* Posts by Destroy All Monsters

16005 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008

New Snowden leak: US and Brit spooks 'tap into German telco networks to map end devices'

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Re: With 20:20 hindsight ...

There is bound to be some Scheisse geht runter und schlägt den Propeller this Monday morning.

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Trollface

From the good old times from before the Summer of Surveillance

The Athens Affair of 2005

On 9 March 2005, a 38-year-old Greek electrical engineer named Costas Tsalikidis was found hanged in his Athens loft apartment, an apparent suicide. It would prove to be merely the first public news of a scandal that would roil Greece for months. The next day, the prime minister of Greece was told that his cellphone was being bugged, as were those of the mayor of Athens and at least 100 other high-ranking dignitaries, including an employee of the U.S. embassy. Major network penetrations of any kind are exceedingly uncommon. They are hard to pull off, and equally hard to investigate. ... We still don't know who committed this crime. A big reason is that the UK-based Vodafone Group, one of the largest cellular providers in the world, bobbled its handling of some key log files. It also reflexively removed the rogue software, instead of letting it continue to run, tipping off the perpetrators that their intrusion had been detected and giving them a chance to run for cover. The company was fined 76 million this past December.

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Paris Hilton

Atlas of Cyberspace!

That would yield pretty glossy pictures in A0 if true, but it would imply a certain percentage of visible surveillance traffic. Mysterious SNMP packets?

Be your own Big Brother: Monitoring your manor, the easy way

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Re: 1984

The next day Fred showed up in his scramble suit to hear about the bugging installation.....

To my own house, he thought. Arctor's house. Up the street at the house I am Bob Arctor, the heavy doper suspect being scanned without his knowledge, and then every couple of days I find a pretext to slip down the street and into the apartment where I am Fred replaying miles and miles of tape to see what I did, and this whole business, he thought, depresses me. Except for the protection -- and valuable personal information -- it will give me.

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Re: 4chan will have to create a whole new category

Isn't that already passé?

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Paris Hilton

Re: 1984

Rather more like A Scanner Darkly, with Fear Generated by Politicians as the Substance D that everyone is on?

Microsoft's rumoured $2.5bn Minecraft gobble expected on Monday

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Trollface

So.... any revenue and profit numbers?

In other news:

Dot Com Bubble 2.0—–Lunacy By The Numbers

The financial data for the top name on the list, Twitter, is all that is required to remind us that once again markets are trading in the nosebleed section of history, rivaling even the madness of March 2000. Currently, Twitter (TWTR) is valued at $31 billion.That’s 18X revenue, but the catch is that the revenue in question is its lifetime bookings over the 18 quarters since Q1 2010.

When it comes to profits, the numbers are not nearly so promising! For the LTM (last 12 months) period ending in June, TWTR booked $974 million of revenue and $1.7 billion of operating expense. That why “NM” shows up in its LTM ratio of enterprise value to EBITDA. It turns out that its EBITDA was -$704 million. In fact, its R&D expense alone was 83% of revenues.

That’s not the real fantasy, however. The sell-side hockey sticks indicate that TWTR’s forward multiple is only 86.6X projected EBITDA. Let’s see. At its current total enterprise value, this implies it will generate $350 million of positive EBITDA in the next 12 months—or a $1 billion favorable swing from the LTM number.

Just say its going to take some doing—not to say a miracle. During Q2 EBITDA was -$104 million compared to -$13 million in the year ago June quarter. So TWTR’s cash profit numbers are marching to the rear at a furious pace, but never mind. It’s EBITDA will soar skyward any moment now, making it 86.6X forward multiple completely rational….. Right.

...

Any day now, this third and greatest bubble of the 21st century will reach a boiling point that even the mad money printers in the Eccles Building will not be able to sustain. Then there will be another thundering financial market crash—with collateral damage ricocheting willy-nilly in every direction along main street.

Bloat-free, unlocked Moto X to be dubbed 'Pure Edition', says report

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Yeah, I don't get that either?

Team Register - Bonmots by Committee

Salesforce plan to rename London skyscraper 'Salesforce Tower' DEMOLISHED

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Mushroom

So when is salesforce getting these european servers online?

Frankly, I want to see a faster (and ajaxified) interface before the first nuke flies about Poroshenko's backyard ("of no economic interest", dixit NYT). So before end of Mai 2015, please.

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Facepalm

Re: Of course! An April fool's joke!

Salesforce as an issue/bug tracking system

That's not what salesforce is even for. Is your outfit utterly retarded?

Hint: It's SALESforce not BUGSforce ("what's up doc?").

Please call a vet with a horse termination syringe.

The sound of silence: One excited atom is so quiet that the human ear cannot detect it

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Paris Hilton

So basically they set up a resonating ball and spring device, although a small one with no friction?

Apple's Mr Havisham: Tim Cook says dead Steve Jobs' office has remained untouched

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Re: It's always intensely funny when some sociopathic suit claim to have feelings and a soul

iBeediBeediBeed!

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Re: This article wierds me out

Supernatural Horror in El Reg Reporting!

The Apple Watch and CROTCH RUBBING. How are they related?

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Paris Hilton

What's going on here??

Dabbs, what are you doing in my room!

Not pro Bono: Apple's audio junk mail made spammers' lives easier

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Re: Well this is bollocks

It's not as if they planted it on any device

iStuff are not devices?

HP: We will eradicate the colour grey from our market

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Holmes

Re: They want it both ways on globalization

Google and Apple colluding on employee salaries

You should not be amazed at all. Once it comes down to disallowing people to talk to each other and agree on pricing you know the inner progressive logic overrides the libertarian.

Only people who somehow think that there is a god-giving right to get high salaries from Google/Apple for divine work rendered or that people are actually being forced to work there (they are monopsonists on the job market, right?) have any sort of problem with that.

Sleepy spotless summer Sun's shock solar storm surge stuns scientists

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Re: " ... our nearest star."

The representative of the OUR will have a word with Obama soon for a few billion years of unbilled fusion services.

Read The Gods of War for every tired cliche you never wanted to see in a sci fi book

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Trollface

Hillary's fever dream!

Just a Hollywood movie plot which is probably being pitched to some director right now as the blockbuster for summer of 2015. Happens all the time.

President of the United World Government

Imagining that a "United World Government" could do anything except gaze at its own navel through the mirror maze of superbloated bureaucracy, free-fall-devalue the world currency and pass most of the time suppressing dissent in the most brutal manner imaginable -- as opposed to be able to set up Mars as a lifeboat -- is beyond ludicrous. UWG would be the Koch brotherscartel. And if anyone told me that he wanted ship me to Mars for survival, I would immediately conclude I was being cunningly Lincoln Train'd.

Wait! There are wars, poverty, pollution, envirocollapse and everything? This seems to be confirmation that "there is no daylight" between World Government and the Bad Guys. Maybe this is aaactually a sly psychological thriller which cunningly hides the key to a deeper layer of the story? Read it again, dear reviewer, and report back.

Back to reading the "Southern Reach Trilogy", which is now complete.

spɹɐʍʞɔɐB writing is spammers' new mail filter avoidance trick

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Mushroom

Re: Extension hiding should be BANNED.

In any case using a "file extension" (something that comes a limitations of MS-DOS FAT filesystem) as metadata in 2014 (in particular, in determining what process should read the file) .... no wonder this "industry" is a joke.

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But what if you now mirror it?

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Holmes

It was indeed a combination of the two. Which could also be simply referred to as "rotated".

More on this in Rotations, Quaternions, and Double Groups by Simon L. Altmann (1986)

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Re: And of course...

No one will be suspicious of a message from their "bank" with the text written backwards...

It's like ECB negative interest rates. Nothing surprises anymore.

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> we cannot say anything coz this forum is full of window cleaners

This is not like you are an university prof in Israel talking about Gaza. Speak your mind.

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Paris Hilton

I read it as "Backwarps". Probably a special maneouver of the NCC-1701?

Hacker publishes tech support phone scammer slammer

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Re: Yes, but...

> supported software

Honor among thieves?

Hey, HP shareholders! Mike Lynch is set to buy a 180-foot superyacht with his Autonomy loot

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Devil

That will be one very happy armateur, then!

1) Leo splurges cash that might have been better spent on serious investments yielding ROI and government chest-beating windfalls in the form of jobs and taxes

2) Shareholders complacent

3) ???

4) A HUGE YACHT FOR CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION APPEARS!

Well, these are the bubble times!

Keynesians will rejoice as they are incapable of distinguishing between consumption and investment but so be it.

Found inside ISIS terror chap's laptop: CELINE DION tunes

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I like to wake up to extremo-muslim speeches from my computer in the morning.

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CELINE DION TUNES BOMB ON LAPTOP!

"BLACK DELL" JIHADI POISON AUDIO SHOCKER! SEAL TEAM AGHAST: "MY HURT WILL GO ON!"

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Paris Hilton

> a bloody obvious place

It was found on the 10:15 to Milton Keynes??

Must have used TrueCrypt, too. He He.

5 Nigerian gangs dominate Craigslist buyer scams

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Re: How do banks still get away with this s**t...

Plus surcharges.

City hidden beneath England's Stonehenge had HUMAN ABATTOIR. And a pub

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Headmaster

Re: 'Boffin's ... seriously

Are you 'eHacks' seriously still calling scientists 'boffin's.

Leather-elbow patch tweed jacket wearing one, please!

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So basically, Lovecraft was right?

Unless these soon-defleshed corpses died of natural causes or internecine struggles?

"Piecing together the tales which Norrys collected for me, and supplementing them with the accounts of several savants who had studied the ruins, I deduced that Exham Priory stood on the site of a prehistoric temple; a Druidical or ante-Druidical thing which must have been contemporary with Stonehenge. That indescribable rites had been celebrated there, few doubted; and there were unpleasant tales of the transference of these rites into the Cybele-worship which the Romans had introduced. Inscriptions still visible in the sub-cellar bore such unmistakable letters as “DIV . . . OPS . . . MAGNA. MAT . . . “ sign of the Magna Mater whose dark worship was once vainly forbidden to Roman citizens. Anchester had been the camp of the third Augustan legion, as many remains attest, and it was said that the temple of Cybele was splendid and thronged with worshippers who performed nameless ceremonies at the bidding of a Phrygian priest...."

I hope these researchers very carefully check the walls of their sleeping quarters.

Net neutrality protestors slam the brakes on their OWN websites

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Re: Ole Jule Cretins.

What you mean is you have no choice at the level of expense you are willing to pay for what is a luxury service.

Why U bring economics into a discussion about emoting over non-egalitarianism?

Fuuuu I agreed with Matt....

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Pint

Re: What's in a Name?

Battle Forth is better than Battle Toads and I am an experienced gamer!

YouTube, Amazon and Yahoo! caught in malvertising mess

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Trollface

Re: Totally agree

You must be new on this Internet. Welcome to the learning experience.

Shades of Mannesmann: Vodafone should buy T-Mobile US

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Paris Hilton

Re: Outlook: fine

record fines handed out to American banks

Names?

Troll or thief? User claims Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto dox sabotage

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Re: Un-Unknown hacker

The LULZ is strong with this one.

BBC Trust candidate defends licence fee, says evaders are CRIMINALS

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Paris Hilton

I regulate you: Instant superiour content!

an unregulated TV market involves a race to the bottom

I can't even fathom what the "unregulated" adjective has to do with a "race to the bottom". Yes people want to watch low-brow stuff and this includes BBC "science". But so what?

BONEHEAD FANBOIS encamp outside Apple Stores

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Paris Hilton

Re: "This couple is sponsored by VideoMedicine, which allows doctors to Skype their patients."

Skype, egg, Skype, Skype, bacon and Skype

I didn't know Skype was a major factor in getting your arteries clogged?

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Trollface

Re: "I'm standing outside ... "

in a completely different place

Not to mention with a completely different content than what has actually been discussed, as will transpire later when the knives comes out.

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Coat

Re: not a Delivery?

IT companies don't sell wheelbarrows.

Your iQueue iTicket, sir.

Hawking: Higgs boson in a BIG particle punisher could DESTROY UNIVERSE

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Mushroom

"I WILL DO ANYTHING TO STAY IN THE NEWS"

Seriously, shut the fuck up, Prof.

Rehashing old physics ego-vertisements, Might/Could/Bes and pulling random energy levels out of the hat just doesn't cut it.

Peter Woit, February 21, 2013:

At the AAAS 2013 meeting in Boston this past week [Feb. 2013], a press conference was held to update the media on the Higgs. What the media got from the press conference was the news that the Higgs may spell doom, unless supersymmetry saves us. This isn’t just doom for HEP physics research, it’s doom for the entire universe:

“At some point, billions of years from now, it’s all going to be wiped out…. The universe wants to be in a different state, so eventually to realise that, a little bubble of what you might think of as an alternate universe will appear somewhere, and it will spread out and destroy us,” Lykken said at AAAS.

This is based on a renormalization group calculation extrapolating the Higgs effective potential to its value at energies many many orders of magnitude above LHC energies. To believe the result you have to believe that there is no new physics and we completely understand everything exactly up to scales like the GUT or Planck scale. Fan of the SM that I am, that’s too much for even me to swallow as plausible.

If you are being kept awake by the Higgs metastability issue, you’ll want to know the Higgs mass as accurately as possible. The rumor from ATLAS is that the difference in best fit masses between the gamma-gamma and ZZ channels has narrowed, with gamma-gamma moving up slightly to 126.8 GeV, ZZ quite a bit, to 124.3 GeV.

Nvidia builds CUDA GPU programming library for machine learning – so you don't have to

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I would hope Captcha crackers would develop this by themselves.

Europe's Google wrangle: PLEASE, DOMINANT Mr Schmidt? More?

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Thumb Down

Re: The unfairness goes much deeper

"which largely explains the lack of competition from the EU and Google's dominance therein"

Seems like the standard Euroweasel's complaint. Whatever happened to Capitalism (the little of what remains in the Eurozone, that is?)

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Flame

I don't know what the icon on El Reg's story is....

... but I propose to replace it with the movie poster of "Les Misérables", shifted to EURO-BLUE.

Ultimate hardware hack: Home Depot nailed by vice merchants

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Paris Hilton

Truth in embedded images!

Also:

The statement says there is no evidence that debit card PINs were compromised and that the investigation was "focused on April forward".

Details of the purloined cards have since appeared on public carder site Rescator.cc, conveniently split into geographic regions to help crims slip under bank fraud radars.

So they don't read Krebs or El Reg or what do they mean?

Enigmail PGP plugin forgets to encrypt mail sent as blind copies

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Facepalm

I don't even know anymore

This seems to demand the invention of a new class of facepalm all on its own.

Writing secure code is NOT like driving a dune buggy, FFS.

NASA said a 60ft space alien menacing Earth wouldn't harm us: Tell THAT to Nicaragua

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Paris Hilton

How weird

The Chelyabinsk interloper also had nothing to do with the other earth-grazing asteroid that everyone was observing coming from another direction and still the close encounter and the impact occurred closely together in time.

Can we get Fox Mulder out from the basement again?

Snowden shouldn't be extradited to US if he testifies about NSA spying, says Swiss gov

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Also, fly around Ukraine because the are incontinent Buks.

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One could charter one. Doesn't cost all that much according to Avinode: 17'000 GBP in a Citation 2, one way.