* Posts by Dillon Pyron

852 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Feb 2007

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Miss Brittany dethroned for posting 'nude' Facebook pics

Dillon Pyron

Re: Double standards?

"This is my rifle, this is my gun. This one's for fighting, this one's for fun"

If she's pointing her "gun" at me then I don't think she qualified for "Miss" anything.

AVG to flog your web browsing, search history from mid-October

Dillon Pyron

Do or do not, there is no try

They will either anonymize the data or they won't.

That's all I have to say.

Internet daddy Vint Cerf blasts FCC's plan to ban Wi-Fi router code mods

Dillon Pyron

Build a "tiny network"

Build your own network with your own "world". Now when the router boots and asks "who am I?" this tiny network gives it an IP, a name server, etc. This tiny network supplies all of that and isn't connected to the "real world". When the router asks "I need to find d-Link" (or whoever) your network says "why that's me!". Then the router says "is there an update?", you say "why yes there is, and this is it". Pump in your software. Now you can tear down your tiny network and connect to the "real world" running your own software.

"Ta da"! (please use Minion when reading this to yourself and please don't read this line aloud. Damn, the warning is too late!)

Get ready to register your drones in the US – or else

Dillon Pyron

Re: What's a drone?

What's a drone? A $200 quad copter? Or a $6000 RC airplane? Or a $10,000 RC airplane?

People seem to think that remote controlled aircraft suddenly appeared. Nah, I think not.

Arizona sheriff prefers jail to handing over server password

Dillon Pyron
Pirate

Interesting introductions

Hmm, sheriff's deputies found in contempt of court and get hauled off to jail until they comply.

"Bruno, Carlos, this is deputy sheriff ***. He's the one who popped you two last week. Please make him feel at home."

Followed shortly by the passwords.

BTW, how many folks here think they could pop those machines open in a couple of minutes? They are apparently running W2K.

Jetpod 'flying taxi' inventor dies in prototype crash

Dillon Pyron
Unhappy

Sigh, but ...

Almost everyone I know who builds their own plane (loads here in the US) has a professional test the plane. Or at least someone who isn't "invested" in it. I'll bail on Mr. Darce's plane where he might well have "ridden it in".

That said, he was definitely dedicated to getting the project going. My condolences to his family and friends. I agree with others, I hope this continues development. Anything that would get me from Orlando (MCO) to Port Canaveral without paying those f***ing tolls would be worth more than the price of the tolls and the rental car.

Fifty quid, that's what, $6000? Haven't looked at the exchange rate.

TJX suspect indicted in Heartland, Hannaford breaches

Dillon Pyron
Flame

Wrong charges?

Should have been indicted for 130 M counts of identity theft. If they penalty was one hour in prison for each count, he'd be looking at 14,840 or so years. I bet he'd give up Hacker 1 and Hacker 2 for a reduction to, say, 1000 years.

Too bad drawing and quartering has gone out of fashion.

NB. I was one of the TJX victims. No money lost, but do you have any idea how many places you have that card information stored?

Twitter goes titsup

Dillon Pyron
Grenade

Tweets about twitter

I can just imagine what will happen when the attack finally quits. All the twits will DDoS it on their own, sending billions of tweets along the lines of "twitter still down, oh well". Each one sent 30 or 31 times.

Twitter sued for patent infringement

Dillon Pyron
FAIL

RE: Tech Who?

"patent troll"? Nah, just a bunch of twats who should have been twits. (note: American use of twat, not British)

I took a look at one of these patents. I know I'll never be on the jury ("Sir, what's your degree in?" "I have a BS in computer science." "Sir, do you hold any patents?" "Yes sir, two.") But I can think of some folks who might be on the jury. They'll all be sleeping before half of the "evidence" has been presented.

I've tried looking up the company. They don't seem to have a stellar record in the way of clients.

Hey Reg, I've been asking for it, where's "the finger"? This article deserves one.

iPhone security cracked, smacked and broken

Dillon Pyron
Troll

DEFCON

Two bucks (what is that these days, a shilling and tupence?) says that you'll see a couple of off the wall presentations at DEFCON next week. And a whole shitload of stolen 3GS's. Crap, we'll see a lot of the latter regardless of what has come out.

Amazon Kindle doomed to repeat Big Brother moment

Dillon Pyron
FAIL

Fraud?

"Amazon's terms of service say its ebooks are licensed - not sold. But its marketing boilerplate describes the Kindle as a device for "your library" and "your books." The company didn't break its user contract. But it messed with some peace of mind."

Okay, I have no problem with the TOS saying that the books are licensed. But when they are marketed as "belonging", I would think that they're committing some sort of fraudulent advertising. When I saw an ad last week for the Kindle on Amazon, there was no mention, anywhere, about the "fact" that the books were licensed.

Even Microsoft, when it licenses software, doesn't (so far) unilaterally revoke that license.

IANAL, but I've seen plenty of these "contracts" ruled unenforcable because of the one sided nature of the terms.

It strikes me that the "purchasers" of these books did so in good faith.

South Carolina AG counterpunches Craigslist suit

Dillon Pyron
Pint

Not that I've ever ...

... actually looked at any of these ads, but wouldn't something saying "BBBJ - 200 hugs" kind of tell the cops that the lady was quite possibly a "professional woman"?

Of course, the cops could also bust a bunch of johns running their own ads. Just have to be careful how they word it. Works for the blue collar guy looking for a "2 dollar hooker", why not the investment banker looking for a thousand buck escort? Oooops, that may be the answer to that question.

Watchdog bites Mattesons saucy sausage ad

Dillon Pyron
WTF?

THAT's suggestive?

I guess the good folks at whatever the UK has to emulate (not much, I hope) our Dept. of Homeland Security have a way to prevent these fine young lads and lasses from reading el Reg, where they might have seen articles featuring model railroad figurines "doing it". In broad daylight! In a park!

Oh yeah, if hearing the ad is bad for the kiddos, can you imagine what actually eating a hundred kilos of those sausages will do to them? (quarter kilo a week for a year = 13 kilos * 8 years and we're off to the cath lab for a couple of stents).

Windfarm Britain means (very) expensive electricity

Dillon Pyron
FAIL

We're already seeing that in Tejas

Seems that Austin has started to roll out a solar power plant. For several years they've been selling "Green Choice", where electric customers (such as us) sign up and pay a higher rate today, but are guaranteed that rate for ten years.

Well, Austin Energy now says that they can't pay for the plant with just those of us who are suckers, erh Green Choice users and will have to hammer everyone. Oh yeah, the price tag is something like $100M. To supply about 1000 homes. Oh, did I say A YEAR!!!!? One can build a nuke plant in 10 years that will service 10,000 homes.

Feds suffer from 'serious' IT security talent shortage

Dillon Pyron
FAIL

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics Round 2

I was offered a job in Silicon Valley for what looks to some people like "great money". My wife could make even more with her skillset. But we couldn't afford to live there. Our house is about $114/sq ft ($124/sq m if I've done my math correctly). Can't live in a car for that much in California, unless we move out to Lodi.

Same applies to DC, which is where most of the wonks think we want to work because they do.

I do have a CISSP and 15 years security experience (damn good at it, but no offense taken Ian). But it's even worse than certs, everybody wants buzz wordy things. If I say I'm VISA certified, but not VSP, I'm screwed. If I say BS 1799 but not ISO 17999, I'm screwed.

Oh, and I've had three jobs offshored in five years. So now I'm on my own.

You're right man, too many idiots with their heads in the sand, not enough bulldozers. Sigh, bedtime for me.

New attacks exploit vuln in (fully-patched) Adobe Flash

Dillon Pyron
Pirate

This and that on this and that

I'm still doing my own research on the exposure level to non Windblows platforms. Browser doesn't matter, since it's a Flash vuln.

I use Noscript and choose the sites I'll allow Flash from. Yeah, as David points out, it sucks sometimes. But I'm paranoid.

Non admin? Well, I would hope your safe, since that's the whole concept.

Yet another "we can be trusted because we've promised to be safe" Charlie Foxtrots.

Security officer suspended over iPhone engineer's death

Dillon Pyron
Flame

Voluntary

Of course he committed suicide of his own free will.

"Jump off the building or we kill your family." That kind of free will.

I got a buck says we see it on eBay next week.

Google trademark grab defies mounting lawsuits

Dillon Pyron
Flame

Re: Use of trademarks

Of course one may use trademarks in advertising, provided it is done properly. For instance, the Apple ads DO state that Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft, Inc. Note my other post.

But these Adword pirates aren't doing that, nor are they using the trademarks in either an informative or comparative fashion, both of which are permitted.

Dillon Pyron
Thumb Down

The difference is ...

The comment is made "what if a grocery store didn't list the products?" Well, guess what, the grocery store is selling those products and paying the maker for the right to do so (by buying the product and marking it up). When a person "buys" a trademark "from" Google, the trademark owner isn't getting any kind of compensation.

Let's say I own a trademark. Let's call, um, Netserenity (okay, I do). Someone goes off to Google and bids it up, for no other purpose than to divert interest in to my website and business to their site. That's an ugly sort of bait & switch, in my opinion. Which, sadly, the courts will adjudicate after much gnashing of teeth and beating of chests. And flinging of both doo and money.

So, my local grocery store advertises Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup*. But when I get there, all they have is Chuck's Gizzards and Cardboard. Was I misled? Yes. Was Campbell's ripped off? Let the judges decide. I wonder who the "Learned Nine Men" will be when it gets that far, as it probably shall.

* trademark of CSC Brands LP

USAF raygun boffins clocking planet-buster asteroid threats

Dillon Pyron
Black Helicopters

Apophis

Yes, Boris, it is the SGC. As we all know, Apophis continues to be a threat. Or at least until a couple of years ago (the asteroid, that is. The Goa''uld is long and thoroughly dead). Not that I'm worrying about anything in 2029 until after sunset in Chichen Itza on December 21, 2012.

If you want to see the DED, go up to Hala'akala and look ESE and down hill from the summit. It's the two little white towers. The big silver one is the one that looked at the bottom of the Columbia on STS-1. Unless you believe the other stories.

Banned US shock-jock demands Clinton intervention

Dillon Pyron
Paris Hilton

This and that

First. Who? Never heard of him. When I saw "shock-jock", all I could think of were Stern and Imus.

Second. Sovereign immunity. HM Government can choose to do whatever it wants and Savage has little to say about it. Heck, if the TSA put him on our own no fly list, it would be years and years before he would even find out to to find out how to appeal. Although I'm willing to contribute to HM favorite charity if the government will let him in, if only so we can ban him.

Third. The US has this strange concept known as extrajurisdictional power. Let's say it's legal to smoke crack in Absurdastan. If I do, I can still be prosecuted by the US, since I'm a US citizen. On the other extreme, let's say I'm a semi-dictator from some Central American isthmus country that is perhaps helping out drug lords. I could be captured during an invasion, tried and imprisoned in the US. Ooops, not hypothetical.

Fourth, I got an email telling me about a new Pam and Tommy video, but when I went to look at it, all the money disappeared from my IRA.

Scratch the last, different topic.

HP hit by laptop recall

Dillon Pyron
Flame

And the answer is

I don't know. I have to shut down the fraking thing to turn it over and pull the battery. Maybe tomorrow. I doubt the house will burn down tonight. I think.

Videogame history project successfully emulates CRT on LCD

Dillon Pyron
Coat

Re: CRT

How to get it out of the flat? What floor are you on? Make a game of it. Take bets on how close you can get to the sunroof of your landlord's AMG.*

*Game works best from 8th floor or higher, due to the effects of wind and the pleasant sound it makes when you hit the bullseye.

Man survives death march to display-on-a-chip

Dillon Pyron
Thumb Up

Saw that puppy early on

In the mid 80s to mid 90s, my wife and I worked at TI, in the Defense Electronics Systems Group (basically, we made the smarts for bombs). We were invited to give our opinions on some different TVs. The difference was astonishing. This was well before HD, yet the images on one were so much superior to the other. After we consistently (as we found out) picked the DLP over the others, we were shown the chip. Astonishing!

I knew George, too. Nice guy.

Microsoft eyes metered-PC boondoggle

Dillon Pyron
Paris Hilton

Super Dome?

Umm, I know that I saw HP pushing this with Super Dome. Back around, say, 2002. And, I seem to remember that at least one MS OS was on the list of supported OSes. HP would sell you, for instance, a 256 processor machine with a 128 processor license. But come the end of the quarter, you could rent those exta 128 processors.

Paris? WTF does MS have to do with IT, either?

Rigged e-voting machine snacks on Homer Simpson

Dillon Pyron
Coat

I'm not worried

My vote won't count anyways, so, to quote AE Newman "what, me worry?"

Android security, market place under fire

Dillon Pyron

RE: Android limits the damage..???

Correct. In much the same way that the guillotine does no damage to the soles of your feet.

TSA vows relaxation of carry-on liquid limits

Dillon Pyron
Boffin

We're safe, but who's watching the watchers?

No, it's not that they're criminals or terrorists. I'm actually thinking about their health. Next time you get an x-ray, notice that the nice man or woman is wearing a little hexagonal badge. It tracks the amount of radiation they're exposed to. But look for one on the TSA folks. And, here's a hint. They sit much closer to the x-ray source, it's a stronger x-ray source and it's on more. Yes, they're only "near" the machine for 20 minutes in an hour, but that's still a lot of radiation.

But what the heck, all they have is a high-school degree. They're disposable. (You guys REALLY need "the finger").

Prison boss demands right to jam inmates' cellphones...

Dillon Pyron
IT Angle

This & that and midnight calls from death row

Hell, SC has it easy. Last week a state senator here (in Tejas) said that he has received several calls from an inmate on death row, of all places. IIRC, the inmate in question is scheduled for a face-to-face with God next week, so he won't need his much longer.

Civil rights? Got none. If you've been convicted of a felony, you can not own a firearm (ever), get a passport, vote, touch your naughty bits in public (oops, never mind).

Phone calls from prison are a very sore point for COs. Many gangs continue to run effectively long after the leadership is sent away.

Oz watchdogs howl over 'Cyber-Safety' net filter

Dillon Pyron
Flame

And you don't think they'll log those blocked sites, do you?

Imagine this. You type in www.hotbot.com. oops, look what's right next to the "t" on the keyboard. Why, it's a "y". Which means you really went to www.hotboy.com. I know that hotbot is Lycos, but I'm not even going to try for hotboy.

But I suspect the Aussie nannies are now convinced you're some sort of pedophile.

el Reg, you still don't have "the finger".

'Overplayed' privacy concerns rile Symantec boss

Dillon Pyron

1040, please

Mr. Thompson, please post your 1040s for the last few years. THEN I'll believe that you don't think privacy is important.

Perhaps one of your less than overpaid grunts might like to do some searches from your machine. Say for "AIDS treatment" or "drug rehabilitation center" or "Thailand sex tour". Of course, it wasn't you. But now you have to explain it away..

el Reg needs a middle digit icon. "See Figure 1".

Net game turns PC into undercover surveillance zombie

Dillon Pyron
Coat

I guess I wasted 6 bucks ...

... when I bought my new laptop. 70% of the time, I'm using a monitor, keyboard and mouse and the lid is closed. So all he'd get would be a nice view of the keyboard frame.

I shudder to think, however, what kind of images someone might snatch. I'm "visualizing" pimply 40 year old guys sitting around in their underwear, playing "that hot new game". My eyes, my eyes!!!!!!!!!

Net-stock fraudster Moller offers flying saucer on eBay

Dillon Pyron
Paris Hilton

Anyone? Anyone?

Come on, it's been over 12 hours.

"I want my flying car".

And this isn't it. What "it" is rhymes with "it".

Ballmer backs away from 'Vista Capable' legal row

Dillon Pyron
Gates Halo

But Bill was THE genius

When Our Lord and Saviour, The Bill, was the top boss, everything that happened at M$ was in someway accredited to him. Now it seems that Ballmer probably needs to go to school to learn how to use Outlook, since he didn't see the calendar entries for those meetings.

Birmingham Airport in X-rated X-ray shocker

Dillon Pyron
Paris Hilton

But check the batteries

As long as they're not Lithium ion, it should be okay.

PH? WTFN? Everybody else is.

Tw*tdangler defends Benito Mussolini stunt

Dillon Pyron
Pirate

I've got his solution

Dobb-Hoff and Foley. Of course, I'd pay to see them inserted (I've seen the procedure. The recipient is NEVER happy).

US brain trust: Beware of trawling-for-terrorist apps

Dillon Pyron
Thumb Down

Total Information Awareness

Of course, the acronym is TIA. aka (in medicine) as a "mini stroke". Which does a pretty good job of defining what's happening here. Not a total disaster, but some debilitated thinking.

Aaaagh, there's a thumb in my USB port!

Dillon Pyron
Pirate

re: I remember ...

And I remember when a dude got pulled over because one of those fake arms was hanging out of his trunk (this was in the US). Held at gun point in his car for about an hour with dozens of cops all around him until someone finally popped the lid (they could have, for instance, asked him to open it, or give them the keys, but noooooo). The Authorities were not amused. I think he got ticketed for some piddly assed $50 fine sort of thing and Austin sued him, but after that it lost its "newsworthiness".

And a thank you to DtheB for the link. Pretty neat stuff, there.

Gas refineries at Defcon 1 as SCADA exploit goes wild

Dillon Pyron
Flame

To the two cowards

Yes, you are both right. Any idiot how puts any sort of very sensitive system on a public network deserves to be flogged around the fleet. But anyone who says that that should be the only line of defense should be in line behind them.

We have to both ensure that these systems are never publicly accessible AND protect them as if they were. Defense in depth. I known, a worn out catch phrase from right after the turn of the century.

COBOL thwarts California's Governator

Dillon Pyron
Pirate

I'm avaialbe

1978 grad, BS in CS. I still have my COBOL drum card. $350/hr. And yes, Mr. Hitchen, the code is obvious, as opposed to some of the C code I see cranked out these days.

Now APL, there's a language.

Security militia sought to brutalize ransomware virus

Dillon Pyron
Pirate

It's just so easy to do

If you have the clear text and the encrypted text, the key shouldn't be too hard to crack. Just use your backups. You do have backups, right? Oh well, I wonder just how much the ransom is.

Fellow from AMD ridicules Cell as accelerator weakling

Dillon Pyron

AMD's direction

AMD isn't looking at what you and I do with our laptops. My current HP, roughly 4 months old (2002 vintage Viao finally rolled over) has a dual core 64 bit Athlon, running 32 bit Vista.

But AMD's thrust isn't at the commodity priced desktop/laptop. It's at the big boxes. Four quad cores with 64 GB of memory and multiple PCI-E gigabit or 10gig ethernet connections to some massive farm. That's what the itanic was aimed at, too.

But both AMD and Intel have the same intellectual agreement, even if they won't admit it. Cell computing is neat in the lab, but, as Moore says, the OS overhead gets to be too much too fast.

Hummer glummer on high oil price bummer

Dillon Pyron
Happy

And the worst thing is ...

... watching all the idiots in the parking lot with the engines running while somebody runs inside the store "for a second".

My Fit (Jazz to you) gets me around 32 mpg around town. It's only got 1800 miles on it and I haven't made a road trip with it, so don't know about highway miles. And it's got plenty of room.

My 96 Civic 5 sp coupe regularly got me 35-38 mpg on the highway. At 75-80 mph. With the rear seat down, I was able to carry four slicks, a jack and a reasonable tool kit in the back. Oh yeah, "never raced". (Not really slicks, BFG R1s)

Scottish ex-Moto chip factory to close

Dillon Pyron
Paris Hilton

Not the whole company

Well, certain parts of the company are printing money. If you know anything about the history of Moto/Freescale, think Somerset.

Paris? WTF not?

How to destroy 60 hard drives an hour

Dillon Pyron
Flame

Oxygen lance

I use these to open safes. It takes about 2 minutes to cut a hole in 1/4 inch carbide steel.

Actually, two or three minutes with a propane torch will probably do enough damage. I've got a few spares, I'll report back to Ashlee after I get back from Maui.

'Googirl' unloads on Google Health

Dillon Pyron
Flame

You don't trust Google?

Sorry Andy, I don't trust ANY company with my health data. Sooner or later, someone is going to either suck down a bunch of data from some insurance company, or do an "Enemy of the State" number.

Coastguard, plods swoop on fake Facebook yachtmaster

Dillon Pyron
Joke

Who needs qualies?

You can rent a bareboat in the Caribbean with nothing more than a quick check out sail. And if you've passed the ASA's bareboat certificate, you don't even need that. And that course is a three day weekend.

And why is this in the Reg? If Paris had used her iPhone to forge a copy, I could understand it.

Judge accuses hacks of hacking cannibal ruling

Dillon Pyron
Thumb Down

"filthy mouth"?

I wouldn't hand over sensitive information from my employer to some reporter with a filthy mouth. She'd have to be cute, too.

CompUSA goes titsup

Dillon Pyron
Pirate

Queen?

Anybody remember a particular song?

I'm heading over there in a few minutes. Maybe I can pick up that new laptop I've been wanting. Their problem here in Austin was that they could never beat Fry's and were only level with Best Buy and Circuit City. And when you can't beat Circuit City, something is really wrong.

Woman admits fleecing shopping network of more than $412,000

Dillon Pyron
Unhappy

Is it "hacking"? Is it "fraud"?

First of all, I'd say that this is one of those cases where I would get paid big bucks to find a flaw like this. But not $412,000! I can only wish that I could bill like that. Even my lawyer can't bill like that! But this isn't so much "hacking" as it is "gaming the system". Or scamming.

Is it fraud? Well, she did know what she was doing. If it happens once, I might say oops, my bad. If it happens thirteen or fourteen times, it's more likely that I know what I'm doing. Had she taken the effort to contact QVC, then she might look "innocent" to me.

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