* Posts by Fred Flintstone

3106 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jun 2009

Stop sexing up IT and give Civil Servants Macs, says gov tech boss

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You really don't get it, do you?

Oh boy - have any of you ever been near government IT? I can tell you that Ian Watmore is NO dummy, so I have a different view on what is going on here.

Since New Labour, the government has become infested with consultants. Allow me not to get into detail why, but your three main problems are accountability (lack thereof), profit and job assurance. Allowing a consultancy to make money somewhere means they take the accountability, and use the taxpayer's money to set up a nice cushy exit role for he/she who looketh the other way. This required rigging the system from end to end, so you have all these pork barrel artists looking at how they can please their new master so they can keep sucking tax money from the by now almost empty trough.

In comes Ian Watmore, who has seen it all go to hell from his days in a Conservative Cabinet Office. His first act surely had to be warning those bloodsuckers that the game is up, and he has done so by not offering Powerpoint answers. He signals he's quite prepared to start again if need be. I would not read too much into details, he is busy warning the previous idiots that the game is finally up. This is not about technology, it's politics.

Watmore is not an expert, but he knows at least how to identify one, and (most important) listen to them. I have more trust in him than in the seedy mass of consultants that is still washing around Whitehall. It got so bad they even had to rig the National Audit Office by installing one of their own (in my opinion it's the only reason the ID Card project actually passed audit)..

Ian Watmore has my vote, and I know he has a hard job ahead. I suggest you give the man some time, I think he'll surprise you. Unless you're a consultant - I suggest you start fixing where you have been creative..

Europe rules against general passenger data slurp

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Stop

.. not to mention a US -> EU transfer

I still haven't found a credible answer why the EU doesn't ask for US data to be submitted along the same conditions. As far as I know, the original 9/11 boys were resident there.

I mean, it's SUPPOSED to be for fighting crime, but the US is not even bothering anymore to keep up that pretense.

Lindsay Lohan ditches her surname

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Joke

No, no, no

"Getting away from Lindsay, that's spelt T W A T."

No, no, that's staying close. You didn't pay attention in biology, did you?

The Professionals set to abseil into cinema

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Aaaaaargh

"I always thought that the movie of "The Avengers" had its moments, but you wouldn't have called it a classic episode".

It's a good thing I like Uma Thelman in other movies - the Avengers remake was so crap it made the 3D version of Alice in Wonderland look good. This MUST have been made by people who were too young to grok the concept itself, so instead they went for the tick list approach.

I ritually burned that DVD and the case it came in..

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Actually..

.. that would be the twist of the century. His jokes make grown men cry in interrogation :-).

Like it..

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No way Gordon Brown

The man is supposed to take intelligent decisions and show real insight. Not quite the job specs I'd see Gordon Brown match.

Besides, Cowley knows how to laugh.

Mobile phones immobilise bones

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Coat

That's just advanced planning..

They're about to lie down. No idea if that is because of expected bone wear, though.

Google in mobile payments ménage à trois

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WTF?

That's then TWO problems

Given that Google is already in hot water with regulators I reckon there will be some uphill battling (well, OK, hardcore sponsoring) required to avoid legal shutdown for whatever reason.

I can see two: privacy concerns and monopoly laws. Google has gotten too big, so expect complaints soon.

And no, I would not want Google near my money, thanks, not to mention the idiotic use of NFC as payment method. Did you know you can actually read those chips from about 30 meter with the right equipment?

But hey, this is probably the same crew that though RFIDs in passports were cool too (readable from about 70 meters). I guess they have finished laughing over their biometric passport joke by now.

MoJ goes cloudy

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Uh oh - what about data containment?

Clouds have by definition fluffy edges..

Windows Server pushed to the super limit

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Coat

Running Windows on this machine..

.. is like buying a Porsche and only use first gear ..

The bullet proof one, please..

Facebook tells privacy advocates not to 'shoot the messenger'

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Stop

I have a simple answer..

Let's assume for a moment that the permission to share data with 3rd parties has been acquired. The result is that you will get your information used by 3rd parties you originally had no contact with, and that's where the problem starts - the permission chain gets confused.

I would propose that anyone buying data from another source must be obliged to tell you where that information was obtained. An end user should have the option to ask the 3rd party not only to stop using that data, but also have the ability to find out who distributed that data and optionally request the 3rd party to signal removal to their source.

That way you stand a chance if someone is distributing your personal data - if you cannot get back to the source you will otherwise end up playing a game of whack-a-mole every time your data is sold again.

In addition, those distributing your data must keep a record of who it was sent to so you can also tackle the issue from the other side. That way, removing the source should fan out to all who bought the data.

All of this needs to happen with sensible timelines.

To anyone suggesting that this creates too much overhead: it's the only way anyone will get any real data from me and anyone else who values their privacy - the alternative is serious database pollution..

BT, TalkTalk in court seeking axe for Digital Economy Act

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Unhappy

Doesn't matter

Disgraced or not, he still appears to have had enough dirt on New Labour to be sent on a jolly as MEP. And that EU club has achieved the holy grail: their books are in such a mess that it has proved impossible to sign them off for the 10th year running (I think). No risk of cash-for-questions or expense abuse disclosures there..

Firefox 4 debuts: The last kitchen sink release

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"Only as good as the OS" is 100% correct..

"The browser is only as good as the operating system it runs on" is indeed correct insofar that it thus totally disqualifies ANY version of IE as usable or safe - because all run exclusively on Windows (version in principle immaterial).

I think you should applaud such openness. I'm sure that wasn't quite what he meant to say, but that's what he actually meant, a Freudian slip*.

* : A Freudian slip is where you say one thing, but you mean your mother. Or something like that.

Fukushima's toxic legacy: Ignorance and fear

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Could I humbly suggest this cartoon?

It's *so* spot-on..

http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2011/03/22/323-cartoon-mike-luckovich/ - enjoy :-)

Southampton Uni shows way to a truly open web

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I have seen real world apps

I have seen real world semantic web apps - there is a company in Switzerland that has stuck manyears into developing the very idea. The key to handling this sort of data is deciding first what information you actually need - without a use case to define the shape of the specific needles you seek you'll be simply stuck looking at hay.

BTW, re PDF - there is another reason why portrait persists: our own physical limitations. Our eyes have a limited width from which we read. If you had a text landscape you'd tire pretty soon when reading..

BA jihadist relied on Jesus-era encryption

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Concur

No better denial of bomb planning tools exist today...

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This is what IaaS *REALLY* means

Idiots as a Service. Also exemplified by Farcebook, Twatter and Google (clever, that last one - can't find a good word to rename it - anyone?).

The problem is that they learn every time they cock up. There must be a better way to tackle this threat than a technology war.

Fukushima explained in crap cartoon

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It's so good..

.. even politicians may understand it..

Dozens of exploits released for popular SCADA programs

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These problems have been known for years

Actually, SCADA has been known for years to be weak. There is a particular PLC you can shut down with just one (1) malformed packet. Not only will it fail in an undetermined state, that failure is also unrecoverable - you have to reprogram it from scratch.

It is impossible to close this hole at present - some systems are too hard to replace so they are left until they reach end of life, others simply don't have the processing power to have anti-virus added (not to mention the complete unpredictability of anti-virus software of when it interferes - do you want a full disk scan to start when you're trying to shut down a nuclear reactor?). The good news is that the number of systems that have to be left in their unpatched state is diminishing, the bad news is that almost any factory is still sensitive to insider threat. One engineer with an infected laptop and you have a problem.

Oh, and worse: a lot of industrial real estate is remote controlled..

Thank God that ESD (Emergency ShutDown) systems have been left proprietary..

Google cops €100k French spank in Street View slurp outrage

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Next up: Switzerland

I have a feeling that this conviction will add to the court payload for Google in Switzerland. They have not finished by a long shot..

How to slay a cellphone with a single text

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One little problem here

SMS attacks cost money, so they will not be used as widely and indiscriminately as trojan emails.

Child abuse cop slams ICANN

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No..

.. it's the "let's stick some tape on this hole here but please leave the double gate open" type.

You'd think they have feet so big they would not fit in any sensible mouth, but you'd be wrong..

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Err..

.. leave my wife out of this. Or she'll block my domain name.

:-)

Police just rubber-stamping US data slurp

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Why bother?

No need to laboriously copy them - they probably get that data in nice comfy files from british lack-of-intelligence anyway as part of the "special relation" (which translates as getting some crumbs from what ECHELON picks up in Menwith Hill).

Alternatively it'll be left on some USB stick in public transport..

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

So, what about US data supplied to the EU?

AFAIK, the 9/11 guys actually lived in the US, so I think it would be reasonable to reciprocate.

But hat would make too much sense, wouldn't it?

Judge mulls 'wasted costs' as ACS:Law cases close

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You got to be kidding..

"ACS:Law should be subject to Police SFO investigation for their business practices"

Do you honestly believe that the police would bother to investigate? I admire your optimism..

Mozilla to ship Firefox 4 on 22 March

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I have a simple question here re Chrome..

I was in London recently, and I noticed the Underground was awash with posters advertising Chrome. One of the most basic principles is that there is no such thing as a free lunch, so I want to know why a company would spend such a stunning amount of money on advertising something that it gives away.

Given that the product is provided by a company that makes its living by milking personal information for targeted advertising, I don't think I am that paranoid when I don't trust this at all.

Cue Google apologists, I assume..

'iPad cads' dash fanboi fondleslab hopes

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I am quite happy to wait..

I'm happy that so many do the beta testing for me - at higher cost. I'll just wait a few months until the first kinks are out of it, and then I'll see if I still have a use for it. If so, I'll buy it. By then prices will have settled..

UK boffins to develop 'Solar Squaddie' electro-uniform

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Umm, obvious flaw

They're creating a "solar powered" uniform in the *UK*?

/me falls off chair laughing..

Mind mapping for IT pros

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Agree - on both PC and Mac

It's almost too powerful - you have to approach it with some care. It actually combines mind mapping with file storage and note taking, but the most significant aspect is the ability to link leaves and nodes other than in the root/branch way. Brilliant..

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Absolutely agree - Freemind MUST be added to that list!

I have been using Freemind for years, on Windows, Linux and Mac. Works, and heaps of export options.

Article update?

Firefox bloke blasts Microsoft IE 9 hardware acceleration claims

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The real meaning of HTML..

Actually, judging by most tech websites "Hyper Text" appears to refer to the language by which products are pushed that haven't even been near live use yet.

Remember Windows Vista? Boy oh boy, what a torrent (no, no - not the program) of gushing reviews.

It appears HTML is a just acronym - in more ways than one..

Legally binding e-documents: Germany pushes secure email option

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Not quite

The issue has never been technology - it's the legal side of things.

If you write into law that a digital signature has the same validity as a physical one (leaving aside how sane/safe) that actually is) you make it an accepted practice. Until such time you can take any digital signature contract and dispute it in court - forcing the signee to prove with science that it's highly likely that this was a valid event. Making it legally accepted foregoes all this.

As an aside, this has been tried before, in many countries. The principal problem remains absolute identification of the end user. I'll sit back and watch the show - I'm sure the Chaos Computer Club will start peeling away at the edges soon..

Locked iPhones still got their ears on

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Joke

Oh no!!!

.. if I'm drunk there's no chance I can call a cab with a slurred voice!

OH MY GOD - APPLE SUPPORTS DRUNK DRIVING

No, not really, but I felt I had to come to an irrelevant conclusion. Sorry about that. I'll take my meds now.

Red Hat: 'Yes, we undercut Oracle with hidden Linux patches'

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Umm- simple question

Did you actually communicate with RH about this? Part of the RH product sphere needs people like you, so I cannot imagine RH shooting itself in both feet here. Maybe you ought to talk to RH first..

Introduction to data protection

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Commingling terms

I'm not impressed with using terminology that will create confusion. Data Protection is a term that has so far has been used for protection personal information from disclosure - *NOT* a good idea to abuse those terms.

iPad 2? Let's be kind and call it iPad 1.5

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Actually, I prefer that..

Personally, I think the snub status of El Reg re. Apple is only positive - there are enough fawning mags begging for advertising revenue out there.

It shows that the Apple marketing droids are not that clued up - their snubbing of El Reg only enforces their status as independent thinkers.. Think of it as a sort of secondary Streisand effect :-).

Go El Reg!

Natalie Portman slaps John Galliano

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Coffee/keyboard

Saved by the early hour

It's a good thing I'm not near a breakfast yet - it would have costed me a keyboard. Thanks :-)

Apple to Microsoft: 'App Store name is not generic'

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Break out the popcorn..

I'm actually somewhat undecided who to root for, but to quote Ashleigh Brilliant: "I don't have a solution, but I admire the problem". Yum :-)

Patent row gets Playstation 3s banned from Europe

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No quite

I buy a car with allow wheels. It is advertised as having allow wheels, and it is part of my buying decision (the trade description). What Sony has done is the equivalent of locking my garage after the sale and telling me that I can no longer use the car unless I agree to swap those wheels out for steel ones.

In principle, it is Sony who is the thief here, and if I could find the &%ç* receipt I'd document the functionality before I let the upgrade loose, and then file a formal complaint with the equivalent of Trading Standards where I live. I need the receipt because this is not going anywhere unless I can show damage, and that needs evidence of the original price (that's the way things work here - no proof, no case). I really think what Sony has done there is unacceptable - I don't hack the box (no time, too much bother and not interested) so I refuse to be treated like a criminal because someone somewhere used that feature to break it - a feature which is now no longer needed to break the box.

It has actually already had a direct impact - I deal with quite a few companies, and quite a number have imposed a ban on Sony kit since this affair. I work in an area where trust is everything, and a supplier who sees no problems with dropping a rootkit or retrospectively changing functionality is not acceptable. Simple: I vote with my wallet, and so do many others. You can try to justify this theft in whatever fashion you like, but it doesn't change the facts: a feature that was documented in the product manual has suddenly disappeared. It is irrelevant what purpose it served - I bought a set of features and one will go when I upgrade. Period.

Hence me applauding the import ban. I hope it bloody hurts big time.

Apple brings multi-touch, full-disk crypto to latest OS X

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Conflict..

The problem with Time Machine is that someone must take a decision if it a backup is to be encrypted as well. If yes, the current "the whole home directory as one lump" approach to Filevault-enabled systems is the only possible approach. If no, it would require some kind of permission model to back up files from an *opened* FileVault (i.e. when you're logged in), which defeats automation.

I solved this by making a bunch of Truecrypt containers which I open when required. I wish I knew enough Applescript to frame some applications with an open and close - some programs store data in awkward places. A good example of that is Livescribe..

Google Apps boss says cloud computing is your destiny

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No thanks - private nor business

The principal problem Google avoids to discuss is that of jurisdiction. Exactly because of the distributed nature, data can in principle be tapped/intercepted anywhere, by any Google entity. Google USA can be served with a warrant that "justifies" an intercept of an EU account, simply because they have access to it.

Google UK will be vulnerable to the abuse of the UK intercept laws (RIPA) - same problem. That Google is apparently doing something about their internal threats doesn't mean they have any control over their external legal responsibilities - which can be abused by a government insider.

It's all good and well to talk about technology, but that's not the only framework you have to keep in mind when you want to protect your intellectual property, and I am not convinced Google doesn't know this. It must have found that out when it bought Positini and found it could not absorb the services wholesale as it had intended..

Oracle gives 21 (new) reasons to uninstall Java

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Sadly..

.. Openoffice depends on it :-(.

Latest boffinry: Feeding TNT to sheep

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Coat

Insert where?

OK, OK, I'm going..

Ofcom okays Derren Brown psychic-baiting

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Actually, you don't need to be Derren to do this..

The technique used by such people (and by Derren on stage) is called "cold reading", and there are various books on the topic. The best one (IMHO) is by Ian Rowland, who also teaches this in a course called "Applied Cold Reading" which I had the pleasure to attend - the best way to arm you against such people is to study the tools they use.

Best fun I ever had on a weekend course. From what I heard he's going to do smaller ones this year (one day versions) - I'm sure you'll find details on the web.

Yes, you do need a brain, but no, you don't need to be such a complete and brilliant master as Derren Brown. Take the course, and then keep practicing.

Another technique worth knowing about is micro expressions, something you can study online at Human Intelligence. It has not yet managed to get the tag "science" as more study is needed - I would thus suggest you take the series "Lie to me" which is written around that concept with a large dose of salt. But it's fun nevertheless (yes, done that one too).

Stroppy Belgian students in Ryanair mutiny

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Ah, thanks..

"The fault here is ALL on the side of the students but don't let the facts get in the way of a good RyanAir kicking."

Ah, thanks. I mean, they *ARE* crap, so I would not want to miss any opportunity to diss them, and no, I haven't been able to lower my standards enough to fly with them.

However, the problem I have with this story is that the events differ from paper to paper. About the only thing they have in common is that there was no report of any attempt for reconciliation, but that deficiency is not restricted to just Ryanair..

UK police crime map website: Who's the victim here?

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Wild speculation..

Until there is clarity of what is paid for what and the work involved I think you cannot judge the returned value of the project. It's all good and well to slap something together when you're bored (and credit for that), but until you know what exactly was specified and how it was executed it is pointless to judge it.

In addition, you also have to keep in mind that consultancies have spent over 2 decades buying skills out of government so that they could sell them back to government for a profit, and that includes the purchasing departments. How else do you think suppliers are able to get contracts with truck-sized holes for recovery in them? The net result is that anything the government wants to do will always cost up to twice as much as it should - they cannot afford to staff a project with contractors because they lack the people to lead them, so they fall back on the "let's find someone to blame" routine, which also has the benefit of finishing the budget (If they are economical with your money they won't get quite as much to play with the next year round)..

Yes, I'm a cynic. Why?

EU Commission proposes new directive on storing air passenger details

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There is a simple answer to this idea..

.. ask for the reverse as well, otherwise, no dice. A bit like SWIFT data, it should be possible for EU police to investigate US cituzens' interest in pr0n or whatever else proves helpful.

After all, the 9/11 guys actually lived in the US, so I think the EU has every right to ask for advance notification.

If that symmetry cannot be achieved, there should not be an exchange at all.

Scanner snares senior servant

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Knockers, door

Hmm, must try this as search term..

Mac App Store: Developer godsend or Evil Empire?

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That was EXACTLY my concern too.

After all, "other" installation routes do not provide the 30% cut of the developer's bread.

If Apple does that, I can practically guarantee the product will die overnight. They may have gotten away with that in the iThingy market (Pad,Pod, Phone), but doing this on a platform that has the chance to nuke MS off the market if they get the corporate management right is daft, so I hope not.