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User: AmiMoJo

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  1. Sure. What I'm saying is that even imperfect use of GPG is better than no GPG, and widespread adoption would likely lead to some decent implementations in popular clients anyway.

    Maybe GPG isn't the right software. It is a bit clunky for ordinary users.

  2. Re:More than BBEdit on The Old Guard of Mac Indy Apps Has Thrived For More Than 25 Years (macworld.com) · · Score: 1

    The other issue was that the Mac never got an 060, where as the Amiga did.

  3. Re:Whatever happened to... on First-Ever UEFI Rootkit Tied To Sednit APT (threatpost.com) · · Score: 2

    That's basically what happens, the UEFI loads the Secure Boot module which then verifies the boot files. Obviously the Secure Boot module has to be in the UEFI where it can't be modified by malware, or it wouldn't work.

    It's widely used to prevent infection by rootkit. By validating the OS boot files with a public key they can't be modified by a rootkit.

  4. Re:The state of IT is a tragedy on First-Ever UEFI Rootkit Tied To Sednit APT (threatpost.com) · · Score: 1

    Mine was an Amstrad PC1512. The RTC was built in, but needed 4x AA batteries for some reason. It was a weird but generally decent machine.

  5. What we really need is for the major webmail platforms to implement GPG in a way that is basically transparent to users. Doesn't have to be perfect, just better than nothing and off those of us who do want perfection the opportunity to use a really secure dedicated client.

  6. Re:Whatever happened to... on First-Ever UEFI Rootkit Tied To Sednit APT (threatpost.com) · · Score: 1, Informative

    Because UEFI doesn't just call the bootloader. It implements stuff like Secure Boot, the ability to run platform independent expansion card firmware (EFI, which uses a virtual machine to make it CPU architecture agnostic), CPU microcode updates, reading XMP data for RAM configuration etc.

    In many ways it does less than the BIOS, not bothering to do a full init on most of the hardware or provide any APIs for it, which is why boot times are better. But it does have to provide some important security functionality at the very minimum, which prevents most rootkits from working (including this one).

  7. Re:The state of IT is a tragedy on First-Ever UEFI Rootkit Tied To Sednit APT (threatpost.com) · · Score: 1

    Most microcomputers have had some kind of non-volatile storage since the dawn of time. Some of the 8 bit machines didn't, but even early PCs had a real-time clock and battery backed boot settings RAM.

    Of course back then there was no access control at all, every app could access the hardware directly.

    Think about how long UEFI has been around and how long it has taken to find an exploit. It's really not that badly designed at all, at least not from a security perspective. Note that enabling Secure Boot mitigates the attack entirely.

  8. Re:Same old mistakes, made again and again and aga on First-Ever UEFI Rootkit Tied To Sednit APT (threatpost.com) · · Score: 2

    Actually things are much, much better than they used to be.

    This attack requires the user to first compromise the OS in order to attack the UEFI firmware, so they need multiple unpatched vulnerabilities. Realistically that means either tricking the user into running some malware or getting through the web browser, the web browser's sandbox, the OS sandbox, the OS user level protections, the OS kernel security protections and finally attacking the particular UEFI implementation being used.

    Compare to back in the 90s when everyone ran Internet Explorer as admin and code running in the browser itself could effortlessly install a rootkit. The filesystem was FAT32, it didn't even have access controls.

    These days exploits tend not to be nearly as serious because we have so many layers of defences. That's one reason attacks have changed in nature, focusing on things like the CPU itself or on stealing information rather than trying to take control of the system.

  9. Re:Good decision - pictures were taken in public on Google Wins Dismissal of Suit Over Facial Recognition Software (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 1

    So what? If you sign your name in public, does that give everyone nearby licence to photograph and reproduce it as often as they like? If you read a book in public, can I photograph every page and then read it myself for free?

    In other words there are other laws that apply. For example in the EU you can't do much about people taking photos which you happen to be in when out in public, but that's different from them say lifting your fingerprints from something you touched or deliberately taking a photo of your face and converting it to biometric facial recognition data. Such things are covered by GDPR and the European Convention on Human Rights.

  10. Re:World saved on A Flexible Way To Convert Waste Heat To Electricity (asianscientist.com) · · Score: 3, Informative

    Could still be useful for many devices that don't need a lot of power. Sensors for example, where they only need to take occasional measurements (many things just don't change that fast).

  11. Re:I can many industries adopting this on A Flexible Way To Convert Waste Heat To Electricity (asianscientist.com) · · Score: 1

    For cars I think the size and weight would outweigh any benefit. For EVs there is much less waste heat, and it's difficult to use it to heat the battery. The main problem is that the battery needs heating and cooling at different times, and it's hard to shunt that heat around in a way that you can switch on and off and which doesn't add a lot of complexity or weight. All current models use a heat pump or simple PTC heating element.

  12. Re:doing gates a kindness on Trump's Tech Battle With China Roils Bill Gates Nuclear Venture (wsj.com) · · Score: 1

    That assumes there is no way that they could develop the technology on their own if they wanted to. In practice if it works well they will develop their own version in time (to avoid being reliant on western hardware and software, which they are well aware is probably backdoored by the NSA and can't be trusted).

    So you have a choice: refuse to work with them and see your idea die because no-one in the west wants to build it, or get it done in China and okay maybe in the longer term they still do their own version, but at least you now have working plants in China and a proven track record for your more fiscally conservative western customers.

  13. Re:More than BBEdit on The Old Guard of Mac Indy Apps Has Thrived For More Than 25 Years (macworld.com) · · Score: 1

    I used to run System 7 software on my Amiga under emulation... Well, the CPU wasn't emulated so it was pretty fast, in fact I seem to recall the fastest Mac available back then was an Amiga.

    The OS was weird around that time. No real multitasking but it looked kinda nice. There was some software available for Mac that you couldn't get on the Amiga. I think StuffIt was the one I used the most, to open archives.

  14. Assuming it's a light weight plastic drone. Obviously the police are not going to risk it being something more substantial until they have actually made that determination. Maybe it's different where they are but they have a legal obligation here, it comes under health and safety laws.

  15. Re:As much as I dislike meatspace tracking on Google Wins Dismissal of Suit Over Facial Recognition Software (bloomberg.com) · · Score: 2

    You need a GDPR style privacy law that bans this kind of thing without explicitly opt-in permission.

  16. Re:Before and After on Trump's Tech Battle With China Roils Bill Gates Nuclear Venture (wsj.com) · · Score: 2

    You have that backwards. Trump was the one who made China the boogyman. Before 2016 they were just the place were cheap crap got manufacturered and not much of a big deal. Now Slashdot loves to blame China for everything and there is strong support for bans on Chinese products and technology.

  17. They save wear on the charge port, and I bet Apple is moving towards a phone with no ports at all eventually.

    Also very useful for cars because you don't need cables trailing all over the place. Some cars have the charging mat built in now so you literally just put your phone in the provided holder and that's it. All they need to do now is get Android Auto working wirelessly too, although for now you can do stuff like have the Bluetooth auto-enable and disable.

  18. Re:You don't get it. on Mozilla Says Ad on Firefox's New Tab Page Was Just Another Experiment (venturebeat.com) · · Score: 2

    Which makes me wonder why no-one has made a decent fork of it. There is Pale Moon, but development is stalled and it's stuck with the same performance crippling flaws that Mozilla fixed in Firefox but which killed off all the old extensions. Waterfox is in the same boat now, starved of upstream improvements from the paid devs at Mozilla because it wants to maintain old extension compatibility.

    It's a similar situation to systemd. Lots of people complaining about it, no one actually doing much about it. The best we have is some distros sticking to the old init systems, rather than actually fixing systemd or coming up with something superior.

    I think in both cases it's just too much work for the relatively small number of independent developers willing to work on it.

  19. Re:They're trying to survive on Mozilla Says Ad on Firefox's New Tab Page Was Just Another Experiment (venturebeat.com) · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The standard MBA tactic when your core product (Firefox) is losing market share rapidly is to diversify into other areas and hope they make up for it. Fixing the product is too hard, easier to write it off as a changing market and shifting user preferences. Additionally they can sell off the unprofitable diversified bits to some chump a few years later, and pocket a nice bonus.

  20. Re: Press F to pay respects on The EU is Banning Almost All Coal Mining on Jan 1 (futurism.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Speaking of misinformation, are you really trotting out the old "send us back to the stone age" bullshit?

    When adults talk about this they recognize that no-one wants that, they just have different proposals for how to make life better. They also understand that the effects are fairly well understood at this point, as are the solutions and more important the politics of the solutions.

  21. Re:They aren't banning coal mining on The EU is Banning Almost All Coal Mining on Jan 1 (futurism.com) · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Closing the mines is a big step forward. Firstly it sent a very clear signal to everyone that coal is going away, and as such industries that rely on it have been switching to alternatives. They delay to 2019 was to allow that it happen.

    Even the remaining coal fired power plants are changing. Many are relatively new, replacing older more polluting ones with designs that allow them to better integrate into a grid high a high level of renewable energy. There are far fewer of them too. For example Spain is back to 1980s level of coal powered electricity generation and headed down.

  22. Interesting... Is the troll mod for suggesting that it might not be Muslim terrorism?

    Is Islamic terror really some kind of blanket that snowflakes cling to to justify their hatred to themselves?

  23. Re:American cops... on Severn Bridge, a Main Route Between England and Wales, Shuts as Drone Flown From Tower (bbc.com) · · Score: 1, Troll

    Nothing to do with terrorism. They have been doing this for years every time some kid starts throwing stuff off motorway bridges.

  24. Re:Over-reaction on Severn Bridge, a Main Route Between England and Wales, Shuts as Drone Flown From Tower (bbc.com) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Stuff dropped into fast roads is very dangerous. A drone could do quite a bit of damage if hit at speed. Even something that wouldn't do much damage can cause people to swerve.

  25. Re:Inferior product on Did Apple Retail Prices Get Too High in 2018? Consumers Say Yes. (usatoday.com) · · Score: 1, Troll

    Were Apple products ever that great? Sure they had some good ones, but they have also been having design defects since at least the 90s when I started paying attention.

    Most of it seems to stem from lack of proper testing, which I can only put down to their insistence on extreme secrecy for new products. Stuff lie the bending (again), antenna problems, dodgy hinges, thermal issues, flakey keyboards...