Posts by shovelDriver

Who IS NOT Location Tracked

Think about this: Prime Ministers, Presidents, Secretarys of . . . Everything, Bank Presidents, Stock Brokers, Wells Fargo Employees; you get the idea, I'm sure. Do they use cellular devices? Do they own and drive vehicles with satellite radios and bluetooth transceivers? Do their spouses and kids? Guards? Drivers? Advisors?

Does anyone really believe the various security services have not thought this through? And proceeded to design, build, buy only devices that are encrypted and which only use approved - separate - frequencies?

For example, the schedule of various world leaders and other not-really-so-important politicians are classified, to protect them and their activities from scrutiny. Yet their security apparatus doesn't even try to keep them from using cell phones?

Yeah, and I've got a bridge for sale . . .

Rather than reinvent the wheel, we should require that all cellular devices be provided with the same capabilities for privacy protection that government already has.

Though that would certainly defeat the purpose . . .

WTF is Vignoli

"TDF's media relations and marketing guy Italo Vignoli"

So we now have a marketing type making decisions on the future of open-source software?

What is it OpenSourceSoftware.org says about that licensing process?

"Open source licenses are licenses that comply with the Open Source Definition — in brief, they allow software to be freely used, modified, and shared. To be approved by the Open Source Initiative (also known as the OSI), a license must go through the Open Source Initiative's license review process."

Hint: The keyword is "freely".

California laws do not apply to anywhere other than inside the borders of that state. It's not my job, nor am I required by the laws I reside under, to comply with their edicts. If they wish to ensure that out-of-state/country websites are unable to serve pages up to people inside their border, then they are the ones who have to develop mechanisms/procedures to block outside traffic. Let them deal with their residents/businesses who suddenly find their e-commerce cut off. After all, the idjuts in California government have already demosntrated that they are incompetent. Not to mention criminals in almost constant violation of the US Constitution and many treaties.

You Can Report Hate But . . .

Please - if we're going to task FB and every other provider to patrol & police "conspiracies", let's also task them with policing hate speech.

Which, if you think it though, may be just a little hard to do, because "hate speech" is a made-up crime. Speech may incite hate, but you either have free speech or you don't.

For example, I can say that black is white, meaning (specious: plausible but false) one color is the same as another. Very similar to what I learned in my days in the active military, that everyone is green, neither black, white, brown, purple, pink . . . Two statements which seem similar but have entirely different meanings. I guarandamtee you that someone somewhere will call those comments racist, hate speech, and the like. Yet neither is.

For another example, consider that many people will classify speech against conspiracies as hate speech. Which, under the false but generally accepted definition, it is.

So before you ask that speech be corralled and lassoed and branded by ISPs and various gov't agencies, think about the unintended consequences.

Plus, before "hating" on conspiracies, you maybe ought to ask yourself "How many conspiracies have proven to be true?" The answer, the numbers, will surprise you.

Helping Paedophiles?

Let us recall the many many instances where police choose to not prosecute so that the criminal can be retained as a source. And the times when law enforcement and other investigative personnel/agencies were found to have lost, destroyed, or otherwise manipulated evidence to shield certain individuals, activities, programs. Recall how government agents (police, etc.) have chosen to use and abuse authority to the detriment of those they are employed to help. I would say that insertion of backdoors into encrypted devices may help criminals, while it will certainly result in police abuse. Although I fail to see how it can be any more valuable to them (the criminals, on the force, and others) than corrupt police already are.

Windows 10 v1809 ? Why so many problems? I've been running it since day 1, and the only issue I had was that it provided outdated NVidia drivers, but that was solved by installing the latest driver from the manufacturer's website. Why are so many people having so many issues? What other software are they running that may be causing their problems?

Try this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Search]

"AllowCortana"=dword:00000000

"AllowSearchToUseLocation"=dword:00000000

"ConnectedSearchUseWeb"=dword:00000000

"DisableWebSearch"=dword:00000001

This let's you use a local search and restircts web search to your browser of choice.

FBI and NSA not innocent

Of course the FBI and NSA are claiming they "see no evidence" of Obama's ordered wiretapping of Trump. If they admit to it, they admit their complicity. Just who the hell does anyone think orchestrated the taps? Ask yourself who it was that proposed to "the One" that a wiretap might be a good idea in the first place? Imagine how inside info on Trump financials and plans could benefit some/anyone's personal pocketbook? Then examine records to see how many politicians - and Directors of TLA's- ad-infinitum - have entered government service much "poorer" than they are when they leave.

The Other Side Of The . . .

A flip of the coin; either the Goog is right in saying no one ever needs anti-virus, or - just maybe - the Goog is trying to psych us into lowering our defenses so even more info-and-financial data can be collected at lesser cost.

Just Some Questions

From the article: "the officer could see the open-source guru lying face down on his stairs. The cop kicked down the locked front door, and found Murdock naked and lifeless with electrical cord around his neck."

OK.

Was there a place where he tied off the electrical cord; balcony, stair railing, overhead light fixture . . . showing abrasion from the wire? Possibly a piece of the electrical cord still hanging? Or not?

Any suicide note?

Is this indicative of incom . . . plete investigating, or of the usual piss-poor reporting?

A Diagnosis which favors Implementation of Yet More Tracking

I suspect that the shotgun approach was used when aggregating and analyzing numbers - and systems. Consider . . . how many uses of Angry IP, NMap, et al, has been and is being accomplished by viewers, readers, customers who are wondering whose cookies, web bugs and other time-wasting bandwidth-stealing crap they are being bombarded with?

Even this page uses DoubleClick and Google Analytics . . .

Heavy VPN users probably pirates?

More likely that writers, "reporters", and editors at the BBC are probably clueless about modern technology.

"According to Comey, the recent spate of videos recorded by ordinary citizens that have shown the police acting with disproportionate violence are causing the police force to act more tentatively and that in turn is leading to an increase in the crime rate."

But wouldn't the decrease in police actually doing their job (not 'an increase in crime') be offset by the decrease in crimes committed by police, because they know they are now unable to lie effectively?

Maybe The Students Are . . .

Maybe those university types are smarter than we think.

After all, isn't it a truism that modern anti-virus and anti-malware software automatically scans devices as they are connected, and automatically scans each software package as it is run? And isn't it true that university IT departments are staffed with the most knowledgeable and capable personnel, who maintain the uni's firewalls, internal protection systems, etc?

Why, then, would plugging in a flashdrive an issue?

Or . . . perhaps . . .we've all been misled by A-V and O/S claims of protection?

What Price Lawful Boundaries

The USG wants everyone - and every country - to accept that its' directives apply everywhere and everywhen. They want us all to believe that US means "all of US".

The USG is wrong. Not mistaken; wrong.

U.S. Law, created by the U.S. Congress, MUST comply with the limitations and restrictions placed on government by the US Constitution. Laws which contravene those limits, which assume authority not specifically granted (in writing) by the U.S. "Law Of The Land" are null and void and of no force, and consequently, any agent who attempts to enforce such "laws" is committing a criminal act. (Fact: the U.S. Court has ruled that members fo law enforcement are "professionals" and as such, are deemed to know the laws under which they operate. They cannot claim ignorance of The Law.)

The point: U.S. Law cannot and does not - lawfully, at least, apply outside the boundaries of the nation. Unless there is a constitutionally-valid treaty making specific defined-in-writing statutes lawful. Why else do you think treaties exist? Rules & regulations just don't cut it, at least accordng to the plain-language words of the "Supreme Law".

Q.E.D. many acts of the USG are unlawful, criminal, and so too are the actions of its' agents.

Of course, lawyers will say otherwise, but then, lawyers are not exactly disinterested parties wehen it comes to maintaining their icome, salaries, perks, and power-base.

How Long Before . . .

How long before a law is demanded which makes it mandatory that we cumbersome people give Right-Of-Way to drones? All in the interest of better customer service, of course.

I can see it now--a line of already-disgruntled people watching as a drone attempts to move to the front of the line. I can also guess what the reactions will be. (Is it self-defense when the assailant is a drone? Would it be sufficient to remove the drone from the equation or should it be more correct to locate and remonstrate with the operators - and their employers? If just the drone, sawed-off shotguns, wad-cutters, and fragmenting bullets may be due a resurgence . . .)

Shell Games

Just as in the shell-game, attention is being focused on the worng issue. I think, rather than the manufactureres being the problem, the root cause is government. Of course, U.S. agencies do not want the consumer to have an ability to mod firmware. If we can, then absent the introduction of hard-coded chipsets, their widespread penetration of router - and thus network, home, and small business - systems would be degraded. Oh, big business? Professional-grade CISCO and other network gear? They were subverted long ago. The stories even made the news. But that was yesterday's . . .

New (?) Browser Concept?

Sounds as if they're describing Ghostery. The Android version is great at stripping out the unneeded parts of the web. The IE and Firefox and Chrome addins seem to also work well. If they could only provide the user a means of saving, printing, emailing the reports it creates . . .

Why the SS Wants To Know

Secret Service: If you've been infected, let us know. Even if you were successful at defeating the attack, let us know. That way we can aid the NSA - and its' sub-division, the GCHQ - in modifying target lists, and procedures.

Software, uh, Intelligence, Optional

"Software has emerged as the equal of humans when it comes to marking essays "

I suspect the "testing" actually says more about the test designers - and administrators / proctors - than anything else.

Appearance . . . of Integrity

Apropos . . . why are the vast majority of Hillary pics airbrushed to remove wrinkles, change the eyes, and otherwise make her look , umm, "better"?

Lying about one's appearance leads me to believe one might -just may be - lying about other things. After all, it's not as if we don't already have huge volumes of evidence demonstrating her talent for doing so. Though, in my opinion, she's not all that good at it. For much else, either.

"Puke-inducing"

"Puke-inducing" Really? Perhaps then you (the reporter and/or editor) should stick to baby carriages.

This entire article was nothing more than click-bait filler material and does not enhance the Register's "reputation".

SQL Licensing Contradictions

Has Microsoft changed its' licensing policies?

You said "One of these bids involved, Gridstore says, a healthcare service provider, which virtualized its SQL Server instances, upgraded to the latest enterprise version of SQL Server, and funded it all with the cost savings in SQL Server licenses."

As I recall, SQL requires licenses for each real - and virtual - occurrence.

Other Win10 - and 8 - and 7 - and XP - Privacy Issues.

Apps That "talk" to the Outside World All Day, Every Day

Control What Leaves, and What Comes In to your PC from outside

Start > Settings > Search > Firewall > Allow An App Through Windows Firewall

Disable (uncheck) the Public side for each app that you do not want communicating. Only Core Networking and Skype have to have the Public side enabled. All others work perfectly well if set to Private side only. And if you don't use Skype . . .

But make sure you check on a routine basis, as Microsoft has a nasty habit of re-enabling apps and ports without asking first.

Also . . .

Delivery Optimization makes your PC part of a Torrent network, and uses your bandwidth, your time, your processing power to send updates and apps from your PC to other PCs on your local network or PCs on the Internet. It’s basically how torrents work: your computer is used as part of a peer to peer network to deliver updates faster to others.

How do I turn Delivery Optimization off?

Start > Settings > Update & security > Windows Update > Advanced options > select Choose how updates are delivered, and then use the toggle to turn Delivery Optimization off. When turned off, you'll still get updates and apps from Windows Update and from the Windows Store.

re TSA Locks as an Alibi

I forgot to point out that, as with TSA locks, so with government-mandated encryption. All you have to do to establish reasonable doubt is point out the huge number of organizations and people, government, criminal (yes, I know that's redundant, but . . .), corporate and otherwise who have the "keys".

Piracy (on the web) and Social Marketing

Anyone who backtracks the IPs of certain "uploaders" could easily find that more than a few are the recording companies themselves.

And there are those who upload only to create opportunities to issue threat letters claiming they will sue if you don't pay up immediately.

Then, there are those who tell us that it would be a crime to target them, their companies and websites, with retribution (which the legal system says, when done by it, is "education").

So What Am I Using Right Now?

Backup Software is dead? Who knew?

I guess the package I'm using as I type this (on separate systems) is imaginary. Ah, well, if I had to reach the Cloud to restore, I'd have to throw the "being restored" system away.

" the information hoovered up includes records of phone numbers involved in a call or text message, the time of a communication and the length of a call (but, crucially, not the content of a communication)."

" . . . NOT . . ."

You believe this? Because it came from a "trusted" source? Such as the BND? Or worse, some politician?

They said: ". . . from an IP address not associated with an Uber employee and otherwise unknown to Uber . . ."

Taking them at their word, if they don't know, how do they know it was not associated with an Uber employee? Just because it wasn't an IP address assigned or controlled by Uber doesn't mean an employee couldn't have used a Proxy or a computer not associated with the Uber network.

Any judge with even a smidgen of tech savvy would laugh the suit out of court based on that alone. Given that they "believe" the GitHub post contained a key, the entire thing is nothing more than a fishing expedition. Where is evidence - amounting to proof under Rules of Evidence - that this had anything to do with GitHub? Or that a "key" was ever made available on the site? More likely an employee had possession when he or she walked out, er, drove out the door.

As I said, any Judge not willing to be laughed out of court would laugh the suit out before he or she becomes a part of the countersuit.

Logic is a bitch. If A=B and B=C, then C=A. I wonder how many judges passed their logic classes? Or even took one?

"if a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity, sexual excitement, or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, is posted or linked to on reddit without your permission, it is prohibited on reddit."

Let's see . . .

What is nudity? In different places, the laws are different. Some say pasties are enough; some say otherwise. So Reddit is setting itself up to violate laws in differing locations by censoring freedom of speech? A Right protected in the U.S., and also recognized under the auspices of the U.N.

What is sexual excitement? Laughing, smiling, eyes sparkling, cold nips, uh, "nipping"? In that case, would it not be the one who is wearing the thin T-shirt, bathing suit, or dress who is at fault? And no, that's not sexist; even men - and some "undecided" - wear dresses nowadays. Too, let's not overlook the "excitement" which happens to a man in revealing clothing who sees a "sexually exciting" person (of whichever sexual disposition).

Engaged in any act of sexual conduct? Like, for instance, being male or female in public? Or private? Modelling for a photoshoot? Acting in a movie or play?

Careful, Reddit Censors-in-Chief. I see lawsuits galore; lawyers getting rich, property being seized pending investigation . . .