JorgeA

NSA won't say whether it spies on Congress Not even elected officials are safe from the snoops! The permanent (and growing) bureaucracy is setting itself up for longterm domination of society by collecting as much actionable data it can, not only on citizens but also on the people who would be in the best position to rein them in -- members of the legislature. Because no one is perfect, at some point the NSA's growing databases will mean that everyone will be vulnerable either to blackmail that keeps him quiet, or to "exposure" that ruins him politically. --JorgeA

The conversation (from that point) was civil and reasonable until the guy jumped in with sarcasm and name-calling. I guess they figure they can't win based on facts or logic, so they yell really loudly and insult their opponents. In my book, that's an automatic disqualification and loss. --JorgeA

As always reading the data, even if already smoothed/adjusted/whatever, gives some insight. Who can now negate the great success of the April 2013 "Run your NT" initiative? Windows NT was in April 2013 a 0.11% (a dramatic 57% increase from March 2013 0.07%) and ramped up to an astounding 0.22% (please read it as a 300% increase) in May 2013! BUT let's take Dec 2012 "ALL Windows data": 0.00+1.72+0.05+0.01+45.11+5.67+39.08+0.04+0.04+0.00+0.00+0.00+0.00=91.72% vs. Dec 2013: 3.60+6.89+0.00+0.00+47.52+3.61+28.98+0.03+0.09+0.00+0.00+0.00+0.00=90.72% I.e. in one year MS Operating System (according to those data which BTW place Linux going from 1.19 to 1.73%) lost globally 1.00 % of "share". That is evidently a success of the MS marketing strategies, and a clear sign of the appreciation that customers have for their products . jaclaz As usual , yove've done a fantastic job of analysis the numbers. Very nice. More evidence that Microsoft's strategy of pushing its users into a mobile platform hasn't exactly been a resounding success. --JorgeA

Not sure if we caught this back when the news came out, but here goes: another Windows 8 annoyance -- New Windows 8.1 requirements strand some users on Windows 8 And a reply to some MicroTard down in the comments section: --JorgeA

Another reason to have your own stuff on your own hard disk, or media: Steam Removes a Defunct Game From User Libraries It's a brave new cyberworld out there... --JorgeA

Yeah, that IS interesting -- they quoted figures from a different reporting service's pie chart that shows smaller numbers for Win8. Curiously, both pie charts put Linux usage at exactly 1.73%. So that must be the truth. --JorgeA

Here's a a printed excerpt from the conference presentation that set off this latest storm, with commentary: How The NSA Hacks Your iPhone (Presenting DROPOUT JEEP) [emphasis in original] --JorgeA

I feel for you. We're due for 4-8 inches from the same storm, but that doesn't compare to a foot. Good luck! --JorgeA

Well, I was going to boast that I belong to an increasingly select group (Vista users), until I saw that according to the chart Vista usage actually increased from November to December! XP EOL refugees?? But Microsoft isn't even selling Vista licenses anymore, so how does this happen? (Maybe a statistical "margin of error" effect.) Yeah, that looks a little weird. Maybe they paid for access to the data ahead of its public release. --JorgeA

Thank you for posting this! An article from The Verge, linked to at the end of the Engadget piece, has a ton more links for anyone who wants the ugly details. Engadget also links to a one-hour YouTube presenation by the guy who disclosed this stuff. Meanwhile, there's an enormous range of responses (some highly technical) in the comments section. The funniest is the one who replies to the suggestion to flood the spooks' keyword detectors: --JorgeA

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act starts to threaten more than just the freedom to distribute the books and music that other people wrote: Phony copyright claims exploit holes in U.S. Internet law Thanks, Hollywood. But then there's no shortage of One Percenters on Rodeo Drive full of admiration for "populist" Latin thugs, so doubtless they view this as a fringe benefit of their nice little law. --JorgeA

Jeez Louise, this one can't get much worse now can it? Will anyone learn anything from this, probably not. Folks are too busy connecting their Christmas presents online as we speak, opening accounts, buying junk, you know, business as usual. Gotta wonder how many more of these mass breaches of private info it will take before the public decides that the cloud isn't all that "convenient" after all. --JorgeA

Great you have you back, Charlotte! that was a very cool image you posted there, with the cycling headlines. B) How'd you do that? --JorgeA

I second that motion -- Happy New Year, everyone! --JorgeA

An excellent question IMHO. That part, at least, isn't new -- I think that as far back as World War I, the feds were opening people's mail in an effort to root out opponents. I do know (or have been told, anyway) that the FBI developed effective techniques for steaming envelopes open so that then they could reseal them without the recipient's ever knowing. But all that is piecemeal, targeted, and labor-intensive. Today they can do mass surveillance at the click of a mouse button. Here's one bit of fallout from all the nosing around: A New Twist in International Relations: The Corporate Keep-My-Data-Out-of-the-U.S. Clause * * * Everybody (else) seems to be on vacation this week. I'll keep posting here and there, holding the fort 'til they come back. Happy New Year! --JorgeA

In privacy news: Report: NSA intercepts computer deliveries . The arrogance of these people is monumental. Here's the link to the original article by Der Spiegel, which offers a more extensive and somewhat more detailed discussion. Read it and start shakinhg your head. (Sorry for the enormous amount of space used up there.) . . And the techniques go beyond digital theft to physical theft: Things aren't as bad as they seem -- they're worse. --JorgeA

These guys would do well to start talking straight about all these issues, although I can't imagine anyone taking their word for it at face value. We've seen the pressure put on other less prominent names, such as the Lavabit company owner who has the stones to fight back. Whether the RSA principals have similar inclinations remains to be seen. Read the Wikipedia page for a synopsis of the issues and links outside to other stories. This is quite important IMHO, and could ultimately lead to vital information we need such as what other backdoors are in place in Windows and other products. [emphasis added] About the owner of Lavabit, here's an interview Ladar Levison gave to TWIT's Leo Laporte. The sound quality isn't the best, but Levison talks about the tricks the cops used to make things as difficult and costly for him as possible (and some counter-measures that he took along the same lines ). My favorite quote from him: "I'm not anti-government, I'm pro-freedom." He sounds like a guy who's willing to stand up for his principles and take the heat for it. --JorgeA

LOVED those shutdown/disconnection/error sound effects they added in there!! --JorgeA

[re: Bing's red-ink operations] Yeah, that's what we call the private sector genius. You have every right to go broke on your own business ( well, unless you count us taxpayers having to bail you out of bankruptcy but that's beside the point ). Perhaps his dictionary stops before the word "Fiduciary" and its related concepts. Like it or not ( and I really don't ) Microsoft answers to her stockholders and regulators first. Books have to be accurate and hiding things is, well, frowned upon. If stockholders ever got organized ( I mean moreso than the little power play that likely helped to oust Ballmer ) they could cause a huge fuss and those bleeding products like Bing and Xbox would be fast out the door. Bill Gates helps to fund project for powering cellphones with urine ( NeoWin 2013-12-20 ) Well, I'll just leave this here as one of those headlines that you thought you would never see. Check that, actually I have to give props to a NeoKid for coining the phrase of the day ... pPhone ... I could say something about p*ssing money away, but I won't... --JorgeA

IE8 is the main browser on my Vista work machine. I like all the little informational notifications that pop up on the status bar, which were removed from IE9 and only a couple of which could be brought back by Classic Shell. --JorgeA

Are you really using IE Jorge? Yup. Probably the main reason is that, after I got back into tech (almost exactly five years ago now), the thick Windows manuals that I'd bought offered tons of tips for tweaking Internet Explorer -- whereas I don't know where to look for these settings (or even if the same ones are available) in other browsers. There IS something to be said for a "one-stop shopping" manual as opposed to having to hunt all over the Web for things that you may not even know to ask about. I'm also familiar and comfortable with IE's UI: I know where everything is, and although I've tried Firefox and Chrome (plus a couple of minor browsers), I haven't felt any compelling reason to switch. Plus, it's annoying that FF (and Chrome, if I ever used it again) keep pushing new versions on me -- some of which, moreover, remove functionality. To these browsers' developers, I would say, Leave it alone already; stop trying constantly to justify your existence, and get a life. --JorgeA EDIT: typo

A relevant article, and a question: Use of Tor helped FBI ID suspect in bomb hoax case [emphasis added] So, given that the spooks have (open or covert) access to every ISP in the USA (isn't that right?), doesn't this make Tor essentially useless for U.S.-based users? --JorgeA

@TELVM and @duffy98, Thanks for the info on user agents. It looks like the technique applies to Firefox/Pale Moon but not to IE8; typing "about:config" in a new tab gives me a "Navigation Canceled" result. I found some pages on the Web that give instructions on how to change the user agent in IE by going into "Developer Tools" (F12), but they work only in IE9 and not 8 which doesn't have a "change user agent" choice in that Tools submenu. Am I out of luck? --JorgeA

In cybersecurity news: Exclusive: Secret contract tied NSA and security industry pioneer Security compromised by design. :angrym: --JorgeA

^ Greater truths were never said. Yeah, he has a lot of good ideas in there (thanks @jaclaz for the link). My favorite one is Thyis would solve so many problems. But, as he said (and I suspected over a year ago), Windows Gadgets were disabled so as to make the Win7 Desktop look static and boring compared to the dynamic-looking Metro screen with its constantly changing and updating tiles. --JorgeA