* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

Surprise! World stunned to learn that AT&T is in the NSA's pocket

Mark 85

Let's not forget to think about the children, shall we? They're always in peril. </sarc off>

US Air Force: 'Loose tweets destroy fleets'

Mark 85

Pssst... photoshop.

Windows 10 PC sales boost? Don't hold your breath, say analysts

Mark 85

But a new PC?

Why? What's the compelling reason? It wasn't too long ago that the hardware improvements were driving sales in part and during the life of XP that is what drove sales. A new OS.. meh. Not a good reason. Like others, I'll just wait until my current box dies, although if I wanted to stay ahead of the game, I'd grab a Win7 and store it. Or maybe put it on my home network periodically for selected "updates".

Ransomware blueprints published on GitHub in the name of education

Mark 85

So his purpose was...???

I fail to see the purpose unless it's educating script kiddies. Being "open source" will allow someone or a group of someones to improve it. This just doesn't appear to be a good thing.

ICANN CEO will head off to private equity firm

Mark 85

That is one hell of a shopping list for "requirements".

Are they looking for a group of people? Or just the one who can BS so well that everyone will think this is the person? Obviously a job requirements list made by a dysfunctional committee where every member got to input their pet requirement.

Jimbo 'Wikipedia' Wales leads Lawrence Lessig's presidential push

Mark 85

Re: More hypocrisy from Jimmy Wales

You could Lessig and Wales go together like peaches and cream.

Yes, one could say that... but who'd want any?

Mark 85
Meh

A one-trick pony?

Does he have anything else that should be considered for his election? I don't see any policy statements regarding any real issues that affect the common voter. Snowball's chance in hell then of even getting a couple of paragraphs in a non-tech news site, much less even appearing on a ballot.

'I don't recognise Amazon as a bullying workplace' says Bezos

Mark 85

Re: HR is not there for the employees benefit

Right... you talk to HR about a personnel issue and are immediately marked as a "troublemaker".. soon enough, they will show you the door.

Hacking Team mulled stopping Ethiopia sales – because of idiot g-men

Mark 85

Google and advertising?

Adobe pays US$1.2M plus settlements to end 2013 breach class action

Mark 85

If we could just get a class action suit for Flash and kill that bastard once and for all, it might make things a little better... like security.

Microsoft replaces Windows 10 patch update, isn't saying why

Mark 85

Re: Redmond's not been super-responsive of late.

I think that's the understatement of the year.

Instagram spam - what the fuck???? I'm not a user!

Mark 85

I have no idea if they do verify to be honest. I don't use social networking as I think it's a waste of my time and privacy. I had to seize control of that one account and then closed it.

If you haven't checked, it's possible the account is still open and the info viewable.

Mark 85

I don't know if you got your problem solved, but some networks allow you to open an account and later change the email addy. That might be what happened here. They opened it using a throwaway account and then changed the email to yours. I had that happen years ago on MySpace by an ex... Never could prove it, but it sure did smell that way from some of the things that "I" supposedly posted.

Windows 10 growth flattens out to 30 per cent per week

Mark 85

Re: Microsoft commissioned survey?

If you go back to here: windows_xp_overtakes_81_in_december_stats the article states that they are sniffing web viewing traffic so yes, it's probably a bit imprecise, especially if one is blocking 3rd party cookies.

China shutters 50 websites for spreading explosion 'rumours'

Mark 85

If this were Mao's China...

... there would have been no press on this disaster. Anyone talking about it would never be heard from again. However, I do suspect the "missing" is a bit higher than being reported and in light of the de-contamination effort getting underway, the death toll might be higher also. Probably this is keep a panic from happening as there's also reports of "unknown" chemicals that were stored there.. IOW, they've lightened up control of the press a bit, but not allowing a US style media frenzy with all that brings on.

Mark 85

Re: Woah. Thank $DEITY for $REDACTED Freedom of the Press

No way they'd be a hero taking down the rich and powerful except by rudest accident - it would fail the believability test!

Only if they hadn't lived through Watergate.. If you did, this would probably be very believable.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Spanish summer soother salmorejo

Mark 85

Re: Why chop then blend?

Then instead of fresh, use a can (tin) of peeled tomatos. My lady who's pretty accomplished with the culinary arts thinks just drain off the liquid then as your blending add the liquid back to suit.

Mark 85

Here in the States where I am, it's about as hot as Spain. It's now chilling in the refrigerator and in about 3 hours, lunch!!!!!

We used a garlic bread (with chunks of garlic in it) and initial tasting before setting it aside to chill indicate this will be tasty and hit the spot.

Quick, easy to put together and not a lot of fussing. 5-stars Lester.

Hey, folks. Meet the economics 'genius' behind Jeremy Corbyn

Mark 85
Thumb Up

Re: You don't need a 150 IQ to have a custom icon as Anonymous Coward

I see that 1980's Coder strikes again. Well played sir!!!

You've been Drudged! Malware-squirting ads appear on websites with 100+ million visitors

Mark 85

Re: What if

I note that I'm seeing cookies and ads trying* to appear here on El Reg from Adspirit via Google. Let's be careful out there.....

I have most ads automatically blocked and the 3rd party cookies "prompted" just for curiosity. It's surprising the amount of crap that tries to get through.

Mark 85

Re: All your eyes are belong to us

Would this outlawing be considered the moral equivalent of watching commercial TV and forcing you to not go get a beer or make a bathroom run when a commercial comes on? Seems like it....

So why is the legislation "sorely needed" to ban ad-blockers? Stealing? Really, do explain...

I've seen Kaspersky slap his staff with a walrus penis – and even I doubt the false-positive claims

Mark 85

White hats, Black hats, and Grey hats...

This is a very troubling situation when thinking about it. The skills needed wear any of the hats make for interchangeable hats. Given their customer base, if this is true, Kaspersky is doomed. If untrue, there are those that will not believe... he still takes a hit.

Given that the allegations are coming from persons presumably inside Russia, getting to the real info is very problematical.

Er, uh ... sorry! Project Ara will not launch this year after all

Mark 85

History repeating itself?

I parse this article as Larry and Sergi are bored with it.

Would YOU make 400 people homeless for an extra $16m? Decision time in Silicon Valley

Mark 85

He's made his choice...

It sounds like the money got his attention and he's selling. Me, I'd either keep it or sell it to the county just to make a statement. Given the way governments run things however, if I had friends there or people I cared about, I wouldn't sell.

Boffins spot a SECOND JUPITER – the gas giant's baby sister

Mark 85

How many "second" Jupiters are there?

I've heard this a few times before... Should it be: "Jupiter-like"? or "another Jupiter type"? I guess even astronomers have use advertising tricks now and then.

US appeals court: Yes, Samsung ... sigh … you still have to pay Apple

Mark 85

Method to the madness?

They wrestle over peanuts in what they make in profit. Is this just something to keep their name in front of people? No such thing as bad press and all that? I have to wonder....

Kaspersky Lab denies tricking AV rivals into nuking harmless files

Mark 85

Re: I'm not buying this..

Go back to the early days of Kaspersky. There was a virus that no one else had caught and suddenly this "unknown" company in Russia hit the mainstream media headlines about detecting it. There was a lot of suspicion in the IT world that Kaspersky created it, launched it on the world, then announced that they "spotted it" and were able to "protect" you from it. A rather nasty critter that virus as I recall.

But then, the whole industry has had rumors of similar shenanigans...

Ex-SAP director: I bribed govt officials to seal the deals on software

Mark 85

In some parts of the world, bribe (or gratuities, perhaps) are normal.

Just seems to me that sometimes, bribes are what gets things done in some parts. I knew a field service type, who when he went into certain places had to pay a "gratuity" to get his tools through customs. Parts had to have a "handling fee" paid. In all cases, the fees disappeared into the custom's guys pocket. I guess it's one of "amount of money" or "ensuring the contract with no problems" that creates the legal problem....

EU clears UK to give £50m to SABRE space launcher engine

Mark 85

Any chance...

LOHAN can hitch a ride? There's got to be a way to get thing airborne.. err... spaceborne.

BOFH: Why, I LOVE work courses. Please tell me more, o wise one!

Mark 85

Team Building..... fond memories....

We had an exercise involving "disaster recovery".. a surprise exercise by manglement.

The phone rings, and a voice "A plane has crashed into your building. Tell us what you will do to resume operations."

Me: "Where did the plane hit?" "How big a plane?"

Them: "Middle of the building, a 737". (It should be noted that our building was next to the airport.)

Me: "Don't care. I'm dead. <click>".

10 minutes later.. <ring> "You know this is an exercise and the whole team is waiting to help?".

"I'm dead. Send in the morgue team <click>"

This went on for another half an hour before they figured out they'd picked a) the wrong scenario and b)the wrong guy to play games.

PALE, MALE AND STALE: Apple reveals it has just ONE black exec

Mark 85

Re: Only one black exec.

She used to work for HP then?

Mark 85

@disgruntled yank -- Re: I don't like Apple...

No... it's about hot dogs... wieners on a bun.

Riddle solved: Do bears crap in the woods? No – they're stressing out over drones instead

Mark 85

@Graham Marsden --- Re: Escalation needed

You got it wrong. We only have the right to bear arms. The rest of the bear we have no right to.

Flying Spaghetti Monster spotted off Angolan coast

Mark 85

Re: Heretics!

Where the sole's go?

Filleted and then sautéed gently in butter.

Mark 85

They think they know what it is...

...but can they really be sure? What if they are wrong? I for one welcome His Noodly Goodness.

China laments 'wild guesses and malicious slurs' on state hacking

Mark 85

The only country not guilt of spying is...

the one that hasn't been caught. Everyone does it and then there's the hubris of our government here in the States by not practicing good security. I guess the guy at the top figured no one would dare break into government systems on his watch. Or he's total idiot and figured no one would break the law? And by "he" I don't just mean the "O" guy.. but the whole administration since their his picks.

OTOH, for China to claim innocence reminds of the kid with chocolate all over his face and hands denying he took the chocolate candy. Every country is doing it...

Australian court slaps down Hollywood's speculative invoices

Mark 85

I'm gathering that they're not going to get as much money as they wanted since 2 of the 4 "billings" were tossed out... I think the judge is being very reasonable and wish we had more of his ilk here in the States.

BTW, wasn't this the firm that was seeding torrents with their film? I might be wrong.

Gazan medico team 3D-prints world-leading stethoscope for 30c

Mark 85

Re: Am I just too pessimistic?

It's not that the existing gear is crap, it's that old problem of "profit" and no incentive to make it better. One hell of a markup on these things and no need to do R&D as the medicos take what they can get.

Whirling dervishes of blade and robot? FCC reaches for rubberstamp

Mark 85

Somewhere there's a groundskeeper...

who trying to keep within budget will not realize the problem and order a system to maintain the grounds around the radio telescopes...

SEC: Ukrainian hackers' investment fraud ring raked in millions in 'unprecedented' hack

Mark 85
Pirate

Instead of platitudes maybe felony charges for the C-Suiters...

Complacency in security should be a felony for the C-Suiters, IMO. This was going on for an awful long time for them to say they take security seriously. So either they were complacent or someone was getting paid off to fiddle with logs, etc. and look the other way.

And yes, this goes for Target, Home Depot, Sony, et al, and then there's OPM. The ones at the top of the food chain making the big bucks and bonuses and who's decision is final, should be accountable.

Perhaps a law here or there on this, and then some large personal fines and jail time will change the corporate (and government) views and actions on security. But we all know, the lobbyists and governmental department heads will never let this happen.

Icon... because the C-Suiters are abetting real piracy... and not IP.

Apple tries to patent facial recognition

Mark 85

Nope... too individualized. Get a set of those glasses with the nose and moustache attached. If we all do it, every mobe and cctv will ID all of us as Groucho Marx.

Google flubs patch for Stagefright security bug in 950 million Androids

Mark 85

Hmm....

My Samsung tries to contact AT&T for an update and comes back with "no connection". Been that way for years. I guess I'll never know....

Huge explosion kills 44+ in China, blasts nearby supercomputer offline

Mark 85

Re: Mark 85

They may have. Reading elsewhere, I'm seeing the "controlled" or "detained". I suspect means a "re-education camp" in someone's future.

NSA: Here’s $300,000, people. Go build us a safer Internet of Things

Mark 85
Devil

Re: Hmmm

Nah.. they want to eliminate the stuff that would waste their time... IoT stuff apparently would just add to the data burden to be sifted through.

ZUCK OFF: Facebook nixes internship after student embarrasses firm

Mark 85

Real issue?

I think the real issue is that FB was pissed that they couldn't hang on to this data for themselves and their ad partners. Now that it's in the wild, any and all can scrape it and by-pass the FB money machine.

Assange™ is 'upset' that he WON'T be prosecuted for rape, giggles lawyer

Mark 85

Re: WTF?

The Swedes wanted to interview him in the embassy... that would have been a start. As it is, with charges being dropped now and possibly in the future, the embassy may say the reason for his asylum will evaporate. Which will lead to his bail problem...

I can believe he's unhappy... he'll have a tough time to play martyr card now.

Cheers, Bill Gates. Who wouldn't want drinking water made from POO?

Mark 85

Re: Not too long ago

Go back in history a bit.. say.. to the late 1700's. It was common for British naval ships to load up on provisions (including water for cooking) and then the following was usual: "and all the beer you can carry". Think it was for crew funtimes? It wasn't.

Apple's AirDrop abused by 'cyber-flashing' London train perv

Mark 85

Pity...

It's a pity that Adobe Flash wasn't involved in this. The headline would have been excellent.

Mark 85

Re: Or...

Now that is probably the sanest idea I've heard in quite awhile. <upvote>

We use a similar ploy around our house... if "unknown caller" or the area code is suspect, we answer the phone "FBI Field Office". When a live person is there, we usually hear a gasp followed by a hang-up.

Drone racing sells robot soul to Mammon with launch of racing league

Mark 85

Re: Sir

You noticed that also... Just amazing the Hollywood style explosions from this.