Posts by BPontius 210 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Jul 2020
We get another performance of Zuckerberg the clown fumbling about claiming he was unaware of the spying, insisting the code in the Meta software is a mystery and denying ever hearing of Yandex. Then for a finale a clown car full of empty promises about protecting users privacy and policy changes. For an encore we might get his fellow clowns from Congress performing their best fake outrage in another Congressional hearing that will do and change nothing.
Windows is a tool just like DOS was. I browse the Internet with Windows 11, I also browsed the Internet in DOS back in the early days of the Internet with a program called gopher. Connected to a Unix mainframe on an Apple II and also played games, did word processing...etc on Apple and in DOS, just as I do now in Windows 11. The majority of the bloat that Microsoft is adding to Windows 11 is ignored, uninstalled or disabled by me, as it is of no use to me. I would say that society is addicted to the clock, to time, the speed at which everyone rushes to froe, the inhuman speed at which everything must be accomplished and the impossible accuracy demanded at these speeds. Society needs to take a Valium, slow down and take a breath, sit on the porch or lay on the grass and stare at the clouds, take a nap, read a book, just sit quietly, daydream...etc. RELAX PEOPLE!
Given Microsoft's history of lax security and total disregard for privacy of Windows users, this is no doubt going to launch even more remote and more automated hacks, data mining and infections. The repeated re-working of Recall is a prime example of this. Microsoft disabled registry backups in Windows 11 claiming it takes up too much disk space, but no problem having Recall gobble up gigabytes of space in storing of everything the user has done.
Are Microsoft's A.I bots going to wake them up to the environmental disaster they are inflicting upon the planet with their forcing of millions and millions to buy new hardware to run this bloat?! No, just ship it off to some third-world country and contaminate their soil and water with toxins and heavy metals. Run out and buy an electric car so these battery packs can be added to this e-waste nightmare, CO2 is much more dangerous! Who needs CO2 when we can grow our food in toxic soil and drink water polluted with heavy metals and toxins? Sounds yummy!!
Pull the ejection handle on Copilot and all the A.I garbage few users want in Windows 11 and concentrate on quality and stability of Windows 11 Microsoft!!
You DO remember the users don't you Microsoft? Those pesky millions that use Windows, the product that you claimed Apple had stolen their GUI design from, despite the fact they had their GUI established on the market with the Lisa computer in '83 (followed by the Macintosh in '84) seven years before Windows 3 became king and twelve years before Windows 95. You both go the inspiration for the GUI from the Xerox PARC Alto PC, as you were there with Apple for the demonstration.
Using a password manager, ad blocker(s) and two-factor authentication will NOT protected your privacy. With the constant and numerous hacks, breaches and leaks, plus all your information that is collected, traded and sold, your privacy is already gone! The Government and Law Enforcement can and does find people on Tor. You and Snowden update your knowledge, even if your opt-out of data collections on an app, most continue to collect your data and except for not using apps there is no way to avoid it. Even if you neve use the Internet your information is being collected, traded and sold, there is no way around it!
In the U.S that is identity theft and is illegal, it is also both a State and Federal crime to forge a birth certificate! A background check for an apartment would reveal your fraud, most likely you would be arrested. Not saying it isn't done, but going to prison is NOT something I care to risk!!
1) Open Shell allows me to make the Start menu my own.
2) Snap layout is annoying and useless, disabled!
3) Unneeded. Easier to get a wide screen or dual monitors.
4) Never had any interest in Widgets
Focus - Unneeded! There is a three pound organ inside my skull that allows me to do this.
Windows Hello - Bought a Yubico security key which allows me to secure my system without logging into an online MS account. Help me understand how a 4 - 6 digit PIN is more secure than a 15+ character password?
Dark mode - Inconsistent implementation.
Fail to see any advantages or reasons to going backwards over 30 years to a DOS prompt or Windows 3.1. Want a DOS prompt use Terminal already integrated into Windows.
Get out of the rear view mirror and be in the present!! The past is fun to remember and maybe visit on occasion, but not to live in.
A Red Team's sole purpose is to find vulnerabilities in any system or software that allows access and/or elevation of privileges. Which is exactly what penetration testing is about, looking for vulnerabilities and weaknesses allowing access. A Red Team is a live test of security and will actively enter a network(s) and system(s) moving to take control. Where penetration testing finds the vulnerabilities unknown to the administrators and reports them. They do not takeover the system(s), network(s) to interfere with the administrators\users as Red Teams do.
There is no putting the Genie back into the bottle, we have past the point of no return on ending telemetry, spying, data collecting. Too many see it as perfectly acceptable to collect every scrap of data and the Government has encouraged this behavior with their Fusion Centers and using businesses and citizens (social media, shoppers memberships...etc) to feed them information. The Government and Law Enforcement are not going to end their data gravy train by repealing the spying section or the Act and are definitely not going to discourage businesses, Utilities and Telcos of doing the same . There is no turning back!!
That is Trump's S.O.P, he sees himself as King, Dictator, Supreme Ruler unbounded by laws and the Constitution. Even the four years since his last Presidency he has acted as if he is still unbounded by the laws and rules of the U.S, during his hearings and trial for violating the Classified documents laws.
Soon the moon will be littered with space trash and dead landers. Several of the moon missions (IF we ever get back there) would be clean up missions, collect all this stuff and send it back to burn up on reentry. Humanity needs to expand to other planets to survive but will leave piles of junk as they planet hop. Seems better just to stay on Earth and minimize the damage.
Gem Desktop was written by Lee Jay Lorenzen who worked at Xero PARC, which is where the Gem Desktop GUI came from. Both Apple and Microsoft also took their GUI designs (was all but given to them) from Xerox PARK's Alto computer for Mac OS and Windows. Gates stole Windows GUI from Apple as the Lisa came out Jan 1983 and the Macintosh was out in Jan. 1984. So Microsoft's claim that Apple stole their GUI from Windows is absurd! I don't find any licensing of DR DOS\Gem Desktop to Microsoft. Perhaps I am misunderstanding you.
Windows 11 is also not a massive learning curve and also easily adjusted to in a few months. Why not persevere with Windows 11? The changes to the Settings menus, taskbar limitations, easily removable bloat (bloat that has been in past versions of Windows) and telemetry (much of which can be easily disabled) are the biggest reasons given for moving to Linux. But there the logic fails, moving to a Linux distro requires you re-learn the menus, settings and their location(s), the very effort and behavior you refuse to apply to learning Windows 11 but so willingly accept in Linux. YOU are the problem not Windows 11!!
Software security lecture from the Government that couldn't build a secure and reliable healthcare marketplace website. Lectured about security by a Federal Law Enforcement agency that has blatantly ignored and violated the very laws they have sworn to uphold. The FBI has been caught repeatedly abusing the FISA database, caught taking data and photos from State Drivers License computers for their facial recognition database without warrants or permissions. They helped and did their own hacking after 9/11 with the NSA in backdooring anything and everything they could get their hands on, inside and outside the U.S. While pushing for backdoors in encryption algorithms. Do you know what security is or means? Software engineering lecture from a Government that still uses ancient mainframes reliant on COBOL, secure only in their inability to connect to or run anything remotely modern, being 30+ years old. When the CISA allows months to years for a patch or update to be applied on systems that are vital to the nations ability to function and defend. I don't think they have any room to lecture anyone about security in any form!
Lots of "talk" about securing our nations borders, cyber, infrastructure...etc, but the Government can't manage to update or secure it's own systems. The State Department runs Windows XP, an OS that has not received security updates for 11 years. Real secure!!
"Bureaucrats ought to be spelled burro like they act." -Comedian Gallagher
Stop and then Disable "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry" and "Inventory and Compatibility Appraisal service" in Services, eliminating the vast majority of telemetry.
I think all you Linux zealots commenting at every article covering Windows should have their front doorways sealed with rebar enforced concrete. Yeah we get it, you hate Windows 10/11 so stop reading Windows articles and subjecting us to your hate. Stick with Linux related articles and leave Windows users alone!
SMB 1.0 (originated for DOS networking 1986) has been depreciated for nearly 12 years (June 2013) yet Microsoft has not declared an End Of Life or remove it from Windows 11.
Microsoft's gibberish about depreciation reminds me of the NSA's definition of collected data when reporting to Congress about their data dragnet, "Data is not collected until it is looked at by an analyst.". So the NSA has petabytes of data that could sit for decades uncollected, because it was never "looked at". Microsoft uses depreciation as an excuse to cling to obsolete protocol and utilities because they are like hoarders, can't part with their junk. Windows 11 still has 'Simple TCPIP services' from UNIX and the early beginnings of the Internet ('60s), rarely needed today. PowerShell 2.0, Internet Information Services (IIS) reached end of life in 2023, Telnet all still linger in Windows 11, abandoned and forgotten.
Out of the gate this articles author can't help but twist himself into a pretzel, an extreme O/S limbo contest.
Within the first full paragraph the author shows his lack of hands-on knowledge of Windows 11, going straight for the AI Recall feature. A feature requiring the Snapdragon AI neural processor, which a very small percentage of systems having it or users that own them. Then to compound his problem he states; "Today, anyone smart enough to use Windows, a very low bar indeed, can use desktop Linux.", in a stroke crushing Linux users down to the "very low bar indeed" of Windows users. Who's side is this guy on?
Justifying this he moves on to comparing Windows 11 to "that stinker" Vista with the insistence of sticking with the nearly 16 year old Windows 7 O/S, which will reach it's 16th year the week after Windows 10 is retired on Oct 14, 2025. Even moving to Linux he wants the look of Windows 7, the outdated functions and compatibility of Windows 7 in Linux. Clearly stating that Linux will run "on pretty much anything", later describing the cream of Linux hardware as "scrapheap PCs". Leading up to this he pushes gaming on Linux, gaming on the premium Linux rigs with 2 -4 GB of RAM, 20 - 100 GB of storage (hard drive) space at the eye popping resolution of 1024 x 768 of his "scrapheap PCs". Even with the low memory foot print of Linux, there are few games that will run respectably on those hardware specs. In the authors defense here, he does suggest moving to a gaming console (Playstation) for serious gaming, but it does not lessen his hurt on Linux.
Before this the article criticizes the security of Windows, with the monthly security updates, requiring a TPM and of course waving off the need of antivirus software on Linux. There are currently 6,692 distinct vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel, version 6.13 has 228 vulnerabilities for the rc4 update, generating 60 new CVEs per week. With Linux wide spread deployment on servers alone, it would seem security would be of some concern. It is shown that a majority of Linux administrators and users do not install additional security after the initial install, scoffing at even the need for a TPM. Recommending the use of 20 year old PCs to run Linux, as if time has stood still. Reminds me of the NASA mentality of the O-rings and foam strikes. Their "it never hurt us before" mentality that costing 14 astronauts their lives. Linux DOES run critical systems in, banking, Government, Military and infrastructure, so lives are at stake with it's security, despite their casual attitude and arrogance in the default security of Linux.
Seems to me that the author only managed to crush and twist Linux to the "very low bar indeed" of Windows, his words. While trying painfully to boast the virtues of Linux in comparison. FAIL!!
You can get the same protection of the "Administrator Protections" w/o Windows Hello from changing the 'User Account Controls' in secpol.msc, under Computer Config\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options, scroll down to User Account Controls. Options include; hiding username, hiding last logon, prompt for credentials options...etc eliminating the UAC yes or no prompt and asking for credentials. Step by step instructions are plentiful via a Internet search.
If you are on Windows Home edition then you will need to find the registry edits for these settings.
Microsoft should have changed Windows setup decades ago to create a Basic User account FIRST, providing a notice that this will be the default user account. Then setup the administrator account requiring a different password than the default user account with the settings to require credentials when elevated rights are needed. Eliminating the need for this new setting and making the system more secure. Instead Microsoft is obsessed with hardware requirements to use TPM, Secure Boot and BitLocker which are all supported in Windows 10 negating their secure hardware nonsense. Microsoft's hardware requirements are to support their AI bloat and benefit their bottom line with the sale of new PCs. Ignoring the e-waste disaster they are creating!!
Then someone copies your fingerprint and highjacks your accounts, retina, facial recognition are all passwords that can be stolen. The oils and moisture from your finger is left on the fingerprint scanner and can be stolen. Biometrics are data points stored in your PC or the cloud and can be stolen, copied or changed just like passwords. Passkeys are just euphemisms, substitutions for passwords to give the illusion of being more secure.
There is no such thing as idiot or fool proof, unhackable security, pure fantasy.
Simulations and ground tests, with one actual space flight and NASA declares it sufficiently tested. Why do I feel I've seen this movie already? Oh that's right, Challenger and Columbia! The O-ring burn throughs never hurt us before and foam strikes have never caused critical damage before. So NASA will deem the heat shield on the Orion capsule safe in all circumstances. NASA is a broken and inflexible hierarchical culture that is going to kill more astronauts with their flawed safety mindset.
Isn't "so many eyes on the code" supposed to prevent this, is that not the Linux security super power? The 33 year old rose colored glasses used to view Linux security needs a new prescription as the reality distorting lenes and utopic tinting is no longer protecting Linux users from seeing the harsh reality.
From a Government with 67 departments, agencies and sub-agencies still reliant on Cobol, including U.S. Treasury, IRS, State Department, and NASA.. Not to mention 45 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia that also run Cobol. most of which crashed during the Covid pandemic with the surge of unemployment fillings. Transitioning platforms to another language will take decades in business alone. It could take Government centuries, if ever. The oldest being the 56 year old mainframe at the Treasury\IRS which runs the Individual Master File program key to processing tax returns and refunds, written in Cobol and assembly.
I fail to see the need for any kitchen appliance to be "smart" or have any need to be connected to the Internet. Ovens have timers that can be set to start at a certain time, you could put a timer on a crockpot to start slow cooking if needed before you get home. What could you possibly need cooked in an air fryer that requires a long cook time, that couldn't be done in an oven or in person? Plan ahead and cook the day before and warm it up.
All this IoT is unsecured and only makes it easier for hackers to gain access to your home, network, and devices. Finding an appliance timed to start at a specified time can tell criminals when your home is unoccupied. Home security cameras are too easily accessed, a visit to shodan.io will show you how accessible it all is.
I am puzzled as to how this pseudoscientist uses only domain names without IP addresses, the domain names are only for human readability and by themselves give no destination or routing information for a router. We have been out of IPv4 addresses years, for Asia-Pacific since 2011, Latin American and Caribbean since 2014, America since 2015, African since 2017 and Europe, Middle East and Asia ran out in 2019, the only IPv4 addresses available are through web hosting services.
The main reason for the slow migration to IPv6 has been the lack of IPv6 capable routers and the expense of replacement. especially in the U.S since profits come before all else they are in no rush to upgrade.
The IPv6 address space and subnet size is mind boggling huge, a standard size /64 subnet assigned to an ISP is 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 IP addresses. Even four subnet sizes down at /48 gives 281,474,976,710,656 IP addresses. The total size of the IPv4 address space is 4,294,967,296.
China has quite a pair to accuse anyone of backdooring or tampering, when they monitor\control every aspect of life using those very techniques. NSA went on a hacking spree after 9/11 and I have no doubt much of that is still very active. With the FBI playing catch up. I have read reports that the NSA has broken most of the common encryption used on the Web\Internet, all this "going dark" nonsense from the NSA and FBI is pure fiction. Since the NSA has an active part in developing, approving and controlling encryption algorithms\protocols with NIST and have been caught multiple times sneaking in their own doctored versions, not a unreasonable conclusion.
So you don't have locks on your doors, curtains or shades on your windows, a cover or tape on your webcam, password on your PC and cell phone, take no precautions in protecting your banking or financial information, have no interest in protecting your medical records, let anyone read your diary, make all your travels and activities public on social media....etc. We all have something to hide!
Disappointing Kaspersky would pawn off users to a unknown AV. Kaspersky being banned from Government systems by computer illiterate bureaucrats who don't bother to read the legislation they pass into law, based on rumor and speculation from Kaspersky employees with zero or limited knowledge of company dealings. Multiple Governments and state intelligence agencies have scrutinized Kaspersky AV products and none have found any indications of spying. Given Kaspersky's reputation in the AV community, I find it all but impossible to believe they would jeopardize their reputation and risk the entire companies existence with spying. Do people really believe Putin would somehow rescue Kaspersky or even admit to it if they were caught spying for the Government? Yeah, like VP Harris with the border crisis.
Adding to the space pollution because "everyone is doing it" the is worst rationalization! So where is the line of acceptability with "everyone is doing it" mentality? Should littering, water and air pollution be allowed since the planet is already polluted and cluttered? Robbery, shoplifting, vandalism, computer hacking, identify theft and shootings are all happening quite regularly now days. Do we accept these actions as okay because "everyone is doing it"?
I have receipts showing I paid for it. A nerd has a passion for knowledge and understanding, being a slave to improving and enriching yourself is not a bad thing. We (the people, populous) have been "the product" long before Windows 10, back to the earliest civilizations and Governments the people were "the product", we have always been the cash cows, beta testers, gunnie pigs to leaders and heads of State. Microsoft's data collecting a flea fart in a hurricane! Our economies and societies are giant spying machines collecting everything you do, say, read, watch, listen to, eat, buy, everywhere you go, where and how you spend your money, how much money you have, how much debt you have...etc. Own a cell phone, Alexis or other assistant, tablet, your car newer than 2000 with GPS, WiFi and memory that stores and transmits your travels, everywhere you go is recorded on video. Even before 9/11 there was telemetry and data collecting, since 9/11 it has sky rocketed. All the breaches, hacks, leaks, thefts, your information on the Dark Web, with criminals and cartels...etc. We are already PWNED!
U.S social media companies and Government participate in the same data collecting activities, this collecting of "very personal" information could be (and probably is) performed on any\all of the social media platforms. The NSA and FBI employ dragnet data collecting operations, the FBI has zero room to accuse TikTok or China of violating personal information when they were caught in the act of stealing drivers license data and photos from multiple states without a warrant(s) or permissions of the individuals. The FBI has been abusing the FISA database for years, agents using it for illegal activities that would easily land any citizen or hacker in Federal prison. Yet none of the agents are prosecuted or lost their jobs.
NSA has had employees violate the conditions of the laws granting them rights of spying, with none losing their jobs or being prosecuted. Multiple employees stealing classified information on USB thumb drives, while stating they cannot block the use or access of thumb drives. It has been possible to block USB access on Windows for years before the large leaks plaguing the NSA occurred. Both of these agencies are fed personal data on U.S citizens from all social media platforms, phone apps...etc., phone and PC location data is commonly collected and sold, probably just given or fed directly to the U.S Government.
So only foreign Governments are in violation of U.S laws when stealing very personal information, but no laws are applicable to employees of intelligence and law enforcement agencies tasked with supposedly protecting the very same data of U.S citizens when they willfully violate those same laws. The laughable comments made to Snowden by senators and agencies alike, told to come back to the U.S and defend his leak of classified information. Yet, by Federal Statute you are not allowed to offer or submit to the court any defense or explanation of actions in an espionage case. The push to backdoor or ban encryption on the Internet is directly tied to both agencies wanting unfettered access to all the very personal information on the Internet. But that is to protect the country from terrorist attacks, right. Don't you believe it!!
When companies stop doing security on the cheap, finding it cheaper to pay for lawsuits, fines and outages than to spend the money on security up front. Followed by the worn out PR rhetoric of how important their customers privacy and information is to them and the false promises of a secure future. If customers privacy and data was so important they would show it by implementing security from the outset instead of doing damage control afterwards. The blatant disregard for the security of customer information is found in regular storage their data in clear text on network accessible systems. It should be a no brainer to encrypt financial data, credit card information, personally identifiable information, but in majority of cases is left in clear text on unsecured systems\networks for easy theft.
30 years into the Internet being a marketplace, 23 years since 9/11 and the data hoarding created by it's perceived need to collect more data about users than all the companies and Governments can even begin to process in multiple lifetime. Yet in all that time we have failed learn, let alone implement many of the basic tenants of computer, network and cyber security. Securing the U.S infrastructure has been an on going Government farce since the Reagan Administration, yet we continue to implement remote automation with insecure IoT, hardware, software and without even basic security practices.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." We have repeatedly proven our insanity!!!
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
