I always found him to be rather smart, urbane and educated.
Posted on 08/23/2022 11:12:33 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
On Saturday, my Windows PC went hog wild trying to update itself again. In doing so, it refused to respond promptly. On Sunday, my PC ran hot probably trying to seek out another viral infection. I'm really upset with this Microsoft update nonsense. Today, I noticed that a small dictionary I was keeping by my PC was very warm. The hypocrisy of Bill Gates babbling about global warming while Microsoft PCs waste vast amounts of electricity is truly galling.
In my opinion, Microsoft needs to force credit card (and other financial) account information off Windows PCs so Windows PCs are not an attractive target for thieves and hackers. It also needs to close off all security loopholes, even if that forces many other organizations to have to rewrite software.
I propose that credit card information and processing not be done on Windows PC or a seller's computer equipment. Instead, a mobile phone app would handle payment information processing. Neither Microsoft nor sellers would have internal financial software security worries. Instead, Google via Android and Apple via iPhones (and as usual, the banks) would have the security worries, and software security expenses.
Consumers would no longer enter their credit card information into their Windows PCs. If they tried, they might get a pop-up warning such as "4149 represents the first four digits of a VISA debit card. Do not ever enter financial account information into a Windows PC...."
Instead, Internet purchasers would see a box with say:
BIG RIVER BOOKS on the first line,
the purchase ID on the second line,
the name of the seller's bank (say CHASE) and the bank's ABA routing number on the third line,
and the seller's bank account number & the purchase amount on the fourth.
These seller bank accounts would typically be deposit only, except to the bank and the seller. A large company might utilize several bank accounts to cut its security risk.
If would-be puchasers don't recognize the bank name, they will probably not make the purchase.
The box would get scanned in sort of like a QR code. However, plain text would be used instead for security.
The app (and app maker) would then check the bank name and ABA routing number. An old bank name such as BBT would get blocked by the app, generating say BBT: obsolete bank name, with flags & asterisks, on the mobile phone.
A Northeast regional bank name might cause the app to place:
NY MA VT NH ME on one line and
PA NJ CT RI on the second line
to indicate the bank has branches in such states and that the seller should probably be from one of those states.
The app would then query the bank itself and ask about the account. The bank would provide the app with a response that might include:
the date the account was opened,
the name on the account,
the account type, and
the average 24-hour deposit amounts for certain time periods chosen by the bank, say for last 24 hours and the day a year ago and the day two years ago.
For large sellers, percentages of the last 24 hours might be provided instead.
On say a Black Friday, the bank might use the volume information from the two previous Black Fridays.
The app would display seller bank & bank account related text in various colors such as green, lime green, yellow, orange or red based on perceived security risk.
The would be-purchaser can then decide to pay or abandon the transaction. Internet purchaser payment account information might be set previously on the app or entered on a one-time use basis.
The bank would notify the seller of the payment and purchase ID by at least one means, other means being used to provide security check means. The seller can then ship the item or mark the service or hotel room paid for.
It's ordinary PC buyers like me that spend big money (indirectly) on Microsoft PC software, not Internet sellers of hotel rooms and Jeff Bezos. Microsoft needs to make Windows work well for PC buyers and users again, as its foremost priority. Microsoft needs to fully understand that its PC operating system business is highly endangered. I use my PC to get things done, every day that Microsoft lets me. I use more secure office grade Windows machines (or a Chromebook) to buy about one or two items a year.
You know Bill Gates doesn’t have anything to do with MSFT anymore right? Other than own a ton of shares.
Also updates are needed for all computers. If they don’t update then they get accused of not protecting users. If they update you get complainers saying my system was fine. LOL. If you don’t like updates, I suggest you stop using all computers. Or at least never connect to the Internet.
I'm not discounting that this happens but it is overblown and definitely is outweighed by the convenience we all get for having our information on our devices, ready to use. Besides, as far as I know, all banks, credit unions, and credit card organizations give you protection for fraud so even if it occurs, it is simply and quickly reversed.
Embrace technology and the convenience it brings!
Get Linux!
:)
How do you force credit card data off of a computer? From an OS perspective it’s just data some application is storing. The OS has no way of knowing if what the app is storing is user preferences or sensitive information.
As for closing all security holes, that’s a lot of what they’re trying to do with the updates. Unfortunately the only way to make a 100% secure OS is to make an OS that does nothing. Anything you can do legitimately can be done illegitimately.
And you think cellphones, with their much higher level of data sharing, are an answer?
If your PC is running hot check its ventilation. Is the fan port obstructed? Dusty? Unless you’re doing some serious overclocked gaming type stuff PCs really don’t warm up from normal use.
Brian, I have never seen you post before
You seem to be extremely mentally challenged and disturbed.
Please immediately seek help, and get some more anti-viral covid boosters before it is too late
Unfortunately, as a 63-year-old person I have a few decades of data that is Microsoft software based.
The obvious solution to crapware updates from Microsoft is to not use their products.
“How do you force credit card data off of a computer?”
I gave an example: 4149
“disturbed”
I’m a very upset customer. And I very much doubt I’m the only one.
I always found him to be rather smart, urbane and educated.
“The obvious solution to crapware updates from Microsoft is to not use their products.”
I need a word processor that deals with foreign languages, such as Russian, Arabic and Japanese.
I need to be able to deal with archived webpages with webpages.
There probably are solutions, but they are not by any means “obvious”.
So people who live in Milwaukee could have their phone number flagged by the OS as CC data? And keep in mind Visa starts with 4, could be 4147, could be 4737, could be ANYTHING starting with 4. And AmEx is 3, MasterCard 5, Discover 6. Nope. Won’t work. Again to the OS it’s JUST BYTES. It doesn’t know. And the level of snoopware they’d have to put on it to even guess, and frequently guess poorly, would be epic. And the first thing that would happen is people would start dropping tools out there to let you block that annoying crap.
“Get Linux!”
I read a little while back here about Dell ready-to-use Linux PCs. The prices put me off.
No one at MSFT cares how disturbed you are.
But if you permanently disconnect your computer from the internets you will be safe.
Literally everything you ranted about has to do with payment processors and has nothing to do with Microsoft Windows or updates. You also clearly don’t understand what you are talking about and if you hate Windows, buy a Mac or use Linux and you will have the same issues. Software makers dont control how payment processes work; the transaction processors such as Visa do. If you computer is running hot its because its under powered for the OS you’re running or it’s loaded with applications that are running in the background and competing with everything else. Your heat complaint should be with the computer maker, not Microsoft.
ShadowAce, you of all people should know better.
Doesn’t matter if it’s Linux, Apple, or Microsoft, you are going to be patching those systems, likely monthly. To say that going to Linux is a panacea for patching is disingenuous.
The OP doesn’t seem to know what they want. In the title they say MS needs to end “noxious update nonsense,” but then in their screed, they say that Microsoft needs to patch their security vulnerabilities.
Which is it? You understand that MOST patches are for security purposes, esp. the ones that force a reboot. Microsoft’s been harangued for years for being “insecure,” and their fix for that is to force patching up-to-date, and now they take guff for that. Unreal.
I do know that my card number has 16 digits, the last being a check digit.
https://www.creditcardvalidator.org/visa/regions/410063
ROFL!
It really was a joke. But I've seen enough of those kinds of comments that I thought I'd jump in there. Nothing serious.
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