Posts by Auntie Dix

Meet Wizard Spider, the multimillion-dollar gang behind Conti, Ryuk malware

Why Is Evil Successful?

"Wizard Spider...has grown over the past five years into a multimillion-dollar organization that has built a corporate-like operating model..."

...that refrains from burdening with modern corporate-crap practices its worker bees.

Let's look at its "virtual" Help Desk. Here, you will note the absence of:

• Performance-review and goal documents

• Nagging, right-think, "Agile" slogans

• Burdensome shitware such as ServiceNow, Jira, etc. (unless a target for infection)

• Coached call surveillance to make sure that "Is there anything else?" is asked

• WFM, a$$-kissing whores tallying call times and other metric minutiae

• Commutes to an obnoxious, open-floored "campus"

• Required, controlled on-prem-always or hybrid attendance

• Tim Cook, Bill Gates's Token, Larry Ellison, or either of Russia's Google Twins telling employees repeatedly to smell his finger

Minus the corporate games, the extortion gets done, and no Help-Desk workman ends his day worried because he told more than one customer to f@ck off.

Google Russia goes broke after bank account snatched

Google Has Been the Willful, Kowtowing Propaganda Puppet of Russia and China

Good riddance.

Too bad that Russia does not shut down all of Google Russia

(the so-called "free" offerings cited that will continue to operate).

Microsoft warns partners to revoke unused authorizations that drive your software

Those Shortsighted Savings Will Cost You Dearly

"Why are you authorizing remote access to a 3rd party in the first place? [The m]ost likely [reason is that he has] special proficiency [that] you are lacking in your own workforce."

You could have hired an FTE with such proficiency, but you're an a$$h0le.

That's why your pennywise-but-pound-foolish company deserves what it gets, when, later, it gets hacked.

Google opens the pod doors on Bay View campus

That Is the Ugliest F'king People-Hangar in the Bay Area

Welcome to the confluence of:

• liberal filth;

• "green" fantasies;

• noisy, impossible-to-climatize-properly, open-air-playpen design; and

• corporate dictatorship.

Fellow Californian Kai... Per... is also as Oregon-hippie-stink as it gets, hiring the foul-smelling in droves (especially, foreigners..."woke" "diversity" BS advertized, but no-benefit$ contractors, the real reason), where you will enjoy all of the above, plus:

• auto-flush disabled, waste-filled toilets;

• dirty, unwashed, booger-stained bathroom doors and walls (due to "green"/absent "cleaning");

• open-air, ping-pong-playpen noise (all foreigners, BTW) that invades the entire floor;

• ONE unzoned HVAC system for the entire building, with constantly blowing air at ONE management-determined temperature;

• corporate-mandated "no disposables," staff-free, staph-infected kitchens with befouled microwave ovens, dirty-dish-filled sinks, filthy-from-the-drawer cups/plates/silverware, DIY home dishwashers mostly ignored but always interrupted late-cycle (by pigs who add more dirty kitchenware); etc.

I hope that more talent cites these idiotic, hideous, land-grabbing people-hangars as reason to give management the finger and leave Google, Apple et al.

Toshiba says it's talking to 10 suitors about possible sale

Re: "discussions are under way with §0 parties"

"Vultures" is right. Bain Capital, one of those cited, is Mitt Romney's alma mater.

Two-faced creep Romney trumped up his actions as "harvesting the value" [of the victim company].

The reality is what you stated:

"...splitting it into many many disparate blocks, selling off all assets (including all IP) and taking out massive loans in the name of the company to finance even more money making schemes. In the process leaving the victim company a pile of bare bones, picked dry and in massive debt, ready to finally be declared dead."

Sad example:

Sears and scumbag Eddie Lampert

You can keep your old ERP system, but you'll still need ServiceNow, CEO tells The Reg

SNOW = Giant Turd

ServiceNow is a giant-turd product...

...with obscured, expensive base and add-on (thought that was included, didn't you!) pricing.

NO ONE configures the giant turd properly, but blaming purchasers wears thin, when you know they will fail to do so because of your turd's obtuse logic and its exorbitant, ongoing consultation-for-configuration fees.

Inept IT "decision makers" (look for the idiots' self-aggrandizing "ITIL" and "Six Sigma" mentions in their e-mail signatures) buy the hype and ticked feature boxes, with no appreciation of the never-ending nightmare costs of SNOW's endless configuration, updates, and maintenance, let alone the suffering that it inflicts on both techs and those they support.

The turd purchasers do not care, though. It's others' money.

GPL legal battle: Vizio told by judge it will have to answer breach-of-contract claims

There Oughta Be a Law

A toaster shouldn't boot. It shouldn't be running an OS.

Same for a TV.

New "OS" TVs (our only choice, these days) should offer a hardware switch with the default option of "Basic TV: No OS, No Ads, No Crapware, No Internet."

I'll keep my old TVs and converter boxes, for as long as possible.

Happy birthday Windows 3.1, aka 'the one that Visual Basic kept crashing on'

What a cheery spin, on a $hitty, proprietary "database"!

"The Windows Registry was (and remains) a database of settings hidden within the environment, ostensibly intended to replace or complement the .INI configuration files scattered throughout the environment both by Windows and applications targeting the platform. It is a handy database, but one that has become considerably more complex in the intervening 30 years."

That's a cheery spin, on a $hitty, proprietary "database."

The Registry was intended as DELIBERATE LOCK-IN, a poisoned octopus of tentacles to ensnare the portability of Windows itself and all applications.

No longer could you simply copy a program's directory (including .INI file) to another machine. M$ took a dump on that, costing henceforth countless man hours spent on file-backup problems and Registry hassles.

RAD Basic – the Visual Basic 7 that never was – releases third alpha

Re: A great tool

No "/woman" political-agenda garbage needed.

"Craftsman" stands on its own.

Virginians sue to block rural Amazon datacenter

The B.O. of the South's "Good Ole Boys"

"The Good Ole Boy network at its finest, and an apathetic electorate that keeps electing them. Lots of greasy palms around here."

You hit the nail on the head.

Regarding Atlanta, just north of it, Cobb County's scumbag pols — via a deliberately rushed, no-time-for-discussion decision — diverted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to fund for m-/b-illionaires an unneeded baseball stadium shoehorned into an extant major-interchange choke point (I-285W/I-75N). The lead scumbag retired shortly thereafter.

Taxpayers are now about to be maneuvered into funding additions to this theme park for the duh-sports crowd.

The frosting on this turd: The stadium is not in Atlanta, but the m-/b-illionaires demand the name.

The world should ignore the retained appellation and call the overpaid, low-IQ jocks The Atlanta Cobb Braves.

Appian awarded over $2b after claiming Pegasystems stole its data

Re: Odd

"Delaware doesn't have civil jury trials."

That statement is incorrect, unless you are opining that the participants are ill mannered.

In many States, criminal and civil cases are tried by jury in a single court system. In Delaware, the court system is divided into two distinct parts: a court of law and a court of equity.

Criminal and most civil statutory and contractual matters are heard in the court of law, which has a jury system and a presiding judge.

Matters of fiduciary duty and corporate governance are heard in the court of equity, which in Delaware is called The Court of Chancery. The latter has no jury—only a judge.

Not to dis your diskette, but there are some unexpected sector holes

Re: I bow before such experience

I remember punching holes in the floppy disk to use both sides in my Apple //e.

Emma Sleep Company admits checkout cyber attack

This is standard Magento. Anyone using the platform is taking their lives in their hands.

Trust me, as a Magento developer of 10 years... run away from it as fast as possible.

Re: "sophisticated"

> It's the implementation, the structure, and the continual vetting of all of the relevant packages they add to their site

Hah! Great joke! They're using Magento. You know, that platform which requires over 200 separate JavaScript files just to load the home page. Seriously.

Adobe warns of second critical security hole in Adobe Commerce, Magento

Magento really is awful

Magento is a steaming pile of dung. I thought the ubiquitous negative comments about it were maybe a collective exaggeration, but no... it really is that bad. It beggars belief that any company would actually choose to use the platform yet so many do.

If you want developer morale to plummet in your company, use Magento.

If you want productivity to fall off a cliff, use Magento.

If you want to find the most complex and least effective way of implementing ecommerce, use Magento.

File suffixes: Who needs them? Well, this guy did

Radio Bricking

For those who say that file extensions are not needed and it's safe to read files, talk to the car owners in Seattle with bricked radios because someone at a radio station submitted image files (things like album covers) without the JPG extension to the HD Radio system that broadcast them over the FM radio signals. For some reason the Mazda radios tried to deal with the files in a way that permanently broke the radios. Fortunately Mazda has offered to replace the $1,500 radios for free.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/10/mazda_radios_images/

Bouncing cheques or a bouncy landing? All in a day's work for the expert pilot

Re: In the pilot's defense...

I have a car with a manual gearbox. First gear is towards me (back) and to the left. If you're not paying attention you'll be starting in second gear (fortunately, it has the torque to over come that).

Google leads legacy Voice phone service out behind the barn, two shots ring out

Rich B@stards Don't Care

Follow the $.

Grand Central was bought out by Gaggle: That started the clock ticking.

For what to them is chump change, big companies buy midgets, easily acquiring IP and wiping competition.

Later, the giants let the bits they do not desire die on the vine. To hell with customers who need those bits!

Once Mom & Pop no longer own the store, the food is sh-eet, because CORPORATE MANAGEMENT (especially, private-equity vulchers) today means DRIVE OUT ALL COST RELENTLESSLY.

That's why Dunkin' Donuts -- owned later by holding companies and private-equity creeps like Bain Capital (Mitt Romney's ilk) -- now has a shortened moniker and far fewer doughnut varieties, all of which in recent decades taste like crap.

LAN traffic can be wirelessly sniffed from cables with $30 setup, says researcher

What's Old is New

More than 30 years ago (back in the days of 10Mbps networks), a coworker tuned a radio to 10MHz and then used FTP to send audio files (music) across the network. The radio was able to pick up the packets and play the music.

Config cockup leaves Reg reader reaching for the phone

Re: e er what's the difference

This is why I have aliases for cp, mv, and rm that add -i (ask first) to the command line.

Anonymous: We've leaked disk images stolen from far-right-friendly web host Epik

Re: Hating hate is still hate.

I'd think twice before putting Einstein's and von Braun's names in the same sentence.

Also, you're aware the paradox of tolerance is already well-trodden ground, yes?

> Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.—In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Beige Against the Machine: The IBM PC turns 40

Beige Did Not Show Dust. Curse the Dopes Who Forced Black on Us

"...take a more agile approach."

Please stop using the hipster, body-shop marketing term "agile": The stink of it distracts from your writing.

"...take a faster approach."

Ah, much better.

I remember my foremost home-computer choices at the time:

1. The TRS-80 Model III (Like the very first IBM PC, the still-selling TRS-80 Model I relied on a cassette recorder rather than floppies, and the Model II was an 8-inch-floppied monster priced for businesses.)

2. The Apple II (Akin to the above, the mostly ignored Apple I did not offer a floppy drive.)

3. The IBM PC (Matching the TRS-80 Model III, it offered two floppy drives. Also, it was the corporate rage.)

At the time, the Commodore 64 was viewed by most as a cheap toy for game-players. The Atari and Amiga entries, while very interesting, seemed pricey and niche. For me, having support from a lot of print publications and home-computer user groups (remember local computer clubs?) was an important consideration.

So, I decided:

1. Buy. A serious-looking home computer, the TRS-80 Model III simply offered more for the money than the other two. Radio Shack's beautiful, well-designed, free catalogs presented clearly all of the options and prices, and monthly flyers offered frequent sales. Local stores were well-supplied and wonderful to shop. How I miss Radio Shack!

2. The Apple II's color was enticing, but only 40 columns of screen text -- versus 64 on the TRS-80 Model III and 80 on the IBM PC -- was absurd for word-processing. The premium price and nose-in-the-air attitude for a junky-looking chassis and separate floppy box did not woo me. You were paying for the logo.

3. The holy-grail IBM PC was priced for corporate wallets. The clone market was not out there, yet (and when it finally exploded years later, I bought one as a step up from my trusty TRS-80 Model III). What did the smart engineer I knew buy for his home? The TRS-80 Model III.

Today cannot recapture the exhilaration of hardware (and software) diversity (sorry, that word is as nauseating as "agile") present in those early home-computer years. Monopoly Windows or woefully-still-abstruse Yuck-ux on your boring motherboard: Where is the excitement in that?

No more Soylent Green, please. I am ready for the thanatorium. I request Radio Shack catalogs for reception and all of the aforementioned home computers ("PCs" is another overused contrivance) at my disposal for a few hours before you inject me.

Workday makes Google preferred partner for public cloud weeks after demise of Amazon project revealed

Definition

Work(sSome)Day(s): Crap, cloudy HR software (see Orifice's PeopleSoft) that screws customers repeatedly, via botched implementations and rapacious, concomitant consultant fees.

Victims include the State of Maine, the Dystopia of Amazon (which apparently is not smart enough to detect proposals for crapware), and countless other customers.

We can send robots to Mars, but we cannot design competent, boring HR software that fulfills promises made and overpaid for?

The web was done right the first time. An ancient 3D banana shows Microsoft does a lot right, too

Re: Maybe Windows 3.1 was a sweet spot?

Do you mean 3.11? IIRC, Windows wasn't really useful until 3.11 came out. (it's been a while since I used it)

That was the era when DesqView was still a viable multi-tasking alternative to Windows (I remember being amused by having an FTP server in one window and an FTP client in the other and successfully transferring files back and forth).

India's return to space fails after first locally built cryogenic engine experiences 'anomaly'

Tickety Boo-Boo

The problem is, India outsourced to Vietnam. The affected Indian employees were told that they would receive severance pay only if they trained their Vietnamese replacements. Wise to this coercion that Indian outsourcers' employers routinely use, the affected bailed without complying.

Thus, the rocket failed.

It's time to decentralize the internet, again: What was distributed is now centralized by Google, Facebook, etc

Re: You lost me at NFTs

One day, the quotation below will reappear, as amended:

"All your base belong to us."

All your NFT and blockchain, too.

With no oversight and no paper records (thanks to "green" morons), good luck in court.

Full Stream ahead: Microsoft will end 'classic' method of recording Teams meetings despite transcription concerns

Re: Technology

Re: "They should use butter technology to ease into change."

Similar to what was shown in the X-rated version of Last Tango in Paris, Micro$haft did.

As usual, customers were taken advantage of and left sore and disgusted afterward.