Posts by Mika Peltokorpi

Amazon is decompiling our apps in security gaffe hunt, says dev

Basic methods used

If Amazon knows AWS Key length and structure it is prety easy for them to debug WHERE the stored keys are in the app. It really does not require a genius to find those. I could most likely do it, even I do not know the AWS Key length or structure. It just takes a bit longer to hack, as I have to determine where those keys are located.

No coder in his/her right mind is storing anything in plaintext (or hex or bin) within the program files. You might do it in early 90's (as they did), but not in this millenia. As it will be hacked in seconds by using any visual hex/text editor application. It was done 20 years ago, so why not now.

Snowden journo boyf grill under anti-terror law was legal, says UK court

Re: Not quite the same

... with paword that enabled to decrypt the suspect files. So got burned. This would be treated a treason against the state in Finland. But not as "terrorist act". Surveillance (by any means) of such suspect would be fully legal. I suppose, that this would be true to UK, also.

Anonymous threat shutters Gitmo WiFi

Directional antenna

With quite a rudimentary directional antenna you can increase WiFi coverage up to 100 meters. With more sophisticated equipment you could extend this furher.

Last time CO2 was this high, the world was underwater? No actually

Naturally

If the original assumption would be true, most coastal cities would be now under water.

Apple asked me for my BANK statements, says outraged reader

Mega-fail

"We reserve the right to verify the identity of the credit card holder by requesting appropriate documentation."

How come previous scentence holds word APPROPRIATE?

Suspected Chinese NASA spy smuggled smut not state secrets

Lost change?

""I remain concerned that neither the prosecutors nor NASA have addressed the original question of why a NASA laptop was inappropriately provided to a restricted foreign national associated with 'an entity of concern' and why he was allowed to take the laptop and all of its information back to China last December," Wolf told Bloomberg."

Me too; there is plenty of ways to camouflage the data. E.g. by using image files as piggybag for the payload, that is scrambled and watermarked on those.

This is out of hand now: Apple attempts to trademark the LEAF

No more alien logos?

Graphical alien logos are thus banned in future? That looks like alin eye in famous alien logos.

Nokia pumps up Lumia browsing with Xpress

Re: What About the Security?

LOL. My first ever mobile transaction was international transaction of 15 000 euros from my Finnish bank account to German one over WAP browser in late 1999. Can not remember, which Nokia phone it was; probably Nokia 9110 Communicator or Nokia 6120.

Just calculated, that if something is screwed up on the transaction, the bank is liable for that as it hosted the service. Worked like a charm.

Great promise

Nokia has been lomg time good on data compression. That's why US style evaluation of mobile OS popularity on data usage has always amused me.

I registered to Nokia BetaLabs just to test this piece of SW and it really striped down every fifth or fourth byte from the data stream in average. 1 MB consumed, 4 MB saved in ten minutes. Not bad.

Otherwise the application is clearly Beta. But it holds good promise. Really good. In Symbian Nokia was touting around 30-40% reduction, but this is insane.

FB heavy user can consume easily 1 GB/month only with FB updates. Think about: using Nokia Xpress Browser instead of competitor will allow you to surf the web 5x longer with your data plan. Also the overage (if it would realize) will be 1/5 of other browsers. True money saver this one!

Fans rap Apple's 'crap' Map app

Nokia Maps

http://maps.nokia.com on Safari will do, also (not only Google maps - that usually lags behind Nokia Maps location data in Europe, BTW). Unfortunately 3D version (ref: Flyover in iOS Maps App) works only in Firefox and Chrome.

Windows Phone 8 stands a chance as Apple, Android dither

Wideband audio?

You mean WB-AMR? Nokia phones have had that long time for now.

Apple's first batch of iPhone 5 preorders sold out in an hour

Re: Gee...

AAPL is not breaking down how much of each models they are selling. I think there is a good reason for it. It could be big mistake for AAPL kill 3GS from product line - unless it is causing constraints for component supply for the other products.

Re: Every time

Even I am not a Apple-believer, I tend to believe that this time it is more to demand than supply issue. I do appreciate their design cue, but engineer inside me despises the products.

In engineering vise iPhones have been just piece of crap, except on UI design and in mechanical terms. In many aspects those are years behind the competition. And even iOS UI has been falling behind the competition in recent years.

And I have never ever liked locked down iOS ecosystem, of which only purpose is to maximize AAPL profits. Same kind of greediness can be seen from the fact, that AAPL tries to sell Ligthning-to-USB connector to its European customers for 30€, when that should be included to sales pack with no extra cost. This kind of arrogance is personally the biggest retracting factor of all. But there seems to be people, who do not have this perception.

iPhone 5: skinny li'l fella with better display, camera, software

Re: nano sim - deal breaker

SIM connector pads are ordered so, that you can not cut Micro SIM as Nano SIM. Hurrah, Apple tech won the Nano SIM standard! Other manufacturers supported different Nano SIM standard that did not have this issue. It was also tecnologically more advanced than this Apple version.

No headset?

Did you notice, that none of the reviews had wired headset. Is the location of HS-connector even worse than expected?

Beauty, no brains

iPhone 5 is really minuscular evolutionary step. Surprisingly even Nokia Lumia WP8 products beats iPhone5 even with display ppi. Puremotion bests RetinaDisplay. To add bonk-to-play music, NFC and Wireless Qi charging Nokia has stepped up with most desireable products for X-mas season. For very long time I see Nokia product, Lumia 820 with JBL wireless charging speaker, most desireable mobile product of 2012. I think the previous Nokia product to generate such exitement was Nokia 9200 communicator. Or maybe Nokia E65. None of N-series never were.

You really have to ask: Apple, WTF? Are you really expecting to rip premium for aluminum covers? Nokia tried it with Nokia Booklet 3G and you are following that business model? Insane.

Ho ho ho! Apple's Samsung ban bid pushed back to Christmas

Why to sue own?

"And why are Porsche, VW and Audi not suing each other for the Cayenne, Touareg and Q7?" That's because Porche is practically owned by Volkswagen (soon to merge to VW as Porche was about to go titsup by trying to buy all shares of VW) and two latter ones belong to the VAG GmbH (Vokswagen-Audi Group). Also Seat and Bugatti are owned by Volkswagen. There might be also some other brands owned by VAG that I can not remember at the moment.

The only thing I have never got was the fact that Ford Galaxy was long time basically the same product with Seat Alhambra and Volkswagen Sahran. All were built in same Spanish factory and on top of the same chasssis. Only body and interior were changed according to the product specs.

Nokia DID have touch screen phone. Nokia 770

"There were smart phones from Nokia, and phones did have screens with icons, but they weren't touch screens. Looking at iPhones and Android phones (I have a Galaxy SII), it is obvious to me that Google copied the iPhone look and feel. Which means that Google and/or Samsung did rip off Apple."

Wrong assessment: Nokia launched 2003 infamous Series 90 7700 "ear phone" that was ridiculed out of market and upgraded to Nokia 7710 next year (2004). Not to mention Nokia 770 Internet Tablet (2006).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7700

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7710

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_770

All of which were introduced before iPhone (2007).

More about Nokia product range:

http://www.dailymobile.net/2009/08/26/list-of-all-nokia-phones-ever-made-since-1982/

Apple disappoints at first Black Hat briefing

Ouch

The info Apple presented according to this news sounds like something, you can hear in 1st half day of basic training for secure coding. I suppose Black Hat is not right venue for this kind of briefing.

For example already the early Pentium processors had unique ID, even Intel did not admit it back then (among couple of other secret features/registers). So, after 20 years this should be a SOP for any secure platform.

Devs can't be bothered with Nokia's Windows Phone – report

Classic mistake

Well, no one knows, how much extra favorable votes iOS will get as there is also a raffle of iPad 2 among the participants of the survey. This level of biasing the results by lottery mistake is a shame to this survey. Secondly the study reports demographics of the user base of the service, not demographics of the participants to this survey.

Buzz: iPhone 5 arrives September 21, demand 'unprecedented'

Re: Yay

Well - this kind of design solution is usually called as bad design. They just could not make it as one unit, so an adapter is needed. So there should not be a design restrictions driving this change. Business vise this is good move - as Apple owns the design of proprietary connector rights, they can charge OEM iAccessory manufacturers for right to use it. Also changing the design ow and then is good way to avoid extencive illegal use of the connector for example in counterfeit or non-approved accys. But design vise - it is not a good design.

Re: Standard connectors...

There is two micro-USB connectors. The standard one (D-shaped) and USB OTG cables (square one). Both of which can be attached to each other connectors without any issue.That is, if you do not take it as an issue, that wrong kind of cable is slightly looser than standard one and you will kill the connector in your phone in few months time. If your phone's micro-USB connector is used for charging, PC-connection and not to mention to upgrade your phone SW you clearly do not want this not happen.

This is classic case representing, why warranty is void if you do not use standard accessories.

Windows 8 'bad' for desktop users - Gartner's one-word review

Re: History repeats itself

"It's either ignorance or stupidity which leads you to the belief that the desktop OS has been abandoned."

Ditto. At least in multiple YouTube videos there is Desktop application, which seems to be well sufficent for all people needing "legacy UX". For example here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VnsHmVs1UA

Altough the black tile "Start menu" from task bar seems to be missing in latest reviews. For example here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw_0e7JV2Vg

McDonalds staff 'rough up' prof with home-made techno-spectacles

I wondered that also

"WTF was he doing in a McDonalds in Paris anyway? Paris allegedly home to cuisine cooking after all..."

I wondered also why my collaques go to "local mcdonalds" in Paris. After visiting couple of restaurants, I do not wonder. Such a crap is seldomly thrownt to a plate that in Paris. And prices are 3x to Germany, for example. Old visdom: If someone starts phrase with word "allegdy", the rest of the story does not usually base on truth.

Note - this is not applicable outside of Paris; at least to my experience.

Ten... Portable USB 3.0 HDDs

WD My Passport 1TB

I bought mine couple of weeks ago around 100 euros (~£90). Thus £130 sounds quite a steep to me. And it seems still to be sold around the same price point:

http://www.verkkokauppa.com/fi/product/3322/cxbvb/Western-Digital-My-Passport-Essential-SE-1-TB-Red

500GB version would be yours in 73 euros.