Posts by Joe Gurman

Huawei wins patent injunction against Samsung in China

Knock me over with a feather

Samsung infringing someone else's IP? Never would have suspected it.

Windows 10 to force you to use Edge, even if it isn't default browser

And perhaps more to the point....

If you follow the link to the infographic on email clients, Apple clients (iOs Mail for iPhone and iPad, plus macOS Mail) add up to 46% of all clients. Of course, that doesn't mesh well with the "idiot tax" and general anti-Apple line of El Reg, so the article doesn't mention it. People have voted with their feet, or at least with their thumbs.

Inviting nearby exoplanet revealed as radiation-baked hell

Erm....

"[A]fter the detection of huge solar flares...." Indeed, they'd have to be astonishingly power to reach from the Sun to a planet of Proxima Cen. "Stellar flares," maybe?

Yes, Assange, we'll still nick you for skipping bail, rules court

Meanwhile, back in Ecuador

The PAIS party candidate who was elected in 2017 won only 51.1% of the vote in the second round of voting. If the balance shifts in favo[u]r of a more Conservative party by the 2021 election or a subsequent one, Mr. Assange may find himself without Ecuadoran citizenship and asked to leave the embassy.

Oh, come on

If you don't like the fact that the UK has an extradition treaty with the US, work to elect MPs who will vote to abrogate the treaty. Otherwise.... *snore*

Apple: iPhone sales are down (but they've never been more lucrative)

Had your fun? One of the most inaccurate articles ever in The Reg

If the writer had actually bothered to listen to Apple's earnings call, or read one of the few accurate stories online reporting it, he would have noted that the 2018Q1 to 2017Q1 comparison was 13 weeks compared with 14 weeks. Comparing like numbers of weeks (an "apples to apples" comparison? Sorry, had to), gives these sales figures:

iPhones up by 6%

iPads up by 8%

Macs up by 2%

Services (e.g. Music) up by 27%

And revenues up by 21%.

Think those results might have something to do with the 3.1% overnight rise in share prices? (To be fair, they're back down 2.81& so far today, with all US shares down 1 - 1.5% so far on the day.)

But that wouldn't make a good "Failing Apple" or "Peak Apple" story, would it? You'll just have to settle for "dumb but rich Apple fanbois." What else could possibly explain people all over the world buying more expensive bling than you prefer?

Dinosaurs gathered at NASA Goddard site for fatal feeding frenzy

Time to rename

....the NASA Center as "Cretaceous Park."

'The capacitors exploded, showering the lab in flaming confetti'

How apposite an illustration

Long, long ago, before the dawn of most things digital for mere mortals, I was an undergraduate at a liberal arts college run Cambridge, Massachussetts that was and remains far too full of itself. Let's call it the Eastern Massachusetts School of Mines. Downriver, there was a more technically oriented university, whose graduates liked to remain among the fleshpots of Boston and Cambridge after graduation, and in the largely pre-digital age what better way to exercise their entrepreneurial muscles than to build and sell high-powered stereo equipment. A freshman roommate purchased a pair of ~ 50 lb. speakers from one (imagine the size of the permanent magnets), and an amplifier from another, a brand-new startup. (I believe the amp had serial number 00001.) One afternoon, as my roommate was enjoying a fine, recreational pharmaceutical and entertaining most of the freshman class through our open windows with his massive (45 W per channel, a big deal in those dark days) system, a transistor in the power supply blew.

And when I say, "blew," I also mean "blue," which was the color of the perfect, vertical jet of flame, immediately followed by a miniature mushroom cloud exiting one of the vent louvers on the top of the steel enclosure. I didn't know about the persistence of vortices in those days, but I was fairly certain that nuclear fission was not involved.

Fortunately, the young entrepreneurs were deeply apologetic and gave my roommate a replacement unit (S/N 00007 or so), which survived several more EMSM serenades.

Apple: The exclusive sales channel for an, er, AI toothbrush

“Would you believe there’s no Android app?”

I guess Colgate marketing execs figure all Android users have teeth that are totally rotted from crystal meth use, so what's the point?

Yay, it's power play day: Conaway prays USA says 'no way' to Huawei

Odd legislation

I believe the US Defense Department budget, as well as several other agencies' (including the one I work for), allow purchasing of any tech only from an FBI-approved list, and Huawei is definitely not on that list. Don't know about ZTE. Believe that's been in place for ~ six years now.

Cortana. Whatever happened to world domination?

I thought....

....Cortana was a pretty cool character in the Halo series. Did Microsoft exploit its failed marriage with Bungee for something else? Oh, I see.

You GNOME it: Windows and Apple devs get a compelling reason to turn to Linux

I must have missed something

But where in the article is headline explained or justified? Yes, almost every bistro on the planet is now shipping with GNOME. But so what? How many desktop/laptop Linux systems are there, and how much are their users willing to spend on software each year? Class, compare and contrast with the number of Windows desktop/laptops or even Macs out there, and please tell me why there is a compelling reason (other than the personal like/dislike ones that have aways been there) for a dev to start supporting Linux apps now.

How's this for a stocking filler next year? El Reg catches up with Gemini

Erm, "inside pocket?"

Perhaps I'm not sufficiently familiar with the language as spoken in Blighty, but does that refer to the inside of a man's suit or sport jacket pocket? If so, where do women and men without such attire put the device when not using it? There is a reason the smartphone (range of) form factor(s) took off, isn't there?

UK teen dodges jail time for role in DDoSes on Natwest, Amazon and more

It could be argued....

....that every male in IT is somewhere on the autism spectrum.

Here, however, is Brian Krebs's opinion — and he is a DDOS-for-victim:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/12/u-k-man-avoids-jail-time-in-vdos-case/#more-41980 ,

At Christmas, do you give peas a chance? Go cold turkey? What is the perfect festive feast?

I will let the honorable lady answer for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tku61sKhPGo

Murdoch's Fox empire is set to become a literal Mickey Mouse outfit

According to US courts....

....Fox has no "news" division, only an "opinion" operation, The distinction saves them from constant libel suits as they continue lying through their teeth.

Prison hacker who tried to free friend now likely to join him inside

Warning: Pedantry

In the US, the old phrase "big house" referred to state or federal penitentiaries, rather than to city or county lockups. A world of difference, if only because the cuisine in the former went at least a little beyond bologna on white bread.... every day,

Pro tip: You can log into macOS High Sierra as root with no password

Re: They are busy setting Root passwords...

In the long-ago 1970s, I remember several proud Pinto owners (who couldn't afford to replace them) driving around with "Caution: Flammable" stickers on their rear bumpers.

Patch now available

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208315

Brit teen accused of running malware factory and helpdesk for crims

For more detail....

The alleged US perp:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/11/hack-of-attack-for-hire-service-vdos-snares-new-mexico-man/ .

Jack Chappell case:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/11/correcting-the-record-on-vdos-prosecutions/ .

Chappell, an adult in the eyes of the law, pleased guilty and will face sentencing next month.

Arecibo spared the axe: Iconic observatory vital to science lives on

Meanwhile, back at the facts

The NSF press release announced the recommendation of a group tasked to look at the best way forward for Arecibo: closure, partnerships, &c. The recommendation, as reported, indicated the Foundation would continue to fund observatory operations at a significantly lower level IF a partner (pr partner consortium) can be found. If the Foundation's quick exit, stage right, from the support of Sacramento Peak Observatory, which a panel of "experts" recommended be closed as the National Solar Observatory shifts its concentration to the new Panel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) in Hawai'i, is any indication, the partnership will have a hard time providing sufficient funding for a meaningful scientific observing program within a year or two — but the Foundation will have wiped its hands of the asset.

The NSF spends significant amounts of the taxpayers' money constructing its own facilities, but then fails to fund their operations adequately, at least in astronomy and solar physics. It also spends the taxpayers' money on operating "big glass" — very large telescopes — built by private consortia, who can't get their sugar daddies to pay for the annual upkeep and operation, even though a large fraction of the observing time at those facilities is reserved for the staff of the consortia members. The net effect is to skew observing time at good facilities to people who work at large, well-endowed, well known universities whose administrators can always can a lunch date with the NSF Director when they're in Washington. As for all the astronomers at smaller institutions, without the funds or the fundraising clout to get the mega-donations to build their own observatories, and for whom national observatories were starts din the first place? Let 'em eat cake.

Brace yourselves, fanboys. Winter is coming. And the iPhone X can't handle the cold

Fixed, apparently

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208067

For those who aren't interested in (nearly) fake news

Given the absence of information here (what temperatures, 100% of phones or just some, &c.), I note that the one Reddit post that did include temperatures noted it was -4 F (-20 C), which was way outside of Apple’s tech specs:

• Operating ambient temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C)

• Nonoperating temperature: −4° to 113° F (−20° to 45° C)

And hopefully, way outside of any temperatures most punters will be experiencing in the UK this winter.

FWIW, the temperature ranges above are identical to those for the iPhone 8/8+, so I suspect there’s less here than meets the eye. Unless, of course, you live on Svalbard or in Minnesota.

Thousand-dollar iPhone X's Face ID wrecked by '$150 3D-printed mask'

Re: Why oh why

Because no one has yet built a fingerprint scanner that works > 50% of the time for every possible punter. And because Apple has other fish to fry with virtual reality. Wait year or two, it won't be just animojis.

Android at 10: How Google won the smartphone wars

Erm....

"Although Apple had once been the pioneer, it now had to settle for life in the Platform's shadow: as a high-margin boutique, catering to a wealthy minority."

You've just described Mercedes and BMW, Mr. Orlowski. You might just as well have described Apple as, "One of only two corporations to make a profit off designing and selling smartphones." Although hopefully, by 2023, there will be others. I wouldn't be surprised if there are, though Samsung might not stay in that category.

First iPhone X fondlers struggle to admit that Face ID sort of sucks

Well, maybe not so bad after all

http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/10/31/apples-iphone-x-passes-twin-test-in-early-hands-on-with-face-id

Russia to block access to cryptocurrency exchanges' websites – report

What's dubious about them?

I mean, they're only the currency of choice for drug dealers, ransomware purveyors, and personal information hack peddlers the world over. Now the ruble....

US taxmen pull plug on anti-identity-theft system used by identity thieves

Really?

All this talk about pwning people's tax returns, and no one's mentioned Trump's MIA tax returns?

Re: Yeah

Don't buy it. Everyone has access to their W-4 information and if too much was withheld, they can change the info on it to tune how much is withheld the next year. Been there, done that.

BYOD might be a hipster honeypot but it's rarely worth the extra hassle

Well....

I work for a large-ish US government agency whose name I'm not meant to use on social media (though considering the average El Reg commentard such as myself, perhaps "antisocial" is more appropriate). Our agency CIO recently circulated a draft policy to disallow use of corporate Exchange server e-maill on non-Agency-owned or at least Agency-blessed devices (that is, ones that have been vetted and included in the part of our lengthy security plans that designate every outside IP with which we have "data flows"). I see it as a considerate corporate policy to discourage employees from wasting their non-work hours with reading agency bumf (which describes accurately upward of 90% of all e-mail on the corporate server), but some may view it differently.

And yes, many people here with Vibrating, Light-up Internet Fondletoys issued by the lowest bidder outsourcing outfit have been carrying those around along with their real phones for a few years. I don't see the point of BYOD for laptops or desktops, but people tend to have a personal relationship with their phones/phablets/fondlelslabs. (Or why else are there such flamewars here about this or that obscure feature of this or that aged device?) There are MDM solutions out there that firewall corporate data from personal, so that only the former can be wiped, but corporate prefers Microsoft's version that's baked into Exchange Server, which for some inexplicable reason simply wipes everything each time some eager toddler exceeds the allowed number of password attempts. Seems silly to me, but I'm only an employee.... and taxpayer.

Re: Why stop there?

What are these "paper," "pens," and "staplers" of which you speak?

I remember vaguely using such things in the 20th century, but not so much recently.

Alleged dark web drug baron cuffed – after he flew to US for World Beard Championships

Re: First actual use of Bitcoin Cash?

Is it impossible for BC to be both a sideshow scam and (its principle use) a vehicle for criminals to stash their cash?

Re: One more reason to avoid the US

Really? French posts? I guess the French must have bigger posts.

Helium's for balloons and squeaky voices, not this 10TB Toshiba beast

Re: Save the Helium, ban balloons

Finite, certainly, but how much? New discoveries keep being made, for instance: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/28/the-world-is-running-dangerously-low-on-helium-this-discovery-reinflates-our-supply/ .

The world was supposed to reach the Hubbert Peak for oil in the 1970s, or so the thinking ran then. We aren't out of it yet, sadly.

So. Should I upgrade to macOS High Sierra?

Re: Backup server?

Now you’re getting down to individual tastes. I’d rather have a single, slender Thunderbolt 3 cable connecting my very thin desktop to a compact, quiet.RAID box than a hulking mess of a PC enclosure with a slew of disk slots. De gustibus non disputandum erat.

Hotter than the Sun: JET – Earth’s biggest fusion reactor, in Culham

"Making stars." Hm.

While no doubt a good way to explain your job to the folks back home, stars also involve quite a lot of mass, and thus quite a lot of gravitational concentration of mass, in order to establish the conditions for thermonuclear energy generation. Right now, at least, a somewhat more difficult engineering problem.

Attention adults working in the real world: Do not upgrade to iOS 11 if you use Outlook, Exchange

Typical Reg snark

Some of us would consider Microsoft the idiot tax operation, just for corporate types. For what it's worth, the folks I work for are still on Exchange Server 2013, which offers (well, forces) an IMAP server as well as the odious Exchange tool-for-bothering-people-and-preventing-their-getting-serious-work-done (bingledy-beep, Insert Name Here). Most of us use the IMAP option, an it appears to work fine under iOS 11. Maybe it's a 2016-only issue?

Itching to stuff iOS 11 on your iPhone? You may want to hold off for a bit

Sorry

But if apps haven't responded to repeated warnings in over three years, they're not "good" or "important." They're unsupported.

Whether for lack of continuing interest on the coder's part, or lack of a revenue stream, they're unsupported. At some point, the OS vendor has to say they're not particularly good or important to its App Store.

Don't know about Android, but anyone using iOS apps who eve looks at App Store updates realizes that most supported apps are updated weekly or at least monthly for big fixes, &c. That probably means the ones with decent revenue streams.

Nasty firmware update butchers Samsung smart TVs so bad, they have to be repaired

Technology?

The wrong amount sucks. Can't see a single reason why a TV needs to do anything other than recognize different sources and allow switching among them. Even the receiver (for those relatively few in the US, at least) could be a separate component. And no excuse for internet connectivity whatsoever — except the delivery of patches that kill the display.

Tech giants warp eco standards to greenwash electronics, rake in cash

With all due respect....

....for the planet-friendly, consumer-friendly, and just generally nice people at iFixIt and other repair.org members, (1) they are money-making organizations, too, just not on the scale of a Samsung or an Apple, and (2) using a .org address for their trade organization is a bit misleading.

Apple, as reported here, appears to have a policy of "recycling" kit turned back to it for store credit by reducing it to individual electronic components, re-using what (if anything) is reusable, salvaging solder, &c. from PCBs, and mincing the rest. Their stated reason for doing so is to deny the unauthorized repair (read: pirate otherwise bricked, stolen phones) business the parts stream. I don't know how effective that is, between offshore recyclers who can probably make more dosh by selling on the parts instead of reducing them to dust and Chinese jobbers who manufacture knockoff parts.

Is manufacturers' insistence on authorized repair shops such a bad thing? I'm having a hard time determining where the needle comes to rest on my ethics-o-meter.

If you love your email standards, SMTP your feet: 35 years later

"[N]obody disputes that email is an indispensable part of everyday modern life."

I think my texting-only kids, both in their 20s, would disagree.

Flash... Nu-uh! Tech folk champing at the bit to switch off life support

Cry me a river, whingeing academics

Th university community the world over is noted for its less than serious approach to IT security. Adobe has been courteous enough to give the unis a couple of years in which to get their act together, change grant proposals, address staffing, and the like. Yes, it will cost more in the short run. But compared to the impact of massive malware infestations (and Flash has to be considered the most successful one to date), not so large an investment.

.. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / - .... .. ... then a US Navy fondleslab just put you out of a job

Re: "whether the Navy should be abandoning low-tech backup solutions"

Erm, salt water? Ice?

And how well, exactly....

....does the tablet work when 10 m swells send salt spray onto it?

Microsoft boasted it had rebuilt Skype 'from the ground up'. Instead, it should have buried it

From the people who brought you Zune

And the score for Microsoft trying to be one of the cool kids remains 0 for whatever.

How to pwn phones with shady replacement parts

And people complain about Apple discouraging third-party repair shops

(Not that it does any good.) A good way to jack up repair prices, but at the same time, also a way to insure the provenance of the parts.

Come again?

Why can't you envision that? It's exactly what the article was about. Given the vast supply of used parts, down to the chip level, in China and other countries, what it to stop criminal gangs or state actors from posing as low-priced sources of replacement parts?

The Internet of Flying Thing: Reg man returns with explicit shots

Air Force not 2

I feel like a trainspotter for pointing this out, but.... Air Force 1 and 2 are used only to designate specific aircraft on which the President and Vice President are traveling. In the case of the latter, it's one of several C-32s (Boeing 757s), not a 737.

Yahoo! shareholders! sign! off! sale! to! Verizon!, which! sharpens! axe!

Re: PLEASE! STOP!

I suspect that once the sale goes through, El Reg won't have much Yahoo!-ish to kick around any more. So one last time for the memories: all the spilled PII, all the undependable e-mail service, all the non-performing brogrammers, and one very self-centered CEO. The gift that kept on giving comes to an end.

Uncle Sam drags feet on govt data center cull

Or maybe, just maybe....

The reporting will be honest, and report where more money was spent on a stupid, top-down initiative that doesn't include the costs of relocation, disruption of services, and in some cases, completely changing the way the services are operated and delivered. Nothing like presupposing what the answer will be.