Posts by frank ly

VPN?

"Almost all are VPN users, ..."

If they were using the VPN at the time, how would VM know which website they'd looked at? Is the VPN thing irrelevant?

More work

"Ubuntu's default settings allow users to read other local users' files ..."

That's another bad thing but at least the 'administrator' can modify and lock down any inter-user access.

x12 too high on the size estimate?

"...white, six foot tall with a shaven head ..."

Language analysis

Has anyone tried analysing their statements to see what their native language might be, based on the 'mangled grammar' of the English?

I realise that this can be faked of course (and probably is), but is it consistently incorrect and does it consistently match any other natural language grammar patterns?

Is it worth bothering to check?

Maybe

"The interim procedure is that the identity of an entrant onto the cockpit has to be cleared by someone inside before the door is opened."

'Who's that?'

'It's me, the senior stewardess, with your coffee (and a gun pressed into my back).'

Everything changes

"... changing the EM-1 mission, planned as an uncrewed jaunt into cislunar space between Earth and Luna, to instead carry human cargo around the moon."

So they wanted to change it from cislunar to translunar? I thought the Trump administration was very much against that sort of thing.

Numbers

Here is a small extract from an article on Sunday:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/wannacry-wanna-detector-accident-and-emergency-patient-appointment-operation-a7734831.html

"NHS Digital, which manages the health service cyber security, said fewer than 5% of devices within the health service still use the old system Windows XP."

Is that a reasonable figure or is it one of those special statements where they include things like stethoscopes, thermometers and blood pressure meters in the count of 'devices'?

Surprises?

"... it also meant that the Trust’s telephone system is not able to accept incoming calls."

Is that because they use VoIP?

"My wife is a GP and their systems were just shut down ..."

Is there not local storage and caching for local patient data? Either it's not very resilient or this is a massive attack.

A computing Network ....

.... in the sky. In the sky, there will be a network. What shall we call it?

A question

"The Data Protection Act clearly requires processing of data to take place in countries and using data processors that comply with EU Data Protection principles."

Is that one of those tyranical foreign impositions that will be swept away by the glorious Brexit? (That's a genuine question. The cynicism is just my natural state.)

I'm an Android user

"The first time the app tries to pop open an overlay, and SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission isn't granted, you'll be asked if you're OK with the intrusion. .....

.....Users wouldn't or didn't know how to enable access so the application wouldn't work properly."

Am I really that stupid?

Imagination

"Maribel Wadsworth, USA Today's SVP and chief transformation officer ...."

I imagine her making sure that staff members know how to properly turn into vampires and werewolves, etc.

practical consideration

"... preferred to send their own children downstairs ..."

They can move fast and low. With a short, sharpened iron bar they're ideally placed to break shins or stab delicate areas. If they get carried away and use lethal force then they can't be prosecuted (if they're young enough).

Memories

"Five years ago all this would have come as a nasty shock ..."

Ten years ago, I was asking why a very large site HVAC system was connected to the internet and I was told that it made it easier for the supplier to monitor it and issue corrective commands if anything went wrong. One of the supplier enginners told me that, "just for curiosity", he'd checked if he could still access a pumping station in Spain that he'd worked on a few years previously. He said that he could, from his own home, but that he'd logged out before testing if he could change its operating parameters.

The situation seemed to be normal then and is probably still regarded as normal among many 'cultures' now.

"interest-free bicycle loan"

Is that the loan of a bicycle that nobody else is interested in?

"Wacom tablets are now supported ..."

That must be an improvement to Wacom tablet support because my Wacom Intuos tablet has been supported, out of the box with no setup needed, for a long time.

Side issue

"(that is, if you find a suitcase stuffed with banknotes, you're don't get to keep it, you have to try and find the owner)."

Do you _have to_ try to find the owner or can you just walk on by because you have better things to do with your time?

Debut

I've been running Stretch for a month now and I'm very happy with it. I recommend you try the RC netinstall installation. I do a manual update every week and that will merge me seamlessly into the official release when it happens. After running Mint for four years, the transition was painless. It doesn't have the hand-holding Software Manager but I don't need that anymore.

So,

You get to write your own sub-headings for your final article?

Good luck and please try to bring some knowledge and intellectual rigour to your new environment.

Smoke and mirrors

“If anything the public should have confidence we have found this breach, ..."

I wonder if they did this deliberately to show how honest they are.

JANUS

Joint Alliance Nautical Underwater Signals?

Getting all 28 countries to agree on the details is quite an achievement.

Does anyone remember ...

Apricot Computers?

“who stole the custard?”

Surely it's "who's looking after the custard?"

Success!

"Turned out that some invoice adjustments were done using a PDF editor on the invoice itself rather than by changing the finance system and generating a new bill..."

That one showed you a potentially serious security problem.

Light Show

Reading the first link......

It works by converting the display to a black and white image and then filling the screen with one pixel at a time so it can monitor the state of the pixel from the light that leaks onto it from the display. This works, as noted, but in practice it would be very obvious that something strange was happening.

Known to El Reg readers as ...

... the Deja Vu Planet. (You had to have been there, earlier today.)