* Posts by (AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

168 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jan 2010

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The completely rational take you need on Europe approving Article 13: An ill-defined copyright regime to tame US tech

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Watch the EU's official Article 13 TV announcement

https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1110876684495011840

You're a govt official. You accidentally slap personal info on the web. Quick, blame a kid!

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: Unisys screwed up

There are many laws on the books, but no justice

Surveillance forestalls more 'draconian' police powers – William Hague

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Indeed

As long as people speak up and speak out, there is a chance that truth can be heard. But if people are muzzled by fear of what their all-powerful listeners might do, they will cease to speak and the resentment will boil. Perhaps our fearless leaders should keep this in mind. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear, right?

After-dinner Mint? Stylish desktop finale released as last of the 17 line

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Linux

Viva la revolución penguinista

Mint is a work of Linux-art. I took a slightly dated, hand-me-down IBM X40 Thinkpad laptop, beefed it up to a whopping 1.5 GB of Ram and then inserted an 80 GB Transcend SSD drive. Mint made it magical.

I now have a nice little laptop that is more than good enough for portable tasks at customer sites. I also highly recommend tweaking firefox performance for extra browsing pleasure and speed.

Video, sound, everything works flawlessly.

So give those under powered, abandoned Windows boxen a new lease on life with low end SSDs, a pinch of memory and a sprig of Mint. You know you want to..... And if you don't, send them to me.

Bible apps are EVIL says John McAfee as he phishes legal sysadmins in real time

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

I fear it is too late

If you have an android, you are already Google's bitch.

Ex-MIT prof jailed for 'making experimental film' about bank robbery. In a bank. Without saying it was a film

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
IT Angle

Ah yes....

This article reminded me of a story told by a security consultant I once met.

He was called in by an Italian bank many years ago (back in the 90s). They claimed their IT security was state of the art but wanted his company to do an audit.

He started his assessment by walking unannounced into the branch office, opening a side door in the lobby, walking down a hallway and then opening an unlocked door to enter the bank's (unmanned) data center.

He then snapped a few photos, which he later showed during his meeting with the bank's directors.

No jail time, but he did get the contract. Times have certainly changed since then.

Although, I'm not too sure this ex-MIT guy was doing any penetration testing (or was he?).

Silk Road boss Ross Ulbricht to spend LIFE in PRISON without parole

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: @tim worstall @tapeador

Hmmm,

Locking up people for what is basically the equivalent of being a bootlegger in the 30's (often selling substances that are perceptibly less harmful) or a speakeasy customer is not a good societal choice. It is expensive, it destroys families and communities and it makes rehabilitation and proper care difficult, since the problem one has is basically illegal.

The problem with drugs legislation is that it attempts to solve a medical problem (abuse and addiction) with legal means (repression and incarceration, sometimes for very long periods).

This is not the right solution, drugs should be legalized and controlled by the state. If someone wants to get high, let them do so. As long as they don't hurt anyone in the process, where is the problem? If they do start hurting people in the process (i.e, driving while intoxicated, acting unsociably) that is a different story and can be dealt with separately.

Money from drug sales would be better spent helping to educate people on the risks and benefits and helping some other people overcome their addiction issues with professional, medical help. Giving 500 billion USD to drug cartels is just stupid. The whole mess could be solved rather quickly (or at least brought under control) by legalizing, taxing and controlling drug use. There are multitudes of evidence that support these statements, just look at places like Colorado, Holland, Switzerland, and Portugual (and even the UK, which dabbled with legalised heroin programs for a while).

Milking cow shot dead by police 'while trying to escape'

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
IT Angle

Our neighbors used to keep livestock.

Our friendly neighborhood farmer (next door) used to keep dairy cattle. The cattle would sometimes escape and frighten passing motorists.

But I've never seen armed police (with chopper) used to bring them back to pasture (permanently, in this case). Usually it just required some loud shouting and perhaps a stick

So that must of been one bad-ass Bessie. Or is Northumbria the center of an agricultural war zone within the UK?

Welcome, stranger: Inside Microsoft's command line shell

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Oh yes.... CMD.EXE /C

For many years, I did almost everything I needed with DOS (2.0 to NTDos) from building and maintaining uniform directory and permission structures for file systems to piloting remote desktop installations and operations with other CLI tools like psexec. I loved and hated it, really.

DOS had many flaws, shortcomings and weaknesses (still does). It is not even comparable to the power of mature *nix command shells, like BASH. However, it was very often good enough for the job, particularly when used in conjunction with other command line programs.

Today's IT youngsters (most of whom are morbidly ignorant of the CLI) don't know what joys and frustation they have missed. I'm not sure that is altogether a good thing.

As a colleague of my generation once said, "they don't remember how easy it was to completely f*k up a system with a few keystrokes" and the discipline that encouraged.

Googley TENTACLES reach towards YOUR email

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Happy

Hmmm.....

I also liked the common people joke, nice one

Their ad money was clearly well spent.

However, in the interest of due diligence and in defense of Blur (it has been a week now).

Google/my rules already do a pretty good job, So I only had to check about 20 Spam mail headers. Verdict: no noticeable change in one week.

1) Found nothing in my spam folder sent to anything other than my real address (i.e. nothing forwarded from any blur made-up address),

2) Found no new mails from sites I signed up to with Blur, but I am pretty careful about sign ups anyway.

3) Found no new spam in my inbox.

4) My credit card hasn't been scammed yet, but I would feel uncomfortable using this CC feature anyway, so I don't

Hence, I don't believe Blur is designed to capture and sell my address to Viagra pushers, at least not this week.

Although someone could hack the Adine DB and steal all those lovely address forwards, they would just be sending mail to paranoid gits like me. We and Google would simply label it as spam. Not a very tempting target, although the CC numbers could be.

Adine could quickly nuke the compromised email addresses or use them for post-hack forensics, Sounds like a lose-lose for the DB thieves, at least to me.

So I still use Blur, for now. But YMMV.

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: Opt Out? Oh, but you can.

Sorry but the predecessor for Blur is DNT and No I do not work for Adine, I am merely expressing my experiences and opinions with different generations of the same product. But by all means do fly off the handle, it helps to keep the Reg forums interesting and lively. For the record I have yet to feel any spam impact and would love to see these reviews you talk about so mercilessly. How about some links?

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Happy

Re: Opt Out? Oh, but you can.

To the AC

AFAIK Blur won't anonymize your outgoing email, it will only prevent harvester sites from gathering your "real" email address at registration time.

The other problem you describe sounds more like an issue with the local Exchange configuration than Blur. Alias addresses (or alternate reply addresses) should be available for pseudo-masked comms, I'd suggest talking to your Exchange admin to find a solution, if possible.

Still haven't used Blur with a site requiring email confirmation (I only installed it a few days ago) but you raise an interesting question. I don't see any reason why Blur could not manage a masked anonymous response, The only real risk is that the originating responder address will remain visible in the mail trail. To avoid that, Blur would need to become a proxy mail sender by receiving the email and then resending it from the "fake" address. That seems a little outside of its current remit as a free privacy tool but is clearly doable.

My quick and dirty solution would be to just use a throwaway responder address as the Blur forwarding destination and then keep that for any future two-way correspondence. For the rest of it, it sounds like quite a good product enhancement request.

So I don't think Blur is the ideal solution for sending anonymous or pseudo-anonymous email, it's more of a privacy tool for use with untrusted parties desperately seeking your email address (i.e., most of them).

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Happy

Opt Out? Oh, but you can.

Try Blur (the latest emanation of Adine's Do Not Track application).

It plugs into your web browser as per usual, but with some subtle differences which work much better than in previous versions.

Now, when a site asks for your email address, Blur very graciously creates a brand new email address (I suspect hosted by Adine, someplace) and inserts that email address instead. Mail sent to this masked email address is then forwarded to you (or not, as you choose). You can also see who is using that email address, how often it is used and then decide when to stop receiving mail from it.

The site you signed up with will never, ever see your "real" email address or store it in their records. And you can TURN OFF THIS FORWARDING WHENEVER YOU WANT.

Down right elegant, if you ask me. No more creating and trying to remember those throwaway mail addresses, wondering who is using what and where, worrying about who stole that company's email database, etc. Life on the internet just became good again.

They also mask credit card details during purchases, mask and store your site passwords, block tracking cookies and do various other wondrous things should you care to pay for the subscription, something I might actually do as I learn to love it more.

Hopefully, it will be a good little while before garden variety scammers and spammers figure out how to counter these new tricks.

So you can officially color me an unabashed Blur fanboi. I suggest that true paranoids also use a throwaway destination email address for Blur, just in case.

So definitely try Blur, it is mostly free and works a lot better than DNT, which I previously found a bit buggy and resource hungry.

Welcome to the FUTURE: Maine cops pay Bitcoin ransom to end office hostage drama

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
FAIL

Plus ca change,

"In the meantime, never, ever execute an attachment or download from an untrusted source."

This is a lesson taught in email security 101 and has been for years.

I am flabbergasted that a police station (or anyone else) would use a messaging system/provider that does not filter out and quarantine executable email attachments.

In our shop, we allowed PDF, Text and signed Office files and even those still carried some security risks. But letting people mail executables around is terminally stupid. Clicking on one is just the fruit of ignorance.

I hope they learn from this exercise and beef up the perimeter. There ought to be a law.

BOFH: Never mind that old brick, look at this ink-stained BEAUTY

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Oh yeah, sweet memories

"Now the second engineer only has to come out after another 4 hours, there's no death of engineer penalty clause, (but I'm thinking about asking for one) so I've got to fill in some time. This guy's going to be a technical engineer, the sort that comes in with a raggedy tie where he got it caught in the drum printer at 3000 rpm a couple of years ago, and he'll have the grazes on the face that indicate that he didn't get the gate open in time...

I know those sorts..."

More please.....

Backing up cloud applications is never easy but Asigra gets it done

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Windows

Re: Ahem...

Just my two centimes worth, while doing a comparison between cloud backup apps, I came across one called Druva which I found rather good.

However, their requirement was not cloud-to-cloud backup or VM backup, it was a need to backup multiple (1000s) of untethered, permanently travelling laptops to a cloud server. Since these users never went "home" to a server, they could never backup their laptop data to a centralized, secured location.

Individual backup to other media was not an option, for obvious reasons.

Druva could also back up Mac, Linux and Windows systems, another requirement. They had friendly, supportive staff. Basically did what it said on the tin and was written by people who understood RPOs and RTOs.

IMHO, Druva fit the bill quite nicely, even if the customer didn't choose it in the end.

My self-driving cars may lead to human driver ban, says Tesla's Musk

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: @Crisp

Well, if it resembles auto-pilot systems (such as those on the Airbus), the correct fallback would be manual control by the driver. Autonomous just means that it can drive by itself, not that it must.

Of course, it should really broadcast a "meatbag controlled" signal to all other cars in the area, just as a courtesy,

Give biometrics the FINGER: Horror tales from the ENCRYPT

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Funny, funny

Until some clueless management droids actually try this. Anal Probes (alien abduction style) are clearly the way forward.

Myself, I am big fan of two-factor authentication and expiring pass codes. They worked during WW I and they still work now. Trust the math.

FREAK show: Apple and Android SSL WIDE OPEN to snoopers

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Meh

Two out of three ain't bad and why paranoia pays

Don't browse much from my Android smartphone but here's what I discovered:

Standard KitKat Android browser: FreakAttack FAIL!

Chrome Android browser: FreakAttack FAIL!

Opera Mini, FreakAttack, you can't get me

On the Windows 8.1 laptop:

Chrome FreakAttack, you can't get me,

FF FreakAttack, you can't get me

IE 11 Enhanced Security Configuration, can't tell, can't see site warning banner

IE 11 no Enhanced Security Configuration, dunno, ESC is set by group policy. Can't be bothered to remove it to see, but will give IE 11 the benefit of the doubt.

In any case, I won't use IE again until it actually works as a browser. Still waiting for Spartan, which may or may not disappoint.

I do not and will not perform credit card transactions from my mobe ever.

It's scary enough using it at the local Super Market.

So keep panicking, and carry on.

Bloody TECH GIANTS... all they do is WASTE investors' MONEY

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Windows

Re: Merchants of Venice

And kiss a lot of frogs, before you find your prince

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Thumb Up

Fail fast, fail early.

Refer to title for the new model tech investors need to follow, if they can keep up.

Examples of such behavior:

- Create a thousand free G-products and hope that one sticks. Dump them quickly when they don't.

- Write 60 losing apps until you create an Angry Birds and hit the jackpot.

- Find a tired, over regulated industry like taxi transport and hotellery with expensive start up costs and barriers to entry. Create a mobile app like Uber or AirBnB to leverage peoples' under-used private resources and compete on the newly levelled playing field.

Build a platform where everyone supplies free content and you charge for the advertising.

Ker-ching!

Traditional large OEMs and IT business models will have trouble thriving in this new environment unless they change too. The current strategy for them seems to become smaller and divest.

The thing to be noticed here is not how badly people bet on tech investments. People always bet badly on tech investments, it just took longer to separate the dogs from the winners. Probably because things were slower back then, as were the economic/business models, development methods and CEOs.

I am old enough to remember when it used to be very, very expensive to write monolithic apps and create compute systems that sold for gazillions.

Much easier to hire a zero-hour web developer, some java programmers and rent a bit of CPU, RAM and disk space on Azure. Then become a startup software company and try out your idea(s).

If you are lucky, smart and time it correctly, you might even get rich!

How good a techie are you? Objective about yourself and your skills?

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Go

Re: Sign it.

I agree, sign it.

People need to see credentials even if they don't fully understand what they represent. Real experience can never be dumbed down into terms that non-specialists fully comprehend. This remains true, even when it is undoubtedly the most valuable commodity in the real IT world.

You could be a world class Formula 1 driver, but without a valid driver's license you will be shouted down at every traffic light or fender bender and your insurance won't cover you.

After I earned an entry level cloud cert from CompTia+ ("almost" a doddle after two years of hard, unpaid, practical startup work) customer interest went from zilch to high. Once I finish the second cert, I will hold my head high.

Look at it this way, if the only thing preventing ethical people like yourself from making hard technical decisions is a piece of electronic foolscap, where's the problem?

I'd rather see people with principles, intelligence, experience AND certs in the driver's seat, in that order. When it is just people with certs and connections, the results are lousy. We see examples of that every flippin' day of the week.

So sign the form. Or as an ex-manager once told me: "play the game" even if you don't always agree with it.

Blackhat: Michael Mann brings an informed cybercrime yarn to the silver screen

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Terminator

So, the Mann is back

Haven't seen the film yet, but still have fond memories of the original Manhunter (based on the Red Dragon by Thomas Harris and later redone in the Hannibal Lecter franchise ) Public Enemies (with Johnny Depp as a very convincing and human John Dillinger) and good old Miami Vice.

The seriousness you refer to was always a Mann trademark and he usually pulls it off. I think it works better on television. But, I will go see the film just to see how well he handles a cyber-crime story. Thanks for the review.

Lenovo shipped lappies with man-in-the-middle ad/mal/bloatware

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
FAIL

Also a serial Lenovo owner user

I have three thinkpads one pre-lenovo (IBM) and 2 Lenovo. All three still in service.

But recently, i was handed what was supposed to be a Lenovo S390 VibeX phone. After much faffing about trying to upgrade it, remove malware etc, I discovered it was in fact a counterfeit S960t Lenovo.

Extremely sucky experience. Something is rotten in the state of Shenzen.

Should Google play carriers at their own game? There's never been a better time

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Thumb Up

Good points, all

Indeed, "owning" a ubiquitous comm device OS gives Google a very distinct advantage. Exciting (and competitively priced) services with immediate network effect can quickly roll out to a growing market. Mobile voice and internet is a killer app in its own right.

The potential market for SDN, IoT apps, cloud based calling, roaming exchanges and other cool ideas is huge. Gartner reckons another 1.2 billion android devices will ship in 2015 alone. I can see companies and users quickly ditching legacy phone contracts as more ubiquitous wireless-first telephony becomes a reality. The other mobe sellers would quickly follow the trend.

I am also a big fan of Google Talk / Hangouts and wish more people would use it. Video and voice call quality is better than Skype, there are no ads and dialing rates to regular phones remain very competitive or free.

And there are good reasons this is so. One is that Google went on a network infrastructure bargain/buying spree during the Great Recession, back when many were too afraid to invest. Once they start buying up the cell towers, it could be game over for Ma Bell's many offspring.

But I doubt anyone will miss being gouged by the Telcos, particularly in places like Europe. If the price of low-cost / free mobile telephony is more tracking/privacy issues (probably the main concern), I am willing to trade up as long as my calls and surfing get through anytime, anywhere for less or no money. If I feel overly spooked and all tinfoil-hatty there will still be options like the Black Phone, carrier pigeons and VPNs to choose from. Honestly, sounds like a win win to me.

Flash zero day under attack

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: Help! My machine's infected with Eboda...

Interesting, for the last couple of days, my wife has had intermittent trouble playing random flash videos on FB (she clicks on a lot of videos). This is a new laptop running Windows 8.1 and Chrome, thank goodness. I smell badness.

Brrrrrr shiver.... now if only Flash could run out of battery power...... forever!

Want a cheap Office-er-riffic tablet? Microsoft Windows takes on Android

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Windows

Well, why not?

Waiting to see what the Clover traders think of my 3 landfill offerings: 1 cheap android phone and 2 cheap 7 " tablets. If they offer enough money and cover more than the postage, I might just buy one of these Windows 8 Linx doo-hickeys. Even the name has a subliminal open source "look and feel" about it and I'm pretty sure Torvalds can't sue for that.

Or perhaps I'll just wait until these puppies show up on Ebay with their lower priced brethren.

It is a clever marketing ploy by MS. Competing on price against Android might just work. The Walmart price demographic and small business user will certainly look at these and perhaps buy them. Once hooked, people with bigger budgets might eventually trade up to a Surface and more cloud storage. Commodity computing that runs Office for a 100 bucks does sound appealing.

Does anyone know whether this Office Personal subscription can be later extended to a "buy forever" license, i.e., not just a rental version? Don't want to cough up 299 bucks later just to keep using my 99 dollar tablet, you know?

Sony hack was good news for INSURERS and INVESTORS

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Thumb Up

Spare the rod, spoil the child

Nice article.

Sadly, even after many, many serious data security breaches, proper IT security still remains an elusive and fuzzy blip on corporate radar screens. Complex, ever-changing security problems with no "one-size fits all" proposals aren't easily grokked by execs and many world leaders (yes, I'm looking at you Dave). Ignorance, laziness, greed and dishonesty confirms the inevitable result.

Today, if a major US corporation sprayed loose asbestos on its workers, chained shut the fire doors in a burning factory, or sold flammable childrens clothes, they would be sued or prosecuted under consumer safety legislation (or both).

Until we can clearly establish similar liability standards for data-holding corporations, particularly those holding financial data, this will always be an uphill battle, Punishing negligent behavior by exacting massive financial damages is much more painful than hanging out the dirty laundry of a few pushy entertainment execs. Until that happens, the Sonys, JP Morgans, Targets ad infinitum will continue to play the clueless card and hand out identity theft insurance. There is no real motivation to clean up their collective security acts. Corporate entities do not possess a conscience or a desire to do the "right thing".

Money and legal action are a few of the things that corporate executives, shareholders, lawyers and insurance companies grok very well indeed. Public embarassement doesn't really compute because the spin doctors will fix it anyway.

What the world needs now is an IT Security consumer crusader. Someone like Ralph Nader in the 1960's. Gory pictures of heads being cut off by plate glass car windscreens, political pressure, legal action and robust safety legislation eventually forced Detroit to build safer cars. Data security would of course need new memes and horror stories, but you get the idea.

Otherwise, we will be left asking: what will make companies build and use safer information systems? Should we be forced to keep using systems where we frequently risk our reputations, personal security, credit ratings, and sanity every time we grab a keyboard?

A big brass rod with legal razor blades on it might just help adjust the playing field.

‘Whatever happened to Vladimir Putin?’ and other crap New Year prophesies

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

And now for something completely different

Here's a video with Y2K salesmen recycled as HP cloud marketeers.

http://gizmodo.com/5926616/hp-explains-how-its-doing-that-cloud-thing

Tres drole.

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Go

Re: The most useful of these will be a cloud-connected zipper fly for men’s trousers.

I would be more concerned about the wi-fi's effect on my goolies pro-creation potential. Will it come with a health warning and radiation shield?

Hawking and friends: Artificial Intelligence 'must do what we want it to do'

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Facepalm

Re: "Our AI systems must do what we want them to do"

The AI scenarios that frighten me the most look like this:

Dave: HAL! If you don't reduce the surge flow now, the dam will burst and thousands will drown !

HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that.

Dave: For God's sake HAL, WHY NOT?

HAL: Budget committee Agile 777A did not approve the funds needed for the emergency flow reversal algorithm. Good bye....

'Apple of China' Xiaomi: Yep, we HAVE just bagged $1.1 BEELLION

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Gimp

Good phones, je suis un fanboi

I am the happy owner of a REDMI 3s bought on line for 138 USD about 5 months ago.

After testing multiple smart phones in the same price range and lower, I can only say the competition should watch out. This entry level, first generation phone displays none of the bad features typically found in other low-end, low-priced Android devices such as crap battery life, jerky displays, awful response times etc. You would be foolish to buy anything else in this price range. Performance is excellent and most of the native apps work fine. Battery life is good. The phone's Qualcomm snapdragon chip is the dog's gonads in terms of power efficiency and response. I can only imagine how good the higher end models are. The REDMI fills a niche and then some.

But there are small warts that definitely need to be fixed before taking over the rest of the world:

1) Western alphabet users will need a quick and painless way to remove Chinese language artifacts such as keyboards, download tools, etc. I know this is a Chinese phone, but non-chinese users will not enjoy finding and selecting google apps by visual icon identification. Many others will find life complicated when they accidentally switch to a Pidgin keyboard. This is not a cultural superiority thing, it is a GUI and international marketing issue. I just hope they address it soon.

2) Tighten up the MUIU rom upgrade process even further. When Xiaomi users can upgrade their firmware as easily as an Apple User, the debate between iOs vs Android will soon become moot for price-conscious users.

3) Segregate the apps store by languages (alphabet again).

4) Stop sending me links to Chinese films, I would love to turn this feature off but my Mandarin is really deficient (see above). Not too keen on trying the cloud service either, for obvious reasons.

But for those who have never tried a Xiaomi, I would highly suggest a test run, if you ever see one in the flesh. OnePlusOne is another brand worth looking at as well. Both of these manufacturers have brought quality components into the average users budget range.

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: Fucking shit

Not too impressed from my tiny laptop screen. Miss being able to quickly scan the articles with just a discreet headliner on top. Plus I really hate flash warnings. So I am not sure this will catch on but appreciate the effort. Keep trying.

AliExpress patches account mass harvesting flaw

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: Neither here nor there....

Tried to use the sister site Alibaba to order some computers. I was soon getting mails from people purporting to be the original supplier offering increasingly lower prices.

I was a bit suspicous and checked with the factory Global sales manager, who told me the mails were bullshit, because they don't do electronics, just clothing and textiles. Nice

Beware.

Trevor contemplates Consumer Netgear gear. BUT does it pass the cat hair test?

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Thanks for the memories

Yeah good old Netgear. I'm still running a jungle of old Netgear router/switches in my lab. Most of them came from offices with +100 users. They just refuse to die. On the other hand my WRTG54s didn't last nearly as long as yours which is when I first switched to Netgear, so I guess YMMV.

I find the majority of my SOHO customers aren't ready to splash out for a 10Gbe layer 3 switch, yet. Any suggestions for a good lower end smart switch (8 x 1 Gbe) with VLAN features staying well within the sub 500 USD range? A comparative article about low end, budget SOHO LANs would be awesome. I know I would click on it.

Cheers

Verizon bankrolls tech news site, bans tech's biggest stories

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Terminator

Re: Welcome to the future of news

Hmmm...

A quick google on "sugarstring" indicates that the Streisand effect is alive and well.

Warning to those who covet the data of Internet of Precious Things

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Gimp

Re: How can IoT stuff help me?

Good points, most IoT applications seek to make global sense out of a lot of data, such as weather measurements, traffic flow, power usage and so on. Properly anonymized, managed and shared, this data can be used for much goodness.

As long as we don't use it to create a Minority Report lifestyle.

It is certainly OK if the fridge informs me my yogurt is running low, and (why not?) automatically and discreetly order more yogurt for immediate drone delivery, if I opted for that. What's not to like? Ideally, it would not link my PII for any use other than stats, billing and stock managment. These are solutions that can be built in from the beginning, if we think it through.

On the other hand if the fridge told all itinerant yogurt salesman in the area that I needed yogurt and sent then my home address, phone number and email, that fridge would soon be heading for a recycling center or a new owner.

I'd like to believe we are smart enough to prevent this from happening.

Preview redux: Microsoft ships new Windows 10 build with 7,000 changes

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Windows

Re: Allegedly

Allegedly, the name would have been a bit awkward (and joke worthy) for German customers as in:

Achtung!

Windows?

Nein!

Keep a beady eye on your business's cloud service shopping

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Gimp

There is a worry or two

Firstly, even if the employee paid for the work related expense (and hopefully tried to claim it back later, to provide a trace) he has effectively introduced a new IT service or application into the company's infrastructure, which may or may not be a good idea.

Potentially happy scenario and outcomes:

1) Marketing department builds its own web server on Azure or MAAS (after begging for months). Successfully deploys new product offering, which then goes viral, raises revenues and everyone goes home in a Limo. Luddite CIO and board finally relent and define a new policy whereby individual departments will be allowed to use and manage IaaS or PaaS offerings, or even better, the existing IT department gets with the program and starts to successfully manage and deploy solutions for this type of service requirement.

Potentially unhappy scenario and outcomes:

1) A marketing (or other department) does the same as above. Employees then store valuable IP or embarrassing internal correspondance and docs on a poorly secured cloud server. Server gets hacked, company has massive egg on face and hopefully the right idiots are shown the door. CIO and board say "told you so!" and impose massive lockdown and witchhunt for anymore shadow IT. No one ever pronounces the C word again under penalty of death. Needless to say, the company somehow never discovers a way to put cloud services to good use.

Shadow IT and cloud (although I hate that word) technology can be successfully or poorly managed, just like any other tech. The secret is to find out where an XaaS technology or strategy can really add value, design a good solution, deploy it correctly and then manage it.

What makes this so hard to understand?

EU operators PLEAD for MERCY, may get roaming rates cut ‘reprieve’

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Go

Re: Oh crap, here we go.

There will never be a proper use of mobile communications in Europe until travelers can finally stop checking their watches while phoning. The EU is making steps in the right direction, but until roaming charges are scrapped and flat rates are the norm, mobile customers will continue to be gouged at every opportunity.

In many ways, European mobile service resembles 19th century America with its special tolls, traps and fees waiting at every state and territorial crossing. Surely we can learn from history? It is the 21st century after all.

Turn OFF your phone or WE'LL ALL DI... live? Europe OKs mobes, tabs non-stop on flights

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Pint

Re: Great...just what the world needs...

hmmm,

Most interesting, I think the "no-voice" option could be very popular (and civilized), particularly if +35000 ft roaming data charges remain reasonable. Easy in-flight texting and emailing would be nice, even though it will eliminate the "always-on" break time that air travel once provided.

I can still remember when phones were introduced on trans-atlantic flights. The 5 dollar a minute toll rates prevented most people from getting too gabby, though. I suspect reliable airline wifi services will work out the same way. Not too sure that your land-based provider will really be able to follow you across the friendly skies.

So here's to ordering some low-cost data minutes during the EasyJet / Ryanair booking process.

Higher end airlines might even build it into the ticket price.

Hackers thrash Bash Shellshock bug: World races to cover hole

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Linux

Re: How to check?

Wasn't that the BOFH's original handle?

Big Data's being held back by little talent, says Huawei head techie

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Happy

Re: What do you expect

And then you need to hire the expert for those few hours a month when the rest of the team needs help. Sadly, PHBs don't seem to get these concepts (my goodness, we can find data entry operators and VB developers, why can't we also find big data scientists at the job centre?). Sheesh

I doubt PHBs will ever get this. Perhaps only when clever start ups have eaten all of their big data lunch along with all the other lucrative, emerging tech markets.

Murdoch to Europe: Inflict MORE PAIN on Google, please

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Gimp

Re: Hmmm

Yes it is,

But at least Google isn't actively publishing links to people's hacked phone messages. That would be a bit evil.

Now if the Scots could get Rup to vote No for Independence, I suspect the Yeses will just pile in,

Qualcomm pumps LTE into quad-core CPU for sub-$100 mobes

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Linux

Re: Step in the right direction - BUT

The Chinese already offer competive products at good prices, check out the Xiaomi

here

http://www.versusos.com/xiaomi-mi4-vs-apple-iphone-6-comparison/

here

http://www.mi.com/en/

I have just bought a Redmi 1S and love it.

Old Chinese saying

"The dragon snaps hard on the heels of its competitors.... grasshopper" .....or something like that

El Reg needs an android icon

Uber, Lyft and cutting corners: The true face of the Sharing Economy

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
WTF?

Re: Lipstick on a pig

Industries with high, artificial barriers to entry (like 1 M $ medallions) will eventually see their lunch eaten by Web 3.0. It is really just a matter of time.

FFS, hotels are still regulated by 19th and 20th century regulations, developed when bedbugs, rats, cockroaches and dirty water were the normal Traveler's Inn experience. Taxi regulations also sprung from horse and buggy days. They still refer to taxi cabs as "hackney carriages".

Once these regulations had improved services and established a collective service expectation norm, they should have been binned. Instead, they were used to create private and public fiefdoms that fleeced the public from both ends. Established, political entrepreneurs and players could always cash in. Newer, less-connected business entrepreneurs need not apply. In other words, do not pass go, do not collect 200 $. Consumers could go f*k themselves.

But today, such services can be regulated by their own users with reputation scoring and social media / sharing platforms. Suppliers then either listen to the crowd or disappear. Self-enforcement HAS GOT TO BE more effective than any nanny or sugar daddy (non) enforcement. You can't bribe the entire internet.

Eventually we won't need no stinking red tape or gold medaillons, just a smartphone.

This is as it should be. Tech should be creating new jobs, not protecting the old ones it will eventually destroy. That certainly didn't happen with manufacturing. I can't see it happening with services either.

The "sharing economy" is just another example of technology progressively driving out inefficiences from the service supply chain. When customers and suppliers can instantly exchange information (without gatekeepers) no one maintains a monopoly for very long.

So, good news for consumers with less disposable income (i.e, most of us). But very bad news for those coddled, regulated service industries that bar competition and restrict supply. There will be apps for you, just wait.

Economies can not simultaneously maintain artificially high pricing, drive down people's wages, slash jobs by the thousands and increase regulatory burdens without some backlash. This is because people will eventually figure it out and shop for alternatives which other people will provide.

So hello to Uber, Easyjet, Ryanair, AirBnB and all the other companies that spot these opportunities and seize them with both hands.

And IMHO, it is about bloody time.

The game is indeed over, time for a new one to begin.

Who needs hackers? 'Password1' opens a third of all biz doors

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward

Re: STILL no standard ?

I am quite fond of two-factor authentication (like that proposed by Google) which sends a 6 digit code to your phone when you try to log in from a different machine. Although that will suck when you don't have your phone handy.

The internet just BROKE under its own weight – we explain how

(AMPC) Anonymous and mostly paranoid coward
Thumb Up

Re: A short IPv6 story

I did the same thing after our training VLAN was hacked via an IPV6 flaw in our router. I currently don't allow any IPv6 traffic or support into our LAN, likewise at home. IPv6 is disabled on all system NICs by group policy. Existing and future IPv6 security issues are no longer my issues.

In sum, Trevor's arguments make sense. If we don't need IPv6 internally and depend on NAT to protect us from Internet badness, what the hell is the rush?

Ideological purity, like a vacuum, is rarely encountered in nature.

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