Posts by td97402

Take my advice: The only safe ID is a fake ID

Your Editor Called To Tell Me

I’m sure he meant:

Donim, Sue

Not:

Domin, Sue

That 'Surface will die in 2019' prediction is still a goer, says soothsayer

Re: Microsoft should stay with Surface.

Jusr added an SSD to my 7 year old ThinkCentre M92p office desktop. It rocks. I have no plans of replacement it. Ditto my 5 year old Thinkpad. The difference in performance between Intel gen 3 and 7 isn’t significant. The SSD made all the difference in each case.

When new technologies come along that require a completely new chipset there may be a compelling reason for me to buy a new machine until then I am happy where I’m at.

Re: So the logic is

Licensing Windows to PC OEMs is not as big a market for Microsoft as you think. They sell a lot of licensing to Enterprise, at full price, OEMs get steep discounts.

Judge bars distribution of 3D gun files... er, five years after they were slapped onto the web

Re: Remember PGP

I downloaded the CAD files a little while back just on principle. But thanks for the offer.

Android data slurping measured and monitored

Re: Fake DOB?

Birth date is always 1/1/70.

Clap, damn you, clap! Samsung's Bixby 2.0 AI reveal is met with apathy

Re: I already hate smartphones, this Bixby isn't going to make it better

Feature phones never went away. They just aren’t featured at the your local shop. I hear Nokia is making them again.

Re: "Do not want" is not strong enough.

Samsung has not been satisfied with making the best Android phones. They want to build the whole ecosystem and be just like Apple. Music store, App store, brwoser, calendarr, etc. I think they still are thinking about having their own OS as well. Yesterday‘s announcement also featured the new Galaxy watch which runs Tizen OS.

Imagine a patent on organizing computer files being used against online shopping sites. Oh, it's still happening

Re: Oh for the love of...

I was developing code back in the early to mid 80’s. I stored text files with categories appended for later ease of retrieval. I want to sue these Speedtrack people. Where can my lawyer reach them?

Half of all Windows 10 users thought: BSOD it, let's get the latest build

Microsoft Up To Its Usual Tricks

Last fall, if you went and checked for upgrades manually, you probably saw a notice that there was an upgrade coming but you had to go get it via the Windows Upgrade Assistant if you really wanted it right away.

This spring, check for updates, boom, it starts installing 1803 without any further warning.

Yet another way to garner the love of your customers, I guess.

OnePlus 6: Perfect porridge? One has to make a smartphone that's juuuust right

Great Feature List Except..

“Proper little stand on the back. We only get a stand if we buy a case. Put it in the damn phone, and make it adjustable, not single-position. Literally a 50p bit of plastic.”

No, non, nein. I don’t want any little pieces that will easily break off my $600+ phone. You want a kickstand buy a case with one.

It's 2018, and a webpage can still pwn your Windows PC – and apps can escape Hyper-V

Re: Curious about Office 365

Small Business Server shops didn’t get a choice. Microsoft took away the Exchange feature after the 2011 release.

Adobe: New Unified Customer Profile will personalise ads as never before

What Does Targetted Advertising Do Again?

*** Pardon whilst I check the ads on this page ***

Oh, I see, apparently advertising products I’ve already purchased elsewhere.

Lenovo's craptastic fingerprint scanner has a hardcoded password

Re: To be fair

“Lenovo inherited this rubbish from IBM.”

It has been 11 years Since Lenovo bought IBM’s PC business. They’ve have more than enough time to write their own bug-ridden drivers. That was the days of XP for gawd sake. All the drivers from those days are in the bin.

FYI: Processor bugs are everywhere – just ask Intel and AMD

Even the 6502

The 6502 had a couple of well known bugs. You just had to code around those. The early 16 bit chips like the 68000 had bugs. I doubt that there has been a bug free processor. Ever.

Cryptocurrency-crafting creeps crept crafty code into Google App Store

Seriously?

Yeah, to this day, I never disable UAC on Windows unless it is absolutely required by a business application that I am required to install. I cancel installs that ask for a promiscuous level of permissions. I also do not install every stupid app that catches my eye. I look for an app when I ha e a need and then I look for a well-known, trusted vendor.

As to the Google Play Store, the problem is that Google wants millions of apps on offer, so they abdicate the basic responsibilty a reseller has, to choose decent products to sell their customers. How much nicer it would be if Gooogle picked a handful of products, say a few thousand, of which they thought highly, from vendors with whom they had an ongoing, established relationship.

Fake tech support 'scam' husband and wife banned FOR LIFE from computer repair world

Re: they were let off

They’ve had their license to print money revoked, so, there’s that. Also, it not a bad idea to get the consent decree, rather then chance fancy lawyer trickery getting them off at trial.

NSA bloke used backdoored MS Office key-gen, exposed secret exploits – Kaspersky

Re: Oooooh, really?!?!?

I, for one, always disable the sending of malware samples back to the vendor.

Apple vs. Samsung to climb back into rounded rectangle of justice

So Who Won?

Not Apple, definitely not Samsung. I think it must be the lawyers.

FCC Commissioner blasts new TV standard as a 'household tax'

Re: 3D

Yep, 4K sure makes all of our 1080i cable video look really awesome!

Re: 3D

In fact, manufacturers were see flat sales after the big switch to ATSC, mandated by the government. The industry tried to goose sales back then with 3DTV, it failed, they’re trying again now with 4K. I guess it isn’t working as they’ve got the government to mandate the initiatives in such a way to make all of our TVs obsolete.

White House plan to nuke social security numbers is backed by Equifax's ex-top boss

Once Upon a Time

You actually had to show up in person at the bank, savings & loan, credit union or finance company. You needed to have multiple forms of ID. You had to provide verifiable employment, credit and personal references. Then you had to wait anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to find out if you were approved for your home, car or personal loan. Then you had to go sign paperwork in person and collect a check.

A few other niceties also existed. Like a reasonable maximum on your interest rate, by law it could only be so high. Your loan wasn’t immediately sold to some faceless corporation. If you had a situation you could likely go talk to a live person at the same place you made the loan and arrange to be late on a payment without the world coming to an end.

So, how about this modern computer age then?

FCC big cheese given Congressional roasting in reconfirmation bid

Didn’t You Know?

Ajit Pai started out as lawyer at Verizon. He’s serving his masters well. Come 2021 he’ll be out of the FCC and back to work, in one way or another, for one of the comms companies.

CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

Yes, CBS Would Do This

I don’t know why the author thinks that CBS itself wouldn’t be likely to pull this kind of shenanigans. CBSI, a.k.a. CBS Interactive, a subsidiary of CBS, runs a little website called download.com. You remember download.com. They’re the people who would wrap 13 or so pieces of adware, junkware, spyware, etc. around shareware downloads that would then pollute the computers of clueless users.

Downloaded CCleaner lately? Oo, awks... it was stuffed with malware

Re: Unethical Behavior

“CCleaner works great for years, but it gets squired by Avast and almost IMMEDIATELY it has malware?”

This kind of business deal takes weeks to months to complete, so more likely a coincidence,

“How is this not an inside job from someone at Avast?”

If anyone inside did it, likely it was someone from Piriform that didn’t like the takeover.

“I haven't seen this level of unethical behavior since Avira included adware in its paid-for antivirus.”

Ethics has nothing to do with this unless you think Avast did this on purpose.

Dude who claimed he invented email is told by judge: It's safe to say you didn't invent email

Re: Where Do I Find These Lawyers

“It's Sir Berners-Lee now. 'Sir' is a title given to knights. Knights have swords. You have, what, a keyboard?”

I have a high-power green laser. Hopefully, Sir Berners-Lee is wearing red sunglasses.

Re: Where Do I Find These Lawyers

Of course I didn’t invent the web. My facetious post was intended to make the point that neither did the complainant in the E-Mail case invent email. My project was interesting but went nowhere and was an interesting college comp-sci project, at best. It is just amazing how far obviously frivolous lawsuits can get in this county.

if we could close down half of the law schools and re-open them as med schools we’d be a lot better off.

Re: Where Do I Find These Lawyers

I’m only kidding about the suing of Tim Berners-Lee. i actually did write the notes out and code the project demo, in my Denver apartment, in 1985. The thing is, like this E-Mail case, lots of people were doing lots of things similar to my distributed, hyperlinked document tree, and my project had nothing to do with development of what we know as the web today.

Where Do I Find These Lawyers

I described, in 33 handwritten pages of notes, a scheme whereby documents, pictures and executable scripts could be interlinked on multiple networked computers. I wrote the code and demonstrated a beta version of it to colleagues. This was back in 1985. I am pretty sure I invented the web. I need to sue someone. I keep hearing about Tim Berners-Lee. Can I sue him?

Whoosh, there it is: Toshiba bods say 14TB helium-filled disk is coming soon

Re: I don't believe them

All going to data centers in case lots. No 14TB drives for you.

Re: Fuck a duck!

Exactly, rack mounted teletype terminal hooked to my micro a bit higher in the rack. Video terminal came later. Ahh, 110 baud.

Re: Fuck a duck!

Commodore 5 Megabyte external IEEE-488 connected hard drive around the size of a toaster hooked to my Commodore B-128.

Criticize Google, get fired: Spotlight spins on ad giant's use of soft money

Who Do These Fools Think They Are?

You got to be a billionaire these days to have an opinion and have it heard. The rest of you need to shut up and do your jobs. You did want to keep that job, right?

US watchdog alert: Don't fall victim to crapto crypto-coin cons, people

Wait, What?

Isn’t the whole damn crypto-currency thing one big scam?

How the CIA, Comcast can snoop on your sleep patterns, sex toy usage

Lose the Unsecured IOT Device

There is no excuse for leaving an unsecured device connected to the net these days. I wonder how many bot-nets it participates in already.

President Trump to his council of industry CEO buddies: You're fired!

Re: Political Correctness "key words" and "tricky phrases"

Bob says: “Trump told the truth about BOTH SIDES being wrong.“

My reply is that violence to advance hate and bigotry is no virtue and violence to fight hate and bigotry is no vice.

The two sides are not both wrong. You espouse a false eqivalence and thereby give cover to the Nazis, KKK and their ilk. It actually makes you one of them.

Flash fryers have burger problems: You can't keep adding layers

Re: An idea ...

“Now, for serious points, did you ever use wire-wrap in your computer?“

Same SYM-1 computer as in earlier post. Now with crude card cage and a home built RAM card, wire wrapped, 16KB more static RAM!

Re: An idea ...

“If I suggested that was what we used to do in the 80's none of the youngsters would believe me”

Exactly how I got my SYM-1 to 8KB when it only had sockets for 4KB of RAM.

Steve Bannon wants Facebook, Google 'regulated like utilities'

Re: pseudo-debate in desperate search for clicks

>> Fun fact: regulation of interstate commerce is handled by the federal government.

> No, it's actually Congress that has the power to regulate interstate commerce. Not the executive branch. Congress has delegated some interstate regulatory powers to the FTC. And neither Congress, nor the FTC regulate utilities.

The last time I checked the Congress is one branch of the Federal Government. So there’s that. The Congress has the power to pass laws defining a regulatory authority that lies within the limited powers of the federal government that are defined in the Constitution. The executive branch can approve or veto that law. The judiciary can interpret or overturn the law baesd on the Constitution. Once passed, a regulatory authority is established, and as the Constituion tells us, executive authority rests with the executive branch, the executive branch writes and enforces the regulations.

But you probably knew all of that. Right? No??

The OP was right, the Federal Government has the power to regulate interstate commerce.

Intel's Skylake and Kaby Lake CPUs have nasty hyper-threading bug

Re: Not good news for the new iMac...

Don't get all giddy. Apple will deliver these new systems with the microcode already patched, you can be sure of that.

Re: This is gonna suck.

Do Not Take Your Computer To Best Buy! Call a local community college or college they usually have computer technician training and they have interns.

Microsoft's new Surface laptop defeats teardown – with glue

Re: Does Microsoft offer an exchange program too?

Updraft102 writes: "I've never seen a laptop with a three-year warranty"

Any number of good, professional grade laptops come with a three-year warranty out of the box. Nearly any laptop can be upgraded to a three-year warranty for around $80-$100. You can also get accidental damage insurance on all of them.

Most manufacturers provide technical support for the duration of your warranty. That Micrsoft is selling $1000-$3000 laptops with only 90 days of tech support is telling.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but Microsoft's 'Ms Pac-Man beating AI' is more Automatic Idiot

Re: Sematics

Or we might just agree to call these sophisticated Expert Systems.

AI, Yeah, Right.

When a so-called AI system has decided to take the afternoon off, I might be ready to agree it's intelligent.

Donald Trumped: Comey says Prez is a liar – and admits he's a leaker

Re: @Mi Tasol

Mr. Comey shared a memo with a friend and thence the press at the time he was a private citizen, so not a leak at all. Now if he still worked for the FBI at the time that would be different.

Second, notes of conversations made at the time by law enforcement, especially FBI types, are given very high credence in court. So unless Trump has tapes that contradicts them I am going with the notes.

Finally, Comey's account fits in with what we know of Trump's antics. Watch the video from today's "Cabinet Meeting" for corroboration.

Microsoft seeks Comcast subpoena to nab activation pirates

Re: Was it malicious?

Yeah, no, if it's a reputable shop they're not going to reload windows based on a hand written key-code taped on to the side of the computer or a licence they rip from the registry. If you want me to reload your windows you best have a valid COA somewhere on the machine or a legit retail box copy of Windows. I just don't need any visits from Microsoft lawyers.

Three Nigerians sentenced to 235 years in prison for online scamming

Not just the Nigerian's Anymore

Got an email just this morning from a barrister out of London. He was trying to convince me that his client, now deceased, has left a whole pile of money in the bank and there's no known next of kin. But my name is pretty close, so we should just go ahead and clash m it for me to keep the bankers from taking the money for themselves. Of course there will be some fees to get all the proper papers and documentation done...