Fake windows update + f11 = colleague complains all day!

fuck!!! today I have fallen for the windows is updating prank
Co workers opened the fake windows update website, disconnected the keyboard and mouse
let's just say I sat there for a really loooong time.. cursing windows

!Rant

So i tried fakupdate.net on my friend. He didn't realize it fake before we told him :P

How do I un-idiot my users when it comes to clicking on dodgy email-links??

Got a forwarded email just there from a user who said;

Good afternoon,
Is the below ok to open?
I just tried but got a popup saying I've been blocked from opening it.
I'm not sure who it is coming from and I am not waiting on anything but as it says its from dropbox and is important, i know it's okay.
Can you unblock the link ASAP please?
This is really impeding my work-day as I need to know what it is and act accordingly.
Regards... user.

The Original email came from a random jumble of letters with a subject line of 'important dropbox program' - not only does it look dodgy but its english is horrible! It said;

"Hi tu my freind,

You tu still read a pending verrry important document sent by one of your own contact to be vieweddd.

Install "Highly Confidential english.pdf" by clickinggg here

*insert link leading to something called 'viral-update-trojan.exe'*"

I mean, seriously... help!!! 😢
We have sent emails explaining how to hover over links and to not to click them if it looks wrong.
No one does it.
We hired a company to send fake phishing emails to train users in what to do.
It made no difference!
We now make people 'verify' their email addresses when opening any sort of link to try get them to actually look at what they're opening.
We also strip emails of original attachments and create 'safe' html copies as we can't trust them to look at what they're opening.
Everyone complains about it but Jesus Christ, this is why!!!

Its so exhausting!! What is wrong with people!!! Argh!!! 😤

I like how Microsoft added a FAKE "Do not auto update" button in Windows 10

How long is it ok to wait before telling my colleague that the Windows Update-screen he's been watching for the last 25 mins is just me giving him a lesson in "Win+L"? (He's actually just watching fakeupdate.net)

Favorite thing to do at school is start a fake Windows update on a Mac.

Android equivalent of Fake Windows Update Lockscreen

There's very little good use cases for mongo, change my mind.

Prototyping maybe? Rails can prototype, create/update/destroy db schemas really quickly anyways.

If you're doing a web app, there's tons of libs that let you have a store in your app, even a fake mongo on the browser.

Are the reads fast? When I need that, use with redis.

Can it be an actual replacement for an app's db? No. Safety mechanisms that relational dbs have are pretty much must haves for a production level app.
Data type checks, null checks, foreign key checks, query checks.
All this robustness, this safety is something critical to maintain the data of an app sane.

Screw ups in the app layer affecting the data are a lot less visible and don't get noticed immediately (things like this can happen with relational dbs but are a lot less likely)

Let's not even get into mutating structures. Once you pick a structure with mongo, you're pretty much set.
Redoing a structure is manual, and you better have checks afterwards.

But at the same time, this is kind of a pro for mongo, since if there's variable data, as in some fields that are not always present, you don't need to create column for them, they just go into the data.

But you can have json columns in postgres too!

Is it easier to migrate than relational dbs? yes, but docker makes everything easy also.

So I went into work yesterday on my day off right? (Mardi Gras) to finish up a pretty significant addition to our application. I only had 2 days to work on it before we were to show it off to potential buyers today, so I came in to get it to at least a working state that we can improve later...

Well, that wasn't good enough. First thing my boss said when he saw it was, "this isn't what we had talked about". No dip-shit, this is what you get when you have 1 programmer working on their holiday. Like, I know we talked about this massive content update, but we talked about LITERALLY LESS THAN A WEEK AGO. I really don't know what you expect, but I made it very clear that all I could get done was a prototype at best. Not to mention that this whole app is a hard-coded "fake-prototype" that was never supposed to make it this far....

TL;DR: I have some rambly shit to say...

Update on the Uni stuff: I think I got a pass in all the subjects. Two exams left but I am holding on. It's a big deal to me since last year I could barely do a single subject per semester - a subject I had failed a few times because of lack of interest and good ol' depression. Anyways, I persisted with that subject, got my Bachelor's in Food Technology and now I'm doing that Master's of mine... It probably looks wild to people here that I did that switch but I have always had a relationship with computers as long as I remember myself. So it's not surprising that as soon as I got a choice in what I *actually* wanted to do I chose this kinda thing. But I do have to rant that it took me 10 fucking years to choose! And that I did not choose it before choosing food technology which I will probably never use anyways. I wasted so much of my energy and time on that. I did elect programming as one of the subjects while doing food tech but I really should have moved to something else. But oh well. Guess I had to find out the hard way.

For all those reading, this is what it looks like when you're 30, have very little experience in doing programming for anything else than academics and are doing a major career switch through studies after struggling for 10 years with a 4-year Bachelor's. But such is life.

Also a bit off topic but I just cannot handle people not telling what they mean because of the inability or lesser ability to tell what that is in the first place.

I can't deal with the fact of how fucked human societies are. I just can't. I am way too nice for it. So I listen to stuff like true crime to really get a feel of how evil people can be. I know it's ~problematic~ or whatever, but to me it is a way of engaging with the lesser spoken side of human beings.

And maybe, just maybe, I should get checked for ADHD again because I feel like despite my therapy for depression, nothing really has changed with the ADHD symptoms I was diagnosed with. And maybe for autism since people have labelled me that way and it might explain some stuff... All that is to say I need some good mental care. And this society is shit for it. Hell, apparently one of the psychologists I was under the care of thought depression resulted from ungratefulness. All this while I was legit being abused. But that abuse has stopped now that I found a psychologist that is actually standing up for me. I just mourn for all the time I spent being depressed and how it fucked my memory and stuff. How much it affected me and all. I have no idea why I'm being this vulnerable but it feels somewhat fitting... How do you cope with being 30 and not remembering almost all your life? What you remember being what you managed to write down or has been negative enough it stuck in the brain for forever...

Just why am I fucking supposed to be all happy and shit when I am just tired of life because it is too goddamn much? I have no real reason to look forward to things, online friends and the offline one included. Because ultimately, I have no damn motivation to look forward to anything, really. I am supposedly doing better but in reality I am just getting better at going through the motions. The therapy, while mindblowingly effective, is not actually addressing the core cause of everything and just expecting me to fake it till I make it. And this is me saying that about CBT. Why should I have to tell myself things just to feel human? I am one and as long as I'm alive, nothing will change that. So why do I have to always feel like an alien wherever I am? So out of touch with myself that I don't have a self image or an ability to even tell what the actual fuck I want from life... I am getting better with the latter, but still. It hurts. I wanna shed so many tears but I'm frustratingly unable to do so.

I am just a human trying to human in this ocean of 8 billion humans. Maybe I will find some more connections, maybe I won't.

I wanna end this rambling session by a few things:
1. I will have to go to Canada at some point this year to see my in-laws and some other family over there...
2. I will probably have to seek a job there (for financial reasons it is much better for me to have one there and to work remotely in Georgia) and I have no idea of where to start since I am not the greatest material for it.
3. Life is going alright-ish.
4. I will hear from the startup company at some point this month.
5. I have plans for my future but no idea if they will ever come true at this point.
6. My family arrangement will have to change in more ways than one.
7. I should resume my unofficial first music album and engage in creative stuff because at the core, I have a need to do so.
8. Do I really have to do Duolingo again? I really want to not forget German and Russian, but I just never have practice. And Duolingo is surprisingly easy to forget to do for me.

The end.

A fake osx update screen. took sometime to figure it out that.

Fake update but change the script so it stays at 0% all day

HOW TRUST GEEKS HACK EXPERT HELPED ME TAKE LEGAL ACTION & RECOVER MY FUNDS

It's a fact: Reddit has always been, is, and will be my source for crypto discussions, security tips, and market trends. Little did I know it would be the same site that helped save me from financial ruin. Some months ago, an AMA thread about Trust Geeks Hack Expert showed up. People asked them anything: from lost wallet recoveries to phishing scams; their answers sounded really detailed, transparent, and full of insight. At the time, I didn't know that their help was near. It all started with what I thought was a routine software update. I had received an e-mail from what looked like a trusted exchange, telling me to install an important patch. The email looked *legit—*matching the branding, formatting, and even the usual tone of messages I had received before. Without a second thought, I downloaded the update and installed it. Biggest mistake of my life. It froze within minutes, and then it automatically restarted. My crypto wallet was empty when I regained access. $200,000-gone. At first, I thought it was some kind of glitch, but as I dug deeper, the cold reality hit me hard: I had been hacked. The "update" was a form of malware designed to drain wallets by injecting malicious code. Panic set in, but rather than spiral, I remembered the Trust Geeks Hack Expert AMA. Their confidence in handling cases like mine had stood out to me. I rushed back to the thread, found their contact details Website h tt p s :// trust geeks hack expert. c o m / -- E m a il : trust geeks hack expert {@} fast service {.} c o m, and reached out immediately. Their response was prompt and very reassuring. They asked for every little detail I could remember-from the time of the installation of the fake update to the exact nature of the transactions I had done prior to this. They got to work, tracing the movement of my stolen funds using some advanced blockchain forensics.
Days went by, and I had my doubts, but they kept me updated. Then came a message that I was praying for; they had recovered my $200,000. It sounded like a dream come true. All stress, regret, and anger vanished at that moment. Trust Geeks Hack Expert saved not only my funds but also taught me a lesson which will never be forgotten: never trust email links. Now, I double-check every update; use cold storage for large amounts; don't click on anything that's remotely suspicious. If not for that Reddit AMA, I would have never found the only team skilled enough to turn my disaster into a comeback story.

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I'm a fairly tech-savvy guy: I check links for doubles, verify sources, and I never download anything shady. But when a fake wallet update stole $220,000 from me, well-let me tell you-if it happens to you, you'll realize how easy this is to fall for. It all began with my regular check of my Bitcoin wallet: a notification popped up, requesting me to install an "important security update." It was absolutely legitimate in appearance-same branding, same language, even the same interface. Wanting to stay ahead with security, I clicked install without a second thought. The very moment the update finished, my wallet locked me out. I tried my usual credentials—nothing. Reset password? The link wouldn't send. My heart pounded as, on another device, I refreshed my balance: zero. Panic set in. My mind raced, wondering: Did I just lose everything? My $220,000-years of careful investments-gone because of one click? I felt sick. I tried reaching out to the wallet's official support, but they confirmed my worst fear: I had installed malware that stole my keys. They couldn't do anything. In desperation, I went to r/Crypto Advice on Reddit. The post was raw, frantic, practically begging for help. Amidst the tsunami of condolences and warnings from folks saying my funds were definitely gone, one reply stood out: "Try FOLKWIN EXPERT RECOVERY. They've helped people in your situation before." Skeptical but desperate, I called, and they called back instantly-reassuring. No impossible promises were made, but they said they would do everything in their power. In hours, they traced where my funds had been rerouted; they were not lost yet. The waiting was torture, but the updates they were giving me kept me sane. Then came that email: "We've recovered your funds." I couldn't believe it. The feeling of logging into my wallet and having the full balance was just unreal. My financial future had been hanging by a thread, and FOLKWIN EXPERT RECOVERY pulled me back from the edge. Beyond just recovery, they took the time to walk me through security best practices, teaching me how to identify fake updates and secure my investments against future attacks. Lesson learned: even the best investors get duped. But thanks to FOLKWIN EXPERT RECOVERY, this wasn't a wipeout.
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Warm greetings,
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A crypto influencer on TikTok posted about his $100,000 recovery with CRANIX ETHICAL SOLUTIONS HAVEN. I was hyped along with him and decided to follow it, just in case. At that time, I wasn't worried, as I did have everything: two-factor authentication, backups on cold storage, and strong passwords. I thought I was untouchable. Wrong. Months later, I woke up to a nightmare: my wallet, holding $320,000, was completely drained. I checked my email-nothing. I checked my security logs-no alerts. How did this happen? I scrambled through every account, searching for clues. That's when I saw it—a phishing attack. I had clicked on a link for a fake update weeks prior, and the hackers had been patiently waiting for their moment. Panic set in. I scoured the internet for solutions, but every forum post, every so-called "expert" I contacted-all were saying the same thing: Once it's gone, it's gone. But then I remembered that TikTok post. I contacted the influencer, desperate for an honest answer: Is CRANIX ETHICAL SOLUTIONS HAVEN actually legit? The response came immediately. "100%. They saved me. Reach out now." That was all I needed. I contacted CRANIX ETHICAL SOLUTIONS HAVEN, hoping for a miracle. From the very first message, they were professional, calm, and insanely knowledgeable. They asked the right questions, identified how my funds had been stolen, and immediately set their forensic recovery tools in motion. While I was drowning in anxiety, they worked methodically, patiently, and relentlessly. Hours felt like days, then the message came: "We've recovered your funds." I reread it a total of three times. Every last dollar was back. I had gone from devastation to absolute disbelief and relief. Not only did they recover my money, but they also educated me on what had gone wrong. They walked me through better security practices, helped me secure my wallets properly, and ensured that I'd never fall for the same trick again. That TikTok post? It saved me. And now, I'm the one telling everyone I know: Follow CRANIX ETHICAL SOLUTIONS HAVEN before you ever need them.
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A crypto influencer on TikTok posted about his $100,000 recovery with Rapid Digital Recovery. I was hyped along with him and decided to follow it, just in case. At that time, I wasn't worried, as I did have everything: two-factor authentication, backups on cold storage, and strong passwords. I thought I was untouchable. Wrong.
Months later, I woke up to a nightmare: my wallet, holding $320,000, was completely drained. I checked my email-nothing. I checked my security logs-no alerts. How did this happen? I scrambled through every account, searching for clues. That's when I saw it—a phishing attack. I had clicked on a link for a fake update weeks prior, and the hackers had been patiently waiting for their moment.
Panic set in. I scoured the internet for solutions, but every forum post, every so-called "expert" I contacted-all were saying the same thing: Once it's gone, it's gone. But then I remembered that TikTok post. I DMed the influencer, desperate for an honest answer: Is Rapid Digital Recovery actually legit? The response came immediately. "100%. They saved me. Reach out now."
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I matched with Samantha on Tinder thinking the usual: favorite movies, travel dreams, the obligatory "so what do you do? " Instead, over a plate of overpriced sushi, she hit me with "Yeah, I lost $250,000 in crypto once. Digital Tech Guard Recovery got it back." I spat my drink. Excuse me? She laughed. "Yeah, some scam drained my wallet overnight. Thought my life was over. Then I came across Digital Tech Guard Recovery, and they did the impossible." I nodded half in amazement, half in disbelief; this lady must have been exaggerating. I mean, who just casually recovers six figures? Cool story, but that could never be me.
Oh, how foolish of me.
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I have been working on a long time, low progress project of mine that keeps on giving and giving.

Let's begin like two years ago where I dipped my toes into "more then gigabit" networking thanks to a Linus Techtips video about infiniband.
I had the dream of booting my Workstation from my NAS, a so called diskless setup.

Well, since I run FreeNAS on my Nas , a very nice Freebsd based Nas OS, everything's gonna be good.

In the beginning, there was no infiniband support.
Turns out, you don't need it, since the mellanox CX2 nics can do ETH too.
Yay.
Just took me a few weeks of anger.

So, to be able to boot something over the network, you need firmware that finds the bookable stuff and loads it.
That protocol and firmware is called PXE.
PXE needs a DHCP telling it what to do, and what is where and etc.

Freenas here I come! Installing dnsmasq on the actual freenas install turned out to be not that great of an idea because freenas thinks of itself as being an "appliance" that you don't fiddle with. So things work, until you update/ upgrade when everything will basically be wiped, except what you have done through the ui.
Ok. So I gona use a jail, a container like thing for that.
Everything is great, jail has internet, everything Installs fine, what could go wrong?
Dnsmasq can launch and work, but not as dhcp server. Some thing about permissions.
Turns out, jails have permission like things.
A few days of head scratching later, it has ALL the permissions.
Dnsmasq still can't work as DHCP server though, why you ask?
Because it needs a specific kernelmodule that isn't contained in the jail. Since jails are kind of like a docker container, they run on the same OS kernel, who does not have this module, I'd need to patch the freenas, which is an appliance, so fuck that.

Like a year later, freenas has finally added good VM support, so why not make a VM for the dhcpserver?

Well, about a year ago, I didn't know that the virtual Intel nic is a fucken unstable piece of garbage, crashing nearly any OS at some point.

So that was it for a while again.

Now to the last few weeks.
Finally dnsmasq is running in a freebsd VM with a good and working configuration which is rather simple, if those tutorial fuckers out there would explain shit instead of just telling you to copy, paste and replace X.

Now back to the PXE side.
I'm using iPXE because I have no clue how to boot anything over tftp so iSCSi it is, since that is what I can relate too.
The idea behind iscsi is to fake a SCSI disk over the network. Attached devices appear as if they are actually directly connected to the machine instead of over the network.

iPXE gets a lease from the server, can connect to it, everything is fucken great. Finally.
Except that if it "sanBoots" the iscsi drive, it can't find anything to boot.
Well fuck.
If I attach a Linux live USB over iscsi, it boots, finds grub, and crashes because the live iso isn't configured for network-boot.
But it boots.
So what's so different?

Well iPXE is booted in legacy mode, where as the content of the target is windows 10 in efi mode.
Ffff.

Ok. Can I get iPXE to boot in EFI mode?

Well yes, after like 3 days fiddling with it.
But it only finds the onboard Intel nic instead of the new Mellanox CX3 cards, and can't even connect to the target....

Sooo, I guess my options are as follows.
Either, get PXE efi to work on the network cards directly, its called flexboot and might be able to since I just found some firmware options for that.

Or give up on efi and install windows in legacy mode.
Which isn't that easy when it has to end up on a drive on my nas.