Fidcal

I guess the UK will appeal (if they can) but still, it's a step in the right direction. If I understand it aright, it's the methods used. Few would object to security forces with good grounds for suspicion of a terrorist to be able to apply to a magistrate to be allowed surveillance, but to have complete freedom to watch everyone all the time...

That would be funny if it wasn't so bloody irritating and time wasting. I wonder if M$oft have a keyboard that sends a signal what nationality the keys are and the default is usa. So if win10 doesn't get the signal (from all other keybaords) then you get usa and you have to buy a UK M$oft keyboard to get UK. Wouldn't surprise me. The real reason is they are just plain f dumb. pay amateur programmers a million a year and think that makes them smart. (o did i mention I hate m$soft? Yeah.) As an aside, I'm no longer getting the forum links in the email alerts so I have to manually find these threads. Fortunately, this one is easy to find. Anyone else getting that? Aside 2: Why do internet accounts (like this forum account) keep logging you out? I mean just why? But especially why when it's such a short period. OK I'm here less often but on another forum elsewhere I'm there on that website everyday but the log in times out after about 2 weeks. I don't even know why log ins ever time out?

So many websites now shove up a big page-covering popup insisting we need to allow cookies for the website to work properly or at its best (but which I can often circumvent in Opera 12 by disabling positioning, at which point I find the website works fine. But https://www.bbc.co.uk/news has a simple non-popup header at the top which scrolls away when you scroll down so its not intrusive. However, it does say: We use Cookies - Yes, I agreed (ticked without my consent.) And I find they have set 6 cookies, some bbc domains, plus edigitalsurvey.com and scorecardresearch.com I have cookies set session only so they're automatically deleted when I close the browser but as a test I set cookies to 'never' and deleted all those cookies then returned to the bbc website. No complaint from them that I've disabled cookies. No popup. Same header saying I agree. I checked cookies and as expected, no new cookies from them. Just seems odd that different website work different ways. Not sure any of them know what they're doing. It seems to me the ideal would be like the bbc but the opposite way round, it saying by default: Cookies: NO then a link to read clear info (no deceit) about any advantages, with an option to set them ON. That would seem sensible, non-intrusive, and fair to me but I doubt if any website will do what is sensible, non-intrusive, and fair. Not seen any yet.

M$soft's efforts to control and manipulate their own users/customers never ends until legislation forces them to seek another loophole. The very setting of a default by the user MEANS that is the browser the user wishes to use! To bypass that setting directly and deliberately overrides the wishes of their own customers.

Yes, probably that's the latest version before any modifications for Crucible. It might be a guide to what was originally intended as a stand-alone. Though whether it would be easier to work from that or from any later Crucible version I don't know. So long ago... I still think somewhere else there is more beta testing feedback. There's an illustrated storybook within the level and I vaguely recall someone praising that. Probably the latest Crucible upload is safest to work from as presumably it would have more bug fixes. Any developer can change it how they like anyway. Seems like a lifetime ago...

About Manor Royale, there was an earlier stand-alone working version. I searched my old (crashed) PC last night but couldn't find it. I mean, it went through beta testing. I just searched here at the forums but couldn't find it. Didn't we once use a separate forum (a non Dark Mod forum) for beta? I'm just wondering if someone else still has a copy of that old pk4 and if the final beta postings could be found then that might be an easier start point for anyone who takes it up. I'm guessing here because my memory is hazy.

Yeah, I also block javascript by default. The speed difference is massive and underlines how much bloat travels around the www because most sites work without it. On the rare occasions I use Internet Explorer, I often think it's crashed it's so slow (dunno about the new Edge is it called?) As for the GDPR, what you say, does that mean websites must by default provide a working service without cookies? I thought they could insist. I believe it was Yahoo search I noticed the other day said something like 'if you don't agree to opt in, you can't use our service.' (So I didn't.) About that anti-nag css, does that mean it will prevent you allowing cookies on all such (nagging) websites even those where you want (normal) cookies?

Funny thing is, if you don't opt in for cookies then they have to keep nagging you each time you visit because they can't create a cookie to say you've opted out unless you opt in!

Ah... I meant the BIG explosion. The one where the personal details of several billion people is published with addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, bank details, credit card details and what colour you painted your back fence. The info being gathered and traded is worth big bucks. The smart, self-improving software that analyses it is comparing and matching profile patterns. Skynet will decide our fate in a microsecond. Every breath you take Every move you make Every bond you break Every step you take I'll be watching you. Every single day Every word you say Every game you play Every night you stay I'll be watching you. Every move you make Every vow you break Every smile you fake Every claim you stake I'll be watching you.

The Guardian newspaper on line this morning... https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/01/uk-homes-vulnerable-to-staggering-level-of-corporate-surveillance What 'staggers' me is not so much surveillance but the situation is made out to be a big secret uncovered when in fact companies openly declare and brag that that they are using surveillance. That's what is openly happening and perfectly legal and accepted by stupid governments. Why suddenly talk as though they've 'uncovered' a big secret? How far does all this have to go before the explosion?

Sickening in different ways. No mention of compensation (thought it's early days yets, I guess.) The couple joked about the devices listening to them. That's sad that they were so ill-informed to ever allow a big corporation like Amazon to invade their home that way. I bet there's some small print in a very lengthy agreement that Amazon can't be held responsible. The idea of allowing surveillance by a secret system is crazy (I mean secret in that the users don't really understand what is going in.) The first thing I did when I bought my pc tablet was to stick black tape over the camera (I'd previously searched the net for a diagram of where it was located because I knew it would not be obvious. When I booted up I set every setting to OFF and then went into the device drivers and disabled them (no use deleting the drivers because M$oft would just restore them.) Same with microphone (couldn't think of any easy way of physically disabling that.) I don't use the keyboard (it's folded back) so M$oft can't record all my kepresses. (Maybe one day they'll record every touch on the screen!) This is just the tip of a very big iceberg heading our way over the next decades. Still, some good news is the new European General Data Protection Regulation coming into force soon. Hard to follow but I believe the main change is users have to manually opt-in instead of automatic opt-in so you have to opt out. In other words you're not opted into anything by default and either don't notice or have to find how to opt-out (currently you sometimes need to opt-in to a cookie which allows you to be opted-out!) I hope I've understood that right anyway. Plus users can demand info on data gathered about them.

Underlining my last post, this morning's news mentions Maven. There is so much surveillance data coming in from US spy satellites and drones it has become impossible to analyse it effectively by humans. Maven uses machine learning algorithms developed by Google to analyze full-motion video surveillance: http://spacenews.com/nga-official-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-everything-we-need-a-different-mentality/

It's inevitable that devices will get smarter; the only question is the time scale: centuries? decades? years? Search for the technological singularity if you've not already. It convinced me that machine learning is taking off big time. Currently, smart software is often dumbware, but in time it must evolve into incredibly fast intelligent processing which will reprocess itself faster and faster and go off the top of the graph. Whether it will ever become consciously aware, who knows? Personally, I think it may surpass human intelligence without being sentient, that is, consciously aware, but that's just my guess.

Just reading the news this morning @ http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44089161 and it got me thinking more on this. The article makes clear the UK police delete innocent faces instantly and false positives after 30 days but not all countries will do that. Plus, it is certain that the technology will improve dramatically over coming decades as well as become cheaper. What's to stop unscrupulous corporations setting up cameras over this century will which will positively track absolutely everyone and match them up with on-line big data? Shops already have security cameras everywhere even pointing out into the street. A guy wearing a green shirt he bought at John Lewis 18 months ago now has a face to go with his other ID satnav mobile phone location etc. they can trade. You might recall in Terminator (3 I think it was) where John Connor said he'd been living 'off the grid'. That would no longer be possible unless you go and live in a cave in the countryside somewhere (and even then the locals would notice. Clearly the time is coming (and I don't see how it cannot) where the book '1984' surveillance will be dramatically surpassed beyond our wildest imagination. It looks inevitable.

another good reason for me to keep blocking the upgrade with my firewall.

So... I searched for best firewall but none of the review sites gave in-depth info and many sounded like they were just repeating some promo blurb. In the end I decided to test them one by one (except Zone Alarm which sounds like it is now predominantly anti-virus with the firewall an extra plus still annoying nag screens. Anyway, none of the others worked well for me. I only use my tablet as a kind of glorified e-reader for reading stories on-line and watching videos on Vimeo (Youtube is so cluttered and ruined with ads I mostly use 4K-downloader for that.) Anyway, all I wanted was a firewall that would totally block everything by default, alert me if any program tried to access the net and let me choose whether to let it. None of them did well for me and many finished up blocking my browser even though it was shown in the list as 'allow'. Finally I went back to the one I use on my main machine. It's the one with no name. Well, it's a firewall Control called erm... 'Firewall Control' which is kind of stupid. But it's produced by Sphynx so I always rename its folder etc as that. Anyway, the Win10 version was okay but didn't let me stop all of M$oft. Also I had another problem I forget what. Then I had a brainwave: I installed the Win7 version! It works great. I totally block M$oft except for: Background Task Host - which I've set for what Sphynx call WebBrowserZone Host Process For Windows Services - set to Local+DNS+DHCP+Update(svchost) System - set to LocalSystem. The only other thing I've enabled is my Vivaldi web browser - Web+FTPZone. I'm considering disabling some or all of the Windows ones but not sure. Would that affect my web browser? Thoughts? BTW I don't need email or anything much else. So far, I've blocked things like Dropbox, Outlook, all HP stuff (much of which I'd alread uninstalled or disabled anyway.) The funniest one is Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool because it sounds like a tool to remove some malicious software called Microsoft Windows (which in a way, it is! It's software. And it's malicious!) Oh yeah, and of course, I turn off wifi except as needed. Still not sure what 'connect automatically' means though. Could/would M$oft simply turn on wifi when it wants? Ideally, I'd like some (reliable) desktop freeware that would feed in my password, connect, then reverse that when I disconnect, so nothing can connect without a password to my wifi router. Or can it? I mean, quite a few other services are listed. What's to stop M$oft setting up their own network. How could one stop it?

No preference, but you got me thinking - there is a 'connect automatically' option which I've always disabled because I thought it meant Windows (M$oft) or any other app could connect automatically. But anyway, I just tried enabling it and, sure enough, I can now just click Wifi in the Action Center to reconnect automatically. The question is, what else do that 'connect automatically' enable? I mean, there a dozen other wifi links nearby and M$oft marks all of them 'connect automatically' even when I UNset that option, it still resets it very quickly maybe immediately after I've close the panel. So what's different about my ISP? If I'm not connected and click Wifi, why should it try to connect to my ISP? Does it perhaps set my last connection to be my preferred connection (a bit like file open dialogs in apps often default to the last used folder.) With my wifi password in there, how can I be sure that anything is not connecting behind my back? But it would be tedious to remove the password and enter it every time. I removed my password on my old android tablet (the one I'm using only as a digital clock!) BTW that's keeping good time despite not being able to access the net, and even updated correctly this morning to summer time (daylight saving time.)

Okay, 2 or 3 days into using Win10 on a touch tablet and set up main configs settings etc and installed a firewall before finally connecting wifi yesterday. I set my firewall to block pretty much everything but no idea if M$oft are furtively updating or hoovering away data invisibly. So I want to leave wifi disconnected and only connect as needed. (I won't be using this tablet much, my main PC is Win7.) So far so bad. Installed Vivaldi browser, checked I can access the web, then disconnected. From now, I want to be able to quick connect disconnect as needed but can't find any option. There is a quick action called Connect but it scans for half a minute or so then gives up with a link message: 'where is my device.' If I click that link it tries to go on the net and fails because there's no connection! D'uh! The only way I can connect is: Right swipe for Action Center All Settings Network and Internet Wifi Show Available Networks Scroll back up (because it lists a lot of others too, all of which are ticked Connect Automatically no matter how often I untick them the become automatic next time I look. And why didn't anything show when I clicked Connect in Action Center?) Click my ISP Click Connect Hey! I'm connected! Is that really the only way to connect every time!!!! Now to disconnect I need only: Right Swipe for Action Center Click Wifi OR Flight Mode - both of which seem to do the same thing and disconnect. But neither of them reconnect when I click them again. So, what am I missing? Is there any way to quick connect?

In fairness, I suppose searching pilots bags would catch an inefficient terrorist (they're not all high-trained experts but do make mistakes) but for the expert terrorists, it does restrict what equipment they can get into the cockpit. So, yes, they can try to nosedive the plane but with no gun they might not be able to hold off others wrestling with them. On the Cambridge Analytica front, am I right in thinking Facebook holds real names and other real ID? If so, all the pieces of the jigsaws are coming together. As I've said before, we only know our friends and relatives by the thousands of anonymous bit of info we know about them - so does Google. Each bit is like a jigsaw piece - anonymous on its own. Big data traders exchange jigsaw pieces, then do pattern matching. If they find a few pieces match pieces they've already got they can put those pieces into the correct puzzle until they've got enough picture to identify the subject. But with Facebook data they also can match it with real people. FOOTNOTE: Why does Opera 12 add a 'Main' entry to its quick action button menu whenever I select a Dark Mod topic. I've never noticed that before. I daren't click it in case it's a virus. It's just called 'Main' right at the bottom of the menu. It doesn' show on the Dark Mod Forums home page or even a sub forum but only when I select a topic. Is it a way to get back to the home page of the forum? It disappears when I quit the topic.

For anyone else with the same problem reading this thread in the future, I found a registry hack that disables the lock screen at: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-lock-screen Not for the fainthearted especially with the tortuous on-screen keyboard but it works. Note that you still stop at the password screen!

I do have a password and I do have its disabled, yet both the lock screen and the password screen still show after sleep- awake. Only by rebooting can I seem to avoid it.

Oh, yeah, I vaguely recall that beggar but I got stuck on the first Assassin's Creed and months later when a relative played me past the place where I got stuck I'd moved on to other games. I've looked at Linux, and Xubuntu was my preference but still needed a lot of research for me to get fully to grips with it. So, yeah, no ideal alternative to Windows. I blame the profit-driven economic system; companies are compelled, even forced, to make profit not product. And if you really want me to rant about that, then search down for < discussions moved between tactics and politics, then finally to economics > in Chapter 68 of my story at https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11453335/68/The-All-New-Adventures-Of-Hermione-Granger-In-The-Chance-Of-A-Lifetime [cheap plug there but it is free fiction and one day I hope everyone will only need to 'work' without pay at what they enjoy, knowing that massively increased productivity will spread wealth more equally. Oh, dang, now I'm off again.

You know what's funny about all this? It now only takes me 12 seconds to boot up to desktop whereas when I put it to sleep it took me 30 or 40 seconds to get past the lock screen, thump the password log in a few times to get the virtual keyboard to appear, type in the password etc.

Okay, found it. You have to show taskbar, RIGHT PRESS HOLD window icon to get a secret menu which has many secrets including the old 'run' option. Now enter netplwzit or something (sorry forgot already.) I mean, bring back DOS all is forgiven. This is how to access your account?!!! As suspected, M$oft changed my option back to user MUST log in. So I changed it again. Nothing happened. Still have to log in. netplzwin again. M$oft changed it again! Try again. Nothing. Still have to log in. netplszwin. Ah! now M$oft haven't changed it. It still says I don't need to log in. Hooray. Put tablet to sleep. Wake it again. HAVE TO LOG IN STILL! FU M$OFT. I think I'll changed the power button so it always shuts down. It's not worht the aggro. I'd rather wait a minute to boot up each time. Ah... but will I now have to log in even after boot up???? waiting... waiting... NO! HOORAY SO ALL I NEED DO IS REBOOT EVERY TIME I WANT TO USE THE TABLET! I LOVE YOU M$OFT!!!!!!!

Okay, now I know it's called a LOCK SCREEN I've changed the title of this thread and done a new net search. This guy has exactly the same problem: https://www.tenforums.com/user-accounts-family-safety/59601-bypass-lock-screen-after-sleep.html But near the end it's indicated that if you instead of a null password you use a real password then the 'don't need a password' works! hahahah! bangs head on wall. So I created an easy password: 'free' then repeated it below 'free' (all done blindly with no option to make visible even though I'm not working in an office or public place and it should be MY choice anyway.) Okay, then I even put in the 'hint' line 'free'. NOT ALLOWED says M$oft 'cannot be the password itself! OKay, so I put in f r e e without spaces. Haha! In your face M$oft! That is accepted. Okay, put table to sleep, wake it up. Still got a lock screen. Still have to sign in only now I have to actually type a password not just thump it with my thumb. I'm worse off. So now I have to find that hidden secret place that M$oft don't want you to find easily to see if it disabled my 'user doesn't to sign in' option. If that fails then try to change the password to null again if it will let me.