Posts by IceC0ld

Token prison sentence for first convicted NFT insider trader

Re: More detail...

oh I say, and again, well done that RegHead :o)

Microsoft teases Python scripting in Excel

Obligatory XKCD

https://xkcd.com/353/

https://xkcd.com/1987/

T - otal

I - mmersion

T - otally

S - implifies

U - ploaded

P - arameters

Bad software destroyed my doctor's memory

those of a certain age, and UK based, may well recall an NHS push to get ALL medical practices attached to ONE single piece of software, so that the GP could, for ANY patient, arrange the date and time of any operation, and included the surgeon of preference - the name of this :- CHOOSE AND BOOK :o)

ANYHOW

I was involved in the install phase at various GP surgeries around the UK, and at most, I was treated to a mostly unpleasant shouting at game from all the doctors, and at the hospitals, even the bloody surgeons decided to get stuck in too

it appears that although the general outline of the app was seen as a good thing, the coders involved had missed one or two, may seven various DB's they could of / SHOULD have linked to

for example, as one surgeon was rather keen to emphasise, they have added me to this bloody operation, although my schedule shows I am ALREADY set to operate on someone ELSE, at a different hospital on that time .......

and one other pointed out that the bloody app had him set to operate on several people, when he had his holidays set to go ...............

in short, great idea, VERY poorly planned

and if that wasn't enough, this was when MOORE'S law kicked in big time, we could not possibly install the entire UK that fast, and so both the expectations of the app developers grew, as did the capability of the PC

so we NOW had to RE VISIT surgeries to upgrade the Choose and bloody Book install, instead of increasing the number of surgeries on the go

as far as I am aware it may still be going on :o)

for ME, it was a year of reasonably fun times, a good bunch of guys, a VERY understanding Co, but the scale and scope of it all had been VASTLY under estimated :o(

sound familiar :o)

Don't shoot! DARPA wants to capture future spy balloons in one piece

Project CAPTURE

Capturing Aerial Payloads to Unleash Reliable Exploitation, or Project CAPTURE

C'mon people, here we use TITSUP for ANYTHING that can be tortuously malformed into the [ admittedly ] awkward constraints of our acronym of choice :o)

so I propose the following

T - otal

I - nterception

T - ool

S - urprises

U - pper

P - ackaged

S - py

Soon the most popular 'real' desktop will be the Linux desktop

Windows v Linux

been in IT over 20 years now, Windows all the way

BUT I decided to have a go at Linux around 15 years back, IIRC, there was a big hoo hah over UBUNTU giving away 'FREE' CD's :o)

so, one old PC, with a new, clean HDD, and away I went, and yes, it ISN'T WINDOWS, so the first thing to do is admit that, and get stuck in, took a while, but got it up and running, and got online and posted to my forum of choice back then - ANTIONLINE - but never got comfortable with it, read about MINT, and its ease of use, to install AND run, so grabbed the ISO, got my set up routine ready, and quickly had a MINT machine ready to run, around this time - 2008 ish - got into the KALI side of things, and as I already had a Linux box, I dual booted it for MINT / KALI :o)

on the Kali, to save time, I had read of, and installed a quick updater ......

so now it was just a case of once in a blue, run that, get all the new stuff added, then go to Mint, and update that

in my defence, I am STILL a Windows kid, but am also happy running Linux, but you DO need to accept the Linux has a learning curve that is different to Windows, majority of us were initiated into IT on Windows, be it W2K / XP etc, and as such, we are happy to do the things that way, just accept you are NOT the same in Linux, and LEARN it, and boom, suddenly, you can run with both :o)

all this to say, the Windows has the edge over anything else out there, because it was in ALL offices / schools / HOMES ffs, IMHO XP was the system that turned the world onto the web, and let's be fair, it was ubiquitous, and having the same OS both at home AND work had to help it spread around

but I will always be glad I took the time to feel comfortable with Linux too, even if I am NO CLI guru

anyway, what was the thread about again :o)

TV and film extras fear generative AI will copy their faces and bodies to take their jobs

I am now too old to be worried about what may or may not happen should AI take off

however, I am also a parent, and my children will have to live with the aftermath of the decisions being taken, and in that, I HOPE that those involved are using a healthy dose of common sense, and keeping their feet on the ground, and heads out of the clouds :o)

so I took a look back at how other 'advances' were met and how we determined what was to be THE way ....................

profit wins, we are SO screwed :o(

Experiment arrives at the ISS to see if astronauts can keep things cool

Re: Tea

Personally speaking, I mix the cream and jam together FIRST

FFS

some people just want to see the earth burn :o)

Nobody would ever work on the live server, right? Not intentionally, anyway

curse you - the bacon and egg bun goodness calling, overcomes ALL who have the desire :o)

and yea, done similar, got away with it though

BOFH: Good news, everyone – we're in the sausage business

Re: The _real_ AI

[quote] Ah - many are culled, but few are frozen. [/quote]

oh I say, well played, nicely done :)

Google HR hounds threaten 'next steps' for slackers not coming in 3 days a week

for ME, the office working routine is mainly to keep the associated area vibrant too

as in, the area around my office block, not just my Co, is full of the sort of business's that help to keep you going

there is a glut of café style mini marts and takeaway options, that, during the lockdown, ALL damn nigh went to the wall :o(

as there was no other traffic to keep them going, as we came out of the pandemic, the new world arrived in full force, and NOW we have a fully viable option of NOT going to the office

SO, I can see the need to keep the DAY shift in the office, as they also help to keep a whole raft of other business's going too, but NIGHTS, why do they get called in ?

we have a night shift going, it is still required to come to the office, on a hybrid routine, but, in all honesty, why ?

there are no other people around, everywhere that caters to the day crew is closed, as is all the transport options, so you need your own transport

PRE pandemic, we all attended the office because, well, that's what we did, we had no real knowledge of the alternative

but NOW, we know, and we have tasted the freedoms that WFH give to US, if not the Co, and yes, some will have the white elephant office in a VERY high price zone, but contracts can be re written.

the future landed a couple of years back, the genie is well and truly out and about

so again, for ME, I would WFH fully, and only attend office for the odd time to replace kit, work party, no thanks, I spend way too much time with people I only know through work, I do not wish to associate outside of Co hours, I have family and friends to fill that space

where am I going with this drivel :o)

no idea, just to say WFH works for ME

there needs to be a clearing of the air, a full on paradigm shift on the way we do our jobs

will it happen, for some, certainly, but I fear we will see some Co's stick to the old ways, and they may need to be dragged kicking into the future :o)

Nearly 1 in 5 academics admit close encounters of the anomalous kind

Re: Sigh

also

https://xkcd.com/718/

Datacenter fire suppression system wasn't tested for years, then BOOM

Fool - Proof

so the creation of a FOOLPROOF system can be considered, even aimed for,

what they appear to have forgotten is that you need to make it USER PROOF :o)

Beware of geeks bearing gifts, so check the fine print on Cisco's latest financing deal

copy writers missed an opportunity there :o)

Beware of Geeks bearing GIFTS !!

Shureley Shome Mishtake :o)

my forum signature way back when on Antionline was - Beware of Geeks bearing GIF's

SO much better IM not so HO :o)

and yes, persec in place, use different names everywhere

Russia-pushed UN Cybercrime Treaty may rewrite global law. It's ... not great

SO, the answer to cyber crime, just maybe even greater state sponsored cyber crime ?

seems legit, seeing as Russia wants it, noted too, that the co sponsors along with Russia for its version are all such free thinking freedom loving citizen power countries too ffs

Starlink opens final frontier for radio astronomers

Re: Sorry but no.

[quote]I'm sorry you can't see Venus[/quote]

you had it RIGHT there, you had THE chance to use Uranus, but no, Venus, ffs VENUS :o)

US, NATO military plans leak: Actual war strategy or pro-Kremlin shenanigans?

Re: If Russia's suffered 200k+ and Ukraine <50k, then.. how?

you mention the 2014 Crimea occupation, yet fail to mention the Ukraine THEN was a totally different country to now, the leader then took off and emptied the treasury, the country was officially THE most corrupt, and they are still fighting that tag, but to compare the Russian populace in place in Crimea, with a Ukrainian population that is not fighting for its very existence is to clearly miss the point.

it's why the 'Nazi' epithet was used against the private military force in Mariupol, The Azov Regiment, they were the ONLY active unit in the army that had sufficient weapons and supplies, but also had some links to right wing influences, this has now been passed, as they were effectively eliminated in the steel works

the latest influx of Russian's into Crimea is all since the occupation, and they are now finding out that maybe, just maybe, Moscow wasn't telling all the truth about their acceptance into society there

should Ukraine get into effective range over Crimea, the game is up, the population will abandon ship as fast as they can, there has been some data released onto the WWW recently, both sides agree it is looking real, but all sides can see there has been editing ............. specifically the Russian KIA / WIA has been considerably downgraded, and the Ukrainian numbers inflated - why would there be a need to do this ? IF the Russian / Ukrainian numbers were correct, meddling will only disprove the new figures

also both sides are claiming it as dis information in regards to future plans / ability / readiness

the answer will unfold in the next few months, as all followers of Russian history know, General Winter is a deadly foe, but the initial release form the cold comes at a price of the thaw, making all movement hard if not impossible

the big push is coming, I truly believe Russia is fast approaching a position here they will no longer be able to pursue the war at all, Ukraine is a smaller country, but in numbers their respective armies are now coming close to parity, and that coupled with decent kit, and plenty of ordnance should be the turning point to make the world a different place, not necessarily safer, but most definitely different

Re: If Russia's suffered 200k+ and Ukraine <50k, then.. how?

[quote]Bakhmut is inconsequential, yet Ukraine keeps pouring men and materiel into defending it.[\quote]

it MAY be inconsequential, but it is their homeland, and as such ALL land will be fought for, and if they HAD just pulled back, say 10 miles, and then fought, would THAT be the correct decision ?

the reality is that wherever the Ukrainians draw a line, and fight, there will always be some back room / non fighter arguing that they needed to do X, Y .......

it may be that the losses now are so large that ANY thought of withdrawal would be seen as a betrayal of those who fell, but it also could became the straw that breaks the Russian back, even though it is a Private Military Contractor [PMC] doing the fighting, should they be exterminated, it will have a major impact on Russia's ability to progress the war at all

read somewhere that the Russian's still do have superiority in artillery, but are having the 80/20 fail, for every 100 shells fired, 80 miss their target

Ukraine may well have fewer guns, but their 80/20 ratio is of 100 fired, and 80 hit the target

know someone with intimate details of the conflict - military guy - and says the Ukrainians use artillery the way we use Uber :o)

in that the unit will put out a call, and any gun in range - NOT units - will respond, and so the target is hit, from multiple angles of the compass, none are firing more than a couple of shells, and the counter fire, is therefore unable to detect a location, let alone respond to it

anyway, stay safe all, we are SO much better off where we are, and here's to Ukraine stopping Russia DEAD

they have already destroyed the myth of the Soviet Super Soldier

to clarify 'extermination' should a military unit suffer more then 50% losses - dead / wounded - it is counted as no longer fit for combat, and withdrawn to regroup, retrain. Should the damage to the unit go to more than 80%, it is effectively gone, destroyed, and sometimes units with the bad luck to have been so badly mauled are never re instated, and a new unit will be raised in its stead

How do you hunt cybersecurity threats in a war zone? Like this

hell fire, brave souls one and all

puts my threat assessment work to shame tbh

may the gods of war keep an eye out for them

India-based cybergang busted for selling fake KFC franchises

got to be honest here

I thought my favourite Copy Writer had been at work fs :o)

BUT Google maps dropped onto it as a small area within Hyderabad

sometimes, the jokes that write themselves, get missed :o)

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Cyberabad,+Madhapur,+Hyderabad,+Telangana+500081,+India/@17.4348717,78.3846248,17.25z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x3bcb91583160defb:0x5663c50ab4792895!8m2!3d17.4347526!4d78.386889!16s%2Fg%2F11g1pn3qy3

BOFH: The Board members are looking very ill these days

every now and then I despair for humanity, the constant craving for adulation, the ongoing battle against everything that makes us human

and then I read the comments on the BofH threads, and I KNOW that all is well

sick, twisted and perverted, but definitely well :o)

El Reg first came to my attention because of BofH, I now come here for the many articles and in depth analysis - No really - stop tittering at the back

but the comments always let me know that the days of BofH are no longer limited by the constraints of time, and that they will live on forever, driven forward by you lot of craziness, and I am here to say I love the lot of ya

xxxxx

You've been pwned, how much will each stolen customer SSN cost you? How about $7.5k?

always amazes me that any intrusion is met with the old, we got an expert company, leader in its field to check our systems ..............

always AFTER

why oh why, don't companies get their systems pen tested thoroughly BEFORE it goes active ?

or is that just me being all woke and wishy washy :o)

Pentesters' fave Kali Linux turns 10 with version 23.1

OK, so I TRIED to log in and play

repeat - TRIED :o)

forgot password, no biggie, I keep a mnemonic check list that DID actually hold the info

next, still no access, took me 30 mins before I recalled I use ADMIN as user ffs

SO, I am now in, and it looks SO strange now, and also, even though I did install a quick updater - back when I was l33T :o)

I can niot for the life of me figure out the commands now, so .....

TL/DR I tried and failed

will try again, it did remind me of days when IT was still an adventure, but it may be for when I actually retire - 65 soon, VERY soon :o( - will leave me plenty of time to play around and find out :o)

but the laptop too, it WAS a beast back then, now, it is barely able to fire up :o) so possibly a new laptop will be on the cards as well ..............

stay safe all

had it dual booted on a laptop with MINT / Cinnamon for a long while now, but sadly, haven't so much as looked at it in years :o(

may actually log in, and update - both :o) - just for old times sake, and to try and recall when I too, was sort of cool LOL

serious side - it really was the best out there for all the tools it contained ready loaded, you 'just' needed to learn them and use them, I USED to be able to get around a network at a fairly deep level, tody, I barely scratch the surface, my job is no longer anything like techy, and I DO miss that bit, so again, lets fire the beasty up, and update and go play :o)

and long may Kali live on, here's to the next 10 / 17 - 18 years :o)

Google stops selling its biz-grade augmented reality specs

hahahahah

but remember, here on El Reg

the OFFICIAL acronym of choice is TITSUP

but TBH, I'm damned if I can come up with anything, can I buy a vowel please LOL

call me childish, but I actually almost DID LMAO at this ---> In case of apathy, break Glass

I LOVE the copy writers when they get going :o)

Tesla fires gigafactory staff after someone made the mistake of mentioning unions

the Musky one appears to believe he is above EVERYTHING

he fails to recognise that without his work force, he is LESS than nothing

Workers who help Teslas become robots explore starting a union to avoid same fate

Union for the Win

Good luck to them, the musky one tends to act like he alone has any input on any ideas, the only way to have some form of security is in numbers

you only need to look at Twitter - 8000+ employees, now at 2300 ish ? and yes, they are having a go back at him about it, but a union would allow for a far better attack vector

Microsoft boffins contemplate equipping Excel with AI

Excel - FLAME

c'mon fellow Reganauts

we use TITSUP here :o)

someone MUST be able to adapt and overcome and give us all the proper acronym for this ? :o)

T - his

I - s

T - he

S - oftware

U - sers

P - refer

LOL - not meaning to start a flame war here ..........

runs, hides :o)

Re: Wouldn't it be nice

1MB of RAM

brought back some memories that has :o)

In Laws PC - W95 - was running slow .................

took it home, and opened it to give it a quick once over

it had 4x 1MB sticks of RAM in there

now, back then, I was new into IT and so I was already collecting, just in case :o) any old bits from the PC's I was fixing for friends and neighbours

found 4x 4MB sticks, and slotted them in, good old clean and tidy up, of the case, and dust bunnies

use of CrapCleaner back when it WAS called Crap Cleaner :o)

took it back, and they said it FLEW :o)

life WAS so much simpler then - sort of

but back to topic :o)

I may be one of the few that likes Excel, was even tasked with training some users in BASIC usage of the beast, and at my level of ability and responsibility, it was fine

put all my music collection into there, because I can :o)

Nvidia revives canceled RTX 4080 as 'new' 12GB RTX 4070 TI

is it safe to assume that if the $300 difference is NOT sorted, that, at least, you get a free fire extinguisher included ?

enquiring minds need to know :o)

Southwest Airlines blames IT breakdown for stranding holiday travelers

Re: Some FAA flexibility ?

only the military can 'bend the rules' dependant on bad weather, and then it is usually only used in times of combat

the rules have been carefully put together to give the best outcome for the given circumstances, and, as stated below, mistakes in air rules are measured in lives :o(

Too big to live, too loved to die: Big Tech's billion dollar curse of the free

Google couldn’t kill Gmail, but Gmail could kill Google.

Google couldn’t kill Gmail, but Gmail could kill Google you say ..............

heads out to the shops, buys a LOT of popcorn, awaits the day that Google bites one BIG time :o)

nothing against Google personally ............... who TF am I kidding LOL, they were supposedly using the surgeons mantra [ DO NO HARM ] but as they increased in both size and intrusiveness, it has become painfully obvious that they consider themselves far above the madding crowd, and well apart from 'consequences'

so yea, I will be sat here, with me pile of popcorn, awaiting the day the world finally gets to take that first step backwards in the tech world

yes, tech has allowed us to do many amazing things, but the cost has become that no one is invisible any more, and it is just a handful of Co's effectively running our lives, on OR offline

and I, for one was never happy with that scenario

Washington DC drags Amazon to court for 'yoinking' driver tips

colour me surprised, a major Corp, possibly the biggest with a consumer facing side, trying to rip off the TIPS their people get ffs, you couldn't make this up, if thus was a film scene, NO ONE would believe it

the sooner they are forced to pay PROPORTIONAL fines the better, not a million, as that is just loose change to them, less than the cost of 'doing business'

rip them for BILLIONS in fines, see if they get it then

scummy Co, think they are bigger than the law, bigger than anything

Amazon founder Bezos to donate 'majority' of $126bn fortune

Re: Downvoted for suggesting paying the staff

WOW

who knew Mr Bezos had an account here :o)

The world was promised 'cloud magic'. So much for that fairy tale

Re: Are you saying ....

OH, the Emperor has clothes

but they are YOUR clothes

AND he's charging you, to wear them :o)

DuckDuckGo's macOS browser hits public beta

good luck to them say I

been a user / fan for years on my Windows boxes, you tend to forget what it is exactly it is doing

until

you have to use a friends device, as you fell for the - yea, I work in IT ploy :o)

The Metaverse is the internet no one wants

Re: They will be after every single scrap of information to mine

[quote]In the Metaverse, you won't be able to move your eyeball without that being logged and then analysed with AI. [/quote]

in that case, the AI better get ready for an overload of quality and not so good pron

and when I DO find it, my eyes ain't moving LOL

Red Dwarf'ers will know

it's all very nice I'm sure

BUT

is it Better Than Life

I rest my case :o)

Gone in a day: Ethical hackers say it would take mere hours to empty your network

it MAY be out of date / fashion etc

BUT at least there was a way to confirm someone's 'right' to be there, so if they took away your cert, you couldn't work

and it must have worked, as it is still hanging around

CEH was one of THOSE certs I wanted to get SO bad 20 years back, but my days of study fell into disrepute, and I was gradually ground down to what I am today, one that wished he had kept the proverbial to the grindstone, and also one who cannot wait to retire

Pentagon is far too tight with its security bug bounties

proof, if ever we need to see it, that IT IS still seen as the necessary evil, has to be there, but no one wants us :o(

You've heard of the cost-of-living crisis, now get ready for the cost-of-working crisis

noticed a few things here about letting employer pay for heating in the office ............

I work nights, few on few off, the office is over hours commute away, the office owners power heating OFF at each day around 17:30, the 000's of users are all gone, and for nights is literally just a handful of people in the entire place

at weekends - we cover them based on our rota - heating is off from 17:30 Friday to 05:30 Monday

SO to summarise, I drive to work, it USED to cost around £200 pound to do the 4 blocks, allowing a bit to get to shops etc

NOW it costs me almost £400 to do the same miles :O

overview on pay, I USED to have around £400 after paying bills to pay £200 fuel - £200 food - £200 credit card - and yes, that is correct, I had to pay to CC and then take it all back to keep myself fed :(

NOW - energy for my TINY little house has gone from £120 PCM to over £250 PCM

I have NO idea how I will be able to get to work should they demand we go back in. I am at an age where retirement is in the not-too-distant future, when my savings over 50 years' work will be put to use, sadly already massacred to help me out NOW :(

TL/DR - PRE C19, I was in office, we didn't know better

and TBH, I HATED WFH when it started, had to re arrange the entire house to suit it, but NOW, will not go back to OFFICE work ever, IF they insist, I am leaving, I may still need to go into an office, but it WILL be closer, it WILL be on a contract for a decent, or at least better rate, and I will await retirement with equal amounts of joy and trepidation :(

should have added - and of course there has been ZERO wage rise to accommodate the new prices :(

FCC floats 'five-year rule' for hoovering up space junk

quick overview on whether this will become the new reality :-

Will it cost the launch teams / owners MORE $$$

if YES - then the odds of it being taken up are slim

if NO - then the odds of it being taken up are slim

the reality is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

applies up there as much as down here

and even though we are talking about stuff that IS actually broken, safe to say, if it adds to costs, it will stay as is :o(

Xcel smart thermostat users lose their cool after power company locks them out

Re: Wait, what?

Quick n DIRTY way to convert deg F to Deg C

take the temp in F - say 86

take away 30 = 56

now half that 56/2 = 28 C

it is NOT exact, but it IS close enough, and easy to recall

and yes, it works in reverse

28 x 2 = 56 + 30 = 86

NASA selects 'full force' for probe into UFOs

Re: "no other agency is trusted as much by the public as us"

working for peanuts eh ?

OOK

I rest my case

Re: 100k a year?

shh, it's a secret

it'll be done off book, all black

you don't really think they pay $32 000 for a hammer do you :o)

gotta save some $$ somewhere for when they are really required

Re: assistant deputy associate administrator for research

Librarians flunky ?

I have had a word with the librarian, he wasn't too happy with all of this palaver, and is a little bit put off really, saying he is more than capable of doing what is necessary without assistance.

actually, he said OOK, but, you get the gist :o)

That was fast: MetaGuard emerges as an 'incognito mode' for the metaverse

Blimey, when they offered you the RED or BLUE pill, did you go all XKCD on their ass ? :o)

https://xkcd.com/566/

" As a bonus I won't have to put up with motion sickness, wearing heavy goggles or being molested by teen pervs. "

Wait, what ! .....

err, exactly HOW heavy are these goggles, and how bad is the motion sickness likely to be ?

asking for a friend obs :o)

Nuclear power is the climate superhero too nervous to wear its cape

Re: Volcanoes ?

and then it 'subducts' the waste straight into a volcano and spews all the sh1t right back at us :o)

and yea, fast in geological terms is still glacial in the speed section

lots of viewpoints here, mainly PRO Nukes, so go us :o)

have worked in Nuclear industry, at a very LOW level of responsibility, and safety has ALWAYS been the #1 thing they are always bashing an about, it has to be said, that some energy producing types are NOT so careful with their waste / process / personnel

it is 'just' going to need that ONE invention that will help to propel nuclear into the forefront of energy production, AND help to give it a much needed fillip in the positive news story too

in that vein, I give you the TITSUP for Nuclear :o)

T - he

I - nvention

T - hat

S - aves

U - ranium

P - ower