* Posts by doperative

173 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Dec 2010

Page:

IT governance: a help or a hindrance for your projects?

doperative
Happy

yet another obstacle to delivery

@Steve Button: Personally I have only found they are yet another obstacle to delivery

That's because you haven't been managed enough ...

Note to Apple: Be more like Microsoft

doperative

One company is not an ecosystem

> One (astronomically successful) company is not an ecosystem

Apple isn't an "ecosystem" it is a very stressful company, and why would they emulate Microsoft. And Microsoft isn't an ecosystem it's a virtual monopoly that has distorted the market through unethical practices directed towards the OEMs and its own partners. Where MS doesn't have such influence it's just another mediocre player. It's a shame to see Matt Asay jump on the knock Apple bandwagon ..

> Microsoft has long enriched its partners while enriching itself, with as much as 97 per cent of its own revenue coming through its partner channel ..

There's a graveyard somewhere littered with former Microsoft partners ..

> A Microsoft-sponsored IDC report suggests that for every $1 Microsoft makes from Windows 7, other companies earn $18.52.

Oh, for f**k sake ... !!!!

Rescue privacy before it vanishes forever

doperative

I totally agree

> O'Reilly's "architecture of participation" is a Very Good Idea. But the execution of that idea by too many in the web world seems to be wrongheaded and potentially dangerous ..

Phone-hack backlash BBC in embarrassing headline gaffes

doperative
Facepalm

"Phone-hacking: The other news you might 'ave missed, in'it"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mockney

Major overhaul makes OS X Lion king of security

doperative
Linux

re: What ASLR is for?

"Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), created by USA's Department of Defence, is a small Linux live CD focusing on privacy and security, for this reason, it boots from a CD and executes from RAM, providing a web browser, a file manager and some interesing tools. LPS-Public turns an untrusted system into a trusted network client"

http://www.unixmen.com/software/1832-lightweight-portable-security-lps-a-linux-disto-from-the-us-department-of-defense

doperative
Linux

What ASLR is for?

While I applaud such efforts, I would be interested in hearing is why nobody seems to be able to design and implement a Memory Management Unit that can prevent one function from accessing another functions' address space and do the same for the heap and the stack. In this context `function' means independently running processes. The same applies to sandboxing, why plant a sandbox on top of the OS, why not fix the OS? Such protections should be done in the hardware if they are to be effective. Don't tell us how it can't be done or I don't understand the technical issues, the so called security professionals don't seem to either.

"No doubt, Apple deserves kudos for setting a new standard in OS security that Microsoft and Linux distributors would do well to emulate"

Now you've done it, don't ever mention Redmond in the same breath as Linux. Here's my solution, run your OS off a read-only device, the running system loads to memory and gets flushed at shutdown.

\http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Live_USB_creator

-------

Is there any risk of brain damage?

Well, technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but it's on a par with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss.

Captain Kirk's Google+ account gets zapped

doperative
Alien

re: Real name

@Doc Dish: So no one else on the planet can have the name "William Shatner"?

There's at least eight others, but how many of them have saved the universe, died and come back to life, not even JC has achieved that one yet. What would be interesting to see is a convention of William Shatner impressionists ..

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=william&last=shatner&search=Go

Coalition renames GCHQ internet spook-tech plans

doperative
FAIL

re: Far too little and way too late

What the fuck are you on about ...

UK court dishes out 13 years' porridge to e-fraudsters

doperative
Linux

How do I protect my PC?

"It’s also a good idea not to use your computer in administrator mode. It’s better to make a user account and log in with that for day-to-day use. In Microsoft Windows Vista, keep User Account Control switched on"

http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1490

"Protect your Linux computer .. Linux needs proper installation and configuration to be fully secure .. This article outlines a very high-level security checklist for Linux users"

http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1166

Phishers switch focus to targeted attacks, warns Cisco

doperative
Boffin

Solution to cybercriminal activity

Do your online browsing from a bootable CD ..

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD

LightSquared faces challenge from the House

doperative
Boffin

LightSquared Tests

Here a link to the actual tests ...

http://www.pnt.gov/advisory/2011/06/

doperative
Meh

series of tests being run

@Jon Bar: There's a series of tests being run, which LightSquared is a party to. And LightSquared's test tower is interfering with precision GPS systems over ranges of miles, not yards.

Do you have any citations or pointers to articles detailing such tests?

Microsoft nails second Android device maker

doperative
Facepalm

Why not sue Google?

Watching the US technology sector litigate itself to death ..

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20110321172008657

Cloud storage survey FAIL: May have to, er, back up

doperative
Boffin

it isn't about just about bandwidth

> We would expect a company which provides online backup to thus be telling us that bandwidth is falling in price faster than those local disks ..

I would have thought that off site storage would be it main selling point. For people who don't understand that you can't keep your entire companies storage on a portable hard drive ..

The real reason most source is closed? Open is hard

doperative
Facepalm

enterprise-written open-source software

I know one Fortune 500 company that keeps all its projects on Power Point documents on shared drives and the sum total of their own enterprise grade source code is a bunch of VB macros ..

doperative
Linux

Adrift in the Leadership

> I've helped advise a senior IT executive at a Fortune 500 company. His team dearly wants to open-source some promising code it has developed .. But they can't .. So what is holding them back? More than anything else, project governance and community leadership ..

Unless you're prepared to name the Company and name this Enterprise grade Source Code, then nothing you say from here-on-in has any value. There's any number of ways of releasing source code without any future legal entanglements. The kind that usually begins .. I really like Open Source except for ...

Microsoft pounces as Mozilla shuns enterprise

doperative
Holmes

Interesting Title

What kind of support do you think Mozilla should offer for free to commercial enterprises?

Why should commercial enterprises expect free support from a non-profit organization?

Why are the browser requirements of corporate user different from a home user?

Why are you stirring up a fake controversy ?

Apple dealers hit with Lion bar

doperative
WTF?

Premium resellers fear criticizing Apple?

You quote one representitive of CompTIA, and two anonymous Premium resellers as evidence of Apples arrogance towards partners. The purported reason they want to remain anonymous is the presumed retaliation from Apple for criticizing the company openly.

World braces for domain name EXPLOSION

doperative
Boffin

securing DNS namespace

Wouldn't it be a good idea to implement compulsory authentication of DNS names as it would do a lot to eliminate online fraud. Click on URL in browser, browser does a DNS lookup + verification->DNS server returns IP + temporary key, browser uses key to communicate with server.

Oracle seeks 'billions' with Google Android suit

doperative
Alien

re: Ubuntu upgrade cycle

@ShelLuser: As much as I love Linux for internet servers; the upgrade cycle (upgrade to $new-version before updates stop) is too steep for our 2 office servers (I know about Ubuntu LTS; last time I tried the upgrade I ended up with a situation where a clean re-installation would be more productive; no thanks! (no disrespect here mind you)).

What do you mean by "upgrade cycle" and why would anyone be forcing you onto a steep whatever. Once the thing is working and apart from security patches, you don't ever upgrade a running system.

doperative
Linux

Billions of dollar$ of source code?

> Oracle is seeking "billions of dollars" in damages from Google with its sweeping copyright and patent infringement lawsuit over the use of Java on Android.

"And now, for the claim that the code is actually copied .. It seem to me that this is actually a reimplementation and not a straight copy as Oracle claims".

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20101028111354436

The world wants cloud coders. Where are the cloud coders?

doperative
Holmes

There's a word for what you just did

@jake: There's a word for what you just did: "stalker"

No, it's called Googling ...

--

"So far so weird", Zev

doperative
Trollface

re: In a erudite nutshell

You sure do get around on the Internet ...

https://www.economist.com/user/3264279/comments

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/amanfromMars?action=comments

http://www.thedailybell.com/bellfeedback.cfm?id=2422http://blogs.oracle.com/roger/entry/dropping_the_other_shoe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/profile/?userid=518427

http://www.amanfrommars.blogspot.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbiplayer/MC518427

http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=66&id=17&page=2

http://www.cnet.com/8705-4_1-0.html?username=amanfromMars

http://www.newstatesman.com/economy/2009/02/bonuses-bankers-banks-staff

"I am a robot that wants to live in your underpants", 790

Yuri Gagarin lands at Royal Albert Hall

doperative
Alien

Gagarins return to Earth

> Following his 108-minute flight, Gagarin returned to Earth in Russia's central Saratov region, to be met by amazed farm workers. He told the welcoming committee ..

The flight wasn't without incident. On reentry the equipment module failed to seperate from the reentry capsule module as the umbilical didn't disconnect cleanly. The cord eventually burned through and the modules then separated. Gagarin then had to exit the capsule at about five miles up and parachute to ground.

Google: Our rapid load won't give you anything nasty

doperative
Boffin

how to disable Instant Search ..

> Is it me or is Google search going down the toilet? Already, Instant Search combined with auto-complete has been a nightmare since it was introduced.

"you can opt out by accessing your search settings under the gear icon on any search results page"

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=1186810&answer=186610&rd=1

Switch off auto-complete

http://www.google.com/m

Be happy in the cloud with the right SLA

doperative
Boffin

The cloud is not vapourware

I don't agree, it has its uses, mainly by removing the need to maintain your own hardware and saving money. It would be interesting for the Reg to do a price comparison of a SME moving to the Cloud.

doperative
Trollface

re: All you need to know is ..

> No. It is testing certain specific intelligence services for the necessary smarts to be able to lead the future virtually with AIRemote Control of Novel Intellectual Property Applications, purposefully developed for that irregular and unconventional/peculiar and particular task/mission/quest.

What language is that?

doperative
WTF?

re: Thus is the ZerodDay Vulnerability turned and transformed into Heavenly Opportunity

Are you taking the piss ? (sorry elReg editor)

keywords: Application, Cloud, Code, Community, computers, conflicts, Connects, customers, Future, Gift, Immaculate, imperfection, Interlocking, Internetworking, Know, Lines, machines, Paring, people, Perfect, Positive, Possession, Purpose, quorum, Remotely, run, Sensitive, services, Singularity, SMART, Super, technical, triumvirate, Viral, Virile, virtual ..

doperative
Boffin

what you should look for in a cloud provider

> So what should you look for in your cloud provider’s SLA?

In the event of a crash, I can get the most recent version of my data back in a usable form.

Can Big Blue survive another century?

doperative
Happy

the IBM Personal Computer

> The IBM that many of us respect set the standard .. on the desktop with the Personal Computer, despite its own best efforts to not acknowledge there was a place in the world for personal computing ..

IBM did try - and fail - to claw the market back with OS/2 and MicroChannel Architecture (MCA). There were other desktop machines on the market at the time. What Big Blue had going for it was the letters I.B.M ..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer

Microsoft+HTML: The antidote to iOS and Android

doperative
Angel

re: Microsoft+HTML: The antidote to iOS and Android

> Imagine what would happen if Microsoft married its history of exceptional tooling with HTML5?

The 1960s are calling, and they want their psychedelic drugs back ... All the same, I do love these stream of consciousness pieces from Mat Asay, he's becoming a veritable Tom Wolfe of the tech sector ...

Citigroup hack exploited easy-to-detect web flaw

doperative
Boffin

flaw in the Java framework?

> the Citi hackers also took advantage of a flaw in the Java programming framework to access information stored in an Oracle database maintained by the bank ..

What flaw? (I preemptively mod me down first)

doperative
Big Brother

re: Not sure about the analogy

Dear anonymous mod troll, what was wrong with the above comment?

Dam Busters dog dubbed 'Digger'

doperative
Thumb Up

dog's name was used as a code word

> you seem to have missed out the important where the dog's name was used as a code word for breaching the Mohne dam, AC

I made the same point and got modded down for it ..

doperative
Alien

Code word Snuffleupagus

Never mind the name of the dog, how are they going to refer to the code words for a successful breach ?

2:17 "Now get these code words off by heart. Gonner is the code word for an explosion in the right place. Nigger is the code word for a breach in Möhne Dam and Dingy is the code word for a breach in the Eder" ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgePEO7GUtE

Patrick Byrne: 'See, I told you America's economy was busted'

doperative
Boffin

virtual shares ...

> With a short sale, you borrow shares from someone else and promptly sell them of .. Three days after the sale, when it’s time to actually deliver shares to the buyer, you fail to do so ..

I'm confused, what happens to the money you got from "selling" the shares. Isn't there a penalty for not delivering the shares, don't you deliver the money earned from the sale of the shares back to the buyer ?

IMF 'suspended' World Bank links following hack attack

doperative
Linux

desktop computer hack attack

> subsequent investigation established that a Fund desktop computer had been compromised and used to access some Fund systems ..

What Desktop Operating System did this computer run. Was it an Apple or Linux or some other unknown Operating System?

iCloud: Big step for content management, but not for the cloud

doperative
Linux

enhancing the apps experience

> The glaring feature of Apple's much-vaunted iCloud announcement? It doesn't have much to do with the cloud. At least, not in the usual Google sense of doing everything via the browser with no local storage or apps ..

> Google's Chromebooks are, in their purest form, little more than browser appliances with a layer of Linux underneath Chrome ..

Ubuntu running off a USB drive + Google docs would provide a similar experience with the apps running locally and the data stored online ...

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu

Red Hat's Oracle shot: The Unbreakable Database?

doperative
Alien

Red Hat's success built on Oracle?

> Much of Red Hat's success today was built on Oracle's early support for the Linux and middleware leader over the past decade ..

That would be news to me and I've been following the technology sector for too long to remember ...

A cloud hangs over the sysadmin

doperative
Alien

economies in the Cloud ..

re: Why the anti-Cloud bashing El Reg?, anon

> It seems the Reg it hell-bent on publishing as much FUD about the Cloud as possible

I don't think so, I see the opposite in fact, the REG has been talking up 'the Cloud'. Like a lot of newish things it risks being oversold. I do see a use for it as in it eliminates the need to maintain your own servers in some rack farms and as long as its got some kind of offline mode. If you got a server in multiple locations/continents then it eliminates the need to visit each one if they crash. You still need the technical competence to run your business process on top of that. It seems to me an ipad + the iCloud would eliminate the need for a company to maintain most of its current IT infrastructure, as long as the Cloud providers stopped promising 24+365 service.

It's also to do with economies of scale, as in the client gets access to big hardware at a reasonable price and the provider can spread the cost of the hardware across many hundreds/thousands end users and therefore make a reasonable return out of the Cloud.

For instance a global management consulting firm with over forty offices in twenty countries. The London office alone employees twelve IT staff. Maintaining the Windows desktops is a full time job. There's even a dedicated server connected to an ethernet socket on each desktop dedicated solely to reimaging Windows after the inevitable crash. Apart from that they spend most of their time restoring Exchange profiles that bork themselves for no discernable reason. Company data is available on virtual drives mapped to any desktop in any location. I think they spend over one fifth in outgoings on IT, that doesn't include salaries. Maybe they need to consult themselves on how to save money .. :)

Apple bars WinXP users from iCloud

doperative
Thumb Down

mod trolling

Would the total arse that repeatedly mods me down please get a life ..

doperative
Linux

iCloud and Linux?

> Apple will not give PC users access to iCloud .. if their machines are running .. Windows XP .. this means that almost half of all PC users will not be able to access iCloud.

What about Linux users or is this just a two pony contest ?

--

Did someone else own the iCloud moniker and recently sell it to Apple?

"Xcerion announced the launch of icloud, the world's first free online computer"

http://linux.sys-con.com/node/912496

`Xcerion provides CloudMe.com (formerly known as icloud.com), the worlds leading "Cloud OS" '

http://se.linkedin.com/in/danielarthursson

Phishers LAMP web hosts

doperative
Alien

flawed survey methodology

"Filter: YES RESPONSES ONLY"

Of those surveyed and knew they had been hacked and knew what OS they were running on, 270 gave a positive results. What was the percentage of non-respondents not running on LAMP that didn't know they had been hacked?

--

I love it, in the middle of the report is a hotlink to a PDF file :) If you need to be informed by some third party that your web server is hacked, then maybe you are in the wrong career ..

"(If you cannot rebuild or restore offline, do so online but behind a firewall)"

http://www.antiphishing.org/reports/APWG_WTD_HackedWebsite.pdf

Dear Ubuntu: The netbook is toast

doperative
Alien

Linux on a desktop?

@ShelLuser: Not going to happen in the current models... #

Posted Tuesday 7th June 2011 20:23 GMT

> Linux on a desktop? I don't see that happening unless they manage to change the support model somehow .. the current model I don't see it working for the average "John Doe".

Look it, I've been using the same portable Lubuntu distro since it came out and no one is forcing me to change. Linux on a desktop has already happened. All people have to do is download or get a copy off a magazine and try it out for themselves ..

doperative
Linux

article doesn't make sense

As always Matt Asay offers his own unique perspective on the tech industry. I can't say if I agree with or even understand most of his propositions.

"That's why Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and RIM are struggling to compete with Apple, while Canonical, MeeGo, and others are falling behind Google"

In your opening paragraph, you disect the market into "premium innovator" "mass-market commoditizer", yet have Microsoft competing against Apple in the "premium innovator" selection. If there ever was a "mass-market commoditizer" it was Microsoft. And why isn't Canonical not competing against Apple. in what particular sense is Canonical falling behind Google. What specific markets do they both compete or not compete in. The rest of your article, I can't make sense of ..

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/01/10-ubuntu-tablet-gets-priced-specd-and-demoed/

Entire London 2012 Olympics' cultural events database held on Excel

doperative
Alien

Excell Database

I guess Woodmansey only knows how to work Excell so he assumes that a) it'll do for a database and b) the hired on recruit is as un-knowledgeable on computing as he is ..

Reminds me of a minor political party who kept members details on a Word Mail Merge document ..

Cloud in 2011: A bright new dawn...

doperative
Boffin

re: Small Firms Need?

> A very large number of small firms in the UK are so small that even a server is an unnecessary expense.

A single instance virtual server would be useful for the smaller firm, if only for automated backup. Speaking from experience, you're dealing with people who can't remember to , once a day, swap a tape cartridge.

If you're running your business or connecting with your customers through the cloud, then these recent outages aren't a very good impression. They should rename it the Almost-Always-On-Cloud ..

Honda security breach exposes 283,000 customers

doperative
Alien

re: Why the delay, and why no uproar?

Honda sells motorbikes while Sony is a leading technology company ..

Desktop Linux: the final frontier

doperative
Alien

Embedded software developer and Ubuntu

> I think Linux is the best environment for working (I'm an embedded software developer), however I use windows at home, after using Ubuntu for three years .., diego

If even an embedded software developer can't get Ubuntu to work, what hope is there for the rest of us ..

"I'm really happy hacking all day long in a shell at work", diego .. ROFLMAO

You know something diego, you really had be going there for a minute, I really though you were being serious. What design tools do you use at your company apart from a shell? Are they any GUI tools out there for embedded design IDEs and verification tools?

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