Windows 8 - Deeper Impressions

[JorgeA]

EDIT: at the bottom of this thread where it says "... users reading this topic" I see one called Bing (12)

Any idea what that is? And what's next? ... Prism (87), Xkeyscore (163)

Crawlers. Right now, when I write this post, the following crawlers are parsing this thread:

Google (6), Mediapartner (1), Google Mobile (9), ScoutJet (1)

To my mind the question then would be -- why would there be 9 different "Google Mobile" crawlers in here at the same time? That they're labeled "mobile" users is what makes me wonder if they're visitors on mobile devices.

--JorgeA

[Formfiller]

EDIT: at the bottom of this thread where it says "... users reading this topic" I see one called Bing (12)

Any idea what that is? And what's next? ... Prism (87), Xkeyscore (163)

Crawlers. Right now, when I write this post, the following crawlers are parsing this thread:

Google (6), Mediapartner (1), Google Mobile (9), ScoutJet (1)

To my mind the question then would be -- why would there be 9 different "Google Mobile" crawlers in here at the same time? That they're labeled "mobile" users is what makes me wonder if they're visitors on mobile devices.

--JorgeA

Crawlers are threaded. One crawler generates multiple hits, especially on a topic like this one, where there are many pages to parse.

[Tripredacus]

Supposedly, Microsoft is saying the Xbox One has an MTBF of 10 years.

According to a report on Eurogamer, citing "inside sources at Microsoft", so intent is the company on avoiding the same power and heating issues that led to the Red Ring of Death in the Xbox 360 that they've gone bananas with the Xbox One, shooting for a goal that the system should be able to remain powered on for a full decade without failing.

http://kotaku.com/the-xbox-one-is-apparently-designed-to-stay-on-for-ten-995116212

[jaclaz]

Well, with Windows 8 also they "have gone bananas" and were "shooting for the goal" of making a good OS , the point is that actually they didn't manage to get it.

jaclaz

[sparkles]

This is a bit OT but I thought you guys might enjoy my story du jour, file it under "Nostalgia"...My last desktop computer (an HP, I think I got it in 2001) was sitting up on my third floor loft which for a while served as my office, but it gets extremely hot due to the lack of ventilation and the sun hitting it directly most of the day, so when I got my first laptop back in 2004 I just stopped going up there and stopped using the computer. For the past 9 years I'd think about that poor desktop and how it's most likely 100% dead by now. Well, today I began the arduous task of preparing my home for sale and went up there to start cleaning stuff out, and just for fun I turned it on...the BIOS appeared on the old CRT monitor which said a long-overdue update was necessary, it thought the year was 2002, so I fixed it, saved and exited thinking it's just going to say there is no working hard drive...lo and behold, Windows XP Professional appeared before my eyes without a hitch! Looking through the programs just made me giggle -- Netscape Navigator! Adobe GoLive! Lightwave! Assuming this wasn't a "last gasp" and it starts up again tomorrow I'm going to bring it downstairs and treat it like part of the family again, although I doubt it'll handle wireless anything (network or mouse).

I also found my WinXP installation box (with cd and key), I'm wondering if that's worth holding on to...?

[JorgeA]

That's pretty cool! B)

Hang on to that XP installation box, without a doubt it will eventually be worth much more than what you paid for it back then (even after accounting for inflation).

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

Ahh, the joys of the Omnipresent Internet:

Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet

Imagine the kind of havoc that can be wrought (by both bad and "good" guys) thanks to individuals, private organizations, and government entities hooking everything up to the 'Net:

Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan.

In a talk given at last year's Defcon cybersecurity conference, independent security penetration tester Dan Tentler demonstrated how he used Shodan to find control systems for evaporative coolers, pressurized water heaters, and garage doors.

He found a car wash that could be turned on and off and a hockey rink in Denmark that could be defrosted with a click of a button. A city's entire traffic control system was connected to the Internet and could be put into "test mode" with a single command entry. And he also found a control system for a hydroelectric plant in France with two turbines generating 3 megawatts each.

--JorgeA

[TELVM]

Had a paleontological moment similar to Sparkles' with a 1998 baby-AT K6-2 desktop archosaur whose PSU exploded & burnt big style in ~2003 and was given up for dead. After a decade in a sun-cooked loft I made a tongue-in-cheek resuscitation attempt before junking it, and to my amazement the thing was still alive.

Some old soldiers just refuse to die.

Win XP alive and kicking despite 2014 kill switch (Don't ask about Win 8)

... Officially released in October 2012, Windows 8 has been growing at less than one per cent a month in the desktop arena, but June was the high water market hitting nearly a whole one percentage point of growth. Last month, though, its rate of increase slumped.

That's sobering news for Microsoft.

But a disturbing fact for everybody else is that Windows XP - enjoying second place in the stats - had a minor resurgence during July. Net Applications found XP, first released in 2001, clawed back 37.19 of the market versus 37.17 in the month before, pausing its long-term downward trend towards its demise ...

P.S.: What a disastrous change the one this forum has suffered, the previous version was light years better, faster and prettier .

What a widespread plague that of immolating all the good computing practices to feed the voracious 'modern' Moloch .

[TELVM]

Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet

Heh, appropriate naming. For those uninitiated in System Shock 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOFZ5fv_pb8

[JorgeA]

Wow, I had no idea that name came from a video game.

Pretty creepy, too. "Thanks" for the YouTube link...

--JorgeA

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

This is a bit OT but I thought you guys might enjoy my story du jour, file it under "Nostalgia"...My last desktop computer (an HP, I think I got it in 2001) was sitting up on my third floor loft which for a while served as my office, but it gets extremely hot due to the lack of ventilation and the sun hitting it directly most of the day, so when I got my first laptop back in 2004 I just stopped going up there and stopped using the computer. For the past 9 years I'd think about that poor desktop and how it's most likely 100% dead by now. Well, today I began the arduous task of preparing my home for sale and went up there to start cleaning stuff out, and just for fun I turned it on...the BIOS appeared on the old CRT monitor which said a long-overdue update was necessary, it thought the year was 2002, so I fixed it, saved and exited thinking it's just going to say there is no working hard drive...lo and behold, Windows XP Professional appeared before my eyes without a hitch! Looking through the programs just made me giggle -- Netscape Navigator! Adobe GoLive! Lightwave! Assuming this wasn't a "last gasp" and it starts up again tomorrow I'm going to bring it downstairs and treat it like part of the family again, although I doubt it'll handle wireless anything (network or mouse).

I also found my WinXP installation box (with cd and key), I'm wondering if that's worth holding on to...?

Definitely hang on to it if only for personal nostalgia. If it's retail or system builder however, and not OEM, then you CAN install it on another system if you retire that old one. New motherboards for XP are getting tough but these days the recycle centers are filling up with Core 2 era systems, using chips that used to be very expensive indeed. Get a couple of 2008 or later systems and frankenbuild a good one.

If you keep that one running, just punch out the front bottom and put a nice big 120mm fan, also look into getting another power supply because in those days they had little ventilation and hot air stayed in the case. Newer power supplies have multiple fans. Or you could also add an exhaust fan yourself.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Ahh, the joys of the Omnipresent Internet:

Shodan: The scariest search engine on the Internet

Imagine the kind of havoc that can be wrought (by both bad and "good" guys) thanks to individuals, private organizations, and government entities hooking everything up to the 'Net:

Shodan searchers have found control systems for a water park, a gas station, a hotel wine cooler and a crematorium. Cybersecurity researchers have even located command and control systems for nuclear power plants and a particle-accelerating cyclotron by using Shodan.

In a talk given at last year's Defcon cybersecurity conference, independent security penetration tester Dan Tentler demonstrated how he used Shodan to find control systems for evaporative coolers, pressurized water heaters, and garage doors.

He found a car wash that could be turned on and off and a hockey rink in Denmark that could be defrosted with a click of a button. A city's entire traffic control system was connected to the Internet and could be put into "test mode" with a single command entry. And he also found a control system for a hydroelectric plant in France with two turbines generating 3 megawatts each.

--JorgeA

Exactly! Hooking everything online because you can.

It's like we're living in crazy land. Check that, we are living in crazy land.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

As usual, nothing but creepy security news ...

Microsoft took down Rustock botnet thanks to 67 year old counterfeit law ( NeoWin 2013-07-25 )

As it turns out, Microsoft found an interesting loophole in the laws of the US that allowed them to raid those locations. The Washington Post reports that a bill that was passed by Congress in 1946, the Lanham Act, does allow for equipment to be seized in a civil lawsuit if that hardware is being used for counterfeiting.

So what was being counterfeited by the Rustock botnet servers? Microsoft found out that its operators were sending out spam emails with a template that included Microsoft's then current logo. That was enough for the company to use the Lanham act to go after the botnet's operations. Email spam went down by over 24 percent worldwide just the day after the Rustock botnet was shut down.

Oh isn't that just wonderful. Just imagine how that same law can be used to completely stifle the First Amendment, especially the meme graphics containing a Microsoft logo or something.

Exclusive: NSA pays £100m in secret funding for GCHQ ( UK Guardian 2013-08-01 )

The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years to secure access to and influence over Britain's intelligence gathering programmes.

The top secret payments are set out in documents which make clear that the Americans expect a return on the investment, and that GCHQ has to work hard to meet their demands. "GCHQ must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight," a GCHQ strategy briefing said.

Use Britain as the black bag men, this let's them not get their hands dirty. Any two governments can use this theory, each having the other do the dirty work so they can say they are acting legally in their own country.

The FBI can remotely activate laptop and Android microphones with spyware ( TechSpot 2013-08-02 )

The FBI uses the microphone and camera on phones to spy on people ( NeoWin 2013-08-03 )

A report from the Wall Street Journal is claiming that, via unnamed sources, the FBI is doing just that, by tricking suspected criminals into clicking links that install malware on the device. An interesting tidbit of note is that the organization only uses this method on non-technical suspects; they fear that a computer expert would be able to identify and release details of the malware to the public.

Violating any and all computer tampering laws in the process. Our government now acts above the law and believes it is just peachy.

FBI Taps Hacker Tactics to Spy on Suspects ( Wall Street Journal 2013-08-03 )

The FBI has been developing hacking tools for more than a decade, but rarely discloses its techniques publicly in legal cases.

Earlier this year, a federal warrant application in a Texas identity-theft case sought to use software to extract files and covertly take photos using a computer's camera, according to court documents. The judge denied the application, saying, among other things, that he wanted more information on how data collected from the computer would be minimized to remove information on innocent people.

[...]

Mr. Soghoian, who is presenting on the topic Friday at the DefCon hacking conference in Las Vegas, said information about the practice is slipping out as a small industry has emerged to sell hacking tools to law enforcement. He has found posts and resumes on social networks in which people discuss their work at private companies helping the FBI with surveillance.

More examples, and remember that this is not even the black budget spook agencies. This is the Department of Justice! I'm gonna have to break out the "24" and "Alias" DVD's and watch them once gain. When they ran from about 2001 to 2008 or so we had no idea it might be real. In fact we doubted it would ever get to that point. Who doubts it now?

( Original Photo Here )

Edited August 4, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Users keep reporting blurry text in Windows 8 and 8.1 ( NeoWin 2013-08-03 )

In other news: Users keep reporting crappy no-contrast eye-blinding themes on forums. #GetUsedToIt


There could be 88.5 million Windows 8 users, but is that big enough? ( NeoWin 2013-08-03 )

No. That's still too many. Someone needs to delete the source code from the main server and end this nightmare.




( Original Photo Here )

Edited August 4, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[jaclaz]

@Charlotte

Source of those two last "movie" photos?

(Which movie is it?)

jaclaz