* Posts by Alister

4259 publicly visible posts • joined 19 May 2010

Game of Thrones showrunners to make Star Wars flicks

Alister

Re: Would Disney approve...

Maybe it will be the only way to keep it up

Hmm?

Corpse! of! Yahoo! drags! emails! of! the! dead! case! to! US! Supreme! Court!

Alister

@DoctorSyntax

That's quite an old-fashioned view of email, though, nowadays. For the vast majority, email means webmail, and the concept of downloading a local copy will be quite foreign to them.

I'm a dinosaur, and therefore I use discrete email clients, and fetch my mail down to my local devices using POP3 or IMAP as appropriate, but I'm sure I'm in the minority.

If I pop my clogs tomorrow, my family will be able to get to my emails, but they don't actually know my email account passwords, and they aren't stored anywhere except in my head.

Apple's top-secret iBoot firmware source code spills onto GitHub for some insane reason

Alister

Re: Is it Legit?

Really? Mr Damage?????

His middle name is Heavy.

Or is it Danger? I forget.

Home taping revisited: A mic in each hand, pointing at speakers

Alister

Re: "Although you couldn't turn the sound off while you copied,"

Have you ever tried to set the volume to 0?

My recollection, of using a Sharp twin-deck Cassette machine to copy computer programs, was that if you set the output volume to 0 it also set the tape-to-tape volume to 0, so you ended up with a tape of silence.

I don't know how common that was, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case here.

Assange fails to make skipped bail arrest warrant vanish

Alister

Re: A Flagrant Rotten Denial of Justice and a Blot in the UKGBNI Landscape

@The People

Very suspect how 98% of the comments on here originate by the same IP address.

What utter bollocks. Where would you get that information from?

As most people know, quite simply Assange went into exile due to the threats to his life made by an administration rife with corruption and whom know no bounds. It would not be right for Assange to have gambled his life by submitting to a bail condition where there was the possibility of risk to life. Active threats to his life were made by key figureheads within the US administration, this was not mere speculation.

Even more bollocks. At the time that Assange chose to break UK law and skip bail, there were no threats against him from the US administration.

This is nothing less than a damning indictment of UK law enforcement and CPS conduct.

And finally, BOLLOCKS!

Beware the looming Google Chrome HTTPS certificate apocalypse!

Alister

It might have been helpful if Mr Tetelman had included the expiry date for those certificates identified as being at risk, as you may find that the normal refresh / replacement is due before the April deadline anyway.

Certainly most of our certificates provided by Thawte or Verisign (who were Symantec owned) will have expired and been replaced by then.

MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF CARS: SpaceX parks a Tesla in orbit (just don't mention the barge)

Alister

Re: Over emotional

@madmalc,

Don't worry, eating McDonald's does that to me, too.

Vast majority of NHS trusts have failed cyber security assessment, Brit MPs told

Alister

@John G Imrie

@Zog_but_not_the_first

But this is exactly the problem mentioned upthread, there is no centralised purchasing or logistics anymore, it was got rid of in favour of each individual Trust having responsibility for their own purchasing.

If there was a centralised logistics and purchasing facility, then economies of scale alone would make a massive difference to the amount of money the NHS spends on IT, drugs, estates and everything else.

However, government policy (and not just the present government, but those of all political leanings) seems to be deliberately aimed at fragmenting and removing this ability.

UK web grocer Ocado takes £500k hit after robo-warehouse tech splurge

Alister

Re: I bought

That's 'cos you said "Can I 'av ocado's shares...

OpenWall unveils kernel protection project

Alister

@Alistair

I've heard that sniffing systemd is terminal...

Alister

create a security module to watch Linux kernels for suspicious activity.

Ah, a systemd sniffer?

Accused Brit hacker Lauri Love will NOT be extradited to America

Alister

Fine, so when does he stand trial here?

No, Windows 10 hasn’t beaten Windows 7’s market share. Not for sure, anyway

Alister

Re: StatCounter = irrelevant, amateurish

I assume this was a camping holiday organised by the Linux Users Group?

In any normal grouping of users an 80% share of laptops running Linux would be very unlikely indeed.

Bluetooth 'Panty Buster' 'smart' sex toy fails penetration test

Alister

Armor Gummiwaren

What an apt name.

It's almost a disappointment to learn that Gummiwaren means "rubber goods", it sounds such a great name for an anatomical area.

Morrisons launches bizarre Yorkshire Pudding pizza thing

Alister

As served by Claude Maximillian Overton Transpire Dibbler.

Named meat - and NO we don't mean Alice or Bob!

Alister

Re: The Universal Food

one to be consumed with the roast beef, the second with sugar as a dessert.

Yorkshire pudding with Golden Syrup is a delicacy I well remember from childhood.

Alister
Facepalm

I was wondering if you meant doner meat,

Doh! Yes, thanks.

But, the odd misplaced heart, lung or liver... Who knows :)

Alister
Pint

Re: How else?

Well said! Have another.

Alister

Re: Wazzock!

A true hipster would serve this fusion delicacy on a dutch hoe

Is that the ones who wave to you from the windows in De Walletjes in Amsterdam?

Alister

Well obviously, I'd wear it in place of me flat cap.

Or possibly use it as a bowl for feeding me whippet.

Actually, the idea posted above of filling it with donor meat and chilli sauce has a certain fascination, need more beer.

NASA is sniffing jet fuel over Germany

Alister

Late reply, I know, but if it's coming out of the back of a jet turbine, it's going to be fairly warm, isn't it?

Alister

“fuel blends that contain 30 to 50 percent Hydro-processed Esters and Fatty Acids”

Chip Fat! they're burning old Chip Fat!

The DC 8 crew will be hungry as hell following that round the skies...

Shopper f-bombed PC shop staff, so they mocked her with too-polite tech tutorial

Alister
Headmaster

Re: How thoughtful of her

I love it when people bring their own petard and rope.

Just to be really pedantic, you don't require a rope if you are using a petard - the "hoist" in that case being done by the power of explosives.

A petard is a very old type of shaped charge or pipe-bomb used particularly to breach doors or walls, comprising a box or tube filled with gunpowder.

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

Alister

The initial infection was likely through an exposed vulnerable internet-facing Server Message Block (SMB) port 30,

Hmm, this must be an implementation of SMB that I was previously unaware of.

The only SMB I know runs on TCP 445 or old-school TCP 139.

Suspicion of villainy leads Facebook to ban cryptocoin ads

Alister
Holmes

"That said, there are many companies who are advertising binary options, ICOs and cryptocurrencies that are not currently operating in good faith."

See Icon

Forget cyber crims, it's time to start worrying about GPS jammers – UK.gov report

Alister

And yet the UK is presently in the middle of a plan to remove the dedicated radio network for the emergency services, and to put them on a shared service with the EE 4G mobile network, and they don't consider that to be a problem?

To hack Australia and learn its secrets, buy second-hand furniture

Alister

Re: They buy 2nd hand furniture in Australia???

Sorry for the double post, but:

Slightly Foxed

Heavily Badgered

Alister

Re: They buy 2nd hand furniture in Australia???

Conservative Cabinet for Sale, 21 items, Slightly Foxed, Barely used

Some with missing spine or not in original cover, may be warped.

Alister

Deja Vu all over again

Do I not recall a similar incident in the UK last year? I seem to remember the filing cabinet(s) in question ended up in an antique shop in Norfolk?

Ah yes, here

Good to see our Antipodean cousins are still following where Britain leads...

NASA finds satellite, realises it has lost the software and kit that talk to it

Alister

Re: Future humans will only find

I would have thought reinforced concrete would survive as some kind of metamorphic rock.

My name is Ozymandias, King of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.

On yer bike! Boffins teach AI drone to fly itself using cams on bicycles, self-driving car

Alister

Great!

I really look forward to the idea of a future where, as I walk down the street doing my shopping, all I can hear is the angry buzzing of the constant cloud of drones overhead, with the occasional scream as one descends to make a delivery and catches an unwary pedestrian.

I can see a time where Trafalgar Square will be the territory of feral drones, and the pigeons will all be in hiding.

In America, tech support conmen get a mild slap. In Blighty, scammers get the book thrown at them

Alister

You seem to be suggesting that the British punishment - suspended jailtime - is the more severe punishment, but the American imposition of a stiff fine seems to me to be the one which will actually have an immediate effect on the scammers.

F-35 flight tests are being delayed by onboard software snafus

Alister

That's Agile, baby

It's how we do things now, get with the program...

Intel alerted Chinese cloud giants 'before US govt' about CPU bugs

Alister

@tom dial

and would be interested in a cite or two of such court orders.

I think you rather miss the point, these are "secret court orders" and as such, instances of them are unlikely to be available to cite.

Ex-staffer sues UK's DWP, claims superior blabbed confidential medical info

Alister

Re: The clue's in the name.....

"ethnically challenged"

Really? Wow, no wonder you posted anonymously.

But you're not a racist, or a bigot, I can tell...

Dodgy parking firms to be denied access to Brit driver database

Alister

To Whit:

To Whoo?

If you've ever wondered whether the FCC boss is a Big Cable stooge – well, wonder no more

Alister

Re: lost interest in the 2nd paragraph

gotta say trump is a genius. far more intelligent that that trope Teresuh May.

You don't actually know what a "trope" is, do you.

How sad.

Julian Assange to UK court: Put an end to my unwarranted Ecuadorean couch-surf

Alister

Re: Expensive

Why is this man so special?

Because he considered himself to be above the law, and took delight in flaunting it.

How many other bail jumpers would this amount of money be spent on trying to bring them to court?

Not many. But how many other bail jumpers have claimed political asylum in a London Embassy and then held regular press-conferences so we don't forget him?

Here we go again... UK Prime Minister urges nerds to come up with magic crypto backdoors

Alister

The crucial point that all these politicians seem to be missing is that the knowledge and technology to do end-to-end encryption now exists.

No matter what laws are passed, criminals and terrorists are, by their nature, not law abiding, and therefore will ignore those laws, and continue to use the technology.

It is not possible to remove the ability to create end-to-end encryption, now it exists, all you can do is disadvantage law-abiding citizens.

France gives les citoyens the right to cock up official paperwork

Alister

Re: OK, commentards ....

Bouliquement is apparently a colloquial alternative to manifestement to mean "blatantly"

Alister

Re: "Forgot your tax return, mon ami? Pas de problem!"

That's one elver problem, right there...

Alister

Re: "ne-c’est pas?"

What's "une blague" ?

Eet eez, how you say, "A joke" ne-c’est pas?

Oh how we are laughing at zee silly Eengleesh...

Alister

Re: "Forgot your tax return, mon ami? Pas de problem!"

Mais monsieur, avec ce pédantisme vous nous gâtez vraiment.

Camels disqualified from Saudi beauty contest for Botox-enhanced pouts

Alister

Re: I seem to recall...

Indeed, YouBastard, as I recall...

:)

Alister

Beer goggles

That headline photo... Phwoooaaar!

Elon Musk offered no salary, $55bn bonus to run Tesla for a decade

Alister

Why the need for additional bonuses?

Well he needs some small change for the meter.

Aut-doh!-pilot: Driver jams 65mph Tesla Model S under fire truck, walks away from crash

Alister

Re: Where's the Elon Musk Attack Brigade today?

Hmm, instead, we get you, with your ridiculous tirade.

Facebook invents new unit of time to measure modern attention spans: 1/705,600,000 of a sec

Alister

What ever happened to the tic, the sec or the mo?

The flick joins a few other obscure time intervals including a jiffy (the definition varies), a shake (10 nanoseconds), and a microcentury (~52 minutes or a millionth of a century,

Or any other unit regularly used in conjunction with the phrase

"I'll be back in a..."

IBM UK's pre-Xmas GTS head-chop: THWACK! Is that it?

Alister

IBM - International Business Marketing

I'm sorry, I think you misspelled "Bullshit" there...

PC sales get that post-Brexit vote sinking feeling

Alister

Re: an aside

Yep, me too, I read "shipments into the channel" and had an immediate mental image of a string of container ships...

Oh, and LOL at jamón, as well.