* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

BOFH: The Idiot-ware Project and the Meaningless Acronym

Mark 85

Re: LOL...

We all know that we couldn't do any of this

What to bet? I know of several gentlemen in IT that no one knows what they are capable of. but they are legendary in the company.

OTOH, no one ever asked why I had a roll of carpet and bag of quick lime sitting in the corner of the IT lab... maybe they thought they knew what I was capable of? Or fear.. afraid to find out?

BT Yahoo! customers: Why! can't! we! grrr! delete! our! webmail! accounts!?

Mark 85

Re: Of course Yahoo won't let you delete them

More important than the money stream... the selling price. Verizon now wants a $1B discount. If everyone who wanted to leave deleted their accounts, the lights would still be on but no one would be home except those accounts that have been abandoned or taken over by the miscreants.

'Please label things so I can tell the difference between a mouse and a microphone'

Mark 85
Joke

@DJO -- Re: Easily fixed...

Easy mnemonic: You Write with the Right.

No I don't. I'm left-handed. However, use the mouse with my right, swing a golf club like a righty, and am somewhat ambidextrous with everything else. So which side is the "right"????

Mark 85

Presumably they also keep yanking at a door handle with it never occuring that maybe you need to push it.

Many seem incapable of reading the sign over the handle that says: "PUSH"....

London cops charge ATM malware hacker

Mark 85

Re: Proven?

And here I've been led to believe that only the US extradited crims from other countries. I'm quite pleased to hear this.

Internet of pills plan calls for drugs to tell you when to take them

Mark 85
Facepalm

What will these IoT idiots think up next?

Theranos axes 40% of staff

Mark 85

She doesn't get it, obviously...

The jig is up. The scam is over. Time to close shop and go sulk in the corner until a better idea comes up... like a call center in India.

Police raid India call centre, detain 500 in fraud probe

Mark 85
Trollface

Re: No

I'm wondering about the "complete idiot" statement now.... I guess 1 post wasn't enough to get the point across.

Mark 85

Try "Good afternoon, CIA Drone Control Van #7. How can help you?"

Mark 85

I can't find who said it first but they are right: "There's no such thing as a temporary tax."

Mark 85

Re: Spot the clues...

Yes, there are some here who seem to think (see at least one post above) that we shouldn't do this as it makes us racist bigots. It isn't bigotry, it's self-preservation of sanity, time, and money.

FTR, I don't lump them all into one country/area/religion. I try to target my abuse at them.

Mark 85

Re: Similar Scam in Hong Kong

True, for those of us that actually read news sites. When one's life is an endless stream of Farcebook, textings, Snapchat, etc... one tends to live in the dark. I can't speak for other countries, but here in the States, most people really haven't a clue as they don't read any kind of in-depth news. Headlines, sound bites, and celeb news is about it.

Windows 10 market share fell in September

Mark 85
Black Helicopters

Dammit... don't give them any more ideas. Be right back, there's someone knocking at the door...

Chap cuffed after treating commuters to giant-screen smut

Mark 85
Thumb Up

Putting Pornhub on a refrigerator is one thing, but this is epic.

My Nest smoke alarm was great … right up to the point it went nuts

Mark 85

I do believe that many of us have been branded as Luddites for saying the same thing. There are those who really think all this stuff is a good thing (usually "oh shiny" types or marketing types). Then there's the security issues as recent articles have pointed out about these devices being used for DDoS attacks.

Feds collar chap who allegedly sneaked home US hacking blueprints

Mark 85

Coincidence or something serously wrong here...

Two "leaks", thefts, or whatever one wants to call them depending on political leaning from the same contracting company. I can understand once, but now twice? I think Booz Allen Hamilton should be removed as a contractor as there is something seriously wrong with their vetting procedures.

What's not to love about IoT – you can spy on customers as they arrive

Mark 85

Bafflegab?

I read and re-read Turgeon’s quotes. All I got was PR and bafflegab. So what does this all mean besides maybe some sales income for his company from someone swayed by it?

Twitter to take buyer bids

Mark 85

Re: I'll bid....

I'll see your $1.00 bid and raise it to $1.03 only because I found a few pennies under the sofa cushion. Or we merge our bids and become joint CEO's with bonuses and whatever perks we can finagle.

Can Facebook influence an election result?

Mark 85

Re: Can Facebook influence an election result?

I'm left with the belief that - come November - we're just going to have to vote "against" - not "for"

And that is exactly what US politics is about. It's not about "I have answers", it's about "the other guy is to blame". This election will go down as one of the worst for this and we, the electorate, have no one to blame but ourselves. We don't want the solutions as they usually cost money or inconvenience. We want blame placed. Even the "solutions" made end up as "blame". Intellectual discourse, debate, are a joke at this point. The meaning of a debate has been bastardized into mud-slinging and mis-direction.

And yes, we're getting it from both sides so defending one's candidate in this is folly as they are all guilty.

These diabetes pumps obey unencrypted radio commands – which is, frankly, f*%king stupid

Mark 85
Holmes

Re: Guidelines?

<see icon> This is and has been obvious to everyone except the FDA for quite awhile. It should also be obvious the manufacturers, but.... profit.

After baffling Falcon 9 rocket explosion, SpaceX screams: Hands off our probe!

Mark 85

More Election Season Wrangling....

Let's face it, lobby money and votes are up for grabs and headlines help. Should we, as citizens and taxpayers expect anything less from our elected officials? Both sides are defending their turf.... ULA and SpaceX Congresscritters will now stand their ground.

On the other hand, why hasn't NASA or one of the agencies not jumped in with this investigation? Do they feel this is a matter for the company to sort out? Or will they wait until their next launch contract comes up?

Stingy sapphire lens in Apple's iPhone 7 is as scratchy as glass

Mark 85

Horrors... this means that selfies won't be perfect. Seriously though, the lens should be more scratch resistant. I'm surprised that they're scrimping pennies on this part as the camera is one of the reasons a lot folks buy the iPhone.

Snoop! stooge! Yahoo! handed! all! your! email! to! Uncle! Sam! – and! any! passing! hacker!

Mark 85

Is there actually anyone using Yahoo! for anything other than a throwaway account anymore? I'm assuming there must be a few who are, but I'm thinking the bulk of them are either dead or throwaways.

I do find this troubling, not just because they implemented a back door without informing IT Security but also for poorly implementing it and then ignoring the problem. I think this does border on the criminal and should impact the sale. No ethics, no principles... just bottom line oriented.

Disclaimer.. I'm still using an AOL account that goes back to the dark ages as all friends and family have it and it's a PITA to get them to use a new addy. But... I do have a stash of throwaways just for safety.

UK will build new nuclear bomb subs, says Defence Secretary

Mark 85

Part of this is that the military usually arms up based on how the last war was fought. Never on the next one. There's two problems here with any nuke weapon... "can it be stolen" and/or "how will it be used". Of course it can be stolen.. anything can.

It's the "how will it be used" question is the problem. If MAD were the only reason because your enemy is rational than fine. However, what if, the Daesh got one... and managed to launch it? Would the US, UK, Russian, or any of the others retaliate and turn their Caliphate into smoking glass? That would play right into their "lake of fire", "battle to end all battles" scenario. What about NK? Would there be retaliation? There's the problem. I

The problem became even murkier recently with a certain US Presidential candidate repeatedly asking during a security/policy briefing by government officials: "Well, why can't we use nukes? We have them."

When Pornhub meets the Internet of Fridges

Mark 85
Joke

I re-cant all my previous negatvity about IoT.. *

This finally explains IoT in a way that puts it in perspective by providing entertainment whilst preparing the post-pub neckfiller.

Somewhere, I suspect that Lester would be pleased about this development.

*ok.. I'm not actually re-canting. The stuff is still a security nightmare.

WikiLeaks claims 'significant' US election info release ... is yet to come

Mark 85

Re: Ah, now Trump makes sense

Otherwise I cannot see why such an announcement is timed just before the elections. If such a release was genuinely to address government issues it could have waited afterwards to avoid giving the impression that they've just sold out to become stooges to whoever pays the most.

You missed the point... it's something that might affect the election. It will bring media attention to Wikileaks and Mr. A.. After the election, it won't garner much attention.

Mark 85
Trollface

I understand that Gitmo gets lots of sunshine except in hurricane season.*

*Might as well play the paranoia card here.... even though it appears the US has zero interest in bringing to the States. Or maybe they just want everyone to think that until he steps out of the embassy?

SpaceX searches for its 'grassy knoll' of possible Falcon rocket sabotage

Mark 85

Re: downrange?

The .338 would work, but the .50 cal would work even better. Problem would be getting the spark needed and with the videos running, tracer or incendiary is not an option. At one point there were some .50 HE rounds but I think those were only experimental. But you're right on the target A/C... there's probably minimal sweet spots.

If we're looking at conspiracy, 3 weeks between the explosion and the "visit" would allow someone to at least pick up any empty casings and/or beer bottles <jk>.

However, as I recall, the strut failure on the previous big boom was detected by sound sensors. I would think they would have been operational during fueling if for no other reason then to ensure they worked. I do believe they would have picked up the sound of a bullet impacting the rocket.

I wish Musk, et al, lots of luck on sorting this one out

Markslist: Facebook touts its own tat bazaar

Mark 85

A Free Service?

Kind of makes one wonder what he gets out of this. Then it hit me.. If I contact someone about buying a couch, I'll lay odds that suddenly I'll see a ton of ads for couches, and foot rests and coffee tables and maybe pizza and beer. Clever, that one is, to find another method of mining users data, etc.

Criticize Donald Trump, get your site smashed offline from Russia

Mark 85

@bombastic bob -- Re: Russian govt apparently doesn't like Mrs. Clinton

You're probably right. Today's news that many high-ups in various agencies think the Russians were/are behind the DNC hack and then there's Newsweek getting DDoSed. I wouldn't be surprised if they think Trump is their "boy". Judging from recent statements (maybe true, maybe false) the Russians are interested in a Trump win.

The real question is... why would the Russians want Trump to win?

No surprise: Microsoft seeks Windows Update boss with 'ability to reduce chaos, stress'

Mark 85

Re: Telemetry

I personally think this is a secret NSA mandate on Microsoft (following on from the Irish case), I don't think its Microsoft led, as such.

I doubt it's NSA. I really think it's all MS for one reason... profit. If they can datamine (and I'm sure they can and will) that information is very valuable to advertisers. MS is quickly picking up from Google on how to grab information from users.

Mark 85

Re: Nobody inside can do the job...

It's just another case of "do as I say, not as I do"....

Mark 85

Why don't they just summon a daemon?

They did. He's running the place now.

BOFH: There are no wrong answers, just wrong questions. Mmm, really wrong ones

Mark 85

Re: BOFH old stuff

Try here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/data_centre/bofh/

Mark 85

Re: 2B) or not.

"good news; you're not an axe murderer".

Bad news for the test administrator... I lied on the test. :)

Mark 85

Re: Organophosphate-based Nerve Agents

P.P.S. And, lest any of you think I'm jesting, I really do have a bottle of Atropine in my coat pocket!

Smart man... less conspicuous than a full-out hazmat suit with breathing apparatus.

Crypto guru Matt Green asks courts for DMCA force field so he can safely write a textbook

Mark 85

Re: gmail is the answer

Make it easier on the hacker... use Yahoo!.

Ludicrous Patent of the Week: Rectangles on a computer screen

Mark 85

Re: I'm happy with this

I was thinking MS since it looks like a way of doing windows..... Maybe they'll hit Apple and MS at the same time?

Internet handover is go-go-go! ICANN to take IANA from US govt

Mark 85

I'm sure Obama scrawny butt is grinning ear to ear.

That doesn't paint a pretty picture. I sure wouldn't want to see it but I'm still needing mind bleach from that description.

Mark 85

I'm still not sure if we should overjoyed at this or very scared. The UN's politics and meddling, ICANN's lack of accountability are a problem that will come back to bite the internet. On the other hand, freedom from any individual government's contractural control is probably good but that's countered by any under the table exchange of presents with ICANN that might happen.

This may be the best that can happen although getting ICANN to be more accountable doesn't seem likely and the best shot at doing this is now lost.

Yahoo! couldn't! detect! hackers! in! its! network! but! can! spot! NSFW! smut! in! your! office?

Mark 85

Given the reports for Facebookers that I know, this may have been handed to FB. Seems war, injury, and death pics are ok and never get taken down, but any hint of a nekid human gets swift attention.

Ex-army sergeant pleads guilty to using private browsing mode

Mark 85

Re: Pondering ...

I have very little desire to see any genuine threat to other people go free, or escape punishment. But on the other hand I don't particularly like the "think of the children" hysteria which is slowly pissing away our rights. We will miss them when they are gone.

Therein lies the problem... Our rights already being stomped on over "terrorism" in addition to the "think of the children" and anything else that can used as a reason. Then we have a populace in just about every country, who for the most part, seem to be into protecting some rights very vocally and are quiet on the others such as privacy. They seem to prefer security over freedoms and rights.

Where will the line end up being drawn? I fear that we are way beyond any reasonable line at this point and trying to move it back will be impossible.

Rosetta's last comet pic

Mark 85

Sad in many ways...

I think that some of these plucky machines need a decent burial or a blaze of glory type ending... not a crash.

SETI's mega alien hunt shovels more data onto IBM's cloud

Mark 85

Waste of time, effort, and money?

Given the speed of light and vast distances involved, any "alien" transmission will have been from a very, very long time ago. I do remember reading somewhere in past about someone on the SETI postulating that the time/lightspeed/distance problem of any signals would be from a lifeform sufficiently advanced to overcome this problem and thus, we'd be hearing them in almost "real time". I'm not finding now but maybe the wayback machine might help.

For me, I just look at it as an amusing speculation and it provides some people with something to do in their spare time.

One-way Martian ticket: Pick passengers for Musk's first Mars pioneer squad

Mark 85

Re: The Dirty Digger

Maybe the list should be the other way around.... 98 seats filled with those we'd like to say "good riddance and you'll make some nice fertilizer" to and the other 2 seats for two guys who make sure the other 98 step out of the ship.

Security analyst says Yahoo!, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Tumblr all popped by same gang

Mark 85

It's not "if", it's "when"...

So when will FB or MS get it? Any bets? Maybe we need a bookie to take bets on this as these two could be considered the Holy Grail of breaches and data pilfering.

Termination fees for terminated people now against the law

Mark 85

Re: I would have thought that

There's probably a fine print somewhere about being dead and ending the contract. Maybe they figure the heirs will inherit the device or account?

Then again, they're just being greedy asshats whose only regard is for profit.

Before Bitcoin, digital cash was called Beenz – all that's left is a T-shirt

Mark 85

Cabletron T-Shirt

I still have the Cabletron shirt when we upgraded from Token Ring to Ethernet. Not sure why I still have it. I had a few others from long gone switch companies also but I think they finally gave up the ghost in days of laundry past.

'Syrian Electronic Army' goon extradited from Germany now coughs to hacking, extortion

Mark 85

While they do deserve it, I thought the El Reg standard name was: medieval terror bastards