Posts by Maty

iPads?

Were these just bundled in to make the thing more comprehensive? Let's say I have a wifi-only iPad (as in fact I do). When this has no connection, I really doubt anything is tracking it. A couple of apps have asked if they can use location and been told no.

So perhaps it depends on which iPad you have. I'm more worried about my car's GPS. I'm SURE that thing is tracking my movements.

Heinlein

The Moon is a Harsh mistress.

'nuff said

As if it matters

As long as the darn thing shows facebook and porn, its not like the average user gives a flying fork about what code the browser is running.

For the vast majority 'optimized to run native HTML5' is simply marketing babble, like those shampoo adverts that claim 80% more shiny hair with new added shinerine molecules.

Anyone who actually understands what HTML5 even means is probably competent enough to judge Microsoft's implementation on its own merits (and I suspect probably doesn't run IE anyway.)

So what's this debate about?

aaah

Appropriately enough, Schadenfreude is a German word.

'not in the public interest'?

Oh, it was very much in the public interest to prosecute - if we define 'public' as the ordinary people who live in the UK.

If we define 'public' as those public institutions that are very interested in intercepting the communications of ordinary citizens, and for whom a prosecution would have a pronounced chilling effect, then yes, the prosecution is definitely not in their interest.

Given that the CPS is naturally aligned with such institutions, their definition of 'public' comes as no surprise.

yet again ..

Adobe proves itself the Acquired Immunity Deficiency Syndrome of the internet.

Roll on HTML 5 when this company and its crappy vuln-ridden products will be obsolete.

Didn't Gordon Geko say

Greed is good ...?

tape ...

Has saved my sorry ass more than once.

Tape is not just for big outfits like Google. If you have not done so already, back your system onto tape and store it off-premises in a fireproof safe.

The thing about last-ditch backups is that you don't need them until you really, really need them. Back up, folks. Do it now.

With Christians like that ...

The emperor Nero seems a more sympathetic character.

Police state?

A lawyer I know remarked that - for the police - a perfect legislative system would be one in which every citizen was in violation of the law at any time. That way, rather than investigate crimes, they could simply pick up the guys they 'know' are guilty and charge them with breaking the same laws that the rest of the population are breaking.

And that is the dirty bargain the British public and parliament have made with the cops . 'Make it possible for anyone to be charged with child porn. That way, no perv will escape (And don't worry Sir, that you might be guilty under the same laws. We would never charge a law-abiding citizen like YOU.)'

'While we are at it, let's make almost anyone guilty of terrorism, because we will only actually go after people with swarthy skins and religious beliefs we don't like. (Not for example, people walking on a bicycle path, or heckling the Prime Minister, oh, no.)'

I don't think it's a co-incidence that so many people accused (and acquitted) of terrorism end up on sex charges. Basically, if the authorities have it in for you the law in these two areas is broad enough to get almost ANYONE for one or the other if the charges are applied creatively enough.

And thus ...

adding a new dimension to the phrase 'Get a life'.

even better ...

How about a pill FOR baldness?

Three parts

Have part 1 on a post-it note next to your monitor. A list with alphanumeric code and the name of the applicable site. something like 2Hc5i = ebay.

Then add half of old car number plate (or an old postcode, or a chunk of a memorable phone number or whatever). Keep this part in your head.

And finish with a common ending such as x1X, also memorized.

The post-it part is vulnerable only to those physically on site. Someone with physical access to your comp still needs to guess your other details - and even someone who knows you intimately would have trouble with the last three digits.

So an eBay password would be 2Hc5ihe5x1X , and although the corresponding amazon account would have the same he5x1X suffix, a hacker would have to work hard on the unique prefix.

Flushed out the suspect?

I assume someone leaked the information of his whereabouts?

Or was it in the paper?

Yesbut

the details of the 'hack' don't make sense.

'Krebs set up a free account on the site, details of which Russo was able to recite back to him'

-umm which details exactly? Presumably not the details which were available to anyone browsing the site looking for information put up expressly for that purpose?

So are we talking banking details? Presumably not, as this was a free account. Email? Home address? Or was it possible to pwn the acct - and if it was, why not say so?

I guess I could follow up the links and find out, but isn't that kinda what the reporter of this story should have done?

Bloody whingeing aussies

Whining that the umpiring was not right for them at the ashes, demanding stuff that's not theirs and never was ... reminds me why we shipped them off to the other side of the planet to start with.

Damn impertinent colonials.

yeah ...

When I first got an iPad, I considered Pandora. A quick look through reviews showed that it required a lot of personal info which was totally unnecessary in functional terms. If users knew about this issue six months back, I'd be surprised if Apple did not.

It's all a cunning plan

By the end of 2010 everything patentable or conceivable will have been patented. By 2030 or thereabouts, nothing will be patentable as all the current patents will have expired, and since those patents were so broad they covered EVERYTHING, the patent system will finally die an unlamented death.

(Dying, the act of popping one's clogs, was patented by me in 2010 so before you go to the great Sysadmin in the sky, don't forget to pass me my royalties.)

Dear CPS

Let me help you.

The law in question is called RIPA. BT and Phorm broke it. Prosecute them.

There, that wasn't hard was it?

Ok, let's try explaining it this way ...

On a five day overseas trip last month, I used email to keep up to date with work, I watched my usual TV programmes, and a movie on the airport bus. I read my normal newspapers and listened to my usual radio stations. I talked once or twice a day with the family on Skype. I read two books and bought one more.

I found where I needed to go with google maps, and checked I was at the right place on streetview. Changing planes on the way home, I played a game of Civ. All the while I kept an eye on our web server, and though I didn't need it, I had ssh set up for emergencies.

And I used nothing but the iPad for all the above. It's small and light enough to just slip into my luggage. A few years back, the kit I needed to do all the above WAS my luggage. The iPad doesn't let you do anything new. It just makes doing it easy, hassle-free - and expensive. It is a very Apple product.

If you need it, it's wonderful. If you don't need it, don't get it.

early adopters are a resource

Perhaps the government should leverage the financial value of the early adopter database to defray some of the costs of this white elephant?

I mean these early adopters are people with a proven tendency to accept information at face value. Think how much certain types on the net would pay for their details. There would be a boom in seaside property in Oxfordshire purchased with the money from Nigerian dictator's widows.

Meanwhile we - the public - managed to pay £41,000,000 for 'developing the policy legislation and business case' (a case which anyway failed in every respect).

We've all been mugus.

yeah ...

"However, some companies have chosen to ignore our requests for good faith negotiations and discussions."

Rather as a bank might ignore the good faith negotiations of the men with crowbars and balaclavas who are 'requesting' access to the vaults.

Just because one is being blatant in trying to extort money does not mean there is any 'good faith' involved.

Actually ...

*I* am the first to break the news about wikileaks on Amazon servers.

But since I got my scoop from an obscure tech rag reporting on how an obscure radio hack got it from aforesaid tech rag, it seems only right that I should report it here first.

the point being...

That this discovery doesn't show that extra-terrestrial life exists, but it increases the probability. Just a few decades back we didn't even know if other stars had planets (which most species would consider kind of a basic starting point.)

Now we know planets are ten a penny, and that life can exist in anaerobic environments. If life can also develop in different ways -e.g. using arsenic instead of phos. then it may be able to develop on non-earthlike planets.

None of this does more than increase the probability that we are not alone, but this discovery has significantly increased that probability, so IMHO it's important.

We've got the data ...

For about the last decade the internet has been an unrestricted all-the-porn-you-can-take buffet.

The evidence of whether the world is collapsing into moral depravity (well, collapsing faster than usual) should by now be pretty clear.

Have sex-crimes gone up dramatically? Teenage pregnancies? I'm cynical enough to believe that if there was any er, hard evidence that porn on the internet was seriously, or even noticeably damaging society, the dear old Daily Mail would have let us know.

OTOH, maybe some frustrated individuals can now blow off steam in front of a computer instead of pestering real-life humans.

Just a thought.