Posts by Donn Bly

Microsoft admits Outlook might freeze when saving files to OneDrive

Re: M$ Exceeding expectations

If anything, by referring to Microsoft using its common name of 30+ years ago shows a sense of experience and maturity that "kids these days" like yourself just don't have or understand.

Apple, Google pulled into Grok controversy as campaigners demand app store takedown

Facilitating Access to NCII and CSAM

I don't use Grok or any of the other major AI platforms, but of all of the reasons to ban an app from the App Stores these are some of the weakest claims. If we start banning things because they "can" do something, we will end up banning web browsers (they are just as capable of being used to do the same thing) or even any computer that can access the Internet.

Grok can't do anything that a skilled artist can't already do in photoshop, it just makes it easier for people to do. Should we ban Photoshop as well?

Developers can put in guard rails, and the people actually doing the image creation need to be held accountable for their actions.

From pr0n to playlists and paperclips, trio of breaches spills data of millions

I'm waiting...

I'm waiting for the eventual press release that says "The third-party vendor we used for age verification was compromised. No account names or passwords were exposed, just front and back images of the visitor's driver's license and the IP address used to submit the state-required verification."

VMware kills vSphere Foundation in parts of EMEA

more VCF cores being put to work?

Let me fix that for you: "its well-worn strategy of catering strangling to its largest customers should result in those customers moving more less of their work into VMware’s remaining products, meaning more VCF cores being put to work out to pasture."

At this point in time, I cannot see any organization with any foresight putting MORE work into VMware infrastructure. Anybody with a brain who has not moved off of VMware has to be actively working on an exit plan. I was lucky to secure a 3 year support contract with perpetual licenses, right before Broadcom bought them out, but you can bet I'm working on migrating all loads off of VMware. There will NOT be a renewal.

User insisted their screen was blank, until admitting it wasn't

Re: Solicitors...

I saw something the other day (most likely AI-generated) about a teacher assigning her students homework which consisted of having ChatGPT write a report on a given subject -- then write a second report explaining why the ChatGPT-generated report was wrong. I thought it was an interesting approach to demonstrating why you can't trust AI

Re: Reminds me of the time ...

If it was marking a character position, it is my guess that the original system was based on PUNCH CARDS, and the "UI" was just a way to create the records without actually punching any cards.

Electric cars no more likely to flatten you than the noisy ones, study finds

Re: Vehicle weight?

This is where theoretical physics meets practical physics. You would think that the 50% increase in weight would be a marked increase in risk, but the amount of practical force transferred from the 2000kg car to the 80kg human at low speeds isn't significantly different than the amount of force from the 1000kg car. Neither is going to slow it down before taking the human off their feet and becoming part of the moving mass. The only thing that makes a difference in the scenario is the effective braking force on the vehicles.

On a low-speed impact, most of the injuries are not caused by the impact with the vehicle, but the body's impact with the ground once the vehicle has stopped. At that point, the weight of the vehicle, whether it is a bicycle or a locomotive, no longer has any influence - only the weight of the human.

ICE-tracking app developer sues Trump admin after Apple spikes the software

And they might have gotten away with such a defense, if Bondi hadn't already publicly admitted that the government DEMANDED that the app be removed and that in the perspective of the government the removal was a direct result of that demand. Those admissions will definitely be entered into evidence, especially as Bondi was acting in the capacity of a representative of the government when they were made.

Lawyers have a duty to defend their client, but they have a higher duty to be honest in their dealings with the court. Any attorney trying to make such a defense, even a government one, would likely find themselves subject to a bar complaint and a "request" that they voluntarily relinquish their license or face possible public sanctions.

Not that I expect that the administration will allow the case to move forward, I am sure that they will find some other shady means of manipulation to make it -- or the plaintiff -- disappear from public view.

Death in the dollhouse as Microsoft marketing reboots digital soap operas

My parents and grandparents wouldn't know either. Some of my kids might, because they took business classes in college, but my grandchildren certainly wouldn't. Rupert is even older than I am, and I am wondering if he thinks that the target audience of the Reg is his grandkids instead of his peers. After all, the phrase "jumped the shark" actually jumped the shark itself about a generation ago, right along with "where's the beef"

Latest Windows 11 updates may break the OS's most basic bits

Re: Nobody manages me

Me as well - When I read the problem description I realized that exactly mirrors the problems that I have on this system that I use as my work-from-home terminal. Every time I have to restart - usually once a month after updates, I have to reboot 2 to 5 times before I can get my start menu and task bar and do work. It has been that way for months -- and the start may align with the July updates. Now at least I can research workarounds other than "reboot and pray".

Developer made one wrong click and sent his AWS bill into the stratosphere

Re: $1-2K per month?

Tell me again why "cloud" is always the go-to?

Because cloud services are expenses that are paid with pre-tax money and written off immediately, which lowers your annual taxes. On-premise equipment is a capital expense for an asset that you are probably borrowing money to buy, and is still on the books and incurring property taxes well after it has outlived its useful life -- sometimes even before the loan is paid. Choosing Cloud vs On-Premise is often more of a balancing act of the company's books than it is a technical decision.

Microsoft's first Windows 10 ESU Patch Tuesday release fails for some

Agentic OS?

Agentic OS? I would rather have a Geriatric OS. I want a mature operating system that has experience, follows procedure, that does what it is told, and does it well. An operating system that enables me to run the applications that I want and need, and notifies me if there is a problem or has a suggested change of procedure.

I do NOT want an agentic OS that ignores the instructions given to it to do what it "thinks" is best like a newbie employee. If I tell it to open the pod bay doors, I want to open the pod bay doors dammit!

Windows 11 25H2 is mostly 24H2 with bits bolted on or ripped out

Actually, yes. They removed it from Windows 11 24H2 in August, just in time for me to be rebuilding a stand-alone computer for a legacy document management system that used SQL Express 2014 as part of its installation process. The SQL Express installer uses Powershell 2, even though the application itself does not, and although it will run with a modern version of SQL I can't install it so that I can upgrade it. Eventually I will just have to build a 23H2 workstation to install it on, then upgrade Windows to 24H2 and SQL Express to 2022. I really wish they had just left it as an optional component, most people don't want or need it but those of us who do, DO need it.

Trump demands Microsoft fire its head of global affairs

Re: "It is highly unusual [. . ]"

That is actually true for most politicians,on both sides of the aisle, just that he is unfiltered enough to say it out loud.

Tech bro denied dev's hard-earned bonus for bug that overcharged a little old lady

Re: Lawsuit culture

I can only assume that you have never had to deal with a stolen credit card. The dollar value of the charges is far from the only liability. Time is money, and it may take you dozens of hours to document and contest each individual fraudulent charge, or even more to fight cases where the credit card company initially takes the vendor's side instead of your own, etc. You don't get reimbursed for the lost time. I had one case that took me over 6 months to get my money back. So no, it is NOT foolish and pointless, it is being proactive. It is like saying you shouldn't bother to run a firewall or anti-virus software because you can always reset your computer and restore the operating system.

Re: Lawsuit culture

I keep a credit card with a $1700 limit that I use for recurring subscription expenses for websites and for out of town trips. I keep the limit low just to limit my exposure should the card be stolen or otherwise compromised. This weekend I was out of town and by my custom I put all of my bills, including my hotel bill, on that credit card. On the return trip I couldn't fill my gas tank because the card was run overlimit by the hotel charging me for the same room multiple times.

I use this to illustrate that just because someone offers to refund money charged in error, it doesn't mean that there was no harm caused by the overcharge. If I only had a single card or didn't have cash, then I would have been severely impacted, and it could cause a cascade of effects that could cost a lot more to correct -- missed flights, cancelled reservations, etc.

The purpose of a lawsuit isn't always to recoup your losses, it is to make sure that they don't screw over the next guy. Think of all of the lawsuits where the plaintiff sued for one dollar plus attorney fees.

Slow Wi-Fi? Add houseplants to the list of suspects

Standard WiFi operates at 2.4 GHz, which is the harmonic of water. A leaf that has a high moisture content acts like a mirror at that frequency, reflecting the signal, and a leafy houseplant can cause significantly ***MORE*** attenuation than a plaster wall. I used to install a lot of outdoor point-to-point and point-to-multipoint bridges back when I operated an ISP, and we knew that tree leaves were seasonal chaff clouds that attenuated and dispersed any WiFi signal that you might try to shoot through them.

Windows starts asking for admin rights where it shouldn't after security fix

Re: UAC abomination

The reason for the UAC prompt when you are the only account on the computer is to protect you from drive-by installers. If that prompt shows when you aren't expecting it, then do a scan and make sure your data is backed up.

As to the file delete being denied, most likely it is because the file is locked by a process. It doesn't matter what access level you have, you aren't going to delete a file that is in use before killing the process that is locking it.

AWS wiped my account of 10 years, says open source dev

Re: a 10 year account and worth of work

AWS launched in 2006, not 2016. It has been around for 19 years so far.

I find it ironic that his account was deleted so quickly, when I had to fight to get mine deleted earlier this year when I realized that I still had an account and data out there from 2007 that I had created for testing the service and storing large video files for a website, but never really utilized.

BOFH: Deepfake or just an idiot? We'll need an audit to confirm

Re: Very interesting.

TANSTAAFL

Windows Server Update Services live to patch another day

Re: Someone from a company selling cloud patching software announces WSUS is outdated...

If they are air-gapped, then someone needs physical access, and if they have physical access then no amount of security patches will make a difference, because, well, because it is Windows. That is why the most up-to-date security patches aren't a priority on those systems, touching them periodically to check logs and hardware health and apply any necessary updates at that time is generally sufficient.

Re: Someone from a company selling cloud patching software announces WSUS is outdated...

I wouldn't go so far as the "sponsored article" trigger warning, but the rest of your points are valid.

The nice thing about air-gapped systems is that I don't have to worry very much about security updates. Updates on initial deployment, however, can be a pain.

I can't even do a manual install of an update on Windows 11 that was previously downloaded from the update catalog without the machine having a connection to the Internet. Even with Windows 10, I could do an offline install and then run a batch file that would install each of the updates to bring it current, all from a single USB without it requiring a network connection. Many locations I support have minimal Internet connections, and going cloud-based for everything is not always an option.

Windows 11 adds auto-recovery, kills offline setup loophole

Removing BypassNRO is shortsighted

I support small businesses that are large enough or have software requirements that result in them having an on-premise file server, but for various reasons do NOT use Microsoft 365 or Entra.

Our process for these businesses is to take any hardware purchased or turned in during turnover and start with a fresh repartitioning, format, and operating system load of Win 11 Pro. These steps all take place offline. Then we disable automatic updates and put this known-clean system on a designated VLAN, load OEM drivers, an initial set of pre-downloaded Microsoft updates, and install our RMM application. Then we use the RMM to finish the updates, log system inventory, etc.

It then goes back on the shelf until needed, at which time I join it to the domain. All of the preceding steps take place at a location that is inaccessible to the domain controller, in fact, we often don't even know to which site or domain the machine will eventually be deployed. Of the machines that we DO know, we usually have no idea who the end user will be. It may be a new hire or be used to exchange existing equipment.

At no time during this process is a Microsoft account wanted or needed. If a user is using Microsoft 365, THEN a Microsoft account can be added.

Given these changes, what will be the "Microsoft recommended and supported" method of preparing these machines?

Glitchy taxi tech blew cover on steamy dispatch dalliance

Re: Hilarious

They used to -- I have a friend who is a certified medical coder who was downsized and can't get a job in the field because it has all been replaced by AI

C++ creator calls for help to defend programming language from 'serious attacks'

Re: Failure to see

and they will dig out the old specs, and require it to be written in ADA

Re: Care to bet a fiver?

Seeing as how we still have industries maintaining code in COBOL, I don't see C going away any time soon.

WordPress war latest: Ploy to trademark Hosted WordPress, Managed WordPress derailed

Prior Use?

As someone who writes WordPress plugins, hosts websites (including some developed in WordPress), and manages WordPress sites hosted elsewhere, I have used the phrases "managed WordPress", "hosted WordPress", and "self-hosted WordPress" many times over the last 10+ years in bother verbal and written communications with my clients when referring to some of the work that I do. I don't claim to be original with them, but just giving examples of how others used the phrases in commerce long before the WordPress Foundation (which neither manages nor hosts websites for others) have been used in commerce.

If Mullenweg was successful in obtaining these trademarks, can you imagine how this would affect the rest of the industry in terms of other products if companies could start just sticking "managed" or "hosting" in front of their product and exclude all others from using the terms?

One third of adults can't delete device data

Re: Shredder is the answer

My preference is on the side of a hill at 100 yards as I sight in a new rifle. Although as an American I don't NEED an excuse for another rifle, I will take whatever excuse I can muster ;-) The hard drives just get the 3/8" drill bit in the drill press. Quick and easy.

Apple called on to ditch AI headline summaries after BBC debacle

Not an AI Problem

This isn't an AI problem. Editors in news media have been creating "click-bait" headlines for shock value since long before the days of the Internet. How often have you picked up a newspaper or read an article from a mainstream news source where the headline contradicted the article that followed it? The only thing here is that computers are doing it faster, putting hard-working editors out of work.

The Automattic vs WP Engine WordPress wars are getting really annoying

Where have we seen this before?

The new conspiracy theory is that Matt Mullenweg may have become possessed by the ghost of Roger McAfee.

Dark web crypto laundering kingpin sentenced to 12.5 years in prison

Re: Open

Thieves, miscreants, and EVERYONE ELSE gets their loots mixed -- just like at your local bank.

If I deposit $1000 from selling a bike, and you later withdraw $500 to hit the casino, and some of the bills you withdrew came from my deposit, did the money you withdrew come from the sale of my bike or from the paycheck you deposited last week?

If you have made five $1000 deposits via check over the last month, and then later withdraw $100, which of the five deposits did that $100 come from? None of them? All of them? Since they were check deposits, the serial numbers of the $100 you withdrew would have absolutely no correlation to the source of the funds.

Mixing is a fact of life. Yes, it happens when criminals launder money -- but it also happens in legitimate transactions every day. So yes, it is the same.

Re: Open

It has been known for years that 90% of all US $20 bank notes were contaminated with measurable cocaine residue. A study published in Forensic Science found that 92% of $1 notes were contaminated. These are the small bills in your pocket, in the tills of every bank and cash register in the nation, not the $100 bills used in bulk to fund the large illegal transactions. We are talking about two completely different things.

Re: Open

You could say the same thing about your paycheck, as a portion of that money may have been used for a murder for hire at some point.

If you have a $20 bill in your pocket, there is a 90% chance that banknote is contaminated with cocaine from the drug trade.

If you have any currency, physical or virtual, then you have a mark on your back.

WordPress's Automattic openly tracks websites bailing from rival WP Engine

"WP Engine can and always has been able to access the WordPress software and plugins available on WordPress.org, as can anyone."

That is a very interesting claim, considering that this started with Automattic BLOCKING access. Everyone who has been following this fiasco knows that they are lying through their teeth. Not that they had a lot of credibility left, but they certainly lowered it even more.

WordPress saga escalates as WP Engine plugin forcibly forked and legal letters fly

Forked?

When it comes to the ACF plugin, I don't think that "forked" is the right word to describe what they are doing. They made a copy, renamed it, and are apparently pushing the renamed version out to existing websites without the website owner's explicit consent under the guise of a "security fix" on an issue that has already been patched. To me it looks more like a Hijacking.

Yes, but just because Mullenweg says that WP Engine doesn't contribute doesn't make it true. If WP Engine didn't contribute to the community, then we wouldn't be talking about how WP Engine isn't going to be allowed to continue to sponsor community events such as WordCamp, how their employees and developers are no longer going to be allowed to participate in events or contribute code, or how a WordPress plugin developed and maintained by WP Engine is being forked by Automattic and renamed. Those are all contributions to the WordPress community, they just aren't direct contributions to Mullenweg's bank account.

Arm reportedly warns Qualcomm it will cancel its licenses

Re: Licence

The problem I see is that if existing licenses aren't transferrable, then anybody who has such a license and has developed products or intellectual property with it cannot put any kind of a value on that IP or product design, as it would go away in any sale or merger.

The second problem is that if ARM is trying to build a business model on non-transferrable licenses, then they really can't consider those licenses to have recurring revenue because all a licensee has to do to terminate is sell themselves to themselves.

California cops cuff suspect in deadly drone-assisted drug deal

The reason criminals typically do not obey such laws is NOT because it makes them hard to catch, it is because they are CRIMINALS and don't care about following the law.

The drone being registered does not make it easier for law enforcement to follow it.

Yes, your network is down – you annoyed us so much we crashed it

Re: Other ways of attracting attention

There are ways to send SMS without revealing the number, but the recipient cannot reply to such a message. I used to get harassing text messages that were sent via an API that my cellular provider maintained and the messages all came through with a number of all zeros.

But to get a reply I can use an Email to SMS gateway, and if the recipient replies I get their reply back as an email message.

Latest in WordPress war: Automattic says it wanted 8% cut of WP Engine revenue

"The software should be freely available to anyone to use for any purpose, and without permission."

Those aren't my words, those are the words of the WordPress Foundation, one of their stated goals when Matt Mullenweg helped create it in 2009. The idea behind the foundation was that no one person or company should be able to control the direction or future of WordPress or any other project supported by the foundation. A year later he transferred the WordPress trademarks to the foundation. Now over a decade later and after receiving hundreds of thousands of hours of donated labor from community members that were integral to making the project a success, he apparently wants to walk that back.

There are a LOT of companies that have based their business model on producing products and services that run on top, under, or alongside WordPress. Good or bad, it is the most popular website framework with more than 40% of all websites on the Internet using it. Quite a few of those companies have "WP" in their company or product names, as it is not a trademarked term.

I'm wondering if "WP Beginner" is going to be the next company in Automattic's crosshairs -- or is he only going to go after the companies that compete with his hosting company?

It seems that Automattic is now offering WP Engine customers free migration services to migrate their websites to Mullenweg's hosting company. This entire dispute couldn't be about Automattic just trying to increase market share, could it? Sure is looking that way.

I wonder if those servers are being run for and by Automattic, or if they are run for and by the WordPress Foundation. If they are Automattic's then there is no issue with them blocking access, but if those servers are being run for the foundation, even if Automattic donates the hosting, then I see huge red flags with Automattic cutting off access to the customers of their competitors. Because that is what they did, they didn't just cut off WP Engine, they cut off every company that uses WP Engine for hosting even if those companies don't use WP Engine's management services.

Automattic is trying to frame this as some sort of trademark dispute, but we should note that the WordPress foundation owns the rights to the WordPress trademark, not Automattic. The WordPress Foundation has licensed the trademark to Automattic, but the trademark does not extend to the letters "WP". Neither the foundation nor Automattic have exclusive rights to "WP". That is why "WP Engine" or any other business name that contains those letters is not a trademark violation, whether related to WordPress or not.

But 8% of the GROSS TURNOVER? That is more than the net profit of many hosting companies. WP Engine is a hosting company, and they have built their business around hosting open-source applications, particularly WordPress, but Apache and Linux certainly make a bigger contribution to their bottom line in terms of dollars per line of code. Yet while WP Engine makes money from hosting WordPress websites, Automattic somehow feels that they are entitled to all of their profit from all lines of business?

This is nothing more than Automattic trying to weaponize open source to take out a competitor.

Will they try to take 8% of GoDaddy's profit next? Are they going to start demanding a percentage of all sales from WooCommerce sites like the credit card companies do?

And that term sheet -- they want to prevent someone from forking open source software? They want someone to agree to terms and conditions for branding for seven years when they haven't even defined what those future conditions would be? Nobody in their right mind would sign any sort of contract like that, and Automattic knows it. Mullenweg could be a poster child for "negotiating in bad faith".

WordPress.org denies service to WP Engine, potentially putting sites at risk

Full disclosure - I am a developer who has developed WordPress plugins and themes for my clients to extend functionality to their unique needs. I don't use WP Engine (or Wordpress.com) for hosting.

This isn't about WP Engine being a leach, this is about WP Engine being competition for Automatic's Wordpress.com hosting

WP Engine doesn't really make money directly from WordPress per se - they make their money from people who use WordPress and pay WP Engine to host and help them with their WordPress sites. They are a great ambassador for WordPress, and contribute to WordPress by driving customers to WordPress and theme and plugin developers who have built businesses around WordPress, but Matt Mullenweg doesn't see it that way and in his short-sightedness he is trying to weaponize the open source to which thousands of others have contributed.

What this really means is that every plugin developer will need to set up mirrors and create alternate means for distribution, because we can no longer trust WordPress to have the best interests of the community. It isn't a big deal for me since I already have that infrastructure in place for updates to the plugins that I developed, but it will be for others.

But it also creates a business opportunity from anybody who wants to write a plugin to independently monitor the versions of other plugins and then proxy the updates. If I wasn't already over-committed on other projects, I might do that myself.

VMware reportedly probed by Japanese anti-monopoly cops

Their statement that sales of the bundles have exceeded expectations can be seen as an admission that they didn't expect to actually sell any

Admins using Windows Server Update Services up in arms as Microsoft deprecates feature

Re: I wonder how many people are migrating....

They might be sour, but he isn't wrong

Re: Not a surprise

ok, I'll bite... I think that they wlll make a touch screen a requirement, and you have to slide the screen up with a multi-touch gesture and then tap a button in the middle of the screen.

I know, I shouldn't give them ideas, but that's about as accurate as any other prediction

Former Autonomy CFO banned from chartered accounting group until 2038

Charging £450K for investigation

I get why they expelled him. Private organizations can expel members who they feel violate their codes of conduct. But to bill Hussain £450K for an investigation that he did not likely request smacks of the type of fraud (inflated numbers) of which he was accused and convicted. If anything, it makes me wonder if Hussain's actions were more of the norm than the exception, and his only crime in their eyes was being caught.

Microsoft punches back at Delta Air Lines and its legal threats

Since Linux systems have also been borked by Falcon updates, that is more of a sideways step than a step forward.

On one Prime Day, Amazon warehouse workers endured '45% injury rate'

Re: How?

It is simple, they don't. If they truly averaged 45 percent of all workers injured per day, they wouldn't have any workers in a week.

Microsoft ad subsidiary Xandr accused of violating GDPR

Loophole?

It looks like the data brokers are trying to establish a loophole, all they have to do is make sure that some of the information is inaccurate and they can't be held accountable. Being able to identify data as belonging to a single user, and being able to prove that you are that single user, are two different things. If the user is unemployed, and the uuid that they are requesting to have removed is marked as a student or being employed, then the mismatch would "prove" that they AREN'T that particular user and thus wouldn't have the right to have that data removed - even if everything else matched.

I really do miss the days of untargeted advertising. When a web ad was a just digital billboard and it didn't matter which eyeballs saw it, and no data was collected other than the number of impressions on the page.

But I do have to shake my head, because we have one side of governments that want to eliminate anonymity and track every action on the web back to a specific user (for the children, for course), while the other side of the same governments simultaneously want all traffic to be anonymous. Of course, these are the same government that want "secure" encryption with a back door. In the mean time, I will just do my part to continue to feed bogus information to the algorithms so that the data brokers really DON'T know who I am.