Posts by Dillon Pyron

Firefox update fixes bug brace

Re: So easy

Well, I haven't been infected by any of the issues resolved in the latest update of Firefox.

But it updated automagically. Unlike IE, which needs to be started manually. And only once a month. Malware authors know this, and wait until Wednesday to release new attacks. Zero day attacks are common on both browsers, but Mo publishes fixes ASAP. Unless it's a tremendous hole, MS won't fix it until the next patch release in a month. Assuming they've gotten around to it. I know of two vulns that were sent to MS three months ago that haven't been patched. Sooner or later these are going to go from "protected info by white hats" to "exploited by black hats".

Woz backs internet video start-up

Red McCombs

Also benefactor of the University of Texas Red McCombs School of Business and attempted purchaser of an NHL team (can't remember which one, a Canadian one, IIRC).

Someone once called Clear Channel the Microsoft of radio, but they're more like the Walmart. And all the Democrats in Congress point at them as a reason for more regulation of the airwaves.

Bush to Congress: streamline star-chamber spy court

flush

That flushing sound is another right going down the toilet. Since "the terrorists" don't want us to have any rights, Bush is playing right into their hands. There are plenty of innocents who have been put on the "no fly" lists, with no explanation of why and only a limited chance of getting off. If that can happen to them, then why not list them as "terror suspects" and tap their calls?

I know a guy by the name of Timothy McVeigh. He says it took him 6 months to convince the feds that they guy they were really looking for was cold and moldy.

MS-DOS paternity suit settled

Bloat

CP/M, and for that matter, all the other contemporaries, ran on numerous configurations of minimal size. With great ease. Compare that to the current MS offerings. Vista won't run on most of the machines produced a year ago, or at least not well. In July of 2006, the average laptop came with 512 MB and a 60 GB drive.

It's a never ending story. Bigger hardware allows for sloppy coding. Sloppier coding require even bigger hardware. And so it goes. Where's Atrau?

Cisco disconnects Linksys brand

Support?

I wonder how long they'll support older Linksys products? I recently downloaded a firmware upgrade for my 6 year old Linksys firewall/router. Will they still publish these, or only for the latest and greatest? I haven't been terribly impressed with D-Link, so that's the only way to go. Of course, I do have an older box and two 100 BaseT NICs and a nice 8 port managed router. I guess I do have an open source option.

CTIA beats drum for status quo

Pot, meet kettle

And if CITA gets its way, won't the normal cast of characters be getting a subsidy? They won't have any real competition, therefore raising the rates that subscribers pay.

Terra Firma tightens grip on EMI

Decision time

Wouldn't it be funny if shareholders waited in hopes of getting a better offer and having the deadline expire, only to see prices drop. I've seen this happen a couple of times. Fracking greedheads.

Laser iPhones shrink your brains

Re: Re. No Links

4.1.3_U1, your comment is now obsolete.

New tool enables loading of unsigned drivers in Vista

Unsigned drivers? I don't understand.

I'm not sure I understand, especially the comment about 2K3. I'm running EE R2 and SP2 on several different machines, x86 and x64. On all of them I've been able to load unsigned drivers with a quick click of OK to the query "Is it okay to load this driver?" I've been loading unsigned drivers on 2K3 since January. Now that my customer is about ready to ship the product, the driver group is finally going to get them signed.

US denies entry to security researcher

Cyber terrorist

He's a cyber terrorist. He's clearly here to teach terrorists how to crack government systems. I took his seminar three years ago. Feebs, CIA and NSA were the majority. And the rest were fairly well known white hats. Most everybody was a CISSP, which has rather stringent ethics standards associated with it.

What a crock. Of course, over at DEFCON, you can still learn how to pop a MEDCO lock. And since they aren't getting paid, I know that several non US nationals will be teaching various "dark arts".

Denied visa waiver? I guess we can keep him out whenever we want. Such a shame, he's a really nice guy.

DVLA turns censor on grubby number plates

Old plates

When I was at Texas A&M back in the 70s, I saw a car with QQQQ and a Corvette with 2 FAST.

I haven't checked to see if H4X0R is taken. Or L337. I've seen 5HI7. Now that the Brits have discovered L337, I wonder how long before TxDOT figures it out. Probably another 5 or 6 years.

UK phone records to be kept for a year

Tor?

I recently heard a speaker at a "white hat" conference (TRISC) advocate the use of tor. I'm waiting for someone to introduce an encrypted version of Skype.

BBC iPlayer launches, but with limited viewer reach

BBC in the US

"along with Eastenders (God knows why, but there you are) "

Oh my god, are they ever popular in the US. It is, according to some TV elitists, one of the greatest things to happen to TV.

"do I want to watch the 52 channels of crap available in the GoodolUSofA?"

Excuse me. It just so happens that we have 500 channels of crap!

See above comment, also.

US law firm cleared of robots.txt DMCA hacking charge

Plenty of "less than scrupulous sites"

There are plenty of sites out there where you can get the information. robots.txt is kind of like putting a sign in my front yard that says "don't look in my front yard", but without putting up a view block, there's nothing to say for it.

Fort Bragg grunt in gay porn vid shocker

This and that

First of all, it's not a grunt. That would be a Marine.

Second of all, she got a reduction in grade and a general discharge. Which I guess is what a two star gets when he catches the clap.

Third of all, yes, you surrender all of your rights when you join the military.

Fourth of all, "conduct unbecoming" only applies to commissioned officers (conduct unbecoming an officer).

Fifth of all, it is actually Uniform Code of Marsupial Justice.

Virtual narcs boot Second Life casinos off the island

Taxes

It's all about taxes. If there was some way Uncle Sugar could be convinced that he could collect his "fair share" (yeah, right) then online gambling would be legal. I don't know of a single person who has ever declared any of his winnings from online gambling.

FBI asks Congress for phone record slush fund

That's the public amount

$5.3M is the publicly stated amount. There are plenty of budget items that simply say "CLASSIFIED", with no recipient or amount. And they don't even say how classified.

The Republicans have gone through and trampled one set of my rights. Now the Democrats will come in and take the rest.

Hell, I can't even move to Fiji!

Sony Vaio reborn for the living room

HDMI

I'm exactly the opposite. Right now I don't have an HDMI capable AV receiver (mine is a three year old antique). So I used optical out from my cable box and equally antique p-scan DVD player (both Sonys). And I don't really see many HDMI AV receivers out there. At least not below the $800 level. So you're stuck with stereo TVs.

Windows Vista unreadiness revealed

The same company?

Isn't this the same company that demoed XP's BSOD during its product announcement?

McLaren accelerates away from fines and expulsion

Bernie would be a fool

Bernie would be a fool to kick out McLaren as long as "young Lewis" (Steve Matchett on Speed) still has a chance. He has fans everywhere. Not even the Tifosi can agree on Kimi vs Felipe.

OTOH, this wouldn't be the first time that the FIA was viewed as favoring the red cars (now that they're a proper Ferrari red instead of Marlboro red).

Newcastle council credit card file lifted

I've said it before

"Apparently, the file in question was placed on an insecure server and subsequently uploaded to "a computer address registered outside the country"."

Please see my comments on data breaches over the last six months.

It's called "operator headspace error"

US price cut for Xbox 360 HD DVD player

Price difference

It's because you Brits and Europeans are making so damned much money. Microsoft wants to squeeze out every ounce of profit it can, so it goes after the markets with disposable income.

BluRay has about 40% more software out there right now. And growing. Toshiba just hasn't made the deals with the studios that Sony has. Plus, they don't have a studio.

Virgin pulls the plug on mobile video

Joining the chorus

I'll join in here. "Mobile video: A Solution in Search of a Problem"

Judge questions theft claims of Facebook rival

Verbal contracts ...

... aren't worth the paper they're written on.

I've heard similar comments from a judge before. They are so screwed.

"Does the defendant even need to bother showing up for this?"

Yep, but just barely. I wouldn't wear shorts and flip-flops.

Web contract changes are just not cricket

Re: Meanwhile, in meatspace

Yes, nickj, you can say no. Of course, this will terminate your relationship with the bank. Which, in the case of your credit cards, means that they are cancelled. You'll still be able to (or at least in the States) pay your cards off at the old terms, but you won't be able to put any new charges on them.

So, yes, you can tell them to piss off. You just need to start looking for a new bank.

Data loss blights US military, Aussie bank, and Fox network

The real threat is ...

Rep Henry Waxman and the rest of the House Committee on Judiciary Reform are whining about how P2P is a deadly threat to national security. In the meantime, without any of that nasty stuff, almost a million names and PII are leaked. Company confidential information is leaked. All sorts of good stuff is leaked. Not because of P2P, but because of sloppy data management. If you don't want confidential information to leak out, DON'T PUT IT ON A PUBLICLY ACCESSIBLE COMPUTER!!!

BTW, SAIC does security consulting for the DoD.

Firm finds danger in dangling pointers

IE apologisits

All of you out there who are whining that Firefox is getting nailed for vulns need to notice that Mo puts out patches within days, if not hours. It's taken MS how long???

I need to price out airfare to Vegas, I may have to go to Blackhat after all.

Masturbating lag cops 60 days' extra porridge

Sex offender

Okay, here's the good news for him. I think indecent exposure gets you labeled as a sex offender, which leads to mandatory registration and eventually living under a bridge because the requirements are so strict that some men can't find a real place to live.

Zero-day security flaw leaves Firefox wide open

Firefox patches vs. Internet Explorer patches

So we'll probably see a patch for this vuln by the end of today. When will we see a patch for the next IE vuln? In a month or so?

Latins prefer Microsoft to Google

Not sure where you're coming from

Simon, I'm not sure about your comment about muppets.

"comScore's list of the region's top ten destinations also includes two European ISPs"

They are in no way saying that Spain is part of Latin America. What they said is that one of the popular "destinations" for Latin American users happens to be a Spanish ISP.

Red Hat flags OSI offenders on partner site

Integrity in business

What I'm seeing here is a situation where Red Hat is getting whaled upon by the OS community and is responding by listing the licenses, but not putting any pressure on the vendors to change their own designation of the software as Open Source. That's not really integrity.

shubin, thanks! We're about ready to remodel our master bath. You've really made me feel good about the whole situation. We're tossing between a turn key and doing the general ourselves. At least some of the people are ones we've used in the past.

US gov's flying laser hit by delays, problems

AW&ST

It's not called Av Leak for nothing.

Can Osama keep Bush afloat?

IT angle?

I understand that Paris Hilton has been sending text messages to bin Laden from her iPhone.

I hit the trifecta!

Suit blows £105k in London bar

1980 Mouton-Rothschild

I've got a case of 1980 Mouton-Rothschild. Anybody want to come by and help me knock it off? We can try and make the Reg.

Dubai? Could be somebody from Halliburton.

Miss America calls for mandatory internet safety classes

Safety?

"We don't allow our children to ride their bikes without first teaching them about proper safety"

Yes, but that's the parents who supposedly do that, not the government.

Entrapment? It depends on who says "let's meet in RL".

I know a Texas Ranger who's "Missy, a 16 year old blond cheerleader"

Oz cans porn filtering trial

Hundreds a day

Porn sites pop up by the hundreds everyday. Filters would have to be updated every few seconds.

I recently saw where porn makes more money than the rest of the net combined. I kind of doubt it, but I wouldn't be surprised to find them much higher than the rest.

Brit IT millionaire dies on Chinese mountain

High altitude kills

High altitude is an indiscriminate killer. HAPE or HACE can strike anybody. And the physical stress of both climbing and the altitude can result in minor issues becoming major problems.

UK gov rejects Cliff Richard's copyright extension

Pension? What's a pension?

I haven't worked for a company with a pension since 1994, and then I cashed out. I've been self-supporting myself since IRAs (the savings plan, not the Irish) were okayed for everybody in the US.

At several of my employers, they had 401(k)s, which I contributed to and they did a little matching. I've been maxing out my IRA every year.

Anyone who depends on someone else to support them after retirement is a fool.

Oh yeah, Elvis. The reason his estate still collects royalties is because they will collect them for 95 years. They will START to run out about 2050. And little things like the name are trademarked, which means the estate can license them forever.

First Airbus seats to be auctioned for charity

Seat config

They don't have the config on Seat Guru yet. I know it's three class, with lots of first and business. Of course, with capacity for a million, there will be plenty of plebeian seats.

Singapore has a rep for good service, so that's a plus.

But it's AUS to LAX to SYD to SIN. Then SIN to SYD via eBay, then SYD to LAX to AUS. That's got to be at least $4000 plus the auction price.

I'd rather just write the three charities checks.

The A380 will fail. The airports will invest billions in infrastructure or won't put in a penny.

Samsung parades 30in screen with DisplayPort

Oh great!

TVs are barely showing up with HDMI/HDCP (and AV receivers still are rare enough) and now a new interface comes along. And I thought we were set for at least a few years. But how long before we see any devices that will drive these TVs? SuperDuper-HD-DVD? UltraViolet-DVD? XBox 720? Playstation 10? (remember those ads a few years ago?)

Facebook in court over IP theft allegations

Settlement and Web 2.0

I smell settlement. With either "no admission of wrong doing" or totally sealed.

If this is Web 2.0, I eagerly await the specs for 3.0. It can only be an improvement. I hope.

Mozilla confirms own URL handling bug

Noscript

I love Noscript. I'm stuck with stable at work, so that's my cure. I haven't installed 2.0.0.6 RC at home because, well, because I'm too lazy. But I've got Noscript. I also resist using IE unless I absolutely have to.

I agree, IE should validate before sending to FF and FF should validate before sending to IE. BUT, FF should validate after receiving from IE and IE should validate after receiving from FF. You should NEVER EVER trust another program to protect you from the bad guys. To do so is either crap design, crap coding or pure laziness. Or more likely, a combination.

Google nabs aerial camera company

Property appraisals

Some taxing districts in the US have used them in the past for tax appraisals. Let's say you forgot to tell your appraisal district about that new pool in your backyard. They'll nail you for it, eventually.

By the way, I thought Beech scrapped all their Starships.

Isilon gets thin with phat storage app

Hmmm

And shortly after this comes up, there's an article about LeftHand.

China's 'elephant man' goes under the knife

Re: So it took them 30 years to decide it's a problem

"Sounds like it was American doctors..."

Not if he had insurance.

That's socialized medicine for you.

USB goes Wireless

Gray market?

You mean someone would actually come to the States, buy something and take it back to the UK? What an absurd concept.

Astronauts chuck fridge off space station

SI units?

The press release was designed for Americans, who, for the most part, are hopeless when it comes to SI (or metric, as we call it). There's even a lite beer commercial where they are talking about grams of carbs and one guys asks "Are you sure those aren't metric grams?" To which the other replies "I'm pretty sure all grams are metric."

I don't bother with conversions. That makes it silly. I know how much a pound is, I know how much a kilo is. And I don't even bother with the 2.2 pounds per kilo.

RFID a 'technical blunder', report says

RFID and toll tags

I worked at TI when RFID was first developed (I also saw DLP years before its releae). They set up a "toll station" in the back parking lot at Lewisville (where we made HARMs and developed JSOW). They could only test to about 85 mph due to space restrictions. The test car was a Buick l GNX.with the McLaren engine.

They also had a test ranch with about 1000 head.

Jesus Phone needs an exorcist

Maliciously crafted website?

Isn't that how so many sploits get run? Whatever they're doing (haven't watched the video yet, not going to Blackhat this year) I'm sure it's mostly a Safari vuln.

TomTom bids €1.8bn for map provider

Leveraged?

"Borrow €1.6M to finance a €1.8M bid? Gotta love this highly leveraged capitalism (or perhaps not, if you're a first time buyer trying to buy a house in most parts of the UK)."

Or in California, where people were putting down $50K for a $2.2M house, then getting an interest only loan. Of course, you can now buy that house for about $1.5M at the foreclosure auction, if you've got cash.

Did the author mean social networking or social engineering. "Okay, on the Garmin map, Main St ends right about here."