@scottalanmiller said in Miscellaneous Tech News:

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/greg-kroah-hartman-bans-university-of-minnesota-from-linux-development-for-deliberately-buggy-patches/

University of Minnesota banned from Linux contributions for being a malware source.

Damn right, I wouldn't expect anything less, especially after repeat attempts, and a lack of remourse.

@black3dynamite said in Nextcloud desktop client 3.2 with status feature and Virtual Files available now:

Not on by default for Mac and Linux users

@jospoortvliet - posted at the bottom of their blog.

For people looking to test and play with this on Linux and Mac OS X:
You can set the configuration option in nextcloud.cfg: enableExperimentalOptions=true
Then you will be able to also see the virtual files.

@andrewwheaton said in MS Windows 7 SP1 Full Screen Alert:

@scottalanmiller said in MS Windows 7 SP1 Full Screen Alert:

Just got an R7 for the kids last week.

And how is it?

Still running great, it's so fast we still feel like it is new, even though it is a year and a half old and gets used constantly.

@dashrender said in Ubiquity breached, downplayed the issue:

if this was such a huge breach - where was the huge coverage back in jan? Frankly i don't even recall hearing about it back in January. Until this, whatever you want to call it, I don't recall that at all.

Dash and I just discussed this out of band. The reason that this wasn't seen more is that the system that was allegedly hacked, the one that UBNT said was at risk, is the one with the credentials to Dream Machines and similar devices and accounts from those devices that Unifi users can make voluntarily. Normal business users of Unifi and Edge gear were not in the list of potential impacts.

He wasn't aware that UBNT had notified all of the potentially impacted customers by email, because he is a customer but not one that was potentially impacted. They didn't notify we who use local accounts, since we aren't affected. So there was a lot more notification than he had realized. The news outlets back in January and even Krebs agree that the email notification and notification of the media was real and handled just fine.

Happy seven years this month, everyone! So great that so many people are still here and so many new people have come to join us.

@scottalanmiller said in OReilly Deal of the Day:

OMG, remember when we used to buy BOOKS! LOL

I still buy books, just not the dead tree variety.

@JaredBusch We are intentionally being vague on this because the technical stuff on the backend isn't solid yet. We may be able to attest those calls depending on the circumstances. So the vagueness is simply because the product is still in motion.

@stacksofplates said in CloudFlare announces Magic WAN:

@Dashrender said in CloudFlare announces Magic WAN:

@Obsolesce said in CloudFlare announces Magic WAN:

So basically just another SDP/SDN product but with a weird name.

I was wondering this - I have no idea how much firewall type controll normal SDN products have.

is SDP software defined protection?

Software defined perimeters

As opposed to being defined in a notepad or on a chalkboard, lol.

@stacksofplates said in At Least 30,000 U.S. Organizations Newly Hacked Via Holes in Microsoft’s Exchange:

@Dashrender said in At Least 30,000 U.S. Organizations Newly Hacked Via Holes in Microsoft’s Exchange:

@StorageNinja said in At Least 30,000 U.S. Organizations Newly Hacked Via Holes in Microsoft’s Exchange:

@DustinB3403 said in At Least 30,000 U.S. Organizations Newly Hacked Via Holes in Microsoft’s Exchange:

At a prior position they went full tilt "O365/SSO everything" and while it all worked with a LOT of effort the monthly cost was insane per user, something like $42/U/Month for just our 1 location of 160 people.
Globally they had over 9000, that's a huge burden.

Except it's not.

It's opex not capex, so it's not dragging down RIOC ratio's for wall street. (big in Mfg and some industries). It's just dumped into the fully burdened cost of an employee. If your average employee is paid 50K they probably cost another 20K in benefits, training, taxes, office space, utilities and other overhead a year. Paying $42 a user per month at that scale gets you out of: "owning" versions of Office Suite is great until you end up with 4 different versions of office in the office. Then it becomes a nightmare Managing Exchange and Sharepoint etc at scale is a full-time job. paying someone else to manage it wins vs. hiring people to do that. Again it's $42 per user per month. We were spending more than that per employee on drinks and snacks before COVID hit. stocking 14 flavors of le croix, and the thousands of pounds of M&M's and "the good nuts" adds up. For a company with 9000 users, something that people are spending hours a day in, that's just cheap.

All that easily makes sense - at that scale.
I know I don't live in anywhere near that scale, and I don't believe Dustin does either.
2/3's of our employees get paid $20K/y.
It can, and likely does still make sense to do it, spend the $42/u/m, but as is contantly talked about on these forums... most small businesses play at business, they don't really run one.

At $20k a year the business is paying somewhere near $2500 a month to employ that person. $42 is nothing out of that.

Yeah I get that... but that's frequently not how finance has looked at it.. instead they look at - holy shit - it's $4200 a month for this?
but things they are a changin' so who knows what the future holds.

I do really hope the change looks at it more as an employee cost and less about the $4K/m number.

@DustinB3403 said in Solarwinds Blames Intern for Laughable Password:

@scottalanmiller said in Solarwinds Blames Intern for Laughable Password:

@IRJ said in Solarwinds Blames Intern for Laughable Password:

They should be required to do audits and pen testing yearly due to requirements of government systems. It sounds like solar winds worked with pen testing firms that that just gave passing grades. Sometimes organizations purposely hire bad security talent so they don't get exposed as doing a bad job.

You mean like how the government hires Solarwinds?

I have a client that uses at least one solar wind product and I shudder....

Me too.

@scottalanmiller said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@Dashrender said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@scottalanmiller said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@Dashrender said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@scottalanmiller said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@Dashrender said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@travisdh1 said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@Dashrender said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@Pete-S said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

@Dashrender said in LastPass Goes As Predicted Like LogMeIn:

from the sounds of it - the marketing wasn't paying off, at least not in their opinion.

They probably looking at the conversion rate from free to paying customer.

If 99% of all free users are happy with the free version then they need to remove features from the free version or remove it altogether. Or adjust their business model.

The marketing is of no value if it's successful, but only ever generates "customers" using the free version.
A lot of SaaS companies are run on venture capitalist money though and generates no profit, only losses. But that can never go on forever. But some have deep pockets. I think it took Spotify 10 years to have their first quarter that was not in the red. On a yearly basis they still never have been profitable.

Yeah that kind of crap is some thing I simply do not understand why the investors continue to pour more money on that fire. Just see that money burn

Spotify has nothing on Uber. Uber looses money on every ride still. The business model was setup to take advantage of driverless vehicles, and that's taking longer than they expected to happen. In the meantime, they keep getting the funding to continue operating.

Now this is somethign I also don't understand... Are we assuming the cost of the drivers AND administrator/IT staff for the company cost more than the app brings in? that just seems like a crazy idea.. but yet I know it must be true... I wonder what make their costs SOOOO expensive? is there that much need to continue updating the app, are the servers needed to keep the platform running THAT expensive?

For Uber, the app cost is trivial. Even if it is $50m USD a year, that's nothing in their revenue. Their costs are around payroll, payment processing, legal teams, marketing, market creation, insurance, etc.

Think about trying to make Uber... it might cost you $100m USD just to convince a single city to let you use your product there. The BIG money is in getting the laws and regulations changed to let you exist. The actual app and driving of the cars is background noise to them.

oh yeah - I keep forgetting about the requirement to buy off cities, etc to allow the thing to happen... good point.

And they keep having to enter and leave markets. All that startup cost and advertising and loss leaders, then they limp along for a year or two, then the city decides to make a competing service and kick them out once Uber paid to develop the market. It's rough.

I don't feel this is something cities should be able to do... if you can legally have the business - they they shouldn't be able to stop you....

the whole taxi aspect - selling medallions, - what a raquet!

That's the thing, they stop you by changing if it is legal for you to have a business. That's the problem with government, they change "what is legal" whenever they want.

I want to down vote this because of the gov't, not because of your post :(

@JaredBusch said in Fry's Computer Store Chain Now Defunct:

@Dashrender said in Fry's Computer Store Chain Now Defunct:

@pmoncho said in Fry's Computer Store Chain Now Defunct:

@Dashrender said in Fry's Computer Store Chain Now Defunct:

@pmoncho said in Fry's Computer Store Chain Now Defunct:

@Dashrender said in Fry's Computer Store Chain Now Defunct:

@marcinozga said in Fry's Computer Store Chain Now Defunct:

@Dashrender I think they failed because of lack of e-commerce and their prices sucked. Best Buy survived, despite being almost a clone of CC.

Frankly BB just sucks today too. They barely carry anything. I buy mice/keyboards and USB sticks from there all the time because I dont' want to wait for delivery (almost no next day delivery here).

I agree, In mid-late 90's, most of their floor space seemed like it was for music, movie and software CD/DVD's. Now it seems wide open an kinda eerie when they are not busy.

I see mostly TV's and appliances when I scan the place - oh and phones... then they have a smattering of the consumer - rape my network please electronics crap...

That is what I see also. Something inside me keeps telling me, never to buy an appliance from there or anything over the occasional mouse/keyboard, USB wireless and/or SSD drive that is on sale.

I bought a new refrigerator last May, we looked at BB first, but they didn't have what we wanted - used a local furniture place, not sure it would be really any different buying from Nebraska Furniture Mart or BB - or hell Costco.

Our kitchen appliances all came from Ikea. It is all black label of known brands.

But this does remind me - BB was known for getting units from manufactures with unique model numbers so they didn't have to price shop against other vendors - this also caused warranty issues too, if I recall.

Not sure if they are doing that anymore or not.

That awesome news.

Could it also be that Texas gives more tax incentives than California. Making Texas a business friendly state or better to do business with?

@scottalanmiller said in Zyxel backdoor found:

@jt1001001 said in Zyxel backdoor found:

Number of their products are OEM to isp and other manufacturers. We have a DSL backup circuit using an ORM Zyxel router. Will be disconnected on Monday as we don't need it

That's because DSL stands for Don't need that Shit any Longer.

I'm using DSL right now, but we're right next to the COLAC, so we actually see 80mbps/20mbps. Our only other option is a cable company that would cost 3x more due to such low caps (Armstrong).

@JaredBusch said in Wasabi cloud storage service knocked offline for hosting malware:

@scottalanmiller said in Wasabi cloud storage service knocked offline for hosting malware:

Damn, it's GoDaddy!

Horrible provider of any ser

I've generally liked them as a registrar. That said, I buy there then move to CloudFlare so the use of them is pretty limited.