Posts by Cliffwilliams44

LA cops told to harvest social media handles from people they stop, suspect or not

Re: Stirring up shit...

And he was shot by the American Socialists for doing so.

"Even hos family does not believe the Ray shot MLK"

Compromise reached as Linux kernel community protests about treating compiler warnings as errors

But with Windows so many of those warnings will just continue and nothing will ever break. There is so much useless noise in the Windows event logs you could waste your whole life trying to track down the cause only to have Microsoft tell you "this can be safely ignored!

Why we abandoned open source: LiveCode CEO on retreat despite successful kickstarter

Re: Isn't

But some of these offshoot languages Do NOT teach you to think properly and MAY actually teach BAD practices.

Re: Interesting

"Of course, one can argue that English is the lingua franca of science and engineering - but, I am sure, it won't always be so."

BLASPHEMER!!!!!!!!!!

GitHub merges 'useless garbage' says Linus Torvalds as new NTFS support added to Linux kernel 5.15

I always thought it was a colloquialism for the word Get.

Like someone from East Tennessee saying "Git me my gun, Thelma!"

Spring tears down math geek t-shirt listing because it dared to mention the trademarked word 'zeta'

"The Greek alphabet is currently protected legally by the Affinity Client Services."

Are you F'ing kidding me? What bureaucratic moron in the trademark office approved this "horrendously stupid' idea!

Children of China, your state-sanctioned hour of gaming begins … now!

Re: Freedom vs public health

But in the West what we have is freedom to make choices WITHOUT the responsibility consequences!

If you squander your early life and learn no marketable skills, or become a drug or booze addict then the state will just pay for your existence. This is the issue we in the west fail to face. There is zero consequence for bad behavior up to the point of committing a crime. And in many places n the US a crime even carries little consequence,

IN the west we view this as a parental responsibility not a government responsibility. Unfortunately for the west parenting has and is fast becoming a lost art form!

IBM sued again by its own sales staff: IT giant accused of going back on commission payments promise

Re: Pay 'em what they are worth !

Because "Bean Counter"!

I've seen this time and again in every company that had a sales force. As soon as the sales people start making "real" money management either changes the plan or puts a cap on commissions. Said caps were never in the original agreement.

And yes, what happens? The good sales people LEAVE!

Magna Carta mayhem: Protesters lay siege to Edinburgh Castle, citing obscure Latin text that has never applied in Scotland

Re: Flattering, but still nonsensical

"(Meanwhile our country is littered with militarily useless, but still lethal, weaponry which invariably gets used against family members and random strangers.)"

Again, as is always the case with the "Gun control brainwashed class", you are wrong!

A very small number of killings in the US are committed by "legal" gun owners, an even smaller number are committed with rifles, and an even "very" smaller number are committed using what are "erroneously" classified as Assault Rifles (do you even know what AR stands for? ... No, it does not, again you are wrong!")

The majority of killings in America are committed by repeat criminals using illegally obtained "handguns"!

In the 1990's in NYC and other cities across the US the policies of "Stop and frisk" and "Broken Windows" (arresting people for minor crimes BEFORE they could become career criminals) were implemented and crime rates and murders dropped exponentially. Unfortunately these policies were labeled racist by the Leftist activist not because they actually were but because they were making minority communities safer. The Left just can't have minorities living a decent life in America! The Left knows the truth but will never admit it. The reason most of the people arrested by these laws are black is not because they are black, it is because they are black criminals!

I could go on about how the Left in America destroyed functioning black society, that thrived even under the yoke of segregation, with their "so called" compassionate social programs but your mind is too corrupted to ever understand anyway!

Re: Mars Bar

2 weeks in London for meetings, I only survived due to Fish-n-Chip shops.

Re: Sumption is wrong

And yet the current President has violated the constitution more times in 7 months then any President in history!

China warns game devs not to mess with history

Re: Factual Games

But they also decrease verbal skills as "no one is talking to the child!". This is also been theorized to contribute to certain Autistic syndromes as the child does not learn to properly communicate or socialize.

Using the screen as a baby sitter so you can go vegetate in front of Netflix is not proper parenting!

Dallas cops lost 8TB of criminal case data during bungled migration, says the DA... four months later

Re: "data migration of a network drive caused [...] deletion"

robocopy \\serverX\Share \\serverY\Share /MIR

Oops \\serverY\Share should have been the source! Now \\serverX\Share is empty!

I've seen this one more times than I want to remember as I'm always the guy who has to pull out the backups and hope they worked!

Avast, ye takeover lawyers! NortonLifeLock to acquire security rival

Three corps for the Tech-Kings under the Clouds,

Seven corps for the Energy-Lords in their halls of fire,

Nine corps for the Industrialists doomed to die,

One corp to rule them all, one corp to find them,

One corp to being them all, and in the darkness bind them.

Google staff who work from home might see pay cut under corporate policy – reports

Re: If anything

In my personal situation it makes no sense to even have an office. I works in a satellite office in FL with 11 people, none of whom work in the same department nor even communicate with each other for work purposes. All of my IT colleagues are spread across the US, my management is in Dallas, I don't support PCs so they will still have to call Dallas to get support. All working in the office will do for me is add additional distractions to my day as the people in the office will bother me with their PC issues and I will have to tell them "Call the Service Desk!"

Our lease is up in 2023, so it makes no sense to lease another office but they will do it! I know they will because well, "brain dead!"

The same thing exists here in the US we just don't have a name for it. It's just 'cost of living adjustments'.

Being in Construction, if we hire a heavy equipment operator (we build roads) for a project in California we need to offer him a higher wage (we also have to abide by prevailing wage laws) than if we hire him for a job in North Carolina. This even applies to existing employees. If a Project Manager takes on a project in CA he gets an increase in salary, if his next project is in Georgia his compensation is adjusted accordingly.

Re: Absolute cunt's trick

It really doesn't have anything to do with commuting costs, it is cost of living.

The cost of living in the Bay Area CA is outrageous! To attracting people to work there you have to offer compensation that allows them to live somewhere where they can actually commute to work.

If this person then moves to Lake Tahoe NV and works from home, where housing costs are much lower, income taxes are much lower then they now have a much lower cost of living and even with a say 20% reduction in pay they may actually end up with more money after expenses.

This is even more of a factor in offices in NYC where people routinely live outside of NY State, in New Jersey and Connecticut. NY state and NYC both have income taxes and if you work in NYC you have to pay NY state and NY City income taxes even if you live outside the state. So there, you just may end up better off even after a pay reduction working from home.

(IF NY allows you to declare your work place your home. They may not allow that if the main office is in NYC, bureaucrats in NY as DICKS!)

I agree reducing current employees compensation could be problematic unless they go through some kind of employment renegotiation.

Re: Childcare

In New York City, employees pay NYC income tax and I believe you pay this even if you live in New Jersey or Connecticut. In fact, you have to pay NY State income tax if you work in NY and reside in another state. In this case, working from home and declaring your "work place" is in your home state MAY end up a net gain, even with the reduced salary, if you regular office is in NYC.

The same might be said of CA worker living in Nevada

Russian Arm SoC now shipping in Russian PCs running Russian Linux

Re: Bad news for agencies

And the majority of ATMs, which is why I don't use them.

Activist raided by police after downloading London property firm's 'confidential' meeting minutes from Google Search

Re: Loss of income? Inconvenience?

In the US, you can be seriously sued for a policy like that,

They can have a policy that a criminal conviction can get you fired but not just an arrest, As anyone can get arrested by being falsely accused.

There used to be employment application questions here like "Have you ever been arrested?" which has led to many law suits for discriminatory hiring practices.

They have been replaced with "Have you ever been convicted of a crime in a court law?"

BTW: If a policy like that were allowed to stand a policy that states: "If you get injured and require a hospital stay you will be immediately dismissed." Because it is taking away from your work time.

Re: Loss of income? Inconvenience?

Disclaimer: I am completely ignorant of UK Law.

Was he arrested & booked? (In the US booked means that charges are officially files)

In the US you can be detained, taken into custody and evidence preserved. Then questioned and initial evidence reviewed, if then you are found not to be a viable suspect you are released without any "official" record.

All your DNS were belong to us: AWS and Google Cloud shut down spying vulnerability

Re: WTAF?

If you are using a cloud based DNS service to manage your internal DNS where your computers update their DNS records THAT'S YOUR FAULT!

This should be 100% internal and behind your security devices and 100% in your comtrol!

Public and or cloud based DNS services are for PUBLIC resources.

Flushing roulette: Southern Water installing digital sewer monitors to prevent blockages

Re: It's 1984 - but with toilets

It does if you charge for sewer usage? Here in my US county we pay for the water we use, the water we throw away (sewer), AND the water they somewhat clean and send back to us to water the grass.

There is an upside to all this monitoring though. If you have an unknown leak, they will contact you so you can fix it before you get an outrageous bill

Re: It's 1984 - but with toilets

A lot in the US have Auto-Flushers that are motion activates. My biggest problem is most men think it is longer than it is and and a puddle develops where you are supposed to stand.

Re: It's 1984 - but with toilets

We have sewer meters here in my county (US). We pay for the water coming in, the water going out, and also the waste water is cleaned (somewhat) and then returned to us for irrigation so we pay again for the water we've already payed for.

Paperless office? 2.8 trillion pages printed in 2020, down by 14% or 450 billion sheets

Re: Deal breaker

I know there is a lot of cloud hate on this site but yes with the reliability of AWS S3 and if your really paranoid, then use bucket replication you can be assured your document will not disappear.

As far as chain of custody there are security measures that can be put in place and effective means to assure that the original documents are unchanged.

We in the US construction industry must retain data for in some states up to 10 years. The problem is not storage or validation it is getting the humans to put the information where it belongs and not left on their laptop or in their personal email where it can be lost!

(And then expecting IT to find and retrieve it after 7-10 years when the principals have long left the company and probably most of the IT staff have turned over!)

This will never end. We still have employees printing emails and putting them in filing cabinets!

Google hits undo on Chrome browser alert change that broke websites, web apps

Re: Well...

Yeah, it it. I would not say this was a "move fast" event. I have not looked but I'll wager this was somewhere on Googles developer sites stating this change was eminent. It certainly was announced by the upstream Chromium team.

If one of our vendors apps was broken by this, yeah we would roll back a version if we had to but we certainly would put serious pressure on them to fix it if they want to remain a vendor for us.

Re: Other browsers are available

How many of these other browsers are Chromium based! This is not just a Google issue, it is ALL chromium based browsers! And if some other browser i.e. Firefox, allows bad practices that create security holes should we allow that in our organization? I think not!

Re: The browser is the new operating system

"Don't forget to test your app on:

* previous versions of Google Chrome (for those orgs who fix on a particular version)

* Firefox

* Microsoft Edge

* Internet Explorer 6"

Really? This is a fight we've had to have with both internal and external developers over and over.

"It only works on Chrome X.X.X" No! that version has security vulnerabilities! We will not allow it!

"You must use out app in I.E!" Hell no!

Re: "Tightening security always breaks stuff"

Seriously, your complaining about that?

Well, Chromium announced last year that this would be depreciated! That means that this is coming to the upstream browsers! This is the problem we have with much of the "corporate" applications out there. The Devs use shoddy practices and seldom update their code! Like Our companies EPR only working in Internet Explorer until 2 years ago, like this same EPR not supporting LDAPS yet, when Microsoft has been trying to depreciate that for 2 years!

Blizzard president, HR chief exit games giant in wake of sexual harassment uproar

Re: Difficult learning curve

These things happen all the time when women take jobs in male dominated professions. As someone who's been in the construction industry for decades (as IT), I have seen the aftermath of this. Women join a job sight, engage in all kinds of banter with the "boys", but when something goes wrong, i.e. they get disciplined for not being a very good employee, we end up with "sexual harassment!" And thus the woman walks away with a nice settlement. It has been my experience, having to work closely with our council during discovery, that 80% of sexual harassment allegations are garbage! The plaintiffs had no problem with the flirting and joking until something changed for them, then they went for the payoff!

Yes, there are guys who are dicks! and should be dealt with immediately. But, that one situation stated in the article, "woman in a relationship with her boss, allowed him to take nude pictures of her, which he then shared" I am sorry for her, but, there is a certain amount of self-responsibility here on her part!

Customers warn Gartner of AWS's high-pressure sales tactics in latest verdict on public cloud providers

Re: Gartner Magic Quadrant

Yes, they eat it and its the IT staff that has to suffer the food poisoning.

Right to repair shouldn't exist – not because it's wrong but because it's so obviously right

The opening of this article reads like the brain mushed spouting of some indoctrinated college sophomore! Restricting access to technology based on the biggest BIG LIE of the modern era only shows that the "Climate NAZIS" main concern has nothing to do with Climate Control and everything to so with People Control.

As I read in an article this morning there was a heat wave in 1911 that killed 21,000 people in Europe! Was that caused by Global CO2 increases? I think not! As the "Industrial Revolution" was only 50 off years old by them.

Regarding right to repair, it IS a huge issue. I doubt it will get solved as the Corporations have millions in lobbying money and those advocating it have little.

Here's 30 servers Russian intelligence uses to fling malware at the West, beams RiskIQ

Re: if you know the suspect addresses

The "Order" was not to monitor the "content" of said phone calls or emails but to monitor the recipients of these communications so see of communications originating with the US to knows terrorist targets outside the US.

I agree that this is not a legal order as it violates the 4th amendment and we all know that "restricted surveillance operations" like this are fraught with the potential for abuse.

Also the last 2 Democrat administrations have taken Domestic Spying to new levels never seen in this country before.

'Woefully insufficient': Biden administration's assessment of critical infrastructure infosec protection

"The Memo outlines plans to change that, with an "Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative" that sees government and industry collaborate to define security baselines."

Government and Industry collaboration, Mussolini would be so proud of us!

Israeli authorities investigate NSO Group over Pegasus spyware abuse claims

Re: How does it work?

Regardless of whether you think what NSO are doing is right or wrong I always wonder why:

When members of the International Left, of which Amnesty is a major player, "steal" proprietary and confidential intellectual information or communications from a government or corporation it is seen as some public service but when it is done in the reverse, i.e. The DNC emails it is viewed as a crime! This smacks of the typical legal double standard the Left always wants to operate under.

This incident requires answer:

1. Does NSO retain control of the distribution of the spyware to targeted individuals.

2. Is this supposed list accurate as to submitted targets by their customers. or

3 Has Amnesty just made up this list (including the dead journalists) as a way to target a known adversary of theirs, Israel.

4. If the list is genuine, was it obtained legally? An insider leaking the list is NOT legal.

5. If not then those who stole it and those who received it should be prosecuted.

Biden warns 'real shooting war' will be sparked by severe cyber attack

"Wag the Dog" as they say. No, this won't be an action against Russia and most certainly will not be against China as Slow Joe is far too "in bed" with the Chinese for that to happen.

It will most likely be against Iran. Once he loses badly in the next election, which is at this point a veritable certainty. This will be the play used to regain his popularity.

But I believe it will fail. The American public bit Left & Right has had enough of the endless wars in places where these wars make not a shred of change in the lives, politics and ideology of those living in these nations.

Re: Not really news, Biden

While coding better software is important the real issue is that the weakest link in your security defense is your employees! Most of these current ransomware attacks are perpetrated through social engineering. Target someone in a position where they may have access to a large portion of a companies data, get them to perform some action through social media, email, even a phone call, i.e. either inadvertently or some time deliberately install malware on their devices and your in!

They have not targeted a vulnerability in a program or operating system they have targeted a vulnerability in the Human Interface!

We on the IT side tend to focus exclusively on the technical aspects of security and completely ignore the human factor!

Re: Not really news, Biden

I know many won't like this but it is time to phase out writing software in C, C++. Rust may not be at the place where it can replace everything C based languages can do but that transition need to happen. There are too many inherent dangers coding in C, C++ that languages like Rust can mitigate. This won't stop dumbass programmer error but it will stop some of the common problems with C based programs because Rust will not let you compile with these vulnerabilities.

Re: Not really news, Biden

Bottom line, you can prevent all this with proper security measures and user training. The biggest problem is "That costs money" and Corporate leadership will not spend the money "until something bad happens"! It is much like "disaster recovery", they only want to spend on it AFTER an incident that loses data!

Then there are the Security Professionals who spend more time selling FUD and crap products than actually protecting their clients.

And there is the "internet generation" that will throw childish tantrums if you block social media on their corporate devices. They view this as an infringement on their "civil rights". Unfortunately most management doesn't have the courage to tell them no. Usually because they don't want their social media blocked. And then there IS management, who request exemption from every security measure you try to implement.

Finally, people should only have access to what they need! Not what they think they need. As a senior IT employee do I have full access to our financial system? NO! and I don't want it. When someone requests access to something that is outside their job requirements the answer should be NO! No matter their position.

Iranian state-backed hackers posed as flirty Scouser called Marcy to target workers in defence and aerospace

Re: Can't believe people

If this includes expensive suits, high end apartments in glamorous placed all over the world, access to many attractive and willing women, all kinds of really cool gadgets and a "license to kill", then I'm in!

Re: Can't believe people

Such is the nature of espionage! Except now it can be done from a distance by fake personalities instead of training a hit young lady in all the tactics of spy craft.

Some "infamous" examples are:

Mata Hari

Anna Chapman

Vera Atkins

Krystyna Skarbek (Churchill's favorite spy)

Nancy Wake

Pearl Cornioley

Virginia Hall

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/11/allied-world-war-2-female-spy-movies

Targeting "techy" lonely men has always been an effective means of gaining valuable intellegence.

Er, no, we would like to continue suing Facebook, US state AGs tell courts

All of these anti-trust Breakups that have occurred throughout (at least) American history have not resulted in the result those who started them expected.

Lets look at 2 prominent examples:

Standard Oil: When Standard Oil was broken up, essentially to limit the earnings of the founder John D. Rockefeller the result was that Rockefeller obtained a controlling interest in virtually all the subsequent companies that resulted from the breakup. Rockefeller's earnings actually increased after the breakup of Standard Oil. In regards to the consumer, the price of oil related products was not significantly effected.

AT&T: While the breakup of AT&T did result in the creation of many regional phone companies (to which AT&T had if not controlling, at least significant interest) The quality of service did not improve much. The advent of Wireless technology and the internet did more for consumer prices. The end result today is that these regional communications companies all collapsed and were acquired by 3 major carriers, AT&T, Verizon (who acquired World Comm) & Century Link. The most significant event that occurred to improve service and cost for consumers was the advent of VOIP phone service. Allowing internet/cable companies to provide phone services without the investment into standard switching equipment and running lines or paying the 3 big carriers to lease space on their lines.

Government bureaucrats and idiot elected politicians, who are clueless as to how the real world works, should think twice before they embark on ill conceived efforts without understanding the ramifications of such efforts. Do they really think that if Zuckerburg is forced to sell off WhatsApp and SnapChat he will not buy up a controlling interest in these now separate companies? What will be the end result for consumers? It certainly will not be that their personal data will no longer be monetized. It most certainly will!

Scam-baiting YouTube channel Tech Support Scams taken offline by tech support scam

Re: YouTube tech support?!

As we tell our employees, Google, Microsoft, your bank, et all, ARE NOT going to call you regarding your existing account and then ask you details about that account. They have no reason to do so.

You bank may send you a text, email or even a call regarding anomalous activity but they will not ask you to verify your account number or any other identifying details. At most they will ask you for (is US) last 4 of SS number, maybe your address. That's it!

After 15 years and $500m, the US Navy decides it doesn't need shipboard railguns after all

Re: A cunning plan

3.6% of the total US budget!

Jackie 'You have no authority here' Weaver: We need more 50-somethings in UK tech

The problem with using numbers like this is that when I (63 now) started in IT (1988) there were a whole lot fewer of us in this profession than there is now. The expansion of this field did not happen until the mid 1990's. So of course we are going to be a lower percentage of out age group.

My experience with older IT staff (and we have several at my employer) is they do not keep up their skill set. They tend to have specific skills or they are stuck in the same place for years. Nothing is more pathetic than a 50 yr old service desk tech who flat out refuses to learn PowerShell? (just an example)

Age discrimination case against IBM leaks emails, docs via bad redaction

Re: Claw Back the Criminals' Compensation

While I agree. Some of the blame lies with IBMs older workers. I've worked with some of them in my career and they only know "older IBM tech" and stubbornly refuse to update their skillet. All with a company that is struggling to keep up with its competitors.

As is typical of IBM, management is struggling to properly deal with this situation and falls back on the Old School tactic of taking an ax to their older staff.