* Posts by Ohb1knewbie

26 publicly visible posts • joined 26 May 2011

Return of the audio format wars and other money-making scams

Ohb1knewbie

Death to Videodrome.

Long live the New Flesh!

It's 2017 and Microsoft is still patching Windows XP+ – to plug holes exploited by trio of leaked NSA weapons

Ohb1knewbie

Windows Update? Ha,Ha,Ha,....

Windows Update has failed on my Win7 box ever since MS started their update roll-up BS a few months back. Any non-rolled-up'ed update installs without issue but not a single rolled-up package has successfully installed once all the reboot/failed/roll-back cycles have completed.

I've rolled back the install with images from six, twelve, and twenty four months ago with the same results. Now, I'm putting the final touches on both my Win7 and WinXP VM's so I can nuke the Windows partition and be done with MS installs that ever touch the web.

I still feel a tinge of love lost whenever I boot into Windows but it's quickly overcome by the shadow of abuse and failure. Sometimes you just have to let go of the hope for what could have been.

Christmas cheer for KCL staffers with gift of extra holiday after IT disaster

Ohb1knewbie

Re: 29% increase

Ah, I did not realize it was a quoted figure. I apologize for casting doubt on your mathematical abilities.

Ohb1knewbie
Headmaster

Re: 29% increase

#4 King's College London Professor Edward Byrne £458,000 (£324,000) i.e. a 29% increase

£458,000-£324,000=£134,000

£134,000/£324,000=0.4136 => 41.36%

chk: £324,000(1.4136*)=£458,000

*assuming you don't drop the unrounded result from your trusted HP-15C.

Or is there a New Brexit-Math that hasn't made it to left side of the pond yet? We might need some of that here in Trumplandia come 20Jan2017.

NFL is No Fondleslab League: Top coach says he'd rather use pen and paper than Surface tab

Ohb1knewbie

Or not....

Watch Bill Belichick throw his tablet in a moment of frustration against the Bills

"Following LeSean McCoy’s opening touchdown which gave the Bills a 7-0 lead, Belichick was spotted on the sidelines throwing his Microsoft Surface tablet."

https://www.boston.com/sports/new-england-patriots/2016/10/02/watch-bill-belichick-throw-his-tablet-in-a-moment-of-frustration-against-the-bills

Microsoft promises free terrible coffee every month you use Edge

Ohb1knewbie

Windows 2021...

Dave: <clicks Word icon>

Hal: What are you doing, Dave?

Dave: Gotta finish my report, Hal.

Hal: I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that.

You haven't earned enough Reward points.

How about a Bing search using Edge instead?

FBI director claims that videoing police is causing crime uptick

Ohb1knewbie

Re: Here's the thing...

I agree, most LEOs are good people. I have worked with many over the years and found on a personal level they were some of the finest people I've met.

Having said that, it is also true that there is something about the badge and the gun. Once the uniform goes on and they've spent a few years dealing with the lowest common denominator of humanity, there's some serious dissociation that happens.

The result produces an effect that can cause even the most casual observer to make the conclussion that my friend OBZ made years ago:

"There are two kinds of cops. Bad cops and accessories after the fact." OBZ

I try hard to remind myself that I know differently, but a few more officers stepping back to the public's side of the blue line in these situations would certainly make keeping my faith easier.

Microsoft adds 'non-security updates' to security patches

Ohb1knewbie

RE: “giving users a reason to distrust....Windows Update”

No matter, if your running Win10 below the Enterprise level - they don't need your trust because they don't need your permission to install whatever updates they like.

Pray they don't alter the deal further, or don't bother you'll likely never know if they do.

How the FBI will lose its iPhone fight, thanks to 'West Coast Law'

Ohb1knewbie

“a law telling glaciers not to melt”

I prefer the way a poet friend put it….

“You can outlaw the morning,

But the sun will still rise.”

OBZ

Having said that...

@ Malcolm Weir

re: “compel someone else to create tools to help them.”

never heard of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) ??

“CALEA's purpose is to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have built-in surveillance capabilities…”

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_Law_Enforcement_Act)

Investigatory Powers Bill lands in Parliament amid howls over breadth of spying powers

Ohb1knewbie

“the poor state it is in”

Ah, I see where you went wrong. The bill is in the state it's in due to considerations made by it authors. Ms. May's babbling incoherence when questioned clearly show that she is/was well removed from the authoring of the bill. The British State Security Agencies (SSA's) authored the bill as Snowden reawakened their awareness that sometimes even they can be held to account for their crimes against the people. So, they must have what they have been doing made legal as they have no intention of discontinuing their activities in theses areas – No Matter Want the People Think Or Want.

Your view that the bill is in a poor state is the result of your failure to remember that SSA's always act and speak in a manner that is A** backwards. If you can't keep them at arm's length, gloves and tongs are best kept at hand.

“You wanted privacy in the bill – it's in the bill. You get what you want, we get what we want. Win – Win. Now, STFU”.

The bill -will- allow them to do whatever it is they want to do regardless of the final text.

Chin up, we're not doing much better on the left side of the pond and it's good to see the British “can-do” spirit is still alive and kicking. Or..., is that just a death spasm?

Got to go and cast my ballet for Bernie as it's probably the only chance I'll get to vote for the only decent* person running for POTUS this time around.

(*decent in the sense that marking the ballet next to his name is the only option if I wish to keep my lunch down.)

Microsoft eggheads publish JavaScript crypto code for devs

Ohb1knewbie
Devil

So...

"MS notes that most of [...] is supported, with the exception of “promises”. "

MS promises not supported... So standard MS SOP then....

Apologies, couldn't resist.

Police called after Romney's email and Dropbox accounts cracked

Ohb1knewbie
FAIL

Re: classic "talk without think" episode...

Classic twisting the facts (aka lying). from TFA linked above

"Konarka is the second Massachusetts solar company, along with Evergreen Solar and Beacon Power, to receive taxpayer dollars under Romney’s tenure and subsequently declare bankruptcy."

This had nothing to with Bain.

What's copying your music really worth to you?

Ohb1knewbie
Coat

Re: No shit, Sherlock!

That guy Sherlock is the MAN ! No body ever gives him any shit.

Cryptoboffin: Secure boot a boon for spooks' spyware

Ohb1knewbie
Thumb Up

Another Silver Bullet

This is precisely the point that will be missed by all the PHBs who are unfortunately empowered to make this happen.

They'll be sold yet another be all end all “Silver Bullet” to end all their IT worries while at the same time giving them the tools to engage in whatever underhanded schemes their hearts desire thus rendering them “Invincible, Untouchable and All-Seeing” for evermore (cue triumphant sounding music).

Thereafter any and every warning will be met with scoffing replies that “they've already addressed your concerns and you really should just STFU and get back to work”, right up the the point where they come looking for someone to sacrifice to save their own skins.

The rest of us will, of course, be to distracted by whatever disaster ensues to take the time to say we told you so.

'Mental act' computerisations no longer automatically unpatentable

Ohb1knewbie
Thumb Up

Re: Patterns

This is the exact point. Just because you got there first doesn't make you special, just lucky. History is replete with examples of the same idea emerging within weeks/months/years from isolated individuals or more recently teams.

As I've said elsewhere,

Stop and ask yourself who invented/developed calculus, the cotton gin, the telephone, the automobile, or the airplane? If your answer is a person who spoke English, you need to do a bit more research because your thinking underlines the problem that plagues our current patent system and the strangle hold it has on innovation and the speed of human progress in today's world.

...to believe that if they had not made the contributions that they did no one else would have either is simply stupid. Every single one of them were enabled by the sum total of humanity that preceded them, by their hard work, and by a heaping dose of blind luck in the circumstance and timing of their birth (what Dawkins calls the lottery of birth).

When you remove the knowledge base from which most inventions emerge, most patents amount to little more than one smart person calling “shotgun” first in the dash to the front seat at the patent office before some other smart person can get the words out of her mouth.

At this point in human history only design should be granted patents for longer than five years. The sooner the underlying technologies are freed the sooner all of humanity can advance together without the drag of those who were lucky enough to get there first. Everyone would have to compete on execution without the burden of subsidizing whoever managed to yell “shotgun” first, and the sooner we'll be free from situations like Microsoft using secret extortion tactics to make money off of Android.

Ohb1knewbie
Joke

Wrong angle,,,

Re: “Just imagine apples not falling from trees unless you paid a license fee first :) “

You're not looking at this from a proper business perspective.

Your apple trees have been observed to drop apples to the ground without you having a properly up to date gravity patent license agreement. Please remit post haste or forfeit all offending trees as well as the ground used to facilitate the infringement.

Icon, 'cause I like wishful thinking and IANAL so still have one foot in the world of the reasonable.

Verizon users must 'opt in' for privacy

Ohb1knewbie
FAIL

Anonymous Data Fails

Re: Anonymous Data Fails

Gender, date of birth, and postal code is all that is needed to un-anonymize data.

“Using public anonymous data from the 1990 census, Latanya Sweeney found that 87 percent of the population in the United States, 216 million of 248 million, could likely be uniquely identified by their five-digit ZIP code, combined with their gender and date of birth.”

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2007/12/securitymatters_1213

Ohb1knewbie
Holmes

Re: Class Action

Ummm, No. Sorry, the Supremes have ruled that companies can legally include binding arbitration clauses in contracts for employment or services that bar employees/customers from filing class action lawsuits. Remember, corporations are not only people they're the better class of people.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/supreme-court-deals-blow-to-consumer-class-actions-2011-04-28

OccupySF BOFH runs protest network on pedal power

Ohb1knewbie
Holmes

Re: 99%

@ James Micallef (Posted Friday 14th October 2011 13:37 GMT)

Indeed per Prof. G. Domhoff of the University of California at Santa Cruz who cites no less an authority than the CIA, the U.S. now ranks lower (#93) than Iran (90), Russia (82), and China (81), India (56) and Egypt (45) in income equality. See Table 7 Table 7: Income equality in selected countries at the link below.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Facebook: 'We don't track logged-out users'

Ohb1knewbie
Devil

IP tracking requires an Acct???

If what I've read so far is correct and IP addies are passed by the Like button code, it would seem that FB can track me even if I do not (and I DO NOT !) have a FB acct. They may not have my name to tag the IP addy with, but that hardly renders the info totally useless.

IIRC Germany recently hauled FB over the coals about the Like button, must have been for this very reason?

MS denies secure boot will exclude Linux

Ohb1knewbie
Linux

Upgardes?

Surely MS is not planning on foregoing upgrades from earlier versions of Windows on existing hardware, so there's going to have to be some mechanism (assumed to be on the install media/via the install process) to add the required keys to existing machines which do not have them currently.

If the UEFI is an open standard, BIG assumption – I realize, would not said method be available to Linux, BSD, etc...? If not, the best solution would seem to not be an ON/OFF switch which would make dual booting Windows 8 and an unsigned Linux a major PITA, but instead an IMPLEMENT/IGNORE switch that would tell Windows 8 - “Yes, I'm here and functioning just like you insist” and otherwise just piss off for anything other than Windows 8?

Windows 8 ribbon entangles Microsoft

Ohb1knewbie
Linux

KDE4 FTW

Admittedly I'm a bit of linux noob and am not really sure what you mean by “semantic desktop garbage in KDE 4”. Google leads to something called Nepomuk which does seem to run by default on my Kubuntu 10.04 installs on my desktop and laptop but without the tray icon I've seen on some other distros I've played with. Is this the reason searching from within the Dolphin file manager is such a failure?

I do know that I often hear bitching about the new menu structure in KDE 4.x, which is baffling considering that with widgets unlocked the Kickoff context menu allows changing back to the classic menu structure.

All in all I have no serious beefs with KDE, but I still dual boot with XP. I've played with the Vista/7 interface and am really dreading the day when I have no choice but to upgrade. Why does MS insist that their end users are by default morons? Linux is great for personal use but the reality is that if you work in a corp enviro you're forced to use whatever MS sells.

McKinnon's mum applauds Obama extradition stance

Ohb1knewbie
Big Brother

Ah, I see you're confused.

Hence, your idea/perception that a US trial would mean the airing of the inadequacies of the network security in open court. You've not been keeping up with the course of things in US courts it seems. Most of the federal judges have taken the position that whatever the executive branch says is to be accepted no questions asked.

The DOJ would simply tell the judge that as a matter of "national security" the details cannot even be revealed behind closed doors and under seal. This of course would make a fair trail unlikely, but fairness and justice have long since been rendered an unnecessary inconvenience in most US courts so they won't fuss too much over such details.