Posts by bombastic bob

US Senators want Kaspersky shut out of military contracts

" Russian gov embargoing Symantec, McAffee and a couple of smaller players feeding of the Washington DC extravaganza."

They should embargo Micro-shaft and Google, instead. it would be more relevant.

Shock: NASA denies secret child sex slave cannibal colony on Mars

Re: School boy mistake

"where did this Robert David Steele guy get his education"

more like re-education.

think drug-induced hysteria during exit interview from CIA [plausible deniability].

heh heh heh

black helicopters? Oh, NOZE!

Ubuntu 'weaponised' to cure NHS of its addiction to Microsoft Windows

Re: Swings and roundabouts

"What you save in Windows licences, you'll have to pay in retraining staff."

how would SHIFTING TO WIN-10-NIC be ANY different in this regard?

if you're going to have to re-train, go LINUX!

Re: It's also about automation...

"for many years, the NHS has relied on Office macros to function"

like legal firms do the same thing from what I understand.

MS Office Macros are HIGHLY overrated [and a dangerous vector for malware]

I have to wonder how many of these could be re-done with simple shell scripts + python/Perl utilities

Re: Modified distro

"enterprise distributions require a subscription for support and updates."

many IT departments prefer this. And the overall cost is lower than a Micro-shaft solution. win-win.

the alternative would be a support contract with some consultants, or hiring your own expert. But at least you have that choice, to contract with Red Hat [let's say], or with a local Linux admin consulting group, or hire your own expert. Whichever you pick, it's highly likely to be a cost savings over Micro-shaft. [I posted the Ernie Ball link already, no need to re-post]

Re: Cost is the smaller concern

"If you deploy a modified distro, you will be just in the hands of the "consultants" which all ask you more and more money to maintain it. "

FUD.

Ernie Ball already proved the cost savings by using RH Linux, over a decade ago.

https://www.cnet.com/news/rockin-on-without-microsoft/

Don't panic, but Linux's Systemd can be pwned via an evil DNS query

Re: Hang on, all y'all ...

"someone, and we all know who, has used their corporate position (i.e. control of the Gnome project) to force a big pile of code onto the rest of the Linux world"

worth pointing out: at some point in time, a couple of years or so before systemd was excreted into the linux realm, Micro-shaft "invested" in the gnome project. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish anyone?

a bit of supporting history can be seen here:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/03/thank_microsoft_for_linux_desktop_fail/?page=2

and there's also the whole mono and C-pound thing. I'm certainly _NO_ fan of ANYTHING that hauls in mono as a dependency. but it's unfortunately growing, most likely by being artificially propped up from the side by Micro-shaft and various C-pound/.Not fanbois.

I propose that Micro-shaft has injected "its way of doing things" into the Gnome project, which also ended up in systemd, as well as Gnome 3. It is evidenced by the monolithic nature of systemd, the "2D FLATSO" influence in the Gnome project, and possibly an increase in mono-dependent or C-pound-dependent things...

(none of that is good for Linux)

Re: If THIS isn't a reason to hate systemd...

"the article makes it clear that use of the systemd resolver isn't compulsory. Yet. At least not if you use Debian."

this is true. my Debian 8 'beater' box [which I'm using to test changes/updates to a customer web site before implementing them on the actual site] has systemd on it, unfortunately, but isn't using resolved for anything significant (or at all, for that matter).

/etc/resolv.conf is a regular file with the expected text-based contents in it

I think you may be able to DISABLE systemd-resolved by making /etc/resolv.conf a static file, rather than a symlink to the /run/systemd/whatever file. Can anyone confirm that?

Re: "What's with all the exclaimation marks?"

https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Punctuated!_For!_Emphasis!

(El Reg does it all the time, too)

If THIS isn't a reason to hate systemd...

IF! THIS! IS! NOT! A! REASON! TO! HATE! SYSTEMD! THEN! THERE! IS! NO! HOPE! FOR! YOU!!!

just sayin'.

Everything you need to know about the Petya, er, NotPetya nasty trashing PCs worldwide

Re: Let's blame Obaka's "revenge"

"Bob, you really do make it difficult for us to take any of your posts seriously."

that was a joke. you weren't SUPPOSED to take it seriously. But I'm glad you did. It made me laugh.

Let's blame Obaka's "revenge"

Obaka wanted to get even with the Russians for allegedly hacking the election so that Trump won.

So we'll blame Obaka for this. Why not, the lame-stream media has been blaming Russia for colluding with Trump for MONTHS now...

trolling trolling la, la-la, la-la

Virus (cough, cough, Petya) goes postal at FedEx, shares halted

Re: "Bastardware"

"Actually did a coffee spray"

'Bastardware' - it's a new meme - malware written for the apparent purpose of spreading mayhem.

Kaspersky Lab US staff grilled by Feds in nighttime swoop

Re: McCarthy Lives

"All hail the congressional committee on investigating the anti-American activities."

Yeah this fake-news "the russians did it" garbage (that started last year) needs to be stopped. It's a waste of time, waste of taxpayer dollars, and nothing more than "dirty politics as usual" and it looks like the FBI is *JUST* as corrupt as the lame-stream media, lefty politicians, and Comey in this regard.

Talk about "doing the side step" and distracting everyone from whatever is REALLY going on. how about Mrs. Clinton's URANIUM DEAL with Russia a while back, and the 'Clinton Foundation' slush fund that collected her payback for it? let's investigate THAT instead, shall we? Then, the REAL corruption will be found, and Russia won't really be "at fault" since they were only acting in their own best interests in that regard...

time to DRAIN THE SWAMP!

America throws down gauntlet: Accept extra security checks or don't carry laptops on flights

Shelley Berman knew how to do it

Shelley Berman knew how to do it, a long time ago:

a) pass out the guns when you get on the plane

b) collect them when you get off

PROBLEM SOLVED!

That, and I'll add my $.10 worth: PROFILING. That way you don't have to punish *EVERYONE* for the evil choices of a *few*, in the name of 'political correctness'.

Tanks for the memories: Building a post-Microsoft Office cloud suite

Re: Actually google docs does support scripting / automation

the problem is how pig-slow it runs, though. If you're doing simple things, it's fine, but if you have 5000 rows in your spreadsheet, UI performance *STINKS*. At least, that's been MY experience.

Keep the documents SMALL, and google docs will work. But javascript-based editing STILL stinks, regardless.

(at least it's platform-independent)

LibreOffice is the better way to handle documents and spreadsheets. Collaborative 'cloudy' documents are highly overrated.

/me hasn't purchased an MS Office since '97 and that one had clippy - bleah - and I only did it because a customer kept sending me '.doc' files in a format I couldn't read with office '95. And then Office '97 kept failing to work right on systems with >1G of RAM (particularly ACCESS) and trying to fix it made printing stop working. So I went to Open/LibreOffice on all windows boxen and that's the end of that.

Met Police laggards still have 18,000 Windows XP machines in use

Re: Why?

"resistance to change"

yes. people resist change, especially when it's CHANGE for the SAKE OF CHANGE. You know, like the perfectly fine XP UI that everybody got to know really well, being twisted and manipulated into the Win-10-nic we all know (and generally hate/dislike) today.

I think cops are busy being cops, not IT professionals, and as such don't want to WASTE THE TIME it takes to re-learn what they already know. I think that speaks well enough for itself.

The ONLY ones who "benefit" from "all of that re-learning" is MICROSHAFT. For everyone ELSE, it's a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS!!!

And don't forget the psychological effects of the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY.

Microsoft brings caregiver leave home to US, plans to finish global rollout soon

"Microsoft on the whole were a decent outfit to work for, even then (mid-late 2009)"

back THEN I can believe it. windows 7 was about to be released. they were LISTENING TO THE CUSTOMERS back then.

I think it's a bit different now. At least, from what I've read [including on El Reg]

Re: Say what you may about Microsoft...

"on this front it seems to give a shit about it's employees"

they have to keep up that appearance, anyway.

but it's still all about "bottom line". The cost of a 'family leave' thing [which is usually 'vacation time' for the rest of us, or PTO, or similar, for those who are NOT contractors] is small compared to the P.R. and 'employee retention' factor.

I hear that working for Micro-shaft these days isn't all that pleasant. So they sugar it up a bit to keep people from rage-quitting. And the P.R. benefits speak for themselves.

After all, if it LOOKS like they "care" about people, it won't hurt so much when they JAM their intrusive customer policies into our rectums (adware, spyware, tracking, forced updates, win-10-nic 2D FLATSO FLUGLY and less choice, etc.)

Looking for an Ubuntu Unity close cousin? Elementary, my dear...

Re: Unity lives on a Yunit

in the spirit of the open source world, it's been taken over by those who still want it. good enough.

now if Micro-shaft would only allow the forking of Windows 7...

Re: "An"? I had no idea!

"I pronounce MATE as 'ma-chay' just to annoy everyone or make them worry that they've been saying it wrong."

just don't pronounce 'SQL' as 'sequel'

Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube create anti-terror group

Fox. Henhouse. No problem!

just sayin'

Microsoft: We'll beef up security in Windows 10 Creators Edition Fall Update

Re: Fail Edition?

"Somehow I read Windows 10 Creators Edition Fail Update..."

no, just Windows 10 Fail Update, like "Windows 10 F.U."

Re: Microsoft: We'll beef up security in Windows 10 Creators Edition Fall Update

it makes me think of this:

a) No, Seriously, we REALLY MEAN it this time!

b) No more zero-day Defender vulnerabilities. Honest!

c) No more secret back doors via the web. Honest!

d) We promise to keep the slurped data to ourselves [and our partners], and occasionally to law enforcement when our spies find 'questionable' photos and downloaded content

e) No more zero-day vulnerabilities in Edge. Honest!

enough for now. you get the idea.

icon: it's me face-palming at the lameness, not saying "Doh"

US Copyright Office suggests 'right to repair' laws a good idea

There are no legitimate uses of the law.

deserves its own topic. DMCA should just *DIE*

there were copyright protections prior to DMCA. we didn't need "that".

Re: and recovering kit that's obsolete, that is, unsupported by the manufacturer anyhow

"I won't step on your freedom/choice, you don't step on mine. Deal?"

<sarcasm>

You forgot, all of these *kinds* of "freedoms" are always ONE-SIDED - and the ONE side that FORCES YOU is always the winner. Enjoy your Win-10-nic! You're "free" to use it.

</sarcasm>

Tavis Ormandy to Microsoft: Have another Windows Defender vuln

Re: Slightly scary

" why is MS doing this?"

many possible explanations exist, but I think the MAIN one is:

all of the senior, experience people that made Micro-shaft into the #1 OS provider [market-wise, not quality-wise] have RETIRED, and took their stock options and everything else, and are enjoying all of that money with all of that free time.

That left the company in the hands of MILLENIALS and ZEALOTS.

So the CHILDREN are running the show now, it's THEIR turn to do things THEIR way, and they're extermely ARROGANT about jamming their crap-ware into whatever customer orifices they can find.

And they're also CLUELESS, fall too quickly for the "new, shiny" trap [like a shiny lure on a fishing line], and have completely LOST TOUCH with what CUSTOMERS want.

And it's also very likely that "the right hand" does not have a clue about what "the left hand" might be doing over at Micro-shaft. Everybody's isolated in their own little fifedom, fighting for dominance and importance and generally creating chaos for "the big picture" on Win-10-nic. Hence the cluster-BLANK we're seeing.

THAT, and 'full system x86 emulator' running as SYSTEM.

I've always preferred 'safe surfing'

I've always preferred "safe surfing", like

a) don't use windows to surf the web, if possible

b) don't log in with 'admin' privs if you surf "teh intarwebs" or read e-mail. EVAR.

c) don't use IE or Edge, if possible

d) don't enable ActiveX, automatic font downloads, or javascript (by default). In Firefox, use the 'NoScript' plugin.

e) don't allow flash (or adobe ANYTHING for that matter) plugins.

f) don't allow ANYTHING to 'take over' the browser UI. this especially includes toolbars or UI widgets of any form. This may require plugins to filter them out or block them.

g) NEVER view e-mail as HTML. *EVAR*

h) NEVER allow ANYTHING in an e-mail to "preview inline"

i) do NOT enable IPv6 on windows machines WITHOUT a comprehensive external firewall blocking ALL! OF! THOSE! OPEN! PORTS!

j) do NOT rely on "microsoft ANYTHING" for security

note I didn't include ANY anti-virus products. You don't need them, if you practice 'safe surfing'.

Microsoft recommends you ignore Microsoft-recommended update

How am I supposed to IGNORE the update...

how am I supposed to IGNORE the update, when it's being CRAMMED up my ARSE?

Heaps of Windows 10 internal builds, private source code leak online

Re: Even pro-Microsoftie Thurrott...

"how will you run the windows APPS that are the main reason people stick to Windows"

THIS is where _MARKETING_ comes into play...

Linux needs MARKETING. You get people to run it, and get used to "windows within a VM" for when they MUST have windows for something.

Simultaneously you get the 'big boy' vendors to do one of two things: either they SHIP LINUX VERSIONS (I hear Quickbooks is done in Java, so for Intuit it might be pretty simple!) or else they do a "Wine certification" so that they CERTIFY their applications will run under Wine.

Do this enough, and it will gain a life of it's own.

The problem is that NOBODY is doing that kind of marketing work.

HOWEVER, if we can manage to convince a few of the BIG BOYS (let's say Intel, AMD, Lenovo, Dell, and some of the others that will SELL HARDWARE AGAIN if a decent OS is available) that they need to invest in this kind of marketing, it MAY become practical enough that "it happens".

Yes, it takes MONEY and EFFORT to unseat a monopoly. I just described one way it can be done.

Re: With source to drivers, will it now be a walk in the park for the other OSes?

"Did you try booting into Windows with driver signing enforcement disabled"

I've done that for ME, while doing driver development (in 7, not win-10-nic - I don't do win-10-nic).

But I want to release an open source kernel driver to do something that's cool. And giving people the necessary build/install instructions to make that work is impractical, at best.

And it's obviously a *SICK* *JOKE* that NOW you basically have to give the damn binary to Micro-shaft and have THEM sign it, for Win-10-nic anyway. At least, that's what I remember reading last year.

I've mostly given up on windows development. may cancel my MSDN subscription, even. Their tools suck, their moving target for development UI stinks, and I haven't jumped on their bandwagon since they introduced ".Not". In fact I've had to go OUT OF MY WAY to make sure that DAMN THING isn't included in my project. It's bad enough I had to add a 'manifest' to an executable to keep vista and later from treating something as AN INSTALLER by accident, based on it's name. And the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY just makes me want to VOMIT. Devstudio after 2010 is FILLED with that kind of crap.

Basically I do NOT want to tie my career to the TITANIC as it goes STRAIGHT for the ICEBERG.

And I know how "easy" it is to work around their signing requirements. Except for end-users. And they'll see the "debug mode" watermark on the wallpaper, etc.. That's not the way to release open source software, ya know?

Re: Even pro-Microsoftie Thurrott...

"with a Windows 10 UWP platform+Win10 user inferface bolted on top."

except THAT is the lipstick being painted on the non-oinky end of the Win-10-nic BOAR.

You can put Linux underneath, but if it LOOKS like WIn-10-nic, SMELLS like Win-10-nic and causes me to reflex-vomit if I attempt to TASTE it (like Win-10-nic), then WHY do it?

[yeah don't get me started on everything I *HATE* about Win-10-nic, which are all contained in the UWP 2D FLATSO FLUGLY "the METRO" CRAP-UI. I have few grips about the bottom end; it's the UI that I *HATE*]

Anyway, I'll take Linux with Mate instead. Or better still, FreeBSD! A "Win-10-nic" desktop manager would *JUST* *SUCK*.

With source to drivers, will it now be a walk in the park for the other OSes?

I'd like to think so, but then again I'm not really happy about the *quality* of MS-written drivers [or else we wouldn't need so many 3rd party drivers maybe...]

What I'd like is a nice WORKAROUND or BACK DOOR to Micro-shaft's IRRITATING driver signing policy for kernel mode drivers.

Re: I'm done with Windows.

"Linux's greatest weakness is its dependency on C for everything."

Uh, *WHAT* *THE* *FEEL* is *THAT* supposed to mean?

Linux's greatest weakness is (most likely) LACK OF MARKETING. Otherwise we wouldn't even have this article.

The C language might as well have been created by THE PROGRAMMING GODS. It is SUPERIOR to most other languages in just about every way, in its simplicity AND flexibility, and applicability to both low-level "hardware" coding, and high-level "UI" coding.

If you code in languages like C-pound and think that '.Not' is GOOD in any way, then I'll just sit back and laugh at you, really really hard.

So thanks SO much for the FUD. It echos like a Micro-shaft propaganda ad for NT4 server from the 90's.

Re: Long File Path support

"Linux seems to make a hobby of breaking backwards compatibility."

boooo. shows what YOU know. just because you SAY it doesn't make it TRUE. That's especially the case for HARDWARE compatibility. You know, like running Linux on a 17 year old Toshiba laptop...

"I wonder if the crime scene is also covered in lipstick. Pigs were called in, after all."

my guess is that the pigs SAT on the lipstick. Micro-shaft isn't known for putting lipstick on the OINKY end [as a brilliant El Reg commenter once pointed out]

US Secretary of State: I will work with Russia on cyber security issues

Re: Pot, kettle, black

"Pot, kettle, black" happened BEFORE any alleged Russian hacking of the DNC (dilate and cauterize?) when Obaka *OVERTLY* tried to interfere in Israel's election process.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/12/obama-admin-sent-taxpayer-money-oust-netanyahu/

The DNC hacking was (from what I can gather) from Assange's practical admission when a (now murdered) Demo-Rat insider, a Bernie supporter, was APPALLED at the level of collusion that was being done to elect Mrs. Clinton, and so he basically "leaked" everything. Couple THAT with a poorly chosen password of a high-ranking Demo-Rat and you've got yourself a nice document dump for WIkiLeaks, just in time for the election.

Florida Man to be fined $1.25 per robocall... all 96 million of them

"Put him in a cell for 10 years with someone who can't stop making knock-knock jokes."

Or a very large, smelly person that refers to him as "Ben Dover"

Re: Do Not Call Registry?

at $500/robocall I'd have at least $30k by now (this year alone)

I WANT MY MONEY!

Re: Good luck with collecting that fine.

from the article: "When answered, they played a recorded message"

and that recorded message starts the moment my answering machine says "Hellloooo Baaaaby!" like the Big Bopper [followed by a pause, followed by a welcome to friends and family and 'for the rest of you' this number is on the national do not call list - I don't pick up the phone any more unless I hear someone I know leaving a message - no ringer either]. If the recording leaves ANY identifying information, a complaint is generated. And the answering machine message only has the back half of the thing, as it "starts talking" over the machine message EVERY! TIME!. Assuming it's not "just a hangup". I've been getting SEVERAL CALLS PER DAY lately, just like that. It's FORNICATING IRRITATING AS HELL! Can't use the phone as it was intended any more. If it weren't for DSL, I'd consider NOT EVEN HAVING ONE.

But how can you register a complaint with SPOOFED caller ID and NO identifying information in the recorded message??? I'm a RABID complainer to the FCC about these guys. I've got 'confirmed kills' on FAX spammers from a while back. I'd DROOL over a CONFIRMED kill with one of THESE BASTARDS! But they've rigged it so complainers like me can't touch them. You have to wait for the FORNICATING call center and bother to ask questions and get called back REPEATEDLY by them now that you've "established a relationship with them".

Oh, and there's no pit in hell deep enough, no jail cell damp and cold enough, no punishment HIDEOUS AND CRUEL enough, for these GOSH DARNED MOTHER-FEELING ROBO-CALLERS (word substitution for humor)! They deserve a triple-eternity sentence with DAILY TORMENT, to the point where they insanely scream "I DESERVE THIS!"

FCC: LEO ISPs A-OK

Maybe Elon will help?

perhaps SpaceX "used launcher" prices could make it affordable?

Ok not for a few years yet, but still...

Also not a fan of what the latency is going to be like. TCP could be a real problem.

Google to remove private medical data from search results

Re: Removed from search results ...

"but no comment about removing it from the profile that is built about you to help google target you with more adverts."

Ack. and don't forget every question you ever typed in for WebMD or some similar web site to see if you want to bother going to a doctor, or to inform yourself ahead of time to avoid unnecessary "whatever".

Or you could always have fun and look up a bunch of rare female diseases (if you're a male), or rare male diseases/conditions (if you're a female), and flood their metadata with useless nonsense. Then sit back and watch the funny ads, with beer and popcorn.

that's right ladies, penis enlargement ads! JUST for YOU! Men can get plenty of information about menopause and vaginal yeast infections sent to them, and maybe some sample feminine hygiene products on top of it...

Virgin Media router security flap follows weak password expose

correct horse battery staple

obligatory xkcd reference

https://www.xkcd.com/936/

PC rebooted every time user flushed the toilet

Re: I read this story about 15 years ago..

"Gary" in the original piece here did a good job at spotting the problem.

which then prompted a proper solution, consisting of a) replace pump, b) get a UPS (which acts like a power conditioner for the computer)

Latest Windows 10 Insider build pulls the trigger on crappy SMB1

Re: Edge, emojis, and SMB1 - three things I don't use

I left SMB1 enabled in Samba because of Win XP machines. For now. But the shares are nearly all read-only.

The others I never use, either.

Emojis. Bleah. The only ones I use are profane and NSFW and therefore won't have little cartoony emblems pre-designed by Micro-shaft. Example: (.Y.) <-- that's a mild one

yeah let's see Micro-shaft do THAT one. HA HA HA HA HA

Re: Someone please take out all the plebs infesting MS and shoot them.

I'd rather condemn them to an eternity of WIN-10-NIC! Serve them right, it would!

and those damnable emojis can BITE MY HAIRY NAKED ASS (a modified 'Bender' quote)

Lordy! Trump admits there are no tapes of his chats with Comey

Hook, line, and sinker!

I think the press has been TROLLED, successfully. By Trump.

Microsoft PatchGuard flaw could let hackers plant rootkits on x64 Windows 10 boxen

ticking time bomb... tick tick tick tick BOOM!

As Micro-shaft downplays their newly discovered vulnerability, getting something into the kernel in the first place is not THAT difficult, as long as you can manage a kernel driver load by tricking the user into installing the thing. Yeah, it's a bit more difficult with the newer cert requirements (that effectively punish small-time developers in a failed attempt to stop the malware, kinda like GUN CONTROL nonsense), but there *are* workarounds that could be used by carefully written installers to get around all of that. A few boots later, and voila! COMPROMISED!

So tricking the user into installing something malicious is the only real hurdle.

[it's pretty much the same deal with ANY computer system, really]

Microsoft admits to disabling third-party antivirus code if Win 10 doesn't like it

Re: '34 years of development - Windows 10 is the result'

"Not to mention the number of times it's necessary to drop to command line in Linux to carry out operations that in Windows can be done by a few mouse clicks"

how about "not to mention the number of times it's necessary to take my right hand off of the damn keyboard in Winders to go mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie to carry out operations that in Linux can be done with a single clever shell command."

I stick my tongue out and make a raspberry noise in your general direction!

Re: '34 years of development - Windows 10 is the result'

"The beancounters see huge reductions in CapEx"

yet, LibreOffice is _FREE_ - no 'CapEx' there.