disapproved - and less than 25% of what actually goes to the White House is actually ever seen by the President, and most of that is the highly-touted stuff they *want* everyone to see being signed...like a proclamation of "Be Nice to Puppies" day or something.

Next up...all persons waiting in line for Customs must hop on their left leg only for 90 seconds, then on their right leg only for another 90 seconds, and must run 5 laps around a 3 meter circle, and then do the "Hokey Pokey". Why? Um...policy. Terrorists and stuff.

The President, regardless of which President, probably finds out about most of this crap the same way the rest of us do...TV news. "Oh, so that's what they're doing now. Chief of Staff, call the ICE people in the morning and find out how they handle people who cannot stand or who have just one leg, we must not discriminate."

Prisoners built two PCs from parts, hid them in ceiling, connected to the state's network and did cybershenanigans

Re: 2 PC's what?

Lovely...here in the states, a "Billion" is actually 1,000 million...or 1 to the 9th. On the other side of El Pondo, its 1 to the 12th, which to Americans, is a trillion...but, a trillion in the UK is..1 to the 18th, putting us further out of sync. As if we don't already argue over "color" versus "colour"?

Re: Odd that there were network ports available inside the secure area

The closet was in a training room - perhaps the training used isolated computers? Convince someone the monitor was "bad", get a replacement from the recycling place, and quietly shift the "bad" monitor up into the hidden site, and convince the guards that it'd been removed already. Guards would see one working monitor per computer, no extra gear laying around, and conclude that the information was valid. Schedule it for a shift change and the guard near end of shift would see the monitor come in, but, hey, its almost time to go home, he wouldn't follow the prisoner to ensure the bad one was swapped out properly..he'd tell his replacement. Replacement comes on duty, and he's told "we took the bad one out already, you must've still been at your shift briefing", with some forged documents...they know the guard isn't going to follow up - what use would a monitor be without a computer, after all?

Re: The Shawshank Connection

Hogan's Hackerz

BOFH: Defenestration, a solution to Solutions To Problems We Don't Have

Re: James

Recall that the PFY himself started as "Green and Keen" lo, so many years ago, even answering the phone when users called...and taking down messages.

Batman's first Robin eventually went off on his own as Nightwing, and Batman got a new Robin - this happened several times.

Just perhaps, the PFY is ready to graduate to BOFH-dom of his own, and depart the crucible, making way for PFY, Junior.

It's 30 years ago: IBM's final battle with reality

I remember - and people were perpetually misplacing the key to their padlocks. The round keylocks require a lot of expertise to crack open, but the padlocks...well...they were nearly always bought cheap. Basic (legal) hand tools could pop them open in seconds, without any damage to the case and, at most, a scratch or two on the padlock. Some people who were kinda serious had monitor stands that had a built-in, locking keyboard drawer. But those were usually employed by people who had a "favorite" keyboard they were afraid would get stolen by a jealous co-worker rather than because of any actual security concerns.

Everything's fine, says Cylance, as workers given the boot

Some swear by it...

some swear AT it.

As bad as false positives are, false negatives would be worse. Any form of Anti-whatever (virus, malware, phish...) is a matter of trust. While one can introduce harmless but absolutely dodgy files just to test, when it comes down to it the only evidence we can usually point to that the anti-virus is doing anything at all is the absence of any activity - which when you think about it, is a bit oxymoronic. "Its working because its not doing anything". And you can insert your favorite joke about that describing most government employees <here>.