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User: ewanm89

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  1. Re:Microsoft... on Canonical Begins Tracking Ubuntu Installations · · Score: 1

    You mean they don't track the number of windows activations, then there is WGA, windows defender defaults check for updates daily through windows update no matter what the windows update settings are set as and finally there is the "Customer Experience Improvement Program" on most Microsoft apps (you did say no on every installation of MS Office and Visual Studio and the windows install didn't you?). I think it's safe to say Microsoft have plenty of ways to collect this kind of data, and looks to be a lot more detailed as to the data they are collecting.

  2. peering on What Are Google and Verizon Up To? · · Score: 1

    So basically Verizon has decided it's sensible to peer directly with google?

  3. Re:they are a business, why should they care? on Saudi Says RIM Deal Reached; BlackBerry OK, If We Can Read the Messages · · Score: 1

    An early recorded piece of attempted modern terrorism would be "Remember, remember the fifth of November." An event that dates back to 1605 and now is actually celebrated now in the UK.

  4. Re:they are a business, why should they care? on Saudi Says RIM Deal Reached; BlackBerry OK, If We Can Read the Messages · · Score: 1

    Has it increased, or has it changed? Is it even just your perception of it that has changed? Consider IRA and Britain, Israel and Palestine, these things go back centuries.

  5. Re:An interesting counterpoint... on CIA Software Developer Goes Open Source, Instead · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The answer as in an expert system software is not to entirely rely on it, but use it as a tool in your arsenal to help you do the job. Yes a computer can't figure every conceivable option in most circumstances, but neither can a human, the key is they my both come up with solutions unique to one another.

  6. Re:-40C on Intel's Superchilled Test Rig · · Score: 1

    that's change in energy/temperature, not stable temperature it's running at. It's like I have a 5 litres of water and I take out 2 litres and say the change is -2 litres of water. That's not how much I have though.

  7. Re:Let me see if I understand this on Cache On Delivery — Memcached Opens an Accidental Security Hole · · Score: 1

    I always use MySQL permissions to separate databases so that one application can't access another database so easily, I also never allow access to it from the internet directly, same policy applies to all server software, unless it's made to be directly connected to and needs to then it stays on the internal network or loopback.

    As for all programmers having bugs, even Rivest et all's MD6 reference implentation code sent for the SHA3 NIST competition had a buffer overflow in it: slashdot.org, and while we all should say security experts should know better, these mistakes happen from time to time.

  8. Re:Don't confuse brands with manufacturers. on Samsung, Toshiba, Others Accused of LCD Price-Fixing · · Score: 1

    actually, it's three way, Intel, AMD and Via. This is due to and agreement on certain patents they hold. However no one says you must use an x86 cpu, there's PPC, SPARC, MIPS and ARM architectures among others which are used frequently outside the desktop/laptop PC markets.

  9. probably the idea got warped. on US Military 'Banned' From Viewing Wikileaks · · Score: 1

    I expect the original idea to have been along the lines of filtering the wikileaks domains so that uploading documents or finding address to email to and such was a lot harder from within the military net and CO with no technical experience revised it a little and past it up the chain of command, and the next did the same until the chinese whispers came up with this useless policy.

  10. Re:Actually.. on Sometimes It's OK To Steal My Games · · Score: 1

    Urm, the software didn't weigh anything, the medium one is storing it on had mass. You could stick them all on one CD, and well, then it would have even less mass.

  11. Re:Ya forget AT&T, ask the FBI on AT&T Won't Block Black Hat Eavesdropping Demo · · Score: 1

    Technically, it's white hat in that he is informing them of the security flaws. The fact he is also informing everyone in the underground/black market at the same time is irrelevant.

  12. Re:Ya forget AT&T, ask the FBI on AT&T Won't Block Black Hat Eavesdropping Demo · · Score: 1

    Urm, well, the feds/AT&T/Verizon could drive round looking for unknown base stations. I mean, they must know what base station should be where.

  13. Re:C too complex? Hilarious. on Google Engineer Decries Complexity of Java, C++ · · Score: 1

    I suggest the Linux kernel based and coreutils. It actually includes the basic features one would need and is very fast (I'm not talking ubuntu here ;)).

  14. Re:P.S. on Google Engineer Decries Complexity of Java, C++ · · Score: 1

    This is all libraries or lack of you looking for them to be specific. I'll give you a pure jvm and striped down libraries to the equivalent of ANSI standard C libraries and you'll be able to make the same complaints.

  15. Re:And video games on Google Engineer Decries Complexity of Java, C++ · · Score: 1

    Visual C++ doesn't really exist it's just M$ liking to name things differently, the real question is, how many of those are native compiled, and how many managed (e.g. .NET framework). Also, C++ code is only marginally worse than C (but it is worse, one need only look at the compiler's asm output of a basic hello world program to see why).

  16. Re:And video games on Google Engineer Decries Complexity of Java, C++ · · Score: 1

    As computers get faster games have got more and more complicated loading bigger and bigger textures, and terrain maps. This means there is no way in hell one could make crysis or similar even playable in .NET or Java.

    There are other problems, a couple of years ago I did some procedural generation code for gaming purposes. Now this code generated large areas of terrain, which then after some rather clever algorithms would convert to triangles and pass to the GPU. Now in a computer with several gigabytes of RAM and several hundred megabyte dedicated graphics ram, .NET was telling me my arrays over a megabyte were too big to fit in memory (when loading a height map from a file, the c/c++ code behind the scenes can ignore .NETs limitations. Then even on that small area of terrain, the code was slow as hell to run. I'm now redoing it in native C++ (I wish I had done in the first place) and directx, and it's already running a lot faster, and I can actually generate sensibly large areas of terrain.

  17. Re:It is the free rider problem on Safari Privacy Bug May Be Leaking Your Data · · Score: 1

    To a degree, a modern javascript based one, yes. But that's not the browsers primary function, and it's not a compiler in the same way. GCC currently handles, C/C++, Java (gcj), Ada, Obj-C, Fortran and then outputs to ARM, MIPS, x86 (and x86-64), PPC assembly and can optimise and assemble for pretty much any of the processors in those architectures. Also, a single scripted language interpreter/compiler in C/C++ is rather different to build alone to a C/C++ compiler written in C/C++. Also, the javascript engine really is a small and not strictly necessary component to a browser.

  18. Re:It is the free rider problem on Safari Privacy Bug May Be Leaking Your Data · · Score: 1

    Oh, and developers use browsers as well as compilers.

  19. Re:It is the free rider problem on Safari Privacy Bug May Be Leaking Your Data · · Score: 1

    GCC is a lot more complicated than a browser, compilers are very tricky tools to make. A lot of users that can code C certainly wouldn't be able to make a compiler without training in that area (the difference between a CS degree and a software engineering degree). On top of that GCC is a whole load of compilers, assemblers and processors not to mention the optimizers. Add the question of how does one compile a compiler without the compiler, then one realises that just the build process is nastily complicated. Last I heard from GCC developers was that the code is quite a mess.

    Yeah, I think I prefer firefox source code.

  20. Re:So..'many eyes make bugs shallow'? on Safari Privacy Bug May Be Leaking Your Data · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the Q/A being in the open anyone can go file and read through the bug reports, and if anyone actually didn't assign such a bug as priority one, then the whole project would be ridiculed, probably here and in many other places.

  21. Re:Actually... on Crytek Dev On Fun vs. Realism In Game Guns · · Score: 1

    Add to the ammo carrying, to also the gun carrying. There are some games where one can manage to hide 5 or six assault rifles on the character... This is something I like about the Mass Effect games, yeah, the guns are not designed to be real, but it's cool how they fold up and fit on the character, and one actually sees where the character grabs it from on gun switch.

  22. Re:Captain obvious on Crytek Dev On Fun vs. Realism In Game Guns · · Score: 1

    Well, as the P90 isn't an assault rifle or a carbine but a submachine gun I should have thought AK47 and M16 aren't the right guns to be comparing it too, more it's like an MP5 or more the MP7 even. The difference is the top loading horizontal clip and the fully closed pistol style grip.

  23. Re:Maybe... on Crytek Dev On Fun vs. Realism In Game Guns · · Score: 1

    Or just use the all weapons and unlimited ammo on the dev mode console, and get out the mininuke launcher ;)

  24. Re:changing passwords frequently makes no sense on Passwords That Are Simple — and Safe(?) · · Score: 1

    In my opinion webmail client at all is a no, no, I'll just ARPspoof the network and run sslstrip. And that's not the only attack possible.

  25. Re:changing passwords frequently makes no sense on Passwords That Are Simple — and Safe(?) · · Score: 1

    Well, there are also ways in which one can link their mobile phone via bluetooth to act as the USB stick, it automatically locks on moving out of the vicinity. I was considering expanding on this idea with challenge-response across the bluetooth link so the password is entered into the phone, and registers that device with that machine temporarily. However there are still numerous problems with this to work out, including the one where an office with 50 odd bluetooth connections live in such a small space. And security issues with the bluetooth protocol itself (in fact, a different radio system which is specifically designed for such an application would probably be better).