* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

FBI says it helped mess up that iPhone – the one it wants Apple to crack

Mark 85

It's a county-owned phone. Farook didn't own it nor pay the account. Thus, the "account reverting Apple" wouldn't apply.

I'm suspecting that there may be some law action requiring that employees will need to supply their passwords on all company or government owned equipment.

Where I work, if an employee terminates, they can take the phone with them. If they choose not to, we ask for the login to unlock it and clean it for the next user. If the employee dies, we're up the creek and phone gets tossed.

Top new IoT foundation (yeah, another one) to develop open standards

Mark 85

Re: The Actual Problem

Umm.. yeah.... you forget to pay the thermostat bill and suddenly, no heat. Forget the lightbulb bill and you're in the dark. Kettle? Refrigerator? Suddenly not working.

Mark 85

Re: So far

Sort of like Agile and DevOps? I'm sure there's others that fell by the wayside pretty damn quick.

Mark 85

... and IoT will be dead before the decade is out.

Promise? Or do we need to instigate at least another 4 or 5 standards groups which might help speed things (death of IoS) up a bit.

IoS= Internet of Shitte.

Na na na na na na na na bionic-BATMAN! Boffins build bat-like electro-stimulated drone wings

Mark 85

Re: "resembles the so-called Caspian Sea Monster"

Perhaps, but flying through the dust cloud from the exploding ordnance just doesn't seem like a great idea. And 30 meters or so puts you in a prime ground fire location.

Mark 85

Re: "resembles the so-called Caspian Sea Monster"

Since it's a ground effects drone for over water at this point, it would be torpedo tubes instead of missile tubes.

Alleged Anonymous hacker rescued off Cuba by Disney cruise ship

Mark 85

Re: I wonder

Anymore, you need a valid passport just to set foot on a cruise ship. So, Disney knew. I'm a bit surprised there isn't a "no cruise list" much like the "no fly list". But why give the government ideas.

Mark 85

I really hate to say this, but Anonymous is part of the problem and not part of the solution. Protesting.... ok. But IMO, and INAL, I think it's a bad thing to be hitting any company's computer system. Was it ok to hit SONY? How about any government or any other company? How about your company?

These are treacherous times. Distinguishing between someone doing it for social justice or for monetary gain isn't the way laws work or at least should work. Those of us in IT should understand the dangers and headaches of anyone attacking the systems we're paid to protect.

What the hospital did is so very wrong and they should be held accountable but what this guy did is wrong also. Two wrongs don't make a right.

US DoJ files motion to compel Apple to obey FBI iPhone crack order

Mark 85

Re: Chain of evidence

Supposedly according to some reports, this is exactly what the FBI offered. On Apple's premises, with an agent to monitor 24/7. Apple would hand over the data and then clean the phone and return it to the FBI for the evidence chain. The problem is there's so many conflicting reports floating around. Which ones do we believe?

Mark 85

Re: Today your Iphone

They're getting close to it. Consider Google, Facebook, and Microsoft's attitude. We are owned, we just don't really know it.

Mark 85

Re: No middle ground...

Why don't governments around the world could just ban any and all encryption and obfuscation—to include things like steganography?

How would you stop it? There's laws against speeding... yeah.. those work. There's laws against attacking and hacking computer systems... yeah... those work. Think about all the laws and tell me one, just one, that does work*.

*I'm speaking of legislated laws by a country, not physics or Newton's are Darwin's**.

** This is a maybe as lots of places try to repeal Darwin's.

Mark 85

Re: Much ado about fu©k all squared

Apparently, according the mainstream sources, Apple asked for this to be "public" for some reason. It's the why suddenly insist on "public" that's worrisome. Other sources maintain that Apple insisted on "secret" as they have done in the past but the FBI when "public".

The question is "why?" and what's behind this? Is this by mutual agreement for some reason?

Mark 85

Re: Latest twist:

That's interesting and a game changer. I guess the FBI now needs to find out who changed the password and what it is. The Buzzfeed link suggests it was Farook's employer.

Mark 85

Interesting that this gets overlooked

According to the New York Times, Apple – which has assisted federal investigations in the past – asked the FBI to file the aforementioned order under seal.

However, when the agency submitted its demands in a public court citing the powerful All Writs Act, Apple CEO Tim Cook hit the roof: he lashed out at the "chilling" request in an open letter,

I'm wondering if the FBI is right about the Marketing and PR Image. It would appear that Apple wouldn't have had an issue IF the order was under seal. But being an open ruling, there's all sorts of PR and image issues for Apple. I daresay Apple is manipulating public sentiment here and that in private, they have no remorse over unlocking phones, etc.

Yahoo! is! up! for! sale! – so! how! much! will! you! bid!?

Mark 85

Re: $4

After thinking this over, I'll give $100 and then take a tax write-off just for kicks and grins.

Mark 85

@skelband

What do they do exactly?

From the second paragraph: maximizing value for our shareholders. That's apparently it. Everything except the Alibaba bit is losing money.

Terrified robots will take middle class jobs? Look in a mirror

Mark 85

Re: Argh!

Have an upvote to counter whoever downvoted you. Strange place.. good info and you get a DV.

What you said is essentially what the good doctor related. Apparenlty the anti-smoking/anti-vaping/anti-everything-we-don't-approve-of brigade is out there.

Mark 85

Re: Argh!

I'm stateside. Had a discussion with my GP about 10 years ago. I needed to cut down my coffee consumption and my smoking, said he. Then he turned around and warned me that if I did, I'd probably hit the floor as soon as my blood pressure dropped below it's already "low normal" value. He's encouraged me to vape now but not reduce the nicotine level. Go figure.

Mark 85

Re: Terrified robots will take middle class jobs?

Robots can create meaningless mind numbing powerpoint presentations much faster than any human.

A powerpoint that wasn't meaningless and mind numbing would be the most terrifying thing in the universe. As it is, we can sleep through them instead of running into the streets, waving our arms wildly, and screaming.

Mark 85

As Jaron Lanier points out, to make computers seem intelligent, we first have to make ourselves really dumb. And once we're dumb, we're super impressed by what a computer just did!

The process is well underway in the US at least. Schools don't teach people to think and even the subjects they do teach are dumbed down because.. well we can't leave anyone behind... They don't want tools they can use to be creative, they want a bit of smart and shiny. They buy into false news because it's on their computer and from the Internet. A look at the scams floating about says more about society then anyone might want to believe. Yes, the dumbing down process is succeeding and breeding whole new generations of people who's main job will be asking "Do you want fries with that?".

We need a grumpy, disheartened cynic icon...

Triple-murderer prisoner keeps mobile phone in his butt for a week

Mark 85

Re: Technology never ceases to amaze me

Well, it is the logical (for some value of logic) next product after iWatch. While it's up there, turn the camera and every proctologist will be happy.

Mark 85
Coat

So any phone calls will be from Earth to Uranus?

Solution to tech bros' disgust of SF homeless people launched

Mark 85

Re: er...this is a spoof, yeah?

The product is... but the letter to the mayor and police chief... No.. http://justink.svbtle.com/open-letter-to-mayor-ed-lee-and-greg-suhr-police-chief

The mainstream press has picked up on Mr. Keller's letter and they are not being as nice as this article was.

SpaceShipTwo ready to slip the surly bonds of Earth for Virgin Galactic

Mark 85

Re: Slip the surly bonds? Nonsense!

While you might be right in your belief, that line comes from a poem... High Flight written in 1941 by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. Thus, it pre-dates space-flight...

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.

Where never lark, or even eagle flew —

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

Gird your coins: A phishing tsunami is smashing into America

Mark 85

There's also the phone call...

Much like the MS Support calls. Possibly the same call center in Pakistan or India. Usually starts with something like "the sheriff is on the way to arrest you unless you settle your debt with us, the IRS immediately." Followed by them asking for my name and SSN. My response is usually, "ok... tell Bob to come on by, the coffee is on and I'm running down the street to the donut shop" and hanging up.

There's other responses depending on my mood, like screaming, crying, much angst and then after 10-15 minutes of this along with repeatedly asking "why?" I give a fake name and Richard Nixon's SSN.

The paperless office? Don’t talk sheet

Mark 85

Re: Fax to email

I've also seen them go the other way.. get a fax, copy it, and toss the fax while filing the copy. Go figure.... <shakes head>

Mark 85

Re: Print is Dead

Nope... junk mail/catalogs are definitely alive. My wife and I do a lot of buying online and for some strange reason, we get 50 zillion catalogs all from online sellers as well as our inboxes filling up with them sending spam emails.

As for magazines... yes, they're still around and come in the mail once a month.

Mark 85

Re: It's not me, it's everybody else

Indeed. Plus, by now almost everyone knows that the trees for paper come from tree farms that grow them, not from the wild forests. So, there's less guilt.

I've also noticed that more people are not using "recycled" paper as a) it's seldom that eye-pleasing bright white and b) there's not much generated in the way of dioxins after the dioxin scares of the last century.

FTR, I'm about 90% paperless at home compared to say 10-15 years ago. At work... meh... no such luck.

Loved one just died? Pah, that's nothing

Mark 85

Re: Cower before me, or there's more where that came from

And we all know: don't drink and derive!

It must be Friday. I read that as "don't drink and drivel".

Microsoft patent filing confirms existence of 3D Jedi gesture phone

Mark 85

Re: Can the gesture where the phone is raised to 45 degrees above the horizontal

There's an app for that. Hellfires are available for an extra charge.

El Reg blows chow down at Justretch.com

Mark 85
Pint

Bootnotes and Friday. Beer o'clock is coming. Get a grip.... it doesn't always have to be Apple/MS/5-eyes/Google/etc./ad infinitum/ad nauseam...

Google opens Cloud Vision API beta, world + dog asked to try it

Mark 85

Google says its Cloud Vision API "is our first step on the journey to enable applications to see, hear and make information in the world more useful."

".. and make information in the world more useful to us in our efforts to find new ways to sell you to advertisers."

TFTFT -- There Fixed That For Them

Helpdesk? I have a software problem. And a GRIZZLY BEAR problem

Mark 85

No bears here

However, the building is 80,000 sq. ft. with raised flooring in the whole place. All we see are mice... lots and lots of mice whenever we need to access the network cabling under the floor.

There are also the Jurrassics .. I think every office has them. When there's free food, doughnuts, or a pot luck, don't get in their way. They waddle but a lot faster than you'd think and if you're not careful you end up as toe jam.

Even Google is abandoning Google+

Mark 85

Hmm... seems about right

Google+ was launched not quite 5 years ago so it's about due to die... or be killed... like so many other Googlisms.

New NASA theory: Moon radiation drops so HULK RIP MOON LIKE SHIRT

Mark 85

They found the ice moon. Now all that's left is to find a salt moon and a tequila planet... margaritaville!!!!

Brits unveil 'revolutionary' hydrogen-powered car

Mark 85

@Alan Brown -- Re: Stupid aerodynamics

Why do makers constantly make this mistake with cars like this?

This looks more like a concept car one would see at auto shows. They do these for several reasons... 1) to get the automobile writers enthused and awed 2) same for investors 3) and lastly for the buying public to "want" but never get one. It's quite possible that by the time production rolls around, it'll just be a box on wheels.

Feds look left and right for support – and see everyone backing Apple

Mark 85
Devil

@Keef -- Re: FBI

But only if you piss petrol....

Mark 85

It's just one device, they say.

Right... Apple needs to write a special firmware to get around the security. FBI takes phone, pulls what it wants and hands it to....???? Even if it goes back to the county (it was their phone issued to Farook), who's to say that someone won't make a copy of the firmware and will reverse engineer it to work on other phones? I'm also wondering if maybe the NSA has already cracked it and this is just a test case.

I've heard the arguments that Apple can have the phone on their premises during the loading and unlocking, but who gets the phone after it's unlocked? If there is incriminating evidence (real or imaginary) then the FBI needs to keep the phone in it's possession to maintain the chain of evidence.

I'm actually on the fence here also. Evidence is one thing, but there's a trust issue involved here that puts things well onto the slippery slope. And it's a good thing that there's a court order and some double secret order involved.

FCC clicks off the safety, fires at America's great cable TV box rip-off

Mark 85

@Efros -- Re: Cable TV

and that breaks my heart, but there is no alternative hereabouts except dialup.

And therein lies the problem. No competition, no reason to "do better", or at least hold the charges down. I read the comments from those across the pond moaning about the service, etc. and how they change ISPs/telcos/cable companies. At least they have a choice and lower prices for what appears to be the same crappy service we have.

Marvell, Carnegie Mellon agree to slash disk drive chip patent check in half – to a mere $750m

Mark 85

I think I got DV'd by a lawyer... :)

Mark 85

Carnegie Mellon said that after legal fees it would be splitting the settlement money with the researchers who invented the technology

I would hope that the researchers get more money than the lawyers... but... lawyers are lawyers instead of researchers for a reason

Oz town suffers hairy panic attack

Mark 85
Flame

Re: IT

A quick stroll through Bootnotes suggests that there's almost nil IT value there. And that's the way it should be. I'm guessing that unless the article talks about todgers, boobs, or adult beverages (or maybe all three) there will always be those cockwombies who consider themselves as no non-sense IT people.

Get a freakin' grip.. it's Bootnotes, often NSFW but always worth the read. There's more to life than IT or your mom's basement. OTOH, you could just try NOT to read anything labeled Bootnotes.

519070 or blank: The PINs that can pwn 80k online security cams

Mark 85

It already is. This crap has been going on long before some marketing dweeb coined "the Internet of Things".

Pilot posts detailed MS Flight Sim video of how to land Boeing 737

Mark 85
Trollface

One last recommendation...

Don't try a victory barrel roll on final. Request a fly-by first and do it then.

FBI iPhone brouhaha sparks Apple Store protest in San Francisco

Mark 85

So someone issued a call for a protest via FB and gave an incorrect reason? I'll just sit back, munch some popcorn and see what happens since it's not a backdoor as such but then the EFF is jumping into this fray also.

LA hospital coughs up $17,000 to free PCs held to ransom by hackers

Mark 85

Re: Something fishy

Good point. Would it have been through the first infected computer or via every computer in the hospital? Email? Telephone call? A knock on the door in the middle of the night?

China wants to bring home moon rocks in moon vacuum

Mark 85
Trollface

Re: Vacuum Pump

Very carefully? Or maybe toss in a biscuit and hope the vacuum follows it?

Azure lost some virtual machine backups for eleven hours

Mark 85

Re: Permutation Datacentre: Very Virtual Servers on Other People's Hardware

the fact that the backup is not physically in a vault in your cellar will cause some sleepless nights.

Only "some" sleepless nights? Let's face it, the more data a company puts into the "cloud", the less accessible it will become if the cloudy company goes bust, decides to not have a cloud, or some major disaster. If it were me, I'd sleep better knowing that there's tapes in a vault under my control.

Confused as to WTF is happening with Apple, the FBI and a killer's iPhone? Let's fix that

Mark 85

Re: one good thing this proves

Interesting take. But other news media outlets report that the NSA is working on this. So, the question is: have they cracked it or haven't they? If they haven't then, yes, handing the phone to Apple to open it, saves them time and money. It also gives them a copy of the firmware. If they have cracked it, then it just confirms their efforts and is now a PR implement to lull everyone into a false sense of security.

Five Eyes nations must purge terrorists from the web, says Theresa May

Mark 85

It's interesting in a Huh? kind of way. Delete the names and the country and make it a fill in the box type of article. Suddenly, this applies to a whole lot more countries. If I substitute Trump or any number of presidential candidates for May and US for UK, the article still reads the same. Remember the call for Gates to take control of the Internet?

I think the old curse of "may you live in interesting times" has come to pass.