Posts by greenwood-IT

Baroness Dido Harding lifts the lid on the NHS's manual contact tracing performance: 'We contact them up to 10 times over a 36-hour period'

Damn numbers and facts.

Don't get me started on "r" numbers (I believe r is a short for RAND() as it's somewhere between 0 and 1)

Knowing that one person has reported positive, then surely knowing how many contacts they have had and how many of those became infected, would be a very accurate way of calculating a more accurate r value? It seems so bloody obvious compared with the current dozen committees who vote on a random number that they then seem to average before saying it's somewhere between 0.5 and 0.999 but less than 1.

Barclays Bank appeared to be using the Wayback Machine as a 'CDN' for some Javascript

Re: I'm smarter...

Erm,

Years ago (before ZIP, ARJ and LZW), I wrote a compression utility that would compress any data down to a single byte. Unfortunately I never managed to complete a working decompression method though. Maybe I should resurrect that code now - anyone got a working Vic-20 I can borrow?

WTF is Boeing on? Not just customer databases lying around on the web. 787 jetliner code, too, security bugs and all

Re: One Network to Rule Them All

So just having one maintenance system to monitor & manage all 3 networks? That there is exactly the problem, one system plugged into everything - that would be the target. Would it be so expensive and inconvenient to have a separate maintenance system for the public network?

More nodding dogs green-light terrible UK.gov pr0n age verification plans

Who you gonna trust

So the porn sites will now have to "subscribe" or "register" with a central body to verify visitor ages. The porn sites will also presumably have to invest in securing their site to handle this personal data, as well as comply with GDPR (will they have to keep a copy of the personal details?). I'm guessing this will just push the porn sites off of UK soil and beyond UK Government control.

"Free Porn" - site verified dirty by UK Government and clean by McAfee

I wonder if there will be a page on gov.uk with links to approved porn sites? That would seriously help with SEO :-)

London Gatwick Airport reopens but drone chaos perps still not found

Spare Drone Dome?

I do hope that that Drone Dome is a spare and hasn't been removed from it's job of protecting our military. I'd hate to think we are putting our servicemen and women at risk just so kids and see Santa in Lapland this Christmas.

A few reasons why cops haven't immediately shot down London Gatwick airport drone menace

Tracking?

I seem to remember something about Nimrods tracking cars from dozens of miles away. Surely 30 years on a simple helicopter up high can track the drone to it's landing site? How about thermal imaging looking upwards? These things use a lot of power and need to be recharged regularly... by returning to the owner. The drone may well be streaming live video back to the pilot, listening in to that broadcast may give you clues as to where it's coming and going from. There seems to be a total lack of facts, photos and information on this. The police saying "we're confident we have it under control" when they seem to have done nothing doesn't boost confidence.

Suunto settles scary scuba screwup for $50m: 'Faulty' dive computer hardware and software put explorers in peril

Why run out of air?

Why would someone run out of air? Surely as part of your dive plan, you will have considered how much air you need, and arranged to take enough?

If I was planning a no-stop 30m dive, say 18mins, I know a 12l cylinder will be enough - if I'm 18mins into that dive and my gauge still shows a full cylinder, I wouldn't just stay there for another 18mins!!!! This person died due to blindly trusting the artificial brain rather that their own. What happened to the buddy in this situation? If this person ran out of air much quicker than the buddy, then perhaps they should not have been diving to 30m or have had a larger cylinder.

Anyway, seeing as they sell the same models globally, what are Suunto doing for the UK divers?

Marriott's Starwood hotels mega-hack: Half a BILLION guests' deets exposed over 4 years

It's ok...

It's ok, the hackers got the "communication preferences" data - I selected the "no email" option.

World's oldest URL – fragments 73,000 years old – discovered in cave

Who did that?

Interesting,

If they ever find out who did that "art", please let me know. Some toss pot did the same pattern on my car door last month and it can't be a coincidence :-( I'm in Hampshire.

Top Euro court: No, you can't steal images from other websites (too bad a school had to be sued to confirm this little fact)

Actually I've got almost exactly the same photo taken years ago, does that mean this photographer is "passing off" by copying my creative works? Total nightmare for "generic" images like this :-(

You know that silly fear about Alexa recording everything and leaking it online? It just happened

Registered Business Address is now private?

Haha,

Love it, you have to turn on "Parental Control" to get privacy! How the world changes, I used to lie about being over 18 to see nude pictures, now I have to lie about being under 13 to get some privacy! :-)

Consent, datasets and avoiding a visit from the information commissioner

Records for removal requests

Seeing as one of the rules relates to data loss, what's the position in verifying and retaining records of removal requests?

If I have someones email address on a mailing list and they phone up and ask to be removed, do I need to request a written requests and a copy of their ID to verify this is in fact the correct person making the request? How long do I need to retain a copy of their driving license? What if they then request removal of the removal request????

Oh joy!

IBM bans all removable storage, for all staff, everywhere

Easy options

You're missing the easy answers;

1) If IBM engineers aren't allowed to use USB sticks, then they can just outsource the maintenance to a 3rd party who do use USB sticks - ie, me! :-)

2) They can always revert to CD's for installations and upgrades, most servers do still have CD drives.

3) They are going to ban laptops, cameras, wifi, email and internet access next, that will really help improve security :-)

Chat soon.

TSB's middleware nightmare: Execs grilled on Total Sh*tshow at Bank

Customers at fault?

Yep, ALL of my projects work perfectly and as intended... if you remove the middleware and stop those damn pesky customers from accessing it :-o

Nominet drains mug of tea, leans back, calmly explains how to make Whois GDPR-compliant

Registered Business Address is now private?

Physical shops and businesses legally have to provide a "registered address" on their websites and paperwork, so what;s the problem with having a registered address on a business domain registration - and making that publicly visible too?

If the registration is non-business, then keep the personal details secure - if it's a business, then make the information available to all for free.

As an IT businesses I regularly have to use WhoIS to try and locate who is controlling a domain name registered years beforehand. Last month I had to track down a guy who'd sold his business, which had then changed hands again, but he had forgotten to transfer the domain - this only came to light a week before renewal. Without access to the WhoIS information in this case, the businesses could have lost the domain name and had to re-brand.

Eight months after Equifax megahack, some Brits are only just being notified

GDPR Deadline...

Equifax better get a move on - if my notification of the hack arrives after May 25th I'll be up for 2% of their global revenue won't I? :-)

Black Horse Down: Lloyds Banking Group goes TITSUP*

Logically I'm more interested in the common link between these banks - they all have outages at the same time???

Are they all outsorced to the same partner, are they all in the same data centre, do they all run the same codebase? Perhaps even someone has attached the UK banking industry?

As many say, we will never get to hear the truth - it would make someone high up look bad and ruin their future earning potential (in an ideal/dream world).

In the 80s when I asked why senior managers had IBM PCs and lower grades had Zenith I was told "nobody ever got sacked for buying an IBM" - I'm guessing this rule still applies for cloud based services.

Hate Windows 10? Microsoft's given you 'Insider' powers anyway

Still biased...

It seems the Feedback App only works on Windows 10 - so anyone who's had a failed upgrade or has had to revert will be denied the ability to offer constructive criticism! :-)