Posts by Al fazed

Dead or alive, Britain hands Schrödinger's industry £121M

Re: Place your bets

More like the replacement for both will be:

Quanfusion pronounced Con Fusion.

What else ?

ALF

Oops, some of our customers' Power Pages-hosted sites were exploited, says Microsoft

There's no evidence of active exploitation

Typical obfuscation technique from Microsoft, nothing to see here.

If the article had been any longer, yawn........I might not have remembered this line from the beginning of the article................"after criminals got there first".

So that's not evidence of Active Exploitation then...........?

What ? So the ship has to sink completely before the Captain can shout "abandon ship" !!!

They've (MS) been building (if that's what it is) these Business "dread noughts" for a couple of decades now and STILL the purchasers don't seem to notice that the ships never leave the harbour, always seem to be stuck at the shallow end of computing (if that's what it is ?) At least these businesses never seem to sink completely, just day after f*in' day with mops and buckets, er and dry towels might help for those tears.

ALF

Type-safe C-killer Delphi hits 30, but a replacement has risen

Re: Not

They were definitely error messages which squarely laid the blame on me as well as working out how to fix it.

Cheers

ALF

Re: Not

I tried both sources actually. First the GUI linked to from the Reg article, then via the MX Synaptic package manager. Both created an install which was broken beyond my capability to fix it

in my lunch break......

ALF

Re: Not

Yes, that is the problem, left hanging.

The distro actually did install, twice.........but was broken in a different way each time install was completed. So many missing bits, as I said earlier SHEESH !

Just for the record, I did like Turbo and Object Pascal and I did use Delphi at university to learn about Object Oriented Programming as well as "safe" programming methods. As opposed to C, etc.

So much so in fact, I will next attempt the install Lazarus from a command line rather than trying the GUI versions that I tried previously. I feel it would be great to get it working even though I don't yet have a project to use it on. Just need enough hours to read the MAN pages and reverse engineer or maybe re engineer stuff wot iz broke.....

ALF

Not

very encouraging.....

Everything that can go wrong has, and the way to get things right is unfathomable to me at this time.

I downloaded from Lazarus but it didn't install, just sits in downloads.

I used Synaptic package manager and downloaded and installed Lazarus.

No that didn't work either........Upon starting the program I got nothing but error messages.

MAN pages reckon It could be installed in any number of locations on Linux, with libraries here, other bits go there, and then some go somewhere else.

Needless to say, if I want to use this IDE I am going to have to dedicated a lot of time to installing it properly first

SHEESH.........

ALF

Microsoft declutters Windows 11 File Explorer in the name of Euro privacy

It still doesn't

make Windows 11 a "useful" Operating System. So sad, back in Win 1.11 days I actually thought they had a good thing going.

I guess that's gone........

a long time ago.

ALF

XCSSET macOS malware returns with first new version since 2022

Re: Hilarious

Microsoft spends a lot of effort fixing the problems with their own OS.

Sadly it just isn't enough effort.

Maybe the effort should be applied before the release of each new Operating System ?

But then again, with so many Microsoft apps like 365 running on MACs, it's maybe the Microsoft apps which are making everything else "Holy" ?

ALF

Indian authorities seize loot from collapsed BitConnect crypto scam

Re: Astonishing

One chap I recently heard about is only 16, but he is avidly convinced that he knows something that every one else doesn't. He's autistic yet his mother is funding him to get his "powerful" PC, 'cos she knows bugger all about computers or Crypto.

So there you go.........there'll always be another one along in a minute

ALF

We can't make this stuff up: Palantir, Anduril form fellowship for AI adventures

Re: Mordor...

Twinned with Todmorden possibly ?

ALF

Palantir designed to 'power the West to its obvious innate superiority,' says CEO

Re: Heil Palantir! Heil Tesla!

Apparently, it is no longer a crime, if your name is Trump, et al

ALF

Maybe you lost the plot

the article is about Palantir and Peter thingy and is proposing various observations regarding his stated beliefs and those of his mates aboard that particular socio political group..........

You can't keep politics out of IT otherwise it would be nothing less than marketing spew.....

ALF

Encryption backdoor debate 'done and dusted,' former White House tech advisor says

Re: I bet . . .

and the only people interested in spying on you are good people, who have your best interests at heart.

A few of us don't believe this bullsh*t, even here in the UK.

ALF

Intel debuts laptop silicon that doesn't qualify for Microsoft's 'Copilot+ PC' badge

So ?

Does this mean that the PC's sporting these latest chips won't run Windows 11 ?

Whilst on one hand this seems like a marvellous idea, I'm not aware of an actually working alternative OSes........

Maybe Intel also has an OS these chips will run.........

ALF

Telco security is a dumpster fire and everyone's getting burned

Re: CHINA'S SPIES ARE TAPPING OUR PHONES

Or, maybe your Smart Taps are ordering the mince pies from China instead of ASDA. What ? Has the supply chain with that "Middle East/West - Far/Eastern Kingdom" company been disrupted again ?

It could just be the "Seasonal Adjustment" we have to adjust to ?

Or, It might simply be that ancient ERP system acting up again, or we could have been hacked ?

No. Turns out it was an unscheduled Microsoft update.....

ALF

Re: Security is an illusion

What ?

You mean there is actually something that can be done ?

Without unplugging it ?

F* Off !

ALF

Re: I wish them luck.

It'll turn up in some ML library - and will be available, for a small fee for later use by the social media AI bots when all the real users have left and only the bots are writing and reading the STUFF that's posted.

Similar to what is happening with LinkdIn at the moment, or the BBC eventually.

ALF

Re: Wherever you are, this story includes you.

Don't lose sight of the fact that the cats are using us....

Re: Pathetic anti-China hit piece

The only reason we don't know they are spying on us, or to be quite specific "SCREWING US OUT OF BUSINESS" is because it takes maybe 20 years and a possibly even a change of government branding before someone is really brave enough to throw away their career and family, or the STATUS QUO actually run out of illegal options like "gas lighting" the whistle blowers.

WAKE UP MUPPETS, PLEASE.

IT'S THIS KIND OF THINKING WHICH KEEPS WOULD BE IMMIGRANTS QUEUING UP IN FRANCE IN ORDER TO GET TO THE UK.

SHEESH

Severity of the risk facing the UK is widely underestimated, NCSC annual review warns

Talk all you want...

As a long time supporter of end Users of IT who are generally speaking not IT proficient, they are simply users of very complex technical equipment which they have little or no understanding of how it works. They just want to stay in touch with friends and relatives, do a bit of convenience shopping, or watch a music video. They tinker with the Apps which are easy to use and offer some level of novelty, or which are used by members of their own peer group.

Otherwise, trying pointing out to one of these lovely people that they would have more success and less anxiety if they changed their keyboard to UK from the Default American English. But even this is too much information for a lot of people.Never mind, "Do you have anti virus ?", or "Is your Firewall switched on ?". "Updates ?", What did that "Pop Up window say ?"

I have experience which shows me that even CEO's fall under this category of End Users. Then every budding new business I have ever come across would rather use WordPress for it's web presence, or would chose another web service which is built on top of WordPress(like) convenience, stock images supplied from unknown sources via scripts who's functionality they know nothing about.

We even have Go Vermin buying into Microshites latest Xmess channel stuffing, Oracle the ONLY ERP on sale to GoVermin service providers.......

This is only scraping the top of the IT security iceberg, I mean........what can go wrong ? Using chips and hardware made "elsewhere" for our convenience and to keep the price down.........

Job at GCHQ anyone ?

ALF

Now Online Safety Act is law, UK has 'priorities' – but still won't explain 'spy clause'

The tech already exists

Pegasus is the first "accredited" bit of software which springs to my mind. If it's already been used by a Government that surely implies it's "accredited".

Then there are those pesky side channels in the CPU/GPU/NPU/AIU accidentally keep turning up in Intel and AMD chips, not to mention that pesky Huwai networking hardware/software, which if I recall, still needs to be stripped out of a lot of places in the UK. I mean where the fuck is OUR 5G otherwise ?

IPV6 ? no doubt that external IP address in my ISP supplied router, which it is impossible to delete is/isnot covered by the ACT, as the Router command DELETE only works for IPV2/4 addresses listed in the IP Table.

Oh, don't forget those undocumented BIOS updates I mentioned a couple of years back. I haven't heard anyone come up with a fix for that one yet.

And when Microsoft keeps leaving it's Windows wide open on Github, CoPilot+, Windows Server 2025 release/escape (?).........

Do they actually need a legal framework ?

ALF

Data is the new uranium – incredibly powerful and amazingly dangerous

Re: "We don't know what a 'data Chernobyl' might look like"

however, many as yet undiscovered organisations are are busy stuffing unvalidated, incorrect, inaccurate, highly misleading data into their internal data silos.

Why ?

Because the muppets taking wage to supply this data think they arenot paid enough to ensure the data's integrity before submitting this shite into the company data base.

In the instance I am thinking of, it's going to be as big a concern to the organisation as the Fujitsu/Oracle/Post Orifice scandal.............when it finally surfaces, with teeth enough to bite the organisations CEO and senior managers for Professional Negligence.

In truth, their employees are charged with making accurate records of meetings with their clients. However, owing to lack of proper oversight, all sorts of utter rubbish is being entered into the data trawl and then it's regurgitated for use in County Court prosecutions, removing disbaled vulnerable people frtom their homes, even sending the poor unsupported defendants to prison for things like Anti Social Behaviour which is in fact noted as NOT ASB in the company documents like, Tenancy Agreements, Anti Social Behaviour Policy Handbook.

Not to mention breaches of GDPR (UK), the Disabilities Discrimination Act, The Equalities Act, to name a few.

It really beggars belief when a complaint about a solicitors firm hiding the defendant's evidence from the court by not including it in the court bundle, is brushed aside because in the words of the "legal firm", say that it's "OK, because the defendant did not rely on it in court". Not to mention ASB Case Officers being able to freely commit perjury with utter bollox is falsely entered as being "the truth" in the witness statements. Judges disregard the incorrect, inaccurate, down right lies as the being the truth and will happily plough on with the prosecution instead of stopping the trial in it's tracks.

It allows legal representatives to totally misinform the ICO, the SRA, the Housing Ombudsman and others who may be seeking the truth.

Anyway, as a professional with more than 30 years in this sector, I can only say bring on Chernobyl and wipe out this fallacy that all of the data stored is indeed, valid, verified, authentic, rather than a Sunak type of Data Unicorn which must be keep in the data silo, at all costs.

ALF

iOS 18 added secret and smart security feature that reboots iThings after three days

I can imagine,

that many of my friends who prefer iDevices but who are not IT savvy will be confused when their iPhone, iPad, Bluetooth speakers etc, all need a pass code entering before reuse, because these people generally speaking didn't make a note of the pass code they entered first time they used the device.

Help ! I know several who won't even let me change their keyboard to UK....

Or have it explained why you don't simply yank the plug from the wall when you have finished doing their Universal Credit Journal entry. This is usually required once a week, or maybe fortnight, when they get their latest sick note from their GP. It is generally speaking the only time they use their iPad, as everything else gets done on their iPhone.

More embuggeration of those least able to be unbuggered ?

ALF

AI PCs flood the market. Their makers hope someone wants them

I rather suspect

that the BBC et al are already using Copilot+ or some other AI fakery to write their headline stories. What gives it away ? The current rash of miss spellings and trend for split infinitives, which the general mass of readers don't even notice. Then there's the great headline without any actual story to match, but there's quite lengthy text output apparently gleaned from people living nearby who heard something, or fear something now they have watched the 7 second output from someone else's home security CCTV or a body worn cameras.........

Ah well, seeing as most people feel they are not that clever and normally feel they need to rely on some form of professionals opinion rather than their own innate gut feelings, the AI push will more than likely raise enough money for the industry to complete it's next generative marketing advances in technology products.

AI fridge anyone ? AI route planner ? AI holiday destination organiser ? AI birthday present purchaser ?

SHEESH

ALF

Another official four-day week pilot kicks off in the UK

Er

Aren't AWS and Dell American companies ?

Why did the article not mention actual British companies which are not taking part in the pilot.

Using these two players as examples of "nay sayers" sort of waters down the impact of the four day week pilot.

Maybe this article was really written by a Trump bot ?

ALF

Public sector cyber break-ins: Our money, our lives, our right to know

Re: Lies, cover ups and saving face

Apparently the ICO now says it is OK for a proswecuting solicitor to hide the defendant's evidence from the court by not including it in the court bundle. Apparently if the defendant doesn't rely on the evidence in court, the prosecuting solicitors have not breached GDPR...........

Re: I completely agree

It's the same in the Social Housing Sector. The Housing Ombudsman has no teeth to prosecute Housing Associations, as they can block investigations into themselves and can conduct internal inquiries where they should be Mediated by external evaluators. Anti Social behaviour Officers can commit perjury in the County Court Families Division and can get away with it. Managers do not need to do accurate reporting of meetings any more, even though their job description demands it. The Solicitors Regulatory Authority merely parrot the response of the solicitors who have been complained about. Get this, it is OK to hide the defendants evidence from the Judge and the Court, because "the defendant did not reply on it in court".

Not much of a body count though, just the occasional suicide or homeless person who has been unlawfully evicted and who is unable to enlist help from any of the organisations which provide safety nets to protect vulnerable people from abuse.

UK’s new Minister for Science and Technology comes to US touting Britain's AI benefits

Surely

if our expertise in the AI field is so good, why the expense of sending a human muppet when they could have more simply opened a chat line with the software. The output might have sounded more convincing, at least........

Halliburton probes 'an issue' disrupting business ops

Re: Robocalls

The robocalls is the attack......?

ALF

Oreon Lime is AlmaLinux with a desktop twist

Liam

you are a star. Your presentation of the facts, good, bad and ugly came across clearly. I gained a comprehensive, professional opinion on potentially a new and more useful/useable Operating System.

Thank you for contributing such clarity to what can otherwise be quite a confusing scenario.

ALF

Thunderbird is go: 128 now out with revamped 'Nebula' UI

Back to the drawing board then !!!

I don't know about anyone else, but my own experience with this latest issue is, OMG what a pile of shit ! Wishing I had stayed with the previous version now...

First bloody annoying crap is the missing menus, all of them. No ! Not hidden ! Black font on a Black background. I eventually worked out how to change the colours back to their original config, only to have them change back again next time I opened the damned thing. Eventually I found the correct config panel, not the config panel I had used previously, there are two, possibly three config panels now.

Second complete waste of my fucking time:- The language has reverted to American English for spell check...........Sort that out,

Oh No ! The Menu language is still American English............. WTF ????

Repeat Config change: English English language.

Third:- I had set up a folder for SCUMBAG mail, you know the sort that claims to have film of me in potentially embarrassing activities..........GONE, no not the folder, the FUCKING COLOURED LABEL I use to identify such pieces of garbage.

FOURTH:- So there is apparently a filter for sifting out SPAM........... IT DOES NOT FUCKING WORK...... I am still receiving eMails from Steve Logo Mats after 10 frigging years......

As there isn't anything better and I have now spent umpteen hours reconfiguring it I might as well continue using so0ftware whicgh again falls well below par, especially as the latest DEVS have undone a lot of really usefuyl stuff that earlier DEVS spent umpteen hourts DEVING...

Does it never end ??????

ALF

Microsoft Research chief scientist has no issue with Windows Recall

Well

It looks like in future firms like Huawei will be providing better security and productivity than the behemouth Microsoft.

When it comes to handling my data, Microsoft has long been the thorn in my side.

Maybe all this internal data storing is the only way Microshite can get anyone to use it's software applications, as no one would be using them by choice. basically because they are so shit compared to other software manufacturers current products. Oh, and they are getting even shitier with every iteration and their replacement of previously working software. (Notepad and Paint)

In Windows 10, it became apparent that I am no longer in control of my own desktop PC.

Along with many other background tweaks, we are now unable to switch off RPC. After that, I no longer trust any Windose boxen to be secure. Then it appeared that I am unable to work without Microsoft Defender using my resources in the background and bringing the other apps I do use - to their fucking knees. I am talking about playing locally stored audio files using VLC etc. I can now forget altogether the years I have spent editing and producing Videos. It also appeared that Defender had borked Sophos, something which I pay for.

Looks like Microsoft shot them selves in both feet good time. Roll on Linux desktop or <joke> even Huawei if I want security, </joke>

Toyota plus 4 other Japanese automakers caught cheating on certification tests

Re: Senior management, lying?

Here in the UK it's something which appears to affect many industries, not just car manufacturers. There's the Post Office scandal, the NHS infected blood scandal, the Social Services recent admission of their deprivation of children's liberty. Then there's the Social Housing providers penchant for financial reporting fraud, combined with the bullying of vulnerable tenants, not to mention the construction industry and local government getting down with their deceptions, the like which led to the Grenfell Tower disaster. Add these serious embarrassments to the number of dodgy police officers going about their business unchallenged, the sewage pumped into waterways, and our Go Vermin says, "lets get fracking" and "it's safe to go nuclear", so we can share more cat videos and they can make even more money etc, etc. What UK CO2 targets ?

Are you depressed yet ?

Now to add salt to your wound, I have been told IN WRITING by BOTH, the Information Commissioners Office and the Solicitors Regulation Authority, that it is NOT a breach of ANY regulations when a prosecuting solicitor hides the defendants evidence from the judge, by not including those documents in the Court Bundle. Additionally, altering a defendant's evidence which does appear in the Court Bundle - is also NOT an issue to WORRY about THESE DAYS - in here in Rishi Sunaks unicorn UK.

The social housing provider and their legal beagles are now UNLAWFULLY DEMANDING that I take down a legitimate web site which forms a case study of their performance between 2018 and 2022. So much for our Data Protection Act and GDPR.

Way to go UK. I often find myself wondering why I ever bothered to learn about all this at University, as anyone in employed in the management of the above industries/services seems to think that regulation is a load of bollox.

ALF

Analysts join the call for Microsoft to recall Recall

Funny

when I first read about this I thought "I wonder, if this is what happens when China hacks into Microshafts GitHub palace of jade repos..........

Stop it, I can't breathe for laughing.

ALF

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries bets big on small turbines for datacenters

About time

A physicist friend who is well into plasma got head hunted by that Aldermaston research shed, oh well over ten years ago now. He outlined the gas engine to me some time before that and I am wholly surprised NOT that we still do not have these things generating electricity in the home.

There are numerous myths still shrouding the subject. For a start, academics still assume that you have to compress the stuff before it's useful. The greedy always want to see this implemented "at scale", and including "mega power" suppliers and the inevitable power "grid".

Whist we are stuck with development being driven by greed and profit, we will never see the advantages or benefits at consumer level, unfortunately. However, I do believe my mate Neil about the efficacy of small, local, electricity production, and maybe that's why he's disappeared into a UK research facility many ears ago...........

ALF

NASA confirms Florida house hit by a piece of ISS battery pack

Here on Earth

we tell our kids to take their rubbish home with them.

In the USA NASA blow a trumpet when a fucking robot chucks into Earth orbit a "pallet" carrying tons of their space rubbish. ALSO, knowing full well that it will rain down on all of our heads - as dust and ash if we are fucking well lucky. Lumps of heavy metal if we are not !

And then they go passing the blame onto one of the few companies that get most of the big bucks for big the deals to build this shite in the first place. Again knowing full well that they (BOING) continually build very expensive shite - to toss into the air ..

With the current political climate in the USA, I'm fairly surprised that they didn't arrange for it to drop on Gazza, or Russia, or Haiti, ........or China.

Just saying......

Pity it didn't land on the UK Houses of Parliament, it might have made an improvement to it's workings, or needed an additional passage adding to the Rwanda Bill.

ALF

Don't

make me laugh !

ALF

US House approves FISA renewal – warrantless surveillance and all

I don't see

what all the fuss is about. It's common knowledge by now that, no privacy is guaranteed.

So UK give NHS folks data to a US org for processing. Why don't we just give it to the Chinese and miss out the yanks ? I'm sure that China are just as efficient, if not more efficient than Micorsoft, Amazon, Apple, X, et al, at handling customer's data.

Ooops, hat, coat, silicon gloves...

ALF

Hyundai picks Palantir to help it build automated navy ships

Oh Yeah,

I wonder if Rishi is planning on giving the job of stopping the boats to Palantir ?

That would make sense of UK/Microsoft 365 data sharing ambitions as it would allow the go vermins to pass any blame for the emerging cockups onto some shonky database tech which, OBVIOUSLY has been hacked by the Isreali's, the Russians, the Chinese, The Americans, etc....

ALF

Microsoft breach allowed Russian spies to steal emails from US government

The question

I have been asking since 1995 is, "Why are they still using Microsoft anything ?"

Why is any pro democracy go vermins still using anything which is sold by Microsoft ?

Oh, UK go vemins has signed a new contract with Cosy Bear to try to get our data back outta da Microsoft cloud........

UK businesses shockingly unaware of how to handle security threats

Why SME's and not for profits DO NOT bother

In my role as director of a very small not for profit working in the community, I have experienced PHISHING attempts - like any other eMail User.

As a university educated IT pro, (BSc Information Technology) I have done the right thing.

I found the time and sought out the correct organisation to report the SCAM to and dutifully sent off the report, as advised on:

https://www.gov.uk/report-suspicious-emails-websites-phishing "Forward suspicious emails to [e-mail]"

I received shortly after a very nice eMail notifying me that they did not read my message because it had something nasty attached to it...........................

Way to go ?

What a waste of my time and effort. It did not inspire confidence in the Governments ability to receive suspect eMails - forwarded as directed......

The result indicates to me quite clearly that in future I shouldn't bother wasting my time or effort, if no one at the receiving end is capable of reading/receiving the FORWARDED message.

Up yours UK Gov.

ALF

Canva acquires Affinity, further wounding a regulator-bruised Adobe

More Bollox

Just signed up for what at first appeared to be a great software offer - at free price for non profits.

Just cancelled the CANVA account as it does not recognise a real not for profit organisation and was unable to differentiate my not for profit from a government QUANGO non profit. Mine has to be registered with a QUANGO in order to qualify as not for profit. What a load of shit.

Governemnt QUANGO non profits are recognised as not for profit whilst my real not for profit does not qualify.

SHEESH, there is so much shite in this world dressed up as good food to eat. Is it getting worse ?

When their Privacy Policy meant I had to sign up to agree or not agree to my works being fed into an AI, it was the last hurdle and I bolted to the green green grass of home.

They are not getting their greedy little paws on anything of mine. I have been perfectly happy with all of the apps I have already for making art, this crap offers little more than WORDPRESS for lazy twats who will get all that they deserve. Serif products are still brill and still free for me to use.

SOZ.

ALF

Google's AI-powered search results are loaded with spammy, scammy garbage

Google shmoogle goshomgle

Just reaffirmed that Google must be the shittest search engine on the planet.

without agreeing or disagreeing, ie; no pop ups on my Google page, I did a couple of serches for my own name to see where Google would like me to end up.

I used just the words David Urmston, as you'd epect there are numerous English speaking David Urmstons world wide, however, the one site I was hoping to see did turn up halfway down page one.

Surprise surprise, when I attempted to refine the search with a variety of <H1>'s which are in use on all of my web sites, the results got worse each time. Much worse.

In the end I typed the whole URL into the search box AND got nothing at all from the web site I wanted to find, but lots of crap - the same crap which had appeared on all of my previous searches using the same terms "david" "urmston". There was so much page padding with results beginning with "B" and other letters I had not even used.

Is this the end game for the Internet, where one is unable to find one's own web site, unless one types the unexpurgated URL into the address bar ?

ALF

UK finance minister promises NHS £3.4B IT investment to unlock £35B savings

Tory Go Vermin is NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE

I've said it before and I'm saying it again, the folding money will only go the the IT favourites, Palantir, ATOS, Capita, Microshaft, Amazon. Did I miss someone ? Ah, yes Oracle! Here we go again, let's build an IT system not fir for purpose, then we get to re-invent the IT wheel in another 10 years or so of over budget and under delivery.

Please tell me exactly how this world wonder health system will include ANY of the complimentary health practices, lie chiropractics, homeopathy, herbalisms including the use of the politically repugmant cannabis for skin cancer treatment, ADHD. Psilocybin and lions mane for treating depression, etc.

What we will have is another generous gift of sweeties to the American pharmacey/insurance fascists. Maybe our Tory twats have shares in these edifices of serious IT blunder ? Maybe it's the rich twats who fund the Tory Party who have the shares ? Who gives a rats arse. It wasn't the lack of an IT system that caused 5 year wait to get on an NHS dentists panel, 4 x attempts over 5 years to hopefully get an ADHD assessment, still waiting, etc...etc...

Just give the Tories the UK's purse strings and 2p deductions in Tax and Employment Insurance should keep the Goggle Box watching British in their places, queueing...........

Don't make me laugh, I just broke a couple of ribs, and after being advised by 111 to attend the A&E I saved them an ambulance 4hours wait by getting myself there at 6pm. 4 hours later, I am told there is 7 to 8 hour wait to see a doctor. I have had a basic examination to satisfy that I will last 7 to 8 hours in the waiting room and decide to go home without an X-ray, just in case they decide at 6am that I need to stay in hospital. If I am going to die from broken ribs, I'd prefer to be at home with my family rather knowing that I'm going to die whilst waiting in A&E.

It's the continued lack of spending on dentists, doctors and nurses, not the massive free gifts to American companies that is killing the NHS. Think of all the money them Tories will make when we all have to go private in order to get ANY treatment.

ALF not convinced...........

Tiny Core Linux 15 stuffs modern computing in a nutshell

investigating whether it can turn some geriatric laptops into useful tools once again.

Thank you for this Monday news item. A positive story about a good Operating System and so the future appears great once more.

As a geriatric computer user I now have something to look forward to, a foray into my cache of almost antique x86 machines. I am also pondering if I can successfully dual boot this MacBook Pro with TCL. Not that there's much wrong with it other than it's become rather slow compared to how it used to run.

Thank you for brightening up the weeks ahead.

ALF

Top Linux distros drop fresh beats

So happy

to have MX Linux available as Windose has finally hit the rocks. So much background shite that I am now unable to switch off without breaking the OS, that even playing a music file in VLC is interrupted by system calls. It's made video editing impossible on the machine which until a few months back was absolutely the best hardware I'd ever had on the desk.

Now the same machine whizzes along under MX Linux, however all is not clear as there is bugger all support for the integrated Intel Graphics chip. The result is shit.

On this machine I cannot draw a true representation of a circle and A4 paper looks well squashed. The only way to get the screen correct means running at 800x600 which means the menu boxes are chopped off at the bottom and have no buttons to Cancel or Accept, thank the dog for the Enter key....... It looks like Windows 3.1 all the way, none of the application windows fit the sodding screen, no matter what the fucking resolution.

MX Linux It's so shit at this that I have to use the Windose 10 box in order to use Libre Office Draw with circles appearing as circles and A4 paper looking like A4 paper.

Come on guys n gals............please

ALF

Study: Thousands of businesses just love handing over your info to Facebook

So, just who is tracking me ?

Farcebreak's final insults to my waining intelligence occurred when they were happy to cover my Home page with (very sneaky) "the text in a photo" adverts - promoting Isreal as "the" best country to lead the world.

I don't need to say much more, other than I had already been bombarded for many months with ads promoting all the different flavours of Christianity. Since I've been a practicing atheist since before I was 16 and I turned 71 last week, I am happy to report that the targetting of these adverts is somewhat off - by a good number of miles.

It wasn't the absolutely ludicrous suggestion that Isreal could and should rule the world which made me decide once and for all that Facecreep is a complete waste of time. It was the fact that posts made by my family and friends were so very much lower in number than the number of useless ads (which had supposedly been targetted at me).

In the past I have satisfied myself that FarceBreak was pretty poor at targeting me with advertising, partly as I live on the breadline without a disposable income - but now I am convinced that their mediators are attempting to wind me up, with the sole intention of making me rather angry. Still, Isreal ruling the world has to be the least believable advert I've seen yet. And most definitely, it is time to make for the exit ensuring to throw the key into the nearest river.

Influencers ? Listening ? Targetting ? WTF ?

ALF

Kaspersky reveals previously unknown hardware 'feature' exploited in iPhone attacks

'Security through obscurity' just doesn't cut it anymore.

A superb article for a Friday any week of the year. The only gripe comes from the authors last sentence,

'Security through obscurity' just doesn't cut it anymore.'

I was given to understand that "security through obscurity" does defintitely "not" provide security.

That a major provider of hardware thinks they can use this to pull wool over the customers eyes shows how fucking retarded capitalist thinking is.

I've never bought an Applie product and after this "news" story I will continue to scoff at people who still believe that MAC's users can't catch viruses or other malware.

Not that Microshite is any better, after more than 30 years in the field I finally got my first trojan and crypto miner on my Windose 10 box. Not surprising really as my chosen Anti Virus Sophos will no longer work on Windose 10 without crippling the machine - as it is attempting to work along side Microsoft Defender. Microsoft Defender had failed to notice that I was unable to log in to my bank. I had to start poking about ahem...... before Microshit went, ooh, look, you just had x, and y, never mind we have dealt with it. No don't bother checking the logs we deleted those as well.................

Is there any hardware software combination which is safe ? Seems like everyone in the business has chosen the "fuck you by obscurity route..........."

ALF

Biden urged to do something about Europe 'unfairly' targeting American tech

Re: Shall we go back in History,

why? When so much of it is sheer b*ll*x.

American subjugation of their own first nations, the way that decendants from African slaves are still treated today and the continual down grading of women in science and politics provide very good examples of why American enterprise needs to be policed. Those attitudes underpin financial interests which take American companies abroad looking to exploit foriegn markets and make huge unregulated profits.

Yeah, let American greed rip. No worries eh ?

Did America import such rapacious behaviour from Europeans over the passed centuries ?

Does it matter ?

Yes, we don't want it back, thank you. Keep it to yourself. We can see the huge pile of human detritous, everywhere, living on the outskirts of American economic success story.

We don't need any more here as we are doing just fine ourselves, creating such a shitty world already.

I won't mention Isreal, honest................

ALF