One point to your rant, which is generally well thought out, the software was only installed on non-ThinkPad, non-corporate models - although it also wasn't installed on my daughter's Lenovo Yoga 2 either (October 2014).
Posts by big_D
6775 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2009
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Superfish: Lenovo? More like Lolnono – until they get real on privacy
Sunday 22nd February 2015 07:59 GMT 
Re: Problem is inherent to closed source
Exactly Lars, or the machine would have been more expensive with Linux installed, and no crapware.
The problem has nothing to do with open or closed source software. The problem has to do with the hardware being sold below cost. That means that the manufacturers have to make their profit somewhere. And that is, currently, selling high end machines for realistic prices or selling cheap machines piled up with crapware.
That said, I inspected my daughter's Lenovo Yoga 2 yesterday, when she came to visit, as it was an October 2014 model and allegedly affected by this. But there was no a trace of it.
BOFH: The Great HellDesk geek leave seek
Saturday 21st February 2015 07:10 GMT
Re: This sounds horribly familiar
Most of out employees don't have credit cards (credit card penetration in Germany is around 30%). That means that most employees can't even push the expenses out to the end of the month.
But the company books the hotels and train tickets and they try to get as much as possible billed directly on invoice to the company. The employees also get a float to take with them for meals etc. whilst they are away.
That said, the rules in Germany are very tight and you get around 24€ for meals per day (if you are away for 24 hours) between 8 and 24 hours it is only 12€.
Saturday 21st February 2015 07:02 GMT
Re: This sounds horribly familiar
I assume it's due to the amazing number of different ways you can render the message "The computer says no" in German that the suppliers had failed to translate so many of them into English
I had a customer who had an ERP system (that we weren't responsible for), which came from Germany. On Christmas Eve they got an error message that was one word, about 40 characters long!
The software company had closed for Christmas and nobody spoke German, so they tried the international operator, they couldn't help, but they then rang a German operator and they also couldn't make head nor tail of the word, but came up with a literal translation:
The first character is after the last character of the file. The techs then managed to work out that it was complaining that the import file was empty (EOF).
Friday 20th February 2015 16:06 GMT
Re: This sounds horribly familiar
Sounds like our old expenses system at work, which was so long and convoluted, and with so many approvals and sign-offs that getting expenses actually paid sometimes took 2-3 months.
I was lucky, when I started work, it was same day.
I had a credit card with a 250 quid limit (I was 19), I was working away for 12 weeks and each weeks hotel bill, including meals came to between 240 and 250 quid... So that meant rushing back from Plymouth to Southampton on a Friday afternoon, filling out the expenses, grabbing the cash and going to the back on Saturday, so that I could use the card again the next week!
I tried getting the limit raised, but I hadn't had the card long enough, so I had to do the same dance every week!
Wi-Fi beam-steering tech could KILL OFF fixed home networks
How many Watches will Apple flog? 20, er, 18.5, no, five, wait, 50 million!
Friday 20th February 2015 07:38 GMT
Re: Not for this Apple fan.
Exactly, my Casio is still on its first battery, it is now 10 years old, so should need replacing soon.
My Seiko is coming up for 20 years old and cost about the same as the mid-range Apple Watches will cost. That should keep going for my lifetime and I can probably leave it to my heirs... I'm guessing an Apple Watch at 10 years is going to be a useless piece of junk metail, let alone at 50 or 100 years.
Microsoft updates Outlook app security, but haters still gunna hate
Thursday 19th February 2015 07:13 GMT
But why are they storing the passwords on any server at all?
The standard mail client on iOS and Android can get mail without the need for a proxy, even from Exchange accounts. They have no need to store emails and passwords on a third party server, over which the user and their employer have no control...
Until there is an option to use the Outlook app without using the proxy, it cannot be taken as a serious business solution. Which is a shame, because the app itself looks fairly good.
Lenovo shipped lappies with man-in-the-middle ad/mal/bloatware
Google MENACED by Russian probe over 'abuse of dominance' gripe
Are you ready to ditch the switchboard and move to IP telephony?
Wednesday 18th February 2015 07:50 GMT
Re: My personal opinion...
If you have a choice that is...
We are currently upgrading and we are going VOIP internally, through ISDN trunking to the outside world. But the new PBX is flexible and will switch over to VOIP trunking.
The problem we have here, in Germany, is that the Telekom is phasing out ISDN. They have already migrated most private households to VOIP, but their VOIP trunking for businesses is not yet ready for the big time. However it will need to be in place soon, as the ISDN equipment providers are cancelling their support contracts as of 2018. That means that they have to get all customers switched over to VOIP before their ISDN network is left hanging in the wind.
They are planning with a 2016 release of VOIP trunking and migrating all businesses by the 2018 deadline.
All of the PBX systems that they currently sell are VOIP trunking capable. But the older systems (like our old HiPath) aren't VOIP capable.
We also looked at a cloud solution, but that was incredibly expensive, compared to upgrading to the new software PBX. The investment for the cloud solution (set-up fee, phones, headsets. switches etc.) worked out to almost the same price as the PBX, yet the monthly running costs were more than twice as high as the local PBX - and would get steadily more expensive as we add new employees.
That is the good thing about the local PBX, you pay a moderate 1 off licence fee for each new employee, which is about 20% higher than the set-up fee for the cloud solution, but the monthly running costs remain the same. For each additional employee on the cloud, you also have an additional 5€ - 18€ a month (depending on capabilities required).
The cloud solution initially looked reasonable 4€ a month per employee, but that was for a pure phone system. Add in softphone (1€ a month per employee), CTI with Outlook integration (2€ a month per employee), Fax (1€ a month per employee), mobile integration (using smartphone to call over landline number - 1€ a month per employee or 50€ per employee one-time fee). Then there were the flatrates for telephony - 9€ per employee per month for European landline flat rate.
The advantage, of course, with the cloud solution is that (depending on bandwidth availability) all employees can make external calls at the same time - but we've never had the situation where all 12 of our channels have been used.
Windows 10 to give passwords the finger and dangle dongles
Tuesday 17th February 2015 15:19 GMT
Re: FIDO offers alternatives to fingerprints
I've been using a YubiKey Neo for a while now.
I use it on my Android smartphone (NFC) to open my password safe - I need my password or PIN as well, but if the phone is stolen, nobody can get at my passwords; if I lose the YubiKey, I have a OTP at home to get back into my LastPass account.
It works over USB on my PC. I wouldn't be without it, and I can also set it up to be 2nd factor with my Windows logon, although I haven't yet.
Tuesday 17th February 2015 09:02 GMT
@DrXym you could argue that it is the 2nd factor, but in reality, it is closer to a username than a password, whether the hash is salted or not.
Even the iPhone or the Galaxy S5 readers can be fooled by a photo of a fingerprint printed with laser, then pouring wood glue into the ridges and using that to fool the reader. The technology hasn't really improved in the last decade - this hack was first demonstrated back on 2002 or so, the resolution of the scanners has improved, so the camera needs a higher resolution image of the fingerprint and a little more care is needed, but the fact is that the technology today is still open to a decade old exploit.
Mozilla's Flash-killer 'Shumway' appears in Firefox nightlies
Tuesday 17th February 2015 07:27 GMT
Re: I thought that HTML5
Because some web developers learnt Flash and haven't learnt HTML5, JS and CSS properly, so it is still quicker and easier for them to develop using Flash... Plus legacy sites.
Now that YouTube has dropped the requirement for Flash on the desktop, we might start to see a move away - although I noticed that the BBC site is displaying photos instead of video with "Flash is required" superimposed. Luckily I rarely play the videos on the BBC website, I just read the stories.
REPORT: UK needs online eBay-style court for civil justice
Tuesday 17th February 2015 05:25 GMT
c't magazine, in Germany, has a bi-weekly section on readers having difficulty with companies. Telcos, as a whole, probably make up the most claims, but fleaBay and ScamPal make up the most complaints for a specific company. And it is often the customer getting the bum's rush and the seller sailing off into the sunset.
UK.gov can't get farmers onto its Verify service – even to claim subsidies
Amazon's delivery drones shot down by new FAA rules
Monday 16th February 2015 09:41 GMT
Re: Except the cars have to have an operator in the vehicle, who can take control in an emergency..
The difference is what can the car do now and what will it be able to do in the future.
At the moment the technology is still in the proving stage, so there has to be a driver.
Once it is proven, then the laws will have to be revisited.
There is nothing to say that when the technology has been proven in drones, that the laws here won't change as well.
Google founders to offload $4 BEEELLION in shares
Uber to Australia: Legalise UberX and we'll GIVE you DATA
Google cuts Microsoft and pals some slack in zero-day vuln crusade – an extra 14 days tops
Sunday 15th February 2015 08:08 GMT
Re: Good Job
But if the machines are going to be at risk for a year, becaus that is how long it takes to fix, then you don't want to announce the prolbem after three months and give the blackhats a 9 month headstart in exploiting it.
If there is evidence that the bug is being exploited in the wild, then the 90 days should be dropped and the users informed straight away, so they are aware of the problem and maybe given some advice on how they can protect themselves.
But releasing the details before a patch, when the company is working hard on the patch, when there is no evidence that the bug is being exploited, is just putting the users at risk for one-up-manship.
Sunday 15th February 2015 08:03 GMT
Re: Still Unclear on Concept - Two faced
Here there should be redress. If they don't release a patch for the security problems, then they should be forced to provide their customers with a secure replacement "loan" device, until they do. Good, a smartphone isn't like a PC, so a 4 - 5 year life span would be reasonable.
But the manufacturers and carriers (heck, why not just shut the damned carriers out and force them to take unbranded devices?) should be responsible for seeing that security patches are released to their devices quickly (in a maximum of weeks after Google / Microsoft have released a patch).
That is the problem at the moment, they are putting their customers at risk, but nobody is being held responsible. If Ford said, "the Mondeo with brake problems is 18 months old, we aren't going to address it," they would end up in front of the courts facing civil and criminal charges.
Saturday 14th February 2015 09:26 GMT
Re: Still Unclear on Concept - Two faced
The thing that annoys me, is that Microsoft struggle to get a fix out in 90 days for operating systems dating back to 2003, and they don't get 2 extra days for the fix (to meet normal release schedules), yet Google look at a bug in their own software and say, well, that affects software from 2012, we aren't going to bother fixing it.
The 90 days is totally irrelevant!
If a company is trying to fix the problem and says they need an extra few days or an extra month, it shows they are trying.
On the other hand, if you have companies like Google themselves, who turn around and say that 2 year old code is irrelevant and not worth fixing, then 90 days is irrelevant, you might as well release the details immediately...
Saturday 14th February 2015 09:21 GMT
Good Job
That Google didn't find the domain bug that needed nearly a year of redesigning and recoding of the core of Windows domain functionality.
While I agree that companies sometimes need pressure to put out fixes (just look at the crap state of getting security patches released for Android!), if a company is working hard and need more than 90 days, then the bug reporter should work with the company.
If a fix will take a year to code and fix, because it is something fundamental to the central design of the OS, you aren't going to get that fixed in a couple of weeks or even a couple of months.
I would agree with 90 days, if the software company doesn't respond or doesn't seem to be taking the bug seriously, but if they are working hard and fixing the problem and tell the researchers that they need more time to get it fixed and tested, then they should get that time.
Goto Fail? Yeah, you can probably get a fix out in a couple of days.
Redesign the way domain integration works? Nope, 90 days aren't realistic!
Microsoft: Oh, go on, Xbox Live user. Show us your spammer
Saturday 14th February 2015 09:11 GMT
Re: Microsoft and Spam...
I'm still using the same Hotmail address I set up in 1996, before Microsoft bought them and I haven't had any spam in years. Between around 1999 and 2006 it was pretty much unusable, but then they got their act together on the spam front.
In fact, for years, I just used the account for registering online services, so that my private accounts were relatively spam free.
In recent years I have been using it as my main account again. I rarely use my iCloud, GMail or Yahoo! accounts - in fact the only thing I use GMail for is registering for Google services and I only get spam in that account - spam direct from Google.
HELP! Windows Phone update 8.1 broke my Lumia
Thursday 12th February 2015 13:21 GMT
Re: At least I know it's not just me!
I'm not getting Denim on developer preview, so I'm reseting at the moment... Gulp.
It has been rock solid so far. My only complaint is the p*** poor implementation of the Audible player on Windows Phone. It has a random playback feature, which means when you plug in earphones or turn on bluetooth playback it seems to randomly select a book from your collection! It seems to think, if I am 20 hours into Lord of the Rings, I might like to start a new book! Gah!
I've been on to the Audible team several times and they say they can't find the issue, but it seems to be a common issue on their WP client...
Microsoft launches wobbly Windows 10 phone preview for Lumia daredevils only
Tesla loses $100 million after Chinese problems
Death knell for Windows with Bing, licences carved up
Friday 13th February 2015 04:44 GMT
Re: But
Waiting a minute to get online seems like an eternity these days!
Indeed. With my Samsung Windows tablet (Atom), I was online in under 4 seconds (including entering unlock pattern). I can't remember the last time I turned it off, it goes into sleep mode and wakes up in under a second. It can stay in stand-by for the best part of a week.
My Chromebook is a C720, which is available from Amazon.de for EUR185, or £137, and still has nearly 4 years' support.
As I said, the prices seem to have come down in January. That thing was damned expensive last year.
Thursday 12th February 2015 12:45 GMT
Re: Computing is becoming both easier and more difficult
A tablet isn't the answer to a desktop.
For work that needs to be done at a desk and required the entry of vast amounts of data, a tablet is an incredibly poor solution. The same for research. I spend a lot of my time doing research and that usually means having two or three reference windows open on one screen, with my data collation or report writing application (generally OneNote or Evernote and Word/Excel/Powerpoint) on the other.
When I am on the move and need to quickly reference something, then a tablet is a good solution.
The PC isn't necessarily better than a tablet and a tablet isn't necessarily better than a PC, they accomplish different tasks, with some overlap.
Chose the best one for the job. For me that means a PC most of the time, with a tablet some of the time - or in my case, a Surface Pro 3 with a desktop dock and 2 external monitors.
Thursday 12th February 2015 04:57 GMT
Re: But
Chrome OS is far superior to Chrome on Windows. You only have to reboot Chrome OS when there is an update available, rebooting takes about 7 seconds (including installing the update), sleep/resume is infinitely trustworthy and is very fast, the computer doesn't slow down over time.
Is it really worth 200€ more than Chrome on Windows? That was the problem.
Likewise, my Windows tablet gets rebooted once a month, takes around 15-20 seconds. Sleep/resume is infitely trustworthy and is fast enough for web browsing, the computer doesn't slow down over time - the Samsung is 2 years old now and hasn't slowed down yet - although I haven't filled it up with crap.
The Surface Pro 3 is even quicker, but we are in a different price and performance league.
(the replacement model can be bought new for £180), so you'll not save 50% by buying a Windows machine.
Maybe given time. In December, they were still much more expensive thant Windows equivalents. In January the prices seem to be finally been coming down to near US levels. That is what is needed, until now the Chromebook was just an over priced curiosity. The question is, is it too late?
My 11" Windows laptop was quick when I got it, but now it's practically unusable for 5 minutes after I turn it on because it's just so slow at starting things up and checking for updates.
My old Sony Vaio is a 2010 model and with Windows 8 (installed at release), it still boots in around 30 seconds and is usable straight away - Firefox is loaded and usable in under a minute, including me entering my password to log on to Windows.
Wednesday 11th February 2015 16:14 GMT
Re: But
The first sub 300€ Chromebooks are starting to appear. When I first looked, I could get a Celeron Windows notebook for around 200€ - 250€, the ARM based Samsung was over 450€, that has now come down in price, but why would you fork out over twice as much money for a lesser product? Just stick the Chrome browser on the Windows PC and save 50% over the Chromebook.
That is why the Chromebooks haven't taken off over here.
Wednesday 11th February 2015 13:12 GMT
Pricing is another factor. I don't know what UK prices were like, but the ARM based Chromebook (Samsung) was a lot more expensive than an Intel Celeron based Windows notebook here in Germany.
If these "stripped to the bone" machines are more expensive than a "with frills" machine and still cost more, then nobody is going to buy them - and that was before Windows Bing came on the scene.
EU parliament bans Outlook app over cloudy security: report
Thursday 12th February 2015 11:22 GMT
Re: The application is not the problem
@Khaptain
This isn't passwords in emails, it is the password for the EMAIL ACCOUNT itself that is being stored on AWS servers.
As Exchange provides both push and pull services anyway, the question is why does the app need a proxy to collect the mail for you in the first place?
Got an Android Wear gizmo? Yeah, you and '719,999 other people'
Over 50? Out of work? Watch out because IT is about to eat itself
Thursday 12th February 2015 07:38 GMT
Too much knowledge
This isn't a new phenomenen. When I first started in IT in the late 80s, one of my managers (55) took voluntary redundancy when it was offered. The company realised at the next month end, after he had gone, that he had been the only employee who had any practical knowledge of around 40 separate systems that the company relied upon for financial reporting!
So, he took the redundancy and was then back 2 months later as a contractor. Over time, he had to document the systems and train up a replacement, but it still made him a nice pile, and left the higher up management with egg all over their faces.
Never mind Samsung, GOOGLE will EAVESDROP as you browse on Chrome
Thursday 12th February 2015 07:20 GMT
Re: Hotword
I've seen/heard a lot of podcasts where Android / Chrome have suddenly woken up and started paying attention in the middle of sentences and they don't always say "OK Google" directly.
Sometimes it is "OK, so Google has..." or "Google is" or even just having Google in a sentence is sometimes enough. Pretty funny when you are watching something like "This Week in Google" and half a dozen devices suddenly light up in the middle of a conversation! :-D
Patch now: Design flaw in Windows security allows hackers to own corporate laptops, PCs
Back seat drivers fear lead-footed autonomous cars, say boffins
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
