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CharlotteTheHarlot

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Everything posted by CharlotteTheHarlot

  1. To skinpack ... As a courtesy to your fellow MSFN members you should explain in your post several things about your linked website and files ... (1) There is no need to click on the gigantic green Download Now! button on the top of the page. Because if they do they will not receive the promised skin pack, but instead they will get a stub downloader EXE and be forced to trust the programmer of that file with their system security. (2) Instead, they should scroll down to the text link that simply says "Download" that links directly to the skin pack zip file. (3) You might also point out that both the Win7 and Win8 downloads are to the same exact file called: "SkinPack_Mavericks_3.0.zip".. ... ADDED: After looking at this I see it contains a file called SkinPack Mavericks 3.0.exe that is an NSIS executable SFX that extracts to 1,379 files and 169 folders of non-english jibberish and would take quite a while to decipher if it is all kosher or not. It is possible it also contains an adware/ bloatware like the WinXP file. My question is why this mess rather than a typical simple skin pack? (4) I also see a separate different one for WinXP on this page, but hosted at DeviantArt. ... ADDED: You might also want to note that the XP file called mavericks_skin_pack_1_0_xp_by_downloadsp-d6v58np.exe from DeviantArt is not a typical friendly skin download. It is an NSIS executable SFX that contains a few executable utilities in addition to the skin files, and at least one adware/bloatware called: TopTaskbar.exe. My question is the same as above, why not a typical simple skin pack? The Skin sample screenshots do look pretty good though. EDIT: added more about the WinXP file. EDIT2: added more about the Win7/Win8 file.
  2. Just thought of something ... This is pretty big news. It is as close to an admission of failure as we're likely to ever see. Microsoft turned the computer industry upside down to sell Windows 8 and related turds and now they are trying something new yet again, copying Android! You know this means one thing - they have looked at the sales figures up and down and finally become convinced they lost big and can never catch up or even compete. The question is this: what on Earth do they do once giving it away for free still does not interest the consumers? Take a look at exactly what Microsoft has accomplished here ... - Played patent games to lock down use of file systems. - Then they use that IP to extort money from other companies, like those using Android. - Then they release an alternative OS to this market - and then make it free. - OEM decision: Android costs money but Microsoft Tiles is free! Familiar pattern? Stripped down from all the fanboy remarks it resembles EEE once again. You know this was hatched in a meeting in Redmond. Sure hope they archive their emails and memos for the Congressional investigation because Google has much deeper pockets than Netscape did. No surprise to me, nor in what I think. I have said many times before: Microsoft should be broken up, period. Should have been long ago because the OS portion needs a firewall between them and everyone else. Microsoft cannot self-regulate . They are incapable of it. Given any opportunity they will flaunt the rules and regulations and try to kill other things that live in the same space or exist in new spaces they want to invade. It started with Bill Gates and has now matriculated into the corporate DNA. Microsoft is truly like a child carrying around a toy gun who cannot help but to shoot everything he sees, but this IP gun is no toy. In this case using file systems to fleece money from OEMs. If there had been a sane patent system or some good judges this would have been tossed out long ago. One must wonder if Bill Gates really should be the richest monopolist on Earth, or should it instead have been Tim Paterson. Pretty amazing feat that was. Snaking away something he created and using it to rule the world. But that's another story.
  3. Well I get your frustration, all except for the most mindless of sheeple will get it, but it will take more than : "When I see the headline reads "facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, AOL, Twitter, and various land line companies, all go to court to stop invasion of privacy laws ..." in my opinion. Much more. I think if nothing else we have illustrated through this selection of security articles one thing - the infiltration is pervasive, thorough and perhaps complete. In a sense we have had a paradigm shifting revelation since the spook leaks and it will be a long time for the sheeple grazing on this round rock to realize it isn't flat or stationary at the center of the universe. That revelation has completely inverted what we thought we knew before. Previously the expectation was that people were mostly secure and private but subject to rare and specific cases of scrutiny. It is completely and truly the exact opposite and it was that way all along - we have nearly zero effective security and privacy, the rare circumstance is actually being secure and private and that is achieved only after massive amount of effort and money. These companies will never care about user privacy or concerns because the managers and directors involved are in fact safe and secure themselves in their limos and gated castles with security companies ( tech and physical ) watching over them. They are the feudal nobility and have never been known to side with the serfs over the government ( royalty, elected, totalitarian, whatever ). Sure they have been trying to announce these little baby steps to appease us but it means nothing IMHO. How do you unravel PRISM when Microsoft joined it first as the primary partner? This was back when the only products of note were Windows and Office and Server ( no mobile, no cloud ). What exactly did they need Microsoft for in 2006? You can't think of today's Microsoft when asking what the feds wanted in 2006. How do you ever get faith in Yahoo when their fashion plate CEO is cowered by the federal spooks and fears jail for not bending over whenever they ask. She's said as much. Same goes for all of them. Some bend over very easily, others needed persuasion, threats or bribes. Fighting for freedom is hard work, and it very rarely happens that high profile people with lots to lose join the peasants, lend their gravitas and do what's right ( Ben Franklin comes to mind and believe me there is no trace of him to be found in Bill Gates or Ballmer or Zuck or any of them ). The bottom line is that the spooks are on a long term plan to have multiple redundant points of instant access to any and all technology, at will. Every possible stone is being turned over. Getting whatever they got from Microsoft back during the XP to Longhorn/Vista rewrite ( source code no doubt, and the ability to slip in "enhancements" as updates ) were just the preliminaries. The goal is that if you are a spook and you are handed a task ( whether it is a computer HDD or communication to access and decrypt ) they are building the tools and infrastructure to do it, and there appears to be no line they will not cross. Suddenly Orwell looks like a generous optimist. BTW, I like to distinguish between the amazing codebreakers from the early 20th century up until World War II, and those phony codebreakers and their criminal bosses that are present ever since. The shift from math skills, logic and creative thinking that dominated the early period when this was a respectable field died when a certain agency was given big desks, big buildings and big budgets to keep themselves occupied. Inevitably they wound up doing exactly what the very enemy they fought against did, building a Gestapo/KGB clandestine service that specializes in spying on its own citizens and is effectively existing to preserve the government from being changed by those citizens. We should start by calling them what they are: Gestapo/KGB. The only real difference is that we in the modern west structure them with a division of labor rather than the more efficient German/Russian models of yore. Ours still have all the same potential, they spy at will, carry weapons, wear snazzy uniforms, jackboots, body armor, drag people off, lock them up, confiscate their possessions, shoot them, kill them, except we assign different people to different aspects of that. We are very civilized you see. So again, I say we should at least begin by calling them what they are, it is effective as ridicule and every so often you strike a nerve in a few of them. I don't care what they or anyone thinks, I'll go down with the First Amendment. When I see the part of the Constitution that says the People and the several States granted the power to the federal government to spy on its very own citizens and lock them up or execute them then I'll shut up ( or support an Amendment to remove it ). But it does not exist, it never happened, and I have read the Federalist papers many times. We're now in an extraordinary situation with a government acting far outside its parameters and defined duties. When a software program does that its a bug not a feature and gets deleted. Time to reformat.
  4. How about creating a new user account. Or, try the built-in Administrator account. But ... neither should be done yet ... nor should you try to get online or join a network until the system is *definitely* cleaned. In the interest of time it makes sense to just pull the HDD out, install it in a clean system as a slave ( a system set up with on-demand AV scanners and repair tools ), and run multiple scans against it "remotely". You will also want to manually go into all the TEMP locations and browser caches and desktops and user document folder trees and delete stuff that the automated scanners always miss. You also want to double check the boot sector and BOOT ini and traditional startup and task folders. Accessing the registry remotely and checking the startup keys for all users is also recommended. The services and tasks will also need fine tooth comb treatment. There is no way to ever be certain that a system has been cleaned when performing the operations under that same live system. Even if the malware itself has no active countermeasures, the hurdle is Windows itself especially in later versions. It will block you from repairs just as effectively as malware. To achieve high confidence of "clean" it needs to be done outside of the infected box. Most of this can also be done by using remote access from something like DaRT or other environment. FWIW, the lack of Internet or LAN is usually not a big deal, it might just be a FUBAR setting, policy or permission. If the system was new and never infected I would simply disable the NIC in the BIOS, then go to device manager in safe mode, show all devices, delete the NIC and associated networking, re-enable in the BIOS, reboot and reinstall the drivers. Or simply reinstall all the chipset drivers from scratch. Personally I wouldn't do this though, not until I pulled that disk and thoroughly "washed" it on another system ( or did it from DaRT ).
  5. Yahoo Makes HTTPS Default on Most Company Sites ( Tom's Hardware 2014-04-03 ) Yahoo strengthens encryption between data centers, says encrypted Yahoo messenger coming soon ( TechSpot 2014-04-03 ) Do they seriously believe that these baby steps will impress anyone other than the most complacent and ignorant sheeple? Facebook Could Go Anonymous (Report) ( Tom's Hardware 2014-04-04 ) Wow, that'll totally convince everyone it's safe, secure and private. You're really good at this Zuck! U.S. knocks plans for European communication network ( Yahoo! News 2014-04-04 ) No word on whether the USTR spokesmouth made this statement with a straight face!
  6. Microsoft's new Xbox leader admits team made some early "wrong decisions" for Xbox One ( NeoWin 2014-04-06 ) These guys are terrible at mea culpas and apologies. Terrible. It's like everything they say comes directly out of a sterile human resources textbook written by a committee of eggheads that never even saw a customer in real life. Unreal Engine creator: 'I genuinely worry about the future of Microsoft' ( NeoWin 2014-04-01 ) In the comments the slow cooking frogs have no idea the water is heating up and their ultimate fate. But at least there are a few there that seem to understand what the guy is trying to say. Unreal Engine 4.1 update includes support for Linux and SteamOS ( TechSpot 2014-04-04 ) Well it's safe to say the 'Tards are going to have to begin hating Epic and Unreal. This is a really great thing for Linux/Valve though. Microsoft's anti-malware team to have new adware rules July 1 ( NeoWin 2014-04-05 ) Okay then, someone has got to ask: if this is their NEW rule, does that really mean that the current rule ALLOWS fake dialogs without X buttons and no uninstall entries? Who allowed this stuff to be considered legitimate software for all this time? Someone did. Actually I knew this for a long time as I see MANY computers with MSSE happily running ( green icon ) while spyware and/or viruses run in plain sight. It has been perfectly obvious to me they do block very little if anything at all.
  7. Touch-friendly Office coming to Windows, demoed at BUILD ( NeoWin 2014-04-02 ) Must be wonderfully painful for the MetroTards to watch Microsoft roll out a native build for iStuff *before* making versions for their beloved Microsoft Tile Toys. Anyway, Microsoft has now promised them the check in is the mail. Please begin holding your breath now. Microsoft: Office for iPad surpasses 12 million downloads ( NeoWin 2014-04-03 ) If you're a MetroTard, how do you even process this news? 7 days and 12 million downloads. There is no easy way to swallow this unless you now only care about number of devices out there potentially using the Microsoft store. You certainly no longer have any hope that the iSheep will drop Apple stuff and switch to Windows. No chance of that whatsoever now. In fact this could actually do the opposite and add some switchers to Apple from those disillusioned Windows users who are still hesitant to pull the trigger on an iPad or iPhone because of the missing Office that they are familiar with. Hehehe Microsoft Store site selling Surface Pro 2 with free Xbox controller and two games ( NeoWin 2014-04-03 ) Another firesale for MicroStuff that the MicroTards keep insisting are selling fine and in no trouble at all. Microsoft officially makes Windows free for devices under 9 inches ( NeoWin 2014-04-02 ) This is pretty big news. It is as close to an admission of failure as we're likely to ever see. Microsoft turned the computer industry upside down to sell Windows 8 and related turds and now they are trying something new yet again, copying Android! You know this means one thing - they have looked at the sales figures up and down and finally become convinced they lost big and can never catch up or even compete. The question is this: what on Earth do they do once giving it away for free still does not interest the consumers? Naturally the NuMensa members at NeoWin ( requires an IQ below 100 ) have cheered themselves up with daydreams and fantasies ... Nothing can penetrate their madness. Nothing.
  8. Windows 8.1 Update 1 launches April 8, Start Menu returns in later update ( TechSpot 2014-04-02 ) Microsoft bringing Start menu back in future Windows 8.1 update ( NeoWin 2014-04-02 ) Microsoft is Bringing Back the Start Menu and Catering to Mouse and Keyboard Users ( Maximum PC 2014-04-03 ) And as Formfiller suggested, most of the 'Tards are turning right around and agreeing with the decision. There are a few who are angry, and of course Dot MetroTard is busy posting fantasies to erase the "it will never happen" predictions he has spouted for about two years now. Mentioned above by Jorge ... Microsoft: Start button was 'warm blanket' taken from Windows 8 ( NeoWin 2014-04-03 ) Kinda funny to hear this half-hearted mea culpa ( still not doing it right though ) from Chaitanya Sareen. We here in this very thread have discussed him several times when he was featured defending this abomination. See Post #575, and Post #3443. In the comments as usual we get a glimpse into the minds of the short bus riders, this one lecturing on why the Start Menu is bad ( so many clicks! ) ... Ignoring the fact that "productivity" means checking Twitter and Facebook and Xbox game stuff. What I'd really like to know is where on Earth did this lie about clicks come from! Seriously, I count NOT multiple clicks, NOT even one click, I count 1/2-click to anywhere into any and all flyout submenus. Can someone else verify this please, do the following: Click on the Start Button and keep holding it down, now you can move straight into and out of any submenus ( including Control Panel or even All Programs ) to anywhere, and then you finally release the button to execute or open your choice! One half-click to anywhere, one click in total to do anything ... The only thing that I can think of is that what we have here is the 3rd "big lie" perpetrated by these GUI propagandists. ( The 1st was the Win95 "resistance" to change, the 2nd is the WinXP "Playskool GUI vs Theme" nonsense ). What we also have here are liars who not only weren't around during the Win95 or WinXP transitions, but they haven't really even used WinXP or else they couldn't possibly believe there are multiple clicks to navigate through the Start Menu. Just how n00bish can these sheeple'tards be to be this mistaken after all this time! From The Forums: The Start menu's return ( NeoWin 2014-04-06 ) Poor Dot MetroTard making a fool out of herself throught the thread and in the forum. Thing is, this Playskool toy operating system is now getting a little long in the tooth. It was first shown to the press THREE years ago in early 2011 ( see Post #3248.) Ironically that exactly matches the three years that Windows 7 existed before being dumped for Windows 8. It's time for a change Dot MetroTard! Stop resisting you Luddite.
  9. Last call at the Windows XP FUDpocalypse ... Windows 7 is Growing Too Fast for Windows 8 to Catch Up ( Maximum PC 2014-04-02 ) One week before supports ends, Windows XP still installed on 27.69 percent of PCs ( NeoWin 2014-04-01 ) I stopped believing these numbers at the red line. Microsoft has many times paid companies to spread propaganda, I think they are doing it again. Great comment at NeoWin by someone that has verified what I myself also have done for several years ... Naturally the NeoKids can't process this outside-the-MicroBox thinking and panic like a herd of birds ... There's a good little sheep. Disconnect from the Internet, oh my! Baaaaahhhhhhhh! Stupidity? He ( and I ) are busy documenting that you and your FUD are wrong, have been all along. You are full of robotic responses, you have nothing to back up your fear with, you are actually trying hard to yell 'fire' in a crowded theater, and help sell more copies of Windows while you're at it. That's a good little MicroBoy. Now off to bed so mommy can tuck you in and keep you safe from all the monsters under your bed. Dropping Support for Windows XP Could Drive Users to Chromebooks ( NeoWin 2014-04-02 ) So just now they're catching on? Hmmmm, I wonder why ... London Borough ditches Windows XP in favor of Google Chromebooks ( TechSpot 2014-04-02 ) The photo Microsoft used for the Windows XP default wallpaper is (mostly) untouched ( NeoWin 2014-04-01 ) Not a FUD piece, just a trip down memory lane with the old Bliss wallpaper. Funny thing is one of the chief MicroTards can't help but to open mouth and spew nonsense ... The first whopper there is intentionally confusing the Windows XP theme with the Windows 8 Playskool GUI. I repeat, theme versus GUI. Windows XP could be only called 'Fisher Price' by the most unintelligent of users, the proto-sheeple that ironically love the retarded Metro. There were no GUI changes from Win9x to WinXP, the theme just decorated the GUI and that was a click away to change. The whole theme was just settings in single visual style file with that green and blue color scheme and the separate bliss wallpaper. The GUI did change however in Vista+ and it was substantially mangled in Microsoft Tiles. Yet this MetroTard intentionally confuses the two completely different cases, probably in an effort to rationalize away the fact that so many can see the nonsense in Windows 8 that he cannot see. This is one of those classic lies used by MetroTards, it is as big a whopper as the lie about resistance to the new Win95 GUI. What do yo expect I guess. Liars lie. That second part about IRQ's does not ring any bells with me, so I suspect this 'Tard is actually one who was too young to be a foot soldier in those days and just makes up past memories to fill the gaps in his obviously Vista+ era CV. What I do remember was people wanting to use the same exact *differing* IRQ's in WinXP when the OS would combine them on its own, sometimes piling four devices onto the same IRQ whereas in Win9x they could be forced onto separate ones after much fiddling. In effect here the 'Tard has it totally backwards as no-one wanted to pile them together on purpose. Why would they? Like I said, a fake Windows veteran who is busy impressing his easily impressed fellow MetroTards with his fake memories. EDIT: typo
  10. Important find, and detailed article. Let's put the title on the record here ... Exclusive: NSA infiltrated RSA security more deeply than thought - study ( Reuters 2014-03-31 ) And someone involved with Firefox won't like this ... I'll bet Rescorla is not a big fan of Snowden or Bruce Schneier or any other of the critics. I have my own theory often stated here that these types of government sponsored backdoors were intended for general consumption, to be picked up by many or most software developers. However it would be beyond stupid for us to now believe this is the only egg in their basket. I am starting to wonder if these are part of an elaborate plan to be the mostly visible portion, their thinking being 'hey, if we get this in, then great, but let's work real hard on the deep stuff'. So these are expendable things, they can be written off and discarded. So why would they really want backdoors in Windows ( and all software, but in this specific case Windows ) in the first place? The answer to that means we must first dodge all the strawmen distractions of spying on users. They already had that ability as the CALEA stuff showed long before 9/11, and even before that they have routinely used the courts and sympathetic judges and grand juries to revoke those pesky Fourth and Fifth Amendments at will. And they always have the local cops available to knock down doors and confiscate anything they want, they can even trump up popularly approved charges of drug running or child porn or whatever suits them. No, I believe this is really about getting access to NTFS encryption ( and other OS flavors ). This connection has yet to be made in all the security revelations. Wikipedia: NTFS encryption ... I do not believe that statement any longer: "Accessing encrypted files from outside Windows with other operating systems (Linux, for example) is not possible",. I believe that it has all been about this very thing since the beginning. The timeline suggests to me that in the 1990's they got most of what they wanted as mentioned above, but probably hit the roadblock of encrypted private computers taken from suspects and terrorists ( in fact one of the 9/11 almost hijackers had an encrypted disk IIRC ). I think it all will become clear if we ever find out the post-9/11 post-WinXP to Vista+ transition story. PRISM falls right into this calendar, as well as ballooning defense and black budgets, numerous legislation, and exposed black-bag jobs. The absence of speculation about this is starting to look suspicious IMHO. Sure, the RSA guys are catching some flak, and some little amount of criticism has been directed at Microsoft and others, but still not enough to overcome the chorus of enablers out there. I'm looking forward to this specific area being exposed. Of course there will be nothing to celebrate aside from the fact that journalists and sycophants are proved wrong again and are so easily misled and distracted. It will mean ( and already does IMHO ) that there is absolutely no privacy or security to be found anywhere. It will mean that Orwell was thinking small and his fictitious Little Brother can't hold a candle to our very real Big Brother.
  11. Actually I wasn't clear. I knew about 2K/XP on FAT32, but just never felt like trying because of the inevitable disk limitations, and the lesser integrity from non-journaling and other safety valves. What I meant was some way to create an NTFS system without $Secure, and to further the daydreaming - some way to eliminate streams also ( streams I am just biased against because of the concept of hiding stuff from the computer owner. ) The thing about ACL's is they are implemented in all-or-none fashion. I think a better idea would have been starting with a fresh naked NTFS space, no ACL's on any object, and only then adding them in for specific objects when wanted. Windows API should have used functions that first test for presence of ACL on an object and then efficiently fall through when absent, and only cycling through security procedures when they do exist. Unfortunate design choices in the early NT era I guess, because if in Windows functions ACL's are assumed to exist everywhere there is little to be gained by removing $secure from NTFS because Windows itself will still be doing the work as if they were there. Presently we have the worst possible implementation IMHO, access control lists for every object ( file/folder/key ) and they must be consulted for every transaction, and of course are available to be tampered with by everyone at will, and there is no comprehensive tool to manage the chaos. However, ACL's created à la carte ( i.e., objects are clean by default, permissions only exist when intentionally specified ) would mean you could pull up a list of all ACL's ( maybe only existing for 1% of all objects ) and the entire thing would be manageable, and changes such as modifications or new or deleted permissions could be identified easily. The event log could perhaps be used to show the history of such creations/deletions/changes as well. It's just such a mess now. Bonus philosophical question of the day: was SETACL a godsend or a thorn in our side. ( NB: it came along in the WinXP transition era, but in the years since most of the same functionality has been added to setup applications like INNO etc. When you create a setup.exe these days it's as simple as a checkbox or added parameter to specify permissions on not only the distribution files, but anything on the target system. In fact it's really a simple matter to whip up a "permissions fixer" standalone EXE that corrects/creates problems on a system. )
  12. A great experiment which I never did was to install Windows XP on FAT instead of NTFS. ( never wanted to deal with potential structural problems or huge disk limits ). But it would be nice to test Windows XP without any ACL's mucking up the mix, not to mention hidden streams. I doubt it is possible but I figured you would know if there was a way to format NTFS without those particular metadata. Of course, there may be some dependencies in Windows XP that crap out when that metadata does not exist. But if it were possible, I believe every transaction would see an immediate boost in speed due to absent permission checking on every read/write, not to mention non-file-I/O logic not wasting time with admin/standard permissions. That is the theory of course. No guarantee the good guys in Redmond considered writing dual-use code ( that is, dual file system compatibility ) it might run through the permissions functions anyway and return "not-NTFS" and save no time whatsoever.
  13. Suspicion is growing that something similar may have been done with Apple OS's: Looking back, we lose even when we win these big issues. Clipper-Chip, Carnivore, SOPA, whatever. They never stop. I recall the argument in the 1990's to be either we quadruple the spook budget to let them make massive supercomputers to brute force decrypt on demand, or, we bend over and accept backdoors on everything and taps placed on every single segment of communication pipe. Instead, after 9/11, they just did both, and everything in between. Wikipedia: Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) That began in 1994 and naturally was greatly enhanced since 9/11. Why on Earth would anyone even pretend to doubt that all the software companies ( PRISM! ) have done the same thing? The operating systems are compromised people! I'm keeping some Win9x and older systems mothballed, and won't decommission any WinXP computer ever again. EDIT: "Clipper" not V-Chip. Doh! old brain indeed.
  14. Yes exactly. Go to the original source! Unless he was looking for archived versions that is. To the OP, you do realize this does NOT prove that file seen in that folder came from MBAM install process. Why don't you post the link of the MBAM setup and I'll check it out.
  15. To be picky, a firewall should be between you and a (possible) fire and not stand right in the middle of your office, preventing you to get to (say) the restroom or your co-workers' desks. In other words, it should be a safety measure against perils coming from the outside, not an obstacle to everyday work. Maybe this round the good Comodo guys overdid it a little. (or their "smart" Default Deny Protection is not as smart as one would expect ) jaclaz Hear hear. : This nonsense they started quite a long time ago, pretty much around the time of mainstreaming OS and software from Win9x to WinXP. Many relatively tame programs in their "new" NT versions like Norton, McAfee, Flash, etc began to make ACL adjustments during setup. Perhaps it was even earlier during NT/NT4/Win2K, who knows, but it became noticeable during WinXP. The problem is when you go to uninstall something that does this ( changes permissions on folders and registry keys ) there is little guarantee that the uninstaller will reset them back to the way they were before, even if they were so inclined do they really know what the permission should now be set at? It's not an easy task and naturally consumer Windows offers no simple method of auditing ACL's or saving their state, or resetting them. Consequently there are a million unexplained annoyances many of which are probably permission related. This is one of the main reasons for the official "removers" from Norton and McAfee I believe, necessary to remove files and keys that mere mortals cannot. Flash still modifies several registry key permissions even today, with every single update even after you manually revert them to the way they were. Firewalls as Jaclaz says ( and all security software and everything else really ) should be a positive experience, a friendly tool, but there is no reason for them to be as we crossed the Rubicon of developer responsibility long ago unchallenged whenever they made these aggressive attacks on the user's very own computer. There is no semblance of responsibility or restraint, they do what they want. They don't even attempt to document what they have done, nor does it appear in many discussion threads. The permission alteration issue is one of the moral cases, something that should be done "with permission" pardon the pun. It dovetails with another Rubicon that was crossed at the same time, programs that use the Internet at will ( phone home, or whatever ). This should never have been allowed to happen without permission as no-one will tolerate it in real life ( a guest visitor using the phone at will ). Another moral line crossed with hardly a whimper. Is there any wonder why malware is everywhere? It's almost hard to even call them illegal compared to what other software already does at will. Back to the security topic, the only good solution IMHO is for someone to develop a comprehensive permissions auditing tool. One that records all of their states periodically and can do smart diffing, for example comparing all currently existing objects' ACL with their previous state but leaving out new ones and missing old ones and highlighting only changes. You can brute force record ACLs at two different periods in time but the diff comparison is almost unusable because of missing old ones and lots of new ones. Troubleshooting Windows is fast approaching needle-in-haystack probabilities.
  16. Microsoft makes source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows available to public ( The Official Microsoft Blog 2014-03-25 ) Computer History Museum Makes Historic MS-DOS and Word for Windows Source Code Available to the Public ( ComputerHistory.org 2014-03-25 ) Microsoft releases source code to MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0 and Word for Windows 1.1a ( NeoWin 2014-03-25 ) Microsoft releases early source code for MS-DOS and Word for Windows ( TechSpot 2014-03-26 ) Naturally the utterly shoddy journalism over at NeoWin manages to rear it's ugly head in a followup article ... Microsoft's MS-DOS and Word source code is filled with Easter eggs ( NeoWin 2014-03-27 ) Um no! Sorry NeoWin. Those are not Easter Eggs ( and the cited article does NOT use that term ). These are just source code comments and nothing more. I think the real point here though is that NeoWin really is now a neutered shallow image of its former self, over-run by MetroTard commenters and writers, all of whom display only the most distant child-like grasp of technology and computer history. In short, it is a blissful field where herds of sheeple congregate, the very demographic that they themselves had been previously assigned to iTards. They are content consumers, consumer electronic chimpanzees who are not even vaguely representative of the classic Windows universe. Only someone from this Tard camp could write such a mistaken description of source code comments, and only NeoWin could be counted on to let the article get published as is. And now for something completely different ( not really ) ... Facebook announces $2 billion acquisition of virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR ( TechSpot 2014-03-25 ) Facebook to Acquire Oculus Rift Developer for $2 Billion ( Maximum PC 2014-03-25 ) Facebook to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion ( PC Gamer 2014-03-25 ) Facebook buys Oculus VR PC Gamer debates the pros and cons ( PC Gamer 2014-03-25 ) Notch cancels Minecraft Oculus Rift deal: "Facebook creeps me out" ( PC Gamer 2014-03-25 ) How Facebook's Oculus Buy Changes Future of Rift, VR ( Tom's Hardware 2014-03-25 ) Facebook to acquire company behind Oculus Rift VR headset for $2 billion ( NeoWin 2014-03-25 ) CCP says Facebook acquisition of Oculus Rift won't change plans for EVE: Valkyrie launch ( PC Gamer 2014-03-26 ) Minecraft creator cancels plans for Oculus Rift port: "Facebook creeps me out." ( NeoWin 2014-03-26 ) New York Times reports Facebook will put its logo and UI on Oculus Rift hardware %5BUpdate%5D ( NeoWin 2014-03-26 ) Doom creator John Carmack is now employed by Facebook ( NeoWin 2014-03-26 ) Cliff Bleszinski defends Oculus-Facebook deal, calls Notch "pouty kid" ( PC Gamer 2014-03-27 ) Oculus Should Refund Kickstarter Money ( Maximum PC 2014-03-28 ) At least most of the blogosphere are angry about this nuclear bomb blast of a story. It is painful to read comments from the enablers though, a handful of commenters at the articles and some high profile people like Carmack and Bleszinski. One angle that still needs to be explored is whether there was any quasi-insider trading by getting several of these folks onboard before the deal was announced. Even if it is found to be perfectly legal it still smells like crap. Some of these people stand to pocket a huge chunk of change from Facebook, while the actual grunts that kickstarted the product are left with nothing. I'm glad for this uproar even though it will change nothing.
  17. Computer Insecurity ... Microsoft issues security advisory and 'Fix-it' patch for Word exploit ( NeoWin 2014-03-24 ) Recent Microsoft Word exploit won't affect WordPad [update: Word on iPad isn't affected] ( NeoWin 2014-03-27 ) Zero-day vulnerability found in Microsoft Word being actively exploited ( TechSpot 2014-03-25 ) ( What, no mention of Windows XP? ) But how can this be true when Windows 7 and Microsoft Tiles are super-duper secure operating systems? This must be a mistake, no? Oh well, time to move on from Microsoft Word I guess. I mean its thirty-one frickin years old! It had a great run. California DMV compromised, credit cards breached ( NeoWin 2014-03-22 ) ( What, no mention of Windows XP? ) Well then, who is the cloud provider? Is it Microsoft Azure perhaps? Who is providing backend security? Symantec? Microsoft? Who designed the system in the first place and connected the credit card database to the website? Who signed off on the architecture? As usual no answers will be forthcoming because they are protecting each other ( the politicians and the tech companies they hired ). Privacy ... Federal Judge smacks down porn copyright trolls: IP addresses are not people ( NeoWin 2014-03-26 ) Well that's a nice little sliver of good news. The patent trolls are bad enough but there was double trouble possible here - the danger of precedent had it gone the wrong way. Thankfully the judge did the right thing. So along with some earlier example cases with identical outcomes the precedent appears to now be established that IP Address != Human Being. Thank you for small miracles. Microsoft Alters Outlook and Hotmail Policy After Snooping a Blogger's Inbox ( Maximum PC 2014-03-21 ) Electronic Frontier Foundation slams Microsoft for searching a blogger's Hotmail ( NeoWin 2014-03-22 ) Google: It's hard to imagine us snooping in Gmail to investigate company leaks ( NeoWin 2014-03-26 ) Microsoft will no longer access email accounts that steal company IP ( NeoWin 2014-03-28 ) Several later articles about the MicroSpy case from over a week ago. BTW, look at that last NeoWin article title! Dripping with anger.
  18. 25 year Microsoft Office and Windows veteran exec Antoine Leblond to depart ( NeoWin 2014-03-30 ) Leblond was sure busy pimping Microsoft Tiles in this official Microsoft Windows Blog ( June 2013 ) and maintaining the Sinofsky line while getting hammered by commenters like this ... This is way beyond a sea change now. It is a clean sweep of the MetroTards from management and the company ( obviously the rank and file is still infested though ). Photograph of Terry Myerson wishing Leblond well ... Two stories that belong together and illustrate the hypocrisy of Microsoft ... UK ad regulator allows Microsoft's "Scroogled" Pig Latin radio ad to be aired ( NeoWin 2014-03-26 ) So here's a dumb@ss judge that literally restates Microsoft talking points, taking their word at face value (disgusting IMHO ). We can assume that THIS is exactly the kind of judge that Microsoft has promised to consult whenever they need to spy on user emails. Yep. On the other hand, Microsoft is whole hog into policing Xbox players, hammering them with political correctness no doubt, in true Orwellian groupthink fashion ... Microsoft will now tell you if you are a jerk on Xbox Live ( NeoWin 2014-03-26 ) Presumably these are all paying customers, so we can expect a future backlash and subsequent policy reversal here as well. I'm starting to wonder if there is a single landmine or sh!tpile that Microsoft avoids stepping on. Most importantly, someone's gotta ask: If you really want to slap a childproof safety cap on the world then why are they in the business of marketing shooters in the first place?
  19. What Our Customers Have to Say About Windows 8 ( PugetSystems 2014-03-25 ) Puget Systems Offers Free Service on New PCs to Make Windows 8 Look and Feel Like Windows 7 ( Maximum PC 2014-03-25 ) Puget: Windows 8 is not our fault, but we have to clean up after Microsoft's terrible UI decisions ( TechSpot 2014-03-25 ) Clever marketing gimmick from a system builder apparently to drum up sales. Of course this is all ancient news to everyone in this thread. Better late than never I guess. Hasn't been picked up by NeoWin yet, but it's just as well since they got their hands full at the moment crying about Apple. Oh, excellent points made by a commenter ... Microsoft Store selling Xbox One bundles with 'Titanfall' or 'Forza 5' for $450 ( NeoWin 2014-03-25 ) Microsoft Store locations to offer 1 free year of Office 365 to people who bring in iPad ( NeoWin 2014-03-28 ) Microsoft Store offering free Touch Cover with any Surface until Saturday ( NeoWin 2014-03-24 ) Why do companies have firesales in the first place? To clear out old stock or to give CPR to a a dead business. Clearly both are in play here contrary to what MicroZealots have been telling us. I've pretty much lost count as to how many price cuts and Crazy Eddie bargains have been trotted out. Dell will pay Microsoft royalties for each Android and Chrome OS product sold ( TechSpot 2014-03-27 ) Microsoft and Dell sign cross-patent license agreement ( NeoWin 2014-03-27 ) More extortion of the Android platform by Microsoft, fleecing an operating system they did not even write but insist on collecting protection racket money from. If they actually have claim to some fractional percentage of the total code size of Android ( maybe 1% ) then they should collect that 1% of the cost. But since this is actually about lawyers, and companies that cave and settle rather than standing on principle this criminal Mafia action will continue. Let's hope that Google has something up their sleeve as payback for the Scroogle nonsense.
  20. Bumping ugly with the Apple enemy ... Hellraiser edition! ... ( and already mentioned by FF : ) ... Microsoft announces Office for iPad, available for download today ( TechSpot 2014-03-27 ) Oh boy. This is not gonna sit well with the MicroZealots. Considering that Microsoft has yet to create a native Playskool edition for Windows 8 or RT, this will be quite the pity party. Office for iPad is official, downloads now available ( NeoWin 2014-03-27 ) That's NeoWin's chief MetroTard Brad Sams again. Yes he really uses that phrase: "Office is the real deal"! Actually it's not, it is not much more than the traditional Word/Excel/Powerpoint VIEWERS that Microsoft keeps releasing. But we'll get back to this later I'm sure. Let the suffering commence ... Sweeeeet! It can't get much better than this! Or can it? Tim Cook and Satya Nadella offer Twitter congrats for Office on iPad debut ( NeoWin 2014-03-28 ) How awesome would it have been if Tim Cook had then said: "Thanks @satyanadella, excited to bring the magic of Apple hardware to @Office users!" Unbearable, isn't it? The suffering of strangers, the agony of friends. - IMDB But there is still much more agony to come ... Microsoft makes Office for Android and iPhone free for home users ( TechSpot 2014-03-28 ) Office Mobile for iPhone and Android smartphones now free for home use ( NeoWin 2014-03-27 ) Ouch! That's like a kick in the nuts right after a kick in the gut! Sweet suffering continues ... I think it's hysterical that the second guy is even more clueless than the first ( who was right about abandoning "devices" like Surface )! Save your tears. I'll reap your sorrow slowly. I have centuries to discover the things that make you whimper. - IMDB And still another shot to the heart ... Apple gets 30 percent cut of Office 365 subscriptions if made within Office for iPad apps ( NeoWin 2014-03-28 ) EDITORIAL: Office for iPad revenue model called 'unfair' for Apple, except it's not ( NeoWin 2014-03-29 ) If that's not funny enough that he says "already signed up" ( already? They got only 3.5 million out of over a billion ), check out the 'Tards suggesting that people should screw Apple for money ( the same ones that have strokes over Microsoft bootleggers ) ... Seriously, some of the MicroZealots don't even know that Microsoft is doing the exact same thing. I wonder if they would be embarrassed that Microsoft literally copied ( stole? ) the Apple store model right down to the letter? And here's one more kick to the gut ( that's four by my count! ) ... Microsoft does not "strictly enforce the limit" on Office for iPad installations ( NeoWin 2014-03-29 ) So they're willing to let the AppleTards slide on intellectual property theft while nailing the MicroTards at every opportunity! Ouch. Not a great week to be a MicroZealot. Down the dark decades of your pain, this will seem like a memory of Heaven. - IMDB
  21. The last few desperate gasps of the Windows XP FUDpocalypse ... ATM operators looking to replace outgoing XP with Linux ( TechSpot 2014-03-24 ) Amp up the scare tactics trying to get customers to change operating systems ( and pad Microsoft's wallet even more ). You just might not like the results you get Redmond. Hehehe, Linux! Criminals Rob ATMs with Text Messages ( Tom's Hardware 2014-03-26 ) Of course you have to read farther into the article to see past the FUD ... A great question would be why the frack would any ATM be networked to anything other than its host system, especially the Internet? Who could possibly be that stupid? Here is NeoWin's take on it ... Symantec: Hackers already attacking ATMs as Microsoft's Windows XP deadline looms ( NeoWin 2014-03-25 ) Rather surprisingly even the NeoKids aren't fooled by this deception ... Busted! Malwarebytes pledges to provide lifetime support for XP users ( TechSpot 2014-03-24 ) Smart people at MBAM. Comment of the day nomination ... Yep! Microsoft reminds us Office 2003 support ends with Windows XP April 8th ( NeoWin 2014-03-24 ) Funny thing about that infographic, it doesn't mention that Xbox was born just after Windows XP in late 2001. They also ignore that Skype came around in 2003. While Xbox has had several generations since the thing is unquestionably as old as Windows XP RTM, yet when referring to the latter they conveniently leave off the RTM/SP1/SP2/SP3 iteration for some reason. Skype itself is eleven years old by any measure that can be applied to Windows XP and yet they omit it whenever they spout this self-serving FUD and propaganda. How devious. Of course the predominant characteristic that defines Windows XP is that the operating system was developed before 9/11 and all the subsequent spook developments. Years ago this was a "tinfoil hat" tidbit of information, but since last summer only a fool would advance that line of reasoning. The fact is that every subsequent Windows generation ( Longhorn/Vista forward ) was written under NuWorld rules, likely with spook oversight and with huge concessions given to the Feds. They had no choice, I'm sure it was do it or else. The 9/11 NuWorld paradigm is noticeably absent from the infographic and all the FUD and propaganda perpetrated by Microsoft and her sycophants. Just say no to lies, deceit and propaganda.
  22. : epic points! Try this for that last part ... Microsoft should be criminally investigated by a private Grand Jury. If they so choose we will even allow them to consult their bought and paid for retired judge, and we will objectively consider and then promptly disregard his esteemed arguments. --JorgeA Forget about Thurrott's medication, from reading all his ups and downs I now need Dramamine. :lol Well said.
  23. Security Issues ... Australian Attorney General's new war on internet encryption and privacy ( NeoWin 2014-03-17 ) A totally different editorial from NeoWin, pro-privacy and criticizing this Oz bureaucrat, one which has not yet ( at this writing ) been polluted by NeoKids demonstrating their ability to march when fascist bureaucrats order them to. This is probably because Microsoft is not involved. :-) What is the answer though? Well believe it or not it's actually pretty easy at least for us in the USA, not so much for the UK and Oz though. All we have to do theoretically is enforce the Constitution, perhaps add some Amendments including one that holds elected government to the exact same rules as the citizens. Our construction here is that the government is empowered by us, the People, and the States yet we have stupidly allowed that pecking order to be reversed by the sheeple over time. It would be an Earth shattering reversal to be sure, but it is very simple. The answer is not in more laws that tweak this or that. Will it ever happen, it's admittedly doubtful, but it would be the best of all solutions. It is the way it used to be, back when everyone knew the President was no better than any random person on the street and could not do anything we could not do ( this ended during the 20th century after years of baby steps by succeeding Presidents each outdoing their predecessor ). Somewhere in the chain of Teddy/Wilson/FDR/JFK/LBJ/Nixon they evolved from citizen President to Prince. Perhaps because none of them were cut down to size in a courtroom for violating the Constitution. You can put me in the column of supporting a 2nd Constitutional Convention now, all doubts have been removed in my lifetime and there is nothing else on the horizon to scale it back. Twitter cans direct message encryption project without explanation ( TechSpot 2014-03-20 ) Puzzling? I don't think so. Twitter is seemingly hacked every other day seemingly at will and are heavily monitored by Spooks. Besides, as a newly minted Wall Street darling they have to play ball, and this means letting accommodating the Feds from every bureaucracy from regulators to spooks, a now-obvious characteristic of all public corporations particularly in the upper echelon of sheeple management like Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Apple. NSA program can record every single phone conversation from an entire country ( TechSpot 2014-03-18 ) Just out of curiosity, wasn't anyone else alive during the 1990's battles over Carnivore and the V-chip? So glad we won those.
  24. The Competition is certainly having an effect ... Nokia: 1 million pre-orders for Nokia X in China ahead of March 25th debut ( NeoWin 2014-03-14 ) A couple weeks ago I was commenting on how sweet it would be if the Nokia Androids compete with or even defeat the Nokia WP. Now there is already an indication that this is indeed possible. If this actually does happen it will give the fanboys heart attacks. Buy popcorn futures! The NeoKids are already spitting and sputtering about on the news. I like how one commenter throws gasoline on the fire ... Hehehe And so true. Microsoft launches free OneNote app for Mac and Windows desktop ( NeoWin 2014-03-17 ) Sleeping with the enemy is official now. Microsoft's stock surges up to 14 year high thanks to Office on iPad rumors ( NeoWin 2014-03-18 ) You just know that this really burns the butts of the fanboys. I mean, Apple has such a tiny "marketshare"! If it were up to the fanboys they wouldn't even have Mac versions of anything ( nor would there be a desktop Windows ). An even more enigmatic question than Big Bang or Black Holes or Dark Matter is how can one company like Microsoft create such a contingent of 'Tards in such a short period of time? It's as if they found a field full of lackadaisical sheep and then hand-selected the dumbest and least equipped to survive and then interbred them to create a new species that defies any logical description. It's like a reverse Darwinism, survival of the dumbest. Microsoft says it has 'renewed focus' on PC gaming, details coming this summer ( NeoWin 2014-03-21 ) Is that fear I smell in the air? What could be causing it? Could it be from all the attacks on all the battle fronts? GOG announce plan to support Linux, will start this Autumn with 100 games ( PC Gamer 2014-03-18 ) Like I said, multiple battle fronts. Samsung and HP Reportedly Have Chrome OS All-in-One PCs on Tap ( Maximum PC 2014-03-14 ) We knew this one was coming, but wait until the NeoKids see it And they have only themselves to blame for enabling the destruction of classic Windows used by over a billion people. It's simple really ... When Android and Chrome look more like Windows than Windows does, exactly what outcome should we expect?
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