* Posts by Cynic_999

2855 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Aug 2013

Hacking is not a crime – and the media should stop using 'hacker' as a pejorative

Cynic_999

Re: Too late

Unless used sarcastically or ironically, to "gift" someone something implies giving the person permanent possession of something beneficial for no charge. "To give" does not imply permanent possession, lack of compensation or that the item is wanted, so the two words are not interchangeable.

A word to the Wyse: Smoking cigars in the office is very bad for you... and your monitor

Cynic_999

Re: Incentives...

I recall watching someone buying cigarettes who kept asking the till assistant to change the packet for a different one of the same brand.

"No, that one says it causes lung cancer - don't want that. No, that one causes impotency, don't want that. Ah, this one just causes miscarriages - I'm hardly likely to get pregnant, so I'll take that packet ... "

Apache foundation ousts TinkerPop project co-founder for tweeting 'offensive humor that borders on hate speech'

Cynic_999

Re: Nazi jokes, rape jokes, not actually funny

Unless he was deliberately inciting violence or something just as harmful, it matters not a jot to me what he said. It is perfectly possible to dislike a person and strongly disagree with they said while still defending their right to say it without incurring harsh punishment.

Cynic_999

Ironic

So he received death threats for tweeting what was considered "hate speech". Isn't a death threat "hate speech"? Or is it only "hate speech" if it involves certain protected groups? Legal to mock someone because of their ginger hair, but not because of their dark skin. Legal to mock someone because they believe lead can be changed into gold by magic, but not because they believe that water can be turned into wine by magic.

SpaceX small print on Starlink insists no Earth government has authority or sovereignty over Martian activities

Cynic_999

But the cool thing is that it would be possible to put something into orbit around the Moon at an altitude that barely skims the top of the craters.

Cynic_999

Re: Remember 1776 ......

Doesn't need to round a corner to get issued with a parking ticket.

You might joke about Martians, but looking at the photos, I see that Perseverance has what appear to be radiation warning signs in certain places. NASA must therefore believe that it will encounter someone who can recognise such a symbol.

Citibank accidentally wired $500m back to lenders in user-interface super-gaffe – and judge says it can't be undone

Cynic_999

Re: Double keying already used in some banking applications

"The only thing that's slightly odd is that the lenders loaned the money to Citi on the understanding it was at a certain interest rate."

Yes, but then Citibank managed to do a "debt restructuring" and they were only going to pay back 60c in the $. So at that point the lenders were looking at a big loss, and getting it all back would have been very welcome indeed!

Cynic_999

Re: "six-eyes" policy

At that level, most employees no longer think of it as being money, it's just figures on a screen.

Hero to Jezero: Perseverance, NASA's most advanced geologist rover, lands on Mars, beams back first pics

Cynic_999

Re: Life on Mars

"

On arrival, if there is the necessary solvent (water) and the right temperature ranges, they can assemble into something which can assemble into the most primitive structure one could call "alive".

"

That is indeed a popular theory. Except that all attempts to simulate such a thing in the laboratory has not once succeeded. If many thousands of *deliberate* attempts to create life have failed, the probability that it would happen *in this way* by pure chance is extremely remote. Events such as meteors from Earth hitting the surface of Mars before completely burning up in the atmosphere are *extremely* infrequent, so we are not talking about huge numbers of such events even over timespans of tens of millions of years.

Cynic_999

Re: Life on Mars

And even if it did, surely the heat caused as it went through the (then) substantial Martian atmosphere would have rendered it sterile?

Big Tech workers prefer 3 days at home, 2 in the office. We ask Reg readers: What's your home-office balance?

Cynic_999

Careful what you wish for

If it really is possible to be just as effective WFH as working from the office, then it would be great for businesses. No need to pay for expensive office space & upkeep. And no need to pay for expensive employees either. If a programmer or sysadmin can be managed and do just as good a job from 50 miles away as they can in the office, then they can also do just as good a job from 5000 miles away. And don't be so arrogant as to think that British IT staff are inherently superior to Romanians or Indians or Argentinians. They are just 4 times more expensive.

So maybe companies *will* soon switch permanently to having their staff working from home, just as so many employees are calling for. But don't expect those homes to be located in Britain.

Cynic_999

How about training & supervising new staff? Are they supposed to "learn from home"? Or do you simply not see that as being your problem or responsibility?

While it may well be true that experienced staff can do almost everything remotely, getting that experience usually entails the newbies having a lot of old-fashioned in-person contact watching and working with the previous generation of veterans. Learning the sort of tips and tricks that you won't find written down anywhere. Having a more experienced person noticing and intervening *before* the newbie makes an expensive mistake. Something that is difficult or impossible to do remotely.

Perhaps working from home requires an attitude of "Apres moi, le deluge"

British govt emits fuzzy vision for UK version of American boffin special forces group Darpa

Cynic_999

"

... buying some obsolete comms satellites as a GALILEO replacement ...

"

At least he is not planning to use them to make Skynet ...

€121,000 YOGA Book Android is 'priced right' says Lenovo

Cynic_999

Occasionally my company gets an enquiry to quote for something that would be more trouble to do than any sensible selling price would cover.

e.g. A small order that would entail setting up a production line for a run of just a few units of an obsolete product, finding suppliers for the components, perhaps re-making custom moulds and jigs, then finding or re-making all the apparatus needed to test the units and re-training production & test staff. The quote would be 1000's of times more than what the product originally sold for. Of course the customer is informed that they can buy a newer model that has the same functionality, but in some cases the customer (perhaps government or military) has a strict policy that will not allow substitutions without extremely onerous and time-consuming acceptance testing, and so they pay the silly price. Though we usually persuade them to buy at least a few hundred more units to keep in stock, as the total price is not a lot higher than it would cost for the few they actually need, and keeps the per-unit price down to something more reasonable.

Try asking Ford to quote you for a single Model-T and see what that would cost.

The wastepaper basket is on the other side of the office – that must be why they put all these slots in the computer

Cynic_999

Re: We kept an enormous paper clip (suitably bent) in our toolkit.....

I once had a device that used a micro SD card, where the slot in the casing was lot wider than the socket on the PCB behind it. The number of times I missed the socket when plugging in a card, which then slipped in above the socket and disappeared inside the device. It could only be retrieved by taking the case apart. Eventually I bodged a makeshift blanking plate to stop it happening.

UK dev loses ownership claim on forensic software he said he wrote in spare time and licensed to employer

Cynic_999

"

So, this tool, written entirely by myself, once from whole cloth, twice from memory, in order to just get the damn job done, isn't mine?

"

That's right. If you wrote it whilst you were employed (either in company time or your own time), and it's something you used in that job, it definitely belongs to your employer (unless excluded in your employment contract). They could even sue you for using it in a different job.

Cynic_999

Re: Related issue

"

When I do academic or other personal work, it's entirely on my own time, and on equipment I own. Personal work never touches company equipment or vice versa.

"

Those things are irrelevant. What matters is whether the work you did is associated with the work you are employed to do.

Cynic_999

"

... while I do retain the copyright on anything I've developed on my own facilities in my own time, I consider anything developed during work time to be owned by my employer.

"

Unless it is stated in your employment or other contract that your employer waives the right to copyright, AFAIAA the law states that it is immaterial whether the work was done during paid or unpaid time. All that matters is whether the work you did is something that is associated with the work your employer pays you to do (whether it is or is not associated is a matter for a court to decide, but the association can be quite loose). So while you might *consider* that you own the copyright on work you did in your own time, that is not necessarily true in law.

I recall reading of a case decades ago where a fireman made a better design of nozzle for a fire hose in his home workshop. A court decided that even though he was employed as an ordinary fireman and his duties did not include designing firefighting equipment, his employer owned the IP of the design, because his duties as a fireman is what inspired the design.

Cynic_999

Re: You only release once??

"

It says that as though that's relevant and implies that it's an indicator that he was doing this as part of his employment.

"

When the updates are on code that your company has been actively using for years, then yes, it is very good evidence that the updates form part of what you are employed to do.

The default position in the UK AFAIAA is that your employer owns the copyright to everything you create that is connected with the job you are employed to do. It does not have to be something that your employer specifically asked you to do, just connected in some way to what you are employed to work on (whether contractually or because you have done so without objection for some time). Whether you created it during your paid hours or in your spare time is completely irrelevant. This is one of the major differences between working as an employee and working as a contractor. The default position can be changed by clauses in your employment contract.

Had he been employed by that same company as a cleaner or accountant, he would probably have been able to claim ownership of the copyright even if he had sold the program to them.

Nominet claims effort to replace its board with 'safe hands' is invalid, refuses to put it to member vote

Cynic_999

Re: Just shows

"

What a pack of complete, utter rsoles they are.

"

A pack of very wealthy rsoles who played he system to line their pockets. And will now delay getting the boot for as long as possible because every month that goes by is an additional paycheque.

The big question is whether they played within the rules or outside the rules. If the latter, they would be a pack of very wealthy *criminal* rsoles, and that would make it possible to recover some of the money they have taken.

Soviet 'Enigma' cipher machine sells for $22k at collapsed museum's exhibits auction

Cynic_999

Re: Interesting.....but 1000 lines of C can get you something similar.......

"

Because Roll Your Own Encryption is likely to be poorly implemented.

"

Probably. But even if it is not all that secure, there will not be any tools to use to attempt to break it like there are for popular encryption programs.Thus the attacker would need to have a good knowledge of cryptography and probably access to the source code in order to be able to recognise and exploit weaknesses in the implementation. There are relatively few of those people. Also, not being generated by a known program, it probably does not fit any known format, so less likely to be recognisable as being encrypted data in the first place.

Cynic_999

Re: Spy museums

"

The kids had no idea of treating the controls gently - they just pounded them.

"

Yes, that's what kids do. A fact that the people who designed the interactive exhibitions should have known and taken into account. After all, much of the science museum is specifically tailored for children, which I applaud. Even if only 1 child in 10000 is inspired by an exhibit, that 1 child may grow up to make the next major scientific or technological breakthrough. Or design a better mousetrap.

It is not particularly difficult to make controls & exhibits sturdy enough to withstand being operated by over-exuberant 10 year olds. Maybe seek the assistance of a designer from Fisher-Price !

Cynic_999

Re: Spy museums

Kids rushing around can be *slightly* annoying especially if they are noisy, but there's no reason why they should stop you from taking your time and properly examining the exhibits. The annoyance is most probably more to do with your mindset than really interfering with your enjoyment. I'd rather that the occasional kid is inspired by something they find interesting than having children banned from such places.

UK watchdog fines two firms £270k for cold-calling 531,000 people who had opted out

Cynic_999

Re: Spoofing unused codes

Electromechanical exchanges were a lot less flexible in how you could allocate numbers to route calls between exchanges than modern electronic exchanges, and this was the reason why the prefixes needed to get to a particular exchange could differ depending on the originating exchange. Dialling the full national trunk code prefix would usually still work, but would use more limited resources (national trunk lines rather than local trunk lines) compared with using the local dialling prefix, so more chance of calls failing due to congestion (and the call would go via an additional intermediate exchange so have a longer path length).

An electronic exchange can choose the most favourable or least congested trunk route without the caller needing to dial a different number. You can even include the full country code to dial the building next door, and it will be routed the same as if you had left out both international and regional codes.

Machine-learning model creates creepiest Doctor Who images yet – by scanning the brain of a super fan

Cynic_999

Re: Very unlikely

The image that we "see" is entirely an imaginary construct by the brain, which is merely *guided* by the information coming in from our optic nerves. Just for starters, the image that is formed on the retina takes a whopping 200mS to travel along the optic nerve. To compensate, the brain continuopusly *predicts* what will happen in 200mS time, and that's what we think we are seeing in real time. It enables us to be able to catch a ball, or dodge a sabre-tooth tiger. But only if everything moves predictably.

The brain also fills in the huge gaps caused by each eye's blind spot, and erases the shadows of blood vessels and nerves that criss-cross in front of our retina, whilst "correcting" things such as discontinuities in straight lines and regular shapes. Your brain is continuously operating as a real-time graphics processor so well that you don't even notice until the shortcomings are exposed in "optical illusions"

If the incoming image is significantly different to the image our brain fed us 200mS ago, the brain will simply alter the short-term memory of what we thought we saw - so we will never know! Which is why you so often hear of accidents where the other object "came out of nowhere".

Cynic_999

Re: Very unlikely

The danger is that any major advance in the field of brain activity interpretation is likely to be able to be adapted to lie-detection or emotion-detection. And if these become reliable enough to be deemed "proof beyond reasonable doubt", it allows for the prosecution of thought-crime. Which you may think nobody would accept - but it certainly would be acceptable for many people wrt certain types of crime. e.g. having sympathy for terrorists or their methods, or having sexual thoughts about children.

Court witness describes how Autonomy founder Lynch would wash his rear-end in US prison showers and dorms

Cynic_999

Re: WTF

The UK may not extridite a person if that person is likely to be subjected to what the UK regards as being inhumane conditions or treatment, or have their human rights violated. It is why a UK court must have legally binding assurances that the person extridited will not receive the death penalty, and will not extridite anyone to a country that is known to torture its prisoners (apart from the USA of course).

We know it's hard to get your kicks at work – just do it away from a wall switch powering anything important

Cynic_999

Re: Uses of Radar

The whole idea of the microwave oven came about because a radar operator noticed the heating effect on food placed in front of the radar dish.

Cynic_999

If it was a large dish, he was probably doing moon-bounce.

Cynic_999

Similar story. I was parked listening to the car's cassette player (decades ago) and was puzzled by the very loud buzz it emitted every second or so. Then I realised that it may have something to do with the fact that I was waiting for a friend in an airport carpark, and there was a ground radar spinning away on a nearby building.

Cynic_999

Re: Why have the switch ?

UK sockets do NOT have their own fuse, only the plug has a fuse (which would still be unsafe with the top off after the fuse has blown) - but even if the socket did have a fuse, how would you recommend *safely* shorting out the plug in the situation described? And do *you* check the plug top of every appliance you use to ensure that the screw that holds it together is not loose or has partially stripped threads?

Cynic_999

Re: Why have the switch ?

If you had switched sockets, you'd soon discover that they are often very useful. A bit like garbage disposal units - ubiquitous in the USA but few people in the UK consider them to be useful. (In fact they are very useful, especially for the rats living in the sewers).

Phishing awareness gone wrong: Facebook tries to seize websites set up for staff security training

Cynic_999

Not so clearcut

Assume that it has come to your attention that someone has registered a domain that is obviously designed to be mistaken for your company domain. Would you (a) assume that it must be a security training company (b) someone wanting to trade on your company's goodwill or (c) someone intending to launch a phishing scam?

Personally I would think it could be any of those possibilities.

Who should be responsible for finding which of the three situations is the case? Bearing in mind that just because the web page accessed by the URL "www.theregitser.com/login" takes you to a page saying that it is a security test does not mean that there is not another page with the URL "www.theregitser.com/accounts/payments" that is a phishing attack. Or just because the person who registered the domain goes under the name of "Security Consultants Ltd" does not mean that they must be one of the good guys. Believe it or not, there are blackhats who masquerade as whitehats. (Are we allowed to use those terms these days?)

Is it not easier to just pull the plug on the domain and let the registrant fight to get it back by proving innocent intent than to conduct an in-depth investigation?

Anyway, maybe someone should register "proofpoirt.com" and see whether the company in question has any objections.

Samsung floats autonomous ships as ready to sail in 2022

Cynic_999

Re: Timescale

Selling a system does not mean that it will be instantly installed and used autonomously. The buyer will no doubt have to wait for delivery & installation (maybe a year or two), then conduct their own trials - probably with many runs with a safety crew on board, and only after many successful passages will they actually operate a completely unmanned ship.

Cynic_999

Re: Does size matter?

In addition to which ALL people in charge of a vessel have an over-riding duty to avoid a collision regardless of who has right of way.

Cynic_999

Re: How secure is GPS ?

"I think AIS is just going to report the spoofed position"

Yes, it will. But if that position is overly far from its real position, the satellite receiving the signal will "know" something is wrong because it is not in line-of-sight of the reported position, and this could be flagged.

Cynic_999

Re: Boarders!

If the alternative was that the ship would be used in a terrorist attack or deliberate oil-spill close to land, sure the would.

Cynic_999

Re: Safety?

I disagree that "intelligent" autopilots on ships are more difficult to implement than on aircraft, or that the probability of collision is higher. Ships may need tens of miles to stop, but aircraft have an infinite stopping distance! Vessels equipped with AIS (i.e. just about all vessels these days, even including large buoys and most small yachts that venture offshore) can detect a potential collision situation tens of minutes away, and the navigation/autopilot computer can plot a course between moving vessels even in pretty crowded waters well within the time needed to make the appropriate course adjustments, whilst aircraft may have only seconds to detect and react to a collision situation.

The added safety of having humans on ships is debateable. In fact the *illusion* of increased safety may well cause it to be *less* safe. Ships (like airliners) are being controlled by autopilot 99% of the time anyway, and human lookout is more fallible than an automated collision detection system based on radar and AIS - especially so in fog and heavy squalls. When sailing a small yacht (my only personal experience of navigating a vessel at sea), I would far prefer to rely on an AIS plotter or radar proximity alert than my eyeballs. It's very easy to daydream or doze off, or fixate on looking in the wrong direction, or become engrossed in a book, meal preparation or passage planning etc.

Leaving and entering a port and docking is something else entirely, and I doubt that can be reliably automated - but unlike aircraft, a pilot crew can be taken off a ship after clearing port, and put on as it approaches its destination, leaving the ship unmanned during the days or weeks of the en-route portion of its passage.

Cynic_999

Re: How secure is GPS ?

Other navigation methods can be used for gross error checking. The magnetic compass can check whether the GPS derived "course made good" is within sensible limits. Inertial navigation can ensure that the GPS is not giving a position that differs by many miles over a few hours, and if necessary systems such as Decca and Loran could be revived for gross error checks as well.

On top of which the operating company can observe real-time satellite tracking of the vessel via its AIS.

Cynic_999

Re: How secure is GPS ?

Ocean currents do not affect the accuracy of inertial navigation one iota. Inertial navigation equipment neither knows nor cares whether the movement of the vessel is due to its engines, currents, winds or a giant octupus grabbing a line a towing it.

Cynic_999

Job preservation

To those arguing that automation is bad because it puts people out of a job.

It is the idea that we should keep doing work that no longer needs to be done in order to preserve an economic model that is no longer appropriate that is the stupid & short-sighted view.

Similar to a man who will not have a washing machine, dishwasher or vacuum cleaner in the house because having his wife do hard labour is the only way he can justify buying her food & clothing.

Cynic_999

Re: Boarders!

It's much easier to handle pirates on an autonomous vessel. Firstly it could be made very difficult to gain entry, with all external hatches welded closed or securely locked. Secondly, manual control systems can be locked out with a pass code or key so that pirates cannot change the ship's course, only damage its systems to stop it moving. Thirdly, if pirates did board the vessel, they would have no hostages to protect them and would thus be open targets - as a last resort the vessel could simply be bombed or torpedoed. Lastly, the vessel could be booby-trapped with no fear that a crew member might accidentally be injured.

Eight Brits arrested after probe into SIM-swapping scam targeting US celebs

Cynic_999

Re: Extradition?

No, killing a man *by accident* is not a more serious *crime* than defrauding someone deliberately. Yes, the consequences of the act were far more serious, but we should always punish people based upon the severity of the crime, not the severity of its consequences. Not that that is what happens in practice.

If I got impatient with someone and pushed them out of my way, it would amount to a low-level assault at worst and I'd probably get a fine - if the police even bothered with it.

If I did exactly the same thing, but the person stumbled, fell, hit their head on the pavement and died, I'd be looking at many years in jail.

Cynic_999

Re: Not exactly a new issue

SIM swapping can indeed compromise the security of accounts that use your mobile phone as authentication. BUT - it is reasonably difficult to carry out, meaning there is a lower probability of you being targeted. And so long as you frequently use your phone, you will very quickly know that your SIM has been compromised because your phone will no longer connect to the network, and if you then act quickly you can reverse the effects of anything the miscreant has managed to do.

This scumbag stole and traded victims' nude pics and vids after guessing their passwords, security answers

Cynic_999

Re: If you don't want people to see you in your birthday suit

You'll find that insurance companies are very quick to do similar "victim blaming" Try claiming for a stolen vehicle that you had left parked in an ally with keys in the ignition and the engine running ...

Yes, the car thief is the only criminal. But you'd not be exactly blameless.

Cynic_999

Re: Computer++ sentence

You cannot always prove time & date, but you can usually prove the location from the image itself. And if the police were willing to make the effort, time & date can often be proven from things such as the weather, shadow angle and questioning the owners of vehicles and innocent passers-by seen on the CCTV image.

Plus if the owner of the CCTV testifies that the recordings were made at a certain time & date, or that he checked the system time and date soon afterwards and found it to be correct, while not being absolute proof, the testimony is just as much evidence as the testimony of an assault victim or eye witness.

Cynic_999

Re: Computer++ sentence

Although the burglar could have said that his wallet had been recently stolen, and any court would find it quite plausible that the unknown wallet thief then went on to commit burglary. Thus unless he was stupid, the wallet alone would not have been enough to convict.

India on track for crewed space mission, says first test flight to launch in late 2021

Cynic_999

Caste

A person's occupation in India is usually associated with their caste. But AFAIK there is no caste associated with the job of "astronaut" Will this be a problem?

Cynic_999

Re: Priorities

"Does the industry supported by the space project keep more people out of poverty ... "

Probably not ... yet. But India has a perfectly viable plan that could well see that goal achieve a lot faster than it otherwise would.

I suspect that in a few decades India may be sending a few charitable scraps of its wealth to help the UK's poor.

But before criticising India's priorities, you might consider whether with so many British people now being classed as living below the poverty line, should our governmnet be spending billions on an HS rail link?

Cynic_999

Re: Priorities

"I wonder what the national Holy Cow is in India? "

Having visited the country and spoken to a few ordinary wage-slaves, my impression is that education is pretty near the top of the list.