Posts by DryBones

Security by obscurity not so bad after all, argues prof

The Game

You just lost. ;)

US military satellite to get attack-warning equipment

Errrr....

Because it would be monumentally stupid. MONUMENTALLY. The Chinese are STILL given the stinkeye for their weapons test, which amounted to "we can accelerate the formation of a satellite shredding field around the planet'.

Spanish boffins unwrap anti-magnetic cloak

Silly...

Look up "mu metal" sometime. It's a magnetic conductor, field lines want to go through it rather than what's beyond. It's used in hard disk drives all the time. The problem is that being able to detect the magnetic field from the other side isn't at all the same as having a mine attracted to the outside. The mine will still get reeled in, I would think. This said with the caveat that it's late, and it may appear different in the morning.

Faster-than-light back with surprising CERN discovery

Question...

Relative to the direction that the planet is orbiting the sun, where were the two labs? Would firing neutrinos out the back at the other lab chasing after at the earth's orbital velocity account for the time difference? Late, can't be arsed to dig up formulae and crunch things.

If you fire two photons at each other, is their relative velocity twice the speed of light?

NASA unveils its chosen Shuttle successor

Oink Oink

I believe the RS-68 is SSME-derived. What's the problem here? Yep.

Absurd

Evdently the notion of using the RS-68A engines that the Delta IV uses has been abandoned in favor of jobs. It's only got 95% fewer parts (less parts = fewer points of failure, less machining), generate 140% as much thrust as an SSME (3 RS-68A @ 2.1M lb outmuscle 5 SSME @ 2.0M lb), and would give huge economies of scale for both NASA and Delta to be buying them. Also, that's another 6 tons of payload capacity from not hauling 2 SSME...

Of course cryogenic engines require a labyrinthine seal and so consume absurd amounts of helium when fueled to keep 'em separated, which drives costs up. RD-170s would be nice, purge with nitrogen and all. Oh wait, Russians, danger, danger.

Got a non-iPad tablet? Weirdo

Brilliant!

Are they available at the local Tesco? Even priced at £100 it's a steal. Hours of fun for the missus?

Kernel.org Linux repository rooted in hack attack

*ahem*

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/post/1021694

That is all.

Antitrust nemesis accuses Google of 'WMD program'

Looks Like, Quacks Like...

So that's why we always see advertisements for a rival phone book in the Yellow Pages... OH WAIT.

Also, a quick Google of Foundem turned up their site as #1. And this little gem as #2, from 2009. http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/4456-foundem-vs-google-a-case-study-in-seo-fail

Relevance? Someone being a wag? Lots of folks searching for dirt? You decide.

Microsoft unveils file-move changes in Windows 8

The List

1) Dump Libraries. What have they done for me lately? Annoy the hell out of me when even after being "removed" by a registry hack, they continue to be the first stop for WordPad ( I like a fast doc viewer, focus guys ). Bonus fail: Self-opening a subdirectory in the Libraries while I'm negotiating the drive tree and in so doing changing my target directory without my input. This is shite, KILL IT.

2) Process prioritzation. The OS should be focused on doing what the user wants as fast as posible. I opened Firefox, then went to open the Start menu, Firefox should take a backseat to the Start menu, which should take a backseat to STILL following what I'm doing.

3) Don't dynamically generate the Start menus. These things do not change every 40ms. There is an icon cache, why not generate the tile and click framework for say the control panel once and have it ready to go instead of needing 15-20 seconds to whip it out? Do not rebuild it every time it is accessed, rebuild it when it is CHANGED, by user input. This is just plain bad.

4) Dump the Registry. If you MUST have a central reference for the OS stuff, fine. But smack programs and applications back to ini and cfg files in their own directories. They are not part of the OS, they can stay in their corner until called for. Bonus: Backup and reinstall is as easy as copying a directory. Yes, I like when all the contents of one thing are in the same box.

5) 4 is what some expected for a pc version of the XBox, to be included with some or other version of Windows. The XBox still has a purpose as an affordable standalone games machine, but why not let those of us who have the hardware and bought the game use it to make pixels scream? Drop in a title, it makes a directory to keep its kruft in, job done. Uninstall bits like XBox nominal. Bring on the Game Player. :)

Galaxy Tab still legal in the Netherlands

Heh

There is no mention of packaging here, because it can be changed at the drop of a hat. I wonder what design students study these days. Gasp, could it possibly be that they study similar design elements (like rounded corners and *shock* accent trim)? Why, the scandal! Apple has a case only if they can prove that there is no other reason to use common design elements than "slavishly copying". Too generic.

People don't want tablets, they want iPads

I for one...

Welcome our turtleneck-wearing overords, and wish them luck with their new malware problem. :)

Er...

That's because they were expecting a tiny desktop, not a big phone.

Psst...

That's because Apple actively works to prevent MacOS from running on other than their kit. Linux ad Windows work fine on a Mac, because it's all the same hardware. Glad they're having such good luck with their BSD GU add-onI, but their real genius is in people skills, not technology.

RIM to turn in BlackBerry-using looters after London riots

No...

In this case, I'd more compare it to the priest at the confessional hearing the confessions of the yoof, which includes snippets such as "yeah, and we're gonna go do it some more tomorrow night while totally piss drunk!", and referring them to the police. This is wanton destruction and looting, a totally different animal from civil disobedience and protesting for one's civic rights.

Go on, off with you now.

Cellular network hijacking for fun and profit

*ahem*

Ditto!

Judgment Day prophet resets doomsday clock

Not a bit of it

I think you'll find you meant Hell has frozen over.

'Upgraded' Apple iMacs lock out hard drive replacement

Huh?...

I was wondering about that. I looked hard at the picture, and couldn't figure out what bit of proprietary kit they were showing. I was asking myself "4 pins? Are they talking about the old trapezoidal Molex that was only briefly on drives with SATA I/O connections? The SATA data connection has 7 pins, I think. The current power one looks to have more along the lines of 18..." Far as I'm aware nowadays there's a narrow SATA connector for data, and a wide SATA connector for power, has been for a year or two, if not more.

Someone got some better pictures or a fuller explanation? Right now it's kind of seeming like some folks in New Zealand got iMacs via air freight but are still waiting for (new!) PC motherboards from 3 years ago that have the Molex->SATA adapter to arrive by ship. No scorn here, too bloody confused about what's being gone on about. Eh, it's after midnight, no big.

Microsoft, Nokia, HTC fight Apple's 'App store' trademark

Rubbish...

$1, $1B, who cares? The question is if "app" is too generic to copyright. Which it is, to say nothing of the fact that they are trying to copyright a class of items, not a single item. It's like trying to copyright "fruit". They have their specific fruit, but cannot protest if Watermelon get a neat idea. I might advance a tenner to see them get into it with Orange for giggles though. NEXT!

TomTom Oz to repeat Netherlands data sale

Bless me....

You think the speeds are always sensible and up to date? The department of transportation can't even keep track of their construction signs and do leaves them up for three months with nothing to be done. I do allow that folks are always on about obeying the posted limits, and at the same time note that this can be significantly different from a sensible speed limit.

SpaceX unveils new Falcon Heavy rocket - WORLD'S BIGGEST

Notable Omission

So, are the costs being quoted based on a single throwaway use of a rocket, or reuse of the booster? As far as I'm aware, SpaceX has yet to recover a booster in reusable condition. If memory serves, twice they didn't recover at all. I seem to recall they wanted 10 reuses. If they can't get that, either their costs will go up or they will go out of business.

Natty Narwhal with Unity: Worst Ubuntu beta ever

Errrr....

> Google instant preview - You can't turn this 'feature' off (needs Adblock plus to kill it)

I think you'll find that if you click the magnifier or just generally in the area of that entry that hasn't got text on it, the preview buggers off.

> Tabbed interface in Thunderbird 3 - you can't revert to the 2.xx non-tabbed UI if you don't like a tabbed email client.

Options, Advanced, Reading & Display, change "Open Messages in:" to something besides "A new tab".

> The truly awful new UI in Skype 5 for mac - you can't turn it off, and there's no classic mode (thankfully v2.8 still works).

Don't use it, so I guess you got me there. :)

RUSTOCK TAKEDOWN: How the world's worst botnet was KO'd

Tsk

Market share, pure and simple. You can bang the drum all you want, those of us that haven't drank the Kool-Aid know if OSX or (gasp!) Linux was the market leader there'd be rife attacks against them. Granted the holes might be fixed faster, but then you'd have an OS that criminals would be competing to get malevolent code committed to the next build. And hey, then everyone that updates is infected.

Pick your poison, prat.

iPhone and BlackBerry brought down in hacker competition

Bollocks

Read it again, please.

"Willem Pinckaers, a researcher with security firm Matasano, and independent researcher Vincenzo Iozzo were able to steal a complete contact list and and cache of pictures stored on the device and write a file to its storage system."

Be mighty interesting if a spear-phishing expedition managed to do this to the personal phone of a highly placed executive, wouldn't it? Perhaps get some interesting pictures of the missus? On the business end, a list of business contacts would be of prime interest to competitors. It shows who your suppliers are, who your customers are, and who may be more than just that. Plant some child porn on the phone perhaps, get them banged up for a few years on an anonymous tip?

The goal of the contest was to prove that it was possible to break past the security. You are talking about weaponizing the exploit, which is beyond the scope of this contest. No, the sky is not falling. The Emperor does have clothes on. But the draft suggests they may be a hospital gown.

AMD claims 'fastest graphics card in the world'

Doing It Wrong

"Your system will scream" should not be literal. Yes, I know 85dB is where hearing loss starts, but this is absurd. How far does it rev for a Blu-ray movie?

Libya's internet goes dark as upheaval spreads

Yep

I admit that I'm not a type-A sort. But the peaceful resistance only works if you're up against someone that's not willing to kill you to get their way. These folks evidently are quite willing to employ lots and lots of violence. The opposition needs to stop giving them target practice and start giving them reasons to need clean pants.

Microsoft blows Windows Phone update, again

You see,

Since we don't understand the exact interaction, my response is as valid as yours.

Folks just leap down Microsoft's throat at the least provocation. Sometimes it's deserved. Sometimes it's not. Considering the shenannigans that have been pulled with Android updates (not releasing them for 1+years because they were "re-skinning") through manufacturers and telcos, I think there's enough blame to spread around.

For the moment, though, let's assume that MS DID buy the phone. A contractless phone is trivial to get unless their Procurement department is so red taped that ... erm, well yeah. Anyway, on with the hypothetical scenario. They tested, tested, this didn't happen. They rolled it out, and things went Swedish (bork bork bork!)

So what happened? First thought here is "firmware". A little looking showed that there's apparently several versions out there, perhaps even some that aren't quite "official". For at least one forum it appears... that each telco is doing their own firmware updates (joy).

Yanno what, I'm not gonna point fingers at anybody; ran outta fingers. But I do think there's something to be said for Apple's method, wherein the telco supplies connectivity, and that's it. Shame it doesn't work that way.

Er...

Samsung should just offer its WP7 customers full refunds, take back their phones and admit to Microsoft that they screwed with stuff they were told not to screw with related to updating.

There fixed it for you.

Seriously, did you miss that this ONE phone is the ONLY one having issues?

Slot machine serves drinks instead of money

All in the marketing...

"Mixed-drink randomization device with entertaining interface." Seriously, there is no ability to win money. You pull the lever, wheels turn, you get a mixed drink that you paid some amount guaranteed to turn a profit based on the weighted average of the possible drinks to be dispensed. How this is any different from telling the bartender "surprise me" in outcome is the one-price for any drink. That's it.

Paris for stuff we'd liketo surprise.

Facebook exploit toolkit dumbs down rogue app creation

I have a cunning plan.

Buy kit. Reverse-engineer code. Close exploits. Simples.

Sprint introduces $10 smartphone premium

Sprint Seeking the Plot

So let me get this straight. Sprint hasn't been paying attention to the amount of data other networks have been dealing with, or have just been stifling an operating deficit. And instead of going to a usage-based pricing scheme, they decided to charge a "non-pants OS" tax.

Bloody pillocks.

Apple unloads patent suits on Motorola Androids

Say hello to my leetle friend!

... Prior art

http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html

School caretaker jailed for fitting up colleague

Darn it...

I think I just woke people up with mad laughter. Damn ye!

'Suspicious' Android wallpaper app nabs user data

Erm... no.

Roints off for the farcical comparison, by the way. A EULA is a legal form with all the length and relevance to daily life implicit in such a thing. A permissions list should be easily readable and take one screen. If they have any resemblance to each other, the coders need to be spoken to sharply.

As Snow Crash put it, guns have come to paradise, But people are not making the mental switch yet that anytime you have something that you can put things into, some of it may be shoddy, malicious, or just utter crap. ... Wait, when did I start talking about internet postings? >_> <_< >_>

It's perfectly possible to make a much better phish, a social networking aggregator app, for example. Pick one: 1) Walled garden. Relatively little worrying about security with the occasional slipthrough. 2) Wide open. Think about security or get burned worse than if you are. 3) Take away the ability to add functionality to a phone.

Apple patent seeks to reinvent retail

Erm....

When's the last time you looked at a book, or anything you buy in the grocery store again?

If you were being facetious, I'm going to have to cite you for lack of wink.

Microsoft's 'New Busy' Hotmail has lie-in

Fixed

“When we roll out new software, we typically don't get the budget or time for the proper internal mini-rollout like we wanted because the test budget hasn't got room for it and the marketing folks jumped the gun. So we have to shove that into the deployment schedule and budget."

There, I fixed that for you.

Loud sex ASBO woman spared jail again

Doing It Wrong

Two words: Ball gag.

Google vanishes Android apps from citizen phones

Psst.

You've obviously skimmed the comments listing here, so I'll help you out with what's been said in multiple posts. Please try to pay attention.

You can install apps yourself, and supposedly can turn off the background channel that such updates are done through. This is the best approach, IMO. Those that just want it to work and don't mind having their apps looked out for can be blissfully ignorant. Those that are power users can turn off the delivery channel and download and install their own apps. You decide if you're a casual user, or a power user, and act as appropriate.

No, I haven't tried it, because I have an iPhone and am still in the midst of a contract that I am for the most part content with. Might pick up an Android tablet once one comes out and proves that it isn't pants. If I can tether it to the iPhone and sync both with the Windows PCs, that'd finally be getting somewhere.

Oh, prediction. If it hasn't already happened, some carmaker is going to come up with the bright idea that they can integrate a tablet docking port into the dash, and have it substitute for the LCD touchscreen. They can make an app for that.

Eh?

So, let me see here. Not only would you have had malware on your phone that you wanted to keep, but you paid for it, too. I'm not sure what point you were trying to make, but your post translates as "proud to be sheeple" and justifies all the nannying you're raging against.

Congratulations on your wonderful own-goal. Tosser.

China threatens Google's internet licence over HK redirect

This just in...

Google.cn expires, domain name purchased by nephew of .CN domain controller. Willing to sell domain name for $gobsmackingsum.

Pakistani lawyer petitions for death of Mark Zuckerberg

Go On

Pull the other one, it's got bells on it.

Mac spyware infiltrates popular download sites

Pot, meet Kettle

This is actually how the majority of attacks work these days. Something you didn't want gets put in with something you did, both go in. Oh hey, the computer got pwned. Cooler heads have been saying for years that it's a case of which target will give a miscreant more bang for their buck. Once it becomes worth it, attacks on OSes other than Windows will pick up, and they will get through. Period. It's just a matter of finding the right packaging.

Put down the Kool Aid, and step away from the keyboard.

Re: Small Target

Here, give this link a whirl.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-200905-201006-bar

I'm estimating, but it appears that MacOS makes up around 6% of all operating systems in use. That's a little more than 1 in 20 computers is a Mac. Call all the others besides Windows including Mac... oh, 9% perhaps. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't write to reach 10% of the available market, if I want to make money. Hint 1: Criminals want to make a lot, fast and easy. Hint 2: Even if Mac folks are considered wealthier, the credit cards that are targeted generally have a lot more limit on them than the average Joe has disposeable income. Hint 3: Why expand to Mac when they're still working on getting market penetration on the Windows machines that make up the majority?

Mobile things look a bit better...

http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_os-ww-monthly-200905-201006-bar

32% for the iPhoneOS, which doesn't multitask that well and has things compartmentalized, plus there's the advantage of centralized acquisition and removal to allow fast and global response to poisoned applications, thereby limiting infections to a matter of hours unless a way for the app to cripple the OS's app revocation/removal can be found. Thus popularity is offset by the short life of the exploit. Again, decreased motivation to put in the time to make it work.

Security bug bites 64-bit Windows 7

You ....

have GOT to be kidding me. Okay, let's steal and reprise the chant, people.

"Sanitize, sanitize, sanitze!"

Third of XP security suites flunk tests

Well...

First, some disclosure. I own an HP laptop, a self-assembled desktop, and semi-remotely manage another desktop and laptop, all running W7. One of them has a Mint Linux partition for dabbling in and making the desktop into a FAH beast. I own an iPhone, and would like to get a slate that comes with or I can put Android or Linux on because standard USB connections are good. Oh, and I'm across the pond.

...

My first thought was snark: Respect for the dead?

I'd like to think it's really an understanding that "security through obscurity" has already been panned enough around these parts.

Those that just want to do work are going to stick with what they're used to using until it stops running. Then they're going to get it fixed or get a new one, and keep going. This is part of the reason Apple is gaining ground, people will pay to be able to be lazy ("it just works"). Anyone that doubts this should consider the cruise and tourism industry. The other being that they're actually employing some good designers, who have learned that you can make a computer case from more than just plastic with a metal bezel.

Now taking bets on when the glass-coated wood inlays show up. I seem to recall an article here about a company selling glass spray that makes surfaces essentially dirt and bacteria proof. Should remove most wear issues, yes?

Erm...

Let's see. Morning full system scan, - 1 hour. System scan 3x an hour, severely degraded performance. Sounds like a recipie for late starts and long coffee breaks to me. How about closing the vectors instead? NoScript, on-access scanning, turn off autorun, and a deep scan once a week? If worried about banking Trojans, a livecd works fine.

Know what I'd like to see?

Unclickable ads. Simple pictures, no click-links allowed. No more click to be pwned, if I am that intrigued I have a nice Google search field.

Out of curiosity, does anyone track sudden changes in search rankings against advertisements? That'd be where activity would move g folks couldn't just click through.

Sci-fi and fantasy authors wade into Amazon spat

Er...

Hmm, let's see, if I'm Amazon or Baen, or some of the others that already have all the infrastructure for this sort of thing that came along with the website and... you know, being businesses, what does it take? Oh yeah. Another hard drive, or allocation of space on an existing multi-terabyte array. How much do e-books take up these days, 10 megs? There, sorted.

In other news, I am quite happy to see after a little check, that book prices for Kindle do indeed ease back to paperback levels. I could have worn that at one time I was seeing the eBook version of a book I own in paperback for $12, more than 4 years after I'd bought said paperback! Now if only I could send my paperbacks to Amazon and they'd exchange them for eBook versions. This need to rebuy is my barrier to embracing the movement to digital.