* Posts by ZekeStone

23 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Sep 2013

SpaceX reportedly fed up with providing free Starlink to Ukraine

ZekeStone

Root issue here is bad communication

What I think Musk/Starlink need to do is communicate clearly that what they have donated so far is as far as it goes. If additional service/units are needed, someone will have to pay for it.

Elon Musk wants to take Twitter public again 'within 3 years'

ZekeStone

Re: Libtards meltdown

"You know, one of those people who loves free speech, as long as people are saying the things that you agree with, but are happy to have things censored if they don't agree with it."

That more accurately describes modern-day Republicans and the far right more than any other group.

REvil resurrected? Ransomware crew appears to be back. Keyword: Appears

ZekeStone

Russian government ties to criminals? Can't say it would surprise me.

"the sudden reappearance of REvil raises questions about the gang's ties to the Russian government."

Yeah I wouldn't put it past Putin/the Russian government if they basically made a "work for us and you'll get released" deal with them. If they weren't already working for the Russian government before, it's likely they are now.

Jeff Bezos adds some more overheads to his $485m yacht by taking down historic bridge

ZekeStone

Re: What we haven't heard is how much it fails to clear by...

Or maybe we can just get a giant Sawzall and chop off the bits too big to fit under the bridge and stick 'em back on after.

ZekeStone

No problem... just as long as Bezos is paying for it

I am fine with this as long as Bezos is paying for the dismantling. There is no reason why local government/tax payers should pay for this.

Ukraine blames Belarus for PC-wiping 'ransomware' that has no recovery method and nukes target boxen

ZekeStone

There is always a recovery method if you have a good backup strategy

If you have a good backup strategy that includs online and offline backups, there is always a recovery method.

Also I suspect much of the problems can be avoided if proper security measures are taken... such as not allowing users to log in with accounts that have admin rights.

Remember Norton 360's bundled cryptominer? Irritated folk realise Ethereum crafter is tricky to delete

ZekeStone

Re: This article made me twitch.

" If I could get hold of the eejit that prepped these machines…"

They probably just went with the OEM pre-installed garbage instead of a clean non-OEM install of windows.

ZekeStone

Why would any AV software ever have garbage like this?

Seriously... crypto mining garbage should never have made it into the package in the first place.

I knew Norton was bloated garbage before. But this is a new low...

It takes more clicks to reject their cookies than accept them, so France fines Facebook and Google over €200m

ZekeStone

Web browsers are part of the problem

In the past, you could set your web browser to prompt whether to accept a given cookie. It was a bit of a hassle when you went on a site for the first time. But was interesting as it showed how much tracking crap some sites wanted to put on your computer.

They have since gotten rid of that functionality and I have to wonder how much marketing and analytics companies paid them to remove that feature.

I never saw a good reason (at least not good to me or general consumers) for that feature removal.

Better CEO is 'taking time off' after firing 900 staff on Zoom

ZekeStone

Better or worse?

What the hell is Better? What do they do? Online mortgage broker? Pffft. They're apparently useless for that:

https://www.bbb.org/us/ny/new-york/profile/mortgage-broker/bettercom-0121-165686/complaints

Though it's ironic that people are complaining to them to the BBB... another useless organization.

They should change their name to Worse... to match reality.

Spring tears down math geek t-shirt listing because it dared to mention the trademarked word 'zeta'

ZekeStone

Trademark should not have been granted

"The Greek alphabet is currently protected legally by the Affinity Client Services"

This company should never been granted any trademark for the Greek Alphabet for 'prior art' reasons alone.

Fired credit union employee admits: I wiped 21GB of files from company's shared drive in retaliation

ZekeStone

SOME???

"Court documents indicate that the credit union had "some" of the data backed up and that it has spent more than $10,000 undoing the damage."

Only SOME of the data was backed up? ALL of it should have been backed up. There's simply no excuse for this.

This drag sail could prevent spacecraft from turning into long-term orbiting junk. We spoke to its inventors ahead of launch

ZekeStone

"The Firefly rocket is expected to launch on September 2 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California"

This means the Firefly TV and movie series will restart, right? RIGHT???

$600m in cryptocurrencies swiped from Poly Network

ZekeStone

Wishful thinking...

"Poly Network urged the thieves to return the stolen coins:"

Total wishful thinking on their part... LOL.

This always-on culture we're in is awful. How do we stop it? Oh, sorry, hold on – just had another notification

ZekeStone

Re: "measure what they deliver"

Nah... The Sun Sparc20 got left in the dust by another chip also came out in 1992... The DEC Alpha.

The DEC Alpha was 64 bit and came out initially at 150mhz... while the Sparc was still 32bit and I think started at 40mhz at the time.

It was widely regarded as the fastest chip in the industry from that year until around 1996.

ZekeStone

Re: "measure what they deliver"

"when the 486DX2 was the pinnacle of technology. "

The DX2 came out in 1992. Another chip also came out in 1992... The DEC Alpha.

And I recall that when it came out, it was the fastest chip in the industry. Where the 486 was 32 bit and topped out at 66mhz, the DEC Alpha was 64 bit and came out initially at 150mhz.

What is your greatest weakness? The definitive list of the many kinds of interviewer you will meet in Hell

ZekeStone

What's my greatest weakness?

Carbohydrates.

The wheels come off Formula 1's notification service as fans plied with attacker's messages

ZekeStone

Re: Given the opportunity, what would you have said?

"If you were the originator of the “foo” comment, what would you have put out instead?"

NASCAR IS GR8!!!!

Things that needn't be said: Don't plonk a massive Starlink dish on the hood of your car

ZekeStone

It is cheap compared to the past

Regarding this statement:

"But surfing this way is not cheap. Punters are asked to fork out $499 for the dish and modem, with a further recurring $99 monthly subscription fee."

While that's expensive compared to setting up a land-line based or cellular-based internet circuit, it's cheap compared to the costs associated with satellite internet access of the past.

I remember spending 2-4 times that for bad service for someone who insisted on living in the middle of nowhere.

Google says once third-party cookies are toast, Chrome won't help ad networks track individuals around the web

ZekeStone

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time, you could set your browser to refuse all cookies or prompt you before accepting cookies.

I typically set it to prompt me to select between 'accept once', 'always accept', 'deny once' or 'always deny'. With that feature, it was interesting to see all the garbage some site would want to put on your system in the form of various cookies.

And that feature alone enabled me to avoid malware at least a few times

Then then browser makers made it harder and harder to do that before taking away the function completely... claiming that it 'didn't work anyway'... a claim I thought was bogus.

With some luck, the tide is turning and this functionality might come back eventually.

Alexa, swap out this code that Amazon approved for malware... Installed Skills can double-cross their users

ZekeStone

Not surprised

Reading about this doesn't surprise me one bit. I will never have one of these dumb "smart" speakers in my house... not even if someone gives me one for free. When they first came out, my first reaction was "well that's a huge potential for a security breach".

And it looks like I'm right.

Bill Gates again world's richest, tops in US for 20th straight year

ZekeStone
Thumb Down

Giving away his wealth? More like hiding/sheltering it.

"Gates, however, who has pledged to give away 95 per cent of his wealth to charity,"

Let's get one thing straight about these US-based 'charities'... they're little more than tax shelters that distribute a small portion of their money for charitable causes.

It's also a way to get friends and family cushy jobs for a high income at a reduced tax rate.

Charities like the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation are ALL about tax avoidance and very little about real charity.

ZekeStone

Re: still better at making it than giving it away

That's because like many of these "charities", he's only giving away the minimal amount so he can keep his "charity" tax shelter status.

It's all about tax shelters... that's all these charities are.