* Posts by MRS1

9 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Aug 2018

UK COVID-19 contact-tracing app data may be kept for 'research' after crisis ends, MPs told

MRS1

Re: It's almost like it's not actually for the disease...

Indeed. It is very open to being poisoned, intentionally or not.

MRS1

Re: Lots of tin-foil hatters.

No, it is simply knowledgeable people who have the ability to learn from experience and history.

MRS1

Re: Incredibly counter-productive decision

I very much hope that you are correct but most people (i.e. the millions who don't read websites like this one) just don't care.

Begone, Demon Internet: Vodafone to shutter old-school pioneer ISP

MRS1

Re: And another old name is discarded...

And CIX itself it still around, too.

MRS1

Re: Historical accuracy

@Panicnow

> Historical accuracy

> [...]

> IBM PC User group was the first dial-up ISP service

As an additional historical note, IBM PC User Group (which I seem to recall was also called Winnet) was purchased by CIX in somewhere between 1998-2000. Sorry, I can't remember more clearly when it was. I do recall that all IBM PC User Groups servers were BSD-based.

CIX also purchased Connect-2 in the same timeframe. Connect-2 was running all Windows-based ISP software (specifically the 'Microsoft Commercial Internet Server' package).

Neither IBMPCUG's nor Connect-2's servers lasted long after CIX bought them: They were mostly integrated into CIX's mainly Solaris server infrastructure. I suspect that CIX quickly lost most of the customers from both ISPs too.

Oh, memories...

Mark Rousell

Formerly tech support, then dev/operations (NT web servers, colo, network design, VPNs, customer router and firewall config), then technical presales at CIX from 1997 to 2001.

First it was hashtags – now Amber Rudd gives us Brits knowledge on national ID cards

MRS1

Re: "people already hand over masses of info to private firms"...

> I rather fear that the reality is that you have handed over more data than you think. I wouldn't be

> surprised if even the more privacy-conscious among us have had data taken by stealth.

> So many things we do - using a mobile phone, using a credit or debit card, etc. are

> practically unavoidable in this day and age, and all are opportunities for someone

> somewhere to scrape a bit of data about us

Quite possibly but the key point to remember about this is that data taken in this way is taken by force. It was not voluntary.

And so, even though what you say here may be true, it still doesn't justify the government taking yet more data by force.

Rudd's claimed justification that we already choose to give data to businesses is still false, in that many people do not choose to do that, and still does not justify the government taking more by force.

Spies still super upset they can't get at your encrypted comms data

MRS1

Re: business won't comply

> That doesn't matter - so long as the enemy complies

>

> I'm sure Russia, China, N Korea and Iran are rushing to put in back doors so that Nato can access their

> communications

Remember that Russia, China, etc. are not the enemy here. The enemy in this context is actually the citizenry, the largely law abiding citizenry that is, of the Five Eyes countries.

UK-based Veritas appliance support is being killed off

MRS1

Note the corporate ownership: Carlyle Group. This is mega big business private equity.

My impression is that their business model is to ruthlessly cut costs with a view to making the financials look as good as possible such that the business can be resold at a profit. What they do not care about are the fundamentals, i.e. what actually generates and sustains value in a business. And so consolidation of this sort looks good in the short term and perhaps even medium term but, in the longer term, costs far more money than it saves.

It's selfish, it's vandalism, it's short termism at the cost of damaging real business sustainability.

It beggars belief that they can find buyers for businesses they've damaged in this way but they still seem to manage it. It seems that, above a certain level, good business practices no longer matter.

Use Debian? Want Intel's latest CPU patch? Small print sparks big problem

MRS1

Re: Section 3

Nice idea, but more governmental regulation will just result in (a) more costs and bureaucracy, to be passed on to us, the customers, and (b) more governmental corruption with more civil servants and politicians in the pocket of businesses with money.

Having the private sector effectively block vendor-created problems and excesses like this one, where possible, does seem to work better overall (less bureaucracy, less cost, less corruption) than getting the government to do it.

Admittedly, Debian isn't perfect in this regard but they've done us all a favour here that I would not have trusted any government to do.