Posts by steviebuk

UK.gov's no-deal plans leave HMRC customs, VAT systems scrambling to keep up

Instead they've...

...been busy pointlessly chasing people over IR35.

Regarding the "Voice is my password". I still want to test that. I did the recording and recorded myself at the same time. I want to ring them back and play back the recording to see if it works but I can't work out at what point it asks you to speak because you never get the option. You just get told about it.

If they play back of the recording works have they never actually watched the fucking film before they stole the idea?

Canny Brits are nuking the phone bundle

Odd....

...that this is a new thing as I've been doing it for years. I think only once in the late 90s did I get a bundle because I couldn't afford the phone unlocked, outright at that time.

Microsoft Azure: It's getting hot in here, so shut down all your cores

"We want....

....to be Infrastructure free. The cloud never goes down".

Yeah right. Considering our own data centre hadn't been down in probably over a year. The only other time it went down was through hardware failure of new kit out of our control. Ooo, bit like how the cloud is out of our control.

When will they realise the cloud is just "Someone else's computer you have no control over" and if you are small fish, you're at the bottom of the support list of companies to get back online.

And "Infrastructure free" isn't a fucking term that exists! Stop making shit up!

Brit teen pleads guilty to Minecraft-linked bomb and airline hoaxes

I know they appear to have nothing on there that really needs it but....

....surely the NCA site should have an SSL cert now. If they are trying to be cheap just get a Let's Encrypt one which is fucking free.

Jesus.

Doesn't look great when you go to their site and Chrome says NOT SECURE :)

For a national security agency.

You wanna be an alpha... tester of The Register's redesign? Step this way

I might be blind but...

...on mobile can we have it so the to view My Posts, I don't have to go into any comments section, scroll right to the bottom until I then find the My Posts. In the desktop browser its nicely to the fight when I go into any comments section.

Microsoft gives Windows 10 a name, throws folks a bone

The ribbon annoyed me as well when it first came along. But then I sat and watched a "Promo" video from MS for it. Yeah obviously they were biased but she did present it in a way that made me see why it was good, useful and how it actually worked.

UK-based Veritas appliance support is being killed off

Re: O.M.G

You could argue Scots first language isn't English. But then I don't want to get lynched.

:)

Sorry. I'll get my coat.

No, eight characters, some capital letters and numbers is not a good password policy

Re: Over Your Head

And when you realise a company and its management are like that you go into record mode. Record everything you do and everything you warn them about, via e-mail. Then take backups of said recordings. So when the shit hits the fan you can prove it wasn't your fault and you gave them plenty of warnings. As I guarantee they'll try and blame you if they think they can.

Not that I'm taking advise from him as I've known this for years, but, and ignore political views, Michael Cohen comes to mind. He appeared to love Trump (he was clearly just kissing arse to get what he wanted) but even he was wise enough to record sessions he'd have with Trump (is that actually confirmed as fact yet?), I assume for his own protection in case he ever got screwed over by said person.

Tax the tech giants and ISPs until the bits squeak – Corbyn

I haven't read this fully yet...

...but I don't understand. Why do the online companies need to support the BBC? Don't get me wrong, I like the BBC and it's programs. I like there being no adverts but why should big online companies have to pay for it? Who then decides what company is big enough that it then is required to pay a tax to fund the BBC? I don't object to the TV Licence to fund it but I do object to the TV Licence scare tactics I saw when purchasing my first one (Someone else was paying it for me before). The claim as I was purchasing, on their own site, that I was required one if I owned a VCR, DVD Player. Then once purchased it said "Actually no you don't need one if you only use a VCR, DVD player."

So although I haven't read it yet, I was confused when I saw this article elsewhere.

A third of London boroughs 'fess to running unsupported server software

So did you say this..

...was just a misuse of the FOI system by Comparex so they could advertise their bollocks?

It liiives! Sorta. Gentle azure glow of Windows XP clocked in Tesco's self-checkouts, no less

Sainsburys REALLY....

...needs to fing sort out theirs. They are the shittest machines. Put the bag on the hook thing to keep it open. Start putting stuff in. It can't detect that you've put the stuff in so moans. OK. I'll shift it around then. Maybe an issue with your scales. Nope, 1 item later it starts doing it again.

Bollocks I say.

The most reliable one I've come across so far is Waitrose and then M&S in that order.

It may be poor man's Photoshop, but GIMP casts a Long Shadow with latest update

Re: Forget the geeky stuff, sort out the user experience.

Especially when saving. File save as. What? Why can't I save as JPG etc.

Oh, what? I have to choose "export" instead? Really when every other fucking program just has it in the Save As bit. Why did they go the "export" route?

Still. Can't complain, it's free.

London's Gatwick Airport flies back to the future as screens fail

Ironic

"an innovative, cost effective system that are easily scalable, more flexible and resilient, and require considerably less infrastructure and maintenance"

Although it wasn't the cloud host that was the issue, part of cloud is the link to it that can also be an issue. Greedy companies relying to much on "the cloud" is what annoys me.

I still don't understand how London airport can run it's air traffic control 80 miles from the airport. Yes they claim to have redundancy in place. But the whole idea of it being at the fucking airport is when John McClane is around, if the anything happens you can look out the fucking window with binoculars.

US voting systems: Full of holes, loaded with pop music, and 'hacked' by an 11-year-old

Re: Old joke!

Not in the UK. If they were picked up before they arrived by the post office you'd notice. And they'd have to do it on a massive scale to make a difference.

Re: Old joke!

Agreed. Postal Votes are where the flaw is, although still quite secure because there are so many people you'd have to pay off.

You can have the Postal Vote scanner just reject the verification form (I think it was called), although the Postal Vote Scanner never actually sees the votes. Again, you'd have to pay off several people in the room. Actually you'd probably have to pay off the whole room including senior management. Everyone being aware if/once caught, they all will get jail time.

Only election staff are allowed in the room. Then you have the people opening the votes. They count those and they go to the postal vote scanner. That person scans in and verifies by eye the scan matches what is in the database and that the scanner software read it correctly. The amount of mums and dads that sign for their kids because the kid is at Uni is mad. Do they really think we won't spot that? Anyway. That is the point you could just reject and those votes wouldn't then be counted. However, it is then up to a deputy returning officer/s to double check that they also agree with your rejections. A senior member of the elections team may also check.

So even Postal Voting is quite secure. Not as secure as it could be, but still not as bad as people think. Blame the public for Postal Votes. It was them that wanted it.

All these people would need to be paid off and you do get serious jail time if caught.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5259918/Six-jailed-over-election-fraud.html

Re: Old joke!

No they are not. If anyone ever actually did election work they'd know. The stubby pencils leave a VERY clear mark that they've been rubbed out. When on election work you'd also know you don't even get time to rub any marks out. The counts are counted IN FRONT of councillors/MPs or whoever is standing. They can stand and watch counts and request recounts. The conspiracy theory nut jobs that claimed "Here's a video of election staff rubbing out votes" clearly don't understand how any of it works. The votes are counted, then put on a specific bit of paper that is then taken to the front where all the election staff (can't remember their specific names) are there to verify the counts match the tally they have. If they don't they are asked to go back and recount. THAT is the number they were rubbing out. The incorrect tally count.

Simple when you've worked it and know there is no conspiracy. There are so many checks in place you'd easily get caught unless you paid off EVERYONE in the room which itself would be spotted.

Re: Old joke!

Short stubby pencils here in the UK to. Why? Cause they don't run out of ink. If asked, people are told they can use whatever pen or pencil they like. Despite what the nut job conspiracy theorists during Brexit thought.

Gartner's Great Vanishing: Some of 2017's emerging techs just disappeared

I could be wrong but...

...weren't Gartner the ones that said Equifax were amazing.

I wouldn't listen to a bullshit word they had to say.

Former NSA top hacker names the filthy four of nation-state hacking

Re: And yet...

Like the cat flap someone I know bought!

When's a backdoor not a backdoor? When the Oz government says it isn't

Another reason...

..not to live in Australia. I think New Zealand is just as bad with the way they handled the Kim Dotcom issue.

Prank 'Give me a raise!' email nearly lands sysadmin with dismissal

Thats typical NHS IT politics for you which is why I've grown to hate it. Unless your "in with the boys" (they don't employ many women it seems) or an over paid consultant you'll always be ignored.

Clap, damn you, clap! Samsung's Bixby 2.0 AI reveal is met with apathy

Forcing....

...apps on people is a sure fire way of getting people to not use them. I've disabled the Bixby button on my S8.

WhatsApp security snafu allows sneaky 'message manipulation'

I had a thought the other day...

....and because I don't know how WhatsApp end to end encryption works I don't know if I'm talking bollocks or not. But I thought this.

You're in WhatsApp with its end to end encryption. You're then using GBoard from Google within WhatsApp. We know Google loves to collect data so are they actively collecting data from GBoard while its in the end to end encrypted WhatsApp? If so, are they then essentially breaking the end to end encryption by storing what you've typed? So could someone, if they knew, ask for the data that terrorist was typing while in his/her WhatsApp and using the GBoard?

Again, I don't know enough about this so I could be totally wrong (and I suspect I am) but just got me thinking the other day.

Off down the Amazon: DCMS confirms UK national tech advisor Maxwell has resigned

So...

....who wants to put a bet on that all cloud hosting within the government will now switch to AWS?

Time to party like it's 2005! Palm is coming BAAAA-ACK

I'm considering....

....a indexing system for a library that is on small cards that you then put in draws. You can have a wooden cabinet full of these draws*

You can then get some Ghostbusters to come a long and clean up the goo off them.

*Actually had that system back in my old school in the 80s. I loved it. For some reason I still want a set.

Bit like this pager.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y3qeCz7JRmQ/UzUSvs4g9jI/AAAAAAANGxQ/DIyJwsXg61E/s1600/Columbo_Cries_Wolf-1990-VCSS4-229.jpg

Love Columbo.

Wondering what to do with that $2,300 burning a hole in your pocket?

Re: "does this read more like an ad-icle"

MagicSensation no longer owned by you as you've just mentioned it to the world before getting your official copyright on it*

**

*As far as I was aware that's what happens if you have a good idea and tell the world before patenting it.

** I'll get my coat.

Google's cuddling up to China with clouds in its eyes – reports

So essentially...

...all data stored in Chinese data centres WILL be monitored and harvested and sounds like Google doesn't give a shit.

I know it went out the window years ago but even more so now there "Don't be evil" is truly dead.

The age of hard drives is over as Samsung cranks out consumer QLC SSDs

Until the price...

...is right I'll still be stuck buying old skool platter drives. Still cheaper than large SSDs. Having said that, where I can afford it, I do replace old drives with SSDs. Like I did in my Lenovo. A cheap 1TB SSD has brought new life into my old war horse. Boots into Windows 7 in around a min now where as with the old skool drive it was taking about 5 mins.

BETA Site

Thanks :)

BETA Site

I have it set on my phone now but can't find the article about the BETA site so can't set my PC to it. Anyone?

And I can't even see where this Cafe Vulture is on the forums? I can only see it when I go to create a post? The forums seems quite confusing.

Engineers, coders – it's down to you to prevent AI being weaponised

Is that actually a case of....

...we won't renew the licence openly. We'll just keep it quiet and force any engineer working on it to never speak of it.

Taps running dry for Capita? Southern Water pens 5-year managed service

Thats Southern Water...

...buggered then when Crapita goes bust soon.

Fork it! Google fined €4.34bn over Android, has 90 days to behave

Why haven't the EU...

...done the same to Apple yet?

It walks, it talks, it falls over a bit. Windows 10 is three years old

WHAT!

"from Windows 10-style dialogs or menus into the world of Windows 8 or 7 (yes, we're looking at you, Windows Control Panel) were polished away."

Take that BACK! I like Control Panel just how it is. I don't want them removing it like they claim they are going to.

AWS will make switches to go after Cisco – report

Re: Re : it’s a very odd move...

That's why "the cloud" was down this morning as the skies were blue. It's not until lunch that I saw "the cloud" come back*

*I'll get my coat :)

AR upstart Magic Leap reveals majorly late tech specs' tech specs

He's stolen...

...Steve Job's reality distortion field Rony Abovitz has.

Desktop hypervisor fiends. Both of you. VMware's testing a new cut of Workstation

I've always....

....like VMWare Workstation. Learnt ESX-i from an old engineer at last place I worked as it's quite different to Workstation.

However at new place I'm at they user Hyper-V so I'm having to play with that now. But getting it nested in VMWare Workstation is useful for playing until I turn my ESX-i dedicated machine into a Hyper-V machine.

UK taxman outlines its CHIEF concerns for customs IT systems

Erm...well there's your first risk.....IBM

"HMRC execs have set out a series of risks to the development of its new customs IT system, including ensuring that supplier IBM delivers on time and a possible £70m shortfall in funding this year alone."

That's going to fail then. You're using IBM.

Dudes. Blockchain. In a phone. It's gonna smash the 'commoditization of humanity' or something

Quite an interesting vid on explaining Blockchain

As I didn't know what it was

Mark Russinovich from Sysinternals now of Azure CTO fame explaining it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYWal114BOw

Maybe it's like Magic Leap.

East Midlands network-sniffer wails: Openreach, fix my outage-ridden line

BT are shit...

"Engineers have visited Mr Sampson twice during the last 12 months – in April and July. On both occasions they carried out a successful full test of the local network, without experiencing any issues."

Yeah like the 2 fucking engineers you sent out to a site we supported. Both engineers said the line "had no issues". Then they sent a 3rd. Luckily the 3rd engineer did his job properly and said

"It is showing fine at the bungalow but I'll go down the road and double check the box". And there it fucking was. He said "I've found the issue. The box this line is connected to out on the secluded street is opposite a pub. I think a lorry must of reversed over the box at some point crushing it. Then someone has come to fix it and instead of fixing it properly, just spliced it together so that it would report a "I'm fine" signal. Which of course, then sometimes fails in your case".

Infrastructure wonks: Tear up Britain's copper phone networks by 2025

My partners friend just moved into a new build she said that he said "I have to wait for a year for fibre as it wasn't installed when they built the houses".

Great. And that's a new build. Where as the house I just bought, built in 1890 has fibre.

UK privacy watchdog to fine Facebook 18 mins of profit (£500,000) for Cambridge Analytica

Re: Conclusions?

There might be a valid argument for the data slurp but what I don't understand is when people call Facebook a Stasi. It's people choice to use it. It's a free service. How else do people think they will make their money from the free service. It costs a lot of money to run and maintain all those servers.

I'm not defending Facebook, people have a right to be angry with them but it's still a free service and people choose to use it or not. I choose not to use it. Simple as that really.

"But some sites require it to sign up to stuff". Well then just use a dummy account, it's what I do. So when I say I don't use it, that was a lie, I use it just for signing into some sites that have no other option but to use Facebook.

Tired sysadmin plugged cable into wrong port, unleashed a 'virus'

Re: Common trick

I'm not 100% on routers but I thought Cisco's protected from this?

You're indestructible, always believe in 'cause you are Go! Microsoft reinvents netbook with US$399 ‘Surface Go’

Windows 10 S...

Windows 10 Shit mode. Considering the Windows Store is shockingly lacking this is doomed to fail.

CEST la vie, IR35 workers: HMRC sets out stall for ignoring Mutuality of Obligation

So...

...you work with risk, work with no entitlement to holiday, work with no entitlement to sick pay and work with no entitlement to the same rights as perm people until you've been their 3 months then you still don't get full rights. But....fuck you! We're still gonna make you pay same tax as if you were there as a perm. We don't care that this scared off loads of contractors on government work.

Sysadmin cracked military PC’s security by reading the manual

At a previous NHS...

...trust if I remember right they used Sophos encryption. I pointed out a flaw but was told "its a feature" because I "wasn't in with they boys" (c**ts more like. Harsh but fair description).

Sophos had a bad habit of locking us out of the laptops at boot. Would lock your account as well. But I had an old laptop I kept back that had my account on it that was unlocked. All I had to do was boot from the laptop with the unlocked account which would unlock the other laptop.

I gave up convincing them it was an issue. I left and later discovered someone else pointed it out. They finally listened and discovered they made the laptops overall the server instead of the other way round.

Dicks.

Not impressive but....

...I was chuffed & know I was SUPER lucky.

Just been asked to get a password for Excel that was set to protect a sheet. Not the best of security I know but still. Normally use an article I found ages ago about the AllInternalPasswordMacro. Didn't use it this time, wanted to try something different.

I use Sysinternals software all the time. Didn't think it would help though, really need to look at memory I thought. So turned to Process Hacker. Ran Excel, got the Unprotect Sheet dialogue box up, put in anything, got the "The password you supplied is not correct" box up then looked in Process Hacker. Looked at the properties of Excel, looked at memory, then looked at Strings, did a filter for word "password" and only a few results back all related to the "The password you supplied is not correct" dialogue box. Double clicked it to show what was in memory at that moment in hex. Saw that wording and soon after saw

s.i.t.e-n.a.m.e

I wondered if this was some kind of hint prompt so put in the actual site name that the document was about. Sure enough it worked. I was in.

Nice.

I've tried to recreate it on the same document but can't. Haven't seen the s.i.t.e-n.a.m.e in the hex entries since. And playing with excel it appears when you set the password for the protection of a sheet, there is no option to give a password hint.

Got proper lucky on that one. Maybe I'll buy a lottery ticket tonight.

Re: Only cracking I have done is

Get a settling torch. Cut a hole with it in the top of the safe. Pump a load of water into it until it's full. Put a charge in it to cause a small explosion. Set it off. The pressure inside and shock wave from the water will blow the doors off.*

Obviously only useful if full of gold or silver. Money would kinda get wet.

*Yes I've stolen that from The Score (sorry if that now ruins the movie. Still a great movie and still not fully ruined the plot for you).