Posts by Charles 9

US border cops told to stop copying people's files just for the hell of it

Re: Wonder what would happen...

Not a good idea. They'll assume it to be an encrypted drive image and REALLY start grilling you.

Re: What's the hit rate?

How do you trust the shipper and customs to make sure they don't steal or mess with it in transit?

Re: doesn't mean much

I thought they just arrested you, which allows for "Hot Pursuit" statutes to kick in allowing them to search the car you were driving/the residence you were in pursuant to the arrest. And if they find anything interesting, they secure it while someone else gets the search warrant just to be safe.

Plus no booby trap would work against a raw image copy.

"It's nice idea but I would be prepared for a full cavity search if you did and a week of walking like a true American cowboy."

Oh? What if you act like you're GETTING OFF on it?

Don't be surprised if they can just yank the thing out and do a raw copy which avoids booby traps. As for soldered storage, they probably have ways around them, too.

Smartphones' security enhancements just make them more dangerous

Re: That Franklin quote

"If you are worried about security make sure you don't have anything worth stealing on a device that you have a high chance of losing, forgetting or breaking."

Which means you eventually reach a point where you MUST have such valuable information on things easily lost/stolen in order to function AT ALL in modern society. Then you end up asking, "NOW what do you do?"

Re: Something you are

ALL of which can be faked.

But the trouble is, what if, due to having terrible memory, a tendency to lose things, AND being too proud to ask for help, it's ALL YOU HAVE to work with?

Re: The day is coming...

As I recall, Identity Theft was a thing BEFORE the Internet came along.

I guess you've never seen the spliced "My. Voice. Is. My. Password. Verify. Me." bit from Sneakers.

"If the author is unconvinced with using his face to unlock his phone why doesn't he just use a PIN?"

Perhaps he has a bad head for PINs? Can't use an ATM and so on?

Re: Any Biometric is the least secure model I can think of.....

"While I don't believe in the nanny state, I also don't believe that dumb fucks should drive security implementation models, security models should NOT be dictated by the dumbest/laziest common denominator."

You MUST. They're the majority, and they outVOTE and outSPEND you. That's why you MUST take the Stupid User into consideration if you want to stay in business long-term.

PS. Some people really DO have serious memory problems where "123456" becomes "271052" and "correcthorsebatterystaple" becomes "donkeyenginepaperclipwrong". AND they're too proud to ask for help. Yet if you don't deal with these kinds of people, what they house can take other people with them...including potentially YOU thanks to unknown connections.

Re: Too late...

The last sentence covers that. Basically, can you trust the safe owners to not possess a skeleton key? Perhaps one mandated by the government and concealed under a D-Notice?

I disagree. Not buying them means living under the Sword of Damocles, which by definition means "you're NEVER safe." Which means no peace of mind. Which is why I'm saying if the ONLY way to get ANY measure of safety is to give up your liberty, then what's the damn point of civilization at all? You're basically back to The Jungle.

But what if it's not temporary safety we're buying but safety full stop (IOW peace of mind) without which we'd drive ourselves crazy living like Damocles and start wondering if civilization is worth all this?

IOW, if Franklin really is right, then human civilization is essentially doomed.

FCA 'gold-plates' EU rule, hits BYOD across entire UK finance sector

Re: Pedant here....

To which the boss would reply, since this is now a legal mandate, the mandated replies would be F you back and YNWITIA.

Skynet it ain't: Deep learning will not evolve into true AI, says boffin

Re: 68 million matches

And that's precisely part of the problem. People want results, not realizing that the route to get there can be as important as the end result; otherwise, you can inadvertently end up with a one-trick pony and find yourself screwed when a slightly different problem comes along. As noted, a computer trained to play chess would have a hard time playing go (because chess is a game of movement and go is a game of placement, there's significant differences in strategy) because it can't figure out what things it learned from chess can actually apply well to go.

Re: Still Useful

Because when the issue becomes something as simple as, "You're obsolete. Game Over. No Continues," "dealing with the issue" as you put it is not possible as that means going against the survival instinct.

IOW, what you describe gets dangerously close to Butlerian Jihad territory.

Re: I got as far as

So therein lies the rub. We can't teach a computer how to reason, infer, and draw from relatively obscure things when we don't even know how we ourselves do it. What's the specific process by which our brains identify stuff, make not-so-obvious observstions, reason, infer, etc.?

Re: 68 million matches

Because the REAL real purpose isn't the destination but the journey. Take this. Why does it take a computer millions of simulated matches to match wits with some like Kasparov who could only have played tens or hundreds of matches, tops? How come newborn babies too young to be taught in the usual way can nonetheless identify differences and certain abstract concept's no computer can distinguish?

Re: I got as far as

Part of the intelligence problem is that we're not ourselves fully aware of how we think. For example, we haven't much insight into subconscious concepts like intuition, which figures into things like driving where we can sense something coming without consciously thinking about it. We can't teach what we ourselves don't understand.

Whizzes' lithium-iron-oxide battery 'octuples' capacity on the cheap

"Corporations and even our governments completely understand that it's more profitable to keep the poor people sick."

But that one invention you mentioned was made by an individual, meaning an upstart. Upstarts would be perfectly motivated to bankrupt the billionaire businesses unless they're capable of making Mafia-type "offers you can't refuse."

PS. Why is it in the government's interest to keep taxpayers sick (bankrupting them so they go on the public dole and become tax-TAKERS) and at risk of dying (meaning they LOSE the taxpayer)? Private phama companies, yes, because it means repeat business, but governments? It'd be a losing proposition.

Re: I'm more concerned about battery durability and safety

Tell me, where are you going to get the power needed to recharge a 3Ah smartphone battery in a few seconds? The prototype battery mentioned in the article only had a measly 30mAh capacity, and you have to wonder what kind of effects can happen once you scale up.

Re: Where are they now

Roofing doesn't tend to come up in housing discussions based on my experience. So it doesn't really affect the resale value unless it's blatantly shoddy.

Re: Nevertheless...

"Adding a larger fuel tank adds less weight to a vehicle than a larger battery. The range of diesel vehicles is limited by the size of tank, and a full tank of diesel still weighs less than a battery of a similar size/range."

Furthermore, it's possible to extend that range very easily. If it's for occasional use, a gerry can or two will easily tide you over should you drift away from civilization. If you frequently trek away from fuel stations, it may be worth it to get an additional fuel tank installed.

Re: x8, x 4, x2

Oh? Can it burn IN water (not on, IN)?

Re: Nevertheless...

Cordless phones feel the way they do because people are used to holding the old corded handsets. Plus, they don't carry them around all day. When they're done, they go on a counter somewhere or back in their cradle, not into pockets like cell phones.

Re: Oh look, another one.

Publishing to inner circles is one things, especially if the intent is peer review. I'm talking about publishing to the world at large because by my reckoning that's a half-truth (which is in turn twice the lie). My thought is, "If you're gonna sing it, be sure to bring it." Perhaps Beyond 2000 jaded me a bit. I mean, how many of these hypegasms (like holographic crystal storage, which was demonstrated in a lab 20 years ago, IIRC) have gone nowhere (or, like CFCs, turned out to be counterproductive)?

Re: Oh look, another one.

Even later, when a pilot mass-production run is under way, since that's usually the point the tech is going all-in.

Big shock: $700 Internet-of-Things door lock not a success

Re: $700 versus $25

You must have different burglar bars, then, because the ones I see are frequently mounted into something sturdier, such as (a) the studs above and below the window, or (b) into the reinforced concrete exterior wall. Both are much sturdier stuff, and the bars themselves are made of cut-resistant steel and mounted in four points. I don't think you'll get the bars off with a monkey wrench. Odds are, to get those kinds of burglar bars off, you're basically going to have to rip a hole in the wall and need something on the nature of a pickup truck to get enough force.

Re: IoT

You overestimate the intelligence of the Stupid User. They won't pay attention until people start DYING (like with airbags and seat belts).

Re: What if ...

The thing probably runs on easily-replaceable batteries. And if the world runs out of AA batteries, then you have bigger problems.

And if I live in a flat/apartment, meaning there's no place for a rock garden? Not to mention the windows have the aforementioned burglar bars?

Jocks in shock as Irn-Bru set to slash sugar and girder content

Re: Money

Isn't that because alcohol is already taxed? Besides, most alcohol isn't really made from sugar as we'd call it sugar in any event unless you're moonshining. Whiskeys are made from grains, rum from molasses (a sugar precursor), brandy and wine from grape juice, etc.

Re: Down with this sort of thing...

And yet it got derided as Cokesi, and Coke backpedaled, meaning taste tests aren't always gospel.

We need to talk about mathematical backdoors in encryption algorithms

Re: Why the focus on PUBLIC and MATHEMATICAL methods?

Except they can't seize something that ONLY exists in your head. Last I checked, they don't have anything resembling an Alpha Catch, Aurora Chair, or any other "brain draining" technology.

Woo-yay, Meltdown CPU fixes are here. Now, Spectre flaws will haunt tech industry for years

"PUSH AF

RET

That was one of those 'Put the debugger down and slowly walk away' moments :)"

Perhaps you can enlighten us why it would've been too tricky to figure out the flags enough to realize where this "jump by return" was going.

Re: My understanding on Android

Most Intel Android devices use Atoms. Atoms are stripped down processors, and some are strictly in-order and immune to both attacks. It depends.

UK.gov admits porn age checks could harm small ISPs and encourage risky online behaviour

Re: From a legal perspective...

"No, because it's not "produced solely or principally for the purposes of sexual arousal". The main purpose of a modelling site would be to sell modelling services, if you get your rocks off to it that's your business."

If that were true, they could do that displaying more decent outfits and fewer of them. Plus, in many of the sites I'm noting, they don't leave a prominent "looking for models" page, or if they do, it's pretty small given most modeling agencies are limited to one, maybe two locations. It's easily open to interpretation, especially if a site shows ONLY swimsuits and/or lingerie and doesn't show a prominent "models wanted".

Problem was, Canute was not savvy enough to realize that his advisors would STILL expect the sun to emerge from his rectal orifice no matter what he demonstrated. You can't reason with irrational people, and if they want you to as I call it "chase unicorns," you need to realize you're not going to win any argument with them.

Re: Don't know if I'm alone on this, but I'm of the opinion

Because it provides the excuse you need to get stricter, like giving you the moral stand you need to ban encryption wholesale.

Re: DNS over TLS

"There's already an RFC for DNS over TLS, so give it time."

How would that help against an ISP who hijacks the DNS port wholesale (and would likely get a valid TLS certificate)?

Re: From a legal perspective...

So, basically, ANY fanservice site is fair game. Even non-nude modeling sites can arouse (no more swimsuit sites, then--what about magazines?). And it explicitly permits collateral damage.

Not necessarily. It's not too hard for a choke point like an ISP to hijack all port 53 traffic wholesale. Many ISPS do, meaning you can't choose your own DNS in the normal way.

Wait! Before you fire up that HP lappy, check the battery

Re: Time to advance to NiMH chemistry?

"How many of us would gladly accept a chunkier and slightly heavier lappy with user replaceable nickel metal hydride cells, bonus if they are in a standard format? The humble AA goes up to 2.5 AH these days, I wonder what's possible in larger sizes?"

Problem is, they still only discharge at 1.2V, and most laptops need at least ten times that (most portable devices I've seen won't take more than eight; most top out at four). Not to mention IIRC NiMH is still more vulnerable to memory effects than Li-based batteries.

Now that's sticker shock: Sticky labels make image-recog AI go bananas for toasters

Re: The procedure

Put the sticker ON the banana. Now it reports a toaster and NO banana because it's tricky enough for humans to recognize two separate items on top of each other (they could easily be a combined item where the pieces are stuck together), let alone a machine.

How about this for a challenge. Can a visual recognition system identify something without even seeing it (such as the ball of a paddle ball that you can guess is there because the paddle is not sitting flat, meaning it's probably on top of and covering its ball)?

Linus Torvalds on security: 'Do no harm, don't break users'

Re: RFC1925 Truth #1 Applies here

"1) It must work."

I challenge this with a simple question: How do you KNOW it's working? What if it's pwned and giving you false information? There's working...and there's working RIGHT. And working RIGHT is easily more important than just working. Because the last thing you want is to report something that turns out to be WRONG...because you were misled.

I think the opposite. It's better by far to be told you can't do anything than to use something that can't be trusted and can potentially give you false results. Sometimes, a false result is worse than no result. There ARE things worse than death.

Shopped in Forever 21? There was bank-card-slurping malware in it for, like, forever

Re: What data are we talking about?

AFAIK, to use a card on Amazon or any other CNP site, you need to input the CVV number on the back of the card (NOT on the Chip or magstripe) at least once.

Nvidia: Using cheap GeForce, Titan GPUs in servers? Haha, nope!

The G can now stand for General.