Posts by no_handle_yet

Brit banks must disclose outages via API, decrees finance watchdog

Oh arse !

This is what I get from Santander

<errorResponse>

<httpCode>500</httpCode>

<httpMessage>Internal Server Error</httpMessage>

<moreInformation>Failed to establish a backside connection</moreInformation>

</errorResponse>

Says it all really

'Coding' cockup blamed for NHS cough-up of confidential info against patients' wishes

I use this crap to order repeat prescriptions and it always annoyed me that they couldn't spell it correctly. But I think I worked out why they did it and it turns out to be a monumental lack of imagination.

systemone.com was registered back in 1995. So I assume that some naming council under the guidance of a steering committee at TPP, having spent 3 years on coming up with systemone as the name, then had to throw it back to an emergency focus group who only had six months to find an alternative. Then some genius realised that it kind of sounded the same if you dropped the "e" from system.

It took me nearly an hour to press submit on this as I went over every single spelling dozens of times. There is nothing worse than taking the piss out of spelling mistakes, only to make even more of them yourself. Please go to town on me if you find any as I definitely deserve it.

Meet the Frenchman masterminding a Google-free Android

Now that is definitely Mr. Blue sky thinking. I'll turn to stone if it ever happens.

That was quick: Seattle rushes to kill tax that would mildly inconvenience Amazon

run in to the ground or assimilate ?

Didn't think the borg practised democracy

Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 7, 8.1 support forums

Re: Not sure how big of a loss this is

Hi pip25, thank you today for your question

If I see correctly you are saying it is long time since a thread here was found that had information regarding your issue.

Please, don't worry. I am here to help.

So I can give you the best help can you give me your exact version of windows. I also need you to make good all patches from the windows update and also to try clearing your cache from your browser.

Have you rebooted your computer since the problem happened ?

Please be assured that with the answer to your questions we can start to help.

Regards

no_handle_yet (Windows MVP)

Dems push Ryan to vote to help save America's net neutrality measures

Re: 86% of Americans agree with *THEM*? Since *WHEN*?

Is there something wrong with your keyboard ?

ICO smites Bible Society, well fines it £100k...

initial breach ?

any truth that it was a "5 loaves and 2 phishing" attack.

You have suffered without red-headed emoji for too long. That changes Tuesday

9 upvotes currently. I bet you feel flushed with success.

Meet the real spin doctors: Scientists tell H2O to chill out so they can separate isomers

Re: Deuterium-free Parafresh or Orthofresh

There is still work to be done here before we can say for sure which one is best for your chakra. To start drinking either of these without knowing which has the most vibrations could be almost as dangerous as allowing your crystal to run out of quantums. Hopefully professor Paltrow has a team on this as we speak.

Who had ICANN suing a German registrar over GDPR and Whois? Congrats, it's happening

Re: ICANN not understand how you wrote this article !!!???

Thanks for that link. I can't remember reading a lazier piece of tech journalism than that. In fact, for all the good it will do, I'm going to write to them about it.

Re: Should result in summary judgement...

The exception clause applies to the relationship between the owner of the data and the entity providing a service to the data owner.

In other words, if I apply to a bank for credit they can acquire, store and retain data necessary for the provision of that credit. If that bank has a separate contract with an advertiser to provide email addresses of anyone applying for credit then the necessity exception doesn't apply there. And contract terms can never override law. Any term in the bank to advertiser contract that breaks the law becomes void.

So a registrar can collect data necessary for the provision of service to the end user but their contract to publish that data in whois is void as it compels them to break the law. That is exactly the position of EPGA and I would be very surprised if they do not prevail.

If ICANN are pressing ahead with this challenge then one of two things has happened. Their lawyers know it will fail but they get paid anyway so what the hell, lets bilk our client (likely), or their lawyers think the law is worded sloppily and they can twist it to cover the third party contract which was actually what you were hinting it. That is less likely but still possible.

Chief EU negotiator tells UK to let souped-up data adequacy dream die

Re: The more I listen to the EU...

Nope. He's not saying he's not interested in others opinions. He's saying that when all the opinions are in and the drafting starts you don't get to wield a red pen and you don't get a vote which is what May is asking for. Would you expect New Zealand to get a "consultative role" that went any further than expressing an opinion from the sidelines ? What about Mexico ? Or Japan ? The fact is, when we leave we have no more right to special treatment than any other non-member. We will have exactly the same influence as any other non-member. That is what being a non-member means.

I get the impression that many people believe that our former membership should grant us some sort of favoured nation status.

Re: The more I listen to the EU...

Thanks for the posting the first rational and accurate statement of what Barnier was saying.

1) you want to play with an EU citizen's data then you treat it at least as well as the EU does. An adequacy agreement.

2) you want to be out of the club then don't expect to have input into how we treat our citizens' data.

simple really.

Businesses brace themselves for a kicking as GDPR blows in

and ....

I agree with everything you said. Plus, why do call centres call me up then expect me to prove who I am to them ? I can never seem to convince them that it is arse about face. They called me, out of the blue, uninvited, claiming to be my bank, phone provider, power company etc. Well I know who i am so it's not down to me to prove anything. It always ends with me hanging up.

If they need to talk to me about anything non-trivial they can email, txt or write inviting me to contact them on a number that I'll lookup.

Tor ‘sunsets’ secure Messenger that never exited beta

Re: Security is necessary but not sufficient

Exactly right. This wasn't about stopping the NSA/FBI/Council parking enforcement team reading the contents of a message. It was about stopping the NSA/FBI/Council parking enforcement team knowing where the message originated. That is why the inability to stop metadata leaks was the killer.

Have an up vote.

Manchester Arena attack: National Mutual Aid Telephony system failed

Re: Yet again

Absolutely, 100% agree with this sentiment. Almost every single time that outsourcing is contemplated, be it government or private, the first question is "how cheap can you do it ?". In fact it rarely gets beyond that. If they ever do question the credentials it rarely figures in the final outcome.

It's almost always bean counters asking the questions rather than someone who actually knows what questions to ask and has a chance of understanding the answers. The requirements are invariably stated wrongly or are incomplete and almost the second the contract is signed the cost starts flowing back up the chain for "additional work not on the contract". You end up paying more than if you'd just gone to the experts in the first place for a worse service. Can you imagine getting a builder in under those rules ?

me: I need an extension built, how cheap can you do it:

builder: depends, how many floors ?

me: err, some floors.

builder: probably a few thousand pounds.

me: great when can you start. Oh by the way, you are a builder aren't you ?

builder: not as such but my mate once had a fence put up.

me: great, see you Monday.

builder: might be Wednesday my mate will need to put it out to tender.

First there were notebooks. Then tablets. And now ‘book tablets’

I wish Pratchett was still around -

I'd love to see an OOKlet with a realdragon 888 octarine core chip running Linux small gods edition.

Telegram still won't hand over crypto keys it says it does not store

Thanks.....

..... for reminding me what the article was about. I'd forgotten by the time I reached your comment.

Administrator PwC chops Maplin staff

Please stop. I'm getting very breadboard of these puns.

FBI chief asks tech industry to build crypto-busting not-a-backdoor

Bet he bought shares in cold fusion research and dowsing rod bomb detectors.

Wrong people or just plain dishonest request ?

The TLA organizations also keep asking the wrong people, or at least being dishonest about the question. The tech billionaires and their respective companies had little to do with the design of encryption algorithms. They simply had them implemented, and sometimes badly implemented. What the TLAs are asking for is deliberately, badly implemented encryption.

The designs and techniques for encryption came out of the maths departments and for as long as people can add and multiply numbers they will have close to unbreakable encryption available.

A key escrow system does nothing for the TLAs beyond allowing them to fish for information amongst the data of predominantly law abiding citizens. And you only need to look at who has access to data under the UKs RIPA to realise who the trusted agencies will be with access to the key store. Depending on the use of the data it could be local councils, tax authorities, health department, gambling commission, trading standards and dozens more. How long before a single employee gets a big enough bung to leak the lot ? How long before a Snowden with a different agenda comes along ?

The only thing key escrow does is to take away personal control of privacy from law abiding citizens. Meanwhile the criminals that know they are doing something targetable by a TLA will still be able to add up and multiply. They will still be able to do end to end encryption with a pen and paper if necessary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G8dPAdmyss). The biggest problem they will face is sharing the key. It is the biggest problem for all encryption. But that is why one time pads and dead letter drops were invented.

That is also why proper, human intelligence led investigation is what will keep us safe from the real criminals. The fact that the TLAs keep asking for badly implemented encryption seems to imply that the real target is the population as a whole and not the criminal elements that they use as bogey men to frighten us in to acceptance.

UK takes first step towards criminalising driverless car hackers

Re: Stable

Not just revenue either. Tin foil hat time but I always worry when governments start throwing laws down to pave the way for a technology. "....automated vehicles have the potential to make them even safer..." They also have the potential for geo-fencing and remote kills. You thinking of going to that anti war demo. Not unless you walk, 10 mile geo-fence. Thinking of going picketing your employer this morning. Forget it, they applied for and got a banning order, with 10 mile geo-fence and a gagging order so you can't tell anyone. You're on benefits ? Sorry but people on benefits should only be allowed to drive to interviews. It's only fair that the tax payer doesn't pay for them to take nice drives in the country.

It's always useful to ask what Thatcher would have done if she'd had the tech. The answer to that probably shows why it needs resisting.

Re: Can they do something more useful instead?

I noticed a big difference over the past few weeks with my newish set of cross climates. Probably not as good as full winters but a fraction of the cost of purchasing and storing a full set of wheels with winter tyres and certainly good enough for the type and frequency of winter weather we get in the north west of england.

Military techie mangled minicomputer under nose of scary sergeant

Re: buttons

Well of course, we 'ad it tough. We 'ad th'ermengency button int middle, door release above it and light switch underneath. But we wur 'appy.

PACK YOUR BAGS! Boffins spot Earth-size planet most likeliest yet to harbor alien life

Re: Even if we could get there, somehow

Closer to 800 lbs. It's 7 times the mass but 1.4 times the radius. Surface gravity would be about 35 m/s/s or close to 4 times that of earth. Still, even turning over in bed will be a bitch. I'll wait for the next "most likely to harbor life" . Another will be along shortly.