There’s a very easy trick to defeat this: use Linux.
No you don’t understand… I’ve spent the last 30 years investing in increasingly awful software companies to create “industry standards” and leaving these companies behind would require me to change and learn!!!
I talked with the women i’m working with where we print our price lists about changing from adobe to something else and she told me it would be a bad idea since it would make both of our work much more buggy and time consuming with more chances of the end result being worse. So i’ll keep using indesing and the adobe suite for now but i did switch from sketchup to blender for 3D modeling and it’s a bit challenging and more messy then i’m used to but i get better rendering results from what i tried so far.
As long as you can export to the same format, it shouldn’t matter from the print shop’s perspective, no? They just see the same file they would’ve always seen.
The way we work together is by exchanging full fresh indesing pakages that contain the main indd, the idml, a pdf, the links folder and the fonts folder so that we always have everything we need.
Sorry if this is a dumb question, I don’t know anything about graphics design, just about the technology behind it.
Why do you send all these things as separate files? Is just a rasterised or vector export of the project not enough?
Sounds like the design world really needs a standardised container format that can contain all these separate things otherwise.
So many issues with the world boils down to that last part, people refusing to change and learn. I never understood it, I’ve always loved change and learning. I’ve seen so many people go from having that same openness to only caring about keeping everything the same and never learning, it’s really disturbing. Some are like that from a very early age, others fall into it at any other part of their lives and it’s never a good thing IMO.
For me, I’ve got a million interests. I could change and learn this one thing, but that would take time away from learning about other, more personally interesting things.
At some point you just have to leave the software behind. That time is now!
If that hacker only knew about tracking by Windows…
I wouldn’t call overhauling your entire operating system, including finding alternatives to software you use daily, making sure your hardware is compatible and relearning your entire work method as an “easy trick”.
In any other context I’d agree with you, but hacking is the one context where you really do want to do things the hard way. Use ephemeral VMs with passwords only saved in your head, have a dedicated machine for your illegal activities to help isolate your real identity from your hacking.
Honestly even if you’re just doing HackTheBox and similar best practice is to spin up a Kali VM and only use that VM for the activity since you’re literally connecting to a network with a bunch of hackers, even though what you’re doing is entirely above the board
I think you might actually be surprised…
So they’re saying that all these “secret” societies online, like the Peter Thiel psychopathy, are relatively easily identified and rounded up and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and they’re just choosing not to do it? I’m shocked.
I mean Epstein was actively talking about his crimes over plaintext Gmail
Why would they catch pedophiles? Their founder is one
What idiot hacker uses Windows?
A genz hacker. In a world where “hacking” is writing prompts and calling IT help desks.
Okay look, I’m old, I’m inadequate, and I’m drunk. But I’m also a millennial, and I was a flight instructor at the age of 23. I pray to whatever god actually exists instead of Jesus for the unceremonious deletion of every soul that doesn’t give young folks a chance to learn, grow and actualize themselves. Because I am so inordinately sick of being written off due to the year in which my parents fucked that I’ve got room on the docket to be pissed off when you do it to cohorts other than mine.
It is our responsibility to teach the kids, to let them learn, to let them fuck up in order to learn some more, so that they can become the actual adults someday. And it hurts my mind, soul and dick that I’m apparently the only human on earth not excessively lead-addled to realize that. And bitch I’ve washed my hands in 100LL. It’s blue and feels cold at any temperature.
If there’s one thing I’m going to teach you commie retards before I’m banned outright from this platform, it’s that you treat your students with at least the benefit of the doubt if you can’t manage genuine respect. Believe it or not, they’re real people living real lives that are different than your own. Things that are obvious to you aren’t to them because their lives led them to be curious about a different set of things than you did. And if you find yourself in the role of “teacher”, almost always your path led you to expertise sooner than your students. Sooner. Not Younger. I can tell you that, having served as a flight instructor at 23 mostly teaching men in their 50’s.
You think you’re the senior in a field? You think it’s your job to reign superior over your juniors? Think again. Because it’s your job to sit in the right seat as a kid twice your age sits in the Captain’s seat and fails to use the rudder correctly, because falling off a bike is how you learn how to ride. You have to let them slam the plane into the runway, because how the hell else are they going to learn?
Anyone with more experience expressing contempt for those with less experience for having shown up later: FUCK YOUR FUNERAL. Die unmourned.
The amount of times boomers on worksites called me retarded for not knowing how to do something I’d never done before astounded me.
Meanwhile these fuckers would get real butthurt and start yelling and making a fuss when they’d struggle to find a file they just saved on their PC and you do anything besides silently assist them.
I vowed to be different, to teach my people what it means to be competent and respectful. I tell them I expect to see the same level of professionalism and respect I show them going to everyone around them. It’s working! They aren’t coming to work high or hungover, they aren’t being pieces of shit, and they’re communicating with each other instead of yelling insults at each other (well except for when its funny lol).
This has made me unpopular with the boomer leaders but fuck em: we get shit done, we get it done right, nobody gets hurt, and everybody feels respected and doesn’t dread coming to work.
Good on you being the change you want to see. This is the way
tl;dr
Stop being a boomer and teach like a man.
Stop being a boomer
You should try that and not use such idiotic language, like calling people rtrds or to ‘teach like a man’, cuz that’s some of the most boomer bullshit I’ve heard in years.
I’m sorry, I don’t quite get how this is relevant to the topic at hand at all.
It’s a response to the tired refrain that the latest generation are stupid and lazy
Oh! I guess I didn’t see the word GenZ in the thread. Because calling Windows users Script Kiddies and implying they’re lazy goes back to the earliest days of Windows, (back when people were calling Millenials “Generation Y,”) usually implying they’re children roleplaying as hackers.
I suppose the lesson is to “Man Up,” and teach children how to hack.
it’s not the experience or knowledge part that bothers me, as you said people focused on different things and everyone starts from 0. it’s the attitude of giving up when their ai slop doesn’t work or coming up with bandaid solutions to get the task done quickly rather than trying to actually learn or see the bigger picture. it’s an era of short attention span and fast dopamine due to tech, ofc everyone is affected but gen z and a more so because their parents put ipads in their faces since 0 years old.
To be fair, not really their fault. That reality was created for them.
and calling IT help desks.
It always amazes me how much people shit talk social engineering, when it’s been a power house for hackers since the beginning.
The human (or I guess AI now) element is always the weakest link
Tbf, some of the best hackers were social engineering their way into the backend just by calling up certain support numbers in the 80s
I refuse to call social engineers hackers, conmen is more fitting.
Hacking is making something work in an unconventional or unexpected way. Social engineers hack people in that way.
Defcon would disagree. I’ve watched so many presenters talk about all forms of penetration testing, many of which used social engineering and lockpicking as a way to create exploitable vulnerabilities in networks. Whether or not you care to call them hackers… It doesn’t really matter, won’t stop them from hacking.
The weakest link in cybersecurity are usually the users after all.
Real hackers social-engineered their way into high security systems decades before the first blue haired femboy nerd proudly announced “Btw i am usin Arch!”
You can refuse to call them hackers, everyone is entitled to be wrong about something.
Kevin Mitnick was a prolific hacker who used social engineering regularly to infiltrate, and hackers still do today. Humans are a massive weak point in any org, that’s why we have to take quarterly training not to be a moron and let someone into our network through doing something stupid.
Wait, calling IT Help Desks isn’t social engineering now?
It always is. Even if you’re actually calling for help, you need to basically trick them into helping you these days.
Gen Z knows how to use Windows?
Sounds like the tagline for a really crap movie. How far we’ve fallen from two people on one keyboard.
Don’t forget breaking out a second keyboard, but both people use one hand on each keyboard instead of one keyboard each!
It’s necessary since hacking is so time sensitive - if it can’t be done in a hurry there’s no point!
I know, right. . . Now that’s real hacking!
Social engineering is hacking in fact, it’s literally the most prominent form of hacking in easily the most important form of hacking.
It’s also the most efficient and effective.
If you’re s*** talking social engineering, you’re a goddamn moron
A script kiddie
I can’t believe Microslop would do something like this to its loyal customers!
The level of naivete to think it’s a good idea using a microsoft account on a microsoft product for your illegal activity is astounding. Especially when you consider the amount of technical knowledge required to do such a thing.
I legitimately cannot make that connection, Microsoft has never been shy about tracking you or their tight relationship with 3 letter agencies. It doesn’t take a genius to know they are going to snitch, I figured that was a foregone conclusion.
Kids need to learn about OPSEC.
Yeah. What a moron.
I was gonna comment something about Linux distro also having a machine ID, but then I remembered that it’s not in a big database, and it’s so well enforced I routinely have multiple machines with the same ID pop up :D
Linux users will probably tell you their id if you ask them nicely and seem interested in their distro of choice.
I’ve been using Linux for more than 10 years and I had no idea this was a thing lol.
But yeah after reading up on it I don’t see the issue with giving someone this id (though I also don’t see any reason why someone would need it). It’s just a file on disk that can be changed at will with a kernel parameter.
I switched to Linux Mint a long ass time ago. Micropenis can go fuck themselves.
Don’t be euphemistic. Shame them by their actual name. It’s Microsoft. Microsoft makes software that is dangerous to its end users. SAY IT.
I’d also endorse calling them Microslop, half because their software seems to be rapidly ensloppifying and half because it pisses off their CEO
The mysticism of many cultures throughout history has assigned a power to knowing, saying and writing a demon’s true name. The earliest example of this I can think of is from the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, the obscure god Medjed, “The Smiter” whose physical appearance can’t be known so when he’s depicted in heiroglyphs, he’s drawn as a bedsheet ghost with eyes and feet.. So to safely traverse the land of the dead you have to know him by his true name.
Call evil by its true name.
I know that concept, but I believe it is more about unambiguity and transparency: I know who and what you are. There is no disguise or deflection to hide behind.
In that vein, I also believe that there is power in intentionally corrupted mockeries of those names, so long as those twists preserve clear lineage to their originals and are somewhat apt to the creature being described. They not only identify their subject, but also taunt it, essentially boasting the power that the subject has no recourse to your mockery.
“Micropenis” is a generic schoolyard insult that could just as well mean a certain president or a buddy you’re looking to tease.
“Microsoft” is the true name.
“Microslop” is clearly related to that name, so you know who I’m talking about, while also calling out the sloppy character of their work and taunting its executives who object to describing the digital offal they peddle as the slop it is.Motion passes 👩🏻⚖️ microslop it is. I’m adjusting my autocorrect library to match this new convention
I should note that there is no need to use either term exclusively. I think both have their uses and places, depending on the formality of the occasion or the context, and obviously anyone is free to use whichever they see fit to.
Just don’t use Micropenis. That’s juvenile, generic, hardly applicable to a company and liable to cause collateral damage: People born with a small member don’t deserve being equated to a company that, by all accounts, is being a giant dick.
Agreed. In this house we support and cherish genitals of all configurations so long as they aren’t themselves attached to giant dicks.
Voldesoft, get 'em Harry!
Yeah you still have fun with a micropenis. With Microsoft you’re broke for fun
My laptop came with Win11, I’ve removed that drive a few months ago and replaced it with Mint.
Does this mean MS has my motherboard, WiFi, other hardware identifiers that would still tie that laptop to their database?
Yup!
Motherboard, CPU, GPU models and serial numbers. Ram size and speed. Those were used during Windows activation as old as windows 95. But likely yes, a full list of every component connected.
Your Android phone collects every WiFi network it has ever seen and sends it to Google, so we should assume Microsoft does the same (Android can locate you without GPS by using your neighbors’ WiFi signals as position identifiers, and can triangulate you to a few feet using the relative networks’ signal strengths)
GrapheneOS babyyyyy
Cannot wait for the Motorola/GrapheneOS collab phones.
Um… You’re aware that your pixel was known to google before you graphened it?
Never knew a google account, so it was known to Google but not to me. … but while on the topic, know of a better option?
Jolla Phone is just starting to ship
Promising…
so it was known to Google but not to me
Right, but you can assume google knows the imei and other hardware details, so they can probably link you to your identity on other platforms.
There is also the baseband issue. It is currently assumed that manufacturers could have access to snoop your LTE/5g and WiFi traffic, because the software running most phone baseband units is closed and not audited.
So you are probably private, but if you really want a phone with no Big Brother, you should get one from Pine64 or Jolla.
I’d love to. I bought an early pinephone and after about a day of trying to make it do basic functions I gave up. I’d LOVE to have a real Linux option but in my experiences so far we’re not there yet. I don’t see a better option than Graphene at the moment- it’s that solid.
Yes, I agree. We might not have rock-solid solutions, but less google is better.
I keep a oneplus 6t just to test Linux phone options.
Android phone collects every WiFi network it has ever seen and sends it to Google
Possibly, but how often do you use WiFi on a phone?
Possibly, but how often do you use WiFi on a phone?
Basically whenever I’m at home or a relative’s house?
But why? Mobile networks are very fast nowadays. And how many homes still have routers?
…are you joking?
I would have used WiFi on my phone perhaps two or three times in the last year. My home does have a router, because we’re dinos, but most new houses don’t since everyone has a smartphone anyway.
fast ≠ widespread or consistent. mobile data tends to have excruciatingly low upload speeds (at least in my region)
Ah, then it makes sense.
Please note: I didn’t say you had to connect to these networks. This happens as a background process unless you do a ritual to shut off location services and actively work to keep it off. Most people do not know/care to do this. And even if it’s off in settings, some apps have the permission to temporarily override this (and will ask you once to grant it such permission and then have that permission for the lifetime of the app). And regardless of which app overrides said setting, Google gets a copy of whatever the background scan finds (for all Android phones that have the Play store installed, which is most of them).
Am I the only person who switches off the WiFi after use? I thought that was common advice to save battery.
I use WiFi at home and friends. I use cellular for work and travel (usually between home and friends). I’m glad you have a simple enough arrangement that it’s worthwhile to manage it by hand.
Further, in recent versions of Android, factory settings are set to automatically turn WiFi back on if turned off - plus there’s several methods to indirectly turn WiFi back on (https://thedroidguy.com/stop-android-turning-wifi-on-automatically-1261625). This is that dark patterns thing. Getting people to do what you want by being frictionless with your preferred options and ‘polite’ but obstinate about options you wish to steer people away from.
I use WiFi at home and friends.
This is the part I don’t understand. Mobile data would work in your houses too, right?
Further, in recent versions of Android, factory settings are set to automatically turn WiFi back on if turned off
I haven’t seen this happen, but I use MIUI (Xiaomi’s Android ROM) which tends to be aggressive in limiting battery use. It will actually cut hotspot if unused for a few minutes.
This is the part I don’t understand. Mobile data would work in your houses too, right?
Actually, first - ironically mobile coverage is terrible right at my new home since I moved. Great about 200 yards from home and most everywhere I go, but there’s a weird blind spot at my address specifically.
Second, Most mobile data plans are 30-80 Mbps†, most home WiFi plans are 300 Mbps-1Gbps†. WiFi isn’t just faster, it’s a lot faster. † your milage may vary, these are based on my experience
Finally, again this is another case of maybe I’m weird, but my friends and I are into retro gaming, and self-hosting and both of those have LAN-specific options that only work within the WiFi and home network.
Wait, what is the solution then? Genz are not going to settle on 10 yo laptop. They are going to buy new expensive AI-ready windows machine, replacing with Linux will do nothing privacywise? The only viable alt is to buy some obscure Linux laptop or old device? How old should it be anyway?
Oh, so to clear up confusion - switching to Linux destroys the local storage of the GDID, and Linux has generally much better privacy (to the degree the OS is involved - browser privacy is a related subject). However, it doesn’t undo the past - if you previously signed in with your MS account on that system, Microsoft will have that record in perpetuity.
Best solution would be to wipe any system you acquire without ever signing in to Microsoft. While switching to Linux will not change any of the components serial numbers that Microsoft has, you will at least not be actively associating most of your web activity with your M$ account.
Tangent - if you’re gonna do shady stuff, use VMs or TailsOS.
If it was registered, probably. They use a mixture of that to allow re-enabling the same license on the same hardware.
OEM systems come with the license key stored in the firmware (ACPI tables specifically), you can read them from *nix easily enough.
sudo strings /sys/firmware/acpi/tables/MSDMIf you boot the system and login an account then yeah they’ll be able to link that, but the install itself can “self activate”.
By design.

Identifier. Not tracker. They’re not phoning home, thank god.
Ugh… How do you think they correlated the GDID to his social media?
His social was logged into with that identifier
and how do you think the social account was linked with said identifier?
Because that identifier is logged by the website when he logged in.
deleted by creator
It mentions this GDID is sent in telemetry. So this guy kept using a hosted proxy, meaning his egress IP was always changing accessing different services, but everytime his Windows 11 machine was sending back telemetry (which included his GDID) they were logging the IP address he was appearing from (the proxy) - so they were able to track and identify him.
If you use your Microsoft account to login, they have to be able to identify you somehow when you try to authenticate. It is basic usage. Not Telemetry. That is what caught him.
Cant wait for someone to make or reveal they already have a GDID spoofer and can now make grandma look like the worlds number 1 hacker.
Also 10. And 8. Maybe since Vista actually…
It’s probably since XP at least. Probably introduced in some form in NT.
I used xp-Antispy to cut off the telemetry back in the day.
Its doesn’t have a off switch but you can generate a new one.
Elaborate, Please…
I don’t remember the command but it was easy to find. There are a couple of ways to do it. I used a scheduled power shell script for the persons computer I did it for. They used it to avoid a annoying set of trackers that kept her from getting the lowest price on some equipment website. That was in 2020 or 2021.
Edit: I was mistaken about what generated ID I was talking about. You can however change GDID but it will force microsoft to reregister the installation so I don’t know how many times you could do it before microsoft refuses to do it again
I do absolutely nothing illegal on my windows 11 machine. I save the fun torrenting for my Mac. And soon I’ll have a Linux device set up.























