If it isn't already, it definitely should be.
Posts by VicMortimer
608 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Feb 2017
Microsoft: So what if it costs 4X as much to run Windows Server in AWS, Alibaba, and Google?
Toronto Zoo ransomware crooks snatch decades of visitor data
Thursday 6th March 2025 16:14 GMT 
The ONLY way to stop ransomware - Criminalize payment
As I've said here before, the ONLY way ransomware will ever stop is to criminalize paying ransom. If CEOs will go to prison for paying they won't pay, and the profit goes away. Nobody is going to bother trying to extract a ransom they're never going to get.
NOTHING else will work when the gangs are based in countries that will never extradite. Go after the money, and the ransomware stops.
Trump says US should kill CHIPS Act, use the cash to cut debt
Wednesday 5th March 2025 17:20 GMT
Broken clock
A broken clock is right twice a day...
Corporate welfare is ALWAYS a mistake. And that's what the idiotic CHIPS Act is, corporate welfare.
Now, Stinky is obviously not against corporate welfare, it's a major part of his grift. But in this one case, he's right. That money should absolutely be spent, but it should go to things like making housing available for homeless people or healthcare for everyone, not handed to giant corporations. India and Indonesia know how to handle this sort of thing, laws that say "You WILL make X% of stuff here, or you won't sell your stuff in this country" - and it's worked, Apple is making iPhones in India and just agreed to invest $1billion in Indonesia so they'll be allowed to sell the iPhone 16 there.
Corporations are best handled with a stick, not a carrot.
Altnets told to stop digging and start stuffing fiber through abandoned pipes
Monday 3rd March 2025 15:36 GMT
Really?
Because here in the US, unused pipes mostly don't exist.
When they get replaced, they get dug up. My street had a sewer replacement a few years back, they dug up the old pipes and put in new ones. Water supply lines were replaced at the same time, lots of digging, lots of new pipes, the old pipes went in a dump truck. They used temporary lines to keep the water and sewer flowing while it was going on, my water was out for a few hours during the whole process. They put an epoxy liner in the sewer main a few streets away in the bits they didn't dig up. The only thing unused there are the trolley tracks, they're still mostly in place under the middle of the street, but you can't use trolley tracks to carry fiber, they're not hollow.
They don't bother with digging for power or comms anyway here, it's all up on poles. It's cheaper initially, but it's a maintenance headache, they're constantly replacing them. The water and sewer lines were about a hundred years old, underground lasts longer.
Google binning SMS MFA at last and replacing it with QR codes
Southern Water takes the fifth over alleged $750K Black Basta ransom offer
Tuesday 25th February 2025 15:47 GMT
Re: Would paying a sum of money to criminals
It should.
It should be a crime that gets CEOs locked up. The ONLY way ransomware is going to stop is if paying ransom becomes a crime with real prison time for whoever signs off on payment.
Remove the financial incentive, ransomware ends. And since going after the perpetrators who are inevitably in hostile countries is effectively impossible, the ONLY way to effectively do that is going after the payers by making them criminals. CEOs who WILL get caught if they pay and WILL end up spending a year or two in prison for paying will not pay.
HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls
US lawmakers press Trump admin to oppose UK's order for Apple iCloud backdoor
DOGE geek with Treasury payment system access now quits amid racist tweet claims
Google Maps to roll out Trump-approved Denali and Gulf of Mexico rebrands
Trump’s tariffs, cuts may well put tech in a chokehold, say analysts
Saturday 1st February 2025 15:22 GMT
It's cute that you think the tiny-fingered ferret-wearing cheeto-faced shitgibbon actually gives a shit about immigration. He hires undocumented immigrants to staff Mar-a-Lardo.
All the blather is about creating an enemy. It's the standard fascist playbook, you pick a group and blame problems on them. Right now it's brown people and trans people, next it's "the gays".
Everything about this is about grift for billionaires. And you have to remember that billionaires don't actually need more money, it's just a way to keep score, they care about power, their new grift is power, so making the poor even poorer and creating a class of undesirables to be disposed of is just as much of an accomplishment for them as actually getting richer.
WINE 10 is still not an emulator, but Windows apps won't know the difference
Linux Mint 22.1 Xia arrives fashionably late
How Windows got to version 3 – an illustrated history
Sunday 19th January 2025 19:34 GMT
Re: Brilliant!
It was literally paste. During the phototypesetting days, text and image blocks were glued to markup boards with a waxy glue. It was removable and repositionable. You then take a photo of the completed page and turn that into a printing plate. Much easier than working with blocks of linotype castings.
UK businesses eye AI as the cheaper, non-whining alternative to actual staff
Tesla, Musk double down on $56B payday appeal
Haiku Beta 5 / In tests it's (Fire)foxier / It pleases us well
Thursday 9th January 2025 17:22 GMT
It's a nice toy.
I've been playing with it for a while, stuck the experimental Firefox/Iceweasel on there last week.
But I don't know that I really see a serious future for it. There's a reason it's not Mac OS today, and Nextstep is - and Apple seriously considered it in the '90s. Sure, part of that was the annoying Frenchman, but it's just not as capable as a *nix.
One REALLY weird thing about it is how much faster it is to install than it is to boot, at least in the VM that I've been using to play with it.
Encryption backdoor debate 'done and dusted,' former White House tech advisor says
Sunday 5th January 2025 00:14 GMT
Re: It's simple.
Except that's actually not true. Here, read it for yourself: Mobile Communications Best Practice Guidance [cisa.gov]
How a good business deal made us underestimate BASIC
Saturday 4th January 2025 17:46 GMT
You don't want files? Really?
That's just insane. PEOPLE KNOW WHAT FILES ARE. The concept has a real-world analog that makes sense to anybody. And what's the alternative, the electronic equivalent of a desk covered in massive piles of paper? Yes, I know some people work like that, but it's NOT efficient or sane. And yes, I know some computer companies have tried that stupidity at the user-facing level (looking at you, Apple) but they ultimately had to give up and put a file manager in and set up a folder mechanism for apps.
Ultimately, data has to be stored and just throwing everything into a giant pile is the stupidest possible way to do it. Yes, people SHOULD have to know what a file is, it's a simple concept and it takes minutes to teach the dumbest noob about files. If you can't grasp the concept of a file, you have no business using a computer and you should probably be in a care home so you don't hurt yourself.
BOFH: Printer's festive bips herald a merry mystery for the Boss's budget
Sunday 29th December 2024 04:11 GMT
Re: Christmas party
One of the good things about living in America is that stores are typically staffed by Americans - who are usually smiling, friendly, and happy to help. They're really happy when they don't have a bagger at the grocery checkout at that particular moment, and I bag my own stuff rather than waiting for one to show up.
The other day I had a really full cart and they'd closed everything but the self checkouts at 10pm, and while I'd gotten to the store before that I'd done a lot of shopping so it was about 10:15, and I apparently had a vaguely grumpy look on my face as I walked toward the self checkout, so a clearly happy employee who was watching them asked if everything was ok, and I said "well, I was hoping for a human as I smiled at her" so she immediately opened up the nearby register and checked me out.
I'd have tipped her, but grocery stores are one of the few places where tipping isn't allowed here.
How cops taking down LockBit, ALPHV led to RansomHub's meteoric rise
Saturday 28th December 2024 22:14 GMT 
Ban paying ransom.
There is only one way ransomware is going to go away.
A full criminal ban on paying ransom. CEOs of companies that pay need to face prison time.
Ransomware is about money, if that money is cut off there will be no motive, and without a motive ransomware stops.
ANY other approach is just going to look like an idiotic game of whack-a-mole. Go after the payers and you end the crime.
Naïve Reg hack thinks he can beat Christmas food comas once and for all
Supreme Court to hear TikTok's appeal against law that would force it to shut, or sell
Saturday 21st December 2024 20:20 GMT
Re: "their right to free speech"
You're forgetting the free press part of the 1st amendment.
Ticktock is, by any sane definition, a publisher of speech. This shouldn't have needed to get as high as SCrOTUS. This idiotically unconstitutional law should have been tossed out by the first district court to look at it.
Biden’s antitrust crackdown on tech M&As may linger into Trump’s reign
Saturday 21st December 2024 20:03 GMT 
Need a full ban on M&A
We're well past time for it. There needs to be a full ban on ALL mergers and acquisitions. There's not a single circumstance in history that consumers were not left worse off after one company bought another.
The ONLY exception would be a company that's going to fail and shut down otherwise, but even there it doesn't help anyone if the buyer is private equity, the business gets ruined anyway if that happens.
Coder wrote a bug so bad security guards wanted a word when he arrived at work
Monday 16th December 2024 17:38 GMT
Is there any way to pay other than monthly there?
And I'm not "in credit" on gas, electricity, and water. The bill is always exactly what the meter says, and has been for decades. They used to send a guy around every month, now the meter sends it in, but it always matches.
Maybe that's because I don't have a "company" - it's the government, through the local utility board. I'm getting ready to switch my internet to them too, they're doing gigabit fiber now.
Monday 16th December 2024 17:31 GMT
Re: Smart meters, but not so smart.
How long ago was that? I haven't paid for a phone call in decades.
Now that I think about it, the eras of paying for phone calls and not being able to talk to humans haven't coincided for me. The last time individual phone calls cost money it was fairly easy to talk to a human at the telco, just dialing 0 would get one on the line PDQ.
Google Timeline location purge causes collateral damage
Blocking Chinese spies from intercepting calls? There ought to be a law
Photoshop FOSS alternative GNU Image Manipulation Program 3.0 nearly here
US, China agree machines must not be allowed to control nuclear weapons
Will passkeys ever replace passwords? Can they?
Sunday 17th November 2024 18:45 GMT 
No and no.
Passkeys are a BAD idea. What they're going to result in is users in the real world losing access to accounts, and with the current (also stupid) trend of users storing their data on somebody else's computer, that data. Passwords are hard enough to keep up with, lost devices are a real thing, and this passkey nightmare is going to result in a lot of torment for a lot of people.
Passwords are flawed. Passkeys are worse.
Combustion engines grind Linus Torvalds' gears
Monday 11th November 2024 17:26 GMT
Re: Dumb interviewers
Hydrogen is a stupid distraction, it's a dead end.
It's incredibly inefficient and polluting to produce, has high losses in transportation, and is hard on components in contact with it. And it's explodey. Hydrogen makes sense if you're using it in a fuel cell on a space shuttle, but if you're not in a situation where you need the electricity and the water because you're hundreds of miles above the earth, you're stupid for even considering it.
Meanwhile, electricity distribution is a solved problem, we just need more chargers installed.
Batteries are the ONLY way to go. The vast majority of vehicles spend the vast majority of their time sitting still, that's time they could be charging if they need it.
That position you just applied for might be a 'ghost job' that'll never be filled
Sunday 3rd November 2024 16:03 GMT
Re: USA
He's wrong. Not only is it a federal matter, it's already illegal.
It's just that the FTC hasn't bothered enforcing it.
"It shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, or corporation to disseminate, or cause to be disseminated, any false advertisement—"
"(2) By any means, for the purpose of inducing, or which is likely to induce, directly or indirectly, the purchase in or having an effect upon commerce, of food, drugs, devices, services, or cosmetics."
"(b) Unfair or deceptive act or practice
The dissemination or the causing to be disseminated of any false advertisement within the provisions of subsection (a) of this section shall be an unfair or deceptive act or practice in or affecting commerce within the meaning of section 45 of this title."
"(1) The term “false advertisement” means an advertisement, other than labeling, which is misleading in a material respect; and in determining whether any advertisement is misleading, there shall be taken into account (among other things) not only representations made or suggested by statement, word, design, device, sound, or any combination thereof, but also the extent to which the advertisement fails to reveal facts material in the light of such representations or material with respect to consequences which may result from the use of the commodity to which the advertisement relates under the conditions prescribed in said advertisement, or under such conditions as are customary or usual. "
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/52#a
"(a) Imposition of penalties
Any person, partnership, or corporation who violates any provision of section 52(a) of this title shall, if the use of the commodity advertised may be injurious to health because of results from such use under the conditions prescribed in the advertisement thereof, or under such conditions as are customary or usual, or if such violation is with intent to defraud or mislead, be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment; except that if the conviction is for a violation committed after a first conviction of such person, partnership, or corporation, for any violation of such section, punishment shall be by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment"
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/54
Apple quietly admits 8GB isn't enough in 2024, M4 iMac to ship with 16GB as standard
Apple throws shade on pokey AI PCs, claims its maxed out M4 chips are 4x faster
Dropbox to shed another 500 staff, CEO takes 'full responsibility'
Saturday 2nd November 2024 21:49 GMT
Re: Time to pull out
I've got a client that insisted on moving all their file shares to Dropbox. I was even told to not maintain a local backup, that everything would be in "the cloud" now.
Needless to say I set up a local backup of all their files, complete with network shares already set up to make dumping those losers as quick as possible. The VPN is ready, all the accounts are configured, all I have to do is tell them it's there and ready to use. Already told one guy when he was having trouble getting Dropbox to work on his desktop, he's effectively already switched back to in-house. When Dropbox screws up again, they're gone.
Sysadmins rage over Apple’s ‘nightmarish’ SSL/TLS cert lifespan cuts plot
Wednesday 30th October 2024 16:00 GMT
Re: The solution...
Comcrap is hijacking port 53.
Found that out one day when I was trying to figure out why Mailinator was marked as a malware site, and I couldn't figure out how to bypass that. Turned out to be at the DNS level... But I run my own servers, so I whitelisted it, and it still didn't work. But when I remoted out to a site that wasn't on Comcrap, it didn't error at all. A bit more poking and everything I didn't have DNS records for was hitting the Comcrap servers even though I was trying to hit others.
Ended up having to play stupid games with DNS over HTTPS to avoid the Comcrap servers.
Beijing claims it's found 'underwater lighthouses' that its foes use for espionage
Wednesday 30th October 2024 15:03 GMT
Re: "...a prolonged great power war"
You're assuming that the nukes would get used. They probably won't.
Russia would have already used nukes in Ukraine if they didn't know they'd get nuked back if they did. And that's the case in any conflict, nobody will use one because they know how that ends.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
