The General thread for Computers And Internet

[Suranis]

For your Christmas dose of cringe.



Because I know you are going to want to listen to that song over and over and over and over.

[northland10]

I wonder how many folks got confused going to si.com for the Smithsonian. Smithsonian has been si.edu since at least 1997. At least they had Gov for the White House one.

I can't find an si.com entry on the Wayback Machine in the 90s as Sports Illustrated was still cnnsi.com back then.

[MsDaisy 2]

My damn computer seems to be running out of space and I can't save or update anything and it's REALLY pissing me off. Granted it's an 11 year old macOS High Sierra version 10.13.6 and it's been great all this time. Thinking back to getting our new iPhones recently and having to figure that out was bad enough, but a new computer is likely to be a nightmare.

Anyone have any ideas of what would be the best modern day equivalent?

[Reddog]

I don’t know anything about Macs, but I filled up my main drive 250 Gbyte. It got frustrating every time Microsoft pushed an update I had to start moving stuff and deleting just to keep it usable.
I ended up upgrading to a 2 Tbyte SSD, (son calls it 2 liter), cloning and installing it. So far no worries.
It saved me the hassle of moving several programs, e.g. Flight Simulator 2020, to a new box.
eta 1 Tbyte go for less than $50, 2 Tbyte for less than $100.

[p0rtia]

My damn computer seems to be running out of space and I can't save or update anything and it's REALLY pissing me off. Granted it's an 11 year old macOS High Sierra version 10.13.6 and it's been great all this time. Thinking back to getting our new iPhones recently and having to figure that out was bad enough, but a new computer is likely to be a nightmare.

Anyone have any ideas of what would be the best modern day equivalent?

I effing love my new Macbook Air, 13", with the M1 processer. 12 to 15 hours of battery life, speed, and the size is great. I bought a 2020 version, to get the nice reduction in price.

[qbawl]

Are you using your iCloud storage effectively? You most likely have a 50 gig iCloud account. Things like music and pictures can be stored there. It is always wise of course to do a little housecleaning. There are apps which can help you look for duplicates and such.
Switching to something like a new MacBook Air would be a way to go (assuming you want to stay with MacOs). The culture shock of the new OS Sonoma (latest version 14.2.1) as opposed to High Sierra while I suppose is somewhat daunting the basic structure and navigation will be familiar and you can avoid some of the new things in the OS until you need / want them.
What will blow you away will be the performance improvement coming from an 11 year old computer. Oh and be sure to check your or a family member's eligibility for a military, teacher, government employee, or some other discount. These can be significant. Up to 10% and if you buy from the Website or an Apple Store using ApplePay you can get another 3% discount.
Good luck.

[keith]

My damn computer seems to be running out of space and I can't save or update anything and it's REALLY pissing me off. Granted it's an 11 year old macOS High Sierra version 10.13.6 and it's been great all this time. Thinking back to getting our new iPhones recently and having to figure that out was bad enough, but a new computer is likely to be a nightmare.

Anyone have any ideas of what would be the best modern day equivalent?

I call shenanigans.

Macs NEVER fail.

[p0rtia]

My damn computer seems to be running out of space and I can't save or update anything and it's REALLY pissing me off. Granted it's an 11 year old macOS High Sierra version 10.13.6 and it's been great all this time. Thinking back to getting our new iPhones recently and having to figure that out was bad enough, but a new computer is likely to be a nightmare.

Anyone have any ideas of what would be the best modern day equivalent?

I call shenanigans.

Macs NEVER fail.

No, but you get to a point where you can no longer update the system software, which means that some stuff you want to run, won't.

I got my M1 MB Air to replace my ten-year-old MB Air, which is also running High Sierra and purring like a kitty--and which you can buy from me $100 OBO.

[keith]

I have just spent the last hour trying to clean up my ancient Lenovo android tablet that was a piece of crap from the minute I bought it 5 years ago. I now only use it to display a digital clock that I can read from across the room.

Its been acting up lately, disappearing the clock. So I thought I'd update stuff - but 'not enough room'. So I've been deleting apps like crazy - don't use anything anyway. Still no good. So I look at the storage, and the SD card is 'corrupt'. So I've formatted it.

Now let's see if it works better.

But I started this exercise so I could see when it was time to go to work today. And now its time to go to work. Didn't get anything else done in the meantime.

Razzacraps.

ETA: ahhh. NOW it tells me that the SD card is not inserted. Don't need one. Why did it think it did? I do have an old one sitting around I can put in, but I don't want to.

[RTH10260]

Georgia Tech Researchers Create First Functional Graphene Semiconductor

Georgia Tech Research
3 Jan 2024

A team led by Walter de Heer, professor of physics at Georgia Tech, has created the world’s first functional semiconductor made from graphene, a single sheet of carbon atoms held together by the strongest bonds known.

Semiconductors, which are materials that conduct electricity under specific conditions, are foundational components of electronic devices. The team’s breakthrough throws open the door to a new way of doing electronics. Their technology could allow for smaller and faster electronic devices and may have applications for quantum computing.

[RTH10260]

[tek]

If you like this sort of stuff, check out the book "Open Circuits"

The last 'big' board I did (back in 1989 or so) was 10 layers, and by figuring out how to make it on 8 layers I saved my company several million dollars over the run of the product.
The 'biggest' board I was ever involved with was a 28-layer board for some aerospace doodad.. but I was not involved with the actual layout of that board.

The cheap layout software I have for personal basement projects can do up to 16 layers, but most of my hacks are 2-layer ("double sided").

[RTH10260]

While this clip is in recognizing NASA developments, the Univac computers presented are the mainframes I made my first baby steps in Electronic Data Processing, beginning in 1969. One of the larger Swiss banks preferred to use Univac computers over IBM in those days. The series numbers I worked with and seen in this clip are the 490 / 492 and the 494.

[RTH10260]

New email policies at Gmail, Yahoo et al will require DMARC enabled domains

January 19, 2024
by Mark E. Jeftovic

As of February 1st, Gmail and Yahoo will start enforcing a requirement for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (“DMARC“). DMARC is an IETF protocol as specified in RFC7489.

It works with SPF and DKIM to signal to receiving mail servers how they should handle messages that fail SPF and DKIM validation.

You should be implementing SPF on all your mailer domains already – and DKIM is enabled by default on easyMail. If you’re running your own mail server your postmaster should have implemented it.

Quick refresher on SPF and DKIM:

SPF – signals which mailservers can legitimately originate mail from your domain name, so phishes, fakes and spams can be better identified.

DKIM – cryptographically signs the messages as they leave the originating mail server, so that intermediary hops cannot modify the message contents without you knowing it.

What DMARC adds to the mix

While the final “all” parameter in SPF (-all, +all, ~all) signals suggested actions upon an SPF fail, it’s largely up to the receiving the server what to do with it. Some ignore the setting no matter what, some send it to spam, some will bounce a -all that fails, others will ignore it.

With DMARC, you signal to the receivers – everywhere – two things:

What to do with messages that fail SPF or DKIM

Who to report failures to

This second point is important. Within DMARC records (which are all just DNS TXT records, just like SPF and DKIM) – you can add an address that specifies and email that DMARC reports get sent back to.




https://easydns.com/blog/2024/01/19/new ... d-domains/

[neonzx]

New email policies at Gmail, Yahoo et al will require DMARC enabled domains

On my private domain, I've had DMARC level security for more than 6 years which I configured myself. If I email someone, it will arrive in the inbox of the recipient.

However I am not an eggs pert or so I've been told here. Mean neon.

[RTH10260]

ChatGPT Cybercrime Surge Revealed in 3000 Dark Web Posts

24 JAN 2024
Alessandro Mascellino

Security researchers have observed a notable surge in dark web discussions regarding the illicit use of ChatGPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs), according to findings from Kaspersky’s Digital Footprint Intelligence service in 2023.

Nearly 3000 dark web posts were identified, focusing on a spectrum of cyber-threats, from creating malicious chatbot versions to exploring alternative projects like XXXGPT and FraudGPT.

While the peak in chatter occurred in March last year, ongoing discussions indicate a sustained interest in exploiting AI technologies for illegal activities.

According to the data shared by Kaspersky with Infosecurity, cybercriminals are actively exploring various schemes to implement ChatGPT and AI, including malware development and the illicit use of language models.

“Threat actors are actively exploring various schemes to implement ChatGPT and AI. Topics frequently include the development of malware and other types of illicit use of language models, such as processing of stolen user data, parsing files from infected devices and beyond,” explained Alisa Kulishenko, digital footprint analyst at Kaspersky.

The security expert added the prevalence of AI tools has also resulted in the incorporation of automated responses from ChatGPT or its equivalents into some cybercriminal forums.

“In addition, threat actors tend to share jailbreaks via various dark web channels – special sets of prompts that can unlock additional functionality – and devise ways to exploit legitimate tools, such as those for pen-testing, based on models for malicious purposes,” Kulishenko said.



https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/n ... aled-dark/

[RTH10260]

Notorious Spyware Maker NSO Group Is Quietly Plotting a Comeback
NSO Group, creator of the infamous Pegasus spyware, is spending millions on lobbying in Washington while taking advantage of the Israel-Hamas war to paint itself as essential for global security.

VAS PANAGIOTOPOULOS
JAN 24, 2024 7:00 AM

On New Year’s Eve, NSO Group—the Israel-based company behind the Pegasus spyware, one of the world’s most sophisticated cyberweapons—quietly released a new transparency report.

The 27-page document is carefully worded—even apologetic—and is intended to demonstrate resilience, progress, and responsibility to further strengthen the company’s human rights compliance program. It claims the company has “opened 19 investigations into allegations of potential product misuse,” which resulted in the “suspension or termination” of six customer accounts. The document even has a dedicated section on journalists, a significant group among as many as 50,000 people worldwide who’ve been targeted by Pegasus, a list that also includes activists, heads of state, and other public figures in more than 50 countries.

NSO Group’s new transparency report—its first in more than two years—arrives amid an apparent push by the spyware vendor to revamp its tarnished image and reverse US regulations that have damaged its business. To achieve its goal, the cyber-intelligence firm is conducting a multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign that attempts to position the company’s spyware as essential for global security.

While an NSO spokesperson tells WIRED that the report “underscores the company’s ongoing commitment to human rights and adherence to ethical standards, while enabling its clients to keep the public safe,” those who have investigated the company’s practices express skepticism about its claims.

“It’s not a transparency report in any meaningful way,” says David Kaye, a University of California, Irvine law professor who has scrutinized the company’s policies as the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. “It mainly repackages preexisting defenses and statements that NSO Group has put forward to promote its work and brand itself within the commercial spyware sector.”



https://www.wired.com/story/nso-group-l ... hamas-war/

[RTH10260]

One of the Internet’s Oldest Software Archives Is Shutting Down
The Hobbes OS/2 Archive has been an institution for over three decades. Soon, it’ll be gone.

BENJ EDWARDS, ARS TECHNICAGEAR
JAN 30, 2024 3:13 PM

Ars Technica
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED's parent company, Condé Nast.

IN A MOVE that marks the end of an era, New Mexico State University (NMSU) recently announced the impending closure of its Hobbes OS/2 Archive on April 15, 2024. For over three decades, the archive has been a key resource for users of the IBM OS/2 operating system and its successors, which once competed fiercely with Microsoft Windows.

In a statement made to The Register, a representative of NMSU wrote, “We have made the difficult decision to no longer host these files on hobbes.nmsu.edu. Although I am unable to go into specifics, we had to evaluate our priorities and had to make the difficult decision to discontinue the service.”

Hobbes is hosted by the Department of Information & Communication Technologies at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In the official announcement, the site reads, “After many years of service, hobbes.nmsu.edu will be decommissioned and will no longer be available. As of April 15th, 2024, this site will no longer exist.”

We reached out to New Mexico State University to inquire about the history of the Hobbes archive but did not receive a response. The earliest record we've found of the Hobbes archive online is this 1992 Walnut Creek CD-ROM collection that gathered up the contents of the archive for offline distribution. At around 32 years old, minimum, that makes Hobbes one of the oldest software archives on the internet, akin to the University of Michigan's archives and ibiblio at UNC.

Archivists such as Jason Scott of the Internet Archive have stepped up to say that the files hosted on Hobbes are safe and already mirrored elsewhere. "Nobody should worry about Hobbes, I've got Hobbes handled," wrote Scott on Mastodon in early January. OS/2 World.com also published a statement about making a mirror. But it's still notable whenever such an old and important piece of internet history bites the dust.

Like many archives, Hobbes started as an FTP site. "The primary distribution of files on the internet were via FTP servers," Scott tells Ars Technica. "And as FTP servers went down, they would also be mirrored as subdirectories in other FTP servers. Companies like CDROM.COM / Walnut Creek became ways to just get a CD-ROM of the items, but they would often make the data available at http://ftp.cdrom.com to download."

The Hobbes site is a priceless digital time capsule. You can still find the Top 50 Downloads page, which includes sound and image editors, and OS/2 builds of the Thunderbird email client. The archive contains thousands of OS/2 games, applications, utilities, software development tools, documentation, and server software dating back to the launch of OS/2 in 1987. There's a certain charm in running across OS/2 wallpapers from 1990, and even the archive's Update Policy is a historical gem—last updated on March 12, 1999.



https://www.wired.com/story/hobbes-os2- ... ting-down/

[Reddog]

My son sent me a picture showing, possibly, how the term “software patch” originated. Makes sense.

Software patch

IMG_7655.png (368.14 KiB) Viewed 3062 times

[RTH10260]

The "patch" is a term coined in the early days of holerith computing, eg using punched cards, later punched tapes. Tapes were a medium especially used in the days when telegram by morse code was replaced by telex / teletype machines.

It's origin comes from fixing garments, eg like patching a knee in trowsers or ellbows on shirts. Well prior to consumers expecting to buy garments with such defects factory produced

In the days of card processing it was faster to cover up one or more holes of a column with a sticker than getting it to a card punch machine and redo a copy. These stickers were extremely thin so that the machines would not choke on them or misfeed. There were also corresponding manual handpunches that allowed a card to feed thru a slot to the required column and punch in extra holes, one punch per hole position. In those days card operators were well versed in knowing the encoding scheme, fluently reading the text (like a blind person reads braille). Card equipment operators had often to handle misfeeds by crumpled or torn cards.

In the telecom field the telegrams were prepared offline on the telex machine so typing errors could be fixed and a clear message without corrections could be sent. Prior to direct dial, messages were sent to a central clearing facility, where several tapes with same destination (eg country, city) would be be taped together for fast and continuous transmission. At the receiving endnew tape would get punched and a operators would skim the incoming text to physically separate the messages for the individual recipients. The forward the separated messages on a different machine. At the same time they would catch communication errors from signal glitches that resulted in a few characters of gibberish (no checkdigits in those days), they would attempt to make up by patching those columns. Also punched tape at times would tear when feeding thru the readers, requiring sticking together and fixing up the holes at the repair position.

When computers became available running the assembler programs that turned programmer assemby code to machine code, later higher level languages to machine code, those translation programs took very long depending program size and language (like up to 30 to 45 minutes in my past expierience). Also computer time sharing was not readily available and had to be scheduled. When testing the resutling executable program on the machine and detecting a flaw in the program code it was usually faster to apply a "fix" of a few machine code lines, a case of a couple of minutes at most. Using s special utility one would prepare one card per machine code location with one or more machine code instructions prepared in binary / octal / hexadecimal and apply those corrections to the machine code file (aka ".exe") in the library. The expierienced programmer would even know how to prepare his program to generate "empty space" in the executable to use for lengthier patch ups.

Also too in those early days of computing, prior to operating system scheduled multiprogramming, the computer operator could preload the program executable into computer memory, than apply binary patches thru commands at the system console, then start the program execution. One also had the possibility to suspend a program, inspect memory locations, apply fixes on the fly and continue with program execution. These days it's what a programmer does in his high-level language development and testing environment within a virtual machine of his own, rather than the physical machine.

In the days of "big metal" prior to the appearance of the PC, computers would have a computer operator display panels with all those fancy flashing lights. The lights represented single bits of some source, a row making up things like a memory storage word, a computational register, or a memory address. Like explained above for a console, one could use this panel to stop the machine, step thru program exexuction on instruction at a time, inspect register or memory storage when stopped at a specific location and then change, aka "fix" content, being it instruction or data, during tests.

The mini- and microcomputers (PDP et al.) of the 1970ies still choose that display panel meme, but reduced to a handful of row of lighs and switches.

With the PC area the patching process evolved. In the early days of MSDOS and competitors a patch program would still apply on short sequences of code, cause communcation time to transfer a full binary program was still prohibitive when no floppy disk was available. In a next step up with more capacity available program elements like DLLs and such building blocks would get replaces, up today where simple a whole new program version gets installed.

[RTH10260]

did I just write my PhD thesis

[Flatpoint High]

did I just write my PhD thesis

mmmmmmmmaybe

[Slim Cognito]

I have a software question. As noted in my own thread, I have a premiere tomorrow with a tune that I had to download from iTunes because that's what the dance troupe system works off of. Don't ask me why, I have no clue. The version I was forced to get off iTunes has a long monologue and every second of that monologue cuts into the amount of time I have to perform. So here's my question. Is there a relatively cheap software program that would allow me to convert an M4A file to an mp3 so I can edit it and then convert it back to M4A? And once I have the edited M4A, can I stick it on a flash drive and give it to another person to add to the groups playlist?

[MN-Skeptic]

I have a software question. As noted in my own thread, I have a premiere tomorrow with a tune that I had to download from iTunes because that's what the dance troupe system works off of. Don't ask me why, I have no clue. The version I was forced to get off iTunes has a long monologue and every second of that monologue cuts into the amount of time I have to perform. So here's my question. Is there a relatively cheap software program that would allow me to convert an M4A file to an mp3 so I can edit it and then convert it back to M4A? And once I have the edited M4A, can I stick it on a flash drive and give it to another person to add to the groups playlist?

Mac or Windows?

I have no clue, but if it were me, I'd see if there was an app which would allow you to edit the M4A file rather than going through two conversions. I did a quick Google search and found this - https://speechify.com/blog/m4a-editor/. Does that work for you?

[keith]

Hope it isn't too late. I'm on a train and on my phone, but there are several Web based convert to mp3 utilities. Most assume YouTube, but maybe not. Try google "convert to mp3"