Posts by Tabor

Windows 7: Still looking after business (except when it isn't)

Re: Elderberries and Hamsters - off topic

You were not the last person to find this out, but I might be. Have an upvote, I’m off to the attic to dig out the DVD before I embark upon the Quest for the Holy DVD player.

World's richest bloke battles Oz catastro-fire with incredible AU$1m donation (aka load of cheap greenwashing)

one meeeeellion dollars ??

Am I the only one that thought of Dr. Evil ? Really ? Is this still El Reg ?

Re: Taxes versus Philantropy

@codejunky : I understand where your coming from, but this one is, frankly, cattle excrement :

“Since the earned money being directed towards a cause vs the gov borrowing even more on the heads of its population for whatever it desires spaffing money on.”

Amazon (not Bezos, Amazon), will deduct this from the taxes they hardly pay and thus the government will need to borrow whatever amount that can be deducted by Amazon anyway.

Enjoy the holiday weekend, America? Well-rested? Good. Supermicro server boards can be remotely hijacked

Re: Port forwarding NOT necessary

I can see how. Compromise one target in a network, pivot from there. Plenty of networks out there that don’t separate vlans or that don’t use firewalling between those vlans.

It IS disturbing though that so many seem to have the interface exposed to the Internet directly.

Sophos tells users to roll back Microsoft's Patch Tuesday run if they want PC to boot

Yes, Microsoft made changes and Sophos didn’t. However, AV vendors have been known to use undocumented hooks into the OS.

The main thing is : Microsoft plugged a serious hole. If one AV vendor’s product stops working I would not blame the OS vendor in this case.

EU lumbers towards Apple probe as Spotify cries foul over App Store's 30% cut

@gnasher729

“Where are you getting that from?”

Actually, from TFA: Spotify argues that for instance Uber and Deliveroo don’t have to pay the 30% on in-app “purchases”. I can imagine that a lot of parties will follow this with interest.

Patch blues-day: Microsoft yanks code after some PCs are rendered super secure (and unbootable) following update

I agree that my first thought was “another AV vendor that fucked up” as well, but at the moment of posting it’s not clear what caused the issue.

Calling the author “retarded” is a bit much though, even if it’s only related to 3rd party software.

BOFH: Bye desktop, bye desk. Hello 'slab and a beanbag on the floor

Re: the Belgians

To be honest: what I described was the ideal scenario for the BOFH that I am (or aspire to be). Sadly, today it was not to be. But rest assured, I am now in the presence of a glorious blond Ename (which has my seal of approval), while my PFY is toiling away. No doubt plotting against me.

He will be joining me shortly, to get in the next round.

the Belgians

I am a Belgian and am slightly offended by that generalization. We're not all the same.

For example, I prefer a G&T 5 seconds after leaving for lunch, maybe a nice merlot during lunch, and a cognac after lunch. And only then would I consider it beer 'o clock.

Samsung pulls sheets off costly phone-cum-fondleslab Galaxy Fold – and a hefty 5G monster

Re: re: The cheaper model has the fingerprint reader mounted on the side of the phone

For those interested : it works.

Re: re: The cheaper model has the fingerprint reader mounted on the side of the phone

“although I've not yet tested registering my big toe”

Damn you. I was looking forward to a quiet night in, but now I’ll get funny looks from the missus whilse trying to get my toe print registered on my phone.

Microsoft promises a fix for Windows 10 zip file woes. In November

Interesting

When reading the Microsoft post of the zip file issue I found this of note :

"Microsoft is working on a resolution and estimates a solution will be available in early November for this issue."

The year in that statement is suspiciously absent.

The grand-plus iPhone is the new normal – this is no place for paupers

Re: SE gone - so am I :-(

“I think Apple is running out of road...”

Are they really ? They sold a lot of the original X, which didn’t come cheap either. As long as people buy them, I expect we’ll see more of the same. Maybe the next iteration will be “only 1999 !”.

I’m on an iPhone now, and I expect the next one will be one of similar. Never the newest shiny though, I expect it will be 2022 before I get an XS. Maybe I’ll fork over 450 for an iPhone 8 next year (but only if the 6S is no longer supported). I have considered a Droid (many times), but I can’t be bothered to faff about with setting one up and migrating the stuff I have. So I’ll just continue paying the Apple tax. At the very least I’m reasonably sure to get updates for a while, and don’t have to make sure that each app and all the data it contains are backed up.

My ideal scenario is that the best selling device Apple has in the next 6 months is the iPhone 7 or 8 (both in volume and in profit), so that they get the hint and go back to reasonable pricing.

Email security crisis... What email security crisis?

Re: Until there's a sexy solution, nothing will change

“FFS at least don't render links where the URL is different to the displayed text”

Doing that would be applauded by almost all, but not all unfortunately.

“As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.” The voices in this quote would belong to marketeers worldwide, no doubt.

Expanding Right To Be Forgotten slippery slope to global censorship, warn free speech fans

Re: How do you rank result?

“you could require Google to ask "How do you want to see results ordered" for every search”

Interesting thought, I tried it, but the big G doesn’t seem to understand a basic sql query.

Buttonless and port-free: Expect the next iPhone to be as smooth as a baby's bum

Re: So-

I conceived 2 children (or so I’ve been told), and whilst I agree that I’ve been shouting a lot more at my iPhone than at my baby’s bottoms when I had diaper duty, the usefulness of said bottoms as compared to the iPhone eludes me.

Actual control of Windows 10 updates (with a catch)... and more from Microsoft

Device Update Center

“Device Update Center“ ? A missed opportunity, I feel. They should have gone with Device Update Hub. Makes a far better acronym.

In defence of online ads: The 'net ain't free and you ain't paying

Re: happy for adverts if....

“Why is everyone so against tracking?!”

Everyone ? Most people I know don’t give a sh*t. Me ? I hate it. If you have to ask why, try reading 1984. I assume that you haven’t yet.

The correct question is : why are you *not* against being profiled all the time by unknown parties that know everything about you, including location in some cases, and that may or may not have adequate IT security protecting all that data ?

I

Adobe, 'hyper personalisation' and your privacy

Re: Interesting

A bit late in the thread, but thanks for sharing. I will definitely look into those.

Re: Interesting

This caught my eye : “I am replacing CS 5.5 on most machines. The replacements are not from Adobe.”

Could you elaborate on that ? Since they started forcing subscriptions I have been looking for good alternatives, mainly for Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign. Decent file compatibility is a must, and I need both mac and windows clients to run it. Sadly I have not found what I’m looking for. Gimp is not the answer, and Corel... well, the less said about them the better.

I’ve got about 70-ish CC users (only 15 of which use more than PS/AI/Acrobat), so it’s not that there is no budget for this. I fear that there’s just no competition for our use case. So, if you’re replacing CS 5.5 : please share !

Open justice FTW! El Reg fought the law – and El Reg won

Re: Wonderful

Truth, Justice, Freedom ? Considering the world we live in, I would happily settle for the hard-boiled egg. Though the reasonable-priced love sounds very appealing, I don’t want to get my hopes up. The missus has been considering some kind of veranda for a while now, which will make my love very expensive indeed.

Heir to SMS finally excites carriers, by making Google grovel

Re: Just what the world needs

*We* have enough. But on the last count I have 5 in active use (including standard sms), and 3 of those are only there because some dictator somewhere decided that the default ones are to be blocked. So I’ve got messaging apps with contacts based on country. Whatsapp for regular folks and family, wechat for the Chinese, Signal and Telegram for our Eastern European brethren that may or not have a working VPN, and SMS for all of those that don’t mind the artificially high cost (try texting a lot from anywhere in the Middle East and than check your post-paid phone bill).

*Thunk* No worries, the UPS should spin up. Oh cool, it's in bypass mode

re: H in the Hague

I hope you meant dike maintenance and not dyke maintenance ? I am all for LGBT rights, but a levy to maintain only the L part seems a bit much. Joke icon needed, but can’t seem to find it on my phone while in private mode.

That was fast... unlike old iPhones: Apple sued for slowing down mobes

Re: "To provide a better experience to customers"

@Max : my observations also clash with the “facts” unfortunately. Who do I talk to to get my facts straight ? And the SE used by the missus up to speed ? My observation was that after updating to 11.x on her device it ran slower and the battery life got worse.

Make no mistake, I am deeply entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, but if they don’t start making batteries replaceable I’ll switch when this iPhone 7 dies. Not that Apple will care, if they keep selling 1000 euro phones faster than they can make ‘em... Alternatively I would settle for 2 update branches, one for basic security updates and one for new “features” that I have no need for.

Re: That probably explains..

Apple does it, Samsung does it, and a lot of other “premium” smartphones. But I do think Apple was the first, and the rest followed. See also : headphone jack, laptops.

A few millimeters thicker and they can make it user replaceable... weight wouldn’t change much. but then the smartphone market would probably collapse.

User demanded PC be moved to move to a sunny desk – because it needed Windows

"surely medical professionals, of all people, should know that just because something fits in a cavity that doesn't mean it belongs there"

Brilliant line. Thanks for that !

So thoughtful. Uber says it won't track you after you leave their vehicles

Re: App update descriptions

I fully agree with the necessity for somewhat more descriptive than "general bug fixes". And oddly enough, the Microsoft apps I use usually have a decent list of changes when updates are available (as opposed to security Windows updates on my laptop).

while using

Usually on my iPhone it's pretty simple : if an app wants my location and I consider it interesting *for me*, I allow it while using. If the options are always or never, it's never.

That makes me wonder though : if an app supports this at first but then weasels out, what's the default for iOS ? Will it revert to always, never, or just pop up the question again ? Does anyone know ?

Heaps of Windows 10 internal builds, private source code leak online

Re:ecofeco

How do we know El Reg is telling the truth ? In this case, I'm pretty sure BA was closer to the mark since El Reg changed the headline to "heaps" where it said "32TB" initially.

If a headline seems like clickbait, check other sources.

Indeed. Without taking sides, maybe commentards can read this :

https://www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37283

(and the author might want to update headline/article)

UK parliamentary email compromised after 'sustained and determined cyber attack'

Re: Passwords must be

"I reckon I could make that bullet proof in a month".

Then why post as AC ? Those claims could make you a nice income, if you can live up to them... Unfortunately, even in small(ish) businesses, it takes many moons to even convince them that 2FA is a Good Thing. And even then, it will break "legacy" things.

Yo, patch that because scum still wanna exploit WannaCrypt-linked vuln

Re: Metasploit isnt a pen-testing sofware

Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. I have used Metasploit for pentesting, and have used DOS-tools for performace testing. IMHO any sysadmin worth the name should have these in their toolkit.

Uber cloaked its spying and all it got from Apple was a slap on the wrist

Re: RICO act

@chap : you're correct, but I still upvoted eldakka to counter the downvote. At least (s)he looked it up, which is a rare phenomenon on teh intertubes. The "very high level of confidence" was a bit much though.

Google Chrome 56's crypto tweak 'borked thousands of computers' using Blue Coat security

reaching the admin

"Attempts to reach the administrator via phone and email were unsuccessful"

The guy just had over 17000 chromebooks say they don't want to play. I assume interviews by various journo's is quite low on his list of priorities.

I would lay the blame with Symantic in this case, OTOH it's something to consider when considering Chromebooks... I haven't used one, but is it possible to run another browser ?

Tesla set to up prices by 5% in new year because of 'currency fluctuations'

car making payment ?

Thanks but no thanks. Before you know it there'll be suspicious activity on your cc statements, while your car is sporting new rims.

Support chap's Sonic Screwdriver fixes PC as user fumes in disbelief

Re: Gadget influenced by waving something in front of it?

Thanks for that post, have an upvote and a pint. I haven't experienced it (yet), but when it occurs I will definitely remember it. I see plenty of folk with those cases, so far none of them use NFC but once they do I won't have to think long.

Higher tech prices ARE here to stay. It's Mr Farage's new Britain

"We don't win by digging in against huge odds and having a bit of a go."

How about giving Johnny Foreigner a taste of cold steel ?

Sorry, second PTerry reference in 5 minutes. Mine's the one with a copy of Jingo in the pocket.

Re: More than just economic uncertainty

Lord Rust, is that you ?

Woman rescues red pepper Donald Trump from vegetarian chilli

Re:shaped like a dick

It's called a humorously shaped vegetable (which is a broader category). I assume the vegetable referenced in the article originated on Sir Terry's allotment on Cori Celesti. He probably threw it down just to see if someone noticed...

I would recommend a humorously shaped vegetable section in the bootnotes on El Reg. It might be biting the hand of IT, but sometimes I wonder if the Ankh-Morpork Times tagline wouldn't be appropriate as well... Especially in IT security related articles.

User needed 40-minute lesson in turning it off and turning it on again

Re: Can you hold down the power button

@AndyS : sacking her for being a "dingbat" ? I have met many people that are great at what they do but go in idiot mode if any buttons are involved.

And apart from that, she thanked him for his efforts. Being on the call, I might have cursed, but after a polite "thanks for helping me out" all that remains is a story for the colleagues. No grudge to be held (unless it happens frequently). I've had far worse calls than that when I was in the trencges.

BOFH: The Idiot-ware Project and the Meaningless Acronym

@theModge : hole heartily

Was that in reference to the anal gazing remark ?

If so : well played. If not : who cares, it's Friday, have a pint.

A tip maybe : if you expect to get an invite to such draining meetings, make sure your calendar is fully booked for 3 weeks and that the only free slots are on a Friday afternoon. It's frankly amazing how much faster those meetings go. The obvious exception : committees/workgroups with external consultants that are paid by the hour. Even then, it must be taken into consideration how much they are paid by the hour. If it's enough to cover a hefty bar bill, and they are not too obnoxious, it might turn into a win/win.

Re: huh ?

Believe me, I have spent the time. Or "done the time" it, so to speak. And twats they may be from time to time, but in my experience every odious twat is a lot more likeable after a few drinks (in them, or in you, or preferably both). The trick is to find a few like-minded individuals in the committee, and form a sub-committee. You know, for "efficiency".

I do agree that it's hard to organise, specifically when "organise" means not only to have your employer pay for your time (easy, you're in a meeting), but also for your "expenses". Unfortunately the days of hand written expense notes are long gone. Unintelligible hand written notes in soft crayon are no longer an option, and some "meeting venues" even offer detailed information on the receipt. A publican with a good nose for business (and possibly a small commission) can be a good friend in these cases.

An even better friend is always the one person from accounting that likes the occasional pint, and is on the same committee.

This is of course all hypothetical, since I would never partake in such endeavours, being a loyal employee. Perish the thought.

huh ?

"Especially a committee like this one which a scope so open-ended it could see you through to retirement."

Spelling errors aside, why is this a bad thing for a true BOFH ?

- could see you through to retirement

- has the option to "research" "future technologies", preferably in an exotic part of the world, to make sure everything is "future-proof"

- includes many meetings, with the bonus of extra playtime on <insert random mobe game of choice> while frowning and mumbling highly technical terms

- said meetings might be held off-site, in a pub-like venue

Honestly, I don't see the downside. Unless the infrastructure runs on 2 Raspberry Pi's and a usb disk instead of the blades and SANS that are on the books but have been replaced by a few rows of LED strips in the data center.

If we can't fix this printer tonight, the bank's core app will stop working

Re: Yawn LDS

"Toner" on your hands ? Pah ! In my time I was lucky if I wasn't strangled the ribbon.

Kids these days...

British unis mull offshore EU campuses in post-Brexit vote panic

école normale

Isn't that ironically similar to the "public school" in the UK ?

Microsoft deletes Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8

Re: fixing it is a dark art

I've had the same issue. It was easy to fix though, you just have to remember to chant "developers, developers, developers" BEFORE you rip out the rabbit's entrails. The other way around won't work in any case, but a cat instead of a rabbit should be fine.

DDoS attacks: For the hell of it or targeted – how do you see them off?

Re: Cloud-based DDoS defences introduce delays

Routers and DNS servers ? The "and so on" might include web servers. Often poorly secured, or vulnerable in other ways (sql injection is still a thing unfortunately) and ideal to start a DDOS attack from. Because usually in a DC, and with a big upstream pipe...

Self-stocking internet fridge faces a delivery come down

Re: Remind me not to have dinner at your place

Interesting concept. Presumably one could change this to one bottle of brown sauce lengthways on top of the bacon and leftovers from last night's mashed potatoes ?

Dammit, now I miss Lester again :-(

How to scam $750,000 out of Microsoft Office: Two-factor auth calls to premium-rate numbers

Dammit...

... why didn't I think of that ? In hindsight it seems so obvious.

Good luck to Arne. He may have only received a pittance, but if it's any consolation : I'll buy him a pint when I meet him.

BOFH: I found a flying Dragonite on a Windows 2003 domain

win 7 patches

12 hours - 4 (since posting time). Google wsus offline and you'll have time to spare for a pint or two.