0 users browsing Discussion. | 6 bots  
    Main » Discussion » Monocultures in Linux and browsers (formerly "Windows 10")
    Pages: First Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next Last
    Posted on 19-03-26, 12:31
    Dinosaur

    Post: #226 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 4 days
    Last view: 22 hours
    The only installer I've used was of the OSR2-sans-IE4 variety, can't vouch for any others.

    As for Windows 98... I don't remember having performed any installs of that one, like, EVER. It was WinMe (as a routine because my Deceleron loved to seriously cream its pants at least twice a year) or Win95 (either in VMs or in my 386SX).

    I do remember that for WinMe, MS had already switched to the 25-character keys we've been using since.

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 19-03-26, 15:43 (revision 1)
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #130 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    Posted by wertigon
    Posted by sureanem

    If it's impossible, then how come you can go to https://sci-hub.tw/ and download any scientific paper for free?


    For the same reason Nintendo isn't cracking down on every single ROMhack out there - it's not hurting the business enough to warrant resources spent to shut it down, and most of those ROMhacks is some teenager just messing about with old code. Then every once in a while you get things like Crimson Echoes and Paralell Worlds.

    The AME project will only survive as long as less than 2% of Windows 10 users have it. Installing this kind of non-sanctioned script also comes with a certain measure of risk, since it in theory could be developed or taken over by unscrupulous russian hackers trying to gain access to your computer and thus installing backdoors. I deem the risk as quite likely in fact, but to each to their own.

    Sci-hub is a far higher priority to Elsevier than ROM hacking is to Nintendo. No teenager ever got sued for $4,800,000 million or burned through 10-20 domains. I'd imagine they're throwing whatever resources they can at it. I mean, if you read here, even ordinarily piracy-happy torrentfreak seems to imply that Sci-Hub causes Elsevier huge losses:
    Would the universities cancel their subscriptions so easily if their researchers couldn’t use Sci-Hub to get free copies?

    Without access to critical research, their employees can’t function properly, so this ‘pirate’ backup comes in handy for sure.

    It's not like it's some obscure project nobody has ever heard of. It's ranked 679 on Alexa, with the backup domain at 5636. For comparison, ubuntu.com is at 1880 and thepiratebay.org at 228.

    What's with the 2% figure? Why wouldn't it survive at 8% or 80%?

    Your point about backdoors in the ISO is also a theoretical possibility, but it'd be trivial to audit. I would argue the risk is lower than if you were to go to The Pirate Bay and download the first hit for 'Windows {7|8.1|10} ISO'.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-26, 22:50
    Full mod

    Post: #183 of 443
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 863 days
    Last view: 60 days
    My guess: Elsevier is bad at this. The software, music, and movie industries have been dealing with copyright infringement and international law for a long time, they've got the contacts, people have heard of Windows and Shrek and Metallica, higher-up like the State Department or Department of Foreign Affairs see the importance of working on cases like that, and elected officials see the prestige. I get the impression that Elsevier has only had to deal with universities before, and not cared too much about copyright infringement as long as universities kept paying their subscription fees. Now suddenly they care a lot, but they're having a much harder time persuading the people in charge to make international incidents about it.

    Some quick investigation reveals that "ameliorated.info" is registered by Tucows (a Canadian company) and hosted by Hosting Solution Ltd. (a American company), so not quite as difficult to take offline as Sci-Hub.

    The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
    Posted on 19-03-27, 00:36
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #136 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    Posted by Screwtape
    Some quick investigation reveals that "ameliorated.info" is registered by Tucows (a Canadian company) and hosted by Hosting Solution Ltd. (a American company), so not quite as difficult to take offline as Sci-Hub.

    Yup. And Ameliorated is solidly within the realm of "happy amateurs". No security to write home about, but seem to be competent and passionate people. Hopefully they'll start sweating when the C&Ds come in and turn their panic into something productive.

    I don't see where you get Hosting Solution Ltd. from though. Whois of the IP that the domain points to gives me King-Servers, a Russian hosting company whose owner has been implicated in shady business in the past.

    That said, taking down a server or domain changes nothing, as long as the project lives on. The only thing that matters is if you're able to bring in the people running it. If they can't, then nothing can be done, and if they can, all the decentralization in the world can't alleviate the issue that nobody is developing it.

    The Pirate Bay has since the trial been run continually by an anonymous group of people observing security best practices, and it hasn't had any major interruptions except for that one time in 2014. You could argue it's not being targeted, but it clearly was targeted enough to get their domains seized. I can't think of any website that was continually off-line when the owners were determined to continue running it and had the necessary basic skills to keep doing so. The closest I can get would be botnet C&C, but they strictly speaking aren't websites and lack the ability to switch domains.

    I'm no expert on geopolitics, but I don't think the Kazakh government would launch a manhunt on the behalf of American companies. Sci-hub have already been sued, Elsevier would have to go a step further in actually pressuring the local police into hunting down everyone involved with running it. Maybe I underestimate their reach, but I strongly doubt that even a large media company could pull this off.

    Certainly, we are heading in the direction where controversial websites will be unable to exist on the clearnet, but we are far off from reaching it. More likely is that the change comes from the other direction, with the phishing blocklist. Before you deem this an insane proposition, consider that it already today in both major browsers is impossible to sideload an add-on that hasn't been signed, and that to obtain this signature in Chrome requires you upload it to the Chrome Web Store, which requires you to follow the Developer Program Policies. So far, Mozilla allows you to get add-ons signed without distributing them through AMO, and in such cases relaxes their policy to "no malware". This could change at any given time, and it's impossible to sideload an addon that hasn't been signed. What prevents Google from blocking all websites that don't follow their terms of service?

    (Of course, the answer is turtles all the way down - they won't need to, since blocking them from their search engine is plenty enough)

    Now, Mozilla is not actually doing this yet. But why wouldn't they? As long as they remain the least bad of the two options, they can do whatever they feel like. And increasing "security" as far as they can go is obviously in their best interests financially, since it would decrease their user base if Google were the only ones to do so and Firefox were to develop a reputation as a "dangerous" browser.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-27, 22:10
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #139 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
    Posted by https://www.computerworld.com/article/3293429/with-daas-windows-coming-say-goodbye-to-your-pc-as-you-know-it.html

    For over 30 years, we’ve thought of PCs primarily as Windows machines, which we owned and controlled. That’s about to change forever.

    This isn’t about Microsoft forcing us off Windows 7 to Windows 10 as fast as it can (though it has found many ways to push that agenda). This is about Microsoft abandoning the Windows platform as a conventional desktop.

    Microsoft is getting ready to replace Windows 10 with the Microsoft Managed Desktop. This will be a “desktop-as-a-service” (DaaS) offering. Instead of owning Windows, you’ll “rent” it by the month.

    DaaS for Windows isn’t new. Citrix and VMware have made a living from it for years. Microsoft has offered Remote Desktop Services, formerly Terminal Services, for ages.

    Microsoft Managed Desktop is a new take. It avoids the latency problem of the older Windows DaaS offerings by keeping the bulk of the operating system on your PC.

    But you’ll no longer be in charge of your Windows PC. Instead, it will be automatically provisioned and patched for you by Microsoft.

    -AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

    You think this won't affect you? Try writing that from your laptop with 32GB non-removable SSD and Windows-only Secure Boot (think "Find my iPhone"). Or maybe you'd like to take a stab at writing it from your desktop computer you built yourself with parts you bought from someone whose main clients are the shrinking pool of PC gamers?

    Oh well, it's fine. Just keep using old computers and pray the new, proprietary, drivers aren't subarch compiled for whatever comes after AVX-512. And that Mozilla doesn't pull anything stupid.

    The CIA wants all code in the cloud
    under their lock and key. They want to ban compilers and make people think HTML
    is computer programming. They want to evaporate desktops so you have no local
    computer, just massive cloud computers.


    Terry Davis was right.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-27, 22:23
    Custom title here

    Post: #369 of 1150
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 6 days
    Last view: 1 day
    Man, the CIA mostly just wants admin access to facebook.

    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
    Posted on 19-03-27, 23:01
    Dinosaur

    Post: #231 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 4 days
    Last view: 22 hours
    If your "cloudy clouds of cloud computer" AKA "DaaS" become a reality, us living at 3rd-world shitholes with barely any access to tech can kiss computers goodbye.

    Remember, "DaaS" is made for "not me". So much for "emerging economies", yo. Good luck getting anyone in India embrace this shit.

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Posted on 19-03-27, 23:25 (revision 1)
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #142 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    What do you need computers for when you have smartphones? They even secured them for you so you can't get any viruses, and hate speech is soon to be a thing of the past. What isn't there to like?

    Venezuela might not be able to have any computers, but at least they can pride themselves on becoming a cashless society, narrowly beating out Sweden and the United Kingdom for first place.


    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-27, 23:45
    Secretly, I'm byuu

    Post: #183 of 598
    Since: 10-29-18

    Last post: 86 days
    Last view: 9 hours
    Posted by sureanem
    They even secured them for you so you can't get any viruses, and hate speech is soon to be a thing of the past.
    We have jest and sarcasm tags. Please, use them when you say stuff like that.
    Posted on 19-03-27, 23:53
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #143 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    Shit, I thought it was apparent. Poe's law.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-03-28, 01:30
    Custom title here

    Post: #372 of 1150
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 6 days
    Last view: 1 day
    Posted by sureanem
    Shit, I thought it was apparent. Poe's law.
    What does Star Wars have to do with this?

    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
    Posted on 19-03-28, 01:53 (revision 1)
    Full mod

    Post: #186 of 443
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 863 days
    Last view: 60 days
    Pretty sure he means the little ghosts in Zelda games.

    The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.
    Posted on 19-03-28, 01:56
    Custom title here

    Post: #373 of 1150
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 6 days
    Last view: 1 day
    Quoth the raven "Zelda 4".

    --- In UTF-16, where available. ---
    Posted on 19-04-14, 17:05
    Post: #4 of 21
    Since: 11-08-18

    Last post: 1016 days
    Last view: 1016 days
    Could Windows AME be legally distributed as a BPS or some other kind of diff patch?

    Posted by wertigon
    What, you don't like that? Sucks. Run Linux, BSD or OSX. Linux even allows for passthrough mode, allowing you to run Windows 10 in a VM for those two must-have applications you're still hooked on.


    Ironically, I find that this is the use case that makes Microsoft's forced updates most annoying. I only booted Windows when I wanted to do something specific (primarily, play a video game), and every time I did Windows need to install an update immediately because it hadn't been online in so long.

    (Past tense, because auto updates are now disabled in group policy. Thank god.)
    Posted on 19-04-14, 19:32
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #206 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    Posted by Wowfunhappy
    Could Windows AME be legally distributed as a BPS or some other kind of diff patch?

    Yeah, sure. They have instructions on the website, so they could just make it an automatic script. Most of it consists of deleting files, so it would be a very small diff patch to apply. But it's easier to ship a modified image. They don't seem to be overly worried about copyright. I sincerely hope they start worrying and taking precautions soon, for their own good. Although I suppose a court case is good PR too, so it doesn't really matter.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-04-27, 00:49
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #219 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    Amazon is fighting South America over the “.amazon” domain

    gTLDs were a mistake.

    Why does anyone need to "govern" a TLD anyway? For ccTLDs I understand it, and it's perfectly reasonable. But for .com, .org, or .biz, there's no requirement to be a company, organization, or business respectively. .mil and .int are special cases, I suppose.

    What value does this add to society? Amazon gets to have a cool domain hack, and parsing URLs becomes extremely difficult?

    You used to be able to type google.com and it'd get linked. Now, how are you supposed to know without also flagging a false.positive from people fat-fingering their smartphones? You could try to match it to a gTLD, but it's only a matter of time before someone registers .positive.

    (Also, I love that there's a Wikipedia article named 2018 Samsung fat-finger error)

    I mean, I can see the appeal of .tokyo. But couldn't they just set up .tokyo.jp without having to involve the ICANN?

    You can see the full list with usage stats here - 338 have only one domain registered. Can you find a single useful one?

    My suggestion is that .bananarepublic be expropriated for use as a government domain, in exchange for Amazon Inc. getting .amazon.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-04-27, 01:16

    Post: #128 of 449
    Since: 10-29-18

    Last post: 9 days
    Last view: 13 hours
    Posted by sureanem
    (Also, I love that there's a Wikipedia article named 2018 Samsung fat-finger error)


    Fun fact: also happens to computers

    My current setup: Super Famicom ("2/1/3" SNS-CPU-1CHIP-02) → SCART → OSSC → StarTech USB3HDCAP → AmaRecTV 3.10
    Posted on 19-04-27, 14:07
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #221 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    Posted by creaothceann
    Posted by sureanem
    (Also, I love that there's a Wikipedia article named 2018 Samsung fat-finger error)


    Fun fact: also happens to computers

    Oh wow, that's a whole new level of aggravating edge case. "computer fucked something up somewhere lol, also it's probably invisible"

    I wonder if you could do that for emails. Register some big corporate domains, then just log whatever it receives and sell it on the black market. And because it's a bit flip, no logs anywhere. You should even be able to get an SSL certificate for it. And I can't see why it would be illegal, even though it's somewhat morally dubious.

    It's also an interesting DoS vector, like that one time when the Chinese did the same to GitHub.

    He's not right in that "big names now buy up all their bit flipped domains" - of the top 100 domains (according to cisco, so by dns resolutions; 37 second-level domains) there are 528 unregistered bit-flipped ones. Even more if you would start to play around with the TLDs as well. For "small" names (think stuff like internal corporate domains, which are usually really long), I don't even think it's a feasible idea. Are they going to pay $1k/domain/year to fix a "theoretical" vulnerability? No pointy-haired manager in their right mind would allow that.

    Well, I suppose that's an application for gTLDs. Until someone registers .cmazon, that is. Then we're all they're fucked.

    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-07-07, 18:34
    Stirrer of Shit
    Post: #471 of 717
    Since: 01-26-19

    Last post: 1525 days
    Last view: 1523 days
    The death watch for the X Window System (aka X11) has probably started

    Probably the first time I am excited about the death of legacy technology. With that and AppImages, my two biggest gripes with Linux will be gone. With Mozilla's coming Tor support, I can actually feel kind of optimistic about the future of technology if I don't look too hard.



    There was a certain photograph about which you had a hallucination. You believed that you had actually held it in your hands. It was a photograph something like this.
    Posted on 19-07-07, 21:43
    Dinosaur

    Post: #425 of 1282
    Since: 10-30-18

    Last post: 4 days
    Last view: 22 hours
    Will I still able to browse websites, watch porn, play my Steam videogames, and rant about shit that bugs me once X is dead?

    If yes, then go ahead, Wayland in the future all the way, as I don't care for as long as you don't let the UXtards to get in the middle.
    But I can hear the extremist UNIXoid fanatic nerds screaming in horror as yet ANOTHER of their beloved legacy traditions get into the chopping block. Also, letting the GNOME guys in charge of ANYTHING involving public-facing software is NEVER good, no matter if the reasoning is solid (they will find a way to ruin it anyway).

    Licensed Pirate® since 2006, 100% Buttcoin™-free, enemy of All Things JavaScript™
    Pages: First Previous 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next Last
      Main » Discussion » Monocultures in Linux and browsers (formerly "Windows 10")
      This does not actually go there and I regret nothing.