Posts by Oninoshiko

Re: salaried employees

Cojones indeed....if I took it upon myself to install software that wasn't sanctioned by my employer, or reinstalled my workstation to my personal specification, I could reasonably expect to be dismissed for gross misconduct.

I didn't do that, I just brought my own machine in. Haven't used this worthless-ass mac since they made me put it there.

Maybe less entertaining, but I'm sure it would have made James Lovell's life easier.

Actually, though, it wouldn't have. One of the highly limited resources on Apollo 13 was power. They'd have had to rip the cover off the manual anyway, because they couldn't afford the power for this.

Re: Two-factor auth for Find My iPhone?

the phone call could be to a real phone. some of us luddites do still have those, you know

Re: "hacking"

maybe a frog in the throat?

oh wait...

Because takes a lot of time to process the render compared to the time it takes to upload the source files and download the output. The source files may only be a a hundred meg, The output may be a couple of Gig, but it takes (2hr film * 60 min/hr * 60 sec/min * 60 frame/sec=) 432,000 frames. Now if each frame takes 5 minutes to render (it's a fairly simple film) that's 1,500 computer-days. far longer then it takes to download the output.

Re: Interesting title

And to think, I thought the pins where the male bits.

Re: They aren't meant to inforce

There is a vary easy way to ensure compliance. Just have a couple of suits against retailers who lose information and are found to not be in compliance. Make the damages PAINFUL. Explicitly state in the ruling "the only reason I'm setting these damages this high is because of the gross negligance of not following industry best practices (ie PCI DSS)."

Re: Not WYSIWYG

Even going so far as changing themes takes you out of the flow of writing. It's a distraction; you might as well be asking for writer's block.

Get the text in when you can. Themes can be delt with once the important part is done. I kind of think this mentality comes from much of the web-driven world, where being pretty is more important then the content.

Re: I'm puzzled by this article

You might consider RTFA for Shaun Nichols' fine article, Mr. Orlowski, or read the opinion of the US copyright office (which is where this is likely to be fought).

The US Copyright Office is quite clear that he does not. Your wishes have no bearing on the matter.

Re: I don't think the coriolis effect is that hard science

I want to address a couple of comments here, and come to the defense of the reviewer.

1) in the excerpts the reviewer shows, it doesn't say "coriolis effect," it just says "Coriolis." The context clues of many of these sentences do look like they are a name, not a force of nature. Even knowing what I was reading about, I find that kind of jarring.

2) most people aren't that familiar with science. Science fiction is already a small genre (once you exclude fantasy anyway), made smaller still when you limit yourself to hard scifi. I would describe most hard scifi as exclusionary, because it's outside of what the average reader can (or is willing to take the effort to) follow.

(FTR, I think I'll have to pick these up at my local bookseller)

I actually clicked the link, and read it. I didn't just go on Sean's article, which makes it quite clear the photograph is uncopyrighable (pronounced "public domain"). http://copyright.gov/comp3/chap300/ch300-copyrightable-authorship.pdf page 8 explicitly lists "A photograph taken by a monkey" as something that cannot be copyrighted.

By definition, anything which cannot be subject to copyright, is public domain.

Re: Quick Reader Poll:

I would say weekly, but they have to cram a Qi charger in it. I'm tired if fiddling with wires.

I still have no idea what I'd use it for though. I don't even wear a real watch much.

Re: ...that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

For those that don't know ALEC, here's a quick rundown. They create legislative templates of bills that are favourable to ALEC members, and which are then handed out to conservative politicians to try and pass in their home districts. Subjects of the bills range from "kill the gays" to "make sure convicted violent felons can still purchase guns" to "mercury in your drinking water is good for you" to "let Wall Street do whatever it wants" to "kill the abortion providers" to "climate change is Obama's mind-control program"... you get my drift. If there is any thinking involved or compassion emoted, it has nothing to do with ALEC.

[citation needed]

(to clarify, I don't disbelieving that they are partisan. I think you are, I'll be kind here, mischaracterizing the extent of the proposals they draft.)

Re: Hyperbole?

How about because he is wrong? Is that okay to invalidate him on?

Let me list his argements and invalidate them:

1) It's "old"

I don't care. This isn't even really an argument. We've been making booze for thousands of years, but that doesn't make it any less of a find beverage.

2) Keys are hard to read

Well, yes. unfortunately he doesn't offer any kind of fix.

3) Old releases of GnuPG have bugs.

Yes, most software has bugs. Update to fix them. GnuPG can be updated for free (as in gratis). Any proposed fix will be susceptible to this problem.

4) Trusting a central authority would be easier.

Yes, it would. I think we can use the NSA as that central authority. If we trust any US company, they'll be it anyway.

5) WoT is bad.

He manages to take a whole paragraph and say just this and "I'm not backing it up with why." Well, I'm not responding to it, because he didn't bother to say anything to respond to.

6) Lacks forward secrecy

While forward secrecy is great, it requires much more automation on software side. This requires putting much more faith in much more complex software. For something like SSH, much of the complexity is already there because the sessions are real-time, for a non-realtime "session" I'm not as convinced. (although, this is EASILY the strongest point he makes)

7) PGP supports old ciphers and not new ones.

He even says most of these are not exploitable, so this is basically a rehash of 1. Specifically he complains about the lack of support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). Dual_EC_DRBG (atleast) is known weak, and there are weaknesses in the recommended curve. At least one noted analyst recommends not using ECC at all in light of these revelations https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/09/the_nsa_is_brea.html#c1675929

8) too easy to send unencrypted

Ideally, it should probably be harder to send an encrypted email in these apps, unfortunately most people are not setup to receive encrypted emails, so sending unencrypted emails are still the norm. This is also likely to be unresolvable with:

9) too easy to send unimportant emails encrypted

If you are going to use encryption, you NEED to be using it for everything. If you don't you are give a treasure-trove of meta-data to an attacker. What you think it unimportant, who you are talking about important things with, and how often.

10) too easy to encrypt the email with the wrong key

I'll give him this.

11) requires passphrase to unlock key, which is required for just signing.

Not locking your key would be a HUGE vulnerability. The key is necessary for signing. Getting done with it and removing it from memory as fast as possible is the most secure thing you can do, but it requires you to reenter the passphrase each time. I guess I'm not sure I understand what he's proposing here, maybe he wants to abandon signatures.

Re: Do not piss off (pissed) fans

I agree if it starts being a hassle, especially in pubs, people will start to make a big deal over it.

The rights owners already lost quite a bit of the high-ground when they starting sending notices to grannies, but I think most people where still of the "it doesn't affect me" mindset. Corrupt politicians depend on voters not caring (for the most part). Once most of them do, they either do what the voters say, or get tossed out (big business be damned)

Re: @ Destroy All Monsters -- @ the man who feel to earth

As a point of fact, that would better tell you how NOT to hide a body, because, as I recall, the miscrants end up propperly cuffed in Fargo(1996).

"So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don'tcha know that? And here ya are, and it's a beautiful day. Well. I just don't understand it."

(I think I love every line Frances McDormand has in that movie)

re: a spy lies

Hell, both of them are probably lying.

Re: NAT is a kludge

"IPv6 doesn't need a "fixed" version - just the removal of the objection to NAT on IPv6.

Then NAT can carry on working just as we've been doing on IPv4; it's not a technical limitation, it's a dogmatic one."

THIS.

Honestly, it doesn't even need the objection removed, it just needs everyone to treat this objection with all it deserves (which is to say, ignore it). Noone outside you network will know, noone inside your network will know (unless, ofcourse, you have some protocol which opens a socket to a machine which "calls back" which is completely brain-dead).

Re: Hilarious

On a phone, I don't find so many deceitful, as that x is just bloody hard to click.

Re: Why Stop Now?

since 1990? you're going to have to go a bit farther then that... probably before recorded history.

Re: Please explain

'tis better to be quietly thought the fool then to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.

There are any number of pieces of network capture software (for example, wireshark). They record every packet sent over the network. Apple has been caught having one installed on consumer devices. No matter what, it shouldn't have been there, but I do not attribute to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence.

Re: Risky

Did he agree to the terms of service when installing the Zeus trojan? no?

I'd say he's dead-to-rights to reverse engineer it. From there, it's not really HIS fault that it was capable of controlling the ner'do'well's camera. Seems to me that's part of the intent of the software, so the person who installed it must have intended for him to use it this way. All's good in my book.

Re: Good article.

The tragedy of commons does not apply. It's based on a limited resource, unless you are alleging that there are a limited number of times I can copy the monkey-selfie.

Photos are fundamentally different then mines.

Re: More anti-US bashing

Because, on the whole, Americans are used to it, and don't give two fucks about it. Overall the commentary on elReg is amusing, and the stereotypes of Americans are laughable.

Re: Aaargh 2.0

Exactly, It's a 1.1, at best.

Re: The polluter pays...

I think the analogy would be that once the stream has been cleaned up, you would be responsible for updating the index (which is most people's primary decision making tool for choosing a picnic spot) so that the stream is no longer filed under "smells pooey"

Yes, but the stream isn't getting cleaned up. That's the problem. Google keeps checking, and keeps finding the same thing. So the solution being thrown about is: rather then actually cleaning the pollution (that's too hard, it seems the entire community is dumping raw sewage in the stream), blame the people who make an index of polluted places.

Re: Whenever you hear Oracle whine about Android

They can, but they would have to change how they deliver the binaries, such that the source is always delivered with them.

Even then Oracle could just buy a copy of the binaries.

Re: Captains Log

He is an expert on being a celebrity though, and considering this is an app for celebrities he has more then enough authority to weigh in on if it is really useful for them.

I on the other hand, not being a celebrity, am truly not qualified to review it.

Re: It's more than that

OTOH, if your objective is less homicidal and you just want to steal everything in the car this hack works nicely.

Re: We have all the TV we need

well, for the BBC they would actually need to still have it around.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiping#BBC

Re: But what if I choose to..

That's not what aereo did, aereo set up a seperate tv and streamed each one for each person watching.

Re: The same occulus ... and not the same and an Oculus Rift Creating CULTuring Machine World Order

You must be new here. You'll find all amfm posts like that.

There was a drought amfm posts for while, it's good to see them again. It's like when you stop seeing the nutter with the board reading "the end is nigh" for a week, you just start to worry.

Re: Maybe we should encourage them...

"To try the mining operation, so they can LOSE $$$ in the process and give up on the idea after all.

The herders will price themselves out of business. Novel concept. When do they start."

I think you are confused. Botnet operators cannot lose money on any of this, mostly because they do not have costs. They may make less money, but that, unfortunately, is not the same as losing money.