Posts by Ed Mozley

Ad flog Plus: Adblock Plus now an advertising network, takes cash to broker web banners

Is this news?

This has been like this for ages!

WhatsApp straps on full end-to-end crypto for 1bn peeps

According to Anonymous...

Only Signal is the only secure messaging app. Also recommended by Snowden if my memory serves me correctly.

Google robo-car backs into bendy-bus in California

Speed

Maybe if the bus slowed down or stopped something terrible would happen

FBI iPhone unlock order reaction: Trump, Rubio say no to Apple. EFF and Twitter say yes

Touch ID

I take it they haven't tried a "demolition man" style approach and tried to unlock the phone with his finger?

Regardless... I wonder if many "baddies" are now deleting their Touch ID settings and sticking with a good old fashioned pin.

Virgin Atlantic co-pilot dazzled by laser

Re: One way mirrors

Hang in you're right.... Not thought it through!!

Re: One way mirrors

The kind of glass that you have in a police line up - not that I've ever been in one ha!

One way mirrors

I have just written to Airbus and Boeing suggesting they replace Windows and wind shield in cockpit with 1 way mirror glass. Pilots can see and lasers from ground are reflected away from aircraft. Could such a plan work?!

Facebook brings creepy ’Minority Report’-style ads one step closer

On the iphone

Settings . Privacy . Location Services . Facebook . Change always to never.

GCHQ to pore over blueprints of Chinese built Brit nuke plants

cpni.gov.uk

I thought this kind of thing was already covered by these guys

cpni.gov.uk

Is Windows 10 slurping too much data? No, says Microsoft. Nuh-uh. Nope

Transparency

MS talk about wanting to deliver content that is personalised. Why not just make a special app that lets you search for things then tweaks your news feed accordingly?

Confession: I was a teenage computer virus writer

Fake DOS

A few of us toyed around with the idea of creating a fake DOS environment (windows 3.1 days). It was a compiled exe written in quick basic that ran as part of autoexec. It was reasonably advanced but crashed out if you ran a command we hadn't planned for. It could handle about 5 or 6 basic commands like cd windows or dir, cls etc.

The last post: Building your own mail server, part 1

I tried Synology

I tried running my Synology box as a mail server but as a home user with no fixed IP my outbound emails were being blocked as spam by gmail.

Half the Fanbois in your office are unpatched ATTACK VECTORS

Some people might say

You are as strong as your weakest link

Laminate this: Inside Argos' ongoing online (r)evolution

Search function in shop

I pop into my local branch of Argos every now and then and use the machine to search for something rather than the catalogue. The problem is the search is truly awful - words must be in exact order and you can use similar words - eg door knob will not find door handle. Often I give up and use Amazon iPhone app.

AT&T accused of Wi-Fi interception, ad injection

Taking control

I belatedly jumped on the AdBlock Plius bandwagon a couple of weeks ago - v. happy with it

Everything Apple touted at WWDC – step inside our no-hype-zone™

Search

I'm pretty sure I read an article a while back about search companies' frustration at not being able to get at the content within apps to index and learn more about people.

This search API seems to be a game changer in that regard. Apple will have a level of access to data that Google can only dream of.

It's FREE WINDOWS 10 time: 29 July is D-Day, yells Microsoft

Pudding required

For proof. Using windows 8.1 continues to be a nightmare.

Copying photos from my iPhone using explorer crashes - this is a well documented problem.

If I change my password at work then the mail app keeps submitting old credentials in the background without telling me causing account to lock out.

Quality of metro or whatever the heck it's called is so bad that I simply don't bother.

Web browser is years behind chrome.

I hate everything about the look and feel - dodgy fonts, gaudy colours, weird sizes and spacing of toolbars.

That is all.

Hated smart meters likely to be 'a costly failure' – MPs

I like them!

I had a British Gas smart meter installed a while back and the simple feature of telling me the cost of my energy on a given day has proved invaluable.

Oculus Rift tech-specs 'many months away' from hitting the shelves

Nausea reduction

I think the problem is that you have to make the headset mimic the human body - ie your eyes can move independently of your head. You can move your head up and down or left and right quite quickly and if you're focussed on something your brain will make your eyes make adjustments to compensate for head movement. I think currently the rift dislay would be noticeably changing with every slight change the accelerometers etc detected. I am not an engineer but my solution would be to combine eyeball tracking with points of interest algorithms to reduce judder and nausea.

iPhone NFC: 'Apple, photos and security ... What could go wrong?'

Smart meters are great

I switched from EON to British Gas who gave me a smart meter. My bills are now about £120 a MONTH less - this 26 pounds a YEAR saving figure sounds dubious.

PEAK LANDFILL: Why tablet gloom is good news for Windows users

I have tried...

...to use a windows 10" tablet with docking station when at home in desktop mode when at home and windows metro when out and about but windows 8 has so many shortcomings everything is a struggle. The idea in principle I think is sound but the execution is awful.

Microsoft may launch several new Surfaces on May 20 – report

Full fat windows 8

Full fat windows 8 is the only viable option in my humble opinion. Writers say using desktop mode on an 8 inch tablet is a nightmare - surely the whole point is that you dock it with a monitor (or two) plus mouse and keyboard when you want to work in desktop mode and then switch to app mode when you are out and about.

Got Windows 8.1 Update yet? Get ready for YET ANOTHER ONE – rumor

Start menu app

Friends and family of mine who were confused by the new interface paid $3.99 for a piece of software to give them their start menu back. Those who liked the new interface didn't. Simples!

Dropbox: We're worth $8 BILLION and we'll sell you a 3 per cent slice

Bubbles

The mistakes of the dot com boom are being made again and a lot of people are going to get their fingers burnt. Offering 3 billion for snapchat is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. All these tech companies have gazillions of customers using their platforms because they are free and to convert these numbers to some wacky valuation is a clear indication that no lessons whatsoever have been learned.

Apple's brilliant plan to fix iOS Maps: Get YOU to do it

Drones

To make significant improvements to maps I think it would be good if Apple, Microsoft or Google built a fleet of drones and launched them en-masse. Hi-res imagery from 800 feet would be pretty cool.

Facebook wunderkind admits share price Zuck-up on stage

Facebook is Doomed!

I am no expert but it seems clear to me that with so many users uploading staggering amounts of data (photos, videos) then the operating costs must be spiralling out of control. You've got to pay for the physical storage, engineers to maintain, backups etc - the costs must be astronomical!

The difficulty I think they have from an advertising point of view is that the event has already passed so they can't serve a relevant ad. Or put another way I email someone on gmail saying "fancy going to the cinema next week?" and gmail will serve an ad for cinema listings next week. Typical use on Facebook is to post a status update saying "went to see Batman last night and it was brilliant!". There is no point serving me an ad at that point because I've already done it. Same with attending weddings, parties, re-unions, holidays etc.

I don't know how they have got themselves into a corner where they are giving major corporations free advertising through the use of Facebook pages but that was just madness as well.

The only option I can think of is to do location based advertising on mobile combined with business intelligence and analysis of past user behaviour - e.g. an ad pops up on your device for shops that you are near that are a) open at that particular time and b) sell things you are likely to want.

YaCy takes on Google with open source search engine

I suggested something very similar this to Google on 10th June 2010...

...and they never got back to me!

"Would it be possible to write either a Chrome plugin or make an addition to the Google Toolbar that allows you to click a button that indexes the current page you are viewing and uploads to google servers. Obviously safety measures would have to be put in place to stop people clicking the button too much and clogging up the system but it could be a revolutionary new approach!"

'Iranian' attackers forge Google's Gmail credentials

Hopefully not a stupid question but...

Let's say I have a fake mail.google.com website with a fake certificate on it so far so good. But won't I then face the problem that people won't get to my site as the IP address will be wrong?

Non-beta Google betas may lose beta tags

They got rid of this beta...

http://web.archive.org/web/19990125084553/alpha.google.com/

Laptop facial recognition defeated by Photoshop

Feeble implementation of biometrics

If the laptop is not even bother to check biometrics in 3D then there is little point.

Also the laptop could change the brightness of the screen from dark to light and the webcam look for the pupil of the eye to react. This would also prevent a 'Demolition Man' style hack involving a fountain pen and eye.

Attorneys for Palin email hacker: 'Don't call him hacker'

Gary Mckinnon

is he a hacker or cracker?

If this guy gets off for cracking a password and publishing stuff on the web then presumably this would bode well for Mckinnon - who I believe has done neither.

Free for all on London Underground

Clearly playing catchup with...

...the guys who say they are going to publish information on how to clone oyster cards.

It seems to much of a coincidence to have had the recent court case and these difficulties.

Spam filtering services throttle Gmail to fight spammers

It's perfectly obvious what needs doing

1. The captcha test should have to be passed every time you send an email rather than just when you create an account

2. When you send an email there should be a delay of about 10 seconds while it tells you a joke or something to pass the time. Not so bad for the average user but x 1000 spam emails and the spammers capability is severely limited.

Ofgem, MoD attack pricey terror-friendly windmills

Why not just...

Put your radar on top of the windmill?

Showdown over encryption password in child porn case

They should do what they do in the UK

This is from

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/animal_rights_a.html

In early November 2007 about 30 animal rights activists are understood to have received letters from the Crown Prosecution Service in Hampshire inviting them to provide passwords that will decrypt material held on seized computers.

The letter is the first stage of a process set out under RIPA which governs how the authorities handle requests to examine encrypted material.

Once a request has been issued the authorities can then issue what is known as a Section 49 notice demanding that a person turn the data into an "intelligible" form or, under Section 51 hand over keys.

Although much of RIPA came into force many years ago, the part governing the handing over of keys only passed in to law on 1 October 2007. This is why the CPS is only now asking for access to files on the seized machines.

Alongside a S49 notice, the authorities can also issue a Section 54 notice that prevents a person revealing that they are subject to this part of RIPA.

Galileo tugs on public purse strings

EU Accounts

No wonder the auditors recently refused to sign off the EU accounts for the 13th year running. It seems to me this is the latest example of how they make things up as they go along.

If farming money is left over why not give what's left to farmers?! Such a crazy idea it just might work...

Paris Hilton says jail term has changed her

What about Michael Moore?

Why was he sidelined so we could listen to this nonsense?!

One in 10 webpages scrutinized by Google were laced with malware

Presumably...

...it would not be difficult to write something so that when you visit a website the code is downloaded into an area where it can be scanned using the same criteria that the google researchers used. Maybe the google toolbar could put itself between the browser and the webserver to do this very task.

Judge in MP3 case to Microsoft: time to pay up

Microsoft should sue...

Microsoft should sue whoever they paid money to to licence the MP3 technology in the first place. Presumably whoever they licenced it from was not the owner which seems to be where the confusion has arisen.

Accused Pentagon hacker prosecution could backfire

Proportionality of sentencing

Computer crime is almost unique in that the perpetrator doesn't even have to be in the same country as the target of their attack. As such it is likely that the individual may have a detachment from the offence which they would not do otherwise and as such assume the crime is victimless and therefore not worthy of serious punishment.

This is the approach taken by the British government certainly when it comes to sentencing guidelines under the CMA. I would tend to agree with this although of course there is likely to be a cost with cleaning up although over $7000 per PC in this case seems excessive.

I believe it is the harshness of the likely punishment is one of the main reasons why people sympathise (or at least empathise) with McKinnon. 45 years is scandalous and I would have thought it highly unlikely he will get anything like that. Community service seems to be the in thing at the moment (Naomi Campbell, Snoop Dogg, Boy George) so here's my prediction:

2 years suspended sentence +

$10,000 fine +

400 hours community service

Ed Mozley