* Posts by a_yank_lurker

4139 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Nov 2013

Admins in outcry as Microsoft fix borks Group Policy

a_yank_lurker

Testing?

Was this patch even tested? These problems sound like something that would show up with a competent (I forget it's Slurp) testing protocol.

Sofacy NotSoGood: Time to switch up our Trojan-slinging tactics

a_yank_lurker

rtf

Would turning on show file extension mitigate against this attack? RTF is format that I believe has been deprecated by MS. Or could blocking all files with extension '.rtf' stop this?

Man dies after UK police Taser shooting

a_yank_lurker

Re: Although Tasers were introduced as non-lethal weapons.....

Tasers are generally less lethal than a firearm but too many people have medical conditions (known and unknown) that make a taser into a lethal weapon. Ironically, these people they would probably have a better chance of surviving a gunshot.

It's [insert month] of 2016, and your Windows PC can still be owned by [insert document type]

a_yank_lurker

Skip the Winbloat 7 and go straight to Linux, it will be easier on you.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Firewall and different programs

Flaws in Edge do not surprise me. Not because Edge is new but that all software beyond trivial will have various bugs, flaws, and compromises.

And I detest Slurp.

a_yank_lurker

Re: @a_yank_lurker Your reply is to arctic_haze

Oops, had recent eye surgery so the vision is a bit blurry.

a_yank_lurker

Re: The obligatory question

@artic-fox - Saddly one has to wait for a few days/weeks to learn which patch includes this month's autointall of Winbloat 10..

Early supplier on UK.gov's G-Cloud slams 'dying' framework

a_yank_lurker

Problem?

"buyers continuing to behave in the same old way" - Government procurement in the US is a minefield of Byzantine regulations combined with general stupidity. Expecting a bureaucrat to change is almost always a mistake; they love their inane regulations.

Workers rejoice! Marx’s vision will become reality, argues SAP veep

a_yank_lurker

Re: And in other lessons from history...

"I suspect that if the blinkered 1% don't wake up fast they will soon find out that there is nothing quite as dangerous to their wealth as a middle class scorned." - Spor on, the elites can avoid any real interaction with us lower lifes and have no clue what issues we face. Nor do they see us lower life forms as human but more like a highly trained dog. Thomas Frank in his recent book noted that the elites in the US Democratic party do not really care what happens to US workers and care more about their power and prestige. The trend towards a two tiered economic distribution of extremely rich and semi-poor is one that leads to societal instability and social unrest.

a_yank_lurker

Re: He doesn't mention the workers being the owners of the means

"these are not avenues to a workers' paradise" - One thing I have learned is never to trust anyone who promotes something as Utopia. It does not matter if it is Marx or some self-serving loud mouth politician/business man/etc., they are selling snake oil which if taken will enhance their prestige and power at the expense of the everyone eles. Also, most of these dimbulbs ignore the fact that any social system run by humans will have problems with the same human foibles that cause problems in all the other systems. The only difference between social systems is the precise rules to be followed to get to the top.

East Euro crims pwning 'high profile' victims with Flash zero day

a_yank_lurker

"We can kill it." - Only if a bunch of PHBs get technically sophisticated and learn how to use typewriters and rotary dial phones will there even a be minimal chance of that happening. I might be tad optimisitc.

Russian government hackers spent a year in our servers, admits DNC

a_yank_lurker

Not Surprised

Though it is below the radar it is not surprising major political parties would be hacked. What is disturbing is this hack has been going on for at least a year.

Xerox lays out BPO breakup plan

a_yank_lurker

Re: The trouble is ...

Actually, they have but the PHBs running Xerox could not figure out how to market almost all their good ideas. Sort of like Kodak and digital photography; invented by Kodak and it killed Kodak.

Linux devs open up universal Ubuntu Snap packages to other distros

a_yank_lurker

What Linux needed?

This might be the key to make Linux a more common platform users. Packages are written for one installer and can be installed on any supporting distro.

What is interesting is that Snap was written by Canonical for their purposes but released as FOSS so others could use it. This Linux users can still have our cake and eat it too. Many distors with effectively one package manager for the applications.

Buggy vote-counting software borks Australian election

a_yank_lurker

Re: WTF?

The worst parts of the US system are the ability for some to register and vote in multiple jurisdictions and the voting of the dead. Because there is no national voter registration records ii is possible for a snow bird to be registered in two different states which is very illegal. Also, some jurisdictions only purge the voter rolls is someone has not voted for several years but do not cross check to see if the voter is dead.

But the Aussie system sounds like a system that one that is recipe for fraud.

Not just the proles getting the heave-ho as British Airways races to save millions

a_yank_lurker

Dumbsourcing

It sounds like the PHBs at BA can not learn a key lesson - outsourcing important, core activities is always stupid. A lesson PHBs are incapable of learning.

Update your buggy Samsung PC bloatware to plug privilege bug

a_yank_lurker

Usefulness

My impression of most of the vendor installed crapware is calling crapware is overvaluing it.

Microsoft and LinkedIn: What the CEOs are planning

a_yank_lurker

Re: "A big part of this deal is accelerating LinkedIn's growth"

May be one should set a pool to see how long it takes Slurp to murder LinkedIn.

Brexit threatens Cornish pasty's racial purity

a_yank_lurker

Re: Champagne Cider

US law requires the grape to be the correct varietal for a sparkling wine to be called champagne.

Now Google backs everyone's favorite trade pact: The TPP

a_yank_lurker

Re: Ahh but.... Bilderberg

Your average American hillbillly is more literate than the average congress critter.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Can we even officially read it yet?

I suspect that most users are not fully aware of the implications of TPP for them. Most of this blame should be placed on the politicians/criminals and their toadies in the general media who do not want the plebes to know they are about to royally screwed again so the elites can have it better.

Crafty plan to give FBI warrantless access to browser histories axed

a_yank_lurker

A very dim Congress critter

Cronyn is trying prove Czar Reed's dictum; the average Congress critter can only subtract from the sum total of human knowledge. Czar Reed was the Speaker of the US House of Representatives in the 1890's.

Did you know there's a mega cybercrime backlog in Ireland? Now you do

a_yank_lurker

Re: work with the FBI

The NTSB is not the only one with an agenda, all feral agencies do. The NTSB's agenda however is determining why certain types of accidents happen and is relatively transparent. The other feral agencies often have agendas that they strive to hide from prying eyes.

Crysis creeps: Our ransomware locks network drives and PCs. Bargain

a_yank_lurker

@spamspamspam - I always want to know the OS targeted. The usual suspect is Winbloat based on previous attacks, but this is not proof. Also, an important detail is how is this attack propagated. I would like to know even if it is protect myself, my family, and friends.

Java API judge tells Oracle to suck it up, quit whining about the jury

a_yank_lurker

Real Reason?

Leisure Suit Larry's minions must be hurting financially. They seem to pinning their hopes on a financial windfall from Google. The irony is that the jury was largely non-technical and one would have thought they would lean towards Leisure Suit Larry. But they ruled the other way which is really hurting.

Government regulation will clip coders' wings, says Bruce Schneier

a_yank_lurker

Management

Often the real problem is the various PHBs deciding what constitute good code. Remember that most of PHBs have difficultly turning on their smartphone let alone a computer.

a_yank_lurker

Re: The man's an incorrigible optimist

And the Congress critters make the British look like a bunch of geniuses.

RIP ROP: Intel's cunning plot to kill stack-hopping exploits at CPU level

a_yank_lurker

Interesting

Sounds like a good idea. But a lot of interesting ideas have failed miserably.

Modi hints at H-1B unease

a_yank_lurker

H-1B

THe H-1B visa program has been abused to the detriment of US citizens in the US. Many are very wary of the program because it has been abused so often. So to have a foreign government say it needs to be expanded is not going to get a positive response from the plebes who will lose their jobs.

Chrome's PDF reader has arbitrary code execution flaw

a_yank_lurker

Keep updated

Keeping updated is usually highly recommended. Also, setting plugins to not run automatically will help.

Oooooklahoma! Where the cops can stop and empty your bank cards – on just a hunch

a_yank_lurker

Re: Graft

The US is slowly becoming a banana republic with nukes - a very scary thought. The bench shysters including the Nine Seniles apparently do not understand what a warrant is.

Bing web searches may reveal you have cancer (so, er, don't use Bing?)

a_yank_lurker

Worse. I can think of a number reasons for symptom search were the searcher does not have a specific disease. Also, many diseases in the early stages have similar symptoms which means any "diagnosis" is murky at best.

Why everyone* hates Salesforce's Marc Benioff

a_yank_lurker

Re: Why is Hillary election propaganda being posted here?

Actually Hildafelon does not really care about the plebes, never has. She would rather see the entire state of West Virginia starve because it is a major coal mining region to please here wealthy "liberal" backers.

a_yank_lurker

Re: So close

The historical problem has always been how to manage the transition and harm the fewest people. Too many cheerleaders fail to recognize that during the transition there is very serious skills disconnect between what people know and what they need to know in the future. This is a particularly problem for those who in the twilight of their careers.

Overall technology will lead to improved lives but the transition is likely to be very brutal to some. This is an issue rarely addressed and addressed it is often done in dismissive manner.

FBI tries again to get warrantless access to your browser history

a_yank_lurker

Re: Good luck with that

If the shysters in the US courts, particularly the Nine Seniles, bother to read the Bill of Rights (or more accurately have it read to them) this should be shot down in flames. But I doubt the shysters led by the Nine Seniles will bother with the BIll of Rights the banana and stripes will slide further into a police state with a veneer of elections.

Is Windows 10 ignoring sysadmins' network QoS settings?

a_yank_lurker

Re: Re-read and remember

@ gerdesj, I remember reading something about W10 acting like torrent client for updates awhile back and the report was apparently straight from Slurp. If my memory is correct, using users machines as part of a torrent stream strikes me as below dodgy since most people do actually have monthly data cap even if it is quite large.

Digital ad biz is fraudulent by design, complain big brands

a_yank_lurker

Pot meet Kettle

Is the pot saying the kettle is black?

That didn't take long: Shareholders sue Oracle in 'fake cloud sales' row

a_yank_lurker

Re: Business Opportunity for Lawyers

This suit is based on the reports of accounting fraud, which, if true, could lead to criminal charges. It is not about the decline of the stock price but that the decline was caused by the outing of falsified accounting statements not the normal ebb and flo of stock prices in reaction to market conditions. In other wards Leisure Suit Larry and some on his minions could be facing a vacation in Club Fed if the charges are true.

Bloke flogs $40 B&W printer on Craigslist, gets $12,000 legal bill

a_yank_lurker

His mistake was using Craigs List and selling out of his local area. Also, one can get decent, new printers for $50 from numerous places in the US. So I also have to question the wisdom of selling a used printer. Printers can be touchy devices at times.

Even in remotest Africa, Windows 10 nagware ruins your day: Update burns satellite link cash

a_yank_lurker

Re: If you use Microsoft products...

@ A Ghost - The problem you highlight is a real problem for many and has no trivial solution. But for many others, I suspect most actually, they do not use any highly specialized software that does not have an available equivalent for Linux, OS X, or even online that has all the features they need. So they could switch to something else. The key many are saying is if enough people migrate to away from Slurp and Winbloat, it will make other platforms more attractive for developers and hurt Slurp in the wallet.

In my case, Linux has equivalents available for the Winbloat software or the same software for my needs. So, in my case, using Linux is a viable option which I have taken.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Again, that's why we need minimal systems

While your idea has merit, the problem is for many users the PC is not just used for one set of applications but for a multitude. Also, what is the minimum required for a reasonably functional OS/distro needs to be answered. The sheer number of Linux distros indicates there is not one single answer.

But I believe Slurp loves to add esoteric functionality that very few users will ever use. Partly because they do not have a real repository system for adding functionality on demand. While a Linux distro can minimize the functionality in the base install knowing the user has full access to the repository and can easily add (or remove) functionality as needed.

a_yank_lurker

@ Mark 85 - To be pedantic, sorry, but it's not downgrades but the installation of spyware.

a_yank_lurker

Re: Bill them?

Slurp seems to be dodging the really heavy return fire. What will really get there attention is when one of their antics is the direct cause of some serious injury or death. At which point, the ambulance chasers will be the heros and much wealthier as well their client. OS upgrades must be user managed to suit the user's needs.

Back to the story, this is a situation that shows how Slurp's arrogance endangers people and wrecks budgets. The wildlife preserve is fairly typical; the IT staff is most IT literate staffer whose primary job is something else.

Engine warning light appears on Uber's $100m driver settlement

a_yank_lurker

Re: Labor protection laws in the the US?!

They can be pretty minimal. But they do force companies to follow minimal standards for employee pay, benefits, and safety. There are also regulations about fares, picking up passengers, marking cars, etc. for the taxi industry

Uber is attempting to side step these laws by claiming to be a matching service not a taxi company. But if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck.

On her microphone's secret service: How spies, anyone can grab crypto keys from the air

a_yank_lurker

Re: How can that possibly work?

It does work from a technical view. For most people, I doubt this is much of a threat. However for certain people, think high ranking official or business leader, this might be a handy way to break into their accounts assuming you can get within a few meters for long enough.

Windows 10 market share jumps two per cent

a_yank_lurker

Re: Get with the times, grandpa!

I did, I run Linux only on my kit.

a_yank_lurker

Re: "This doesn't mean the nagware is working:"

@bombastic bob - Many agree with your overall analysis. For most users, SOHO and enterprise, the 3 - 5 year kit they have is still perfectly adequate and runs the software they need. The only reason for them to buy anything is to replace dead kit. Throw in dodgy finances and the hardware improvements bring no real performance improvements and there will be softening demand.

Also, the PC market is primarily a replacement market with the total installed based growing very slowly and almost all the sales being replacement kit. Software has reached a point for many that they do not need the latest version of whatever because 1 or 2 versions back is overkill.

a_yank_lurker

Re: PC upgrades were compelling...

VR will probably be a niche market as most uses are not really enhanced by it. It will be driver for some high end gear for gamers and the like but for the rest a big yawn. Often gamers are BIY so even there the sales may be lower than one might expect.

Why Oracle will win its Java copyright case – and why you'll be glad when it does

a_yank_lurker

Author = Idiot or worse

APIs are interfaces to the code not the actual code. The code is the part that often requires original thinking. But there are numerous common problems that can use essentially identical logic. So code written in one language might have strong similarities to code written in another language; if not almost be identical.

The basis of FOSS is some sort of permissive copyright license that grants to anyone the right to obtain and modify the source code for any reason. The modified code can also be released by the modifier (check the license for any specific attribution/licensing requirements). Oracle v Google has little or no impact on the basic premise behind FOSS licensing; source code should be shared. The idiot did not bother to understand the basic tenet behind FOSS and the resultant licensing that grants users very broad rights to the source code by the copyright owner up front.

Microsoft warns of worm ransomware, finds fix in Windows 10 upgrade

a_yank_lurker

Re: Appears a lot of 11 year old girls are posting.

Antergos as my main OS, a close relative of Manjaro, and it does the exact same thing. There is a pop saying updates are available. I can review the updates, choosing the ones I want, review the update if I want. Also, the updates state which packages are being updated and the installation occurs when I give my explicit permission.