Serves me right for not reading in more detail - but if it can be disabled, why are Linux distros worried at all? Kill it, never enable it, a bit like the Trusted Computer idea, remember that one? I still have machines with never-in-their-life-enabled TPMs.
As for Surface - I personally don't see the niche, especially since the OEMs won't hesitate to bring out their own, competing platforms since Microsoft has excluded them from the Surface party. And it doesn't take much thinking to guess what platform they will try.
Originally I did not consider Linux viable enough to compete with Surface as usability seemed to be as much an afterthought on Linux as security was on Windows (I've been using Linux since Slackware came on floppies so it's not like I haven't seen many attempts). However, Steam working on Linux gaming unexpectedly changed that game (sorry) from the consumer side, and I have as yet no feeling yet as to how that will turn out.
I once worked for Microsoft's no 2 customer in the world. Trust me, when they say they're unhappy, Balmer will quietly fix it.. I also know that the way they work is not dissimilar to other organisations, so I personally see that pressure bigger than will be visible in the press.
You see, there is another tiny little problem: older versions. Vista has demonstrated to Microsoft it needs to be VERY careful or it will face the same problem. Given that Win 8 has a totally different UI which would require yet another round of end user training, a new structure which means techs need to be brought up to speed and create new corporate builds and now on top of that UEFI which is a v1 and thus not exposed to life in the real world I suspect Microsoft has just added a barrier too much for widespread adoption.
As for the home market, with Steam suddenly making gaming on Linux commercially viable (which will still take some time to get right, but it's a good step) there will be more cal for machines that run Linux. And run "older" versions of Windows for the above companies.
As MS has tied people to UEFI and has told a bunch of OEMs that they won't be part of the Surface party, guess what they will be doing?
If I had shares in MS I would *seriously* start to think about flushing that last bit before it sinks. Because I honestly don't see a way up with all these problems. Or rather, I do. Just not for Microsoft..
So your approach to preventing botnets is to handcuff every computer user:)
MS forcing UEFI only has marginal effect on security if they do not change the design of the architecture on top, which is where the real problem lies. Users want to install their gadgets, toolbars, icon themes and other crap you have to wade through when you try to fix a system, and there is no way to prevent that because it uses EXACTLY the same process as installing a useful program does.
Ergo, the absolute only thing UEFI will do is make your life harder to go non-Microsoft. Amusingly, it also kills off all the sales they have made to people who like Apple's hardware more, but cannot shake free from the MS software shackles.
Oh, and if you *are* playing the UEFI game (which may snap back the gaze of anti-trust regulators on Microsoft pretty fast) you will probably also suffer its failure. Because it will get in the way of using a device as sure as Microsoft's attempts to implement DRM have..
I disagree with you that backup (more accurately, offline) copies are of no use - they are your local cache.
If I'm traveling by train I rarely have a stable connection - using an offline calendar which syncs at intervals (similar to an IMAP based email client) the service interruptions will be of no consequence - it'll resume when it gets a link again.
It gets worse with online documents, but I must admit this depends on circumstances - it would positively not work for me, even if I discarded all the privacy issues, but I guess it works for you.
There are a couple of new email services going live next month, one of them explicitly aimed at PREVENTING unwarranted privacy invasions by fishing authorities who really, really would not like to leave a paper trail (which is the main problem - I doubt anyone has problems with *correct* use of legal powers, and any organisation that alleges to help you with that is IMHO suspect in itself).
I'm awaiting for more detail - will post when I got something I can check:)
The issue why UEFI dies will be the same as with most DRM scams, sorry, schemes: maintenance. It only needs to get in the way once or twice in $BIG_CORPORATION and you'll see the hardware fly out of the boardroom window.
UEFI is again an approach to help one organisation solve a problem it only has itself.
What happened to DRM protection of documents (which I saw so enthusiastically presented by Microsoft to some military clients)? Gone. *WAY* too hard to implement versus a raft of other container based methods which were not only simpler to set up, but also easier to audit and to understand for decision makers.
So, as per topic, I'm not worried. Time is your best friend here - just let it fail, and fail again. And bring every failure loudly in the news. Eventually this will be as distant a problem as the Clipper chip..
1 - look one level up from where you will be, and check their approach to clothing. You are on a level that interfaces between your people and that level above - match upwards, not downwards. Your staff knows you're the boss (a good boss doesn't need to stress that), and the people above you must see you as part of the team to make you effective in both camps. Good grooming goes with that, but that should be second nature at any level. Don't overdress, though, or you fall out of line with people at your own level.
2 - buy good brands if your income allows it. The better brands stay nice much longer. Focus on things you can combine, but keep it simple and sober as that is more classy and less fashion/season sensitive.
3 - shoes are important. One of the little secrets of bodyguards and doormen is shoes. Make sure they are new, or at least well cared for and run off heels/soles repaired. Just spend some time in a business district having a coffee and watch what shoes people wear - you'll soon see what I mean.
Good luck. Building and leading your own team is fun and very rewarding if you get it right.
As it has been proven that Safe Harbour really isn't, any EU organisation that uses a US data provider is potentially on their way to a violation of Data Protection.
I get this sense that more and more of public communication takes places through channels that can arbitrarily impose their rules, mood or insanity on this communication through what amounts to uncontrolled censorship.
Of course, you agree to that when you decide to participate (usually also to the ritual slaughtering of your first born when you properly read the T&Cs) but at a certain volume you start wondering if you're not dealing with something that massively impacts the common good without any control on their behaviour whatsoever.
Facebook is in this respect also a classic - the latest Data Protection saga shows clearly that it does not want to even create the impression it is bound to any laws, and sadly the regulator in question is helping..
Well, yes, I was indeed thinking of one of the two when I wrote this. On account of attempts to grab me for defamation I will not acknowledge which one:)
10. If the publicity damage results in an egg-on-face coating that's just too hard to remove, rename the company. Most people find history by means of hits in search engines, and none of them are as of yet smart enough to redirect searches to the old name.
11. Then: start at 1 and repeat.
The likelihood of you going to jail for constantly breaking the law diminishes in equal fashion to the money you make, instead you will be featured in Wall Street journals as the newest business genius with valid insights on anything you can think of and you get to sell your new company at a valuation which is so far north of sanity it can justifiably be called extraterrestrial. But that's OK - shareholders and tax payers are there to be abused.
Actually, if you could get them to swallow enough magnets you could at least stick them to the fridge if they were naughty. And they would never, ever be without paperclips..
You're 100% right. What's worse, it does ZERO to protect against the coercion part (rubber hose crypto) - if you can do it subconsciously you will still be able to do it under stress and duress. If you create an access control device that is stress sensitive you end up with the problem that it has to be able to distinguish between you being late for work or having an argument with your wife versus having a gun in your ribs - it's a lot of hype for a new toy, but it's IMHO not at all a solution for all the problems they list.
And I can memorise a long password easily: it's called a pass phrase..
I don't know Mann, of course, but I wonder if it wasn't enough to ask him to leave?
Normal adverse customer handling starts with a polite request to address whatever is causing the adversity, followed by a request to leave if the desired correction is not forthcoming. AFAIK, only if you follow that process you are in a sensible legal position - but I am unaware of any situation where subsequent use of violence is permitted (I don't think you can call the events just physical removal - damage occurred).
Your point of accepting his money is a good one - at that point it is reasonable to assume there was no adversity, which then sets the handling by a subset of staff apart as possible personal assault.
Not that it matters much if the police isn't even remotely interested.. That is a very corrosive thing to happen to any society.
I was wondering about that too. Cutting a long story short, someone has been assaulted. As far as I know, assaulting someone is not the standard greeting you ought to expect, especially not on company premises - I find that a rather worrying thing to happen, and in the unlikely event I find myself in the need of junk food it would make me wonder about visiting McDonalds.
On the other hand, we only have one side of the story - it appears they are rather sensitive to anything that looks like a camera, but where would that stop? Ordinary glasses? Hearing aids? Walking sticks OK?
The police not being interested is sadly not a new problem..
Kinky with handcuffs is known entertainment, yes, but putting people in cans so they need a backup can opener is new to me. Obviously I need to get out more:)
Actually, that's how I got hold of the first security admin for a company I had just helped setting up. After an internal move (prior to official launch) I inherited a desk that was obviously HR. It had a stack of CVs in, all with "no" across the top. 4 CVs in I see the perfect candidate, so I got him in. He stayed there for 3 years or so..
It depends what risk you're defending against. Tracking: if it's a government organisation, you're out of luck as they will track from inside the telco. If it's a foreign agency you still have a problem if they know your number, because a black SMS will still come back to any global telco who can generate his with location data - the intercompany SMS exchanges do not strip that data. The only way you can prevent location data being disclosed there is by simply not using a phone at the location you don't want tracked. Using 2 phones is only ever going to be effective if you never kill/power up both at the same location, because the IMSI correlation is quickly made (this is how they catch insider traders in London who use a separate phone).
Intercept gets a bit more involved. A government agency taps inside the telco. A spy/PI/hacker is more likely to mimic a local cell and grab your data that way, but that requires local presence and $1k worth of kit (that's the amateur version, the real stuff you don't get for less than a 6..7 digits number)..
When it comes to data and GPS data, this gets tricky. I have location services off on my phone unless I need them, and I watch VERY carefully what an app does with data on my phone. I don't use Viber because it doesn't encrypt vioce, I don't use WhatApp because it wants to export my address book to the US and EVERY comms is via a US core server (iMessage is the same).
At present, I have found it easier to get secured comms set up on an iPhone than on any other platform. As for Blackberry, I know government deployment always involves a local, national server with local key handling. The affair with India was enough to ruin trust in that platform..
I like Symbian, and it's a shame it got abandoned..
The problem is that vetting the ethics of a hacker needs someone who has insight in the cultural framework as much as the technical capabilities of the person under review, and that is MILES beyond your average HR setup.
I know from my own experience that the best reviewer for tech is someone who is either a former hacker him/herself, or has a personality that borders on Aspergers. You cannot understand technical people if you do not have the required mental tools, and especially the brighter hackers do not exactly conform to the standard employee model.
So, use one to know one, and forget about your average corporate HR droid doing anywhere near a sensible assessment. Oh, and forget about standard management techniques either - not only does it take one to know one, it certainly takes one to manage them.
The problem with 3D is that it has only "just" made it into movie making.
James Cameron had years to think about filming and editing techniques before he made Avatar, the rest of the cinematic world still has to come to grips with this. Panning, zooming, focus, scene editing - the whole acting and filming techniques that have developed over many years of 2D movie making, so to update that for 3D will take quite a while.
3D in movies strikes me a bit like the early days of stereo where the idea of a position on the soundstage had not yet developed. Instead, every new record HAD to prove it was in stereo by having instruments either right or left. If you can get hold of "Play that funky music" by Wild Cherry, its introduction will demonstrate what I mean. Nowadays, position is just one more aspect of the sound stream as it gets mixed.
I think 3D will eventually become mainstream, but it could take as much as a decade before it loses its "gimmick " status.
Yup - you got it in one. RMSs problem is that he needs a spokesman who filters some of his extremism out so the reasonable bits stand a chance - the man has lived in an ivory tower for too long.
The problem is that copyright has become disconnected from its origin and is used to make money for the handlers of those who generate content instead of protecting the revenue for those who create, yet preserve societies' need to share culture. A development remarkably similar to the current situation with US patents..
Starting with Android for a privacy device is planning to design a prison by choosing cheesecake as building material..
Google made it very clear that they no longer needed Streetview WiFi slurping because the Android handsets would now do it - see item 47, which kinda suggests the Wifi thing was no accident after all, just a beta test that leaked..
So thanks, but no thanks. I am rather more interested in the attempts by some ex Nokia people to revive Meego..
Slashdot Mirror
Serves me right for not reading in more detail - but if it can be disabled, why are Linux distros worried at all? Kill it, never enable it, a bit like the Trusted Computer idea, remember that one? I still have machines with never-in-their-life-enabled TPMs.
As for Surface - I personally don't see the niche, especially since the OEMs won't hesitate to bring out their own, competing platforms since Microsoft has excluded them from the Surface party. And it doesn't take much thinking to guess what platform they will try.
Originally I did not consider Linux viable enough to compete with Surface as usability seemed to be as much an afterthought on Linux as security was on Windows (I've been using Linux since Slackware came on floppies so it's not like I haven't seen many attempts). However, Steam working on Linux gaming unexpectedly changed that game (sorry) from the consumer side, and I have as yet no feeling yet as to how that will turn out.
At least it won't be boring..
I once worked for Microsoft's no 2 customer in the world. Trust me, when they say they're unhappy, Balmer will quietly fix it.. I also know that the way they work is not dissimilar to other organisations, so I personally see that pressure bigger than will be visible in the press.
You see, there is another tiny little problem: older versions. Vista has demonstrated to Microsoft it needs to be VERY careful or it will face the same problem. Given that Win 8 has a totally different UI which would require yet another round of end user training, a new structure which means techs need to be brought up to speed and create new corporate builds and now on top of that UEFI which is a v1 and thus not exposed to life in the real world I suspect Microsoft has just added a barrier too much for widespread adoption.
As for the home market, with Steam suddenly making gaming on Linux commercially viable (which will still take some time to get right, but it's a good step) there will be more cal for machines that run Linux. And run "older" versions of Windows for the above companies.
As MS has tied people to UEFI and has told a bunch of OEMs that they won't be part of the Surface party, guess what they will be doing?
If I had shares in MS I would *seriously* start to think about flushing that last bit before it sinks. Because I honestly don't see a way up with all these problems. Or rather, I do. Just not for Microsoft..
So your approach to preventing botnets is to handcuff every computer user :)
MS forcing UEFI only has marginal effect on security if they do not change the design of the architecture on top, which is where the real problem lies. Users want to install their gadgets, toolbars, icon themes and other crap you have to wade through when you try to fix a system, and there is no way to prevent that because it uses EXACTLY the same process as installing a useful program does.
Ergo, the absolute only thing UEFI will do is make your life harder to go non-Microsoft. Amusingly, it also kills off all the sales they have made to people who like Apple's hardware more, but cannot shake free from the MS software shackles.
Oh, and if you *are* playing the UEFI game (which may snap back the gaze of anti-trust regulators on Microsoft pretty fast) you will probably also suffer its failure. Because it will get in the way of using a device as sure as Microsoft's attempts to implement DRM have..
Glad you are aware of that.
I disagree with you that backup (more accurately, offline) copies are of no use - they are your local cache.
If I'm traveling by train I rarely have a stable connection - using an offline calendar which syncs at intervals (similar to an IMAP based email client) the service interruptions will be of no consequence - it'll resume when it gets a link again.
It gets worse with online documents, but I must admit this depends on circumstances - it would positively not work for me, even if I discarded all the privacy issues, but I guess it works for you.
There are a couple of new email services going live next month, one of them explicitly aimed at PREVENTING unwarranted privacy invasions by fishing authorities who really, really would not like to leave a paper trail (which is the main problem - I doubt anyone has problems with *correct* use of legal powers, and any organisation that alleges to help you with that is IMHO suspect in itself).
I'm awaiting for more detail - will post when I got something I can check :)
The issue why UEFI dies will be the same as with most DRM scams, sorry, schemes: maintenance. It only needs to get in the way once or twice in $BIG_CORPORATION and you'll see the hardware fly out of the boardroom window.
UEFI is again an approach to help one organisation solve a problem it only has itself.
What happened to DRM protection of documents (which I saw so enthusiastically presented by Microsoft to some military clients)? Gone. *WAY* too hard to implement versus a raft of other container based methods which were not only simpler to set up, but also easier to audit and to understand for decision makers.
So, as per topic, I'm not worried. Time is your best friend here - just let it fail, and fail again. And bring every failure loudly in the news. Eventually this will be as distant a problem as the Clipper chip..
If my google account was suspended i'd lose email, docs, drive, calendar etc.
Have you ever heard of
- single point of failure
- making offline backups?
There is no way I would ever rely on an online provider for such services - let alone from the privacy risk..
1 - look one level up from where you will be, and check their approach to clothing. You are on a level that interfaces between your people and that level above - match upwards, not downwards. Your staff knows you're the boss (a good boss doesn't need to stress that), and the people above you must see you as part of the team to make you effective in both camps. Good grooming goes with that, but that should be second nature at any level. Don't overdress, though, or you fall out of line with people at your own level.
2 - buy good brands if your income allows it. The better brands stay nice much longer. Focus on things you can combine, but keep it simple and sober as that is more classy and less fashion/season sensitive.
3 - shoes are important. One of the little secrets of bodyguards and doormen is shoes. Make sure they are new, or at least well cared for and run off heels/soles repaired. Just spend some time in a business district having a coffee and watch what shoes people wear - you'll soon see what I mean.
Good luck. Building and leading your own team is fun and very rewarding if you get it right.
As it has been proven that Safe Harbour really isn't, any EU organisation that uses a US data provider is potentially on their way to a violation of Data Protection.
Not that that matters much, the Irish Data Protection people have already shown comprehensively that that isn't a real problem :)
I get this sense that more and more of public communication takes places through channels that can arbitrarily impose their rules, mood or insanity on this communication through what amounts to uncontrolled censorship.
Of course, you agree to that when you decide to participate (usually also to the ritual slaughtering of your first born when you properly read the T&Cs) but at a certain volume you start wondering if you're not dealing with something that massively impacts the common good without any control on their behaviour whatsoever.
Facebook is in this respect also a classic - the latest Data Protection saga shows clearly that it does not want to even create the impression it is bound to any laws, and sadly the regulator in question is helping..
Well, yes, I was indeed thinking of one of the two when I wrote this. On account of attempts to grab me for defamation I will not acknowledge which one :)
10. If the publicity damage results in an egg-on-face coating that's just too hard to remove, rename the company. Most people find history by means of hits in search engines, and none of them are as of yet smart enough to redirect searches to the old name.
11. Then: start at 1 and repeat.
The likelihood of you going to jail for constantly breaking the law diminishes in equal fashion to the money you make, instead you will be featured in Wall Street journals as the newest business genius with valid insights on anything you can think of and you get to sell your new company at a valuation which is so far north of sanity it can justifiably be called extraterrestrial. But that's OK - shareholders and tax payers are there to be abused.
Hang on, where is he going? That sounds more like a 3rd world country..
Actually, if you could get them to swallow enough magnets you could at least stick them to the fridge if they were naughty. And they would never, ever be without paperclips ..
You're 100% right. What's worse, it does ZERO to protect against the coercion part (rubber hose crypto) - if you can do it subconsciously you will still be able to do it under stress and duress. If you create an access control device that is stress sensitive you end up with the problem that it has to be able to distinguish between you being late for work or having an argument with your wife versus having a gun in your ribs - it's a lot of hype for a new toy, but it's IMHO not at all a solution for all the problems they list.
And I can memorise a long password easily: it's called a pass phrase..
I don't know Mann, of course, but I wonder if it wasn't enough to ask him to leave?
Normal adverse customer handling starts with a polite request to address whatever is causing the adversity, followed by a request to leave if the desired correction is not forthcoming. AFAIK, only if you follow that process you are in a sensible legal position - but I am unaware of any situation where subsequent use of violence is permitted (I don't think you can call the events just physical removal - damage occurred).
Your point of accepting his money is a good one - at that point it is reasonable to assume there was no adversity, which then sets the handling by a subset of staff apart as possible personal assault.
Not that it matters much if the police isn't even remotely interested.. That is a very corrosive thing to happen to any society.
I was wondering about that too. Cutting a long story short, someone has been assaulted. As far as I know, assaulting someone is not the standard greeting you ought to expect, especially not on company premises - I find that a rather worrying thing to happen, and in the unlikely event I find myself in the need of junk food it would make me wonder about visiting McDonalds.
On the other hand, we only have one side of the story - it appears they are rather sensitive to anything that looks like a camera, but where would that stop? Ordinary glasses? Hearing aids? Walking sticks OK?
The police not being interested is sadly not a new problem..
OK, now you've got me curious.
I know of cannilingus, but this is clearly different.
Kinky with handcuffs is known entertainment, yes, but putting people in cans so they need a backup can opener is new to me. Obviously I need to get out more :)
It'll be crap to eject that disk though, as it will have become a spiral :).
Actually, that's how I got hold of the first security admin for a company I had just helped setting up. After an internal move (prior to official launch) I inherited a desk that was obviously HR. It had a stack of CVs in, all with "no" across the top. 4 CVs in I see the perfect candidate, so I got him in. He stayed there for 3 years or so..
It depends what risk you're defending against. Tracking: if it's a government organisation, you're out of luck as they will track from inside the telco. If it's a foreign agency you still have a problem if they know your number, because a black SMS will still come back to any global telco who can generate his with location data - the intercompany SMS exchanges do not strip that data. The only way you can prevent location data being disclosed there is by simply not using a phone at the location you don't want tracked. Using 2 phones is only ever going to be effective if you never kill/power up both at the same location, because the IMSI correlation is quickly made (this is how they catch insider traders in London who use a separate phone).
Intercept gets a bit more involved. A government agency taps inside the telco. A spy/PI/hacker is more likely to mimic a local cell and grab your data that way, but that requires local presence and $1k worth of kit (that's the amateur version, the real stuff you don't get for less than a 6..7 digits number)..
When it comes to data and GPS data, this gets tricky. I have location services off on my phone unless I need them, and I watch VERY carefully what an app does with data on my phone. I don't use Viber because it doesn't encrypt vioce, I don't use WhatApp because it wants to export my address book to the US and EVERY comms is via a US core server (iMessage is the same).
At present, I have found it easier to get secured comms set up on an iPhone than on any other platform. As for Blackberry, I know government deployment always involves a local, national server with local key handling. The affair with India was enough to ruin trust in that platform..
I like Symbian, and it's a shame it got abandoned..
The problem is that vetting the ethics of a hacker needs someone who has insight in the cultural framework as much as the technical capabilities of the person under review, and that is MILES beyond your average HR setup.
I know from my own experience that the best reviewer for tech is someone who is either a former hacker him/herself, or has a personality that borders on Aspergers. You cannot understand technical people if you do not have the required mental tools, and especially the brighter hackers do not exactly conform to the standard employee model.
So, use one to know one, and forget about your average corporate HR droid doing anywhere near a sensible assessment. Oh, and forget about standard management techniques either - not only does it take one to know one, it certainly takes one to manage them.
The problem with 3D is that it has only "just" made it into movie making.
James Cameron had years to think about filming and editing techniques before he made Avatar, the rest of the cinematic world still has to come to grips with this. Panning, zooming, focus, scene editing - the whole acting and filming techniques that have developed over many years of 2D movie making, so to update that for 3D will take quite a while.
3D in movies strikes me a bit like the early days of stereo where the idea of a position on the soundstage had not yet developed. Instead, every new record HAD to prove it was in stereo by having instruments either right or left. If you can get hold of "Play that funky music" by Wild Cherry, its introduction will demonstrate what I mean. Nowadays, position is just one more aspect of the sound stream as it gets mixed.
I think 3D will eventually become mainstream, but it could take as much as a decade before it loses its "gimmick " status.
Yup - you got it in one. RMSs problem is that he needs a spokesman who filters some of his extremism out so the reasonable bits stand a chance - the man has lived in an ivory tower for too long.
The problem is that copyright has become disconnected from its origin and is used to make money for the handlers of those who generate content instead of protecting the revenue for those who create, yet preserve societies' need to share culture. A development remarkably similar to the current situation with US patents..
Starting with Android for a privacy device is planning to design a prison by choosing cheesecake as building material..
Google made it very clear that they no longer needed Streetview WiFi slurping because the Android handsets would now do it - see item 47, which kinda suggests the Wifi thing was no accident after all, just a beta test that leaked..
So thanks, but no thanks. I am rather more interested in the attempts by some ex Nokia people to revive Meego..