* Posts by Fatman

2400 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Apr 2008

Google coughs up $5.5m to make recruiters 'screwed out of overtime pay' go away

Fatman

Re: ""Defendants deliberately and uniformly cheated plaintiffs "

<quote>whats the other 1/2 cover?</quote>

Learning how to create dodgy financial statements that hide the gross waste of money by the executive team's indulgences.

Yahoo! cleanup! will! cost! Verizon! half! a! billion! bucks!

Fatman

Re: "operating expense synergies"

Otherwise known as cut the fucking costs NOW strategy.

Connectivity's value is almost erased by the costs it can impose

Fatman

Re: ... and a descent into a kind of stupidity we haven’t seen in many years.

You are wrong on that one.

THAT level of stupidity was most recently observed in the recent USofA election cycle. One only has to notice the outcome.

Microsoft dumps docs.com cloud file locker, sets December death-date

Fatman

Re: The Almighty Cloud

<quote>Tell me again why you should rely on The Cloud as the preferred tool to create or store documents? Why the convenience it might offer outweighs the risk that your provider will wake up one morning and shut you down.</quote>

NOT if it is your cloud! (i.e YOU own it!)

Move over, Stuxnet: Industroyer malware linked to Kiev blackouts

Fatman
FAIL

RE: Security demanding....

<quote>One would think that by now the company security people would be demanding dedicated secure lines to all substations and all marketing wonks and non techies being kept away from the control units.</quote>

ONLY to be overruled by the cost cutting MBA's (Mainly Brainless Assholes) who are worried about the "hit" to the executive bonus pool.

You know this net neutrality thing? Well, people really love it

Fatman

Re: Net Neutrality is about politics

I strongly suggest that you bone up on the fundamentals of network traffic flows, and really come to understand this concept called "QoS", and how it can affect network traffic.

Here is a good place to get started:

http://docwiki.cisco.com/wiki/Quality_of_Service_Networking

a key point being:

<quote>The primary goal of QoS is to provide priority including dedicated bandwidth, controlled jitter and latency (required by some real-time and interactive traffic), and improved loss characteristics. Also important is making sure that providing priority for one or more flows does not make other flows fail. </quote>

Now, think for a second how a malicious greedy ISP can fuck with the traffic that flows through its network? If I am an ISP, and I see traffic destined for (say Netflix) and I have a competing offering, why shouldn't I consider it a priority that MY traffic flows are smooth and jitter free, all the while degrading Netflix's? Why should I give shit if Netflix's flows are lousy, it is my priority after all!

If the customer's captive users don't like it, then they can go to the competition. Oh, wait, in my area there IS NO competition Tough shit customer!

NSA leaker bust gets weirder: Senator claims hacking is wider than leak revealed

Fatman

Re: curiouser and curiouser

<quote>You couldn't make this shit up. I think I need to sit down and have an Aspirin consume copious quantities of an alcoholic beverage.</quote>

There!

FTFY!!

Do cops need a warrant to stalk you using your cellphone records? US Supremes to mull it over

Fatman

Re: What a Mess

<quote>... must not do so at the expense of the innocent being unjustly and arbitrarily regarded as criminals.</quote>

SHIT!! You understand the modus operendi of most USofA police forces. It is 'the Thin Blue Line' against the hordes.

Pai guy not too privacy shy, says your caller ID can't block IP, so anons go bye

Fatman
WTF?

Re: >If they are simply legalised pirates then I'm not going to cry too much when one of them dies

<quote>But it's wrong if it's because the police chief is grabbing more money for his dept. And doubly wrong if it's because the city council is on the take themselves. </quote>

Here in Flori-dun, we have the Red Traffic Light Scams foisted upon us by bought and paid for city councils and county commissioners.

See below:

http://www.wtsp.com/news/investigations/two-more-cities-turn-off-red-light-cameras/102082599

and

http://www.wtsp.com/news/tampa-votes-to-keep-red-light-cameras/319125206

Mind you, these cameras are usually installed by for profit entities, and the locality gets a cut of the revenue.

'My PC needs to lose weight' says user with FAT filesystem

Fatman

Re: Giving the users what they ask for......

Had a similar situation at a former employer.

The sales weasels went out and bought MacBooks and expected IT to support them.

They were not too happy when it came time to support them.

Our CIO's reply was short, and forceful: "FUCK YOU!!! I told you that we do not support Macs, and if you go out and bring your own, you are on your own." It was even sweeter when they complained to the CEO, who supported our CIO.

Many a sales weasel was pissed off; but they were warned.

Tech industry thumps Trump's rump over decision to leave Paris climate agreement

Fatman

Re: You are being unkind to Trump

You are on the right track, but for the wrong reason.

Trump has the mental capacity of a five year old who throws a hissy fit when he can not get his way, nothing else.

Toyota's entertaining the idea of Linux in cars

Fatman

Re: Automotive Grade Linux

No, you have that all wrong.

If it were Windows, the car would refuse to start complaining that it could not connect to the DRM server, and you were running an illegal copy of Windows Automotive. You would then have to fork out some more money to get it fixed.

Nice extortion racket, brick $RANDOM number of cars daily, requiring periodic re-installation of Windows Automotive. That is the sort of shit that would make the slimy ones at Prenda Law very proud.

Fatman

Re: Rather Linux than Windows...

You may be on to something.

Here in the USofA, road rage is a serious problem, especially in the cities.

Now, consider a fleet of White Hats that drive the roads, and come across some driver being a jerk. If the O/S was Windows, then simply hack into it, and shut that fucker down.

Fatman

RE: "Keyless" entry

<quote>"Keyless entry" is a fine example of a broken solution looking for a non-existent problem marketing hacks 'feature list' that offers little real value to the consumer, but causes vendor lock-in with the associated profits from being the exclusive source of replacement parts.</quote>

There!!! FTFY

Listen up, boys and girls, the only reason why this shit is included is to drive up the sales price of cars, and to make them more expensive to repair. Infotainment module went bad? Oh, that is too bad, an OEM replacement is $$$$$$$, Oh, and good luck trying to find aftermarket parts.

Now, chew on this, as more cars incorporate LIDAR units for collision avoidance in their bumpers, the costs of replacing those damaged units gets added up in your collision insurance premium. And, since most people in the USofA either lease their vehicle or have an auto loan that requires maintaining collision insurance, guess who gets fucked?

Healthcare dev fined $155m for lying about compliance

Fatman
Alert

eCW 'troubles'

This bothers me as two of my doctors use it.

Both have 'encouraged' me to set up an on-line portal; and so far, I have not done so, out of concerns that once an on-line account is created it could be hacked.

But, I do like the idea that the execs get nailed for the fines, as opposed to the company. Now, if you really want to send a message, include a permanent ban on their being employed in the healthcare industry. Along the lines of how the SEC gets rogue traders thrown off Wall Street.

Spacecraft spots possible signs of frozen water on the Moon

Fatman
Joke

Re: GOD!

Jim, have you been ODing on LDS lately!??????

Cisco cuts 250 jobs in San Jose, has 850 more pink slips to hand out

Fatman

Going after the farmers

<quote>If they'd gone after those who employ them with heavy penalties for knowingly employing someone not legally authorized to work in the US, there wouldn't be 11 million of them in the US now. But no one wants to go after the farmers, when they are the true cause of the problem!</quote>

BUT!

BUT!!

BUT!!!

If you did that, then you are hurting those job creators with unnecessary government regulation, and driving up costs..

That is not a business friendly way to achieve a reduction in illegal immigration. No doubt many of those farmers will wail: "We did not know that they are illegal immigrants!. as they exploit those immigrants.

Why DO people immigrate?

Often it is to achieve a better (by their home countries' standards) quality of life; sometimes it is to get away from war and strife. You can not blame someone for either of those reasons.

The first reason is often due to the lack of jobs that pay a decent wage in their home country, due to many factors, including the elite that simply think they can get away with exploiting their countrymen. As for the second reason, just take a good look at the Middle East, the answer is there plain and simple.

TRUMP SCANDAL! No, not that one. Or that one. Or that one. Or that one.

Fatman

Re: HOLD IT right THEIR!!!

I thought that ElReg banned Jim The Boss!!!

What's got a vast attack surface and runs on Linux? Windows Defender, of course

Fatman
Joke

Re: to be authorised to roll the odd flashbang under a few particular desks..

Now, would any of them happen to belong to manglement???

Scheming copyright scam lawyer John Steele disbarred in Illinois

Fatman
WTF?

Steele disbarred

I have only one question:

WHAT took so fucking LONG!!!!!!

Faking incontinence and other ways to scare off tech support scammers

Fatman

RE: old modem

Back in the '90's my employer would be hounded by assholes trying their copier supplies scam.

I had a dial up modem attached to the pc, and wired in parallel with the 'guts' of a 1A deskset1.

One day this asshole calls up, and tries to pull his shit over on me, and I wasn't having it. I fired up the modem program and had it dial a number. As the modem started to bang out the tones, I screamed out at the top of my lungs: "God dammit Sarah, you stupid c--t! Can't you see that I am using this line!" I then hung up on the SOB.

The boss walked in, and had this puzzled look on his face, a short explanation resulted in a smirk as he walked out of my office.

1 For those who are too young to know, the 1A key systems were electro-mechanical in nature, using a 'fat' telephone cable (25 or 50 pairs), and one or two rows of line selectors ('keys')

If you want further reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1A2_Key_System

Mi casa es su casa: Ubuntu bug makes 'guests' anything but

Fatman

Re: Flaky guest account

<quote>See also https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/guidance/eud-security-guidance-ubuntu-1604-lts where they also advise that all usual user accounts should have 'other' access removes (e.g. chmod o-rx /home/*)</quote>

I can think of one reason why you would not want to do that: """shared"""1 files.

I have some 'media files' located on my home partition that I want to make available to a 'guest' user, or others who have accounts on the box.

1 In the sense that I "own" the files, and have set the 'others' permissions to 'r--' (read only). this way, valuable disk space isn't eaten up by duplicates.

Don't gripe if you hand your PC to Geek Squad and they rat you out to the Feds – judge

Fatman

The 'takeaway' lesson is....

1) Have your browser clear the cache on exit every time you close it, (and close it frequently), and

2) Frequently overwrite free disk space to remove any fragments of deleted files.

Wonky whitelist update blamed for AT&T's nationwide 911 blackout

Fatman
FAIL

Re: Troubleshooting the 911 core universal service platform backbone

<quote>Who then reported the issue to the outsourced Indian intern tech support.</quote>

There, FTFY!!!! ..

Backup crack-up: Fasthosts locks people out of data storage for days amid WCry panic

Fatman
FAIL

Re: ... a little planned maintenance wouldn't go amiss ...

Planned replacement of aging infrastructure???

We can't afford it! Not enough money for the executive bonus pool.

What's your worst nightmare? A Comcast, Charter cellphone network? Oh, it's coming

Fatman
Joke

Re: How could it possibly go wrong?

4. To kiss the ass of Government regulators.

Windows 10 S: Good, bad, and how this could get ugly for PC makers

Fatman
Joke

Re: MS is daft.

<quote>MS seems to have a fondness for shooting itself in the feet nuts...</quote>

FTFY!!!!

Post Unity 8 Ubuntu shock? Relax, Linux has been here before

Fatman
Joke

Re: Linux sucks

Hey Bob,

In a past life, were you known as Loverock Davidson???????

Fatman
Joke

Re: A change in focus from what THEY want to what the USERS want.

Excellent point!!

Now will someone take a 'cluebat' to the developers at Mozilla, WRT Firefox????

Webroot antivirus goes bananas, starts trashing Windows system files

Fatman
Linux

Re: a crowning moment of AWESOME!

You forgot the most important recommendation:

Don't use Windows, PERIOD!!!!!!!

Northrop Grumman can make a stealth bomber – but can't protect its workers' W-2 tax forms

Fatman

NG employee portal """hacked""".

It is for this very reason, I politely, but firmly decline to create a web portal account with my medical practitioners.

Sorry, but I do not need that info floating out there in the cloud.

Linux 4.11 delayed for a week by NVMe glitches and 'oops fixes'

Fatman
Joke

Re: Good lord, man, testing software?

<quote>What's wrong with just throwing it out there and letting the punters find the bugs, like everyone else seems to?</quote>

Do you mean the Microsoft way of writing code???

Script kiddies pwn 1000s of Windows boxes using leaked NSA hack tools

Fatman
Joke

RE: Then where are you?

Simples: UP SHIT CREEK, WITHOUT A PADDLE!

You just sent an on-prem app to the cloud and your data centre has empty racks. What now?

Fatman
Joke

Re: 'something less obvious than "8-ft Pool Table"'

Nice first attempt, but you have failed to list some optional equipment. Such as:

Pressurized (alcoholic) beverage dispenser (beer keg),

Horizontal beverage support counter (bar),

Nourishment container (bowl for peanuts),

Employee seating (bar stool),

Deluxe 'Power Point' display panel (flat screen TV),

Sound system, (jukebox),

Mood inducing lighting (strobe lights),

PHB attitude adjuster (baseball, cluebat, etc),

"""Candy""" (recreational drugs and pharmaceuticals),

Sporting equipment intended to """sharpen""" focus on achieving corporate goals (dart board with plenty of darts, and life size photos of obnoxious PHB's).

Combine these to create a 'desirable' work experience.

Why Firefox? Because not everybody is a web designer, silly

Fatman

Re: I recently ditched Firefox.

<snip>it is the work of the devil - </snip>

Check out the name of the developer of PulseAudio and Systemd:

PulseAudio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PulseAudio

Systemd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemd

Mozilla abandons experimental Aurora Firefox channel

Fatman

Six week release cycles...

I have never understood the driving force behind such a tight release schedule; nor the whole number version bumps that accompany it. IMHO it must have come from some marketing weasel that felt that Firefox is 'old' if it did not bump its version number every time a new release is shit out. You know - mimic Chrome.

What else is pointless is the useless UI changes that get made (again, IMHO `marketing weasel` inspired) that show up; while long standing bugs get ignored.

I have said this before:

`Mozilla fix your goddamn code first, then worry about the fucking UI.`

Leaked NSA point-and-pwn hack tools menace Win2k to Windows 8

Fatman
Joke

Re: """conversations with each vendor."""

Such conversation might consist of:

vendor: <quote>"OK NSA, we know you've exploited THESE vulnerabilities, but what else are you not telling us?"</quote>

NSA: "Sorry, but that information is classified!"

Big Internet warns FCC's Pai: We will fight you all the way on net neutrality

Fatman
Joke

Re: Actually it looks like getting them to pass any kind of legislation is a mammoth task

<quote>Because hey everyone wants a hand out suitcase full of cash campaign contributions for their cooperation.</quote>

FTFY!!!

BOFH: Defenestration, a solution to Solutions To Problems We Don't Have

Fatman
Joke

Re: Having a computer log of who is in the building

<quote>Bosses card always 5 mins late entering the building overly long lunches and leaves 5 minutes early every day.</quote>

Not quite right

Bosses card log him entering the building, and the script erases that entry 5 minutes later, and does the same when he exits; so his attendance is essentially unprovable. Higher ups fire said boss for absenteeism. """The computer doesn't LIE!!!"""

As Trump signs away Americans' digital privacy, it's time to bring out the BS detector

Fatman
Joke

Re: The one way this will be stopped quick smart...

<quote>"Someone needs to fork Wikileaks..."

Spelling!</quote>

NOPE!!!!

Grammar!: Someone used the wrong verb.

Boeing details 'Deep Space Gateway' for Mars mission staging

Fatman
Joke

RE: Boeing: SEND MORE MONEY NOW STOP

<quote>Boeing: executive bonus pool corporate pork barrel is depleted SEND MORE MONEY NOW STOP</quote>

FTFY

FTC accuses man of faking its news to further tech support scam

Fatman
Joke

Suitable punishment...

Chase this asshole into the Everglades, and let the gators have at it.

This being mating season, and after some 'thrashing and splashing' in the swamp they get hungry.

Snacktime!!!!!!!!

Microsoft Friday false positive: Bluber-A ballsup makes sysadmins blub

Fatman
Joke

Re: What was in that first post?

Probably some derogatory reference to the "High Priest of Microsoft" - Steve Ballmer, if I were to hazard a guess.

Ubuntu 17.04 beta FACT: It's what's on the inside that matters, not looks

Fatman
Joke

Linux 'babies'??

Hey Loverock, go back under your rock!!!!!

US cops, firefighters to get new emergency wireless network – AT&T to get $6.5bn

Fatman

Re: grab the government by the balls just slip right by.

Don't you worry, they will have all of that in the contracts.

I would suspect that this contract covers the basic infrastructure buildout, and operation.

Outlier construction costs, and additional features are extra.

If one thing the telcos learned well is the art of nickling and diming their customers to death. Hey Verizon, I am looking at you! A T Mobile commercial that 'nails you':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ZRWypu6lI

Nuns left in limbo after phone line transfer hell

Fatman
Joke

"Catholic" upbringing

I had the unfortunate pleasure of a Catholic Grammar School Education.

Complete with `Sister Mary Alice discipline' administered by a steel drafting triangle.

My knuckles still ache to this day (some 55 years later). I would hope that the proper punishment for those incompetents at Eircom be subjected to DAILY finger racking by each of the nuns living there.

Metasploit upgraded to sniff out IoT weakspots in corporate networks

Fatman
Joke

"""Pen Testing"""

<quote>Funny, when I do pen testing, I usually just scribble it on a piece of paper to see if the ink runs :-)</quote>

Followed up by a lob into the wastebasket if they fail.

$DEITY knows how many biros I have tossed out.

Hardware 'dislodged' from HPE SAN during cable replacement

Fatman
Joke

Abstraction Layers

<quote>It put an abstraction layer between management and technology so they (management) can distance themselves from technical faults their stupid decisions.</quote>

FTFY

Samsung's Bixby totally isn't a Siri ripoff because look – it'll go in phones, TVs, fridges, air con...

Fatman
Joke

Re: Not on any

<quote>Yes and I am unable to connect to the DRM server to validate your account, so this door aint opening and it's dry cornflakes for you.</quote>

FTFY

Outgoing HPE workers stripped of gym cards and cushy remnants

Fatman
Joke

RE: Senior Management Kick-Boxing

<quote>... (or should that be Kick Boxing the Senior Management in the nuts?)</quote>

FTFY??