* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

'Wipe everything clean ... Join us ...' Creepy poem turns up in logs of 30 million-ish servers

Mark 85

Yep... It was late and maths are not my strong point at that hour.

Mark 85

This is great to hear. After miscreant and state attackers, a bit of fun that harkens back about 15 years. It does remind those of us old enough, how the internet used to be.

Ready for DevOps? Time to brush up on The Office and practise 'culture'

Mark 85

Isn't this just another form of what Deming wrote about and put into practice? The US bought it and ran with it in WWII and then dropped it. The Japanese embraced it and apparently still are.

Mark 85

If you have managers in place who rule through fear, humiliation and threats, it might be time to rethink your team before you start.

Like many other things that seemed to be a good thing in their time, this ^^^ will guarantee failure. I don't know of any company that doesn't have management in place like that. Maybe not at every level and every department but enough are around that they will sabotage anything that involves changes in thinking and action.

GCHQ mass spying will 'cost lives in Britain,' warns ex-NSA tech chief

Mark 85

He's right... and fighting a losing battle.

I applaud his bravery in the face of what has happened to him and will continue to happen. I'm also surprised that he hasn't been "disappeared" yet. Not only is he speaking out about what many rational people have said but he's doing it very publicly and getting the governments to at least listen to him. I'd like to think that those in in power would see the wisdom of his words but it's probably on the same level of wanting to see a unicorn also.

Those that care about security, know he's right about targeting and massive slurping. Those not paying attention and thinking this through will cause the citizens to pay the price.

Bash, smash, trash Flash – earn $100k cash

Mark 85

Not dead yet, is it?

What will it take? Nuke from space? Since that won't happen... maybe Adobe should up the ante and offer more if the exploit is reported to them.

Obama: What will solve America's gun problem? What could it be? *snaps fingers* Technology!

Mark 85

Re: Ammunition

It's people do... maybe we need to ban people. We tried legislating idiocy but that backfired. Look at what we have in Congress.

Idiots you say? Yeah, I once saw a friend use a loaded gun as a hammer. I left his presence very quickly. He's now in the State legislature.

Mark 85

Re: Huh?

Most come with a trigger lock that requires a key to remove it. Great thing if you have kids or a burglary where the gun is taken. Not a good thing if you need it in a hurry.

Ten years in, ultra-high-def gets a standard

Mark 85
Coat

Rats

but inexplicably the Korean giant isn't running with Ultra HD Premium for its CES-launched refrigerator with display.

I guess I'll just have to hold on buying that new refrigerator for awhile. I guess I better tell the wife that it's on hold and that we'll have to use the ice chest for a few more months.

icon -------> Kevlar... because flying crockery and cutlery.

Americans massively back call for more police body camera tech

Mark 85

Re: Distrust

It goes both ways... I distrust the cops and the public they serve. Toss in lawyers and who knows which side is right or who did what to whom and as always, lawsuits and media crap follow. This is good thing to protect both sides.

Yet another music video treat from Insight Enterprises

Mark 85

Re: Were they volunteers?

A bit of adult beverage at an early pre-holiday party maybe? It does have that look and feel....

Furious Easyspace customers moan about 'random' site outages

Mark 85

Re: Cause?

DDos? Those seem fairly common also. They have danced around the issue quite nicely so far.

SpaceX makes rocket science look easy: Falcon 9 passes tests

Mark 85

Re: F9 Heavy

The biggest cost is the engines and engine management devices, from what I've read. The rocket body and tanks are considered expendable in the long term.

Microsoft's 200 million 'Windows 10' 'devices' include Lumias, Xboxes

Mark 85

Re: Maths

Hmm...maybe it's because there's a pile of them are sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting for a retailer to sell them which skews the numbers?

Dutch govt says no to backdoors, slides $540k into OpenSSL without breaking eye contact

Mark 85

Re: Augh, encryption and Paris.

Well said. Many of us have been saying that for quite awhile. Those who believe that the government will provide security in exchange for freedom are obviously idiots as the governments (world-wide) can't provide what they call security with the information they do have. I can't say all the attacks in the last year were not stopped because "encryption" but the ones where comms were in the clear and publically available sure as hell weren't stopped.

This is to the governments:

<rant on> You want my freedom in exchange for security? Fine... show me that you can handle the info you get in the clear first. As it is, your arguments for backdoored or no-encryption are a low grade of BS when the very thing you claim you want my freedom for is happening.. and you do nothing except to say "oh yes, we knew about them."

A bigger problem than terrorists are the miscreants who would take our savings, our identities. Stop them and again, then maybe we can talk about taking "freedoms for security". <rant off>

Face, meet book: Zuckerberg plans to dabble in AI this year

Mark 85

Re: Ambitious...

Well.. first his home than everyone else's....

Brit cuffed for Kyrgyz 'horse penis' sausage quip

Mark 85
Facepalm

@cornz 1 -- Re: No big deal

I didn't see anything racist either.. but then... maybe there's something where making reference to a horse's penis is making a slur against the Kyrgyz. Or.. I shudder to think, that they have become Americanized to the point of everyone being offended by everyone. Maybe the Kyrgyz need to establish "safe place" 'cause ya' know.. words hurt.

The Register's entirely serious New Year's resolutions for 2016

Mark 85

Re: Oh dear.

You're actually Alistair and I claim my 5 pounds!

Mark 85
Coat

Re: what???

If the bacon goes, so will most of us. Besides, two rashers of bacon a day will ensure that you won't be a suicide bomber. I'll get my coat for that.

Mark 85

Re: Don't listen to them

What? There's no "maximize share-holder value"?

Mark 85
Paris Hilton

Re: *cough* HTTPS *cough*...

I'm waiting for the Paris icon to disappear in the hailstorm of political correctness... nothing but tears.

Mark 85
Unhappy

@Lysenko -- Re: So the new formula is:

You forgot one.... reprints lifted from "The Conversation".... <yawn>

Edit... Doctor Syntax beat me to it... oh well. Mayhaps someone will read the comments and tally my displeasure at those articles.

Periodic table enjoys elemental engorgement

Mark 85

Re: If nobody can agree...

Why are all the "new" elements ending in -ium? Why not be simple. Let's call one "Ralph".

Linode: Back at last after ten days of hell

Mark 85

Re: Curious

Probably for the same reason others have suffered DDoS attacks lately... ProtonMail, Janet, certain root servers, Eclipse and others. Possibly probes of defenses or something more sinister. Seems kinda' unlikely to me it's script kiddies. Only the attackers know at this point.

Facebook 'Free Basics' service frozen in Egypt

Mark 85
Trollface

Maybe the problem is simples...

To many users... err... products.. linking to the Bangles "Walk like an Egyptian"....

YouTube’s 10 years of hits: Global recognition at last for Rick Astley

Mark 85

It's still much more interesting and fun than the "you are an idiot" page that plays once and opens a new browser window with each interation. That darn thing would require a reboot to stop it. But it was always good to teach some a lesson about blindly clicking on links in an email.

iOS 9 kludged our iPhones, now give us money, claims new lawsuit

Mark 85

@John Crisp

I think this could and should apply also to MS. They're pulling the same crap but on a larger scale.

NSA spying on US and Israeli politicians stirs Congress from Christmas slumbers

Mark 85

Re: What that's you say Congress?

The cynic in me is ROFLMA. They speak one thing about how we all need babysitting and watching yet when the shoe kicks them.. my goodness how fast they need to investigate and put a stop to it.

I wonder who the real terrorists are... Congress, the Government, or the citizens.

Mark 85

Re: One Way to Congress Critters to Act

I think a lot of us have said this before... power and control. If you control the leaders, you have more power then them.

MPs slam mandarins over failed GP IT system

Mark 85

and everything properly improved such that the next project will be even a bigger boondoggle to the system and better enrichment for the company. Haven't you Brits learned anything from us in the US and our assorted projects? A good start is the F-35.

Good news! US broadband speeds are up. Bad news – they're still rubbish

Mark 85
Meh

Meh....

"Faster, better broadband will unleash new innovations and new services to improve the lives of the American people"

Um.. yeah.. Whatever you say. Faster cat videos and porn downloads, FCC?

Maybe it's me but I read the reports and statements and much of what is there is a lot of patting themselves on the back. They didn't couple speeds and data caps which seems disingenuous. AT&T raised the data cap for my wife's phone (at no charge) but no improvement in service or speed. Our cable company raised the speed albeit slightly (10%) but no increase in data cap. With the cable company, we can't get close to the advertised speed. On a good day, it's about half the advertised.

Somewhere in all this data and statistics is a reality.. besides the obvious "we in America are screwed".

BBC News website takes New Year's Eve break

Mark 85

Re: Akamai? Breach?

It does seem that way, doesn't it? There's been several heavy, multi-day attacks lately and it's very troubling. Such as "who's launching them?" "Why?" "What else are the originators of the attack doing in the background? IOW, DDoS is a cover for something else?". And lastly "who's next?".

Who ever is controlling these attacks has some access to some serious assets. I'm not buying the argument it's "bored script kiddies on school holiday". There were several prior to the holidays starting.

Flare-well, 2015 – solar storm to light up skies on New Year's Eve

Mark 85

Rats...

I'm in the PNW of the US and while the skies are clear, there's heavy ground fog... To use a quote: "Missed it by that much." since I'm not going to drive up into the mountains tonight. Too cold, too icy up there.

What did we learn today? Microsoft has patented the slider bar

Mark 85

Re: People still use Microsoft products?

Yes we do. For some things, it's tied to hardware... sadly. Along with Microslurp's Win7. Working with Win10 is far in the future if at all. But the hardware demands Corel for some reason.

Mark 85

Revenue Stream?

Software as a Service (Office 365 model... pay monthly or yearly), maybe Windows 10 based on the description (as a Service) and now.... Patent Troll for an obvious patent at that.

Facebook must face furious shareholders in class action over IPO

Mark 85

Re: Suing because they "lost out"?

I withdrew my post. Seems the article has been edited and the statement about them suing because they "lost out" was changed. Given the legal system and the nature of lawyers here in the States I thought it was legitimate.

Cache-astrophic: Why Valve's Steam store spewed players' private profiles to strangers

Mark 85

With all the DDoS'ing going on lately, I'm surprised that anyone can get to any web page/server.

Aroused Lycra-clad cyclist prompts Manchester cop dragnet

Mark 85

@chvo243

How many guys call the cop shop complaining that some women's nipples were totally aroused, popping through her blouse because of the rain and possibly the sheer fabric of her blouse and causing a nuisance?

Well.. maybe we should. If it happens often enough maybe things will change like "political correctness" and "Oh.. I'm offended, pass a law, quick!". Or, we'll all get a "morality police" like Sauds have.

US Marines kill noisy BigDog robo-mule for blowing their cover

Mark 85

Re: mental disconnect

Never been in combat, eh? I'll assume you're speaking in jest.

But the reality is that one simply does not go muzzle-to-muzzle in a long lines with the blue coats shooting at the lobster backs and vice versa. Until the shooting actually starts, combat these days is stealthier than ever. No more, line them up at dawn on the field of honor.

Overall.. good decision to shelf the project until there's someway of powering it quietly.

Here – here is that 'hoverboard' you've wanted so much. Look at it. Look. at. it.

Mark 85

@Frederic Bloggs -- Re: Or maybe this?

Meh.... needs Flash. Not gonna' happen at this end.

Chat messages in Skype for Windows are bang out of order – so here's how to 'fix' it for now

Mark 85

Re: Alternatively you can also just not use skype.

Since this is brought to you by the same folks doing Windows 10 maybe it's time the industry did some serious looking elsewhere?

Mark 85

Re: Skype sponsored content

Before? There was a time when it wasn't shit? I must have missed it.

Linode's crippling cyber-siege enters day four

Mark 85

Re: Is there really that can be done against DDoS?

I would think that there's been some forewarning here lately.. ProtonMail and Janet come to mind. Both were multiday DDoS attacks. If, and it's a big if, it's the same people, they'll probably be doing more of this. The big question is, what's the goal? Are they using these attacks to hide something else like a penetration? Or merely trying to drive things off the air, so to speak?

Mark 85

Re: Who?

Maybe another provider did some offshoring to a company with a dirty tricks department for this? Who knows.... business is getting pretty feisty these days and sometimes corporate warfare seems to go beyond words.

Password-less database 'open-sources' 191m US voter records on the web

Mark 85

Re: All your data are belong to us

There are those who say that the west coast voters generally don't care to go to polls once a "winner" has been declared. I tend to agree as why bother then except for the local and state elections. However, the state I'm in, we can vote by mail so our votes get counted and sometimes are figured into the predictions.

Mark 85

Re: What's the concern?

And there's no doubt there are people who have aggregated that data - including operators of web sites that promise to give you information such as address, phone number and more on anyone in the US. For a fee, of course.

And no one seems to be upset that these companies also aggregate police records, credit records, just about anything they can on everyone. Once upon a time, if you wanted a lot of info on someone, you really had to dig for it. Today, you just figuratively swipe a credit card and the info is there. I find that is intrusive as hell.

Having said that, I do wonder if this "researcher" merely accessed one or more of these companies' database.

China wants encryption cracked on demand because ... er, terrorism

Mark 85

They have internal terrorists at this point. ISIS, et al, haven't hit them yet. Apparently, the internals are becoming a real problem for them judging from the new reports.

Mark 85

Re: Well, that didn't take long

I find it interesting that the Chinese are copying the "free world" in their quest for access... I would have thought, at one time--maybe in my dreams, that it would have been the other way around. I find this somewhat disturbing.

Patch now! Flash-exploitin' PC-hijackin' attack spotted in the wild by Huawei bods

Mark 85

Re: Curse you, McAfee!

Which is worse then: (pick as many as you want):

1) McAfee

2) Ask Toolbar

3) Chrome

4) Yahoo

5) Flash for offering any and all of the above.