Posts by Pascal Monett

Some Windows 10 Anniversary Update: SSD freeze

Re: I'm not sure if your angry at the grammar or the fact I used an MS product

They're just angry that you said something negative about the Holy Linux, May The Bearded One Ever Keep It From The Unwashed Masses.

Each side has a cult, and neither can accept Real World Experience. It's always because you're too dumb, can't spell, can't read, can't "get it". Never because it's hard to grasp for beginners.

Personally, for every "expert" laying in on a newbie, I would dearly like to introduce them to a (mandatory) one-hour session with a karate black belt, 7th dan. The object of the lesson will be preparing for the black belt. You can guess the penalty for saying "it's not easy" . . .

Re: however infuriating the status quo may be

The status quo only exists because there are umpteen million companies who's CEO and personnel have grown up on Windows and they are too scared to change - for many rather good reasons.

The new crop of IT users - today's yoof, have grown up on Android and iPhone, Google Docs and Twitter. Microsoft is nowhere in that set. And when they get to set up their own companies - and some of them will - I wager they will see zero benefit in signing up for an OS they don't know that cannot do any more than what Google Docs can.

That is why Microsoft is so desperately pushing Win 1 0. It's the last cartridge it has to stay relevant. MS must absolutely stay in the minds of as many as possible to forestall the day all new market deciders say "Microsoft ? Who that ?".

MS may no longer have a QA department

But it has definitely kept the ShootingTheFoot department.

And, from the look of things, they've just had a caliber upgrade.

Vodafone: Dear customers. We're sorry we killed your Demon

"Vodafone should accept ongoing responsibility for the Demon domain names"

And I'm sure Vodaphone will - up to the amount those business users are paying for the service.

Hey guys, even when you pay you are subscribing to a service whose T&Cs specifically state that the suppler can change the conditions at any time. Don't act all surprised when the supplier of a service you don't even pay for is changing its conditions.

Of course, if you had an actual contract, this would not happen.

How Brussels works: if you can’t beat them, join rewrite an EU directive

"They care, but not enough to pay for it"

And that is the crux of the problem in just about any domain where politics are concerned. Yes, people will always state that they agree to whatever good-for-the-public movement is proposed to them, especially when listening to the arguments, but then they get home and plop down on the sofa in front of the Tube and from that point on the only thing they can still think of is order pizza delivery.

We truly have the society we deserve.

Microsoft: Why we had to tie Azure Stack to boxen we picked for you

Beat me to the punch there

Have an upvote !

White hat pops Windows User Account Control with log viewer data

Re: It's an elevation attack.

Yeah, I get it. But still, if the machine is compromised, then it doesn't really matter what happens after, the result is still your data is screwed, and maybe your bank account as well.

I worry about keeping my machine uncompromised. Once it becomes compromised, the details are unimportant to me. That machine is toast, period.

Google AdSense abused to distribute Android spyware

@FF22

"Your ad blocker protects you from no malware"

Sorry, but you're patently wrong. When the ad is the malware, blocking it protects you from it, period. The fact that there are other means of infecting you "from the same page" does not mean that ad blockers are useless, it means that you need other means of protection. Such as NoScript. Oh, and a functional brain that doesn't let you click on all those attachments promising lewd pics from a link in zip file.

Microsoft bins Azure RemoteApp, says go with Citrix instead

That must hurt

Not the part where Microsoft admits that one of it's products sucks - it's been doing that regularly, although not always so openly.

No, what must hurt is admitting that someone else is doing a better job for customer satisfaction. Of course, Microsoft doesn't give a flying monkey's about customer satisfaction any more (only just enough to be able to keep the telemetry on), but admitting it still must carry a heavy sting.

Ten-trillionths of your suntan comes from intergalactic photons

"10^21 photons pour into each square metre of the Earth every second"

Well, each square meter facing the Sun, that is. Which is still 250,036,000 km2.

So that's 2,550,360,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons per second that are bouncing off Earth's surface.

Yikes.

Azure clusters use 880 servers. Azure Stack-in-a-box will run on four

"a monthly update that will happen without any impact on applications"

From Microsoft ? Now that's a phrase that will come back to haunt them.

Intel overhyping flash-killer XPoint? Shocked, we're totally shocked

The fact that a given memory technology is ten times faster than another is certainly not limited by the user's typing speed. It will just store each keypress ten times faster. Of course, the user will not notice any difference whatsoever.

Where the user will see a difference is when the user transfers a large block of data (or a large quantity of small blocks) to that memory. That is where the speed will be significant and where the notion of limiting factors will come into account, such as CPU power, number of threads allotted to the task and available bandwidth between the memory modules and the source/destination of the data.

If you're just waiting on user keyboard operations, a good ol' PC XT could do the job nicely.

Dota 2 forums fall under hackers' spell, 1.9m accounts teleported out

Valve forums use MD5 hashing and got cracked ?

I like Valve. I've always felt that Half-Life (the original) was the best computer AI ever developed. I love Steam. I feel it's the best software-vending platform in existence.

And now this. I am disappointed, Valve. Clean up your procedures, NOW. You're better than that.

Thieves can wirelessly unlock up to 100 million Volkswagens, each at the press of a button

I have an A5

I like it. it's a beautiful car, sleek figure, 240hp. When I put the foot down, it goes. I like that.

Now I learn that any technically-inclined scum can wave a magic wand and I'm losing my car ?

Not happy.

I'm going to confront my dealer on this.

Linux malware? That'll never happen. Ok, just this once then

No, it isn't Linux. I never said it was. But it's installed by the same kind of holier-than-thou that endlessly deride Windows users at every opportunity (ok, there is no shortage of opportunity there).

Sorry, but this is a big black mark on Linux condescension. I will not forget it.

"those who run Redis without requiring a password for connections"

WHAT ? There are Linux admins who have actually configured the oh-so-vaunted Linux server to accept external comms without authentication ? Count my gast flabbered. Must be ex-Windows admins.

In any case, the next time I view another condescending comment on lusers running Windows in admin mode, I will link to this article with relish.

Adblock Plus blocks Facebook's ad-blocker buster: It's a block party!

Indeed

The only thing that is punishing people is being on Facebook.

Julian Assange^TM to meet investigators in London

Yeah, but the reality show named Assange is like all the others - I just can't be arsed.

Hilton hotels' email so much like phishing it fooled its own techies

"tricked its own IT shop into advising that it was a scam"

That is the demonstration of the gap that exists between marketing and IT security. Marketing wants to be as friendly as possible and make things as easy as possible for the user, so sends all details, puts links in buttons and invents stupid names like HHonor that make people forget what a typo is.

The IT security comes in, sees all the stupidity and goes "That is too dumb to be real - avoid".

Inevitable, really.

Hitler ‘ransomware’ offers to sell you back access to your files – but just deletes them

Re: chewing up disk space if not managed

And we all know that home users do not manage.

Judges put FCC back in its box: No, you can't override state laws, not even for city broadband

Re: The bureaucrats, this time, were trying to do the right thing

Just like the EU in every single occasion where UK government tried to enforce spy laws and weaken privacy, eh ?

IBM used dud DoS shield for failed online census says Oz PM

Well why doesn't somebody at IBM just say so when they get a call ? You can't really argue with the law.

"systems put in place by IBM did not include adequate protection against [..] (DoS) attacks"

I have one question : where is it stated that ABS required such protection in the specifications ?

IBM may well be a lumbering behemoth that whose right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, but from my experience its consultants are very procedural and tend to want to include absolutely everything in the specifications to max out all possible chances of revenue. To me, that means that it is very likely that IBM offered DOS protection measures, and ABS said no to the cost, so the measures were taken out of the offer before signature and go-ahead.

I simply cannot believe that IBM got handed the project and "forgot" to implement DOS protection measures. If IBM didn't implement it, I think it's because ABS said no. Probably because they thought the risk was insignificant ("who would DOS a census ?"). Now that the risk has revealed itself to be much more important, ABS wants to deflect the blame on the supplier. Typical coward's response.

So which is it ? Can somebody shed some light on this ?

Cyber-crime cost calculation studies are rubbish: ENISA

Mistaken approach

ENISA has misunderstood the goal of these "studies". They are not made to explain an actual cost, they are made to push the hysterical fear agenda to scare punters into investing into security (any kind, doesn't matter as long the contract is in the tens of thousands) and therefor need to publish big numbers because that's more impressive than saying that a typical cybercrime will actually cost an admin a day/week of work to ferret out and lock down the affected parts.

Even if your admin is paid in gold bars, you won't hit a number that is anywhere near the million mark, so not impressive enough.

McAfee outs malware dev firm with scores of Download.com installs

Interesting

"Large software download sites are a hated web relic in infosec circles because security checks are often scanty, while bundler installation programs make direct efforts to trick their users into installing unwanted apps that increase PC attack surfaces."

Maybe they should have a word with CNet as well, eh ? I hate download wrappers. All of them.

Your colleagues will lie to you: An enterprise architect's life

Re: Startups. It is no wonder so many of them fail

Indeed it is not, because running a company is something totally different to what anyone does on a day-to-day basis.

The first big hurdle is to not confuse what you have on the company bank account with what your benefits are. The company can have cash ready and still be going bust.

The second just-as-important thing is not to confuse the company bank account with your money. That is a very quick road to failure.

But there are more insidious things, like being able to detect which costs are bringing your company down and which ones are helping support the business. You must remove the first without remorse and be prepared to take the latter. You generally have to spend money to make it, the trick is spending the right amount in the right ways. This is what generally kills startups in short order - and that's without even thinking about dot-com ones.

Being paid for shoveling shit doesn't mean you like having shit dumped on you.

Italian MP threatens parents forcing veggie diets on kids with jail

"on the advice of a naturopath"

That's the guy who should be going to jail IMO.

Mars' 'little green men' buried alive by merciless meteorites – new theory

Re: spend that money on something more useful, here on Earth

Yeah right ! And if we were meant to fly, God would have given us wings. Just make sure your cave has a proper Mammoth-skin covering at the entrance and you'll be fine.

Carry on and stay away from fire ! It hurts.

'Alien megastructure' Tabby's Star: Light is definitely dimming

Re: Why building a huge super-structure around a star,

The idea came from science-fiction. It's not supposed to be feasible, it's supposed to be awesome. It is supposed to mean that the civilization that built it had so much more resources that they decided to do it for kicks. It's supposed to demonstrate just how powerful the civilization that built it is.

They wouldn't use up all the resources of the system that the star is in, they would use up five or six start systems - because they could. It's the hipster solution to energy gathering.

What about a nebula drifting through ?

I am absolutely certain scientists have thought about this, but I can't help thinking that a nebula of varying thickness might be able to explain this.

Of course, I doubt we'd have any way of confirming that. Then again, we know that there is dust between us and the center of the galaxy, and we can still get images in certain wavelengths, so maybe they've already checked and there's no chance of a nebula lurking in that specific region.

Still, I think a nebula would be possible.

AT&T dinged for $7.75m after letting scammers gouge customers (again)

"This isn't the first time AT&T has been fined"

And what of the 3 strikes rule ?

Oh, silly me. That's only applied to poor people.

Say hello to Samsung and Netlist's flash-DRAM grenade: HybriDIMM

Re: Diablo's Demise

Your enthusiasm may be a bit premature. We're talking about whiteboard specifications, not production measurements. All the numbers are PR-driven and subject to verification with actual, real-world results.

We've been promised the moon before, many, many more times than we've ever gotten it.

Uncle Sam set to flog Silk Road's Bitcoins

Re: Bitcoins are not considered currency in the US

A Federal judge has decided that it is now.

Interesting to see this go through after that decision.

CubeSat Moon mission to test new Ion Drive

Ah, space

There is nothing that is not awesome about it. The smallest thing requires freezing, burning and shaking before you can even get it on the enormous explodey stick ride to the sky.

If ever we get to the point where gravity modulators are common as pie, it will almost be a sad thing for the awesomeness of space. Almost.

MIT's chip fires frikkin' laser at qubits

Well you must admit that we haven't had very many qubits in the past 30 years.

Power cut crashes Delta's worldwide flight update systems

Re: the investment didn't make sense

Reasoning which holds up well until the catastrophe occurs and you see the bill for repairs. More often than not, you will then reevaluate your opinion of what "makes sense" as far as investments are concerned.

True story : at an important government-level organization I will not name further, there was a kerfluffle when a senior engineer warned, in writing, all the way up the hierarchy, that the currently-at-the-time PC upgrade process was an open invitation to virii and expensive downtime.

He was hauled into his managers' office for a right chewing out, which, being a senior engineer in a function from which nobody could oust him, he took with a verbal barrage of his own (likely containing many words such as "idiotic", "moronic", "abysmally stupid" etc - don't know, wasn't there, but I damn well hope so). Still, he was told that the investment "wasn't worth it" and that he should "stop making waves".

As fate would have it, the tsunami hit later that year. An outdated PC piloted by a nincompoop got infected, the infection spread to the servers, and everything was shut down for at least 3 days. That's over 500 people with no more PCs for 24 work hours. You do the math.

He did the math, and presented the cleanup bill with a scathing "I told you so" that, curiously, all the managers took quite meekly.

The PC upgrade schedule was changed after that. Unbelievable, ain't it ?

Again with the cheap internet access in India, Facebook?

If at first you don't succeed

Bribe, bribe again.

Breaking 350 million: What's next for Windows 10?

Windows 10 did especially well

Is that supposed to be a joke ?

For an entire year, we were continually bashed over the head with how Windows 1 0 was free, how much faster it was, how much better it was, and how free it was. We were repeatedly told that existing kit would run better on it. Oh, and it was FREE.

Next to the marketing, MS tried absolutely everything to push it out whether you wanted it or not, including malware tactics.

With all of that, what should have happened is MS touting the fastest-ever adoption of a new OS version, and the almost-total conversion of all Windows PCs in existence.

Instead, it barely made a quarter of the market, and you're saying that is "especially well" ?

I hope you enjoy your check.

If you use ‘smart’ Bluetooth locks, you're asking to be burgled

Honestly, I don't care if a BluTooth lock is well-made. As far as I'm concerned, putting any sort of wireless connectivity into a lock defeats the purpose entirely.

I want my locks big, thick, sturdy and totally dumb, thank you very much.

Re: the surprise my insurance company greeted me with

Which will be nothing next to the surprise of those morons buying these doomed-to-fail locks when they report a theft and their insurance says "um, sorry, but those BT locks are not approved and represent a security risk, so we're not going to pay for your stupidity".

Violence, vandals and vomit: London's naughtiest tech Tube stations revealed

SPADs, TDFs, what a cornucopia for disaster

Reading this list of errors really enlightens one on just how badly things could be going.

400+ cases of trains passing a red light ? And there wasn't one collision for it ? Miracle.

More than a thousand cases of signal failures, and no associated loss of life ? Miracle.

Train Detection Fault. The mere notion should cause a shiver down the spine. The fact that so many occur in a year is downright terrifying.

A real heads-up for when the PR bods trot out the old "automation is safer" line.

'Nigerian scammer' busted after he infected himself with malware

The dangers of convenience

Once again the lack of proper procedures are the linchpin through which scum can ply their trade. Taking account details from an email means that you do not have a proper client db with the reliable data already inserted.

Which in turn means that your payment transfer system is probably a mess (no check on account number for an existing supplier ?) and errors like this will slip through unnoticed until you get an invoice unpaid letter and start wondering why - which is never the right reason to check your accounting procedures, but better late than never.

This is the kind of pain that will prompt more attention to detail. It is unfortunately a costly lesson, but there is a portion of the population that only learn by costly lessons (backups, anyone ?).

Windows 10 Anniversary Update is borking boxen everywhere

Re: a relationship ?

Ah, right, you mean Stockholm Syndrome. Got it.

Stealthy malware infects digitally-signed files without altering hashes

"Nipravsky reverse-engineered Microsoft's undocumented portable executable loading process"

And that is why you do not count on undocumented features for security when Internet connectivity is the order of the day.

The era of secret code is disappearing under the inexorable march of Internet connectivity and Open Source. It is now a security risk to not disclose your code and processes because that approach deprives you of all the eyes that can validate your code and ensure things will not become a major security failure.

Because the blackhats will deconstruct your code anyway, and they will find what you missed.

Private moonshot gets the green light from US authorities

"the Moon is a potential future source of rare earths"

They're going to have to find a way to deal with the very fine Moon dust if they want machinery to work in that environment.

How the HTTPS-snooping, email addy and SSN-raiding HEIST JavaScript code works

Breach, Crime, Heist

Just what is the statistical probability of such a coincidence ?

Oh, one in a million ? It had to happen then.

'ICANN's general counsel should lose his job over this'

"Maybe I'm naïve, but I hope they do the right thing."

Just one question : when has ICANN ever done the right thing ?

ICANN has a long history of publishing rules for the peons and then doing whatever they decide they want. Even the US government got told "shove off" when it tried to argue that ICANN has to respect something.

You think you've got a chance ?

I'll be following your time in court with great interest.

Classic Shell, Audacity downloads infected with retro MBR nuke nasty

Re: Also, a change to the MBR is 'before' any OS is loaded

I don't think so. The MBR was changed by the execution of the nasty. Besides, if no OS is loaded, how can any change be made ? Something has to run the code that makes the change.

Why this MBR rewrite could fly under the AV radar is beyond me. Is the MBR being regularly rewritten by the OS all day ? Don't think so. So why does MBR access not trigger a humongous red screen with nukular* blast in the background and big white lettering saying "HEY, SOMEBODY WANTS TO RECONFIGURE YOUR DISKS - ARE YOU SURE ???" and a nice red button with "FUCK NO" written on it to abort.

But no, apparently any piece of code can just go and write to the MBR. No problem here, no sir, carry on while I slow the Internet down with all the Flash checking I have to do. . .

* yes, I did write nukular on purpose

Microsoft adds new 'Enterprise Products' section to privacy policy

The policy came into effect on Tuesday, August 2nd

And that is the date where Microsoft has officially lost its mantle of OS maker and transitioned into Ad-slinging personal data slurper.

That is also the date where I will have retroactively dumped Microsoft into the same bag as Google and all other sleazy Internet companies who just want to milk my details to make their money. That you have to pay Microsoft for the privilege is just the cherry on the cake.

Thanks, Microsoft. It was an interesting quarter century and I am happy for what we had. I will cherish my Win 7 license for as long as I can string it out.

But we're done now. You have become something I cannot abide, and I will not trust you again.

Ever.