Posts by Excused Boots

Part didn't fit so techie got out his screwdriver. Then something flew off the motherboard

Re: Hardware failures

You are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_effect/“></a> and I claim my £5

1.6M RingCentral accounts' data dumped after ShinyHunters extortion attack

“it was the target of a sophisticated social engineering campaign” affecting a “limited portion of RingCentral customers.”

It’s always a ‘sophisticated attack/campaign isn’t it, it’s never ‘well it was a script-kiddy but we had piss-poor defences and staff training’!

And a ‘limited portion’ that could be ‘it was limited to 100% of our customers - so that’s all right then, yes?'

Five years after quitting a job, developer’s former boss asked for rapid tech support

Re: Must be why firing someone while they are on a vacation happens

Sorry but ‘honeymoon' and 'going down’ in the same sentence. Sorry!

Trump wants to grant private cyber firms a license to hack back

"These companies will also be required to maintain a bond or escrow of at least $1 million, which shall be forfeited if they violate the terms of their contracts.”

No doubt the excuse will be that the money was ‘just resting’ in his account.

Gym rat asks AI agent to book him a class, it hacks a waitlist API to bump him up the list

Re: New TV series...

Netflix are interested in your pitch!

Re: Dangerous thing you've got there....

"Who would the courts find should be held accountable for breaking the law, if it came to that?”

Sam Altman?

Sysadmin summoned to explain italics – to a user with at least two degrees

Re: "Who's the supposedly smartest person who has asked you a dumb support question?"

Einstein was really not that sort of person.

South Korean satellite spots SpaceX lunar impact

Re: Hmmm

Not really, although a similar impact event might well happen roughly every six days, the chances of it happening exactly where your moonbase is, has to be a million to one!

Oh no wait......

Re: Elon's ejecta

The criteria being, presumably, white skinned and with a measurable pulse?

The last criterion is negotiable.

Snowflake extortionist admits 165-victim cloud crime spree – and squeezing one target twice

OK look I am aware that this is some oddball US thing, but seriously what the heck is ‘wire fraud’?

IT department put sticky notes on the laptops to help employees log in

Re: Initial Accountname/Charge #/Password Transfer

"And must be entered on a Dvorak keyboard!”

You are a BOFH and I claim my $£5

Re: IT department put sticky notes on the laptops to help employees log in.

"For those of you that don't have the kingly budget I have, you can simply fold one post it note in half...just remember to write the password on the inside after you fold it.”

Ha amateurs!

Re: It's even worse than that...

"Yes, this is tedious, but not as tedious as a data breach.”

True but try convincing senior management of this fact!

Re: Providing Negative Incentives and then Clutching Pearls: However could this have been avoided ?

It depends on your definition of a ‘strong password’. The classic Correct Horse Battery Staple is a far better password than efhiuoh^$%£, because no fucker will be able to remember the latter and will write it down somewhere. So one and only one password policy, just length, minimum 20 characters - and if they complain say use the first line of your favourite book, etc.*

Obligatory xkcd link

* yes I know a person’s favourite book could be gleaned from social media posts, and first line/sentence could be inferred, but better than most other methods. Also do not use ‘In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth’, because although that may well be someone's favourite book; but it’s a bit obvious. See social media posts. I don’t know what the first line of the Torah or the Quran are, but similar would apply.

European firms afraid of US tech kill switch but haven't made an escape plan

Re: Time.

Someone worse than Trump, really that’s pushing credibility, but you never know!

But yes, this is not something that can be done quickly, and CEOs of companies do tend to be somewhat conservative and a bit short-termist (well Microsoft have never cut us off in the past, so they never will), good luck getting the approval needed.

Time Magazine has a separate version of its website with ads only AI can see

Is it still possible to burn all of this with actual fire? Or are we too late?

Next step for LINK spacecraft – a software update that won't make things worse. Are you listening, Microsoft?

I doubt it was to save cost; like it or not, Swift is coming down in the next few months whatever. So a company can cobble together some kind of rescue mission, yes probably corners were cut by necessity. This is really a nothing to lose, everything to gain mission. At best it succeeds, at worse Swift is lost, but it would be lost anyway and valuable engineering data would have been gained.

Voyager 2 cheats the power budget for another year

Re: Dumb question time

I think they are mostly concerned about keeping the (remaining) fuel from freezing. Hydrazine needs to be above some 2 degrees C to remain liquid. So that’s the, sort of, ball park figures.

Re: The future

True, but if I recall the original movie, what Spock said was that Voyager 6 fell into what was believed at the time to be a black hole. Implying that it was something else.

And as for a close black hole, depends on its mass.

OpenAI wants teachers and profs to foist their work off on ChatGPT

Re: Earlier than the 11+

So was the actual (required) answer ‘a fat kid’?

Microsoft tells engineers to curb their token-burning enthusiasm

'Oh look, the Emperor has no clothes’!

Well someone had to say it.

SpaceX revenue rockets while AI spending burns billions

Alas, they probably are!

SpaceX still does some quite impressive stuff, but you are right, using it as a cash-cow for xAI is going to bring it down.

How many of Elon’s enterprises are actually profitable? Starlink, Space X? Whatever happened to the Boring Company? Tesla, once the golden child, now, not looking too healthy!

There is a limit to how much you can ‘work the figures’ and keep investors on board, but eventually the whole lot implodes - and when it does, it won’t be pretty.

But neither mind, he will be bailed out by the US taxpayer as SpaceX has strategic importance, enough for a new yacht for him, less social care for the US ‘little people’.

If SpaceX does implode and is really of US strategic importance, then it’s obvious what to do, nationalise it, Act of Congress, take it into State control without compensation to shareholders; no the company you had shares in has gone bust, sorry, you have lost your money - it’s called Capitalism! But for national security issues, we need to keep it running but as a national asset.

Yes I know, a bit socialist and anathema to the perceived wisdom of many in the US.

I suspect though it’ll be a taxpayer bailout, shovel a few extra billions Elon’s way.

Keeping yesterday's computers ticking takes more than nostalgia

"(Always one hand behind your back, kids, when probing live AC!)”

And also, if possible stand on one leg! The logic being that if you do touch a live contact, the current will ground itself down one leg (assuming that you are standing on the right single leg), rather than passing across your chest and doing unfortunate things to your heart rhythm. Now although I do get the idea, I’m not too convinced that this is helpful in any way.

I have had precisely two belts from mains electrical supply (UK so 230-250V), neither of which were pleasant. In both cases the jolt caused muscles to contact and pulled my hand away, as opposed to gripping the live terminal and not being able to let go - in which case you will not be having a good day. However the first time was many, many decades ago, where I was installing an early touch-sensitive light switch, This involved turning a variable resister with the power on to calibrate it. Although I was using an insulated screwdriver, it was obviously not insulated enough, or somehow I was touching the metal part. When my hand whipped back, I managed, somehow, to stab myself in the face with said screwdriver!

NASA puts astronauts’ lives in the hands of Tesla’s flaky Cybertruck

Re: Guys, guys…

Well the public aren’t!

Re: Product placement 101

Still do, as does the Orion capsule. They are referred to as ‘tractor’ systems as the solid rockets are above the crew capsule and basically pull it away from the booster. Crew Dragon does it differently, there is no tower but there are a set of Super Draco engines set in the base of the capsule which, if fired push the capsule clear (a ‘pusher’ system. Starliner uses a similar system.

Both the Russian and Chinese crewed craft use tractor-style escape towers. The only time one was used in anger was a Soyuz flight where the booster caught fire just before liftoff; the escape system pulled the capsule clear a few seconds before the booster exploded. Because of the need to get clear of the exploding booster, the acceleration of these things is really quite brutal, albeit only for a few seconds. The Soyuz crew were reported to be badly bruised but at least alive.

IT boss left root session open for bring-your-kid-to-work day

Re: It's a rare individual...

"I still don’t understand why turning spanning tree off on a production interface was ever a good idea and without any change documentation”

STP is a bit of a black art at best, so if it is all working, then leave it the fuck alone!

Re: Was she named "Molly"?

Certainly not without a guard in close attendance.

Could have been worse, if it had been a cat, not only would the card stacks be dumped, but the terminal, coffee mug etc, would have been on the floor.

Techie lured out of retirement to support software only he remembered

Re: Not quite the same (not retired yet)

"I wouldn't like to think what state their systems are in now.”

Very probably the company is no longer in business.

Google Earth's AI makeover survives less than one planetary rotation

Even before I clicked on that link, I had ‘Taps’ playing in my head!

Headteacher had the most guessable username-password combo you could imagine

Re: Its fine

It’s less stupid than ignorance, and the latter is not a derogatory term. Yes I have an honours degree in Physics, but I am an incompetent brain surgeon.

They simply don’t know or understand the risks. Hopefully you pointed this out to them, and ideally they took steps. And if not, then yes that is stupid.

Re: I've got a great idea

In theory, yes you are right a centralised system should be best. But, of course, in theory Communism is the best form of government because everyone is equal, everything is resolved by consensus and everyone looks out for everyone else.

Or not.

A centralised system tends to fossilise, one single system, supplier, model is chosen and has to work for everyone. Except, the outliers, where it doesn’t work. But the knee-jerk reaction is to try to force them to conform to ’the system’ rather than allow ‘dissidents’.

There is no easy or perfect answer or solution.

Re: open all the fire hydrants

As I've heard it, it's to flush the crud out of the lines. Often accompanied by warnings not to wash light colored clothes on the days they are doing it.

And you might want to only drink bottled or filtered on those days?

Sorry, sorry, you’ve lost me - just what sort of oddball fresh water supply do you have in your neck of the woods?

"We used Keepass at our org for years, but eventually we had to go with a multi-user solution.

Keepass is excellent though if it fits your use case.”

Which is a very good point - yes FOSS solutions do exist, but not always geared for multiuser access, aimed at a single user, ‘can’ be made to work in a multiuser environment, but only if everyone behaves properly - which they won’t.

Re: Not a problem

Come on, of course it’s connected to the internal network, (VLANS, what is this magic of which you speak)? The Head absolutely needs to have the ability to view the cameras from home, or while on holiday - for no good reason, but still.

Re: Sue the bastards!

Yes I know but it’s simply a box ticking exercise. In theory you ‘could’ sue MS, and that’s enough to satisfy the box tickers.

There is no 'Linux Corp' to sue which makes it an ‘unacceptable risk’ for corporate arse-coverers.

Correct!

"There was also a machine with a “Do Not Turn Off” note posted to it sitting in a corner that everyone was afraid to touch.”

Ah yes the 'mystery machine’ - not uncommon, I tend to slightly pull the network cable out and wait a few days/weeks and see who screams! If challenged, the cable is old and must have come loose, (bonus points for snapping off the latch on the RJ-45 plug) I’ll replace it with a new cable so this doesn’t happen again!

NASA Swift rescue mission spins into trouble during commissioning

Not easy at all.

A considerable degree of boffinry involved here, so a virtual pint for everyone involved.

If it works, then excellent, but if not, then at least they tried (and by they, I mean humanity - well the better parts of it anyway). And if it doesn’t, then lessons will have been learnt - yes I know cliched but, I mean it in the literal sense; not the way politicians use it, ie our incompetence has been shown up.

In science and engineering, failures, lessons learnt, mean literally that.

Airbus keeps an A350 flying for 24 hours

Re: Military is used to In-Flight Refuelling, but...

Yes but the comment was about RyanAir

Re: I doubt the position of few passengers in flight would make a difference

And all rush to the back simultaneously.

Re: Conflicted

"You're able to walk (up and down the aisles). You're able to eat properly (although that depends on what you mean by 'properly'). You're able to defecate (the more modern planes have decent bathrooms)."

Unless the last time that they flew, the pilot was Orville Wright.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint leaves some Linux boxes defenseless after update

In earlier news

The jobs not done until Lotus WordPerfect Linux won’t run!

Britain isn't considering datacenters' thirst for water in its 'AI superpower' ambitions

Trouble with seawater, is that it is salty, and hence corrosive.

Pope's official prayer app commits cardinal sin, leaks 700K+ users' info

Re: I give up, What's a digit?

Well she did turn me into a newt - I got better!

Re: Holy smoke

Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.

SpaceX to try its luck again with Starship Flight 13 after engines and weather say no

Re: No RSD*

Not sure why on earth this post was downvoted. All previous soft splashdowns ended up being quite explody; no reason to suspect 13 wouldn’t end the same and so why put in place the ability to recover it.

Salt water is really quite corrosive so it probably wouldn’t; be viable to refurbish it for reuse, yes, recovering it to allow full inspection of the heat shield tiles would be useful, but overall it probably just wasn’t;t worth it.

Burnham wants Big Ecommerce to bankroll Britain's pubs

Re: Pretty much all costs are simply too high in the UK

Ah so you live in Clacton.

Microsoft fiber foul-up cut off Azure California for almost five hours

Re: On the plus side

Always a silver lining.