Posts by PatientOne

Re: Cybercriminals and open source exploit code

So the person infecting the system has to have access to the system to execute the code... or are they sending the code in via infected e-mail (suchg as a binary) or drive-by from a web page (such as a javascript exploit?).

I'd guess it's someone getting into the system and executing the code from their computer, or they remove the executionable once the code is in memory, so the problem is still with the initial intrusion. Doesn't make it any better, of cause, but understanding the process is important in developing a counter - and to be honest, what AV / Malware protection doesn't periodically scan the memory anyway? Or is it simply that the scripts don't show as malicious so go unreported?

Would be interesting to see what emerges from the investigation - if anything.

Re: Why

@ Evil Auditor

<pedant>

By strict definition and use, it is still incorrect to say half (50%) will be blow median as median indicates the point where there is equal chance of being above or below that point: Not a 50% chance. As I said: There will be people ON the median point who are therefor neither above nor below it therefor less than 50% will be either above or below.

</pedant>

IQ is the most commonly used means of determining relative intelligence of subjects meaning it's simply a convenient, easily understood concept for purpose of illustration.

@ Naselus

True, I did imply he was very intelligent, and I cannot support that as a claim, other than to point out he started poor and built his career through hard work, a little luck and a lot of showmanship and that does take intelligence. So perhaps settle at 'not stupid' and certainly above the median?

Re: Pulling open the curtain

'Basically this isn't AI at all, but no different to 1980s "Expert Systems"'

Pretty much what I was going to say.

Expert Systems (ES) work by following set rules, or a model. It parses input and calculated the probable result, and is consistent in this approach. That model, however, is created for the ES: It does not build the model itself. Advanced ES can adjust the model within parameters if results show the predictions made are inaccurate, but they still have to fit within the bounds of the supplied model and rules.

For Artificial intelligence (AI) that model would be adjusted as the AI learns: It would process the data as per the model, then compare the predicted result with the acutal result and start shifting weightings in the probabilities. In medical terms, this would be the process of taking symptoms and calculating the cause. The more cases presented, the better the model will be, but the AI could scrap the model entirely and build a new one from the raw data if needed: Something an ES can't do.

For humans: We cheat. We are as likely to miss details and skip steps in processing information. This is both a strength and a weakness in the human brain and why we fail to realise things at first glance but rather it can take several moments to realise (There is a bicycle approaching; That is a man in a dress; That car isn't going to stop; That is someone I know). As a result, we can react quickly to the unusual, but we can miss things along the way. It's wired into us thanks to evolution: If you can't react quickly to a potential danger, you don't survive, but if it's safe then take all the time you need to check and double check and realise you were wrong in your initial assumption and that root vegetable really doesn't look like someone's face.

So there has been a choice: To develop AI to be consistent in accuracy or to mimic the human brain and accept it will make mistakes. The last I heard, the aim was to remain accurate: We've enough natural stupidity without introducing more artificially.

"Cyclists have to follow the highway code, or face fines, but there's no "Bicycle Test"."

Yes there is (in the UK at least): The cycling proficiency test. It's just not compulsary.

Re: Labels, labels, labels . .

"I'm sorry, since when are minorities an elite?"

Oligarchies.

Re: How can any decent voter

"even our current Prime Minister was elected by the Tory party rather than the electorate"

And Blair/Brown were elected by the Labour party. We, the people, don't actually vote for who will be Prime Minister: We vote for our representative with a mind of their declared political party (if they have one) and who might become Prime Minister if they form the goverment. This is why we don't get a new election if a current Prime Minister steps down: We still have our elected representative.

I do agree strongly with the issues you mention regarding first-past-the-post (I've only once been represented by an MP I voted for (independent)) so a proportional system is long overdue.

While I like your idea of the fines, all that the companies will do is cycle through faked CLI's to avoid triggering the fine. This is made worse by it not being possible to trace all faked or temporary CLI's. Yes, you'd get to the company that provides the CLI number used, but they would argue they are not responsible for their users use of the system resulting in quite an interesting court case (which I think is needed anyway).

Basically, it comes down to this: Someone making nuicanse calls v someone making an anonymous call. Considering why someone might be doing the latter: There's a case for protecting the caller from being identified, even if most users are abusing the system to avoid a fine.

Re: re: Photos

Easy: A pair of legs in the car seat, a cop figure standing next to it.

Well, it says 'topless'...

"How many cases of carjacking do you think will happen before crims realise that they may as well just walk into the Old Bailey and take a dump in the foyer?"

How many cases do you think will involve an unknown person due to baggy clothes, hoodie and scalf or mask?

Thieves have long ago figured out how to avoid detection and identification via the MkI eyeball, and will quickly figure out it's the same for car sensors. As for where they came from/went to? Across the road of cause. CCTV will track figures only so far, but a criminal learns to find the blind spots or where they can operate that has a slow response time, possibly because the roads are all blocked up by stationary self-drive cars waiting for the pedestrians to finish bimbling across the road.

The latter is my main concern: That self-drive cars will cause road congestion to the point that emergency response vehicles can't get through. Even with careful programming, unless the self-drive car knows to get out of the way of the ambulance/fire appliance as a priority and sod the pedestrian who has stopped infront of the car to see what's going on, the car will just sit there and obstruct the road while the pedestrian obstructs it's path.

There is a reason why we need drivers to be able to overrule the self-drive option: It's because rule may need breaking in event of emergency.

Re: Um?

You buy a license to use the software.

This seems to get missed all too often: It's a license you buy, not the software itself. So no, you can't sell or pass on the backup of the software, but you can sell or pass on your license to use it.

All this is saying is that backups of the software are for personal use only and cannot be passed on. Certainly you can't sell it (as you can only sell the license).

This also means that you can't buy the software, make a backup and sell the software while retaining the backup: Only the person with the license can use the software legally.

Re: Warning - Full Rant mode...

Erm...

Witches were protected under crown law and you couldn't kill them by burning - you had to drown and behead them, then you could burn the body. I believe that witch burning was more an american thing.

Witch trials during the English Civil wars were an anomyly, encouraged by Parliament against royalist supporters and so were political. Those killed as a result were pardonned by the King (Charles II) when he ascended to the throne (Post Cromwell). Not that it did them any good.

Re: Start investing and laying some fibre, then we'll listen...

You do know that when cable was introduced you had a lot of different companies laying their networks, most of which was fibre (as that's what was required), and that NTL, then VM, bought those companies and inherited the existing fibre network?

So VM hasn't had to lay much fibre - only what they need to expand their network.

Now I can't say how they've been doing on that latter issue: I've not worked for cable since the initial build period (Late 90's) but I know they have been doing some and keep promising cable to areas that they've still not extended into so it's a bit of a mixed bag, there.

As to the price hike: Some companies take every opportunity to do so, others try to keep it to a minimum. VM seem to be amongst the former, but again, never worked for them (was with one of the early companies) so don't know what they're like.

Re: @qwertyuiop

"And we are having hard brexit ignoring the wishes of almost 50% of the electorate."

"And we are facing a brexit in response to the expressed wishes of over 50% of the electorate who bothered to vote."

FTFY.

As ever, I might not agree with the outcome (or specifically with how the referendum was run) but as over half of those who decided to vote said 'out' then that's the majority vote. Would you have them ignored instead? Have you considered that Nicola Sturgen might be right: That the reason for so many wanting out of the EU is they've become disenfranchised over it? That they can no longer see the point of it? That they see just more beaurocracy and foreign rule and our own politicians, our MEP's, have been inadequate in addressing that?

"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting for dinner and the sheep not being dinner"

No, it's a herd of sheep voting over who gets eaten by a wolf: The wolf wins regardless.

Re: Ah yes. More confirmed kills than anyone else

You might want to check out what she did during WWII.

"After months of begging her father to let his heir pitch in, Elizabeth—then an 18-year-old princess—joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II. Known as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, she donned a pair of coveralls and trained in London as a mechanic and military truck driver. The queen remains the only female member of the royal family to have entered the armed forces and is the only living head of state who served in World War II."

So she wasn't really a rookie by the time the Korian conflict came around. But she clearly had you fooled :p

Re: lack of genes or lack of trying?

I'd say you need a degree of aptitude simply to get started, but success is more dependent on interest.

After all, if you're not interested you won't apply yourself to a subject even if you've got the aptitude.

Where as if you're interested, you can't succeed, no matter how hard you try, if you've no aptitude (don't believe me: Listen to me try and play the Saxaphone. Or don't: It'll save your ears).

So the limit is a combination: Interest, in order to want to pursue a subject, and aptitude, to see just how far you can get with it. Study can compensate for aptitude to a degree, but you'd still need the greater aptitude to progress far.

As for where aptitude comes from: Well, part is nature, part is nurture. How our brains wire up gives us the base line tools we then need to learn how to use. It's quite a study, particularly if you're interested in cognitive psychology and Artificial Intelligence.

Re: Bill of Rights, etc.

"This is basically going against the constitution that we don't have"

"This is basically going against our unwritten constitution."

FTFY

"Unlike most modern states, Britain does not have a codified constitution but an unwritten one formed of Acts of Parliament, court judgments and conventions."

From https://www.bl.uk/magna-carta/articles/britains-unwritten-constitution

But google it: There are a fair number of sites explaining it.

Re: It it just me

Yes and no: As M$ are pushing out updates without notification (depending on which version you have) and as these updates can brick or otherwise damage your computer, then it's relevant now, too.

For example: A few day ago my Win10 PC started rebooting shortly after I'd turned it on. didn't matter what I was doing, it just rebooted. I checked the logs and found this was happening just after an update had been downloaded. Not the same update - any update. Further digging showed this was due to a 'corruption' in the update system - which Windows 'fixed' while detecting the fault... but the fault was caused by Windows trying to download and install a new (aniversary) edition to Windows... and to get past that, I had to download and install that manually for the PC to start behaving again...

So no, not too late, just late.

Re: Because Criminals will follow the rules?

If you want to shield the ECU from an external EMF, then the best solution is a Faraday cage, surely. The best would be one made from solid metal sheets. This would cause attenuation of signal from most EM sources (it's not so good against slowly modulating sources), so would be a good start. Failing that, a mesh or grid would work, too, but not as effectively.

So, all you have to do is wrap a car engine compartment with metal panels and/or mesh and you've protection.

Can you see where this is going yet?

I got a letter saying I needed to arrange for the meter to be fitted as they were required to install them.

I didn't bother responding.

A friend, however, did, and took a day out to await for the meter to be fitted. They never turned up.

So one more reason to refuse: Even if you do want the meter, you may wind up wasting your time waiting for them to turn up.

Strangely, I was asked, not too long ago, if I'd consider swapping to a rival supplier, who informed me they *don't* do smart meters. Which is good to know if my current supplier pushes for me to have one.

Re: Not an AI

Okay, motorbikes (SMIDSY) are a different issue and has to do with how the brain cheats as much as how the eye works.

The brain works with a snapshot then looks for changes. Certain shapes are prioritised for identification, of which vertical lines (like bikes) are not included, but horizontal shapes (like cars) are. So the eye may spot the biker, but the brain doesn't 'see' them immediately. This can be 'fixed' by taking longer to look, or to look away, then back as the brain is likely to notice a different in position of the biker, which indicates movement, which is a priority for the brain to identify.

This is very much IT related, too, as it explained why AI development wasn't returning anticipated results, despite the servers being 'as powerful' as an organic brain: The simple fact was the human brain was cheating (taking short cuts) which the AI wasn't programmed to do. Oh, and this applies to other forms of processing, too: Organic brains really do cheat/take short cuts. It's why stereotypes are so important to us: The brain uses that to 'assume' information that isn't readily apparent based on a model or stereotype, and so doesn't wait for confirmation of said details, but proceeds and then reprocesses data as new information/corrections become apparent. Of cause, poorly developed stereotypes are detrimental, and can lead to bad conclusions and end in death. Or an expensive law suit. Or the purchase of that horrid jumper...

Re: Eh? What?

"The real crime is that Ford was bumped off in Episode VII. Gonna miss him!"

"The real crime is that Solo was bumped off in Episode VII." FTFY

Else this would be a murder case, not a H&S one.

And rumours of Solo's death may not be entirely accurate... but we'll have to wait and see.

Re: The only thing any diploma can prove ...

"I dont know about "Computer Science" , but i did Engineering , and it was fucking difficult."

I went from Engineering (Civils) into Computer Science. Engineering wasn't too bad, and there was quite a bit that was shared between the two (mostly project management stuff, but research and the dread maths came into it, too. Plus having a logical, methodical approach helped). So I'd put them on a par. Also worked in both fields, and sometimes I miss working outdoors, and other times I'm real glad I'm sat in an office :p

But mad skills are a boon. Trouble shooting is what I really love, even if it drives me up the wall at times. Shame, as you say, there isn't as much recognition or financial reward in it...

Also not bitter. Honest.

Re: "Saving" lives...

"That speed limit is an absolute maximum for perfect conditions"

The speed limit is the maximum safe speed under NORMAL conditions. There is absolutely no point in designing a road for perfect conditions as you'd be wasting time and effort (conditions may be near perfect on occasion, but never actually 'prefect'). The speed limit is also not an absolute maximum, but the legal maximum. Due to how roads are designed, they can handle faster moving traffic, such as police cars and other emergency vehicles, the drivers of which have undertaken specific training to allow for the higher speeds they will travel at, and the vehicles are (normally) modified to cope.

There: Fixed that bit for you :p

Re: Passport, driving licence validity

And the southern Irish are a little miffed at that, or so I hear.

Re: Seriously...

Okay, normally we have exit polls - that's people collecting volunteered data at exit of the polling station. This then gives a national sample and reasonable results.

This time there were no exit polls (was looking for them and surprised they weren't there) so some groups went out onto the streets and did a poll there. This netted the figures people quote - that 62% of the 18-24's who voted, voted in (or 72% according to another poll), but the numbers sampled are low.

In the one case, 1,600(ish) people were polled and only those who were willing to answer were counted towards either vote. I can't remember if it was 1,900 or 19,000 for the other poll - the number was given, but it was (very) small print. Neither sets of figures seemed to add up, though, so I doubt they were really accurate or representative of how people did vote. For example, a straw poll here at work had more 'Out' votes from the younger workers and 'In' votes from the older, but that was an incredibly small sample size.

Re: Charlie Stross

Thanks for the reminder: Need to go get the next couple of books and get reading.

Speech to text exists (we're using it) but it needs configuring, training (to understand the person speaking) and context tuning to get it even vaguely right. It's not perfect meaning it requires a human being to review and verify what was translated to text matches what was said.

Translating between written languages isn't difficult if you have the entire text to translate as you have context but even then you can get some very humourous translations and you can't translate word by word between many languages due to the way they are constructed and the rules that are required, so you need a delay between speech and translation simply to assemble enough of what was said to make sense of it and produce a meaningful translation.

Reading it back is the easy bit.

Or, if you know someone who does speech translation, ask them how they do it and what the pitfalls are, and that's using a system that cheats constantly (the human brain).

So, in this instance, I'm inclined to say this is another of those wonderful ideas where they're expecting more of technology than is possible. Unless they accept there will be a noticable delay between speaking and translation, and probably a longer delay than if they had someone else do the translation for them (with less accuracy, too).

@ massivelySerial

Yes, gamers do indeed buy PCs and not just get the parts to build the PC themselves. They do, however, tend to go to specialist suppliers for said PC's, and not to the likes of DELL or HP who manufacture in bulk and don't use the top end components, nor allow pick-n-mix builds. These reports tend to ignore the smaller, specialist suppliers who are doing quite okay at the moment.

Re: tailgate - oh the joys

Had something similar here: Chief Exec wouldn't wear his ID to see who would challenge him. He was pleasantly surprised by the number who did.

He didn't sack anyone for not challenging him, but he did write to their manager to express his concern over security...

Re: Anyone

Depends on what the 'win' conditions were.

There's a premis that all Batman has to do is stand up to Superman in order to win: To show the world that Superman isn't beyond reproach. It also helps Superman out as it makes him look less like a god and more like a person.

So what was the goal of the conflict? To see who would walk away from the conflict, or was the goal something subtler? Like reminding Superman that he's not a god?

Nope - it's to do with applying sequential patches to bring you up to the latest version.

If you go to the manual update section, it explains how to find out which version you're on and that you may need to manually update in stages. I was lucky - only had to apply one patch.

Re: No - it's binary

@AC

I see it more as the FBI demanding the car manufacturers provide a master key that opens all their cars. Then they can access the cars at will - not just when the owner looses the key.

Next we'll see the FBI going after lock makers. Insist they make locks with a bypass so the FBI/Police can enter a house without having to try smashing the door open, which isn't always that easy as if police can do it, so can criminals, so people are looking for harder/stronger/more secure doors...

And after that? How about back door access to online banks, high street banks, business data, computers... give them even one inch of rope...

Re: Migrated from Google to it's own

Some of the reports coincide with the move - not all.

I had a batch of 'failed to deliver. Reason: Email contained SPAM' alerts recently. All on the same day. This is well after the migration. These seem to be 'clean' but they do include attachments that proport to be the message I sent.

So... thinking outside the box for a moment, what's the chance this is a scam? That the 'failed to deliver' notifications are fakes (they were bounced from the same e-mail server, and not one I recognise), or they used my e-mail address for the return address but sent the e-mail from one they control. Then I get the notifications and want to investigate, open the attached copy of the message (get hit by a virus perhaps, or just get to see the spam they're sending out - job done), and waste time trying to figure out how my account got hacked (it wasn't).

This could have been timed to coincide with VM's move from GMail initially as people would assume VM slipped up and got hacked during the move - a bit of distraction to shift attention from what was really going on.

Sometimes a duck is a duck, sometimes it's a decoy.

Re: Whats the bet

Only need to post the Dox once to do the damage, so it has to apply on first offence.

"It's a heating coil and a fan in a plastic case designed to dry hair, what exactly can you invent or is the ping pong balls some kind of Dyson reference, look I put a ping pong ball in the end and the air moves differently causing it to dry faster. Can I get a job at IBM?"

Here are some wires through which a current is passing (A heating element?). Here is a fan to move the hot air produced along a particular path (Oh, a hair dryer?).

Now go think of a way to keep electronic circuitry from over heating.

Would that be by using a fan to move the heated air along a particular path?

It might seem stupid, but try thinking outside of the box for a moment: What can you learn from a hair dryer and how can you apply such a simple mechanism to something else, like cooling a server. Or, perhaps, take what you know of cooling servers and design a better hair dryer...

Re: Needs just a tweak.

You didn't... no, you did... oh, boy...

*puts on Civil Engineer's hat* (this is a very simple overview, btw).

You start with a specification. You build to that specification. End of project.

*puts IT developer's hat on* (yes, I really do have both)

You start with a specification. You develop the core components and impliment them. Now start the cycle of refinement.

You can develop with agile methodology - do the core, plus as many extras as you can fit in, but you can always add more later, as and when you're ready, with little to no disruption or performance hits. You get the benefits from the initial development and expand on this as required. This is the normal approach to software development.

You can build in a modular approach, but doing so needs advanced planning and expanding will involve distruption and will probably affect business performance. You may not see any real benefit until all the work is done, either. It is also not always possible to work this way, or desirable, hence why most Civils projects involve getting as much done during the initial build as possible - minimise latter disruption and keep costs down in the process.

So yes, there are similarities, but due to the technical aspects, the methodologies have to vary hence they're not really the same. Interesting comparing them, though - I never thought I'd get to use both my qualifications in one post... thanks :)

Re: Not necessarily

@Fraggle850

Not quite: Even showing the list came from a KKK source doesn't mean that it's a) accurate or b) hasn't been tampered with and names added to cause mischief.

After all, the KKK could have added names just to discredit the list if it was acquired by the police or a third party, just as those who 'acquired' the list could have added names. It's not like the KKK are going to say 'well, 90% of the names are correct, but those 10% are wrong', are they?

@SuccessCase

you're mixing horizontal and vertical.

The drone was claimed to be 200' + vertically (in the air). I didn't see anything about the horizontal distance from the shooter, but that would just increase the range.

Clay pigeon shoot: How high are the disks launched? I've seen a few shoots (not participated, just spectated) and they may be 100' horizontal distance, but they're at most 30' vertical.

Plus don't confuse how far a shot can travel horizontally with how far it can go vertically - again, they're not the same thing. If you're really interested in this, there are ample explinations available online, so happy reading.