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* Posts by dan1980

2933 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Aug 2013

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What do you mean, I have to POST a PHYSICAL CHEQUE to get my gun licence?

dan1980
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Re: Destroyed

". . . paper is tangible - it's simply harder to lose a piece of paper . . ."

It's not specifically some kind of permanence so much as paper being seen in some circles as possessing magical qualities that instantly transform something from questionable to legitimate.

Millions of dollars can be whisked around the world electronically but, for some reason, when you buy a house, you must present the money in an odd, antiquated format called a 'cheque'.

Signatures are so outdated (and clearly flawed as a security measure) that in Australia we can't use them for credit card purchases but the government accepts them as a big stamp of approval when a friend marks similar scribbles on the front of your passport application and the back of the photo.

"See that, Bob? This chap was able to generate acceptably similar lines of ink at different sizes and on various paper stock!"

"That's pretty formidable John - clearly someone of outstanding character and well-developed fine motor skills. I think we should trust him."

Sometimes I think that paper is preferred by lawyers and governments because it makes it easier to charge per action. Receive the paper, read the paper, notarise the paper, file the paper, retrieve the paper, copy the paper, certify the copy of the paper, send the copy of the paper . . .

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Good luck with Project Wing, Google. This drone moonshot is NEVER going to happen

dan1980
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@Gene Cash

"I don't have a pre-mapped view of the local mall, but I still manage to not run into anything."

In fairness, you do have some of the most sophisticated sensing, interpretation, positioning, path-finding and error-correction software imaginable, all running on hardware developed and refined in parallel over millions of years and exquisitely tuned to work together seamlessly. You also have access to a vast store of comparative information that works with unbelievably versatile pattern-matching software to identify all manner of objects in the environment, supplemented with an unequalled ability to infer the properties of objects by observation of their behaviour and vice-versa.

Further, the whole package is capable of near-spontaneous self-improvement and efficient learning routines which enable you to not only deal with new situations in suitable ways but also improve the efficiency of any subsequent approaches the similar problems.

There is nearly no engineering or software problem that can't be solved to get drones delivering packages - the issues becomes the ability to do so without spending many, many times more than the benefit gained.

As one poster said, above, the trick is to get the environment suited to the use. That is clearly not the case for this proposal so a better option would seem to be the continued development of self-driving cars. Once this is sufficiently advanced, efficient delivery vehicles could be designed.

That has many benefits, not least of which is that the investment is already there - both in the infrastructure (roads) and the technology. You also have a much broader range of packages that can be transported so your investment has broad use.

There is of course the problem of actually getting the package into the customer's hands but considering the issues presented in the article of the increasing density of populations and the types of dwellings we inhabit (i.e. apartments), this is no more problematic for a self-driving vehicle than a drone. As it will be near-impossible to take the parcel directly to the recipient, the recipient must meet the delivery part-way.

The only added concerns for a vehicle above a drone would be package selection and dispensation once at the destination and parking.

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Apple, FBI: YES we're, er, looking into the NAKED CELEBRITY PICS. Aren't you?

dan1980
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Re: More involved than article suggests.

@karlp

However much this actually relates to Apple's iCloud, one can hope that the attention it has drawn to the password inadequacies prompts an improvement.

I am all for software/service vendors giving users choice and treating them like adults but when it comes to security in this modern age there isn't much room for compromise.

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dan1980
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Re: Isn't that what makes their products so intuitive to use?

@RIBrsiq

In other words, apply the same 'common-sense' approach that has been used for everything from web services to home routers in the past.

"Not complex."

Exactly.

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dan1980
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"Not a tricky concept, but a PITA in practice. Such is life!"

What?!??!?

First you tell me I can't use my birthday as my PIN and then you tell me I can't even write in on my card! Now I've got to choose another PIN for my credit card. Sheesh.

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dan1980
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Re: If you don't want any naked pix

@andreas koch

No, just don't take them with your phone. Use a standard digital camera and upload them straight-away to your computer and then delete them from the phone.

Even if you have no cloud sync setup on your device, scores or smart phones are lost and stolen daily, not to mention the potential for friend/parent or - much worse - child to pickup your phone and find the nudie-snaps.

I feel genuinely sorry for these people as it is a gross breach of privacy but in this day you simply must understand the if you want to use it.

4 1

Carrier club's careful copyright conga

dan1980

"While conceding that some sort of site-blocking mechanism might be implemented, the Alliance's list of safeguards is unlikely to be welcomed by the copyright sector. It includes only applying blocks to sites hosted overseas that are “flagrantly and totally” infringing; focussing only on sites where infringement is the main source of revenue; be fine-grained enough not to cause collateral damage; only apply after attempts to send takedown notices have failed; and provide indemnity to local ISPs against false claims."

Well no, they're definitely not going to go for that. After all, the police and ASIO et al have repeatedly claimed that any restrictions or controls negatively and unacceptably impact their ability to uphold the law.

Anyone who insists on due process does wants pedophiles to walk free and is letting the terrorists win, dontcha know?

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Australia deflates Valve with Steam sueball

dan1980
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Re: Must agree

@Rob 44

6 hours?

What if there is a game-breaking bug half-way through? A lot of consumer law hinges on reasonable expectations. If I buy a game, I have an expectation that I can play the game to completion and make use of all the mechanics and features to their fullest extent. That is a reasonable expectation.

How about if the game has multiple 'paths'? Even a single play-through may not be enough to find a problem.

In a way, the '6 hour' suggestion is like saying that if you don't identify a problem with a car during a test drive then that's your own fault. Clearly that's not the case there and it shouldn't be here either.

If you purchase something, it should work. It is not up to the customer to thoroughly test the product prior to agreeing to purchase it; it is up to the manufacturer to ensure that the product is fit for purpose. If that manufacturer feels that that burden is too heavy then that is their choice. If a developer decides that they don't want to incur the expense of proper Q&A testing then so be it but that risk should be theirs and not the customer's.

If software is broken then, just like any other product, the manufacturer has a responsibility to repair, replace or refund. Repair and replace are functionally the same in this instance but the important part is that it must be done in a reasonable time. The question is what is a reasonable time.

In terms of refunds, I am not sure of the legal side of it but I would suggest that a distinction should be made between problems which could reasonably be forseen and addressed by the manufacturer and those which are genuinely unexpected. In the former situation, customers should have a right to a refund, even if the manufacturer would rather repair/replace.

This becomes interesting with software because there is no way to blame bad luck or specific, one-off circumstances for faults. Say one buys a car and the engine overheats. It might be found that a sub-standard component from a supplier is to blame or something being outside of normal tolerances. In that case, the car gets fixed or replaced and, as the event was rare, it is unlikely that the replacement part/vehicle will have the same problem.

With a video game, however, any problem exists in the code and cannot be justified as a single faulty component, failing in a small subset of instances. But this is not an undue burden as there is no requirement to test those individual instances. Going back to the car, one should test all the parts during design and then randomly test samples during manufacturing and again test the finished product. With software, there is only one finished product, rather than thousands so you can spend a lot more time testing that one product.

In terms of what can be reasonably foreseen, there is no excuse for the debacle that was Sim City. If there is a recent game that warrants a refund, it's that.

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dan1980
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No, they should do it for free.

Apart from the fact that the process would be automated and thus cost them nothing in the first place, it would be a great incentive to get people who might otherwise 'pirate' games onto the system so as to get freebies from their friends/family.

Once they're on, they're more likely to buy a game or two.

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dan1980
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If you lease a DVD from the local store and it doesn't play, are you not entitled to a refund?

But regardless, that is the point of explicitly defining software as 'goods' for the purpose of these laws.

It's all quite amusing, however - on one hand they (the video game industry in general) will claim that this doesn't represent a real 'sale' for the purpose of their liability but on the other they will scream long and loud that unauthorised copying of the software is out-and-out theft, akin to and just as serious as stealing a car.

More cake!

6 1
dan1980

Regardless of exactly when and under what circumstances software might qualify for a refund, this case is 100% clear-cut. If you sell goods* in Australia, then those goods are covered by implied conditions and guarantees that cannot be disclaimed. More to the point, it is a breach of consumer law to attempt to disclaim these rights or to mislead consumers into thinking that they do not apply.

Very specifically, even the basic overview on the ACCC website states:

"Signs that state ‘No refunds’ are unlawful.

The following signs are also unlawful:

* ‘No refunds on sale items’

* ‘Exchange or credit note only for the return of sale items’."

The question of exactly how one might seek redress for faulty software under Australia Consumer Law is of course still an open question and one suspects there would be a lot of back and forward until a test case had been established. But, the how is not important here - Valve have breached Australian Consumer Law by telling Australian consumers that they do not have a right that the law expressly grants them.

If you are selling to Australians, you need to understand the laws involved in that. Given that even the basic overview makes this particular requirement abundantly clear, there really is no excuse.

On a related note, it is also a breach of the law for a vendor/retailer to tell consumers that they must deal with the manufacturer directly. This means that Valve could not tell customers that faulty software was not their problem and that they must take it up with the developers instead.

* - Recent clarifications to Australian consumer law explicitly state that software is considered a 'good' for these purposes.

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iCloud fiasco: 100 FAMOUS WOMEN exposed NUDE online

dan1980

Let's open with honesty - if I had the opportunity to choose any two women, I might well pick Jennifer Lawrence. Twice.

So, in so far as it is possible to care about someone you don't know and whose life you are unfamiliar with, I am very sorry for these people that this has happened. It's a gross breach of privacy and I can imagine it feeling very much like a rather personal violation. BUT . . . it's just not right to be so ignorant of technology these days and certainly not if you are actively making use of it.

My partner and I are not at all the type to take risqué photographs of ourselves or each other*, however, if I was going to, it would be done with a standard digital camera and then the photos downloaded to a PC and removed from the camera. They would not be taken on a device that I carry around with me and could therefore be lost, stolen, or simply picked up by an inquisitive friend/relative/child/co-worker.

As several above have said, the likely scenario was that people took these on their phones and they were automatically backed-up to their iCloud accounts. This shows us three things:

  • Boasting 'it just works' is great but there is a lot to be said for a bit of forced manual intervention now and then.
  • You can't just trust default options blindly.
  • Cloud-integration should be 'opt-in' rather than 'opt-out'.

* - If someone else enjoys photographing themselves then I am all for it if it makes them happy - it's just not for us.

1 1

Woe, Daddy! GoDaddy customers wail as hosting service GOES TITSUP

dan1980
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Re: loldaddy

"As a matter if interest, who is better as a DNS and hosting provider?"

Depends on what criteria you are using to measure 'better'.

As different people and different projects have different requirements, there is no one answer to this question. That said, I've always liked easyDNS - if only because Mark is an honest and upfront guy, not to mention one who stands up for his customers, which is important given the wild abandon with which our governments and their various arms request/demand sites to be taken down (either via the host or the DNS provider).

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dan1980
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Re: loldaddy

"As a matter if interest, who is better as a DNS and hosting provider?"

Depends on the criteria you're using for 'better'. Different situations and different people have different requirements and priorities. For some, cheaper may indeed be better but for others 'bulletproof' may be a necessity.

That said, I favour easyDNS - if for no other reason than that Mark appears to be an honest and upfront guy, which is important when you consider the abandon with which governments and their agencies throw around takedown notices.

P.S. - my original reply seems to have been lost so apologies if two show up. Is The Reg also experiencing an outage?

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China: You, Microsoft. Office-Windows 'compatibility'. You have 20 days to explain

dan1980
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@Adam 1

It doesn't have to be a big difference for it to be anti-competitive. It might be as simple as loading the program or opening files more quickly or quicker previews inside Explorer.

I don't believe that anyone is claiming that there is some specific, insurmountable, hurdle for third party providers of 'productivity' software, but anti-competitive behaviour is anti-competitive behaviour and shouldn't be tolerated. After all, if it's happening with Office, why wouldn't it be happening with other, more important software?

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dan1980
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Re: Can't imagine

Yes, the sad part is that the current state unfortunately is the best Microsoft can do.

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dan1980
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Anti-trust is not about (in this instance) Microsoft's software being only available on Microsoft's OS but about Office potentially making use of hidden, undocumented APIs that give it an unfair advantage compared to competing 'Office' suites.

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Facebook, Google and Instagram 'worse than drugs' says Miley Cyrus

dan1980

"The paper hypothesises that the many opinions found online can expose people to ideas that challenge their world view, make them feel less exceptional and, when opinions are strident or include hateful content, offend them."

This just in - different people have different opinions and world views, exposure to different world views may challenge ones own perceptions and, for the kicker, the world is a big and sometimes ugly place.

That kind of statement, quoted above, smacks of parents home-schooling their children to 'protect' them from incompatible world views. We can't have that - after all, if you are exposed to the the whole gamut of human beliefs and opinions - beliefs and opinions they hold just as strongly as you hold yours - you might just realise that your own world view owes little to any absolute or objective truth or right-ness and much to your upbringing and circumstances.

Keep going down that road and you might learn that the world isn't black-and-white and even, if things go particularly bad, to see the that grey world from other peoples' point of view.

Also - breaking news - if you stand up on a street corner broadcasting your personal ideologies and opinions to the public then some people will disagree and some of those will do so loudly and/or impolitely.

Miley Cyrus has a right to express herself. Everyone else, however, has the right to judge her and the right to express that judgement.

Sure people can be cruel, arrogant, callous, spiteful dicks. But, just like in patents, adding 'on the Internet' doesn't magically make it some new phenomenon.

5 1

Google flushes out users of old browsers by serving up CLUNKY, AGED version of search

dan1980

I don't get it.

The old version of the page is better all around:

* No automatically changing the screen as you type - you stay where you are until you're ready to press enter and search.

* Select image/video/news/etc... search from the first page instead of having to search first and then change.

* Image search is MUCH quicker and neater with the page-based layout (no continuous scrolling) and the handy sidebar is better than the 'Search tools' and horizontal drop lists. You can also see the file name, website and image size right off the bat.

* Likewise, normal 'Search Tools' are available on the left without needing to use a drop down - very handy for quickly refining results for location.

* 'Advanced search' available right from the start.

I don't know about anyone else but that's not much of a reason to update . . .

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Mozilla's 'Tiles' ads debut in new Firefox nightlies

dan1980
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Upvoted for truth.

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dan1980
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Happy

@Vic

Mate - you've earned your silver badge; you can deploy the might of HTML tags. What's all this "*"?

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dan1980
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Downvoted for honesty presented with mild, self-deprecating humour - I didn't realise we had so many PPE undergrads here. Carry on, I suppose.

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dan1980
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Happy

Or, just don't go to dodgy websites : )

. . . and use NoScript and Flash Blocker. Well, that's me anyway.

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dan1980
Meh

I don't see the problem - my FF v3.6.28 (just checked) works brilliantly. Wake me when there's a good reason to upgrade . . .

5 2

Kaspersky backpedals on 'done nothing wrong, nothing to fear' blather

dan1980

"Prime Minister Tony Blair . . .[argued] that . . . individuals should recognize that terrorism trumps privacy."

This is the big problem - this is just a bald assertion, assumed to be self-evidently true. Well, it isn't. Security vs freedom is a choice that must be made by each person. In practice we do this all the time in our personal lives.

You can't just assert, by fiat, that protecting against terrorism is more important than maintaining privacy and you especially can't do it from on high on behalf of the entire population of your country.

This assumption is shared by most western world leaders and it is used as a win-all argument despite the fact that there is no justification for it.

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dan1980
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Re: If all you do is sit on the couch at night.

@Hud Dunlap

'Couch potatoes' might not be a threat but easy targets are always of interest to those looking to 'crack down' or 'get tough'.

Whatever the line now, the uses that surveillance is put to inevitably widens over time.

In Australia we have already seen in a very short space of time the language change from surveillance measures being there to stop terrorism to being an 'essential crime fighting tool'.

Any time there's a beat up in the news about some minor celebrity being insulted on Twitter or Facebook (or whatever), Government ministers come out talking about the need to crack down on 'online trolls'. Think they won't use dragnet surveillance to do that?

Or the next time the Government sees itself facing a controversy of their own making, as is de rigueur in Australia, does anyone really believe they won't use their new powers to identify some group to target.

In Queensland recently, the Premier - facing backlashes from numerous unpopular measures - implemented the VLAD act which more or less makes it a criminal offence to look at a motorcycle. In just its first few weeks, there were several arrests and raids that made the papers nationally highlighting innocent people being treated like criminals.

In one instance, a lady was arrested and was facing 6 months in jail for being in a pub with her partner and his friend who were both members of a motorcycle gang that, for whatever reason and by whatever criteria, the Government had deemed a criminal organisation, or, in spin-speak, a 'Vicious Lawless Association' (from whence VLAD comes).

How was this woman identified? CCTV in the bar in question. Does anyone really believe online surveillance laws wouldn't be used for such crack downs? Keep in mind the best data available shows bikies involved in less that 0.8% of crime in QLD.

But that's really just one example and the truth is that such things can, do, and will happen.

11 1

HP busts out new ProLiant Gen9 servers

dan1980
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One thing I have found over the years is that, while you should keep your 'finger on the pulse', you shouldn't let release cycles rule your deployment strategies.

Some releases really are a big deal, such as the introduction of a completely new CPU architecture but when it comes down to it, there is always new hardware on the horizon so sometimes you've got to just put your fingers in your ears and get on with it.

Unless you're working on a huge deployment then you're better off working to time and budget rather than putting off a project until a new line comes in. (Noting that release dates and actual general availability can be quite different!)

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dan1980
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Re: Am I getting old?

Yeah, I had DECs running my voicemail system. That was a dog. I usually look back at the 'good old days' with fond memories; I choose not to look that far back when reminiscing.

That said, the ProLiants peaked with the G5s - that's the last time I received a PL and actually said 'wow' out loud.

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dan1980
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Re: Renaming ML & DL 3x0e boxes to 1x0 boxes

@AC

The difference is that the current 360/380e models are very similar to the 'p' models.

The old 100 range was actually different in ways other than CPU/RAM specs so it will be interesting to see how they differentiate them this time.

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dan1980
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Yes and no.

The 'e' and 'p' models are currently very similar machines so I think they are looking to differential them further than they already are.

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dan1980
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Re: Am I getting old?

Would you believe I still have one of those in production? (Nothing critical or customer-facing.)

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Australia makes pinkie-promise to end Indonesia spying

dan1980
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"Any government minister, PM, president king, departmental secretary etc . . ."

Prime Minister's wife?

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dan1980

'Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who was not in power when the spying occurred, initially refused to comment on the allegations and said Australia should not "be expected to detail what [it] does to protect the country".'

On one hand, there is truth in that. On the other, it's just more indication of how our governments view things.

Something, something National Security; something, something TERRORISTS!

And presto - you can avoid any accountability, as if these considerations trumped all others. We all sacrifice security for lifestyle - we chose to drive, which is dangerous; choose to drink alcohol, which can cause health problems; go out at night when we might get mugged; leave our windows open for a cool breeze even though someone could break in; go travelling; cross the road - just bloody going outside is dangerous!

We trust food suppliers not to poison us, barbers not to stab us with their scissors, dentists not to give us too much anaesthetic, nurses not to steal our newborns from the hospital, construction firms not to build shoddy structures, ship captains not to run aground and bus drivers not too come to work drunk and drive us into a building.

All those things happen (though I can't recall the barber thing) but yet we, collectively, continue about our lives without undue anxiety when we step on the train or drive over a bridge or eat at a restaurant.

Why should we treat terrorism and 'national security' any differently? It's a risk and one that we should take reasonable precautions to minimise but, like any risk, we shouldn't let it so frighten us that we abandon our way of life.

That's a bit of a diversion (it's my way) but the point is that our western democracies have gotten to a stage where our governments feel that protecting 'National Security' and preventing potential terrorist attacks can justify any course of action, no matter how draconian or insular or anti-democratic.

What people like Tony Abbott don't understand is that we are on 'Team Australia' - it's just that our idea of what that is and yours are at odds and we think your team is a far smaller, far darker, far less desirable gathering than ours.

We'd rather our version, thanks.

Sorry - that was a bit of a general 'AAARRGGGHHHHH!!!!' that has been building up with all the crap that is getting - and is trying to be - stuffed down our throats in the name of 'National Security'. Our governments expect to be able to say 'National Security' or 'terrorism' and we will go: "oh, well that's alright then - carry on". They seems surprised when we don't. A government that was truly for (let alone of an by) the people would take that disconnect as a clear sign that perhaps they have it wrong and their actions and assumptions don't actually reflect the wishes and wills of their people and so have a good re-think. Instead they see it as proof that the people just can't be trusted with the truth as they really don't understand what's in their best interests. If they did they would all agree and lay down quietly and think of England.

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End of buttons? Apple looks to patent animating iPhone sidewalls

dan1980

I cannot be just me thinking that a patent on an idea that has been dreamed up but not even prototyped is should be a complete waste of ink.

And, if you are patenting an invention, there has to be some actual INVENTION to it - combining or barely extending existing concepts is not invention.

Screens? Check. Curved screens? Also check. Soft/virtual buttons? Check. 'Haptic feedback'? Check. Obviousness and prior art? Check and check!

And what's all this about 'virtual buttons' anyway? The very purpose of a touch screen is for virtual buttons. You press a bit of the screen and an action happens. The screen can be arbitrarily reconfigured to show buttons of whatever size, shape, colour and function is required, from check boxes or scroll bars to giant, red, 'do not touch me' affairs. Volume controls, play buttons - wow, it's all so innovative.

Even removing the touch aspect, what is my 'Start' button on Windows but a 'virtual button'? Adding a touch screen doesn't suddenly turn a collection of pixels into a new and amazing invention and neither does positioning those pixels on a different side of a device.

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dan1980
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Re: This could be a good thing

@Fluffy Bunny

"Maybe even a user-replacable battery?"

Shut your mouth!

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Oz biz regulator discovers shared servers in EPIC FACEPALM

dan1980
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Re: "blame some junior person"

@Stretch

Or, conversely, neglecting to do something* they were not told or educated to do in the first place.

* - Like actually, you know, checking things . . .

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dan1980

This incident highlights the main problem and it is not technical incompetence, which seems to be the focus of the article and comments.

No, the main problem - and it pervades the entire subject of online monitoring/collection/censorship - is that the people implementing these processes just don't place any importance on potential negative impacts.

To them, the goal they are trying to achieve - or at least are publicly professing - overrides any concerns about inconveniencing people or breaching their privacy.

This particular instance was a lack of technical knowledge on behalf of the people involved in making these demands. One has to ask, however, how it is possible that such actions could be taken without thorough vetting to ensure that the request/demand was correct, accurately targeted and did not affect unintended sites. If such a process was in place and this cock-up happened anyway, again one must ask why the people approving the action did not have the appropriate technical skills.

It's basic due diligence and this is clear evidence (though it has been known all along) that actions that have the potential to impact innocent people and businesses are simply not treated with sufficient care.

This attitude is the same that saw: Oz fed police in PDF redaction SNAFU. You should never be able to blame some junior person for this because any time you are either dealing with either personal information or making decisions that might affect innocent, unintended people, there should be a rigorous and detailed approval process and continued education of staff on how this works.

You can't always stop junior staff making the wrong decisions and f$#king something up and that is okay when its your own house you're breaking. When its other people who you are potentially impacting then you damned well make sure that the people making the decisions are qualified and do it by-the-book.

Oh, but if you don't let every Johnny access data and block websites then . . . terrorists! and drugs! and pædophiles! Why won't someone think of the children?!??!?

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Oz fed police in PDF redaction SNAFU

dan1980

This is one of the core problems with any surveillance/data-collection programs - sensitive data will get out or be misused. Whether its a genuine mistake, insufficient oversight, poor education, bad practices, malicious intent or self-serving individuals, it will happen.

The best way to prevent this is just to make sure the information is not recorded in the first place.

That's not overly helpful so in practice you must restrict the data to ONLY what is needed. This is achieved by careful selection of what data is collected and then applying ruthlessly strict controls over who can access what and when, coupled with all-pervading oversight and enforced punishments for any lapses.

The biggest issue and the reason this discussion keeps getting bogged-down is that those who want this retention are unwilling to be honest and upfront about the risks. In their rhetoric, there are no risks - everything is completely safe, locked-down and no one has any cause to worry.

The truth, however, is that the more information they have access to and the more easily they can access that information, the higher the risk to the public. Once that is admitted and out in the open, we can all have a honest discussion about how much risk we want to accept.

But of course there is no interest in having an open conversation with the public.

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Oz metadata proposal: no to IP addresses, yes to MAC address logging

dan1980

"Irvine is more worried about the impost of warrants . . . "

Awww, is the mean public ruining your day with their insistence on due process, presumption of innocence and the right to privacy? Diddums.

The arguments around the burden of warrants is so fucking ridiculous it beggars beliefs that they even try to trot it out.

Right now, they have access to a certain amount of data under certain conditions. Under this arrangement, neither ASIO nor "law enforcement in Australia" has come to a halt so far.

What is being pushed is access to more data than they currently have. For the moment we can set aside whether additional types of data are being collected because just the increase in retention time makes it a larger pool that is able to be accessed.

As they are asking for a larger pool of data, it is not unreasonable to impose a stricter regime around granting access to that data. The idea that such extra control and scrutiny would have an adverse impact is preposterous because there could be the option to just not make use of that extra data.

In other words, the data that is CURRENTLY collected and retained can be accessed under the CURRENT processes but the EXTRA data they collect beyond that must be accessed in accordance with the EXTRA security.

Oh, but the terrorists . . .

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Intelligence blunder: You wanna be Australia's spyboss? No problem, just walk right in

dan1980
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This is all off-topic but it's up to IT to work with the relevant people to define levels of access and processes for requesting, amending and revoking that access.

Once those levels are defined, it should be agreed that changes to the levels must follow another process, involving sign-off from the relevant person.

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dan1980
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Re: So What?

Isn't she!

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dan1980
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@AC

Nothing in my post is saying that IT can't - or even shouldn't - advise on these issues but I am talking about the granting of a pre-defined level of access, not fulfilling a random request. Of course the latter happens but in that case you work with the relevant people to define a level of access that is compatible with system security policies and then the the manager making the request can decide if the employee should be granted this newly-defined (and now documented) level of access or whether one of the existing permission sets are more suitable.

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dan1980
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Re: If the Director General

@John Savard

There is wisdom in your post, but the problem is that human systems are the easiest to compromise.

While the process of terminating an employee's access need not be computer automated, it should be enforced rigidly in such a situation. Yes, flexibility is valuable to maintain productivity but that has to be weighed against the potential damage that could occur if the wrong decision is made.

In the case of someone having access to national security systems and private information on citizens, the security of the Australian public must trump the convenience of the organisation. There is no margin for error - if someone's contract is up then their access should be revoked until they are formally reinstated.

That IT/security staff continued as normal is not the issue - the glaring problem is that someone with authority TOLD them to.

Given the article says that they had to rush it all through with the G-G, who, one might ask, was authorised to instruct the staff at ASIS to overlook the fact that the Director General was no longer legally employed and how was this authorisation transmitted?

Maybe there is a good answer for all of that but there had bloody well better be because you would think that any organisation asking for more data to be recorded on the Australian people would be on their best behaviour to prove to the public that the information they want access to will be properly respected and access to it secured.

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dan1980
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Re: So What?

Surely that was a bit of a demotion for you, Don?

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Oz metadata retention won't include URLs: report

dan1980
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@Barrie Shepherd

If what you say is, in fact, the plan, then at least the government will need a warrant to monitor and end-to-end session.

The question then becomes one of which is less undesirable - the Government being able to see all visitors to a site they are monitoring or being able to see all sites a monitored person is accessing.

Personally, I think the former (i.e. what you are saying may be the case) is the worse of the two because it means that people are able to see at least some traffic of users that are under no suspicion.

But is that really problematic? I suppose it's really no different than getting a warrant to view log entires of a premises to see who has come and gone.

I just don't know, really.

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dan1980

So what will you record?

'While stating that URLs and “destination IP addresses” are excluded from the data collection, the report in The Australian says providers will be required to collect information sufficient to “trace and identify the source of a communication and the device used”.'

As some have pointed out, above, this is a little odd.

@Cpt Blue Bear suggested it was therefore aimed at "tracing leaks". But let's forget the purpose for a moment - how is it possible to trace anything this way?

If I visit <insert evil, no, no, you mustn't website here> what information does the government have? They know that I had IP address xx.xx.xx.xx at a certain date/time and it was used to initiate an HTTP session.

If they don't have destination details and aren't recording the 'content' (and the HTTP session is most fucking definitely content) they can't know what site I visited. How then is this information of ANY use?

"An IP address assigned to Dan was used to initiate 17 HTTP sessions over a period of 10 minutes on April 28th, 2015, with total traffic of 12.6 Mb down and 0.9Mb up."

How do they go from that to:

"Dan accessed: 'Jihad Joe's Online Guide for Terror and Growing Excellent Beards', read the article: 'One Weird Trick for Planting IEDs' and then downloaded plans and a component list for homemade pipe bombs."

???

Which is the reason why this whole thing is a joke - you can't gain anything useful without gathering information that the public would really rather you didn't. Any attempt to clarify this mess has failed and this is no different.

At best it is incompetence and ignorance. More likely, it is deliberate obfuscation and outright lies.

In my mind, it is the later. The Government know full well that the truth of what they are proposing is not something the Australian people want. Labor were no different, except that they decided to shelve the proposal due to this. They want it too, of course, but knew that the people didn't and they couldn't take the hit. The Coalition are trying to push it through by excluding the public from the debate, by dismissing our concerns as unfounded and ill-informed but then utterly failing to inform us better.

To top it off, they claim that everyone is for it, despite the fact that the whole tech world is against it. No, they mean that the people who are pushing for it (e.g. ASIO, ASIS, the Federal Police, the US, Uncle Rupert, etc...) are for it. Well, duh.

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IT blokes: would you say that lewd comment to a man? Then don't say it to a woman

dan1980
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Re: 'Splaining

@SeanEllis

Re: "The Petrie Multiplier"

The interesting thing about that notion is that it actually disproves (if you accept the reasoning) not just that it is a problem with men in IT but that it is a problem with IT at all!

The theory, applied to IT (as it was), basically says that there is no inherent sexism in tech and the apparent sexism that we see/hear/experience/read is simply the result of a large difference in the numbers of men and women in IT - nothing more.

By that reasoning, there is no particular problem with men in IT - it is pure maths - and similar results will occur anywhere there is a big disparity in the genders.

So, if one adheres to Ian's reasoning, one should take that reasoning to its logical conclusion, which is that there is no specific problem with sexism in tech and we, as techies, should not feel unduly burdened by the reports of IT being a particularly notable sector for sexist behaviour any more than we should feel a responsibility that IT is male-dominated.

As a tech, I just don't care about gender numbers any more than I care about how many of so-and-so race there are. What I care about is that the people I have to deal with and/or rely on are competent and are able to communicate intelligently and efficiently with me achieve whatever goal it is we are working towards.

I have nothing against female techs and, were the industry numbers reversed, I would be just as fine with the situation. I have worked in strongly female-dominated workplaces and industries before and it bothered me not one bit. So long as everyone does their job and does it well, I can get on with my own job.

None of this excuses sexual harassment - it is simply my comment on the mentioned 'Petrie Multiplier'.

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dan1980
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Re: Sceptical.

@Richard 1, @ Corrine & @Vic

Massive generalisations all around and I am not going to help the situation.

It is my experience that many of these events lean towards the social side of things. You just don't serve alcohol anywhere you want people to actually learn some important technical detail.

Social situations attract more extroverted people, as a rule, so while there may be quite a few stereotypically-introverted IT bods who are genuinely interested in the tech and are there to learn as much as they can, those people are less likely to be downing the free drinks or attending the more social parts of the days/nights.

Remember that some of these conferences will have package deals with hotels an attendees may well be attending from interstate or even overseas so there will often be social events planned for the evenings so people new in town aren't just left to their own devices.

Another point, assuming the classic extrovert, is that such folk generally open up in the presence of like-minded people and where better than a conference full of them! But of course, real, boots on the ground, IT bods are not the only attendees at these things and there are plenty of mid-level management types as well as the omnipresent sales folk.

Personally, I enjoy these types of events and almost invariably find that I learn more useful information talking with the other attendees than by paying much attention to the speakers. It's good to really drill-down when there are serious techs manning the booths as well, of course!

If I am saying anything in this rambling piece (I am a bit under the weather today so not thinking too coherently) it is that these types of events are often more social by design and so the social parts of them, attract the more social people.

I doubt the author was suggesting that introverted, trouble-talking-to-girls, 'nerds' are the ones pinching her behind, showing her pictures of genitals or proposing group-sex. I know a few of those stereotypical awkward IT guys and they are far more likely to bore girls who aren't interested in the IT details than they are to tell a girl who is interested that she has given him a 'hard on'.

It sounds so ridiculously contrived because it fits the stereotype so well but I worked with a chap who once got to talking to a young lady who was clearly interested in him but he was oblivious because he was so engrossed in talking about his pet subject.

Wait - what was I talking about?

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dan1980
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Re: What about a man in a female dominated environment

@The Axe,

I don't think that it's the dominant group will 'pick on' the weaker group so much as that, when one group - of whatever stripe* - is dominant, some percentage of the members of that group will act without due consideration for the feelings of those in the less-powerful group, which can manifest as a lack of respect for them as well as other, less subtle, behaviours.

Thus, in a male-dominated environment, it is not uncommon that some of the males will behave in ways that, while acceptable to other males, might not be acceptable to the females. The exact same mechanic operates in the reverse situation.

All I am saying is that I wouldn't classify it as 'picking-on' people, though that can be one of the end results. The core problem is that the people in the dominant group are not considering the wants and needs of the less-powerful group or, if they are considering them, they rate then as a lower importance than the wants and needs of the dominant group.

* - Not just male/female but in religious or ethnic as well as socio-economic groupings. The 'dominant' and 'weaker' groups also are not necessarily defined by just the number of members.

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