Posts by bombastic bob

NASA to return to the Moon by 2024. One problem with that, says watchdog: All of it

Re: Hurry up guys

commercial interests will lay claim to everything they touch.

REASONABLE claims are not bad, as long as they aren't "in perpetuity" "because we claimed it".

Back in the day, a homestead in the USA required that the property be developed somehow, either by using it for agriculture or mining or "whatever" but you couldn't just claim it and then prevent others from doing so.

Similarly, on the moon or Mars. There would have to be an international committee of some kind to oversee it. I suppose it would be like doing things on Antarctica. So as long as everyone had equal opportunity, regardless of nation or any OTHER classification, AND the requirement that you must "improve it" within a set of guidelines, you could claim a reasonable and exclusive amount of moonland for yourself (or Mars-land for that matter).

Typical examples would be mining claims, i would expect. And there could be administrative fees based on surface area or location, to fund the program. I think a lot of prospectors would want to get in early on this and it woudl greatly advance space exploration IF it is run properly.

That last part might be hard. Look at the internet nowadays and can we all claim it is being RUN PROPERLY? And yet, the current system in its current form is a LOT better that what COULD have happened...

So yeah, lessons learned here, applied to space - Moon, Mars, asteroids, whatever.

Tesla agrees to follow Beijing's rules and build a data centre in China

exactly WHAT data is it storing?

This is a little disturbing. Exactly WHAT data is being stored. GPS data perhaps?

And this, in my view, is one reason NOT to get an electric vehicle, particularly one in which you can NOT disable this "feature".

I unfortunately can see a potential (dystopian) future where everywhere you go is tracked, and even if you get "free charging" in exchange for the data, it's like plugging your car into Fa[e]ceB*** or Tw*tter...

Who gave dusty Soviet-era spacecraft that unwanted lick of paint? It was an idiot, with a spraycan, in Baikonur

Re: Shame

It needs to become a museum.

Maybe they could do a full exhibit of the history of the USSR space program, considering Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin and other "firsts" they had during the cold war.

If it becomes a tourist destination, so much the better!

(I would like to visit Bletchly Park some day)

The unused Apollo rockets and surviving Space Shuttles have all become museums, as I recall. Why these Soviet shuttles (and mockup) have not become museum pieces already ctually surprises me.

After staff revolt, Freenode management takes over hundreds of IRC channels for 'policy violations'

Re: Entitled douchebag, much?

"not being entirely honest when they decry cancel culture"

yes, the _IRONY_ of it all! IRC can have such "drama"...

Re: What kicked this off?

Summary: When IRC pissing contests go horribly wrong

(I haven't used IRC in a while; I should check out the new place just to see what's up, and maybe the old one too...)

One advantage of IRC is being able to create your own channel whenever you want, and moderate it (or not) as you see fit. You just learn how to deal with trolls and bots.

What 'rasengan' apparently did does NOT sound like the "comforting" version of IRC that I remember since the 1990's. It more closely reminds me of what happens when a channel op decides to act like a tyrant. People leave the channel and go elsewhere because they can. And THAT is freedom!

Amazon puts an $8.5bn MGM in its shopping cart, clicks on checkout

disappointing quality of movies out of Hollywood

and I thought the quality of movies had ALREADY gone down the sewer. I used to purchase movies on DVD and go to the theater a LOT.

I almost NEVER do that nowadays. Remakes are often LESS than disappointing, and with the exception of 'Deadpool', even the Marvel Studios movies have become a disappointment (to ME, anyway).

I can't see a future of Hollywood movies (in general) getting _BETTER_ because Bezos owns the studio...

(can someone show some proof to the contrary?)

Contract killer: Certified PDFs can be secretly tampered with during the signing process, boffins find

Re: "secure document exchange format"

I tend to agree.

When I view a PDF on Linux or BSD it's with Atril, the default PDF viewer for Mate [I always disable in-browser reading whenever possible].

There's also a version of Evince that runs on windows. I installed it years ago when the (bundled) Adobe in Win 7 kept asking me for an e-mail address [so it went into the bit bucket]. I mean, WHY does a PDF READER need MY E-MAIL ADDRESS??

Now I checked the list o' tested PDF readers and saw NEITHER Evince nor Atril listed. Maybe they don't do the "enhanced certified" thing? I'd just as soon leave it that way, yeah.

What I do when I need to sign a PDF: print relevant pages, sign, scan, FAX or attach to e-mail (as PDF, yeah). Or just print multiple copies, sign & date one for myself and one for the other party, and use snail-mail or sneaker-net. There's NO school like the OLD school!

Surprise! Developers' days ruined by interruptions and meetings, GitHub finds

Re: Two meetings a day? That's still crazy.

didn't you know, they're just implementing AGILE...

Re: Two meetings a day? That's still crazy.

and make sure that "that one guy" *TURNS* *HIS* *PHONE* *OFF*

Invariably, the "ball and chain" call that (for some reason) everyone in charge of the meeting always pauses for, can easily ruin ANY meeting, and perhaps affect productivity along with it.

(Phone "emergency" rings are a curse anyway, even on vibrate. Just check for missed calls once or twice a day. Unless you have a receptionist, tell everyone to use e-mail or slack or even IRC, and DO NOT DISTURB you while you're coding)

Microsoft: Behold, at some later date, the next generation of Windows

Re: Cloudy future

it already has the strong-armed "Microsoft Logon" in the cloud, a failed idea since "Passport" when ".Not" first hit the scene during the "dot bomb" bubble of the early 2000's...

We can expect a "new, shiny" version of same. Except, cloud. And slower. And a MUCH higher bandwidth requirement. And more tracking to go with it. And you MUST be online to use it. And so on.

It's a bit like what they originally wanted [but could not manage to convince customers so they walked it back] for the XBox One, remember?

Why Python's pip search isn't working: We speak to infrastructure director about ongoing traffic overload

Re: Devops, Web3.0, Agile, CI/CD

well I suspect that open source OS and package mirrors are providing their services in support of open source (in general) and not exclusively one particular distro (etc) and if their repos have the source or binaries needed to support something similar, it's really just all part of the gig. My guess is that at some point it will all balance out.

Or we could host it on github (or similar service) instead, one that provides storage and bandwidth for free to publicly visible projects.

Patch me if you can: Microsoft, Samsung, and Google win appeal over patent on remote updating

So far so good, as far as the court is concerned...

* trivial patent derived from prior art

* add in a tiny nuance about host systems "deciding" something (rather than the client device)

* sit on it for a while and sell it to a patent troll

* new owner, use that nuance to try and prove the worthiness of the patent

* sue the bollocks off of every deep pocket that's already (even vaguely) doing this royalty free, shortly before the patent would expire, even (1995 plus ~20 years...)

* lose court battle (which effectively revokes your patent), and also the appeal

Yep. I think the court did the right thing, denying a patent troll his bogus claim.

Steve Wozniak to take stand: $1m suit claiming Woz stole idea for branded tech boot camp goes to trial

Re: My idea

what if the idea was suing someone for having the same idea you did but you had it first?

This guy has no case.

I think we need to know what contracts were signed before making that determination.

(But I suspect you are right)

Re: Woz all the fuss about

Woz is probably like many of us who have a background in electronics AND also got really good at programming computers. Being an expert on BOTH hardware and software gives you a lot of advantages, especially for system-level code and IOT things.

I have to wonder how many people getting EE degrees end up writing code instead...

(this is especially true when microcontrollers, FPGAs, and robotics are involved, and for that last part, mechanical engineering as well)

It took 'over 80 different developers' to review and fix 'mess' made by students who sneaked bad code into Linux

Re: "use the money to bribe Microsoft to hire him away from Redhat"

see icon...

'services' in windows NT (and later) were supposed to be like daemons in POSIX OS's...

* run in userland as background processes

* 'system' type of user context (root, other user)

* auto-start on boot or on demand

* managed by system utilities

without arguing against systemd [which I would] I question the validity of your comparison between windows and Linux and 'windows services' [which I've written] and the assertion that in any way the windows way is superior...

Re: not just umn.edu

no... peer review is still possible.

Re: not just umn.edu

right - significant peer review is in order.

Sad.

This week, Apple CEO Tim Cook faced surprisingly tough questioning from judge

Re: Apple's to lose

only a "feeling" that it was profitable.

I couldn't find the 'vomit' icon, so I'll use this one instead...

US Treasury wants to treat cryptocurrencies like cash – as in you need to report $10k+ transactions

Re: So every time you fall to ransomware

As I understand it, if you pay $10k or more there might be a 1099 form for that, which you'd send to the IRS and a copy to the person/entity you filed it for. But when you deposit the check in the bank (for over $10k) the bank reports it. That's my understanding, at any rate. I would expect it would accompany every OTHER disclosure, like payroll and tax forms.

But if "they" suspect something, they'll just audit you. Or, if you make enough money. Etc.

A ransomware payment would be a HUGE line item in the books. Reporting it would be the LEAST of your problems.

Cloudflare stops offering to block LGBTQ webpages

you DO have a point, when you are specifically looking for LGBTQ(etc.) related things. However if this is a work-based internet filter, maybe you can use your phone instead?

Some work-based filtering systems make it VERY hard to update Linux systems, essentially blocking all of the repo mirrors. I'd prefer NO blocking at ALL, but you know how some IT admins can be... and yet a "porn blocker" [if it even works] might be all they need.

I also just did a search on "lgbtq friendly business San Diego" and the top 5 results were business listing sites, NOT porn. And that's worth pointing out also.

I doubt Cloudflare set up the filter to outrage gay people.

No, they probably set it up that way by request.,, because a LOT of people really do not want to see that kind of thing. There is a HUGE difference between "I do not want to see it" and "make being gay illegal and punishable by death". (Fortunately most of society has moved WAY past that last bit)

Now, if the really offensive stuff is labeled as "porn", a simple porn filter might do it, to eliminate the NSFW stuff at any rate, without the "triggering".

Apple's macOS is sub-par for security, Apple exec Craig Federighi tells Epic trial

Re: Keeping things secure

Is Windows really that problematic...or is does it simply present the largest target footprint

Both, when compared to a computer running Linux, BSD, or even Mac OS.

The problem with Windows is NOT the user's ability to run whatever he wants. The problem is the inherent lack of peer review on the OS itself, certain vulnerabilities that are basically designed into the system itself (through the API), and a security model that encourages you to run with "admin" privileges all of the time using an "in the cloud" identity.

[and I used to be such a windows fan, too, decades ago, as it was SO much better than DOS]

Re: He does have a point, even if it's draconian

when you read the article looking for it, you find their justification.

a dramatically higher bar for customer protection

and

iOS is something you'd let a child use.

But rather than having a "child lock" available for PARENTS to decide to use, WE are ALL "children" to them.

And, that makes it "for the children".

Microsoft hits Alt-F4 on Windows 10X: OS designed for dual-screen PCs axed

Re: Locked down Windows

well said

Re: why does this remind me of

When I first started using CodeView for Windows I had to have a 2nd (monochrome) monitor. I always thought it would be cool if I could somehow use that with regular windows applications.

So it made the case for dual monitors with separate function, for debugging at least. Until it didn't (MSVC).

Re: Dual screen

decades ago, when Windows 2k was the newest, I experimented with multiple desktops. I wanted to see if I could have applications running on one that were separate from the other. I discovered that SEAT COUNTING was behind this - you could not get the start menu to run properly on the second desktop without having multi-seat [like terminal server, basically].

Otherwise, you could run applications there if they were "aware" enough to open up on the other desktop. But it wasn't very useful because of what I just described...

I don't know how Windows 10 manages multiple desktops now [probably some 'soft' way that hides some windows and makes others visible]. In theory, though, you should be able to have one set of desktops for one monitor, and another set for another monitor. That capability has been in the NT kernel for a LONG time. NT 4 had it.

BUT... with the way they handle seat licensing, it's effectively "brittle".

Re: So you might say ...

heh, you motivated me me to look those up.

("that's a big 10-4, good buddy" - that song by C.W. McCall)

Pics or it didn't happen: First images from China's Mars rover suggest nothing has gone Zhurong just yet

Re: Nothing there...

actually I was hoping they'd do "confirmation" and additional science that the others have not yet done (for whatever reason), then the data is shared around the world so scientists can mull over it for years to come.

Re: Cold War II in SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE....

Heh - ours has a laser AND a helicopter

Re: Good to see.

yes - beer for the boffins!

1Password unsheathes Rusty key, hopes to unlock Linux Desktop world

Re: Not a fan

Who needs a password locker? There are *OTHER* ways for storing passwords:

* Fa[e]ceBook, Tw*tter, G[a,oo]gle, Micros~1 Login

* Sheet[s] of paper

* Same PW, EVERYWHERE! "Correct-Horse+Battery*Stapl3"

* Keep it short and easily remembered

Re: Not a fan

So far the best password manager I've found is KeePassXC (the C language version of KeePass that can be compiled from source on Linux and FreeBSD).

There's even a button to make passwords visible. I use it a LOT so i can have longer more random ones. And though it may be possible to auto-paste into a browser, I typically just copy/pasta the passphrase from the KeePassXC 'edit' dialog box directly into the browser or ssh session. Or you could use the 'make visible' button to see the password and just type it.

(and I must have about 50 of them stored in there, now, because I *REFUSE* to use FB, T, G, or Micros~1 logins)

Yahoo! Japan! offers! free! comment!-moderation!-as!-a!-service! API!

Re: Neat in theory, not so much in practice

A carefully worded comment might illustrate how you might easily get past an AI algorithm.

(but I'll leave that one as an exercise)

This also reminds me of that old phrase, "the tail wagging the dog" when "the few" (easily triggered) must control "the many" (who lose freedom).

So humans with soft-touch moderation are needed to fight off the trolls and bots. However, an AI is more likely to behave like an aggressive spam filter, where e-mail from your mom is marked 'spam', but e-mail from scammers and 'male enhancement' vendors get through. EVERY! SINGLE! TIME!!

The internet does not HAVE to be a sewer. But it is. Maybe a click-through disclaimer is needed?

Re: By any other name

The silence will be deafening.

THAT would be the ONLY positive outcome possible. Yet HACKERS will always be able to cheat any algorithm. I suppose a proper set of snarky adjectives and twisted metaphors would be a good start...

When the chips are down, Intel's biggest gamble isn't what to do – it's whom to do it with

Re: Subsidies?

Require that US federal funded agencies buy these "Made in America" chips

That (inevitably) may be necessary at some point... And hopefully it makes pure economic sense, especially if the process is heavily automated.

Space is hard: Rocket Lab's 20th Electron launch fails

Re: what are they going to name the next one

"Albatross around your neck"

(best I could cough up on short notice)

Cloudflare launches campaign to ‘end the madness’ of CAPTCHAs

Re: Hardware dongle

do it automatically while revealing your current cell phone number and IP address along with other personally identifying information that was gleaned the last 92 times you used this method.

Would the 'app' that you would need to make this happen ALSO upload GPS tracking data from your location over the last several days so that "they" will know where you've been?

yeah no tracking going on here. Nothing to see, move along...

[it's bad enough when you use a credit card in a store AND online and when you visit the online page you see your in-store shopping history along with online history...]

Re: Hardware dongles?

Hardware Dongle = TRACKING - you identity is NOW KNOWN to the web site, uniquely so.

As IRRITATING as a CAPTCHA is, I'd rather use CAPTCHA than GET TRACKED on that level...

Only an ad-slinging over-present cloud network would come up with THAT as a "solution".

(at least cache clearing and VPN can anonymize you a little bit, even with CAPTCHA)

Ransomware victim Colonial Pipeline paid $5m to get oil pumping again, restored from backups anyway – report

Re: cyber job at colonial

This deserves an equivalent BOFH article

Re: FAIL $5 million for criminals

Unless you are running high frequency snapshotting (and who does that on everything - especially file systems?) restoring from backup is a guaranteed loss of data

Some time ago I had a hard drive that was developing bad sectors in a short period of time. It was my server box. Here is how i handled it:

* do separate backup of as much critical data as I can, data that is not corrupted.

* install OS onto new hard drive, plus the basic software needed, as quickly as possible

* swap hard drive

* restore important data from most recent backup

Now it is up and running. OK I spent a day doing that. Better than a WEEK.

Then I went about analyzing the old drive to see what stuff was recoverable, and what wasn't. In the mean time, the server was RUNNING.

FIRST, get it BACK RUNNING AGAIN. *THEN* you worry about data recovery. Human safety gets shoehorned into the front of the line, as needed.

But I don't know how easily their systems could be restored, which might suggest their backup and restore process was a part of the problem. So maybe my perspective is off a bit. Still, I think they OWE us an explanation, regardless.

In any case, you can get SOMETHING running fairly fast if you set things up properly with your backups. If you're missing a week's worth of billing, at least you did not STOP THE OIL FLOW.

I'm also thinking that if I had set things up better, i.e. having a backup hard drive waiting in the wings with identical software [minus data] on it, that I could just swap in the drive and restore the most recent data from backup, and be up and running in a couple of hours, and not most of a day. BETTER planning, yeah.

Re: $5 million for criminals

And there should be a fine of 10 times your blackmail money to prevent this kind of thing from happening.

that would be a good start, yeah. step 1.

Hey Vlad Putin, you can earn some worldwide kudos by ACTUALLY SENDING those perpetrators to the modern day equivalent of a gulag... and THAT would be an EXCELLENT "Step 2"!!!

China says its first Mars rover Zhurong has landed on the Red Planet

and it's got a helicopter.

(air traffic control, permission to land...)

Tor users, beware: 'Scheme flooding' technique may be used to deanonymize you

Re: The benefits of Tor (assuming no additional hanky panky), no more no less than this:

chrome (at least the versions I have seen) does not automatically delete privacy tracking info on exit but Firefox can. But for chrome (on Linux or BSD - windows, mac YMMV) you can either delete all of chrome's files in ~/.config and ~/.cache [which gives you back the defaults] or cherry pick and just delete MOST of them until you get all of the ones that track you, but don't actually delete settings you want to keep.

Re: Problem already solved

I saw that in my main browser, which prompted me to re-try it in the "safe-surfing sandboxed" browser that has script enabled.

I tested it with chrome on FreeBSD [a version built from ports a while back]. I initially used my "kill history" script that deletes LOTS of those files that chrome tries to use to save data across sessions. I recently increased the size of that list of files to be deleted, when I discovered that I wasn't deleting enough of them any more (certain things were starting to persist across browser sessions).

*ahem*

In any case, I did the "deanonymizing" test twice and got two completely different IDs. It does seem to take a while, though. You'd have to do this completely in the background for it to be effective, and over a fairly long period of time.

But a social media giant that "keeps you on the page" for a while (or runs a web bug script even after a trackable page closes) might still find it practical...

An actress, an internet billionaire, and Tom Cruise walk into a space station ... not necessarily at the same time

Re: Nothing there...

maybe we could send up a few "hotel" modules with piano lounges, restaurants, fully stocked bars, and other typical guest accommodations.

Space tea, space coffee, and space croissants at 7 AM, every day for the interplanetary breakfast bar.

And every lounge with a "stellar" view of the, er, stars.

Water's wet, the Pope's Catholic, and iOS is designed to stop folk switching to Android, Epic trial judge told

Apple App Store "a necessary evil"

If they simply made it POSSIBLE to load a non-app-store application [similar to Android downloading and installing a non-store APK] this whole issue would PROBABLY go away...

After following the first link in the article, I'm reminded that Apple banned Epic's game because it allowed in-game purchases outside the Apple store. But I recall _other_ applications being banned by Apple for different reasons. If there are no exploits or gross vulnerabilities, WHY ban them?

Instead, Apple has made _THEMSELVES_ the gatekeeper of iOS, with the obvious motive of PREVENTING people from switching to an Android platform (as indicated in the article), as well as preventing "apps they do not like for some reason" from being deployed on iOS.

So it looks like they got the 'evil' part of the definition right. The 'necessary' part, not so sure.

regardless iOS is great if it's what you want - I just don't see why they need a STRANGLEHOLD on "The Store" like that. I have to wonder how many customers they LOSE because of it.

Compsci boffin publishes proof-of-concept code for 54-year-old zero-day in Universal Turing Machine

Re: Shows we have lost the plot!

eh, that's not _ENTIRELY_ true...

You're describing "Harvard Architecture" where code/data spaces are separate things. Your typical minicomputer never did this. In fact, PDP-11 code could even be categorized as "self modifying" when you put variable parameters after the function call, directly in INSTRUCTION SPACE, by using the previous program counter as a base register, and then cleaning the stack up with the 'RTS' instruction. Soft interrupts are similar, parameters are expected after the EMT instruction and the stack gets cleaned up when you return from interrupt. And to pass those parameters, you literally poke the values into the code space before making the call.

So it's worth pointing out that many non-IBM computer systems have had code/data in the same address space, particularly microprocessors and minicomputers. The big iron machines may have had separate code/data, but not necessarily all of them.

Anyway, some computer history from 50 years ago form someone who was there...

[worth pointing out - AVR microcontrollers use 'Harvard Architecture' so that you can run the program directly from NVRAM]

Re: Calling it a "vulnerability" is a bit of a stretch.

it lacks proper input sanitization, and is therefore vulnerable to code injection.

How about that - the world's oldest 0-day exploit is a code injection vulnerability!

[I was actually expecting 'buffer overrun' when I started reading the article]

so yeah - in MY book of definitions, that'd be "a vulnerability".

Microsoft embraces Linux kernel's eBPF super-tool, extends it for Windows

ditching Windows [kernel] and licensing Wine.

I've been wanting THIS for a long time.

It might cause some initial problems, due to case-sensitivity of file names and the use of '/' vs '\', as well as drive letters and different device names/handling, but I believe if they were to "embrace" Wine, and migrate to a Linux kernel with Wine on top, we'd all be better for it.

I'd pay money for that, particularly if I can keep my Mate desktop and just use the subsystem to run windows applications.