Microsoft is able to look inside your password protected zip files

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-06-16T15:00:26+00:00

Reddit has outlived it's usefulness and it's time for the Internet to collectively move on. Hopefully management continues to make bad decisions which drive more and more people away until the platform just collapses like Myspace. We need more decentralization online and less censorship anyway.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-06-15T13:16:25+00:00

People ask me "why" when I say I don't trust the cloud. This, this is why. And hackers. And governments. And rogue/corrupt employees. And when the company just doesn't feel like supporting or allowing me to use what I paid for anymore.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-12-21T17:10:42+00:00

More dirt cheap/free Linux computers than one could possibly want.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-11-09T02:18:35+00:00

Let's load up a 10 or 12GB scene in Blender and see what happens. This here ain't much different than claiming that a 48 inch TV has as much screen area as a 72 inch TV.

Faster memory with lower latency will not save the day when it is exhausted. And no, thrashing the solid state drive to death with a swap file is not an acceptable solution.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-15T19:00:11+00:00

The whole point of Captchas is to punish those of us who refuse to allow Microsoft, Google and Facebook to stalk us while we browse the web. Normies who are signed in with the big three all day are exempt from Captchas, while my Firefox Linux computer gets the full treatment even though I have done nothing wrong. The upcoming web integrity malware will make this problem five times worse for people like me.

Think of it as sort of an analog to DRM; the entire point of DRM is to make sure that you can't keep the shit you buy, while the entire point of Captchas is to punish those of us who refuse to allow big tech the ability to stalk us all day.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-05-21T19:38:53+00:00

By far my favorite Windows 11 story.

https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-breaks-windows-11-by-injecting-ads/

It doesn't get any more late-stage capitalist than this.

opens calculator and puts in 2+2.

*Calculator says "please wait while we load the answer, and enjoy a word from our sponsors".

*30 seconds later, it says an error has occurred, "something went wrong", because it couldn't contact the ad network, and refuses to solve the math problem.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-03-01T05:11:55+00:00

Reminds me of the MalwareBox One debut a decade ago, where they wanted to force you to be connected to the Internet at least once a day or else all your games would get disabled.

Unfortunately people get stupider and stupider by the decade, so this sort of business model is getting closer and closer to reality now. More and more people are comfortable with the idea of their stuff refusing to work if they aren't connected to the Internet.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-05-26T21:49:39+00:00

There are actually people out there who don't understand and comprehend the fact that AI routines will inevitably be used by corporations and government to sift through every word you type and the content of every file on your computer. Documents, videos, photos, music, you name it. This will go beyond hash checking, and be more like automated content fingerprinting. "Let us help you by automatically finding all of the photos with your wife in them!"

These algorithms will eventually even run while offline. I mean while offline is still an option at all; because they are using predatory malware tactics to force people to link their computers to an online account whether the user wants this or not, and as soon as they've suckered enough grandmas in, they can prevent offline use entirely by claiming that it is now the only option due to popular demand, and "for security!"

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-02-26T23:09:14+00:00

Microsoft is like that creepy uncle who doesn't take "No" for an answer, except, unlike the uncle, everything Microsoft does is sanctioned by the US government.

But just like with the creepy uncle, the best course of action is to stay as far away from them as possible. Far, far far away.

EDIT: Also, if you don't give them what they want, they'll just steal your shit anyway and say it's a bug.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/16/24074712/microsoft-edge-automatic-chrome-import-data-bug-fix

Every other month, their Chrome rip-off gets roasted by journalists for doing stuff behind the scenes that it has no business doing.

https://www.neowin.net/news/edge-sends-images-you-view-online-to-microsoft-here-is-how-to-disable-that/

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/microsoft-edge-is-sending-all-your-visited-pages-to-bing-how-to-turn-it-off

Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-01-30T19:15:01+00:00

The government can't even get Boeing to properly assemble their planes, and THAT comes after the MCAS nightmare and supposed increased scrutiny.

The idea that this same government is going to do anything to punish Microsoft for lax security when it comes to customer-facing services (you don't see Xbox/Pluton being compromised because Microsoft actually cares about the security of these), is... bwahahahaha

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-04-16T14:50:32+00:00

Copilot: The software nobody wants, but everybody will get.

Not me though, I use Debian.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-03-04T23:07:05+00:00

Sorry about the Javascript paywall thing. It comes with the clusterfuck dogshit abortion of enshitification that the Internet is morphing into/has morphed into. Soon, you won't be allowed to read any articles at all online unless you are simultaneously signed in with Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple so that they can be assured that you are human, track everything you look at and sell that data to the highest bidder.

Anyway, as far as AI chat bots giving tax advice...

Jurassic Park said it best: They were so obsessed with whether or not they could, that they didn't take the time to stop and think whether or not they should.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-02-16T22:45:45+00:00

Tablets and phones, sure. Consoles, hell no. I would love to see the Xbox fail in the market after what Microsoft tried to pull a decade ago, but even if it does/by the time it does, they will own 70+% of the game industry anyway, making it a moot point.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-02-03T16:58:08+00:00

Did I mention that the biggest reason I stopped buying games, is because I don't want to give some piece of shit on the other side of the world the ability to disable my stuff after taking my money?

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-09-28T16:56:35+00:00

It's getting too expensive and too power hungry, and at that point you might as well just get a mini PC. Remember that $60/$80 is the price before the scalpers have had their way with the market. Pi is a "hot" product (i.e. in high demand), like game consoles, thereby attracting the attention of scalpers, whereas mini-PCs are in abundance.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-09-14T23:59:25+00:00

You know what's funny? On one hand, they are obsessed with forcing the entire PC ecosystem fully into the cloud whether we users want this or not. And on the other hand, each new version of their software requires more and more hardware to even run. The point of relying on a central server somewhere, is that I should be able to get away with using a low-power potato client that can barely do anything more demanding than put information on my screen. Instead, you'll see full fat computers that will refuse to work if the Internet is down or the subscription has not been paid. I guess this is the quality of product that is shat out of the capitalist orifice.

Smart people know that this cloud obsession is not at all about saving the planet or making things cheaper for the user, but instead, grabbing users by the p**** and making us their b****. Considering what they will do with all the user's private information such as documents we work on, our private artistic creations, etc, the monthly fee to use the thing will be the least of our problems. :)

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-24T17:14:10+00:00

What will it mean? Pay monthly to have every square millimeter of your privacy violated by Microsoft, and if you're really lucky, the machine will not shut down and refuse to operate at all in the event that the Internet is down for more than 24 hours.

Remember, they already pushed for this ten years ago. https://www.svg.com/101430/everything-microsoft-wrong-xbox-one/

For me, that was the point of no turning back. From my perspective it was sort of like the tech analogous of going on a date with someone who starts acting like a creep and a perve, in that they stupidly revealed their entire agenda and hand of cards, and now I know to stay as far away from them as possible. No amount of saying "I've changed", "I'm sorry", or "I won't do that again" will do one damn bit of good.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-07-10T17:50:56+00:00

If you think the "problem" of users running unsupported versions of Windows is bad now, it's gonna get ten times worse when Windows 10 support ends and a lot of machines can't run Windows 11.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-06-22T00:54:18+00:00

How nice for them. I won't be engaging with that website any longer. Hopefully a substantial chunk of former users feel the same way.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-25T14:21:30+00:00

For years I've wondered if a fluorescent tube would be lit by radiation, without any wires, e.g. just by being next to a lot of nuclear waste. The principle is the same as Radium, the only difference is that the radiation would have to be intense enough to pass through the glass of the bulb.

EDIT: Also I find it funny that they are worried about how to warn people about this stuff thousands of years from now, when governments spent fifty years dumping barrels of radioactive shit into the ocean from the 1940s through the 1990s. And no, they knew better than to do this, even back then. It's like they did not care about my generation or the next two or three, while now we're suddenly concerned about hundreds of generations in the future.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-05-22T18:11:02+00:00

There are two types of fines. Trivial ones, and big ones. First is the type that a company just pays with a smile because they made twice as much money doing the misdeeds that they're being fined for in the first place. An example of that is here. https://apnews.com/article/settlement-fake-public-comments-net-neutrality-ae1f69a1f5415d9f77a41f07c3f6c358

And then there are the huge fines; companies typically just weasel out of those.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-05-16T13:38:03+00:00

"Serious questions about privacy and security"

It's the cloud. Privacy literally does not exist.

PS: Malware is not the only thing they are looking for. They will also be looking for hashes of anything the government and private cartels such as the movie industry do not approve of.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-05-01T23:27:29+00:00

You have to laugh; the ONLY way Microsoft will get people to leave Windows 10, is if they do another GWX-style malware crusade where it asks you daily whether you want it and then just installs it anyway and tells you that it's being done for your own good and you'll like it.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-04-23T06:51:48+00:00

We Californians like our taxes ludicrous, our parks overflowing with homeless encampments (tents and all), and our energy bills obscene.

It makes you wonder where all the damn money is actually going. Not towards improving shit, that's for sure.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-02-13T22:31:44+00:00

The most entrenched players in the market get exempt from the new rules that were supposedly designed to ensure a level playing field for smaller ones. Government "regulation" in action.

Almost as spineless as the US; at least the US does not even pretend to care at all about reining in tech companies.

Small company: "We can't effectively compete because monopolists are using their monopolies in one market to drive out competition in other markets!"

US Government: "We know. Here's a quarter, phone someone who cares."

EU: "We know, we have new legislation in the works to fix this mess... now excuse us while we render it completely meaningless, by not applying it to literally the biggest companies in the world."

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-02-04T03:37:31+00:00

Before enshitification and late-stage capitalism, games like Duke Nukem 3D came with programs to extract the game files and create custom maps and mods, right on the official CD! When you would quit the game, it would even inform you of this.

EDIT: Also, consolidation and acquisitions in the games industry will hasten the arrival of mandatory subscriptions for games... once the big players like Microsoft can make it into a "take it or leave it" affair, as is the case with so much in the tech sector today.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-01-31T13:56:34+00:00

So apparently today, programs running on consumer PC garbage have to take steps to protect themselves from their data being stolen by other supposed legitimate programs also running on the same system, that the user doesn't even want being installed or ran in the first place.

Maybe each program can encrypt it's own files or something to stop competitors from pilfering the user's data. Or society can collectively switch to an operating system that isn't literally malware.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-12-15T23:14:21+00:00

They really are driving away the techies with behavior like this. It's so heart-warming and satisfying to see the negative sentiments towards them going mainstream. All Microsoft will have left, are the grandmas who don't know how to defend themselves from sleazy business practices, thereby ensuring that Edge becomes the new IE, where only people who don't know any better are using it. But grandmas would rather use their Iphones or Ipads to go online than a dog shit Windows PC.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-10-24T20:22:19+00:00

Since they don't have a textbox to answer the question, because they have nothing but contempt for their customers and are not actually interested in what we think; only browbeating us into submitting to their agenda, I figure we can list our reasons here.

I don't respond well to bullying or coersion. When you forced your software onto my computer without my permission even though I already have another browser that I am happy with, you already crossed that line.
Computers exist to shut up, respect my personal space, leave me alone and do as I say. Your software fails at all of these.
I trust you less than the other guy, if that's even possible.

I would actually be all for them giving users a survey, only if they allow users to respond in a text-box, and disclaim that responses will be publicly posted, if only to see what answers other users would come up with. Think of it as sort-of an anti-marketing campaign. You can even screen out all the vulgarity and profanity, I'm pretty sure it would still be a very entertaining read.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-10-19T00:11:57+00:00

"If you won't use our shitty browser that is just a rip-off of our competitor's, at least let us steal your data!"

And since they opt you in to syncing your activity to the cloud by default, you better believe that's where it's going, and that's why they're allegedly doing this in the first place. Frankly I don't understand why this crap is not criminal. Oh wait, US justice is the cheapest hooker that money can buy, that's why.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-10-05T17:41:07+00:00

Nothing short of another GWX-style malware campaign, where Windows nags you literally every day whether you are ready to "upgrade", and then just does it anyway after you have already refused their offer 350 times, will get people to throw out their old computers and buy a new one with Windows 11.

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-10-01T15:52:49+00:00

If the GPU market was not in the toilet, mainstream cards would not come with a useless 8GB of memory in 2023. Maybe Intel will put pressure on the AMD/Nvidia cartel, if Nvidia does not squeeze them out of the market first.

https://overclock3d.net/news/gpu_displays/nvidia_reportedly_pressures_partners_to_stop_them_building_next_gen_intel_battlemage_gpus/

Till then, there's used 24GB Tesla cards from Ebay.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-09-28T04:11:01+00:00

Surprised Microsoft doesn't buy Valve, purely to kill their Linux initiative and take the wind out of it's sales. But Valve is private, and I think you can only buy them if they want to sell. Microsoft's strategy is to instead, acquire as much of the games industry as they can and monopolize as much of the content people want as possible.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-31T00:09:43+00:00

It's oh-so fun, hilarious and satisfying to watch this gradually get worse... from a safe distance. (A.k.a Linux)

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-19T18:29:39+00:00

imagine paying for a desktop you don't own and serves you ads all the work day long.

Consumers eat this shit up though. When this business model was exclusive to television and television was free and I could just record it all with my VCR and then fast forward the ads and keep the shows, I didn't protest, but now even games spam the gamer with ads and reserve the ability to disable/revoke all our purchases at any time for any reason. Backups are useless if they won't play without logging into an account, where the service was discontinued five years ago.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-18T17:17:00+00:00

Always makes me laugh when buying any storage, that the first thing they want to sell me to go with it, is data recovery services.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-07T21:17:19+00:00

They'll just charge you $200 for Internet service instead.

No cable TV = less extortionate license fees for them from content cartels, but they still control your pipe to the Internet, so they can just raise the cost of that, and have record profits.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-08-03T16:24:44+00:00

Can't speak from any personal experience with this company, but if this is indeed true, it serves as a warning for companies to not do their customers wrong, as there's no telling how it might backfire.

That said, I'm also surprised they didn't just use the copyright system and get the video pulled, because that's what all the real big and powerful companies do to silence their critics.

In addition to being mutated into a perpetual welfare scheme for corporations that signed artists 80 years ago, where the actual author/artist has literally been dead for 40 years, copyright has become a tool for companies to get anything taken down from the net that they don't like at any time, no questions asked.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-07-27T20:44:03+00:00

"Big tech" is in the process of constructing, locking and loading a super mega anti-competitive BFG, and they will use it to lock out client computers from browsing the majority of the web if we happen to be running any unapproved (from their perspective) software or hardware. You know, the kind that can block ads, allow us to save content from webpages to local disk, and that doesn't quietly do stuff like this behind our backs. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/microsoft-resolves-edge-setting-that-was-leaking-websites-you-visit/

This is of particular concern for Linux users, because we are especially vulnerable to malware such as this, being a minority online. Actually this system will be so fine-grained that websites can choose to deny you service just because you're running, for example, an older video driver or you do not have secure boot switched on.

The mere fact that websites can even tell what OS or browser I'm running in the first place, is a bug. It's like if I got to know what kind of phone my friend is using when I dial their number. No reasonable person would think this information was any of my business, unless they (as in the human on the other side of the connection) willingly choose to tell me.

Also of note is that Google claims this is being implemented to stop bots, but that is ba-ba-bullshit, because all a bad actor has to do is connect their evil machine to their approved machine on the other side of the room by way of keyboard emulation. It's a power grab, a malicious and hostile one; If Google wanted to make the web a safer place for everyone, they could start by patching all the landfill Android phones they sell.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-07-25T12:40:45+00:00

If you think that it sucks now, just wait until they get this malware adopted in web standards.

https://www.osnews.com/story/136484/googles-nightmare-web-integrity-api-wants-a-drm-gatekeeper-for-the-web/

At least currently, you can continue to use your older devices when they get cut off from security updates three years after you buy them. But when this is rolled out, if you do not have a new enough piece of hardware that passes their integrity checks, websites will just tell you to fuck off. You won't even be able to download and install a random free edition of Linux to browse the web anymore, because they won't be certified compliant either, and so websites will likewise block you.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-07-01T15:28:26+00:00

I'm with the group that firmly believes AI will never declare war on humanity. Instead, it will be used by the self-appointed people at the top (governments, rich) to more effectively control and exploit the poor.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/15/amazon_echo_disabled_allegation/

This is what the future will be more like, except that instead of all your shit getting shut down due to a baseless accusation from a human being, the process will be 100% automated, when an AI flagged your profile for some random arbitrary reason.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-05-22T00:25:25+00:00

More likely it is due to all the cloud integration, and the constant phoning home at every step of the operation of the machine. They broke the start menu before,precisely this way, as I showed in my other comment.

Myocarditis-Man · 2023-05-13T03:36:16+00:00

If some punk-ass kid was going around hacking and disabling peoples' printers, the authorities would nab them and throw them in jail.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-05-02T22:49:29+00:00

If you're using Windows, you don't care about your privacy anyways. :)

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-05-02T15:06:24+00:00

Skynet!!! ... lol

And you just know, eventually the Americans will change their tune when they decide that it's cheaper to put a machine in charge instead of a qualified and educated human. Capitalism demands it.

Humans expect to be paid. Worse, humans expect pay raises to keep pace with hyper-inflation. Machines don't. Therefor, the law of cost cutting dictates and guarantees that machines will eventually be put in charge... to cut costs.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-04-25T16:09:56+00:00

All of the headlines are saying that (if the judge decides he is in contempt), then he will be subject to fines and not jail like the rest of us ordinary peons would be for doing the exact same thing.

But all the fines in the world are meaningless to him, since it will take exactly 0.00245 seconds for people to give him more than enough money to pay them.

You would think that those responsible for making the decision as to whether he has breached the rules, and whether to imprison him for doing so if he has, would factor the above into the equation. But I doubt it.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-04-24T03:47:38+00:00

"Wow, what game is that? The graphics are amazing!"

lol

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-04-09T18:43:08+00:00

You've gotta love it, actually. While Microsoft is exclusively focused on enshittifying and making Windows worse, Valve's Steam Deck is sneaking up on them and gaining market share/momentum. Much like with the Iphone and the Ipad, it will be too late to correct course and right the Windows ship by the time Microsoft notices what's going on.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-04-09T15:27:09+00:00

Who could have possibly predicted that creating a world where consumers can only buy locked down shit that they are not allowed to modify, alter, or repair, would result in something like this?

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-03-16T02:59:36+00:00

The only thing worse than pissing in your own pool, is pissing in somebody else's. Injecting ads and popups on me while I'm using a competitor's software is straight-up malware. If I wanted to be nagged, I would get married. At least then, I wouldn't have to just use my hand.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-03-14T16:34:44+00:00

Here we see the latest Microsoft acquisition in progress.

If the US government wanted to do something productive for a change, they would stop Facebook, Google, and Microsoft tracking everything people do.

Whether you're filling out a psychological profile online, paying your taxes, or looking up x-rated videos, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are watching.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-03-05T17:46:23+00:00

The next step will probably be making this thing pop up every fifteen minutes, covering what the user is doing, whether they like it or not. lol

Don't forget to take into account the number of users who didn't want this installed on their computers in the first place.

Myocarditis-Man · 2024-02-23T17:09:09+00:00

Not scared at all of this old as fuck, mentally deficient sack of shit.

I do have a legitimate question though. Why is so much of the world run by people who are so old that they have mentally regressed to the state of a toddler?

Why not put a 45 year old engineer or someone with a doctorate in charge of things, instead of people who probably couldn't tell you what they had for dinner last night? Do people who are free from dementia and Alzheimer's not lick enough corporate ass, and is that why we don't let them run the show?

Myocarditis-Man