The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Apple vs Android

I see a lot of this discussion. but you need to understand root causes.

The key point with Apple is that they control the hardware as well as the software. iOS and MacOS run on Apple kit, and are useless if you don't have Apple devices. (Running other software on Apple devices might be possible, but not simple.)

Oddly you can run MacOS X x64 on a VMWare virtual machine. Out of the box on a full blown ESX server and with fairly trivial modifications on a VMWare Workstation install. Please note that you will get odd looks when your Lenovo laptop is running MacOS 12.5.1 full screen.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

So when folks complain about not getting Android updates, my question tends to be "Why do you care?" If the answer is security fixes, I start preaching the virtues of Safe Hex, and not doing stuff that needs the security fixes. (Yes. you do need security, but you need to understand why, and what kind of security you require. Too many folks don't know and don't want to. They just want to do stuff and not worry about it. I sympathize, but we aren't anywhere near that point unless you are in something like Apple's walled garden. Safety requires knowledge. Deal with it.)

And sadly, all too many people are incapable of practicing Safe Hex. In IT, you meet all too many people who never met a button they won't click or a file they won't download. Our attempts at corporate phishing training has shown about 25% of our users seem to have trouble learning.

[John F]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

...

I start preaching the virtues of Safe Hex, ...

The first hit googling "safe hex" came up with:

Always practice Safe Hex

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by John F

The first hit googling "safe hex" came up with:

Always practice Safe Hex

As it's in Unlimited, perhaps I'll give it a try

[ownedbycats]

Back in the mid-00s (maybe 2008 or so?) I actually ran a few months without an antivirus, just as a proof-of-concept that safe habits could prevent any problems.

I wouldn't do it these days, though.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Back in the mid-00s (maybe 2008 or so?) I actually ran a few months without an antivirus, just as a proof-of-concept that safe habits could prevent any problems.

I've run without antivirus since the 1990s.

[DNSB]

I keep a honeypot server in the DMZ of my firewall It's interesting to see how many times an hour someone attempts to break into it. I switch up the honeypots once a week or so. Since I snapshot the server after setting it up, it takes little effort to recover from any successful incursions, rare though they might be and the virtualized server has no ability to move laterally through my network.

[kevin3289]

Computers are the worst. Hackers trashed about a dozen of my computers over ten years. That was when I was silly enough to use XP. My laptop is still constantly frustrating, but manageable, and all those blasted passwords. I guess it keeps us on our toes though, KW.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kevin3289

Computers are the worst. Hackers trashed about a dozen of my computers over ten years. That was when I was silly enough to use XP. My laptop is still constantly frustrating, but manageable, and all those blasted passwords. I guess it keeps us on our toes though, KW.

I ran XP quite happily with no security issues. The problem was that XP still assumed the user was Administrator with power to change the underlying system/ The solution was "Don't run as Admin . C reate limiteduser account that is not Admin, and use it." Hacking attempts would bounce off because the exploits needed Admin accesss t do their dirty work. If you aren't running as Admin, many security issues go away.

Win7 finsally made the ID yuo used a normal account, and you needed to specifically gey Afmin access to perform privleged operations. IK was delighted. I just wish MS had started to do the with Win2k. I was IT support at a company running Wi2K among other things, and keeping nasty stuff off the macihnes was a challenge. My irony meter pegged offscalr whrn one piece of bad stuff came in of a distriburion CD from a vendor of producys intended to help ease access between thins like Windows and Unix. y guess was thay had the CDs produced in Chine, and didn't do QC on what they got. That vendor got droppd from my list of possible suppliers because of utter incompetence,
______
Dennis

[kevin3289]

The solution was "Don't run as Admin"

That was only one of the things I tried, but it didn't stop them. I have to create a new user account about once a month nowadays to keep everything working ok. Apparently there is software nowadays which allows them to crash through any firewall. A while back I had a bad feeling about the Australian census when it came up. I sent away for the paper census forms and wasn't surprised when hackers crashed the system. I can't go online without the feeling that someone is always looking over my shoulder.
I also eventually figured how to get down into the registry to block a few remote hacking attempts.
You've got to laugh.

[ownedbycats]

Gee, it would've been nice to know at some point before 15 minutes into a 20-minute survey that they expected me to have a webcam so they could record my face...

But if they're going to do stupid crap like this, I'm going to give them a stupid answer: I sent them a fake webcam input showing a black screen.

[John F]

Stupid Windows update.

I Used to be able to turn on my computer and type in the password. Now I have to Move the mouse pointer the text box and click first.

Oh, the humanity!

[BetterRed]

Seems to be OK here, updated Windows yesterday.

I only have to enter a p/w if I sign out, but not when I start/restart.

Added: Just did a Sign-out and was able to enter the password immediately.

Check the Sign-out settings.

[John F]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Seems to be OK here, updated Windows yesterday.

I only have to enter a p/w if I sign out, but not when I start/restart.

Added: Just did a Sign-out and was able to enter the password immediately.

Check the Sign-out settings.

I'm using Windows 10 Home.

I looked at the sign-in settings, and nothing stands out. I don't see any "sign-out" settings.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Gee, it would've been nice to know at some point before 15 minutes into a 20-minute survey that they expected me to have a webcam so they could record my face...

But if they're going to do stupid crap like this, I'm going to give them a stupid answer: I sent them a fake webcam input showing a black screen.

If somebody did that to me, they'd bloody well get exactly what they deserve. They could look at me in the full unforgiving glare of the webcam and screens.

Hitch

[John F]

Originally Posted by John F

Stupid Windows update.

I Used to be able to turn on my computer and type in the password. Now I have to Move the mouse pointer the text box and click first.

Oh, the humanity!

So I decided to upgrade to Windows 11 and still had the same problem (probably 2 weeks ago). Then a couple of days ago, the problem went away.

And I will not rant about the Windows 11 update.