* Posts by Jamie Jones

4282 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2007

NetSuite's leap over to Azure cloud - a shot to the pills for AWS?

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Agreed.

I think that as the site-design complaints dry up, someone in the El Reg. troll department wanted to stir things up again!

NSA spying is illegal? Then let's make it law, say Republicans

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Flame

Forgotten 9/11, or simply fed up?

""It's pretty clear that 9/11 could have been prevented if we had known about some of the communications that were linked to those who committed the terrible atrocity of 9/11," he said. "People seem to have forgotten 9/11." ®"

No, people haven't forgotten 9/11 - they are just sick of you and others dancing on the victims graves by trying to spin it to your advantage.

Facebook echo chamber: Or, the British media and the election

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: lot of it about

I remember ages ago, one head BBC honcho saying "you can tell when we have the political balance right, when BOTH sides accuse us of bias"

Crowdfunded ZX Spectrum revival just days from shipment

Jamie Jones Silver badge

"It was at address 1331 in the rom. RANDOMIZE USR 1331 would activate it.

You could run it on every Spectrum in Smiths to make it look like it was loading and come back later to find out how big the queues were getting."

Haha yeah, "Program: Manic Miner" was the one that got the most interest.

I always used USR 1310, but looking at the code now, neither start at a sensible point in the code.

"Yes, for some reason the routine never ended, which is odd. I'll have to disassemble it and have a look sometime..."

Yeah... Not sure without looking why it never maxed out at 65536, but here's the disassembly, complete with notes!

http://www.wearmouth.demon.co.uk/zx82.htm

IETF updates TLS/SSL best practice guidance

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Coat

Re: The biggest issue with best practice guides

"Someone should tell the manufacturer: WEP == Blatant false advertising."

No, that would be BFA...

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Thumb Up

[ Nice link, cheers! ]

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you entirely. There is a bit of an 'ivory tower' vibe about this RFC, whilst back in the real world, we have to deal with all the shit that is currently out there!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

The RFC actually says:

No SSLv2

No SSLv3

No TLSv1.0 (Except when nothing higher is available)

No TLSv1.1 (Except when nothing higher is available)

Yes TLSv1.2

To my puny brain, those caveats basically say that TLSv1.0 and TLSv1.1 are still to be available (as an attacker wanting to use them would surely simply not announce support for higher...)

Tesla's battery put in the shade by current and cheaper kit

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: It isn't supposed to make sense

Ahhhh, who from Wales could forget school lessons about Dinorwig Pumped Storage Power Station

Low price, big power: Virtual Private Server picks for power nerds

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Watch out for non standard options in VM kernels

"<I. and I was referring exactly to files opened within a VPS, of which there is a finite number of them, and if that number is made smaller allows you to run each VPS with less kernel memory</I>"

Right... So what's stopping you raising it again, or did it come without root access?

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Alternatives to Serverbear or LowEndBox.com

vultr.com storage instances in Los Angeles, New Jersey, and Amsterdam:

(EU customers need to add their appropriate VAT rate to these prices, due to the changed EU rules)

1 CPU

512MB MEMORY

125GB STORAGE

1000 GB TRANSFER

Monthly $5.00

Hourly $0.007

1 CPU

1024MB MEMORY

250GB STORAGE

2000 GB TRANSFER

Monthly $10.00

Hourly $0.015

1 CPU

2048MB MEMORY

500GB STORAGE

3000 GB TRANSFER

Monthly $20.00

Hourly $0.030

2 CPU

3072MB MEMORY

750GB STORAGE

4000 GB TRANSFER

Monthly $30.00

Hourly $0.045

2 CPU

4096MB MEMORY

1000GB STORAGE

5000 GB TRANSFER

Monthly $40.00

Hourly $0.060

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Watch out for non standard options in VM kernels

Files open within a VPS are internal to that VPS - there are no more open files on the host when the guest opens more of its internal files.

I assume you are either talking about jails/containers or less likely, some weird VPS setup where the guest mounts a real filesystem on the host, but even then, the link would be abstracted via something like NFS, so not directly applicable

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: IPv6?

vultr.com provides native ipv6

I have had 3 instances with them (London / NJ / LA) for a while, and they've been rock solid.

Though they recently raised their prices for new instances (well, they effectively did - they actually lowering the general spec of each package)

They are very 'hands-on' and you certainly get the impression that they love their jobs, and aren't just clockwatching for hometime

Relax, it's just Ubuntu 15.04. AARGH! IT'S FULL OF SYSTEMD!!!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: SystemD - A Necessary Evil

We absolutely require the ability to mechanically generate scripts based on a given configuration and know that the system will take that form always, not 'sometimes'.

See FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD.

The way forward for large system configuration is to use small domain-specific languages to configure and assemble systems.

No it isn't.

Shell scripts will never get us there

They already have.

Seriously, you are talking as if Unix is some new toy not ready for primetime without systemd!

Round Two in Sky vs Skype trademark scrap goes to Murdoch's men

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Skype attempted to argue the “pronunciation of ‘y’ is no shorter in ‘skype’...

Exactly.

But what confused me is why would Skype be trying to argue the similarity and not Sky?

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Coat

Re: So just like SkyDrive....

One kerr?

iPhone case uses phone's OWN SIGNAL to charge it (forever, presumably)

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Ah.... Reminds me of this

Not my work, courtesy of a b3ta user:

http://www.jamielandegjones.com/humour/b3ta/misc/alternative_energy.gif

Windows 10 bombshell: Microsoft to KILL OFF Patch Tuesday

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Devil

Re: Wow

Microsoft are announcing that they are trying to get to where Red Hat were in about 1998.

Are we supposed to be impressed?

Blimey, RedHat didn't have that until as late as 1998?

Are we supposed to be impressed?

Zuck'ed up: Facebook opens up free internet in India – but bans HTTPS

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Data gathering and ad insertion

Nah, I doubt that's the case.

What's being described is similar to the system we used have with the OperaMini browser on 2G before 3G and smartphones took off, where everything was stripped and condensed on Opera's proxy servers before reaching your phone.

Bingo!

Expect to be downvoted to hell by the resident tin-foilers...

Mozilla to whack HTTP sites with feature-ban stick

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Too costly

But a certificate can cost as much as a website.

And a car can cost as much as a house. What's your point?

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Eeejits!

All I can see is "Arriving Mid-2015"… maybe you've got keys to a DeLorian, I do not.

No DeLorian needed. The site will be ready before this proposal goes through...

Age guessing with Microsoft is FUN! Now give us your metadata

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Almost fell for it

Those "conditions" mean nothing when they can't prove it was you that uploaded the image in the first place

Who thinks Microsoft Edge sucks? Erm, Microsoft

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: el reg still using cutting edge tech...

There is an El Reg animated gif that rears its ugly head sometimes (people looking back and fore at a tennis match)

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: Hatters Will Hate!

"AMS (anything Microsoft)."

"Microsoft" is one word, so that would be "AM", unless you were really telling us the acronym for "Anything Microsoft Sucks"!

HAVE A NICE DAY!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

it just highlights the TLD bollocks that has been unleashed

(Title)

Intel has ambitions to turn modems into virtual servers and reinvent broadband

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Firewall...

A device to run an ISP controlled firewall client-side?

Why not save the cost, bandwidth, and hassle by simply having the firewall ISP-side?

I'm not talking about forced ISP filtering/blocking, - and for those that don't just want a safe default setting, full client access to control those rules must be provided.

The further up the chain you firewall the better. Most of us here could easily DOS a home DSL connection from some of the servers we run. Stop the packets before sending them to the client, and everyone wins.

What is Apple's idiot tax on Watch these days? 'About $265 or 80%'

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Flame

Re: Idiot?

Anyone who wants one of these watches, and would get upset by this article needs to check into reality-hotel.

FFS, everyone expects to get wrapped in cotton wool these days.

The Register is one of the last places to avoid this PC crap, and long may it continue.

And so called "comedian" Stewart Lee is clueless on the subject to claim that before 'PC' people were racist, homophobic bigots. That is a totally different issue, and worlds apart from being offended by a blackboard being called as such, or a Register journalist calling people idiots.

I sometimes wish my life was so uncomplicated that I had time to be offended by such trivialities, but then I realise what a boring life you and other Daily Mail readers must lead.

Do I offend you? Believe it or not, I don't intend to, but if I have, it says more about you than me.

WHY can't Silicon Valley create breakable non-breakable encryption, cry US politicians

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Before the internet, no criminals could communicate in private

Fair points, and you are, of course, correct.

I guess my exageration/over-simplification is my reaction to the over-sensualised rhetoric coming from politicians etc. who act as if the sky was falling in.

I'm sure similar arguments were made when privately owned vehicles became mainstream, and when the telephone was invented etc!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Before the internet, no criminals could communicate in private

Yes, before the internet, all terrorists, pædos, and other assorted bogeymen were unable to plan their dastardly deeds without being collarred by old bill.

It was impossible for said nogooders to have private conversations in their houses, in parks, in their vehicles, on the beach..

No such rascals could send coded messages via any other means, and basic one-time-pad mathematics was only invented (not simply 'discovered') when the hoodlums got broadband.

Yes, before the internet, all this was impossible, and good old plod knew everything everyone (but only if they were a baddie) knew/thought/wrote/spoke, and times were good.

We lived in a time of total Big Brother (but only for miscreants) and now that's all been ruined by the internet, encryption, and that new-fangled 'maths'

Welcome, stranger: Inside Microsoft's command line shell

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Facepalm

"Windows has dumbed us all down."

Indeed. I'm sure we've all heard:

  • Have you tried switching it off and on again?
  • Yeah that file is corrupt, you need to reinstall the whole operating system
  • Yeah, all computers slow down if you don't reboot them every few days, and rebuild them once a month

The huge flaw in Moore’s Law? It's NOT a law after all

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Happy

Re: Same as it ever was.

For as long as I can remember, we have always been fifty years away from practical nuclear fusion, twenty years away from running out of oil, and ten years away from Moore's law hitting its physical limits.

And where's my bloody hoverboard and flying car?!

FBI alert: Get these motherf'king hackers off this motherf'king plane

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Facepalm

It's times like these I feel ashamed to be human!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: To be fair...

He should have known that in these facist times he shouldn't have made that joke... but if you think that is a threat, you must be shitting yourself everytime you leave your cosy bed!!

Cheer up songwriters, there's shedloads of money rolling in

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Price-tag

Seems like everybody's got a price,

I wonder how they sleep at night

When the sale comes first

And the truth comes second.

"Price Tag" - Jessie J

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Money, Money, Money

Money for nothing and cheques for free.....

I always used to think it was 'chicks'..

It's official: David Brents are the weakest link in phishing attacks

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Time for a Register checklist?

Or - call me old fashioned - but how about an email system that doesn't hand over the keys to the kingdom just by opening an email!

Australia mulls dumping the .com from .com.au – so you can bake URLs like chocolate.gate.au

Jamie Jones Silver badge

No need to copy

Hey, Oz!

Just because the rest of the world is stupidly flattening the DNS hierarchy for no good reason, doesn't mean you should be as dumb too!

Jamie (old enough to remember *.oz.au)

Chinese 'Superphone' manufacturer declares war on Apple

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Optional

I have a 7 inch one (no sniggering at the back) and whilst I use it as a tablet, it's referred to as a phablet by the manufacturer, because of the dual sim.

It also arrived with the os type set as android-phone, and all the same touchwiz crap that comes with typical phones. It was basically a giant phone, out of the box, both by software and by physical appearance.

Sysadmins, patch now: HTTP 'pings of death' are spewing across web to kill Windows servers

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Ha, youngster

Bugs occur during development however they should never reach the final product, that so many "IT Pros" think that complex coding always results in a faulty final product is just them repeating the BS Bill sold to the world.

Yes!

I remember once reading a forum post elsewhere from someone about how his satellite receiver becomes unresponsive after a while.

The resident IT expert replied in a slightly mocking way (and I paraphrase) : "You have to remember that your Satellite receiver is basically a computer, and like all computers, will slow down if not rebooted every few days. This is normal. Just switch it off and on again"

I'm not looking forward to when this crop start programming SCADA etc. Can you imagine if the software for airliners, traffic control, nuclear power stations etc. was so flakey and without proper failsafes?

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Thumb Up

@80's_coder

Brilliant post. Agree entirely.

There is a HUGE difference betwen UNIX veterans of the 1970s and 1980s, and today's Linux newbies who just go around 'trying out different distributions', virtually all of which are now dumbed down so much that they have become the Windows 3.1 of their day.

I'm reminded of a quote (but don't remember the author): "BSD is for people that like Unix. Linux is for people that hate Microsoft"

The Internet of things is great until it blows up your house

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Last night's episode of Forever

There was an episode of 'Diagnosis Murder' where someone setup a 'smart home' to kill the owner.

Um.. Or so a friend told me *cough*

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: @ Ian Michael Gumby (was: I have a smart bed....)

When I was a lad, we were lucky if the floor we slept on was dry....

Seriously, though, Ian MG, your post reminded me of something.. This isn't directed at you, but more generally, someone may buy something with only limited internet capability, but in my mind (and knowing the general lack of security in these things) simply the connection raises a red flag.

If a hacker can get in, they may be able to get the bed to do things that it shouldn't normally be able to. OK, without the hardware/physical connection it can't affect that stuff, but, without properly checking, how do you know your voice controlled bed isn't sending your audio to a potential blackmailer, or trying to spam viagra on the world?

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: No Codes for You

" . Design an iron equipped with Bluetooth LE, linked to a smartphone, running an app that uses its camera to scan a QR code printed on a fabric care tags.

Or simply remove the heat if iron feels like it's sticking, or starts to smell, or - shock horror - use common sense in the first place?

As Ian Michael Gumby says above, a solution looking for a problem.

DTS announces DTS:X – sparks object-based audio war with Dolby

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Alert

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"This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. Please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links, and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view."

FCC hit with SEVENTH net neutrality lawsuit

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Unhappy

This just feels wrong...

... that companies can gather together and sue the government. Surely the government is meant to be 'for the people' / 'by the people'.

It should be sod all to do with companies (who are NOT people) and exploiting legal loopholes.

By launching these attacks, they aren't even pretending that a corrupt corporation-friendly (at the expense of the population) political system is the status quo.

Jamie Jones Silver badge

I have no idea what problems CL might have with network neutrality rules though, they'd have to turn off the "falsely send DNS not found to a 'search page'" thing -- which I work around with alternate DNS servers -- but I would have thought that's about it, they really don't mess with traffic or ports as far as I know.

...yet?

What's Meg Whitman fussing over: The fate of HP ... or the font on a DISRUPTIVE new logo?

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Happy

Re: thanks for that link

Thanks for the upvotes and replies, guys and guyesses!

I like to think that I write well thought out comments, touching on issues ranging from the social to the political, to the technological, and the philosophical.

I involve myself in serious debate threads - fully listening to my opponent, and strategically planning my response.

Yet, in all these years, the most upvotes I've received are on a post about bollocks, linking to more bollocks! That's what I love about El Reg! :-)

As for the link, the site I linked to was just an old archive of an ascii-only mailing list, hence the sparseness.

Here are 2 link to similar CGI generated random card creator. Fun for all the office!

http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/bullshit/

http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/buzzword/

Googling 'buzzword bingo' brings up more!

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Facepalm

ARRRRRGH!

Look carefully at the name "Hewlett" in the first line. See how the crossbars on the two lowercase T's are stuck together? According to Whitman, this is the first time in HP history that this has been the case.

Um... Ok.. So?

"That connection is symbolic of the partnership we will forge with our customers, partners, and our employees – what we will do together to help drive your business forward,"

O...M...G... Check your Bingo cards!

Finally, Mozilla looks at moving away from 'insecure' HTTP. Maybe

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Thawte et al, hand-rubbing

Interestingly, if you belive the spooks have their paws inside the certificate chain, a self-signed certificate is more secure - assuming you can establish the certificate is valid in the first place.

E.g. if you run your own external server that only a known handful of people use (dept. Webmail etc.)

Chrome version 42 will pour your Java coffee down the drain: Plugin blocked by default

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Coat

Re: Not the end of the world

"so you're caught between Scylla and Charybdis. "

Syphilis?

Google research bods hope to lick battery life limits – report

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Arrrrghh

I don't want to see a closeup of someone's gob when I'm eating - only when I'm snogging them.

Anyway, how exactly does it contribute to the story? I though irrelevant pictures were being dropped. And don't use the tenuous 'lick battery life' title as a relevance. It was obviously only phrased that way to fit the picture!