Posts by Dillon Pyron

Institutional idiocy in IT

Management has no long term memory

Case in point, I was a system manager for a large VAX and IBM shop. One of the operators had an idea to improve operations and submitted a Methods Improvement Report (MIR, now some of you know where it was, in Dallas). We started printing header and trailer pages to better sort the print jobs. This used three pages (why? I don't have the foggiest). About 6 months later, the same operator submitted another MIR to strip out the trailer page (really two pages) to save paper. Both were accepted and he got a $50 bonus for each.

Russian copyright wars to continue despite AllofMP3 shutdown

Russia

Whether or not you agree with the presence of AllofMP3 and it's services, take note of the fact that the Russian government, until pressured, allowed it to live. Just as it seems that it takes quite a while for them to take down phishing sites. This seems to project an attitude of "we don't care what our people are doing that might be illegal". Perhaps because of the money it brings in, perhaps it's even a view that as long as it's only hurting the West, it can't be all that bad.

There are a number of countries where pirates, phishers, scammers and virus distributors are subtly allowed to operate. Yes, they get taken down, but not immediately. Tacit approval of criminal actions in other countries? Seems that way to me.

Starburst snap holds clues to galactic evolution

Billions of years?

Billions of years old? Don't you mean roughly 6000 years old? There's a museum here in the US that will set these so called "scientists" straight on issue. If you can't believe the Bible, what can you believe. The President believes, and he's always right.

'Effete' Europe useless in GWOT, says bin Laden man

We've lost

The West has lost the GWOT. Not because of some military victory, but because of a psychological victory. The recent events in London and Glasgow prove that. Our governments and citizens run around like chickens with their heads cut off, screaming "the terrorists, the terrorists".

How free are you, compared to, say, 1980? What rights did British subjects have in 1980 that you don't have now? How many cameras were there in 1980? What rights did US citizens have in 1980 that we don't have now? What rights that we extended to others have we taken from them? How much shampoo can I put in carry on? In fact, the only positive change I can think of is the disappearance of 55 MPH.

With every right we lose, with every camera that goes up (oh, we'll get them soon enough, trust me on that one), with every incarceration without charge, the terrorists win a little battle, as they bend us into a state that they really want us to be.

iPhone hackers disclose vulns and hunt for clues

Of course they're going after it

It's new and hot. Look at how quickly Vista was cracked. That wasn't because the hackers hate MS (okay, maybe it was). Firefox 2 was attacked, cracked (and fixed) within days.

When it's hot and new, everybody wants to own it. And some people want to pw0n it.

'Unusually frisky' deer blow lid on marijuana plantation

Oreos

So the deer went into town for Oreos (or whatever the local equivalent is) and milk

UK.biz: recruiting talent the number one IT problem

Offshoring driving students out of tech?

True or not, the practice of offshoring has been driving students out of information technology fields. They don't see a long term future in jobs and go elsewhere. Whether or not offshoring is true. At least this is the case in the US, according to a study. So US businesses import talent. And guess what? Students see foreigners getting jobs at lower wages and get discouraged. Whether or not this is true. I'm sure the same applies in the UK.

Saudi hackers scalp MS UK

Surprise

And this comes as a surprise because ...

'al-Qaeda' puts on big shoes, red nose, takes custard pie

Oh the horror of it

All the lives lost, the utter devastation! Those cunning terrorists.

7/7 was a true tragedy. If the terrorists had had enough kooks willing to off themselves, it would have been worse. But the bigger you make the conspiracy, the more likely it will be revealed.

But this had an equally effective result. Fear. And a reaction from "the government" to further restrict freedoms. At the Austin airport, the driver can't leave the car when dropping someone off (even for a second, like to open the trunk). And nobody can do drive by pick ups, you have to park in the parking garage. At least they haven't blocked off 15% of the spots like they did right after 9/11. And security is doing random inspection of cars going to the terminal. ABIA boarded 780,000 passengers in May.

No mention of the new security procedures on the ABIA home page (www.abia.com)

Senior execs targeted in 'precision' malware attacks

Secretaries?

Ooops, I meant executive admins. I know of very few execs who actually read their email. Some do, but only after it's been parsed by their admin. So the affected computer isn't the exec.

Doctor Who recruits new sidekick

US viewers

Why am I reading this? Dr Who season 3 starts on SciFi this Friday. Talk about spoilers!!!!

Stupid me.

Of Microsoft Forefront security

And OneCare works?

OneCare has already been demonstrated to be less than totally effective vs other security products aimed at the consumer market. Can we assume that Microsoft has gotten Forefront right, or are there still issues that will make it less than competitive for a while?

Rival malware gangs wage turf war

DHS have not a clue

Are you kidding? DHS and computers. Bombs, guns, airplanes, yes. Computers? No. They are starting to get the idea that "critical infrastructure" might be in danger, but they have no idea how to protect it. You can bet the "turf war" will be a topic of discussion at Blackhat and DEFCON and that DHS will be there. But will they learn anything? Probably. Will it be much? It depends on how far Vana Vinyl goes.

Google embarasses MapQuest

Flooded creeks and railroad crossing

So now you can deliberately drive through a river and park on a railroad crossing. What will they think of next?

Wrong location

Google maps still has our house in the wrong location. I've had several people call when they couldn't find it. Of course, the house numbers are on the curb as well as displayed prominently on the houses. So maybe some of the people I have over are a little "slow".

Oh yeah, Garmin does the same thing, only they're about 200 yard off and on the wrong side of the street.

Google flirts with online OS

Sharepoint, what's that?

I bought an upgrade to Office 2003 Pro in December. I'm going to run XP until my laptop chokes and dies. Then I'll run OO. Which I already do on my Linux box and my HP-UX box. It looks like the IEEE and ACM will start accepting OO documents. They've already said they won't accept 2007 docs. My publisher accepts 2003 and OO, but not 2007. But they really like Framemaker.

Femto Forum promises very small cells

Netgear won't work for me

I've looked at their website. Their device assumes ADSL. I've got cable and regularly get 6Mb. Why would I want to slow my phone down?

iPhone autopsies conducted

I was wrong

I had heard they were using Qualcomm. Now it seems that they aren't. I have no idea, now, why they don't have 3G. Not the foggiest. Unless they designed it originally for a carrier who doesn't have 3G and they backed out/refused.

Apple iPhone

3G?

3G on AT&T? Sure, right now on a number of phones (well, a smallish number, single digits, okay, one hand). It's Apple's choice of chipset vendors. Qualcomm can't import, in any way, form or fashion, its 3G chips, due to an injunction obtained by Broadcom.

Had Apple chosen any other provider, we would have 3G here.

Harry Potter worm claims death of teen wizard

Autorun?

I thought that went the way of floppies. Of course, given the number of PCs infected with the Sony trojan, I guess it's still out there.

DoJ alerts US citizens to spam attack

Full headers

Come on, have some fun. Pull the full headers. Find out where the zombies are coming from. Is it a link or a payload? If the former, just take a look at it. Of course this assumes that you have a quality mail reader. Even a properly patched Outlook would do the trick.

US gives in to EU demands over data

Using PNRs

I guess if your name is Abdul or Achmed you're screwed. I wonder what some barely more that minimum wage and high school education inspector will do with Abdul, Paula.

Beavis and Butthead in London jihad

Burst disk

All pressurized cylinders have a burst disk to prevent them from exploding should the pressure rise too high in the tank. The propane would boil off and come blowing out the tank in a jet, which would ignite. But a fireball? Probably not. Propane makes a poor explosive. But it is heavier than air. Release it, then ignite it.

Euro iPhone launch will reveal 3G handset for Vodafone, T-Mobile

Why not 3G in the US?

Because the iPhone uses Qualcomm chips and the 3G chip has been banned from import due to a patent dispute with Broadcom.

Core 2 Duo: Intel's insecurity blanket

DFT anyone?

You would think that Intel would have caught this a tad earlier. They're big on DFT and these are the sorts of errors that turn up in simulations. They're also the sorts of errors that should show up on the tester when they get first silicon. Unless they have crap process and don't really use JTAG the way it's supposed to be used.

WiMAX to lead $13bn capex boost in 2007-2012

Of course China ...

... will be pushing their own standard. And the government owns the IP and if you are making parts or products in China you'll have to use them. They've already tried this with WiFi, or their equivalent thereof. If we aren't careful, India will be next and before we know it, we'll experience the Balkanization of "standards". This is already happening with documents. How many "standards" are there for the underlying support of 3G?

Lawmakers worry over government network breaches

DHS have not a clue

In 2002 the head of DHS cybersecurity made a presentation at the Black Hat Briefings and Seminars. He had some interesting things to say, but didn't really say anything that inspired confidence.

DHS had six people at DEFCON that weekend. They were the people wearing the suits. The Feebs were wearing kahkis. The CIA had shorts and sandals, but were wearing black t-shirts with the CIA seal on them. Only one NSA got pegged.

DHS has some good people working for them. I know a few. The problem is, there are only a few. They are so concentrated on massive attacks on the infrastructure and can't view the small attacks as an issue. If someone gets in and steals our intelligence reports on China, ho hum. Just as long as they didn't turn off the power to NYC.

Gartner reaps iPhone backlash after making business case

Gartner? Shills for whoever pays them the most.

Remember, this is the same Gartner that spouted off on the absolute superiority of Windows over Linux in all applications.

1. Apple’s “rudimentary” experience designing mobile devices specifically for the enterprise.

Everybody had "rudimentary" experience. Apple has their vast experience in developing products in short order.

2. Lack of support from mobile management and mobile security software utilities.

Is there really that much demand? As Apple sees the demand, they'll produce the products. I suspect we'll see Apple making an SDK available before the end of the year.

3. Lack of compatibility with major business e-mail systems.

Yes. A major stumbling block. Unless you've tried supporting Exchange in the SMB world.

\

4. An operating system not licensed to third-party hardware suppliers, resulting in no backup.

Not sure I understand exactly what they are saying here. Apple doesn't license for the Mac, but have had no problems with "backup", WTF that means. Does Nokia license to third-party hardware suppliers?

5. No removable battery, creating the potential for increased support costs.

Man, that's pissed me off with the iPod, too. OTOH, how long will the battery last? The average life expectancy of a phone before it gets traded for "the next big thing" is a little over two years, at least in the US. That's how long most contracts last.

6. Only one carrier operator (AT&T Wireless).

And how many operators carry the Q? How many operators carried the Razr for the first two years?

7. The high price point, $499 for 4GB or $599 for 8GB.

The main reason I won't be standing outside my AT&T store this evening. (I also have to work until 6. My customer pays me by the hour.)

The iPhone has its issues. So does every phone. The iPhone has its pluses. So does every phone. When you see only negatives from a reviewer, look for more reviews. When we lived in Dallas, we used to religiously read the movie reviews of one guy. If he hated a movie, we just had to see it. We were right about 85% of the time.

MP's son jailed over VAT scam

The rich and famous?

What, the rich and famous going to prison?

Of course he's innocent. Everybody who goes to prison is innocent, just ask.

A 28 in deteriorating health? Who does he think he is, Paris Hilton?

E-voting vendor succumbs to California source code demands

Compiling

If the state is going to go through the trouble of compiling the code, why not install it themselves?

MPAA unleashes legal eagles on YouTV and Peekvid

Everything?

Can they possibly prove that everything is a copyright violation? If not, then it seems hard to see how they could get an injunction against them for all downloads. Yes, an injunction against facilitating the distribution of copyrighted material, but to keep them from doing business?

FTC sides against Net Neutrality

Packet shaping

In other news, AT&T announced that they would provide IPTV. And that they would throttle the service from other providers.

But that wouldn't hurt consumers. Not in the least.

Oh yeah, RoadRunner (TWC) said they might just be throttling certain services, too.

HP steals agenda setting crown from IBM

Technical content driven by Encompass?

For several years, I was on the conference committee for the now defunct HP World (sponsored by Interex, also defunct). The last two years Encompass joined forces and we had some strong technical content. Then HP announced the HPTF and Encompass switched over to it, with the promise of control of the sessions, very little marketing and 75% of the sessions would be from non HP presenters. I didn't see any mention of Encompass this year.

Apple limits buyers to two iPhones

That's odd

Back in April I received a letter from Cingular (now AT&T Mobility) that said that as a "valued customer" they would reserve two iPhones, one for each of the lines we have, for purchase when they became available. "Valued customer"? That means that I'm on a month-to-month, our contract having expired in December. All I had to do was call and they'd send me a voucher.

We decided that we didn't need smart phones and certainly not $500 ones. Fracking luddites!

Paris Hilton says jail term has changed her

Jail house conversions

Jail house conversions are a dime a dozen. They usually last about 6 months after getting out of the jug. Having served the tremendous term of 23 days, I'm willing to put her conversion at around 2 weeks. The only ones I've seen stick are some Muslim conversions and death row inmates.

Blockbuster and Netflix stop suing each other

IT concerns

And what does this have to do with IT?

Sorry, I forgot to post that in my Paris Hilton comment, carry on.

Mobile industry group leaps into VoIP debate

Re: Money grabbing B****ards

You just insulted money grabbing B****ards.

Don't touch that Microsoft Security Bulletin email

All over again

This is just a subtle modification of the swen virus we saw a few years ago (and which pops up every once in a while). Instead of putting the payload in the email, they now send you to a website and have you install it. Social engineering at its best. Or, as we called it at ISS, meat hacking.

ICANN goes native, as new TLDs proliferate

geoTLDs

.austin is that Austin, TX or Austin, MN

And which of the 42 Springfields get .springfield? Never mind the prospects of non USA cities.

geoTLDs are an extravagance. Now I can see some value in language and customs. However, will .basq get blocked in Spain? And I can just imagine how popular .kurd will be in Turkey.

Spacesuit entrepreneurs plan parachute jumps from orbit

Records are made to be broken

About five years, a woman skydiver was making plans to do a jump from 108,000 ft via a balloon. I have no idea what happened to that, probably money.

The Starship Troopers movie was crap. RAH was spinning in his grave.

Oh yeah, records. Except 755.

BBC iPlayer finally hits the streets

DRMed players?

I haven't used iTunes videos, but I believe they have DRM. Why couldn't the Beeb have used that? NIH? Not MS?

I suspect this move will just give British "innovators" more motive to "uncover the workings" of WMP and its DRM. It may take longer than an internationally distributed service.

Doctors slam Choose and Book

UK's health care system?

So is it just the IT side of NHS that's having problems or are they deeper problems? Michael Moore brags about the superior quality of medical care in the UK, but I hear many complain about different aspects of it. The US has its own problems, but I suspect that Mr. Moore has chosen to only see the negatives in the US and the positives in other countries.

Comments? Observations? Ass kickings?

Microsoft to hawk PCs to India's kids

Lots of competition

MS will have lots of competition. Dell sells PCs in the $400 range, you can get a basic machine with Linux and OO for about $250. And there are plenty of places in India selling basic machines with pirated Windows and Office for under $300. With monitor, keyboard and mouse. MS will be trying to sell licensed software into an environment where copying software is considered "acceptable" by vendors trying to make sales.

I thought AMD dropped the PIC.

Google searches for computer dealers

500,000 searchs?

Wow, I hope they at least kiss me afterwards.

RIAA tried to shake down 10-year-old daughter, suit claims

RICO

I really like her suing under RICO. She can recover tons in damages and get some serious restraints placed on them.

Microsoft finds good facts to sell Windows Vista

Many not installing Vista

I know of many companies not installing Vista, including several computer makers. It's just not gaining enterprise acceptance. Consumers have no choice in the matter.

Spluttering UK net neutrality movement gets breath of life

Their own services?

ISPs priotizing their own services? Wouldn't that be restraint of trade? AT&T could roll their own IPTV (which they will be doing soon) and charge the networks to be carried. And the networks would have to pay to be seen. So they have cash coming in and the competition is being throttled.

That's why we need net neutrallity.

TorrentSpy filters pirated videos

wouldn't "mind" seeing

So, they're good enough to watch, but not good enough to pay for. Isn't that what piracy is all about. You denied someone the revenue of a purchase or rental. A DVR is a different beast altogether. You've paid for the show, regardless of when you watch it.

It's the crap movies and music that I don't pay for. I don't watch it, either. That's where the pigopolists are losing their money. Movies that only last a week or two (The Hulk) and CDs that never leave the shelves. If you are downloading those, then you are both a pirate and a fool.

British steam car aims for landspeed record

Speed

I've been to 301 in a top fueler and 396 at Bonneville. The latter was scary. I wish them well, they have a real challenge ahead of them.

There's also Black Rock if they can't make Bonny, although they'll have to do all the support work themselves, which is a major expense. If they don't make it this year, there's always next year.

The decline of antivirus and the rise of whitelisting

defense in depth

You need more than one solution. The more the better.

Whitelisting hasn't worked to control spam. I have one domain that is blacklisted by Spamhaus. And they won't tell us why.

Couldn't whitelisting be used by, say, the RIAA or MPAA to block certain downloads? Nah, that would never happen.