Posts by Da Andersson

'Good job, NSA! You turned Yahoo! into an encryption beast'

Such a waste of time

Asychronous encryption i.e RSA is not safe. Any encryption software

from a US company is vulnerable to US court orders and RSA back doors.

We also know that AES 256 takes a couple of weeks to crack but that

means we can protect information with a news value.

But despite any attempts from the World and his dog to protect information by

encryption is doomed to fail as someone always keep an un-encrypted copy

on US soil or accessible from the US and by that accessible by the US courts

even if it protects from casual snooping by NSA.

The only full protection is bespoke hardware encryption devices and an

intelligent key distribution scheme. Any software based encryption schemes

are just doomed to fail!

'Liberator': Proof that you can't make a working gun in a 3D printer

I beg to differ

As many tells you - it's a proof of concept

It's tempered plastic, much stronger than the usual 3D printed stuff

The barrel is a one off, and with bajonette fitting. You can carry 10 pre loaded barrels in a banderoliere around your waist and reload within seconds.

Using a .38 with no mantle, the rifling works once or twice

A gun is normally used at 1 to 10 metres, this gun is accurate enough, if in doubt,

load with snake shots

Easy to conceal

Easy to get rid of, burn it, melt it, dissolve it in thinner or similar

It's simply a gun on demand

They used a .38 but a .22 is more dangerous when there are headshots. A .22 requires less material in the barrel and bullet is softer on the rifling.

This is just the first weapon in a long line coming out from this kind of technology.

Now we just wait for plastic ammunition!!!!

Microsoft withdraws software silos from Germany in patent war

Jurisdiction?

Safe in the Netherlands? Not really!

It's like comitting a federal crime in the US and ruin to another state for protection.

If Motorola wins in Germany, it's likely they can enforce it elsewhere. Besides, any monetary

demands from Germany will be automagically enforced in the Nethertlands. The only

different is the bailiffs are talking Dutch instead of German.

The hole idea with EU is that it's one marketplace. One set of rules. Maybe not today but if EU survives, it will be.

Take the Spanish fondleslab case Apple lost, it's now spreading north to France and then maybe all the way to the European Court.

//dan

IPTV UK: failure to launch?

IP TV?! You got to be kidding me?!

The current state of the UK network where I live ( Hull, Kingston Communications ), is so bad that IP TV is totally a disastrous experience.

The speed is absolutely ludicrous with ( very(!) frequent ) seconds of delays while buffering.

It's just absolutely useless!

Is it the UK Internet or - as I suspect, Kingston Communications? Bottom line is - it doesn't matter! It's not worth even considering at the moment.

Bahhh! Blahh!

//Dan, Hull

Apple files 3D-interface patent

3D?

Sounds like an Applified version of the current Compiz Cube for the Linux Desktop.

//Dan

Acer US prunes Aspire One mini laptop prices

Nice one

I saw these laptoys today at the local supermarket here in Dubai ( Carrefour ).

They have the price of 1499 DirHams ( DHm ) about £200 I think.

I already have a couple of eeePC's but the ACER looks better and also seem to havea slightly better display.

Still nice tho'

//Dan

Gordon Brown claims a Brit invented the iPod

Hull - Centre of the World - Not!

Magna Carte?

Dooh! That was written by the invaders from France ( the 1066 bunch ) and they originated from Scandinavian Vikings/Settlers/Traders who settled in Normadie - the "Norman" part of France....

Also, the "Dane Law" was introduced before the Magna Carta anyway - by the Danish Vikings.

Please sort out your history a bit more...

Further:

A Brit Invented the Radar

A Brit made the Jet engine design used in the UK/US today ( Whittle ) even if the Germans was early with the jets.

And the aeroplane - well, sort of. As the US Inventors ( Wright brothers ) was so greedy and worried about patents they didn't tell anyone about how to do it, the Brits and the French ran ahead with the technology and developed it further.

Cheers All

Kingston: nobody else wants to provide broadband round here

Hull - Centre of the World - Not!

It's by all means interesting to read the comments from the readers of the Kingston Com article and broadband.

First, Hull didn't survive the fishery wars between Iceland and England, especially after the seriously bungled negotiations by the local Hull MP - Mr Prescott ( Yes, the infamous Mr Two Jags ) and as the notoriously aggressive port tradeunion resisted any attempts from larger companies to establish bases at Hull harbor for EU export. As a result, Hull is basically dead as a corporate hub even if the City Council refuses to accept it... As we all know, any City Council can revamp any city by spending taxpayers money on citywide plantations etc. Dooh! Besides, Hull University is not renowned for producing well educated youngsters so why should any IT or other technology companies bother ( except for the cheap labor in Hull... )

Now then, look at the market! 250,000 peeps? Shure, but let's look at the numbers!

27% unemployment?! Let us assume that one person of 2.5 inhabitants works to or are seeking work. Of those 73% that work, 40% are on national minimum wage. Let's do the math now - guesstimate that 100,000 is working or looking for work. 27% of these are unemployed = 73,000 persons are working. 40% of these are on minimum wage so the rest - 60% of 73,000 = 43,800 potential customers for Kingston.

If we look at the UK broadband average numbers, say 30% of the population have broadband - 30% of 43,800 = 13,140 broadband punters!!!

Well then, let us use generous figures and say that 25,000 punters have broadband.

Who in the right state of mind can believe that this would be a lucrative market for BT or anyone else? Seriously?

First, to win over new punters, you need to present a lower price for the same or better service. Many ISP's pay for their fibres on a kilometer basis ( miles ) and as Hull is at the end of the World, this EXPENSIVE. I guess the nearest major node to be in Leeds.

Combine this with a low buying power from the locals and you have a market none want to invest in.

And to defend Kingston Comms, the numbers are stacked against them as well!

So stop whinging about not having any competing ISP's here, AOL tried but didn't make any money, I guess BT just cannot be bothered either and as most alternative ISP's have the small print "BT Line required" - dream on...

If you look at Hull in general, there is a lack of medium sized as well as large companies, which in hindsight is absolutely self explanatory.

Now then, don't take my guesstimated figures for facts -do your business model

calculation yourself...

Aussie gov anti-porn filter 'useless', says teen

Filter - and for a "PC"?!

As this is a Govt sponsored hack, I'll bet a Cent or two that we are talking about a Windows based program...

So, we all have to start using Windows so we can be controlled by the Govt?

And of course, if You are using Linux, You have to be a smut watching pervert and most likely a terrorist... Why would you use Linux for if not that? Besides, reasoning as a Govt organisation, using Linux and not paying sales tax and customs duty on the software must surely be defined as close to treason anyway... I bet they'd like to ban Linux in Aussie land by now.

Duh!

//Dan

Fring thing comes to Windows Mobile

Fring? Don't bother!

Don't bother with Fring on the Nokia E65 phones unless you need to be able to

send and receive text messages only.

Fring as a VoIP ( SIP ) or Skype client is the worst so far - and is almost

unreadable when trying to do voice comm.

The original Skype version delivered with the Nokia phone is by far better

on the voice com than Fring. For some odd reason, the codec Fring uses is just not good enough.

I installed Truphone and I could suddenly make myself understood again...

So - No, Fring isn't ready yet. With the low sound quality, Fring is probably the best telco advert against VoIP there is. Sorry Fring!

As a disclaimer, I could of course have made a number of bad installations of Fring but everytime I install Fring, it's unusable and every time I install Truphone or Skype, it works perfectly all right. Especially after Truphone released an alpha or beta release V3.0 with support for VoIP over the 3G network. But O'boy! it suck out the batteries in 3 to 4 hours without any calls at all!

//Dan

Enron emails inspire GCHQ spooks

Encryption? Nope, well - erhmmm, yes - but differently.

The corporate network/installation should not allow for alien softwares but...

If you want to hide anything, there is something called steganography - including encrypted data/message in an otherwise harmless picture.

An e-mailed picture will not stick out and it's much more power consuming to scan all e-mailed images for graphical irregularities. And if you spot any, is it encrypted data or just "noise" in the picture.

You can of course ban peeps sending emails containing graphical images but hey! Why not banning e-mail to external recipients totally?

At some point, we have to start treating the staff as people and realize that we can't protect the corporations from data leakage - or Govt departments.

//DA

British fathers to be given six months' paid paternity leave

Yeah?!

And no one talks about the definition of "paid".

In the real world, the fathers tend to make almost double the pay compared to the mothers. Don't expect any other "pay" from the dear ol'e Gov't than the statutory sick pay = peanuts... Do they really believe the main income provider to suddenly afford jumping on the benefit payment train!! Who's going to pay their mortgage?

Besides, this have been a right in Scandinavia for many years and guess what - the fathers can't afford to stay home because they are the main bread winners! Surprised?

How I wished we had politicians that originates from the real world, not a labour party broiler farm!

DNA database 'will span most of the UK population'

Copyright and DMCA

How original must a product be to be allowed to be copyrighted?

If I register a copyright and a possible trademark etc on my DNA, That would render any unlicensed dealings with my DNA illegal and punishable by law - wouldn't it?

It's of course difficult to sue any government organisation but still...

Chemical weapons are not WMDs

WMD's or not

Lewis,

Ts ts, you forgot to do your homework on this one!

First - Chemical weapons are, as you correctly describe, not weapons of mass destruction. They are simply to complex to handle, complex delivery mechanisms and plain out dangerous to use and can hit back at yourself.

However!

These countries that have disbanded or decided not to use chemical weapons, or rather - only the "A" weapon in the "ABC" array of choices, they all declared that as they do not have "B" or "C" weapons, they will answer any such attack with the "A" solution.

A=Atomic, B=Biological and C=Chemical.

Even if the chemical weapons aren't WMD's, they are treated as such by political/military reasons.

So back to your article. Yes, chemical weapons are not WMD's because of their "function" and behaviour but the chemical weapons are politically defined to be equal to WMD's and some nations will allow themselves to respond with any other WMD as a response.

Why?

Because we do not want each little Mugabe in Africa and whoever in Asia to start using chemical or bio- weapons because they are cheap to develop - without being aware of the level or rather grade of retaliation!

Bio's and Chem's are the poor nations atomic bombs and have to be treated as such!

Cheers