Posts by a_yank_lurker

"will know that Z needs to be included." - If that is the only part missing those would be some of the best specs from a government ever.

Re: Too little too late.

For the last several years I have only used Slurp with any regularity with work kit. My personal kit is almost completely Slurp free. Only a couple of games that might not run under Wine are the only software that I have not been able to replace with something from the Arch Linux repositories; games I have not played in years and probably will not run on 'bloat 10.

The final blow was when Slurp "graciously" downloaded 4.6 Gigs of 'bloat 10 install files on a 'bloat 8.1 dual boat laptop. That was after a routine 'bloat update screwed the BIOS settings temporarily disabling the dual boot earlier. The 'bloat partition is not allowed on the Internet since then.

Re: Sort of an self-hyped report

Manipulating heat and cooling cycles and rates to achieve desired mechanical properties is well known in metallurgy. This is taking that idea and seeing if it can work to manipulate electrical properties. The hardest part is proving it can be done reliably.

Most users will probably a low to mid price phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop more than adequate for their needs. Except for a phone these devices should last several years with OS support being the biggest problem.

Re: @ big_D, et al.

US monopoly rules are usually applied when the total market share is so large the company can control the market. Fruit does not dominate the US mobile market like Slurp dominates the desktop OS market. While Fruit maybe the largest single manufacturer of devices there is plenty of competition from Android devices and Android devices outsell Fruity devices by a wide margin in the US.

These complaints could spur a product recall but that is about as far as it will go.

By comparison Slurp has something like 85 - 90+% of the desktop market depending on whose numbers you believe. Thus, any decision by Slurp could potentially distort the market and harm consumers. This could get an almost bright spark to look to see if they are abusing their monopoly position.

Re: standard advertising practices

The issue appears to be whether advertiser decides to using affinities for certain types of ads illegally. Some ad types do make some sense to target more specific demographics such as adult diapers for the incontinent who are typically elderly or baby formula to parents of infants. However, various non-discrimination laws have to be obeyed for some ads such as for housing.

Re: Firewalls to block the downloading of executables?

@David Roberts - The short answer - No. Users will need to run new executables from time to time and it is fairly easy to hide executables in other code (Office macros for example). Users and admins will have a hard time with setting up the rules correctly at the local firewall level.

@David 132 - Most commentators and many powerful elephants dispise Blowhard. Thus Trump can not count on a solid Senate if impeached; too many elephants are likely to vote to convict. Many believe the opposite is true of Felon. The donkeys in the Senate would never convict her and many elephants would to be cowardly to vote for conviction no matter how serious the charges.

Re: Well, no one ever said crooks had to be smart...

He is stupid enough to a Congress critter.

Re: there is another way... governmental recall of the devices

That would be the quickest way to shake up IoT. Have all the devices recalled at least nationally however it would really be nice if the hammer dropped worldwide on the same day.

Re: Microsoft..

@Streaky - Slurp is quite possibly a criminal enterprise if any competent DA would care to look with their abusive 'bloat 10 garbage. Whether Lenovo conspired with Slurp or did this on their own is hard to tell. Both are quite likely given the sleaziness of both.

@Steve the Cynic - Very true about the difference between being listed on an exchange and OTC. The possible problem Violin faces if delisted would be what are the loan requirements. If they require being listed on a recognized exchange NYSE delisting could be disastrous.

Re: Really??

It's a rather old suit. But the major complaint is price fixing which affects everyone buying a dvd burner/reader. Notice that plaintiffs include retailers not just OEMs.

Re: This just got "interesting"....

There have several infamous pedophila cases in the US were the "evidence" only existed in the minds of the prosecutors, the press, and their lackeys. Many innocent people were convicted in the hysteria. I am wary when prosecutors seem to be looking out for their careers and not justice.

For the record, the only information I have on these cases is from news reports. So I have real idea if the defendants are actually guilty.

Re: Location

It depends on the various extradition treaties and how much effort the Russian government puts in to defend him. If the Russians can force the ferals to show their hand they might show how pathetic a hand the ferals really have to the world.

There is has been a lot of jawboning over here about how every major hack has a Russian or the Russian government behind it. Often the allegations are made off the record with no evidence offered. So I imagine the Russians are looking for a case to embarrass the ferals.

Re: Cupertino is ...

With Linux, if vendors follow Apple's route then definitely yes. But if the vendors support multiple distro families (Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, Slack, Red Hat/Fedora, etc) then it will be somewhat more difficult. Also, if the vendors follow the basic Unix practice of splitting user accounts from admin accounts that will limit the possible damage.

Linux should be getting attention because of its server dominance now from the hackers.

Re: And how does that affect you?

The demand for most copyrighted material is concentrated in relatively short period of time, from a few months to a few years depending the type of work. By about 10 or 15 years there will be virtually no sales. It does not matter how well the sales were at there peak. The lengthy copyrights will only "benefit" a very small number of creators.

Re: IoT

" Kettles, Coffee makers, fridges, Smart TVs (Proof of concept announced but not yet published), Media boxes, thermostats, doorbells, Your kid's toys." - Can anyone give me a logical reason why any of these devices ever need web access. I can see some possible value for CCTV/webcam remote monitoring of infrastructure but not for most people.

Re: I'm near retirement age and what is this

The conferences seem to be useful because well done research is presented to the public. And some of the more interesting bits are widely reported. The problems are partly design related, implementation related, and user related. Combined with a tendency of beancounters to undervalue solid security it tends to get done in spasms.

Re: Feeling here

The backend admin staff usually has the most functional overlap between merged companies once the backend processes are harmonized. So the beancounters should be worried.

Re: different view

There laws on the books that can be used against the two companies if the local feral DA is willing to go after them. The problem is the feral DA is apparently not interested in the case and his chain of command is not willing to make him do his job up to Obama.

Re: Bud Light is beer?

Good US beers are about 6% or so alcohol unless the state law limits the alcohol content. However they are called craft beers and are made by smaller breweries who take pride in making a quality product. The mass market "beer" aka piss-water has no quality just a lot of money spent on ads.

Re: Maybe..

I doubt any legislative action will actually be all that effective. The average Congress critter is not noted for critical thinking skills but emotional pandering.

Security is hard to do even when users are reasonably proactive. To many IoT devices ignore proper security because they make it difficult to update the device even for proactive users. This could be fixed, possibly without any new legislation. Use the existing defective product recall laws on the books since these are defective devices. After a certain period of time and genuine effort then nail the manufacturers with fines for selling and refusing to fix defective products.

Re: Cameroon 38%

"In the end, only people pay taxes, not corporations." - Exactly, all taxes paid by corporations are buried in the final price. The problem with the US income tax system is its use for nudging various programs through tax deductions and its inherent, excessive complexity.

"Nothing to do with the cloud, where ever it may be data needs to be accessed to be processed. If you can't access it it doesn't matter where you process it." - If the data is local to you then you can process it. The issue noted is users may not be able to access remote, cloudy data whether it is on an internal company network in the "cloud".

@Lee D - Cryptography has been an arms race between the strength the of the encryption and means to break them. Combined with various mistakes and hardware limitations your observation that the current encryption methods will be obsolete in the a few years is spot on.

Also, people need to remember that encryption does not need to protect information forever but for a period long enough for it to become essentially useless. This is time period that can range from a few minutes or hours to a few years.

Re: Always a one-sided story

The issue is whether Slurp has enough real evidence to have case tossed. The judge ruled they so far have not shown enough. Given the arrogance of Slurp and their incompetent (more accurately criminal) HR systems there is a very real possibility these suits have merit.

Re: General uptick in Villainous Russian stories lately.

@LeeE - Historically those that fear a power shift and refuse to truly address the internal national problems have use the threat of war to divert attention from their failures. It seems like every major hack is now attributed to either the Russian, Chinese, or NORKS when Occam's Razor would suggest most of the hacks were abetted by internal target incompetence. The incompetence in many cases may be the primary cause of these hacks.

Re: Why spend billions?

We definitely have plenty and it would improve the human race in so many ways.

Re: How Bitcoin might help fix the Internet of Things.

The basic question to ask is how is the device set up. The manufacturer controls the initial set up routines not the user. Also, how much control does the user have over the device to do updates.