Posts by Tom Chiverton 1

iPhone to tap NFC, rumours say

Ummm

Or, alternately, I can impersonate someone at all their online locations by simply borrowing their phone for a few minutes ?

Not a good plan.

Vulcan bomber lives to fly another day

So...

So in a year's time there are more Vulcan's flying than Harriers and Tornadoes combined ?

Hacker almost derailed Mandela election in South Africa

Ummm

"It's not like someone just comes up to the machines with a USB key and install the thing "

Actually, it is exactly like that. Go away and read up on the various failings then come back. Ta.

Nearly half of top UK firms do not use software escrow

"source code is the underlying material which constitutes a software program"

Geez. Are you the IT press or not ? Because we don't need this sorta thing spelling out, ta.

Most smartphone users breach employers’ security, says survey

This is ridiculous !

My house wont give out an IP address unless I've typed in the MAC of the hardware I just bought.

Why is this hard for business ?

Prosecutors prep decision on BT-Phorm case

Ummm

Because there is an exception in RIPA into which IMP falls ?

New pocket-sized smartbomb - just for killer robots

Ummm

Wouldn't some heavy steel spikes with a few guidance vanes do as good a job, especially when mounted en mass aboard a loitering aerial blimp ?

Thanks to the Demon for that one :-)

Coalition tears up net snoop plan's £2bn price tag

Ummm

They can (and do) do that now, and that's a different thing - they need to get a court order, which means showing reasonable grounds etc.

The mas surveillance of the entire online populations activities is very, very, different.

US Army trials robot 'leccy-n-bandwidth war-mules

You'd hope

You'd hope that it uses UWB or something equally stealthy...

Adobe enlists tablet and cake makers to rally Flash

You can draw

You can draw pixel by pixel on the HTML5 Canvas tag, so why do you need Photoshop ?

Ummm

Umm, if you don' like ads, Flash based or not, install AdBlock. Everyone I know does. Problem solved.

Wi-Fi starts getting chummy with its peers

how

So, how does it work ? Does everyone now ship a DHCP, DNS and NAT server in their WiFi stack ?

Drug-addled scooter twock teen hit with bizarre crypto ban

Ummm

Lynx has SSL support to...

ICO reopens Google Street View privacy probe

Well...

Your device was standing up, waving it's arms and saying 'talk to me !'.

Their device asked your device if it could come in, and your device said yes, here's the internet'.

That's an invitation, as far as I can tell, so can't be unauthorised.

Femtocells outnumber proper mobe towers in US

Ummm

"workers are bringing in their own access points"

And how do they get the MAC address added to the list authorised to get an IP and/or internet access ?

Nokia locks* out Symbian staffers

Ummm

Actually, the N900 is still getting updates, v1.3 should be out 'soon'.

What Nokia are doing is betting the farm on the MeeGo effort with Intel...

Phone 7: Another Vista or another XP?

A lock that isn't

So when the phone is locked in my pocket, the slightest press will still pause/start music ? That is not a lock.

Fail.

Green light for spooks' net snoop plan

Ummm

Install this : http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/06/encrypt-web-https-everywhere-firefox-extension

End of problem ?

Java surpasses Adobe kit as most attacked software

people don't think to update it,

People don't have to, it auto updates even on Windows. Sadly it refuses to do so quietly in the background and insists on asking Jo Sixpack a question they wont understand.

Dane-Elec myDitto Nas device

Ummm

My LinkStation has been doing that for a good year or too...

HP unwraps Palm Pre 2

Unfinished ?

In what way is the Flash 10.1 player 'unfinished' ? What doesn't work ?

UK promises 'transformative' cyber security programme

Ummm

That's what they do when your MAC needs re-registering, just go to that IP in a web browser.

Iomega's flashy SSD clones your PC

Ummm

Why back up the O/S ? Surely it's your media files you need to backup, you can put the O/S back in an afternoon from the install media...

Google rolls out phishing URL alerts for admins

Who cares

Who cares, unless you own an AS, the service is useless : http://goo.gl/a5i5

iPad tethering does disappearing trick

"Giving operators the option of disabling tethering makes sense"

yeah, not to the users though...

OOo's put the willies up Microsoft

FUD

Plain and simple, same old plan from MS...

Power grid scare stories a 'bunch of hooey'

Ohh

Ohh, I thought this would be about the ridiculous plan to install remotely accessible computers attached to a meter in everyone's house.

Sony Reader PRS-350 Pocket Edition

Quick follow up questions

How does the 'bonding' process to allow you to read plain PDF work ?

Does it *require* software on the PC, or can I just plug it in and use it as a USB mass-storage drive to drag and drop to ?

Navigon 70 Plus satnav

Subs and map updates ?

"bundled with a TMC subscription"

Doesn't TMC come over FM, and is free for ever ?

Also I'd like to see how long are map updates available for after purchase ?

WinPatrol blames McAfee for lost business

Maybe

Maybe his company should be running their install packages through a gauntlet of popular virus scanners prior to release. This would be good practice anyway, and fairly cheap for even a small company as long as it actually makes money.

Or he could just moan and stamp his feet on his blog...

Cryptome vows to pursue those who breached site

downloaded 7 Terabytes

He downloaded 7 Terabytes, and no one noticed the prolonged traffic spike ?!? How long did it take to trickle it out then ? Years ?

Apple buys out $1bn data center squatters

Ummm

Ummm, doesn't the XBox division make a loss still ?

London Transport plans Oyster bypass

Umm, no ?

So, how much extra work will be generated for the police, as picking pockets becomes more lucrative ? Paying for something without being able to take part in the transaction (PIN, signature) is poor security...

Qualcomm's ultralow power tech targets body area networks

Ummm

This already exists - self medicating pain relief of the 'press this button to get some' variety. There is, of course, a separate system that limits the amount that can be released within a given time box, so it's impossible to overdose yourself (or have a 'hacker' do it to you).

Virgin Media introduces P2P throttling

Ummm

How do they spot 'P2P' traffic ? Doesn't most BT client software randomise the port and encrypt ?

HABITABLE ALIEN WORLD discovered 20 light-years away!

Ummm

"just getting past low orbit seems to be beyond us at the moment"

Voyager would disagree with you. Now, about that nuclear thermal rocket idea from the 70s...

FCC rubberstamps rules for 'WiFi on steroids'

Doesn't matter

Someone will write a FOSS stack to mangle all this stuff, and someone else will change "if allowed then turn on" to just "turn on".

<shrug>

Stupid idea.

School caretaker jailed for fitting up colleague

So

So he would have got away with it if only he'd used a single-shot PAYG mobile payed for in cash ? Reassuring. Not.

IPv6 uptake still slow despite looming address crunch

smartphone

What has rising smartphone use got to do with this ? They all sit behind NAT, and probably should continue to do so for security reasons !

Google responds to Czech ban

not so high that it can see over people's fences

How high ?!? It'd easily peer over mine...

Microsoft warns of in-the-wild attacks on web app flaw

I never realised it was this bad

http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2010/09/17/understanding-the-asp-net-vulnerability.aspx:

"the ASP.Net application stores ... passwords or database connection strings, in the ViewState object ... The ViewState object is encrypted and sent to the client"

!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

'What were they thinking' springs to mind.

Visa looks at NYC wave-pay trial, says 'I wanna be a part of it'

Sooo

So, increase in pick pocketing, aided by being able to quickly escape on the metro at no cost ? Not good...

Intel slips anti-theft tech into hardware to deter thieves

Oh my

Wont this be fun when a 12 year old kid posts the code that does the disabling to Twitter...

Yahoo! boffin scores pi's two quadrillionth bit

Bah

Well, that's the Plot to /Contact/ ruined then...

Intel seeks security through app stores

Umm, no ?

"Only allowing a system to run "trusted" code would inherently prevent malware that's spread through email or rogue websites from executing."

Not unless you've solved the halting problem it wont - I can still send the 'wrong' data and make my nicely signed app do anything it likes.

Custom superchippery pulls 3D from 2D images like humans

Controlling a car needs a super computer does it ?

You'd better tell DARPA, because their last automated car challenge showed you only need a few laptops :-)

http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp

Microsoft: IE9 will never run on Windows XP

never ?

Sounds like a challenge to me !

Mean while, does Win7 run in VirtualBox ?

Die-hard bug bytes Linux kernel for second time

Gee

Gee, thanks Red Hay. Nice one.

Update kills code-execution threat in Samba

Ummm

Actually, the Samba team have access to the specs these days.

Do the Webminimum

Ummm

Not in the server world it doesn't...