Posts by David Martin

500 MEELLION PCs still run Windows XP. How did we get here?

Ubuntu LTS + XP VM guest

That's what I do with my old Windows-only apps anyway. Sandboxes them from a security standpoint. Many older apps run well in WINE too. Doesn't need the newest hardware either.

Upstart $3bn forex trader dumps Oracle JVM for Azul's Zing

Re: It's Syndrome, and he's using his Zero-Point Energy Beam to Trade!

Oh, the CLR doesn't need to do garbage collection does it?

The fact that the JVM offers a choice of implementations is the very reason why companies have the option to switch to another one with more advanced GC strategies

Oracle patches Java 0-day, goes to Defcon 2

Any client-side binary tech exposed to the www is dangerous

PDF, Flash, ActiveX, or Java (and of course, the browser itself). You cannot predict possible future exploits for any of these. Firefox with the NoScript add-on is one answer.

Kill that Java plugin now! New 0-day exploit running wild online

Partial solution if you cannot disable the Java browser plugin for whatever reason

There is only need to be concerned about deliberately malicious sites, or non-malicious sites which may have been hacked. If you really can't avoid Java applets, switch to using Firefox and install the noscript plugin. Only allow Java for trusted sites. You can even permit specific objects (applets) on a trusted site, so a hacker would have to deploy a malicious version of the specific applet(s) you have permitted on a trusted site in order to compromise your security.

Google pits C++ against Java, Scala, and Go

Buried in the report

"Jeremy Manson brought the performance of Java on par

with the original C++ version. This version is kept in the

java_pro directory. Note that Jeremy deliberately refused

to optimize the code further, many of the C++ optimizations

would apply to the Java version as well"

But no "Java Pro" line in the benchmark table...?

UK doctor loses unencrypted laptop containing patient data

Whole disk encryption

Any employer with a serious interest in securing sensitive data on laptops and stopping the use of USB thumbdrives etc should license PGP Desktop, it works a treat for 200 quid perpetual. Absolutely no excuses! What worries me is the new government scheme where GPs are going to club together to provision hospital services instead of PCTs. As everything continues to decentralise in the NHS, who is going to manage IT practices across a squillion different organisations?

Facebook royal rant bishop suspended

Steady on bish...

Put the sherry away :-D

Ryanair wins ihateryanair.co.uk because of £322 ad revenue

Good luck to him

but he seems just a bit obsessed. What happened to him? It must have been terrible!! Some of the airports are out of town, well, check on google maps etc. and make your own mind up whether its worth the saving. You get what you pay for with ryanair, they've never been late in my experience. Why? They don't hang around for stragglers, they just close the gate at the stated time and that's it! Fair enough! Don't want to subsidise other people's luggage? Fine, me neither!

Vacuum-wielding thieves siphon €500,000 from store safes

WTF???

500K lost and they still haven't installed a simple anti-syphon valve??

Code for open-source Facebook littered with landmines

RoR versus C++, Java

RoR is something of a black box, and Ruby itself is a slow, interpreted language. This stack is great for low-volume websites, don't get me wrong, but it won't scale up to many millions of users. That's where particularly Java has the edge, with a huge choice of mature APIs such as Spring and Hibernate, the likes of GWT for the front end, and multi-gigabyte caching technology e.g. Coherence.

Linux kernel purged of five-year-old root access bug

Interesting but so what?

They reported it to Linus and co mid-June, kept quiet and waited for it to be fixed in the kernel, then published their paper. It's only sensible to have fixed it but no need to panic. You have to remember that in Linux, you can't download a dodgy executable from the internet (or attached to an email) and run it by double clicking it (or just opening the email, or following the link). Nobody using Linux installs dodgy software either because they don't need to - it's all free and open source, from a trusted source (the package manager). This is why "exploits" such as this don't get exploited in Linux.

Nokia peddles pedal-powered charger

Exactly what I wanted

On a recent bike tour. Had to use one of those AA-powered emergency chargers instead (to keep Nokia Maps going!).

Microsoft's Silverlight 4 - Flash developers need not apply

In fairness

First off, I use Linux. BTW 1% of desktop PC users is a lot of people.

I don't understand the criticism of the COM deployment feature though - it's surely just an alternative way of deploying a SL app?

That doesn't mean I trust MS's motives - embrace (to gain share), extend (to lock in), destroy (the competition - having achieved market leadership) - same as ever. They just haven't got to the "extend" phase yet.

To be fair to MS, I am thankful, having to use Lotus Notes every day, that MS occupy the dominant desktop software position nowadays and not IBM.

Open sourcers rattle EU sabre at BBC on demand player

It needs DRM because it's on-demand

".. they already broadcast without DRM or any form of encryption over the air. You can't possibly claim that offering it on the internet is any different." Its different because its on-demand. With iPlayer you don't have to wait for the broadcast so you can painstakingly tape the whole of Little Britain Series 1 or whatever, instead of having to purchase the DVD.

There are plenty of reasons why DRM is broken and most of the content can be found elsewhere but if we accept that DRM is required here as an assumption, then I can understand why the BBC is using DRM, even though I'm a Linux user at home. It's to protect their international sales of DVDs etc. Now I can run closed-source & proprietary software with an "incompatible license" under Linux, e.g. ATI's video drivers, so as and when BBC produce their own codec & DRM they can port it to Linux without having to make the source code available under GPL. Unfortunately there is nothing they can get from the open market right now for that purpose, hence they've gone with WMP DRM initially.