Posts by TheVogon

City of Moscow to ditch 600k Exchange and Outlook licences

Re: Plenty of good Free Open Source Software out there.

"It's looking like Moscow is going to be your new Munich"

I think perhaps you are under some confusion - re references to "your" - I don't work in anyway for Microsoft and never have - FYI I currently work for a FTSE 100...

If you mean just like Munich they are going to spend millions extra to get an inferior solution, end up running both systems in parallel for decades and have the users clamouring for Microsoft back, then yes, probably you are right...

Re: Plenty of good Free Open Source Software out there.

"There is nothing open source which can do calendaring at scale."

Or that can handle unified communications and unified messaging in anything like as user friendly and so well integrated format as MSO...I feel sorry for the users.

Larry Ellison today said really nice things about rival Amazon's cloud

Re: Could get interesting

"you are locked in, baby"

Pot, meet Kettle...

Nest offers its thermostat in three new pretty colors!

Re: Fuck that

"Your "home" server doesn't really need to be in the house...."

Mine is in an outbuilding. However it needs to be within Ethernet range - unless you don't care about being able to stream say multi-angle porn in 4K?

Re: Fuck that

I'm lost as to anyone that actually lives in their house needs a thermostat you can set remotely. Or why you even need to touch it other than very rarely.

My thermostat is set to 21 degrees, and I haven't had any need to change it ever in at least 5 years...

Hypervisor security ero-Xen: How guest VMs can hijack host servers

Re: not sure about enterprise but

"Made Qubes OS go from looking like Fort Knox to Fort Swiss Cheese "

Hyper-V Server is free with all features enabled and has by far the best security vulnerability profile of any commonly used Hypervisor option. It's easy to run Linux on it.

Microsoft SQL Server for Linux is a brilliant and logical idea

Re: Increase in Microsoft shill propaganda

"Commercial support Services for PostgreSQL are provided by EnterpriseDB, a national professional services company with great expertise in PostgreSQL,as several employees are part of "core" PostgreSQL development team. There are also several mid-level and smaller commercial PostgreSQL support Services companies and organizations around the USA and are particularly widespread in European Union, South America and Asia."

So what you are saying is it's a zoo and you can't guarantee consistent global support?

Re: Increase in Microsoft shill propaganda

"SQLServer, at best, is actually proven less robust, less reliable and substantially less secure than PostgreSQL."

You got that the wrong way round. For instance SQL Server has had far fewer security vulnerabilities than Postgres, outperforms it in almost every benchmark, and has far more advanced clustering and resilience options...

"Furthermore Oracle DB, IBM DB2, PostgreSQL, NoSQL databases, MySQL/MadiaDB and every other established database runs an order of magnitude faster and with more reliability and security on Linux than on Windows Server 2012."

Again wrong. The top TPC-C and TPC-E benchmarks are all on Windows Server 2012 / SQL Server - which with SQL Server has had far fewer vulnerabilities than any commercially supported Linux / Database stack listed above.

Re: Why

"If you want to run Oracle Enterprise in an affordable way you need to run it either on Oracle/SUN or IBM Power hardware."

Presumably you missed off the "un" before affordable...

Fight over internet handover to ICANN goes right down to the wire

Re: The devil you know?

"The US doesn't shut down sites because of speech"

The US shuts them down just for LINKING to content it doesn't like. That's most definitely a free speech issue. There have also been numerous examples of sites that are completely legal in their home / targeted territories being shut down because the US doesn't agree with them. That should not be possible for any government to do. Otherwise lets say Saudi Arabia / Pakistan / Iran take a similar approach? The porn industry will be gone overnight!

Sony wins case over pre-installed Windows software

Re: "without pre-installed software"

"Apple OS is free. You're paying for it in the hardware."

So it's not free then...You still pay for it.

Come in HTTP, your time is up: Google Chrome to shame leaky non-HTTPS sites from January

Re: Thin end of the whatsit.

"If you are browsing little, old lady cat pictures then you won't care that the site isn't secure"

You might do if the urls are along the lines of http://little-old-ladies-pussies.com

Re: It's pretty minimal cost

"I just renewed my SSL cert and I think it cost me £20 to get it signed "

Why would you pay for a basic SSL cert?! See https://www.startssl.com/

Hacker takes down CEO wire transfer scammers, sends their Win 10 creds to the cops

"organisations need to start using 2-factor authentication for wire transfers."

Most already do. And / or multiple approvers.

"Or am I missing something?"

If you think that fixes this problem, then yes. The people making the transfers in each scammed company are those authorised to do so...

Microsoft baits new vSphere-to-Hyper-V switch offer

Re: It's a downgrade to switch to Hyper-V.

"A new IT manager was hired and they decided it would be cheaper to use Hyper-V instead of vSphere"

Yep, no brainer.

"Our cluster was suddenly susceptible to crashes from applying Windows updates, and it crashed on a bi-weekly basis because the manager didn't read the update notes before releasing them to the cluster. "

So the problem was your managers approach to installing and testing updates, not the product. Updates are normally released monthly. (In general Hyper-V Server requires far fewer patches / updates / fixes than vSphere.)

Re: NOPE!

"Why would I give up a solid hypervisor with excellent management and services for their free and crippled version of a hypervisor"

FYI - Hyper-V Server is both fully featured and free - nothing is crippled.

If you want the GUI / management stack then you need to pay for it. But that's still cheaper than vSphere - which you also have to pay (lots more) for...

"That is still more expensive than GNU/Linux + support,!"

Not versus a commercially supported version like Redhat it isn't...

The Datacentre version also include unlimited Windows Server VM licences.

And don't forget that Hyper-V Server is also a proper standalone Hypervisor (like vSphere) that can run without an underlying OS and not just a bolt-on OS kernel plugin like say KVM.

Re: Microsoft Tamagochi Gambit.

" suggest its critics look at the scoreboard, where it beats Hyper-V by about four to one!"

Hyper-V has had over 30% of the hypervisor market for some time now. Vsphere therefore only beats it by about one point five to one!

See for instance http://www.thomasmaurer.ch/2014/07/hyper-v-is-eating-vmwares-lunch/

98.1 million CLEARTEXT passwords pasted as Rambler.ru rumbled

Re: Really?

Yep, but I am amazed how many website even these days offer to "remind me of my password" to my email - if I have forgotten it.

See also https://haveibeenpwned.com/PwnedWebsites

L0phtCrack's back! Crack hack app whacks Windows 10 trash hashes

"A 4 digit PIN will have no chance against a brute force."

The 4 digit PIN only protects the basic local PC login - not your online account Microsoft account, etc.

The idea being that a basic password protection level, but only giving minimal access is better than slightly better password protection level, but giving you the keys to the kingdom...

Microsoft releases firmware fix for faulty Surface Pro 3 batteries

Re: "Microsoft shifted 275,000 Surface Pro devices ... In contrast, the iPad Pro sold 107,000 units"

"Surface Pros tend to be bought by people who have a clue."

TFTFY!

Europe to order Apple to cough up 'one beeellion Euros in back taxes'

Re: Hehe

"If UK will want to retain any tariff-free access to the market it will be paying at least more than now."

Depends more if the Germans want to keep selling us their cars. They have far more to loose than we do...

"So what happens if Apple agrees to pay the tax"

They are not likely to get a choice in the matter.

"the EU finally comes apart like cheap toilet paper? Who gets the loot then?"

No change - it's still owed to Ireland.

Re: Jealousy

"it accused the EC of a power grab "

If Apple should have been taxed this amount in the first place, then the money was never meant for the benefit of the US anyway.

And it's circa £11 billion they are going to have to repay, not £1 billion...Plus interest!

Update your iPhones, iPads right now – govt spy tools exploit vulns

"the open source is in use because of the easy way of seeing the codes and working them out"

You know you can look at the Windows source code too via Microsoft? Publically available code might be of marginal assistance to a hacker, but they are able to quite happily find holes in closed source code too. I would also note that available source code doesn't seem to make software more secure as is often claimed - see the recent many years old holes on Open SSL, BASH, etc.

"We all have the Windows phones for best safety."

Don't disagree there, but it's got little to do with availability of the source code imo...

Re: riddle me this

"Do we RICHTO?"

We do:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/03/24/report-97-of-mobile-malware-is-on-android-this-is-the-easy-way-you-stay-safe/

"How many times greater is that than known WinPhone deployments?"

Windows Phone total retail sales are something over 100 million. I will let you do the maths...

Re: Phone Security

"Um, there'll be no publicly known vulnerabilities in M$A's moribund WinPho platform, if that's actually the case, simply because no one has bothered to analyse one."

They have sold over 100 million of them I seem to recall. If they were trivial to exploit we would likely have seen evidence by now.

"somehow proof that it isn't crammed full of exploitable errors and NSA backdoors "

Nope, but less of a worry than other mobile platforms that WE KNOW have lots of security issues!

Re: riddle me this

"the other is without a doubt the most severe vulrability ever to have hit mobiles, and whilst now patched on some devices, the amount of data gathered by it is unknown."

Yep, you could drive a bus through the quadrooter holes. And Android patching is abysmal from most manufacturers....

We do have some idea though as there have been hundreds of thousands of known Android malware deployments.

Re: I'm beginning to think carrier pigeon is the way to go

"I'm beginning to think carrier pigeon is the way to go "

Remember the story about the 4 carrier pigeons found by soldiers during the war? They ate 3 of them, and then sent a thank you message for the tasty meal on the 4th....

Re: Safe and secure...

"Using my Microsoft Lumia 950"

Me too - 950 XL. Couple of orders of magnitude fewer security holes across all versions of Microsoft's mobile OS compared to Blackberry, Android or IOS...

Re: Phone Security

"The NSA was unable to hack Angela Merkel's Blackberry"

Uhm no. They WERE able to monitor it. For years:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/02/wikileaks-us-spied-on-angela-merkels-ministers-too-says-german-newspaper

Re: Phone Security

" you want to have privacy and security with a phone Blackberry is the way to go. "

It really isn't. There have been well over 80 known security vulnerabilities so far in Blackberry OS 10 - versus ~ zero in Windows Phone 10. For instance the US government apparently had no issues in spying on the Germans when they were using Blackberry...

And now Blackberry are moving to a "secure" version of Android - that's going to be like trying to keep water in a colander with a sieve....

Re: A speedy patch release

"The last few years they have been VERY quick to release security patches, especially for something like this."

Presumably because jailbroken iphone = potentially lost AppStore sales.....

Redmond reveals Hyper-V 2016 beats vSphere's RAM and CPU count

"actually trust that this Hyper-V offering has been tested and isn't just beta software put out for others to test?!"

It' available for anyone to test (and report any bugs) and make up your own mind:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-technical-preview

Re: In other news

"And those figures are totally as relevant as the ones mentioned in this story."

Except that Hyper-V has over 30% market share and Vsphere over 40% Market share....

"The limits are mostly theoretical today,"

Quite - bragging rights - not serious a consideration for the vast majority of users.

Of more interest to me - Hyper-V historically has outperformed VMware on the same hardware for performance (IOPS) - so what is the relative performance like these days - have Microsoft extended their lead - or have VMware caught up - anyone published any benchmarks as yet?

Windows Update borks PowerShell – Microsoft won't fix it for a week

Re: MS Board Meeting

"And Redmond wonders why people are leaving its products for open-source alternatives."

As of yet they don't seem to be. Windows Server market share is still growing as are most of Microsoft's core application platforms such as SQL Server, Exchange, Office 365, Azure, etc, and Linux isn't making any impact on the desktop so far at <2% share - whereas Windows market share is stable at > 90%...

The TPC-C/SPC-1 storage benchmarks are screwed. You know what we need?

https://xkcd.com/927/

BBC detector vans are back to spy on your home Wi-Fi – if you can believe it

Re: Once upon a time detector vans existed

"So detector vans do not exist and haven't for decades"

Yes they do.

https://lacithedog.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/tv-detector-van.jpg

However the vans are a visual deterrent only and not actually operational at all.

Video surveillance recorders riddled with zero-days

Re: Are there any robust systems out there?

"Are there any systems, available to the retail customer/general installer in the UK which are both physically and electronically secure, at least so far as can be reasonably determined?"

Suggest a Synology NAS / Surveillance Pro software and Axis (Linux based) network cameras are about as good as it gets...

Scariest climate change prediction yet: More time to eat plane food

Re: Climate change increases homelessness

"In our area at least, a warming climate is impacting the homeless population"

It's the same in London. The Scots that visit find it so hot that they have to consume vast quantities of drink and sleep out on the streets...

Microsoft Azure doubles up to $800m a quarter – and is wiped out by dying phone sales

Re: Pull the plug...

" Look at how long MSFT put up with the losses from Xbox. "

Microsoft eventually made billions out of Xbox though - far more than they invested. And with the next Xbox Scorpio version they might well jump ahead of Sony as it is apparently far more powerful than the PS4 Neo.

Google tells Android's Linux kernel to toughen up and fight off those horrible hacker bullies

Re: Patching speed is probably the issue

"The risks of Android are routinely overblown – not to say that they don't exist – but the attack vectors are usually outside normal use patterns. "

You mean like say - playing a media file - visiting a website - or receiving an SMS message?

Alleged skipper of pirate site KickAss Torrents keel-hauled in Poland

Re: $1B?

Lol @ back up again already on http://kickass.mx

Whack-a-mole fail.

Ex-Citibank IT bloke wiped bank's core routers, will now spend 21 months in the clink

Re: Everyone seems to have missed the point here......

"The hierarchy goes like this:"

Not anywhere I have ever worked. Networks / telecoms = sewers and drains department = it should just work and no one needs to see it. Near the bottom of the stack...

Cortana expelled from Windows 10's new school editions

Re: K12? Google Docs

"first thing they did was scrap the idea of open standards that would promote interoperability, it all had to become Microsoft"

Microsoft software already supported most of the open standards that were proposed! And it worked.

Re: K12?

"when my younger son went 4 years later they'd dropped all that .... and mvoed evrything to Google Docs."

You must have been unlucky with your local school - most still use Office 365 - it's now free for schools / universities. Relatively few businesses use Google Apps, and people want their kids to be learning a version of Office that's actually some use to get a job!

This book exists for good reason: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1535538481

By 2040, computers will need more electricity than the world can generate

Re: Good thing world electricity production won't flatline until 2040

" rather than relying on intermittent renewable energy."

Hydroelectric and geothermal can run all the time, as can wave energy and tidal is at least predictable.

Wind and solar can be variable, but we can easily (and do) use these to reduce the use of non-renewable power sources when they are available.

Free Windows 10 upgrade: Time is running out – should you do it?

You will always be able to reinstall it - and you won't need the product key. The upgrade process records your hardware as licensed and future reinstalls will know it's the same hardware...

UK employers still reluctant to hire recent CompSci grads

Re: A degree is not a vocational qualification

This probably has more to do with the general lack of social skills (and often the appearance!) of anyone that would want to do a degree in Computer Science...