Posts by steven_t

Coca-Cola probes pro-Kremlin gang's claims of 161GB data theft

161GB

That's quite a big slurp!

Vital UK customs system outage contributes to travel chaos at its borders

Stable???

"... the department responsible for GVMS, told the paper its IT systems were stable ..."

I suppose being down is stable, in a sense. That's a hell of a way to put a positive spin on it!

Driver in Uber's self-driving car death goes on trial, says she feels 'betrayed'

What year is it?

It says, "... March 2018. Now nearly three years later ..."

The past few years have been very disorientating and I'm not sure the months in lockdown really count but technically, about four years have passed since March 2018.

Tesla to disable 'self-driving' feature that allowed vehicles to roll past stop signs at junctions

Full Self-Driving

Not sure what all the fuss is about this feature. I've been self-driving cars for decades :-)

Because that's what it means, isn't it? The alternative would mean the car drives itself, which it clearly doesn't. If the car drove itself, the people in the car would all be passengers.

'Extraordinary' pigs step in to protect Schiphol airport from marauding geese

Sounds like a solution inspired by Angry Birds

In what other universe are pigs the natural enemy of birds?

Now everyone can take in the sights and smells of a London tram station shut for 70 years

Also in the Goon Show

As well as the Avengers movie, the Kingsway Tram Subway also appeared in an episode of the Goon Show, although it was in the dark (and on the radio).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW8NNSqBjFU

I was fired for telling ICO of Serco track and trace data breach, claims sacked worker

Director resident in the Philippines

The sole director of Jackpotcomics Ltd is listed as being resident in the Philippines.

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11963186/officers

The referenced BBC investigation uncovered how tens of thousands of companies were set up, recruiting people in the Philippines to be registered as their directors. I assume they did this because when HMRC realise the arrangement is dodgy, the directors are out of their reach.

I'm sure there are legitimate UK companies with Filipino directors, but this looks very much like the tax dodge identified by the BBC.

FYI: There's a human-less, AI robot Mayflower ship sailing from the UK to US right now

Re: Units

Given the likely audience, it should have been expressed as equivalent to 521 adult badgers or three skateboarding rhinoceri.

See The Reg online standards converter:

https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html

Apple ditches support for pre-2015 MacBook Air, Pro laptops with macOS Monterey

Re: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s are different things

That's a good point and I didn't realise they were still getting security updates.

Outside the subheading, the article doesn't mention the iPhone 6, let alone explain that it gets security updates, so I still think it should say iPhone 6s.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s are different things

The subheading "But it seems the iPhone 6 and SE will be looked after until the end of time" isn't right - the iPhone 6 was dropped in 2019.

The iPhone 6s is a different thing.

Even that is unlikely to be looked after until the end of time, but that's a different matter :-)

UK's BT starts trials of new hollow-core optical fibre networks

Latency not speed

The article says BT believes it could achieve a 50 per cent reduction in latency, which isn't the same as a 50% increase in speed. Unless I've misunderstood how they think it is possible, it would require a 100% increase in speed.

The speed of light in a vacuum is pretty fast but it comes a distant second to the speed of light in a marketing pitch.

Uncle Sam wants 'ethical hackers' to crack its planetary defenses, but don't expect a pay-day from this bug bounty

Why does the Pentagon spend more on seafood than bug bounties?

Because they're shellfish.

Atheists warn followers of unholy data leak, hint dark deeds may have tried to make it go away

The Atheist Alliance International?

Splitters!

How good are you at scoring security vulnerabilities, really? Boffins seek infosec pros to take rating skill survey

Bucket effect

The bucket effect is expected. The scoring system is designed to be an assessment the severity of an issue so, obviously, different types of issues with similar severities ought to end up with the same score.

I don't generally use the CVSS score on its own. It is worked out from other metrics, such as Access Vector and Confidentiality Impact, and I find these really useful for deciding what the potential risk is to our systems.

We once had a security audit from a firm that ranked their results as Critical, High, Medium and Low with absolutely no consistency as to how they chose the severity. They ranked nearly everything, even things with no actual security impact, as Critical or High, and would not justify that decision. CVSS is far, far better than that arbitrary system. It isn't perfect, however, as the article explains.

Scotch eggs ascend to the 'substantial meal' pantheon as means to pop to pub for a pint during pernicious pandemic

11pm and cornflakes

The article says everyone should be out by 10. I'm fairly sure the new rule is 11, although they have to make their last orders by 10.

The regulations themselves don't actually contain the phrase "substantial meal" and I reckon you can get away with serving cornflakes.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 say that the meal must be "such as might be expected to be served as breakfast, the main midday or main evening meal, or as a main course at such a meal."

They're here:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/1374/made

Hackers hack Hackney: Local government cries 'cyberattack' while UK infosec officials rush to figure out what happened

Re: Where's Fatima

She's the prime suspect!

Safety driver at the wheel of self-driving Uber car that killed a pedestrian is charged with negligent homicide

Re: You had one job...

Not a film: it has been reported that she was watching The Voice, which is inexcusable.

Dunkin' Donuts drops some dough to glaze over lawsuit accusing it of covering up customer account hacks

Security Hole

It seems that their security processes, like their products, had big holes in them

Like a Virgin, hacked for the very first time... UK broadband ISP spills 900,000 punters' records into wrong hands from insecure database

Re: Easier?

And "found out they have"

As in: "Maybe it would be easier to just list the carriers that haven't yet found out they have had personal information hacked."

If it's Goodenough for me, it's Goodenough for you: Canuck utility biz goes all in on solid-state glass battery boffinry

Re: "Critics have been understandably sceptical"

According to Wikipedia, his middle name is Bannister, which means he can legitimately call himself Johnny B Goodenough.

Researchers reckon 500k PCs infested with malware after dodgy downloads install even more nasties from Bitbucket

exfiltrating so many different types of data

Just a thought... did they check whether the malware-ridden versions exfiltrate more data than the genuine products, or less?

In your face short sellers! Tesla goes two quarters in a row without losing money

Re: Real profit or phony profit

Most businesses, when starting, get cash from investors and use it to pay for losses until they start to make a profit. Tesla has done this on a grand scale, having received 6.618 billion USD from investors (as of 31st December 19, unaudited). If you include investments received by its subsidiaries, it is 8.11 Billion.

At this point, it is hard to know whether Tesla will be successful in the business of selling electric cars. It has already proved to be very successful in the business of selling that dream to investors.

Windows takes a tumble in the land of the Big Mac and Bacon Double Cheeseburger

Re: Possible use of audio

I think COKE (and by extension, Coke) IS a registered trade mark.

In the EU, registered mark EU002091940 protects the name from being used for the relevant class of goods:

Class 32 Beers; mineral and aerated waters and other non-alcoholic drinks; fruit drinks and fruit juices; syrups and other preparations for making beverages.

It also protects the name from being used in a wide range of less obvious products, including edible birds' nests. If you try selling "Coke" birds nest soup, you can expect a letter from their lawyers.

https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/4/EU002091940

There are other registrations for the same name, presumably covering even more obscure product classes.

Intel server chip shortages continue to bite: HPE warns of Xeon processor supply drought for the whole of 2020

iX shortage

In December, I ordered some Intel NUCs, only for our supplier to cancel the order in January due to an unexpected chip shortage. They couldn't source the i5 or i7 parts, so I had to settle for i3s.

Maybe our supplier is to blame for accepting an order they couldn't fill, but it demonstrates that the shortage is affecting the iX family, as the article suggests.

It's your walkie-talkie Teams mate, over. 'You don't have to say Over, over'. Copy that. Stop making the static noise, over and out

Re: "Over and out"

I heard that "Over and out" gives the other party the last word, leaving no opportunity to reply. The accepted response is supposed to be "The drinks are on you. Out."

Email blackmail brouhaha tears UKIP apart as High Court refuses computer seizure attempt

Such cruelty!

That would put the RSPCA in a real quandary. It would have to act against such cruel treatment of lions and corgis but, on the other hand, the Queen is its patron.

Alphabet, Apple, Dell, Tesla, Microsoft exploit child labor to mine cobalt for batteries, human-rights warriors claim

How much cobalt per car?

That's a really interesting post, but could I just query one aspect of it?

You seem to be implying that each Tesla S3 uses 10 - 15 tonnes of cobalt. That can't be right, can it?

123-Reg is at it again: Registrar charges chap for domains he didn’t order – and didn't want

Re: Did these people actually READ their own statement?

No, I think it means: "We didn't rip off this customer, but that was an oversight - we did it to everyone else"

'Don’t be so concerned with your image'... US prosecutor lets rip on Uber for hack cover-up as pair plead guilty

I think he was talking about Uber.

Traffic lights worldwide set to change after Swedish engineer saw red over getting a ticket

Why you need a longer warning if you are turning

I read the article and then it took me a while to figure out why you need more time on amber if you are turning. It has nothing to do with coming out the other side of the junction.

It is because, after a split second of reaction time, you need to make a decision about whether to go or stop. If you are going straight, you have the choice of proceeding at full speed, or stopping. The formula is designed so if you are the critical distance away, you have time to either stop at the line, or pass it at the expected speed. If you are further away, you have to stop. If you are nearer, you have to continue.

If you are going to turn at the junction, you have the choice between stopping, or decelerating to make the turn. If you are decelerating, it will take longer to reach the stop line than it would at full speed, so you need extra time.

Brit hosting provider tsoHost takes needleful of 'unauthorized code' to the servers, suffers week of outages

Lemonrock was affected by this

"Tsohost - our hosting company - disconnected our Lemonrock server from the Internet early on Monday 10th June 2019. They did this without warning, and later claimed that they had suffered a cyber-attack."

Their full explanation is here:

https://www.lemonrock.com/newhost.php

To members of Pizza Hut's loyalty scheme: You really knead to stop reusing your passwords

New pizza base, only available via the loyalty scheme

Credential stuffed crust

It only took Oz govt transformation bods 6 months and $700k to report that blockchain ain't worth the effort

Re: Just 'Unnecessary'? What about 'Wouldn't Work'?

The only thing about this I disagree with is the manner of the unravelling. Chocolate teapots tend to melt or, if dropped before use, shatter. I think it unravels more like a toilet roll in a tumble drier.