* Posts by Wzrd1

2260 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2012

Congress strips out privacy protections from CISA 'security' bill

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Re: Aw shit. Here it comes.

That's why there is encryption, no further messages will be sent by me that aren't GPG encrypted.

Superfish 2.0: Dell ships laptops, PCs with huge internet security hole

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Odd

We have a Dell of a lot of Dell computers here, no Dell root certificate here.

Oh, that's right! We build our own builds and install them, rather than trusting a vendor to not muck things up.

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Re: Continuing saga of Microsoft software collapse

"It never ceased to amaze me that the maladies associated with Windows systems continue to grow to astronomical proportions."

Yeah, because no other operating system uses certificates and trusted root certificate authority. Everyone else is on Commodore 64's.

Superfish 2.0 worsens: Dell's dodgy security certificate is an unkillable zombie

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Re: re-installed from one of the other Dell services that starts up?

What is certificate revocation again?

Dell: How to kill that web security hole we put in your laptops, PCs

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Re: Come back Sony

"They are also probably sufficiently competent to have not installed the private component."

Yet another example of crypto incompetence.

Some are so inept as to not know what private and public keys are.

Eric S Raymond releases hardened, slimmer NTP beta

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Re: HatfulOfHollow

"Knowing Eric S Raymond, if you'd asked me what I thought he'd been developing recently, I'd have assumed it was something like a way to shoot people in the face over the Internet. :-)"

Having been in his house before Y2K, I'd not be surprised if he was also trying to develop that.

The man had an umbrella stand full of 12 gauge shotguns.

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Re: OpenNTP has its uses, however...

"Since all the clocks of all devices run at the same rate, you will never have buffer over- or underruns."

Only if you don't run NTP and don't communicate with other systems cryptologically. Time can and will drift, resulting in things like SSL breaking when other systems have a far different time than the server time is.

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Re: OpenNTP?

"I'm glad someone is looking after NTP - it's one of the more critical components of any decent platform."

Indeed, attacking NTP is one way to brute force TFA systems via freezing the time set by NTP.

Got a time machine? Good, you can brute-force 2FA

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Re: No news

That is what we do. Expire the code after first use, if you bollocks your login, you wait for a new code for a massive minute.

US Congress grants leftpondians the right to own asteroid booty

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Re: Treaties Are the Supreme Law

No ratified treaties are second in power to the Constitution, the Constitution says so. The Constitution isn't law, it's a Constitution and may only be changed by the amendment process.

As for the moon and space treaty, I suspect that whoever arrives with metric tons of platinum, gold and rare earth metals shan't be turned away.

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Re: @Dazed and Confused -- "SPACE Act of 2015"

Well, Mount Rushmore already has a sovereign claim on it, a Native American nation holds the mountain as holy, so a white chap decided to carve white mens faces on the holy mountain.

As for US taxation of income broad, from the Infernal Revenue Service website: "If you are a U.S. citizen or a resident alien of the United States and you live abroad, you are taxed on your worldwide income. However, you may qualify to exclude from income up to an amount of your foreign earnings that is adjusted annually for inflation ($92,900 for 2011, $95,100 for 2012, $97,600 for 2013, $99,200 for 2014 and $100,800 for 2015). In addition, you can exclude or deduct certain foreign housing amounts."

Tor Project: US government paid university $1m bounty to hack our networks

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Re: Milking the feds

I see that AC is a stranger to capitalism, as well as research and development.

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Re: time to go old school?

Bleh, OTP works well every time and it is unbreakable.

But, do stick with ROT13 and pig latin, it's essentially plain text.

Ice volcanoes just part of Plutonic pandemonium

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Don't forget, ice isn't always water. It could be nitrogen ice, oxygen ice, even hydrogen ice, depending upon the pressure and temperature.

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Re: Escaped Moon of Neptune?

True, it could be that various elements that are gaseous at STP and liquid and just barely at equilibrium under the conditions under the surface of Pluto. Anything that would then add energy would turn the liquid to gas and cause other, lower energy state liquids and solids to erupt from gas pressure.

Cops gain access to phone location data

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Re: That would be "US" cops then.

Well, everything in the article appeared US centric to me.

Let's see, "Police in some states can now access your phone location data without a warrant", I don't recall any Commonwealth nation having states, save Australia. That's in the first paragraph.

In the second paragraph, MetroPCS is mentioned, I don't recall that organization being operated in any Commonwealth nation, perhaps I'm wrong though, they might be operating in Canada.

In the third paragraph, "Police grabbed the records under the 1986 Stored Communications Act", no Commonwealth nation has a "1986 Stored Communications Act".

Someone either has a reading comprehension problem or that someone is phenomenally dense.

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Re: This is a good thing for smart criminals

Heh, if they checked my browsing history, it'd be blank. Even though I was surfing the night away.

Really now, you *don't* deleted your browsing history?

Sun of a b... Solar winds blamed for ripping away Mars' atmosphere

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Re: Might it be an opportunity?

It's easy enough to do. Melt a metallic core the size of our moon, set the molten outer core flowing and you've got a magnetic field. Set the tangled field correctly and you can capture all of the hydrogen and helium that you could ever want.

CSC, NetCracker IT staff worked on US military telecoms 'without govt security clearance'

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"When I contracted at the British MoD it took 6+ months to get your security clearance - if you were lucky that is and your paperwork didn't get lost or have tea spilled on it or get mistaken for a completely different contractors."

The same is true in the US, as well as complimentary PII sharing with the PRC via the OPM breach.

If no great big flags pop up on the initial background check, one is granted an interim clearance. After the interim clearance is granted, the real investigation begins by burial of the forms in a peat bog for six months, quadruplicate copies misfiled, refiled, lost, found, twisted. folded and mutilated before the investigator gets the paperwork.

In my case, the investigator then annoyed all of my friends and neighbors, but thankfully left this BOFH MK 2 alone.

Hurrah! Doctor Who brings us a bootstrap paradox treat in Before the Flood

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Re: Osgood

Apparently, you've forgotten an earlier episode, Clara is inside of *all* of The Doctor's time.

This one included.

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Re: Amping it up

Well, having been a very similar military situation, I'd stage at Magpie's place.

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Re: Has he always been here?

True, although "12 Monkeys, Inception, Looper did that."

Gives pause for the author's capability of complexity. I can name a handful of excellent science fiction books that'd likely turn the critiic's minds into jelly, as it's already apparently nearly so upon this modest experience.

Likely, had this contributor reviewed "Predestination", a stroke that'd damage a cupboard would ensue.

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"A Doctor who behaved like a gibbering idiot, a substandard monster with a facemask borrowed from "Predator", crap animations with a reservoir dam that looked like it was made from sheet paper...and an unfathomable storyline".

In other words, you've *never* watched Doctor Who.

Welcome to the majors, kid. You might even manage to work out, however I doubt it.

It's far more likely that you'll be back into the minors, to later wash out next week.

Potent OWA backdoor scores 11,000 corporate creds from single biz

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Re: So how did it get on there?

What was that bit again about the victim being the security company's customer?

Which would grant access.

Enabling them to copy their backdoor into parts of the server that their accounts have access to.

US Cyber Command floats $460m contract to outsource most of itself

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Re: its just a smokescreen

Go look at the US military pay scale, then tell us all how you can even hold onto one single experienced system administrator, when the civilian market pays an order of magnitude more.

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Re: Contracting?

Odd, as I'm a contractor for a corporation providing information security for government agencies, with one branch providing security for some US DoD operations.

One requirement for any of those positions is US citizenship, followed by holding a security clearance.

Odd that you'd speak in such volumes, yet have absolutely no idea what you are speaking about.

Just as El Reg did when it went on about companies "vetting employees", nope, the company will frequently do so, but also the US government also does so. That is especially true when one is speaking of security clearances.

Those are investigated by OPM, then provided to China for backup purposes.

Oh wait, that wasn't a backup, because we can't restore from it.

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Re: not surprising

He was, out of a few hundred thousand other contractors, including this retired Army BOFH.

The military doesn't have a pay scale to afford experienced people, who could be making upwards of $100k per year, rather than the pittance that the US pays service members.

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Re: And the contracts are awarded to....

Booz Allen Hamilton? Lockheed Martin?

Hell, the list is somewhat longish.

MYSTERY PARTICLE BLASTS from Ceres strike NASA probe Dawn

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Re: A giant ancient starship?

"Dormant? It's firing its electron cannons at us! This means WAR!"

Bloody hell, don't you recognize a standard scan? It scanned, but is confused as to why contact hasn't been initiated or even a return scan.

Mars water discovery is a liberal-muslim plot, cry moist conspiracy theorists

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Such great interest in The Waters of Mars!

Personally, I'm a bit mild about those waters.

Or to be more accurate, how excited can one be about the contents of a single raindrop flowing down a gully. That *is* the approximate quantity being spoken of.

Still, considering how many places we find life on this planet, it's conceivable that single celled life could be present.

Inside of The Waters Of Mars.

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Re: As usual

Not as much, these days.

His advertisers have been fleeing like rats from a sinking ship.

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Re: Someone's lift...

"Anyway, if we could develop something like scrith in this time and political climate, it would probably be locked down, stay top secret and would be available for military use only."

Well, that means I and my countrymen could still get it. Military use only here is pretty much WMD's. The rest requires a background investigation and a $200 tax stamp.

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Re: Someone's lift...

"(yes, feel free to downvote, peeps. after you've done the actual math, and realise people that believe in the things are applying scalar thinking to a vector problem.)"

Poppycock, one just needs to add one more type of unobtanium to the list.This one would be similar to the unobtanium required for bullet proof vests that would stop a .50 BMG round unnoticed, while weighing less than toilet tissue and breathes as if there is nothing present.

So, we need infinite rigidity, while maintaining some flexibility, with negative mass.

Yep, that describes unobtanium. Something that doesn't exist, but would make engineering easier if it did.

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Re: Because I guarantee, let's just wait and see.

No, he distributes vitriol to anyone he dislikes.

He distributes bullshit to his listeners.

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Re: Mars is Red!

"He believes it, and the right-wing conspiracy nuts in the US literally believe everything he says."

This nearing mid 50's US citizen believed it the first time I heard that beast fart out of his mouth.

Isn't there a comet we could bombard with him?

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Re: Mars is Red!

"That ANYone takes what he does seriously amazes me."

Some years ago, a man I worked with looked to me while Rush was being Rush and stated, with awe in his voice, "Rush Limbaugh is a *god*".

I replied, "If that is so, I am now officially an atheist".

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Re: Just goes to show

"And how is this any different from any politician or large corporate?"

You're obviously not from the United States. Six of one, half dozen of the other.

Where else do you think those eight billion dollar campaigns funding comes from?

The United States of America has the best government that money can buy.

Something this US citizen noticed decades ago.

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Re: Just goes to show

Just think, this US citizen has to put up with this idiocy each and every day.

Well, there is one upside, Rush is losing listeners faster than a dying rat loses fleas. The advertisers are pulling out, as they're losing customers because of his phenomenally offensive moonbats.

Arabic-speaking cyberspies targeting BOFHs with crude but effective attacks

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Re: Why Microsoft why?

And still have e-mail systems that will happily deliver Really_Cool_Shit_Read_Me_Now.scr.pdf.exe .

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Re: BOFH

Not really, 5kv is a bit crude.

I go with the security androids, which distract everyone from noticing that I electrified the IT department urinal.

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Re: Justice Served

Unbelievable crude though, not even a *.pdf.exe.

UK team pioneers experimental cure for age-related blindness

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Re: Proud to support London Project

While it won't likely help my lattice macular degeneration, it most certainly can help with age related macular degeneration. My father was essentially blind from it for the entire last two years of his life.

Astroboffins snap BREATHTAKING, WISPY Veil Nebula supernova debris

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Re: Scientific terms...

You'd prefer scientific terms like color, quark, anti-quark, strange...? ;)

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I have no access to such horrors.

I only had access to 1960's textbooks to review until this Modern Era, where things digital add terabytes to each day's experience.

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Re: Awesome!

More awesome, the amount of hydrogen and oxygen, carbon is an afterthought. ;)

NEW ERA for HUMANITY? NASA says something 'major' FOUND ON MARS

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Re: It'll be a rock

Unless it is a newly discovered gas gradient.

Or my lost pen.

Or an odd mineral never seen before on Mars, which would be a stretch.

Hopefully, not a sign of my family Mars wilderness excursion. We always have practiced "leave no trace behind".

But then, I was a Cube Scout. Octagons were obscene to us.

Get ready for a grim future where bees have shorter tongues

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Re: Climate change is real

"A thousand years is the right sort of timescale to evaluate climate change."

Bullshit, a century is more than enough to measure a change and find the cause.

At a thousand years, should the current observations and computed changes occur, Old Blighty will be a tiny island at its highest point and most of the productive crop areas on this planet will be either inundated or drier than the central Sahara.

If you want to take that risk for your progeny, I'd not have a problem with it, save for one thing.

You're trying to drag my progeny into the same hell you want to experiment with.

Therein, we have conflict.

I'm no keyboard warrior.

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Re: Concensus

Indeed, as climate change happens over centuries and longer, this claim is simply one thing; bullshit on rye, being called a Reuben sandwich.

Now, if there was a provable claim that increased CO or CO2 caused, in controlled studies, shorter tongues on carpenter bees (US "bumblebees"), they *might* be onto something.

Curves can be derived upon base exposures of various colonies. It's not like those bees are rare.

That El Reg latched onto this, with a known anti-climate change bias that is due to sponsorship, yes, that is explainable.

VW: Just the tip of the pollution iceberg. Who's to blame? Hippies

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To El Reg

I'll not discuss your occasional flip flop on climate change, however note your paid for stance. If you want the full information disclosed, I'll happily do so. Just think FANX.

What I concern myself with is this; You seem to desire a return of the Great Smog.

To be honest, I really don't care if Old Blighty does return to the Great Smog and the deaths and disease that ensued.

But, I'll kindly ask you not to try to champion that against my nation.

Lest I abuse my office and leak information I have access to that would badly damage your credibility.

Homeland Security in CYBER POPE 'net chatter-check bulk up

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More likely jamming of the signals within a quarter to half mile of him.

That's what I'd do if I was on a protective detail.

One Pope with a shot off finger is two too many.