Posts by GBE

'Dirty Frag' Linux flaw one-ups CopyFail with no patches and public root exploit

Re: Linux kernel modules

My Linux kernel is configured without modules. Every driver needed to run my machine is compiled in.

It doesn't matter if you use run-time-loadable modules or if you compile everything into a static kernel.

What matters is disabling stuff you don't need.

I run custom compiled Linux kernels on my Gentoo systems, and this isn't the first time my machines were immune to a CVE because it exploits flaws in modules that aren't available. Meanwhile, the Ubuntu systems I manage are vulnerable — even though those systems have no need for the vulnerable modules either.

Somehow it never seemed like a good idea to have a thousand kernel modules I have absolutely no need for available for loading on demand by next week's exploit application...

Brit mathematician lets AI agent loose with credit card – cue password leaks, CAPTCHA chaos and more

It (sic) didn't figure anything out. All it did was find and copy an online ....

Well, AFAICT, that's how most humans "figure something out".

Pro-Iran crew turns DDoS into shakedown as Ubuntu.com stays down

bigly like has never been seen before!

That old phone in the kitchen drawer could save an industry

Re: Market for devices past firmware EOL date?

Likewise - only replace them before the end of security updates if they develop a fault or get broken!

Yep, and I'll even fix some faults/breakages. My Pixel 6a is currently on its 2nd screen and 2nd battery. I did the screen replacement myself, and Google paid for the battery replacement as part of a recall. Hopefully it will last another year (or more if Google extends support). Many newer Android models are getting updates for 7 years, so that'll be the the goal for the next phone...

Re: Market for devices past firmware EOL date?

Can the phone be rooted and have an OS such as Lineage installed?

Would you recommend to some random friend or family member that they buy a used EOL phone that somebody else had "refurbished" by rooting it and installing third-party firmware?

Sure was nice being able to read the screens in the sun.

I sort of miss the monochome LCD screens that were easily read in bright light.

Though I do remember one of my old flip phone's screen was oriented the "wrong" way. When wearing polarized sunglasses, the phone's screen was solid black unless you held it sideways.

Market for devices past firmware EOL date?

I always keep my phones until they are no longer getting any security updates. Is there really a market for devices past the support EOL date?

France’s digital directorate dumping Windows desktops, adopting Linux instead

I think that's called "self hatred" isn't it?

Given the Trump administration’s dislike of anything that harms American businesses,

If they really do dislike anything that harms American businesses, you'd think they'd be pretty down on themselves...

Artemis II snaps eclipse, Earthset shots on first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo

Re: The sphere of lunar influence?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence_(astrodynamics)

Mia Culpa, I stand corrected. "Sphere of lunar influence" is the proper phrase in that context. My apologies to Mr. Speed.

[That's still no excuse for saying things like "they've left the Earth's gravity behind" on a NASA broadcast. If that were the case, then it wouldn't be a free-return trajectory.]

The sphere of lunar influence?

Artemis II is due to exit the sphere of lunar influence on Tuesday.

<rant>

Interesting. Newton was wrong then?

F ≠ G m₁m₂/r²

At some value of r, F suddenly drops to zero at the boundary of the "sphere of lunar influence"?

What exactly is the radius of the sphere of lunar influence?

As anybody who lives near an ocean can witness first-hand, the "sphere of lunar influence" definitely includes the Earth.

So how exactly is Artemis going to "exit" that sphere?

At one point, some half-witted commentator on the Nasa Youtube broadcast was yakking inanely about how the spacecraft had left Earth's gravity and was now under Lunar gravity (or something very close to that). Nobody who works for NASA should be saying stupid things like that in public.

If you mean that the gravitational field of the Moon is now stronger than the gravitational field of Earth (or vice versa), THEN SAY THAT!

</rant>

Microsoft reaches for yet another out-of-band patch to deal with latest update issue

Re: Do things have to improve?

Corporate IT departments have drunk so much cool-aid

Yes, it's spelled "kool-aid" but my fingers just refused to do that...

Do things have to improve?

At some point, things have to improve.

Do they? Really??

Microsoft has been shitting on their customers for decades and they just keep putting up with it.

What motivation does Microsoft have to put any expense into improving things when Corporate IT departments have drunk so much cool-aid they'll put up with any amount of abuse from Microsoft and just smile and ask for more.

District denies enrollment to child based on license plate reader data

Re: Don't they get scrotes cloning license plates over there?

> Putting inmates to work is not slavery,

Yes, it is. That's why the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution specifically exempts it from the prohibition against slavery:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

It's just not illegal slavery.

Operation Lightning takes down SocksEscort proxy network blamed for tens of millions in fraud

Need a better AI prompt

Somebody needs to tweak the AI prompt that's being sued to generate article headlines like this one:

Operating Lightning takes down SocksEscort proxy network...

Yes, I'm sure that operating lightning can take down a network, but that's not really what the article is about. :)

Gemini users say their chat histories have quietly vanished

You say that like it's a bad thing

complaints have stacked up from people who say months of conversations with Google's AI chatbot have simply vanished

You say that like it's a bad thing...

How the GNU C Compiler became the Clippy of cryptography

Re: Optimizers optimize

"Meusel ran a constant-time implementation through GCC 15.2 (with -std=c++23 -O3"

The -O3 is telling the compiler to to optimization and then he is complaining about it doing optimizations?

Exactly. He told the compiler explicitly to do whatever it can to make the code run faster, and then bitches about the code running faster.

I've recently discovered a dangerous flaw in the design of my car! When I take my foot of that pedal and press it on that other pedal the car suddenly STOPS!! This could happen right in the middle of the freeway!!! People could be killed!!!! Something must be done — Think Of The Children!!!!!

That said, even when you "turn off" optimization with -O0, the C standard still allows the compiler to do anything it wants that still produces "correct behavior". The definition of "correct behavior" does NOT (and never has) included constant (or even predictable or consistent) execution times.

Historic NASA test towers face their final countdown

Re: Controlled implosion

Controlled demolitions use explosives to cut through the center supports of a structure so that the structure collapses inward.

Right. It's gravitationally powered collapse in a (hopefully) predictable manner. Nothing is imploding. Imploding means that there's large pressure differential with high pressure outside and low pressure inside.

OceanGate's Titan submersible imploded.

Buildings being demolished just collapse when you cut their structural supports.

Apply here to win a Microsoft Ugly Sweater. It's uglier than ever

Microsoft C compiler 4.0 for DOS and wired optical mouse.

IMO, Microsoft peaked with version 4.0 of the their DOS C compiler/debugger back in 1986. That was a fine product, with good documentation. The OS it ran on was crap.

The first couple generations of wired optical mice (with wheels) from the mid 90's were also fine products.

Pretty much everything else from MS has been varying levels of awful with an overall downward trend over the decades.

Thunderbird 145 finally adds ‘native’ Exchange support

Customers who must have calendar and shared address book support still have other options, including existing Thunderbird Exchange add-ons such as ExQuilla and Beonex's Owl.

Good on you for mentioning Beonix's Owl for Exchange. I've been using it with TB for a few years now, and it is fantastic. Not only does the e-mail support work flawlessly, the calendar and contact support also "just works". For Exchange servers that don't have EWS enabled, Owl also works with OWA. Support from Beonex has been first-class.

Bitcoin bandit's £5B bubble bursts as cops wrap seven-year chase

I can't believe anyone could expect to criminally accumulate billions and then ever get to enjoy it without being caught.

You mean like Ruja Ignatova did?

https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-50435014

And there are plenty of others...

BOFH: Saving the planet, one falsified metric at a time

Re: Which side of the pond are you?

Actually, we're starting to get tired of America. Period.

Not half as tired of it as those of us who are living in it.

Workers: Yes, RTO makes sense. No, we’re not going to do it

Chocolate and orange juice

"...magical land of happiness and fulfillment twixt the chocolate trees and orange juice rivers"

Yikes. Chocolate and orange juice. Not a combo I would have chosen to represent the ideal. :)

Maybe it's just me. Cold pizza and orange juice for breakfast, OTOH...

Microsoft Surface 7 laptop: Nice hardware, shame about the OS

Re: I've long wanted an ARM laptop (for Linux)

Regarding https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/argonforty/upton-one-the-true-raspberry-pi-compute-module-5-laptop/

* Screen is too small.

* No Ethernet (AFAICT)

* Bad keyboard layout: my fingers only work with inverted T arrow keys (they seem to be too old to change).

I've long wanted an ARM laptop (for Linux)

I've wanted an ARM laptop for many years, but it would have to run Linux. I've no interest in running Windows on it. I've looked at various options including "laptop" case/kits for Raspberry PI boards and some other options, but nothing has ever seemed all that practical or cost effective compared to my trusty old Thinkpad T series models. The closest thing I can find would probably a high-end Chromebook, but they're all a bit small/cramped and lack essentials like an RJ45 Ethernet jack.

UK Home Office dangles £1.3M prize for algorithm that guesses your age

Re: Skull-measuring

"Wait til they start cutting people open and counting the rings"

Cutting people open is a bit drastic. I'm sure they'll use an increment borer.

DOGE accused of duplicating critical Social Security database on unsecured cloud

Re: Is this the right prefix?

Is "centi" the right prefix?

After thinking about it a while, it does sometimes mean 100 instead of 1/100: centenarian, centipede (and I'm sure others). Though the engineer in me really prefers "hecto" for the general use case of "100X something".

Is this the right prefix?

Tesla impresario and centibillionaire Elon Musk

Is "centi" the right prefix? Are there contexts in which "centi" doesn't mean 1/100? I would have thought "hectobillionaire" made more sense...

Dwarf planet Ceres may have been habitable - for microbes - a couple of billion years back

Welcom

I, for one, welcome our long-extinct microbial alien overlords.

LibreOffice 25.8: Faster, leaner, and finally speaks PDF 2.0

Re: Still no usable database

I've seen Word documents turned into a heap of slop in Word.

Hell, I've got word documents that can't be opened in Word.

P2P payment service Zelle sued for enabling payment fraud hell

Adding insult to injury: Crypto scam victims being targeted by fake lawyers

Scammers are posing as lawyers and offering to recover funds stolen from victims of cryptocurrency scams.

You've got to admit that those particular scammers sure know how to pick a chump. From the self-select group of crypto "investors" you then skim off the cream by targeting those who've already been scammed.

Asmi Linux 13 Debian Edition debuts: Xfce desktop never looked so good

Re: Does it require systemd?

I am sure that the developers of Asmi are quaking in their boots about your refusal to consider it. [...] Asmi will succeed if it can find, and be known to, a target audience. I wish them luck

I'm sure both statements are true, but I don't see how they have anything to do with the question I asked. I wasn't attempting to threaten the Asmi devs with failure, ignomy, or a rain of frogs. I simply wanted to know if Asmi 13 required systemd. I looked at the Asmi 13 web site, and couldn't tell. My rather vague understanding is that you have to use the Devuan fork instead of "plain" Debian if you want to use another init system, so my guess is that Asmi can only use systemd.

[Sheesh. Ask a simple yes/no question and people act like you're kicking their puppy.]

Does it require systemd?

If yes, then I'll cross it off my list.

Microsoft eventually realized the world isn't just the Northern Hemisphere

National flags do not indicate a language.

Ah, but you need something graphical since if the language is set wrong you might not know to click on the '英語' button. That doesn't even render in my browser, but it's supposed to be "English" written in Japanese.

Mistakenly sold NASA command trailer could be yours – for $199K

Re: "Trailer" ??

Americans do not call that a "trailer". It's an RV, van, or bus (depending on size and internal furnishing and purpose).

A trailer is non-powered and is pulled by another vehicle. Usually with some of the towed weight supported by the tongue/hitch. If no weight is supported by the tongue, it's often called a "wagon" instead of a "trialer". At least here in the mid-west USA...

US sends 33,000 smart 'strike kits' to make Ukrainian drones even deadlier

Re: American Pickup Trucks?

Only American trucks come equipped to roll coal

I had to do some searching to find out what "rolling coal" meant.

It really might be time for humans to be over...

T-Mobile's satellite service lifts off, and it's open season on rivals

Hmm, satellite to cellphone

It sounds cool, but can you tolerate the musky odor?

Science confirms what we all suspected: Four-day weeks rule

Re: Translation

The claim is that they're achieving as much

Where did the article say that?

The only claims I could find were that working less for the same pay made people happier and healthier.

Shocking eh?

[I've no clue why anybody thought a study was needed to confirm that.]

Curl creator mulls nixing bug bounty awards to stop AI slop

Yep, a small submission "donation" was what I was going to suggest.

GPS on the fritz? Britain and France plot a backup plan

Re: Bring back Long Wave!

That's why the BBC is cracking down on access to the BBC sounds app.

Argh. Don't remind me. I've tried using the bbc app instead, but it's completely crap compared the the sounds app (which was somewhere between bad and mediocre). The bbc app provides a small fraction of the offerings — but it doesn't really matter because it's impossible to find anything even if it is there. When the 21st rolls around and they shut down the bbc sounds app, I'll probably just give up on listening to BBC radio shows that aren't available via RSS as "podcasts".

Former and current Microsofties react to the latest round of layoffs

Re: JFC, again?

Personally I like to add an H after the J - no idea what the H stands for though, just sounds even better as an ejaculation (in the Sherlock Holmes sense).

The H stands for Howard. It was his father's name:

"Our Father, who art in heaven, Howard be thy name...."

Mitch Kapor finally completes MIT master's degree after 45-year detour

Except he doesn't have an MBA

making him arguably the most accomplished "MBA" in the world.

According to the Wikipedia page, he isn't an MBA.

He's got an MS not an MBA.

Google to buy power from fusion energy startup Commonwealth - if they can ever make it work

Watts of energy?

<pedant>

Ahem... watts is a unit of power, not energy.

</pedant>

Xlibre forks to the rescue – but Kubuntu gives X11 the boot

Re: Eddies around a sinking ship?

I need to run a graphical program remotely and see it locally on a low bandwidth secure connection.

That used to work with X11 — back in the Xt, Motif, and Athena days.

All of the modern GUI toolkit/frameworks are apparently based on widgets that require elventy-thousand client/server round-trips for even the most trivial action.

So now it takes several minutes for a remote X11 application to start/render on a 5MB link when the equivalent app 25 years ago started/rendered in a few seconds at 56K baud.

Spy school dropout: GCHQ intern jailed for swiping classified data

Which Manchester?

Based on the booking photo from the Met, I assumed they'd caught up with him somewhere in the Antarctic...

The elusive goal of Unix – or Linux – simplicity

Re: IBM Selectric

Many years ago, I configured a LInuxX11 machine so that it played an audio clip of a selectric golfball strike any time a "graphical" key was pressed. I'm not sure what the people in the surrounding cubes found more annoying: the selectric sounds or my giggling. I couldn't find a carriage-return or linefeed sound.

Trump announces $175B for Golden Dome defense shield over America

...if they all just sat down together and behaved like grown up human beings

One problem: we don't have grown up human beings in charge of the Federal government here in the US.

Trump doesn't have the reasoning skills or emotional maturity expected of 6-year-olds when they start Kindergarten.

Fusion eggheads claim modeling fix for particle escape - at least in stellarators

We could just turn off all of the AI datacenters.

I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't let you do that.

Signal chat app clone used by Signalgate's Waltz was apparently an insecure mess

Re: A quote from Forrest Gump comes to mind.

How motherfuckin' stupid is this man?

Well, Trump has zero tolerance for anybody smarter than himself, and Waltz is still apparently in Trump's good graces, so I think the answer is obvious: Waltz has got to be pretty damn stupid.

I wish...

I wish I was even a little bit shocked or surprised.

Oh, I used to be disgusted,

Now I try to be amused...

But it doesn't work. I'm still just disgusted.

DOGE may help Elon Musk's biz empire dodge $2.4B in liabilities – Senate probe

Re: Ummmm...

"I'm struggling to understand [...], and how abjectly ineffective the Senate appears to be."

What's to struggle with? The Senate is controlled by Republicans who are (with one or two exceptions) completely amoral toadying yes-men, with absolutely no respect for decency, the Constitution, law in general, or Democracy. They are pretty much exclusively occupied with lining their own pockets and a frantic competition to see how far up Trump's butt they can crawl. There's a pretty sever limit on what can be accomplished by minority members.