* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Microsoft, you shouldn't have: Festive Windows 10 Insiders build about as exciting as new socks

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Maybe they got it right this time?

" there's currently a user's laptop on the bench that's been running Windows Update for 9 days solid"

you should put a web cam on it, and a page that snapshots it, maybe a web page called "the daily windows update", etc.. Have some fun, let us all get a nice big 'schadenfruede' laugh over it, etc.. Or maybe you could make a time-lapse youtube video with a running timestamp (and ambient room light indicating day/night) so that people can see just how sllloooooww it's going. Heh.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Havn't they finished this yet?

"And using more than 16 MB of memory is just a waste of resources?"

etc.

my 'smug' detector almost went off...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: Havn't they finished this yet?

yeah, they should change the icon for windows to an "under construction" sign...

/me runs away seeing as so many web sites used to do that to the point where it became a trope to be ridiculed...

/me also points out that anything with any COLOR in it would be an improvement over that 'monochromatic' white on 'whatever background' 2D FLATTY 'windows at an angle' icon is...

China on its way to becoming the first nation to land on the far side of the Moon

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

eliptical orbit satellite...

not sure if they meant one of the lagrange points. One exists on the far side of the moon where the 'gravity shadowing' is at L2...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point

So having a comms satellite stationed there could receive signals from the 'dark side' of the moon (queue one of the best Pink Floyd albums, evar), and then relay to Earth. The total signal distance would be about 3 times the distance from earth to moon, which is reasonable. Downside, having to keep a satellite at the L2 lagrange point with respect to earth and moon. I guess one that orbits the moon would cost less... [or you could have 2 or 3 of them, so that one is always 'in contact' while the other(s) go over the horizon]

post-note - the moon wouldn't block the signal to the L2 point if the circle/orbit that the satellite makes about the L2 point has a large enough diameter. Lagrange orbits are kinda like 2 strings with a weight in the middle, spinning in a circular orbit 90 degrees to the 2 gravity wells [or in this case, as illustrated by the strings]. So yeah if that circle is too small, the satellite will be blocked by the moon. It would have to have a diameter larger than the moon, in other words. Should work, though.

Doom: The FPS that wowed players, gummed up servers, and enraged admins

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

iddqd

for those who 'get it' - heh

The internet is going to hell and its creators want your help fixing it

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: Dear fragile and wonderful academics...

"The fact of the matter is that if someone can find a way to ABuse something to make money, it's already screwed and that's human nature"

Fixed it for ya. Using something to make money is a GOOD thing. ABusing ANYTHING is bad. And that's the point. The fact that SOME of the ABuse is to make money [presumably in a dishonest way], it's no different than anything else in the past or present.

Like travel technology, which has resulted in airplane hijackings, car jackings, and before that, train robberies, where opportunistic criminals and psychopaths use 'the new thing' to do the same KINDS of evil they've always done, you now have WORLDWIDE COMMUNICATION.

There are tried and true ways of dealing with ABusers without punishing everyone ELSE. Usually it takes the form of law enforcement, honest individuals who assist with law enforcement, and some kind of judicial system with due process, etc. [otherwise it becomes totalitarian, oppressive, fascist, etc. - or worse, COMMUNIST].

But yeah, the world's control freaks and "governing opportunists" will ALWAYS pick something that solves NOTHING, but increases THEIR power and influence over YOU.

Personally, I'd rather have ANARCHY than a POLICE STATE on 'teh intarwebs'. We don't need a "great firewall" protecting us from "teh pr0nz" for our own good... (or more likely, keep us 'protected' from 'THE TRUTH' in place of gummint-approved 'fake news' etc.).

Brit bomb hoax teen who fantasised about being a notorious hacker cops 3 years in jail

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: "is an insult to the many thousands of sufferers who lead law abiding lives"

eh, AD[H]D, autism spectrum, and other things like that, MOST of the time, are just 'another word' for 'genius'. Or an excuse for bad behavior, as was attempted here. Yeah I think the psycho-babblers have gone too far with their definitions (which detracts from the few who actually need some kind of treatment).

They forgot that, to a hammer, EVERYTHING is a nail. They see 'disorders' where 'a slightly different NORMAL' exists.

/me recalls that one guy claiming ADD made him do bad things in Singapore, and got 'caned' as punishment for it. Obviously Singapore criminal justice system didn't buy it. AND, I bet he won't do that AGAIN, either.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

actually that bit about claiming to be 'a psychopath with a history of killing small animals' almost sounds like something from a Monty Python sketch...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: It's not very PC to say, but

I shall NOW write a naughty limerick about this using the word 'nutter'

There was a young 'Nutter' from Watford

...

ok what rhymes with 'Watford' ?

Boffins build blazing battery bonfire

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: The Greatest Challenge

and here _I_ thought it was THE LAWS OF PHYSICS!!!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: "cheaper"

Well, a 10:1 improvement in the cost of the infrastructure for "just the storage" OBVIOUSLY leaves out the cost of conversion from heat to electricity (the article even said so, more or less). This latter part, 2nd law of thermodynamics notwithstanding, has been THE problem all along in making electrons move through wires so that we can watch TV and read by electric light... and in some cases, heat various rooms in the house that aren't practical to heat any other way.

And if you're going to go THAT far, we might as well use URANIUM to produce the heat in the FIRST place. Until, of course, hydrogen fusion reactors become practical.

It's obvious that politics of the day are driving all of this.

/me plays "Baby it's cold outside" - not simply because it IS getting colder, and will continue to get colder, on average, in the Northern hemisphere, until ~2040 due to the ~70 year temperature cycle, but MOSTLY because I heard some people whining about that song recently and so I'm having fun with it.

To the scientists who suggested 'hot rock' storage: Nice try. How about 'Nuclear' instead? Nuclear doesn't generate CO2, the thing you fear the most. But wait, it's not in line with the POLITICS, now is it? Heh, yeah, pointing out the obvious again. I think I prefer FREEDOM.

Linux.org domain hacked, plastered with trolling, filth and anti-transgender vandalism

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Hopefully

" only to discover the neighbour is a transgender ninja with anger management issues police officer"

I'd rather see the perpetrator take a trip through the criminal justice system. It's slower, public, and leaves a more 'lasting' impression upon others who might try and do something like this as a "me too".

It's official. Microsoft pushes Google over the Edge, shifts browser to Chromium engine

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Lipstick on a pig

actually, Lipstick on a BOAR, and NOT the on the end that goes 'oink'. implications obvious.

"updates can happen without using Windows Update or requiring a restart."

Although I could never think of a reason as to why windows update requires reboots for things like browser updates, I'm SURE they'll figure SOME reason [and always require a reboot].

A big part of this is the way windows handles files. In the POSIX world, a file is simply an inode, and if you replace it with a new one, with the exception of 'certain semantics', the inode for the OLD file is STILL THERE (as long as the file remains open) and can be used by already-running applications [assuming it's executable or a shared lib]. In windows, apparently the directory entry IS the file, and not merely a pointer to it [for all practical purposes] and so a replaced EXE or DLL *must* require a reboot and copy-on-boot post-install crap.

There are a lot of OTHER things windows does poorly (compared to POSIX systems) but this is the one that requires rebooting on EVERY! STINKING! UPDATE! like that...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: And who got fired for taking all the wrong decisions?

"What's next? Windows 11 will be based on 7 UI?"

it's what MOST of us wish for, but it will NEVAR happen. That's because MS isn't done CHANGING US INTO WHAT THEY WANT US TO BE yet. expect more cramming of unwanted "whatever", indefinitely.

'please be patient, Microsoft isn't finished CHANGING ME yet'

^^^-- a new catch phrase in need of an acronym

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

I'm looking forward to seeing it this will bring any real benefit at all.

This deserves a topic.

any REAL benefit? most likely, none.

Micro-shaft has DOUBLED DOWN on the 2D FLATTY and THE SLURP, by adopting ANOTHER "slurpy browser" to violate user's privacy with. And display web content "all 2D FLATTY". Well, Austalis "went there" a few years ago, disappointing Firefox users (but making their snowflake overlords FEEL GOOD about it).

And Chrome is known for slurping on 'droid platforms, so why not WINDOWS AS WELL???

It sounds like the beginnings of an EVIL PARTNERSHIP. And Google is NOT supposed to be doing EVIL, right?

Disappointment is the only possible outcome.

Tech support discovers users who buy the 'sh*ttest PCs known to Man' struggle with basics

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: It's 2018

"If people don't know how to use a computer by now, they shouldn't even be in the workplace."

"Arrogance, millenial style" <-- new idea for a TV show too

icon, because, facepalm

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: "a mistaken split-second push in the wrong direction"

it's a fuse tester. the test failed.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Priceless!!

kinda like "internet help desk" from "3 trolls in a baggie"

Wintel dust up: Intel supply woes vs Win10 demand

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Windows 10 continues to be a lure for PC buyers in the wider enterprise space(?)

see icon

Since *WHEN* has Windows 10 been a LURE for PC buyers???

And THIS is why the PC market has slumped. It is NOT because people don't want new ones.

IT! IS! BECAUSE! THE! NEW! ONES! COME! PRE-ENCUMBERED! WITH! WIN-10-NIC!!!

FCC slammed for 'arbitrary and reckless' plan to change how text messages are regulated

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: comforting innit.

I am really tired of the anti-capitalist FUD.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: The reason isn't money

"Information services have lower protections."

Yes, and to fix THAT, you need CONGRESS to act, and NOT the FCC.

This is likely to be addressed some time in the next few years, maybe within the next two. Politicians in the USA (including Trump) are often angered by the OBVIOUS filtering and discrimination and politically motivated 'editing' that's going on within the "big data" cartel (aka Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and, in the same way that Teddy Roosevelt (a republican) went after the monopolies and trusts at the turn of the 20th century, I bet Trump and many of our congress-critters will be wanting to do the same in the 21st century.

And, THAT is where it NEEDS to be done, and NOT with over-the-bounds-stepping regulations from a gummint bureaucracy, namely the FCC. And the same with 'net neutrality' (which surprisingly isn't 'neutral' when you consider what I just said about the "big data" cartel filtering and editing and so on, and THEY seem to be ALL for THAT version of 'net neutrality' that was KILLED recently).

(and who knows, maybe GDPR-like regs will make it into whatever law eventually gets passed, but CONGRESS has to do it, not bureaucracies)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Universal Service Fund

"This slush fund needs a stake through the heart."

more like killing it to death by burning it with fire.

or perhaps a more excessive 'overkill' method - see icon

Like so many OTHER liberal "rob Peter to pay Paul" giveaway programs, _I_ will _NEVER_ see _ANY_ of that. I would NEVER choose to contribute to that kind of giveaway program, I do NOT want MY money paying for it via taxation or confiscation, and I _CERTAINLY_ wouldn't say "it's about the money" because "evil greedy corproations won't pay it".

Its like the previous poster said: The PAYING CUSTOMERS are TAXED.

I'm going to leave out the rant about who ends up getting the benefits of this. I think it's obvious what I'd say. And of course I'd have FACTS to back it up. But I'll spare you, anyway, even though this _REALLY_ bugs me.

Adobe Flash zero-day exploit... leveraging ActiveX… embedded in Office Doc... BINGO!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Flash, ActiveX, Office doc embedding/scripting - should already be DISABLED

what it says in the title.

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

(yeah it's a bit like Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt and the football... the only way to win, is NOT to play)

And *STOP* accepting e-mailed "office format" documents at the firewall!

icon, because, facepalm.

it's not like these 3 security craters haven't been KNOWN for DECADE(s).

GOPwned: Republicans fall victim to email hack

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

"I suppose that chimes with him appointing people who know fuck-all about science to science positions."

I was laughing until I hit that part. you just HAD to go there...

(I'm going to resist the troll-bait and NOT bite on it)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: The Russians are Coming!!!

"You make a good point in a poor way. I'm assuming that's the reason for so many down votes."

Naw, it's just the usual howler monkeys downvoting for the usual reasons (some might be members of my 'fan club' heh so I expect the same here). I gave him an upvote [because I 'got' the humor, for one]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: All we can do is wait

well, there could EASILY be a "there there" with the RNC. It's just possible that none of it would be a surprise, and so it would have little (if any) impact.

We ARE talking about POLITICIANS, people who collect money from special interests in order to get re-elected over and over and over and over...

There have been well-respected Republicans (as well as Demo[n,c][R,r]ats) who've been elected and respected, and later been indicted and convicted for campaign fund fraud (or other corruption), "Pay to Play" being one of the worst. Randy Cunningham, a Korean war veteran, was one such congress-dude from my area. Duncan Hunger Jr. (also from my area) is currently under investigation for 'irregularities' (i.e. using campaign funds for personal expenses) and may likely be convicted for it.

Washington D.C. can ruin the morals of even the MOST morally straight people, with all of the money and corruption and opportunities these people are exposed to. "The Swamp" is no exaggeration.

The only more CORRUPT town is Sacramento.

In any case I'd like to know what OS and e-mail system that the RNC was using. If it had been ME setting it up, a traditional setup using Linux or FreeBSD and reasonably secure SMTP+IMAP would've been in use (sorta like how I got my home setup working, even with just the built-in/default sendmail (or Exim) and Cyrus port, using default settings and SOME level of security on the LAN, would probably do the job).

and if it's an open source OS with open source e-mail/IMAP servers, maybe the NSA can get involved and produce special 'hardened' ones for government use?

Windows 10 or Cisco Advanced Malware Protection: Pick one

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

practice 'safe surfing' - seems to be compatible with everything

well, MY version of 'safe surfing' avoids using Edge, HTML mail, and Windows (in general) for web surfing, so maybe it's not so 'compatible' after all... (since 'avoid using windows' is a big part of it)

but at least do THESE things if you must use Windows:

a) don't view HTML mail as HTML [and no inline attachment previews, either]

b) don't preview e-mail nor web browse with an account that has 'admin' privs

c) don't use a Microsoft web browser

d) disable javascript as much as possible

e) don't download/install the application/plugin 'to view the content'

f) don't use any Adobe viewers (PDF and flash especially)

'c' and 'd' are probably the biggest vectors for malware, followed by 'e' and 'f', and then 'a' and 'b'. It's not perfect, but it'll work for most of what's out there, especially 0-days.

in any case, no need for anti-virus/anti-malware if you execute some self-discipline and do those things I just mentioned. THAT, and don't surf the web nor read e-mail logged in with 'admin' privs.

(or you can ignore what I said, at your own peril)

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: Why?

"Windows 10 already comes with decent malware detection already."

see icon

Sing it loud and sing it proud: It's all about the cloud for Microsoft

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

I hear market speak

I'm not against what MS is doing with Azure [maybe they should stick with that] but yeah, the analytics side of things DOES seem 'creepy' to me... particularly with the slurping that we already know about.

That being said, IoT and cloudiness may have its use, but it seems more practical to keep IoT things on the private LAN and _not_ go into "the cloud". If your phone application needs to know what temperature your oven or refrigerator (or living room) is at, a 'peer to peer' method is PROBABLY a better solution. OK it would need a 'cloudy tracker' but NOT a 'cloudy service'.

Cloud IS overrated for MOST things that I've seen. It has its uses. It is NOT "the ultimate solution".

And, is all of their market hype part of a PLAN to monetize more of us 'end-users' ?

Microsoft's .NET Core 3 is almost here, which means time to move on from .NET Framework

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

"it is .NET Core 3.0 which will get devs excited." really?

you sure about that?

I strongly suspect it is all more lipstick on the boar, and on the non-oinky end. again. wheeeeee.

when ".Net" was first conceived, back in the early noughties, it was for an IIS web back end. Its overall design looks more like what "they" (the object-oriented evangelists) want EVERYTHING to look like. At least, that's my perception of it.

Then MS tried to shove this down the throat of EVERY developer, in EVERY version of DevStudio, by requiring you to JUMP THROUGH HOOPS to EXCLUDE it from your C/C++ build. I mean, WHO wants that monolithic do-nothing "you must have the latest" '.Net runtime' thing installed along with your application?

Granted, the DevStudio hoops aren't THAT difficult, but it requires some specific targeted "un-tick the box" settings changes in the project, and a careful test at the end to see if it's STILL hauling in ".Not" as a dependency. It's the fact that you HAVE to do them in the FIRST place that bugs me.

To think that non-windows developers might actually USE this is laughable. Ok maybe one or two. But still...

Remember how much *hate* there was when Gnome added 'tomboy' as a dependency, which THEN caused all of the mono stuff to install along with Gnome? I do. In particular, one of the Debian packages did this. I'm not 100% sure it was all gnome desktops, in case it wasn't. But that was enough for me. I went out of my way to make sure tomboy and all of that ".Not"/mono garbage was OFF of the system!

Well maybe devs WILL get 'excited'. But perhaps that word does not mean what you THINK it means...

icon because 'facepalm'

The news I'd lke to see: a C language toolkit that wraps Win32 API calls and runs on X11-based systems with unmodified Win32 API code. You know, like 'Wine' except sanctioned by MS.

Microsoft gets open-sourcey with Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Foundation

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

trying to resuscitate the thing

I see this as Microsoft trying to resuscitate their *FAILED* "new, shiny" UI model, aka that XAML-based abomination that ultimately helped make WinRT the failure we all know (and hate) today.

Just like it has been with ".Not Core" and other major components, trying to get the open source community to make use of this on non-Windows platforms has been _interesting_ in a lot of ways. The biggest 'interesting' is just how far they can take/use it for 'Embrace Extend Extinguish'... by way of open source!

Regardless of how else you see this, they're taking a failed idea and giving it away, more or less.

XAML, in theory, might make UI design easier. But when I looked closely at it [with respect to windows 8] I was horrified at what I saw. Reaching for the pink liquid, I decided that it would be a COMPLETE waste of time to take development in "that" direction. It seems, due to its lack of following, that other developers more or less agreed with me on that. (and yeah, UWP is NO better)

There are SO many cross-platform development tools, of which GTK and wxWidgets and Qt are probably the best option (or just use Java), that we do NOT need Micro-shaft cramming "their bloatware method" down anyone's throats.

On the other hand, the open-source-ness is STILL a good thing. It can provide some nice sample code on how to implement specific features that you might want to implement in your OWN open source library.

/me points out that if it weren't for ".Not", XAML, UWP, WinRT, and "The Metro", we'd have a really really good version of Windows without the controversy. That, and the 2D FLATTY. And the slurp. And the ads. And so on.

Naked women cleaning biz smashes patriarchy by introducing naked bloke gardening service

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Why is it sexist

it's only sexist because a member of the political correctness police SAYS so.

YouTube fight gets dirty: Kids urged to pester parents over Article 13

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

actually driving a teenager to threaten suicide?

well, that little emotional outburst must've been a cry for attention.

but yeah when you aim doom/gloom at children, you can expect that kind of thing. now if we could just hammer this point home for what THE 'EDUCATION' SYSTEM has been doing for DECADES, making every kid "feel" like the world is gonna end tomorrow from "made made whatever" and it's UP TO THEM to _CHANGE_ everything [by pressuring parents into voting for people who want to take freedom away, and doing the same thing when they're old enough to vote], like good little sponges of whatever social[ist] agenda the "teachers" are trying to cram into their soft, malleable minds, when you REGULARLY accept this kind of mass manipulation as if it's "normal"... you can EXPECT emotional extreme outburst responses like that one kid's "cry for help" suicide threat for LOSING YOUTUBE [oh my freaking dieties, the entire world is going to collapse into a quantum singularity, OMG,OMG,OMG,OMG,OMG!).

So yeah Google going with the SAME flow as their politics, stirring up 'the children' through some kind of manipulative tactic, for the young are easily manipulated/motivated and used like minions, aren't they Mr. Alinsky?

Microsoft: New icons, new drivers, AI! Everything is awesome!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!!!!!!!

it's probably a way (in their minds) of driving you to the "New, Shiny" when your perfectly good (10 year old) machine running 7 does the job faster, better, etc.. Require these 'new drivers' for ALL of the newer video hardware, and then vendors stop supporting 7...

By them 'driving' [bad pun] the drivers to "their new model", you could ALSO be stuck with the VESA driver [if they even bother to support THAT any more]. I actually ran into that problem when I migrated an XP laptop to windows 7. I needed a winders laptop for various things, and had that old one laying about, and used it (I had previousl put FreeBSD on it, but put it back to XP after getting a better latop). Unfortunately the XP video driver WOULD! NOT! WORK! in windows 7, when 'needs' basically forced me to update it from XP to 7. The VESA driver DOES work, but without any acceleration, so no playing videos on it any more. That machine is still useful, but uses the VESA driver, and not the old OEM driver.

So in a way this is just a re-hash of OLD problems.

Meanwhile, Linux and FreeBSD continue to support old hardware pretty well.

Also worth pointing out: does 'safe mode' let you easily pick a VESA driver for your video, just so that you can get your hardware to work, for whenever 'Windows Update' pooch-screws your computer? It used to do that, sub in the VESA driver when in 'safe mode', but I haven't put Win-10-nic on any physical hardware [and don't plan on doing so, either].

The dingo... er, Google stole my patent! Biz boss tells how Choc Factory staff tried to rip off idea from interview

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Academia and free software programmers need protection from patent vultures

well, there COULD be those 'mutual NDA' signatures to prevent such abuses, if "the big company" will even go for it, AND if it doesn't contain an exploitable loophole, yotta yotta. Dealing with the devil, expect some hidden agendas, twists, and backstabbings. Just sayin'. Pfffftttthhhhh... (wait, why isn't this working?) (ok it's a somewhat lame reference to the original 'Bedazzled', the one with Dudly Moore)

That being said, l[aw]yers write those NDAs _AND_ go after the patents, helping "them" to rip off the little guy, etc. etc. and probably on the belief that unpaid "consulting" belongs to THEM, and hence they "have a right to it". Sick, sad world in that you have to have a bit of 'paranoia mode' running, ALL of the time.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Well there IS some common sense to this as well. You want to show what you've done in an interview in order to get a job, but you don't want to give away any details about it that could potentially be stolen.

That being said, Google shoudl've never (allegedly) stolen an idea presented in a job interview. That's just plain unethical.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: First to file is now the law

I believe that the existence (or absence) of 'prior art' actually IS the standard, because a patent application (as I understand it) requires that you research for such things AND include appropriate references in the patent application, for existing patents, prior art related to your patent, and things like that.

If the patent search was inadequate (prior art exists and they KNEW about it) then the patent SHOULD be denied (and apparently was, in this case, as mentioned in the article).

As for filing when prior art isn't "available", filing first SHOULD matter. 2 people can work on the same thing at the same time, never communicate, and never publish what they're up to, and the first one to file 'wins'. Perhaps THAT is what the lawyers were referring to?

In any case, patent law needs TRUE reform, but FUD isn't helping. And 'I Am Not A Lawyer' for what it's worth. And DEFENDING a patent is expensive, necessarily so, I'd say. Filing is relatively cheap by comparison.

STIBP, collaborate and listen: Linus floats Linux kernel that 'fixes' Intel CPUs' Spectre slowdown

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: He missed much more

/me reads the fine print... "the same C word" - you mean 'Cat' right?

remembering the 'hand' rule for 'Motion, Field, Current' I learned in the military - "Mary's Fuzzy... Cat"

(and 'Cat' is on the middle finger, naturally)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: He should hug off and mind his own business

" All those of us who are sick of snowflakes needing a safe space from being micro-aggressed by sporadic use of bad language should adopt an otherwise good, acceptable word to colloquially mean the same thing, until it sticks"

I nominate the OTHER 'F' word: FEEL

(I have been regularly playing THAT one for laughs, for YEARS)

Surface Book 2 afflicted by mystery Blue Screen Of Death errors

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

*FACEPALM*

I have to wonder how much of this is connected to build 1809 problems...

"Let's apply the same fixes we did in 1809"

"Ooops"

Prez Trump to host chinwag with Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Qualcomm – report

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

that's kinda what the (alleged?) search engine 'result rigging' is all about, right?

Little FYI: Wi-Fi calling services on AT&T, T-Mobile US, Verizon are insecure, say boffins

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Been that way for years

on a train, the guy next to you might be doing an MITM attack by setting up a wifi gateway...

Years ago, as a joke, while riding on a train, I set up a wifi AP on my laptop, running FreeBSD, to see how many people's computers would attempt to connect. A few hits, but enough as proof of concept. no internet was accessible, though, just the AP running. didn't even do DHCP. wasn't trying to crack systems, just see what would happen. Now, if I were REALLY trying to crack things, I'd have some spoofed intarweb stuff on there, or maybe MITM gateway to the *real* intarwebs, and some ssh-sniffing stuff to go with it... because knowing it CAN be done proves why you should be concerned!

Also worthy pointing out is the number of "promiscuous" computers out there that latched onto any AP they could find... and cell phones capable of acting like intarweb gateways.

VPN looks pretty good at this point (as was proposed as a solution in the article) as long as you're careful about verifying any server-side keys/certs to make sure you're talking to the right one.

It's nearly 2019, and your network can get pwned through an oscilloscope

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: stuxnet/duqu

Tektronix was using WINDOWS? ew... [got any BSOD screenshots?]

/me verifies that model number - an expensive spectrum analyzer, with windows XP OS? <facepalm>

I guess the coolaid tasted pretty good, back then...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: This is your oscilloscope...

Yeah Siglent o-scopes are pretty nice feature-wise, but they're kinda "low end" on pricing and some of the overall construction and physical appearance reflects that. You get what you pay for, sometimes.

In this case, it's probably an inexpensive [but highly functional] piece of test equipment with an 'IoT' feature that has the same *kinds* of security problems you find in IoT devices. I'd guess that's because the people who designed it aren't computer people, they're more like IoT people. And I guess computer people are expensive or something...

I've got an older Siglent o-scope without 'teh entarweb' features, does what I want etc.. I bought it based on price vs features. No complaints.

Considering IoT makers need o-scopes, having an IoT-like feature was probably good for marketing. Not so good in implementing.

It's 'nyet' again, yet again, for Kaspersky: Appeal against US govt ban snubbed by Washington DC court

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: I wonder how much this is helping their sales...

Boil it down to this:

a) someone high up in an organization (in this case, the U.S. gummint) says "don't buy from this vendor any more"

b) vendor finds out about it, and SUES THEM over lost sales.

yeah really good relationship you have with your customers. NOT.

Giraffe hacks printers worldwide to promote God-awful YouTuber. Did we read that one right?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Why open port 9100?

IPv6 might have it open... just sayin'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Get me a babysitter

he got wealthy being a MORON on Youtube, huh?

Well, when THAT dies off, he'll probably be dirt poor 'cause he spent it on stupid things. That'll be cosmic justice, the rags to riches back to rags tale. People like that wouldn't assume "it's a fad" and would burn money at an alarming rate until it's all gone and they're in over their heads.

"Diversify? Investment portfolio? What's THAT?"

meanwhile, the kind of content that Diamond and Silk typically does gets "flagged" and "shadow banned"... go fig.

GCHQ pushes for 'virtual crocodile clips' on chat apps – the ability to silently slip into private encrypted comms

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Trying reasonableness?

next, they'll demand that loyal cops must be 'quartered' in your home. because, if you're not hiding anything, that should be ok too, right?

wait... didn't something like that happen in the 1770's? Only it was soldiers. Yeah. There was an actual WAR fought over that, and other things.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Unanswered questions..

"Wouldn't it be awful if the GCHQ part did coin mining at the same time"

Wouldn't be EVEN FUNNIER if the GCHQ part scanned their network for vulnerabilities, planted viruses, inserted various back doors, and uploaded suspicious content to WIKILEAKS?

just a thought...

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

how can they do this [and keep the bad guys from doing the same] ?

OK - demanding BOTH ends of encrypted conversation have a back door that's NOT a back door...

W.T.F. ? (see icon)

And how are you gonna stop THE BAD GUYS from taking advantage of it?

And how are you going to PREVENT the bad guys from giving you the VIRTUAL FINGER and just doing encryption THEIR way and NOT telling you about it [until you try to back door them and it don't work] ???

because bad guys don't care about obeying laws. Only honest people obey laws. Right?