* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

VP Mike Pence: I want Americans back on the Moon by 2024 (or before the Chinese get there)

Mark 85

Re: Lead the way

The problem is we need to add to the list and sort out who goes first. It's going to be a loooonnnnggg list.

But we hired a consultant, cries UK pensions biz as it swallows £40k fine for 2 million spam emails

Mark 85

Fines are pointless

Unless the law and the fine has some teeth, they are just another cost of doing business. What would be wrong with the fine being equal to some nicely rounded number like one dollar (US) or one pound (Brit) for each email sent? True, most spammers would quickly declare bankruptcy and re-open with a new name next week, but it's a start. But if applied to the company using the spam service was also fined an equal amount, it might make a dent.

UK pr0n viewers plan to circumvent smut-block measures – survey

Mark 85

Re: Porn is too widely available

The government might just as effectively create a new law that bans climate change.

Well, some country probably will. I'm thinking the US currently since it's a big selling point for certain politicians who are in denial and catering to their religious base*. The race to the bottom (so to speak) is well under way and this is just angle that hasn't been picked up by all the major players.

*Which, as per normal, they will work around any restrictions. Applies to both the elected and those who vote. Got to keep up appearances you know.

Autonomy trial judge gets SaaSy with HPE's lawyer over vital accounts fraud claim

Mark 85

Curiouser and curiouser

Why would HPE sue Autonomy and not also sue the accountants who supposedly did the "due diligence"? As for writing off the "lost" money, they got a nice tax break in return. Then again, I'm not an accountant nor a lawyer.

Ethiopian Airlines boss confirms suspect flight software was in use as Boeing 737 Max crashed

Mark 85

Re: Why not just disable the system and put the planes back in the air?

We know by now that the planes CAN fly without the sensor and its attempted automatic corrections -- and probably fly safer without it -- so why not disable it and get them back in the air?

MCAS is/was a bandaid, a patch. Kill it and what else is waiting for the unsuspecting? If we believe the reports in the media, this whole plane is basically cobbled together, training is minimal. Since the cost of training is an issue with the airlines bottom line, it's being cut. Even this "patch" was an option that more than a few airlines didn't buy.

Mark 85

I have this gut feeling that they may get it right..."may" being the key word. But I do feel bad about all the airlines and their customers being caught up in this mess. Once Boeing gets the fix and any hardware, it will not be an overnight task to install it.

The thing is for the $80,000 they wanted for the "upgrade" should have been a standard item on all the aircraft. I guess profits and marketing run things and not engineers. I would hope that some governments take an interest in looking at the certifications and that Boeing task some heavy hits to stock value, the board, and the upper manglement. Yeah.. wishful thinking on my part.

HPE lawyers claim Autonomy chief Lynch knew all about 'revenue-pumping' carousel

Mark 85

Unlike the current occupant, this one will probably has the cash (lots of it!).

And perhaps showers more frequently.

Techies take turns at shut-down top trumps

Mark 85

Re: The same problem every time

Err.... I think they will still happen. Management wants to save a few dollars. Server rooms get re-configured (but the switches aren't moved). And the mindset that "no one will ever press a red button on the wall unless it's an emergency". In one place I know of, there's something like 8 switches. Four of them have had the cabling removed, the other four haven't. The catch is, none are marked as to "active" or "inactive" and none are covered. Bump or touch one at your peril.

The only real solution is to label the darn switches... "lights", "Emergency Power Kill', etc. Even a a bit of paper and taped to wall will work.

Intel gets court order telling former engineer to return confidential docs in Micron row

Mark 85

I don't understand why they insist on getting the files back. It's not like they couldn't have been copied and passed along. Nor is it like a piece of hardware or say, jewelry. This sounds like some sort of revenge tactic at best.

Not quite the Bake Off they were expecting: Canadian seniors served weed-infused brownies

Mark 85

Re: several people needed medical attention

If needing to be calmed down is what happened then they weren't doing it right.

Mark 85

Re: Hang on a minute ....

I am being very careful as I'm one of a certain age also and in the next state south of you. Shall we sing a chorus of "Don't Bogart That Joint"?

Mark 85

The rest probably just felt a bit groovy, put on some modern jazz and came up with an answer to what lies beyond the visible universe, the origins of Dark Matter and, of course, a solution to Brexit's Irish "backstop".

Also perhaps lying on the floor and seeing the cosmos in the process. Given the age group, probably uttering "wow", "far out", and "groovy" which they haven't uttered in probably 40 years or more. The concept of a 'love in" does create a need for mind bleach however.

Google sparks online outcry after its currency converter goes haywire for third time this year

Mark 85

Re: I don't think that smell is from the fish...

Are you thinking it's intentional for perhaps corporate money laundering or some like that? Ah the smell of dead fish in the morning... it smells like profit!

Facebook's at it again: Internal emails show it knew about Cambridge Analytica abuse 'months' before news broke

Mark 85

Re: I'm guessing there are some other large data....

Its work culture is fundamentally broken with top executives making it plain that the company will obfuscate, mislead, block and bully before they even consider telling the truth – and that culture attracts more of the same..

This statement pretty much sums up the online tech businesses of which you've given a few prime examples and can apply to almost if not all of them. It's also bled over into other businesses. "Screw the users/customers, we want profit!" is the mantra of business. Ethics seem to only a course in college that everyone sleeps through.

Chap joins elite support team, solves what no one else can. Is he invited back? Is he f**k

Mark 85

Re: not neccessarily very good at brown-nosing...

Usually, I've noticed they're crap at doing the job, but My God are they quick at spotting a trend!

Tech isn't their strong point. Office politics is though. Manglement sits in their office and listens to the politic players as the ones doing the work at the coal face are to busy doing their jobs instead of sucking up.

Top personnel general joined Capita months after firm won its Army recruiting IT contract

Mark 85

Re: No different than in Trumpland

Don't blame him. The gravy train has been running along since about the founding of the US. It's just been since WWII that things have been finely honed with this.

Mark 85

Re: Lobbying and corruption in the defence industry

In other words... the good-old-boy mode of operation is still in effect and doing very well. Is there any government where this does not happen? Any agency of any government?

TV piracy ring walks the plank after Euro cops launch 14 raids and shutter 11 data centres

Mark 85

Re: whack a mole

One of the basic parts of the problem not mentioned is the money the sports teams and leagues charge TV netwroks for coverage. Massive sums change hands.

Autopilot engineer drove off to Chinese rival with our top-secret blueprints in the glovebox, Tesla claims in sueball

Mark 85

"China remains the world’s principal IP infringer, driven by an industrial policy that continues to prioritize both acquisition and development of science and technology."

The only IP China recognizes is Chinese and thus only citizens can file and own IP in China. Same for copyright. Stealing from any other country isn't a crime in China and so they just shrug it off and carry on. With this type of theft, once the info/data is in China, it's unrecoverable and can be used by any Chinese company for a slight fee to the "owner".

Super-crook admits he nicked $122m from Facebook, Google by sending staff fake invoices for tech kit

Mark 85

"Facebook recovered the bulk of the funds shortly after the incident and has been cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation."

Funny that the only time they (and probably Google) "co-operate with law enforcement, etc. is when they're a victim. Unlike when they sell everyone's brother, sister, mother, father and family dog details to the highest bidder.

Let's spin Facebook's Wheel of Misfortune! Clack-clack-clack... clack... You've won '100s of millions of passwords stored in plaintext'

Mark 85

Re: Since FB had already reached the 9th level of WTF

How much lower can it realistically go?

Not sure you really want to know. Just when one thinks things are as low as they can go, the elevator drops another floor.

Mark 85

Re: Oh what I could say...

This doesn't surprise me and they should be sued or fined for this.

That won't change a thing. They have a) lots of lawyers to ensure that any lawsuit never gets settled and b) the fines would be pocket change for them. Nuke all their data centers from orbit might be the only way to stop them.

Kaspersky Lab takes bite out of Apple in Russia over borked parental controls app

Mark 85

Re: A bit different...

The issue here is that the OS vendors is also the store owner and they don't want users having the option to use a third-party product.

That's only part of the problem. The other part is it's the only store in town, so to speak, that Apple users can use. There might be another one or two outside of Apple but the average user won't know about them.

Brit Police Federation cops to ransomware attack on HQ systems

Mark 85

I daresay that almost all of will agree with that. Funny how they blow off citizens and companies with this happening but when it hits them.....

What we probably need for LEA's to take a deeper interest is for something like Parliament's or the US Congress offices to be hit.

'It's full of beer!' Miracle fridge reveals itself to pals tuckered out from cleaning flooded cabin

Mark 85

Re: Since when...

If that's all that's available then "yes, it's beer". I was in a place a long time ago where the question was "Is Carling Black Label" beer? Since is was the only beverage available, it was indeed beer but only until the real beers became available. You take what you can get.

Mark 85
Pint

Re: Beer Gods must have a sense of humor

Desperate times require desperate measures and a lowering of standards. This was one of them.

Carolina coward fesses up: I was a tech support scambag, and I made millions out of defrauding the elderly

Mark 85

Re: I only hope he never bursts into flames

In that case, just piss on his hands to preserve the fingerprints. It'll help the coroner ID the body.

I do wonder how they managed to con that much money per computer though. Around here that would buy you a computer from the local shop and they would capture as much data as they could off the hard drive if it were actually broken. All of them would check the problem computer first, remove the planted scumbag software and return after doing a complete checkup and update if needed (they do ask first) for around $50 to $100.

Our Skyborg (actual US govt program) will be just like IBM Watson, beams Air Force bod

Mark 85

Re: Loyal Wingman

I wonder what all the Loyal Wingmen are meant to do if/when their boss F-35 goes supersonic and vanishes over the horizon. Mutiny?

Perhaps they will just chug along until they catch up and find the F-35 that was shot down because "no wingman". More than likely they'll just wander off and wonder what to do next. Me, cynical? Nah....

New Zealand cops cuff alleged jackasses who shared mosque murder video, messages online

Mark 85

Governments have been exploring ways of clamping down on the population. Everything from pulling the plug on the internet locally to arresting dissenters. The last has been going on for decades in some countries.

So this state of affairs doesn't surprise me. It appalls me that they'd use jail time, etc. I do believe that perhaps it is time to rethink things. The evening news has history with showing the most horrendous things but usually (in the past) censored things like bodies and the actual killing for broadcast. In this case, I think the kneejerk is bad thing since they don't censor the stuff coming out of ISIS for example.

Somehow banning one thing and not all things like this is not right nor a good thing. The context in which it is presented though, is another matter.

Dead LAN's hand: IT staff 'locked out' of data center's core switch after the only bloke who could log into it dies

Mark 85
Devil

Nah... if it's one of those just contact the nearest Chinese embassy. I'm sure they'd be glad to help out.

Mark 85

Re: All right, what's all this, then?!

I don't think an audit will solve the problem... It might have prevented it but it's too late now. Maybe the answers are on the mysterious #4 server as I've known at least one admin who kept a server "hidden" for emergencies. Turned out to have config info, some nasty info on manglement, and a pile of server and network scripts.

Vengeful sacked IT bod destroyed ex-employer's AWS cloud accounts. Now he'll spent rest of 2019 in the clink

Mark 85

Voova should take some heat here...

Apparently they didn't have any backups of the data since the critical data was "lost". Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Could OpenAI's 'too dangerous to release' language model be used to mimic you online? Yes, says this chap: I built a bot to prove it

Mark 85

Re: Keeping things unreleased hinders research

Be careful and afraid of what you wish for. Imagine for a moment that it's used to impersonate a politician.

Wondering why 'Devin Nunes herp-face' was trending online? Here's the 411: House rep sues Twitter for all the rude stuff tweeted about him

Mark 85

Re: @HVC

Rats... my apologies for a brain fart. In defense, both houses of Congress are filled with the same types.

Silence of the WANs: FBI DDoS-for-hire greaseball takedowns slash web flood attacks 'by 11%'

Mark 85

Re: Good news, but there is lots more work to be done here.

Well, for the US that might be a good thing? But somewhere, somehow, the IoT crap should be required to be locked down which won't happen at least in our lifetime.

In a humiliating climbdown, Facebook agrees to follow US laws

Mark 85

Re: Dear Facebook,

Interesting concept but as other suggest, in this case Google is your goto. I have to admit after listening to friends that FB isn't very good at targeting, period. One local realtor I know complained that his ads were seen all over the country instead of just his target (local) market. Understandable since he's getting billed for every ad shown.

Mark 85

Re: Laugh of the day

Sort of like "trusting politicians" or maybe lawyers then? I daresay the only one's who trust Facebook are the clueless.

Super Cali optimistic right-to-repair's negotious, even though Apple thought it was something quite atrocious

Mark 85

I have one also but then, there's a portion of the buyer-brigade that doesn't care about "new and shiny". We want value for product and that includes a life time longer than a battery.

The way the market is headed these days, if you need a spark plug change on a car, it'll be cheaper to just buy a car.

Mark 85

Re: Next on the list

I've been expecting it to go the other way with even more restrictions. Maybe the lobbyists will join forces and buy the FTC? I have hope (slim but still...) that the states and if need be, the Feds will do the right thing unlike what they've been doing to consumers of late.

Sorry, Linux. We know you want to be popular, but cyber-crooks are all about Microsoft for now

Mark 85

Re: Oi! Keep quiet

That used to be said about Apple's boxen... While not in high numbers of exploits like Windows, they are getting their share of them. So don't be smug as Linux hasn't garnered enough attention yet from the black hats.

Boeing big cheese repeats pledge of 737 Max software updates following fatal crashes

Mark 85

So they're going to rush out a patch? What could go wrong?

Let's ask Microsoft about this? They probably know.

Mark 85

Re: Criminal Negligence and/or Corporate Malfeasance? Those are a Rock and a Hard Place

Engineers, maybe. Or not. Executives and/or board members... definitely not.

Mark 85

Re: Lifts the veil on aviation ...

In theory, even auto drivers should have a training period as different cars have different characteristics. Truck drivers already do as here in the States, it's an "add-on". So yes, the pilots need to train to the plane as every plane has a different flight envelope. Difference between cars and planes is that one will kill you and everyone in it if you don't actually know and understand the differences.

Mark 85

Re: Car analogy, software emulation

Upvoted because you have described the problem exactly. I suspect that some point, the airlines would like "pilots" that are basically meatbag window dressing. Hire basically a computer operator who has no knowledge of the guts and mechanics of flying.

There's a lot of similarities betwixt flying and driving. Seat of the pants and feedback from the controls are big part of it. Once everything goes full computer control and human "takeover" controls aren't needed then fine, but until that happens we need the control and the feedback the vehicle gives us.

Croydon school rolling in toilet roll after Brexit gift deemed unfit for the Queen's Anus Horribilis

Mark 85

Tough times need tough arses to get through them.

it's clear the teachers will stash this payload in the staff room while students make do with tracing paper.

Tracing paper? More like grade ZZZ which basically a stick with bark cut from the nearest tree and wrapped in a piece of paper. The ZZ grade is paper but does have large chunks of wood in it.

Mark 85

Re: Water

Seashells will work but eventually there won't be any left on the beach. However, we here in the US should be able to supply large quantities of corn cobs in both the white/light and brown/dark varieties.

NASA: We need commercial rockets! SLS: Oh no you don't!

Mark 85

Just ditch the incumbent industrial military complex already, it's been sucking you dry for years

Good luck with that idea as it ain't going to happen. They're too big and too embedded in Congress's collective rectum.

Mark 85

and now having sat in a warehouse somewhere for thirty years,

After 30 years in storage, there's probably a lot work that would need to be done to get it "flight ready". Such as replacing all the seals for starters.