* Posts by Solarflare

330 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Dec 2016

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UK consumer help bloke Martin Lewis is suing Facebook over fake ads

Solarflare

I feel that if it is a personal post, then the carrier shouldn't be liable for it. So if someone is bullying Little Timmy, then Facebook shouldn't be the one on the hook for that (Sorry Mr. Hunt, I don't agree with your soundbite from the other day). I wouldn't blame Royal Mail for a nasty card I got from somebody.

However, advertisers are paying for the carrier to target people, so carriers should certainly be liable for what they are choosing to allow to be sent. In the Royal Mail example, if they send me some marketing bumf which is particularly awful and if a massive scam (and have gotten paid to deliver it) I think they should be on the hook for that. The same goes for Facebook. Honestly their excuse seems to be more "we don't vet stuff, we just let them pay to target people".

Creaky NHS digital infrastructure risks holding back gene boffinry, say MPs

Solarflare

Great idea. But first, could the digital infrastructure be put in place so my GP can get info from my Consultant and vice-versa, especially if I have moved across the country? It would be nice if the 'digital infrastructure' could be worked on so that it doesn't take 9 weeks to get a letter typed up just to say that I have had an appointment. It would be even better if I could get letters telling me that my appointment has been rescheduled for x date, but was only dated the week prior to that and arrived 3 days the appointment.

But yes, Genomics, cool.

NHS Digital execs showed 'little regard' for patient ethics by signing data deal

Solarflare

Huh?

MPs have voiced “serious concerns” about NHS Digital’s leadership, claiming execs paid “little regard” to the ethics of sharing patient details for immigration enforcement and are too close to government.

Members of the House of Commons Health Committee slammed the body - which provides IT and data services for the NHS - for signing a data-sharing agreement with the Home Office.

So I'm just trying to straighten this out in my head... MPs (the government) have voiced serious concerns about NHS Digital (a public organisation which is beholden to the Department for Health, i.e. the government) and say that they are too close to government?

So the government is criticising the government for being too close to the government and not caring about the privacy of 'the people'?

Prof Stephen Hawking's ashes will be interred alongside Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin

Solarflare

"There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers"

No silicon heaven? Then where do all the calculators go?

US govt's final bid to extradite Lauri Love kicked into touch

Solarflare

Re: Good reasons not to extradite aplenty

@David Webb "Mental health issues are not a get out of jail free card,

Actually, sometimes they are in the UK. A good example is Tania Clarence. She murdered her 3 children and was sectioned for less than a year for it because they were disabled and that was tough for her to cope with, apparently.

Windows 10 to force you to use Edge, even if it isn't default browser

Solarflare

Re: Silverlight!

"And my hate, unable to use it in a domain admin account. It isn't that I want to use it, but I have to positively change defaults in order to avoid things trying to open in Edge."

Why are you opening a browser when you're running with domain admin privileges?

Ugh, of course Germany trounces Blighty for cyber security salaries

Solarflare
Terminator

I'm afraid if we told you, we'd have to kill you.

UK.gov to plough £67m into gigabit broadband for all and sundry

Solarflare

For those wondering

This seems to be just about enough to bump up averages. £67,000,000 at £3k a connection gives 22k connections.

If the average speed for the UK is 5mbps, adding another 22k connections that can be marketed as 1000mbps will bump up the average for a pittance of what it would cost to actually improve the service to the masses.

OK, deep breath, relax... Let's have a sober look at these 'ere annoying AMD chip security flaws

Solarflare

Anybody look at their disclaimer?

https://amdflaws.com/disclaimer.html

"The report and all statements contained herein are opinions of CTS and are not statements of fact. To the best of our ability and belief, all information contained herein is accurate and reliable, and has been obtained from public sources we believe to be accurate and reliable. Our opinions are held in good faith, and we have based them upon publicly available facts and evidence collected and analyzed, which we set out in our research report to support our opinions. We conducted research and analysis based on public information in a manner that any person could have done if they had been interested in doing so. You can publicly access any piece of evidence cited in this report or that we relied on to write this report. Although we have a good faith belief in our analysis and believe it to be objective and unbiased, you are advised that we may have, either directly or indirectly, an economic interest in the performance of the securities of the companies whose products are the subject of our reports. Any other organizations named in this website have not confirmed the accuracy or determined the adequacy of its contents. "

Yeah, doesn't sound shady at all...

The Java release train is moving faster, but will developers be derailed?

Solarflare

Re: Ugh, another Java bashing thread

That's great, the problem is with keeping the thing up to date. I buy an app from a company that needs 1.8.0 u45. 6 months later we are out of date, there are security updates for java but we can't just update it on that server as the manufacturer doesn't support it for anything other than that specific version. That's a really common occurance and it is all because java is renowed for being a massive PITA for compatability between updates and versions. Security nightmare.

IBM's homomorphic encryption accelerated to run 75 times faster

Solarflare
Coat

Am I the only one who read that as

"IBM's homophobic encryption" at first? Anyone? ...No? OK, mine's the nice black one on the left.

Sacked saleswoman told to pay Intel £45k after losing discrim case

Solarflare

On the last article about this, i said simply "she sounds like a complete nightmare". For some reason the post was deleted. I feel sort of vindicated now.

Facebook regrets asking whether it's OK to let adult men ask underage girls for smut pix

Solarflare

Splendid idea, right up until about 5 seconds after implimentation when people start using it to bully other users (kids, for example), people who disagree in debates use it to silence their opposition, people do it for a laugh because it's easy and "law enforcement" (which one do all these reports even go to??) now have a few hundred million reports to sift through.

But other than that, top notch idea.

BBC Telly Tax heavies got pat on the head from snoopers' overseers

Solarflare

Re: Some follow-up questions to ask...

I was wondering that on emyself. Can I authorise myself to read through government systems to make sure they aren't doing anything dodgy? I would assume not. Why can a private company (even one so beloved by government outsourcing) authorise itself to do anything like this?

Intellisense was off and developer learned you can't code in Canadian

Solarflare

I prefer to think of it as a separate word used on the web. Same as 'center'. It makes me feel a little less dirty when I see/write it.

Batteries are so heavy, said user. If I take it out, will this thing work?

Solarflare

Re: Musk Space Ship

Perhaps keep the telephone sanitisers off the ark this time?

Here's why online social networks are bad for humanity, the nerds who helped build them tut-tut

Solarflare

said Tristan Harris, a former Google design ethicist, and cofounder of the Center for Humane Technology

What on Earth is a 'design ethicist'??

YouTube turns off cash tap for automatic video nasties

Solarflare

Re: *checks YouTube channel stats*

526 subscribers • 560,146 views

Having one or two popular vids and then pretty much abandoning the platform will do that to you though I suppose...

Who's using 2FA? Sweet FA. Less than 10% of Gmail users enable two-factor authentication

Solarflare

Usenix Enigma

I read that as Unisex Enigma first...I was rather confused.

Hyperledger 3 years later: That's the sound of the devs... working on the chain ga-a-ang

Solarflare

The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger project was announced in December 2015....So where are we three years on?

Two years on. Or if you want to be 'toddlerish' about it you could say 25 months.

Great. But is anyone actually using it? Behlendorf isn’t in a position to track these things, he says.

This smacks a whole lot of the simpson old "I dunno. All this equipment is just used to measure TV ratings."

We're three years into Hyperledger

Still 2, Danny.

UK security chief: How 'bout a tax for tech firms that are 'uncooperative' on terror content?

Solarflare

Re: Or ...

Which is why he said to spend money on it so that they do...

We've heard of data gravity – we're just not sure how to defy it yet

Solarflare

Ah, it's simple stuff really - just delete everything after you have taken a copy.

Braking news: Nissan Canada hacked, up to 1.1m Canucks exposed

Solarflare

Not the first time they have had problems

I saw this and thought "didn't they have a problem a little while back with remote access into their cars, primarily in Canada?"

The answer is yes, yes they did:

https://www.troyhunt.com/controlling-vehicle-features-of-nissan/

Beyond code PEBCAK lies KMACYOYO, PENCIL and PAFO

Solarflare

Re: At amanfromMars 1...

Personally, I'd love to have a pint with the guy. Provided he didn't try to spread my eyes on toast or something I expect he would be a fun guy to get merrry with!

Space.. the fi, er, New Frontiers: NASA to hurl space robot at duck comet – or Saturn moon

Solarflare

The old story that I heard (not sure on its authenticity) is that the NORAD santa tracking started due to a misprint on a poster. Something along the lines of a company (I believe it was a large American department store) had a phone number that kids could call and be given updates on where Santa was, unfortunately when they printed posters to advertise this they put the number for NORAD rather than the actual number which was very similar. Naturally, it was a popular service and NORAD were very confused by being contacted by small children asking about Santa's whereabouts. As a result they then started doing it themselves and with the advent of the internet have made a few updates to their santa tracking website.

Like I say, I'm not sure if it is true, but it is a nice story regardless.

Peak smartphone? iPhone X flunks 'supercycle' hopes

Solarflare
Trollface

Re: Jumped the shark

Actually, Apple's hideously expensive phones run their own OS which is pretty secure, don't worry, it doesn't run Android :)

Russia could chop vital undersea web cables, warns Brit military chief

Solarflare

Forgive me if I've misunderstood something here, but why would we (the UK) be the most at risk if a cable is cut in the Pacific? Surely that would affect Japan, Austrailia, America etc the most? Surely we should be more concerned with Atlantic cables?

UK needs a 'digital twin' to keep track of its data assets – report

Solarflare

Data for the Public Good

Is that meant to sound as dystopian as it does?

Brit film board proposed as overlord of online pr0nz age checks

Solarflare

"While BBFC say they will only block a few large sites that don't use age verification, there are tens of thousands of porn sites," said Jim Killock, director of the Open Rights Group.

I would wager that's off by several orders of magnitude.

It's a decade since DevOps became a 'thing' – and people still don't know what it means

Solarflare

Until...

...DevOps stops becoming a buzz word thrown around to justify shoddy work practices and cutting corners, I will continue to think of it as bloody useless.

OK Google: A stranger with stash of pirated films is spamming my Google Team Drive

Solarflare

"all I can advise from reading your reports is not to click on or open any files."

Fabulous advice really. That collaboration and sharing thing that your company has paid for? Well, someone might be able to sneak nasty stuff in there, so you're best off just not clicking anything.

Behold, ye unworthy, the brave new NB-IoT logo

Solarflare

Re: Whut?

I believe 'On Blot' is the term for when you are drinking and on the way to becoming 'Blotto'

Spy-on-your-home Y-Cam cameras removes free cloud storage bit

Solarflare

Re: Been warning of this since long before...

Get your ass to Mars!

And now I want to watch Total Recall (the real one, not the remake).

NiceHash diced up by hackers, thousands of Bitcoin pilfered

Solarflare

Re: Move on, move on, nothing to see here....

Our house, of course. And in case you're wondering, it is located in the middle of our street.

Voyager 1 fires thrusters last used in 1980 – and they worked!

Solarflare

Re: 17.46km/HOUR???

In space, no-one can see you run...

GCSE compsci kids' work may not count after solutions leaked online

Solarflare

I once failed an interview because I didn't know, on paper, the various methods in StringBuilder. They didn't appreciate the answer "I'd Google it".

Did you take that as your cue to actually learn your craft, or are you a 'copy and paste from Stack Overflow/online tutorial' guy through and through?

Don't shame idiots about their idiotically weak passwords

Solarflare

Re: One way of doing it...

Did you just assume her name? You chauvinist pig.

NetApp's back, baby, flaunting new tech and Azure cloud swagger

Solarflare

"NetApp's back, baby"

Considering this is the 4th day on the run of articles about NetApp and there was another one at the start of the month, it's starting to feel as if it has always been here. I'm half expecting to see "The Register, part of the NetApp Group" soon based off of the recent swooning...

Internet of So Much Stuff: Don't wanna be a security id-IoT

Solarflare

"So how much of the $1bn is Dell pumping into security? O'Farrell will not be drawn on specific figures or percentages, saying “security will definitely be a priority area for investment." It would be mad if it wasn’t."

Why do I get the feeling that this is more a "We are setting aside money for a comms budget to best express the sentiment of 'we take security incredibly seriously' after our first inevitable breach"

Ads watchdog tells Plusnet: There's no way unlimited business broadband costs £4.50

Solarflare

"Plusnet said it did not have to since a router was not a compulsory purchase."

Admittedly this is from a domestic rather than business point of view, but all of the '£7.99 router delivery charge" fees that I have ever seen didn't give an option to say "No thank you, I'd rather use my own".

Audio spy Alexa now has a little pal called Dox

Solarflare

I'm confused. So let's say that I have an Alexa device* then that would be in my house, plugged in to the mains. Why would I want to make that specific device mobile? If this sort of thing is your bag then you'll probably have a smartphone with a 'personal assistant' on it as well, you know, to remind you when to take a bowel movement and such**. So yes, why do I need a battery pack?

*I don't and I really don't want one.

**I assume this is the sort of thing PAs are for.

UK Home Sec thinks a Minority Report-style AI will prevent people posting bad things

Solarflare
Joke

Re: Shocking

Calling Tom Cruise 'The Short Story' is a bit harsh. He is a bit vertically challenged, but the guy has feelings. Also, he was born in 1962, not 1956.

Solarflare

Re: The only viable explanation for going off the straight and narrow and onto a bender.

"I'll take an ounce of whatever Amber Rudd is smoking. It is obviously great gear. :-)"

When amanfromMars calls you out for crazy, incoherent babble, you know you have a problem.

Brit moron tried buying a car bomb on dark web, posted it to his address. Now he's screwed

Solarflare

Re: er...

"why are you assuming he's a 'jihadist' exactly?"

He's assuming that because the guy is brown. Whether John will admit that or not is another matter...

Better filters won't cure this: YouTube's kids nightmare

Solarflare

If you've ever had the displeasure of seeing some of this stuff, it's a bit different. Loony Tunes was very slapstick. This stuff is just...bizzare. My youngest nephew likes watching videos about cars. Starts off as the disney film stuff and then related videos and autoplays gets it towards this sort of stuff. It's mass produced rubbish at best but is a massive moneymaker for YouTube and the creators of the (really really weird) tat.

The channels that do this seem to be hidden, you don't see them in the 'top all time' lists, but many of them have billions of views. And they have ads, those ads get watched because the children are just watching and can't (or don't) skip...so it makes a huge amount of money.

It's weird and distrubing in a multitude of ways.

Where hackers haven't directly influenced polls, they've undermined our faith in democracy

Solarflare

"100,000 signatures means the petition will be considered for debate in Parliament."

Key word there be considered of course...

You know what's coming next: FBI is upset it can't get into Texas church gunman's smartphone

Solarflare
Mushroom

Re: The reports so far with some editorial....

I say give all Americans low yield nuclear weapons, tell them it is for thei 'rights' 'freedoms' and 'safety'. The problem will be sorted out pretty quickly and in a few hundred years the world will have a lovely large expase to be colonised again.

Imagine the candles on its birthday cake: Astro-eggheads detect galaxy born in universe's first billion years

Solarflare

Re: Gravitational Lensing

Pish posh. They get their handy astronomer stick and bat some of the interfering galaxies out of the way, then they put on their gravitational lens (pretty much a monocle, but weighs more) and viola! they can see the galaxy.

Seldom used 'i' mangled by baffling autocorrect bug in Apple's iOS 11

Solarflare

Exactly: ThA☐nk different!

OK, we admit it. Under the hood, the iPhone X is a feat of engineering

Solarflare

Re: yes, it's very nice but...

Voila! the suction dildo.

Must admit, wasn't expecting that one.

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