Posts by hayzoos

Judge rejects claims Cloudflare should be held responsible for customers' copyright infringement

lack of understanding - part of the problem

Cloudflare is not a host. Cloudflare is a CDN content delivery network which still doesn't describe basically what they do. They allow faster, more reliable, and less latent delivery of the content hosted on any website. Irrelevant to the discussion, they have branched out to related services. Their ability to deliver in such a manner precludes them from examining the content they are delivering.

They are not the sandwich shop, they are the doordash. The wedding dress company may as well be suing DHL or UPS or FedEx for delivering the counterfeit goods.

Maker of ATM bombing tutorials blew himself up – Euro cops

Not an ATM but similar

I live in an area where there were a lot of coal mines and therefore coal miners. This was a time before ATMs. A few of the coal miners hatched a plan to blast a bank's night deposit box to obtain the booty. At least one of the miners knew how to figure out how much explosive was needed for a given blast. So they swiped some explosive from work and executed the plan. They chose a small branch office. They took out the entire corner of the building and there was no booty, but charred deposits flying in the air. The bricks, glass, metal, etc. flew more distinctive ballistic paths and fell to the ground rather quickly.

The incident was responded to by the local police and firefighters. Being this occurred in the US, later the FBI and Secret Service also arrived. It was determined that the miner figuring the explosive charge was adept at blasting rock underground. But, an above ground freestanding building does not present as much buffering mass to contain a blast. Nobody was injured.

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair: British home computer trailblazer dies aged 81

The TS-1000 was the second computer I wrote a program on, it was my uncle's. Many years later I found a Chinese knockoff, I bought one for the novelty. My life was certainly influenced by this man's work. I am grateful.

Not too bright, are you? Your laptop, I mean... Not you

Re: Ah, a first time user

Ah, bringing back the memories. When patching a program meant hexediting (or a dedicated patch editor). I remember adding some sort of print functionality to my Wordstar this way.

Proton welcomes Sir Tim Berners-Lee to its advisory board – as ProtonMail suffers a privacy backlash

WWW and privacy, LOL

I know Sir Tim Berners-Lee does support privacy in his more recent statements.

But does anybody else see the irony in his appointment to a privacy based email service?

The man most famous for giving us the WWW using hypertext to allow us easier access to all the world's information on the Internet. He is now to advise on how to keep information private using the Internet.

British data watchdog brings cookies to G7 meeting – pop-up consent requests, not the delicious baked treats

Toss those cookies

The whole cookie deal is too complex for the average punter. Session cookies, first party cookies, third party cookies (what about second party cookies), cookie expiration, tracking cookies, why not call them biscuits, fortune cookies; the head spins.

Even here they are not fully understood. First party cookies are not only session cookies. How does a site "keep me logged in" or "remember me" or in some poor implementation instances "remember my preferences"? Answer: first party cookies which are not session cookies. Did you know a session cookie can also be a third party cookie? See, not clear cut. I am sure I do not know all the flavors of cookies or biscuits.

Part of my anti-tracking routine is starting all browser sessions with a clean slate, no site related data retained by the browser. I also attempt to block other tracking methods but it is not easy. Nor do I think I am being complete and successful. I only hope to not be the low hanging fruit.

My wish for the decision (even though I am extra-jurisdictional) is that it not make my approach harder or ineffective. Being a USAian I do not expect to benefit from the EU or UK attempts to curb the private data slurp. On the other hand, I should also not suffer from poor implementations like cookie consent banners.

That is all.

Miscreants fling booby-trapped Office files at victims, no patch yet, says Microsoft

Incredible! It's even worst than I imagined.

Not only did MS make it easy to to run as admin and in some instances necessary, upon installation, the first account created for the primary user was an admin account. I know this could be altered with a custom install configuration, I did so. I, like many others wanted to blame lazy developers for requiring admin rights to run their software. But, MS actions encouraged this behavior in spite of the MS narrative discouraging it. I had a job where nobody's daily use account was allowed admin rights, even developers, gasp. It took a bit of work, but I never found admin rights required. System administration did not even require admin rights all the time. Unfortunately, the default became having admin rights and the "fix" UAC. Guess what, having admin rights a piece of malware could circumvent UAC. Funny how that works. I no longer do Windows regularly so I do not know if all is as it was, but knowing MS and Windows from the beginning, I bet it is largely as it was at the core.

Only 'natural persons' can be recognized as patent inventors, not AI systems, US judge rules

Re: An alternative

"gaps"? You mean it is finding the patents which do not already have a similar patent that states "with a computer" or "on the Internet" or "using blockchain"

Maybe I can file for "the wheel using blockchain" or "swinging using a computer" before his AI does.

Banned: The 1,170 words you can't use with GitHub Copilot

Re: Illogical

This can offend white people. Therefore we shall from this day forward use the term sparsely pigmented people. We can then use sparsely pigmented for short.

One thing I do not understand is why the word people itself is not banned. Statistically, I find most people offensive.

More cracks found in Russian annex of the International Space Station

Re: Red Green

I though Canadian duct tape performed swimmingly in sub-zero conditions.

Fix five days of server failure with this one weird trick

Re: The "inspector"

You just had to bring back that memory. The cord was tugged little brother 3-4yrs old. The iron was destined for the kitchen's new linoleum floor. I reacted with catlike reflexes. I caught it, by the hot end. I realized quickly enough to direct the pain reflex to send the iron towards the slate floor, but not abort the catch or retarget for the handle.

LibreOffice 7.2 brings improved but still imperfect Microsoft Office compatibility

Re: incompatibility issues

Cross-platform may not have been the issue. I have seen exactly what you describe when the only difference was default printer. Office seems to define the layout of documents using the printer as a the template. I had solved the issue for a team once by setting all the default printers (all in Windows) as a print to PDF file printer. I suggested they adapt the printing process to "print" to PDF, then print to paper.

I cannot say LibreOffice is afflicted by the same issue or not. There is just not enough of an installed base for me to have seen the same circumstance. I do use LO myself. I have adopted "print" to PDF and PDF to paper if needed as my normal process no matter the original source application. It just works.

Activist raided by police after downloading London property firm's 'confidential' meeting minutes from Google Search

Re: Pet Peeve

I now suppose you are going to tell me that Google is not the Internet.

US senators reach last-minute compromise on cryptocurrency regulations as infrastructure bill vote looms

Tax Evasion

I have to wonder how much tax would be generated. First, let me state that I prefer the more limited view of cryptocurrency broker because I see too much cost expended to collect too little extra revenue with the more expanded view. Those supporting the expanded view may have a different thing in mind . . . end cryptocurrency. I say if you want to end cryptocurrency, you should say so and act more directly.

How much cryptocurrency value is from fiat currency conversion directly and how much is due to the rise in "value" due to speculation? The US is currently treating cryptocurrency as an investment and taxing as such, only when the the conversions between crypto and fiat and vice versa take place. If a relatively small amount of fiat is converted, then a relatively small amount of revenue on that end. If a relatively small amount of crypto is converted to fiat then same. I suspect most of the "value" of crypto is not going to be converted to fiat and that "value" may virtually disappear should a run in crypto cash out occur.

There may not be as much revenue to be had as the politicians think. Even worse, US tax law also allows for consideration of investment losses to partially reduce tax liability. Those details may or may not apply to crypto investment, but they have to think it through.

As per tax evasion, defining brokers as primarily exchanges would help on that aspect.

Electrocution? All part of the service, sir!

Re: Where's the Kaboom!?

I have a similar tale, eerily similar. Mine also occurred about 50 years ago. I was somewhere between 2 and 3 years old at the time. My mother had just finished ironing clothes. I was being helpful and wanted to unplug the iron from the extension cord. I could not quite muster the strength to separate the two cords. So, I decided to use two hands pulling in the same direction on one cord and anchoring the other cord with my mouth. I still to this day have a memory of the sensation but not immediately what followed. I also have a scar at the right corner of my mouth where the wound separated my lips.

The fearful reaction was not mine but my mother's. She must have had a brief micro heart attack prior to yanking the cord out of the wall. I can only imagine what speed records of all sorts were broken in her goal to get me medical care.

Re: I had a similar "shock" once

I have seen similar. I was relocating boxes and placing box extenders for a wall insulation upgrade project. One outlet would not die no matter which breaker was turned off. Of course it was an un-relocatable box requiring an extender which required un-wiring the outlet and most of the time wire nuts and extra wire. I did that one live because I was now holding up the drywallers, fortunately it did not need wires extended so no striping of live wire .

Later on in the job I was doing some other electrical at that house and found another zombie circuit which just wouldn't die. This time I could do proper troubleshooting and circuit tracing. I then changed my mind that these were not zombie circuits when I found that they went dead after turning off two particular breakers. I then thought of them as Siamese twins. I found their connection point in a junction box and performed a successful separation surgery. Although due to space (and budget, of course) constraints, I could not provide them with separate junction boxes. I did however thoroughly label each circuit in the junction box and wrote a warning on the cover with both circuits identified.

When doing the outlet, I was tempted to use a technique I was taught when installing payphones at convenience stores (some of the worst wiring I have seen). The senior payphone installer who had previously worked for GTE had a special flat screwdriver which looked like it barely survived WWII with multiple wraps of electrical tape halfway up the shaft and around the handle with a tip and lower which obviously had been reformed by electrically induced explosive disintegration. When the proper breaker (or fuse) could not be found, it came out of the toolbox and was jammed into the box to short out the circuit. It worked most of the time. Once in what must have been fairly loaded or unevenly loaded panel the main breaker tripped. Another time no breaker tripped and senior tech had to rip the welded screwdriver out of the box, we buttoned back up the box and told the manager to get an electrician in to fix the issue. Convenience store managers generally do not like it when you turn off the store lights and really hate when you shut off the fuel pumps or cash till when you are trying to find the correct breaker.

AI algorithms uncannily good at spotting your race from medical scans, boffins warn

Why are we so focused on the symptoms and not the root cause.

"Race" is not a problem, how different "races" are treated by different "races" is. We are all different to different extents. Vive la differance. The problem is when this turns into an "us" vs "them" situation.

Essentially, I have no problem with "AI" being able to predict self-selected "race" in regards to medical images. Our differences are not only skin deep and because of that it may have an impact on proper medical treatment. It only becomes a problem if it results in improper medical treatment, even worse if because "race" doesn't deserve proper medical treatment in somebody's opinion or tradition or whatever horrid reason.

We, the human race, really need to grow up. That includes me, I am sure I suffer some of the same faults to some degree.

On this most auspicious of days, we ask: How many sysadmins does it take to change a lightbulb?

Re: Demarcation

My dad's cousin was an "electrician" who had worked his way up to power plants and grids from residential, mines, and industrial systems. He said to never touch or go near any downed power line even if it wasn't sparking. He said there were many reasons from a self resetting "circuit breaker" to a "small" short on a high power line may not do much to the earth but plenty enough to make for a bad day for anybody unprotected approaching or touching such a line.

Just wanted to get that out there for safety. Unless you are trained and are protected for it, stay away from downed power lines!

Restoring your privacy costs money, which makes it a marker of class

Poison the well - so to speak

It seems to me the situation has reached the point where nothing you do can effectively prevent the slurpage. I was thinking that instead of trying to resist, try to obscure. Rather than giving up, give freely and give often. Try to become the 26, 30, 52, 40, 80, and 77 year old male and female white, black, blue, purple, and green unemployed self-sufficient retired woodworker, buggy whip maker, designer, theologian, CEO, capitalist, volunteer that follows .... you get the idea, I hope. You become everything and nothing. Your advertising profile becomes both distinctly identifiable yet anonymous. In effect, poison the well from which advertisers drink.

Linux Mint 20.2 is a bit more insistent about updating but not as annoying as Windows or Mac, team promises

Re: Linux Bloatware

That sounds like the typical 32 bit Windows configuration. The Core2 Quad processor is a 64 bit architecture and 4 core. I cannot recall with certainty but I think XP 32 was license limited to 2 cores. XP-64 was a rare beast, I have only supported two, it seemed a bit unpolished more like server with a sprinkling of desktop config and look and feel. My wife's Vista laptop was a 64 bit processor but 32 bit OS. I think there were a lot of compatibility rumors which caused a lot of 32 bit installs on 64 bit processors back then. The 2GB RAM capacity was quite common for that situation. Even early Win 7 saw a lot of 32 bit installs on 64 bit machines, but at least many had 4GB RAM installed. Many 32bit *nix of that timeframe would state 2GB max for 32 bit but Windows 32 bit would go 4GB with the right license. Server installs are a different beast.

2GB RAM is very limiting for a 64 bit configuration which is most likely the Mint installed. Trying to compare that configuration with 32 bit XP (it's RAM sweet spot 2GB to 4GB) to a 64 bit OS with what would be considered the low end RAM is an apples to oranges comparison.

My laptop started with Win 7 64bit and 8GB RAM and is now running Linux Mint 19.x 64bit. It is an Intel Core2 Duo (two cores) and Linux Mint is better on this config.

Google herds FLoC back to the lab for undisclosed post-third-party-cookie ad tech modifications

Re: Privacy XOR Targeted ads

Targeted ads mean more profits for ad companies. They are not going to kill their cash cow. Advertisers are being lied to on everything about targeted ads so ad companies can keep selling them.

Targeted ads are largely ineffective. So all this infrastructure to support targeted ads is waste. And the infrastructure is enormous and inefficient. It is implemented in such a way as to minimize the cost to the ad companies.

Just look at the explosion of javascript in web pages. How many CPU cycles are wasted in all the inefficient javascript barfed upon web browsers? How much energy is wasted producing those cycles? How much percentage of "making a living" time is required to pay for that energy to power the CPU to run the dungheap of javascript to support cesspool of targeted ads?

There are efforts underway to convince policymakers and lawmakers that the real evil is targeted ads and the explosion of privacy invasions is merely a symptom. Cure the illness and the symptoms go away.

Seek out one or more of those efforts and add your voice. Just don't google it, I prefer the duck side.

After 15 years and $500m, the US Navy decides it doesn't need shipboard railguns after all

Re: Sharks

That would be an excellent name for a rock band!

The PrintNightmare continues: Microsoft confirms presence of vulnerable code in all versions of Windows

Re: Why are the US programmers so bad?

It's a one piece of the puzzle type of thing. A print spool no matter how implemented must accept input from any user allowed to print, i.e. write access for the user. Because of how printing has evolved, some of the "printout" may contain code intended for the printer i.e. postscript and it's close cousin PDF which further expands upon the code "features". Now all this is intended for printer control, but feature creep has the printspooler meddling with the data stream for various purposes.

So, "modern printing" in the "age of the paperless office" is not as simple as it may seem.

Windows printing

It's been a while since I have supported a Windows network so my memory may be skewed.

I thought any Windows machine which had an application that required printing, would have to have the local print spooler active. Then any Windows machine which had a printer attached would have to have the print spooler active. And there was the possibility of a print server with no printers attached acting as a centralized print manager which had to have the print spooler active. Print spooler was active by default in a Windows installation.

Non-traditional printing such as generic print to file or more specifically print to pdf, ps, txt, nul, xyz, cia, nsa, kgb, or whatever format or actual destination was still printing and required the spooler. Even save as pdf in some instances was implemented through the printing mechanism.

Granted, the big prize is executing as system on a DC, and getting there in fewer steps is better understood and easier. But, executing as system on any domain member can get you the big prize with the right incantations.

Huawei dev flamed for 'useless' Linux kernel code contributions

More to the Story?

My gut instinct tells me there has to be something more to the story. The gist of the comments seem to agree that blowing up over housekeeping submits is not right. The clue is the KPI reference and mention of a 996 work culture. One possibility I can think of is that submits from the huawei domain upon analysis have become mostly small numerous comment corrections or the like unnecessarily broken up into smaller submits but spread out over time so as to be less noticeable but produce high counts for KPI. Inefficiency at it's finest driven by phbs. Each submit may require a minimum time for administrativa be it one typo fix or all.

Would-be password-killer FIDO Alliance aims to boost uptake with new UX guidelines

People don't see the need

Ransomware is the cybercrime du jour. FIDO does not solve that problem. The problem FIDO does solve is not scary enough for people to want take the effort to use it. This applies across the scale at the individual and enterprise levels. For the implementors, SMS is king. In the US banking industry, SMS is good enough for regulators so banks generally offer only SMS as 2-factor whilst it is required by many banks. Other industries use the banking industry as their comparison with most seeing themselves as not needing more security than a bank. The threat landscape would have to change for those viewpoints to change.

'Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain' for online ads: It's time for a competition probe, says EU

Re: Be careful what you wish for

Exactly my thought on the article. Targeted advertising is damn near impossible to implement without running afoul of privacy laws. Keep in mind targeted advertising is being sold by marketers also know as salesmen in earlier vernacular. The best of them can "sell a refrigerator to an eskimo", average ones can sell bottled air to you or I. Targeted advertising is the defacto standard for online ads. Targeted ads are not worth the bits they are made of. I have never purchased anything due to an online ad. Yet the targeted ad industry is spying on our every move to have data to develop targeting for ads.

Spyware, trade-secret theft, and $30m in damages: How two online support partners spectacularly fell out

Smoke and mirrors

[24/7, it's claimed, maliciously disrupted LivePerson technology on the websites of customers, misrepresented data related to LivePerson's technology, services, and system performance to promote its own competing service, and "[injected] spyware into LivePerson’s databases, through unauthorized use of LivePerson’s copyrighted code, in order to gather information regarding the operation of LivePerson technology—presumably to reverse engineer LivePerson’s technology."

"Once 24/7’s live-interaction software has been installed on a website that also contains LivePerson’s technology, it appears that 24/7 improperly injects 'spyware' into LivePerson’s systems," the complaint states. "24/7’s spyware appears expressly designed to capture confidential and proprietary information and data regarding LivePerson’s technology and client relationships."]

I have my doubts that LivePerson's databases were breached as claimed. The unauthorized use of LivePerson's copyrighted code is also questionable but plausible. "Presumably to" weasel words alert! And "reverse engineer" is a valid legal means of deriving trade secrets, but should have been covered in the agreement specifically. It can also be hard to prove reverse engineering as a defense if one has access to said secrets. "Appears" twice mentioned in claims is also a weasel word.

I think most of the implementation was using javascript. Javascript which runs in the web browser in the context of the website but hosted by other servers. Something called cross-site scripting which used to be considered a security issue. Web browsers have little to no sandboxing of javascript coming from the site's domain or other domains referenced from the site's domain. It is trivial to mess with javascript in a browser session when your javascript is executing in the same session. If LivePerson's trade secrets are represented by this javascript then there is essentially no protection of the trade secret. While the javascript itself may be protected by copyright the methods it embodies are not. Patent protection is better suited for that situation. Trade secrets rely upon confidentiality agreements prior to revealing them. But if the trade secret is being revealed to any web browser visiting the clients' sites, then confidentiality is questionable.

I know precedents in other cases went the other way for trade secrets in similar circumstances. I wonder if the court understood the technology well enough to make the decision. Or, did LivePerson's lawyers put on a good show while 24/7's dropped the ball.

New York congressman puts forward federal right-to-repair bill

Good, but more

In a statement, Congressman Morelle said: "For too long, large corporations have hindered the progress of small business owners and everyday Americans by preventing them from the right to repair their own equipment.

"This common-sense legislation will help make technology repairs more accessible and affordable for items from cell phones to laptops to farm equipment, finally giving individuals the autonomy they deserve."

I support the effort, being a Mr. Fixit myself. A couple of points need to be made on the statements. They are not preventing us they are taking away from us. Thus, they will not be giving autonomy, but returning it.

In some categories, the access to parts just may not happen. Tools are available and reverse engineering provides the knowledge. But if a manufacturer never repairs themselves and only provides a replacement under warranty, then there may be no spare parts available, they may not have affordable tools to offer. The economics of simply not repairing but replacing under warranty may be more than offset by the profits of continual replacement of "disposable" out of warranty kit.

I think the effort needs to be more about discouraging making/designing more and more products to be disposable. This includes things that generally get recycled like cars, trucks, heavy equipment, farm equipment. It's not just about keeping things out of landfills, but also keeping more money in the wallets of the working class.

Dealing with the pandemic by drinking and swearing? Boffins say you're not alone

Re: The 5 rules of problematic drinking

1. Check.

2. Nope.

3. There is no wrong container, try again.

4. By my definition, 7-12 units a week, good here.

5. I could, but why?

I just don't see these criteria as a good measure.

Shall we ask the Scots, or Irish, or Germans, or Polish, or Russians? We may appear to be lightweights in their measure.

Oracle hits UK reseller with lawsuit for allegedly reselling grey market Sun hardware

Claiming trademark infringement

The fine point is Oracle claiming trademark infringement. First thought of solution would be to strip all the badges before resale. Except, what about the software bits? Software also enjoys copyright protections which could be leveraged to protect removal of trademark badges. If you think about it both hardware and more recently, and to a lesser extent, software can be protected by patents and do not forget about design patent. Patents could be leveraged also to protect removal of trademark badges. So the argument could be that the trademark badges are an integral part of the kit thanks to the software copyrights, design patents, software patents, and hardware patents. Therefore all that has to be won is the claim that the trademarks cannot be sold/resold in markets not allowed by the trademark IP holder.

Brilliant! I should patent that legal manoeuver.

Cloudflare offers $100,000 for prior art to nuke networking patents a troll has accused it of ripping off

Re: No free money for me here...

"Also, unless Cloudflare has gone into the router and switch hardware design business, it stretches credulity to suggest that they have implemented even a single one of all the claims in those patents. These are not things you do in software."

Is this not how new patents are created. There was the peak of taking an existing patent and adding "on a computer" and voila, new patent. Since that peak has passed now the key phrase is "implemented in software". A rising star these days is "in the cloud"

If I could only foresee the next magic phrase I could patent a new business method of creating new patents with it.

After all everything that will be invented has been already.

NASA’s getting really good at this flying a helicopter on Mars thing

Neat

Now all they have to do is command the rover in a particular path. Then command the aircraft to view the tracks. The pattern should read "Hello World".

Computer security world in mourning over death of Dan Kaminsky, aged 42

Wow - RIP - We lost a fine one.

Origami... in spaaaaace: Inflatable folded objects discovery brings new meaning to blowing up buildings

Vogons may have something to say about that

"Moreover, the reduction of gravitational force — and the absence of building regulations — in space would also facilitate the use of the new origami technology," Adriaenssens opined."

I expect they would be visited by a Vogon code enforcement officer. Oh the paperwork required. Origami without a permit, Building without a permit, Inflating without a permit ... So much poetry, so little time.

UK.gov wants mobile makers to declare death dates for their new devices from launch

Re: Finally!

I wish my smartphone had a barely touched Android. My last two phones were emergency replacements for the previous ones wearing out after 5+ years of use. Both had copious amounts of touch to Android by not only the manufacturer, but also the carrier. I have used extensive measures to get back to generic Android as closely as I can without breaking thinks. I have tried the custom ROM route also. It's my phone not your spy tool or ongoing revenue generator. I use a smartphone for a handful of particular apps I use for my revenue generation.

FCC urges Americans to run internet speed app to counter Big Cable's broadband data fudging

Simple solution to that. Do all your internet in your ISP's cloud then. The only things that will seem slow are, ah wait a minute. . .

Most of what I use is not on my ISP's network. I'm pretty sure I only visit my ISP's network to obtain my "paperless" bill. And, because I use a VPN because I don't trust my ISP's penchant to slurp (and I travel for work), I visit their network from outside their network. My speed tests are skewed because of that on a number of factors.

Don't forget about aerospace, self reporting and certification. What could go wrong?

Apple begins rejecting apps that use advertising SDKs for fingerprinting users

This is all just privacy theatre

A serious statement and policy on privacy would be "No Tracking, Period." Anything less is just there for show. Make the market believe we cherish privacy. Strike a compromise between diminishing the revenue stream of customers and the revenue stream of advertisers. Just because the revenue streams are tapped differently, doesn't mean they are not doing it.

And such is my opinion.

Yep, you're totally unique: That one very special user and their very special problem

I guess sometime during the era of Win7, laptop manufacturers decided Function keys (i.e. F1 through F12) which had also previously taken on randomized secondary functions such as WiFi toggle, brightness, "media" control, cupholder deployment, and more; that long traditional F# functions should be secondary instead. I found this out a few years ago after having been off the MS cartel merry-go-round for a half decade. I was required to utilized spreadsheet Mark X (or was it March 10th 1900?) on nearly out of support Win7 laptops. I was attempting to use F2 to edit the contents of a cell since this had worked back in the days preceeding the existence of F11 and F12. The primary function of that key is now to dim the brightness on nearly all of those laptops. I am gradually rectifying the situation by rebooting, entering BIOS Setup, and changing the default back to the traditional behaviour. Nobody else has even noticed the changes.

City of London Police warn against using ‘open science’ site Sci-Hub

Copyright is not

Copyright is not about making money on on Intellectual Property, in spite of what so many greedy highly profitable organizations peddling copyrighted work would have you believe.

Copyright grants the IP creator exclusive right to each and every copy of their IP work with a few specifically excluded fair use exceptions. The intent was to allow creative types to earn a living. Benefit to the public was creative works which may not be if the creator had to do something else to earn a living.

There is no requirement that a copy of copyrighted work be compensated monetarily. Lack of monetary compensation does not turn a copyrighted work into public domain.

Creative Commons licenses are for copyrighted works. In fact, CC licenses are not worth a damn without copyright. If Elsevier has in fact sold a copy of a CC non-comercial licenses work, they have committed a copyright violation. The seriousness of that violation is just as much as any violation they may claim somebody else has made by copying a copyrighted work licensed for monetary compensation.

Sci-Hub is acting like a Robin Hood, questionable means for a noble goal. Legally, wrong. Esevier is also using questionable means for a um..., goal. Potentially, legally wrong or just wrong. Two wrongs do not make a right, three lefts do.

1Password has none, KeePass has none... So why are there seven embedded trackers in the LastPass Android app?

You should be using a password manager that encrypts and decrypts passwords only on your own devices and only you have the decryption key (aka master password) with well vetted strong encryption. If that is the case, you should have no problem storing the encrypted passwords anywhere. You should even be able to post the encrypted passwords publicly. If not, you are using the wrong password manager.

The good ones will be warning you that if you lose the master password, you are screwed, since nobody will be able to decrypt.

Re: Bitwarden does not track

I checked this aspect out when I switched to Bitwarden. With this news, I re-examined the situation. I did change to the F-Droid build to avoid the third-party code.

Not the best solution for the masses though. I had no trouble switching to the F-Droid build. Too many steps and unfamiliar actions for the typical end-user.

I also rethought my initial assessment. I did not know Firebase. I did not know HockeyApp. Even though the Bitwarden app may only be using the push functionality of Firebase to sync the database... What else did Google embed in the push code?

HockeyApp for crash analytics, okay, I can understand the need to have data to improve the reliability. Bitwarden is built using Xamarin which is part of the open source .NET and also a subsidiary company of Microsoft. A healthy amount of skepticism will suspect HockeyApp of the same.

I think I will try pressuring the devs to consider replacing both. Firebase would be easier to replace since it is only a component. HockeyApp itself may only be a component, but how about Xamarin?

Why has my last "Hello World" program measured 10 MB, while the first only measured under 512 bytes?

UK dev loses ownership claim on forensic software he said he wrote in spare time and licensed to employer

Waters are muddier now

Believe it or not, my career experience here in the US is that independently produced IP is yours. An employer can object on competitive grounds. Granted my sampling may not represent the whole.

A few of my jobs were paid hourly, so "on company time" was clear cut. If I was not being paid for the time it was mine and so was any work or creation during that time unless I used employer's resources.

I worked salaried jobs as well. Most of it was not work from home. "On company time" was scheduled work hours even if an irregular schedule.

I did have some work from home or hotel or client site or on vacation (holiday). I only did work on vacation because I overlooked completing a report prior to leaving (I was in a hurry), had to VPN in to crunch a few numbers and generate the report. "On company time" becomes a bit less clear cut when you can work from anywhere at almost anytime and are salaried.

My current job is hourly and only a very small part of it can be work from home and only if I bring company equipment home to do it since I "don't do Windows". I have only done that once for 1/2 hour for my own convenience.

With the major shift towards WFH, another of the factors helping to determine what belongs to whom is going away.

I have tools I have created on my own time, using my own resources, some while salaried. I even used some for the job. Some are software tools, some are tangible tools. I see no difference, they are mine. I have never had something so substantial as to have an employer want to market it to their customers.

Even under the US career environment I have experienced, I think the forensic software would belong to the employer after hearing the overall circumstances.

Dev creeped out after he fired up Ubuntu VM on Azure, was immediately approached by Canonical sales rep

Good joke

"private linkedin account" hilarious, ROTFLMAO! Oh, wait he was being serious wasn't he?

Terraria dev cancels Stadia port after Google disabled his email account for three weeks

Time to further excise the Google tumor

I have used Google services for a very long time. I have some backup plans, but I need to do better. I have been weening myself from full Google domination, but some things are hard to replace. I have to look into a Google Voice replacement (a call forwarding, voicemail, and SMS service). I have a grandfathered Google G-suite free level with a domain for my family including email hosting. I have paid android apps I use for work. It was so easy to get entangled, but when I started gmail was invite and I have over a decade (sheesh, maybe two) of email use and hundreds of sites and entities where I have to change email addresses. I have already taken some steps but have to coodorinate some and get the prerequisites correct. I keep chipping away though.

Buggy code, fragile legacy systems, ill-conceived projects cost US businesses $2 trillion in 2020

I can code (program)

I do not consider myself a developer, nor a coder, but a programmer. I will use a library if I know what it does inside, outside, topside...every side in every conceivable case I can muster. I will test it thoroughly as I test my own code. I am costly in both time and money, but strive to produce as correct code as I can; aka quality.

Many, many years ago, I was contacted to produce a payroll system for a company which had expanded from a single tax jurisdiction to multiple. They wanted the thing done in a month, they could not wait. I replied I would require no less than three months with one or two contingency until I could analyse the requirements. I did not get the job. Fast forward five years and I found out the "coder" the hire instead of me had delivered in two months instead of the agreed one. And, they were still working out bugs and had dozens of work arounds to process payroll including pre- and post- processing with a spreadsheet. They are now out of business.

The problem is unwillingness to pay for suitable quality. This goes far beyond software in IT. IT security is afflicted. It also does not help that the current trend of software is change for change sake and the abominations we are seeing is horrendous. There are losses due to abandonment of well reasoned user interface elements. How much time(money) is wasted when a form rejects input on submit when the input is formatted had been formatted in common form and only instructing the user of the expected form after the fact? Not really a rhetorical question, I just do not have the resources to make that determination. I can write a routine to transform input in common forms to the desired form for processing, I do not consider it to be time consuming or challenging. There are so many examples of poor programming, I could write an encyclopedia on the topic.

I agree training more developers is not the fix. The problem is deeper and requires a more complicated mitigation and is not likely to be accepted by those who make the decisions.

As Uncle Sam continues to clamp down on Big Tech, Apple pelted with more and more complaints from third-party App Store devs

Re: Another reason why

I feel guilty of helping to make this happen. I bought an Apple //c once.

Atlantic City auctions off chance to hit Big Red Button and make grotesque Trump Plaza casino go boom

Re: Good idea

Good idea in concept, but a controlled implosion calls for a fairly precise amount of explosives meticulously placed. I'm afraid if your plan were implemented, Pennsylvania would suddenly have beach front property.

Up yours, Europe! Our 100% prime British broadband is cheaper than yours... but also slower and a bit of a rip-off

Re: Speed is not the whole story

My ISP is Comcast at their 25Mbps service $55/mo. Next level up is $80/mo. which I think is 50Mbps which is what they tell me I need because it's an improvement to their revenues. There is a subsidized service at $25/mo. at 20Mbps but you have to qualify with a low income and cannot have been a customer for three months immediately prior.

All my other "options" according to the FCC are less bang for the buck. I cannot recall specific details, but none are fast, no fibre, DSL over neglected copper, satellite, and fixed wireless, (no 5G yet in case you are wondering). I just tried to check DSL availability, Verizon no longer seems to offer it, nor FIOS, nor LTE, nor 5G, but the FCC says they offer internet service here. When DSL was available it was same or only slightly less cost than Comcast but only 768Kbps. I had also checked landline phone service then and found it went from $25/mo. the last I had it to $40/mo. for no better, probably worse service, but they were happy to provide links to wireless service. Fixed wireless was twice the cost per bit, satellite was even more and still advertises 25Mbps for my location.