* Posts by Destroy All Monsters

16005 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008

MH370 airliner MYSTERY: The El Reg Pub/Dinner-party Guide

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Re: Different theory

Go on....

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Well, no. It was pretty immediately clear what happened to KAL 007 although there was never clarification about why the pilot set the autopilot so that the plane crossed soviet military territory and no-one in the cockpit realized that the sun not being where it should be supposed to be (i.e. over the horizon) meant they were off course.

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WTF?

Re: Another interesting hypothesis

Due to the cost of parking at an international airport most in service airliners spend more time airborne than on the ground.

It's also a good strategy to avoid the meteorites that periodically hit airports.

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Facepalm

Re: What now?

Absolute real-time GPS tracking of -every- commercial airplane everywhere on the planet. Period.

Step up with your tax dollars, gramps.

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Re: Obviously

"now, don't you dare threaten to dump our treasuries again"

3.5 tonnes of Gold?

Yeah, that's gonna be comporable to the multi-trillion unredeemable debt crater that must NEVER EVER be though of as unredeemable.

But not that Saudis hold more of these.

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FAIL

Re: Question

"Most obvious one first, pilot and co-pilot should have different religions."

30 years war IN THE COCKPIT!

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Re: Afghanistan is under heavy US military aerial radar

Who knows what lengths the US would go to to get at him.

You would be able to express them in nautical miles.

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Thumb Down

Re: Accident or Malicious?

"Religion knows no logic, and this is by far and a way the simplest answer."

Intredasting.jpg

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Holmes

Naturally, Iran is claiming that the evidence against them is a conspiracy by 'Zionists'.

Well, Robert Fisk always claimed that Pan Am was actually payback for the massacre of that Iranian airbus by "Robocruiser" aka. USS Vincennes, an act rewarded by "medals of courage" instead of immediate shitcanning of the whole crew, so I guess why not.

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Re: From the horse's mouth...

Stanislaw Lem - The Conditioned Reflex

Pirx dashed out into the corridor. Quick—outside! Get your ass into the pressure chamber! He got as far as the airtight door; as he was racing past the kitchen, something black against white had caught his eye. The photographic plates! They were lying right where he had dropped them in all the panic over his partner’s sudden disappearance…

He stood before the chamber door, too dumbfounded to move.

The whole thing was like a replay, a repeat performance. Langner cuts out in the middle of making supper, I take off after him, and—neither of us comes back. The hatch will be open… In a few hours the Tsiolkovsky team will start radioing the station… No one will answer…

Hidden 'Windigo' UNIX ZOMBIES are EVERYWHERE

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Trollface

LOL!

I guess they have been infected, too.

Proper boffins make your company succeed, even if you're not very technical

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Holmes

"I don't often talk to liberal arts majors, but when I do, I order LARGE FRIES"

I would think if they are correctly "educated" (as opposed to today's "edulcorated"), they would be hired forthwith and no "reporting" would be needed.

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Holmes

Trick cyclist with scant knowledge about economic exchanges spotted.

What this article makes me think

Yes?

is that we don't have enough technical jobs in this country any more

Go on...

due to all the outsourcing, so now we've got to find something for the technically-oriented to do which isn't actually technical

Intredasting! I sure will subscribe to your newsletter.

Flying Toaster screen savers return on GitHub

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Terminator

Now I know where the idea of Cylons comes from!!

MtGox remedy worse than the disease says Kaspersky researcher

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Holmes

Le résumé de la situation

Mt. Gox Problems Mount

On its current balance sheet the company lists its assets as consisting of 2,000 bitcoins (plus $32 mn. in fiat), and offsetting liabilities of 750,000 bitcoins (and another $55 mn of fiat claims against it). There is a clearly a big hole to fill. More troubling is that Mt. Gox notes that this theft of its bitcoins took place over a five-year period. Furthermore the company now confirms that the loss is due to the “transaction malleability” issue with the bitcoin protocol (which I discussed here as a reason Mt. Gox held only fractional reserves).

In other words, over a five-year period the bitcoin bank went from a (presumably) 100% reserve ratio to holding less than 3% reserves… and no one noticed!

Here is the critical fault with fractional-reserve banking that rarely gets discussed. When someone deposits a good it is not because he does not want to use it. Nor does that good represent some idle resource until it is asked for. People who support fractional-reserve banking of both the centralized and “free” varieties are both of the opinion that deposits are idle cash and no one is harmed when a bank puts them to good use.....

Is no browser safe? Security bods poke holes in Chrome, Safari, IE, Firefox and earn $1m

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Re: Run them in a chroot jail

I think last time I checked, you could simply chroot out of a chroot "jail". I don't think it ever was designed to be a security feature.

So what do you think it was designed to be for?

To "break out", you need to be root. This is already a little bit of an impediment:

Breaking chroot()

It should be noted that this document was written with protecting web servers from rogue CGI scripts in mind. Therefore it is not unreasonable to assume that a user has access to a Perl interpreter. It is then a matter for the user to gain root access via security holes on the box running the web server. Whilst this is outside the topic of the document, an attacker could make use of application programs which are setuid-root and have security holes within them. In a well maintained chroot() area such programs should not exist. However, it should be noted that maintaining a chroot()ed environment is a non-trival task, for example system patches which fix such security holes will not know about the copies of the programs within the chroot()ed area. Ensuring that there are no setuid-root executables within the padded cell is going to be a must.

Well, today we have Virtual Machines.

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Trollface

Re: Why

There is no fun in watching cats falling down stairs on secure software!

This city's smog is so TERRIBLE, people are told to stay indoors. Beijing? No – PARIS

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It could also be because you are nearer the ocean,

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Trollface

Re: Proof

TIme to move to Hollande.

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Trollface

Free public transit in Paris?

You don't get a place even if you PAY!

Target ignored hacker alarms as crooks took 40m credit cards – claim

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Re: Statement of the week

Welcome to Korea Vietnam Afghanistan Iraq....

Windows hits the skids, Mac OS X on the rise

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Holmes

Re: Windows mention share ..

It's straightforward Ballmerization, I say!

'Catastrophic' server disk-destroying glitch menaced Google cloud

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Re: Overreacting users?

Hillary, please leave.

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Re: Overreacting users?

You got a downvote.

This, I think, means that no-one knows, but some people get unreasonably excited whenever the Cloud is mentioned .... because ....

THOSE WHO MOVE THEIR STUFF INTO THE CLOUD APPEASE HITLER IN MUNICH!

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Trollface

For the LULZ!

"So I make an API call to move VMs w/ 'persistent' volumes and — depending on my command line client version — my VM is accidentally nuked?"

Deal with it!

'Amazon has destroyed the unicorn factory' ... How clouds are making sysadmins extinct

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Re: Clouds and Unicorns, parallels in recent history

> At 28 my cynicism doesn't kick in as soon as it should.

Kids these days.

Morrisons supermarket hit by MASSIVE staff payroll data robbery

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Re: Interesting coincidence?

Monsieur Besancenot, please go!

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Re: A little thing that bugs me...

I always thought "operatives" are the guys that know about trigger discipline when handling silenced M4s?

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Headmaster

Re: Data Security??

Anyone have any idea if the employee information was obfuscated in any way or if the hackers found it available in plain text?

Well, Alexandra from HR will be royally pissed if she's unable to handle employee data because they were "obfuscated in any way".

Most data stores are not improved by hashing or obfuscating them.

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Rather, an illegal copying of data.

SATANIC 'HELL DIAMOND' tells of sunless subterranean sea

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Holmes

Re: "This new mineral cockrinite can withstand high pressure..."

No, it wasn't some guy digging a well in the desert. Deserts have never been referred to as "the deep."

Well, come back if you find the original sumerian text and can do an appropriate translation. Otherwise we will never get to the matter of the semantics of the above phrase.

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Thumb Up

Re: Verne?

Next stop: graveyard of the mastodonts!

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Re: Huh...

The solar system was full of major hunks of rock previously; indeed the Earth-Moon system comes out of collision of a pair of those. So finding stuff like this in the heaven sure is possible.

However, the "planet between Mars and Jupiter" is unworkable as the whole asteroid belt only has a few percent of the mass needed for a honest-to-god planet.

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Facepalm

"This new mineral cockrinite can withstand high pressure..."

Except now it looks likely that it does make sense

Yah, ok, how does it make sense?

Some guy writes about digging wells in his desert patch which will help him irrigate the stones, and this is somehow relevant to H20 mixed in siilica, carbon and iron masses a few thousand km below your feet?

A likely story!

Microsoft closing in on Apache's web server crown

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Windows

But at least you always get that image of the pretty girl with a rucksack throwing you a glowing smile.

UK.gov to train up 11-year-old cyberwarriors

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Finding out is the first exercise.

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Boffin

Neon Genesis UKGuvnmtelion!

"Get into this cyberseat, Sheila!"

What can go wrong?

Boffin Icon, because Scary Shiny Glasses

Forget superstars, this HYPERGIANT star is 1,300 times the size of OUR SUN

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Paris Hilton

"Disaster Area, a plutonium rock band from the Gagrakacka Mind Zones"

AFAIK that might depend on whether there is a lack of "metal" in the star. You also need to be in a cone centered on the axis of rotation to get, and whether you are within a cone centered on the axis of rotation to get a good atmosphere-reforming blast.

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Trollface

Re: That is tremendous

Better than a star that is yellow inside.

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Trollface

Re: WOW

This must be the Doge Star.

Ethical hacker backer hacked, warns of email ransack

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Windows

"EC-Council strives to set a very high bar"

FUCK! Can't reach the drinks from down here.

It's hard being a midget.

Could someone please ... give me a little push?

NSA's TURBINE robot can pump 'malware into MILLIONS of PCs'

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Big Brother

Do YOU have UNITEDRAKE FOGGYBOTTOM SALVAGERABBIT clearance?

"The madness is spreading"

Clearly, Chtulhu is up and about and looking people in the eye. I think this ain't gonna end well.

Seven Great Moments in World Wide Web History

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Childcatcher

Re: Poe's law

I think the leftist slant has been markedly increased though!

Candy Crush King plans IPO valuing it at $7.6 BEEELLION

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Re: Its possible

And tomorrow, there will be another overvalued kid on the block..

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Trollface

Re: Wow

I think a new dot-com crash is coming...

Ohh! And here I was thinking "THE FUNDAMENTALS ARE STRONK!"

No, wait...

Addicted to Asset Bubbles: Helicopter Ben Runs Out of Ideas for Creating Money -- January 15, 2013

Ben Bernanke confided on January 14 that he is unaware of any new method of stimulating economic growth. Bernanke said: “As far as I’m aware, there’s no completely new method that we haven’t [already tapped].” So Helicopter Ben has run out of innovative and unconventional ways to create new money. Lest you be tempted to breathe a bit easier, however, rest assured that the now conventional method of quantitative easing, involving the Fed’s monthly purchase of $85 billion worth of mortgage-backed and U.S. government securities, seems to be working just fine according to Bernanke and he foresees its continuation. Noting the stubbornly high unemployment rate combined with the low inflation rate in the U.S. economy, Bernanke stated, “That is the case for being aggressive, which we are trying to do.” Although he is “cautiously optimistic,” he does promise to closely monitor the risks, efficacy, costs, and benefits of this inflationary policy.

I guess the rapid asset price run-up in stock and commodities markets, which are nearly back to financial bubble levels, and booming farmland prices do not count in Bernanke’s benefit-cost calculus. More likely, Bernanke accounts them as a benefit, which, via the “wealth effect,” will induce another debt-driven consumption spree on the part of the American public that will stimulate economic growth, i.e., create another bubble economy.

Bletchley Park board member quits amid TNMOC split-off spat

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Trollface

Re: Smoke?

The Concrete Jungle

Clack. Clack. Clack. Clack. Finally I can't stand it anymore. "Well?" I demand.

"A fellow I used to know, his name was Ulyanov, once said something rather profound" Angleton looks like the cat that's swallowed the canary — and the feet are sticking out of the side of his mouth; he wants me to know this, whatever it is. "Let your enemies sell you enough rope to hang them with."

"Uh, wasn't that Lenin?" I ask.

A flicker of mild irritation crosses his face. "This was before he took that name," he says quietly. Clack. Clack. Clack. He flicks the balls to set them banging again and I suddenly realise what they are and feel quite sick. No indeed, Bridget and Harriet — and Bridget's predecessor, and the mysterious Mr McLuhan — won't be troubling me again. (Except in my nightmares about this office, visions of my own shrunken head winding up in one of the director's executive toys, skull clattering away eternally in a scream that nobody can hear anymore . . . ) "Bridget's been plotting a boardroom coup for a long time, Robert. Probably since before you joined the Laundry — or were conscripted." He spares Josephine a long, appraising look. "She suborned Harriet, bribed McLuhan, installed her own corrupt geas on Voss. Partners in crime, intending to expose me as an incompetent and a possible security leak before the Board of Auditors, I suppose — that's usually how they plan it. I guessed this was going on, but I needed firm evidence. You supplied it. Unfortunately, Bridget was none too stable; when she realised that I knew, she ordered Voss to remove the witnesses then summoned McLuhan and proceeded with her palace coup d'état. Equally unfortunately for her, she failed to correctly establish who my line manager was before she attempted to go over my head to have me removed." He taps the sign on the front of the desk: PRIVATE SECRETARY. Keeper of the secrets. Whose secrets?

Snowden: You can't trust SPOOKS with your DATA

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Trollface

Re: Surveilance is not my primary concern

What? It's not too late?

Tell you what:

1) Go into a company

2) "IMMA HUV PROBLEMS WITH MUH MAIL"

3) "Ok, why not move everything to the Microsoft cloud...."?

4) "But what about the NSA?"

5) "Yeah, but think of the CONVENIENCE, man!"

6) ....

7) SOLD!

8) Your face when.

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Trollface

Re: Surveilance is not my primary concern

Newsflash: Too late.

You can relax now.

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Thumb Down

They've only done their job as mandated by US politicians, and done it well.

Even in a purely US-centric view, compiling dossiers like Hacker Heydrich on US people in full violation of anything their mandate and the constitution says about these kind of activities as well as alienating "overseas friends" (more like useful idiots kept in line by greenback splurges, amirite) by basically behaving like Greys coming back night after night for a good probing is NOT "doing your job well", except in Restaurant-Serving-Stray-Cats-For-Expediency kind of way.

X marks the... They SAID there was a mystery planet there – NASA

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Headmaster

Re: A-Ha!

Don't name drop and don't be boring!