Posts by Bastard Sheep

Five ways Apple can fix the iPhone, but won't

Default apps.

For me the first thing I'd want is default apps. Safari, Maps, Podcasts are all things I would prefer not to use if it wasn't the only option to open in many many different scenarios. To get their alternatives I have to go select the app manually, can't call it from within another app and pass it data.

The second thing is different power profiles depending on charging status or location. If I'm out and about, I want my screen going in to low power after 30 seconds and off after 60. When I'm at home sitting on the couch watching TV, I want twitter/FB/slack/discord/whatever to open and stay open and my phone not to lock. I got an iPad specifically so I could have these different settings and a larger screen, but still get annoyed by it when I'm not home but on charge (thus without the iPad).

LastPass now supports 2FA auth, completely undermines 2FA auth

Lastpass Authenticator is made by the same company, but it's a different product. A separate app. You install it on your phone, it operates no differently and no less secure than using Google, Microsoft, Duo, or anybody elses authenticator app on the same phone.

Sydney wallows in cesspit of WiFi obsolescence and ignorance

4.2km, we can safely assume that means 1/4 (roughly 1km) was across the bridge and its on/off ramps in areas that wouldn't have much if any WiFi coverage. That leaves 3km roughly, half of which would have been in the CBD where half the WiFi networks you come across are business operated ones not encrypted but require login, registration and/or payment to get beyond the gateway.

Kinda skewers the results a lot there and gives a false high to the 23.85% unsecured number, doesn't it? I wouldn't dare say this is an adequate test of "sydney" or "sydneysiders" due to the small and heavily weighted to business-only areas sample locations chosen. Quite a poor test indeed

Google+ bans real name under ‘Real Names’ policy

You've made a very common mistake in understanding the situation...

"so it's Google's rules. Don't like the rules then don't use the service.

Can't understand why people feel they have the right to get upset about this. They're not paying for the service and alternatives that allow whatever name you choose are available. So put up or shut up!"

What if we want to use the service? What if many people we network with socially are on it to a large degree? It took me years to sign up to facebook, and I only did so because I was missing out on a lot of interaction with friends due to not being there. Essentially if I wanted to know what was going on with my friends lives and what things were coming up, signing up was my only option.

It's not always an "option". There are other sites out there that offer similar services, but they are only of any use if those you interact with socially also use it. If they don't, they are not options.

By being forced to use wallet names and not being allowed to use the names we most commonly go by, we are being anonymised and having this very social linking broken.

Also, we are paying for it with our personal information which google onsells.

You've misunderstood in a way that many people have...

"I can understand Google screwing-up over his name simply because of their lack of imagination. I just wonder if they might have fixed the problem for him if he had TOLD them about it before writing his rant."

His rant was more about the way in which they initiated contact with him. He is, in fact, going through the proper channels to try and get this resolved.

Advertising is no excuse...

"You are a product, plain and simple. Google is selling you to their clients - the companies that are paying to have their ads displayed.

Google is an advertising company and everything they do is only meant to get you to look at more ads and generate more cash for them."

They could very easily do this without forcing us to expose and exclusively use our wallet names, just insist that our wallet name is somewhere in our profile but give us an option to hide that from the public and use an alternative display name. Google will not do this, though.

Thanks.

"Not only England (which has not existed as a separate country for 300 years), but also Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. I suspect you meant "United Kingdom" (to use one of the short-form names), often abbreviated more to "UK"."

I was unsure if it was the entire UK, just sections of it etc so decided to go with the smaller entity as a safer option. :) I do appreciate you clearing it up for me that it is the whole UK though. Thankyou.

It's a shame they're not honest about the policy.

They continuously say "the name you commonly go by in real life", but then insist on most occasions that this name be a variant of the name on your license/ID. In Australia and the US, I think England as well you can legally go by any name you like as long as it is used consistently. Any name one chooses to use is effectively their real name. Even if your birth certificate/passport etc don't have this name, you can still use it when applying for a bank account, filing a tax return, or in a court of law.

This is why you'll often see people talking about Google's policy referring to a "wallet name" rather than "real name", because Google insists that it be a variation on the name on the ID that one generally keeps in their wallet.

Stilgherrian has a hope of getting his account re-instated because he will have just that ID available to show them when they ask. Other people like me however who go by a name that is in no way shape or form related to their wallet name (and I do actually go by "Bastard Sheep" in real life) do not have that option. We will be forced to either have our accounts suspended, or be forced use a name nobody actually knows us by which completely defeats the entire purpose of a social networking site.

Vodafone Aus web portal credentials escape, media panic

Oh, there's an update from Vodafone.

Minutes after I posted by last comment they tweeted that they've released a new statement about it, which can be found here - http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/vodafone-customer-data-security/

Apparently CC details are secured as required by PCI DSS. No word on PINs though. Passwords changing every 24 hours for now. I hope they'll implement better security to restrict logins to being from the stores (VPN or some such). Those are some of my fears answered.

But the main problem ...

But the main problem isn't the fact they've got a web portal, it's the fact they seemingly hold PIN and credit card details in the clear. Also, they share logins openly (one per store which all employees know) that only change once every three months.

I'm hoping like buggery that the claims about PINs and CC details were just mistakes, bad reporting by the journo who broke the story. CC details should never be kept in clear text or available for a staff member to read, only a few digits of a number should ever be made visible. Same for PINs, they should be protected by the same system that passwords are where the employee enters it then gets told if it's right or not.

Even if those two things are just bad reporting, the fact that the store logins are protected purely by passwords is horrendous (no other hardware, software or VPN style systems), the fact they change only every three months is horrendous, and the fact they're shared by all staff is horrendous.

I'm exploring my options right now. Unfortunately I'm less than 6 months in to a 24 month contract that I cannot afford to leave at this point in time. If I can leave though, I certainly will be.

Microsoft: 'Using IE6 is like drinking 9-year-old milk'

My first thought ...

... when I received this email was "MSIE is comparible to milk? Goess sour in a week and should be thrown out?"

They clearly didn't think the analogy through.

Belkin recalls fire-risk in-car iPod kit

Wow, I have one of the affected models too.

Imported from the U.S.A. as they weren't available in Australia at the time, and I find out about the recall on a U.K. website. It really is a small world.

Aussie atheists knocked offline

hmmm?

Hang on, Paul. An atheist is someone who detests conventions and organisations?

Well I'll be damned, never knew that. I always thought that was more of an anarchist and that the definition of atheist was "someone who is not a theist". Thanks for clearing that up / strawmanning that for me, Paul.

Irony may be lost here in Australia, but a dictionary appears to be lost on you.

Why no Lego Doctor Who? fans demand

So what would "something commonplace" be today?

In the U.K. I would have thought "surveillance camera" would be a better answer. Although, that may be a bit small for the doctor to get in and out of even with the inside being bigger than the outside.

Oz runs Romero-themed zombie awareness week

Zombie awareness week huh?

What does it say about the success of their compaign and activities that I (a person in Sydney, Aus) found out about this from a UK website.

AVG snaps up behaviour-based threat detection firm

Mob vs. bot. Attack of the TLA's.

The problem with mob mentality is it can be and all to often is overwhelmed by a good PR/advertising campaign and online is also easily overwhelmed by bots. Malware creaters don't exactly care for legitimacy so if/when they can get their own bots onto the cloud to influence scores, they will do so.

Secunia tool helps surfers to keep up to date with patches

Awesome.

Absolutely brilliant program. I too am VERY impressed by the variety of programs it can keep track of. The only one I've had issues with was VLC Media Player where it detected the wrong version for a while or told me the most up to date version was a version I couldn't see.

The occasional crashing doesn't bother me as my only windows PC is a laptop which gets rebooted multiple times a day as I go between offices. I just wish there was a mac version of it. Then again, I've wanted OSX to get an install manager similar to Window's "Add/Remove Programs" & MSI infrastructure for over a decade now and there's still no hint of it.

Is the internet going down down under?

One issue not mentioned ...

... is what to call this thing. Most are using the uncreative "great firewall of australia", stolen directly from the great firewall of china. However, there are many more ideas out there which have a much more Australian ring to them such as "Great Sharknet of Australia" (Note: May catch the odd dolphin) or the "Rabbit Proof Firewall" (Note: Search for the movie "rabbit proof fence" if you don't understand).

Oz watchdogs howl over 'Cyber-Safety' net filter

Little China?

May as well start learning Mandarin. Our PM is already fluent in it, and we're getting our own version of the Great Firewall of China (Rabbit Proof Firewall?). Does anybody have any melamine handy?