Posts by tekHedd

C'mon, if you say your device is 'unhackable', you're just asking for it: Bitfi retracts edgy claim

You know they're serious about security *now* though...

because "Security Manager" is capitalized.

Salesforce boss Marc Benioff objects to US immigration policy so much, he makes millions from, er, US immigration

Qualified workers

These companies REALLY hate native qualified workers, don't they?

Android data slurping measured and monitored

Fake DOB?

I used to put in bogus DOB etc...and then I lost access to an old email account, which then meant I couldn't recover my ebay password, which means I lost 5 years of eBay seller history... etc etc.

You can't put in fake information that later might be used for account recovery unless you are planning to then write that all down somewhere. At some point you'd have to memorize an entire fake identity or two or three... sure some people do this but come one who has time?

Australia's Snooper's Charter: Experts react, and it ain't pretty

"puritans on both sides"

Or, in the words of someone who my mother says is a "great man and a genius", there are "Very Fine people on both sides" of the argument. :P

Clap, damn you, clap! Samsung's Bixby 2.0 AI reveal is met with apathy

OpenCamera

OpenCamera pretty much rocks. You still lose advanced features if you have a really fancy phone though. What's a "stylus support?" ;)

--running Lineage + MicroG for several months now.

Summary in a nutshell: Here Wego > Google Maps, but I miss my cloud storage for saves in AlphaBear.

Where's MY AI?

We talk a lot about "creepy and invasive", but the only thing that's really wrong with Google's AI is that it's not *my* AI. When I think back to AI assistants in the various Sci Fi books I've read, AI agents never seemed creepy because in books the agent is 100% owned by and working for the protagonist. It's the difference between "I am here to support you in any way you want and only those ways", and "I'm not going to hurt you, no really I promise, but not in a binding way and also sign this agreement indemnifying me before you let me help..."

There's a world of difference between "don't be evil" and "be good".

Top tip? Sprinkle bugs into your code to throw off robo-vuln scanners

Re: If you can generate your 'chaff' bugs algorithmically...

See also: every obfuscation tool. You can strip out all of the useful data, but you can't strip out the executable program and still have useful software.

Now if this were carried to the level of a complete custom "fake buggy compiler" you might have something, but then that sounds an awful lot like making a hardened compiler that automatically protects you from the kind of bugs you're simulating in the first place, with similar overhead, that puts me right back in the camp of "why are we doing this again?"

Dear alt-right morons and other miscreants: Disrupt DEF CON, and the goons will 'ave you

Alt-left

"Is there such a thing as the alt-left?"

True Believer Progressives are not an exact opposite of the alt-right. While the right might for example propose dismantling the EPA and using violence to suppress opposing viewpoints, the left might propose heavy censorship of "inappropriate speech" on social media and passing laws to let the government to use violence to suppress opposing viewpoints. More and more it looks like the authoritarian vs the anti-authoritarian version of the same thing. And in the end we'll probably end up with the worst of both sides as our next round of new laws. :/

Early experiment in mass email ends with mad dash across office to unplug mail gateway

Re: Firetruck?

"proceed" to travel, to go "off" somewhere

"firetruck" no additional expln. needed

Ya gotta use the noggin DN! :)

You can take off the shades, squinting Outlook.com users. It has gone dark. Very dark

All the hate for dark

I like dark interfaces. The glaring white becomes exhausting after 10-12 hours.

I'm frankly surprised. It's only taken them, well, literally from the launch of the service until now to come up with a dark skin, one of the easiest things to do with modern CSS-based interfaces, and people are still complaining about the "waste of resources." This is why we can't have nice things.

Google Chrome: HTTPS or bust. Insecure HTTP D-Day is tomorrow, folks

Not about encryption

The dangers of unencrypted transmissions? Sure it's real, but no, that's not a problem that is solved by this move. The real end result of this move is the death of self-signed certs.

Why does Google hate self-signed certs?

Indictment bombshell: 'Kremlin intel agents' hacked, leaked Hillary's emails same day Trump asked Russia for help

Scary trump pic, or is it?

The truly scary thing about this article is that the attached stock photo is actually a fairly flattering picture of Trump, relatively speaking.

Google Cloud CEO admits: Yeah, we wanted GitHub too. Whatevs

Exactly. Microsoft buying an OSS repository is questionable because of their open hostility to openness. Google buying an OSS repository is questionable because their track record suggest they'll forget they own it and shut it down completely.

But at least Google is not yet openly and actively hostile to all open source projects, and does not have a track record of infiltrating standards bodies and sabotaging standards. Not yet, anyway.

RoboCop-ter: Boffins build drone to pinpoint brutal thugs in crowds

And.. JUST violent actions, right?

So... how much work would it be to train it to recognize other suspicious actions, people trying to evade detection, people walking guiltily, "loitering with intent", protesters, people working their way purposefully through a crowd instead of gawping? I'm sure you can come up with more. It's fun!

HPE: Hell yeah, those job cuts worked out great… for our investors

for a short while

"It's funny how falling feels like flying, for a little while"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTYyS8bxV78

US Congress mulls expanding copyright yet again – to 144 years

Seriously!

I can't see how Congress keeps getting duped into supporting Mickey Mouse legislation like... oh...

Bowel down: Laxative brownies brought to colleague's leaving bash

A tip-off...

This is why revolutions fail.

Pointless US Congress net neutrality vote will take place tomorrow!

Let's keep talking about it anyway...

Now is a good time to ask: what legislation is Congress quietly and bipartisan-ly passing while all this noise is going on? If Trump tweets something outrageous on top of all this, watch out.

You love Systemd – you just don't know it yet, wink Red Hat bods

Not UNIX-like? SNU!

From now on, I will call Systemd-based Linux distros "SNU Linux". Because Systemd's Not Unix-like.

It's not clever, but it's the future. From now on, all major distributions will be called SNU Linux. You can still freely choose to use a non-SNU linux distro, but if you want to use any of the "normal" ones, you will have to call it "SNU" whether you like it or not. It's for your own good. You'll thank me later.

Password re-use is dangerous, right? So what about stopping it with password-sharing?

"Encrypt"

I *really* really hope that when the article said "encrypt" that this is a misspelling of "hash".

Hash without salt? Yuck!

Re: Always an angle trying to sell something

Top Of The Form https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Ta4XbRRj4

:) Don't waste time searching that you could waste watching a commercial!

NSA sought data on 534 MILLION phone calls in 2017

That they admitted to.

I just assume all call data is archived, made available, and used. With the NSA a more or less completely opaque organization this is the only reasonable assumption.

You'll notice that I'm not panicking. But to think otherwise would be naive.

LLVM contributor hits breakpoint, quits citing inclusivity intolerance

It's illegal...

"Discrimination on grounds of gender is illegal (in the UK), except under very specific circumstances."

Discrimination is illegal, except where required by law. :)

And here we go

How appropriately ironic that this comment thread should immediatey appear attached to news of out of control SJWism. Clearly our troll has a sense of humor.

Facebook's login-to-other-sites service lets scum slurp your stuff

"only a few hundred sites.

Yes, it's "only" a few hundred sites, like Tealium, which I see blocked by Ghostery on something like EVERY web store I've ever visited. :(

Disappointed in BH Photo though, they have been good to me otherwise.

Twitter API overhaul threatens to seriously shaft apps... again

Re: Goodbye Twitter

I feel much the same about Talon. Talon and its developer support have been great, whereas the official twitter app is... not? Not. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for.

Are meta, self-referential or recursive science-fiction films doomed?

Based on Robert Heinlein's Hugo-winning 1959 novel,

And by "based on", we mean "having the same title as"...

They forked this one up: Microsoft modifies open-source code, blows hole in Windows Defender

"Even Microsoft's own development documentation recommends not using unsigned integers"

I can't decide whether to upvote this as top-shelf satire, or downvote it as a huge WTF?

I mean, yes, if your integers are unsigned, anyone can replace them with other integers and you won't be able to tell. On the other hand, integer signing has never been useful as a form of DRM, and can make it more difficult to update the integers if it turns out one requires patching.

The problem, as ever, is backward compatibility.

Computers were designed from the start to use integers without cryptographic signatures, so it is not possible for applications to detect whether an integer is signed or unsigned just by looking at it. A program must be compiled with foreknowledge about which integers to check for signing. Signing is a "cool hack" first used in the late 90s as an attempt to prevent piracy, pioneered first by Microsoft, quickly followed by most of the rest of the industry. Applications designed for unsigned integers will run fine on modern operating systems, but if signed integers are used by mistake, this can result in crashing, especially if the numbers involved are modern numbers that can be quite large. This is because cryptographic signing uses a "hack" that takes over the topmost bit, which may be flipped in some circumstances. This confuses older software.

Microsoft's hacking of the modern RAR program to force the use of outdated "unsigned" integers is an example of how the company has failed to move with the times. This dinosaur's days are limited.

Not to worry, unless...

"No problem, the bug is already patched, unless you're on Windows 7 of course, where due to an accident, the patch introduces a few more exploitable bugs." is what I expect to hear next.

Furious gunwoman opens fire at YouTube HQ, three people shot

Under no obligation

"YouTube are under no obligation to provide anyone except their employees with an income."

And in fact as a publicly traded company, are legally and ethically bound to maximize profit at the expense of their customers and uploaders, which will inevitably be done in a way to ruin many of them once they are in a monopoly position. In other words, YouTube's behavior is the inevitable and perfectly normal result of unfettered capitalism.

Not saying capitalism is bad, and certainly not saying I know of anything better, but this is what its darker side looks like. Well, the true dark side is people defending YouTube's unethical behavior on the basis that "they can do it, and it maximizes profit, therefore it is OK that they do."

Intel admits a load of its CPUs have Spectre v2 flaw that can't be fixed

Every corporation has his raisons

Those reasons are given as:

1) it would cost us money

2) we don't have a large customer pressuring us to update this model

3) we would prefer that you buy a new processor instead

Translated.

Microsoft's Windows 7 Meltdown fixes from January, February made PCs MORE INSECURE

Quote Accidentally Unquote

Only on Windows 7, they "accidentally" left the write bit set. "Oops."

How did I get so cynical? The behavior of Microsoft and similar companies over the past [redacted] decades. The line between cynicism and skepticism is very, very thin.

Fatal driverless crash: Radar-maker says Uber disabled safety systems

Human-To-Vehicle communications

The answer is to fit not just bicycles, but all persons with human-to-vehicle location transponders. These can be permanently installed in or on the head. It's for safety, so we should start with the children. This will also double as a handy tracker so you can locate others if they become lost. And you'll always have a GPS with you wherever you go!

I see no possible way this could have negative consequences.

Hip hop-eration: Hopless Franken-beer will bring you hoppiness

Two Words

I'm sure the phrase "cost reduction" never even entered into their minds.

Half the world warned 'Chinese space station will fall on you'

In Soviet Russia...

"Russia except bits of Caucasus is outside the impact zone so it is giggling and twiddling its thumbs."

In rest of world, Chinese Space Station falls on you.

In Soviet Russia, *you* fall on... wait, hold on.

NRA gives FCC boss Ajit Pai a gun as reward for killing net neutrality. Yeah, an actual gun

As much as I hate...

to interrupt your screaming argument over gun control,..

What kind of gun?

Maybe I missed it in the article somehow? It *is* part of the tech angle, after all.

Hold on to your aaSes: Yup, Windows 10 'as a service' is incoming

"Latest Features"

"Latest Features" meaning bloated things I didn't want and can not uninstall? Apps that occupy system resources, and cost money to fully activate? It only took a millisecond to make that connection.

I understand it's inevitable, but can we stop pretending that it's for our benefit please? The mealy-mouthed pretense is making me ill.

1980s sci-fi movies: The thrill of being not quite terrified on mum's floral sofa

The uncanny valley is strong. It's like adjusting the resonance of a filter--the closer you get, the deeper and more horrifying that chasm becomes. You just have to meet some real people who are totaly lying losers inside to they point they have abandoned their humanity, to see that even casting a real human body in the role does not eliminate the horror. If you slip up on even one tiny element of the humanity, it becomes a monster.

Oh god Rogue One. I know a guy who keeps describing it as a "good movie." Like, in those terms. Really.

Re: CGI is killing sci-fi

"Watching the film is like peering through a dirty window. You see some of what is going on but miss the true clarity."

And even the book is like an unnecessary extended cut of the truly amazing short story. He only wrote the book so he could write sequels. And we'll never know whether the true motivation behind *that* is whether he "wanted to write sequels" or "wanted to pay his electric bill". It's a short, intense, psychological horror story with some great action scenes that are also largely great because they are psychological and strategic. As spectacle it fails.

You GNOME it: Windows and Apple devs get a compelling reason to turn to Linux

Re: snap/flatpak/.appimage

"You get /var/snap and thats it."

Flatpak can have similar issues. I've been using monodevelop in flatpak, and it includes /usr/bin/perl, which hides the system /usr/bin/perl with external commands, which means I can't use any CPAN modules. Whatever the app packager decides in terms of sandboxing, that's what you're stuck with as an end user.

For now, I still think AppImage kicks flatpak's butt all over the place. I suppose that could change now that it's trendy. :/

You Wreck Me, Spotify: Tom Petty, Neil Young publisher launches $1.6bn copyright sueball

Re: Great

I have to assume that the majority of the downvoters have never produced a piece of IP worth stealing. :) "Music wants to be free." So does the cash in your bank account, friend.

As the singularity approaches, neural network pens black metal album

Have you tried some Jackson Browne?

The real test of a musician is how they perform a ballad.

(Yes of course it's a Bloom County reference.)

Health quango: Booze 'evidence' not Puritan enough, do us another

Re: I Don't Understand The Graphs

> "but reduces with moderate intake"

> Does it?

In a word, "yes."

Statistical analysis is a mature science with straightforward (albeit unintuitive) rules. We now have quite a bit of data to work with. If the data shows that risk decreases with moderate intake and other analysis shows strong correlation, then the statement "risk decreases with moderate intake" is a correct statement.

To summarize and reiterate, "yes".

There's a battle on over two US spying laws: One allows snooping on citizens – one bans it

A difficult question

Congress must answer the vitally important question: will the NSA and FBI be secretly spying on all Americans all the time legally, or just secretly illegally?

Because with zero oversight and demonization of whistleblowers, it's a bunch of hot air.

Windows Fall Creators Update is here: What do you want first – bad news or good news?

Winows as a what?

Windows As A Service? *sigh* I guess I'm going to have to accept that as the new norm, but it's sad. I was just starting to like of Windows As An Operating System, finally. And now both Microsoft and Apple seem determined to ruin their OSes.

Dumb bug of the week: Apple's macOS reveals your encrypted drive's password in the hint box

Low Sierra

And... because High Sierra is now available, you can no longer upgrade to regular old Sierra, unless you previously installed it, because, oh right there's no reason.

Since a lot of my apps now (finally) work with Sierra but are officially listed as not working with High Sierra, I'm kinda stuck where I am.

Hollywood has savaged enough sci-fi classics – let's hope Dick would dig Blade Runner 2049

Re: You want me to tell you about my mother ?

Probability is it will be done Disney-fan-service style: a completely different character will say it in a completely different setting for no reason whatsoever.

And, TBH, hell no. I don't want to hear all my favorite lines ripped from a classic movie and shoehorned into a new movie. Again.

Forget the 'simulated universe', say boffins, no simulator could hit the required scale

That doesn't seem physically possible!

This is what happens when you tell a bunch of engineers that something is not possible.

"If their particle probings cause the simulator of our universe to have to work extra hard, whoever is running the simulation might decide our universe is over budget, processing-wise, and shut it down."

Who is to say this has not already happened, perhaps more than once?