Posts by Bah!

Microsoft mistakenly rated Chromium, Electron as malware

As per normal then

This fits with the normal modus operandi - like resetting your default applications after updates. Blocking some tools that change all of your settings back to known preferred states, and persistently pushing edge (with sneaky tricks to make you click buttons you were trying to avoid like delaying the presence of a button so you only see the ones thay want, or only displaying the button when you mouse over. The most commonly used trick is unclear, meaningless words to confuse you into clicking install or make default.

They made my clean and stable install of W10 into a mess of instable and incompatible applications, by auto installing W11. While using the last licenced install of office I had so I had to argue on the phone for 3 hours with them for a reset of my licence count. I had to clean install W10 and key applications. Not a great 3 days of wasted time.

Free Android apps often secretly make calls, use the camera

Every time a developer writes an app and produces a free version it's supported by a 3rd party advertiser and they add the code that often needs to check the state of the app, the hardware such as the GPS and the location and the phone state - you don't want the ad to pop up on screen when your trying to call an emergency number blocking the keypad, and an advertiser might want demographically appropriate ad's shown, IE your location would be important so perhaps knowing that you are in a town with a Warner cinema but not a Cineworld Cinema would mean showing you the ad that relates to Warner is more likely to benefit both you and the advertiser. All of these functions might require various permissions, but these permissions often are so broad that they are misunderstood as meaning that you are being spied on and every time your phone is by your bed it's watching you give yourself some hand to gland action. Don't worry it's not.

This article is re-written and published again and again, uncited and unprovable yet every time it's published it disproven too. It's often seen around the time there are major product launches and always gets bias against Google.

Re: Name them!

They don't name the apps because this is an Apple sponsored article based on propaganda FUD. The code used by a number of advertisers used by developers for free versions of apps usually requires certain general permissions because the classes that the ad's run often need to check the phones state and read/write to the memory to log what ad's it's run and check if you are of the correct demographic for the ad and get updates to the ad's. The paid for versions of apps don't use the code to pull and delegate ad's out so they don't request permission for those functions.

This story has cropped up a dozen times often just after Google has a major product launch and has been disproven every time. It's pure FUD.

Orly

When you develop an app and use certain generic classes you may need to have permission to do so because those classes might have a number of broad functions. Just because the class is used request permission to have access to contacts doesn't mean the developer has used it to do so, but might be adding an entry to a database or checking that the phone status is appropriate to enable the app to run - you don't want to be calling an emergency number only to find the mp3 player is stuck on and wont switch off do you?

The freedom for app developers allows great apps to be developed but they are still vetted and suspect apps are blocked.

Devolo dLAN 500Mb/s powerline network adaptor review

Re: Tests?

I have my house wired with cat 5E with a gigabit switch and Draytek router with a phone line, all in the built in cupboard with all the power switches. Worth every penny £440 including installation. £125 was just the router, it handles all my VOIP calls too so I don't need the voice line except for emergencies. I have a UPS in there too so I have always protected power. If I can do it, why can everyone else? It's a fast, reliable purpose built infrastructure that ensures I have a secure internal network and has room for future expansion without much additional cost or effort. The router is capable of bonding 2 ADSL lines, manages 2 VOIP lines with room for 8 more, I have added to the kit a personal 6TB file server to stream films to my TV and a email manager ensuring my email is always available even if my ISP email goes down, and gives me 2 back ups too. It's a small price to pay for reliable, secure internet around the home.

YouView recommends radio hams' pet peeve

Re: Apples and Oranges

Utter crap! I have serious noise issues and can't hear even most local stations. I have everything engineered to the last filter. I have a rather good station, but cannot hear over the noise. BTW my station is independent of the mains, and I have positively identified the noise source as PLT from 3 neighbours who have disconnected them for me and the noise has gone when they do.

I am also in the progress of pulling together the resources to video that conclusively prove that they are RF devices radiating over the spectrum, and that they also have inadequate security allowing others to know what data you are sending about the house/street/town - lets just say, I'd never suggest you could or should use them for banking, Wi-Fi is more secure. Furthermore you should know that during a lift it's quite possible to see PLT signals going a lot further than the other side of town - half way around the planet, further increasing the chance of someone scraping your banking details by a money poor and time rich highly intelligent and motivated hacker.

I don't recommend them on many levels and you shouldn't either.

With regard to you microwave - microwaves haven't really given HF spectrum noise for decades. Noise around 2.4GHz maybe, but not much below 1GHZ.

HD JuiceBox HDMI over Powerline kit

Don't stream your bedroom activities over this.....You don't know who is watching.

How does a passive device on the end of a long wire stop the RF from leaking through the air? What stops me from eaves dropping the leaking RF? Firstly the Fusebox/meter doesn't stop the RF - the RF can be heard radiating in your neighbours house but one without much trouble, secondly I can eavesdrop the RF leaking over the air from your household wiring.