Posts by h4rm0ny

Re: Cringe at the grammar though

I don't think it's a US thing. More just an idiot thing.

Re: If I was a conspiracist...

This code is already available to governments and other big, security-conscious clients. So your Conspiracy Theory wouldn't hold up.

Re: clutching at straws

I'd say it's more like evidence that the person is not well, confused and struggling with things herself.

Re: Stupid but?

Prison seldom works as a deterrent. Extra long sentences never do. If you're willing to give up two years of your life living in a box and have every aspect of your life controlled by prison guards, then you're already not thinking rationally about cost-benefit. So why do you think twenty years would make someone suddenly rational.

>>Anyone who uses tabs has clearly never found themselves having to read a script on a server where the only available text editor is Notepad.

Found your problem and it's not with tabs. Seriously, if we have to design everything around the lowest common denominator, we might as well call it a day on this species now.

Re: tabs take fewer keystrokes

>>true. and then ANY text-based program or editor (say 'less' or 'nano') will show what you did exactly as you did it, always lining up, always consistent, etc..

Consistent with itself, yes - just as it would be if you used tabs. But not consistent with files from other authors such who used a different number of spaces. Whereas tabs would be.

Re: A question

Look at the pair of you arguing over whether the correct number of spaces is 3 or 4 (or any other number). Spaces are not a standard. Spaces are just a doorway to lots of different individual preferences. Tabs are a standard because the person who wants four spaces width sets tabs to display as that and the person who wants three spaces width sets tabs to display as that and neither is messing up things for the other.

Tabs are the only logically correct standard to settle on. Everyone who thinks differently is an idiot.

Also, I resent the article calling me a fanatic just because I can prove that I'm right!

Re: Is there truly a market in failure?

Integrating HTML rendering and Javascript into the OS is a natural progression. Some people just don't like Microsoft. MS started down that road ages ago with Active Desktop and pulled back because of criticism. They have done it with Windows Store apps - again to howls of criticism. Yet many of the same critics fell over themselves with joy at ChromeOS and Chromebooks.

Re: No Kaspersky, spasiba.

Well to paraphrase Mady Rice-Davies, "they would say that, wouldn't they?" I mean you're relying on the world's largest propagator of surveillance with a history of false flag operations for your accusation here and no evidence provided. Even if AV providers were in-bed with their governments you logically have far less to fear about Russian authorities knowing you've broken British or US laws or leaked information than your own government knowing. If I expose someone connected to the government doing a dodgy arms deal (say Amber Rudd's husband to pick a non-random example) who do you think I'm more worried about figuring out that the anonymous source was me? It's not like I'm going to find Russian police on my doorstep.

And actually, there's never been evidence of collusion with Kaspersky that I'm aware of whereas we have some to suggest it with Microsoft and Trend Micro. So I'm calling your post as unsubstantiated accusation.

And MS are welcome to continue to do so. What they should not do is try to unfairly exclude others from also trying to make Windows secure. Windows Defender is decent for the average user. Several Third Party vendors do a better job though. Especially if you need Enterprise solutions.

Re: Is there truly a market in failure?

The fact that Windows Defender is made by the same company that makes the OS is obviously an asset, but perhaps less than you'd think. Windows Security (well, post-XP) uses specific hooks into the OS that any AV solution can use. Windows Defender isn't actually connecting to the OS in any substantially different way than Kaspersky (or F-Secure, or Avira, or...). You might imagine that it's baked into the OS's libraries in some fundamental way but that's not the design. For good reason, really - modular coding and all that. If Kaspersky think they can use Windows security APIs better than Microsoft's own product, then there's nothing that stops them trying. And actually, their product scores higher then Windows Defender consistently, so they seem to be doing it right.

Also, when was the last time Microsoft exposed NSA malware in Windows? Third Party is useful. ;)

Re: News at 11

I use Kaspersky. Disagree utterly with your opinion of them. Kaspersky consistently scores near the top of AV solutions for malware detection and low false alarms. When I assessed AV solutions a few years ago, it was basically them and Trend Micro jockeying for the top spot. I think F-Secure were also very high, from memory.

Kaspersky Labs do real and valuable security research - Stuxnet and the Equation Group come to mind. Both of which we learned the details of from Kaspersky. Very good software suite as well, though their "Safe Money" tool can be a bit funky sometimes. No affiliation, but they've worked extremely well for me. And even if you (Planty) don't like Kaspersky, MS's behaviour applies to all Third Party AV providers, not just Kaspersky.

Re: It takes two to tango

I'm tempted to ask my phone "Cortana, will you marry me?" just to see what it says, but imagining it in my search history is just too mortifying.

Re: Marry a laptop?

>>"People made exactly the same argument back when the issue was interracial marriage. If the government can't regulate who is allowed to marry who, then how can it legally stop someone marrying their horse?"

Where did this odd idea that marriage is about love come from? I thought it was all about ensuring proper inheritance and obligation to look after children. Interracial couples can have children. People and laptops (and horses) cannot. Gay couples sort of cannot but there are both adoptive and technological alternatives depending.

Re: Marry a laptop?

They should call his bluff and make him marry it. I'd enjoy seeing the consequences when he had to get a divorce because he actually wanted to marry a real person later, and the laptop got half of his stuff.

Re: Ship of Theseus

>>"Most of our bodies' atoms weren't there when we were born, and yet we are the same personae, so..."

If you're the same person as when you were born then... No, wait - never mind. This would explain a lot of things...

Re: Good on him if he wins

>>"I expect my date to share half the bill on the first date."

Presumably however, you let them know you're going halves up front and that you don't pay for everything and then present them with a txt demanding money back two days later when they don't want to meet up again.

>>"You digress with attacking or killing. Which is worse? killing a child or leaving them to a life where they can't have relationships because some git used them."

I highly doubt those corresponding will be unable to "have relationships" because of sexting. One was 14, one was 17, and the third was a 32 year old FBI man. ;)

Now without details, there is a wide range of possible circumstances but there's nothing in the story to suggest that it was harassment or traumatic for the two girls (one of which would be over the age of consent anywhere in Europe, btw).

I don't know how long it's been since you were a fourteen year old girl but at that point attraction to older men is not uncommon. If she felt anything genuine towards this man, then learning he's been sentenced to twenty years for sexting with her is probably going to upset her more than a dick pic ever did.

Now none of this is suggesting that it is a good idea or right for a man in his thirties to be flirting with a girl of 14. It isn't for several reasons. But it is saying that you're wrong to assume that the girl is likely to be damaged psychologically or unable to be willing or even actively encouraging. Given what is said about the ongoing sexting, it presumably wasn't one sided as the two girls didn't just block him. As it never even made it to the point of following through (which we don't know if he would have or not and in one case it would be legal in Europe anyway), they were probably fine with it and it is unlikely to be traumatised.

This sentence has more to do with (a) American puritanism and (b) his being a Secret Service agent which invites a super harsh sentence as a means of deflecting damage to the organisation's reputation.

>>"How much does it cost to keep a prisoner in a (for-profit privately run?) US prison these days?"

According to a report from the Vera Institute the average cost of imprisoning someone in the USA was $31,286 per annum, in 2010. That was seven years ago and it will certainly be significantly higher today. That figure is how much it costs directly, including all services. It does not account for loss of income from an employed member of society such as in this case.

The figure seems off compared to the UK where average cost of imprisonment per year is £40,000 per annum. However, the USA has the highest prison population per capita anywhere in the world barring the Seychelles (where there are only around 80,000 people in total and the place is used to imprison Somali pirates). So maybe the USA just has economy of scale or a more "battery farming" approach to its prisoners.

Regardless, this is a very expensive dick pic. for everyone, except the private companies that run the prisons. For them, it's profit.

Re: If Jesus Christ was born today he would be a terrorist.

>>Not white - Check (get real idiots he was NOT white)

It is very probable Jesus existed, but what his race was in modern terms there's really no way to say. It's been argued that he was everything from Caucasian (for reasons of racial ideology), Black (for reasons of racial ideology) and even North Indian (because why not?). Jesus's race has been a political football for centuries but nobody knows what it actually was. It's fairly safe to say he was Jewish and was probably what we call olive skinned and dark haired. Probably. IF he came from Nazareth as described, then that whole region was a heavy trade centre with people from many different places and a big ethnic melting pot. Unless you think Jewish people aren't White for some reason (which if you don't, has probably far more to do with modern identity politics than science), then it is at least as possible that he was White as it is he was Black.

Re: Device with multiple partitions

Bitlocker doesn't do this - it encrypts but doesn't conceal you have done so. However, there are several successors to TrueCrypt such as BestCrypt and VeraCrypt which do support Hidden Volumes / Hidden Containers which are what you're referring to.

Because all of an encrypted partition or file appears as random noise, there's theoretically no way to distinguish empty space on the disk from used space. So you can have two encrypted containers appearing as one and determine which you're accessing by the password. Think of it as a magic door. You knock three times and it opens on a room where you've stored a few innocuous things like your email password. Knock five times and it opens on a room where you hide the state secrets you just stole. The magic is that the number of knocks can't be guessed so you just tell the interrogator it's three knocks and that's the only room they'll ever see and they can't prove that a different sequence of knocks would show a different one. It adds the last vital component of encryption which is deniability.