* Posts by haloburn

58 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Oct 2011

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Don't shame idiots about their idiotically weak passwords

haloburn

Sorry. But isn’t the real issue that people are people and you can’t mandate a technical solution for human behaviour. Instead of berating people for using simple passwords or forcing them down the road of ultimately recording (usually on a post-it note) their complex password why not try providing them with a personal way they can create and remember their own complex password.

Ask them to create their own personal cypher. For example a three letter easy to remember word or name that means something to them. Let’s use “car” in this example to create a nine letter complex password.

Let’s break the nine characters down to a 4-2-3 code where the “c” in car is the first four characters and is the first four characters of the persons car registration with the first character always replaced with a $ i.e. $A65. The next two characters “a” are your current age 45. The final three characters “r” for revision are a lowercase letter for the month and the final two characters represent the year n17. So in this example the full complex password is $A6545n17. You would then change the sections as appropriate the next time you are asked to change the password – usually only the final three characters in this example.

The point is the cypher and how it is broken down and incremented should be the province of the person and be personal to them. It will be memorable to them as they should come up with their own little bit of James Bond style code that only they can break and it uses techniques that will help them remember their own complex password because they can always break their own code and will remember every password they would have used. This is of course assuming they don’t just use the example above or given to them to generate their passwords.

MPs blocked from ogling 'web smut' 300,000 times – while in Parliament

haloburn

Re: Really?

I highly suspect that the Web Filter is in fact a hosted solution possibly websense or some other GSX/PSN approved provider, which means that the likelyhood of false positives would be diminished. Be interested to know if this is the case.

haloburn

Really?

Are they really claiming that their Security is so lax that HOC PCs are riddled with Malware and other malicious software is producing false positives? Really, it’s like saying you couldn’t have wet the bed because you were too busy taking a dump on the carpet at the time.

Run for your (private) lives! Facebook's creepy Graph Search is upon us

haloburn

I didn’t read it that way, to me the journalist is talking about parents fear that “perverts” may be stalking their children online. To me this is just reporting the concerns raised in the original article, it’s clear to me that the reporter wasn’t calling anyone a pervert or using the term for sensationalist purposes. If the reporter was discussing folk with Coulrophobia and that they were “afraid of clowns” would you read the term “clowns” as an emotionally charged example of poor journalism? Would the journalist be calling anyone a clown or simply explaining that people have a fear of them?

haloburn

Not following, why?

Fifty, fired and fretful: Three chaps stare down CAREER MORTALITY

haloburn
Mushroom

Don’t be counting on a cushy redundancy package if you happen to be a long term member of staff they want rid of. There has been a recent surge in performance management processes being introduced to specifically force a managed exit for staff to expensive to give a large redundancy package to get rid of.

Al Gore: Stop using the atmosphere as 'an open sewer

haloburn
FAIL

Didn't....

Al Gore’s family fortune come from farming tobacco? Hypocrite, much?

Nicked unencrypted PC with 6,000 bank details lands council fat fine

haloburn

Re: I did not cost the council one penny

This probably was not due to incompetent IT staff. Council’s and public bodies have an obligation to follow the GSX code of connection for access to the Public Services Intranet. One of the stipulations is that they must encrypt all mobile devices and removable storage. However there is a mindset that goes “no one else (other Councils) pay any attention to this so we won’t either”. Until the ICO and Cabinet Office start to conduct unannounced ITC audits individual Councils are going to continue to disregard or interpret the rules and regulations as they see fit.

Warming: 6°C unlikely, 2°C nearly certain

haloburn
FAIL

Re: Can I have my money back now please?

@nomnomnom and you would now have us take the opinion that Dr James Hansen has nothing to do with the IPCC. You sir need to take a long lie to a dark room.

haloburn

Re: Can I have my money back now please?

@nomnomnom

Good God 2100 was the long term forecast!

Hansen testified:

"Business-as-Usual fossil fuel use will lead to global warming of at least 5°C by 2100."

http://www.eesi.org/files/hansen_climate_testimony_06.pdf

If Hansen aint good enough then what about the IEA in 2011 who said

"We cannot afford to delay further action to tackle climate change if the long-term target of

limiting the global average temperature increase to 2°C, as analysed in the 450 Scenario, is

to be achieved at reasonable cost. In the New Policies Scenario, the world is on a trajectory

that results in a level of emissions consistent with a long-term average temperature increase

of more than 3.5°C. Without these new policies, we are on an even more dangerous track,"

for a temperature increase of 6°C or more."

http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/media/weowebsite/2011/executive_summary.pdf

Look at the press quotes for this:

http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/pressmedia/quotes/18/index.html

i.e.

"The chief economist for the International Energy Agency said Monday that current global energy consumption levels put the Earth on a trajectory to warm by 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by 2100, an outcome he called “a catastrophe for all of us.” "

Reported on climate progress here:

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/11/09/364895/iea-global-warming-delaying-action-is-a-false-economy/

It has been mentioned before 2°C was the safe limit it’s now the new doomsday but only because the higher projected figures are now untenable.

haloburn

Re: [Citation needed]

I did several posts back, keep up.

haloburn

Re: Can I have my money back now please?

@nomnomnom

How exactly am I revising history?

From Hansen 2007 "this implies a ‘long-term’ climate sensitivity of ~1.5 W/m2 or

about 6°C for doubled CO2."

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2007/EastWest_20070925.pdf

Spouting a cottage industry of green 6 degrees bogeymen:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Six-Degrees-Future-Hotter-Planet/dp/0007209053

You only have to google "Hansen 6 degrees warming"

haloburn
Stop

Re: Can I have my money back now please?

We were told in no uncertain terms that the forecasts were for at least 6 degrees of warming due to man made CO2 emission, now it’s revised to 2 degrees by 2100. Why? Because the estimates for climate sensitivity were over calculated, this then fuelled a political green assault on taxpayers. The current literature is dialling back on the propertied climate sensitivity figure as observational data (not the Mickey Mouse modelled output) comes in. For years a small number of people have had valid concerns that CO2 sensitivity was not right and been shouted down or marginalised, we have even had people calling for “deniers” to face war crimes style Nuremberg courts or our children blown up ala 10:10. This report is a climb down and an attempt to keep the gravy train going with 2 degrees being the new scary doomsday figure.

haloburn

Re: Can I have my money back now please?

Jetstream has sweet FA to do with global warming

haloburn

Can I have my money back now please?

Seriously, can we now at last admit the science was not "settled" and start removing the subsidy driven green Taliban from public expenditure and domestic energy bills. I'll wait for my rebate.

'Catastrophic failure' of 3D-printed gun in Oz Police test

haloburn

Some people are worried that these will be used on planes, when did shell casings become plastic? I’ll be worried when you can print your own bullets to go with the guns. Come to mention it, why not just let people have the guns they want and regulate bullets and their sales.

Climate change forces women into prostitution - US politicians

haloburn
Thumb Up

On the upside.

They can always attribute the rise in empoyment figures to green jobs created and the outlook for jobs as p!mps just got a boost.

Smart metering will disrupt weather forecasts, warns Met Office

haloburn

Re: Rationing, rebranded.

It's dead simple they are going to help you save on your electricity by turning it off for you at times of peak demand. What they are not saying is who is on the "never turn off" list or how the electricty firms will brand plans with subscriptions that include a price to keep your lights on while your neighbours have theirs turned off. Wait a few years and see legislation that turns off electricity at peak times for those on benefits or are deemed to be anti-social. Yeah you can benifit from lower prices if you arn't going to pay the price for having an always on supply, i'd buy shares in a candle company.

Movie, TV ads annoying? You ain't seen nothin' yet

haloburn

Re: Everything an actor does or uses becomes an Advert

Also if anyone has seen the film "get shorty" you will probably have noticed that there isn't a sequence in the movie that doesn't involve characters lighting up, seriously it's constant.

check http://www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/problem/brand_id.html

haloburn

Re: Everything an actor does or uses becomes an Advert

Come to mention it I always thought tobacco companies were getting past the advertising restrictions by funding films and TV shows that show actors smoking to make it cool. Wouldn’t this make smoking in films and on TV be classed as advertising and product placement and come under the advertising regulations?

haloburn

Everything an actor does or uses becomes an Advert

And would therefore make all actions have to adhere to advertising regulations

haloburn

Re: Coming soon...

Sky and Virgin will probably charge you not to have it

World+Dog don't care about climate change, never have done

haloburn
FAIL

Re: Australia used to care.

I thought you're last government got in by promising not to introduce the carbon tax, which was the first thing they did.

Climate scientists link global warming to extreme weather

haloburn

Re: Cooling!

Actually NOAA say 2012 was the warmest la nina year on record but that's nit picking. I understand that the STOC reports that NOAA produce as where these hottest year on record reports come from, however they announce the record breaking temerature to much trumpeting and later on adjuct the temperature for that year down "in light of all the data being processed". It's very easy to then have constant record breaking years if the previous records have been "adjusted" down.

haloburn

Assumptions

Ok the article says that they tested their assumptions going back 30 years in the data.

But let’s wind back a little and check out the untested assumptions here which seem to be as far as I can tell:

1. Climate is changing because of rising man made global warming due to CO2.

2. Weather is more extreme now than ever before. (not buying this for a second)

3. Point 2 is due to point 1.

Looking forward to the evidence they use to validate these points although I don’t expect to hear much more than something along the lines of “98% of climate activists say it’s happening” so our assumptions are totally validated.

BBC: What YOU spent on our lawyers in Secret Climate 28 debacle

haloburn
WTF?

Sir Jimmy would be proud

The BBC, paid to keep important information from the people who pay for it in the first place.

'Gaia' Lovelock: Wind turbines 'may become like Easter Island statues'

haloburn
Mushroom

They won't last long enough to become monuments, one gust of high wind and they blow down - that is when they are not exploding over school playgrounds.

Boffins baffled over pulsar with 'split personality'

haloburn
Alien

Re: Some

Power source for a type 3 civilisation

BEST reiterates ‘no solar forcing’ claim

haloburn
Thumb Down

Vanity Press

or vanity peer review

Climate watch: 2012 figures confirm global warming still stalled

haloburn
FAIL

Re: Here's a thought

About as much as I can find to back up your claim is this:

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/01/10/hottest-year-ever-skeptics-question-revisions-to-climate-data/

Not really a solid rebuttle at all, perhaps you could provide a better source.

haloburn

Re: Here's a thought

I know the source is not liked by a lot of folk but this post suggests with evidence that NOAA's State of the Climate reports (STOC) that publish claims of "hottest day/year/month" on record are later adjusted down after being reported. It's easy to keep having records if you keep adjusting the previous "record" down.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/06/does-noaas-national-climatic-data-center-ncdc-keep-two-separate-sets-of-climate-books-for-the-usa/#more-76965

haloburn

Here's a thought

Perhaps the warming of the two decades prior to 1998 was just natural variation and we all got carried away, incidentally has anyone taken a critical look at the record breaking temperature claims what they are based on and if the record temperature remains the same from year to year in the records?

Hyperspeed travel looks wrong: Leicester students

haloburn
FAIL

Seriously, the millennium Falcon is inside a deflector bubble when it travels the stars appear the way they do because of the relative conditions inside the bubble vs those outside the bubble. They have to go and do their homework on how stars would appear travelling at light speed through a deflector field that keeps the object inside the bubble at relative normal.

/sarc off

lol

Frack me! UK shale gas bonanza 'bigger than North Sea oil'

haloburn

Re: 0.5 on the Richter scale?!

And the UK shale deposits are much deeper (more than a mile) compared to the USA. I'd dig deep to start and frack low down that way it wouldn't be detected at the surface. Do that until the full financial benifits of domestic gas exclude any option of a reversal of policy. Everyone's a winner and pensioners everywhere can keep warm in winter.

Global warming still stalled since 1998, WMO Doha figures show

haloburn

Re: Maybe Climate Scientists should STFU and admit they know nothing and over stated it

I didn't say CO2 concentrations I said greenhouse effect

haloburn

Re: Maybe Climate Scientists should STFU and admit they know nothing and over stated it

Well the figure of 0.117% comes from here table 4a here:

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/greenhouse_data.html

Based on concentrations (ppb) adjusted for heat retention characteristics

% of Greenhouse Effect % Natural % Man-made

Water vapor 95.000% 94.999% 0.001%

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) 3.618% 3.502% 0.117%

Methane (CH4) 0.360% 0.294% 0.066%

Nitrous Oxide (N2O) 0.950% 0.903% 0.047%

Misc. gases ( CFC's, etc.) 0.072% 0.025% 0.047%

Perhaps the 20% figure comes from total CO2 if you exclude water vapour

haloburn

Re: Maybe Climate Scientists should STFU and admit they know nothing and over stated it

You’re probably not going to get the MMCC crowd to debate on it at all, best you will get is links to sceptical science or real climate or worse guardian articles that somehow prove their point nuff said.

It particularly galls me that for the whole MMCC theory to hold water they have not convincingly explained how CO2 accounting for a little over 3.6% of the greenhouse effect is driven catastrophically by the 0.117% CO2 that is the man made element, the other 3.5% comes from natural sources.

haloburn

Maybe Climate Scientists should STFU and admit they know nothing and over stated it

remember this classic from 2000:

"However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".

"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said"

It's snowing here this morning.

haloburn

Sing along

I could wile away the hours

Conferrin' in the comments

Consultin' on the weather

And my head I'd be scratchin'

While my plots were busy hatchin'

If I only had a brain

I'd divert any riddle

For any individ'le

if they can't refrain

lol we all need a good straw man argument to divert away from the conversation

haloburn

If the straw man only had a brain lol

haloburn

Oh come on. Skeptical Science. Just not a credible source on anything, they blew their credability when they started editing past comments and articles on the fly without telling anyone until they got found out.

haloburn

Re: Statistical Fluke

It's just as likely the whole global warming, climate change or whatever they are calling it these days is based on a statistical fluke. Or possibly statistical malarky I mean have you looked at Dr Mann's hocky stick statistical processes?

haloburn

Weather is Weather, my understanding is that the Jetsream is South of where it normally sits - nothing to do with climate change. At the start of the year we were told we were in for record droughts due to man made climate change what happened? Record flooding due to (you guessed it) man made climate change!

You climatephiles really get your rocks off blaming any fart or whisper on catastrophic man made climate change.

haloburn

Re: Stalled? I don't think so!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha, honestly Skeptical Science, oh my sides, lol.

Folks you better read it before SS go and change the article to read something else and edit the comments to make it look like they that's what they were saying all along. You might get confused though by what appear to be suddenly out of context critical comments.

Thanks for the chortle. You were kidding right?

Nobody knows what to call Microsoft's ex-Metro UI

haloburn
Alert

Widneys

Considering that it’s a cross between Windows 98 and Android they should adopt Android naming conventions, Windows Brown Fudge Dribble or go for a Glasgow slang alternative Widneys (Widney – Wouldn’t in Glasgow slang) “I widney install that if I were you”

Siemens expected to announce job cuts, closures

haloburn
Thumb Up

Re: My heart bleeds

Yeah have to agree with itzman

Climate change threatens to SHRINK FISH AND CHIP SUPPERS

haloburn
Stop

Outlook for pisces not so good.....

Actually it should be criminal to report the projection of computer models as if they were an established fact, either that or get in the Astrology column where it belongs. Mystic Meg could become a lead author for the next IPCC report.

Arctic ice shrinks to ‘smallest in satellite era’ - NASA

haloburn

Re: Big Storm

The Satellite's in question don't work that well measuring broken up ice due to the storm, the ice is always thinner in Summer and it is only a 30 year record.

This big headline story is the equivelent of claiming that the recent flooding in Yorkshire was caused by rising sea levels and you would have to be a conspiracy nut to make any connection to the North Atlantic jet stream and rainfall.

haloburn
FAIL

Big Storm

No mention of the storm that hit the area and contributed by breaking up the surface ice?

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