* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

US Labor Dept accuses CIA-backed Palantir of discriminating against Asian engineers

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: I can understand a little bit of bias

yeah, and particularly if referrals are involved, maybe existing employees don't know that many people of "asian" descent. It can happen.

As for me I think Chinese girls are *HOT* so I'd perhaps have a few *more* 'Asian' friends than average, but there ya go... heh heh heh

Referrals are the best way to find quality employees, AND to land yourself a position. "What color is your parachute" mentions that early on, as I recall.

The H.R. "screening" process is *THE* biggest problem in landing a tech job. H.R. dweebs don't know TCP from UDP, except as terms on a 'screener sheet', and you KNOW that THE most junior member of H.R. is the one that's shafted with the 'resume screening' duty. If you said "implemented datagram-based protocol" on your resume as one of the things you've done, and didn't say "UDP", and "UDP" was on the screener sheet, your resume hits the '/dev/null' bin and that's it.

And front-loading a resume with buzz-terms and jargon, JUST to get past the clueless H.R. screeners, makes it TLDR and boring (so hiring managers glaze over and miss important stuff).

And don't EVEN get me started on how they treat the older, experienced people. "You're too close to retirement", then quietly forgotten and dropped in the dustbin.

And what about REVERSE DISCRIMINATION? This can go on indefinitely, propping up lawyer income and tying up courtrooms and making [virtual] ink.

As for the definition of 'Asian' in this case...

I don't know what's wrong with the term 'Oriental'. That refers to S.E. Asia and the pacific island region in the IO and West Pacific, aka "The Orient". Saying 'Asian' instead is, of course, "misleading" but supposedly is a "politically correct" (*SPIT*) term for 'Oriental'. So, we just "assume", right?

Suspected Russian DNC hackers brew Mac trojan

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: MacKeeper security software

So here's the question (regarding the attack vector): Is MacKeeper HOOKING THE ADOBE READER [which is what I suspect is happening], or being somehow "activated" by the Adobe reader?

So there's my earlier point about using an open source PDF reader to prevent the problem. I suppose I should've clarified by including the 'MacKeeper' vector, which I was assuming to be some kind of anti-virus thing.

But if it's hijacking browsers and stuff, then you're right, it WOULD BE a form of 'sleezeware' like all of those 'browser button' plugin things from the "noughties", pretending to be anti-virus anti-malware 'security' but then secretly tracking you or something...

(or in THIS case, providing a vector for breaking into your computer)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Suspected Russian DNC hackers

uh, you still need to download and VIEW the PDF. Then again, it could've been attached to a 'legit looking' spam-mail...

/me wonders if open source PDF readers like 'evince' are still vulnerable to that exploit...

I don't like the more recent PDF viewer from Adobe. It tries to "do too much" and that's probably what the vulnerability exploits. But if it's a vulnerability the PDF format ITSELF, the readers will need to be able to shut such "features" off, to prevent spammed PDFs from being viewed by accident in spam-mails (and infecting your computer).

Though I must admire the cleverness of the evil hackers behind the exploit, making sure that the payload behaves as you expect, so that the virus/trojan load happens without any suspicion.

[Macs have the ability to install 'macports' or similar open source packages, and as such 'evince' and other open source readers SHOULD be available - I would suggest that security patches start with THAT, abandoning Adobe readers, and using one of the open source readers]

Add 'fattism' and hacker stereotyping to the list of Donald Trump's list of non-PC positions

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Someone weighing 400 pounds

whenever _I_ exercise more, my weight goes up. but then again, I don't like being a 'skinny wimp'.

it's about the body fat %, not about the total mass measurement nor that idiotic "BMI".

After all, just look at the NFL... (they'd ALL fail the 'BMI' test)

Official: Windows 10 has hit the 400 million device mark

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

it's not FUD, it's *TRUTH*

"There is a lot of FUD being spouted about Windows 10, most of it by Microsoft-hating trolls, or people who are just stuck in the past."

no FUD, Win-10-nic is what it is, out there for everyone to see, complete with the 2D FLUGLY, the 'brickings' [mostly from updates], and not to forget those forced updates that REMOVE! YOUR! CUSTOMIZATIONS!, and so on. And the adware you can ALLEGEDLY turn off, but the spyware you can't shut off no matter how much Micro-shaft claims to the contrary.

It stinks on ice, sucks out of the box, etc.

nothing good to say about it at all, except that MAYBE the 'Pro' version LETS YOU upgrade to 7.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Windows 10? So What?

what about the 2D FLUGLY? what about the FORCED UPDATES? (and other irritating stuff, naturally).

there are SIGNIFICANT differences between 7 and 10 that exceed "just the start [thing]", MOST of them VERY irritating.

At least with PRO you can UPgrade it to 7 if you want, right???

Unimpressed with Ubuntu 16.10? Yakkety Yak... don't talk back

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: The early releases of Ubuntu were a revelation and made Linux a practical desktop, but...

agreed - I like Ubu when you use a Mate desktop, but Unity STINKS no matter HOW you package it.

Let's just hope the default themes aren't "all 2D FLATSO" like what happened with Mint 18 [forcing me to customize it to avoid the 2D FLATSO look that I *HATE*].

So, when will the MILLENIALS that have taken over the direction of open source software (and, Micro-shaft) *FINALLY* get it that people genuinely prefer 3D skeuomorphic to 2D FLATSO at least 2:1 ? When will they GET IT that phone-like interfaces (such as Unity) really *SUCK* on desktops? When will others (like Mozilla) just *STOP* *IT* with the 'hamburger' menus and DEFAULT BACK TO A CLASSIC MENU BAR instead? [it's as bad as the 'ribbon' in Micro-shaft Office and Windows 7 'Paint' ].

All of these "changes" which are CHANGE for the WORST, makes "up"grade a "down"grade, and I don't want to have to load CRAP versions just so google docs and github won't fail to work any more [this happened to me within the last year].

Yeah, when the UPgrade is a DOWNgrade, and "other forces" are HERDING you into HAVING to adopt them, it's a SYMPTOM that open source software is becoming REALLY SICK, you know?

Forgive me, father, for I have used an ad-blocker on news websites...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I'll stop blocking ads when...

I'll stop blocking when

a) you stop using jquery and nodejs and other monolithic mega-scripting in your ads

b) you stop using script *PERIOD* in your ads

c) you stop using COOKIES to TRACK me (in your ads and elsewhere including invisible GIF)

d) you stop using ANYTHING to TRACK me.

e) you stop using FLASH or POPUPS or CLICK THROUGH or any *OTHER* video or active/moving content, particularly content that requires USER ACTION to MAKE IT GO AWAY.

At that point, ads will be simple banners. They're not irritating. I won't block them.

Big Software is the next, er, big thing

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

wishful thinking on their part...

if you ask me, it's just wishful thinking by the "big boys" in the yard, that the "big boys" will dominate the yard.

meanwhile, the REAL innovation happens in the "small software" realm...

'the cloud' is yet another attempt to have "big server, little client" for everything. It has its uses, and they sometimes make sense, but it's highly overrated, over-hyped, and probably over-installed.

At some point, distributed processing will balance with 'the cloud'. End-users can only tolerate so many unplanned outages, piss-poor UI performance, and "big data" in control of their secrets.

And! it! begins! Yahoo! sued! over! ultra-hack! of! 500m! accounts!

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

here come the sue-ers

I'm embarassed it started in my part of the world (San Diego). I wonder if they're shopping for the SAME JUDGE that Trump heavily criticized a while back?

Safe browsing checks fail as 16,000 WordPress sites hacked this year

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

hand-coded optimized HTML isn't that hard

hand-coded optimized HTML (without scripting, even!) isn't THAT hard.

you can even insert it into El Reg comments...

I like to use 'tables' to format my web pages. it's clean, simple, elegant, and pretty much universally supported. And it'll force scrollbars if the screen is too small to view the content properly.

and it might even force phone-viewers to go into 'landscape' mode [which is superior anyway].

(yeah learn to program HTML, use scp or rsync to transfer things, and stop relying on some 3rd party bloatware to do simple things like html markup)

Lenovo denies claims it plotted with Microsoft to block Linux installs

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: What a whiny bunch of spoilt hypocritical Linux users

at least some of your points about the linux community shooting its own feet (particularly with respect to ALSA vs OSS and systemd vs desktop managers that won't work without it) are valid.

so how about 'no vote' instead? out of fairness.

still, win-10-nic deserves the bashing. and anything that LOOKS like it's locking out Linux deserves it, too. Lenovo did something very very naughty with 'superfish' late last year, and had to backpedal and admit their wrong to the entire world last February. I think they deserve the scrutiny on THIS issue, too.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

strangely, micro-shaft got 'popular' by making an OS people WANTED

"I'm more and more disgusted by M$ that is gradually "locking down" the PC to W$ only."

it's because they can no longer do what it was that made them "popular" in the first place: make an OS that people actually WANT. You know, so they don't have to use DEVIOUS MEANS and outright STRONGARM their customers into ACCEPTING it [without lubrication?] and NOT "just going elsewhere".

tactics like this usually fail, but it takes a while. Back in the 'robber baron' days of >100 years ago, the 'tactic in question' was to strangle all competitors (by dominating the entire supply chain) so that they could NOT wedge their way into the market and provide AN ALTERNATIVE to dealing with the 'robber baron'. In this case, the 'robber baron' is leveraging computer makers, sort of like owning the gasoline stations AND the refineries AND the oil fields... (and thus fixing prices along the way in your own favor).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Microsoft will be paying vendors to deploy their malware os Windows 10....

"most people want to use [win-10-nic] anyway."

not according to everything I've seen, including netmarketshare and statcounter. Their numbers show about 2:1 favoring 7 [and other versions] over 8 and 10, and very FEW people that I talk to actually _LIKE_ Win-10-nic. It's just getting shoved up our down our throats in one way or another. And, in THIS case, _LOCKED_ _IN_ on the computer itself by the manufacturer.

Where's Linus on this?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Microsoft will be paying vendors to deploy their malware os Windows 10....

Well, based on what happened LAST time around (when Lenovo bundled Superfish on windows machines):

1. defensiveness [we just saw that]

2. quietly speaking, erm, hmmm, "well, it looks like maybe we DID..."

3. complete backpedal, public apology, un-do the damage, offer fixes to anyone who wants one, silently angry they got caught with pants down, etc.

Waiting for '#3'.

And where's Linus on this?

[so yeah, KEEP UP THE PRESSURE, so they have to go through with "the process" and give us #3]

New Gnome emerges blinking into the sunlight

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: *nix?

"Isn't Gnome 3 still tied to systemd? Surely that makes it Linux only."

sadly, FreeBSD has gnome 3 in ports, last I looked. Most likely there's a set of cumbersome patches for the systemd-ness.

in fairness, gnome2 had its share too. haven't looked at mate, though. yet. It's in ports, too!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Old dog

"What is the point? Can anybody explain it to me?"

(with reference to the migration of gnome in the same direction as Micro-shaft's 'circle the drain' 2D FLATSO touch-centric phone-GUI interfaces on desktop computers)

a) "new shiny" (as been pointed out already)

b) too many people used to XP, won't "up"grade

c) patents, copyrights, and locking users into Micro-shaft's "solution"

d) change for the sake of change

e) millenials getting to do things THEIR way (which can't be OUR way, because, millenials)

therefore, it's "Modern", with the built-in "get with the program, gramps" pejoratives.

Doesn't make it BETTER, though, like who wants an electric roller skate when you can have a MUSCLE CAR!

gnome 3 and micro-shaft seem to be in kahootz or something... (did MS start investing in the gnome stuff? I am pretty sure that one of their devs was a ".Not" and mono fan, but still...)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: It's still smartphone-GUI-on-a-workstation.

(from linked-to article) "Flatpak is the next generation application distribution framework for Linux."

"Until they fix that, I'll stick with Cinnamon and/or MATE,"

I agree 100%! There's _NO_ reason to follow Micro-shaft's "circle the drain" FLATSO overly-touchy-feely development direction. When I saw 'Flatpak' I was thinking <u>FLATSO</u> like "Ape" and Win-10-nic. Am I wrong?

Desktops need a REAL 3D skeuomorphic interface. Like Mate. Or Cinnamon. But we STILL have to kick the millenials [who are "in charge" now and doing it "their way"] a bit for releasing the latest Mint (18) with *ONLY* the FLATSO decorations in the default themes, meaning you have to go through the 'CUSTOMIZE' choices to pick something *SANE* and not 2D FLUGLY FLATSO.

I want 3D looking *BUTTONS* in the window title bar, DANGIT!

UK copyright troll weeps, starts 20-week stretch in the cooler for beating up Uber driver

bombastic bob Silver badge

"I hope his employees run off with his business."

actually, if it's truly one of those 'trolling' copyright "enforcers", better see it fade into pink-slips and bankruptcy

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: 20 wks in prison! He's a kid for fucks sake!

"Being a director of some company is no excuse, and neither is Aspergers, or Hipsterism."

or AD[H]D? Or "the devil made me do it?"

/me whips out a cane...

Lean in and pivot: Even Steve Jobs didn't work alone, startup boy

bombastic bob Silver badge

"Batman doesn't work alone. At the very least, there is always Alfred."

Alfred = "the hired help"

not ready to go into the 'you did not build that' extreme, but HIRING PEOPLE is an effective way of getting things done, when you specifically lack those skills [or can't afford to waste time doing it all yourself].

Also Bruce Wayne's company and all of the employees there, especially the one played by Morgan Freeman [who invents all of the cool schtuff].

yeah, humans have been gathering in teams for cohesive strength to accomplish major things, since, like, forever.

Not enough personality: Google Now becomes Google Not Anymore

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

being able to programatically shut it off

for the 'droid application I've been working on recently (demonstrated at a trade conference in Las Vegas last weekend), this might be mandatory - it's for certain kinds of doctors to use with a medical device. And I've seen other android applications being used in similar ways (being demonstrated at that same trade conference).

yeah we don't need patient data going to 'the cloud'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

I'd rather teach it to fuel my fetishes

come on, hasn't anybody though of this one yet? Make the google version of siri:

a) speak to me like a lucious lady of the night,

b) be "of age" but look a bit younger, complete with school girl uniform

c) never get old, never cheat on me, and never ever ever say "no"

my own virtual girlfriend that will go get things I want online, find out how to drive from point A to point B, and knows my deepest darkest perverted secrets...

yum yum yum!

Windows 10 backlash: Which? demands compo for forced upgrades

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

classic shell doesn't fix the flatso

"Classic Shell. Natch."

doesn't fix the 2D FLATSO, though

"I've been giving Mint's latest, Sarah, the once over today.... oh, behave!!!"

In general I like it. However, I noticed that THEY TOO have all of the themes in FLATSO mode, out of the box. I was disappointed. Granted, if you dive into customization, you can get ACTUAL BUTTONS in the title bar, but the fact that NONE of the default options had this, disappoints me greatly.

2D FLATSO non-skeuomorphic FLATASS is _SO_ bad, _SO_ ugly, I can't even use 8.x nor 10 with classic shell, and that's no joke! It's like "bad feng sheui", or a hideous colored paint on the walls, or K&R style code, etc. etc. etc., so distracting it keeps me from getting things done.

I like classic shell, as a desperate move to fix "Ape" and "Ape point 1" and even win-10-nic, but the FLUGLY 2D just bugs me...

(what is it with the MILLENIALS and their "do it OUR way now that it's OUR turn" down'up'grades and that gawd-awful FLATSO look???)

Windows Server 2016: Leg up or lock in?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

who needs a windows server anyway

I haven't used a windows server since W2k3, and it ran so pig-slow on the same hardware that 2k ran on (by comparison), even after upgrading the RAM to its minimum specs, that I can't justify any reason to have a windows server any more. Pig slow, security crater, IIS and ".Not", and basically a toll-booth for everything you might want to do that requires "a server version of windows" because the pro version was deliberately crippled so as NOT to have "that" in it... (and/or the software won't even run on a non-server OS, go fig.)

similarly, Linux is a server OR workstation, depending on how you configure it, RHEL and similar 'pay for the value added' distros notwithstanidng.

and my server runs FreeBSD, with ZFS, on old hardware (Intel dual core 1.8Ghz with 4G RAM) that would probably stutter and stall if it were running a windows server OS. But with FreeBSD, runs *JUST* fine!

Who needs a windows server anyway?

Microsoft deletes Windows 10 nagware from Windows 7 and 8

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

so, is it SAFE to run 'windows update' again?

So, is it SAFE to run Windows Update again? Or should I wait for the fallout?

She cannae take it, Captain Kirk! USS Zumwalt breaks down

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Sub heading surprise

Seawater lubricated bearings notwithstanding... [they work nicely for shaft seals and bearings located outside the main hull]

it probably wasn't caused by an oil-lubricated shaft bearing that was directly exposed to water. Most likely it was a lube oil cooling system that leaked water into the oil. These ships typically use sea water for cooling things like oil and sometimes directly cooling rotating machinery. Oil gets hot when it's used to lubricate things like turbine reduction gears, so you need an oil cooler. If the oil cooler has a defect causing a leak, it probably requires a shipyard to replace it. In the mean time, watery oil makes a poor lubricant, so they'd lock the shaft and run on the other one(s).

that's my take on it.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Displaced, by gad.

"That would explain the price tag."

some companies exist BECAUSE they're good at inflated-cost contracts with gummint... i.e. "military industrial complex".

gotta watch out for it. (I think Ike warned us about that)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Nomenclature...

boat vs ship: technically, if it's over ~200 feet long (I think that's right), it's a ship. The exception is a submarine, which is called "boat" by tradition, since modern subs (and the ones in WW2 as I recall) are nearly ALL well over 200 feet long. L.A. class is ~360 feet.

thinking of the L.A. class, they came out of the factory with a flaw that later had to be corrected. Future versions were built with the correction. However, a trip to a shipyard was required to fix the problem [it affected top speed, probably shouldn't give details]. So with only 3 ships in the class, this kind of thing really isn't all that uncommon.

Still, it's fun to point fingers and laugh.

Lethal 4-hour-erection-causing spiders spill out of bunch of ASDA bananas

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Typical Asda

long ago, a friend of mine had a pet tarantula. kept it in a terrarium. Named it after his favorite bar.

I wonder if you can keep a 'viagra spider' as a pet?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

Re: 4 Hour erection

maybe some scientist needs to find a safe dose of spidey venom as a viagra alternative? Might be hard to instruct the spider in its proper administration, though...

Will US border officials demand social network handles from visitors?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Welcome to America - only stupid people let in

hopefully in the next election cycle we'll keep the politically correct nutbags from running the asylum... and then TSA will start PROFILING people that are likely to BE terrorists, who aren't Gramma, little 4 year old Cindy, your average tourist, etc..

being unwilling to even LOOK like you're suspecting some bearded guy coming from Syria with an "up to something" look in his eyes is just, plain, dumb. Instead, they have TSA feel up average citizens, take your belt and shoes off and waddle to the scanner hoping your pants don't hit the ground, yotta yotta yotta. It's just stupid, yeah. Or, better still, the STUPID PEOPLE are IN CHARGE at the moment...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pint

Re: Bound to get deported?

or 'El Reg' comments

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Stupid questions...

"BUT they can already "request" that you give them access to your laptop when entering the US"

solution: use FreeBSD with a CONSOLE login. Set up ALL virtual consoles to log in THROUGH! A! JAIL!

if you tweek the appropriate config files, you can do this. I set it up this way as an experiment a while back, and had 2 consoles for 2 different jails (total 4). The thing is, to make this work properly, ALL of the virtual consoles have to be a jail. No big deal, really. THEN if they ask you the root password, make sure it's something like "TSA-sucks" or "F-U-very-much" or whatever. then they can look around your jail all day long and find NOTHING [it won't even run PING].

when you want to use the computer for REAL, you ssh into the host machine, then use 'startx' for the X server. And don't forget to password protect 'single user' boot [or disable the boot console menu entirely]. And so on. And use UFS and ZFS to confuse them even more. Only a live filesystem boot (of an appropriate OS) would be able to access it.

And if you have anything REALLY naughty to hide, put it in a file-backed memory-based file system that requires a cryptic and long pass-phrase just to mount it.

So yeah, NO access to ANYONE without proper credentials! it can be done. And the beauty of THIS approach, you've given them something they don't understand very well to look at it, in which you can B.S. them all day like Simon the BOFH and they have no other choice but to nod vertically with jaws slack and eyes glazed over as you explain it all...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: Stupid questions...

"Answered by stupid people."

Reminds me of a line from the original 'Ghostbusters' movie: "When someone asks you if you are a god, you say YES!"

Or, you answer the questions on the test the way the "social indoctrination" studies prof/teacher wants them to be, regardless of whether or not you actually BELIEVE it to be the case. get the grade, get the credit, then forget all of the indoctrination afterwards.

And it's STUPIDER to use Face-blank (and maybe Tw[a,i]tter) in the FIRST place, In My Bombastic Opinion.

Victoria Police warn of malware-laden USB sticks in letterboxes

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: What size?

"Linux, I believe, is vulnerable."

ONLY if you use a distro that has auto-play auto-enabled and you didn't shut that @#$% off

In my machines, even automount is VERBOTEN

Microsoft snubs alert over Exchange hole

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: It's not about Microsoft WANTING to fix it ..

'Virus Outbreak' aka 'Microsoft Outlook' has to be THE biggest security crater ever released by Micro-shaft, EVAR. I can't see any MORE horror (for I.T.) than a shop that actually USES it!

seriously, what GOOD is it REALLY? just use T-bird [and don't view as HTML or insert graphics inline] and be done with it! All that *cruft* is just a waste of bandwidth, and opens you up for spammed viruses and trojans (all those '.docm' and '.zip' etc. attachments, yeah)

IPv4 apocalypse means we just can't measure the internet any more

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Virgin Media

maybe Virgin Media has enough, but China and India are apparently running out (or have already). And if your public IP interferes with your LAN IP, that could be a problem

yeah, being assigned a 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x or whatever the other netblock is, and you just happened to be using that netblock for your LAN. whoops.

I avoid 10.x.x.x but virtualbox uses it by default. I would think ISPs might want to use 10.x.x.x and just NAT 2^22 customers through it (accounting for the few unusuable IP address assignments for that which are dedicated to broadcast and stuff and/or might cause firmware to burp based on an earlier post of something that hated having a 255 in a position NOT as the final byte)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: And who told you I want to be measured?

"My understanding is that V6 allows a version of the LAN address to get out as the return address for the connection."

not entirely true, but lemme 'splain.

IPv6 addresses are assigned to a particular netblock, which the router will know about. The router can advertise this information and assign IPv6 addresses using some protocol I can't remember the name of. You can then allow an automatically assigned IPv6 address from the netblock, or assign a static one (your choice) from within the same netblock.

Now, about IPv6 routing: the routers use the advertisements to say "send your IPv6 outgoing traffic to me." They know about the upstream router, which was either assigned statically, or also advertised itself. that's how IPv6 routing works. In theory, you don't have to set up gateways, just routers [and the rest is automatic].

Now, because you were assigned an IPv6 netblock, your IP addresses are UNIQUE TO YOUR MACHINE, FOREVER. This also exposes every listening port onto the intarwebs using that IPv6 address if you didn't bother to firewall it. The router CAN firewall [mine does, it's running FreeBSD, and Linux could do the same thing]. In particular, I don't want a VNC port, or an X11 port, or any of the dozen-or-so ports that Windows listens on to be exposed to the outside world. So I block ALL of them at the IPv6 gateway.

BUT, whenever you visit some web site, the web site knows who connected, YOUR publicly visible IPv6 address that is NOT translated. A rogue web server could then scan you for open (listening) ports on that address and determine whether or not you can be cracked. Specific ones are well-known for windows, X11, VNC, Samba sharing, SQL Server, SVN, mail servers, and whatever OTHER things you might not want accessed from the outside [so you better firewall them all or risk getting CRACKED].

Anyway, that's pretty much an executive summary of what's going on.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: How much is a IPv4 address worth

"Probably nothing. It is surprising how many ISPs now do not offer NAT. You can only have a reserved IPV4 address."

and yet, for a FIXED IP address, you'll be charged EXTRA, and may ONLY be able to do so with a "business class" subscription, and so the cost inflates...

But with IPv6, everyone's address could be static. I assume we'll get assigned netblocks, for our entire network, and by doing so, will have a fixed IPv6. Byby need for "all that" we have to pay EXTRA for in the IPv4 world...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: The title is no longer required

perhaps "they" need to stop TRACKING us by our IP addresses?

(it's true, IPv6 would make THAT easier)

Microsoft Desktop Bridge opens, Win32 apps can now cross into Windows Store

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Changing developer rules = shooting own foot

Microshaft changing the rules for developers (again, and again, and again) is just SHOOTING THEMSELVES IN THEIR OWN FOOT. Again. And again.

Back in the 90's it was "Developers, developers, developers, developers!". Micro-shaft NEEDED developers to write "the killer 'app'" (they called it an 'app' way back then) for Windows in order to get people to buy computers with Windows on them.

THEN, in the early 21st century, when Ballmer took the helm, he steered towards the rocks with ".Not" (aka '.Net') in the ".Net Initiative" which was SUPPOSED to leverage all of the ".bomb" stuff in Micro-shaft's favor, with a ONE LOGON FOR ALL SERVICES (aka 'Microsoft Logon'), so that Amazon and K-mart and Target and Frys and everybody ELSE would _ALL_ use THEIR login for the online stores and services.

Well we know what happened with THAT.

The fallout: That _HIDEOUS_ ".Not" library, Micro-shaft's STUPID invention of "C-pound" to try and replace Java, and the ATTEMPT to CHANGE THINGS so that SENIOR DEVELOPERS were _NOW_ *JUNIOR* developers! Because, Micro-shaft. Because, it's THEIR way under THEIR control!

Well, when you look at the TIOBE index, you don't see a LOT of ".Not" demand, but you DO see a lot of C, C++, Java, web, even Python (which exceeded C-pound for a short time, as I recall).

So THEN Micro-shaft tried other things, like Silverlight. FAIL. Then they went with Windows 8, to change the back-end to a form that was COMPLETELY different, trying to leverage the desktop into THEIR image so that EVERYONE would be forever LOCKED IN to doing it THEIR WAY.

That failed, TOO. And Win-10-nic *FAILS* to recover that.

So, NOW Micro-shaft wants to "allow" the *LEGACY* Win32 API appLICATIONS in their "the Store"?

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

But I know what's coming next: Win-10-nic BLOCKING ANYTHING FROM INSTALLING OR RUNNING THAT WAS NOT OBTAINED VIA "THE STORE". You watch, it's coming.

Because Micro-Shaft is in full-blown "SUICIDE MODE", starting with the shotgun pointed at their feet, and then working their way up.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: An old fart writes...

"I must admit I still don't really understand what the difference is between an 'app' anda 'program'."

app: short for 'application', what micro-shaft (and now Apple) call "a program for a phone". Or in Micro-shaft's case, an application for a desktop, too.

I like to distinguish an 'APP' from 'Application' as "an application that does some trivial thing with a phone-like interface" vs "something you can REALLY get work done with"

And of course I normally write 'app' as [CR]app because THAT is what MOST of them seem to be...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Hmm...

"I suspect that delivering software outside the store is about to get frowned on. "

or WORSE, _OUTRIGHT_ _DENIED_ or _BLOCKED_!!!

at least Android has a 'developer mode' _AND_ a "untrusted sources" selection. So if you build an APK for some custom thing, you can publish it yourself without paying THE TOLL.

If Micro-shaft does THAT (i.e. FORCE you to go through "the store" to publish an EXE) I'm going to stop subscribing to MSDN.

And I've been an MSDN subscriber since the 90's.

Microsoft's Service Fabric for Linux hits public preview

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Upside Down solution

"Any knowledgeable business owner, meaning not those who know and accept only Microsoft speak or lame solutions, would be insane to chose Microsoft for hosting Linux based Cloud Services with Linux applications under Microsoft Azure Cloud services."

it happens. at one company, we were using multiple "el cheapo" Linspire machines as "build machines" with whatever Linux (or even FreeBSD) version made sense re-installed onto it, so that we'd have a consistent official build environment.for various flavors of firmware, once for each flavor. This filled up a closet with 6 individual boxen that consumed power.

The obvious solution: virtualize them. The chosen virtualizer? VMWare [a decent choice].

The chosen host platform? Windows Server 2003. ew.

Yes, we *TRIED* to convince the software development manager that hosting Linux VMs on windows was kinda, dumb. No effect.

WORSE: the source control system 'Perforce' was being used, because it worked well WITH Linux (and FreeBSD, my favorite). It also works ON Linux. However, certain Linux kernel images had case-sensitive file names that differed by CASE, and so when it was hosted on WINDOWS, you'd get some name clashing and this was very bad. Solution? Host it in a VM running on a WINDOWS SERVER 2003 MACHINE. I facepalmed over THAT one. I could NOT convince the software manager of the error of his ways.

On a related note, the manager was a fan of ".Net", mono, C-pound, Windows Vista, and "that way" of doing things. And yet, we were almost EXCLUSIVELY a Linux shop, doing company-related firmware modifications for wireless access points running Linux and occasionally VxWorks, but sometimes doing 'windows things' too.

yes, SWALLOWED THE COOLAID, and STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. I don't think it was possible for him to see things any other way. sad.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

How do you say "BSOD" in Penguinista?

it's a screen saver on Linux

funny story, CEO of a company I used to do work for saw a Linux box with a BSOD screen saver running, saw the screen, and was concerned, until I said "it's just a screen saver", then told me about this happening at another company where someone called the IT people over while the user of that particular box had been at lunch to "fix the blue screen". He also asked that it NOT display that particular screen so nobody would freak out.

which then, of course, makes the inevitable point about BSODs and windows in general, and all of those funny pictures people have been submitting, "world's tallest BSOD" etc.

(topic-related, I suppose triggering a BSOD in Win-10-nic might be a vector into safe mode, etc. and I suppose it could be done with a 'rogue' USB device)

Google: There are three certainties in life – death, taxes and IPv6

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Try getting IPv6 from any major ISP's.

IPv6 tunnels still work. I'm using one from he.net - but of course THOSE are given away for free by an ISP that's just being nice. there are other free tunnel services as well [captain obvious says: no need to thank me, I'm not being helpful] and so it's just a matter of setting one up, which requires following somewhat detailed instructions for your OS of choice.

now there ARE some *NEW* headaches that IPv6 is likely to cause:

1. Your windows machine NOW has a publically viewable IPv6 address, even though you were accustomed to being behind a Linux-based NAT firewall. This is a lot like leaving your bedroom window unlocked with the curtains drawn...

2. ANY IPv6-capable web site can discover your publically viewable IPv6 address, including rogue ad servers, CDN networks, Facebitch, and web servers with "invisible" gif images embedded into any web page.

3. tracking you via a FIXED IP ADDRESS is now "that much easier". Each IPv6 subscriber is likely to get a netblock of addresses. there are more than enough. That net block NOW identifies YOU. Even if the IPv6 changes, if only the last 8 to 16 bits are changing, it's still "you".

[yes I know all 3 already apply to me, but I've dealt with it]

Keep in mind that every windows version since XP has had "magic internal stuff" listening on well-known ports, every time you boot up. Try "netstat -an" in a CMD window some time, you'll see what I mean. Every one of those UDP ports marked '*:*', every one of those 'LISTENING' TCP ports, they're ALL open to being CRACKED. All you need is a pile of already-cracked machines [remember 'code red' ? win-nuke?] banging away against random IPv6 addresses, and you'll get infected or DoS'd, eventually, if you're running an unfirewalled windows machine.

The solution, of course, is to have a firewall that is INTELLIGENT enough to block these ports PROPERLY by default, and I'm not talking about the Windows firewall, I'm talking about a PROPER firewall, like a router running Linux. It also needs to properly support IPv6 routing, AND to be "shut offable" if you have something OTHER than "that box" doing the routing [which _I_ happen to have].

And that's another headache for the ISPs: dealing with customers that aren't using "their box", are using some form of 'bridge mode', already have an IPv6 tunnel, and somehow PROTECTING all of those clueless windows users from getting their machines cracked because they're NOW publically visible. And if it has an easily guessed user/pass, you now have remote access capability.

maybe the biggest problem in the way of IPv6 is MICRO-SHAFT and WINDOWS ???

US Marine Corps to fly F-35s from HMS Queen Lizzie as UK won't have enough jets

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: US Marine Corps will be flying F-35Bs

"RN Captain - We've been ordered to bomb XYZ"

"USMC Commander - Sorry, the President says we're not going to do that"

same possibility with British pilots on a U.S. carrier, I suppose. but I doubt it would be a problem. Unless the Pres is Mrs. Clinton, in which case we're all fsck'd anyway.

As former U.S. military (Navy), I'd say that when you're attached to a foreign command, you obey the commanding officer, regardless, unless it goes against your basic oath of defending the U.S. Constitution. You can note your objections, but you still have to follow orders. Fortunately, politics as they are, NATO missions as they are, the HMS QE probably won't even remotely get into a situation like that. We hope. [I'd hate to lose access to RPi and The Register over stupid politics].

there WAS this one situation back in the 1980's, told to me by someone who had been attached to a Turkish sub [it was a decommissioned diesel sub, being sold to Turkey, and U.S. sailors were on board qualifying the Turk sailors to operate it properly/safely]. One time one of the Turk sailors didn't show up [went UA]. The Turk sailors found him 'out in town'. They brought him back to the sub and were going to shoot him. At least one of the U.S. sailors said "NO, NO, you can NOT do this on an American Naval Base" (or something similar) and managed to stop them. THEN, "a decision was made" to go underway that day, and all of the U.S. sailors were 'kicked off'. They came back later, and "that guy" wasn't with them. I guess that once you're in international waters, U.S. law no longer applies...

Anyway, that's not what I expect to happen on any British or U.S. carriers...

United States names its first Chief Information Security Officer

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Is Obaka going after wikileaks?

I have to wonder if the new cyber security guy's position is to somehow deal with things LIKE the upcoming wikileaks "reveal" on Mrs. Clinton? Couple THAT with the last big info-dump/reveal of DNC e-mails (showing them acting like everyone they allegedly HATE, from racial slurs and sexist comments, to deliberately messing with the primary election process to coronate Mrs. Clinton).

And the OBAKA administration is, perhaps, IN A STATE OF PANIC?

well, I can help them out: Stop using Micro-shaft servers and Outlook for e-mail, enforce the law with respect to keeping classified info off of the intarwebs and private e-mail accounts, and PUNISH those who've been negligent and possibly got people killed... [no need to name names on THAT part]

World eats its 10 millionth Raspberry Pi

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: re. fried pi

well, if you have a pi plugged into an embedded device via the connector, a fried pi would be easy enough to swap out. low cost of new Pi is actually a very good design aspect, and a reason TO use the RPi "that way". Also easy to image the SD card for a backup, or just use the old one in the new Pi. [Pi zero, with solder-in wiring, would be harder to replace in the field, or on a bench for that matter].

but having the layouts change, yeah, that causes potential difficulty, since the holes don't line up. I just hope they don't stop selling the older models...