Posts by Kev99

Ancestry.com: Let arbitrator decide on auto-enrolling membership lawsuit

Funny. When I signed up with Ancestry years ago they very plainly explained my membership would automatically renew. I must have a different version.

Toshiba formally and finally exits laptop business

I had a Toshiba laptop I bought around 2007. It only recently started to have problems, and then only with two keys on the keyboard. I connected a USB external keyboard and all is well. It runs Win10 as well as Win10 can be run and is still quite useful. I doubt seriously my 2 year old HP laptoop will be able to make the same claim.

It's been five years since Windows 10 hit: So... how's that working out for you all?

The only reasons I upgraded to Win10 were:

1) Microsoft bribed too many makers of the software I had absolutely no problems with on Win7 (and earlier) to make their new versions incompatible with anything other than Win10.

2) My replacement laptop came with it.

3) When I needed to have my boot drive rejiggered the repair shop installed it.

I never had any problems with Win7. If I wanted to add computers to my home network I just did it and didn't need to jump thru hoops to share folders. I used common sense and never had any outside attacks or compromises. I wasn't forced to install updates of questionable value, especially those necessitated by crappy coding out of Redmond. And it just worked.

Battle for 6GHz heats up in America: Broadcasters sue FCC to kill effort to open spectrum for private Wi-Fi

Who to believe? The monopolists Apple, Google & Microsoft. Or the monopolists represented by the NAB. Decisions, decisions. With Pei in charge it will probably go to the highest bidder. Or campaign contributor.

What the duck? Bloke keeps getting sent bathtime toys in the post – and Amazon won't say who's responsible

Oh, hell yes it's prevalent. Some jerkarse snagged my username and started sending me orders for very skimpy camisoles. I did discover the perp was from Italy, and fortunately I was never blackballed by Amazon. I changed my user name and the junk stopped.

FYI Russia is totally hacking the West's labs in search of COVID-19 vaccine files, say UK, US, Canada cyber-spies

Once more the idiots in charge want to use that oh so secure for proprietary data storage. Haven't they learned yet that a net is just a bunch of holes held together by string?

Cambridge student rebuilds Polish Enigma-code-breaking box that paved the way for Turing ... and Victory!

From what little I know of the Enigma machine is that was primarily and electro-mechanical "typewriter. Once the three (later, four) rotors were set based on the code sent out out by the German Navy High Command, the operator simply typed in the message. I believe at the other end the received message was then typed in verbatim and the process reversed itself.

Android 11 will let users stop device-makers from killing background apps, says Google

Will it also allow users to prevent every app from running at start up? I grow weary of having to go thru & kill all the apps I never use.

What's the Arm? First Apple laptop to ditch Intel will be 13.3" MacBook Pro, proclaims reliable soothsayer

Once more Apple has decided to say "up yours" to its user base and render their current equipment into boat anchors. It's all about the back pockets in Cupertino and Wall Street.

We were already secure enough for mass remote working before COVID-19, boast IT pros

"We were already secure enough for mass remote working before COVID-19, boast IT pros". PINFEATHERS! BOVINE EXCREMENT! Tell that to all the companies that have had hundreds of gigs of data stolen over the past couple weeks. Maybe when they still used dedicated lines they were secure but the sure as hael aren't not that they use the bunch of holes held together with vapor or string.

Big Tech on the hook for billions in back taxes after US Supreme Court rejects Altera stock options case hearing

My heart bleeds purple kool-aid for the techies. Instead of trying to actually invest in product they instead invested in tax dodges.

The incumbent President of the United States of America ran now-banned Facebook ads loaded with Nazi references

Since he tries to emulate the tactics of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Tojo, Kim and others I'm not at all surprised.

PC printer problems and enraged execs: When the answer to 'Hand over that floppy disk' is 'No'

I am far from being an IT expert, just someone who's been putzing around with the fool things since the mid-80s. The other day my boss came into my office wanting to know why he couldn't download any pictures he had emailed himself. I asked him if he right clicked on the image and then selected save as. He responded he had but it didn't work. So I went down the hall to his his office to see what the problem was. Well, he had Outlook's preview pane open, something I've told everyone to not do. I explained he had to have the actual message open and then right click. Problem solved. It's kind of an ego massage when this old dog can teach the young pups something.

Not so nice, we investigated them twice: EU opens double whammy of inquiries into Apple's biz practices

I wonder if the EC will also look into Apple abandoning Intel chips for ARM chips and thereby forcing people into shelling out thousands for who new kits?

Wow, Microsoft's Windows 10 always runs Edge on startup? What could cause that? So strange, tut-tuts Microsoft

I don't have that problem. But then again, I use the real thing - CHROME - not some cobbled together spider web.

Ex-Dell distributor in Lebanon ignored ban on suing US tech giant. Now four directors have been sentenced to prison in the UK

Sounds like restraint of trade to me. Hope the Lebanese Courts rule in their favor.

Hospital-busting hacker crew may be behind ransomware attack that made Honda halt car factories, say researchers

Yup. The internet is as safe as a... a... a Boeing 737 Max

I have little to no sympathy for Honda or any other company to uses the internet for anything other static information dissemination. But since it's free, the bean counters refuse to pay for dedicated lines, the codes refuse to learn how to harden their codes, the the C-Levels smile all the way to the bank.

Even little kindergartners know a net if just a bunch of holes held together with string.

It's not every day the NSA publicly warns of attacks by Kremlin hackers – so take this critical Exim flaw seriously

But, but, it's perfectly safe to send confidential or prorietary information to another using that bunch of holes held together with vapor. Just ask Capital One.

Software bug in Bombardier airliner made planes turn the wrong way

For close to one hundred years controlling an airplane had little to no interference from computers. My, how science and technology have advanced.

Trump issues toothless exec order to show donors, fans he's doing something about those Twitter twerps

Re: Only a real person

One of the few commonalities between almost all religions is the Ethic of Reciprocity, aka Golden Rule.

https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity

Land of the Free? Not if Comrade Donnie has his way

Such bastions of freedom and democracy like Putin, Xi, Kim, Khomeini, Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Park, Peron. etc executed (key word) this sort of malarkey. The MAGAts cry out about how their rights, both real and imagined, are being taken away by the "libtards" but they say nothing when the ornageman does it. Hypocrisy? Ignorance" Bigotry" Old fashioned stupidity? Take your pick.

Linus Torvalds drops Intel and adopts 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper on personal PC

One of these day's I'll understand how someone creates a new operating system. Mr Torvalds, hot head that he is, seems to have hit the nut on the head. But he really should see a doctor about the huge zit on his ear.

SAP proves, yet again, that Excel is utterly unkillable

I used to use Quattro Pro 4 for DOS. It had tabs, macros, basic graphics capabilities and was fast. Excel has yet to match it.

Equifax finally coughs up the money for its 2017 monster hack… to the banks for having to cancel your cards

This is normal. No matter the settlement, the lawyers grab up to 75% of the take with another 20% taken by the courts as fees. In a fair and equitable settlement, the defendants would be liable for all fees, costs and expenses in addition to the amount of any settlement. In the case of Equifax, they should be coughing up the $700 Million for you me and guy behind the tree, PLUS the attorney fees based on actual hours and not 30%-40% of the settlement PLUS court costs PLUS itemized and substantiated litigation related expenses.

Like the ABA is ever going to allow that to happen.

Web pages a little too style over substance? Behold the Windows 98 CSS file

The Windows 98 format had one big advantage over todays format. You could tell at a glance which picts were button and which were just picts. Or clutter.

Hailing frequencies open, sir... America's Space Force hurls its first military comms satellite into Earth's orbit

I thought there was an international treaty banning the militarization of space.

The Internet of Things is a security nightmare reveals latest real-world analysis: unencrypted traffic, network crossover, vulnerable OSes

Well, DUH! Anyone with an iota of knowledge would know the 'Net is just a bunch of holes held together with string and that the "Cloud" is nothing but a bunch of holes held together with vapor. Why anyone in his/her right mind would want to expose their personal activities to world is beyond me. What if that person had to have a special diet? Whoops. Igor from South Slobovia just changed the recipe. How about that special door lock you can control with your phone? Sorry, Charlie just cracked it and you'll find your good at the local flea market.

'Unfixable' boot ROM security flaw in millions of Intel chips could spell 'utter chaos' for DRM, file encryption, etc

Weren't there articles some time ago about the flaws & holes in Intel's Management Engine? This sounds awfully familiar.

New Jersey beats New York – and then the rest of America – on broadband access. How does your state fare?

I'd love to have even the slowest speeds mentioned in the article. Instead, we're stuck with Frontier DSL and no possibility of them ever improving the connections, service, or speed. What's really sad it in 2010 when we were in Tanzania we used a cellular USB dongle for internet access. The speed was substantially faster, cost around $22 buck a month, and actually had good customer service, even if we were Mzungus. The neat thing about the dongle? It automatically searched out the fastest connection, and would switch automatically between GPRS, EDGE, and HDSPA.

Google lives in an Orange submarine: Transatlantic cable will get by with a little help from some friends

Looking at the map it appears it would be substantially cheaper to draw up ashore in Maine or New Hampshire. Oh, wait. As Anonymous Coward said, what federal agency is in Virginia? It's not that far from Ft Mead, Maryland either.

Among those pardoned by Trump this week: Software maker ex-CEO who admitted hacking into rivals' systems

What's this about the fox guarding the hen house? I wonder how much cash he had to bribe Christie.

Built to last: Time to dispose of the disposable, unrepairable brick

For years I've complained about how you can still get parts for a 1961 Falcon yet you can't get anything for a pc that's two years old. I built my desktop almost 11 years ago and it's doing everything just fine. How much longer I'll be able to find PCIE x16 video card remains to be seen. As to continuing to be able to be able to get HDDs or DDR2 1333 RAM is open to question. Yes, I know DDR 4 and SSD are the latest & greatest but increasing access speed by a few nanoseconds seems like a waste. Plus the fact that when a SSD craps out you're screwed because the data is lost & gone forever. I had a HDD die and I downloaded a freebie that successfully retrieved ALL of the data. Had the drive mote gone, I could have sent it to a shop that would have gotten the data back. SSDs? Ain't gonna happen and I tried.

Maybe if you're into simulating nuclear explosions you need the latest and greatest, but for common, everyday tasks at home and for business, my trusty Gigabyte GA-MA 770-UD3 based unit does just fine. Now if the software companies will quit making their product such memory hogs, all would be well in the valley.

Steve Jobs, executives shot down top Apple engineers' plea to design their own server CPU – latest twist in legal battle over chip upstart Nuvia

Isn't it interesting how often companies and the government claim something will stifle innovation and yet those same companies use the courts to do the exact same thing.

Vendor-bender LibreOffice kicks out 6.4: Community project feel, though now with added auto-█████ tool

I actually kinda like LibreOffice EXCEPT for the mail merge process. I tried doing a merge for work using my home computer. LO made MSWord look like a dream. And that is really scary.

In your face short sellers! Tesla goes two quarters in a row without losing money

Real profit or phony profit

"Tesla trumpeted a return to GAAP profitability ". Chances are they just didn't have any more fictitious "losses" to book any more. With the umpteen millions of dollars they claimed they lost there's no way the could remain a going concern. Unless those losses were paper only and had no relation to actual cash balances.

US govt 'told Germany that Chinese spies bug' Huawei 5G kit. It also told the world Iraq had WMDs ready to deploy...

Did the other draft dodger in chief get back in the white house? And to think his father was a decorated Naval Aviator.

You spoke, we didn't listen: Ubiquiti says UniFi routers will beam performance data back to mothership automatically

Doesn't that violate the GDPR and California privacy laws?

In the red corner, Big Red, and in the blue corner... the rest of the tech industry

It all depends on how much Larry has poured into Orange's coffers.

Remember that Sonos speaker you bought a few years back that works perfectly? It's about to be screwed for... reasons

Typical of the entire software industry with Microsoft being the worse offender. Unfortunately Microsoft has the muscle (as in Southside Chicago muscle) to force hardware companies and software companies to throw out products the work perfectly well and force the users to buy new software and new equipment to run that software on. It's disgusting that I can go out and get any part I need for my 12 year old car but I can't do that with my computer without installing a different OS of dubious quality and performance. There will the bleeding edge folks who will cry out the newest version is safer, faster, etc. Since my first PC in 1986 I've never had any problems. And the change in speed is usually on the order or microseconds.

It's update time – yes, again – for Insiders as the Windows 10 Slow Ring meanders towards release

You'd think that after 30+ years of coding Windows Microsoft would be able to release software that isn't full of bugs, backdoors, incompatibility, leaks and other lovely features. It as though their coders get paid by the line of code written and quality be hanged.

You're not Boeing to believe this: Yet another show-stopping software bug found in ill-fated 737 Max airplanes

I'm sure this is a silly even ridiculous question, but...

Why on earth did Boeing decide to install a brand new software kit instead of just using tried and true from their other planes?

Oh, and as Benny Hill once asked, " Would you really want to fly on an airplane called Boeing?" Think about it.

Shhh! It's us, Microsoft. Yes, it's 2020. We're here with a new build of Windows 10

Task manager missing something?

I seem to remember that in XP, and 7 when you called up task manager the usual default window was of all applications that were running. In 10 only the processes pop up. Not good in my opinion.

Half a billion here, half a billion there – pretty soon you're talking real money: US Congress earmarks $425m for 2020 election security

I could make the elections system pretty much iron clad secure. Quit putting everything under the sun on the internet / cloud. For decades business and government used dedicated lines for data transmission. The electric companies even used their own power lines. And since most if not all the states don't even certify the election results until several weeks after the vote, there really is no need to instantaneous transmission of a precinct's tallies. Besides, with all the millennials and other geeks wanting nothing but to use cell phones, the phone companies could use the traffic for their POTS.

And don't forget. A net is just a bunch of holes held together with string and a cloud is just a bunch of holes held together with vapor. And everyone should already know what a web is. Just ask any spider.

Why is the printer spouting nonsense... and who on earth tried to wire this plug?

Two thoughts. First, I'm somewhat surprised the bloody thing didn't arc and catch fire. The second is when we lived in Tanzania. The receptacles were all three prong but there was a "door" over the ground (earth). If you didn't used a grounded plug, you could not insert it into the receptacle. The door in the ground socket actually moved another door that was in the positive / neutral slots. And that also explained why almost every place we went there were small pieces of wood or wire by the sockets.

Since the FCC won't act, Congress finally moves on robocalls by passing half-decent TRACED Act

Re: Levying fines is hard

Two of the world's largest "legit" call centers are located outside of Manila, Philippines and Mumbai (Bombay) India. Both locales are contracted by Synchrony Bank, you know, the gang that actually carries your Lowes, WalMart, Sam's Club, and other co-branded credit cards.

Does anyone really believe that Idjit Pai and his bought off cronies will even go thru the motions of enforcement? They haven't done squat enforcing the do not call registry. From the number of trash calls we get I sometimes think Idjit Pai is selling the DNCR lists to the trash callers.

At least telco isn't doing diddly in cracking down on trash calls. For over a year our Frontier Tel connected phone will not show show caller IDs. That kinda makes it hard to identify in advance if a call is legit.

That code that could never run? Well, guess what. Now Windows thinks it's Batman

Many years ago I was teaching myself Basic using a TI-99/4. I wrote a little program that asked the user to answer a simple question. No matter the answer the program returned a more nasty message each time. After four tries, the program displayed a message along the lines of "You're too dumb to use a computer. I'm going home." and with that the computer shut down. Amazing how many people really thought they had fouled up.

T-Mobile US hacked, Monero wallet app infected, public info records on 1.2bn people leak from database...

When will those corporate idiots learn the internet is NOT safe & secure. They should never expose any confidential information at the 'net. Remember, a net is just a bunch of holes held together with a little string.

We're free in 3... 2... 1! Amazon unhooks its last Oracle database, nothing breaks and life goes on

We had an agency in Hamilton County that bought into Oracle's promises and migrated everything over to it. Too bad Oracle was not compatible with the rest of the county's financial and personnel systems. Plus, as soon as one their Oracle oracles got proficient, they jumped ship for 50% to 100% more pay, leaving the agency in constant turmoil. Personally, I'd never use the cloud for anything other than something for airplanes to fly thru or bring precipitation, but I'd gladly switch to open source products. Beside, Larry Ellison is already a billionaire several times over.

Creators Update meets its maker: It's 1903 or bust for those clinging to Windows 10 1703

"...one would drop every six months, an inexplicably rapid cadence" With all the bugs, back doors and security problems that seems way to slow. And don't flavors of Linux come out almost that often?