Posts by Adam 1

Microsoft: We plan to CLEAN UP this here Windows Store town

Re: why

> Why on God's green Earth does someone, anyone, actually want to run _iTunes_ on a _Windows device_?

Apple must think that their customers are too stupid to get music and video onto their iThings using copy paste like the rest of the world.

Re: Hello pot, this is kettle...

> There is one and is called "Windows Installer"

Windows installer is not the best by any stretch, but that is largely irrelevant to this discussion because we are taking about repositories not installers. An installer is not fundamentally much more than a way to check for prerequisites, stop services and to copy a few files around.

An uninstaller is just another application which in theory reverses the process*

There are some important features of an app store not covered by windows installer.

- locating an application for a given purpose.

- visibility of user ratings and popularity

- being sure of the legitimacy of the download link

- buying it.

- knowing about and receiving updates, service packs or hot fixes.

As it stands in the windows world, you get each vendor coming up with their own half baked update mechanisms. Half the time they don't work (HP/Intel), and the others are a mixture of annoying popups every few days (Java), trying to sneak other software in during a supposed update (anything Apple). There are a couple of not to bad ones (notepad++) but they are few and far between. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to compare a store with an installation mechanism.

*unless you are Symantec where it is purely cosmetic.

Re: Hello pot, this is kettle...

>It means you can go to a single place to get all your updates,

Is that like how you can upgrade from windows 8 to 8.1 by going to the store and pressing download, and how you don't need to go to windows update to download all the windows 8 patches first? Oh wait...

Memory troubling you, Android? Surprise! Another data slurp vuln uncovered

Re: I do not install anything asking for this permission

>The noble idea of app permissions is flawed by not being able to revoke them individually at install time or afterwards.

It would be a good start to be able to eliminate search results in play store by requested permissions.

Tesla: YES – We'll build a network of free Superchargers in Oz

Re: Greenies

Tassie has a small population and a struggling economy. Hydro everywhere which would be a plus. SA has a lot of wind power and is a much bigger market.

Between Sydney and Melbourne would give pretty close to half the country's population, the main downside is that Victoria has some of the dirtiest power generators around so any Tesla sold down there would be worse than a large SUV for CO2. Plus a large amount of that capacity will be sold off cheap now some smelters have closed down.

RealVNC distances itself from factories, power plants, PCs hooked up to password-less VNC

Re: Legality ?

>When there is no password set, VNC simply connects and shows the desktop. It is therefore available to the general public in exactly the same way that a public website is.

An unlocked car whilst foolish is not an invitation to hop in. An open front door is not an invitation to wander in and take a photo.

I suspect that the researchers are probably (in the IANAL sort of way) OK to establish a connection to these computers, but taking a screenshot is both unnecessary from their research point of view and moves well into privacy violation territory.

How to marry malware to software downloads in an undetectable way (Hint: Please use HTTPS)

Re: Ooohhhh! A terrible attack is available in the lab !

Whilst it can be defeated by HTTPS, that isn't really the ideal technology to transfer large files because it limits proxy servers' ability to serve those downloads. The server is also then encrypting each packet in the file with the session key which is even more overhead. Publishing the sha256 hash of the download is much more efficient. The main problem is that if you can intercept the file download it is trivial to intercept and change the page with the expected hash. That page could be delivered over https.

Steve Jobs had BETTER BALLS than Atari, says Apple mouse designer

Apple are terrific at many aspects of industrial design. The mouse is not one of those aspects. I am sorry but how long did it take before there was a right click option; and even then it was the right click when you are not having a right click, like someone philosophically opposed to such buttons saying well if you make me put one on then fine but there is no way my mighty mouse will have any visual cue to show where that button is.

And finally, the puck mouse! Not only the worst design of anything in the history of the world but it had a cord; meaning that the poor soul who had just been driven mad trying to use it was at high risk of using it to strangle someone.

Intel's Raspberry Pi rival Galileo can now run Windows

Re: Standard Windows timings

>Windows 8.x seems to improve this though, grabbing and applying updates post-install seems to be much improved

Funny thing is that my memory of installing 8.1 involved first applying about 1GB of update patches before it would let me download the upgrader itself (only available via their windows store BTW) which then proceeded to basically blow away and replace with new versions all of those files it had just demanded be installed.

Incidentally, I don't remember win 7 taking as long as OP suggests. Maybe I spent too long many years ago fighting each machine that was loaded with either 2k or 98 where upon install you had to find another machine with net access to find your network drivers before you could find your video drivers so you could get out of 640*480 mode... fun days (and at the time Linux wasn't much better; the initial install was seamless in comparison but there was always something that would take days to get working.)

Time to ditch HTTP – govt malware injection kit thrust into spotlight

Re: Possible solution?

>The Server could encrypt pages using a user-provided Public Key.

Sure could. How do you validate that the server you sent the public key to is the right one? A malicious server could substitute your public key with its own, talk to the real server, decrypt the website, then re encrypt it with your public key and you are none the wiser.

Revealed ... GCHQ's incredible hacking tool to sweep net for vulnerabilities: Nmap

Re: Misdirection

>nmapping the internet is a fast way of attracting attention, no matter how stealthy you might think you are.

You are right, but I highly doubt that the port scan is happening directly. They would already have a botnet which would do their dirty work.

/applies tin foil

I am sure when they managed to take over the cryptolocker C&C servers they just shut them down without pushing their own malware into hundreds of thousands of machines.

Brits' borked Samsung kit held up after repair centre slips into administration

Re: Pop goes Samsung's glossy image.

A fair comment. My recent experience was the opposite. Bought a new HP ultra book which refused to activate. Went through the reset my PC (that is the new lingo for reloading the original image) to no avail so I connected to their web support portal thing. They* were utterly useless and just kept advising to reset the PC to see if it fixed it. The third technician to get involved even offered to "generously" post out a recovery DVD (all I needed to do was buy an external drive).

It wasn't until the local outsourced repair company got involved that the problem was fixed (and they actually turned up when they said and returned phone calls). The difference was night and day. So I guess YMMV.

*Yes I know the web support is also an outsourced company.

What's in your toolbox? Why the browser wars are so last decade

Re: Fiddler2 is a useful tool

It is very useful, but now it is owned by teleric it is only a matter of time before it is EA-ified.

Wetsuits, sunshine, bikini babes and a competitive streak: Epyx California Games

These guys owe me a joystick after the control schemes they came up with.

Password manager LastPass goes titsup: Users locked out

You must be new here. Hi, I am Adam 1.

Japanese boffins invent 4.4 TREEELLION frames per second camera

Re: We're gonna need a bigger hard drive...

>how is that kind of bandwidth possibly handled?

I imagine frame to frame compression would be amazingly effective at that frame rate.

Re: We're gonna need a bigger hard drive...

How long before this technology is used to film cats?

DIME for your TOP SECRET thoughts? Son of Snowden's crypto-chatter client here soon

Re: Pete 2 One Tip...

>Once the sender and/or recipient are identified they can simply move to either a warranted search

I have no problems with Spook's executing warranted searches with proper oversight (like a judge). It is the wide scale untargetted fishing expeditions that grossly invade the privacy of everyone where I disagree. If we are going to start (continue?) to track everything about everyone then we put in place the key infrastructure needed by a police state. You had better make sure that the risks and substantial costs are worth it...

CryptoLocker victims offered free key to unlock ransomed files

Re: It was inevitable.

>Cracked, hacked, decrypted, recovered keys, i dont give a monkeys HOW it was done. But it was..

Thief 1: We managed to crack the uber secure super vault.

Thief 2: Awesome! But how? We have been trying for years without success. Even the cops and even three letter agencies haven't been able to get in! That is a game changer. Can you describe how you did it?

Thief 1: We found a spare set of keys in the wife's handbag.

Australia's metadata debate is an utter shambles

Re: Abbott is a complete and utter incompetent

explained his plan to attack the youth unemployment issue on regional centres by funding training and apprenticeship programmes as well as university scholarships and business incentives to come on board, financed by phasing out tax concessions to superannuation income over $200000.

(No, he didn't suggest this, but I surely proved you could be surprised by the end of that sentence)

Re: Meta-data

Or some dope working for a three letter agency is going to fail to understand how the internet works and therefore think you visited such a site when all you wanted was the phone number of a dentist.

Help Australia's PM and attorney-general to define metadata

Re: Brandis

I laughed out loud literally after watching that interview with David Speers. Then I remembered that this is our AG so now I am just depressed.

Operators get the FEAR as Ofcom proposes 275% hike in mobile spectrum fees

Re: Honestly

I didn't but that's OK because someone else did.

It's official: You can now legally carrier-unlock your mobile in the US

Re: Ironic

Or to be able to use the phone while overseas without the extortionate roaming charges (especially for data).

Even if they do want to root their phone, why is that a problem? The vendor can refuse a warranty claim if the problem can be shown to be caused by the rooting process. Piracy is a problem with or without this law. The piracy problem was not solved for the 18 months when it was banned so why would it be solved if the ban remained in place.

Google's mysterious floating techno barge SOLD FOR SCRAP

Re: I always figured the plan was:

I think that was the original thinking but they discovered they didn't need to do steps 1,2 or 3

Pentagon hacker McKinnon can't visit sick dad for fear of extradition

Re: re:- " Brits don't like us because we don't use the letter U in every second word..."

> Admittedly the US did turn up - late both times - but only after agreements which effectively neutered the resolve of the "Brit's", and then only to protect US economic expansion.

Hmmm. Normally it is the residents of the land of the free that I seem to encounter who don't seem to know their own history but love to point out the failures of others.

While yes, the US took a long time to realise that an isolationist position was untenable, I suspect that a certain nation behaving like dicks in the Ukraine at the moment might offer a slightly different viewpoint about the length of time taken to open up the western front. The alliance with Stalin was never more than that of a common enemy and from a British point of view it was preferable for the Nazi and communists to be killing each other than to become another Spain.

Russia to SAP, Apple: Hand over source code to prove you're not spies

If only there was an operating system that could run on commodity hardware where the source code and complete build chain were open source....

Recording lawsuit targets Ford, GM in-car CD recorders

>And Apple with their Itunes and Ipod with integral hard drive that has a facility to store a complete CD in a lossless format from my home collections of CD's are not included in the law suit because?

Simples! Those record companies are just waiting to be sued. Have you not seen the round corners on the typical CD? Has a CD never stopped working because you were holding it wrong? Apple have them over a barrel!

FREE PARTY for TEN lucky Australian Reg readers

Re: Limericks

>we do have some interesting town names like

Additionally there are complex abbreviation rules. You can call Wagga Wagga Wagga; but you can't call Woy Woy Woy.

CAPTCHA challenges you to copy pointillist painter Seurat's classic

Re: Another Tech That Should Die

I completely agree with Jake.

/WTF JUST HAPPENED

Famous 'Dish' radio telescope to be emptied in budget crisis: CSIRO

Wow! That link is a freaky time warp back to the www of that era. All it needed was a blinking heading.

IEEE gets to work on 25G Ethernet MAC standards

obligatory

http://xkcd.com/927/

DAYS from end of life as we know it: Boffins tell of solar storm near-miss

Re: Water supplies?

I can't comment for everywhere but gravity fed is still preferred. In this way the pumps don't need to be strong enough to maintain full pressure during peak demand, just enough to replenish across the day/week. This permits smaller pumps and/or off peak power to be used.

Re: Pretty high risk

That is a false choice. Both are worth preparing for.

Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid: The plug-in for plutocrats

Re: kmpl? WTF?

> The rest of the planet uses acually, kilometers per liter.

No we don't. We measure L/100km and spell them litres and kilometres respectively. It is a far more meaningful way to express an efficiency figure to boot. Upgrading from a 18 MPG car to a 25 MPG car will save you roughly three times the amount of fuel/money/CO2 as upgrading from a 40MPG to a 50MPG car.

Expressed as L/100km, you are comparing 13L/100km -> 9.4L/100km (3.6L/100km saving) vs 5.9L/100km->4.7L/100km (1.2L/100km saving). Having a figure in MPG (or km/L) would only be useful if for some reason you had aquired exactly 1 gallon (or 1 L) of fuel and you wanted to know how many miles (or kms) you could possibly travel with different vehicles. Most of us have the inverted problem statement. I have a requirement to travel distance X miles/kms per week for work/school/fun/dads taxi. How much fuel do I need to buy/money do I need to spend/CO2 do I need to emit to do that with this car vs that one.

Lower prices are BAD FOR CONSUMERS, says Turnbull

Re: We need a new elReg Unit of Measure?

What about the Palmer-Gore scale?

Data retention: ASIO says Web browsing habits would need a warrant

My thought on this is that there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay for this data retention, for the spinning rust, the tape archives and the masses of servers sitting up top. Who is supposed to pay for that? The ISPs? Are you not attempting to transfer the true cost of the surveillance tools you believe are necessary to perform your job?

What about the security of the data? It is very expensive to ensure the data remains secure both during transfer and at rest. Who is going to pay for continual audits and penetration testing? Who is liable when a user's privacy is violated?

No. If it would blow your budget in a week and not turn up the quantity of useful leads where you can justify it against your own budget then that probably tells you something about its value. Just pushing the cost to someone else doesn't make it any cheaper. It just makes our internet bills higher rather than our tax rates. Forgive my lack of excitement over that "saving".

Say goodbye to landfill Android: Top 10 cheap 'n' cheerful smartphones

>Oh, and before you all take to the comments page, each device performed perfectly well telephonically

Much appreciated :D

Whoah! How many Google Play apps want to read your texts?

Re: How do you make sure of this?

"Except that if you can revoke permissions at any time, those functions would have to be called every time anything is done in the app ever. Making it ridiculously slow."

Firstly, I did not describe a model where users could revoke permissions at any time. I suggested that they could choose which optional tokens they accept.

Secondly, the permissions are held in a manifest, and the OS could quite easily maintain a hashmap of application/permission. Even on modest phone hardware this would be capable of several hundred thousand containsKey calls per second. I am really racking my brains to imagine what sort of overheads you are imagining. I would be unsurprised if the OS does this behind each API call anyway.

Re: How do you make sure of this?

>How do you deal with the inevitable moron that denies net access to their mail app?

You allow the developer to specify whether the token is mandatory or optional and you let them formally declare why they want it so the user can see it on the play store. The user can't reject a mandatory token but can reject an optional token.

The developer can then access a method to return whether token xyz is available. If not, they can hide the relevant button on the ui and offer a cut down experience of their app.

For backwards compatibility you could even assume all permissions of existing apps are mandatory. Over time, competitive forces should make developers think twice about the permissions that they demand. Google could even allow you to compare the permissions matrix between a group of apps selected by the user and add a filter to allow users to exclude apps with specific permissions.

Simples!

FBI: We found US MILITARY AIRCRAFT INTEL during raid on alleged Chinese hacker

Re: I am amazed

>If this data is supposed to be so secret, what is it doing on internet connected servers in the first place?

Totally agree. If the military wanted to connect their IT assets together into some distributed interconnected network they should invent one.

Microsoft's Lumia 930... a real HANDFUL

Re: Something wrong

Never fear. The long running tradition has been continued where phone reviews don't mention the capability (or otherwise) of "making a telephone call".

Another 'NSA-proof' webmail biz popped by JavaScript injection bug

Re: Why 128 bit AES not 256 bit?

>How about a non-American government generated encryption method instead?

How about one invented by a few Belgium blokes? There is a good one called AES....

Secret Senate software stoush: Greens intervene

Congratulations Lee Rhiannon. You have done your country a service.

/can't believe what I just wrote

Revealed: SECRET DNA TEST SCANDAL at UN IP agency

Re: on a technical note...

>THE SKY IS BLUE!

In the UK that WOULD be news!

Insecure AVG search tool shoved down users' throats, says US CERT

Re: @Stuart Longland

>you seem to want something for free when it actually costs something to build

Who held a gun to their head and asked them to release it for free? You are conveniently ignoring their bait and switch of claiming it is free but the cost is hidden by a EULA so long that no normal person could possibly comprehend it. Or another way to think of it is would the free* software have gained such market share if they charged for it all along? Did their decision to give it away make competitive products unprofitable?

*Free as in you can have this beer if you let me look through your fridge and note everything in there and then offer you advertisements based upon people with similar tastes)

Re: Foxit

It's not just foxit that installs open candy. Do a Google search and you will find a who's who of applications I used to recommend. It is really sad that so many otherwise brilliant applications stoop to installing this spyware.

Google de-listing of BBC article 'broke UK and Euro public interest laws' - So WHY do it?

>Your talking nonsense

You're

Voteware source code requester labelled 'vexatious'

I don't understand the AECs angle even if this guy is vexatious. Surely it would build confidence in our elected officials if we prove that the systems behind elections, from counting to preferences allocation to the random number generators behind the order that candidates are listed.

What could be more democratic than a crowd funded source code audit of the software we rely on for choosing our governments?

NIST shows off one-way photon-passing metamaterial

Re: A remarkable achievement

...taken lightly

IC what you did there.