Posts by Wee Heavy

US laptops-on-planes ban may extend to flights from ALL nations

Re: Who fights with aircraft security?

Mac minis do have a battery. It's a BR2032 Lithium Polymer battery that keeps the clock running and a few other things while disconnected from power.

TRUMP SCANDAL! No, not that one. Or that one. Or that one. Or that one.

Re: Casus belli

That's rich... Hard to call whatever it is Trump has in Washington DC an "administration". I think "clown car" is more the tone you were looking for.

Chap 'fixes' Microsoft's Windows 7 and 8 update block on new CPUs

"Oh, Microsoft, WTF are you smoking?"

Washington state? Microsoft probably has a license to grow the stuff. Which would explain a lot.

If you bought a dildo in Denver, the government must legally be told

Re: Some research was done

This seems accurate to me. When filing a New York state income tax return, there is a section for including sales tax for items purchased where you may not have paid the sales tax (such as for some on-line purchases). I would imagine We the People will see this sort of reporting become typical in all of the states. The question of whether it is or is not invasive or require that the actual goods purchased be itemized is something we will have to watch closely.

Of course it does not take much imagination to figure out what might have been purchased from dildos.com, but it could be much more difficult to figure out what was purchased from amazon.com. Not sure how well this would play out on the grand scale. Seems like it could cause trouble for certain on-line retailers selling specific items by pushing folks to buy from larger retailers that sell anything. But maybe it will help the brick and mortar mom and pop type shops that have taken a beating since the rise of the internet retailers. Again - wait and see.

AT&T took too much money from customers, will pay them back by ... taking less money

Re: "Account Credit"

Taking money you are not entitled to is theft. You or I would spend time behind bars. Corporate slobs just get bonuses for fucking you and me. Please pass the lube...

If your smart home gear hasn't updated recently, throw it in the trash

Re: Can someone explain the risk?

I am sure there are many other examples, but this one springs into me head:

UPnP. If supported by your router, allows a UPnP compliant device (such as a webcam) to open a port through your firewall without any intervention by you. No need to poke about in your router to create the requisite port forwarding and firewall policies - the helpful device handles that for you. Contrast that with a normal outbound connection through a firewall which only allows related traffic back in (which is probably how it should work). A port opened via UPnP by an insecure device without your knowledge, effectively leaving it opened to the world seems to be the risk in a nutshell.

Me, I disable UPnP on my routers or I buy ones that don't support the "feature" at all. I also see precisely zero need for a web connected thermostat, light bulb, door lock or toilet seat, so I don't buy any of that crap either.