Re: Wow!
A Taser device is perfectly safe, right until it destabilizies your cardiac conduction system and kills you.
When your family objects, you get litigated into homelessness.
Welcome to US justice.
2268 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Dec 2012
CallerID can be trivially spoofed.
While it wouldn't take much to intercept and block a spoof, the will to implement along with the associated cost is lacking in the US.
Let the buyer beware is the current guidance of this administration and many previous ones.
Leaving one to wait until crimes accumulate into the millions or utilizing a Rob Roy defence and paying for it when arrested, as authorities are "tough on crime".
Aka, Catch-22.
I say, pull the teeth, feed the hogs.
Javascript on the web is EVIL, NOT NECESSARY (use HTML5, CSS like a *REAL* developer), and RIFE with exploits, tracking, slurping, ad-targeting, yotta yotta.
And when HTML5 rendering is deficient in a specific browser, do what? The same with CSS implementation.
Security by obfuscation or removal of useful technology isn't the answer. Otherwise, we'd all go back to banging rocks together in the presence of flammable rubbish to start to begin to get warm in winter.
Demanding better security is one method, legislating fines for insecure software another, finding behavioural methods of detection a much better method, which was what was done here.
Well, there's flash...
Just to name one.
Then, move onto BHO's and accessory programs that are vulnerable.
One of the reasons I prefer to use a honeyclient and sniffer, to actually see what goes on behind the scenes.
I've dissected real world attacks that otherwise would've been complete mysteries. Some, using really old tricks, such as dumping binary data into a text editor that didn't test for text data, via a remote session link. Others, using some innovative and novel methods, which my employer and their overlords were quite keen on.
And given that I am from a Sicilian-American family, said routine would never be triggered.
Even after death, when fighting relatives descend to claim "inheritance".
Our children know better, I store my wealth in a specific mineral form of wealth - cobalt-60. Inherit at your own risk, as shielding gets sold off to cover estate taxes.
Cue the launch of a new AI-powered threat detection product...
Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of a new neural net guided counterattack system.
Had something similar, years ago, which had a slightly more disproportionate response pattern. Hit a threshold, start hammering back on a sliding scale beginning at 1/3 over the level of the attack. Escalating by orders of B channels, to give a hint of the era that that system was in place.
A neural net, with the appropriate model (I have a specific animal kingdom level in mind), wouldn't be that difficult, given VM capabilities available today.
"No, but as happened to a friend of mine last year, they will be pretty explicit that your redundancy pay (almost twelve months in his case), does depend on you training your replacements well."
Well, there is well, as in a reasonable person would consider it well and properly, which would require competence in the first place and absent that, it's a lost cause.
"Someone totted up how much space and weight they would have taken up, and its just over 1 ton."
Which was raw telemetry, lousy with noise and transcribed/converted to various media forms that instrumentation and humans could use, leaving it a ton of crap to find storage space for, likely to never be asked for again.
Since the data was available in every format known at the time.
How horrible of them to not demand the evacuation of a moderate sized city and retain each and every original recording medium, regardless of how wasteful of tax dollars that would be!
How about you build a time machine and volunteer to store all of that crap?
"Can't believe a fundamentally experimental album is still being talked about and apparently still selling well nearly fifty years after its release."
Well, there were those Beatles and a certain White Album I owned. Alas, the kids managed to get it stolen while I was away at some tiff in a certain Gulf...
But, for 'Eclipse', I was 10 or 11...
Now, knees are gone, back is gone and BTW, is it the memory or something else that goes first and what's the other thing?
"Why leftpondians call it a pound sign is just an indication of their strangeness."
Well, that bifurcation of language occurred because those on the right side of the pond entirely failed to properly document the shared language until the year after a tax protest spiraled out of control into treason, which out of desperate self-protection, turned into a revolution.
As in 1777, the language was finally documented, but those on the left side of the pond were embargoed and blockaded.
At least until a load of "wine" arrived from France - just in time, as the lefties were losing...
"My US keyboard "has" a pound sign, as Shift-3 is #, but Shift-4 is still $, and we don't have a "£" key, so I had to copy-paste it from your post."
There's a unicode for it, which I'm entirely too lazy to look up and alas, I failed to import the lookup script from my other computer as of yet. As it's nearly midnight, that's a tomorrow afternoon job.
"We do call £ "pound" and this weekend I had to tell someone about the pound/shilling/pence system, as he was wondering about the "weird 3 part prices" in his vintage catalog."
Then, the question arises, "What is a quid" and assorted other slang terms, which turns into an hour long question and answer session. Leaving production at Fanny Adams.
Yeah, never thought you'd hear that old expression from across the pond!
"What do US people call a real pound (currency) symbol?"
Most US citizens are astonishingly ignorant and call it a "funny L symbol". I call it a Pound (currency) symbol and get asked what nation uses that currency.
Seriously!
I think that the ancient Athenians had the right of it, denying the idios the vote.
"How about sitting in a classroom for 3 years learning out of date stuff (to mainly show you're not a quitter), then starting from the bottom and working your way up."
Well, doctors and attorneys do that every day. I did that in spades in selection in special forces.
None of the above prove that you are competent overall!
Meanwhile, I only sat through a class that was as you described. That, due to an injury that required me to learn a specifically specified standard. One that is as defunct as Windows 2000.
Whose test was infamously wrong in many areas.
I've done and certified under pretty much everything Microsoft from Windows 3.51 onward. Remember Windows NT, Service Pack 6, then the scrambled at fixes included in Service Pack 6a? I do recall it quite well.
Two clients moved back to NT3.51 over it.
"Well, a fair few do; there'll always be those folks who want to actually prove they know how to do the job, but they are getting increasingly rare these days."
Yes, I'm one of that vanishing breed. Alas, the reality does not meet your expectation.
Just today, I was asked to assist a coworker, who could not use his notebook's trackpad. It quit on him, he thought it defective.
Despite it being an HP device and a glaringly bright LED indicating that he had disabled the damned thing.
Double tapped it, explained nicely (due to his age) that he had a severe keyboard-mouse interface issue and departed.
While the user, due to the way that I worded things, will feel good, his supervisor, having heard my words knows that the user, despite being hired for a specific high level technical role, doesn't have a clue. I suspect he'll soon have to find a new position, perhaps, as a pizza delivery guy,
"People don’t want certifications and don’t want to do whiteboard coding and don’t want to do take-home assignments so what exactly do people want, to waltz into a job with a nod and a wink?"
Yep, in my case, that was precisely what happened. What the reality of it is is, I'm the most qualified person that the company has. I can diagnose AD issues after being kicked in the head by an angry horse. Not that I'm idiotic enough to put myself into the position of causing a horse to suffer such an injury.
Laughably, zero certifications that are germane. Annoyingly, the client requires specific certifications to operate at specific levels.
If memory serves, I do believe that Moses sat with me for my first certification.
Or was that some guy, who called himself Adam and had no family as of yet...
"My experience with Windows-minded colleagues is they are more inclined to memorize a list of letters and fill in a multiple guess test than to actually have skills tested, so I don't expect much from these new Azure certs."
My experience has been, two out of four responses are nonsense, two may or may not be a question of which one is least wrong - in the Microsoft manual version.
Not real life.
Hence, right clicking computer, selecting manage isn't an option in the idiotic things. One has to select the pathway the entire, long way.
Useful on a system one really is going to wipe and reimage, but a joke in the real world.
But, that data was insanely irreplaceable... Yet, entirely never backed up or copied to the server's storage array, which is SAN based.
Yeah, I've worked everything from Hell Desk through LAN/WAN, moved to information security. Now, wending my way back to more satisfying occupational activities, BOFH MK II.
" real cert would be a panel of three experts grilling the candidate for twenty minutes, or, for more practical things, a misconfigured server to correct and put in working order. Or sit the programmer in front of a computer and give him two hours to pound out the code to solve a given problem, then review the code. Bonus points if the program compiles and actually works."
Isn't that what a proper technical interview actually is? Oddly, for this gig, the technical interview was entirely omitted.
But, I've trivially identified the major problems in our environment. The management.
I'll have a solution to that problem next pub outing.
Signed,
BOFH MK II.
"I had to chuckle when I read this. I've done NT4 MCSE, MCITP:Ent 2K8R2' and am 1 exam away from 2K12 R2 MSCE. I just can't be bothered anymore..."
Yeah, know the feeling. Alas, I'm working doing contracting for the US DoD, who are cert happy. Despite Microsoft's pathetic and anemic offerings of most modern offerings. It appears that Microsoft switched from having engineers design the tests to the sales teams doing so. With predictable and pathetic results.
Still, due to my contract gig with the US DoD, I need a cert. So, after perusing lists of test questions and with open laughter, I'll not even bother to study. Indeed, I may well decide to get falling down drunk and pass that anemic test.
This, from the guy who, on day three at a new environment, successfully diagnosed a major AD replication failure that the AD team refused to acknowledge the existence of.
It seems that they permitted some pinhead to install a new DC onto a cheap network path to the entire domain, then after some time, permitted that pinhead to power button remove it, rather than demoting it and shutting it down.
End result, that specific DC had been elected replication roles that now no longer existed and AD in general had no clue that the absence of the former replication hub was now vacant.
All, with end user's access.
Once they read my e-mail, they attained a clue and removed another DC, which was to be upgraded anyway and was a replication partner with the absconded DC, forcing an election.
Bloody hell! I can't wait until the movers get my laser armed sharks here. And the purloined security robots.
Now, if only I could find the urinal electrification kit that I packed...
Moves, can't find a blasted thing!
Found a cricket bat, which is odd, as I never owned one before. But, can't find that damnable electrification kit or my Marmite. Found some Oxo, which is odd, as I'm fairly certain that was lost in our first move, two years ago. Found a foot, inside of a shoe marked Fanny Adams.
The latter, I posted to the UK embassy, anonymously, to avoid potential human rights issues.
Come to think of it, I am now convinced that that isn't my luggage.
Movers!
"You are supposed to check your blood sugar level before you start a journey, and at least every two hours during a journey."
Jesus fucking christ, yet another reason to avoid old blighty!
While my family line is type 2 diabetic, I'm one of the outliers in remaining non-diabetic. Keeping the weight down is what I suspect to be the cause of my success.
However, my wife is insulin dependent.
So, if assigned a mission critical posting in the UK, I say, I retire and let the bloody island sink.
"I wouldn't be calling insulin a drug, it is made by the human body..."
Nope, human insulin is made by the human body and one specific, genetically engineered e. coli species.
Insulin in general is made by many species and it is indeed, when prepared as such, a drug.
Once it is purified and prepared for usage as a medicine, it is indeed a drug and regulated as such. Which is a good thing, as it's then guaranteed to be pure, sterile and of guaranteed potency.
Which is good news for my insulin dependent wife.
"A video seemed to show a projection from the top of the vehicle that looked like a forward pointing cannon barrel."
Nope. The most the M577 and M113 carry as TC hatch ordinance is either a MK-19 for the M113 or .50 BMG machine gun for the M577 and all weapons are secured in the arms room after operations.
Although, the M113 can also carry a 120 mm mortar, it's a lot squatter than the command vehicle.
Additionally, a tank has armor, the M577 and M113 use around two inches of aluminum for armor. A .50 BMG round would punch right through and ask the occupants for change.
"So, why is this long line chase a sensible tactic?"
The sensible tactic is to stay out of his way and let him run out of fuel. They only get something like 4 - 5 miles per gallon of diesel for the M577 and M113. They're also slow, do around 40 MPH (although, I did get an M113 up to 60 MPH once, it was on a *really* long hill).
Oh, the armor is particularly weak as well. A couple of inches of aluminum is all.
But, comparing the price of letting him run out of fuel vs the rental of heavy construction equipment and having that equipment getting dented a little, cheaper to let him run out of fuel.
Then, wait for the heat to convince him to depart the metal box being heated by the sun.
He proceeded to blame an excess of doors in schools and promise an examination of the problem.
Apparently, he never heard the term emergency exit or of fire.
On the subject of licensing, that turns an enumerated right into an administratively denied privilege. So, the US states shan't be licensing firearms any time soon for that very reason.
But, firearms owners should be held responsible for failing to secure their firearms. All of mine are under lock and key.
Home defense is accomplished with quality locks, not a superior volume of fire. Defense from harmful vermin was with a single .22 LR rifle, as alligators and cottonmouths are both common in the area we're now moving away from. We'll be moving back to my home state, where the most dangerous thing about are black bears and mother in laws and only the latter being a truly dangerous creature.
Oddly, I had a very nice and adoring mother in law, who is now deceased.
Well, it's understandable that one lauded as an expert is just so clueless.
After all, it's not like FVEY have bothered to install middleware to fork microphone and camera data, to transmit via a covertly, network install applet, to their central monitoring software and it then transcribes everything said for automatic analysis.
That's a 21st century technology! We're nowhere near - oh, wait. We are in the 21st, we can and have that capability and use it constantly.
Once, as a secure US military installation, which was key in all current wartime communications, the technical control facility manager decided to take the building's UPS offline and go direct to mains power. The unit being active:active at all times. The reason was simple and necessary; replacing a room full of dead UPS batteries.
Regrettably, he only skimmed the instruction manual, didn't want to wait for the installation electrician and flipped the twisty switch.
The entire server all went down hard. When he put the switch right (he was one position off from the correct setting), one key rack didn't come online and remained dark.
At the time, this BOFH had been wearing the information assurance hat, but am an experienced BOFH and also a certified electronics technician in industrial automation and robotics. So, reading industrial electrical blueprints is ancient news to me.
"Where is the electrical blueprint?"
Spreads several blueprints out on the floor, kneeing, tossing the incorrect diagrams aside, I rapidly locate (paraphrased, to protect NDA information), "Ah! Circuit breaker 57A, in bank 12F. Where is it?"
Predictable look of confusion and consternation and disclaimers of such arcane knowledge.
A swift heel and toe express around the battery/UPS room located the breaker - conveniently located behind a one-off bank of several hundred batteries, seriously out of view and traffic. Sure as can be, the breaker was tripped.
There was one chance in three that I'd flip that breaker on my own authority, on a US military base, and worse, in wartime. Slim, fat and none.
"OK, here's the culprit. *I* am not going to touch the damned thing, it's way outside of my job responsibilities and I won't accept responsibility. So, it's your ball. Wait for the installation electrician or push it yourself and *you* take any resultant heat for hardware failure."
The manager considered, "It'll be two hours before the electrician gets here!" He switched the breaker off, then to on position. The rack lit up.
It took nearly 12 hours and a very upset COMSEC custodian, to restore all services. Each crypto device required rekeying, requiring the presence of said custodian to provide the appropriate USB (and other devices) keys.
Six months before, we had a similar outage, due to a blown transformer and the aforementioned room full of dead batteries. A room that was ignored, right until a US General couldn't use his telephone, due to the outage.
Suddenly, we had the budget to replace that which we had complained of twice weekly.
In the US, automobile insurance policies come in commercial and consumer packages.
Delivering packages for Walmart would be commercial activity and not covered under the automobile insurance package that Walmart employees barely can afford to pay.
That effectively renders those employees involved in an accident at the time of such commercial activity, legally not covered by insurance.
Which is mandatory in every state.
Where a US military installation, quite important for wartime communications, entirely lost power to critical communications center power for the entire bloody war, due to a single transformer and a dodgy building UPS, which was to keep everything operational for all of five minutes, in order to let standby generators come fully up to stable speed.
It turned out, due to the installation being in a friendly nation in the region, it had lower priority (odd, as US CENTCOM was HQ'd there). So, when the battery room full of batteries outlasted their lifetimes and failed and due to budgeting, was not funded for lifecycle replacement.
Until all war communications to the US failed. A month later, the batteries arrived by boat and then had to endure customs.
That all after correction of a lack of generator testing on a monthly basis, which management claimed was unheard of, but the technical control facility supervisors admitted to being a regular test that they had forgotten about and hence, managed to avoid being part of our monthly SOP.
That, being brought up by myself, the installation IASO, in a shocked outburst when told that the generator failed and was untested.
The gaffe in SOP was corrected.
To then fail again, due to a different transformer explosion from failure, due to a leak of coolant oil in the desert heat and a week previous flood, caused by a ruptured pipe.
Not a single one of us dreamed of water from the one inch pipe leaking onto the calcium carbonate layer directly beneath the sand flooding into the below ground diesel oil tank, displacing it and upon need, the generator getting fuel from the lines, then a fine drink of fresh water.
Yes, another change in SOP. Whenever there is a flood within X meters of a below ground generator fuel supply, test the generator again. The generator was tested the week before the leak, so was two weeks from the next test.
Boy, was my face red!
"What if I use my balls as the biometric?"
I had actually considered that. It'd have an added benefit that few blokes are about to stick that phone to their face after I identify in.
And maybe the cat won't lay on the bloody phone, like he does now.
We have precisely one Windows system in the house.
The POS from work. An HP EliteBook, with it's cracked NIC port, which isn't considered part of warranty and *why* HP won't be next year's vendor.
As for Microsoft, the only MS system in the house is the one from work. Although, I do keep one bootable under an obsolete version of Windows to patch assorted other systems that I'd rather throw into the trashcan.
First, there's that entire WSUS thingie that's free.
Creating a test group, trivial.
Been there, done that, created the damned program.
Add in SCCM and assorted other package management software, well, seriously. This is a management complacency issue.
Now, long fangs are hooked upon many, many, many management asses, not only UK, but throughout the EU.
Not only government. I work for a major corporation, derived from a Fortune 200 corporation.
This weekend, Saturday being my "Monday", I found major patching for this frigging vulnerability going on.
Back when I was IASO for a major US military installation, patches of the OS were delayed, at most, by 30 days.
Net result, due to equally anal retentive antivirus states, the 2008 cyberattack on the US DoD, which was centered on our area, failed.
Following best business practices also helped. A lot.
A tad of commonsense also helped.
Oddly, Microsoft sent out a patch for XP.
Good idea, as this rubish code belongs in a rubbish tip, not a fucking operating system. And to be honest, this shit code likely has existed since the US DoD bought the NT4 source code.
Blaming the NSA for doing what defense organizations do is idiotic, as they didn't write the shit code, Microsoft did and gave all six major vulnerabilities a free pass, for decades!
Do research how long the SMB1 stack has existed.
Hint: SMB1 is nearly as old as our children, who are in their mid-30's. It's nearly 30 years old.
We have one thing that's over 30, other than our children, our wedding bands. Everything else was either lost, destroyed in a move or damaged beyond repair in moving or normal life.
Or do we also need to get netbui fixed as well?
Yeah, I'm *that* old and a bit older.
Hint, the Queen of England sat 9 years on her throne before I was born, but my earliest memory, beyond a diaper pin jab, when I wriggled and understood what mom was warning me of, was JFK being shot to death.
This is a case of one complaining of a Model T Ford not running worth a damn on modern gasoline and worse, the valves hammering themselves to death.