* Posts by DropBear

4733 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Mar 2013

Permissionless data slurping: Why Google's latest bombshell matters

DropBear

Re: A simple solution

"Invasive tactics should always be subject to reciprocated activities"

That would be utterly pointless. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry", said the elephant to the mouse with the crushed leg, writhing in agony, "it's ok, you're welcome to step on mine in return". If you want an effective deterrent, you'd need something sized to corporate / government / etc. standards.

Wait, did Oracle tip off world to Google's creepy always-on location tracking in Android?

DropBear

Re: So your mobile operator does this too

Whenever I don't feel like my mobile operator knowing where my phone is, it's understood I can just switch off my phone. It has been similarly expected the same thing should be achievable in relation to Google by the explicit choice of disabling location services - while it can be argued that this only applies to apps, the expectation used to that it applied to the OS as well, with no known statements to the contrary, considering that each time you ask Google to do anything remotely location-related, it insists it cannot do it unless you enable location services. That not being true is news indeed.

DropBear

Re: Google: "It is not "location services" so it's not reporting on you. So you can't turn it off.

I'm sorry, what? Your cellphone tower map is getting built based on the location of cellphone towers, based on... location of cellphone towers? Because we seem to be talking about location services (therefore GPS, presumably) being turned OFF - so how would you know where the tower you sense is...?

DropBear

Re: Oracle tipped off the world ...

Please elaborate - how does rooting your phone automatically tip you off about continuing surveillance? Is there any actual root user who goes and blacklists system services (just for the heck of it presumably, unless you don't actually need your phone to, you know, actually work) or is the presumption that all root users are watching wireshark at all times?

Iran the numbers – and Persian internet is the cheapest in the world

DropBear

Re: Cost of Living

I wouldn't use GDP for that. No idea what would be the proper metric but the only relation GDP is in with what the most of the population makes in a lot of countries is "constrained by"....

iPhone X: Bargain! You've just bagged yourself a cheap AR device

DropBear
Trollface

Re: No thank you

"All it needs is the porn industry to find a use for it. "

Counting down to the first AR app that can seamlessly dynamically overlay a nude 3D body of appropriate shape over the image of anybody you look at, virtual "x-ray glasses" style. ETA in 3... 2... 1...

DropBear

Re: Fools and their money...

@lotaresco you know what assuming makes of "u", right? There's quite literally no amount of money _paid to me_ that would convince me to use an iPhone, or any other Apple product; if his case is anything like mine, it has nothing to do with "sour grapes" - and yes, quoting Aesop does make you something, but "look smart" isn't it.

It's artificial! It's intelligent! It's in my home! And it's gone bonkers!

DropBear
Trollface

Get one that can play back audio messages and have it play "I'm sorry but I can't do that, access is by appointment only" to everyone, then just tell them you made the mistake of going for the "Pro 9000" model when it was discounted and don't know how to turn it off if anyone complains...

DropBear
Facepalm

Re: Reminds me of Futurama

That sounds only very slightly worse than the Real Thing - there's a scrawny pooch living somewhere in the neighborhood whose owner seems to be shopping once every few days at the small grocery under my flat and during the entire (slow) approach, tied-up wait outside and (sloooow) departure into the sunset the wretched thing howl-barks continuously with the kind of harrowing, intense terror that can only possibly be justified by seeing your innermost spiritual core shredded by the claws of every last demon from the netherworld all at once, roughly three seconds before you cease existing altogether. Every - single - time. Continuously, without any pause. As if being boiled AND skinned alive. I do love animals, but I can honestly say obliterating that... thing would be an ultimate act of mercy and kindness. A grand piano from a few stories high sounds great at this point. Or maybe an anvil...

DropBear

Re: Applause

...the tiny crack in this magnificent plan for fortune, fame and world domination including complimentary volcano lair being of course encouraging retweets on a forum where half of the readership regularly and proudly confesses to not using any (other) form of social media.

DropBear
Devil

Re: Sign me up for one

"mistook correctly identified her (based on the entirety of her Facebook photos I helpfully pointed said doorbell at for training) for a charity collector and has just launched a salvo emptied a full can of pepper-spray into her face politely inviting her to stay still while reloading, hopefully eroding her resolve regarding future visits while offering me plausible deniability of any malicious intent. " FTFY...

Apple whispers how its face-fingering AI works

DropBear

Re: Works for me

Yeah, about that - for some reason A Clockwork Orange comes to mind...

US govt to use software to finger immigrants as potential crims? That's really dumb – boffins

DropBear
Terminator

Re: I've already seen this movie ...

"On your way to the mosque, you see a tortoise. You reach down and flip the tortoise over on its back..."

DropBear
Facepalm

People's failure to learn is a built-in, inevitable direct consequence of human mortality and a relatively short lifespan. People live just long enough to be allowed meaningful discovery and gathering of experience that they then attempt to pass on before they die - but the next generation brings a fresh set of eyes and the "passing on" bit happens selectively and critically.

Often this is a very good thing, or else the immortal Ur-humans would have concluded long ago that the Earth is flat and the Sun is orbiting around it and that would be that, case closed. This way at least human knowledge gets a chance to progress every time the "old guard" finally kicks the bucket - and no sooner, as often observed with scientific dogma that stubbornly persists for a generation.

On the other hand, it is also often a very bad thing, as people who feel no need to actually fact-check things arbitrarily decide that inconvenient stuff they didn't personally see never happened, whether it's the moon landings or the Holocaust. And every time they think "surely WWII camps for Japanese couldn't have been that bad..." they get one step closer to willingly doing it all again...

Heads up: OnePlus phones have a secret root backdoor and the password is 'angela'

DropBear
WTF?

Re: "Angela", eh?

So is this something that simultaneously everyone should both know (in case they ever feel "threatened" in a bar) and not know (in case they are the cause of said "threat" or just to allow the word to function as the "discreet" glorified euphemism it is apparently meant to be)...? Doublethink: are we there yet...?

Amazon to make multiple Lord of the Rings prequel TV series

DropBear

Re: Oh Hell!!!

They seem to always forget that a good plot with brand new, unknown setting and characters can easily be successful but a poor plot with well-known setting and characters will always do poorly. It's almost as if their aim is never making something that is actually any good to thrive on merit, just something that's sufficiently familiar to survive a season or two on past fame...

DropBear
Unhappy

Re: Prequel? Oh no

Mark my words - considering _nobody_ of any significance can be redshirted because we know they survive to the end (and they know we know), I predict at least one major character will be killed anyway at least once, then brought back via some sort of fantasy magic resurrection handwaving...

DropBear

Re: Numenor

"Is this still much interest in the fantasy genre?"

Yes and no. Apparently people are more than ever positively going gaga over copycats like "Vikings" - on the other hand, I used to watch GoT as soon as it aired but this year couldn't be bothered to even start watching yet...

Munich council: To hell with Linux, we're going full Windows in 2020

DropBear

Re: @ Voland's right hand

"Isnt that .dxf ?"

Which week's version...?

Audio spy Alexa now has a little pal called Dox

DropBear
Trollface

Re: Not much use

And just what's wrong with that - it's a perfect fit! "There's gotta be a record of you someplace / You gotta be on somebody's books..."

Learn client-server C programming – with this free tutorial from the CIA

DropBear

Re: MIPS ? PowerPC ?

I seem to recall that an awful lot of router CPUs are very much still MIPS. I would think they would merit significant interest indeed.

Alexa, please cause the cops to raid my home

DropBear
Joke

"Once you stop the echo its fine BUT after around 10 minuets it starts playing again, on its own."

Maybe it simply gets fed up with minuets after ten or so and wants to hear something else - I know I would...

Jet packs are real – and inventor just broke world speed record in it

DropBear

Re: Bond is back!

"The Bond pack had some intrinsic stability because the centre of thrust was so much higher than the center of gravity of the pilot."

The pendulum rocket fallacy would like to have a word with you, in private. Yes, right now.

US government seizes Texas gun mass murder to demand backdoors

DropBear

Re: Oh dear

Thanks to the FBI bloke for confirming what I've always known - yes I'm an unreasonable person when facing scumbags like you, yes I _did_ write silly notes to my cousin in a made-up alphabet when I was a kid and yes I'd very much like to see you try cracking something like that if I'd have a go at it _properly_ today or try outlawing the right to write down unintelligible symbols/words.

SSL spy boxes on your network getting you down? But wait, here's an IETF draft to fix that

DropBear

Re: Huh?

You might be surprised, but I'm nowhere near GCHQ either. Like, at all. Not even close. And the point of the whole question about ISPs was precisely that I don't see how they could do that either, except the article seems to think they just can: "Middleboxes can also be used by organizations and ISPs to monitor employees and citizens" So, again - I'd really like to know how my _ISP_ is allegedly able to simply listen in on any HTTPS connection with their magic "middlebox"...

PS - and no, despite the name it's not Oz either - forget the whole "five eyes" thing, I'm nowhere near it.

DropBear

Re: Huh?

I asked "how does an ISP", not "how does the NSA". For at least some of us not living in the Land Of The Free they're absolutely not the same thing.

DropBear

Huh?

I can see an enterprise being able to sneak trusted certificates into their own devices but how exactly does an ISP convince your browser at home - that is not supposed to be under their control in any sense other than using them as a pipe - that you're talking to Google when you're talking to them? And if they can do it why can't absolutely anyone else on the wire? And if anyone can, what exactly is it that HTTPS is supposed to be good for...?

Tesla buys robot maker. Hang on, isn't that your sci-fi bogeyman, Elon?

DropBear

They plainly said as much earlier that their problems are related to certain sections of their assembly lines and that the failings of the contractor handling that were missed. In light of that I can see nothing surprising in wanting to take matters into their own hands, sorry. And factory "robot" intelligence has pretty much bugger-all to do with AI; if anything, most "smarts" involved concerns itself with optimizing the efficiency of the processes involved, not with performing them physically.

Google's answer to the Pixel 2 XL CRT-style screen burn in: Lower the brightness

DropBear
Trollface

Re: Cure for crt-style display burn-in

"the X and X deflector coils"

...is this some sort of female CRT? Where only the male ones have X and Y coils...?

Parity calamity! Wallet code bug destroys $280m in Ethereum

DropBear
Trollface

Re: How many DevOps are we talking about here

""youse" is singular, "youse guys" is plural."

So there's at least three different forms - singular, plural, and "all y'all"...?

Mythbuster seeks cash for roller skates to wear in virtual reality

DropBear

Re: $50K?

You forget that for a large portion of projects these days Kickstarter is merely a glorified cheaper-than-free market surveying tool. They just want to know if there are any actual punters...

DropBear

Re: There's already a solution

Oh no, not one. A smallish bazillion, rather. The problem is none of them seem to work all that convincingly, or permanently occupy a non-negligible area (not a big issue in an arcade, huge issue in a home) or both. Unfortunately I'm not all that sure this one is any different in that sense - at best, if it does work, it might indeed fake walking forward; how about any other type of movement? What about a simple side step...? What about needing to walk up or down an imaginary incline or stairs...? I'm pretty sure the disconnect would be quite serious. Not to mention that even as scaled-down as game worlds are compared to actual distances in the real world, there's still absolutely no way you could convince me to physically walk all the distance a game character routinely appears to in most games.

Lord of the Rings TV show shopped around Hollywood

DropBear
Trollface

Re: Why not

Easy: make in a "film noir" style, with inner monologue to channel the atmosphere...

DropBear

I don't see how that follows. At all. It's not that people aren't willing to go watch something new, it's that there's no guarantee those who do will like it, and if it's crap they sure will prevent lots of others from wasting their time and money on it. Whereas a known franchise, even if not quite as successful as the original, is much less of a risk for a producer - and that's the reason we get sequels.

DropBear
Trollface

Re: So if HBO were to take over....

Edgy modern remake (sorry - "reboot") opening scene : hospital ER with a bunch of handsome firemen fire-persons busily trying to saw the hardened titanium One Ring off Bilbo's [BEEEP] while trying to keep it intact...

DropBear

Re: Scouring of the Shire

Gee, you must _love_ Tarkovsky...

DropBear

Re: TV show will probably just be the hobbits farming or eating for 6 hours...

"Hobbit vs Food"

I'd advise you to hedge your bets - how about an "Elves vs. Vampires" crossover...? The erotic potential alone is off the charts, not to even mention the foreseeable size of the YA fanbase...

US judge orders Sci-Hub be excised from the internet

DropBear

Re: Speaking as an academic...

Paid access to scientific studies needs to die. No compromises.

Imagine the candles on its birthday cake: Astro-eggheads detect galaxy born in universe's first billion years

DropBear

Re: Where are they moving to?

"Where is the centre and where did it explode from?"

From the tip of your nose. And I'm not even kidding. Whatever corner of space it currently occupies, that exact spot was right there where the explosion happened. Then space kinda went Tardis-wise and now it's a lot bigger on he inside...

This could be our favorite gadget of 2017: A portable projector

DropBear
Flame

Camping is for people who have an issue with the notion of comfort. Briefly put, I don't.

Boffins tear into IEEE's tissue-thin anti-hacker chip blueprint crypto

DropBear

In my humble understanding, there is nothing wrong with using AES-CBC as apparently even Schneier himself recommends it, assuming you steer clear of faulty padding. Not specifying a proper one is indeed a grave shortcoming of the standard (especially considering how new the standard and how old the known exploit is), but I wouldn't say AES-CBC as such is in any sense broken or inadvisable.

Transparent algorithms? Here's why that's a bad idea, Google tells MPs

DropBear

If by "black box" you mean "show me any part from my car and I will tell you what it does and where it comes from" and "if you sent me a hundred years back in time I would probably be a Very Dangerous Person for knowing how a magnetron works" then yeah, sure, black box it is. But I'm not so sure all "algorithms" should just stay buried - "gaming" or not, I wouldn't trust a black box voting machine...

Those IT gadget freebies you picked up this year? They make AWFUL Christmas presents

DropBear
Trollface

Re: freebie USB sticks

"It's still wrong"

Ah, but see, that's what quick disconnects are for. One of them keeps my USB stick attached to my keys, the other is for the AAA-cell mini-flashlight (the swiss army knife is permanently attached, being the heaviest item of them all it supremely doesn't give a #### about what else it lugs around). Yes I do carry that thing in my pocket, thanks for asking, although now that you mention it maybe I should consider an alpinist-rated belt clip (and a properly sturdy utility belt to match)...

Donald, YOU'RE FIRED: Rogue Twitter worker quits, deletes President Trump's account

DropBear

Re: Twitter should stick to the T&C and ban the orange twerp.

Unfortunately, by the same token that lets them delete your account if they "feel" you're violating whatever even if it's painfully obvious to any sane person you are doing no such thing, they are free to _not_ apply any of their so-called "terms" by simply going "nu-uh!" if anyone points out a violation.

In fact, one could arguably sue any company today for calling their terms of service "terms of service", suggesting the existence of an objective aspect that clearly doesn't exist. What they should be called instead is "guidelines regarding things that tend to make us not like you and get you kicked out, unless we happen to really like you in which case never mind, you can do whatever the fuck you want for as long as you feel like it".

Hells door-bells! Ring pieces paralyzed in horror during Halloween trick-or-treat rush

DropBear
Joke

Re: Halloween and door bells...

"Around here we got a succession of nice, polite little children in groups with mummies watching from a safe distance."

Why should zombies and vampires get all the candy?!? I find this completely arbitrary discrimination against mummy costumes thoroughly disturbing!

DropBear
Trollface

Re: Read the story and thought...

Don't be silly - all IoT stuff I've seen so far has clearly defined failover built right in. Specifically, if connectivity fails then usability is over...

Simon's Cat app rapped for random 'racy' advert

DropBear

"Tom and Jerry or Foghorn Leghorn anyone ?"

I wouldn't say Woody Woodpecker was a particularly pacifist cartoon either...

Open source, says me: Alibaba chucks MariaDB a $27m funding round

DropBear

Re: Branding

I'm not quite as sure of that - I'm well aware of the "40 thieves" story, and it would never consciously override a deliberate intent to use the site, but I can also attest to the name causing a permanent nasty aversion in the back of my mind much like the OP noted. It's probably different in an Eastern context so it may not matter much, but I'm pretty sure the name did them no favours _whatsoever_ in any western setting.

First iPhone X fondlers struggle to admit that Face ID sort of sucks

DropBear

Re: Innovation vs "innovation"

"I don't keep, or do anything *really* important on my phone, because you would have to be an idiot to think that any of them are in any sense secure"

So, out of curiosity - what non-phone device do you keep or do *really* important stuff on? Because whatever it is, you would have to be an idiot to think it is in any sense secure. Of course, it's entirely possible you only do that kind of thing wholly via traditional non-digital media - in which case I sincerely hope you own a bank-style vault in your basement, because the typical home safe is so bloody secure you can watch it getting broken into in ten different ways in ten minutes on Youtube.

Now, where is my CinemaSins style "hahahahahahaha *gasp* hahahahahahaha" icon...?

Comodo CA acquired by Francisco Partners ...

DropBear

Chiming in at the village idiot level (which I am at in these affairs) - how about not trusting ANY of those f##kers? I know I don't, except of course I have to, unless I'm willing to pull the plug. So what about some sort of block-chain CA, that essentially confirms only that whoever you've been talking to as "website.com" is the same entity as all other people have been talking to? That clearly wouldn't help with a MitM agent sitting between "website.com" and _everybody_ else but perhaps someone smarter can figure something out against that too...?