Re: TheVogon
"If you follow the link in the story"
Thanks for taking the time to reply.
An educated guess tells me that likely it detects libpcap rather than wifeshark itself...
3511 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jan 2013
""Instart's code also detects network analysis tools Wireshark and Charles Proxy.""
And the fact that it can presumably is an "information leak" security vulnerability. What browsers is this applicable to? It doesn't seem to make that clear in the article other than implying Chrome is effected.
"So your paying £179 for something that is covered under UK law and home insurance?"
After 6 months it's up to you to prove the device was not merchantable quality when sold though. It's a lot easier with a warranty unless you like wasting your time on engineers reports and the small claims court.
And no - most home insurance doesn't cover accidental damage - and even if it does you are usually not covered outside the home, and then even if you are covered a £100 excess would be typical. And higher premiums next year once you claim...
Well you do have a 2 year legal period for redress if it goes wrong in most of the EU or up to 6 years in the UK regardless of the "warranty"
However with such a device I would say it would be nuts not to get the "Surface Complete" extended warranty for £179 that gives you a no quibble 2 year warranty and accidental damage cover. Mostly because it's so easy to bust the screen...
"This line describes everything wrong with Powershell."
It has numerous advantage over Bash and pretty much no disadvantages. Not to mention being way way easier to understand and use? For instance:
DIR -Recurse | Get-Acl | Select-Object Owner | Select -Unique (Powershell)
vs
find . -printf "%u\n" | awk '!match(str," "$1){str=str" "$1;print $1 }' (Bash)
And here are a few of the other advantages:
1) Object oriented pipes so that I don't have to format and reparse and be concerned about language settings.
2) Command metadata. PowerShell commands, functions and even *script files* expose metadata about the names, positions, types and validation rules for parameters, allowing the *shell* to perform type coercion, allowing the *shell* to explain the parameters/syntax, allowing the *shell* to support both tab completion and auto-suggestions with no need for external and cumbersome completion definitions.
3) Robust risk management. Look up common parameters -WhatIf, -Confirm, -Force and consider how they are supported by ambient values in scripts you author yourself.
4) Multiple location types and -providers. Even a SQL Server appears as a navigable file system. Want to work with a certain database? Just switch to the sqlserver: drive and navigate to the server/database and start selecting, creating tables etc.
5) Fan-out remoting. Execute the same script transparently and *robustly* on multiple servers and consolidate the results back on the controlling console. Try icm host1,host2,host3 {ps} and watch how you get consolidated, object-oriented process descriptions from multiple servers.
6) Workflow scripting. PowerShell scripts can (since v3) be defined as workflows which are suspendable, resumable and which can pick up and continue even across system restarts.
7) Parallel scripting. No, not just starting multiple processes, but having the actual *script* branch out and run massively parallel.
8) True remote sessions where you don't step into and out of remote sessions but actually controls any number of remote sessions from the outside.
9) PowerShell web access. You can now set up a IIS with PWA as a gateway. This gives you a firewall-friendly remote command line in any standards compliant browser.
10) Superior security features, e.g. script signing, memory encryption, proper multi-mode credentials allowing script to be agnostic about authentication schemes which may go way beyond stupid username+password and use smart cards, tokens, OTPs etc.
11) Transaction support right in the shell. Script actions can join any resource manager such as SQL server, registry, message queues in a single atomic transaction. Do that in bash?
12) Strongly typed stripting, extensive data types, e.g first class xml support and regex support right in the shell. Optional static/explicit typing. Real lambdas (script blocks) instead of stupidly relying on dangerous and error prone "eval" functions.
13) Real *structured* exception handling as an alternative to outdated traps (which PowerShell also has). try-catch-finally blocks.
14) Instrumentation, extensive tracing, transcript and *source level* debugging of scripts.
15) Consistent naming conventions covering verb-noun command names, common verbs, common parameter names.
"Salesforce owned the code and therefore no employee is allowed disclose or distribute the company's property without permission"
Sure but I don't think *talking about* something your company has / does would normally a problem. Unless something has been specifically flagged as a trade secret I can't see how they are in the wrong.
"and/or make the privacy settings during the initial setup of Windows 10 more VISIBLE to the general public"
They are pretty clearly displayed with an option to set them during the install process, and the impact of not setting them is also clearly displayed.
The vast majority of people simply don't care what data Microsoft (and anyone else!) collects within reason....
"App suggestions, and tonnes of nags constantly."
I have used the Windows 10 insider build as my primary laptop OS for well over a year and I don't see any nags or app suggestions (except in the Windows Store - which you would expect). Sounds like you are not speaking from any actual experience.
As to full telemetry I really don't care if some random at Microsoft gets anonymised information about what I use it for. If you do care - just kill it with the app mentioned above.
"With Windows 10 your Microsoft account is your Windows login. So it's quite hard to dispose of it."
That's completely optional though. You can still choose to use local accounts. However anything from the Windows Store that requires a license won't work in that case...Just like on OS/X / Android, etc you need to be signed in for the App Store to work fully.
"It's sad that most corporates pay for Windows included with their new PCs, then pay for it again under their enterprise license agreements."
No they don't. You get a specific discount to cover Pcs that come with an OEM license on your ELA.
"they saw that the Linux-equipped model cost more, not less, than the standard Windows version."
A relative worked for Dell and he tells me there were three reasons for that with systems targetted at consumers - a) Linux got more support calls - that might not be what you would expect but apparently was the case, b) it costs X to build, manage, release drivers for and update an OS image and this cost was washed across a relatively low number of systems with Linux, and c) consumer Pcs with Windows on have crapware installed that subsidises the cost....
"I got my copy free."
You got a free upgrade to an already licenced OS, so you paid originally. I would say anyone that hasn't upgraded probably qualifies as you must have been blind to miss all the pop ups they inflicted on you....
"But for consumers it's not
Not as yet. Obviously my comment was referring to a future rental only model. Which as per my comment is probably a good thing for Linux fans as it would potentially remove any upfront OS costs from hardware, whilst still letting manufacturers ship an installed OS with crapware that subsidises the hardware costs...
"I call it blackmail
That's not the model they use. If your windows is unlicensed it switches to annoy the hell out of you mode but you can still access your data. Ditto cloud storage switches to read only if you are over your limit....
"why, after over 2 years of massive data slurping by MS, is Windows 10 still no better than an early beta version"
Have you not installed the "creator" update? It's massively improved from the RTM version.
About the only thing I can still complain about is that we are still in transition between to old style control panel and the new touchy-feely interface for settings. However, the vast majority of required settings can now at least be reached via the new interface which certainly wasn't the case at RTM...
"MS has made no secret that they want to move to the OS as a service"
There will likely always be a free or minimal cost version though where they make money from the Windows Store.
People seem to view "Windows as a service" as a bad thing, but imo It's actually a better model for consumers to pay via a rental model, rather than pay a lump of cash up front for each Windows version. Stop using Windows? Sell your PC? You stop paying Microsoft....your choice. So surely it's ideal for those that wish to use Linux instead?
"Given that you can saturate this memory subsystem with just two cores, and will almost certainly saturate it with half a dozen, the benefits of having another twelve cores sitting around are questionable for any real-world usage"
That's what the large chunk of on CPU cache memory is for.
"Nowadays we have a metric "fifth,""
So 750ml - or 3/4 Litre - just like most of the rest of the planet for wine / spirit in bottles. Wow @ the Americans using something that the rest of the world has actually taught in schools within the last 50 years even if you call it a "fifth"!
(Over the pond, spirits often come in a "pub" size 1 litre option too.)
"who do everything they can to avoid tax and national insurance through IR35 and other scams"
The vast majority are genuine contractors who pay less tax because they carry far more risk. IR35 is a rule to stop that by the way, not a reduction method.
However yes, there are a few using it as a scam that really are disguised employees. For instance many highly paid BBC employees until recently....
" Powershell is an abomination that combines all the worst bits of Windows and *nix command-lines into one crufty package-o'crap."
Ask yourself then why say VMWare changed from a Bash type command environment to Powershell commands for remote CLI administration of vSphere?
Clearly they found enough advantages to justify actively ditching their existing solution and *switch* to Powershell...
"'m of the opinion that they should just go all-in on bash "
Why would they do that when they have Powershell? It has numerous advantage over Bash and pretty much no disadvantages.
Not to mention being way way easier to understand and use? For instance:
DIR -Recurse | Get-Acl | Select-Object Owner | Select -Unique (Powershell)
vs
find . -printf "%u\n" | awk '!match(str," "$1){str=str" "$1;print $1 }' (Bash)
And here are a few of the other advantages:
1) Object oriented pipes so that I don't have to format and reparse and be concerned about language settings.
2) Command metadata. PowerShell commands, functions and even *script files* expose metadata about the names, positions, types and validation rules for parameters, allowing the *shell* to perform type coercion, allowing the *shell* to explain the parameters/syntax, allowing the *shell* to support both tab completion and auto-suggestions with no need for external and cumbersome completion definitions.
3) Robust risk management. Look up common parameters -WhatIf, -Confirm, -Force and consider how they are supported by ambient values in scripts you author yourself.
4) Multiple location types and -providers. Even a SQL Server appears as a navigable file system. Want to work with a certain database? Just switch to the sqlserver: drive and navigate to the server/database and start selecting, creating tables etc.
5) Fan-out remoting. Execute the same script transparently and *robustly* on multiple servers and consolidate the results back on the controlling console. Try icm host1,host2,host3 {ps} and watch how you get consolidated, object-oriented process descriptions from multiple servers.
6) Workflow scripting. PowerShell scripts can (since v3) be defined as workflows which are suspendable, resumable and which can pick up and continue even across system restarts.
7) Parallel scripting. No, not just starting multiple processes, but having the actual *script* branch out and run massively parallel.
8) True remote sessions where you don't step into and out of remote sessions but actually controls any number of remote sessions from the outside.
9) PowerShell web access. You can now set up a IIS with PWA as a gateway. This gives you a firewall-friendly remote command line in any standards compliant browser.
10) Superior security features, e.g. script signing, memory encryption, proper multi-mode credentials allowing script to be agnostic about authentication schemes which may go way beyond stupid username+password and use smart cards, tokens, OTPs etc.
11) Transaction support right in the shell. Script actions can join any resource manager such as SQL server, registry, message queues in a single atomic transaction. Do that in bash?
12) Strongly typed stripting, extensive data types, e.g first class xml support and regex support right in the shell. Optional static/explicit typing. Real lambdas (script blocks) instead of stupidly relying on dangerous and error prone "eval" functions.
13) Real *structured* exception handling as an alternative to outdated traps (which PowerShell also has). try-catch-finally blocks.
14) Instrumentation, extensive tracing, transcript and *source level* debugging of scripts.
15) Consistent naming conventions covering verb-noun command names, common verbs, common parameter names.
"PayPal will certainly have a record of the IP addresses that you've used when authorising a PayPal payment so maybe they 'partner' with PayPal so they can use your PayPal sign-in address as the target email address."
Not sure what the IP address has to do with that. They can't SPAM your Paypal address without breaking data protection laws.