* Posts by Velv

2756 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jan 2010

NBD: Adobe just dumped its private PGP key on the internet

Velv
Devil

"Adobe has not returned a request for comment on the matter"

Couldn't you just use the leaked private key to make up your own signed response???

Red Hat pledges patent protection for 99 per cent of FOSS-ware

Velv
Boffin

Not all patents are taken out purely for financial reasons. Sometimes it is good for an innovation to be protected by patent to prevent nefarious types from exploiting the invention, say by producing and selling fakes (which could be potentially fatal with things like pharmaceuticals). It is up to the patent holder to determine if they’re going to charge for a license or not.

This article has been deleted

Velv
Childcatcher

Re: I would like to be the first to point out...

In the hope of finding a humorous reply to your comment I googled "naked baristas".

Top hit was youtube video of said "bikini baristas" in Washington State.

If you're going to be pedantic and want pictures then I guess you'll just need to screen cap

El Reg is hiring an intern. Apply now before it closes

Velv
Headmaster

"access to our watercooler (when there's water in it)"

So does that mean you don't get access to the watercooler if there is no water? Is this just a workplace policy, or is there a physical access control in place?

"... our ingenious sub-editors will de-clunkify your prose..."

Apple's adoption of Qi signals the end of the wireless charging wars

Velv
Boffin

Having read the brief (sad, I know), Apple has produced a pad that complies with the standard and can be used by all devices that follow the standard. It also includes some enhanced features that it hopes the standard will encompass in the future.

Finally Apple is trying to be evolutionary with everyone else instead of purely revolutionary on their own.

Indian call centre scammers are targeting BT customers

Velv
Boffin

I guess we're lucky its only low level things like telecoms that have released our personal information into the offshore workforce and we're seeing only a few thousand pounds fraud.

Imagine how much worse it could be if it were the big banks who had all these offshore workers with direct access to the exact financial status and personal details of individuals and companies...

Fraud can take place anywhere in the world. It takes place here in the UK as well as every other country. However there is a relative value proposition at work - the relative profit of committing fraud in India is much greater than in the UK, therefore its more likely to occur more widely at much lower levels. That cheap offshore labour might not be so cheap if your fraud incidence rises.

80% of IT projects in public sector delayed due to IR35 – report

Velv

When is someone in HMRC going to admit that the Income Taxation structure in the UK is no longer fit for purpose.

The method of engagement of workers has vastly changed since National Insurance was introduced 106 years ago, and even since PAYE in 1944. Instead of making up stupid schemes to block the "loopholes" that have emerged, re-write the entire structure such that all earnings are taxed on an equal basis.

Deputy AG Rosenstein calls for law to require encryption backdoors

Velv

Re: Flogging a Dead Horse?

@Big John

Trump has a big ego and only big causes will energize him, such as Immigration, Taxes, Health Care and the like.

HELLO!!!

Terrorists!

Wasn't it his first Executive Order to persecute Muslims as all his followers consider them a terrorist risk that needs controlled and monitored?

Fancy talking to SAP about your indirect licensing concerns? Straw poll says no

Velv
Facepalm

"Yes Mr Police Officer. Even though nobody saw me I'll happily discuss driving at 120mph on the empty motorway with you."

Given what appears to be a ludicrous licence offering from SAP, like one of those asked, I'm surprised anyone is willing to discuss the situation with SAP given its almost entirely likely you're going to get screwed.

Sorry, but those huge walls of terms and conditions you never read are legally binding

Velv
Boffin

Standard T&Cs

The sensible option would be to have a published standard set of conditions that we can all be familiar with and therefore should be easy to explain and accept.

OK, so each business is going to argue their own unique nuance, but really, are any of them all that different.

It's been done in Scotland. When you buy a property each sides solicitor/lawyer would draw up their version of the contract. Much back and forth would take place until agreement was reached. To simplify the process a Scottish Stand Clauses was approved by the Law Society.

Perhaps this is something Which? or similar could champion (in the UK)

Velv
Headmaster

Re: It didn;t used to be this way

"Are you suggesting that in America you can waive your right not to be a slave if that was in the terms and conditions, and that the courts would uphold it and the federal government enforce it?"

That is exactly what the court has sanctioned. The T&Cs remove the right to resort to the established legal system, and the judge has ruled this is acceptable.

UK.gov is hiring IT bods with skills in ... Windows Vista?!

Velv

What code is running on Apple's Secure Enclave security chip? Now we have a decryption key...

Velv
Boffin

Re: US police don't use baton.

Even if they don't carry batons or night sticks, most carry a large 6 cell torch such as a MagLite

Web-enabled vibrator class action put to bed

Velv
Paris Hilton

Opportunity in disguise...

Given the number of exhibitionist type sites out there, I'd have thought the ability to uploads one's orgasms would be a selling point for them...

RBS sharpens axe again: 900 IT jobs to go by 2020

Velv
Childcatcher

Accountancy is just like technology. Some basic rules to follow and any trained person in the world can write that spreadsheet and crunch those numbers.

Funny however that we don't see masses of bean counter jobs being "right shored" to cheaper operating places.

When they came for the technologists I didn't speak out as I'm not a technologist...

Velv
Boffin

In my experience, even when it does occur, "knowledge transfer" is a waste of time.

The recipients might get a high level overview, but that's usually something that if you already have a basic understanding of a technology you can pick up the basics of a new implementation very quickly.

The trick is passing on the site knowledge, the little nuances that make each implementation unique, and that expensive seasoned resource worth their money. Knowing the right place to hit it with a hammer as the urban legend story goes.

Amazon recalls dodgy solar eclipse shades that offer no eye protection

Velv
Coat

Americans are also advised to hang on to their eclipse glasses after the 21st. They'll need them to watch the nuclear explosions safely

'Real' people want govts to spy on them, argues UK Home Secretary

Velv
Facepalm

"Real People" don't need seat belts in their cars, they're good drivers and never crash into other cars.

Drunks, idiots, criminals, etc, kill and injury many "real people" every year. Seat belts are mandatory for those times when something does go wrong, not because "real people" aren't careful. Strong encryption is there for when things go wrong, not because Aunt Bessies kitten video is secret.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg: Crypto ban won't help trap terrorists

Velv
Big Brother

Re: open source crypto outside of jurisdiction

The logical conclusion is that governments will outlaw the use of any encryption that isn't specifically approved by them. The upshot being they can and will imprison anyone who they deem has broken the law.

In the UK today you are required to provide the password for any encrypted storage, and there have been people in prison for this offence. They may be bad people, they may have committed fraud or be abusing children, but they haven't been convicted of any offence other than refusing to provide the password.

The laws of the Government do indeed beat the laws of mathematics when the laws of government outlaw the laws of mathematics.

Apple removes VPN apps in China as Russia's Putin puts in the boot with VPN banlaw

Velv
Big Brother

Thank God I live in the UK where we don't have a government that interferes with the legal websites we as citizens are allowed to visit...

Virgin Media's profanity warning triggered by chief exec's name

Velv
Gimp

Let's face it, you're probably not going to post in the forums how wonderful the guy is. It's going to be a post about how bad Virgin Media have been and how his team have let you down.

Apple has a similar policy of preventing any post that denigrates the company, its support or it's leadership, they just vanish it without warning after its submitted, not before.

Take that, gender pay gap! Atos to offshore hundreds of BBC roles

Velv
Childcatcher

There are a large number of UK qualified accounts in India just ready to fill up the Accounts departments of big corporations.

Funny however that the Head of Accountancy/Finance/whatever never seems to recognise that all these roles are the same in either the UK or India (in the same way techies are) and they could save billions by offshoring their team...

Velv
Big Brother

Re: I have always supposed the idea of the BBC, but...

@Hollerithevo

"A nationally-owned TV and radio service that isn't beholden to corporate billionaires and thus enslaved tot heir views..."

In what way is the BBC not beholden to corporate billionaires? Just because they don't own shares doesn't mean it isn't doing their bidding...

Crap gift card security helps crims spend your birthday pressie cash

Velv
Facepalm

Isn't the point of the article that despite the security measures you've outlined it is possible for nefarious entities to spend the money on cards?

Virgin Media broadband latency headaches still not fixed six months on

Velv
Coat

Ironic

A little ironic that the fix for latency problems seems to be suffering from a latency problem

Jodie Who-ttaker? The Doctor is in

Velv
Childcatcher

It's going to be interesting when the Doctor next meets River Song...

UK.gov snaps on rubber gloves, prepares for mandatory porn checks

Velv
Boffin

As per my earlier comment, they will require UK ISPs to block their customers access, much the same way they're blocking the pirate sites, but without Judicial review.

Velv
Coat

We must do something to stop teenagers watching porn, it's giving them seriously unrealistic expectations about real life.

I mean, when was the last time you managed to get a plumber to visit so quickly!

Velv
Big Brother

"How does this work for sites not based in this country? (I might be being a little thick here)"

The government will give UK ISPs a list of banned sites they are to block. Similar to the blocked pirate sites, but without any judicial review of the list.

Trump tramples US Constitution by blocking Twitter critics – lawsuit

Velv
Big Brother

@SundogUK

"This is rubbish. I don't even have a twitter account and I can follow what he says. YOU DO NOT NEED A TWITTER ACCOUNT TO FOLLOW A TWITTER USER."

But you do need an account to take part in the debate, be that to provide evidence in support or contradiction of the debate, and by blocking select users you are censoring the debate. And while that may be OK for private citizens who only want to hear what they want to hear, it is government censorship if it's is the President or his office that choose to block citizens.

Velv
FAIL

Re: @ Ian Michael Gumby

"Trump has his personal account and the WH account. In both he and his staff have the right to control or block whom they wish. Its a feature of Twitter."

And if they were personal accounts you would be right. But they are being used to make official government statements, and therefore fall under the laws that control official government communications which must be available to all citizens equally.

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser

Velv
Big Brother

Re: Coming soon to the UK...

"Prime Minister Corbyn will sort all this nonsense out. ;)"

HA HA HA HA HA HA

If you think any of the major parties are going to disassemble anything that's already in place then you're seriously delusional. Can I just remind you of Labour's National Identity Card...

One-third of Brit IT projects on track to fail

Velv
Pirate

Just remember the Project Manager's mantra...

If you're not part of the solution there's money to be made prolonging the problem

Velv
Coat

Make sure everything's on the radar so you can get your ducks in a row

Velv
Trollface

Re: 257%

257% is pretty much the figure I'd expect Project Managers to be coming up with...

Spies do spying, part 97: The CIA has a tool to track targets via Wi-Fi

Velv
Big Brother

Streetview

Who would have thought that Google Streetview's slurping of wireless SSIDs and MAC addresses as they drove around the world would be useful. A digital database mapping the electronic world.

It's a good thing they Google were made to delete it before it could be copied or used for nefarious purposes...

AWS Summit London queues caused by security, not snafu

Velv
Trollface

Ironic that AWS hasn't solved the problem of putting everything in one building and it isn't distributing the load and availability across sites in different regions.

The good kind of data sharing: Reg empties its storage news warehouse

Velv
Black Helicopters

Users can pre-program the diskAshur drives with a unique Self Destruct PIN which, once entered, instantly deletes the encryption key rendering all data previously stored on the drive as lost forever.

How long before an MP calls for this to be banned?

"Bad person" gets arrested, "law enforcement" request access to data on disk, "bad person" has ability to instantly wipe disk by supplying the self destruct PIN. "bad person" can't be accused of not supplying the "password", who can prove they gave the wrong pin deliberately or by accident under duress, and there's now no available incriminating data.

Men charged with theft of free newspapers

Velv
Headmaster

There will be no jury, it will be dealt with by either a Judge or some Magistrates.

Amazon squares up to Walmart over boycott calls: Talk sh!t, get hit

Velv
Facepalm

"We don't want our most sensitive data held by a competitor"

Which is why we continue to have massive data breaches.

It doesn't matter how sensitive it is, or where you store it, you must be properly securing it against unauthorised access. Something the Walmart exec fails to understand, like so many others.

UK and Ecuador working on Assange escape mechanism

Velv
Headmaster

Re: Is Transportation still on the legal books?

Maybe I missed something, but given he's an Australian citizen we don't need transportation rules to send him to Australia, his citizenship guarantees we can return him as a prisoner.

We just have to take him into custody first...

Tesla death smash probe: Neither driver nor autopilot saw the truck

Velv
Big Brother

Re: Bleh

"Come on guys, keep up, this is the 21st century, and you're not some tin pot third world country."

Don't tin pot third world countries usually have self promoting dictators? You know, the kind of leader who disappears anyone that disagrees?

Virgin Media resolves flaw in config backup for Super Hub routers

Velv
Boffin

There is a confirmation on the page that 1.01.33 is the latest version, allegedly released 07/04/17.

My SH2 has this version, but is showing an uptime of 69 days. 7/4 is only 66 days ago, so they must have been rolling it out earlier (or they can load a new firmware without a reboot, which I doubt)

Axed from IBM for remote working? Don't go crying to HPE

Velv
Childcatcher

Do your staff work hard when they're working from home?

NSFW

Mitchell & Webb sum it up

NSFW

Forcing digital forensics to obey 'one size fits all' crime lab standard is 'stupid and expensive'

Velv
Childcatcher

Conspiracy theorists are probably frothing at the mouth with the thought that the government is forcing a standard on digital forensics that is hard to meet in the hope that the digital forensics can never be used against them in future court cases. Government or personal court cases.

US spook-sat buzzed the International Space Station

Velv
Big Brother

Why does it have to be that the spy satellite was manoeuvred to observe the ISS?

Perhaps the spy satellite was manoeuvred so it could be observed from the ISS. American astronaut checking something post deployment.

Hand in your notice – by 2022 there'll be 350,000 cybersecurity vacancies

Velv
Alert

So "there's going to be massive number of jobs in the arena we just happen to cell certification in", says report

Lloyds finally inks mega 10-year cloudy outsourcing deal with IBM

Velv
Boffin

Re: Oh dear...

Nah. Staff don't transfer for three months, and it'll take another 12 months to break them.

This time next year is the time to sell

Velv
Holmes

Re: So RBS' contractors are being moved to IBM, which has a policy of ending contracts in place

Either you're mixing up Lloyds Bank of Scotland with RBS, or you've insider knowledge about another outsourcing deal being worked

UK PM Theresa May's response to terror attacks 'shortsighted'

Velv
Pirate

Here's a proposal.

Let's legislate to make all vehicle manufacturers electronically limit their vehicles to the speed limit.

Now, in order to help the emergency services do their job we're going to allow the government to unlock vehicles assigned to approved groups so that they can exceed the posted limit.

Let's see how long it takes for dodgy garages to offer an unlocking service...