Posts by Mark 65 3439 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2009
Indeed, the journalist concerned was convicted of handling stolen goods purely because there was nothing on there that would satisfy an "in the public interest" constraint. Had he spent more time making sure the story indicated by the source had more basis before receiving said goods then he wouldn't have been prosecuted. Pity the in-house legal advice wasn't smart enough to advise him of that.
Ahhh, so people should give up using Debian, Mint, Ubuntu etc and use MyShittyDistroIForkedAndCanOnlySupportOnWeekendsWhenImNotBusyOr
IfMyMumLetsMeStayUpLate?
Practical, real practical. It's like every car manufacturer only making diesels and your answer being "if you don't like it then create your own petrol engine".
The statement people are making (that you just do not seem to get) is that the whole point of Linux is that, once you're outside of the kernel, you are not effectively dictated to as to what you should use as bits can be swapped in and out. Use package X for this, package Y for that. If these arseholes gradually make every important component rely on this shite called systemd then they have broken the fundamental tenet of system design whereby you do not tightly bind as it creates a shitload of issues. As someone else pointed out - who has the time and money to go round backing out all the shit this multi-billion dollar company has effectively forced on a community. Just because they've played their hand well it doesn't stop them being wankers.
I still cannot get over filtered binary logging. Mind-numbingly stupid.
Well that's preposterous. Don't like systemd? Find a dist which doesn't use it. Or do you sort-of-like systemd but not all of it or the personalities? Fork it.
#WorstStrawmanEver. Virtually any viably usable non-niche well supported distro has gone down the systemd rabbit-hole, how do you propose people find another?
Having binary rather than text format logs and only being able to pass-through filtered (WTF?) information doesn't strike me as being desirable in any way shape or form and I could only surmise that it exists due to the will of a fucking idiot.
But the great thing about Linux is you can choose not to use a dist if you don't like it because there are bound to be others that do things the way you want.
When all major distros have gone down this route best of luck with your replacement options.
Well, I know that I have just updated my NAS to have the latest available ipkg package (source googlecode git-core git-1.8.4.2) which seems ancient and I have no idea whether it is protected from this but I suspect not.
It seems the version I have for my Mac is also out of date even updating to the latest binary. Irritatingly it looks like I may have to undertake the joy of source + compile.
Too often central IT says no or is glacial in the pace of their progress (and eye-wateringly expensive in their chargeback) with far too many self-enforced boxes to tick to be of any use. That and purchasing overpriced and unsuitable items due to the shinyness of the sales pitch inevitably leads to business units hiring their own contractors to perform tasks. At the end of the day money needs to be made and IT is there to enable that (and prevent loss where appropriate). Often they lose sight of this and I have worked at many a firm where it seems that the tail is wagging the dog. At every one of them it ended badly. I have worked at two companies where the upper levels of IT were removed in their entirety due to poor delivery/results and one where 50% was removed in one day in the name of cuts to be replaced by more capable individuals bit by bit. Central IT is the master of its own destiny but in most cases it seems to want to steer a rudderless and unresponsive ship.
Nowadays the first thing I do when joining a company is seek out the doers and the go to infrastructure people - the ones you always need and every firm has them - in order that when something needs doing it gets done rather than sitting in the abyss that is the Helpdesk system.
I still see we have no full time SSL option so the login form is delivered up by http and is susceptible to on-the-fly shenanigans as detailed in one of the many articles on web security trumpeted at El Reg. Practising that which is preached would be a healthy start before dicking around with look and feel.
We can safely assume that if a business such as Google has developed accounting practices to avoid paying tax, this assists in reducing the price of the product/service to the end-user.
Wrong. It reduces the cost of production and thereby maximises the profit. No savings get passed on in the modern World, margins just fatten.
Agreed. This seems like MS has taken something that broadly works and have then just utterly fucked it up in order to get some all encompassing development World. Have a look at Java and the aforementioned ancient JRE versions that some apps require. Like a software developer is going to give much of a shit about a security hole in the version of the .Net libraries they shipped? Well, it might well prompt a next version of .Net is only available on the latest codebase, send your upgrade fees here.
My prediction: IBM Australia, facing such huge penalties, will threat to close out its Australian arm and the state will settle again.
That's not really a threat though. Most would be glad to say "hand over the money and don't let the door hit you on the arse on the way out". Fact is Government departments, inept as they are, always have plenty of willing suitors. The "we'll take our ball with us" threat of megacorps holds little weight these days when most import low wage developing world labour and then take the piss with their taxes anyhow. Fuck'em.
Whilst you might claim the project management was crap I believe it was revealed that one of the chief people involved was a contractor who was, ta-dah, an ex-IBM man who was deemed to have done his utmost to push it in their direction. He was also found to be f'cking useless.
What Turnbull(shit) is missing here is that what is really needed is a Government operated cloud (or datacentre in old World terms) whereby any department can spin up required capacity. An AWS for tax-burdens as it were. The thought of using private sector cloud for Government work leads me to think:
1. Privacy out the window
2. Zero control over what is really going on
3. Taxpayer robbed blind.
What Governments like Australia need is a centralised IT resource that they all chip in for (and can therefore afford to hire people that know what they're doing), that is completely under their control, and that can provide the basic operation of the elastic compute capacity. Provide infrastructure services, backups etc, sort out proper data segregation, correct public facing server settings etc and in a scalable way. But no, most Governments and their departments reinvent the wheel very badly then shout cloud from the rooftops.
My first thought at hearing he could launch 14,000 guesses and the admins were locked out is "you're doing it wrong". It certainly seems like the settings could do with tweaking but I'm guessing the admins weren't really admins but maybe Adobe Dreamweaver operators asked to set up a website.
But that doesn't fit with the program does it? Governments want teachers to use computers to teach in ever increasing amounts because they think people will believe it results in better outcomes. Perhaps some that aren't too smart or computer literate think it will make their child the next Bill Gates. Whatever. When I was told how much teaching was done by computer at my child's school my retort was along the lines of "I'd much rather you concentrated on teaching the basics more comprehensively and perhaps a bit more of critical thinking". However my junior schooler does knock up a good powerpoint presentation so I guess there's a middle management career in the offing somewhere.
I'd argue that if you're considering VDI as in the article then BYOD is utterly pointless. The expense you've just gone to with server hardware means that the screen and WYSE unit you could have on the desktop is an insignificant cost compared to the hassle of someone connecting their porn filled malware riddled laptop to your network. Obviously an exaggeration but why would you ever want to deal with this eventuality, it makes no sense? Please don't try and offload your hardware costs onto me.
That's really why you need a one-time number linked to your credit card. It stops secondary charges being placed after the fact like this and it also prevents arsehole insurance companies from placing recurring annual charges on your card when you only signed up for one year's insurance and wasn't forewarned of their shady practises apart from in the finest print of the 30+ page disclosure statement sent after the first deduction was made.
That's exactly how it should be don't you think? A Government department paid for by the taxpayer releases software under the GPL. Free for all to use under the condition that improvements are contributed back. I see no problem as the taxpayer then benefits from this and society benefits should the code be any use. It also allows the potential for small outfits to familiarise themselves with MoD software, improve it, and potentially tout for a support contract. The alternative is they give it away under a permissive license that some company benefits from, produces a product that is highly profitable and the taxpayer gets fuck all in return.
Unfortunately a lot of the findings rely on access to source or access to black box. The issue these days likely comes from the rise of cloud nonsense whereby you do not have access to both the encrypted and unencrypted blocks or necessarily the code that produced it in which case you cannot run the numbers. Cloud is therefore something I would avoid at all costs - you need to encrypt your data at source using something you control. The convenience of cloud at first seems like you do not need to run your own data centre but the real convenience is all that juicy data in one spot.
He fathered a child with someone else's partner - presumably carelessness.
On whose part? He's hardly catch of the fucking day is he? I think if your partner gets pregnant by Blunkett it's high time they were an ex.
Could he not have set up a trust fund - and watched the child's progress from a distance?
He's far too short-sighted for that. Ba-dum. I'll get me coat.
Can anyone remember why one of Blunkett's other sons apparently changed his surname while his father was in office?
Errrm, his dad is a totalitarian c*nt and he wants nothing to do with him?
The number of deaths and injuries is irrelevant. The measures are in place to control you and I, not the terrorists. The sure sign of corrupt Governments is when they bring in ever more unjustifiable laws in the name of preventing XYZ which, as a useful sideline, also help to diminish open protest and dissent, prevent adequate oversight or supervision of the state apparatus, and keep the subjects controlled thereby securing their ruling class status. Ability to protest outside of Parliament in Westminster? Total inability to ever report on a security service operation in Australia even if a tragedy resulted and dozens of innocents were killed? Military equipment and snipers used for crowd control in US? There are some fine examples out there.
"Over a billion pounds a year to combat the damage done by a completely legal substance that is ubiquitously available here in the UK. How can you reconcile that with the view that controlled substances are controlled because of the damage (both individually and to society) that they cause?"
But what revenue is obtained from alcohol in the UK? Around £9bn in 2010. Much harder to OD on too. Got to allow the proles something in their lives.
How much of that cost is down to fights that occur? I bet they make it onto the statistics despite the fact that typically such arseholes would want a fight with someone irrespective of alcohol. Booze just makes you a more obvious prick than what you already were.
@Version 1.0: I do not agree that TOR is clearly broken and have not seen any evidence of that. They had someone on the inside working for the main man (be careful who you hire) and apparently he used his normal email account for certain things. Complacent or ignorant I know not which, but certainly not careful. No breach of TOR was necessary. As for other sites it is likely, as others have posted, that there may be commonalities such as staff or hosting.
The problem is that at those kinds of speeds it's already a serious threat to their leased line business and that puts them in an awkward position.
Always be prepared to cannibalise your own business because if you don't then someone else will. At least you get the money if you do it.
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