* Posts by Pascal Monett

16645 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007

Sun, sea and sad signage: And lo, they saw a shining light in the sky... oh, it's a BIOS error

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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Congratulations and Happy New Year !

This little ditty is enormously amusing. I wonder if you'll be able to finish it.

Thank you, El Reg, for all your hard work and entertaining articles.

I look forward to continuing to read you in this new year.

Best Wishes to everyone !

Watt's next for batteries? It'll be more of the same, not longer life, because physics and chemistry are hard

Pascal Monett Silver badge

I hear you.

My Audi A5 can do almost 500 miles on one tank. It takes 5 minutes to "recharge" it at a any one of thousands of stations.

Unfortunately, my Audi, as much as I love it, is contributing to the problem.

One day, we will all have to adapt and adopt transit times that include spending part of our leisure time recharging a non-polluting car.

And maybe, just maybe, we might learn to appreciate life a bit better by then.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: still remember that fantastic 2005 article

I think I've been reading about carbon nanotube batteries for more than a decade.

Where are they ?

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Coat

Re: the well-known 'good' brands

Might we possibly get a list of those ?

For reference ?

I promise I won't tell.

The curse of knowing a bit about IT: 'Could you just...?' and 'No I haven't changed anything'

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Firewall vs router

I agree with you, yet I am grateful that ISPs have started putting actual security into their kit. There was a time when said router came with a firewall that left everything open.

At least, the one I got from Orange when I subscribed two years ago came a firewall that was pleasantly closed tight when I checked.

Yes, your ISP can access your router. Well what do you expect ? Your network admin at the office can also access your computer, whether you want it or not.

That's just par for the course.

Buggy chkdsk in Windows update that caused boot failures and damaged file systems has been fixed

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Oh wow....

I miss the time when Windows was my OS to manage.

Now Microsoft is deciding what I can or cannot do on my PC.

The only reason I haven't changed OS is because all my customers use Windows, so I'm stuck with this bloated monster that doesn't even obey me all that much.

I look forward to retiring for two reasons : first, no more work days and second, no more Borkzilla software. I'll be on some version of Linux, and Borkzilla can kiss my arse.

Ten more years to go.

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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Re: Continuous testing is better than building it then testing it after

Maybe so, but continuous change is not supposed to happen in a production environment.

The production environment is supposed to be used, not tested. If you're still testing, it's not ready for production.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

In other words, pay more money to be able to use the OS you already paid money for.

I don't see that as a winning situation.

What's that lurking behind the borked face of finance? Windows, of course

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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Re: OS/2

I followed the link and read that it supports 32-bit and 16-bit applications.

No 64-bit applications.

So it runs on modern hardware like a toddler on a tricycle. You have to push it.

After 11 years, Australia declares its national broadband network is ‘built and fully operational’

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Facepalm

"legislation governing the NBN build requires a declaration the job is done before December 31st"

Oh, so that's when a project is finished : when there is a law that says it has to be.

Not when the job is actually done.

Thanks for the heads-up.

US Department of Homeland Security warns American business not to use Chinese tech or let data behind the Great Firewall

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A fine list of risks indeed

And you can replace every instance of PRC with USA and it still rings true.

UK firm NOW: Pensions tells some customers a 'service partner' leaked their data all over 'public software forum'

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That's not a joke - it's perfectly reasonable.

Earth observation chief Dr Josef Aschbacher takes reins at European Space Agency

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Coat

"The Orion capsule is designed to have a considerable amount of redundancy in its operations"

Oh, so it wasn't made by Boeing then . . .

Right, I'll just exit stage left.

$900bn coronavirus stimulus bill includes $600 for most Americans, $50 in monthly internet subsidies, $1.9bn to help rid the US of Huawei kit

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"News of this funding will be welcomed by the myriad smaller wireless carriers"

What makes them think that they'll be getting any of that ? Ajit Pai is going to make sure that the BIG carriers get the lion's share of that money.

NHS awards £23m two-year deal to controversial Peter Thiel AI firm Palantir

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Palantir, a stock value

I googled Palantir and half of the results of the first page discuss its stock value.

I then did a search on IBM and there was only one result on the first page concerning its stock value. The rest was all about tech.

I think that's all I need to know about Palantir. Nice name, but there's nothing behind it. I guess that's a perfect choice for the NHS.

Business intelligence vendor MicroStrategy reveals it’s bought a billion bucks of bitcoin

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Windows

"a genuine bitcoin believer"

There's one born every minute, as the saying goes.

Google says it’s the cleanest cloud, also reveals deal with Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company for new cloud region

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Big Brother

So, Google is consorting with more anti-democratic overlords. And ?

Google is a multinational conglomerate. It bows before Beijing. It mouths words of equality and trust in democratic countries to make itself sound nice.

Meanwhile, it mines everyone's activities as much as it can to sell data to ad companies. It lies about how it steals our data. That is what it does. The rest is just PR.

Red Hat defends its CentOS decision, claims Stream version can cover '95% of current user workloads'

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

"The whole point of continuous delivery is to make each release as stable as the one before."

Someone should tell that to Microsoft.

Oh no, wait, Borkzilla already is as stable as the one before. Never mind.

'Following the science' rhetoric led to delay to UK COVID-19 lockdown, face mask rules

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Mushroom

A think tank

Another name for a group of partisan experts whose sole job is to fabricate a viable-looking excuse for you own incompetence.

SolarWinds releases known attack timeline, new data suggests hackers may have done a dummy run last year

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

"a dummy run to see if the intrusion would be detected"

And it wasn't.

Hacked twice, and stayed blind until 18K customers were infected.

Congrats on the quality of your monitoring software, SolarWinds !

Well, on the bright side, the SolarWinds Sunburst attack will spur the cybersecurity field to evolve all over again

Pascal Monett Silver badge

What is really surprising is that this happened to a company that is supposed to have tools that manage network security for their customers.

It is quite obvious that either those tools are not up to snuff, or said company was not using them itself.

Either way, it is very sloppy.

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Trollface

"But I do wonder if what we have subsequently built atop that also suffers from too much of the same optimism and faith in humanity. "

Said optimism and faith in humanity would have been quickly destroyed had said engineers taken a gander at the forums in SlashDot. Maybe they would have realized the scope of the monster they were createing.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Nonsense

First of all, congratulations on inserting your pet peeve into a totally unrelated discussion. Points docked for contradicting yourself though.

Second : we can secure electronic voting systems, it's just that the current buddy system that is in place prevents that from happening.

Third : election processes can be very secure. Nobody has successfully hacked into the French election process in ages. Some have tried in very local areas, and all have been caught out. Of course, it's a lot harder to hack an election process based on paper, observers, years of experience and people who actually believe in Democracy.

Windows might have frozen – but at least my feet are toasty

Pascal Monett Silver badge

A user's ingenuity to find ways to do what he is not supposed to do far surpasses his ability to understand why he should not do it.

Google AMP gets a shock to its system as advisor quits, lawsuit claims foul play

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Lessons learned, eh ?

"All we can do now is learn from the process "

And what have we learned ? That you do not allow Google to be in charge of the Web and its standards.

Any body that purports to create and maintain something destined to be a standard should have a multi-stakeholder Board and should take input not from companies but from experts and public opinion.

In a transparent and public manner. While publishing the minutes of the meetings. And ensuring that what is said is being done is actually being done.

In other words, do the opposite of ICANN and you can't go wrong.

Pascal Monett Silver badge
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Re: Fuck javascript.

Absolutely agree.

JavaScript is a menace. 99.9% of all malware starts with a piece of JavaScript. Block that and you're safe.

Unsecured Azure blob exposed 500,000+ highly confidential docs from UK firm's CRM customers

Pascal Monett Silver badge
FAIL

"Azure blob security"

Three words that sound ridiculous together.

How is it that multiple customers were using the same cloud storage thingy ? Did nobody think it would be better to have a storage per customer, or was that a more expensive solution ?

Yeah, it was probably more expensive. Couple that with a dev that probably had to set security to the lowest setting that worked with all customers, and a PHB that didn't give a damn, and this is the result : a massive breach of very intimate, personally-identifiable data.

Somebody should be jailed for this, and I'm not talking about the dev.

Wait ages for an antitrust battle and three come along at once: Google sued by 38 US states over search monopoly

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"Google argues the lawsuit seeks to dictate how it designs its products and services"

Well duh, is that supposed to be an excuse to have the lawsuit thrown out ?

That's like a thief accusing the police of ruining his revenue stream by arresting him. Again, duh.

It drives me crazy when highly-paid lawyers blurt out such stupid excuses.

Google is a multi-billion dollar multinational behemoth. The only way to get it to behave is by nailing it to a wall and putting a gun to its head. Otherwise known as a lawsuit, in business circles.

Do No Evil is gone and buried. Be Forced To Do Good is on its way.

Search history can calculate better credit ratings than pay slips, says International Monetary Fund

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Mushroom

Re: a succinct comment to reflect how I feel about it

I've got one : bullshit.

You're going to establish my credit rating on what I've searched for ? So if I search Ferrari I'm going to get a good rating, and if I search Ford Metro I'll get a bad one ?

How's about basing your evaluation on what I've actually purchased ?

This is just one more excuse to fleece me of my private life.

Go to Hell.

Dodgy procedures doomed Arianespace's Vega before it even left the launchpad

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"not picked up in testing"

Then the testing is not sufficient.

I really can't imagine any scenario where plugging something in the wrong way around won't create merry mayhem with the electrical signals. Electricity is not something that adapts itself to the configuration - either you plug it in right or you're going to get a melted component.

Seems like Vega needs some physical modification in the connections to ensure that you plug it in right - like computer PSU connectors on motherboards. We've had those since forever, why does rocket science not have them ?

Cats: Not a fan favourite when the critters are draped around an office packed with tech

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: there are strange folk who actually like cats

Yes, there are. People who like the purring of a cat sitting in your lap, especially on a cold winter evening. People who find it fun to see a cat lying in the sun, giving that impression of utter exhaustion only a cat can achieve. Oh, and farmers who like the free pest control around their grain reserves.

I love cats. I've always had a cat around since I was 5 years old. Not the same cat, obviously, but there always is a cat. I like it when they come for cuddles and push their head against my knuckles to scratch their cheeks, purring all the while like a motor boat.

I don't mind dogs, but they don't purr.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Dead mouse

7mm ?

Wow. That's really small.

UK Home Office chucks US firm Leidos £30m for help snooping on comms data

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Flame

It has played a role

"[It] has played a role in every major Security Service counter-terrorism operation over the past decade. It has also been used as evidence in 95 per cent of all serious organised crime investigations handled by the Crown Prosecution Service. "

Stop the bullshit general declarations and give us the numbers.

How many terrorists has it helped stop ?

How many crime bosses has it helped put behind bars ?

95% of all investigations means nothing if there have only been 12 of them.

There is not an ounce of actual information concerning this surveillance activity. It's all just PR waffle and grandstanding.

Give us the numbers, then we'll decide if it's worth it.

SolarWinds’ shares drop 22 per cent. But what’s this? $286m in stock sales just before hack announced?

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: looking for the easy life

It seems to me that they already have the money for an easy life. Those $100+ millions they sold ? They invested that first. They likely needed a fair amount of millions to be able to sell those shares for that amount.

If I had $50 million, I guarantee there would be no VCing for me. I'd shut down my company, kick back and enjoy taking my wife to the restaurant every day of the week, spending the rest of the time gaming, YouTubing and generally being retired.

But I don't have that money.

China's Chang'e 5 probe lands Moon rocks in Inner Mongolia

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Great success

I'm glad that China is climbing the (steep) ladder of rocket science achievements. When the asteroid comes, we'll need all the countries we can get to participate in deflecting it.

That said, do we really need to collect more moon rocks ? What more can we learn from this new batch ?

Dutch officials say Donald Trump really did protect his Twitter account with MAGA2020! password

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Well he stuffed the Supreme Court with all the Republicans he could find and they shot him down anyway, so I'm not sure him being vastly more intelligent (twice of nothing is still not much) would make much of a difference.

We're not saying this is how SolarWinds was backdoored, but its FTP password 'leaked on GitHub in plaintext'

Pascal Monett Silver badge

That article does not make clear how the data was accessed. Of course, obtaining personal, intimate data on up to 14 million government workers is very much a bad thing, but there is nothing that says that an FTP password was at fault.

Solarwinds can explain all it wants, the fact that it has rubbish password security is now established and that is a stain that is not going to go away quickly for a company that is supposed to deal in Internet security and network monitoring.

Up yours, Europe! Our 100% prime British broadband is cheaper than yours... but also slower and a bit of a rip-off

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: your own selfish ilk

Funny, I don't remember saying that I do download 365 days a year.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

I do have a dedicated fiber line. 1Gbps up and down. It costs me €53/month for Internet, phone and TV.

Not that expensive for the performance.

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Data cap ?

I'm sorry, I'm paying for a connection at a given speed. The ISP's job is to support that connection 24/7/365. If I choose to download during 365 days, then that's my choice and I'm just using my bandwidth.

The only companies that impose a data cap are the cheap bastards that oversell their lines and underdeliver their bandwidth.

Australia sues Facebook for slurping user data from Onavo Protect VPN app

Pascal Monett Silver badge
Stop

“deprived Australian consumers of the opportunity to make an informed choice"

I'm sorry, they made the choice to use a Facebook product. Don't tell me they're not aware of what Facebook is. There are largely enough posts about The Zuck for people to know exactly what it is that Facebook does : mine your life.

Larry Ellison says he's not following Oracle to Texas, prefers his private Hawaii pad

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: adding ~ 1 million tons of lava to that area every day

There is nothing in your linked article that states how much lava is being added. Personally, I think a million tons a day is a bit much.

This page indicates that the Long Mountain, aka Mauna Loa, has not erupted since 1984, although it also specifies that the threat level is very high.

I don't know how to parse that information.

Your ship comms app is 'secured' with a Flash interface, doesn't sanitise SQL inputs and leaks user data, you say?

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Shipping network security

I am not bothered by the fact that multi-million dollar floating transport behemoths can be taken over by miscreants. If the owner of the ship doesn't care, it's no skin off my back.

When they have had several ships wrecked because of malware of outright network takeovers, then they'll pay attention and the problem will go away.

Until then, it's not a problem.

Tableau 2020.4 crams pretty chart chops into browser so you can evict chunky client from storage real estate

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"download its seriously weighty desktop client"

And just how weighty is that ?

My Lotus Notes installation is a hair under 13GB - and that's just the program, the data is in another folder.

Diablo III weighs in at 16GB. My Lord of the Rings Online install tops 27GB.

So how weighty is this Tableau application ?

Taiwanese manufacturer Wistron pegs damage from iPhone factory riot at $7m

Pascal Monett Silver badge

If workers are forced to riot to get paid, then there is a problem that needs solving - wherever it happens.

It is not about capitalism, it is about basic human decency. You do the work, you get paid.

Right-to-repair warriors seek broader DMCA exemptions to bypass digital locks on the stuff we own

Pascal Monett Silver badge

Re: Too logical...

I think that, if a manufacturer refuses the right to repair, it should automatically be obliged to extend the guarantee to the lifetime of the product.

Oh, and I mean the real lifetime, not the projected, expected lifetime. Guarantee until the thing breaks down physically.

I can't repair my own kit that you took my money for ? Fine, you do it then. For free and for as long as I have it.

Leaked draft EU law reveals tech giants could face huge 6% turnover fines if they don't play by Europe's rules

Pascal Monett Silver badge

I disagree

This is the EU. More importantly, this is Eurocrats we're talking about. They live in a special world, one where money did not keep them from drafting laws that furthered Human Rights and the respect of privacy. GDPR, much ?

Lobby money will change nothing. The EU is setting up the legal framework to ensure that everyone plays nicely. It is not a threat in itself. If Apple, Facebook & co play nicely, nothing will happen.

But, if they don't then WHAM! and then they have to explain to shareholders why results are down by 6%.

Suits me.

SolarWinds: Hey, only as many as 18,000 customers installed backdoored software linked to US govt hacks

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Trollface

Thank God they're using red-blooded American software

It may be a fiasco, but it's a home-made fiasco, so it's all right.

It's not like they were using some foreign kit widely accused without proof of any kind of being beholden to another government. That would have been <shudder> terrible, right ? Using kit that just might exfiltrate data to an unfriendly country.

No, thank goodness, that didn't happen. It's just good ol' American incompetence that allowed a foreign government to . . oh, wait.

US Treasury, Dept of Commerce hacks linked to SolarWinds IT monitoring software supply-chain attack

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Coat

"all of these organisations boast of having strong defences against such attacks"

Of course they do. And it's true - until they get hacked.

But that won't keep them from crowing about their "strong defenses" in the future because, you see, we will forget that they got hacked and, if we remember, they will trot out the good ol' "lessons learned" trope.

So it's all good, people. No reason to panic.

Ad blocking made Google throw its toys out of the pram – and now even more control is being taken from us

Pascal Monett Silver badge

"server-side tagging"

Does that escape NoScript ?

I get that Google is doing its level best to scrape every last sliver of information it can get from me, but NoScript does a damn good job of keeping anything I don't want from running and Google is javascript all the way.

So does NoScript put this new approach to pasture ? I'd like to know.