* Posts by chas49

37 publicly visible posts • joined 4 May 2012

Quirky QWERTY killed a password in Paris

chas49

Re: All your QWERTY belong to us...

I run a small volunteer group. We set up a few years ago. We opened a bank account with one of the few UK banks which allow such groups to have an account. We have only a few hundred GBP, and transact rarely. We (like many similar organisations) require 2 authorisers for payments. The bank gave us a cheque book. We aren't allowed a debit card or online transactions.

So it's cheques but not by choice.

OK, Google: Why are you still pointing women at fake abortion clinics?

chas49

They also have the right not to be given misleading 'advice'. This topic isn't about the right to hear a certain viewpoint, it's about the right not to be misled.

Password recovery from beyond the grave

chas49

Re: The Real Hero of the Story

The article includes:

' "I've been asked to give you a letter," said the woman.b

Ad-tech firms grab email addresses from forms before they're even submitted

chas49

Re: Unique emails

Not sure you have that quite right. Gmail ignores any dot in the first part of your Gmail address, so madeup.example@gmail.com is the same as madeupexample@gmail.com so you could play with the position of the dot to identify some misuse perhaps. The alias feature is putting a + sign followed by any text you like - madeupexample+dontspamme@gmail.com gives you more options to play with.

Both ways of doing it can be ignored / circumvented by less scrupulous spammers.

Low on passengers, low on memory: A bad day on the London Underground

chas49

Re: What's the "Undergound"?

Like you, I didn't spot the missing second 'r'. .....

Börk returns to its spiritual home of Sweden as duff disks take down Stockholm signage

chas49

Reuters sign is still there?

Just looked on Street View. It's still there. Or back again if it went away. Who knows?

Missing GOV.UK web link potentially cost taxpayers £50m as civil servants are forced to shuffle paper forms

chas49

The link is NOT missing though?

The current version of the page does contain a link to the online form (https://visa-address-update.service.gov.uk/). And so does the version archived at Wayback as far back as September 2015.

Is this a non-story?

A cautionary tale of virtual floppies and all too real credentials

chas49

Re: Waddayamean "nowadays"?

The narrator of the story *was* the visitor (from Corporate or wherever), it was the local sysadmin who gave him the login details and access to the machine. So Dave wasn't at fault.

Your general point still stands though.

Safety driver at the wheel of self-driving Uber car that killed a pedestrian is charged with negligent homicide

chas49

It seems to me that a driver of a car which might ignore his/her inputs would react differently to a 'normal' driver - brake again harder perhaps?

It would be quite different to normal driving

237 UK police force staff punished for misusing IT systems in last 2 years

chas49

You can apply for a basic DBS check (£23) on yourself to show to a potential employer. You can't just apply for a check on anyone.

Careful now, UK court ruling says email signature blocks can sign binding contracts

chas49

Re: Signature versus signature block

This decision does not set a precedent. Decisions of the County Court do not create precedent and are not binding on any other County Court (and obviously not on any superior court)

Yes, TfL asked people to write down their Oyster passwords – but don't worry, they didn't inhale

chas49

Discounts outside Oyster zone¿

"If you know how to navigate the arcane National Rail ticket system and precisely what to ask ticket clerks to sell you, train journeys entering or leaving the capital's Oyster fare zones can be discounted quite significantly too; in some cases halving the price of an Anytime fare to some non-London destinations."

So what is the secret please?

It will never be safe to turn off your computer: Prankster harnesses the power of Windows 95 to torment fellow students

chas49

Re: More chaos

They were parallel girlfriends??

New British Army psyops unit fires rebrandogun, smoke clears to reveal... I'm sorry, Dave...

chas49

from Hrvatska

For some reason, that tweet was sent from an iPhone in Croatia. Someone's on holiday but still working?

That's a sticky Siemens situation: Former coder blows his logic bomb guilty plea deal in court

chas49

Re: $42,000 to read a code listing?

I suspect the $42k also covered tracking back to find out what they paid out each time the logic bomb exploded, and also identifying other costs incurred. You could definitely do that in 2 hours?

Imagine being charged to take a lunch break... even if you didn't. Welcome to the world of these electronics assembly line workers

chas49

Re: "the cost of which would be automatically taken from their wages"

EU law does not make it illegal to pay an employee for the time spent on a break. The employee is entitled to the break. Whether it's paid or not depends on the contract.

Let 15 July forever be known as P-Day: When UK's smut fans started being asked for their age

chas49

From reading the ElReg stuff yesterday, I don't think resale is illegal though it might be impractical as the "porn passes" expire 24 hours after purchase.

I suppose the business model could be to have teams of people outside newsagents offering to go in and buy said pass for (say) £1 extra.....

Secret mic in Nest gear wasn't supposed to be a secret, says Google, we just forgot to tell anyone

chas49

Re: Don't be........

'The above comes from a quote by my wife along the lines of "his music has too many notes and they are all in the wrong place"'

She is an Eric Morecambe fan, isn't she? https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/eric_morecambe_370203

Take my advice: The only safe ID is a fake ID

chas49

Re: Starbucks

There are a number of different thresholds for reporting under charity law. I can't see one at £5000. A small charity really doesn't need an accountant.

Tech team trapped in data centre as hypoxic gas flooded in. Again

chas49

Halon toxicity

It's not lack of oxygen that'll hurt you

"Although generally considered a safe and inert agent, inhalation of air containing Halon has been associated with a toxicologic syndrome affecting the respiratory, cardiovascular, and central nervous systems, as well as the skin."

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073567579690087X) (paywall)

Budget hotel chain, UK political party, Monzo Bank, Patreon caught in Typeform database hack

chas49

Your data will not be passed on to any 3rd party

I just received an email from Argos asking me to do a survey because I just bought something from them.

The email contained the above statement. So I thought I would at least look at the survey.

It was hosted on survey.foreseeresults(dot)com

(Yes I know it's not Typeform, but you would think they would at least know not to make misleading statements like that)

Computer Misuse Act charge against British judge thrown out

chas49

Re: Black and white or various shades of grey?

"Maybe the judge who made this somewhat misguided decision should reconsider the precedent he is setting?"

The case was heard in the Crown Court which doesn't create a binding precedent.

Brit IT contractor wins appeal against HMRC to pay £26k in back taxes

chas49

Re: So confusing.

Decisions of the First-Tier Tribunal do not create a binding precedent. The decision may be persuasive in other FTT cases but it's not binding. And it certainly doesn't set a precedent in any senior Tribunal or court.

RIP... almost: Brit high street gadget shack Maplin Electronics

chas49

Re: Well at least

So you've basically defrauded a different seller? Nice attitude. I see why you posted as AC.

Crowdfunding small print binned as Retro Computers Ltd loses court refund action

chas49

It's an interesting judgment, but it doesn't set a precedent. No other court is bound to follow this decision until or unless it's upheld by a higher court (if there was an appeal).

NatWest customer services: We're aware of security glitch

chas49

Re: Had simi9lar issues

I have had to reset password several times on a new Ulster Bank (part of same group) account. Seems to be OK now but I'm sure I wasn't getting the password characters wrong....

Chrome 56 quietly added Bluetooth snitch API

chas49

Re: Keep waiting for the day when users will start to push back....

"Think about how many people actually know how their car works. That will eventually be the same average for computers."

Only if a national programme of IT education is instituted. Otherwise it'll remain close to zero.

Oh, for F...acebook: WhatsApp, critics spar over alleged 'backdoor'

chas49

Re: Spy

You've blown your cover. "Are the trains OK?" is obviously code as the answer is always "No".

Amazon files patent for 'Death Star' flying warehouse

chas49

pie in the sky

@James51 that's the best reason - pie delivery drones!

Microsoft quietly emits patch to undo its earlier patch that broke Windows 10 networking

chas49

Re: ,So there's an online fix for not being able to get online?

And how will alternatives to Skype work when his computer can't connect? Do they come with a free pair of tin cans and a ball of string?

Allow us to sum this up: UK ISP Plusnet minus net for nine-plus hours

chas49

Re: A little slow in Berkshire

"Don't be daft"

Is the PNET offer cheaper than your currrent EE deal for the service? Since it's a 30 day rolling contract (I think),where's the downside?

Yes, the special rate for exisitng broadband customers may be undercut in future but you can easily move again. Check the T&Cs to make sure you're not tied in to BB.

Job ad asks for 'detrimental' sysadmin

chas49

Re: Gezocht Wanbeheerder

Only if WAN in Dutch means MIS?

UK public auditor, scourge of tax-dodging big biz, hosts its site on ... Amazon

chas49

Re: Cloud computing = losing control of your data

As I read it, this article is about web hosting. There's no suggestion that client data is stored outside the UK. Unless anyone knows better.....?

Google burns promise of 'no big banner ads'. Don't Be Evil next?

chas49

Re: Nectar card

Got that email too. What was most annoying about it? I don't have a Ford so maybe they aren't so clever after all. On the other hand, I did google Ford recently....

MoJ fined £140K for EMAILING privates of 1,000 inmates

chas49

Double deleted

Presumably means 'deleting' in the mail client which really means putting in a folder called Deleted Items or some such. Then deleting from there. So the data is gone from the mail client. Of course there are ways in which the data might still be recovered, but the likelihood of this happening seems remote.

Glider pilot 'swallowed camera memory' say plunge tragedy cops

chas49
FAIL

Re: shhh don't tell that to the American right

what American? Vancouver is in Canada!