* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

Chrome add-ons just became less scary, security-wise

Mark 85

Re: How about a set of permissions that can allow for security?

Would that do any good for the average user? Or would they just click through the default "we're taking everything" prompts?

Mark 85

Re: “Prominent Disclosure Requirement”

What do you think? Then again, since you posted it, I'll infer that you're doubtful also. The other question is: If they post it for the Alpha properties, would they actually abide by it?

Academic network Janet clobbered with DDoS attacks – again

Mark 85

Re: Valid excuse?

I always found it helped to smear bacon grease on the papers first...

Mark 85

Hmm... interesting time frame. Is this a bunch student script kiddy types who want some extra time off from classes? Since Anonymous and certain other groups think that DDoS will change the world, maybe the students think this will work also.

US poised to unleash stadium-sized sandwich bag

Mark 85

So NASA will also stand for "National AirShip Agency"? These are heady times indeed.

I hope the balloon doesn't go through a swarm of birds and break. On the other hand, a bunch of birds sounding like Donald Duck could be hilarious.

Furious customers tear into 123-reg after firm's mass deletion woes

Mark 85

Re: Too little, too late.

No horses needed. Look to the pigs instead.

Job ad promises 'Meaningless Repetitive Work on the .NET Stack'

Mark 85

Honesty in advertising?

“My phone has been ringing off the hook,” he says. “People are telling me they are strangely attracted to the job because other jobs don't sound real.”

I daresay that's the proof. It does sound more real than almost every job ad I've ever seen. No buzzwords like "fast-paced environment", "growth and goal oriented".. etc. No unicorns work there obviously.

Canny Canadian PM schools snarky hack on quantum computing

Mark 85
Pint

Re: He's technically wrong on everything but...

If that's the case then he's miles ahead of the clueless yo-yo's in our (US government.

Icon.... may have a good one for at least having an interest in what he's governing. The clowns down here only have interest because of lobbyists or agencies tell them what to be interested in and what to say.

Big telco proxies go full crazy over cable box plan

Mark 85

I find the links about funding, connections to companies and politicians and what the Digital Citizens Alliance has accomplished and is attempting to accomplish "interesting" to say the least. I'll leave it the reader to do some research on their own due to the nature of things legal. There seems to be a lot allegations so.. judge for yourself.

Then again, there is the Google/White House connection.

Having looked at that, I'm not surprised the cable companies are upset. They stand to lose a lot of money (profit) if consumers can buy their own cable box. In some ways, it would be like if a Telco couldn't sell you a phone and bill you plus interest over a couple of years. Locally, the different telcos sell the same phone at different prices. But you can bet your bottom dollar they don't lose any profit on the deal.

If this goes through, we, as consumers and buyers, are up the proverbial creek without the proverbial oar as any company that wants to bleed us dry for their profit will just go to the appropriate agency in government and get a "ruling"... in their favor.

Czech Republic to rebrand

Mark 85

Re: Ah.. Marketing buzzwords strike again...

Cowgirls, maybe :) and leave the branding iron in the fire.

Mark 85

Ah.. Marketing buzzwords strike again...

Once upon a time, it was 're-naming' or 're-defining" a country... now it's "rebranding".... Which to me, implies using a red-hot rod with a logo and leaving an imprint on someone's backside.

Linux command line mistake 'nukes web boss'S biz'

Mark 85

Re: It's fake

It's a pity that rm -rf /dev/boss/ won't work. But then, it's Friday and pub o-clock.

BOFH: If you liked it then you should've put the internet in it

Mark 85

Re: Bosses need to be tracked.....

"There's donuts in the break room." Where I worked, this usually worked the best. However, if someone wasn't aware of the message and they happened to be between the boss and the break room, they often times ended up as a grease smear on the carpet.

Admin fishes dirty office chat from mistyped-email bin and then ...?

Mark 85

Re: Simple problem, simple answer

It's the equivalent of assisting a user to move folders on a server or helping them clean out their desk. Don't look in the folders or the bottom drawer of the desk. Never.

Now if the legal department, security, HR, etc. produce a signed document telling you to look, that's a different story.

Mark 85

Re: How stunningly boring

It's like asking where you bury survivors.

I don't know about you, but I bury them out in the woods... in a carpet roll, taped appropriately, and quicklime.

Facebook's big trouble in its little world domination plan: China

Mark 85
Happy

Re: "China doesn't see the need for Facebook"

I'm wondering if I have some Chinese ancestry.

I'm thinking that there's a lot of us that some of that ancestry and don't know it.

Web backup biz Monster Cloud monstered after monster price hike

Mark 85

Re: How about Jungledisk

Does it have to be a "cloud"? I have several external ssd's that came with backup software (mine are Seagate branded). All local, easy to setup, and fully automatic. More importantly, they work.

Mark 85

Re: Surely

Apologies to the few genuine, honest and sincere service providers out there.

Lately, I think we'd all be hard-pressed to name even one who is.

Microsoft explains which cloud security problems are your problem

Mark 85
Trollface

Re: You know it makes sense!

Ah.. you answered my question before I could ask it... Namely: "whose problem is Windows 10?".

Cinema boss gives up making kids turn off phones: 'That's not how they live their life'

Mark 85

Re: Update from AMC

I wonder who got to them... besides us mere commentards? So someone overruled the CEO with some common sense. Most excellent.

Mark 85

How they live their lives.... that's important I guess since obviously the parents never taught the youngsters common courtesy and respect for other's rights. I'm also believing that they're texting such important stuff as "Hey.. I'm here at the movies." or "the popcorn is stale".

It's been a long time since I've been to a movie theater because actually watching a movie in a building full of out of control kids was impossible. With this mentality on the part of the theater chains, it'll be an even longer time before I return. Now, Mr. Aron, get a clue on why your receipts are down.

Mark 85

Re: Phone bans may not be the problem.

Then don't go... simples really.

South Korea to upgrade national stereo defence system for US$16m

Mark 85
Megaphone

How sensible could one possibly be with neighbors like the Kim family? It's likely that the further away from the border, the more sensibility there is. Hell, a day a the beach could mean that you'll be shelled by gunboats.

Icon is when they get all shouty at each other.

US anti-encryption law is so 'braindead' it will outlaw file compression

Mark 85

Having seen how Congress works for all my life, I daresay that this will pass as is by a wide margin. No clues in Congress, drafted by two wonderful upstanding members.. and it'll feel good in an election year for the CongressCritters to say: "We're thinking of the children and protecting them from terrorists."

This headline will, in part, cost pepper-spraying University of California, Davis $175k

Mark 85

It's pretty obvious from the article and the links this isn't about the Uni's image that needs cleaning up, but Katehi's.

Facebook slurps up ex DARPA techie for its F8 skunkworks

Mark 85

Re: Predictions for this thread

Nah... no sniping from here. I'm just curious what DARPA-like tech can FB be thinking about? Robots to come to your house and set up an account if you don't have one? A drone* flying overhead to ensure you get the best possible FB experience by maybe hijacking your Wifi and only allowing you to log into FB?

*I know they have a drone in the works...

You won't believe this, but… nothing useful found on Farook iPhone

Mark 85

The jihadis use whatever tools they can is the simple answer. There's no cell phones/smart phones made in any of the jihadi countries. Just like weapons... they have either buy, steal, or capture them. I've noticed the same thing you did but in the weapons and tech arena. They're against it, but they use it.

Mark 85

Last line in the article...

It does, however, put another question mark over how honest the FBI has been and continues to be in this case.

It does, however, put another question mark over how honest the FBI has been and continues to be in this case as well as any other case of this nature involving encryption.

FTFY

Microsoft sues US DoJ for right to squeal when Feds slurp your data

Mark 85

Re: Hat's off

Indeed this needs to be done. Yet, I'm wondering at the motives. For company disparagingly called "Slurp" around here, what do they get out of it? Some customer goodwill? So mis-direction at anger towards government (not that government doesn't deserve it)? So why not Google or FB? They're known data slurpers also that are on the list for commenter's anger over slurpage.

I'm not a fanboi by any stretch, but the only company lately that I can think of that doesn't sell you out to advertisers or anyone else for money is Apple.

Downvote away, but companies are charities so what is MS gaining from this?

Music's value gap? Follow the money trail back to Google

Mark 85
Pirate

Surely piracy be about the dubloons!

And rum... and, oh yes.. wenches!!!

Hey, Atlantis Computing. What the heck is this in your EULA?

Mark 85

Re: There is precedent.

$2500 is peanuts to most corporates and even to most lawyers. Now a class action suit will be big money to a law firm and also to the sued corporate. But still peanuts to the aggrieved customers.

Where do governments come up with these low-ball fines and limits? Other than the lobbyists getting to them, of course?

Mark 85

Re: Cue Striesand Effect in

well, careful what you wish for. For some it's a Straisend effect, for others - free publicity.

I thought that's what the Streisand Effect basically is.. publicity. With the corollary that any publicity is "good" publicity.

Warrant-less email snatching by cops, Feds under threat by draft law

Mark 85

Re: What about the two traitors in the Senate

Given those two and where they are, I would think it will take more than a miracle to knock them out of the Senate. So it's a good idea not to hold your breath... turning blue and passing out won't do any good.

Microsoft: We have a bullet ready for 12 competencies

Mark 85

Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

You're missing the monetization that will be forthcoming either in fees or ads or both. Also all the tracking under the guise of telemetry. How about pushing a product out to every home user that unfinished? Driver fails, for example.

Disclaimer.. I've fiddled with it, and for what I use a computer for, it's unfit for purpose due to driver issues and program compatibility issues.

Mark 85

Re: "...take advantage of the unprecedented demand we’re seeing for Windows 10..."

Well, after pushing the latest and greatest Office and now pushing Win10 on users, yeah.. there's a demand but it's a forced demand. Most users are clueless and follow the instructions to open an MS account and "activate cloud storage". I'm now getting bugged by some friend/relatives about how to get their stuff back on their computer instead of out there on that vague "cloud".

And then there's the pitch about the "cloud". Early on it was multiple locations across providers such that if one went down, you could access your data. Meh... we've all seen how that works out. The MS cloud breaks or the Google cloud breaks and you're up a creek until it's fixed. <$Deity> help you if one decides to close down that service and you have suddenly migrate all your data, etc. somewhere else.

The company I worked for when I retired did it right, IMO. They had 2 data centers that basically mirrored each other. If one went down, the other took up the load. And it was costing them less than MS, Google, or Amazon would have charged.

Bay Area man forced out of his $400 box home

Mark 85

Re: The Smell of the Red Republic of California

You forgot: Elect the likes of Feinstein to keep you safe from terrorists, et al.

Line by line, how the US anti-encryption bill will kill our privacy, security

Mark 85
Facepalm

Re: I don't see how this would be a problem for Apple

Ah.. the list of impossible things that some CongressCritters think can be done.... This is right up there at the top. What's next.. ordering an FTL drive? Ordering NASA to find "heaven"?

Good on Wyden and I hope enough in Congress listen to him as seems to be one of the few who have a grasp of the problem. As for the two bozos.... a pox on them. Better yet, may all their files and emails along with anyone who voted for them be exposed because... ya' know, weak encryption.

I swear it's a race to the bottom between the US and just about everyone else. I'm wondering if May will try to top this or maybe France?

'Apple owes me $2bn'

Mark 85

I thought that was basically a phone in a watch. Maybe a really dumb smartphone though....

Microsoft goes titsup

Mark 85

Rats....

Here, I read the headline and thought "MS is done... time for the funeral" only to find out it's their website. +1 on the clickbait El Reg.

Lauri Love backdoor forced-decryption case goes to court in UK

Mark 85
Devil

Simples then.... give him the PC back. If he logs into it, they own him. If he doesn't, than he probably did forget it.

IP address clerks RIPE: Feds, come back with a warrant, er, web browser

Mark 85

I must have missed it. Did anyone ever say that they did have a clue?

Cyber-security pro? Forget GCHQ, BT wants to hire 900 of you

Mark 85
Trollface

Let's gvie a vote of thanks then to MS

Well, if it weren't for Windows, there might not be as much money being spent on security, computer crime wouldn't be as easy, etc.

I guess MS needs a vote of thanks from the security industry and the cyber crime industry.

Mark 85

@Buzzword -- Re: Here's a crazy thought

That would have been a great idea except for that's not the way corporates work.

Back then it would have been a cost-center which means cutting manglement bonuses and not returning shareholder value. (I have no idea if BT is publically traded and I'm too arsed to find out but this is general corporate talk.)

Now that customers are screaming and willing to pay, it will be a profit-center so they go trolling for the lowest cost employees to fill that desk.

Grab your Hammer pants – it's the '90s again: Facebook brings Virtual Reality back

Mark 85

Re: AR?

It's about revenue. Full Stop. One of Facebook's draws was games. Logic says, this isn't about "immersive messaging"(1) This is about maybe a 3D type of Candy Crush or Farmville..... or....???

(1) Now if the rodent site or Pornhub could buy into VR the market might... err... ahem.... explode. Except in North Carolina, of course.

Universal Credit at high risk of cyber-attack, fraud from the outset

Mark 85
Devil

Re: What about the NAO response?

That's ok... now that they know Agile doesn't work, they'll probably give DevOps a shot....

Would you let cops give your phone a textalyzer scan after a road crash?

Mark 85

@werdsmith -- Re: Possible abuse?

It's not different. To get your banking info requires a warrant. Same thing here.. get a warrant. Or do different rules apply for phones than everything else?

Mark 85

Possible abuse?

They do checkpoints for alcohol usage. Will they do checkpoints for phone usage? How do you correlate that someone used a phone and didn't pull over to use it? If it's accident, then get the warrant, examine the phone, the car's black box, etc.

One is supposed to be presumed innocent UNTIL proven guilty in court of law, right? Well, unless the Constitution was amended in the last couple of weeks, this still applies.

'Bring back xHamster', North Carolina smut watchers grumble

Mark 85

Re: Detail?

simply taking a piss becomes a hot political issue among fat faced 'Murican legislators in certain deep-south States.

FTFY -- it's not all states and all legislators. We still have some who know the universe is lot older than ~6000 years.

Astroboffin discovers exoplanet by accident ... in 1917

Mark 85
Pint

Now this is truly amazing... He apparently discovered an exoplanet and never knew it. Nor did anyone else for 99 years. Here's to you Adriaan.... I hope that when they confirm it, they name it after you.