Posts by LazLong

AIs have a favorite number, and it's not 42

Copilot....

....gives the same answer.

US Navy sailor charged in horrific child sextortion case

Sick Fsck

One of the very unfortunate side effects of the Internet is it amplifying the actions of sick bastards like this guy. Before they'd more often than not operate alone with less impact. Now they can search and find others and learn from and be encouraged by each other. Of course it isn't just sexual deviants that this amplifies, but political deviants as well. MAGAts.

Torvalds' typing taste test touches tactile tragedy

The keyboard of the gods

The keyboard of the gods is the original Model M with a built-in TrackPoint. Period.

Microsoft open sources Windows Subsystem for Linux – well, most of it

Bassackward?

Am I the only one who thinks WSL was named backwards? Doesn't "Linux Subsystem for Windows" make more sense?

US govt's science foundation purges 37 divisions, equity unit among casualties

Putin and Xi must be getting tired of winning by now. Their sides must be splitting from their ROFL for the last 100+ days.

Ex-CISA chief decries cuts as Trump demands loyalty above all else

Re: Wikipedia were asking for trouble...

Not if you actually care more about your country (Assuming you're American) than politics. Lack of patriotism is part of what got us in this mess - People putting politics or their pocketbook ahead of country.

Signalgate lessons learned: If creating a culture of security is the goal, America is screwed

Butter Males

But, but, her emails....

Fucking hypocritical shitheads.

Not sure about the part where the author says Hegseth's personal computer was attached to unclassified network. Other outlets reported he asked to have Signal installed on his unclassified system. This would be okay, if it weren't for Hegseth's propensity to use it for communication he shouldn't. Really, the asshole shouldn't have a clearance. It goes without saying he's unqualified for SecDef.

Tech tariff turmoil continues as Trump admin exempts some electronics, then promises to bring taxes back

US companies did this to us

Our own companies put us in this situation threatening national security to save a few bucks. Our govt didn't stop them. Those of us in national security sectors of the govt were labeled cranks and fools when we pointed out what was happening. Undoing this isn't going to be easy, nor cheap, and I frankly don't think many people have the stomach for it.

If Trump hadn't shit on all our allies, we could have tried a cooperative approach with Japan, Germany, France, et al to onshore various segments amongst ourselves over the next several years. The most we can hope for is they do it as we've proven ourselves completely mental and incapable of sanely managing our own affairs.

But, the same forces that helped push us to where we are, are also at work in those countries. Let's hope their citizens learn from our stupidity and change course or else we'll all be in the fascist shitter together.

Trump kills clearances for infosec's SentinelOne, ex-CISA boss Chris Krebs

Brian Krebs

Would have been a laugh if, business as usual, the Trump regime screwed up and issued the executive order against Brian, instead of Chris Krebs.

Top cybersecurity boffin, wife vanish as FBI raids homes

Re: An Old Conversation, Updated

Something more like a the Chinese security services. "Nice family you have here back in China. If you cooperate we won't behead them."

Trump orders all government IT contracts consolidated under GSA

Re: Dismantling the Department of Education

There is no "return authority over education to the States and local communities." That is where it is, and ever has been. ED doesn't dictate how to educate; it doesn't micromanage the states. It mostly distributes funds, conducts research, and ensures the states adheres to Federal law and the Constitution. Most of the discourse about the dept has come from the Right, so this propaganda is what most people have heard. That ED dictates education policy and implementation methods is a Republican lie carefully calculated to gain support for the destruction of ED.

America's National Science Foundation workers fired in bulk by Trump now reinstated

Re: Hmm

They are not following the laws and regulations that cover dismissal. You can't fire these people without cause.

Furthermore, Congress has passed laws that mandate the funding of these agencies at specific levels. In the US, Federal budgets are laws, not suggestions. Supposedly, even the President is supposed to obey the laws. But don't tell that to the Supreme Court; they've recently ruled that the President is beyond the law.

Trump’s DoD CISO pick previously faced security clearance suspension

Surely required clearance will be granted

The President has ultimate authority in deciding who should have a clearance. Therefore, I'm sure she'll be granted the access she needs to do her job. All that happens during the onboarding process.

Whether her issues were considered before her hiring is another matter entirely. Probably considered a plus to poke the Biden administration in the eye....

Suspected LockBit dev, facing US extradition, 'did it for the money'

That's actually a pretty good summation of the Russian hacker and petty criminal ethos. They think if they can take it from you, then they deserve it more than you.

Musk's lawyer asks SEC to quit pestering the shy and retiring billionaire

Cry baby Musk

Musk cries whenever anything gets in his way. He thinks he's entitled to do anything and everything the way he wants it, regardless of the law. If he wouldn't violate securities regulations all the time the SEC would leave him alone.

He wants wants wants like a spoiled brat. I wish he'd just get his ass to Mars already.

Police arrest suspect in murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO, with grainy pics the only tech involved

New Incel dating technique?

Is this the hot new dating technique for m incels? Is a Robin Hood-like act enough to get him marriage proposals, as has happened to other notorious criminals?

Cryptocurrency policy under Trump: Lots of promises, few concrete plans

Strategic Grift Reserve

The so-called strategic Bitcoin reserve that Trump is being talked into is simply a method to leverage US tax payers' money to prop up and legitimize Bitcoin, there by helping the crypto-bros at our expense. Just more crony capitalism.

Digital River runs dry, hasn't paid developers for sales since July

Crucial

I bought a couple of NVME drives from Crucial last January, and DR was their e-commerce platform, which I was surprised to see.

China’s homebrew openKylin OS creates a cut for AI PCs

Homebrew OS?

Don't you mean "cribbed OS" in the stereotypical Chinese way of "Embrace and extend?"

Supreme Court won't stop Biden leaning on social media giants to tackle disinfo

Re: Misinformation == non state sanctioned propaganda /s

The important distinguishing character of this info being labeled misinformation is that it was health-related, and not political in nature. Though many morons did and continue to make any COVID-19 public health info political fodder.

No joke: FTC boss goes on the Daily Show and is told Apple tried to block her

Not surprising at all

The FTC having such a small budget and workforce isn't surprising if you take into account that Republicans don't want it to exist, and Democrats are beholden to corporate overlords for campaign money. The former is the same reason the IRS has such a small enforcement division, even though every dollar spent on enforcement returns almost three in owed taxes.

This is all more evidence that we need to move to exclusively public funded elections to help minimize the grossly outsized influence of the top 1% of earners in the US.

Chinese vendor apologizes for claiming Microsoft open source code was its own product

Re: "with a small amount of modification and some functions added"

That's what I call a typical Chinese programmer.

Google toys with internet air-gap for some staff PCs

Shoulda happened a long time ago

Personally, having worked IT in a couple of different three-letter classified environments, I think corporations that produce security sensitive software have dropped the ball on air-gapping their dev systems a long time ago. eg I found RSA's breach to be astonishing.

Canada plans brain drain of H-1B visa holders, with no-job, no-worries work permits

Re: Russians

The exact same thing could be said about the Chinese. When the US offered to let those Chinese studying in America stay after the Tiananmen Square massacre, my first thought was that this would be a HUMINT boon to the CCP, and I'm sure it was. Plenty of those studying here had aspirations to intelligence careers, and the rest all had family back home who would be hostage to the CCP's demands of those not willing to cooperate. All the same can be said about Russians abroad.

Police use of PayPal records under fire after raid on 'Cop City' protest fund trio

Justification?

What did the plod use as justification to get the warrants for the financial records?

Smuggler busted heading for China with dodgy GPUs … and live lobsters

No doubt

No doubt the cards were destined to be re-flashed as RTX 4070s and resold on AliExpress/BangGood/Temu to greedy morons for unbelievable prices.

Chinese Loongson chips coming in 2023, on par with 2020 x86 kit

Re: Worth watching - as usual

>Were you referring to China or the USA?

China, obviously. Or do you not know Loongson is MIPS-based, with some borrowing from RISC-V?

Koch-funded group sues US state agency for installing 'spyware' on 1m Android devices

ASSuming

"Now, on the whole, the right are more likely to be COVID deniers but in this instance I don't care about that. The State did wrong and it needs to be on recorded at court that they did wrong, and that's the entire reason for the case."

Tsk, tsk. You're assuming the statements in the case are factual. This is funded by a Cock brother, and you should be more sceptical.

California to phase out gas furnaces, water heaters by 2030

Special CA kit

We who live in CA already have to buy special gas heaters and water heaters that adds about 25% to the cost.

Both our water heaters are relatively new, but our furnace is aged, at least 30 years old. I guess we'll be replacing it right before the ban. I already have a rediculous PG&E monthly bill over $300, and that's with our roof covered with solar. Too many older servers, plus other misc electronic kit. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay to have new electrical installed to power the water heaters and furnace. I'll fucking drive to a nearby state and buy what I need. Almost did that with the last water heater I bought.

Teradici re-emerges as 'HP Anyware' to replace ZCentral Remote Boost

Remote data doesn't traverse the network?

"No data from remote PCs ever traverses a network – remote users see only bitmaps."

So, pray tell, how does one log in? How does input happen? Are bitmaps not data? All of this is valuable info for an adversary and must be taken into account, and marketing bullshit claiming no data traverses the network is disingenuine. Some may see this as a quibble, but it's not.

One of Teradici's first markets, if not the first, was classified diskless workstation computing. Not long before the introduction of PCoIP there started a big push in the US Federal govt to move classified clients to diskless solutions. Unfortunately, most widely known solutions were thin clients that weren't suitable for anything beyond simple office computing. Teradici's product aimed to overcome these limitations by providing remote access to workstations, instead of the terminal servers that were in vogue at the time.

China seems to have figured out how to make 7nm chips despite US sanctions

Sexual Stealing

Send enough hot spies to tempt nerdy engineers and you're bound to get what you need.

UK response to China's tech ambitions labelled 'incoherent and muted'

Say 'Thank you' to the moronic Brexiteers

The UK is in this position thanks to Russian misinformation/campaigning for Brexit, voter apathy, and the moronic Brexiteers themselves. WTF did the Brexiteers think was going to happen? Instead of being a big fish in an economically-strong hurd, they are now a rogue hamster that is going to get squashed between the jostling big three rabid hippopotami, China, the EU, and the US. This is what Brexiteers were selling, and way too many morons bought into it. So now they can reap the milkshakes they've sown. The UK's only choice is to enjoy their hamstership, join BRICS if it ever turns into an effective trade block, or go crawling back to the EU with their kneepads on and ready swallow.

Xen patches three bugs that allow guest-host takeover

It's not dead yet?

How one techie ended up paying the tab on an Apple Macintosh Plus

Beige, not Platinum

You say your article "concerns the time when Apple was bringing its beige all-in-one Macs into the classroom for the very first time," and yet instead of a beige Mac Plus you use a photo of a post-SE and Mac II era Platinum-colored Mac Plus. Interesting choice.

New York to get first right-to-repair law for electronics

Too many exclusions

I wonder what the rationale was for excluding home appliances, beyond money from lobbyists?

Starlink's success in Ukraine amplifies interest in anti-satellite weapons

Re: Keep it simple

You sorta beat me to it. I wanted to say that I have no beef with ASAT systems as long as they result in de-orbiting all the components of the satellite. There is enough junk floating around in space as it is.

Just think of poor Endor and all the shit left in orbit after the Rebel Alliance blew up the second Death Star....

Engineer sues Amazon for not covering work-from-home internet, electricity bills

The law is the law, hurrah hurrah

Commuting is not part of actual work. If they had to use their car to visit clients, then yes, CA law requires reimbursement.

What about use of their domicile as office space? That also should be reimbursed. This is especially pertinent to employers who have decided they like not having to pay for office space and all that goes with it.

Amazon is simply displaying the increased trend over the last 50+ years to compensate employees less and redistribute wealth upward to the maximum extent they can get away with. Fuck them.

Declassified and released: More secret files on US govt's emergency doomsday powers

Significant typo

"Another document [PDF] from 1959 describing the aftermath of a Soviet nuclear attack estimated 48 million people would die, leaving 12 million survivors making up the US population."

That should probably be 120 million. The population of the US in 1959 was 177 million.

China offering ten nations help to run their cyber-defenses and networks

The better to raid your resources

"...and mapping the marine environment."

In preparation to mine your resources....

Facebook sues scraper who sold 178 million phone numbers and user IDs

Fuck Zuck, and his harmful products. Boycott Facebook and all their products.

US nuke sub plans leaked on SD card hidden in peanut butter sandwich, claims FBI

Seems risky

It seems risky to have kept these guys in play for a year. Who knows how many copies of this info they managed to sell to real adversaries during this time?

Lithuania tells its citizens to throw Xiaomi mobile devices in the bin

Re: CHaaS

"Here is a story about Apple, an American company, censoring freedom of speech at the behest of an authoritarian government.

Does it really matter if it is only in China or do we only give a shit when it affects us?"

No, what matters is my original statement, facts, and semantics.

Apple's cooperation with China's government was done under color of law, and therefore isn't similar AT ALL to what Lithuania has discovered.

Re: CHaaS

Wasn't done secretly, and the products aren't exported outside the area where this action was mandated by law, so no potential abuse by China's intelligence agencies.

Re: CHaaS

Cite one single similar instance of such an egregious breach of freedom of speech perpetrated by an EU, UK, Japanese, or US firm to back up your baseless accusation. Don't just spout contrarian bullshit you anonymous coward.

Thank you to Lithuania and their contribution to international freedom of speech.

Why we abandoned open source: LiveCode CEO on retreat despite successful kickstarter

Greater-than-equals sign isn't punctuation, it's a math operator. Punctuation would be colon, semicolon, double/single quotes, parentheses, brackets, etc.

Singapore is the only nation with a dedicated 'net link to China. And they've just agreed to expand its use

Re: Trust

FT Meade isn't in Kansas, it's in Maryland.

Australia facepalms as Facebook blocks bookstores, sport, health services instead of just news

Screw Australia's clumsy attempt....

Screw Australia's clumsy attempt to suck money from Facebook by charging for linking. Don't get me wrong. I HATE Facebook, and don't use it, nor have I ever, but charging for linking is asinine. So are poorly, overbroadly-worded laws.

‘Quad’ nations sign up for meta think-tank to advance ‘Techno-Democratic Statecraft’

Maybe....

Maybe they can promulgate some liberal democracy to India and get Modi's ass out of office.

Has Apple abandoned CUPS, the Linux's world's widely used open-source printing system? Seems so

Re: Postscript

It remained very much a feature of the Apple world

And the Unix world. Back when Linux was a pup, PS printers were the printer of choice as well.

Paragon 'optimistic' that its NTFS driver will be accepted into the Linux Kernel

Re: Making Linux more like Windows is never a good move...

A useless, bigoted comment. They aren't "trying to make Linux more like Windows" any more than adding XFS support made Linux more like IRIX, UFS support made it more like Solaris, etc. Likewise, the only way it'll benefit malware purveyors is if it's buggy, just like any other kernel code. It doesn't have any actual Windows code in it. It's merely another tool in Linux's toolbox. Grow up.