@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

ben

@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk

I'm Ben and I'm rubbish at writing bio's.

I'm a general geek, who's core skillsets boil down to trouble-shooting and reverse engineering.

I mostly talk about #Tech, #Monitoring, #SoftwareDevelopment, #Privacy & #Security

If you want to send messages encrypted with PGP, you can find my key in the links below.

My Toots auto-delete after a month (https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/opinion/arguments-for-and-against-auto-deleting-mastodon-toots.html)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

edavies, to random
@edavies@functional.cafe avatar

Excellent news.

But what have the Tories seen coming that means they don't want to hang on till the autumn?

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@edavies I'm hoping it's just self-preservation on his part - realising they might have time to replace him before October.

But yeah.... seems more likely they've spotted something and want someone else to carry the blame

ben, to random
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

Yesssssss.... it's finally time.

Get the cunts out.

GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

For those who aren’t aware, Microsoft have decided to bake essentially an infostealer into base Windows OS and enable by default.

From the Microsoft FAQ: “Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers."

Info is stored locally - but rather than something like Redline stealing your local browser password vault, now they can just steal the last 3 months of everything you’ve typed and viewed in one database.

video/mp4

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@ianbetteridge @GossiTheDog

Without recall, they can only really do so going forwards.

The addition of Recall means every part of the last 3 months of your activity is now in scope and in one easily accessible place and format.

Being compromised now and future activity being at risk isn't great, but at least provides a window of opportunity to spot it.

Being compromised and having everything you did for the last 3 months at-risk is a pretty big escalation IMO

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@ianbetteridge @GossiTheDog

Discoverability is quite a huge point too. You might notice a keylogger (because your AV eventually gets a new signature and catches it).

Will you notice that recall has been turned back on?

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@ianbetteridge @GossiTheDog That's something at least.

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@ianbetteridge @GossiTheDog

I guess the problem, for them, is that if they made it abundantly clear it's running (e.g. by turning the desktop red or pop up a notification periodcally), it'd put users off using it.

I'd argue that's probably a sign it's not a great idea to have it, but YMMV.

ben, to Blog
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

New : Troubleshooting a wet passenger footwell on a

This issue's been living rent free in my head for months, but we've finally cracked it.

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/general/corsa-water-leak-wet-footwell-carpet.html

GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

One of the things which baffles me the most about being an adult is nobody but me thinks they are rich.

I think it’s presumably an us vs them thing, ie people want to believe The Others are rich.

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@GossiTheDog I think a lot of people measure "richness" by whether it feels like they're having to be careful.

We grow up thinking that being rich means breezing through. But in practice people's outgoings expand with their income (bigger mortgage etc), they feel like they're still having to count pennies so "can't" be rich, forgetting how much more they've got than someone on a lower wage.

I remember earning £10k and having a major's wife tell me how hard it was living on their income

ben, to random
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

started offering in my area.

It sounded quite tempting until I looked closer at their terms.

Residential packages:

  • 24 month contract
  • price goes up a tenner a month if you roll off the end
  • Use of their router reqd

If you want a static IP, or to put the router in bridging mode, you need a business pkg, which are all symmetric, so cost a good chunk more.

I'd be paying more for less.

I think I'll stick with @aaisp and wait for Openreach to get FTTP rolled out round here.

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@danieldurrans Oof, yeah I'm not sure I'd like that either.

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@psfshr @danieldurrans We once lived in a house that was in a (no longer new build) estate that had done a deal with Virgin (actually it was prob Telewest)

All the houses had covenants against installing a rooftop aerial because Virgin would provide a communal link.

That link had long since broken and Virgin had no interest in fixing it. Some installed aerials, but some were jobs-worths convinced it'd affect property prices and tried to cause trouble.

Exclusive deals should be banned IMO

ben, to Blog
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

New : hangs on opening

After years of working perfectly for me, my text editor up and broke on me.

Spoiler: The underlying issue was actually a mount, turns out KATE walks the filesystem on launch, even if not opening a file

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/general/kate-sits-on-a-loading-wheel.html

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@lewiscowles1986 Yep... I can sort of understand it taking the action - the component's on the bar on the left (not that I ever use it).

But it should absolutely be giving up at some point.

ben, to Smoking
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

My last cigarette was 6 years ago today

Feels like a lot longer, though I still periodically find myself fancying one - particularly if there's time that I need to kill.

I don't think that'll ever go away though.

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/stop-smoking.html

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@nith0u Yeah, it doesn't last long. Tends to be an instinctual "oh, I need to wait a few mins, I could have a rollie"

Walking along a waterside does it too - I think I probably blame Amsterdam for that though 😀

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@bazkie Yeah, I try to think about it in similar terms. Plus I tell myself I'd probably be sick if I had one now

Edent, (edited ) to blogging
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

🆕 blog! “It was twenty years ago today”

I wrote my first public blog post on 2004-05-11. I immediately followed it up with a brief review of my BlackBerry. I kept up the blogging for a few months, then it trickled off. I preferred posting on Usenet and other primitive forms of social media. But, by 2007, I was back to blogging on […]

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/05/it-was-twenty-years-ago-today/
⸻

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@Edent A slightly late Happy anniversary

Looks like I'm about a year behind you

ben, to Blog
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

New : My won't power on or charge

I originally tooted about this about a month ago. Through a dose of bad luck (combined with shipping times), it's taken a month to get the up and running again.

Post covers:

  • Initial troubleshooting
  • Mainboard replacement

It's actually not too bad to do on these.

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/documentation/general/keyboard-removal-and-reinstallation-on-a-thinkpad-x280.html

danieldurrans, to random
@danieldurrans@mastodon.me.uk avatar

What domain registrar is the "go to" these days?

People who run their own registrar need not answer this question ;)

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@pwaring @danieldurrans @beasts

Same here

verge, to random
@verge@mastodon.social avatar

OpenAI could unveil its Google search competitor on Monday https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/10/24153421/openai-chatgpt-google-search-competitor-service-io

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@verge They're bolting it onto Bing?

They're going to hit exactly the same issue as Slack's AI: if it's built on top of crappy search functionality, the output can only ever be crap.

And that's before it starts inventing URLs that don't exist.

ben, to random
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

My inbox isn't just elite, it needs enunciation

Yeah, I should probably have a clear out

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@tom But.... but... I'm totally going to read them at some point.

Edent, (edited ) to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

From an artist's point of view, is there any difference between you buying a donated CD from a charity shop and downloading pirated music from a torrent site?

Neither gives the artists, songwriters, producers, publishers, or distributors any money.

Neither reports to a charts authority to show popularity.

Both have the same impact on secondary revenue like gig tickets & merchandise.

Vote now - and please show your workings.

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@Edent I've put charity as being better, but that's purely on the basis of perception.

For the single transaction, there's no real impact to the artist (they get no revenue either way).

But, if you went up to them and said "I got your album from...", they'd likely feel you'd "stolen" from them using torrents but wouldn't with charity.

Realistically, they're never likely to know either way, but it's the only differentiator I can think of from the artists PoV.

ben, to Blog
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

New post: Spending an Afternoon in the Sizewell Control Room Simulator

I'm a bit late in writing something, but @popey, @8none1, @sil got to spend an afternoon in the operations training centre at B power station

T'was an awesome afternoon

https://www.bentasker.co.uk/posts/blog/general/an-afternoon-in-sizewell-b-control-room-simulator.html

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@Smoljaguar Thanks!

ben,
@ben@mastodon.bentasker.co.uk avatar

@pamiiap Glad you liked it, it was an awesome afternoon!

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