Posts by GKLR

Microsoft total recalls Recall totally to Copilot+ PCs

Does Microsoft recall that there are alternatives to Windows?

It strikes me that Microsoft's idiotic 'Recall' feature is the best advertisement for a move to macOS/Linux in years. Certainly since Vista and Windows 8... As to Microsoft's 'trust us' approach the security/privacy/etc issues associated with Recall; this comes from the company that now builds snoopware into their operating systems and gives users no option to opt-out of it - only a limited one to minimise the data snooping. I'd suggest that there is a potential market here for developers to created software designed to nobble Recall in the same way software is now avaliable to nobble Windows' current snooping.

EU: These are scary times – let's backdoor encryption!

It’s the Clipper chip all over again….

How many times do cryptographers, coders, etc. Have to explain to ‘Law Enforcement’ and clueless politicians that encryption either is secure or it isn’t? If an encryption system has a ‘back door’ it is not secure. Period. Putting a back door in an encryption system for use by ‘Law Enforcement Only’ is about as clever as putting a drain hole in the bottom of a boat, painting ‘No Entry’ on the outside of the hull next to the hole and expecting the water to stay out.

I’d ask ‘Law Enforcement’ and their pet pollies the same questions that were asked when the Clipper chip was put forward; What villain is going to be stupid enough to use an encryption system that is secure against everyone *except* the cops? Do they think a criminal is going to balk at using an ‘illegal’ encryption system that doesn’t have a back door built in?

Mozilla flamed by Firefox fans after promises to not sell their data go up in smoke

A Brave decision as Sir Humphrey would say….

i’ve been using Firefox for years, but no more. Mozilla can clarify their language all they like. I no longer care. I’ve switched to the Brave browser.

Time to make C the COBOL of this century

You can write bad code in any language

Yes C and its variations is dangerous. Yes there are ‘safer’ languages. However you can write crap code in any language and probably will if you are not taught to code properly. A lot of institutions here (I’m in Australia) do not teach what those of us who have been, to borrow this article’s metaphor, cut by chainsaws would consider good coding. A simple C example in particular are undergraduate (and the like) C programming courses which teach students to use unsafe string functions rather than their safe (<functionname>_s) equivalents… Maybe if we fixed the teaching we’d have less rotten code in any language?

Glassholes beware: This guy's got your number

And the/a flip side is...

Turn the question around.

If you are the admin of a network covering an area that covers copyright material (say a gallery or the like) or in which people have an expectation of privacy (say a gym which has a change room in it) which may be legally enforceable can you afford *not* to make the effort - whether it is ultimately effective or not - to block a glasshole's network access?

What happens if pictures of copyright material end up on the Internet or some creep streams a little video from a change room and then someone sees it and throws a sue ball at you (and the glasshole one would hope)? Ask a lawyer, but I'm thinking that a glasshole block in place would probably make it much easier to dodge the sue ball (and maybe lob one at the glass hole).

I'm afraid I'm firmly of the opinion that when Google decided to put a camera in the Glass they were doing evil; by not recalling all Glasses and physically removing the camera they continue to do evil. I say to Google: Don't be evil.

Turnbull says internet governance can ignore privacy

Well Malcolm is a lawyer and Brandis is....

Malcolm loves long winded statements that can be perpetually reinterpreted as politics require.

As to George Brandis, well we are hoping that with the right therapy and some medication he can eventually be reintegrated into society and function at an adequate level with a medium level of adult supervision. We agree that the current prognosis is perhaps somewhat worrying. Intervention, such as him being hit over the head with a ballot box, may be required as an initial step in his recovery program.

Turnbull floats e-vote, compulsory ID

Just another thought grenade from TurnBULL

Two points:

1) Paper doesn't break and still works when there is no power and no Internet connection. This is the sort of thing the AEC has to think about outside places like Malcolm's seat of Wentworth in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.

2) What make's Malcolm think that all these informal votes are accidental? It is not illegal to only want to vote for one candidate or none of them, but Australia's democratic voting process does not provide a formal way to say 'I don't want any of these w**kers'..

Perhaps the Minister for Murdoch would find his time better spent nobbling the Productivity Commission's audit of Labour's NBN? After all it would be embarrassing if it came out that replacing Australia's copper telecommunications access network with a fibre based one was a more cost effective, productive, plan than the Coalition's cunning idea of putting an ADSL 2+ box on the corner in every city electorate where they might get votes. No, can't have that sort of thing.....

Murdoch machinations mean Microsoft must rename SkyDrive

Microsoft SkyDrive could be called

M$ MyrrhDock......:)

What is the Nokia Secret Plan if Windows 8 isn't Windows gr8?

Plan B: Firefox?

If Windows 8 is a lemon, or since it is from bloatware central an orchid of lemon trees, maybe Nokia should beg Mozilla to let them run Firefox OS. It would probably run better on more reasonable hardware; it has a developer community (something Nokia has never gotten right) and would probably come at the right price - free.

On the other hand Nokia could go back to selling timber and gum boots.....

iOS was SO much more valuable to Google than Android - until Maps

Apple doesn't need to build its own search engine

If Apple wants to provide a search engine to its punters and nobble the Google Collective then all it has to do is replace its current search options with a meta search - e.g ixQuick. Result: people get search results from multiple search engines and Google et all get little or no money...

The curious incident of Oracle and HP-UX on Itanium

...Errr...Larry, you might want to rethink that...

Let's see, The Oracle master plan for customers with Oracle systems running on Itanium servers is to present them with the choice of replacing their hardware or replacing their software....

...And the customers who have been presented with this choice are now pissed off with Oracle forcing them to make that choice....

They are probably the same customers who are looking at virtualisation, in which environment you don't want to change the hardware under your virtual machines...

If I were an Oracle shareholder I think I'd be dumping the shares and buying into whatever other DB company has the best migration tools....

Is it a phone? Is it a Taser? No, it's a cattle prod!

Something for the iPhone 4.1?

Now if the mechanism for the 'stun gun' could be incorporated into an iPhone 4 with the contacts either side of that little gap on the lower left hand side....

Well let's just say 'grip of death' could take on a whole new meaning....

Ballmer and Softies sacrifice sleep to catch iPad

Well that's good news for Google

Look at the list of products and technologies Microsoft executives have 'dismissed' over the years;

The Internet ('clunky' was the term used as I recall), Netscape (yes MS killed them, but that resulted in the creation of Firefox), Google (mind you Microsoft weren't the only ones to dump on the Borg...Google collective), Palm (who practically started the PDA thing as we know it), iTunes, iPhone, iPad....

And now Balmer is dismissing Android and Chrome? Google (Your data will be indexed and added to our own. Resistance is futile...) must be overjoyed....

Smart meters pose hacker kill-switch risk, warn boffins

Nice for people who want to nick power

Some in Australia are playing with these meters too. Generally if you get a smart meter you get a higher power bill. You see you get charged more during 'peak' periods. Apparently whenever the average family are getting a hot meal is a peak period..

Still if you have a meter reporting power consumption via a separate data channel and you want to steal power hacking the meter or spoofing its data channel might be easier (and a lot safer) than hardwiring around an old meter...

As to securing the system from remote - i.e. via the Internet - attack. Why would you connect a presumably closed network of electricity meters to the general Internet unless you were a total idiot?

Steve Jobs says 'No' to iPhone-to-iPad tether

Mr J Probably wants to sell 3G iPads....

If I can tether my iPad to my existing iPhone why would I shell out for a 3G capable iPad? I'd buy the cheaper WiFi+Bluetooth only iPad.

Of course since the iPad is a content viewer whether I'll buy one at all depends upon the content available. I live in Australia, I don't read the New York times. I'll be interested to see what Australian newspapers and magazines are available via the iPad and will I be able to subscribe to them or do I have to manually download them every day/month?

Come to think of it I would probably do the downloading at home in the morning before I leave so why would I need a 3G iPad anyway... Ops ...maybe Apple won't shift so may 3G iPads anyway.....

Apple's iPad - fat iPhone without the phone

Content is the key.

Assuming the iPad is as practical as Apple says it is (can I read on a train or bus in rapidly varying light?) and it really does have a full days’ worth of battery life then this product will rise or fall on the content available on it and the business model behind that content. Can I get my daily newspaper ‘delivered’ to my iPad every day? Can the publisher of that newspaper deliver it to me via the iBook store and thus avoid making the content available on the web and having Google aggregate it? Will Apple allow my newspaper as delivered via the iBook store to carry, say, Microsoft advertising?

Will I be able to buy an annual subscription to a magazine via the iBook store? Or will I have to buy each issue of my favorite magazines separately each month? This matters to publishers because subscription revenue is more predictable than ad hoc sales revenue. It also matters because subscriber numbers as well as ‘circulation’ figures sell ad space.

Will the iBook store, like the App store for developers, make it possible for individuals to publish books, magazines and newsletters directly? How will this go over with the publishing establishment?

It is the answers to these sorts of questions that will make or break the iPad.

...And by the way; if its an iPAD will you be able to draw a free hand sketch on it? Will you be able to import that sketch into the iPad version of iWork? Will add-ons like Mathtype (allows you to write mathematical symbols) be available for the iPad version of iWork? If add-ons like this are not available the iPad will be seriously limited in the education sector - which will leave netbook vendors vastly relieved.