Slashdot Mirror

You sit around all day posting your lies but are too lazy to just highlight 3 words from the post and click search for?
What an entitled asshole you seem like.
https://google.com/search?q=Lo...
First result https://betanews.com/2016/09/1...

This is the best review of the model I purchased: https://betanews.com/2018/05/0... I havenâ(TM)t received it so I donâ(TM)t quite know how well Iâ(TM)ll like it, but assembly and shipping were pretty fast! And they were quite responsive when I asked how things were going.. ;-)

Is not so much that they create profiles about you, it's that a larger market of databrokers is getting ahold of that data too. They when start using that data as a proxy for more salient things their clients would like to know about you.

For example, in the short term the music you select says a lot about your mood. In the long term this helps to update a score about your mental stability and health. And those scores, along with others, then influences your employability score.

Spotify has been sharing data on your mood since 2016:
https://betanews.com/2016/07/2...

In the coming years the scandals will increasingly involve databrokers. The general populace has no idea what is going on in that market.

The correct link is apparently here (linked from the page linked from TFA)

Since apparently the mods don't bother clicking on the submitted links before posting. https://betanews.com/2018/01/1...

/. headline: Subscriptions With Automated Recurring Billing Come To Windows 10
link in TFS to Betanews: Only one in 10 employees is aware of IT security policies

What does employee awareness of IT security policies have to do with Microsoft screwing Win10 users further with new recurring fees?

Why is so much traffic being moved from slashdot to BetaNews?

Can't even be bothered to check the link......

Link from article https://betanews.com/2018/01/1...

It used to be called XBMC, i.e. Xbox Media Centre, a media player. It seems like it does illegal streaming too

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The original announcement for the 64 bit version says

https://betanews.com/2017/06/0...

If you intend to use Kodi with add-ons to stream potentially illegal content, you may wish to consider a VPN.

Or look at this

https://www.engadget.com/2017/...

Apparently there are third party plugins which allow you to stream stuff for free, though the MPA/MPAA-led Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment etc are on the case.

How well does "Send Tab to Device" work in these three scenarios?

So to avoid QR, you must 1. have an Android device, 2. install and use Firefox for Android, 3. be connected to the Internet, and 4. use Firefox Sync.

Purism exceeds $1 million in funding for Librem 5 Linux-based smartphone

"The most popular mobile operating system on the planet, Android, is already based on Linux, but with Google in charge of it, many consumers cannot depend on it for privacy. With that said, Purism is planning to fight the impossible fight against Android and iOS with the "Librem 5" smartphone. This is a device that will run a privacy-focused Linux-based OS called "Pure OS," but the hardware is wide open for any OS, really. Purism is trying to raise $1.5 million through crowdfunding, and earlier today, it reached a significant milestone -- $1 million! Maybe the fight isn't impossible after all..." - via BetaNews

In the news:

https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
https://news.ycombinator.com/i...
https://news.ycombinator.com/i...
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux...
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux...

He is not alone.

What would I pay to see open sourced? Microsoft Windows OS.

All nations of the world need to get together and tell Microsoft they want to save huge amounts of money by buying Windows from Microsoft and making it open source.

Microsoft could decide against selling. Then all nations could support ReactOS.

There is an underlying problem with an open source Windows OS. That project would need FAR better leadership than the parts of Linux outside the kernel are getting now. Who would be the leaders? Is good software development leadership not possible considering the present development of human civilization?

The top 5 problems with Linux. Quote: "... the community is vastly divided by tribal identity."

Another quote, very scary. Strap yourself into your chair so that you don't get hurt if you faint: "Linus Torvalds is mortal."

"Systemd, the ever growing cancer that seeks to subsume the entire Linux userland..."

Who benefits from SystemD destructiveness? Red Hat's consulting? Microsoft?

Linux does seem to be moving in the direction of destroying itself. Stories:

9 Lethal Linux Commands You Should Never Run

The top 5 problems with Linux. Quote: "... the community is vastly divided by tribal identity."

Major Linux Problems on the Desktop, 2017 edition

AT&T's Hank Hultquist openly mocked these groups' knowledge of such issues in August, calling them the "Church of Extreme Net Neutrality," who preach the "old time religion of the dumb network" without taking all facts into consideration.

This mentions a minimum of 32GB storage for 32-bit and 64GB storage for 64-bit for "Windows 10 Cloud":
https://betanews.com/2017/04/2...
64-bit Windows takes more disk space because of the syswow64 directory etc.
Notice it also mentions 4GB of RAM, which makes me wonder about PAE.

For these critical info, a quick search on Google news got me this.

Extract:

All versions of Samba from 3.5.0 onwards are vulnerable to a remote code execution vulnerability, allowing a malicious client to upload a shared library to a writable share, and then cause the server to load and execute it. A patch addressing this defect has been posted to http://www.samba.org/samba/security/ Additionally, Samba 4.6.4, 4.5.10 and 4.4.14 have been issued as security releases to correct the defect. Patches against older Samba versions are available at http://samba.org/samba/patches.... Samba vendors and administrators running affected versions are advised to upgrade or apply the patch as soon as possible.

Another case in point: this sensationalist garbage thankfully the comments saw right through it.

Maybe you should stop executing your movies?

First, a lot of people are "executing [their] movies" without even being aware of the possibility of executing a movie. By default, Windows Media Player and possibly other video players supporting WMV digital restrictions management will attempt to automatically acquire a license when playing videos restricted by DRM. This process has been shown to lead to malware installation.

Second, videos can be deliberately mis-encoded, with the purported solution being to download a "codec pack" that turns out to be a trojan.

Third, videos can be deliberately mis-encoded to exploit vulnerabilities in parsing of video streams, audio streams, subtitle streams, or the container that multiplexes them. Not all users are up-to-date on patches, particularly when the patch is buried in a service pack in the hundreds of megabytes to gigabytes.

the first line of your betanews article

It’s been a common Windows malware trick for years

It's also been a common problem for years that Protip: emails saying you've won money don't actually mean you've won money. It's a ridiculous fear because every media player I use asks if I want to download codecs anyway which I always refuse.

Maybe you should stop executing your movies?

First, a lot of people are "executing [their] movies" without even being aware of the possibility of executing a movie. By default, Windows Media Player and possibly other video players supporting WMV digital restrictions management will attempt to automatically acquire a license when playing videos restricted by DRM. This process has been shown to lead to malware installation.

Second, videos can be deliberately mis-encoded, with the purported solution being to download a "codec pack" that turns out to be a trojan.

Third, videos can be deliberately mis-encoded to exploit vulnerabilities in parsing of video streams, audio streams, subtitle streams, or the container that multiplexes them. Not all users are up-to-date on patches, particularly when the patch is buried in a service pack in the hundreds of megabytes to gigabytes.

The whole nvidia thing is a moot point; you don't even need to get that far to see the ads. Here's a collection of ads that have been found on Windows 10:

Ad to install Microsoft's shopping extension:
https://www.cnet.com/news/wind...

Ad to buy tomb raider from Windows store:
https://www.howtogeek.com/2432...
(Side note: This is why Microsoft no longer allows you to disable the lock screen on desktop systems. Yes, you can turn the lock screen ads off, but Microsoft wants you to get used to seeing it there meanwhile.)

Ad to browse bing for rewards points:
http://core0.staticworld.net/i...

Ad to install Office:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ads to buy Solitaire:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...
(Side note: Windows 10 now includes lots of freemium and trialware apps in general, like Candy Crush, which is another form of advertising. Also, didn't solitaire used to be totally free?)

Ads in the share tool:
https://betanews.com/wp-conten...
(In that screenshot, most of these apps aren't installed, thus these are ads to install these apps.)

Ads in the ink workspace:
http://cdn.windowsreport.com/w...

Ad telling you to stop using firefox:
https://i.stack.imgur.com/l6JL...

Ad telling you to stop using chrome:
http://www.laptopmag.com/image...

Another ad telling you to switch to edge for bing rewards:
https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-c...

Ad telling you to subscribe to onedrive:
http://images.techhive.com/ima...

Ad to buy apps on the start menu:
https://davescomputertips.com/...

So TFA is correct, windows 10 IS an ad platform.

Windows Update already tends to do similar stuff:
https://betanews.com/2016/05/04/windows-10-ruins-pro-gaming-stream/

This is the current competition: https://betanews.com/2015/12/2...

http://www.google.com/patents/... is the patent supposedly infringed, and https://search.rpxcorp.com/lit... is the court litigation.

Basically, both Microsoft and Apple got hit by a patent troll, hard. It sounds like random gibberish of somebody vaguely trying to implement p2p relaying similiar to Tor (and from the looks of it, naively broken and not-anonymous too). With a lot of odd features on top of it which do not make much sense from engineering perspective as well. Possibly put in there just to make the patent as broad as possible. It's basically impossible to explain how this is related to any p2p system, much less facetime, what is clear that the patent is some sort of p2p (among dozens of other things).

It's worth noting it is explicitly linked to TARP - https://betanews.com/2010/03/1...

Now, the fun part is that both patents describe routing header encryption, possibly with onion layers (its hard to tell from the gibberish), for both of which there is ton of prior art (onion was patented by darpa in 1998 in fact).

@damacus: "Minor detail the article and summary leave out."

er .. It's right there in the article title:

'Vivaldi CEO: 'Stop your anti-competitive practices with Edge, Microsoft!'

Sure, except that Google is (slowly) killing Hangouts, thanks to Allo and Duo: http://betanews.com/2017/01/07... - As goeth the API, so goeth the service.

I've done all of the Windows OS, as part of my job. I'm retired, now.

I've never had any issues with a single version of the desktop after 3.1.

1.0 was a bad joke.

3.0 had a fatal flaw in that File Manager refreshed the entire folder structure on the drive (called "directory" back then") when opening different folders.

They fixed that with 3.1 so that File Manager just re-swept the current folder.

That was when I rolled it out at Mobil Oil Corporation.

I never had issues with Windows ME, Vista, or 8 because I banned them from the workplace and never had them at home.

I liked 95, 98 (ran that one into the ground) LOVED XP and still use it. There's a registry hack that makes XP think it's a legacy OS embedded into ATM machines so it still gets security updates to this day.

I like, and still run, Windows 7, 8.1 (not 8 SP1).

I like 10 except for that goddam auto-restart. Any information on how to stop that and still get updates would be greatly appreciated.

For servers, there's a legacy app still running on a Windows NT Dell box where I retired. The backup tape died long ago and the USB ports are 1.0, so we do over-the-wire backup to another server via batch copy.

All the servers up to, and including 2008 were nice; no problems at all. I never rode a 2010 or higher.

I had to pre-approve updates because every now and then Microsoft would give me one for something I didn't have.

--

Interestingly, and pre-Windows servers, Novell (up to 3.2) would bail and "server down" was a common phrase. The users were used to it and it was just a way of life.

The Novell 4.1 I had was not Y2K compliant and that's when I switched to Windows servers.

--

So, all-in-all, I've had good luck with Windows.

Why are they still pretending Windows 10 mobile isn't dead?
http://betanews.com/2016/07/29...
No, no it's not dead, it's just resting... Beautiful plumage!

But, but, but, you can use M$ edge in privacy mode http://betanews.com/2016/01/30.... Even M$ treats that like a joke, privacy mode on a browser when the operating system itself will be spying on everything you do. Every file on your hard disk accessible by them, every web site you ever visit tracked, recorded and forwarded, every word you speak in front of the microphone, every image the camera can capture, no member of your family safe, their privacy stolen along with yours.

Wait up, M$ has to provide privacy in schools and hence provide a different OS for schools because otherwise they could be accused as being paedophiles spying on children. So how come they are allowed to perve in on children when they are in their own homes. Should it be a criminal offence to allow a naked child to walk in front of a camera watching, always watching, mounted to a windows 10 box, according to the law, yes, hmm, interesting.

>"Any reference?"

I will admit I am yelling "fire" without seeing the flames. My bad, and I should probably tone it down.

Here is an example of what can happen: http://arstechnica.com/securit... It shows just how easy it can be for them to insert something that can be abused.

The real danger is that with a binary-only, closed-source browser like Chrome, there is really no easy way know what it is doing behind-the-scenes or what backdoors it might have for them or governments. It is probably harder to prove it is not spying on users than proving it is. And Google has far more incentive to track everything you do compared to, say, Mozilla. Of course, if you also use Google search and/or sign-in with a Google account while using Chrome/Chromium, you are turning it into a type of approved super spyware on the spot.

http://betanews.com/2012/03/01...
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

I am amazed at how cavalier people are about their privacy, especially when it involves Google. The scariest thing is that most people have no idea just how much data is being collected about them (and yes it happens with all browsers and all services, but it is stepped up to overdrive with Google).

And if you are curious, no, I don't use Google's search engine directly, I always use http://startpage.org/ I also install Firefox browser on my Android devices and use that and startpage for searching.

No you can't. http://betanews.com/2016/07/26...

And if you don't want to pay the Apple tax, the new Mintbox Mini Pro looks like it would take care of most daily work with ease.

http://betanews.com/2016/09/28...

Heh, OnePlus takes 6 months to a year to deploy upgrades

it can take a long time between the moment a new Android release is introduced and it being rolled out via software updates.

Take the OnePlus 2 for example. It launched a year ago with Android 5.0 Lollipop, just before Google released Android 6.0, but it wasn't until early June that it received a software update to Marshmallow. OnePlus X, which launched shortly after the OnePlus 2, only gets its Marshmallow treatment today.

I would really prefer that this not happen.

I run grub, which has killed previous updates. Microsoft needs to have greater respect for the operating systems that I have installed on my PC. If I have to lose one, I'd prefer it not be Linux or BSD.

They didn't sell like hotcakes, but they also didn't sell poorly enough to work as the subject of the joke you're trying to make: http://betanews.com/2016/03/08...

Lately the quality of the updates reminds me of Windows ME. I was affected by this mess just recently, now dealing with broken PS.

> It's not ironic at all if you understand the concept that "MS" is not a person

Legally, they are.

I would highly recommend watching the excellent documentary The Corporation

Balmer in his typical MS FUD fashion shoots his mouth out without thinking when he refers to Linux instead of meaning the GPL. He also makes makes several ignorant / false statements. The full quote is (emphasis added):

Q: Do you view Linux and the open-source movement as a threat to Microsoft?

A: Yeah. It's good competition. It will force us to be innovative. It will force us to justify the prices and value that we deliver. And that's only healthy. The only thing we have a problem with is when the government funds open-source work. Government funding should be for work that is available to everybody. Open source is not available to commercial companies. The way the license is written, if you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source. If the government wants to put something in the public domain, it should. Linux is not in the public domain. Linux is a cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches. That's the way that the license works.

There are several lies here:

1. Open source is not available to commercial companies.
a) Someone should notify their HotMail team! http://betanews.com/2001/06/18...
b) Tell that to Red Hat or Free/Open BSD whose ENTIRE business is based on open source.

2. If you use any open-source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source
a) Had the man has never heard of Free BSD?
b) This is false; it gives the impression that you can't write close source software while using open source programs. You can.
c) Let's fix this statement so it is actually correct:
If you extend any open-source software, you have to make the rest of that software open source.

3. Linux is not in the public domain. /Oblg. "You keep using this word public, it doesn't mean what you think it means."
The public's rights is what is being preserved with the GPL. So while the GPL is not 100% free with no-strings-attached, like BSD, that is to prevent someone from hoarding their changes. GPL focuses on the public's freedom, BSD focuses on the developer's freedom.

Ironically, MS was complaining about the GPL while using BSD licensed code. Go figure.

This is the same company that obfuscated Windows 7 licensing so much that ZDnet wrote an article about it:
* http://www.zdnet.com/article/w...

I have been studying the topic of Windows licensing for many years. As I have discovered, Microsoft does not have all of this information organized in one convenient location. Much of it, in fact, is buried in long, dry license agreements and on sites that are available only to partners. I couldn't find this information in one convenient place, so I decided to do the job myself. I gathered details from many public and private sources and summarized the various types of Windows 7 license agreements available to consumers and business customers. Note that this table and the accompanying descriptions deliberately exclude a small number of license types: for example, I have omitted academic and government licenses, as well as those provided as part of MSDN and TechNet subscriptions and those included with Action Pack subscriptions for Microsoft partners. With those exceptions, I believe this list includes

Setting aside the privacy implications of this (at this point, anyone who thinks they aren't being bagged n' tagged when using Windows 10 is either woefully naive or incredibly stupid), I think this warrants another antitrust investigation into Microsoft's behavior.

Microsoft's OS will silently and without permission uninstall programs that compete with the ones shipped with Windows 10, such as Firefox and Chrome. Or sometimes it will just silently and without permission change your default web browser back to Edge. The reason for this is because Edge's default search engine is Bing, which gives money to Microsoft via personalized advertisement brokering. And now they're locking in Edge, Bing, and the Windows Store so the user is given some menial rewards for using the three lock-in-step.

When a company uses its monopoly or near-monopoly on one platform (e.g. desktop OS) in order to break into other platforms (e.g. web browsers, search engines, app stores), and rewards users for obeying or inconveniences/punishes users for not obeying, that's called abuse. It is far worse than AT&T bundling free phones with their service, and that got them split up into multiple companies. And it's several steps advanced from the original case that Microsoft was convicted for, which was bundling Internet Explorer with Windows 95.

You mean tablet sales which are showing explosive growth, right?

http://www.businessinsider.com...

http://betanews.com/2016/03/08...

Teri Goldstein has spoken out. She says she now has a class action suit underway against Microsoft in the US and Canada. This is likely to be the first of many such cases: "Microsoft needed to be held accountable for its negligence regarding the forced Windows 10 upgrade which rendered many user’s computers useless. Microsoft cannot just say read our User agreement form, we hold no responsibility, you cannot sue us and go away." http://betanews.com/2016/06/27...

Take some truth and drink it deep thats some tasty truth nom nom nom enjoy the big plate of truth, I can give you more if you would like, wallpaper the page if you want?

Windows 10 interrupts a live on-air weather forecast. http://betanews.com/2016/04/27...

TBH, both the Nexus S and the Nexus 4 were supported for less than just the production run of any iPhone since at least the iPhone 3G, much less it's total support period. Perhaps there's a reason 75% of teens next phone will be an iPhone? But it is not just teens. The common complaint there is Android and its support model, or lack thereof.

It's a Chinese law so it's a bit different than a police force just saying "give me access."

http://betanews.com/2015/12/27...

Apple said that the FBI was asking for more than even China has asked for.
http://www.theguardian.com/tec...

And Apple saying the same thing about stock apps on the iPhone:

"This is a more complex issue than it first appears. There are some apps that are linked to something else on the iPhone. If they were to be removed they might cause issues elsewhere on the phone"

Sure, I'll buy that, yeah , alrightythen.

My guesses:

1) Basically, Windows is dead. Countries will have to move away from using Microsoft products, since Microsoft has shown it cannot be trusted in ANY way. For example: Windows 10 phones home (A LOT) even with all reporting and telemetry disabled.

2) Microsoft wants to make money in the Facebook and Google way. Microsoft plans to mine all user data on all computers connected to the internet and sell the information.

3) The reason there will be no more versions of Windows is that Microsoft will do what Adobe Systems has done: Force users to move to a subscription model.

4) Windows users will isolate Windows from the internet, and use Linux on a different network with a cheap 2nd computer to connect to the internet. (But how to allow information interchange between the 2 networks?)

5) In response to users isolating Windows from the internet, Microsoft will make Windows stop working after a few days of no internet connection. Adobe Systems does that, in my experience, with CS6. (CS6 is the last version before the forced move to a subscription model.)

6) Satya Nadella, the new Microsoft CEO, was chosen because he was the least annoying candidate. He is apparently not the real controlling manager, but only someone to advertise.

7) Microsoft has a contract with secret U.S. government agencies to make Windows into what users consider to be malware.

8) Because Microsoft often releases buggy software, possibly because it is paid to do so by secret U.S. government agencies, Windows 10, with its many ways to connect to the internet, is now FAR less secure than before.

Not a guess, because verified by others: Microsoft is shockingly badly managed. The cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called Ballmer Monkey Boy -- on its cover.

Slashdot commenters called Ballmer "Monkey Boy" for years before BusinessWeek called him that on the cover of its magazine.

Worst CEO in the United States: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today." Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)

I'll just leave these here then.

I think the discussion here should be about how MS plans to try and lock any performance increase that we'll see in these upcoming skylake chip benchmarks to win 10.
http://betanews.com/2016/01/16...

False, and probably written in bad faith. Telemetry is collected by default, it can only be disabled in the Enterprise version, however, Windows 10 keeps "phoning home" even in that case: http://betanews.com/2015/08/13...

Which allows any intelligent person to suspect that Microsoft gathers way more data than simple telemetry.

Which is what makes it a lot more dangerous. I'll just leave these here for your perusal. Oh and be sure to respond with a typical fanboy "but but but those don't count!" just like the Apple iHeads did when MacDefender came out and they went from "Apple doesn't get viruses" to "that doesn't count because its technically not a virus, its a trojan!" LOL.