"Exploit takes a long time to cook Windows, but gives hackers a menu of evil options"
So how would you like your Windows Zombies - mashed, boiled or fried ?
(Oh, and keeping it foody, Apple punted out a load of security & bugfixes overnight)
1153 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Feb 2009
The first warning sign that your social networking site is in decline is when it changes ownership. That's when everything starts to change, and the original "buzz" that attracted you to the site disappears as the new management tries to monetize their new asset. The effect increases with each change of ownership.
The second warning sign is when they start taking the dates off everything - postings, user profiles etc - because they don't want people to realise that the site is dying on its arse and most users cleared off years ago. FR did that back in 2008, so it became impossible to tell when someone last logged in - and as people just created new accounts when they got locked out of Hotmail/Gmail etc you couldn't tell which profile was which. When I pointed this out to FR, they told me "What's your problem ? It's free to contact anybody now !"
Which brings me onto the third warning sign - user support is reduced to monkeys reading scripts and sending out canned replies, the original super-responsive-and-helpful folks having been replaced years ago. (This assumes they didn't walk out first in disgust at management stupidity)
Like everyone else, I'm amazed they survived this long given that Zuck stole their dinner money years ago.
I wonder how good the translation will be with more obscure languages further down the line ?
(Jump to 57s for the good bit if you're impatient)
Who actually owned the Yahoo IM account ?
http://www.romania-insider.com/human-rights-court-rules-against-romanian-fired-for-sending-personal-emails-during-working-hours/162939/ suggests that he set up the IM account for the employer, at the employer's request, for the employer's use.
If you're stuck with IE8-era apps (especially ones with ActiveX controls that won't run on more recent versions of IE) and you need to move to IE11, Enterprise Mode might be worth a look.
(Sorry, this isn't available on the "Home" versions of Windows, but Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate versions all have it)
"O"-level/"A"-level chemistry used to be so much more interesting, in all the ways you could poison yourself, blow yourself up, set yourself on fire or just dissolve/stain that god-awful tie.
I used to have an "A"-level chemistry textbook from the early 70's, which contained some, shall we say "intriguing" recipes that would probably get it labelled as a "terrorist's cookbook" these days. Especially the bits about TNT and Phosgene gas.
Many of the reagents mentioned in the book had long since been removed from the labs (sometimes by firemen wearing hazardous chemical gear !) or replaced by safer alternatives.
I no longer have that book, but I do remember that it burned with an odd-coloured flame when I stuck it on a bonfire !
Ever read the "Agent Picolax" story ? Try and keep a straight face while reading this...
http://singletrackworld.com/2009/02/the-picolax-thread-returns/
blu-tone – 2007-07-18 10:22:11
I realised too late what it was that they already knew only too well, the epicentre was behind me.
But this was no pantomime villainit was
KRAKATOA’S BIG DRUNK ANGRY BROTHER
And he’d come to kick the living shitt out of me . . . .
RIGHT NOW !!!
TBC
The politicians are still talking about backdoors ? They're probably thinking more along the lines of a cat flap, one of the "smart" ones that only allows your own cats to enter and leave at your whim.
But what happens when that flap gets busted ? It's going to allow a lot more than their own cats to get in - we're talking about other cats, small dogs, large rats/mice, birds, whatever.
Not to mention thieves who can use that open flap to grab unsecured keys and open the door fully.
You have to compile it yourself as it's a preview, it's not the actual release. Unless you're using Slackware, then you will never have to compile GIMP.
If you can't work out how to build a particular package, someone else probably has. They haven't got a 2.9 package yet, but it will happen once the package maintainer gets round to it.
That "dumb" watch will still work for many years after you bought it.
Even if your Apple watch lasts five years before the battery dies, it will eventually end up on The List Of Stuff That's No Longer Shiny. If it's listed on that page and it breaks, game over - no soup^H^H^H^Hhardware support for you. Let's not even get started on software/firmware.
Oh, and have you seen how much they charge to replace the battery if you're not in warranty ? Ouch.
"The killer might be a MVNO that roams across 2 or more networks though - if, Sky or anyone could offer that it could become compelling as quad play."
Roaming MVNO's already exist, but they're expensive compared to the ones that don't - so they're unlikely to become part of a "pile it high, sell it cheap" quad-play package.
"Virgin's mobile offering is as an MVNO, using EE's network."
If the BT-EE merger goes through, will Virgin suddenly find themselves as a MVNO on a (now much-bigger) competitor's network ? That's not a healthy position to be in, especially if/when the contract's due for renegotiation - as anyone who had a Mobile by Sainsburys SIM will tell you.
When leave and/or TOIL piles up and you're in a "use it or lose it" situation, that can focus management attention somewhat...
Me: I've just checked my leave calendar, and I've worked out that if I don't start taking leave this afternoon, I will lose some of it.
Boss: But it's the last week in August, you surely don't have over a month's worth of leave to take ?
Me: I do, and that calculation takes the five-day carry-over into account. Here's my leave request, see you first week in October !
Someone actually gets it. Now, can we also get someone to teach the ikkle firsties in Comp Sci that:
(a) Embedding your credentials into something that you subsequently stick on PasteBin is a BAD idea, and
(b) The slumbering DBA inside me wants to hurt anyone who uses "SELECT * FROM ..." in production systems.
ScreenOS 6.2 is already EOL, 6.3 has EOL extended to 2021 along with some of the hardware platforms.
I had lots of grief with their low-end SRX kit as well. Oh dear, this new version of JunOS won't run on your 512Mb SRX100 and licencing the High Memory Option to turn on the other 512Mb already in the box won't save you either. Would you like to buy an identical SRX100 with a 2Gb DIMM in it to replace it ?
I would have given you a pass if it had been a bit more jokey - but Win4War is certified until 2025 or something equally ridiculous.
DEC supposedly made a similar deal with Uncle Sam for VMS back in the early 90's, and that was for something like 25 years. No doubt Compaq (and later HP) had to honour that deal.
Apparently Microsoft didn't have the brains to realize that there would be a meaningful number of people who would take advantage of the "unlimited" offer in ways that never occurred to them.
It would not have taken much foresight to have foreseen the inevitable outcome and so avoided this problem.
To be fair, this "unlimited" stupidity isn't unique to Microsoft, but surely people should know by now that they're effectively signing a blank cheque when they offer anything unlimited ?
No matter how high they set the bar before such an offer becomes a financial millstone round their necks, someone is bound to take the piss - like the guys hoarding 76Tb. If they're on Office 365 Home, that's like hiring a honking great NAS for just £60 a year - and if the sub was Office 365 University, make that £15 a year. Even with the economies of scale that Microsoft enjoys, that's just not sustainable.
The free services have been dropping like flies lately, and some of the pay-for services have closed down. Wuala shut down last month, Golden Frog's Dump Truck shuts down on Saturday. Even the big boys like Dropbox are shuttering ancillary services, and Microsoft are resorting to stupid tactics to keep their costs under control.
At the end of the day, you're putting your data on someone else's computers and storage, and sometimes those computers/storage can cease to be available for any number of reasons. If you're relying on a free service, someone else pays the piper and you don't get to choose the tunes.
"If a squirrel can manage that, just imagine what a platoon of suitably indoctrinated IS recruits might accomplish by immolating themselves on our power lines"
Would chewing through power cables allow then to achieve martyrdom though ? I'm now imagining a bunch of loons in Tufty costumes climbing substation fences...