* Posts by iron

2172 publicly visible posts • joined 25 May 2017

US prez Donald Trump declares America closed to those flying in from Schengen zone over coronavirus woes

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Re: Green card holders and the immediate family of US citizens get a pass.

Well that's just fucking Trump.

Resellers facing 'months' of delays for orders to be fulfilled. IT gathers dust on docks as coronavirus-stricken China goes back to work

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Re: Just an FYI

And the important part of all that is "confirmed cases." There are also unconfirmed cases plus you probably can't trust the figures coming out of secretive states like China and USA which will lower the figure. 3.6% is not correct.

Good luck pitching a tent on exoplanet WASP-76b, the bloody raindrops here are made out of molten iron

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I refute these claims that I have turned into a liquid and rain on planet WASP-76b as FAKE NEWS!

I've never been near that planet and didn't touch it's molten core.

Yelp finally gets its chance to tell US Congress how Google screws its listings service every minute of every day

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Re: Google Using Algorithm To Boost Favorability

> the voice of the people

More like the voice of paying advertisers and shills. Yelp removes bad reviews for anyone who buys an ad.

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Re: This is News?

Yeah the last thing I need is Yelp links cluttering up my search results, they're useless enough as it is.

Secret-sharing app Whisper shared secrets like last known location and actual password tokens in exposed database

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I think the biggest surprise is that Whisper had 900 million users.

Google: You know we said that Chrome tracker contained no personally identifiable info? Yeah, about that...

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Re: Why is anybody expecting privacy?

I regularly tell people they shouldn't rely on products from Google or insidious crap like Alexa because they are being silently monitored and tracked and they look at me like I'm standing semi-naked on Oxford Street with a huge placard reading "The end is nigh!" The average member of the public does not want to hear about it, they just want their music, security cams, Facebook fix or whatever.

Months-long trial of alleged CIA Vault 7 exploit leaker ends with hung jury: Ex-sysadmin guilty of contempt, lying to FBI

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> stole the tools from an insecure server in the heart of spies' headquarters.

FTFY That server could not be described as secure.

BOFH: Here he comes, all wide-eyed with the boundless optimism of youth. He is me, 30 years ago... what to do?

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People have been telling my I'm too cynical since my teens. So far it has served me well in avoiding many of the scams and pitfalls of modern life - social media, crypto coins, Alexa, IoT, etc.

Uber takes a downer as ride-sharing app service crashes

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> Drivers are going to need some type of compensation for this

Hahahahahahahahaha.

He's obviously new.

Sadly, the web has brought a whole new meaning to the phrase 'nothing is true; everything is permitted'

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Re: Penny for a cup of tea, guv?

In the words of my long departed grandfather... AWAY AND WORK!

(and yes I have used that on beggars myself too)

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I fail to see the problem

Its an obvious scam and I'd have told the person so. Even if the person being impersonated was a close friend I'd have no sense of guilt because it is obviously a scam and they would talk (type) differently. For an internet only contact I'd never met? Well they are not a friend so I'd refuse even if it wasn't a scam.

This is even easier if you have never used social media, like myself. I don't think I've ever used Skype either.

Hackers? Leap day? Nope, just plain old internet hysteria took down stock-trading-for-noobs app RobinHood

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Re: Are people really that stupid?

Yeah I can't believe anyone would trust their money to an app named after Robin Hood.

What's next a Ronnie Biggs train ticket app?

Alleged Vault 7 leaker trial finale: Want to know the CIA's password for its top-secret hacking tools? 123ABCdef

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Re: Cell phones in prison

You'd be surprised the things people can fit in a vagina or up their bum.

Drones must be constantly connected to the internet to give Feds real-time location data – new US govt proposal

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Re: "given extortionate US mobile rates"

Land of the fee.

Home of the slave. (to Apple, Google, Facebook, etc)

Our 'solution is killing us in a number of areas' IBM said about doomed £175m Co-Op Insurance project

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Re: Ah, yes, US software ...

Choice of words is unlikely to be the problem here. More important would be the completely different political, legal and welfare systems in the two countries.

Chipzilla or Chipzooky? If Intel's server CPU sales keep on shrinking, El Reg will have to update the branding

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Supply shortages..

Meltdown, Spectre, SpectreRSB, RIDL, Fallout, Zombieload, Plundervolt, Zombieload 2, TPM-FAIL, NetCAT, SWAPGS, SPOILER, Foreshadow, Machine Check DoS, BMC flaws, Lazy FPU context switching issues, etc.

High price.

Core counts and performance starting to lag.

Why would anyone buy Intel?

(other than the CEO has heard of them so won't question it)

Windows 7 goes dual screen to shriek at passersby: Please, just upgrade me or let me die

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FAIL

> unheeded by the operators at c2c's Thorpe Bay station

What is a c2c?

Ditto Thorpe Bay station.

This article needs more detail for those of us who don't live in Essex.

Never thought we'd write this headline: Under Siege Steven Seagal is not Above The Law, must fork out $314,000 after boosting crypto-coin biz

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Re: Who could possible care...

Well they didn't really pay him a meeellion dollars, just $250k and some worthless scam currency.

Pope tells his followers to log off for Lent

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Gimp

That would be an ecumenical matter.

Rotherwood Healthcare AWS bucket security fail left elderly patients' DNR choices freely readable online

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FAIL

Exceedingly personal patient details left on open web... Threatening lawyer's letters... Stay classy Rotherwood Healthcare!

No doubt the ICO will fail to fine them the apropriate max GDPR fine and their laissez-faire attidute to potentially vulnerable people's data will continue. This is common in care sector IT (which I recently left).

It's Terpin time: Bloke who was SIM jacked twice by Bitcoin thieves gets green light to sue telco for millions

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Sounds like a nightmare. Whenever organisations (usually my bank) try to use such questions to determine if I am who I say I am my replies consist of "I don't know", "I can't remember" and "maybe xxxx?" After much humming and hawing I usually pass the check but it always leaves me feeling that I'd be much hapier if they refused than taking my awful non-answers as good enough.

Firefox, you know you tapped Cloudflare for DNS-over-HTTPS? In January, it briefly knackered two root servers at the heart of the internet

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Re: "Extreme testing"

Their testing can be as extreme as they want, doesn't mean thay have complete code coverage or even worthwhile tests that are checking the right things.

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Re: But

During the testing period they've been doing automatic failover to non-DoH lookups. So if that continues problems at Cloudfare or whichever provider you have set up are not an issue.

Microsoft uses its expertise in malware to help with fileless attack detection on Linux

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Re: detection feature scans the memory of all processes

Go on then, explain how you detect fileless malware in memory without scanning memory?

SpaceX Falcon 9 meets watery end, and NASA needs someone to go to Mars and whack its mole

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Re: Mars Insight

Planned lifetime for InSight was two years. It may continue past that but you don't bet multi-million dollar experiments on 'may'. They are currently on Sol 444 so they have about 286 days left.

Flat Earther and wannabe astronaut killed in homemade rocket

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Re: Stupid is as Stupid does

You need to die without reproducing for the Darwin Awards. Based on the guy's age I'm guessing he had kids.

BAE Systems tosses its contractors a blanket... ban on off-payroll working under upcoming IR35 tax reforms

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Re: Interesting timing ...

But probably not planned to conincide with Brexit, which was his point.

Ofcom measured UK's 5G radiation and found that, no, it won't give you cancer

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Facepalm

I particularly love the placard in the article pic that reads: 5G STALTH WEAPON

Immediately shows the calibre of intellect you're dealing with.

Breaking bad... browser use: New Mexico accuses Google of illegally slurping kids' private data via G Suite

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Re: "Google was quick to issue a statement denying the allegations"

Apart from the first sentence they don't actually deny the allegations.

State AG: "Google unlawfully collected kid's data"

Google: "schools control account access and... obtain parental consent" "We do not use [kids data] to target ads."

At no point do Google actually state they don't collect kid's data.

AMD takes a bite out of Intel's PC market share across Europe amid microprocessor shortages, rising Ryzen

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> Gartner analyst Mikako Kitagawa said.. switch to AMD-based kit, but she said it is "time consuming for business users, especially large companies where a large number of PCs are deployed."

In what way is it time consuiming? It takes just as long to buy an AMD based PC as an Intel one, ditto installing Windows, apps, etc. Other than creating a new master image with the required drivers I don't see what is different and you would need to do that for a new range of Intel based PCs anyway.

Maybe if these analysts had actually worked in IT at some point they might understand the subject better and make fewer stupid remarks like the one above.

Your McDonald's demo has expired. For full functionality, please purchase a licence or try another fast-food joint

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Re: Never ever ever ever install a demo version on a production box

I know of several automotive and computer manufacturing plants that used demo software on the production line about 20 years ago. It was often my job to call the supplier and get a key asap. When the likes of HP, Dell or IBM absolutely have to get a line running today you sort it and worry about licenses later.

Google exiles 600 apps from Play Store for 'disruptive advertising' amid push to clean up Android souk's image

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Terminator

> The Register asked Google whether the corresponding developer accounts have been deleted and, if so, how the company can be certain those developers will never be able to re-register under a different identity. We've not heard back.

This is Google we're talking about, they know everything about everyone and can connect all your various email addresses. And yes, they do ban developer accounts for life when they are found to be repeatedly breaching Play policies. Just look at r/androiddev for lots of examples.

'An issue of survival': Why Mozilla welcomes EU attempts to regulate the internet giants

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Re: We really need Firefox alive

I was the person who told them Firebird was already taken (by an Interbase database clone). They weren't too pleased having spent several weeks coming up with that name to replace Phoenix.

When they suggested Firefox I laughed and said "you know there's a Clint Eastwood film..."

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Coffee/keyboard

> at least one

Lol. You owe me a new keyboard.

I think you meant to say "all sites."

Researchers trick Tesla into massively breaking the speed limit by sticking a 2-inch piece of electrical tape on a sign

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Re: Satnav isn't fooled

Any time I've driven a car that tells you the speed limit on the dash via SatNav it is wrong 80% of the time. that is for permanent limits as well as temporary road works limits.

SatNav can't beat Eyeball Mk1.

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Re: Sigh.

You could potentially fail a driving test by driving at 25mph in a 30 zone, the examiner will be looking for you to speed up to 28mph.

Assange lawyer: Trump offered WikiLeaker a pardon in exchange for denying Russia hacked Democrats' email

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Re: End Game.

Don't you mean he just made covfefe?

Smartwatch owners love their calorie-counting gadgets, but they are verrry expensive

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I just don't see the point. What do you actually use it for?

Chrome deploys deep-linking tech in latest browser build despite privacy concerns

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You are jumping to conclusions. I don't see anywhere in the article where it says that, or even vaguely suggests it.

Why would the browser need to send the link to Google? It can navigate to the page and search for the given terms perfectly by itself.

Vodafone: Yes, we slurp data on customers' network setups, but we do it for their own good

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And this is why you never use the ISP supplied router.

I'd add never use one of the BIG 5 but most people prefer low price and bundled footy deals over security, reliability and speed so there's no point.

Auf wiedersehen, pet: UK Deutsche Bank contractors plan to leave rather than take 25% pay cut for IR35 – report

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> Other people who can go away rapidly: highly-paid hospital consultants and GPs

I can tell you've never had anything seriously wrong with your health. Those of us who do will tell you (some of) those high paid consultants and GPs are worth their weight in gold.

Good news: Neural network says 11 asteroids thought to be harmless may hit Earth. Bad news: They are not due to arrive for hundreds of years

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> NASA probably missed these asteroids as hazardous because their observed orbits are so uncertain.

Unless, of course, the AIs guess is wrong. The AI doesn't know how or why asteroids hit Earth, it just recognises patterns, so it's guessing.

How the US-China trade war is felt stateside: Xilinx trims workforce after lucrative Huawei sales pipe blocked

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Yup coz laying off employees and possibly losing companies in the worlds of CPU & memory design & manufacture can only be a good thing for your economy. You didn't want those chip fabs anyway, right?

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Re: So who is actually happy?

That would require a homegrown US company capable of providing 5G equipment. There isn't one.

The alternatives are Ericsson and Nokia. Make Scandinavia great again!

25 years of Delphi and no Oracle in sight: Not a Visual Basic killer but hard to kill

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A Delphi anniversary really deserves Verity, especially one this important!

Unfortunately the job market made me move on to C#, among other things. Thankfully Visual Studio has improved a lot in the last 10 years but I'd still rather be using the Delphi IDE and tend to think in Object Pascal.

Microsoft brings the pane: You'll be looking at Xamarin and React Native to design apps for dual-screen gizmos

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As a consumer the Surface Duo looks interesting, depending on price I could see me buying one.

As a dev its the old chicken and egg problem - what's the point modifying my apps to take advantage of the new features when few users own a compatible device. These features don't work with foldable devices from other manufacturers because they only have one screen. The Xamarin team have done a great job getting everything working cross platform for both Neo & Duo but unless you're writing internal business apps with Neo/Duo as standard corporate issued devices I don't see the point.

Oracle tells Supremes: Fair use? Pah! There's nothing fair about 'Google's copying'

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Re: A plague on both of them

While Google are certainly evil and in most cases I would like to see them lose in this case there is far, far too much at stake in the precedent it will set. The very nature of programming and the use of libraries and apis could change.

If Oracle win then Intel could charge everyone a license fee if they write code for x86. Plus another fee for AMD if it is 64 bit. Plus fees to IBM and Microsoft and... and... and...

It could become impossible to write anything more than 'Hello World' without employing a lawyer to sort though all the licensing and rights issues.

Best buds? Apple must be fuming: Samsung's wireless earphones boast 11 hours of listening on a single charge

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Re: Style Council

More importantly... HOW DO THEY SOUND!?!?!

FFS

Aw, look. The UK is still trying really hard to be the 'safest place to be online in the world'

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FAIL

> groundbreaking technology, that is trusted by and protects everyone in the UK

Haha I've got news for you Nicky. I don't trust anyhing you espouse, especially technology, and if it's anything like the Pirate Bay blocks it won't "protect" anyone in my household and many others in the slightest.