UTC is not the same as GMT, although for humans telling the time they're similar enough.
Posts by Paul
691 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Oct 2006
Set your alarms for 2.40am UTC – so you can watch Unix time hit 1,500,000,000
Hey, remember that monkey selfie copyright drama a few years ago? Get this – It's just hit the US appeals courts
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
While USA is distracted by its President's antics, China is busy breaking another fusion record
CityFibre snaps up Entanet for £29m and plans to raise £185m
Australian govt promises to push Five Eyes nations to break encryption
The internet may well be the root cause of today's problems… but not in the way you think
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'
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
Go ahead, stage a hackathon. But pray it doesn't work too well
Cook fights for life after Google summit blaze
Australia considers joining laptops-on-planes ban
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.
Beaten passenger, check. Dead giant rabbit, check. Now United loses cockpit door codes
74 countries hit by NSA-powered WannaCrypt ransomware backdoor: Emergency fixes emitted by Microsoft for WinXP+
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
eBay threatens to block Australians from using offshore sellers
Dido queen of carnage steps down from TalkTalk
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
US govt ceases fire in legal spat with Twitter to unmask anti-Trump 'immigration official'
Europe to push new laws to access encrypted apps data
After London attack, UK gov lays into Facebook, Google for not killing extremist terror pages
Astroboffins stunned by biggest brown dwarf ever seen – just a hop and a skip away (750 ly)
That 'Trump lawyers threaten teen over kitten website' yarn is Fakey Fakey McFake Fakeface
Linux-using mates gone AWOL? Netflix just added Linux support
BT's Openreach to hire 1,500 engineers
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
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?
Thank heavens the wrangling over BT's Openreach separation has ended
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'
Apple's macOS is the safer choice – but not for the reason you think
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
User rats out IT team for playing games at work, gets them all fired
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
BBC admits iPlayer downloads are broken
Skype-on-Linux graduates from Alpha to Beta status
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.