Posts by Charles 9

Re: I continue to be surprised

Two words: Chinese Cannon. Here are two more: Verizon Supercookie. Neither of them care about the content itself, just that it's unencrypted so they can piggyback on it and inject their malware on-the-fly.

So basically, the world now has a choice: secure or malware, no third alternative.

Re: AVG FREE ANTIVIRUS, I AM LOOKING AT YOU.

I gave up on AVG and Avast when they both got too spammy. Nowadays, it seems the ONLY defense programs worth keeping around have to be paid for. Seems they wised up to one of those "dirty tricks" of economics: the Captive Market.

Re: Shifty

Tips and commissions are entirely different things. Instead of waiters (and tips), think sales reps who have to close a deal to get a cut of the proceeds. These are strict commission-only jobs and have themselves been upheld in the courts. This is perhaps Uber's attempted angle: working strictly on commission (not condoning it, simply noticing where it's going).

Re: I am conflicted on this

How do you do anything other than limit the number of vehicles when a place like Manhattan is pretty much built in every direction including up. Not to mention this is New York State's cash cow with LOTS of deep wallets with connections up to Albany.

IOW, no matter how you try to limit things, even with the status quo of limiting medallions, you're going to get a fight. A long, protracted, and expensive fight against well-heeled adversaries. Put it this way. And Manhattan has lots of experience with these kinds of land fights, being one of the focal points of the infamous Highway Revolts. Not even the fabled Robert Moses could beat Manhattan's influence.

Re: I am conflicted on this

Now imagine if there were more of them and you see the issue.

Re: Shifty

I believe that's what happens when you work on commission.

But what if they're NOT bluffing, and their hand includes "good friends in Sacramento," such that they RE-raise with threats of impeachments for corruption?

Re: I am conflicted on this

But what happens when you can't trust the legislators to know what they're doing? When it's too nuanced for them to get right?

Re: I am conflicted on this

Plus, does Mechanism design take into consideration the potential "solution" of lobbying for a change in the government/regulations themselves, considering the point it becomes cheaper for a sufficiently-resourced sociopath to simply change the game?

Re: I am conflicted on this

Other side of the coin: high-traffic areas like Manhattan can't dish out taxi medallions willy-nilly or you're gonna end up with gridlock. It can be a very delicate thing between too few and too many, and there's still the chance of the middle being UNhappy.

Re: I am conflicted on this

So how do they deal with "geese with duck calls": things that look and quack like ducks but aren't really ducks?

Re: Its already shut down

"Another doomed business model as it is based on the restaurants not charging more for the food but paying delivery costs."

Are you sure about that? Most places I know place a premium if you select delivery: though higher item prices and/or a mandatory delivery fee. Most of the "free delivery" ads are time-limited, simply meant to increase traffic volume; don't expect them to last.

Personally, I could never understand why someone absolutely MUST have a hot pizza delivered from a 7-Eleven at 2 in the morning. I was always taught, "Can't cook, can't eat."

Re: I’ll scweam and scweam and scweam until I’m sick!!

But if that place has a very low cost of living (such that "less than bugger all" actually gets them room and board), then you wonder why there's so much outsourcing, no matter how sweet the first world can offer things. At that point, it becomes cheaper to go abroad and just cheat (aka bribe) if necessary.

"Wires may not be so glamorous, nor so convenient..."

Nor so easy to change out when their specs improve (like switching your cables from Cat5 or even Cat3 to Cat6). Plus it requires access to the infrastructure: not guaranteed.

I once read on research into "massive" MIMO setups that are claimed to have no theoretical limit on bandwidth efficiency, though I'm of course taking this with a pinch of salt, given at some point you hit physical limits like radio wavelengths and so on.

That's not a lot of tit given total US debt is over 20x times that, most of it held by it's own citizens. IOW they may just go "Hell with it" and weather whatever follows.

A big foundry like that is a big-time investment on the order of 8-9 figures. That won't be easy to explain to the investors. Not to mention they take time to build and get running. Otherwise, why wasn't there a quick turnover because of COVID?

"The only people who might be considered to NEED both (ie their job requires both communication and protection from the consequences of communication) are authority-sponsored types such as military. In that case, the essential communication is done using appropriate equipment : and a lot of money goes into providing that equipment."

The counter being it's probably going to waste, as the mere existence of radio equipment--ANY radio equipment--is a giveaway, and yes, I WAS actually thinking the military when I was referring to my "second count" post.

HOW interesting? "No one can fire him" interesting or "you're under arrest" interesting?

"Sometimes, if you want to blend in, you have to do things that everyone else is doing even when you don't want to or they're dangerous for your attempt."

So what if you have to infiltrate a Panopticon where "normal" is pretty much guaranteed to give you away?

"That's the thing about tradecraft, you need to look as "normal" as possible. Including leaked information. Bonus points for compromat consistent with any cover you're trying to cultivate."

So what happens when "normal" is a Panopticon, like say China?

What happened when the not-so-subtle reply was attempted on someone HIGHER than them?

So how do you protect yourself when you NEED the always-on availability that's essential in today's fast-paced society? And no, the answer to, "What did we do before cell phones?" will be, "Whatever it was, it didn't happen very quickly, and seconds count today."

Plus, because of the way wireless communications work, whatever the technique you use, you WILL leave radio traces that alone can be useful tracking information. It's a problem similar to post/mail or any other two-way form of communications: both ends must be known for it to work, yet that alone is compromising information. Efficiency becomes its own drawback.

We've essentially run into a nigh-intractable problem. How do you maintain two-way communication without the communication itself being tracked by a determined adversary?

Re: I can't remember...

"Customers aren't going to pay for international remittance..."

They may not realize they're paying for it if Google plays it savvy. If the customer doesn't realize it, they can probably go for it. Look at eBay and how it handles international transactions, even in foreign currency.

Re: Wouldn't it be simpler

Then they just display ads and wait out whatever clock you set up.

Re: Barking up the wrong tree

One, no control over the router. Two, friends or family rely on WhatsApp or Messenger to communicate and have the ability to make things unpleasant for you if you insist.

Re: Barking up the wrong tree

"So that would work unless they shared identities (i.e., your account information)."

DE-anonymization is a thing, you know? Facebook probably has the ability to connect the dots, by IP or ISP if nothing else, so even if you use physically separate computers, computing habits among other things would probably be able to start linking you together.

Re: I can't remember...

Google moves all British Isles operations to Ireland and out of UK jurisdiction. Like I said, jump jurisdictions. Which do you prefer: 10% of something or 100% of nothing?

Re: Barking up the wrong tree

"Then each site could track what I am doing on the site itself, but not my browsing habits elsewhere."

But what if the two sites KNOW each other...or partner with someone who knows them both AND has second- or even first-party relationships with both of them, meaning their tracking tech looks no different from first-party tracking?

Basic point is, this whole shell game will eventually become server-side user tracking tracking which no user will be able to block, even with masquerading. Then it'll be a matter of, "Stop the Internet! I wanna get off!"

Re: I can't remember...

"If I had my way then Google would be made to pay 99% tax on all UK income before they send of offshore to some tax haven just for the damage that they are inflicting on society. Never gonna happen so don't bother downvoting this post."

And if they simply present financial records showing they have NO UK income? That's the sad reality of transnationals: they can play sovereignty against you.

Not if the third parties have big-time trade secrets or patents or are operating in a cutthroat market. Otherwise, why can't a company get the likes of Qualcomm, Mediatek, or whatever, to open up the notorious black boxes on theirs SoCs? And they may be too big or too connected to simply be bought out like the company that made Magnetic Secure Technology (borg'ed by Samsung).

Re: @Charles 9 - The thing that they do

Sure they do. You need LAND to farm, and most of the good land's already taken...by farmers. Going back to writing their own OS then, who's going to run it? They need the existing userbase, which IS limited by physics (think head count).

Re: The thing that they do

Not quite. Most of these businesses establish distribution contracts with suppliers and so on so as to ensure a steady supply of their necessary ingredients. These contracts costs money, and they pay for the materials themselves and the logistics necessary to get the stuff to them in a timely manner (I have firsthand experience in retail AND the supply shocks associated with COVID, so I know about these things). Plus the materials wouldn't be "open source" by the definition we know it because it isn't like Starbucks or MacDonald's can just drive up to the fields and so on and just take some of them (besides, unlike software, raw materials are finite by physics).

Re: Optional

Have you looked at the current URL? Sure, the "forums" part is grayed out, but it's still significant, given putting that in puts you in a different part of El Reg versus the front page. Meaning you can't ban the "forums" part, for example, because there's too much risk for collateral damage, to the point you could end up blocking or banning the app itself.

Re: Looks likes...

"If you're concerned about evil, money-grubbing corporations, you can't really expect commerce to be the source of a technical solution."

But what if that's your only option, given commerce has enough clout to sway the government?

Re: @karlkarl - Yes but

Trouble is, what if one of them is actually spewing malware? What's one of the most ubiquitous problems with Windows downloads? Malware disguised as legit stuff. There's an issue of trust involved here, and the line's blurring because of the elaborate lengths some malware slingers will go to create near-perfect impersonators.