Uploading is still a fraction of what downloading is... Most home consumers, even those with IoT devices or heavy P2P users, are still net consumers of online information. (Think Netflix, Windows Updates, VPN, remote desktop, etc.) I see it as a gift I didn't care to receive but one that I wouldn't pass up. So, I have to ask, what's the point?
A more valuable gift would be continue the lack of symmetry, and bump existing download & upload speeds by some percentage. Until Netflix becomes P2P, most people wouldn't see much of a benefit from this... (e.g. Netflix streaming still sucks but my uploads to YouTube are 40% faster!)
Closed source doesn't do much to slow down 'sploit writers. Moreover, opening the source code gives nerds a fighting chance to update abandoned devices. Don't believe me? Look at Cyanogenmod.
Really? There's enough encryption, licensing, hardware, etc., that prevents most users from rooting their Android & iOS devices. I have an Android phone and I am a nerd. But I'm still afraid to put Cyanogenmod (or another distro) on my phone for fear that it'd be an expensive one-way trip. Manufacturers have come a long way since the simple hardware that Rockbox could be used on... (Notice how Rockbox hasn't added any devices lately--and that the project is receiving less submissions...)
And just because something has been open sourced & the code has been dumped onto Sourceforge or GitHub doesn't mean someone's actively working on the project. And most manufacturers would not cede control of the code, even for 5-10 year old devices, lest that code be used by a competitor--or worse, by someone filing a lawsuit for a defective product...
Everything about the IoT is a bad idea, especially when it comes to security on old devices. Now there's a consortium to open-source some of the code? Even better--for those who want to cause harm.
Right now, most household appliances (refrigerators, stoves, thermostats, home automation, home security, etc.) are devices that are closed off. So, even though my stove may have a security hole, I might not be able to exploit it without using a JTAG. Ultimately, there's no easy way to exploit them unless you have physical access to the internals of the appliance. But the IoT changes that--and not for the better. To add, many of the devices you'd want to connect to the IoT have lifespans of decades. So, unless we get government action saying that "if you want to make an IoT device, you have to provide security support for 20+ years", we'll end up with pwned thermostats that we can't change, the fridge that now sends spam & doesn't have enough available processing power to turn on the compressor, or that my TV now shows popup ads for hookers, offshore pharmacies selling Viagra, and other ads in front of the kids & I can't shut it off. And all the better when the pwned IoT fridge wants to talk to my non-pwned IoT Smart TV. On top of that, it won't help that the Linux kernel (or Apache, PHP, MySQL, drivers, etc.) it's running on is 20 years old & nobody--except malware authors--has looked at that version for over a decade...
What an obvious clusterfuck waiting to happen... I'm just waiting for a group of early Smart TVs to get bricked because some malware does something to them--and the manufacturer says "not our problem--it's old!" Then people might realize what a Pandora's Box this is...
One thing to note (and this is evil), often the red-light camera (RLC) intersections DON'T have the countdown timers.*** In Chicago, the RLC capital of the USA--with over 200 RLC intersections in the city alone, the vast majority don't have pedestrian countdown timers. In this city, revenue generation trumps pedestrian safety...
***As a driver, in my estimation, less than 10% of Chicago's RLC intersections have pedestrian countdown timers. To add, even in non-RLC intersections, the blinking "DON'T WALK" is shorter in the city than in the suburbs (old people won't make it across if they start to cross right before blinking DON'T WALK), except if the intersection has state-owned property abutting the intersection (e.g. a state university like UIC).
Yes, but now you'd need someone on-site, at the machine in question or on another PC within the airgapped network, to do their evil deeds. Doesn't matter if I know the password of the machine with the "NOC list" (from "Mission Impossible 1"); if the airgapped PC is physically thousands of miles away and/or I can't get into the site with the airgapped network, then what's the point??? I'm willing to bet some of the passwords on PCs within an airgapped network are "password", "12345", blank, "00000", etc.
And if you're really paranoid or anal, keyboards are cheap to replace -- or randomly cycle different brands/models/styles of keyboards between a set of PCs at random intervals...
which describes every version from Windows 95 until XP 64-bit edition - can run 16-bit apps.
Wrong. Every 32 bit version of Windows, including the 16/32-bit hybrid Win9x versions, and including Windows 8.1 Update 1, can run 16-bit apps. XP 64-bit cannot run 16-bit applications. That being said, there's a LOT of old code out there, still being used by businesses, that's 16-bit, some weird 16/32-bit mix, or pure 32-bit originally intended for Win9x that has problems. These could be mission-critical applications from some company that went out of business 20 years ago, nobody has the source code to anymore, and nobody has come up with an alternative. For these people, Dosbox isn't an option as it would require 1) a license Windows 3.1x or Win9x; 2) Dosbox 0.74 officially doesn't support running any version of Windows on it--and there are serious limitations for applications that you would run on it (e.g. no SHARE.EXE or VSHARE.386 capabilities).
In addition, there are a LOT of 32-bit applications, mostly written in the Win9x era, that will not run on Win XP/2003/Vista/7/8.x 64-bit or may need cajoling. Specific examples include certain.NET applications (e.g. 32-bit applications that are compiled with the setting to run on the target hardware--which has problems if you use certain data types on 64-bit) and Visual FoxPro. So now we have to run them on their 32-bit equivalents. And even then, that's not a guarantee, even with Compatibility Modes.
Now, I'm all for Win9 being 64-bit only, but improve compatibility for business users with 16 & 32 bit applications--even if that means running a VM within a VM (e.g. NTVDM under WoW on a 64-bit OS). Yes, we can all argue that MS at some point has to let the past be in the past, but there are valid reasons why companies generally load 32-bit OSes on their PCs...
Not necessarily true. Just because you're the 23-year old "CEO" of a small firm employing 25 people making one product or service, doesn't mean you're capable of scaling up if things take off. Sure, it may be fun & games at 25 people, but if you suddenly balloon to 1000 employees, you'll need someone who knows how to navigate all of the following in the business world: shareholders, investors, salespeople, legal headaches, red tape, patent trolls, new products, multi-year plans, security breaches, logistics, accounting, etc. Those situations likely call for such a firm getting acquired--and they should be acquired.
Any firm that experiences exponential growth, especially related to the Internet or IoT, should be acquired...
Who do you "call" with most cloud vendors? After all, sounds like whoever was doing the DDOS to extort Code Spaces could have also "called" Amazon to do any number of things, as whoever it was had the passwords, other accounts, etc.
Unless you're one of Amazon EC3's largest customers (e.g. Netflix), you're one of thousands of low-paying customers with rudimentary authentication. Amazon should have an "oh shit" master key that relies on old-school technology, like a RSA number keyfob that the client's president keeps in a locked drawer. That would be the nuclear option. But if something like that were available, it might have cost the client an extra $10/month...
DirecTV has no VOD unless you have your box connected to the Internet (where it streams from that source).
Firmware & software updates are relatively small, can be sent anytime & queued for processing later--I have no objections to the box waking from sleep by itself in the middle of the night to apply an update that was received earlier in the day. (After all, the updates are sent constantly--e.g. for boxes that were off because of vacations, power failures, etc.)
I don't care if my guide is updated perfectly in the middle of the night during a window that I choose--I'd rather the box be using 1 watt in sleep mode during this time.
Currently, DirecTV has 6 models of STBs (set top boxes): three HD DVR, one HD non-DVR, one SD DVR, one SD non-DVR. Sending firmware upgrades to all of 6 device types adding a user-set deep-sleep mode would be amazing, the immediate effects of which would be massive nationwide! Generally, I don't have anything recording in the middle of the night--or it's a one-off repeat that I don't care about. Offer 4 simple options: 1) deep sleep & not record during user-specified times (e.g. 1am-7am and 11am-4pm); 2) not-so-deep-sleep and wake to record during specified times (e.g. wakes 10 minutes before a recording time); 3) sleep based on x-hours of inactivity; 4) no power management (e.g. for insomniacs).
Currently, my DirecTV HD-DVR (non-Genie) box offers a "lower power" mode that I can't adjust, that it goes into after 4 hours of inactivity. But I have no control over how the time is defined, etc. And it pointlessly reminds me that it went into low-power mode & I have to click out of it--something users may choose to disable just to not get that pointless annoyance...
Let's not forget that these devices are "computers" with power savings in the processors, motherboards, OSes (Linux?), hard drives, etc., that DirecTV, Comcast, and others chose not to enable. Let's face it, DirecTV, you're ~20% of the problem (based on US market share), now become part of the solution...
Oh, and one last thing... How the fuck do some of your boxes have the "Energy Star" logo??? Is it because the boxes themselves are efficient & you choose not to implement those efficiencies?
I firmly believe that E10 is a total scam. Anecdotally, doing pure highway driving, I get 8-10% less fuel economy with E10 than E0 (pure gasoline), so what's the point? This has been consistently the case with the last 3 cars I've owned (V8 RWD, turbo I4 AWD, regular I4 FWD). Losing 10% fuel economy for the privilege (more accurately, the forced subsidy of corn growers in many states) of driving E10 makes no sense to me. Just water down my gasoline by 10%--same effect but water is cheaper than ethanol...
And with the IoT, companies will have to accept a 20+ year lifespan on their products, including security updates. Sadly, it will take some very nasty malware infections (e.g. your Nest thermostat is sending out phishing requests) and chaos before governments around the world come up with such an agreement & international laws on the matter...
Right up until they put something in the TV which says "I haven't connected to the internet in a while, I'm stopping working until I do". Kinda like Microsoft was talking about with the XBone.
True, that's likely coming down the road. But there are a LOT of people who's access to broadband is still at work or the local library--assuming they even bother. The reason M$ decided against this, at this time, is because there are a LOT of places in the US (let alone the world) that still don't have broadband, or have crazy restrictions like 2GB/month that you'd associate with cellular networks (e.g. Alaska, Canadian Territories).
And to whom would the phone companies send the bill? No way they're giving something free access to the cellular network... and no way I'd pay for it.
Well, to start off, the smart TV manufacturer would consider buying a bulk contract with AT&T, Verizon, or other nationwide cellular company--your viewing habits are worth that much to them! Of course, in due time, the newest "Smart TV Enhanced" firmware will require you to pay a monthly fee for said "new services & features", especially on your "old smart TV"...
What, you mean the "Goldstar" part of LG? If you remember any Goldstar computer products from the late-80s to mid-90s, they were absolute crap. How they ever surpassed Samsung & Sony is beyond me, especially given the "Lucky" part of "LG" is a chemical company that even makes toothpaste & laundry detergents! ("Lucky Goldstar" became "LG" in 1995...)
Nothing says that even after "dumb TVs" are no longer available, that you can't turn a "smart TV" into a dumb one. It's called not giving access to your WiFi (or Ethernet) network. Done, problem solved... Even then, there are plenty of households without their own WiFi and plenty of others who don't even have broadband Internet (whether due to local unavailability or eschewing technology), so having such a disconnected TV refuse to even show video over HDMI would be untenable.
Of course, it's only a matter of time before a TV manufacturer puts in a SIM card into a TV and broadcasts over cellular... On the other hand, such additional traffic (pings, heartbeats, phoning home with customer spying info), from millions more devices on mobile networks may not be practical for quite a while.
So, let's say society changes and a future court rules that "life" sentences are "cruel & unusual punishment" (as described by the US Constitution). You'd have chaos as all the lifers who only got life suddenly are released. A defined time, including "effectively life" (e.g. a 150 year sentence for a 71-y/o Bernie Madoff) now would need to be considered on a case-by-case basis--or at least the Supremes would have to come up with some sort of mathematical formula for "effectively life", which they generally don't like to do...
Those are the downgrade rights offered by Win 7/8 Pro to XP Pro (and even 2000 Pro). My post was about new PCs of the time, where the only OS available was XP as it was the only reasonable choice on that hardware. Remember that since Vista was such a dog on Atom hardware (only consumers of Atom at the time were netbooks) & given Microsoft's uncertain future for Windows 7 at the time (Microsoft was hoping it would pay off), XP Home was the only sane choice on 2009-2010 era netbooks. In fact, Windows 7 Starter was a stripped-down Windows 7 requiring lower hardware...
XP was legally sold on netbooks made as late as October 22, 2010 ( http://windows.microsoft.com/e... ). Those computers were still in the sales pipeline into early 2011.
Comparing a physical device costing tens of thousands of dollars whose defects can cost the lives of the user versus a piece of software costing $100 or less whose defects cause inconvenience to the user totally makes sense!!!!!111
Really? So a $100,000 medical device, robot in a factory, or SCADA platform running a $100 copy of XP (well, $200 if Pro, less if XP Embedded) can't "cost the lives of the user"??? I wouldn't want to be in front of a dental x-ray machine with a copy of XP that is now sending spam or worse, being used to cause harm to users... Ever hear of the Therac-25 accidents of the mid-80s? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
Unfortunately, easier said than done. All of these have unbelievably steep learning curves to do anything reasonable. Ironically, my interest in programming started with my TI-99/4A in 1983-1985. I used to get magazines that would provide programs (that I'd spend an hour-plus typing in) to see how it works. I didn't really know the limits of that machine, so it was cool to see what I could do with it--and how I could change the programs to do certain things...
Unfortunately, with Dreamspark tools above, there's no "just start coding & see what happens". There's no really basic / for kids "how to make fun little programs with Visual Studio" that come with Dreamspark. I don't see a child using a $60 book from SAMS or Microsoft Press ("Learn Visual Studio in 24 Hours!") as 1) the books aren't aimed for them, 2) the cost to buy one is at a price point questioned by most parents.
iPads are even worse... You can't program for them on them (not that you'd want to attempt such a thing with the on-screen keyboard) and you need an expensive Mac to do so, tethered to your iPad. (So there's no immediate gratification...)
Kids nowadays see what their computers are capable of--by playing video games that test the limits of their PCs. Why write a little program that draws some lines when the child could play a video game that's much more visually stimulating & engaging???
Let's see... I'm going to trust that an appliance vendor, some of whom have yet to add an OS (Linux, Android, etc.) to their devices, will properly create the security for said IoT device? Cisco is clearly looking to become such a vendor, and I don't think they're prepared to deal with the consequences & unbelievably protracted support schedules--way longer than Microsoft's ~10 year lifecycle for Windows and Office. Ultimately, will my IoT fridge that I buy today continue to work properly 20+ years down the line or will it be pwned long before then? (I suspect the latter...)
The reality is that a company with no such device experience (e.g. Amana, Kenmore, etc.) may contract out the security portion of the firmware to Cisco, but will Cisco continue to support the device's security for decades to come? In reality, people don't replace their home appliances, HVAC systems, and security systems all that often... I doubt Cisco is putting out many security patches for their devices from 1994, or if anyone even has the experience (let alone the desire) to create patches today for Linux 1.1.x security holes...
Except that nuclear reactors are, by regulation, among the most-documented entities on earth. From functionality to maintenance logs to upgrades, nuclear plants & their owners are extreme documenters--to decrease liability and meet government regulation. You don't hear stories of nuclear reactors in places like the US, Canada, UK, Western Europe, etc., with "documentation problems" or knowledge transfer continuity. (Pay people to stay to do an easy job & they will...) Sure, a part schematic may be on paper as opposed to stored electronically, but they'll have multiple copies onsite, a few copies at the power utility offsite, and at the NRC or other national nuclear regulatory agency--and everyone who should know where those copies are, do know... And that documentation would be designed so that anyone with the requisite engineering knowledge & skills should be able to read it...
Nuclear plants are not run like IT shops--and thank God for that...
Well, you might not have a choice depending on your OS version...
XP, 2003 - max is IE8 (not affected) Vista, 2008 - max is IE9 (affected, presumably most used version)
7, 2008R2 - currently at IE11, but many users still using IE10 (affected) since IE11 came out in November for this OS 8, 2012 - only supports IE10 (affected)
8.1, 2012R2 - only supports IE11
You're right. Having a really expensive recall incentives the manufacturer to "get it right with this redo", without skimping on development, testing, etc. OTA would just trivialize the process...
Ummm, nope... In Ohio (as of a few years ago), the only "safety inspection" for personal vehicles checked to ensure that a vehicle purchased out-of-state matched the VIN # on the title. Illinois has no safety inspection whatsoever for cars & light trucks/B-Trucks. (B-Trucks used to have them until 1984; commercial vehicles excluding light pickup trucks still have annual safety inspections; vehicles in Chicagoland & the IL portion of St. Louis have emissions testing). At the other extreme, states like New York & Texas have a very thorough safety inspection. In some states, "safety inspections" are really nothing more than compliance checks, checking things like window tint.
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Uploading is still a fraction of what downloading is... Most home consumers, even those with IoT devices or heavy P2P users, are still net consumers of online information. (Think Netflix, Windows Updates, VPN, remote desktop, etc.) I see it as a gift I didn't care to receive but one that I wouldn't pass up. So, I have to ask, what's the point?
A more valuable gift would be continue the lack of symmetry, and bump existing download & upload speeds by some percentage. Until Netflix becomes P2P, most people wouldn't see much of a benefit from this... (e.g. Netflix streaming still sucks but my uploads to YouTube are 40% faster!)
Closed source doesn't do much to slow down 'sploit writers. Moreover, opening the source code gives nerds a fighting chance to update abandoned devices. Don't believe me? Look at Cyanogenmod.
Really? There's enough encryption, licensing, hardware, etc., that prevents most users from rooting their Android & iOS devices. I have an Android phone and I am a nerd. But I'm still afraid to put Cyanogenmod (or another distro) on my phone for fear that it'd be an expensive one-way trip. Manufacturers have come a long way since the simple hardware that Rockbox could be used on... (Notice how Rockbox hasn't added any devices lately--and that the project is receiving less submissions...)
And just because something has been open sourced & the code has been dumped onto Sourceforge or GitHub doesn't mean someone's actively working on the project. And most manufacturers would not cede control of the code, even for 5-10 year old devices, lest that code be used by a competitor--or worse, by someone filing a lawsuit for a defective product...
Everything about the IoT is a bad idea, especially when it comes to security on old devices. Now there's a consortium to open-source some of the code? Even better--for those who want to cause harm.
Right now, most household appliances (refrigerators, stoves, thermostats, home automation, home security, etc.) are devices that are closed off. So, even though my stove may have a security hole, I might not be able to exploit it without using a JTAG. Ultimately, there's no easy way to exploit them unless you have physical access to the internals of the appliance. But the IoT changes that--and not for the better. To add, many of the devices you'd want to connect to the IoT have lifespans of decades. So, unless we get government action saying that "if you want to make an IoT device, you have to provide security support for 20+ years", we'll end up with pwned thermostats that we can't change, the fridge that now sends spam & doesn't have enough available processing power to turn on the compressor, or that my TV now shows popup ads for hookers, offshore pharmacies selling Viagra, and other ads in front of the kids & I can't shut it off. And all the better when the pwned IoT fridge wants to talk to my non-pwned IoT Smart TV. On top of that, it won't help that the Linux kernel (or Apache, PHP, MySQL, drivers, etc.) it's running on is 20 years old & nobody--except malware authors--has looked at that version for over a decade...
What an obvious clusterfuck waiting to happen... I'm just waiting for a group of early Smart TVs to get bricked because some malware does something to them--and the manufacturer says "not our problem--it's old!" Then people might realize what a Pandora's Box this is...
One thing to note (and this is evil), often the red-light camera (RLC) intersections DON'T have the countdown timers.*** In Chicago, the RLC capital of the USA--with over 200 RLC intersections in the city alone, the vast majority don't have pedestrian countdown timers. In this city, revenue generation trumps pedestrian safety...
***As a driver, in my estimation, less than 10% of Chicago's RLC intersections have pedestrian countdown timers. To add, even in non-RLC intersections, the blinking "DON'T WALK" is shorter in the city than in the suburbs (old people won't make it across if they start to cross right before blinking DON'T WALK), except if the intersection has state-owned property abutting the intersection (e.g. a state university like UIC).
Yes, but now you'd need someone on-site, at the machine in question or on another PC within the airgapped network, to do their evil deeds. Doesn't matter if I know the password of the machine with the "NOC list" (from "Mission Impossible 1"); if the airgapped PC is physically thousands of miles away and/or I can't get into the site with the airgapped network, then what's the point??? I'm willing to bet some of the passwords on PCs within an airgapped network are "password", "12345", blank, "00000", etc.
And if you're really paranoid or anal, keyboards are cheap to replace -- or randomly cycle different brands/models/styles of keyboards between a set of PCs at random intervals...
which describes every version from Windows 95 until XP 64-bit edition - can run 16-bit apps.
Wrong. Every 32 bit version of Windows, including the 16/32-bit hybrid Win9x versions, and including Windows 8.1 Update 1, can run 16-bit apps. XP 64-bit cannot run 16-bit applications. That being said, there's a LOT of old code out there, still being used by businesses, that's 16-bit, some weird 16/32-bit mix, or pure 32-bit originally intended for Win9x that has problems. These could be mission-critical applications from some company that went out of business 20 years ago, nobody has the source code to anymore, and nobody has come up with an alternative. For these people, Dosbox isn't an option as it would require 1) a license Windows 3.1x or Win9x; 2) Dosbox 0.74 officially doesn't support running any version of Windows on it--and there are serious limitations for applications that you would run on it (e.g. no SHARE.EXE or VSHARE.386 capabilities).
.NET applications (e.g. 32-bit applications that are compiled with the setting to run on the target hardware--which has problems if you use certain data types on 64-bit) and Visual FoxPro. So now we have to run them on their 32-bit equivalents. And even then, that's not a guarantee, even with Compatibility Modes.
In addition, there are a LOT of 32-bit applications, mostly written in the Win9x era, that will not run on Win XP/2003/Vista/7/8.x 64-bit or may need cajoling. Specific examples include certain
Now, I'm all for Win9 being 64-bit only, but improve compatibility for business users with 16 & 32 bit applications--even if that means running a VM within a VM (e.g. NTVDM under WoW on a 64-bit OS). Yes, we can all argue that MS at some point has to let the past be in the past, but there are valid reasons why companies generally load 32-bit OSes on their PCs...
Not necessarily true. Just because you're the 23-year old "CEO" of a small firm employing 25 people making one product or service, doesn't mean you're capable of scaling up if things take off. Sure, it may be fun & games at 25 people, but if you suddenly balloon to 1000 employees, you'll need someone who knows how to navigate all of the following in the business world: shareholders, investors, salespeople, legal headaches, red tape, patent trolls, new products, multi-year plans, security breaches, logistics, accounting, etc. Those situations likely call for such a firm getting acquired--and they should be acquired.
Any firm that experiences exponential growth, especially related to the Internet or IoT, should be acquired...
Who do you "call" with most cloud vendors? After all, sounds like whoever was doing the DDOS to extort Code Spaces could have also "called" Amazon to do any number of things, as whoever it was had the passwords, other accounts, etc.
Unless you're one of Amazon EC3's largest customers (e.g. Netflix), you're one of thousands of low-paying customers with rudimentary authentication. Amazon should have an "oh shit" master key that relies on old-school technology, like a RSA number keyfob that the client's president keeps in a locked drawer. That would be the nuclear option. But if something like that were available, it might have cost the client an extra $10/month...
DirecTV has no VOD unless you have your box connected to the Internet (where it streams from that source).
Firmware & software updates are relatively small, can be sent anytime & queued for processing later--I have no objections to the box waking from sleep by itself in the middle of the night to apply an update that was received earlier in the day. (After all, the updates are sent constantly--e.g. for boxes that were off because of vacations, power failures, etc.)
I don't care if my guide is updated perfectly in the middle of the night during a window that I choose--I'd rather the box be using 1 watt in sleep mode during this time.
Currently, DirecTV has 6 models of STBs (set top boxes): three HD DVR, one HD non-DVR, one SD DVR, one SD non-DVR. Sending firmware upgrades to all of 6 device types adding a user-set deep-sleep mode would be amazing, the immediate effects of which would be massive nationwide! Generally, I don't have anything recording in the middle of the night--or it's a one-off repeat that I don't care about. Offer 4 simple options: 1) deep sleep & not record during user-specified times (e.g. 1am-7am and 11am-4pm); 2) not-so-deep-sleep and wake to record during specified times (e.g. wakes 10 minutes before a recording time); 3) sleep based on x-hours of inactivity; 4) no power management (e.g. for insomniacs).
Currently, my DirecTV HD-DVR (non-Genie) box offers a "lower power" mode that I can't adjust, that it goes into after 4 hours of inactivity. But I have no control over how the time is defined, etc. And it pointlessly reminds me that it went into low-power mode & I have to click out of it--something users may choose to disable just to not get that pointless annoyance...
Let's not forget that these devices are "computers" with power savings in the processors, motherboards, OSes (Linux?), hard drives, etc., that DirecTV, Comcast, and others chose not to enable. Let's face it, DirecTV, you're ~20% of the problem (based on US market share), now become part of the solution...
Oh, and one last thing... How the fuck do some of your boxes have the "Energy Star" logo??? Is it because the boxes themselves are efficient & you choose not to implement those efficiencies?
I firmly believe that E10 is a total scam. Anecdotally, doing pure highway driving, I get 8-10% less fuel economy with E10 than E0 (pure gasoline), so what's the point? This has been consistently the case with the last 3 cars I've owned (V8 RWD, turbo I4 AWD, regular I4 FWD). Losing 10% fuel economy for the privilege (more accurately, the forced subsidy of corn growers in many states) of driving E10 makes no sense to me. Just water down my gasoline by 10%--same effect but water is cheaper than ethanol...
And with the IoT, companies will have to accept a 20+ year lifespan on their products, including security updates. Sadly, it will take some very nasty malware infections (e.g. your Nest thermostat is sending out phishing requests) and chaos before governments around the world come up with such an agreement & international laws on the matter...
Right up until they put something in the TV which says "I haven't connected to the internet in a while, I'm stopping working until I do". Kinda like Microsoft was talking about with the XBone.
True, that's likely coming down the road. But there are a LOT of people who's access to broadband is still at work or the local library--assuming they even bother. The reason M$ decided against this, at this time, is because there are a LOT of places in the US (let alone the world) that still don't have broadband, or have crazy restrictions like 2GB/month that you'd associate with cellular networks (e.g. Alaska, Canadian Territories).
And to whom would the phone companies send the bill? No way they're giving something free access to the cellular network ... and no way I'd pay for it.
Well, to start off, the smart TV manufacturer would consider buying a bulk contract with AT&T, Verizon, or other nationwide cellular company--your viewing habits are worth that much to them! Of course, in due time, the newest "Smart TV Enhanced" firmware will require you to pay a monthly fee for said "new services & features", especially on your "old smart TV"...
What, you mean the "Goldstar" part of LG? If you remember any Goldstar computer products from the late-80s to mid-90s, they were absolute crap. How they ever surpassed Samsung & Sony is beyond me, especially given the "Lucky" part of "LG" is a chemical company that even makes toothpaste & laundry detergents! ("Lucky Goldstar" became "LG" in 1995...)
Nothing says that even after "dumb TVs" are no longer available, that you can't turn a "smart TV" into a dumb one. It's called not giving access to your WiFi (or Ethernet) network. Done, problem solved... Even then, there are plenty of households without their own WiFi and plenty of others who don't even have broadband Internet (whether due to local unavailability or eschewing technology), so having such a disconnected TV refuse to even show video over HDMI would be untenable.
Of course, it's only a matter of time before a TV manufacturer puts in a SIM card into a TV and broadcasts over cellular... On the other hand, such additional traffic (pings, heartbeats, phoning home with customer spying info), from millions more devices on mobile networks may not be practical for quite a while.
So, let's say society changes and a future court rules that "life" sentences are "cruel & unusual punishment" (as described by the US Constitution). You'd have chaos as all the lifers who only got life suddenly are released. A defined time, including "effectively life" (e.g. a 150 year sentence for a 71-y/o Bernie Madoff) now would need to be considered on a case-by-case basis--or at least the Supremes would have to come up with some sort of mathematical formula for "effectively life", which they generally don't like to do...
Those are the downgrade rights offered by Win 7/8 Pro to XP Pro (and even 2000 Pro). My post was about new PCs of the time, where the only OS available was XP as it was the only reasonable choice on that hardware. Remember that since Vista was such a dog on Atom hardware (only consumers of Atom at the time were netbooks) & given Microsoft's uncertain future for Windows 7 at the time (Microsoft was hoping it would pay off), XP Home was the only sane choice on 2009-2010 era netbooks. In fact, Windows 7 Starter was a stripped-down Windows 7 requiring lower hardware...
XP was legally sold on netbooks made as late as October 22, 2010 ( http://windows.microsoft.com/e... ). Those computers were still in the sales pipeline into early 2011.
Comparing a physical device costing tens of thousands of dollars whose defects can cost the lives of the user versus a piece of software costing $100 or less whose defects cause inconvenience to the user totally makes sense!!!!!111
Really? So a $100,000 medical device, robot in a factory, or SCADA platform running a $100 copy of XP (well, $200 if Pro, less if XP Embedded) can't "cost the lives of the user"??? I wouldn't want to be in front of a dental x-ray machine with a copy of XP that is now sending spam or worse, being used to cause harm to users... Ever hear of the Therac-25 accidents of the mid-80s? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
Unfortunately, easier said than done. All of these have unbelievably steep learning curves to do anything reasonable. Ironically, my interest in programming started with my TI-99/4A in 1983-1985. I used to get magazines that would provide programs (that I'd spend an hour-plus typing in) to see how it works. I didn't really know the limits of that machine, so it was cool to see what I could do with it--and how I could change the programs to do certain things...
Unfortunately, with Dreamspark tools above, there's no "just start coding & see what happens". There's no really basic / for kids "how to make fun little programs with Visual Studio" that come with Dreamspark. I don't see a child using a $60 book from SAMS or Microsoft Press ("Learn Visual Studio in 24 Hours!") as 1) the books aren't aimed for them, 2) the cost to buy one is at a price point questioned by most parents.
iPads are even worse... You can't program for them on them (not that you'd want to attempt such a thing with the on-screen keyboard) and you need an expensive Mac to do so, tethered to your iPad. (So there's no immediate gratification...)
Kids nowadays see what their computers are capable of--by playing video games that test the limits of their PCs. Why write a little program that draws some lines when the child could play a video game that's much more visually stimulating & engaging???
Let's see... I'm going to trust that an appliance vendor, some of whom have yet to add an OS (Linux, Android, etc.) to their devices, will properly create the security for said IoT device? Cisco is clearly looking to become such a vendor, and I don't think they're prepared to deal with the consequences & unbelievably protracted support schedules--way longer than Microsoft's ~10 year lifecycle for Windows and Office. Ultimately, will my IoT fridge that I buy today continue to work properly 20+ years down the line or will it be pwned long before then? (I suspect the latter...)
The reality is that a company with no such device experience (e.g. Amana, Kenmore, etc.) may contract out the security portion of the firmware to Cisco, but will Cisco continue to support the device's security for decades to come? In reality, people don't replace their home appliances, HVAC systems, and security systems all that often... I doubt Cisco is putting out many security patches for their devices from 1994, or if anyone even has the experience (let alone the desire) to create patches today for Linux 1.1.x security holes...
Except that nuclear reactors are, by regulation, among the most-documented entities on earth. From functionality to maintenance logs to upgrades, nuclear plants & their owners are extreme documenters--to decrease liability and meet government regulation. You don't hear stories of nuclear reactors in places like the US, Canada, UK, Western Europe, etc., with "documentation problems" or knowledge transfer continuity. (Pay people to stay to do an easy job & they will...) Sure, a part schematic may be on paper as opposed to stored electronically, but they'll have multiple copies onsite, a few copies at the power utility offsite, and at the NRC or other national nuclear regulatory agency--and everyone who should know where those copies are, do know... And that documentation would be designed so that anyone with the requisite engineering knowledge & skills should be able to read it...
Nuclear plants are not run like IT shops--and thank God for that...
Well, you might not have a choice depending on your OS version...
XP, 2003 - max is IE8 (not affected)
Vista, 2008 - max is IE9 (affected, presumably most used version)
7, 2008R2 - currently at IE11, but many users still using IE10 (affected) since IE11 came out in November for this OS
8, 2012 - only supports IE10 (affected)
8.1, 2012R2 - only supports IE11
You're right. Having a really expensive recall incentives the manufacturer to "get it right with this redo", without skimping on development, testing, etc. OTA would just trivialize the process...
Ummm, nope... In Ohio (as of a few years ago), the only "safety inspection" for personal vehicles checked to ensure that a vehicle purchased out-of-state matched the VIN # on the title. Illinois has no safety inspection whatsoever for cars & light trucks/B-Trucks. (B-Trucks used to have them until 1984; commercial vehicles excluding light pickup trucks still have annual safety inspections; vehicles in Chicagoland & the IL portion of St. Louis have emissions testing). At the other extreme, states like New York & Texas have a very thorough safety inspection. In some states, "safety inspections" are really nothing more than compliance checks, checking things like window tint.