* Posts by JakeMS

350 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Jan 2015

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UK COVID-19 contact-tracing app data may be kept for 'research' after crisis ends, MPs told

JakeMS
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Re: No chance

Yup, I'm still not installing this by choice - and there's nothing they can do to change my mind.

I would still rather die by COVID-19 than install. Absolutely nothing will change my mind on that.

- Although, I did get a COVID-19 test on Wednesday - My results were "un clear" apparently, that means "I don't know" and come back in 7 days for another test (I called 111 to verify). Yup, that test was helpful.. thanks guv!

JakeMS

Re: "please install the app, and use it"

Oh damn! Would you look at that, my phone keeps powering off!

Spyware slinger NSO to Facebook: Pretty funny you're suing us in California when we have no US presence and use no American IT services...

JakeMS

Re: But..

That's true, but I've never agreed to Facebooks terms, I've never registered an account with them.

Yet they attempt collect my info regardless on any website with a Facebook button, or their many other methods.

They also have pictures of me which I never uploaded, and even a fake account with my picture for its main picture.

I have to do everything I can to prevent my web browser sending info off to them.

I don't agree to any of this, but they do it anyway, so how is it any different?

JakeMS

But..

Don't Facebook already do this to their own users? From my understanding Facebook collects tons of information on people, even people who don't use their services. It's also my understanding Facebook collects tons of metadata from Whatsapp chats.

So all in all, effectively spying, although their users and others have agreed to this.

So what's the problem Facebook?

- Although personally, I use Signal instead.

As Brit cyber-spies drop 'whitelist' and 'blacklist', tech boss says: If you’re thinking about getting in touch saying this is political correctness gone mad, don’t bother

JakeMS
Stop

Yeah...

These colours existed long before people defined them for skin colour. It has nothing to do with someones skin.

Seriously just stop with the political correctness BS already.

I will carry on using the terms blacklist and whitelist and carry on wearing black clothes, drinking black coffee, green tea and eating dark chocolate, pork and bacon and other meats from the local butchers*

* I don't care if this offends your beliefs, these are my beliefs, and if you can have yours, I can have mine.

Square peg of modem won't fit into round hole of PC? I saw to it, bloke tells horrified mate

JakeMS
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Re: Isn't that normal for PB?

Talking of non-standards, anyone remember Tiny? I still have two of them. If memory serves me well, one is from 1996, and one from 1997. Exterior looks exactly the same, and both have the same archway shape case with the old windows logo as an air vent, that goes covers both sides (PITA to refit without bending). Except when they brought the next years one out, they upgraded the pentium II, and changed the PSU to one that needed a special bracket. That means you also need a psu that fits that bracket. That's great thanks tiny!

Although, last I checked a few years ago they both still worked. Up unfil around 2009 they were still running as a pair of home IRC servers.

For all the faults of the older kit, they maybe slow, they may be old, they may be impossible to get fitting parts for.. but they will run for decades without so much as a complaint!

Tesla sued over Tokyo biker's death in 'dozing driver' Autopilot crash

JakeMS

Re: If the experts aren't safe,

That may be so, but sometimes it can take too long for those services and someone stopping to help could be the difference between life and death. This will be even more the case as electric cars come more common place that have big batteries which can ignite easily if you have a huge crash. (Ask Richard Hammond). You will want someone to help you get out of that car fast.

Someone simply blocking a wound from bleeding out when your trapped in the car and unconscious can save your life too, there are many instances where stopping can save a life.

If you witness an accident in the UK and stop to help, often once the police arrive they are quite happy you did, because someone who wasn't involved in the accident can be used as a witness, which is a far more reliable source of what happened than the two drivers who will blame each other.

They will take your statement, thank you for helping and send you on your way.

Most humans with any common decency will stop to help, If you have a heart attack on the street, would you say that a passer by shouldn't try to resuscitate you? Wait for a qualified doctor?

I have training to revive people in simple cases (I've revived 3 people so far), as a passer by I would stop to help. But I'm not a doctor, so I should be told to leave you and not help?

And, in this event that occured, a human driver would change lanes to go around the accident.

Not simply plow into someone because "they shouldn't be there".

A child runs into the road chasing a football, by the logic of this car:

Speed up and run the kid down

Human driver:

Slam on breaks and/or swerve.

Unexpected events happen on the road, human drivers take action for those events, and if the car is driving, it should too!

You have to think of someone other than yourself sometimes...

Prank warning: You do know your smart speaker's paired with Spotify over the internet, don't you?

JakeMS
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Re: FFS.

Yeah that's one way to go

Personally I've just got an amp connected directly to my PC with optical as source of audio. On that computer is MPC which I can control with a computer program (gmpc) or from my phone with M.A.L.P (vpn connection between them).

So full collection of music, not Internet dependent, plus remote control plus local music management. All win for me.

And not going to be hacked so easily.

(Although, saying that I did just setup a Bluetooth lightbulb today.. but that's not connected to wifi at all, Bluetooth only, using for dimmable bedside light.)

Lars Ulrich threatens to make another Metallica album during web chat with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff

JakeMS

Re: Pioneers of thrash?

Thrash? Slayer!

* As a fan of Slayer for as long as I can remember, I am perhaps biased.

Mystery cloud added 10,000 new AMD Epyc servers in under ten days to handle demand for you know what

JakeMS

Re: Advertising...

In my experience, your average buyer doesn't care what CPU brand is in it, or even what a CPU is for that matter.

As long as they see the laptop/desktop switches on and says Microsoft Windows somewhere, they're happy with it.

I mean, they still make laptops with intel celeron...... and people buy them.

There are probably many people who have an AMD based laptop and don't even know what the AMD sticker means. Based on the fact I've seen a lot of new laptops recently that had AMD chips (but no fish) and there was a big influx of laptop sales at the start of COVID.

Florida man might just stick it to HP for injecting sneaky DRM update into his printers that rejected non-HP ink

JakeMS

I can't comment on the canon tank printers (I've never used a canon one)..

But their run-of-the-mill inkjet printers are okay until you simply can't buy ink for it any more.  I've had around 4-5 canon printers, with one still in use in our shop for printing online invoices and barcodes/prices (well, before lockdown).

I've had to replace them almost every time simply because I can't find the inks anymore, not in-store, not online - not anywhere (not even third party inks).

The problem with inkjet printers, without ink, they don't print (big shock!). That and sometimes I felt print quality was lacking a little, but they made up for it by working perfectly with CUPS on Linux and being fairly cheap, so I was happy enough.

But in the end I bought a HP Inkjet, with subscription - they just send me cartridges every time it runs out. I don't like being on a subscription, but it's mostly business usage and with a bit of math it seemed viable enough based on frequency of ink purchases and monthly costs.

With all this said, I hope this guy wins his court case - It shouldn't matter what ink is in the printer, so long as it can be used!

Microsoft spares TLS 1.0 in Azure DevOps Services after customer backlash, Cosmos DB makes good on blurtage

JakeMS
Stop

TLSv1.0?

Someone still uses this? Does that same person still use SSLv1/3?

Seriously just turn it off. Last year dropped TLSv1.0 and v1.1 leaving just v1.2 running.

This year we enabled TLSv1.3, as such everything is either TLSv1.2 or v1.3.

Good news is, cutting everything pre-TLSv1.2 cut a huge chunk of spam via email.

AMD, boffins clash over chip data-leak claims: New side-channel holes in decades of cores, CPU maker disagrees

JakeMS
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Agreed

But, I hope when they kidnap me again, they take a copy of my SSH keys, as without them I can't log them into anything remotely. :-O

Android users, if you could pause your COVID-19 panic buying for one minute to install these critical security fixes, that would be great

JakeMS
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Another option

"Other Android owners will have to rely on their device vendor or carrier to test and release the fixes, a process that can take days or months or never."

Or, install custom firmware that includes the fixes. Not always the easiest option, but it'll do the trick. Everyone seems to forget you can do this.

Broadband providers can now flog Openreach's new IP voice network in bid to ditch UK's copper phone lines by 2025

JakeMS
Stop

What about?

I'm curious, where does my grandma stand in this? She doesn't have any broadband, she doesn't have a computer and she doesn't have a smart phone. And if you tell her she needs a router, she will ask where she needs to go.

She is 85 years old, so I'm guessing by 2025, at 90 she will almost certainly still not understand broadband.

So, if phones require broadband, this means she will be required to pay for a full broadband package, just to receive and make phone calls on her landline? Will she understand this? Will they try to flog her the most expensive, fastest, broadband package for phone calls only?

Microsoft's latest cloud innovation: Printing

JakeMS
Joke

Support call

I predict..

*ring ring*

User: Hi, I can't print I sent to the printer and it didn't work.

Support: Have you tried turning it on and off again?

User: Yes I turned the computer on and off again, I pressed the button on the screen.

Support: Okay please use the start menu to reboot....

10 minutes later.......

Okay now click print.

User: No page printed.

Support: ... yes it did.

User: I can't see it (looks under frantically printer like a mad man)

Support: No no no, I mean it printed here in India, next to me. Which printer did you click?

User: I clicked the one called Cloud, because my wallpaper has a picture of a cloud on it.

Support: Is that so? That's nice. Now please click the one that says ID 66, 6, which is your building and floor.

User: It worked!

Support: Your welcome, please enjoy your day, live long and prosper.

HP Ink: No way, Xerox. We're not accepting your takeover. Well, we'd never say never. Maybe even maybe? Hello, you still there? Please?

JakeMS
Mushroom

Sorry for the ink sales drop

That's my fault! My bad! I reduced all my subscriptions to their minimum offers because I found it is now suitable for my printing needs. I've been working on reducing the need to print as much as possible.. So I've dropped from their most expensive subscription, to their cheapest. Sorry guys!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to save data from a computer that should have died aeons ago

JakeMS
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Re: Hybrid children watch the sea

To be honest. I'm guilty of still doing this with every system I manage with their hostnames or other settings, each one has a unique name.

Which is why the store is kicking out two wifi signals named:

Morticia

Gomez

From the router who's hostname is "Wednesday"

But there are also some systems running with fun names like Viktor, Lucifer, Dracula, Ophelia, Lurch, Selene etc.

It just makes it easier to instantly know which system In managing and has nothing to do with treating them like my children.

Also makes "ssh dracula" more interesting and easier to remember lol.

With IPv6 now in play, I also get to choose fun IPv6 names like "I feed all dead", "Feels good" etc. :-D

Your McDonald's demo has expired. For full functionality, please purchase a licence or try another fast-food joint

JakeMS
Joke

Re: Never ever ever ever install a demo version on a production box

@Chloe: That's what they want you to think. Really it's the same system doing it, they just switched the machines to make it look like they're fixing it.

Ofcom: Rule change to force UK comms providers to tell you when your contract expires

JakeMS
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Good

I'm glad to see this.

I had to wait for an 18-Month BT contract to end. As a business line we were paying £40/mo incl a static ip.

Due to moving premesis, and still being bound by said contract the BT increased that price to £80/mo due to according to them, moving premesis cancelled their introductory offer.

Later, the contract auto renewed to £120/mo for 18 months, because I forgot about it. Because we stated we didn't want that contract to auto renew again, it eventually fell to their "out of contract status" for £190/mo.

We've switched to Zen for £45/mo now...

Call us immediately if your child uses Kali Linux, squawks West Mids Police

JakeMS
Joke

Yikes

Does that make me a criminal?

I have a virtual machines both on servers and my PC! Oh no!

And oh my god! I also have Kali Linux which is used for checking my own systems! Oh no!

What have I become?!!!

Cache me if you can: HDD PC sales collapse in Europe as shoppers say yes siree to SSD

JakeMS

And..

Even if you got all that information correct, the drive would still fail to be detected if it was so new, you might also need to update the BIOS!

Don't forget to set the jumpers correctly if it's a slave drive!

Talking of drives, anyone remember SATAII's early days?

Sometimes, if you got a spanking new SATAII Drive, Your SATA1 board may be entirely unable to use it. Yes, Gigabyte, I'm looking at you with my epic AMD Athlon(tm) 64 4000.

I miss those days.

Don't tell us to go Huawei, Chinese ambassadors tell UK and France

JakeMS
Facepalm

The irony

I still can't help but laugh. It's just so ironic.

The governments complaining about unproven "possible backdoors" in kit are the very same governments who for years have been demanding tech gives them backdoors.

Of course it's totally different right? China is always the bad guy.

Meanwhile when other nations do the exact same thing, it's not bad.

Irony...

MWC now means 'Mobiles? Whatever! Coronavirus!' as Ericsson becomes latest to pass on industry shindig

JakeMS
Joke

Re: You might have thought in this day and age...

I think the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" was onto something!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bIoeBpSeU4

Maker of Linux patch batch grsecurity can't duck $260,000 legal bills, says Cali appeals court in anti-SLAPP case

JakeMS
Mushroom

Both of those options still go against the core reasons behind the GPL and open source in general.

Aside from this, they tried to claim defamation, however in this case that was simply not the case. He didn't point out something they were not really doing. He simply wrote about his dislike to something they were actually doing. Thus, because he didn't lie or tell a false story, it is not defamation.

For the most part it was just his opinion about something they are doing. They didn't like that his opinion put them in a bad light, so they attempted legal action which failed.

I believe his judgment was in has favour for two reasons:

1) It's not a valid defamation case

2) He has a right to express his opinion

To be honest, grsecurity didn't stand a chance in this case.

Time to patch your lightbulb? Researchers demonstrate Philips Hue exploit

JakeMS
Meh

I still..

Don't feel a good reason to own most of this "IoT" stuff. I don't own any yet because I've yet to find a valid reason to need it.

Perhaps I'm still too old fashioned. I honestly don't feel there is a huge reason I can't just use a daemon on the wall to start and stop my light builbs.

If I wanted to adjust brightness I'm happy to buy an old fashioned dimmer set. As for changing colours of the bomb, can't say I've ever felt I wanted to randomly change the colour of my lights.

Virtualization juggernaut VMware hits the CPU turbo button for licensing costs

JakeMS
Unhappy

Sadly

Sadly, I haven't used VMware in years. I'm one of those crazy people who went the Linux/KVM route after it first appeared. Sad but true.

Where do you draw the line? Escobar Inc doubles down on cut-price gold phone buying demographic with second pholdable

JakeMS
Happy

My next phone!

Well I've found my next phone!

Not call, dude: UK govt says guaranteed surcharge-free EU roaming will end after Brexit transition period. Brits left at the mercy of networks

JakeMS
Thumb Up

Pocket Wifi

Seriously. Get a pocket WiFi in your destination country.

I get one of these in Japan every year, hook your laptop's, phone's etc too it.

Use something like signal, and no extra text charges. Generally quite cheap, and saves me a ton of money!

I stay in Japan for 3-4 weeks at a time, so it's definitely financially viable!

German taxpayers faced with €800k Windows 7 support bill due to Deutschland dithering

JakeMS
Alert

Re: Well, looks like that migration to Linux is getting cheaper and cheaper

@Charlie

Sadly. I have to agree, even as a die-hard tuxer. We had an EPOS system which ran Arch Linux, at the time it seemed like a great idea because the hardware wasn't very well supported in older kernels and the OS was stable, and it meant we didn't need to reinstall the OS to upgrade it.

It worked well for around 3 years. Without any problems. Then sadly things started crashing for unexplained reasons after updates (Desktop panel for one).

That's also bad for a system that needs to run on-demand and not stop.

Luckily by this time Debian 10 had been released, so that system is now running Debian 10 stable (w/ XFCE), smooth as butter. Sadly this also means we no longer have any Arch systems.

I've also had to switch distros in the past with Fedora on my Desktop, temporarily switching to CentOS 6 which had just been released because at that time Fedora was going through some drastic changes and stability wasn't even a word you could say. Now back to FC31 though :-).

With all this said though, for all the many times Linux has indeed made me wonder what the hell is going on, or why a particular update has to change the entire way you need to configure something that causes you to disable it. (Hello NetworkManager, yes I remember you entering Fedora for the first time)

It has also given me much stress relief and a decent stable OS in most cases and saved me a ton of money and I haven't needed to use Windows for many years.

tl;dr; Linux can be both stable and reliable, but also entirely unstable and not so reliable. But as long as you're happy to switch distros when required, no big deal.

Looks like the party's over, folks: Global PC sales set to shrink as Windows 10 upgrade cycle tails off, says Gartner

JakeMS
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Re: Perhaps

I've also switched a couple of years ago in 2003.

The downside with being Windows-free is that if I'm given a Windows system these days, I've no idea what to do with it. I just get lost in menus trying to find the simplest of things.

But on topic here, a newer cpu technology could indeed boost hardware sales if that technology was good enough to truly warrant the upgrade.

Hospital hacker spared prison after plod find almost 9,000 cardiac images at his home

JakeMS
Alert

But why?

Article doesn't specify what he intended to use these records for?

Did anyone ask what purpose he had intended for these records?

This would be my first question. Second question, had he already used them for his intended purpose? I hope they got more information out lf him about this.

Clearly the purpose is not to help his patients, seeing as he was no longer working for the NHS...

Who says HMRC hasn't got a sense of humour? Er, 65 million Brits

JakeMS
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Re: bangers and fries

As much as I love Bangers n' Chips (And a good bacon butty). I do love pasta bake too, with bits of bacon and cheese melted over the top. I also had this tonight.

Unlocking news: We decrypt those cryptic headlines about Scottish cops bypassing smartphone encryption

JakeMS

Re: What if..

@Alumoi

I'm not entirely sure that is correct, because while that is true had I bricked it through my own actions (aka it bricked while I was flashing it)

It also remains true from the manufacturers point of view (I voided the warranty).

However, if the phone is fully functional prior to the police having performed their actions, then it is not me who has caused the device to brick. In addition, there is no law which specifies you cannot alter your devices firmware or bootloader. The only exception being that you lose your warranty.

This responsibility would entirely rest with the police for causing that device to brick at that time, on the basis had they not altered the bootloader (They are also voiding your warranty btw) your device would still be fully functional.

JakeMS
Windows

What if..

Serious question. The article states they attempt to bypass encryption by several methods, one of those methods being flashing the bootloader.

They also state that they will return a device back to its owner of it's deemed "clean".

But. Using my own phone as an example... My device has a custom bootloader (TWRP) and a custom firmware.

After they have flashed their bootloader, they will need to restore the old one.

My device is super picky about its bootloader, at this point if you boot or load the official bootloader, it will be permanently locked.

Which in turn will also cause the firmware to not boot. That also means you can't flash the custom bootloader back either.

Essentially they would have bricked the device.

So, in the event, they give me back my device, bricked because of their actions, where do I stand legally? They have damaged my property.

Microsoft's on Edge and you could be, too: Chromium-based browser exits beta – with teething problems

JakeMS
Joke

Translated

"comes with our Privacy Promise and we can’t wait for you to try new features like tracking prevention, which is on by default, "

Quick translation:

comes with our Privacy Promise and we can't wait to collect your data from our OS! We'll protect you from being tracked by other companies, increasing the value of our collected data about you as it'll only be us who can provide that information to our advertisers.

Welcome to the 2020s: Booby-trapped Office files, NSA tipping off Windows cert-spoofing bugs, RDP flaws...

JakeMS
Unhappy

Linux?

No major Linux related security issues yet? :-|. Me and my tux are feeling a little left out over here :-(.

Are you getting it? Yes, armageddon it: Mass hysteria takes hold as the Windows 7 axe falls

JakeMS
Mushroom

Thanks Reg!

Now I have that Def Leppard song stuck in my head....

Relying on AT&T, Verizon and T-Mob US to protect you from SIM swapping? You better get used to disappointment

JakeMS
Mushroom

Well

Well, I've always chosen the 2FA OTP application route. Glad I always click "Use App" where possible despite many services warnings of "Use your phone number! It's safer!".

But with that said, in this modern age, it's relatively simple to add extra security for a sim card holder to prevent this. They should do more to stop this.

It's a no to ZFS in the Linux kernel from me, says Torvalds, points finger of blame at Oracle licensing

JakeMS
Facepalm

Re: @JakeMS, You just broke the unwritten rule too

So I did :-D

JakeMS

Re: The problem is not Oracle (for once)

@Jamie Downvoted for talking about downvotes. It's an unwritten rule around here.

We’ve had enough of your beach-blocking shenanigans, California tells stubborn Sun co-founder: Kiss our lawsuit

JakeMS
Angel

Business Opportunity!

This is a perfect opportunity for a boat owner to start a successful business!

This is a public beach, that means you can access it any time from the water, legally.

So, a boat owner could start a new transport business. Departing from the nearest public beach and arriving at this "private" public beach.

You could run a boat back and forth all day during the warm summer months. Every half hour or so, just like a bus. Charge say $5 a head, say carrying 5 people per trip, that's a decent bit of money if you make that trip several times per day every half hour.

And the beach is public again!

Beware the three-finger-salute, or 'How I Got The Keys To The Kingdom'

JakeMS

Re: "The Boss handed over his key to the server room"

Absolutely! lol. They are working well and were updated just before xmas. So now I can just sit back, relax and study a foriegn language (Currently studying Japanese) while drinking a few beers forgetting about business and servers/computers until the new year.

JakeMS
Angel

Re: "The Boss handed over his key to the server room"

I've had too much to drink to care about grammar...

JakeMS
Devil

Re: "The Boss handed over his key to the server room"

Not always the case. I'm one of 3 founders in my business for the last 6 (.. almost 7.. wow) years, that makes me a "boss".. although I don't tend to think of myself that way.

I'm also the tech guy, I single handedly done the initial setup of every single system the business uses. The advantage of being boss is... there has never been any windows in this business (all linux systems, right down to the EPOS).

As such, in this case if something goes wrong with any of these systems, I'm very much the boss you want looking at those systems.*

As for the other two founders.. absolutely not... They don't even have any SSH keys... lol.

* Thankfully I've only had one serious incident, which was when a "yum update" on RHEL7 decided to wipe out the EFI bootloader, causing the system to not come back online.. quickly fixed however.

Vivaldi opens up an exciting new front in the browser wars, seeks to get around blocking with cunning code

JakeMS

Re: A Ubiquitous Weapon for Mass Distraction and Destruction and Disruptive Creation?

Count me curious...

What is it that makes you feel the browser is the OS?

Bearing in mind I very much think the browser is merely an application. (I offen don't use it* when working on my computer).

* I don't need a browser for running commands or editing code

Log us out: Private equity snaffles Lastpass owner LogMeIn

JakeMS
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KeePass

For some reason my gut always had me avoid LastPass sadly.

I've always been partial to KeePass. So if you're looking for a new home I recommend it! You can use many methods to sync with Android and your computer.

Latest version of KeePassXC for Linux has impressed me a lot, because I can finally ditch gnome-keyring for evolution. (It allows to select a group of PWs to act as system keyring, so KeePass stores evolutions passwords, not gnome-keyring)

Then there's the auto unlock and add SSH keys to ssh-agent when unlocking the pw database, and automatically removes them from the agent (lock them) when DB is locked or closed which is also super useful.

Overall makes my life a lot easier...

The NetCAT is out of the bag: Intel chipset exploited to sniff SSH passwords as they're typed over the network

JakeMS
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SSH Keys

Now I don't feel so bad about having 9 different SSH keys on my computer, each with a unique password.

Luckily an SSH key password is entered entirely locally and into an SSH Agent. So, simply no (remote) password sniffing possible.

But, of course. Even with keys, if your keys are stolen it could be game over regardless.

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