* Posts by Jordan Davenport

255 publicly visible posts • joined 22 Oct 2008

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DNAaaahahaha: Twins' 23andMe, Ancestry, etc genetic tests vary wildly, surprising no one

Jordan Davenport

Re: Furthermore...

"And, drum roll please, if these tests worked, they should still give the same answer for any person whose parents are the same. The fact that the article confirmed through a proper DNA test that they were identical notwithstanding, one daughter cannot be 13% from somewhere and the other 3% from the same place, if they have the same parents."

While yes, the article confirmed the sisters actually are identical twins, what you stated is incorrect.

In the case of non-identical siblings, assuming meiosis completes correctly, each sibling inherits approximately half of their nuclear DNA from each parent, ignoring the discrepancy between the X and Y chromosomes. Since these functional halves are not identical between siblings, each sibling receives a different percentage of ancestry from any particular source, only guaranteed to inherit specific sets of genes in common. For instance, any two brothers will inherit practically the same Y chromosome, and any two sisters will inherit practically the same X chromosome from their father. As such, in the case of two non-identical sisters from the same parents, one daughter actually can be 13% from somewhere and the other only be 3% from the same place.

Taken to the extreme, though highly improbable, it is theoretically possible for two siblings (one genetically male and one genetically female) to be born sharing no common nuclear DNA whatsoever outside of what is common to our species, inheriting the exact opposite halves of each parent. In this scenario, it would be possible for one to have no common ancestry to the other in their nuclear DNA. The chances of this happening are so infinitesimally slim that we can reasonably assume that this never has happened and never will happen in the entirety of our species, but it is possible.

Hacking charge dropped against Nova Scotia teen who slurped public records from the web

Jordan Davenport

Re: um details?

You've severely misread Ole Juul's post. He or she meant that the IT contractor's actions should be considered as swatting, with the unstated implication that legal consequences should follow. The contractor reported non-criminal automated downloads of publicly available information as a security breach, resulting in armed officers raiding the 19-year-old's home before ultimately arresting him.

Before telling someone that you hope he or she gets swatted and shot, think harder upon what you're about to say and why you're saying it.

Remember when Lenovo sold PCs with Superfish adware? It just got a mild scolding from FTC

Jordan Davenport

Re: Not just Lenovo's fault

"For this feature to work requires the OS to co-operate with the BIOS, to auto download and install the software that the BIOS points at. Needless to say only Windows supports this "feature" and it couldn't have happened without Microsoft's endorsement."

Microsoft includes that feature ostensibly for automatically installing required platform drivers or other OEM "enhancement" software to a vanilla Microsoft image without requiring an active Internet connection which would not be present if the network drivers aren't present.

Their rationale is probably that a major hardware vendor would not risk damaging its reputation with unscrupulous behavior. However, that thinking is clearly naive at best or malicious at worst, as clearly anything can be preloaded into the firmware image. As large as Microsoft is, I highly doubt they could really be that naive.

If that feature is to stay, they should at least prompt the user at OOBE if they want to install the factory software, noting that it could potentially contain security vulnerabilities and is not provided by Microsoft. That said, any time you install drivers from a vendor or use a factory installation image, you're trusting that the vendor has not added anything else aside from the described functionality in the first place. Don't forget the Conexant driver with the debug keylogger that HP installed on its laptops...

Infosec eggheads rig USB desk lamp to leak passwords via Bluetooth

Jordan Davenport

Re: and this is why I'm wary of public USB chargers!

"A better solution would be for iOS and Android to implement a "charging mode" where you are required to take some additional action when plugging into a USB port for the phone to allow it to do anything but charge."

Though Android will still expose the device's existence to the host, it does have a charging mode that doesn't allow any debugging commands or media transfers to occur.

At last! Vivaldi lets you kill looping GIFs

Jordan Davenport

I haven't tried in a few months, but I know in Ubuntu, all it used to take to enable h.264 playback in Vivaldi was installing chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra.

SQL Server 2017's first rc lands and – yes! – it runs on Linux

Jordan Davenport

Re: Horror Movie?

"Looking through the DrawBridge docs they point to, it seems to be a Win32 specific OS abstraction layer. Very much legacy code base."

You didn't seriously expect SQL Server to be written against WinRT/UWP, did you?

Mac OS IM tool Adium lagging on library security vulnerability

Jordan Davenport

Re: Simple!

Google may not officially support XMPP anymore, but I still connect to Google Talk through it. I don't know how much longer it will continue to work, but it still does for now.

Microsoft IE11 update foxes Telerik dialogue boxes

Jordan Davenport

While I do agree that most people should have at least two different browsers (with different rendering engines) installed for practical reasons, each browser you have on your system is just another set of security vulnerabilities opening your data to attack.

Today the web was broken by countless hacked devices – your 60-second summary

Jordan Davenport

One of the biggest problems is that people tend to use DNS for load-balancing across servers and set really short TTLs, so the cache expires in minutes if not seconds.

Update your iPhones, iPads right now – govt spy tools exploit vulns

Jordan Davenport

Re: 3rd party browsers

"iCab, Opera, Firefox, Chrome immediately spring to mind (plus a few obscure ones)."

Of those, only Opera can kinda sorta claim to be a different browser since it does most of its rendering on remote servers. All the rest you just named are just re-skins of Safari with different features and lacking the faster of the JavaScript engines.

Firefox 'Electrolysis' reaches the one per cent

Jordan Davenport

Re: We are the 99%

"I run beta. How can you tell if the test is active?"

Visit about:support and look for the "Multiprocess Windows" entry. If the value is greater than 0, it's enabled.

If it is 0 (not enabled), you can opt in by setting "browser.tabs.remote.autostart" to true in about:config. Restart Firefox, and check about:support again.

If it's still not enabled, you can force it, but Mozilla doesn't recommend this. That said, I've done it in both Windows 10 and OS X^H^H^H^HmacOS and not run into any issues, but I only run a few basic extensions.

See https://wiki.mozilla.org/Electrolysis for more information.

Debian: s/Chairman/Chair/g

Jordan Davenport

As you can easily check for yourself, all 12 instances of "Chairman" in the Debian Constitution are expressed as proper nouns, and I am sure Ms. Manterola is quite well aware of this; there is no reason to use case-insensitive matching.

Linux letting go: 32-bit builds on the way out

Jordan Davenport

Re: what about RPi?

They're talking about dropping 32-bit x86; the Raspberry Pi is ARM and as such will not be affected by this decision.

What's going on with X.org? Desktop software body could lose domain

Jordan Davenport

Doctor Who: Oh, look! There's a restaurant at the end of the universe in Hell Bent

Jordan Davenport

To be entirely fair, we did indeed see her die... Just not exactly as we thought we did.

Doctor Who: The Hybrid finally reveals itself in the epic Heaven Sent

Jordan Davenport

Re: skulls

After only 7000 years, the skulls were near the surface. I'm just going to chalk that up to "automatic room service." Otherwise the entire place would've been rendered to dust after >2,000,000,000 years.

Nevertheless, I still loved the episode.

Windows 10 preview on death row, will be executed on Thursday

Jordan Davenport
Big Brother

Be careful what you wish for.

"No, Microsoft has to crack the Windows 10 phoning home problem."

You might not like their solution.

It's 2015, and someone can pwn Windows PCs by inserting a USB stick

Jordan Davenport

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/42.0.2311.135 Safari/537.36 Edge/12.10240

Despite the fact that it identifies as pretty much everything else as well for compatibility, Edge identifies as version "12.10240", which I see as an internal admission of its being IE12, even if "About this app" identifies it as Microsoft Edge 20.10240.16384.0.

Windows 10 in head-on crash with Nvidia drivers as world watches launch

Jordan Davenport

Re: Roaming

I haven't checked Windows 10 yet, but at least in Windows 8.1, you can set any WiFi connection as a metered connection. You cannot set a wired 802.3 connection as metered though, and unlike recent Android, Windows 8.1 isn't smart enough to set a connection to an SSID with the word "Mobile" in it as metered automatically.

YOU! DEGRASSE! It's time to make Pluto a proper planet again, says NASA boffin

Jordan Davenport

IANAA, but...

The classification of "dwarf planet" doesn't mean the thing isn't interesting or doesn't deserve studying. Mass, volume, and composition aside, my biggest remaining objection to considering Pluto a fully fledged "planet" is actually part of what makes it interesting - its orbit. The eight planets all orbit within a few degrees of the same invariable plane. Pluto on the other hand orbits at a fairly steep inclination compared to the other planets.

Why is this? What can Pluto and the other Kuiper belt objects tell us about the formation of the Solar System? Could we maybe have at one point had a sibling star or two that have since drifted away? Could interstellar space be a little less empty than we thought?

By all means, study Pluto. Don't take a diminutive reclassification as an affront to your research, and most importantly, don't think that only something as grandiose as a planet or star deserves study. Just don't claim it deserves to be in the same rank as the terrestrials or gas giants because it's not just a boring ball of rock and ice orbiting the sun.

PLUTO SPACE WHALE starts to give up its secrets

Jordan Davenport

Re: Call me simple

Either. Pluto is a Kuiper belt object.

Jordan Davenport

Theia is the most popular name given to the planet that collided with the proto-Earth to form the Moon.

Nibiru is the "Planet X" that a woman who talks with aliens warned will hit us early this century. Certainly can't fault you for not knowing that though.

Microsoft: This Windows 10 build has 'NO significant known issues'

Jordan Davenport

Re: Noob question

I worried about that too, but at least with previous builds I've tried, you could disable that and the virtual desktop through the properties or by right-clicking.

Jordan Davenport

They aren't.

Tattooed skin befuddles Apple Watch

Jordan Davenport

Re: Dark skin?

I imagine it's more to do with the metallic pigments used in tattoos interfering with the sensors as opposed to melanin. Surely the R&D department thought enough to test it on non-white people, even if they didn't think to test it on people with heavy tattoos.

Microsoft points at Skype, Lync: You two, in my office – right now

Jordan Davenport

Re: Yeah, it's great but...

The thing is, you can host Lync servers yourself and keep control of all your data within your company intranet. What about Skype for Business? I'm guessing that's a no.

PlayStation Vita owners – Sony owes you $25 cash or $50 credit

Jordan Davenport

Wasn't that the case before?

"SCEA and Deutsch LA will be barred from making any further misleading advertisements"

Isn't that why they got sued in the first place? That's akin to barring them from trafficking kidneys.

Make up your mind: Microsoft puts a bullet in Internet Explorer after all

Jordan Davenport

Re: Spartan won't support ActiveX controls or Browser Helper Objects

"You could remove IE as far back as Windows 7, but certain parts of it shares code with the OS."

Afraid not. You could "Turn Off" Internet Explorer in Windows 7, but it was still staged into Windows Side-by-Side (WinSxS) component store, ready to be re-deployed. That's part of why Windows 7's footprint is 16GB - the Windows component store.

Furthermore, the code that it shares with the OS itself is fairly minimal if reports are to be believed these days post-IE6. Its rendering engine (MSHTML.dll) is left because there are so many applications that expect it these days. It's pretty much impossible to remove IE entirely without breaking a ton of non-default applications but not necessarily Windows itself. That said, I've never looked at the source code and can't verify if any separation has actually occurred.

Leaked Windows 10 build hints at peer-to-peer patching

Jordan Davenport

Re: I'd be happy ...

I tried that out in a VM this past weekend, and while it does save bandwidth if you're updating several machines, it certainly does not save time. It took me nearly as long to install all the important updates using that utility as it did to install all important and recommended updates from Microsoft Update, neglecting download times for both.

Mattel urged to scrap Wi-Fi mic Barbie after Register investigation

Jordan Davenport

"I really have a hard time believing that any half-way intelligent and caring parent would buy their kid one of these."

So expect the majority of girls targeted-market children in the US to own one by this time 2017?

Net neutrality: The world speaks its brains on secret 'open' 'net rules

Jordan Davenport

Hey, Verizon

First off, I'm not taking a side on the matter until I actually know what was decided. We all knew this was coming, whether it's good for the public interest or not. It's ridiculous to worry about the specifics until we actually know what they are.

That said, "rules [...] that were written in the era of the steam locomotive and the telegraph" aren't inherently irrelevant to modern society. I'm pretty sure that that Constitution of ours is still pretty relevant despite being written before that era.

All that aside, I will grant that it's worrying that five people decided the fate of the Internet in the United States. Don't assume that the dissenting voices were entirely unheard. What really scares me is the idea that they may have taken a gamble by influencing language they thought was terrible, ceding the battle to win the war.

Don't touch me up there! Photoshop creator appeals for 'ethical' use

Jordan Davenport

Re: They should call it ForgeryShop

There's a huge difference between ethically using any image manipulation software and using image manipulation software for ethical reasons. You're confusing the concepts of how and why.

Microsoft 'showers gold' on anti-Google Cyanogen and its Android alternative

Jordan Davenport

Re: Biting the hand the feeds you

As far as I'm aware, the only parts of Android that are subject to the GPL are not written by Google aside from patches to existing projects, such as the Linux kernel. The majority of what Google contributes as open source is under the Apache Software License 2.0. Unless Google decide to write a new kernel (incredibly unlikely) or adapt one under a more permissive license than the GPL (less unlikely but would still require cutting compatibility with existing drivers and APIs or writing compatibility shims), they will always be bound to release their modifications to Linux but not to the things they've authored under other licenses.

Acer Chromebook 13: The best Googletop on the market?

Jordan Davenport

Doctor Who's tangerine dream and Clara's death wish in Last Christmas

Jordan Davenport

"...across time and space...at the same time..."

They clearly didn't have the head dream crab attached at the same time - it was across different times. They just all met in the same dream, time-traveling through their own dreams to meet each other, a concept touched in The Name of the Doctor.

My question is: If the dream crabs found Clara by her connection to the Doctor, what does that imply about the other four?

Actually, I lied; my real question is: Why was Shona the one who almost exclusively created the scenario, especially if the Doctor was seemingly first to be attacked?

Developers offering Mozilla-like experience will work on Firefox-like experience for iThings

Jordan Davenport

"Someone remind me again why Internet Explorer coming with Windows (and allowing alternatives) is antitrust bullshit, but this bullshit from Apple is totally OK? Deliberately gimping any other browser is fine?"

I feel the same, I really do, but the reason is simple: Despite having a huge chunk of the market, Apple do not hold a majority - that would be Android, which actually does allow Gecko and always has. Though not at all a niche market, since they do not hold a majority, they aren't held to the same antitrust regulations as Microsoft with Windows on the desktop. That's also the same reason Microsoft isn't required to allow other browsers on Windows RT tablets - they don't hold the majority in tablet marketshare.

Nexus 7 fandroids tell of salty taste after sucking on Google's Lollipop

Jordan Davenport

Odd, that

I did a fastboot update to 4.4 on my 2012 Nexus 7, and all worked perfectly. I did another fastboot flash of 5.0 onto my 2012 Nexus 7 this past weekend, and the thing is nigh unusable. The fastboot flash means I did a clean install, including a factory reset, so apps weren't a factor. The Nexus 7, much like my mother's Transformer Pad TF300T (same manufacturer, same chipset family, probably the same EMMC), suffers from slow IO performance in general.

It's not a huge loss to me since I rarely use it these days, given my Nexus 5 is faster (and running just fine even with 5.0).

Clara goes to the dark side, with dark secrets revealed in Dark Water

Jordan Davenport

Re: Well I loved it..

I always suspected it was the Master, given there were rumors of [her] reappearance this season, but at that line, I'd considered that too... except for the fact she referred to the Doctor as her boyfriend the very first episode when introduced talking to the clockwork droid. Plus I very much doubt anyone, human or otherwise, would kiss their grandfather so intimately. At least I hope they wouldn't.

Mozilla releases geolocating WiFi sniffer for Android

Jordan Davenport

Re: Let me get this right?

Sort of. It's recording the SSID (the public name that comes up in the network list) of wireless networks and the GPS location where it spotted it. Not sure how it's going to tell one 'linksys' or 'netgear' from the rest though. It doesn't record traffic

I very much imagine it's looking at the ESSID (the name) since it's clearly looking for _nomap but actually recording the BSSID (the MAC address), so it can distinguish five separate "linksys" networks in a single neighborhood.

The DRUGSTORES DON'T WORK, CVS makes IT WORSE ... for Apple Pay

Jordan Davenport

This just shows the idiocy of non-standard payment systems.

So I guess that just leaves cash and coinage?

Credit/charge/debit/bank cards and checks/cheques, albeit commonly accepted, are by no means standard. Cards rely on whether the store accepts the card processor or not, and checks may rely on whether the banks in the region will process checks from another region, not to mention the risk the business takes of receiving a check from an account with insufficient funds.

At least in the US, the only "standard" payment system is what's defined by the government - coins by the US Mint per the Constitution and paper currency by Bureau of Engraving and Printing per the Department of Treasury.

Preview redux: Microsoft ships new Windows 10 build with 7,000 changes

Jordan Davenport

Re: Windows 10 ?

I see someone's been asleep.

iPad AIR 2 and iPad MINI 3, 5K iMac: World feels different today – and it IS

Jordan Davenport

Re: Yosemite

You do realize that there's been a public beta for quite some time now, right? I'm not saying there aren't still bugs, but I do imagine plenty of people have tried it already.

The Schmidt hits the clan: Google chief mauls publishers' 'abuse of dominance' claims

Jordan Davenport

Re: Search Results that Contain new Search Engines are crap

Google supports Boolean operators, though they're not as user-friendly as the rest of their natural language search. You use a hyphen, as in a minus sign, in front of the word or quoted string instead of the word "NOT".

Oddly though, I actually got more results on an order of magnitude when I just searched for "everything -porn" instead of "everything". Who knew?

Windows 7 settles as Windows XP use finally starts to slip … a bit

Jordan Davenport

Re: Why is Win 8 and Win 8.1 seperated?

@localzuk & @Ken Hagan:

You're both right - I was under the (wrong) belief that Windows 8.0 was going to be supported with security patches until 2023. 8.1 is treated identically to Windows 8 Service Pack 1, Service Pack 2, etc. and will cause the official death of 8.0 in 2016. There went my justification for separating the two.

And given that 8.1 is a moving target, it seems just about pointless to try to standardize an enterprise environment that requires stability on any version of Windows 8.

Jordan Davenport

Re: Why is Win 8 and Win 8.1 seperated?

They really should be separated because Windows 8.0 is the one that receives only security updates while Windows 8.1 is the one that receives massive feature updates. 8.0's platform is relatively stable and won't change, while 8.1 is more of a moving target, an important factor to consider in an enterprise ecosystem. Of course, that last point is probably why you'll see Windows 7 in enterprise environments for years to come, Metro Windows 8 App Windows Store App "Modern" UI aside.

Intel's Raspberry Pi rival Galileo can now run Windows

Jordan Davenport

Re: Standard Windows timings

More like this thing called imaging now since that's how Windows since Vista (and really Windows for Legacy PCs) does it. And that's only worth it if you have more than one computer to update. Why can't Microsoft offer updated install images as suggested above?

I imagine the answer is as simple as it's supposed to be more incentive to buy the newer version - fewer updates required. That's also probably why we won't ever see Windows 7 Service Pack 2.

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