* Posts by Chronos

1246 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Oct 2007

Google open sources $124.6m video codec

Chronos
Troll

Dazed and confused.

Ain't ambivalence a bitch? On the one hand there's privacy and on the other there's a huge kick up the arse for the patents-in-standards mob.

Well done, Google. Even I can't knock this move.

Troll, because there will surely be some kicking around brandishing patents before this is all over.

F*ck you, thunders disgruntled fanboi Apple user

Chronos
Linux

Oh, come on!

The Penguin jumps. It's bloody obvious because he's the only one that has a Launchpad account.

Wireless wee detectors hit Aussie grundies

Chronos
Pint

COBBLERS!

The update will be known as IPeeV6.

Jobsian drones shackle gamer with 'lifetime' iPad ban

Chronos
WTF?

From the sublime...

...to the ridiculous. This cult is getting ever worse. It's especially telling that they equate someone trying to buy a $500+ consumer item as a "child ['s face] when their new toy isn't in stock." They obviously think all of their customers are eight years old.

Still, one must take one's comedy where one finds it. I, for one, continue to ROFL at every story published.

Facebook starts random application shutdown

Chronos
Linux

Re: To all these victims (and all potential candidates too)

"Maybe you'll finally understand what that F in FOSS stands for."

Facebook? :o)

Times websites want £1 a day from June

Chronos
Go

Bye bye, News International!

This here's the Internet. It was built and designed with mutual co-operation in mind and was never intended to be "monetized," whatever the hell that is. The *only* exception to this is the pr0n industry.

There are other news information services. I really do hope more and more greedy sods do the same as it'll remove the dross from the web and we may be able to get some search results that really are sharing information rather than just trying on the hard sell. Next thing to deal with: Comparison sites.

Nothing of value (except perhaps Jeremy Clarkson's Sunday rant column) will be lost.

Penalty for silent calling goes sky high

Chronos
FAIL

Re: I want

Problem is, blocking of withheld CLI (I'm assuming you mean System Y's *227 blocking) does NOT stop international calls coming in without CLI. This makes it next to useless as a countermeasure against marketing companies.

Fail. That, along with not being able to selectively block outgoing premium rate numbers without losing other functionality is about the most retarded idea imaginable.

Google vows to delete Chrome's unique client ID

Chronos
Stop

Mock all you like...

...but remember this: Once you've given your privacy away you can't just take it back again, especially if you have given it to an obsessive data mining and retaining outfit such as Google.

As an aside, I can't help thinking that this apathy towards online security and privacy is the continuing evolution of the Geocities "DIG ME!" type people sans clue who think they know everything but, in reality, have very little idea of what goes on in quiet corners of the Internet, let alone the consequences of their actions online and all the little ways their habits get noticed. It's also perplexing that they see loss of control as a small price for everyone to pay and extol the virtues of a privacy-free society before they have even the least idea of how big that bill is going to be when it lands.

Your faith in human nature is touching. Naïve, perhaps, but touching.

Chronos

Re: Alternative...

You can also use Scroogle (SSL) as an anonymising proxy if you really need all the Google results such as shopping pages for the item you've already got that you're Googling to unbrick. There are search plug-ins for most major browsers over on Mycroft ( http://mycroft.mozdev.org ).

Use the SSL variant. It makes man-in-the-middle snooping rather difficult (not impossible, but you knew that already after the recent MITM attack on OpenSSL using renegotiation).

Microsoft claims 90m sales of Windows 7

Chronos

Re: Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant

Ah yes, hitslink.com, because nobody ever spoofs their user agent for compatibility purposes, do they?

The numbers are skewed; probably not as much as the fanboys would wish, but they really are unreliable.

UK.gov IT minister makes open source gaffe over browsers

Chronos
Joke

Re: In a perfect world...

...which feud will erupt from a mailing list discussion about the colour of the paper used for members' bills, at which point everyone will fall out permanently and the project page will become yet another unpopulated orphan with 0 files in the repo and a perpetual alpha status.

Don't try to deny it, you know it's true.

Open source - the once and future dream

Chronos

Yes...

...I think he meant VFAT, the patent of which is still valid (ask TomTom) although the distinction between them is sort of lost these days with long filenames being the norm, so it's an easy slip of the keyboard to make.

Note to Captain Kirk: Warp speed will kill you

Chronos
Boffin

Entangled Bose-Einstein condensates

What comes out the other end may not be the original, but it'll be a pretty good quantum facsimile...

/me reading far to much Chris Moriarty and maliciously introducing into the collective commentard consciousness the old debate regarding teleportation and souls.

Google's Android code deleted from Linux kernel

Chronos
WTF?

Re: Future of Linux

Linus is not an a-hole. He's a bastard (as in BOFH) and you can ask him yourself if you don't believe me. Linus' function is to oversee the kernel code repository and be a single point decision maker in the event of disputes. If Linus wasn't a bastard with power the LKML would be full of arguments and nothing would ever get committed.

This is one the strengths of Linux: Without an overall "benevolent dictator" it would be rule by committee, which we all know is a recipe for disaster. So, I'll go so far as to say Linus' function is essential for the smooth running of the kernel development process. Linus occasionally delegates power to other sub-bastards for the same reason. Yours is not to reason why, yours is just to enjoy the results. If you think you can do better, why, just fork it!

Chronos
Stop

Re: BSD license allows for this, it's perfectly legal

"Microsoft and Apple are also doing it, so what exactly is your problem ?"

Just this: The hypocrisy. Do as I say, not as I do. There's enough of that about without infecting open source with double standards.

What part of "Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer" do you not understand?

Relicensing is NOT an option. BSD code stays BSD licensed. Extracting strings from the Windows XP nslookup binary proves that Microsoft have fulfilled their obligations. Relicensing BSD code under GPL, however, is not compliant.

But who cares? It's only BSD, right?

Steve Jobs dubs Google's 'don't be evil' motto 'bulls**t'

Chronos
Stop

Re: The Rise of Evil Google

Part of the problem is the misconception that you show in the last sentence. It really is possible to live without Google (and by that I mean completely, YouTube, Blogspot, DoubleClick, Google*). The reason they're so powerful and, by extension, dangerous is because people refuse to look at alternatives.

I've had their entire IPv4 and 6 space blocked both ways long before the majority realised what a dangerous behemoth Google was becoming and I can still function on the 'net.

Fujitsu: 'iPad? That's ours'

Chronos
Thumb Up

@nsld

Of course, the damned thing has a browser. I didn't think of that. Good comment.

Chronos
Boffin

Crucial issue:

Is PoS equipment the same sector as consumer electronics? IIRC, for a Trademark to be violated, the use has to cause confusion. As much as I am loathe to stick up for Apple, this time I would suggest that they're not the same markets.

As usual, the only people who will get rich from this are the land sharks.

Apple's iPad - fat iPhone without the phone

Chronos
WTF?

I don't see the point...

...of the 3G versions. These things come with WiFi: Just get a MiFi router and Robert's your mother's brother, with the added bonus that Apple can't dictate to your choice of networks.

New avast freebie security scanner aims to keel-haul MS

Chronos
Stop

Does it expire?

Because, if it does, you can shove it. The reason I used to use Avira and now use MSE is because they both don't just stop working on lusers with a cryptic message about licences. The false sense of security this creates is worse than running without an AV suite.

Keep space station past 2015, pleads ESA chief

Chronos
Joke

Boots on Mars?

Knowing the Yanks, it's more likely to be McDonalds...

IT workers told, 'Put down the biscuits, fat boy'

Chronos
Pint

mono a mono.

You are Miguel de Icaza AICMFP. Or beer, whichever is easier.

Mozilla teases surfers with near-final version of Firefox 3.6

Chronos
FAIL

The 64 bit version

Have you ever tried to compile the Moz source on Windows? It's unbelievably convoluted, needs bits of this, that and the other IDE and fails more often than not.

Fine for us freetards (since the build against GTK2 and GCC is simples), but the Windows users will inevitably be using pre-compiled binaries.

The year in tech lunacy - an El Reg guide

Chronos
Pirate

Bad Phorm

...to not include the biggest tech lunacy of the decade, embedded spyware in your ISP. And where the hell is SCO? Surely Kent and Darl deserve a bit of derision for all their hard work?

Icon: Privacy Pirates?

Google 'in talks' over Googlenetbook

Chronos
Joke

Sounds like a shoe-in...

...for the now "defunct" CrunchPad, seeing as TechCrunch seem to know all about it. Or maybe I'm just seeing conspiracies again.

Nvidia boss: Intel suit to 'transform computer industry'

Chronos
FAIL

JHH

== batshit crazy. Continue to take anything he says with a truckload of NaCl. The only people this may affect is AMD, and even that could go both ways. Until JHH sorts out Fermi, this constant, pitiful, desperate practice of renaming existing cards as new ones and, frankly, shuts the fuck up and stops making an arse of himself, nV will continue to be a laughing stock.

Virgin coughs up digital tech support for clueless users

Chronos
FAIL

£2.99 to fix issues...

Branson's Ransomware. Did this thing originate in Russia, by any chance? AntiVirus 2010 has detected malware on your computermabob and is requiring much wodka to be fixing him.

Joking aside, if this becomes a legitimate practice, how do we expect the lusers and n00bs to spot the real ransomware before it's too late?

Mozilla man sends Firefoxers to Microsoft Bing

Chronos
Stop

Haven't got one. Guess I didn't donate enough to NuLabour.

Because, Dan, if they did that in the way your text seems to suggest, all hell would break loose with people calling Microsoft silly names and kicking off a whole new round of "Microsoft is EVIL for replacing my default search."

MS have to tread carefully, being in the sights of so many government agencies.

If you mean "Add Bing" on the dropdown when visiting Bing's landing page, similar to the way Cuil does, then that should present no problems.

Chronos
Pint

Does he mean...

Ghostery? http://www.ghostery.com/ He surely does...

Beer. It's Friday.

Chronos

Re: Except that...

Yes, I know Mozilla are in between a rock and a hard place. I don't want to be unfair with them, but I value privacy and. even without taking into consideration Eric's little rant, I do not trust Google. You're right about Chrome, too. All it needs is NoScript and AdBlock-alike plugins and it'll start to take market share right and left and privacy be damned.

Still, configuring a custom build isn't that onerous on FreeBSD. I just have to maintain parity between the official port and my local one and not call it Firefox.

Chronos
FAIL

Just one way Google invades your privacy

It's all well and good to direct people to other search engines, but what about the crap that's built into the browser? Safe search, geolocation, the "awesome" bar, search plugins, mail handling via Gfail and so on. Each and every one of these is a potential privacy leak.

Please, Mozilla, remove this dross from Firefox. If I wanted Google to have a record of my browsing sessions I'd tell them myself. As it is I'm stuck compiling a custom build of Shiretoko just to evade this rot.

Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy

Chronos
Boffin

ORLY?

http://mycroft.mozdev.org/ look for scroogle ssl, install it and delete the rest. My custom build of Shiretoko has this by default, without the rest of the dross that comes with Fx. You'll also be wanting to disable "safe" browsing and geolocation to stop that reporting back to the mothership, too. There's also a search plugin for IE/Camino on there that works with IE8.

Rocket science it ain't.

Google slaps barcodey stickers on Favourite Places

Chronos
WTF?

Hmm,

"Businesses are at liberty not to put the service mark into their windows"

How very fucking magnanimous of Google.

Nice business you got going there, boy. Shame if anything were to "happen" to it, like your customers got driven away or something...

The return of the Psion-sized PC

Chronos
WTF?

Not only that

...but it's a Yank layout, too.

Webmasters fume as Google profiles signed-out searchers

Chronos
Terminator

The Gorg?

We are the Gorg. Your lives, as they have been, are over. Your species will adapt to service us. We will add your web searches and interests to our database. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Yes, and we all know how that turned out last time, too. It was confounded by Data (both times) and it can be again if they get too cocky.

What, no Borg icon? Ah well, terminator will have to do.

Mozilla lights fire under Thunderbird

Chronos
FAIL

Meh

"Like Firefox, we will move to a more rapid release cycle - where we can provide incremental improvements"

Sounds reasonable so far...

"while leveraging the platform,"

Ah, tl;dr or, alternatively, too full of weasel-words; didn't read. It's just another load of old marketing bollocks that nearly broke my bullshitometer. Drop all the Google crap and start talking like a human being, then perhaps I'll start listening again. Firefox and Thunderbird used to be no-nonsense applications that won on less bloat and more control. Now it seems Firefox is yet another data-gathering app for Google, Thunderbird has stagnated and Mozilla has lost its way.

Let me know when the project is going to get back to its original goals and I don't have to build a custom version of your browser just to retain control. Otherwise I really couldn't care less.

Why probe Google for antitrust? It 'does no evil'

Chronos
Stop

You're looking at it all wrong...

You like Google, but you're not the customer. You're the product.

FreeBSD bug gives untrusted root access

Chronos

Not really

All you need is access to a local *account*, not physical access. This is in the same league as the (now fixed) NULL pointer dereference vulnerabilities of a couple of months ago. Coupled with another vulnerability in, say, Apache (this is just an examplia gratia) that can inject executable code, you can get owned remotely. We really need to come up with a better term than "local" for these types of vulnerability. IMHO, "potential remote" is a more accurate fit.

What I can tell you is that the emergency patch does indeed stop the published exploit code dead (frantically tested on my testbox at 6AM with a very quick and dirty regression test set). Whether it patches all cases of this vulnerability remains to be seen, but at least it guards against cut/paste s'kiddies for now.

Chronos

Who cares?

We do. The responsible and established method of reporting vulnerabilities that potentially affect a large installed base of machines is to report via the relevant project's security contact. In this case, all the information you could possibly need to report in a responsible manner is here:

http://security.freebsd.org/

The FreeBSD secteam always credits researchers who report responsibly with finds, so I see no reason why the researcher in this case chose to make public full exploit code without giving the project a chance to mitigate this issue first. Ego or mischief? You decide.

"Har har, you're not a secure as you thought you were" isn't very constructive, especially when the FreeBSD community is much more amenable to the idea that bugs exist, nobody is perfect and the best direction to expend effort is in finding and fixing them.

Chronos

Patch for 7.1

Just in case you're not subscribed to the security@ list, Eygene has just posted a link for 7.1 (and 7.0, which is EOL)

http://codelabs.ru/fbsd/patches/vulns/freebsd-7.0-rtld-unsetenv.diff

And yes, Pierre, it's a nasty that caught us all with our pants down, mainly because it was disclosed to a public list first. There are established methods to report vulns like this directly to secteam@ which are clearly laid out on the www. When someone discloses in this manner, we're all playing catch-up, users and project alike. It's irresponsible, but I suppose we should expect it from time to time.

Kudos to cperciva & secteam for responding to this so quickly.

O2 gives birth to GiffGaff in gust of gabble

Chronos
Grenade

Six months

Interesting timeframe: That's just about how long it would take your old network to disable your SIM for disuse if you weren't smart enough to do something chargeable with it in the meantime. Just call me cynical.

Grenade. Well, it's a short-fused time-bomb, isn't it?

Apple seeks OS-jacking advert patent

Chronos
Thumb Up

Fantastic!

Yes, please do patent it. Then whichever operating system uses this patent I'll avoid like the plague.

More adverts? Please, leave me a little screen space for what *I* want *my* computer to do.

Bug in latest Linux gives untrusted users root access

Chronos

NULL pointer derefs

The problem with so-called "Security Enhanced" Linux is that it re-enabled userland access to page zero (why? Who knows) while the mainline kernel explicitly denied mapping to anything below 0x1000. This raised NULL pointer dereference issues from a simple DoS to a privilege escalation issue. The same thing bit FreeBSD not so long ago and we now have a sysctl (security.bsd.map_at_zero, disabled on legacy releases but enabled by default on > 8.0-Beta) to disable userland mmap to page zero. Whether SELinux still allows zero page mapping or not I don't know.

Theo has quite a good analysis of this sort of problem here:

http://www.openbsd.org/papers/ven05-deraadt/index.html

As for being a local issue, this means local as in local user, which includes anyone with SSH access or using any exploit that allows executable code injection with local user credentials. Attackers do not need physical access, so the mantra "If someone has access to your box, it's not your box any more" does not apply here.

Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

Chronos
FAIL

POLA...

...I'm sure they've heard of it.

UK gets final warning over Phorm trials

Chronos

@Jonathan 17

With an ex cabinet minister on the board? Of course they will. You scratch my back, I'll flip you the bird behind yours...

Google stalks your social circle

Chronos
Big Brother

Joined up

Two words that should, by now, strike fear into the hearts of anyone who has ever made a mistake or been foolish online.

Don't be evil - or stupid, embarrassed or careless because we're watching you and those moments *will* come back to haunt you, a little like bash.org with real names.

Atheists smite online God poll

Chronos
Stop

Atheism

One wonders why one would reject one load of prehistoric control freakery and immediately latch onto it's opposite. If you don't believe in ${DEITY}, that's it. No need to replace it with anything, the question should be moot and a non-issue for you. Active discussion promotes the idea that you're not entirely certain and trying to convince anyone else of your rectitude just perpetuates the asshattery.

Since you can't prove a negative, just drop the entire subject and get on with your life. And, for fuck's sake, please stop poking the theists with a pointy stick; they're as entitled to an opinion as anyone else, especially given that it has been shown that some brains require this feudal belief system to accept the fact of life's unfairness without turning completely bat-shit crazy.

We'll find out who is right in a few years anyway. Oh yes, it's on all our to-do lists, usually the final entry.

As an aside, I'm surprised Apple haven't patented religion yet.

Brother creates direct retinal imaging specs

Chronos
Thumb Up

Augmented reality nears...

...unless you count the Beeb whose reality is already augmented ;o)

In the car: "There's that stupid bastard that cut you up two weeks ago! Target lock acquired, rendering Hitler 'tash, missing teeth and Magoo specs. No, of course you don't look more ridiculous with these on your face..."

By the way, was I the only one thinking "Whose bloody brother? Is this a religious thing?" until the capitalisation sunk in and the penny dropped? It's been a while.

MS claims early success for freebie security scanner

Chronos
Coffee/keyboard

@TeeCee

Bastard! T|N>K. Again. But when you're right, you're right :o)

Stallman calls on EU to set MySQL free

Chronos
Pint

Re: Preventing Forking?

You can't fork MySQL and *call* it MySQL. There is absolutely no barrier to creating a new GPL fork providing it doesn't infringe Sunacle's trademark. The other barrier to forking is those who, for commercial reasons, would want to change the licence as they will never own the copyright on the code and have no authority to change the terms under which the code is distributed. In other words, whatever your fork would be called would have to be pure GPL and any code changes must also be GPL as that is the only authorisation you have for distributing the original source. Stallman should be pleased since he keeps harping on about one licence to rule them all. See the Monty Program fork MariaDB for niggly little details.

What I suspect Stallman wants is what he can never have. He can have the entire codebase, mess with it, release half-arsed versions of it and add code from other sources then release the results under the existing terms of the GPL, a licence he himself considers the epitome of freedom. He just can't have the MySQL name. It's exactly the same situation as Mozilla's browser source: Change with the default build (even a custom mozconfig triggers this) and you cannot brand it "Firefox" as it's a trademark. Stallman should recognise this. One word: Iceweasel.

This is yet another "look at me! I'm St. Ignucius, saviour of free code!" moment and his hypocrisy is showing in the way he's not satisfied with the application of his own damned licence. You wrote it, Richard. If it's deficient in some way, you only have yourself to blame. Expect a GPLv3.x with anti-Tivo style trademark clauses shooting itself in the foot again. There is *no way* Sunacle will surrender that trademark, just as there is no legitimate way the EU can take it from them. In fact, that trademark is probably worth more to Sunacle than the entire codebase.

If you want to get clever with your fork's name, UnnameDB or SQLEWNN seems logical in that it conveys the loss of the right to use the MySQL name whilst keeping the codebase and upgrade path intact.

Beer. That's not free either.