* Posts by Mark 65

3432 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009

Intel outside: Apple 'prepping' non-Chipzilla Macs by 2020 (stop us if you're having deja vu)

Mark 65

Re: Makes a lot of sense

Please tell me why I should care whether my C or other compiler level language is executed by an ARM, Intel, Motorola, MIPS, IBM, or other processor.

The endless merry-go-round of version upgrade fees on all your major applications, sometimes because a lot of work was involved and other times just because they can?

Mark 65

This could be anything from an attempt to create a lower end laptop a la Chromebook with better performance/energy characteristics than they could achieve using Intel chips to a way of end-to-end controlling the entire ecosystem with a handy side effect of removing Hackintosh boxes from it (although I believe they tolerate and don't care about that side ecosystem due to the potential for up-sell).

World celebrates, cyber-snoops cry as TLS 1.3 internet crypto approved

Mark 65

Re: Round we go again

The backdoor that was defeated - that was just a diversion. The real backdoor is the 0-RTT Resumption. Sure it relies on access to the machine but when has that caused the security agencies an issue? There's plenty of zero days to go around for that. This is undoubtedly their "in". Does it provide access to prior conversations as well as continuing? Who knows but I'm sure they'll be all over this.

It never ceases to amaze me how this shit continues to happen. Backdoor argued for. Discussion ensues. Concept defeated. Much praising. Security bods spot another issue. Swept under the carpet for reason "X". Likely flawed security protocol enacted.

FFS when will we learn that convenience is the enemy of security?

Amazon warns you have 30 days before Music Storage files bloodbath

Mark 65

Re: Aaaahhhh... the Cloud...

I used to think the same. I simply view the cloud as where my data is stored if my house is burgled or burned down, or burgled and burned down. That's as well as the onsite and offsite backups. It's just one more layer and it certainly isn't my go-to backup.

Mark 65

You also need the means to read the data. That is why the millennials will have the paradox of having taken more photographic records of their lives then previous generations - but will have then lost them.

There is no guarantee that the next generation of computing equipment will have the hardware/software to process the data.

Please explain. I have yet to find a camera format that open source RAW file readers have "forgotten how to read". Storage is constantly evolving and hence you will always have periods of overlap whereby you can transfer files, especially given how transfer rates keep improving - IDE -> SATA -> NVMe. I can still read data CDs and they went out of fashion a fair while ago. Therefore I fail to understand your comment regarding having a local copy but not the means to read it, it makes no sense.

Bitcoin's blockchain: Potentially a hazardous waste dump of child abuse, malware, etc

Mark 65

Re: Since when is currency clean?

If it would survive to the present day it could be auctioned for millions even if it had accummulated a thick layer of shit.

You could argue Bitcoin has attracted more than a thick layer of shit thus far.

Ex-GCHQ boss: All the ways to go after Russia. Why pick cyberwar?

Mark 65

Re: Nothing new here, move on.

My objection to talking as if the chap and his daughter were already dead was because, I feel, it is in rather poor taste.

To be fair, from what I have read online about the affects of nerve agents (even when treated) the results are not good. Given the amount of time they were exposed before receiving treatment they are likely to be utterly fucked if they survive if they're not already clinically dead.

OK, deep breath, relax... Let's have a sober look at these 'ere annoying AMD chip security flaws

Mark 65

I thought it would be obvious by now that we are all being played for suckers with these never ending security issues. I know of a group of people (using Windows 7) who have not updated for nearly a year now and they have had ZERO security issues with their computers.

The think they've had ZERO security issues. FTFY. The point of some of these exploits is it is near impossible to tell. More so for people who haven't updated in 12 months and have saloon doors for security.

Capita screw-ups are the pits! Brit ex-miner pensioners billed for thousands in extra tax

Mark 65

Maybe el reg needs a crapita corner, a weekly round of the weeks outsourcing screw ups.

Should copying the naming from Viz's "Up the arse" corner seeing as that's more how it is turning out for those paying the bill.

Co-op Bank's shonky IT in spotlight as delayed probe given go-ahead

Mark 65

Re: UNCOOPERATIVE

If they're bad compared to Nat West then they really must be shit.

Mark 65

Re: Raid on COOP

Given the chief complaint seems to be the risk levels in the loan book it would be through unrecoverable debt. You borrow to build a business that is high risk or with a low probability of being viable long term and subsequently go titsup. The money has been lost on setting up and running a business that couldn't repay its debt. Depending on the business the recoverable amount may be low digit pennies in the pound. Likewise if you made 105% loans on overpriced housing that went to shit post GFC. Do this enough times and you'll get your £1.5bn.

Mark 65

Re: "banned the bank's disgraced former chairman"

To be honest if I'd caused a loss of this magnitude I'd expect my sanction to be a little more than "you can still have an extremely highly paid job, just not in this sector". Fine or sentence would be more in order.

Mark 65

So fuck 'em.

Yet from your previous post I get the impression you still bank with them? Hardly fucking them is it sir? The only notice a financial institution will take of you is when you up and leave, especially if enough join you in doing so. Staying put and ranting? They couldn't give less of a shit about it.

FBI chief asks tech industry to build crypto-busting not-a-backdoor

Mark 65

Re: I'm sure they know better

Several posters here have mentioned "but the bad guys won't use the new flawed encryption". I am left wondering whether they were ever the target but rather this is a long term operation to ensure mass data collection is kept viable. They had the comms companies on the payroll but then we went https. They were into the tech companies but then they switched to encrypted at rest and in transit with independent keys to which said companies had no access. People are gradually using more and more secure chat/messaging systems. It would appear that LE can see the limit to only being able to grab Facebook data with all else disappearing from view and they're trying to be a little pro-active (albeit too late) about maintaining their feeds.

Mark 65

Re: I'm sure they know better

Not going to happen for several reasons:

1. By laying waste to their software/services industry they open the door for others. There's big money involved so why would other countries forgo both the economic boost and tax grab?

2. The genie cannot be put back into the bottle.

3. No financial institution will stand for weakened encryption as, in most reasonable countries, they are responsible for any losses incurred by weakness in their systems. Alter this burden and you destroy your banking sector also.

They can try as they might, but they are fucked on this one and they know it. Hence the persistent wailing.

WordPress is now 30 per cent of the web, daylight second

Mark 65

Re: It could be worse...

Except most often it isn't. I known several graphics designer types (who aren't really even proper graphic designers but just did a course) who specialise in charging high fees to create custom websites for idiots with more money than sense that use Dreamweaver to pop out little WWW turds on a regular basis. They got into it because they had time on their hands after the kids went to school full time and it was a nice little earner. They cannot code for shit and have zero concept of the way anything should be setup but can drag, drop, and publish. Job done.

Brit semiconductor tech ended up in Chinese naval railgun – report

Mark 65

Re: China

@AC: The US will undoubtedly default on its debt as it has absolutely fuck all chance of ever repaying it. It can't even inflate it away it grows so fast.

Brit spooks slammed over 'gentlemen's agreement' with telcos to get mass comms data

Mark 65

Re: Give them an inch...

When your title states "Give them an inch..." are you referring to the security services or to the politicians? They're both duplicitous pricks in my books.

Hypersonic nukes! Nuclear-powered drone subs! Putin unwraps his new (propaganda) toys

Mark 65

Long range missile

Was this "long range cannot shoot down as it goes via the South Pole" missile the one in the video with the South Park graphics? FFS.

Unlucky Linux boxes trampled by NPM code update, patch zapped

Mark 65

Tiala pegged the problem to running the sudo command as a non-root user.

My first thought on seeing that was also "But isn't that the use-case for sudo?"

Data science before algorithms, declares Bosch's new top techie

Mark 65

Take risks, be first, launch something as the minimum viable product when it's 80 per cent ready

Is that what they did with the engine emissions control sub-system they made for VW?

Apple: Er, yes. Your iCloud stuff is now on Google's servers, too

Mark 65

Re: Apple Data Centres : The Truth ;-)

It's obvious that the new Apple data centres are designed to allow the digitised consciousness of Steve Jobs to finally be properly reconstructed and run Apple in perpetuity.

Perhaps if they actually did this their quality control wouldn't be so damned shite. Cook isn't even "a poor man's Steve Jobs".

Mark 65

Re: Redundancy

Please tell me how you convinced your boss that you needed a second identical vMax to mirror the first?

At a rough guess I'd say "if DC1 gets hit by a natural disaster we'd need one in DC2 so we can operate a full failover".

Your question seems a little like asking "why do we have two data centres, one of which spends quite a bit of time doing relatively little? Surely one is enough?"

Blockchain nears peak hype: UK politicos to probe crypto-coin

Mark 65

The great unwashed can't be dabbling in something that could give them a few quid without paying more tax on it. Rabble rabble rabble.

I think they're worried about two things:

1. Missing out on taxes

2. The inevitable uproar when the great unwashed lose the shirt off of their backs because BitCoin is essentially worthless on most measures of worth. It isn't a store of value and it is impractical as a medium of exchange. FOMO != Value, but don't let that put you off of your wild punts you think are investments. There will be tales of those who "made a mint" but there will be plenty who lost more than they could afford to. I also have no doubt Governments could collapse BitCoin's price if they so desired.

Mark 65

Re: Would regulation...

Well the UK only taxes you when you cash out and I imagine that is on the basis of being tax domiciled, which as another post mentioned is fair - you incurred a capital gain, you get taxed on it. Not sure whether you can carry over capital losses though which could prove interesting as you always could with other "investments" although I haven't been tax domiciled for a while.

The US has always seen fit to do its own thing and it looks a little like the might of the financials when it comes to lobbying and regulatory capture may have paid dividends in this instance.

Billionaire's Babylon beach ban battle barrels toward Supreme Court

Mark 65

Re: To be fair...

I was interested and so did some searching. It seems it is not so much a "strip" but a private road that weaves through the property down to some beachfront rentals and the beach itself. I don't think he can easily "sell the strip". See here [Daily Mail (urgh!)]. If you search you can also confirm that it is this long winding private access road that has been closed - photo of locked gate here. It would appear this access road splits the land, as well as occupying a reasonable chunk, which would mean that if it were sold as a public access he'd then have issues crossing his own land and lose a fair portion of it.

Whilst he's being a dick on some fronts the nature of the access and the litigious US culture have not helped as fear of being sued is genuine.

NB I read somewhere those properties are holiday rentals so I'm assuming they are on his land and perhaps leased else the owners would surely kick up a stink.

Tor pedo's torpedo torpedoed: FBI spyware crossed the line but was in good faith, say judges

Mark 65

Re: Then what is the point of Tor?

The issue is always that people assumed they had anonymity by using the Tor Browser. You don't and never have had. The damn thing normally lists the caveats on the start page - no javascript, video can be chatty (requesting DRM no doubt) etc etc.

If you want anonymity you need to be running a live OS that doesn't touch the file system, and it will need to be an up to date version of something like Tails or Qubes OS that is built with security in mind. Now, that's not advice for these types in this case, but what is good for the dissident will, unfortunately, be good for the deviant.

Ubuntu wants to slurp PCs' vital statistics – even location – with new desktop installs

Mark 65

Re: You never know...

But how are they going to collect "Network connectivity or not"? I think their results may be biased.

Helicopter crashes after manoeuvres to 'avoid... DJI Phantom drone'

Mark 65

Re: It's time...

Have to agree with other posters mentioning instructor/student error. Training in close proximity to any trees is no-no so someone really fucked up here and the drone story is a classic arse-cover.

Facebook told to stop stalking Belgians or face fines of €250k – a day

Mark 65

Re: Appeals.

As one poster mentioned - the fine just needs to be larger to cope with the extra wealth of today's corporations. There's only so many times you can appeal when your opponent is the Government vs dragging out civil suits with "normals" and the threat has to be a deterrent. Shareholders tend not to like large amounts of money heading out of the door especially if they are too large to be "the cost of doing business".

Mark 65

Re: Send Facebook data-pervs / tech-sociopaths a message

I'm still inclined to think that the Zuck is just a very well paid NSA agent.

Things do lend themselves to that suggestion. If you look back in history as to the lengths that the Stasi had to go to to collect information about your thoughts, intentions, circle of friends and what you were up to and compare that to the modern security services just having to tap into Facebook, LinkedIn et al where all information is offered up for free. Don't even bother responding with an "I use multiple accounts with misleading information etc etc to muddy the waters" as you are in such a minority it isn't even funny. Have a look around at the levels of addiction to this shit and you can only be left despairing for the future of humanity.

Mark 65

Re: Opt Out?

Yep, it's the old statutory rights part. I think the Yanks can bargain away any right they have but in the EU a contract cannot override statutory protection.

See that over Heathrow? It's not an airliner – it's a Predator drone

Mark 65

Re: Aircraft Registry

Exactly! Just because the military have been given access to fly drones in airspace does not mean every corporation and its dog can do so. A highly priced piece of military kit in limited numbers using flight paths does not extend to shitloads of commodity priced drones making point to point deliveries. Thinking it will is just fanciful. In fact I'd wager the predator would be the only type of drone able to go anywhere near your average sink estate and make it back. I love how these classroom theorists ignore how drone hunting will become the next form of amusement for bored teenagers and miscreants should they try using them en masse.

Data scientist wanted: Must have Python, spontaneity not required

Mark 65

Re: Salary isn't just a number

I'd argue that £47-55k in London is shit money. I know to people outside the capital that seems obtuse but that kind of coin wouldn't get you a great standard of living and you'd be unlikely to ever own more than a tent to live in. Most places you'd want to live within reasonable commuting distance/time of the capital are already very expensive to the point that I'd suggest that if you can't pull in more than £100k/yr I would consider living elsewhere for a better quality of life.

Mark 65

How does median exclude extreme values? Order values, find middle. That would not seem to exclude low-end outliers to me. High-end yes, but not low. Median is the more useful number though which I believe is the main point. Calling it an average when that covers mean, median, and mode is just lazy writing by the article's author. Average is generally taken to be arithmetic mean (expected value) however.

Mark 65

Re: is there really a skills shortage?

I doubt that tube driver is a good long term career choice for a school leaver hoping to retire in 2048 now though.

Arguably it shouldn't be a role now given I was using the DLR in 2006 and it isn't like the need to steer the bloody things. There's that strong union for you....'cos...safety innit. I somehow doubt they'll be going anywhere soon - much like the trains on strike day. There's also the big ££££ to implement across an existing network to consider even though some elements could surely be fitted during any upgrade works - kind of a creeping automation.

Are there any train buffs on the forums that could enlighten us hypothesisers?

Mark 65

I'd go with the AC in that these are likely just low-end positions. Experienced people are more likely to be head-hunted in this area rather than go looking on whatever online job noticeboard is flavour of the month.

You're decorating it wrong: Apple HomePod gives wood ring of death

Mark 65

Re: Wood is not minimalistic.

@Adam: Boards and hence business people don't like listening to "tech nerds". They prefer to listen to MBA wielding "tell us what we want to hear" types. Boat not rocked, steady as she goes. Thus we have the corporate landscape we see today where products are not so much made to suit the customer but rather the customer is left with "that or nothing" optionality across competing vendors that then rake in the coin. I doubt it was a tech executive that came up with "sell them the same shit on a perennial subscription basis". It is hard to find any innovation without an attached privacy or fiscal pillage, or post sales control freakery. Adobe et al with subscription software. Hardware/software vendors that collect and sell your info and companies like DJI that sell you an expensive toy and fuck you over afterwards with restrictions on what you can later do with it - that is a breach of contract if ever I saw one, being a unilateral renegotiation of a contract without any agreement from the other party.

Arlo, can you go? NETGEAR spins out its security cameras biz

Mark 65

Re: Nice network connection you have there. Shame if...

Not sure about you but this "everything as a subscription" nonsense is really starting to get on my tits.

Bzzzt! If you're in one of these four British cities, that was a drone

Mark 65

Re: explore public attitudes

Surely there must be a growing market for end-user hunter-killer drones. I guess you could get a DJI variant and attach something to the bottom of it so as to be able to dive bomb a pestilent drone from above causing its rotors to snap - need to be mindful of just where it is hovering first obviously.

It'd surely be interesting for someone using FPV goggles to suddenly see another drone appear a couple of feet in front of theirs possibly bearing a sign stating "Fuck off or else".

On the NHS tech team? Weep at ugly WannaCry post-mortem, smile as Health dept outlines plan

Mark 65

Goddammit stop being pragmatic, it is the entire antithesis of health/tax funded purchasing.

To be fair, if the NHS isn't on a sweet volume licensing deal then someone should be taken out and shot. In aggregate they have massive purchasing power, more so if tagged onto the rest of the Government (education etc).

Mark 65

Re: Proxy ?

If only the Department of Health would stop sending the legal letters...

Mark 65

Re: The WannaCry outbreak has forced the NHS to overhaul its crisis planning...

To be honest if I had the choice between two unpatched OSes being exposed to the internet (by intent or incompetence) I'd rather it were a linux variant than Windows.

With regards Because the same folks that volunteered to make NHSbntu will give their time to maintain and operate MHSbuntu I'd imagine that the NHS would willingly pay for support and if not you at least have a system used by one of the World's largest health providers that you could no doubt punt to others.

Mark 65

Re: Piss poor written software

I think the problem Ken is likely that vendors across the board have some shit that was written eons ago that they are milking the dear life out of. The original authors have most likely departed and nobody wants to have a crack at a re-write due to the huge cost in terms of testing and certification. Thus we arrive at the point where you are in the market for million pound device X or thousands of pounds portable device Y and all of them come with Windows embedded and a shitty VB front end. Your choice is then take it or leave it. I hope this is not the case but from what I have witnessed in terms of dysfunctional front ends I suspect it may be so. The certification part is never going to help modernisation but is a necessary evil.

Mark 65

Re: SMB

Also a lot of European ISP's will expose 445 to the internet.

At the end of the day you're responsible for your own perimeter defences. Operate a blacklist rather than a whitelist or whitelist something without adequate thought and it's your issue not your carrier's.

I suspect there may be an element of bullying/overriding within the NHS - senior X says this has to work so just get it done geek - and whilst it would not be operationally viable to necessarily go to the other extreme it is clear there needs to be a change. The article mentioned "cultural change" and that is the nail on the head for an incident such as this.

Mark 65

Re: The NHS

Much as a geek i like the idea of using Linux over embedded windows it does nothing to solve the issue of boxes stuck in corners of the network and not being patched for a decade.

and I see little reason for important kit to be widely exposed. Segregated secure networks and all that. My guess is that much of the NHS networks (within and perhaps between hospitals and trusts) are just wide open once you're authenticated on them. Let's be honest here, the *nix/BSD variants are generally more secure by design that Windows. That is just the way it is. Not easily being able to classify your updates is just shitty and unnecessary and it is about time we moved away from vendors that don't give a fuck.

The NHSbuntu (or whatever it was called) was a sound idea and I think, if anything, this whole debacle highlights that the NHS is easily big enough to support a centralised area of IT expertise to ensure some kind of order, security, compatibility, and efficient purchasing. Leaving things to individual trusts becomes an in-built divide and conquer for vendors and has led to a disparate and dysfunctional landscape in the health sector. Who gives a shit whether doctors and hospitals have little whines and bleats about giving up certain aspects of their control or little budget corners of their empires - the whole thing is funded by the tax payer and it is about time it was done properly.

Mark 65

Re: Suits having meetings and producing reports is not going to help...

As previously reported by El Reg and noted in previous national reports, unpatched Windows 7 systems, in particular, rather than residual reliance on long obsolete Windows XP boxes (which crashed rather than further spreading the worm) laid the groundwork for the WannaCry outbreak.

I'm not sure what more management will get you when the principle problem was "it doesn't matter how well supported your PC OS is if you don't fucking patch it". Additionally the likelihood of having SMB exposed to the wider internet such that it is the suspected initial attack vector shows you don't really know what you're doing.

If we are talking about managers "taking the time to understand..." we are wasting our time. Anything you try to teach them will always be overruled by an accountant's whimsy or "vendor said X". What you need is a chief architect who has the power to overrule stupid-arsed management decisions. In any business you will always get a shouty twat that gets their own way with a really stupid idea - squeaky wheel and all that.

Dodgy parking firms to be denied access to Brit driver database

Mark 65

Re: Yes, parking debts ARE enforceable !

From the images in that article the double yellow lines are a bit of a giveaway that you cannot park there and her general arrogance (ignore rather than refute the penalties) was likely to have coloured the outcome as mentioned. I think her case was wafer thin at best, especially when she could have parked issue free for £40/mth.

I'll torpedo Tor weirdos, US AG storms: Feds have 'already infiltrated' darknet drug souks

Mark 65

Re: The biggest troublemakers are not on the darknet

You'd have to wonder how much street dealer addiction actually started out as prescribed addiction. As you state, they hand them out like sweeties but at some point need to turn off the supply. Then the visibly shady dudes take over.

The problem as I see it with people dealing in drugs, weapons etc on the darknet is that at some point your transaction makes it back into the real world, most likely for the physical delivery but possibly for the payment if you weren't really careful about the trail the coins left.

PC not dead, Apple single-handedly propping up mobe market, says Gartner

Mark 65

Re: " it's moot to only talk about what professionals and enthusiasts use PCs for."

and not, for example, that PC sales reached saturation and replacement cycles got longer (especially since SSDs gave a big speed boost to machine that were only I/O bound).

^^^ this ^^^

I have a 2010 era iMac (2.93GHz i7) that I fitted an internal SSD to as the internal drives are a PITA and it's pot luck which manufacturer you get - I lucked out and got a Seagate which naturally shat itself. That machine is still good for whatever I need to do computationally over 7 years later.

I built a replacement and the end of 2017 for 2 reasons...

1. Tax deductions - may as well have something for the money as it'll be leaving the bank account one way or another.

2. NVMe drive and USB 3 as well as the ability to stuff it full of drives and RAM and easily replace any parts that fail.

3. Heat dissipation when under heavy load. iMacs aren't great when under stress in a hot climate.