Generational Dynamics World View News

[Navigator]

I think the most significant thing going on right now is the situation in Belarus.

Putin has wanted a close military alliance with Belarus for years, as the country is strategically critical for Russian designs for the future. Belarus is the Russian avenue to Poland, would also allow Russian access to Lithuania, as well as significantly outflank Ukraine.

Lukashenko has played Russia and the West off of each other rather well for years. He has actually proven a thorn in Putin's side. Now his days appear numbered.

The question is if Lukashenko will give in to Russian demands in order to get support, or if Putin might back the other candidate in order to get what he wants.

I could see Putin installing some kind of pro-Russian "caretaker" government to replace Lukashenko who would have to go to Russia for protection.

[Guest]

I think the most significant thing going on right now is the situation in Belarus.

Putin has wanted a close military alliance with Belarus for years, as the country is strategically critical for Russian designs for the future. Belarus is the Russian avenue to Poland, would also allow Russian access to Lithuania, as well as significantly outflank Ukraine.

Lukashenko has played Russia and the West off of each other rather well for years. He has actually proven a thorn in Putin's side. Now his days appear numbered.

The question is if Lukashenko will give in to Russian demands in order to get support, or if Putin might back the other candidate in order to get what he wants.

I could see Putin installing some kind of pro-Russian "caretaker" government to replace Lukashenko who would have to go to Russia for protection.

Wouldn't that move constitute as a crisis for Poland and by extension Germany as a Belarus in full control by Russia is right next door to Poland's boarders and cut off Germany from markets needed for it's economy?

[Xeraphim1]

17-Aug-20 World View -- Microsoft's monopolistic practices leave Windows 10 vulnerable to massive hacking attack

Contents:
Microsoft's monopolistic practices leave Windows 10 vulnerable to massive hacking attack
Example #1: Apple's iPhone forced slowdown using 'throttling'
Example #2: Microsoft forcing an upgrade to Enterprise edition
Example #3: Upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10
Example #4: Microsoft's crapware (games, ads, trials) downloads
Crapware downloads risk global hacking attack

I'm going to argue against you on some of these. Not the Apple throttling, but the Microsoft ones I don't agree with.

With Windows XX Pro the draw is Active Directory, Remote desktop and Hyper V. While moving some group controls to Enterprise could be annoying, that isn't why people buy it. Note that I have NO promoted apps on my computer and I'm not doing anything special. I also don't experience large downloads.

As for the slowdowns, are you referring to the April 2019 update? There were reported issues with that one which affected both Win 7 and 10. Those seem to have been related to contention with third party antivirus programs. Updates can be rolled back. Or if it was in January it most likely was Meltdown/Spectre patches. That was a huge problem and needed to be addressed. Win 8 and older were known to suffer performance problems since they are old. No avoiding it. You can also avoid Intel chips since AMD didn't have the same vulnerabilities.


If you bought a new Dell that's where some of your problems may lie. Manufacturers have contracts with third parties to preload software and other annoyances. I build my own and use an OEM license so I never have to worry. You can buy a Pro key on Kinguin for $30.

[Navigator]

Wouldn't that move constitute as a crisis for Poland and by extension Germany as a Belarus in full control by Russia is right next door to Poland's boarders and cut off Germany from markets needed for it's economy?

I think it would be a crisis for everyone in the area.

[John]

** 19-Aug-2020 World View: Microsoft Crapware downloads [Updated]

I'm going to respond to several comments on my article on Microsoft's
illegal monopolistic behavior.

** 17-Aug-20 World View -- Microsoft's monopolistic practices leave Windows 10 vulnerable to massive hacking attack
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ ... tm#e200817

Let me start with some general statements:

• This isn't about Windows Update. Windows Update downloads
  occur at various times, and apparently run in processes at normal
  or low priority. Thus, the updates are downloaded without crippling
  the machine.
• This isn't about the crapware itself. I really don't mind that
  Microsoft (or Dell) has placed some games or trials on my computer.
  In fact, I occasionally play some of the free games. And while ads
  are annoying, I can live with those, just as I live with ads on tv
  or magazines.
• I haven't said that it's illegal for Apple and Microsoft to have
  monopolies on their respective products. They do have monopolies, but
  it's not illegal. What I said was that they've used their monopoly
  power to illegally screw their users. As I understand antitrust laws,
  the four examples I gave are all illegal behavior.
• What this is about is that the crapware downloads occur at random
  times and run at very high priority, thus crippling the computer for
  hours at a time.

I was confused for a long time about what was going on, since the high
priority doesn't make sense. The crapware downloads could run at
normal or low priority, and take maybe 10-20% longer, but they
wouldn't cripple the machine and getting work done.

The thing that brought everything together was the admission by Apple
that it had intentionally and illegally throttled old iPhones to force
users to pay for expensive upgrades. In other words, the sleazy
Gen-X/Millennial corporate culture at Apple considers it perfectly all
right for Apple to screw its own customers to make a profit.

Suddenly it made sense why the crapware downloads were running at a
high priority. Microsoft has the same sleazy Gen-X/Millennial
corporate culture that's willing to screw their own users to make a
profit. The result was the article that I wrote.

If the crapware downloads ran at normal or lower priority, I'd have no
problem with them at all.

Even worse, the sleazy Microsoft behavior has made Windows 10
vulnerable to a massive hacking attack, as I described in the article.

> I appreciated your recent post on MFST Win 7 & 10 issues. One of
> our IT folk was having same problems but couldn't figure it out as
> you did. I am getting tired of playing with OS issues. Used to
> enjoy it but now is just a headache.

> The problem was a security flaw in Intel CPUs was discovered and
> the workaround slowed down the OS plenty. Same for Linux as
> Windows. Windows on AMD did not slow down.

> https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/03/a-maj ... cessors-2/

None of the system slowdown examples that I gave in my article is
related to the Intel chip issue.

> Windows 10 may be evil, but usually it is a necessary evil. For
> example, much of the new hardware will not operate properly
> without Windows 10 as Intel, for example, does not even write
> drivers for Windows 7 anymore.

> One way I have found to overcome the Windows 10 bloat and
> annoyances is to get and install the LTSB/LTSC variants of Windows
> 10. Generally, a single license (or a multi-pack) is not too
> expensive, but it is still very galling to have to pay for the
> same thing twice to make things be as they should be to start
> with. I suppose it's just the cost of having a Windows PC,
> keeping your sanity and staying productive.

> As for your old PC (or even a newer one) - have you tried any of
> the Linux OS distributions as an alternative to Microsoft?

I know that I would have had to move from Windows 7 to Windows 10
at some point, but I planned to postpone it as long as possible.
Microsoft still doesn't have the right to screw its own users.

As a Senior Software Engineer, I want the "latest stuff," so the
LTSB/LTSC version wouldn't work for me. The only thing I could do is
upgrade to the Enterprise version, which costs a lot of money and is
what the assholes at Microsoft are trying to force me to do.

As for Linux, I really need a Windows system.

The following was from e-mail:

> When I purchased my Win 10 laptop last year, I was dismayed by
> Microsoft's arrogance at daring to mess with my personal property.
> I did some research and have killed all windows updates. I have
> never had an update since purchasing my computer, I'll happily
> take the risk of being hacked over the certainty of being screwed
> over by Microsoft. I don't know if this will work for you or not
> but thought I'd pass it along.

> I did the following changes to my Win 10 Home system:

> Kill win 10 updates

> 1. Search services.msc
> 2. Find windows update service
> 3. Right click, properties, set to disable

> "WIN+X" keys, open powershell as admin
> "Net stop wuauserv"
> "Net stop bits"
> "Net stop dosvc"

> I haven't had an update since. I should also mention that two
> weeks ago my parents' Win 10 computer started behaving as you are
> describing yours, choked with adds that bogged down their
> computer. It took me an hour to figure out that Chrome was
> continuously downloading ads, as soon as I uninstalled it the
> problem disappeared.

> I'm not sure if these ideas would be of any help to you but wanted
> to offer them in case they might work for you too.

That's an interesting idea, and I've considered it, but I still want
the Windows Update downloads. It's the crapware downloads that are
causing the problem, and even those only because Microsoft runs
them at super-high priority, crippling the computer.

> I'm going to argue against you on some of these. Not the Apple
> throttling, but the Microsoft ones I don't agree with.

> With Windows XX Pro the draw is Active Directory, Remote desktop
> and Hyper V. While moving some group controls to Enterprise could
> be annoying, that isn't why people buy it. Note that I have NO
> promoted apps on my computer and I'm not doing anything special. I
> also don't experience large downloads.

It doesn't really matter why people buy Windows Pro. It is a
violation of antitrust laws to use their monopoly power to force users
to purchase unnecessary products, services, or upgrades.

> As for the slowdowns, are you referring to the April 2019 update?
> There were reported issues with that one which affected both Win 7
> and 10. Those seem to have been related to contention with third
> party antivirus programs. Updates can be rolled back. Or if it was
> in January it most likely was Meltdown/Spectre patches. That was a
> huge problem and needed to be addressed. Win 8 and older were
> known to suffer performance problems since they are old. No
> avoiding it. You can also avoid Intel chips since AMD didn't have
> the same vulnerabilities.

As I explained in the article, I went to a lot of trouble to analyze
what what going on -- the Microsoft Windows scheduler was adding
milliseconds of time to otherwise idle processes under certain
circumstances. The cpu was not slowing down. Based on my many years
of operating system development experience, there is no other possible
explanation.

> If you bought a new Dell that's where some of your problems may
> lie. Manufacturers have contracts with third parties to preload
> software and other annoyances. I build my own and use an OEM
> license so I never have to worry. You can buy a Pro key on Kinguin
> for $30.

Once again, my problem is not with the crapware itself. It's with the
crapware downloads running at high priority, crippling the computer.
The only way to tell what's going on is to look at the performance tab
of the task manager, as I described in the article.

***** UPDATE: I should have included the following:

I hope I made it clear in my article how FURIOUS I am. Once or twice
a week while I'm working, all of a sudden the computer freezes, and I
have to wait for hours to get back to work. It took me a few months
to put it all together what's going on, and the result is the article
that I wrote. What's going on is that, at any time, Microsoft starts
downloading several gigabytes of crapware to my computer -- without
asking me, or warning me, or anything -- at high priority, so that the
computer is crippled. I hope the fucking bastards responsible for
this at Microsoft rot in hell.

In the meantime, the amount of power that these online services and
Microsoft have is absolutely staggering. Sitting in Redmond, the
execs can look out over the world and imagine one billion desktop
computers in every country and every region of the world, and the
execs have control over all of those billion desktops. John
D. Rockefeller could never have dreamed of that much power. In fact,
it may be that Donald Trump doesn't have that much power. And the
Twitter hack has revealed just how vulnerable the world is to misuse
of that power by a malicious actor.

[John]

** 20-Aug-2020 World View: Steve Bannon arrested

Given the way I was treated by Breitbart, this doesn't surprise me.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/20/former- ... cheme.html

Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon arrested on charges of defrauding
donors in fundraising scheme

Published Thu, Aug 20 20209:38 AM EDT

Steve Bannon, the former chief executive of Donald Trump's 2016
presidential campaign, speaks to members of the media outside federal
court after testifying in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, Nov. 8,
2019.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has been arrested
after being charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors
through their campaign "We Build the Wall."

Bannon, along with three of his associates were indicted by
investigators at the U.S. Southern District of New York on Thursday.
They allege that the group of conservative leaders defrauded donors
and that led to raising "more than $25 million to build a wall along
the southern border of the United States," according to the press
release.

The United States Postal Inspection Service assisted in the
investigation.

The others mentioned in the indictment are Timothy Shea, who in May
was announced as the Acting Administrator of Drug Enforcement
Administration, Brian Kolfage, a Iraq war veteran, and Andrew
Badolato.

The campaign was intended to raise money to help President Donald
Trump fulfill a campaign promise of building a border wall along the
border. Instead, prosecutors allege, that Bannon and his team profited
off of the arrangement.

Prosecutors claim that the defendants "collectively received hundreds
of thousands of dollars in donor funds from 'We Build the Wall,' which
they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization's public
representations," according to the indictment.

"The defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors,
capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise
millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money
would be spent on construction," Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss,
said in a statement. "While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian
Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not
be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of
thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish
lifestyle. We thank the USPIS for their partnership in investigating
this case, and we remain dedicated to rooting out and prosecuting
fraud wherever we find it."

Kolfage, 37, a veteran and triple amputee, in late 2018 launched a
crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to build a wall along the
U.S.-Mexico border. His effort came amid a stalemate over government
funding on Capitol Hill, where Trump demanded that any spending
package include billions of dollars to go toward his proposed border
wall. The deadlock culminated in the longest partial government
shutdown in U.S. history.

Kolfage's effort quickly went viral and raised millions of dollars
from hundreds of thousands of donors – but GoFundMe threatened to
suspend the wall-building campaign unless Kolfage "identified a
legitimate non-profit organization into which those funds could be
transferred," according to the indictment

[Cool Breeze]

"which they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization's public
representations"

Good luck proving that. Sounds like more BS

[Guest]

Ah, yes. The economy is going to hell in a handbasket; we have more unemployed than during the Great Depression, the currency is crap and getting crappier, but Technology and Innovation will save us! Good old American self-delusion and faith in Moar Science (from a population that is generally incapable of reading an actual scientific paper, much less writing or intelligently reviewing one). America's determination to invest in ever-more useless technology has much in common with the population of Easter Island, logging out their last trees to build yet another massive ceremonial statue. What part of "you picked the low-hanging fruit and you'll only break your legs trying to get more" don't they understand?

[Guest]

Japanese Media is speculating that China will try to wreck the dollar by dumping its dollar dominated assets. American debt is so huge now, I doubt it would make any difference now.

[John]

** 21-Aug-2020 World View: Wrecking the dollar

> Japanese Media is speculating that China will try to wreck the
> dollar by dumping its dollar dominated assets. American debt is so
> huge now, I doubt it would make any difference now.

I've been hearing variations of this for years. China's economy is
very fragile, and if they tried to do this, it would be a disaster for
their economy.