* Posts by Tom 13

7544 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jun 2009

Brits guard Facebook passwords more than work logins – survey

Tom 13

Re: Remembering a password is no harder than remembering a phone number

Actually, while I never have trouble finding my house, I frequently need to stop to think when asked for my address. I don't find my house by it's address, I find it by other geography clues.

And yes, I have passwords for work written down because there are more than 10 I need to access various accounts and records. At home I have at least three passwords needed for stuff on my PCs. My bank accounts have different passwords and identifiers, including credit cards that's about another 8 accounts. Because they are unique, I don't change them as often as I should. Then I have three personal email accounts in some form or another of use, and probably 13 website forums with passwords. Some websites match each other but not emails, some emails match some websites. So that's 31 accounts I can think of, and I may be missing a few.

Granted if I used each of them every day it and they were all static, it wouldn't be a big deal. But throw in irregularly scheduled password changes with infrequent use and its a recipe for disaster. In fact, even with the passwords written down, one of those work accounts is a recipe for disaster. See, it's used by the account I use to connect to encrypted laptops, and at start up, it can't connect to the current network database, only the database last stored when it was connected to the network. If all the laptops were connected to the network on the day I change my password and synch soon after I change it, no problem (also something that NEVER happens). But if it's one of those that has gone out on travel or worse been stuck in a storage closet for an unknown period of time (some of them have been more than 18 months) not only do I have a long list to try (and at some point it starts a timer before next login, doubling with each failure) when I do finally get to the password that works, it might just make itself my current password, which fucks up all my other accounts and is a complete bitch to correct.

Will Windows 8 sticker shock leave Microsoft unstuck?

Tom 13
Thumb Up

Big Thumbs up just for using the following phrase in the article.

"...to consumers who won’t care about trivial things like architectures..."

Because while we tekkies argue those details back and forth, consumers honestly don't give a crap.

Crap PINs give wallet thieves 1-in-11 jackpot shot

Tom 13
Coat

Re: Simple solution...

I would have thought the simple British solution would be to include a Bobbie with every PIN, thus also solving the unemployment problem.

Cameras roll on 'blockbuster' new Who series

Tom 13

Re: Just let it die

Baker is still my favorite Dr, but I'd never go so far as to say EVERY incarnation since then has been embarrassing.

Tom 13

Re: Re: Re: X in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCEEEEEEEEE!

It was still distinctly in the 20th century, and that's actually the more annoying part.

Tom 13

Re: Re: Re: Re: X in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCEEEEEEEEE!

You know, I was going to make that an up vote until I got to "distinctly British feel" and I gotta say as ferkin' 'Merkin, that I would STOP watching the show if it LOST that feel.

RIP: Peak Oil - we won't be running out any time soon

Tom 13

@Andrew

I hope you are correct about the shale, and perhaps you Brits have a decent shot at that. Here on the other side of the pond, I'm not so sure the Green Weenies won't manage to put legal obstructions in place to prevent its usage. 'Gasland" may only be the beginning of the lies.

Foxconn allegedly hid underage workers from inspectors

Tom 13

@Goldmember Re: Re: Re: Re: Patiently waiting..

I'm not sure I understand the subtle distinction you seem to be trying to make vis a vie Forced Labor and Slavery.

Perchance do your grandparents hail from Georgia? And do you still harbor ill feelings toward those damn Yankees because of the War of Northern Aggression?

OPERA grabs spanner, fixes kit, and slows down neutrinos

Tom 13
Coat

So I guess that means the Fat Lady

has finished her last aria?

Tom 13

Re: NOT an intelligent reaction.

Actually, the checking of the equipment should have been done BEFORE publication of the result. I'd say the early publication of the "surprising" result is more indicative of how badly the money race has already corrupted scientific pursuits. If you publish a "surprising" result, you get more funding to study it. Although it does reinforce the necessity of publishing raw data, experimental methods, and conclusions as the bedrock of science. Because the subsequent public beat-down seems to have prompted a second look at the experimental apparatus, which in turn revealed the true cause of the "surprising" results.

Pirate Bay AND its users violate labels' copyright - judge

Tom 13
Flame

Re: Re: No...

If you link to only 1000 movie sites hosted elsewhere, and do so KNOWINGLY, you are still inciting to infringement. And frankly, I'll be more than happy to buy the hangman his noose after you are convicted.

Activist supplied illegally obtained docs to DeSmogBlog

Tom 13

@Al Jones: Re: "at dissuading teachers from teaching science".

That presumes CRU are teaching science and Hearland aren't. If the presumption is the other way, it doesn't follow.

Real scientists follow the data, not the ideology.

Tom 13

@NomNomNom - Re: Re: Re: "Key points that are

Maybe because he knows he's got boatloads of idiots like you out there who will flack for him claiming "See, that is the part that doesn't make sense..."

Tom 13

@daveje, Re: 9 of the 10 warmest years...

I see YOU haven't been keeping up on YOUR facts. It turns out that in point of fact only 5 of the warmest years are in the last 100 years, with the other 5 being in the 100 before that. Your little factoid was a result of serious mistakes in the "corrections" made to the raw data by, yep that's right, the same maroons who think "denialists" are too stupid to understand the math.

Tom 13
Pint

@FatsBrannigan: That's one of the things I like about El Reg,

there's never any "pretending" to positions they don't hold, it's more like a bottle of cold American piss water (aka "beer") thrown in your face.

Speaking of which, here's a British pint for Lewis.

Flash DOOMED to drive itself off a cliff - boffins

Tom 13

Re: SSDs great idea, but...

Selecting the right drive for the job at hand is part of the job. I'm just against doom-mongering in areas where we have historical evidence of ability to innovate. And storage technology is one of those areas.

Tom 13

I think I've heard this song and dance before in a different venue.

Only back then we were going to hit the wall without revolutionary breakthroughs in magnetic disk technology, and we should never expect to get past them. At the time I think my Big Ass Drive was in the neighborhood of 200M. I don't expect the SSD guys are any less inventive.

Squirrelled away: seeds survive 30,000-year winter

Tom 13

Re: That's some squirrel

I take it you've never seen Skrat in action then? For him 38 meters is a mere trifle.

Unions: MoD 'mad to fire staff while increasing consultant spending'

Tom 13
Mushroom

Re: Peace time / War time

True in the past, not so much today. WWII was the last real war in which a country was able to sustain the surprise attack, build up troops, and repel the enemy. Even then it was a closer thing than most today are willing to admit. These days if you aren't able to repel the first attack it will pretty much be over. Israel set the precedent in The Six Day War and the US followed up with the 100 Hour March Into Iraq.

No, I don't count the peace keeping crap that's come since then as real war in the sense of someone is trying to conquer your country. Yes, they can needlessly feed grunts into the grist mill and provide the politicians something over which to lament; but thankfully everybody has been too afraid of the nukes to go on a real war binge. What worries me as a Yank is that fear may finally be fading in some quarters. So we may yet see a real war in my lifetime, and that's not something I'm all that happy about.

DNS flaw reanimates slain evil sites as ghost domains

Tom 13

Re: Domains may be de-registered for other reasons.

You don't need to do it for all deleted domains, only ones that are taken over as a result of a court ordered take down for malware - everything else follows as usual. Personally I sort of like the idea of taking over the malware domain for a year or three and redirecting them to a legitimate anti-malware site.

Microsoft licensing hike sparks UK piracy, bankruptcy fears

Tom 13
Flame

Re: DEAR MICROSOFT...

Because thems that play in the exchange rate biz usually get burned if they aren't actual currency traders with margins on both sides of the trade.

Symantec sues rivals in backup patents spat

Tom 13

Re: desperate much?

This strikes me as radically different than the SCO case. The second SCO was obviously trying to obfuscate ownership issues with their choice of names and their claim on the patent itself was grey before the case (not something you want in an IP case).

My post above about Symantec owning the patent wasn't sarcasm, it was genuine surprise. That being the case and with clear ownership of the patent, they have a potentially valid claim, unlike SCO who were on a pure fishing trip. Now maybe things in the patent are obvious and shouldn't have been granted, or perhaps the patent is overly broad, but that's the system we work with and part of why we have courts to hear cases.

And whether the Symantec product is too complex, too poorly designed, or just getting a lot of bad PR, they clearly need to fix some things or winning the patent case isn't going to help all that much. I worked once for a company that had some good IP and no decent product at a sustainable price point. They went bankrupt about a year after I got out.

Tom 13
WTF?

Symantec patented restore to different hardware?

First I heard of that very cool feature was from Acronis.

'Exploitative' Proview slammed by trademark judge ... in 2010

Tom 13

Re: Here Apple Take Your Nasty Medicine

Given the downvotes, I guess it's mostly fanbois who don't know early computing history on the site today.

Tom 13

Re: Just like you and me...

Despite the misspellings, I have to agree with Obviously!: Proview is no less dishonest in not letting go of the IP than Apple were in setting up a front company to acquire the name more cheaply. Sauce ..., goose ..., gander, etc.

Sensitive council data sent to hundreds via PERSONAL EMAIL

Tom 13

Re: great use of taxes/rates

That would be the same first thought I had. I mean, I can see the man accused in the email messages wanting some money via civil court if he hasn't actually been convicted of anything, but fines as penalties just doesn't make sense. I don't think I stop at dismissal either. I think there ought to be some framework whereby depending on how egregious the violation was, the snivel serpent could be brought up on criminal charges and sent to jail.

And that goes double for my side of the pond.

Boy burned in Nintendo sensor substitution

Tom 13

Re: Is the top of your TV flat?

The sensor bar comes with tape to hold it to either flat or sloped surfaces.

Others have mentioned other decent solutions as well.

Tom 13

Re: Re: Warning

You Brits must have some damned advanced candles over there. When I was a kid we use to hold our a hand over the candle to see who could keep it there longest before the pain caused us to move it away. Did the same thing moving our fingers through the flame. Never got burned though.

Bonkers MS security update flags Google.com as malign

Tom 13

Re: MS Probably more evil

Nah, I have to give that to Google. Their slogan is the first sign.

First, MS only wants most of my money, not all of my personal details which they sell to other people to make money. Second, while it may be possible to avoid MS product in your environment, it is theoretically possible. Even if you never use Gmail, Google Search, Google Toolbars, GoogleDesktop, Google Earth, or any of the various other Google Apps (including Android), if you've read this post, Google has learned something about you. Because like 99% of the other websites out there, El Reg uses Google Analytics in their pages.

Tom 13

Re: Oooh

Who says I have to pick ONE?

Microsoft code not the security sieve sysadmins should be worried about

Tom 13

Re: Why!?

For the same reason 90% of business and government run Windows: it's the accepted means of interchange amongst the largest number of businesses.

Tom 13

@Stuart: Grades

Paragraph 1: A+

Paragraph 2: A+

Paragraph 3: A

Paragraph 4: D-

Firewalls offer some protection, but despite all the good points in paragraphs 1 to 3, the only way to protect the network is to prioritize the testing and deployment of patches while keeping the firewall, AV, and anti-malware stuff up to date. Having a good and properly patched proxy server/cluster in the mix would probably help too, but being as I've never worked the help desk anywhere that has one, I can't speak to its efficacy from experience.

Trojan smuggles out nicked blueprints as Windows Update data

Tom 13

Huh. Over he we have people who put extra 'R's into words:

"Get me a glass of warter.'"

"Have you done the warsh?"

Maybe we need to get the two groups together.

Apple demands US ban on Samsung's Galaxy Nexus

Tom 13

@Giles: Pagers predate cell phones

and the early cells had to duplicate the pager functions. Once you have that, email is an obvious extension. Possibly difficult to implement, but still obvious.

Apple orders PC builder to 'choose sides' in laptop battle?

Tom 13

@Al Jones: Will a court settlement suffice,

or are you going to continue to spout FUD?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft

http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/ms_index.htm

Tom 13

@Dave's Jubblies: No, under 'Merkin law

it is illegal for Apple to even ask for that. Apple can require firewalls to prevent their ideas being implemented by competitors, but the very act of asking a vendor not to make a product crosses the line of anti-trust territory.

Tom 13

No, it's

i$haft.

As in, this is exactly the behavior which DID land MS in court before the whole IE thing came to pass.

IT guy answers daughter's Facebook rant by shooting her laptop

Tom 13

Stop calling them squirrels and call them by their proper name:

Tree rats (with big fuzzy tails).

Tom 13

@Hermes Conran:

Given that grouping, I'd say his gun control is pretty damned good.

Tom 13

Better actually to invite him

to the range. Seeing the groupings and weapons in action ya know.

Tom 13
Pirate

@404: Nah, stick with the slug thrower, it's more cathartic.

One blast for the 12 gauge and you're finished. Save the scatter gun for urban combat.

Tech! Tech! Teeeeech! Women want gadgets for Valentine's

Tom 13

Does this laptop

make my thighs look big?

Tom 13

Yes, but it's too late.

He's already married to her.

Eolas falls at first hurdle in bid to tax browser apps

Tom 13

I'd like it rather more if they did feel foolish.

Part of the reason the trolls pursue these cases is how many companies fold so quickly. Granted an even larger reason is that so many patents are issued with so little competent review. And competent review in turn is dwarfed by the insane extent patents have been broadened by the politicians. But ya gotta start somewhere.

UK.gov: We really are going to start buying open-source from SMEs

Tom 13

That should be Charlie Brown kicking Lucy's football.

It took a while, but Doofus learned in Groundhog Day. Charlie Brown is still trying, long after the esteemed Mr. Schulz has passed beyond the Great Divide.

Eolas claims royalties for browser apps and plug-ins

Tom 13

Nothing abnormal about it.

It happens to be the county seat, county seats are good candidates for US District Courts, and most 'Merkins prefer government toadies to be as far away from them as possible.

As for it being the only industry in Tyler, given a population of 109,000+ and that none of their top 10 employers are law firms or lobbyists, you must be thinking of some other Tyler, Texas.

I'm not normally a fan of Wiki, but this is actually the sort of thing they are decent at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler,_Texas

US Navy preps railgun for tests

Tom 13

I'll take the option to hit fuel storage

or the modern equivalent of the gunpowder magazine.

And I expect a burst has a better shot of connecting with a critical structural support than you'd imagine, especially if it slices through the whole ship as you seem to be implying it would.

Resellers: Microsoft price hike was 'demanded by Euro country bosses'

Tom 13

@Crisp: So then I guess you've never heard of

Warren Buffet or George Soros.

Here's a hint: governments sometimes (I'd say frequently, but I'm in a generous mood at the moment) do stupid things with their currencies.

Tom 13

Apple? I thought that was

Adobe.

Tom 13

@Dare: Because MS was the first to market with

a reasonably good, reasonably stable, and inexpensive computer way, way, back in the day. Because it was all of those things plus the hardware got even more affordable, they developed the biggest installed base. That installed base is their most valuable asset. If you move away from that base you encounter friction when you deal with other businesses. Whether it's the act of explaining to them that there is nothing wrong with your documents when they open them and get the "converting" message (because MS has tweaked something and even though your FOSS program supports the format MS said was public it doesn't exactly any more), or outright rejection because you aren't using the right software it is still friction. In business, the less friction on things that don't matter, the easier it is to deal with friction where they do.

Not that I'm necessarily happy about this, but it is at the heart of the matter. In fact, this truth even causes MS problems: Do you really think MS extended support for XP for as long as they did because they wanted to? Do you really think they want businesses to still be stuck on IE6? Whatever you thing of the quality of their new OS and browser, MS obviously want people buying new stuff because that maintains or increases the MS money stream.