Posts by ITS Retired

You probably can't trust your password manager if it's compromised

Re: If you were serious about security

And those sites that give you a choice between an e-mail address and a phone number and nothing else?

Notepad's new Markdown powers served with a side of remote code execution

Re: What a bloody mess

If it works, it has to be fixed. There is always someone available to fix software that works as intended and screws it up so it need to be fixed, again and again and again.

Tech support chap invented fake fix for non-problem and watched it spread across the office

Re: Power without responsibility

I rather liked the degauss button. When you pressed it, you knew you did something.

Windows 11 shutdown bug forces Microsoft into out-of-band damage control

That works. Between Linux and a MacBook, I have no need for Windows.

Wine 11 runs Windows apps in Linux and macOS better than ever

I use both Irfanview and Photoscape under Wine 9. Installed and run with no problems.

Techie banned from client site for outage he didn’t cause

Re: Sounds like gold bars

I have not so fond memories of clone toner cartridges that upchucked all over the inside of the printer. Reams of paper in the drawers damaged from being buried in toner.

What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows

Re: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

As for Desk Tops, Windows 7 seems to be, to me, something they basically got right. Just because it is 'old' should not automatically make it obsolete. There are times when something 'old' is hard to actually improved on. The basic form and function of Windows 7 worked very well back in the day, something Microsoft has long forgotten. Shifting stuff around in the panel is an improvement? How are ads when you click on something you payed for, an improvement?

Change for change sake so they can say "NEW and Improved" too often is so they can charge more. it is so easy to make changes be shifting things around to allow the maker to say "NEW and Improved" when there is little new and the code is not new, just shuffled around.

Now about those ads on an OS you have payed good money for. Or making your computer a paper weight if the Internet isn't available, because everything you need to do is in somebody else's cloud. Not only your data, but your programs too.

I went from Windows 7 to Linux Mint. Why Mint? Because the desktop is similar to 7. It works fine for me. User interfaces matter. One shouldn't have to treasure hunt with every update. You shouldn't have to reconfigure anything after an update either because your tweaks were reset to someone else's idea how things are done.

My Data and my programs are mine right on my computers, not being mined for fun and profit in someone else's computer, located who knows where, especially when you have to pay for the privilege.

To disable AI Firefox

about:config - enter: browser.ml - set all true to false

I did that a few month ago and have no hiccups with Firefox.

Space-power startup claims it can beam energy to solar farms

"The company said it intends to get a low-Earth orbit demonstration satellite up and running by 2028, and plans to launch its first geosynchronous orbit satellite by 2030, when it intends to begin commercial operations "with the world's first megawatt transmission from space."

More junk in the sky to shied the Earth from global warming. Stop it already. This reminds me of the Space Elevator for practicality.

Magician forgets password to his own hand after RFID chip implant

Re: Magical recovery

He should have had the password tattooed on his wrist. Problem solved.

Lawsuit seeks to probe Uncle Sam's role in ICE-tracking app takedowns

Re: Who provided the ICE-tracking app?

“A person who aids and abets, or encourages another to commit a crime but who is not present at the scene. An accessory before the fact, like an accomplice, may be held criminally liable to the same extent as the principal.”

So, Kristi Noem then?

Apple ices ICE agent tracker app under government heat

"Bondi also told Fox Business: "ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable red line that cannot be crossed." "

And yet ICE does violence against innocent citizens as a part of their "jobs". The real threat of ICEBlock is to let people know areas to avoid, where ICE is vandalizing property and violating the Civil Rights of the average citizen.

Feds cut funding to program that shared cyber threat info with local governments

The ISAC funding cuts, along with the broader budget and staff reductions at CISA have led to worries about election security and how officials across all 50 states will be able to rapidly share threat information.

Right there is the main reason why. The results for the next election are already being tabulated.

It's time mobile devs started to think seriously about foldable smartphones

I don't want thin. I have an Otter case on my iPhone that doubles the thickness. That makes the phone much easier to handle for one thing. Plus I have an easily accessible belt clip for it, so I have pockets for stuff that actually need a pocket. Keys, wallet, ball point pen, little green Xcelite screwdriver, stylus for when I need to 'type' on the screen keyboard, when I dictate messages, etc.

Also a 'thin phone' and 'back pocket' doesn't sound like they go together very well. There is also the issue of the protruding camera that defeats the purpose of 'thin'. A thicker phone has room for a bigger battery. Win-win. Let the camera determine the thickness of the phone. Makes sense to me.

Re: Shitty computers?

Those easily-swappable batteries should be an easy selling point. But then "upgrading" the device would take a hit, as would the profits, when the old battery wears out and could be easily replaced on a still functional device.

Some users report their Firefox browser is scoffing CPU power

AL is the new shiney

AL has its uses, but it does not belong everywhere in everything. Just as IoT does not belong in everything from toasters to clothes washers/dryers, refrigerators, door locks. Why would anyone want to control the living room lights from a thousand miles/kilometers away?

There is too much because we can, forced on users that complicate otherwise simple, easy to use operations.

Ousted US copyright chief argues Trump did not have power to remove her

Stephen Miller could write a Executive Order, for Trump to sign, changing the Constitution to allow Trump to not have to run, but just continue on with this term in 2028, for four more years, till 2032. Sounds as reasonable as anything else this Administration has done up to now.

Amazon built a massive AI supercluster for Anthropic called Project Rainier – here's what we know so far

This is another energy hog of "Because we can, not because we should", or for any actual necessity.

Sure it looks impressive, but why?

Some people have entirely too much money. There are better ways to use multimillionaire's excess money. Like fair share taxation, used for working economies and proper functioning governments for its citizens. Heaven on earth.

US Department of Defense will stop sending critical hurricane satellite data

Re: Sharpies at the ready

At least the not entire 20 meters. Just a few meters would do it.

US Navy backs right to repair after $13B carrier crew left half-fed by contractor-locked ovens

Asinine

Navel ships are war ships have be self sufficient while at sea. They can be thousands of miles from any help even in peace times. Steaming for weeks, sometimes months at a time.

How can they function if they cannot repair whatever, when something, anything breaks?

Farmer's tractors are bad enough, but our military?

Field support chap got married – which took down a mainframe

Re: Schedule a effing downtime!

To say nothing about the storage capabilities and self recharge of the picture tube itself.

Ex-NASA Admin pick blames Musk ties for pulled nomination

Maybe, just maybe this planet was setup to make it very difficult to impossible for us to leave on purpose. We are not supposed to be able to export our dysfunctional life form to elsewhere. Robots exploring the neighborhood is one thing, but we can never expect to actually go anywhere and survive for long, until we learn to get along with each other like some civilized life form, without killing each other over minor differences that don't really matter. Hide color, eye shape, gender, sexual preference and other normal differences that exist in other species of animals on this wet rock.

Boffins found self-improving AI sometimes cheated

Re: Not convinced about safety.

That is why these AI models need to have a hard wired kill switch, that the AI can't bypass and preferably does not even know about.

Hooked to the Internet, who knows what these self programing AI will, or can come up with. "Do - you - want - to - play - a - game?"

US Transpo Sec wants air traffic control rebuild in 3 years, asks Congress for blank check

Re: Amazing ..

Sounds like a plan. But what does that have to do with the current administration? They are reducing, destroying, deporting, defunding, down sizing every agency, firing every educated DEI hire, eliminating college classes/program needed to educate enough people needed to upgrade the very systems that they say that need to be upgraded and replaced... In three years? It will take decades and trillions of dollars to catch up at this point in time.

These same idiots should have been allowing funding equipment upgrades for the last several decades! Hiring and training enough people to efficiently do the required jobs, regardless of skin color or national origin.

Instead they have concentrated on down sizing as the solution to not enough people to do the many jobs required. To say nothing about voting as a block all along, against any equipment upgrades as too expensive and we can't afford it. For them being incompetent is a job requirement, so now we only need three years do what actually will take decades. Never mind funding an unknowable upfront.

Microsoft tries to knife passwords once and for all – at least for consumers

Re: "It is faster using pass keys"

Passwords are so last century. Never mind nothing actually better has come along, but changeable passwords have worked for over 65 years.

But somehow just because something is 'old' doesn't mean needs to stop being used. That is sometimes faulty thinking. Occasionally the old stuff is better than the newer stuff. Passwords refuse to die for a reason. Stop trying kill what works well enough for most things, for a long time, with something new, say with AI, because AI is the shiny new, or whatever. Change for change sake is seldom better.

Re: Maintaining passkeys

Why pay for sign on security? Even with your own computer? Proper security needs to be the responsibility of the site, OS, machine, IoT, etc., if they want people to use their product. Not for some for profit motive that may or may not be as presented.

IBM dragged down by DOGE contract cancellation roulette

Musk again

How many of those government contracts that IBM no longer have, does Musk now have?

Elon Musk makes another cut – to his time at DOGE

Musk

Musk has all the government contracts he needs for control of communications, rockets, stolen data bases. He has neutered his competition. He has hollowed out the regulations of his "businesses", so he is mostly free to do what he wants. Of course his 'government' job is pretty much finished. He is just sticking around to make sure he doesn't lose the plunder he has stolen.

This man needs reside for the rest of his life, in a secure, walled residence in El Salvador for the damage has has done to our government. His money can be used to repair the damage he has done to innocent people's lives.

Free Blue Screens of Death for Windows 11 24H2 users

Using Linux really is not that hard. Unless you like digging into the innards. But with Linux, you still own your computer, unlike Microsoft's thinking.

80 years old and not liking any Windows past 7. Change for change sake suck. Articles like this confirm my preferences.

Microsoft: Why not let our Copilot fly your computer?

Re: Finally

Do. You. Want. To. Play A. Game?

Pharmacist accused of using webcams to spy on women in intimate moments at work, home

Some laptops have the light attached directly to the camera power. If the camera is on for any reason, the light is lit.

How do you explain what magnetic fields do to monitors to people wearing bowling shoes?

Re: Ones Aurora

Having a small green handle screwdriver helps wonders in intimidating electronic stuff.

Windows 11 poised to beat 10, mostly because it has to

Ever get the feeling,

Microsoft is over running its headlights?

After three weeks of night shifts, very tired techie broke the UK’s phone network

Karma can be empathetic sometimes.

Frack to the future? Geothermal energy pitched as datacenter savior

Geothermal, or ground source heat pumps. They are not the same. Geothermal is using the heat that is underground. Can't be directly used for A/C.

Ground source heat pumps pumps heat into the ground in the summer for A/C, and out of the ground in the winter for heating.

Saying 'geothermal' instead of 'ground source heat pump' is a sales pitch to justify higher prices/price gouging.

Google confirms Gulf of Mexico renamed to appease Trump – but only in the US

Re: Ha

Trump respects no one except himself. The rest of us are just objects to be used by Trump to get his way.

Trump scrubs all mention of DEI, gender, climate change from federal websites

Re: Scrapped Direct File, which allows taxpayers to file their returns electronically to the IRS

Also very convicted felony criminal.

Trump eyes up to 100% tariffs on foreign semiconductors, TSMC in crosshairs

Re: MR

Something about Mad Cow a bunch of years back made our beef supply suspect. It hasn't fully recovered.

Why is Big Tech hellbent on making AI opt-out?

To answer the question

"...what happened to asking for permission first?"

Trump did.

This is how Elon's Department of Government Efficiency will work – overwriting the US Digital Service

Re: Hmm.

Or fire anyone that does fit.

Donald Trump proposes US govt acquire half of TikTok, which thanks him and restores service

Re: Hey all you republicans

All the same for the republicans.

GoDaddy slapped with wet lettuce for years of lax security and 'several major breaches'

Re: That's funny...

Appearances can be deceiving.

Now Trump's import tariffs could raise the cost of a laptop for Americans by 68%

Re: "Trump's tariffs could result in the loss of 400,000 US jobs"

The domino effect in action. 400,000 jobs lost. Those 400,000 people quit buying anything not necessary to survive. Business go out of business because not enough customers buying their services/widgets. Causing more people to be out of work, not buying stuff. Bigger business go out of business. Survival is harder because less stuff is available. 1929 collapse was just a minor hiccup.

The rich and powerful buy everything for pennies on the dollar again.

Microsoft declares 2025 'the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh'

Re: Micros~1 declares 2025

"Linux is good..but apparently still not good enough."

Mostly because people go with what they know. Change is scary 'cause ya gotta learn new stuff.

Apple auto-opts everyone into having their photos analyzed by AI for landmarks

Do what Iceland did to the bankers. Tossed them in prison and did not bail out the banks.

Microsoft won't let customers opt out of passkey push

Re: Better security doesn't just stop the scammers

80 years here. Linux, Apple, windows, 2 hand built web sites...

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

Re: Dead men don't suffer.

How often do cops find guns in households that do not have any guns? A bit too often in my humble opinion.

I understand it worked quite well for the French at one time.

How many unnecessary deaths was this CEO responsible for?

FCC fines be damned, ESPN misuses emergency alert tones yet again

Re: you could see people start to pull over thinking it was the law.

And older cars don't nag you about you driving, making for less distraction.

Smart homes may be a bright idea, just not for the dim bulbs who live in 'em

If we had more smart people, we'd have less need for smart IoT that actually aren't.

Smart TV's with RF remotes that work anywhere in the neighborhood? No key pad on the TV remote? WTF! You have to bring up a screen on the TV, so you can hunt and peck on the on screen keyboard to change channels. But the TV is defaulted to be programed ahead of time for what you want to watch? Works great when the football game runs long. How is this "smart"?

Smart light bulbs and plug in switches for lights, fans, heaters, etc., that need a remote server and your WiFi password and an apt to work?

You are normally right there anyway to experience the effects of whatever said device. Deal with it directly using the switch on, or near the device. Why let a server, who knows where, know about it. Especially if you are paying someone for this server to know.

I am not really a Luddite, but I prefer to control my own stuff I bought and paid for myself, without any input from any unnecessary third party.