* Posts by DZ-Jay

938 publicly visible posts • joined 23 Apr 2007

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iPad and smartphone rootkits demo'd by boffins

DZ-Jay

Extra! Extra!

SHOCK! HORROR!

An already compromised mobile device could be used to, er, compromise it even more!

News at 11.

-dZ.

iPad pitch to the Wall Street Journal laid bare

DZ-Jay

Re: Not sure about this

@Greg J Preece:

Oh, please! If Steve Jobs ever went into your offices and try to talk to some if its executives to propose something like this, the company officers would immediately be blinded by the dollar-signs in their eyes, not to mention overcome by the realisation that Mr. Jobs deemed it worthwhile to pick *them* for such an endeavor. They would probably roll-over and wait for the loot to trickle down from the Apple Heaven.

I'd expect resistance from a large and well-positioned corporation like the Wall Street Journal (which, by the way, they didn't!), but random, unknown tech companies are hardly peers.

-dZ.

Researcher spies new Adobe code execution bug

DZ-Jay

@Neal 5

Why, what happens on 24 March?

-dZ.

Yahoo! looks beyond Google's data cruncher

DZ-Jay

Re: Back to the Future...

@Bob 18:

That shouldn't really be surprising. As they say, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Ever since MapReduce was described in that seminal white-paper, it became all the rage, and a lot of people did see it as the end-all, be all or distributed processing; and I posit that *because* of that, a lot of people have replaced their entire toolbox with this single hammer.

So then, it's not that MapReduce is able to solve so many problems, it's that it's been applied to so many problems, irrespective of its disposition to solve such problems.

-dZ.

Opera plays chicken with Apple iPhone police

DZ-Jay

Stupid move

I see it as a very stupid move.

If the Apple staff--against apparently everyone's view--is reasonable and abides by common sense, and sees value in the application, and applies their own rules fairly, and does not find any conflict with its rules; then they will approve Opera Mini and that is that. But then it wouldn't have required forcing their hand because the application stands on its own merits.

However, if--as everyone seems to believe--Steve Jobs is a maniacal control freak that hates everybody with a differing point of view, who will not ever in a million years allow a competitor to run their own code for the sake of keeping control of the entire platform, and that he will make decisions out of sheer will, irrespective of reason or consequence; then I fail to see how a P.R. stunt like Opera's is going to change his mind in any way. Especially for a small-fry player like Opera*.

I say to them, good luck with that.

* NB: I like Opera, and think their software is great and that they deserve much more recognition than they are currently getting; but I think their recent publicity stunts border on the desperate and stupid.

-dZ.

Dear Adobe: It's time for security rehab

DZ-Jay

Re: lack of understanding

@AC:

I agree with Anonymous Coward here. Although the latest exploits announced were triggered by vulnerabilities in Flash, they expose underlying flaws in the security mechanisms of ASLR and DEP. This makes the bugs in Flash, at most, incidental in the overall security scheme of Windows (and other platforms that rely on ASLR or DEP for protection from unauthorised code execution).

To say that Flash is the biggest threat in this regard is missing the point: Two of the most promising and popular last-ditch security protections (sometimes implemented in the hardware itself) have now been proven to be ineffectual to some very narrow attack vectors. The fact that these flaws were exploited with Flash is of no consequence--they are now known to be there and fully understood, which extends the risk surface of personal computers in general.

One more thing: Although I agree with the overall sentiment of Mr. Goodin's article--that Adobe should endeavor to focus on securing its roster of applications and include security as a mainstay of their development practices--I disagree with its tone. In particular, I take exception to Mr. Goodin's tendency of directly comparing the risks of physical defects on vehicles to software security vulnerabilities: it is sensetionalist, and may attract more page views, but it overstates the latter and trivialises the former. An insufficiently secured application may result in embarrassment or inconvenience, and at most impose an economic burden on the victim; while a broken accelerator pedal will kill you.

-dZ.

iPhone App Store bars mention of Google Android

DZ-Jay

Absurd!

I think the article misses the point. I don't think it's a personal statement from Jobs against Google; I believe it's just as the rejection notice says: that mentioning an app's qualifications on another platform has no relevance to the description of its functionality. And I agree.

I would imagine Apple reacting in the same way if the app's description said something like "Works great in Linux too!" or even "Soon to be available for Windows 7." How does that help users determine if the app will work for them?

-dZ.

Researchers penetrate last bastion of Windows security

DZ-Jay

Re: OH FFS THIS IS ADOBE'S BUG

@Adrian Esdaile:

You're missing the point. There is indeed a vulnerability in Adobe's Flash which the researchers are exploiting to gain unauthorised access to the system, that much is true. However, what makes this particular story notable is that, under normal circumstances, once that vulnerability is exploited, the standard system protections of DEP and ASLR would nullify any gains made by the attacker; but during this particular attack, those protections are violated.

So, essentially, the researchers have demonstrated how to circumvent DEP and ASLR protection mechanisms (both low-level functions of the OS and/or hardware) by using the technique known as "JIT-Spraying". While you are right in that this technique was fascilitated by a bug in Flash, that is merely circumstantial.

By the way, I thought that DEP was already proven vulnerable by a technique dubbed "Return-Oriented Programming", in which the attacker pieces together his payload from the legitimate executable instructions already present in memory. ASLR, on the other hand, seemed a bit more promising. Alas, such is life.

For more information on Return-Oriented Programming, visit the following page:

http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~hovav/talks/blackhat08.html

-dZ.

Google pushes new multitouch onto Nexus One

DZ-Jay

Re: Is it me...

@Shades:

Not yet. Notice how at the footer El Reg notes "This story has been updated with comments from Google[...]"

You'll never see such a thing on an Apple story. Well, unless it's an Apple story updated with comments from Google.

-dZ.

iPad runs Windows, Nokia runs OSX

DZ-Jay

Re: Could be useful

@Magnus Ramage:

Sure, because the *only* reason why Windows running on a slate/tablet form-factor has failed to inspire interest during the past decade is precisely because the device was not produced by Apple, right?

Right.

-dZ.

Transformers up for seven Razzies

DZ-Jay

An I nominate...

Madonna should be the worst actress of *any* decade.

-dZ.

Google Chrome dev-only build hopes to be famous 5

DZ-Jay

Re: Is it me

@Alastair 7:

>> They'll be on Chrome 22 by the time it's all feature-complete and ready.

Prehaps, but it'll still be in Beta.

-dZ.

Spanish disco offers gals free 'consolers'

DZ-Jay

Re: mmm

@AC:

You see, in Spanish, the common name for a vibrator is "consolador", which translates literally to "consoler" *.

Hence the brilliancy of the flyer: "Con tu entrada, premio de "consolación", a pun meaning quite literally "With your entrance, a "consolation" price."

-dZ.

* I'm not sure why; perhaps it's because in Hispanic culture, a female sex toy is ragarded primarily as a companion for those lonely nights, when the desired Real Thing is not available, and not an outright substitute.

Remote tribe discovered worshipping iPad

DZ-Jay

No, no, no!

No, you can't write three articles asserting that even hardcore fans are dissappointed, and then turn around and write one saying that the Mac-faithful are worshipping the device in full pathetic force!

Youre allowed to pick one, just one.

P.S. Funny story, though, Lester; enjoyable as always. Thanks,

-dZ.

Who ate all the iPies?

DZ-Jay

At it again?

Billy, Billy, Billy, man... So you are trying your luck at predictions again, uh?

Let's see, you finally admit that Apple did innovate with the iPhone and set new trends, but you did refuse to acknowledge it back when it was first released. Why should we listen to you know when you say the same things about the iPad? "No, no, this time... this one's for real, guys!"

Right.

You and others keep asserting that the iPad is dissappointing because Apple set to "redesign the iPhone", only that it didn't: It set to create a new class of device, one that fits between the iPhone and a laptop. You know, what Netbooks have purportedly tried before, but failed; ending up being just cheaper and less-powered laptops.

To the majority of its users, the iPhone/iPod Touch does some things very, very well (in spite of it's lack of "multitasking", and its inability to play FarmVille). There is a general understanding that some things could be much improved by increasing the screen size, for instance, viewing movies, browsing the web and reading documents. So the iPad specialises in those particular functions. So, it's not just a "bigger iPhone" without the phone, it's an iPod Touch optimised for and dedicated to those tasks.

You also assert that "even the hardcore fans seem disappointed"; but you do not mention what is your criteria for a "hardcore fan". Is it the multitude of Apple-bashers in your discussion forum? Or perhaps it's the tech-pundits who have been predicting Apple's demise (quite exaggeratedly) ever since the dawn of personal computing?

I would imagine that people who routinely lambast against anything Apple does would hardly qualify as "hardcore fans".

But what do I know, right? I'm just a regular computer user, with some technical skills, but with no ability (or disposition) to predict the assured and imminent catastrophic failure of popular company. I'll be leaving that to the experts.

-dZ.

Adobe sounds off on iPad's Flash slap

DZ-Jay

Good Riddance!

End of line.

-dZ.

Smut-peddling hackers pwn TechCrunch

DZ-Jay

Re: popular my foot

@Rob Moir:

You mean, it couldn't happen to El Reg?

I jest, sorry. I love The Register.

Don't taze me, bro.

-dZ.

Apple to end AT&T's iPhone exclusive?

DZ-Jay

Let me get this straight...

AT&T is currently navigating through a PR nightmare, ostensibly because of the iPhone popularity; and even though most people wouldn't even go near them under normal circumstances, they are subscribing to AT&T just to get a hold of an iPhone. Essentially, iPhone users are tolerating AT&T's service because they are forced to.

So when their exclusivity contract expires and current and prospective iPhone users are freed from the shackles of a badly run network, it is expected that users will flock to a different, ostensibly better, carrier, which will alliviate the usage loads on AT&T's network by way of customer attrition.

The end result being AT&T is left with less clients and a bad reputation that scares away new ones. How is this a good thing for AT&T?

-dZ.

Web2.0rhea infects International Space Station

DZ-Jay

NOOOOO!

This is so sad. I am so very disappointed.

An astronaut tweeting? It bursts my bubble.

I feel like a kid who goes to the mall to meet Santa Claus, and then catches a glimpse of the man when off duty, noticing that he is only a fat, drunken slob with a fake beard, who swears at store clerks and spits on the floor.

Thank you NASA! Astronauts have now been irrevocably take off my list of Cool, Smart People I Admire.

-dZ.

Google betas Flash-free YouTube sans open codec

DZ-Jay

Re: "the open source-obsessed outfit"

@Duncan Hothersall:

Wow, talk about a complex. I don't think that phrase has negative connotations, necessarily. It could just as well mean that Google really, really, really likes Open Source Software and is trying to push for it at every opportunity. In fact, that's how I understood it, and it follows the overall ironic spirit of the story by implying that, in spite of that obsession, Google chose a proprietary format for their video codec.

Are you one of those people with a chip on their shoulder that tries to look for the "hidden meaning" on every single remark, even when meant in a completely innocent way? Or are you yourself that prejudiced, and used to imparting such "hidden meaning" in your own comments, that you tend to imagine the entire world does as well?

I feel sorry for you.

-dZ.

Avatar renders this earthly life meaningless

DZ-Jay

Re: Bootnote

Lester,

I think that last one in the Bootnotes was someone's attempt at irony. It's funny, really, how he managed to cramp all sad Slashdot geek stereotypes into one single comment: 35 years old living in parents' basement, taking sci-fi movies too seriously, playing WoW, having a "guild wife" (wtf?), talking about hitler, etc.

+1 Funny.

-dZ.

Zuckerberg: 'I am a prophet'

DZ-Jay

He is a prophet!

Indeed, it's on his business card: "I'm a prophet... Bitch!"

-dZ.

Google to mobile industry: ‘F*ck you very much!’

DZ-Jay

Puzzling...

Wow! An open comment section in an article by Mr. Orlowski? I'm stunned! I'm flabbergasted! I'm so shocked, I can't think of anything interesting to say.

And so, I'll just say that, as other times before, I enjoyed the article and agree with most of your views on the subject. As you, I've seen right-through most of Google's "free puppet show" for the masses, and have strived to understand their machinations; I can't really understand why nobody else is able (or willing) to see them as clearly.

Cheers!

-dZ.

Nexus One web address used to punt smoky jazz

DZ-Jay

Re: Google your next phone

@Luc Le Blanc

@AC:

Sure, that seems rather obvious. But wouldn't that put Mr. Villanueva and Sion at a competitive disadvantage, especially if they pay for AdSense? Stealing traffic for themselves when there are legitimate results that would have matched perhaps at a higher rank may give fuel to conspiracy theorists and the anti-trust police.

-dZ.

The Avatar storage effect

DZ-Jay

Re: @ 1st Post AC

Re: Robert Heffernan

But who's the heroine? If it's Sigourney Weaver, I'll pass on those tits. If it's the blue furry chick, I'm not really into that.

So the real question is: Are there any good, human tits in the film, and is it worth it?

-dZ.

Closeted lesbian sues Netflix for privacy invasion

DZ-Jay
Thumb Up

Re: I'm with Netflix on this one

@SteveRoper

>> "...but has no way, within Netflix's system, to find out who Customer 1792548 is, what their race/religion/sexuality is, or where they live."

But that's precisely what happened. I understand your confusion regarding the specifics of the case, since El Reg failed to mention some of them; but if you read the original article and other information elsewhere, you'll find realize that that is precisely what Netflix is doing: For their recently concluded contest, they released account IDs along with age and demographic information; and they have announced that for their new contest they will include location information as well, such as Zip code.

The sexual orientation can be discerned from the rental history itself, which is what the original Bork lawsuit was about.

All this data together--provided solely by Netflix--can be put together to create a profile of the user, which can then be matched to an individual, using proven data-mining techniques.

-dZ.

James Cameron poised to make Fantastic Voyage

DZ-Jay

What?

Cameron said: “When I pitched it to Fox, they said, ‘We’ve spent a lot of money creating all these assets, all these CG mountains, plants, trees, leaves, flowers, bugs’ - everything you saw up there on screen had been made by people at workstations over a period of years and so they have value."

Wait, is he talking about Avatar II or Fantastic Voyage? If the former, fine. If the latter, I fail to see how CG mountains, flowers and bugs can be re-used on a setting within the human body. Well, the bugs, I guess, may work, but trees?

-dZ.

Physicists assemble world's smallest snowman

DZ-Jay

What'll they do for an encore?

Perhaps we should give them more grant money and see what they'll come up with next? The world's tiniest Christmas tree, perhaps? How about the teeniest weeniest ikkle toy train?

When money and time is no limit, and no actual expectations are are set, the sky is the limit, no?

All for the advancement of science.

-dZ.

Google expands plan to run own internet

DZ-Jay

It's all in the wording...

Consider the following, from the GoogleDNS privacy policy page:

"We don't correlate or combine your information from these logs with any other log data that Google might have about your use of other services, such as data from Web Search and data from advertising on the Google content network."

Notice the key words "from these logs". Think about that for second. It means that live, "on-the-fly" correlations, or correlations made with the data *outside* the permanent logs, is not denied.

You almost had me fooled, Google. Nice one.

-dZ.

Taliban attack Brit troops with explosive donkey

DZ-Jay

Strange times, but then again....

>> "It is impossible to report a donkey IED up the chain of command without either a wry smile at the ridiculousness or a feeling that the world is slightly off its axis."

It is a strange state of affairs, indeed. However, just as I was beginning to be overcome by sadness and compassion, I was jolted from that state by the following, which is trully a gem to behold: "I'd rather go bareback than blow up my ass."

Thanks El Reg. That one has to go to the top of the charts!

-dZ.

Geeks Guide2 Christmas 2009 - Part II

DZ-Jay

Plants vs. Zombies!

On El Reg's recommendation, I went to the PopCap site and checked out the trailer to Plants vs. Zombies, and was very impressed. I proceeded to download the game for my Macintosh, running OS X 10.6.2. I followed the ridiculously simple installation instructions (drag icon to Applications folder, make sure you are connected to the Internet to register the game), and... nothing.

The game seemed to be running, for I had a lighted icon in my Dock and a "Plants vs. Zombies" menu bar on top; yet no window at all. The "About" screen seemed to work from the menu bar, but nothing else showed up. Attempting to quit the game prompted me with an overlay dialog offering to "Quit" or "Play". Aha! I though, a chance to actually play. But, alas, choosing "Play" just brought an error screen which crashed the whole application. On the other hand, choosing "Quit" actually closed the application properly, so there's that.

I'm sure it's a nice game, it looks very good; but I can't play it. I guess I'll be saving $19.95 USD, then.

-dZ.

Space butterflies invade ISS

DZ-Jay

butterflynauts??

Really?

Astronaut: Astro = Star; Naut = Sailior, Navigator, or Traveler; ergo, Traveler of the Stars.

Butterflynaut: Butterfly = er, Flying Bug; Naut = Traveler; ergo, Traveler of the Butterflies?

Sheesh, do they not teach anything in school these days?

A more authentic, and even cooler name would be Astrolepidoptera, or Space Butterfly.

-dZ.

Hackintosher Psystar to pay Apple $2.7m in settlement

DZ-Jay

Re: what's at stake here?

@Cody:

>> "We do not like the idea that software makers can tell you where to buy the hardware you run their software on."

In a free marketplace, which last I heard the PC industry was, the producer can do pretty much anything they want with their products (as long as it is not illegal), and it's up to the consumer to make the decision of accepting the term, or not.

As I understand it, there is no right defined in the Constitution, nor stipulation in any law, that states that I shall be able to purchase and use Apple software as a matter of right. Like many other products, it has a license aggreement binding its use, and I am free to decide whether I want to abide by it or not.

It's simple really: If you do not accept Apple's terms, which you clearly do not, then you do not purchase Apple's software. Full stop. If enough consumers feel the same way and do likewise, it will affect Apple's position in the marketplace, which will result in either them re-evaluating their terms to gain the favor of the consumer, or alternatively (if enough people do not buy their products) going out of business.

The problem you seem to have is when your opinions regarding the manufacturer's terms are not shared by a majority: You decide to "punish" the manufacturer by not buying their products, stand on your soap-box and ask others to do the same--but alas! nobody listened. The company keeps on selling their wares, most people do not seem to care about the terms, they are not changed to your satisfaction; and all you are left with is an unsavoury taste.

You see, what you really wanted was to buy the product but *at your terms*, which didn't happen, based on some misguided sense of entitlement.

So, you call on the government, then. You claim that you have some right to or need of such product. That Bad Things will happen if you don't get access to it without the restrictions you do not like. That there is absolutely no other alternative in the market for this special product and that the terms are so onerous that you cannot live with them, and requiring the product, you are left in a precarious state. That the producer is exercising and abusing its position as a Monopoly, strangling the marketplace, and preventing you and everyone else from access to any useful alternative.

Only that this is not so. Your "brand-x" PC does not *require* Mac OS X to run--in fact, no other PC requires Mac OS X to run, except Apple's own PCs. Moreover, standard, run-of-the-mill PCs cannot even run Mac OS X. But even if for some reason they did, there are reasonable alternatives out there (for instance, you could, er, use the Windows OS that probably came with the PC). And if you bought an Apple PC, then you have no restrictions in using the software on it. So, where is the damage to the marketplace? Where is the abuse? And more importantly, *where* is the Monopoly status that you so selfrighteously claim exists?

>> "So, are you all so sure you really like them Apples, now?"

Well, yes, thank you for asking.

-dZ.

Google pockets half of 'unlicensed' news dollars, says study

DZ-Jay

Re: News sites should be blah blah blah

@DrXym:

The truth is rather more nuanced than that. The sad part is that if Murdoch pulled his sites from Google, their content would still be made available through the aggregator by all those other sites ripping them off, but they wouldn't see a penny of it.

So in essence, as you point out, you nor anybody who should care would notice, but the original content producers, who fail to make money.

Tell me this, if most of the content available to you and others in the Internet is accessed through aggregating services such as Google News, and is basically collected from external sources such as newspapers and magazines; what would happen to the aggregators when the original sources that feed them fail at their expense?

-dZ.

Google flirts with new-look home page

DZ-Jay

Re: Looks like Bing.

I second that!

After complaining about the clutter of Bing and the ostensibly superior simplicity and elegance of their own site, Google decided it was all bollocks and copied their look anyway.

It's good to see that a bit of competition keeps them on their toes.

-dZ.

Apple tops Google as UK 'Thought Leader'

DZ-Jay

New forum software?

I noticed that El Reg changed it's forum page look and added some new icons. Can I start whining here, or should I wait for a proper announcement to post my complaints?

Cheers!

-dZ.

Bing search bribery a retailer magnet

DZ-Jay

Re: Remember... the 28th of November

@Imagus: But of course 28/11 was chosen! Everybody in the USA will be spent, resting and recovering from such a wild shopping spree from the day before.

Kind of lessens the point, doesn't it?

-dZ.

Google Chrome OS due next week, says someone

DZ-Jay

Re: Ubuntu with 1 app

@Chris Jackson 1:

It's not really "pretty clear" that ChromeOS is a run-of-the-mill Ubuntu with Chrome installed. Those screenshots were taken by someone who built it on top of his Ubuntu installation. It could be that the test build release last month was nothing but the application/user layer, not the entire distro. It could be a rebranded Ubuntu, we just can't tell yet.

As for the rest of your comment: Wow. Just... wow. Are you sure you're posting in the right place? Check out the address bar, this is not Slashdot.

-dZ.

Microsoft defends Hotmail's cookie requirement

DZ-Jay

Clarification

>> "We are actually removing cookies in this scenario, but it's interpreted by browsers as using third party cookies."

This translates to "we are actually removing cookies in this scenario, but our braindead applications are too stupid to notice when a browser does not have the third-party cookies to begin with, so they interpret it as an error, which is then sent to the browser."

-dZ.

Google 'experiment' crossbreeds Python with C++

DZ-Jay

Cython or PythoC?

I agree with some of the post above: some "modern" compilers and managed languages are just too slow so anything new may seem fast in comparison.

However, fast and robust languages and compilers already exist, so I don't see a need to invent yet a new language; except for Google's abhorrence to "not-built-here" technologies.

If Google's engineers spent less time re-inventing mature technologies in their own little ways and spent more time in actually implementing useful products or services in readily available mature technologies, perhaps they could get some of their products out of "beta", and maybe they could make some money that is not really tied to advertising.

Of course, coming up with your very own way to implement C++ or BerkleyDB is a lot more fun, even if not very productive.

If all they wanted was the speed of C with the flexibility of Python, they could have checked out Objective-C, which has these in spades. Plus, being based on Smalltalk, it brings with it decades of improvements and experience, polish and maturity.

-dZ.

You too can become a Taoist Mao Shan master

DZ-Jay

Friday already?

Yay!

Google embraces Wave's permission chaos

DZ-Jay

Re: You can track changes

@Intgralist:

I work on the financial industry as a programmer and I am accustomed to computing environments where restrictions are strictly enforced with technological solutions: account roles, special RSA keys, etc. Of course there are audit logs on every system tracking access and usage, but *NEVER* has anybody even thought once that since we have the audit logs, we don't need the passwords nor the access controls, and should just rely on trust and the ability to look back at the accountability logs to find out what happened and who did it.

Why is that? Dealing with a security breach (or system abuse) usually has a very high cost: not only do you have to deal with the damage incurred, but you have to perform the investigative work, which takes considerable time and other resources.

The alternative in this scenario (in order to ensure the authority of the data) is equally expensive, perhaps more so: to have every single consumer of a document or resource analyse the audit log (every time they are to access it) associated with it to verfiy that it hasn't been tampered with, otherwise they risk polluting the corporate knowledge chain with faulty information.

Faced with these potential problems, it is certainly preferrable to restrict access to such resources so that only those with the proper authority can modify them. Of course, security breaches could still occur, but now they are an exceptionally rare case, rather than a matter of course.

Lets not forget that when Google released Wave to the world originally in their demo presentation, when asked about security they clearly stated something akin to "we didn't worry with such things yet because we wanted to get the technology working first; but we'll certainly deal with those issues once we have a working system." (I paraphrase, of course.)

It seems rather obvious that the time has come to build such security into the infrastructure, yet it may turned out to be less fun and sexy than building the whole federation system of which they are so proud. Or perhaps it just proved too hard to retrofit it into the current model (which was admittedly designed with *NO* security in mind). In any case, it is lazy and disingenious to just say that it was always meant to be this way.

-dZ.

DZ-Jay

Bollocks!

My guess is that implementing permissions as an afterthought into their Wave protocol proved a more daunting task than expected, so they are taking the easy route and claiming "well, we meant to do it that way, really."

-dZ.

X-rays beat computer as best invention ever

DZ-Jay

What about...

What about written language?

It's purely a human invention, for it does not exist in nature.

-dZ.

Amazon's EC2 brings new might to password cracking

DZ-Jay

Bad assumptions

The study is based on some misguided assumptions. Firstly, that the criminals will depend on a pay-for-service supercomputer to crack a single password.

If they were intent on using supercomputers to crack passwords en masse, I will posit that it is more probable that the criminals will employ any of the myriad mechanisms available (trojan horses, botnets, social engineering, the black-market, etc.) to steal the password of an Amazon EC2 account, and then roll with it.

Crime is only that expensive if the criminals play by your normal rules, which nothing says they have to.

-dZ.

Apple said to have axed Atom support from OS X 10.6.2

DZ-Jay

I'll do it

>> "So far there has been no third-party corroboration the claim."

OK, I'll corroborate it.

No, I have no proof, I'm also making it up. But what's the difference, it's all news, right?

-dZ.

Apple sexes up Time Capsule

DZ-Jay

Re: Time Capsule needs a big cool down

At this point we do not have any real confirmation on the actual number of failed devices; that is, unless you take at face value what you read off blogs and other Internet sites.

I don't doubt that there may be an issue with some devices, but it could very well be an exaggeration by some over-eager bloggers, compounded by much gossip going around, like when iPhones supposedly exploding enmasse all over the globe.

-dZ.

Windows 95 to Windows 7: How Microsoft lost its vision

DZ-Jay

Re: sensible utility ftw

@John 62:

That's the mentality of people who have not tried an alternative. My dad once asked me why would he pay what he perceived to be more for an Apple computer when an HP or Dell offered "more gigabytes and rams" (his lay words) for a comparably lower price. My answer was, style and function and enjoyment. And this transcends computers.

I told him, have you ever driven a Jaguar or a high-end BMW sports car? When you have a Toyota, you'll probably just drive to work, to the grocery store, perhaps go to the movies once in a while, but you use the car to go there and back, and it's just a vehicle; sensible utility, indeed. When you own a well designed, higher end car, you go for a drive--just for the pleasure of driving it. Of course, it is hard for the Toyota owner to imagine why would anybody drive a car for the pleasure of driving it, when the experience doesn't feel any special, and perhaps kind of clunky; and besides isn't the whole point of driving just to get to the other side?

Of course, there are those who buy the expensive car for the mere fact that it is expensive, and they want to show off their purported status. But ignoring such bourgeois tendencies of some, most people who can afford them, buy their toys to play with them. They bring pleasure and enjoyment, they are fun.

I just bought my father a new iMac last month, and spent a weekend showing him how to use it. He called me the other day and told me, "you know what? Last weekend, I went for a drive." I smiled.

-dZ.

Microsoft thinks it can sell one copy of Windows 7 for every four people

DZ-Jay

Re: MS could do it, and Apple will never be as big

@AC:

You're missing the point of Apple's business. If you haven't noticed by now, they are one of the few technology companies actually making a profit during the current recession. They even just closed their most profitable quarter to date. They sell to a smaller market than Microsoft, and make a killing at it.

All this means that Apple has no intention of becoming as big as Microsoft, and does not need to. This is something most people have a hard time accepting: Steve Jobs is perfectly happy keeping Apple as a boutique shop, and selling at a premium to the higher end market. Who needs to take over the world, when they can become king within their own community?

As for Microsoft's relevancy in the technology sector? I don't expect the company to disappear any time soon, but it'll probably cease to excert any real influence in the industry. Somewhat like what happend with IBM: there was a time when the entire business world quaked at the thought of Big Blue encroaching in their markets, and now it's just another player--a big player, for sure, but no longer dictating the pace and trend of the industry. Bit by bit, Microsoft is becoming just as big and just as irrelevant.

-dZ.

Apple Store down - new cultware coming?

DZ-Jay

Re: Why?

I can think of some reasons: Perhaps they need to synchronize the deployment of the new product data across many data centers, in many different countries; or maybe the new product set comes as a file and is imported into a centralize database, which may take a few hours to update; or maybe they need to flush all product cache and this takes some time.

When you have massively distributed systems, data propagation and caching can take time. Taking the system down during may affect customer access, but can ultimately prove beneficial by decreasing customer-facing integrity issues, such as obsolete prices or product descriptions.

Perhaps Apple is conscious of this and wants to avoid such issues. The alternative is to do like, say, Amazon and Google, and perform live updates, which increases the chance of integrity issues and customer problems. These happen more often than many would like to admit--as we have seen here in El Reg many times before.

-dZ.

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