Posts by John Doe 6

Undergrad thought he had mastered Unix in weeks. Then he discovered rm -rf

Re: what does ~* do?

In some quite old UNIX systems root didn't have a separate home directory...

executing rm -r ~* would be something like rm -r /*

This is from the HP manual "HP-UX 11i Version 1 Installation and Update Guide" under "Cold Install" ...

"Consider creating a root home directory that is not /. This keeps the user root dot files out of the / directory. Make sure it is on the root volume by not locating it under the mount point of the file system. A good name to use is /homeroot (not /home/root) as /home is often a mount point. This is especially important if you are using LVM or VxVM and /home is a seperate volme."

Doom is 30, and so is Windows NT. How far we haven't come

Yes... and that description is actually exactly why I dumped Windows

* it takes too much time

* it feels just like having a baby - one that never grows up

* when something goes wrong it is almost impossible to find out what

Famed Apple analyst chances his Arm-based Macs that Apple kit will land next year

Re: Where are the benchmarks?

If it is IP6X it actually would be quite easy: just work in a pool...

Exchange some currency you want to? Guess the BIOS setup keyboard combination first you must, young Padawan

As far as I remember You could access the keyboard controller chip on systems with PS/2 (6 pin mini din) and AT (5 pin DIN) keyboards, only two key combinations couldn't be sent that way: Ctrl-Alt-Del and SysReq.

On USB only systems this should actually be far easier...

Back in IBM days it could be disabled in the BIOS setup.

The D in Systemd is for Directories: Poettering says his creation will phone /home in future

Dear Linus

Will you please stop this systemd madman ?

Concerned Linux users of the world.

Skype for Web arrives to bring the world together. As long as the world is on Chrome and... Edge?

Try spoofing teh 4gent...

...it works for Dyn4mic5 365 so it just may work 4 Skype.

Europe's home PC buyers reach for their collective smartphone, sigh: We don't need a new desktop. This is a computer, right?

Actually the problem is that You really need to do some very heavy work to utilize a CPU or GPU, "normal" people at home do not do such things... and Teh Cloud has taken over much of computation heavy work so the Cloud is also a part of the problem.

BOFH: On a sunny day like this one, the concrete dries so much more quickly

Re: Informal poll on whether you've ever had to do something like this

Yes, but not for the auditors, they usually only want data up to 6 years back.

We had to get an ancient backup system going to restore a more than 10 year old Lotus 123 file which could prove that a product someone just had patented was something we had for years. IBM was btw. very helpful providing the Lotus 123 software needed to read that file.

Stop using that MacBook Pro RIGHT NOW, says Uncle Sam: Loyalists suffer burns, smoke inhalation and worse – those crappy keyboards

Re: Customer service?

On my Skoda Superb I do this from the car setup menu... don't buy Audi when You can get more for less (from the same VAG) buying Skoda, Seat or VW.

Windows Defender ATP is dead. Long live Microsoft Defender ATP

Microsoft “Security” for Your Mac...

...be afraid, be very afraid.

Your Mac will be as secure as a WindBlows box.

Twilight of the sundials: Archaic timepiece dying out and millennials are to blame, reckons boffin

Re: Using a sundial at night

I really hope that it was a joke...

What did turbonerds do before the internet? 41 years ago, a load of BBS

Technically...

...you can run a BBS over teh internet, the problem is that nobody really want a text only client (but ASCII-porn is still cool).

Love Microsoft Teams? Love Linux? Then you won't love this

"The omission is an odd one. Microsoft has a Skype client for Linux, so a similar client for Teams should not be beyond the imagination of the Windows giant. Particularly given its much-publicised love for the Linux platform."

That's not odd...

Microsoft has no Skype for business client which is what Teams is supposed to replace.

The technology behind Skype for business is NOT Skype but Lync - only the name has changed.

Mobile networks are killing Wi-Fi for speed around the world

That is comparing Pineapples with Carrots!

WiFi speed is effectively limited by your wire speed and as long both 3G/4G/5G and wire is provided by the same companies your wire speed will not reach 5G speeds (because they are more interested in feeding 5G transmitters with x10Gbit than deliver 10Gbit Ethernet to your home (and no WiFi AP supports currently more than 2x1Gbit).

Joe Public wants NHS to spend its cash on cancer, mental health, not digital services

Joe Public...

...probably also would drop his iPad, PC, Facebook and NetFlix ?

Mi 8 Pro: Xiaomi early buyers wait for modern firmware

Mi 8

...isn't that a Sovjet helicopter ???

Amazon Alexa outage: Voice-activated devices are down in UK and beyond

Isn't that the service....

...that is spying on its users all the time ?

Should we not be happy when it is down ?

Me confused!

Windows XP? Pfff! Parts of the Royal Navy are running Win ME

I don't think you understand the concept "work" in this specific situation...

It is not a desktop environment but a very much specialized environment where the PC just run one or two applications and there may be some extra hardware involved.

Upgrading the OS may require millions in new hardware.

No, I do not like the situation - someone should have said "STOP, this will not work, a ship is not a place for a desktop operating systems!"

Actually it is quite easy in a military environment - sadly the rest of the world do not live by military standards.

RN is not alone in this, most navies have the same issue but again this is manageable those are very closed environments.

It would be very nice if hospitals et. al., airplanes, ships and critical infrastructure could be run like that... people (primary politicians) are however stupid so they are not.

McAfee says cloud security not as bad as we feared… it's much worse

We haven't because those Russian, Chinese, NSA hackers didn't want us to know and the corporations providing cloud services are afraid of saying anything just yet (people are still able to move back - in a couple of years we will be megafu***d and locked in the cloud). Wait a couple of years and the bubble will crack - the world as we know it will collapse - the cloud will be taken over - and everyone will say "WTF just happened ??"

On the seventh anniversary of Steve Jobs' death, we give you 7 times he served humanity and acted as an example to others

Re: He's not the messiah...

Actually he was far more "Messiah" than anyone else at that time...

...and unlike most Messiahs he delivered the goods, not just visions.

Linux 4.19 lets you declare your trust in AMD, IBM and Intel

I remember seeing a sign in a bar...

"In God we trust, everyone else pays cash!"

Working Apple-1 retro fossil auctioned off to mystery bidder for $375,000

That gives you an idea why you should keep Your first iPhone for the next 50 years... in working condition.

WWII Bombe operator Ruth Bourne: I'd never heard of Enigma until long after the war

You obviously didn't see the film about Alan Turing...

They (at least the code breakers) were aware that keeping the operation secret was priority #1, many soldiers died not because they couldn't be saved but because it would compromise the operation.

Microsoft 'kills' passwords, throws up threat manager, APIs Graph Security

What's the backup plan ?

Our CEO came back from the weekend with a crushed phone, he would be quite happy about this solution not being able to log in...

First Boeing 777 (aged 24) makes its last flight – to a museum

Re: Feeling old yet?

~2.5 hours was what it took to cross the pond... back when I was young.

Lenovo Thinkpad X280: Choosing a light luggable isn't so easy

Well, I still use my IBM ThinkPad X61s, with a new SSD, and it runs decent...

So what's Microsoft's counter-AWS cloud strategy? Don't be evil

Re: Microsoft's counter-Amazon strategy...

Yes, and according to Gartner all smartphones would have been Windows Phone by now...

£1 in every fiver that UK biz, public sector spent on software in 2017 went to *drumroll* Microsoft

Impressive....

...You ship billions of £ down in Microsoft pocket - and out of the country - and You are happy about it.

A third of London boroughs 'fess to running unsupported server software

Re: It's all about the money...

...if they are unwilling to spend money on software they should run Gentoo or Debian.

Apple is Mac-ing on enterprise: Plans strategic B2B alliance with HPE

Actually...

...it is easier to get an Mac to boot Linux than it is to get a PC to do the same.

They may have some ideas how they want to people to use their product but that is not different from how your dishwasher manufacturer want you to use their dishwasher.

Most of the anti-apple mob are angry Windblows users who are afraid of losing their "supremacy" of having to reinstall their PC at least once a year.

I am btw. running OpenSuSE on a MacBook Pro... installing Linux on a Lenovo was too time consuming.

Oh one more thing: Windblows still can't manage proper display scaling something OS X and Linux has been doing for over 10 years.

In non-startling news, EFF says STARTTLS email crypto is mostly done wrong

Actually...

...the problem is NOT the TLS part but the certificate part.

I have to pay for something I am fully capable of providing - that sucks.

Petty PETA rapped by judges over monkey selfie copyright stunt

Re: No Slater did not intentionally set it up.

If a human did the same thing as the ape, then the one pushing the button would own the copyright and not the one owning the equipment.

The ONLY case where the owner of the equipment would own the copyright is when he also owns the animal.

NASA demos little nuclear power plant to help find little green men

I see a potential replacement for my Tesla's battery pack...

...or have I missed something ?

Data exfiltrators send info over PCs' power supply cables

A Solid State PSU (a big iron core transformer with large capacitors, min. 10000µF) or a good UPS would fix that.

Whois is dead as Europe hands DNS overlord ICANN its arse

Actually it is a non-issue: The only GDPR problem in WHOIS is the personal information which may not by displayed - just remove content of those fields from the DB or replace it with the AS#.

Wanna exorcise Intel's secretive hidden CPU from your hardware? Meet Purism's laptops

Re: Pixies?

Servers got management CPU' for decades, I've got an IBM from 1998 with a PowerPC chip as management processor.

IT at sea makes data too easy to see: Ships are basically big floating security nightmares

Re: Die Hard: Offshore

Safe distances at sea are far too small for the war ship to suspect a commercial vessel of malicious plans just because it is close by.

Boeing slams $2m on the desk, bellows: Now where's my jetpack?

WTF??

It has already been done several times, first time in the 60'ties...

There are several problems:

* fuel capacity

* heat

* weight

The previous main problem was stability but modern computers would fix that.

Actually an ultralight autogyro would be a better solution for personal transport.

.. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / - .... .. ... then a US Navy fondleslab just put you out of a job

...or after an electromagnetic pulse event.

No, it can't, a EMP would kill the GoPro and the electronics for the signaling lamp.

Ubuntu 'weaponised' to cure NHS of its addiction to Microsoft Windows

Do I understand this right....

...a major government organization dumping Microsoft in favor of Linux ?

Would you believe it? The Museum of Failure contains quite a few pieces of technology

Actually...

...hot engine oil has a very nice smell, anyone who has been in a ships engine room knows that. I would anytime prefer that over Chanel #5.

Zune ?

Vista ?

Windows Me ?

Dirty COW explained: Get a moooo-ve on and patch Linux root hole

Re: How did it all go wrong?

WHEN did You last read an EULA (from any IT business) ??

They all clearly states that You can't sue them for anything.

Location boffins demo satellite-free navigation

We actually did have global navigation systems a long time before we've got satellites, it was called Loran.

Intel, Lenovo officially gone to the dogs – with FIDO fingerprint logins

Fido ?

BlackBox got Fido too... "Fido did what". Anybody remember ? No ?

Adobe reverses decision to kill NPAPI Flash plugin for Linux

AFAIK we were getting security updates for 11.2 so there must be some other explanation for this... My FlashPlayer 11.2 on OpenSuSE was at least updated from the repo.

Yes, I am using Linux 100% for work and at home...

The case for ethical ad-blocking

Always...

Ads use MY CPU cycles, MY electricity, MY bandwidth to show me useless information on things I do not need or want and the ad networks are spying on me too, harvesting information and tracing my whereabouts.

There is NOTHING unethical in blocking ads, it is actually a right we have - it is the right to use OUR computers as WE like.

If the ads were simple text with small pictures (like an ad in a newspaper) people wouldn't block them but animated ads is like putting a running film into a newspaper. You can save 50% CPU just by blocking some ad servers... and with only ONE web page open, that is actually what I would call UNETHICAL - oh and think what all those useless ads do for the environment, we waste a lot of power on them.

Your mother has a smooth forehead, Klingon language lovers roar at Paramount

Re: Suvlu'taHvIS yapbe' HoS neH

I am quite sure that Google Translate once did include Klingon, either someone @Google thought it was too silly or they got an DMCA from Paramount.