* Posts by h4rm0ny

4560 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Jul 2008

WannaCry kill-switch hero Marcus Hutchins collared by FBI on way home from DEF CON

h4rm0ny

So it's been, what, eighteen hours since anybody has heard from him? They took him and he's just vanished from communication? Poor sod - he's probably terrified. And with the USA's history of punishing people for being smarter than them, I wouldn't blame him.

Hope he's alright. I doubt he will be anywhere near as well-disposed to helping people or governments after this.

Windows Subsystem for Linux to debut in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

h4rm0ny

Re: Standardisation is always welcome

A forwards slash is a frequent component of both written English and mathematical notation. A backslash is used almost solely for paths and escape characters. Putting the latter on the almost never used backslash rather than on the frequently used forward slash made good, logical sense.

UNIX popularised the wrong thing.

Apple removes VPN apps in China as Russia's Putin puts in the boot with VPN banlaw

h4rm0ny

It's oppression...

...when they do it. When our government does it though, it will be for our safety.

Kid found a way to travel for free in Budapest. He filed a bug report. And was promptly arrested

h4rm0ny

Sounds to me like T-Systems fucked up and this guy contacted BKK about it (entirely reasonably). Effectively reporting a problem to T-System's employer. Probably the first thing that happened was BKK called up T-Systems and the latter went "Not Us! Evil Hackers!"

But who knows? What was the notice period he gave them before disclosing it publically?

China's 'future-proof' crypto: We talk to firm behind crazy quantum key distribution network

h4rm0ny

Re: Misses the point

Yes, but if someone tortures information out of me, I know about it. (Else it's not going to work as torture). There's a value in knowing whether your messages have been compromised all of itself.

UK government's war on e-cigs is over

h4rm0ny

Re: Jesus, NO!

It's normally polite to apologise if one farts. Or at least it used to be. But it was also presumed people couldn't help it. So why is it considered not rude to release even stronger and more persistent offensive smells that you don't have to? Seems a poor argument by comparison to me - if anything it highlights that vaping IS rude.

h4rm0ny

Re: Jesus, NO!

At the time I post this, the opening comment is at 80 down and 90 up. That alone indicates that vaping bothers people. I certainly know that I find it very unpleasant to be inhaling clouds of scented nicotine gas from people in an office with me. If it clearly bothers people as much as this - approximately 50% of people just reading this comments section find it offensive, then there is sufficient reason for it to be banned.

Hey, remember that monkey selfie copyright drama a few years ago? Get this – It's just hit the US appeals courts

h4rm0ny

Re: if cost == 0 then panic

>>"My understanding of Mr Slater's creative input was from this 2011 article where he describes leaving his camera on a tripod for a moment and unexpectedly discovering that the animals were using it, taking 100s of photos. He gives a different account later, saying he trained and coaxed them."

They're not different accounts, they're accounts of two different events. The one you refer to is that the monkeys were fiddling around with his camera, intrigued by seeing their reflection in the glass. After this happened, David Slater later set up the camera with the intent of getting them to trigger it themselves, picking out an appropriate lens, putting it on suitable settings, attaching it to a tripod which he remained close to steady and also did the selection and post-work (creative inputs by themselves). It's not changing his story, it's bad reporting conflating two separate incidents. Probably because when this story first broke, a tale of the monkey's running off with his camera and him later finding these photos sounded more entertaining to the journalists or editors.

h4rm0ny
Facepalm

I think it's generally agreed that you don't get a new copyright by sticking something into a photocopier. Well, most "photography" isn't much different from photocopying.

Massive ignorance on display here. Ignorance of the details of this case and ignorance of photography in general. Study the subject a little before making such stupid statements.

h4rm0ny

Re: Concept of "legal person" and copyright ownershi

Accidentally and in a public place? Probably not. However, there was little accidental about this photo. The photographer went to a lot of effort financially and creatively to set it up in the hopes of getting one of the monkeys to trigger it and for that to result in a good photograph.

h4rm0ny

Re: Devil's Advocate

>>Please explain to me what is Marxist about PETA?

Their membership on the whole. They have a very heavy overlap with the extreme Left, core support in Antifa (who again need not be communist but largely are).

>>But I am tired of people using "Marxist" to mean "something indefinite I personally dislike

I'm not and largely don't. However, the GP called them that and I'm just observing that in my experience they actually largely are. It's nothing inherent to PETA's mandate that is Marxist. And certainly nothing to do with Animal Rights as I am a supporter of Animal Rights and am pretty Right Wing. But PETA membership heavily slants that way, ime.

h4rm0ny

Re: if cost == 0 then panic

>>"To alter your question... If *I* push the ball down the slope, do I own the copyright, or does the person/monkey who setup the camera?"

It follows creative intent and input. If someone set up some gorgeous shot with a micro-camera of the ball-bearing down on the camera and you merely pushed the ball at some arbitrary time, then clearly the angles, the exposure, plus any post-work such as selection, cropping, colour balance, et al. are all the work of the photographer. They supplied the creative input and intent. This is especially the case if you didn't know about the camera or - as in the monkey's case - didn't know what it was and the exposure, lens, flash, et. al had all been chosen for you.

If your pushing the ball had some creative intent or value. E.g. you saw a woodlouse walking across the path of the ball right in front of the camera and you timed it so that the woodlouse looked up in horror as the ball-bearing rolled towards it Indiana Jones style, then you would have grounds to claim copyright, barring contractual agreements otherwise.

Copyright is to preserve intent and creative input.

h4rm0ny
Flame

Re: Is the monkey confused ?

I made the same decision over it. I used to contribute yearly to Wikipeda until this. I actually went as far as contacting them to let them know why and got a rather high-handed, morally superior response WIKIsplaining to me why there was no copyright on the picture. An explanation that ignored the actual facts of the matter, as it happens.

A blackly comic note to this would be that if PETA were to win this, then all those Wikimedia proponents who argued that they didn't have to pay licence fees because Slater didn't own the copyright due to the monkey actually being the creator, would now find themselves being sued by PETA for back-usage of the image based on their own arguments.

h4rm0ny

Re: Devil's Advocate

>>You forgot to say they're also pinko Nazi Commie librul traitors, and any other term you personally don't like.

Ordinarily I'd agree with you challenging someone characterising a group they don't like as "SJW marxists". But honestly this is PETA here and that pretty well describes the majorty of them.

h4rm0ny
Mushroom

Re: Devil's Advocate

The Wikipedia page on this subject is one of the most obnoxiously smug and faux-neutral things I have ever read. PETA's contention that a monkey owns the copyright is deeply flawed. It would be flawed even were the monkey a human. They present this as an act of will on the monkey's part whilst others present it as simple happenstance rather than intent on the photographer's part. Neither is true.

David Slater travelled around the world specifically for the purpose of nature photography by which he earns his living, spent days being accepted by the monkeys so that they would tolerate his presence. He purchased the equipment, set up the equipment, waited patiently for the right circumstances travelling with the monkeys and deliberately set the camera up so that the monkeys could trigger it. Is copyright not possible on all those nature documentaries where an animal triggers the camera themself? What about where a camera is positioned over a nest or fastened to a bird? Can copyright not exist if the photographer is not physically operating the camera at the time. David Slater went to a LOT of effort to set things up so this would happen. PETA are fanatics who insist animals must be treated as people even to the absurd extent that they must be regarded as taking deliberate, informed actions when obviously they do not - such as the monkey triggering the camera.

Also, as any photographer will tell you, taking a picture is hardly the beginning and end of the work. David Slater went through all the photographs to select appropriate ones (how many of a monkey's feet and leaves do you think were also taken?), cropped and positioned the photograph, did post-work on the photograph (which is an artistic and technical skill in itself), publicised the photograph. I can guarantee that if it were just some raw original with no work by himself, it would not look remotely as good. Copyright covers any creative input to a work, not just clicking a camera button.

But other than that, no, let's assign copyright to a monkey that pressed a button. And that tapir that wandered through a photography trap at night so we could get some wildlife photography of them in their natural habitat? Better track it down and give it a copyright entitlement as well.

The work of nature photographers such as David Slater is a huge help to conservation efforts and animal welfare in that it shares with people around the world the beauty and wonder of nature. But it relies on copyright in order to exist. Nobody just gives him money to do this - he earns his living through it. We should be happy that there exist ways of making your living that actually enrich society rather than just everybody being a lawyer for example. Not punishing it and trying to harm nature photography. David Slater actually travelled around the world to photograph these monkeys to help raise awareness that they were in danger. PETA, by trying to take away his livelihood, directly harms his efforts to save the very monkeys they claim to care about.

Fuck Peta, quite frankly. Authorship depends on the creating input and the provided resource to create the work. The photographer provided both, the monkey neither. Signed (in a hopeless attempt to counterbalance the reputation damage PETA's stunt is causing) -- a vegetarian and supporter of animal welfare.

John McAfee plans to destroy Google. Details? Ummm...

h4rm0ny

To be fair, I would prefer he had won the presidency. Wouldn't you? :)

UK.gov snaps on rubber gloves, prepares for mandatory porn checks

h4rm0ny

Re: Lucky parliament have got so much time on their hands

>>"Business is not interested in having VPNs outlawed or made less secure."

VPNs will have to have a justifiable purpose. I.e. if you're a business register your VPN connection and why. If you're a domestic home user, you'll need to justify it and furthermore, given that such laws as this will typically be used retroactively to catch people you want to catch rather than be the reason you catch them, showing that you've used it for illegal purposes will be a crime of itself.

Furthermore, a VPN isn't inherently anonymous. It's just often used for that purpose. A business could have a VPN to some other office. It doesn't mean that you can definitely have a VPN to a popular and legal VPN service. Easy enough to declare VPNs for the purpose of anonymising domestic use illegal and leave business needs untouched. Hard to enforce of course, but then that's not the point, is it? The point is that if the eye of Sauron turns in your direction, it has something to pin on you.

EDIT: Can we have an Eye of Sauron icon for state surveillance? Poor Orwell is looking a bit passé these days given by how far we have actually surpassed what he imagined with his concealed telescreens.

h4rm0ny

Re: Lucky parliament have got so much time on their hands

So, the UK government wants to do the following:

• Encourage people to hand over credit card details to porn site operators

• Force people to provide socially embarrassing information to untrusted parties.

• Increase overlap between mild non-standard porn and more serious things such as underage porn and snuff porn by making the mild non-standard porn only available from the same illegal sources as others. Much the same way less harmful drugs can be gateways to more harmful drugs because you have to go to the same people due to criminalisation of the former.

• Declare for other people what is and isn't sexual morality for them.

• Make larger and more legitimate porn sites less desirable than smaller and dodgier ones who can flout the laws.

• Perform extensive and intrusive online surveillance to enforce this. (Ostensibly).

N.b. a couple of the above tie into specific implementations. Namely that May's government is very puritan and believes porn itself is morally wrong.

To those simply saying "VPN", they are correct that it will be trivial to avoid this measure but there are a few further things to keep in mind:

• This is one more move in the chess game. That it doesn't mean check does not mean that it isn't an advance by your opponent that has consequences.

• For a police state, everybody must be guilty so that anybody can be charged at any time. Criminalising common behaviour achieves this and as using a VPN to avoid such checks will undoubtedly be illegal, vast swathes of people will suddenly become "guilty" and thus subject to targetting should there be a reason to find something on them later.

• This will later be used as a justification for outlawing / backdooring VPNs because the very obvious next step is to show that VPNs are being used to access "illegal porn". Why is it illegal? Because the government made it so. That is what we are seeing today.

• The government can still go after the porn companies themselves if they do not implement this. Most would to prevent them losing chunks of a large market like the UK. So will those of other countries. Customers using VPNs will only mitigate this somewhat, not prevent it.

Burglary in mind? Easy, just pwn the home alarm

h4rm0ny

Re: "Showing their age"?

Yeah - the point with a scratched record is that it can get stuck in a loop and keep repeating the same bars over and over. A corrupt file just stops.

Linus Torvalds may have damned systemd with faint praise

h4rm0ny
Headmaster

Re: Women Linux Lord ?

I'm not sure any single person can be "a women".

US border cops search cloud accounts? Ha ha, nope, negative, no way, siree – Homeland Sec

h4rm0ny

Re: Power crazed psychos.

I am certain that uniforms influence behaviour of the wearer. Not only the fact of their presence which is trivial to demonstrate affects behaviour, but the style and colour of the uniform. Dress people up like Gestapo and both they and the people they interact with will treat them differently from if their uniform resembled a museum assistant.

Ben Elton once suggested that we should make the police wear pink as it would help make things less confrontational and aggressive.

Ubuntu Linux now on Windows Store (for Insiders)

h4rm0ny

Re: Mensa

>>With regard to Windows PowerShell: I must be very, very dumb, because I don't understand it. Or else Windows & MSFT did not ever explain it properly.

What do you mean they didn't explain it properly? They are obviously not going to come around to your house and sit down with diagrams. There are a number of good books and sites on Powershell. Which have you read / frequented? MS provided a lot of resources for those who are interested.

>>I do not know what "very standard object orientated interface and scripting approaches" actually means.

It means they are consistent from tool to tool. So if you want to turn an array of objects to a CSV table (attributes become columns), then you can use ConvertTo-CSV. If you want to convert the array to HTML, you can use ConvertTo-HTML and if you want to convert it to JSON objects you can use ConvertTo-JSON. And that's a trivial example, it goes beyond that into consistency of parameters and usage across a very wide range of tools. So you will see common and consistent parameters across like tools such as -DisplayError. That's what is meant by standardised interface. It means the elements you learn once you can reliably use again elsewhere. Ditto for language syntax.

>>I do remember what I could figure out all by myself: DOS 3 up to DOS 6.22, when the "help system" actually did help

DOS is hardly comparable to Powershell which has features including Exception handling, fan-out remoting and more. Also, DOS never had hover over descriptions of what every command did along with a list of acceptable parameters and their types, iirc.

>>So let me ask you again: What is the "object" of "object oriented programming"? To me it is sheer and utter mean-spirited and unnecessary obfuscation, without any good explanation available anywhere.

Object orientation allows for more flexibility and simplicity. Nearly every part of the Windows OS is exposed as an object. Therefore nearly every part of it can be managed from Powershell scripts. The modularity afforded by object orientation allows easy combining of distinct tools and adherence to the UNIX principle of 'do one thing and do it well'. For example, if I want to output a list of files and their attributes, I can take the output of ls which is an array of file and directory objects and pipe it to a tool such as ConvertTo-CSV and the latter tool will work fine because it simply uses the attributes of the passed in objects. Later, I might want to output a list of security settings and I can pipe it to the same tool (ConvertTo-CSV) and it will all just work because it's arriving as an array of objects just as before. The receiving tool doesn't need to know how to parse a list of file paths. It doesn't need to know anything about security settings. It simply accepts and works with an array of objects whatever they may be. No text mangling, no special coding. All just OO niceness.

>>Anyone who tells me different is a paid lackey of MSFT. Essentially, MSFT destroyed "personal computing" as much as possible, preventing people from fixing their own, making their own, deciding what goes on their own computers. I hate them for this.

Yeah, no. I built my own computer, I'm comfortable working around in it. I honestly don't think, based on your post, that you've taken the time to really learn how Windows works.

h4rm0ny

>>I do still remember Noel Edmonds taking the piss, starting a competing organisation he called DENSA for those who weren't smart enough,

Fun fact: DENSA and MENSA actually organized a wine and cheese party to meet each other once.

MENSA forgot the cheese. (True story!)

h4rm0ny

Re: <strike>Mensa</strike> Powershell

>>And then they made it stupidly verbose

You know there is such a thing as auto-complete? Plus the vastly greater consistency of naming of both commands and parameters provides far more gain than the brevity of awk, sed, top, whatever.

h4rm0ny

Re: Mensa

>>"but I don't really consider MCSE an asset when reviewing resumes, in fact I deduct points for it"

You can value the knowledge or not, consider the qualification an asset or not. But to actually count it against someone just shows you to be a snob. Someone put in time and effort and money to try and improve their career and you consider that a minus! Not smart.

What can you do with adult VR, some bronze gears and a robotic thumb? On a Friday?

h4rm0ny

Re: Prosthetic Controllable Thumb

I thought the extra thumb was marvellous. I loved that it appeared to be managed by sensors on the other fingers to provide a degree of independent movement in lieu of actual never connections. Genius, imo.

Shame it had to be accompanied by the inevitable pan-pipe and drum machine soundtrack, mind you.

Kerberos bypass, login theft bug slain by Microsoft, Linux slingers

h4rm0ny

Re: What an interesting set of comments.

>>"That's a logical fallacy. Open source is a defense against security flaws, but the protection it offers is not absolute (life's funny that way, not offering very many absolutes)."

I really don't think that in practice it is a defence. Proprietary / Open Source are as likely or unlikely to be bug free as each other because the deciding factors are the number of developers, age of code base, pace of development, code review practices... And none of these are determined or even significantly influenced by the Propriety / Open Source split.

What Open Source protects against is not bugs but deliberate subversion. It is a great deal harder to hide backdoors in Open Source than in Closed Source. Massively so. THAT is what Open Source provides (well, along with surety of future availability), not protection against bugs. The latter is just a sales pitch by the over-enthusiastic.

Set your alarms for 2.40am UTC – so you can watch Unix time hit 1,500,000,000

h4rm0ny

Re: It can go on

And then you could begin on the next great technological break though - stopping!

U Vlad bro? Docker accidentally cuts off Ukraine

h4rm0ny
Linux

Fucking US sanctions.

Docker is Open Source software contributed to by parties around the world. It is actually French in origin, as well, not American. It is meant to be free for all. And yet we have governments telling us who we can share it with.

I mean, the USA can't actually enforce this, but the principle pisses me off.

Academics 'funded by Google' tend not to mention it in their work

h4rm0ny

Re: Nothing to see here

>>I made no morale judgement, just merely pointed out the practice is widespread in all fields. Of course it should not continue but if AO wishes to tackle this issue then it should be addressed in a broader context otherwise the scope is somewhat narrow and appears churlish.

Making overly-broad statements doesn't effect change. Specifically trying to chip away at parts of the problem can. And trying to stop one bad thing does not preclude trying to stop a different bad thing. It is normal and efficient for people to expose corruption in the area they work in. Would you equally chastise someone in the defence industry exposing wrongdoing by BAE for not publicising corruption in the pharmaceutical industry? The longer one thinks about what you wrote, the more it appears to be an attempt to deflect criticism or corrective action from Google.

And exposing such things is especially important when we're talking about the ability to manipulate public perception. A company lobbying a politician to vote a certain way is bad enough, and should be stopped. But at least you can say "that is a corrupt politician". A company manipulating academic studies and in control of public perception through search results and popularising or obfuscating particular articles or videos (e.g. YouTube), is in an even more powerful position than politicians.

Bringing this to people's attention is vital.

these companies can change people's perception of the world they live in.

Uncle Sam says 'nyet' to Kaspersky amid fresh claims of Russian ties

h4rm0ny

>>Does Kaspersky have email protection? You know, viruses, trojans, malicious links and attempts to manipulate foreign elections?"

Manipulation of foreign elections. Hmmm... off the top of my head:

* The CIA have been actively fomenting disorder in Syria since 2012 (on record) and spend about a billion dollars a year funding and training rebel groups there.

* The USA was actively agitating in the Ukraine before the Orange Revolution there which overthrew the elected ruler of the country (whether or not there was electoral fraud as claimed, we'll probably never know but the overthrow was pushed for by the USA).

* When the Palestinians democratically elected Hamas because their only alternative was the insanely corrupt and Israeli backed Fatah, the USA froze their bank accounts around the world, sanctioned palestine and said the Palestinian people must vote again and elect someone the USA approved of.

* President Obama all but explicitly endorsed David Cameron and the Conservatives before the 2015 UK election with numerous statements and photo ops.

You could, in fact, go on for a pretty long time listing out the instances of the US interference with elections in foreign countries. But Oh No Kaspesky!

h4rm0ny
Paris Hilton

"whom do you trust?"

Well, given UK and USA intelligence are far more likely to be spying on me than the Russians, and that I'd be far more concerned about UK police battering my door in if I said or did something the UK government doesn't approve of than a police force on the other side of the world that doesn't give a shit about me, the logical answer would be Kaspersky.

Not that anyone has ever given any evidence of collusion as far as I can see and Kaspersky would have a lot to lose if they did.

Former GCHQ boss backs end-to-end encryption

h4rm0ny

However, there is also the simpler possibility that they know this wont stop "bad guys" but they can use it to dissuade law-abiding people from using encryption. That allows them to more easily sweep for those that do and hone in on them. It's not being able to hack encrypted emails they want so much as ensuring that most emails aren't encrypted.

h4rm0ny
Unhappy

Re: No longer in post -> Can speak truthfully

>>The ones still in the job act as if their families would be murdered in their beds if they simply spoke honestly.

*cough*David Kelly*cough*

h4rm0ny

But he's a former GCHQ boss. Haven't you noticed that people who have retired / no longer depend on approval of others (public or government) suddenly start talking sense. Why even politicians suddenly become seemingly rational once they're no longer subject to party whips and looking good to the electorate. (Well, sometimes).

May the excessive force be with you: Chap cuffed after Star Trek v Star Wars row turns bloody

h4rm0ny

Re: No contest

I reckon I can top that:

Star Wrek (Full Movie)

Captain Pirk meets Commander Sherrypie. Affectionately sends up both B5 and ST at the same time. Worth it for the AMI Bios boot screen gag alone.

h4rm0ny

Re: No contest

I discovered Lexx late at night on Channel 4 many, many years ago. It was the first episode and the moment a computer glitch switched the fates of a wanted terrorist with an assembly of school children who had arrived for an award ceremony, I knew I had to watch all of it. It's on Amazon Prime at the moment so I re-watched it the first couple of episodes. And guess what - the sight of a bunch of smug school children being sentenced to death by lizard still makes me laugh.

Honestly, neither Star Wars (no science), nor Star Treck (awful science) come close to the holy trinity of space nonsense that are Babylon 5, Blake 7 and Lexx.

h4rm0ny

Re: No contest

That's funny. Avon saying: "Have you considered amputation?" has been my default reply to anyone complaining of a headache to me for years.

Doesn't win me many friends, though. :(

Web inventor Sir Tim sizes up handcuffs for his creation – and world has 2 weeks to appeal

h4rm0ny

Re: Sir Tim is 62

>>Yes. Obviously not for the average consumer, but for a well-resourced and motivated person/organisation. It requires only one such organisation to crack the DRM and make the content available to everyone else.

And yet none have. UHD BluRays have been around for a couple of years now. UHD BluRay has been holding up just fine.

h4rm0ny

Re: Mixed feelings

>>"Trade is a matter of bargaining. If providers want to well to us then they have to deal with our terms. Success happens when a common set of terms can be agreed on by both sides."

But that's tangential to DRM. You are bothered by DRM because it allows wider range of terms to be negotiated over. Nobody has to buy DRM'd content and were the above truly what you believed then you would recognize that DRM doesn't impede the trading process. It logically enhances it because it opens up new options. For example, I rent movies on Amazon. That is a set of terms that would not be possible without DRM. I would be limited to posted discs or all-out purchase because there's no way a company can rely on an honour system for people to delete MP4 files after download. The DRM allows both sides to agree on a common set of terms that couldn't exist otherwise.

Let's be brutally frank here - your worry is not that people will not be able to agree on common terms and negotiate. Your worry is that people will do so and they will agree on terms that you personally do not like.

h4rm0ny

>>"Fine, but those who purchase something want something they can keep. Big Content tries to sell the same thing over and over again, rather like prostitution."

Really? When? Selling you DVD's for movies that you previously had on VHS? DVDs were way better than VHS and nobody forced you to buy. Selling Blu-ray versions of movies you had on DVD? Don't think the upgrade is worth it then don't buy it. For others, the noticeable jump in quality was. "Big Content" may try but unless they're actually forcing you to, then that's their right. Blu-ray to HD w/ HDR? Again, nobody forced you to buy if you don't think the quality jump is worth it to you.

Honestly, if a movie means that much to you that years after seeing it you still feel the need to see it still more and with higher quality, then pay. It's a different product. You were happy with the original quality. If you're no longer happy with that quality that doesn't mean you get the work and production costs that go into the latest release of it. This is a very frail argument to call buying a product a "ransom". Nobody can ransom something to you that you don't own and don't have to have and owning a crappy VHS copy of something doesn't mean you "own" the lastest remastered DVD.

h4rm0ny

Re: competition

You talk as if DRM is something for big players and not for small ones, patreons and direct-to-creator. But it's hugely useful to small players who ordinarily wouldn't be able to use DRM. This opens the door to small players being able to protect their work for the first time.

h4rm0ny

Which should then lead to an end to the ridiculous situation of paying a surcharge for blank media for the music industry. Sounds like a plus to me. Always been a dumb idea.

h4rm0ny

>>"To decrypt your files that our "CDM" encrypted you have to pay us our ransom"

You say ransom, I say purchase...

h4rm0ny
Trollface

I don't see a problem.

Those people who want to secure their content with DRM can use it. Those who don't aren't compelled to. The only negative consequence of this technology is the scenario of someone wanting access to content without, you know, paying for it. And that's just hypothetical so I'm sure has nothing to do with it.

Microsoft boasted it had rebuilt Skype 'from the ground up'. Instead, it should have buried it

h4rm0ny

Re: "This new app is absolutely terrible"

I'm trying Yandex now. Thanks - this is a really good recommendation. It is blisteringly fast.

h4rm0ny
Headmaster

Re: a colleague skyped me..

I don't mind auto correct when it is a spelling mistake. What drives me crazy with Windows Phone auto correct is when I type a word and it decides I must mean a different one because shock! horror! my vocabulary is wider than an illiterate fourteen year old. Or same principle it decides for me that I can't possibly use words like fuck, shit or cunt and changes them for me.

That, alongside lack of an app for Signal are the main things that killed Windows Phone for me.

Intel AMT bug bit Siemens industrial PCs

h4rm0ny

Re: If the vulnerablity cannot be removed by software

>>then where is the hardware recall?

This is absolutely huge. A product recall would put a big dent in even Intel's enormous pockets.

h4rm0ny

Re: more details here

One of the most interesting parts of that very good article was Semi-Accurate's belief that the bug was still there at the request of State Intelligence organizations. They cannot prove it but they support it with some good argument.

Which makes the opening paragraph of this article a little misjudged. There's a strong probability that the AMT flaw IS the result of state interference.

China pollutes ocean with bloody big rocket

h4rm0ny

Re: Elsewhere reported flight aborted one hour after launch...

>>"Until they get rid of that particular asian social particularity

Particular Asian Particularity? I'm Western and if a couple of billion dollars and years of work of mine exploded, I'd be pretty "particular" about things, too.