* Posts by Paul

691 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Oct 2006

Page:

Set your alarms for 2.40am UTC – so you can watch Unix time hit 1,500,000,000

Paul

UTC is not the same as GMT, although for humans telling the time they're similar enough.

Hey, remember that monkey selfie copyright drama a few years ago? Get this – It's just hit the US appeals courts

Paul

why is the copyright case being held in the USA? The photograph was taken in Indonesia by an Indonesian entity.

Paul

Re: Just sayin'

"Corporations are "legal persons".... If they weren't "legal persons", you wouldn't be able to have a legally enforceable contract with one."

utter nonsense. the law/government define what an incorporated entity is, and the legal process by which one is formed, and thus can define how a corporation can make contracts and the liabilities ensuing.

Microsoft boasted it had rebuilt Skype 'from the ground up'. Instead, it should have buried it

Paul

I used to regularly have problems trying to share to Skype, it would get confused and not offer the list of recipients. Now, there's no possibility at all to share, so they really f****d it up!

While USA is distracted by its President's antics, China is busy breaking another fusion record

Paul

Re: Who still uses farenheight for things like this ?

Imperial units, so many to love!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01p8bs2

CityFibre snaps up Entanet for £29m and plans to raise £185m

Paul

ElReg proof reader: "government's £400m Digital Infrastructure Investment Fund, aimed at boosting"

the link in that sentence is broken

Australian govt promises to push Five Eyes nations to break encryption

Paul

Re: The legislator's fallacy

whilst they're banning strong crypto, please can they redefine Pi to be 3, because that would make things more convenient for everybody?

Oh, wait, you're telling me that governments can't change maths? Has somebody tried telling them?

The internet may well be the root cause of today's problems… but not in the way you think

Paul

I sent a polite form of this to my local MP

Dear Theresa May and minions,

1/ just because you keep saying these things doesn't mean you are making them possible

2/ every time you repeat the mantra of "no safe place", "backdoor encryption" etc, we

roll our eyes and think "you're a bunch of feckin' muppets"

3/ we've explained encryption so many times and you haven't understood it, so please shut the feck up and find someone to take your place who actually understands at least something about communication systems

4/ yes, we really do think you are morons, and what few vestiges of respect you might ever have had are long gone

5/ our previous response still applies, see the last 20 times you made these stupid statements and they were rebutted, and every lame argument you made was refuted

6/ repeat after me: communications are secure for everybody, or secure for nobody

UK PM Theresa May's response to terror attacks 'shortsighted'

Paul

every time I see this, the response to the government should mostly be along the lines of this:

1/ just because you keep saying these things doesn't mean you are making them possible

2/ every time you repeat the mantra of "no safe place", "backdoor encryption" etc, we

roll our eyes and think "you're a bunch of feckin' muppets"

3/ we've explained encryption so many times and you haven't understood it, so please shut the feck up and find someone to take your place who actually understands at least something about communication systems

4/ yes, we really do think you are morons, and what few vestiges of respect you might ever have had are long gone

5/ our previous response still applies, see the last 20 times you made these stupid statements and they were rebutted, and every lame argument you made was refuted

UK ministers to push anti-encryption laws after election

Paul

repeat after me: "there's only two choices, secure for everybody, or insecure for everybody"

Go ahead, stage a hackathon. But pray it doesn't work too well

Paul

I'm not sure what the point of this article actually was.

Cook fights for life after Google summit blaze

Paul

Re: Good headline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDKD9LUER7A

Australia considers joining laptops-on-planes ban

Paul

if I fly to the US again, I'll not take a laptop, I'll buy a chromebook when I get there, and factory-reset/erase it before I come back.

Paul

Re: Barometers?

I read that El-Al do actually depressurise all luggage on the ground before putting it on the plane, specifically to combat barometric-triggered bombs. It's an expensive security measure.

Of course, this is something that people don't see, and possibily don't understand, therefore being expensive isn't copied by other airlines because it doesn't go with the main strategy of security theatre.

Paul

Re: And in other news,

really? UAL don't look too bad over 6 months

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/UAL/

Beaten passenger, check. Dead giant rabbit, check. Now United loses cockpit door codes

Paul

damn, that was the same combination as my luggage!

74 countries hit by NSA-powered WannaCrypt ransomware backdoor: Emergency fixes emitted by Microsoft for WinXP+

Paul

I can imagine the following scenario being replayed many times, in many board rooms, in many businesses across the world.

"So, the sysadmins say they need £75k to upgrade the firewalls, £45k to upgrade all the oldest computers to a new version of windows, and £30k for misc software and training. Oh, and another £100k/year for a security specialist. So we need 250K right now"

"Meanwhile, our company cars are up for renewal, they're nearly 3 years old and we need £150k for that, plus our bonuses are £40k".

We can't afford it all, so since we've not had any significant security incidents, let's put off most of the computer stuff, and we can still get our cars and bonuses? All agreed? carried unanimously!"

PC repair chap lets tech support scammer log on to his PC. His Linux PC

Paul

https://youtu.be/Du6acZ-PZQ8

Paul

https://youtu.be/Du6acZ-PZQ8

Victim turns the table and manages to trick the scammer into setting and forgetting a bios password and bricking his own computer

Paul

Re: @Ridley, re: boxes.

Two words: glitter bomb

eBay threatens to block Australians from using offshore sellers

Paul

Given that ebay mandate that payment is made by paypal, and paypal know where the buyer and seller are, it should be trivial for paypal to collect GST on all international deals.

Dido queen of carnage steps down from TalkTalk

Paul

I was very amused when TalkTalk created a dedicated forum area for discussing being safe online

( https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Staying-safe-online/bd-p/qa_safeonline ),

that many people asked them about being hacked and they didn't respond

https://community.talktalk.co.uk/t5/Staying-safe-online/Have-TalkTalk-properly-secured-their-internal-systems-yet/m-p/1992644#U1992644

Forget Mirai – Brickerbot malware will kill your crap IoT devices

Paul

Re: telnet??!!?

use "openssl s_client -connect host:port" instead of "telnet host port" to do the equivalent thing over an ssl socket.

US govt ceases fire in legal spat with Twitter to unmask anti-Trump 'immigration official'

Paul

I think Twitter and the EFF should be able to charge the US government for their legal costs in fighting their unreasonable and illegal attempt to extract the information from Twitter.

Europe to push new laws to access encrypted apps data

Paul

Encryption systems: secure for all, or secure for none. Backdoors always get leaked or discovered.

After London attack, UK gov lays into Facebook, Google for not killing extremist terror pages

Paul

Ban the Daily Mail, I went online to find out how to hate people, particularly foreigners, and everything I needed to learn was in the DM including encouragement!

Astroboffins stunned by biggest brown dwarf ever seen – just a hop and a skip away (750 ly)

Paul

if this region of space is really rich in H2, then it would be a good place to send a space probe which is driven by a fusion ramjet, and powered by a fusion reactor.

That 'Trump lawyers threaten teen over kitten website' yarn is Fakey Fakey McFake Fakeface

Paul

trumpscratch.com seems to be an NSFW soft porn site now.

Linux-using mates gone AWOL? Netflix just added Linux support

Paul

I've not installed Adobe Flash on linux for a long time. Nor Skype either.

Netflix has worked just fine on my linux laptop for quite a while.

BT's Openreach to hire 1,500 engineers

Paul

Re: Will they stop sabotaging competitors lines?

My wife runs her business from home and is dependent on the internet, and we have a femtocell to provide mobile phone service.

We had Zen internet over FTTC, and wanted a backup service, so took advantage of free phone line install from TalkTalk and get backup ADSL.

Kelly contractors installed the line and the TalkTalk broadband went live the same day. The day after, the new phone line went dead, openreach stole the new line/port for another install. It took quite a few calls and eight days to restore service.

UK.gov gears up for IR35 private sector crackdown – say industry folk

Paul

An agency contacted me asking if I was willing to work in Southend for HMRC in Dev Ops, for £600 a day. Problem is that...

* it''d mean working for HMRC

* it'd be inside IR35, so travel and subsistence not deductable

* it'd mean working for HMRC

I quickly said no, and suggested that they would have a hard time finding someone decent for that rate, who wouldn't leave as soon as something better came along. The agent said he'd already had two people say yes and then change their mind!

Can you ethically suggest a woman pursue a career in tech?

Paul

Why am I reminded of this: http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/10/man-realises-sexism-exists-in-work-experiment-that-proves-what-woman-already-know-6502193/

Thank heavens the wrangling over BT's Openreach separation has ended

Paul

If BTOR have to lease all the infrastructure off BT, then we've not really made any progress. BTG can ensure pricing on fibre to the customer remains high, making ADSL and VDSL the only affordable choice for consumers, and thus continue to sweat their copper assets!

I'll believe that the new BTOR is actually going to make things better if they

1/ cancel some of the G.Fast research and deployments and bring back FTTx offerings at reasonable pricing, thus making it possible for me to get fibre internet to my home and small business

2/ reduce the cost of just a phone line, because the cost of the line rental won't be used to subsidise BT's internet + tv + phone packages.

3/ start offering "naked" phone lines without a dial tone purely as a carrier for broadband

4/ start offering dark fibre links at sensible prices

.. I could think of many more if I spent another 10 minutes.

'Baby, I know your database needs upgrades tonight'

Paul

Those were all pretty terrible.

Uptime Funk from openSuse was fairly good

https://youtu.be/SYRlTISvjww

Apple's macOS is the safer choice – but not for the reason you think

Paul

IMNSHO, people don't buy Macs to learn about how operating systems work and how to fix problems if they go wrong, they treat them like appliances. In fact, the relative robustness of OSX means people are less likely to learn much about operating systems if they use a Mac. And over time OSX is becoming more locked down like iOS, so tinkering is getting harder.

Therefore I'm not surprised that real OSX experts are rare.

Uber loses court fight over London drivers' English language tests

Paul

I tried to decode that rot13 but it didn't work, not sure if I am using the wrong font?

User rats out IT team for playing games at work, gets them all fired

Paul

I wouldn't be bothered if large numbers of people are playing games at the same time in IT.

Sometimes the IT department are biding their time waiting for people to go home so they can start planned maintenance.

Of course, if this was happening all the time during working hours, then I would ask difficult questions about the number of staff members actually needed.

Li-ion king Goodenough creates battery he says really is... good enough

Paul

Not sure if trolling, but quite possibly they're using the often abused shorthand of saying sodium instead of sodium ions; the latter don't catch fire

BBC admits iPlayer downloads are broken

Paul

Re: Thank god get_iplayer still works fine, and is not limited to the "approved" platforms

https://github.com/speculatrix/web_get_iplayer

Skype-on-Linux graduates from Alpha to Beta status

Paul

I stopped installing Skype on Linux a year or so after switching to 64 bit Linux, because Skype was a 32 bit program and you had to install dozens of 32 bit packages for it to work. I also used to use an apparmor profile to stop Skype getting nosy and reading files on my computer it hag no business poking into.

The web version works fine for chat.

One IP address, multiple SSL sites? Beating the great IPv4 squeeze

Paul

isn't this article about 5 years overdue?

Net neutrality? Bye bye, says American Pai

Paul

Welcome to the USA, where everything is for sale, your privacy, your rights, your healthcare, your internet activity...

Up close with the 'New Psion' Gemini: Specs, pics, and genesis of this QWERTY pocketbook

Paul

Mediatek do make some high end SoCs, but they're serial GPL-violators. On the odd occasion I've had to use their drive sources, the code quality is abysmal.

Paul

it looked so good until I read "Mediatek".

I think the GPD Pocket looks quite interesting too.. if GPD can launch it without the quality issues of the GPD Win, and properly support linux on it, then I think it could achieve surprising success

Paul

Re: 18:9?

get a load of my 80:40 display, that's even better!

Bring it BACK... with MODs! Psion 5 storms great tech revival poll

Paul

What kind of unit is 1ma/h ?

Paul

Re: Bit pricey and it'll be a few more months until it's out but...

The Atom X7-Z87xx processor is actually quite good.

Why not look up specs and benchmarks before condemning something?

How to nuke websites you don't like: Slam Google with millions of bogus DMCA takedowns

Paul

I think spammers work on a 0.0001% response rate or lower!

More brilliant Internet of Things gadgetry: A £1,300 mousetrap

Paul

is that a PS2, USB or bluetooth mouse it captures? I guess the latter for the IoT connection?

Why I had to sue the FCC – VoIP granddaddy Dan Berninger

Paul

Re: "Do you pay "rental" for the electrical supply cable coming into your home,"

OTOH the concept of "line rental" on a mobile phone is complete BS

I'm surprised they don't have a special charge called "base station maintenance" or "tower antenna maintenance" instead of line rental.

Page: