Posts by David Roberts

Curious to know if the UK's Tory-led government is a mega spy? Answer: Yes

Mushroomed?

From the article it looks like the number of requests has increased but the number approved has stayed constant.

Snapper's decisions: Whatever happened to real photography?

Total light?

Interesting stuff.

One thing I didn't really pick up on was lens diameter.

I assume one benefit of larger format cameras is that the total amount of light - photons per pixel - should be larger with larger lenses.

I assume that this makes a difference?

Piketty-Poketty-Poo: Some people are just itching to up tax to capital ...

ISAs?

Confused about your comparisons with ISAs.

As I understand it you currently have two methods of managing taxation on long term savings.

Pay tax going in (ISA) or pay tax coming out (Pension).

This gives two options and the outcome is either gambling or judicious investment depending on the rules when you want your cash back.

If you change to taxing consumption then people with ISAs have been screwed over - taxed coming and going.

If you just close ISAs to new money then your only option is a pension - but not quite.

One of the commitments you make when accepting tax relief on pension contributions is that you will leave them in savings until you retire.

This is a strong incentive towards long term saving and also reassures the government and employers that you aren't going to take their contributions (if any) and cash them in next year for that much touted Lambourghini.

So what incentive are you going to offer to lock up savings until retirement?

Or do you believe that pensions are pointless and people should save and not spend and if they don't save then the state should bail them out?

Cisco and friends chase WiFi's searing speeds with new cable standard

And another thing....

Why do they make Access Points with advertised wireless speeds in the Gigabits and the Etherned connection still at 10/100?

Men who sleep with lots of women lessen risk of prostate cancer

Reverse logic?

Several have already commented that it is already known that frequency of ejaculation correlates with prostate cancer incidence.

The article suggests that if you shag more women (and/or they shag you) your prostate health is better.

Alternative theory: men who are really, really horny all the time, so much so that will shag anything that moves and most staionary (and in extreme cases stationery) objects will over the course of an eventful lifetime as a side effect shag more women than the less driven. I note also that it didn't say attractive women.

So perhaps it is the constant horniness which is the main feature. How many times a day do/did you have an ejaculation (any cause) might have been a better measure.

Still, I look forward to the NICE guidelines on mens health being updated.

This Changes Everything? OH Naomi Klein, NO

Re: Europeans drive shorter distances

I think the point was more directed to wasteful design than size of vehicle.

For example we hired a motor home in the USA a few years back.

It was based on a Ford F450 pickup with the 6.8 litre V10 petrol engine.

In the UK we have a motor home.

A bit smaller, but there are equivalent larger models.

It has a 2.8 litre 4 cylinder diesel engine.

This doesn't however give about a third of the performance.

Drives about the same as the V10.

There has been legislation over emissions and tax on fuel which has forced the developmeny of more fuel efficient and cleaner engines.

The Uk has long journeys and rough terrain.

Continental Europe even more so.

So the argument that legislation and taxation has reduced motor vehicle carbon emissions does seem to have merit.

32,000 Hungarians plan to take to the streets for 'internet tax' protest

Just checking

So if I should for instance SPAM or DDOS somewhere in Hungary then the victim would also be taxed by the government?

Doesn't matter if the traffic is stopped at the ISP or at a firewall/router at a company boundary, traffic is traffic, no?

Think I might sell a botnet or two to the Hungarian tax people.

Ummmm....I did tick the anon box, didn't I?

Chipmaker FTDI bricking counterfeit kit

Re: life support?

Yeah, right.

All the life support systems are connected to the Internet and are updated ever Patch Tuesday.

Woolly thinking

Far too many posts saying that this is wrong, then offering alternatives that are as bad and sometimes worse.

As far as I can see, they have decided that their drivers will no longer support fake chips.

They have decided to mark chips that have been identified as fake by flipping a value.

This prevents the devices being walked around other systems with confusing results depending on the age of the driver, or re-enabled by rolling back the driver.

This effectively retro-fits a new feature to older drivers.

So, two choices:

(1) They are entitled to refuse to support counterfeit chips with their drivers.

(2) They are legally obliged to support counterfeit chips because "somebody bought them" . In which case, legal precedent please.

The main point is that they should publicise what they are doing (going well so far) and also produce some kind of meaningful error message (where possible) to inform the end user that the device has been disabled, and why.

As has been pointed out several times already, it is possible to re-set the value and then use older drivers.

However to go down this route the end user has to do enough research to know why the device has been disabled and to apply software fixes to continue to use known fake hardware.

Hopefully there will be a rash of returns which will get manufacturers to check the source of their components (for example by testing against this new driver) before shipping them out to the unsuspecting (or perhaps aware because of the low price) customer.

So FTDI are not bricking anything, they are just marking it so that their drivers will no longer support it.

Complaints about fake hardware should be directed up the supply chain.

Apple's new iPADS have begun the WAR that will OVERTURN the NETWORK WORLD

This could be very good if..........

Some markets demand dual SIM phones.

These are not very common in the UK on the leading hand sets.

If there is a market for dual SIM phones, then how about treble SIM phones.....

So one way that this could be very good is if you could have your usual two year subsidised purchase with your chosen carrier, but could also register one or more 'soft' SIMs with alternative PAYG carriers to cover the times when your phone tells you "emergency calls only".

You are still committed to the two year contract (so the subsidised model still works) but you can use other carriers when you need to.

If you travel abroad you can add other contracts without all the messing about with levering SIMs in and out and trying not to lose your spare SIM(s).

You can also use one handset for 'work' and 'personal' phone numbers.

One thing that would be good would be an agreement between carriers that they don't need to reprogram your phone when you inset a new SIM to add their own version of service numbers such as voice mail and customer service.

Anyway....ooops!

Just notice this in preview so it is late to the party.

Facebook, Apple: LADIES! Why not FREEZE your EGGS? It's on the company!

Re: As a parent I frankly disapprove

As a 'mature' person who can still kick a ball, walk in mountains, and ride a bike long distance I am wondering quite how old you think these delayed parents will be?

Also your measures of what consists of good parenting seem amazingly shallow.

My parents were older than most when I was born. My mother was 40 and my father over 50.

I lost them sooner than most of my contemporaries but that doesn't make them bad parents.

In their case they waited to see who won the 2nd World War before trying for children.

So help to plan parenthood as part of your career seems a valid part of a health package, as do all the other measures to help address the declining fertiliy which the developed nations seem to be suffering.

Given that people are expected to work until 75 now to avoid a pension crisis it seems reasonable to be able to plan when in your career you start a family.

My kids and their friends seem to have had a much longer ' childhood' - that is being responsible only for themselves instead of rushing into reproducing - than my baby boomer generation. Paint me jealous. I'm trying to catch up now.

Heistmeisters crack cost of safecrackers with $150 widget

Too much security?

If a lock is more or less uncrackable then other options become more attractive.

Chief of which is persuading someone who knows the combination to reveal it.

This leads to a certain nervousness especially where additional security involves identifying unique body configurations such as finger and retinal prints.

So perhaps a level of security which can deter criminals but still offer options which are more attractive than maiming or killing the work force?

Unless the contents are so valuable (to you not someone else) you would rather suffer or die than allow access.

Or using a time lock so that there is no point in trying to crack the combination when the safe is not guarded.

How the FLAC do I tell MP3s from lossless audio?

" It's a bit like saying you can have a steak for the price of a hamburger and choosing a hamburger anyway. That's dumb."

On the other hand, given the choice between tough steak and moist, juicy hamburger I would chose the latter.

Source components matter less than final presentation.

Cost of the components does not always reflect the quality of the finished product.

Re: Big boxen big bucks

I bought a cheap Tripath for a low-fi solution (ceiling speakers in the kitchen area).

I still don't have it connected up to the ceiling speakers, but I did try it out with some hi-fi speakers just for fun.

The results were surprisingly good.

I can hear a difference between the Tripath and my Marantz amplifier but it isn't much compared to the cost difference.

On the subject of subjective hearing - isn't one of the key areas the DAC?

I suspect that the DAC in say a mobile phone (or even a PC motherboard or sound card) isn't designed for the highest fidelity sound reproduction, but more for cheapness, size and power use.

However good the digital, it does have to be converted at some point to analogue and I suspect that a poor conversion may negate any significant differences between the digital formats.

I bought a stand alone DAC to test this and I can convince myself that I can hear a significant improvement in the sound when playing through my PC and USB to the DAC.instead of using the on-board DAC.

Haven't tested it with phone or tablet yet, though.

Payment security bods: Nice pay-by-bonk (hint: NO ONE uses it) on iPhone 6, Apple

Loyalty cards?

I only have one main credit card for shopping, plus a debit card for Aldi/Lidl.

So no major hassle in carrying them around and using them.

I have so many store loyalty cards that I need a second wallet just to carry them all around.

Now wouldn't it be nice if I could just bonk my phone to collect loyalty points and ditch all the plastic?

No security issues because who would want to add to my loyalty points?

O.K. someone might like to hack my phone to substitute their loyalty card details but this isn't going to bankrupt me.

Be nice if loyalty cards could be linked to payment cards as well.

Ummm.....scan the bar code and have the till scan the phone screen?

Might just try that........

15 MEEELLION malware-infested mobiles worldwide – report

Track........

Having problems with copy and paste with Dolphin, so can't post the text, but the malware seems to share the chatacteristics of nearly every Android app.

Are we sure this isn't just people using Google as a search engine?

Nope.

Numbers would be much higher.

DEATH TO TCP/IP cry Cisco, Intel, US gov and boffins galore

Re: What essentially saved TCP/IP?

What caused TCP/IP and SMTP to take over was the complete lack of security which made it trivial to implement and trivial to join and extend networks.

With X.25 and X.400 you had point to point connections where both ends had to authenticate then agree what features they would use before you could get anything working. You had complex routing and charging arrangements because everything routed via PRMDs and ADMDs.

TCP/IP and (optionally) a router plus the address of a DNS server and you could talk to anyone in the world almost instantly. Almost directly, as well - no going up and down hierarchies.

As usual OSI looked off into the future and ignored the current day.

Much of what was in the original OSI standards has crept in piecemeal via RFCs as the vision of the future proved to be correct (not that all of OSI was prophetic).

If we did have a managed network where every messaging system had to be authenticated by and vouched for by an ISP then we might get rid of the massive SPAM and phishing email traffic.

Field day for the bureaucrats and government spies, though.

Also, the entry level cost would have kept home users off the networks.

Re: Might this be the DAP of networking?

As far as I remember DAP was/is alive and kicking.

DAP was just too heavyweight (at the time) for client PCs (sound familiar? It is a recurring theme throughout OSI - complex design beyond the capability of budget equipment at the time of design).

LDAP ran on PCs and connected to an LDAP server which then used DAP as a back end for all the heavy lifting.

'I think photographers get TOO MUCH copyright for their work'

Re: Rampant, It was convincing until 'Strong IP'

Cure for T2 diabetes?

Really?

What is it and where can I buy it???

Britain's housing crisis: What are we going to do about it?

Build council houses

See title

Pay to play: The hidden cost of software defined everything

Looked at new cars recently?

You can have the slug, the cruiser and the road burner.

All the same engine size, strangely.

Oh, and what is this ECU thing?

Some kind of computer?

The golden screwdriver is alive and well in the auto industry.

So much so that modern cars have protection schemes to prevent the ECU being modified by third parties for a low cost performance upgrade.

Will It Blend? Maybe. BlackBerry’s secret comeback weapon

Integrate a phone and PC???

What a novel idea!!

Skype (other products are available) gives you a 'soft phone' on your PC with integrated telephony, messaging, contacts, hands free with a headset, incoming calls (if you pay).

So all the bits of the interface are there in clear view and windowed with your other desktop applications.

Phones integrate with PCs over IR, bluetooth, USB, WiFi....

Some phone suppliers even used to offer PC suites to manage your contacts and send SMS messages.

So what is so hard about having a Skype-style interface interact with your phone so that you can make and receive calls from your desk top?

Treat the phone as just another peripheral?

You can tether smart phones to use them as 'modems' to access the Internet.

So - sit down at your PC, put your phone in the cradle and your phone is integrated into your desktop.

Simples!

The integration is so obvious that I have reluctantly concluded that there is some kind of deliberate suppression of what would be a really useful integration tool.

But why?

Oh, and wouldn't it be nice to integrate your tablet and phone in the same way so that you don't have to pay an arm and a leg extra if you want a SIM card in your tablet?

It is all a dastardly plot, I tell you.

Raspberry Pi B+: PHWOAR, get a load of those pins

Birthday present sorted :-)

I have asked for a Pi anyway - so this is excellent timing!

Just need to decide on the case.

Microsoft refuses to nip 'Windows 9' unzip lip slip

Early adopters prices?

I got two copies of W8 64bit to replace Vista 32bit at the promotion price and for Windows that still seems a pretty good deal.

No big issues using W.8.1.1 with Classic Shell and there is even a useable email client.

So if they offer really cheap copies of W9 I would be interested for older boxes to become part of the network. W8 and W7 sem to play nicely together.

I'm currently locked into Windows because of essential third party applications.

Which is an intersting area which hasn't really been explored here, as far as I can tell.

Most companies still seem to write for Windows (as the major consumer plarform) with possible an IOS version as well.

Linux is still well off the radar.

Android still doesn't have consistent support for USB peripherals - that is you don't get a master port as standard, you need an adapter and hope the particular build supports your third party peripheral.

So until there is plug and play for a wide range of devices (one of mine is a blood glucose monitor) there will always be a tie in to Windows.

So I suspect most of the grumbling about W8 will gradually go away as market forces push people to newer hardware.

Until Android migrates upwards to the x86 desktop/laptop and brings the Play Store with it (the reverse of what MS are trying to do) then Windows will remain the only game in town for most users.

Mines the one with the Android phone and tablet in.

Felony charges? Harsh! Alleged Anon hackers plead guilty to misdemeanours

Blame the security guards and staff?

Just to be clear, the proposal is to charge staff if there is any loss?

So if a store suffers shoplifting you charge the counter staff and security guards with the crime?

Bank guards are guilty if there is a robbery?

You are guilty of a crime if your house is broken into?

Ad regulator pulls down Branson-backed magic undies

Other way round?

Tuck your phone into your underwear to go "off grid" and stop the spooks tracking you?

Stealth boxers could have a big market.

Are you stealthed?

No, just pleased to see you.

Who needs hackers? 'Password1' opens a third of all biz doors

Sad but true

I just bought a brand new Buffalo home router.

The administrator user ID seems to be hard wired to "admin" and the maximum password length is eight characters.

When alligator time reverts to swamp draining it is getting DD-WRT or similar.

Not the most secure set up I have ever seen.

Chromebooks to break out of US schools: Netbook 2.0 comeback not just for children

Difference from a Netbook?

My little EEEPC (recently retired) has about 16GB local storage.

Much smaller form factor than the 13" plus devices discussed here.

So what is the difference (demise of the netbook) - is it just a full sized PC with limited storage?

I am locked into Windows because of some specialised software (a lot of people probably are) but if I was not I do wonder what a Chromebook offers over a similar sized laptop running any Linux variant.

Cheaper entry cost, because they skimped on the local storage, but then CB defenders point out ypu can by external storage. In which case what are you gaining exactly?

Look like an excellent marketing strategy to get a non Windows OS out there but technically nothing special.

Chomp that sausage: Brits just LOVE scoffing a Full Monty

Carbs are the killers

A full English breakfast may well help you live longer - if you hold back on the bread and potatoes.

Weight loss diets based on fats and protein (look up LCHF) are surprisingly effective so a fried breakfast can turn you from lard back to slim.

It is the cheap bulk carbohydrate that generate the profits for the food industry and go straight into your fat cells.

Strangely, contrary to popular mythology, eating fat does not necessarily make you fat.

I'm looking at you Ancel Keys!

Your fitness tracker is a SNITCH says Symantec

Pi a red herring?

Seen this reported elswhere as well.

As far as I can see they built a blue tooth receiver using bits and pieces.

Nearly all mobile phones have bluetooth and smart mobiles can support scripting and you can write apps for them.

Or use a laptop with optional dongle if the BT chip isn't modern.

So what was the point of using a Pi?

Just to make the point that you didn't need masses of sophisticated spying equipment?

Or just because building something using a Pi sounds geekier and sexier than saying you wrote a Perl script for your Linux laptop? Or wrote an app for your Android phone or tablet?

Adam Afriyie MP: Smart meters are NOT so smart

Which devices are using resources?

A smart meter won't be able to tell you which appliance is using gas or electricity without either a massive infrastructure upgrade or intelligence associated with each device.

Obvious example - your gas meter just measures bulk flow and doesn't know if it is the cooker or the boiler using it.

So if you require intelligence at each device then once you know what each device is doing and you don't need intelligence at the meter.

Presumably all the fluff is just to conceal the fact that this is an installation of automated meter reading to put meter readers out of a job.

There is of course the issue of people who don't have an internet connection or a smart phone to enable one of the simple DIY home reading schemes, but this surely doesn't justify replacing every meter in the land.

Granted that it would be nice to include instant reading at the point of switching between suppliers, but simple add on devices could do that much more cheaply, as suggested in the article.

So time for a re think.

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

Water supplies?

Just thinking - there was a time when water was mainly supplied by gravity from water towers.

Now AFAIK these have been mainly replaced by electric pumps.

So there is no longer a short term reserve if the grid goes out.

Bad planning?

Boffins build FREE SUPERCOMPUTER from free cloud server trials

Re: Maths failure?

You appear to be assuming one bot per service

YES: Scotland declares independence ... from the dot co dot uk empire

Another money earning scheme

Promoted by Registrars.

Most people use Gogle to find web addresses and only see the text extension to an email address so how important is the domain?

Unless, of course, you are protecting a valuable trade name in which case you are being held to ransom.

Amazon begs Feds for drone test permission slip

Looking at this the wrong way round?

Second attempt - damn Android pad ate my first post.

Everyone seems to be focussing on the 'push' model of delivery where you have to be home at the right time for a van/car driver to deliver.

Now if you order from Amazon you probably already have an Internet connection at home.

You may well have used a local store to hold your delivery for you until you are ready to collect.

Alternatively you may want to take a delivery in your lunch hour when around your work place.

So how about a local store with a drone deck?

You arrive home (prepare to leave work) and check your email and you have a delivery waiting.

You click on the 'send now' option, and go outside, turning on your Amazon Delivery Wand with your unique ID without which the drone will not release the package to you.

Urban dwellers can also go out into the back garden or yard.

City dwellers in multi-storey properties can go out onto the balcony or open a very large window.

Drone arrives, wand used, package delivered.

Better still, you have a Portable Amazon Drone Deck with built in ID which removes the risk of you getting too close to whirling bits.

This can be hung out of a suitable window if you don't have access to a garden. patio, yard, whatever.

Or permanently mounted on a wall like a Sky dish.

Or carried (rolled up?) under your arm if you are taking a delivery during the working day.

So now you have an on-demand delivery system which can do the final few miles at whatever time of day or night you are ready to accept the package.

Especially good with urban high rises where it cuts out all the stairs/doors/lifts to be negotiated.

Also wonderful, of course, for the illicit delivery of high value packages such as drugs and weapons.....

This assumes really good collision avoidance software in the drone which will allow it to land on a clear spot in a city park without slicing up passers by.

This also assumes reliable automation to load the drone, or the exploitation of minimum wage workers on zero hours contracts to load the darn things at unsocial hours.

Helicopter for cool technology and red triangle for associated risks from spinning stuff.

Top ten car gadgets: Get your motor running with new shiny-shiny

Re: iODB2 Engine Data Reader - Cheaper option

Just to check.......

I am looking at Bluetooth ODBII adapters on Amazon and eBay.

They claim to be for reading and resetting diagnostic codes.

Useful, but I would also like to see other information such as fuel flow, throttle setting and speed (to calculate MPG and work out an economical driving mode).

Do all adapters provide all the available information, or are some limited to problem codes?

An in car computer (Android phone, tablet or Windows laptop) with more functionality than built in displays (if the vehicle has one) could be very useful.

I note that Torque warn against cheap eBay Bluetooth adapters - anyone recommend a good one?

Oh SNAP! Old-school '80s Unix hack to smack OSX, iOS, Red Hat?

Show me the money

Just a bunch of chancers putting some buzz words together in the hope of getting some funding.

If they are lucky then they will be presenting to finance and marketing who aren't taking detailed technical advice.

Once they have the funding, just crib the answers from this thread and beers all round.

Windows 7, XP and even Vista GAIN market share again

W8.1 is gaining share

Nobody so far has mentioned that new laptops can ship with 8.1.

I know because I helped a friend migrate from ax XP tower PC to a laptop recently.

I was all geared up for a painfully slow update from 8 to 8.1 but it wasn't required.

I installed Classic Shell and she seems perfectly happy.

I am running 8.1 on an old Dell laptop because the initial offer made it a cheap option to replace Vista.

At the moment it boots faster than Vista did but then Vista booted quickly when we first got the PC.

The laptop has been running Ubuntu but Windows wins when you need/want to use applications which only run on Windows.

I also found Samba counter intuitive and a general pain when trying to network with Windows machines. I could fix it if I dedicated a chunk of time to the task but hey - it should just work!

I see nothing special in W8.x to justify an upgrade from W7 (which I run on one of the PCs) but again I see nothing terrible enough to justify installing W7 instead.

NASA: Satellite which will end man-made CO2 debate in orbit at last

On the gripping hand..

...nobody seems to be considering the possible case that

climate change is happening (as it has many times in the past)

it is being driven by changes in CO2 levels

these changes are NOT man made

we still need to develope strategies to deal with them.

Hopefully the measurements will cover this also.

What's it like using the LG G smartwatch and Android Wear? Let us tell YOU

Re: Sacrificial screen? - possible alternative?

In nearly all cases you can buy a separate piece of kit to replace each of the functions on a modern smart phone.

However after a while you end up having an awful lot of separate bits of kit.

Smartphones are replacing hand held and car mounted GPS units, timepieces, PDAs, mp3 players, dictation machines, cameras, portable games consoles...........

So I would view a "smartphone" as a portable sophisticated little computer which happeba to also do phone calls.

An extended choice of peripherals would be nice.

For cycling I would like a GPS display for navigation, plus track recording and upload to MapMyRun or similar.

I would also like to be able to chane or upgrade the navigation software supplier without replacing the hardware.

I would also like to be able to add new peripherals when they become available again from competing hardware and software vendors.

Sacrificial screen?

I am looking for a secure waterproof mount for my phone on my bike so I can use GPS functionality.

For each mount there is at least one review where the mount has failed and the phone has gone under a car.

So a remote display at say £50ukp would be much more practical and less financial risk than putting a £500ukp phone in harms way.

I could even carry it around on my wrist when I am not on the bike.

So far I can't see any must have function as a wrist mounted device, although a remote screen for GPS navigation might be nice but not essential.

Keep monopoly or make network expensive, NBN Co warns

Rural subsidy?

Just to check.

If the issue is that a previous Government decided to mandate broadband for all at a price which does not reflect the cost of provision, and decided that rather than subsidise it directly they will allow the Telco to redistribute revenue from "cheap to provide" areas, this might be a workable model.

Popular with rural areas, not popular with cities, but might avoid the traditional padding of costs where government subsidies are involved.

So on the face of it the current government removing the monopoly on the revenue generating part seems to scupper the whole idea.

Is this the intention, to remove an unpopular agreement made by a previous government?

FAA shoots down delivery by drone plans

Re: Beware of dog

Or the operator could sit in the truck and deliverpackages to several households at once.

Phone call - can you come to the door please our drone has arrived.

Russian gov to dump x86, bake own 64-bit ARM chips - reports

CPU the only risk?

All this talk about back doors in ARM code - are they also going to manufacture their own motherboards, graphics chips, network cards disc controllers etc both on and off board?

Plenty of scope for back doors and logging software apart from the CPU.

Wi-Fi WarKitteh and DDoS Dog to stalk Defcon 22

Re: Catspaw

Just get yourself a very large tomcat to maintain a cat and crap free zone around your property.

In the interests of communications security, of course.

Bitcoin ransomware racket makes bank

Air gap!

I wonder how many people who do backup their files also keep the backup medium disconnected apart from during the backup?

It just doesn't fit with any automated backup manager and overnight backup strategy.

It doesn't fit with any strategy using NAS.

In the "good old days" when you could fit your backup onto tape or CD you could have your rack of media and even an off site backup if you were really paranoid.

Now disc storage is so huge that old style backup strategies don't really work and I would guess that most people who back up regularly are still at risk.

Small businesses especially so where you probably don't get backups unless someone has automated the whole thing. Manual backup procedures are unlikely to be correctly followed until after the first big disaster.

Finally, if you improve your backup strategy the malware will just wait a bit longer before attacking to ensure that it has had time to infect all your backups, or at least infect enough crucial current data that you have to pay.

Tech talk bloke compares girlfriend to irritating Java tool – did he deserve flames?

Should have said his boyfriend

Then nobody would have dared complain.

US bloke raises $250k to build robo-masturbation device

Personally I think this sucks.

Feds hunt 30-year-old alleged to be lord of Gameover botnet

Cryptolocker?

All the information seems to be about removing Zeus.

If you have a Cryptolocker infection does this mean you have to wait two weeks before you can ransom your system?

Chip and SKIM: How dodgy crypto can leave shoppers open to fraud

Physical security?

What I think I am reading is that the problem is a partial implementation of the standards coupled with weak physical security.

Upgrading and or changing the standard isn't going to solve this.

Security standards have to be coupled with robust implementations and strong physical security to work.

Of course, this takes time and effort and money.