* Posts by A.P. Veening

3893 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Aug 2018

You heard the latest Chinese CRISPRs? They are real: Renegade bio-boffin did genetically modify baby twins

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non susceptible carriers (Typhoid Mary)

Thanks for raising that night mare, it is a serious risk I hadn't recognised just yet.

The most annoying British export since Piers Morgan: 'Drones' halt US airport flights

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Re: 869 US dead due to Britain in 2019

"AR-15 vs M1 Abrams? Good luck!"

Who needs an AR-15 against an M1 Abrams, a couple of well placed Molotov cocktails will do a lot better.

Build the wall... around your DNS settings, US govt IT staff urged by Homeland Security amid domain hijackings

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Re: Donald Trump the A-hole...

"This is what you get when an entire country is run by a capitalist pig."

The results wouldn't be any different with a communist pig shutting down the government.

Heads up: Debian's package manager is APT for root-level malware injection... Fix out now to thwart MITM hijacks

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Re: Its 2018....

Sorry, your correction had sunk out of sight by the time I replied.

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Re: "Supporting HTTP is fine,"

"Its 2018."

Wrong, it is 2019 (and has been for more than three weeks now).

French diplomat: Spies gonna spy – there aren't any magical cyberspace laws that can prevent it

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Re: Spying will happen, if not by nations then by high level criminals

"I don't know what the temperature in hell currently is"

Well below freezing, the Nordic mythology is correct in that regard.

Looks like Uncle Sam has pulled its finger out and appointed a Privacy Shield ombudsperson

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Re: Let's hope

"He's a bit more user aligned than Ajit-P at the FCC."

Of course, less would be well nigh impossible.

Dear humans, We thought it was time we looked through YOUR source code. We found a mystery ancestor. Signed, the computers

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Are you suggesting management isn't made up by artificial constructs without a soul (and without conscience)?

At 900k lines of code, ONOS is getting heavy. Can it go on a diet?

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OSI 7-layer model

"It turns out there's life in the OSI 7-layer model and specialised processing by layer is a good idea."

The problem with that model is that layers 8 and 9 are always forgotten.

IBM HR made me lie to US govt, says axed VP in age-discrim legal row: I was ordered to cover up layoffs of older workers

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Re: Changes staying the same

Frankly, I won't trust an English website on French grammar or literature. If you search for the phrase, just type in "plus ça change plus" (including the quotes), you will find both, but "c'est" notably on English sites and "ça reste" on French. I used to be pretty good in French and it still is my fourth language (after Dutch, English and German, but before Thai, Polish and Vietnamese).

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Changes staying the same

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"

I don't mind other languages, but please use them correctly.

plus ça change, plus ça reste la même chose.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same".

Microsoft partner portal 'exposes 'every' support request filed worldwide' today

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Re: Microsfot

I'll correct it for you:

Macrosof

Macro - Pretty self explaining

sof - slang for embarrasing failure

Man drives 6,000 miles to prove Uncle Sam's cellphone coverage maps are wrong – and, boy, did he manage it

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Re: Oh dear

He was (and probably still is) a paid employee, working for the Vermont Department of Public Service. As such, the title is completely correct. I will admit it might be a bit misleading, but I've seen worse click bait.

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Re: Why are physical checks needed?

Because predictions need verification. Besides that, congestion is an operator problem, not a user problem. The user experiences less than advertised connection and (rightly so) doesn't give the least about the cause of it, it is just the operator not delivering.

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Probably the reputation of integrity said ombudsman has, just trying to influence him might decide him to find against you.

Are you sure your disc drive has stopped rotating, or are you just ignoring the messages?

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Re: It is possible to produce an idiot proof interface.

"// anon, because the Secret Service has no sense of humor and hasn't been furloughed."

But they don't get paid either, "smart" move from Trump, pissing off the people charged with protecting him.

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Any key

"but luckily he never asked me where the "any" key was."

Once, between less important jobs like fixing an invoicing program, I was requested (by the junior help desk operator) to engrave "Any key" on the space bar of a couple of keyboards, so those could be installed for management.

US comms watchdog's industry-friendly 5G rules challenged by fresh legislation

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Re: When does it qualify as treason?

"The only way any of this can be considered "treason" is if the purpose is to engage in war against the US or to help a nation engage in war against the US.

What's happening at the FCC isn't remotely close to treason. What it actually is is corruption."

Corruption at that scale is economic warfare and should for that very reason be considered treason with appropriate (capital) punishment.

It's the weekend. We're out of puns for now. Just have a gander at China's Moon lander and robo-sidekick snaps, videos

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Re: At least SpaceX didn't bin them a week before Christmas

The big question is whether management also gets decimated. Usually the exercise can be repeated twice on management without any ill effects, but somehow they never even manage once.

Dozens of .gov HTTPS certs expire, webpages offline, FBI on ice, IT security slows... Yup, it's day 20 of Trump's govt shutdown

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Re: Government PLANS To Be Stupid

"Pure incompetence. Or malice; take your pick."

The IT guy technically in charge of renewing those certs isn't the one nominally in charge of renewing those certs, so he doesn't have the authorization necessary to spend that money. The manager nominally in charge of renewing those certs either doesn't understand the problem (incompetence, to be expected from a manager) or is dependent upon a higher manager to approve the spending, though most likely both. Pure malice would be a very nice change in the normal state of things.

Who cracked El Chapo's encrypted chats and brought down the Mexican drug kingpin? Er, his IT manager

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Re: Question - Answer

"What is the significance of moving the servers from Canada to the Netherlands?"

Dutch wire tapping laws are a lot easier than Canadian.

This story recently made the news (news papers) here in the Netherlands as well and this was given as one of the major reasons. Another is that the largest internet exchange outside of the US happens to be in Amsterdam.

Microsoft vows to destroy Office, er, offices: Campus to be demolished and rebuilt

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I just wonder who will be supplying the vacuum cleaners ;)

Senator Wyden goes ballistic after US telcos caught selling people's location data yet again

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Banana republic

It isn't even a republic any more except in name, nobody is working for the public cause (res publica).

Cops: German suspect, 20, 'confessed' to mass hack of local politicians

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Re: CDU right wing - ahh what?

Just for your information, CDU and CSU in Bavaria used to be so far to the right that there was no serious competition on the right side of them and that was quite deliberate. Since they shifted a bit to the centre, far right has come up.

As for those American "parties", the Democrats and the Republicans are the left and right wing of the American Capitalist Party, about straddling the position where the NSDAP used to sit in Germany.

Ministry of Justice abandons key plank of £280m IT project

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Pint

Re: Criminals?

That deserves much more than the one upvote I can give you, have a pint of --->

Despite vows to spend more with smaller firms, UK.gov sure does seem to love legacy lock-in

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Re: "..included setting unlimited liability requirements.."

Maybe the government should be held liable for a change.

Microsoft pulls Office 2010 updates because they're big in Japan. As in, big pain in the ASCII

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Re: ASCeeyaaarrrrgh!

"For those who haven't had their nose rubbed in A/ what a bloody PITA non-ascii is"

I get by just fine using EBCDIC ;)

"B/ what a massive eye-opener it is for most Westerners to discover just HOW much you've always taken for granted (a != ae, right? text runs left-to-right, right?"

Just a matter of some luck, the situation would be completely different if computers had been invented in a culture with a different alphabet (Arabic is written and read from right to left, just like Hebrew) or some hieroglyph based notation system like Chinese or Japanese. As far as I am concerned, they are completely welcome to have their own computer systems.

Linus Torvalds opts for the scream test: Linux kernel syscall tweaked to shut data-leak hole – anyone upset, yell now

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Re: The Scream Test

There is no hope in there, Murphy just was invoked with that statement.

NHS England claims it will be all-digital within the decade

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Re: As with all things this could be great if done properly

"and then some bright spark decides to out source your GP to somewhere else because its cheaper"

Probably to India as that is much cheaper than importing those Indian GPs.

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Re: all-digital ...

Usually with the Digitus Impudicus.

Mainframe brains-slurper sues IBM for 'age discrim', calls Ginny and biz 'morally bankrupt'

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Re: The downward spiral to the ground is well underway.

Spreadsheet management is a bit older than those ten years you mention, but it really started spreading like the plague at about that time.

Stormy times ahead for IBM-owned Weather Channel app: LA sues over location data slurp

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Re: GDPR?

It is a GDPR violation. Unfortunately, there is a back log in issuing fines at the moment.

Happy new year, readers. Yes, we have threaded comments, an image-lite mode, and more...

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Re: Width

"While there is a theoretical limit for how many replies this system can truly support the nesting for, it's high enough to not be a problem anytime soon ;)"

The correct response to that is either "Famous last words" or "Challenge Accepted" and I am afraid it will be a combination of both, given the commentards here ;)

More nodding dogs green-light terrible UK.gov pr0n age verification plans

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"Surely at least some of these offshore content providers will avoid potential litigation simply by blocking all UK IPs, in the same way as we still can't read the online versions of various US newspapers and magazines because the publishers can't be arsed to change their systems to comply with the Nth detail of GDPR."

Depends, what are the possible maximum fines?

SpaceX's Crew Dragon shows up at pad 39A, nearly 8 years after the last Shuttle left

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Re: Naming conventions

"Oath of Fealty"

Thanks for pointing that one out, but I fear most people here don't know this novel by Larry Niven (who is rarely if ever referred to here in the comments).

Encryption? This time it'll be usable, Thunderbird promises

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Re: Does it make sense to send encrypted e-mail?

Correct usage of PGP includes double encryption, once with your private key (decryptable with your public key) to prove you are the sender and once with the public key of the addressee, so only that person can read it.

The main function of email is messaging without the need for real-time communication.

Can't unlock an Android phone? No problem, just take a Skype call: App allows passcode bypass

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Taking it back out

When they do, can Flash be taken back out as well? It needs to be put out of our misery.

US states join watchdog probing CenturyLink's Xmas data center outage that screwed 911 system

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Re: Redundancy

"Have they ever heard of redundant systems?"

Nope, only of redundant pay check receivers.

Hacker cyber-gang: Give us cyber-cash for cyber-cache of 18,000 stolen Sept 11th insurance docs

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Re: "the Twin Towers were not designed to handle a deliberate strike..."

"IIRC, they actually were designed to withstand being hit by a Boeing 707, but I'm pretty sure they didn't plan on a fully-fueled one."

Seems like a safe bet. Another safe bet is that they weren't designed to withstand being hit by a Boeing 767 (a tad larger with a bit more fuel), which was exactly what happened.

Um, I'm not that Gary, American man tells Ryanair after being sent other Gary's flight itinerary

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Leap year

"I've never come across date-related code in my profession that correctly computed a leap-year"

I've done it often enough. On the other hand, I only guarantee the correctness of my date verification code between 15-10-1582 and 28-02-4000 (including those limit dates).

Hope you're over that New Year's hangover – there's an Adobe PDF app patch to install

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Adobe still existing

Can anybody explain to me why Adobe still exists and hasn't gone bankrupt long since?

Oz cops investigating screams of 'why don't you die?' find bloke in battle with spider

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This story has legs...

Yup, eight of them ;)

Another greybeard has left us: Packet pioneer Larry Roberts dies at 81

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May he rest in peace.

Millennium Buggery: When things that shouldn't be shut down, shut down

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Re: God Bless written instructions

QUOTE

No, you just get some junior, wannabe middle, manager chanting "well you should have taken OWNERSHIP"

END-QUOTE

The correct answer is (and always has been): "I don't get paid enough for that", with a CC to his manager and a BCC to still higher.

Bored IT manager automates Millennium Eve checks to ditch snoozing for boozing

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Re: Handy stuff this automation.

"Trouble is, when you're in a busy office, automating jobs away just leaves you without a job."

In that case you are automating away the wrong jobs ;)

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Re: Bygone days of Stupidity

"Those days are long gone."

Yup, nineteen years to be exact ;)

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Re: Priceless

"Do or do not, there is no trying".

Something like this can be done if you are competent enough and thoroughly aware of your limitations. I've done similar things (and there are still scheduled jobs running at places I left).

Heard the one where the boss calls in an Oracle consultant who couldn't fix the database?

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Re: Number of people

There are only 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't.

Ho ho ho! Washington DC sends Zuckerberg a sueball-shaped present

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Re: Now EU use GDPR

"The max fine is 4% only.."

That 4% of revenue will seriously cut into the profits.

Racing at the speed of light, Sage superhero bursts through the door...

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Re: Not me...

Was she at least compensated for the torn nylons or not even that?