Posts by bombastic bob

What the fdisk? Storage Spaces Direct just vanished from Windows Server in version 1709

Re: It will probably be back...

lessee... FORCED update that removes a critical feature, and then PAY UP if you want it back!

Sounds JUST like a Micro-shaft marketing manipulation ploy...

So the 'Year of Linux' never happened. When is it Chrome OS's turn?

Re: Widespread Linux on the desktop remains elusive.

"The desktop is not the be all and end all like it once was."

not when it's running Win-10-nic, that's for sure. But a nice Linux or FreeBSD machine with Mate or Cinnamon or something REASONABLE would do 95% of what end-users want to do.

The ONLY reason that LInux isn't the #1 OS on desktops (where it's #1 on phones, #1 in embedded, #1 in the cloud from what I understand though I could be wrong about that, yotta yotta yotta) is the LACK of MARKETING. When you have Micro-shaft's STRONG-ARMING of computer vendors with respect to shipping WINDOWS LICENSES with EVERY computer they sell, and using "secure boot" to LOCK OUT the ability to install a DIFFERENT OS [this has been worked around a few times where applicable[, you have a DEFINITE MONOPOLY here, and Micro-shaft has invested a LOT of time, money, and MARKETING EFFORT in _KEEPING_ it that way.

It's the LACK of proper marketing that keeps Linux "in its place" (from Micro-shaft's perspective).

If it were a valid platform according to MOST software developers, they'd GLADLY make a Linux port of their stuff. Some of it is apparently written in Java [I hear QuickBooks is written in Java] and so a Linux port might actually be TRIVIAL. But that's what it will take to get vendors on board: an actual USER BASE.

meanwhile Micro-shaft is doing EVERYTHING! THEY! CAN! to anger their installed base with Win-10-nic. This is yet another example of snatching FAILURE from the jaws of victory. It's a squandered opoprtunity, just like so many OTHER things [it seems]. Sad.

Microsoft concedes to Mozilla: Redmond will point web API docs at Moz Dev Network

Re: MDN? Never heard of it.

I recently google'd how to do some 'tricky things' with style sheets [read: I have to fix someone else's bogus b0rked-up style sheets by embedding "style=" within the tags directly to avoid excessive work] and so I've stumbled across the Mozilla dev network pages. They're not bad. Not "super scripty" and load times are pretty reasonable. Reasonably well laid out, though going from HTML section to CSS section involves naviguessing up to the top level and back down again. Still, not bad. MUCH easier on the bandwidth than MSDN ever was!!!

well, until it becomes ad-driven BLOATWARE, but still...

Windows Fall Creators Update is here: What do you want first – bad news or good news?

Re: Inivitably!

*ahem*

Being harsh towards politicians, liars, bullies, arrogant people, and Micro-shaft: thumbs up [they deserve it]

Being harsh towards grandmothers: thumbs down.

And Linux Mint (with Cinnamon or Mate) could be learned in minutes, and would prevent MOST of the "exploit" problems that the non-savvy users might not know how to deal with nor prevent..

Re: Inivitably!

at least, if she'd been using 'pluma' in Linux with a Mate desktop, she could've walked away from her computer for more than 10 minutes [let's say it takes her a bit of time to get around the house] and then come back an hour or two later, and the text would still be there, and she could realize she hadn't saved it yet and then do so. Maybe it was a bathroom break that distracted her, or a phone call, or any of a NUMBER of things that happens during a normal day, and I bet 'David Neil' has walked away from HIS computer once or twice without saving, too.

I'd rather not have an operating system that treats the end-users *HARSHLY*. Or arrogant windows-fans that act the same way toward's someones grandmother who (maybe) just uses a computer for recipes, e-mail, photos, and other "consumption" kinds of things.

I bet she could learn Linux in only a few minutes, and then it would be like nothing's different, except it wouldn't be Win-10-nic, and it wouldn't be doing *THAT* to her...

Re: Start menu

"Bob, what is it with you and 2D UI's?"

They *SUCK*. It's like being in a room with ugly wallpaper, or a ridiculous color scheme. It's "bad Feng Shui". It's disturbing, distracting, and NOT what I want. When I see it, it PISSES ME OFF, just by BEING there. [I actually tried to work with Windows 8 ("Ape"), once I put classic shell on it, but couldn't stomach it, nor the 2D FLATSO DevStudio that went with it. YUCHHHKKKK!]

I'll make the assumption that a large number of people reading El Reg weren't computer gurus back in the early 90's when Windows 3.0 first hit the shelves. So here's some history...

Back then, most computers were running MS-DOS with DOS applications that had text-based interfaces with menus, all flat-looking because you can't really do 3D effect without a GUI. Windows 286 and Windows 386 (both 2.x versions) were kinda sucky and looked a lot like THIS [but only slightly better]

http://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win101

Microsoft had been developing OS/2 presentation manager for IBM, but it ONLY ran on PS/2 machines, and a very select handful of clones, because IBM and the way they did things back then. I had taken a class in OS/2 Presentation Manager programming [I actually like the OS/2 API naming convention better than windows, because it's "object verb" not "verb object" and therefore easier to find similar things in the docs]. But when I tried to BUY OS/2, I couldn't. And I didn't have $$$$ to spend on a PS/2 machine with OS/2 on it.

OS/2 1.2 looked BETTER in so many ways than its predecessor, because the various elements were "3D Skeuomorphic", such that knobs on scrollbars looked like actual knobs, buttons looked like buttons [not just colored squares with text in them], and so on. It was just enough eye candy to make things PLEASANT and almost made you WANT to use the computer more. Well, I thought so.

THEN, Windows 3.0 released. It had the SAME KIND of nice 3D looking interface [like OS/2 PM 1.2], a 386 "enhanced mode" built in (so you could run your DOS applications in a window on the same desktop), and a Solitaire application that looked good and probably sold MORE copies of Windows 3.0 than anything else. Its appearance was pleasant, easy to understand, and relatively easy to work with (and you could customize it, to some extent).

Windows 3.0 _IS_ _WHAT_ _MADE_ _MICROSOFT_ . MS-DOS would've lost to OS/2 had IBM marketed their product for ALL computers. Instead, Bill Gates did that, and guess who won?

Not only that, but EVERY STUDY I have ever heard of, or even read about on El Reg, says that a 3D skeuomorphic interface is EASIER to work with, that people RECOGNIZE the UI components FASTER, and that it's PREFERRED over "Flatso" by a (conservative) margin of 2 to 1.

2D FLATSO on a _PHONE_ is even *UGLY*. And on WEB PAGES it's even *UGLIER*. I **HATE** the 'Australis' crap in Firefox. NOT being able to use a "UI Restorer" plugin is motivation to FORK FIREFOX so that I can CONTINUE to use one. Or, if I get motivated enough, maybe I can write my own webkit-based browser that FORCES a classic 3D look with menus and reasonable-looking toolbar buttons.

It's also POSSIBLE to *REBEL* against the 2D FLATSO. All you need to do is draw some bitmaps for the buttons in your applications, and use THOSE instead of system defaults. I "fixed" the icon of an application I've been working on (droid) so that it has 3D borders. MOST of the icons in the application list on 'droid (that version anyway) have shadows, which give them a 3D look. Everyone I know prefers a 3D look. Only a handful of FASCISTS that insist the REST of us have 2D FLATSO _EVAR_ insist that "we must stop being dinosaurs" and "get with the *MODERN* interface". They should just GET OFF MY LAWN. I want my 3D SKEUOMORPHIC INTERFACE, DAMMIT! Even if _I_ must WRITE IT MYSELF.

Re: Start menu

Microsoft's cold new corporate motto should be "Resistance is Futile".

A comparison to The Borg has been made... and falls short of reality.

/me looks for that pic of Bill Gates as Locutus.

Re: Start menu

"tell us what win-10-nic means."

Windows 10 + Titanic --> Win-10-nic. And Micro-shaft KNOWS about the icebergs, and yet they're going FULL SPEED AHEAD towards them. No course changes, just minor adjustments to the direction.

And, it's kinda funny how a screen clip looked JUST like a phone display. Well, "Phone-ie" OS indeed.

Micro-shaft: re-inventing the look/feel of 1985, by moving the decimal point from "Windows 1.0" to "Windows 10". (And then adding the spyware, adware, etc.)

http://guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win101

yeah, 1985 called, they want their FLATSO interface back. At least Windows 1.0 had MORE COLOR...

Re: Have they fixed the decades old bug in File Explorer ?

"leave in all the old shit."

'shit' is Micro-shaft-ese for "feature"

Re: Start menu

"Just install classic shell to have a real start menu again."

unfortunately doesn't fix the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY, adware, spyware, "the Metro" settings vs control panel schizophrenia, forced updates, ...

not saying that classic shell is NOT an improvement. it is. It's really just putting lipstick on the boar, and (as another El Reg commenter once wittily quipped, to the best of my remembrance) NOT EVEN on the end that goes "oink".

related, I hear "all of that" is still in this alleged "creator's" update. And the article had a picture of what looked like a win-phone display. I dislike the vertical-oriented displays anyway, since I view the world in "widescreen" format, but you don't do much "creating" on a windows phone, now do ya?

[well it's a phone interface on a desktop, this win-10-nic, so it's just as well]

Raspberry Pi burning up? Microsoft's recipe can save it and AI

Re: What you really want is...

"Peltiers are unreliable"

since when? (unless the device you chose lacks the thermal conductivity you need...)

"and the heat [snip] has to be dumped somewhere"

yes, you put a heat sink on the hot side to dissipate it. And?

Re: Hot Office?

they're being "environmentally friendly" by making their employees SWEAT instead of running the A/C. didn't you know?

Re: Why?

there are win-10-nic versions intended for the maker community. surprise. *yawn*

I don't think anyone's using them to any significant extent, though. Most maker people seem run Linux, some (like me) run FreeBSD (which will REMAIN 'Poettering Free' FOR-EV-AR), and maybe quite a few use an RTOS.

Win-10-nic on an RPi. *sigh*. Just because you CAN does not mean you SHOULD.

Linux kernel community tries to castrate GPL copyright troll

Re: Get it straight

"Note that a single commit is enough to go and do this sort of thing."

therein lies the problem. THAT part needs fixing!

Re: How long before...

My understanding is that netfilter was originally derived from the ipfw filter in FreeBSD, or at least it was heavily looked at during development [similarities are obvious]. That's released under a BSD license.

Re: I'm confused

I'm also confused. I think his personal copyrights need to be summarily removed from the code base, even if it must be under court order to cover all legal bases. He does NOT own it if it was contributed to the project. That's especially true if he's unable to demonstrate what his contributions actually were. So in a COMMON SENSE world, he's not entitled to any "rights", period. Once something is given away, ownership ceases.

And trolling after GPL violators is just trolling. He should report it the to the FSF instead.

But like for ANY troll, "follow the money" and you find the motivation.

If I got a notice from the asshat, I'd tell him to perform an unnatural sex act upon himself with large pointy objects and without the benefit of lubricants. [and I'm not violating the GPL, so there phhhttttttthhhhhhh]

Watch out for Microsoft Word DDE nasties: Now Freddie Mac menaced

Re: Bye

"as it breaks backwards compatibility"

/me accidentally ruins keyboard after doing a "spit-take"

Re: Bye

yeah, usually it's "the accountant" opening something from "the customer" or "the creditor" etc.

Google adds planets and moons to Maps, but puts bits in the wrong places

Re: Cannot be a mirror image problem.

actually gravity isn't involved - it's just our perception of the image being "flipped"

if both right/left and up/down were flipped, it would be "rotated 180 degrees". isn't it like that inside of our eyeballs?

normally it would be north up, where "north" is defined by the ecliptic plane and what 'north' would be on earth in relation to it. or something like that, with the planets all revolving in roughly the same direction around the sun, and rotating in roughly the same manner [with notable exceptions]. Assuming they all "follow the standard" north would be up, and planetary rotation would be west to east, in whatever photo they show, even for exoplanets [ok no photos of THOSE yet but still...]

Release the KRACKen patches: The good, the bad, and the ugly on this WPA2 Wi-Fi drama

Re: IoT ... HA HA HA HA

yeah some IOT devices have WPA2 support on SILICON

and thinking of content injection - TCP protocol would limit its effectiveness and you'd likely get framing errors on both ends [rendering it ineffective], unless there's a true MITM going on where the packet stream can be edited, in both directions [netfilter does this for NAT FTP, for example, and has some helper functions to assist you in modifying a TCP stream - but netfilter IS "the man in the middle"]

Climate-change skeptic lined up to run NASA in this Trump timeline

Re: I don't mine a skeptic. I prefer a skeptic in this position

"He's not a skeptic if he's already decided that the climate scientists are wrong and warming has stopped."

But, but, but... it _HAS_ !!!

Re: The open question is if ...

" they could, I suppose, make some sort of prediction that we could use as a guideline."

in 2040, you'll see cold temperatures similar to 1970's and 1900's, just like the mid-2000's were similar to the mid 1930's. ~70 year cycle. Prediction should be accurate. You're welcome.

Fixed It For Ya.

There are also long cycles in the northern hemisphere of about 500 years. 2000'-ish was at the peak of one of those, oh by the way. The last "warm period" was 1500'ish. The mid 1700's [think valley forge and frozen-over Thames] was the last major cold period. In the ~1000's (or so) there was a warm peak. That's about the time that Eric the Red gave "Greenland" its name because it was, well, GREEN. Unfortunately 100 or so years later, NOT so green, and Viking settlements did rather poorly as a result. Yeah, he found Greenland just after a warming peak, while it was on its way over the hump.

So let us learn from actual history and pay attention to these normal temperature cycles, and base our predictions on THOSE, instead of bogus computer models that were rigged for an outcome by AlGore's religious zealots [who are probably just corrupt political elitists trying to manipulate people].

Re: Bullshit science - Human activity responsible for 3% of CO2 - Why would they hoax us, you ask?

ACK on the title.

From the article: In other words, our planet's temperature changes are linked to the Sun and the seas, and not necessarily manmade, in Bridenstine's mind.

And in MY mind. And in REALITY.

From the article: He doesn't outright deny climate change is happening, just that it may not be the fault of our fossil-fuel mania, air travel, and so on.

It's because the alleged mechanism, CO2, can't work if you know even the SLIGHTEST amount of fact concerning its real effect on Earth temperatures. The mechanism for a greenhouse gas is infrared absorption. CO2's absorption spectrum is PATHETIC when you compare it to IR black body energies associated with temperatures actually FOUND on the earth. CO2 is also at equilibrium, and like anything at equilibrium, shifting the production or depletion rate on one side of the equation causes a large shift in the depletion or production rate on the OTHER side. Translation, you could pour MEGAtons of CO2 into the atmosphere, and it would cause rain, and it would precipitate out in the ocean and become a layer on the sea floor.

From the article: Meanwhile, on NASA's own website you can find data showing human civilization has likely had a profound effect on our world's climate.

2 words: FAKE NEWS [not doubting it's there, it's just that NASA was engaging in FAKE NEWS]

OK I'd bet ACTUAL MONEY on THIS one: 1900 - cold. 1935 - warm. 1970 - cold [iced over puddles in San Jose]. 2005 - warm. 2040 - COLD. each of these numbers is 35 years apart. This is an obvious trend. See how obvious it is? guess what's going to happen in 2040? It's gonna be COLD. That "massive warming" from 1970-ish to mid 2000's, the "hockey stick" on AlGore's chart, was the upswing of a NORMAL CYCLE. And guess what has happened since the "noughties" - NO WARMING, THAT'S WHAT! It's _PREDICTABLE_, and I have PREDICTED it, using REAL STATISTICS, REAL SCIENCE, and NO BULLSHIT.

So I'm very HAPPY that the Trump administration is putting someone in charge of NASA that is a "climate change" REALIST - not "denier", not "skeptic", but REALIST. Because REALITY is that it ain't happening like the Chicken Little Doom/Gloom AlGore cult says it is. It's NOTHING. NOTH-ING. And _I_ should not have _MY_ freedoms curbed, energy prices increased, economy threatened, or SIZE OF GUMMINT INCREASED, to "solve" something that is _NOT_ _THERE_.

Super Cali goes ballistic, small-cell law is bogus. School IT outsourcing is also... quite atrocious

"if you've never had the displeasure of working with a city authority in California it's hard to understand just how absurdly obtuse they could be"

Want an example?

My phone line had a LOT of problems until the phone company decided to re-build it end to end. It's still a bit problematic for the DSL [which throttles to <384k every time the phone rings, and I have to manually reset the modem to get "somewhat under 1Mbit" again, being at the limit of wire miles, LITERALLY on "the end" of the line - neighbor's phone line goes north, mine goes south - yeah], I asked about the 'undergrounding budget' and when the lines were going to go underground.

Well, snarkily the tech admitted that they couldn't get things done in a REASONABLE way. After all, for every 'nice neighborhood' or simply upper-middle or middle-class neighborhood [like mine] that they do, they'd have to do a POOR RUN-DOWN GHETTO neighborhood "to match".

So it's all about THE POLITICS, and not getting the work done efficiently, nor in a timely manner.

There is most certainly a budget for putting the wires under ground. But progress is BARELY moving, even ~20 years after I first heard about it. Remember "the tank" that went on a rampage in San Diego? I lived acoss the street from the National Guard armory at that time, the one where that guy stole the tank from. That's when I heard about the 'undergrounding' budget, as it became a matter of discussion due to all of the phone poles that got knocked over by 'the tank'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Nelson_(plumber)

Well, they fixed the phone poles after the tank broke 'em, but undergrounding the lines? It *STILL* has not happened!

It's amazing, clearly surprising, just how much GUMMING UP that gummint can do, when it puts it's filthy little "mind" to it. The political correctness, the vote-buying, the payola, the scams, the scandals, and ALWAYS pandering to "some group" to get votes. These people are truly APALLING, in the worst kinds of ways. But then again, we had Mayor Bob "Feelner" Filner, who went through a Harvey Weinstein experience a few years ago, basically did the SAME KIND OF THING, and finally the libs were FILLED UP with "Feelner". One of his biggest former supporters (a Demo-Rat woman, former city councilman named Donna Frye) basically went on a crusade to CRUCIFY him.

So yeah, here we are 20 years later, and NO UNDERGROUNDING, and my phone line really SUCKS because the 1970's copper wire is slowly deteriorating to the point where it doesn't right work any more. And re-building my line helped, but my DSL speed is still 25% below what it SHOULD be, even at THIS distance from the DSLAM.

And if they underground, they can run FIBER while they're at it, right? Or you'd like to think so... but THAT would make TOO MUCH SENSE, wouldn't it?

Re: Translation...

Article: "would make it a lot harder for city and county officials to regulate phone carrier access to utility poles."

Translation: would limit the number of kickbacks, favors, and outright corruption that local gummint officials could engage in.

Supreme Court to rule on whether US has right to data stored overseas

"We have the legal right to take it because we are the biggest bully in the playground."

That's why we have courts, elected legislators, and written constitutions, to put the reigns on an otherwise power-hungry out-of-control oppressive gummint. Mostly it works, but sometimes you end up with cases like THIS one where it's not so clear, and is likely to go too far if you don't stop it NOW.

HOPEFULLY the Supreme Court "gets it right". This will be a nice test. There are details about this case that I do not know, and no doubt all of that will be included in the decision (which is generally made public).

From what it sounds like, the D.O.J. is going on a fishing expedition. Otherwise, wouldn't an Irish court tell Microsoft to "cough it up" ? Then this would have been over with and done.

anyway, the actual decision should be an interesting read.

Drone smacks commercial passenger plane in Canada

Re: With apologies for uber-pedantry

turbofan 'bypass thrust' - a brilliant idea, because thrust (essentially) equals mass flow rate times exhaust velocity, expressed as force [similar units to acceleration]. To double thrust, you can either double mass flow rate, or double exhaust velocity. if you double exhaust velocity, it takes 4 times as much energy [from KE=m*v^2/(2*Gc) - double velocity, multiply delta kinetic energy by 4]. Hence, turbo prop and turbo fan engines increase the mass flow rate instead. Then you only need to DOUBLE the amount of energy to double the thrust, a much more efficient engine.

Re: How is it different

"from striking a goose"

geese have no concept of laws, rules, regulations, etc. regarding controlled air traffic zones. Drone pilots at least have the capability of understanding (and obeying) them, and ignorance being no excuse etc..

I don't know what the potential engine damage inflicted by a drone would cost in repairs, but it's probably more money than most people would earn in a year. That assumes that on descent and landing approach [one of the more critical times during flight] the plane doesn't lose control and crash+burn.

Drone operators should just stay away from controlled air-traffic zones with their drones. We all know where the airports are, you can see [and hear] the planes taking off and landing. Just stay away...

WPA2 security in trouble as KRACK Belgian boffins tease key reinstallation bug

Re: Uncorrectable Horse Staple Battery

"But notice how no-one is saying AES is broken?"

true - it won't be until we see the details that we'll know the extent of the problem.

my guess is that 'Michael' will do its job if things get out of sync, more times than not.

Re: Firmware update or OS?

WPA and WPA2 are handled by the main CPU and not the radio, so it's unlikely that radio firmware would need updating [that's typically about modulation and frequencies and things of that nature].

Normally the WPA supplicant (like you mentioned) would be involved.

Radio baseband processors don't (usually) handle anything beyond recognizing where the preamble and the data begin, and sending data out of the antenna. If they do, then the entire firmware would be like one image for all of it [I think there are one or two ARM-based solutions like that out there].

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

Re: Who pays to use YOUR internet connection?

In SOVIET RUSSA [read: modern USA], TV watches YOU!

how many set top boxes will contain a barely visible camera hole that uses various "patented by Micro-shaft" (I kid you not) technologies to determine HOW MANY PEOPLE are watching, maybe even attempt to guess at sex, age, etc., and SLURP all of that info to market commercials DIRECTLY SELECTED FOR YOU, etc. etc. and even figure out when you go to take a whizz or grab something from the fridge...

forcing a NEW round of "smart" TVs and set top boxes may just be another way of slipping THIS in. yeah. Think of it as political Astro Glide...

Re: "The more you tighten your grasp, the more systems will slip through your fingers."

"The broadcasters are just hastening their own irrelevance."

by behaving like MICRO-SHAFT???

I already have to 'rent' set top boxes, even for a 3 year old LCD TV. It has HDMI output (and composite for older TVs). But, the remote control is a piece of CRAP, and 3 or 4 buttons practically don't work after only a couple of years of useage. TV remotes last 10 times as long. But "the cable" went to DIGITAL a while back. So I _have_ to have it.

So I expect "more of the same" then, a special box to decode whatever the hell they broadcast at you. Nothing different except the details. and the increased monthly bill. And not wanting to see anything on 3/4 of the available channels. And too many FEELING commercials injected into the content.

[I had to edit the topic, it was too long with the 'Re:' prepended]

Pulitzer-winning website Politifact hacked to mine crypto-coins in browsers

Just! Run! Noscript!

disabling scripting will make this kind of crap *meaningless*

but I'd probably NEVER go to their web site anyway.

http://www.politifactbias.com/

and that pretty much sums it up.

"Pulitzer Prize" is when left-wing journalists do the equivalent of sexual favors to one another by awarding prizes for being the same kind of left-wing hack-job fake-news propaganda mill as the rest of them... it's as bad as academy awards for sucky art/croissant high-brow films that nobody watches.

US Congress mulls first 'hack back' revenge law. And yup, you can guess what it'll let people do

Re: erm isn't this what law enforcement is for?

"You're making a big assumption about the mental health of the average american gun carrying individual."

Those who think like wildebeasts have a hard time understanding those who think like LIONS. And they're too willing to judge, point fingers, and try to legislate them away. Except, without some who THINK like LIONS [who aren't necessarily lions, but understand them] you're at the mercy of the REAL LIONS. And that's the point.

My balls are just TOO BIG for me to think like a prey animal.

Re: erm isn't this what law enforcement is for?

Overall you come off very "kill 'em all and let god sort 'em out"

Well, not GOD, but you get the general idea. heh.

Re: erm isn't this what law enforcement is for?

"A large fraction of those who end up doing it in real life do require extensive psychological and psychiatric councelling later on - even when the person they killed has been trying to kill them."

not me - I'd make sure they stared right into my eyeballs as I stare into theirs, watching the life drain away. I'm the last thing they'd see on the way to HELL.

[THAT, by the way, makes me a *HARD* *TARGET* - meaning I'm in the house they avoid, or the person they avoid on the street or in a crowd - the one who FIGHTS BACK]

Sorry, I can't by into your "prey animal" kind of thinking. I think like a predator. A self-disciplined predator who doesn't kill without reason. And I spent time in the military, and have been prepared to take a life in self-defense [or defense of others] since then. No problem.

The point is *TO* fight back. Make it hard for the criminal. Even if you're passive-aggressive about it, it's still fighting back. I prefer "active aggressive". And *revenge* is a GOOD thing. enough people do it, and you see crime go WAY down, because their's now a PENALTY [potentially] for the bad behavior.

[this is not how SHEEPLE think. This is how men with BIG BALLS think.]

Re: stupider and stupider

"how in God's name is an individual or and other entity going to bring about a legitimate counter-hack result."

it's been done before [locating the perp]. An enterprising and intelligent operator of a router system did it once, back in the 90's. I can't recall his name, but he got the FBI involved because he was seeing some really unusual activity... and as it turned out, it was someone trying to crack into gummint computers, if I remember correctly.

Someone at an ISP could assist a company in doing the same thing, or if you have your own routers [that can display the right kind of info], you could do it yourself.

even WireShark can be very helpful.

auto-redirect routing to a honeypot server - even better. make it nice and sweet. download that trojan, yeah! let it phone home, and we'll see who you REALLY are! back-door THAT machine, looks for back doors already there, and keep digging until you find the perp. chances are, he's not protecting himself very well... thinking "TOR" will anonymize him. Uh, huh... and then you examine his facebook cookie, his twitter cookie, his microsoft login cookie, ...

Re: Whelp...

"time to figure out how to get Fail2ban to call Metasploit"

I call that "a good start" - heh. Unfortunately, con-grab wants gummint in the loop. DAMMIT.

Re: Cool!

"So we can all hack the US Government back now without worrying about getting extradited?"

you have MY permission, if they're invading your computer without probable cause, and without any kind of legal approval in the UK. They should get a UK warrant first. Then it would be _legal_ in the UK to do that. Or let the UK gummint do it on the US gummint's behalf. Then it's all above-board diplomatically.

But invading your computers? bad idea. hack 'em back. [if you don't mind the legal fees associated with defending yourself, anyway, and IANAL so my legal advice is probably worthless]

Re: Machine != Hacker

well, if you do things properly on YOUR end, researching the hack/crack, it becomes obvious when a web site is being used as a "pure re-director". A little research may lead you to the REAL web site (or person doing the shell access cracking, whichever), especially for things _LIKE_ when the POST transactions in a fake web page reveal exactly where that is [for getting your credit card info, for example]. If your server is the re-director, then you study the logs to see where everything is going, and go from there. That kind of thing. Or if it's someone else, you can often determine where it REALLY came from through various means.

From that point, the lazy coder's or incompetent script-kiddie's ass is YOURS. Just "follow the money" (or in this case, the IP address of the server doing the credit card stuff or intrusions). Notifying the credit card companies along the way is an extra added 'bonus'.

(I would normally expect crack attempts to come in via web site requests as a vector, unless you allow ssh access for more than 1 or two obscure user names with either proper pass-PHRASES or cert-only, or both)

Re: 150,000,000 americans plus several million others can hack Equifax?

"Perfect. I'll set my IoT borgs on the task right now. Oh, by the way, I'll spoof the headers to show it comes from the us congress."

works for me. thanks for the idea.

Re: Hacking back against forged attacks

most people understand the 'joe job' problem. I've been Joe-jobbed a couple of times. Fortunately the web service that handles domain e-mails added the ability to put the correct MX DNS info records in place to specify which servers are authorized to send e-mail for the domain, and I haven't seen it happen since.

in one joe-job case that I allegedly heard about, the alleged perps allegedly had an alleged server running in an alleged country that is well known for having compromised servers and NOT responding to alleged abuse reports because alleged mail service was filtering the abuse reports as "spam". Allegedly. And it allegedly had the usual "fake rolex" and "fake handbag" web sites on it. And it allegedly got flooded with specially crafted (not illegal) HTTP requests that shut it down for a significant amount of time (allegedly exploiting a bug in the way they were re-directing via the "probably compromised" web server), on multiple occasions, with "stop joe jobbing XXX" allegedly being PROMINENT in the logs, allegedly. Yeah, no retaliation THERE, right?

Re: Hacking back against forged attacks

"Bob announces that he will hack back against anybody who attacks him."

heh, I wouldn't announce it, just do it.

That's where the liability comes in - if you don't cover your ass and get the right target, you're as bad as the perp [and so YOU get in trouble]. Unless it becomes a ginormous free-for-all, in which case, popcorn please.

Re: erm isn't this what law enforcement is for?

(from the article>

"Before hacking back, the IT department would have to submit some homework to the FBI's National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force so the Feds can make sure national boundaries are being respected and that any action wouldn't interfere with an ongoing investigation."

And I wanted to have a bot do it, automagically. DAMMIT!

This is like "the 2nd ammendment" for cyber-self-defense. Works for me.

A cop cannot be everywhere. Citizens have to take it upon themselves to report and stop crime. I don't know about the U.K. but here in the USA we have "citizen's arrest" laws, where if you catch someone "in the act" you have the right to arrest that person with REASONABLE FORCE [but criminals have black eyes, broken bones, missing teeth, and if he doesn't look like a criminal, the cops won't believe it, heh]. So yeah, if you witness someone stealing, raping, murdering, you have EVERY right to use deadly force in many cases, and that's the point. Citizens are as good as cops at stopping crime.

In this case, it's citizens with computers who could, in theory, do their OWN investigating. But seriously, if you detect an intrusion, putting up a shield may not be enough. You might have to do something to damage the other end, like trick them into downloading a trojan horse that wipes their hard drive or similar. If a bot kicks in a URL re-director that fakes them into going to the wrong web pages [for example], they end up downloading the trojan horse.

I'd be all for THAT. As an extra added bonus, the law contains liability insurance, so if you destroy some innocent person's computer, you have to pay for it. No biggee. It's the same if you shoot the wrong person. You're liable for that, too.

/me gets bumper sticker for PC: This Computer is Protected by Smith & Wesson

Facebook, Twitter slammed for deleting evidence of Russia's US election mischief

Re: "Facebook has removed thousands of posts"...

even though YOUR posts were miraculously "un-deleted", the alleged "evidence of Russian meddling" and any OTHER collusion will conveniently *disappear*. Into the bit bucket they go!

This has 2 effects:

a) give the "russian collusion" independent investigators more ammo to keep digging [eventually to find something to use against Trump in the next election, or even sooner, they hope] in their FISHING EXPEDITION, and

b) help them perpetuate the "Russia, Russia, Russia" narrative. indefinitely.

But what if there was NOTHING TO FIND in the FIRST place?

Microsoft faces Dutch crunch over Windows 10 private data slurp

Re: Blaming North Korea?

"This is why people despise Microsoft: the way it does its business, the way it lies about the unpalatable aspects of it."

and the way they act like an evil dictatorship...

Maybe it _IS_ the 'NorKs' after all! [or their equivalent]

They certainly aren't acting like a CAPITALIST organization any more.

Re: Irony

Why can't Micro-shaft JUST COME CLEAN on what they're collecting on everyone?

/me hears crickets chirping in Redmond

It's Patch Blues-day: Bad October Windows updates trigger BSODs

Re: Testing Plan

"And shouldn't Microsoft be responsible for testing patches before they're rolled out into Sysadminland?"

No. After they fired their testing staff a couple of years ago (during the Insider Program for Win-10-nic), this became the responsibility of Insiders and End Users.

I love disruptive computer jargon. It's so very William Burroughs

Re: Hmm.

"and have in the past actually had to distinguish them in speech."

when someone first mentioned "Sequel Server" to me ~1990, I couldn't figure out what it was, where to find it, or who to buy it from. IBM allegedly made it, but no literature on it in the back of PC mag or anything even REMOTELY related. If it had been called "Es Queue El" Server, then I might have been able to find it. But the "Sequel" thing was I.B.M. "Market Speak", in the worst possible way.

And I stop conversations in order to correct the pronunciation of 'Es Queue El'. And it's 'My Es Queue El' no matter WHAT anyone says about it. .Calling it anything else invites me to become a GRAMMAR NAZI.