Posts by Jamie Kitson

By emptying offices, coronavirus has hastened the paperless office

erm, homeschooling

I hate to break it to everyone, but homeschooling is using up at least that much again. In just our household.

My MacBook Woe: I got up close and personal with city's snatch'n'dash crooks (aka some bastard stole my laptop)

Re: Indeed

I was once sitting outside a cafe with two friends. Someone jumped out of a car, grabbed their bags which were on the floor at their feet and ran back to the waiting car. Before I had thought about it I jumped up and ran after him, he got in the car and closed the door. Just as I reached for the door handle my thoughts caught up with my actions and I wondered what the hell I thought I was going to do and didn't reach for the door handle as the car drove away.

We've, um, changed our password policy, says CafePress amid reports of 23m pwned accounts

Unique Usernames

It's pretty easy for most of us to use unique usernames already, many email providers will accept plus addresses or similar and those of us with whole domains can use any local part / subdomain we like.

Remember that crypto-exchange boss who mysteriously died after his customers' coins disappeared? Of course he totally stole them

Re: Cherchez la femme?

Is there a joke/Star Wars reference to _Chris Markay_?

Out-of-office email ping-pong fills server after server over festive break

Re: I'll stop lying on my CV...

Before you're hired:

1. A binary tree?

2. Currying?

3. Higher-order function?

4. How does event loop work?

5. What is prototype?

6. What is encapsulation?

7. Can you draw an algorithm?

After you're hired:

1. Hey, can you add login.

https://twitter.com/js_tut/status/1117090012930162689

Dozens of .gov HTTPS certs expire, webpages offline, FBI on ice, IT security slows... Yup, it's day 20 of Trump's govt shutdown

Re: Operational Incompetence

JOKE

YOUR HEAD

Solid state of fear: Euro boffins bust open SSD, Bitlocker encryption (it's really, really dumb)

Not New?

It looks like this isn't a new concern:

https://vxlabs.com/2012/12/22/ssds-with-usable-built-in-hardware-based-full-disk-encryption/

People outperform computer programs for 'compressing' pix

Re: I do not understand this article.

Ah, this sentence from the summary on their website is helpful:

> In this work, we perform compression experiments in which one human describes images to another, using publicly available images and text instructions.

'The capacitors exploded, showering the lab in flaming confetti'

> Sorry Mr. Leggett...

Surely it was you that was leggingett.

Now that's sticker shock: Sticky labels make image-recog AI go bananas for toasters

To be fair...

that "psychedelic graphic" does look like a toaster to me, so is it really so shocking that an AI thinks so too? If anything it's showing its human like thinking.

Someone told Google to nuke links to mean reviews of disgraced telco True Telecom

It doesn't seem to have worked very well:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?sclient=psy-ab&safe=off&site=&source=hp&q=True%20Telecom&=&=&oq=&gs_l=&pbx=1

User asked help desk to debug a Post-it Note that survived a reboot

Spoiler in Heading :(

You completely ruined that story by putting the punchline in the header :(

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

Rehabilitation?

> a programme that enslaved prisoners by getting them to break down old PCs into component parts for recycling.

There, fixed that for you.

Fancy that – the sharing economy lobby doesn't speak for the sharers

> Few people object to a private individual renting a lawnmower or a room.

Lawnmowers aren't a basic essential and aren't in limited supply, but AirBnB surely isn't helping the housing crisis.

Security! experts! slam! Yahoo! management! for! using! old! crypto!

Upgrade Process

Couldn't they have bcrypted the MD5 until the user next logged in?

(Obviously before they were hacked and all passwords were leaked.)

Who killed Pebble? Easy: The vulture capitalists

Money

In another article I read that Citizen offered (from memory) $175M, why didn't they take that if it was all about money?

Prime Minister May hints at shaking up Blighty's 'dysfunctional' rural broadband

Let me be very clear about this...

Intervention means intervention.

You Leica? P9 certainly is a Great Leap Forward in imaging... for Huawei

Swype Key

> but does Swype need its own permanent key

It's actually quite useful, it allows you to do gestures for things like ctrl+c and ctrl+v.

Changing the Launcher

You can change the launcher, but you can't do it in your chosen launcher's settings. Settings -> Apps -> Advanced -> Default App Settings -> Launcher -> tap "change" to the crazy warning.

Politician claims porn tabs a malware experiment, then finds God

A Psalmist Indeed!

The psalm and its five disciples.

I am Craig Wright, inventor of Craig Wright

Jesus

I liked the article and got the jokes!

e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855

lol! You really had me there!

Research: By 2017, a third of home Wi-Fi routers will power passers-by

"while someone else profits from it"

Surely in a competitive marketplace any profit from the sale of wifi access will be offset against the cost of the internet to the consumer. Presumably if it becomes an issue ISPs will start saying you can pay more and not share or pay less and share, and presumably in our modern society's race to the bottom and preference of cheapness and convenience over anything else, most people will choose to the pay less and share option.

Facebook conjures up a trap for the unwary: scanning your camera for your friends

Re: As if Facebook don't have enough problems with the EU data protection authorities

Seems extremely unlikely that this feature will ever come to Europe since they (and Google) already don't do facial recognition in Europe.

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/09/23/under-pressure-facebook-disables-facial-recognition-in-europe/

BlackBerry Priv: Enterprise Android in a snazzy but functional package

Reviews

Funny how two reviewers can come to such different conclusions:

http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2015/11/two-days-with-the-blackberry-priv-it-needs-to-be-better/

Are we looking at the first domain name meme? Neigh

Surely...

Unicorn Dispute Resolution Process

Yahoo! wheels! out! password! on-demand! service! for! simpletons!

Re: Doesn't actually reduce security

Not quite. Some phones don't need to be unlocked to be able to read the code. My Windows Phone shows me enough of the text message in the toast notification to read the code in some two step authentication text messages without unlocking it.

And if your phone breaks that doesn't mean you'd get a new number.

Bad movie: Hackers can raid networks with burnt Blu-Rays

Part of HP Bloatware

I removed PowerDVD from my wife's HP laptop the other day. We only realised it was installed when it started nagging her every time she turned the thing on.

Gemalto: NSA, GCHQ hacked us – but didn't snatch crucial SIM keys

> > Snowden has a reputation to defend?

> I think he has a tremendous reputation. He should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

You mean the one won by Henry Kissinger and Barak Obama?

Windows 10, day ZERO ... Will Nadella be the HERO?

Re: Apps aren't the problem? Rubbish!

Exactly. It's silly to measure apps in absolute numbers. The Instagram app *exists* on Windows Phone, but it hasn't had an update since it was released. Compare it to the iPhone app, the iPhone app is streets ahead in terms of functionality.

GOTCHA: Google caught STRIPPING SSL from BT Wi-Fi users' searches

> the only way to force safesearch to always be active at the moment is to force DNS for the Google domain to point to the nossl address.

Not according to option 3 here: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/186669

Don't bother telling people if you lose their data, say Euro bods

> My data is mine. If a government wants it, it can ask ME for it.

There, fixed that for you.

Nokia Lumia 735: Ignore the selfie hype, it's a grown-up phone

BitSync FTW

BitSync is an amazing bit of software, especially when photos are spread over random folders, ahem, iOS, ahem.

Virgin Media blocks 'wankers' from permissible passwords

Updated, but

They've updated the original to remove most of the words, but the archive.org still has the original:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140812173352/https://my.virginmedia.com/assets/legacy/js/password_strength_plugin.min.js

btw I think the author is wrong in saying that passwords containing bollocks will be disallowed, he's looking at the line above, the line below says "pwd.match(re)".

HGST's tiny whopper: Just 2.5 inches, but we've packed in 1.8TB

Re: Toshiba MQ01ABB200: 2TB 2.5"

Ditto Western Digital's WD20NPVX.

Motorola Moto E: Brill budget blower with one bothersome blunder

Buzzfeed Subheading

What's with the Buzzfeed Subheading?

> Cheap'n'cheerful Android phone – but which one thing drove Reg man mad

You won't BELIEVE what happened next.

NSFW spotlight images

Re: Borne in mind, but ...

> But, Jamie - I thought you weren't going to read us any more!

I'm allowing myself access to the forums :)

> However the stats and analysis... there are an awful lot of readers who like such stuff.

Sure, but that doesn't make it ok, The Daily Mail is the most popular/successful news website, is that what you want to become? Can't we strive for something more than that? You are in a position of power here and currently you are reinforcing nasty stereotypes about both men and women.

So I'm not the only one. I compiled a short list here:

http://blog.jamiek.it/2013/10/sexism-at-theregistercouk.html

Although my last post pointing this out wasn't published...

Vote NOW to name LOHAN doomsday box

Tit Jokes

No, please no.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/09/titstare-app-women-tech-sexism

Does the RSPCA have your gun licence or car registration? NOBODY knows

ACPO

> No other private organisation enjoys similar privileges of being able to request access to the Police National Computer (PNC).

Isn't ACPO itself a private organisation which sidesteps FOI requests?

Chrome, Firefox blab your passwords in a just few clicks: Shrug, wary or kill?

Missed Option

There is another option: don't show the passwords at all, ever. Why do you need to view a password? If you don't know it, then reset it.

They don't recognise us as HUMAN: Disability groups want CAPTCHAs killed

My Campaign

Ever since I realised that people were using CAPTCHAs to digitise books I have been adding swear words instead of the word from the book. It's quite easy to tell, one word will be a real English word, unscrambled, that word you can substitute for some witty replacement, the other word, usually a random series of letters/numbers scrambled, you have to enter properly.

Re: From the Department of The Bleedin Fekkin Obvious Department...

> sending thousands of non-wanted "confirmation" emails from your domain...

So don't send thousands, it should be quite easy to detect when the system is being abused, just restrict the confirmation emails to one a minute.

> How about where you're just sending a message or reply on a website?

Why should you have to enter a CAPTCHA once you're registered and logged in?

Tor fingers Firefox flaw for FAIL but FBI's also in the frame

I thought the same, but maybe the Extended Support Release version was useful to them in some way.

Re: Ha ha ha ....

> No OS is secure, they all have users.

There, fixed that for you.

Criminal Activity

Hasn't the FBI just committed a crime?

No more top three comments below story? :(

I seem to have lost my bronze badge too :((

No more top three comments below story? :(

Are the top three scored comments gone from the bottom of stories forever? I quite liked that feature.

Google SELLS OUT the INTERNET HIPPIES! AGAIN!

Not a big deal probably

I'm not a fan of Google, but giving them the benefit of the doubt it seems likely that they need this clause to stop people seriously taking the piss, and will let the little people get on with running their homepage and smtp servers from home. As the guy says, I'm sure most other ISPs have the same clauses, but just only enforce them when seriously pushed to do so.

Chubby-chasing sex trolls ran me offline, says fashion blogger

Tautology

> The blogger was not happy with this unwanted attention.

Not happy with unwanted attention? Well just fancy that!

Police probe IDIOTIC Twitter bomb threats slung at journalists

Ambiguity

I suppose we have to assume that they are using a 24 hour clock and that they meant 10:47 this morning.