Posts by WanderingHaggis

Boeing's Starliner future uncertain as NASA weighs next steps

I'd hesitate too

I'm sure Boeing is also worried about politics after all what NASA wants and what Elon wants may be two different things but silly me there are no conflicts of interest at the top.

France offers US scientists a safe haven from Trump's war on woke

Re: The UK should be paying attention

And so I find myself thinking De Gaulle was right -- an independent force de frappe, rather than having someone else controling your defense.

One stupid keystroke exposed sysadmin to inappropriate information he could not unsee

me too

Our first office email system was a single box for the whole office (long time ago) and the messages were printed, cut into separate messages (folded and taped) and put in the persons pigeon hole. As such all messages were supposed to be clearly address to the person involved. Unfortunately, one time a highly confidential eyed only HR message came in unaddressed and it was necessary to read it to find out who it had to go to then act as if I'd never seen it.

Untrained techie botched a big hardware sale by breaking client's ERP

Re: Did you really pull the big red switch?

Isn't this why we have UPSs (not sure about the plural) for anything that is that critical.

DOGE geek with Treasury payment system access now quits amid racist tweet claims

Re: @A Non e-mouse

Seriously how can you only be a felon in label? Either he has been found guilty or not. He would fail the background check to work with vulnerable people yet can be the commander in chief and "leader of the free world".

BOFH: How to innosplain your way through an audit

Cole's Law

Good one.

Tool touted as 'first AI software engineer' is bad at its job, testers claim

Emm sometimes perfect?

"The researchers said that Devin provided a polished user experience that was impressive when it worked." or as my piping instructor would say "between mistakes you were perfect"

Brits must prove their age on adult sites by July, says watchdog

Re: Age verification

I get what you are saying but we still have a problem of the clueless parent who doesn't know how to set up a firewall blacklist and doesn't have the tech skills to "protect" his connection (that is why modems no longer ship with a standard password or default ssid). So either he hires someone to come in and set it all up or else the ISP modems have blacklisting by default and the parent has to have the tech skills to make holes in the black listing thus unskilled parents can't access porn. However, no doubt the average teen is probably skilled enough to overcome the blocks with out the clueless parent being aware. This is why the home solution will not work.

Database tables of student, teacher info stolen from PowerSchool in cyberattack

I wonder

Makes me wonder what was the data being used for -- bragging rights or something more malicious? If malicious and over such a long period as suggested then surely there would be traces elsewhere -- ID theft issues, bank issues...

In any case someone somewhere should be getting marching orders for poor credential security.

Network engineer chose humiliation over a night on the datacenter floor

N.B. Aways remember

Murphy was an optimist

AI poetry 'out-humans' humans as readers prefer bots to bards

I shared this with my English Literature teacher daughter

Her reply was caustic in extreme -- she was not surprised as the level of taste and understanding of the unwashed masses is "soo poor" that they don't know what is good poetry.

Airbus A380 flew for 300 hours with metre-long tool left inside engine

Re: Multi-Fail

Then they draw a big cross on your forehead above the correct eye. At least they did for me.

Oregon Trail 'action comedy' film in the works from Apple

Will they use the same sound track -- an ear worm that dies in your brain.

Moscow-adjacent GoldenJackal gang strikes air-gapped systems with custom malware

I remember a friend saying he wanted to epoxy all USBs slots in his department.

But is a machine truly air gapped if someone can wander in and plug anything into it? I guess I just naively assumed that wouldn't happen in a normal world.

If every PC is going to be an AI PC, they better be as good at all the things trad PCs can do

Here's Clippy

Is the AI doing anything useful? It feels like it's clippy reworked and may be a bit better but it wouldn't be chatGPT standard and if I want a decent AI I would go on line to connect to it as a PC does not really have the power or knowledge base to do anything worthwhile.

Bargain-hunting boss saw his bonus go up in a puff of self-inflicted smoke

Finding Oban in the prairies

Discovering Oban in Saskatchewan, Canada really freaked my Scottish -- a fishing port landlocked in the middle of the Prairies.

School gets an F for using facial recognition on kids in canteen

Re: there cannot be privacy in a school setting

Define what you mean by privacy. Facial recognition is one thing but privacy outside of the toilet cubicle can allow space for abusive behaviour by pupils and staff. Check the safe guarding rules -- it is clear staff and pupils are not allowed to be in isolation together i.e. empty class room with out a window. In that sense there can't be privacy in school. FR is different in it can easily be abused and is unnecessary.

Former Fujitsu engineer apologizes for role in Post Office IT scandal

If it was designed with remote access for error correction then that is not a bug but someone abusing the system. So we're getting into the area of fraud by Fujitsu employees rather than a software failure. It is only a failure if remote access is not allowed. I can also see someone assuming is remote access means third party hostile remote access and not Fujitsu maintenance access. It is a bit like when seniour management want to know if there is a hacker on the network the only truthful answer is I don't see one at which point they go postal. You give them the answer that best fits their understanding.

For the record: You just ordered me to cause a very expensive outage

Re: "I felt no inclination to do so"

There is an old French saying " the absent are always wrong" (Les absents ont toujours tort)

Spam blocklist SORBS closed by its owner, Proofpoint

A long time ago we had a discussion once killed because someone referred to about socialist tendences and the spam filter saw cialis and killed it. Took a bit of work to figure out what was killing the posts.

'Little weirdo' shoulder surfer teaches UK cabinet minister a lesson in cybersecurity

ID what ID?

A few years back the UK rejected ID cards, now they are required for people to vote. There are advantages to having an ID card system if guess people wanted someone other than the govt to run it. ARGH !!!

Microsoft unbundling Teams is to appease regulators, not give customers a better deal

total frustration with teams

Logging in to a community in teams is painful. Invited into a community I can only access the shared area if I use the initial invite (even then it doesn't always work telling me I don't have permissions to access it), I can't even book mark the link. The idea is nice the result fails to meet the promise.

Cops visit school of 'wrong person's child,' mix up victims and suspects in epic data fail

There was a presenter on Scottish BBC who claimed that he went to school two children in the class were called Donny McCloud so the teacher to call roll would say Donny A and Donny B McCloud. Donny B stuck for the rest of his life.

The batteries on Odysseus, the hero private Moon lander, have run out

Re: Well USA, you learned an important lesson didn't you?

It still a government body i.e. NASA that did all the basic research and development that the private companies are building on.

Trident missile test a damp squib after rocket goes 'plop,' fails to ignite

What if?

Everything was fine except for what wasn't. So if this was the real thing would the nuke have armed and then detonated in the ocean under the sub? I think right now its deterrent effect is probably felt most by the sailors on the sub.

Europe's data protection laws cut data storage by making information-wrangling pricier

Sounds good but ...

The laws for handling the P.O. scandal already exist: starting with contempt of court, perjury, plus other things that a lawyer can update you on. In the end the problem was not the tech failure but the cover up and deceiving the courts. P.O. management, Fujitsu management and the experts who said everything was secure should be charged and not allowed to hide behind the corporation..

United Airlines’ patience with Boeing is maxed out after repeated safety issues

Oh dear

They best do something quickly before the wheels come off.

Post Office boss unable to say when biz knew Horizon could be remotely altered

Re: Compensation?

I don't know how the PO did their accounting but I would have though the yearly audit should have been showing that while X stock and services had been sold they took X+Y income. For example my shop has 100 pens in stock and at the end of the sales period I've sold 110 pens. Accounts should pick this up and ask questions shouldn't they and also be able to say the equivalent of 10 pens is owed?

Former Post Office boss returns CBE to sender over computer system scandal

Re: A scandal of epic proportions

I fear it relates how people get and process information. The drama appeals because you don't have to think just react emotionally. Panorama is work you need to think and be analytical (as with Private eye and computer weekly)-- the dispassionate "I say old bean isn't there something wrong" never quite has the same effect of "You what, mate" outrage.

UK PM promises faster justice for Post Office Horizon victims

Re: How is Fujitsu not in the dock?

Failed to edit in time -- did Fujitsu inform the PO that only the sub-post master had access i.e. PO management and employees didn't but not say that Fujitsu super users did because that was not what they were being asked. I saw that Fujitsu engineers are being investigated for perjury did they also mislead / lie to the PO as well. This is not an excuse for the PO as they should have realised that there was a change in the patterns of fraud and levels were not "normal". Odd behaviour is a sign that something is going on. The PO IT staff should have the awareness of opsec realities even if the board didn't and asked the relevant questions.

How is Fujitsu not in the dock?

The cry out against the Post Office is loud and valid, what is terrible is the feeling that Fujitsu has only been named in passing when they are a central player. In my experience user don't understand the power of the sysadmin to access systems and over ride restrictions. That is why there needs to be audit trails so that "back door" access is at least logged. Management in the Post Office should have asked questions why the number of fraud detection increased so much once Horizon was deployed. The post office should have asked who had access though I suspect from experience if you tell management that you don't have access they tend to believe you. A person with sysadmin experience would ask what do I need to do to have access and how is it logged. Fujitsu should be front and centre here, and liable to compensate just as much as the Post Office is.

You don't get what you don't pay for, but nobody is paid enough to be abused

Paper / email trails sadly can be necessary

I had a similar experience where I was blamed for seriously delaying a project. Fortunately I had had a bad feeling about the whole thing and was careful to document and save emails which I was able to produce to show I'd been chasing the third part for months and had fulfilled my side of things. Sad that you have to do this but it can save you a lot of grief.

Bank's datacenter died after travelling back in time to 1970

Re: Priorities

We put a sign on the door WE KNOW and our big boss was smart enough to tell people to not bother us. There are a few good bosses.

Chromebooks are problematic for profits and planet, says Lenovo exec

Re: Chromebooks

Do you want a Billy Bunter customising it -- not if you're responsible to maintain it.

Re: chromebooks suck

Got a chromebox for my mother in law. Much lower stress level giving her chrome support than any of her previous windows boxes. Backup is done all the tasks she wants are easily done -- she hasn't lost anything. Wouldn't give her anything else now.

Elon is the bakery owner swearing in the street about Yelp critics canceling him

Re: Advertising Money

Do I care if twitter survives -- yes in same way I care about a sewer pipe discharging in the street. I don't want its poisonous content and conspiracy junk polluting the neighbourhood.

Ex-school IT admin binned student, staff accounts and trashed phone system

What was the reason for him being sacked

If he was sacked there must have been something already going on so why wasn't he locked out first? Basic opsec. As suggested he might have had a back door -- audits may have been his responsibility so he can hide but still... The guy needed to go so check that your car isn't beneath the chosen window.

Suits ignored IT's warnings, so the tech team went for the neck

The power of controlling the internet

As a charity we used to have board and trustee meetings where it became apparent people weren't paying attention (in the course of one meeting I received an email stating we had policy which contradicted what IT had recommended and I knew hands on leadership were pushing for and as well hadn't been voted at that point.) Very awkward for us getting the job done and telling recalcitrant volunteer workers to comply. From that point on I got the GDs permission to have a wifi outage during meetings. Attention increased, and under table chat was curtailed.

Scripted shortcut caused double-click disaster of sysadmin's own making

Re: Yes

I instinctively make a distinction here -- I learnt maths (past part) that is learned (i.e. high level) maths.

Lesson 1: Keep your mind on the ... why aren't the servers making any noise?

Re: All fun and games until...

I had one user who found the clips annoying so deliberately broke it off to make it "easier to use". e also complained of having a really bad connection which was how I found out he was modifying the clips.

Aliens crash landed on Earth – and Uncle Sam is covering it up, this guy tells Congress

Looks like the reverse engineering hasn't gone too well

If the US has reversed engineered alien tech what astounding leaps should have been made out of nowhere. Unfortunately, there is a lot of expense research still required for big breakthroughs.

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

Re: Faux AZERTY

Having been introduced to keyboards while working in France I love my azerty, though I am bilingual and can use a qwerty. Living now in the UK my laptop is qwerty and my wireless keyboard azerty (I still do some French user support) -- being the only decent (and rude) French speaker in the technical team. Though the windows habit of defaulting the keyboard to UK layout at login is annoying. I would love it if I could set the keyboard layout independently i.e. without having all the Microsoft apps changing language.

That old box of tech junk you should probably throw out saves a warehouse

Backup spares

One of our offices had a literal server meltdown. Although we had backups the server was the backup machine and the ancient tape drive was end of life. Getting the data from a no longer existing model of tape drive proved very difficult and time consuming. When it comes to back up equipment two is better than one so you can fall back before you have a fail. (And have the second off site.)

Support chap put PC into 'drying mode' and users believed it was real

Re: Nipples and sonic screwdrivers

My daughter gave me a toy sonic screw driver (torch) which was very handy and I would use it to inspect the crimping of RJ45 cables. Then one day I realised what I looked like waving the sonic over network cables and my delight increased.

Wrong time to weaken encryption, UK IT chartered institute tells government

Re: Here Are The Choices

As they say "Sous la pavé les plages"

Turns out people don't like it when they suspect a machine's talking to them

Re: Or

Or they just aren't interested enough in you so ignore you while using the AI to try and not make it obvious.

NASA fixes solar observation spacecraft by turning it off and turning it on again

Re: Does it involve a long paperclip?

External reset was puzzling me too. Maybe they reached out from the ISS or perhaps friendly aliens.

News Corp outfoxed by IT intruders for years

What was their goal?

Piggy back on NI's hacking?

Glasgow staff form UK's first Apple union after historic vote

Re: re: Hey, Glaswegians, care to share...

C U Jimmy -- U gonna gie us a union or can yur mammy stich?