* Posts by Mark 85

12880 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Nov 2012

Space station springs a leak while astronauts are asleep (but don't panic)

Mark 85

So the didn't have a Patch Tuesday but a Patch Wednesday then?

You can buy Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins' mansion for a cool $13m

Mark 85

Re: House in California

Equally bad is that it's in California. That's the biggest con, IMO.

Huawei pleads with FTC to overturn US ban, says it's 'anticompetitive'

Mark 85

Do some reading on who owns and who controls things in China. Especially in the tech area.

New Horizons eyeballs Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule, its next flyby goal

Mark 85
Thumb Up

Re: Not just Boaty

People in the UK seem to have a penchant for voting against authority

Nothing wrong with that IMHO. I wish more voters were like that. Governments need shaking up now and then.

Chinese hotel chain warns of massive customer data theft

Mark 85

Turn about then?

If turn about is fair play then it's about time that Chiinese companies started getting hacked. I'm waiting to hear about one of their manufacturing corporations having proprietary data taken by hackers.

Europe's GDPR, Whois shakeup was supposed to trigger spam tsunami – so, er, where is it?

Mark 85

Whois: It's what the lawyers want though...

So not having the data for free is a bad thing then? I note that it's IP lawyers which obviously includes such groups as the movie and music IP lawyers? It might affect the their bottom line as it will take a bit longer and some more costs...

No need to code your webpage yourself, says Microsoft – draw it and our AI will do the rest

Mark 85

Re: I do wonder...

Go a bit further. It's an M$ tool on an M$ platform and the site is hosted on an M$ server. So how much data will they slurp from visitors to the site? Slurp makes money then from the website owner and from visitors. Win! Win!

Russian volcanoes fingered for Earth's largest mass extinction

Mark 85

Re: The Ends of the World@ jake

Nominate some better candidates and I'll consider your rationale.

At this point, there aren't any better candidates. If we look at this being births and deaths of life, perhaps what was considered an advanced civilization did exist before the event. We don't know and may never know. At it its, we're the best currently. In a million or billion years, it may well be something else.

Voting machine maker claims vote machine hack-fests a 'green light' for foreign hackers

Mark 85

Re: Er...

Security by obsurity, surely. So they won't participate in these kinds of things, that's fine. Now for the disclaimer...if they really wanted to ensure security, they would maybe go open source? Or invite selected white hat hacker types to test either on-site or in very secure locations?

It's not a question of "they're happy to work with outside researchers" but are they actually doing it? This article on the heels of the previous one, smells like a fish that's been left in the sun for a week.

Defense Distributed starts selling gun CAD files amid court drama

Mark 85

He's more concerned about downloadable files for CNC machines

Like that will stop anyone. There's more CNC mills* in the US than this guy apparently thinks there are. I suppose banning them will be the next attempt?

*There's probably more "hobby" CNC mills than commercial ones. By that, I mean in private hands in someone's basement/garage/home workshop than the commercial ones used by industry.

No do-overs! Appeals court won’t hear $8.8bn Oracle v Google rehash

Mark 85

So what's next, some patent troll will sue for using one of the C languages? The has all the look and feel of Oracle being a patent troll.

None too chuffed with your A levels? Hey, why not bludgeon the exam boards with GDPR?

Mark 85

Re: "Please erase all evidence of me and my poor grades..."

What was the question again? I forgot it.

Cobbler feels the shoe-leather: An IP address is still not a human

Mark 85

Re: what’s with Adam Sandler?

Probably the only way to make any money on a Adam Sandler flick is to sue someone for pirating it.

Facebook admits it was 'too slow' to ban Myanmar regime

Mark 85

Re: Just ban FB already.

declare all FB holdings everywhere but the U.S. as frozen until/unless it stops fekkin around & plays nice.

Now hold on there a second... why leave it operational in the US? Turn it off, turn it off, I beg of you.

Lawyers sued for impersonating rival firm online to steal clients

Mark 85

Re: Popcorn futures

Well, there is a problem: not enough lawyers suing other lawyers. But it is start and as they get too busy suing each other, there won't be enough left to bother the rest of the world with nuisance suits.

Judge bars distribution of 3D gun files... er, five years after they were slapped onto the web

Mark 85

Re: @Martin-73

Good points. I can download plans to make black powder rifles and pistols (I have made one of each).. I assume there's probably plans for semi-autos out there.

As for 3D printed guns, no thanks. Just too much risk to the thing blowing up in your face and even if it doesn't the barrel will probably be deformed by the heat of the burning powder and passage of the slug so it will be inaccurate.

Voting machine maker vows to step up security, Fortnite bribes players to do 2FA – and more

Mark 85

Re: Security devices and web interfaces

And if you get overridden because the higher ups insist on it and tell you to Do It or Else?

I'd make damn sure there's emails involved and not word of mouth. Print out the emails and secure in a lock box or better yet, use the local bank's security lock boxes they have on site. Crap rolls downhill and you don't want the blame when things go pear shaped because some manager/exec said "just do it".

Quit that job and earn $185k... cleaning up San Francisco's notoriously crappy sidewalks

Mark 85

And the mentally ill who wont take their meds. The only group I have any sympathy for are the last group, the mentally ill, but due to California's completely fucking stupid "Patients Rights" laws there is zero you can do for them.

Doesn't that go back to one of Reagan's programs? Or possibly Carter... I recall the Feds doing something about shutting down support to the States. Guess I best go Google some....

Mark 85

Re: That's some seriously hard of thinking

But question for the natives..

Some cities tried that back in the 60's and 70's. Didn't turn out well. They became hotspots of crime, drugs, and gangs. There were a lot of building torn down in the 90's because they were just unlivable. Appliances stolen and sold, copper wiring, you name it, if had any value it was stolen by the residents.

Mark 85

Re: That's some seriously hard of thinking

So you ARREST them, FORCE them to leave town, and it'll stop.

What you seem to want is NIMBY and it doesn't work. The ones arrested might move on to the next town or city but there's new ones hitting the streets all the time. And the banned ones usually come back after the new town starts tossing them out.

A big part of the problem in our town is the homeless druggies.

Is there an answer short of shooting them? If so, it doesn't look like anyone has found the best solution.

Mark 85

Re: This is really good sht.. You talking shit? Gimme a hit of that sht...

George Carlin also did some comedy on this.

Mark 85

Or roll downhill.

As porn site pounds hard on piracy laws, Cox pulls out prematurely

Mark 85

Re: Who cares ?

It seems as though a bunch of rights agents and telecoms operating companies - both industries that make nothing themselves but sell access to other people''s work - are fighting over a share of cake.

The rights agents and telecoms care... oh... and their lawyers of course. Have to keep the income stream flowing. The telecoms care because they could loose income and have some increased costs for doing what the agents want. OTOH, the rights agents will lose income and profit if they don't kick and scream. I'm guessing that whoever has the deeper pockets and better lawyers will win.

Abracadabra! Tales of unexpected sysadmagic and dabbling in dark arts

Mark 85

They (the devices) know that we know how best to torture them, thus their terrified cooperation.

I find that a mild threat like "I'll turn you into a boat anchor" usually does the trick. Seems the "Rise of the Machines" has a fatal flaw... fear of water.

Back to school soon – for script kiddies as well as normal kids. Hackers peddle cybercrime e-classes via Telegram

Mark 85

Re: Optimal exploitation

I'm pretty sure that will break the NDA, but what will the teachers do, complain to the cops?

Nah, they'll hire a lawyer and launch a sue-ball.

Mark 85

Re: Okay, so where are law enforcement students ?

If that isn't being done, then our governments are even stupider than I thought - which, of course, is quite possible.

Well, we all like to think that a) the LEO's are smarter than the crooks, or b) the crooks are smarter than the LEO's. I guess it depends on which side of the fence one sits on. Both sides are equally smart and equally stupid, just maybe not in the same areas at the same time.

Chap asks Facebook for data on his web activity, Facebook says no, now watchdog's on the case

Mark 85

Re: Stopping facebook spying on your web activity

There's also this one: https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/ Best to use both as there are gaps in one that are filled in by the other.

The sad part is that it's pretty much like playing Wac-a-Mole with the speed setting locked into "warp speed ". You block one, two more pop up.

Mark 85

Re: @StewartWhite RE: Anonymous Coward

If what FB says were true, then why would they store all that data in their "Hive"? Hives cost money, so obviously, it's BS. FB has become the new Big Brother.

Hackers clock personal deets on 'two million' T-Mobile US subscribers

Mark 85

Re: 'How do they know?'

If Cali pass their own GDPR law, I hope there's a rule that says, revised breach numbers incur double the penalty.

All that will do is stop companies from revising the numbers. If it's going to cost them money, they won't do it.

Do I hear two million dollars? Apple-1 fossil goes on the block, cassettes included

Mark 85

Why are they worth the price?

It's the way of the wealthy. And more the way of the newly wealthy. Some will pay any amount so that they can have it and no one else can. Some sort of status symbol in essence.

OMG! Battle looms over WTF! trademarks

Mark 85
Facepalm

Un-fricking-believable the lengths and stupidity of corporate marketing. Beam me up Mr. Scott, there's no intelligent life here.

Muslim American woman sues US border cops: Gimme back my seized iPhone's data!

Mark 85

Re: There are zero rights at the border...

It's pure comedy.

Indeed, but without the laugh track.

Just how rigged is America's broadband world? A deep dive into one US city reveals all

Mark 85

Re: Finally!

Lovely dream SS, I hope that someday (in our lifetime would be welcome) that it will actually happen. Given the current FCC's attention to the population instead of the big ISP's, there's a snowball's chance in hell of it coming to pass. Even if the FCC started mandating change and forcing competition it just seems doubtful that it's even possible.

At the rate the big guys have been sucking up any competition, we'll soon only have one company in the whole country that owns everything. The board and the shareholders will love it. The rest of us, not so much.

Send the lady on the horse my way, I can use a nice fantasy about now cause reality sure does suck, doesn't it?

UK's info commish is having a howler: Site dies amid 'plagiarised' GDPR book scandal

Mark 85

Re: Was she paid for providing this foreword?

Maybe she did read it but hasn't a clue as to it being "authoritative" other than taking the author's word for it and from the tone of writing. So it was well-done BS...

Mark 85

Re: ALL the regulators are useless...

A toothless and clueless regulator is the best outcome for all concerned parties besides the public, whose opinion doesn't matter.

FTFY. If our legislators/agencies were properly doing their jobs, either these agencies would have a clue and teeth or be quickly sent to oblivion. It would safe a pile of money and possibly reduce paperwork and headaches for everyone. An alternative would be to legislate such that these agencies could actually regulate effectively but that's just a dream.

What's really sad is these regulators/agencies are in all countries. The amount of empolyees they have probably will reduce unemployment benefit costs so it's a form of state welfare.

US Democrats call in Feds: There's something phishy going on with our voter database

Mark 85

Re: A security test?

My guess would be some PHB came up with this brilliant idea, waved it in front of some higher level and then did it. All he/she was looking for was brownie points. He probably had some poor web person on staff (or even a contractor) that got pushed into doing this.

So instead of being a hero, the PHB is a self centered clown. Hopefully it's the PHB that gets fired for not communicating this upward and not the poor schmuck at the bottom of the food chain who actually did the work.

IBM slaps patent on coffee-delivering drones that can read your MIND

Mark 85

Not the coffee business as such but they'll supply the drones for the hot beverage sellers and their alleged coffee.

Mark 85

Re: Hello

Now that I put it like that, it sounds disturbingly reminiscent of some "AI"-driven small drone weapon being developed by the usual amoral Silicon Valley scum for the US government. Which unfortunately is where it's more likely such technology would *actually* be deployed.

So then: "Hi there. You look like a bad person. Here's live grenade with the pin pulled."????

Redis has a license to kill: Open-source database maker takes some code proprietary

Mark 85

Re: I do not understand

Go back a few decades... remember "Share Ware"? One would write a program, app, whatever and put it on BBS's. Usually with "you can use this anyway you like but if you like using it, send us a few dollars" type of thing. Greedy companies and cheap users killed that off real fast. Open source seems to be headed that way also unless a way of paying people for their efforts is found.

Internet overseer continues wall-punching legal campaign

Mark 85

Re: Any difference between ICANN vs FCC?

ICANN used to be controlled by the US government and now it's not. The special interest groups seem to be in control from all accounts.

Should the government have spun it off on it's own? Who knows but this sure is beginning to appear to have been a huge mistake. If it hadn't been spun off, there might be other issues similar to what the FCC is doing including allegations of favoritism or maybe not. Don't know.

One of the biggest problems with "internet" and "tech" is the big corporations wanting things set up for their benefit and to hell with the people. Controlling the FCC and now it looks like ICANN, should give any profit monger a wet dream.

I don't see any of this ending well.

Texas ISP slams music biz for trying to turn it into a 'copyright cop'

Mark 85

the music industry argues Grande benefits financially from selling faster speed internet connections to copyright infringers. "The greater the bandwidth its subscribers require for pirating content, the more money Grande receives."

This could become a "case" for certain ISP's to hold back on upgrading users to higher connection speeds.

What's holding you back from Google Cloud? Oh, OK... it was hoping you'd say 'lack of hardware security modules'

Mark 85

(And for what it's worth, Google claims it's the only cloud vendor that encrypts all customer data at rest.)

Since Google hosts it, it's their software, they probably hold the keys also. Same for the other cloudy providers. If they're hosting your data on their servers, it's in their control. Maybe someday customers using these "services" will grasp these concepts.

Big Tech turns saboteur to cripple new California privacy law in private

Mark 85

Re: Private Piracy, Arrr

Aren't there any companies in Silicon Valley capable of producing a non-advertising based search engine.

We used to have those, but in today's world, how would they pay the developers and then the ISP bill? There's no incentive to do things for "free" anymore.

Apple shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, to find gambling in its Chinese App Store

Mark 85

Chinese state media had reported the apps were pulled after users claimed they were being scammed out of money.

First rule of gambling: "The house never loses".

The second rule: "See rule number 1."

China shouldn't go after the messenger (Apple in this case) but the ones who are marketing it and profiting from it. But then, Apples the easy target because "not Chinese".

I wonder if the phones made by Chinese companies for the Chinese market are having this problem?

Mozilla accuses FCC of abdicating its role, ignoring comments in net neutrality lawsuit

Mark 85

Re: Chevron..

The Nine Seniles have no clue about tech as they're basically old lawyers and judges. They will look at the laws and previous judgments and ignore any evidence as they don't understand it. Much like the CongressCritters who make laws without understanding any of the tech even the simplest things.

Techie's test lab lands him in hot water with top tech news site

Mark 85

Re: I wonder

Well, he lived to tell the tale..... this time. If he had to drive down the road a bit to get his coffee, we have had a different ending involving lifts, windows.

Prenda lawyer pleads guilty to moneyshot honeypot scheme

Mark 85

The DA's statement says more about protecting the image* of lawyers than about the law.

* image -- I guess they have one other than what we mere mortals think or at least think they do.

Beam me up, PM: Digital secretary expected to give Tory conference speech as hologram

Mark 85

Re: Oh no!

How big will the icon have to be to get a Kar****ian arse in?

This is stuff nightmares are made of.

Mark 85

The entirety of British politics of any country in the last hundred years must be a tremendous disappointment to you then.

FTFY

SuperProf gets schooled after assigning weak passwords to tutors

Mark 85
Megaphone

Re: At Superprof we take security seriously and know how key it is to the running of our business

It makes more sense if you replace "security" with "bullshit".

That pretty much sums up every companies' response to any issue. I don't know why they even bother to say it since it automatically sets off the Bullshit Alarm.

Icon: BS klaxon just about worn out from overuse.