* Posts by GrumpyOldMan

205 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Apr 2013

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It's 2019 and a WhatsApp call can hack a phone: Zero-day exploit infects mobes with spyware

GrumpyOldMan

Well well....

Whilst reading this article and thinking that I'm so glad I have nothing to do with Fartbook or WhatsApp when I got a text on my crappy old emergency use only mobile. It said: "Check out WhatsApp. I use it to message and call the people I care about. Get it for free at ..." Well is that a coincidence? I wonder.

Lockheed, USAF hold breath as F-35 pilots report hypoxia

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Why slight the Tiger Moth?

if its a nice day why not have the cabin open? Wind in the hair, bugs up your nose....

Who will save us from voice recog foolery from scumbags? Magnetometer!

GrumpyOldMan

time for....

30-something-factor authentication?

All finger prints, toe prints, both palm prints, both foot-prints, 2 retina scans, voiceprint, password, security questions, pass-code to your email, passcode to your phone.

Maybe a bit more?

Microsoft totters from time machine clutching Windows 10 Workstation

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Yet another version?

I seem to remember that in W2000 the limit was in the TCP connections - only 2 for Pro and 10 for Server, unless you bought CAL$.

Internet of snitches: Anyone who can sniff 'Thing' traffic knows what you're doing

GrumpyOldMan

Refused one on Saturday

I had a very 'lively and interesting' discussion with a bloke in town flogging Smartmeters on Saturday. Wifey walked off in embarasment, but the sales guy had no clue what he was talking about and was adamant that they are secure. Adamant I tell you! I think I drew a small crowd but he was talking rubbish.

GrumpyOldMan

Re: 'Casing a house / No burglar is sniffing IP traffic'

They will just because they can. And to monetise it before someone else gets there first.

El Reg straps on the Huawei Watch 2

GrumpyOldMan

Nah

I don't give a rats. I won't be buying one.

If I miss a call, oh well. The world will still turn. I'll call them back. When I can be bothered.

I have a watch that tells the time.

My phone has GPS if I need it. But for the last 55 years I haven't needed one so why do I 'NEED' one now?

Google wants to track your phone and credit card through meatspace

GrumpyOldMan

Encryption??

"To accomplish this, we developed a new, custom encryption technology that ensures users' data remains private, secure, and anonymous," claims Google.

Not in May's post-Brexit Blighty you won't chaps. Unless you've backdoored it!

So does that mean my Blackberry Z10 that I've had since it's launch with the new update that gives me gov't level encryption will be illegal?

UK ministers to push anti-encryption laws after election

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Liberty for temporary safety

Except Corbyn wants to bannish Umbrella companies and he hates contractors with a passion. I have no idea who to vote for tbh. They're all pants. Might even go UKIP if they have anything interesting. Is Screaming Lord Sutch still about?

The tories will kill any investment in the UK with this. What foreign company in their right mind would come here with a ban on encryption? Taxes can be as low as you like but no security? Forget it.

Windows 10: Triumphs and tragedies from Microsoft Build

GrumpyOldMan

Don't care

I'm becoming more and more disillusined with Windows. I miss Windows 2000. Simple, rock solid, clean. Never missed a beat, no poncy fancy gimmicks or gizmos, a workhorse OS. I'm still on W7 and will damn well stay that was untill I have to run it on a vm to keep it secure off a Linux base OS and behind a virtual firewall appliance. I refuse to have 10 on _my_ hardware.

Travel IT biz reportedly testing 100TB SSDs

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Cost

More than I can offord, sadly.

GrumpyOldMan

Bung a backplane across the rack with ludicrous bandwidth and you won't need a switch. As used in blade chassis today.

Facebook is abusive. It's time to divorce it

GrumpyOldMan

Sorry - saw this coming

I'm a cynic and suspicious git by nature and saw this coming. I never got started on Farcebook and gave up on Twatter years ago.

Well, hot-diggity-damn, BlackBerry's KEYone is one hell of a comeback

GrumpyOldMan

Re: @ Shogunate:Hyped up nonsense...

Its called touch typing. They were doing it on typeriters when they were invented.

Wifey in her 50's has been doing it since she was at school. Her party trick is to hold 2 conversations at the same time, looking at both parties and not the screen, and still type with 100% accuracy at stupid fast wpm. She still maintains the DOS version of WordPerfect was THE best word processor by a mile, btw. Says it knocks the stuffing out of Word. Even today.

And she has a BB Classic and says its the best phone she's ever owned. And I still love my Z10 I bought 2 days after release.

Script kiddies pwn 1000s of Windows boxes using leaked NSA hack tools

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Windows on the open internet

Sorry -

<OT> But Wikipedia is THE found of all wisdom! Did you not know? Its all 100% correct because 'they wouldn't allow it to be seen otherwise' (daughter's argument). My wife bought a riding book recently that uses a medical illustration from Wikipedia and gives the link to the source - I was aghast! From what I've seem most of it is wrong.

</OT>

Ambient light sensors can steal data, says security researcher

GrumpyOldMan

If this comes in...

I'm going back to me old Nokia brick. Stuff smart fones. Getting a bit too smart if you ask me.

vCenter's phone-home 'customer improvement' feature opened remote code execution hole

GrumpyOldMan
Facepalm

Never ever opt in.

I never ever ever opt in to these things. I don't trust them.

Put down your coffee and admire the sheer amount of data Windows 10 Creators Update will slurp from your PC

GrumpyOldMan

Re: I am certain Microsoft have a reasonable understanding of how you feel

Thay already have with Windows 7. Beacon and Shutup10 turn it off. I hope...

Spotted: Bizarre SpaceX rocket-snatching machine that looks like it belongs on Robot Wars

GrumpyOldMan

Or a wooly hat version for teens and 20-somethings

GrumpyOldMan

Wow! In different colours! No Green though. Some sites need green for noobs to site.

GrumpyOldMan

Or maybe something else entirely...

Could Elon Musk be planning an entry for Robot Wars... ? Now THAT would be interesting.

Why do GUIs jump around like a demented terrier while starting up? Am I on my own?

GrumpyOldMan

Re: You hit it Dabbsy

Just posted about flat. I HATE flat. Have an upvote.

GrumpyOldMan

Ah GEM - takes me back...

I still have a GEM install on a decrepid old disk somewhere. Weekend lab project coming on. Wonder if it'll run in VMware Workstation or on ESXi... where there's a will... and a crowbar

Dabbsy - have a pint on me. Thought it was just me. I so identify with your plight. It drives me insane. Insane I tell you!!

Modern GUI design seems to be a bizare form of modern art. No other explanation. Especially the bland flat featureless garbage they are forcing on us that prodices eye-strain. Or is it just me?

Progress bar - otherwise known as the Windows Lie-bar.

I too have often done as many people here - load Google, start typing and ... nothing in the search bar! Or you end up typing in the address bar. Or a work group Skype convo that suddenly becomes aware that you are searching for slippers on Amazon, or browsing El Reg. Not that I'm ashamed of that, btw.

My wife often sticks her head into the study to see what the shouting, banging and commotion is and to rescue the family PC. And then she'll go and have same screaming fit at her work Windows 10 laptop for similar reasons. That and - well, Windows 10.

Ahhhh - technology. Doncha just LOVE it?

I hate computers really.

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Pet hate

Mine too. Have a couple of upvotes sir! Was swaering at it this morning for just that.

1.37bn records from somewhere to leak on Monday

GrumpyOldMan

Re: My money's on Facebook

hmmm.... my teenage kids spring to mind

Zuckerberg thinks he's cyber-Jesus – and publishes a 6,000-word world-saving manifesto

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Dear Mark

A new vision of a world based on openess and empowerment, not secret slurping and spying.

Its not secret. We all know he's doing it.

GrumpyOldMan

Fund raising... ?

"A few years ago, after an earthquake in Nepal, the Facebook community raised $15 million to help people recover and rebuild – which was the largest crowdfunded relief effort in history."

In April 2015 - when the earthquake hit - $15M = £10.031710M. In 2015 on one small island nation off the coast of Europe a comedy TV program run by a charity called Comic Relief raised £78m. In one day. When all the money was gathered in the days and months that followed it totaled out at just over £104M.

If all Zuck and FB can manage - Globally - is 10% of that....

Just saying. Not saying its not good that FB raised that amount, but if 70% or whatever it is of the global population use it... ZB probably has that in loose change in his pocket.

I am immensely proud of how generous the British people can be.

Talk of tech innovation is bullsh*t. Shut up and get the work done – says Linus Torvalds

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Or, in the vernacular ...

er.... I think you'll find its actually a reference to a very old card game or 10. One suit trumps another, the Ace trumps everything and so on, nothing to do with any individual. And since I were a wee lad in the 60's, trumping is a reference to farting. And Trumpton was one of my favorite shows..

Top cop: Strap Wi-Fi jammers to teen web crims as punishment

GrumpyOldMan

Perfect Solution!

Cut internet access for my daughters they'd think the Apocalypse had arrived! They live in a 3" LCD world. You should hear the fuss when I simply reboot the WiFi router! If they'd been bad enough for a jammer they wouldn't do it again!

Nuclear power station sensors are literally shouting their readings at each other

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Monitoring, not Control

This is the nuclear industry. They don't just plug any old thing into their systems and cross their fingers. They test. Then test more. And again. And again and again and again... etc. Having worked in control systems for some years including oil and gas - which is pretty testy at times as well - they take it to a whole new level. And as @dervheid has observed, it's monitoring not control, and everything is redundant. Minimum. And I do mean everything.

Actually I agree with the 1st poster - it's an elegant solution.

US cops seek Amazon Echo data for murder inquiry

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Interesting...

Said this when they very first came out. Its the Samsung Smart TV saga all over again. A set of mics in your home on 24/7?

Why does Skype only show me from the chin down?

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Cable degradation

Oohhh - the stories I could tell about Cable and Clueless! Or Cable and Useless and they became known....

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Coaxial network cable

I had a T-piece Tree on my desk as an ornament for years. Hours of pointless fun re-configuring it.

Drops the mic... Hang on, hackers could be listening through my headphones?

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Odd

Yeah - we did the same - was just thinking that.

Microsoft, Slack et al will 'laugh their asses off' at IBM's biz messaging tool

GrumpyOldMan

We've just started using Teams at work - surely it can't be any worse than that! I also use Slack. Clean, simple, easy to use. I know which one I prefer by a mile!

Security bods find Android phoning home. Home being China

GrumpyOldMan

And I constantly get shouted at for mistrusting and refusing to use Android.

Dell EMC cranks Xeon servers into ludicrous mode with Tesla GPUs

GrumpyOldMan

Thats all very well...

But does it have an Insane mode?

Google's hardware extravaganza: Ad giant takes on Sonos, Roku, Linksys, Amazon, Oculus... you name it

GrumpyOldMan

Re: A second problem with the multi-account thing is...

And I thought it was just me.

Remember not so long ago when Samsung smart TVs were found to be listening in on all conversations by default? Then we found they were almost all at it. 'To improve speech recognition'. Yeah - right.

My beef with Echo and now this is what else will they be listening in on? and then what goes it take for GCHQ or the NSA to patch int o them? Nope - sorry - I'm with the AC on this one. Big firewall. Or maybe 2 with bastion host? Or more... where does it end? Do they need to know when I have a c**p or have a drink of water so they can sell me 'A new method of drinking water' or 'super duper clean water'? The human race has got along fine without in-your-face advertising for the last few millennia... and I DO NOT want my fridge or dishwasher or toaster blasting me with ads first thing in the morning. Thanks.

Privacy has now gone way beyond the 'if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear' brigade and into intensively intrusive targeted advertising. And there's all kinds of interesting stuff they can learn about you...

Top interview: Dr Patrick McCarthy – boss of the world's future largest optical telescope

GrumpyOldMan

if they can't get tallent....

Damn - I'll come work for you! I LOVE stuff like that. If I had my time again I'd be a scientist.

Ludicrous Patent of the Week: Rectangles on a computer screen

GrumpyOldMan

Hope they have deep pockets

Remember when Microsoft tried to copyright the word 'Windows'?

If these guys start going after Apple and MS, not forgetting IBM, Novel (they still around?), Oracle, and lets face it - pretty much anyone who has had / does have / will have rectangles arranged on a screen like that for infringement they better have deep pockets or they may well find themselves bankrupted very very quickly. There are some pretty big guns out there who won't play nice.

Cue the round / eliptical windows.

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Rounded corners

Seem to remember them in Windies XP as well.

Sage advice: Avoid the Windows 10 Anniversary Update – it knackers our accounting app

GrumpyOldMan

Just to add fuel...

I hate W10. I really do. But I try to not let my abhorrence and dislike of the abysmal mess affect the rest of my household. But yesterday wifey finally got her new work laptop onto the network only to discover that the W7 she knows and loves has been replaced by W10, and it took her hours longer to do her normal work and spent the afternoon shouting and yelling at it. Now wants to revert back to W7 badly.

Plusnet outage leaves customers unable to stream Netflix. Horrors!

GrumpyOldMan

Well once again I've not experienced any issues with my PN service except when youngest daughter uses Spotify to hog the bandwidth or Wifey wants to watch the episode of Strictly she missed.

‘Penultimate’ BlackBerry seen on 'do not publish' page as fire sale begins

GrumpyOldMan

My Z10 still going strong from launch 4 years ago. Don't like Android, WinPhone - same as W10 - not even going to do there. So going for a Passport. Just for kicks. BB10 is a great OS - just because they have a small (niche) market share and crap advertising from vendors - not even put on display in fone shops (so in what way does that give customers a choice?) does not mean is is a bad phone.

Lenovo denies claims it plotted with Microsoft to block Linux installs

GrumpyOldMan

Re: I just got...

I don't like giving negative reviews on anything. But have a W540 I bought 3 years ago. Not cheap. Only because it was the only laptop at the time that would take 32GB, and I do a lot of virtual workload stuff in VMW Workstation - nested ESXi labs and so on, and I'm also a photographer so I run Lightroom so that runs really nicely and got the Pantone screen calibrator installed on it. Got it with Windows 7 Pro - didn't want it infected with the abomination that is W8. As for W10...... lets not even go there.

Its ok - still works ok - typing this on it, build quality is not on par with HP or Dell by some margin. However, the biggest issue for me was that they custom build - like Dell - but in China. I'd ordered a 2nd 1TB drive instead of a CD. When it eventually arrived after 2 months (really) of delays the caddy was loose and the 1TB drive not being seen or recognised. On inspection the caddy was too big for the drive, so the drive was loose and flapping about inside. I could remove the drive very easily by hand as it was not fixed in or retained at all. So according to the tracking info it went like that from the factory to Beijing - the width of China -> Dubai -> Ireland -> Mainland UK -> DHL -> me. And the box was badly damaged on one corner.

I contacted Lenovo with photos and a video, who fobbed me off with some crap I can't remember - so I posted photos of it on their forum. The 'locking mechanism' was so flimsy it nearly broke just opening it. Which I didn't need to do anyway to get the drive out. I had to put a 1/2" block of foam in there to stop the drive moving around and bought a solid, 3rd party alluminium caddy from our AMZ friends across the pond with proper locking screws in it for £7 delivered. Works a treat.

I won't buy Lenovo again. Not that impressed.

As it goes - I run a Mint VM that runs faster than W7 and have no problem accessing any web sites. Govt or otherwise.

Two Sundays wrecked by boss who couldn't use a calendar

GrumpyOldMan
Facepalm

Re: Thank Bibulous it's Friday

Hi - Grammar Police here.

Is that Billious source and in Open Source - or did you mean Sauce - as in a condiment or component of a meal?

FFS people!! Get your spelling right! Even if it is Friday!

Ye Gods!

GrumpyOldMan

Re: At least make sure your contract include TOIL

Commitment works both ways. I'd expect a boss to be committed to his staff and the company to be committed to their staff as much as the other way round.

SKYPE has the HOTS for my NAKED WIFE

GrumpyOldMan

Cover the cam

I use a c-slide on ALL my laptops / kids laptops / wifeys laptop and their peel-off covers on the mobes. I insist on it. Have you never heard of RATs?

Blink and you missed it: Asteroid came within 90,000 km, only one sky-watcher saw it

GrumpyOldMan

Re: Distance fropm the sun

I'm tilted a bit more than 5.65° relative to Earth's orbit - especially after a few pints, an eccentricity of way more than 0.21.

Your wget is broken and should DIE, dev tells Microsoft

GrumpyOldMan

Reminds me of a very very old joke from the 90's...

How many Bill Gates does it take to change a lightbulb?

None - he just redefines 'Dark' as a new standard.

So - 2 new 'Standards' coming up then ...

(Note - there's an alternative answer: One - he holds the bulb and the world turns around him)

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