Posts by Colin Wilson

Windows 7 'pre-beta' washes up on Pirate Bay and co

I bet...

...they don't sue a single person for downloading the beta !

Windows 7 early promise: Passes the Vista test

Windows 7 short review (and comment)

F*ck me it's ugly, and just like Vista, *I* won't be moving to it.

Lets see a review based on an install as-it-is-now on typical user / business hardware - you could start by using a machine of similar spec to the most common hardware reported by Steam (which in itself is probably skewed towards a higher spec than normal).

Mine's the one with the latest Ubuntu beta in the pocket.

Linux at 17 - What Windows promised to be

@ Darren Mansell

"...I quietly laugh when Windows users send docs to other Windows users in .docx format and argue about not being able to open it. I open it for them and send it back in .doc"

Send it back as an .odf along with a link to OpenOffice.org :-p

Damn the typo...

"Mine's the one with xubuntu in the pocket, the laptop, and the desktop - only one machine in the house doesn't have windows on it now, and as soon as I convince the missus... :-)"

Spot the obvious :-} - should read "only one machine still has windows on it now" (as its' primary OS at any rate)

Knighthood ?

I can't remember if Linus has had one, but if not, perhaps it's about time he was given a knighthood in the UK for services to the community - both domestic and commercial.

Mine's the one with xubuntu in the pocket, the laptop, and the desktop - only one machine in the house doesn't have windows on it now, and as soon as I convince the missus... :-)

Genesis ex-CEO settles after SEC inside trading charges

Shouldn't the damages...

...be punitive ?

After all, they knew exactly what they were doing, it was premeditated shareholder fraud.

What about the paying the prosecution costs too ?

Stealthy malware expands rootkit repertoire

if Microsoft...

...were legally obliged to send a physical copy of every critical fix to every registered user, they'd soon get the hang of checking for flaws...

ELSPA chief lays into UK censor over games ratings

Showing my age now...

I happened to come across a video on youtube the other day c/o StumbleUpon (called something like "top 10 disturbing game scenes"), and I have to admit even I was a little shocked about the level of violence in some games - I think one was CoD4, showing a kidnap and street violence, prior to the character being shot in the head. Another clip showed two anime characters, where a boy stabbed a girl and watched her slump to the floor.

The capability of modern computer hardware to show violence so graphically and accurately now needs to be reigned in IMO.

First Android phone to retail for $199

Better moniker for the Googlephone ?

G-Spot

Paris, because she'd had hers hit a few times too...

Sky drops download limit and tops satisfaction poll

@ AC / Restrictions

Are you on an LLU enabled exchange ? (http://www.samknows.com to check) - if not, Sky use a "bought in" service which is inferior to their full LLU broadband service.

It might also be worth you looking at your line stats to see if you've got a crap noise margin, and checking that you haven't got any faults on your internal wiring (unscrew the face plate, and plug the router directly into the test socket behind the face plate - if the speed picks up, you've got an internal fault you need to investigate)

I've been with them since the end of March 2007 and it's been the best ISP for reliability i've known since I first got on the net in around 1995 ! (having said that, there were a couple of hours downtime last night, not sure whether it was a local mains fault that caused it... it's certainly the first downtime I recall though !)

Artemis Fowl scribe to pen sixth Hitchhiker's novel

Stop moaning !

No, i'd probably prefer them to leave it as is too, but if you haven't read DA's "Last Chance To See" I can highly recommend it :-)

(I think at least one of the species covered is now officially extinct :-( )

Judge: Breath test firm must hand over source code

FAO: James

Names like that always remind me of the "products" spoofed by Dilbert :-)

Gruntmaster 6000 anyone ?

"...it's a stripped-down version of the Gruntmaster 9000..."

OMFG, what have you done?

Horrendous - where's the petition ?

I'm really not enamoured by the new look, and far prefer the old one.

And yes, the icons are sh*te, and when AC finishes with the barf-bag, i'd appreciate a go too.

I hope you've got an RSS feed, as sadly I don't think i'll be returning to this dogs' dinner of a site - which is a shame, as it's been my homepage default for at least 4 years.

I'd love to say sod it, i'm off to the Inq as well, but that's really gone downhill since Mike Magee left :-(

Microsoft delivers four critical updates

@AC

Dammit, it must be a rendering error - I was booted into Windows when I posted it...

I'm amazed...

...that they can so comprehensively phuck up the display of _images_

If they can't handle what should be *simple* parsing of image data securely - which has a defined, clear data structure, what the hell are people doing trusting them with an entire operating system for ?!?

Paris, because she'd phuck it too. Not that we'd mind, as long as it was on camera.

Now Hollywood is chasing UK downloaders

@ Pheet

IIRC the latest case wasn't taken on copyright infringement - it was based on the design and patents act, neatly avoiding a ruling on copyright, and seemingly making it a criminal offence on ANY amount of shared material.

Which begs the question how much binary data can be said to be unique to that "product" alone - a stream of 1's and 0's by itself in small enough chunks can no doubt be found in multiple places across the net, and was the basis of a file sharing system reported on the BBC website a few months ago, where chunks of a file could be grabbed from unrelated files as long as it had the right hash for that chunk.

Acorn alumni to toast tech pioneer's 30th anniversary

@ Dave H

Rodnay Zaks didn't write it did he ? ("How to program the Z80" was the first book I ever bought myself :-} )

@ Ashley Pomeroy

You can remap the keyboard and use it on a PC, as found here...

http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/bbcitxb/

Hackintosh maker bites back at Apple

RE: AC / Mac OS Compatible

Microsoft tried this with DOS, attempting to lock out Caldera / DrDOS - ruled against several years later, with a payout of millions in Caldera's favour IIRC...

CERT: Linux servers under 'Phalanx' attack

re: E

"The cleanup is, depending on your paranoia level, (a) boot off an install DVD to repair mode and delete the rootkit, or (b) format your disks and reinstall Linux."

Not much different from what is required for a Windows rootkit then, although option (b) is far more preferable for 'doze as it's not easy cleaning a system from a boot disc due to problems with registry dependencies / hooks etc.

gOS - a Google good OS for your Mum

I almost...

...included this as a bootdisc with a laptop I had to repair* for someone recently, as a means of being almost completely sure they were safe (excluding poisoned DNS results, but anyone could be hit by them) for online banking - sadly it didn't detect the fact he had a widescreen LCD...

I ended up having to include xubuntu, as it was the only one that worked as it should (barring wireless connectivity)

*xpantivirus malware again, along with all the friends it invited... 18 detected by Sysclean (Trend Micro), another 20 detected by Spybot S&D, and 3 potentially false positive rootkits that appeared to be related to the audio and video subsystems. Most were credit card stealers...

It looks very nice, but the lack of configurability put me off - perhaps if they could introduce a "normal" and "admin" settings toggle to hide the more advanced features from regular users, it would encourage take-up.

Anatomy of a malware scam

FAO: Timothy Tuck

Check the boot order of his machine, and leave a live linux CD in the drive :-p

Alternatively, shove ubuntu on as a wubi install, and make it his default boot option - and don't tell him the admin password :-p

(having said that, he might need it to get the updates)

FAO Kev K

I forget exactly what else this installed (I left the results in a text file on their screen), but...

Sysclean (with the additional spyware definitions) picked up 18 viruses / malware components - but failed to clean it up properly.

Spybot S&D then picked up a further 20 traces, and IIRC a couple more a day or two later once more updates were available - there were at least 14 different malware components, mainly of the credit card sniffing variety.

One thing that worried me was Blacklight initially showed three components which may have been rootkits - but by the same token, may have been legit subsystem drivers for audio / video (it was a Packard Bell Easynote). After a couple of days and a couple of scans / updates with Spybot S&D, I ran it again but it came up clear.

Good article

I've recently spent a couple of days clearing the very same off a machine owned by a colleague (not that it took that long, but I wanted to make sure any recent "updates" were detected properly by the AV / anti-spyware)

Small note to anyone else with the same problem - isolate the machine from the internet, and get the files you need to clean it from a different PC - these damn things are updated on an almost daily basis, so the "good guys" have a very hard time keeping up with the latest variant.

In no particular order, but starting with Sysclean (Trend Micro), throw Spybot S&D, Vundofix, Blacklight (a rootkit detection util from f-secure), Smitfraudfix, and last but by no means least, Spywareblaster at it to detect, clear, and lock down the machine.

Also, in terms of free AV, for the paranoid - get Avira, for the normal user, get Avast (and the MacLoverOSX skin), and my least favourite freebie, AVG (previous experience fixing machines for people tells me to trust it as much as Norton...)

Congrats on a great write-up ! :-)

Dancing Baby v. Universal: Baby wins!

Revenge of the lawful use lawsuits

Thank heavens some judges have brain cells of their own (and haven't been bought yet) !

MetaRAM now pumping 288GB of memory into Intel boxes

Windows 7 ?

I suppose they've got to start creating suitable hardware for it sometime :-p

'Malvertizement' epidemic visits house of Newsweek.com

@ David Barr

so where you receive an unsolicited premium rate text, you think the police will bother their arse to prosecute ?

That's theft on a massive scale, all supported and universally ignored by all but one mobile company that allows you to opt out of premium rate texts.

Sure, it's only £1.50 a time, but a couple of them per mobile, times 50,000 random numbers...

Malicious gossip could cost you your job

I've sat on a jury...

...where an innocent woman was accused of child abuse - because she refused to give cigarettes and alcohol to an 11 year old kid who was in care (he wasn't her kid) - who talked another into playing his game.

Because of the nature of the allegations she was kept on remand for 6 months, in which time everything she had ever owned had been stolen from her, and her home was burned to the ground.

Her life as she knew it was lost forever, all her possessions, all the pictures, memoirs, clothes, EVERYTHING.

The accuser had done the same to (IIRC) SIX other people who'd not given him what he wanted, as he had discovered that being in care, it was the quickest way to get attention.

We didn't find out about the other baseless accusations until the end of the case, by which point it was obvious they were lying, and playing the system.

This needs to be fought strenuously, before others suffer a living death, unable to work and ostracized by society, based on rumours, unfounded gossip, and false allegations.

BSA: Software piracy's 'tragic' impact on US society

The real thieves ?

Large companies avoiding tax ?

Oh, we might have a clue here: http://www.fool.com/portfolios/rulemaker/2000/rulemaker000217.htm

Review site furious over McAfee SiteAdvisor 'false alert'

if...

this is the same site as reported on uk.legal i'll echo my response here - no-one uses yahoo anyway, so the chances of losing trade are approximately nil.

Vodafone presents punter with £500k phone bill

Re: DigiTime

I don't think trading standards is the place this needs referring to - it needs to go the Data Protection Registrar (now known as ICO) as a CLEAR BREACH of their duty under the Data Protection Act to keep accurate records.

EU accidentally orders ISPs to become copyright police

[e-mail]

I have serious concerns about the proposed EU Telecoms bill, and would ask that full clarification be made prior to its' final vote.

Might I also add that I do not believe ISPs should be responsible for the traffic they carry, nor should they be forced to "police" their users - it is far too onerous an obligation to enforce, and spurious claims such as those made by SCO against users of Linux which were later thrown out of court following the heavy intervention of IBM might otherwise brand a user as a thief without any foundation in truth.

SCO had, in the interim, accepted "insurance" payments from companies scared that their baseless allegations of copyright infringement might be held in a court of law. Extortion, bribery, protection money - call it what you will.

Additionally, and more importantly, the "interested in the protection and promotion of lawful content" section is inherently dangerous and will lead to the malicious and unsafe persecution of innocent users.

The person paying for an internet connection may not be personally responsible for any "illegal" file sharing, but the prevalence of open wireless networks (which is not a crime) may mean that someone else used it for nefarious purposes without permission.

This can be seen in recent alleged breaches of civil copyright cases as brought by Davenport Lyons, based on the flaky evidence of a company that has already been found guilty of some very serious crimes abroad.

These allegations lead to fines of £800 without actually being based on real defined losses to the copyright holder, or evidence of there being any breach of copyright by the payers' of a broadband service themselves.

Add to that the game alleged to have been copied was being sold for £8.99 and was slated for being of very poor quality, suddenly the chance for making random lawsuits against anyone you fancy to more than make up any shortfall of income from the bad product, and you can see what a mess this will become.

If you see this bill as a way forward, perhaps your next one should be to force the Royal Mail to be responsible for all the junk mail that is posted by third parties using its' services.

From a personal standpoint, they should be classed as a common carrier - they are not a party to the content that may be delivered over their network.

Microsoft pledges to fight Vista 'myths'

You have pointed out Vistas' flaws

Cancel or allow ?

:-p

Apple under the gun to master the iPhone's 'second album'

Oil changes (part deux)

Found what I think is the link...

http://www.swri.org/3pubs/IRD1999/03912699.htm

"Testing with partially stressed oil, which contained some wear debris, produced less wear than testing with clean oil. This finding was unexpected and initially confusing (further inquiry suggested that the result was not so surprising, as many oil chemistries require time and temperature to enhance their effectiveness)."

Oil changes

It's just the way yanks have been "trained" - there's no practical purpose to it... there was a link in one of the motoring newsgroups recently that showed new oil was more likely to *damage* the engine for the first thousand miles or so.

'Legit' website compromises reach epidemic proportions

virtual machine images

Probably the easiest way of getting back to a "clean" virtual machine image would be to set up a machine in VirtualBox with little or no hard drive (because you don't need it for this purpose), and mounting a CD image that you use to boot with.

Job done !

'Secure' PayPal page is... you guessed it

re: HTML email

Exactly the point i've been making for years - one notable example of banks practising piss-poor security was an email from, IIRC, MBNA - sent via an unknown third party, and linking to their login page via yet another unknown third party.

I sent this little beauty direct to the banking ombudsman about 3 years ago pointing out how ridiculously stupid the bank had to be to operate in this manner, despite complaining about losses through fraud.

The response - "it's common industry practice"

So is fraud, but it doesn't mean it's right...

Drive-by download attack compromises 500K websites

Microsoft didn't develop PHP, but...

...remind us again which browser platform is affected by the malicious code.

Would this be the same non-web-compliant browser that Microsoft bundle with their OS ?

Is this the same one that specifically allows malicious code (aka activex) to operate, and in fact rely on it themselves to force people to use their inadequate browser to get security updates ?

We could do with a "no IE" icon at this juncture...

Customers give Dell the finger over keyboard screw-up

Dammit, someone mentioned the model M

...the nearest you can get to keyboard porn (or nirvana, take your pick) :-)

As soon as I get a few quid spare i'm treating myself to one ! (pckeyboard.com)

Dammit, i'm thinking "go on, order it now" but I know the credit card is a little tight this month :-/

MS pulls plugs on XP SP3 mass launch

Solution to broken software / security updates

Microsoft should be forced to send out an update CD free of charge to every single registered user worldwide whenever they release a security patch.

I wonder how long they'd take to sort out their quality control then ?

Apple blocks cheaper UK iPod sales

CD-WOW was also stung by this crap

Which is where it all gets silly - you could buy legitimately from their Hong Kong site (not the UK site) but they were still done under the trade laws for grey imports - although the goods were legal in the place of purchase, paid for "at" that location (at least, that's where card payments were taken) and available for purchase via the internet from other territories.

These silly restrictions only appear to apply to large vendors though - I can still buy DVDs from dddhouse.com (albeit typically region 3 only) for buttons.

AVG revamps free security scanner

has AVG improved over the last 12 months or so ?

I used to get called in to fix a lot of infected machines by colleagues / friends etc, and every single machine I looked at that had AVG installed had at least two active viruses in memory.

My first scan on any AVG or Norton "protected" machine would be to run Sysclean from Trend Micro prior to sorting out any other issues !

Personally, I use Avast now (did have the free Kaspersky installed from the AOL offer), and for people who want to be really paranoid, I install Avira.

http://www.av-comparatives.org is always a handy point of reference :-)

Paris, because i'm sure she'll have caught a few nasty things in her time !

Ubuntu man Shuttleworth dissects Hardy Heron's arrival

Wubi works great :-)

I've already got the release candidate installed, and it works well compared to the previous beta (which would hang trying to import user details from a Windows user name that contained spaces)

It runs very nicely, took me moments to install flash to allow the streaming media from the BBC website etc.

The only possible complaint I could level at it at the moment would be support for wine - which isn't a fault in ubuntu itself, it's that wine doesn't like installing to an NTFS filesystem.

If only Valve would get around to releasing a linux version of Steam and Half Life, I could ditch Windows permanently.

To anyone interested in trying linux, I can heartily recommend a wubi install - it doesn't knacker your existing install, and will let you play on your hardware "properly" instead of emulated in a virtual machine. To uninstall it, just uninstall as you would any regular Windows application.

Microsoft kicks out third Windows XP service pack

WGA back again...

"...users can now complete operating system installation without providing a product key during a full, integrated installation of Windows XP SP3. The operating system will prompt the user for a product key later as part of Genuine Advantage."

I seriously detest jumping through "piracy" hoops even though I have a legit version on my Dell machine. I refuse, as far as is humanly possible, to let Microsoft update, tweak, reconfigure, authorise, validate or otherwise breach my security, and their feined allegiance to the Trusted Computing Group, wherein they agree to (quote follows with annotation):

1. The owner controls personalization.

...nope...

2. The owner controls the trust relationship.

...nope...

3. The system provides private object storage and digital signature capability.

...with the friendly NSA back door...

4. Private personalization information is never exposed.

...nope...

5. Owner keys are encrypted prior to transmission.

...we don't know what the hell they're transmitting back to themselves...

It is also important to know what the solutions are not:

3. They are not fixed functions—they can be disabled permanently.

...like the recent *forced* Windows updates with updates switched off ?

4. They are not controlled by others (only the owner controls them).

...LOL if only...

Pirate Bay to sue music industry

@ Spearbox

Count me as a fan - I don't buy much music these days, but by the same token, I also download either. The same goes for games, apps etc. - the last game I bought was Myst 4 (IIRC) and thought it was crap, so I went straight back to my old favourite, Natural Selection - a free mod for the original Half Life !

I did try and like the demo of Trackmania, but will not buy it because of the use of rootkit-alike malware "protection".

Naomi Campbell cuffed in Heathrow Terminal 5

lets hope the yanks...

...refuse her access to the US in future due to her "criminal" record / behaviour (careful wording there)

...we can all watch her suffocate, lacking the oxygen of publicity she craves :-p

Nvidia drivers named as lead Vista crash cause in 2007

Microsoft certified drivers

After making manufacturers pay to get their drivers certified, it's a shame Microsoft can't be held responsible to replace hardware for which faulty certified drivers exist - the code is essentially being released in their name (given that the manufacturer had to pay a fee for certification / permission to install on Fister in the first place).

Thinking further afield, since Microsoft or other media copyright "holders" have the facility to switch off hardware that might be breached via faulty drivers and (god forbid) allow a movie to be watched or copied without DRM - shouldn't Microsoft be liable to replace this hardware since it's their certification process that failed ?

Adobe opens Photoshop for freetards

Freetards ?

No, we're GIMPs !

US government cools on Real ID threats

Why am I reminded...

...of the level of "state" control envisioned in Half-Life 2 when I read all this ID card bumpf

Ubuntu does bird beta

ref: AC / gOS

Google are not developing gOS, it just looks that way due to the very tight (aka slick) integration into the user interface.

You can see from their site (http://www.thinkgos) that they clearly state "gOS is not affiliated with Google or their partners."