Posts by Fred Flintstone

Re: OMG

Sweet!

Re: Just a tad pregnant

Airbus starts at least with a dynamically stable airframe (which is where all the 737 MAX's problems originate), and as its software has the last say instead of the pilot, redundancy is not seen as an afterthought but as a critical safety component (and, let's be honest, as the only way to get a FAA certification, at least one that's been done properly).

Last but not least, Airbus has decades of experience with software running the show, so by now they have a pretty good handle on where issues can arise and what to do to address them now before it ends up killing people. For Boeing to think they can quickly slap something together to fix a fundamental physical design problem and put that pretty much in charge over the pilot is unforgivable, especially since this was so critical to keep the plane in the air. It also raises MAJOR issues about the certification path for the 737 MAX.

Wipe all tapes and delete all documentaries

Documentary <> live streaming by the killer

[..] process of choosing your choice [..]

Duh. Clearly too much blood in my caffeine when I wrote this :)

Re: Errr, censorship?

Silicon Valley has shrugged off all but the bare minimum of responsibility

There is only one SINGLE reason that moderation isn't as affective as it ought to be: the almighty buck. The whole almost frenetic drive to find some form of AI that can filter this is hiding a very simple but brutal truth: only humans can moderate effectively but. they. cost. money.

We can debate about the degree of monitoring and whether this would or would not amount to censorship until the cows come home, but I think we can all agree that zapping this event and similar (and reporting it) would not be a hard decision for anyone to take - how about we start there? Furthermore, it is not as if we are short on case studies where else things have gone wrong so the debate that MUST be had is not going to be uninformed.

However, again not doing anything because it may be difficult or likely make some people angry is IMHO not an option. As is not properly funding it by those who have been reaping vast profits over the years, and they can start with donating the money that was made during the display of these atrocities (or did you really think I forgot about that?).

Re: Deja vu?

Doesn't M$ learn?

Not if it doesn't impact profit, no.

Re: So...

Hipsters are tits. Is that slander?

No. Stating a fact isn't slander.

:)

Yes, slimy shites. If somebody (a friend)has you in their phone contacts and they download the Faecebook app and accept the permissions requests, their contacts and your details are slurped by Faecebook. Some friend they are.

You might want to take into account that most people are utter innocents when it comes to privacy, they're no match for the conniving bastards that will use every psychological trick in the book to con people into giving permission to hand over details they should not share. It starts with roping in kids and establish the habit before they are old enough to judge their actions.

They're not bad friends, they are simply innocents who have their innocence used against them - the basis of every con job ever.

That's why you need to help them understand what FB is doing, in a language they can understand. Accusing people of something they're not even aware of is not going to help - we can (and must) do better.

Re: which way it plugs in

That was one of the first things they sorted out - even before USB 1 existed.

It's called Murphy's Law, and, just to illustrate how wonderfully ironic a law it is, it wasn't even formulated by Murphy :)

in one easy to swallow wafer

That could get messy if your name is Mr Creosote..

Re: Technically...

Actually, that's an interesting idea. Hmmm..

:)

Re: Wouldn't it be ironic

if in a few years a cylinder-like object crash lands onto the common and after the top slowly unscrews Opportunity appears and heat-rays everything in sight.

... aaaand we have winner, grin!

For me, that's the Comment of the Week - beautiful segue into War of the Worlds.

Well done (still laughing).

Re: "Facebook's position is that once they have the data, it's their data"

I'm starting to suspect that Google, Facebook et al will be all standing together against the wall when the revolution comes.

That would be the wall that Trumps is building then? That's about as likely to happen as Google and Facebook's executive team properly facing the music.

Re: M&S and MS

I think the Deadpool Zamboni option would at least ensure some entertainment..

Re: So...

Why change a winning formula?

:)

Re: Privacy and safety?

That would be Lederhosen?

:)

Not to worry, we all screw up sometimes. Especially when we try to help someone else with language - in my experience, that's seriously tempting fate :).

Re: Header pic

See? That's why I fit right in with El Reg's readership.

Forget the possibility of a fried user: what's the provenance of the sockets in the pic?

Hahahaha - thank God I learn from experience and had put my coffee down before reading the comments.

/wipes tears from eyes laughing.

Re: Skype - Kill it with Fire! Now!

Well, Skype IS fixed.

It's called Wire :)

Re: Apple boredom

Groan. I think that one counts officially as worst joke of this month.

Well done, more please.

:)

Re: Apologies

Interesting, Canada even regulates apologies? :)

I actually like that law, promotes civility.

Thanks, I learned something new.

Re: Facebook's shadow profile.

in my case of FB stalking i’ll privilege the IP cross-matching hypothesis

yet within days i had tons of friend suggestions for people i did know, but barely. somebody’s cousin or mother for example.

Actually, LikedIn shows the exact same behaviour. I created a new profile, pretty much blank. No CV, new contact details, different name, "joined" another company.

It took less than a day before it started to suggest, very focused, to connect to old colleagues.

Re: Question

It involves less blood?

Re: "Except it would had cost money to do so. Money not spent = profit."

The root cause?

Absolutely .

IMHO it ought to be the basis of any fine: make the fine many, many times more than the expense of doing it properly, of course retrospectively applied and aggregated. It's the only way I can see this become a concern for those taking the decision as it hits them in their pocket.

Further, make security audits mandatory as well as their publication for big organisations after, say, a 3 month period to fix the problems found, with an extra 3 month wait extension only available via a rigorous exception process to filter out the usual excuses.

Re: What are the 3 rules again?

1. A human employee may not reduce the profits of the Amazon corporation, or through inaction allow profits to be reduced.

3. A human employee must protect their own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Ooooh, that is a *classic*.

This is one of those moment I regret that I only have one upvote, so I thus nominate this one for Comment of the Week, for sarcasm in the face of adversity.

Well done.

:)

Re: "a lesson on the consequences of too much dependence on the cloud"

Or perhaps a bungie plummet off the roof of The Tower into a shallow pool of Yorkies televised on live PayPerView? =-D

Exactly what cordless bungee jumping was invented for, methinks.

Re: WTF?

Quite.

I even have a more advanced process in place: we work on it together on a machine. Much quicker. This tends to happen after we spend some time scribbling on paper, the machine version is more for sharing with any third parties who would consider especially my handwriting as a form of encryption :).

>In a way, Microsoft is saying its cloud couldn't handle the weight of multi-factor login requests.

Ohh god, I'm so sorry - that was me. I enabled MFA for two test accounts on Sunday night!!

.. aaaand we have our comment of the week. Wonderful sarcasm.

:)

Re: This will continue to happen...

"rouge apps"

I think they're photo apps. Blushes the cheeks. Any cheeks.

:)

Re: This is why

People do it so password files stay synced between devices.

I think it would be a good idea to give these instances an offline cache. It's not like that is a new idea, IMAP servers have been doing that for decades with email.

Re: Hmm.

Not yet, but I think that's merely due to the large number of contenders for the honour of being made an example under GDPR.

Given Trump's attitude to collaboration, my money has been on a US company for quite a while.