Posts by sin

I've gone from writing about SD-WAN to depending on it

Re: didn't see the WAN part there

Tell me it's an advert without saying it's an advert... "we have just moved in to new place and I just happened to have one XYZ sitting on the shelf"...

didn't see the WAN part there

I might have overlooked that, but there is no "SD-WAN" in your article, at least not as it is defined by Wikipedia, Cisco, and many others. You might just have skipped over the "unimportant details" about routing your traffic over SD-WAN to your company's main site, to be routed towards the Internet from there, but what you have described here is simple "if one Internet connection is not working switch to another in as few seconds as possible".

You say that your "Teams calls were not interrupted" - that is normal for years now when you switch from Wifi to mobile, also it is working so bad lately that no one even notices small (few seconds) outages, for which you alse say that were rare, far apart and often outside of time you were actually using the 'net.

Other, not so real time, protocols can do that even better: multi-threaded downloads from CDNs with short timeouts etc.

Now, that is totally fine for your use case, but be aware of the fact that that can be accomplished by any $50 (or even less) Mikrotik router or any ARM board with enough ethernet interfaces and Linux.

How do I know that? Because I have it configured in my office (and several client's too), because here where I live even fiber optic connections are not very stable (GPON mostly), so we back them up with coax cable from another provider (you can guess: not 100% stable too), but put together they work perfectly with simple failover done in Mikrotik routers. Policy routing included. And no "fancy acronyms" like SD-WAN were needed :)

In your case, I think that you have paid something ("SD WAN"), without even giving it a question "What is it really doing?". When you ask that question, 90% of sales people I had the opportunity to talk to, and were trying to sell something to me (or my clients) and lock us into their "ecosystem", just give up :)

I am just sorry that people are buying overpriced equipment based on ads (including your article) and not on its real usage value.

Sysadmin broke hardware worth more than he made in a month – and lied his way out of the mess

Well, if memory serves me good enough, Netware 2.x (and even 3.x) did not have a central user database, so you could do anything you want with multiple servers, they were only synchronized if you did that manually.

Now, Netware 4 came with NDS (Novel/Netware Directory Services) and made SSO possible.

Not much after, Microsoft introduced AD as a pretty blatant copy of NDS.

Call me old :)

Microsoft beefs up Remote Desktop security with ... hard-to-read messages

This is not "beefing up the security" but "treating users as they are beef(*)" :(

When I first got a report from a user that she cannot copy-paste any more, I was confused because that same RDP connection has been working for years, until I RustDesk-ed to her desktop and saw this dialogue popping up on EVERY connection!!! WTF microshit? WHY? Wasn't it enough to make clipboard non-default, with an option to turn it on ONCE for a trusted server? This kind of shit is yet another level of treating users like idiots (well, some are, but not all, and some people actually have to do real work with that crap OS)...

Btw, I didn't notice the new prompt because I am, of course, using FreeRDP on Linux :)

(*) not a nice thing to say about anyone here where I live.

NASA repurposes Mars Helicopter’s ancient Snapdragon SoC to help Perseverance rover navigate

Did they have to unlock the bootloader first?

Containers, cloud, blockchain, AI – it's all the same old BS, says veteran Red Hatter

Re: I totally agree

Another 55 here, and 100% agree

Re: Metaverse

What do you have against The Explited https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exploited :D

They used to be quite popular in some circles I was a part of ;)

IPv6 just turned 30 and still hasn’t taken over the world, but don't call it a failure

Re: The real reason nobody wants to use it

They should have adopted base32hex instead of base16, so we can be more creative with remembering IP's.

Your example would become: 801:i34:dhn::1inu:1nld:1fnf, but one could probably have an address like vha:tda:fun:kis:this:ipv:6::1 (base32hex doesn't have 'w') or my:sup:er:gre:at:ser:ver:1 :):):)

Good luck with explaining someone on the phone how to type in that :D

Zero-day in file-sharing software leads to RCE, and attacks are ongoing

People should learn once for all

"secure" and "VPN-free" don't go into the same sentence when we talk about "remote file access", or any other access to private data.

NO EXCEPTIONS!

Microsoft agrees to 11th hour Win 10 end of life concessions

Re: What a fucking shitshow

When I bought my computer with win10, the list price for win10 pro was ~€200 (I don't care to know how much it really costed the manufacturer).

It was sold to me as "the last windows you will ever use". So I expect to have support for it for as long as I use it, and I also expect that I have payed for that support with initial purchase...

And I don't care if they have "cost" to support it , because I PAYED IT. It did not come to me for free, and I don't expect them to do anything for free, because I PAYED IT in advance as "the last windows you will ever use".

PS I use Linux, this writing is from the perspective of all the others that I support. Personally, I really don't give a s**t about windows or micros~1 at all. My last windows was 95 :)

After deleting a web server, I started checking what I typed before hitting 'Enter'

It was a time before Linux, even before Windows... Year 199x, me 20-something, just got my first IT job...

I have just read (and re-read, and re-re-read) and tried all (well, most) of the examples from ~12 brand new red books titled "Novell Netware 2.2", especially the volume 1: Installation. Before that, I had experience with MS/DR DOS, fdisk and such, but creating a non-dedicated Netware server was a new thing. Somehow, a customer's server crashed at just the appropriate time (with no backups available, of course), so I was given the task to bring it back from dead, or at least the data. Server was hosting CA Clipper (Summer '87 if you must know) based "database" files.

So, I did the most normal thing (under DOS): installed a new disk in a new computer (back then, we used to assemble them from parts), also installed the disk from crashed server (because it tested physically OK, just wouldn't boot), hoping to just copy the data from second drive once the install was over, and started the Netware installation. Now, Netware 2.2 installation had a very unexpected "feature": it removed all of the partition info from all attached hard disks without asking anything, Only later it allowed installation of DOS if you told it that you want a non-dedicated server (sorry if this sound confusing, this is how i remember it, books are long gone, and I didn't consult any AI on this).

Next thing I did is phone my two (much older) colleagues, explain what I did, also told them about this excellent new program that we got a few weeks before called "Disk Editor", so we spent next hours reading disk sectors, copying database sectors from disk into files, and turning resulting files into appropriate .DBFs. We finished just after midnight, disks were much smaller in those days, and we were lucky that the server contained only this database, so everything that looked like a DBF was a DBF.

LibreOffice 25.8: Faster, leaner, and finally speaks PDF 2.0

Re: Still no usable database

> My time is not free. If I waste time trying to fix up these documents, that has a cost.

So why do you use a free software in the first place?

Go for M$ crap and pay them so you don't waste your "precious" time...

Or maybe it is not so "precious" after all?

(btw, I DID downvote you)

Cisco's Secure Firewall Management Center now not-so secure, springs a CVSS 10 RCE hole

I don't get it

Why do people leave management access to security or networking equipment (or servers or anything) open to the world?

Wouldn't a a simple "DROP ALL FROM ALL, ACCEPT ONLY A FEW LAN IPs" (however is that written in Cisco/Fortinet/Mikrotik/enter_your_favourite_vendor language) be enough to stop this and all other "CVEs"?

Danish department determined to dump Microsoft

I have had a few users sit at openSUSE desktop on a Monday and start using it without even noticing that it was a different OS than what they have left behind them on previous Friday.

It had Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, "file manager", PDF reader - everything that they used previously on windows. I have even copied the user profiles of Firefox and Thunderbird.

I told them that "windows ran an online update over the weekend", then admitted that it was a different OS, but they didn't really mind as long as they could finish their job.

OK, they were actually smart people, and they knew what they wanted to accomplish, and they could read and understand the menus, not just click around without thinking (as most do).

Microsoft updates the Windows 11 Start Menu

Re: Settings

> " my devices web browser doesn’t support uBlockOriigin or NoScript."

Last device I saw that doesn't support Firefox was "Nokia N700 Internet tablet", so there is no excuse :)

Apple Intelligence summary botches a headline, causing jitters in BBC newsroom

Re: Android guilty too

First thing I do on any phone I have to manage (read: family), first thing to get disabled is...

GOOGLE APP

Same warnings: your phone will die, "no no please don't", but only thing I have noticed is loger battery life.

Play Store - works

Maps - works

Gmail - works

Chome - disabled (Firefox rules)

Photos - disabled

Gdrive - disabled

everything else by Google - disabled/don't use

And yes, I have a ton of apps that I use, so do others in the family, but I get to chose and install them (or instruct younger ones what to do and what not to do).

Btw, my phone iis a Motorola/Lenovo Edge 20 Pro, much better hardware than 2/3 of the new phones on the market, but out of support/upgrades because it is "more than two years old model".

Which is good, because I am not receiving any more unwanted upgrades to Moto-tools (that are also disabled now).

Open source router firmware project OpenWrt ships its own entirely repairable hardware

https :// vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005007438358228.html

https :// vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005943823096.html

or just Search "2.5 gbps switch"

Not 3, but 8 ports, at this price I don't mind :)

'Best job at JPL': What it's like to be an engineer on the Voyager project

Re: Go V'ger

Well, in a few hundred years they wouldn't actually be "machines" but "things" when their RTGs go flat.

But who cares :)

Here's what happens if you don't layer network security – or remove unused web shells

As always, the only secure network device is one that is powered off and locked in basement, behind doors with sign "Beware of Tiger" :)

Windows 95 setup was three programs in a trench coat, Microsoft vet reveals

Re: "the excitement of installing Windows 95 for the first time"

Even then there were free tools for kinda imaging Win9x, and you didn't even need anything but windows' "DOS mode":

FDISK - create partition on secondary drive, make it active and reboot

FORMAT D: - because you never want to format your C: :)

XCOPY /whatewer c:\win95image d:\ - copy "image"

SYS D: - make it bootable

FAT32, no FS securiy, no ACLs, just simple file copy.

Of course, I assume having a fleet of similar machines with hard disk easily removed to be connected to master machine... have been doing this since '95, a bit more automated, of course, I made a "special" boot disk that would destroy anything on secondary drive and overwrite it with whatever current DOS/Windows 3x/9x was. It was life-saver when we had to deliver a bunch of new PCs to customers...

Half the world's online via mobile, but growth is slowing

Time to slow down and think...

I will never understand why the only important factor is "growth"? Once you reach certain level, stagnation is just fine. And NO, stagnation is not the same as recession, no matter what "experts" say.

Huawei's farewell to Android isn't a marketing move, it's chess

Time to slow down and think...

So what's wrong with 7nm? My ~four year old(new?) Motorola is 7nm, and working beautifully (and my much older Huawei P10lite is also working fine, but the battery is holding less than 8 hours).

I don't know anybody who NEEDS the newest 3nm, 32GB/1TB (or whatever current specs might be) device. A few people I know WANT that, but only because they want to brag about it... they still use those devices mostly for making simple phone calls (not even video calls and god forbid any kind of messaging).

This "arms race" with performance has become stupid long time ago.

Your computer's not working? Sure, I can fix that problem – which I caused

Not SOME money, but ALL the money, and with prices increased by some two digit percentage.

Japan to put a small red Swedish house on the Moon

Wikipedia: Västerås (/ˌvɛstərˈoʊs/ VEST-ər-OHSS, US also /-ˈɔːs/ -⁠AWSS,[4][5][6][7] Swedish: [vɛstɛrˈoːs])

I am sick and tired of those letters and voices that don't exist in my language, but people are still insisting on putting them everywhere, expecting that everybody else will spend time searching the Internet for right pronunciation.

I prefer to have something close to how it would be pronounced, than to see it in original and don't know what to do with ä and å (assuming other letters are read like in my language)...

So "Vesteros" might be more accurate, so let's start the Games of Thrones :)

Btw, I also have letters specific to my language and alphabet in my name, but I don't force that on anybody...

Foot-thick wall workaround: Gigabit network links beamed through solid concrete

So instead of shielded, point-to-point, solid 0.25mm2 (24AWG) or some optics, hidden in ceiling, walls, or at least in plastic ducts, using standard Ethernet protocols, consuming <3W for 10Gbps we have WIFI???? WTF!

Can they promise that no-one will be able to catch and decipher the wireless signal? Maybe not now, but in a year or two...

I'd always go for cable, no matter how much paperwork and drilling is needed.

I'm sure cable can be run everywhere, they already have cables in nuclear power plant cores and in labs working with live deadly viruses, right?

Then again, if you ask my wife: no drilling, no cables, god forbid anything hanging on the walls or ceiling, but I want my wifi to work everywhere and stable... What do you mean "can't be done"? You call yourself an IT guy, find a solution...

NIST finalizes trio of post-quantum encryption standards

"...America's adversaries – including Russia and China... "

For us in the rest of the world: "America, Russia and China" because they are all the same from the outside.

I don't see America being any less keen on getting other people's secrets, especially it's allies, than the other two.

(English is not my first language, but you'll get the point).

Hello? Are you talking on a Cisco SPA300 or SPA500 IP phone? Now's the time to junk 'em

Re: Any option for custom firmware

Maybe they will release all of the souce code once the phones become EoL, just like the MS did with DOS 4.0... in just about 30-40 years.

FTC grabs controller as Microsoft jacks up Game Pass price by 81%

Forgive my ignorance, but is it so important to have the game on first day? I mean, from my experience, it will probably be full of bugs/problems/whatever and will take some time to become really finished, at least that was the case with all the games I used to play... So why not just wait a day, and get it on day 2? It will still have bugs, but you will pay less for them...

This is from one who's running latest Tumbleweed&Rawhide with absolutely bleeding edge rc kernel :)

Cybercriminals quickly exploit CrowdStrike chaos

Re: "Criminals didn't waste any time"

That could be said for some other things that people are wasting resources on, like making weapons (to "defend" themself from someone on the other side of the globe)? Or building whole cities for rich people to enjoy (at $10.000 per night), while making poor people even more poor AND destroying the Earth in doing that? It is unfortunately true that people as species are only good at finding new ways to hurt other people...

Porting the Windows 95 Start Menu to NT

OpenShell works just fine for me, thank you, on those unhappy times that I have to switch from my trusted Opensuse Tumbleweed.

How to escape VMware's pricey clutches with Virt-v2v

Re: Disk2vhd from SysInternals

Sure :)

Fire up VM in any Linux rescue or live CD system (I use Opensuse), create partition layout per your needs, stop all services that could be modifying files on source machine, rsync everything to new VM, prepare boot loader, reboot... Yes, there is some manual work, but everything is customizable. Of course, you should really know what you are doing, so this is not for "average Joe"...

Resources: just google "rsync linux into vm" or something similar, but (as always) don't just copy-paste any of the answers, but be sure to understand what is going on in every step and modify it appropriately.

Disk2vhd from SysInternals

... is what I am using if I need to (re)virtualize Windows, either from bare metal of from VMware/HyperV/some obscure cloud hosting, unless I have full access to old server, in which case "qemu-img convert ..." is enough.

And there is nothing better that good old rsync to move Linux to KVM. Yes, it requires some manual work, but you can actually make it better: change fs to XFS, partitions layout - make bigger or separate /home, etc.

Prof asks court to protect his Unfollow Everything 2.0 extension from Facebook's ire

Last time I was addicted to a "social network" was in early 1990's with VAX NOTES at my university...

October 2025 will be a support massacre for a bunch of Microsoft products

So why AWS?

Hetzner.com is available on both sides of Atlantic, and they let you run your server on any port, including 25.

Don't even mention the pricing.

And with a little education you can stop spammers just fine. Or pay someone to do that for you :)

Microsoft floats bringing a text editor back to the CLI

Midnight Commnder and mcedit - I could not live without them... maybe because of years working with Norton Commander under DOS?

Boffins find asking ChatGPT to repeat key words can expose its training data

They have mistaken ChatGPT for Deep Thought:

“Ford carried on counting quietly. This is about the most aggressive thing you can do to a computer, the equivalent of going up to a human being and saying "Blood...blood...blood...blood...”

― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

With version 117, Firefox finally speaks Chrome's translation language

options, options....

I have been using FF Nightly builds since I learned about them about 10 years ago, had it crashing maybe 3-4 times (always fixed in a few days max). Otherwise rock solid, with 70+ tabs open at all times, sometimes double that.

Besides uBlock Origin, my favo(u)rite extension must be Paxmod*, which allows me to have my tabs in multiple rows, something that I cannot live without, because I want to see all the tabs and switch between them in just one click.

Back to the subject of translation, I don't like the popup about translation, so I have turned it off: browser.translations.automaticallyPopup -> false. I still get the translate icon in URL box. I'd like an option to have it always displayed, because from time to time I need my main language translated to something else - where I live, we use 5-6 languages of which I am fluent in only 2... I know I can go to hamburger menu -> Translate, but hey, options....

*https ://github.com/numirias/paxmod/ - not available in Firefox addons "store", works only in Beta, Dev and Nightly.

MIT boffins build battery alternative out of cement, carbon black, water

So this might be ready in 10-20 years? Just about the time nuclear fusion reactors kick in... ever since 1980's when I first read about them, it's always "in 20 years".

Astronomers testing next-gen asteroid-hunting algorithm discover potentially hazardous object

Just don't look up!