* Posts by Waseem Alkurdi

1240 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2018

Dear humans, We thought it was time we looked through YOUR source code. We found a mystery ancestor. Signed, the computers

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Maybe it was...

It was a Range Rover.

Land Rover, Range Rover, Rover plain, who cares?

It's a squarish British (British any longer?) car! ;-P

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Projection much?

Isn't this supposed to mean that after four generations, there's no genetic code from the fourth grandparent left?

Then what's the point behind this study/DNA lineage tests/... ?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Projection much?

Quite a number of bad or damaged genes found today can be shown to be granting resistance or immunity to various diseases or parasites.

Textbook example - sickle cell anemia and malaria resistance.

Ever feel like all your prayers go unheard? The Catholic Church has an app for that

Waseem Alkurdi

@Velv

, until you bring me PROOF a deity exists I'll continue to consider you an idiot.

So you're antagonizing a whole lot of people simply because you're either too ignorant to have researched the issue at any depth, or because you disagree with them?

"I hate what you say, but I defend your right to say it" - Evelyn Beatrice Hall (often attributed to Voltaire though)

Funnily enough, religion-haters claim this as their mantra in face of evil religious oppression. Evil Christians/Muslims/whatever censoring nonreligious "freedom" and stuff?

Waseem Alkurdi

I do agree with you on some points, but not on others.

My view is that religion is a necessary evil to keep some peoples moral compass on track, without it they wouldn't care

Or have morality. It's a big, complex problem.

If the universe began from nothing/from something that doesn't care, and we're animals that made their way up the evolutionary ladder, then, providing that nobody knows, what's to prevent anybody from engaging in desires that can only be called sick? What's to prevent somebody from raping his mother and molesting his children? What's to prevent them from robbing the world clean? Why don't (other?) animals call this 'wrong'?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: No point

@Zebo-the-Fat

Why, he knows how devoted you are!

If you don't obey Him (He commanded you to worship, etc), then you aren't devoted to him.

The communication seems very poor, every year the pope seems to pray for peace in the world, doesn't seem to be working.

Because war is there for reasons, not necessarily known to us, but not necessarily absent either.

Without status=progress (or on non-GNU dd), you don't see anything while the command is taking place. Does this mean that the command is gone and bash is a whole load of bullshit?

(Of course, it's improper to analogize in this way, but just to give an idea)

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: @Toni - No point

Nice try, buddy! In this case, why would I bother worshiping him ?

You worship God so he gives you stuff? So he gives you world peace? And not because you came to the conclusion (via your own research) that He created you, He ordered you to worship, therefore, He must be obeyed?

Excuse me, but that's too ... childish.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: No point

Ah, we're back to this.

(I'm answering with Abrahamic faith in mind)

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

Line 1 is obviously wrong, because this would contradict with God's omnipotence, a given in Abrahamic faiths.

Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.

The conclusion is arbitrary. What if there's a reason behind this apparent evil? The fact that we don't know/understand the reason/see the justice behind it doesn't mean that there's no reason (aka God is malevolent).

Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?

See above.

Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

I'm done here.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: No point

The point isn't really in telling God about what you want. It's about your devotion, your communication to Him.

I used to be a dull John Doe. Thanks to Huawei, I'm now James Bond!

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Conquest of Africa?

@Yet Another Anonymous Coward

The US has a dept of defence - I'm sure the people of Iraq appreciate the irony

Thanks for the hearty laugh!

Tens to be disappointed as Windows 10 Mobile death date set: Doomed phone OS won't see 2020

Waseem Alkurdi

but its still going to run android and thus be stupid

Run a custom ROM. Really recommended, especially for the privacy issues.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Will it come back again?

With fire.

Waseem Alkurdi

Well, even if you skip sign-in, you still have a fat proprietary blob called Google Play Services (GmsCore.apk) that you don't know what it sends to Google.

Android is fine, but screw it, a custom ROM all the way!

This must be some kind of mistake. IT managers axed, CEO and others' wallets lightened in patient hack aftermath

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Seems legit

steps that impede their work

There's a fine distinction that needs to be made here.

If their work really demands Internet access, then of course they should have it.

When users en masse in your company are doing things that fly flat in the face of IT policy, it is a sign that IT policy is absolutely not fit for purpose.

This. In @sanmigueelbeer's post, it was said that the users wanted Internet access. Does it say that they needed it for work? It didn't, so I assumed that what they wanted was Facebook access, not real business Internet access.

Asking Guests to use their own phone data plan is a poor show. A potential customer that is going to be the source of IT staff salaries. And they shouldn't be watching how much data or battery they are using.

IT has a service role where the services need to work for the employees of the company. A just like other service industries, the customer is king as they say.

So basically greasing the right palms.

What you say is a wish list of things should happen, it will never fly in practice, so I can only assume you do not currently do this job in real life

Your assumption is correct ... I'm a medical student, but I consider myself well-versed in matters of IT.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Seems legit

Mine has blocked IBM and Oracle's main libraries of downloadable manuals. This pretty much encompasses all the products we use and support.

Aren't these supposed to be put on an exclusion list from any filter? Why do you have to *pay* for doing work?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: New Virtual Order Orders ..... Nth Degree Stuff

Ah, you're back?

Waseem Alkurdi
Pint

Re: Seems legit

Also self-preservation of one's own job. Isn't that why we get them a dedicated fiber optic connection?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Seems legit

each business unit had a DSL installed.

So basically your problem seems to be a luser coup d'état.

This is called unauthorized equipment and Security should be summoned to remove it. (Dunno if that is even possible, but if it were me, this is what I would do).

When we tried to shut down the port, we were told (angrily) to turn it back on because it was "operational necessity".

Tell him to f*uck off. Would he be permitted to get his bed, place it next to his desk, and sell his house? Because it's an operational necessity? (also see BOFH operational euphemisms? Operational necessity in this case meaning that one couldn't "operate" without enough sleep or something?)

I really doubt the CEO of the company could agree to this.

Recently, we had a client who had Corporate and Guest SSID (open authentication) enabled. The client kept asking "why are staff using the Guest SSID". Same thing as above. Corporate SSID had internet restrictions while Guest SSID wasn't. So guess what the staff preferred to use?

I'd either apply the same restrictions to both (but not connect them together), or just do away with the Guest SSID. Everybody and their pet now has mobile data plans. (I stand corrected though).

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Seems legit

And for somebody who isn't British, what is this N3 anyhow?

From what I read, it's a WAN/broadband. What's fancy about it, and why does it require much $$$ to run?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Seems legit

I'd give you that if we're talking about a public service. How about in a business scenario where there isn't a real need for nation-wide access?

Any business where everything is done inside the office needs no Internet access nor a private network of this kind.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Seems legit

If sh*it means Facebook/$ANTISOCIAL_NETWORK/eBay/Amazon/Reddit/... then no, shit won't ever get done.

Instead of using a heavyweight web filter to block websites (nearly every one I had seen could be bypassed using an obscure proxy "as opposed to a popular one"), Internet access could be completely cut off from lusers' desktops. Updates are network-distributable.

Waseem Alkurdi

Especially if you're in Singapore.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Seems legit

Cutting off Internet access is all benefits, as I see it.

1. Less employee time wasted (supposedly)

2. Saves $$$ on Internet access costs

3. More secure (as the incident here shows).

I really, really don't understand why isn't it standard practice. Can anybody give pointers?

Nissan EV app password reset prompts user panic

Waseem Alkurdi
Coat

Re: Juke hazard

But could this possibly infringe on the Union Jack Mini Cooper design?

(I know, getting my coat)

Waseem Alkurdi

Probably outsourced, possibly to a neighboring country known for its spicy food, or another one known for, well, Chinese food?

Can't somebody reverse-engineer the Connect API?

Especially the car part?

And where are the FOSS advocates when we need them? xD

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: ... or cover-up?

Exactly. Tell customers and risk a backlash? Hell no, especially when you have Tesla (hype grandmaster) as competition.

CES flicks the off switch on massager award… and causes a buzz

Waseem Alkurdi
Joke

Re: Wait, the authorities closed...

Are you sure it's a mackintosh, not a Macintosh?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Sales site categorization

or lucrative enough!

I second that.

Three years ago, I participated in Microsoft Imagine Cup. We were told to focus on how the idea would be a good business opportunity, rather than focusing on the idea itself.

Waseem Alkurdi
Happy

Re: Recent example I saw

Ahhhhh, the word 'ute' ... been eight years since I last heard it!

You're from Australia, right?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Sales site categorization

Also known as eBay.

I've resorted to searching by name and filtering by priciest first then going a few result pages forward.

Especially works for phones.

Waseem Alkurdi

But twice?

Seriously asking: what's the point?

Medical advice app Your.MD could have been tampered with by anyone, alleges ex-veep

Waseem Alkurdi

Facepalm

Do people really trust this app?

1. Creepy

2. Inaccurate

3. Can't replace your ten-years-in-college GP, can it?

Baddies linked to Iran fingered for DNS hijacking to read Middle Eastern regimes' emails

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Hey, Iran

So the Ummayads, the Abbasids, the Seljuqs, the Fatimids, the Ilkhans, the Ottomans, the Mughals and a few other, less important or even mentionable islamic dynasties down to the Saudis

Who cares?

Suppose somebody decided to kill every redhead he sees.

Is it logical to say that, hey, it's because he's a Buddhist, so all Buddhists are redhead-killers!

I'm not sure whether any of the dynasties you mentioned were despotic*, but this doesn't necessarily mean that it is Islam which made them despotic.

In a similar vein, one might argue that capitalism is evil simply because America invaded Iraq/Vietnam/whatever.

You can't generalize that a principle is wrong simply because some of its adherents did wrong.

So Islam has basicly been constantly "misrepresented" ever since its inception?

Nah, not really. Some caliphates were quite amazing examples of how Islam should be applied (and how should countries be ruled in general). I'm referring to 'Umar bin Abdul Aziz's caliphate here, whose caliphate is held by tradition to have completely eliminated poverty through rigorous distribution of wealth (Islamic alms or zakat), and to the first four caliphs, known as the Rightly-Guided Caliphs.

And as for those precious few upright true believers who represent the "real" Islam this leaves us with... the Qarmatians maybe???

Already tackled above. As for the Qarmatians, you mean the looting gang which killed hundreds of innocent pilgrims and looted the Kaaba? If we were to look at it with some humor like you did, they could be regarded as militant Social Darwinists instead, advocating the elimination of the weaker "excess" of humanity so that the stronger remainder flourishes.

* A quick Google search shows this source, which says that at least the Ottomans weren't despotic.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Hey, Iran

By that logic, and since you mentioned Iraq, Saddam Hussein should never have been ousted as well. Actually, the analogy quite fits, since both are Baathists.

BTW:

Egypt -> al-Sisi (not elected via due democratic process, can't give a single speech without breaking down*)

Iraq -> government and country are in shambles after the American invasion, so nothing to see here***

Iran -> Despotic regime that misrepresents Islam to stay in power (and grab more and more of it) **.

* Not an opinion, seriously, just look up one on YouTube, you don't even have to understand the language.

** Keeping in mind the rules of al-Shura (people's consultancy) in Islam, which is quite equivalent to

democracy (but isn't the same though), a regime (and especially its ruler) can't be despotic and lay a claim to being Islamic at the same time.

*** Problem is that everybody wants a government in al-Iraq that represents everybody and everything. Fine in principle, but now "everybody and everything" is complaining that the other everybody and everything are the only stumbling block preventing Iraq from becoming a First World nation, so the solution is to break off into a separate state (see Kurds, other separationists). Repeat ad nauseam.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Hey, Iran

No, no, that was al-Assad's thank-you note to Iran (cc: Russia) for keeping him in power.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: If it's not encrypted *BEFORE* it's sent, then it's not encrypted at all ?

As I understand it, they are doing a man in the middle attack.

This means that they are sitting between the mail provider and the client.

This could be possibly getting the fully rendered HTML page of the webmail client, for example, and reading the content off.

This way, the message itself is decrypted at the provider and only relies on HTTPS (which was evaded by the MITM).

Just updated Windows 7? Can't access network shares? It isn't just you

Waseem Alkurdi

"The company whose court imposed penalty which was pretty much equivalent to a slap on the bum with a rolled up newspaper?"

"Yes."

"And by Newspaper I mean PART of a newspaper - something like the 'Culture' section of "The Sun", the non-boring bits of "The Financial Times" or the non-fiction portion of a vendor's Benchmarking specs handbook?".

- The BOFH replying to the Boss,

BOFH 2002 Episode 3, 02/18/2002.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Pure Raging.

System Restore has always intrigued me as a gimmick. Since 2004.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: A sterling job of OS migration...

Let's revive some memories:

:-(

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: I haven't updated my win 7 box in _MONTHS_

Hey! I stopped at NT 4.0 SP4! :-P

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: (KB4480970) Also hoses Windows 7 32 bit on Tosh Lappy

But Microsoft managed to slow it down to unworkably slower than any previous OS with the first two semiannual updates...

Exactly!

$LATEST_WIN10_RELEASE is nearly always slower, on every laptop my tentacles touched (desktops unaffected for some odd reason).

Reddit locks out users with poor password hygiene after spotting 'unusual activity'

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Hygiene

Vintage stuff usually has a high resale value.

Waseem Alkurdi
Angel

Re: Hygiene

Or to use a version appropriate for a less civil setting, like reusing old tissue paper.

Who cracked El Chapo's encrypted chats and brought down the Mexican drug kingpin? Er, his IT manager

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: "If you decide to leave where exactly are you going to go?"

And how are they going to reach the supposed safety of the US border?

(There lies the real question)

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: What's the point...

Human nature.

When one finds a $LC_MONETARY 10 note on the ground, one tends to look around for another.

The D in SystemD stands for Dammmit... Security holes found in much-adored Linux toolkit

Waseem Alkurdi

Precisely.

P R E C I S E L Y.

To add to what you said:

Try and read the man page for systemd. It literally puts you off from the beginning with all the buzzwords.

Try and put systemd on a flowchart. No, no, I didn't ask you to draw a map of the land trade routes of Asia.

Waseem Alkurdi

The problem isn't that it isn't usable at all ... the real problem is that, upon taking a look at it from the outside, bird's eye view, if you will, systemd is like that enormous, ugly, smelly monster out of the swamp. It runs fast though.

Just try getting rid of it, in a VM. Try to do it cleanly, with no traces.

Other inits have their love bites, but at least they "do one thing and do it well".

systemd tries to absorb the universe into it.

Hell, it even has a UEFI bootloader. WHY?!

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: El Reg

At least it's nerd-trolling, not luser-trolling (aka mainstream rags, whether computing or not). And we like it that way.

Waseem Alkurdi

That's why El Reg ran this piece.

And yeah, we needed to vent off the steam.