* Posts by TheVogon

3511 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Jan 2013

Seminal game 'Colossal Cave Adventure' released onto GitLab

TheVogon

Re: Back?

"eg:-

sudo apt-get install bsdgames

adventure

works on my raspberry pi !"

Works on Windows 10 with Ubuntu installed from the Windows Store too!

TheVogon

Re: Xyzzy

Is there any such walk through (or code dump) for the original Richard Bartle MUD or subsequent versions of it?

Red Hat acquires Permabit to put the squeeze on RHEL

TheVogon

"I can't see why Microsoft would be interested in paying for ZFS. They already have their own modern file system underway in ReFS"

And the latest Windows Server build 16237 includes ... Dedupe for ReFS and ReFS Compaction !

Windows Subsystem for Linux to debut in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

TheVogon

Re: Windows is a fish

"32206581760 aka 32GB"

A full install of Windows 10 Pro and then current updates gives you a Windows folder size of about 19GB.

I get 20501539982.

You have something else in there....

TheVogon

Re: Why?

"What are they hoping to achieve with this?"

It eliminates most requirements (commonly from developers) for native Linux on the desktop in a corporate environment. No need to worry about a desktop Linux build / security settings / patching / device lockdown, etc. etc.

TheVogon

Re: Windows 10 Fail

"For many years I looked for a fully featured Linux Subsystem for Windows. But on reflection even that isn't need these days."

The Microsoft integration solution was handy for various things - especially NFS file shares - and often outperformed Linux as an NFS server! Access permission translations were fiddly to get right though.

Many people don't realise that the NFS client AND NFS server parts of SUA / SFU still exist - even in Server 2016:

See https://protechgurus.com/install-configure-nfs-windows-server-2016

The NFS client only is also part of Windows 10.

TheVogon

Re: Windows 10 Fail

"still won't let you read Linux files from Windows"

This is meant to run Linux under Windows on top of an NTFS or ReFS filesystem - Why would you then need another Linux install on the local system ? If it's not local you just use a network share... So an EXT4 driver is not really something I would expect Microsoft to provide. If it was a multi-access file system that made sense for the cloud then maybe, but it isn't.

If you really need to access Linux local EXT file systems then there are several third party driver solutions for Windows.

TheVogon

Let your Linux system access Windows files then and transfer across what you need:

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/refs-linux

TheVogon

Re: POSIX subsystem for Windows NT...

"Dropped shortly afterwards"

POSIX compliance was not dropped.

Microsoft Surface laptop: Is this your MacBook Air replacement?

TheVogon

Re: Macbook Air replacement my arse

"They run a shitty OS which you have to "jailbreak" to get a slightly less shitty OS."

You don't have to jailbreak anything. You can install any OS you want on this laptop.

Skype for Business is not Skype – realising that is half the battle

TheVogon

"Makes no sense to me why we can communicate with world+dog, however our clients who also use Office 365 are a no-no."

This is because Skype for Business federation requires knowledge of the other company's external Skype Edge server address - which might not be published to public DNS, and also that many companies want to control such external access.

Your company could chose to enable Open Enhanced Federation in Skype for Business which will accept federated connections to any company that publishes the correct DNS records.

TheVogon

"However, things like Slack just work better"

Slack isn't really a Skype competitor - and barely touches UC. It's more a competitor for Microsoft Team Chat and Yammer.

TheVogon

"MS basically need to offer a unified client that adapts to either a business or personal context."

They are different products. You can message, video or voice call a standard Skype user from Skype for Business and vice versa.

Azure security boss tells sysadmins to harden up and properly harden Windows Server

TheVogon

Re: Rich

"explain this then"

That's an advanced AD forest design. And nothing much to do with JEA or JIT.

TheVogon

Re: Rich

"2x Xbox related services, downloaded maps broker, geolocation service to name a few, on by default in a standard server 2016 build"

None of those are enabled or even installed on a default install.

TheVogon

"If stuff *should* be off then why the fuck isn't that the default then Microsoft?"

It is.

Google tracks what you spend offline to prove its online ads work. And privacy folks are furious

TheVogon

Re: News indeed

Hopefully the US will finally spank Slurp for a few billion like the EU has...

Petition calls for Adobe Flash to survive as open source zombie

TheVogon

Re: FFS

Nothing to stop someone reinstalling an old Flash binary to watch SWFs once it's dead, surely?

Surely we have enough crappy freeware already! If someone maintains it, it will encourage people still to use it....

After we ran our article about the fate of .sk, the nation of Slovakia flew into a rage. And now, here's part two...

TheVogon

Re: Extra points for not mentioning AI.....

Or Linux.

Apple exits music player biz by killing iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle

TheVogon

Re: News indeed

They are great for young kids that want to play games / use apps but that you don't want having a mobile phone just yet.

I am surprised that there is not still money to be made with at least a limited product range.

TheVogon

Re: News indeed

If you want a real laugh at US ignorance, ask them how to pronounce the French car manufacturer Peugeot.

It's PooGo to them!

vSphere scales up, if you're willing to ditch a switch or server

TheVogon

Also worth noting that to run 50K VMs on VMWare requires 15! Vcentre servers at about £8k a pop!

One Microsoft VMM server has a recommended (non hard) limit of 25,000 VMs.

TheVogon

"Or are you referring to actual security advisories."

Yes. Vsphere has had hundreds.

"Cost wise it is not cheap, but it is not expensive either"

It's a lot more expensive than free...

TheVogon

Re: tumbleweed it is, but the direction might be wrong

"Hyper-V (in all its flavours) doesn't see many vSphere converts here: The licensing model is not so different from vSphere as to be convincing"

I guess you are not aware that Hyper-V Server is completely free with all features enabled? See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-hyper-v-server-2016

You only pay for VM OS licensing where required and management tools - and you don't need to get either of those from Microsoft.

"and asking an Admin to run Windows 10 as a hard dependency to administer his VMs "

Not needed - you can use Powershell, or third party tools to manage Hyper-V. VMM is not a requirement. And if you do want to use VMM then you can also run the console from a server running Windows 2012 or later so no need to upgrade your client PCs.

TheVogon

"a tumbleweed rolls through the empty villiage"

Are you confusing Vsphere with Google Cloud?!

The exodus might well be underway, but for now at least afaik VMWare is still the market leader in on premise hypervisors. Yes it's ridiculously expensive with loads of security holes, but it does still have a few technical and feature advantages.

If I was greenfield then yes Hyper-V all day long, but if I had an investment in VMWare why would I move?

The ultimate full English breakfast – have your SAY

TheVogon

Re: Proper Full English

"Up north we eat lead for breakfast."

That explains a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUR1jeJYX7Y

TheVogon
Trollface

Re: Runny eggs ?

"Ironically cooked by an immigrant, but he's alright, because he cooks full English breakfasts :)"

Well, it does keep them away from begging and screaming drunken Celtic slogans from outside London railway stations ...

TheVogon

I note that the edges of those eggs look burnt / brown. Amateur job...

The egg white should be white. The yolk should be runny and yellow with the white over the top just cooked enough so that there is no slime...splashing a bit of hot fat across the top is the usual method.

Microsoft previews Azure Container Instances – with per-second billing

TheVogon

Re: @The Vogon

"the higher they profit the more they are screwing us."

Or the more attractive a service they are providing to drive that business in a very competitive market?

There is plenty of choice in cloud, but only two really big horses to put your money on....

I prefer Azure both technically and because of the lack of lock-in compared to AWS. For instance if you write something for Dynamo DB, how are you ever going to run it anywhere else? If you write for SQL server you can still choose to run it on premise or in most other clouds...

TheVogon

Re: Will it still be over 100 times more expensive than Amazon and Google

" with restrictions on the number of VHDs (Azure's data format) per underlying VM."

That's to force you to size your desired storage and IO performance correctly versus the target VM type. Usually you can attach double the number of CPU cores # disks.

As the largest VM can handle over 260TB per VM across 65 disks delivering ~ 500K IOPS I really don't think it's a limiting factor for most use cases...

TheVogon

Re: What about control of resources?

Resource governance settings are specified in the application manifest file as part of a service code package....

TheVogon

Re: Dumb question maybe?

"What would you run on a container in Azure that couldn't be provided by one of their existing services?"

Something where you didn't want to have to care about creating the underlying VMs and orchestration layer? Just load it and go.... Or something where the per second billing makes more sense?

TheVogon

Re: Will it still be over 100 times more expensive than Amazon and Google

They must be doing something right. Microsoft just overtook AWS in yearly cloud revenue run rate @ $15 billion and are growing MUCH faster....

'SambaCry' malware scum return with a Windows encore

TheVogon

Re: Autoupdate?

"Yeah, I'm cool about having a back door in my router so the manufacturer (they keep good secrets, no?) can overwrite the firmware any time they please."

You do generally have a choice to enable updates for non ISP routers. And after all - you are already trusting their software by using the router!

I would suggest that the sensible thing in most home setups is likely to enable auto updates on everything....

TheVogon

Re: SMB != Samba

" the only remaining problem is those systems that cannot be patched because the vendor is a fucking sociopath."

Or because the owner is lazy / ignorant of the issue.

Some interesting server side vulnerability stats here: https://www.edgescan.com/assets/docs/reports/2016-edgescan-stats-report.pdf

No one still thinks iOS is invulnerable to malware, right? Well, knock it off

TheVogon

Re: The notion that iOS devices are immune to malicious code

"I may be wrong, but I only recall one Safari vulnerability that allowed a jailbreak / installing malicious code simple by clicking a browser link "

You are wrong. A number of relatively recent jailbreaks - notably by Taig - have used such exploits.

And the list of similar historical holes in Safari is pretty long....

Snopes.com asks for bailout amid dispute over who runs the site and collects ad dollars

TheVogon

Virgin Media broadband latency headaches still not fixed six months on

TheVogon

Re: the fix

"change 'router mode' to 'modem mode', now connect a proper (masquerading) router and get a dhcp lease from the remaining single ethernet port on the sh3 that's still working. the sh3 doesn't get stressed any longer."

Makes zero difference to the latency issues.

TheVogon

Re: Subjective

Setup a latency monitor here:

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality

And you will likely find you have the issue...

They say we're too mean to Microsoft. Well, how about this... Redmond just had a stonking year. And only 8% tax. Whee!

TheVogon

Re: A Stonking Year???

"Would you please type in a version of English the rest of the world can understand."

The English speaking world would understand that. Perhaps you are from those colonies that gave up speaking English around 1783?

TheVogon

I note that Microsoft cloud products have reached a $15 billion a year run rate, which makes Microsoft now ahead of AWS in cloud revenue...

US laptops-on-planes ban now applies to just one airport, ends soon

TheVogon

"I had a TSA inspector check my wrist watch on a domestic flight last month."

Probably looking for devices like these: http://plugable.com/bands/

TheVogon

Re: Riyadh

"I assume they are looking for alcohol, porn and bacon"

Drugs. So they can behead a few more prisoners...

Linus Torvalds may have damned systemd with faint praise

TheVogon

"When you refer to a god, there's no capital letter. When you refer to God, then there is, and He'll know if you get it wrong."

Which largely depends of course on which one of the roughly 3,000 different branches of sky fairy belief on this planet that you might happen to adhere to....

Truck spills slimy load all over Oregon road – drivers slip in eel slick

TheVogon

"Korean 'delicacy'"

The real dogs bollocks then...

Pretty fly for an AI: Bioboffins use machine learning to decipher fruit flies' brains

TheVogon

"They could also use the contestants of Love Island if they run out of fruit flies"

Or presumably those that bother to watch it...

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser

TheVogon

Re: Simple explanation

"Was it actually operated by Russian army personel? Who knows, maybe it was Ukrainian separatists/rebels/terrorists*"

Extensive training and experienced crew members are required to operate such a BUK system. It's not something you can just pass to the locals and have them press a button...

TheVogon

Re: The cause of the next world war

"A revolt in China happens only on the back of a foreign intervention, war or something else like that (Boxer uprising, Mao, etc). When China is self-governed it does not revolt regardless of how much the peasants are oppressed".

Erm, no. See the very long list here - many of which were against the government of the time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rebellions_in_China

Man facing $17.5m HPE fraud case has contempt sentence cut by Court of Appeal

TheVogon

Re: Automatic halving of sentence - the joys of a stupid system

""He'll be in the slammer forever..."

No, after 30 rounds of that a 50 year sentence would be down to a couple of seconds."

Yes - his sentence would never be zero...