Posts by Gray

Debian 6.0 about to take flying leap off long term support cliff

Never mind the secret sauce ...

Ver 7 "Wheezy" obsolete, boo hoo, support ends. XP users got over it, you can too. Ver 8 "Jessie" going, going! ... support ends soon. Ver 9 "Obliterate" never happens! Ver 10 "SuckyTux" online for Suppository Upgrade track, with zombie renew Forced Download! feature ... 2.67 Gb and rolling now to a distro center near you ... !

WHOA ... what a wild dream THAT was! Fell asleep in the recliner, MS Win10 Wonderful! Wonderful! commercial running on the TV ... wow, my head!

Brit spies can legally hack PCs and phones, say Brit spies' overseers

Looking on the positive side ...

At least the hacking and spying is confined to the planet of residence ...

... errr, right?

Louisville says yes to Google Fiber. Funny story: AT&T, TWC didn't want that to happen

A perfectly reasonable assurance ...

"That's why we're working constructively with the city on reasonable, common-sense amendments to ensure telecommunications providers can extend service quickly across the city."

PROPOSAL:

"To safeguard existing cable service lines, new fiber lines installations shall intrude no closer than 50 (fifty) feet from existing cable service lines in any direction."

That should take care of the competition!

Used a cell phone in NYC? The cops probably tracked you

If people don't want to be ...

"The city has countered with the argument that if people don't want to be tracked, they should not turn on their mobile phones..."

If people don't want to be peeked upon, don't live in houses with windows.

If people don't want to be censored, don't write thoughts on paper.

If people don't want to be robbed, don't carry money.

If people don't want to be defrauded, don't make investments.

If people don't want to be arrested, don't walk on sidewalks or drive on streets.

If people don't want to live in a police state, don't live in the United States.

There ... unassailable logic.

Global crypto survey proves govt backdoors completely pointless

Obligatory Congressional knee-jerk

Lest anyone think the US Congress will pay the slightest heed to this crypto survey, it's worth considering that most members will wish to be seen "standing tall" on the issue of national security and strong opposition to terrorism, domestic and foreign (and pedophiles! And whistle-blowers! And political opponents!)

Privacy and security are the privilege of the privileged; no others need apply.

Who would code a self-destruct feature into their own web browser? Oh, hello, Apple

Oh, yummies

Nanny goats are good to eat, unpissed upon by the Billy;

Billy goats are foul and rank, behold, they drink their piss

to woo the nanny wi' randy tongue, to mount 'er, silly Billy!

'Tis very much akin The Trump, his randy tongue,

his givin' us the piss!

- - -

Vote 2016. It don't count fer shite,

'n it keeps the pollsters up all nite.

Pentagon can't check F-35 maintenance thanks to insecure database

Crawl back under the covers ...

all them dollars and all we get are dickwads.

Windows 10 will now automatically download and install on PCs

Die, Dammit!

Microsoft Windows 10 Upgrade ... the creature from Hell that refuses to die! Silver bullet through the brain; wooden stake through the heart; decapitate, burn the head, mix the ashes with concrete and drop it at sea ... and the damned thing refuses to die!

Die, Upgrade Win10! DIE!!

State Department finds 22 classified emails in Hillary’s server, denies wrongdoing

Thursday's lunch menu

Classified emails? What anyone outside the United SillyStates of Amurkiness fails to understand: anything and everything under the US Gov't Classification System is "Classified" in one category or another, ranging from "Confidential" to "Destroy Before Reading!"

... including Thursday's lunch menu.

US still lagging on broadband but FCC promises change is coming

Nothing new here ...

Postal delivery, roads, electricity, telephones, television, cell phones ... in not one of these technologies did private providers step in to provide universal, nation-wide coverage. In each instance, some form of government intervention, inducement, or support was necessary. Now the issue is broadband coverage.

Yes, the United States has huge rural areas. Yes, the incentive for private providers is to cherry-pick the rich harvest of population-dense urban areas. And the same old, same old argument always rages: rural people deserve less because they are not a viable market. I was once told by an academic figure that rural people should not expect health services, since the population density did not justify the investment.

Take your choice, which is it? Money ... or people? The right or wrong of it depends purely on your political preferences (or where you happen to live!)

Broadband-pushers expand user piggyback rides on private Wi-Fi

Here in the US...

Comcast Cable (our local monopoly broadband service provider) pulled that crap on us, first by informing us that our aged cable modem needed replacing. They eagerly Fedex'd a replacement, supposedly free to us. What they didn't mention is that the new modem included the guest wi-fi hot-spot, so anyone war-driving or surfing the neighborhood could log in through our modem. The provision that only certified, bonafide Comcast account holders could do so was cold comfort; nowhere did Comcast inform us that we'd be providing a free hosting service.

I bought our own upgraded cable modem, without the wifi guest "feature"; the Comcast model is still in its shipping box in the closet, in case Comcast ever demands it back.

I may be old, but I ain't stupid or totally gullible. Damn this American free-enterprise monopoly crap! Comcast makes Bernie Sanders 'democratic socialism' sound better every day.

West Virginia mulls mother of all muni networks – effectively a state-wide, state-run ISP

UnAmerican

Huh-uh, nope, nada, ain't no way ... just ain't gonna happen. T'ain't really a serious threat, or the Telco/Cable Cartel would already have the FCC, the FTC, the SBA, the ICC, and all them other alphabet agencies on WV's butt, snarlin' and chewin'.

Service to the common folk is not, and for the last several decades, has not been a factor. It's a convenient smokescreen, but nobody in America believes it for a minute. Once we had REA (Rural Electrification Act) to solve that exact same issue, but it got labeled Socialist Government Overreach and the private corps rushed in to take over what public low interest loans had built, wherever they'uns could force their way in.

Now excuse me. I gotta get on the phone and hassle with Comcast about this latest billing screwup.

Forget the drones, Amazon preps its own cargo container ship operation out of China

Shipping sans sailors

Just think: Amazon technology can launch huge container ships running like driver-less cars, with GPS guidance, auto-pilot control, and radar avoidance systems to arrive at a designated harbor entrance where local harbor pilots will board and complete the docking maneuver.

Reminds me of the case where a freighter in the Red Sea arrived in port with the mast and rigging of a sailboat hanging from its anchor ... and another cruising couple mysteriously disappeared in mid-ocean.

American cable giants go bananas after FCC slams broadband rollout

No surprise, really ...

First, the FCC raising a complaint about broadband service in the US smacks of the butler complaining of living conditions in Downton Abbey; most all US agencies, including the FCC, are thralls of the corporations they supposedly regulate.

Second, the state of broadband access and cost pretty directly parallels the state of health care access and cost in the US: about half of what other civilized nations enjoy, at about twice the cost.

Anybody surprised? Not really.

Expect any change? Not in this lifetime.

At last – Feds crack down on crummy encryption … starting with your dentist

Nanny State

Just another example of government over-reach, interfering with the free-market principle of Caveat Emptor. President Trump will re-align the rogue FTC next year, thankfully, by merging its mission with the CIA to intercept encrypted Quoran imports.

Password-less database 'open-sources' 191m US voter records on the web

All your data are belong to us

... it will only get worse, due to the conversion to all digital voting equipment.

Actually, it's necessary to convert all polling places in the US to digital voting equipment. Otherwise, election rigging will remain cumbersome and slow with timeouts for 'hanging chad' conferences. Much more convenient without those pesky paper backups.

Voter database? Surely ... all your data are belong to us!

China wants encryption cracked on demand because ... er, terrorism

Don't stand downwind

Seems to me that the world's governments are ratcheting up to total surveillance; whether overtly or covertly, it doesn't matter. It was perhaps a fool's quest to hope for internet freedom, whether it was in a faint hope that spam/scam behavior wouldn't ruin it for all, or whether governments could resist temptation to shred the curtain of citizen privacy.

Promises of government restraint, respect for law, and words on paper prove to be nothing more than drops of piss in the wind. Don't stand where it will hit you in the face.

Sneaky skimmer scam stings several Safeway supermarkets

Re: Massive outbreak of skimmers in U.S.

Which is why the Missus & I have gone Luddite and no longer use credit/debit cards for ordinary shopping. Cash remains acceptable (until DHS - NSA - CIA - IRS deem cash purchases to be subversive in that they cannot be tracked). Our only problem is resentment from POS clerks who must call a supervisor to check the bills for counterfeit, and ask for a crash course in making change.

Congress strips out privacy protections from CISA 'security' bill

Never stand ...

between a politician, a hysterical, fear-crazed public, and his promise to keep them all safe.

Walmart spied on workers' Tweets, blogs before protests

Unionize this!

Shelf-stocking robots and self-checkout lanes.

Investigatory Powers Tribunal scraps its first annual report

Universal government strategy

Smoke ... mirrors ... obfuscation ... half-truths ... polished lies. Same old, same old. Nothing to see here, so move along please.

(After all, the spirit of the public obligation was satisfied by the commitment to transparency, but reasonable people must understand that unforeseen circumstances dictate cautionary excisions and redactions!)

Brit cops accused of abusing anti-terror laws to hunt colleague

Re: Entirely too distracted (Yes Gray, you are)

Ummm ... yeh, Cleveland (Ohio) cop, it's fitting that you sign on as "AC" ... coward.

Did you not review the surveillance video that aired thousands of time on American television? You spout the official Cleveland P.D. statement, which is shown to be a lie by the video. On a count of "one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand" to mark off three seconds, the action unfolded as: in the first second, the cruiser brakes to a hard stop just in front of the child; in the second second, the cop in the passenger seat has thrown open the vehicle door, pointed his weapon, and fired. In the third second, the cop driving has emerged from the car and moved to the front; the shooting officer has retreated to the rear of the vehicle, and the child has fallen to the ground and is dying.

Where in that three-second sequence has the child "pointed it at Cleveland USA police and refused to drop it when he was ordered to by the police."

This is why trust of the police authorities in America is descending to that of a third-world country where police are feared as corrupt and murderous. Until cell phones with video features, and public CCTV cameras came along, we could only take the word of the police. Sadly, even when video evidence is overwhelming contradictory to the police story, they still choose to lie. Some AC will always take their side.

Re: Entirely too distracted

That's what comes from reading articles before having that first cup of coffee early in the morning. Also, it's refreshing to surmise that Cleveland (UK) cops haven't shot down any kids in the public park. Right?

Entirely too distracted

Cleveland City police and prosecution authorities remain entirely too distracted while scratching and covering to bury the consequences of gunning down a 12-year-old child (Tamir Rice) in a city park many months ago. They're either relying on the American public news memory (akin to that of fruit flies) to diminish, or they're hoping that the Rice family legal support will go away.

Debian daddy Murdock joins the unstoppable Docker crusade

Top of the heap

Mint, Debian, and Ubuntu consistently rank 1-2-3 on DistroWatch.com's hit rankings, indicating public interest in the Debian/Ubuntu versions remains high. Even here on cynic central, Mint is usually the choice when recommending an alternative to the Windows revulsion.

Well done, Ian! What a lovely legacy.

Drones are dropping drugs into prisons and the US govt just doesn't know what to do

Goose gun

Back in the 19th century, American market hunters employed large gauge (8 gauge or 10 gauge) shotguns with full choke and long barrels to knock high-flying geese out of the sky from their migratory formations. These heavy shotguns threw larger lead shot in a tight pattern at considerably longer range than the normal 12 gauge shotguns used for ducks and other smaller fowl.

Of course, this might lead to goose-gun armed tower guards following their target downward toward the prisoners shoving and pushing and milling about to be first to grab the goods, which could lead to unintended (?) wounding. Then again, such a threat might discourage the prison population from taking delivery. And it's not like America has a shortage of prisoners. They're expendable.

Marlin Arms Co. made and sold goose guns of a bolt-action variety until the mid-1960s. Perhaps they could be persuaded to make a production run for the Federal anti-drone troops.

Oh dear, Microsoft: UK.gov signs deal with LibreOffice

Re: Hotel California

Sounds like the perfect tar pit to me; tell me: are you well and truly content with that scenario? Willing to persevere, endure, and ... sink even deeper?

White House to Feds: Stop buying new PCs, laptops right now

One standard PC

There is simply no way that this can end well ...

Samsung told to build bots who work for less than Foxconn staffers

An unwillingness to adapt, perhaps ...

But this is exactly what the elite class in the US tells us is the driving engine behind corporate productivity, enhanced world trade, and burgeoning prosperity: manufacturing efficiencies and global competition.

'Tis an unfortunate thing that wage workers are made redundant, but they didn't expect to be carried along forever, did they?

Corporate America has managed to substantially diminish the formerly industrialized and unionized middle class. Now if only the ingrates would stifle themselves and stop breeding so damned irresponsibly ... !

Steve Ballmer praises Twitter job cuts after buying 4% stake in ailing micro-blab site

Re: Twenty comments in and nobody has said:

supercilious twit!

Re: Wow Steve!

'tis a management meme: profit slippage demands layoff slips, from middle managers down to the loading dock grunts.

Actually, the perfect American company is one with only one worker at the site, whose sole function is to turn out the lights, lock the door, and report to the unemployment lines. Management promptly reports 100% profit increase, total reduction in expenditures, and glowing forecasts for acquisition $$.

US Navy grabs old-fashioned sextants amid hacker attack fears

USCG & USN binned the eLoran system for GPS

Do a bit of digging to learn how our "we don't need no backup, we've got all these shiny new satellites!" geniuses dumped the partially-built eLoran enhancements to the existing Loran system, after spending million$ to upgrade the existing stations. eLoran provided an order of magnitude improvement to Loran, and is essentially proof against jamming.

Yes, ye lubbers ... JAMMING! A disgruntled teen with a pocket jammer off the internet can easily blank the extremely low-power GPS signals for miles around. It's happened several times in US port locations. GPS super-high freqs are also susceptible to physical and environmental degradation.

eLoran is very low freq and very high power, virtually impossible to jam. As for hacking, it's also relatively 'low tech' and defensible.

Backup? We don't need no steenkin' backup. We gots GPS! (Think of all the military and domestic aviation, transport, commerce, and surface transportation systems that are now locked in to total GPS dependence ... and this Navy commander sez, "We'll probably just turn it off!" Oh, my achin' head!)

Experian-T-Mobile US hack: 'We trusted them, now that trust is broken'

Re: Another Incorrect Conclusion

Honestly, I would expect a company in that business, entrusted with some of the most sensitive personal data in existence, to take security far more seriously than it appears from this breach. That the exposure went on for years is simply unfathomable.

Not so surprising, really, if you understand US corporate mentality. The business plan is to catch and corral more horses in the barn. Nobody dare suggest that serious money be spent on a stronger lock.

Until, of course, the door is breached. Then the lock department is held accountable.

FBI: We unmasked and collared child porn creep on Tor with spy tool

Re: My civil rights are like currency to exchange for safety

Pretty much says it all right there, doesn't it?

(Now if the FBI could get as righteously and publicly outraged about the thousands of kids who disappear from the US each year.)

Move to the latest IE, or suck it: January’s cold comfort for Microsoft hangouts

Re: Another enhanced user experience!

If you're on XP and you're connecting to the internet - ie, if you posted your comment from an XP machine a Windows machine - you're a fool and you will get what you deserve.

Thanks for your helpful advice, Mr. Coward. As for that, you can see that I've fixed it for you.

The prime machines in our household (my desktop; my laptop; my wife's desktop; her laptop) all run Debian Linux ver. 8.1 (Jessie).

BUT ... my wife has legacy sewing/embroidery software that runs (offline!) on a dual-boot XP install. Damned if I'll pony up another couple thousand to replace that software just because MS tells us to piss off! (No, Win 7 is not an option. Even if I took a chance on reinstalling that costly software on Win 7 (which itself is withdrawn from the market) Win7 is on the abandonware track. Will her software run on Win8/8.1/10 ? No. End of argument. I find that life is far more pleasant if I keep the wife happy, and tell MS to go piss up a rope.

As for MY other laptops (two of them) that DO run XP ... both are very specialized Mil-Spec ruggedized units (Itronix IX-260+) that are subject to rough handling in field conditions and in a saltwater marine environment aboard my blue-water sailboat. One is used for navigation software that runs reliably under XP. In case it escapes the critics, the last place one wants computer failure or constant upgrade pitfalls, it's in life & safety critical apps such as navigation. (Two marine laptops: one is prime; the second is backup. And we have paper charts, extra GPS units, and a sextant. Belt, suspenders, and a rope in the pocket!) And the backup IX-260+ is also loaded with HAM radio software for land and marine mobile use ... which also runs just fine under XP.

Upgrade the laptops with something new & shiny? WHY? A mil-spec machine costs thousands of dollars; to gain nothing over what I've got. And these two laptops have unique drivers that Win7 or 8/8.1 won't provide, and Win10 is a total loss since it won't install.

So, Mr. Coward ... take a moment before you vent your wisdom out your blowhole. Some of us have special needs. Blindly following the lemmings down the MS path isn't in our best interests.

--Gray

Another enhanced user experience!

Am not an IT or SysAdmin type here; just one of the millions about to be run off the MS cliff. Question: is there a practical way to totally remove IE from a desktop installation, say from XP forwards, without totally borking the OS?

My attempts have been thwarted at every turn; MS won't even let me kill the desktop icon. I haven't used it in years (I rely on FF instead)) but there it sits, mocking me.

Microsoft's 'successful' Nokia slurp kills off Lumia photo apps

An enhanced user experience!

"... we’re committed to providing a great photo and camera experience in Windows across devices, and we’re listening to your feedback as we continue improving our apps.”

Well, Sparky, that's about all that needs to be said, right?

Grandma used to keep the family photos pasted into an album. We get it out on Thanksgiving and laugh at all them old black & white pictures. Now that we've got Microsoft standing behind us, we can all be certain that our Windows devices photos in the Microsoft cloud will still be there in full, glorious high-resolution color for our great-grand kids to laugh at fifty years from now. Okay, Microsoft ... ? That's feedback, Microsoft ... are you listening?

Stingray stung: FBI told 'get a warrant'

Pre-printed warrants and a rubber Judge's signature stamp

No doubt that compliance will be assured ... a new policy that requires a warrant before they're deployed.

Warrant in hand? Grab one off the stack ... check! Judge's signature? Press the rubber stamp on the signature line ... check! Data deletion? No problem ( data backups are in the vault! )

Trust, but verify. Verify? So sorry, but verification must remain classified.

Windows 10 grabbed about five per cent market share in August

And in the long run?

These Win10 'market' stats seem pointless. So XP loses a bit more, Win7 remains fixed, and Win8/8x gets nudged aside with a coerced free upgrade insertion. What's the sum total, then? About the same? Or an overall slow decline?

It will be far more interesting to focus on the inability of Windows to compete as a trusted, innovative product, becoming instead mired in a La Brea Tar Pit of awkward irrelevance.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits

Windows 10 blamed (partly) for stalled PC sales recovery

Re: El Reg agenda

If a roadster is a car with no roof, what is a hamster?

Hell ... errrr ... Ham on wheels!

Chinese IT spending with western firms goes OVER A CLIFF

Re: The Chinese have it right

Sorry, but Canada was Number Two ... right behind us in the US. We were Number One in line, selling out to China. (Still can't find a single damn thing in WalMart that's "Made in USA"!) So we'll be shedding no tears for US firms losing sales in China. I do have to wonder, however, how that FoxConn thing ... moving to India ... will work out in the long run. Maybe China can lock the borders and refuse to let them leave?

The US taxman thinks Microsoft owes billions. Prove it, says Microsoft

Not to worry

Whatever is good for Microsoft is good for America; corporate support of members of Congress assures America a stable and profitable business climate; and America will never suffer a budget crisis, certain of a continuing, bottomless line of credit with China.

Regarding the IRS: They have an obligation to appear competent and to maintain certain pressures to assure a continuing flow of political contributions.

Microsoft kills TWO Hacking Team vulns: NOT the worst in this Patch Tues either

Re: @Gray, re Windows.

@Shadow Systems: hmmm ... I never could learn to keep me yap shut, even after near on to four-score a'yappin'.

Anyway, I've grown fond of a stable distro of SolydX (Debian 8.1) with a lightweight XFCE face; it runs good on my old lappies 'n boxen with 32-bit CPUs. Look for the Community Edition of SolydX 32-bit or 64-bit (the XFCE versions) at http://solydxk.com/downloads/community-editions/

I dare reference that cuz us older farts with antique tech need all the breaks we can get. I'm not vision impaired yet (despite the best efforts of a expert with a laser cauterizer who fuzzied up the retina in my right eye.) So I can't speak from hands-on 'xpertise ... but perhaps this screen reader in the Debian repo is more capable? It's got a high version number so they've worked at it for awhile--Orca, a Gnome screen reader: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca

Re: Tell me about it...

Remind me again why I run Windows?

Because you're a masochist?

ACLU wants to end NSA mass spying forever – good luck with that

Self-evident, indeed!

Clapper lied to Congress, will lie to the Judge, and ignores the rights guaranteed by the Constitution ... what Truth could be more self-evident than that?

Microsoft nixes A-V updates for XP, exposes 180 MEEELLION luddites

Re: People still use Vista?

People still depend on Microsoft?

Submissive doggy-style ....

Citizenfour director Laura Poitras sues US for years of border security harassment

A very deep border

The powers of the US border authorities extend 150 miles inside the Canadian and Mexican borders, and from every point along the coastline ... Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf. It's estimated that two-thirds of the US population live within this zone. Totally at the discretion of the federal authorities, the same harrassment extended to Ms. Poitras at travel points could be extended to her anywhere inside that zone. Frightening, but true. Border Patrol agents routinely set up roadblocks to 'screen' travellers in certain border regions far from the border. The only restraint comes from the obvious need to refrain from enraging a greater percentage of the population.

HP won't ship PCs with Windows 10 preinstalled until mid-August

Gives new meaning ...

to the term "Doomsday" I'd think.

China wants to build a 200km-long undersea tunnel to America

Re: Well, okay...

We 'merkins would be all in favor of it, long as it's only coal trains. We gave up on passenger trains when we got snookered into that Amtrak thing ... and everybody knows how Congress hates spending any money on that!

UK.gov spied on human rights warriors at Amnesty International

All properly redacted, of course ...

to protect the identities of the NSA-CIA-FBI-ETC plants and infiltrators among Amnesty International members and leadership.