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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 71 declined, 14 accepted (85 total, 16.47% accepted)

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Trouble with Microsoft Intune Autopilot 2

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: At the company where I work we have now three times encountered cases where some Windows 11 computers have either been reassigned to another company or removed from the company where I work and ended up being a generic Microsoft account computer.

This is first visualized on the Let's add your Microsoft account page where the logo is incorrect over the Sign In field. In my most recent case the computer has been removed from Intune, but has still been present in Entra. The end result has been a computer with a quite weird behavior limiting its usability.

All computers have been Dell computers of various models, but I doubt that it's a Dell only issue.

So my question is if anyone else has encountered the same phenomenon?

Submission + - SPAM: CCC demands digital infrastructures that are resilient against fascismâ(TM)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: We need a digital firewall against fascism. We are addressing twelve demands to the CDU/CSU and SPD, which they must implement swiftly to stop the foreseeable consequences of the shift to the right and the endeavors of Trump and Co. The surveillance era must end.

The start of a new government in Germany is accompanied by a turnaround in transatlantic relations and an unprecedented anti-democratic takeover of power by tech broligarchs in the United States. Therefore, mass surveillance by tech companies is even more of a political issue than before, which a new government cannot ignore.
Link to Original Source

Submission + - David Lynch has passed away (wikipedia.org)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: In January 2025, Lynch evacuated his Los Angeles home due to the Southern California wildfires; Deadline Hollywood reported that these events preceded a terminal decline in his health, and on January 16, 2025, Lynch's family announced that he had died at the age of 78.

Submission + - Tiny robot 'kidnaps' 12 big Chinese bots from a Shanghai showroom (interestingengineering.com) 2

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: The rise of AI brought many significant changes to innovations, making positive transformations in our lives by completing multiple tasks in a more efficient and faster way. However, there have been major concerns related to AI as it’s feared that it can get out of control from human’s approach and may start working against us.

In one such incident, a little AI robot convinced a dozen large robots to stop working and come home with him.

The incident occurred on August 26 this year in Shanghai but has been recently made public.

Submission + - Classic Windows Update for those older Windows versions (windowsupdaterestored.com) 3

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: Welcome to Windows Update Restored! This is a project dedicated to restoring the update functionality for Windows 95 up to Windows XP, with Automatic Updates as well. We actively work on the project and make improvements over time, which can be found in the news section at the bottom of this page.

In August of 2011, Microsoft shut down the Windows Update servers for Windows 95/NT4/98/Me/2000 (RTM, SP1 & SP2). This prevented legacy systems from getting updates and other software from Microsoft. Windows Update Restored has brought back those old websites, to give you the update experience of how it was back then!

The original Windows Update websites provided users with security (critical) updates, optional software updates, driver updates, and other types of software for your operating system. Windows Update Restored has revived all of these features, as well as the Automatic Updates feature and the Critical Update Notification Tool (Windows 98 to Windows XP). Want to learn more about what is available on Windows Update Restored? Read the Frequently Asked Questions.

This website is best viewed with a resolution of 800x600 pixels and required a minimum of Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 to properly be displayed. Though, we recommend the use of Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5. To download various versions of Internet Explorer, visit the Internet Explorer Downloads page.

Every Windows Update website will require Internet Explorer (versions 4.0 to 6.0 to work, and won't work in any other browsers).

Submission + - FTC urged to stop tech makers downgrading devices after you've bought them (theregister.com)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: Consumer and digital rights activists are calling on the US Federal Trade Commission to stop device-makers using software to reduce product functionality, bricking unloved kit, or adding surprise fees post-purchase.

In an eight-page letter [PDF] to the Commission (FTC), the activists mentioned the Google/Levis collaboration on a denim jacket that contained sensors enabling it to control an Android device through a special app. When the app was discontinued in 2023, the jacket lost that functionality.

Submission + - Shopping app Temu is âoedangerous malware" (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: Temuâ"the Chinese shopping app that has rapidly grown so popular in the US that even Amazon is reportedly trying to copy itâ"is "dangerous malware" that's secretly monetizing a broad swath of unauthorized user data, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin alleged in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

Griffin cited research and media reports exposing Temu's allegedly nefarious design, which "purposely" allows Temu to "gain unrestricted access to a user's phone operating system, including, but not limited to, a user's camera, specific location, contacts, text messages, documents, and other applications."

Submission + - How Big Tech rewrote the nation's first cell phone repair law (grist.org)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: Documents reveal tech lobbyists revised a right-to-repair bill before New York's governor signed it.

New York state took a historic step toward curbing the power of Big Tech when lawmakers passed the Digital Fair Repair Act, giving citizens the right to fix their phones, tablets, and computers. For years, advocates for the “right to repair” have pushed for such legislation in statehouses nationwide. They argue that making it easier to repair gadgets not only saves consumers money, but also reduces the environmental impact of manufacturing and electronic waste. Most of those bills have failed amid intense opposition from tech companies that want to dictate how and where their products are serviced.

The passage of the Digital Fair Repair Act last June reportedly caught the tech industry off guard, but it had time to act before Governor Kathy Hochul would sign it into law. Corporate lobbyists went to work, pressing Albany for exemptions and changes that would water the bill down. They were largely successful: While the bill Hochul signed in late December remains a victory for the right-to-repair movement, the more corporate-friendly text gives consumers and independent repair shops less access to parts and tools than the original proposal called for. (The state Senate still has to vote to adopt the revised bill, but it’s widely expected to do so.)

Submission + - Leprosy disease able to regenerate organs (bbc.com)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: Leprosy bacteria may hold the secret to safely repairing and regenerating the body, researchers at the University of Edinburgh say.

Animal experiments have uncovered the bacteria's remarkable ability to almost double the size of livers by stimulating healthy growth.

It is a sneakily selfish act that gives the bacteria more tissue to infect.

But working out how they do it could lead to new age-defying therapies, the scientists say.

Submission + - Zero-day in Microsoft Office will work even when macros are disabled (theregister.com)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: Infosec researchers have idenitied a zero-day code execution vulnerability in Microsoft's ubiquitous Office software.

Dubbed "Follina", the vulnerability has been floating around for a while (cybersecurity researcher Kevin Beaumont traced it back to a report made to Microsoft on April 12) and uses Office functionality to retrieve a HTML file which in turn makes use of the Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) to run some code.

Also see tweet by Kevin Beaumont

Submission + - Inside the Bitcoin Bust of the Web's Biggest Child Abuse Site (wired.com)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: EARLY ONE FALL morning in 2017, in a middle-class suburb on the outskirts of Atlanta, Chris Janczewski stood alone inside the doorway of a home he had not been invited to enter.

Moments earlier, armed Homeland Security Investigations agents in ballistic vests had taken up positions around the tidy two-story brick house, banged on the front door, and when a member of the family living there opened it, swarmed inside. Janczewski, an Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator, followed quietly behind. Now he found himself in the entryway, in the eye of a storm of activity, watching the agents search the premises and seize electronic devices. ...

Over the previous few years, Janczewski, his partner Tigran Gambaryan, and a small group of investigators at a growing roster of three-letter American agencies had used this newfound technique, tracing a cryptocurrency that once seemed untraceable, to crack one criminal case after another on an unprecedented, epic scale. But those methods had never led them to a case quite like this one, in which the fate of so many people, victims and perpetrators alike, seemed to hang on the findings of this novel form of forensics. That morning’s search in the suburb near Atlanta was the first moment when those stakes became real for Janczewski. It was, as he would later put it, “a proof of concept.”

Submission + - SPAM: Is Microsoft Stealing People's Bookmarks?

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: From Schneier on Security

I received email from two people who told me that Microsoft Edge enabled synching without warning or consent, which means that Microsoft sucked up all of their bookmarks. Of course they can turn synching off, but it’s too late. Has this happened to anyone else, or was this user error of some sort? If this is real, can some reporter write about it? (Not that “user error” is a good justification. Any system where making a simple mistake means that you’ve forever lost your privacy isn’t a good one. We see this same situation with sharing contact lists with apps on smartphones. Apps will repeatedly ask, and only need you to accidentally click “okay” once.) EDITED TO ADD: It’s actually worse than I thought. Edge urges users to store passwords, ID numbers, and even passport numbers, all of which get uploaded to Microsoft by default when synch is enabled.

Also from one comment:

Ted November 17, 2021 8:29 AM It looks like Microsoft released some documentation on “Microsoft Edge – Policies” for Enterprise on 11-9-21. It is only a 472 minute read, but there is some info on Forced Synching, for example: ForceSync Force synchronization of browser data and do not show the sync consent prompt [spam URL stripped]...


Link to Original Source

Submission + - Request FTC to enforce the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act (repair.org)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: It's time to speak out for your right to repair

U.S. PIRG, Repair.org and iFixit are calling on the FTC to take real action to protect your right to repair. Add your voice and tell the FTC that it’s time to act.

We’re asking the FTC to:
  • Enforce the law against companies who use illegal tying arrangements to force consumers to purchase connected repair services.
  • Enforce the law against companies who violate the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act by voiding warranties when a consumer fixes something themselves or uses third-party parts or repair services.
  • Enforce the law against companies who refuse to sell replacement parts, diagnostic and repair tools, or service information to independent repair providers.
  • Publish new guidance on unfair, deceptive, and abusive terms in end user license agreements (EULAs) that: restrict independent or self repair; restrict access to parts and software; prohibit the transfer of user licenses; that and that purport to void warranties for independent or self repair.
  • Issue new rules prohibiting exclusivity arrangements with suppliers, customers, and repair providers that exclude independent repair providers and suppress competition in the market for repair services.
  • Issue new rules prohibiting companies from deceiving customers by selling products which cannot be repaired without destroying the device or cannot be repaired outside of the company’s own service network, without disclosing that fact at the point of sale.

Submission + - The SDR.hu project has been finished (sdr.hu)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes: The site known in amateur radio for access to a plethora of SDR (Software Defined Radio) sites sdr.hu has now closed down.

The SDR sites that exists all over the world are for listening in to primarily shortwave radio.

From the site:

I'd like to say a big thanks to everyone who joined my journey with this project!

I hope you had a good time listening on the site, and learnt some things about SDR. The purpose of this site was to provide a technological demonstration for amateur radio operators about Software Defined Radio, and I hope this goal has been reached. As this website was a one-person hobby project, with my tasks and responsibilities growing, and my focus moving to other projects at which I hope to make a greater positive impact, I'm unable to further develop SDR.hu and protect it from abuse.

Furthermore, I think this site has some good alternatives now. Nevertheless, in my opinion amateur radio receivers should be shared with strict access control in the future.

If you have more questions, feel free to consult the FAQ.


73!

Andras, HA7ILM


Submission + - Wrong chemical dumped into Olympic pools made them green (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Z00L00K
Z00L00K writes:

After a week of trying to part with green tides in two outdoor swimming pools, Olympic officials over the weekend wrung out a fresh mea culpa and yet another explanation—neither of which were comforting. According to officials, a local pool-maintenance worker mistakenly added 160 liters of hydrogen peroxide to the waters on August 5, which partially neutralized the chlorine used for disinfection. With chlorine disarmed, the officials said that “organic compounds”—i.e. algae and other microbes—were able to grow and turn the water a murky green in the subsequent days. The revelation appears to contradict officials’ previous assurances that despite the emerald hue, which first appeared Tuesday, the waters were safe.

I would personally have avoided using the green pools, but that's just me.

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