Posts by Robert Helpmann??

Re: Not really much of a problem

While stuff like Facebook isn't worth saving...

Hold on just a moment there! Archaeologists have been digging through modern landfills for more than 40 years. One man's garbage is another man's research paper.

Re: Pointless Picture

Yes, but it ruins the joke if you have to explain it.

On Being Human

But, being human, I'd have to stick it to my eyeball to notice the difference ...

Good point. This would find better use in a VR headset than a laptop.

Re: Why a sub?

What would a submarine be able to give you that a ship equipped with lidar and sonar to map the depth of the sea wouldn't?

I think you missed the bit about the “benthic sampler.” It's pretty much the same with any mission of this nature in that you get much more data if you can dig down into the surface than if you use a more limited set of measurements. That and because it is a lot more fun to touch than to look.

Unknown Inaccurate Models

So the real issue in this is that the tech is not yet developed and the models are untested? Fine, let's terraform Mars. That way, we will know that the tech works and how well. As a bonus, we will have some additional real estate with which to play.

Re: Thanks IBM.

More ammo for defeating the idiotic push to BYOD.

Indeed, how did the 60% of dating apps with vulnerabilities stack up to other apps in general? Probably about average or perhaps a bit above, I would guess.

Re: This reminds me...

I wonder how common it was/is for different species to consume halucinogens (by accident or on purpose), and how this has affected their development.

It is quite common for animals to consume fruit that has started to ferment. Drunken elephants are quite dangerous. I shudder to think how a drunken sauropod might act, much less several of them getting into the prehistoric equivalent of a bar fight. As far as other naturally occurring psychoactive drugs, just think of what it would have been like to have the munchies millions of years before the invention of Twinkies. Bummer!

Re: Possibly shortsighted

I don't know exactly how AV signatures are generated...

Whitelisting actually uses a different approach than typical AV products. Similar in approach to a firewall, the default in using a whitelist is to block execution unless specifically allowed. Traditional AV products assume the process should run unless it shows up as known malware, typically through comparison with a signature (blacklists), or as the result of some sort of heuristic analysis.

Done properly, a corporate admin might use the list curated by VirusTotal as a starting point, and then de-list those apps that are not desirable for whatever reason (licensing, appropriateness to the work environment, etc.).

Re: A law is the wrong way to go

While state laws have no jurisdiction over federal agents, in passing this law, California provides more protection than people in the state had previously. Also, there is a long history of states leading the way with progressive legislation with the federal system only catching up once a tipping point is reached.

Basically, this is a good start.

Re: Keyless Vehicle Theft...

I was hoping for real information on how to better secure a vehicle, either avec or sans clé. Instead, we are given some generic advice from the po-po to just be careful. Perhaps someone might develop robots that look and act like a particularly aggressive predator to be left in the cab of the vehicle. The owner should be able to turn it off remotely, though putting the off switch down its gullet might be entertaining.

Re: They can re-badge themselves all they want, but....

Maybe add some bits of blue and a few stars & stripes to the basic red&white motif.

I guess you missed the bit about the New England Patriot font. Subtle, but amusing.

Re: Anyone else get the feeling...

Progressive Insurance even touts their data collection kit that they will give you for absolutely free so that they can monitor every move you make in your vehicle for the benefit of lowering your rates for an undisclosed amount. Alas, it opens your car to even more exploits than would otherwise be available to the black hats. The good news: your rates go down. The better news: you'll be getting a new car as hackers wrecked your old one for you.

Re: Who's the Audience here?

Yes, but it isn't exactly news and, as mentioned above, it is hardly an in-depth analysis. There are entire suites of applications, certification sets, and careers based on information security in one form or another. This, while nice as far as it went, amounts to what an IT professional might send out as an annual reminder to those who write the checks as to why we do what we do. I honestly do not understand why it has been posted to an IT news site.

Re: Apart from the naming, how does this differ to what's already happening now?

It's pretty obvious that this will not work well in most corporate environments, especially those that have air-gapped networks. Testing patches before deploying to production machines is a best practice that is too often neglected, but it does no good to Microsoft if they force those who Do It Right (TM) to abandon its OS because it undermines their processes.

With Windows 10, the experience will evolve and get even better over time.

It might work, at least somewhat, in the home environment if the GUI is divorced from the rest of the upgrade process. I wouldn't hold my breath; they will fail to learn from either Google's mishandling of Android updates (allow the service providers to decide) or their own past mistakes and end up with a fragmented mess despite talking a good game.

Re: Google should run for President

To quote the inscription I once read on the cornerstone of a newly constructed courthouse: No man is above the law. These sorts of actions do not square very well with wanting to have legal personhood though Google is hardly alone in pushing for both super-legal authority and having the legal rights enjoyed by real people. It's like they want their cake and... my cake too.

Re: Sir

I set up my media center (attached to a "dumb" TV) with voice control based on an Android app. It responded to too many people in the room. I imagine it would probably respond to shows that came on, too, given the opportunity. I can't imagine what an argument over which show to watch would result in other than an epilepsy-inducing display of flashing lights.

I disabled this feature. Roddenberry got it wrong.

I have debated whether I should set up an older phone as the dedicated remote for some of the same privacy concerns, but I like being able to call my "remote" and have it beacon if I lose it. I know, I am sacrificing security for convenience, but the cell phone will most likely be with me anyway.

Re: Still using Adobe Flash?

May be wise to stop biting the hand that feeds?

Uh... please see masthead.

Avast!

"We have stolen files from KGB hackers...

Unauthorized copying is not theft!

Re: It won't bloody help

As the article intimates - it is always better for real text input and efficient work to use the mouse and keyboard - at least for now.

It's more efficient to use the mouse as little as possible as moving hands from keyboard to elsewhere slows you down.

in defense of Jack and Jill

Mind you I can't remember finding anything with Adam Sandler in it good.

Wait! There was... no, it was... hold on... ahhhh... No, you are right. Rotten Tomatoes has 7 of his movies rated above 50%, one less than the total that achieved single digits and including three that managed to score an incredible 0%. The only way he could get worse would be to star in a sequel to the Lost in Space movie.

Re: Call me old fashioned

You say "McDonald's," I say "crimes against humanity." That's just mean!

Re: Malware Solution

Each time you unlock your device, an ad is presented to you, warning you about a problem, eg that your device is infected.... This, of course, is a complete lie

Um, doesn't the presence of these ads confirm that there is malware on the device? The app functions as a Trojan, after all.

What happened to "innocent unless proven guilty?"

This is more a matter of probable cause rather than of having the assumption of guilt (it was a search, not a trial). Still, I cannot for the life of me see either how there was sufficient evidence for probable cause or that the means used should be considered reasonable to gain access without a warrant. Of course, I am not a lawyer, but if you have to have a legal expert to differentiate between what is a reasonable expectation of privacy and what is not, there would seem to be a problem.

My guess is that this or a similar method will be tried again but will most likely cause the case to overturned if it goes to a jury trial or a federal appellate court.

Re: Effective "a big boy did it and ran away" defenses require...

I have been following this with my uninterested-in-internet-or-legal-affairs teenager. When TDPR announced his defense, I asked if it was at all believable. Given the look I got back, I had a pretty good idea what the outcome was going to be.

Re: My money is on..

My money is on.. Someone getting lazy...

I don't see why you used the Joke icon. If the folks in Singapore are anything like everywhere else in the world, they will have their hands full preventing just this from happening.

Re: Really?

As of 04 February 2015 the world's worst Spam Haven countries for production and export of spam are:

Yes, but if you divide by the number of Internet users in those countries, we see something a little more detailed:

1. Ukraine 2.84 e-5

2. United States 9.12 e-6

3. Russian Federation 8.98 e-6

4. Turkey 8.19 e-6

5. United Kingdom 6.03 e-6

6. Japan 5.13 e-6

7. Germany 4.78 e-6

8. Brazil 2.87 e-6

9. China 1.97 e-6

10. India 1.30 e-6

Sources:

http://www.spamhaus.org/statistics/countries/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_Internet_users

Re: re: @Neil Davies 1

Nor does it preclude traffic shaping/management, provided such shaping is based on traffic dynamics and not economics.

And herein lies the rub: how do you differentiate the two? As indicated elsewhere, good network management often includes prioritization of traffic, This discussion reminds me a bit of the "benevolent dictator" approach to running a nation. If the ISPs are left to determine how to do this, they will eventually, inevitably decide to maximize profits, especially in the short term, no matter the quality of service provided to customers. If there are consistent standards and rules across the board, there will be other problems, to be sure, but they will be lesser than the worse case of service providers gone wild.

Re: Yes, but

Being in a hurry to do something important might be enough to change someone's style sufficiently to fail the test.

... or if the person got sick, or had a sports injury, or was hungover, or... This will obviously take quite a bit of testing before it is widely accepted simply because it is a different way of handling authentication than most are used to and moreso because it involved basic security contorls. It would seem to me to be appropriate for tracking who happens to be using a system at a given time, but I do not think it will be good enough to provide initial authentication. Given that it is little more than vaporware at this time, I am willing to admit that I may be wrong, but it will be a long time before this has a chance for widespread adoption.

Re: Hey!

What? No cat picture? FTFY!

Re: Aloo is "classic" Indian food? Really?

Unlike various other "national" food types such as Chinese, Indian fare has rapidly taken on whatever local or new ingredients as are available.

Obviously, you are much more experienced with Indian food than other cuisines. Chinese chefs are famous for making do with whatever ingredients are available wherever they happen to find themselves. Japanese recipes tend to use sweet potatoes rather than white, but sushi and tempura recipes have been adapted to meet the challenge local ingredients have provided all over the world.

Re: Privacy Policies are getting harder to read.

If people cared about privacy policies then people would be flocking away from Google for other services with "better privacy", but that isn't happening.

So, if it a choice between A) a steaming pile of semi-functional code that allows for perfectly secure searches that do not return anything of value and B) Google which returns an arguably great set of results but which also plays fast and loose with personal privacy, people will always choose A?

Additional incentives might be needed such as cranking up the per instance tax on searches to mirror the ever-increasing tobacco tax. While I agree that education is a critical part of security, I don't believe that cigarette usage makes for a good comparison.

Re: Or in English

I wonder what you would do with 12.619 kiloJubs in low earth orbit?

I am not entirely sure, but it sound like a lot of fun!

Re: nice one

Adobe, you've been producing cack for years, soon you'll be gone.

Photoshop users might agree with your premise, but I doubt many will follow along to your conclusion!

Re: The simplest and best solution

What makes a republic a particularly good idea?

It isn't, but it's better than the alternatives.

Re: more titles

Have an upvote for 'Robot and Frank.' I think that, to carry the '1984' example a bit further, it is worth keeping in mind the examples given by the various dystopian works. Blade Runner (DADoES) gets my vote for that.

Re: Technical or financial

I would guess that the fact that updates have to be pushed out by the various telcos and ISPs might have a bit to do with it, as well. If Google ran updates where the devices phoned home (see what I did there?) to Mountain View for updates rather than having to depend the mobile service their respective owners use, it might be a different story. Take Verizon, for example. If you go to its Android FAQ page, most of newer versions have a note to older phone owners that reads like this:

XXX is only available on select Android devices. Some newly released Android devices will ship with XXX preloaded. If your device is running an older Android version, you can regularly check the Advanced Devices Software Updates page to see if the XXX update is available for your device.

Of course, you can keep checking until the cows come home, but you are never going to update. As much as I hate to condone Google's current strategy on this issue, I cannot imagine it would be worth while to put in the effort needed to patch this flaw only to have most of the mobile carriers not bother with it. On the other hand, Google could change the update model to work more like Chrome, but that has its own set of risks.

Re: And I thought

At least we know now where colony collapse disorder originated.