* Posts by Destroy All Monsters

16005 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008

SCADA honeypots attract swarm of international hackers

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Holmes

Re: So there are people out there looking for these systems with the tools to do damage.

While I conceive that protecting these systems is just good business practice (aka. "Striving for Excellence" in a Total Quality Management program), please do explain why "board level staff" should "do time" when the recommended quality assurance processes are not in place or handled well.

If your arse depends on these systems being locked down, why -- you know how to order up audits, dontcha?

And then we have the "gov't owned" stuff letting it all hang out. What you gonna do about it? Probably wait until horse bolted, then slap on the wrist, then more money injections.

Breakneck star orbits black hole at record speed

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Coat

Why did I read "Neckbeard star orbits black hole at record speed"?

I .... gotta get out of this "industry".

Dear gov cyber-ninjas, try not to kill people. Love from the lawyers

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Childcatcher

They think of the children if they can use their dead bodies for propaganda

> Politicians (and particularly those of the western "liberal interventionist" bend)

> Règles de Jeu

Choose one.

Our do-gooders have no problem offing several hundreds of thousand if it is "worth it" and mean progress towards the fairy World Of Good.

Researcher sets up illegal 420,000 node botnet for IPv4 internet map

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Pint

Respect muh authority! This WILL be fully prosecuted.

This is activity seems to be on the level of "urban exploration". On a bad day you may end up being chased by rats, guard dogs, mafiosi and coppers. Or come too near a radioactive landfill site. Or give an old lady a premature heart attack. On a good day, you come away with a set of nice high-resolution pictures.

There is always the chance that the scan hits the Internet-connected widely open medical device controller, which would be bad. I still wouldn't get into a tizzy over "ethics", which are often just a convenient bullet-pointed-and-ordered-by-priority way of pretending that tradeoffs and fast or dubious decisions don't exist in the real world. Or worse, that one is whiter than driven snow...

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Holmes

Re: NO..

> A script kiddie could have done this.

LOLNO.

I do hope your professional abilities are better than your evident lack of judgement would suggest.

New nuke could POWER WORLD UNTIL 2083

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I am Bear ... WELCOME TO RUSSIA!

BN-XXX Fast Breeders?

But these are Superphénix-style reactors .... The french were unable to get these to work or shitting their pants about possible accidents, don't know which.

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Headmaster

Re: Nice, but still just a fancy kettle

Yeah so what. Nuclear fission is ENTROPY UNLEASHED. What's wrong with using it to build up a head of steam?

Nothing.

For some reason, it looks unreasonable to people who have read too many Larry Niven Magic Tech Everywhere books. But so what.

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Paris Hilton

Re: Its real enemy.

Sounds suspicious ... are the companies building reactors the same as the ones getting the Uranium out of the earth? I don't think so.

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Trollface

Re: connected to a drain plug of salt that has been frozen solid

Yeah you could get rid of "radioactive" bodies...

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Re: What about the oil barons??

Oil is always needed and this is still some ways off. Oil baronies are the least of the problems. They may even put up some money for this.

First sale doctrine survives US Supreme Court

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Big Brother

No, it is the job of the state to keep the wolves hidden from the sheep.

Property rights enforcement can be done privately, too.

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FAIL

Clearly...

Three apples are rotten.

Gas!

Software bug halts Curiosity: Nuke lab bot in safe mode

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Meh

Blinded by the light!

Dude, there is a FRICKING ENORMOUS SUN between the sender and the receiver.

If you wanna route around that thing, be my guest but I'm not sure that there are currently many transmission nodes running Licklider Transmission Protocol hanging around the solar system yet.

Once we get off this rock, things will be better, I'm sure.

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Coat

Re: That's what safe mode is for...

In other contexts: REACTOR SCRAM

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Pint

Somewhat Related: Currently in a paper on my desk...

"Can a Manufacturing Quality Model (like 6 sigma) Work for Software" [Robert V. Binder, IEEE Software, September 1997]

We have the following interesting stats:

♦ NASA Space Shuttle Avionics have a defect density of 0.1 failures/KLOC (Edward Joyce, “Is Error-free Software Possible?” Datamation, Feb.18, 1989).

♦ Leading-edge software companies have a defect density of 0.2 failures/KLOC. These companies are achieving 0.025 user-reported failures per function point or better (Capers Jones, Applied Software Measurement, McGraw Hill, 1991, p. 177).

♦ A leading reliability survey found an average defect density of 1.4 faults/KLOC in critical systems (John D. Musa, Anthony Iannino, and Okumoto Kazuhira, Software Reliability: Measurement, Prediction, Application, McGraw Hill, 1990, p. 116).

♦ Surveys of military systems indicate at best a defect density of 5.0 faults/KLOC and at worst a defect density of 55.0 faults/KLOC (Joseph P. Cavano and Frank S. LaMonica, “Quality Assurance in Future Development Environments,” IEEE Software, Sept. 1987, pp. 26-34).

[In the above, failures/KLOC should prolly be replaced by faults/KLOC]

[The answer is NO, btw]

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Devil

Psst, young rover. Wanna try this URL "origin://blumars.exe?cmd=chinastrong.dll"?

Not necessarily. This was an "unrelated file", so may not have been picked up at all.

EA Origin vuln puts players at risk

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Re: Hah

"The issue can be mitigated by disabling the origin://URI globally using tools such as 'urlprotocolview'. This means a user will be no longer able to run games via Desktop shortcuts or internet websites with customs command line parameters."

Good idea!

Did Steam fix their problem of the same nature, btw?

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Pint

Hah

"because Origin functions on multiple platforms"

should be

"because Origin does not function on multiple platforms"

What are those "multiple platform" and why did 40 million install it? Is this like smoking? Does the Surgeon General emit health and safety issues? Is it sin-taxed at least? Questions, questions...

Microsoft issues manual on Brits to Cambridge exports

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Trollface

Re: I guess we don't need to write our own guidebook for people going to America...

America is nothing like in a Moore movie. He's filming from a progressive standpoint. Might as well watch "Sin CIty - CAPITALISM" for realism.

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Paris Hilton

Re: From the land where the consumer is king?

Isn't this why the consumer is king... and not Brussels?

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Headmaster

"Fish and chips, national dish mate."

I hope there is a free DVD of "The 51st State" glued to the back of the manual.

An educationally valuable movie!

"You can still go to France, mate, it's not too far, it's full of pricks and they hate fucking yanks as well!"

Celebrity conspiracy as Apple attacked over customer service

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Angel

Re: The real question is...

Changing Lines:

Hexagram Twenty-Three/Line Three:

He moves among those who would overturn the throne.

Discretion and a true heart are the key to survival.

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Holmes

Re: The real question is...

I asked the "I Ching Online"

"Was the smear against Apple as tweeted by the 8:20 party truthful or not?"

Cast Hexagram: 23 - Twenty-Three : Po / Splitting Apart

"The weight of the Mountain presses down upon a weak foundation of Earth: The Superior Person will use this time of oppression to attend to the needs of those less fortunate. Any action would be ill-timed. Stand fast."

SITUATION ANALYSIS:

"This is a situation easily mistaken for Stagnation (Hexagram 12) or Revolution (Hexagram 49). It just depends on which side you're on. During a time of Stagnation, human worms invade to feed on the decay. During a time of Revolution, oppression is being overthrown. But in this situation, oppressors are violently seizing power. Pay special heed when you receive this hexagram, because the oracle is often warning you of a situation of which you are totally unaware. You are about to be blindsided."

So probably not, but this sounds like even more ominous things are in the offing.

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Holmes

Re: Storm

The Android one?

Bottomless, unsatisfied Xbox widow cuffed after boyf flees nookie

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Holmes

Re: Hint, kids (of any gender) ...

"if your partner(s) is(are) more interested in X than they are in you then BAD CONSEQUENCE"

Why talk like a young one on the ultimate ego trip?

Drones with freakin' CLAWS grab objects like eagles

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Big Brother

Greg Egan had one of those in "Distress"

Snapped up a protestor in the street, broke all his bones, then let him drop again pour encourager les autres.

Autonomy is not needed, we just need Mr. Copper on his anonymous terminal.

OpenSUSE 12.3: Proof not all Linux PCs are Um Bongo-grade bonkers

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Black Helicopters

Re: KDE submenus still don't work

Never had any problem and I also think AC-ing should mean the IP address is advertised with one of those kaleidoscopic images.

How about it, El Reg?

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Trollface

Re: Linux as a desktop is a failure, its time to move on

"Moving on": Choose the Jobs Cult Camp or the Windows Gulag.

No thanks, I will pass. I don't particularly like Kool Aid or barbed wire.

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Devil

Muah...

MUAH.

AC trollposts about Linux, injects hostility, fakes aggravated fanboism for Windows and hopes for a shitstorm?

Here?

Where using "professionalism" and "Microsoft" in the same phrase evokes tired guffaws?

Go back to /b/, anon.

Schmidt still scanning the skies 50 years after defining the quasar

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Holmes

Re: Quasars used for accurate geodesy, which is essential for GPS

Well, it seems Quasar-Based Earth Attitude Tracking was set up in the early 90's, so clearly it wasn't used for the Cold War.

What was used for the cold war was pretty good integrators on ICBMs (integrate over the acceleration to find out your current speed, integrate over speed to find out where you are). An upgraded V2, basically. Even GPS tracking came later, with Cruise Missiles in the Gulf War 1 (earliest). Prior to that, Cruise Missiles had integrated terrain recognition systems.

Even the Minuteman III was "inertially guided":

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/icbm/lgm-30_3.htm

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Re: No, no, no, no, no....

But your orbit will be subject to random errors as time progresses. So you have to correct it via on-board methods. Maybe ground control uses the plotted position of the satellite against the quasar map to tell the satellite how to fire thrusters. Maybe. But I would like to see a complete explanation of how that is supposed to work.

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Boffin

No, no, no, no, no....

We read:

Because quasars are so far away, they are incredibly stable in their positioning, and as some of the brightest objects in the sky they are easily recognizable.

Hold on, what!

The brightest quasars have magnitude above 14 (i.e. are weaker than 14). THAT'S NOT BRIGHT, LIKE AT ALL. Pluto is 14.

I have heard the bizarre "GPS sats track by quasar" story earlier, but I frankly could not believe it. It's very much far easier to track by bright star, and update the map every 20 years than to carry supertelescopes on those satellites to detect random points at magnitude 14 lost in the haze of galaxies.

Do they track by RADIO BRIGHTNESS? I haven't seen a radio telescope on GPS sats either.

Sounds like an urban legend to me.

Samsung's new co-CEO: 'Windows isn't selling very well'

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Re: filing around 120 patents

Prior art regarding "removing people from photographs" has already been established by some Georgian with the improbable name "Steelman" back in the 30s, really.

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Trollface

O'Realowski?

People making money with Android? I thought Android was bad because it involved giving Intellectual Property away, which leads to crappy phones, market fragmentation and dead, festering puppies?

UK cops, boffins to crack out war plan against cyber-crims

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Holmes

Re: I wonder

I'm grumpy in the evening but that perception has not been à la mode since about before the Y2K cutover. Or was it before the Matrix movie (the original one)?

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Big Brother

Re: A little behind the times

"The UK has become a haven for cyber criminals and the problem will get far worse before authorities gain some control over the crims."

This message brought to you by the Total National Information Service ®. Limitations depending on your legal status may apply. Keep calm and carry on shopping™. Thank you for helping us help you to help us alll™.

Watch out, office bods: A backdoor daemon lurks in HP LaserJets

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Thumb Down

"So, debug code is typically compiled out altogether in a release build."

Which actually leads to horrible nightmares with buggy, uninspectable black box software.

Drunk driving: No more dangerous than talking on handsfree mobe

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Big Brother

"limit of 0.5 g/l"

Still pretty high for Yurop: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk_driving_law_by_country#Europe

Yurop has gone into retardation level territory due to rampant voter whoring and pressure to bring in the dough, with limits that now just trigger false positives on alcometers. Lose your license, no problem.

The funny thing is when ministers are then caught half-stoned out of their mind behind the wheel (or even in one case having totalled his taxpayer-provided luxury car against a tree). Then strenuous damage limitation and strongly worded wrist-slapping has to be applied.

Microsoft Surface Pro sales CANNIBALIZING Surface RT

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Coat

> I want one, but I am waiting until...

Sounds like on of those astroturf posts that promote dead games on gamer forums.

Crack Bombe squad dismantles Reg encryption in an hour

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Alien

Re: To keep in the spirit of things...

Chtulhu fhtagn?

Modder hacks SimCity for unlimited offline play

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Re: Hiding behind the license...

Well, in this case the "regulatory bodies" make this kind of BS possible in the first place.

Do not trust in "regulatory bodies". They are made by people who are influenced by smooth-talking lobbyists. The end result is cartelization, corporatism and waste and only sometimes some useful piece of legislation.

Report says #Facebook #to #adopt #hashtags

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Headmaster

In can has hashtag?

El Reg, there is a typo in the title.... "hastags"

EMEA server market struggles to find its footing

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Holmes

Let's hold it right there!

"The austerity in Europe"

Been reading too much NYT Krugman and his platitudinal lies, again?

Austerity is nowhere to be seen. Govs are spending, spending, spending.

The Myth of Austerity

"First of all, is there really austerity in the eurozone? One would think that a person is austere when she saves, i.e., if she spends less than she earns. Well, there exists not one country in the eurozone that is austere. They all spend more than they receive in revenues. In fact, government deficits are extremely high, at unsustainable levels, as can been seen in the following chart that portrays government deficits in percentage of GDP. Note that the figures for 2012 are what governments wish for...."

Apple's marketing honcho Schiller attacks Android, Samsung

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Thumb Up

Re: Spin

Apple vs. Samsung. The Diss!

I can't wait.

We shall CRUSH you, puny ROBOT... with CHESS

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Paris Hilton

I prefer the calculus

Also, after the fifth win for checkmate-in-one-move, I get the same situation over and over...

Attention, CIOs: Stop outsourcing or YOU will never retire

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Facepalm

Re: Full time?

"Outsource projects have never worked"

Citation needed.

Six things a text editor must do - or it's a one-way trip to the trash

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Facepalm

Why do people cut themselves? Does it make them feel good?

> A text editor with syntax highlighting and a left-panel directory browser, that's set up to fire off a build command with a keyboard macro is perfectly good for my uses.

Time to get into the 21st century and continuous compilation.

Unless you are just into smalltime scripting.

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Facepalm

Re: A nitpick

> the Unix Hater's Handbook

The book against which "Mein Kampf" reads agreeably.

Flashman and the Mountain of Disk

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Coat

Gotta agree, but the article needs flashing out.

Also, that picture! Looks like Flashman just gave his missus the Visa card....?

And ... MINDFUL RECALL

Oracle acquires Nimbula, buys way into open clouds

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Devil

Why so many anonymous cowards? Do you people fear that Larry Ellison will personally blow subsonic hollowpoints with "AC" written on them into each of your sorry arses?