COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Stanley]

I noted that option Ken but shied away from all the problems it would create.
British Gas have actually done what they said and charged me for my January Gas! Let's see if the other promises kick in re. the 'smart' meter that is dumb.

[Tizer]

`Ukraine: EU deploys cyber rapid-response team' LINK

[Stanley]

I've said it so many times Peter. We deserve all we get, we aren't fit to run a booze up in a brewery!
Announcements like the one about the 'cyber rapid-response team' are aimed at reassuring the public rather than being serious responses to armed aggression. Rather like Johnson's 'Barrage' of sanctions....

[Tizer]

From the other side - regardless of what the article says you can bet Putin will be encouraging these hackers...
`Russian vigilante hacker: 'I want to help beat Ukraine from my computer' LINK

[Stanley]

That's a frightening link Peter. Something must be happening in response. Heathrow say their computers weren't hacked yesterday but the fact is that short haul flights were cancelled because of computer problems which shows they are vulnerable.

[Stanley]

See THIS report of the closure of Toyota's Japanese plants after a supplier reported it suspected it had been hacked and closed down.
Just what we were talking about yesterday....

[Tizer]

`TikTok limits services as Netflix pulls out of Russia' LINK
At first sight that sounds good - deprive the Russians of services they've been enjoying. But hold on .... wouldn't it be better to keep the services alive and available to Russians but flood them with with genuine news about the war in Ukraine? The Russians might manage to make them unavailable but in the meantime a vast amount of `content' could have been downloaded onto their computers and smartphones. We need to think laterally about how we conduct a cyber war.

[PanBiker]

I was thinking exactly the same Peter. Vlad will just relay this as another attack on Russia by the West. Could be counter productive. Like you say push the graphic content and uncensored news that he wants to hide from his own people. Force him to be the bad guy and shut the services down. Where is the ministry of dirty tricks that we had during WWII? They could think outside the box for maximum advantage.

[Tizer]

We should also take a trick out of Putin's book and do some `off the record' promotion of cyber warfare. Channel funds to contacts in some other countries to encourage cyber attacks on Russia. Putin has been fighting a dirty war for many years now and we've haven't yet learnt the lesson even though we used to have the know-how to do it. A lot of Putin's tricks are the same as the CIA was doing many decades ago. Spend some secret funds in the right places and you can do a lot of damage to your enemy. Have we put a price on Putin's head yet?

[Tizer]

I've just seen this article...
`Twitter is part of our war effort - Ukraine minister' BBC
As Ukraine's military and citizens battle Russia's advancing troops, the country has opened a new front in the fighting - using tech expertise to rally Silicon Valley's support and undermine the enemy. Digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov is leading the charge, but some of his tactics are proving divisive.

[Tripps]

We should also take a trick out of Putin's book and do some `off the record' promotion of cyber warfare

The clue here I think is 'off the record'.

Check out MI6, GCHQ, and not least - 77 Brigade.

[Tizer]

I'm familiar of course with MI6 and GCHQ but not with 77 Brigade. I only knew something of that type existed. Interesting too to read the historical connection with the Chindits. I've read the Wikipedia web page and Army page and I'm glad to know we have that facility. The world feels a little safer for that!

[Stanley]

My problem with that post Peter is mention of the Chindits. My mate Ernie Roberts was on the parade when Ord Wingate asked for volunteers for the Chindits. His mate started to step forward but Ernie grabbed him and said "Don't do it! The man's mad!" Years later he hadn't changed his opinion. He always reminds me of a second Lawrence of Arabia......

[Stanley]

I've just been listening to a Ukrainian man who is deep into cyber warfare with the Russians. He said that the perception that Russia was hacker capital of the world is wrong, that's just PR. He says that the Russian sites they are attacking are riddled with vulnerabilities demonstrating the low skills of the Russian cyber technicians.
He sounded very credible, low key and authoritative. I saw his testimony as good news.

[Tizer]

They sound as incapable as the Russian Army!

This is a big currency company, founded in 2012 and has many millions of users around the world. Beside blocking the Russian accounts they've handed the account details to our security people...
`Crypto platform blocks thousands of Russia-linked wallets' LINK

This has a lot of interesting background to how the Internet is beginning to `splinter' and the possibility of countries having their own internal internet in the future. It doesn't bode well for ensuring a joined up, global human race...
`Russia-Ukraine: Is internet on verge of break-up?' LINK

[Stanley]

Did I hear right? Did Priti 'Orrible say that a new website was being put up to give easy access to visas? I thought that their existing systems were reported as crashing due to high traffic. Wouldn't be a good idea to get these sorted first?
(What the hell do I know about it..... )(Can we trust anything this woman says?)

[PanBiker]

Just do away with the visa requirement like everyone else. Do all the registration when they are safe and settled.

[plaques]

Looks like another gravy train to me. Run by a private company possibly using a system that doesn't exist. All you need is a relative already living in the UK plus a passport plus digitised photograph plus digitised fingerprints. "What do you mean, Granny and the kids don't have them, nip back to Kyiv and get them". "And what did you say? yours is in the desktop that you left behind, go to the back of the queue."

Why am I angry.

[Stanley]

Quite. We are treating very vulnerable people as though they were all potential terrorists. Nobody has explained the Wednesday to Friday opening of the visa bureau in Paris yet. I still suspect it has something to do with staff having long weekends travelling to and from the UK.

[Tizer]

Stanley, the last big Ubuntu update reset the size of text in my top bars and side bars of app windows. I've always had it set at 1.10 (i.e. 110%) but it's been reverted to the default 100%. Too small for my eyes so I went into `Tweaks' and changed it back. If you need to change yours press your `Windows' key to get the Search box and type in `tweaks' to bring up the application. Click on Fonts and look for Scaling Factor at the bottom. Click on + or - to change the size. You'll see the text fonts changing as you do it. Once you've got the right size just close the box.

[Stanley]

I hadn't noticed anything Peter. (Ah, there was one thing, when I went to access my 2022 files the list it put up started with 08 so I have been putting up with it. It went back to showing the latest first again yesterday.)
While I think, how do I change emails back to HTML from plain text? I am having problems with some corporate correspondents.

[Tizer]

While I think, how do I change emails back to HTML from plain text? I am having problems with some corporate correspondents.

If you mean toggling the text of an incoming email between plain text and HTML, click View in the top bar of TB, scroll to Message Body As and choose the option you want. This will affect all your emails and will remain until you change it back again.

If you want to change your outgoing emails, click Edit and choose Preferences, go to account Settings, select Composition and Addressing and tick or untick the box for Compose Messages in HTML Format. Again, this affects all your messages.

[Stanley]

Thanks Peter, simple when you know how......

[Tizer]

Glad to be of help!

[Tizer]

Another use for reverse image searches!
`How to spot false posts from Ukraine' BBC
[It's a bad choice of title for the article - it gives the impression that it's specifically about false information posted by Ukrainians.]