Posts by Kiwi

Re: Here we go again...

"yet I can walk out at night without needing weapons"

I live in an average US neighborhood with average crime rates (for the US), and everyone around here can walk out at night without fear or needing weapons as well.

To listen to a great many of your countryfolk, I would believe that it is common to feel a need to carry guns on your person for protection from many varied (and usually vague) threats, and that no where is safe. I do take you at your word (note I mean you specifically :) ) on where you live though.

"yet in gated wealthy suburbs in the US the citizens seemingly feel a need to carry guns to protect them from their neighbours)."

That's because of paranoia, not because there is any actual danger.

I get that. <Sheldon>But paranoia is a kind of prison</Sheldon>. Then again so are the gates, and the many rules such places seem to have. The wealthy seem to be quite adept at locking themselves in prisons of their own making ^O^

Re: Internet predator behaviour

Let's not get bogged down in his choice of words. He might just have been lazy typing 'men' instead of 'people'. There's no need to assume he was denying the existence of the Jade Hatts of the world.

It's possible you're correct, and I'm not arguing. Still, it's a sick stereotype I for one would love to see ended. Women are just as capable as men of anything, including rape and physical abuse.

I'm far more interested that he claimed to know how often children type certain phrases in private social media exchanges that don't involve predators.

Good point. That would indicate a lot more watching of their actual chats. I too would be interested to know where this comes from!

Re: Internet predator behaviour

This statement requires evidence.

Google is a fiend. But is still useful for finding the evidence you yourself will believe, if you are capable of looking past what the press/male chauvanism/feminism all tell you of course.

When it comes to physical abuse especially of kids, women actually are far more likely to be at fault then men. When it comes to verbal/emotional abuse women win hands down.

Sexual abuse is a lot harder to pin down because, as I said, only until recently have women been getting charged with it. But in my rare readings of news media other than El Reg, I'm seeing more cases of women being charged and there are some days when the women accused of abuse outweigh the men.

But here's a good starting point for you : https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sexual-victimization-by-women-is-more-common-than-previously-known/ (Here's my search on DDG, though the results page you're shown may differ from mine - I wrote all the above before finding the Scientific America article I'm quoting from - which was a pleasant surprise but NOT pleasant reading)

"...the CDC’s nationally representative data revealed that over one year, men and women were equally likely to experience nonconsensual sex, and most male victims reported female perpetrators. Over their lifetime, 79 percent of men who were “made to penetrate” someone else (a form of rape, in the view of most researchers) reported female perpetrators. Likewise, most men who experienced sexual coercion and unwanted sexual contact had female perpetrators....

And the paragraph that most relates to why I was annoyed after re-reading Mr Glasgow's post :

"...Professionals in mental health, social work, public health, and criminal justice often downplay female perpetration. But in fact, victims of female-perpetrated sexual violence suffer emotional and psychological harm, just like victims of male-perpetrated abuse. And when professionals fail to take victimization by women seriously, this only compounds victims’ suffering by minimizing the harm they experience...."

(I have quickly but fully read the article I quote from, however I have not followed any of the links from it)

I hope that helps you get started. I personally always doubted the 'only men are at fault for violence' but for much of my life had no trouble believing the "only men commit sexual violence" myth. It took some doing to open my eyes to it, even dismissing an adult friend when he disclosed witnessing incestuous female sexual abuse as a child. More and more research is coming through, thankfully the victims of female sexual violence are more likely to be believed and taken seriously today than they were even just 10 years ago.

Re: Controversial speculation ahead.

You could be right, and your reasoning isn't too far off.

But one argument I can see is for a long time crims haven't been trusting of coms and have acted to avoid electronics whereever possible. Not all of course, many are stupid and don't take the threats seriously (hence why I agree with your reasoning), but the better ones have always either used good encryption or had clear protocols about where and when to meet.

If all encryption was banned and all phones monitored real-time, then the crims would use 'pawns' to carry messages and set themselves up such that they can still trade pretty openly while not leaving a trace of evidence. Like in the olden days.

My advice is encrypt things your own way, so that only you and the people you allow, can decipher your messages.

Not really good advice. Very few of us are up to the mathematical knowledge of creating decent encryption, most of us will opt for something that "only we can think of no one else can" which will be quick and easy to break for others.

Better to use common products (even if you compile from source). You could encrypt more than once using various strong algorithms, that's a kind of roll-your-own that should be reasonably acceptable. But the key thing is the harder you make it to use, the less likely it is to be used.

Oh, and outliers stand out. The more people who use VPNs or TOR, the harder it is to spot an individual. But if you're the only person who uses a VPN in your city, then good or bad purposes (you may be using it to remote-in to an overseas office for legit business purposes) you will stand out to your ISP. And if you're in one of the many "free" countries (I include NZ in this), then you may find TPTB are quite free to ask your ISP to give over every bit of data they can, for which they'll freely oblige. If a thousand people are using VPNs, the data requirements go up quite a lot as does the effort required to find the few who are being naughty. (of course, those using vpn.ibm.com are probably legit, those using pornvpn.com or torrentvpn.com probably aren't, TOR is a grey area as they may be spies against your country, preds/druggies/arms dealers, conspiracy nuts, or someone actually about to do something the government likes (FTR I do support more use of VPN/TOR because I hate government/corporate spying)

Re: By logical extension

The already built in mechanism against that is that the glass tends to break.

Given the high involvement of US companies in making such machines and the large market there, I would've thought that the glass in them would be quite strong, as would the framing, to prevent such injuries. After all, with all the talk of things like having to use safety glass in case a burglar hams themself and sues you (no idea of really true or not, hence ""talk of".

But I guess making sure you're going to get sore is a form of deterrent, though I'm sure I've seen some film of people successfully "privatising their papers" and none of people learning "Butt it's risky!"

Re: Internet predator behaviour

Without proof, I'm sorry I don't believe statements like that, all often I see them rolled out to claim moral authority and justify some authoritarian action by the authorities, and all too often turns out the claimed "working of case" is a lie....

Last night I might have disagreed with your statement. But this morning, seeing how his post indicates he believes that only men offend like this, it puts a whole new light on his level of expertise.

Re: Here we go again...

I'm curious as to what you mean by 'true freedom' - I suspect it has very little to do with actual freedom at all.

I'm curious as to why you'd suspect that. I'm guessing you've not encountered it?

It means not having to fear - your government or your neighbour (ie I live in a poor suburb with a high crime rate for my nation, and yet I can walk out at night without needing weapons - yet in gated wealthy suburbs in the US the citizens seemingly feel a need to carry guns to protect them from their neighbours). It means being able to do as you wish, having both the resources and the lack of laws (not full anarchy though much closer than you'd like). Being free to go about your business without surveillance (there's that fear again), being able to trust those around you to act in an appropriate manner that's not harmful to others (even if acting selfishly), so if you buy something you're paying a fair price, if you pay someone for a service they'll do a good job etc.

It's actually quite liberating to free oneself from fear. That doesn't free me from responsibility of course, and I do admit to 'pucker moments' when out riding, and have lingering memories of darker days. But overall I have nothing to fear and everything to gain. The more I live my faith (which isn't always as I'm sure you've seen :( ) the freer I am, no matter what my circumstances. I've seen God provide, sometimes just enough to get by for the night sometimes enough that I am invited, even paid, to spend a few weeks in much more pleasant surroundings (though sleeping under a bridge on a warm night can be quite pleasant in its own way) . I've known His provision, and I know that whatever is happening externally I am covered. And if I die - well that's better than retiring into a life of abject luxury.

To know that you don't have to worry about whether or not you will have enough for today, to know that you will have what you need though not necessarily an abundance, to know you can do what you need to do (not necessarily what you want), and to know that you have nothing to fear from your neighbours even if they are your enemy - that is freedom. Or at least the closest we will get this side of His return.

Re: One of any infinite possible examples.

Please stop giving politicians any more ideas.

You just reminded me of an advert I saw a great many years back (on one of those TV shows that had ads from around the world).

The first scene, done old home movie style, showed a couple of people.. Caption "Mr and Mrs Hitler. parents of Adolf Hitler". Another scene, "Mr and Mrs Armin, parents of Idi Armin (scuse spelling). And 3 or for like this.

Fade to black. Final caption "If only they'd used a Jiffy condom".

So true for the parents of many of our politicians and civil serpents today... (yes, spelling deliberate)

Re: So, now it's back to Think Of The Children

Raid the golf clubs now!

Brings a new (and perhaps more fun) meaning to going clubbing this evening... :)

Re: Internet predator behaviour

Once you have found the attempted switch to encrypted, you can investigate exactly who is talking to whom and why - unless it is encrypted and not stored locally.

When I was 12-13, finding any way to talk to others without my parents (or their parents) listening in was always a goal. Of course we were outside and away from home much of the time, but parents could pop up in the most awkward of places at times. I would be wary of looking at that as too big a sign myself :)

[EDIT] Oh and if you wish to take anything I say as 'dismissing harm' to kids, go through my posts and think again!

Just get an insider to steal some signing keys

There's relatively few people with access to such keys, and they can be revoked fairly quickly when broken. Said people also no doubt are quite highly trusted and harder to get to.

But.. Should this become a thing, there could be a good few hundred targets in my small city alone, let alone the many thousands of people across NZ who will need access. Of course they could perhaps be limited to some kind of portal, but that's not necessarily going to be much of a barrier.

(And don't speak to me about Mallard! I am absolutely disgusted with Trevor and some of his recent antics! You listening Trev? Get your bloody act together!)

Europol, FBI etc. know that of course but don't care because a few paedo's aren't the real target.

El Reg, can we get a "hole in one" icon please?

They will only catch a few idiots, whilst the real criminals carry on unhindered and law abiding citizens can be abused by authorities and criminals alike.

Oh, it will hinder real criminals.

I mean, it must take at least a couple of minutes to switch to another app and re-connect with your buddies.....

And then there's the hassle of finding a cop, breaking them, buying the keys, putting them up on crimEbay for anyone else interested.... (cannot decide on if it should be pronounced Crim E Bay, Crime Bay, or a [said quick] Crimmy Bay (like "jimmy-bar"))

There's the hassle of trawling through all that extra data on people's banking, social media, most private emails/coms, cameras, alarm codes and whatnot...

And then there's hiding away all the ill-gotten gains, spending the money and other hassles like that which could really hinder one's enjoyment of daily life... Yes, this will be a real hassle for real crims...

There's no need for the Chinese intelligence agencies to have a backdoor to President Trump's iPhone. They only have to remember to check Twitter every ten minutes to learn everything that's going on in the White House.

You truly are a hateful person aren't you? What the hell have the Chinese done to you to deserve that level of punishment?

And given the amount of verbal excreta that pours forth from those tiny little hands, I doubt that every 10 minutes would be enough - you'd miss so much! (by volume, not exactly by content...)

Re: Really sad

If this reflects the intellectual ability of police forces, in some way, what else are they getting wrong?

My family has some views on that. [another rant snipped]

But "intellectual ability"? No, when it comes to NZ cops that phrase is just wrong.

Does anyone know how many paedophiles the Food Standards Agency have caught?

Well, there was that guy who liked his meat between a couple of rather fresh buns.. Though I think he was in Yankee land...

Re: One of any infinite possible examples.

Let's punch a hole in all condoms just to be sure we get a DNA sample from all rapers.

I'd prefer just to punch all rappers..

Rapists? Well, that's another story. NSFER...

Re: Build a backdoor?

The best way to fight this would be to point out to MPs and such that THEIR messages will be read if the backdoor ever leaks out......

No, because they can just simply fix that by making it illegal to decrypt an MP's messages without their permission.

I mean it's not like criminals will break the law or anything.....

---> She probably understands more about backdoors than any politician ever could.

Mandatory backdoors do absolutely nothing to stop criminals, they just inconvenience honest people.

Actually backdoors will do a lot to help crims. Further, some of those crims will be paedos who will find a way to make such backdoors work so they can get more access to kids.. Breaking in to cameras would be one, perhaps someone would be able to use them to manipulate/trick parents by faking messages from someone else.. I'm not myself that devious and I can see a few ways, someone who has dedicated their life to deviant thinking I am sure will be bustling with ideas on how backdoors could be be used to increase their KP stash.

Well, they are quite correct.

Down vote all you wish, it won't change the fact.

Most child abuse occurs in the home, with the molestors/beaters being part of their own family. Most molested kids don't have a phone and technically can't be on FB etc.

So why should I be expected to give up a portion of my privacy for a law that is not going to do anything at all to help the kids, but is going to do a lot to harm everyone including kids?

-->Icon not nearly strong enough to cover the utter FAIL in your comment.

Re: Here we go again...

FREEDOM makes it possible for people to commit crimes!

Actually the US makes a strong argument against that. Just look at the relatively high crime-rates in the states and you can see that even the most oppressed commit crimes...

(True freedom makes people less likely to commit crimes - sadly our politicians think "freedom" means "we are free to make yet more laws!"

Re: Here we go again...

Abducted children are driven away in cars and molested in buildings. Ban all cars and demolish all buildings which are not made entirely of glass.

Most of it happens in the family home among family members. Demolish all family homes, and lock up any parents the moment they become parents. And older siblings as well.

Re: There is tech savvy and there is ....

, there are 20,000 tech geniuses that miss out because they are zero on the fiscal IQ scale, and just out for a lark.

Yup. If I had a buck for every brilliant idea I've had that someone else has been able to get to market because I was too slow/lazy/unmotivated/forgetful, well I guess I'd have an extra 10 bucks.

But there's been a few that I was too early on (the infrastructure etc wasn't up to it), too under-resourced (didn't have money for necessary kit/domain names etc), or got stuck on some engineering/coding issue that someone else solved. Or those ideas that got buried by life, only remembered when I see someone else had a very similar idea and managed to succeed.

<oblig XKCD - I wish>

Re: I was the guy who lobbied long and hard ...

As for SMS, where's the problem? So long as you turn off any silly noises that notify you of them at moments not of your choosing.

For someone with Jake's purported computer skills and history, you'd think he'd've learned by now how to silence SMS alerts on something as basic as a phone! :)

Re: 20 years? Luxury!

With Apple you're lucky to get ten.

At least they're showing optimism that people will still want their stuff (and have working hardware) in 10 years! :)

E.g. I like archiving applications and on my drive I already have at least three dozen applications which are nowhere to be found on the internet and I just don't know how to preserve this info for posterity.

Well... The first and biggest potential hurdle you'll face is licensing.

If that is not a problem, there's many free web hosts, or you can put stuff on the likes of google's cloud thingy (or dropbox or mega.nz or...) and posts the links somewhere (pastebin? Here? Your favourite farcebork page?)

You could go really weird and rare and set up your own server on a Raspberry Pi with a SD card of suitable size (imaged somewhere else for backup purposes as well).

It's pretty easy these days to get simple hosting done, especially if you're careful to retain your own copies in case (/when) the host disappears or stuffs you around (eg photobucket, google, MS, copy.com, flikr.......).

And there's also the likes of GOG (Good Old Games) - there may be an apps version of them out there?

The only thing that would slow me down (maybe) is the licensing issue. But I'd be hoping to find the original authors and get them on side anyway, though that is often very hard to do.

I used to run a BBS. I had several of the Fidonet 'file echos' feeding into my system. One day I realised I hadn't heard the modem answer a call in weeks so hit the power switch and plugged a phone in. A while later, with no calls coming in, I packed up the drives and got rid of the old case. The drives and SCSI card are sitting in a box in my office desk (yeah, I actually do have an 'office' I visit from time to time) just waiting for me to be board of El Reg/Games enough on a wet day to actually sit down, test and old mobo/psu I have (ISA SCSI card) to make sure it won't blow things up, then plug them all back in and recover the data. Even have an ISA network card, though I may have to hunt back through time to find a protocol I can use to upload the data. Plan is to image the drives and see if I can run stuff in a VM. I have a huge archive of Fido messages I've been meaning to ship off to someone as well, I may even have the biggest surviving collection - IF the drives still run.

So if you do find a place that will take old programs let me know, I may have some they're interested in :)

Re: Removal of stuff costing little

rm -rf / is the devil's tool. Especially with --no-preserve-root

It can, however, be quite fun when an utter cunstomer has absolutely assured you that they have backed up all their data and no longer need your service, and you are NOT to retain any backups you may have of their data.

Re: 20 years ago..

Couldn't look a biscuit in the face for years after that.

KFC for me. Was so poor I had KFC for dinner just about every night... [1]

Cheap noodles as well. Lived on them for way too long. And cheap chips (what you lot call "crisps").

Damn I miss those days.. NOT! I'm not rich now, but my fridge is mostly full, my cupboards have at least a week's worth of food, my spice-rack is near full (need to replenish some stocks). Fruit and veg bins are full, freezer has plenty including meat. And not a pack of chips or biscuits in site, I eat way too good for junk like that these days! (just ignore what looks like chocolate wrappers in the rubbish bag...)

[1]It helped that I had a good friend who worked there, and she dropped off some of their unsolds on the way home each night.

Re: Beautiful

How much is the users data worth to the company? IF $datacost >= $ITstaffcost then recover it as often as required by the business. I had a user like this in our sales dept with critical information in the win 3.1 days.

Take a document that is auto-saved every 5 minutes. It is open for weeks on end.

It is saved outside of the expected location (perhaps in some deliberate fashion because the user doesn't trust IT with the data for some (usually) idiotic reason), and is saved outside of that location despite instructions from their boss to the contrary.

Said file gets lost and needs some deeper level recovery. How many versions do you think can be recovered? I've seen over 200,000 versions of one spreadsheet on a large recovery. Date-stamps may be a good help, but are not guaranteed. So the user's machine is offline for a few hours, maybe a day, while the recovery software looks for files and pulls what it can off to another disk. You hope that it's saved under the normal extension but odds are good that the user changed the extension because IT are too dumb to know about changed file extensions, and the user cannot recall what they changed it to.

How many hours do you think it takes to trawl through trying to find the file and then the last version of the file? It's not always quick and easy to recover data.

Now. This would not have happened had the user taken a moment to follow the correct procedure, but instead their arrogance means at least a couple of people are unproductive for hours if not days dealing with their problem.

How much is a person's time worth? Why should arrogant idiots who waste company time by not following procedures be given a pass? It's not IT's fault they're incompetent, and if you wish to make the claim of "there to support the business" then how abotu the user do the job they were hired to do without messing up other people's lives by their selfish arrogant incompetence?. My time is for people who do their job to the best of their abilities and follow the proper procedures, the reasons for which were explained to them. If they truly knew better then I wouldn't have been losing a week or more a year of time on other jobs due to their actions. No one else had a problem. No one else needed more than a few seconds of time to recover a file because it was saved in a nice network location with plenty of resources for keeping older versions. At most they lost an hour's work and at most I spent 5 minutes locating it.

If I'd had the authority, they would've been gone on the 2nd incident. (and if I'd had the authority, their HDD would've had just enough room for the OS and some local files, at least then I would've only had maybe a couple of gig of space to look through, not a 1tb HDD with only XP and some stuff - maybe 10G used in total, the rest of the disk gaining deleted flies as the system had no need to over-write 'empty' space for a very long time).

--> I have done scripts similar to yours, especially to keep my own stuff backed up across disks. Messy, but usually quick to implement and as reliable (if not more than) as some of the more expensive stuff. Especially if you're only working with changed files!

Re: The big red button

why do the cps tables compare so many things to the efficiency of the United States Post Office?

Yes. I also wouldn't have one in my house, given their penchant for going postal and destroying valuable nearby things...

(--> Beat me to it by 11 hours!)