Posts by VinceH

Re: Does this change anything?

AIUI...

(Not my area of understanding, really, so apologies if this is bollocks...)

The domain is sent in the clear to the name server (as the article suggests) but any and all communication between you and the website is either clear under http or encrypted under https, depending on which is in use.

Your ISP can see you are visiting www.example.com because of the DNS query.

It can't see that you are visiting www.example.com/foo/bar/dodgyimages/01.jpeg if https is in use because that query is sent to www.example.com's servers in encrypted form.

You might be thinking that the fact the full url is being sent *to* www.example.com is the give away - but it's being sent to its IP address, and that IP address might be hosting multiple sites, so it doesn't give much away.

Re: Flat design was a bad idea

"Nominet should never have introduced the new flat namespace in the first place, it really was nothing more than a way for them to print money."

Yes... My guess is that while the introduction of .uk was a way for them to print money, not enough of it was printed because not enough owners of existing .uk domains took up the flat equivalent. It didn't work well enough in the money printing aim, so now they're doing this.

Also, wasn't there a problem quite a long time back with at least one registrar whereby if someone checked for the existence of a domain, they'd go ahead and register it - so the person searching could then not do so anywhere else? This is surely making that an option again.

Re: Changing Wallpaper can have career enhancing effects

"a lot of confusion when the mouse is going the wrong way"

Nice one. I've done the screen grab, and hide all the icons and task bar - never thought about the rotation though.

Another option would be to use a suitably sized screen grab from an entirely different operating system. For completely pointless reasons, I did that to my own machine at one point. (I didn't hide the taskbar because I wasn't playing a prank, and I don't generally have many icons on the desktop.)

I'm not aware of having one, but I suspect it's a relatively new sales pitch. There may very well be someone assigned to my account, but with no reason to call them, I wouldn't know.

Re: Increasing the public's "trust" in the police

"The only way is up....."

Well, you'd think so - but then they keep showing us there are still depths to plumb.

Re: Bad planning

"Surely the only living thing on the planet having any real chance of surviving the lunar night has to be Theresa May."

This calls for a suitable mission to be arranged forthwith in order to test your hypothesis. How do we get this done?

It might also be a good idea to send the opposition leader as well, for comparison.

Re: deepfake?

"I didn't see anything that a bit of colour correction and fudging with playback wouldn't achieve."

Quite. Also, the edited ('faked' really isn't the appropriate word here) version was broadcast by Q13, owned by Fox News. IIRC, isn't Fox News a Trump-fan station? That's probably the real reason the staffer was sacked - he took the piss out of their beloved messiah by doing this.

Re: EU being sensible again...

"Why are we trying to leave?"

Because of liars and cheats.

Re: xfer

I also have one of those.

But worse, whenever I move to a new computer, I decide to 'start again' in how I organise my (local) files. I therefore used to create a directory for the data brought forward from the old system until I can find the time to properly integrate it into the new system. So I have directory containing data from the old computer, which contains a directory containing data from the old old computer, containing a directory from... you get the picture. :)

I'm now sensible. They're no longer recursive, and instead self contained folders on the NAS. :)

Re: idiots like this

"You're lucky, I spent God knows how long identifying an endless stream of fire hydrants, shop fronts, bicycles, cars, buses, 'cross walks' what ever they are."

Yes. It's bad enough when you get one reCaptcha challenge, but when it's followed by another... then another... then another... I get just a touch annoyed by them. IIRC, the record number of challenges I've had to deal with in one go is around eight.

And I'm also now occasionally seeing them simply not work properly in Palemoon, and having to resort to another browser to get shit done. My first guess was a script issue, but even temporarily disabling NoScript and allowing them all to run doesn't solve it. (Ordinarily I'd simply not bother when encountering a problem like that, but sometimes I have no choice.)

Re: Optional

I can still keep my what job now?

Re: Facebook's shadow profile.

Ah, okay - I assumed you were misunderstanding that I was talking about ad-blocking.

But either way, you are still missing the point. I wasn't saying "Facebook's getting data, how do I stop it?" - I was pointing out that there is more to it than shadow profiles built up from friends' data.

A more interesting side point is one of identification. Given that they know I installed Plex - the question isn't so much "how" as "how do they know it was me?" Remember, no Facebook app is on my phone; even if something on the phone is feeding data to Facebook, nothing on the phone knows my Facebook log-in details. It can't even be tied in via the email address, because the one I use for Facebook is unique to Facebook.

The answer is, I would guess, those shadow profiles. I haven't given Facebook my phone number - but you can bet one of my friends has allowed access to contact data. And if I'm right that the source of them knowing I installed Plex is that TrueCaller shite, I wouldn't be surprised if my phone number isn't amongst the data it's given Facebook behind my back. These two separate sources of phone number would enable the link to be made.

Re: Oooh just you wait

My grin would be very wide were that to happen - but like you, my breath will not be held.

Also: Threaded comments! It's about time!

You might also find they are unlocked anyway. The last phone I got on contract was a Sammy Galaxy S3 - and I was playing around with someone else's phone trying to solve a SIM problem for them, and tried their SIM in my phone, completely forgetting that it was on contract and probably locked.

It turned out it wasn't locked.

The other person's phone, however, was - to a different network than the SIM they had. :)

Don't pressure them - they need time to make up something that sounds plausible.

Re: Giant wombats in space?

"I'm worried - it looks like a Borg cube."

Perhaps it's the one from the documentary "Star Trek - First Contact" but the documentary makers got it wrong. They had it as a sphere, when it was really a normal cube. When the Borg cube actually travelled back in time, it went a bit too far, right back to the formation of the solar system, and as a result of waiting around since then it has accreted so much matter that it now looks like an oddly cuboid asteroid. The plan might be for the Borg to arouse when they receive any indication that we are about to achieve warp capability, shed the matter, and carry on as per the documentary.

In order to ascertain if this is so, we need to study other asteroids more closely and see if we can identify one that vaguely resembles NCC1701-E.

Re: Can't we just use...

I'm sure there must be a way we can use sharks with frikin' lasers.

Re: Terminology

According to the quoted email, that's what she described it as - she described a perceived threat to get rid of her if she didn't take it as blackmail.

"Simon Mayall stated that he "couldn't have me escalating issues to you", and if I didn't take the £10k offer then I would be managed [presumably out] via my sick records.

Is that not bribery to keep my mouth shut and blackmail to take the offer?"

The two things seem to have become confuzzled by the time it reached the court, AFAICS.

Re: Grimes against humanity

I've never heard of Grimes before - and TBH I quite liked it on first listen.

"As I understand it (from a brief conversation with my accountant) you are having to submit a lot more than boxes 1-9. He said all transactions involving a VAT element will need submission so presumably they can match the claimed refunds for one business against the sales for the other."

I suspect that was sort of what they were originally thinking - and when it was still at the planning stages some time back, I read stuff (on HMRC's site, I think) that suggested that during the submission process, the server could request more background data from the submission client. i.e. they could interrogate your software for the full data.

However, even that's been scaled right back - to the extent some people have told me I was imagining it; I'm sure I wasn't. If you look at the API (I've linked to it in comments on El Reg before, and someone else has done so further upthread) it does indicate only the main VAT return boxes.

There is supposedly a requirement that the figures be built up digitally (because that was supposed to be the point) - but AFAICS you could still keep manual records, and just key the VAT return figures into something that will then submit them, and they would be none the wiser at this stage*. It's all a big exercise in wasting lots of money.

* Things might change in future, of course.

Re: Sage are pushing customers

"Sage have always been aggressive with marketing, but they have pushed the boat out for subscriptions and tried to use making tax digital to force everyone into some sort of subscription."

Exactly what I've been saying all along. I would jump ship (I already use VT for some clients), but the problem is, I've found no software that is as good as Sage for those whose accounts I keep in it. If I have to upgrade from my five year old version for something, I will - and I'll be looking at non-subscription options - but if I can avoid doing so I'll stick with what I have for as long as I can.

"Those who held out against the sales pressure may reap the rewards because there are now multiple companies offering bridges to submit VAT returns."

Indeed - both the sales pressure and FUD whereby some cloud-first companies were at one point trying to make people believe that making tax digital means you need to use cloud software.

An ex-client called me a dinosaur for my position on stuff like this. I think we therefore need a dinosaur icon!

"Antiquarian Booksellers: almost as badass as Librarians."

I know you say that as a joke, but there's this documentary about librarians that I haven't seen yet, but does make it sound like there may be something in the idea that Librarians are indeed a bit bad-ass.

Re: Perhaps

Payroll does change every year, yes - but I was talking about VAT, which doesn't.

To illustrate how much it doesn't, as I said I've been using Sage 50 Accounts Plus 2013 since it came out - which was probably in 2012 - and using it to submit VAT returns. It was only at the end of the first quarter this year that I could no longer do that, because HMRC changed the log-in process. So that's five years at least with no change.

Re: "oh boy"

"or Microsoft could've possibly introduced Windows Mobile to the consumer market."

They already had done IIRC.