Re: Amiga days.....
Win10 is just so Microsoft. In dos 5 I couldn't believe that you could have a dir listing that iterated forever. Crank forward a few decades. Nothing has changed.
Posts by Paul 129
408 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jun 2009
Windows 10 May 2019 Update thwarted by obscure tech known as 'external storage'
LG folds at prospect of launching bendy phone while Samsung flaunts its upcoming kit on telly
Thursday 21st February 2019 07:37 GMT
LG V20
Best/Last phone with a removable battery. Gives me a 30s recharge time. Take the case off pop the back off put battery in replace and power on. So much better than the silly inductive chargers.
Perhaps the way to go would be a tiny slim phone, for the wow factor and water proofing but sell an after market case with a decent replaceable battery. Pls :-)
Australian prime minister blames 'state level' baddies for Oz parliament breach
Are you sure your disc drive has stopped rotating, or are you just ignoring the messages?
Yes, you can remotely hack factory, building site cranes. Wait, what?
Taylor's gonna spy, spy, spy, spy, spy... fans can't shake cam off, shake cam off
Tesla autopilot saves driver after he fell asleep at wheel on the freeway
Microsoft: You looking at me funny? Oh, you just want to sign in
Thursday 22nd November 2018 05:59 GMT
Re: Fantastic!
No. Linux, (use the yubi-key mods to /etc/pam.d/common-auth). Chome or firefox (after about:config security.webauth.u2f=True) and tell them do dump cookies on exit.
Yubi key seems to have support for windows logins pre the lates 10. I haven't yet dared to try the latest 10.
It's good stuff!
Thursday 22nd November 2018 05:52 GMT
Re: I Don't Get It...
Having used a KEY-ID U2F device in linux for a few week now. I can say they are the way to go. You can have more than one key linked to an account, so do this. Thus you have spare keys, or a master key if your the admin for a host of services.
The protection that these offer is protection from remote theft of credentials. Someone has to press the button on the device. MITM is greatly mitigated too. I would suggest that a password would be better protection than a pin. That way if your unfortunate enough to loose your machine and key, you still have some protection. Each service that requests auth should also have some certificate chain to verify who they are the port and service or namespace (forgive my manglement of the correct jargon).
Just be aware that if you want them to authorise against google services, that you set your browser to forget cookies on close, or it will forever keep you logged in.
These aren't perfect, but they sure raise the bar for stealing remote accounts.
Microsoft confirms: We fixed Azure by turning it off and on again. PS: Office 362 is still borked
Monday 19th November 2018 23:35 GMT
U2F
Picked up a cheap fido u2f key.... These are great and work well in linux, easy config change. Browser support? You have to turn it on via config in firefox, enabled in chrome. Works with gmail nicely if you set your browser to remove cookie on close.
Windows,... well no. Apparently there is V 1.2 of the standard which has been called U2F 2.0 microsoft is a partner. The standard is still in the process of being ratified (As far as I can tell) and hardware is scant and difficult to tell what version. i.e. a mess.
What is the link? Microsoft somehow really messes up two factor authentication. Accident or embrace, extend, extinguish?
My guess..... both.
Zip it! 3 more reasons to be glad you didn't jump on Windows 10 1809
Motorola strap-on packs a 2,000mAh battery to appease the 5G gods
It walks, it talks, it falls over a bit. Windows 10 is three years old
Monday 16th July 2018 12:33 GMT
Re: Not since 1998...
I'd have to second the idea that something is seriously wrong.. The app store packaging structure seems more sound that the old windows installations, but of course there is a cost. Winsxs. All those identically named dlls that once we the bane of your existence are all lovingly and separately registered in winsxs each with a truncated guid, like signature. File corruptions can be identified and fixed automagicly with sfc, but god help you if somehow the sxs registrations go awol, or you think you can simply copy a file in to replace a corrupt one.
The OS is strong. (The failure rate of updates, given how they do the feature updates, is way lower than I would have expected ) I'd guess you've got some corruption in your sxs manifests. Wipe and reinstall i'm afraid.
Stop error codes are still viable and the crash logs are better than ever.
Unabashed linux fan. Windows is stuffed, but not in the way you describe. Its surprisingly durable.
IBM wins five-year whole-of-government deal with Australia
Windows 10's defences are pretty robust these days, so of course folk are trying to break them
BOFH: Is everybody ready for the meeting? Grab a crayon – let's get technical
Friday 22nd June 2018 22:30 GMT
I was expecting
Simon hands out some of his latest documentation.
A hush descends as the technical documentation is astutely studied, before the excited babble and arguments break out. Blimey! Useful tech docs. I wish we had this type of info in my day. I didn't know that,... lets give it a try, and the "damn it don't tell everyone you'll spoil it for us!"
more arguments, followed by th boss getting a delegation later that week. Of all his friends trying to evaluate the usefulness of the documentation. Maybe even a judicious trial of the window hinge.
Microsoft says Windows 10 April update is fit for business rollout
Sunday 17th June 2018 01:10 GMT
Re: Because
Its actually quite clever how effective the deduping is in wim files.
Although it 4 gig cause it isn't an update its a full reinstall. Its very clever, the trickery with winsxs etc.
But by far the cleverest is the standover tactics to force you to cloud services. Cause you just don't know when your number is up. Is your PC a brick this update or the next.?
... Aaaand that's a fifth Brit Army Watchkeeper drone to crash in Wales
Half of all Windows 10 users thought: BSOD it, let's get the latest build
Thursday 31st May 2018 21:21 GMT
Re: Rolled out != working users
This last update was a clusterfuck. Good for business though. More than the normal number of it doesn't start. Completely different group of sufferers. First time I've seen usb hardware so badly incompatible that plugging it in to any machine (even older versions of windows, updated with MS patches) will hang on boot. (I'm guessing that it hangs on loading the usb system, no damage done, but bing able to plug in a relatively small device win10 gives a wait icon, earlier versions show some text just before they would normally switch to full grapical mode, A section of boot that I have never seen before. Its a neat trick)
I swear the upgrade is the old reinstall the os over the top of itself.
Slightly more reliable due to keeping windows SxS information. I didn't notice any useful list of uninstalled programs this time around. But identical hardware, 1 where it worked, one where it failed. What really took the cake for me though was the client who had a glitch in the update which then rolled back blitzing a number of their programs.
Reinstall and rebuild their data, only to have a vendor charge them like a wounded bull to re-install their MSSQL based app, required by their franchise., cause only they can install it (WTF?!?!). Even knowing all the data was available. Ethical my ass.
Yet I would not have expected MSSQL compact to be killed by a windows update, their shitty program yes.
As the feature updates are so badly handled I'm having to go back to recommending full bare metal backups. What a PITA
Oh and don't get me started on how long the bloody update takes!
Your parents love you, Cortana. That's why we bought you an upgrade
Boffins bash out bonkers boost for batteries
Friday 18th May 2018 07:58 GMT
Re: Diode or Storage
To me the article reads as more efficient systems with a replacement for a diode. One in which a magnetic field controls the flow of current and is thus much more efficient than a standard diode junction.
So something like a FET then?
Slippery footing! Beware the snake Oil!
NASA will send tiny helicopter to Mars
IBM bans all removable storage, for all staff, everywhere
Wanted that Windows 10 update but have an Intel SSD? Computer says no
Friday 11th May 2018 23:36 GMT
Re: Not just Intel SSDs
Typical MS upgrade. Some hardware is more compatible than others.
The round of updates that affected even windows 7 made 7,8,10 all incompatible with a little tplink usb-3 hub of mine. (spinny icon of wait and a black screen, not the spinny dots) Its unfortunately a normal part of updating windows. Whats not normal is how we are all stuck with a 6 monthly reinstall of windows on top of itself. Maybe a rollback, and another hard reinstall, all automagicly taking care of your programs and data.
The wonder is, that it doesn't leave more machines unusable.
Press F to pay respects to the Windows 10 April Update casualties
Windows 10 Springwatch: See the majestic Microsoft in its natural habitat, fixing stuff the last patch broke
Xen turns it up to 4.11 and shrinks itself to contain containers
Tuesday 24th April 2018 23:06 GMT 
I must be getting old
So the good part of Xen which was always PV is now bad due to specter. You can transparently run your PV in a HVM, or you can rely on a new unnamed guest container to harden your PV.
Is that what your saying? Reading the article I felt was a jargon spin cycle with a container thrown in.
If you guessed China’s heavy lifter failed due to a liquid hydrogen turbo engine fault, well done!
NUC, NUC! Who's there? Intel, warning you to kill a buggy keyboard app
Monday 9th April 2018 06:34 GMT
Re: VNC
X2go was another interesting system (did have issues with apps using opengl, but could just about watch movies over it). I find myself using xrdp at the moment though.
Also note there are a number of interesting python libraries to automate actions within vnc sessions.
Each solution, good in a number of ways, but no single one can do it all.
US spanks EU businesses in race to detect p0wned servers
Friday 6th April 2018 03:20 GMT
Re: The IP of where the attack comes from...
So when you find a data breech linked back to an attacking ip address, who do you report it to.
That machine is most likely compromised. True, but without any stats or other details, your deliberately
But locally at least, the feds(Australia) had up on their website about 12 months ago, that they were not interested in receiving information unless the attack originated within Australia.
So when I find an attack that has done damage to a business, cause its a small business, no one is interested in the last hop? No one wants to know? Just file insurance claims and move on....
head meet hole in sand.
My PC is broken, said user typing in white on a white background
Friday 2nd March 2018 10:59 GMT
You evil BASTARD!
"I've had lots of fun with the white on white problem"
It was not fun fixing in the win95 days. It was memorise the keystrokes, and they could change depeding on the grapics driver. no nice VGA boot option, or offline registry tools. Keystrokes or reinstall.
Where I was working didn't do interdepartmental billing at that stage. I would have loved to do a full reinstall and have the cheeky bastards who pulled the stunt explain the bill to their boss.
Hypersonic nukes! Nuclear-powered drone subs! Putin unwraps his new (propaganda) toys
Sheer luck helped prevent mid-air drone glider prang in Blighty
Wednesday 28th February 2018 08:32 GMT
Re: Hmmm...
Endangering a flight. Locally its a 20 year sentence. Absolute liability, so you can't cry I didn't mean to.
I'd expect it to be the similar in other jurisdictions, especially given various international agreements.
Murderers can get less. So get the police to really investigate, charge and jail the people involved.
Theres a good chance that the person has a mobile phone, so there's only so many people in the cell zone.
Facebook's big solution to combating election ad fraud: Snail mail
No Windows 10, no Office 2019, says Microsoft
Friday 2nd February 2018 20:42 GMT
Or 3rd party lock in
One in particular when you upgrade will happily remove the old version and then fail to begin installing the update if you don't have office.
I'm still cursing the fact that they wont provide support for it, if the core is not run on windows server, EVEN knowing it was deployed with the compact version of sqlserver. (I did have a MS Server free site)
The providers state that they will only support their product on Microsoft software that is currently in support.. Actually having it deliberately break if it isn't is rude at best, brown envelopes(err Marketing) at worst
Fancy coughing up for a £2,000 'nanodegree' in flying car design?
Sunday 28th January 2018 04:25 GMT
Re: Nano
Actually quite a number have. The Russians even had a flying tank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_A-40.
Practicality of competing requirements (airworthiness, weight, power, safety, suspension, armor, not chopping up people with a great big propeller) seem to be why these never, really get off the ground.
Destroying the city to save the robocar
Thursday 18th January 2018 02:09 GMT
Re: Obviously the solution is....
"Anyone who's ever looked after a horse will be lolling right now. They are time and money pits :D"
A bike is faster over a prolonged distance.
As well as not having the disposition to try and throw you off, tread on your toes, or walk under low branches, cause its feeling a little lazy/moody/mischievous.
Watch out for low stuff. I swear they're mostly mischievous, with the occasional horsing around.
WD My Cloud NAS devices have hard-wired backdoor
Ubuntu 17.10 pulled: Linux OS knackers laptop BIOSes, Intel kernel driver fingered
Thursday 28th December 2017 03:13 GMT
Re: Booting over the network?
Network booting is all well and good, but the newer systems also do away with network adapters. You only need wireless. And as someone who has got going too many systems via network boot, I have never got one going over wireless yet. EFI (everythings fu&^ed iinit?).
Wifi PXE? Hmm that would mean battling, shoddy PXE stack (surprisingly common), WPA issues or setting up an open network, cross your fingers and prey that the wifi drivers are adequate.
Brandis' infrastructure security bill off to committee
Wednesday 13th December 2017 06:39 GMT
Re: so this is one of a series of gummints that
Denarius: Has lots of ideas. The problem is simpler than that unfortunately.
The problem is that the parties are designed to get people elected. They are not designed to get good, skilled people elected. As a result the political staffer with no real life experience, is the one who knows all the shortcuts, already has the key contact details within the party, and looks young youthful, an energetic go getter.
Truth is, they're an inexperienced know nothing who have watched any number of shady backroom deals and backstabbings. These are the people we empower to run our government!
The only way to change things, is to get involved. Doesn't matter which party. They've all rotted away to their poisoned cores. Get more people involved and take government back for the average majority. This left right divide is simply b@ll$hit to keep the masses occupied, thinking there is a difference, rather than demanding good leadership.
Microsoft emergency update: Malware Engine needs, erm, malware protection
Thou shalt use our drone app, UK.gov to tell quadcopter pilots
Tuesday 28th November 2017 23:30 GMT
Makes sense
Gotta register my dog. Big fines when it gets out
Gotta register my cat. (Some ares of my state cats are banned) they kill local wildlife.
Gotta register my car, (could kill people). Gotta register my wife (umm,... ok?). Gotta register my kids (Now these are dangerous). Gotta register my cows (tracking of stuff that potentially could be on sale for human consumption), gotta register my sheep(see cows). Phone (LOL, essentially registered)
Hell, quite a lot of software, and its growing.
'Treat infosec fails like plane crashes' – but hopefully with less death and twisted metal
Monday 27th November 2017 21:37 GMT
Reporting a hack to the Police.
Lol there's a good one.
Locally they take your statement for the insurance claim. Unless you engrave your car rego onto things you'll never get them back. The Feds have a nice little thing where unless you can demonstrate that the perpetrator is from our country they wont do a damned thing as its not their jurisdiction.
Wizarding World of Harry Potter awaits Microsoft Office exam winners
Friday 24th November 2017 08:34 GMT
Re: Woah
"You must have learned on very early versions. It hasn't really changed in over 20 years other than moving buttons to more accessible places."
I'll bite. Early versions the Mac was where it was at, but you had to withe down the full version of office on the disks. Cause each one was different 6.05 6.05a 6.05z etc kinda like windows builds. Most were unstable on mass, the select few you could install in a lab and not have problems. The macro language looked great until you tried to do anything complex. Then it became bizarre. (a find function operating slower than matching every cell in the column looking for the presence or otherwise of a value in a column iteratively)
PC versions were next, it worked better on windows, but limited. Through the 90's and 00's the fun was large documents. Oh and the roughly 12 years of manually putting a registry entry to fix the Australian English dictionary. (Gave up on ever expecting that to be fixed, err recognized as a fault) Locking up machines and crashing, only to be fixed by a cut and paste of all text into a new document. Haven't had to deal too much with it since the ribbon, I know the functions are there, just have to find them, same sort of stuff. Help became more useful (don't mention clippy) Oh and of course each damned version formatting documents subtly differently.
But the bane of my existence in recent years. Outlook and imap..... (the first microsoft mail with the exchange backend or pop was actually quite good).
Linux may be a right royal pain in the arse with a few things, when you try something new or get away from the mainstream. But once you have it working, its rock solid.
Office hasn't really changed all that much over the years, its still has delusions of adequacy.
Friday 24th November 2017 07:53 GMT
"This can be followed up with a half blood prince 2 qualification."
Now this sounds like Microsoft Licensing.
To achieve this you need half the blood from a prince.
Opps fell for the gotcha.... half blood prince 2.
That'll be all the blood of a prince....
Pricey I know, but how can you put a a value to such quality kit.
<ahh god must post before my before my prefrontal cortex kills me for the b#^^$hit above>
Biting the hand that feeds IT
