Posts by doperative

Windows 7 customers hit by service pack 1 install 'fatal error' flaws

Ubuntu automatic updates broke my computer

> I've had perfectly ordinary Ubuntu installations self destruct after installing perfectly ordinary automatic updates. Took some serious hacking to sort out, and was way beyond what an ordinary user could be expected to do. Not very impressed.

What were you doing running 'automatic updates', why didn't you restore from the nightly backups. You do keep nightly backups don't you?

> Considering how important the ability to automatically update is to the adoption rates of an operating system, it's amazing how badly they go. An OS with a reliable update mechanism will gain a reputation for continued improvement, and things can only get better.

See my other post, you don't ever-ever automatically update a working system. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

It's all Linux's fault says Simon ..

> If a user is left powerless by a service pack update, Ubuntu is just going to give them harder problems to solve, sgb

In a working environment, you don't ever-ever install someone elses software patch. If you do patch, it's because something isn't working, and then you only patch that bit and nothing else. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And calling something a service pack still don't make it a bug fix.

> I'm a big fan of choice and having the right tool for the job. Sometimes, and for some people, Windows is the right tool.

Insert marketing slogan for the Microsoft organization. Personally I am always pleasently suprised when my Windows box sucessfully boots up each morning.

Betfair promises problems are behind it

online gambling

Online gambling, an excuse to relieve the moronic of their money ....

Router-rooting malware pwns Linux-based network devices

Linux router routing malware

How does this router routing malware get onto the target system?

> ELF_TSUNAMI.R

> This backdoor may be dropped by other malware. It may be unknowingly downloaded by a user while visiting malicious websites.

> It connects to Internet Relay Check (IRC) servers.

> Exploits known vulnerability in the D-LINK DWL-9000AP+ Internet router

Well doh, I must stop downloading and installing unknown ELF files and allowing my servers to connect to IRC servers, whilst logged in as root ..

ref:

http://about-threats.trendmicro.com/Malware.aspx?language=us&name=ELF_TSUNAMI.R

Mobile Trojan mimics Android clean-up tool

Bgserv-A and compromised handsets

> Bgserv-A lifts the IMEI and the phone number from compromised handsets, uploading this information to a remote hacker-controlled server ..

Can Bgserv-A run on non-compromised handsets?

Pr0n stars to demo against .xxx

why Christians oppose PORN

> I don't understand why "Christians" would oppose this .. mrobaer

Because that would lead to legitimising PORN, instead of feeling guilty over your porn stash, like a good Christian should do.

French gov infiltrated by data-hungry spear phishers

they could have been running OpenVMS?

> Looking at the description of how the attack took place .. they could have been running OpenVMS and still got infected, said Anonymous Coward

I don't think so, with a little help from BabelFish, I managed to translate this bit.

"The computer attack against PCs of the civil service at the ministry for Finances that accessed documents relating to the G20 economic group, was launched via a Trojan horse placed in a file pdf"

A relevent question to ask is, what is it about this particular OS that allows embedded code in a DATA document to be executed on the 'computer' in question.

Adobe is to blame?

> it looks like the common attack of poisoned .pdf document that is able to gain root privileges, something that is sadly common in the w2k/XP world due to MS' weaknesses and Adobe's even worse security, Paul Crawford

What business is it of a document formating company, to secure the underlying OS. And that doesn't represent any deliberate vulnerability exploits any third party might introduce.

"Portable Document Format (PDF) is an open standard for document exchange. The file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 is used for representing documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format

what they used to compromise the PCs

> are we actually going to be told what tricks they used to compromise the PCs?, Paul Crawford

They sent them an attachment in an email, or sent them a URL that pointed to an exploit that only runs on the Microsoft Internet Explorer ..

Microsoft: the company that made email dangerous ...

Govt working on 'browser-based' solution for new cookie law

EU makes you safer online

I feel so much safer, now that the EU has allowed me to delete cookies off my own computer.

Building Windows 7 skills - will we need another 10 years?

why do we need training on the GUI

Why do we need training on the ease of use Windows 7 desktop computer?

Death of the signing bonus: Open source recruitment works

Matts massive intellect

I much respect Matt Asay, but sometimes I do have difficilty following his thought processes. It's most probably because I'm a humble technical support operative and he's much more cleverer than I am ..

I don't understand this bit?

"I've noted recently that some of open source's benefits are lost in a world of mobile app stores and the web, where the immediacy of downloading source code is trumped by the immediacy of polished, easily installed code or web services"

Shuttleworth sees fewer clouds in Ubuntu's future

Unix/Linux command line environment is a nightmare

> Every Unix/Linux command line environment I have looked at has been a nightmare .., Andy E

I beg to differ, I find BASH in conjunction with scripts to be relatively consistant across the various versions as in ifconfig does the same thing on all, whether SuSE or Ubuntu. Indeed I sometimes find myself firing up IPCONFG on Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7, as Microsoft keep moving the gui network bits around :). Besides that, command line is generally only usefull on servers or automating some task ..

Ubuntu more of a geek OS option?

> I've been a computer professional for over 30 years .., Shannon Jacobs

So have I but I never mention that as it might sound like I was using the logical fallacy of appealing to authority.

> over the last few years Ubuntu has actually been going downhill and become MORE of a geek OS option, rather than less. I believe that the peak of real-world usability was about four or five versions ago .., Shannon Jacobs

"geek OS option", you have just got to be kidding. I can't for the life of me see what you're on about. Ubuntu just works, straight out of the box. Browsing, email, word processing and media player. No technical skill required apart from the ability to click in click-boxes. (no don't mention some obscure hardware/driver configuration)

Sinclair ZX81: 30 years old

ZX81 video circuitry

Steve the Cynic

Fact failure #

Posted Friday 4th March 2011 13:44 GMT

Sorry, but the ZX81 did not contain dedicated video circuitry to prevent the bounce. Instead, it had two modes, "fast" and "slow ..

iirc, video was handled by a ULA and the Z80 cpu, as in the ULA forced the data bus low and fed NO OP opcodes to the CPU, the CPU then reading the character bitmaps from ROM back to the ULA.

9. ZX81 character display timing

http://home.germany.net/nils.eilers/zx81/wilfvid.htm#ch5

From messiah to pariah: The death of open source on mobile

FSS hitting Apple with software license?

> FSS and GPL seemed to pull a big fail IMHO when they tried to open the iPhone platform by hitting Apple over the head with the software license, ArkhamNative

"Even if the original developers distributed the software to Apple in full compliance with the GPL's terms, Apple would still violate the license when it distributed the software through the App Store and subjected the program to their terms of service's usage rules,"

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/05/fsf-apples-itunes-store-terms-of-service-at-odds-with-gpl.ars

app stores cheaper than open source?

> Open source has gone from pariah to messiah in the past decade

It was never a "pariah", if only in parts of Redmond ..

> It's about mobile app stores making app discovery and adoption cheaper and easier than open source did ..

Interesting if even true ..

March Patch Tuesday leaves IE unpatched for Pwn2Own hackers

Four browsers in the firing line ..

> Four browsers – IE, Firefox, chrome and Apple Safari – are in the firing line in the Pwn2Own contest ..

Will it mention which OS these bugs run on?

WordPress comes under 'extremely large' web attack

extremely large Distributed Denial of Service?

> WordPress.com is currently being targeted by a extremely large Distributed Denial of Service attack

What desktop OS are we not allowed to mention in this context?

Tainted apps worm into official Android store

Microsoft App Store ©

> That’s why I don’t like Android and am using a windows phone 7. One of the few reasons anyway ..

Seeing as the Microsoft App Store © will be immune to this kind of exploit .. heeeee

Tainted ads punt scareware to surfers on LSE and Myvue sites

web scareware malvertising

What computer desktop Operating System are we not supposed to mention here ?

Morgan Stanley hit by same attackers that breached Google

computer systems penetrated ?

What desktop computer OS are we not supposed to mention here ?

Protecting users from themselves

we expect users to be experts in security

> Part of the problem is that we expect users to be experts in security, when in reality what they want to do is be successful in their job and will hunt out ways to make this happen ..

No we don't, just make a computer that can't be infected by clicking on a URL or opening an email attachment.

Mozilla confirms Firefox 4 beta 12 is FINAL test build

UA spoofing helps

UA spoofing helps.

This problem fixed if I set general.useragent.override to "Mozilla/5.0

(Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.14 (KHTML, like Gecko)

Chrome/10.0.607.0 Safari/534.14".

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=627729

--

The patch for bug 627729 is a Hotmail-specific code path that forces the use of

the old HTML parser for document.open() on Hotmail.

Remove that code path once Hotmail has deployed a fix for the problem at their

end.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=636692

Flaw in MS anti-malware engine poses command override risk

Flaw in Malware Protection Engine

Microsoft has updated its malware protection technology following the discovery of a bug in the Malware Protection Engine which gives root access to a hacker by scanning a malformed registry key.

Protecting users from themselves

Live audiocast

> Live today (18:00 GMT and 10:00 PST), we have an audiocast with experts talking about just these issues ..

Any chance of a transcript, I tend to nod off after four minutes of someone droning on ...

Man admits hacking into NASA, e-commerce servers

spot the mistake ..

“Parker hacked into SWReg's system, created the money by crediting the SWReg accounts, and then caused that money to be wire transferred to his bank account instead of the accounts of several developerss,”

Ten out of ten if you spotted this bit, "wire transferred to his bank account" ... DOH !!!

Court OK's Assange Sweden extradition, given 7 days to appeal

impartial ruling ..

"Points 1, 4 and 6 relate essentially to the same issue – disclosure of information inappropriately and publicly in an unfair way . It has also been suggested that the complainant’s lawyer in Sweden has made inappropriate remarks.

Miss Montgomery suggested that any comments from the Swedish Prime Minister may have been a response to comments made publicly on the steps of this court by the defence team here. I have heard no evidence that the defence team has publicly commented to the media, and so cannot say that that has happened ..

It is not possible for me to measure the impact of any such disclosures in this case .. I am absolutely satisfied that no such comments will have any impact on the decisions of the courts, either here or in Sweden"

www.judiciary.gov.uk/media/judgments/2011/jud-authority-sweden-v-assange

German Foreign Office kills desktop Linux, hugs Windows XP

What Linux distro

> So, genuinely, what distro and apps should I pick .. Can the Linux fans persuade me to give it another go, or will they just hit the downvote button for daring to admit I don't know enough about the OS?

Give Ubuntu a go, it's the most polished desktop distro out there in my opinion. The apps come as standard with the distro, browsing, email, office, media player. You can get it on CD off the back of any Linux Mag. There is one app that doesn't come as standard, that's an Anti-Virus app.

http://www.ubuntu.com/

enterprise pedigree software?

> People just want something that has a 20+ year evolution and enterprise pedigree where productivity is most important, Bugs R Us

Windows Phone 7 update brick Samsung handsets ..

http://alturl.com/g3pbk

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2011/02/everything-that-can-go-wrong-with-windows-phone-7-update-does.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

Linux quality of code is very poor?

> OpenOffice *is* a steaming pile of dog turd, and none of the open-source apologists seem to realise or accept that a tool that is sufficient for writing to your granny is not necessarily sufficient for business .., Oliver Jones

Hey troll, this document was produced in OpenOffice ..

http://www.openoffice.org/product/docs/ms2007vsooo2.pdf

-------

key concepts: dog turd, open-source apologist, steaming pile of crap, writing to your granny

Linux is a PITA under the surface?

> The reality of the array of Linux GUI's available is messy, hard to plan for upgrades, and requires a *relatively* massive amount of admin time to update each process .. the perception by many, many admins and users is that it looks good on the outside, but it's a PITA under the surface, Atonnis

Total nonsence, you get a browser, email client and office suite, admin time is minimal as it most ever don't ever need 'upgrading' ...

.

Linux not suitable for general office workers?

> Linux is still not suitable for use by general office workers, Kristian Walsh

What are you on about, what do most general office workers do. Check email and type Office type documents, something that's been available on Linux for years. I've sat down Windows users in front of a Linux desktoop - and they don't know the difference.

> Linux is in essence the hobby of a large number of very talented engineers ..

So long troll ...

Microsoft flash research inspires EMC

FlashCACHE isn't FlashSTORE©

Except FlashCACHE isn't FlashSTORE©, see FlashSTOREs got almost totally different letters in its name ..

HBGary 'puppets' FAIL to convince

network separation to reduce traceability.

> an individual (not a bot) to manage a number of social media accounts .. Each account should have its own history and believable back story ...

I used post to a forum where one "individual" used post tens of msgs an hour, 24 hours a day. I don't know how he ever slept or even earned a living. Once I was in discussion with the day shift and later on the evening shift had an attack of amnesia and couldn't recall our earlier conversation :)

I have also seen adverts for bloggers for the UK edition of Big Brother, where you hung about and steered the conversation in the right direction.

Romanian middleman pleads guilty to $2.7m auction scam

Your account has been compromised?

> However, I made the mistake of attempting to log in to my email account. I was immediately locked out. I received an e-mail saying "Your account has been compromised", asking me to check carefully for signs of misuse, and explaining the somewhat onerous security procedure for getting it unlocked ..

Your account hasn't been compromised, what is more lickley is that amalware on the computer is trying to trick you into entering your registration details. Malware most probably put there by the propriators of the Internet Cafe.

Your bet bet is to use a Bootable CD when using someone elses computer ..

May promises £63m for cybercrime fight

how to defend against 'cyber crime'

Do your online shopping from a bootable CD ... What's it cost the economy all this 'cybercrime' ??

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

Microsoft sends IE9 'do-not-track' tech to W3C

MUCH better than Mozilla

> MUCH better than Mozilla's ..

It says in the main article: "Mozilla has proposed a system that dumps the idea of lists and employs an HTTP header. The header has been added to the latest Firefox beta, released this week. Like IE9, Firefox 4 will expose you to the web's ad networks by default until you update your preference"

insert free advert for IE9

"My bet is on IE9. There's some absolutely amazing standards compliant . bla bla bla ...", HMB

Firefox 4 Beta ...

http://www.mozilla.com/en-GB/firefox/beta/

MS unveils tracking protection technology ???

"The software giant's Tracking Protection technology .. is designed to let users of IE decide what information advertisers are allowed to learn about them during web browsing and internet searches"

That's considerate of MS now allowing us to decide what advertisers learn about us whilst browsing. Fortunately I already poses such "technology", namely a Ubuntu running off a USB device that flushes all browsing activity on shutdown. I wonder if I am violating MS patents by using this 'technology'.

London Underground hands £10m to Capgemini

support for 2,500 desktops

> Capgemini gets responsibility for application support for the first time and continues to provide desktop support (for 2,500 staff), infrastructure and networks.

How many support staff are required for 2,500 desktops. If they used diskless workstations it would be next to zero.

Something from yesteryear ..

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/19/sainsburys_v_accenture/

Microsoft finally says adios to Autorun

resistance from some partners?

> Bryant said the main reason Microsoft didn't retire Autorun sooner was the resistance from some partners who rely on the feature to install programs that accompany their hardware

This doesn't make technological sense ..

> Over the past few years technologies such as in the U3 functionality found on many thumb drives has provided alternatives .. As we've pointed out before, the changes to Autorun still don't go far enough. CDs and DVDs by default still automatically execute code when inserted ..

I have noticed that U3 USB devices execute a menu regardless of the settings. It's to do with a hidden partition on the U3 device identifying itself as a CD.

Anonymous pwns security firm that probed its membership

some links ..

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zoBJ578x9xYJ:www.hbgary.com/+HBGary&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk

http://hizost.com/d/zjb

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/2/6/941730/-Anonymous-pwns-HBGary-Federal

World leaders meet to discuss cyberwar rules of engagement

Cyberwar rules of engagement

You'll have to excuse me for saying so, but this Geneva convention for Cyberspace is total BS. The vast majority of security incidents such as DDOS and 'Stuxnet worm' are enabled by hijacked Windows desktops computers. Critical systems such SCADA units or hospital systems should of course be locked down on embedded hardware running on a VPN. That they are still running such systems directly connected to the Internet beggars belief.

Google to Microsoft: You're stealing our search results!

Microsoft accuses Google of click fraud

"Microsoft is now accusing Google of using a form of click fraud to set up its Bing Sting" ..

"What Google did was clever, I'll give them that. They basically took a bunch of nonsensical words, like xlgr493, and then modified their own algorithm to point the search query for that particular word to a real site. So xlgr493 refers to kittycat.com.

Then about 20 of them went to their houses at night, and, probably over a glass of merlot, started using the Bing toolbar to query Google for that particular nonsensical word. Then the next day they showed that if you searched for that nonsensical word on Bing, the faked site would appear as the first result" ...

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2011/02/microsoft-says-google-used-click-fraud-to-pull-of-bing-sting/1

lets get this straight

> So lets get this straight Google was snooping on Bing's search results when they noticed that Bing was snooping on Google's search results.

No, Google noticed that certain results returned by Bing was a too close match to Google results. To verify this they created search queries and this verified that the Bing toolbar was spying on endusers.

MicrosoftSpeak

MicrosoftSpeak: 'opt-in customer data'

English: spying on customers, steal competitors data

Republican reps push for mandatory gun ownership

doesn't go far enough

I want one of these ..

http://tinyurl.com/Russian-Tank-For-Sale

http://tanksforsale.co.uk/Surplus%20Russian%20BMP1%20APCs%20%20for%20sale.html

Memo to Microsoft, RIM, Nokia: Quit copying Apple!

not fit for purpose

> I work with Fortune 500 type organizations. In my 20 year experience, large organization IT services make life diffcult for themselves with complex processes and procedures. The tech Microsoft provides is simple and effective; it is "fit for purpose" ..

You have to be kidding. I did tech support in a multinational business consultancy. Their entire IT service consisted of powerpoint docs stored on file servers mapped to the desktop under drive letters. They used a customized form to create unique file names and that was it.

> Microsoft created an industry for which many visitors of this site would be thankful for their careers and wealth.

No, Microsoft built its success on the efforts of others and are largely responsibly for the virtual stagnancy in the PC sector. Witness the number of companies who are no longer in the business, including IBM, the originator of the IBM PC.