* Posts by Jamie Jones

4282 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2007

288 arrested in multinational Monopoly Market takedown

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Fentanyl

That's weird all those Americans producing fentanyl like that. According to the Republicans, all the fentanyl in the US comes from Mexico through Bidens open borders!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Monopoly market?

Go straight to jail!

Do not pass go.

Pornhub walls off Utah in age-verification law protest

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... involving cunning linguists?

W3C's planned transition to HTTPS stymied by legacy laggards

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Re: Whats's the point?

The purpose of "Let's Encrypt" certificates is not to show that a company is who they say they are - it's to show that you are connected to the URL you think you are.

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Wellnhofer is incoherent

I get your drift, but if we had software running within my place of employment that was unmodifiable, and hard-coded to load static files from external sites, I'd first try and get it removed.

Failing that, I'd not use a proxy - I'd set up a "spoofed copy" of the site, and populate it with the relevant files, and audit them.

Then make sure the hard-coded software was using a suitably modified DNS to access this internal clone, and that only. No way would I allow any software to depend on external sites for anything, unless management overrode me in writing.

It's not just security - reliability / support would be issues too!

(Not my downvote!)

RSA Conference or Black Mirror? Either way, we're doomed ... probably

Jamie Jones Silver badge

" it's all internet connected. We have built a society that relies on the internet for us to survive."

That should NEVER have been the case. There is absolutely no valid reason for critical infrastructure to be connected to the internet.

The truth about those claims of Qualcomm chips secretly snooping on you

Jamie Jones Silver badge

In times long ago, there was an option to upvote articles (I can't remember if you could downvote too)

I don't know why they removed it - I would have thought the feedback would be helpful - though I guess some staff disaproved...

Singapore tells its people: Go forth and block those ads

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Re: El Reg needs to police better.

Very much this..

I don't block adverts per-se, and whilst I don't use "Privacy Badger", I do block tracking sites, and get the same type of result that you see. Non-tracking adverts on this site would be welcome.

What if someone mixed The Sims with ChatGPT bots? It would look like this

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: When you feel old

Valhalla!

Play in your browser here: https://zxart.ee/eng/software/game/adventure/rpg/valhalla/

With ICMP magic, you can snoop on vulnerable HiSilicon, Qualcomm-powered Wi-Fi

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Re: A caution

"Network folks may be tempted to solve problems like this by turning ICMP off completely. "

If they are, your being far too kind describing them that way!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Eggheads vs Boffins

They call the "boffins" further down the article.

Paid and legacy Twitter verification now indistinguishable

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: There's a browser extension to fix that....

I said nothing about the quality of the verified person, just that they were really who they say.

If someone unverified pretends to be my verified MP, I'll assume they are a scammer.

And actually, I'd trust a verified Lindsey Logan less than an unregistered one!

I wouldn't blindly think someone is a trustworthy soul just because of their verification tick. After all, I've seen enough reprinted posts from Farage, Banks, Tories, and all the other brexit grifters who sucked you in are/were verified. - I'm not stupid enough to trust them as you have done... Maybe you should use those critical thinking skills yourself sometime?

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Zuck on that

No. The blue tick used to be a verification marker - it showed they were who they said they were. If it still had that use, I'd agree with you about some of them being cheap, but it doesn't. The blue tick now means nothing but "this person has paid".

I'd not expect previously verified users to start paying whilst still not retaining their verification status.

Jamie Jones Silver badge
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Re: There's a browser extension to fix that....

Ahhhh, I did wonder why the information was still present, but I think you've hit the nail on the head!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: There's a browser extension to fix that....

I would guess that those who use twitter would like to know if someone they are following is real, and not just a scammer.

II think 'd consider it very useful if I twitted.

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Defunct comms link connected to nothing at a fire station – for 15 years

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Re: "NEVER SWITCH OFF"

"If people would do their damn job I wouldn't have to make it such a painful process, but there are always people who like to take shortcuts and think they will "remember to do it later"."

Still during my early days at CFM/ICL a call came in of a server rebooting (fortunately for me - but not screaming users - during office hours, not when I was on call!)

Had a look at the logs, it was a clean scheduled reboot. Checking further, no root user was logged in at the time. Checked cron. There was a yearly scheduled reboot in cron.. WTF?

I asked around my colleagues, I asked our customer contact, no-one had any knowledge of this.. I end up removing the cronjob, and the call was closed, without finding out why...

Fast forward a few months, a server needed a scheduled reboot one afternoon. I can't remember why, but I think they decided to do it in the daytime so people would be around if there were any problems.

Anyway, the documentation for this client was dusted off. This was a procedure guide written by an ex-staffer here who used to mainly deal with this client, before he left the job.

"Check with admin".... check...

"Notify users".... check....

etc.

Then: "As it's a scheduled reboot, instead of relying on someone here rebooting it on time, set a cronjob for the specific time. Don't use "*" for the month/day/date parameters, because if you forget to remove it, the machine will reboot again the next day! Instead, set the month and date also - that way you won't have problems if it takes you a day or two to remove it"

You can guess the rest.

In the coming years of doing that job, the same thing happened to other servers on at least a further 2 occasions.

I suggested if we had to use cron, to intentionally set it to a short period, and don't bloody forget.. And if you do forget, you'll be reminded by an unscheduled reboot you can understand, rather than dumping it on some clueless sap a year later!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: "NEVER SWITCH OFF"

Many years ago, I was on call for ICL, and one of the Camelot severs we looked after went down unexpectedly, about 8pm. I got an automated monitoring page.

I could not access the machine remotely, and couldn't get anyone on site, I had to escalate it (because, you know, national lottery and all that) and after an hour of nothing turning up, i was being told by my superior that whilst we were remote support only, in this casr, i'd have to drive to some place I'd never been to, to see what was wrong. Whilst she was trying to work out how I'd get physical access to the site, she finally got hold of someone on site... "Oh, that server? We no longer use it, so I switched it off an hour or so ago"

NHS Highland 'reprimanded' by data watchdog for BCC blunder with HIV patients

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Re: no title

This sort of communication shouldn't be handled in email anyway.

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Ban CC in government

There are loads of valid uses of CC. I use it regularly - far more than I use BCC.

https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2023/03/31/nhs_highland_reprimanded_by_data/#c_4644692

Jamie Jones Silver badge

That's a strange take.

I use CC regularly. I very rarely use BCC.

If anything, BCC is the strange beast - It is not designed to be used the way it usually is.

https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2023/03/31/nhs_highland_reprimanded_by_data/#c_4644692

Jamie Jones Silver badge

How I'd "fix" the BCC interface

BCC is a misused feature - It is designed to let you email one person, and then CC it to others invisibly - the blind CC recipients see who the message was originally sent to.

However, most people use it to send mailshots keeping the recipients private. To use it this way. you have to leave "To:" blank, and put all recipients in the "BCC:" line. Some systems don't allow a blank "To:" line, so people end up putting their own address in it.

That's a mess.

If I was going to make changes to the status quo, without having to alter mailserver software and protocols, I'd do this, all client side:

I'd have a checkbox for setting "make visible all recipients to each other" defaulting to *OFF*.

When on, "BCC" would exist, and things would work as they do now.

When OFF, BCC doesn't exist, all addresses on "To:" and "CC:" are treated the same and treated one of these ways, depending on local admin policy:

1) Each user gets their "To:" line set to them. (Neatest option, but with current protocols, unless you are emailing from the mail server itself (which would split the mail into individual messages anyway), this involves each message being sent internally as a separate message to the mailserver, instead of all in one. That may be a problem for remote workers / slow PC's / bad network links etc.)

2) Set the "To:" address to the senders. That would mimic how most people use it anyway. (Though this method is more likely to trigger spam filters than method 1)

3) Leave "To:" blank. This is valid, but some systems may choke, and this method is more likely to trigger spam filters than even option 2.

Can I patent this idea and make lots of money please?

P.S. I hate spam filters that assume something that is totally valid is a spam-indicator. But the evil that broke email is actually the spam filter that silently blackholes what it thinks is spam without the sender or recipient knowing - And I count those "we quietly put it in a spam folder and delete it after 2 weeks) systems in that too!

Eufy security cams 'ignore cloud opt-out, store unique IDs' of anyone who walks by

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Hello!

Obviously, they have them to scare the cat.

Requiem for Google Reader, dead for a decade but not forgotten

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The UK's bad encryption law can't withstand global contempt

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Re: If they cared about children...

Partly. But there's one thing they want more than helping their mates - and that's power at any cost.

Mainly they are screwing up asylum processes to fan the flames of the right wing.

As Lineker said, they are using rhetoric designed to enflame the situation, and dehumanise the victims.

And when the law fails? They'll blame leftie ECHR lawyers, and use it as an excuse to leave the ECHR.

It all plays to their fascist base. It also detracts from their corruption.... Have you heard much about partygate, Michelle Mone, the long forgotten Russian report, or other Tory scandals lately?

Yes, Samsung 'fakes' its smartphone Moon photos – who cares?

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Meh

The first time I saw this ad.....

.... was just now, within this article.

I don't know whether to feel special, or left out

UK Prime Minister wants £800M to spend on big British iron

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If he's American, it's likely he doesn't know the origins. The American definition of spaz is to "freak out", and most Americans don't know any different.

Cop warrant orders Ring to cough up footage from inside this guy's home

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...strange place to keep your PC!

Brit newspaper giant fills space with AI-assisted articles

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Totally. I hate it when I google for a quick answer to something, and all that pops up are 5 minute videos. I can understand why people make them (easy content) but don't understand why so many people watch them!

Texas mulls law forcing ISPs to block access to abortion websites

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Re: Which is why we need encrypted DNS

"These laws mainly impact the poor, as those in the middle class or above will simply travel to a state where abortion is legal to avoid Texas' attempts to control women's health care decisions."

That's not a bug, it's a feature!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Which is why we need encrypted DNS

> HTTPS handshakes are unencrypted and reveal the hostname of the site you are visiting so that certificates can be validated.

Not any more, unless you're still using old software.

After all, there's no reason for the handshake to be unencrypted. - you first authenticate to the IP using the canonical certificate for that IP, you then can authenticate the hostnma of the site you are visiting over than encrypted link. I'm not sure if that's how it's done these days, but that's one way to solve the problem.

(Oh, and yes, you could argue that the very first handshake is unencrypted, but in that one, the "hostname" you will be validating against would be obtainable from the IP anyway)

Signal says it'll shut down in UK if Online Safety Bill approved

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: a police officer inspecting this concealed message could think it is meant to insult them

. They have it in Israel too (or at least, they did in the 90's)

My first knowledge of such a thing even existing was when I crossed a quiet road on "red man" outside a busy police station. The Israeli girl I was with flipped her nut at me for apparently taunting arrest.

None of them saw me, and nothing happened (and I didn't get run over(!)) but I was strongly told by her never to do it again!

By the way, as an aside, for anyone who didn't know,, Jaywalking laws in America were not to protect pedestrians. Early on in the development of the car, people kept getting run over and suing the car manufacturers, so the car manufacturers lobbied for the law so they'd no longer be liable.

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Happy

Re: Stop operating?

Copper: "You were speeding too, but we'll let that one pass"

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Will this cover

"What do you mean? People can meet in private, and have private conversations???? We'll have to ban that right away!"

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Also, don't forget:

"UK risks being listed as a ‘human rights abuser’, NGO warns

Human Rights Watch warns UK has ‘very short window’ to reverse legislation, including restrictions on the right to protest

The UK government could soon make the list of countries that abuse rather than protect human rights with its “outright assault” on the rights of its own citizens and aggressive roll-back of protections such as on the right to assemble and protest, according to the international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW)."

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jan/12/uk-risks-being-listed-as-a-human-rights-abuser-human-rights-watch

Mozilla says 80 percent of Google Play's app safety labels are inaccurate

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Remember when "internet access" was a permission an android app had to request?

... that disappeared silently...

Yukon UFO could have cost unfortunate balloon fan $12

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Re: Republicans have a lot to answer for

Fair enough. Thanks and apologies to you and the previous anon.coward for correcting me. I'll learn to take "newsweek" with a pinch of salt in future.

You're right - Obama should have drafted a better law, Trump not weakened it, and Biden should have reinstated/fixed it.

What pissed me off was the childish conspiracy laden antics from the anon. I was replying to. I'm fed up of people (in the USA and whilst lesser in the UK, it's increasing) treating politics as a sport, in that they pick a team, and from that point on, that team, whether it's a party or a movement, or a particular policy can do no wrong in their eyes, and the other side is therefore evil.

It's ignorant, it's divisive, and it allows for people to have an "opinion" when it's something they are entirely ignorant about ("My guy did this, it must be brilliant")

Many politicians in America and Britain are corrupt. Money flows freely from big pharma, health insurance, other business interests, and in the UK, Russians! They ALL expect something for their cash.

It's by people not critically assessing their "favourite" politician on every decision they make, that allows them to pull the bullshit that they do.

Most politicians are mainly in it for what's best for them -- witness that one of the rare bipartisan agreements recently in the House was to delay/mothball any attempts to ban congress from insider trading(!) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/us/politics/stock-trading-vote-congress.html

Still, for someone to think that Trump has ever cared for anyone other than himself is deluded in the extreme. Those fanatical views hurt everyone, including the people who think it.

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Republicans have a lot to answer for

"sleepy joe beijing biden"?

Grow up, for fucks sake. this ain't bloody 4chan.

Still, if you want to play that game: ( https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-china-business-connections-tax-returns-2024-1772648)

"Former President Donald Trump, whose policies on China hardened in his final year in office despite the inking of a historic trade agreement with Beijing, has had extensive commercial interests in the world's most populous nation going back years, his tax records have revealed.

Trump's Chinese business connections, which didn't stop his administration's hawkish turn after the COVID pandemic exploded in the United States in early 2020"

As for East Palestine, no doubt you know that Trump scrapped the requirement for those trains to have ECP brakes, which would have likely stopped the disaster.

Granted, Biden said at the beginning that he'd reverse that stupid relaxation, and never did, but it was Trumps baby.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-blame-ohio-train-derailment-1781163

"Speaking to investigative news outlet The Lever, Steven Ditmeyer, a former top official at the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), said the "severity" of the accident was likely increased by the lack of Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brakes.

A rule was passed under President Barack Obama that made it a requirement for trains carrying hazardous flammable materials to have ECP brakes, but this was rescinded in 2017 by the Trump administration.

"Would ECP brakes have reduced the severity of this accident? Yes," Ditmeyer said.

Referring to opposition from within the rail industry to fitting ECP brakes, he added: "The railroads will test new features. But once they are told they have to do it ... they don't want to spend the money.""

Amazon convinces FCC it can avoid space junk chaos

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Ahhh. That makes sense. Thank-you!

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Mushroom

I'm sure the visiting aliens will have the technology to avoid / clear the space junk. They'll just wait until they are ready to invade. At the moment they are having a quiet chuckle (as aliens do) about us being trapped in our self-imposed prison!

Jamie Jones Silver badge

FCC, NASA, DoD - All American governmental departments.

Fair enough, it's an American company, but these things cover the whole world, so why aren't international organisations involved?

Related to that, if the FCC refused, what would stop a fully owned Amazon company based in the small country of Togreenze doing the launch instead?

Reddit reveals security incident that looks more SNAFU than TIFU

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Redditors make Reddit

As you say, it's the content posters that make Reddit.

So, whilst on that subject, can you help me with one question I've had for a long time.

Apart from the users, and their content, what's so special about it? I'm being serious. You mention the website design mess, but that's an understatement.

From what I can see, it's basically just a forum that would look and operate far better even on some free forum software, like phpBB.

What am I missing?

Google's AI search bot Bard makes $120b error on day one

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: Top of hype reached, I'd say...

I had a go with chatgpt:

Jamie Landeg Jones (Welsh Git)

What's the speed of gravity?

The speed of gravity is the speed at which a gravitational field or gravitational force travels through space. It is considered to be infinite, meaning that it travels instantly and simultaneously to every point in space. This is because gravity is a long-range force that acts between massive objects, such as stars and planets, regardless of the distance between them. The speed of gravity does not depend on the distance between objects or on the time it takes for the field or force to travel from one object to another. Instead, it is an inherent property of the force of gravity itself, which always acts instantly and uniformly throughout the universe.

Jamie Landeg Jones (Welsh Git)

That can't be correct. It most likely travels at the speed of light.

Yes, you are correct. The speed of gravity is generally considered to be equal to the speed of light. This is because gravitational forces and gravitational fields travel at the speed of light. This means that if two massive objects were suddenly to change their position relative to each other, the change in the gravitational field would propagate through space at the speed of light, and the change in the gravitational force between the objects would be immediately reflected in their motion.

It is worth noting that the exact nature of gravity and how it is related to other physical phenomena, such as space-time and the fabric of the universe, is still a subject of ongoing research and investigation by scientists and physicists. Despite the progress that has been made in our understanding of gravity, many aspects of it remain mysterious and the subject of ongoing debate and study.

Jamie Landeg Jones (Welsh Git)

Didn't you just contradict yourself?

Yes, I apologize for the mistake in my previous answer. The speed of gravity is indeed equal to the speed of light. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

No more free love: Netflix expands account sharing restrictions

Jamie Jones Silver badge

* (for educational purposes only!)

Jamie Jones Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Make it even slightly difficult

I tried netflix once, all sorts of DRM bollocks meant it wouldn't play properly via my 4K projector, due to my driver not being "authorized". No way I was going to buy a separate and closed/locked inferior new dongle just for that, so I cancelled.

I know it's the studios who tie their hands when it comes to DRM, but seeing as DRM never stops the pirates, they only end up pissing off the legitimate customer.

Jamie Jones Silver badge

Re: roaming

Very few UK consumers have a static address with DSL. Changes infrequently, yes, (as long as you modem remains on), but not static.