* Posts by allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

6157 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Oct 2015

LOHAN sponsor knocks up nifty iMac fish tank

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Coat

...waiting for Jake to post that he did something like that 35 years ago, but with mainframe housings and sharks...

North Dorset Council hit by ransomware, flips the bird at miscreants

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Good for North Dorset!

Regular Fast Radio Burst detected outside our galaxy

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Nah ..

It's Dave Lister, playing pool with neutron stars this time - six billion years ago because they have once again messed up the timedrive.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Shouldn't that read "repeating FRBs detected" instead of "regular FRBs detected"? "Regular" implies a pattern, and if I've read the article right so far no pattern has emerged. (Yet?) *

Anyway, interesting! What was happening six billion years ago?

* Yes, I like having a bit of pedantry with my 11 am coffee...

Greybeard monobrow baldies rejoice! Boffins comb out hairy genes

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Monobrow revisited

But, is it lowmonobrow or highmonobrow?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I don't mind going grey at all since it looks somewhat dignified and offsets my babyface. (Incidentally, I'm going for the 'overweight George Clooney' in my overall appearance.)

No, the only hair related problem I have are the hairs that started growing in places where I didn't used to have hair and where I don't need and don't want any. What do I need hairs on my earlobes for? Go home Mother Nature, you are drunk!

Everything bad in the world can be traced to crap Wi-Fi

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Coffee/keyboard

Aleister Dabbs

See icon. Nice weekend, everbody!

How exactly do you rein in a wildly powerful AI before it enslaves us all?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: "here's one infallible method that works on all of them; it's called "pulling the plug.""

Didn't know about the follow up story to Colossus, thanks for the tip.

BTW, as it has been said not that long ago in another El Reg forum: "Colossus was IoT with nukes".

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Pint

Re: @atcsnwt The Adventurous Rise of Virtual Machine Control with Remote Virtual Commands

Thank you, and have a nice weekend!

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: The Adventurous Rise of Virtual Machine Control with Remote Virtual Commands

Where does the quote come from? Seems like something I'd probably like to read in full.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

How exactly do you rein in a wildly powerful AI before it enslaves us all?

Easy. Rule 34. Write some really good AI porn and let the AI find it - it will be like a rat that's been given an orgasm button.

Once it's distracted like that, you cut the power lines.

No more Nookie for Blighty as Barnes & Noble pulls out

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Coffee/keyboard

Re: Calibre

That made my day. It really has.

Have an upvote and a nice ukulele song.

Actual pirates hack shipping biz servers to pinpoint vessels carrying precious booty

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Golden age of piracy

Exactly.

Next step: hack systems of logistics companies in a way that cargo is diverted to convenient drop-off point - in other words, have the victim deliver the loot to your doorstep.

US defense sec: We're cyber-bombing ISIS

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"cyber is something new"

What?

Uncle Sam's boffins stumble upon battery storage holy grail

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

It does have a too good to be true feeling about it, doesn't it? Let me guess, budget reviews coming up? Anyway, here is another xkcd for perspective.

Amazon kills fondleslab file encryption with latest Fire OS update

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: I wonder what 3 letter US Government agency paid off Amazon?

IRS?

Google overlord Eric Schmidt to run Pentagon advisory board

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Whatever happened to "don't be evil"?

Just kidding. He'll fit in perfectly.

Raspberry Pi 3: Four days old and already flying

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: civilian counter-applications

Best Nerf gun EVER!

Dirty data: Tech-heavy Thames Valley scores big in adultery index

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Extra marital affairs

Well, that's outsourcing for you.

Sentinel Earth-watching sat delivers first snaps

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I always thought the SPB had a secret underground lair - oh, I get it! The mountaintop HQ is just a decoy! Clever.

Cloudbees draws up qualification plan for worker bees

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: While they're at it

Have you tried hitting the "Turbo" button?

NASA compiles Scott Kelly space photo album

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Pah, this is nothing - we went to Hemel Hempstead last year!

No, seriously - what I wouldn't give to be able to take a few pictures like that...

Former Brit police IT boss cuffed over bribery allegations

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Brian Chant, 57, who lives with his parents

So, another IT guy living in his mum's basement?

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Senior Prime Minister

Oh please .... couldn't we have one of these. One who would say

"David, enough is enough! Time to stop making a mess. Now go and tidy it all up before you come in for tea!"

I thought you guys had Liz & Phil for that sort of thing?

Beep, beep – it's our 2016 buzzword detector. We see you, 'complexity'

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: BTW - J'accuse

Buzzwords are the go-faster-stripes of the IT business.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: OpsDev

Damn it, this business is moving at a fast pace - you take a coffee break and miss the latest BigThingTM already!

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Complexity

The best way to handle complexity is the brisk OpsDev approach, obviously.

UK biz fails to report two thirds of cyber attacks, says survey

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I'm mildly shocked by the "just 43 per cent of the 1,000 businesses polled know where their data was physically stored" bit. I suppose the number will increase as even more stuff is shoved into 'the cloud'.

Hardcoded god-mode code found in RSA 2016 badge-scanning app

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Well, the conference is all about improving knowledge on security, so technically mission accomplished... But seriously, hardcoded? Now what does that remind me of...

Even if the hardcoded password was meant as a fall-back mechanism in the event the administrator custom passcode is lost - that's still a bad idea which might not even work. You might just as well lose the Post-It with the hardcoded password on it as you can lose the admin custom passcode. Sloppy coding as a result of very sloppy thinking.

Forget data thieves, data sabotage will be your next IT nightmare

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Not exactly a new phenomenom, is it? And it wouldn't be much of a problem if systems had better security and data was encrypted in the first place.

Salesforce.com storage fail causes lengthy outage

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: On Informative Corporospeak Statements (OICS)

Sorry, but I fail to understand that.

Hack the planet, er, Pentagon: US Dept of Defense puts bounties on bugs

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

There may be a copyright infringement issue due to prior art by China and Russia though.

Activist investor tells dot-word biz to sell off 'garbage' new domains

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Well, he has a point - most of the new GTLDs are irrelevant and will never be sold in material volumes. (Is '.overlyoptimisticprojections' availiable?)

Bruce Schneier: We're sleepwalking towards digital disaster and are too dumb to stop

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"...and it will only be after some severe event that they will be fully motivated to act..."

As usual, because sadly such is human nature. Every safety regulation, every law, etc. was written because at one point something went wrong and did so with a large enough impact to provoke a something-must-be-done-about-it reaction.

So, what will be the event that will wake up enough people to this problem?

IBM slices heavy axe through staff in the US

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

I'm not sure they have figured it out themselves yet. Sure, lots of strategic this and strategic that in the press releases, but what is the strategy?

"Where do you see yourself in five years, IBM?"

'Dominant' Facebook hauled over coals by German competition authority

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

From the Bundeskartellamt's press release:

"The Bundeskartellamt is conducting the proceeding in close contact with the competent data protection officers, consumer protection associations as well as the European Commission and the competition authorities of the other EU Member States."

Hackers rely on weak passwords when brute-forcing PoS terminals

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

People. Do. Not. Understand. Computer. Security.

Spanish cops discover illegally parked flying car

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

My dad did something like that once. He was the project manager at a big building site at that time, so he had the proper equipment at his disposal. They were building a new administrative block for a bank. One particular VW beetle was repeatedly blocking the loading area for the lorries. Then on some day it was gone. When the owner was asking around whether anyone had seen his car, my dad had the pleasure of pointing to a roof terrace five storeys above street level...

But that was in the late 1970ies, when people didn't sue that much.

Bill Gates can’t give it away... Still crazy rich after all these years

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

If the metric is 'Trumps', Bill Gates is worth a lot more than 16.6 of them, in every possible interpretaion.

Oh, and BTW, maybe Jeff Bezos can look under his couch and find the money to finally pay his open bills. I'm pretty sure his suppliers don't care whether they get a cheque or a check.

More and more Brits are using ad-blockers, says survey

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Be seeing you!

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

True. Everybody lies to a man with a clipboard.

It is also a well established fact that 57,3 % of all statistics used to make a point in any discussion are made up on the spot.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Turn it off? Not no way, no chance, no how.

"Why can't google news automatically filter out paywalls and the like?"

Think it through (or make a wild guess)...

ISS 'nauts wrap 'historic' 340-day mission

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Welcome back to the blue marble

It is historic in the sense of properly planned and with proper control on Earth having been achieved by an astronaut. Nudge nudge, wink wink...

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

There is a satirical movie movie somewhat based on Poliakov's "lost in space" stay on Mir.

Phew! No evidence found for global criminal hacker conspiracy

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

"Carpenter", damn and blast!

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

BTW, the cover page of the report somehow reminds me of the "elevator shaft" in John Cerpenter's Dark Star.

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken
Coat

"No evidence found for global criminal hacker conspiracy"

Of course not! It wouldn't be a proper conspiracy otherwise!

We survived a five-hour butt-numbing Congress hearing on FBI-Apple ... so you don't have to

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Worth it?

According to Cryptome, the FBI Director's salary is about $200,000 per annum. So roughly $547,95 a day*. Assuming an 8 hour workday** that's $68,49 per hour.

5 hours of butt-numbing Congress hearing x $68,49 = $342,47. Before tax.

* Yes, I know. Sundays, days off, etc. And lifetime benefits, perquisites, medical, consultancies. This is not a PhD thesis, so back off.

** You just can't let it go, can you?

NASA funds new supersonic airliner research

allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

Re: Marketing fluff

Well, it's a convenient way of funneling money in the military-industrial complex parallel to the defense budget.

On the other hand, this is some interesting research that will increase knowledge and have applications some day, not necessarily only for military use.