Re: coin toss
Why would anyone vote for a politician anyway?
It just encourages them.
Posts by itzman
1946 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Jun 2011
Page:
After stiffing us with Trump, Weiner 'fesses to underage cock shot rot
Wannacry: Everything you still need to know because there were so many unanswered Qs
Saturday 20th May 2017 08:12 GMT
Re: hunts down vulnerable public facing SMB ports
and even if you wanted it open, why open it to the world?
This smacks of 'I want to be able to file share my hospital data anywhere in the world on my totally insecure laptop'.
I remember one of my staff doing a security audit for a major company. He realted te conversation...
'so how secure is our firewall?'
'well your firewall is fine, but the IT directors PC with the modem in auto answer mode on his DDI line is a bit of a problem'
Saturday 20th May 2017 08:07 GMT
Re: SMB shares
Why? Gpod alone knows.
Most 'amateur' connections are via NAT routers. Which need explicit configuration to actually accept incoming connections.
One can only posit a very very poorly set up leased line system, in which intersite working was done simply by opening ports onto full publicly addressable IP spaces as 'the quickest way to get the job done'
You have to work quite hard to be this insecure.
Microsoft to spooks: WannaCrypt was inevitable, quit hoarding
Monday 15th May 2017 08:22 GMT
Re: The lull before the next storm rolls in
A very pertinent observation.
What we are talking about here is the ability for legacy applications to run on modern (more?) secure operating systems that didn't exist when the applications were implemented.
Anyway you look at it this is a costly business. All solutions are expensive. As is no solution.
Open standards help: Linux systems support huge amounts of legacy printers for example, that Win 10 drivers do not exist for.
Monday 15th May 2017 08:16 GMT
Re: The root cause for the NHS is software that won't run on anything but XP.
As for "Our CT/MI/Ultrasound/Kirlian aura machine uses an XP UI" SFW? How much network access does that thing need and what business does the network have dropping stuff on its local storage?
It needs network access so that when the car crash victim has been CT scanned, and wheeled back up to intensive care, the surgeons can see the scans as well as the patient, and their entire record of medical history. Including what drug intolerances they have, what blood thinning and anti-clot medication they are on etc.
Medical care is enormously improved by proper networked IT.
They are slowly getting there. This is a wakeup call to ensure that they also pay attention to security.
At the root cause of this is the use of the file sharing paradigm as a substitute for e.g. a remote database access paradigm.
74 countries hit by NSA-powered WannaCrypt ransomware backdoor: Emergency fixes emitted by Microsoft for WinXP+
Saturday 13th May 2017 08:51 GMT
Re: Amazing you can leave the SMB port open
run it internally if you must, but across the internet uses sshfs...
Also, one questions why file sharing is neceessary in these days of web and other fat client based apps.
I was in the opticians (well known high street brand) getting new spectacles ordered. The computer was a terminal looking into what looked like and ancient Oracle database, all 80x25 and white on black..
Saturday 13th May 2017 08:45 GMT
Re: after 3 decades worth of producing software
..and that is exactly the point.
Each version of windows is expected to run code intended from the previous version all the way back to a time before the internet even really existed.
What is needed of course in terms of mission critical desktop software built to industrial strength, is for all large corporates to start again, preferably with linux, unix, or BSD...and insist that their application supplier port their applications to it.
If Microsoft wants to be part of it they can ensure their applications run on it as well via whatever wine like interfaces they choose to sell.
The PC revolution has been a wild west ride, but its time the cowboys were eradicated. And that means Microsoft Windows.
Flatpak and Snaps aren't destined for graveyard of failed Linux tech yet
It's been two and a half years of decline – tablets aren't coming back
Forgetful ZX Spectrum reboot firm loses control of its web domains
Wednesday 3rd May 2017 06:26 GMT
Re: We asked the firm about this but it did not respond. ®
So, are they trying to make themselves look as big and important as Apple Inc?
No, they are trying to remain true to the Sinclair business ethic.
Take the money first, and do nothing except bank it.
Did anyone ever receive a Sinclair Microvision?
http://rk.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/televisions/tv1a.htm
Farewell Unity, you challenged desktop Linux. Oh well, here's Ubuntu 17.04
Saturday 22nd April 2017 12:36 GMT
Re: Won't install properly
Anyone running Nvidia really should be using the latest drivers or you are missing out on many performance fixes (vulkan in particular )
Not true. Performance fixes are not the while story.
Things like the ability to restore a video session after suspend or hibernate are crucial too, and Nividias own drivers often dont play nice here.
Saturday 22nd April 2017 12:33 GMT
Re: Nemo ... Files ... pah!
It's just that Mate was the only thing I could find that would get me a proper classic desktop experience, and last time I checked Mint's version of it was (after a fair amount of un-mintifying) significantly more polished and free of aggravating sticking points than Ubuntu's.
Yup. Linux is the best engine and gearbox, Ubuntu is the best chassis, and Mate is the best interior and dials.
I'm staying with Mint because its supplies all three in a well integrated package.
Saturday 22nd April 2017 12:26 GMT
Re: My thoughts on this ...What is it about file managers that developers find so difficult?
Creeping Featurism.
I run some sshfs mounted files on a very remote server.
File managers take minutes to display directories that 'ls' displays instantly.
Why? because they must needs download loads of information - even construct thumbnails - that is totally unneeded.
Why? Because people they think like to see thumbnail images rather than renaming files to something human comprehensible.
When all you have is a GUI everything looks like a clickable icon.
"My little pony Sep 2016.JPG" versus "DSG_0901893257.JPG"
Saturday 22nd April 2017 12:21 GMT
Re: My thoughts on this ...
Once upon a time, a friend of mine who built minicomputers met someone...
"I would like to Computerise My Company Stock Control'
......
He went along, spent a day studying what they did and then said 'OK'
'OK what?' '
'For what you do, the cost of implementation and staff training to use a database to replace the cardfiles is not worth the benefit, which would be precisely zero'.
(Stock control was a card for every item, with a number at the top - the part number and another number, which was how many items were left in stock, which you crossed out and reduced when items went out of stick to the shop floor or to customers.. When new stock came in, you made out a fresh card, added the number in the bin to the number in the shipment, and that was how you did stock control. I think it cost about £100 to set up, and staff training consisted in working with the storeman a day till you got the hang of sharpening the pencils, and subtracting one from any number.).
:-)
'Nobody's got to use the internet,' argues idiot congressman in row over ISP privacy rules
ZX Spectrum reboot project's Great Ormond Street charity cash questions
Back to the future: Honda's new electric car can go an incredible 80 miles!
Machine vs. machine battle has begun to de-fraud the internet of lies
Tuesday 11th April 2017 08:24 GMT
Re: Consider the source(s) of your beliefs about Syria and Assad
No one in their right minds would use poison gas in Syria except as a false flag operation.
Its tactically almost useless and strategically a disaster.
It has marginal use as a terrorist weapon.
who deployed it and what their purpose was depends on which tinfoil hat you choose.
The only thing that is near certain is that whatever ever we are being told is not the truth.
Crafty Fokker: Norfolk surgeon builds Red Baron triplane replica
Friday 7th April 2017 10:00 GMT
Stability
Pith stability can always be achieved with a small short tail by making the nose heavier.
Up to the point at which the aircraft is essentially tailless.
Stability is achieved by the simple expedient of arranging longitudinal dihedral to be such that any increase in speed forces the nose up: In a dive, the nose is forced up, as the aircraft pitches up, it slows and the nose is pulled down by noseweight.
The key is that the aircraft CG should be ahead of the integrated effect of the surface area of all the aerofoils
Friday 7th April 2017 09:53 GMT
Re: I wish him well
Aren't they mathematically equivalent, it just depends on which you take as the fixed point about which things revolve
They may be at an armchair theorists level, but the practical problems that each design creates or solves are completely different.
Rotaries were simple to build, had very few moving parts, and were light for the power they produced.
But the problems of connecting fixed fuel tank to a rotating set of cylinders meant the induction system was via the crankshaft . Some engines only had one valve per cylinder
Contrariwise the radial cylinders did not spin and therefore had less efficient cooling. And no chance to put an overhead camshaft on!
All these designs were explored, and which one was best was often down to trivial details of material science. Indeed the jet engine was held back from its initial theoretical design in the 1920s by the simple problem of finding materials and bearings that could take the high RPM and temperatures in the engine.
Indeed heavier than air flight itself is contingent on one simple bit of engineering: A power plant that delivers somewhat more than about 10W/lb (total airframe) weight. (A typical light aircraft of today is around 70-W/lb) That power is needed to essentially offset in rate of climb terms, the rate of sink of the airframe in a glide.
And of course to get up there at all, takes more power than that
Friday 7th April 2017 09:39 GMT
Re: I wish him well
Rotary. I dont think there were any radials at that time. The early WWI aircraft nearly all used radials or big straight 6s or V8s.
MM I lie. Radials did exist - the Bleriot had a 3 cylinder radial - but the technology of the time favoured rotaries or water cooled inlines and Vs
Radials came into their own in the 1920's and were probably the best type of WWII engine, if for no other reason than aircooling rendered them less vulnerable to battle damage to the radiators.
The DR1 was equipped with an Oberursel Ur.II 9-cylinder rotary engine developing 82 kW (110 hp)
Basically a copy of the Allied Le Rhône rotary units.
Trump sets sights on net neutrality
WikiLeaks exposes CIA anti-forensics tool that makes Uncle Sam seem fluent in enemy tongues
Saturday 1st April 2017 11:45 GMT
Are there no honest spies left?
I mean you used to know if they spoke with thick german accents, they were German, or at least Bristsih actors with colds.
Now who knows what to believe, or who to trust?
It really is...most unsettling.
Anyone else noticed that whatever icon you select, a troll shows up?
How to leak data from an air-gapped PC – using, er, a humble scanner
Douglas Coupland: The average IQ is now 103 and the present is melting into the future
DNS lookups can reveal every web page you visit, says German boffin
Tuesday 21st March 2017 06:48 GMT 
Since ISPs have to use dynamic IP addresses to cope with the IPv4 address shortage, a user's address changes, making it harder to track them over time.
ER, what? The days of dial up modems are long gone squire, everybody is on;lune 24x7 these days, so you need as many IP addresses as there are customers.
There is no logic to using dynamic IP addresses for most ISPs.
Thank heavens the wrangling over BT's Openreach separation has ended
BT agrees to legal separation of Openreach
Iconic Land Rover Defender may make a comeback by 2019
Sir Tim Berners-Lee refuses to be King Canute, approves DRM as Web standard
Tuesday 7th March 2017 08:16 GMT
The stupid thing is....
If you can watch it on a screen. you can copy it.
Even if its just a video recorder plugged in where the display card and sound card comes out.
Wholesale piracy, the sort that loses millions, isn't going to be stopped by DRM
But the odd consumer wanting to watch a show later on, will be.
The compact cassette destroyed the music business. I know. I was there. We had a decade of the cheapest most dreadful music there has ever been - punk - simply because no one wanted to invest in albums that would instantly be copied. Then someone had the bright idea of giving the recordings away for free, and charging for live performances instead! Radical!
The problem is the industry wants its cake and to eat it as well., They want to give ready access to people, to make it easy as possible so they can sell movies, rights, advertising space etc. But they dont want to simply give it away as a loss leader.
I buy books now. Why. Because E-books cant be lent, can't be carried with you unless you also buy a particular piece of kit, which is not how I want to read them... I was buying e-books till the DRM got so bad I couldn't even download them without some proprietary kit. I would still be buying e-books. I can afford a few quid for a decent read.
The answer is to have paid services like netflix and accept that at some point someone is going to record off them and swap films with mates.
Just like they do with DVDs.
And go after the major profitable pirating organisations and leave the students alone.
The reality of the medium is that its copyable. Learn to live with it. Copyright is, today, completely unenforceable. That is the lesson the music business had to learn with the demise of the 'studio album' bands.
Find another way to make money.
Watt the f... Dim smart meters caught simply making up readings
One IP address, multiple SSL sites? Beating the great IPv4 squeeze
Thursday 2nd March 2017 02:16 GMT
You dont need a reverse proxy to do this
Simply set up e.g. apache to direct ALL https traffic to a script, inspect where the user thinks he has got to and vector to the appropriate web pages.
Of course it breaks the authentication of HTTPS whichever way you do it. https expects that a single IP address will be a single authenticated object.
Linux on Windows 10: Will penguin treats in Creators Update be enough to lure you?
Autonomous cars are about to do to transport what the internet did to information
Two words, Mozilla: SPEED! NOW! Quit fiddling and get serious
Munich may dump Linux for Windows
'Grey technology' should be the new black
Wednesday 1st February 2017 07:36 GMT 
its a total farce.
1/. trying to find a mobile hone for a 90 year old. no smarts. found one with big keys, but the instruction manual was in such small print that the only option was to scan it and blow it up to a readable font
2/. new iphone 5 for 75 year old. instructions 'insert sim card in phone'. That took over an hour before the totally obscure means to do this was revealed by a google search on an already working computer..
Its not just the elderly: I am an IT professional, but frankly the IOS/android metaphor is badly implemented and shoddy as hell.
The consumer-tech emperor has no clothes.
UK ISPs may be handed cock-blocking powers
Trump lieutenants 'use private email' for govt work... but who'd make a big deal out of that?
Thursday 26th January 2017 09:37 GMT
yes, you are wrong..
because all those thumbs down are a consensus and as we have proved from climate change, a consensus is by definition right, in a post truth, 'truth is relative to culture', world.
If enough people stop believing that the sun will rise, it won't. if 97% of democrats believe that the world will come to an, end it will.
In fact, the signs are that for them, it has.
So There
Oh, the things Vim could teach Silicon Valley's code slingers
Wednesday 25th January 2017 09:59 GMT
Re: Vi and Vim are the spawn of Satan
If you were a nerd, sitting at your own computer, writing to alt.flame, you used emacs.
If you were a highly paid software contractor visiting many *nix equipped sites, you bloody well learned vi, because it was the only editor you could guarantee was on every *nix system.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
