Posts by Medixstiff

Brussels tells Google to hand rivals its search crown jewels as privacy row brews

Gee, I wonder how the EU politicians would react to Google searches of their names coming up with the first 100 pages being deepfakes and the like? Or going into their financial affairs?

Opsec oopsie: Dutch navy frigate location outed by mailing it a Bluetooth tracker

I did have a bit of a chuckle when an article came out stating that Ukraine's military were posting pics of hot females to Russian soldiers who would reply back with their locations and wondering why all of a sudden Victor was unalived.

'Invisible mouse' made a mess of PC rebuild

My first job was building Whitebox PC's back in MS-DOS 6.2 and DR-DOS days when the first SoundBlaster single speed CD drive kits came out. Back then you had to install the power supply and plug the connectors into a switch at the front of the case.

I remember one guy plugging the connectors in, but he had also plugged the PSU in, so when he pushed one of the connectors in using long nose plyers, there was a flash and the pliers were welded into the aluminium front shell of the case.

The team leader was quite impressed with these pliers hanging out the side, everything was a write off, which was only just the case and PSU, which back then was two thirds of SFA cost wise.

NASA Inspector fears new spacesuits won’t be ready for Moon landing

Well if China tomorrow released news they were flying to the moon in 2027, I'm pretty sure all roadblocks for NASA would lift about 10 seconds after that announcement was made

Study confirms experience beats youthful enthusiasm

I was made redundant after more than 11 years, because after a strategic review, my skills didn't meet the skills matrix requirements, I was given a right to reply, but as I pointed out, how after 11 years of being there, did I all of a sudden not meet the skills requirements - I was also not given a copy of the skills matrix - and when did they ever talk to me about this and offer me training.

Anyway after a week, which allowed me to re-assign tickets and do a proper handover, update doco etc. I was gone.

7 weeks later, I received an SMS that my offsider had tendered his resignation, this same guy my bosses even admitted, just sat next to the Exec. Assistants and legal ladies all day, on YouTube and Reddit all whilst I was doing 80% of the workload, doing my stuff and fixing his stuff ups.

I ended up getting a job with a much better employer and am on $35,000 AU more. So in my case it was for the best.

Telcos aren't saying how they fought back against China's Salt Typhoon attacks

Re: At the same time...

Back in the 80's and 90's, there were urban legends that AT & T in particular has US intelligence devices plugged into their networks. The story went, a new hire pointed to a door and asked what was in there and told to pull their heads in and never ask that question again.

Taiwan tells Uncle Sam its chip ecosystem ain't going anywhere

Re: Bargaining chip (no pun)

I'm sorry, how many wars has China fought in the last 30 years compared to the US?

And don't forget Xi's just gutted most of the senior military staff.

Containers, cloud, blockchain, AI – it's all the same old BS, says veteran Red Hatter

I lost count how many times a previous CIO told the team, make sure Cloud is on your resume.

Then all this AI BS came along and all it's really done is used up more water, power and increased RAM pricing. Certain people really don't like it when you point out, that until it has it's own thinking brain, it's at best, machine learning.

China-linked group accused of spying on phones of UK prime ministers' aides – for years

My first thought, was are these countries the ones the US told to stop using Huawei kit and if that had something to do with them being able to infiltrate the carriers

Baby's got clack: HP pushes PC-in-a-keyboard for businesses with hot desks

One big problem I see a mile away, is keyboards attract dust, hair and dead skin like nobody's business.

Unless you can unclip the keyboard and replace it, the thing is useless after a few months.

Techie turned the tables on office bullies with remote access rumble

Funniest thing I remember seeing

Is the Sys Admin gliding up the steps with a panicked look on his face, because two techs were testing customer UPS units and for some reason they were connected to our network, so when they pulled the power plugs, a NET SEND about the power being cut and only having X minutes to go was sent out.

All I remember afterwards is the techs telling everyone how they wouldn't be doing that again.

Campaigners urge EU to mandate 15 years of OS updates

I think M$ needs to ask one question of these people?

"A Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a specialized chip on your computer's motherboard designed to enhance security by securely storing cryptographic keys used for encryption and decryption. It ensures that your operating system and firmware are authentic and have not been tampered with"

After stating that, all M$ needs to ask is, Are you saying we should not mandate the use of a TPM, thereby limiting the security of the whole Windows ecosystem? Because Cyber crims are going to love that.

Then because the campaigners haven't thought of something that simple, they will probably say, "But you can make it secure in other ways", to which M$ only needs to ask, How? which they again haven't thought of, because they were taken aback by the first question and made an off the cuff reply.

It doesn't take much ton unravel an idiots grand idea, with common sense.

Google stuffs Chrome full of AI features whether you like it or not

Re: Just one question for corporate environments:

I have been trying out the -ai switch in Google searches, from the few I have done, it seems ot be working.

Scattered Spider gang feigns retirement, breaks into bank instead

Is Anonymous still around?

If they are, how about releasing the unredacted Epstein files?

BOFH: The Prints of Darkness pays a visit

Re: Sheer genius!!

Came into the office one morning to find everyone standing outside, someone had tried to heat their breakfast in one of the microwaves, however they had it on convection, which proceeded to melt the plastic splash lid and set the fire alarms off.

My favourite though, was our CEO screaming his head off asking - his words - What f***wit decided it was a bright idea to cook fish in a microwave on the day the minister was visiting.

The worker in question went home crying his eyes out, I agreed with the CEO though, use some brains people.

Trump thinks we can make iPhones in the US just like China. Yeah, right

Who is to say they won't just take the time to automate the processes as much as possible, hence not needing to hire as many people when the factory opens?

Legal clock ticking for Microsoft over alleged software license abuses

Re: Looks like...

Make fines payable by the Board and C level's, with the stipulation the company cannot pay the fines on their behalf.

UK's attempt to keep details of Apple 'backdoor' case secret… denied

Personally I cannot wait for a hacker collective to go after the banking and superannuation details of some of the politicians and bureaucrats that come up with these stupid ideas.

Only after they have been stung, will it sink into their tiny little brains that IT security is not something to be fobbed off as an annoyance.

How do you explain what magnetic fields do to monitors to people wearing bowling shoes?

I remember in the 80's, quite a few a few Saturday's being taken up for various small accounting firms, being asked to install a package onto more than one machine, because if the main machine failed, everything went with it. I made good money doing that ($120 for the day) and as the software needed an LPT port dongle, they could not use it on more than one PC at a time anyway, so it wasn't like they were running pirated software, is how they all put it. Which was fine with me, they would be the ones to have to cough up if they were caught out.

Retirement funds reportedly raided after unexplained portal probes and data theft

My second ever employer used Rest back in the mid nineties.

When I moved to another employer and tried moving my Super from Rest across 2 years after starting at the new place, they said I had no account with them.

It was only after going through the ombudsman and even they had 12 months of grief with Rest, did they mysteriously find my funds. It was only about $5,000AU, but it was the principal of the thing.

Someone needs to seriously kick the NAB up the backside though, they still seem to think sending a code via SMS, considering the number of incidents of SIM swapping over the last decade, is fine. Yet on their own website when searching MFA, they tell you to use MFA via an authenticator on a host of other web sites, but nothing about NAB internet banking or the NAB app.

Windows 11 poised to beat 10, mostly because it has to

Microsoft are not ready for Win11.

More than a quarter of our fleet were not Win11 compliant 6 months ago, as they only had TMP 1.2 modules. Mysteriously in January 2025, the HP EliteBook X360's TPM modules were upgrade to 2.0 versions after Windows updates rolled out firmware updates.

Our base specs for notebooks used to be 16GB's or RAM, however even on vanilla installs at first boot, Task Manager would hit RAM usage in the high 90% ranges, with taskmanager.exe itself taking up 25% and about the same for CPU usage.

Fisher Price edition as we call it, because it looks nice but good luck trying to actually use it productively needs some serious development and proper QA testing, oh and M$, stop copy/posting old code each time you role out a "new" Windows version, there's a reason the same old zero days pop up each time in later versions of Windows.

China hits back at America with retaliatory tariffs, export controls on rare earth minerals

"resolve trade differences through consultation in an equal, respectful and mutually beneficial manner,"

Oh, like China has done to Australia multiple times with Coal, seafood and barley exports?

Data doesn't lie, but Microsoft's new Power BI prices might make you cry

Just over 12 months ago, we were told to give our M$ partner the base line number of staff we had, as E5 licensing was going to change and our baseline license pricing would stay the same, but any new licenses would be charged at the new rate, not even 3 months later, the baseline E5 pricing went up, along with the monthly new plan pricing.

As there's now four fifths of SFA difference between both license costs, what was the point M$?

GCHQ intern took top secret spy tool home, now faces prison

So if someone from one of these "socially or economically disadvantaged backgrounds," decides for financial gain, to compromise or leak something, which idiot who dreamt all this up is going to do serious prison time?

GCHQ runs a regular summer internship program and says it is seeking applicants from Black, Asian, mixed heritage, or other ethnic minorities, as well as those from socially or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, since these demographics are underrepresented at GCHQ.

Why users still couldn't care less about Windows 11

Microsoft are not ready for Win11

Microsoft need to pull their finger out and fix Fisher Price edition. When in first boot Task Manager takes up 25% CPU resources with just a vanilla install, someone needs a good firing or butt kicking. We are spec ing machines with 32GB's of RAM because it is so useless out of the box

Microsoft declares 2025 'the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh'

Microsoft are not ready for Windows 11.

I have seen multiple machines with Vanilla installs hit 25% CPU load on the first boot up, due to Task Manager.

Then there's Microsoft Anti-malware also taking up 25% CPU resources on a regular basis, even though under Virus and threat protection, it shows your third party is running everything and under MS Defender AV options, it has the slider showing it is off. Because MS obviously knows better and therefore nothing of theirs should ever be turned off.

Intel sued over Raptor Lake voltage instability

Re: First world problems

We could not figure out why we were having really dumb issues with our new Dell Windows 11 notebooks, until we changed the BIOS settings to AHCI and re-imaged them.

No more problems after that.

We still cannot find a definitive answer as to why Dell configures their notebooks with RAID mode enabled, we kept finding the notebooks would bog down when very little was running on them and CPU would hit the roof, we originally just blamed Windows 11, but as soon as we applied the fix and re-imaged the machines, the instances of Windows basically locking up intermittently stopped. CPU still hits 100% intermittently but that's M$ Endpoint protection scanning stuff, even though it shows as being turned off because CrowdStrike FalconProtect is the AV solution, so another lie from M$.

Robots crush career opportunities for low-skilled workers

""When robotization technologies start to take over some jobs in manufacturing," she observed, "[the] negative effects are actually felt beyond those industries … We didn't expect to find these other industries to be affected negatively – almost equally negatively to manufacturing industries.""

How dumb are they that they could not see this coming?

Sysadmin shock as Windows Server 2025 installs itself after update labeling error

I have to wonder if M$ does any QA testing at all anymore.

Both new Outlook and New Teams were cluster f*cks. If Microsoft staff were using their own products, they would have been treated to the same time wasting the rest of the world did, having to revert back to previous editions of each product.

Spelling and Grammar are still screwed, words we have been using for years are not recognized anymore, type Visio in and it only gives you vision, so they don't even recognize their own product names the dingleberries.

I bet Satya Nadella would have kicked some serious butt when his autocomplete email addresses disappeared from Outlook.

Thousands of Fortinet instances vulnerable to actively exploited flaw

I know of at least 1 Australian MSP that was multiple versions behind for all of their clients back in December 2023 and from what we can gather are still on the same version for all of their clients - except ourselves, we moved off their FortiManager etc after in issue over the Christmas and New Years break that I had the unfortunate luck to get caught up in, after we updated our switch firmware's and broke their ability to manage our devices, which is how we found out about their version levels.

China again claims Volt Typhoon cyber-attack crew was invented by the US to discredit it

Maybe we should do what China has done in the past, re-direct BGP traffic and when the number of attacks just disappears, ask them to please explain how that managed to happen?

Compression? What's that? And why is the network congested and the PCs frozen?

I have lost count the number of times over the years a Manager or C-level came rushing over to request I recall an email that was sent, only to give me a "you are useless" look when I point out that I can only recall ones that have not already been read and I can recall ones that went to external email addresses, as we have no control over those.

Unfortunately I can't very well say to them, no matter how much I would like to "Maybe double check everything before sending the email"

Elon Musk's X to challenge Australian content takedown orders in court

What I find interesting, is for once the Aus government is not using the usual "Think about the children" BS line that they use for usual censorship they want to put in place. Now if they did that and asked X to limit the availability of this type of graphic content to minors, old Musky wouldn't have a moral leg to stand on, because if that turns into an avalanche of other countries requesting the same, he's screwed, how could he in any way that makes sense justify showing knife attacks to kids? Except for those at terrorist training camps?

Tesla Cybertruck turns into world's most expensive brick after car wash

Re: Answers on a postcard, please.

Yet my 14 year old car, now on it's third owner, still has - apart from a small ding or two in a door, thanks to inconsiderate a-holes - a spot free, glossy paint job with no peel of any sort.

Obviously, they don't make cars like they used to.

Uncle Sam designates more Chinese tech slingers as military collaborators

Re: Give them a reason.

What do you expect with 332,000,000 versus 25,000,000 people in the US versus Aus?

That being said, in Wait Awhile we have plenty of homeless, for how mineral rich we are, quite a few governments etc. have to quote the Yanks "screwed the pooch" however a royal commission as we say will do nothing if no-one is charged and does prison time and with the FOMO BS that the real estate industry has pushed for the last 2 decades, making an example out of some of them and brokers will be the only thing that can help make the industry pull it's head in.

US cybersecurity chief: Software makers shouldn't lawyer their way out of security responsibilities

"And she suggested that the government hold companies liable for selling vulnerable products that criminals and nation states later exploit in cyberattacks."

The biggest exploiters of this being the US themselves? I wonder how quickly she would be disappeared if she tried saying this to the faceless men at certain US government agencies?

"Making software "secure-by-design," and thus putting the liability on the vendors to sell safe products out of the box instead of pushing that responsibility on to consumers and businesses, is a drumbeat that CISA has been pounding under Easterly's leadership."

See my previous point, or how about when the same country wanted Apple et all to build in back doors, but make it safe at the same time?

What I will find interesting is when AI starts going through code and then starts using the same lines of code because they "just work" and are the most efficient ones to use, will someone sue about using their IP and if so, will someone grow a brain and put into law, that AI generated essential code is exempt form copyright violations, so the world can move forward and away from previous coders dodgy or lazy coding practices?

California man's business is frustrating telemarketing scammers with chatbots

I want the one that starts with "Hello, You have reached the Australian Federal Police..."

Australian FinTech takes itself offline to deal with cyber incident that caused data leak

Well so far I've been done as an ex-Optus customer, a current Medibank customer - this is where the SPAM SMS messages and phone calls really started ramping up, luckily Android phones have a SPAM call alert system - and now as an ex-Latitude customer.

It's getting to the stage of needing a full time credit reporting service along with the regular subscriptions for internet and mobile phones.

As it is, I've brought iiNet up on their IronPort SPAM not quarantining emails form dodgy iiNet support scammers, even though the feature is turned on.

I've also asked NAB why they don't currently offer 2FA through Microsoft or Google's authenticators, considering banks accounts are what most scammers are after.

Apple bags patent for folding phone that closes as it's dropped

This is where the EU needs to grow a spine and say, US you idiots have been drinking too much brake fluid again, we do not recognize these patents as they are like the vast majority of your laws and politicians, stupid beyond belief.

Foxconn expands Vietnam factories, perhaps to help Apple diversify beyond China

I wouldn't be heading to China ever again if I was a Foxconn exec, I might be taken into custody on false corruption charges or similar and then put on trial after 2 years.

Tesla fires gigafactory staff after someone made the mistake of mentioning unions

Well with the recall of 362,000 cars, Ford, Merc and GM coming higher up the ladder for their driver assist products, I'm sure the sacked staff will be laughing when they get snapped up by the opposition and watch Tesla falling even further behind.

Microsoft mulls cheap PCs supported by ads, subs

Is it any wonder that PC sales are slowing, since multi core CPU's and SSD's came out, the refresh cycle for home users in particular is non existent.

We are well and truly past the bad old software bloat days of the Pentium era in the late 90's early 2000's.

Qualcomm predicts 2024 is the year Windows on Arm goes large

We bought an Arm based Surface for the CEO, everything was fine up until it came time to install the Fortinet VPN client, they had none for Arm.

As he's online at home and both of our external sites all the time, it was a deal breaker and sure enough was put back in it's box.

Hot, sweaty builders hosed a server – literally – leaving support with an all-night RAID repair job

I did some contracting work for Arthur Anderson a few months before everything hit the fan for them and one warm Friday I noticed a procession of nice young ladies heading into the Server room to cool down after lunch.

I could not understand why the two IT guys had the biggest grins on their faces ever until said young ladies walked out of the Server room suitably refreshed.

What are server makers really doing to and for the climate?

Having dealt with HP, Lenovo and Dell notebook products, I can say HP are the worst for excess packaging, especially how many pieces of paperwork have their own zip lock bags, which whilst a waste., at least I use when I can.

Analysis of leaked Conti files blows lid off ransomware gang

"As of late February, Conti's primary Bitcoin address contained more than $2bn in digital currency, according to a Rapid7 report."

So if they know the address, how long before the US requests the funds be frozen?

Driver in Uber's self-driving car death goes on trial, says she feels 'betrayed'

Re: Software to arbitrate between two soldiers -- haven't they heard of rank?

And then the AI decides that to end wars one must end mankind and there you have Skynet.

BOFH: All hail the job cuts consultant

Reminds me of the number of times we have had company wide team building exercises yet none of the Manglement team did them...until last year.

One of the exercises was to to throw objects of various sizes into a box. There were two teams, each with two teams, one to guard the box and return whatever fell out and one to collect the returned objects to the throwers. And there was a line midway neither team could cross.

So the Manglers thinking they knew better went first and more than 5 minutes later they finished.

Now one thing the presenters said was you could use everything around you to help, so we folded three desks over and put them around the box so nothing would bounce out from the sides and back and then we threw the smallest objects in first and worked our way up, because when the bigger items went in first, everything else would bounce off them and out of the box.

36 seconds later we were finished and the looks on the Manglers faces ware priceless.

Ericsson report details how it paid off Islamic State

Re: Ironic

We have to do bullying, cyber security, anti money laundering and other training every 6 months at work (home loan lender)

Scrolling down the list, right clicking and opening each section in a new tab, going about our work and then answering the questions save so much time.

Multi-level marketing corporation that sells weightloss products sues ex-exec over 'fraudulent' Dell deal

Re: Friends

Yeah when I was younger and dumber a customer of mine - because I worked in retail computer sales - asked me along to a seminar of theirs and after the first 5 minutes I knew it was an Amway type pyramid scheme where those up top get all the money.