* Posts by JimmyPage

3213 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Mar 2010

Trial to store benefits claimants' personal data on blockchain slammed

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Big Brother

Misdirection

Any competently instantiated blockchain should be cryptographically secure. Personal details on the blockchain wouldn't worry me.

Far more sinister is the emergence of a parallel currency - BenefitCoin - and an infrastructure like blockchain which enforces Smart Contracts.

Could this be the final destination for Project Tory. A real two-tier society ?

Drowning Dalek commands Siri in voice-rec hack attack

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Stop

Hang on a second

Not doubting the article, but it has just triggered a vague memory of some sort of scare ?? marketing ploy ?? to do with kids toys.

1980s ???

Wasn't there a kids toy robot thingy which "reacted" to audio codes in the (cunningly linked) TV cartoon ?

Or have I just given some startup an idea ?

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Coat

Ahhh. Well my phone does not have "Automatic Woyce Weckognition".

Welease Woderick

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Stop

Worried the beeps might give it away ..

There are so many apps which insist on beeping, buzzing and generally shouting HERE I AM that if you had your sound on, you'd never spot the signal.

Once again, signal-to-noise ratio, guys.

FBI arrests satellite engineer on charges of espionage

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Black Helicopters

All of a sudden ...

"The Americans" doesn't seem fiction anymore ....

Rolls-Royce reckons robot cargo ships are the future of the seas

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Is it worth it ?

Surely labour costs are close to negligible when it comes to marine freight ?

The propose M6 driverless lorry trial makes far more economic sense.

Teen faces trial for telling suicidal boyfriend to kill himself via text

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Stop

Fire in a crowded theater ?

Only read the first page, but I thought the US courts had long delineated the 1st amendment as not being a license to shout "FIRE !!!" in a crowded theater - the point being that the ensuing - possibly fatal - stampede was a foreseeable result, and the responsibility of the shouter. Free speech or not.

In other words, nothing to see. Move on. There shouldn't be any new law here.

Ad agency swipes 'unnamed bloggers' for calling out its cynically fake 'save a refugee' app

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FAIL

A new "thing" ? Or was it always thus ?

Maybe I'm getting [too] old, but it seems to me the current hipster response when called out on your POC product/app is to whinge that people aren't seeing "the bigger picture" and to imply (or sometimes explicitly state) that it's all other peoples fault for "not getting it".

Then again, I have vague memories that he kaftan-joss-stick scamsters in the 60s would blame the market failure of their schemes on "bread heads, man". So maybe it's nothing new ?

Sysadmins: Use these scripts to fully check out of your conference calls

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Boffin

Only 40 years late ...

The greatly missed Dr. Christopher Evans mentioned a conference host chat app in the 70s that would carry on when people left, and which did a pretty good job of seeming intelligent ....

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Boffin

If we're looking at so-true-it-hurts clips ..

Check out this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

Bloke 'lobbed molotov cocktails' at Street View car because Google was 'watching him'

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Happy

He denied it was a pipebomb in his car,

but merely a "tube filled with cotton and bullets."

Here's how police arrested Lauri Love – and what happened next

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Big Brother

OOI how does steganography fit into RIPA

is it possible plod could take any large file found and demand the "hidden data" they KNOW is inside it ? Even if there isn't ?

Lauri Love at risk of suicide if extradited to US, Brit court hears

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Stop

Re:US won't allow US citizens to be extradited

Is that law, a policy, or prejudice ?

I am pretty sure US citizens *have* been extradited when the correct procedures were followed and evidence was presented.

Home Office ignores plight of BA techies as job offshoring looms

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Re:nobody wept for the country when Blair

No. They marched in their millions in London.

And *then* were ignored.

It's either heads on spikes, or weeping in the corner.

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Unhappy

Re:second referendum

Really ?

I think, if nothing else, the brief fad for referenda we have enjoyed is well and truly dead.

We won't see another one for at least 60 years. When all the people who can remember this one are dead.

Of all the referenda we could have had, this is probably the most ill conceived, debated and executed as you could get. Certainly the most divisive. We need a "I weep for my country" icon.

JimmyPage Silver badge
Unhappy

I'm afraid, as predicted

There will be so much post-Brexit shit to deal with, this is probably not even bottom of the list of lists of things that need to be done.

Generally the UK government seems to struggle doing it's day job. Gawd knows how it's going to cope unpicking the tangle of UK-EU connections.

Utah sheriffs blow $10,000 on smut-sniffing Labrador

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Coat

dubbed URL but pronounced Earl

well, it would be, wouldn't it.

Yee haw.

Microsoft hops onboard bonk-to-pay bandwagon

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FAIL

Like fitting wheels to a tomato

time-consuming and totally pointless

Happy Mappiversary, Ordnance Survey

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Thumb Up

re: What is the air-line ?

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/emirates-air-line/

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On 21 June 1791 ...the first map was produced 10 years later.

Maybe we should have a seance and get them to manage HS2 ?

Holy kittens! YouTube screens go blank

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Coat

Re: isn't there an old joke ...

"What do you call a gorilla with a banana in each ear ?"

"Anything you like, he can't hear you."

Three non-obvious reasons to Vote Leave on the 23rd

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Happy

Re: utter bigotry

except I did it while named ...

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FAIL

Curious timing ...

Just long enough since 1973 for everyone to recall the 50s and 60s with rose-tinted glasses. As survivors generally do.

The general thrust to the Brexiters seems to be that you'll also be able to leave your front door unlocked, bread will be delivered by boys on (Boris) bikes, and the postman will wear a peaked cap and whistle a jaunty tune as he delivers your dole cheque. Basically, a past which never existed.

Police ICT Company head: Eat your cloud, cops, it's good for you

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Boffin

Back in the 60s ..

all big companies that ran "data centers" flogged time on their systems to smaller companies who couldn't afford a whole [IBM] computer.

What's that thing just about to hit the back of your head ? Oh yes. It's a full circle turning.

Of course all the skills and expertise that developed in those crazy days (not just technical, but administrative and contractual) has disappeared. Either carried off by death, or kicked out the door as redundant.

Anyone who wants to study that era may find they have a jump on the next breed of sharks selling snake oil.

Rejoice, fatties: Giving chocolate electric shocks makes it healthier

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Angel

Lindt ..

Their Dark Chocolate with Salted Caramel is *divine* -------------------->

New York outlaws ticket-hoarding buybots

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Stop

How about just making it illegal to sell a ticket for more than face value?

Free market, perhaps ?

A lot depends on how you view a ticket. If it's property, then letting the state dictate what you may or may not buy or sell, and what you buy/sell it for is a really bad idea. Price controls generally are a magnet for even more crookery.

If it's not property, but a unique placeholder for an event, then maybe the ticket industry could take a break from counting their profits, and devise a system the end punter can have faith in.

In fact, anyone who has been to a Robert Plant show will know they have. Never seen a tout at a Percy gig because his management link the ticket to the card that bought it. No card. No ticket. Simples. Hardly a new idea either - it was trialled in 2007 when "Led Zeppelin" played the 02

Given that, one has to wonder why it's not in more general use. Clearly the ticket agencies aren't in a rush to help.

A month to save cryptocurrency Ethereum?

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Boffin

however:blockchain != "currency"

(FSVO "currency")

Having been tasked by my employer to deep dive blockchain in general, it seems most people - *especially* "experts" have been a little bit starstruck by BitCoin, and can't separate the concept of virtual currency from blockchain. As even the tone of this article demonstrates.

Like it or not, there is a slow development of blockchain for all sorts of uses. Just one example is a distributed ledger for the provenance of gemstones - an attempt to address blood diamonds.

Blockchain is like paper - yes, you can print banknotes on it. However you can also do a lot more with it (including burning it :) )

Lester Haines: RIP

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Pint

What can I say. RIP

One of the Regs stars.

---------------------> have one in heaven for me :(

GitHub presses big red password reset button after third-party breach

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WTF?

I don't have a phone

Not being funny, but what are you doing The Register ?

Are you *ever* going to get a phone ?

I can understand Joe Public holding out from having a (I presume you mean) smartphone.

But a nominal techie ? Surely you should be - to a certain degree - leading your customers. Not following them.

Microsoft planning blockchain-as-a-service for Azure apps

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Boffin

In which case ..

It's not true block chain ... The key word being "distributed". Also you can create a chain which requires a depth of blocks before confirming transactions to prevent deck stacking ....

Cork data centre will offer super-speedy US to Europe data times

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WTF?

But *why* 320 km from a nuclear installation ?

I would have thought Apple execs - whatever their characters - were not in the same league of morons as my in-laws.

Clearly wrong.

If anyone owns any Apple stock, they may wish to diversify, if this is the level of intelligence at the top.

They may as well have suggested it'll be little-people-powered ....

Sophos U-turns on lack of .bat file blocking after El Reg intervenes

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Stop

Re: Hmm

IIRC NT DOS has quite a rich set of features that can be used in BAT files. Certainly it's possible to work a directory tree of files generated by DIR, and have some pretty nifty IF/THEN paths through a script.

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Re: File Endings

Upvote sir !

For ".pif" last seen by me on Win3.1/95/ME

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FAIL

Hang on a second

so it's *relying* on the extension to determine the file type ?

No. Please no.

I predict we will see a lot more of this, as the young hipsters swagger into the office, and the old greybeards leave.

Oooooklahoma! Where the cops can stop and empty your bank cards – on just a hunch

JimmyPage Silver badge
WTF?

I guess this "constitution" thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Seizing goods and property without due process ? That is soooooooo 13th Century.

Boffins send encrypted quantum messages to spaaaace – and back

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Interesting this story

appears after the one about Lord Hagues warning on encryption.

Dyfed-Powys Police fined for publicising pervs' particulars

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Stop

Hmmmm

Group policy to ensure external email addresses can't be added to Exchange address book.

Job done.

Where do I send *my* bill for £250,000 ?

Surveillance forestalls more 'draconian' police powers – William Hague

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Meh

Don't agree ...

but it's nice to have a less hysterical voice in the debate

Get ready for Google's proprietary Android. It's coming – analyst

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Thumb Up

Speaking as a consumer ...

All I really care about, is to be able to buy a phone, and have control over what crap I do - and don't want on it.

So if this means no longer having to have a "Facebook" app I never use, bring it on.

And don't get me started on the "Motorola" or "Samsung" apps I can't remove.

Freeze, lastholes: USB-C and Thunderbolt are the ultimate physical ports

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Boffin

RS-232C (or is that V22/V24)

(can't remember the DIN)

Scots denied Saltire emoji

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Coat

our national animal, the unicorn

So the unicorn is Scotlands national animal.

Things seem to make a lot more sense now ....

Our CompSci exam was full of 'typos', admits Scottish exam board

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Now those exam question leaks make sense

it was to get the pupils to proofread them ...

Rogue Somerset vulture lands at Royal Navy airbase

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Surely there's a marketing made in heaven here

Vulture central meets vulture mobile ?

UK Home Sec makes concessions to please Snoopers' Charter opposition

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Big Brother

It's inevitable they will snoop

whatever the law says.

Rather than wasting^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H spending our time and effort here, maybe a better approach would be to amend the laws of evidence to explicitly exclude unlawfully obtained material.

The fruit of the poison tree and all that.

Knowing this would greatly reduce the temptation to go snooping in the first place.

Smartwatches: I hate to say ‘I told you so’. But I told you so.

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Stop

Actually, the jokes about fob watches ....

I can actually see a space in the market for a wearable like an old stylee fob watch.

*Wrist* watches were developed for use in WW1 in response to a need ...

JimmyPage Silver badge

There is *something* somewhere ...

not quite sure what, but having to take a smartphone out of a pocket to check the time is the gap we're looking at.

Queen guitarist Brian May releases virtual reality viewer

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Now I'm Here ...

just saying ...

Miscreants demand Bitcoins to stay silent on 'dirty secrets' of Tumblr, LinkedIn hack victims

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Nothing new under the sun ....

"All is discovered. Flee at once." ....

Is a $14,000 phone really the price of privacy?

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Stop

Shouldn't they be sold as pairs ?

like matched pistols ?

FAA to test Brit drone-busting kit

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Using AUDS, the operator can effectively take control of a drone

hmmmmmm