Posts by Robert Carnegie

Re: All of which just proves....

"I have sent them details on UK companies which are in multiple violations of both the old law and GDPR itself and which continue to blatantly market and sell your (out of date) personal data without your personal permission. With company numbers, addresses, the lot. They are happily scratching their nether regions instead of enforcing it."

Be sure to register your account with those companies using a tasteful fake nude picture of a randomly selected Member of Parliament. "Calendar Girls" level, with the face Photoshopped on. This either might get something done, possibly to you, or, if not, is at least slightly amusing, especially if it's Facebook and they are facially recognised.

Re: Typical installer written in a large company

About installer gurus: someone who can do one thing well may be called "idiot savant". Some proudly self-apply the term (which is in French). It means your job is secure until it's automated or superseded (containers?)

"Deepfake"

If I'm following this, "deepfake" is what's not obviously fake - and may be passed off as genuine.

Internationally, several elections have had voters asked to decide whether some alleged leaked phone calls of candidates doing illicit things were genuine or falsified or creatively edited. Presumably some are real and most are not.

If Disney wants to dramatise public figures misbehaving from hearsay, they can make cartoons. This would tell the story would not be mistaken for real video. They made a cartoon where Donald Duck was a Nazi German (but he was just having a nightmare). More recently, the controversial Taiwanese "Next Animation Studio" has been providing cartoon dramatisations of news stories for years.

As for performing with animals, Snow White and Mowgli sang alongside animals on screen. Gene Kelly danced with Jerry Mouse from "Tom & Jerry". Andy Serkis by now can probably play as any creature on earth or under it. I'm not sure if I have a point in this paragraph.

Re: Should I be admitting to this?

One of my old favourite newspaper quotes from BBC radio's "News Quiz" (listen tonight for extended programme):

"Asked if she had anything to say before sentence was passed, Mrs Buckingham told the court: 'I have worked for British Rail for fifteen years. I am very sorry and ashamed.'" - Yorkshire Post

Re: Good. Lyft, Uber & their ilk suck arse.

If Uber's business model is to destroy competition then overcharge, independent drivers will compete by putting themselves on Tinder or something. Picture of a car will be a clue to what type of ride is on offer. Could still lead to misunderstanding though if it catches on, so do clearly state how far you want to go.

BGP misuse

I think it's called that... it's possible for a national Internet provider in Russia or China to announce itself as the quickest route to Google or Apple or TSB or whatever, so that all of the Internet is sent to that provider. When this has happened, as I understand it has, it usually appears to be by accident. but you never know.

I assume that this secure traffic mechanism does allow more than one secure route to be declared permissible, so that if one of your data centres suffers a power cut or a tactical nuclear missile strike then your network keeps running, bout I don't know about it.

Not worst bug, worst brand.

They don't like the name EFAIL.

I'm waiting for some issue of timing accuracy to be codenamed NOTAPROBLEM. Try getting a budget to fix that.

Re: Linux Unplugged

I would expect if I opt out, the company I am opting out from doesn't get told that I am opting out. I want the default state to be that they don't know I exist. Though I may want to convey that fact later.

I dunno either. I thought it was going to be about artificial hands.

On the other hand, if you don't understand something, just wait quietly and it will probably go away. See here.

http://dilbert.com/strip/1997-11-06

The previous day explains what problem the characters were putting off dealing with, and to some extent why one of them is a dinosaur, but this isn't essential information.

You know they asked for comments on how good the journalism is here - I think they have a buzzword generator that makes up entire stories about fictitious technologies like "Tizen", which actually is a fizzy drink.

Re: An geneticists in tonight?

There's more genetic diversity in Africa than in the whole rest of the world. Humans originated in Africa and everyone else is just overspill.

Computer recognition, however, is not good at recognising black people... as people.

Ironically this is a "black box" problem.

Re: Ouch!

I'm trying to work out if "Nigerian firing squad" is a sex thing. But I think it must be a violence thing. It could be both.

Re: Art of the Deal

He is drinking the swamp. Not alcoholically; apparently although unbelievably, this has been him sober, all along.

What's true?

I'm not on top of this subject, but I think the "sanctions" bit is about selling phones to Muslims, which the U.S. didn't want to be done. The other accusation, that ZTE phones are smelly, is disputed.

The other other accusation seems to be that ZTE pays bribes for favourable decisions in import-export matters. I suspect that President Trump pricked up when he heard that.

Re: You ever wonder?

I think the story about a certain bank will come in under "Who, Me?"

Not, not me. Or I'd be anonymous. Just speculating.

Re: I'm not sure I believe you

This column is mainly fictional or highly exaggerated i.e. "hyperbolics". HTH HAND

Misunderstanding

I think the whole resignation thing is a mistake, surely white heterosexual men are always entitled?

Alternative mnemonic method

Alternative mnemonic method: generate random letters, then make up the mnemonic to suit the letters, You'll have to write the password down in the first place - and maybe the mnemonic - but after a few repetitions it will stick.

I have to use systems that impose rules, and while I could maybe break those, instead I use this method:

Every password in the same format.

The format is 2x letters and 2 numbers, and the letters and numbers are random - not repeated - and the letters are consonants. The first letter is capitalled. This meet various system requirements of:

Contains letters and numbers

Contains upper and lower

Does not contain any English word

Repeated letters are quite a stupid rule although I suppose you want to block "passssssword" as a password (but, why, Register wants long passwords, that is long)

The password is constructed by taking random source and skipping any input that doesn't fit. If the source is letters, then A to J represents 1 to 0 (after 9) and K to T likewise.

The middle letters of words from a book yield: Hvnk5ypsb4

But pure random text is more consonanty.

Then convert the letters to a sentence like "Havink your pure sweet Bovril". Never mind the numbers - if the mnemonic brings back the password letters from memory, then, for me at least, the numbers come too.

Add ! at the end for a system that rejects a password without a non-alphanumeric symbol. B!@#$£rds.

Re: re. more than 2 usb ports?!

They haven't started the porn verification yet. Apparently they couldn't get it up, or some other such suggestive expression that they read out on BBC Radio's "News Quiz".

Which brings me to the "laptop with fold-out screen" question.... where are the staples?

Re: @ Alister Must be my age

Then there was Dara O Briain :-)

Re: High security?

Apparently you've got a computer so I presume it's a rubbish one. A burglar wouldn't know that it is rubbish though. Until I pointed it out. Obviously lbhef vf gur ubhfr jvgu ryrpgevpvgl

Re: First of all, I don't accept bribes. Ever. Personal policy.

If the daughter has Microsoft SQL Server database administrator training...

Will everyone know what a "HTML5, CSS, 'Coffee' Script, HTML, Snippet Editor" is? And what does it do that Microsoft Windows Notepad doesn't, or vice versa?

I'm under the impression that long, vague, buzzwordy company and product names are or were a Chinese thing, and that their own government was cracking down on it - there was a news story a while back. So you're lucky if it's Oracle shutting you down instead.

Re: Deleting emails

Database programmer, and I don't remember what I was doing last week. And the time given for jobs doesn't allow for independent documentation. But if it's in my e-mail and searchable, that works - if I know what to search for...

"I'm pretty sure that one of Linus' pet hates is anything that breaks user land. I'm not aware of any significant change in the system call interface in quite a long time."

The article says however that certain hardware support is deleted in this edition of the kernel - that sounds break-ish to me.

Re: Similar but different at Yahoo

Seems unfair that a reasonably unexpected failure of a routine update means that you're disqualified from maintaining that system in future. On the other hand, you probably would want someone else to do it in future, because you've used up your "get out of cockup free" card there.

Re: "go after the newspaper with the incorrect/outdated information."

Newspapers do make mistakes in stories, may be not careful with details, and sometimes (the British Sunday contingent) utter barefaced lies. News of a cure for AIDS was basically when I gave up on trying to read those; it was to extract the patient's blood and heat it to 42 Celsius to kill the virus, not all their blood at once presumably.

Sometimes newspapers are told to correct misstatements and they do, including online. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes the story is forgotten. Upon a conviction there's a rush to print juicy details of the sordid scandal, and inaccuracy may seem unimportant at the time - when you're sent to actual jail, an allegation in print that (to make up something) you tried to sell your story to Harvey Weinstein - but it becomes significantly embarrassing later.

A "right" for the truth to be forgotten is one thing, but should untruth be defended? Or be defended against?

Re: itomg

The image file name says "shutterstock" which is an online image service. Possible that images are obtained from actors hoping to get a part in BBC TV's self-examining comedy show "W1A". ;-)

Gilbert reckoned that "The Gondoliers" would last throughout the twentieth century, and in "The Pirates of Penzance", the plot device expires in 1940. (And Japan copped it in 1945.) But a modern young audience has any amount of new silly songs to choose from.

CBeebies (BBC for toddlers) is putting on "The Tempest" today. From looking in, they cut away frequently to William Shakespeare explaining the action to one of his Kickstarters, they get through it in about an hour, and I'm nearly sure that Sir John Gielgud in the buff won't be involved. If you'd prefer to see the Clangers, I don't disagree. :-)

Re: Cycling is a Victorian mode of transport...

Horses are unlikely to be banned. The Queen and Police ride horses.

(So do U2 and The Osmonds.)

Re: Bodes well for NI border

This sign in Welsh? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm

Re: Beware the Video

With eyesight as fuzzy as Uber's video I think you may be not allowed to drive. But I take from that that the driving computer isn't relying on this video. Possibly not on video at all.

Also, if it was as dark as it looks, then I would drive with full beam headlights, which this apparently isn't - but since the location has street lights, it shouldn't be as dark as it looks. Except that some municipal authorities turn their street lights down or off when it's late, to save their electricity bill.

And I don't drive; I cycle. But not like in this video. Although I have crossed the Blantyre A725 on foot, with my bike. Central barrier and all.

The walking cyclist would have been seen sooner in full headlights. But I assume that the car doesn't need those, and they are liable to dazzle other drivers.

The story suggests that the hack was to disrupt 911 calls during the anti-gun protests, which implies to me that there was also going to be an attack on protesters - such aps a mass shooting (and we say Americans don't do irony?) Although that didn't happen.

But on the other hand, the hack may have been pro-protester - I'm reaching here, but imagine a plot to phone 911 and falsely report that the protesters had pulled out guns and were shooting bystanders. Cue police rushing up in cars to shoot dead any black people on the scene.

Or someone may have hacked the wrong computer - say they were led to believe that it's the server that Vladimir Putin uses to order his assassinations.

Then again, who knows, maybe it is.

Re: goto fail;

I believe a legitimate URI format is:

protocol://user:password@host:port/url-path

although who puts user name and password into a URI now??

(I cribbed this from the Wikipedia page on FTP, so maybe: people who still use FTP.)

So that seems to be another part of the problem here, but I don't fully follow it.

Re: So....

I once dutifully contacted UK Customs because I was buying software for personal use from overseas, would it attract duty equivalent-ish to VAT? i.e. between 15 to 25 percent.

At the tire I think I was told that since they were actually just supplying a licence key code by e-mail in return for the payment, to use with software that I had downloaded already, there was not tax. Since it was quite a long time ago, it's probably changed, so don't take my word for it.

The purchase price was less than £100 but I thought I still could get into trouble and I didn't want to.

Re: Good article

A "Daughter of Time" type question. History school books tell us that Henry VIII wanted a legitimate son and heir. But it's occurred to me, why? The heir would step up when Henry died, so Henry could have said "Not my problem, someone else can sort it out when it happens."

So... perhaps the male heir means that a hypothetical someone else who would consider assassinating Henry in order to be king, would not, because someone else was in the way too. Is that it?

Re: Personal freedom but..

The article states "special counsel Robert Mueller said the trolls would fabricate American identities like staceyredneck@gmail.com". At face value, Mr.Internet-Researchovitch of Moscow was specifically and deliberately identifying as "redscare", I mean "redneck". Mind you, this is from approximately the sector of U.S. government that took a little bottle of cornflour into the United Nations building and told everyone that it was anthrax from Iraq, or something. So it's not wrong to be slightly sceptical.

Right, so this is not so much an April Fool as an Easter Egg.

Re: Space opera

"Glitches on Titan V

Wish Asimov (or Heinlein, or Pournelle) were here to write it."

How close is "Missed cache on Ganymede"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_on_Ganymede : aboriginal workers on a Jovian satellite named after a pretty boy employed as Zeus's "cup-bearer" (!) demand a visit from Santa Claus on a flying sled bringing presents. Corporate colonial Earthmen manage, with great effort, to provide this performance and avoid or conclude strike action. Earthmen then realise that an annual visit from Santa Claus means once every orbit of Ganymede around Jupiter, or once a week.

Quite a miscalculation, there.

I would say that in reality the "Ossie" strikers (look like ostriches) would (not should, but would) be taken up on the sled and dropped from considerable height, but I'm not sure that that would matter. They might even fly down.

Wikipedia reports another miscalculation of sorts: Asimov, aged about 20.9, wrote and offered the short story in December 1940, then became aware that a Christmas story needed to be sold by July to appear by Christmas. In fact he sold it the following June. Then of course in the 1990s Robert Silverberg expanded it to novel length. :-) Not true, but probably he still has time this year, it is only March......

Re: That Chrome error message is dangerously misleading.

Can someone remind me how untrustworthy the authority is? e.g. could a criminal set up a fake bank site with a fake certificate that pretends to be legitimate? There was something about all the private keys of certificates having been released in the public domain - was that it? or anyway sent in insecure, possibly logged plain e-mail. Sorry, I have a hazy understanding at best of the techy part of this.

What I'm getting at is: should we presume that the certificates are already in the hands of evildoers? In which case, letting them be used at all now is inappropriately putting mercy over safety?

Re: Off the top of my head

If the government, or just an IT technician who wants to blackmail porn users, wants to see which DNS calls you make - they can tap thousands of DNS servers as easily as one. Unless they only have access to their own DNS server to do it. So mainly I don't think your security is improved except by going full Tor.

Incidentally, I'm not in the using nightly builds game but I'd guess that if you are using alpha or beta software then bugs such as accidentally tweeting all the URLs you visit while getting the DNS data is just to be expected. This software isn't expected to work right. So the question is, why use it, but I expect that is covered elsewhere.