* Posts by jake

26591 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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WhatsApp: Share your data with Facebook, or we'll make our own app useless to you

jake Silver badge

Re: contacts?

It's not just the contact info that Facebook is selling to anybody with enough loose change, it's also the RELATIONSHIPS between all that contact info. Neither I, nor my friend, have access to all that. Only Facebook does.

Well, to be perfectly accurate, I do not now, and never have had a Facebook account. I have never even logged onto any of their sites. Anything they have on me has been slurped without anything even remotely resembling consent.

jake Silver badge

Re: contacts?

I suspect they would mysteriously disappear off the face of TehIntraWebTubes by the power of DNS and the simultaneous loss of power in a few key locations.

jake Silver badge

You make it sound like IRC is gone. It's not. Hundreds of thousands of people still use it world-wide.

jake Silver badge

Colo(u)r me surprised. Or not.

Did anybody reading this actually think Zchmuck and his sycophants weren't going to suck every penny they possibly could out of the silly thing? If so, all I can say is what saps.

Blessed are the cryptographers, labelling them criminal enablers is just foolish

jake Silver badge

Re: Cryptography is a weapon

That was nothing but security theater, and everybody knew it.

A far better example is Bruce Schneier's "Applied Cryptography" book, my copy of which includs source code examples both in the text (which did not fall under the export restrictions) and in the CD, which was bound into the cover (and very definitely did fall under those restrictions). From daft people come daft laws. Do you vote? For daft people? Are you sure?

jake Silver badge

Re: [serious and organised crime]?

So as long as there is no physical assault involved, the crime is not serious?

jake Silver badge

Re: Order is important

"do they really think they can get away with such a bold faced lie"?

Silly question. Of course they do. They are politicians. How do you think they got to where they are in the first place? Born liars, the lot of 'em ... and apparently their constituents like it that way, so why change it now?

Applies to all politicians, everywhere, not just dissing the Aussies here!

jake Silver badge

[serious and organised crime]?

What's the difference between serious crime and organized crime?

Or is that one single set of criminals that is both serious and organized?

Is there any serious disorganized crime? Or perhaps facetious organized crime?

What about facetious disorganized crime? ::shudder::

jake Silver badge

"why would we trust anyone who shows such dishonesty with much of our most intimate data?"

We do not. However, the GreatUnwashed who keep voting them in either do, or don't care ... or more than likely are just to stupid to realize what they are doing.

jake Silver badge

"Only prior social engineering, i.e. knowing about the good stuff, will render Granny's defense moot."

Like seeing her wear it at Church on Sunday. Or to a family wedding, where one of the wedding party is a ne'er do well. Or overhearing the married-into-the-family Auntie jealously describing it down the pub. Etc.

Those bits of mineral are never worn in a vacuum.

Not keen on a 5G mast in your street? At least it'd be harder for crackpots to burn down 'a flying cell tower in orbit'

jake Silver badge

I think the term "crackpots" used in this context ...

... is a trifle on the lenient side.

Rude awakening for O2 customers after network runs surprise test of emergency mobile alert system

jake Silver badge

Re: Interesting accent choice

Oi'd be shattar'd, muthur ...

jake Silver badge

Re: It is also because they are stupid

The last Amber Alert I received was at about noon local time. A child had been kidnapped in Indio, half the state away (I'm in Sonoma, call it 470 air miles). The evening news the night before had reported that the child had been found that afternoon, in the same city she was kidnapped in. That was a couple years ago. I haven't seen such an alert since ... not on my phone, anyway. I see them on the television news periodically.

Potentially, it's a useful tool. However, as with most technology related tools, it is utterly useless in the hands of those with the power to use it.

Copper load of this: Openreach outlines 77 new locations where it'll stop selling legacy phone and broadband products

jake Silver badge

Re: Well the handset doesn't have to be powered.

No, what we are talking about is that that is not necessarily a good thing, and in many cases it is demonstrably a bad thing.

jake Silver badge

And some voice calls over POTS are safety critical, too. Say, after an earthquake that cuts all power .... even that to cell towers.

jake Silver badge

Re: They're sitting on a gold, umm, copper mine

Have you seen the price of lumber recently? Simple things like 2x4s and plywood are four or five times what they cost last year ... Seems that manufacturing all the stuff that makes modern life modern was deemed "unnecessary" in these Covid times ... and I'll bet you a buck that those prices won't be coming down any time soon, regardless of what percentage pf the workforce goes back to work.

As for that pipeline getting pwned ... They say the price of fuel is going to go up here in California, DESPITE the fact that none of the petroleum products running through that mess even comes close to touching the network that supplies California. In fact, they are predicting that our prices are going to go up higher (as a percentage) than anywhere else in the country! And we are already paying more than anyone else ... Newsom best get his act together or he's going to be out on his ear over this one, even if the population shrugs off everything else (and they will).

jake Silver badge

Re: We're moving house soon

Here in California we're supposed to be self sufficient for a week or more (major earthquakes can bust up a lot of infrastructure). And yet, AT&T doesn't provide the required battery when you "upgrade" your POTS line to what the rubes call "DSL".Most people don't discover that their telephonew doesn't work when the power is out until there is an emergency, and they need it. And of course most Cell Tower batteries doesn't have an emergency generator, and so can only last a few hours in a power failure. Lovely, no?

I get around this by maintaining two separate telephone bills .. one good, old fashioned POTS line (complete with touch-tone capability ... for now) alongside my more modern and expensive AT&T digital system. Guess which one works without fail in an emergency ... or even when it;s not an emergency, such as when PG&E kills the mains power so it's ill-maintained transmission system won't spark wild fires ... and the power is out for a week, killing Cell Towers after under half a day in some places (including the one on the mountain over my shoulder).

Don't you just love modern technology? Makes the rich richer, and the rest of us poorer-off.

Sure, go ahead, call me a neo-luddite. I've been called worse ...

Compsci boffin publishes proof-of-concept code for 54-year-old zero-day in Universal Turing Machine

jake Silver badge

Calling it a "vulnerability" is a bit of a stretch.

Did the author of the Machine ever make the claim that it was not vulnerable? Has anybody else? Where did this researcher come to the conclusion that it should be invulnerable? Just because it is a simplistic example "invented" by Minsky? That's pretty fuzzy thinking, if you ask me.

Honestly, the only reason nobody "wrote a paper" on this before is because it's completely irrelevant to what the UTM represents, and what it is for.

jake Silver badge

Re: The illusion of absolute security

That was TCP/IP connectivity, right?

jake Silver badge

Re: "where in the design process should we start trying to implement security features?"

Actually, BEFORE THE BEGINNING.

First, the programmer needs to fundamentally understand security within the context of the situation. Then the design can begin.

SolarWinds CEO describes overhauled Orion build system after that 'very small, unique' security breach

jake Silver badge

I know an even smaller number of people/organizations ...

... who will ever trust these clowns again.

US declares emergency after ransomware shuts oil pipeline that pumps 100 million gallons a day

jake Silver badge

Re: Presumably the fuckwits in charge ...

Actually, early on in the proto-TCP/IP (before IPV4, even) we were going for encryption, and trying to make the network secure. The "intelligent" lads in Washington DC got wind of it, and had Vint Cerf tell us to stop that. No security or encryption allowed.

The rest, as they say, is history ... and the current insecure by design(!!) clusterfuck.

Hope all y'all are still enjoying all your online transactions ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Internet was at its best in the 90's...

Of course. It's the only thing that Humanity has proven it is good at.

jake Silver badge

Re: Presumably the fuckwits in charge ...

The Internet was at its best from roughly 1983 to roughly 1993. Prior to that, it was too hard for even the smart non-techies to use, after that it was easy enough for the LCD of humanity to use. In that butter-zone, though ... That was awesome.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Presumably the fuckwits in charge ...

"I've said that before. Got downvoted, often."

Me too. Doesn't stop it from being reality, though. Maybe, eventually, if enough of us keep pointing out the obvious, people will stop using this network for things it wasn't designed for.

I'm not betting the farm on it, though. People as a group are stupid.

"It was never considered that, decades later, malcontents would intentionally try to ruin things for fun or profit."

Actually, it was considered very early on, pre-TCP/IP going live, even. See my comment above, re: Cerf. We knew we were reaching a critical mass when the trolls started in on Usenet. When AOL opened up to Usenet, it was all over.

Have a beer :-)

jake Silver badge

Re: Presumably the fuckwits in charge ...

""jolly good idea, get on with it"...."

I can do that, if you have the budget for it

We had the basics worked out with a secure version of TCP/IP back when the Internet was still based on NCP running on IMPs ... A dude by the name of Vint Cerf nixed it back then (at the urging of his lords and masters in Washington), but I still have the code and documentation. Are you ready to upgrade all your kit that stupidly implemented TCP/IP in hardware?

jake Silver badge

Re: Been there, done that...

And the British. And the Israelis. And the French. And the Canadians. And the Australians. And the Germans. And ... Pretty much everybody, no?

Note I'm not condoning it, just acknowledging the reality.

jake Silver badge

Re: DarkSide ransom group linked to Colonial Pipeline hack

They are nothing but extortionists. Stop spreading their propaganda.

"It'd be a shame if your legs accidentally broke ... "

jake Silver badge

Re: You ain't serious

Congratulations. You have won this month's "Stupidest Post" award ... and we're not even in week three yet.

jake Silver badge

Re: Shut down all pipelines!

Be careful who you are dissing, and about what ... The only country in the world with a bigger obesity problem in men than the UK is Malta ...

https://renewbariatrics.com/uk-obesity-statistics/

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: gallons

Have a pint? Or does the bathroom scale say that you weigh too many stone in these sedentary Covid times? Perhaps you should be walking/jogging/running a few miles per day? Did the milkman deliver your pint this morning? How many cubic feet of gas do you use boiling your kettle per month? If you're on the electrics, how many kWh does it take to boil the kettle?

And etc. You Brits are funny when it comes to teh metrics :-)

"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." —Andrew S. Tanenbaum

jake Silver badge

Re: gallons

'stupid non-metric unit systems only make it harder."

MUMMY! THE BAD PEOPLE MADE ME READ ABOUT SOMETHING I DON'T UNDERSTAND! MAKE THEM STOP! WAAAAAAAAAA ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Presumably the fuckwits in charge ...

"Add 20 years to that and you'll find Reaganomics... a serious contender for the ultimate atmosphere of "me-based" greed."

I'm fairly certain you'll find that the Trumpaholics trump that.

jake Silver badge

Re: PR cringe

"ransomware crew with a PR department"

::shrugs:: Most of us are used to that.

See: Capitol Hill in your own jurisdiction.

jake Silver badge

Re: Lessons learnt? I doubt it.

But we do patch and/or update them. Just not by clicking a link in email.

jake Silver badge

Re: One word:

Easily defeated by any old idiot using sneakernet. And usually is.

jake Silver badge

Presumably the fuckwits in charge ...

... had the pipeline's SCADA connected the TehIntraWebTubes at large, so management could impress their friends when fondling their iFad down at the club.

It's going to get worse, until said fuckwits in charge realize that when an actual IT professional tells them "that is not today, has never been, and cannot ever be made safe, UNLESS we re-design The Internet from the ground up, from scratch!" it's actually the truth, not an excuse to get out of working.

Basecamp CEO issues apology after 'no political discussions at work' edict blows up in his face

jake Silver badge

Re: Sex, Religion and Politics

Nah. Those few loud-mouths are becoming ostracised as I type.

Example: As we all know, EVERYBODY in the US is taking about cutting police funding, downsizing the cops, and other variations on the theme, right?

The Mayor of Oakland, Libby Schaaf, announced a new police budget today, which is quite a bit larger than the prior one. So everybody in the ultra-liberal Bay Area is bitching about it, right?

Wrong. A KGO (channel 7) news poll here in the bay area shows that about 78% of respondents thought it was NOT ENOUGH, about 14% thought it was just right, and a mere 8% thought it was too much. (And I must admit, I took great delight in the talking heads being obviously uncomfortable with the results ... that channel has been pushing for getting rid of most cops for years).

Remember, kiddies, just because one loon on the corner (or talking head on a news broadcast) is screaming, it doesn't mean that the vast majority of the population agrees with them.

jake Silver badge

Re: I'll lay off politics

It;s not your work who is taxing you. It's the government that is taxing you. Stop boring your cow orkers with politics, and start telling your politicians to do their jobs.

Terminal trickery, or how to improve a novel immeasurably

jake Silver badge

Re: Black magic

Note that although it looks on first blush like termcap was an evil pain in the ass, in reality it was the only way we had to make disparate systems work together in the days before standards.

A guy I knew at Berkeley suggested treating it as a game instead of a chore that needed doing. He was right ... Life became much less stressful when grafting odd-ball bits and pieces onto the growing network. Thank you, Bill Joy.

jake Silver badge

Re: Black magic

"look at the /etc/termcap from a BSD system to see a pretty good snapshot of pre-ANSI terminals across the ages,"

As of slackware-current (the upcoming Slackware 15.0 release), Slack will no longer ship termcap in the standard /etc package set as it is no longer used in Slackware, (or any(??) other Linux distro for that matter) ... However, it is still included with ncurses for those of us who still have to (or want to!) muck about with old kit.

In older versions of Slackware, see /etc/termcap-bsd for the complete file. In 15.0 and up it is in /etc/termcap (subject to change, as -current is in beta).

You can listen right here to the whir of a robot helicopter flying on an alien world

jake Silver badge

Re: Duty Free on Mars ?

That's what the Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment is for, Shirley.

jake Silver badge

Re: Turned everything up to 11

That would be Golden Earring's Radar Love, Shirley, followed immediately by Twilight Zone.

Or perhaps the 9 minute live version of Frankenstein featuring both Winter brothers, recorded in Copenhagen(??) in ~1970 before the tune even had a name. Raw. Awesome. Find a copy. Listen to it. Really.

jake Silver badge

Re: Duty Free on Mars ?

And there are no hookers. Or cocaine.

jake Silver badge

Re: Nothing there...

See also Formosa's Law.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Nothing there...

You may do whatever you like ... all I am offering is free advice, which is worth exactly what you pay for it. However, may I remind you that a wise man once said "He who wrestles with a hog must expect to be spattered with filth".

As you were. It's Sunday afternoon, may I recommend pints all around?

jake Silver badge

Re: Nothing there...

PDNFTT

jake Silver badge

I'd hate to alienate you, or otherwise show you something alien to your current education, but the term "alien" doesn't mean "little green (grey, whatever) men, nor does it imply the existence of life. What it means in this context is strange or foreign. Both of which Mars is, at least compared to yer mum's basement.

From the Latin alienus: of or belonging to another, not one's own.

Spent Chinese rocket stage set to make an uncontrolled return to Earth

jake Silver badge

Re: Carlsberg

"it can already loft more mass than is useful for the payload volume"

One word: Water.

A couple more words: Make up the mass in water ... it can be fit in almost anywhere. Build a large stash in LEO. It's kind of a handy commodity.

Perl changes dev's permaban for 'unacceptable' behaviour to a year-long lockout after community response

jake Silver badge

Re: Life time bans....

The sun's always just past the yardarm somewhere.

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