Posts by steviebuk

NHS Digital exposes hundreds of email addresses after BCC blunder copies in entire invite list to 'Let's talk cyber' event

Re: "deleting the original invitation"

Gonna claim I did that on purpose.

Re: Lol

Having problems finding this story. Anyone got a link?

Re: "deleting the original invitation"

And recall rarely works. If you've already read it the recall is too late. If you have preview pain on you can read it before it is recalled.

Windows 11 Paint: Oh look – rounded corners. And it is prettier... but slightly worse

I remember when

In Windows 3.11 I sat, for ages drawing a picture of Mickey Mouse in his Fantasia outfit. Took a while but came out nice. Unfortunately I've long lost the file but still have the photo of it on the wall back in our old family home, as I printed it out once I was done.

US gov claims ransomware 'earned' $590m in the first half of 2021 alone – mostly in Bitcoin

Re: Accessory to Extortion ?

Bit difficult when the likes of NatWest have just been found guilty with money laundering.

Tell that to the consultants

"warns paying ransoms could spell trouble"

Quite a few "security consultants" are starting to say just pay it. Which I've always said is a bad idea.

All I want for Christmas is a delivery address that a delivery courier can find

Re: Oh dear

More reason the copyright system on YouTube is ridiculous. Which is why more people should move to lbry.

I did a video showing the security issues of a private parking enforcement company's website. Hadn't warned them as they gave no address to contact (part of the issues as that was a breach of GDPR) was up for over a year. All my own work. Until one day got a notice that I had a copyright strike on my channel. It was the parking company claiming the video was theirs. It got removed and I couldn't fight it as my objections kept getting rejected by their bots. Gave up and waited for the strike to be removed. Wrote a blog post about it and put the same video on lbry instead. I'm too small for anyone to notice but made me feel better :)

Ironically their site still suffers from security issues.

EU Commission may extend antitrust probe into Nvidia's $54bn merger with Arm

Re: Check mate

I thought the same. I still feel China are banging on about it like a bully but not planning to go ahead. Mainly because they realise their economy exists because of the rest of the world and selling shit on Amazon. Take that away and they'll end up tanking and loosing tons of money.

So much is made in China. Take for example the quality model maker Sideshow Collectibles. They looked amazing when I saw them on Tested (on YouTube with Adam Savage from mythbusters. A maker, his one day builds are a must watch) but then you look into it and they are pretty much made in China. They make the first mold in the US which we see in all their marketing bollocks. Then they ship it to China for the factories and painters their to do the runs. So no longer special yet still a mass markup price.

Small example but hopefully makes my point.

The planet survived six hours without Facebook. Let's make it longer next time

As much as I hate Facebook (I don't have an account), people do find it useful. My old manager would purely use it to share photos with her relatives in Australia. There is a model maker on YouTube who's really good who uses it as I assume its just so much easier than doing a website. I almost used it for my brother in laws small business as it was just going to be easier for them to manage. I'd setup a Wordpress site but trying to show them how to upload images to it, it just got too complicated.

The main problem is the algorithms I think as the whistleblower said. I'm no expert and I dislike the platform but from what she said, instead of letting AI (not really AI just an algorithm) from deciding content, they should let users decide the content. But they let AI do it as its cheaper and allows them to sell more shit.

What needs to be done however is news papers, online news sites etc, should be told to NOT rely on just one vendor for their logins. The amount of sites that only allow you to login with Facebook just get avoided. They then also have the issue when the site is down, so our their logins.

I'll also add they do, occasionally have interesting info on Facebook that is behind the wall that I can see over, which is annoying. However, since searching for this info again, for some reason I could see what was over the wall without logging in. That info is just history of where I was born and grew up. No longer live in the area but its interesting seeing the past history of it.

Fatal Attraction: Lovely collection, really, but it does not belong anywhere near magnetic storage media

We were forced

"Such was his enthusiasm for his job that he referred to the users demanding assistance as "customers" rather than the inconveniences we know they tend to be."

To call them customers at the NHS.

We have some sad news about Facebook. It has returned to the internet after six-hour mega outage

WhatsApp

Is good though. Remember, it was never owned by Facebook until they bought it. I have been using it since it was a paid yearly thing. Saved me £100s in txt messages.

Facebook though, although I hate it others find it useful. I see the news moaning how big a reach they have with services that require an account being unable to use, but that is the fault of those sites like plenty of news sites that only allow you to login with Facebook instead of having multiple options for logins.

Pretend starship captain to take trip in real space capsule

Re: Dicing With Death

Same. I liked it as there was nothing better on in the 80s. Then TNG came along on BBC 2 and I fell in love with that and never looked back.

Re: Use the force Kirk

Four candles.

Microsoft shows off Office 2021 for consumers ahead of the coming of Windows 11

Re: Standalone versions need an MS Account

I was gonna say how much that will piss people off. I like Office but MS are becoming worse and worse. I see another anti-trust suite coming their way again if not careful.

I even remember back in the 90s going round to a friends who showed us Office and "it does this in Word if you've spelt something wrong" the squiggle underline. Then years later I remember when the ribbon came out and hated it until I watch Microsoft's presentation on how it worked and I started to like it.

But this sign in for an offline line app is just bollocks.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the BBC stage a very British coup to rescue our data from Facebook and friends

BBC? Really?

"BBC R&D discovered it too didn't much like the way personal data was in the hands of the wrong people. That got in the way of creating better public value from the internet, and the BBC worries about these things."

So why did the BBC start requiring us to sign into iPlayer? "So we can recommend shows etc" so abusing data? "We won't use it to see if you have a license or not". So then why do one of you say (I now can't find the article) that you might use it to check up if a person is licensed or not. Really so will you checkup the account I use, the account called "Fuck Off" based in London (I'm not in London).

And why in the privacy section do you have Share Statistics ticked by default which is against GDPR.

I'm not objecting to the license. I like a lot of BBC shows and thankful for no shitty adverts, I grew up with Star Trek Next Generation being on BBC 2 and find it weird seeing adverts on it on cable. But I object to having to sign into iPlayer now. And I really dislike the TV License website that incorrectly claims you need a license for watching DVDs etc. Then once you've paid actually tells you, you don't.

Computer shuts down when foreman leaves the room: Ghost in the machine? Or an all-too-human bit of silliness?

Same but had the issue if you were last in office and, due to the location of the sensor, were still enough all the lights would go out. Then you'd have to fumble about to get to the sensor to make it turn the lights back on.

They attempted to install power saving bricks that had the power switch on them. The ones from dragons den. But they ended up being fucking awful and not to mention an electrical hazard.

IKEA: Cameras were hidden in the ceiling above warehouse toilets for 'health and safety'

Ico are fucking useless

Unless the government demand it

"In July, ICO officers raided two homes in Southern England after pictures of former health secretary Matt Hancock kissing a colleague appeared in British newspaper The Sun."

Yet that IKEA site had cameras up since 2015 "No one has officially complained so we won't take action".

How many other IKEA sites has this been going on at? Who will no doubt have quickly removed the cameras once this story broke.

Hopefully there is a lawsuit and IKEA lose. They're can't be any reason why they won't lose.

Metro Bank techies placed at risk of redundancy, severance terms criticised

Coming to a headline near you

"Metrobank in massive data breach. Agile being blamed"

Two Northern Irish cops face Computer Misuse Act charges over Twitter trolling campaign

Re: As stupid as the one on 24hrs in police custody - Gareth Suffling

Yep although they did look at his Internet searches. The problem with those records however are, you could always deny knowledge. "Sorry but I know it's against IT's policy but I did, quite frequently leave my desk with the machine unlocked. Its very possible someone else did those searches from my logon".

As stupid as the one on 24hrs in police custody - Gareth Suffling

(spoiler alert)

Who got charged with blackmail. Was stupid enough to actually do searches on his PC with his account "Crimes to make easy money"

What a fucking idiot. And he was supposed to be a Detective constable, I suspect he was probably shit at that also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFTJTDlsibQ

Here's an idea: Verification for computer networks as well as chips and code

AI and climate change

Isn't AI not AI as Wozniak has said. Just large algorithms. Its not AI like our brain. But also is no one thinking of climate change. All this "machine learning" an "AI" uses large amounts of power. Is anyone commenting on that?

One-size-fits-all chargers? What a great idea! Of course Apple would hate it

Next move

Stop Apple lobbying against Right To Repair. Force them to supply schematics and parts to independent repair shops. You know, like what companies used to do. Open up an old telly and the schematic was printed on the back cover.

Fix network printing or keep Windows secure? Admins would rather disable PrintNightmare patch

Not a perfect solution but it worked

I removed

KB5005563

KB5005613

KB5005627

From the print server and after a reboot all back to working.

Re: What is affected?

Follow Me Printing.

Mafia works remotely, too, it seems: 100+ people suspected of phishing, SIM swapping, email fraud cuffed

How accurate it is..

..i don't know but its thought the Italian Mafia isn't as near big as it use to be due to newer technology. Cops aren't as easy to bribe anymore as they know they'll get caught and they struggle with the constant advances in surveillance tech.

Gone has the "golden" age. I say that with irony as they've obviously always been arseholes and never golden. Yes, films about them are, unfortunately, interesting, but anyone that thinks they are "cool" should just look at their history. Any chance your best mate is going to get you pinched and that best mate is now dead. You're only "with us" while you're making money.

I don't know why I've written this whole comment.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and we should feel fine

Also forgot

You no longer own anything. Sir Sinclair never asked you to pay for a yearly subscription for software and he gave you the option to buy it in kit form and make it yourself.

Now, you're locked into subscriptions and you no longer own the kit you've purchased. Open and iPhone and expect and knock on the door from CrApple as they moan "Don't open our kit. You've now voided the warranty. And pointless as you can't fix it as we don't supply parts or schematics cause we're cunts"

Microsoft does and doesn't require VMs to meet hardware requirements for Windows 11

They are asking...

...for Windows 11 to be a failure it would seem.

That is my prediction. It will fail like Vista and the gang did. Maybe not because it is bad, but due to the TPM chip bullshit requirement.

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair: British home computer trailblazer dies aged 81

ZX81, the RAM pack and a carboot sale

I first remember the ZX81 in the 80s when I was in middle school. Wasn't into computers but would get an urge at school to "Want to go home and type in programs for the ZX81". Didn't know what I was doing really. It was my brothers and we had to hook it up to the telly in the back room so couldn't use it much. Knew how to load a game from tape but never realised back then, that you could save to tape. There was a horse racing game in a book or magazine we had. I'd type it in whenever want to play it, never realised I could save it back to tape. I believe found a backgammon game on a magazine once, that was good and learnt backgammon from it (now forgotten).

Anyway. Never liked it that much but was all we had. I liked our friends version who had the raised keyboard. Eventually my brother bought the RAM pack for it. Which eventually got taped onto the ZX81 due to the wobble that would wipe your code. I never understood the code I was typing in and never knew how to fix the code that didn't work due to poor magazine printing.

I wasn't into computers much back then, not the Sinclair range. Always annoyed me (because I had no imagination) how the art work on the front looked nothing like the graphics. I have a very, very clear memory of either late 80s or early 90s being in the front room and finding an old Spectrum game in a case (we never had a Spectrum). Looking at the art work and saying to myself "This is why I don't like computers or games. That art work. When I turn this over to look at the back the graphics will be nothing like that".

Anyway. Years later wasn't until the 16 bit era that I really liked gaming.

Eventually I did get into computing due to Microsoft and Windows 3.11 but still have fond memories of the ZX81 despite knowing I never really enjoyed it.

Later on in life my mum did a carboot sale and I gave her the ZX81 to "get rid of". Sold it for £50. I giggled and said "But it didn't even work properly. You'd touch it and it would wipe the code". I didn't know then about the RAM pack issue or that they were becoming "retro". And it wasn't until Micro Men that I discovered the RAM back wobble was a well known thing back then!

UK.gov is launching an anti-Facebook encryption push. Don't think of the children: Think of the nuances and edge cases instead

Re: Same old bollocks

Not to mention that stick clearly wasn't theirs and had been provided to them but they'd obviously never returned that one to the owner either.

Same old bollocks

"Think of the children" and if you don't then you must be hiding something.

Considering I've given the police a hand full of USB sticks with encrypted CCTV footage on it of our sites and then never had those fucking sticks returned annoys me. So I'd no longer be allowed to encrypt them? But I do it for security incase they loose those sticks. "But that won't happen, its the police". Really? So I stopped providing the sticks and made them supply them instead. What happened with the first stick they provided me? I checked if they'd bothered to secure wipe it as it looked used. Oh look, no they fucking hadn't and I was able to restore someone elses old CCTV footage of a crime, that had never been encrypted.

McDonald's email blunder broadcasts database creds to comedy competition winners

Really annoys me!!!

"We take data privacy very seriously" oh fuck off!!! No you clearly fucking don't as made it as hard as you could for the guy to contact anyone that gave a shit. And consistently ignored his emails.

ProtonMail deletes 'we don't log your IP' boast from website after French climate activist reportedly arrested

Re: Tor

Not really as lots of VPN providers give you the option to buy their service anonymously.

Re: Tor

For Tor to be affective you need to be using a VPN as well so you encrypt your Tor connection. This is because so many Tor exit nodes are comprised and can be sniffed and monitored.

They've just killed protomail

I'm assuming lots of people will now avoid it and move elsewhere.

US Air Force chief software officer quits after launching Hellfire missile of a LinkedIn post at his former bosses

Reminds me of..

....Pentagon Wars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXQ2lO3ieBA

Exactly the same. This still continues to this day.

Rapid7 says Computer Misuse Act should include 'good faith' infosec research exemption

Patel

will want to include a ban on encryption, no doubt.

Facebook: Let us tell you WhatsApp – we don't want to pay that €225m GDPR fine

Re: Law enforcement

They will appeal and attempt to drag it out as long as possible due to having a copious amount of money to piss away on lawyers. The EU will give in and settle for 1 or 2 million. Or some brown envelopes will be passed round to "make it go away"

In Microsoft's world, cloud email still often requires on-premises Exchange. Why?

Re: Confused.com

Same as us. No on prem and all working fine.

Windows 11 will roll out from October 5 as Microsoft hypes new hardware

No

I like Microsoft as grew up with them but fuck this.

"Freshen up... or else...

The sting in the tail of Woodman's post, though, is the warning that "certain features require specific hardware; see our Windows 11 specifications page for more information.""

Considering its been pointed over relatively new hardware also won't be supported due to lack a TPM 2 chip.

Microsoft does and doesn't want you to know it won't stop you manually installing Windows 11 on older PCs

Re: Crashes?

You've missed out then. Aaron Margoses and Mark Russinovich haven't written great books about the sysinternal tools that go a bit into the workings (technical documentation) of Windows. But you also have David Solomon's even greater book that gives detailed workings of Windows system over the years.

Re: Crashes?

And if you use the sysinternal tools over the years and listened to all the old talks from Mark Russinovich, Aaron Margoses and David Solomon, you'd hear that a lot of the crashes in windows are from 3rd party drivers.

Start or Please Stop? Power users mourn features lost in Windows 11 'simplification'

No, you want it separate. As it allows them to then update it whenever they want. It was argued that Process Explorer should be buddled with Windows and possibly replace the shit that is Task Manager, but Mark Russinovich commented on this at one of his talks years ago, that the sysinternal tools being separate and not bundled with Windows means he can update them whenever he wants.

Tesla promises to build robot you could beat up – or beat in a race

Asimo

Has he not looked at Honda's Asimo. That was truely great. Had noticed not heard in mentioned in a while and it would appear because Honda completely canned it in 2018. So if they'd gotten that far and canned Asimo, then what is Elon thinking? Can't help but feel he talks bollocks just to get more investment.

Trust Facebook to find a way to make video conferencing more miserable and tedious

Never seen the point of this

I watch Tested on YouTube, have done for years when it was just Will Smith (not that one) and Norm. Then Adam Savage joined and it became even greater with his one day builds. Not many people took to Will for some reason but its not the reason he left. He left to start up his own business in the new VR world. What was it? It was/is essentially what Facebook have now done. VR for meetings or TV shows. Why? It really is a shit idea. People hate meetings. We've even developed standing meetings (never been to one) to stop them lasting so fucking long. Add the gimmick (and it is just a gimmick) VR they'll be even more dull.

What would you do in office? Require everyone joining to own a VR headset? Or the company pays then everyone has to share. You're require to put it on (sharing) after greesy ted who hasn't washed his hair in months just used it. And you can't clean it as the wipes are out.

Just no. Never understood why Will thought it was a good idea. But no doubt he'll end up making millions are FaceCloth will buy them out.

Internet Explorer 3.0 turns 25. One of its devs recalls how it ended marriages – and launched amazing careers

I don't remember

first time I started to use IE. But I do remember, in the mid 90s being at college for my first college course and in the study room they had Nescape on all the machines. I remember using that, I have very clear memories of watching the Netscape logo opening but don't remember when IE replaced it or when we starting using that instead.

Once again, Facebook champions privacy ... of its algorithms: Independent probe into Instagram shut down

Still surprised that Zuck

Has managed to keep control of the whole business all these years. But then if he owns most of the shares no one can do anything.

Only way to bring down FaceCloth is to stop using it, unfortunately it will never happen as some people, not me, fine it useful.

Fancy joining the SAS's secret hacker squad in Hereford as an electronics engineer for £33k?

Re: No comment

Too true. But also, I suspect they want this person due to off the shelf kit no longee being repairable and the reason we should all be for Right To Repair.

But really? Create prototypes for that shit money? Although better paid than me that person could take their prototype and sell it for alot more than 33k.

£3m for 8 weeks of consultancy work: McKinsey given contract to advise UK.gov on tech project business cases

Re: £3m quid to build "business cases"?

Yep and we say this time and time and time again at different companies I've been at. All the time ignored. It seems it the management handbook it says "Ignore what you're staff say, just hire a consultant."

Annoys the fuck out of me. I've seen one set of "consultants" come in to design a bin round app using the new low code bollocks that was being pushed and forced on everyone. They ignored staff and just got to work. It was released and pointed out "What about bank holidays? The round changes when its a bank holiday". Oh, didn't you know that? Maybe, just maybe you should of asked the staff that use the fucking old app every fucking day, instead of thinking you know best.

They were canned just after a year not before collecting their £1million payout. Their app was instantly scrapped and rewritten by inhouse staff.

Re: So…

The leads will be doing half days and spending the rest of the time "Playing golf" as I heard one consultant boast at one NHS trust.

One of issues with public sector IT?

Pissing money away time and time again on consultants.

As I've said before, been in one place where the consultant came in, asked us all what we thought the issues were and what could be changed, then took that info and palmed it off as his own work. As always the mangelment listened to the consultant but had been ignoring us for years saying the same old shit.