How Linux Didn’t Defeat UNIX™

 Computing, History, Linux  No Responses »
Jan 142024
 

Just seen a video title about how Linux defeated UNIX™; it is quite hard to dispute this givennd that that Linux is alive, well, and thriving. But I would argue that it isn’t quite true.

First of all, UNIX™ is technically alive as Solaris, HP-UX and AIX are still active. And there may well be rarer versions out there – and I’m excluding operating systems that meet the trademark requirements but aren’t really “Unix” (we could argue all day about what is and what isn’t “Unix”).

But the market for UNIX™ machines is a great deal smaller than it used to be. And why is that? I would argue that whilst Linux made the transition easier, it isn’t the real reason why many organisations swapped out their high-priced machines for cheaper machines.

And that gives a bit of a clue. Whilst the high-priced machines from Sun, SGI, HP, IBM, Digital, etc. weren’t over-priced they were expensive. The hardware was built to be exceptionally reliable – for example some of the Suns I worked with could deal with a processor failure by simply turning off that processor and letting an engineer replace the board all whilst the system was up and running.

No what “killed” those expensive UNIX™ machines was virtualisation and the use of commodity hardware. If a modern server dies, the virtual servers running on it are simply migrated to a working server suffering at worst a reboot (but probably not).

Plus there was a realisation that not everything needed to be continually available.

Through The Gateway

It’s Official; Tories Are Lying Scum

 Politics  No Responses »
Jan 072024
 

The 𝕏-verse has been splattered with Tory messages about this month’s cut in National Insurance; many of which have been amusing tagged with context pointing out that this isn’t a tax cut. Oh and if you see a Tory tax calculator, don’t try it – it’ll dishonestly add you to a Tory mailing list.

  1. National Insurance isn’t quite a tax; it looks like one, smells like one, but isn’t quite. The NI contributions are added to a fund out of which certain benefits are paid – chiefly state pensions. See: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/657ae7f1254aaa000d050d2e/Great_Britain_National_Insurance_Fund_Account_-_2022_to_2023.pdf
  2. There is already a stealth tax rise due in April; a ‘tax cut’ that’ll be obliterated in three months is nothing more than a token gesture. Quite possibly a political stunt aimed at encouraging voters to vote Tory in a May election (if it occurs).

We can expect many, many more Tory lies on social media as the next election approaches; always pay attention to the “added context”.

Is Starmer a Red Tory?

 Politics  No Responses »
Jan 062024
 

There’s quite a bit of noise online about how Keir Starmer is really a “red tory” because he isn’t socialist enough (or at all). Now don’t get me wrong – he’s nowhere near left-wing enough for my taste, although neither was Jeremy Corbyn.

But a red Tory? Well perhaps, but at least he’s red rather than blue. But whilst he’s dropped socialist policies, he doesn’t seem to have dropped all socialist policies – he’s still in favour of nationalising the rail industry.

That doesn’t sound very Tory.

He’s in favour of extending free breakfasts to every primary school in the UK if he’s dropped the plan for free lunches in every school.

That doesn’t sound very Tory.

Does It Matter?

Well of course it matters!

But if the choice is effectively between a hopefully competent red Tory leading the Labour party in government, or a pathetic waste of space leading a dysfunctional blue Tory party in government, the choice is easy. The kind of government I want just isn’t a choice at this point.

Unfortunately we have to compromise and settle for the least damaging government we can feasibly get.

The Conspiracy Theory

Now most “he’s a red tory” commentators out there are probably perfectly innocent, but the Tories have started pushing their message as if a current unscheduled election in May is on the cards. And they aren’t above pushing black propaganda – after all their 2% National Insurance cut is very conveniently timed for a May election when the stealth tax rises are about to kick in.

Are some of those “red Tory” allegations, propaganda by the Tories to discourage left-wing Labour supporters from voting? Or for voting for no-hopers?

If we want to be sure that the current bunch of corrupt clowns is removed from government, we have to vote tactically (and avoid potential “fake” tactical voting sites).

Immigration Is Just a Distraction

 Politics  No Responses »
Dec 172023
 

The twitterverse (or the 𝕏-hole) has been awash recently by far-right whinging about immigrants stealing our houses, jobs, and forcing us all to behave according to their notions of societal norms. And of course they are really spitting lettuce when it comes to the “invasion” of small boat refugees.

Really about what you would expect from a bunch of people with the intellectual capability of a syphilitic squirrel on acid.

The truth of the matter is that immigration is just a distraction from the real problems of the country and the Tories are quite happy that their mismanagement and corruption is being hidden by some extent by the ‘immigration issue’.

The ‘Small Boats Invasion’

Which the slack-witted will insist on labelling ‘illegal immigrants’; they are of course nothing of the sort. Refugees have a legal right to apply for asylum status and the sneaky Tories have very conveniently blocked every other method of seeking asylum. Leaving refugees no other way of getting to the UK other than the dangerous route of small boats.

What are they coming here for? Benefits? No of course not – asylum seekers are not entitled to benefits and are probably one of the most deprived groups in the UK. They are probably on their way here for a number of reasons :-

  1. The UK is a relatively safe place with a stable (if currently dysfunctional) government.
  2. English is a very widely spoken second language – if you were moving to a foreign country wouldn’t you prefer one where you already speak the language?
  3. They may well have existing connections to the UK – family, friends, or relatives.

The other thing to note about the small boat refugees is that the total is trivially small. In 2022, there were just 45,000 refugees coming by small boat (source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-december-2022/irregular-migration-to-the-uk-year-ending-december-2022). To put it a more visceral way, if you were at the back of a queue to make a GP appointment that was 10,000 people long, you could shoot all the small boat refugees and reduce it by 7 people – not enough to really make a difference. Or even 12 if you were to include all the small boat refugees from 2018-2022.

Economic Migrants

There is a great deal of confusion amongst the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers who go berserk at the mere mention of immigration – who seem to believe all the so-called ‘illegal immigrants’ are here to take British jobs. Which is complete rubbish of course – asylum seekers are not allowed to take jobs, and they’re a tiny proportion of the population as a whole.

And indeed a small proportion of legal immigration. As an example, in 2022 ‘net migration’ reached 745,000; an unusually high number. The net migration figure is immigration minus emigration, so there were actually 1.2 million legal immigrants.

We could stop that immigration overnight – just stop issuing visas.

And the NHS would collapse. And the universities would collapse. And plenty of other industries would collapse.

We need immigration to keep the economy moving.

Is housing shortage a problem? Of course it is, but it has been a problem since the 1960s – we simply don’t build enough houses and keep not building enough houses. Way back before most of us were alive (1970), the cost of a house was 0.7 times the average salary; today it is more like 9 times the average salary.

Are NHS waiting lists (and queues for GP appointments) a problem? Of course they are, but immigrants are less likely to use them than our ageing population. Frankly the problems of the NHS are down to under-investment and Tory corruption.

The figure of 1.2 million immigrants is unusually high, but we’ve coped with hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants for decades. Almost all of the problems supposedly caused by immigration are in fact caused by government incompetence.

Is it any surprise that all this fuss about immigration comes at most 13 months away from a General Election? When the Tories want to distract from their 13 years of malicious and shambolic government?

The Door

Diagnosing A Phishing Scam

 Computing, Security  No Responses »
Dec 042023
 

Just for fun (I have admittedly a very weird sense of fun), I thought I’d have a look at one of the phishing emails that came into me. I’ll go through this bit by bit, picking out bits that first occurred to me …

Subject: LastPass : Required action needed regarding your account

Eh? Do I even have a LastPass account? I keep my passwords stored somewhere else, but it’s not impossible – I’ve been known to sign up to things just to test them out. Including cloud-based password managers.

But all the same, let’s give it a point on the suspicion scale. Running total: 1.

From: LastPass <yoji-okugawa1975@tg8.so-net.ne.jp>

Well LastPass certainly use a funny looking email domain (the bit to the right of the “@”), but Marketing departments sometimes aren’t aware of how important that email domain really is. On the other hand, “tg8.so-net.net.jp” does look particularly uncorporate, so let us give it a suspicion point.

Running total: 2

On the other hand, it is too easy to fake domains – I could very easily send you an email from the-management@lástpáss.com (and even more subtle equivalents of “a” – “а”, “ạ”, “ą”, “ä”, “à”, “á”, “ą”). And just to demonstrate something that looks identical can actually be quite different :-

In [8]: print(ord('а'))
1072

In [9]: print(ord('a'))
97

Now this isn’t to suggest that you should run your email headers through some Python code, but just that because something looks like lastpass.com doesn’t mean it really is. The next thing that jumped out at me was the body of the email – I may be well trained, but something new and shiny is still distracting :-

Now the first thing that jumps out at me is that red “Confirm my information” box. Screams “click here” doesn’t it? Well don’t click on it! In my email client (something you’re quite likely not using – claws-mail), if I hold the mouse pointed above a link, it’ll tell me where that link goes in the status bar of the client. In this case it shows up as https://tg8.benchurl.com/…. doesn’t look very much like lastpass.com does it? That’s sufficiently suspicious that I’ll award it 3 suspicion points.

Running total: 5

Notice how they don’t add a “Dear ${name}” to the top of the email? Not personally addressing email is ever so convenient to scammers that want to get your details – because they don’t necessarily know your name. That’s a suspicion point all on its own.

Running total: 6

Next note how it tries to rush you … “log in before January 16, 2024”. It’s subtler than many phishing scams, but it’s still trying to rush you. Add another suspicion point.

Running total: 7

There’s further details we could dig into, but that’s more than enough that the Delete button is the only thing this email should attract. That running total? It was just for fun, it’s not intended as a guideline for when to count something as a phishing email.

In the case of doubt, contact the company via other means.

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