Posts by original_rwg

Microsoft breaks Patch Tuesday record with 974-CVE deluge

Re: "If you’re patched, you are protected"

Allow me to correct that statement : if you're on Linux, you're protected from Micros~1 (mostly).

So 622 in July. Then I predicted that by August they'd be down to single figures but there were in fact 421. This makes me think that when they've deployed their LLM to find the vulnerabilities in their code, they've only unleashed it on a subset of their catalogue. I wonder if they knew how many 'fixes' their LLM would discover if they'd fired it at the whole show? Of course, given the AI's predisposition to 'go beyond' the 'mission', the latest bunch of fixes may extend to Windows 3.1....

Self-hosted email is in steep decline, Microsoft and Google are taking over

Come in to my parlour....

Lets not forget how non-trivial Micros~1 made applying service packs to Exchange. Firstly, like all software products, it's got it's own vulnerabilities so service packs are important. If you're an organisation then e-mail is probably a very important service so applying the service packs had to become an out of hours task.

If you were running Skype for Business, then you had to remove the language packs before applying the service pack. The service pack was invariably a complete re-install of Exchange server and typically took a long time - hence the OOH. Now you have to re-install the language packs for SfB and hope that when your Exchange box restarts that all the connectors you have set up are still there (I know of at least one occasion when one vanished).

Now repeat the process on your other Exchange server(s) if you have them.

Then there's the licencing costs but that's a whole other debate.

So would Micros~1 keep moving the goal posts and 'incentivise' their customers into shifting their Exchange infrastructure to their cloud?

Copilot tricked into telling reseachers how to hack itself

Every time

I read about one of these so-called A.I. LLM's having it's 'guard rails' circumvented, I'm reminded of this scene from Short Circuit 2....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ5MI8tsKWE

Tech giants link hands to praise open AI models after OpenAI - Hugging Face attack

Re: PR Stunt

That these companies have formed a 'security alliance' so quickly only goes to prove the Hugging Face attack was a PR stunt in my opinion.

These companies are going to piss on you and tell you it's raining while they extract as much in 'licence fees' as they can for their 'product'

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint leaves some Linux boxes defenseless after update

Sympathy

So you have a Linux system and you install a proprietary Micros~1 product on it. You have my sympathies....

Umm no. I have no sympathy whatsoever.

Microsoft cancels Patch Tuesday for some Dell users over surprise shutdowns, overheating devices

Validation and quality

"and can cause surprise shutdowns, overheating, and performance problems does not speak well of the company's validation and quality procedures"

Well, at least there's someone who believes they have such a thing....

Patchpocalypse Now: Microsoft tops last month's record with 622 Patch Tuesday CVEs

622 CVE's

So next month they should be down to single figures... right?

Microsoft intros tech that rebuilds dead PCs without requiring local copies of Windows

Borg

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

BOFH: Nothing says 'business continuity' like a dry wooden broom

Back in my yooof, I worked in a shop that sold wines and spirits. Our store was upstairs and there was a conveyor on the stair with a control box at the bottom,(up, down, stop) and two control boxes at the top (up,stop - down, stop but the stops were interchangeable). One day, a fault developed in one of the top control boxes in that when the stop was pressed, it blew one of the 100A fuses (the shop had three-phase). The remedy was to call out an electrician or it may well have been the Electricity Board to replace the fuse. For reference, a 100A fuse is about the thickness of a 6 inch nail and makes quite a loud bang when it goes. This failure took out half the lights in the shop and also meant we had to wind the handle on the cash register repeatedly.

We got around the problem of the faulty stop button by sticky-taping a piece of paper over it so we knew to use the other stop button. However mistakes happen and after the fuse had been popped a couple of more times, head office took action.

They inserted a few of RSJ's and knocked a bloody great hole in the floor to fit a new conveyor going directly from the store to the back shop. During the fitting of that, one of the fitters was happily drilling into the floor next to the wall to create a fixing point for the one side of the new conveyor when to his complete shock, he drilled through a pyro cable that had been covered in the screed and floor tiles when the place was built. Cue another loud bang and the poor bloke requiring a change of underwear!

The poor fellow feared he would get his books but he did not. The contractors however, had to replace several metres of cable at their own expense.

Chrome silently installs a 4 GB local LLM on your computer

Nobble it

Delete the weights.bin file from the folder they placed it in. Now make a new folder in that folder with the name weights.bin.

Registry and permissions being overridden be-damned it the name already exists, it can't be duplicated.

Once had a colleague who installed System Centre on all the PC's (bastard) and after that my desk machine stopped getting updates from Micros~1. Removing SCCM is no simple task but having done so, I prevented the reinstall by creating file names that duplicated the names of the folders that the SCCM installation wanted to create. Updates resumed but of course that's a mixed blessing :(

I know it's entirely possible for a simple script to undo any and all of the preventative measures taken but if that happened then hopefully, they'd be falling foul of something in the Computer Misuse Act.

I don't use Chrome. I've always considered it spyware disguised as a browser. So many commentards above have strongly recommended removing it or better still, never installing it in the first place. I agree with them 100%.

Go straight to sell! Windows second-chance setup hawks Microsoft services at IT's expense

Their computer....

I remember a time when Micros~1 advice included...

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/security/zero-trust/ten-laws-of-security

Now, it would appear their 'acting' is of a similar standard to their QA and that they can run whatever they want, whenever they want, simply by the installation of a forced update.

I stopped using Windows at home as my daily driver years ago and fortunately for me, I have managed to avoid the shit-show that is W11.

My sympathies to those who have to use it and are unable or unwilling to find a new path.

GitHub hits CTRL-Z, decides it will train its AI with user data after all

Bad code? I like your thinking but given the recent Patch Tuesday releases and the subsequent fixes, doesn't Micros~1 already have enough bad code?

Bug that wiped customer data saved the day – and a contract

I'd imagine the loss of that customer may have taken a byte out of their income but they managed to save the gig.

If Microsoft made a car... what would it be?

Taking the old, if Operating systems did airlines as inspiration, a few years back, I wondered what it might be like if operating systems did cars like the one from Knightrider and if there was some kind of sponsorship built in....

MS-Kitt

Michael: Good morning MS-Kitt.

MS-Kitt: Good morning Michael.

Michael: I want to go to the new out of town retail park. Please provide directions

MS-Kitt: I'm running low on virtual fuel.

Michael: We'll get some on the way.

MS-Kitt: Please install the latest security patches and updates.

Michael: I'll do that later. Where are the directions I requested?

MS-Kitt: Please wait....calculating route and maxing-out the CPU for a few seconds.....

MS-Kitt: DIRECTIONS: Proceed to the end of the street and turn left. Or you could turn right, it's a longer route but it avoids a low bridge. Drive straight for one mile and take the third exit on the roundabout. You could take the second exit as that route goes past a garden centre. Stay on the dual carriageway for 3 miles and at the second roundabout, take the second exit. Or you could take the first exit as that is also a route to the garden centre. Now take the first left and the second right and you will have arrived at your destination.

Michael: OK

MS-Kitt: Press start button to begin.

Michael: There isn't a start button.

MS-Kitt: Yes there is, you just can't see it.

Michael: I liked my old car better.

iOS-Kitt

Michael: Good morning iOS-Kitt.

iOS-Kitt: Hello Michael.

Michael: I want to go to the new out of town retail park. Please provide directions

iOS-Kitt: I'm ready to go now I'll tell you when you need to turn.

Michael: I liked my old car better.

Android-Kitt

Michael: Good morning Android-Kitt.

Android-Kitt: Good morning Michael.

Michael: I want to go to the new out of town retail park. Please provide directions.

Android-Kitt: Turn left at the end of the street. After one mile, take the third exit on the roundabout. After 3 miles of dual carriageway take the second exit at the second roundabout. First left and the second right and you're there.

Michael: Thanks Android-Kitt.

Government-backed-Kitt

Michael: Good morning Government-backed-Kitt.

Government-backed-Kitt: Good morning Michael.

Michael: I want to go to the new out of town retail park. Please provide directions.

Government-backed-Kitt: Walk to the end of the street and turn right. Four hundred yards up the steep hill there is a bus-stop. Wait there for a deregulated, competitive public transport vehicle. Take the deregulated, competitive public transport vehicle into town and alight at the public transport terminus. Get another deregulated, competitive, public transport vehicle to the general area of the out of town retail park, you may have to walk the last mile but the exercise will do you the world of good, and enjoy your day there.

Michael: But that's no use Government-backed-Kitt. I need to buy a new lawn-mower.

Government-backed-Kitt: Public transport is the future.

Michael: But how will I carry such a large box for over a mile and manage it on and off two buses?

Government-backed-Kitt:.......

Michael: You make the MS-Kitt look like a good idea.

Greenpeace-Kitt

Michael: Good morning Greenpeace-Kitt.

Greenpeace-Kitt: Hey Michael.

Michael: I want to go to the new out of town retail park. Please provide directions.

Greenpeace-Kitt: Get the bicycle out of the shed, man and at end of the street take a left. After a mile or so, go around the roundabout, third exit dude. After 3 miles of dual carriageway you get another roundabout man, hang on a minute while I relight this, second exit this time. Then take a left and then take your right and, yeah, you're there man.

Michael: But that's no use Greenpeace-Kitt. It's a new lawn-mower I'm buying

Greenpeace-Kitt: Don't cut the grass, man, it's producing oxygen to save the planet.

Michael: I liked my old car better.

O'Leary-Kitt

Michael: Good morning O'Leary-Kitt.

O'Leary-Kitt: Top o' the mornin' to ya Michael.

Michael: I want to go to the new out of town retail park. Please provide directions.

O'Leary-Kitt: Eh, just a minute. Can I see your boarding pass?

Michael: This is my car, I don't need a boarding pass!

O'Leary-Kitt: Oh, right, sorry, my mistake. That'll be twenty-five Euros please.

Michael: Twenty-five Euros for what?

O'Leary-Kitt: Luggage.

Michael: I don't have to pay for luggage in my own car

O'Leary-Kitt: Sorry. My mistake again. What was it you were after?

Michael: I want to go to the new out of town retail park. Please provide directions.

O'Leary-Kitt: Right-o! So will that be first class or second class, would you prefer chicken or beef and would you like us to provide steps for you to disembark down or will you just leap from the doorway to the tarmac?

Michael: I just want to go to the new out of town retail park! Please give me directions!!

O'Leary-Kitt: Right you are. Turn left at the end of this street. Go for one mile and take the third exit on the roundabout. After about 3 miles along the dual carriageway take the second exit at the second roundabout. Then first left and the second right and you've arrived safe and sound. Will there be any luggage on the way back?

Michael: I'm buying a new lawn-mower.

O'Leary-Kitt: Is it in a big box?

Michael: Probably. Why?

O'Leary-Kitt: That'll be twenty-five Euros please.

Microsoft sets Copilot agents loose on your OneDrive files

"If someone opens the agent they won't get useful answers."

FTFY

Sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that! PCs refuse to shut down after Microsoft patch

The legends of the fsck-ups just grow longer. I remember we had an issue where the PC would shut down, but would then immediately start up again. No. It was not Wake On Lan, There was no WOL activity on the network and traffic analysis revealed there were no WOL packets being received by the machines that re-awakened. Of course they didn't wake when the LAN cable was unplugged. This unwanted restart was being caused by a lack of the manufacturers (Intel) device driver. In the driver configuration settings, there was a tick box for Wake on Pattern Match that had to be disabled. That option was not provided with the Micros~1 driver. A simple solution until a Windows update re-installs the Micros~1 driver in favour of the manufacturers driver and your back to square one.

It gets worse. I can recall we had a classroom where we needed the machines to dual boot. One install of the OS booted into the domain and the users were just users. The other OS on the same drive booted to allow the users to be administrators on these machines and were therefore not on the domain. Additionally, the two OS's booted to different vlans. The Intel NIC had a utility that allowed a preferred vlan to be set according to one OS or the other. Windows updates repeatedly re-installed the Micros~1 driver in spite of it being older than the Intel one. Cue revisiting every machine and reinstating the latest Intel driver. Only for Micros~1 to replace it at the next update. Then Intel removed the utility and the vlan setting had to be done using PowerShell. Of course Micros~1 blamed Intel and Intel blamed Micros~1. We had to give up and find another solution but that's another story.

CES 2026 worst in show: AI girlfriends, a fridge that won't open unless you talk to it, and more

Samsung voice controlled fridge.....

And I'm thinking "Fire rearward missiles....."

ChatGPT Health wants your sensitive medical records so it can play doctor

I have two words for them and the second one is off.

Google pushing Gemini into Gmail, but you can turn it off

Privacy

"For those worried about the privacy of their Gmail content....." Er, that ship has long since sailed.

What if Linux ran Windows… and meant it? Meet Loss32

Re: If you

Not quite he same thing but bear with me. I can remember years back when our students would bring on their own laptops for use with the EDUROAM network. Typically this was with Windows 7, 8.x and 10. Now of course, if they hadn't done their Windows updates then often they didn't have the right driver for their WiFi card so they were never going to get a connection. We'd advise them to go home, do all the updates, paying particular attention to drivers for Intel, Atheros, Realtek etc and retry the instruction when next they're back. Of course some still experienced difficulty so we would have them have a paste-able ID in a text file so all they had to manually enter at the credentials demand was their password. Many were not quick at typing and Windows only allowed something like 30 seconds to get everything entered.

Well we would go through setting up the configuration of their WiFi network and quite often it still wouldn't make that first connection. So delete the network, set it all up again, retry and still no connection. Delete the network, restart the device, set it all up again and it would still fail to connect. Delete the network, configure all the settings again and hey presto! Connected! What was done differently? Nothing. Not a thing. Why wouldn't it connect earlier? Because Windows. Because Microsoft. Because I hadn't sacrificed a goat while standing on one leg under a full moon(!)

When we read about the latest screw-up from Micros~1 that's only affecting some installs on the advanced, insider secret-circle it's probably because not enough people at Micros~1 know how it works. Me? I don't give two hoots how it works any more, or when it doesn't. I've been using Linux for more than 20 years and it's been my daily driver at home since they let Windows 10 out.

NIST contemplated pulling the pin on NTP servers after blackout caused atomic clock drift

What time is it?

BLUEBOTTLE: What time is it Eccles?

ECCLES: Hang on, I got it written down on a piece of paper....

Microsoft 365 business customers are running out of places to hide from Copilot

I can remember when one of Micros~1 security rules was "When you let someone else run a program on your computer, it's not your computer any more." Now they're running all the programs on 'your' computer. They install what they want, when they want, snoop, spy, process and digest (if they so choose) everything you try to do with 'your' computer.

The alleged uptake in Copilot use statistics will not be solely because users are making a choice to use it, but because the users are having it force fed to them.

I stopped having Micros~1 stuff at home years ago and now I've retired, I don't have to put up with their shit at work any more.

I've already seen stories where some organisations are seriously considering a future without Miicros~1 products and given the recent outages at both Azure and AWS, they'd do well to review their use of 'someone else's computer'.

Digital ID is now less about illegal working, more about rummaging through drawers

...'he claimed customers were "really excited about it," '

Definition of 'excited' is required....

OpenAI releases bot-tom feeding browser with ChatGPT built in

Same turd - different flower

Same turd - different flower....

Microsoft puts Office Online Server on the chopping block

365... Bwah ha ha ha...

Get thee to 365

365 Bwah ha ha ha

Windows 11 update knocks out USB mice, keyboards in recovery mode

Going from bad to worse

See title.....

The real insight behind measuring Copilot usage is Microsoft's desperation

Desperation

When it was announced a couple of weeks back that workers could bring their domestic Co-Pilot licence to work and use it there, I commented that I could smell desperation on the part of Micros~1. Now they're doubling down to continue to persuade that AI is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

As I recently remarked to a colleague, If I am asked a question to which I knowingly give an incorrect or inaccurate answer, how can that colleague be expected to trust anything I say? Where then does some unseen chatbot that provides equally unreliable answers have a place in any organisation?

As real life banks close, network operator starts a Scam School to stop Granny getting mugged online

I question how effective this might be when the telcos could do so much more to prevent such calls. Just today I received a call from a number that is registered with O2, with a robotic voice advising me of some activity on my bank card, blah, blah, blah. The usual run of the mill scam call. When I attempted to return the call I get that posh lady from the RSC informing me "The number you have dialled has not been recognised....."

It would appear that in 2025 the telcos are unable to prevent the unscrupulous scammers from spoofing numbers. Really? I know someone on here is likely to respond and explain why it's still possible but frankly, D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F. Don't give me some bullshit story about why they can't or why it's inconvenient, They're not interested or it would be been done by now.

<rant over>

Microsoft declares bring your Copilot to work day, usurping IT authority

Re: Fecking hell

In the folder where Micros~1 keeps reinstalling the file ai.exe, make a folder called ai.exe.

I smell desperation....

Google's dev registration plan 'will end the F-Droid project'

Been using LineageOS for many years now. Not a simple install and probably a bit too techie for many non-techie people but doable. Didn't install the Google stuff that came with it because the whole point was to be free of Google. I never use my phone for internet browsing or any online account activity. It does have a VPN to connect to a home server. 2FA is OTP for a select few. The problem so many now face is having become 'married' to the Google method, 'divorce' is going to be messy and inconvenient for them.

At the end of the day, it's a phone - it's really good for calls and texts, on offline portable calendar and cooking timer. I apologise if I sound smug - that's not my intention but it would seem the choices I made years ago were good ones.

Microsoft digs up Vista-era animated wallpaper for Windows 11. Here's how to get it

I don't use Windows 11 and I'm probably never going to but perhaps if Mircos~1 were to focus their efforts on making the software people need to use more reliable and less buggy, then maybe superfluous drivel like this might be better received.

UK to roll out mandatory digital ID for right to work by 2029

Crapita, Palantir, Fujitsu, Oracle and others will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of this....

I expect it will cost billions, wont' work properly or may well be scrapped by the incoming change of government that will be before 2029

AI coding hype overblown, Bain shrugs

Re: Small success story

Phil Ately - I was at school with him....

AI gone rogue: Models may try to stop people from shutting them down, Google warns

Harmful manipulation

...because Google et al know all about that....

Microsoft insists Copilot+ PCs are 'empowering the future' – reality disagrees

All this AI is the great be-all and end-all of everything reminds of how the photographs of their products, a burger chain displayed on their premises was once translated/interpreted by someone into:

"We can't make anything that looks remotely like this but our marketing department can convince you to eat your own shit."

Arguably however, the best characterisation of marketing came from an episode of The Simpsons where Homer has volunteered to participate in the development and testing of some new medical products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMLpTczJRgA

BOFH: These office thefts really take the biscuit

Re: MAYBE THERE NEVER WERE ANY BISCUITS!!!

Many many years ago, in another life, I worked in the construction industry where we typically all brought a 'packed lunch' or a 'piece' as we would call it. One day whilst on a site and the boss had brought his German Shepherd, (Rambo) someone left the rear door of the van open and Rambo got into another colleagues 'piece bag' and devoured it. The rest of us were sympathetic and shared a little of our pieces with the unfortunate workmate. At the same time we howled with laughter at his realisation that a 'Sunblest' bag does not constitute secure storage for lunchtime sustenance. We continued to tease him the following day by enquiring 'What have you brought the dog for his piece today?'

Playing ball games in the datacenter was obviously stupid, but we had to win the league

Cricket rules

https://www.bigcricket.com/community/threads/funny-cricket-explanation.17411/

The air is hissing out of the overinflated AI balloon

Looks like you're betting the farm on A.I.

Would you like me to run you a bath?

Chinese funding backs sale of British microLED specialist

Surprised - Not Surprised

Surprised there was still any British 'family silver' still around. Not surprised it is allowed to be sold off to the highest bidder.

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday baker's dozen: 12 critical bugs plus a SharePoint RCE

Maybe get the AI stuff to analyse and fix the code </sarcasm>

FTFY

UK secretly allows facial recognition scans of passport, immigration databases

My passport is OK but my face has expired

OpenAI's GPT-5 is here with up to 80% fewer hallucinations

Shit - Version 5

Tested: Microsoft Recall can still capture credit cards and passwords, a treasure trove for crooks

Replying to my own post here I know but perhaps, if you're a business, then 'Recall' is something you should mention in your Cyber Security Register. I'm well aware that domain level Group Policies should prevent this software from being enabled but accidents do happen.

"I don't dispute that Microsoft has the best intentions at heart, along with doing as much as they can to ensure the security of this feature,"

I'm afraid that Mr Wright, while extremely generous with his remarks is Mr Wrong.

If Micros~1 had the best of intentions they would never have revised or resurrected this POS after they pulled it the first time.

It's going to be a nightmare for some and a target for all those calls from "Microsoft Support people" who want to help fix the "problem with your computer"

Microsoft bolts Copilot Mode onto Edge to chase AI-browser crowd

"With Copilot Mode in Edge, your data is protected under Microsoft’s trusted privacy standards that are built to keep your information safe, secure and never shared without your permission,"

Bwahahahaha

Elon outs $16.5B Samsung chip deal Tesla asked to keep secret

".....The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate," said Musk.

As if that will stop him....

AI industry's size obsession is killing ROI, engineer argues

Perhaps, once some corporate entity admits that they've spent an such and eye-watering sum on this so-called A.I. that is has led to the lay-offs of thousands of employees, or has caused one of those Fortune 500 companies to go bust, or decisions made based on A.I. output have cost lives, maybe then it'll be seen for the complete and utter shit that it is.