Posts by Jez-UK

Re: "opt-out was probably the best choice"

Read the bloody article!

They are not including the IP address.

Look this is actually well written and informative - why would you not actually read it?

Re: EBay

Use "fn" and backspace together. Your welcome :-)

Power

The lower power consumption, and weight/size reduction will be useful for anyone wanting to use it for robotics projects (the "A" was already very popular for this).

It is tempting to think the "B" (or "B+") is always better, but it does depend on what you want to do with it, sometimes the "A" was better, I think for most of those times the "A+" is quite the upgrade.

Re: Another invalid patent on abstract ideas.

Or the patent is "defensive". Essentially, Apple think they might want to do this - so they patent the idea, so if some product-less yahoo patents the idea they can't sue Apple for damages.

You see this is how the (broken) patent system works now. If you have an idea, that you make into a product you'd better have patented it.

Re: Really?

A couple of things actually:

One is the more permissive policies. You can "side-load" apps, and while that has an upside (you don't need Google's approval for anything you install) some of these apps will contain "bad stuff", and unlike stuff from the official Google Play Store the isn't even retrospective policing from Google. Also software has more access to the device, the classic example is custom keyboards. Though Apple have a facility for this coming in iOS8, though without knowing more about it I cannot comment about the security implications.

Another problem is "customised" versions of Android. Here this means that devices never get updates (that contain security fixes) or get them very much later. It is this that lead to the quote. It is also true that OEM customisations are often of a far lower quality than Google's own Android base code, often leading to security flaws being introduced.

So if you do want an Android device there are things you can do to keep the device safer:

Don't side-load applications.

Choose either a locked down implementation (Kindle) or a Nexus device.

It would be nice to see some research on the malware situation for both (supported) Nexus devices and Kindle devices vs "other Android".

Re: Pffft laptops!

Well, the perp would also have needed to "jailbreak" the iPad (and that could be spotted). I'm not sure anything else would actually work.

This is actually at the essence of why the iPad is the way it is. The design is intended to take all the "computer stuff" away from the experience of the iPad.

So:

There is no chrome when you switch apps (no "windowing").

There is no (visible) file system (so no USB drive support).

There is no plugin support (as you'd need to update it).

Applications are sandboxed (makes MOST malware impossible).

Applications have tightly controlled multitasking (makes a lot more malware impossible).

System services are not extendable (another potential attack vector cut off).

Now these decision (and others) do limit what the platform can do - something like Android's virtual keyboard replacement "Swype" can't work on an iPad. But there is an upside, often in security - in the "Swype" example the same mechanism that stops it also stops "keyloggers".

So in this case, an iPad seems like a perfect system. Of course, this doesn't make an iPad perfect for EVERYTHING sometimes the things that aren't allowed on the iOS are exactly what is required. But in truth, such requirements are not universal.

Re: extremist (views)?

UKIP - I think those are the extremists the Tories are most afraid of.