COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[chinatyke]

Got a Mac Pro 15" top model and loving it!

Lucky you.

I'm seriously jealous!

Enjoy it.

[Stanley]

Possibility of thunderstorms today. Perhaps a good thing to pull the plug on your computer if you're not using it....

[Tripps]

We are told that ebay data has been compromised. They say that our names addresses, phone numbers, mother's maiden name etc have been stolen. They say however that passwords are safe since they were encrypted.

The advice given by many 'experts' is to change your password.

Since all the other information is fairly easily obtainable from public sources, and the passwords are encrypted - I have decided not to worry about it.

Surely it would be more sensible to close your account, wait till they encrypted all your information, then join again?

[Steven Chorkley]

Got a Mac Pro 15" top model and loving it!

Lucky you.

I'm seriously jealous!

Enjoy it.

Thank you! Took me ages to save, but I need a good machine!

[Steven Chorkley]

We are told that ebay data has been compromised. They say that our names addresses, phone numbers, mother's maiden name etc have been stolen. They say however that passwords are safe since they were encrypted.

The advice given by many 'experts' is to change your password.

Since all the other information is fairly easily obtainable from public sources, and the passwords are encrypted - I have decided not to worry about it.

Surely it would be more sensible to close your account, wait till they encrypted all your information, then join again?

I decided the same, still wish they'd encrypt everything but I guess it'd cost eBay a lot of money in processing power if every users account is encrypted. I do struggle to think what's the point in a password if someone can see all your information anyway...

[Stanley]

There is the question about how much information remains on the servers even if the account was cancelled. These massive databases all have the same problem, the advantages they give to the holder apply equally to the hacker. Mind you, in this case there is a whisper that it wasn't a hacker but internal theft and it's hard to see how you can definitively stop that.
75mb of upgrades for Ubuntu. Haven't the faintest idea what they do......

[Tripps]

"I decided the same, still wish they'd encrypt everything but I guess it'd cost eBay a lot of money in processing power if every users account is encrypted. I do struggle to think what's the point in a password if someone can see all your information anyway...

Wow - Steven the boy wonder agrees with me. I'm honoured. I read most of what he writes, but rarely understand a word of it.

[Tizer]

I've changed my Ebay password because it seemed about time I did that anyway and made a stronger, new one. Ebay and Paypal are the same company but they claim that Paypal's data is not compromised, it's kept separately - but that statement doesn't inspire confidence after what's happened.

[Stanley]

Tiz, how can anyone have any confidence in any statement about any database? Their efficacy and also their vulnerabilities are all the same.

[Tizer]

Latest BBC news on the Ebay problem...
"eBay faces investigations over massive data breach
The UK's information commissioner is working with European data authorities with a view to taking action against eBay over its recent data breach. Three US states are also investigating the theft of names, email addresses and other personal data, which affected up to 145 million eBay customers. The online marketplace has begun the process of notifying its customers about the need to reset passwords."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27539799

The BBC report also quotes: "We are sending out millions of emails, and it will take some time. The process is certainly well under way," the firm told the BBC. It warned though that its official password reset email contained no links and that customers should be wary of messages that did. "Any email with links is a phishing attempt," it said.

This statement is a bit misleading because my email from Ebay did contain a link and I used it safely to reset my password. What they should have explained is that there are two types of email message being sent out. The one that they say doesn't contain a link is a preliminary warning message and it should have been sent out earlier (I've not had one). But if you choose to go to the Ebay site, log in and attempt to reset your password they send you an email that does contain a link which you have to use to carry out the reset. If they don't know what they're doing with their emails how can we expect them to know what they are doing with our personal data?

[PanBiker]

Both Sally and myself have Ebay accounts, neither of us have received any emails and there have been no messages within our Ebay accounts. We have both reset our passwords though without any problem simply by going into our account settings and using the link there.

[plaques]

Last thursday our 6 month old lap top gave up the ghost. A nice little blue light from the power button but no action anywhere else. After resetting the position of the screen a few times a picture did appear but failed miserably on the next start up. A call to Curry's support really surprised me. They would collect it the following day (friday) with a promised return of this wednesday. The collection went all to plan. Lets see what they come up with.

[Stanley]

That sounds like proper service! Very refreshing...
Thanks to Canonical for 70mb of new OS. Quick and successful as usual. It always amazes me how easily they do this when compared to the problems that used to occur with Windows upgrades. I don't know how they do it but it certainly keeps this Kiddy happy!

[Tripps]

"That sounds like proper service! Very refreshing..."

Must put in a good word for Lenovo. I returned a laptop to them last year which had a damaged power socket. Collected by courier repaired in Germany, and returned by courier within ten days. Free of charge. They bought IBM a while ago - now I see they have bought Motorola. The long march continues.

[Pluggy]

They didn't exactly buy IBM, they bought the rights to IBM's PC business, Lenovo already made their PCs anyhow. IBM is still in business concentrating on what has always been their core business - mainframes and business software. The PC was considered a distraction by many in the company. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo Lenovo are one of the few companies little affected by the global downturn in PC sales, some think its because they sell quite a few business machines with Windows 7 still on them instead of the much loathed Windows 8.

[Tripps]

Thanks for that.

Yes - I bought it because it had Windows 7 on it. There didn't seem to be many new ones available with it at the time.

[Steven Chorkley]

Thanks for that.

Yes - I bought it because it had Windows 7 on it. There didn't seem to be many new ones available with it at the time.

Microsoft offer downgrade rights http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensi ... tu_u9moW5g

[Stanley]

Bit of a bummer when a company offers you the right to downgrade to the previous version....

[Pluggy]

Thanks for that.

Yes - I bought it because it had Windows 7 on it. There didn't seem to be many new ones available with it at the time.

Microsoft offer downgrade rights http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/licensi ... tu_u9moW5g

They have since Vista on Business versions of Windows. But most machines have Home versions, few home users pay the extra for the business version. Lenovo usually ship them with 7 already Imaged on the drive ands give you a set of DVDs to upgrade to 8 if you were so inclined (stupid enough).

I have a Lenovo which I obtained in a "horse trading" deal which had been down graded from Vista Business to XP Pro, I put Vista Back on it with the demise of XP, It dual boots with Ubuntu, but it never sees the Windows half, like another laptop which my wife claimed which dual boots Ubuntu and Windows 8. I fire 8 up sometimes to let it do upgrades...

I have a copy of 7 and XP in VMs on my main Ubuntu Box. Its useful sometimes to be able to run a particular vesion of Windows.

[plaques]

Lap top returned from Curry's today with a new motherboard. Will give it a good workout tomorrow and see what's changed.
So far, excellent service.

[Stanley]

Liz posted this in read any good books....

LizG » Mon Jun 02, 2014 12:06 am
My Kobo e-reader died over the weekend. I've tried downloading my books from my Kobo library to epub format so I can load them onto my tablet and read using other software.

Kobo assures me that I can download in 3 formats, including e-pub, but the download comes as a "URLlink.acsm" file, which is useless, and doesn't give me a choice of file format. Does anyone have an idea how to get around this?

It's very annoying.

[Pluggy]

I know nothing, but google turns up :

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85081

[LizG]

I have used Calibre to put books onto the reader but everything disappeared when it crashed, including books we've purchased. Everything relies you being able to access the reader. Lesson learned.Still working on a useful solution.

[Pluggy]

According to the last post in the link I posted earlier, your computer can make sense of the .acsm file from the Kobo site if it has Adobe Digital Editions Installed : http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/digital-editions.html

With that instaled you can download whatever format you want and save it, the .acsm file isn't the ebook itself its an ecrypted link to the ebook and it needs the Abobe software to download it. Calibre can understand the e-book once you've downloaded it.

Mac or Windows should cut it. Probably not for "fondleslabs"

[LizG]

I did all that and got the files in an e-pub version but they are still locked and can only be read using Adobe Digital Editions. I wanted to use Aldeko which I'm using for all my other books.

When I try to open them in Aldeko I get the message "this booked is locked by DRM." further investigation tells me "When you buy an e-book with DRM you don't really own it but have purchased the permission to use it in a manner dictated to you by the seller."

I won't be sending any more money down the Kobo track (and apparently Amazon and Barnes and Noble aere also DRM locked too). The books are not all that cheap either. Lesson learned.