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hubie writes:

Microsoft's killing script used to avoid Microsoft Account in Windows 11:

Microsoft has removed the 'BypassNRO.cmd' script from Windows 11 preview builds, which allowed users to bypass the requirement to use a Microsoft Account when installing the operating system.

This change was introduced in the latest Windows 11 Insider Dev preview build, which means it will likely be coming to production builds.

"We're removing the bypassnro.cmd script from the build to enhance security and user experience of Windows 11," reads the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5516 release notes.

"This change ensures that all users exit setup with internet connectivity and a Microsoft Account."

Since the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has made it hard to use the operating system with a local account, instead forcing users to log in with a Microsoft Account.

Microsoft says this is done to make using the company's ecosystem of cloud-based features and services easier, such as using your account to store BitLocker recovery keys.

[...] However, many users do not want to use a Microsoft Account, thinking it reduces their privacy and allows Microsoft to monitor their activities.

A popular method to bypass a Microsoft Account during setup is to use a script named 'C:\windows\system32\oobe\BypassNRO.cmd.' When run during Windows 11 setup, it creates a Registry value that removes the requirement to connect to the Internet during setup, which allows you to set up the operating system with a local account instead.

[...] While Microsoft is now removing this script, they have not yet removed the BypassNRO Registry value. This means you can manually enter the following commands to achieve the same functionality as the now-removed script.

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t
REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
shutdown /r /t 0

If you feel comfortable modifying the Windows Registry, you can create the BypassNRO manually using Regedit, which can be launched from the Shift+F10 command prompt.

Unfortunately, it would not be surprising to see Microsoft remove the functionality of this Registry value in the future, making this technique no longer work.

Original Submission

Long ago (but not all that long) The Internet Oracle (aka Usenet Oracle, fam. "Orrie") was a popular source of humor and entertainment. For a sample,

The Internet Oracle has pondered your question deeply. Your question was:
> My lawyer was trying to defend me for when I beat up my pal Edward
> "Skinny" Porkmann. And I heard him say it, right there in court, he
> said, Hipso fatso." I think he meant ME, and what kind of a lawyer is
> he if he insults me right in front of the judge? He claims he said ipso
> facto but that's no excuse because it was still a insult. Yes, I am
> fat, but does he have to say it out loud?

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:
} Ahhh, supplicant, you don't know how lucky you are to have such a
} lawyer. Let him do his job, for goodness sake.
}
} A little-known 17th century federal law called the Weighty Clams Act
} (named after Alfred Weighty, the little-known 17th century senator from
} Kentucky) makes it a crime to speculate on another person's vital
} statistics, including but not limited to, height, weight, and blood
} pressure. This was to combat the influx of carnival hucksters who were
} stealing business from the physicians by out-guessing them at these
} important measures. The newly-formed AMA lobbied for these protections,
} arguing that only trained professionals in the latest medical and hair
} cutting technologies should be allowed to guess at a patient's
} conditions.
}
} Your lawyer was telegraphing a subtle but effective message to Edward's
} lawyer: ease up or prepare for a malpractice suit.
}
} You owe the Oracle a plate of steamed vegetables.

Archives at https://internetoracle.org/digests.cgi

What are your memories of a more light-hearted internet? 'xkcd' is still with us but other cartoons have gone from the internet and elsewhere (e.g. dilbert disappeared a year or two back, the syndication of Calvin and Hobbes finished in 1995). My own favourite was bash.org (but that didn't always go as I expected - as one my first stories on SN shows: "Janrinok - FOR TRAINING ONLY - do not release!"). Ooops!

Today we have progressed(?) to sites that display thousands of memes. Some of them are genuinely funny and required a degree of skill to create whereas others are little more than copies of somebody else's idea. Personally, I detest the majority of the TikTok videos that I encounter which often are nothing more than a platform for an 'influencer' to appear to be more important than they actually are. However, within the last few days there have been a couple of comments on this site that have had me laughing.

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Nordic countries were early adopters of digital payments. Now, electronic banking is seen as a potential threat to national security:

In 2018 a former deputy governor of Sweden's central bank predicted that by 2025 the country would probably be cashless.

Seven years on, that prediction has turned out to be pretty much true. Just one in 10 purchases are made with cash, and card is the most common form of payment, followed by the Swedish mobile payment system Swish, launched by six banks in 2012 and now ubiquitous. Other mobile phone payment services are also growing quickly.

In fact, according to the central bank's annual payments report, published this month, Sweden and Norway have the lowest amount of cash in circulation, as a percentage of GDP, in the world.

But in the context of today, with war in Europe, unpredictability in the US and the fear of Russian hybrid attacks almost a part of daily life in Sweden, life without cash is not proving the utopia that perhaps it once promised to be.

Such is the perceived severity of the situation that the authorities are trying to encourage citizens to keep and use cash in the name of civil defence. In November, the defence ministry sent every home a brochure entitled If Crisis or War Comes, advising people to use cash regularly and keep a minimum of a week's supply in various denominations to "strengthen preparedness".

[...] Sweden is not the only Nordic country backpedalling on plans for a cashless society. Last year Norway, which has a popular equivalent to Swish called Vipps MobilePay, brought in legislation that means retailers can be fined or sanctioned if they will not accept cash. The government has also recommended that citizens "keep some cash on hand due to the vulnerabilities of digital payment solutions to cyber-attacks".

Norway's former justice and emergencies minister Emilie Mehl put it in clear terms: "If no one pays with cash and no one accepts cash, cash will no longer be a real emergency solution once the crisis is upon us."

Ultimately, when it comes to emergency planning, the world's two most cashless societies are still banking on cash.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

After Trump's decree: fight for US funding for Tor, F-Droid and Let's Encrypt:

The Open Technology Fund (OTF) has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court in Washington D.C. against the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and the Office of Management and Budget. In its lawsuit, the OTF is seeking a preliminary injunction to have the USAGM release the withheld funding. US President Donald Trump had previously issued a decree largely restricting the USAGM under the current legal situation. The OTF uses its funds to support the certification authority Let's Encrypt and the anonymization network Tor, among others.

In its application, the OTF argues that the termination of the grant by the USAGM is unlawful, as the provision of the funding has already been decided by Congress. As part of this decision, a total amount of 43.5 million US dollars has been earmarked for 2025, which accounts for 98 percent of the OTF's funding. The USAGM oversees the financial and programmatic activities of the OTF and makes payments to the non-profit organization. The OTF had requested and not received a payment of around 650,000 US dollars for operating costs in March.

Kari Lake, executive CEO of USAGM and special advisor to the Trump administration, described the US agency in a statement as a "huge rot and burden on the American taxpayer" that also poses a national security risk. OTF Chairman Zack Cooper, on the other hand, argued that his organization is the most efficient and effective tool against censorship and influence peddling. An end to OTF projects "would weaken America's national security and keep millions of people around the world trapped behind authoritarian information firewalls", Cooper said.

Overall, the US government invests a lot of money in open source software. Last year, Let's Encrypt received around 800,000 US dollars in funding from the OTF, the Tor network received almost 500,000 US dollars and the open-source Android app store F-Droid received 396,000 US dollars. In total, the organization currently supports around 50 projects, including the development of the free VPN client OpenVPN. According to its information, the OTF has published around 2,500 patches for open-source software and the organization promotes VPNs for around 45 million people in countries with censorship. OTF President Cunningham sees the lawsuit as the only way to ensure the continued existence of these projects.

[I do wish this was an April Fools joke - but it is dated late last week so I guess not... --JR]

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Five years ago, when the COVID pandemic forced all non-essential workers to stay home, American families were swiftly forced to reorganize themselves.

Suddenly, they had no childcare, no school, and no support system to help them navigate an unprecedented moment in their lifetimes. But just as unexpectedly, parents and caregivers whose jobs could be performed remotely had something relatively novel: the ability to work from home.

For many mothers who could take advantage of remote work, it was a burden and blessing that ultimately became indispensable. Once their kids went back to daycare or school, the flexibility of working from home often meant they could better juggle the many demands on their time, including the disproportionate amount of housework they perform compared to their male partners.

"There was a massive amount of efficiencies that happened in terms of managing lives during the pandemic, ironically," says Susan MacKenty Brady, CEO of the Simmons University Institute for Inclusive Leadership.

Now, some business leaders, and even the president of the United States, are determined to roll back workplace flexibility.

In January, President Donald Trump declared that government employees would be required to return to their workplace. Last month, in a company town hall, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimond offered a profanity-laced explanation for why his employees had to work five days a week in-person again. Amazon and AT&T, among other companies, have also called employees back to the office.

Proponents say working in person full-time will boost productivity, but experts say that women will pay a unique price.

[...] Reporting back to the office full-time doesn't mean that home and community responsibilities suddenly disappear. There are still kids who need to be promptly picked up from after-school care, dogs that need walking, errands that must be run, doctors' appointments that can't be missed, and so on.

Whereas mothers (and fathers) could previously use time spent commuting on some of these tasks, now they're back in their cars or riding public transportation. When flexibility vanishes, MacKenty Brady says the answer is often to buy more childcare. That only puts additional pressure on households to earn more to afford care while also creating fresh tension for mothers who feel spread thin.

MacKenty Brady says it's rare to hear corporate leaders publicly acknowledge these pressures, even as their insistence on in-person work could actually diminish productivity and engagement by increasing stress and exhaustion.

[...] MacKenty Brady says that despite the emphasis on getting back to the office full-time, offering flexible work options is a no-brainer, because women are essential to the American workforce. In other words, alienating them is no strategy for a company's financial success.

Original Submission

aliks writes:

In the spirit of making a submission a week - I had a look at the front page of phys.org

The article:

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-class-zwitterionic-phospholipids-mrna-delivery.html

immediately caught my eye. Are we letting the biochemists get ahead of cyber geeks in the battle for the wierdest jargon?

We must fight back! Although zwitterions do have a bit of history behind them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwitterion

Original Submission

upstart writes:

NASA early galaxy discovery shines light on 'Cosmic Dark Ages':

A new discovery by NASA's flagship James Webb Space Telescope has pushed forward the confirmed end date of the so-called "Cosmic Dark Ages" by some 270 million years.

In their study, an international team of researchers led by astrophysicist Joris Witstok of the University of Cambridge in England, analyzed the distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1-LA.

It is so far away that the light from it takes some 13.4 billion years to reach us, meaning we see it as it was just 330 million years after the big bang.

And from JADES-GS-z13-1-LA the team detected a signal of "reionization," the process through which the first stars made the universe once again transparent to light.

"We report the discovery of one of the most distant galaxies known to date," Witstok told Newsweek. "Unlike any other similarly distant galaxy, it shows a very clear, telltale signature that implies the galaxy contains a remarkably powerful source of extreme ultraviolet radiation.

"This also suggests it has made an unexpectedly early start to cosmic reionization, the process where neutral gas in between early galaxies is heated into a plasma by energetic radiation from stars and black holes forming in the first galaxies."

In the wake of the big bang, the universe gradually cooled down from its original, ultra-hot state, eventually allowing—around the universe's 380,000th birthday—free protons and electrons to combine into a fog mainly made up of neutral hydrogen atoms.

Because of this, even when the first stars formed, some 13.7 billion years ago, their light was quickly extinguished by the gas cloud. It is because of this (and the few other sources of light at the time) that this period is called the Cosmic Dark Ages.

Over time, sufficiently energetic ultraviolet radiation from the first stars and galaxies increasingly split the neutral hydrogen atoms back into electrons and protons—that is, "reionizing" them.

"The emergence of these first stars marks the end of the "Dark Ages" in cosmic history, a period characterized by the absence of discrete sources of light," NASA explains on its website.

canopic jug writes:

The cryptographer who blogs under the pseudonym Soatok has written an in depth discussion of the practical limitations of End-to-End Encryption on his blog. For some things, such as planning military strikes, Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIFs) are the right tool for the job, while smartphone apps of any stripe are not.

In the aftermath of this glorious fuck-up by the Trump administration, I have observed many poorly informed hot takes. Some of these were funny, but others are dangerous: they were trying to promote technologies that claim to be Signal alternatives, as if this whole story was somehow a failure of Signal’s security posture.

Not to put too fine a point on it: Switching to Threema or PGP would not have made a lick of difference. Switching to Matrix would have only helped if you consider “unable to decrypt message” helping.

To understand why, you need a clear understanding of what end-to-end encryption is, what it does, what it protects against, and what it doesn’t protect againt.

His prediction is that the White House will lash out at both The Atlantic and at Signal to distract from the catastrophic procedural failure which the administration demonstrated through this incident. He also observed that adding a journalist to the chat group would provide a good distraction from possibly compromised smartphones, devices which are notoriously insecure even when the stakes are much lower.

Previously:
(2025) Apple Pulls End-to-End Encryption From UK Rather Than Provide Government a Backdoor
(2024) U.S. Officials Urge Americans to Use Encrypted Apps Amid Unprecedented Cyberattack
(2024) Here's the Paper No One Read Before Declaring the Demise of Modern Cryptography
(2024) How I Got a Truly Anonymous Signal Account
... and more.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

xAI buys X; deal values social network at $33 billion, $11B less than Musk paid:

Elon Musk today said he has merged X and xAI in a deal that values the social network formerly known as Twitter at $33 billion. Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022.

xAI acquired X "in an all-stock transaction. The combination values xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt)," Musk wrote on X today.

X and xAI were already collaborating, as xAI's Grok is trained on X posts. Grok is made available to X users, with paying subscribers getting higher usage limits and more features.

"xAI and X's futures are intertwined," Musk wrote. "Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent. This combination will unlock immense potential by blending xAI's advanced AI capability and expertise with X's massive reach."

Musk said the combined company will "build a platform that doesn't just reflect the world but actively accelerates human progress."

xAI and X are privately held. "Some of the deal's specifics were not yet clear, such as whether investors approved the transaction or how investors may be compensated," Reuters wrote.

See also:
 • Elon Musk's xAI Buys Elon Musk's X
 • Musk's xAI buys his social media platform X

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Three senators have warned President Donald Trump that his handling of the TikTok ban puts Apple and other tech companies at risk of liability, potentially costing firms hundreds of billions of dollars.

The ban on TikTok has largely been ignored by the current U.S. Administration, after President Trump ordered for the ban to be extended until April 5. With that delayed deadline looming, lawmakers are concerned about what could happen next and how it could impact other companies.

In a letter to the President on Monday, Senators Edward Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) insist that there could be considerable costs associated with the way that the delay was instigated.

Rather than triggering a 90-day extension of the deadline as detailed in the original law to ban TikTok if it's not divested, Trump instead issued an executive order. One instructing the Department of Justice not to enforce the law for 75 days.

That extension allowed Apple to return the app to the App Store, and Google to do the same with the Google Play Store.

While the order stops TikTok and connected companies from being prosecuted for the period, it's not the same as legalizing the app. Making TikTok available is still against the law, it's just the Justice Department won't act on it.

Deeming this workaround "unlawful," the letter adds that it "raised serious questions about TikTok's future, as the law imposes liability on companies for facilitating TikTok's continued operations in the United States."

This liability is valued at up to $850 billion in the letter. This could be levied against Apple and Google as distributors of the app in the App Store and Google Play Store, and Oracle for providing cloud services.

[...] "There is a better solution: Work with Congress," the letter writers urge.

Introduced legislation, such as the "Extend the TikTok Deadline Act," would push the deadline back to October 16, 2025, but Republicans in the Senate blocked the bill. Trump is told that, to get more time to complete the deal, he should instruct Senate Republicans to pass the legislation.

[...] There's also the matter of whether Trump will listen to the Democratic senators in the first place. It could well end up with a last-minute executive order attempting to extend the deadline once again.

In any case, there's a very real possibility that Apple, Google, Oracle, and anyone else deemed liable for keeping TikTok available could face a hefty fine in a few years, if the following administration is unfavorable.

Original Submission

oregonjohn writes:

We are entering a new phase of developing Soylent News. I'm John and I am the president of the nonprofit board of Soylent Phoenix, which manages Soylent News.

Soon we'll be asking you to review, suggest, and comment on our proposals for a variety of organizational and management changes that we hope will build our community and that will make the site more useful and friendly without changing the intent and basic design.

More coming soon so keep an eye out for updates. Your input is essential.

https://soylentnews.org/faq.pl

John

Original Submission

upstart writes:

23andMe customers struggle to delete their data:

The computer systems of 23andMe have been struggling to cope with the sheer volume of customers racing to delete their data, after the DNA-testing company announced that it was filing for bankruptcy protection.

The firm says it has now resolved the IT problems caused by increased traffic on its website at the start of the week.

But users have reported ongoing difficulties as they scrambled to protect their genetic information, health histories, and ancestry details.

A number of those who have successfully removed their data have also told the BBC of their ongoing anxieties about 23andMe's future.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday in order to sell itself through a court-supervised process.

"If 23andMe is going to be sold, then my data can be sold, from what I hear," said 52 year old Danielle Landriscina of Maryland. Ms Landriscina signed up for 23andMe in 2018 to connect with members of her father's side of the family.

"What's stopping something like a health insurance company from buying my data and then using it to determine if I get health insurance or how much I have to pay for it?," added Ms Landriscina, who works in tech sales.

For now, 23andMe "will not voluntarily share your Personal Information" with insurance companies, the company's current privacy statement states.

But the future is less certain. 23andMe's proposed May 14 auction of its assets could include the genetic data of its millions of customers.

upstart writes:

New Utah law makes app stores responsible for age verification:

Meta, X, and Snap are celebrating a new Utah law that will require Apple and Google to take responsibility for verifying users' ages on their app stores and obtain parental consent for minors.

The tech giants have been battling to determine which party should be responsible for age verification on the app stores. Companies like Meta believe the app stores themselves should verify users' ages because these entities host and distribute the apps. The app stores, however, argue that companies making the apps should bear the responsibility as they're the ones offering the product to end users.

Utah isn't the only state considering some such legislation around age verification; it is the first to enact a law of this kind. The App Store Accountability Act, as the new law is called, was passed by Utah's legislature earlier this month, then headed to Gov. Spencer Cox's desk for a signature to make it official.

Ahead of the law's passing, Apple announced a new set of child safety initiatives for its App Store, which include an age-checking system for apps. Its implementation would allow app developers to use a new Declared Age Range API to access age range information provided by the parent. This information doesn't provide the app developer with the minor's exact age or birthdate, but allows them to customize their app experiences appropriately based on the age range provided.

Apple's system requires the app developers to do the work of requesting the age range before an app is used, rather than the App Store verifying the age at the time of download.

Not surprisingly, social media companies are thrilled the new Utah law would require app stores to verify users' ages before apps can be downloaded onto their devices.

In a joint statement, Meta, X and Snap praised Utah's move, saying:

"We applaud Governor Cox and the State of Utah for being the first in the nation to empower parents and users with greater control over teen app downloads, and urge other states to consider this groundbreaking approach. Parents want a one-stop-shop to oversee and approve the many apps their teens want to download, and Utah has led the way in centralizing it within a device's app store. This approach spares users from repeatedly submitting personal information to countless individual apps and online services. We are committed to safeguarding parents and teens, and look forward to seeing more states adopt this model."

In total, 16 U.S. states including California and Texas have introduced their own versions of app store legislation focused on age verification and youth safety.

Original Submission

An Anonymous Coward writes:

DragonOS is a Lubuntu-based desktop distribution which is focused on software defined radio (SDR). The distribution provides a pre-installed suite of the most powerful and accessible open source SDR software. DragonOS has verified support for a range of inexpensive and powerful SDR hardware, including RTL-SDR, HackRF One, LimeSDR, BladeRF, and others. - quote source

Some reviews, features, and tutorials are located here!

[ Ed's Note: How many in our community use or have experimented with SDR? I use it for tracking aircraft movements and I know others who live near me who download satellite imagery.]

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

Developer Dave Grauer has a long blog post about the broligarchs of Silicon Valley where he asks how they became the face of "technology" and examines how that came to be and what can be done to correct the error.

To be sure, the big software companies were often stupid and greedy, but they seemed relatively harmless to me during that time because progress was so fast, everybody was racing just to keep up. Nobody could capture the market. It was too quick and too slippery to hold.

[...] It would be easy to wrap up in that nostalgia like a warm and comfortable blanket and say that nothing will ever be as good ever again.

So it might surprise you to learn that's not how I feel at all. In fact, if you ask me, right now is the most amazing time to be in computing.

I'm serious. RIGHT NOW is, in a number of ways, far better than when I got started.

Here's the facts:

He provides a lot of examples of both what has happened and ways, both big and small, out of the situation.

Previously:
(2018) FBI Whistleblower on Pierre Omidyar and His Campaign to Neuter Wikileaks
(2016) Where Are the Other 10 Million Panama Papers?
(2014) Inside the Mind of an Oligarch

Original Submission