Posts by Wayland

Some Windows 10 Anniversary Update: SSD freeze

Re: Leaving Microsoft -AUTOCAD

It is the heavy hitting applications like AutoCAD that keep Windows in business. Web browsing and word processing are fine on Linux for most people. I develop MS Access applications for my customers. Yes obviously there are languages and development environments which would produce a slicker result but with a great deal more work. When a tool is right for the job it's difficult to switch to a less suitable tool. Windows is a pain but whilst Windows 7 still works I will stick with it. I keep eyeing Linux for the desktop though.

Re: Wow. Going even again

It used to be that Windows version went good - bad - good - bad

98 good, ME- bad, XP good, Vista Bad, Win7 good, Win 8 bad, Win 8.1 Good, so the next one is bad even if they skip Win 9 and call it Win 10.

However Windows 7 is the pinnacle of windows and it has been gowning down hill since then.

Windows 8.1 is better than 8 but nothing is better than 7. OK 7 is a bit bloaty and 8.1 is lighter but then it's missing loads of stuff.

Demise of Angler, the world's worst exploit kit, still shrouded in mystery

Buy out

Probably got bought by a government spy shop. Cuts down on the criminal stuff but provides the buyer with excellent tools. Ah but hang on if the activity can be monitored then focus will be on the only people still using the tools.

What next for the F-35 after Turkey's threats to turn its back on NATO?

Re: Not the biggest problem...

"They take the planes out for a spin afterward, only to have the pilots automatically ejected, and the planes diverted to a friendly air base."

I'm not saying they would not have that feature but it's a dangerous feature. Imagine they are on a NATO mission and the enemy hit's the trigger for that code. If the code did not exist it could not be triggered.

Thieves can wirelessly unlock up to 100 million Volkswagens, each at the press of a button

True for years

A criminal friend of mine told me how his friends had devices which would disrupted the remote car locks and leave the car open. He also said how they had duplicated the system the dealerships have of replacing lost electronic keys. This is not new but it's interesting that it has been made public.

Here's how police arrested Lauri Love – and what happened next

Re: Flocke Kroes AC Although the burden of proof lies with Love

You could be framed by someone sending you encrypted emails. It would require a bit more sophistication than that but it could be part of a bigger scam. It's not only the guilty who are charged with crimes, sometimes the innocent are too. They would be silly to convict you of not decrypting an email, which you would be guilty of when they really wanted to get you for the real crime they suspect you of. However if that's their only way of putting you away then you would rightfully go to gaol since you would not be "law abiding" having broken the law that says you have to decrypt the email. Happy about that?

Re: Here's one for your stats

I bet they said, "don't do it again", when they let you go.

The police arrest people all the time with no intention of charging them. I suspect most arrests just result in a voluntary fine. They have formalized the process of taking an £80 bribe.

Re: Extensive delay in return of computers is SOP by PC Plod. Usually the items are also broken...

If you're running an encrypted Linux file system then you need the key when booting the computers. Whilst they're up they are no encrypted. Cut the power and they're encrypted. However he would have a UPS.

Parliament takes axe to 2nd EU referendum petition

Re: Joining Petition requires more ID than actual Referendum Vote

This could be achieved by coding. Email addresses can be created on the fly. A catchall account with multiple domain names could handle quite a lot of votes. A database of names and postcodes. Some code to scan incoming emails and hit the links. Does it have a capcha? Get some teenagers to verify this by showing them porn.

Re: Yes, of course there's some fraud

So you have suggested a false flag operation. Someone fraudulently voting for a 2nd referendum to frame the other side.

A bit like someone killing an MP to frame the other side. The killing did nothing for the Leave campaign.

Mythical £350 million per week. How is it mythical? Is this not the figure sent to the EU?

As I comprehend it the EU spends some of that money in the UK. However that would be like giving someone your wages to buy you a birthday present, you don't know what they will chose for you.

Brexit government pledge sought to keep EU-backed UK science alive

Theoretical Physics ?

Surely you just need a budget for tea and biscuits since Theory is just thinking.

It's when you build things and power them that you need money.

Jacob Appelbaum quits Tor Project amid 'sex misconduct' accusations

Re: Takeover of TOR

Obviously it's very difficult to say if the allegations are true, which is why it's such a powerful tactic.

TOR is an attempt to build a new Internet on top of the existing one. Great in principle but it will have all the same problems of the existing one. It's easy to see why someone would want to run a large internet seeing as the current one is so successful. It's easy to see that the gov and corps would want in.

Microsoft thinks it's fixed Windows Server mess its last fix 'fixed'

Testing on a live system

When you have a live production system with users trusting and relying on it you don't play with it.

Microsoft sending out updates which break your storage means you have to roll it back to the version which worked. No one will want the updated update until they have tested it on a test system. Why even bother if the server is doing it's job?

TeamViewer denies hack after PCs hijacked, PayPal accounts drained

Man in the Middle attack

Hit the DNS servers and provide your own IP. Then sniff the logins as you forward the requests to TeamViewer servers. Or maybe even run your own TV server. In which case TeamViewers servers are not hacked.

Researcher arrested after reporting pwnage hole in elections site

Re: Breaking into computers you don't own..

SQL injection is quite obvious after you have written a web driven application with an SQL back end. Once it occurs to you that the text box on the web page gets interpreted by the SQL engine then you realize just how creative you can get by 'escaping' the text string and writing in native SQL which may even feature access to the OS command line or executables.

I figured this out 18 years ago when I discovered this problem in my own code.

I wrote active web page code something like

IF PASSWORD$ = [user.password] THEN 'let me in'

where PASSWORD$ was the input the user typed on the web page.

If the user typed ¬[user.password]¬ or whatever squiggle escaped the string then the code would be read as

IF [user.password] = [user.password] THEN 'let me in'

The funny thing was that I wrote it in VBA but the next guy rewrote it in Java because he said VBA was shit but it had the Java version of the same bug.

The solution of course was to pass all user input through a function that would clean out any funny characters.

Google Loon balloon crash lands in Chile

Re: What a criminal waste of helium

"The cost of helium will rise." said in a very high voice.

Re: Thornton's Special Toffee

Toast falls butter side down and cats always land on their feet. Use the toffee to stick the toast to the cat's back. The cat then spins and you have no need for a balloon.

Your pointy-haired boss 'bought a cloud' with his credit card. Now what?

Re: Missing the real point

The popularity of the PC is because it was used to bypass having to get it done on the Mainframe. The department could write their own program rather than get the IT department to do it. IT managed to claw that back.

I agree that people doing their own IT can cause problems. I provide email services and build servers that customers can keep their email on yet still they open a GMail account.

Brocade stirs up a Ruckus, swallows wireless kit maker for $1.5bn

Excelent kit

The Ruckus access points use an electronically directional antenna which allows them to pick up faint WiFi signals amongst a number of competing signals.

I have used one as a hotspot which was able to carry Skype Video in a situation where a normal 54g hotspot has hopeless. Both had good signal strength but the Ruckus was able to ignore all the competing signals.

I have also used one in a huge house where multiple normal Access Points left too many dead spots.

The company buying them has just got themselves some amazing technology. They could trade on the brand name but it's the technology which will get them ahead.

UK Snoopers' Charter crashes through critics into the next level

Re: Where were the opposition?

The MI5 boss recently said they are planning another terrorist attack on the scale of 7/7 shortly. After that there will be no opposition to this bill. If the bill needs such an attack to pass then this attack will come just at the right time.

Sensors, not CPUs, are the tech that swings the smartphone market

Re: That's not "sensors" ...

It's normally called IO but this article says 'sensors' which is an engineering term. You can run a computer with a Morse code key as input and a beeper as output. That would be very boring.