* Posts by Will Godfrey

5893 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Sep 2007

Blighty's most trusted brand? Yeah, you wish, judge tells Post Office in Horizon IT system ruling

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

'twas ever thus

They've always been arrogant shits - even before the split up with BT. It's deeply encoded in their DNA and I don't expect significant changes for a very long time - if ever.

Facebook blames 'server config change' for 14-hour outage. Someone run that through the universal liar translator

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

Simples

https://xkcd.com/908/

What today links Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram – apart from being run by monopolistic personal data harvesters?

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Thumb Up

Re: Funny, I didn't notice a thing

I like 'farnarkle'. Sounds really arcane Have one of these as well as an upvote

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Coat

Everyone turning against good ol' 'merca

Trump & Co. will probably blame the Germans this time cos they didn't roll over and do as they were told.

Don't be too shocked, but it looks as though these politicians have actually got their act together on IoT security

Will Godfrey Silver badge

Optimistic

I'll be impressed if it actually gets through unscathed, but I'm not holding my breath. Seen too many good ideas derailed by vested interests

Never thought we'd ever utter these words, but... can anyone recommend a spin doctor for NASA?

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Pint

Someone is 'avin a larf

I'll console myself with a few of these ->

First it was the rubber duck, then its dad, now we get an oversized OXO cube. I'm just expecting to hear they've found Ringworld.

Thought you were done patching this week? Not if you're using an Intel-powered PC or server

Will Godfrey Silver badge

Re: Who cracked their secure enclave?

Indeed. NSA are probably furious!

Boeing... Boeing... Gone: Canada, America finally ground 737 Max jets as they await anti-death-crash software patches

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Mushroom

If proof were needed

They are more concerned with their share prices than two planes worth of people. I've no doubt if it hadn't been for the rest of the world, they would still be prevaricating.

Windows XP point-of-sale machine gets nasty sniffle. Luckily there's a pharmacy nearby

Will Godfrey Silver badge

Re: POS?

I always read it as 'piece of shit'

Microsoft changes DHCP to 'Dammit! Hacked! Compromised! Pwned!' Big bunch of security fixes land for Windows

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Unhappy

Ahead of the game?

Clever of them to catch bugs so soon in the new and unproven DHCP

/s

Yelp-for-MAGAs app maker is warned there are holes in its code. Does it A. Just fix the problem, or B. Threaten to call the FBI, too?

Will Godfrey Silver badge
FAIL

Thank you

Nice of 63red to make it absolutely clear they are utter crap.

We can do this the easy way or the Huawei, US tells Germany with threat to snip intel over 5G fears

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Facepalm

Wot?

Guys, I was joking when I described this as a possibility.

It seems America's arrogance is only exceeded by its.... (run out of expletives)

Just a reminder: We're still bad at securing industrial controllers

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

No Hope

The potential problems are well known by now (with actual examples) but the ones holding the purse strings simply aren't interested. Their only mantra is suck out as much money as you can. It's cheaper to say "Lessons will be learned" than to actually do anything.

Put down the cat, coffee, beer pint, martini, whatever you're holding, and make sure you've updated Chrome (unless you enjoy being hacked)

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

Monoculture?

With world + dog apparently moving to the chrome engine will it be fun times ahead?

That marketing email database that exposed 809 million contact records? Maybe make that two-BILLION-plus?

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

How about a change?

Can we have a list of the sites that haven't been breached?

Oh, wait. There probably aren't any. We just haven't heard about them yet.

Thought you'd seen everything there is to Ultima Thule? Check this out: IN STEREO!

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Alien

Looks Familiar

More and more like the rubber duck's dad.

P.S. Always wanted a valid excuse to use that icon :)

Sure, we've got a problem but we don't really want to spend any money on the tech guy you're sending to fix it

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

The other extreme

One of the engineers where I used to work was booked to go to India to re-commission a printing press that had been bought second-hand and shipped across. The reason it was our guy who was asked, was partly because some of the control system was our design, but mostly because the manufacturer wasn't interested. Anyway, the plan was that 'John' would fly out, then get driven to site on day 1, do the commissioning on day 2 and return on day 3 - all at the new owner's expense.

The first day went exactly to plan and John was ensconced in basic but comfortable accommodation. Next day was a nightmare as the press hadn't been reassembled. Nobody had a clue how it all went together so most of it was still in crates. After frantic international phone calls and hurried conferences it was agreed that John would remain on site to oversee the reassembly. This took over two weeks as he had to fast-track train people in engineering techniques. The upside was that they were keen intelligent guys and soon became his 'gang'. Commissioning itself was then very fast as not only did John know the machine had no obscure modifications, but his workforce also had a pretty good idea what to do.

The good news.

The new owner paid in full with no questions asked.

John was asked to do two other similar installation/commission jobs (and now had a bunch of friends working with him)

The bad news

John won't touch so-called Indian food in England - says it's nothing like the home-cooked food he had over there.

While this CEO may be stiff, his customers are rather stuffed: Quadriga wallets finally cracked open – nothing inside

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Facepalm

Remind me

Wasn't this bitcoin stuff supposed to be so secure that it was bomb-proof?

It's beginning to look like it wasn't, if people can get in without the passwords only one person was supposed to have known.

It also seems it's not embezzlement proof.

Oracle to lure boffins with cloud credits, see if enterprise-grade tech can speed up research

Will Godfrey Silver badge

Re: Hmm

"Why would anyone want to buy from Oracle?"

FTFY

Silent Merc, holy e-car... Mflllwhmmmp! What is that terrible sound?

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Stop

Missed Option

None of the above.

I'm looking forward to a future of (relatively) quiet towns. Just the sound of the tires at any sort of speed is more than enough. If people have their eyes glued to their phones and their hearing muffled with 'beatz' well they're just likely to get a Darwin award.

Real life sci-fi: Massive exoplanet booted out of home by binary parents – then slipped back inside by passing friendly stars

Will Godfrey Silver badge

Re: Good Samaritans

But was it kicked out, or was it the 'prodigal' planet who left with it's inheritance, then limped back when it ran out of gas?

How to keep your flock of users secure: Let them know exactly who and where the wolves are

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

It will never happen to me

That is the biggest hurdle to overcome.

Smart home owner? Don't make your crib easy pickings for the smart home pwner

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

Look on the bright side

With all the switched-on generation falling for this crap the burglars won't bother to go to the effort of picking locks and smashing windows, so the rest of us should be safe.

USB4: Based on Thunderbolt 3. Two times the data rate, at 40Gbps. One fewer space. Zero confusing versions

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

Crazy

Just how much more complexity can they pile into this 'simple' interface before it all collapses under it's own weight? Does anyone actually understand the protocol(s) anymore?

SPOILER alert, literally: Intel CPUs afflicted with simple data-spewing spec-exec vulnerability

Will Godfrey Silver badge
FAIL

Not news now?

This is getting so common it's verging on boring.

Hmm rather like woodworm it is. It's boring into the CPU but leaving the exterior looking solid.

Sniff the love: Subaru's SUVs overwhelmed by scent of hair shampoo, recalls 2.2 million cars

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: This is what happens when you implement diversity and equality...

It's always the coat hangers.

Will Godfrey Silver badge

Re: Not necessarily

For very low current switches, a proper 'wiping' action is necessary to remove accumulated crap - something which almost all reed switches do. Sealed, and actuated only by the proximity of a magnet, they are also immune to contamination.

UK banking was struck by one IT fail every day for most of 2018

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

Re: it is time!

What do you mean? I never stopped keeping an (undisclosed) sum of money in mixed coin and notes in several (undefined) locations, and have found it very useful on many occasions over the years.

P.S. I also keep an eye on currency changes so I don't end up with Old Stock.

Ah, this military GPS system looks shoddy but expensive. Shall we try to break it?

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Facepalm

Hmmm

I don't think I'd be capable of {cough} opening {cough} a piece of unknown kit without thoroughly investigating what's inside.

Customer: We fancy changing a 25-year-old installation. C'mon, it's just one extra valve... Only wafer thin...

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

Re: Valves!?

Mmmm KT88s. Running at least 700V for extra 'enjoyment'.

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

Re: Let me guess, the controller was a Siemens product, right?

Bingo!

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Thumb Up

Well said!

And there is a lot of that legacy kit out there.

It's not your imagination: Ticket scalper bots are flooding the internet according this 'ere study

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Happy

Glastonbury got it right

You register an interest, then later have to supply a photograph (along with other details), which is copied onto your ticket - and these are fully checked at the gate.

UK's beloved RNGesus machine ERNIE goes quantum in 5th iteration

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Happy

Re: Random or is it

They obviously think that random numbers are too important to be left to chance.

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Linux

Hang on a minute

Are you sure that's the way they get the numbers? If they just keep generating random numbers till they get a valid one, it is theoretically possible to never get one!

On a much smaller scale, when I wanted to design a bingo number caller I created a list of the numbers 1 to 90, then shuffled them, after which I just pulled them out in order.

P.S.

Moving a number out of a slot then back into it is still a valid shuffle - but you try telling people that!

Did you hear the one about Cisco routers using strcpy insecurely for login authentication? Makes you go AAAAA-AAAAAAArrg *segfault*

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Facepalm

Here we go again

In case anyone forgot...

Hello buffer my old friend,

I've come to break you once again,

'cos my malware soft-ly creeping.

Broke your code while you were sleep-ing.

And the spyware that it put there’s just the same,

It still remains.

And takes it all,

in silence.

Three-quarters of crucial border IT systems at risk of failure? Bah, it's not like Brexit is *looks at watch* err... next month

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Stop

Pity the small traders

Unlike the government squandering our tax payments, or multi-nationals with coffers overflowing with extortionate profits, these enterprises are simply unable to make any plans. In the first place they have no information about what systems might be put in place that they will have to work with. Even if they did, they do not have a fraction of the spare funds need to prepare for all options.

Former senior UK council officer fined for doing dodgy data dealing to help his girlfriend

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Facepalm

How low can they sink?

You can't even get a decent 'quality' of corruption these days - no style at all.

Jeez, what a Huawei to go: Now US senators want Chinese kit ripped out of national leccy grid

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

Fear of fear itself

The disinformation and pseudo-panic is getting ever more shrill

Linus Torvalds pulls pin, tosses in grenade: x86 won, forget about Arm in server CPUs, says Linux kernel supremo

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Well currently the problem with ARM is not the CPU

Absolutely right. It's a total nightmare at the moment, to the point there is no such thing as an ARM processor, just lots of diverse, hardly compatible systems with some variant of ARM core.

Bored bloke takes control of British Army 'psyops' unit's Twitter

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

Curses!

We'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for them damn kids wayback pages

OK, your boss allegedly called you a lazy n*****, promoted the person you trained ahead of you and paid you less, but you can't PROVE it's racism, Facebook says

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Mushroom

Facebook

The only option ->

BOFH: Bye desktop, bye desk. Hello tablet and a beanbag on the floor

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

I must be getting old

It took a while for that last bit to sink in - but I shall go to lunch with a smile on my face.

The record shows I took the blows, and did it... Huawei: IT titan will start tackling GCHQ security gripes from June

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Facepalm

Better

It seems clearly pointing out problems gets a more cooperative response - Who knew?

Data breach rumours abound as UK Labour Party locks down access to member databases

Will Godfrey Silver badge

That was my first thought too.

Linux love hits Windows 10 19H1 amid a second round of zombie slaying

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

Uncomfortable

I'm not keen on all this 'love'. I think I much preferred it when Microsoft thought Linux was an evil virus.

Secret mic in Nest gear wasn't supposed to be a secret, says Google, we just forgot to tell anyone

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Unhappy

Lips moving

Therefore lying... again.

Revealed: Numbers show extent of security fears about security biz Kaspersky Lab

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Big Brother

Pattern?

I'm not saying there is (or not) but first Kaspersky, then Huawei.

It leaves me wondering who is next on America's hit list.

You know the drill: SAP has asked Joe Public to name Munich arena so go forth and be very silly

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Happy

Be Contrary

You could always completely negate any possibility of an advertising hook with:

Berlin Olympic Stadium

Crash, bang, wallop: What a power-down. But what hit the kill switch?

Will Godfrey Silver badge
Coat

Lightbulb Moment

Reading these comments, (and noting the number of them) It dawned on me that El Reg Commentards must have an average age of 70.

The one with the farthings and a silver thrupenny bit in the pocket.