* Posts by Lucky2BHere

34 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jan 2010

Bruce Schneier: You want real IoT security? Have Uncle Sam start putting boots to asses

Lucky2BHere

Bruce is spot-on, but we gotta start somewhere

Really appreciate Bruce's campaign. His book "Click Here to Kill Everybody" is a wakeup call to businesses and the cybersecurity industry itself - which has been more than complicit in peddling critically underperforming security products.

We've already started making a difference in login security: zoomlogin.com, an AI solution with a nearly 100% certainty of user liveness. For any attacks that start with broken passwords, fingerprint, 2D face, Face ID, etc., a very effective approach is to verify the correct user is actually alive at the time of login (not BS blinking, nodding, smiling - easily recreated artifacts. We're just the first in NIST-certified, ISO-guided, AI-driven cross-platform software solutions. Much more to be done, but gotta start somewhere.

Google keeps tracking you even when you specifically tell it not to: Maps, Search won't take no for an answer

Lucky2BHere

Re: Stuff Like This Should Be Illegal

GDPR is a good start, but it doesn't have enforcement teeth yet. Give it a couple more years. There is also a significant lack of understanding of the more progressive authentication methods and blockchain. The most concerning issue is how quickly the tech is developing relative to how quickly this meat-based organization that doesn't really have enough experiential savvy to a) fundamentally understand, and b) get ahead of the developments. GDPR could easily be a big mess in 3-4 years.

Schneier warns of 'perfect storm': Tech is becoming autonomous, and security is garbage

Lucky2BHere

Massive Denial

Of course! You simply cannot disagree. I'm in the security business and the apathy is appaling - and scary. There is a strong foundation in business of self-selected ignorance and denial. We work with banks, transportation companies, government agencies and integrators and most of the execs are simply not informed - and don't want to be!

When I've brought up very real scenarios where, for example, a rogue fleet manager of connected big rigs decides to redirect a few of his 80,000 pound trailers at high speed into the middle of a city, the blank stares are chilling.

Keep pounding, Bruce!

Biometrics: Better than your mother's maiden name. Good luck changing your body if your info is stolen

Lucky2BHere

Biometrics are entering a new era

This was a well-researched, well-thought-out article. Indeed, the hope is with biometrics. But, as well-stated, this current crop (legacy biometrics) is not good enough. Regardless of the method, with legacy biometrics there is either a security risk or a significant convenience factor that will not allow them to be effective.

However, AI-developed/driven applications are solving many problems and are just entering the market. This is not a blatant plug, but an invitation to see for yourself: we've been delivering a 100% software face authentication biometric that is far more secure, and very easy to use and manage for IT.

ZoOm 3D Face Login is currently being used in banking, transportation and government and is either supplementing legacy login methods or replacing them outright - including passwords. It is virtually unspoofable and the encrypted biometric data cannot be borrowed or stolen for use anywhere outside of the process.

Please judge for yourself, but it appears we have a universally-usable, highly-secure biometric that won't put anyone's identities at risk.

Lucky2BHere

There is a solution - and in use today

Please see zoomlogin.com.

Who's using 2FA? Sweet FA. Less than 10% of Gmail users enable two-factor authentication

Lucky2BHere

The problem - at its very root - is 2FA or MFA just layers one bad method on top of another (as most stacks give the user options).

We're in the security business and know unequivocally: a) An authentication stack is only as good as the worst factor, b) PINs, passwords and legacy biometrics (fingerprint, 2D face, retina...) are either too easy to break, too intrusive or the ROI is far too low (ex: retina needs the right environment to work, takes too long and requires a device to be too close for daily comfort), and c) anything that takes antsy humans more than 4-5 seconds is not acceptable - and this is what we see *in practice*.

What is coming is smarter, faster AI-driven software-based biometrics that will allow us to be secure using one factor. For very-high-value transactions, though, additional verification is more than acceptable. Some friction in the process is okay (but not more than the magic 4-5 seconds!), and we actually expect friction if the stakes are higher (the effort must be worth the result). I'd be happy to spend another few seconds to make sure my $10K transfer was truly secure.

This is not a Google problem. It's an authentication technology problem.

PC sales to fall and fall and fall and fall and fall for the next five years

Lucky2BHere

Man... Just when I was about to build another desktop for myself.

I also have a convertible/tablet, a notebook and a regular tablet. I use them when they make sense. And - wonder of all wonders - I do the same with the "legacy" form-factor desktop. There's no doubt sales will slow, but there are some very compelling reasons to keep the desktop form. Upgradeability and repairability are right there at the top, but power/dollar has always figured in.

I've decided to go mini-ITX this time because of the obvious power density propositions. A typical setup will run anything I can throw at it, and if I had more professional needs (like heavy vid editing or graphics rendering), there're plenty of options. All while keeping the physical intrusion, power usage and noise to a minimum.

I've been around this business for over 35 years and have seen the "inevitable demise" of the PC reported over and over. Until the overall value proposition tanks, it'll be around - albeit in "adjusted" forms - for a very long time.

Samsung's Bixby assistant fails English, gets held back a month

Lucky2BHere

And that's not all...

Facial recognition spoof, infrared spoof, Bixby MIA...

These pale, though, if the stories brewing right now are substantiated. Seems the infrared is not safe for continued use. Their own disclaimers when setting up - the very young cannot use, extended use could have dangerous effects - have apparently led to some additional digging, and it doesn't look like something one would want to get near their eyes, at all! Forget the minor security issues and the occasional, though festive, burst of heat and light, this is a very real problem.

Maybe they can't catch a break because they are not taking the time time - again - to make sure their product *actually* delivers (more than some marshmallow-searing BTUs). For all their resources, it seems to me their executives continue to conduct business with their heads in dark and dank places.

Mastercard launches card that replaces PIN with fingerprint sensor

Lucky2BHere

See zoomlogin.com to understand where biometrics need to go. MFA is a use killer, proven over and over. We need methods that are good enough to stand alone and don't require any special hardware or devices, and that is average-Joe-simple to use.

Smartwatches: I hate to say ‘I told you so’. But I told you so.

Lucky2BHere

Must've been beat with a watch when a kid

Like a bunch of other people here, I flat don't agree. I've had two watches since the first Moto360 and have found them to be *very* useful. They were never designed to replace, but to augment. And in situations where you don't need the whole phone thing, they are perfect. Driving, biking, eating, on the phone, even walking down a street needing directions or to answer a quick text. Those, right there, are the sweet spots.

And I want to sock anyone who complains about cost! Really? I can pay wwaaayyy more for a much less interesting-looking watch that only tells the time. $300 for a decent watch is a no-brainer. But apparently, when you add functions and convenience, the value goes down?! $150 for an Asus Zenwatch 2, for example - a great-looking piece - is a steal. My Huawei was $350 and has been dead reliable and extremely useful. Now going on 8 months with it, I'm looking forward to the 2.0 update, too. Nothing at all wrong here.

They’re FAT. They’re ROUND. They’re worth almost a POUND. Smart waaatch, smart waaatch

Lucky2BHere

Re: I actually have an Apple watch...

Yes, yes, yes, all the way down (even though it's Satan watch...). I don't get what all the gruff is about. They are, indeed, really damn useful. My 360 has been great, and I'm getting another. They come in handy throughout the day, aren't expensive and are made at least as well as other watches in the price range - most better.

Lucky2BHere

Enter the current century

What's with all the Luddite comments?! Specially from this lot.

There are several reasons for wearables that are logically applicable. After my first 360, I'm on my way to another, probably the new version or the Asus. I'm even looking hard at the S2s. Why?

- I can leave my phone in my pocket or backpack most of the time

- I don't have to dig around for the phone or take my eyes *way* off the road in the car

- It is a godsend on a bike

- Checking messages is no longer such a big, rude social deal (and it really is)

- Remote pics are easy

- A quick scan of *all* my messages, or a quick voice request for directions, weather, businesses info, etc. makes it all worth it

- With my phone at 5", and my next at least the same size, leaving in a pocket/carry bag is making more sense for the myriad incidental status checks we *all* do every damn day

As the software gets better - and it will - I'm hoping to keep the phone out of sight all day, save for that video or document. And as the hardware gets better - and it will - I'm expecting to not even have to use my phone while out (Hence the S2 G3 as an option).

Some of what I see pushback on is the manifestation of what we've come to accept with mobile phone usage: we've gotten too comfortable with our bad habits. Frankly, much of it is socially unacceptable and certainly not at all sustainable; all the ill-timed status checking, the errant rings, the insidious stealing of attention whilst driving or walking or riding, etc.

WTF? This is a huge step in the right direction. If y'all are real, thoughtful tech weenies, then support the development of this stuff, fer chrissakes! Instead of complaining, join in to improve. And all those who complain about costs are truly not aware of what a decently-made watch costs these days. These are great watches, yet much more.

No, really, the $17,000 Apple Watch IS all about getting your leg over

Lucky2BHere

Re: Interesting

If you go back far enough, farming actually *created* the urban structure. As populations increased, the discovery - by a woman who experimented on her own, from what can be discerned - that "systematized" mono-crops could produce more food than the grower could use, gave way (after discovering the best way to store grain) to specialization and the advantages/messes we have today.

There was plenty of arable land, people only moving for two reasons: 1) climate change, and 2) they effed it up by over-farming - or both.

The hunter-gather life was a hand-in-glove development that came out of necessity. Even the physical differences between men and women were a result of what was needed to survive. If either of the two mating partners was needed - evolutionarily - to spend days on the prairies or in the forests, and then had to - literally - fight their food into submission, they would necessary have to be physically stronger and be predisposed to focus on one thing for hours at a time. Females would then pick up the requirements to keep the young alive and find ways to manage what was brought back in.

Rest assured, as in all other mammals and other living things, the strong were selected for procreation. To demonstrate one's strength, coming back with more food or being in charge of a successful hunting party was not to be taken lightly.

While that's not bling, in the sense it's been tossed around here, it is a manifestation and indicator of an ability to survive.

Lucky2BHere

Re: um...no

If only that were true. All you have to do is look around you. No research study needed!

Lucky2BHere

Of course!

Couldn't agree more.

For those stuck in the watch and not looking at his position on "why", it has always been about tribal survival and always will be. As long as we are corporeal and have to compete for resources, *any* indication of longer-term stability will trump all other reasons for hooking up.

If it's not some frivolous bauble like this "watch", it could be, simply, "...he's (or, she's) got a job and I don't."

We don't exist in some superior living-thing vacuum. We're all part of a very big system that has already set the rules for getting on. In that aspect, we're not different than a tree or an ant. Perpetuation of the species is imperative - for every single species.

Quite literally, *everything* we do is in the name of grandchildren. Everything; from art to our choice of bath soap. All the bad, all the good, all the frivolous and all the important (as is defined by *only* us).

Bubble 2.0? Moneybags VC Andreessen warns profit-free startups: 'You will be VAPORIZED'

Lucky2BHere

Just desserts? Too late for that.

The Silicon Valley Way was effective only at the very beginning. It did create a few very strong companies that have since defined our tech and international business landscapes.

But the perpetuation of it has created one of the biggest myths in modern economic history. It has not improved innovation and job-creation nearly as much as it could have. And, it's destroyed so many great ideas, individuals, organizations and even whole economies. Boom-bust cycles are not particularly healthy ways to grow economies.

The tone here suggests the VCs will get their just desserts. If one hasn't noticed, they are rather flush with cash. Their unholy marriage with Wall Street has created truly sickening wealth for not the 1%, but the .01% (an admittedly frustrated estimate). When a company goes public like FB or Twitter, the money is made the instant shares are released, but *only* by the chums who set the deal up: the VCs, the investment banks and a few more-than-well-informed brokers. The Big-Bang moment immediately after the bell is rung is a ride into financial hell for the rest of us.

Institutionalized pillage. These self-made billionaires are today's real mafia.

We can't afford to go through another major cycle. I've been in the tech business since 1980, and in the Bay Area since 1986. I've experienced three of them, and they are truly devastating...but not to the VC community. Never to the VC community. They make their real money up-front.

All you armchair tech experts can throw stones at Andreessen. After all, he was one of the most famous wunderkind poster boys; essentially hand-picked by the VCs to represent Netscape's rise: good on camera, fairly articulate, even-keeled. But, he's one of the very few who has not only learned what kind of reality The Way has spawned, but put serious effort into restructuring his own approach. Andreessen Horowitz is one of a handful of major funding sources that looks hard at all the fundamentals. They actually spend time understanding the projects and the people in them. They are not perfect, but they *are* different.

New business failure rates have not changed over the past - at least - 15 years. How is that possible with all the resources and attention available to start-ups today? If 90%-plus of all new ventures shutter within five years (that number includes ventures in garages, dorms, basements and apartments *never* registered), it can't possibly be natural selection, as is espoused by the VC community. With that kind of inherent ineptness, we, as a species, would have perished a long time ago (though, we seem to be hell-bent on doing it at some point in the near future...).

We need to stop feeding the animal. Stop letting the popular media make stars out of the one-hit wonders. Most importantly, we need to focus on getting *prepared* to actually go into business with these great ideas we all have.

Great ideas are not hard to come by, but are worthless without a business behind them. The great idea *is not* the business. *We* are not the business. Money will *not* solve all the problems. We have to actually create the structure - the business - that will provide the sustainable mechanism that will help create the value of the idea and allow it to get to the people who need it the most.

Probably five people will read this, but after doing this for 30-plus years, the simple message of "plan first" still needs to be heard everywhere. It's not happening in schools, it's not happening in the industry, the VCs don't seem to want it (they think it'll screw up their current cash-generating system...but they're wrong) and the complicit popular media is ignorant.

Success can be defined in any way you wish; a very individual thing. It is ridiculous to think if you don't make a billion dollars you've failed. The foundation of any economy is the millions of SMEs that provide steady jobs and income, and contribute every day to local and national economies. If someone finds happiness in a ten-person company and that's all they need, then it's a success. Tired of tech and want to open a coffee shop? Do it. If it makes you and your customers happy, do it.

Going into business is not easy. It can take over your life. But if it's done right, it can be incredibly rewarding and endlessly interesting (what more can you ask of modern life?). Plan, structure and build your business a day at a time. Don't even think about starting something without a real business model that can sustain your efforts with an absolute minimum of outside assistance. That's the only way to stop these increasingly damaging cycles.

3D printing: 'Third industrial revolution' or a load of old cobblers?

Lucky2BHere

Patience, Luke

Yes, it will indeed create a revolution in product creation. And by default, in physical distribution and relative power. Just takes a few iterations, like anything else. Patience.

Windows 8.1: A bit square, sure, but WAIT! It has a Start button

Lucky2BHere

Annoying - and not the OS

Been using Win 8 from the beginning. After an afternoon, got used to the UI within hours and haven't looked back, since. Solid, fast, useful. And, the direction they are going is welcome. Got the upgrade shortly after it was available.

1. Painless install

2. Flawless hardware support (on an older system, too)

3. Upgrades make sense

We have three very solid OSs from which to choose. All of them are amazing on so many levels. I've been using since 1980, so nothing looks bad to me. Apple and Linux have their issues, just like Win. Feels like I'm in jail with Apple, and - admit it - even this latest Ubuntu can't make the file incompatibility problem go away. I just need to get my work done, and Win does it.

Stop whining! Enjoy the bounty.

John McAfee goes Hollywood with Warner Bros. movie deal

Lucky2BHere

Inevitable...

...though I won't be in line to pay to see it. Maybe one day in a year or so when it's free somewhere - and I'm good and stoned - I'll spend a brain-dead evening with JM. It'll be fitting then.

Lawyer sues Microsoft rather than slot an SD card into his Surface

Lucky2BHere

What an ass.

Fujitsu assigns team of women to design PC for women

Lucky2BHere

Another massively misdirected effort

This. Will. Not. Do. It!

Many attempts, exactly like this. All dismal failures. Women want nearly the same things in their products men want. Colors and some ornamentation are attractive - to just a few female buyers. But what they want the most is ease of use, no nasty cords, no extra "features" for the sake of extra features. Just check the stats on Apple notebooks and see how the M-F buyer is split.

Just focus on how they USE their technology. What their concerns are day to day. Make 'em look attractive, too. But not to teen girls. Elegant, sophisticated, accomplished adults.

PayPal co-founder sells out of foundering Facebook at VAST profit

Lucky2BHere

Re: Stay away until $10

I was solidly with you until your 3rd paragraph.

The product is not eyeballs. Eyeballs - or traffice/pageviews/click-throughs, etc ,- is an indicator of activity and stickiness. The product is the platform; the environment in which FB members do their thing. To monetize that is the business model. To make money from the biz model is the intent.

With you, again, on the house of cards, but not because it's an internet company. There are thousands of sites that have been around for a very long time. Because it's a relatively new medium - effectively less than 25 years - there are going to a lot of casualties. From 1896 to 1930, it is estimated there were about 1800 car *companies* in the U.S. alone (not car models!).

Suckthebird is permanently immature and not fit for the job. He stumbled into this only because he wanted to get laid. He took ideas from other people as - without him doing much at all - the take-up rate skyrocketed. No magic, no flashes of brilliance, nothing outstanding. He did, indeed, take advantage of his luck, though. But, now, on to a real business. Something he has only just gotten a taste of, but has no real ability for.

$10 is where I'm at, too. Even then, they better have a better way to stay afloat, and better ways to treat his membership, or his luck baby will disappear.

Hobbyist builds working assault rifle using 3D printer

Lucky2BHere

This one is way too easy

I got involved in the 3D printer biz a while ago. This is something that is talked about very little. It should, though. As some are waxing lyrically about the law and plastic vs. steel, the printer technology is getting better more quickly than ever. The ability to use a large variety of materials is certain. Larger pieces are coming, too. Faster speeds and lower costs are a given. I don't doubt machines like routers will also become more personal.

We will all be able to acquire CAD drawings from all over the world for just about anything, including previously ridiculously expensive car parts (there is some good news in all this, after all). There will be an underground economy that will be nearly impossible to stop, and trade in stolen drawings will be only for the very greedy and fearless.

This is not hard to pull off: Bad people (some good ones, too) can hop on a plane with just their clothes and a flash drive - or just buy one when they get there. They just need access to a computer and printer in a clandestine location and they're off and running. Download, print, assemble, shoot. No markings, no numbers, nothing to identify them. For the small job, the deed is done, leave the weapons. For big ones - like under-the-radar wars - this process can be replicated in the hundreds at one time. Even if this took weeks, it would be a better situation than most in need of weapons like this, have now.

This is pretty serious. Asking a lot here, but I hope someone in leadership has their wits about them.

UK regulators eye up Facebook's $1bn Instagram bid

Lucky2BHere

Re: Personally

And that, indeed, is worth more than twice what Larry Ellison just paid for Lenai.

Can you imagine what $1B in financial support could have done for, say, 1000 budding entrepreneurs? Might have been a photo-sharing app, or two, in that bunch.

Lucky2BHere

Re: Ooops. Correction.

That, without reservation, is a serious overstatement.

Andreessen - as he has said himself - was lucky. Timing is everything. He was plucked out because he was reasonably articulate, decent looking and had some talent. He wasn't a messiah, Anon.

Besides, if not Andreessen, then someone else who was nearby. The place was - and still is - teeming with decent talent.

That said, I truly wish guys like Suckthebird were shuttered by the PR team in favor of someone who could actually put a sentence or two together on a regular basis.

Groupon CEO plans to 'reinvent local commerce ecosystem'

Lucky2BHere

No other choice

Right now, as was said by LesboInMansBody (great name, by the way), Groupon has no choice but to change their biz model. They are heading for the wall very quickly. And, from what has been let out in the press so far, it appears it's not likely what they are offering is sustainable, either. Everyone would be better off if the company was just shot in the head now, rather than make us watch a prolonged death.

This whole IPO thing was embarrassing. The only saving grace for them was Zuckerberg's sage decision to spend a mighty billion on Instagram. Took the media heat off them for a bit.

Things like this are good for some laughs maybe, but too many people will be badly affected. This swing-for-the fences approach to growing the tech business has to stop.

CAPITALISM without PROFITS - Welcome to the Instagram Era!

Lucky2BHere

That's the point

The price tag is WAY, WAY off.

Come on! This P.O.S. 18-month-old-no-revenue-no-tech company is worth more than the NY Times (among, literally, thousands of other substantive, revenue-generating companies!)?

Put that $1B in a fund and help a few thousand very smart, very motivated entrepreneurs, run them side-by-side with Instagram and let's see who provides value. Geez, you might even get a photo sharing company who can give you a filter or two.

The real - and only - test is will this purchase give them back their billion within (even) the next decade? Never.

Corny conversations prove plants 'talk'

Lucky2BHere

Accept it

Sure, plants communicate to each other all the time. Makes total sense. We seem to want a very clean divider between plants and animals, most likely because we don't want to see ourselves as unimportant. Bees dance for each other, other small critters secrete... the list is endless. Why in the world would that be any different for plants?

There was a recent study in GB that determined when one plant was injured it warned the neighboring plant to watch the eff out. Not with long words (or short ones), but with a gas we humans couldn't detect without special equipment.

Going a bit out on a limb, here, I would posit the wind carries "messages" all the time to far reaches of earth, and they land on the right "ears" with (probably) surprising regularity. Plants already use the wind for basic survival needs. You know, pollination. That in itself is still not entirely understood, and it's because of the same level of ignorance we have about so many living things out there. We've a lot to learn.

Humans - understandably - see things through a particularly human filter and are missing most of what goes on in the universe. Thank goodness, too. We'd be immediately overwhelmed - and destroyed - by the cacophony and data avalanche. Everything living has its own filters for the same reason. I would also think one day our definition of what is living will expand, too.

Kindle Fire: An open letter to Jeff Bezos

Lucky2BHere
Meh

And so it goes

The Kindle was not created to be an open device. It was created as a front door to the world of Amazon. Getting Gmail from the Web should be good enough for the millions who will own one. And, no - get over it - this is NOT an iPad competitor. In a year's time, I would love to see the stats on who owns both, and the profiles of who owns only one. I will bet my last dollar (coming soon, thanks to our last president and his merry band of emotionally disturbed ostriches) the impact on anything Apple will be negligible, and Kindle sales will be seriously good.

As well written as this article was - and it was - the primary point is most weak, and was a waste of good time. I suppose, just like this comment .

Indeed, what of the harsh employee treatment? That story now occupies a place in the 55-gallon drum of great-but-untimely stories, and will never see the light of day again; to be replaced, as it were, with whining such as this.

Lucky2BHere

Simply...

...the impressive integration of applications and access of the kind Google has revolutionized - and there's no denying that! - are what you are missing, sir. Give it a try for a few months, then write us back.

Results in on why life, the universe and everything exists

Lucky2BHere

Why, indeed

For all the erudite contributors to this discussion - and at least it's rather comforting to see some people are actually thinking hard - please read the article again and tell us all what this has to do with why. Granted, attempting to know how is fun. But, that pesky why question will never be answered. At least in the state of energy we are in at the moment. The author should be more careful in choosing his words, or he might sound a bit uninformed.

Yes, there's a Tech Bubble. But that's OK

Lucky2BHere

No doubt about it

The valuations for some recent poster children - like Groupon and Airbnb - are plain stupid. Even Google's valuation is way out of whack. With a start-up of my own, working in South Park in SF, we are seeing two different approaches.

The first is like the bad-old days. Too much spending, frenetic behavior and lots of young, inexperienced talent being guided by old inexperienced money. Bubbletime is around the corner for a few companies. The second is a much more cautious, measured approach. Lots of bootstrapping, scrimping and clever approaches. There are hundreds of these that are in it for the long haul. Including us. No VCs, no acquisitions. Just build the company one brick at a time.

The unholy alliance between Silicon Valley and Wall Street continues, and in the same insidious insider pocket-lining way. If all those big shooters didn't drive up the prices with their network of greedy bastards, we wouldn't be looking at this problem in the same way.

'You own the road!': Google gets spanking from media giant

Lucky2BHere

And the problem is what?

So a company develops a useful product people are actually getting value from. The other companies in that space aren't doing as good a job. So, people don't use them. It's called a free market, and it works.

Don't like 'em, don't use 'em. Have other ideas?, bring them to market and stop complaining. Google - like Microsoft, Cisco and so many others - was a darling when it was an up-and-comer. Success breeds contempt; nothing new there.

Stop complaining and get to work. You, too, Anonymous Coward. Go waste time someplace else.