Posts by Peter 39

Attack hijacks sensitive data using newer Windows features

Mac users

If you use command-line then the simple way to disable IPv6 for all interfaces is

sudo ip6 -x

RSA explains how attackers breached its systems

got the message

Google got the message -- Windows is banned.

Your turn, RSA.

Stop sexing up IT and give Civil Servants Macs, says gov tech boss

posts

posts like these make clear the cause of UK IT generally being such a disaster

MoD rejects Gaddafi low-flying aircraft complaint

a title is required

it seems to me that there are several reasons for the sequence so far. Obviously, removing surface-to-air capability is crucial, and severing command-and-control links is high up on the list.

Taking out an armoured column clearly removes that as a threat but also says "who's next" to the mercenaries. They're not part of the tribes and peeling them off is essential so that the Libyans can solve their own problem. Given the results of the past day or so, I would expect that many will be heading out very soon.

Street View Terminator warps into Dublin

Happy Birthday is OK

Without getting too deep into the religious aspect of things, "Happy Birthday" is not entirely inappropriate for a Christmas card. In fact, some folks would think it very good.

BT fibre-to-the-premises trial takes 7 hours per install

Verizon FiOS

Verizon's similar scheme in the U.S. doesn't involve any splicing in the field as far as I could tell. It uses specific lengths of pre-terminated cable that connect to splitters etc.

That's more involved in that you have to measure fairly carefully and stock various lengths rather than bulk cable. But it does solve the problem of field splices etc.

FTC and DoJ toss-up on Apple subs plan 'probe'

Seller sets the price

Apple does NOT set the price. The seller sets the price. The seller can do specials and stuff.

All Apple requires for subscriptions is

1. if you sell it outside, you have to also sell it in-app

2. if you sell it outside, that price may not be lower than in-app

iPad's biggest rival? Microsoft's dead Courier

yup

good luck with that!

You'll need it.

Amazon: 'iPad LCD tablets no threat to Kindle'

158 items per second

Of course, those weren't all Kindles. To be fair, it seems that they did sell a lot of those but we don't know 'cos they won't tell us.

I suppose some of them might be, er ... well ... um ... books.

Google 'open' nonsense brainwashes US gov

FCC's the problem

The way I read it, it's not Google that thought up this nonsense but someone in FCC.

It's stupid, but I don't think it's Google's doing (in this case). FCC is showing an unbelievable lack of understanding.

Microsoft has shifted 1.5 million Windows phones

wrong body in the coffin

I remember the Microsoft Funeral Parade

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/10/microsoft-celebrates-windows-phone-7-rtm-with-funeral-parade-for/

If MS has only moved 1.5 MM since launch, and most of those are still in the channel, it seems that they had the wrong body in the coffin.

Researchers bypass Internet Explorer Protected Mode

sure they knew the rules

your point with Pvt. Manning (allegations at present, but I'll assume they're correct for the moment) is well taken. There ARE "need to know" rules that apply.

What we have here is yet another command failure - classified access is subject to audit but it seems that no-one did. I can imagine that he could browse through most of the stuff about Iraq and even Afghanistan without raising much concern. But his C.O. should have questioned him after, say, the first ten State Dep't cables showed up.

And in yet another instance of cluelessness, the general scenario of all this was known months ago. Yet State waited until after the document-dump to change procedures. Why wait? Did they believe that it didn't really happen? Or maybe they were just too busy with other things.

When I hear of a Court Martial being scheduled for his C.O. - only then will I believe that DoD is serious about fixing this. It's not hard, and doesn't take Big-Brother technology. Just start reminding the chain of command they they are responsible for classified information in their care. A few lengthy prison terms will clear this up quicker than any technology (and we know how well that stuff goes)

Gates: Nothing really new in Wikileaks Bradley Manning leak storm

need more charges

Charging Manning is one thing, but far from enough.

When does his CO face charges for dereliction of duty for ineffective oversight? It's one thing for Manning (if the allegations are in fact true) to look through lots of stuff going on in the war around him. It is quite another for him to browse through hundreds of thousands of classified documents that belonged to a different Government department.

It is not unreasonable for him to have access to Dept of State docs - he was an intelligence analyst. But the number is not reasonable and shows that there was no audit, no oversight of his activity.

A Court Martial is in order here.

Apple Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server

not "less money"

Hi Steve,

I just configured a Dell R210 (their cheapest 1U rackable) and your config lists for $1511 and is now on sale for $1284. That's with just one 160GB drive. With two 500 GB drives it's $1870 list. $1643 on sale.

Maybe you had a different box in mind? I didn't see a cheaper one but maybe I missed it.

The Mini is certainly less powerful etc than this but I can get one for under a grand.

no ECC

Remember that it doesn't have ECC though.

The alternative solution (on Mac Pro) does. It's not a good substitute for Xserve though :(

Tea Party activists accused of rigging Dancing vote to favour Palin

Bristol will win

If the rules are changed then they'll be challenged in Court, just like 2000.

Bristol will win there 5-4 (or better), just like Dubya.

How I built a zero energy cost, zero carbon home server

retail sheevaplug

These are sold to end users as "TonidoPlug" and are available in U.S. from codelathe.com

I'm not related to them - just a satisfied customer.

There may well be other vendors but this is the one I found. Nice system.

BTW the "PogoPlug" is somewhat similar but has less memory (128 instead of 512, I think). You can get it for a bit less but I prefer the additional memory.

Aircraft bombs may mean end to in-flight Wi-Fi, mobile

so un-thought-out, it sounds like politicians

If we're talking about ground-to-air comms setting off a bomb carried as cargo, who's to know when it's sent and which plane it's on.

If we're discussing a suicide event, then it has to be in that passenger's checked luggage. If it's a parcel, you don't know what plane it's on or when.

Of course, if you send FedEx or UPS then it's probably on the FedEx or UPS plane. But *you* aren't. If it's carried on another aircraft then you don't know which.

There's just a massive common-sense-disconnect here.

The only real issue is the suicide passenger who gets a bomb into a checked bag that he/she couldn't get through passenger screening. Fixing that means you have to screen all the bags. If a suicide terrorist is on board, rules about cell phones or WiFi are pointless. You have to stop the bag before it gets on board.

But packages and freight are different. You don't need to worry about passengers setting off a freight-bomb.

Google's 'copied Java code' disowned by Apache

Java not actually open-source

Sun granted a licence for Java on the desktop but not for mobile use so it's not really "open", is it.

They wanted to collect license fees for mobile, by forcing people to license J2ME rather than "regular Java".

Quite a sorry mess.

VMware's vSphere cleared for military spook servers

rusty trusty

The fact that WinXP SP2 is certified EAL4+ should give us all a good idea of how meaningful the certification is.

Was Ozzie's head in the clouds as rivals stole his role?

salesman

Ballmer may indeed be a great salesman.

It's just that few customers are buying the shiny new stuff he's selling.

Windows ("Windows Classic", anyone?) and Office are the cash cows and the only thing that keeps the boat afloat. Without those, MS would look like, well, maybe Corel.

Microsoft loses chief software architect Ray Ozzie

wrong guy

Need to fire Ballmer, not Ozzie.

Another MS fail.

HP accuses Hurd of repeated lying

Authority and responsibility go hand-in-hand

If the Board believe it was this bad then why did it take the sex-allegation investigation to uncover it? Surely overseeing the CEO one of the Board's main responsibilities.

If the Board failed this badly then it too should resign. And most especially the Chairman.

Either they're lying or they're incompetent. Both are cause for termination, eh?

Windows Phone 7 leaves operators on the hook

another take on Verizon

I guess that Verizon now is looking at an Apple deal through different-coloured glasses.

No point throwing all the toys out of the pram a *second* time.

Ex-General Electric boss unleashes bile on HP board

Welch's cred

Seriously Jack, where's your own credibiity?

Turning GE into a bank so it can crash and burn along with Wall St? Gee, thanks. Setting up the uber-sweet retirement deals that finally came to light during the messy trial? Fine for you but left thousands of GE employees and retirees in the lurch. Thanks again.

Forgetting to renew the prenup before it expired? Priceless!

Microsoft polishes top brass in Ballmer power play

deckchairs

Is this just a case of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic?

If Steve's still in charge, has anything changed?

No. Full steam ahead !

Microsoft caps Ballmer bonus over mobile phone, tablet failures

still wrong

Dear Board,

For improved Microsoft performance, try the following for Steve ...

Salary ZERO

Bonus ZERO

With the money you save you could hire a better CEO

Adobe readies critical Reader update

simple solution

I worked around the problem by uninstalling Reader. Preview works OK on my Mac for the PDFs I have.

Simple.

Star Wars set for 3D rehash

only if ...

Only if they delete Jar-Jar Binks

US.gov set IPv6 upgrade deadlines

Steve isn't where the problem is

It's not a Steve issue. Macs etc have supported IPv6 for years. Same for Windows.

The real problem is that ISPs don't support it. And there are millions of home routers that don't either. Linksys/Belkin/D-Link/Netgear and their friends stand to make a killing on this. As soon as the ISPs support it for punters. Which they don't. Sigh.

Stuxnet worm can reinfect PCs even after disinfection

lots of knock-on coming

In hindsight, it seems incredibly stupid of Siemens to be running such critical systems on WIndows. I agree (and have been saying the same for years - one of a few voices in the wilderness).

I guess that Siemens is wondering about the survival of their credibility, as well as that of the managed systems. Attaching yourself to Windows doesn't seem quite the "obvious decision" that I assume it was originally. Still an obvious decision but in the other sense.

However, Siemens is in good company. After all, the Royal Navy and United States Navy are both running warships on Windows, so it has to be OK. Right?

I wonder if *they* have any Siemens gear?

Coders tip Google Android for eclipse of the Steve

misleading

'Cmon guys! Fer cryin' out loud!

Article leads in ... "Seventy-two per cent of developers believe "

Not until we read on to paragraph 3 do we find that "[t]he survey polled over 2,400 Titanium developers"

Your editors can do better than this. And should. Your stories, and your site in general, are more useful when we can generally trust them. Being economical with the truth does not help you or us.

The conclusions you reach may well be right but the evidence you give for it doesn't support the claim. Pointing to IDC doesn't do any good as the story linked is from April and no longer relevant. I'm not about to search IDC's site for the supporting info you might have quoted.

Please ensure that your headlines and story are supported by the evidence you present.

Feds want backdoors built into VoIP and email

crazy

This is walking down the same well-trodden path blazed by encryption-restrictions and Clipper-chip.

In the short term, the most likely effect will be to increase the turnout at Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity"

Over the longer term it will send the software-privacy industry out of the U.S. Again.

HP purges Cisco gear from data centers

comes with the usual HP marketing, though

I had to buy a 3Com switch recently - a particular model number as specified by the customer. Not a big deal or a lot of money. But that 3Com offering is discontinued (since being spec'ed in June) because all 3Com is now HP something-or-other.

So HP has taken over the 3Com site and the product link goes to an HP page saying the the model is discontinued. All fairly normal. Now for the HP marketing part - it doesn't say what the replacement product is, or a close match. I spent quite a while searching the abysmal HP site and finally gave up. Bought a Netgear instead (customer was OK with that).

I am reminded of a quote from an HP salesman many years ago when (in another gig) we were buying Unix boxes from them.

"If we were selling sushi, our Marketing literature would describe it as 'cold dead fish'."

Microsoft adopts invisible mobile pitch

battery life?

"That also means constant connectivity, which in turn requires (effectively) unlimited data and impacts battery life, but neither of those should be a problem for the corporate executive who'll likely be Microsoft's the first target."

I'll agree that the corporate types don't have an issue with the data plan. But battery life? Seriously, that's always an issue.

As Apple has shown, battery life is as much about the software as the size of the battery. If MS has the application support architecture right then battery life becomes a manageable problem. If multi-tasking is just what's done on desktop/laptops then WinPhone7 will soon join its Kin.

Novell breakup and sale imminent, says report

who gets ...

Which part gets to own the litigation with SCO ??

If MS is somehow involved in this there'll be hell to pay

Cyber security challenge organisers in email privacy blunder

sanity check

'Bout time emailers did a sanity check if you try to send to hundreds and hundreds.

At least make it an option so you're prompted "Are you sure?"

I once received one with 88K of addresses. It was the company's entire list of customers, and included some addresses that had previously been kept very quiet.

Microsoft closes hole used to attack industrial plants

sorry

Sorry, but the answer is "Never".

Google dismisses engineer who violated privacy policy

Why go public?

Simple.

1. This news will get out, sooner or later. After all, there must be some people who know he used to work at Google (a sought-after gig) and now does not.

2. If you (i.e. Google) don't announce it, world+dog will say you covered it up. Maybe even Gizmodo. Then you're on the defensive explaining that it wasn't really all that significant, blah blah.

In this case, I don't think that Google went public soon enough. They should have announced it about the time it happened, although probably without naming the person involved. This should have been out in July, not September.

ACPO defuses impending photo row with police forces

main event

Of course, if the cameras are seized early on, they're not available to the photographers to use at the main event.

You know, the one that follows the initial diversionary dust-up

USB stick with anti-terror training found outside police station

encryption on the stick

It's true that some on-stick encryption is not that great, although it'll keep out many.

Better is to have the stick as an encrypted filesystem so the crypto is done in the host. Of course, that only works if the host itself is secured well enough. If it's WIndows (probably the safest of all the assumptions in this thread) then this could be problematic.

Superglue on all the USB ports, optical drives etc isn't really a viable idea.

A better one would be to fire the IT firm and hire one that knows how to do it. Probably not the lowest bidder.

Microsoft slings mud in VMware living room

who owns the data

As I said the other day (I'm not a lawyer and don't give advice other than to suggest that you hire a lawyer you trust), I understand that the owner of the "cloud" owns the data. So your data in the cloud doesn't have the same legal protection that applies to your data in your own server room.

Given Microsoft's history, they'd be last on the list of places I'd consider. Fortunately, that is not a decision I have to make.

I really do hope that Congress in the U.S. addresses this issue - soon. For other jurisdictions, you have to work on your own legislators.

New iPod crew: 'Phoney, futuristic, retro, doomed'

rear camera

Steve only mentioned HD video. Nothing about photos on the iPod Touch.

My guess is that it's like the camera on the old nano

Judge bashes warrantless cellphone tracking

about time !!

Seems a balanced ruling to me.

Police should not be able to just troll through anyone's location data for no reason. But they can get it if they have cause - a bar that's not all that high (and not infrequently abused, some say).

Microsoft douses VMware with cold cloud shower

who owns the data?

If it's on Microsoft's cloud then, from a legal standpoint, they own it. Consult a lawyer for your jurisdiction for details.

Somehow, I don't find that attractive at all.

India gives BlackBerry reprieve, eyeballs Google, Skype

end-to-end

It's not end-to-end if it goes to a phone (Skype Out etc). And that's where the "telecoms" part comes in.

If it's computer-to-computer then it's encrypted but is it "telecoms" or whatever the Indian legislation defines? Sounds as though they're going down the DPI rathole.

Apple QuickTime backdoor creates code-execution peril

unfortunate

Unfortunate that the space appears to be kernel memory (at least, that's how the description reads to me).

That was a bad design choice on MS's part. Trading security for speed is always a bad trade.

Colonel who slammed Afghan HQ PowerPoint culture is fired

new job

Maybe Secretary Gates will hire him to help with the downsizing

Dell Streak GPL snub enrages Android fans

petition format

The petition format that will be effective is the one placed in front of a Court of Law. More commonly known as a "lawsuit". A Petition for Relief.

If Dell distributes stuff that is licensed to them under GPL and does not fulfill the terms of the licence then that's a breach of copyright. Pure and simple. They're in breach now so they've already lost their GPL rights. Restoration of rights under GPLv3 is a LOT simpler than under GPLv2. Since we're talking Linux kernel here, it's GPLv2 so Dell's lawyers have some fancy footwork ahead of them.

If they don't move quick smartly then all Dell's Linux things could go poof. For their sake, I *do* hope that they have rights to the missing code.

UK insurer hit with biggest ever data loss fine

Pity

'Tis unfortunate that it's an insurance company. No doubt they're self-insured for this sort of thing and will just treat it as cost-of-doing-business.

Had it been a regular company then their business insurance rates would go way up - 'natch. The bean-counters could then weigh this against the cost of improving security and, hopefully, apply appropriate funding to (2)