* Posts by sev.monster

582 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Apr 2020

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5G network slicing finally shown to be more than pipe dream

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: "I have yet to speak to an enterprise which is planning to buy one"

5G adoption has been so poor in my area I can't even use these amazing advertised (i.e. theoretical) data speeds. So much for that.

You're not imagining things – USB memory sticks are getting worse

sev.monster Silver badge

None of this is new, no-name fly-by-night manufacturers (including those crappy branded ones you can order in batch) have been pumping these things out for years. I guess the main issue is that they are becoming more prevalent as unknowledgeable buyers get the cheapest 1TB super ultra hyper fast USB thumbdrives on Amazon and are surprised when they try to write more than 256MB and it starts overwtiting old data. And by then, the seller has bolted.

Bank boss has pay slashed after presiding over tech outages in 2023

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: An updowngrade might help

Lots of cane shaking and "why back in my day" in this post.

Ultimately the problem is the human element, not the tools. Sure, simpler tools allow people to grasp the concept easier and faster, but they also harm productivity and throughput. Where the best mark on that meter is I am not learned enough to know. But the solution is not to regress and ignore all advancements and the lessons we'vd learned from them.

I feel bad for your liver.

Cloudflare sheds more light on Thanksgiving security breach in which tokens, source code accessed by suspected spies

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: Am I reading this correctly?

I actually do recommend Bitwarden. I didn't care for it at first for self hosting because the project is huge, but Vaultwarden changed my mind. Much less by way of dependencies and works with all Bitwarden clients. The Vaultwarden + official clients ecosystem does everything I need.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: Credit where credit's due

I really like the people there, but I do not like how much centralized power they have. One wrong move and 80% of the modern Internet could be MITMed without the end user knowing.

Of course, the same goes for Akamai and other major CDNs, as well as cloud providers, but the threat is not as big for them because the attack complexity is suitably larger with all the disparity in hosting solutions. Meanwhile Cloudflare is the epitome of "hold my certs, bro".

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: Am I reading this correctly?

Precisely this. Every major nation state with outside interests is doing something in regards to cyberwarfare, it's just the norm now. And even if it isn't the big hitters like that, there are plenty of smaller criminal organizations that want a piece of the pie. Breaching and selling access, mercenary work, or directly exploiting victims—there are hundreds of them. Even single script kiddies or disgruntled employees in the right place at the right time can mean data being exfiltrated.

LastPass in particular is why I self-host Bitwarden.

sev.monster Silver badge
Boffin

12,000 repositories? Even Code Jesus would be taken aback. If they actually clone and audit their dependencies, which is the only reason why I can imagine there are so many, I will be thoroughly impressed.

Blackbaud settles with FTC after that IT breach exposed millions of people's info

sev.monster Silver badge

I didn't even know what Raiser's Edge (it was always spoken, never spelled) was and I confused Blackbaud with Blackboard for years at $job[2]. Thankfully my exposure to it (including any data) ended at that mere curiosity. Only one person utilized the product so I can only hope impact was overall minimal.

What a surprise though that keeping tons of data on people is a bad idea!!! How absolutely novel!!!

Zoom updates its legalese explicitly promising not to feed vidchats to AIs

sev.monster Silver badge
Joke

Is that why at the start of every transcript it reads "good morning sir"?

JetBrains' unremovable AI assistant meets irresistible outcry

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: Bad expectations (was: Bad code)

This is the reason why I am not at all worried about our "AI" overlords. Neural networks especially as they are being trained on complex human stuff like language are ultimately simplistic (i.e. reactionary) and often wrong. But their uses as suppliments and for targeted automation can't be ignored.

It's no different than say assembly line robots, which were also claimed to be out to take our jobs: Sure, many industries now use them, but in how many of those cases will you still see line workers, transferring product to other belts, checking product quality, aligning and setting product, and what have you? And there are still people needed to develop, test, and maintain those devices. Yes, we might have lost simple "put this dangly bit onto this other dangly bit" jobs, but the types of people hired for those jobs (c.f. junior assistant programmer) are entry level blue collar and eventually found plenty of other jobs in the same vein after much grumbling. And it's not like all industries have the money or technical need for such high dollar value machines, plenty of people still hire hands when necessary. It's just not as widespread as it once was.

We will still have juniors and interns, LLM's will not replace them. But now those that can't can have a similar edge even without one. You'll have to check the output no matter if it's human or metal anyway; letting the intern push production code is not something any self-respecting overseer would allow. (Though the number of people using Copilot and other generative tools to write their code without ever checking it (possibly because they don't even understand it) is particularly hilarious/disasterous/terrifying.)

sev.monster Silver badge

Don't bring Claude into this, he's just a poor delivery boy trying to make money for his mother's medicine!

sev.monster Silver badge

I don't think there would be many (from enterprise environments) that would disagree. Unless they are stuck in the MSP/SaaS trap because the upper echelon refuses to give them budget for otherwise.

sev.monster Silver badge

Ah, 8.3 short names. I used them when filenames were too long and inefficient globbing wasn't good enough.

Nowadays I am happy for Zsh' curly bracket filename expansion and other features and have since never looked back.

Users now keep cellphones for 40+ months and it's hurting the secondhand market

sev.monster Silver badge
Gimp

Re: iPhone 7+ here

Good little paypig!

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: No need for an 'upgrade'

Replace monkeys with outsourced underpaid """talent""" and you have a more realistic scenario.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: No need for an 'upgrade'

You might be interested in GrapheneOS, which supports Google Pixels for many years, while also thoroughly de-Googling and securing them. I currently run the 6 Pro and find it quite nice. No real reason to upgrade to the 7, basically the same phone.

Just in case you missed it, friend. It's super easy to install, and functions with a locked bootloader for extra security (of course you can still root if you want, Magisk is recommended for that)

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: iPhone 7+ here

Nokia made some after their buyout and rebranding efforts, but they died out pretty quickly and didn't sell much. People seem to prefer the new shiny, which is not necessarily (or most often) the best product for them.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: iPhone 7+ here

What is "small phone" for you? Pixel #a line would like a word. Unless you mean old chocobar phone size?

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: No need for an 'upgrade'

You might be interested in GrapheneOS, which supports Google Pixels for many years, while also thoroughly de-Googling and securing them. I currently run the 6 Pro and find it quite nice. No real reason to upgrade to the 7, basically the same phone.

sev.monster Silver badge
Flame

Re: no real need to replace it

It's sad but there are legitimate reasons to keep old versions of Windows and other software around, usually because short-sighted developers fuck shit up and/or remove user choice for reasons and expect you to eat it. Frankly, that's why I switched to Linux, because at least I can maintain the entire system and have complete control if I really wanted to, though I find Plasma 5 (and upcoming Plasma 6) to suit my needs perfectly. And super customizable to boot, no DLL patching needed.

My favorite quotable Windows "feature" moment is Windows 11 lacking these things at launch:

  • Taskbar snapping to left/right/top of screen
  • Disabling taskbar grouping
  • Showing taskbar labels
  • Moving the volume/Internet icons around separately (they are now combined into one button)
  • Start Menu tiles from Windows 8–10 (hey some people still like em)
  • Forcing the start menu to pop in the middle of the screen
  • No left aligned taskbar
  • No way to hide the news, recommendations, and other annoying elements from the Start Menu
  • Can't disable automatic Bing search (might have been the case during the technical preview, I don't remember)

And that's just what I remember, about one area of the UX. There is probably so much more that either didn't impact me or that I'm forgetting, in this area alone.

Want to guess how many of those issues are still problems today? Adjusting taskbar grouping landed only a month or so ago, to enterprise release channels. If that tells you anything.

And you wonder why people continue to use XP? Especially when the list of things changed/removed between XP and Vista is also quite large? Not to mention the disasterous launch of Vista in general? Or the disasterous launch of 8? And so on?

There is no denying that older Windows versions have plenty of flaws, and it sucks that Microsoft is essentially abandoning these users in the name of progress... or rather, in the name of selling more laptops and licenses to safeguard their revenue stream. In reality, just like smartphones, many users find that their old versions do exactly what they need in exactly the way that they want and the incentive to upgrade is not worth the money, hassle, technical requirements, or otherwise.

Do you remember when your favorite feature was taken from you, or when a new "feature" was shoved down your throat with no other option? I remember Windows 11 forcing hardware requirements that were a straight up lie. I remember Windows 10 forcing DWM vertical sync with no native way of disabling it other than exclusive fullscreen. I remember the removal of widgets. I remember the removal of the classic start menu. I remember the disgusting UI and UX changes that needed a whole system upgrade to make actually usable and not make my eyes bleed. I remember the introduction of IE and Edge, and how the whole system is pointed at it by default with either no option to change it or that option hidden behind 10 "ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT" prompts. I remember updates deleting your entire Documents directory.

Sorry if I sound upset. Because I am upset. I hate Windows so much. And I have used every version almost daily since 3.1, ending at 10. I got so tired of always having to hunt down the right third-party software just to make my OS usable to my needs because some marketing exec that did a case study on 50 users got the bright idea to move the "all programs" menu another 2 clicks away while offering no alternative for users that didn't like it.

I'm sorry, I'll stop now. Before I start thinking about Windows Server.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: No real surprise

I would unironically and immediately buy the latest and greatest Samsung Swhatever Ultra Max Pro, if I could remove all the bloat/ tracking or just install GrapheneOS. I am paying you the average monthly salary of a middle class worker, I don't know why I must also pad your data pockets with my personal information, while not being able to do whatever I want with my device (locked bootloaders and proprietary software).

'I’m sorry for everything...' Facebook's Zuck apologizes to families at Senate hearing

sev.monster Silver badge

I prefer Big Gas. Sounds like an afternoon after too much Mexican.

As NSA buys up Americans' browser records, Uncle Sam is asked to simply knock it off

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: They have been doing this for a while

PRISM, ECHELON, TIA, all the same phoenix under different names and nothing new.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: Barking at the wrong tree

What do data brokers and lobbyists have in common? They should both be shot into space.

Qualcomm signals its PC push will coincide with back to school sales and be tied to a Windows launch

sev.monster Silver badge
Windows

Re: Timing

I can't wait for existing features to be gutted, with them either replaced by half-baked "AI" new shinies and key jingles, or re-added in a poorer state than last edition 6 months after launch.

Godspeed, Windows users!

Amazon Ring sounds death knell for surveillance as a service

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: Police no longer need Ring

It really is a slippery slope. I support positive policing, but I also do not want to be snooped on. Just as I understand that there are bad people out there, there are also necessarily bad police that will abuse whatever powers they are given for their own gain, amusement, or otherwise.

So when do a few extra eyes become a threat to my personal safety and autonomy? Is blocking those eyes a bigger threat in the grand scheme? It's difficult to know where to draw the line, when I value both my safety and my privacy/anonymity; and just as difficult to balance the sacrifices I must make to either to satisfy the other.

University chops students' Microsoft 365 storage to 20GB

sev.monster Silver badge

Uh, no, it's all for OneDrive (for Business) which is built on SharePoint.

If you're talking about personal OneDrive, of course that doesn't exist, it's a completely separate product, and is not affected by these Microsoft 365 changes; 365 is also licensed and administrated separately from personal OneDrive.

sev.monster Silver badge

1TB is the current default. They haven't enforced the storage changes for everyone yet. Either Padua isn't taking steps to mitigate this eventual change, or their data use is not significant enough to worry the users and they will eat the cost when the quotas are lowered. It has nothing to do with how they manage their accounts, these storage changes will affect all tenants.

sev.monster Silver badge

Not sure why I'm getting downvoted when my point is that "yeah this thing actually happens sometimes"

I sure don't think it's good that universities do this, but it is simply a fact that many do.

sev.monster Silver badge

You absolutely can moan when they are essentially picking yout pockets where they promised up and down they wouldn't. Just like VMware prices being jacked 300% or more when Broadcom promised there would be no major changes, corporations' promises are worthless, and contract renewals change on a whim.

sev.monster Silver badge

Some universities grant student account access "forever" or some similar diminution. This pool of students may include applicants, not just enrolled or even accepted students. Regardless of whether or not this is the right thing to do, it certainly happens a lot.

So considering thousands of students register to every major university every semester, you can see how quickly this escalates into the ZB.

Source: I have worked at multiple universities and they all have had policies like this, with student accounts in the tens or hundreds of thousands.

sev.monster Silver badge

This could be legitimate as Microsoft has powerful retention, governance, access control, loss prevention, and other such data features. Not saying you can't implement this in a local netwotk (you can) but the buy-in for these features is real and they do work.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: OneDriving Me Up The Wall

"If McGill University isn't doing this, they need to hire some new admins."

And unfortunately it is not a decision often made by "admins" that one can simply replace to somehow fix this mentality, it's the upper bureaucracy.

The world ain't so simple.

Post Office threatened to sue Fujitsu over missing audit data

sev.monster Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Blockchain

Once again cryptobros injecting "muh cryptography" into the conversation without offering any sort of viable implementation plan and without the understanding and foresight that there are simpler, less computationally expensive ways to achieve the same goals. You even used a hashtag.

I worry that this is bait or parody. But one cannot be sure anymore.

Google is changing how search results appear for EU citizens

sev.monster Silver badge

"some of these rules will reduce the choices available to people and businesses in Europe."

What part of your choices being reduced do you not understand? Since we can't eat your personal life and absorb it into the hivemind, we won't know that you went next door to the Big Gay Manhole Bar last Tuesday, and can't recommend you similar places at random when your wife searches on your PC.

Infosys co-founder doubles down on call for 70-hour work weeks

sev.monster Silver badge

I think it's because he's autistic. He also mentioned he doesn't consume media or play any games. I suppose he has nothing else better to do. In his spare time he reads about Canadian politics and local roadways.

sev.monster Silver badge

Gotta love it when maniacs get handed the shit they shat and see them fume.

sev.monster Silver badge

I have a bright-faced young coworker that spends a few hours extra working almost every day.

He's salaried and exempt.

I fail to understand, but hey, as long as he's happy...?

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: "fewer than one in five women work formally"

Do keep in mind that one's mind hardens as you age, naturally. This can of course be prevented and actively reversed for some people with mind exercises, correct diet, and good sleep; but it is an invariable fact that as you age your neuroplasticity lowers in many respects, your memories become harder to recall as old pathways break down and are lost, your convictions become more engrained as you begin to lack the mental power necessary to challenge them.

There is nothing ageist about basing your opinions or musings on scientific fact, and in repsonse to a viewed situation at that; it's certainly questionable to brand an entire generation of people with that same generalization, without the sort of nuance the context of this article provides.

Don't take things so personally.

sev.monster Silver badge
Childcatcher

Going down on a buck sounds ripe for injury and legal culpability. Don't take this guy's advice, kids.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: Workaholic espouses workaholism

The best part about being a freelancer/contractor is writing your own work week. Freelancers generally get more freedom in that aspect as their work is more focused on one-off, quick-fix jobs that often can be spawned out of nowhere (i.e. selling product or effort into a market where there is always demand, such as stock/prefab content and journalism) vs. contractors which may stick with a contract or company for months at a time until the project is completed.

Name True, iCloud access false: Exceptional problem locks online storage account, stumps Apple customer service

sev.monster Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Could have been worse

Just write HTML.

<a href="https://google.com/little bobby tables">You know how to do that off the top of your head right?</a>

Oh, looks like our fair vulture's sanitizer doesn't properly escape HTML inside pre tags, so I had to use fancy unicode brackets. They're a bit shouty.

‘I needed antihistamine tablets every time I opened the computers’

sev.monster Silver badge

Yeah I'm sure that there are deaths relating to any kind on inhalant, and burning your vape juice by running at high temperatures gives you a higher risk of cancer as it shoots burnt carcinogens into your lungs. But I was more musing about vaping so much and filling the room so thoroughly that there is no oxygen left to breathe.

I would imagine most deaths from vaping would be related to poor quality juice, lung cancer/burnt lungs from too high temps, exploding batteries in your face, low visibility causing accidents, and other such situations. Would be an interesting research topic, especially compared to other risky pastimes.

And second-hand vape is much less of an issue than cigarette/cigar smoke, as it dissipates almost instantly unless you are intentionally trying to make it last longer as previously discussed. It is much better for those around you, especially if you do not use any harmful chemicals like nicotine in your juice. Some people just use flavors and skip the high.

sev.monster Silver badge
Holmes

Re: These stories are crazy

Why do the sales reps keep shoving the pointing devices inside the computer case?

sev.monster Silver badge

See above, but no hotboxing is a colloquiolism for inhaling a vapor or smoke cloud and releasing it with the intent of filling a small space with the resulting cloud. I'm curious where you've seen people die from it, because I can't imagine it being anything more than a comorbidity. Like is it possible to suffocate or something because you hit it too hard??

sev.monster Silver badge

I'm attempting to imagine a situation where the amount of vape cloud (which, of course, dissipates as it cools down, meaning you can't sustain it for a long period of time without major work) would be thick enough to displace the oxygen in the room to the point that it would cause some kind of major issue, but... can't really see it.

sev.monster Silver badge

While I completely agree with you, I certainly didn't get paid enough at the time to scrub that trainwreck of a computer. Kudos to you though for braving the gunk.

sev.monster Silver badge

Re: schools Not to whine about it ...

Probably thought they were newfangled gaming devices. "Oh, the kids and their beepy-boops!"

sev.monster Silver badge

Used to work at Geek Squad. I had a certifiable grade-A gamer come in with some disgusting RGB-coated off-the-shelf Epic Gamer PC™. He said it would randomly turn off after a few minutes or somesuch.

When I say it was disgusting I both mean the design was horrid, and it looked like he propped up unwashed feet on it over the span of twenty years without so much as blowing on it. The outside was caked in a suspiciously sticky substance that attracted caked-on dirt and grime, all the screw holes were filled with fuzz, and I knew what had to be done.

I donned some rubber gloves and brought it out to the vehicle bay. I asked our resident tatted-out autotech if I could open the side garage door for a little while, and he said sure, before going to have a smoke. So I opened the door, checked the wind—it was in my favor, plopped the thing on the side access street, and opened the case.

Now, it wasn't so bad—at first. Visually, I could not see any of the components inside. But most of the fuzz was somehow sticky or slimy enough that it did not move very much, even with the little breeze that was going on. I lay it down on its side, open side up, and a little bit dislodges and is carried away by the breeze. Good, I think to myself, this will go well. I go pull down the rectractable air compressor reel from the ceiling, rummage around in the autotech's drawers (the ones with the screw—the ones with the nozzle—the vehicle hardware ones) to find and replace the nozzle with one that I could easily actuate with a free hand, and point the hose in the vauge direction of the computer case.

The resulting dust cloud was so tall and thick, it surpassed the height of the building. I crouched there blowing the thing (autotech's drawers fully attached mind you) for a good five minutes and not once did the cloud lose form. The sticky substance holding together the dust and grime inside the case somehow gave it enough structural rigidity to prevent the whole wad from being blown at once. The GM came running over after a while because he thought there was trouble, but he immediately turned around when he accidentally inhaled some of the flying gunk. I guess he didn't swing that way.

After I was done with my role, I guessed that no amount of aftercare would save the board, as it was thoroughly doused in whatever sticky, greasy, unidentified fluid coated the outside case. At this point, I realized it was likely not feet sweat, not "something from the drawers", but rather most likely stale vape juice that covered this wreck. After packaging it all back up and testing to make sure it worked, I called back the owner to inform him his issue had been resolved and to come pick up his machine. I asked him if he vapes, and at the mere mention, he immediately pulls out a pair of massive juice-suckers to show off. Now quelling my laviscious thoughts to avoid any undue outbursts at the man, I calmly inform him that his computer is caked in the residue of his juices, and he should probably stop sucking on his vape rods so close to his computer. And he says, I kid you not, he likes hot-boxing his room with them.

So at that point I check him out and send him on his way with his computer, fully expecting to see him again for round two.

Sadly the store closed before I was able to blow the computer again, or so much as learn its fate.

SAP to cough up $220M to drag bribery charges into recycle bin

sev.monster Silver badge

Caught bribing officials? Bribe more officials to make it go away (for now).

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