* Posts by zen1

506 publicly visible posts • joined 29 Dec 2010

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CSC, NetCracker IT staff worked on US military telecoms 'without govt security clearance'

zen1

That it would. And I can't think of a more deserving group of schmucks. I worked there for almost 30 years and to see what they did to that company, at the expense of a lot of good employees and unsuspecting companies and governments is nothing less than profane. I am thankful every day that I was able to find an employer who needed someone with my specialized skill set.

zen1

CSC executive "leadership" needs to be jailed.

Next year's Windows 10 auto-upgrade is MSFT's worst idea since Vista

zen1

Is the Windows 10 forcefd upgrade even legal?

When you purchase a copy of Windows 7, doesn't that enter you into a contract with Microsoft? And by their forcing Windows 10 on to your machine without your permission, aren't they violating the terms of their own EULA? I paid for Windows 7, I like Windows 7. I played with the pre-release of 10 and I still don't care for the quasi-metro interface and I sure as hell don't authorize Microsoft to alter the terms of that agreement I entered into, by forcing me to use a product that I deem generally inferior to the product I currently use.

As others have alluded, Windows 10 may in fact be a better OS than 7, but I don't like it. I don't want it and I sure as heck don't trust it, Microsoft or when they say "We're not spying on you".

Oracle's Hurd mentality: We (and one other) will own all of cloud by 2025

zen1

Re: Nope

But Will, what could possibly go wrong?

BYOD battery bloodbath? Facebook 'fesses up to crook code

zen1

facebook responsible for wasting resources? pashaw

Lotus F1: 38°C? Sand in your Vblocks? Must be building a data center in Bahrain again

zen1

re robots

"How long before the cars are driven by standardized robots as well, to completely remove the human factor?"

I honestly don't believe it will happen in F1, given that a lot of the purists want to strip the ground effects, spoilers, front wings, traction control and most of the electronics, assuming they got their way. Their logic was given the rate of technology being infused into these vehicles, what does the driver do other than monitor gauges?

The car's launch from the pit or from a dead stop is all computer controlled and only when it's moving close to speed does the driver take over.

Personally, I hope the human element is never stripped from f1, because that's what keeps it exciting for me. I mean it's basically driver's skill and engineering efforts. Good discussion tho...

Microsoft offers to PAY YOU to trade in your old computer for a Windows 10 device

zen1

The end of MS evolution

It just dawned on me... Microsoft has essentially turned itself into AOL 2.0

Steve Ballmer praises Twitter job cuts after buying 4% stake in ailing micro-blab site

zen1

Wow Steve!

Celebrating people losing their jobs, what next, evicting orphans? Stomping on baby ducks? DOUCHE!

Microsoft now awfully pushy with Windows 10 on Win 7, 8 PCs – Reg readers hit back

zen1

Re: Stupid move

No freaking way it was accidental. More like a large scale test on seeing what kind of telemetry they could collect before it got too hot for them. I'm absolutely convinced this was planned, including the canned "pardon our faux pax".

zen1

@ Garry Perez

You and I have a lot in common... I started my experience with MS with DOS 1.0, and I've been an on again off again shill for Microsoft since the mid 80's. No more. I am in the process of converting my last spare machine to LINUX Mint as well and will only maintain Windows 7 for as long as this hardware holds out.

To say I'm livid with the idiocy behind MS's latest stun is a bit of an understatement. If/when I decide to upgrade OS's, it's on my schedule, not theirs. and it's sure as heck not going to happen blindly, without vetting the most important (and expensive) applications I use. While those apps will probably work with Windows 10, there's always a chance they won't and then I'm either out of luck and have to purchase more software because of Windows 10, or I have to spend at least a full day restoring my machine.

Needless to say, this whole experience has placed Microsoft in a very negative light, with me, and like you, I plan on conveying the virtues of LINUX to all of the friends and family I support, and recommend they consider abandoning MS, as well.

I've had it with all the creative liberties that MS (and Google & FB) are taking with my equipment,by collecting metrics on my usage patterns, at my expense. I am not their guinea pig nor am I one of their beta users. I am their soon to be former customer and should have a little bit of respect given to my property.

In conclusion, Microsoft can suck it and take their latest disaster of an OS and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

zen1

@ Stewart Longland

Fixed that for you...

Dear Fuck Sticks,

Hey, Facebook – these are the new Like buttons you should have used

zen1

the facepalm would be awesome, but I'm holding out for a "fuck you!" button, like those weenies would ever allow something like that to go out...

Search engine can find the VPN that NUCLEAR PLANT boss DIDN'T KNOW was there - report

zen1

That's by design. Two words: Plausible deniability. Don't get me wrong, I certainly hope executive management would take a bit more interest on the inner operations of their facilities, but maybe I'm just being too optimistic?

Microsoft's HoloLens: Here by 2016, mere three THOUSAND dollar price

zen1

@ Doug S

You beat me to it. I was just going to say price doesn't matter either, as I know a number of people who have both Sony and xbox gaming rigs, that is in addition to any gaming latops and or desktops they may have.

AD-NNIHILATION: Apple-approved iOS tool blocks ALL ads in apps, Safari, Apple News

zen1

Love it!

Perfect test: Words with friends... Totally ad free!

Linux kernel dev who asked Linus Torvalds to stop verbal abuse quits over verbal abuse

zen1
Coat

Re: It's fine...

"Some people are uncomfortable with the swearing and blunt assessments"

Fuck em...

KIDDING!!!! Getting my hat & coat

zen1

questionable

three sides to every story, side a, side b and the truth. All of my experience in dealing with the UNIX development community is that they take serious pride in the end products they deliver, AND take whatever internal steps necessary to ensure all those involved offer the same level of output. Some may find those mechanisms distasteful or off-putting.

Conversely, I followed the link to her web page and read her statement, in her own words. While I have never personally dealt with the likes of Linus or some of the more senior stake holders, I do realize their commitment and what they are both personally and professionally risking. Furthermore, her experience was communicated to the rest of the world through a set of subjective proper/improper observations.

Abuse, as I've been always taught, is a form of neglect and/or torture, which is not normally something done to someone who's respected, be it professionally or personally. It sounds like she just didn't have much experience dealing with blunt people who may just have a caustic method communicating, especially while debating. And after reading through the groups she's been affiliated with, I'm wondering if she's not more of a quiet genius type who was never exposed to other types of genius, who simply didn't have any tact or social graces? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to trivialize her, her contribution to the project or her belief system, but, based on a little more of what I know about the situation, she just needs to realize that not everybody deals with conflict resolution the same way and maybe drop the histrionics.

zen1

Re: "It has taken many years, but governments are starting to enforce social laws in cyberspace."

AC's,

When people who are absolutely passionate about a particular project or have a tremendous drive for perfection get together in confined spaces, sometimes there is friction. In very large endeavors like LINUX, friction can be almost constant. I'm not saying it's right or acceptable, but that's just the way it is. And after spending almost 30 years in an environment like this, I see where some people resort to humor or means of communications that aren't necessarily fit for use in the general public. My take on it is sometimes that's what you have to do to get your point across or your opinion brought into the forefront for team consideration.

As I alluded to above, no, it's probably not acceptable or even civil, but in retrospect, I've done some of my best work when motivated by pure rage and spite. My advice to her would be to check your ego at the door and get some thicker skin, unless you don't completely believe in the goals you're working towards.

Autonomy ex-boss Lynch tells of poisonous life within HP in High Court showdown

zen1

Re: They killed Palm too :-(

What about the iPAQ? I had one of those long before I ever owned an apple phone or droid and I was actually really happy with it. that is until HP got their mitts on it and cheapened it up to the point of uselessness.

Like your job at Sprint? Yeah, about that ... $2.5bn in cuts coming

zen1

They must be managed and staffed by CSC

Microsoft gobbles Chipzilla's Havok 3D physics unit in cloud gaming play

zen1

Microsoft play well with others?

Yeah, right...

Aircon biz fined $1.3m after boss set up attack websites slamming critical punters

zen1

what a douche bag!

The Steve Jobs of supercomputers: We remember Seymour Cray

zen1

Comparison to Jobs?

Throughout my career I've met the likes of both Steve's (Jobs & Woz) and Bill Gates. And while I never met Mr. Cray, he was definitely at the top of the list of all the people I've ever wanted to meet. I think the comparison needs to be worded to reflect Mr. Jobs being "the Cray of micro and hand held computing".

From what I've only heard about Mr. Cray, he was relatively soft spoken, in comparison to the other gentlemen and was obsessed with building the absolute best. In my humble opinion, in his day he was the epitome of the digital revolutionary and everything everybody else did was nothing more than the next logical evolutionary step by giving large scale computing to the masses. I'm pretty much convinced I'll get down voted for this statement, but Mr. Cray was light years beyond Mr. Jobs, or any of his contemporaries.

Woman makes app that lets people rate and review you, Yelp-style. Now SHE'S upset people are 'reviewing' her

zen1

The whole concept is a disaster

There's almost an infinite number of places on the web where once can make statements about others (true, false or otherwise), so even if the concept didn't suck, I can't see this being very sustainable much past the initial curiosity. I think given the less than warm reception, along with the rather strong reaction to the sanctimonious, self-righteous statements made by their CEO, I'm thinking the investors, if there are any left, will probably looking for less controversial investments.

Weird garbled Windows 7 update baffles world – now Microsoft reveals the truth

zen1

Infuriating

It seems MS is obfuscating more and more information regarding patches and hot fixes and is expecting us to just "trust" them. While I appreciate their efforts in streamlining the patching process, I like to know and make the decision on what is or isn't getting installed on my property. Furthermore, I recall being told by a MS engineer that not all patches were generic or to be installed blindly, only install the ones that are needed for your machine or critical OS patches.

Is Windows 10 slurping too much data? No, says Microsoft. Nuh-uh. Nope

zen1

@ largefile

Those stats are obviously based on new PC/MAC sales. Let's be honest, most people aren't rushing out to buy a new PC for a number of reasons, and I would further guess that the vast majority of those with Windows 7, who haven't upgraded to 8.x or 10 either don't want to or don't know how to. I'm afraid to say the only way Microsoft is going to grab a larger market share with Win 10 is at gunpoint, er... attrition.

zen1

@ Novex

Did that about 3 weeks ago myself, and I'm just kicking myself I didn't do it sooner. Not only does my machine run much faster, but I got a ton of disk space back. FU Redmond! Thank you for making the decision that much easier for me.

Indianapolis man paints his ball every day – for FORTY YEARS

zen1

@ Ralph B

> Is he hurting anyone?

"Well, given time, he exponentially threatens to exhaust the resources of the Universe!"

Given your question, I'm wondering at what point the baseball's gravity become so strong that the entire sphere would collapse on itself, forming a black hole in Indianapolis?

Apple iPhones, iPads BRICKED by iOS 9's 'slide-to-upgrade' bug

zen1

@asdf

"Umm not like in the golden days huh (see video)? That said lucky for Apple in the mobile space its only viable competition is even worse for the most part."

On one hand you have a walled fortress, with the occasional "uh oh" vs. a platform that's one giant advertisement. Note: I won't even bother adding Microsoft's latest abomination to the equation...

ugh... I hate smart phones sometimes.

Pentagon on manual mission to build nation-wide security database

zen1

Dear El Reg... in addition to all of my other frivolous requests, I'd like to request a dr. strangelove icon for situations just like this.

Techie finds 1.5 million US medical records exposed on Amazon's AWS

zen1
Flame

I have to ask

What kind of IDIOT maintains a database like that that isn't encrypted? Did IQ's drop again? This is yet another reason that I believe the executive management of companies (public or private) should be personally held financially responsible and also be charged both criminally and civilly.

Microsoft rolls out Windows 10 Mobile preview update

zen1
Mushroom

do not want

Don't want Windows 10 FILTH on the company network? Step this way

zen1

Stupid Microsoft... They're why we can't have anything nice! Altho the porn slide show was pretty damn funny

Viper sinks fangs into unwary Indian farmer's todger

zen1

ok... wow. and to echo the life experience shared by a previous poster, hitting an electric fence may have hurt then, but comparatively speaking, I'd take that in a heart beat over what this gentleman suffered.

Hell he's lucky he survived, but had that been me, I would have probably preferred death to the amount of absolute abuse of being a punch line for the rest of my life.

Disney's light-bulb moment: build TCP into LEDs for IoT comms

zen1
Coat

Bright idea? Getting my coat...

Ashley Madison hack miscreants may have earned $6,400 from leak

zen1

What?!?

That's it? Not well thought out or executed. For the uproar (number of destroyed relationships, lives and suicides) this has caused, $6400 certainly isn't worth it. Not to sound cold but that's like robbing a gas station, shooting the clerk and getting away with less than $10.00. I hope God has pity on them because if they get caught, and hauled into jail, their cell mates probably won't..

On the other side of the coin, I think AM needs to set up a trust fund for any impending civil suits otherwise their company will be no more. And it's a damn shame that the executive "management" of the company can't be held personally liable for such a gross act of incompetence.

Who should be responsible for IT security?

zen1

To build on the post above,

IT Security extends all the way out to the average user. Yes, the board can write edicts into stone and IT can implement the technology that may ultimately stop or report 95% of all nefarious activity, but it's in the businesses best interest to inform and educate its employees of what to look for, what to avoid and what not to do. Without those basic policies and procedures in place then it's like giving a double pneumonia patient a carton of smokes and wishing them a speedy recovery. After that, it becomes a relatively short waiting time UNTIL bad things happen.

Microsoft vacates moral high ground for the data slurpers' cesspit

zen1

maybe it's just me...

but it seems Microsoft is trying to keep up with the Jones's, ie google & facebook. My guess they're just now starting to realize there's big money in user data and it's the only way they can keep up with the likes of the two other companies. Here's some free advice... If you really wanted to stick it to Google and Facebook and curry favor with an increasing cynical customer base, why not just make it more difficult for Google and FB to plant crap on someones desktop or laptop? If google can't collect accurate marketing demographics and trends, what other products do they really have that's profitable enough to compete with the others?

Windows 7 is the last MS OS I'll voluntarily use and they can kiss my back side if they think I'm going to waste one more second on Win10.

Ford's 400,000-car recall could be the tip of an auto security iceberg

zen1

maybe I'm just oversimplifying...

But, leave the wifi for entertainment purposes only and leave the CnC systems out of the loop?

Hacktivists congratulate Daily Show's Jon Stewart via Donald Trump's website

zen1

meh

personally I thought it was stupid, quite frankly, because I never thought Jon Stewart was all that humorous to begin with. I mean Trump is funny! Of course he's a ruthless business man who has built and lost more fortunes than most of us would ever see in several lifetimes, but I find it even more difficult to take him seriously because of his hair. FFS, in a soft breeze his head looks like it comes equipped with a convertible top. For those of you old enough, when the top is opened up, he looks like Bozo the clown. But I digress.

While trump might be a loud mouthed, self centered, narcissistic ass bag, he does appear to know business, whereas the current first pinhead never really held a public sector job. Damn it, I went off on a tangent again... Regardless of what your political alignment is, defacing the website of someone who's running for public office really doesn't accomplish much other than harden the opinions of that individuals supporters. Secondly, it's screwing around with a process that should be considered sacred to the citizens of the US, or at least the 30% who actually vote when they feel like it. Furthermore, to deface such a website with praise for someone who has less credibility and journalistic integrity of say... the entire cast of south park, family guy and beavis & butt head? It certainly doesn't say much for the people who did this.

Just my opinion.

Oh and for any other US citizens out there, honestly, I don't give a damn who you vote for, just vote. Otherwise we're going to get stuck with Trump, a shrill harpy who thinks she's above the law, one of a cast of countless idiots, rejects and morons from either side of the isle, or worst of all, Biden.

Crazy Chrysler security hole: USB stick fix incoming for 1.4 million cars

zen1

this isn't unfortunate

it's goddamn stupid, irresponsible and down right amateurish, especially by a division of one of the worlds largest automakers. Those assholes should be charged with criminal negligence. Once again, el reg, this article just screams "I need a douche bag icon!!!"

Silicon Valley sides with Samsung in anti-Apple patent war

zen1

I do believe

Mercedes-Benz patented the steering wheel back in the day. Imagine if all of the transportation manufacturers had to pay a royalty on each and every vehicle equipped with a steering wheel? It could be argued that the same basic principles apply.

Loan application data hacked, company responds: Meh, not our customers

zen1

dear reg

you guys need to introduce a new icon, might I suggest a douche bag, just for companies like AFC Kredieten. What they're doing is unconscionable to say the very least. While they may be right on the thinnest of technicalities they do have the ethical obligation to protect potential customers personal data every bit as much as registered customers. Granted I'm probably preaching to a large choir, but the ass bag who told the spokes weaselette to basically say "fuck 'em, they're not our customers yet" should be fired and have charges filed against him or her. Therefore, I submit to the editors and management of el reg, an official request for a D-Bag icon.

We tried using Windows 10 for real work and ... oh, the horror

zen1

I hate to say it...

But I actually miss Bill Gates at the helm. I've been using the 10 beta for a couple of weeks and it's interface is 100% better than that of the 8.x debacle... But I still fucking hate it. As one of the first posters intimated, I'm going to wait until Win 7 support ends.

Google says its AI will jetwash all traces of malodorous spam from your box

zen1

hmmm

I recall being at a security conference a few years back where they threw out a rather startling statistic: just under 75% of all the internet traffic was email, and of that the vast majority was spam. So, I really wonder how reliable their statistics are? Because anyway you put it, even .05% would be a staggering amount.

Zuck-Up as Facebook Messenger app tracks you everywhere forever

zen1

I still think...

he's an unconscionable fuck.

LA schools want multi-million Apple refund after kids hack iPads

zen1

face palm

I have a cousin who's a teacher and all I hear is how difficult it is to keep the kids attention or get them to follow through on assignments etc. At a time when America's schools suck so badly on math & science scores, it's great to see kids using abstract thinking to either find the solution, online or figuring it out for themselves.

Instead of contacting the authorities they should consider hiring a couple of the kids who shredded their ipads as security consultants. Punishing them would only foster an environment where kids would be too scared to learn.

Finally, suing apple because the kids blew through poorly configured software, managed by the DoE IT staff is like suing Porsche because someone intentionally drove over glass & nails and flattened their tires.

What's Meg Whitman fussing over: The fate of HP ... or the font on a DISRUPTIVE new logo?

zen1

Reminds me of something....

Kind of reminds me of when CSC rebranded to the "we cut corners" logo. HP's new logo just screams boring, bland and something utterly forgetable.

Leaked Windows 10 build hints at peer-to-peer patching

zen1

re: re:oh lord...

Wow, looks like I set off a bit of a firestorm and a flurry of thumbs down... So much for sharing an opinion.

OK, after I've had a chance to read some of the rebukes, let me respond with this: I can accept it as a way for people to upgrade small infrastructures, if they don't have an admin or the knowledge to accomplish this. I can can even accept the use of p2p to deliver updates to third world countries, or regions that have extremely limited bandwidth. I openly concede those two points.

I do have to pose a question to all of the folks who felt it necessary to rip me up one side and down the other... Remember little things like imesh and kazaa, and how rampant malware became with that software? Sure, on paper it sounds like fantastic idea, but apparently there are a number of us who've completely forgotten how many times a microsoft platform has gotten shredded or spoofed. That being said, it's next to impossible to poison Microsoft at the source, but tack on a little something to updates sitting in the p2p staging area and you have an even more efficient vector for delivery.

The *nix folks have always had their shit together, which is why a distributed upgrade methodology works.

Microsoft, not so much. Unless it's in a managed environment, most machines under patched, most have antivirus sigs that are expired, so any person who develops a convincing enough piece of scare-ware it's quite possible that could be used that could be used to get the bad guys foot in the door, to deliver more malicious garbage.

Just my opinion.

zen1

oh lord...

absolutely nothing could go wrong with this "honey of an idea"... Sigh.... are there any intelligent adults running Microsoft anymore?

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