* Posts by d3vy

1633 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Mar 2014

Florida Man sues Verizon for $72m – for letting him commit identity theft

d3vy

Re: Nice to see...

"We don't elect Prime Minister's, we are given the illusion we elect political parties who chose who they want as their leader"

Tinfoil hat table 1.

d3vy

Re: Nice to see...

"Nobody laughs at the UK because we have allowed an unelected Prime Minister Theresa May to completely fuck us over."

Well.... In the UK we dont vote for the PM, we vote for the party, the party leader is selected by a vote within the party (A party that you CAN join if you so wish) so to say that she is not elected is only true in as much as David Cameron was also not elected.

PS. FTFY :

"Nobody laughs at the UK because like an over told joke, its just not funny any more"

d3vy

Re: The time has come .......

"you're going to have to do something to stop this sort of idiocy, or at least prevent us from finding out about it and having a good laugh at your expense."

My understanding is that under the Trump administration this kind of thing just will not happen, we will all be too busy scrambling around the decaying ruins of supermarkets trying to find food to care much about whats being processed by the courts.

Programmer finds way to liberate ransomware'd Google Smart TVs

d3vy

Wait.. Hold power and volume down buttons.

Isnt that the standard way to get to the factory reset on prety much EVERY android tablet/Phone?

I'd never have thought of trying that on a TV but it makes perfect sense that it would work :)

US cops seek Amazon Echo data for murder inquiry

d3vy

Re: Not their call

"Here in the UK the off switch is on the wall."

Get some smart sockets and you can ask alexa to switch itself off... Or declare "I cannot self terminate, you must do it"

d3vy

Re: Dystopian future on the way?

@ogi

if echo had local storage and enough processing grunt to do speech recognition it would cost considerably more.

If it only had access to your local network it would be next to useless.. Well other than a voice controlled remote..

Me "Alexa, what's the weather like tomorrow?"

Echo : "Your guess is as good as mine"

Me : "Alexa, order me some more printer ink and paper"

Echo : "I'm sorry Dave I can't do that"

d3vy

Re: Smart water meter data as evidence

@red

It's in the guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/28/amazon-refuses-to-let-police-access-suspects-echo-recordings

Last paragraph

d3vy

Re: Probable Cause

@dubya

"If it was the property of the alleged perpetrator, it would get more complicated"

RTFA

The device WAS/IS owned by the accused not the victim.

d3vy

Re: Interesting...

"My guess is it is always recording too."

That might be your guess but my understanding is that you would be wrong.

The device listens for a wake word and then streams audio to an Amazon server for voice recognition etc.

You can log in at any time and see a record of the requests that Amazon have received from your device, afaik it only stores the text output of the voice recognition (I am not sure if this is the case as it would make sense to store at least some of the audio for testing/improving the system - appropriately anonymised ideally)

One of the other pieces of evidence that they have put forward (according to *i think* the guardian) was the guys smart water meter that showed he used a significant amount of water at around 3am... They are suggesting that this was to wash blood from the patio (no mention of strangulation in that article)...

Amazon are completely right to resist this, I can see it turning into another massive waste of time and money... At the end of this best case is they are hoping for a few false positive activations in the minutes leading up to the death having caught something incriminating...

"Amazon, play my 'strangling Jeff' play list"

Tesla set to up prices by 5% in new year because of 'currency fluctuations'

d3vy

Re: AutoPilot - that's nothing No ubering

"The thing is with a vehicle like this then sharing is a serious option. If I'm asleep or in the office for 8* hours I dont see why my car shouldn't be out earning its keep. "

In that scenario why own the car at all, a local company or the council could maintain a fleet of them for use by the public. If demand was high enough you could get larger ones with more seats...

That sounds familiar, but I cant quite place it...

China gives America its underwater drone back – with a warning

d3vy

The US has addressed those facts with the Chinese through the appropriate diplomatic and military channels..

Presumably someone will tell trump that none of those channels is Twitter.

Virgin America mid-flight panic after moron sets phone Wi-Fi hotspot to 'Samsung Galaxy Note 7'

d3vy

Re: Two things

"Let's not let one fucking measly phone that, realistically, hardly ever fails, result in stupid responses like this."

YES.

Over reactions like this are the reason that I cant take more than 100ml of WATER on a flight but I can carry a kg of Lithium ion batteries... the mind boggles.

The obligatory XKCD : https://xkcd.com/651/

Raspberry Pi Foundation releases operating system for PCs, Macs

d3vy

Re: I keep hoping

"Which is a silly answer"

It is a silly answer and it's the answer I have been given many times when trying to find solutions to issues with Linux installs... One of the reasons I still use Windows for work and just tinker with Linux... Can't afford the downtime trying to solve issues.

View from a Reg reader: My take on the Basic Income

d3vy

Re: Maybe the billionaire tax dodging megacorps could pay for it too...

"Maybe the billionaire tax dodging megacorps could pay for it too"

If you scroll up a little you will see a breakdown (estimated) - the numbers dont seem too far off to me, 500bn is what it would cost (Estimated) to give 10k a year to every adult. Now if you add up all of the "tax dodging megacorps" tax contributions (or rather what they should have paid had they not been exploiting legal loopholes) you still dont have a number anywhere near 500bn... so wheres the rest coming from?

d3vy

Re: housing benefit

"On the other hand it is still true to say that housing benefit ends up in the pockets of the landlords, isn't it?"

Well yes, but the really mental bits come in when you look at the whole process.

1 The government uses taxes to pay for housing benefit

2. The housing benefit is paid to the tennant who (mostly but not always) gives it to the landlord

3. The landlord pays tax on the income

4. goto 1

It seems to me that it would be better to offer landlords tax free income on properties that they rent out at an affordable rate to people claiming housing benefit... So the landlord could offer a property 20% cheaper and still make the same profit... this would of course require more regulation of the housig market (at least the portion of it being used for benefits claimants)

d3vy

Re: No basic income without basic accommodation

"Have you tried seeing if things are true before saying them?"

Are you serious? I thought that had established beyond any doubt that the definition of fact has changed in recent years... the rule seems to be whoever states a "fact" first/loudest is correct.

d3vy

Re: No basic income without basic accommodation

@Loyal

"in other words a nationwide program of building state-sponsored social housing."

Does that go with a state sponsored program of forcing land to be sold for said housing or are we proposing building tenements again, because they worked so well the first time.

d3vy

Re: No basic income without basic accommodation

@Loyal

"You'll hear cries of wails about how housing prices will crash. So what? If the value of the house you are lucky enough to currently own halves, it doesn't affect you, because the nominal value of that property lies only in its sale value, which, if you sold it, you would then have to spend to buy another house. The ONLY people which this would adversely affect are those who own multiple properties"

Actually you have missed something here, if house prices are cut in half then loads of people will be in negative equity.

What you are forgetting is that there is a middle ground betwwn not owning a house and owning a house outright - having a mortgage.

So if my house was worth 200k and I had a £150k mortgage I have 50k equity in the house.

If the house prices were cut in half I would have -50k equity in my house.. It wouldnt matter if other houses were more affordable I'd still be saddled with that debt.

Bluetooth-enabled safe lock popped after attackers win PINs

d3vy

"Any modern efficient vehicle will not warm up while just idling. So remote start would only be helpful if you have a crappy car that is inefficient."

A few counter points :

1. I have a modern efficient car, however the laws of physics still exist and the combustion of fuel still produces heat inside the engine.

2. My cars heaters are independent of the engine running but if its cold enough for me to want to pre-heat the cabin I probably want the engine warm before I make it do any work so I normally run both.

"The insurance terms are interesting, since remote start does not involve the keys being left in the car"

My old renault had a key card, you could get in, start the car take the card out and lock the doors and leave it unattended with the doors locked.. not remote but same affect.

The insurance terms are interesting, since remote start does not involve the keys being left in the car, so you can't take the car out of park (remote start is for automatics only of course).

"remote start is for automatics only of course"

Is it balls, you know cars are not dumb instruments any more, the ECU on a car if capable of remote start is also capable of determining based on certain parameters if its safe to start the engine.

So its quite possible to start a manual if its been left in neutral and has the handbrake applied (both bits of data that the car itself can figure out - bonus points if it can rectify these (every car I have had for the last 10 years has been capable of switching the handbrake on and off itself)

d3vy

@VIC

You have done the same as the annon poster earlier, that might apply to cars on the road. We are talking about my car, on my drive attached to my house engine running, Doors locked, Keys in the kitchen with me.

We are not talking about the car being on a public road which is what is covered in your post.

d3vy

@Annon

"You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is stationary on a public road."

Ok, but we are talking about warming the cabin of the car and de-icing it outside my house, on my drive, nothing that you posted applies to what we are discussing.

d3vy

@Loud speaker

"Because anyone can cut a replacement/duplicate mechanical key if they have the original - it costs a couple of pounds."

The intersting bit there *ANYONE* can cut a replacement.. I used to be able to use my megane key to open my mums clio... Of course being a law abiding citizen I never tried it on other cars but I am CERTAIN that it would open other Renaults too :)

Are you proposing that we go back to that for the sake of saving a few ££ *IF* you lose your key?

d3vy

@Lee

"Your wife locking your keys in the car is solved by the simple solution of a new wife."

I know you were joking but let look at that option for a moment... I'd replace the wife, I'd lose half of my company, need a new house and only see the kids once or twice a month... or remote unlocking.

Seems a no-brainer to me.

d3vy

@LeeD

"Remote unlocking for car doors.

Remote controls for auto-starting your engine.

Someone please explain why you need to press a button when your VERY NEXT ACTION is to touch the door you wanted open / start the car you wanted started.

(Remote-locking? Slightly different as you're walking AWAY)."

Remote unlocking - "Phone Call to wife : " Ive locked my keys in the car can you open it for me?" - though I agree that this is a bit daft.

Remote Start - Sitting in the house eating my breakfast waiting for the car to de-ice and warm up the passenger compartment during winter (With the doors locked and the keys not in it)

Remote Locking - Sitting in the house at night thinking "Did I lock the car?"

I can think of use cases for

Houston, we have a problem: 'App dev stole our radio station'

d3vy

Re: Let's pay with airtime instead of money!

"Here's a tip; don't pay for work with airtime"

If both parties were happy with this arrangement I see no problem.

Sexbots could ‘over-exert’ their human lovers, academic warns

d3vy

Re: An answer to one question

She gives you "the stick" n the freezer isle?

You filth monster.

Don't panic, friends, but the Chinese navy just nicked one of America's underwater drones

d3vy

Re: this is what you get with wimpy foreign policy

@bob

Where has that attitude to aggressive foreign policy got you in the past?

CIA: Russia hacked election. Trump: I don't believe it! FAKE NEWS!

d3vy

Re: There's a pattern here

@updraft.. you're quite right, but he did imply that Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists...

https://youtu.be/C6QEqoYgQxw

HBO slaps takedown demand on 13-year-old girl's painting because it used 'Winter is coming'

d3vy

I have an idea

Let's post that image everywhere with a link back to this article.

I'll put it up on my home page for a few days

Brits think broadband more important than mobes, cars or savings

d3vy

Re: "Great" Britain and the USA have so much in common

"There is NOTHING on the Internet that is required"

Where do you get your porn?

d3vy

@Lee D

"Without decent Internet, you can't find the best offers, manage them effectively (i.e. have to wait for your statement to come through before you spot that transaction that shouldn't be there, etc.), or organise the best rates and complex financials."

Very true, however as you pointed out (more or less) later in your post, you can do that with a sub 10mb/s connection.

Ive got friends who don't work in IT.. Pay £100+ per month for virgin media and boast that their broadband is waaaaay faster than mine and tell me I should upgrade (I get 75MB/s on BT Infinity). When I ask what they use it for "Facebook and youtube"

d3vy

Personally I regard broadband more important (I'm in my 30's) than savings and pension in that without broadband I cant work so wont have anything to save/put in my pension.

That doesn't mean that I would want to do without any of them, just that right now the priority would be broadband, savings, Pension in that order as that is the order that they will affect me in.

I do wonder how many of the people surveyed actually use the broadband for anything useful?

Stealing, scamming, bluffing: El Reg rides along with pen-testing 'red team hackers'

d3vy

Re: Sad but true....

"The cleaners didn't get the bollocking, the people who left the laptops did, and rightly so."

I'd have thought that the cleaners should have had a talking too as well...

I heard a story from a guy doing pen testing for us years ago, when on site doing an audit he noticed that the cleaners had access to the server room. The next morning one of the cleaners was £20 better off and there was a foreign pen drive plugged discreetly into the back of one of the servers...

Cleaners, Janitors and Security have access to lots of things, they need to be as aware of security concerns as your normal staff. *

* None of them should not have access to your server room at all.

Why your gigabit broadband lags like hell – blame Intel's chipset

d3vy

Re: @d3vy From the original article

"You know what might bring the whole site down? Running it on Windows 10!!!!!!!!111"

Ill give you that one, I did actually smile at that.

d3vy

Re: From the original article

Oh my god, the article is nothing to to with windows, or Microsoft it's a bug in some Intel code in router.

Do you all do this in normal life too?

Coffee shop : what do you want to drink?

You : I'll tell you what I don't want. Windows 10

Coffee shop: get out.

Seriously get some perspective, take up a hobby, walk the dog, anything but obsessing about windows, it's not healthy. if you don't like it don't use it, but please stop bringing it up on unrelated articles bringing the whole bloody site down.

d3vy

Re: From the original article

Oh just fuck off.

Every article. Every.single. article. Whining about windows 10 in the comments regardless of the content of the article.

Soon only Ticketmaster will rip you off: Concert scalper bots face US ban

d3vy

So.. can't use a bot.. how much is a warehouse full of offshore labour?

Plastic fiver: 28 years' work, saves acres of cotton... may have killed less than ONE cow*

d3vy

Re: Fat of the land

There will be trace amounts of all of those things on them already.

d3vy

Re: Pandora's box?

"You do know DMs have been available in Veg friendly for years?"

That may be so, but how do vegans square that away... buying vegan friendly footwear from a company that makes the vast majority of its profit turning animals into shoes?

d3vy

Re: Pandora's box?

@Pen-y-gors

"I rather like hearing the local sheep, cows and horses chatting when I'm dozing off to sleep."

"You still wake up sometimes, don't you? You wake up in the dark and hear the screaming of the lambs"

d3vy

Re: Not much of a chemist then?

@Piro.

"Not really, found an article that says the Scottish ones don't contain tallow: http://theukbulletin.com/2016/12/01/scottish-polymer-bank-notes-are-vegan-friendly/"

They retracted that statement not long after making it...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38169194

Jeremy Hunt: Telcos must block teens from sexting each other

d3vy

Obligatory xkcd.

http://xkcd.com/1425/

Vegans furious as Bank of England admits ‘trace’ of animal fat in £5 notes

d3vy

Re: Blasphemy?

"I've heard a self-proclaimed vegetarian state that fish are not meat. I guess he was brought up old style Christian"

My sister went vegetarian once "Except ham"

I also had a girlfriend once who was vegetarian, but ate fish and didn't like vegetables.

d3vy

"Wearing crocs is like getting a blowjob from a dude: it feels good until you look down and you realise you are gay"

You cant seriously be comparing wearing crocs with being gay?

For a start being gay is perfectly acceptable in modern society... crocs on the other hand...

d3vy

"Before the age of the digital camera - one could point out that photographic film had an animal gelatin emulsion"

I was under the impression that glossy photo paper still used gelatin?

d3vy

"No, the ones I know wear "crocs""

Sent crocs made from recycled car tyres?

Car tyres contain animal products too...

Canadian cops cuff 11-year-old lad after Grand Theft Auto gets real

d3vy

Re: Sorry to sound like an old grumpy.. ..

@Known Hero

"I can remember watching Terminator when I was a kid well under 18, and I consider myself to be well adjusted, have good morals and loathe violence."

Exactly, People seem to forget that when we were kids we did the same things. I remember watching the original robocop with my dad I'd guess that I was around 9/10 at the time.

Despite this I have never shot/stabbed anyone, I did once force a van off the road into a pool of acid, but that had NOTHING to do with watching robocop :)

I see no reason to stop my kids doing the things that I did when I was younger.

d3vy

Re: Sorry to sound like an old grumpy.. ..

@Trevor

"Guns and killing are okay, but sex is the devil!"

I refer you back to my original comment, as you seem to have struggled to read it correctly the first time:

"fast forward past the sexy sex and some of the worse bits and that's about it"

Some of the worse bits certainly included most of the car chase bridge scene and any of the more graphic death scenes, after those are removed its basically avengers/barman with swearing, I have no issue with my kids hearing swearing*

* They know not to repeat it.

Come to think of it they also know not to stab people... funny that. Almost like watching a film doesnt affect their behavior that much. What a shock.

Finally Ill just point out that I didnt tell you the age of my kids, for all you know they are 17.

d3vy

Re: re yesterdays ohio shooting

I was in florida for the first two weeks of November.

The first night there, Downtown orlando 3 people shot at a party.

Over the course of the next two weeks I saw at least 3 more news reports about different shootings *JUST IN ORLANDO*.

Its anecdotal I know but based on my experience Id say that the US most definitely has an issue.