* Posts by croc

206 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Nov 2009

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ALPHV/BlackCat claims responsibility for Change Healthcare attack

croc

"ALPHV/BlackCat claims responsibility for Change Healthcare attack

Brags it lifted 6TB of data, but let's remember these people are criminals and not worthy of much trust"

All US health groups are crims, not worthy of trust, not just Change Healthcare.

ICANN proposes creating .INTERNAL domain to do the same job as 192.168.x.x

croc

The real question is: How much does ICANN make per top level domain?

Years late and 36 cores short of AMD, who are Intel’s 4th-gen Xeons even for?

croc

looking deeper into the SKUs, there is a 16 core variant for under 1000$. At 4 GHZ max boost, plus being unlocked.... Looks like a sweet spot to me. OH! OH! AND 80 pcie gen 5 lanes....

Server installer fails to spot STOP button – because he wasn't an archaeologist

croc

Title error.. Repeated 'Confound'. Editor needs re-education, suggest Sault Ste. Marie, Canada

Suggested fix....

"Confusing camouflaged control covered in cruft confounds careful contractor, crashes kit"

TSMC founder says 'globalization is almost dead' as Asian foundry giant expands in US

croc

"globalization" was a marketing tool for the book, movie and other entertainment industries to cover up their carving up the world's markets into neat, individualized slices. Even OS companies got into the act. Check out the price of any MS product in several parts of the world. Use a VPN to mask your IP and check out the cost of the same book in several parts of the world. Or the cost and list of content of, say Netflix... Biggest joke of all time, played by the cabals of the world on we suckers. Err, I mean consumers.

NASA sets November date for next SLS Moon rocket delay, er, launch

croc

Looks like NASA DID learn a lesson from Challenger

AMD Threadripper CPU supply severely low, PC makers say

croc

While the PRO threadrippers use the sWRX8 socket, have a care for we poor owners of an sTRX40 socket set... No news, no idea if this is a one gen socket.. I possibly should have gone with an sWRX8 chipset the first go, but the CPU prices were close to double...

I think that a huge part of the problem is that AMD and TSMC just cannot get yeilds up for the EPYC cores, and the threadripper CPUs come from the same wafers. Higher clocked though. making them even more scarce.

Yield issues, and a backlog of high margin server chips... Perfect market for price gouging, paper launching.

Meta sued for 'aiding and abetting' crypto scammers

croc

"They trust me. Dumb fucks."

Reality check: We should not expect our communications to remain private

croc

I voted 'Against', meaning I think that privacy SHOULD be held sacred, and not violated by anyone for any purpose. Looking at you, Zuck... And YOU, Alphabet. Etc, etc, and so on so forth.

To that end, I use ad blockers on every website. If a website requests I not use blocks on their site, too bad. I don't need their site.

But that is the tip of my iceberg, and, unlike the real world's climate change, MY iceberg is unfortunately growing.

'We are not people to Mark Zuckerberg, we are the product' rages Ohio's Attorney General in Facebook lawsuit

croc

We are not really even the product. We are just the raw materials of the product. And if you can get your materials for free, then whatever you make and sell will be SSOOoo profitable... Then, if you can get the owner of the (free) raw materials to look at your product, you've got a perfect feedback lop of money making goodness.

Zuckerberg wants to create a make-believe world in which you can hide from all the damage Facebook has done

croc

Re-branding exercise...

I had hoped that the board at Facebook was making this a real exercise by throwing the Zuck out on his (r)ear. I don't think that Zuck has enough real stock left to control what the board does. Wishful thinking....

First, stunning whistleblower leaks. Now a shareholder lawsuit lands on Zuckerberg's desk

croc

How much would the suit have to claim before Zuck actually cried on the way to the bank? Or, how long would it take to spend a billion bucks....

If anyone can explain why Jupiter's Great Red Spot is spinning faster and shrinking, please speak up

croc

It is spinning faster BECAUSE it is shrinking... But not losing mass.

Right to repair shouldn't exist – not because it's wrong but because it's so obviously right

croc

IFF I were a manufacturer of a product for which I provided warranty, I wouldn't allow user maintenance (other than what was routine or required for operation) under the warranty period. That said, I would also offer reasonably priced repairs at my own facilities, and / or expert advice (again, for a reasonable price) at the facility of the users' choice.

What gripes me is the current trend of 'planned obsolesence' that is so prevalent today. I expect a certain lifetime of service from my 'things'. The mfg apparently plans for their devices to only work for the warranty period + one day.

US declares emergency after ransomware shuts oil pipeline that pumps 100 million gallons a day

croc

Hey - at least they didn't reverse the flow from one end... I mean, a few million bucks to buy off a ransom is cheap compared to the Valdez.

What the FLoC? Browser makers queue up to decry Google's latest ad-targeting initiative as invasive tracking

croc

"Do No Evil" has morphed into "Do No More Evil Than Facebook"

SpaceX's Starlink: Overhyped and underpowered to meet broadband needs of Rural America, say analysts

croc

Re: They will be competing with fixed 5G, not 1.5 Mb rural DSL

The issue with 5g is the limited footprint of the base stations, Actually, that is a problem with all GSM base stations, and the higher the bandwidth the greater the problem. An old 'analog' base station could cover square MILES . A 5g base station's range s measured in square meters...'Rural' 5G is an oxymoron.

croc

Re: They will be competing with fixed 5G, not 1.5 Mb rural DSL

"ow "rural" or poor do you imagine these people are? The US electrified rural areas decades ago, there is almost no one living in an actual house that doesn't have electricity. People actually making due on generators or with solar / batteries are often in temporary homes (i.e. on wheels) or have chosen to remain off grid.

Just about every rural household can afford £30/$50 a month for broadband. It is a matter of whether it is available to them and whether they think it is worth it if it is (i.e. GSO satellite broadband is very expensive for the slow, capped, and high latency service received, and it would cost them more than $50 a month)"

Says someone that does NOT live in a rural area.... Sock puppet, maybe?

croc

propandists

"Although federal subsidies will make the product more widely accessible, SpaceX has faced opposition on this front, with the CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, Gary Bolton, arguing that the product is an inefficient use of resources.

"As a matter of fact, a LEO [satellite] falls out of the sky in five years," Bolton told a telecom news site. "There is never a circumstance where satellite (LEO or geostationary) [broadband] should be subsidized with taxpayer dollars.""

Given that the fiber industry has left rural US of A on copper dial-up (literally in some cases...) I don't think they should be given a voice in the matter at all. Just DON'T use their propagandistic quotes in any format until they actually do something honorable. Mr. Musk may be a big-noter, but he backs up his brags with some ... uh, big notes. The fiber industry? If it ain't someone else's notes, it is no notes. And when given taxpayer dosh the CEO gets a raise, for TALKING about it, and NOT DOING SOMETHING.

America's Supremes give Facebook nothing but heartaches: Top court won't stop '$15bn wiretap' lawsuit

croc

The Impossible Wall

I have never been (nor will I ever be) a user of any of Facebook's various properties. I have used every browser extension I could find to try to make my online life as Facebook-free as possible. If Facebook has any information at all on me,it was obtained totally without my permission.

How do I go about ascertaining whether or no that Facebook has or doesn't have any of my information? It is the impossibility of scaling that wall that makes this case so important.

Soft-shell robot uses snailfish features to sail though Mariana Trench stress test

croc

Artical's thumbnail...

The thumbnail on the Reg's page looks to me as if it came from Subnautica... I am sure that the Reg gives appropriate credit for its images...

War on Section 230 begins in earnest as Dem senators look to limit legal immunity for social networks, websites etc

croc

How about re-wording Section 230's elegibility criteria such that to be eligible for ANY section 230 entitlements, the entity must NOT collect and re-sell ANY users' data at all. If they do, they are not section 230 eligible. (I don't mind ads, but I don't NEED 'targeted' ads. If I do a search, I want to search for what I said, not what your 'algoritthms' THINK I said.) Now, that would be a change in 230 that I could get behind

You would expect a qualified electrician to wire a building to spec, right? Trust... but verify

croc

Once I was installing a new controller platform for a manufacturing plant. I bonded and grounded the frame per specs, then started testing voltages From power to system ground was within spec, but from system ground to frame ground was like 20 volts AC. Checked other power points, similar results. In another building everything was normal. Started looking for the first building's main grounding point. I finally found it, a heavy gauge wire welde to the incoming 8 inch cold water main. However, the main had apparently developed a leak because between the ground point ant the actual pipe inlet was a two meter or so length of PVC.

I spoke to the plant supervisor and suggested he use a traditional earth ground. Next day all was normal.

Ground loops are frustrating.

Facebook tells Portuguese court that a biz called Oink And Stuff makes profile-harvesting browser extensions

croc

Uh... Is FB suing Oink over copyright provisions or what? I mean the pot calling the kettle black certainly is not a case that would be taken seriously by any court is it....

Loser Trump is no longer useful to Twitter, entire account deleted over fears he'll whip up more mayhem

croc

Re: An elephant in the room

Yeah, that was a dumbass move... She should've known better.

croc

Personally, I hope that Pence gets his way and everyone just waits things out. That way the Republicans will have to deal with Trump taking away a large swathe of the GOP's cash cows when he forms his own party, or dealing with Trump controlling the GOP from within. Either way, it will cost them for the near future, and possibly the not-so-near future.

I hope that this is the wake-up call for the GOP to do a wee purge and force out of the ranks the rightest part of their right wings, and goes back to being a centrist based conservative party. The look of fascism is not a good look, Republicans Don't be the reason that 'history repeats itself'.

After Trump, Congress, Supreme Court Justice hit out at tech giants' legal immunity, now FCC boss wants to stick his oar in, too

croc

Toss the Pai out the window, people. There is some serious discussion that needs to happen about and around these platforms and their 'legal lack of liability'. I think that they need to be held just as accountable as (say) newspapers with their 'letters to the editor' sections. It might once have been an inducement to get platforms started, to try to make the internet useful... But I think that the time is long past for some regulation with real teeth. I mean, fining a big tech what amounts to a rounding error on its monthly accounts is not what I would call 'teeth'. Teeth are made for biting. I would say a quarter's worth of their yearly bottom line BEFORE EBIDTA . THAT's a BITE!

Death Stranding: Essential worker simulator unites its players amid a lockdown far worse than the real-life one

croc

This game is helped along if the user is a bit (or a LOT) OCD. I personally don't like the 'online' bits, and fortunately they are not a necessity for the game. Some of the things I found annoying are the camera positions, only being third person and fixed, mean that you are guessing a lot when traversing mountainous terrain Looking up at Sam's butt is NOT a good view - for finding your next handhold.

As to Hideo's style, this game (like ALL RPGs, to a greater or lesser extent) requires the user to put their sanity in a nice, safe place for the duration and just go with it Try not to read too much into the alternate universe that Kojima Studios has created, just make it your belief system for those moments.

Beautiful scenery, (or should I say 'beautifully done'?) nice music (which is good - the options do not include 'no music') much attention to detail....

I was worried about 're-playability'. And, indeed it is not going to be as good in that niche as most of, say, Bethesda's games. But I am on my third play through. Indeed it took me two play throughs just to understand the game mechanics fully

Would I recommend this game? Depends on the kind of person you are. If you are just out to 'beat' the game, then no. If you are a person that can appreciate the details, and the attention to same, a person that can suspend their belief and adopt another belief system, then yes. It also helps if you are just a tad OCD....

USA decides to cleanse local networks of anything Chinese under new five-point national data security plan

croc

Cleaned from Chinese Intrusions? How about the TLAs of the USA and THEIR intrusions...

Thank you so Veddy Veddy much Pompous Ahole... Personally I'll take the Chinese.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Hang on, the PDP 11/70 has dropped offline

croc

PDP 11/70s and power...

40 meg diskpaks used to have a bad habit of going off-balance if not put in the drive JUST SO... Then the drive would go walk about, wobbling all over the place until it reached the end of its 'tether' and shut itself down. The PDP itself could be shut down anytime and restarted, thanks to it's ring-core memory. So, when a drive went walk about, the easiest way to recover was to shut down the PDP, reset and re-start the drive, let it come up to speed and re-start the PDP.

The magnet in the voice coil was a MONSTER!

Uber, Lyft struck by sue-ball, no, sue-meteorite in California after insisting their apps' drivers aren't employees

croc

Contracting...

Back in the late 1980's I was contracted to Exxon's IT department in Houston. The assignment was ended by a federal law that was passed declaring that if a contractor spent more than x % of their time working for one company in a given year then they were assumed to be de facto employees of said company. While I grumbled over that at the time, (as did many contracting agencies) looking back I think it was a fair call and should probably still be the rule of thumb for determining contracting / employee status.

NSO Group: Facebook tried to license our spyware to snoop on its own addicts – the same spyware it's suing us over

croc

Why do you want to know the dimensions of my anal sphincter? Hulio? Zuck?

What if everyone just said 'Nah' to tracking?

croc

"Knowing everything about a user does not make them a better customer. Offering a better product and better service at a better price - that might. And you don't need analytics to tell you that."

You seem to have misunderstood your Economics 2020 classes... Knowing everything about a user makes them a better product. The issue is not blocking tracking, but making the sale of personal information illegal - with serious fines awarded to the users Go after the rot cause and make it unprofitable.

Log us out: Private equity snaffles Lastpass owner LogMeIn

croc

Re: Any full feature alternatives?

try radius...

Chinese chip giant calls on US tech to help out with Trump tariffs – not a quid pro quo, obviously

croc

"We've always been at war with eastasia"

Back when China first opened up, companies like Walmart pushed many businesses to utilize Chinese manufacturing to help the Walton's make more money. As did much of the tech sector. Problem is now apparent - we have handed over many of the keys to the manufacturing sector to the Chinese, Scot-free. Hoist on our own petard, so to speak. Blame falls into the lap of capitalism, and the 90 day short sighted thinking that this entails. Trump, using his 'Big Brain' has decided that China suckered the manufacturing sector, when in reality the manufacturing sector made its 'own goal' from sheer greed. There will be no easy fix for this problem.

The Outer Worlds: Ever wished Fallout 4 was more like New Vegas? Here ya go... in spaaace

croc

Welll, at least it is not too buggy...

And that is not a bad thing. However, I paid pretty good money for this, enough to make me think that it was going to be a AAA title. What I got was a smalld-world game with game play seemingly aimed at the ADHD stricken, acne infested mid teen crowd.

The concept is sound, the mechanics are there, but for the money it needs more story, more quests and deeper characters. Think of this as buying a book, but only getting chapter one. Pretty disappointing, really.

Trump attacks and appeals 'fundamentally misconceived' Twitter block decision

croc

Doral to host next G7?

Now we know the actual reason that Trump wants the G7 at his own property. He can pick and choose who he lets in at his own establishment, regardless of their standing. Macron, for instance, or Trudeau... Not to mention news organizations. And who gets camera time... Who ... the list of what could be controlled due to the owner's rights is endless.

And the cherry on top is all the money Trump gets to make personally...

Backdoors won't weaken your encryption, wails FBI boss. And he's right. They won't – they'll fscking torpedo it

croc

Re: Stalin would be so proud of him

Oh... Are you referring to the Clipper Chip? And how did that story go again?

Open-heart nerdery: Boffins suggest identifying and logging in people using ECGs

croc

Remote Detection with pacemakers...

It is little known, but some pacemakers can be remotely interrogated for things like checking ECG patterns and adjusting the pacemaker accordingly... If the pacemaker belongs to a 'person of interest', (+ - 10%) the pacemaker can also be 'LoJjacked' for convenient apprehension.

Cyber-IOU notes. Voucher hell on wheels. However you want to define Facebook's Libra, the most ridiculous part is its privacy promise

croc

Re: Investors are "pouring in" a pittance

Think about this... If you are of average intelligence, half the people around you are dumber than you.

When it comes to Facebook, never bet against the stupidity of humans.

'AI is not the cause, it’s an accelerant. The pace of change is challenging' Experts give Congress deepfakes straight dope

croc

How do you do a "deepfake" of someone that speaks mostly in lies and the rest of the time only utters nonsense...? I am of course speaking about the orange-haired CIC of the USA.

These boffins' deepfake AI vids are next-gen. But don't take our word for it. Why not ask Zuck or Kim Kardashian...

croc

The problem with technology is, if it is available it will be used. The problem with people is, half of them are dumber than the average...

You're responsible for getting permission from subjects if you want to use Windows Photos' facial recog feature

croc

You take my picture in public, as part of a group scene (say at a beach or a crowd crossing the street, or as a spectator in a packed sports venue) fine. You PUBLISH that photo, not so fine. You publish that photo and make money, where's mine. You publish MY photo on Facebook, you have just signed your own death sentence, mate...

Oh dear. Secret Huawei enterprise router snoop 'backdoor' was Telnet service, sighs Vodafone

croc

All this hoo-haa aimed at Huawei, and no one is making a big deal about the IoT threat. Given that much of the IoT thingys are made in China... Not to mention many of the mobile handsets, including Trumps favorite unsecured iPhone....

How politics works, part 97: Telecoms industry throws a fundraiser for US senator night before he oversees, er, a telecoms privacy hearing

croc

Re: The more things change, the less they really do.

When Walmart is the only store in town it is hard not to.

You think election meddling is bad now? Buckle up for 2020, US intel chief tells Congress

croc

Just to raise a bit of a stink....

Trump is Putin's bitch.

croc

Re: @TomG -- Vast oversimplification

Yes, but... You only need to buy one, two tops, Electoral College Representatives to win the prize...

The original idea was that "\the people Sir, are a great beast" Paraphrase from Alex. Hamilton... So, once all the votes were in, the states appointed a representative to go to Washington, meet, and hammer out who should actually be the next Pres... Irrespective of who actually won by popular vote. Kept out the riff raff you see. This was indeed a ruling made for Alex to get him to sign off on the continuance of slavery.

But then, history is all bullshit anyway and only my first sentence has any veritas....

Say what?! An AI system can decode brain signals into speech

croc

As one that has had a total glossectomy (tongue removal) for cancer treatment, I hope that this works. An iPad is no substitute for speech. Mostly because people, on the whole, are just too damned impatient. Assholes all. (the average rate of speech is 125 words to 150 words per minute... My typing? 25 words per minute on a good day if you don't count typos....)

However, on the philosophical issues, if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Or, try this one: I think, therefore I am. And I can still clap with one hand, and a glass is half full or empty depending on how thirsty I am. A glass of beer, on the other hand....

So go ahead. Make all the jokes you can about this significant research. I have already put myself forward as a guinea pig.

Senator Wyden goes ballistic after US telcos caught selling people's location data yet again

croc

Re: Instead of piecemeal legislation

I hear that the south of France is nice this time of year....Not part of Five Eyes, either. Nice. The town, that is....

Facebook flat-out 'lies' about how many people can see its ads – lawsuit

croc

Zuckerberg for President!!! After all, "they trust me. Dumb fucks"

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