* Posts by James O'Shea

1839 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jun 2007

Microsoft defends barging in on Chrome with pop-up ads pushing Bing, GPT-4

James O'Shea

One more reason

to never use Chrome. And, besides, my default search engine is DuckDuckGo.

Firefox Forever!

Ad agency boss owned two Ferraris but wouldn't buy a real server

James O'Shea

Interesting

Way back in Ye Olden Daze, Apple used to sell Mac mini (note lowercase 'm' on 'mini') Servers. They had a fairly good CPU (Intel i7, multiple cores, not too bad clock speed) and two Apple-standard 1 TB hard drives. And shipped with Mac OS X Server. I still have one, from 2012. It still works. One of the HDDs has been replaced by a 1 TB SSD. OS X Server is long dead; it runs just plain macOS X... and is long out of support, so there are no new versions. Plain macOS X can be tweaked to become a full-out server; it's a UNIX box, after all. Mine is a server, with a few 10 TB external drives pretending to be a NAS attached, on the same net as my equally aged WinServer 2012 R2 box (what, doesn't everyone need ADDS at home?) fitted with several 5 TB drives in a RAID 5 array. I used to have a pipe to the DVR AT&T provided; AT&T has gone to cloud storage for their virtual DVR for the latest version of their TV service, and I haven't yet worked out how to liberate stored video from that, but I have lots of video from the old DVR stored on the servers. I also dump DVDs and BluRay to MKV and MP4 and put the discs away; the WinServer box has a BR burner.

Why didn't Ferrari guy get a server version of the Mac and/or just tweak the OS to be a real server? All the OS updates would have been unnecessary. And there ain't anything that says you must issue updates immediately; just wait until the weekend and update everything at your leisure. Patch Tuesday and Apple Update Day for me are usually Saturdays. All of that running around was absolutely unnecessary.

Cybercrims: When we hit IT, they sometimes pay, but when we hit OT... jackpot

James O'Shea

I might be missing something here

but surely the solution to the ransomware problem is:

1 DON'T PAY ANY OF THE FUCKERS SO MUCH AS A PENNY.

2 in order to be able to do (1) above, do the following:

2a put in actual real security, including running real penetration tests, and disconnecting large chunks of the system from any network which can connect to the internet. I used to work for a largish utility; it had two networks, the public-facing one and the one where the actual work was done. Some people had two computers at their stations, one for each. And no, USB thumb drives could not be used, the private network systems had USB ports disabled except for things like keyboards and mice, and those were locked in place. No optical drives. No floppy drives. If you needed to move something from one net to the other, you called IT and they would do it. Yes, a lot of people complained. They were told to shut up. This particular policy had been started in the 1970s, with terminals to Big Iron, and with separate telephones, one internal and one external, on various desks. It's been nearly 50 years, and while the public-facing systems have been hit twice, the internal systems have been good. (They still have the separate phones...)

2b firing those who screw around with security. One senior manager at the company noted above just had to have certain data Right Now. He worked out how to disconnect his keyboard, and plugged in a USB drive, on an internal system. However, in the process he broke the lockdown device for the keyboard. He was out the door by the end of the week. Another senior manager clicked on a phishing link; it was quickly caught and fixed, and the manager got a severe talking to... and six months later did it again. Out the door you go.

2c back up everything. Remember that you don't have a backup until you can restore it, so have a spare somewhere around to restore to. Put the backups in a location not connected to anything. Practice restoring. Check the backups for problems.

2d relevant to 2c above: look for signs that there might be ransomware on the net, including checking for phishing and pharming and the like. Install serious security. Note that Norton and McAfee are not serious security systems.

2e restrict access outside the building. Most of the company doesn't need internet access; deny them such access. If you need to go to the internet, use your personal phone or tablet or whatever. I'm typing this on a laptop which is connected to _my_ mobile hotspot, not to the company wireless. This has the advantage that the company has no idea where I go on the internet, I'm not going past them. T-mobile knows. T-mobile doesn't care, as long as I keep paying my bill. As I am NOT on the company net, I can do things which are not allowed. Especially as I'm using my personal laptop, not a company device. My personal machine will never be touching the company net. That's my policy, even if it weren't also company policy. Just Say No To BYOD. (Note that denying internet access while allowing email and the like is quite difficult, so some people must have internet access. Just limit the number and keep a close eye on the ones who have access.)

No system is perfect. If you really try, you can get past even the most diligent security. What should be done is to recall the old story about the two men and the bear. You don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun the other guy. If you make accessing your stuff quite difficult, most attackers will go looking for easier targets.

Hardening the net can be done. It will cost money in the short run and make money in the long run. Invest in long-term thinking. Or take the consequences.

Achtung! Cybertruck at 11:00 low!

James O'Shea

Achtung! Cybertruck at 11:00 low!

I just saw a cybertruck in the wild, heading the other direction on Southern Blvd (a.k.a Florida State Road 80, US 98, and, at that location, US441, all at the same time) in Palm Beach County, Flori-duh. I had thought that it wouldn't be as ugly as it appeared in picture. I was wrong. It's much worse when seen up close and live. The thing is uglier than a Pontiac Aztek (yes, spelled with a 'k'. No further comment.). It's uglier than a Citroen 2CV. It sets entirely new standards for motorised ugliness. Tesla would have to pay me a few tens of thousands to get one.

Microsoft catches the Wi-Fi 7 wave with Windows 11

James O'Shea

does anyone

actually have hardware capable of using WiFi 7? My laptop has an Intel AX210 wireless thingie. The specs https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/204836/intel-wifi-6e-ax210-gig/specifications.html say WiFi6E. Is that really WiFi 7, or would I have to get a USB thingie? https://www.tp-link.com/us/home-networking/usb-adapter/archer-tbe400uh/ for example.Hmm. My home WAP supports WiFi6, but most definetly NOT WiFi 7. And also doesn't know diddly about WPA3. I suspect that it will be a while before AT&Useless hands over a new WAP, they only just gave me this one last year. The office WAPs are WiFi 5 and those will not be getting upgraded any time soon, we only cleaned out the last of the 802.11g and n WAPs in July last year when we put in new WAPs across the board, management will NOT be ponying up cash for another mass upgrade, they went as cheap as possible as it was. I recommended WiFi 6. They saw the prices, got a quote from someone getting rid of old stock at low prices, and went with the low bid. There have been complaints about the (lack of) speed already. (Never mind that just a few years ago the same guys who are complaining would have killed for WiFi 5 speeds...)

How about cell phones, tablets, etc.? How much hardware support is REALLY out there? Anyone have a clue?

Google co-founder Brin named a defendant in wrongful death complaint

James O'Shea

going fishing for deep pockjets

Fuel bladders and pumps are literally 1920s tech. Someone, not Brin, fucked up. And the biggest fuck up was not properly testing the setup as soon as the aircraft hit cruising speed and altitude. That way, turning back is trivial.

Air ferry flights occur regularly. Almost all are successful because those involved do proper testing and follow proper procedures.

I am not a Brin fan; those who have seen my posts might have noticed a distinct anti-Google slant. It is, however, simply not his fault.

Now, the guys who installed the things and didn't correctly test and failed to do the paperwork slap them hard. Oh. Wait. They don't have deep pockets. And that's why they're going for Brin. He's got cash.

Microsoft Publisher books its retirement party for 2026

James O'Shea

Okay

I never used Publisher for anything important. I built quick-and-dirty stuff in Word or in Apple Pages. Serious stuff was in Quark Xcess, or Pagemaker, or InDesign. God, I hated Xcess. There was a major printing bug in all versions from 2.x to 4.x; I could cause the thing to crash, instantly, every time, on different Macs, running different versions of the OS, and, from v3.1, on Windows, The idiots replicated the damn bug on Windows when they ported the software. The crash happened with different printers, too, ranging from Epson inkjets to HP grayscale lasers to a hulking huge Tektronix crayonjet. I sent in numerous bug reports, describing exactly how to generate the crash, with screen shots and all. They didn't give a shit. And then Xcess 5 finally fixed the bug, but didn't support OS X. Say bye... One review of Pagemaker said that it had more bombs than a fully loaded B-52. They were correct. InDesign was Adobe.. but it bloody worked. I used it for years.

So i checked the copy which came with MS Office on this machine... apparently you can export to PDF and MS Word. Hmm. I suspect that there will be problems with some features. I suspect that users had best get started on moving everything to some other product; Pages if they use Macs, Pages can do virtually everything that Publisher can do, and will export to Word and PDF without significant problems. (Well, significant to me. YMMV) On Windows, bite the bullet and use Word. Word is not the best at this kind of thing, but it's not as if you have a choice, other than starting over from scratch with some other product. Perhaps export to Word or PDF and have some other product import the file, and then modify things until you have what you need. In any case, it's going to be a lot of work, especially if you have a lot of files.

Perhaps MS might consider creating a tool to convert Publisher files to something usable with minimum data loss? Nah. They're MS. Never happen.

Dutch insurers demand nudes from breast cancer patients despite ban

James O'Shea

I have at least one phantom downvoter who looks up my posts and adds a downvote every now and again. I think that I know who it is, but, frankly, I don't give a damn.

James O'Shea

So... when will the, umm, vigorous action, involving torches, pitchforks, cutlasses, and nooses, going to take place? Personally, I'd string whoever is responsible for this up by his balls and prod his buttocks with a pitchfork a few times, but I have a bad attitude. Oh, and take pix. Lots of pix. And pass them to another counter. Or two. Or three.

Windows 3.11 trundles on as job site pleads for 'driver updates' on German trains

James O'Shea

Re: Would You Entrust Mission-Critical Business Systems ...

Son... in Ye Worlde of Printing, No Imagesetter = No Film = No Plates = No Output = No Job. (yes, new imagesetters can burn plates directly. Skip a step. No imagesetter still = No Job.) Current $150k imagesetters run on Win NT4. Thou Shalt Not Mess With the NT 4 machines. Not unless thou have a few hundred k in thy pocket to buy new imagesetters. The imagesetters work. Management is NOT replacing them until they die. I expect to be retired before they die; the things are indestructible.

I expect that there are lots of mission-critical systems running on ancient hardware. Why, the USAF just a few years ago, in the 20-teens, retired the last of the ICBM launch computers, which used 8" floppies. I say again, 8" floppies. Single-side. Single density. 120kB.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

James O'Shea

Re: if it ain't broke, don't fix it

Damn, that has my tale of woe about an imagesetter ($150,000+) running on a controller still using Win NT 4 all to hell.

James O'Shea

Re: I remember those days!!!

Ah. The long ago days of extended memory, expanded memory, extended-expanded memory... Stuff that made the memory models in early versions of Mac OS look good. And memory management on Macs stunk until OS X...

Thanks, but I think that I'll pass.

James O'Shea

Re: WFWG 3.11

Microsoft was what was wrong.

James O'Shea

Re: Disappointed

You, sir, are Evil(r). Almost Evil(r) enough to be a member of the Google Board of Directors.

Damn, I wish that I had thought of that...

It took Taylor Swift deepfake nudes to focus Uncle Sam, Microsoft on AI safety

James O'Shea

Ah, yes

The latest episode (as of the time of writing) of the venerable cop/lawyer show Law & Order, as available last Thursday, viewed by me on Saturday, thanks to my DVR, wasn't very good. The new L&O episodes are simply not up to the days of Brisco and Greene. There's a reason why I didn't bother watching it live.

However, a significant part of the plot was an apparent deepfake generated by a 'tech billionaire' to stitch up one guy for murder. Now, the guy was guilty; he'd confessed but the confession was thrown out, but McCoy & Co used the deepfake despite Really Serious Concerns about it. As in, they were pretty sure that it was a fake. And they used it anyway. (Hint: the fake showed the murder in real time, complete with the murder weapon in the guilty guy's right hand. The guilty guy is left-handed, and McCoy & Co. knew it.)

Deepfake porn is just the beginning. Hang on, laddies and lasses, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Musk claims that venting liquid oxygen caused Starship explosion

James O'Shea

Bah, humbug

Elon needs to move to Real Rockets(tm). Something like Freeman Dyson's Project Orion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) That's _supposed_ to go Boom! and take out the launch facility. One of my favorite scenes in SF is the launch of Michael from Bellingham, Washington, in Niven & Pournelle's Footfall. Quote: God wanted in, and He wanted in bad.

It's not as if anyone would miss a few square miles of Texas...

Windows 12: Savior of PC makers, or just an apology for Windows 11?

James O'Shea

Re: hardware requirements

Not MS. Apple had networking (slow, crude, annoying, but _cheap_ networking) built into every Mac starting in. 1984. Sun had networking (slow, but much faster than Apple, crude, annoying, and _expensive_ networking) built into most/all Sun thingies at around that time. (Yes, you read that right. Apple had _cheap_ networking. AppleTalk was 230kb/s, but it was incredibly cheap, and it worked. As long as you weren't going past 32 nodes on your network. Sixteen nodes if you didn't want the already slow 'speed' to fall off a cliff. In 1986, I had groups of 8 Mac Pluses and Mac IIs talking to LaserWriters and doing actual real work; getting network cards for DOS systems was... not happening, even if I could get permission to hook the DOS boxes up to the real network, which definitely wasn't happening. And if I could find network-capable software for DOS. Windows? Wha' b' tha', laddie? A hole in th' wall with a lot o' glass, ain't it?) It was a loooooong time before MS woke up to networks, and when they did, they wanted NetBEUI. Which was so successful that it opened the way for Norvell. And irritated the hell out of generations of WinNT server guys.

Musk floats idea of boat mod for Cybertruck

James O'Shea

Re: Cyberduck(ing)

one can only hope.

Penguins get their Wayland with Firefox 121

James O'Shea

"Although this is a valuable accessibility feature for those with disabilities affecting the use of their arms or hands, it's also useful if your arms work but are busy, for instance while working in a wet or messy environment, and being able to drive Firefox this way could be very handy."

I saw what you did there. El Reg is still El Reg. Long may it reign.

Adobe warns it may face massive fines for subscription cancellation practices

James O'Shea

Rental crap

I used to be a Creative Suite user. I purchased the whole thing, at the 'education' price of $1000; it would have cost $2800 otherwise. Six months after I made the purchase, there was a major upgrade... which would have cost nearly another $1000. I skipped the upgrade. That was the last version prior to Creative Cloud. 'Upgrading' to CC would have been very expensive, so I didn't. I kept using CS until it was no longer supported by the OS... and then kept a machine using the last supported version of the OS, just to use CS. That machine has finally died. I have replaced CS with the Affinity series of products, plus one or two more to cover things that Affinity doesn't do (yet).

I decline to rent software using a 'subscription' system. MS Office is either the standalone version or someone else pays the rental; I'm not paying that. Same for all other 'subscription' stuff. If there isn't a standalone or 3rd-party app which does the job, I do without it. So far there's always been a standalone or a 3rd-party.

Privacy crusaders accuse X of ad-targeting that flouts EU rules

James O'Shea

dutch auntie

The modern heirs to Maarten Tromp (that's _Tromp_, NOT Trump) strike!. Attach that broomstick to the mainmast!

HP TV ads claim its printers are 'made to be less hated'

James O'Shea

Re: PC Load Letter

Err... nope. Sorry, but I can think of at least a half dozen other countries which still use 'letter' size paper. Mostly in the Caribbean.

Some countries are Very Resistant To Change. Hint: the Jamaican Post Office, the last time I collected a package from Central Post Office on South Camp Road, near the Army base (there's a reason why it's called 'Camp Road') was still using forms marked British, Colonial, and Overseas Postal Service (I think, it's been 20 years) in 2003, or over 40 years after independence. And these forms were not old forms, left over from the Daze of Olde when Buckra Massa was running things (badly). No, these were new forms recently (that year) printed at the Government Printing Office on Duke Street. They couldn't be bothered to change the damn forms. For 40+ years. The probability of their changing paper sizes approaches zero. (Don't blame the GPO, they just delivered what the Post Office ordered. the Post Office merely failed to change the spec. For 40+ years. And, for all I know, still hasn't.)

James O'Shea

Which is worse?

HP or Dell?

Asking for a friend. No, that noise you may hear in the background is NOT an enraged mob sharpening axes and machetes and setting out assorted incendiary materials. Nope, nope, nope.

Microsoft confirms Smart App issue renaming everyone's printers to HP

James O'Shea

so...

Who should we nuke? Microsoft or HP? Or both. Please say both. Warming up the nuke strike packages now...

Musk tells advertisers to 'go f**k' themselves as $44B X gamble spirals into chaos

James O'Shea

Re: Anyone remember the great Charlie Sheen meltdown of 2011?

Elon has tiger blood?

What to do with our leftover Saturn V Lego? Why, build another rocket, of course

James O'Shea

Re: Wernher von Braun pic

Ahem.

Don't say that he's hypocritical

Say rather that he's apolitical

"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?

That's not my department!" says Wernher von Braun

Some have harsh words for this man of renown

But some think our attitude

Should be one of gratitude

Like the widows and cripples in old London town

Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun

You too may be a big hero

Once you've learned to count backwards to zero

"In German, und Englisch, I know how to count down

Und I'm learning Chinese!" says Wernher von Braun

From a popular (with me, at least, I suspect that NASA didn't think much of it) song by Tom "I poke fun at anyone" Lehrer.

Yeah, I can believe that he had a V2 in his collection.

Google Drive misplaces months' worth of customer files

James O'Shea

Heh

I once did some work for an 'online university' based in Switzerland. They were 100% Google... except for MS Office 365. Google Mail. Google Drives. Google everything. (Well, those who had MS Office also had OneDrive.)

One fine day I logged into the school site... and Google Drive was, umm, non-responsive. Once it did wake up, everything on the GD was gone. Because I'm paranoid, I had my GD stuff mirrored to the OneDrive set up by the school MS Office, and to my local hard drive. (Note: school IT tried, hard, to prevent people from mirroring to local drives. I ignored them. One reason why I no longer work for that school is that I ignored instructions. Note that the fact that I could keep on working when everyone who had followed instructions was up shit's creek made no difference... Or maybe it did.)

In any case, I have OneDrive and iCloud and DropBox on my personal machines. No GoogleDrive.

Surface Duo crashes the party as Doctor Who celebrates 60th birthday

James O'Shea

Allegedly all the good guys on ye olde (but not as old as Dr. Who) show '24' had MacBooks, while all the bad guys had Dells... and Apple paid for both sets of kit.

Three quarters of software engineers face retaliation for whistleblowing

James O'Shea

Hah

Over two, nearly three, decades ago I had a project in a 3rd-world country (Trinidad) in large part do to my having done similar projects in other 3rd-world countries (Jamaica and Barbados). The project was supposed to take 15-18 months. When I arrived I had a close look at things, and decided that there was no way on God's green Earth that the project would take under 24 months, probably 30, possibly 36. I said so. Loudly. The MD of the concern in question was... not happy. Apparently I had a poor attitude and was not team-oriented. I was gone within 3 months.

The project was canceled 48 months in, incomplete. The MD had departed for Canada (good luck with him, Canucks, you'll need it.). Prior to the project being canceled the MD's replacement had contacted me re getting back on board and fixing things. I said no way, not unless they paid me a rate equivalent to 5x my normal rate, plus expenses including housing, vehicles (note the plural) and transport to and from Florida. For some reason they never got back to me. Such a pity.

Your password hygiene remains atrocious, says NordPass

James O'Shea

Re: a long, random string that's harder to guess than 123456 – or even UNKNOWN

Too easy. HakkaaPaalle1618 should do. From the furious Finns may the Lord deliver us!

Pentagon seeks government gossips to dish dirt on UFOs

James O'Shea

Calling Commander Straker

It ain't the US Gov. It's all of NATO. (And possibly the Sovs, too.) And the HQ for anti-alien operations in underneath a film studio in England. Ops on the Moon, in Canada, the US, most of Europe, at sea in the Atlantic and the Pacific...

Interceptors, immediate launch!

I liked that show. Pity that it only lasted one season. Worse pity that it morphed into (gag) Space:1999. (ick).

James O'Shea

Out there

Yeah, the Truth Is Out There. And ll this UFO crap is really Out There. Far Out There.

On-by-default video calls come to X, disable to retain your sanity

James O'Shea

Re: We should all thank Musk.

Instagram is owned by the Zuck. if you just get Meta, you get both Arsebook and Instastupid.

Tik Tok is owned by the PRC. Start posting lots of pix of Winnie the Pooh. Maybe a few of Paddington the Bear. See if you can irritate Xi into killing it for you.

Snapchat, unfortunately, might require more direct action.

James O'Shea

Re: Xitter?

'X' is pronounced like 'Sh'. Because that's where it is.

iFixit pries open Google Pixel 8 Pro with clamps and picks

James O'Shea
Coat

Re: non-FDA approved temperature sensor

Given the size of the thing, those who would use it internally must be:

1. professionals (I'm thinking of a certain Ms. Wells; a certain Central European working in Italy who later became a MP, and who really liked horses also comes to mind...)

2. badly in need of a diaper

3. both

I'll get me coat.

Not even the ghost of obsolescence can coerce users onto Windows 11

James O'Shea

Re: Forced upgrade even of machines that pass checks?

It depends on the complexity of the document. A nice simple 20 page document would go from Word to LO and back without troubles. A complex (images, tables, lots of styles) 5 page document would have problems. This has been a common problem with LO and OO before it for a Very Long Time. It used to be a problem with WordPerfect and Apple Pages, but no longer. If Apple and the Canadians can fix things, what's LO's problem?

James O'Shea

Re: Advert

HP software had it's (many) problems. Screwing up subnets was not usually one of them.

I used to use a lot of HP laser printers, especially at the office. They're all gone now, replaced by Brothers, mostly.

James O'Shea

Re: Advert

That's not a Windows problem, that's a bloody HP problem.

HP used to make good quality stuff. That time is long gone.

James O'Shea

Re: not happening

Hmm. I like Ubuntu.

Please elaborate on why Ubuntu is one of the worst distros. Provide details. And examples.

I'm over here, with my bowl of popcorn.

It looks like you’re a developer. Would you like help upgrading Windows 11?

James O'Shea

Hmm. The Phantom Downvoter strikes again. Amazing how that works.

UK civil servants – hopefully including those spending billions on tech – to skill up in STEM

James O'Shea

Re: How about the ministers go next?

Be careful what you ask for. You might get it. Herbert Hoover was a STEM guy, from Stanford, starting as a mechanical engineer before switching to geology, and before being a politician, was a professional mining geologist.

Dwight David Eisenhower had a STEM degree from the USMA at West Point.

James Earl Carter, Jr., had a STEM degree from the USNA at Annapolis.

Several other Presidents and Senators have been graduates of the USMA or USNA, with alleged STEM degrees, 'cause that's what those institutions hand out. Few of them have actually used their alleged STEM education; some were very good, some were bad, most were mediocre. Hoover, who was in the 'pioneer' very first class to graduate from Stanford, did use his STEM education. And was an utter disaster as a president. As far as I know he's the only President with a STEM degree who didn't graduate from one of the military academies. It is possible that most don't want another Hoover.

Atari pulls nostalgia power move and buys homebrew community forum

James O'Shea

Re: PWNED

Only if a meek little shoe-shine pup starts speaking in rhymes.

There's no need to fear; Underdog is here.

Bombshell biography: Fearing nuclear war, Musk blocked Starlink to stymie Ukraine attack on Russia

James O'Shea

Re: So Musk has NOW entered the Ukranian war.......

that is not a 'peldge'. And I notice that you have failed to answer the other questions.

Try again.

Windows August update plays Blue Screen bingo – and MSI boards got the winning ticket

James O'Shea

Gee

Has no-one at Microsoft considered having their installers do silly things like, oh, conduct compatibility checks before installing?

Tesla's purported hands-free 'Elon mode' raises regulator's blood pressure

James O'Shea

Re: I for one can't wait till this works

Think of it as evolution in action. A squashed kid, a major lawsuit, one less self-driving car... After a while children will stop suddenly walking into roads. One way or another.

Exits, to 'Stairway to Heaven'.

James O'Shea

Re: To activate the Elon mode...

Especially fire trucks.

Germany's wild boars still too radioactive to eat largely due to Cold War nuke tests

James O'Shea

I see your Ark and raise you Thor and Ogun and Huracan. And even Zeus gets a mention.

Crom is over there, drinking. If he cared, he could generate a light show, too. He doesn't care. Unless you spill his beer. Bad idea.

Western Digital sued over claims of data-trashing SanDisk, My Passport SSDs

James O'Shea

Re: There's an opportunity there

At home, I have a nice simple system: several external 10TB drives (soon to be replaced by something bigger) connected by USB3. Carbon Copy Cloner on Macs and Macrium Reflect on Windows and Clonezilla on Linux back up the entire contents of selected volumes trivially. I then disconnect the drives until next time. (Apple also has TimeMachine, but for best results, that shouldn't be disconnected.)

I have to invest in an array and software to feed it over the network... except that by unplugging the drives after the backup (to a disk image. usually), I cut back on the chances that someone naughty will play with my backups. Accidentally or deliberately. Using the 10 TB drives means I can stick multiple images on one drive. Single point of failure, but mitigated by TimeMachine on Macs and dropping images across the network on Windows and Linux. And dumping important files onto USB sticks. Multiple USB sticks, just in case. When I go to the array, I'd have to dismount and remount the array, and that might be... interesting.

At the office, we have tape. And arrays. And massive paranoia.

Nearly every AMD CPU since 2017 vulnerable to Inception data-leak attacks

James O'Shea

unless I'm missing something...

these hacks are mostly a problem for major networks, right? Yes, small/home nets are vulnerable, but it's too much trouble for not enough gain to hack them. The money's in corporate and government and similar nets. I have to care at the office, but not at home, correct? Or am I missing something?

Soon the most popular 'real' desktop will be the Linux desktop

James O'Shea

Re: functionality

You _do_ know that Office 97 will work in Win 10, don't you? The installer won't work (and neither will the installers for Office 2000 and 2003) but if you can figure a way to get it on the system it will, mostly, kinda-sorta, run. I know one guy who absolutely refused to move from Office 2003, and has been doing ever more elaborate hacks to get it to work on newer versions of Windows. I just let him know that he's on his own for support, the younger guys in the office back off slowly when 20-year-old software is mentioned. And he's responsible for getting it to read DOCX etc files, there was an extension that provided compatibility, I have no idea if it still works or where to find it, nor do I care.