Posts by steviebuk

FCC accused of colluding with Big Cable to game 5G legal challenge

Let's hope...

...it is a whistleblower and shows Pai to be the bent fuck he seems to be. I said seems for legal reasons ;o) to see him do jail time would be a joy but instead he'll been given a golden handshake to fuck off.

Facebook didn't care if your kids ran up gigantic credit card bills – lawsuit

Re: This is similar...

Fuckbook was a happy accident. I type too quick and on the phone its a nightmare when it has changed a word without me spotting it and despite having turned off autocorrect. Also, on Android, it constantly puts . when not required despite having turned that feature off as well. Both of Samsung S4 and S8. I still prefer physical keyboards on mobiles, I miss them.

And other times I'm supposed to be doing other things (the DIY) so before I get caught I just hit submit without checking.

I standby calling Facebook a cunt though.

This is similar...

...but even more evil than the Martin Lewis lawsuit that he's now dropped. With all the fake ads with his face on it. Facebook didn't seem to give a shit until he sued. Then suddenly did and now have agreed to donate 3 million (not much considering how much they have) to a scam charity with the CAB.

Fuckbook are cunts (I like that word but first time using it on here, so it must be serious).

Is your kid looking at GCSE in computer science? It's exam-only from 2022 – Ofqual

Re: Old skool

I like retro stuff but when being taught computing, they need to teach what is relevant now that will get you a job. Teaching stuff that was now obsolete like defunct OS's was pointless.

Or you get a lecturer like we had in Uxbridge College in the 90s that knew all the old skool stuff but not the new. So was teaching us obsolete shit.

Pentagon admits it's now probing conflicts of interest at AWS over $10bn JEDI cloud deal

Oracle...

...might have a point but who'd want to use their cloud solution anyway. But surely the DoD should have two providers for the days when AWS goes tits-up. And now we know they are using AWS, surely the terrorists will target AWS. Knowing they are with only one provider means they just need to take that provider offline to give the DoD a very bad headache.

Microsoft’s Bing dinged: What happened, Xi Jinping?

It also explains all the odd issue with Office over the years. Don't get me wrong, I like Office and came to like the Ribbon after I watched a video with them exampling how to use it. But Mark Russinovich over the years, even while at Microsoft as always taken digs at Office :) so it must be badly coded then.

Fake broadband ISP support scammers accidentally cough up IP address to Deadpool in card phish gone wrong

Re: At least they were being realistic

But if you were someone high profile on TV action would of been taken as has happened before. If there is possible bad PR to have from a celeb they'll act. If its from a pleb, then fuck it.

UK.gov plans £2,500 fines for kids flying toy drones within 3 MILES of airports

So this ban...

...is clearly not going to stop any terrorist is it. And now they know they no longer need bombs. Just fly a drone near an airport and will have the same sort of affect.

Obviously I don't condone this but banning the drones won't stop crooks flying them.

France wants in on the No Huawei Club while Canuck infosec bloke pretty insistent on ban

Again....

...pointless, when you continue to buy Apple kit that is made solely in China. And almost all other electronic devices. What's the chance of China slipping in eavesdropping tech into one in every 10 iPhones in the hope no one will notice.

French data watchdog dishes out largest GDPR fine yet: Google ordered to hand over €50m

When will this hit Apple?

Apple have gotten away with so much for years, it seems very strange. Microsoft in the late 90s was almost broken up due to the United States v. Microsoft Corp. Yet Apple have pretty much been allowed to do similar for years. Having said that Steve Jobs was stopped in court from making Jailbreaking illegal and America appears to slowly be seeing the light and bringing in Right to Repair. But despite that, Apple are still getting away with shady shit regarding repairs and not allowing unauthorised repair shops from repairing their kit, surely that is anti-competitive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns&t=5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K669-vhKshU

Just a couple of examples.

EU will have agreed a tech tax by March, says French finance minister

So...

...we, the end users will be paying the tax instead. The companies that earn that much money, Google, Facebook etc have the funds to hire accountants who'll do whatever they can to make it look like the company doesn't make the profit required for the tax. Just like Starbucks, Amazon etc have been doing for years already.

Vodafone signs $550m deal with IBM to offload cloud biz

So...

... that's all the over 40s on a watch list and over 50s ready for the chop.

DDoS sueball, felonious fonts, leaky Android file manager, blundering building security, etc etc

Re: Es file explorer

Ooo some nice suggestions. I'll have a look. I used VLC the other day but that as a weird lag issue now and then. You'll be mid way through a file and it will pause for about 30 seconds to a minute then recover. It's odd.

Sometimes when the NAS isn't available or I'm on holiday at a lodge, I'll create a share on Windows and then access the files through ES file explorer that way. But have wanted a replacement for ages. Will take a look at the others. Thanks.

Es file explorer

Went to shit a while ago. Forced to use it as can't find anything better for NAS access

Tens to be disappointed as Windows 10 Mobile death date set: Doomed phone OS won't see 2020

It was...

...the lack of apps that killed this. Going to the store and finding nothing of interest or what was needed put me off.

IBM HR made me lie to US govt, says axed VP in age-discrim legal row: I was ordered to cover up layoffs of older workers

Not what they used to be

If true, I hope IBM lose. They need to feel the pain treating staff that shitly.

Cortana and Search to innovate separately in an amicable Windows 10 Insider split

Sysinternals

I hope the Sysinternals tools keep being developed. At the last Ignite Mark Russinovich didn't do his usual Case of the Unexplained :( then he did an interview saying he's so busy now, he's hired someone in to maintain them for him. With Start breaking off from Explorer I wonder if this will be reflected and seen by Process Explorer?

Would be a VERY VERY VERY VERY sad day when they are no longer usable :(

Epic's Fortnite fail: Ancient UT2004 server used for login-stealing proof-of-concept

Re: That explains something...

Probably not old news as in now only gone public.

Most munificent Apple killed itself with kindness. Oh. Really?

I'm sure...

...all they did was replace one shit battery with another shit battery on my other halves iPhone 6 (I think it was. I have little to no interest in Apple bar moaning about them). Hers was part of the recall batch. But the battery they replaced it with ended up, about a year later, suffering the same issue. Getting to 50% then turning off.

Facebooker swatted, Kaspersky snares an NSA thief, NASA server exposed, and more

Re: Swatting

I probably should of said the police should call the number. Just as a first port of call. But, although this might be a massive generalisation but there just seems to be so much evidence of it, the first option American law enforcement seem to go for is "attack, attack, attack", much like their army.

Evident in the Waco siege (watched a documentary on that the other day on BBC 4) and when a General ordered British and NATO soldiers to attack a airport in Kosovo that Russians had managed to capture first. Gen Mike Jackson said why not just surround the airfield instead. They soon ran out of food and water and allowed them to share the airfield, preventing World War 3.

Swatting

I still don't understand, as someone mentioned on other new articles about the one where the guy got shot and killed, why the 911 centre doesn't do a call back to the actual address if they get a number? Surely they should have a database of numbers for set address', even if the number may no longer be valid. Isn't it at least worth a try calling it.

Microsoft sends a raft of Windows 10 patches out into the Windows Update ocean

Re: MDBs? Really?

"Tell management that who refuse to pay for upgrades." I bet some will say as its sadly all too true.

Army had 'naive' approach to Capita's £1.3bn recruiting IT contract, MPs told

Re: Actually...

Because, as I always say, you get smarmy sales pods come and sell their bullshit to upper management who clearly don't understand how shit they are (in this case the Major) or how to manage projects. Despite others pointing out the flaws, they'll still go with them anyway. And just like now as in other contracts I've seen get outsourced, it can't be seen to fail so they are now just in spin mode. That is now the Major's job, just to spin Crapita's bullshit for them.

You'll also get certain upper management come in who take a disliking to local services for no reason other than them being a cock. They are the type of people that then push to outsource. Like a certain NHS trust did, just because the Chief Exec didn't like the in-house IT. Now they are with Crapita and have regretted it since.

Now Crapita have also managed to tie them, the army, into using a bespoke system, where I suspect Crapita holds the data and "If you want to bring it in-house or move to another provider then that will be a few million for us to move your data".

Cops told: No, you can't have a warrant to force a big bunch of people to unlock their phones by fingerprint, face scans

So..

...if this is allowed under the 5th amendment, surely you don't have to give up passwords as well as wouldn't that just be the same as incriminating yourself?

Want to get rich from bug bounties? You're better off exterminating roaches for a living

Because they know they'd be paying out over and over and over again.

Computing boffins strip the fun out of satirical headlines

Re: Private-Eye hacks worried?

And a lot of jokes can be insider jokes. Only recently discoverying it a few years ago, I have to keep Googling the insider names they give people or events. Nice explanation on wiki I found.

And for where I worked. I used to give people funny names to try and remember their name. No one else would get it or find it funny but I always did. Someone called Bastible I called Basketball. Bill Clinton to someone who reminded me of him looks wise. Cashin became Ca-ching and so on.

:)

It WASN'T the update, says Microsoft: Windows 7 suffers identity crisis as users hit by activation errors

Windows 10 Pro

My Windows 10 Enterprise that links to our KMS setup switched to Windows 10 Pro at Christmas. So all Christmas I had no direct access and couldn't work out why it wasn't working. Then noticed the drop down in licence once got back to work. Fixed it. Wonder if it was an update.

If you wanna learn from the IT security blunders committed by hacked hospital group, here's some weekend reading

Re: show me the money

It might not but it stops you ending up fired or jail time. If they still fire you, a nice wrongful dismal can be thrown at them.

Huawei sales director nicked in Poland on suspicion of 'spying'

So....

.....Huawei are bad and possibly spying cause they are Chinese but we'll carrying on buy Apple kit that is also exclusively made in China and not chance the Chinese aren't planting bugs in those that Mr Cook doesn't know about. And all other electronics that are made in China.

Why are the singling out Huawei? Is it because it's a Chinese company that hasn't stolen its IP for a change (although at some point maybe they have) so the West is worried?

Lets also not forget all the cheap security cameras on Amazon that are made in China and controlled by Chinese companies (Clever Dog comes to mind).

Hubble 'scope camera breaks down amid US govt shutdown, forcing boffins to fix it for free

Re: Crazy

The problem is. When the tit was doing stuff like The Apprentice amd running his casino into bankruptcy I suspect he'd say "Do this, do that" and they all bowed down to him. Some probably quietly thought "thats a shit idea and will bankrupt the casino" but no one questioned him and if they did, I assume were fired.

Now he's President he probably thought he could do the same shit and everyone would do as he said. But he's finding out it doesn't work like that and that there are people that will tell him no. This has annoyed the cock so he's now digging in his heals until he gets what he wants or someone points out to him its making him look like even more of a tit than he already does.

Sadly, he's such a stubborn fuck, I don't think he will back down.

Who cracked El Chapo's encrypted chats and brought down the Mexican drug kingpin? Er, his IT manager

Re: Collateral damage

As mentioned, in that sort of role, you'd have a dead man/woman switch. So if you don't appear again for a certain amount of time, all hell breaks lose. Then, you hope, the cartel won't bump you off. And if they do anyway, you can go to the grave knowing they've just fucked themselves up.

What's the point...

....of being a billionaire drug lord when you're still "too busy"

"I’m so busy. I didn’t even have time to breathe… I have a computer but, you know that I haven’t been able to open it? A Vaio… Do you remember the small Vaio?"

This is why it's pointless putting in back doors

"custom encryption system". So when the governments want to put in back doors for the likes of WhatApps, you'll just have terrorists etc creating their own encryption systems.

Ministry of Justice abandons key plank of £280m IT project

Because you'll have smarmie sales person that has sold shit to the powers that be. And because the powers that bit either don't know what they are doing, gullible or our in bed with said smarmie sales person, they've just agreed to the project. Despite all the people that actually fucking use it saying "The current system is fine and/or there are much better and supported systems already out there".

Guarantee it was a top level boss wanting to make a name for themselves then quickly and quietly quitting to "Enjoy retirement" when it was clear their pet project was going to shit.

Attention all British .eu owners: Buy dotcom domains and prepare to sue, says UK govt

Re: How long until the new referendum will be called?

"Democracy should be let to do its job."

But unfortunately it already has done its job and people voted to leave. So if we don't honour what those people wanted, then we're not being democratic. The people that didn't vote, it's their own fault.

It may end up not being as bad as it's being made out (I have no idea, I voted remain). My point is, the EU has to make it look like it's going to be shit and that it's a very bad idea otherwise other countries like France will also want to leave.

I'm just not sure the computer works here – the energy is all wrong

Re: on a similar note ...

Ah, that reminds me of the Commodore 64. A family friend had one and I'd go round every weekend. If I'm going to be honest now it's about 30+ years later, I'll admit it was mainly to see the Commodore 64, not them :) . Although I was nice enough to stop playing on their Commodore to actually talk to them. I'd sometimes by a Commodore mag with whatever tape was on the front that I wanted to play. However, I wasn't heavily into it so would go to just see them sometimes.

Anyway. Enough of the back story. Martin, it was his Commodore, had read about using POKE commands to do cheats on a game. The only issue was to do it, you had to interrupt the game loading from tape. The way the article described it (and I was an idiot back then so never understood any of this), you had to touch the exposed board at the back of the Commodore where you'd normally put a cart. But, you had to touch specific pins otherwise it wouldn't work.

I watched him do it, but as always not really paying attention. He got it to work. Nice. He then said he was going out to a friends. I told him I'd stay if that's OK (I cringe now at the memory of how many times I invited myself to events around theirs :) ).

Anyway. While he was out I thought about the POKE commands. Again, being stupid back then I never bothered to look up the article, at least I don't recall looking for it. I just tried to do what he'd done. And then the Commodore turned off!

Turn it back on then......erm, it's not coming back on....erm. Take the power out and put it back in. Nope, still not coming on......oh shit....I think I've broken his Commodore 64.....oh shit.

I'm such an arse I went to the other room and just hung about a bit with his sister as went to school with her, and to make it not obvious I'd just broken the Commodore. Then said "I'm gonna head home now. Probably see you next weekend". Later that night I got the dreaded phone call. "Was the Commodore working when you left?". Oh yes, it was, why what's wrong? "Well it's not turning on".

I never did confess to this day (well until now and other forums I've been on). I'm unaware if he ever knew or found out. I'm sure he suspected me of breaking it. Anyway. He sent it back to whoever it was and it got repaired, I believe free but I'm now thinking he might of actually had to pay for the repair. Although I do remember back then, without me breaking it, he did have to send it off a free times. So I think he'd had other issues with it before I killed it.

Now I'm wiser I discovered I'd cause a short, at least I believe it was. THAT was the danger of doing that type of interrupt to get to do a POKE. If you hit the wrong pins you blew the board.

Oops.

Nobody in China wants Apple's eye-wateringly priced iPhones, sighs CEO Tim Cook

Re: There's disposable income then there's

What's wrong with Buffet? He's always seemed OK to me. Although I don't know why he ever invested in IBM. They haven't been any good in years.

Re: There's disposable income then there's

Or people stuck with girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands or wives that insists on having Apple kit. Despite me pointing out over and over how overpriced they are.

Heard the one where the boss calls in an Oracle consultant who couldn't fix the database?

Re: The Hot Shot Database Team

Sounds like the culture in a place i used to work

I remember a fix...

..that I'm still proud off regarding explorer freezing on the network where I worked. You'd load explorer and pick a network drive and thats it, you now had to sit there waiting for at least 5mins before it would populate or respond. Was only happening on certain devices, namely laptops.

Anyway. I wasn't allowed to troubleshoot "Just rebuild the laptops and move on". I explained that's not fixing the issue. Surely we should be given the time to work out what is causing it. Then we don't have to waste time reimaging. The fix might be quicker. Nope. Still told to reimage or give a prebuilt one off shelf but even that took time. I believe we were still on XP and this wasn't that long ago, probably 5 years ago.

I'd discovered Sysinternals tools. Watched loads of older videos on it that Mark Russinovich would do at TechNet. This was a perfect issue to try out with the tools, to help me learn how to use them. I carried on bugging my manager. I FINALLY got permission to just use her laptop then. She had finally been hit with the issue and was off on leave for 2 weeks. So I sat down and lucky the issue popped up pretty quick. Within about 20mins I'd found the issue and fixed it (well technically it was a work around).

Watch explorer with task manager and you could see it running at 50% but thats it and the reason task manager is bollocks. Using process explorer allowed me to look at the threads of explorer at the time and there it was and .dll file from the encryption software we used back then running at 50%. Doing a seach online to see what this .dll actually did, I discovered all it did was search the network for any files that were encrypted so it could change the display icon to show the file was encrypted. Well we never encrypted actual files, just the whole HDD and only on laptops. Reading the guide on the .dll it was fine to disable it.

.dll disabled in a few seconds and the problem went away. Nice. A few second fix to replace an hour reimaging a laptop. Even taking a users laptop away and giving them a prebuilt replacement took up time. So I was proud of my fix and have loved the Sysinternals tools ever since.

Staff sacked after security sees 'suspect surfer' script of shame

Re: And that's why...

It was the late 90s. And that, in these times, won't stop seeing what you're viewing if you're going via a proxy. And any private VPN at work wouldn't be allowed.

Microsoft's 2018, part 1: Open source, wobbly Windows and everyone's going to the cloud

Re: Microsoft disasterous year, again

Although I don't know if he'll be involved I believe Mark Russinovich has Linux experience. His sysinternals tools are going to be ported over and his PS tools were name so because he came from the Unix world.

On the first day of Christmas, Microsoft gave to me... an emergency out-of-band security patch for IE

Can they make it anymore confusing?

So am I supposed to be searching for KB KB4483187 or fing KB4470199

Not appearing

On our WSUS setup.

Error pop-up? Don't worry, let's just get this migration done... BTW it's my day off tomorrow

Re: took the day off

Although everyone remembers Y2K because nothing happened. So everyone not in IT thinks it was all a ruse by IT techs to get paids loads. Ignoring the fact nothing happened because most issues had been fixed before hand.

A few reasons why cops didn't immediately shoot down London Gatwick airport drone menace

On a sidenote

The Eddie Mitchel image. Blurred the face on the left then obviously couldn't be bothered to blur it on the right.

Mark Zuckerberg did everything in his power to avoid Facebook becoming the next MySpace – but forgot one crucial detail…

This is why I could never be big in business

I just couldn't be bothered with the hassle. I really don't know why he doesn't just retire and enjoy the money and do something else with it. Start up another project that's less hassle. At least then, when Facebook fails, you don't loose all that money.

While all these different sites allow "Login with your Facebook account" it unfortunately will be around for a long time.

Re: No one likes a lying asshole

Yep. Just look at Steve Jobs. For some reason lots of people liked him.

London's Gatwick airport suspends all flights after 'multiple' reports of drones

I was thinking a GPS issue

But now having read there were a few of them. I originally thought maybe the "come home" GPS part of it got confused and flew near the airport. But looks less likely. Sad issue is, it probably is an attempt to get a clear layout of the place for a possible attack. The bad thought now is, clearly they don't even need to strap a bomb to them. Just flying them over the airport is enough to cause everything to come to a halt.

Lets hope it's just a tit being a tit and nothing more.