Posts by Kraggy

Microsoft hikes cost of licensing its software on rival public clouds, introduces Azure 'Dedicated' Hosts

"to look for non-Microsoft solutions, such as those based on Linux or open-source software."

Um, so Linux isn't open source according to this writer?

Fresh bit o' Linux to spruce up that ancient Windows Vista box? Why not, we say...

Which is why Apple and Microsoft make billions by locking in the 'noobs' of course.

I agree with you and I wonder why they deemed it acceptable to make this job use a command shell when a single would do. The fact they didn't seems to indicate they still don't fully understand why the 'noobs' are content to waste a small fortune over their lifetimes on the 'big two'.

Rejecting Sonos' private data slurp basically bricks bloke's boombox

So why did he buy them in the first place?

"I'm probably going back to a traditional setup with buttons, stereo speakers, and wires. The sound was better, control better, and it still works after 20 years,"

Totally agree, so I wonder why he bought it!

Sonos, like most other boutique branded mini-hi-fi gear, has always been more about the 'cache' [insert accented 'e' if you know how!] (otherwise known as 'w' waving) than the quality.

Equifax: About those 400,000 UK records we lost? It's now 15.2M. Yes, M for MEELLLION

I don't think you understand just how lax UK law is regarding the cavalier way retail organisations, financial institutions and a plethora of others to whom Joe Public by necessity gives his personal details, are allowed to pass on that information to the 'big three' credit reference agencies: Experian, Equifax and CallCredit:

https://www.clearscore.com/credit-score/what-are-credit-reference-agencies

Nasty firmware update butchers Samsung smart TVs so bad, they have to be repaired

So Samsung expect their customers to lug their 40+" TVs into a service centre, how the hell does a person with only a small family car do? These things weigh a ton (metaphorically) and you'd do yourself a serious injury if you tried that with my little Fiesta!

Mozilla ponders making telemetry opt-out, 'cos hardly anyone opted in

I don't care about optimization for a handful of the sites in the world, especially sites like Facebook I never visit.

In any case, at the end of the day Firefox is an HTML renderer and HTML is a specified computer language, Mozilla don't need to 'optimize' for specific examples of programs of this language they simply need to write an efficient engine.

Did ROPEMAKER just unravel email security? Nah, it's likely a feature

Why Do People Expose Themselves With HTML E-Mail

Text-mode is invulnerable to all these kind of HTML/Web weaknesses, there is never, ever a good reason to inflict someone else with HTML-based messages, E-Mail is a TEXT medium!

Browser trust test: Would you let Chrome block ads? Or Firefox share and encrypt files?

I Will Disable My Ad Blocker and Privoxy ...

... when a web site GUARANTEES they'll never serve a malevolent ad .. I expect Hell to freeze over before I turn off my defenses.

Brace yourselves, Virgin Media prices are going up AGAIN, people

Is anyone surprised now that VM's controlled by a US outfit well known for screwing their domestic customers for years?

MP3 'died' and nobody noticed: Key patents expire on golden oldie tech

"and it's taken three weeks for anyone to notice"

Er, no it didn't, within a few days several Linux distros noticed, such as:

https://fedoramagazine.org/full-mp3-support-coming-soon-to-fedora/

FireEye calls Shim-anigans: Bank-raiding hackers switch tactics

So yet another example of a fatuous O/S design element .. API hooking .. is exploitable.

It's sad for the PC world that professional software developers weren't involved in designing Windows and that IBM lost out to Microsoft in the NT vs OS/2 fight.

It's noteworthy that 'legacy' mainframe systems never contained such ridiculous architectures, leastwise not when I was working on them a couple of decades ago.

BBC admits iPlayer downloads are broken

Re: Remove! Flash! Everywhere! on! your! site! Now!

Or maybe YOU should do the sensible thing and remove Flash from YOUR system, problem solved.

Guess who's suffering an email outage. Go on, it's as easy as 123-Reg

It's Also The Control Panel

Their whole site is affected, it's nigh on impossible to get to the Control Panel, many times I'm getting "Server responded with empty page" type messages and once logged in it's hit and miss as to whether you can actually do any management on your domains.

Windows code-signing tweaks sure to irritate software developers

Since when did Microsoft ever follow "best practices" except when it suited their agenda?

'So sorry' Evernote rips up privacy changes

I canceled my 'pro' service before they did this apparent U-turn, if they came up with that asinine 'policy' once they can do it again. I've used it for over 5 years and have a good number of documents in it but not paying for such cowboy attitudes .. looking at Peerio at the moment, first sight it looks something to be tried.

Virgin Media is so rustic and artisan you get to hand-sort your own spam

Re: Well bugger me...

The computer literati perhaps know better but they're the minority, though they choose to ignore (or else are incapable of comprehending) that fact.

This includes vast numbers of 'businesses' which are one or a handful of people who nowadays feel obliged to use the web even though they really don't 'get it'.

Portable drive, 5TB capacity. Hmm, there's something fishy here

Try Google, this is the top of the list:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-DataTraveler-Predator-Flash-Drive/dp/B00AV3XGPW

Don't let banks fool you, the blockchain really does have other uses

Of course, now that Accenture have filed a patent for an EDITOR the entire value of this technology just plummeted as it's no longer possible to believe that the chain isn't 'hackable'.

Forgive me, father, for I have used an ad-blocker on news websites...

No guilt at all

When websites GUARANTEE that they'll not try to explopit me using 'malads' then I'll consider it .. of course this means Hell will freeze over since the ad networks make zero effort to deal with the malware-punting ad agencies and websites rarely if ever cease dealing with ad networks that are shown to serve ads to their [the website's] visitors.

Childcare app bods wipe users' data – then discover backups had been borked for a year

I guess some lawyers will be getting Christmas early out of this fiasco.

Want a Windows 10 update? Don't go to Microsoft ... please

It doesn't take a genius to see this is simply a [malware] disaster waiting to happen when someone spoofs the 'updates' .. using P2P-type methods for software patching is beyond asinine.

Free Windows 10 upgrade: Time is running out – should you do it?

The way this article failed to mention the inability for most users to decide for themselves when to apply Win10 updates, failed to mention the egregiously heavy-handed snooping Win10 does before phoning home with vast amounts of information M$ have no business to be taking from your PC .. and the fact that they have the abiltiy to download YOUR FILES if some junior tech. decided he needs them to pursue an alleged 'issue' .. makes me wonder just how critical the writer is, or for that matter, what relationship he has with M$.

Windows 10 build 14342: No more friendly Wi-Fi sharing

Re: Good

Totally agree, but what I find bemusing is the excuse they gave for killing it .. just how hard is it to write this code so that it works without the need to, as the justification alludes to, continually fiddle with it?

Vivaldi Jon: Mobile – yes. Feeds and an ad blocker… probably not

"people feel they need a blocker because of the irritating ads"

IMO that's the least important reason for using an ad blocker .. MALVERTISING is by far the most likely way people's PCs are getting hit these days and until the Ad industry learns how to stop serving 'bad ads' to us then Ad Blockers are a MUST for anyone serious in trying to defend themselves, coupled with NoScript's ability to block iFrames.

Dropbox slips 500PB into its Magic Pocket, not spread over AWS

Isn't Dropbox the company Snowden warned about? Didn't they take on to their board an ex-politican provably hostile to privacy?

I guess if they have all 'your' data in-house it's easier for their friends at the NSA to get at it.

Outsourced Virgin Media techies botched this infosec bod's Poodle fix

My experience of VM, nee NTL over around 20 years is that the service is generally very reliable but God help you if you need support as their 'tech support' has always been lamentable, seems they're continuing the tradition.

I would say though that if you can get past the abysmal staff they have at 'tier 1' and get through to 'tier 2' (last time I did that was a couple of years ago) in BRITAIN you get to talk to people who understand your language and know what they're doing.

No more Nookie for Blighty as Barnes & Noble pulls out

So why is anyone surprised that there's a [good] chance that people will lose some [or most] of the content they paid for .. sorry, RENTED?

Only the naive would expect anything else given the DRM shenanigans of the digital age .. and expect TTIP to make it MUCH worse.

More and more Brits are using ad-blockers, says survey

When ad networks

a) guarantee not to inflict malvertising on me

b) never use animated ads

c) never use ads with audio

I MAY decide to remove AdBlock+ .. and I fully expect to see ice in Hell before that happens.

And yes, Steve Todd, a very apposite comment, I do love good doses of irony.

Microsoft releases Windows 10 preview for Raspberry Pi 3

It's only March 1st, you know, not April!

Dangerous Android banking bot leak signals new malware wave

Re: Update Hansdets, WTF?

A tad cynical perhaps but still a very valid point, more so for Android, when I have to use an Android device I have a Nexus, at least the support window from Google is measured in months rather than the weeks I experienced from Samsung with a Note II.

Given both Google's and Apple's 'official' stores have had and continue to have malicious apps discovered in them relying on these 'official' sources is clearly little defense.

Ransomware scum add Joomla to their list

I too only use Firefox+NoScript (+AdBlock for extra defense), blocking iFrames IMO is the biggest defense in fact even though of course script blocking is also key, which is why I'm sad the way Mozilla is taking Firefox.

If NoScript was available for Chrome I'd be using that browser but sadly there's no sign that it will be and the copy-cats addons for Chrome simply don't do as good a job as NoScript. :(

iPhones clock-blocked and crocked by setting date to Jan 1, 1970

Yup, seems to be a case of someone looking for anything to slam Apple for.

No, I'm not an Apple fanboi, I loathe some of their policies and attitudes but this is simply a pathetic attempt to find something to complain about.

Virgin Media spoof email mystery: Customers take to Facebook

Re: Migrated from Google to it's own

The VM mail system was moved to Google some years ago, before that I have no idea where it was hosted, so these 'old' addresses could well have been migrated from the previous hoster to Google.

In any case, the Google data was migrated to the new system and all reports I'm seeing infer that the alleged breach occurred after that migration.

WordPress under attack by whack-a-mole ad-scam malware

You know, while Adobe rightly gets lambasted for Flash, it seems to me WP is now enemy #1 on the Internet yet its developers are never pilloried like Adobe are.

How many scores of holes have been found in this abomination already?

Frankly if I were looking for a new site hoster I'd try to find one who won't allow their customers to use this crapware.

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

He said: "Given the current concerns around privacy and data security, the realisation that home routers can be accessed by complete strangers is unlikely to be viewed in a positive light.”

That's a pretty sizable understatement!

Given that most domestic routers are riddled with vulnerabilities in their firmware already, must of which is GPLed and open to being looked at, only a fool or someone not technically competent to know would trust the 'firewall' between the two channels.

I'd never use an ISP's provided router for this reason alone, I certainly wouldn't trust BT not to have back-doored their Infinity router to allow them to turn this 'feature' on even when I've disabled it.

How to help a user who can't find the Start button or the keyboard?

Sorry, this piss-take of a 'stupid user' is a fail!

Yes, it's been fashionable in IT circles for the 4 decades I was in DP/IT/whateverthe millenialscallit to deride 'dumb users', but not knowing anything about the organisation this alleged episode happened in it's impossible to know what expectations the end-user being jeered at would have had when he placed the call, however the support person who supposedly took this call made a fundamental assumption which we cannot know if he was entitled to make.

We don't know the remit of the 'support' department, so don't know if he was entitled to presume the end-user had a 'computer' problem without checking, and even if he was so entitled then clearly he didn't ask sufficiently general enough question to have realised the end-user wasn't using a computer payment system.

In any case, sneering at the user in this article is simply fatuous, he was asked questions and answered them, dealing with 'tech support' people that's what I do.

I also love many of the user-jeering replies made here, so typical of 'IT' discussions everywhere.

Me? I was a programmer/systems programmer/ database designer and more for 42 years until retiring in December, so I know full well the attitude of many in the 'computer industry' who deride non-techies.

One Ring to pwn them all: IoT doorbell can reveal your Wi-Fi key

Actually, no it isn't a defense at all, I suggest you research decided cases.

If it's noticeable faster with encryption turned off you've got some pretty lame equipment, frankly.

Also, failing to secure your Wi-Fi is no defense when the police call tracking down someone using your network to download child porn or somesuch.

Got a Nexus? Google has five critical Android security fixes for you

Just another example of why anyone who chooses to use an Android phone is bonkers if they don't use a Nexus .. I love my Samsung Note II but it's never been updated so I'm in the process of switching to an iPhone 6s.

Lloyds Bank apologises for ClickSafe verification system snafu

Why is it with ALL these announcements only a 'small' number of customers were victims?

Do the PR bunnies that write this trash really think the people reading it are stupid?

Sadly I suspect the answer is undoubtedly a big YES they do.

Day 2: UK research network Janet still being slapped by DDoS attack

"am in a law library and have to consult a hard copy of the law reports for the first time ever because of the DoS attack on UK Unis"

Ah, bless.

'Last century' skills, so useful at times. :)

Dailymotion hit by malvertising attack as perpetrators ‘up their game'

Sadly another day, another malvertising attack .. simply one more reason to use AdBlock and NoScript in Firefox as the only sensible way to browse web sites these days.

And to those sites who demand I disable my blocker to use them .. I don't need you so I'll pass on the offer, thanks, until you stop using ad networks that don't protect me.

Superfish 2.0 worsens: Dell's dodgy security certificate is an unkillable zombie

The degree of cluelessness here on Dell's part is staggering, especially from a company whose origins are as storied as this one.

Microsoft quietly slips out patched patch for Outlook – in camouflage

Why is The Register being a Microsoft apologist?

"The case highlighted the problems Microsoft can have with patching. With the plethora of operating systems and software run by its users, "

Um, Outlook is a Mickeysoft product running on a Mickeysoft O/S, how much simpler does it get to check it works?

Virgin Media hikes broadband, phone prices by five per cent

Sorry, that's just totally untrue.

I have both VM cable (recently upped to 100mb 'free' *cough*) and BT infinity 2 and I see no difference in performance (clearly the BT is now slower but performs perfectly according to its spec) and would quite happily end my VM service and use only BT if I had to choose one or the other .. I likely wouldn't close my BT and keep only VM.

Facebook CTO: Clear legal grounds needed for EU-US data exports

"Because even if you have have a data centre in Europe, most Europeans are sharing their data with people outside Europe, so we need to have clear legal grounds to make sure that your feed isn’t limited to only the people who are also in the EU, which destroys a lot of the value you want out of the product.”

The last part of the last sentence clearly is wrong, it should be:

"which destroys a lot of the value FACEBOOK wants out of the product."

Apple killed our app say Chaos Computer Club

Re: Subtle mind control

Anyone with the remotest interest in this subject is under no illusions about what Apple's App Store is all about.

It's Apple's system and they have the perfect right to control it as they see fit, users can't fail to realise the 'mind control' Apple exerts, they agree to it when they purchase Apple's products.

No, I'm not an Apple 'fanboi', I think Apple is a far more 'evil' company than Microsoft ever was, but what they do is hardly a secret.

Lancashire Police warn of malware email impersonation scam

Their switching off their e-mail seems to indicate their mail server techs don't understand the concept of spoofing.

Kind of worrying really.

WordPress blogger patch foot-drag nag: You're tempting hackers

As I've commented before about this train-wreck called Wordpress, when are Mozilla and co. going to issue a death-penalty on it like they've done for Flash?