Posts by Blain Hamon

True man-in-the-middle: Transmitting logins through the human body

Re: You mean

Odd. I read the article to say that, instead of using biometrics, it's using the body as a network cable of sorts, the signal going through the body instead of through air to reduce sniffing. The fingerprint scanner portion is that it just happens to be common enough to touch and act as a transmitter, but this isn't actually using the scanning of fingerprints to communicate.

In which case, biometrics don't play a part in this, unless that includes 'is currently touching two things at the same time.'

Brexit will happen. The EU GDPR will happen. You can't avoid either

Re: Civil War

"After that we can get the Windows / Linux / Mac users up against the wall"

Meanwhile, the Amiga users would be rubbing their hands together, saying, "Soon, revenge shall be ours!"

Apple CEO Tim Cook was paid more than $28,000 a day in 2015

AManFromMars is back?

Oh man. Either I've been reading the wrong articles, or it's been a while! How's everyone's favorite artificially intelligent commentbot doing? I've missed you!

Edit: Huh. Looks like I *have* been reading the wrong articles.

XcodeGhost attack tapped into dev distaste for Apple's Gatekeeper

Re: Let me see...

The speed in downloading sounds more plausible. It's the actual 'upload to a device' and 'sell on app store' that costs $99. If you're a company, you have to provide information of being a company, and then it costs $99 total, and there is no per-seat charge. Besides, it's not the software that determines what's allowed, it's having an apple-signed certificate, so a dodgy Xcode won't help you there.

Microsoft & Paypal link hands, turn round and slap Apple Pay

' “all forms of payments”. Hmmm, Bitcoin? '

Actually, yes including Bitcoin, odd as that sounds. Paypal's been plastering billboards all around here (silicon valley) that they have a one-stop solution taking credit, debit, paypal, Bitcoin, etc. Given how notorious Paypal is for freezing accounts because of 'suspicious activity' and conveniently holding onto the dosh, this will be very interesting. Or very predictable.

Malware gets your Android blabbering to HACKERS

You know, I've joked about security through inability before...

Although this is probably intentional, Siri doesn't always listen like GVS; instead, you must press and hold the home button (or, if you have it enabled (it's disabled by default), hold the phone up to your ear) before it even starts listening. Access to the home button state (Both to read and to write) are not exposed to the app, so it's not currently possible to for the app to trigger this.

Mind you, what I just said was on a bog-standard iPhone. On a jailbroken iPhone, all bets are off.

There's NOTHING on TV in Europe – American video DOMINATES

Re: Bang bang!

"Europeans have no guns"

Wait, what has James Bond been waving about all this time?

US Supremes just blew Aereo out of the water

I was rooting for Aereo and am saddened by this decision, but the distinction they made appears to be public vs private.

If you invite the neighborhood over to watch the game with you, but it's people you know (since they're neighbors) then it's private. If you instead allow complete strangers to watch, or are charging for the show, then it's public. Same reason movie theaters have to license a movie even if they have it on DVD.

By this logic, setting up your own Aereo yourself, which basically you do anyways when setting up a home theatre, isn't a problem. You own it, you're not charging yourself for it, it's private.

(Edit: Looks like others have beat me to it.)

NASA spots new Mars meteorite crater

Ever seen the scene in Mars Attacks?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VepS-IyKOLE

"They blew up congress! Ha ha ha!"

Google: The Internet of Things to become the Internet of ADVERTS ON YOUR THERMOSTAT

"As for the refrigerator,

"nothing has been announced yet, but Google may be chilling on the idea."

I saw what you did there, Reg. That's cold.

Also, I was reminded to install Ad Block Plus on my work computer.

We're from the same dust cloud, bro: Boffins find Sun's long-lost sibling

Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.

Dim ones? On the contrary, I found the humor in Red Dwarf to be quite brilliant.

Mine's the one with the Better Than Life total immersion video game in the pocket.

'Bladdered' Utah couple cuffed in church lawn sex outrage

Re: Security guards suffer this all the time

Hobo dollars = Something not "real money"

SWITD = "See What I Did There?" misspelled

Break out the scatter cushions: Google rents out NASA blimp hangar

Hangar One is gigantic, and like another commenter mentioned, you get weather patterns, and it's spacious enough to fly inside. Unfortunately the ground is tainted by a lot of heavy metals and the like. If I recall, there was consideration to scrap it, but public outcry is what saved it.

The wikipedia article on it has more. It doesn't have a monorail, but a twin set of narrow-gauge tracks that run along that was for a mooring mast that guided the airships in and out.

Anyways, let's get down to what's important: Reg units!

The doors were not hydraulic, but electric, with 110 kW (Hey Reg! We need units for power!) motors to slide open the 42.86 kiloJub doors.

Measuring 37.5 double-decker busses long and 10.2 double-decker busses wide, it weighs in at 1.6 microwales, meaning you could have 8 football pitches (6 full American football fields) in it. It stands 6.5 double-decker busses high and dwarfs nearby water towers.

Lately, the panels have been removed, leaving just the truss structure that was underneath. It's always strange driving by it on 101, because it looks like reality's video card hiccuped and decided to draw Hangar One as a wireframe.

Want to remotely control a car? $20 in parts, some oily fingers, and you're in command

Exactly that, sisk, and you're quite right. It's just that all that the mechanical machinery, hydraulics, and remote control bits and bobs, costs more than $20 in parts.

Anyone else hoping it was more a kit that let remotely you drive a car around like on Mythbusters and occasionally on Top Gear?

My car's immune by nature of being older than Intel's 4004 and having nothing more advanced than three mechanical relays in the regulator. I don't have security by obscurity as much as security by inability, really.

HOLD THE PHONE, NSA! Judge bans 'Orwellian' US cellphone records slurp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_in_the_American_Revolutionary_War#Intercepting_communications

Nov 20th, 1775 was the first case of the Continental Congress received intercepted letters. By 1776 it was already noted that there was abuses of this practice. So I'd put the number of months spent by the US Gov't to find the proper balance at about 2,845 and counting.

Impressive considering that the US Constitution was ratified only 2,706 months ago.

Security guru Bruce Schneier to leave employer BT

Re: B3

"Of course - Hughes may actually be telling the truth, as in: all the major UK telcos now have the same relationships with government security services."

The best way to lie is to hide it in the truth.

Dell feels cold probe of US Dept of Justice amid Syria PC sales claims

Problem solved!

"America's Syria Accountability Act prohibits the sale of goods containing more than 10 per cent US-made component parts to Syria."

Good thing that all the parts are made in China then, fnar fnar.

From Russia with Code: Edward Snowden gets job on website helldesk

We tried that already!

But no, the US Government is still malfunctioning after being shut down and restarted.

Edit: D'oh. OP added that bit and beat me to the punch.

There's ONE country that really likes the iPhone 5c as well as the 5s

Re: Chavistically

"all my wife talks about is the green 5c."

Your wife's a Chav? My condolences.

Tiny fireball exoplanet completes one year in 8.5 hours

Mandatory XKCD link

Perfect timing. Today, XKCD posted the list of public suggestions for planet names. http://xkcd.com/1253/

Apple erects measures to stop app-happy kids splurging parents' dosh

Re: They do it on purpose

Seconding reading the article. It's informative, interesting, and if you've studied psychology, makes a lot of sense in that you can see that happening. But I do have to add this warning: If you're in mobile development, even if it's not games, you'll want to take a shower after reading it. The tactics are depressingly sleazy.

Open Rights Group revives 'unavailable for legal reasons' HTTP error code plan

> would you like to see a 451 message there too?

Certainly! Then there'd be instructions for the bloke to contact his government about reaching the page! It actually sorts itself out from there, really.

Also, there's already an icon for jumping to "Think of the children!"

Re: A list?

Don't worry, there will be a list. It'll be on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard."

Right, I'll get my oddly-shaped towel.

Facebook's request to the flash industry: 'Make the worst flash possible'

So what he's asking for is...

Write Once, Read Few. These WORF drives could be the Next Generation of backups, reducing the constant trekking from one format to the next, and could be quite good for Enterprise.

Right, I'll go now.

Feds arrest rogue trucker after GPS jamming borks New Jersey airport test

Re: The new battlefield...

> limits the speed to 25mph when there's no valid GPS signal being received

I hope not, especially considering what would happen if a truck with one of these that goes into a highway tunnel, enclosed bridge, or other unintentional faraday cage around a fast thoroughfare.

Appcelerator polishes Titanium for platform-neutral JavaScript reboot

Full disclosure: I work for Appcelerator.

The original post Jeff did had "Objective-C for iOS, C# for Windows and so forth." but line wrapping happened after 'Objective-', so it might by why the article author misread it as 'C for iOS'. Ironically enough, however, a lot of the low-level Objective-C runtime calls are pure C functions like objc_msgSend, objc_allocateClassPair, or NSSelectorFromString.

Fun fact: Because of all those @ signs in the keywords, Obj-C is a pure superset of C, unlike C# or even C++. For example, "int class = 5;" is valid C code, and will compile fine within an Obj-C file, where the C++ compiler would balk.

A drone that can walk home

Re: They were SO close!

Depends. Would the newer models be able to handle stairs?

We need a blue phonebooth icon.

Ex-prez Carter: 'America has no functioning democracy' with PRISM

Re: Functional what?

Huey Lewis and the News?

Forget Snowden: What have we learned about the NSA?

For those of us who are yanks,

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/publicly-address-world-and-terminate-prism-program/WV0kjWbq

Sure, this will probably do nothing but let them know to keep spying on you, but enh, they probably already know anyways.

Crowdsourced flaw-finding cheaper than in-house bug hunters

Why do I have the sinking feeling

that some enterprising bosses will ignore the fact that GOOG, Mozilla, and MSFT also have internal security experts; or that secure design is a must long before software is written (much less shipped!); and treat this supplement as a outright replacement, akin to the offshoring craze of before?

Apple surrenders in 'app store' trademark suit against Amazon

Re: It's amazing

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." --Upton Sinclair

Apple's Huguet is probably paid handsomely to have the reality filter publicly on, especially in the US legal system, where one should never admit defeat or being wrong. Given that context, I'd be more amazed if she had said something like, "Our bad. Totally should have dropped this ages ago."

Motorola teases with Moto X 'design your own' phone

Oooh, goody! Can I design mine to be able to have the latest OS?

Motorola's promising, then reneging of upgrades has meant in the past, and now, that whatever phone I get, be it Android, iOS, or Windows Phone, it's not MOTO hardware. HTC may have taken a year to upgrade the Amaze to 4.0, but to their credit, upgrade it they did.

Salesforce and Oracle forge partnership to smash rivals

Re: OralFarce?

Fortunately, I can be arsed! Given Oracle Salesforce

A Faceless Recolor

Core Faecal Losers

Eel Coolers Fracas

Cooler Fee Rascals

Sell Seafarer Coco

Alas Feces Recolor

Coalesce Or Falser

Colorless Ace Fear

Scarce Resale Fool

PlayStation 4 is FreeBSD inside

Devil? No, no, his name is Beastie, and he's a *Daemon*.

More than half of Windows 8 users just treat it like Windows 7

Wait, something's missing here...

Where's Eadon? A Microsoft story without Eadon ranting in comments is just not the same. Where's the from-the-blue accusations? Where's the unnecessary caps? Where's the improper usage of the word 'fail?'

I think I'm starting to miss him already.

Petshop iPad fanboi charged with filming up young model's skirt

Re: Quiet news day? El Reg?

> You have just regurgitated it, again, for the titillation of readers here.

Yes, and it worked wonderfully, causing both of us to read the article and then go to the comments section. We went for it hook, line, and sinker. You get titillated, I get titillated, El Reg gets advertising money. It's a win-win situation!

Nine-year-old Opportunity Mars rover sets NASA distance record

Plan for 90 days, run for 9 years? Here's to you!

Would that all of our kit last over 36 times our warranty!

NASA and Google team up to buy into quantumish computing

20 millikelvin?

Talk about keeping your data center cool. I had a joke about overclocking here, but as soon as I knew where it was going, I lost where it was.

EU wants the Swiss and pals to cough up IT giants' hidden bank info

So what you're saying is

They should use a bit of water? Make the sand wet and you can grip it really easily and make sand castles.

I have no idea where the metaphor goes from here.

Apple adds Galaxy S 4 to Samsung patent suit

Hands up those surprised?

However you view this case, or whomever's in the right (or that it's both handbags at dawn), this is pretty much to be expected.

The next step, however, is for Samsung to take advantage of Apple's keeping to 22 devices and to announce 25 more devices, titled Samsung Galaxy A to Galaxy Z (They already have an S), so that they still have 4 outside the scope of the suit.

Microsoft: YES! You can have your desktop back again for FREE!

Re: Desktop 'dumped'?

So it's more that Microsoft said that they see the desktop as a friend, really, and wanted to see other interfaces?

Facebook crashes into networking with open switch

I'd buy that for a dollar!

VTOL hybrid flying car promises the skies

Re: No Good Can Come From This

I thought so too, but really, most people won't be getting one of these. Consider that the previous kit is in the order of $279K, much higher than the price of a standard light sport aircraft ($20K-$140K). So this is not that every muppet can go out and get a flying car, it's more of some rich people are going to get these as airplanes that they don't have to store at the airport anymore. Whether or not they should be flying is moot, as they already are in the air though other, cheaper craft.

37,000-machine study finds most reliable Windows PC is a Mac

Lies, damn lies, and linkbait

Agreed. Or, if you want to consider that I hardly ever boot my MacBook into Windows (I have it mostly for games) but do a lot of heavy lifting on the MacOS side. Even if you divide crashes by time used, the Windows comes out on top because I tend to avoid stressing it as much on the windows side of things and rarely leave it running unattended enough to sleep (And thus have never had it crash), and I have had some failures to wake from sleep on the Mac side.

There's so many other variables that well, in conclusion, it's time for a beer.

Google Plus minus Meebo Bar equals Google minus $100m

Re: Hey, this is the actual business model!

Years ago, I actually interviewed with a company where that was their explicit business model. That is, their end goal was to build a product that looked interesting enough to get acquired, founders cash in, bail from large company, lather rinse repeat.

Building the actual real internet simply doesn't pay

The problem with measuring efficiency is that

Often the math treats getting money for not actually doing anything as a 'good thing', and declares that everything is a zero-sum gain. With no concept of a win-win situation, is it any surprise that an 'optimal' strategy is to pull an Enron, then cash out right before things come to a head?

Judge: Facebook must see Timelines Inc in court over trademark

Re: Timeline is a generic term

One interesting thing is if you talk with a Microsoft employee, they don't refer to it as Word, but as Microsoft Word™. That is, the name includes Microsoft in it in order to make it unique enough to be a trademark. Same for Microsoft Windows™, Microsoft Office™, etc. How they pronounce out loud the little ™, however, I'll never know.

Music resale service ReDigi loses copyright fight with Capitol Records

Re: Seems that digital copies...

Comparing beer to digital copies? That we're only renting them because they eventually exit? Isn't that rather taking the piss?