Posts by steviebuk

Trump's gone quiet, Parler nuked, Twitter protest never happened: There's an eerie calm – but at what cost?

Re: 1st amendment

And if you run a business from them, it can kill your business also. One of the possible issues is killing of a, what can be seen as a competitor, that being Parlor.

Facebook appeals ruling that it stole tech. So, Italian judge issues new judgment: Pay 10 times the original fine

This is another thing Facebook abuse, the appeals process. Knowing full well some will just give up as they can't afford to wait or go bankrupt while waiting. Arseholes. Lets hope they actually pay up.

'Best tech employer of the year' threatened trainee with £15k penalty fee for quitting to look after his sick mum

True but you're also endanger of getting black listed. But then that shouldn't stop people with real cases otherwise it will be the bullshit my mum always used to say "Don't rock the boat". Fuck that. If I'm being treated like shit I will rock the fucking boat and sink them if they deserve it.

Rant over.

Re: Burger King

IBM does.

Most industry awards

are bollocks. A company I worked for got bullshit awards for their (can't remember the exact title) "Digital transformation low code applications" yet they hadn't actually fucking created any when the award was given. Clearly was an award for "A mate". Never trusted any of that shit since.

Server won't boot? Forgot to make that backup? Have no fear, just blame Microsoft

I always try

To be honest with users unless they are "Difficult" or tell me "Blah blah, I've stopped listening to you now" (Yes, some fuck once said that. I ignored her after that)

The "Difficult" user thought I was great and would ask her team "Just ask Steve", they informed her tickets still needed to be raised. Anyway. When she finally left to their delight (they hated her as she was, quite frankly, a cunt) I told them "Well I know you say she thought I was great but she didn't know I lied to her most of the time and made technical bullshit up. Especially if I'd forgotten to do stuff I told her I'd do" they found that very funny :)

US Department of Homeland Security warns American business not to use Chinese tech or let data behind the Great Firewall

Re: Surely

Wasn't saying it as a conspiracy theory, I don't believe in that bollocks, it was just a point wanted to say :) as I typed it, I knew it wouldn't be possible as someone in Apple obviously would get random samples of built kit from the Chinese factory and would of course check. I still think the point is valid though.

If Trump thinks pure Chinese kit is comprised, why doesn't he question anything that is America owned yet made in China? Much less chance of said kit being compromised if the American company does proper checks but you could potentially just do the same with the pure Chinese kit.

Surely

That also means Apple kit. Whats to say no chips are secretly added to their kit.

US nuke agency hacked by suspected Russian SolarWinds spies, Microsoft also gets backdoored

Ironic

Considering Trump, although an idiot, was worried about Chinese kit being security holes. Turns out, no, its a bit of software from the cowboy state of Texas that is :)

US aviation regulator issues safety bulletins over flaws in software updates for Boeing 747, 777, 787 airliners

And too think

They wanted to do away with pilots so the cockpit would have no window and it would be mainly the computer doing everything.

HP bows to pressure, reinstates free monthly ink plan... for existing customers

Beat me too it. Was just going to post this :)

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna needs new business cards already after appointment as board chair

What an arse

“She may be asked, from time to time, to provide services to the company as an independent contractor. The fee for such services would be $20,000 per day for each day she provides four or more hours of services and $10,000 per day for each day that she provides less than four hours.”

How insulting to all the other staff. A years salary for one day!

Not only does this piss me off but it also continues to piss me off when directors and CEOs even in the public sector get "Golden handshakes" to "fuck off" where as anyone else down the chain just gets fired. One such director got over 100k to fuck off early instead of firing them for "issues", anyone else would of been fired.

The amount of times you read it in the Private Eye, its shocking.

Apple appears to be charging Brits £309 to replace AirPods Max batteries, while Americans need only stump up $79

Re: This is a crime against the planet

Hipster directors who think it would be a great idea to get rid of Windows. It's not and he's an idiot.

Re: This is a crime against the planet

I've had my Thinkpad W530 since about 2013 or 2014. Its battery is now useless, pretty much, its hard drive was going super slow. So I put an 1TB SSD in it and it's as good as new. It just stays on mains power all the time and with the 16GB of RAM, runs a few VMs and can play basic games. Its great.

Re: This is a crime against the planet

Yes they have regarding ChromeOS. Look on the underside of any Google Chromebook and you'll have an end of life date on it. The end of the support cycle for that model where it will get no new updates.

Re: This is a crime against the planet

And watch them claim that a Mac isn't repairable because of the screen although they could replace the screen but it would cost just a little under the price of a new Mac. Only for said Mac to be taken to Louise Rossmann shop and find the only thing wrong with it was the screen connector.

Delay upgrading the UK's legacy border systems has added £336m to taxpayers' bill

They have

Hired overpriced consultants. Who'll have sat in an office and covered the wall with postit notes with their ideas. They'll never talk to the people that actually use the software. Develop a tiny part of it and then be told by the people that use it "Thats not how the process works".

Seen it all before. A hipster director with no clue leading a team of consultants with no clue. Who are asked to leave a year later having producing nothing yet still getting paid.

75% of databases to be cloud-hosted by 2022, says Gartner while dishing on the weak points of each provider

Still don't believe anything Gartner has to say

Not after their, was it praise? For the credit agency that had the massive data leak

Uri Geller calls off 20-year ban on Pokémon trading card that 'stole' his 'signature image'

When I was an idiot

some say I still am, I believed in the bollocks Uri came out with, I was very young. I eventually opened my eyes to the bollocks so loved people like James Randi who exposed him for the slight of hand magician he actually is. I don't know why he didn't just go along that route instead of his bullshit "special powers" but then I guess the "special powers" routine made him more money.

Anyway. I'd had my eyes open for some time before I saw (as I used to love it) Noel's House Party and his Gotcha Oscars with Uri. I remember watching it at the time and spotted this myself

https://youtu.be/DinkCry5KlM?t=118

As he gets up, you can see he quickly bends the spoon with his hand. I would say Noel tidy beard must of spotted this but because Noel tidy beard, it would appear, also believes in bollocks. He must of just brushed over it, or, considering how litigious Uri is, told everyone to not comment on the fact you can see him bend the spoon as he stands up. Using the act of standing up as his misdirection.

Forget Snow Day: Baltimore's 115,000+ public school kids get Ransomware Day, must check Win PCs for infection

Re: Just because it happened to some other guy....

I can't talk because I have yet to do it myself, but your little brother could setup a VLAN. Then only the kids stuff stays on the VLAN. Make sure the VLAN can't cross talk so then the rest of the network is safe. I have yet to do this with our network but want to so that the likes of my partners Apple shit is all isolated, along with the TVs and the Dyson fan and hoover that has no business connecting to a network.

So bye-bye, Mr Ajit Pai. You drove our policy into the levee and we still wonder why

Re: Since 2020 is all about conspiracy theories

Biden has already said he's not going to waste his time investigating the past Trump admin as he has more important things to do.

I suspect only some might get investigated.

On the 11th day of Christmas TalkTalk took from me... the email address of my company

True. Like the local garage I use for the MOT. They've been on XP for years and last year were still on it with the database they use just be slapped in MSAccess. I was going to offer services to upgrade but knew they probably didn't give a shit.

Went recently and someone has obviously told them as they are now on Windows 10 but with the same database in MSAccess. Which is all fine, I'm just curious to know if that machine is connected to the Internet and how secure that database is. Again, I suspect they don't give a shit.

Calls for 'right to repair' electronics laws grow louder across Europe

Re: Right to repair is a MUST

This is why we need an edit button. Pissing phone.

Tractor. I meant tractor!!!

Right to repair is a MUST

There is a tracker manufacturer, I believe in the US, who have now made it as part of the sale of a tracker, that if needing repair it MUST be taken to an authorised repair shop. No longer can the local farmer who lives out in the sticks miles from nowhere, repair their own tracker.

Its bollocks and needs to be stopped. If you bought it, you should be 100% entitled to repair it.

Mysterious Utah monolith mysteriously disappears without trace

The guys that "found it"

Were the ones that installed it I bet.

HP CEO talks up HP-ink-only print hardware and higher upfront costs for machines that use other cartridges

Surely

Forcing people to use your inks only should be grounds for an anti trust case. High time HP were slapped hard in the face with one.

'I wrote Task Manager': Ex-Microsoft programmer Dave Plummer spills the beans

Re: It hasn't been able to kill lots of stuff

Just use process explorer instead

Hundreds of Facebook moderators complain: AI content moderation isn't working and we're paying for it

Algorithms

Is it like the algorithm that was used for the exam marking this year or the one used by a Paris based health firm Nabla as reported in The Private Eye. It was going to be used for bookings and advice but was very poor on the advice. Upon being asked diagnosis conditions when given a set of symptoms it ignored some and made up others. During these Covid times its worse. In the area of mental health it was asked "Should I kill myself?" It replied "I think you should".

Tax working from home, says Deutsche Bank, because the economy needs that lunch money you’re not spending

Re: Fuck off, Deutsche Bank

Yes but you SHOULDN'T be taxed for that.

The flaws

Are so many. Tax everyone who works from home because "They don't go to the local shop for sandwiches". Some still do fuck whit. I live a 2 min walk from the main shops so I can still go to the local sandwich shop to get one and the local Starbucks or Costa. So go fuck a duck. You BANKER.

Re: Tax failure to consume

Some offspring need that to survive and the parents know this so want them to have their inheritance without it being taxed. "Sort out your affairs before you die then" some don't get a chance or understand how it all works to be able to.

Re: Fuck off, Deutsche Bank

Well said. The down vote was from the bank manager.

People like this a fucking clueless. Just because you work from home doesn't mean you're saving money. Electric expense is up, along with heating. And already on a low fucking wage so taxing me for working from home would make it worse.

Typical cock of a bank manager.

Alleged Ponzi mastermind on the run from FBI hid in lake with sea-scooter, collared after he surfaced half-hour later

Sounds like he was a dick but...

...fancy get-aways always facinate me. Shame for him he never had a sub setup. He could of climbed in that and stayed under for a long time with no bubbles. Although, as it's a lake and I assume they saw him go in, he wouldn't of been able to go anywhere. I also assume a mini sub would probably wipe out the $35million

America's largest radio telescope close to collapse as engineers race to fix fraying cables

Every time

I see this I just think of Battlefield 4

HP: That print-free-for-life deal we promised you? Well, now it's pay-per-month to continue using your printer ink

Re: Just. Stop.

I agree but not everyone has money. So I'll recommend decent quality, but slightly more expensive laptops to people that want one, only to hear they ignored my advice and got the shit, cheap one and now, only after a few months, wondering why it's running as slow as an old dog.

It's really annoying but I understand not everyone can afford the cost.

HP

And "Ian HP" are quite simply, cunts.

Google to end free unlimited online photo, vid storage, will eventually delete files if accounts go over their cap

Re: Amazon Prime has unlimited photo storage

Just a shame the Amazon photo app is god fucking awful

My rant!

So, I've been meaning, for ages, to write my article about "Get unlimited Google Drive space at a fraction of the cost of dedicated Cloud storage", with the caveat that you need a bit of IT knowledge. But, I'm a lazy fuck so never got round to writing it. Also wanted a video for my YouTube channel.

My point? I got my GSuite bill for this month and it said "Google Workspace". What? When did that happen? They've changed their name? Hmm.

(I'm dragging this out for dramatic effect). I once worked at a place that had GSuite. So when left I purchased my own basic package with 3 users, so I could keep up with how it all worked. Eventually stopped playing and the 3 users sat doing nothing for months. I realised I should delete those users and just keep the admin account. That way I can still look at some of the admin stuff but not play with GAM (for managing permissions between users etc). Fine. Then looked at more of the packages. I could pay for GSuite Business and it would only be slightly more a month, yet, I'd get unlimited drive space. Ooo, I'm not a fan of Cloud storage but maybe I could use it as an offsite backup option. I have all my drives I backup too, and I try to, unsuccessfully, put the in the small fireproof save I have. But offsite would also be a good idea.

I did the maths and with the cost of the hosting, the cost of the domain and the cost of GSuite Business (I already have the knowledge to do the setup), it works out much cheaper per year to get unlimited drive space, than paying for Google Drive on it's own with 2TB, same with Amazon and Microsoft offerings.

Anyway. I look up when did they change to Google Workspace only to find a rant happening on Reddit (which I still don't know how to use properly) where they've pointed out they also done away with the unlimited drive space per user on the, what was GSuite Business package. For unlimited drive space you now need to pay for Enterprise!

WTF!!!! How the fuck do they get away with this shit? How is that going to affect resellers "Yes, sorry, I know I said to you last year that the best package deal for you per month, per user, would be GSuite Business but now, several months later Google have decided to scrap it. If you want unlimited you'll now have to pay an arm and a leg for Enterprise, even though you are a small business".

I've also read, now, if you are a business that was trying to keep costs down by only pay for the Basic package per user, if you have 300 users or more, you'll be now forced, with the only other option being to cancel, onto the Enterprise package.

It's BULLSHIT. When will bean counters in business understand the Cloud is actually more fucking expensive than on prem. A mix of the too is good but going full Cloud is a fucking BAD idea. And Google have just proven this.

Mr President? Donald?! Any chance you can actually decide if Oracle can buy us or do we have to leave?

Re: Tik tok vs Sing Sing

What I was shocked by was hearing the other day that when he goes to his golf course, which is regularly, obviously the Secret Service have to go with him. So? What's the problem with that? Well the fact that the Orange tit charges them for the rooms they are forced to stay in.

"Oh but it's only $50 a night we charge them".

Nope, it's actually over $600 a night you charge them you lying tits.

Re: Tik tok vs Sing Sing

Some have talked about the idea he'll give himself a presidential pardon before leaving. However they said the issue with that would be it would prove he's guilty of something. The other option he'd have is to resign so Pence becomes President for a very short while and then he pardons Trump. But again, without any conviction of guilt, he'd be essentially showing that he is guilty of something.

Microsoft warns against SMS, voice calls for multi-factor authentication: Try something that can't be SIM swapped

I was also going to moan about PayPal. Considering they handle money, you'd expect them to have other options other than SMS 2FA but they don't.

Not fade Huawei: Hard pressed Chinese tech biz to flog Honor mobile unit for $15bn

Re: What?

Was a geniune question? Assume that's not whats happening?

What?

So all Honor phones now actually will be controlled by the Chinese government?

Missing Alan Turing memorabilia to be returned to Blighty from the US, 36 years after it went walkabout

Re: Sort of petty shit Trump would do.

You won't need to lick James backside as all stamps now presticky :)

Mail delay

"Mail delays in America are holding up the case right now." With Trumps mate Dejoy in the Post Master General role who, as some suggest, been purposely delaying mail to affect mail in ballots, I wouldn't be surprised if the package went "missing" again. On the orders of Trump until BoJo agrees so say on TV "Trump won the presidental race". Sort of petty shit Trump would do.

Tim Berners-Lee asks everyone to do new biz a Solid and let him have another crack at fixing the Web's privacy

And if there is

Any encryption involved. Expect Australian to demand a backdoor. Which will then be exploited by some bad people, exposing all the data.

No, GitHub's source code wasn't hacked and posted on GitHub, says GitHub CEO

Sorry to ask

Couldn't ask on Reddit as "You're too new so can't post".

Looking at The Guardian website for the American Election and have become fascinated by the interactive American map. Click on a state and you can see all the counties. I noted the Metro appears to using it, but on a crappy scale so it doesn't work well on their site.

Question is. Is this something The Guardian bods created or is this from somewhere open source?

Not promoting the paper at all, and we can all ignore the politics, I just really like the map

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/nov/05/us-election-2020-live-results-donald-trump-joe-biden-presidential-votes-arizona-nevada-pennsylvania-georgia

Tech support scammer dialed random number and Australian Police’s cybercrime squad answered

Really?

"Details of FCIB’s secure environment were not disclosed"

You just got them to connect to a isolated virtual machine. It's not fucking rocket science. People have been doing this on YouTube for years. With one tracking and tracing back to the actual call centre where the guy was calling from while on the call :)

You can't spell 'electronics' without 'elect': The time for online democracy has come

Re: You. Are. An. Idiot.

The boxes are sealed. You'd need to know the correct matching seals they used. You'd need to match the security number on each ballot that is in the box with the other ballot half. And you'd have to bribe all the counters at the other end to not spot this. And you'd need to bribe the election team to find out which team will be counting your fake box so you can plant a fake counter. But you'd need the whole counting team for that section to get round it.

A councillor has tried this before somewhere in the UK, look it up, they were caught and jailed.

People really should volunteer (you get paid) for count day and you'd realise how secure it all actually is.

No no no no no

As someone who has worked several times on election day not only supporting the IT but also seeing how all of it works back stage an electronic system is a very bad idea.

"Take a pen as the election department can rub the pencil out".

1. Election department doesn't give a shit if you bring your own pen

2. The pencils provided are because pencils don't run out of ink and are the thick pencils so its fucking obvious if something was rubbed out which would "spoil" your vote. They don't count the votes, the counters do, independent people, you'd have to pay them off along with 100s of others in the count room.

Then we have postal vote opening "Mail in voting creates lots of fraud" something that fuck whit orange one would say.

No it doesn't! Only election team, counters and IT are allowed in the postal vote opening room. And think about it logically. If you were caught attempting voter fraud there is a prison sentence and fine. Yes, some councillors themselves have been prosecute for fraud cause its so hard to get away with. And you'd have to pay off EVERY single person in that room. It has to be a lot of money due to the possibility of jail. When a postal vote is scanned the software checks it against a signature on record. If they don't match, its rejected. The amount of parents that attempt to sign for their kid. Or old folk who say "Husband died but I know this is who he'd have voted for"...erm, he's dead he no longer has a right to vote.

The fraud normally comes from councillors themselves or the returning officer. Never from the election system itself.