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[ Mod: This query was originally posted under an article in the blog comments section – but as it was clearly off topic, it was relocated to this Blog Support forum by a moderator. ]
This keeps happening to me all the time as of since about two months ago – i.e. that I’m typing out a comment (and I’m a two-fingered typist who can’t look at the screen whilst I’m typing), and then I suddenly realise that what I’m typing is suddenly coming up in the middle of the preceding paragraph, or wherever, and in THIS case, came up in the slot where my user name is.
To clarify: Allan Howard’s query was immediately preceded by a comment with the name “Allan Howard(5 min” (2024/03/07 at 21:30) under the article “Assange Final Appeal Day 2 – Your Man in the Public Gallery“.
A moderator duly amended the name to “Allan Howard“.I’ve been using computers for twenty-one years, and I’ve never-ever had this problem before. Has anyone else?
Allan, perhaps you use a laptop? I do, and this problem happens to me sometimes, when I wear long sleeve clothes. The reason is that I accidentally hit the touchpad. It is right under the keyboard and when activated it positions the cursor on the screen. That is why sometimes my text goes into wrong place.
Another reason may be accidental hitting the key ‘tab’ instead of ‘alt’ or ‘ctrl’. The key brings the cursor into the next block on a webpage. Though, unlikely, as it positions the cursor in the starting point, not in the middle.
Also, perhaps some keys on the keyboard are remapped, it’s usually done for comfort in computer games. Check your WASD keys if they have tiny arrows printed on them? Or, do they move the cursor on your screen.
Are you using a laptop with trackpad/touchpad and inadvertently touching it with your palm?
Just spotted this thread by chance, which I didn’t realise was here. No, I’m a two-fingered typist ET, one on each hand, and the palms of my hands don’t go anywhere near the touchpad when I’m typing. And I don’t wear anything long-sleeved Tatyana that goes anywhere near the touchpad, and I don’t inadvertently touch anything else. This is the thing: Could someone who was hacked into my computer/laptop move the cursor to another point in my text (that I’ve already typed, or the Name or Mail entry points) as I’m typing? And obviously do so (if it IS possible) to frustrate and irritate ME on the one hand, and to amuse THEM on the other.
PS I assume that, like me, everyone else (once you’ve initially entered your user-name and email address) has their user-name and email address appear automatically when you come to type a comment, and you don’t have to keep entering them each and every time you post a comment?
Anyway, thanks Mod, and Tatyana and ET (the cursor behaved on this occasion!)
Allan Howard, what you describe could be done by cracking into your computer, but it’s far more likely to be a fault in the touchpad or something like that.
Does it happen only at Craig’s site? Possibly you don’t comment elsewhere, in which case see if it happens in a word processor or a text editor. It could be caused by dirt or a bad connection; maybe try tapping or gently twisting the laptop case in various ways, to see if you can provoke it. Or, when it happens, try typing the same thing again a few times, to see if it is caused by a specific key, or keys around a particular place on the keyboard. Check you don’t have any other pointing devices that you’ve forgotten about, such as a wireless mouse now in a nearby drawer, or a ‘smartphone’ set up to control the pointer via Bluetooth. On some laptops, the screen is also a touchscreen; if so, try disabling the touchscreen function. If you’re using Windows, look under Pointing Devices in the Device Manager to see if there are any pointing devices you’re unaware of.
As to enemy action, a friend of mine got a bit freaked when her computer started doing odd things such as opening the CD tray. It turned out to be her husband; he’d enabled Windows’ Remote Desktop feature and was remotely controlling her computer out of simple malice.
And yes, the Name, Mail and, if you use it, the Website fields are usually pre-filled automatically.
Thanks for your reply Clark. When I asked the question re would it be possible for someone who was hacked into my laptop to do such a thing, I was fairly certain the answer would be Yes, but I didn’t actually know for certain, so thanks for confirming that they could. I should have explained initially that I bought the laptop in question about three to four months ago, second hand, in a shop nearby that mostly sells second-hand phones, AND, as far as I can recall, the problem was happening from fairly early on. But – and this is the point – that I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that whenever I’m on my laptop (and previous laptops), I am being monitored, and ‘they’ came up with the idea just after I bought it. I don’t know how long it’s been going on, but around twenty years ago I emailed a lengthy letter to whoever one complained to about their GP – and it was ultra serious stuff – and a few weeks later I just happened to read through my copy of the letter I’d sent, and a key date had been changed (which made a nonsense of what I was claiming had happened), and the fact that it HAD been changed freaked me out so much – as it was obviously designed to do – that I didn’t persue the case against her. But just for the record, yes, it happens in my word processor, and when I’m posting on other sites.
Let me put it like this: When you have an email in which someone told a massive big lie about you in respect of THEM disappear (when I came to look for it months later), then you know beyond any shadow of a doubt that not only are you being monitored whenever you’re on your PC, but they can make things disappear to fuck you up. I should point out that this was much more recently (than the complaint about my GP), and happened about three years ago.
So why, you might ask, am I being targeted? Well I can’t know specifically, and it could be payback for any number of things I’ve done over the years, including a book I wrote in ’92 entitled The Daily Propaganda – The Truth Behind the Lies, which I have no doubt came to their attention, and a couple of leaflets I did in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the first of which was headlined Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the second of which was headlined Weapons of Mass Deception, both of which I made 500 copies and put through people’s doors around NW London, both of which finished (as with all the leaflets I’ve done over the years) by saying PLEASE COPY AND/OR SCAN & CIRCULATE TO FRIENDS & RELATIONS AND WORK COLLEAGUES ETC, and all I can say is that as of since September 2018, ‘they’ have been making my life a complete mysery on pretty much a daily basis, in ways you just wouldn’t believe. Culminating in me being made homeless last year on false grounds, as I still am.
I specifically mentioned the trackpad issue as I had exactly the same issue on a surface type laptop clone in the past, despite my typing being a similar two finger poke style. It’s surprisingly easy to brush the trackpad with thumb or palm even typing poke style. Also it’s a common issue if you do a search for it and invariably it turns out to be a trackpad or failing mouse issue. Try turning the track pad off when typing if you can find the setting or covering it with something (that doesn’t activate it) whilst typing and see if the issue goes away. also, all the usual stuff, updating drivers etc. If you have a keyboard lying about you could try connecting that and see what happens.
Whilst I am sure the spooks could do this, one would seriously hope they have better things to be doing with their time.
Allan Howard, as the wandering cursor problem started when you got your current laptop, and as it happens on various applications, I suspect it’s a fault with the laptop – quite possibly the reason the laptop was disposed of to a second-hand shop. Try ET’s suggestions.
That doesn’t mean your computing isn’t being interfered with, but there are far more entities that might do this than the secret services, eg. my friend who was being targeted by her husband. Between the extremes of a malicious associate and the CIA, there is a vast array of other potential actors – private intelligence agencies, mischievous computing enthusiasts, PR companies, cyber criminals, Fleet Street etc., some of whom might subcontract or have been subcontracted. Maybe you got put on some private agency’s books back in 1992, and whatever company has since bought them up is still claiming money from whatever huge corporation originally initiated the contract.
There are ways to make such meddling extremely difficult:
Incidentally, making and running a Tails (or other) LiveUSB would also indicate whether the wandering cursor is a fault in your laptop hardware or its operating system.
I’m very sorry that you’re homeless.
There’s a certain parallel here. On the one hand there are the specific events that result in someone becoming homeless, while on the other there are the politically driven legal and economic changes that have made housing so much less secure. Likewise in the computing environment; the web is rife with bad practice, and we’re badgered into bad practices ourselves:
https://inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=pid5kmWXSj8
That link is to Invidious, a “front end” for YouTube so you can avoid YouTube itself. The video is by TheHatedOne, who has a channel with a load of computer security stuff you might find interesting, and sometimes helpful:
