People have spotted something wrong on the articles about Windows Server 20th Anniversary everywhere but let's face it, the real flaw lies with the official announcements from Microsoft regarding Windows Server 20th Anniversary that the falsified news has been spread everywhere. It's a chain reaction of stupidity or something for having celebrated something way too late. They could have done the celebration three years ago but the truth is that Windows NT 3.1, 3.5 and 3.51 Server editions were not so much successful back then while Windows NT 4.0 Server onwards had enough momentum that those failures didn't even count. If they had to celebrate Windows Server 20th Anniversary three years ago, that could pose them a problem like they had to explain on why Windows NT 3.1 had limited success back then compared to Windows 3.1 which was so successful.
While Windows NT was like more stable enough for business use, it didn't have the features the DOS-based Windows OSes had back then. Even if Windows NT had those features, chances are, they might be limited. It was until the existence of Windows 2000 which had more features that were enough to make it on par with DOS-based Windows OSes and to even supercede them although Windows 98SE and ME already opened doors to using some Windows XP-era technologies with IE6, WMP9, Office XP, etc.
Worse thing about the celebration was that it occured on July 28. Question is, do they have BRAINS about Windows NT 3.1, 3.5 and 3.51 Server editions before preparing to celebrate Windows Server 20th anniversary? WHERE HAD THE OFFICIAL KNOWLEDGES ABOUT THOSE GONE TO? WERE THEY EVEN AWARE OF THOSE OSes' LIMITED SUCCESS?
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
France's CNIL regarding Windows 10 data collection
About few days left before the upgrade to Windows 10 is no longer free and yet the illegal telemetry/data collection still continues through the company's ON-GOING TECHNICAL TYRANNY! If the product is released in an incomplete state with core features implemented and future updates coming in, it is half-fine all along but adding additional negative thing which is the lack of security to the product can WORSEN its reputation.
From the observation result as reported by CNIL from France starting from April to June, Windows 10 doesn't comply with French Data Protection Act. It collects too much stuffs along with irrelevant ones like it's doing too much energy consumption for that bullshit. It's like the change of Privacy Policy in the past wasn't quite enough and the OS continues to do this kind of irrelevant bullshit in addition to collecting data based on the privacy options PRESENT in the Control Panel. It tracks on how long the users use along with system information about the apps installed in the machine.
Furthermore, there's another concern CNIL has regarding the PIN login method. After tons of incorrect attempts, it should switch the users back to the password login method which CNIL thinks is more secure that way. Sure, the password is more secure than PIN if your password is strong enough as the PIN login method may be vulnerable to brute-force attacks. What about banning various kinds of PIN numbers because they're too weak like 4444, for instance? In fact, there should be an alternate link on the login screen that switches users to the password login method in case they can't login using PIN numbers. By the way, the PIN is assigned to the device while the password is assigned to the user account.
Another worse thing is that the major updates of Windows 10 may allow advertisements to be seen in apps and Start Menu based on the advertising ID which is linked to the users.
A major warning from CNIL is that Microsoft has a few months to comply with the French Data Protection Act or there's a chance that Microsoft's reputation will be affected for non-compliance and such business non-compliance like this can result in an investigation of the company. We don't know if the French Data Protection Act will really be complied or not as if someone from Microsoft will be telling lies or something. Publishing business lies to the public can be a serious offense like certain ISPs in the US already do despite the fact that Net Neutrality is still in effect there for instance. This is beyond the final days of free upgrade offer for Windows 10 because after July 29, the upgrade will no longer be free but at this time Microsoft is already warned, it's already too late to accept the offer at the last moment and the earlier time of free upgrade plan to Windows 10 was already in vain due to lack of realization that the illegal data collection from the OS was still on-going until now.
Lastly, we don't know the major impact that will be done to the freedom in the future. Will the tech companies we know of and use their services be no longer trusted in the future for good? Will we be permanently betrayed by them for good? Will we drift away from the tech world completely in favor of doing something else that's completely different? It's basically a race against time until November where the election in the US begins and until then, the tech companies can't be trusted and that the real privacy policies make us think like, we don't know if those policies are for nothing or what.
From the observation result as reported by CNIL from France starting from April to June, Windows 10 doesn't comply with French Data Protection Act. It collects too much stuffs along with irrelevant ones like it's doing too much energy consumption for that bullshit. It's like the change of Privacy Policy in the past wasn't quite enough and the OS continues to do this kind of irrelevant bullshit in addition to collecting data based on the privacy options PRESENT in the Control Panel. It tracks on how long the users use along with system information about the apps installed in the machine.
Furthermore, there's another concern CNIL has regarding the PIN login method. After tons of incorrect attempts, it should switch the users back to the password login method which CNIL thinks is more secure that way. Sure, the password is more secure than PIN if your password is strong enough as the PIN login method may be vulnerable to brute-force attacks. What about banning various kinds of PIN numbers because they're too weak like 4444, for instance? In fact, there should be an alternate link on the login screen that switches users to the password login method in case they can't login using PIN numbers. By the way, the PIN is assigned to the device while the password is assigned to the user account.
Another worse thing is that the major updates of Windows 10 may allow advertisements to be seen in apps and Start Menu based on the advertising ID which is linked to the users.
A major warning from CNIL is that Microsoft has a few months to comply with the French Data Protection Act or there's a chance that Microsoft's reputation will be affected for non-compliance and such business non-compliance like this can result in an investigation of the company. We don't know if the French Data Protection Act will really be complied or not as if someone from Microsoft will be telling lies or something. Publishing business lies to the public can be a serious offense like certain ISPs in the US already do despite the fact that Net Neutrality is still in effect there for instance. This is beyond the final days of free upgrade offer for Windows 10 because after July 29, the upgrade will no longer be free but at this time Microsoft is already warned, it's already too late to accept the offer at the last moment and the earlier time of free upgrade plan to Windows 10 was already in vain due to lack of realization that the illegal data collection from the OS was still on-going until now.
Lastly, we don't know the major impact that will be done to the freedom in the future. Will the tech companies we know of and use their services be no longer trusted in the future for good? Will we be permanently betrayed by them for good? Will we drift away from the tech world completely in favor of doing something else that's completely different? It's basically a race against time until November where the election in the US begins and until then, the tech companies can't be trusted and that the real privacy policies make us think like, we don't know if those policies are for nothing or what.
Staff reductions in Cyanogen Inc. (Updated)
First things first, there are differences to note of between Cyanogen and CyanogenMod. Cyanogen is the company that makes the commercial version of CyanogenMOD known as CyanogenOS which is already pre-installed in various smartphones like Oneplus One while CyanogenMod is the XDA community version and it is said to be popular compared to CyanogenOS itself. Unfortunately, there was a huge controversy surrounding Cyanogen Inc. and especially that certain companies like Microsoft were really interested in Cyanogen OS. The users part of the CyanogenMod community were pretty much aware of the controversy over the fact that some features are not used by CyanogenOS and some others were illegally implemented or used. Even worse is that various technical promises were broken in CyanogenOS in which users' privacy would be vulnerable to being compromised.
In the end, it is a massive disappointment to the CyanogenMod community about the Cyanogen Inc. and CyanogenOS and especially that there were phones making use of CyanogenOS in which nobody would buy them or something. Another major impact to Cyanogen Inc. is that the Android and IOS today have improved features and security although the security level was like too strong to be frank like it's one different controversy after another.
There were layoffs of staffs at Cyanogen Inc. after the fact that the newly recruited Chief Operating Officer came on board at the company after leaving Facebook last month. The layoffs may not affect the business operation that much that the CyanogenMod will still continue to be worked on and supported.
In the end, it is a massive disappointment to the CyanogenMod community about the Cyanogen Inc. and CyanogenOS and especially that there were phones making use of CyanogenOS in which nobody would buy them or something. Another major impact to Cyanogen Inc. is that the Android and IOS today have improved features and security although the security level was like too strong to be frank like it's one different controversy after another.
There were layoffs of staffs at Cyanogen Inc. after the fact that the newly recruited Chief Operating Officer came on board at the company after leaving Facebook last month. The layoffs may not affect the business operation that much that the CyanogenMod will still continue to be worked on and supported.
Verizon to acquire Yahoo?
Back then, the Yahoo services and websites were popular globally but now, it looks like it has lost momentum that forced the company to put it up for sale. It seemed that certain companies were starting to get interested in acquiring it to keep the businesses up and running. Previously, Verizon had purchased AOL which was another popular thing back then but the acquisition of AOL from Verizon had caused concerns for netizens in which the bandwidth would be throttled for users when it comes to visiting Yahoo or AOL websites like they have on-going doubts about the Net Neutrality stuffs and especially that some people may probably think that certain articles have negative viewpoints about Verizon over the Net Neutrality stuff. It had been days or weeks ever since the actions were done for Net Neutrality for EU and further decisions will be needed in the future to see if the Net Neutrality rules in EU will be approved or not.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
End-to-end encryption for Facebook Messenger
Well, what else I can say other than the fact that the encryption is being implemented and will take effect this summer for Facebook Messenger? It probably protects users from having their privacy compromised BUT it can open doors to bad guys using this service undetected which poses difficulty for law enforcement agencies. Like where's the equality in the world of cyber-security?
The difference is that Secret Conversations will work on one device the user can choose from and rich contents will remain un-encrypted. I guess it's to bring some kind of fairness but that's not enough. If only there's a option to turn off the encryption feature for proper fairness to both sides.
The difference is that Secret Conversations will work on one device the user can choose from and rich contents will remain un-encrypted. I guess it's to bring some kind of fairness but that's not enough. If only there's a option to turn off the encryption feature for proper fairness to both sides.
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Codemoji by Mozilla
Codemoji is the educational game by Mozilla that teaches people about encryption. You just type in the message and encode it using the emoji cypher to send it to your friends in an encrypted form. The receiver of the encrypted message will have to use the same emoji cypher to decrypt it.
Note that this is not a serious attempt to bring secure messaging that way. As this is an educational material by Mozilla as part of the privacy advocating campaign, it may be interesting to educate users about cyphers and basic encryption concept. Sure, learning cyber-security may be a challenge for technical people but there are four mini-episodes about encryption as released by Mozilla to learn why encryption is important in general.
You're already better off using the sophisticated security tools than Codemoji according to Mozilla. What they also have said is that they have also mentioned the recent cyber-security situations regarding the encryption like the encryption is being threatened around the globe which may be true because the encryption power is too strong that cyber-criminals for instance, can make use of it to get away with it undetected. There must be some equality but you may have concerns if one organization or agency is lacking any trust for privacy advocates or not.
There might be other cyber-security news on Neowin like tech companies offer secure messaging will be fined in Russia if the anti-encryption bill there goes in effect or not for instance but there isn't anything special or much to say about those news.
Note that this is not a serious attempt to bring secure messaging that way. As this is an educational material by Mozilla as part of the privacy advocating campaign, it may be interesting to educate users about cyphers and basic encryption concept. Sure, learning cyber-security may be a challenge for technical people but there are four mini-episodes about encryption as released by Mozilla to learn why encryption is important in general.
You're already better off using the sophisticated security tools than Codemoji according to Mozilla. What they also have said is that they have also mentioned the recent cyber-security situations regarding the encryption like the encryption is being threatened around the globe which may be true because the encryption power is too strong that cyber-criminals for instance, can make use of it to get away with it undetected. There must be some equality but you may have concerns if one organization or agency is lacking any trust for privacy advocates or not.
There might be other cyber-security news on Neowin like tech companies offer secure messaging will be fined in Russia if the anti-encryption bill there goes in effect or not for instance but there isn't anything special or much to say about those news.
EU Slowdown campaign by Fight For The Future
Many websites in Europe were fighting for real Net Neutrality just like the real Net Neutrality rules in the US went in effect after long times of fighting for freedom. However, it doesn't mean a complete relaxation time as the never-ending challenge between Team Internet and Team ISPs is still on-going. There might be court cases as filed by those ISPs in the US about Net Neutrality but in the end, it appeared that those ISPs lost the battle.
Filing a lawsuit against the ISP you're subscribed to over slow internet bandwidth may cost lots of money and time and it's more useless trying to upgrade the broadband routers for the sake of better speed. Perhaps, this is where Net Neutrality comes in handy as equal technical fairness. I don't know if a lawsuit from a customer will force the ISP to end bandwidth throttling or not because after sometime, they may probably think that that force may be useless to them and they may continue their evil plans to throttling down the bandwidth again. There's no way to tell anymore if this is bullshit or not but even with real Net Neutrality rules, the fight for freedom isn't over yet.
The campaign as organized by Fight For The Future is still on-going until sometime next month. Thankfully, people around the globe are able to save the internet in Europe unlike the US where only locals can take action to save the same internet by having real Net Neutrality.
As always, I have been subscribed to Fight For The Future for future situation to keep a look out for ever since estimated four years ago.
Filing a lawsuit against the ISP you're subscribed to over slow internet bandwidth may cost lots of money and time and it's more useless trying to upgrade the broadband routers for the sake of better speed. Perhaps, this is where Net Neutrality comes in handy as equal technical fairness. I don't know if a lawsuit from a customer will force the ISP to end bandwidth throttling or not because after sometime, they may probably think that that force may be useless to them and they may continue their evil plans to throttling down the bandwidth again. There's no way to tell anymore if this is bullshit or not but even with real Net Neutrality rules, the fight for freedom isn't over yet.
The campaign as organized by Fight For The Future is still on-going until sometime next month. Thankfully, people around the globe are able to save the internet in Europe unlike the US where only locals can take action to save the same internet by having real Net Neutrality.
As always, I have been subscribed to Fight For The Future for future situation to keep a look out for ever since estimated four years ago.
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