>So does this affect VLC then?
Where is your joke icon ?
Posts by Hans 1
3797 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Aug 2009
Page:
Ten-year-old Windows Media Player hack is the new black, again
HPE crams unloved software down Brits' throats – then charges them $9bn to swallow it
Pains us to run an Apple article without the words 'fined', 'guilty' or 'on fire' in it, but here we are
Thursday 8th September 2016 06:28 GMT
>How the hell does Apple get away with so many sales at such a ridiculous price?
Not too sure ... I think it is, as always, a matter of "looks & likes"
>Waha my 2 year old Sony Xperia Z3 has better features in many ways than this!
Maybe, but pure grunt is not one of them.
And well, Sony suck, too, don't they ?
The Japanese tech giant [...] released binary files of Marshmallow for Xperia Z3 series for custom rom developers.
src: http://www.xperiasony.com/android-m-for-xperia-z3-features-release-date/
Is this site a hoax, is it me, or have they changed from being total c*nts, over at Sony ?
Linus Torvalds won't apply 'sh*t-for-brains stupid patch'
Wednesday 7th September 2016 10:35 GMT
Re: He's right. Again.
> But by making a version of a device's firmware get compiled in with the device driver in the kernel
What ? Well, actually, these are usually modules, which drivers end up in the kernel is the distribution's/manufactuers choice. If hardware driver requires firmware, the firmware files are placed into /lib/firmware where one can update them.
Now, you have this (what Linus is saying) with some wifi cards, where you have to download the firmware for your chip from the internet - maybe I should put this differently: To be able to use the device that connects to the internet, you are requested to download the firmware FROM the internet. I know, sounds "normal" to you, maybe because you use Windows and are fine with using other computers to download ethernet/wifi drivers ... In general, you don't have to download files from the open internet to install them ... on Linux. These are rare exceptions that Linus is handling perfectly. All because Broadcom are too @#$%@#$ silly and don't understand IT IS IN THEIR INTERESTS to provide ALL firmware images to the kernel dev team, actually, it would in in everybody's best interest if they released the source code to the firmware, that way you could have fully free drivers for their devices ... but that is just a dream with suckerz like that around.
Wednesday 7th September 2016 08:32 GMT
Re: This again?
Exactly and I am pretty sure he starts off being nice, pointing out the issue, when he sees the other stick his fingers in his ears he blows a fuse.
Looking at this specific case, Linus could not have been clearer:
> Nobody has actually answered the "why don't we just tie the firmware and module together" question.
>
>Really. If the driver doesn't work without the firmware, then why the hell is it separated from it in the first place?
>
>The hack is a hack, and it just sounds *stupid*.
Linus
https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/9/6/720
El'Reg, it would be greatly appreciated if you could put his outrages into more of a "context", thanks. And actually, I think Linus was very polite, for a change ...I'd call that numpty names you cannot find in dictionaries ... I also remember one of his other rants about a loony who wanted to store metadata first on drive so that, in case of failure, say sudden power-off, you could at least have the metadata ... Linus explained that metadata is "useless" without the actual data, d'oh! And the guy came back at it ... you're wrong, Linus tells you your logic is flawed, you still come back, Linus tells you to @#$%, sounds like fair play.
Go, Linus, go ... tell 'em!
Wednesday 7th September 2016 08:18 GMT
Re: He's right. Again.
>I gave up on hoping they would stablize to some degree about 10 or 11 years ago but is still sad to see. Just have to look at how many dozens if not hundreds of kernel combinations for example that vmware tools distributes drivers to see how bad it is. Looking myself I see two hundred and ninety three different kernel drivers. (And yes of course there is source code too).
There is a reason why they change the ABI ever so often, don't worry, I used to think just as you do now.
>The linux kernel devs like to say just release the source. Yeah like that magically solves all problems.
Exactly, this is one of the reasons they are doing it, it's because of the GPL. Ideally, vmware should just send their drivers to the Linux kernel dev team and maintain them there, that way, it would be available everywhere - it would also be cheaper on dev costs, because more eyes for free ... the downside, of course, is that you get to endure Linus' outrages when you are wrong, stubborn, and the issue takes common sense to comprehend. In short, vmware are, once again, being a bunch of d*cks which might also have to do with the issues discussed in the court case (alleged Linux code-lifting).
No downvote from me, although I am a fanboy ... actually, I am more of a HateAnyThingMSBoy and I have valid reasons to be, imho.
Wednesday 7th September 2016 07:46 GMT
Re: He's right. Again.
>Microsoft can either let the application or driver crash for users and invariably take blame and media reports of the new OS being unstable, or they can write a hack specific to that application or driver to make it work.
Are you nuts, they do not give a rats a$$ and MS are right on this one, why should they keep undocumented internal feature x just because ONE 3rdparty program uses it, they are gonna say, please patch your poor excuse for a win32 application.
The problem they do have is that they have been relying on a monolithic system since day 1 and now that it has become a behemoth, they have many kinds of problems. Pulling out the ui, for example, has taken several years, and if you look at server nano, for example, with its 9Gb hd footprint, you can tell that they did not "really" remove the ui, they have simply hidden it ... Windows Me and MS DOS anyone ? Ok, this time better than before, still, a lot of ui-centric DLL's are still there ... just saying.
Windows Update is a disaster, when you install an OS, say Windows 7 SP1, for example, it will pull ALL patches ever released post SP1 from the interwebs... so it will patch iexplore.exe ~96+ times, instead of simply downloading and installing the latest. Why, are you gonna ask ? I am not quite sure ... they are Microsoft for a reason™.
Internet of Sins: Million more devices sharing known private keys for HTTPS, SSH admin
Wednesday 7th September 2016 03:38 GMT
>"This is not always possible, as some products do not allow this configuration to be changed or users do not have permissions to do it (frequent in CPE devices). The required technical steps (generating a certificate or RSA/DSA key pair, etc) are not something that can be expected of a regular home user."
Flash free software onto the thing, problem solved. Next time, DO NOT BUY devices with PROPRIETARY software in the first place. Note that this cannot be done some CPE devices unless you no longer use the device as intended.
98.1 million CLEARTEXT passwords pasted as Rambler.ru rumbled
Tuesday 6th September 2016 17:51 GMT
Re: Any developer who stores passwords in cleartest...
Notice the icon ?
Three downvotes already! You are probably gonna ask, what is is wrong with embedding an image in a Word file, right ? I was sure of that !!!!
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=lossless+image+formats&l=1
Ouch, I know, and am sorry ... BTW, what are you doling in IT again, may I ask ... I do not want to read condescending, but you ARE what is commonly known as an iditiot!
If you downvote again, you must be Adam from Accenture, sorry buddy, I did not mean to hurt your feelings, but, you know, I was hired to upgrade the application running on GNU/Linux, NOT help you configure IIS.
Tuesday 6th September 2016 10:52 GMT
Re: Any developer who stores passwords in cleartest...
>Just remember folks, every time you sign up for a new website/service/etc, you're relying that said service/website/etc was developed by somebody who was less of a tool than this guy.
>Sleep tight!
Sorry to repeat myself, but it is the natural born surface specialists, brick-layers, farmers etc that now become IT admins or devs that are the problem, also, our consistent reliance on outdated, security sieve-like software from Redmond that we are force-fed on a daily basis where with three clicks of a mouse I have an insecure web, SMTP, FTP server ...where nobody has ever heard of configuration files, encryption ... where anybody who has ever used Word or Excel can be your next sys-admin.
When configuration is so easy, you can get the cheapo to do it ... the worst is, they then want to cut costs even further and get a Linux server instead ... I have a number of clients where the "useless" Windows Admin is now tasked to administrate Linux boxen ... no training ... the guy knows what a mouse is, he can take screenshots (mind you with zapIt or whatever it's called coz he never noticed the Prt Sc key on his keyboard, and if he did never tried Alt+Prt Sc), puts them into Word and now knows how to configure a web server. The worst is, that NUMPTY takes a screenshot, pastes it into word, without any text or whatever, and sends it to me like that ..... NEVER HEARD OF MSPAINT.EXE (or whatever imaging App, mspaint.exe is on every PlayD'Oh OS).
If there are guyz who do that on here ... click the downvote button, I wanna know how many you are ... the shed is not that big, please line up over there!
Tuesday 6th September 2016 06:02 GMT
Re: Really?
I recently created an account on the Aix en Provence city council website to register my kids for after-school activities and ... was sent my password in clear text in the confirmation email. The same happened when I happened to forget the password I used on apec.fr ... they sent it to me ... we really, really, REALLY need to take the Window Cleaner and Surface Experts behind the shed.
EU will force telcos to offer 90 days of 'roam like home' contracts
Hacker takes down CEO wire transfer scammers, sends their Win 10 creds to the cops
Tuesday 6th September 2016 11:54 GMT 
Accenture ?
Anyone else notice the ONLY tech-savvy company, or so purported to be, is Accenture ?
I have talked to several of these guyz, show them CMD.EXE or PowerShell.exe and they wet their pants ... I am talking "consultants" here. No surprise to me that they are in that list, they would, generally, not know what 0wned means even if you hacked their website and put it on there.
Now to the scary thing, a lot of you hire these IDIOTs in, to "solve" your IT problems ... and their standard line is: "You should scrap all those vendors and go Microsoft only, because, well, one vendor is better." I read that line all too often on here.
To those that have fallen to this line, you probably don't know that the Redmond-based security-sieve purveyor and data-harvesting corp is their greatest investor. D'oh, I know.
Not only are they telling you, the car mechanic, that a Swiss army knife is better, because, well, it has a spoon as well as the Philips screw-driver, along with sizes 1/8, 1/4, 3/8, 2/4 spanners ... yes, you can repair a car with it AND got to lunch, who would need more than that, hey ? They are doing so to please their investors.
You will have guessed, Accenture consultants? I laugh them out of the building, only to return when my job's done at the clients ... I have the decency NOT to ridicule them in front of the client, but that might change soon!
Tuesday 6th September 2016 10:18 GMT 
Really cool what this guy did, but this is crazy:
>Scammed funds are often wired between banks on its way to the Chinese port city of Wenzhou, a hub of cybercrime on the East China Sea, where money trails run cold.
Wnzhou should lose its banking rights NOW, problem solved. Any other bank/city/country/whoCaresWhat where money trails go cold, same thing ... in the space of three days, no problem ... you've solved the problem ... a single money trail that goes cold, the bank on the receiving end loses banking rights. While you are at it, make moneygram & co legally responsible for the funds they transfer.
That, sir, is dead easy common sense - of course, our politician's don't want that because they use these "banking services", too.
'I'm sorry, your lift has had a problem and had to shut down'
Latest Intel, AMD chips will only run Windows 10 ... and Linux, BSD, OS X
Microsoft thought of the children and decided to ban some browsers
Exploding Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phablets recalled immediately
Monday 5th September 2016 03:47 GMT
Re: That's life - get used to it
>Perhaps before blaming Samsung it might be worth noting what an awful mess the update process is/was that implied actions from the carriers and exactly how many of them could be bothered?
Motorola phone running Android 2.x and never got an update, which model ?
I had a Sony Xperia, one of the first models - cannot remember exact model - shipped with outdated Android from day 1 (Android version over 12 months old), never got an update. The Xperia M I have has had updates, but still on 4.3, iirc. With 2Gb internal storage, not sure what I could put on it, though.
None of these phones were from a carrier ... because, carriers suck just as much as HP, Lenovo, Dell & co ... crapware pre-installed. And, you have to wait for updates to be released from google, to be adapted by phone maker, to be adapted by carrier ... if you are into Android, get a Nexus or Blackberry. I still do not understand why Moto failed when under Google's helm ... but then again, I did not quite follow their models back then ...
It's OK to fine someone for repeating a historical fact, says Russian Supreme Court
Sunday 4th September 2016 16:34 GMT
Re: Fact-checking, we've heard about it
>Bill Gates to the court: "You cannot uninstall Internet Explorer from Windows 95, it is built-in!."
>Happens everywhere ...
At the time of this writing, the above post got 5 down-votes, I did not know we had 5 Russian readers on el'reg who read comments ... then again, it could also be MS-fanboys in denial ... The above post IS fact, he knew bloody damn well he was lying to the court, as did I at the time ...
http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/GatesDepo/Gates1Depo.ogg
Bloke accused of Linux kernel.org hack nabbed during traffic stop
Replacing humans with robots in your factories? Hold on just a sec
Windows 10 Anniversary on a Raspberry Pi: Another look at IoT Core
BSODs at scale: We laugh at your puny five storeys, here's our SIX storey #fail
Tuesday 30th August 2016 09:31 GMT
Re: I don't understand why people are running ad-signs on Windows
>Yeahbut, the advertisers probably do everything in the latest version of Flash. They don't know anything else.
Yeahbut, the advertisers probably do everything in the last century version of Flash. They don't know anything else.
TFTFY
Microsoft redfaced after Bing translation cockup enrages Saudis
Tuesday 30th August 2016 06:46 GMT 
PR stunt
First Bing maps, now Bing translate ... nobody was using any of those services before, and bad PR is PR, after all ... now, people know those services exist ... the sad news is, nobody uses bing, so nobody will know how to get to them ... there is only so much bad PR you can do until the crowd goes meh ...
Update your iPhones, iPads right now – govt spy tools exploit vulns
EE looks at its call charges, hikes a bunch, walks off giggling
Friday 26th August 2016 10:20 GMT 
Ripp-off Britain
Let's compare this:
EE: £17.99 2GB Unlimited [Minutes] Unlimited [texts]
Mine: £17.00 50Gb Unlimited [Minutes] Unlimited [texts] +++
1. I can call landlines in approx 100 countries, fully comp
2. I can call mobiles in US/Canada, fully comp
3. I have 35days/year roaming (data, voice, text) included in Europe, US, Australia
http://shop.ee.co.uk/sim-only/pay-monthly-phones
http://mobile.free.fr/*
Click on "Le forfait sans engagement en détail" on the 15€ 99/19€ 99 offer ... I took 19€ 99 for the conversion ... I live in France ... EE's rates look like what our rates were ... before free mobile came along and scooped up every Frenchman with a working pair of braincells or calculator handy ...
MySQL daddy Widenius: Open-source religion won't feed MariaDB
Thursday 25th August 2016 09:40 GMT
Re: Alternative to Maxscale...
>I certainly didn't like the number of g_assert() calls in the production source code (262 at the last count), but it seemed to do its job OK.
The macro [is usually] turned off in final releases of code by defining G_DISABLE_ASSERT when compiling the application. I would hope so ...
Red Hat goes to work on OpenStack network convergence
Thursday 25th August 2016 09:04 GMT
>Red Hat’s hypervisor, meanwhile, has also been reduced in size running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2. The new hypervisor image is based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 installer, and only installs packages required to run the host as a hypervisor with no excessive packages, Red Hat said.
>According to Red Hat, the new hypervisor would let you “streamline the installation of system packages and driver updates, simplify the deployment of modern technologies, and provide better hardware support configuration management integration.”
Look here, MS, they can have hundreds of VM's running on the hypervisor ... using up less space than ONE minimal Windows Nano Server VM ... I know, you customer-base is all sold the bull you purvey, but things are about to change!
Kindle Paperwhites turn Windows 10 PCs into paperweights: Plugging one in 'triggers a BSOD'
Thursday 25th August 2016 08:03 GMT
>After they reboot, the Kindle is visible and usable as a USB device as if nothing happened. I can browse files on the Kindle and I can use Calibre with Kindle. After the crash and reboot, I can even eject the Kindle and plug it back in without any problems – at least during that session. If I then shut down my laptop, plugging in my Kindle the next time will crash my laptop again and reboot it, and then I can normally use Kindle again. Needless to say, this is annoying.
Hardware change requires a reboot, that is normal in Windows world, what is this guy complaining about ?
Microsoft baits new vSphere-to-Hyper-V switch offer
Thursday 25th August 2016 07:58 GMT
>Redmond's new offer means that if you make the move and prove it to Microsoft's satisfaction, you will “Receive free Windows Server Datacenter licenses with Software Assurance and pay only the cost of Software Assurance”.
That is still more expensive than GNU/Linux + support, thanks, but no ... I'll keep my Linux boxen ...
Das ist empörend: Microsoft slams umlaut for email depth charge
Paper mountain, hidden Brexit: How'd you say immigration control would work?
Monday 22nd August 2016 14:13 GMT
Re: "... it must surely be possible to shorten the form"
>Considering that it's 84 pages longer than the one in the EU country where I most recently applied for a permanent resident certificate, and 83 pages¹ longer
Yes, well ... other countries don't have these skullF*cked rules like, if you are a British Overseas National (Except Hong Kong, Cayman Islands and "whatever Island") go to section 13a, A British Overseas National (Hong Kong) goto 13b, A British Overseas National (Cayman Islands) goto 126e, a British Overseas National ("whatever Island") goto 3b, a British National from mainland UK, goto 1.b ....
1b will read, "where you, your mother, your father, or your uncle's best mate born between 1800 and 1830 on the second Sunday after Easter on a full moon between quarter past and half past four AM, goto 3c, was your mother born outside mainland UK between Jan 1946 and April 1963, goto 5f .... I could go on ...
Just accept anybody, problem solved!
Microsoft can't tell North from South on Bing Maps
Microsoft has open-sourced PowerShell for Linux, Macs. Repeat, Microsoft has open-sourced PowerShell
Friday 19th August 2016 11:22 GMT
>"software problems will be fixed by our legal department, not by software developers".
In the history of IT, nobody has ever managed to squeeze a dime out of a software purveyor for poor quality code, crashing programs, servers or whatever ... ever! If that had been the case, a dime per crashing Windows server, for example, MS would be bankrupt, and that even if we started it today.
Windows 10 Anniversary Update completely borks USB webcams. Yay.
Saturday 20th August 2016 21:19 GMT
Re: Satisfaction?
>Windows 10 continues to have the highest customer satisfaction of any version of Windows.
6. It could be that they totally made these non-numbers up ... never trusts stats you have not tampere not 1984, for once ... Since they did not mention an independent survey, they are pants ...
I have not met a single person who mentioned Windows 10 to me and said "It is not bad" ... nor "It is good" ... all I hear is resignation or hatred ... Oh, no, there is one ... one ... he switched his phone from Nexus to Windows Phone, 6 months ago, for the "complete experience" ... I doubt he will be happy to hear MS is canning Windows Phone ... then again, he lunches with the MickeySofties from the office next door ...
New UK trade deals would not compensate for loss of single market membership
Friday 19th August 2016 13:25 GMT
Re: Trade deficits also need to be taken into account
@alanorthhants
>Remember the we are currently running a pretty significant trade deficit with the EU. This means that they have a lot more to losse if they decide to play hard ball. Not only that but some of the member countries (e.g. Germany) have obviously thought the numbers through and appear to be becoming aware that playing silly-buggers is definitely a losse-loose scenario for all parties.
Make up your mind, is it loose, as in "on the loose", or losse, whatever that means ... you want help? None of them .. it is "lose" ... Now, do not insult the dyslexic by claiming you are of them, that was the worst spelling you got wrong ...
Now I have fixed your spelling, on to the subject ... what is Germany's greatest fear, according to you, a Brexit, which has already been decided, or other members deciding to do the same ?
I think the latter, hence, you can cling onto Germany or France all you want, they do not care ... they have more important things to prevent ... and, the UK needs the EU more than we need UK ... we were 500 million and just lost, what, 8% ? not that great a loss, let's carry on ...
Friday 19th August 2016 12:59 GMT
Re: Really ....
>The Germans only buy German
Ohhh, so those Ford patrol cars are just, I dunno, some joker who painted Polizei on his car and gets away with wearing German Polizei uniforms, then, right ? WTF, man, you need help! I stopped reading there ..
Listen, you can turn it the way you want, Mr Farage got everything wrong, as I had warned, you are not even out, yet, and in deep shit ... so, you are wrong, every economist on this planet agrees with me on the Brexit ... denial on your part won't change that. It would be greatly appreciated if the Brexiters could STFU, you have been fooled, accept it ... and live with the consequences!
Friday 19th August 2016 12:25 GMT
Re: Really ....
>Do you REALLY believe the Germans are going to stand idly by and watch their car industry lose out on billions in trade with the UK????
Seriously, what competition do they have in the UK, then ?
Mouhahahahaha! You will pay more... and with the Pound tanking, yet even more ... hilarious!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
