re: sarcasm without contribution
Seriously though, I just installed RHEL on my laptop, and if there's a good Outlook-like app that handles multiple o365 accounts and calendars & contacts, please do let us all know.
149 publicly visible posts • joined 8 Mar 2012
Twenty five years ago I was the network admin for a secondary school which just got its first Internet connection. Before releasing it to all an' sundry, we implemented things like strict proxy servers and firewalling, to prevent computers just arbitrarily connecting out to the Internet.
We allowed port 80 and 443 access to all domains, unless they were on a content filtering blacklist (initially, and then category-based filtering as time went on). But overall, we prevented access to the net for most things, unless there was a good reason to not. We did MITM SSL inspection too, and pushed our CA certificate to domain-joined workstations (and there was no guest wifi).
Back then (he says, bring his blanket a little closer and the ash from his pipe flaking in his beard) there were less threats and more control. Now it seems like we have more threats and less control: pesky CDNs and AWS/Azure VMs means you can't just block a range, or even a domain name sometimes, as it's shared by something else. Everything is dynamic, and we seem to have reduced our ability to respond appropriately: "just let the machine do whatever it wants" seems to be the default firewall setting.
Why aren't we segmenting our LANs from our WANs properly anymore? Why is it the default to just let the computer, the phones, the IoTs do whatever they want on our networks and down our pipes?
No, about how you can't set multiple IPs on a network adapter using the settings app.
Or change advanced hardware settings like jumbo frames or VLAN tagging.
Or update the drivers of the thing you're looking at.
Three things I do quite often, given my line of work.
I can hear Microsoft now: "oh that's done via powershell" - nope, in the sea you get.
I just wanna keep my ncpa.cpl shortcute please, thanks
I've just had a firmware update advertised to me for version 4.6.2 (preview) and one of the features is you can turn on randomised BSSID to prevent tracking.
https://blog.gl-inet.com/preventive-actions-to-safeguard-glinet-users-from-bssid-based-location-tracking/
"AFP Western Command Cybercrime detective inspector Andrea Coleman pointed out that free Wi-Fi services should not require logging in through an email or social media account."
But they frequently do, even for the big players they want you to pass through a Facebook window to authenticate yourself against. And for good reason (so they can identify who's been slurping down the things they shouldn't) but this advice is just bonkers..
Or, maybe just don't use free wifi?
Yes, I know they do general comms, I've used them for leased lines in the last few months (Vodafone circuit with an Openreach tail, no end of problems getting that installed, don't do it).
But I'd be curious to know why it was Vodafone's problem - a company that's responsible for shipping billions of voice and data packets a second and it's taken out a ... suitcase carousel? What?
Also, as "tin 2" said, the buck stops with the baggage handler company and the airport? The comms provider isn't responsible for this ... and if they are, why is there a single point of failure? Aren't we better than that now?
I've been installing vmware for about 10 years and picking up Nutanix was like trying to pick up a tin of paint but without the handle, or the tin.
I'm still struggling to get their Move (migration tool) appliance to download from the portal. Freeloaders like us are apparently licenced for it but Nutanix staff (in the Discord) are directing me to third-party websites that show me how to work around a bug in their portal.
At least with vmware they called things by unique names (vmotion, esxi, vsan) so you could Google things. Who calls a tool "Nutanix Move" when everyone's already talking about "how to move to Nutanix"? How am I supposed to get support for that?
Three comments in and there's already an "anyone stupid enough" comment to blame the victims here.
Customers have expectations of their service providers, that's that.
And anyone, anyone stupid enough to NOT conduct a scream test when discontinuing a service such as this is the real idiot. I've been in IT for 22 years and I learnt about the scream test when I turned off my first server for decommissioning just six months in to my first job.
I had a payment problem (card not accepted -- their problem, not mine), opened a support ticket and I told them please don't suspend my service (gridhost). They didn't, but they did delete it. And then when I called (I am a managed/VIP customer so have phone support access) they said oh well that's because it's been discontinued... I was livid. Then they coughed to say they did send out emails, but I was missed off. In fact yeah, a few people were missed off. Oh actually we aren't decommissioning it yet, but we're not sure why yours has been deleted. Anyway we will restore it.
They did work to restore all my gridhost stuff but didn't do a perfect job of it, so I instructed my (50+ customers) to host elsewhere in the 45 days (which, yes, for large hosting resellers, was nowhere near enough notice).
I have a cpanel server with them which runs perfectly well and I don't really want to move, but I've shuttered the majority of my web hosting business because I can't take another problem like this. And, y'know, Wix and Squarespace are things now.
Well well, if it isn't yet another push of the clever people into normal jobs. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. Where the net is cast scoops up more and more people with each day that passes.
There's now so much legislation and gotchas that it is surely going to push people into "normal" work for larger companies that ... uh, don't pay the (morally) correct amount of tax, and ensure their offshore shareholders just get fat on the profits.
Grumble, grumble, grumble...
In 2006 I worked for a shitty cabling/infrastructure company in Worcestershire (I can say it's shitty now because it doesn't exist ... because it was poorly run). I was employed as the IT lacky (with the title "Network Manager" I had no management responsibility given to me, but all of the blame). I'd inherited an undocumented shit-show, but due to my age it was the first undocumented shit-show I'd ever inherited, so I didn't know what to expect. Needless to say, IT, and me, got a really bad name as I tried to fix things, improve things, and generally make things better.
At 8:30am, as I was driving in to work, I had a call from the woman who works on reception. She told me, in pained tones, that her computer wasning working "again" (despite me having no recollection of the previous time it wasn't working). It wouldn't even switch on, she said. Flustered and embarrassed, I assured her that her desk was the first I would visit when I got to the office at 9am.
And, as I did, and I walked over to her desk, I could see the waist-level socket that her machine plugs into was switched off. So I switched it on, and said "try now" -- she dutifully apologised, and I didn't get that type of call again.
The bashing about everything else (that I hadn't set up, including home VPN config setups conflicting with the IT infrastructure so any VPN-connected user couldn't see the single server that they were to use for all files & on-prem email)...
Chrome's family safety tools only monitor what happens inside of the Chrome browser (or their device, whatever) but the Microsoft Family stuff monitors the whole Win10 operating system.
I have it in use on my kids' computers. I can control how long they spend in games (only an hour a day between 3pm and 6pm on Minecraft, for example) and generally how long their workstations are accessible for (only between 8am and 6pm) and that Spotify is always allowed, no other web browser is permitted, and it also permits age-based ratings for web browsing (although you can, and should, block youtube for example as typing 'sex' in the search box brings up unsavoury thumbnails, if nothing else).
It'll also enforce Safe Search is on in your chosen search engine.
What's more you can also combine a kid's screen time across Windows and Xbox devices, which means that if you only grant them 2 hours a day, that 2 hours is combined on both the Xbox and their workstation.
Pretty neat all round tbh. Not bad for free.
I have a camera. It appears as though my data has been unlawfully shared. I don't think I consented to this... Now I'm aware of it, I don't like it, anyway.
So, what can a layperson such as myself do to get my money back for my device as I uninstall it from my premises? Where's the breach of contract I can cite?
And I'm not talking to the payment providers.
Seriously people, it's 2018 and you're not carrying more than one (type of) credit/debit card around with you? Stop shitposting on twitter, hoping to get quoted by BuzzFeed, and get your own house in order - for one, make sure that no one single company can screw you over just because their service takes a lie-down.
Remember, the only thing preventing $bad_situation from happening, nowadays, is someone else's code - so build your own escape plan!
You do realise that you contradict yourself throughout this article?
"Voice assistants are always listening. So why won't they call Police if they hear a crime?"
Because that device listens for something that resembles a button being pressed. It does not continually upload the stream of audio to the cloud to be processed. Except you appear to not want this...
"These devices, or the cloud services that power them, can easily understand when someone is angry, or terrified or in pain. It should almost be trivial to detect when something is way out of range, and flag that."
It isn't, unless you want them to continually stream your home audio to the cloud for processing, which you appear to be against.
"Listening means being responsible for whatever you hear."
Which is why they don't listen. They wait for a predictable nudge; a vocal button-press. And if you don't press the button (say the wake-word), they don't hear anything.
"We're listening as never before, and we have to do something about it."
No, we aren't. This has always been the same; saying "Alexa" to wake up the hockey-puck is no different to pressing the "voice command" button on the side of your BlackBerrry 9700, except instead of pressing a button with your fingers, you press it with your voice.
The one exception would be Samsung's smart TV; I don't see that brand name in your diatribe.
I am guilty of this, but not for a client website. I was learning Classic ASP, and I was sixteen, and this was basically how I wrote my login system for my own blog/CMS thing. When I extended it to other users, it was simple; the cookie for the username was already present.
But at least I had the foresight to realise that after a few weeks that this wasn't the right thing to do (and discovered sessions). And I wasn't being paid to do this. And it wasn't my FT job...
My update presented itself this morning.
Does anybody else have the thing where you're typing on the physical keyboard and not only is it slow, but if you type the sentence
>This is a sentence.
You end up with
>This This This sentence.
? I'd have hoped that this update would have addressed that; alas, it persisted even after a (four-hour!) security wipe and rebuild.
> be 2016
> be trolling
Okay, I'll bite. Here is just one example of how the new interface blows.
When I search for text in my vault now I can see 16 items on my 1920x1080 monitor. And loads of HUGE pictures which I don't have any apparent control over.
In the old vault I simply got a nice and elegant list of the text results, immediately, without the people standing behind me being able to see which sites I frequented at a glance.
> Just what I don't need...
Agreed. All of this. I hate to be a naysayer but there's nothing wrong with it; I type in the site I'm looking for and press enter or click it. I don't need extra bandwidth-hitting of logo fetching (and where do the logos come from? Embedded? No, fetched live, which means some webserver somewhere knows I have a login in my lastpass for that site), and...
blah, blah. I'm out of energy. I'm going to look for alternatives. Fuck you, Loggyminge.
Absolutely. Have we not been here before? Many, mamy times, and many moons ago, with things with shitty IE plugins that trash your online life?
Speaking as an IT admin that loves it when silent installs are possible, they are also simply disasterous for home users with vendors and the likes pushing what they think is best into other people's systems. If your users can't be persuaded to click a "Yes" box by your shitware, then perhaps fix your shitware.
What disclosure? To be honest, I'd rather the person that reviewed the new blackberry had possessed the old blackberry. Makes perfect sense. I bet most people in the comments are of the "have the old, want the new" variety (or they are trolls come to sentence blackberry to death again).
Time to get down off your high-horse, I think.
It isn't about that. It's about submitting any credential pair to anything should be done via SSL now, lest you find out someone's written an article on an IT news website about your lax security.
Unless you *are* the news website, that is.
Agreed. I wondered what the story had to do with instragram.
Ed: You know we can't publish it without an image, John.
John: But how do you represent something that isn't there?
Ed: Well, it's about SSL in general, isn't it? Didn't we do a piece on instragram having a leak, or something, a few years ago? Just use whatever was on there.
John: Uh, are you sure?
Ed: Yeah. The coding on the site won't allow us to run a story without a pic any more, just use one of your pet dog or something. Nobody even looks at them, let alone expects them to correlate to the actual article.
Ugh, that'd be awful! They'd only let you listen to the radio stations which they installed in your car (and there'd be THOUSANDS of them but they're ALL crap), and then one day you'd come out to your car to find that it'd had an update overnight, and now car doesn't work on certain roads...
If you don't know what you're talking about, don't post. It isn't "asking for trouble" -- as a customer you can do chargebacks, indemnity claims, and so on. These devices are very safe and very popular. Get back under your rock, or read up before you open your mouth.