* Posts by Waseem Alkurdi

1240 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2018

Who needs an iPad Pro? Look everyone, Windows Terminal has mouse input

Waseem Alkurdi
Trollface

That translucency stuff?

Linux has had that for ages now. Move on, nothing to see.

(Icon: Trolling .. but isn't it?)

Hello, sub £-100 Moto: Lenovo punts 6.1-inch display e6S at low-cost crowd

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Aged?

. *glances at old Nokia n810, single core 400Mhz CPU with 128MB RAM*

And Real Actual Linux, unlike 99% of current Android phones. It's (was?) even being mainlined.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Can you root it?

It's a MediaTek chip - so a mixed bag, it may be very easy or nigh-on impossible. And Motonovo phones are traditionally anti-modding.

There are no-root solutions that use a dummy local VPN (that routes your traffic to an app on your device) ... but that's fishy unless the one you use is open source.

If you want a really moddable phone, go for a used flagship model (or low-end if it really has to be new) that has a Qualcomm chip and a leaked/available factory programmer. Xiaomi even officially supplies them (instead of them being leaked like LG's or OnePlus's ones).

XAML Hot Reload sounds like a gun you need for the 2050 zombie apocalypse – but it's a Visual Studio 2019 16.5 feature

Waseem Alkurdi
Devil

XAML Hot Reload sounds like a gun you need for the 2050 zombie apocalypse

More like the COVID-19-pocalypse, judging by how the masses are in a frenzy.

Tinfoil hat brigade switches brand allegiance to bog paper

Waseem Alkurdi
Trollface

Re: How to use the phone plate most effectively.

No, it's on page 49 of the fifth thread on the "Application and Installation Subforum" of the blasted thing's Community Forum ...

... in the Archive.

Borklays soz for the ailing ATMs but won't say if fix involved a Microsoft invoice

Waseem Alkurdi

Does misspelling something over and over and again make it correct?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: What makes you think it's Windows 7 ?

A whole lot of Windows versions between 95 and XP existed that did do gradients.

And it's definitely 7, based on the command prompt icon. That's the icon first introduced in Vista, and I sincerely hope this isn't Vista.

The command line background is blue, so it's possibly PowerShell in a Command Prompt window.

Appareils électroniques: Right to repair gets European Commission backing

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: My wishlist

Apple:

1- You gotta be kidding me.

2- What's wrong with the Genius Bar?

3- Huh?

5- Done, but look, here's the next-gen Apple USB-C complete with a chip to prevent non-Apple equipment from sipping pure Apple power.

6- Like the latest Surface Laptop with a socketed but still proprietary SSD.

Google: You know we said that Chrome tracker contained no personally identifiable info? Yeah, about that...

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Why is anybody expecting privacy?

Compelling in the sense that "if you've got something to hide, then you're a criminal and a risk to society".

Not true, but one has to concede to avoid being called a criminal in this case because criminals, well, do have something to hide.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Just one question

Why is it important for a website I visit to obtain knowledge on my Chrome installation ? I come with a browser, they serve the page, that's the deal. Why is it important that they be notified of any extensions I have ?

To fingerprint your browser (therefore you), so they could track you, so they could target ads depending on which websites you visit.

If I ever have the chance of meeting someone from Google, before shaking their hand I'm going to ask them the brand and size of their underwear, their shoe size, what deodorant they're wearing and how old their socks are. Let's see how they like that.

That's like the analogy I give to laypeople to explain this. Imagine that you're riding a cab when somebody slides into the seat next to you with a clipboard, asking you for where you live, where you work, what your interests are et cetera, jotting down your answers in minute detail. Any sane person would tell them to go mind their own business.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Why is anybody expecting privacy?

The question is whether we should just silently watch them do it or kick up a stink.

But for this to happen, you need people to realize the big issue. However, on the other side you have:

(a) catchy arguments that ring, are easy to grasp and are mostly true (like the compelling nothing-to-hide argument) ... and:

If what they do is covered in new legislation then we need to apply pressure to ensure the legislation is enforced.

(b) lobbying against almost all hope of an actual implementation of such legislation by megacorps, because there's money to be lost because of such legislation.

Most people don't think of Google of a data mining operation, however misguided they may be.

Some people think that Google is a really nice philanthropic corporation (compared to traditionally ugly ones like the smoking and pharmaceutical ones), offering services for pittance in form of ads. Let them target me, I'm not that significant, such a person would say.

The people that understand and have concerns need to raise those concerns to have a chance of reining Google in.

Brings us back to (a). Scaremongering really works when the scaremonger uses catchy arguments and have lots upon lots of money to back them up.

Waseem Alkurdi

That's their core business.

They track people for a living. Why is anybody expecting privacy from what's essentially a data-mining operation?

Schermata blu di errore: Italy might be in lockdown, but the sh!tshow must go on

Waseem Alkurdi

We are far too classy a publication to suggest that perhaps the computer driving the display has become infected with a virus and hacked up a big ol' screen of blue. That would be in terribly poor taste.

This deserves a medal.

Latest bendy phone effort from coke empire spinoff Escobar Inc is a tinfoil-plated Samsung Galaxy Fold 'scam'

Waseem Alkurdi

So Escobar Inc is all about continuing the family legacy?

And Samsung has become a bloody ODM?

(Assuming Samsung knows of this)

Microsoft nukes 9 million-strong Necurs botnet after unpicking domain name-generating algorithm

Waseem Alkurdi

Couldn't the malware authors read this and simply reconfigure their name-generating algorithms?

The Reg produces exhibit A1: A UK court IT system running Windows XP

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: No one goes to jail

Precisely why this is the case. See my response above.

Safety-critical applications (or business-critical ones) should not change so often or have so many hands out there using it.

Anything else, the users should grow up and readjust.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: What logic is this?

You've made a mistake here which has proven my point: considering any of this equal to a home or social user.

Not so fast:

It's ok if people screw up doing something recreational because of a UI change when using Twitter/ Facebook/Instagram, or any other non-critical application.

A critical application isn't something that would get many changes and is something that is not supposed to get so many hands on it that retraining its users is a hassle.

Think of a hospital application, since life and death were mentioned.

A hospital application that allows the janitor to prescribe controlled substances is seriously flawed. And a hospital application that has its UI changed with every UX fad is also in deep need of a reality check.

TL;DR: critical applications should not suffer from the issue at hand, unless that critical application is incorrectly implemented.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: What logic is this?

3. Re-training users regarding updates

I find it odd how users could magically retrain themselves when it comes to Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/$ANTISOCIAL_APP/$PHONE_OS updates and major UI redesigns ... but not when a work system changes something ever so slight ... like Windows updates prior to Windows 8?

Like seriously, is the difference between XP and 7 even close to enough to reconsider retraining?

Waseem Alkurdi

How's that even remotely useful to store data?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Blame the apps

There are exploits that do not require administrative privileges, often resulting in privilege escalations.

Example: CVE-2014-4971

Hello, support? What do I click if I want some cash?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Wrong tool for the job.

Though Windows has all the grace of an elephant doing a monkey dance and the virus potential of a public lavatory, it still has to be given credit for being easy to integrate into existing Windows architecture. This include dead-simple control with Group Policies, which I rave about to this very day.

And follow the money. Wherever you have a big megacorp (M$ here), you have potential fat rolls of bills being exchanged under the table (and yes, this had happened before - look up Microsoft and local governments)

Open-source, cross-platform and people seem to like it: PowerShell 7 has landed

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Choice

Use it, and use it long enough to become a standard, and bam, Microsoft changes in weird and funny incompatible ways that you can't do anything in return.

Fine, fork it. But the fork would quickly descend into either obsolescence or becoming a different incompatible project.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: What's the point of it on *nix?

Doesn't even do input redirection with <.

Waseem Alkurdi

Who are you and what have you done with Microsoft?

Oh, how we would've loved to believe that they are the new cheerful sandal-wearing open-source-loving Microsoft.

No, they are still the old M$. The old Embrace, Extend, Extinguish M$, only this time, they've realised how Google and Amazon are exploiting FOSS to their own ends ... and they are aiming for a slice of the pie.

From Azure hosting Linux instances to this (and everything in between), it's all about grabbing the market share.

What do a Lenovo touch pad, an HP camera and Dell Wi-Fi have in common? They'll swallow any old firmware, legit or saddled with malware

Waseem Alkurdi

Meanwhile, manufacturers complain doing signature verification of firmware code is tricky in embedded systems and other low-end or resource-constrained gadgets. While PCs and servers have plenty of room to check updates, fitting that cryptographic tech onto normal gear is not so simple, it is claimed.

If it's possible to embed a CPU in a CPU (Intel ME), then this could be done, too.

At worst, just disallow write access to the chip. I know that sometimes customers might need to update the firmware, but tough cookies, it's a security risk to these very customers.

At best, implement a small chip that does only one thing: read firmware chip, check the digital certificate, dis/allow write access accordingly. Even that is imperfect, but it's better than leaving it open for world + dog.

Waseem Alkurdi

Also known as passing the buck

"They [Qualcomm] stated that there was no plan to add signature verification for these chips. However, Microsoft responded that it was up to the device vendor to verify firmware that is loaded into the device."

Fortunately for M$, it's really on the device manufacturer. Firmware updates really have to be signature-checked, or in the least disallowed, unless (for instance) a "dev mode" pin is connected ... and even that should burn an eFuse to void warranty (Samsung KNOX Warranty Void style).

There's really no semantic working-around this incompetence.

Is it OPPOsites day? Chinese smartphone giant expected to develop its own silicon

Waseem Alkurdi

OPPO's parent firm is believed to have spent $12.6bn on chips during 2019

No fish to go with that?

(internal pun intended)

One man is standing up to Donald Trump's ban on US chip tech going to Huawei. That man... is Donald Trump

Waseem Alkurdi

What use is silicon without software?

Lots of uses.

Older ThinkPads are very capable LARTs (luser attitude readjustment tools).

Chrome 81 beta hooks browser up to Web NFC, augmented-reality features

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: The web is way too safe! We need more danger!

Could be a thing for kiosks ... but so is a regular $DISTRO_OF_CHOICE with only Xorg, Firefox in a container, a very minimal window manager without a way to launch any other applications and no VTs.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: OH NO!

Thing is, he's justified.

Although skeuomorphic interfaces can't scale to higher DPIs and are (arguably) limited to the real-world objects they are based on, the in-vogue whites and usability issues (where the hell is the scroll bar, is this button disabled or not, unprofessional wild and fugly colors which are also à la mode as well) are a nightmare.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: The web is way too safe! We need more danger!

"Those who don't {remember,understand} history are doomed to repeat it."

Ever wondered how Google-less Android might look? Step right this Huawei: Mate 30 Pro arrives on British shores

Waseem Alkurdi

And with free vulnerabilities baked in (signature spoofing, unlocked bootloader).

Fake docs rock real docs: Ex-Wall St guy accused of conning medics out of £27m for bogus cryptocurrency fund using faked paperwork

Waseem Alkurdi

No such thing as free money.

See title.

In a high-security preview, we got our claws on Samsung's Galaxy S20 and S20+... which are annoyingly good

Waseem Alkurdi

The crystal ball of leaks say 'no' this time.

NexDock 2 revisited: Could it be more than a handy Pi hole?

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: It's like an electric car

Even gasoline cars have once been billed as unsuitable for many applications ("Get a horse!", anybody?)

Electric battery tech is still in its relative infancy. Down the line, hopefully, batteries would overcome these problems.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: It's like an electric car

As for batteries, all those taxi drivers using Prius that are over 10 years old are still on their original battery.

And replacements are available for very cheap (the equivalent of $1000 where I live).

And even if not replaced, they would still run just fine with a bad battery.

I am certain that my electric will be replaced in less than 5 years.

By then, battery replacements might have become cheaper.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: It's like an electric car

Assuming that the Civic still has its original engine and/or transmission by then, are you sure you aren't going to spend $7000 in regular maintenance and parts when you buy one? An EV might be more expensive upfront, but down the line you would recoup that cost in savings on maintenance and fuel. ICE cars need a hell of a lot of regular maintenance compared to EVs (simplistically, four modular electric motors plus a battery on four wheels).

Nor have you taken in mind the fact that in seven years' time, with technology progression, battery retrofits may become available for much cheaper, as pressure is mounting on EV manufacturers (especially Nissan).

Comfort is subjective. While the Civic is more _upmarket_, featuring higher-quality fit and finish, any luxury car from ten years ago trumps either in build quality _and_ price. (But of course, you'd have to pay fuel and maintenance that correspond to a much higher price tag).

And the Civic definitely doesn't match the Leaf in ambient cabin noise nor in acceleration, which some people include in the umbrella term "comfortable".

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: That brings us to thin clients again

How about an free/open source alternative, possibly with experienced sysadmins providing support? If we're discussing new installations. it doesn't have to be Windows.

Waseem Alkurdi

That brings us to thin clients again

For individuals, I can see the appeal. Pretty interesting idea, actually, and can give ARM laptops PC-like upgrade capabilities.

But how about corporates? Is buying a hundred or so of these + the Raspberry Pi + Citrix or open source equivalent a good option in real life as opposed to deploying desktops?

The proposition is so good in theory that I can't see why it isn't being deployed more often in new installations (where you don't have switch-over costs and the like)

BOFH: Darn Windows 7. It's totally why we need a £1k graphics card for a business computer

Waseem Alkurdi

Of course not. These are not disposable consumer models, but business models built to be in one piece for at least one corporate refresh cycle, the warranty of which starts at three years instead of one year for consumer models. If you want to buy these new, you'd order them directly on the OEM's website.

After the "unboxing the new toy"* rush ends, believe me, new vs. used becomes very irrelevant.

I'd gladly take {$500,$1000} off the retail price of a {one-,two-}year-old $2000 mobile workstation in exchange for a year in processor tech (which has really stagnated between 2013's Ivybridge and 2017's Kabylake, only showing meaningful progress in 2018, before stagnating again in 2019). Heck, one year old models have two years left in the warranty (assuming quality business-grade stuff), so you should be as safe as if you bought it new. (Used laptops have the risk of previous owner damage or shipping damage, new laptops have the risk of factory or shipping damage, so it's all the same, you're simply swapping in one risk for another.)

Linux support is better for older hardware, where the devs had taken enough time to code and fix their drivers.

Personally, whether I've bought laptop X for $1600 new or $160 used after two years, I'm ending up with the same laptop in either case. Except that in the first case, I would have wasted $1440 for a temporary "new toy feeling". This is especially true in your case (as you explained in the post above). You simply wanted a 17.3" panel to view two documents at once, which suggests that you aren't doing anything that requires a really beefy setup (where one is better off with a desktop anyhow). A $250 ZBook from 2015 would do just fine for that.

But to each his own, I guess.

* The "new toy feeling" can also come from a used gadget as well. In my case, at least.

Beware, Tesla might take away your car's autopilot if you buy its vehicles from third party dealerships – plus more news

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Mercedes-Benz has copied the Tesla design

I know what you were referring to :-)

In the Apple vs. Samsung suit, couch commentators like ourselves pointed out that there had been rectangular touchscreen phones before the iPhone (like the LG KE850/Prada, released 12/2006).

I was doing a ha-ha-only-serious variation of that.

Windows 7 will not go gentle into that good night: Ageing OS refuses to shut down

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: I've had this happen for years with Windows

It's true that systemd sucks, but using such reactionary terms is awful.

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: Interminable Win7 Updates

One of these is a .NET Framework update, one is a Security Essentials definition package (both aren't OS updates), the others could be possibly earlier updates that have just showed up (due to dependency chains - yeah, Linux-like.)

Waseem Alkurdi

Re: And contrary to "expert" advice ...

Includes installing crap drivers (of the era), which is probably why many people cried over their crashed NT installs.

Waseem Alkurdi

Admin Audit mode?

"The favourite solution is to tweak the UAC (User Account Control) settings with the Group Policy setting "Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode" or the equivalent registry setting."

No, not a good idea if the user is an administrator. That would be like running everything in a root shell, only worse, you would be running Xorg and all GUI programs as root as well.

Forgotten motherboard driver turns out to be perfect for slipping Windows ransomware past antivirus checks

Waseem Alkurdi

No code review?

Closed source driver without appropriate code review. Enough said.