Posts by FIA

Yes, of course there's now malware for Windows Subsystem for Linux

Does this work with WSL2?

The original attack used the pico processes of WSL1 (where linux binaries were run as windows processes), but most modern WSL distros will be using WSL2s virtual machine implementation.

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair: British home computer trailblazer dies aged 81

Re: Wobbley rampacks

Me too.

All my friends had Spectrums and C64s, I got this crappy little plastic box that just printed K on the screen when turned on, oh, and a ring bound book that told you how to make it do stuff.

It changed my life.

Facebook building 'on-demand executable file format' that self-inflates using homebrew compression

Sounds great for apps, not so good for long term storage though if you're having to literally execute your archive to unpack it.

ProtonMail deletes 'we don't log your IP' boast from website after French climate activist reportedly arrested

You misunderstand. I’m not passing judgement. I’m pointing out the thought process you need to follow.

It’s fairly simple really.

If you want to do something that breaks the law, don’t use a law abiding company to do it.

When the bits hit the fan: What to do when ransomware strikes

Re: Opportunity

Not cheap

Not initially no. However, disparate systems force you to consider the boundaries much more carefully, which results in much easier systems to upgrade and modernise as needed.

If that also improves security to then that’s just an added bonus.

Unfortunately the financial argument for fully integrated systems was often too great and the downsides only visible retrospectively. (Oracle forms has a lot to answer for…)

Why we abandoned open source: LiveCode CEO on retreat despite successful kickstarter

Re: Funding

or, at the very least, lose nothing by open sourcing

…except your paying customers if they switch to it. Which is what happened here.

The problem is that these people have no idea how to make money from it. No one else wants to cotnribute code

Because the main users base (by definition) aren’t the kind of people able to contribute.

Whilst livecode may have other issues, it’s certainly not had a positive experience with open source, and it sounds like their new approach might be the right one for them.

Open source is wonderful, but that doesn’t mean it’s the correct solution for everyone, or that it doesn’t bring with it’s own issues, to pretend otherwise is somewhat myopic.

Personally, I wish them luck.

Re: choices that have been around since before Pascal

They may help learn the basics quickly, but limitations get very obvious very soon.

But that’s what they’re for. To teach the basics. They’re not meant for university level students, they’re meant for children. It provides an easy route to writing simple software. The nuts and bolts are what you learn as you progress, but when you’re 10 having an easy to understand language that gives you the BASICs can really get you started.

When I grew up it was BASIC on one of the 8bit home machines, but that was the same, you could just start typing and make the thing do something with very little knowledge. It provided a gentle enough slope for me to get interested without overwhelming me.

This is the step you take when you’re 8 or 9, before you graduate to Python or similar.

GitHub merges 'useless garbage' says Linus Torvalds as new NTFS support added to Linux kernel 5.15

As many of us probably already know, ALL git history is available for anyone with access to the repo. So if you accidentally commit something you should not, a key, a token, a pass phrase, peoples e-mail addresses, whatever it might be, if you do NOT rebase to a point before that commit, it will be visible FOREVER, even if you do a subsequent edit to remove it.

It’s possible to rewrite git history. Like most of git it’s some magical shell incantation, but you can do a regex search/replace on the entire history. I’ve done this before to remove public email addresses from repos before pushing to GitHub.

You do need to ensure everyone gets the modified repo though so it may not be a trivial task.

Windows 11 will roll out from October 5 as Microsoft hypes new hardware

Re: How do I opt users out of this "upgrade" ?

Just because YOU do not know how to do it, does not mean it cannot be done.

<sigh> We discussed this in the training, all proclamations should end '...Mere Mortal!'

<mutters>I bet you weren't even wearing the cape.

Windows 10 to hang on for five more years with 21H2 update

Re: okay...

It's choice, If you don't relish the thought that you can choose the desktop approach that most suits you, maybe you're suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

You could also be just old.

30 years ago that flexability and choice was just what I wanted.

Nowadays, I care much much less. I know I can pretty much just install an OS and get on with things. The thought of the hours I used to spend getting things 'just so' just doesn't appeal anymore.

Microsoft fiddles with Fluent while the long dark Nightmare of the Print Spooler continues for Windows

Re: Moral of the story…

People just have unrealistic expectations.

They want secure computers, that are easy to use, and fast.

Doing all 3 well is damn hard.

Microsoft emits last preview of .NET 6 and C# 10, but is C# becoming as complex as C++?

Re: "the ability to use operators on generic types."

For example, take the List class. Would you rather the language had a List<T>, with one implementation, or one class for every built-in type

C# has a well defined object heirachy. A list class that takes an 'Object' is fine.

If you have wrappers for primatives and auto(un)boxing then everythings gravy. :)

The web was done right the first time. An ancient 3D banana shows Microsoft does a lot right, too

Re: too insecure?

Panama?

Engineers work to open Boeing Starliner's valves as schedule pressures mount

Re: "assumed Boeing knew what it was doing."

I have started to wonder what a SpaceX aeroplane would be like.

(Sure, you'd probably want to skip the first 10-15 flights, but after that.....)

Elastic amends Elasticsearch Python client so it won't work with forks then blocks comments

Re: Licences exist for a reason...

Yes. This!

I've said it time and time again.... if you only spend at least a small fraction of the time you'll spend developing something on considering what the licence you choose actually means then you'll be a lot happier in the long run.

My go to example would be WINE, it used to be released under the MIT licence, but this meant people took the hard work, forked it, and didn't release their improvements. Which, whilst exactly what the licence said they could do, turned out to be not what the project wanted people to do.

Re: Ugh...

You must pay to use the software is not approved by either because it places restrictions on who may use the software. Just keep that in mind.

I thought the GPL was OSI/FSF approved??

It says explicitly that you may charge for the software; section 4, when applied to the covered work:

You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may offer support or warranty protection for a fee.

It is perfectly legal for me to sell you a GPL program for a million dollars, until you buy it I am under no obligation to give you the source code for free.

However, once you have purchased that program the GPL then would obligate me to give you the source code for 'free' (other than reasonable costs incurred doing so).

Section 6:

6. Conveying Non-Source Forms.

You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License,[...]

You could then make copies of the software compiled from that source code available for free if you so desired. (assuming you didn't infringle on trademarks, etc. etc.)

(aside: I get it's the Apache licence in use here, just wanted to point out that 'allowed to do something' and 'for no money' aren't the same thing. ;) )

SpaceX Starship struts its stack to show it has the right stuff

Re: Taxes

Yes.... mainly: "What does this have to do with Space X?"

They do travel through the air though, and they are quite hot at one end. Some of it probably does get at least a little bit singed on the way past. ;)

Re: Finally, the future has arrived

Your inner kid is quite restrained it seems. :D

THX Onyx: A do-it-all DAC for the travelling audiophile

Also, time acts as a filter.... only the good stuff survives.

The 80s was a god awful era in music having just lived through it. Now, it's fine, as all the crap has largly been forgotten. (The 80s synth sound that's so distinctive... yeah... not everyone got that right.... :D )

I remember watching the Beatles anthology as a kid, they had a section showing a pan up the top 40 the week they had the top 5, I think I'd heard of 1 other song on there.

Apple is about to start scanning iPhone users' devices for banned content, professor warns

Re: If this doesn't make people stop using Iphones... then what?

I disagree, these things are on a scale.

I know Google scan my email, but in return I get Gmail. I understand this and made the choice, and it's a choice I'm happy with.

Other people aren't and choose not to use it. That's fine.

My phone, however, is my digital safe. It contains a record of my life to a greater or lesser extent. It allows me to communicate with my bank, it contains all my communication applications and a good few months of my recent photos. It also contains the 2FA apps I use.

Retrospectivly I do not want to give Apple the right to rifle through all that. (I don't use iCloud) That is not a choice I've been informed about.

Re: re: this seems like a sensible middle ground.

A third party isn’t scanning your device though. The AI on the device is scanning your device. It’s not leaving your device at all unless certain criteria are met.

A third party designed the software, initiates the scan, decidedes the criteria and can then decrypt what they find if they so choose. That sounds like a third party scanning the device to me.

What about option number 5....

5) Tell your customers, shout about it loudly, so public opinion can rally and tell their legislators what they think?

I understand the situation Apple is in, but we as a society don't have to accept this kind of nonsense.

There are many example of over broad early 2000s 'terror' laws since being used on regular folk; and plenty others of overly broad AI being used as a mallett. (Amazon firing workers by AI for example.... )

As I understand it, this technology has been developed because Apple has built its service in such a way that it can’t scan in the cloud so it has to scan on device. Everyone else, Google included, scans in the Cloud. One way or another, you’ll get scanned - it’s just a question of where.

As noted in the article, Apple does scan what you upload to iCloud.

But this is a world apart from device scanning.

If I store some stuff in your garage, you have every right to know what's in there, or tell me to jeff off. But that doesn't give you the right to come round to my house and root through my loft.

I really hope this dies quickly, I don't like Android. <sigh> Back to Nokia then.... I suspect the 3310 still has 50% charge anyway...

Please, no Moore: 'Law' that defined how chips have been made for decades has run itself into a cul-de-sac

Are we sure?

Don't want to cause a fuss, but has someone double checked??

I mean it wasn't looking well in 2009, but appeared to have perked up again by the end of 2013, mind you, that may have been a brief respite, as it aparently died in 2018.

Are we 100% sure someone isn't just trying to fiddle the social??

"Moore's Law?? Nah... you've just missed it, it's popped out for some more black light bulbs..."

Google: Linux kernel and its toolchains are underinvested by at least 100 engineers

Re: Fool

Everything is in fact valued in money, and all valuable things have a monetary value. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous.

Hopefully one day you'll understand why that's wrong, and you'll be happier.

Accountancy means everything is valued in money that needs to be relatable, but that's just capitalism, as you said. But for some things value really isn't that easy to ascribe in money. eg, I value a short commute over a larger pay check, but I'm not sure I could tell you at what point the money would overcome that resistance to sit on a train. Ten times my salary, sure, but double... not so sure... whereas there are plenty of people who will do that commute for a fraction more than I earn now. (An accountant would work out some kind of average, but that is then only an average value across everyone).

Statements like that are just people burying their heads in the sand because it turns out capitalism, a system that incentivizes the accumulation of as much wealth as possible for the minimum amount of effort

Nope, when that happens capitalism has gone wrong and should be regulated. A proper market will guard against this. Capitalism is actually about self interest, but in an open market it's in your best interests to do a good job, as then you'll get more work and accrue more money. If market forces aren't ensuring this then there's a problem.

If you hire a tradesperson, and they do a good job are you more or less likely to hire them again than the one that left you feeling like you'd been ripped off??

The problem is we've allowed certain player dominence in markets so they no-longer have to play 'fair' in order to profit. That's when capitalism breaks down and needs regulation.

For example, I listened with awe to someone describing how they could pay amazon to hold stock for them, and they'd been convinced this was a good thing. Now when you've got shops charging the stock to sit on the shelfs then things have gone wrong. (yes, I get it's more nuonced than this but basically it seemed to be a system where Amazon got paid quite a lot...)

Re: Fool

It's wrong to use someone's work without payment though.

It's wrong to use someones work in a way they don't intend. If I licence my work in a way you may use for no financial payment, that's upto me. Or are you saying that I shouldn't be able to release software I write in a way I choose?

I get some people are privileged and they can afford to donate their time, but this creates inequality.

I'm not sure how priviliged you have to be here? I grew up in a family that wasn't rich, but as computer programming is my hobby it's something I've always found time for. I also got my first work as a programmer because of a company seeing some software I'd released for free. (Mind you, I've always credited this with my love of programming, my friends at the time had C64s and Spectrums with games, I got a second hand ZX81 that put a 'K' on the screen, and that was about it.... so I taught myself to program it).

Also, these days a good proportion of open source software is funded by large companies. Most of the full time kernel developers aren't doing it for free. It's their job.

This is similar problem to unpaid internships, where the places were snapped up by children coming from wealth (as they didn't have to work for money and parents paid rent, food etc) and that excluded working class children from having a path to getting better jobs.

No, that's an entirely seperate problem. That's unpaid labour, which as you say favours those of means. But as an intern you are also expected to do as the company your interning for requires; that's the distinction.

Redpilled Microsoft does away with flashing icons on taskbar as Windows 11 hits Beta

Re: " ... make finding what you need easier."

I installed it tonight on a seven year old mobile workstation, which surprised me it would accept the older gear after hearing the stories, even if it was top of the line for the time.

I have a fresh install of Win 10 running in a VM with 512MB. I wouldn't want to use it for much, but it does work. I was pleasently suprised tbh. (It's just a fresh install, with the memory turned down after reboot).

Re: " ... make finding what you need easier."

The 3rd option for me is 'Save as', which seems to do it?

They push their changes back to FreeRDP (which they don't have to, it's Apache licenced). That seems to be fairly within the spirit of open source to me? (As they do for their changes to Weston, and all the other bits that comprise WSLg).

Following a licence is not a loophole.

Tax avoidance is not related to licencing and is not always bad, (most of us do it after all; ever taken out an ISA?) The trick to stop egregious tax avoidance is unfortunatly co-ordinated global co-operation between governments. Ah well.... :D

(Aside: Also, if I read the Apache licence correctly, doesn't clause 3 now mean the FreeRDP project is basically protected from patent claims by MS???)

[wsl simple install] ability is not only in Windows 11, but also backported to Windows 10 via an update.

But will they backport WSLg too? Currently running the dev 11 as it's not available on anything else yet, but turns out is really quite useful.

Following Torvalds' nudge, Paragon's NTFS driver for Linux is on track for kernel

I'm finding the commentary fascinating TBH.

From my point of view: fairly well known company open sources (good thing) their previously closed source (ie, seen as a bad thing in the Linux world) driver.... to a sea of complaints. :)

Now whilst Paragon may be doing this for selfish reasons (that's how most businesses work), it still won't have been an insignificant effort on their part (assuming they have done all the legal dilligance and it's not just one roge dev team). They also do seem to have engaged with the (sometimes quite fearsome to onlookers) linux kernel devs too.

Seems you really are damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Australian court rules an AI can be considered an inventor on patent filings

Re: do we really need light emitting food containers?

Exactly!!!!

I'm not sure what kind of chumps AC takes us all for, but who in their right mind would walk to the light switch when they can simply:

• Get out their phone
• Unlock it
• Start 'BeaconSandwich'
• Enable 'Location services' for some reason.
• Give it access to their photos
• Connect to the wifi
• Connect to the OTHER wifi, as they're upstairs
• Click 'Find MY Food'

Tech spec experts seek allies to tear down ISO standards paywall

You think people should be forced to play by rules they can't see??

Re: French?!

...and had to have a bit of a sit down instead???

Windows 11 comes bearing THAAS, Trojan Horse as a service

Re: "and in a few short years we were liberated."

I actually think Apple in some ways are the most honest of the big ones in this context. The term 'Walled garden' was used to describe their app store from the beginning. They don't hide this and have never pretended otherwise. You might not agree with it, but you know what you're getting from day 1.

Contrast this with Google, who deftly used the lure of open source, and the gently closing fist of the (closed source) google play services to slowly lure everyone in.

Sure Android is notionally open source, but good luck trying..... (oh, and if you do, good luck with the supply chain, the OHA members are contractually prohibited from dealing with you.)

Microsoft is just doing what Microsoft does. They're strengthening their monopoly on the desktop, people just seemed to stop caring.

What is your greatest weakness? The definitive list of the many kinds of interviewer you will meet in Hell

If you ask a question of someone in an interview, you really should not be shocked when they know the answer.

This is fine in theory, but having worked in IT for a few years and worked with a few 'talented' contractors I can well believe the shock was real. If you're interviewing I bet you've seen even worse.

I would expect that whole process you've described came about entirely because of this quality variance. (I might be too cynical though; but it does feel like there's just an assumption that all contractors are good, rather than good at blagging. :) )

I once had to explain groovy smart properties to a contractor we'd hired when I found them studiosly generating getters and setters. (Okay, they were a Java dev, but the 'Intro to Groovy for Java devs' covers them quite well, I kind of assumed they'd have read that....)

A good contractor is a wonderful thing, an asset to a team that will drive the whole project forward.

A bad contractor is a reminder to your perminent staff that you don't pay them enough.

Thankfully, I never needed to work with any of the people aksing the questions and the engineers at the firm where top drawer. So all good! :)

To be fair, if that was the case, it sounds like the interviewers were pretty good too. :)

Re: The Faddist

*** Yes, I'm STILL pissed off at you. I took a day's leave to attend that interview and you didn't even have the courtesy to be polite.

Oh, don't start. I interviewed for a company that had been recently been taken over by a 'large tech company'. I had to take 2 days off work, travel 200 miles to their head office, for a half day interview for a job IN THE CITY I LIVE IN. (And of course, the interview starts at 8:30, so you've got to have 2 days off to make sure you're there on time).

Got hotel and travel paid for, but still ended up out of pocket for a deeply unsatisfying interview experience.

Ably blog claims company doesn't need Kubernetes to scale, surge in traffic takes down entire website

"Now live with your bad/good design patterns on your own for the life cycle of your product or service, you get none of the shared knowledge and advancement through the k8s community or platform,"

This is an interesting argument, but it does suppose that the 'community' always comes up with the best solution to a given problem. A good look at standardisation processes over the years shows it can just produce the least worse one that works.

How do you avoid the echo chamber effect? People doing things because others did them before, then that becoming the 'way'? (You see this a lot with thinks like Stack Overflow... there's many cut and pasted examples of things where a few vestigial config options, or code lines have crept in as the cut and paste cycle continues, or all the websites that happily tell you the rules to drastically reduce the brute force attack space on their passwords.

Personally, I always find the companies that do things differently to be a bit more interesting. So long as you can give well thought out reasons, it often shows you've considered the problem deeper than just getting the off the shelf solution. Sometimes that can allow you to provide the differentiation between your competitors.

Mind you, get it wrong, and you'll just be re-inventing the wheel a lot. :D

Who needs 'Bliss' in Teams when you can have the real thing on a Bristol bus?

Re: Clippy nostalgia

I don't understand the clippy image. I mean they've obviously managed to lure it down to the basement, but it still seems to be alive??*

_{* If you can call the existential hell of your cheery calls of 'I see you're trying to write a letter' being met with a wall of expletives time after time living....}

You're not imagining it. Amazon and AWS want to hire all your friends, enemies, and everyone in between

Re: I always find..

I, unsucesfully, and somewhat reluctantly, went through their recruitment process a couple of years ago.

It was an interesting experience, but it was clearly designed at the 20 something hotshots who would be awed to interview at the mighty Amazon; not the 40 something 'values work/life balance over flogging oneself to death for someone elses rocket gratification' dev that I am.

Windows 11: What we like and don't like about Microsoft's operating system so far

there is one change - you can no longer have a local account.

You can, as least with the version I have here.

Setup for personal use -> Sign In Options -> Offline Account

(This is with a fresh install of 11).

but most times a quick right-click on the taskbar is quicker.

Right click on the start button still works.

SteelSeries Apex Pro plays both sides of the mechanical keyboard fence – and wins

Cherry MX Blues are adored by programmers and writers

It's Cherry MX Brown for this programmer, for that 1990s BBC Master feel....

Linux kernel sheds legacy IDE support, but driver-dominated 5.14 rc1 still grows

"planned" as in 'Here's what we've decided on and made arangements for' not 'Here's what we're going to build'.

The fact it's a 'release candidate' was mentioned in the first candidate, I think the reg just assume that we all know what that means by now. :)

Linux Foundation celebrates 30 years of Torvalds' kernel with a dry T-shirt contest

Re: designing a T-shirt to celebrate 30 years of the software

In a piece of software that doesn't run natively on that software : Adobe Illustrator

I thought the file format choice was a subtle metaphore for how much progress has been made, yet how much was left to do?

Or it could just be that designers use Adobe, Yo!

;)

Developing for Windows 11: Like developing for Windows 10, but with rounded corners?

Re: Better hope they sort out the CPU and TPM support

I've got a newish (about 19 months ago) build, based on an AMD AM4 X570 chipset mobo, this is still a current model and whilst it does have a TPM header, it does not come with a module fitted.

Go into the BIOS, look for fTPM, enable it. That's the on-chip version, and is all that's required.

IIRC it's on the CPU so it will depend on what you're running, but if it's 2xxx or newer Ryzen you should be okay. I'm on the same chipset with a 5xxx series CPU, win 11 installed just fine.

Interestingly, after installing, went into the BIOS and disabled the TPM. Machine booted just fine. (I don't use bitlocker or similar though).

Re: I'm impressed

First impressions... a new layout for the lock screen, some UI tweaks, rounded corners, and a much better settings app. Otherwise, once you turn off centralised task bar icons it's pretty much the same.

Re: win 10

I think it goes back to NT4.

It's okay though, in Windows 11 it has nice rounded corners.

Hungover Brits declare full English breakfast the solution to all their ills

I'm sorry, but no.....

What the jeffing jeff is that picture on the front page?

For a start there's both kinds of sauce on there.... that's basically illegal.

Then the beans appear to have been confined into some kind of swimming pool arangement? How are they meant to add flavour to the egg when they can't mingle??

and I'm not even going to begin to address whatever that 'green' stuff is??

Lester would never have let such a.... travesty.... happen....

Mine's the one with the triple fried egg, chillie sauce and chutney sandwich congealing in the pocket...