Posts by cjcox

Microsoft's problem child, Windows 11, is here. Will you run it? Can you run it? Do you even WANT to run it?

You would have moved away from Windows long ago.

Let's be honest, if it were "possible", people would have moved away from Windows long ago.

So for those that have not moved, will you choose to run Windows 11? Microsoft says, "you have NO choice."

This is your final warning to re-certify, Red Hat tells tardy sysadmins

I remember when...

I remember when I liked Red Hat as a company, and even wouldn't mind the cert.

The world is huge now and Red Hat is just another proprietary lock-in style old school Microsoft-like software company.

Sort of hoping that they get ZERO takers. But, somehow, pretty sure Red Hat would not understand the message.

Is it OK to use stolen data? What if it's scientific research in the public interest?

I only do car analogies...

Wanted to some research on cars, so stole my neighbor's Lamborghini. He got mad. Told him it was purely for research in the public interest.

Tachyum's Prodigy emulator achieves first boot, runs Linux and says 'hello, world'

Next thing you know...

Next thing you know, they'll be hiring Linus Torvalds (memories)

Facebook pulls plug on mind-reading neural interface that restored a user's speech

Facebook made a video to help

Video covers the basics of the interface, how censorship will operate and telemetry/analytics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D7cPH7DHgA

IBM President and former Red Hat boss Jim Whitehurst quits

Another possibility?

At IBM, how those outside of IBM perceive them is everything.

The CentOS takeover and destruction, while it might not seem like a "big deal", was sort of a black eye to IBM reputation wise.

"Thou shall not do that."

Have a feeling this wasn't a simple "step down" by Whitehurst.

Five words everyone wants to hear: Microsoft has 'visually refreshed' Office

We found John, finally!

After 20 years of searching, we were able to find John Babich, the creator of the original Windows 3.1 icons and panels to design the new Dictator, Editor and Designer ribbon sections. Not only that, but also the new Dictator, Editor and Designer ribbon sections.

Pics or it didn't happen: First images from China's Mars rover suggest nothing has gone Zhurong just yet

Picture confirmed

Huawei has also confirmed that they received the picture at the same time. All is working well.

Where meetings go to die: Microsoft Teams outage lets customers skip that collaboration call they've been dreading

We apologize for any minor inconvenience

We are sorry that new changes may have impacted somewhat your ability to use our services.

But, please notice that your framerates in gaming are closer to where they were.

And, you're welcome!

In a devastating blow to all eight of you, Microsoft pulls the plug on Cortana's Android, iOS apps

Bigger event coming

Just wait until Microsoft pulls the plug on all 9 Discord users.

Linus Torvalds labels Super Bowl 'violent version of egg-and-spoon race'

Answering the subject line....

But also recommended Hockey as the way of peace.

Microsoft delays disabling Basic Authentication for several Exchange Online protocols 'until further notice'

Easy to say....

The problem with moving to something new, is that there are many things in play that won't work with it.

Which is why the delay.

So, what is basic auth?

While BA could mean submitting your credential over an unencrypted connection, usually, this is not the case.

The problem is that long accepted industry standards allow for encrypted auth using a username and password. For example, just about any https web site where you enter data you'd rather people not see. It's deemed "ok", because the connection is encrypted.

So, what's the problem?

Obviously there are some sites that allow people to hammer attempts without restriction (even Microsoft). So, in theory, somebody could brute force a login after trying many times (since Internet services are involved, there's latency, so this could actually take many many years to brute force, even an 8 character password).

The other problem, and this is actually bigger, is how the end point is using/storing your data. A lot of data exposure happens as those service providers get compromised (happens all the time).

But, again, overall, the reason why encrypted tunneling of personal id info is allowed, is because the world still depends on it... a lot. And some protocols are even weaker B2B (even bank to bank, for example, or medical provider to medical provider). That is, there's a ton of even lower hanging exploitable stuff out there.

Extra.... Microsoft believes that it, and it alone, owns all email world wide. And they don't want to support non-Microsoft clients (if possible). They believe this, and want this to be so true. So with that said, an even bigger security problem is when you place all your trust, all your business, everything... in the hands of a singular player with a not so great track record when it comes to security. Just something to think about.

Red Hat defends its CentOS decision, claims Stream version can cover '95% of current user workloads'

Dead broke Red Hat? Really?

Red Hat can continue to provide CentOs (remember, was once an independent non-Red Hat entity, that Red Hat took over in order to "control") as well as having a "test bed" for down the road.

In the beginning, you have to remember that Red Hat believed that Fedora was their sufficient "test bed", but due to community "politics" they had to take their hand off of that one, and it quickly started going in directions away from Red Hat.

And this has been true for many years.

Not sure why Red Hat is making a change now. But they've decided to nuke CentOs (something that would not have been nuked if Red Hat hadn't insisted on "controlling" it). And since Fedora has "gone wild", they want a "test bed" (where you and I are the testers) for their enterprise ($$$$) distribution.

All this says is that Red Hat can't afford to do both a "test bed" and maintain control of something they never should have had control over to begin with.

It takes money and effort... Red Hat is trying to escape both. Real reason? Unknown.

Revenues are up, the boss is about to give his keynote, and results are due. Time to sell shares, says Salesforce CFO

Normally, you can't just "willy nilly" buy/sell as an insider

Usually big transactions by an insider require a lot of "up front" notification about what is being "planned", that is, difficult to be "in response" to an event, etc...

Not saying that you can't do (evil) planning months in advance, just pointing out it's different for them.

If this was done rather adhoc, you can bet that the SEC will want to take a look...

Intel chief pens congratulatory letter to President-elect Biden urging work on immigration and domestic manufacturing

TL;DR

Dear President Elect Biden,

We really need to exploit some cheap foreign slave labor. Won't you help us?

Not one to be outdone by Microsoft, Apple's cloud fell over too. Unlike Microsoft, it hasn't said what happened

Choose the safe blame

Blame it on Microsoft. Then it's "ok" for it to happen.

Can't believe Apple hasn't learned this.

"Hey Chris, why are the systems all down? If they aren't back up in 2 minutes, you're fired!"

It's a Microsoft problem.

"Oh, ok, how about a liquid lunch, your choice?"

Trump backs Oracle as potential TikTok buyer

Is it just me, or isn't that the same thing as hoping Oracle dies as a company?

Is it just me, or isn't that the same thing as hoping Oracle dies as a company?

Linux kernel maintainers tear Paragon a new one after firm submits read-write NTFS driver in 27,000 lines of code

I too have been using ntfs-3g for years. Hasn't give me any issues.

University of Cambridge to decommission its homegrown email service Hermes in favour of Microsoft Exchange Online

It will consume you

Probably the worst thing about any usage of any flavor of Microsoft Exchange is that once you're in.... you're in. And you can never ever leave. It will consume you and force you do to use more and more and more and more Microsoft systems and services over time.

With that said, if you've already drank the Microsoft Kool-aid, it's a slam dunk.

Who was behind that stunning Twitter hack? State spies? Probably this Florida kid, say US prosecutors

Disappointed.

Hacking in 2020 is posing as an IT admin to get administrators to give you their credentials.

Here's some "recent" news... if somebody asks you for your password, say "no".

(unless "no" IS your password, then say something else)

Bad news: Your Cisco switch is a fake and an update borked it. Good news: It wasn't designed to spy on you

Things I also learned.

I learned that people will purchase genuine product from you if you don't turn the customer upside down while extracting all money that falls to the ground while you perpetually whack them in the groin.

Microsoft doc formats are the bane of office suites on Linux, SoftMaker's Office 2021 beta may have a solution

Summary: Bridge players have a document that is formatted like how your grandmother does formatting, without thought or structure. And, it only displays correctly using the software it was created on (please don't touch it though), Microsoft Office. Conclusion: Anything that is not Microsoft Office is crap.

Apple drops a bomb on long-life HTTPS certificates: Safari to snub new security certs valid for more than 13 months

And if you run your own CA? Tough rocks I suppose. Apple === clueless about computing.

Linux in 2020: 27.8 million lines of code in the kernel, 1.3 million in systemd

I remember...

When systemd was being discussed, the idea was to not force carry a large FOSS shell (emphasis on FOSS btw) for handling "init". The mantra was that we needed something simpler.

1.3 million lines of code in systemd.

365 thousand lines of code in bash.

Just something to thing about.

Dell slathers on factor XPS 13 to reveal new shiny with... ooh... a 0.1 inch bigger screen

Read other "real" overviews...

Was going to detail all that is "wrong" on Reg's "slather" article.... just read about the new XPS from other sources. Nuff said.

Crossing the platforms: The Register checks in with Canonical's WSL alternative – Multipass

WSL, Multipass, pretty different things

WSL is a Windows specific way to run Linux under Windows.

Multipass works across operating systems allowing different operating systems, using different native hypervisors to run Ubuntu easily.

How bad is Catalina? It's almost Apple Maps bad: MacOS 10.15 pushes Cupertino's low bar for code quality lower still

The "elements" of the dumpster fire

So... really, there are some things in Catalina to be aware of.

1. No more 32bit support. If you're holding on to old software, like a bought copy of Office 2011, you will be frustrated. Also, even venerable apps like Creative Cloud have had some problems with add-ons that are still 32bit. So, IMHO, this is probably the biggest thing to be aware of as "important" stuff might not work for you on Catalina. Is there a list of software somewhere? Not sure. There might be some kind of "checker" program out there.

2. Apple's version of UAC. More things are going to ask your permission. Interesting that during the MS Vista days, Apple ran ads mocking the UAC feature of Windows and now, they sort of have the same thing. Hopefully this is just more of a nuisance.

3. Protected OS area. With Catalina you can lock down the OS areas from external modification. This might cause problems for some software, but usually not.

(there are other "big things"...)

Anyway, like most Apple shops, we have been kicking the tires so to speak, and at least for our users, we don't view much of Catalina to be a big problem, sure... we have some rough things relating to TCC (#2) that we still need to work through, but in general, we're ok. Has Apple been making some fairly radical changes in Mojave and Catalina... definitely. And some of these changes can frustrate an Apple shop where processes and procedures for "imaging" or "network install" were used. Probably nothing big for the user community. With that said, not sure there's anything terribly great or awesome forcing you to upgrade. You might just wait until you need a new device (talking home users) and accept whatever OS version it comes with.

We asked for your Fitbit horror stories and, oh wow, did you deliver: Readers sync their teeth into 'junk' gizmos

Ditto, never again.

Not me, but the rest of my family went all fitbit... had them break, get more expensive (top of the line) fitbits and have them break. They're done with fitbit.

Breaking, literally: Microsoft's fix for CPU-hogging Windows bug wrecks desktop search

They did respond!

Microsoft has been trying to respond, but the latest update has prevented them from doing so. Please be patient.

For real this time, get your butt off Python 2: No updates, no nothing after 1 January 2020

How very PHP of them.

Anyway, same old problems when people "in the name of good", create a lot of pain. Well done. Well done.

You like magic tricks? See this claim that IBM bungled an Obamacare IT project? Whoosh, now it's a $15m check

We had nothing to do with it!

I'm thinking IBM would have taken full credit for a successful rollout of a insurance exchange. What do you think?

IBM is trying to throttle my age-discrimination lawsuit – axed ace cloud salesman

IBM doesn't do "win - win" and they never lose

That subject line is very true of IBM. They know every trick in the book and "paper wise" they own you, you just don't know it yet. Taking on IBM and winning... would love to see it. IMHO, if you think you have a shot, I'd buy some kevlar.

Microsoft, you shouldn't have: Festive Windows 10 Insiders build about as exciting as new socks

They are working on a major new feature

The next insider build will include something new for Windows 10, called "testing".

"We believe that 'testing' will be received as the most well received update to Windows 10 releases over the past year."

It's the wobbly Microsoft service sweepstake! If you have 'Teams', you've won a lifetime Slack sub

Of course, given recent statements from the rumor mill...

Recently the rumors are that Microsoft may be ditching Edge for a new browser based on Chromium (or maybe just WebKit?). Microsoft deploys a Linux enivronment, tries to support Powershell (by the way, poorly) on real Linux, attempts to move away from Wrm to ssh, yes you're Windows has an ssh daemon now.... etc...

Maybe Microsoft should just buy Slack and go with that...

You think you're hot bit: Seagate tests 16TB HAMR disk drive

Amazing advances

Used to be, I just lost 1TB. Now we'll be able to say, I just lost 16TB.

We (may) now know the real reason for that IBM takeover. A distraction for Red Hat to axe KDE

Broken by design

Gnome is broken by design. Why have a background if you can't use it? It's just weird.

With that said, RHEL's KDE implementation was also pretty broken. Maybe Red Hat's goal is to make every DE non-functional? They've done a pretty good job.

If you want a good KDE experience there's always SUSE. IBM's crush of Red Hat could mean opportunity for SUSE. Maybe they can hire back some of their talent?

Official: IBM to gobble Red Hat for $34bn – yes, the enterprise Linux biz

IBM is to FOSS as oil is to water

IBM is possibly the most anti-FOSS company in the world today. Their absolute hatred of the GPL, everything. IBM is completely patent centric. They are preparing for the next true global war which they believe will be fought on top of proprietary closed technology and the winner will be the company with the most patents. There were days that I actually admired the folks at Red Hat, they have now revealed their true nature.

Groupon to pay IBM $57m after getting money off e-commerce patent settlement

IBM has patented things like breathing and movement, etc.

IBM owns patents for everything. The sooner that company dies, the better.

Microsoft commits: We're buying GitHub for $7.5 beeeeeeellion

GitHub 365

GitHub 365. It's GitHub with Azure cloud reliability.

IBM's Watson Health wing left looking poorly after 'massive' layoffs

In jeopardy

Answer: 50-70% layoffs this week.

Watson: What is IBM?

VMware to finally deliver full-function HTML5 vSphere client

Re: Steve - *applause*

That's just wrong. Cloud is expensive. It's point it to eliminate IT staffing (the savings). Generally speaking you will do better cost wise with a 5 year life cycle on your own stack... but, that assumes you're not firing your IT staff.

Hypervisors should be in one's arsenal just as much as "the cloud".

Finally!

When pressed, they said, "It's true. We've ditched Flash and built a custom Cold Fusion app. You're welcome!"

You love Systemd – you just don't know it yet, wink Red Hat bods

He's a pain

Early on I warned that he was trying to solve a very large problem space. He insisted he could do it with his 10 or so "correct" ways of doing things, which quickly became 20, then 30, then 50, then 90, etc.. etc. I asked for some of the features we had in init, he said "no valid use case". Then, much later (years?), he implements it (no use case provided btw).

Interesting fellow. Very bitter. And not a good listener. But you don't need to listen when you're always right.

Press F to pay respects to the Windows 10 April Update casualties

Help the hate

1. Create a stupid feature.

2. Get 1000 people out of millions to use it.

3. Remove the feature.

4. +1000 Microsoft haters added.

5. Repeat.

IBMers in TSS: How WILL we support customers after these latest job cuts?

All fixable

I used to work for IBM and I can assure you this can all be fixed with a new slogan and tons of posters.

Oracle open-sources DTrace under the GPL

The Sun has set already

Just remember, if ZFS and Dtrace were just so totally awesome and amazing, Sun Microsystems and/or an Oracle run Sun set of stuff would dominate today. It's nice and all, but maybe not as nice as some want us to believe.

I remember working for a company with a very mature software product (existed years before Linux), but its performance on Solaris sucked vs. Linux. So Sun sent their best expert to our site for month armed with the mighty Dtrace to find out where "our" flaw was. Needless to say, after a month he left with head down sobbing.

It was fun and sad to watch.

Still, interesting to see Oracle GPL something... but usually means they're abandoning ship... I know Larry isn't a nice guy and maybe he isn't in full control, but still....

OnePlus Android mobes' clipboard app caught phoning home to China

And Huawei rants?

And Huawei wonders why there's no carrier love for their "safe" phones in the USA? I wonder just how much "ownage" there is in the world because of Chinese goods? I don't think we'll ever know.

Bigger problem is knowing what was an accident and what was really intentional. China doesn't have a very good reputation for playing nice or fair.

Why are we disappointed with the best streaming media box on the market?

The new Roku "direction"

Of course Roku raised a ton of money in an IPO (going public means you set a strategy, and have other people control it besides the ones that actually have knowledge).

Their new "direction" is all about "ads", how to get money through ads.

While they are experimenting with being a 3rd party enabled set top, that is, being the supplier of 3rd party TV possibly OTA and streaming (the latter being like the Roku TV experience).

But nothing "ideal" or revolutionary. Reminds me of how Honda dropped their Civic Hybrid so they could focus on gasoline based cars. Really? That's a strategy for the future?

I like Roku. But wonder Mr. Wood is looking to cash out and start his next big thing elsewhere. This wouldn't be the first time.

Microsoft Edge shock: Browser opts for Apple WebKit, Google Blink

There are broken browsers on IOS

There are some terribly broken browsers you can get on IOS, but any normal player MUST use Apple's broken Webkit implementation. This is why even with Chrome and Firefox, there are features that just don't work on IOS, it's all the same limited engine.

Patch alert! Easy-to-exploit flaw in Linux kernel rated 'high risk'

Easy solution

I run MSDOS, there hasn't been any major (or minor) security patches released for years!