* Posts by Paul Crawford

5636 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Mar 2007

Cisco warns 'unintentional debugging credential' left in some network switches can be abused to hijack equipment

Paul Crawford Silver badge

No, but Cisco push stuff for small companies as well.

If you only have a dozen or two machines in one location then OpeWRT is quite adequate as a router and basic firewall. The ease of saving and restoring configuration allows you to have another cheap system on cold standby if you don't have the budget for fancy HA systems.

Paul Crawford Silver badge

One of the reasons I prefer open source stuff like OpenWRT and pFSense is the lower probability of crap like this happening. Oh, and much cheaper as well...

To be fair to others, they probably have cool features that I don't know about and/or have no idea how to use, not being adequately versed in the dark arts of VLAN management, etc.

Hey, Walkers. What's the difference between crisps and chips? Answer: You can't get either of them

Paul Crawford Silver badge

So if you've got a hankering for Monster Munch

You should be sectioned?

Data-breached Guntrader website calls in liquidators, is reborn as Guntrader 2 Ltd

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: How does this work?

A short while ago we discovered a new legal phrase that might apply here of gratuitous alienation where attempts are made to evade liability claims by selling/transferring assets at below market value.

If your hair isn't already gray, 2022's security threats will get it there, warn infosec duo

Paul Crawford Silver badge

I think I have found a simple solution - don't use LinkedIn!

Any down-side to this mitigation technique?

50 years have gone by since the UK's one – and only – homegrown foray into orbit

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: What could have been

Lets face it, none of the rocket fuels are nice and easy to handle. Kerosene is the only friendly one I guess, all others are toxic, cryogenic, explosive, corrosive, or all of the above.

HTP is fairly well behaved (by the standards of rocket chemicals, for that read "mad scientist") and good for a UK site as you can fuel the rocket and have it sitting for several days until the weather clears. Used as an oxidiser with a simply hydrocarbon fuel it is probably your least-worst stuff to have on site and handle.

Sovereignty? We've heard of it. UK government gives contract to store MI5, MI6 and GCHQ's data to AWS

Paul Crawford Silver badge

If it is *only* storage then they can have it encrypted with their own keys, so the only risk is it being deleted if the payments don't keep up.

But if they plan on AWS related processing/indexing then it is bend-over time for Mr Blackadder as the USA's Bishop of Bath and Wells has a poker for him.

Nobody cares about DAB radio – so let's force it onto smart speakers, suggests UK govt review

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Digital Radio Mondiale - digital AM

The big issue for AM radio is indoors / city where the levels of RF interference are atrocious due to all of the shit electronics that should (but does not) meet the EMC directives. The worst offenders are often the "power line" extenders for home networking, happily pushed by the likes of BT.

For car use, especially rural, it is not such a concern, but you have to wonder how much investment and marketing would be needed for another DAB-like radio project that is unlikely to justify its cost.

Windows XP@20: From the killer of ME to banging out patches for yet another vulnerability

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Still deploying it - not kidding!

I still have both w2k and XP, and Win7, all in use as VMs for the odd windows-only CAD software, etc. That way no major issues of hardware failing and finding you can't reinstall or active (spits!!!) windows again.

If you can set up a clean VM from scratch do it, than keep a copy and add whatever you want afterwards. You can also disable network access (and probably only allow local, etc, as needed) and run it on your choice of stable & supported OS be it Linux or Windows 10.

VMware used to have a physical to virtual conversion utility that I used to salvage my w2k machine when it has a bulging capacitors of death motherboard, handy for something messy you just can't re-install (or it needs DRM keys from now demised companies).

Apple's Safari browser runs the risk of becoming the new Internet Explorer – holding the web back for everyone

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Wrong comparison - IE6 (and IEs in general) added all sorts of MS-specific shit that was not thought through or actually desirable to most folks.

Now it is Google Chrome that is adding all sorts of shit that is not desirable because of privacy or security. Google don't care because the business model is about whoring you from advertiser to advertiser, and web developers have drunk their kool-aid.

Research finds consumer-grade IoT devices showing up... on corporate networks

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: This can be prevented but I guess it's not easy.

Security is not easy or cheap, and it needs cooperation from both the employees at large and the IT department.

So if you needs something non-standard (e.g. lab network, test environment for consumer bits, etc) you can get it done quickly and securely and not put in a position of either failing to meet the project deadline or hacking something insecure to work around an intransigent IT group.

Paul Crawford Silver badge

If the corporate firewall was working (as in correctly set up) said devices would not be able to phone home and so would not work.

BOFH: So you want to have your computer switched out for something faster? It's time to learn from the master

Paul Crawford Silver badge

We still have to find out who's Mercedes it is?

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Flowchart

Q) Is it running windows?

A1) Yes => There you go

A2) No => OK, so you have good reason to worry...

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: "Dirt, Dandruff and Donkey porn"

I laughed my ass off

We are back to the donkeys again, aren't we?

Facebook may soon reveal new name – we're sure Reg readers will be more creative than Zuck's marketroids

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: The Circle

I think you missed out "jerk" somewhere

Software Freedom Conservancy sues TV maker Vizio for 'GPL infringement'

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: It's a trap !

Can't you access the mains plug?

If your apps or gadgets break down on Sunday, this may be why: Gpsd bug to roll back clocks to 2002

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: My Windows gets the time wrong all the time....

Time on a desktop is usually immaterial, except for stupid emails appearing in the past/future because of when your email client though you sent it.

Time for many other systems is critical, if you have to keep backup software in sync, check for main-in-the-middle attempts based on suspicious network delays, have mobile masts syncing transmissions so they don't interfere with each other too much, align some bit of hardware with something "out there", etc, etc, etc.

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: This is why programming with time is like wrestling with demons...

Of course gpsd is a daemon!

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Well...

You didn't know he roils a dice to decide on breakfast?

Canon makes 'all-in-one' printers that refuse to scan when out of ink, lawsuit claims

Paul Crawford Silver badge

I really hope Canon gets royally reamed for this even if only the lawyers really benefit directly. And then the ambulance chasers go after any other printer company doing the same shit.

Will help stamp out the practice for the rest of use.

Microsoft admits to yet more printing problems in Windows as back-at-the-office folks asked for admin credentials

Paul Crawford Silver badge
Linux

Re: Easy Alternative

As a penguin-fancier I always for for network printers that support postscript as they usually work OK. Generally look for compatibility with Apple and it gives you that. While they are not usually the cheapest choice, the reduction in pain and suffering in getting it to print and continue printing is usually wroth it.

Toyota needs more than its Cheer Squad to deal with chip shortages, as five more home factories forced into idleness

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Would these be the same car manufacturers who do just-in-time near-zero stocks, then cut orders at the start of the pandemic and are now surprised that there is a global shortage of all chips?

As above, I fail to see how doing their own design would help unless they bulk-orders, in which case they could have kept stocks of COTS chips for less money.

Forget everything you learned playing Lunar Lander: Chinese boffins reveal secrets of Chang'e 5 probe's touchdown

Paul Crawford Silver badge
Pint

That was my first thought "Why not dampen the propellant sloshing?" just as you do for racing cars, etc. but then I realised that some fiendishly clever Chinese boffins probably had considered that and concluded that better control systems would lead to a better mass budget for the project.

A well-earned drink for Honghua Zhang, Zeguo Wang, and Yifeng Guan1 =>

Google's VirusTotal reports that 95% of ransomware spotted targets Windows

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: The hubris of Apple (oops I meant Google)

A properly-run Windows network will be good at blocking or recovering from an infection just like a well-run Linux network

Alas, how many of either have you ever seen in the wild?

While the Windows kernel security is pretty much on a par with Linux, MS has the problem of being the world's favourite target due to its extent, and they are also responsible for Office and all of its weaknesses for malware-in-a-document due to macros and miscellaneous complexity, as well as lots of legacy stuff they can't (or won't) fix securely.

Thankfully the whipping-boy standard of Swiss-cheese security, Adobe Flash, is no longer in common use!

LAN traffic can be wirelessly sniffed from cables with $30 setup, says researcher

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Slowing the network down externally

Or am I missing something obvious?

Power. Lots of it.

I have not seen the paper, but if they are picking up a couple of microvolt at the receiver from a couple of volts Ethernet signal, to reverse it and inject the same signal you would be at the megavolt level on the transmitter side.

Someone will notice that! In fact, most folk for miles around trying to use any radio service at all...

Paul Crawford Silver badge

I guess it depends on the application as well. Given the use of https/ssh to secure most links even internally a lot of radiated data might well be impractical to decode.

Shatner breaks the age barrier, goes where no nonagenarian has gone before with Blue Origin rocket trip

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: One question

Port or starboard?

Oh my, Grandma, what a big meteorite you have right there on your pillow under that hole in the roof

Paul Crawford Silver badge
Alien

She might even get offers to star in a "speciality video" featuring unexpected penetration by alien visitors in the night.

She would be wise to decline such an offer....

Every Little Helps: Former Tesco boss Dave Lewis to advise UK govt on supply chains

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Fragility

It only takes a cough for "just in time" to become "oh, too late"

Quantum computing startups pull in millions as VCs rush to get ahead of the game

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Fusion, should it happen in the near future, would be of immense benefit to mankind. Assuming we use it to avoid pollution-creating technologies and help recycle things as the energy-cost has dropped, and we don't just use it to accelerate a tat-filled capitalist dream of consumption.

Quantum computers however have the promise of being smaller, cheaper and in greater demand than a few power stations with 30-year life-spans. Praise the profits!

Zoom-o-cracy: Wales MP misses vote, allowing COVID-passport rule change, blames the IT dept

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Odd. I have had all sorts of problems trying to get in with WebEx before, and slightly less with Teams (once you realise that "web support" to MS only means Chrome and their Chrome-clone Edge), but never with Zoom.

For all of the piss-poor security and questionable Chinese background, Zoom seems just to work and not suck donkey balls at every opportunity. I guess that is why it became the pandemic's remote meeting method of choice.

Perhaps the honourable member was the one sucking donkey balls?

BOFH: You. Wouldn't. Put. A. Test. Machine. Into. Production. Without. Telling. Us.

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: You always need a mallet...

Yes, and ideally a Thor one for proper smiting:

https://www.thorhammer.com/

UK.gov presents its National Space Strategy: Space is worth billions to us. Just don't mention Brexit, OK?

Paul Crawford Silver badge

the space sector is "worth" over £16.4bn per year, according to the document

What they don't say is the majority of that is Sky Sports and similar pay-TV stuff. (Sky Group Ltd 2018 turnover £13,585M)

China demands internet companies create governance system for algorithms

Paul Crawford Silver badge

In many ways this sounds like a very good policy.

That is until you get to the elevating "correct" political directions aspect where you start to see the bad side of CCP in all of its glory.

Through the Looking Glass – holographic display hardware is great, but it's not enough

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: who needs it?

The stereo image "3D" are really 2.5D as you cannot chose the focus point (i.e. to look in detail at near or far by yourself) as that is determined by the focus depth for the pair of cameras taking the stereo shots.

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Progress, of sorts

On a 98" TV of course - for life-sized pr0n of course!

NASA halts Mars comms for two weeks as Sun gets in way of Red Planet

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Comms relays?

Indeed, don't have free access to this but looks like it:

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2020-4005

And some other ideas:

https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/New_concept_may_enhance_Earth-Mars_communication

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Comms relays?

If done, then probably the Mars Lagrange points as you want the least distance so the relay is not in need of the 34m+ dishes of the DSN to hear the Martian chatter.

I imagine someone has done a design study for this, at the very least for the receiver and transmitter performance requirements, power, and expected station-keeping fuel, etc, but I suspect it is going to be far down the road before it becomes a real project.

Years of development, millions of lines of code, and Android can't even run a toilet

Paul Crawford Silver badge

I think all of us have a duty to urinate over whatever advert is showing.

Maybe if the advertisers see their product is promoted by a piss-stained image they might stop this crap.

Oh, no, what are the toilets like...

Fukushima studies show wildlife is doing nicely without humans, thank you very much

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Bullfrogs ... few predators in most of its adopted new homes.

Or the French.

Hellfire and damnation: Two French monks charged over 5G mast arson attack

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Brings new meaning to the phase...

One wonders how things will ultimately play out for them as no doubt Satan has already planned them to be on the hell-desk phones for the rest of eternity...

First RISC-V computer chip lands at the European Processor Initiative

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Typical EU

What "UK technology" are you referring to?

If this is not a joke post and you are meaning ARM then please tell us who exactly owns them and their IP?

Break out your emergency change process and patch this ransomware-friendly bug ASAP, says VMware

Paul Crawford Silver badge
Facepalm

Just using UNIX text editors can be a challenge

For Joe Blogs on the street, yes, but for your sysadmin? Really?

Closest to "Jesus wept" icon =>

Clegg on its face: Facebook turns to former UK deputy PM to fend off damaging headlines

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Incapable or unwilling?

simply attaching his face to a statement

Just like a Facesbook meme?

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Yes, our taps are dumb. But it comes from water regulations that prevent the mixing of water until it exist the spout, as often hot water was from a tank-supplied system and not potable, so they don't want listeria, etc, back-flowing in to the cold potable-water system.

The issue with ID cards is we never had them, outside of world wars, and was always a basic assumption that you did not need to prove you had any right to live and go about your lawful business. Add in to that the whole "Papers, please" of various police states, and the gross incompetence of our own government to either (a) manage them competently, or (b) not add feature-creep for whatever fear-de-jour of the tabloids.

Sadly we see them coming back like a bad penny whenever there is a chance for authoritarian gains, so bogey man of voter fraud, the general dislike of foreigners that Brexit-voters often show, COVID arguments for vaccination (though oddly that has not taken off in England yet, but seems to be infecting Scottish and Welsh politician's minds).

China's taikonauts return from heavenly palace after 92-day mission

Paul Crawford Silver badge
Pint

As much as I detest the behaviour of China's CCP, I will happily raise a glass to Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming, and Tang Hongbo for their achievement.

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair: British home computer trailblazer dies aged 81

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: A pioneer in the early days of amateur electronics

I fondly remember the shops in and around upper Edgware Road and the characters who ran them. A fantastic place for any sort of electronics, from pre-WW2 valve stuff and 2nd hand transformers through to all sort of modern (for the time) things.

Sadly the block that had H.L. Smith seems to have been knocked down for redevelopment last time I visited London and took a trip out to see what remained. Nothing, as far as I could see :(

Paul Crawford Silver badge

Re: Literally a legend

I'm pretty sure that even I with my BSc in Electrical Engineering could do better.

But did you?

CityFibre scores extra £1bn+ of funding to plumb in up to 8 million British homes by 2025

Paul Crawford Silver badge

According to Ofcom's latest figures, in May 2021, 24 per cent of the UK had access to full fibre broadband.

Is that 24% of the UK land, or 24% of the population which is heavily concentrated in the cities?