Posts by steviebuk

No, GitHub's source code wasn't hacked and posted on GitHub, says GitHub CEO

Sorry to ask

Couldn't ask on Reddit as "You're too new so can't post".

Looking at The Guardian website for the American Election and have become fascinated by the interactive American map. Click on a state and you can see all the counties. I noted the Metro appears to using it, but on a crappy scale so it doesn't work well on their site.

Question is. Is this something The Guardian bods created or is this from somewhere open source?

Not promoting the paper at all, and we can all ignore the politics, I just really like the map

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/nov/05/us-election-2020-live-results-donald-trump-joe-biden-presidential-votes-arizona-nevada-pennsylvania-georgia

Tech support scammer dialed random number and Australian Police’s cybercrime squad answered

Really?

"Details of FCIB’s secure environment were not disclosed"

You just got them to connect to a isolated virtual machine. It's not fucking rocket science. People have been doing this on YouTube for years. With one tracking and tracing back to the actual call centre where the guy was calling from while on the call :)

You can't spell 'electronics' without 'elect': The time for online democracy has come

Re: You. Are. An. Idiot.

The boxes are sealed. You'd need to know the correct matching seals they used. You'd need to match the security number on each ballot that is in the box with the other ballot half. And you'd have to bribe all the counters at the other end to not spot this. And you'd need to bribe the election team to find out which team will be counting your fake box so you can plant a fake counter. But you'd need the whole counting team for that section to get round it.

A councillor has tried this before somewhere in the UK, look it up, they were caught and jailed.

People really should volunteer (you get paid) for count day and you'd realise how secure it all actually is.

No no no no no

As someone who has worked several times on election day not only supporting the IT but also seeing how all of it works back stage an electronic system is a very bad idea.

"Take a pen as the election department can rub the pencil out".

1. Election department doesn't give a shit if you bring your own pen

2. The pencils provided are because pencils don't run out of ink and are the thick pencils so its fucking obvious if something was rubbed out which would "spoil" your vote. They don't count the votes, the counters do, independent people, you'd have to pay them off along with 100s of others in the count room.

Then we have postal vote opening "Mail in voting creates lots of fraud" something that fuck whit orange one would say.

No it doesn't! Only election team, counters and IT are allowed in the postal vote opening room. And think about it logically. If you were caught attempting voter fraud there is a prison sentence and fine. Yes, some councillors themselves have been prosecute for fraud cause its so hard to get away with. And you'd have to pay off EVERY single person in that room. It has to be a lot of money due to the possibility of jail. When a postal vote is scanned the software checks it against a signature on record. If they don't match, its rejected. The amount of parents that attempt to sign for their kid. Or old folk who say "Husband died but I know this is who he'd have voted for"...erm, he's dead he no longer has a right to vote.

The fraud normally comes from councillors themselves or the returning officer. Never from the election system itself.

Flash haters, rejoice! Microsoft releases tool to let you nuke Adobe's security horror before support ends

Fantastic Contraption, the original Flash version is one we played a lot as it was actually good.

All grab those Flash games while you can. Someone has released a MASSIVE torrent of them all in an attempt to preserve their history.

Back in 2008 we used to play a kerbab van game at work when bored. You had to server people quickly at lunch. Was actually quite good for a short play.

NSA: We've learned our lesson after foreign spies used one of our crypto backdoors – but we can't say how exactly

Ban VPNs

And either ban encryption or force companies to create backdoors into that encryption so only the "authorities" will have access. There is no reason to vote or argue against this as ONLY the correct authorities will have access to that backdoor..........WHAT? Someone else exploited it? Shit. Well, lessons have been learned (even though we were fucking warned before hand this would happen).

The tits.

FCC puts final nails into net neutrality coffin. In a week, America will vote on whether to bury or open it up again

Hopefully

The orange one gets voted out and this gets reversed. Not only that, its going to be real entertainment watching him trying to fight his loss.

Brit accused of spying on 772 people via webcam CCTV software tells court he'd end his life if extradited to US

Re: Team America: World Police

No its the US abuse of its power and thinking it is the world police. If this was flipped and he was American and had trick UK residents then they'd reject the extradition and say "He's staying in the US. His crimes were committed in the US so he'll be tried in the US."

Love Minecraft: Java? You'll have to learn to love your Microsoft account as well – it will be required next year

Re: "security should be better with multi-factor authentication"

True.

Why can't we just have a Minecraft that doesn't actually fucking require any login if not playing online. Like all the old CD games from the 90s.

Re: "security should be better with multi-factor authentication"

Lots of kids play it. lots of kids use the same logins everywhere. Lots of kids aren't monitored. Lots of accounts then get compromised etc.

Microsoft drives users to the Edge: Internet Explorer to redirect to Chromium-based browser in November

Re: "There are workarounds"

The NHS, way back in 2007 when I started there, did the same. Banned anything other than IE. And the cockend engineer I was forced to sit next too kept looking over my shoulder and commenting "You're not allowed to use Firefox" he really was a cunt. I had to explain, which, shockingly he was unaware, that Firefox was actually more secure. Also pointed out "It's not installed". It wasn't, it was the USB version :)

A few years past when he finally shut the fuck up about it.

Back then, their security was shocking. Considering I had to point out to the 3rd line engineer why WEP was insecure "But it's 128 WEP". Doesn't matter, even back then it could be cracked in 5mins. There was enough traffic flowing over the network during the day that all the people in the flats over the road, with a decent aerial, would of been on it in mins. Not only could they then snoop on all the traffic (patient data etc), they'd have free Internet, especially at night. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a knowitall engineer, far from it, but when you work with arrogant arses it does get annoying and you have to point these issues out.

Google screwed rivals to protect monopoly, says Uncle Sam in antitrust lawsuit: We go inside the Sherman parked on a Silicon Valley lawn

When will be Apple's turn?

Its been a long time coming. Considering when you buy their device you're forced into using their app store and Steve Jobs poor attempt at making jailbreaking illegal that, thankfully, was thrown out of court or did he loose I can't remember.

Elizabeth Holmes' plan to avoid her Theranos fraud trial worked out about as well as her useless blood-testing machines

When will we hear the same with Rony Abovitz

And Magic Leap.

We're in a pandemic and they've laid off half their staff apparently. So then how have they managed to get $350 million more funding in May. It just seems very odd.

That won't happen as so many high fliers lost big money so will want to see her stay in prison.

Re: In the US don't mess with Business

Have you looked at the evidence or just what you've heard? Its a bit like the Trayvon Martin case which was a valid shooting. So many people don't look at the evidence of that case. I watched the whole court case and listened to all the evidence and it was clear Trayvon double backed round and got on top of George Zimmerman and was beating him when he was shot.

However the case of Ms Taylor. She wasn't with the drug dealer. He was an ex. Her current boyfriend was innocent. The police didn't announce themselves so he thought they were the ex boyfriend, hence he fired. If they'd announced themselves as their updated warrant stated, he most likely would not of fired, they wouldn't of fired back and she'd still be alive.

Remember seeing her on Ted Talks

Its why Ted Talks and its offshoots have started to loose their credibility. They just don't vet people enough and let any snake oil sales person on their platform now. And because, in the hipster community Ted Talks is seen as "a great source of legit, intelligent and sometimes different thinking", lots of people believe the shit that ends up on Ted Talks.

Samsung aims boot at Apple's decision not to bundle a charger in with the iPhone 12, foot ends up in mouth

Re: Reduce the e-waste?

Won't be able to do that with a Tesla as they are also fighting right to repair as they want no one touching their cars.

Makes me angry!!!!!

"And then there's the regulatory aspect. As previously noted in this publication, the EU Commission has pledged to consider whether phone manufacturers should decouple accessories (like cables and charging blocks) from devices in a bid to limit the amount of electronic waste produced by the mobile sector."

Stop the fucks known as Apple from fighting Right To Repair then and all the other industries doing the same. A tracker manufacturer is also fighting it. Have made their trackers so only official repairs shops are allowed to fix them!!! Do they not understand some farms are in the middle of fucking nowhere. The whole point was farmers were supposed to be able to repair them onsite themselves.

Fighting right to repair means you don't give a shit about e waste and just want to control it so you can force people to buy new shit and bin their own shit. Creating e waste.

Cunts!

To stop web giants abusing privacy, they must be prevented from respawning. Ever

Re: I've seen the movie just few days ago

It was fucking awful. Got about 20mins in and we had to turn off. They over did it with the dramatics. If those people worked there and thought it was so bad, they never gave any of the money back.

I hate Facebook and don't use it. And that is the simple way to kill it. If everyone stopped using it, the company would tank.

When you gaze long enough into the bork, the bork will gaze back into you

And the oddness of cubicle doors in America being either SUPER TINY (I'm 6ft 4) and/or have a massive gap in between each cube so people can see you going for a dump. Not forgetting the massive gap at the base of the door. "Its so people know if a cube is occupied". Well just look at the locked sign or maybe, gentle try the door.

I hated that part of my visit. Way back in 2004, a visit to Northern Kentucky Uni (that was a mistake). Went into the loo in the Uni library. What the fuck was the point of even having cubicles. The door was so low you could stand at the urinal and look over the wall at anyone who was in there. It was awful. Lucky, back in the halls of resistant, the lobby area had a loo with a proper UK door on it. So I only ever used that in my unfortunate 2 weeks there :)

If I remember right, O'Hare airport had tall doors but the weird gap. By that time I was going home so just tried to ignore it. I loved my UK loo when I got back. The need for privacy while doing a dump CANNOT be understated.

For anyone interested, visit St Katherine's docks in London. At the Tower Hotel there is a nice bar. When you need the loo, go out the bar and use the ones on the 1st floor (same floor as the bar). They are heaven. Each cubicle is its own little room, amazing!

It's 2020 and a rogue ICMPv6 network packet can pwn your Microsoft Windows machine

Can't help but read that as...

ICBM

Yahoo! Groups! to! shut! down! completely! on! December! 15!... Tens! mourn!

I wonder

If anyone started to archive them like they did with Geocities.

Archiving the Internet is why I've recently started to archive my old Windows profiles over the years.

Software AG hit with ransomware: Crooks leak staffers' passports, want millions for stolen files

Re: We've been here before

But there has to be a limit. The more people pay up, the more they'll target people.

Facebook's anti-trademark bot torpedoes .org website that just so happened to criticize Zuck's sucky ethics board

Re: Always nice when...

No. When someone files a copyright strike against a video they are claiming the work as their own and the video gets instantly removed. This becomes a legal matter. So you can ignore it and get on with life or if you want to fight it, you have to do a counter claim that could end up in a US court (if you're based there) because of this, you're then required to give your real name and real full address. So if the other party that claimed the strike decides "I'll take your counter claim to court then to prove the video rights are mine" they have an address and name to send the legal papers too. However, you can avoid giving your name if you decided to spend lots of money on a lawyer and get them to do the counter claim for you. Then their name and company address gets given out.

But for small channels like me. The strike system can be abused such as this parking company have done. Either just to be an arse believing you won't fight it or hoping you counter claim (which they can ignore for 10 days at which point they loose their right to fight and you get your video back) but they now have your personal address which they can/could use to abuse you or send goons round. People do fight these as get 2 strikes and your channel is limited. Get 3 and it gets deleted. The system is broken.

Always nice when...

...you have enough of a following to get the register to do an article about it and to be able to create a social medium storm on Twitter to make people aware.

My YouTube channel is tiny, not even 1k subs but a shady parking fines company here in the UK flagged a year old video of mine for a copyright strike. It got instantly pulled and I've been trying to argue with YouTube, with several counter claims that all the work in the video is my own. That you can't possibly claim a copyright strike over a video of someone browsing your website and pointing out all the security issues with it. This has fallen on deaf ears with their bots saying over and over I haven't given enough info. But not telling me what more they need.

Its clearly an abuse of the parking company where they know its an arse trying to fight YouTube to get a video back. Thankfully we have lbry who ignore bullshit claims such as this so the video is still available there.

I asked The Register if they'd like to do a story on this. The abuse of the YouTube copyright strike system and a parking company abusing it. I've had no reply and its been several weeks now since I asked.

I'll be doing my own article and putting it on my website soon. I gave up the YouTube fight. I make no money from my videos and reluctantly followed the copyright school section so the strike expires in December. That way the parking company don't get my real address, which I'm most certain they wanted so they can either abuse it or send goons round. But, as I'm small fry, doubt it will be noticed on my site.

The company is clearly somewhat shady. In their privacy statement now, where they made no mention of GDPR originally (which was one of the issues including the security issues) they now have a statement claiming that policy was updated in April last year. Which is before my video was uploaded about all their security issues. This is clearly an attempt to fool any investigation by the ICO. Unfortunately for them the wayback machine captured the same page in May of last year and that same statement is missing :)

Microsoft tells staff work-from-home is now ‘standard’ – with caveats galore

Re: Commuting

I've thought of this.

1. Now working from home will you part pay for my broadband costs?

2. Will you pay for my heating during the winter months during working hours?

3. Will you pay for the electricity during working hours?

I like my job and quite like working from home. I like the company I work for. But those questions do sit in my mind. Getting no extra pay for using all the above which means my bills each month have increased. Only benefit I get is enjoyment of working from home and being able to get up later & instantly being at home after 5. The company, however, is saving money on electricity with less of us in. I just wonder if we'll all get a little bonus at Christmas or something.

Who watches the watchers? Samsung does so it can fling ads at owners of its smart TVs

Re: Good reason not to upgrade

That's a difficult one, especially if you like their chocolate.

Re: Good reason not to upgrade

And ntinternals that became wininternals and then sysinternals and now CTO of Azure Mark Russinovich was the one to discover the Sony rootkit.

Re: Likewise

He can say in and think it but doesn't mean they'll be able to ditch it. If they ditch GDPR they won't be able to share or potentially do business with the EU. So it's easier to keep it. And I want it kept so I can keep asking the local Waitrose carpark management company to "Remove my number plate from your ANPR system as I've been within the limit and not getting a ticket. So under right to be forgotten there is no need for you to keep my data".

Robot wars! Scandi automation biz AutoStore slings patent sueball, claims it owns Ocado warehouse tech

Re: Patents

I wonder if the robotic tape drive was mentioned because its so similar to robotic tape drives like StorageTek Automated Cartridge System. It is very possible for two people to come up with the same idea based on another idea (Robotic Tape Drive) that end up very similar. Stuart Lee does a bit about this in his Plagiarists Corner like

LEE & HERRING / THE GOVERNMENT – EXAM MARKING SYSTEM SUMMER 2020

:)

And he's also pointed out issues with his own stand-up with stuff that pre-dates his to show he's come up with an idea without knowing the original existed.

It's the year of Linux on the... ThinkPad as Lenovo extends out-of-the-box Ubuntu support to nearly 30 machines

Isn't the point that they past the cost on to the buyer. Even if they got it for a few pounds per device, they can slap 50+ onto the list price and claim "You're paying the extra for the Windows license innit" when really they are just using that as an excuse for extra profit.

Hey kids! Ditch that LCD and get ready for the retro CRT world of Windows Terminal

Re: You had one job.

Ah laplink. I discovered in college in the 90s. And discovered you could just copy the laplink directory and you now had the full install of an official licensed laplink. Used it for years. I know its naughty to not have paid but I was a poor student.

.uk registry operator Nominet responds to renewed criticism – by silencing its critics

Re: Other companies try to silence their critics

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/whats-worse-than-coulda

Other companies try to silence their critics

Like Parkshield Collection LTD. Did a video of their website back in August last year on how insecure it was and how it breached GDPR. Their T&C made no mention of the existence of GDPR (they've now back dated their T&C to make it appear they had it in place before august 2019). They had no SSL and all forms anyone filled in were sent over in plain txt. No email address to inform them of the issue so the video was made. Has been on my YouTube for almost a year, along with my email address which they could of emailed.

But no. A couple of weeks ago the idiot owners decided to claim a false copyright strike on the video so it got instantly removed. An attempt to hide their crimes. They clearly don't understand how the Internet works. My channel is backed up by lbry. So every video uploaded also gets uploaded to lbry. Lbry won't stand for the bullshit claim nonsense so its still available there :o)

All they had to do was email me, explaining they've fixed the SSL issue on the Parking Enforcement Agency site. I'd have thought about removing the video. Despite the issue having been on going for months and months. And despite their main company site parkshieldgroup still having no SSL by default.

You'll always get shady companies attempting to silence their crimes.

Adidas now stands for All Day I'm Disconnecting All Servers as owners of 'smart' Libra scales furious over bricked kit

Chrome books just as bad

At a place I was at, some idiot was touting the idea of replacing all laptops with Chromebooks. Ignoring the fact you can't install custom software on them, ignoring you can't install legacy software on them and the final part (which I only found out recently) Chromebooks have a expire date stamped on them with the date Google will stop updating the software on it.

Fuck that. It was a dumb idea thats just gotten worse.

I can't stand IoT stuff because of issues like this but when you have people that flatly refuse to listen to this argument (the other half) you can see why comes still sell this shit to people that they know they won't support for long.

Have no idea WTF is going on with the Oracle-Walmart TikTok deal? Don’t sweat it, here’s our latest rundown

Yes but the republicans could take the high ground and say they aren't going to do it like they said in 2016 but they aren't and attempting to go ahead

We don't need maintenance this often, surely? Pull it. Oh dear, the system's down

In the mid 90s

I was at college and we an a minor infection of the Form virus. I was still early days of learning computers back then and being on a computer course was fascinated by finding a live virus in the wild. I managed to get one of my floppies infected and took it home in an attempt to examine it. Managed to infect my HDD bootsector but never mind, just started booting from the 5 1/4 floppy instead.

Looking through an infected file with a hex editor I found the message it was supposed to display but never did

"The FORM-Virus sends greetings to everyone who's reading this text. FORM doesn't destroy data! Don't panic! Fuckings go to Corinne."

I changed the wording, infected a floppy and took it to college to try and spread my version with a different message. I can't remember the message. I loved my LA Kings ice hockey jacket back then so I think I put the name Kingz which I used to draw all over my books :) even if only I'd know Kingz was me.

Pointless, boring story but good to remember for me.

Not content with distorting actual reality, Facebook now wants to build a digital layer for the world

We have history books for a reason

So we can learn from fuck ups. Google glassholes ended up getting punched on a few occasions. I don't condone that, punching them for wearing knobby tech is wrong and a cunt move but it won't end well with the Facebook glasses either.

I was piss poor at predicting the popularity of smartphones but can say for sure, these WON'T be a phone killer. As a spectacle wearer they are fucking annoying.

The Battle of Britain couldn't have been won without UK's homegrown tech innovations

Re: The war is over, the empire is gone

You never forget or it will happen again.

Sounds like Spotify and Epic have been chatting: Music streamer blasts Apple One service as 'anti-competitive'

When will it happen!?

I've been waiting patiently for years for Apple to be hit with the anti-trust suit they deserve. If MS got one for the way they screwed Netscape, then Apple have deserved one long ago. Considering they were found guilty of price fixing ebooks, how have they never been hit with one?

Nvidia says regulators will be 'very supportive' of $40bn Arm buy despite concerns about chip designer's independence

Re: Few here seem to understand

True but when SoftBank bought them, we were all forced to accept SoftBanks higher than market rate for each share we owned. So wouldn't of been able to keep an hand in unless, I guess, you owned a massive slice.

They'll do nothing

Bojo will do fuck all as he's simple a fuckwhit. They never cared when we had Arm and Softbank wanted it. They claimed it was a side of how popular the UK tech industry was, ignoring the fact they were selling it off. I had shares in ARM then and I can't moan as made 2k from it and I really needed the money. But I don't understand Hermann. Surely if he's that bothered he'd have kept enough shares that he'd have final say on what happens, but he never did, I assume he cashed out himself.

Having said that, he still has a right to moan and say its a bad idea.

If the orange one somehow gets re-elected and I fear he will (his supporters are blind to his fuck ups and bentness) then we know if this sale goes through, he'll tell Nvidia to stop selling chips to China.

You can never get rid of mice and keyboards. Some of my poorly written posts are an example of why. I hate typing on touchscreens. I'm on one now making sure it doesn't look a mess as frequently they do.

Family wrongly accused of uploading pedo material to Facebook – after US-EU date confusion in IP address log

Re: Another reason an IP

You do realise a contract can be deemed unlawful. Years ago I bought a digital camera, I think in 2002 or round that time from Kodak on their online store. Someone made a mistake and put the wrong price. I'd checked out and paid and they'd given me a receipt. Now technically a contract. For everyone that ordered one they later rejected as a mistake, saying they had a right under their contract blah blah. It was deemed later, that their contract could infact be illegal and void. They eventually, as a "good will gesture" honoured all the orders.

The camera ended up being shit but was fascinating having an early digital camera.

So contracts can be deemed illegal if challenged.

Another reason an IP

Address shouldn't be used as evidence. Like the old story of a IP being on a list of movie or music pirates. That IP address turned out to be a printer.

And with the ability to break into anyone's home wifi, you could easily set anyone up. "It came from their IP address, so must be someone in that property and couldn't possibly be the person sat outside in their car with a big aerial on the roof"

Microsoft's Surface Duo cops 1 repairability point for each of its screens: That's 2/10

They have become as bad

As Apple. Both, I believe, talk about eco their data centres are. But no one seems to pull them up about how unrepairable their kit is. With Apple going as far as fighting Right To Repair.

Court hearing on election security is zoombombed on 9/11 anniversary with porn, swastikas, pics of WTC attacks

What?

"Back in March, Michigan’s top law officials put out a statement warning that “anyone who hacks into a teleconference can be charged with state or federal crimes. Charges may include, to name just a few, disrupting a public meeting, computer intrusion, using a computer to commit a crime, hate crimes, fraud, or transmitting threatening communications.”

The statement also noted that “all of these charges are punishable by fines and imprisonment.”"

And how would that work out in court with a decent lawyer in your defense.

"This defendant hacked into the zoom call and....".....

"Objection. There was no hacking involved. You fuck whits left the meeting open to allow anyone to join. You were the ones using the wrong license (I suspect because you went for the cheap option to save money). So there was no hacking, you left the door wide open. We agree, my client was a cock, but you can't charge him/her for computer misuse or hacking as there was none."

HMRC claims victory in another IR35 dispute to sting Nationwide contractor for nearly £75k in back taxes

Re: Wait? I'm a contractior now?

I was technically called a "Contractor" and I worked for 7 years in the same roll at the same place, all because the arseholes didn't want to make me perm so they could get rid of me with only a weeks notice whenever they wanted. Luckily, I was paying NI and TAX so I'm safe but it is possible to be seen as a "contractor" yet still work in a place for years.

Surely places like Nationwide should have to foot the bill or at least part of it? If this one was apparently a contractor scamming the system, then surely Nationwide were colluding.