* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

SPY FRY: Smart meters EXPLODE in Californian power surge

Mark 85

Cue the Lawsuits...

This is California afterall.... I guess those folks should count themselves lucky they didn't have "smart" gas meters as well. They would have ended up with more than just a few blackened sockets.

Mark 85

"whatever happened to old fashioned thinking?"

One doesn't have to think anymore. Just ask Siri and she'll tell all.

Snowden didn't scare many out of US clouds says Forrester

Mark 85

Secure & Cloud

I'm not sure those can actually be used together as in "our cloud is secure". Questions should be raised... secure from whom? Yes, the US has a problem because of Snowden. One of the problems this leads to is "what about other countries?". So, other than the US, we really don't know what any country is doing to clouds hosted in any particular place.

It's very much a false sense of secuirity to move your data to the cloud or even from provider to provider with out actually knowing who's getting access.

Perhaps I need a tinfoil hat here, but I would never recommend that any company put its data out there. Even with all the malware and idiot employees who will open any email (and answer "yes" to "xxx wants to install. Allow?", this just opens up another venue to attack that is outside of the corporate IT security's hands.

V&A Museum shows Guardian's destroyed MacBook as ART

Mark 85

Re: me

Gentle words has never worked for me. I find that threatening to turn them into a boat anchor usually brings them inline pretty quick.

Google cracks down on browser ad injectors after shocking study

Mark 85

Re: Not only with Chrome either.

The "Do Not Track Me" in any browser is worthless as probably 95% of the websites ignore it anyway. Those damn ads are hard to get rid of... maybe we should start nuking the agencies from space.

Power, internet access knackered in London after exploding kit burps fire into capital's streets

Mark 85

Probably had a truck load of cat pics to upload to Farcbook.

Boris Johnson backs trade union campaign to ungag civil servants

Mark 85

Look on the bright side...

At least your PM's don't toss around some religious fluff about a 6,000 year old universe and the sky fairy blesses their misdeeds. Hmmm... can we trade? Congress for Parliament and will toss in a couple of Cabinet officers to sweeten the deal.

Mystery 'Explosive' cyber-spy campaign traced back to Lebanon

Mark 85

Lebanon.. really... Who'd a thunk it? But if Nigeria can have spammers, I guess Lebanon can have cyber attackers. Who will be attacking everyone next? Nepal?

Barry Obama declares national emergency over foreign hackers

Mark 85

Re: The opposite situation

Bah... doesn't apply to me then. I was born before then never go the EULA. However, now that you spoke of it, will you be getting a change of address to small island 90 miles from Florida?

Mark 85

Crock or...?

I'm stretching here, but there's something that just doesn't feel right. Maybe it's the explanations that should be in the order but aren't and were "clarified"...<spun?> by Monaco? If the limits are not in the order than there are no limits no matter what an advisor says.

Go, daddy, go: GoDaddy shares rocket 30% in value at IPO

Mark 85

From the Twitter picture, I'm at a loss why she's wearing a cow's udder on her head. Very strange company obviously.

Nuclear waste spill: How a pro-organic push sparked $240m blunder

Mark 85

Re: Fast Integral Reactor.

Moon/Sun. Never sure if people are seriously when they suggest stuff like this but on the offchance I always like to point out what happens when rockets go bang in the atmosphere. Doubt many Floridians would like highly reactive waste raining doing on their houses and half the Atlantic coast.

The real reason for not doing it is economics. The spent waste is dense and the shielding just as bad. At the price per pound to launch, it's just too expensive.

ESA reveals Rosetta's snaps of MARS and EARTH

Mark 85

Re: Good One!

Follow the link in the article. They're there and appear real.

It's the FALKLANDS SYNDROME! Fukushima MELTDOWN to cause '10,000 Chernobyls' in South Atlantic

Mark 85

Re: TYhe real tragedy is that ...

I'm waiting for Faux News to pick up on this... then Congress will be in an uproar followed by various agencies mobilizing to deal with those Japanese terrorists who started this whole mess.

Thanks for the data retention, tech sector

Mark 85

I think you might be right, even though that phase has been around and eon (or so it seems). Politics doesn't seem to draw the noble minded folk or at least let them attain any "rank" within the party like it supposedly once did. Those are not corrupt, obviously don't have the power nor want it. Those that have the power want more.

It's the same way here, the "leaders" (as they like to call themselves) set the stage for the rest to fall into line. Which is a big part of the divisiveness in the US Congress. The concepts of compromise and rationality have gone by the wayside. I believe that was once called statesmanship. Although there is the reality that many were not much different then what we have now.

Sidenote: I wonder if this conversation will lead to stay in Gitmo for us? Or at least a visit by some guys driving a black SUV?

Mark 85

Dan,

I seriously believe the old statement about "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely". We're living in a time when that has become very true. I'm of the age where I should be sitting back in my easy chair and yelling back at the TV, but instead, I fear for those younger than I. I believe that at some point, they (collectively) will hopefully open their eyes and realize that those of us raising our voices were right. But I fear it may be too late. I guess I'm still a dreamer in that I have hope and that things will turn around. That freedom isn't just a meaningless word is more important than corporate greed or political power. Security does come at a price.. you either give up freedom or you have to be vigilant to protect freedom. This isn't something that politicians will do for you. As long as there's some hope, there is some freedom.

Yes, there are those who would trade their freedom (not just political, but thoughts, jobs, even lifestyle) for security or at least the false sense of security. They and those who crave power will be the ones shouting us down.

Mark 85

Re: That's not the answer Mark

You are correct on the media. Here in the States they play very much into the left-sided or right-sided thinking when it suits them*. And all of it comes from politics. Trending is more important real journalism. The Constitution only means something to them if they are threatened or if suits them*.

Funny, my dad always said what Douglas Adams said... "Find the guy who doesn't want the job and give it to him. He'll do it right."

*i.e.: it sells newspapers or get clicks.

Mark 85

I am just emptied of fight. I know that's what they want but there's only so much that scattered, concerned individuals can do.

You just answered your own question. The politicians know that we in IT who are concerned are scattered and not a majority. The agencies know where we live and work. Right now, we're sort of like flies... not worth the trouble to go after. The vast majority of folks either feel like their voice doesn't matter, or they like the warm, fuzzy the politicians and agencies are keeping us secure and "thinking of the children".

At some point, the house of cards may crumble and they'll point to us in IT and say "see... there's the problem." They are past masters of the blame game and in that game, they will win, we will lose.

At some point, they'll just wear us down and their perfect world and state will be in place. Unless, the majority of the populace stop playing with their shiny toys and look around... then there will be a chance. Keep questioning and fighting. It's people like you, myself and others who do this that keep us from falling fast into the pit. And if it does fall over, we can still hold our heads up in the knowledge that we were free and we fought with the tools we had.

US still hoarding zero-day app vulnerabilities, say EFF campaigners

Mark 85

Re: EFF is pointless

You came close there but have an upvote anyway... NATO at least has some military might. This is more like the UN stomping their feet and shouting: "Hey.. you over there. Stop that war. Do you hear us? We're condemning you!".

Verizon: FINE OK, you can now rid your life of our stalker supercookies

Mark 85

Simples... that would require ethics instead of greed to paramount emotion of the stockholders and the board.

This one weird trick deletes any YouTube flick in just a few clicks

Mark 85

It's almost a pity that he didn't take up a collection to kill off the Bieber channel.... But then we'd have hordes of screaming teenie boppers and teenie bopper wannabees screaming for his head.

Good catch on the vuln, though.

Cross-dressing blokes storm NSA HQ: One shot dead, one hurt

Mark 85

Re: Risk

Or maybe there were people who believed whatever they were doing was worth risking their lives for?

We don't have many of them left these days...

Actually we do. There's several groups in the sandy lands who embrace the possibility.

Mark 85

Re: Too soon

"At that point we are essentially a continent-sized gated community for relatively rich humans."

Sadly, many Americans are ready for that to happen. They will trade everything for the security of getting their hands on the latest bling, making the latest FB post, and watching inane TV programming. It probably goes back to the 60's war protesting and "thinking of the children"...

They'll give (not sell) their souls for a "happy moment" and not want to think of what's out there in the real world or in even next door. The <fill in LEA of choice> will protect us they scream. They want it all but aren't willing to stand for anything.

Personally, I'd rather die standing for what I believe in and being able to taste freedom of thought then cowering in the corner waiting for some "agency" to protect me. Or waiting on (as some fruitcakes have said) 'the inate goodness in people not to do evil".

I'm not perfect, I don't own a gun. I'm considered a "senior citizen" but I do what I want (without breaking laws) and as long as agencies and people don't stick their uninvited noses in what I do, I'm happy because I don't stick my nose in their business. In the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, I don't need some agency watching me make sure that if I swing my arm, I won't smack you in the nose.

If you believe that trading everything (and give some serious thought to the concept of "everything" because that's what's at stake) for security and want to live an a world of fear.... feel free and downvote away...

Think server vulns are the IT department's problem? Think again

Mark 85

Re: Aviation

Much like using CCTV's' for physical security. It's not about catching things in the act, it's about the fallout afterwards. In someways this is proper and right and in other ways, it's very bad. Periodically going over the logs is a good idea just as having someone eyeball the tapes (even if just in fast forward) is a good idea. Just because an alarm wasn't tripped doesn't mean that something "not good" is going on.

Encryption is the REAL threat – Head Europlod

Mark 85

The Catch-22 of it all - The price of freedom isn't "free"

Anyone got a dollar so we can buy these guys a clue?

So encryption is bad... yet encryption is mandated by government for certain business (health care, for one). And communications in many businesses via email are supposed to be encrypted. Yet.. we might have a terrorist cell operating that has one member or two working in such a place.... Smart companies encrypt everything including the server data and all email.

The bad guys on the Net don't appear to be the terrorists, it's those who want the data for their purposes (profit!) be it the Cryptolocker types or the hijackers such as the Sony, Anthem, Target types.

Sure... encryption can go away...only when you can guarantee that no one will ever steal data, hijack a companies servers/POS or randomly grab emails looking for info for ID theft. It can also go away when you can guarantee us that we will never be spied on because "you can". Or that innocent people will never be accused of wrong doing because someone cherry-picked an email. Protect us from that and maybe encryption will not be 100% needed.

Snakes on a backplane: Server-room cabling horrors

Mark 85

Re: 'The more computers you have, the more cables you need'

There are times when discretion is the better part of valor (or valour). This would be one of them.

Microsoft update mayhem delays German basketball game, costs team dear

Mark 85

Since they are a professional team, I'm thinking there's more to that scoreboard than score, fouls, time remaining. Maybe fancy graphics and music? Oh... and ads.. gotta' have the ads.

Ding Dong, ALIENS CALLING

Mark 85

Re: Don't they know anything?

It might very well real right now. Just not in our part of the universe. Hmm... or maybe not this universe....

Motorola Mobility loses another patent suit to über-troll Intellectual Ventures

Mark 85

Ah...patent trolls...

When is open season on them? Will a varmint hunting permit be enough?

Pre-Snowden NSA grunts wanted to nix phone spying: report

Mark 85

Re: Convenient Escape

Could be.. could be not. We don't know what the guys at the top think. Nor do we know if Congress is rational or just flat out of their minds. And by that I mean "have they lost touch with reality?" "Do they seriously believe this stops terrorism?" "Do really believe this doesn't go against the Constitution?"

Google plans ROBOTS to SLICE YOU OPEN AND CUT YOU UP

Mark 85
Alert

with the kind of supporting sentence that can only be crafted by the dead hand of investor relations.

Almost... they missed "synergies" and "shareholder value"....

There's also the question of information organisation: surgeons often need multiple screens in the operating room so they can check medical images, look over the results of previous surgery, and help navigate the patient's anatomy.

No ads then? Or tracking of the patient? Hmmm... this is so un-Google-like. Is the world coming to an end we haven't heard?

Anti-gay Indiana starts backtracking on hated law after tech pressure

Mark 85

Re: Inconsistent

It's very inconsistent. If I went to a Jewish delicatessen and insisted (by invoking the current laws) that they had to serve me a pork sandwich because the law said they couldn't discriminate, I'd be literally tar and feathered by both the right and left. Or what about a Muslim going into a restaurant and demanding (followed by a lawsuit) over the restaurant's lack Halal?

It works both ways... or should. Businesses shouldn't be allowed to discriminate on customers and vice versa.

Feds cuffed for allegedly PILFERING Silk Road drug souk's Bitcoins

Mark 85

Appeal?

I'm sure there's some sort of an appeal DPR's attorney(s) are working with this revelation. Possibly tainted evidence? Credibility of the investigators? If they file, it should be entertaining.

OTOH, what kind of idiot steals almost a million and then hangs around the crime scene?

NASA to take MARTIAN FLYING SAUCER for a spin

Mark 85
Flame

Pity LOHAN can't hitch a ride on the balloon.... Icon for the rocket flame ---->

Virgin Media takes its time on website crypto upgrade

Mark 85

Websites and Corporate IT Security

There's been a pile of articles on this lately and it boils down to: doesn't matter. There's no downside to not improving security. Even the cost of fixing the hack at Sony was a drop in the bucket and much covered by insurance. Same goes for Target and the other retailers. They don't care because improving their security costs more money then they would lose from a hack.

Just WALK IN and buy an Apple Watch. Are you mad?

Mark 85
Trollface

They're obviously missing out on all the free publicity about the lines for days before the release and the mad queue trying in the door. But, this maybe this is intentional since El Reg covers these events also? Hmm....

Short circuit at Large Hadron Collider slows return to matter-mauling

Mark 85
Coat

Re: At last!

As long as they don't cross the beams, all will be well....

Apple is like HITLER says Chinese billionaire

Mark 85

Apple controls it's ecosystem. China controls it's ecosystem. Both seem to rule with an iron fist.

Mark 85

The CEO's trying to make a point that Apple exercises very rigid control over its ecosystem, to the exclusion of all contenders and therefore to the detriment of consumers.

And China doesn't exercise that kind of control over it's own populace? <rolls eyes> Ok.. sure...

Opportunity suffers another flash-memory 'amnesia' moment

Mark 85

As I told my boss*, "just because you have senior moments, doesn't mean you can't do the work....". I don't tell him that only applies if he were on Mars.

*He's a pretty good boss and I'd hate to see what they'd replace him with.

Yahoo! and! Microsoft! extend! tricky! search! deal! talks! by! 30! days!

Mark 85
Facepalm

I see the problem....

Yahoo! search uses Bing... I guess Yahoo! is run by yahoos who don't understand that.

Frayed British Airways plays down mega hack attack on frequent flyer accounts

Mark 85

An Outrage I tell You....

No canned pronouncement about how customer privacy is "very important to us"... I'm shocked!!!!

Dino-boffins discover ancient, TOOTHY-CLAWED, four-eyed MONSTER LOBSTER

Mark 85

Re: Weird thought

They appear to be rather tiny.. maybe 10 cm - 12 cm from the photos in the article. I'm guessing they were the crayfish (crawdads) of that period. It would take a bunch to make a dinner. Yeah... we'll never know if they were better broiled and dipped in butter or boiled in some Cajun hot sauce....

Apple's Tim Cook and Salesforce's Marc Benioff DECLARE WAR on anti-gay Indiana

Mark 85

You're right.. But lately the application has been, shall we say, misguided. Go wander about certain places in the middle east and profess to be a follower of the prophet Jesus and see what happens. Discrimination is applied rather harshly there.

Mark 85

Re: Ban Craigness for freedom's sake

Hmm.... on the one hand, everyone wants tolerance. On the other, banish for expressing a viewpoint. If you don't like what he says, either refute it or don't read it. Sort of like dealing with trolls.... but in this case, I'm not sure he's trolling.

Mark 85

I take exception. Corporates are not people, they are businesses. I don't believe any corporation should be involved in politics or interpreting the Constitution as to rights, etc. Just because it might be the right thing to do in this case, can anyone guarantee that for the next thing?

Part of the reason we're in the mess we're in now is due to politics and business and also politics and religion. Those mixes are bad news for those who get in the way and it's generally the people.

While I'm on a rant.... those who want to practice this discrimination, etc... are they really that much better than those who want Sharia Law? I see the same narrow-mindedness in both groups.

Yeah... I'm a dreamer.

Building a better society from the Czechs' version of Meccano

Mark 85

Re: And....

So "fair use" doesn't apply over there? Hmmm.... all the IP swapping/stealing/borrowing and for a bit of free publicity you couldn't link to it in the article? Strange civilization we live in these days.

Exercising with chocolate: Festival and tours galore

Mark 85
Thumb Up

Re: Before anybody starts

The article has chocolate and IT content.... what could be better? Except maybe my being near one of those tours instead of half a world away....

Big Data will shield the Apple Watch from Android onslaught

Mark 85

It goes back to "what's a watch do"? After it tells you time and maybe temperature, day of the week, maybe an alarm function what's next. Ok, this one let's you be Dick Tracy or a Secret Service wannabee talking into your wrist. It does some heart monitoring. After that.... we don't know since there's been no real "killer app". Big data may determine that app but for everything else, pretty much your phone can do it.

Ok.. Siri is a different critter as well as real-time info on things around your location. But that's really a job for the smartphone with a bigger screen. Or maybe something similar to Google Glass.

Until that killer app comes around, this watch is just a piece of eyewash. The trick will be finding that killer app AND some functionality (communication method) that will unlock the potential of big data, etc. without needing the smartphone as a go-between.

Easy come, easy go: Euro astroboffins blast brace of Galileo sats INTO SPAAACE

Mark 85

Re: free

Just like the American version that's "free"... the taxpayers will pay and pay and pay.