* Posts by Fred Flintstone

3106 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Jun 2009

Sony tells hacked gamer to pay for crooks' abuse of PlayStation account

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

No, and I think Sony is on very dangerous ground indeed

Security is our responsibility, not Sony's.

Not quite - it's actually a shared responsibility insofar that the only aspect the client can control is the quality of their password. However, a strong password is of no use whatsoever if Sony have done sod all to protect the network itself. They can insert contract clauses all they like, but if we have clear evidence of a hack and it is NOT the user, liability falls to Sony, in addition to the fact that that clause is actually invalid under UK law as it's unfair.

Having just looked it up it appears even worse for Sony: it is an EU directive so their silly "we keep your dosh" clauses are not just invalid in the UK, they are invalid in the whole of Europe!

In other words, it appears we're heading straight into a Europe versus Sony here, and it's at this point I personally regret not being a Sony customer that got hacked myself because I would have *so* much fun with this one. I'd make them sorry for ever having tried run that scam on me.

V&A Museum shows Guardian's destroyed MacBook as ART

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Security Alert!

Hmm, I wonder what would actually be a suitable domestic means to properly destroy data, and by that I mean something that survives the experience (sticking things in microwaves or blenders tends to damage the appliance as well). The grinder would indeed do the job, but that's not an average household tool (well, unless the resident cooking skills resemble mine :).

Maybe 3 hours in the oven at 200C?

Apple's 13-incher will STILL cost you a bomb: MacBook Air 2015

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

It also rather depends what you buy it for. If you want to run OSX (which is really the point of that machine), it's not like you have many options. If you plan to run Windows or Linux I would indeed wonder why you'd buy a MacBook - there are some impressive alternatives out there.

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Apple Macbooks are basically pointless to steal.

1. The internal media isn't soldered, it's on a PCIe daughter card. However there are no third party upgrades as of yet.

Hmm. So you could use a second Mac to access it by swapping the board. I know you can repartition the disk once you have it in terminal mode, but it's at least not for the casual thief. Now you have me thinking of super glue..

2. No need to set a firmware password anymore, Find My Mac - part of OS X, will prevent booting from other media - it just displays the lost notice form the original owner.

You can also set a login message, but that is not used if you use Filevault. Duh. However, "Find my Mac" creates possible tracking risks - not everyone's favourite.

3. You could set a "Finders Fee" notice in Find My Mac too.

As per 2 - not always of use, and I suspect it needs a network first before it will display that. I can see this of use to some people, but I'm personally not a great fan of electronic stalking. You never know just who is using that data and for what.

Google and Obama: You’re too close for comfort

Fred Flintstone Gold badge
Big Brother

controlling contents is much more dangerous because you don't control what people use - you control what people think.

Have a bucket of upvotes for that one.

Our 4King benders are so ace we're going full OLED, says LG

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

What tech does your TV use?

"What tech does your TV use?"

"Oh? LED!"

(with apologies to Stephen Fry :) ).

Zuck: Get your FULLY EXPOSED BUTTOCKS off my Facebook

Fred Flintstone Gold badge
Devil

Re: Run by an arse

Run by an arse

but won't run pictures of an arse

Yeah, clearly not enamoured by any competition :p

Yay! Wearables! It's the future! Uh-oh! I'm going to be sick

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Regarding lack of brains*

It's called neurofeedback, and it can do some pretty nifty things, like assisting people with ADHD.

Mind you (pardon the pun), I would stick to the read-only stuff. Apparently they're now experimenting with injecting signals, but I'm personally not too keen on that idea, and not just because I keep getting flashbacks to an old movie with a scene where a guy is yelling "he's aliiiiive" :).

Ad bidding network caught slinging ransomware

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Really, that's a word now? Who is responsible for this?

Given the crud I have had levied at me by some sites, I would say advertisers themselves. The criminals simply carried it further later.

Hackers' delight? New Apple wrist-puter gives securobods the FEAR

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

This is all interesting to watch.

Upvote for the pun, accidental as it was :)

Give biometrics the FINGER: Horror tales from the ENCRYPT

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Just not found the right 'biometric' to use yet

It's turning "sitting on your money:" into a literal expression :)

The car in front has Kaspersky deep inside

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

>>"Thank you for using Kaspersky Norton."

I wouldn't worry about that one - that would take so much in resources it would not even leave enough to power the solenoids to open the doors :)

And the buggiest OS provider award goes to ... APPLE?

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: This is not a football match.

I have many memories of hours spent editing xorg files trying to get it to work right.

I still have the occasional nightmare featuring sendmail.cf :)

I rather liked HP-UX, more than IBMs AIX (use the force menu, Luke). SunOS and Solaris weren't bad either, provided you got GCC installed asap. Ah, memories.. :)

I think it's a good thing that this apparent myth of invulnerability got cracked, because it ensures people go back to actually paying attention to security. This whole "it can't happen to me" feeling was dangerous IMHO.

Having said that, I still prefer a Unix derivative over Windows but that has more to do with expertise. I know what to look for to make a Unix derivative safe, whereas someone who works with Windows on a daily basis as sysadmin is always going to be better than me at keeping that platform clean.

Not even GCHQ and NSA can crack our SIM key database, claims Gemalto

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: No air-gap?

One would hope. But even an air gap is vulnerable to a well paid employee seeking to add to his/her salary.

Yup. Wasn't that called sneakernet? :)

Boffins baffled by the glowing 'plumes' of MARS

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Where's amanfrommars

Who do you think is making that cloud? :)

Microsoft's patchwork falls apart … AGAIN!

Fred Flintstone Gold badge
Thumb Up

Re: A patch that breaks powerpoint?

A patch that breaks powerpoint?

What's wrong with that?

.. and so we got the Comment of the Week already, and it's only Monday .. :)

Now Samsung's spying smart TVs insert ADS in YOUR OWN movies

Fred Flintstone Gold badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Sony : 1 - Samsung : 0

They got burned early and badly so on the overall they have been pretty well behaved on both the home entertainment and mobile front as of late.

.. or they found people that were better at hiding what they are doing ..

Back seat drivers fear lead-footed autonomous cars, say boffins

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Roller coasters

Now imagine getting into an autonomous taxi with a Fitipaldi driver profile and the passengers screaming all the way to/from the airport...

And suddenly, hacking cars becomes interesting .. :)

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Safe distance

The definition of "safe" distance is an issue here. Is that safe to stop for the computer, taking into account grip, speed and calculated vehicle mass, or is that safe for the passengers, for whom this may feel like the computerised equivalent of throwing out an anchor?

It very much depends if smoothness is part of the programming. I know enough "digital drivers" to know that safe does not equal comfortable. Personally, I tend to plan ahead so my driving is reasonably smooth - it's a bit of a hangover from the fact that I'm also licensed to drive HGVs where smooth speed changes are important for fuel consumption and risk management.

UK official LOSES Mark Duggan shooting discs IN THE POST

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: "The discs were password-protected but unencrypted"

"The discs were password-protected but unencrypted"

What? Are you telling me that the data was in plain text? And how does the password come into play?

Maybe it's along the idea of the Irish virus? The first line of the data has a line that says "the password is xxx. If that is not the password you were thinking off, please do not continue."

I mean, there is no other way to interpret this, other than that the spokesperson has no clue and is committing the cardinal media management sin of making assumptions when talking to the press.

Wham, bam... premium rate scam: Grindr users hit with fun-killing charges

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: permissions

At least on iOS, you can (out of the box) deny specific permissions to apps.

Ah, but dialling isn't one of them - instead, iOS always requires user permission for a call precisely because abuse gets picked up too late (it's a second layer of security if the app screening process didn't catch it). There are couple of things like that in iOS, you can also not intercept an incoming SMS unlike in Android. The latter is a bit of a shame because it makes encrypted SMS like the stuff from Whispersys impossible.

However, I wonder if this may be the cause of the latest iOS update to 8.1.3 - most of the CVEs were about exceeding bounds to potentially execute malicious code.

I don't quite buy this, though - you must be rather deep into an app's code to make it do something COMPLETELY different in a controlled way via an inserted ad, that's an awful lot of barriers to overcome just to clock up some premium rate profit. If you're that talented I'm sure there are more interesting targets out there. Something grinds here (sorry).

Microsoft rolls out even cheaper 'Notkia' Lumias

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Meh.

When you record a live band/gig on it, and play it back in your living room, it actually sounds like you remember it!

Depending on how much you drink, that could actually be achieved by any phone :)

French Google fund to pay for 1 million print run of Charlie Hebdo next week

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Perspective

about 15 people died because of a cartoon being published

No, about 15 people died because some psychopaths decided to use religion as an excuse. Jimmy Carr once said "offence is not given, it is taken". In this case this certainly rings true.

Je suis Charlie.

El Reg Redesign - leave your comment here.

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

I think ..

.. it needs more cowbell :)

For the rest, I know from experience that "new" means "getting used to" before I can judge it to be better or worse so I'm going to give it a week.

EU law bods: New eCall crash system WON'T TRACK YOU. Really

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

All I need now ..

.. is a jammer that cuts out when I have an accident.

What is going on? Did they not renew the subscription on the terrorist excuse?

Ten Mac freeware apps for your new Apple baby

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Lots of other good products....

+1 for VirtualBox, although I'm toying with installing Parallels because I can set up virtual OSX machines with that, and I like its ability to make windows of other apps appear native.

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: MSPaint equivalent?

There isn't really an explicit separate program bundled, basic image editors are more hidden in other things like Preview and iPhoto (I think Keystone also has a few mods).

I installed Pixelmator. Not only does that have quite good editing resources, it also has a (somewhat too well hidden) vector mode. It's a good example of Mac software that beats the bejeezus out of far more expensive packages (and it's able to handle some Photoshop resources).

If you occasionally need to go beyond the basics but don't really need full blown Photoshop I'd recommend Pixelmator - also because you can properly try before you buy. It's IMHO worth the money.

If you want it free I concur with another commentard: Seashore will do you fine. I just stopped using it after I installed the above :).

Why did it take antivirus giants YEARS to drill into super-scary Regin? Symantec responds...

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: The key insight here...

Very organised crime? :)

Microsoft exams? Tough, you say? Pffft. 5-YEAR-OLD KID passes MCP test

Fred Flintstone Gold badge
Coffee/keyboard

Re: I suppose sending a 5 year old out to work on computers ...

It would allow for denser server rooms if we could employ children to crawl behind the racks in search of CAT5

OK, that one is worthy of a BOFH award. I salute you for creating the need to clean my keyboard :)

'Yes, yes... YES!' Philae lands on COMET 67P

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

I'd love someone showing all the variables they had to control again. If you look what they had to do just to get in sync with this rock it amplifies the awesomeness of what they managed to do.

Yes, I know I sound like Kung Fu panda, but there is no better word for this :)

WATCH: Rosetta astroboffin TATTOOED with PHILAE from the FUTURE!

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Well, applause

So many variables to control, and they did it.

Hat off - seriously impressive achievement.

Google's Nest partners up with utility company – on smart thermostats

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: It lets utility companies change your settings

I'd say their basic desire is to simply bill you more, but make it so complex that you have no hope in hell working out how to reduce your bill or how to compare your bill to other providers.

In short, the aim appears to be the introduction of mobile phone style tariff games.

Schneier, Diffie, ex-MI5 bod, privacy advocates team up on Code Red

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Time for the downvotes, I guess

You remind me of a quote:

"Thus, for example, tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows, and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon — so long as there is no answer to it — gives claws to the weak." - "You and the Atom Bomb", Tribune, 19 October 1945

That was written by one Eric Arthur Blair, better known as George Orwell.

DEATH by PowerPoint: Microsoft warns of 0-day attack hidden in slides

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Yup. Generally a classic Denial of Service on common sense :)

Apple SILENCES Bose, YANKS headphones from stores

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Bose noise-cancelling headphones.

There is just one little gotcha with noise cancelling earphones on long flights.

The "standard" crappy sets you get to listen to need a certain volume to work, so you dial it up, say, 7 (on a scale of 0 to 10) to get a level where you can follow a movie over the background noise.

When you plug in a decent noise cancelling set, you can turn it down to about 4 or so and you can follow it with good clarity, and you settle down to follow it either to the end, or until you doze off. AND THEN THEY MAKE A CABIN ANNOUNCEMENT, WHICH IS PUT THROUGH AT VOLUME LEVEL 8 TO MAKE SURE EVERYONE HEARS IT. Owwww.

On the plus side, it's highly unlikely you'll sleep through any cabin announcement..

Bono apologises for iTunes album dump

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Just a drop?

Show a little sympathy. It ain't easy trying to save the whole friggin' world, y'know.

Well, I got to give it to him - he DID stop clapping.. :)

Dear Reg readers. I want Metro tiles to replace all icons in Windows. Is this a good idea?

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Statistical Observation

As Chris 244 pointed out, the guy I was thinking of was in fact Eadon. Strangely, all of his posts appear to have been deleted by a mod...

Well, yes. The EU didn't invent the right to be forgotten, El Reg got there first :)

Marriott fined $600k for deliberate JAMMING of guests' Wi-Fi hotspots

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Greasy.

if I find agressive attacks against my equipment, I can and will respond in kind

You may want to look up spoofing before you do that...

Apple blacklists tech journo following explicit BENDY iPhone vid

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: I wonder

I wonder

If Apple's campus content filter even allows El reg to be viewed? Somehow I have to think not...

However, ironically, there is an App for that :)

One Windows? How does that work... and WTF is a Universal App?

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

I'll stop complaining when they act with honour.

You better get some beer and pizza then, it's going to be a looooong night :)

Special iPhone trousers will ease Apple into the fashion world

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Holster

Would iphone fanbois be cool with a holster ?

That will last exactly ONE visit to an airport :)

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Maybe cargo pants will become de rigueur for avid phone users?

Definitely if they don't start providing batteries with more capacity..

Third patch brings more admin Shellshock for the battered and Bashed

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Yup, OSX is safe too if you have installed patch 54 (https://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/bash/bash-3.2-patches/bash32-054), which was released late on the 27th of September. Otherwise you'll have to add patch 54, recompile and replace the binaries as before.

From what I've seen, most HOWTOs on the topic have been updated to incorporate patch 54 - nice to see that people are on the ball.

Oracle plans German DCs to soothe NSA-ruffled nerves

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Whilst you're right in fact

I think you're casting it too black and white. With ~$50Bn in the bank - that reduces the attack surface in all sorts of ways not applicable for smaller companies.

There has got to be massive tech industry pressure behind the scenes to kill off the MS vs DOJ Dublin data center case.

Sadly not. The problems for US based companies run a lot deeper than a couple simple court cases can fix. I would be extremely surprised if MS wins this other than via some seriously creative lawyering because the problems are pretty fundamental, and have been in the making for about 2 decades. That's not going to be fixed overnight. That's not even going to be fixed in a year - it'll take a decade, and that's assuming there is a WILL to fix it as some are making good money off it.

Turn OFF your phone or WE'LL ALL DI... live? Europe OKs mobes, tabs non-stop on flights

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Don't get too upset

How did they block Skype if someone was tunneling? Did they block tunnels?

Taking the physics into account they probably don't have to - the overall latency will pretty much kill voice capability. IMHO this is also why they don't offer any voice calls, there is no way to get VoIP stable on such a circuit and the complaints about quality would pretty much kill off the service and any profit before they'd even got a return on investment. Smart decision.

'Google is NOT the gatekeeper to the web, as some claim'

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Mark Fiore's take on climate talks

Mark Fiore makes a fairly astute observation re. climate change. Enjoy.

Latest Firefox and Thunderbird updates plug CRITICAL SSL vuln

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Security researcher at "Prosecco"

Or they make wine and security research at the same time?

Is there any other way? :p

Supercapacitors have the power to save you from data loss

Fred Flintstone Gold badge

Re: Kaboom?

Personally, I prefer "Supercapacitors are like batteries, but more awesome"

Seconded :)