Posts by Robert Helpmann??

Re: 8 years for 15K

It's really not possible for me not to be cynical about banks, having worked for one of the largest. Yes, they make mistakes, but they are much more apt to behave just as SuccessCase describes. They have a responsibility to their shareholders and feel that because it affects their (upper management's) personal pockets. They feel a responsibility to their customers mostly because of regulatory pressure and if they can around it, they will and have demonstrably acted in this manner on a consistent basis.

Giant Gofers

Mole Men!

Looks suspiciously like a sink hole. What could the government possibly be hiding down there? Dirt? Water? An underground civilization? (˙ǝuo ʇsɐl ǝɥʇ ʇoN :∀)

Re: So...

The local library in my county lists 165,128 volumes in its collections. While 600,000 may sound like a considerably greater amount, it will probably make little practical difference. While Amazon has greater span compared to my local library system, it also has a much larger customer base. Even assuming only a fraction of their current customers sign up, there will still be a far greater number than live in my area and make use of the public library. With them will come far greater variations in reading taste and selection.

Also, Amazon currently has a big incentive to increase returns on this new effort. They will almost certainly be pushing people to buy books from them based on the data gathered from the service. While this is a pretty good business plan, I would not have to deal with this from a public library. They are apt to push other books on me, it still comes to the low price of my tax contribution.

On the other hand, public libraries offer services such as inter-library loans, public meeting rooms, and free events for kids. None of these are likely to be offered by Amazon with this new paid-for service. I am not sure how much of that applies to you as you are almost certainly in a different locale, but I would guess that at least some of it holds true.

Re: "Your plastic pal who's fun to be with"

Reminds me a bit of Robot & Frank. Perhaps it can be taught to pick locks. It is, after all, a platform...

Re: Defence is always more difficult than attack.

Google may actually be on the right side on this one.

No, definitely not. They are on their side, not the right side. What they are basically saying is that they don't appreciate the competition and are willing to pay top dollar to put it down.

Re: I'll go pedantic

I think the big thing here isn't the creation of a router or switch, but the fact that they have created a photonic transistor.

Re: Yup, that's why I won't use apps.

It obviously does not stop with Android. I don't recall getting any sort of notification that Chrome would be able to access my web cam and mic. I just happened to notice that it had spawned yet another process. I realize that Flash and similar do this, but I can choose to enable, disable, or uninstall these if I wish. Now, Google have embedded this in their browser. Additional bloat, no or ill-defined user controls, and more... what's not to love?

Google seems to be intent on undermining any expectation that consumers should have control over their online lives. This is definitely not what I want to deal with.

Re: Nice job making the illustration captions illegible

Associated text:

"From left to right: Mastodon, mammoth, gomphothere. Credit: Sergio de la Rosa"

I suspect that El Reg did not reduce the resolution of the image and instead just went with what they happened to find first. Just a hunch.

Re: now it makes sense

...anything else was categorised as undecided

I suppose that's as good a way as any to record a response of "@#$% off!" followed immediately by an abrupt termination of connection.

Re: Note to self:

I always assumed the business centre computers or any public computers were riddled with malware.

I was a member of a group that held meetings at a local university. There were PCs and overhead projectors in all the classrooms. I wanted to use the overhead as part of a presentation I was giving. I had loaded the presentation on a thumb drive with a variety of portable apps (I did not know what the computer would have installed) and ran the portable AV product when I plugged it in. It had its work cut out for it. It seems that installing an AV product or using any sort of common sense was right out on those systems.

I know to treat these systems as the infected cesspools they are, but it surprises me that hotels don't take better care than they do. They only offer "free" computer access to their customers, meaning it isn't really free and might open them up to liability issues.

Re: Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation

I’d hazard a guess at zero.

It's "Coke Zero," not "Pepssi Zero!"

Re: Shmoptional

Yes, but you can't have lower case stars to simulate the loss of sound with the air running out of the environmental enclosure:

SPAAAaaace!

Re: Gifts From Above

All of that lovely Friday prose can be summed up in one word: predictable! Still, the gift card idea has some merit. Perhaps Amazon can shift from a sales model to one financed by ads...

Re: "Disney and Lucasfilm are, of course, saying nothing about the plot"

You left off:

Dancing aliens in bars with space jazz playing and funny colored drinks!

Retro screen transitions!

Plot holes!

Inside jokes referring to movies that have nothing to do with Star Wars!

and Droids (running KitKat)!

Re: Our Mission

I just got a great deal on some prime real estate! It's a bridge. You might have heard of it...

Re: Really?

From the linked abstract: ...BrutPOS... uses thousands of compromised computers to scan specified IP address ranges for RDP servers that have weak or default passwords in an effort to locate vulnerable POS systems.

It uses the simplest of methods to break into PoS systems and makes enough money for renting one or more botnets to scan for exploitable systems to be worthwhile. This was low hanging fruit, both for the researchers and for the crims. I agree that there is no need to tar the whole industry, but only because it seems obvious that same industry is doing the job well without outside help.

I am in the process of putting a PoS system together and had to browbeat the db developer into using basic security principles in the design because "It's going to be a closed system. How could any info possibly be stolen?" This simple check only shows the tip of the tip of the iceberg.

Re: What is the 'shockwave' made of?

"Sorry but I don't rate the clarity of the article much."

Thanks for the explanation. It was quite helpful. Some of the article goes beyond not being clear, though.

Once the hydrogen is all gone and no more energy can be extracted from the fusion process, the star dies and giant clouds of gas....

No, there's still hydrogen left at that point and fusion is still producing energy, just not enough to maintain equilibrium with gravity. What are those "giant clouds of gas" mostly made of?

Re: Bob

You can't call a planet 'Bob'! I'm never calling it that.

Re: don't rendition in Italy

Funny you should bring that up. Is the difference between kidnapping in these cases and making an arrest simply that the capture took place outside the arresting party's jurisdiction (in possible violation of a sovereign nation's laws)? Is it ever OK to do this under international law? Would defendants convicted in absentia be given a trial in which they could defend themselves should they ever come into Italy's (in this case) custody? What makes the second action (trial without the defendants present) more acceptable than the first (extraordinary rendition) from a legal sense?

Re: History repeating

So, the inverse of Star Wars trilogies, then.

Re: Krebs title is better

Fraude Financeira!

Re: I think the idea is that they could identify a studio

Another possibility would be to purposefully add noise to lines that could later be decoded and identified.

Re: It is not only the images that are the problem

Context is all important.

So, to put it in context, someone points a camera at me while I am in a NSFW way and I allow it. Why would I have any expectation that this essentially permanent image would never be seen by anyone other than myself and the person taking the picture? What could possibly go wrong? Yes, posting of such a picture has great potential to detrimentally affect one's life. To me, this is analogous to posting one's most intimate details to a social networking site. You are quite naive if you think that just because someone else is telling you that it will never be seen by anyone else that you should have any expectation that it will be the case.

If it is predictable based on a very basic understanding of human nature that something will happen, then you should have no expectation that it will not. I am not defending the actions of individuals posting their exes' pics, but this really looks to me like trying to pin the blame for someone's bad decisions (allowing the picture to be made) on someone else (the person posting the picture).

Informed Consent

As the AC pointed out above, the business version of the informed consent is the agreement each user agrees to when registering and most major companies preform some type of research. It makes me wonder if the user agreement would really cover this, at least in a legal sense. It's not as though in signing up for a service you are expecting to be experimented upon.

Also, academics have to put their experiments through a review process before going forward. Part of that process is an ethical determination of expected or possible harm to the subjects put against the expected gains in knowledge. From a business practice, I wouldn't be surprised if this came down to "Is this likely to cost us more money than it is likely to generate?" Just a thought.

Re: Bingo

...a Google security rep [said] the risk was a problem for web browser developers to fix, rather than a lone web app providers...

Perhaps someone can set me straight. Doesn't this amount to poor error handling on the part of the web servers? I would think that this is the sort of thing that mail servers have to deal with in handling attachments. Why can't cookies be filtered based on size, even if it is not by the web server itself? I understand that mail and web servers are not the same thing, but the issue has to have come up before. It would seem to me that the solution used in one case should at least be considered in the other.

Nothing was ever 100%

Nothing was ever 100% with EMET or Windows, it was just one more added precaution. Use throwaway VMs when needed for unsafe activities.

Nothing is ever 100%. Better to use throwaway VMs for all or most activities in addition to other precautions. Many enterprises are moving to a VD environment for this among other reasons. Qubes OS is another implementation of this idea, though for standalone workstation users. None of it is bullet proof - you still have to protect the data, for example - but it is a really good start.

Re: Mark my words...

Yes, it would be bad to miss out on the revenue stream that money laundering operations would take with them if forced to move to another state.

Just checking the pocket for cash.

Re: @Taylor 1

Yes, all very true, though it perhaps does not match my Top x List. However, the "new boss," same as the "old boss," has many of the same issues:

1) Lacks many security mechanisms, especially and most egregiously a meaningful way for users to grant permissions to applications based on informed consent rather than the all or nothing approach that is currently the norm.

2) Hold security as an afterthought - in as much as the app store is a part of the Android experience, even if not part of the OS, it is unusual for there to be any thought of security at all, after or fore.

3) Open source is no guarantee of security or flawless code, nor that it can be repaired if there are errors or vulnerabilities. It is a valid approach, but it is not the only valid approach. As far as overwhelming influence and monopolies are concerned, try breaking the internet by googling Google. For more Android flaws, try googling "android security issues"

Here's a question that is more to the point: When MS puts out a security patch, individual users and organizations have control of when it is applied. They can test it out before deploying it on a wide scale, wait to see how other people fare, or jump right in and trust MS with an automatic patching regimen. What choice to Android users have?

Re: Igs

No, as it does not in fact represent the actual research being conducted. It is part of a larger, more elaborate study involved in getting people to count out loud in public restrooms.

Re: Irradiated electors

For a quick tutorial on zero-knowledge proofs, try "How to Explain Zero-Knowledge Protocols to Your Children."

Re: A similar exploit.........

Past exploits used FTP for similar purposes. Everything old is new again.

Re: "this writer's Apple Map app has started giving directions in a Welsh accent"

It couldn't possibly be as bad as Eve Myles trying to speak with an American accent... could it?

Re: He must like jail.

Yes, people really are that stupid. There are several web sites documenting just this:

http://bonehead.lerman.biz/todays_bonehead.html

http://www.darwinawards.com/

Hilarity ensues.

Re: WTF "5000 times cooler" is supposed to mean

They should have said it was 5 KiloFonzies cooler.

Given that the temperature of the Sun is about 548 H* and PSR J2222-0137 is a purported 298 H, clearly the correct route would be to state that it is thought to be around 250 H less hot than the day star.

* Hiltons, a proper El Reg unit of measure

Re: Hacking Team?

How about "an ineptitude of interns" or perhaps "a submission of interns?"

Re: Why the nice flavours?

There are still... paranoid ramblings warnings that the tobacco industry is using the devices to snare a whole generation of new addicts.

It's not just the flavors, it's past behavior, which is one of the best predictors of future behavior. Another really good predictor is to evaluate who would benefit financially from targeting a particular group for sales. If you add to the mix that the money gained from the various tobacco suit settlements here in the States seldom went to treatment efforts (there were increased anti-smoking ads, but little in the way of treatment of which I am aware), it does not sound paranoid so much as business as usual.

Re: A very lonely birthday party

Maybe Curiosity can make a wish...

Alas, though a pre-cooked cake was included as part of Curiosity's personal weight allowance, it couldn't get the candles to light.

Re: Don't connect them to the internet directly

Yes, I do not see a reason why home devices should use a routable protocol and running everything via a management console seems to be a sensible approach. Rather than Bluetooth, why not something designed for these systems? I would guess TCP/IP is only used because that is what is familiar. It will be difficult to educate people on the need to keep management consoles updated or what to do when a problem happens, but it would seem a viable alternative.

He says he managed to cause desk lamps to explode by exploiting weak control channels in power devices.

It took technology a bit of time to catch up with Hollywood technological fantasies, but it managed to do it in the end.

We're they insured?

Ye's - self insured.

1.4 Instagrams

Is that a new Register UoM?